sports teams for patriotic events. as always, we will take your calls. join the conversation on facebook and twitter. "washington journal" is next. >> ladies and gentelman, donald trump. host: republican presidential candidate donald trump hosted saturday night live on nbc. joined strauss ford, john mccain, and hillary clinton in either hosting or appearing on the late-night program. it is sunday, november the eighth. we will focus on the politicalon between humor, alternative media, and presidential candidates. meanwhile, here in washington this week, israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu will

be at the white house tomorrow with president obama. wednesday is veterans day, the president attending services at arlington national cemetery. thehursday, he departs for turkey, and malaysia. we want to begin with your comments and comments. see snlad a chance to last night, and candidates bypassing traditional media -- is it a good idea? (202) 748-8000. if you think it is a bad idea, (202) 748-8001. we are also excepting your tweets at @cspanwj. you can also send us an e-mail at journal@c-span.org, or join us on facebook, facebook.com/cspan. good sunday morning. let's check out the story from nbc news.

of course, nbc hosting "saturday night live." "live from new york, it is .onald trump much like the campaign trail, the republican front runner did not hold back in his monologue, writing a joke about rosie o'donnell, protesters angry about his appearance, and even fielding an interruption from larry david. [video clip] part of the reason i am here is i know to take a joke. this show has been a disaster for me. look at this guy -- [applause] >> i have to say you are doing a great job. i think this show just got better by 2,000,000,000%.

now that i am here, this is actually the best monologue in as snl history. donald trump: that's pretty good. [applause] >> you think you are this terrific person. you think you are this, that. you are being very naive, and quite frankly, you're fired. they don't have my talent, my money, or especially, my good looks, but you know what, they're not bad. were going to have a lot of fun tonight. who the hell? who is that? david: [indiscernible]

donald trump: what are you doing, larry? [applause] larry david: i heard they would $5,000.me otherss donald trump and by passing traditional media -- carly fiorina on "the view," and dating back to jack kennedy. in the moment, we will also show you richard nixon. "variety magazine" keeping track of just how much time the candidate was given last night, the total, 12 minutes. the leading republican candidate is measured by "variety magazine" in contrast with

amy schumer, who was given 25 minutes, miley cyrus was on camera for between 21 and 22 minutes on october the third. trump did carry the opening monologue with some help from larry david, and appeared in the second sketch of the evening. to have anyllowed skit on his own. tell us what you think about snl, and other candidates bypassing the church will media. if you say there's a good idea, here is the number. (202) 748-8000. if you say it is a bad idea, (202) 748-8001. we look at your calls in just a moment. says,s a, from gary who

good idea because the media has a liberal bias. dani says, great idea. barbara says, do we really still have a traditional media? dana says, traditional media, or democrat nazis? chris says, great idea, standard media comes with its own favorites, the way to find worthy candidates is seek outside the status quo. you can also share your comments on facebook.com/cspan. here is more from last night's snl program, courtesy of nbc. [video clip] >> you did it. >> just like i promised. >> prosperity is at an all-time

high. you really made america great again. >> i told you, it is more than just words and a serious silly hat. admit, i didn't think it would happen this fast. everybody loves the laws you tweeted. [laughter] >> how are we doing in syria? the refugees return, and they have great jobs at the trump casino in damascus. >> madam secretary, how is the situation in russia? >> never better. with drew from ukraine, he never wants to be called a loser again. he cried for hours. [laughter] >> how is the economy?

>> amazing. it's huge. you are killing on trade. host: one of the skits from snl. donald trump, on his website, -- ting out you can check it out on his website. we will go to julie, joining us from georgia. good morning. caller: good morning, sir, thanks for having me. they should be able to have anybody they want on their program. as far as evil time, i was once a broadcaster. i went to broadcasting school. we were taught, there was a

thing called -- they called it the equal time act -- i forget the word, i'm old now, and losing my short-term memory. i'm a disabled veteran, and highly mistreated. mr. reagan, ronald reagan, did away with the equal time act. he did away with that. if there is one now, i have not heard about it, or i was not listening. impaired.earing as far as having to give other candidates the same time -- i heard them asking why they couldn't get equal time given to trump -- of course, this is a comedy show, and it is scripted, it is not spontaneous. they scripted the show, they wrote it, and it is a good show. for somebody to be -- to take a

position where they could demand equal time, they cannot impose on that show to make them give them you will. how may republican candidates are there? host: thank you for the call. donna has this tweet -- i think it humanizes the candidate over the years. on our facebook page, this from brian who says traditional media needs to step lightly if they are ever going to be relevant again. at cnn.com, another story on donald trump's appearance last night on snl reads the following, "not one, not two, but three donald trump's taking the stage. the heckler turning out to be larry david. he did, in fact, get $5,000. group said that they

would give anyone $5,000 for shouting, "trump is a racist." is a greathink it idea, like you said, a humanizes them. if we are going to put them in a position of power, we ought to sides.m from all with all that said, i think hillary was way funnier than the donald. around inase you were the 1960's, when richard nixon was running for president, on one of the most popular programs on television. here is an excerpt. [video clip] it to me!t host: that still generates a lot of attention, 50 years later. forbes magazine taking a look at candidates, including

one president, who appeared on snl. that includes gerald ford, who 1976.ed back in al sharpton, barack obama, mike huckabee, john mccain, jon clinton inillary both 2008 and earlier this year. michael from pennsylvania, good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span, thank you for the question. i think it has been very relevant for the last 30-40 years. i've always been upset at the bias. it seems ever more present today. read annk -- i can even article in the paper, i'm not even talking about the tv and radio bias, but often times i

,ook at a wire service article and you can tell, as soon as you read it, who wrote it. you say, this article is ridiculous. have that.rnalists i think it is hard for conservatives to get their , when they are demonized by the media so regularly. host: thank you for the call. another viewer saying, what is being bypassed? is there some secret club that decides what can be news? you can share your comments @cspanwj. earlier this year, hillary clinton making her second appearance on snl, this photograph courtesy of "forbes onazine," as we are joined the phone. caller: i think it is fair that hillary was on, and then trump was on. i don't like trump, but the comedic action was fine.

there is no differentiation between the candidates, they should be allowed to have equal time. that is all i need to say. thank you. gerald ford,nt according to "forbes magazine" making his appearance when he was running for the in 1976.y and 1 this program is also carried live on the potus channel, xm channelrius 124. we look at the morgue are causing comments and just a moment. first, in case you missed it, from early last month, here is hillary clinton. [video clip] >> what do you do for a living? , first, i am a grandmother, and i am a human. >> i get it, you are a politician.

>> yes. how about you? me, i'm just an ordinary citizen who believes the keystone pipeline will destroy our environment. [laughter] there.ree with you it decided me a long time to decide that, but i am against it. >> nothing wrong with take your time, what is important is getting it right. >> i will drink to that. i love the scalding hot vodka. >> i just realized, i did not check your id. >> please! i have a one-year-old granddaughter. >> i would have never guessed. you must work in brooklyn. i just lie to say, my sister

is getting, thank you for doing all you have done for gay marriage. >> you're welcome. >> it's really great what you have done to support gay marriage. >> i could have supported it sooner. fair enough. [laughter] >> i'm just so bombed. med.um all anyone wants to talk about is donald trump. >> donald trump? is a he the one that all he says is, you are all losers? [laughter] >> do you think he will win the primaries? >> he must. i want to be the one to take him down. i will destroy him and mount his

hair in the oval office. host: that was hillary clinton, making her second appearance. she also appeared in 2008, and joined jon huntsman who also appeared on the program, and john mccain and sarah palin. a total of eight candidates making appearances on snl. mike is joining us from georgia. good morning. caller: i just want to say that it is good because it gives the candidates an opportunity to reach people who might not be paying attention to what is going on on the traditional media. it gives them an opportunity to know what is going on, to get familiar with some of the candidates. also, i wanted to also mention this notion that the media is

liberal. we have people like sean hannity on fox, rush limbaugh who dominate talk radio. yet, the republicans keep calling, complaining about the liberal media. if they do not have a vast opportunity to have their i mean, theird -- own kind of viewpoints expressed in the marketplace of ideas. host: thank you for the call from georgia. the front page of "the washington post" focusing on saying, new hampshire all eggs in those two states. a look at chris christie, who is being called the --

participating in what is being called the undercard debate. also, on the other side of "the washington post" is the piece, mendies seeking to a fences." our question this morning, presidential candidates bypassing traditional media. carol, who has this tree, says the following, i wonder what the viewer numbers were last night, i bet they went through the roof . don is up early in california. good morning. caller: i want to say that it was a great idea that saturday night live got to put the next president of the united states, donald trump, on the show. got you said, i bet they great ratings for it. what i thought was the funniest

part of the show was how they up that $5,000 offer of calling trump a racist. they turned that into a great joke having one of the comedians say it, and he will get the $5,000. that was a kick in the teeth to put it up, and also the professional protesters outside with their printed signs. i bet that made them feel bad. i think this get about the 2018 part of his presidency probably isn't too far off. host: why you like donald trump, and who have you supported in the past? caller: who i have supported in the past? i supported rick perry in the past. i like donald trump. i like ted cruz. the reason why i like donald

trump is this. we need a change. we don't have the right people in the government right now. it is proven, if you look our economy and foreign policy, we need a change. outonly person distant there is donald trump, if you look at it. host: from "the washington sorrymp'seview night on snl, and overhyped us."r for all of host snl is a tacit nod of approval of his message, and takes, and yes, his campaign to be the republican nominee, worst of all, it provided trump with more dubious evidence of

.is preeminence when reports come out on sunday, he will use them as roof of his electability, rather than evidence that anyone will slow .own to gawk at a train wreck that, this morning from "the washington post," a review of donald trump's appearance last night on snl. maria is joining us from connecticut. good morning. caller: hi, how are you? fine, how are you? caller: i just want to make a couple of comments. first of all, not everyone finds donald trump's humor amusing. i think, second of all, the media has to define themselves

as to whether they are a form of entertainment, or form of journalism. i think, in the case of mr. appearance, it was more entertaining, and at the expense .f racial slurs audience,e listening the watching audience could become offended by some of the things he says. host,ou are invited as a it is very different than when you are invited as a guest. when you are a host, you are presenting the format. you are representing the network. i think nbc is sliding down a slippery slope in this kind of

presentation. host: things for the call from connecticut. steve forbes and al sharpton among the past hosts our guests on snl. snl had him on. you say itning us, is a bad idea, why, mike? caller: if you notice, -- they say they are hating on us, but i look at it like this. if you are dodging the types of questions that a woman, or someone is giving you, wait until someone important, like a

presidential person, comes in, you a few questions. here in louisiana, we have a guy running for government, and he does not even come and try to debate because he has a bad past. don't dodge the question. hemy personal view, i think is race baiting -- obama, the .e villain to me, they're using a lot of ine with republicans louisiana. no one is really asking the tough questions. viewer saying, liberals get all of their news from comedians, that is fine for the rest of us. in "the washington post" writing

hist marco rubio, releasing american express statements, and getting a lot of attention. in a story this morning, pointing out tha -- host: by the way, we will be in florida this friday and saturday for what the florida gop is

