house, and the republican won in a three-way race. the democrat up 19%. i got 31%. i am a fairly persistent guy. host: your legacy in burlington is mayor. sen. sanders: most people will tell you we essentially transform that city. it is now regarded as one of the most livable, exciting cities in the united states. thousands of people in downtown. we have a beautiful waterfront. we have a bike path that runs nine miles. we paid attention to the young people. we let the nation in coming up with a housing trust fund for affordable housing. we had a positive relationship

with workers in the cities, with unions. we had a neighborhood planning associations so people could have input. i will tell you something i am proud of. at that point, we had two-year elections. in 1983, we can close to doubling turnout. we almost doubled voter turnout. a lot of working-class people said, government can actually work for us rather than big business interests. bernie is standing up for us. i won the working-class areas to do one, three to one. host: you are not a native of vermont. how did a new york resident end of their? sen. sanders: in the 1960's, you

could buy land in vermont for a ridiculously low amount of money. we bought some land in middlesex, vermont. a few years later, we made it our permanent residents. host: your dad was a painter? sen. sanders: he was a paint salesman. i was born in brooklyn. my dad came from poland at the age of 17, without any money at all. could not speak a word of english. came here with no money at all. he never made much money in his life. he was a paint salesman. we were lower middle class in a rent-controlled apartment. what of the great disappointments of my mother's life was that she always wanted a home of her own.

we never had the money to do that. she died young and never achieved that dream. my father died reasonably young as well. but both of their sons were able to go to college. host: how would you describe your parents? sen. sanders: wonderful people. my father, i think because of his financial background, having come to this country without any money, living through the great depression, was very worried about not having a job. my mother was more ambitious. there was a lot of tension in our household. it is something i have never forgotten. my mother wanted her own home. not the biggest dream in the world, but it was to her.

my father was nervous about spending money. what happens if you lose your job? so that tension over money was very significant. so that was an important part of my background, the fear of not having money. seeing other kids with more money. my mom, what can i say? they were wonderful people. my father was a gregarious guy. when you come from poland his kids were able to enjoy a quality of life that would have been unthinkable. he was just, without talking about it, a proud father. host: did you apply those experiences in raising your own family? sen. sanders: if you asked my

wife, she will tell you i am also tight with money. when i was elected mayor, i was living in a small apartment. she forced me at that point to buy a home. so i think i have inherited some of my parents 'tightness with money. host: how did you meet your wife? sen. sanders: funny story. jane was active in a neighborhood organization called the king street youth program in downtown burlington. they were, obviously, concerned in 1981 about the election for mayor. she came in with the incumbent mayor. she started telling him, why don't you do this or that? he said, you sound like bernie

sanders. she said, who is bernie sanders? well, we married in 1988. host: there is a recording of you in 1987. you know what i'm talking about? this land is your land. it is available online at berniebeat.com. how did that come about? sen. sanders: we had a great band in burlington. they had a studio, music studio. not far away from where jane was living. they said, we will put together a band. come by and do some recording. it was a lot of fun. it was nice to see how an album is put together. needless to say, people should not vote for me based on my

singing capabilities. not what i'm running for office on. i'm not getting out my guitar. host: let's talk policy. the role of the federal government is what? sen. sanders: in a civilized, democratic society, the role of federal government, in my view is to represent the vast majority of people. to do everything we can to make sure all of our people have a decent standard of living and quality of life. one of the points i have been making in this campaign is that many people are not fully appreciative of how far behind we are many other countries in protecting the rights and standard of living. i do not know how many people know, there is one country that does not guarantee health care as a right. that is the united states. that is wrong.

health care should be a right. we live 100 miles away from canada. they do it. germany does it, scandinavia doesn't. -- does it. if you are working-class and have a baby, you have no guarantee you will be paid to stay home and take care of your baby. that is an outrage. i will fight for the right. not only moms, but that's as well. they have a right to get to know their baby. our people are working the longest hours of any people in any major country. many new jobs offer zero weeks of paid vacation. i want to see us learn from other countries and make sure college is affordable for all people.

