whether president owe baum ave is a christian and he said i'll take his word for it. and continue the question being an american, being a christian and now josh: i think it is a strategy that is utterly failed. the president has one to national elections, and has advanced an agenda that is made a real difference for the country the short term. historians will have the opportunity to evaluate that. i felt confident that that evaluation be quite favorable because it holds up well against the record of other presidents in modern american history. so, i do not know that the strategy. but if it is, you think it is one they would have dispensed with. thanks, everybody. go, royals!

>> and earlier today on capitol ofl, the house conference republicans holding what it thought was going to be some nominees and elections today for the speaker of the house. it turns out kevin mccarthy, the front runner and currently the majority whip, said he would be dropping out. we will take your phone calls in just a minute. reactionng back at the in the house. again, we take your phone calls and look at this tweet from the hill. talking about some of the disarray in the republican conference from now. adopting as focus on shared vision before electing a new speaker. the elections have been postponed until further notice, because that is when the current speaker, john boehner, says he is leaving. he said he will now stay in place until a new speaker is selected.

take a look also here at an article from politico, looking at the historic implosion. the mccarthy leaves the house with no apparent line of succession. hana palmer and john bresna say they have no clear sense of who will serve as the next leader. no idea of the governing agenda with several legislative battles in the coming weeks. we heard from lawmakers throughout the day. it will take a look back at their conference. and take a look at your phone calls, what you think unfolded in the house today. we will start off with kevin mccarthy. challengers,of his jason chaffetz of utah. and also from daniel webster, a congressman from florida. take a listen.

[indiscernible] >> wait a minute. come on over, guys. come on up. come on up. alright, listen. i think i shocked some of you, huh? listen, we have been going through this

campaign talking to a lot of members, but the one thing. i said we ship with the conference first. there's something for us to unite, and we need a fresh face. i will stay on as majority leader. but the one thing i found talking to everybody is we're going to unite and be strong. we need a new face to help do that. so, nothing more than that. i feel good about the decision. i go great to have my family here, my colleagues. going to be stronger. we fought hard to win the majority and turn the country around. step forward.st >> if you are going to run, why change at noon? what happened? kevin mccarthy: we had our conference. there are calls into the district. i don't want making the vote for speaker a tough one. i want to go to the floor with 220.

i think the best thing for our party right now is that we have 247 votes on the floor. if we are going to be strong, we have to be 100% united. what,think i'm you know let's put the conference first. i have been talking with a number of members who have been thinking about this throughout the week. trying to see if we can get there. i just think it is best to have a new face. reporter: do you think your comments about benghazi last week -- kevin mccarthy well, that was : not helpful. i could have said it much better. but this benghazi committee was only created for one purpose, to find the truth on behalf of the families of the four dead americans. we should not be distracted from that. that is part of the decision, as

well. reporter the letter that was put : up by congressman john. young -- mccarthy: no, come on. i think the conference should be able to decide. thank you all very much. [inaudible] mr. webster: i want to make sure we are doing exactly what we should. we have a lot of discussion. [indiscernible]

i like kevin mccarthy. he is a good man. he wants to share the same goals i have. i am going to the microphone. we have to have that. reporter: do you expect new competition? mr. webster: i think that is part of the process. new things with a variety of faces.

reporter: he is coming to the mic. mr. webster: i am here with my wife julie. absolutely stunned, do not see that coming. kevin mccarthy is a very good man. and he has always been one that puts his country before everything else. so, he and i stand shoulder to shoulder with the same goals and desire -- to unite this party and take the fight to the president, the senate, and the american people. i really do feel it is time for a fresh start. that was the whole genesis of my campaign. but we need to have a lot more family discussions. we need to find somebody that our whole body to unite behind. and do what we were elected to do. stunned, absolutely surprised, and shocked that this happened.

