as always we will take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter, washington journal is next. the general reports this morning they are working a man who killed workers after being fired from the workplace and some employees said he had been previously trying to convert coworkers to islam and when it comes to reaching a deal with the program they are quoted this morning as saying when it comes to court issues about this deal quote we remain really far apart close quote and the deadline is november 24, david cameron voted on military action in iraq and it passed overwhelmingly. there are several in congress

calling for the same, calling for the house and the senate to come back from break to grant president obama for iraq and syria, in the first 45 minutes this morning should congress return from break to the end vote on policy 285880 and 2025853882 for independence for iraq and afghanistan veterans if you want to way in 2025853883. on social media reach out to us on twitter at cspanwj and facebook.com/cspan and e-mail journal on cspan.org and they took the vote in the guardian newspaper of bombing to start in hours as they backed the war, 524 for the resolution, 43

against and a little this morning from patrick winters saying the over all tone of the seven-hour debate was questioning and dubious and warned any strategy does not address isis in syria or the proxy war between i ran and the sunni on the other was incomplete and also questions on whether iraq's army has the political well to defend communities from isis assault in the uk. here in the united states some members of congress calling for congress who are currently on break, campaigning for the november elections to come back and debate on iraq wars or resolution on for iraq and syria, tom cole was one of those members of congress. in fact, the story that appeared in the washington time a few days ago highlights this. the author of that story who joins us on the phone, she is a capitol hill reporter for the washington times. good morning to you. >> good morning. >> could you talk a little bit

about this story and what representative cole was calling for. saying he should call congress back because it's part of their responsibilities to be home and campaigning on break right now while these strikes are going on. and he basically wants the president to call congress back to d.c. >> is he the only member of congress calling for this kind of thing or are there others and does that break down on partisan lines of who is calling for this type of action? >> there are actually several members of congress who do want to come back to d.c., some of the republicans, it does vary across parties and there are democrats and republicans calling for the same thing and repetitive cole and president obama should call us back and most of the democrats are saying that it's boehner's responsibility and the speaker never should have let congress go home without a vote on these

strikes. >> where does the speaker stand on calling the congress back and debating this issue? >> he actually has said earlier in the week that there is not going to be a vote in the lame duck. he is not planning on voting until 2015 because he doesn't think it's appropriate to have this debate when there are all these potentially outgoing members of congress and thinks you should wait to get the new class of people. >> jacqueline, what exactly would congress, what are they looking for this debate? what are they looking to talk about and what is the end result if congress were to come back and do this very thing? >> well, they have already voted on whether or not to arm and strain the syrian rebels and passed that so that is no longer an issue for them. the issue is really these strikes in syria and iraq on some things the iraq authorization in the early 2000 still extends but most agree that obama can't just go to war,

that there is now no more immediate and present danger so they do need a new authorization to strike in syria. >> and just to be clear, even for the calls of these individual members of congress to come back, there is no indication from leadership that this is going to happen. >> no. i mean, i think exactly the opposite, the perspective in leadership has been we will wait a while to do this. >> from the washington times, jacqueline is the capitol hill reporter for the publication and saying congress should come back and debate new authorization for iraq and syria and ms. klimas thanks for your time. >> thank you. >> for the next 45 minutes we would like to get your thoughts on if congress currently on break should come back and debate on this issue, should vote to give the authorization to president obama, a new authorization for policy in iraq and syria and to get your thoughts on it as well. we divide the lines four ways this morning for typical party

lines for democrats, 2025853880. for republicans 202-585-3881. for independent 202-585-3882. and those of you who are iraq and afghanistan veterans who have that perspective and want to give your thoughts on congress and they should offer another debate on this type of policy, 202-585-3883. you heard our guest on the phone saying that both sides of the aisle debating on this kind of act and progressive caucus put out the statement on the 25th of this month saying that speaker boehner should recognize the gravity of the situation and call members of congress back to washington to vote on the on going military actions in iraq and syria. congress needs to fulfill constitutional duties by having a debate and vote on use of military force that is tailored to the specific actions and

military authorization from a decade ago should not justify war policy today and aware of any expanded military campaign and voices should be heard through their elective representatives. first up on the phones from arkansas this is robert on our independent line. robert, good morning. >> yes, good morning, pedro. and i'll say three yeses, yes, congress should call back to session right now, yes, they should vote to approve the air strikes and the military in syria and iraq and, yes, they should vote positively, vote yes to authorize the military action. thank you. >> before you go, why do you support the action? why do you support approval? >> well, it's like what several congressmen have said already, congress needs to exercise its

constitutional duty and to help the president exercise his constitutional and commander-in-chief duties. >> chris, on our democrat's line you're next, good morning, go ahead, please. >> how are you doing? >> fine thank you. >> congress should come back and don't wait for the president to tell you to come back, you know where your job is. backup the country because if you just let it go, you don't know what these guys are capable of. why wait for a disaster before making a move. >> so you would support if they came back and voted and debated and authorized and you would support that? >> absolutely because these guys you don't know who is coming back. you can have all the security in the world, all it takes is one person to hurt thousands and look what happened with al-qaeda. clinton and all these guys had a chance to grab him.

osoma-bin-laden and they let it go and we know how it ended up. we know extremist, you got to flush them out and all there is too it. >> current actions in iraq and syria are done under use of military force, this was pass in 2001 and a little bit about it it was enacted after the september 11 attack and the main source of congressional authorization for the war on terror and it grants the president the quote authority under the constitution to take action to deter and prevent acts of international terrorism against the united states. that's the current authorization and current activities are going under and some say they need new acts and congress coming back to debate just that. north carolina democrat's line and this is arnold, hello. >> good morning. >> lisen i think they should come back and debate, have a

vote and should not be up staged by the british parliament. i mean, it is shameful we got, you know, that we are leading all this thing and the british come in and just say, hey, we want to vote on it and they took a vote on it and they was up standing citizens of britain and here we don't have the up standing citizenship in our congress. you know, i think if they vote i think they should vote against it because that is my opinion because america has tolerated violence terrorism through it and within side it so long to look like hypocrites talking about terrorism. at the bundy ranch that the armed protesters, i mean armed protesters with multiple kind of an automatic weaponry made the police leave there and not too many months later the same protesters or some of the same protesters went to las vegas, nevada and gunned down two

police officers. i mean, they didn't be head them but they gunned them down eating their lunch. >> that is arnold from north carolina and dan from texas republican line, good morning. >> good morning. i believe congress should come back in but in fairness to all the attacks on speaker boehner i don't see attacks by the left wing media or anybody coming on your shows on cs pchl -- cspan talking about the senate and i believe they should come back and the president for the first time in office he showed some form of uncowardness acting toward what we should do. but i find it hard to follow him because i don't know whether he is doing this out of political

reasoning or for actual security of the nation, thank you. >> fleet wood and asking if congress should be called back to debate on iraq and syria policy. >> yes, sir, good morning. >> good morning. >> i think congress should come back after making all that noise about how many times they asked president obama was on vacation should come back. this is the most important thing we are about to get involved in is war. and for congress not to come back and support the president on something like this, it's just like i don't understand what our politics are. our politics are supposed to be about unity as far as what we are going to go in a situation like this. >> how would you back or i guess what would you be looking for the debate, would you support the president's actions? >> i support his action. i'm a vietnam veteran and i don't like war at all. i think a war is something that we should try to avoid at all

costs but sometimes you have to do some things and i think that you need to back it in the whole united states on this kind of action. he asked for it and we ought to give it to him. >> even as members of parliament we are debating this issue outside of parliament and there were protesters and photos by will oliver by press photo agency that appear in the "new york times," people carrying signs don't bomb iraq and david cameron making his case in the house of commons yesterday on this resolution. here is a little bit from his statement yesterday. >> in the space of a few months isil has taken control of territory which is greater than the size of britain and making millions selling oil to the assad regime and already attacked lebanon and boasts of designs right up to the turkish border. this is not a threat on the far side of the world. left unchecked we will face a terrorist counter face on the shores of the mediterranean and bordering a nato to attack our

country and our people. this is not the stuff of fant y fantasy. it's happening in front of us and we need to face up to hit. >> if you go to the section of the financial times this morning, they write about the decision on incoherent strategy for combatting isis and they got together and wrote days of cross political bargaining saddled with an incoherent posture and fighting isis over iraq and not syria ties commanders hands in the field and raises questions about britain reliability when fighting starts. that is in uk. should congress come back and debate new authorization for activities in iraq and syria and democrat's line and jerry you are up next, hello. >> good morning. >> good morning. >> listen, yes, i think they should come back and do their job. i mean, come on, that is what

they are getting paid for and plus in addition to that there should be a war tax put on the people of the united states and we should be supporting it and have a little skin in the game. it's not just the military that has the responsibility. the tax could by don't care if it's $1 a year on somebody who doesn't have nothing and people who have more should give the most and should be a war tax. not just 1% volunteer army responsibility. >> should congress grant the president new authority on iraq and syria? >> absolutely and they should come back and do their job and vote on this. they should put some skin in the game. i don't know what they are doing, why they are on vacation, whether they are campaigning or whether they are having these town hall meetings, that is fine. but they also probably are not working really very hard, come on, they need to go back and do

their job. >> david is from madison heights, michigan joining on the democrat's line. >> good morning and thank you for taking my call. i definitely think that they should be called back. i don't think the president should call them back. i think the speaker of the house should call them back. it's quite obvious republicans can't keep us safe anyway. but the i ronic thing and i'd like to make a very quick point, if failure boehner called back congress to vote to get rid of obamacare, they would take planes, trains and everywhere to get there immediately. but when america has a crisis like right now and is threatened all over the world, congress plays their games. republicans, wake up and keep us safe. get back to washington. thank you very much. hi mish. >> on that report off of twitter adds this to the conversation

this morning saying of course congress should come back and debate the pros and cons of going to war and vote on it before the election. and voters should demand it. we will hear next from elizabeth in farmington, michigan, democrat's line, hello. >> thanks for taking my call and i'm glad i am sharing the air waves with other people who think they should come back, i would like them to come back and debate this and at least give a voice to those of us who would rather see them find alternatives. there were plenty of us that were against the iraq war and wanted to see some communication and discussion like we used to do. get to a table, face each other, find out what our terms are and quit treating this like we are back in the stone age. and this is our only choice. thank you. >> that's elizabeth, again, if you are just joining us we are

asking that the body currently on break for the november election should come back and debate new authorization for iraq and syria and if you want to give your thoughts like many have given the lines to call are on the screen. for those iraq and afghanistan vets want to give thoughts as well 202-585-3883 and many have given opinion they should come back and opinion whether an authorization should be extended and you can do both of that calling us on the lines this morning. it's not only republicans calling for debate and discussion on this very issue. democrats as well. earlier this week here in washington d.c. at the center for american progress tim cane on the armed services committee talked about the need for a vote on military action in iraq and syria, i'm sorry. here are some of his statements. >> when we initiate military

action we are asking young men and women and some not so young men and women to risk their lives and some will be killed and some will be injured and some will be captured and some will see those things happen to their comrades and some who none of those things happen to because of what they do to others will come back with challenges of mental health that may follow them for the rest of their lives. that's what we are asking these thousands of virginia people from the institute and not ask but order them to do when we initiate military action. what right do we have to ask that sacrifice of anyone if we are not willing to have that tough debate, contentious though it may be and stand before our public and vote "yes" or "no." >> back to the phone lines, this is theresa from illinois. our independent line, hi. >> hi. i think that congress should

come back and vote, no, for the simple fact that, first of all, congress just came back in august and now they are on vacation again so they need to come back and do their job and they should vote no because the americans, british and france created these people. first they went to libya, gave them weapons and over through gadhafi in a barbaric way and complaining them to coming to americas. is that good whether they think these people would do. they wanted them to over throw assad but it didn't workout like that. now they in iraq with the oil fields, the british and the american oil companies, now they want to bomb them. i just think that our service people should not be used to fight wars for these oil companies. if the country is in danger, yes. but this is not a danger. this is corporate america going over trying to take oil from other people and i just don't

think our servicemen and women should be over there. >> what do you think of activities stemming from 9-11 stemming from 2001, 2002? >> it should not stand today because it would the whole 9-11 when they went to iraq i just think that that was the answer. i don't think that it was what they said it was and i don't think it should stand now because we have -- the american people have to stand up and be educated as to what our government is telling us and if you look at history as all the stuff that this country plans from britain out of all people talking about terrorism and the terrorism those three cast upon the world it's a joke. >> jerry up next, from chicago, illinois democrat's line. jerry from chicago, hello.