it is beyond stupidity to say you do not have money? you cannot afford to go to college. or you have to spend the rest of your life paying off debt at 8% interest. it is counterproductive. host: i have read that you have taken bus trips to canada. why is it so much more expensive in the u.s. and across the border? sen. sanders: let me just tell you. sometimes events happen and you do not forget. i was the first member of the house to take people across the canadian border. we took a bus load of people from vermont. mostly women, working-class women dealing with breast cancer. we went across the border. we went into a pharmacy in montreal. women were buying a particular drug for 10% of the price they were paying in the u.s.

tears were coming out of their eyes. the pharmaceutical industry in this country is one of the most powerful lobbying forces. very wealthy, very powerful. any other major country, including canada, negotiates drug prices because they have national healthcare systems. in this country right now because of the power of the pharmaceutical industry, you walk into a drugstore tomorrow, the price would be double. there are no regulations. they can charge any price. not only brand-name drugs generic drugs are also skyrocketing. the pharmaceutical industry can do anything it wants. and it is a horrific situation because in working-class committees, 25% of patients

cannot afford prescriptions doctors are writing. that has been an issue for a long time. you have to regulate the pharmaceutical industry. host: your critics say you are espousing socialism. how do you respond? sen. sanders: the answer is i am a democratic socialist. we have a lot to learn from countries like denmark norway, sweden, and finland, who have done a much better job than we have in terms of equality, guaranteeing health care. if you go to denmark today finland, do you know how much college costs? they actually pay you to go to college. should i apologize for that? i think it is a good idea. making sure everyone can get an education regardless of income. child care for working families is an embarrassment. many families cannot afford care

in one of the most important years of a human being's life. we need a government -- we are an entrepreneurial society. when you have a situation where the top 1/10 of 1% controls as much wealth as the bottom 90% when all income is going to the top 1% that is not an economy that works for the people of the country. it is not sustainable, not moral. we have to make some changes in the way we do economics. host: how do you do that and have a free enterprise system that creates private sector jobs and innovation that is known in this country? sen. sanders: good question.

the way to do that is to say go out and innovate. we want you to do that. at the same time, you cannot have all the wealth being created in the country. what i say to the billionaire class is their greed -- we appreciate their innovation -- but their greed is destroying america. they cannot have it all. you look at countries around the world, you need a tax system which is fair. we have major corporations in this country who are stashing virtually tens of billions of dollars in profits in the cayman islands and other tax havens they have to start paying their fair share. warren buffett says his effective tax rate is lower than his secretary's. you have to say to the wealthiest people, sorry.

if you want to enjoy america you have to accept your responsibilities. and that is paying your fair share of taxes so kids can go to college, so we can have a child care system, rebuild public infrastructure. host: you told john harwood you advocate a 90% tax rate. is that a reality? sen. sanders: that has been around the internet. we are working on a comprehensive tax problem. that is not quite accurate. what we have done is introduce legislation of. -- already. here is what i want. we are going to eliminate loopholes that allow corporations to stash money. we lose about $100 billion a year on. we will ask for a transaction tax on speculation.

weekend raise a lot of revenue doing that. we will put forward a progressive estate tax. unbelievably, at a time where the rich are getting richer and everybody else is getting poor, my republican colleagues have decided to eliminate the estate tax and give a $200 billion tax break over 10 years to the top 2/10 of 1%. unbelievable. instead of doing that, we are coming up with a progressive estate tax that does ask the billionaire class to pay their fair share. host: if you are elected, you will likely have a republican-controlled house and senate. how do you get things done? sen. sanders: great question. this is what i say in every speech i give. i'm probably the only candidate that has said this. no person as president can

address the enormous problems facing the middle class and working families of this country unless there is a political revolution in the sense that we develop a strong, grassroots political movement which not only elects somebody to be president but maintains their energy in demanding the congress represent all of the people, not a handful of contributors. very often, people say, you are out of touch. really radical. but if you look at the issues i talk about, the vast majority of people support the issues i talk about. in the wall street journal overwhelming support for expanding social security by lifting the cap for taxable income. i want to expand it. strong support for raising the minimum wage to $15 an hour.

