talks about security and safety in the wake of the paris attack and the may amtrak throwing. as always, we will take your calls. you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. washington journal is next. ♪ good morning, it is monday, november 23, 2015. president obama returned to the white house following a 12,000 mile week long trip that was originally intended to spotlight priorities in asia before the terrorist attack change that focus. since the attacks, president obama has used a series of news conferences to respond to those attacks and address the threat isis poses, discuss america's respond response, and to the debate in the united states over refugee policy and homeland security. our question for our viewers in this first 45 minutes this morning, do you think the president has struck the right

tone in his various appearances since the paris attacks? what words should be president be using? our phone lines are open, democrats can call in at 202-748-8000, republicans, 202-748-8001, independence, 202-748-8002. you can also catch up with us on social media, twitter, facebook, e-mail us at c-span.org. you,d monday morning to writer, tone, like, whatever you want to call it, we are talking about what the president has said or hasn't said and how he has or hasn't said it. we are talking for your view this morning on that. our phone lines are open if you want to join in. onbegin with a piece posted boston's npr station the site, the headline, which of counterterrorism, is a obama striking the right tone? obama has been careful about how he frames terrorist attacks in the fight against extremists. some say he is too careful.

he will not call the terrorists radical islamists because a grants the groups the religious legitimacy they seek and will push militant propaganda that the west is at war with as long. he has also refrain from using the war -- word war on terror. is saying thatb the president's tendency is typical of the illustration to want to keep that story, if you want to read more, boston's npr's news website. the president yesterday appearing at another press conference at the end of that 12,000 mile trip. here is a part of that press conference that has been receiving a lot of attention this money. president obama: one of the things that has to happen is how

we report on this has to and not perspective empower in any way these terrorist organizations, or elevate them in ways that make it easier for them to recruit or make them stronger. they are a bunch of killers. good social media. they are dangerous. they have caused great hardship to people. the overwhelming majority of people who go about their business everyday, the americans who are building things and making things and teaching and saving lives as firefighters, police officers, they are stronger. our way of life is stronger.

we have more to offer. we represent 99.9% of humanity. that is why we should be confident we will win. host: for more on this, david jackson, usa today's white house reporter. thank you for joining us on this monday morning. guest: thank you for having me. host: i want to talk about the presidents tone and what you have seen from his various press conferences. was it different yesterday then the tone he used last week on monday in turkey? guest: not in terms of talking about the islamic state. he has been consistent on it. one thing that struck us during his trip to asia was the harsh tone he took to his republican critics. at a couple conferences, he was upset with public and proposals to shut down the syrian refugee program in light of paris attacks. some people, even the president's allies says he sounded harsher for the republican than he did to the atomic state. he has been consistent all along, both before and after the

paris attacks thing which are overhyped what they can do and we should remember they are killers. as he sat there, keep things in perspective and realize in the long run we will prevail. host: what are we expecting to hear from him this week? the his said to sit down with french president francois hollande. guest: it is striking to me that he is coming to washington to speak to president obama in the oval office to he is going to moscow to speak face-to-face with vladimir putin. my sense is that something is cooking. anwill announce intensification of our efforts against the islamic state. i have a feeling that the fact that the president is coming in person, meeting with the oval office and reporter staff, i suspect we will hear some sort of announcement from president obama about a new way to deal with the islamic state in syria and iraq. host: a different tone, you expect? here are a headline from the fiscal times, their lead story this morning on the front page,

hollande calls for a sense of urgency against the fight against isis. can you contrast with what he is saying and other leaders around the world with the president's tone? guest: he has been a lot more radical and intense about his attacks on the islamic state or that would be natural because the actual attacks took place in his city. he was at the stadium when one of the attacks took place. it is reasonable to assume he was a specific target of the attacks. there is no doubt he will be more outspoken. i do not expect obama's tone to change. he has been consistent about this. i don't think you want people -- the phrase is, too carried away. he doesn't want to commit ground troops to the fight over there. to build up the islamic state by expressing so much fear about them. guesthost: before we let you gou you mentioned president clinton. can you -- president puti n. there was that meeting overseas,

a picture there. that meeting happened in turkey when they were both there. guest: nobody really knows what happened there. the only thing they will confirm is that they had a chat for 30 minutes which is a long time for one of these meetings. i am assuming the president is talking about more cooperation in syria and russia, we are there with 50 special operators. i assume that was the topic, to try to talk about more american-russian court nation in the fight against the islamic state involving france, too. president hollande wants to create a grant coalition to state.he islamic that is his purpose in going to washington and mexico -- moscow. host: white house reporter, a version your time this morning. have a great week. guest: you, too. host: has president obama struck the right tone after the paris attacks? the phone line, democrats, 202-748-8000 republicans 202-748-8001, independents

202-748-8002. we will also look for your if youand your e-mails want to send us your you can contribute to the conversation on facebook at facebook. com/cspan. seymour, savannah, georgia, line for democrats. good morning, you're on the washington journal. caller: it is always great, c-span brings all of the right information at the right time. i am so happy to be on c-span again. i think the president of the united states has given the right tone, but something struck me as very odd. it doesn't matter what president obama says. right will always criticize, he is not striking the right tone. i think because this president america's-- putting soldiers into war, people to see

think he doesn't command the united states this president of the united states has -- has done aob tremendous job in trying to coalition forces around the world to stop these radical people from killing people. people don't have a sense of life anymore. the president is in a situation where he feels he is not making the right tone, not saying the right things. if he says nothing, he doesn't do right, if he says something, he doesn't do enough. , or can this president do any president do, to fight off somebody who doesn't care about life? host: can i ask you, there has been some criticism that the president needs to sound angrier against isis in the wake of the attacks? here is a headline from the conservative new site daily caller after the turkey press

conference that he gave last monday. what are your thoughts? caller: it doesn't matter what tone he takes. to make a rough tone at someone who is going to focus the light on killing people, it doesn't make sense. it would have still created a i believe you cannot fight so many people who don't have a value of life. if that tone, if anybody in the united states, around the world, god gave us life, why should someone take it away from someone because they have a believe in a religion or something else? i think president obama does a great job. i think it is a great job of try to micromanage so many problems that he has come a board on this