12lling the sunshine -- candidates appearing both friday and saturday. this is the headline, by the way, from "the new york times," credits use of party card reinforces a picture of messy finances." let's go to david in ohio. good morning. i'm really fortunate to get on, and hopefully get my point across. i think it is a tremendously good idea to bypass the mainstream media, the liberal mainstream media. the thing that concerns me the , the politics, in my lifetime, our bypassing the "in god we trust." host: thank you for the call. joining us, melvin, as we look

at the opening skit from last night. caller: i see it is a good idea to bypass the mainstream media. i also think it is a bad idea to be joking about what is going on in this country today because we are in a bad situation. i'm a disabled veteran. my son cannot get a permanent job. and i have the bad drinking water, no one is talking about that. i'm wondering what people will start on emote what exactly .oing on in this country host: thank you for the call from south carolina. has this question, saying, is there any difference any longer between news and info

tainment? on donald trump, "trump u." bloomberg writing, kind of debt, did trump do himself any good with their appearance, it is tough to see how, he was not particularly funny. it is good to remember that being a showman in the realm of politics, and in entertainment are different things. also, his suit was too big on him. he will boost ratings, but in a way that probably does not benefit him or the show. next is ben, joining us from atlanta. caller: thank you for taking my call. i think it is a good idea that they have the candidates on something like this. if you look at the job as a whole of being a president, it , and iemely stressful

think they need to know how to take a joke a little bit. host: thank you for the call. vivian says, snl invited trump on the show because they had hillary clinton on the show, no big deal. politico taking a look at donald trump, his past appearances on called, "donald trump, tv star." with senator ted cruz, we asked if he would close the program -- host the program. [video clip] >> absolutely, i love it. actors playing hillary, they haven't dead on. bernie sanders, the other day, i told him, i called him, larry, larry davis captured him perfectly.

i would love to have the chance to do it, and i'm sure donald will knock it out of the park. a reminder, that we will have coverage of the sunshine summit taking place friday and saturday. we have been given permission to thanks to debate -- to for allowing c-span radio carry that live. matt from massachusetts, good morning to you. caller: thank you for taking my call. i think having these candidates on snl is great because they can be caught offguard, and action tell you what they are actually being motivated by. when larry david said, i did it for the money, as a joke, trump

said he can respect that as a businessman. in so doing, tell you he will do anything for money, he takes away his own talking point against hillary which is you cannot trust her because she will do anything for power. it is a great glimpse into what they are really thinking. in this case, i think he does himself and on one talking point. that's all. thank you. host: another viewer saying, liberal media bias equals journalists asking pointed questions. weekly," "ready to rumble." the first test for paul ryan will be passing spending packages for fiscal year 2016. view," after some

comments on carly fiorina after debate appearances, she made an appearance. [video clip] >> i defended you against donald comment. he was making a nasty comment about your looks. we are comedians here. i make fun of hillary's pantsuits, hillary's husband's sex life, john boehner's tan, who else? ben carson. i don't understand why any politician is exempt from my comedic jokes. i don't get that. >> you know what, joy, you can say whatever you want. you always have, you always will. i will not stop that. don't worry. i have skin, plenty thick

enough, to take whatever people throw at me. i'm making a different point, and the different point is this. i think that there are real issues in this nation that we ought to be able to discuss in a fact-based civil fashion. frankly, i don't think we talked that way enough. when somebody, for example, not necessarily you, but when someone for example says that because i do not agree with the litany of the left, i am against women, that is ridiculous. when somebody says that my candidacy is offensive to women that is has been said -- ridiculous. let's have a discussion about the issues. abc's "the view" .n friday we saw when john kennedy made his appearance with jack bar and

richard nic nixon. coming up in a couple of minutes, jim heath will be joining us. he is out with a brand-new book. this is the cover, "front-row seat at the circus." he will be with us and about 10 minutes. jack from ohio, good morning, welcome to the program. .aller: i initially tweeted as i have been listening, i've changed my opinion. the comments that a listener had about the media leaning more nt swayed me.ainme i do think we are leaning towards it. when i first heard the question, , the thinking, other media online forms, and that sort of thing. when you think about what is "the on "the view," snl,

the issue you-- will have is the more people swayed towards that, the lower the ratings will be for a traditional outlets. it will turn into more of a to stirmore of trying the pot. i think that can be a bad thing. host: thank you for the call. if you want to win a trivia contest, who was the first president to appear on snl? it was gerald ford when he was running against ronald reagan. chevy chase would make a name for himself and person eight gerald ford. joining us from new jersey, you think it is a good idea to bypass traditional media, why is

that? almost all the candidates are doing shows. can i give you the list i've got? and carson will do a remake of coma. carly fiorina will play in pinocchio. mike huckabee will be on the biggest loser. ted cruz will play a villain in gotham. lindsey graham will be in screen claims. marco rubio will be on a new show called "don't hispanics count?" host: you put some work into that. standard," "ben

carson reconsidered." the unthinkable happens, if donald trump is the republican nominee, we may take off a few days next year to gather ballot access signatures to the 2016 independent ticket of carson-webb. for those of you who say it is a good idea. (202) 748-8001 for those of you who say this about idea. by the way, on c-span t booktv, we are taking a look at sacramento, california. .his is part of our cities tour you can see some of the highlights from our program. all of it is available on our website at c-span.org. here is some of the areas around the capital city of california.

again, that is from american history tv and booktv on c-span 2. one other reminder, we will have live coverage of the memorial service is taking place at national cemetery, taking place on wednesday, veterans day. the president will be traveling to the arlington national cemetery. the family will commemorate as 11th hour of the 11th day veterans commemorate veterans day. this past weekend, we were in , lookingns, louisiana back at the 70 anniversary of the end of world war ii. all of our programming is available on c-span.org. what other story from over the weekend, it is hillary clinton traveling to south carolina. she made some news on the issue of marijuana. here is a portion of what she had to say. [video clip]

that great phrase, i think from roosevelt, that says that states are the laboratory for democracy. i want to see how it works before we do a national plan for the federal government. what i do want is for us to support research into medical marijuana. a lot more states have passed medical marijuana than have legalized marijuana. we had two different -- we have or different experiences, even experiments, going on right now. the problem with medical marijuana is that there is a lot of anecdotal evidence about how well it works for certain conditions, but we have not done any research why because it is considered what is called a schedule one drug, and you cannot even do research in it. what i would like is moving from schedule want to schedule too so one to schedule two so that we can start

researching it. if we are going to have a lot of states setting up marijuana dispensaries so that people with some kind of medical need will be getting marijuana, we need to know what is the quality of it. "political," the headline, "hillary clinton sifying at ways to reclas marijuana." a couple more comments on candidates by passing traditional media. page, kc says,ok good idea, got to get to those millennial. barbara says, no one can bypass traditional media, i'm not convinced there is a traditional media. james says, a better question, why has traditional media made

itself all that obsolete -- but obsolete? from florida, good morning to you. caller: i think it is a bad idea so candidates can separate themselves from some of the hard questions. host: thank you for the call. later in the program, marc ginsberg will be joining us. this is from "the new york times sunday magazine," "war has driven 30 million children from their homes." many of them displaced due to the ongoing civil war going on inside syria. more fighting between the israelis and palestinians, on the eve of the visit from the benjaminetanyahu, --

netanyahu, who will be at the white house tomorrow. coming up, jim heath will be joining us. row at thek, "front circus." and, marc ginsberg, former ambassador to morocco. "washington journal" continues in a moment. ♪ >> about whom will you next right? i thought, there is only one about whom i would write, if i were to write a second bite our fee -- biography. i remembered bonhoeffer. >> i thought, i will be standing next to the present, who knows

how i will feel in the moment, i don't know. i had the idea that i might do that. i thought, maybe i would give him the books later, but if i felt the chutzpah in the moment to give him -- to be able to pull off the goofiness, i'll do it. "q&a," ericn metathesis on his crossover between religion and politics. it is important for everybody to take religion and politics seriously, but never to make, what we christians call, idol of politics. some are worshiping that idle, rather than the god, who would cause them to care for the poor and injustices. it is a fine line that i talk about often. "q&a."ght on c-span's q&

i have learned that you can do anything you want to. they asked me if i thought the first lady should be paid. you can do anything you want to. it is such a great soapbox. such a great opportunity. i would advise any first lady to do what she wanted to do. another thing i learned is you will be criticized, no matter what you do. as much as i was criticized outside for what i did, and i got a lot of criticism. you learn to live with it. never let it influence you. >> she was her husband's political partner from the first

campaign, as first lady, she attended jimmy carter's cabinet meetings, and even testified before congress. their partnership on health and peacekeeping issues has decades.or rosalynn carter, tonight on c-span series, "first ladies: influence and image." from martha washington to michelle obama, tonight at 8:00 eastern on american history tv on c-span 3. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we want to welcome jim heath. he is the author of the book, "front row seat at the circus," inormer television reporter several cities, including in ohio. years, i have

tried to be on your show, so i finally had to write a book to be here. it is nice to be here. host: we are glad to have you. what is the premise behind the book? guest: i love these books, and set of books, that really give you a taste of what is going on. six years and south carolina, a great first state, first of the south primaries. i ended up in my native state, ohio, and ended up covering the presidential campaign in 2012. after that campaign, i knew there was enough for a book. covering battleground ohio is a big job. host: we did not know when we first book to you that donald trump would be on snl, so we will talk a little bit about it. you say the following, a political reporter's job is to official,an elected

hold them accountable for mistakes, explore what it is exactly that they want to do for the future. none of that is biased, it is journalism. both sides complain regularly about it. guest: it's true. i would not be doing my job if i did not hear republicans and democrats complaining about a story or coverage. that is just what we do. i fear that some people confuse some peopleioning -- confuse constant questioning, if we are not getting answers, as being somehow media bias. that is not the case. keep in mind that elected officials are there to represent taxpayers, people. their obligations to communicate exactly what they are doing, and our job is to report on what they are doing. as i write in the book, there are some politicians who are natural communicators. there are other politicians that not quite good, and ready for prime time. i think in this media world that

we are in now, part of the responsibility, particularly at the national level, you better be able to articulate your message, and articulate it well. that on election night 2012, i noticed donald congrats tweeted out, to karl rove envoy $400 million. you go on to write, could donald trump seriously consider running in 2016? was on the drive home, i thought that to myself. 2012.sidered running in early on in two dozen 11, he announced that he was not going to run for the nomination in 2012, but every republican eachdate tripped over

other trying to get his endorsement. i wrote in the book, finally went donald trump decided to endorse mitt romney, they had a ine minute press conference las vegas. comment, somewhat to the effect, of never having envisioned doing something like this, chasing donald trump down to get his endorsement. i never trained that he would pull the trigger, but he certainly has, and he has done well. host: south carolina has played a pivotal role in 2006.cs, going back to 2008, a lot of tensions between barack obama and hillary clinton. guest: that debate in myrtle beach probably cinched south carolina for him.

people might remember that debate being extremely feisty. it was the first time the hillary clinton pulled out the thatric card, a landlord barack obama had dealings with in chicago, he was indicted. book, i hoped the people get the idea that it is a tale of two of the election cycle. , people tripping over themselves, and then there is battleground ohio. the stakes in ohio, by the time they get there, they know the presidency is at stake. think of this, no republican has ever won the white house without winning ohio. ever. all the way back to 1856. sinceocrat has done it

john f. kennedy. i found one story that i did not know. after the first debate, kennedy in nixon both headed to ohio 1960. a tripped over each other. john f. kennedy ends up winning the white house, but does not win the buckeye state. two years later, he is in columbus, ohio, and starts his speech by saying, columbus, ohio, nowhere else in the country do i get such a warm welcome and less votes. it still bugged him. host: we will get your calls and comments and just a moment. the phone numbers are on the bottom of the screen. on c-span listening radio, this is also carried live on the potus channel. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. .202) 748-8001 for republicans you can send us a tweet at @cspanwj. join us on facebook at facebook.com/cspan. we spent some time talking about alternative media.

