and the collisions between drugs and commercial airlines and how the federal government is responding. ♪ good morning. it is saturday, august 15, 2015. yesterday marked another busy during in the very early stages of the 2016 race for the white house. while several candidates in both parties made the pilgrimage to the iowa state fair to shake hands, businessman and reality tv star donald trump drew much of the attention at his town hall event yesterday in new hampshire. that is where we will begin this morning with donald trump continuing to maintain his lead in gop primary polls. the are

republican viewers to weigh in on his campaign, his political style. republicans only for the first 45 minutes. give us a call, if you are in the easter or central time zone, (202) 748-8000. if you are in the mountain are pacific time zone, (202) 748-8001. you can also catch up with us on social media, on twitter, facebook, or e-mail us at journal@c-span.org. a very good saturday morning to you. we are beginning with donald trump this morning. we are talking to just our republican viewers, asking you to call in, to get your take on his lead in the gop primary polls and his political style. of course, that event last night, we aired on c-span. you can see it online at c-span.org. be will be showing you clips during the first 45 minutes. a victory lapd it for donald trump. badmouth his rivals.

here is a bit of what he had to say. [video clip] you know, i: brought back a term that hasn't been used in a long time. silent majority. there is a tremendous sign the majoritythat -- silent that politicians have taken advantage of. they have taken advantage of the people of this country for a long enough. they are largely incompetent, except for when it comes to getting reelected. that is what they do. betterws that than me. they are great at one thing. don't make any waves, get reelected, serving out, then get reelected again. i have been watching it for so

many years, and i personally am sick and tired of it. trump, the topic of our first 45 minutes. we are talking with just a republican viewers. we will get to all of our viewers later in the show, but ' taket to get republicans as he surges in polls. let's get right to the phones. glenn is waiting in lakeland, florida. your thoughts on donald trump and his lead in the primary polls? caller: good morning first. i think the reason he is leading in the polls is because the if you thinkates -- about it, he doesn't have to worry about money. to be honest, he is telling the truth. he hasn't lied about anything. a lot of things he is actually saying, and maybe don't like his style and delivery, but he is being honest about his thoughts

and everything else. his competitors are not strong enough to challenge him directly. if one of them was to come out of the pack and challenge him, they might say, he is not serious, we will let him die out. they will not do that. challenge himo directly, maybe he would actually move up in the polls, because that is what people want to see. he says what he wants to say, called names, and everything else, but everyone else falls behind because they don't want to challenge him directly. style,o you think the the intimidation that you are talking about, doesn't translate to a characteristic you want to see in your president? caller: no. i would not want him to be on foreign soil, dealing with our allies, or even the enemies. you cannot do the same thing in a foreign country because that will not work.

i've decided about what they're doing here, as far as the other candidates. they need to get more aggressive towards him and stop looking at him as being a sideshow because what the voters are saying is he is actually dominating them verbally. that is why he is getting all the support. host: one of the other candidates who has challenged him is senator rand paul, actually releasing and recently about donald trump. here is a bit from that ad. [video clip] donald trump: in many cases, i actually identify more as a democrat. i have been around a long time, and if you go back, it seems the economy gets better under the democrats. we have to take care of people who are sick. >> universal health coverage? i love universal

health coverage. hillary clinton is a great woman. think she really works hard. i think she does a good job. bill clinton: it depends upon what the meaning of the word is. paul: to fix washington, we ca can't have business as usual. despite that ad, senator rand paul trailing in the polls at 4.5% compared to trump at 22.5%. ,his is in real clear politics taking all the pulling out there, and giving the average. if you want to see specific the rasputin poll -- you

can go to real clear politics as well to see a chart of how the gop candidates are doing. hisld trump, you can see urge since july. sean is up next from augustine, georgia. go ahead. caller: yes. the reason he is surging so well is because he is talking about state issues. he's talking about the infrastructure, helping veterans , issues in the united states. seems to bee focused on foreign issues, which we care less about right now. people starving in america. their veterans dying. we have social issues. we need to take care of home

first. that is what donald trump is focusing on. that is why we are rallying behind him. host: what you think of some of the criticism of donald trump? twitter,ng writes on donald trump is single-handedly destroyed the republican party, and they have no idea what to do about it. caller: donald trump is single-handedly destroying all parties. he is showing them that you don't have to tailor to special interests, that you can actually tailored to the people of america. he is destroying everybody. he is building something new. when something new comes along, when change comes along, people get scared. of course they will criticize him. willurse special interests fund the attack ads as they don't want new, they want the same old regime that has been going on in america for years. host: that is shot and

augustine, georgia this morning. we will show you more from donald trump's event last night, and the coverage of it. the coverage extending to political cartoons. this is what that appears today in "the washington post," emica is up next. caller: thank you for taking my call. it is not much about the style. more than money. i can see the media pushing him polls, and in the end, they will make republicans lose the election.

it takes a certain character to be president, and i don't see that in donald trump. i know he has built empires, but doesn't translate into building america. he has to learn to talk to other people. even his fellow republicans. will give it to democrats again. host: who would you think is saying the right things? .aller: i like ted cruz he has been very formal on the constitution. people think it is something that can be destroyed, just to achieve a certain objective. i think we are in for problems. host: here is the front page of "the chicago tribune," the

headline, sanders, trump ride disruptors wave. we will be talking about that for the first 45 and last 45 of today's "washington journal." eventsaid, the town hall for donald trump have the best night. at the event, donald trump was talking about the summer of trump. here is what he had to say. [video clip] donald trump: i was called by one of the biggest journalists in the world other day. he asked me, how does it feel? he said,hat jack go you have done something that no one else has done, you have taken over television, the airways, it is the "summer of trump." [applause] and this is a highly respected guy, an amazing guy. i said, i haven't done anything, because i haven't one. is it just so happens that i it starts with

winning the primaries, and going on to win. i consider a total waste of time. he said, you about, you have done a great thing. [applause] host: we are talking about campaign rally and town hall. getting your thoughts on his campaign. mike is up next in massachusetts. good morning. caller: good morning, c-span, good morning america. thisnk the only hope country has is a man like donald trump. the american people are sick of the politicians. ted cruz says, they are a cartel, a bunch of crooks and thieves. the only hope -- why donald trump is doing so well -- they did a poll the other day on fox, would you prefer a politician or non-politician?

85% of the viewers said they want a non-politician. i would love to see donald trump and ben carson as his feet the. i would be the ultimate ticket. the only hope america has in this day and age is a nonpolitician. we need something different. he is being all parties. i just hope to god that donald trump becomes president. the only hope america has. thank you for hearing me out. next.brandon is up we're just talking to republicans about donald trump. do you want a politician or nonpolitician and using donald trump fits the bill? caller: that is a great question. my thoughts is this. there are two parts to an election.

one, getting elected. two, doing the job. i think the problem we have had in the last 20-30 years, probably since reagan, is that andpeople who are qualified have the attitude to do the right job, have just not been good enough at the first part of the job, and that is getting elected. i think donald trump is the first guy in a long time, since reagan probably, that he really cares about doing what needs to be done in the best interest of this country, and is good enough at the job of getting elected. host: do you feel like you know enough about his policy positions of where he stands on important issues that come up during his potential presidency? key.r: here is the first thing is you have to have attitude to do the right thing.

just like he said in his speech tonight, politicians, they are beholden to their donors. that is the problem. just like with health care, in the first two years of obama tried to get health care, never once did you hear him talk about doctors and hospitals, all you heard was insurance. i thought we were talking about health bill, not insurance. that was printed in california. for more on trumps policy toitions, we can look september and a pair of policy papers expected to come out. this from "the washington post," he will release a series of position papers in early september, beginning with a plan to address immigration policy that was crafted with senator

jeff sessions. that document will follow soon by trump's plan to revamp the tax code. the iowal be at state fair today. there are plans for a grand appearance, including donald trump's helicopter. of course, we will have coverage today of the iowa state fair. you can watch that live at 1:30 eastern time, that is when we are expected to hear from donald trump. jeffrey is on the phone from florida. good morning. .aller: trump loves the country

he will make the country great again, and i have to believe him. and hasbusinessman great deals and his company. his company is successful. he is the ultimate leader right now. they're taking flight at him -- swipe at him because he is the front runner right now. i'm happy with them and hope he will be the president of this country. america needs somebody who loves the country. if it is i ask you, not trump for some reason, who is your number two? caller: ted cruz. host: why is that? caller: he is on message. ted cruz is telling it like it is. he is a man who believes in saying it like it is. i listen to ted cruz, and i like what he has to offer for this country. he would be my second choice. host: as you said, donald

event was also a town hall type event where he took six questions from members of the audience. here is one of those questions he got on the issue of alzheimer's and how he would address that condition as president. [video clip] trump: go ahead. come on. let's get with it. go ahead. for have been a caretaker about 10 years. my husband has alzheimer's. trump: alzheimer's, tops. -- tough. >> my question to you is what will you do to ensure this devastating disease is a top priority? i have so many

friends whose families is devastated by alzheimer's. believe me, it is a total parity. that is something we should be working on. there are some answers. have made less progress, as behoves, you know, but there are answers. the: if you want to watch four event, you can go to c-span.org. we are giving thoughts from republican viewers this morning. melissa is up next from ohio. said thatmeone had politics is the showbiz for the ugly. this is what we're getting, showbiz. i think he is up to no good. he i will screw around and screw around until the democrats win. he is just in the way, he needs to get out of the way. politician or beautician, get out of the way. hillary -- they just had

sol chelsea have that baby that she could run around and say, "i am a grandma." host: on twitter, lisa says, the other gop candidates are intimidated by trumps, how can they do with leaders from other nations? how do you think the other candidates should deal with donald trump in some of these intimidation and toughness that he shows? caller: maybe they should talk back to him like how he talks back to everybody. obama should not is dealing with him. he is giving into every communist in the world. what you can say about obama is he never met a communist he didn't like. .ook at cuba, look at iran he never met a communist or boxes that he didn't like.

i like ted cruz and carly fiorina. there is you a good ticket. host: melissa brings up cuba. in the news yesterday, because of the america five raising at the u.s. embassy there, here is a front page headline from "the financial times sphe." " alsoall street journal with the story about this.

stand in's go to yonkers, new york. your thoughts on donald trump 's candidacy and rise in the polls? caller: i am very upset with donald trump running for president. a lot of the reason has to do with the video you showed about 10-15 mins ago. you should a video of him praising hillary clinton, and talking about many of his liberal views. frankly, i don't understand why the press isn't on to what is happening. obviously, donald trump thinks his money is worth more with a democrat in office than a republican.

he has nothing to lose whatsoever by running for president. the president.is if you lose his, democrat wins, and he has more money. i don't understand why people don't get this. host: that for you you were talking about is an ad from senator rand paul. we are showing the viewers some of that video on their screens now. caller: can i get one other point? host: go ahead. caller: i happen to be one of the big donors they are talking about, when trump was belittling the big donors. to me, he is talking out of two sides of his mouth. the wealthy people in this country know what should be done. we know more than people working and will work on obama, or something. i don't know why that is the obvious. and, we are exercising our free speech. there is a reason we give large

amounts of money to certain politicians. it is not always for selfish reasons. host: who are you giving your money to end the cycle? caller: i'm giving money to rick perry. i'm giving money to scott walker. and, i'm thinking of giving some money to carly fiorina. carson has a great chance too. i don't know why the media isn't .aying more attention i think somebody like ben carson ip blacks intoh shape and stop talking about "racism this," "racism that." we would go on to dylan. caller: i am a disabled veteran.