we will try calvin. calvin is from delaware, independent live, good morning. calvin go ahead you are on. >> yes, hello. my name is calvin, i'm from brooklyn but live in newark and this whole isis crisis is really a propaganda campaign that is bei being instigated by the powerful elite and this is just a smoke screen to basically sensati sensationalize and prepare us for another u.s. attack and we know from 9-11 what our government is capable of doing. the truth is out there, people. we need to wake up and understand that the truth is out there. >> this is marcus from twitter

saying if congress doesn't return then the president should step back and let other nations handle isis. this one is on congress. again, off of twitter you can make thoughts or on the phone lines as well and there is a line for iraq and afghanistan vets and f.b.i. called in the be heading case in oklahoma and "the wall street journal" picks it up this morning and saying the man who allegedly attacked coworkers after being fired the previous day beheaded one of his victims and according to some employees earlier tried to convert colleagues to islam and the f.b.i. has found no connection between that and terrorist groups and law officials said but they are not finished probing the background and still looking into his contacts and any potential travel. that is the wall street skrou l journal. this is the oklahoma transit gives the reaction not only from yesterday's scene there at the crime scene but also side by

story of show of faith from local muslims in the area out of moore, oklahoma saying the director of islamic relations oklahoma said he didn't know where murder suspect alexander noland learned about islam and adam says he didn't know if he was a member of an oklahoma mosque and not clear how long he converted and officials and coworkers described it as recently. department of correction records say 2013 he had a chest tattoo reading a misspelling of the arabic phrase of peace be on to you and tattoos of rip little chris juda and praying hands on his arms. keith, reed city michigan and should congress come back to debate the iraq and syria authorization. >> yes, definitely, john boehner has been presiding over one of the most worthless congresss in the history of the united

states. and hostilities were declared over in iraq so if we want to resume hostilities no matter how bad these people are congress needs to approve this. >> and you would support that approval? >> if congress has the nerve to support it, yes. >> why so? >> they just advocate this judgment to the president. and it's under their authority and their authority alone constitutionally to declare war and they don't have the nerve to use the word or to have the vote. once again, they are embarrassing themselves. >> john is from fair view, north carolina, independent line, good morning. >> i kind of want to echo what the guy that just called said only i think congress should actually come back and declare war. and i'm kind of disgusted with the people that come on here and say, well, we need to negotiate. how do you negotiate with an

organization that has committed acts of war against america? how do you negotiate that? what are you going to give them? people say, well, we created them. no, they have been creating themselves for hundreds of years and i'm really disgusted with these piece nicks that come on here saying we shouldn't fight. when is it good to fight? that is all i have to say good-bye. >> a previous caller said the actions of the british parliament up staged the united states, what do you think about that statement? he is gone. frank is up next, hinesville, georgia and on the independent line as well and the veteran line. >> thanks for taking my call. i am very peturbed by congress and late actions as well as our president. this is a very necessary evil that we are going to have to confront head on and we are going to have to take the president and take a very stern stance like we have not had in a

number of years. we need to go after the situation with a win-win mentality. not just to gain an advantage and an upper hand. we need to win and win decisively. the next thing is this: our congress needs to do in the right way. we have declared wars without officially going through the congress. therefore the american war machine has not been put into its proper perspective and action which involves the public. it involves the citizens of the united states and creates jobs and helps our economy and strengthens our country and helps us to gain victory. now, our military commanders need more leverage in the field. our soldiers need more training and we need to be more decisive in all of our actions. thank you for taking me call. >> before you go, frank, did you serve in iraq or afghanistan. >> yes, sir, i sure did. >> what do you think about the idea that even current day actions are being done under the

authorization granted in 2001 and 2002? >> i still think the tremendous hands are being held behind their backs and they are given a limited room for operations to make decisive and clear victories. collateral damage is a natural part of war. everybody knows that. but we have the intelligence apparatus and technology apparatus in place to be decisive in our actions and i think we need to stop holding back the reigns and let them go. >> congress is currently out on break leading up to the november elections to do campaigning and other things related to that. campaign 24, the website on cspan where you can go to find 100 debates and other information about this year's mid term elections and as well as information about the debates you can see including the iowa senate debate, that is repetitive bruce joining the republican, you can see them

debate tomorrow by the way live, 6:00 in the evening and you can see that on cspan, again if you want more information about coverage of the mid term election go to our website campaign 2014 on the main website at cspan.org. good morning to will in new mexico and democrat's line, hi. >> good morning, pedro. i'm a vietnam veteran 227 aviation battalion vietnam. gadhafi shot down an american airline, killed hundreds. the next thing he did was set up his stance in a military lot in new york city that donald trump owned. coalition, how come israel is not on the list of the coalit n coalition? >> so if congress, should congress be called back, do you think? >> i'm going to a town hall meeting this afternoon. i'm going to tell my congressman to get his rear end back to

washington immediately. >> who is your congressman? >> heindrick and peiers. >> how do you think they will react? >> i don't know but i'm going to riel up the crowd and i want him to go to congress, pierce especially, thank you. >> that is will on the democrat's line and we will hear next from carlos in massachuset massachusetts, republican line, hi. >> how are you doing? >> well thanks. >> i have a concern on isis thing and i think congress should return because i'm watching a lot on the news, i'm iraq veteran and watching the news and reading as much as i can and get as much information and i see two problems with the arming of the kurds and the rebels was i don't see anyone discussing because they are asking are they extremist or are they moderate and that seems to be where everybody stops but my concern is with the free syrian army is strategic and if they

are sandwiched in between isis and assad so if we arm them they are allies and attack isis. if attacks are the free syrian army are we now going to attack assad? does that mean that we now are going to be at war with syria in how are we going to react then, at that moment? because i don't think assad will sit on the sidelines. if we look at the kurds, i mean the kurds have wanted independence for a long time. let's not forget that after the first they rised up at the prodding at president bush, the father and when they did we didn't help them and sadam gassed tens of thousands and talking about army. they are more than happy to fight in kurdistan to protect the land but to defect isis they go to sunni land and when it's over will they turn in the weapons and give up the lands and go back under iraq control? i don't see anybody debating these questions.

and to me i find them to be very serious questions. >> the defense secretary and the joint chief general met yesterday with reporters to talk about issues of iraq and syria and isis. here is the headline u.s. combat role in iraq not off the table according to general dempsey and you can watch this on the website and he was pressed by reporters several times on whether he stood by a statement of the u.s. combat troops may be necessary in iraq, quote if you are asking me would i provide my best military advice at all times the answer is absolutely. if you are suggesting at some point i may recommend we need a large ground force to counter the islamic state the answer to that is also absolutely and quickly added quote but it doesn't have to be americans anti deal force we want to comprise of iraqis and kurds and moderate syrian opposition. the defense secretary chuck hagel attending the same briefing jumped in to say the president of the united states expecting the most direct and

honest military advice that general dome si and other military leaders could give him and from missouri thanks for holding on the democrat's line hello. >> much like our media i was useless and they have been useless since 9-11, had 9-11 been investigated like the crime it is we wouldn't have the problem we have now. do you agree, pedro? >> you are okay with the idea this current action in iraq and syria under this authorization 2001, that is okay? >> well, no, this is completely illegal. this is nothing but murder. but i mean when have we not did what we wanted to do in other countries. spies. we went to iraq saying they had weapons of mass destruction and murdered 2-3 million people and nothing happened to anybody. i mean, and this is just the same thing that we are doing now with this so called isis which was created by the cia armed and trained by our government.

i mean, when are the american people going to wake up and see we have been taken for fools? >> from hager city, wisconsin republican line this is randy. >> thanks for taking my call. that was quite a statement. two things and two quick things. john boehner runs the house of republican t -- representatives and harry reid runs the senate and called congress. they have to get together and get called in to make the laws. if they don't want to do it president obama should call congress which is the house and the senate back to debate this. now, all they want in washington is they took them off to protect the constitution of the united states and the people. and we got a direct threat. if that is not enough to get them back to debate whether they should protect us and hold up what they took, there is

something wrong here someplace. they got to come back. they got to come back and the sooner the better. >> if you were watching our coverage of the voters value summit on cspan which you can still see on the website at cspan.org and you heard from senator rand paul from kentucky who addressed the crowd and talked a little bit about the president's foreign policy and talked about his own approach on dealing with isis and the events in the middle east, here are some statement from yesterday's event. >> i'm one who is hesitant to be involved in the civil wars of the middle east. isis is now a threat to our consulate in erbil and a threat to the emergency in baghdad. we should act but we should act within the rule of law. the constitution says that only congress may declare war yet this president has in libya and then this week in syria committed our sons and daughters to a war that is not authorized

by congress. had i been president i would have called for a joint session of congress. i would have laid out the threat. and i would have requested congressional authority to respond as the constitution dictat dictates. failing to follow the constitution this president missed a change for the nation and missed a chance to galvanize the country and a chance to become a great american leader. >> all that and others that spoke at the summit you can see on our website c span.org and linda from alaska on the independent line, good morning. >> i hate to be the lone voice but i have to disagree with people saying that congress should be called back. i think and i don't usually agree with mr. boehner but i think what they are doing right now in preparing for an upcoming vote is really important. and is part of their job

actually. and so i think after the election, which is less than six weeks away, then they should, the new members should not wait until january to be seated but they should be called immediately and signed in and seated before the end of november and have a meeting then. >> speaker boehner suggested a debate may not take place until early next year. >> i think he is wrong on that. i think they ought to seat people earlier than that and have the debate in november. >> you think coming back will be a distraction to the -- badly put but you know what i'm saying. the process. >> i do. i think it would be a big distraction and if all they do is come back and rubber stamp what the president is already doing and attacking i don't see a point to it. i think they need to wait until they have new people seated and then go to a discussion and a vote. >> what do you think about the idea that this was done without congress's consent in the first

place? >> i'm not certain that he didn't pull members of congress before he did it. did he really do it completely on his own? i don't know, there is not an uproar in congress about him having done that. i'm guessing that congress seems to be following along with him. if congress disagreed with what he is doing, i think we would have heard about it by now. >> from the guardian newspaper by the way, the iran giving support concerning isis and this is rouhani talking saying whatever steps they take the government of the country must be informed and give genuine consent and support government that requests assistance and come from iraq and if it's made central the campaign can be successful, the president asked if iran would assist the military campaign and saying it should be posed the other way around and would the west help i

ran and we are the ones countering terrorism for years and had it not been for timely assistance my rack cherokee cities would have fallen in the hands of these vicious terrorist. this is from the guardian newspaper and craig is up next, on the republican line. >> thank you very much for the opportunity to speak. look, you know, when i disagree in what a lot of people are saying. i mean there is a difference between coming back and putting in a vote forward. this is more of a conflict. a war you go in there. you don't do pinpoint strikes on buildings in a war. you don't take out one building and then not do something over here to another building. what you do is your take 10,000 pound bombs and you go in there and you annalyate any you can of the force trying to hurt you. what they do over there is they

take their weaponry and put it in areas where there are people who have nothing to do with the war so then the united states backs off and says, no, it's a conflict so we must go in there and we must do pinpointing here and pinpointing there. that is not a war. a war is you go in there and you go in there to win. and you go in there to annalyate your opponent and go in there and saying what we have to do is we have to -- we have to get rid of this, i don't know, i'm losing words here. but i think you understand what i'm saying. what they are doing is more of a conflict. they are saying tit for tat and they come over here and do this so we will go over there and we are basically doing that. i'm sorry i didn't mean to, go ahead. >> from all of that, would you support say if congress came back and say if they gave new authorization is that something you would support, or not?