seven years he has been president of the states. to one of the off greatest presidents we have ever had. thank you for taking my call this morning. next,sharon is up iowa, line for independence. good morning. caller: good morning. back i was all wrong. he struck the wrong tone -- that guy is all wrong. he is the worst president. he has turned this united states .pside down i will be glad when he is out. host: what words should he be saying? caller: tell the truth. call them what they really are. he doesn't want to call them what they really are. if you will my honest opinion, he is one of them. that is why he sticks up for

them all the time. host: one of what? i think he is a muslim. he agrees with what they do. host: the president has said he is a christian, why do you believe he is a christian? caller: he doesn't always tell the truth. just because someone says something doesn't mean they are telling the truth. host: sharon in des moines, iowa. texas, line for independents, tommy, good morning. caller: good morning, i just wanted to say i agree with the president's international policies in regard to the middle east. i think he has it about right. he stuffed into a mess, ms that has existed for millennia that we contributed to. massively in our engagement in iraq. i think he has dealt with it respectively over there. i disagree with bringing more people here. is overpopulated

and full of nothing. who, or concreted, over polluted. concrete, we need to stop this massive immigration insanity going on for 50 years. tony in texas. we had mentioned a couple times the presidents monday news conference. that conference at the closing of the g20 summit, the president saying he was more interested in keeping america safe than imposing. here's a message from the president. president obama: we will do what is required to keep the american people safe. i think it is entirely appropriate in a democracy to have a serious debate about these issues. folks want to pop off and have opinions about what they think they would do, present a specific plan.

if they think that somehow their advisors are better than the chairman in my joint chiefs of staff and the folks on the ground, i want to meet them. we can have that debate. what i am not interested in posing or pursuing some notion of american leadership, america winning, whatever other slogans they come up with. that has no relationship to what is actually to work your to andect the american people people in the region who are getting killed, and to protect our allies and people like france. i am too busy like that. host: in the wake of that press

conference, several members of congress bring up press releases aching to twitter to give their thoughts on the town -- tone of that press conference. a nevada republican centcom in the remarks at g20, the president giving tone deaf response to the events of the past several days. obama's condescending and political rhetoric since the terrorist attacks in france is unbecoming of a commander-in-chief. one of the republican, todd young, isis is evil no more half members and -- measures and anti-rhetoric. theting in a few days after press conference. 10 days after the terrorist attacks, from what we have seen from the president of unite states, what do you think about the tone he has struck? for democrats, republicans, independence for you. and a from chicago, illinois. caller: good morning, how are you?

president obama is the best president we have had so far. i wish we could happen eight more years. i don't understand how people can say he is the worst president. they have the wrong information. he kept us safe, didn't he? that is all i have to say, thank you. harry in pittsburgh, pennsylvania, line for republicans. caller: he kept us safe. the whole world watched him on tv talking. he didn't make any sense. reporters from around the country asked him questions. they didn't get any answers. right now, the world is turning to putin instead of him, and the president of france is doing more than him. he wants to debate somebody? ted cruz offer to debate him. have him on c-span. you call him a muslim -- this guy is hating christians. he made statements about the

crusades of all things. he doesn't have his history accurate. the crusades were started over a trade route to arabic countries. host: do you think that this is the right tone to be taking? marco rubio is putting out his first tv spot tomorrow. according to the washington times, it is going to be the text from the tv spot. he will say this is a civilizational struggle between the values of freedom and liberty and radical islamic terror. what happened in paris could happen here. there is no middle ground. there aren't this empower people , these are radical terrorists who want to kill us because we let women drive. i marco rubio, he will say, i approved this message because there could be no arrangement or negotiation. either they win or we do. the language from the tv spot that is supposed to air tomorrow. what do you think about that? caller: i think it is all right. what is he saying?

obama said in his speech he is not interested in winning. he is in the white house, attacking christians, metic.omatic -- se the other thing is, like it republicans say to him what he said in his speech? people posing. he attacked the republicans and didn't say anything about isis. i guarantee you that 10,000 people coming into this country come the we will have an attack. if we have an attack, i want to see these same democrats saying he is the best president ever. that is nonsense. he makes jimmy carter look like a brain surgeon. speaking of with, ben carson, who is a brain surgeon. if he can attack publicans, they can attack him. why do you get him on tv with cruz? i guarantee he will bury him. 63% of america don't want him -- them over here right now.

he doesn't want to hurt innocent civilians. everywhere, suppliants get killed. across the world, people are getting killed by these people. -- civilians get killed. trump was right, we should waterboard them. they cut heads off over there. where waterboarding, that is cruel. speaking of don't trump in a rally last week, he took a different tone in response to the terrorist attacks your here is a bit from donald trump at one of his rally last week. they chop off heads, you are a christian, the chop offense. they chop off heads of everybody. they drown them in cages. this has never happened. maybe in the middle ages, maybe in middl medieval times. you used to read about. you used to read about medieval times -- there has never been anything about this. i said don't go into iraq, i was right. i said now, we have to knock the ship out of these people -- the

shit out of these people. we have to do it. [applause] host: we are talking about the tone president obama has struck since the terrorist attacks. i would get your thoughts on the line which he has used and the language he hasn't used. phone lines are open, democrats, 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. independence, 202-748-8002. northis up next, harmony, caroline, line for independents. good morning. caller: good morning. i think both him and john kerry should be forced to resign after the remarks they made last week. it is an exceeds all, the way they -- it is inexcusable the way they treated the republicans. they demonized republicans more than the terrorists that we are fighting against. host: watermarks in particular are you concerned about? -- what's remarks in particular? caller: when john kerry and

don't be shooting in the editorial office -- condoned -- in paris. talking about refugees coming over here, he is making remarks about little girls coming in. the republicans are afraid of little girls. he doesn't show the young man over there, the young, fighting men. he shows us these little girls and women and makes the republicans look bad because of what he is doing. that is wrong. muslim,s him being a you look at his eyes when he is that, he talking about defends the islamic religion and muslims. body language tells it all. you can see the hate in his eyes when somebody says something about the muslims. host: the president talked about this in the press conference yesterday. ktlas a headline from

talking about the presidents press conference yesterday. he is saying it is actually false that america is at war with an entire religion. it is false that we are somehow at war with an entire religion. the united states could never be at war with any religion because america is made up by multiple religions. we are strengthened by people from every religion, including muslim americans. i want to be as clear as i can on this. presidents -- prejudice and dissemination helps isis and underlines our national security. host: line for republicans, good morning. caller: good morning, sir, thank you for taking my call. ison't care if the president a buddhist, christian, muslim. he just doesn't say the truth. he loves islam more than any american. islam is brought by force.