i go to fort meade. i like trump. at least, he is the only one who has ever mentioned veterans benefits. i am an agent orange victim. . have cancer in my colon i also like what he says about isis. he was to go get isis. i don't blame him at all. now,r as the american flag it saddens me. i see we are bending into all of .hese terrorists it is ridiculous. i don't know what president we have. you can cut me off, but he seems like a terrorist to me. i'm sorry, but i love my country or than anything. i have a flag in front of my window right now with the american flag and pow flag. i did two years in vietnam, and i'm so proud of my country, but you know what, this president is

really abominable. donald trump talking about foreign-policy issues as part of that campaign rally and town hall event last night. here is a bit of him talking about iraq. [video clip] fan oftrump: i'm not a saddam hussein, but he ran the place, and he had no weapons of mass destruction. now, instead of saddam hussein , we have isis. iraqd where the leaders of are visiting the leaders of iran . what do we get? we have stupid leadership. if you remember -- [applause] and i't want to go in,

was right, but then we were in, and it was bad. europe at some point, we have to go out. we can't stay there forever. cap to rebuild this country, we our country.ld our bridges are falling apart. i will dollar mess. rms.r roads everything. it's a mess. when it comes to donald trump on foreign policy, steve writes, trump will have all of our allies turned enemies within months. we want to hear your thoughts this morning, just from republican viewers for the next 15 minutes or so. brooke is up next in florida. caller: good morning. i want to speak my mind a little bit on the fact that i think trump represents what a lot of feel and think.

his foreign policy, i really agree with. i personally sick of our nation bowing down to other countries. it seems that almost all of them think of it as nothing more than a laughingstock at this point. host: let me ask you, in "wall morning,urnal," this it says, the more people come down on trump, the more his supporters think that he is the .nly honest one in the race republican leaders will be patient, because there is no other choice. trump ison to write, is ism here now. what would be a response? degree, yes.me a heart of the nation falls on

trump, the more his supporters will fight back. absolutely, that is human nature. if it is not a president trump, who would be the person you would give your vote to? caller: i think no one. honestly, no one. countrythis needs a nonpolitician to step up and run it. -- ve something to say too someone said if trump loses, he gets more money. on the flipside, i want to bring to your attention that a lot of politicians, they want to line their pockets. alreadypockets are rides. he knows how to make a financial gain otherwise. host: do you think that makes him a more honest candidate? caller: yes, i do.

i was wanting something earlier he is not reading from a teleprompter, he is out there speaking from his heart. host: weight is up next is upyrtle beach -- wayne next from myrtle beach. caller: good morning. thest love when they turned political world upside down. all of these paid pundits, they don't get it. are these people who get paid to be political advisers have no idea what is going on. he has tapped into passion, he has tapped into fire. he is the only one who has got it. all of the other guys are going. this country is a business. this economy is a business. you need a businessman to run in. host: as we said, donald trump is expected to be at the iowa state fair this afternoon.

here is a headline from "usa today," trump plans a grand entrance at iowa state fair. of course, speech is already fairning at the iowa state . here is a headline from "new york times or co-and a photo of jeb bush with the deep-fried snickers bar. he also gone the soapbox and gave a speech before supporters and hecklers alike. [video clip] put aside your ideology. i hope you want a president who will grow up his sleeves and fix these broken systems. no more a hundred million dollar healthcare.gov websites. no more cost overruns in the defense department and all the other places.

we need a competent leader who accept responsibility to fix these things. i believe i am the guy to do it. i humbly ask for your support. here is my deal. i am a republican and a proud conservative. i have a record of reform that is unmatched by any one running. i believe the fix these things, we need to come together as a nation. the device.f i respect people who don't agree with me. it is ok to disagree with me. i don't ascribe bad motives to people who disagree with me. they might be wrong, but we need how wee consensus on regulate combat we restore our military, how we restore our intelligence capability. we need a consensus as to foreign-policy. rope lines.ds -- no campaign in the latino

community in spanish asking them to join our cause. i campaign in the african-american community .sking them to join us on college campuses. amongst democrats, republicans, and independents alike. if they don't take my views, i respect that, but they know i have a hard for them. the next president needs to unite this country. formerhat was florida governor jeb bush at the iowa state fair yesterday. the candidates continue to mount the soapbox and give their speech is today. hillary clinton expected as early as 9:00 a.m. this morning. for about the next 15 minutes or so, we will talk about donald trump and the speech last night, the town hall event and valley that he held in new hampshire.

let's go to austin, texas next. did you watch, what did you think? caller: yes, sir. i was very impressed. at the double jump is the man to get the republican party back on track. last year, the republican leaders were saying they were out of touch with the american people. now, jeb bush and the other republican leaders are jumping on the bandwagon, talking about the issues that matter. donald trump rings true. what he is saying seems like the truth. it is refreshing. host: can i ask you, donald trump talks a lot about his dismissal of political correctness. what does political correctness mean to you? caller: he doesn't mind speaking his mind. that is what it means. he tells the truth, whether it is correct or not. that is what it means to me. -- political

correctness, like the immigration issue with the criminals coming across the border, that is true. you have a guy in san francisco who murdered a woman, an illegal immigrant. to me, they need to embrace donald trump. he is moving all the polls that say the american people love him. the republican party needs to embrace them. they need to help him get in there, put him up for election. host: we will go to paul and north dakota. thanks for getting up with us on "the washington journal." caller: i would just like to say that i'm sick of people saying electedmp needs to be because he's because mine. lots of people speak their mind, and that doesn't necessarily true.hey are my crazy uncle speaks his mind, and he is a lot crazier than

donald trump. host: we will go to julie in colorado. good morning. caller: how are you this morning? host: good, go ahead. ofler: i was sick and tired hearing people talk about donald trump. at least he is honest. the rest of the candidates are lying. way, the lasthis four years of bush was a disaster. haveast six years of obama been a disaster. we need to change. now this jeb bush wants to run? seeing him on television. he has love for mexicans -- you know what, i was spanish, i don't have anything against the mexicans who comes from mexico, but they come here and get welfare for the kids. i'm tired of that. i'm tired of people saying, well, he said, no one give him money. i had another guy -- i heard another guy earlier saving he

is giving money to pay. well, good, i don't think he is worth anything. i have friends, and they will vote for trump. host: speaking of colorado, that state in the news quite a bit this week due to a mind still the unitedaused by states environmental protection agency. we will talk about that more and our next segment of "the washington journal." that story still making headlines this morning. here is a story -- the colorado challenge ofhe keeping abandoned sites from polluting water supplies. we will talking about that more with it post" reporter. "u.s. loosens

longtime ban on oil exports." to trade oilreed with mexico, and a further saleion of the four-year cell of oil overseas. you can read more about that on the front page of "the wall street journal" this morning. time for a few more calls. we are talking about donald trump, just with our republican viewers for the next five or six minutes. joe is in new york. good morning. .aller: good morning, c-span god bless that last caller. she was right on. i like donald trump, he is not my first choice. he serves an important purpose. he is moving the middle line in the debate, and taking on the media.

two things that i really wanted to see happen. if trumpsn't in -- wasn't in the race right now, ted cruz would be lambasted for having many of his views. kelly't like what megyn did to him. she never brought up the name-calling by our vice president who said that republicans want to put black people in chains. she didn't bring up obama, the big-name caller who compares republicans to iranian hardliners. taking on immigration and all the big issues, here is my on the issues. if any other republican senate, they would be called an extremist. when the call trumpet extremist, he stands up to the media. the media is a big problem in this country, and god bless trump for standing up to it.

kelly.ou mentioned megyn she began a 10 day vacation after her broadcast. fox says that the vacation was someed ahead of time, but say that she was sidelined as a result of that debate. story, foxnews responded to a sharply worded statement last night, that the conspiracy megyn kelly's vacation break amongst -- rank amongst ufos. a sharp statement from fox news

last night amid reports. about five minutes left to talk about donald trump. millie is in alabama. trump andthink donald dr. ben carson as vice president is the only hope this country has. let me say one other thing about fox news. the man who said foxnews is back in jeb bush as president, he kelly, get rid of trump. post" huffington the information that megyn kelly would get rid of trump. i don't know why they don't listen to the news closely. host: you mentioned ben carson as a vice president. we haven't talked much about him, why do like him as a

president? caller: he is an extremely intelligent man. that would help get some of the lack full and the hispanic vote. i think he could be president later on because he would learn a lot as vice president. i really like him. i think he is an honest person. host: he is talking about what made him a well-known name. good morning. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. host: go ahead. caller: i just have to say, as a vet, and having been around the block a few times, donald trump is a refreshing breath of fresh air.

every, i don't care -- republican, democrat, or what have you, that i have experienced in my lifetime talks out of both sides of their mouth , they don't mean what they say, and they don't say what they mean. made donald trump. haslieve that donald trump america on the top of his list. i think too many people -- don't care where they come from, what they say, what they feel, what they believe -- have forgotten who took us to the dance. that is america. unfortunately, our former presidents, including the one, have forgotten who

brought us to the dance, and who is most important. that is americans. those are veterans, and those of people of our country that we need to take care of, and we need to develop, and help them to help ourselves. host: that is our last caller in this segment of "the washington journal" today. brucet, we will talk with finley in denver to talk about the toxic spill impacting residents from colorado to new mexico. later, bart jansen will be here to talk about recent near collisions between drones and aircraft, and what the federal government is doing to regulate recreational and

commercial use of unarmed aerial vehicles. first, coming up at noon on booktv, we have an offering from ,our stops during our 2015 tour including a look at the worst military aviation disaster with author dw carter. [video clip] inthe plane crash occurred 1965, and it occurs around 9:30. ,he plane went down in wichita in the northeast and. a crash landed in a section of wichita that was typically to as the african-american community. 90% of african-americans were living in the section of wichita. it goes down, and we talking about a 500 foot high firebomb. homes are destroyed, fires everywhere, destruction is everywhere.

lost inly, 30 lives are this tragedy. i couldn't believe that 30 lives were taken, there was no memorial, and this remains the worst disaster in history. there's nothing on it. intrigue.ted my i became a police officer, and i , instationed right there the community. i got to know these people over the years. i got to understand the tragedy, and certainly the misconceptions . right down the street, there's wichita state university, the archives. that essentially began the story for me, to learn about it. >> "washington journal" continues. us nowruce finley joins from denver. he is the environmental writer he "the denver post errico

has been traveling around the state, covering the spill by the environmental protection agency on august 5. 10 days after this though, to be have a hand on how many people have been impacted, and what the greatest risk is at this point? .uest: well, no i know reports of people getting drinking the water. there are a lot of impacts. that plume that stretched out over 100 miles is now cleared. there is sort of a yellow sludge in the riverbed. that is being tested. there are epa crews at the site blowout.ld king mine they're trying to treat the water, which is traced with heavy metals, as much as possible before he goes on into the animus headwaters. host: you mentioned the gold

king mind. that is where this took place. what got into the river? what are the chemicals and heavy metals that people are most concerned about? yellow sortoranges of mustard hue comes from, my oxidetanding is, iron hearing there are a whole bunch of heavy metals that drain out of mind. some of the ones that people were concerned about where lead, manganese, copper, arsenic. us back toou take august 5, and why the environmental protection agency was at this mine, and how this all happen in the first place? they were working around the opening of the mine with a contractor. this is the high san juan mountains of colorado, where

there is a long history of mining going back a century. you know, metals that helped ,uel the industrial revolution out of these mountains. there are about 30 in the immediate area. out of those, four or five have recently been causing a lot of discharge. talks his dischar they were working a couple of mines in the area. they had slumped dirt around the gold king mine. the contractors and the epa were up there, trying to clear debris from the opening of the mine. as they were trying to clear that out, they inadvertently triggered a deluge of an estimated 3 million gallons of .his heavy metal laced waste