>> absolutely. absolutely. i don't know what the problem is. but everybody is saying it's congress. the senate and the congress makeup the congress. so, you know, nobody is looking at harry reid and saying look why isn't harry reid coming back here, why aren't they both coming back here to take the vote. everybody is putting the blame on boehner. well, if you are going to do that call back everybody and say, look, i want to vote here and i want authorization to do this but i want war to be, you know, i want it to be war. i want it to, we can go in there and do what we have to do and get this thing over with and don't put troops on the ground that are going to be getting maimed and hurt and killed over a long period of time just so we can appease somebody and say we didn't hurt anybody. >> here is patrick from bay town, texas democrat's line, hello. >> good morning, yes, sir, i notice in your back drop of the beautiful capitol building has

scaffolding and did that vote on spending the money? >> part of an upkeep process. >> but was it voted on? >> it's part of the budget from all i know and go ahead and continue your thought. >> okay, if we spend money there, i don't think we should spend money in foreign lands i really don't and i believe they should come back and vote. i don't know what the president is scared of, i don't know what the republicans are scared of. but something is going on. we need to leave that whatever it is over there and get out for good. >> so you don't support current actions and you wouldn't support a new authorization? >> no, when george bush said we was out we should have been out. >> candy? good morning from florida. hello. i pushed the wrong line, this is candy from florida, hi. >> hi. i want to express my opinion. we said we have to go to war.

it's so iffy. over here in this country and now in my town i don't see police officers anywhere. we have no money. our kids need money to go to school. when france can take two months and all of the countries, why we have to go to war in conjunction with other countries. we cannot just stay here. when we going to finish, these people are not going to change their mind because they have to come from inside their soul. we cannot change them. what we are doing is pointing the lion and the lion will come and attack. we cannot do anything about it. but protect our country, cross the borders and make sure that everything is secure here with good intelligence and instead of being this protecting the big millionaires over there i would say because the one who benefits from this is the king abdullah

et cetera and that is my opinion and a lot of opinion, i'm spanish and i came here 25 years ago and i learn a lot about this country. but the best country in the world. but we are losing a lot of money. and a lot of talent here. sending our children over there because the children are 21 years old, 19, they are children getting killed for no reason. we send money over there and soldiers over there and until everybody in this world will now in coalition with other countries are tangled. >> we have to leave it there and let's hear from thomas, jacksonville, florida, democrat's line and a veteran, hello. >> how are you doing? >> well, thank you. >> okay, yeah, first of all, let's look at congress. congress has not done anything in the last eight years. >> okay, keep going. >> yeah, congress has not done

anything in the last eight years. they have said since obama was president we would do nothing, we would do nothing for the president until he leaves. so what do we expect of congress right now? they have done nothing in the last eight years. they could care less about the war. and, second of all, we have not supported the veterans since vietnam. everybody says boots on the ground, you have not taken care of business since vietnam and everybody wants boots on the ground. that is talking about putting a claim to the v.a. >> thomas, it doesn't matter if congress comes back and debates this authorization then. >> they are not going to debate it because president obama is the president. what have they don't since in four years, eight years with president obama? >> that is thomas, he will be the last call on this topic. fortunate on a saturday we have two legislators joining us to talk about issues of the day

including debates and issues of isis. we will hear first from louisiana republican john fleming in the voter summit and other issues and later in the program repetitive steven horse ford of nevada, democrat and he will talk about similar issues and participation in the black caucus legislative congress and president obama is to speak at the conference at 6:00 and go to our website for more information and we will have these gentleman as the program continues and washington journal continues after this. ♪

our first guest of the morning is republican john fleming a republican from louisiana committee member of the armed services committee and good morning and welcome. we are asking if congress should come back and debate on isis and iraq policy, what do you think? >> i think that is a great idea. i think we should. you know, this isis situation arose just as we were winding down to adjourn and we did pass some legislation relative to clipping and training this free syrian army but we didn't address the issue about whether or not the president is authorized to do this. there is some debate over that, whether he should request more authorization. so i think it would be a great idea for us to come back as soon as possible for us to do that. let's get into the debate and let's decide what our strategy is going to be.

>> so when your hear speaker boehner talking about this kind of debate happening in early 2015, what is your reaction? >> well, i think that, you know, we have to understand that the president and again there is some disagreement and it's kind of almost a lawyerly discussion, but the president does have the ability for up to 180 days to take some action, particularly bombing and sort of things he is doing in syria now. so, you know, it could take that long for us to get to a point where it's necessary for him to ask for authorization. so it's really up to the president. the president can come to us at any time. but we can't necessarily force his hand. he has about 180-day window. it is certainly a 90-day window for sure. >> under the war powers act? >> yes. roughly speaking it means he has 90 days to take action and makes good sense because in modern warfare you can't convene

congress in debate, declaration of war, things happen just within minutes. but then after about 90 days he should notify us and another 90 days request for authorization. of course there is disagreement and the president claims he has authority under uamf in 2001. others disagree with that. >> are you one of those others? >> again, i think that i can see both sides of that issue. isis is of course an off shoot of al-qaeda but it is in a different part of the world and in a different geography than before. >> congress on break and coming back, what do you think the perception is, congress left to go talk about election issues when we have the issue of dealing with isis and what it could mean for the united states? >> i'm not really hearing a lot about that from my district. i think they understand the president does have the right and the authority to move

forward, to take action particularly when he is not putting american troops directly into harm's way other than of course the bombing missions. so i think americans are given the president a little bit of slack on this. and i think congress as well. they know that we are soon to have a new congress. we are going to have to reorganize and so forth. we are going to be in a lame duck session so i think the american people are kind of watching and waiting on this issue. >> our guest with us at 8:30 to talk about the issues with you for democrats 202-585-3881 republicans and independent 202-585-3882 and twitter address is@c-span wj and when it came to aut -- authorization of training syria groups how did you vote? >> i voted no and not that i have anything against the troops

or equipping them but as a strategy it's doomed to frail and the reason is it will take a year or longer just to train 5,000 troops and isis is 3,000 troops and well financed and well led and disciplined and have night vision capability and service to air capability. so to think that we are going to go out and grab some mercenaries, people we don't know and not vetted yet and we will create an army that can go on the offensive, i think is, you know, that could take years if that could ever happen. i think the reality is if we are actually going to defeat isis, if that really is our goal, it's going to require a first-class military troops in combat. >> if i understand it you were the only one of the delegation that voted no. >> that's correct. >> what was the reaction from other members of the delegation? >> none said anything to me. and people went after me about it. >> james varney wrote a column

about it and said fleming is allowing politics to be the enemy of the option on the table and it's important for congress to back obama in a way that sends friends as well as to our enemies. >> yeah, i would completely disagree and i think he has that 180 degrees wrong and i think the truth of the matter is the easy vote, the incourageous vote is to say give the president what he wants. we should be bold and say let's not sign on to and be distracted into a strategy that is doomed to fail from the beginning. let's send a message, speak to power. the president and say mr. president, you know better than this. the generals have said it. the experts have told us that you can't win with a bunch of mercenaries. it's going to take years to train. this is a first-class military we are going up against isis so it's going to take a first-class military to defeat them. >> do you think eventually that american combat troops are going to be needed?

>> i think it's inevitable and that is the problem here because remember we had an incremental strategy and it wasn't really a strategy but incremental approach in vietnam and what happened was the enemy adapted to what we did and learned from what we did and they grew and as we ramped up gradually they responded to that and they were able to defeat us. the way you defeat your enemy is you go in hard and fast, you get the job done and then you leave troops in place which, remember, president obama despite what general has told him did not leave a stay behind military 20,000 strong in iraq. had he done so i believe we wouldn't have this problem today. >> our guest repetitive john fleming republican of louisiana to talk about issues of isis and other things, armed service and a member of the armed service committee and the numbers are on the screen and the first call is from rick from louisville, ohio, independent line, you are on with the republican, go ahead. >> yeah, it's kinds of amazing you have a repetitive from

louisiana, armed service. all of these wars, all of these wars that we are fighting are being started by the south. the last five wars have been started by texas. the largest military base in the world is in texas. the largest military contractor in the world, halliburton, texas. we go to war in the middle east and what he is talking about now. louisiana is also an energy state. now, the amazing part, another amazing part of the south is that clear channel radio has overtaken all of our radio stations. all over the united states they topped out at 1500. >> what would you directly like our guest to address? >> i want to talk about the united states is not going to war, has -- this is the state of texas, the state of georgia.

>> okay, any response to that? >> well, my response is the caller is incorrect. tell south didn't start these wars. these wars were started by remember sadam hussein who went in to kuwait and later of course we were attacked on 9-11. more deaths than at pearl harbor. so others are making war on us and we have to respond if we are going to protect americans and an american interest. so, look, americans love peace. i love peace. i don't want to see war, i don't want to put americans in harm's way. but on the other hand the longer we wait, the longer we bury our heads in the send and ignore the threats the more americans vote military and nonmilitary a going to die unfortunately. >> from new york and phil go ahead, please. >> good morning, pedro and repetitive fleming. good to be on tv and thank you

for c-span. i have a question and kind of a procedural thing. i keep hearing people say why doesn't harry reid do something, why doesn't harry reid do something and isn't it john boehner setting this in motion the way that our congress, the house of representatives and the senate works. harry reid can't really do anything because it has to be the house of representatives that starts it and not the senate. i'll get off and listen for your answer, thank you. >> well, i think the caller is conflicting two different issues here. when it comes to a war powers, when it comes to getting authorization, that really should come from the president. he should request that. he needs to come to congress to find what he wants and subscribing of that power, that authorization. tell us his strategy, give us his plan. he has not done that. on the other hand, when it comes to passing bills out of

congress, you are right, taxing and spending authority comes from the house of representatives. but i would remind the caller, and viewers out there, that republican, the republican-controlled house now has nearly 400 bills that have been passed, put on the doorstep of harry reid and he refused to take them up. so the gridlock, the problem that we have with do nothing congress is in the hands of harry reid, that has been the problem ever since republicans took the majority of the house in 2010. >> so the president has to submit a document laying out the authorization? >> yes. >> then the house vote on it? >> i'm not certain he has to do that but that has been really the practice in the past. that's really the only practical way to make it work. i can't be certain that is required in law. but for instance president bush, he came, he requested certain powers. it really has to work that way if you think about it. it wouldn't make sense for the house of representatives or

congress in general to take a document to the president and say we are giving you these powers because you see he has control of the military. he is the one who is in direct control and in the discussions with the generals. so they have to define the plan first and then bring it to us. we have oversight. we review it and then we authorize it. so that is really the practical way to do it. >> james is up next, from texas, democrat's line, hi. >> yes, i'd like, the republican party seems like since mr. obama has gotten into office, these people have sat on their butts and not done a cotton-pickin thing and we are coming back gradually but think if they had done something to help this president. these people are doing absolutely nothing and now they are warning us to vote them into

office again. it's ridiculous. they are more or less cutting off their nose despite their face. thank you. >> i'm not sure by his pronouns which people he was referring to. so it's difficult to interpret his question. the economy has been flat ever since the recovery started. as you know, unemployment remains too high and in my view as a conservative the problem has been obamacare first and foremost, really putting a damper on jobs, converting a full-time workforce to part time. we've had two major tax increases under president obama that has been stifling to the economy. but the thing i get the most complaints about is the horrendous rules and regulations

that have been massively applied to businesses that are really making it an uncertain future and the capitol is not being invested in business growth because once you get a regulation, you don't know that a year or two down the road you are going to have to spend another billion dollars for new regulations so we really need to take down these things, reduce the regulations, get certain for the future, reduce taxes. certainly bring down the corporate tax rates which are now the high neest in the worldd do something with obamacare because it's hurting the economy. >> asking about the armed services committee do they have intel and do you have your own policy experts? >> we do but it's all filtered through the administration. unfortunately all too often i will go to a secure briefing on

house armed services. i feel like i have learned nothing and turn on the t.v. and listen to fox and get the real information. that is the sad part of our relationship with this administration. >> so when we see pictures of bombings going on and things that are being executed as far as the plans in iraq and syria do you receive heads up about the strikes at all? >> in some cases maybe the chairman of the committee may receive a call maybe moments before or a few hours before. but, remember, sergeant berdhdal who was swapped for the taliban and chairman of services was not notified and learned about it in the news. >> our guest and many ember of the armed services committee repetitive john fleming of louisiana joining us and barb you are up next, from portland, oregon. >> thank you for taking my call and it's good to talk to you.