battles.had the caliphate that spreads islam in the least -- in the middle [indiscernible] both are turkey, turkey used to be a cut -- christian country. islam was spread by force. that is why the christians left turkey. give me a break. thank you for taking my call. host: in today's new york times, also talking about the debate surrounding islam in this country and some of the rhetoric that has come out against islam. bottom tos to be no the cesspool of us on the phobic

rhetoric -- islam a phobic rhetoric coming from republicans. it has become so poisonous that he cannot pretend anything -- portend anything positive. demonizing a religious basis a slippery slope. we must put a lid on this corrosive language, specifically anti-muslim is anti-american. if you want to read more, it is in today's new york times. we are getting your thoughts this morning on the presidents various press conferences since the paris attacks. what have we seen from the president, which he has used, what do you want to hear, what hasn't he said that you which you -- wish you have heard? line for democrats, rick, good morning. can you hear me? yes, sir. i have to say that it makes me

sad to hear some of the terrible rhetoric that i hear coming from americans on these telephone lines. the only people i can blame for it are our politicians. never before has there been such spite and snarkiness against our president. in hisens day one presidency. when the republicans said there isn't a thing he is would you do that they are good you support. that's going to support your they have been nothing but acetone from minute -- acid tong one, and theyes have the gall to talk about his tone when he is the only one setting forth any kind of progress whatsoever. they won't give them any kind of optimization for war. they haven't paid for the last two years we have had. isn't it lucky for george w. rumsfeld andld

dick cheney that after 9/11, we didn't act like the republicans do now? they would have strung them up. it is a shame. until we get rid of the rhetoric that comes from rush limbaugh, ted cruz, donald trump, and the rest of the wannabes, this country will not go forward. really gont to against and invade a country, why don't we go down and invade mexico, get rid of all the corruption, and make a place for these folks to go back home? thank you, very much. host: rick from florida. some tweets that have come in over the course of the conversation, obama is tone deaf , is in a parallel universe and is stubborn and spiteful. the president's language was more aggressive.

this time around, it might be revenge over justice that is needed. we are taking your thoughts this morning over the president's tone that he struck since the days since the paris attacks 10 days ago. sebring, florida, line for republicans. good morning. caller: i have a couple of things. the democrats do all of this rhetoric against the republicans only time. republicans don't say anything about democrats. i have a couple things more. most of these democrats want to live with a dictatorship. i can't believe it. they put obama in to destroy the united states. he did. he is getting the job done. i can't believe these stupid people out there. they are taking up for this guy. thank you very much. host: robert is our line for independents, henderson,

kentucky, good morning. you're on the washington journal. caller: good morning, sir. let me echoed the sentiments from the caller from florida. they last caller who called, his type of ignorance, along with republican racism, obama is not to blame for what happened in iraq, obama cannot control what happened in paris, obama is the president of united states of america. you can never to turn -- deter individuals who want to kill themselves with violence. you can't do it. it iran and iraq have been at war for eight years. america was on the side of iraq because she hated iran and supported saddam hussein. that was wrong. that was a mistake. has terrorism on her hands. she has racism on her hands. she is not in a moral position to tell anyone what to do until she corrects her own behavior. what you are going to see is diplomacy. you can never deter individuals

were willing to kill themselves with violence. president obama is not to blame over what dick cheney that, over what the douglas brothers did. a long history of overthrowing governments she does not like. thank you. host: a few more trees that have come in on this topic. what is an excusable is the unimaginable, treasonous weight republicans speak about potus and the actions they take against him. what words should obama use? how about radical islamic patty is up next in reidsville, wisconsin, the line for democrats, good morning. morning, i would vote for obama again in a heartbeat. he is doing the right job. i am disappointed in the

reporting. why are we not hearing more about the terrorism in africa? if someone wants to put boots and the ground, get a gun, fly over there, take a ship over .here and that will not end we need refugees here. i would welcome them so god bless you and thank you for this program. host: there is a column that appeared in the newspaper -- do you think that's true? caller: talk is cheap. i remember someone saying walk softly and carry a big stick. we need to do behind the scenes. i don't think we should be advertising when we are going to bomb, what countries are bombing, etc.

that's when france got into trouble is the advertising. walk silently and carry a big stick. god bless you and thank you for this program. int: brad is up next international falls, minnesota, good morning. caller: good morning, i have been listening to a lot of your viewers the sad part of this is that. c-span seems to be part of the propagating part of this whole obama term. i think it's getting as bad as msnbc here. it's too bad. eyes,just see it in your the glee when you hear something good about obama. what you can't take is hearing -- hearing about his misjudgments and his misdeeds and the things he has done. what's really, really terrible about all of this is that obama is just a smug leader and you

keep buying into his stupidity. what will we do? did you want to hear from the president over the last few days? where did he miss the opportunity? caller: i don't know. as long as everybody else keeps bringing on the bad things that other presidents and other administrations have done, what about when obama said the republicans can go for a ride on the bus but they have to sit in the back. i bet that smug frat boy wishes he did not say that. for you to stand up for him, everyone can see it on tv. maybe not listening to it on radio but i can see you are a supporter of obama. that's with wrong. you are supposed to be the middle of the road. host: we want to hear from everybody this morning and all of our viewers on this issue if obama has struck the right tone. there has been a lot of criticism we have been reading