it poured out, it took out a suburban vehicle -- it was great, i think it is now yellow -- the employees weren't hurt, but that is what set off the mustard plume that you saw in utah.do, host: we have a special line set and new mexico residents. we are interested in hearing stories from residents in those states, especially if you have been impacted by the epa's spill . otherwise, our lives i set up by region. if you are in the eastern are central part of the united states, (202) 748-8000. for coloradoline and new mexico residents, (202) 745-8002. epa adminirator gina mccarthy went out to colorado this week to look at the spill on the

ground. before she went, she also spoke about it at an event here in washington, d.c. [video clip] the release of mining waste a colorado is impacted not just the state of colorado, but it new mexico, and the navajo nation. it is really a tragic and unfortunate incident. the epa is taking responsibility to make sure that spill is cleaned up. the most important effort we are ensuring right away is the health and safety of the residents and visitors near the river. we have committed to helping people throughout the four corners region who rely on the rivers for their drinking water, irrigation water, and recreation . we know how important it is to them. as you may know, there are thousands of abandoned mines in the west, and epa routinely works with states to clean up these spills. this spill occurred when one of our contracting teams was to entervy equipment

the gold king mind, and an active mind just to the north of rango.ty of durin in response to the unfortunate incident, we have used the f full breath of death of the organization to respond. it takes time to review and analyze data. i understand people's frustration, but we have a researchers and scientists working around the clock. our commitment is to get this right, and make sure we're protecting public health. "the bruce finley with denver post," what are you hearing about where the cleanup is that 10 days later? yellow-orange plume has dissipated 10 days later. yesterday, the town of durango, durango, 17,000

people, started taking in water from the animus again, and treated for drinking water -- treated it for jerking water. the irrigation ditches are still being flushed. they constantly over the river for irrigation and rafting. the governor and the health chief from colorado have been down along the river. to get itvisiting it open as soon as possible. the river is like the soul of durango. host: we can show our viewers the front page of "the denver -- silvertonrning residents fed up with epa

-spill. bruce finley has been covering the story all this week with "the denver post." we will start with don, calling in from california. good morning. pill,r: on this this highlights the ideological incompetence that the epa is full of. how can we trust them to take care of the environment when inadvertently stuck a needle in a water balloon. you don't do that. they knew exactly what they were doing. if they didn't know how much water was sitting in there, behind the van they were digging out, then there absolutely -- host: that highlights a comment , whospeaker john boehner has been very critical of the epa since the breach and spill.

here is a tweet -- epa toxic spill is very serious, just as 's slow response. and you respond to some of the criticism the epa has perceived? guest: when people woke up friday morning and saw the river running through the city looking the color of mustard, there is quite a bit of frustration, fear, and anger. i think a lot of the problem with the response is that it was 24 hours before the agency notify people of this bill. i think also, the frustration was driven by the inability to produce data on water quality, even acknowledging some of those heavy metal levels. there has been frustration, especially in that area, with

epa. people fear the stigma of being a cleanup. all that said, i think it is the only agency with the resources to deal with this problem. people colorado know too well about the leaking old mines in the balance. there are 23,000 old mines in colorado. you are talking about a national environmental problem where it ha headwaters of the nation's rivers are contaminated bit by bit by heavy metal. with states limited in what they could do, i think even in the town of silverton, you find people realize that probably the epa is the agency that will have to help more, not less, in the future. you talk about the possibility of being designated a superfund cleanup site. what does that mean jer? guest: there was a federal

authority over this mine -- superfund refers to the process of getting this done. site comesperfund the cleanup. there are a lot more resources under the superfund budget. in this case, the epa crew working with the contractors, that was not a superfund project yet. host: some of the criticism coming not only from republicans, but democrats as well. here is a democrat of colorado, epa shouldnet -- the be more forthcoming with full test results from animus river water samples. three days after the spill is when he tweeted that out. let's go to neva, waiting in oregon. caller: thank you for taking my call. my question is -- who will be fired over this?

if this is a private industry corporation, they would be fired and find. why is it that the federal government is not firing people? they get rich over this. not voted in, they were put in by bureaucracy. we are tired of this. they're telling people how to live. we are sick and tired of this. that is why donald trump looks so good, even for the democrats. thank you for taking my call. host: bruce finley, anyone getting fired? guest: no. not yet. didepa minister mccarthy say that will be a full investigation into how this happened. and size, the epa, in the wake of this disaster, announced that it will shut down similar types of work at these sites to try to make sure that there is no likelihood of repeating what happened at the gold king. the colorado senators have also been strong and asking for an

investigation to ask what happened at the site. approaching these old mines is pretty tricky work. debris, the tunnels in some cases are backed up, you don't know how much water is in them. when the crew was going up to that site on august 5, they had really no idea how much water was in there. i think it is always a little bit risky when you are trying to open up an old mine, and find a way to drain it. the: jason chaffetz is chairman of the house oversight and reform committee. he tweeted earlier this week, our committee will be .nvestigating this toxic spill who leads an independent investigation into the epa? they have not announced

to would be doing the independent investigation yet. reporters, we have been trying in the days after the disaster to investigate as well we can. document work order that may have set out the protocols for approaching that the kind of skills the contractors would be required to have that job. the epa promised that would be available. a have not made it available yet. host: patrick is in florida. you are on with bruce finley of the "denver post." thanks for taking my call. i would like to remind the c-span audience one of the few things i liked about bill clinton if he made these a surety bondsy before they started digging and or drilling for oil so the epa would not get stuck, or the

federal taxpayer. that is the first thing george bush did away with. the state has 23,000 minds -- mines. is there any state responsibility? how about we give them incentive. if they do not clean up in five years, no banks get fdi a assurance so they cannot make home loans. they cannot just walk away and stick the bill to the federal taxpayer. this other thing, we have ground penetrating radar that goes a deep to findmile and even you nuclear program but they cannot put that over the mines? sorry, thought you were done. what is the stage responsibility with this spill?

-- the state responsibility with this spill? newt: for current and mining operations, there are new bonding requirements, though not as strict as some would like. but in this case and with the case of the 23,000 mines the caller referred to, those are abandoned, for which there are no permits, i understand, from talking to state mining regulators. take the gold king. they stopped mining there in 1923. the woodsold mines in that state officials say there is no inspection process, no permit against which you could measure the leak and hold someone accountable for. in most cases, in the 230 mines they know are still leaking today, they do not have a potential he responsible party. so the state is limited in what

they can do, having that many mines and no one to hold accountable. host: an individual on twitter asks isn't this waterfall -- w ater full of arsenic and won't it end up in reservoirs and the grand canyon? some pictures and maps of the animas river while you answer. guest: after the disaster, federal testing has gone all the the gold king 60 miles into durango and into new mexico where the animas river flows into the san juan river. in new mexico, that flow is the for source of water supply communities, including farmington. the san juan then moves through utah and the navajo nation towards the grand canyon. extended intoas

lake powell, right above the grand canyon. they are testing both the dissolved solids, the heavy metals in the river, and the sediment that falls on the bottom of the river. of those test results have been used to determine when it would be saved to open the river for the rafting industry. there are still elevated levels .f heavy metals in that sludge it looks sort of yellow. iron oxide there. antimony,evels of thallium, that are still showing up. a little silver. riskse what they call -based screening. that has to do with exposure. if there are lot -- if there are not a lot of people being

exposed, the risk is lower. so lots of testing. host: we are showing viewers pictures of the bottles of water wereom people's homes that sent for testing from farmington, new mexico. bob is from st. louis. you are on with bruce finley of the "denver post." caller: people call me ash. i am from a town called pallet town. like to talk about the environmental problem from my land. a simple problem, a simple solution that we used to protect the town. a man named presser oak talk to me and he said if there was of this creature that was blocking the road called a -- host: we go to gain -- dane. good morning. caller: hello.

you corrected me on the gist of what i was going to ask, but farmington -- did you say farmington? farmington in new mexico was the picture we showed. the downstream area were testing happened this past week. question i have is how many people have been thing?d by this what is the federal government doing to get these people the stuff they need, i guess. do we have numbers and the response by the federal government on getting these people water? it is an interesting question. vantage point in colorado -- i was only working around durango and silverton. durango has a population of

17,000. silverton is a small town, less than 700 people at the base of cement creek where it meets the animas. so the immediate human area of concern. you also have aquatic life. fish, long since dead in the headwaters. the way the epa responded is they made model water available. in durango, they use the la plata county fairgrounds and they set up a claims process. online computer form. i asked the epa how many had been submitted -- it is uncertain. i have not had a response. response is to set up a command post in durango. unified command post covering three epa regions, including the navajo ration asked the navajo nation. -- the navajo nation. taking water available was a big

response. they are also offering free tests of wells in the animas valley. there are likely more than 1000 shallow wells along the animas river. people reported discoloration of water. shownl tests have not elevated levels in wells, though health authorities had a caveat on their go-ahead to use water. they said if you have an instant that you should probably give the infant bottled water or a different kind of water. they are worried about the manga nese levels that could still be elevated. tiwtter, why are we not blaming the mining companies for leaving this toxic mess? in the case of these 23,000 abandoned mines, in particular the 230 known sites

they are leaking, they are abandoned and there may be no owner to track down. so whether or not you blame them, there may not be someone to work with to try to deal with the disaster and draw funding from, perhaps. host: who owned the gold king mine before it was abandoned? 2005, the owner of the , the current owner is from the san juan corporation. i spoke with the man. inhas bought a lot of mines colorado. he pledged full cooperation with the epa in cleanup. a year after he bought it, he rium in he found tellu the site. he says he has never touched the

portal. he has looked at her and tried to set what is with it. rium is a rare strategic metal. it is a key ingredient in the thin solar panels and has defense applications. in promoting burning mining back to silverton, he was thinking about the potential mining of tellurium at that mine. but that mine has been closed. the state declared it abandoned. host: we have about 15 minutes left with bruce finley. joining us after traveling around the state's reporting on the animas river. we have a special line for new mexico and colorado residents. on that line from fort collins, colorado, well north of where the leak happened. good morning. caller: good moaning. i would like to say that the epa

always says we respect -- we take responsibility, excuse me, and then there is no consequences. this is typical of the administration, where they say we take responsibility. what happens -- nothing. zilch happens. i would like to ask, how did the water get in the mine? it was a dry mine, not it is full of water. how come? host: bruce finley on the water and how it got there. great: -- guest: question. there are about four different mines in that area. there is -- there is one big mind.

there is the red and blue need a mind to gold king. then the mogul mine owned by todd headedness -- henness. without a lot of funding to do these cleanups, with which ,equire water treatment plants one method short of that that the state favored is using bulkheads, concrete structures put inside mines that plug them. that creates backup of wastewater in mines. area, visualize the mining going back a century, there is an underground maze full of tunnels up to 100 miles long. the legacy of human effort to take out minerals in those areas. connectivity in that maze is a mystery. natural faults and

fishers as well in those tunnels. one theory for what happened is that the creation of bulkheads in the sunnyside mine has acted bepools of water that may willing up in the other mines. in looking at some of the epa's documents on the sites, they noticed the increase in discharge in recent years from the mogul, the red and bonita, and the gold king mine following the installation of bulkheads in the sunnyside mine. that is a lot of complicated detail but it is a couple kid a problem. following up on the comments about the epa taking responsibility, members of congress not the only ones calling for firings at the epa. rockovich in the

washington apology is not enough . the epa must fire people in the colorado spill. she will join us on this program tuesday. we will talk about this spill in colorado. in the meantime, bruce finley is with us, covering the story since it happened in the fifth. jefferies in alabama. good morning. caller: good morning. things to add. jobs, myon to regular father and both my grandfathers, we all at one time had small time cattle operations. family is no longer in the business because of these new epa regulations that has come out that do not let you on anyy cattle or horses stream or dry creek bed.