i just want to show you the very beginning of "saturday night live" last night on nbc. [video clip] >> ladies and gentlemen, donald trump. is this part of the circus? guest: it takes the circus to a new high because now we are making a reality tv guy, a celebrity in his own right, with the political arena. my perception of this has changed in the last 90 days. when he first started -- as somebody who has covered a i wasus state like ohio -- skeptical. i thought he would bring nothing to the race. my mind has changed in the a lot of people who would not have been paying attention to the presence of campaign at this point in the process are really tuned in.

anyway you go, because of trump, people are engaged, and talking about, will it be hillary, won't it be hillary? i think he has elevated the interest in this election cycle. i remember saying the same thing about ross perot, elevating the interest. a lot of the interest went away with him. certainly, a lot of people are talking about the elections because of him. host: you take aim at the traditional media, the so-called legacy networks. i want to get your thinking behind this. , walteraint the picture cronkite is no longer around, ir is the new generation of network anchor, his new newscast features a lot of him. guest: i put that in a chapter that i dedicate to media

bias. in the network section of that, i point out that walter cronkite came back from the vietnam war, he did not like what he saw there. lyndon johnson took himself out of the race for reelection as president. during watergate, there was an influence from new sabres and networks. three big networks, their days are over. we are in a much different media environment today. david muir is certainly not want to talk ip will not give an editorial tonight on abc news and sway public opinion in the way that giants like cronkite did. host: abc would argue that it is a way to get to the millennials. guest: that plays into other

parts of my book. eeps, you see a lot of stories that test well, market well with viewers. instead of a dedication to hard news and campaign news, you see networks leading with happier stories, or certainly, stories where the anchors are featured predominantly. as i put in the book, my least favorite option, which i think is a producers dream is bad weather. nothing does as well as whet eather. weather brings us all together. you see a lot more of that than quote unquote bad news. what does well with th viewers is what they will put on. and pictures,

viral videos. ani says this, put them on island, and vote each other off -- no, that is survivor. guest: people know i am a junkie, i love survivor, big brother. you can put them all in a house, to get them scheme prize. to get the

prize. maybe trump is making this more reality tv than we ever thought of it before. host: where is the white house badgering president obama about benghazi? the white house has basically its own television program on youtube. guest: they have done everything they can to bypass traditional media. as an outsider, it is troubling. i write in the book, when i sat down with barack obama, when he was running for president in 2007, i had eight minutes. i dared take 12. basically, at the end of 12 minutes, he gave me a one word answer. he usually gives 4-5-minute to get the prize. maybe trump is making this more reality tv than we ever thought of it before. host: where is the white house badgering president obama about benghazi? the white house has basically its own television program on youtube. guest: they have done everything they can to bypass traditional media. as an outsider, it is troubling. i write in the book, when i sat down with barack obama, when he was running for president in 2007, i had eight minutes. i dared take 12. basically, at the end of 12 minutes, he gave me a one word answer. he usually gives 4-5-minute interviews. he can filibuster just about any question. you get two or three questions

in, and that is it. the lack of transparency has been particularly troubling, as ap continues to report. areink the questions asked fair. in this multimedia age, there are a lot of other outlets, and they are utilizing them more and more. host: we saw this in the cbc debate, something that candidates have used over the years, dating back to abraham lincoln, and richard nixon. guest: the origin of the liberal bias is watergate. up withn team came that, and it stuck as nick's and became the first president ever to leave the white house and resigned. that liberal media bias bumper sticker that was so prevalent in the 1970's and 1980's, when you look at talk radio, and more portly, when i when i mentionedn the book, local news. the abc affiliate, where they aired a special in for marshall before the 2012 election, trying to sway voters in a hit piece on that isent obama --

local news. that has not been part of the discussion. when you start bringing your local newscasters into the discussion, that is an entirely different issue. host: ready for viewer questions? guest: let's go. host: lincoln, nebraska. democrats line with jim heath. good morning. caller: good morning gentlemen. we are nebraska, supposed to be a nonpartisan independent. and i look over at iowa and i always see what i really do consider the circus. they are falling all over themselves for that state and nobody comes and campaigns in nebraska. at the debate,k i don't think those were gotcha questions. they were meant to be something pushed aside and have the

candidates look right into the camera and say their agenda. i was very disappointed they didn't do that. guest: there were two things. so let me agree with both of them. first on iowa. steve knows this. he has read the book. i'm a little tough but i apologize to all the iowa viewers this morning. i'm a little tough on the iowa caucus. i just don't think a caucus should be leading the way we elect the president of the united states. one vote, one candidate. that's what a primary is. thei point out in the book millions of dollars being spent on this caucus system in iowa which gives us rick santorum and mike huckabee, gives us candidates with no indication of what the parties are going to do, i just don't think the convoluted caucus system is the way to go in the future. that used to be prior to the 1970's the way that both political parties selected their nominee. and sometime in the 1970's, both political parties got smart and realized they needed to open this process up.

and i'm a big fan of new hampshire. i think it should continue to be one of the states that leads because it's such a small state. candidates are forced to spend years there getting to know all of the candidates. like thebate, i don't way that debate turned out. there were a lot of things i would have done differently. but i will say that above and beyond bias, it's my impression of that debate and i watched it twice -- suffered through it thinkyou might say -- i what happened there more than anything else, this goes back to the ratings we were talking about. cnbc was attempting to ask some tough gotcha questions in an effort to stir up the pot and get these candidates to engage one another as they had at the two previous debates for fox and cnn. cnbc was trying to go over the top and have them do that even more which is great for ratings to have these candidates shout

at each other. had 10 if you had democrats on that stage in a hotly contested field with no clear front runner with one of them a former reality tv person throwing bombs left and right, you would have seen sort of the same scenario. it's unfortunate and certainly not the way to conduct a debate. all of those candidates should have been given an opportunity to answer every single question. host: this is the scene outside 30 rock in new york city, the nbc studios where snl aired last night. there is a donald trump effigy outside the studio's. please talk about nbc dropping trump and then putting him on snl. what do you think? guest: we are in equal times. we are at that stage of a campaign where we are three months away from the iowa

caucus. i think nbc is very nervous and rightfully so. detractors are pushing this and i think they are right to do it. candidate should be afforded equal time on the networks and you have a case here where saturday night live afford that opportunity -- it goes back to this ratings issued. . trump is good for ratings as he often points out and i think that's why the invitation was extended. i think his net time on the show last night was about 12 minutes. that's not a lot when you are hosting snl and there is a reason for that. nbc wants to make sure if they lose the case they only have to afford 12 minutes or less to every other candidate. in massachusetts for jim heath. good morning. caller: good morning. why i'd like to know exactly the press doesn't ask the hard questions of the democrats that they ask of the republicans. turn thest they try to

republicans on each other but they coddle the democrats. and even ben carson the other day was being attacked by the media and asked them, explain to me why president obama's college stuff is all sealed. why is it sealed? so he can hide the fact that he wasn't educated here in america? that's my question. this has been a constant complaint of conservatives and republicans not just during the obama years of the clinton years. being asked.ns are hillary clinton spent 11 hours before a congressional committee on benghazi a couple weeks ago. the cable news networks all carried it from start to finish. i don't see a double standard here from the standpoint of tough questions being asked. just google hillary clinton benghazi and you will see endless amounts of newspaper and newsrk coverage and local coverage. what did she know, when did she

know it, nbi investigations. all that information is out there. of a reporter to ask those tough questions regardless of whether it's an r&d. you their tell political ideology. their job is to push. i think both sides are being pushed. if you are conservative or liberal and seeing this not from the middle of the field but from the right side or the left side, i can see where you might have complaints about the other team. but i think as a referee trying to stand somewhere near the middle, both sides are being asked the tough questions. host: you mention in the book that your bias is towards a good story. can you elaborate? guest: that's what it's all about. the story is what you are trying to investigate. finding out what's going on in government from a political reporter standpoint, getting an interview with an elected official who has been reluctant to talk area does we are trying

to do. -- reluctant to talk. that's what you are trying to do. republicans have a lot of offices in this country. they have two thirds of the governorships. they control most state legislatures. they have the house and the senate. the only thing missing from a complete sweep is the white house. that's what this battle is all about. have that many incumbents who hold power, the questions are being aimed at those incumbents. so it might seem like republicans are getting unfair questioning, but the fact is republicans control a lot. republicans have been remarkably successful. forgetes i think they just how successful they've been in recent elections including just recently in kentucky where the republican came out of nowhere and one that election. -- won that election. if there are more republican officials, more of them are getting tough questions. host: our guest is jim heath. his new book is out --

guest: december 1. you can preorder it now on amazon and barnes & noble. presales have been good mainly because of your strong endorsement. host: you say one thing is becoming clear as obama nears the end of his presidency, despite electing our first african-american president, the deep divisions on race remain and will continue to be an issue for the next administration and beyond. we are certainly seeing this with black lives matter. we certainly saw it in ferguson and baltimore and elsewhere. guest: that's an issue that meant a lot to him. interview in 2007, a great deal of that interview was devoted to the issue of race. i think there was a lot of thought that when he took over the white house that this issue would sort of go away. and as you pointed out, it certainly has not. i think that's going to be one of the regrets of this presidency and this

administration. our first african-american presidency who has been unable to heal the divide and it's like to -- likely to continue. host: explain the cover of the book. what is donald trump holding? [laughter] i love the cover of the book. it is a circus. donald trump is holding cotton candy because he's at the circus and leading the way. i think they all look very happy. host: murray from new jersey. you are next. morning. i have two comments and a question. my first comment is that your gentleman just didn't answer the caller who wanted to know why obama's records being sealed isn't still an issue. host: ok. stay on the line. we will follow up. that's beennk exhaustively looked into to be perfectly honest.

senator obama won the election in 2008 with questions about his background to varying degrees being asked and then he ran for reelection. and those questions were answered. of these questions even as answers become available and they are reported are unsatisfactory to individuals who simply don't like barack obama and would like a different outcome or a different response. won two national elections now. host: we will follow up. to refer would like everybody to godfather politics.com. a libertarian candidate for president went to columbia at the same time as obama allegedly atnt there and he states th he was registered as a foreign student under his indonesian name and he got into colombia because they had lesser standards for foreign nationals. host: and your source for this?

caller: godfatherpolitics.com/6923. and the next thing i want to say is i think it's very revealing that this gentleman has no real answer as to why those records are sealed as well as the health records. we haven't vetted obama yet. and my question is this. how come nobody looks into the new york post article within the last 10 days they gave specific blumenthalf sid getting a contract from the federal government because of hillary clinton's influence? there's lots of things to do here. i think we have to free up the press. we don't need a circus. we need an angel with a flaming sword at this point. thank you for everything stephen. have somebody on from the constitution party please. thank you. host: thank you for the call. continueestions that and i would only slightly

disagree with the caller from the standpoint of vetting. i think it's inaccurate to say that barack obama has not invaded. he ran for congress unsuccessfully, he was feted in his first campaign, he was feted for the u.s. senate, he was vetted by hillary clinton. there's a lot of animosity. it's ongoing between the clinton camp and the obama camp. the clinton camp was looking for everything that it could on barack obama in an attempt to derail his nomination and prospects back in 2007. and then we had him for president for four years. when he ran for reelection and now he has been president in total six years. i think it's a misnomer to suggest that there's a lot of information still out there on barack obama. host: and karen has this tweet. you can send us your comments. we haven't feted obama yet -- vetted obama yet?