that is my view. many republicans want to eliminate the concept of social security. strong support for asking corporations to pay their fair share. republicans want to lower taxes. so the interesting point is what you have right here with a republican congress is these guys, in my view, are way out of touch with the american people. my job is to rally the american people, working with people to create a strong political movement so that congress starts listening to them. when that happens, we can get a progressive agenda through. if that does not happen, the billionaire class and wall street will keep it up. host: has president obama met expectations? sen. sanders: yes and no. i personally like president obama very much. i should also say that i think history will judge him much

kinder than his contemporaries. when he came into office, we were losing 800,000 jobs a month. the economic system of the world was on the verge of collapse. we are in better shape today. i have disagreed with him. i was on the floor of the senate for 8.5 hours against tax breaks for the rich. i strongly disagree on the transpacific partnership. i disagree with him on a number of other issues. but do i like him? do i think he is trying to protect working families? i do. has he gone as far as i would have liked? no. i believe he made a mistake. after running a brilliant campaign in 2008, he essentially said to his grassroots movement, thank you for electing me. i will take it from here.

we will sit down with john boehner and mitch mcconnell. they never intended to have serious negotiations. he lost his clout when he pushed aside the people who elected him. i will not make that mistake. i will keep the movement alive to bring about change. host: what about speaker john boehner? sen. sanders: i knew john when we run a house together. i think he is a traditional center right leader, whose views are virtually different from mine on every major issue. he has a tough job keeping conservative folks in line with extreme right wing people. a difficult job. host: you had an interesting phrase for newt gingrich? sen. sanders: obviously, we

disagree on everything. but what i expected about gingrich when he took office in 94 was, he was a bright guy. i disagree with every element of his plan, but he laid out a bold, right-wing agenda. an agenda which represented the wealthiest people possible. i think it is time we had a bold progressive agenda that speaks to the needs of working families in this country. those that are working longer hours for low wages. many of them who are falling further behind. i think we need an agenda that says, we are going to create decent paying jobs, raise the minimum wage. make sure your kid can afford college and you have decent childcare. we are going to overturn the disastrous citizens united decision, which has done so much

harm to the country. host: we covered an event in denver, huge crowd. you said we need to think big and the challenges in the country are more profound than the great depression. sen. sanders: the middle class in this country has been disappearing for 40 years. i want people to think about this. there is a huge explosion in technology. we have seen a huge increase in worker productivity. if that is the reality, how does it happen that millions of people are working longer hours for low wages? i was in iowa recently. someone told me that 90% of the people who walk into the emergency food shelters are working people whose wages do not allow them to adequately feed their families. 45 million people living in poverty. worse at any time since 1928.

you have an economy that is failing the middle class. the rich are becoming obscenely richer. you have real unemployment youth unemployment at over 30%. you have a campaign-finance system right now in which billionaires are able to buy elections. the koch brothers say, i'm with you. we will get you elected. you work for us. does anyone believe that is what a democracy should be about? on top of all that, as the pope recently reminded us, we have a global crisis in terms of climate change. scientists are telling us if we do not get our act together, do not transform away from fossil fuel and into sustainable energy , the planet we will leave our children and grandchildren will

be significantly less capital than today. and karahchi, that speaks to the future of the planet. adding all that stuff together, rich getting richer, billionaires buying elections climate change not being significantly dealt with, it is fair to say we have problems. host: what did you say to pope francis? sen. sanders: i love this guy. i think what he has done his extraordinary. what he says is not just that we have to pay attention to the dispossessed, the children all over the world who do not have jobs -- african american youth unemployment is 51%. this is true all over the world. he says pay attention. he also says be worship money --

we worship money. billionaires are great heroes. less than $80,000, you are not significant. we do not have to pay attention to you. i think he has been an extraordinary leader. speaking out on issues. so count me as a strong supporter of pope france. host: you think he will be a transformational figure in history? sen. sanders: i do. he came along at the time we needed that voice. not only speaking about wealth and wallaby -- wealth inequality but the culture where you tell kids to make as much money as you possibly can.

do not worry about your neighbors or the environment. he is spending so much this time saying greed is not good. caring about fellow human beings is good. that is what life is supposed to be about. i am a huge fan. we posted on our website many of the things he is talking about. host: would you consider yourself middle-class? what is your personal status? sen. sanders: i started out our middle-class. i would say upper-middle-class. host: do you own stocks or mutual funds? sen. sanders: i never did. we dealt with ibm. i own $500 in ibm stock. other than that, no stops at all. host: your campaign is about choices and different -- differences. on policy, where you differ with