that he has not and we want to hear what you think this morning. the president was at the g-20 summit last monday. he was asked about whether he should have done more, whether he is striking a tougher rhetoric when he talks about isis. [video clip] >> in respect to the broader , to somemy critics degree, i answer the question earlier. when you listen to what they actually have to say, what they time,oposing, most of the they describe things we're already doing. maybe they are not aware we are already doing them. some of them seem to think that if i were just more bellicose in expressing what we were doing that that would make a difference. because that seems to be the isy thing they are doing

talking as if they are talking. i have not seen particular strategies that they would suggest that would make a real difference. column that was published in the wake of that press conference -- this is from "the eagle tribune" - thoughtso hear your this morning in our bones are open for the next 10 minutes or so. from west up next virginia, the line for independents. as far asod morning, the obama tone, it's measured and appropriate. i agree with one of the statements he made when he calls for others to make specific decisions as to what to implement. my suggestion which somewhat mirrors the rand paul opinion is

we support people who are seeking self-determination. i think it was a mistake for us to take out saddam hussein. the security lacking in the western part of iraq so the to go tod nothing accept the strong man in isis. we should have aligned ourselves and impose an iraq kurd state and a sunni state and a shia state. unless you have security and peace within your borders, you will not support these other outsiders that are going to make your lives less secure. sunnis had a sense that they had a stable security force they could rely upon, isis would fall apart. host: that's stephen and

kernersville, west virginia. next is gainesville, virginia, line for democrats. allow me ad morning, few minutes to talk. i want to appreciate obama's stand on this isis ring. -- thing. this country was falling apart after bush and cheney when he came to power. we had to ours and we could not get out. -- we had two wars and we could not get out and. these were wars we can never win and obama managed to bring our soldiers home. the country was pretty much broke. we had trillions of dollars of deficit and were adding more to the credit card on the national debt.

obama turned around the economy and everyone is screaming he should send us back to the middle east? for what? the terrorists are waiting for the soldiers to get there so they can start bombing them. for those guys who talk about hasa not taking the lead, vladimir putin one soldier to the front? he is not going to. obama is dead right. attacking paris but it's in a good way. it is good for the europeans to pay attention. coming out of that press conference yesterday in kuala lumpur or was news -- obama ordered an inquiry into the intelligence on isis. he said on sunday he had ordered his senior defense officials to

find out whether intelligence reports had been altered. some other news around the country -- we want to make you aware of this on the front page of "the new york times."

it would be one of the biggest takeovers in the health-care industry and would be the largest acquisition yet. look her up for reports on that later today. this is from "the washington post" -- if you want to read more on that, it's in "the washington post."

we have a few more minutes in this segment. these are the numbers -- what do you think of the presidents town post-the paris attacks. stephanie is in highland, california, the line for democrats, good morning caller: to good morning, c-span. i think his tone is correct. i believe we don't need anybody in there that speaks like bush .r trump we don't need any war mongers in there. what is true is that obama has kept us safe. what is true is that we have not had an attack on american soil since he got in office. all of that rhetoric and yelling and threats -- he does not need to get out there and behave that way. that's the reason why we voted him in his because of his

demeanor and the way he acts and he thinks things through before he speaks and before he acts. that's the kind of president we need an office. one more thing -- those people who are whining every time they don't get their way because they c-span hasmaybe favoritism, that's when you know you are in the middle of the road is when you get it both ways so thank you and have a nice take. host: a few more tweets -- terry is up next from iowa, the line for republicans, good morning. caller: good morning, i want to

share with your viewing audience that president obama should be impeached for not being a commander-in-chief. he is an charge of cia headquarters and the fbi. i spent the tuesday before veterans day at the headquarters in mclean, virginia. i said to the fellows who with a bishop who was a former muslim for 24 years and converted. he converted his father. he brought information to washington, d.c. to the cia headquarters. thisid you can investigate

today but there will be attacks in paris tomorrow. they did nothing with the information. host: how did you come across this information and how did you get to cia headquarters? caller: i'm a bishop in the lutheran church. kosovod process 5000 refugees with the iowa national guard. they were called up to serve my personally baptized their president. i know the muslims and i know the imams and i know it's going on in turkey. i know hillary, john kerry, and obama should be impeached and they are covering this up. i contacted senator grassley's office and they will be calling for an investigation for

americans not defending americans. i want the president to debate ted cruz. we get nowhere in trying to -- the bible says you will know them by their actions. the first sign that the president is not a christian and we have evidence from a former kosovo and turkey and when hillary clinton was secretary of state, asked the koso to stepv down and they forced him out of office. o host: a few more calls are waiting to get in in this segment. waynesville, iowa, line for independents.

caller: good morning. forum thate the c-span provides for america. i believe it's a valuable service you provide. i would like to make two comments. one concern several other people who talked earlier that if we had left troops in and we had more influence in the region, that's obvious. everybody over 50 agrees with that. i'm a product from the vietnam era. i have a little experience with some of this. nevertheless, the second thing is most people really have to consider the fact that president obama had some experience and indoctrination into muslims so

he is somewhat sympathetic to them, i think, possibly more so than most people will give them credit for. you referring to when you say indoctrination? caller: i don't mean indoctrination, i mean he was brought up in that environment. some of it was from his father. toertheless, getting back what i was going to say, if he was going to do anything at all during this campaign, he would have already done it. is not going to wait until the last minute and start sending in troops or start a huge campaign that will go against his fabric. i think he has taken america out of the equation. that is sort of my opinion about it. as far as what the politicians and all the political pundits

are saying and the rhetoric from both sides of the aisle, when the president -- when the election comes, i will choose a president. i don't based on what they are doing at the moment or in one moment. host: our last caller in this segment of "washington journal," but up next we will talk with patrick tucker about the renewed debate over digital encryption technology in the wake of the paris attacks and later, amtrak president and ceo joseph boardman will talk about security and safety in the future of rail travel. that's coming up this morning on "washington journal." ♪ ♪ >> c-span has the best access to

congress with live coverage of the house on c-span and the two.e on c-span over thanksgiving, watch her conversations with six freshmen members of congress this morning at 10:00 eastern, buddy carter republican from georgia and the only pharmacists serving in congress. then donald norcross, a new jersey democrat and union electrician. friday at 10:00 a.m. eastern, ye.resentative mark desan then congressman mark walker from north carolina and a baptist minister in his first elected office saturday morning at 10 clock eastern, is congresswoman mimi waters from california the former state senator who interned in d.c. is a college student. a massachusetts democrat, harvard graduate, and a marine who served 4 tours in iraq. the best access to congresses on c-span, c-span radio, and www.c-span.org.