oh good grief. we have another caller. -- i thought it was good for him to be on to let him make -- fullut of himself out of himself like he did during the whole campaign. and he made the statement that he wants to take america back to the way it used to be. no person of color that i know of wants to go back to the way things used to be. nobody wants to go back to segregation. nobody wants to go back to discrimination and not having the right to vote. republicans are so mad because andck obama is president donald trump and john mccain and

are just so mad because a black man beat them over the head running for president. host: thank you for the call. that goes back to your earlier point. guest: republicans don't deal well with not being in the white house. the last time bill clinton was there, we dealt with a year of impeachment proceedings because he had lied about monica lewinsky. that was a full year. by the house.ed he ended up not being found guilty in the senate. and there has been a lot of partisanship during the six years of barack obama. but i would remind -- republicans have the house. they have the senate. they have two thirds of the governorships in this country. they have a majority of state legislatures. do republicans control a lot of those state legislatures, they do so in both the governor's chair and the house and senate.

so republicans have a lot of power and it is not just republicans against the world. republicans are on a roll and the only thing they don't have at this point is the white house. when is theets, media going to start acting -- asking tough questions on the clinton foundation? guest: i don't think the media is scared of the clintons and i think questions are being asked about the clinton foundation. i think the clintons are concerned about it from the standpoint of -- i don't think they thought early on that that would be an issue in this campaign. that somehow they would be able to keep it separate from hillary clinton's campaign. and we have learned there is a connection between them and i think those questions will continue to be asked as we proceed into 2016 and if he comes more apparent that she is going to be the nominee. in this weekly sunday in the matter of the republican presidential debates,

why not just make it donald trump versus ben carson? if the debates are about picking winners and losers ahead of the primaries and caucuses, why not the two non-politicians who have lapped up the rest of the field? entirelyot meant seriously, but by the measurements being used to select the candidates deemed worthy of participation, it could be argued that it would be justifiably entertaining to stage a debate only between carson and from at least until some of the others in the race show they have strong numbers to justify including them. relegatedstie is now to the happy hour debate. host: i totally agree with that. and i think most americans agree with that. pulling particularly -- pulling polling at this point is completely irrelevant

to what's going on on the ground. if you are going to do po lling, it would be better to do a mixture. national polls are a bit of a joke. stateve the governor of a of new jersey out of the debate based on random national poll is ars, i think there right to be upset by that. and i think republicans should be upset. all republicans should be upset with the lack of voices they will have in that main debate rather than the inclusion of the happy hour debate. host: because chris christie is running stronger in new hampshire. guest: absolutely. he's the governor next door. point shouldt this be from the key states that start off this process. -- i hateal polling to even post them.

i don't think those national polls give you a sense of what's happening. our guest is jim heath and the book is titled front row seat at the circus. mike is joining us from georgia on the independent line. good morning. caller: hey steve. hey jim. how are you all doing. i need you to look in the camera and tell us exactly why you don't think cnn is not doing a good job about ben carson, about his life story, and then tell us why cnn is not doing a total hit job on marco rubio over $80,000 worth of credit cards, and also why hillary won't go on no network like cnn or fox and talk about the benghazi story that was brought up before the senate select committee that was not a reporter or whatever.

and why does the democratic party not want to hold a debate with fox? where they would be deathly asked serious questions? host: let me take issue with one point. hillary clinton has appeared on cnn. she's done a number of interviews and been on meet the press and face the nation. absolutely right that in the six debates that were section sanctioned by the democratic party, not on fox. te should also point ou that of the republican debates, none on msnbc. caller: you are totally right steve. cnn.hey had carson on they have had rubio on cnn. it just don't seem fair to me. i know they have to be calling wanting interviews from her and

i think she's turning them down and i think they would should bring that up every day. that would seem fair to me. thanks. host: thank you for the call. just say --e hillary clinton has been giving interviews. it took a long time. way too long in my opinion. but she finally has started sitting down with reporters and even local reporters in those key early states which i think is good. access to these candidates is particularly 90 days before the iowa caucus. in the case of ben carson, i will tell you that from a political reporter standpoint and from a lot of these network standpoints, and carson is an ongoing -- unknown quantity. he has never been vetted. school board, the campaign for city council, campaign for the state legislature. all of those things help that vet you as a politician.

and it's not just your opponents that do that. it begins to weed all of this out. what's relevant, what's interesting to voters. ben carson is a real novelty. i don't know if this is also your impression. he's doing extremely well and yet he's never been vetted. you are seeing are news reports, some of them completely legitimate and interesting to voters, some not. everything seeing about ben carson coming to the forefront because he's never been through a political campaign and vetting isticularly for the top job extremely important. privately, republicans don't mind the vetting process that's going on with ben carson because the last thing they want to have happen is for him to become the republican nominee and have something else come out.

host: he essentially took two weeks off for a book tour which is unusual for a candidate late in the process. guest: completely unconventional campaign. i personally don't think he will be the nominee. he will continue to do well in iowa as mike huckabee and rick santorum did well and i was -- in iowa. i think that the book tour, the instant reaction every question is asked to blame the press, there is a certain strategy in that because some supporters are going to believe the press is responsible for every question that asked and that fallback is kind of rookie stuff. see in campaigns at lower levels when they are first adjusting to running a major campaign and i think the carson folks are going to have to readjust their national campaign strategy. host: jim sent this tweet. so rare when a c-span washington journal host bothers to correct

a caller. but when you disparage the hrc -- watch out. we should point out, we are not here to defend or criticize any candidate. just want to get the facts out and we do so with democrats and republicans. if i didn't correct the caller, somebody would have sent a different tweet. there you go. mike is joining us from houston, texas on the republican line. we are with jim heath. the book is called front row seat at the circus. good morning. morning.ood i guess my point is that ben carson is not upset at the questions he's getting. what he's doing is comparing the questions he's getting to president obama when president obama was senator obama running for president. he is making a point that the media are slobbering at the mouth asking ben carson these questions about his background but at the same time, when senator obama was running, you

mentioned moments ago that we didn't -- we don't know ben carson. he has never been thavetted. what journalist went to chicago to review president obama's associations? tony rasco who is in federal prison? the questions he gets are nerf ball questions. when they sitions down with the news, but there's not any follow-up. she can say whatever she wants and she's not challenge. you don't get that with the back-and-forth. with ben carson on friday night, that was -- the media were really going after him. and maybe they should. that's fine. but do it both ways. and let me give you one final example. follow-up, theu carson campaign announced that they raised $3.5 million over the weekend and attributed that to the news conference friday and the media bias that they

called out. caller: and i'm not surprised. but i want to say that when senator obama was running, he said over eight times that we will have c-span negotiate health care reform. health care reform overtime will impact about 300 million americans. so where is the question to president obama about where c-span was allowed to negotiate or televise the negotiations? do you think that's a fair question the media should probably ask since he campaigns on in key states? host: will get a response. guest: do you want to take the c-span part? host: i think that issue was litigated when the president was running for reelection. the whole health care debate and double health care issue and voters responded to that by reelecting him and put him in for another four years. let me just say that the difference between the questions 2007senator obama got in

and 2008 and the questions that ben carson is getting today comes back to the issue of being vetted. information about barack obama and his past was already available. he had rd run for the house of representatives and the united states senate. alan keyes was his republican opponent. alan keyes raised a lot of issues and a lot of negatives on obama at halftime. a by the time he got into presidential campaign, barack obama was a much better known quality -- quantity as a politician. ben carson has never run for any kind of office. so every bit of information is new. and a lot of money is being raised by the carson campaign by responding to a lot of these questions by claiming media bias. one other quick point. i remember like yesterday extensive stories regarding tony an president obama and

his business dealings with tony risk of a. hillary clinton raised that as early as the primaries and that continued to be an issue until jeremiah wright. if you google.com and you will see all the news coverage that for barack obama's association with him god. and there was also coverage about barack obama's drug use as a young man in college that was not positive and there were lots of questions as far as what he did and didn't do as far as drugs when he was a young man. i encourage everybody to take a deep breath. take thisy don't leaning r or d. it's to be fair and make sure everybody is aware for the questions being asked. host: let's go to debbie in albuquerque, independent line. caller: good morning.

i wasn't going to waste my call but i keep getting aggravated because people keep calling saying obama's records are sealed. would you please inform your -- it's called the family educational rights and privacy act of 1974. with that federal law, all school records, all college records, are sealed. nobody gets access to them. it wasn't a conspiracy to just feel his records. everybody's records are sealed. putunless he decides to them public, nobody gets to see them. because everybody's thinking, oh, it's a conspiracy, they sealed his records. why? everybody's records are sealed since 1974. and i will take your response off-line. inc. you. -- thank you. host: and chris has this point, obama is one of the most vetted people in history. guest: i think that that last point -- all of these individuals, john mccain was

incredibly vetted. mitt romney. a lot of the candidates that are running on the republican side this year have been vetted. hillary clinton certainly for decades now. naive, frankly, if you take a deep breath and put partisanship aside, it's naive to think that the opponents of barack obama, not just republicans but democrats would not want all the information they could find that negative on barack obama and he has now been president for six years. he can see the end of his run coming up in january 2017. so i think this issue of lack of being vetted now that he's six years into the job is a little overstated. kelly is next from connecticut. good morning. caller: good morning. i'm a democrat, 70 years old that supports bernie sanders because i trust him but i'm dying to get your book.

it looks like it's humorous and informative. and i believe that donald trump is holding con candy. and that's appropriate because he's fluff and hot air. but i have a theory. trump is a republican weapon of mass distraction. he's a shill. republicans don't have a policy that helps the american people so as long as trump is in the game, they can skirt around the real issues. host: thank you. . thank you very much for the kind words. there's a lot in this book including behind-the-scenes stories of covering this campaign. a lot of it is amusing. it's not just a textbook. there's some great stories from behind the scenes as well. carol has this point. jim heath could've told the obama caller that obama could have sealed his records. guest: everybody can unseal them if they wanted to that nobody is obligated to do that. money in's talk about

politics. until citizens united is revisited, there will be even more cash flooding into our system buying more influence and legislation. we would be wise to remember democracy is about the debate of ideas not the purchasing of power of a select few. guest: i feel strongly about this. i love politics. i have been around it my entire life. a lot of these folks do the best they can in an increasingly fish tank type environment with those of us in the press looking at everything that is done and said. but i do have one concern. and when i was thinking about how to end the book, i decided the epilogue should be kind of the main concern i had moving forward. attacksink for all the that donald trump rightfully has taken in this campaign, he is absolutely correct when he looks at dark money and talks about dark money being displayed that

that ising this plague endangering all of us in the political arena. when you have a supreme court decision that lifts the lid off this issue and allows individuals not just to contribute to super pac's where we can track it from a press standpoint and know who is giving what to whom and monitor was legislation is being proposed and what is being accomplished on the other side of that, but now you have the creation of dark money were a select few americans with a lot of money are dumping endless amounts of cash and we can't follow exactly who they are or where it's going or what the end result is. that is troubling and i think the supreme court eventually is going to have to take another look at this. i make a prediction in the book. it's not a question of if but when we start seeing major scandals related to all this cash that we can't track. host: your favorite story in the book. line fors on the

republicans. one. caller: good morning. i am an 83-year-old former immigrant. i came from the netherlands. i lost my heart to the united states when i actually was sent here as a student pilot. the thing that bothers me is when i heard the democrat person calling up and saying the government doesn't do enough, the republicans don't do anything for the people. well, if you know the constitution, then you also know that the government is not supposed to care for the people but the people who care for the government. because the government is supposed to just do what the government -- what the constitution states. people,rotect the provide for navigation and so forth.