i'm a die-hard democrat and all my life and never missed an election and i'm well in my age, i'll tell you what. i worked for bobby kennedy and you know what happened there. and so it changed my whole life. now, in regard to the war, i don't think we should be doing anything until we get a complete vote on both the house and the senate and i want us to stop what we are doing overseas and start taking care of this country. i want us to build up the borders and i'm not on an isolation list and never have been before but i think we are dumbing down as far as the immediating and not letting us know anything any more and i lived through the days of tip o'neill and the days we had william byrd with the constitution and whether i'm going to stay a democrat i don't know. i introduced barack obama and in

another part of this state when he came in. and i voted the first time, second time i did not. and i don't know where i'm going expect i think i'm probably going republican this time except i really like brighteven in oregon. >> what changed your mind about voting next time? >> nothing, absolutely doing nothing. as i said i'm voting for widen, i miss teddy kennedy and miss people who will set up and talk to us. i believe in leadership. i don't think we have got it in the white house and i want to have our president do something more than fundraising. >> okay, thank you. >> i think the caller makes very good points even though he is a democrat, i'm a republican. i think what he points out is how the democrat party has really shifted in a liberal, progressive way. some of the things that both

parties held as strong values such as protection of the home land, secure borders, being very circumscribed about getting into foreign conflicts, i think there has been a major shift away from that by the democrat party and i will say this though, as a member of congress, the most important responsibility i have is to provide for a common defense and protection of the home land. and that is so important sometimes we have to go to other countries. i would much rather have a battle there than within our borders, but the nonsecure borders that we have is very problematic. the interdiction of drugs and certainly now the problem with isis and other islamist radicals coming across our borders, that is a real threat. and i think the gentleman is right about, i agree with much of what he has to say about

that. >> you are a doctor by training? >> yes. >> what field? >> family medicine. >> what do you think about the president's resent calls when it comes to global epidemics including ebola? >> well, it needs to be addressed and i appreciate the president addressing that. it's unclear to us why he is deploying 3,000 troops though to do that. what we don't want to do is to act in a way that actually spreads a disease. it does need to be limited and circumscribed. and if it takes some security forces to do that, then that is a good idea. but it has not been clear what his plan has been to do that. but it's clear that ebola seems to be more contagious than maybe it was first thought and that is why we have got to deal with it. and the problem with western africa is there is a lot of methodology there about it, many people there think that this is an american conspiracy to kill africans. and so we have got to work with the people and make sure they

are well educated to understand we are trying to help them in this and trying to protect the world by dealing with ebola which as you know is a high mortality rate as much as 80%. >> is more money the solution? >> well, i think it's going to take some more money but i don't think it's like aids where it took billions of dollars to kind of bring that under control. but it's going to take hundreds of millions, that's for sure. >> do you think it's an issue that concerns those in the united states of it coming to the united states in a large way? >> i rather doubt it could happen that way because you see there has to be other things involved in terms of geography, climate and those issues and i'm not sure ebola would thrive here the way it does there just because the climates are different and so forth. but there is no question that people who travel and travel to countries where perhaps it could be contagious could bring it here and could, of course, give it over to friends and family

members. so i think it's important first to be careful but i don't think there is any need to be panicking about this and feel we will have a widespread epidemic in the united states. >> john from virginia on the democrat's line. >> yes, good morning. my concern is that those middle east people have been heightened ever since the beginning of time. so having the world to think we will be able to do anything with them people when you got eight and nine different groups of people that have always had a feud going among them and fear of killing themselves, now we want to put ground troops on the ground as i heard people talk about it. how can you put ground troops on the ground when you don't know who is who over there? that is putting american soldiers at risk. now, we have had nine people in

our family that have been in the service. i am totally against putting my, what do you say, family into a situation where they don't know who is who over there and they get hurt. i'm totally against it. let them people fight their own wars and we get out of over there, i'm sick of these wars in the middle east. i'm sick of them. >> well, i think the caller makes a good point. yes, for 1500 years or so there has been these fights, certainly since the death of the passing of mohammed, you got the shia and the sunnis who have been fighting one another and that continues today. the problem is that when these islamist, these radicals begin to externalize their conflicts and their ideology which manifested itself on 9-11 it's

clear that they despise the western world and they will continue to come here to kill americans whenever possible. and so as long as they are a threat to us and our vital interests around the world, we are going to have to battle with them and i think the sooner we come to grips with the fact that this is going to go on for decades, not necessarily in an intense level, but at some low level and maybe at times briefly attendance levels and until we come to reality and we cannot come home and forget about it because war is over and president obama felt he would be the president to end wars, but unfortunately no single man, in fact, no government can just unilaterally end a war. as long as these people are warring against us we are going to have to push back against that and do it in a way where we protect americans but we put as few lives in danger as possible.

>> do you think the push back is going to be intense as we have seen this week, will that continue over the long-term or will we see a decreasing of that? >> i think america, as you know right now the polls are overwhelmingly in favor of staying out of this conflict. but i think you're going to see gradually people understanding the reality we are dealing with and what the threats are and how dangerous this could be for us. and i think you're going to begin to see those polls shift and certainly if something significant happens, if there is another attack on home land i think you will see a major switch on that. i hope that doesn't happen. i don't want that to happen. i just think america and people like me on armed services just need to be talking with our constituents and americans and just explaining to them it was a big mistake to leave iraq in 2011 without a stay behind force and status of force agreement so we made a mistake and we are now

paying for that mistake. >> negotiations with the prime minister though at the time to get that. >> yeah, but i think it's well understood the president, remember the president always deals his hand and shows his hand first. he would not be a very good poker player. he said, hey, we are going to be pulling the troops out no matter what, when you do that you lose your leverage in negotiation so it's clear the president was going to pull the troops out no matter what. and that was just a bad move. it was a mistake. so let's admit our mistakes and let's go back and do it right and keep troops in that area to keep the peace. remember, there are other parts of the world, south korea, germany and even japan for a long time where we kept troops there and now we have won the peace in those areas and democracy. >> from north dakota and thanks for holding on and you are on with representative john fleming. >> can you hear me? >> yes, you are on go ahead, we

can hear you. >> all these wars in this whole world and we are getting away from morality especially in our country. one thing that really is disturbing for all is the liberals when they pull the guns away from people and say guns kill people and we all know that people kill people. they have killed 59 million babies already and they did not use a gun. and never seem to talk about that. now, we are getting away from our morals and i think our country needs to get down on their knees and pray and the good people can go and vote for what is really right. getting back to same sex marriage, the same thing, if our lord would have intended that he wouldn't have made a male and female. i'm not against gays but to call it marriage, things like that, i don't think our country will ever win these wars in the world. we have to cleanup our country

first. that's my opinion. >> well, i think the bottom line point the caller makes is that america needs to get back to its fundamental values, things that made the nation great, the values that we hold dearly, that our founding fathers built this nation on. one thing we are really finding out is that you can't just drop in a democracy on a country and make it work. we see that and what happened in iraq, we see what happened in egypt. that there has to be a real i guess an encompassing and embracement of values that are important in life to people. and moving along to a future. and so a democracy can only work if we hold true to what those values are and that may vary

from one nation to another and they can morph at times but the important thing is we do need to hold true to the things that our nation was built on. >> you are participating in something called the value voter summit. >> yes. >> what is it and what are you doing there? >> this is a summit that is sponsored by frc action. i think this is the ninth year. and that is where we have politicians and other high profile people who come to talk and interact with people on mainly social issues. and, again, more conservative leaning social issues and back to values we hold dear to our nation. and it's really quite an exciting thing. i spent the afternoon there yesterday and we had a lot of great speakers, some of them potential candidates for the presidency in 2016. >> cruz spoke and rand paul

spoke there as well. >> yes. rick santorum and michelle bachmann who ran in the last election so it was very exciting. i got a chance to speak and very appreciative for the opportunity. >> you got a posting on the huffing t huffington post because the topic was marijuana, what was the message? >> the message is this country seems to be changing its ideas about the dangers of marijuana, that it's maybe not dangerous and not addicting and not harmful but the problem is the science says just the opposite. and as you -- this has manifested itself by 23 states with medicine marijuana, two states now have made it legal for recreational use. but the problem is in these states we are seeing problems already. deaths related to it, drug driving, a spike in schizophrenia, suicides, accidental poisonings of

children because it's putting candy in baked goods and that sort of thing. and actually we are beginning to see those ideas turn around. there has been a drop by seven points in acceptance of marijuana in the most resent poll and it's now under water. 51% believe it should not be legalized, 44% believe that it should be. i believe we are going in the right direction. again, it's important to understand that the most common diagnosis for drug addiction in young people today is marijuana. >> both of those states colorado, washington regulate a tax and what is the difference between that and alcohol and tobacco which is regulated and taxed? >> the revenue is coming under and the black market is robust and the idea is to get rid of the black market and make money and failed on both of the things and making it more acceptable to use marijuana, to carry it, to have it in your homes and so forth. what we know is that the more

available alcohol is and the use goes up. we know 50% of high schoolers by the 12th grade have smoked marijuana. the addiction rate is 1-6 for teens who actually experiment with marijuana. why would you want to add one addicting drug on top of another problem addict drug being alcohol and it's i'll logical to compound an existing problem. >> what about the idea these are state's rights issues and if a state wants to incorporate them, why not? >> we can talk about seat belts and make it an individual issue and say why should you get a ticket for using a seat belt. government does have a vital role in making sure that within reason that you protect yourself for one thing if something happens to you you end up in icu, the state, the taxpayers

are going to have to take care of you because you may not be able to take care of yourself. >> repetitive john fleming our guest and eagle harbor, michigan is where jerry is and thanks for waiting on the independent line. >> thank you, mr. fleming for your service. first of all i want to know if the soldiers we sent to sierra leone or liberia or any place like that where the ebola thing is that voluntary? and, second, are they volunteers, second, i would like to say that this war that rand paul was right about saying president obama not wanting to go to war. he did it on his own in liberia i mean in libya. and so he can do it now. he doesn't want to own this war because that would make him look bad. i think the congress should stay where they are at, at home and let them do campaigning because

if it was obama he would do the same thing. so let them stay there. >> i'm not sure about sierra leone in terms of volunteering. of course, the military members themselves volunteer to serve in the military. we have an all volunteer military but once you are in you have a uniform and are directed by your commander to do your job. as far as the president, i do think the president, again, he campaigned hard on the issue that he would end the war and get us out of wars. now he finds himself forced to be reengaged as a war president. and i think that it goes to show you that he shouldn't have made those promises and commitments to begin with. when you run for office and certainly once you're elected to office you need to be honest with constituents and say look as president of the united states if you look back in history virtually every

president has been involved in some type of conflict and i may be no exception to that and president obama is learning a hard lesson with this and for us to think that we can slide by or ease by, do it halfway, doesn't make sense. again, that is sort of what happened in vietnam. we sort of wanted to be in it but we didn't. even in cuba, as you recall with jfk sort of wanted to be in it or not and need to be in it with both feet or stay out of it completely and every time we go the wrong direction on that, half doing it, we pay a price. >> here is clyde from new jersey on the democrat's line, hi. >> hi. question to the congressman. i understand that cells and possibility with isis and i'd like to know, you know, is it possible it might be another

9-11. thank you. >> okay, that is a good question. that is really the fear that is in the back of everyone's mind. remember, that isis is an off shoot, if you would. it's a son of al-qaeda. it actually came from al-qaeda in iraq, aqi and has grown to this huge force and is becoming now an actual state, at least in their view. well trained. well funded. they take in millions of dollars a day and not only rob banks but taken over banks. they have their own oil. even have their own oil refineries. and i think their interest is to set up a sort of the infrastructure from which terrorism can be created and khorosan and of course the core al-qaeda, their mission was more to go externally and come against europe and america basically the west, i think isis itself is much more focused on what it's doing there in the

middle east but make no mistake about it they are closely allied with other groups causing us harm. >> should we ally with syria and i ran in this fight? >> i don't think we should align with syria or iran because iran thinks of itself as being the enemy and they are enemy to israel and dedicated to the destruction of close ally israel and they sponsored terrorism through other organizations and i don't see there is a benefit to us aligning with them but i think we have to work with our partners and our allies to take care of business and realize that we are going to have to have -- this is going to be a long-term fight. hopefully at a low level but nonetheless we are going to have to stay with it. >> henry from new york, independent line, hi. >> thank you, good morning gentleman. as a point of reference, i'm returning to the quote about what the gentleman talked about

the south with responsibility and included commerce but that is a reference. that is not a comment on that. but i am looking at representative and your statement that immediately attempt with sadam hussein and kuwait and you did imply he had something to do with the 9-11 attack on new york, which happened about a mile and a half south of where i'm calling from you now and the fact is that fact. sadam hussein had nothing to do with the attack and that is a misrepresentation and i have one more comment. that we should have left 20,000 troops in iraq. and 20,000 troops is just a tip of a pin worth of ground force especially when you think that isis would urn turn in and focus on that and would have been like

divide and concur, 20,000 is nothing in terms of a force. >> well, with respect to the connection of sadam hussein and what happened on 9-11, i made no direct connection there at all except that the parallel is that we were in the case of 9-11 we were attacked directly. in the case of sadam hussein he attacked another country, went on offense to do that and we saw risk to partners and allies and that is really what america has been all about is working with our partners and allies for a mutual protection. with respect to the 20,000 troops, 20,000 troops could not be an offensive force but remember we had iraq fully under control, things were going great there except the government was problematic. i think maliki was of course, that goes to my comments earlier

about you can set a democracy on top of a country but that doesn't mean it's going to work. and i think he was way too partisan in bringing in all of his tribal friends and so forth and he was dislocating the competent generals that made the force hollow out but if we left 20,000 troops and left the intelligence, infrastructure we had there and held maliki accountable for what he was doing, i believe that isis could not have set up shop in iraq. but you're right, you could not create an offensive force and couldn't go in today with 20,000 americans unless iraq's army was stood up and once again well trained and a force. that hasn't happened yet. >> illinois, independent line, good morning, go ahead you are on. >> good morning representative and thank you for letting me come on this morning.