all persons having business before the honorable the supreme court of united states admonished to draw near and give their attention. on landmark cases, we will discuss brown versus the board of education. topeka, kansas third-grader, separate but equal meant a six block walk to the bus that would drive her a mile to the all-black school even though the all-white school was only a few blocks away. her father sued the school board and their case along with other similar cases made it all the way to the supreme court. we will examine this case and explore racial tensions of the times, the personal stories of the individuals involved, and the immediate and long-term impact of the decision. that's coming up on the next "landmark cases," live tonight at 9:00 p.m. eastern. for background on each case while you watch, go to your copy of "the landmark cases" companion book which is

available for $8.95 plus shipping. "washington journal" continues -- tucker is the technology editor for defense one enjoins us to discuss the debate over digital encryption technologies and what happens when those tools fall into the wrong hands. bring us up to speed on what we terrorist the paris attacks and how they communicated before the attacks and what this end to end encryption technology is part of how they communicated. guest: no evidence has surfaced to suggest that end to end user encryption was a part of the terrorist attack in paris. immediately after the attacks, there were many people in the national security community who went to the airwaves and publicly used it as an opportunity to talk about what they saw as the dangers of and to end user encryption for law enforcement and intelligence. so far, it seems that the

failures of law enforcement and intelligence were linked to interagency disputes, the ability of the french to communicate with the moroccans and other law enforcement agencies and the terrorists were s, short message communication. they used text messages. encryption, the evidence suggests that despite an explosion of hoopla in the hours immediately following these events, it was not a tool used by these attackers. host: let's explain what and to and encryption is. guest: the sounds fancy but it is simple. sound mass to ensure that when you as a device owner send a message to someone, only the intended recipient can read that message. you have a public key and a private key.

share and key you create a message and send it to someone else. they verified and they use a key to open it you can make sure that the intended recipient is the person that opened it. when we talk about that, we are talking about a system that is mathematically certain to ensure that only the intended recipients can leave that message. there's a big debate now -- sinceover the last september of 2014 but before that even, big technology companies have come out and said this is something we would like to roll out to more and more consumers. we think this ability is very important for them. it's a key component of privacy. what it does is if law like apple,goes to for example, who says they want system haver next

-- the standard. there is a variety of different services that are springing up to offer this thing. if law enforcement goes to one of them even with a warrant and says we want to be able to look and intercept this particular communication between these people, the company can say we are physically unable to give that to you. there is no way we can even comply with this warrant. debate is that you've got the technology companies saying this is essential to make sure your passwords and data stays safe. that will cut down on cyber hacking and keep incidents of cybercrime down, cyber fraud down. it's essential for a more hygienic internet and you have various law enforcement types and you have the british prime minister who has called for a ban on some of these encryption services.

in the united states, law enforcement has taken a more moderate approach. the director of the fbi has called very publicly for some means of law enforcement to get in and intercept those communications even if there is something like encryption. host: this is the key to the back door? guest: bright. -- right. host: this changed the debate on the sunday shows yesterday. [video clip] darkllowing up on these spaces -- is there any evidence that encryption was used? have you seen any evidence? i think there are strong indicators that they did. that is precisely why nothing was picked up. there were some mornings about a general plot underway with nothing specific. these guys were talking to each other on their iphones.

in my judgment, they were talking in the dark space. that's how they pulled it off with out detection and that's the challenge and homeland. we know that they are talking to people in paris and belgium but also in the united states. we have caught to medications were they talked to people in new york and d.c. and frankly everywhere. host: we are asking our viewers to join in this discussion. if you have questions or comments, these are the numbers -- chairman maccoll was talking about the sophistication of isis. what we know about that? just did acomment common confusion as to what encryption really is. we know they were using cell phones.

they come with sim cards. criminals in the united states and elsewhere for decades have used very cheap, disposable cell phones to communicate and it's not something that is magical and has nothing to do with end user encryption. there is a lot of evidence outside these attacks that isis or members of isis -- we are talking tens of thousands of fighters in syria, iraq and elsewhere. there could be as many as 46,000-90,000 twitter accounts. there is evidence that suggests some of those people using corruption to communicate. it's not directly part of these is attacks but it's something they do. centers an isis help that people who support the -- andnd getting contact get in contact and learn how to use different cyber security tools with better encryption.

time, it's important to keep in mind that these are tools we all use. to enable much better communication. it enables much safer communication and keeps data from going missing. there is a question of whether compromisinguld be or building defects into tools that offer a lot to the public in terms of better cyber security and in terms of better data integrity in order to facilitate certain law enforcement operations. that is the question we will be asking. technologyker is editor for defense one we are getting your thoughts and questions and we will start with ryan from george on our line for

independents. caller: good morning. like to know if you can tell me if nsa has the ability to crack aes? host: what are we talking about? guest: i don't want to get it wrong. if it was something that was part of the snowden disclosures, i have not seen that. iwould come back to you if have a better idea of what that is but i have not seen anybody saying that is something that. -- that they do. making communications more secure is a tool people use. are you still there? host: i think we lost him. guest: i will google that after the show.