host: thank you for the call. guest: i would quickly say that in my lifetime, republicans have controlled the white house about 56% of the time in my lifetime. republicans currently have the house, the senate, a majority of state legislatures in their control along with governorships. that message that you just mentioned is still very effective here at i think . republicans have been very successful on running on the constitution. the only thing they have failed at least in the last two election cycles has been the white house. host: and that is next in las vegas -- hannah is next in las vegas. the only thing i want to say is i keep hearing them talk about always say the mainstream media, the mainstream media. and the liberal media. -- this to me seems like

especially fox news and them, it's always an attack on the other stations. the stations are not really doing an attack. but there thing is constantly talking about the mainstream media and even with the radio station. most of the radio stations and runprint is now owned and by the republicans -- the right wing. and one more thing. for the love of god, i said it was my own people and this has been six years and this president only has one more year to go. can you will please refer to him as president obama. please stop saying barack obama or obama. i mean, from the time we were in school, in civics and history and stuff, we were taught president reagan whether i liked it or not.

president bush or whoever. but for some reason i mean -- i see it with my own black. s. especially with fox, if you refer to this president on their talk show or anything, if you can't say president obama -- you can't say president obama. it has to be barack. only barack or obama. give this president the same respect that these other presidents have received during the time that they were in office. guest: i don't disagree with that. we refer to president bush as bush. after you get into a discussion or writing about one of them, you revert back to the last name only. it's certainly not meant as any disrespect on my part. or presidenth obama, republican or democrat. i should ask you what your favorite part of that book is. host: you wrote the book. it's your chance. guest: in 15 years i have never

sat on the other side of the table. i was hoping to get at least one question into you. host: why did you write it? guest: so many fun stories from south carolina. hollings fromitz south carolina. i was set to go live with him at chor tosses co-an out to me. and i hear the three words that live report is dread before any other, let us pray. hissenator hollings house head and closes his eyes and i'm standing here with the microphone at the top of the interviewtrying to senator hollings with a hushed crowd people and i had to toss it back in the studio. incidents like that. was a minute to go before the south carolina senate debate and he refused to come on the

stage because one of them was standing on a wooden crate. they were scrambling behind the scenes trying to find a wood crate for the other guy because he was tired of the other guy looking taller on television. those are the sort of behind the scenes stories i put in the book and i hope people enjoy them. host: and i thought it was interesting to see the challenges of local news reporters. guest: but also an opportunity to make a difference. i devote whole chapter to my interview with mitt romney that dinged his campaign for a day when i asked him about the issue of contraception the day before super tuesday in ohio. to me and pointed out the new media age we are in. because i asked the question, he responded. he got it wrong, he had to correct his answer and that social media went crazy. you are ground zero of something like that, it's amazing helmet social media has taken over and how quickly people get information.

host: will you be writing about the political circus in 2016? guest: that would be interesting. front row seat at the circus: one journalist's journey through two presidential elections, jim heath. joining us here on c-span. thank you for being here. please come back again. we are going to take a short break and then we will turn our attention to the meeting tomorrow between president obama and benjamin netanyahu. marc ginsberg will be joining us. he is the former ambassador to morocco and advisor on middle east affairs. and we will be talking about paid patriotism, some of your favorite football teams paying to pay tribute to america's

veterans. following the program is newsmakers with an richard. use a portion of the conversation. >> who isn't doing enough? >> i would like to see more aid come from the gulf states that are in the middle east area and are relatively wealthy compared to jordan. and lebanon. and we would also like to see more from the so-called bricks. andil, russia, india, china to a lesser extent south africa. these are the emerging economies. these are the wealthy states that care about the region that could and should be doing more on the humanitarian side. >> thank you for that. the second question is if i'm not mistaken, the numbers showing how much money has been pledged in response to the u.n. appeals have been going down in percentage terms and i believe for the current calendar year,

the pledges stand at only 45% of the actual need for this year and in previous years it was higher. so as the magnitude of the crisis has worsened, the response of the global community appears to have diminished. why is that? >> you are absolutely right that the response to the appeal for syria but also the responses to appeals for crises all around the world have been weak. what we aret calling the 60% gap of funding that ought to be coming in and is not. the fault is not the fault of americans. like i say, americans are leading the world in providing assistance to these crises. but collectively the world is not doing enough. we are seeing a quick turnaround in europe on this. they are trying to raise more

to turkey andde other countries in the region. and to ensure that food rations continue and that there aren't the sort of cutbacks in assistance to the refugees as winter is coming on. so there is a shift going on but it's still not enough. has the best access to congress. watch live coverage of the house on c-span and the senate on c-span2. watch is online or on your phone at c-span.org. listen live anytime on our c-span radio app. get best access from behind the scenes by following c-span and our capitol hill reporter craig kaplan on twitter. c-span, c-span radio, and c-span.org for your best access to congress. washington journal continues. back we want to welcome marc ginsberg who was former

ambassador to morocco and former mideast advisor to president carter. he also advised subsequent presidents on the middle east. let's get to the headlines from the washington post as the allies seek to mend fences. a meeting will take place tomorrow between the president and the israeli prime minister. what will the body like which be like? guest: it's going to be better than it was the last time. mr. netanyahu is here on a charm offensive. there is no doubt that the challenges that israel has faced -- i just returned from their a week ago. our considerable and more magnified as a result of the situation in the region that growing more dire by the day. mr. netanyahu is going to spend a great deal of time trying to mend fences with democrats. the fight over the iran put republicans against democrats and democrats who supported the agreement were the target of mr. netanyahu's wrath and his supporters.

he's going to be speaking at democratic forums and i think also at this point in time, the white house has declared that it's not going to pursue middle east peace any longer. that is a palestinian-israeli peace. mr. not in yaho this is mr. netanyahu outliving the president entertaining some semblance of normalcy. the leaders plan to discuss how to counter iranian aid to hezbollah and hamas. also the russian and iranian efforts to prop up syrian president bashar al-assad and steps that might demonstrate not in commitment to a two state netanyahu's commitment to a two state solution. i served for several

years as the ceo of the one voice peace works foundation for both palestine and israel. and i can say with some authority that i have never seen both populations further away ,rom each other, the mistrust when i was in israel a few days ago, the stabbings have an life arere than condemned from an israeli perspective the palestinian leadership. abbason't trust mr. anymore. and it is quite clear to me that on the palestinian side, the lack of hope is further aggravating the situation. host: this is from inside the washington post in the west bank , renewed tension and diminished hope. the photograph including some teenagers who were killed over the weekend and the violence continues to escalate there as well. just unacceptable i think for anyone watching this that young palestinians -- their

motivations are -- you can come up with any number of hy, they arew inexcusably the idea that palestinians would take knives to kill 70-year-old israeli women walking down the street just because they happen to be israeli and jewish is symptomatic of the despair and despond and see that has now infiltrated into the conflict. the fact that religious leaders himselfas mr. abbas have contributed to the incitement, the fact that right-wing elements in the israeli government are playing into the worst fears of israelis. this is the nature of the situation right now. is from inside today's new york times sunday magazine with a focus on area but also displaced people around the world. nearly 60 million around the world have been driven from their homes by war and persecution more than any time since world war ii and half our children. half ouare children.

when i first came to washington, i worked for the senate judiciary subcommittee on refugees for senator edward kennedy. refugee issues have been in my blood for decades. i have spent quite a bit of time in jordan trying to do what i could on the humanitarian basis to provide support for refugees. the been urging administration to provide more humanitarian support for refugees. the problem is that as long as the conflict in syria continues, it will continue to drive millions of syrians out of syria and they are obviously trying to flee into europe. that is where the problem is. there is no problem -- strategy today with the conflict or to stem the tide of the refugees who are desperate to get out of syria. host: missed opportunities by the president?

guest: i can't even count the number of missed opportunities on both hands at this point in time. this administration has dropped the ball and missed the boat so many times on syria. it doesn't have a strategy anymore. it has a white house national security staff that is masquerading as a foreign-policy team. the president had a chance notwithstanding his declaration tot assad must go in 2011 provide leadership to avoid putting american troops on the ground and to help foster a moderate syrian leadership. staff pulled house the rug out from underneath secretary clinton in 2013 when she was about to lead a conference in istanbul because the white house staff was concerned that she was taking a leadership role over the president on this. been a white house that has been more jealous of its prerogatives than more strategic in its attitude toward syria. host: this is one of the many

photographs from a recent edition of time magazine. you can see the despair and concern, the fright by these children and their parents. leaving syria. you can't imagine -- it's hard for any of our viewers to understand what it means to live where death by air, death by chemical weapons, death by mortar shell occurs virtually in every city in syria. the assad regime which for all intents and purposes are the major butchers in this conflict have been dropping from helicopters these barrel bombs that have destroyed homes, innocent civilians have been caught up in a conflict. that wea catastrophe are not seeing because it is so hard for journalists to cover this conflict. host: our phone lines are open. our guest is marc ginsberg. first and went to share with you one of the exchanges this past

week at the white house daily briefing with christi parsons writes for the l.a. times in the chicago tribune and a preview of what to expect tomorrow with the president and the israeli prime minister. tois the president hoping maybe open a new or congenial relationship with the prime minister? well, the -- i. [laughter] is somebody the president has spent a lot of time talking to both on the phone and in-person. i think we have made quite clear that the personal relationship n is bothhe two me respectful and professional but also almost completely immaterial to the importance of the relationship between our two countries. , he didn'tginsberg

answer the question. he was asked about the personal relationship and talking about the diplomatic alliance between our nations but not between two individuals. the problem with this relationship is that it is deeply built on resentment, anger, and mistrust between these two men. but the bilateral relationship between israel and the united states is far more important than the relationship between the two men. i have said consistently that while this white house and this president has over personalized theirlationship they stop disgust at mr. netanyahu, the president has continued to provide unabated military assistance to israel. he deserves credit for that. he doesn't deserve credit to have a white house staff that spends a great deal of time hiding behind the president's podium and growing -- throwing curse words at the prime minister because they don't like him. and that has been part of this problem and it doesn't help that

the prime minister had made it abundantly clear that he doesn't like the president and would have preferred a republican in the white house. host: can is joining us from florida on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. since netanyahu's name has been brought up, i would like to add just one point that some weeks ago he mentioned who heti in jerusalem themed was responsible for holocaust or partly responsible for the holocaust. jerusaleme mufti from did do just that. and ss troops.a he was responsible for 400,000 shoes being killed because he refused to let them go to palestine.

and netanyahu became universally condemned for saying the truth. i'm so tired of revisionist history. i've written three books on this particular area of the middle east and i very much like to -- duringperspective the 80's, we had iraq fighting iran. one million casualties. we had assad killing 30,000 , muslim brotherhood members. elder killing the 10,000 plo during black september. what makes us -- why can't we just allow them to handle their own problems? we have russia in there now. we have a coalition. we don't know who our friends are or who are enemies are. why can't we just let them fight it out?

withapparently do this enthusiasm which is absolutely fascinating. host: we will get a response. guest: thank you. you through a lot of things in that. let me get to the most important element. i have long stated in every article and television appearance that i made that i am not in favor of a major united states military involvement in syria. i have strongly believes that the united states and its allies need to do everything possible to put arab boots on the ground to fight isis. the russians have had a 50 year commitment to the assad regime. father, the assad son. they have military bases there. they want to create a new shiite run state in syria. -- it is not our job to salvage a disintegrated syria. our job is to protect our core interests in the middle east which does not include detecting

the assad regime. job one in the middle east for the united states right now is to help prevent isis from becoming a greater terrorist threat to the united states and to destabilize our allies, israel, jordan, lebanon. this is a story from the washington post -- netanyahu's new top advisor called obama and anti-semi. ite.a he wrote that secretary of state john kerry has the intellectual acuity of a 12-year-old. guest: this represents to me the tone deafness of mr. netanyahu when it comes to understanding how to deal with the president. never be placed in a position in an israeli cabinet as a communications director. these types of epitaphs that are thrown at the present or that

the white house staff has thrown back at netanyahu is symptomatic of a childishness that has gone on in the bilateral relationship between mr. netanyahu and the president. and it's very disturbing for me as somebody who was raised in israel, who appreciates the importance of this bilateral relationship, that mr. netanyahu would even dare consider putting someone like him in a major position of influence in this government. i suspect that not long for the days, but it shows you that mr. netanyahu could have fed of this vetted more carefully -- this man for more carefully. the president deserves not to betray did with such disrespect by any israeli official. and the price tag, reportedly asking for $5 billion. this is the headline from the washington examiner. doug is joining us from massachusetts. good morning. caller: good morning.