but our conference is going to have to do a lot of deep soul-searching. we will see what happens. yes, i said that i would support the nominee on the floor. but we don't yet have a nominee. the fact that it is delayed, i will continue to campaign. yes. absolutely. i think we have a lot of fracture that is happen. we need to figure out a way that the party can unite. it is what kevin mccarthy want to do, that is what i want to do. and i think that is what john boehner wants to do. talkter: there is a lot of coming out about hariri caretakers . why is that not a good idea ? i think the conference has to unite. we will have those discussions in the coming weeks. but ultimately, we are trying to build consensus here.

that can get us to the numbers and get us back to the work we were all elected to do. so we will continue along those lines. so, thank you, appreciate it. reporter: all of a sudden there candidates. chaffetz: now there are three. i think that is a big issue. conference the other day, we started with some changes. i think those are key things.

and then use them. right now, we do not use our rules. that is a problem. reporter: [indiscernible] mr. chaffetz: here is what you may have misunderstood. the speaker powers the members to be successful. system, theased speakers and others make all the decision. that is not my prerogative. what i want to do is make everyone successful. reporter: if the majority of the conference -- mr. chaffetz: it is not my job

to block it. it is the vote of the people. that is where we are. if we go with, like i said, a principle-based system, you will see a lot of people pulling that together. cases, that all the other side would like to do, in some cases -- and it doesn't matter which party -- they would like to affect change. or they don't get a chance at all, the process should come out. the may go in for a group or committee. reporter: how many votes do you think you have? fetz: i do not know. think there are other factors here, and it will

be hard to determine how that will play out. reporter: [indiscernible] as he encouraged you? did he put your name in? mr. chaffetz: i don't think so. elected, ato got the end of the day, we are moving toward a member-driven process. we have to change the way we operate. there are some great things that have happened. they happened in florida when i

was a speaker. we were actually able to have a lot of leverage. all we have to do is maintain those principles, including membership, and take up the vote of support first. when you do not allow that is aion bills -- lot of pressure. the closer we get towards the deadline -- [indiscernible] together.tz: we were and he was right.

well, it is harder to unify without a leader. mr. webster: there were things he said before. reporter: in a meeting here this morning -- it is the same

passion. mr how are we doing on time? reporter: do you think that is a good idea? >> we need to get by. coming through. mr. webster: no, i don't. he made a decision.

i have to go.- congressman?e >> his two challengers for the position, jason chaffetz and daniel webster. we will take your phone calls and hear what you think about kevin mccarthy and his decision to drop out of the race. numbers for both democrats and republicans. and for independence and all others. take a look at an article from politico, with a shot of the majority leader here in the house -- kevin mccarthy. the decision about to bail. it haunted teva mccarthy.

publicly, he projected the appearance of a man who will be the next speaker. but in private, his allies told him the pursuit of power was changing them. he said that even if he won, he cannot govern. we need someone to get us to 247, referring to the total number of house republicans. and i was never going to get to 247. we would take your phone calls and see what you think about the situation in the house, and the republican leadership there. give us a call, let us know what you think. orson is a tweet @cspan. can also get on facebook. some members wanted to proceed and vote on webster or chaffetz. forjordan was ready to run leader if mccarthy won.

and then we hear from ryan costello, he actually broke the news about mccarthy. apparently i broke the news. blame it on being a freshman and going up the wrong door. he was the first one we heard earlier today that let us know kevin mccarthy was not going to be running for speaker. we would take a look at what commerzbank costello said and a few others. and then we will get your call. costello: we want to find someone who can unite us and move forward. reporter: no explanation why? he said he was not going to run. i have to say this, he was not leaning in to the microphone as closely as he should have. a lot of people do not hear it. costello: that is a good question. that was not made clear. therenless i go back in

and say april. fool's, i don't think that will happen. reporter: can you tell us again what happened? wascostello: what happened kevin mccarthy went up to the microphone and said he was not -- he was withdrawing his name for consideration for speaker. and he was not going to be running. that, speaker boehner we up and said based on what just said, we're going to move to postpone elections for speaker, and then they got up and banged the gavel. conference dismissed. reporter: what was the reaction in the room? the person next to me was

crying. i don't know. mr. rooney: i like both of those guys. i was one of kevin mccarthy's lieutenants. he does want to make it easier on them. but he was prepared to take those arrows. for our party moving forward. i don't know. it was a shock. literally. it was a shock.