cost too much money to fence off and worried about fines from the epa from all these new regulations in the last few years. thethis just goes to show incompetence of the epa now. if it was a private entity or corporation, they would face billions of dollars in fines. i was wondering who -- how will holdpa fine themselves and themselves responsible for this? it is a travesty, what the epa is trying to do. a lot of us just -- a lot of it is just complete nonsense. get their self together. this is a terrible thing that happened. that beautiful river destroyed like that by somebody supposed

to protect it. they need competence in the epa. i hope it comes about. you mentioned the independent investigation the epa said will happen. do you have any idea how long that will take? long. no idea on how to the caller, it may be of interest, a few days after the disaster as the mus tard-yellow river was flowing through the town, the top officials in the area came to be town, looked at the town in the eyes, and apologized. there has been resistance in the past to the epa getting involved, for example as i superfund site, fearing the stigma and what that would do for tourism. when mining went away, people .egan relying on tourism

so there is a good bit of nostalgia for mining in that area. some are saying the epa is incompetent, but there are probably others who are saying if they want to deal with this problem of festering, old, abandoned mines, there probably is no other agency to work with but the epa. we will probably need this partnership with. and the state and outside groups to do cooperative cleanups. on twitter, the epa is underfunded and should not be blamed. colorado benefited from these and coloradoally should pay. you can follow the conversation @cspanwj. you can always call in as well. brian is calling in from salt lake city, utah.

epa, they say they take full responsibility. the sierra club and these wacky environmentalists, the sierra club is the epa. and thee responsibility sierra club should pay for it all. it is like the government people. i use a credit card, i do not like change. you are hired! pretty much, a bunch of wax run the epa. they are also in the sierra club. make them pay. host: do you have experience with the sierra club? ima construction worker and i have worked with the definite. they waste more money -- they spend over $1000 in pickup nichols. nickels.

mike from pennsylvania, you are on. pennsylvania has its own department of environmental detection that is putting up mines. does colorado have its own and if not, why not? host: bruce finley? guest: there is not a department of environmental protection in colorado. there are two main departments that have some oversight over the abandoned mines, though there is no special program in the health department on that's. the health department works on water quality issues. they will notice if there is a heavy leak coming from one of these 230 or so mines. then they will dispatch the department of natural resources. there is a mining division with about 65 employees that deal mostly with active mines.

there is an abandoned mines program in that department. they rely on funding from federal agencies, outside groups to deal with what cleanups they are able to do on their own. so there is a heavy reliance on outside groups. not since -- not necessarily sierra club but outdoor sports groups. because there is no well-funded governmental department to deal with these mines, it is a national environmental problem because these are the headwaters of the nation's rivers. but outside groups want to get more involved, as does some of the industry. been able toe not because of the liability problem. that has been a huge hurdle to dealing with abandoned mines. that is why they are turning to congress.

host: as we have been talking to bruce finley of the "denver post ," we are showing pictures from post" photo gallery of the spill online. you can check that on denver post.com. you can follow bruce finley as well on twitter. we go to kevin. good morning. caller: how are we doing? host: good. caller: mr. bruce finley, i have a question. because you are a reporter and do a lot of research, hall, every government agency when they need a lot of funding, there seems to be some sort of accident and then they get more money? you have the twitter dude who called in and left a message saying he supported the epa and that they were underfunded and blah, blah, blah.

that proves my point. every time a government agency says they are underfunded, next thing you know there is this huge disaster and they get more funding. research, mr. finley, and find out what happened on the oil spills. talking aboute new money to the environmental protection agency for cleanup or is this coming out of current money? guest: it is not into the superfund budget. people are wondering about funding. there are people saying the state as well as the federal government ought to have more funding. as reporters, we get limited glimpses of these things. we are dispatched quickly trying to get to the scene in the early hours. it is hard to be able to understand something in general terms, as the caller suggested. beyond funding, people are

looking at liability as a scenario where you could have practical action to help deal with this national environmental problem. good samaritan legislation were congress asked to make it easier for groups like trout and limited to get involved. under federal law, if a group to help do a cleanup, if they inadvertently make matters worse, as the epa ironically liablehey could be held for tens of millions of dollars damage. they are pushing this good samaritan legislation that would partially shield groups. if that is the case, may be there would be more people who got involved in these delicate operations around the abandoned, leaking, old mines. your you talk about coverage of the gold king mine spill.

have you been to the site and how soon were you able to get to the river to view this with your own eyes? mine. i went up to the four-wheel-drive, light rain. the thursday evening and friday evening right after that spill. with four-wheel-drive, you can get up there. a bit of a hike. the portal of the gold king mine more than 11,000 feet. around timberline in high mountains. i think the peak is but need a peak, which is over 13,000 feet high. you see the river running quite orange. you can see where the initial blowout wiped out huge areas of the mountainside. pushed down the cement creek

towards the animas river. it knocked out the government suburban, where contractors and the epa employees were working. fortunately, no one was hurt. host: if you want to see bruce finley's earlier coverage, it is at denverpost.com. waiting, originally from new mexico. you are on. caller: i am familiar from this area because i am originally from there. i live in columbia, but the lady let me through. with all due respect, mr. finley , you are downplaying how the water line goes all the way from .olorado into new mexico it goes sideways. you can look at the map. then it goes up into utah and then comes back down and

eventually into colorado. that is part of arizona. intoit hits a little bit california. dumps outlks out -- into mexico. all through there, the people, since there is such scarce water, the people all along that line deep end on the water. and my people are. they farm. that is their lifeline. there are also livestock people. that is ruined, for them. there is a potato farm that the navajo tribe has that they make potato chips out of. that is all going to be ruined.

if these people, that is their water. that is what they use every day. host: have you talked to friends or relatives back there? caller: i have. do they feeln comfortable to use this water again? caller: just as other people have said, the epa always gives this wonderful language that they speak among themselves and talk among themselves. points, if you please allow me, you know how uranium is prevalent in the navajo reservation. during world war ii, we would not have won the war without all that uranium. uranium tailings left open.

in the 1950's, people from columbia university were investigating how come the navajos do not have cancer? guess what. open inilings were left arizona as well as in new mexico. whothere are so many people have cancer. columbia,ia in maryland, originally from new mexico. do you want to talk more about the downstream effects here? guest: yeah. i think some of those comments are right on the money, as far as the concerns people in the west are feeling. it is the year where we have seldom thought more about water in that colorado river basin, from a water quantity standpoint. the drought in california. beyond having enough water, now that this has focused attention on the quality of the water.

when you see the river that is as peoplef your city, into rangle did last friday, it is horrible to see it running the color of mustard. an agrarian community, where it is settling into ditches and has yet to be flushed out. gina mccarthy said that nature has begun to clean itself -- sure, there are natural healing the sedimentat deposited along riverbed contain heavy metals. they are doing a lot of monitoring of that and putting out a lot of health warnings ats, butby its -- cave from colorado's experiences with old mines in the past, it takes decades for fisheries to recover.

we have rivers and headwaters that still do not have sufficient in them. around the west, the epa has admitted 40% of the headwaters of rivers are contaminated to some extent with these heavy metals. it is a huge problem. people feel some urgency. e.on gold king, i tried to add volume the type of happening today is from these leaking minds. these leakingrom mines. the cleveland of a gold mine emptying into waterways every few days. host: bruce finley has been covering this for the "denver post." we appreciate you getting up so early for us here on the "washington journal." guest: it is a pleasure. host: up next, we are joined by bart jansen of "usa today,"

discussing the recent near-collisions between drones and commercial airlines and what the government is doing when it comes to the use of unmanned aerial vehicles. ♪ night on "q&a," antiwar activist phyllis bennis on u.s. foreign-policy since 9/11, the recent negotiations with iran, antiwar on terrorism. >> who are isis, why are they so violent? those questions are important, but what is more important in some ways because it is something we can do something about is what is the u.s. policy regarding isis? why is it not working? can we really go to war against terrorism? questions that are

most important and will be most useful. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern and pacific on c-span ". q&a." with the senate in its august break, we feature booktv programming weeknights in primetime on c-span 2 starting at 8:00 eastern. here are a few booktv special programs. august 22, we are live from jackson, mississippi for the inaugural mississippi festival beginning at 11:30 eastern with discussions on harper lee and the civil war. so number fifth, we are live from the nation's capital for the 15th annual national book festival followed by our in-depth program with former second lady and senior fellow at the american enterprise institute lynne cheney. booktv on c-span 2. television for serious readers.

taft, calledlen nelly, made notable changes to the white house. the most obvious is replacing the white male ushers with african-american staff. she also led an effort to create a memorial for the victims of the titanic. her greatest legacy was bringing thousands of japanese cherry blossom trees to the nation's capital. helen taft on c-span's original series "first ladies: influence an image." examining the public and private lives of the first ladies and their influence on the presidency. sundays at 8:00 p.m. eastern on american on c-span 3. >> "washington journal" continues. bart jansen covers airline and transportation issues for "usa today." he joins us to discuss recreational drones.

he joins us a week after new data was released about how often pilots seat drones in their flight path. what do we know? guest: be federal aviation administration said 650 aircraft reported seeing drones this year through august 9. it is on a pace said quadruple if that pace keeps up. host: here is the story from yesterday by our guest. come to ahave we drone actually causing and in air disaster? host: up to -- there up to this point, are no collisions. what you tend to hear is that they were several hundred -- several hundred feet away. maybe a quarter mile away. but these reports about 2000 to

3000 feet above the air on the approach to newark airport. butapproach is not close airliners are going be slowest of their flights as they prepared to land. they do not have a lot of maneuverability at that point to that worrisome to pilots they would not be able to dodge them if they needed to. at this point, recent reports have not needed to take evasive action. we -- host: we have a special line for drone owners. that number is (202) 748-8002. otherwise, if you're in the eastern or central u.s., it is (202) 748-8000. mountain and pacific regions, (202) 748-8001. can you go over what the rules are at this point for recreational use of a drones near the airport in a flight path? developingfaa is

rules right now for commercial drones operators. for right now, hobbyists, the folks who want to take a model aircraft into a field and fly it, are supposed to stay below 400 feet in the air, fly only during daylight, and keep aircraft in view of the pilot on the ground. supposed to fly within five miles of an airport, unless they get special --mission from the aircraft air traffic control tower. some of these clubs like to fly near airports, but they are supposed to let the tower know and they are careful about scheduling their flights in between incoming or outgoing planes. the reason your viewers may have been hearing more about drones in recent years is because in 2012, congress told the faa you need to develop rules for commercial drones.

roots of folks -- movie makers farmers, who want to use drones. so they wanted rules developed. they said they wanted drones to share these guys with passenger planes -- the skies with by septembernes 30. those roles are still being finalized. we are still waiting for the final version of what they will set on commercial drone owners. , they're supposed to be within 500 feet and stay more than five miles away from airports. host: how does the faa and forced that? are there are arrests or prosecutions that have happened to this point? guest: there are civil and criminal possibilities. you could get eight 25,000 dollars fine and criminal penalties if you fly drones

recklessly. the difficulty is in tracking down a drone owner. if an airline sees a drone out the window, even if they relayed the complaint to the tower, the faa contacts local police, it is difficult for police to track down who may have in finding the drone. subjectis is a trepidation secretary anthony foxx talked about at a breakfast last month. here is a bit of what he had to say. [video clip] >> if someone is purchasing a product that could be dangerous, that can go 2500 feet in the air, right now, we do not have a great mechanism to backtrack and find out who the owner is.