martin o'malley and hillary clinton? sen. sanders: i have known hillary clinton for 25 years served with her in the senate. i respect her. this is an intelligent woman. she is a very strong career in public service. he will not hear me making public attacks on hillary clinton. but we have differences. let me give you a few examples. not only did i vote based on information i receive, not only did i vote against the war in iraq, i was one of the leaders in opposition. a lot of what i feared would happen did happen. secretary clinton obviously voted for the war. i believe that climate change, as i mentioned, is one of the great global crises we face. it makes no sense to me that we should extract and transport some of the dirtiest fuel in

this country from alberta, in terms of the keystone pipeline. i was opposed to keystone. secretary clinton did not have an opinion on the. -- that. i believe it was wrong to craft trade relations with china the resulted in the loss of millions of jobs. i led the opposition to the tpp and will continue opposition to it. hillary clinton has not was an opinion on that. while everybody views terrorism is a threat to the united states, i thought the patriot act went too far in attacking our privacy rights. i voted against it. secretary clinton voted for it. the bottom line is right now

above and beyond all of that, we need leadership that says to the billionaire class that you just cannot have it all. that our country belongs to all the people, not just a few. i have spent my entire political life in opposition to every special interest you can imagine. host: there will be differences in how you fund your campaign and how others fund their campaign. sen. sanders: big differences. one of the hesitancy's i had in deciding to run is, could we run a campaign with people setting up super pac's? when you talk about citizens united, you talk about outrageous super pacs with no

disclosure whatsoever. super pacs will spend more money than contributions coming in. to me, that is the undermining of american democracy. i will not support a super pac. i was wondering, could we raise enough money through small individual contributions not to outspend components -- opponents, but run a credible campaign? about 200,000 americans donated to bernie sanders.com. our contributions average less than $40 apiece. that is really incredible. i will be outspent. but the good news is that we have enough money to run a credible campaign. host: are you taking lessons from your campaign for burlington across the country? sen. sanders: absolutely.

the lesson i learned as mayor of burlington is the way you win elections is you bring people together. so you bring people in the union together with people in the environmental movement. bove have differences of opinion? yes. you bring people in the women's movement, the african-american community. you bring people together around a common agenda that says, we may disagree on this or that issue, but let's not get divided up. that's what republicans like to do, get people divided up.

we will fight for the government which is not beholden to large campaign contributors but to the needs of ordinary americans. we're also going to focus a lot on young people because i think there is so much idealism among young people this country and especially around issues of women's rights and climate change. we're going to try and tap into that as much as we can. >> one of your supporters in iowa says that bernie sanders will bring up the issues that hillary clinton may not want to talk about. sen. sanders: it is one thing to talk in generalities, but we have been as specific as we can. how we are going to make every college and university in this country tuition free, by a tax. i have introduced legislation

that will call for a fee on carbon so that we can transform our energy system and deal with flood -- and does climate change. we have introduced legislation to deal with health care -- to introduce health care to all of our people as a right. i introduced legislation to overturn citizens united. i don't talk about vague or general ideas. we have been very specific on many of the central issues. >> you have huge crowds. poll numbers look promising. does it surprise you? sen. sanders: i thought from day one that the inside the beltway mentality that you see so much in media here and in congress is way removed from the reality of people out there. people out there don't understand why 99% of all income

are going to the top 1%. that is what i knew from day one. when i did not know was that the campaign would be catching on as fast as it has. >> if you are going for a running mate or cabinet, what types of people would you surround yourself with? sen. sanders: let me say this. with all due respect to recent presidents, from president obama , president bush, president clinton i would not surround myself with people that come from wall street. there are a million people out there in all walks of life who have spent a lot of their life fighting for the needs of

working families, fighting for minority rights, and those are the people that i will be turning to -- is a little bit premature to be talking about that. i'm not a great fan of polls but i'm feeling good about the election. a little bit premature to be talking about running mates. >> you are 73 years old, how is your health? sen. sanders: i feel very fortunate about that. i can't remember the last time i had to take off of being sick. thank god, my health has been very strong. when i was a kid i was a long-distance runner. i used to run cross-country and was a pretty good miler. i worked pretty hard and have a lot of energy. >> is go to college?

sen. sanders: i went to brooklyn college for one year in than the university of chicago. >> one of your first major bills was the national registry. sen. sanders: i am a great believer in epidemiology and that is what we want to ascertain is, what are the factors that will result in people in one country coming down with more types of disease that people in another country. why do farmers who may be handling chemicals or fertilizers. why do people in the northeast perhaps come down with problems that people in the southwest will not have. there is a lot to be learned about environmental and other factors.