reporter: this was at the top of the morning? mr. rooney: yes. he got up and literally said he does not want people to have to defend him in their district. and that he is not going to be a distraction for them and their constituents. and he hopes they will re-adjourned this meeting at a later date. taking himself out. reporter: wow. talkooney: i hope people sense into him and they will galvanize around them, so we can move forward. issa: i think it is obvious all of us were shocked. kevin mccarthy have a vast

majority of the confidence and vote. but he has made a decision that i believe he could not get to 218 as a result, he is taking himself out of the running, and favor of a candidate who can get there. i believe he will be the most influential voice as to who we can get to 218. kevin mccarthy remains our leader. he remains a steadfast part of our leadership. and clearly the man to have the most votes, by far, speaker. >> will he stay on as majority leader? mr. issa: as far as i know, yes. and kevin mccarthy will be the most important endorsement for anyone who ultimately becomes speaker. >> possible indiscretions in the past? mr. issa: yes as before himself. the right was not

person. he wants to make sure that whoever does become speaker obviously has the ability to get to 218 on the floor consistently. that is his reasoning. >> is he the only person? mr. issa: i believe you have to ask the candidate that may emerge. i don't believe there is any candidate today that could get to 218 among those who declared. and that is the reason speaker boehner dismissed with the intention to have the field reconsidered for someone who can get to 218 within our conference. >> will this take longer than the end of october? mr. issa: mr. speaker remains until he steps down. until he steps down, we have a candidate who very magnanimously said he could not unite conference in th significantly. he took himself out of the running. no other candidate came close to having the votes teva mccarthy

had. lawmakers whenm kevin mccarthy decided he was not going to run for the position of speaker to replace john boehner. john boehner is supposed to leave at the end of september, september 30 is his last day in congress and the chair. he says he will wait until republicans have figured out what they will be doing with leadership position. we take your phone calls now. (202) 737-0002 four republicans. (202) 737-0001 for democrats. (202) 628-0205 for independents.

caller: his statement that the benghazi committee was formed to basically attack hillary clin clinton. in fact, today i was watching fox news. i try to do that once in a while to see what is going on on the other side. they are making a strong push by taking tactical moves like that, to reestablish that what they are really all about is getting to the heart of the benghazi thing. hauntinghink that was kevin mccarthy. would: no doubt, that have affected his authority in rallying the troops. this is important, his continued presence was a continuing indictment of the benghazi committee. which is very important in the long term strategy of the republican party. they are sure that able to defeat every clinton. everything is at stake in 2016.

the next president likely may appoint four supreme court justices. so that is an important factor. one thing that has never been asked, if i may, how did it come to this/ how did it come to this? i will offer you an escalation. as short as i can. when the affordable care act was under consideration, the americans for prosperity, there's not yours -- the koch works,s -- and freedom which was headed by a former republican speaker of the house of representatives, they formed these groups to go out and protest at town halls of the commerce men were putting on. and to disrupt them and create havoc. and they created a manual for them. they did something that they -- they gave them an identity. these groups have been used before to attack legislation

that was not desired by tobacco companies and things. but those people never had an identity. and this time, they were given an identity. identity that they were taxed enough already. and so the republican establishment created the tea party. the problem is the republican establishment has such contempt for the people that they figured they would treat these groups, use them, tell them to go home. i even have a quote, if i may. from an article that buchanan wrote back in 2010. and basically, if i can find it the heart ofe laid the problem. basically what he said was the tea party people -- what they wanted to do -- they created these groups. but they should not have resumed to sit at the power table with you step in. the establishment forgot -- they

do not even think about it -- there were tens of millions of people who thought like the tea party. but there are not tens of powerns in the establishing. host: howard, i will move on. let's go to rose, waiting patiently in jackson, michigan. on the republican line. ller: i wasn't surprised, considering what he said about benghazi. i would not repeat what the man said before me. but there had to be something else earlier that we will learn about in the future. there is something may have on this guy that will stop him from getting the votes he needs. if he really wants someone to take john boehner's place, i issa would be a fantastic replacement.