we probably need one. i will take probably out of it. we need one. but finding out who has the authorities to do something like that is a work we are undertaking now. i say the same thing about these lasers. we are in an era where there are a lot of advantages to technology and a lot of great things that can happen as a having these unmanned aircraft in the air space, but it has to be done safely. we will look at every single thing we can do to ensure our enforcement mechanisms have teeth. but as far as being able to follow the breadcrumbs to who is using it. host: are we talking about a federal drone registration database? guest: that is a proposal that

the union representing airline pilots wants. they want a registration number on every one of these drones and they want a registry so you can track down the drone owner if you got a hold of wreckage for the drone it, if there was a collision. bart we are talking with jansen about drone safety. a special line for drone owners. that number is (202) 748-8002. eastern and central and ronson and pacific are our other lines. we go to wane. good morning. caller: my problem is with surveillance. these drones, you can attach cameras. that makes it easier for peeping -- cocaine fields. that is a big problem. there are many privacy

concerns dealing with the drones. i tended to deal more with safety. so ideal more with the department of transportation and the federal aviation administration. but president obama asked the department of commerce to look into privacy issues. they are in the midst of developing potential rules for drones to ensure privacy of the folks who are flying them. there are members of congress concerned about the privacy rules. senator dianne feinstein, democrat of california, voiced concerns because she had a drone flying outside her house. she says it was small and crashed, but she would like to for much stricter rules drones for all users, hobbyists and commercial users. she has proposed legislation. host: mike says on twitter the

faa will study it for years and only come up with trial rules. take us through what is expected through the end of the obama administration. guest: through february, the faa proposed a rule for commercial drones weighing up to 5500 pounds -- 55 pounds up to 500 feet in the air during daylight hours. have -- owners to they got 4500 comments. they are still digesting them. says he expected them to finalize that ruled by the end of september or shortly after in passive to the office of management and budget at the white house. look at the economic impact. the financial aspects of having a rule like this. the expectation is the role for commercial drones less than 55

town should be finalized by mid to late next year. host: brian is calling in from florida. caller: good morning. havely comment is when you -- when you talked about farmers, i thought of farmers having drones over their crops or fields. cropped dusters. i see them in southern florida all the time. i was wondering what your thoughts are on that. guest: farmers were one of the very few examples that congress set that -- said that the faa could grant special commercial permits even while comprehensive rules are being drafted. they have given out over 1000 special permits for commercial operators. many of those have gone to agriculture. 106 out of the first 500. host: what is the use on a farm

of a drone? monitor the crops. where more irrigation or fertilizer may be needed. one of those first thousand permits was actually to a drone bigger than 55 pounds. it is to a yamaha drone. it looks like a helicopter. but it is nine feet long. it weighs 140 pounds. the best part of it is it can carry 60 pounds of payload. it can carry fertilizer. -- it hovers not far above the crops. the operator, the drone pilot, guides it over the crops and it is eccentric a crop duster. they have used this in japan for 20 years. is why the drone industry says this kind of you should be allowed. we are behind. so the faa approved the use of

this sort of drones, the thought being that farm fields are rural. the risk during a crash or be minimal. you can afford the loss of a few soybean plants. if it is just over a farm field, this is a use we can allow. to hear are interested from commercial drone operators. that line is (202) 748-8002. lines are for eastern and central and mountain and pacific. jerry is waiting period good morning. caller: good morning. if a drone comes into my property, private property, and i feel threatened by that drone, do i have a right to shoot it down under the stand your ground law? the short answer is i do not know. what legal advice to give you.

i suspect that the law is going to deep end on your local state law. of privacy and in terms of the use of a firearm. you would want to check with state laws. been drafting its rules, which are not final, but drafting rules on how to operate to avoid other planes and crashing into people on the ground, if it were to fall out of the sky. the privacy standards have not been set at the federal level. so those guidelines for protecting your own property will be local level laws that i am not familiar with. host: clearly, iowa. candy is next. caller: hi. how are you doing? guest: hello. host: go ahead. caller: i have a comment on drones. i have a two-step solution.

america loves two-step solutions to a five mile problem. you can use a net. eco-friendly. to take them down. if anyone is going to have her a drone over my place, guess what. i have the federal right to protect my property and i will take them down with a water hose. there is no law against water. candy with her personal solution what she would do. we are talking with bart jansen ," a transportation reporter there. you can check all of his stories at usatoday.com. senatorioned feinstein's concerns with drones. one of her most recent concerns is disruptions caused during firefighting. in a tweet, she said disruptions delayed efforts to fight the

lake fire. wasted thousands dollars in flame retardant. can you talk about the concerns there? was one of the .losest calls reported two firefighting aircraft reported seeing the drone at 10,002 you 11,000 feet from the about 500 feet from the aircraft. they got nervous enough that they grounded the aircraft. senator feinstein says during the period, the fire jumped highway and was absolutely a hazard. that is part of why she drafted legislation to have strip or rules over no cooperation. in addition, pilots are nervous about this. airliner,th an airliners are designed to fly on one engine. if one engine were knocked out by anything, a bird or drone,

they are still supposed to be able to fly. helicopters, however, if they rotor,lose the tail gradually clement a drone may be more likely to damage, they could go out of control entirely. helicopters, whether fighting particularlice, our a word about drones. that is what senator feinstein is worried about, both for hobbyists and commercial operators. host: firefighters were concerned enough to put out a public service announcement. take a look. [video clip] to fly, bute fun the fun and's when you fly one over a wildfire. there is a lot of air traffic and pilots are worried about the fire. flight or picture is

worth it. only authorized aircraft are permitted to fly in your. drones and wildfires do not mix. be smart, be safe, stay away. host: we are talking about these issues with bart jansen of "usa today." travis is next from coal chester, vermont. theer: i was wondering if solution to these concerns is technological. broadcastone possibly an electronic serial number so the plane or patrol tower could detect that and track it that way? and maybe even -- is there some way it could monitor its gps and not allow itself to go into airspace, despite what the controller is telling it to do? twot: there is actually parts to what you are talking about.

they are both issues federal officials and industry advocates are talking about. one is the tracking. one of the most important things the faa is trying to study is detect and avoid or sense and avoid. there is nobody on the drone as it is flying. that is why you should fly them during daylight hours and in couldof the pilot so he steer away from other aircraft. but there is a proposal from the air line pilots association, the airline union, that they would like the kind of tracking equipment that would send out a signal so that drones could be tracked more easily by radar and other planes. that would be expensive. are general aviation pilots a little resistant to this. they have a requirement they have to have this equipment by 2020. it would be expensive and cumbersome and on some of these

smaller drones. that is a dispute not yet resolved. in addition, you could potentially program -- you can program into the software for drones what is called g.o. fencing. , doever there are airports not allow them to fly within five miles of those airports or around specially protect did buildings like the white house and the capital building. set up geo-fencing in the program that would prevent drones flying where you do not want them. that does not help with firefighting, but that is something that is part of senator feinstein's legislation. that there ought to be geo-fencing programming in every affectold so it would hobbyists and commercial operators. it is not yet something that is ules, buthe roles -- r something the faa is studying to

prevent drones from flying where they should not be. host: geo-fencing certainly an issue after a drone crashed on the white house lawn recently. guest: this is another issue called lost link. is also studying this as it develops these comprehensive rules. the problem is sometimes the remote operators on the ground lose contact with the drone, so the question is what should happen when that happens? lower the drone just itself carefully to the ground, should it have automatic programming to return to the operator? that is something else the faa is looking at. aterson in washington late night, perhaps after having a few drinks in january, was flying a drone outside a balcony and lost contact with it. and it made its way to the white house grounds and crashed, whether into a tree or into the

ground. whatever, it crashed onto the white house grounds. that made people quite nervous, because it would not take much to get a drone into the air if you are on the mall or near the capitol building. that raised questions about how you might protect special buildings or other restricted areas from drone flights. geo-fencing is something they are looking at. boeing, there are reports boeing in the last week tested a laser that, when fired for 10 to 15 seconds at a drone was able to knock it out of the sky. there are couple occasions with pointing that kind of device within city limits, but it is something people are studying. it is an option. we will have to see how that develops in trying to protect these special buildings from drone flights. you'rehe legislation

talking about from senator feinstein, the consumer drone safety act. released in mid-june. she said that the reports of dangerous operations and near misses are only increasing in incidents from lax to laguardia to the golden gate ridge. it is time to close the gap and to keep ourority skies safe. we go to joe. caller: good morning. my uncle used to fly aircraft that were remote controlled in the 1960's. he was part of an association. these people did not go ahead and go around the big airports. they would go to small airports, farms and that stuff. it shows how the mental capacity of the public has diminished so far that these. fools will go ahead and

fly their drones to see if they can cause damage. this is such a travesty. these people need to be locked up and possibly, if they get too close, get charged with attempted murder. that is exactly what it is. host: in your mind, is at the mental capacity of today's drone flyers or is it the keep -- cheap, the price of drones coming down and the ability and ease of flying them? price going down and the sophistication of the drones -- a lot of people have them. the issue of people flying them recklessly is something that has united most of the industry and the folks that talk about this stuff. the commercial operators. the hobbyists all say we do not want anybody flying recklessly.

the commercial operators know a collision would be very bad for everybody. that might be cost to ground all drones if there were a collision. hobbyists, there is a group --led the associate association of model aeronautics. they say their members try to fly responsibly. they enjoy flying planes. it is a hobby, it is fun, they try to be safe about it. the have a campaign with faa, know before you fly, to try to educate people so people know not to break these rules. fly 400 supposed to four hobbyists, 500 for commercial lists. someone flying thousands of feet in the air off the approach of newark is flying in much more dangerous territory. the question is how you prevent that kind of reckless flying. rudy in georgia. good morning. caller: i have a question.

due to the potential hazards drones can cause, is there any way that, until faa has the policies and regulations and a way to track who the owners may be, that they can stop the sale or purchasing of the drones? if they do not know could stop all fails. that would be -- stop all sales. that would be a tricky issue. that is part of why there is such an appetite for drones, both for hobbyists and commercial pilots. saying why everyone is they want rules, just tell us what they are before the skies become as crowded as these guys outside the jedi council on coruscant. and they the rules want to know what they are. commercial operators want them to be more flexible. they want to fly at night, outside the view of the drone

pilot. because things like an be soltural field might large that they would like to go all the way be -- all the way to the other side of the field without walking. , you want to fly over it without walking all the miles. commercial operators would also like the prospect of flying over more urban areas. you're supposed to not fly drones over people who are not associated with the drone ,light, which sounds like rural not crowded places. but if you are going to have drone deliveries, as some have advocated, you will want to fly over cities. so what should the rules be. drones is an unlikely prospect. that is why commercial hobbyists,on --

lawmakers, everyone wants the rules of the road set so that hopefully there will be enforcement of people who break rules. host: there's a p.s.a. on washington, d.c. and the rules of drone usage in and around the city. here's a bit from that p.s.a. >> the region around washington, d.c. is a no-drone zone. flying a drone in this area for any purpose is against the law and violatedtors could face stiff fines and criminal penalties. enjoy the nation's capital, eave your drone at home. host: the they're particularly concerned about drone flights during the fourth of july festivity, correct? guest: the fourth of july was also following the crash at the white house, and just typically around sporting events. here's the temptation to get great aerial photography around sporting events, and they do not want drones flying over

large crowds of people, again, because of the risk of lost limbs and then having the drone fall over people and potentially injure them. host: massachusetts is up next, john is waiting. john, good morning. caller: hello. you were talking about fields earlier, and i'm actually -- you can call me a park suit cal specialist, so to speak, and i help me se drones to deliver drugs to my patients. host: john talking about his use of drones, on the issue of commercial use of drones. the f.a.a. been more willing to grant these extensions for certain kinds of businesses than others? guest: yes. there have been several categories where they've been granting them primarily movie making, which, of course, has closed sets, pipeline and smoke stack inspections, a lot of