>> sure. >> to c-span. are you there? >> go ahead. >> we are here. >> representative fleming, i'm thankful you came on this morning. >> thank you. >> for a couple reasons. i really wanted to hear from you with the hopes of hearing from someone who was a little bit more objective. i'm kind of disappointed, sir, with all due respect because i think many of your comments come across the screen as partisan and i really hoped they wouldn't be and i hoped you would take this platform to be a little more objective and say something and give some facts about iraq and things like that. and you are taking a chance to bash our poor president and he is not doing well. i agree. but we really don't need that right now. so i really wish that you would stick to the facts and help us to understand what is going on

as opposed to trying to bash the democrats or the president or something like that, i would really appreciate that if you can do it. >> well, everything i've said is part of my core being and core beliefs and based on facts. obviously you -- your sentiment is with the president and i can understand that. but my job as a member of congress is to call balls and strikes, whether it's republicans or democrats, who are making the right decisions or the wrong decisions. it just happens to democrats particularly by way of president obama are in control. he is the one calling the shots here. he is the one making the decisions. and it's my job to express what i think he is doing right and when he is doing wrong. if i were president and he were a congressman he should do the same. so i would say that i'm being as

objective as i can possibly be, that is why i'm serving in congress is you try to get this nation back on track and become successful once again. >> cleveland, ohio next on the republican line jessie, hi. >> hi, how are you sir. i'm a vietnam vet and the one thing that i notice is that so many of the congressmen have never even owned a uniform but they have all of this zeal to go to war. now, that really bothers me. if sadam hussein had not been removed we would not be having most of these problems in the middle east. and it was a cooked up story to get us in there. and, in turn, we have suffered

much. lost of treasure and loss of human life. the money that was spend is just ridiculous. i think we need to deal with the effective reality. those people have been fighting since 700 ad, they will continue to fight. we don't know how to go in and settle these disputes because it's all based on people's ideas. so i think you are someone disingenuous with your little solloquoy initially and we have no reason to be there and sadam was given a green light to go into kuwait because they were drilling sideways in his oil fields. >> well, first of all, the caller implied that i didn't serve in the military but i did. i served six years in the u.s.

navy. and was very proud of my service. there certainly remains a debate and there will by think for decades as to whether or not we should have initially gone into iraq against sadam hussein and i really have to confess just as i'm critical in president obama and how he has handled things there today, i'm also critical of president bush. i don't know, i wasn't in congress then, i don't know about what the intelligence said. but one thing i do know and we experienced this in libya and i'm concerned that this could happen in syria, as we take out these dictators who are for the most part secular and create vacuums that make organizations like isis grow, in the case of syria, if you talk to the syrian christians they say they like assad from the standpoint as he protects them and what happens with isis and they go in and be head them. so i do think we take a huge

risk and president obama was the one who wanted to go in and take out gadhafi and he did. and he took out of course the president or prime minister of egypt and then we for a time had the muslim brotherhood. fortunately that got taken care of. so i think we need to be very sir k circunspect we disagree with and may fund terrorism but when you remove them you open the field up for organizations like isis. >> our guest serves on the armed services committee and representative john fleming is with us and serves on natural resources. >> yes. >> what do you think of the headline from the post about carbon out put on the rise in the united states? >> well, i have not read the article. but, you know, there is an ongoing debate about how sensitive the environment is to carb

carbon dioxide when it comes to the environment and global warming and all of these things. those who support the idea that we need a carbon tax and so forth feel like that we are going to have continued global warming and it's going to harm our environment, but yet for the most part temperatures have been flat for the last 16-17 years. the computer models did not predict that. and so i think what we are coming to recognition is the environment is not as sensitive to carbon dioxide as many thought at first and other factors involved in global warming and temperature changes. we may actually see global cooling over the next decade. so i think a carbon tax is a bad idea. that is the problem. we should certainly have the cleanest air and water we could possibly have but to destroy the economy over still a theory that is controversial in terms of what is the environmental

sensitivity carbon dioxide i think is a bad idea. >> it says higher emissions are primarily or reflect a rebounding economy as businesses burn more gas and oil to meet higher demand and a challenge with the obama administration and a pledge to sharply cut greenhouse gasses by the end of the decade. >> right, the other factor, pedro is where carbon dioxide is growing is india and china and we can do the greatest job we can here and it's not going to change really the over all amount of carbon dioxide being put out. also australia just repealed their carbon tax. it was hurting their economy and we know it hurts economies so it's not the right way to go. we need to do what we can of course to save energy, lower the cost of energy, have the cleanest energy possible and we should transition i think to natural gas because it has the

lowest carbon foot print of conventional energy but tax on the energy i think is a bad idea. >> ed is up next, east point, michigan, hi. >> i have a problem with this guy, john fleming and congress. i feel that you don't represent the majority of the american people just because this guy came on t.v. and can you explain yourself to me, you are a guy that came on ms-nbc and said you can't live on $400,000 a year. you don't represent the average american person. >> the caller is incorrect. i never made that statement. >> green law in new york, democrat's line, christian, hello. >> hello, good morning. >> you are on, go ahead. >> i just want to put something straight. i had a congressman say something to the effect that

president obama withdrew the troops from iraq, which is correct. but he forgot to mention that the u.s. president bush who signed the status of the stay agreement, it was president bush who signed the agreement that american troops were not going to be there when who the next president was going to be. quite frankly i understand from what i've read that the original way there were not many countries left behind is the prime minister which is maliki who is a dictator who refused to grant american troops immunity so mr. congressman please explain to us why you think obama should say that americans not have immunity, thank you. >> i don't think your facts are correct. bush planned to have a stay behind force. in fact, you probably heard his

vice president cheney speak about it a number of times. it was a huge mistake to do that. the pentagon and generals said that is a bad idea, do not remove them. look, maliki was arguable to us while we had forces there. we helped create the democracy that got him elected and had we held him accountable there would have been no problems keeping those forces there. maliki could not have stopped that. and bush at least by the nature of his rhetoric and his behavior agreed with keeping troops there. so i know a lot of people want to give excuses for president obama but it's obvious president obama ran on the idea of getting out of iraq as soon as possible. he thought it was the right thing to do and i'm sure he was sincere about that. he was just factually wrong and now he needs to own up to that mistake and we need to go back in there and undo the problems that developed as a result.

>> from kentucky, go ahead. >> yes, thank you, representative john fleming, is it? >> yes, sir. >> yeah, from louisiana, good, it's nice talking with you and i enjoy the program. the question i have is: seems i recall reading sometime ago about the great lakes and how they were formed with the glasers and the retreating glasers of the previous ice age and i'm curious how the environmental extremist, i prefer to call them wackos but how do they explain that particular period of the earth's history, the ice age and how do they explain the retreating of

the glasers? >> caller, thanks. i can't speak for them necessarily but i think we have to recognize that the earth is warmed and cool. both in large ways and in small ways. we have been in cycles. a lot has to do with our relationship with the sun. there are many factors involved, the temperature of the oceans and oceans can trap temperature and release heat as well. so i think the basic point is that these cycles of warming and cooling occurred long before we had the first automobile and the first combustion engine. but we want to be again sensitive to pollutants that may go in the environment and do what is best for the nation and for the world. i just, again, i just have to insist that a carbon tax is a wrong way to go on this. >> michael up next, from seattle, independent line. >> congressman, good morning. >> good morning. >> hey, i wanted to ask you how

is that you say you don't want to put americans in harm's way and, yet, i don't understand how you can feel it's okay to criminalize people for exercising what you would say is their god-given right i'm sure of freedom of choice to use marijuana which most americans at this point agree is the safer alternative to all other options. can you please explain how that is not putting americans in harm's way by criminalizing them for using marijuana? >> okay, first of all, you may have not heard this but the most resent poll shows that most americans would disagree with you on that. most americans and i think the trend lines, they reversed and now i think they will continue, that as americans understand more and more problems occur with using marijuana that it's a

bad idea to decriminalize. it's been criminalized for decades. you see, one of the things that just rolled out recently is sophisticated imaging studies have shown that even with casual use of marijuana smoking that we see significant abnormalities of the brain and really effects the structure of the brain. the addiction rates and problems that go with that. and also it's not an either or. often times proponents say it's better to smoke marijuana than drink alcohol, what happens is people mix them together and add other drugs as well. it's a progressive problem when people become addicted to various drugs. so what you get into is drug and alcohol driving so the worst thing in the world we could do is add another problem on top of problems we already have. >> one last call, this is pittsburgh, pennsylvania and democrat line and robert you are up. >> yes, congressman, you made a statement that you get your facts from fox and my question

to you is: if you get your facts from fox, and they are an anti-obama and if you listen to them, i don't care what you say, if he goes to the bathroom they have something to complain about, if fox is your thing for getting you information, as a congressman i would like to know what are you doing there? >> well, first of all, i use fox as an example. i watch other outlets as well. the point there was that we get more information on the news than this administration gives us. but since you brought up fox i would tell you that overwhelmingly fox has been determined to be the most balanced. they have people from the left and people from the right and they give their view points and i think they all make good points. but you really completely missed the point there. the point is this administration does not discuss with us and

reveal to us the important intelligence necessary in most cases, particularly rank and file members like myself on armed services and we have to learn it through the news outlets, whether it's fox, "new york times," washington times, new york post, c-span. we have to go outside to really learn the facts necessary. >> representative john fleming of louisiana joining us for a discussion on isis and other things, mr. representative thank you. >> thank you very much, pedro appreciate it. >> we will hear from another representative joining us, steven horsford democrat from nevada talking about similar issuance we will hear from him as the washington journal continues after this. ♪

>> announcer: washington journal continues. >> our second member of congress of the morning representative steven horsford democrat from nevada and serves the fourth district and good morning. >> good morning and thanks for having me. >> we are talking about asked the previous representative about isis and whether congress should come back and have a vote and debate on authorization for iraq and syria, how would you weigh this on that? >> well, i support the strategy that we are currently

undertaking, the fact that congress gave the authorization to the president to train and equip along with the air strike strategy. i was a ovn overwhelmingly supp both in the house and senate because on this we need to but noted. this is not just the united states against isil, this is the world against isil. >> you voted for it for your delegation in nevada. >> i was in the house and senator reid supported it in the senate and after attending many briefings and hearing directly from the administration, i decided that it was good set of options, no guaranty but taking no action was not an option for me. i believe that based on the barbaric nature of this extreme islamic faction, that does not represent the rest of the muslim community, that we needed to act

but not the united states acting alone, acting along with our international allies. and i'm glad to see now great britain has voted to support this strategy as have key arab nation whose are part of the air strike camp page. >> some talking about the congress voting on a larger authorization for the president, do you think that should have taken place before congress left for town? >> reality is what we voted for only goes through december 11 and that is another reason why i supported it because it has certain safeguards in it. first is the congress will be back in session and will be able to be part of the decision-making along with the president about what we may need to do in the long-term. secondly, the moment that they begin spending money to train and equip, they will have to report back to the appropriate oversight committees within 15 days on their specific plans. and, third, there was an assurance and certain

protections that the equipment will not fall into the wrong hands because while we need to train the moderate syrian fighters, we need to make sure we are doing it in ways that don't harm our long-term interest in this region. >> we had general dempsey brought up the idea of possibly ground forces being part of that, do you think that is part of the strategy's future? >> well, i hope not. i believe, i support the majority of my constituents in nevada who don't want to see u.s. troops on the ground. and this is another reason why this strategy, under president obama and our commander-in-chief needs to be supported, because it's not a go it alone strategy. it's not the united states sending our men and women over to fight another war. it's an air strike campaign that includes our international allies and in this case training