centreville, virginia, line for democrats. caller: this is a general question. we have a lot of equipment we left over there. they are using it in the war and am not sure why they cannot find some other agency or even some of these young people who are super technical to be able to shut some of that stuff down. they have the wagon thing and they can tell you there's 6 million cars that have a defect. why we are not trying to do something different with that or trying to take their money away financially through technology. i don't get that. it seems like low hanging fruit. i will take your answer off the air if you have one. guest: it's a good question and i think there is a lot of people who are in the pentagon thinking

about going forward in building new equipment and selling kill switches so you can have better control that how they are used. efforts to part of better arm our allies great you cannot retroactively install a chill switch on a piece of equipment you do not possess. that's basically impossible. we are talking about pieces of equipment that the united states government game to iraqi security forces that have fallen into the hands of isis and things like that. in terms of radio and communication equipment, this is something we designed. i don't know how much of that stuff they have but we know they have heavy arms and things like that in terms of radio communication. we designed this so it was secure. back to a piece of machinery you are not physically in control of and install something on it that will at you in -- that will let you in.

on pieces of agreement going forward, this is something they are talking about. how does d christian work? if we are talking about building in keys for decryption, how do you make sure the keys don't fall into the wrong hands? guest: what some in the united states government would like is a set of private keys that allow them to access all of the different communications that would happen on any devices or through any services they are looking at. you into it allows that particular piece of can occasion. it works hand-in-hand with the public key which is something everyone has. the private he is only supposed to be in possession of the user, the person that is in physical contact with the device. what many law enforcement want

is for their only to be certain and thenf private keys they can have them in a file or something that they can use them to presumably with a warrant, they would use this capability only with a warrant, to intercept those medications. this is the thing that -- intercept of those communications. people are upset about fundamentally weakening this incredible capability. backdoors into these systems come into this method of communication, then you render it almost meaningless. there was a fascinating exchange last february between the head of the information security chief.

michael rogers took objection to the idea that we should call them back doors. he says it sounds creepy. we are looking at capability that would allow was in the keep the premise of an christian intact. encryption intact. on behalf of the technology community, it has also specific interest in this case. they want to be able to sell services into places like china. that's going to be hard to do who feelumers in china the united states government has a backdoor into their communications. it's not just a philosophical perspective about the purity of encryption. they also have a business interest in making sure they can sell into that market and ensure perfect privacy for foreign consumers. host: you talk about objections from the technology community and there are members of congress registering their objections -- rand paul was on television

yesterday. [video clip] many in the intelligence committee are saying if we only had the bulk phone collection program back. what they are not telling you is we still have the phone collection program in the united states, all fun records are being collected all the time. we still had the attack. they have bulk collection in france and surveillance of their citizens at thousand full greater than what we have with little privacy protection and they still did not know anything about this. i would argue that you can keep giving up liberty but in the end, i don't think we will be safer. we may have lost to we are as a people in the process. i will fight to make your that doesn't happen. host: we are talking about this debate over and to end encryption, digital technologies that are out there and the debate in the wake of the paris attacks. fletcher, north carolina, line for independents. i'm concerned with the

way the news media leaks out , any technical information are ways we have found out about attacks. they leak it out and a lot of these people are just simple loan wolves. byy know enough just watching the news what to do and what not to do. i think the government and the media should separate a little bit and give our security people a little more room to do their work without having to notify everybody about how we find people. host: that's part of the debate. is, there is a question as to exactly how much information in today's environment you can keep secret even if you are in government. in many ways, i think the

snowden disclosures are key example. whether you think edward snowden is a hero or a traitor or maybe a hero that committed treason, it does not matter. he thing is for sure is that is the most famous systems administrator whoever lives and he was a common human being. he was a third party contractor and the government was overwhelmed by the amount of data it had as part of this program and several other programs so they went to a third-party to help them manage the load. edward snowden had incredible access because the government was desperate for some means to find people, find companies, that could help them with all of this stuff and he took that information and went to different journalists. he would've gone to other journalists. brings into question the ability for governments to keep secrets anymore. folks inlk to government, they say it is becoming harder all the time. we create that through everything we do.

when you collect data, in order to use it, you have to reveal it a little bit. this is fundamental to the way we live now. imagine thatble to you can find some tactic the government can use to intercept communications of something that might the controversial and imagine it's not useful and collect data that will not get out. the records suggest that is impossible. terroristsould-be don't just use reports in the open news media to figure out what's safe for them to comedic it with. the islamic state regularly tutorials for their followers to let them know which applications out there are safe. here is a charge from open what "the wall street journal." unsafe apps inhe

the moderately safe and the safest. guest: earlier this week, the u.s. army revealed they have a tech support center. isise made fun of it, having a tech support center. you him actually call them if you are supporting member and talk to them about different tools you can use to hide to hide communications and allow safer communications and use information technology that is beneficial to the islamic state. this is something that is key to how they operate. this is something we know. program in dual terms of how they reach out to people. if got public channels in public communication and public propaganda to disseminate people

and make them curious and then they have private indications with individuals they used to nurture would-be recruits into isis. this is something that's fundamentally different from the way al qaeda was operating even though this method comes from al qaeda in iraq method of recruitment. it eventually became 90% of isis. when youhe idea that talk to them, you listen to them and you hear what they have to say and they applied it to everybody you interact with on the web. there was a fantastic piece in "the new york times" that talked about a young lady in rural united states that was having daily conversations with representatives from isis over a variety of different channels including private ones. isolated ineeling her rural community, she could

reach out to ices and have a conversation with them. this is key to the way they operate. frombasically invisible the aspect of ices can medications we perceive on the news and in the media. host: staten island, new york, line for democrats, good morning. caller: thank you for c-span. in case i get cut off, i want to balancetucker if he can what he is saying that sms was used. have indications they used the dark wet. does nobody understand that every time there's a terror attack, we had the legal structure in this country wanting to pull up everything like after the terrible attacks of 9/11 and they shove it down our throats.