permits have also been granted for like bridge inspections. again, the idea that the risk is going to be much smaller than perhaps a helicopter or a fixed wing miles and miles along pipelines. that's the idea, the drones will do the dirty, dangerous work that is even more risky if you have pilots and also much less expensive. movie making, pipeline inspection, and agriculture were some of the major features, that have been granting permits. real estate agents have actually been the single largest users among the first 500 permits that industry tudies, something were for real estate. again, that's video and presumably just flying around a house or around a property and

not 10,000 feet above it. host: about 10 minutes left with bart jansen to answer all your questions about drone safety and what the f.a.a. is doing about drones in airspace. dorothy is in apex, north carolina. dorothy, good morning. caller: good morning. my concern is about if you can register guns, why can't you register drones. it's that simple. it's just a matter of having a number or numbers, and if a drone crashes or causes damage, go to the honor. host: do drones have serial numbers? guest: not yet, but that is absolutely a proposal that, as i said, the airline pilots would definitely like. wonderful early concerns is that some of the drones are so small that it would be difficult to put the kind of number that you see on the back of a cessna so you can track that plane and know who's

flying it. putting those sorts of numbers on what can be very small drones might be difficult, but it's more an issue of setting up the registry. somebody has to collect all that information and, of course, all the drones that have already been sold would either have to be retroactively signed up or figure out something going forward. but yes, that's definitely something that safety advocates are advocating. host: bob in oklahoma is up next. good morning. you're on the "washington journal." caller: good morning. i would just say in relation to what exactly what you're talking about, the size. drones, and the numbers wouldn't be practical. you can print the numbers very small so that when the drones are caught, captured, otherwise confiscated by homeowners and property owners who don't being spied on, that then the owner could be tracked down or whatever. no, i don't think drones will

be tolerated by the general public flying around their houses and on their property, people spying on each other, you know, all kinds of stuff like that. i don't think it's going to be tolerated. i think drones are going to be shot out of the sky and sophisticated and stolen. host: bob in oklahoma with his thoughts. guest: it has been an emotional issue much as you say, people don't want to be spied on, they don't to want think that somebody is flying over their backyard without permission. but there is great appetite for having drones and having commercial operations that are approved and they're flying by the rules. when you look at the kind of photography that can be had, flights over new york city, which are probably against the rules, but they're circulating on the internet that it's gorgeous photography. there's gorgeous photography after the earthquake in nepal. bob seeing ar wouldn't need to go to kathmandu anymore if he

can see this video over the internet from these drones that they capture. that's just, you know, commercial photography, because the cameras have gotten so good. there's great use for the inspections. here are many great uses for drones that there's going to be an appear future for commercial operators and the folks that would use them. you're right, there's going to be a lot of resistance. and if senator feinstein and other skeptics approve their rules, you know, swreel to see what will shake out in the final analysis. host: let's get to one of those folks who do use them. ray controls planes in new hampshire. ray, thanks for calling "washington journal." caller: thanks. good morning. yeah, i've been flying remote-control planes now 16-plus years, and when i tarted, you had to fly a designated field that was approved by the academy of

aeronautics, and maybe you could bring up their website, which is modelaircraft.org, and they go through and have all the stuff about, you know, where you're supposed to fly and how high you can supply things like that. so i've flown, you know, other copters before, not my thing, but i like the airplanes. but again, those are flying at designated fields. you stay within line of sight. you can't go above 400 feet. you can't be -- these fields aren't within five miles of airports. but you see it all the time, people are getting these things, and people they're inexpensive, under $1,000 for something that can -- something that has g.p.s., you can apply more than a mile. like my airplane, i can fly it more than a mile away. i can't see it, but, you know, i think the big thing is people

should just educate themselves. i think if they go to this website, they'd be able to find the rules and, you know, if they can abide by them, people do what they do, and that's unfortunate. i think it's going hurt the obvious. thank you. host: is this typical? guest: the f.a.a. is going to be very pleased he's following the rules, and that's what they want basically from everybody. this isn't really the issue in many of these cases. the rules, the dispute that you're hearing in congress is about commercial operators and the concerns about them sharing the skies basically much more flexible, almost as plentifully as passenger planes, and, you know, there's advocates inside the industry who say, you know, let us fly. you know, we will be confident, we will pay attention to the planes, you should trust us. we can fly them confidently and we can program them to fly

automatic paths so we can potentially have delivery somewhere down the road. but the reason the f.a.a. has been so careful about this is that the united states airspace is some of the most complicated in the world. if we have something like 28,000 passenger airline flights a day, 2,000 cargo flights a day, those 30,000 flights are out of perhaps 100,000 commercial flights worldwide. we have almost 1/3 of the commercial flights daily of everyone in the world, plus there may be as many general aviation flights each day as the commercial flights. and blending drones into those skies is something the f.a.a. wants to be very careful about, and so they're flying to balance the risks against the interests, just trying to fly themselves in remote areas, not bother anybody else, and the commercial operators that want to definitely fly in much more

ared airspace where more planes would fly. host: roger said, if our intelligence agencies are not looking at drones as instruments of terrors, they're fools. our enemies are not. this concern about terror drones? guest: well, clearly drones can arry things. they already carry cameras. the agriculture drone could carry fertilizer by definition. so drones can carry pay loads. the threat would be if they carry something bad to attack people, and i'm sure it is something that many agencies and federal gorts are studying that has not been the problem so much of the f.a.a. they have been much more safety-oriented, just how you fly these things and keep them from colliding and hurting people on the ground. host: guy from maryland is up

next. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you doing? host: good. go ahead. caller: this is my question t. seems like when someone comes up with a good idea, such as these drones, it seems to me that nobody -- nobody in the room is thinking about the consequences. everybody thinks about, you know, the hobbyists enjoying themselves, but there's another side of the coin. the same instrument can be used for something a whole lot worse than nobody anticipated. what are your thoughts about hat? guest: well, clearly if somebody were to intentionally collide with a plane near an airport, that would be a very dangerous thing, a very risky thing, and so that is absolutely something that federal officials will be studying. again, the difficulty is how would you prevent that. one person suggested trying to

ground them all. i suspect that sounds unrealistic. there's the prospect for geo fencing, but you need the programming to be effective. you need it to be tamper-proof so that somebody has a drone that will not fly in washington, d.c., and yet they figure out a way to reprogram it so that it can. you know, federal officials are definitely concerned about drones on the white house grounds, but they're looking at it, it's just a very complicated question as they try to resolve that. host: time for just a few more calls with bart jansen of "usa today." mike is in rockford, illinois. mike, good morning. caller: good morning, c-span. yeah, my question has to do with the new f.a.a. rules that hey're trying to impose. originally 500 feet above the house you control the airspace.

now they want to control the 500 foot all the way to the ground. so my question is, is that a air grant, and can they fly literally through your business and your house if that's a fact? that's the first question. the second is the same thing. if you take out a government drone, let's say you swat it t of the air, it's torblee a commercial airliner. you know what i'm saying. those are my two questions. thank you. guest: for the first question, the f.a.a. contends that they want to regulate all these objects flying anywhere above the ground, and there was actually a case involving a guy who flew a drone. it was argued it was a commercial flight flying around the university of virginia.

fairly low to the ground, and, you know, he argued that that should not be regulated or he should not be fined for that. and on appeal to the national transportation safety board, they upheld the f.a.a.'s ability to fine the operator in that case, and so the ability for the f.a.a. to enforce these egulations has been confirmed. it would be fairly chaotic if the f.a.a. weren't allowed to regulate them. so then the question is, you know, do they have enough inspectors? do they have enough people to follow all the reckless flights? they don't have that many people. and so they need to try to encourage people through educational programs to enforce the rules. they wouldn't regulate flights through your house. once the drones would go inside, then that wouldn't be f.a.a. purview anymore, and so

that's part of the -- they've been doing the research, amazon has done some of the research inside enormous warehouses, but to see how these drones are going to operate, you really to want see them outdoors. you've got to see them in wind and weather in addition to just indoors. but the f.a.a. is regulating stuff outdoors. host: the other question was, damage to drones, is it compareable in f.a.a. rules to damage to commercial airlines or government property? guest: well, i would think the liability of somebody damaging a drone would be the same, whether it was a manned or unmanned aircraft. but then you'd have to look at whether there was mitigation, such as you were justified for knocking the drone out of the sky because it was over your own house. again, those are laws i'm not familiar with. host: richard is waiting from florida. you're on with bart jansen.

caller: yes. good morning, c-span. my point is this -- i think -- in s is simply such the old years ago, the airplanes used to fly in certain areas where they have air fields for model airlines. so if you have these drones, i think they're quite dangerous. two points. privacy, going into somebody else's neighborhood, house, and commercially with the planes. you have people who are operating these drones who aren't necessarily professional. why don't they just have parks where they can just keep them without having these kind of problems? sooner or later there's going

to be an incident based on the free flying of these drones. host: on the commercial use of drones, isn't there designated spaces where the testing can occur around this country? guest: there are. the f.a.a. designated six testing areas across the country, and they're doing work on those major issues we talked bout, geofencing, the sensor actually had ch an spernt. they had a company actually deliver some medication as an experiment to see how deliveries might work. and nasa had deliveries in north dakota. they are dipping their toe in the water of night flights. so there are designated testing areas, but as the caller says, the concern with passenger planes is for collisions.

if the comparison is to birds, bird strikes have gone up dramatically from something like 1,800 in 1990 to 11,000 in 2013. the f.a.a. worries about birds weighing as little as eight pounds striking the tail. again, don't to want lose your tail on an aircraft for steering and control, or four pounds for the rest of the plane, and while many drones are smaller than that, that's not that large. the threat is that have a flock of birds, such as in the miracle on the hudson incident in january of 2009, it knocked out both engines of an air bus and had to land on the hudson. now, there were no serious injuries in that incident, but a single bald eagle, a 10-pound bald eagle, 7,500 feet above the denver airport severely damaged an engine of a boeing

757, and it made an emergency landing in november of 2011, 3,300 feet above the minneapolis airport, a 15-pound tundra swan did substantial damage to the nose of an engine of an air bus, and it also landed. so single birds can damage planes. as i said, airliners are supposed to continue to fly with a single engine, but perforating the skin, knocking out the instruments in the nose area, and one plane that was struck by birds, they had to land by an emergency backup radio, these raise concerns much smaller than the 55-pound limit that the f.a.a. is now studying. host: you mentioned the miracle on the hudson. yesterday, there was a story in what the celebrated pilot in that case, captain sullenberger, thinks about the danger posed by drones. that story appeared in "usa

today" yesterday. last call goes to peter in houston, texas. peter, good morning. caller: hi, good morning. i hope my question comes out coherently enough so you can understand what i'm trying to ask. so in regards to the hand-held device that the f.a.a. has a single specific register that goes from a hand held device to he actual unit that flies, they have a specific band width that they have to light in sight of, so the question would be, is there a way that somebody can just come out with like a focused signal jammer for that specific band width that can be used around airports or say the white house or any other specific building and maybe they can aim at it? host: did you get that? guest: yes, and that is one of the prospects that they were studying, particularly after

he white house incident. presumably you can crash, wherever it was in the sky, it would presumably go straight down, which is one concern, because you don't want them just raining down on people. but as i understand it, the difficulty with that is not knowing the variety of the different signals and being able to jam the people you want to jam and not jam everybody else. now, of course, they can jam wide areas during public events, you know, block cell phone calls, and certainly these radio frequencies, but the idea is how you balance, you know, protection against perhaps the single drone against, you know, others. host: bart jansen from "usa today." check out his work at usatoday.com. always appreciate your insight. up next on the "washington journal," we're going to be opening up our phones to get