host: grace is on the line. lafayette, indiana. caller: i like what the first caller said. i am a democrat. however, i do vote for republicans -- especially local. but i'm glad he stepped down today, because at the forefront of what we saw is to empower, nothing else. we cannot -- they are so divided that the party is just so divided -- i don't know how anybody could ever decide on which one of these parties they would vote for. i am really very old. and i have never seen anything like this. i'm glad he stepped down because it exposed what we have all known has been going on since they have come forward.

the tea party is always in front of a camera spouting hate, hate, hate. they hate women, blacks, gays, the unions, workers, women. that isne everybody i t banks, millionaires. this is terrible. host: take a look at the politico article we were looking at. a couple of ideas around why he may have stepped down. his longtime allies, the people he recruited to get him elected, told him they were getting hammered back home. it would be difficult to back him on the house floor. other friends says his pursuit of the speaker gavel have become a staggering weight on his shoulders, and was already starting to change them. and conservatives, a few of you have mentioned some of the members of the house freedom caucus, they were making demands he believed he could not deliver

on. and then there was benghazi -- his monumental blunder. made to committee was undermine hillary clinton. let us know what you think. on to athens, georgia. jimmy is on the line for indep endents. caller: i do believe that the conservatives are split on what it exactly means to be a conservative. the ones who said we are the true conservatives, and we have to stay true to our ideals. and there are conservatives who say we have to do what is best for america and sometimes that includes compromise. and due to the taxed party and obamacare, the freedom caucus wing of the relevant party has gotten a lot more powerful. toy're doing what it can

take control of the republican party. but it is my view that this is bad for both the republican party and the country as a whole. host: thank you for the call. orlando, david is on the line. i do not have your political party. caller: i am a democrat. fantastic, thank you for taking my call. i am concerned, i see this going on. martin on, on c-span, said something that led to this. we have a bunch of young new members were trying to take power, but don't really know how. so i think that is what happened with representative mccarthy. he thought he could take power just by saying he is a leadership. and they said no, you are not. they said hold up, wait a minute. tell us what you can do for us. and he had nothing. there was nothing he could do. they pushed him out of the way, as usual.

the republican party seems to be at a way they are eating their own. i don't understand why they are not seeing -- i think the problem that they have is they are between ultraconservative values and what the people actually want. and they are seeing the polls, seeing the noise, they're trying to go against the. it is not working. he walked into the meeting and there was a conservative set of people who said, no, we do not necessarily want you. as our speaker. and they are a small group, and they did the same thing that the minority can do in congress -- they can hold up everything. that is what happened to representative mccarthy. host: we will take a look at the tweets. is from the reporters following on what was going on at the republican conference. this one is from paul ryan.

i was shocked. he told the right before the meeting he was not going to be running. that is paul ryan on kevin mccarthy dropping out of the speaker's race. someone that it turns out both speaker boehner and kevin mccarthy have decided they want to try and take the seat. one more tweet, also from craig caplan. stands, paul ryan talking about not running for house speaker as he heads out of the u.s. capitol. and one year from fox news. the paul ryan has taken a pass on running for over the years -- minority leader house speaker, president, governor, senator. it looks like they are trying to say you take this leadership position. n saying i'm nota going to do that. trying to fill the void in leadership. taking your phone calls, we have grinch, connecticut.