i'm sure your guest is familiar with the recent jewish forward art board -- article that can best described as a love letter from hillary clinton to benjamin netanyahu. it's the usual craven of secrets pandering stuff that you get to in an election year. host: i'm not aware of that. guest: jewish forward. from hillary clinton. she is the person who wrote it. but anyway, my question is a simple one. do the palestinians have the right to resist the application -- occupation? guest: the palestinians in my judgment have the right to oppose the occupation through civil disobedience and without violence. they have accepted the acceptedan leadership the oslo accords. they recognized israel. they have no right either legally or for any other means

to use violence to oppose the occupation. the occupation needs to end but it needs to end in a way that secures a jewish state of israel and i'm not sure at this point in time that mr. abbas and the palestinian leadership have the foggiest notion of how to lead their people forward and make the compromises necessary. so i have vehemently opposed to any act of terrorism that masquerades as what i would call any opposition to the occupation. host: candace is next from michigan. with marc ginsberg. republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. i understand why obama hates netanyahu and resents israel. yearsecause he spent 20 sitting in the pew of jeremiah wright's church listen to anti-semitism and anti-american spewing out of jeremiah wright's

mouth. this makes it very difficult for us to -- americans have a good relationship with israel. it's just that our leader doesn't and that trickles down into all his smart mouth little call netanyahu a and youyou know what, can see it in the body language. when netanyahu and obama are sitting side-by-side, it's like netanyahu is turned away. obama is shooting daggers. us, really unfortunate for for america and for israel, and i do anticipate that this will change in approximately 442 days it is that obama

leaves. thank you very much. host: thank you for the call. also a related tweets from will henry. saying, respect is a two-way street and our president's lack of respectfulness is plainly on the record. i have been very disappointed watching how this callow, juvenile white house staff has found every excuse to denigrate mr. netanyahu, not wish -- withstanding his obvious anger and unhappiness with his relationship with mr. obama. the fact of the matter is that i consider and recite chapter and verse of how many times susan rice and her team have hid behind the white house podium throwing essentially pejorative course words -- curse words at a premises or who represents one of our most important allies in

the middle east. it shows how the national security staff is not a mature staff but a political operation masquerading as a national security team. at the same time it is quite clear that president obama and prime minister netanyahu do not like each other. however, the relationship between israel and the united states is far more deep, far more durable than what exists right now in the relationship between these two men. i just came back from israel where i have to also tell you that my israeli friends -- and i have many friends there -- has said to me that they feel that mr. obama has thrown israel under the but -- bus. these are moderate israelis. they have a close commitment to peace in the middle east any support for the bilateral relationship with the united states. a primeot talking about minister selection for .ommunication director we are talking about a silent

majority of israelis who love america, but they really do feel that mr. obama, as a result of the iran agreement and his attitude towards israel, has more or less abandoned israel. is that fair? that is how they feel. perception is reality. host: -- we will show you a couple other hand -- -- headlines. i know you just came back from tokyo, they are reporting about turkey's plan to go after isis. there is also this from nbc news, turkey says -- a strong russian retaliation because of the sinai crash. and what happens if china and ?ran take out isis how will that change our foreign policy going forward? one andet me take this a time. i think our viewers the to appreciate how much isis has metastasized or in i would need to show you a map to show you how much isis has expanded in the middle east. host: especially in northern

syria. guest: in northern syria and there is a map of the entire middle east behind that that show how isis has developed in the sinai. most people would be surprised to believe that here is sinai, sitting between egypt and israel. how does that happen? well, isis has sent a huge number of libyan fighters and different radicalized bedouin fighters. with respect to whether or not the just was in fact blown out of the sky as a result of an isis on -- and we don't have any conclusory evidence although everything is pointing to that effect -- the fact of the matter is that i have long believed that the russians and the united have awill also really common purpose and objectives to destroy isis. destroying isis is going to be collocated, but it really requires strategy. meansgy really remain --

legitimizing crisis by carving up the territory that exists between iraq and syria and preventing these medications links and the -- communication link and supply link between its capital and syria, its capital in iraq. troops on the ground, to divisions -- two divisions to try to divide isis territory in half with the support of coalition aircraft. unfortunately the united states is probably bombing and exercising military power over ofia that represents 95% what it supposedly claims is a coalition enterprise. the coalition is only providing 5% of the air support right now. that does not speak of a coalition. it concerns me that as the administration lurches from one misstep to another in syria, there is no coherent strategy.

it is reactive tactical and does not have an overall objective is to what it is trying to receive. host: let me follow that point. wead one from the times, as escalate on isis, allies like saudi arabia are fading away. they're not with us. guest: this is a perfect ideatration of mr. kerry's of a coalition and the failure of us to hold our allies accountable to support us. this is not and should not be a united states war in syria. it needs to be an arab war because this isn't arab sunni shiite -- is an arab sunni we are nowlict and engaged as a proxy on behalf of saudi arabia and other city arab arab states. host: eric smith this morning right the following. as the u.s. enters a serial -- serious phase of the war in

syria, ordering special operations troops to support rebel versus and sent in two dozen attack plans, the air campaign has evolved into largely an american effort. let's go to omar in ohio. good morning gentlemen. i'm a syrian american and educated citizen. can you hear me? host: we can. caller: i am proud being an american citizen since 1983. muslim, i believe in abraham and moses. i love jewish people. netanyahu had that great speech to congress. obama flip-flopped, i am telling you that. got to-- i don't think ts to makests -- gu violent strength. i am anti-isis.

he is not going to defeat against isis. isis is a mixed bag made of , fromants from assad saddam guys. violence begets violence. i love mr. ginsberg. i tell him a code from the middle east. don't get to one up on the coward you make out of it. host: thank you omar, a response? guest: the first of all, let me just say that the catastrophe the falling the syrian people is some thing i care deeply about. number two, there is no doubt that the relationship tween syria and israel has always been a fascinating one. ever since i lived in the middle east it was quite clear that there were, shall we say, red lines that the syrians knew not to cross with respect to israel. is that of the matter

before the civil war broke out, syria was the major conduit for arms in the system between iran and the radical iranian regime to has the law, it's proxy terrorist organization, in that it fought syria for israel in 2006 and continues to fight for the elimination of israel. the question also means what it -- also is what does israel game by having a lump restoration of the assad regime in syria? andt now i cannot project, no one can project, who would replace him at this point in time. that is where the problem is. it is just ironic that a man who is responsible for 250,000 deaths and 6 million refugees has slowly been acknowledged by john kerry and the president as not just a problem, but now ultimately part of the solution. they no longer are calling for

his immediate removal, and it is now up to iran and russia, more than the united states, to determine his fate great -- his face. host: this is from one of our the syrianing that people would be doing much better if we did not help the terrorists trying to overthrow their legitimate leader of side. guest: legitimate is an interesting word to use. he is a dictator. anyone who would say that a man like him as a legitimate leader, when the vast majority of the people who have struggled to overthrow him believe that he is illegitimate -- let's just say one thing about this. sunni.s over 60% it has got approximately 28 shiite.to 30% mr. assad is doing everything possible to protect the shiite minority and to roll with

vicious dictatorship over the vast majority of syrians. the fact of the matter is it is typical for gaddafi and it is typical for any other dictator. he uses brute force to keep his people under control. when the civil war broke out he lost that capacity and his legitimacy. he is a man, who in my judgment, i will say quite bluntly -- anyone who is responsible for the death and mayhem that he has caused deserves to die a quick death. host: robert says this. our israeli friends need to stop oppressing palestinians and stop taking over territory. tost: i am firmly opposed the enterprise of settlements in the west bank. i strongly believe that the encroachment onto palestinian territory, settlements, has been one of the major factors in creating the dissent, anger, and resentment telecine and feel towards a two state solution. i could not agree more. with this government and israel

it has continued, whether it is in east jerusalem or the west bank, to promote the settlement enterprise. are ultimately going to be deconstructed if there is ever going to be hope for a two state solutions. most israelis understand that. most israelis you settlers as patriots but they too are against the settlement enterprise. host: and the earlier point about no mideast peace in the obama demonstration, this, that on our twitter page. they are kicking the can down the road for the next the ministration and don't want to own it. the of marion maryland, the democrats line. -- let's go to marry in maryland , the democrats line. anywe have to go on to joining us from los angeles. good morning, independent line. caller: good morning. i have a problem about allowing somebody just to knock a president like that -- our

president like that and use this platform in a negative aspect. i have two questions. 446 ofu read resolution the u.n. social security -- un security council? have you read book of 39?lations tonight or i will take out my answer off the air. have workedn, i with president and i don't need any lectures about respecting presidents. i have said that mr. obama has done more than any president to help militarily israel's security needs. at the same time his a ministration and he had disrespected the relationship with israel on a personal basis, so he deserves to be held to account for the way that his staff has acted in the way he has acted to the prime minister of israel. host: teresa from illinois, good morning. independent line. caller: good morning.

there is so much i want to say, but really just that if you talk about a dictatorship, how the people in libya and syria did not elect their government -- they did elect their government, just like the palestinians and the u.s. and israel did not recognize them because they did not like them. let me say this also. iran never bomb to anything american. on the other hand, israel did bomb a u.s. naval ship. israel has never been very kind to people of color. that is why they treated the ethiopian jews in that region. they did not want them in israel because they do not recognize them as jews because of of the -- of the color of their skin. guest: i could not disagree more. you probably are making that judgment based on anecdotal evidence.

thousands of ethiopian jews living in israel, and the fact of the matter is that i was on a plan to years ago -- a plane two years ago from tel aviv and the entire plane was filled with ethiopian jews, families who were going to visit their families in israel. i could not disagree more. is responsiblen for more american deaths in the middle east than you can imagine. it is responsible for engaging terrorists and supporting terrorist attacks against american troops in iraq and against americans in lebanon, and against americans in saudi arabia. the list goes on and on. upexalt iran somehow -- stalls -- unsolved -- [no audio]

host: the israeli prime minister is looking to "rebuild the bridges that were burned during the bitter fight over the iran nuclear deal. rancor has lingered for months between the administrations. he also is making a pitch directly to the liberal center for american robert on tuesday tuesdaycan progress on david is next on the republican line. caller: good morning. with having struggled israel for a two state solution, which has really been futile, what do you think about having a secular government there respective of one being

christian, jews, or muslim, where it accommodates the whole region as one united country. when you talk about syria being a shiite government, a rather dictatorial system of the father and son in syria, the fact remains that it was a second where-- secular dictator it accommodate everyone, jews, christians, muslims. why not go after saudi arabia to cut the ideological and financial means of isis? guest: it is an interesting point you make, because indeed syria is an extraordinarily secular country. it is like brooklyn. there were so many ethnic populations more or less living -- under the circumstances within a dictatorship -- but more or less being able to practice their religion. christians, jews, sunnis, etc.