your thoughts on the early, the very early winners and losers of campaign 2016. you can start dialing in now, and we'll be right back. >> there's a long way to go between now and the iowa caucuses, and a bunch of them are notorious for deciding late t. is a more conservative state in terms of the caucuses than many other places, and not that many people show up. there's five people in iowa, only a few hundred thousand actually participate in the caucuses. so it's a subgroup of a subgroup of a subgroup, and that subgroup tends to be pretty conservative. iowa favors more conservative and, to some extent, more popular candidates. right now donald trump is in the lead at about 20%. that means there's 80% of the vote still out there that's not for trump. if somebody can concede in consolidating the other 80%, that's a winning formula. that means the field is going

to have to substantially shrink. that may not happen by iowa. so 25% could be a winner. >> is it time to talk about donald trump as a potential winner in some of these early primary states? >> well, about a month ago i would have said no, but seeing the surprising resilience of his appeal and the rawness that he speaks, because he seems to be able to say almost anything and it doesn't substantially athe polling numbers, he may have more staying power than most people first realized. i'm not thinking he's going get the nomination, but i think he's going to be around longer, at a more competitive level in this race, than most people believe. i deprom a state where jesse ventura got elect governor narcotics world where the kardashians are, you know, seem to be so popular for mysterious reasons. you know, you never know. you never really know, especially in politics. host: and that was former republican minnesota governor tim pawlenty, our guest on "news makers" this week. if you want to check out the

entire interview, it airs tomorrow at 10:00 a.m. eastern, and then again at 6:00 p.m. in our last 40 minutes of the "washington journal" this morning, our phones are open. we're talking about campaign 2016 and the early winners and losers. lines for republicans, democrats, independents, and if you're outside the u.s., the line for you as well. you can start dialing in. we want to hear your take on who won the very early part of the contest of 2016, or who's been the unexpected loser of the early 2016 contest. as we said, donald trump, the reality tv star and businessman, appeared at a new hampshire town hall last night and is getting a lot of attention for some of his comments that he made. if you want to watch that entire town hall event, you can see it on cspan.org. as part of his speech, you talked about the summer of trump. here's a bit of what he had to say. donald: i was called by one of the biggest journalists in the

world the other date. he said, mr. trump, can i ask you a question? how does it sneel how does it feel? how does what feel? he said, you have done something that nobody else has ever done. you've taken over television. you've taken over the airwaves. it's the summer of trump. you know they're calling it the summer of trump. [applause] and i said -- this is a highly respected guy, an amazing guy. and i said, i haven't done anything, because i haven't won. i mean, if this all happens and i don't win, it starts with winning the primaries, getting the nomination, and then going on and winning. i consider it a total waste of time. he said you're wrong. you've done a great thing. trust me. i won't be happy, ok? i won't be happy. [applause] host: donald trump in new hampshire last night, talking about the summer of trump. donald trump, a leader in the g.o.p. polls right now. do you think he's the early winner of campaign 2016, and

who do you think the early losers are? we're getting your thoughts and comments. republicans, 202-748-8001. democrats, 202-748-8000. independents, 202-748-8002. happy to get your thoughts on either the democratic or republican field, or both if you want to call in. here's the front page of the "des moines register" this morning with lots going on related to the iowa state fair. the 2016 caucuses, clinton, sanders let passion take flight at the wing ding last night, a speak event out there, along with that speaking event, of course, the candidates taking to the iowa state fair soapbox to talk about their views on campaign 2016. we've been showing them here on c-span. you can check them out on cspan.org. of course, several candidates expected out there today, including hillary clinton and donald trump. you can catch both of those today on c-span.

winners and losers of 2016, frostburg, maryland, an independent. good morning, robert. go ahead. caller: what most about current politicians you do not comprehend is a brain surgeon and a socialist, because of their integrity, their integrity, that people can recognize that people can ssociate with. democrats draw republicans, they don't get it. until they begin to realize the hunger for integrity, they will miss the boat. thank you, sir. host: robert in maryland this morning. nina is in florida on our line for republicans. nina, who would you pick as the early winners and losers of campaign 2016? caller: i just had a comment on

mr. trump. he was a businessman way before he was a reality star. and i feel like we're not giving him enough credit as a business leader. most of our politicians don't have a business background, and i think he would be a good change for our country. thank you. host: nina in florida this morning. the hill story on donald trump 's town hall and campaign rally last night in new hampshire notes that donald trump lashed out at his republican rivals at that campaign rally. real estate nothing you will and reality tv star mocked senator rand paul, warned carly if i rain anot to publicly challenge him, and a jab at florida governor jeb bush over a stumble about whether he would invade iraq in a more than hour-long stream of consciousness style of speech. he warned his rivals that everyone who attacked him so far has only fall known the polls. if up to the see the latest

poll numbers, check out real clear politics, which includes an average of the most recent polls from july 30 to august 10. donald trump was averaging a 10-plus point lead over his closest competitor, jeb bush, at 22.5%, and the average of all the polling out there, bush at 11.8%. scott walker, 9.3%. senator marco rubio, 6.3%, tied with a neurosurgeon at 6.3%, and so on down the line. check out the numbers. they also have a map showing when the candidates have risen and fallen in the polls. you can see donald trump, the blue line right there. next up, sam from kansas. sam, whumes the early winners and losers in campaign 2016? ller: yes, i kind of think there's a whole political

system. donald trump is running for president and he's been bankrupt so many times that we look at him as a leader for our country. i'm kind of wondering, what is next? is there any kind of recourse to find somebody intelligent to take a run in this country? thank you. host: before did you, who are you backing in the republican primary? caller: i don't know who to back. they're all just flakes, really. i haven't seen anybody come out with any college degree. if they have any college to them, i'm kind of wondering, did they get through high school? host: sam in kansas this morning. christie is up next from wyoming. good morning. caller: hello. how are you today? host: good. he's looking

helping ation, she's out the v.a. and g.i.'s, and hat's important, you know? wondering what she thinks about health. everybody needs health, you know? host: christie, let me ask you, what are your thoughts about vice president biden in the wake of reports about the growing worry in the clinton camp and among democrats about hillary clinton's email server troubles? there's been increasing reports about a potential bid by vice president joe biden. do you think he could enter the race and win? caller: i'm not sure, because i haven't seen what was going on with him. i don't have any comments on

that one. i apologize. host: that's ok. in politico today, there's a story about joe biden potentially seeking the presidency, the story noting that with his blessing, confidants of vice president joe biden have begun strategizing about travel to early primary states and identify potential donors who could bank roll a campaign, even as he remains undecided about whether to pull the trigger on a late entry into the 2016 presidential contest. if up to the read that story, it's in politico. we're getting our viewers' thoughts on the early, very early winners and losers of campaign 2016. judith is in huntsville, texas, line for republicans. judith, good morning. judith, you with us? stepped away from her phone. susie is in el paso, texas, line for democrats. susie, good morning. caller: good morning, c-span. first of all, i want to thank c-span for what you call are

doing for this country, and it's a blessing. we get to see -- we get to see what's really going on. we don't need the pollsters telling us what i see. i think hillary's biggest opponent is the news media, msnbc and fox news. they are not fair to her. we got to let this thing play out. whoever is leaking what's on the emails -- we don't know what's on those emails. let it play out. and she's going to win the nomination, because she has the delegates. she has the super delegates. she got a good endorsement yesterday from tom harkin. people just need to let this play out and never underestimate the clintons. but i want to ask, so the biggest loser in my opinion is -- the lies the meet i can't are saying. i think that -- i have not seen ny other candidate in this

campaign, except for hillary and donald trump, that they asked a question about honesty and trustworthiness. they don't ask the other candidates. and as a voter, i've been voting in every single election in my precinct since the age of 18 when i registered to vote in my high school government class. i've been watching politics a long time. and i think it is a disgrace what the news need wra is doing to not only hillary clinton, but what they did to donald trump, donald trump stopped the news media when he went after fox news. we need to -- we need to just step aside, watch c-span and see what's going on, because you guys are a godsend, and thank you all so much, but i wouldn't count hillary clinton, if biden wants to get in, he doesn't have the delegates. these democrats jump hillary and go on to biden, and how will they keep the democrat

hillary voters for not voting for donald trump when he runs as a third party. host: el paso, texas, this morning, you mentioned the email controversy that's been so much in the news. here's the latest story from the "new york times," noting that f.b.i. agents investigating hillary rodham clinton's private email server are seeking to determine who at the state department has highly classified information from secure networks, mrs. clinton's personal account, according to law enforcement and diplomatic officials and others briefed on the investigation. the story noting that officials have said that mrs. clinton is not a target of the investigation, and she's said there's no evidence that her account was hacked. there's also been been no evidence that she broke the law, and many specialists belief the occasional appearance of classified information in her account was probably a marginal consequence. if up to the read more on that story, it's in today's "new york times." mary is up next, bedford, pennsylvania, line for independents. mary, who is the early winners nd losers of 2016?

caller: well, i feel that all they talk about is trump. i would like to hear more about the other candidates, like mike huckabee. i mean, he would make a wonderful president. and if trump is elected, i would say that it is the media that elected him. i mean, give the other people a hance, please. host: of course, you can seat other candidates in their recent speeches at the iowa state fair, several of them already taking to the soapbox there to give their campaign pitches. you can watch all the ones that have appeared so far on cspan.org, and you can also catch the ones happening today. hillary clinton expected to talk a little later this morning, and, of course, donald trump expected to be there as well. donald trump's speech expected somewhere around 1:30 this afternoon. check out our listings at

cspan.org for more specific times. but here's former florida governor jeb bush in his soapbox speech yesterday. >> put aside your ideology. i hope you want a president to roll up their sleeves and fix these broken systems, for crying out loud, to make sure that we serve the people. no more $800 million healthcare.gov web sites. no more cost overruns in the defense department, and all these other places. we need a competent leader that will accept responsibility to fix these things. and i believe that i'm the guy to do it. i humbly ask for your support, and here's my deal. i'm a republican. i'm a proud conservative. and i have a record of reform that is unmatched of anybody running. but i believe in order to fix these things, we need to come together as a nation. i'm tired of the divides. i respect people that don't agree with me. it's ok to disagree with me. i don't ascribe bad motives for people that disagree with me. they may be wrong, that's fine,

we'll have a lively debate. but we need to consensus to fix how we tax, how we regulate, how we restore the military, how we restore our intelligence capability. we need to build a bipartisan consensus again as it relates to foreign policy. so i campaign the way that i would govern. out amongst everybody. no rope lines. totally out in the open. i campaign in the latino community in spanish, asking them to join our cause. i campaign in the african-american communities, saying join us, because we believe in education reform so your children can be lifted up, on college campuses, amongst republicans and independents and democrats alike. if they don't like my views, i respect that, but they know that i have a heart for them. the next president is going to have to unite this country, and i'm going to campaign in a way that sends a signal, enough of this divide, we need to fix things in washington, d.c. thank you all very much. host: we're talking about the early winners and losers of

campaign 2016. in our last 20 minutes or so of the "washington journal" today, you can call in, of course, or , o follow us on twitter @cspanwj. there are many folks that comment on the subject we're talking about, including carol, who writes it is now definitely the summer of trump, but also the summer of our discontent. trump, fiorina and carson winners, hillary in trouble. and then don writes in his tweet, most notable part of 2016 is that both of the major nominees might not be members of either party, trump and sanders is what he writes in his tweet. zprump sanders, the subject of a story on the front page of the "chicago tribune" today, the headline there, sanders and stark se despite contrast, the two strike common chord as anti-establishment. that's a report in the "chicago

tribune." up next, line for democrats, ben from north carolina. good morning. caller: good morning, good morning. i am a democrat who will consider voting for donald trump. when you ask about the losers, we're all losers when we don't look at the big picture, and here it is. donald trump, we keep saying that he lost business and went bankrupt. guess what, now he knows what to do, and he can show us. ok? here's another thing. hillary, we all have human failings. what we looking for is integrity. i will vote for hillary. she loves the country. donald trump loves the country. host: you're looking for a hillary clinton-donald trump matchup in the general election? caller: well, that would be nice, but i'm just saying, if hillary doesn't get it, i would consider donald trump, because he has integrity. he has experience in failing. what is success? success is none other than failing so many times that

you've learned your lesson, and now you know what to do. we're missing the big picture so we all losers. host: william is up next, houston, texas. william, good morning. you're on the "washington journal." caller: hi, john. how are you? you know, i appreciate this opportunity to say a few things. you know, i flive houston, but i'm originally from new york city. i was born and raised there. i'm about the same age as donald trump, and i remember him quite well. is i want to say is trump the winner. he is an innovative. he's a visionary, and he's tough. e speaks tough, he is tough. i believe that all these things, you had a negative about him, his country is in a terrible, term situation right now. we need somebody that can come in here and use the -- do what

he talks about doing. this is what we need, and i believe he's sincere, and i have no reason not to believe he's not sincere, and i do believe -- i do think that him and rubio would be the perfect match to get this country back where it needs to be. host: donald trump talked last night about who in this country is supporting him in his rise in the polls. here's a bit from that event in new hampshire last night. donald: i brought back a term that hasn't been use in addition long time. it's called the silent majority. there's a tremendous silent majority that politicians have taken advantage of. i mean, they have taken advantage of the people of this country long enough. they're largely incompetent incident, except when it comes to getting re-elected. that's what they do. who knows him better than me. i've contributed to everybody, and who knows it better than me. they're great at one thing.