if you are looking for international information, you find that rates of certain cancers fluctuate all around the world. >> what did you learn? sen. sanders: i learned that there are reasons -- we are still studying, i'm not a scientist -- but there are reasons why certain people in certain parts of the world come down with illnesses rather than other people. i think that chemicals and environmental exposures have an impact. >> do you think you make a difference in the debate here in congress? sen. sanders: recently, at a time when republican presidential candidates are talking about cutting social security, where george bush wanted to privatize social security, now the debate is a significant expansion of social security benefits at a time when

the discussion was how much in tax breaks to be give to the rich. at what point do we demand that the wealthy and large corporations start paying their fair share of college? making colleges -- making public colleges and universities free is an idea that is catching on. raising consciousness on the crisis of dental care, taking care of our veterans. i'm proud of we accomplished on the serious problems that continue to plague americans that came up from iraq and afghanistan. >> whether people along the way who have helped shape your views or form your opinion's? sen. sanders: this is a little bit unusual if you look at the

people who are around me on my campaign, we are a pretty tight group of people. with one exception, ted devine, was a consultant. my think tank, so to speak, is progressive people who know me very well and you i have worked for. >> so voters are in the voting booth and have to decide between you and somebody else, make your pitch. sen. sanders: i think the answer is that these are very tough and unusual time for this country. we have a handful of people, a billionaire class, which has unbelievable wealth and power. and unless we have the courage -- and i understand this is not

easy and people are uncomfortable to talk about it. but unless we have the kurds to take them on and create a government that works for the middle class and working families, not just what the campaign contributors, the future is not going to be a good one. i know this is a tough fight. i talk about the need for a political revolution. i worry about elections in which politicians are bought and sold and is middle-class shrinking. >> the people will say we are not denmark. sen. sanders: that is a small homogeneous country. when i was the mayor, what we established with a best practice policy.

it would steal good ideas from oregon, virginia. we should be prepared to be as open-minded as we can and say in germany they provide college to their kids with free tuition. is that a good idea or not? in denmark, they have a much more cost-effective health care system and hours. is that a good idea? i think it is. in cuba, they have a very strong educational system. i think we do a lot of things now country that we should be proud of, stealing our ideas. >> a couple of final points, i want to go back to infrastructure. why are they in such just repair

? sen. sanders: this is one of the saddest things that i can imagine. republicans just don't want to admit it. if you are not raising money you can't spend money. that's the simple truth. hopefully -- we have passed a bill with jim imhoff, one of the most conservative members of the senate, to come up with a step that doesn't go nearly as far as we should go. i think we should invest $1 trillion in rebuilding our infrastructure. we create up to 13 million jobs

something we desperately need. the world is a crazy place today, a dangerous place, a complicated place. i voted against the war in iraq. when you go to war, there are consequences. you heard people saying, we're going to go in, our troops will be back six months later, we will establish democracy. isn't that a wonderful thing? and with a wonderful thing that many of us understood would have happened. number one, we have to understand that war has these

consequences. i do not want to see the united states and perpetual warfare in the middle east. we have to work with the world and take on isis, but the countries in the region have to lead that effort with our support. >> who do you think has been one of the most consequential presidents? sen. sanders: i would say franco delano roosevelt for a couple reasons. obviously, he came to office during the motor -- during the worst economic class -- during the worst economic collapse. he established a program that created confidence in the american people.

the second thing that he did which was really extraordinary in 1936, he said these economic royalists, they hate my guts, and i welcome their hatred. i'm not afraid of them. i welcome their hatred. i'm going to take these guys on. i think that is an act of extraordinary courage, something we have seen very rarely. >> can we get there again? sen. sanders: yes. i'm confident in the future of this country if we have the political rail -- the political will. i don't accept the fact that all of our kids can't go to college.

i can't accept the fact that we don't have the best child care system in the world. i don't accept the fact that we can't have a health care if -- a health care system of high-quality. a hundred years ago, workers took to the streets in large demonstrations. they said, we are not beasts of burden, we want a 40 hour workweek. today, over 80% of male workers are working longer than 40 hours, over 60% of women workers. can we create an economy that works for the middle class? i believe we absolutely can, but we can't do it if we don't take on the greed of a handful of people that want it all. your friends ben and jerry of ben & jerry's ice cream making "bernie's rebellion."