and equipping those syrian moderate forces that we can work with so that that i can defend themselves. and i think that that is an appropriate action for us to be taking at this time. >> our guest with us until 9:20 to talk about the issues of this nature and others, you want to ask him questions your chance to do so 202-585-3558, democrats 2 o2-585-3881 and republicans is 202-585-3882. our line for independent is you're here in town partly because you are attending the black caucus legislative conference. >> the meeting, yes. >> there was a story leading up to the leader marsha talking about the mid terms and the headline says part of the things the cdc will do is talk about g o p threats and president obama leading into it. can you expand on what the strategy is as part of what the mid term is about? >> first, to be clear, my only

focus, our folk us in the mid terms is to make sure every person who is eligible to vote, votes. regardless of who they vote for we need people to turn out and vote and we need to understand that we are really at a cross road both on domestic and international issues and we need everyone to be engaged in that. congress can only be as successful as the people who elect them. and so i'm encouraging the people in nevada district and throughout the country to turn out and vote. and for them to know the issues that matter to them most. and where the candidates stand on those issues. you know, clearly we are talking about how we can jump start the middle class and help address issues like pay equity or increasing the minimum wage. in my home state of nevada we have the most unstable housing market so who is talking about helping people get the relief that they need in that crisis,

making sure that college remains affordable for our children and the next generation. these are many of the issues that my constituents want to know, that congress is taking action on and i think ultimately will determine the outcome of this mid term election. >> part of the strategy is to talk about what happens if the senate does go to republicans and more seats are gained by republicans and the house, would you agree? >> clearly to know the reality of consequence like that, i believe that the democrats will maintain the majority in the senate, senate majority leader harry reid works hard everyday fighting for the people across this country and in nevada. he has led his caucus in the senate to represent the issues important to the middle class and when you just look at the comparison between the issues that we are pushing and those that are being proposed by the other side, you just have to ask

yourself the question who is fighting for you. and clearly when we are talking about, you know, paying women equal pay for equal work, that when women succeed america succeeds, when we can provide access to affordable child care and quality programs compared to the other side, then i think the decision becomes pretty clear who is on your side. >> our guest here to take your call, our first call for you comes from arkansas, sam is on our democrat's line for representative steven horsford, go ahead. sam, good morning, go ahead. >> how are you doing? representative fleming when he was on here before he needed to do something for louisiana for shreport, i'm from shreport but as for isis, you know, we created it. we created it when we went into iraq and got rid of sadam

hussein. we created the problems and in iran because sadam hussein kept it at bay and they blame it on president obama and whatever they wanted they can blame him and i just listened to you. >> well, first let me say that i support our commander-in-chief. i didn't always agree with former president george bush. but there are times when we as americans have to come together to support our president and the commander and i want him to be successful and this is an important issue, again, not just to the united states but to our interests and our allies around the world. and that is why it's imperative that we work together and why i'm glad there was by partisan agreement to support the

president with this strategy to both dismantle, degrade and ultimately destroy isil while also doing it in a way where the united states is not going it alone. i understand the caller's frustration, that there is a sense that, you know, the united states is trying to police the world and we can't be in that position. this is not that strategy. this is something where other countries, particularly key arab nations are involved, because they are as opposed to isil as the united states is. and i think that, again, explains the reason why this is the world against isil, not just the united states. >> this is david from georgia. republican line, hi. >> how you doing? i wanted to ask the congressman why would you support the president when the president

knew about isis about almost two years ago and if he knew about it almost two years ago this is acting reactive versus proactive. and we know for a fact that we are eventually going to have to have troops on the ground to sustain the forces down in isis and we will have to have troops on the ground, so he is avoiding the inevitable and knowing he is not telling the american people the truth. so why were we supportive on these issues if we know that ultimately if you train the syrian armed forces that the -- we don't know who the enemy are, who the enemies are, so ultimately the weapons and material can get into the hands of the enemies, so why would we support that or vote for that when we know that we don't know who the enemies are and eventually we are going to have troops on the ground? >> well, let me first say none of these issues are easy.

and as a new member of congress, as a freshman i take this responsibility very seriously and it's why after several briefings, both classified and unclassified i ultimately came to the decision to support it. and i think the president even said that the circumstances have changed. and i'm sure there is intelligence that he has as a commander-in-chief of this nation that the public is not always privy to. the final thing i guess i will say is this strategy, again, is not about sending u.s. troops on the ground, in that region. this is about seeking support from our allies, the fact great britain voted for this overwhelmingly says we are moving in the right direction and key arab nations involved in

the strategy, are all evidence this is not the same as prior conflicts. and i think the president has been very upfront that this is not going to be easy, it's not going to happen overnight but that over time we will destroy and dismantle and degrade isil so they are no longer the threat that they are today. >> when it comes to the training of syrian troops what gives you confidence we will be training the right types of syrian troops? >> so this question was one that was raised by members on both sides of the aisle in every hearing i attended so it's the right question for people to have. the answers that we received and i received personally are from the administration and key national advisors is that there is a very thorough vetting process. and, as i said, the moment the expenditures begin to be made,

there will be oversight by the committees of jurisdiction in the house and the senate where we will know the exact types of equipment to whom they are being given, where the training is being conducted and other elements. some of which, again, are going to have to be classified but i think the american people can have confidence that their members are asking the same questions that they are because we do not want to get the united states involved in another costly war, both in human lives as well as in capitol. >> erica from mississippi and good morning on the independent line, you are on. >> am i on? >> you are on, go ahead. >> i would like to find out since we are going back in to iraq and trying to dispose of isis, et cetera, in the late 70s

and 80s, they had what they called formed a multi national force and observers and i'm wondering what happened to them and if we are going to have people go into iraq and syria, et cetera, why don't they find out what happened and reform that organization because they were very good? >> great suggestion. i will look into that and make sure that we are, as you said, utilizing whatever resources that work. i know right now the fact that nations like saudi arabia, katar and uae are involved including jordan, all are indications that there are key arab nations that understand just how much of a threat isil is and they are as committed to dismantling and destroying them as others are.

and so that's why this is not a go it alone strategy for the united states. >> morgan town, north carolina, paul, good morning, democrat's line. >> good morning. i was listening yesterday or the day before and i heard a comment from one of the folks on your show saying, talking about the targets and so forth and it was brought up that china was not a target, you know, and they didn't have this problem to worry about, well, if you look at how this has evolved since world war ii, it only goes back to redrawing competence of country lines and so forth and we continue to support israel regardless of what they do and i'm thinking to israel is held accountable for their actions that they take in that region and so forth, we will continue to be a target because they see us as supporting a power that is

a total threat to the whole region and i'm not antisemantic but i think israel does need reigned in. >> first let me say there is no greater ally to israel than the united states and our relationship is so strong and meaningful because they are the strongest democracy in a region that desperately needs more democracy. also, let me say that isil does not reflect the muslim community. and we cannot associate their barbaric attacks, which have be been, you know, repudiated from others as an example of how others think or the reason that they are doing those types of actions. and so i hear the caller's concerns and comments and i believe that we need to continue

to have israel and our other allies in that region work together towards peace. but right now we have a threat, both specifically to that region of the world and the united states as a world leader cannot just turn a blind eye to the at t atrocities occurring and a leader of bringing this international response to bear. >> north carolina next and eddy republican line. >> yeah, and you were just saying i understand what you are saying for the muslim community and there are moderate muslims but majority are i would say almost 95% of this is being caused by radicalized muslims and islamic terrorists and they are not mentioning that or trying to avoid even saying those two words together which i don't understand. i was just curious why is it

that everybody is so reluctant to actually associate this with islamic terrorist and even said isis is not islamic when that is the first the islamic state of iraq and syria. >> i think the president and others have been clear to call out isil for what they are, which is a barbaric terrorist, extremist faction that must be dismantled, degraded and ultimately destroyed. it does not reflect the overwhelming majority of the muslim community or the philosophy of the muslim faith and i'm not muslim, i'm a christian but i respect their faith and we have to be careful not to cast these broad strokes and apply them to all. this is a group of what we heard of between 20-30,000 isil fighters that are growing in large part because of the

recruitment that is occurring and the fact that they are well financed in some areas. and that is why this strategy to have both the air strike as well as training the moderate syrian fighters is so important. so that we can dismantle them, so that we can disrupt their efforts, so that they are not as well organized and ultimately we can cutoff the sources from which they are being functioned. and ultimately i think we have to do that with an international response and the united states as a global leader. >> our guest as you heard participated at the congressional black caucus and one in ferguson, missouri, why were you part of the forum and what was it about? >> well, the forum was held by fraternity alpha which i'm a member with panelists that are experts around how to make sure

individuals know their rights when dealing with law enforcement. obviously out of a very tragic event, the death of the unarmed young boy, michael brown, in ferguson, missouri and the way in which the local police department handled the civil protests that occurred afterwards and the fact that there was an militarization of that law enforcement agency against innocent protesters has really caused a national debate to occur. because it's a pattern that is beginning to happen not just in ferguson but in places like l.a. and new york, chicago and others and i want to be clear here because overwhelmingly we have very professional and respectful law enforcement officers and agencies that do their job well.

and that work hard to protect and serve us. and they put their life on the line in order to keep us safe. but we are also seeing a pattern where officers are not acting in that high standard and, in fact, are becoming the threat to the community that they are supposed to be serving. and that is not acceptable. and we need a clear policy on that. i'm proud to be a sponsor of the universal respect act along with my colleagues on the congressional black caucus among others. and this bill simply says that every law enforcement agency that receives funding from the department of homeland security at the local, state and federal level must go through training and update their curriculum around profiling to ensure that those practices don't exist. and if they fail to do so they could have their money taken or suspended. it's a companion bill and

conyers legislation to end racial profiling act that would do the same thing with the department of justice because we do need to increase the standard, the oversight and the accountability so that the communities that these local law enforcement agencies are serving can, you know, feel confident they are being protected in the best manner possible. >> there was a story in if new york times the looking at the investigation of ferguson and things and says this is by julie saying the department on friday pressured the ferguson police department to stop them wearing bracelets saying i'm darren wilson for the shooting of an unarmed black 18-year-old, is that the appropriate role of the justice department to go that far? >> well, look, the department of justice has a very clear role especially in the civil rights division to make sure individual civil rights and liberties are not being infringed upon and to

make sure that there is a fair and impartial process particularly in law enforcement agencies around the nation. but let me also say because i think sometimes those issues become the focus when the larger issue needs to be about how can we improve the community police relationship. i'm from las vegas, southern nevada, our local police department, the las vegas metropolitan police department under went a review from the department of justice and it was a voluntary review because of use of force incidents and the number of officer-involved shootings. and while that was a major concern and was brought forward by our local naacp and aclu as the problem, the result of that actually has been improved community police interactions and i want to commend our

sheriff, sheriff gellespie and scott who are leading the efforts and others and demonstrates out of a bad situation we can improve that dynamic between the community and law enforcement and that is what we naed -- need to be doing everywhere and rather than just looking at the problem we need to be looking toward solutions and the largest solution in my opinion is improving that community law enforcement dynamic. and one way to do that, and i support this effort as well, is to place these cameras both on the individual officers as well as in the cam cars so that we have, you know, greater accountability and can have the protection both for the officer as well as for the individuals that they come in contact with. >> ferguson was one of the topics that the president brought up at the u.n. speech that he gave this week, we will show you a little of it and get your response to it. >> i realize that america's

critics will be quick to point out at times we too have failed to live up to our ideals. that america has plenty of problems within its own borders. this is true. and in the summer marked by instability in the middle east and areas earn europe and the world took notice of the small city of ferguson, missouri where a young man was kill and a community was divided. so, yes, we have our own racial and ethnic tensions. and like every country we continually wrestle with how to reconcile the vast changes wrought by globalization and greater diversity with the traditions we hold dear. but we welcome the scrutiny of the world. because what you see in america is a country that has steadily worked to address our problems.