bill, go ahead. claller: thank you. as far as mccarthy goes, when i heard the announcementm i would impress that rather than twist and arm, we have someone who needs to lead an entire group. perhaps the group needs to participate in making a decision they can sign on to. his stock with me went up. even though he is from another part of the country and so on. i just thought that was refreshing to hear for a change. in terms of some of the previous comments, the folks that think the conservatives in america are spewing hate and are against people who are different, i only have three basic questions i ask. did you ever think that sometimes there is too much government? are you ever concerned that they are wasting the money?

did you ever feel like maybe we were overregulated? if you think those things are true, you are probably a conservative and like the direction they're going in. host: todd calling from blacksburg, virginia. caller: i am not surprised that mccarthy is going to get out of that. he is another wino. i don't want paul ryan and their. r and i and we need to go to somebodye. congressman gaudi from south carolina. he will not let this president stop all over the constitution. it is not really right, how he tried to treat the rest of the people. howhearted people like me, about the war on babies that is going on there? thank you for your time. gowdy,alking about trey

one of the people that could step into the void that has occurred now that kevin mccarthy is not going to run as the greed let's go to olivia in birmingham. a democrat, go ahead. what do you think about mccarthy not running? caller: good evening. i think he was the wrong choice. i am not a republican, but he was the wrong choice. let me make the statement. i thought the american people, in a lot of ways, republicans and democrats alike, because i live in alabama, the democrats that ran the statehouse for 102 thes in montgomery alabama, democrats did not come out and vote in 2014. statistics say that was the lowest voting year we ever had. we stayed at home.

the republicans have taken over everything in most of the state. our taxes are off the chain. everything went, up, we are taxed on everything. republicans, what they have done in the statehouse in alabama -- host: let's take a look here. from joshfo fo earnest today. he talked about what is going on in the leadership and where things are going from the perspective in the white house. take a listen. republicans have to make some decisions about how to leave their conference. poket is certainly easy to fun at the chaos. but the fact is that the challenge that is facing the next republicans the house, regardless of who it is, is the same challenge that john boehner

faced. the same challenge that kevin mccarthy would have faced. and that is simply to unite a divided republican caucus. group ofa minority conservative republican politicians that places their own extreme ideology ahead of everything else. effectivenly ahead of governance of the country. but also, as of today, ahead of the effective governance of the house republican caucus. ththe --ody within among the republicans will have to demonstrate an ability to of that, again, small but vocal group of extreme

ideologues. the mainstream -- at least more mainstream -- majority within the republican conference. that will also include a willingness to work in bipartisan fashion to do what is right for the country, to not insist on receiving 100% of everything they asked for. that is not how democracy works. and it is certainly not how it works when you have one party in charge of the white house and another in congress. there is a path to including a conservative imprint on the solutions. but there will not be a path to addressing the significant challenges if republicans choose to confront them in a way that satisfies the most extreme

ideologues in the party. host: this is from roll call saying we don't need this much excitement in my life. speaker john boehner during another leadership crisis. conservatives may have taken out boehner and kevin mccarthy. but boehner could move debt limit, spending bill, export billt bank and highway for he leaves. speaker john boehner, if he stays, something he could be working on before the leadership get straightened out. independent.n caller: thank you for taking my call. i am new at this. i have never called them. i listened to your other discussions, getting distracted. ideologue conservatives,

they want to balance the budget? stop this $20 trillion spending? that is extreme? they want to get rid of all of these extraneous regulations? that is extreme? they want to get people back to work. that is extreme? what is that not case talking about. i'm getting off the subject talking about the new speaker of the house. chost: who do you might want to see? if not kevin mccarthy, someone you have your eye on? caller: i'm trying to sort it out. i was glad to see him do that. because he has hurt the conservative cause, the independent cause by going out -- i could not believe what he said.