if you were going to make ice cream, what with the ingredients be? sen. sanders: chocolate chip and some tart cherries and some ingredients which give you a real bounce and some real energy because we need that energy today. >> bernie sanders of vermont, democratic president to candidate. they give very much. >> the new congressional directory is a handy guide to the new congress, with color photos of every senator and house number, plus bio and contact information. also, district maps, a full doubt map of capitol hill, and a look at congressional can midis -- congressional committees, the cabinet. order your copy today, it is $13.95 plus shipping and handling through the c-span online store at c-span.org.

>> while congress is out for the july 4 holiday break, book tv takes over prime time on c-span2 , featuring a different subject every night. monday the war on terror. tuesday, book publishing. wednesday, the digital age. thursday, biographies and memoirs. friday, books on science and technology. it starts on monday at 8:30 p.m. eastern. book tv, television for serious readers. >> earlier today, it was reported that iran nuclear negotiations in vienna are expected to go past the tuesday deadline. the news came out as ironic's foreign minister -- as iran's foreign minister headed home. he is expected to return in the next few days. on washington journal, we took a look at what they are trying to accomplish and what is next if a final deal is reached

tuesday. "washington journal" continues. host: joining us from boston is gary samore. serving from 2009-2013. now associate with harvard university and joining us from boston. thank you very much for being with us. this is the headline -- sectors that kerry in vienna austria and he tries to hammer out a deal with his counterpart from iran. the deadline is tuesday. this is a self-imposed deadline, will it be met? guest: no, it will not be met. no one expects it to be met. the goal is to complete the agreement in early july. in particular, they are aiming for july five or six. which would allow them to submit all the paperwork for congressional review by july 9. and i would ensure a 30 day congressional review. if they miss that deadline, the july 19, and the congressional

review becomes 60 days. so the administration would prefer shorter review if they can get it. host: what are the biggest stumbling blocks? guest: you are really five or six issues. i think the most important is that verification and enforcement mechanism for the agreement. in particular, the p5+1 would like to set up a mechanism to allow for inspections by the international atomic agency of any suspect site in iran including potentially military facilities. or other sensitive facilities. and we also, the p5+1 are also demanding that the iaea be given the authority to interview iranian scientists as part of their investigation of past weaponization activities. so far, supreme leader has said publicly that that is a red line. no military facilities will be subjected with inspection and a

scientist will be interrogated as he puts it. this issue will have to be resolved before an agreement is possible. host: at washington post.com, the headline -- ask secretary kerry begins the final round of negotiations on iran nuclear talks, joining us live on the phone from bn is, relative who was following the story from austria. thank you very much for being with us on a busy morning for you. guest: thank you. host: you point out the story that there still seems to be a to fight between the u.s. and iran. you are hearing that from the iranian foreign minister. what you can you tell us today? guest: well, the u.s. acknowledged about half an hour ago. it is unlikely they are going to make the headline of june 30 and they are already planning to stay for what they say will be a few days longer beyond that. a say they have made a little bit of progress, but that they can issues that divided them are

still there. the issues are sort of those and seem to rub off around the timing of the sanctions release and the pace it will be at. and the other big issue is access to these military sites. at military and all sides, not only military sites, excuse me. there is a difference in interpretation from the agreement. they have gone back and they are still tinkering with what they thought he had agreed on back in august, back on august 2. they still have a lot of work ahead of them and it is not clear that they are going to be able to accomplish anything in the next couple of three days. nothing is evident. foreign minister is headed back to iran to an expected to come back tomorrow. host: carol morello, congress is

out this week but if they continue for a couple of days, does that pose political pressure for the administration? how long can they continue these talks before lawmakers in washington, one week from now, will begin to wane publicly? guest: july 9 is basically the practical political deadline they are facing. that is when they have to send an agreement with all of the annexes to congress for a 30 day review period. as a comes in after that, that review period extends to 30 days and that prevents -- and that poses political problems for them. [indiscernible] host: did the secretary of state's injury to his broken leg hamper these negotiations in any way? guest: the state department says no. they continue to have phone