don't make any waves, get re-elected, serve it out, then get re-elected again. i see it all the time. i've been watching it for so many years. i personally am sick and tired of it. host: up to the watch the entire event from last night, go to cspan.org. go to david in new york, line for independents. david, who do you think the early winners and losers of campaign 2016 have been? caller: good morning. in light of all the national polls that demonstrates the lower approval rating of the government continues to be in the single dirges i do not see any of the candidates on both parties to be really seriously viable to lead us into the future, until such time that we have a complete overhaul of our electoral process, having public finance for election, removing super p.a.c.'s and third countries that have taken

our entire government system hostage. host: david, you might agree with roger green on twitter, who says anyone happy with the downgrading of this country and happy with the status quo should vote for a career politician in this election. let's go to mario waiting in miami, florida, line for democrats. mario, you're on the washington journal." caller: i will say we as spanish american, we are going to go with either the clintons and everybody else who they ant to get our vote, we been on at that rack of the race so many time with that republican that we are sick and tired. tell them that we are going to o with democrat again. host: a sfwore the democratic primary race -- a story about the democratic primary race on the front page of the "new york times" this morning, talking about the person who's currently closest to hillary

clinton in the polling, and that's bernie sanders, senator sanders fights the portrait of him on the fringes is the headline there, if you want to check out that story about the democratic primary contest. next is on our line for republican. good morning. caller: good morning. let me tell you how we're thinking about going down and changing from a trope a democrat until trump came in. it looked like trump is going to get it. if trump wins, i'll stay a republican so i can vote for him. but when george bush charged $100,000 to give a speech to the wounded veterans, that did it for me. they are so corrupt, all of them bushes. and laura, his wife, got $50,000 for making a speech to the wounded veterans, you know he ones with the -- i'm just ed up.

host: if you switch over to the democratic party, who do you like? who would you support? caller: well, i don't know. it looks like i'll have to vote for hillary, but i wouldn't want to, but i wouldn't vote for any of them republicans, because they promise you everything. they want to save social security. they get up there and just join the club. nd i'm sick of them. he's one of the reasons i switched over. ok, so one of the reasons, all the bushes, i never heard much good. neil bush, that's the brother, he is just a rascal. what dunk of jeb bush's leadership when he was governor? caller: well, i did not pay that much attention, you know. everything went ok for me. but when, you know -- ok, i just wanted to say, george bush

sent the veterans over to afghanistan and vietnam and got them all shot up, wounded, and now he wants $100,000 -- he got $100,000 to make a speech at one of their fundraisers, and they had to furnish him a plane. host: that's hubert from lakeland, florida. we're getting your thoughts from early 2016. line for democrats, robert is waiting in north carolina. robert, good morning. you're on the "washington journal." caller: yes, good morning. i think howard stern should run -- host: we'll go on to gary in new harmony, line for independents. gary, good morning. caller: good morning. good morning. in reference to an early caller , speaking of trump, and being independent, i'm not saying republican or democrat or who i'm for at this point. however, i'd like to call the attention to the early caller

who mentioned that trump filed or bankruptcy three times. we in the united states basically filed for bankruptcy here just a few years ago. when taxpayers bailed out the banks and so forth. all right, we turned that round. he could use that in a nongovernmental way to run a country. i'm looking at the previous caller, i think it was, that bush making all this money, his wife, too, laura, on speeches, well, my god, there's nobody that's champion to that than he clintons.

gosh, as an independent, i investigation everybody. gosh, this clinton machine here has been at this for many, many years. we just need a change. gosh, maybe i'd like to see the vice president get in there and run a campaign and see how different he would be from obama. although i don't think it would be that much different. goip host: that's square any utah this morning. one tweet says, i think an early loser is hillary clinton. she's under f.b.i. investigation. again, the story headline in today's "washington post," email controversy is a growing worry in the clinton camp, if you want to read that. you can go to the

washingtonpost.com to give you a sense of where the latest poll numbers are in the real clear politics, average of polls from july 23 to august 2, hillary clinton was leading by an average of 35, almost 36 points over her closest primary opponent, bernie searneds, who was at 19% in the average of all the polls that real clear politics looked at during those dates. brian is in michigan on our line for democrats. brian, good morning. you're on the "washington journal." caller: good morning, john. how are you doing this morning? host: i'm good. caller: really fine radio you got going here, really big surprises with mr. trump coming up. i always thought he was just a radical, but come to find out -- anyway, bernie sanders is my candidate of choice. bernie tells it like it is, and bernie doesn't back bite. and bernie is one of the last pure politicians left.

host: how does bernie sanders make up that gap, that 35-plus point gap in the polling? caller: i would imagine if he got a mention in the mainstream press just a tiny bit more, particularly in lieu of his popularity, that that would do something about it. host: as a sanders fan, are you hoping that vice president biden gets into the democratic primary race to split the establishment support there? caller: i don't think it's going to make any difference. most of the factors controlling what's going to happen are already set in place. sanders is who he is. the establishment is what they are, and the biggest problem in this country is, we are getting damn sick and tired of your establishment. that's the whole point. both sides, democrats and republicans. i haven't seen a republican out there in the last four or five years and you look up at the republicans and say, oh, my party, my conservative party,

they're radical. thank you. host: brian in michigan this morning. buddy is up next, birmingham, alabama, line for independents. good morning, buddy. caller: hey, how you doing? host: i'm good. caller: i just want to make a couple of comments on donald trump. as far as i know and as far as i'm pretty sure everybody else, but even people i talk to that are democrats and republicans, there's only one guy that's even running or whoever, you know, both people like, and that's democrats and republicans. they both -- a lot of them, they like donald trump. he's bringing everybody together. he's the only one that's talking and saying what everybody wants to hear. in my opinion, he's just like us. p.c., the of all the establishment, and if he doesn't get nominated, i guarantee you one thing, the r.n.c. is going to have serious problems on their hands, because he's the only one

that's up there doing what needs to be done right now. even obama couldn't bring everybody together. he was supposed to do it, but it didn't turn out that way. host: "the washington post" today noting that donald trump will unveil a series of position papers soon in early september, including papers on immigration policy and his proposals for revamping the u.s. tax code. they're supposed to be revealed in a runup to the second presidential debate on september 16. donald trump talking more and more about policy issues on the campaign trail, event that event last night in new hampshire, in which he was asked about women's issues and how he would address them during his presidency. host: i would hope women's health issues more than anybody, including on the democratic side, women's health issues. you watch. you watch.

he didn't want to fund women's health issues. that's worse than romney's 47%, which probably cost him the election, along with other things, like he forgot to campaign for three weeks at the end, ok? that didn't help. forgot to go on television for about three weeks. but we have to do something, and we have to do it fast. and if we don't do it fast, we're not going to have a country. host: a few minutes left in today's show to talk about the early winners and losers of campaign 2016. that's our topic on the "washington journal" here. let's go to ralph, new york, line for republicans. ralph, good morning. caller: hi, good morning. i wanted to comment on why i feel the democratic party is going to have a hard time having a good candidate. the clintons, unfortunately, going back into the 1990's, ave developed this

clandestine, like sandy berger stealing papers, this whole mistrust goes back so far, bernie sanders has a fresh face, but i believe that the negativity, once the iran deal is secured, and if they don't veto it, i think the democratic party is in big trouble next time there's an election, and i thank you for taking my call. host: that's ralph in new york this morning. we'll go to joe in jacksonville, florida, line for democrats. good morning. caller: yes, good morning. thanks for taking my call. i have three solutions for our country. first, get rid of citizens united. we should adopt the system like the british have. you can only campaign three months before the actual election. host: are you sick of the campaign already at this point with more than a year to go?

caller: are you kidding? it's nonstop, months after months. i'm so sick of it. just have term limits and only campaign three months before the actual election and get rid of citizens united. get rid of the money in our elections. i'm so sick of it. host: let's go to mark waiting in bridgewater, massachusetts, line for independents. mark, good morning. caller: hello. good morning. thank you for taking my call. i have a few points, just quick liners here. first of all, i have absolutely no trust in hillary clinton. donald trump, i like the fact he takes no money from special interests, and i also like the fact that he knows people in big, important places that could probably help a lot with the economy and business worldwide. and i also like the fact that he isn't a politician per se,

ut people almost say that in a negative way. business is politics. and also, i want to just say that we not only have a problem with, you know, with the administration current here, but we need to pay a lot of attention to the people we put in congress, and our representatives, because they're also a big problem. host: mark, let me ask you, what about this concern that some people have about donald trump? on twitter, the only thing that trump cares about is trump. caller: well, i disagree, because first of all, donald trump doesn't even need this. he doesn't need this job. and that's a problem we have. the position of president in this country, a lot of the people who would do a good job don't want it. they don't need it. and that's the type of people we need.

host: that's mark in pennsylvania this morning. carol is in florida, line for democrats. carol, good morning. caller: hi. host: hi, carol. caller: hi. i just wanted to say there's one big difference between trump and bernie sanders. trump is buying his own election. and the real people, we poor people, are buying sanders' election. i wish more people could listen to sanders, because he's saying it like it should be, and he's getting all his support from people, not corporations or he isn't buying it himself. sanders is a good guy, but he isn't getting much coverage. people that listen to him really believe in him. thank you. host: that's carol in florida. rich is up next in placerville, california, line for republicans. rich, good morning.

caller: good morning, sir. how are you doing? ost: i'm good, rich. rich, just turn down your tv and go ahead with your question or comment. caller: oh, absolutely. i thought they prerecorded it. i would say if we want results like the obama administration, then we're going to vote for bernie sanders and hillary clinton. host: that's rich in placerville, california, going to be our last caller in today's show on the "washington journal." but tomorrow, join us at 7:00 a.m. eastern, 4:00 a.m. pacific. you'll be seeing christopher farrell talking about the clinton state department emails , daniel will be with us as well to talk about the jewish american group. and at 9:15, we'll talk about the anniversary of the watts riots with a history and african-american studies professor. that's all tomorrow morning on the "washington journal."

hope you have a great saturday. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] bush yesterday, walking through the iowa state fair, where presidential candidates this week have been speaking on the "des moines minutes" soapbox, 20 each. several more candidates will be appearing today, including hillary clinton, however not expected to appear on the soapbox. we will show