i'm reminded of the testimony of herman goering. he said people can always be brought along to do the bidding of the leaders. they are the people that make the decisions. . just tell the people they are being attacked and they are in danger and announce the peacemakers relax of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. this was his testimony 1946 and it seems we are always counterbalanced with this information that we have a dangerous situation we need to give of our liberties and there are supremely people of a higher at shallot who can take care of things -- of a higher echelon who can take care of things. we need to be quiet but don't be too meddlesome. publicly, nothing is been revealed that shows and

arruption -- encryption was direct part of the paris terrorist attacks. having said that, there was one who was ayoung woman, cousin of the mastermind and the french authorities had a warrant to tap her phone. poors revealed today that communication between french and moroccan authorities led to some signals on that being messed. the encryption was not part of it however, if that person decided to encrypt their phone messages, it would have been difficult for law enforcement to have those phone calls. we are dealing with very monday and intelligence failures across -- according to news reports. in terms of the broader question if we are giving up more liberty , the illusion of more security, this is something that many people feel. it's hard to say how much trust

people have in a government surveillance structure that claims to protect them from things it has not been able to reveal. they cannot talk specifics about when or how it's needed to use those tactics. when you look at the u.s. government and things that have been revealed, they were forthcoming about a lot of capabilities they developed. there are number of different rulings that suggest that some capabilities they have developed were illegal. the obama administration has said the bulk collection of metadata is not something it is in favor of human though that may or may not be the case. there has been a reversal. said they clapper has made changes in terms of transparency and that's a type of acknowledgment that the

government was perhaps overreaching its capabilities in some of its activities and now it is stepping back. it could be a response to public outrage but it is a tacit acknowledgment that we acknowledge that perhaps we were too aggressive in some of these things. the public is asking how many tools you get to do with zero accountability? the cia director john brennan had a statement last week --

we are taking your calls this morning as we discussed that pic in this debate in the wake of the paris attacks 10 days ago. fort lauderdale, florida, line for independents. caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call. make an observation that every time these terrorists succeed, we tend to lose some of their freedoms. i blame this on lawyers and the administration. it seems like they are not attacking the enemy. they are trying to make them feel better or they are trying to understand them. meanwhile, we lose more freedom. this is just atrocious. remember that 9/11 happened because the attorney general lawyers did not want to kill osama bin laden when we wanted to. that's all i have to say. rand paul is concerned

about losing liberties. here is another tweet -- salt lake city, utah, line for democrats, good morning. i have been watching c-span since it began. i think it was 1989. i have learned more than i can ever tell you from watching your station. i am very grateful for it. the specific comment i would like to make is i feel like we need to use isis tactics and fighting them. we need to fight fire with fire. specifically, the message they use, we need to throw it right back at them.

that's all i have to say. they worry me very much. mostis one of the frightening things i've ever heard of since hitler. thank you. host: thank you for watching for so long. we actually go back to 1979. we want to talk about the ability of isis to communicate. president obama said they have a good online twitter message. twitter was created in the united states out of sms. the idea behind it was that you could communicate with a whole bunch of people at once with a text message. bizinteresting that stone, one of the founders of twitter, was asked what interest

you have in the revolution in moldova. ofs an interesting example that it's incredible to use and is making a lot of money and is going beyond the intent of its creators. them the president called terrorists with social media. guest: the united states is limited in its capacity to counter the isis message on twitter and other social media directly. there is a state department campaign through a terrorism center that is an anti-propaganda center that has about a staff of 65 and 25 are again,ed to the think turn away campaign to use social media to counter the isis message. five of those people were from the pentagon. sis can have a i

variety of different communications with people, as many as 46,000 pro-ices twitter accounts at any given time. report,g to a brookings that was 2014 and the numbers may be different now. twitter is trying to take a stronger stance. 2014, you had 46,000 pro-- isis twitter accounts compared to 25 people with a state department and five of those are with the pentagon. the numbers don't match up even remotely. if you are with the state department come you cannot get into a twitter argument with any jihadist sympathizer on twitter. the costs are enormous and the benefits are small. you will make the u.s. government look bad if you lose. have two conversations between lots of different people and have specific one-on-one conversation so they get to do

with this service, things the united states cannot do. there are ideas that have been proposed for improving our ability to counter some of that social media messaging, specifically going to different marketing firms that are good at this sort of thing and contracting with them to create counter isis content for social media and reach out and have conversations about isis that reveals more about them. time, this is not to say that twitter is not trying to get a handle on this. they enforce terms of service. some people at twitter's sake don't tweet videos of beheadings. if you do this, your account will be suspended. there is some indication that it is working. twitter will suspend very popular accounts that are

related to isis and then they will reemerge elsewhere and people within the media center at isis will redirect people to those areas you go to an account with 100,000 followers and live audience with 40,000 followers. there is no single account on twitter that has 40,000 followers. mind that thep in way that isis uses social media, we hate hearing about it but it's an important aspect of intelligence collection. in june, one lieutenant general talked about a particular content that was created by syria.theyh isis in post a picture of themselves in front of a particular local headquarters.

the air force was able to take that and match that with a location and initiate a strike on that target within 22 hours. we don't have boots on the ground in syria. a couple of weeks ago, the united states said we will expand our on the ground operation 250 special operations forces guys. we don't have eyes there in the same way we would in a place where we have a huge infantry presence. the stuff some of that ices creates and puts into social media to understand what they are doing and where and how in order to have a very tactical effect on the ground. host: we will take as many calls as we can. of can check out the work patrick tucker at defense one.com. next up is cleveland, georgia, line for independents. caller: good morning.