he certainly raised hillary --nton' host: about benghazi. chafr: i am not sure about fetz? ?ost: is that hi he came out earlier this year trying to promote romney back in. i understand he is a mormon. that would be the worst case to put him in that place. the other one from florida. host: daniel webster. caller: had a chance to do some research today. i have more time i hands after retiring from the department of defense. i've been wanting this all day.

he has an electrical engineering degree from georgia tech. he was in business for himself. he is not a lawyer, we don't have to listen to this legalistic -- host: someone you are interested in? caller: i think i am. he was leader of the house in florida for several years, he brought the democrats in to help create balanced budgets and everything. host: thanks for pointing that out. we won a couple more calls. john on the line, a republican in phoenix. john: thanks for allowing my call. i would like to put a different spin on this. you know, it only takes somebody to get together to reach across the line and go into the democrat caucus and get 20-25 votes. and put those extremist

conservatives way out of place. i mean, really throw cold water on them to where they don't exist. where they come out and there is a reach across the aisle. and these guys don't have anything to play with. you have 30 democrat votes, guess what, no leg to stand on. play,s what you want to like it used to be, reaching across the aisles, that is where the party has to go to. making sure and services nonexistent. host: one more call. and ocean grove, new jersey. caller: thank you for c-span, as always. regarding the speaker race, kevin mccarthy -- i have to say he has a certain kind of magnetism. whenood out in the crowd

benjamin netanyahu was speaking before the congress. and again when pope francis was there. he just seemed to jump out. who is that guy? i mixed them up. when he emerged to be the choice, i placed a couple bets on who would emerge for the candidate for that. hows awfully strange about at the speed of light he came out and withdrawn himself from the contest. i survey do wonder what happened. he might have misread what he wanted to say about the benghazi committee. and certainly, he said the wrong thing. to who i'mrds thinking about, i heard someone else mention paul ryan. sure, why was i thinking the

paul ryan? but i have learned that he said no thanks. and someone else had mentioned, and i would have to do more research, being speaker of the house might impede his outlook for the presidency in 2020. which i firmly believe might happen. i was behind paul ryan well before this 2012 election. host: thank you for the call. if you do not get through, we will have the phone lines open tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. eastern time for washington journal. here is a look at what we will have on washington journal. we will have the latest on kevin mccarthy. and we will be talking with iowa congressman steve king about the gop leadership and the republican conference, as well as a 2016 race. and first-time guest, connecticut congresswoman

elizabeth este will talk about gun legislation. a.m.is all starting at 7 you can join us by phone or on twitter. it would take a look back at a different story. volkswagen and their ceo was on capitol hill talking to a house subcommittee about the problems -- they had a system to allow the cars to essentially cheat on emissions. here is what he had to say on capitol hill.

[indiscernible] >> could members of the media move out of the way?

>> i could take that thing apart and put it back together. myselfll the maintenance because the volkswagen beetle at a legacy as the people's car. lot, not socar a much to call it bard. rad. but i love that car. i proceeded to give me around and i trusted the volkswagen would build a reliable car. trust builds consumer loyalty. and that trust is what helped build volkswagen. because we believe the coming

lookout for customers first. just three weeks ago, car owners around the world learned that the world's largest automaker admitted it installed software in millions of diesel models that defeated emissions controls while driving. on september 18, the epa said they had sufficient evev idence of cheating. subject to testing, the diesel beatles switch into an operational mode to pass the test and switch back to a different mode during normal driving. the mode that emitted nitrogen oxide up to 40 times the federal limit. the united states alone, some 42,000 volkswagen and audi models were affected. estimated in 11 million involving volkswagen vehicles. in the wake of massive

deception, the members of an a bipartisan committee. this investigation will seek to understand the facts and circumstances surrounding the actions, the impacts of the decision, and the compliance in general. we will receive testimony from the head of volkswagen's ceo in u.s. mr. michael horn. in addition, the subcommittee intends to pursue answers to initial questions concerning the relations of volkswagen. what happened? who was involved? and most important, why? mr. born is appearing before us -- mr. horn is appearing before us voluntarily. this means providing documents to the committee as quickly as possible, including documents that have already been discussed publicly in connection with volkswagen's there is board meetings in germany.