this is what is in such a catastrophe to watch syria disintegrate into this catharsis of sectarian violence because indeed it was the case. secondly on your point about israel. look, i am a passionate zionist. i strongly believe that israel has a right to exist as a jewish state. the solution for palestine and israel in my judgment has to be taken out of the context of permitting or enabling the two states to continue to feud and to prevent the formation of the palestinian state. i have always said that israel needs to help create a palestinian state living side by side with israel. going to probably not happen anymore because the palestinian leadership at this point in time, and israeli leadership, is unable to reach a compromise. i am far more in favor of seeing the arab peace initiative reelect -- resurrected and having an american president who

is in favor of a strategic piece in the middle east to help use this arab league initiative to help incubate a peace between israel and all arab states. that would perhaps provide more of anth incentive to make the compromises necessary to help bring about that palestinian state. host: our guest also writes for huffington post. we are talking with marc ginsberg, we look at our listeners both on c-span radio and sirius xm. rebecca is joining us from birmingham, alabama. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. i am calling just to compromise -- covenant ambassador ginsberg. i have followed your career and i am very impressed with you. i wanted to ask a quick question . i will take your answer off line.

what do you think secretary clinton would do differently where she to be elected president, as opposed to the policy that obama has followed that has been a disaster? thank you very much. guest: thank you for your have known mrs. clinton for a long time and i respected her husband's role in the middle east as well as her knowledge of the middle east. instrumentalmuch in helping to forge what could have been a very effective approach in syria, which i said earlier had the rug allowed hold outh it -- underneath it by this very callow white house staff that was somehow afraid that she would drive the united states into a deeper conflict with syria. she has a much better and deeper appreciation of the role the united states has in maintaining our strategic interests and our alliances. thisould never personalize

relationship between israel and the united states the way this president has done. i think also mrs. clinton has a deeper appreciation of the role in which the united states has to play to help protect our allies. i don't think she has any illusions about the iranian regime. qatar whentter -- she gave a speech in which you referred to the iranian regime as a military dictatorship. she was a secretary of state of the time. the president has never said that. host: this headline, i want to get a response from this. the noise heard in the cockpit before the plane went down carrying more than 200 russian residents, i realize this is not an area you primarily focus on, but what is your theory? guest: i have been there. it is a beautiful place, and the egyptian people are desperate to resurrect their tourism

industry. tens of thousands of russians go there, and what i suspect look, alls that -- airport security is not 100% ironclad. what i suspect may have happened as there may have been insider isis supervisor who may have been given access to the cargo area or the luggage area of the airport who may have been able to smuggle some device on the plane, if indeed that turns out to be the case. i'm not in any way shape or form suggesting that i know are in but i suspect that it shows you -- all the circumstantial intent is there. russia bombing isis, i just having a huge foothold in the sinai peninsula with the intent to try to punish the russians. let usunderstand, -- understand. this is the worst terrorist attack since 9/11, and good russian citizens died in this catastrophe. innocent families lost their lives who had just gone to the

sinai for tourist purposes and to enjoy a few weeks vacation. we should have enormous empathy -- no matter what we may think we should have in our mrs. somebody for what the russian people are enduring right now. host: here is what cnn is reporting, the headline is suspicion of isis bombing in sinai could bring strong russian retaliation. ashley is joining us from florida, republican line. good morning. caller: good morning and thanks for c-span. mr. ginsberg, i have been watching you and listening to you for years, and i appreciate your candor. however, i totally disagree with your opinion of how hillary would handle things. , andry is just like obama obama's staff is connected to obama. whatever happens out of that white house comes from obama.

oh, why don't we call him president obama? he has not been a president. he has not show leadership. the things that are happening over in the middle east have come from lack of leadership from obama. that is what it is all about. this, permit me to say first of all, as someone who strongly believes that the republican party has in norma's talent and i am very good friends with senator john mccain. i believe in the american foreign-policy in the middle east. americans are so divided on a partisan basis about what we need to do to get a coherent policy. i was in iraq and i flew out of iraq with american money bags of young -- american audie bags -- body bags. it has strengthened my believe that all of our visions in this

country about what we must do in the middle east have to give way for what is best for us as americans. i wish that all of this conjecture about who on either side can do the better job -- what we need is a bipartisan policy to protect american interests about -- against terrorism. i would be more than willing to put aside my identity as a democrat in order to achieve that. i listen to republican candidates like marco rubio as well as john kasich and jeb bush and others, and they speak with great fortitude and determination about what is necessary to restore american confidence and security to americans and to support our interests in the middle east. i'm confident that we need a bipartisan policy in the region. host: let me go back to area of your expertise. you work for president carter but that did come as a price, you provided israel with

billions of dollars in aid over the years. i just want to summarize some of the tweets, people saying we need that money here. howdy respond to that sentiment? it is american taxpayers funding this and we are providing a comparable amount is not three quarters of that amount to egypt. that was the commitment that was made under can't david. is israel capable of defending itself as our number one democratic ally in the region? the system that protected is really cities against hamas attacks was produced and funded in part by the united states. is this the right expenditure of america to an ally in the region? the fact of the matter is that when we look at what we spent on our allies whether it is south korea, japan, germany, this is a small investments that we make in defending the number one democratic ally that we have in the middle east. host: ambassador marc ginsberg,

thank you for being with us. we are going to take a short break. when we come back, paid patriotism. a new report out by members of the senate and the report from usa today on just how much money professional sporting teams have been paying. we will get more details coming up. it is sunday morning. we are back in a moment. ♪

>> all persons having business before the honorable supreme court of the united dates are admonished to draw near and give their attention. opposedlawsuit boldly the forced internment of japanese americans during world war ii. after being convicted for failing to report for relocation , he took his case all the way to the supreme court. c-span'seek on landmark cases we will discuss the historic supreme court case versus the united states. after the attack on pearl harbor president roosevelt issued an evacuation order, sending 120,000 e-book of japanese origin who live close to military installations to internment camps throughout the u.s.. >> this is a re-creation of one

of the barracks, they were 20 feet wide and 120 feet long and divided into six different rooms. they did not have feelings, they did not have floors. it would have been freezing even in the daytime. the only heating they would have stove, in a potbellied but this would not have been able to heat the entire room in a comfortable way. >> challenging the evacuation order, he defied that order and was arrested and his case went to the supreme court. find out how the court ruled in view of the war powers of congress with our guest, peter irons, author of "justice at war." matsu, daughter of the plaintiff. we will explore the mood of

america and the u.s. government policies during world war ii, and we will follow his life before, during, and after the court's decision. that is coming up on the next landmark cases, live monday at 9:00 p.m. eastern on c-span, sees and three, and c-span radio. for background on each case will you watch order your copy of the companion book. it is available for 8:95 plus shipping at c-span.org/ landmarkcases. >> "washington journal" continues. host: it is a joint senate oversight report tackling paid patriotism, $6.8 million of taxpayer-funded contract containing salutes, colorguard, anthems, and more. joining us is bill theobald who has been writing about this for usa today. of theake down some numbers from the pentagon when

it comes to this issue of age patriotism. we should point out it is the nfl, nba, soccer. its focus on some football teams. the atlanta falcons getting $879,000. the newington patriots, $700,000. the buffalo bills, $650,000 between 20 -- 2012 and 2015. what is the money used for and what is paid patriotism? guest: that is a phrase coined by the authors of the report, and it basically describes instances where the teams were paid to put on events, to do things like -- you look at the games and you see the flag being held by members of the national there is maybe a tearful reunion involving a soldier coming back from overseas. some of those events were being funded by tax dollars. host: this is a report put

together by senator mccain and senator flake, but what stands out? guest: i think it is probably the idea that these franchises which are quite well-off and quite wealthy themselves -- that they would as part of his marketing agreement be paying for things that the senators believed in,hey they should be doing for free. host: we have one line set aside for those of you who are either active or retired military. .202) 748-8003 here is more from last week's news conference. [video clip] examples, $49,000 to the milwaukee brewers for the wisconsin national guard to sponsor each sunday performance of god bless america. the dod paid $1500 to the l.a.

galaxy to provide pregame recognition for five high-ranking officers of the air force and 100 general admission tickets to the game. the department of defense paid $20,000 to the new york jets to guardize army national soldiers as hometown heroes at each game. the air force paid at the cincinnati bengals nearly $5,000 for 60 club level tickets. the national guard paid the indianapolis colts for the use of a luxury suite. thenational guard paid boston bruins for a luxury box for 18 people and an executive 25te 425 people -- for people. i want to point out that unfortunately more than one third of the contract that we uncovered were not provided by

the department of defense. the department of defense and dragged their feet every step of the way host:. host: senator john mccain this past wednesday outlining the get turns about the issue of paid patriotism. when you look at the numbers, certainly it is taxpayer dollars. not a huge amount. why did they focus on this? with the senator with the reputation of what he considers to be -- trying to identify what he considers to be wasteful spending. he and his staff came across a contract involving the jets in the spring of this year and they were intrigued by that so they began a broader investigation. he wrote a letter to the department of defense asking or all of their contracts between 2012 and 2013 -- 2015. they actually had difficulty getting a lot of the information that they were requesting. the more they asked the more they found and the more intrigued they became.

senator mccain came involved as well. host: we would love to hear for you. for them it --(202) 748-8000 for democrats, (202) 748-8001 four republicans. we do have an app active line if you are active military, (202) 748-8003. the senate is going to take up the defense authorization bill this week. the house is out this week. will this come up as part of the debate? guest: absolutely. in the original legislation that president obama be said there -- vetoed, there is a provision in the new bill that passed the house and is likely to pass the senate and get the signature, a provision that basically bands this sort of expenditure on the part of the defense department. that is why at the press conference the two centers had, senator mccain said he doesn't

really think there's anything more for them to do at this point because they have included that in the defense authorization, so these sorts of things should not go on anymore. host: one of our viewers saying, let the nfl shaming begin. you can send us a tweet. did the nfl make money off of this or do these expenditures simply cover the expenses? guest: i am not sure howard -- how much their expenses would be versus how much they would make. i think the one thing that the senators made a point of was that all of the pro-franchises that are cited in here actually do donate a lot of their time and layers and resources to the military. so they were just trying to focus in on this narrow part of the picture that they found to be disturbing. the problem is for viewers, if you are watching a game and you see an event and you think oh,

it is awfully nice that they are no way to, there is know which of those is paid and which of those is actually being done out of the goodness of the teams. host: that same viewer following up with this, saying what stands out for me is that the government has never offered to pay for my patriotism. it simply expected. senator think that -- mccain obviously has a very strong passion on this issue because of his own personal background. he was the one that was very much talking about how teams should really be focused on trying to do things for veterans and for soldiers, and do it for the right reasons and in the right way. in the newscalling conference for the teams that had received money for things that he considered to be not quite correct, they should donate an equal amount of money to charities, and charities that

would help veterans. host: and at this point is not just the nfl, it includes the mlb and the nhl. guest: it is all the major franchises, including nascar. it covers all the major sports franchises. peter from maryland, democrats line. good morning. caller: good morning gentlemen. a pleasure to hear and see you on tv. as long as we're talking about patriotism, i knew a marine back 1967 who dealt-- with a nuclear weapon. let's talk about that patriotism. host: a response? guest: there are plenty of people out there who need and deserve our appreciation, and i think that is one of the things that is being done a lot these , and perhaps in the past

this is not been done as much. i think that most people willingly and eerily participate because they appreciate the sacrifices that folks have to make. host: diana from new jersey, good morning. caller: good morning. i agree. i think it is totally disgraceful that our taxpayer money has to pay for these rich organizations to get their patriotism. it just goes with that culture of corporate america, they don't even have any patriotism anymore. they are more global, more interested in profits. we see that with their tax avoidance strategies and how they don't look overseas to hire people. but also i think the pentagon should be audited. that is a big thing, you can't get answers to the questions on how this all works.