conversations and he was actively engaged in them. so much of these talks seem to revolve around the personal working relationship that has developed between secretary kerry and foreign minister sharif. it is hard to believe that it has not had some effect, even if it is a small one. and that may be why they are taking a few extra days to catch up. they only arrived late friday night. host: a sense of copies talks are taken place, you point out in your story in "the washington post," prime minister sure he passes on chronic back problems and that has some impact on the length as they sit down and try to hammer out the details, correct? guest: that is correct. also, the head of the iranian atomic energy -- energy agency was sidelined. he was hospitalized last month with a perforated bowel and is

still recovering, so he is only produce in these talks by telephone. host: carol morello is covering this story for "the washington post." you have always been gracious for this time, especially during busy negotiations. inc. so much for being with us. guest: thank you. host: you can read her story inside the paper. we are rejoined by gary samore. can you go through the framework of what the p5+1 and iran are dealing with? guest: back in april, they announced the basic parameters of an agreement. i would say there are three pieces of that. first, there are physical limits to iran's ability to produce material for nuclear weapons. that is separated plutonium and highly enriched uranium. there are different limits in terms of how much i meant have to reduce its capacity and for

how long the limits persisted. second part of the agreement is that inspection and monitoring system. how you verified the agreement to ensure that iran is complying. and that word piece is sanctions were leaked which is what iran gets out of this deal. and that has to do with which sanctions are lifted at what point. keep in mind, there is a very complicated tangle of sanctions that have been imposed on iran. there are u.s. sanctions, sanctions the european union and the human security sanctions. in particular, in the case of the u.s. we have a very broad range of sanctions against iran. only some of which will be lifted. the nuclear related sanctions. even after those sanctions have been waived or lifted, we still have numerous sanctions against iran for reasons that have to do with human rights or support for terrorism and so forth. one of the complicated issues here is exactly coming up with the precise language and

formulation for which sanctions will be lifted and which will be kept in place. obvious he, the iranians have a very strong interest in having that defined because they worry that even if we lived some sanctions, we may reimpose others. in which case, the benefit for iran of accepting limits and constraints on their nuclear program would be lost. host: area code is 748-8000 14 republicans and 202-7 48-8000 four democrats. you can send us a tweet. we are talking about the deadline tuesday for the u.s. and european leaders to come to an agreement with iran. gary samore, i want to get your reaction to this from iran's supreme leader on the nuclear deal. he said "freezing iran's research and development for a long time, like 10 or 12 years is not acceptable.

all financial and economic sanctions imposed by the un security council, the u.s. congress or the u.s. government should be lifted it when we sign and nuclear agreement." this response to this statement from john kerry last wednesday -- john: what matters to us is what is agreed upon within the four corners of a document. and that is what is yet to be determined, so it may be that the iranians will not fill out the full measure of what was agreed on and in which case they will not be an agreement. and i have consistently said that this will be determined in the last days by whether or not the outstanding issues that we have been very clear about are in fact addressed. if they are not addressed, they will not be a deal.

host: ask secretary of state last wednesday. your reaction. guest: we have seen this behavior before. last summer when they -- when the negotiators were facing a deadline, the supreme leader gave a speech where he laid out what he called red lines, which were unacceptable to be united states. that delayed an agreement but months later, the iranians compromised in a way that we could accept. this may very well be the same thing. the supreme leader may be making these statements and red lines in order to strengthen the bargaining position of his negotiators, but if iran really wants an agreement, they will have to compromise because the position that he announced earlier this >> on the next washington

journal, mary agnes carey discusses the ruling on the affordable care act. washington post staff writer vanessa williams talks about her recent article on whether diversity in the 2016 republican field could help attract minority voters. washington journal is live at 7:00 a.m. eastern time on c-span . >> c-span gives you the best access to congress. bring your events that shape public policy. every morning, washington journal is live with your comments. c-span, brought to you as a public service from your local cable or satellite provider. >> tonight on c-span, q and day with author evan thomas.

that is followed by prime minister's questions at the british house of commons. then, another chance to get our interviews with rand paul and bernie sanders. ♪ >> this week on "q&a," our guest is evan thomas, author of "being nixon: a man divided." he talked about the life and career of richard nixon, focusing on the personal stories that help define our nations 37th president. brian: evan thomas, your new book on richard nixon starts out in a way that i assume no other richard nixon book has started talking about virgil. why? evan: nixon was in that latin play when he was a high school or