as i said before, a number of core questions we pursue today. most critically, what happened, who was involved, why were these actions taken? and we have a number of questions concerning the impact on customers, dealerships, and the public. can expandg mr. horn upon the facts he represents in his testimony. we look to him to explain the current understanding as to what was done to the engines. was it done to deliberately deceive government regulations and regulators? and what is false wagon doing to wagone problem -- folks doing to fix the problem? they made a choice to move forward with engines that now suggest were not compliant. the illegal software was deployed in the first generation of the diesel engines, which accounts for approximately

340,000 effective vehicles. despite apparent advancement in the control systems, these engines have software that remained in place. what tothe company -- the company understand about this software cheat? and what does it mean for fixing them? will some big is your than others? we have questions about compliance and recall programs. i hope we get answers from that agency. why did the epa standard tests and audits failed to detect? what are they doing to ensure any effect, requiring the automaker does not affect performance? therding this matter, 480,000 or so vehicles implicated in the scandal represent only .2% of the cars and trucks on the highway. so far, we have no evidence of the software used by volkswagen

is used in others. our witnesses from volkswagen and the epa can see the comments. the behavior which volkswagen admitted to represents a violation of trust. it can be seen across the united states and the world as people grapple with the application. need to develop a clear understanding of the case. and this hearing will be the first important step to the goal. i now recognize the ranking member of the subcommittee for five minutes. >> thank you, mr. chairman. and the spirit of bipartisanship in the investigation, i want to you my first car was also a volkswagen. w beetle that i hertha from my grandmother. i will tell you that i still miss that car. it did not have any lines of

computer code required to operate it. in this situation, fast-forward to today, we know some things. but we do not know enough. that is why i'm glad we had this investigation. we know that in may of 2014, west virginia university published a study commissioned by the international council on clean transportation that found that on road commissions were well above standards. they also did not match the emissions under testing conditions. we know that volkswagen try to justify the discrepancy with excavations of technical issues and unexpected in-use conditions. we know that in december 2014, volkswagen initiated a voluntary recall of nearly half a million vehicles. yet, when the california air resources board tested the fixed

vehicles, they found emissions were still above the legal standard. and we know that by july of this year, the epa told bw that they would not approve the model year vehicles for sale unless the emission details to be explained. volkswagen was forced to come clean. and they ultimately confessed that they had installed a defeat device and diesel cars designed to circumvent epa emission standards for certain pollutants. we know this defeat device sets when they were undergoing testing. and inserted control systems. and we know that during normal road use, the controls were reduced. and the car for producing up to 40 times more nitrogen oxide standards.owed by we know half a million cars in the u.s. might be affected by

this. mr. horn, i'm glad you came to testify here. while we know all of the things i just talked about, there's a lot more things we do not know. and we need answers for them. for example, volkswagen has not revealed how the device affects the engine. white was installed, and how it was able to evade the tests? you have not revealed when and how the engines equipped will be fixed. whether the fix will affect fuel economy or performance of the vehicle. you have not revealed what volkswagen told regulators over the last year as epa and the california board were trying to figure out why the emissions were out of compliance. you have not revealed whether the voluntary recalls that volkswagen set in place in 2014 were millemerely a ruse.

were they trying to figure out what was wrong and fix them? for did they know they had defeat devices were only trying to buy time with regulators? you have not revealed who is responsible for this game. we have all seen the press three points, and we can speculate about what happened and why, but until volkswagen comes forward with answers and provides assurances we can trust what they say, the american people, regulators and comers are left in the dark. i hope you come prepared to answer some of these questions. i also hope vw will be prepared to work with this committee as we move forward. hundreds of thousands of owners invested money and trust in vw. carsof them bought specifically because they were seeking environmentally friendly vehicles. now they are left with cars with much higher levels of