it is also with the reconstruction afghanistan, the special inspector has revealed that we paid over 500,000 for a gas station that should have cost $43,000. i believe that this whole corporate welfare in the pentagon system should he instigated. inc. you. host: thank you for the call. guest: one of the things that was particularly frustrating to the senators was the fact that they felt as though it was made much more difficult than it should be to get the information they were requesting from the pentagon. as a matter of fact they mentioned that the contracts that they received from the pentagon were only two thirds of the ones that they were actually able to discover on their own. so they did some investigating on their own and found additional contracts that were troubling. senator flake said it was like trying to pull teeth, and

senator mccain also criticized the pentagon for what he considered to be dragging their feet in providing this information. host: we are talking about the pentagon paying sports teams for patriotic event what senator mccain is calling paid patriotism. on our democrat line, alan is joining us from michigan. good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to know if nfl is tax exempt. they don't pay taxes right? you are way outside my area of expertise on tax policy and the nfl. i do believe some of the major anrts franchises do have exemption but that is not something i'm very familiar with. host: and i do know that the nfl does have a tax exempt and although its employees certainly pay taxes and the owners. let's go to john joining us from michigan. on our line for active and retired military. good morning. are you currently serving? caller: i am retired.

i retired back in 1986. host: which branch? caller: marine corps. host: thank you, go ahead with your question. caller: if the government has all this money to put into the hands of the rich franchise owners, why don't they take that money and put it into the paychecks of our servicemen? host: thank you sir. guest: that is an interesting point. one of the things that was brought up by the authors was the idea that it makes the argument that -- by the pentagon that they need extra money, it makes that argument much more difficult when there is this kind of ending going on. on the other hand i think that the senators would acknowledge, and what the pentagon would say ended say is, they did not need to do promotion and advertising

to try to attract people to the military. we do have an all volunteer force. think everybody has seen the advertising. being done isis not anything they would find should be objectionable. it is just a portion of the money that is spent. host: our next caller is from new jersey, tony, good morning. caller: good morning. is, i look at all the nfl teams or anything that is a franchise or a business like anything else. i don't understand how taxpayer money could be given to these people to try to enhance their businesses when other people don't get these types of benefits. host: thank you sir. guest: in some cases the spending is being given permission to have banners on

the news, to have announcements made during the sporting events. expensesny of these are considered to be legitimate advertising promotional expenses. it is just the ones where there -- they were being paid to honor veterans that were the ones that were objected to. host: another view saying spending on infrastructure. they are begging for money. send us a tweet. and according to this joint senate report by senator -- the senators, the amount of money they received. atlanta falcons are number one, just under $900,000. 700newington patriots, thousand dollars. the buffalo bills, $650,000.

the minnesota wild, $570,000. 534,000. ravens, the new orleans saints, $472,000. the charges, $453,000. the seahawks, 453 thousand dollars. the braves, $450,000. the indianapolis colts, $420,000. there is concern that there is not a lot of hard evidence as to the value of the promotional activities that the pentagon does. in other words they want to see better metrics show how well the recruiting has improved by spending in these certain areas. it is a certain amount of money, it is not as much of the whole pentagon budget, but when taxpayers see that they are concerned. they want to know is this getting a result?

is this causing their to be greater recruiting success in those areas where they are doing this kind of promotion? host: and with regard to all that money, we have this tweet. in context to a $19 trillion debt, what percent the $7 million represent? guest: very very small. this is the challenge for policy makers in trying to deal with those large deficits and debts. there are a lot of things that you can identify as questionable spending, but often they are ,airly small in the big picture and does everyone knows when you really try to deal with the big actor you are dealing with entitlements and those kinds of things that become much more problematic. i think we saw the same kind of debate developed over earmarks. earmarks, which were the special

designated spending, by members of congress that were in the budget got a lot of attention. but when you look to them as a total of the amount of spending they really were not that much. it is understandable. it is what people can relate to and understand themselves when they see spending but they think , that does not seem to be justified at all. host: every sunday morning serious xm carries this program live. we are also heard on c-span radio and streamed on the web at c-span.org. our guest is bill theobald and we are talking about the pentagon paying sports teams for patriotic event. jerry is joining us from new orleans. good morning. caller: good morning c-span. host: good morning. think: my comments, idle it is popular for them to just be spending money frivolously like that. personally i do not think they are that dumb.

that stuffy're doing to funnel some of that money into their own pockets and they should be investigated. that money could be used. i looked at all that money. that is a lot of money that ,ould be invested in the v.a. it could go back into social security for people who work for that money. they buy too many other things. wait -- we do not need to be spending dumb money. host: we will get a response. guest: i think one of the things that came out of -- in the days before the report was released wrote to the two senators and said that they are an auditbe conducting of all of their agreements with the military. there was a promise made that if they found things that were in her. they would give the money back. i think we are going to see how that plays out.

there is at least an attempt to try to assess whether there was some kind of improper spending that took lace. our next caller from annapolis, maryland, home of the u.s. naval academy, joe. good morning. republican line. caller: i find it fascinating that no one has yet talked about president obama's budget submission approvals for the pentagon. he has in many cases in the last six years or so attempted to raise the premiums for retired members, that is increasing our health care. he has submitted proposals to increase the rate of increase on the annual pay. in many cases the pentagon has overruled him, not so much the pentagon, it is laid the and service minded members of congress like john mccain who would not let the

pentagon -- the sycophants i should say, go along with the proposal. president obama, while choking off the military, has other obvious interest. he has announced the so-called brother keeper proposal that he is -- devotes a lot of assets to. it is nowhere founded in statute, there is a law called the anti-deficiency act that prevents the payment of any funds to anything that is not authorized. host: thank you. let's get a response. guest: i think that this is why these kind of spendings do get attention, there are so many needs that people see either for additional pay for the gentleman mentioned to try to offset increases in the cost of insurance, which everybody has faced in their lives. i think that is why any kind of spending like this that might be questionable gets a lot of

attention and causes some frustration on the part of taxpayers. host: and david was tweeting, he follows up by saying that nfl of money,small pot but there are endless examples of this. it all adds up. somethinghink that is that is always talked about, the desire to try to keep a better handle on the amount of money that is spent or how it is spent. it is difficult when it is such a gigantic organization. i think that is one of the issues that congress has wrestled with, trying to figure out exactly where does all this .oney go and how is it spent it is a massive amount of money thein many cases a lot of interceptor that is in place to try to keep track of it is not always there. we have seen that repeatedly in recent history. carolina, from north

good morning. welcome to the program. caller: thank you, sir. i just have a comment about the whole situation or it what frustrates me -- i am retired army, if i did not say -- what frustrates me is these wars have been going on for 14 years now and these sports teams have held these military tributes for so long are you it is just alarming to me that finally what we call competent legislators have not just brought this to issue. about someones me like to -- john mccain, it is almost by mistake that they find out about these things and now it becomes a greater issue. spending,at military they should take more prudent care on what the military spends like thing -- on things like this. that is my comment. i will hang up and listen to your comments. host: thank you.

guest: i think that the senators probably would respond that in some cases they felt like the material that they were provided was not clear on what kind of events this money was going to be spent for. it took a little bit of digging to try to figure out exactly how this money was spent. i think it is still an issue between the pentagon and some of the people who have looked at this. host: rachel from texas, you are next to good morning. caller: you know people are so busy today. not a lot of people find the time to watch sports. we should pay more attention to our soldiers that sacrificed their lives for us. if that is one way of getting it out there that is fine with me, because we do need to honor our sayiers, and also i want to that they talk about the gas

station, how about the schools that we built over in iraq and afghanistan that had no way of running electricity? millions and billions of dollars we spent over there rebuilding and nobody talks about that. believe that we should pay more to our soldiers instead of worrying about buying more guns or ammunition. how about giving that to the guys that sacrificed their lives for us? markdon't mind voting for peopleke that but the who vote on what we spend over there, we can't point our fingers at anyone. host: thank you for your call. pentagon spending has always traditionally been something that draws a lot of and throughout recent

history there have been plenty of examples of things that people find to be perhaps not proper. however the amounts of money involved in some of the weapon systems and development of weapon systems and things like that it just so great is hard for people to even comprehend the amounts of they are dealing with. host: let me take this tweet and follow up. it says the next time i see the nfl recognize a rave soldier i won't feel as patriotic. heavily more suspicious. will anything change? guest: some things have already changed. for instance as you miss -- mentioned earlier, the authorization for the defense department spending is probably going to pass and beside. it includes language that would ban this sort of activity. in addition even before that happened the services issued new guidance, internal guidance, that basically said if the

surfing is happening in needs to stop and it should not happen anymore. so you are already seeing that kind of action taking place or it one would think that that attention that has been given to this would make it a little bit more careful about how these contracts are drawn in the future. host: derek is next from hollywood, florida. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. concerning a little and bothersome, how the congressman would speak so against waste, against helping out the college fund, the education fund, but then we have stories like the $42 million gas station in iraq. we hardly see any politicians step up. it really plays into why people remove themselves from voting. they feel like voting is almost useless. they feel it the people that they vote for will not publish change. it is disheartening to see the kind of things that are exposed

but in reality nothing ever really happens about it very it continues to happen. to see that our congressmen don't really have the american citizens interests at heart. i looked at their work calendar for next year, i think they're working like 112 days for the entire year and they are making 170 thousand dollars. $174,000. host: thank you for the call. guest: in this case directly members of congress that discovered this and pursued it, and the ones that brought it to life. the changes that have taken place, i imagine they will be doing some follow-up to make sure that there are not any additional examples. host: jim, last call. .ne minute left quick question for our guest? caller: i want to know where the money comes from for bonuses for the congressman's staff and why they are bonuses.

host: thank you. guest: well, any bonuses that members of congress if their staff would come from the office budgets that each one of them is given. in past years at the end of the year or the end of a two-year cycle there are sometimes staff if the to member of congress is leaving but that is then within the confines of the budget that they are each given to manage host:. host:bill theobald who covers this for usa today. if people want to fall you on twitter how can they do so? guest: it is just bill theobald. host: in case you missed it the story that people are talking about this sunday morning, snl last night, donald trump became the latest politician dating back to gerald ford who once hosted the program. he served as the guest house last night. here's a portion of the opening monologue. [video clip] >> part of the reason i am here

is that i know how to take a joke. they have done so much to ridicule me over the years. this show has been a disaster for me. look at this guy. >> great, great, great. isn't he fantastic. >> i got a say you are doing a great job. i think this show does that better by about 2,000,000,000%. they told me this is very adjusting. now that i'm here, this is the best monologue and snl history. can you believe that? >> pretty good. >> pretty good, can you believe that? look at this. you think you are this terrific person. you think you are this, you think you're that. you have been very naive and quite frankly you are fired.

talent myn't have my money for my good looks. but you know what? they are not bad. we are going to have a lot of fun tonight. i knewthe hell is -- that was going to happen. who is that? [laughter] [applause] >> is larry david. what are you doing? they told me if i yelled that they would give me $5,000. >> as a businessman i can fully risk act that. host: and larry david did get that $5,000. our courtesy to nbc. we will continue the conversation tomorrow morning as we do every day. "washington journal" at 7:00

a.m.. the politics reporter for the washington examiner will be joining us and sarah ferriss of the hill newspaper to talk about the cost of pharmaceutical drugs in the u.s.. they are going way up. and then we will be focusing on the u.s. census. it could cost of to $17 billion when the census is done ideas from now. topics and guests tomorrow morning on c-span's "washington journal", newsmakers is next. have a great weekend. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> here on c-span this morning, "newsmakers