to make our union more perfect. to bridge the divides that existed at the founding of this nation. >> representative. >> well, i'm proud that our president went to the u.n. and made that statement that he did. in fact, the u.n. had issued a statement actually criticizing the fact that there was so much profiling occurring in the united states and that it wasn't living up to the international standard that the u.n. is trying to make sure is established around the world. so we are a leader and we need to demonstrate that here at home and abroad. and it needs to happen in every community. as i said, there are many, many law enforcement agencies that do it right and they should be the example. the cops programmed under the

department of justice is involved in helping local law enforcement agencies do what the president is speaking about well. and also to replicate that in other places. but where it is wrong, like in ferguson, missouri, it needs to be called out, it needs to be held accountable and it needs to change. >> samuel you are up next, from miami, florida, independent line, hi. >> good morning, good morning, listen, we are on a seemingly for the last 15 years and the resources we need to fight wars that we are involved in and now we are going back to the bombing campaign but eventually we will have boots on the ground, where is the money coming from? where is the personnel coming from? you know, 1% of americans fight the war in our volunteer system. if everybody was sincere about going forward thing you would institute the draft again.

and my question is: where is the money coming from? eventually the taxpayers foots the bill and we are just throwing money away and throwing money away for the last 15-20 years on that part of the country or part of the nation. and isil will come up, if it's not isil it will be something else. >> well, your question about where the money is coming from is one of the questions that we asked as members. there is no increased funding for this strategy for the air campaign or the train and equip. it's existing funds that are already appropriated to the department of defense and again this is only until december 11th. that authorization to spend that money is only until then. any additional approval or authorization will have to come from congress. and this is not an authorization forward. this is giving the president the

authority to spend the money that is in that account to train and equip syrian moderate fighters along with an air strike campaign that in large part is being paid for by other arab nations in particular and now with the support of great britain and den mark and belgium i expect that there will be other resources from other nations because that is the requirement that many members of congress have asked for because of the very question that your caller raised. >> angela from ada, oklahoma on the democrats line, go ahead. >> thank you for having me speak. letting me speak. my question is: we had so much going on, you kind of have to filter through what you see as important and we have social networks right now that have increased triple fold on, from

isis members that come up and you have the apps to translate and we have people from america that are joining these. do you believe there should be a filter to stop some of this? because young adults who are confused or otherwise, they have not studied long enough to know what they are going into and they get there and they feel empowered and we are a great country and our president and generations have not always been right, they never will, they cannot always make the decisions to make everybody happy. >> thank you. your question is around maybe the resources that are being used to recruit into this faction of isil and the intelligence community is constantly, you know, identifying the new ways that they are using to try to convince people to join with

their faction. and i'm sure that we will deploy even, every resource necessary to disrupt and destroy them to do that. >> thank you for taking my call. my question comes on a couple tiers and here is the reason for that: our involvement with the persian gulf in the first place is the reason i joined is beirut bomb ings, uss stark and uss john stenis and all of those seem to be forgotten by the american people. i believe that our kids or our children should know about them, not only that, that u.s. education system has totally, completely blotted them out and, you know, you were talking about respect earlier and my concern

is that they are not getting the respect. my concern is our u.s. troops are not getting the respect and who is going to restore instead of just calling it navy history who is going to restore actually being american history, what are you going to do about that is what i'm concerned about? i'm also concerned about the isil nuclear materials that they found. so can you tell me what you're going to do about those things? that is very concerning to me. >> thank you, scott, for your question. well, first, let me say from an education standpoint we should be doing more to invest in education here in the united states. and so that our teachers who are trained and our professional and making sure that our young people have the knowledge to understand not only what they need to survive here but to understand the issues around the world of our areas that should be investing in. and i agree that we have not done enough in that regard and

the congress should be focused on that and i think a lot of people are going to be at the election polls this mid term, on november 4th, asking the question: which member stands on my side when it comes to support for things that i care about like investment and education and public education in this country, both k-12 and higher education? so those are important issues and i'm going to continue to raise them. i'm a parent. i have three children, all of whom attend public schools. my wife is an educator. so i believe that we need to support public education and i'm going to continue to do everything that i can to support funding for education. >> our guest is representative steven horsford of nevada and marcus from nebraska, independent line. >> yes, in the nation always had a pretext of why they invade other nations and it seems to me

the isil thing, if we are against isil be heading people and things of that nature why do we support saudi arabia? they do that. many will argue that the ideology of isis is teaching in saudi arabia. >> well, again, i want to be clear that the decision to support the strategy to dismantle, destroy and ultimately eliminate isil is a very difficult one. and one that i do not take lightly. and i understand and hear the frustration of both the concern around making sure that u.s. veterans or men and women who serve in our military are not harmed and that we prioritize their needs. and i agree with that.

too often in prior wars we give an unlimited amount during the conflict and then fail to support them when they come home. my home district in nevada, i have a very large percentage of both active duty and veteran families because i have ellis airforce base, creech and nevada test range as well as hawthorn depot and i respond to this everyday and my staff does as well. so that is why i was not eager to, you know, just say, yes. i wanted to be able to get very clear answ clear, answers to my questions and ultimately decided because this was a limited authorization only until december with safeguards and assurances, that

it is not going to be like the prior conflicts because i understand the concern that many callers have that we are just entering into another conflict. so i appreciate the caller's comments and we will remain vigilant to make sure we are as committed to our veterans and active duty families, whether they are in conflict or back home here in the united states. >> this week's event at the c.d.c. coincided with the announcement of the pending resignation of eric holder, what was the vibe there and what was the reaction? >> well, we are very sad to hear the news of our attorney general eric holder who has been a phenomenal attorney general. you know, it's not a complete surprise because he had indicated at some point he was not likely to end his term at the end of the president's term and it's not like other cabinet

members to not stay for the whole duration. he has been the attorney general from day one with this administration and served with distinction. i want to talk about his record for just a moment because the attorney general and his legacy has been resolute of protecting voting rights which is our fundamental and basic right as american citizens is right to vote and under this attorney general and the department of justice they have fought to preserve and protect that right. secondly, around keeping our nation safe from terrorists. this attorney general, eric holder, has prosecuted hundreds of known terrorists because that has been a central focus of his tenure. and, finally, the need to reform our criminal justice system which again is an area where there is by partisan agreement

both in the senate and the house to end the mass incarceration of young people, particularly young boys of young men of color so that we are no longer prosecuting individuals based on nonviolent drug-related offenses and instead making sure that people get the treatment that they need. or the skills so that they can not be involved in that type of lifestyle. so i think this attorney general's legacy is strong. i'm proud of the work that he has done and i look forward to seeing the person replace him that can carry on the work that he has started. >> from kentucky, this is andy, democr democrat's line, hello. >> thank you for having me on there. my concern is, okay, with this obama and everything, president obama has been leading us down the wrong road first of all with the healthcare. it still covers abortion and i'm

a conservative. i'm a born-again christian and i'm against that. it should not be funding abortion. and then ever since obama has been in office, he has always cut the bush administration down. we -- bush and them had to be in iraq, i mean, they said they had weapons of mass destruction and we had to go after them. >> well, first, let me say while i respect your opinion, you know, sometimes we have to make sure the facts are also clear. the affordable care act is now covering more americans than was originally projected. individuals that have preexisting conditions, heart disease, diabetes, cancer can no longer be denied insurance because of that preexisting condition. the fact that women can no

longer be charged more because of their gender as well as the fact that insurance companies can not cap you based on a lifetime of expense based on a major illness. on the issue of, you know, the fake question and those who don't support the provisions of providing preventative healthcare to women and their right to have that choice along with their doctor, there are protections that the administration has reached with many of the faith organizations and leaders on this provision. you know, i support a women's right to choose along with her doctor her healthcare decisions. and employees should not be able to dictate that policy. and that is something that the affordable care act will

continue to preserve and protect for women and every one else that it covers today. >> here is tracey from minneapol minneapolis, republican line. >> good morning guys i love c-span. i'm glad the congressman brought up accountability for police officers but i'm more interested in holding the politicians accountable and if he believes that we are on the right footing here as far as going in and doing this to take care of isis, should we go on record saying that if everything is done and found out they were lies that pushed us into this situation, will he be accountable to the people that killed innocent people and the cost and the damage to our soldiers, stuff like that. so accountability seems to be something that people run away from and the politicians after it is found out later there was lies that build up to these situations. >> it matters and every elected official who makes this decision

needs to understand that the lives that are being put into harm's way whether they are our men and women who serve here in the united states or those serving in other countries are important and need to be protected in every way. so, you know, the point of elected officials need to be held accountable, we agree with. that is why this is only all authorization to train and equip through december. any further action or authorization that will be needed will have to be debated and approved by congress before december 11th. the president has the authority to protect the united states and any imminent risk that faces our country. that is a constitutional right of the commander-in-chief. and we need to preserve and protect that provision of our constitution. and i, again, respect the fact

that elected officials absolutely have to be held accountable for this and every decision we make. >> last call and this is west virginia and jeb independent line. >> yeah, i don't know how we call this place the united states of america because if we do call that, i call that red and blue states. anyway, isis, the way the name come from, since reagan we had different names and all the names keep us for nonsense, where is it going to stop? what name will they have next to be involved in all this foolishness. >> can i ask you and talk to you about isis when you go back home to meet with them and things like that, while people are very focused on the threat around the world and including the threat with isil, what people talk to me about at home when they stop me at the grocery store or, you know, approach me after church

on sunday is how can you help me get some relief with this under water mortgage that i'm in. i've been out of work for more than a year and i really need help finding a job, tell me about this new bill you passed that is going to help create a thousand jobs in a portion of the district that i represent, the urington land bill. i've been trying to enroll in the affordable care act but i have questions, where do i go to get the answers. that is what the majority of the folks i represent in the fourth ask me about and i have a diverse district from las vegas and north las vegas, i have areas of rural nevada including agricultural, mining, i represent areas of yuka mountain and area 51 and the rule ranch and bundy who does not recognize the federal government, i'm his representative here in congress. so it's a very diverse district. and i try very hard to listen to

and understand the perspective of my constituents throughout my entire district because i can't do my job effectively unless i understand what they are thinking. but overwhelmingly the concerns that people bring to me are about what is happening in their everyday life and what i can do as their representative to help improve that. >> steven horsford that serves the fourth district and thank you and part of the black caucus and president obama addresses that body tonight at 6:00 and look for information on c-span about that. remainder of our time this morning it's open phones and here are the lines, you can start calling into. [numbers on the screen] and we will take the open phones but first i want to talk to you about news makers program which you can see tomorrow, our guest michael is the afl-cio political

director talking with republicans on a wise range of issues including how to appeal to lshg atinos to vote when the president says he will not act on immigration reform before the election. >> the latino community is not one dimensional and that to simplify the question into one action by itself, mobilize or demobilize, that base ignores the fact that this is an issue that, one, the same vote or same latino voters have the same concerns about their economic well-being or having just as a hard time making end meet. and can be appealed to on still

have the same economic stakes and, second, that the -- that this is an issue that i'm sorry, and second that the republican party has done itself no favors in this regard in coming out in such hostile way against immigration reform of any kind. and that's not lost in the latino community or lost that if the republicans take control, then the prospects for comprehensive immigration reform pretty much die. the second thing that i think maybe more important though is that the afl-cio has been for comprehensive immigration reform

for a long while as you know and we will continue to fight that tight and it's going to go on. a and, you know, these are people's lives and just speculating on the political implications can obscure the fact that this is something that is going to matter and doesn't disappear the day after the election. >> again, you learned on our news makers program with michael podhorzer and the afl-cio director and it's at tomorrow 10:00 in the morning and again at 7:00 in the evening and open phones for remainder of the time. [numbers on the screen] ulyses is up first from texas, democrat's line, ulyses good morning.

>> good morning, yes, i was trying to get through with mr. fleming because he made a statement that republicans had passed over 400 bills sent to the senate and none has been taken up but he failed to mention none of the bills was by partisan and 50 of them were for appealing the healthcare law and maybe another 50 was to complete and talk about the keystone pipeline which they knew wasn't going any place and, yes, they passed a lot of bills but for what? if you ask for money to do an n infrastructure for bridges and roads they will not bring that to the floor so what bills did they pass, bipartisan bills? >> carroll from georgia on the republican line. >> i'm tired of hearing protecting the troops and let's

not forget about us in the home land, i'm so frightened more than ever about the safety of our nation and every one of us. i'm tired of the opinions of this one, that one and the other. what is the problem here? isil or isis or whatever has shown their face. and regardless of who joins us, we go after them. frankly i expect our president to follow his advisors and stop letting our country be in the danger that it is right now. >> james e from florida, independent line, hi. >> good morning. >> you are on go ahead. >> hello. >> you are on go ahead. >> i listen to c-span every morning and i heard something that somebody made a remark in reference to, you know, don't vote republican because your children are going to die.

and actually i did some research and what i found was that democrat james buchanan failed for deal with succession, abraham lincoln fixed that and freed the slaves and registered blacks to vote and that was repealed by andrew johnson and the democrats shortly after his death. number two was world war ii or world war i and that was woodrow wilson who was a democrat and he dropped the bombs on japan and started the cold war and initiated the korean war and ratified the u.n. and the construction came up of vietnam and pigs and carter with the i ran revolution got them from free iran coming to muslim

security. >> pam from alabama, hello you are on. >> i would like to talk for a minute about the move to amend a bill that was the senate tried to vote on it i believe last week and, you know, for most americans i don't know if they are aware of what this move means. when the supreme court voted that corporations are people and money is speech, that absolutely takes the democracy out of our government. politicians are bought and paid for. and the republicans, not one of them loaded in the senate, i take that back, three of them did, to try and get this bill moved forward so that we can get our democracy back, our

government back. because all right now is that the millionaires and the corporations and the big money is buying politicians, writing their bills and telling them exactly what kind of legislation they want. >> if you turn to the british newspaper, the telegraph they have a story on their front page this morning and we will show you the headline talking about the vote that took place in the house of commons that authorized military actions in iraq and not syria. there is the british telegraph paper, a spin off story in the "new york times" this morning taking a look at the social media aspect of what is being done concerning isis and brian saying it takes shape on websites over cys and writes the state department division that is headed and trying a range of approaches since engaging on ads to international visitors and exchange programs but now

digital operators at the state department are engaging people on websites popular in arab countries and publishing islamic state messages and a shocking video on youtube or twitter using the hash tag think again, turn away, critics questioned if this is credible enough and the united states image in the middle east on the verge of hopefulness when president obama delivered the speech in cairo in 2009 is now quote the bottom of a sliding scale according to lena director of the carnegie middle east center in beirut and a.j. from west virginia good morning and go ahead. >> my name is a.j., and the reason i called is we have the ability to put a man on the moon, why don't we have the ability to stop all this stuff on the internet and make it a federal crime if you put something on there beheading somebody or making bombs and why

can't we take it off and make the internet reliability for doing this and i have grandkids and they don't need to see that turning the internet on and it's unjustified and there should be a federal law and crime if you put that on the internet and i don't care who is doing it, thank you. >> dell, colorado, independent line, good morning. >> how are you? >> fine, thank you. the reason i was calling, i was just looking at everybody is thinking about war like going to war with one group of terrorists, but and from my understanding it's the tribes over there, they believe in their families more than they do in a group that is not a centralized power. so when we are going over there to fight between them, we are looking at it's like having four

families on the block that don't get along and when we are trying to decide who to arm and who to help in that situation, we don't know, the police don't get along with the people that they are working with. we don't know who to arm. and so how can we get over there and be in and out quick when we got to change the minds of the people that is there and what they think about each other and they have been fine for years. so i think we are looking at a long-term battle to convince people that are doing what they are doing that to convince him that to get along with each other, thank you. >> chelsea clinton is now a mother, usa today is saying they welcomed the daughter charlotte and says mark and i are full of love and gratitude as we have

the birth of our daughter and facebook received 21,000 "like"s by 1:37 in the morning and talked about a little bit of the well wishers there and there is the tweet announcing the birth of charlotte clinton and patrick from pennsylvania democrat's line. >> thanks for c-span. i see the political director of afl-cio advocating for what he calls comprehensive immigration reform. my ancestors and my father is a union man and grandfather is and i'm a registered democrat but it's bizarre to me that you would advocate to triple the level of immigration which is what the senate bill did, legal immigration and triple illegal immigration and bring in 30 million workers over the next ten years to depress american wages, to replace americans with jobs disappearing with such a high percentage of americans out

of work and democrats and afl-cio and i don't know members personally and i know quite a few who are in favor of comprehensive immigration reform and flooding immigrants mostly low school and people advocating this on behalf of the agricultural industry, the restaurant industry, the hotel industry. what are they going to do with the existing employees? >> curtis, alexander, virginia, republican line, go ahead. >> i want to take issue with the previous guest who was giving accolades to the attorney general eric holder and says he furthered the voter rights in america when in actuality he did the exact opposite. whenever they had the voting in philadelphia, had a new blank panther party and keeping white people from coming in and voting they were charged and then it was overturned by eric holder

and vacated and let go school scott free. the only thing he did was be a racist the whole time he was in there and said ferguson police, he also came to the rescue to right or wrong in ferguson, missouri, whatever in actuality the investigation is not even done yet so this previous guest was wrong on every channel of eric holder and the caucus is racist and if there was we would be called out for that thank you. >> from florida. >> hello. >> you are on. >> thank you for taking me call. i have a problem with redistribution of wealth and i just don't understand why the democrats and the republicans can't get together and remove the cap on social security. let these wall street firms that give tremendous bonuses, let them do it because we will be

getting 13% additional monies going into the social security fund. half from the worker, half from the employer. >> voter law is the subject of a story in the "new york times" this morning, this is monica and a federal court declined to take up the law and writes in an order that evenly split the united states in the southern court in chicago people argue the requirement has created confusion and chaos. this is a requirement for photo identification and decision came a month before an in-person early voting begins and people in wisconsin could put in absentee ballots and could be in front of the supreme court and fights over regulation and many regulations have been introduced

in years and places like wisconsin and mid term elections i want to turn to the campaign 2014 debate and information about them including information about the up coming debate tomorrow which is the ious senate debate with representative bruce and against jonie the republican and you can see that live, 6:00 in the evening tomorrow on c-span. again go to our website for more information. john fairfax, virginia democrat line. >> good morning pedro and good morning america. listen people, you need to realize unless you are a business owner or a wealthy stockholder, the more we help people at the bottom the more we help ourselves. more illegal immigrants are made legal, they no longer can work for below minimum wage and the wages go up when the bottom people get more money, everybody

else up the line gets more money. it's very important to vote and keep the interests from completely taking over our government. it's almost done that. we need to stop it now. thank you very much. >> skip joins us from california, independent line, good morning. >> good morning c-span, thank you for c-span. this is great. i just wanted to comment on fleming when he was on earlier and he admitted that all his facts, well, most of his facts come from fox news. and everybody knows what fox news is. the biggest threat to this country is not isis. it wasn't al-qaeda. the biggest threat to this country is the republican party. and people in it. if you had any republicans on the side means they would have said exactly the same thing he says because they are all in box

step so anyway that is my comment >> the nuclear talks between the five countries, the p 5 plus 1 countries as they are known as, the united states being part of that, a november deal is the deal about to be reached and the headline on wall street journal saying the talks are threatening the deal and western officials have said that actual talks have been serious but slow going and hopes that mr. rouhani presence, the president, would give the i ran team cover to move on key west earn demand that they agree to reduce enrichment activities and didn't materialize and we remain pretty far apart close to the talks and the former chief nuclear negotiator for i ran who met with france and uk in new york this past week stayed out of detailed talks and had not brought a lot of flexibility to

discussions and reaching a deal by november 24 and said it's doable but difficult and dora from west palm beach, florida, republican line, good morning. >> good morning, i'm just calling to say that it breaks my heart to see the beheadings of the men on t.v. and the internet. it breaks my heart to see the shooting down of people unarmed and all that too. so the thing i wish we could do is nations get together and come up with a peace plan to preserve life. it's all about life and peace, please look for that and not more war. please, world, please, that is my comment. >> alvin up next, from stafford, virginia, democrat's line. >> good morning. i would like to comment about the isis situation and i just believe that most of the information americans get is from the mainstream news source.

most americans have not been to the middle east and don't know what is going on over there so how can we make decisions based on some clips that i believe is propaganda and i believe the greatest threat to this country is the federal government because whether they are democrat or republican they all profit when we go to war and when we lose liberties so the american people must wake up and they must stop electing democrats or republicans, let's get a third-party in there. >> alvin, may i ask you a question? >> yes. >> have you been to the middle east? >> yes, i have. >> what perspective are we missing then? >> i think you are missing the complete perspective of that these people have hundreds of years of history to the reason of why they are having the conflicts and most of it is religious in nature. and most americans don't understand that so we should stay out of it because this is a

religious faction war. and you can't just drop bombs on people and kill innocence people and expect, number one, there won't be a requirement for troops on the ground. and, number two, that it won't continue. this is a never-ending war. so we will be in this war until the end of time as far as i'm concerned. >> elizabeth from hot springs national park, arkansas, hi. >> hello. >> hi, you are on. >> okay, i'm calling about michael comment about wanting immigration reform here and bringing in all these people. reagan said never, never again. and he was wise. we should never allow this many people to come in to a country, we are letting these people in from the middle east, that is like saying during world war ii, hey, nazis come on over, we will let you in, you know.

we need to secure our borders everywhere. and, another thing, i'm upset about this michael brown. from what i saw, he was a bully and a thug and people took advantage of it. we always see these people destroying stores, pillaging and robbing and don't see that in other cultures doing that because they are upset about something. i think it's wrong and if they want us to change our thoughts on what kind of people are doing that, then they need to change. >> here is emma from rocky mountain, north carolina. emma, good morning. >> good morning. >> you are on, go ahead. >> yes, i would like to say these people have been doing this for hundreds of years and these people been fighting for hundreds of years and i don't

think they will be stopped just like this and they were born fighting. they will fight until the end of the world. i think they should repent. i think whole america should repent all over the world and people should repent and turn back to god because people have a terrible mind and terrible heart and fighting everywhere. if they are fighting there they are fighting in america. america the same way, they are fighting here and killing here and killing people. and they don't have respect for each other, i think until people have respect for each other and have love in their heart it will always be there. >> this is sheila from san juan, california hi. >> thank you so much for taking my call, pedro and i'm interested in all the topics that have been discussed this morning, but i'm especially calling to let you know that those of us living in low-income senior apartments have to pay $15 extra for c-span from our --

from cox, our television provider since you went digital. and so many of my friends now are missing out on hearing c-span which has been our major source of reliable news. and are you aware of this? >> i know that i'm not aware of the structures of how cable structures our network but i know there is a wide variety of ways of hearing us, wi-fi capability and computer capability? >> no, many of us low-income seniors don't have anything else. and it's just very distressing that i no longer can talk to them about what is happening in the world because they are not getting the reliable information. >> how do you listen, so you view us everyday on your cable provider but you're saying it cost a little more? >> it costs a little more and also i have a television in my

bedroom and i don't have the $15 box to listen to the television in my bedroom. >> gotcha, ann from sugar grove, north carolina, independent line. >> hi, yes, thank you for taking my call. i want to talk about minimum wage and i learned this on t.v. back when they were negotiating the minimum wage 20 years ago to $7.25 the national restaurant association was involved and cain was the president of that organization at the time and he made a backdoor deal with congress that said, okay, no restaurant workers can make more than $2.35 i think it is because he said herman cain said it wasn't their job to pay their employees a decent wage, it was the customers' job to tip those workers. so i just wanted to get that fact out there and go on t.v. and you can find the author who

wrote this book called behind the kitchen door and her name is saru and i have forgotten her last name and i don't have it written down. >> thank you for the segue. do you watch book t.v. often on the weekends? >> i'm a book t.v. addict. i love book t.v. and i love the book fairs. i have the panels, i love the research that everybody does for their books, thank you so much. >> thank you for the segue and book tv is c-span two and turns into book and c-span three is american history for those of you that like american history, both of those networks have websites that you can connect to from our website at c-span.org and ann from sugar grove, north carolina good morning and go ahead. i think we heard from her. sherry, go ahead on the independent line, sherry go ahead. >> okay, there are a couple of

things i wanted to touch on. it was about the comment one lady made about that michael brown in ferguson. i actually believe that the police set him up as a negative criminal background because the young man went in the store, there was a difference between robbery and death. he never had a gun. they even admitted it when ever he was shot down. and for some reason people, the cops knew that people were going to have that kind of attitude towards this young man, that is why they put out the video. and then another thing as for the war, i agree with the caller previously. >> and i apologize, i have to leave it there because we are out of time. just enough time to tell you about the program tom, frederick

talking about isis strategy and he is from the carnegie endowment continuing talking about isis and the president and we will hear from davidson, a sports writer writing about the issue of domestic violence and the nfl has written considerably about it and talk to her about her thoughts especially over the last couple of weeks and where policy goes with the nfl and how it deals with domestic violence as well as that and other things part of our washington journal program which starts at 7:00 tomorrow morning and thanks for watching today. we will see you tomorrow. ♪