at the risk of being a wet blanket, i think this thing is a double-edged sword. we have a fair amount of war criminals in our country. we are not going to ever bring them to account so putting their information on the screen and whatnot, might be a check or balance with some of the stuff going on. there is no chance in hell we will get them in court. start thinkingll clearer before they go acting stupid around here. when he something to change. have a good morning. host: anything you want to follow up with? when peopleow that from the united states go to syria, they become part of an fbi watch list. the fbi is reassuring the public they have a handle on this. the comings and goings say something about you and this is

an important law enforcement tool. debate about the specificity of her medications is that we volunteer location data that is totally legal and public and can speak to how the vast majority of us are. it is useful for law enforcement. look at how this debate will change, i think the specificities of whether it's able to break encryption will fall by the wayside as we begin to understand how to use all the other data we create in a way and is constitutional creates a broader spectrum of probability that is useful for law enforcement. i am being optimistic and i look at the potential of a data in the next two years and i see that is something that will

making defective technology into something that people don't notice. host: bayshore, new york is next on our independent line. is isis atd morning, real thing question mark it boggles my mind that people can be allowed to walk around. i got a file for a permit to open a business in this country. if i don't do that, they will throw me in jail. i have to listen to people talk about federal people watching them. there was a gun shop, a shooting range in my negative the woods years ago. these towel heads were shooting automatic weapons. host: we will just move on. we will stick to a productive conversation talking about

technology and the ices use of technology. john is up next from farmingdale, new york, line for democrats. caller: good morning. is i see fear mongering going on. the media is pushing fear mongering. this is the united states of america and the land of the free and home of the brave. the organization is being funded. where would get they get the equipment? so whyry is funding them do we find out who was funding them and take care of business? it blows my mind and it's heartbreaking. people say we don't want let the terrorists win. they are winning because everyone is in a panic and everyone is scared and locked down. they will watch communications?

they are winning. --e one more thing to add the police presence -- if a person is willing to die with a suicide belt, to see a police officer standing there with an automatic weapon, the person has no fear, they will do it anyway. a firearm is not going to determine them. host: the first part of the question is to follow the money. how is technology being used to better follow the money? guest: we understand a lot about the ices finances i --sis finances. it's pretty limited but you can follow it easily. most of their resources come from black market oil sales which is an active area of investigation and something we can follow. to --is some question as

that will be a pretty consistent and stable source of funding for them. another source of funding that has dried up is robbing banks in places they took over. if you run out of money. the most recent issue of their online magazine has some call to raise funds. there is a question whether they are having financial difficulty. raising money through private is something where they are employing a lot of tactics. that is definitely a source of active investigation there is question as to how effective the isis online money raising has been lately. at the same time, they are very well-funded and without directly targeting oil and logistics

which we have begun to do, it d theme hard to de-fun because they are sitting on huge and active oilfields. host: nelson is online for independent in miami, florida. morning, i would technology, do you know who is selling the weapons to isis? wars are made of two things, funding and military who sold to them. have you reach that place where you can find that out? host: the center for conflict armament research center -- is one. a organization that is run out of scott -- scotland yard that is used to track arms of the

floor around the world. things coming out of eastern europe are difficult to track. of hoarseness in terms of weapons moving in and out. we know a lot of the stuff was left behind by the united states for the iraqi security forces. there is some questions as to whether or not they are beginning to run out of equipment. efforts to write down serial numbers of different arms and see with a show on the battlefield, you are basically asking a very small handful of people to do an incredibly difficult forensic intelligence job that is very dangerous. this is something we could absolutely wrap up with better funding. it is a huge problem. the previous caller question about suicide belt and how to -- those -- how to fort thwart those.

one of the interesting things i run about the last couple of weeks was a new system developed by the joint improvised explosive threat agency. using a combination of infrared and radiation scanning, it can actually see a suicide belt as far away as 100 meters. we talk about how we will have an effect on a situation by mass surveillance for limited -- or limited surveillance or airstrikes, we are leaving aside the fact that we are creating everyday technology that keeps us safer in a way that does not make headlines. host: is that something that works through buildings? does it necessarily have to be eye to eye?i -- guest: there is aching ability that is emerging -- there is a

capability that is emerging that they could implement. you can actually see the different materials. with enough funding, this becomes something like a game changer. every day, researchers around the world are creating things that could make us safer but we don't hear about them. if you are worried about this stuff, there is a lot of reason to be helpful. host: question from twitter. the group of anonymous has pledged to interfere with isis' ability to communicate. can they break communication? guest: anonymous is an online collective of individuals that are unified around a broad agenda against what they see as corporate abuses and also asinst what they see overreaching government

surveillance. , andare all over the world they have various levels of expertise. right now, their efforts against isis have been limited primarily sitesrming isis related with traffic to knock those sites off-line and limiting their ability to disseminate propaganda. there is also evidence they were able to release private and personal information related to some people that are affiliated with isis. that is something called doxing. it is a volunteer army. they are going to be somewhat limited, but there is some controversy as to whether or not this is the sort of thing we should be encouraging. operate -- it's an enormous collective of different people. that yelp -- the legality of

some of the activities of some people associated with the group is questionable depending on where you are talking about. broadly different people that otherwise have nothing in common are working together to solve a very complex problem that is isis. it is rare that you would see iran, russia, anonymous, the u.s., all responding to a single problem. we appreciate your time on the washington journal. up next, we are joined by the president of amtrak, joseph boardman. we will talk about security safety and the future of rail travel. that is coming up next. ♪

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$8.95 plus shipping. >> washington journal continues. host: joseph boardman joins us, this time during one of the busiest times of the year for amtrak. he is the president and ceo of amtrak. we are talking about rail safety and the future of rail travel. first off, let's talk security. what can you tell us in the wake of the paris attack about safety in rail travel? guest: it is safer to use rail travel. during that weekend, our chief and i were on the phone for a substantial part of a substantial part of the time trying to understand what happened. we talk about the necessity for security. we have a multilayered approach at amtrak. monday morning, after that

weekend, if people were writing the strain -- the train they saw a surge of long guns men, dogs and other things people see visibly. we have a very strong team of canines and a special operations unit and a great partnership with law enforcement communities up and down the corridor and across the country. you don't see,at you don't see the fact that we are plugged into the fbi so that we understand. we have analysts there, top-secret clearances. we understand it there -- we try to understand if there is any credible rent. -- threat. we do what is necessary to keep our passengers secure and safe. host: from the washington post, terrorists learning from one another and going after soft targets. when you see stories that refer to train stations and rail

travel as a fair assessment? guest: one of the things that had secretary johnson doing a drill there this past weekend, we know what the potential softness is in this country. we have a lot of freedom, one of those freedoms is to get on and off the transit systems and connect with intercity passenger rail and move throughout the country. people want to preserve and maintain that, so it up the same as in her -- so it is not the same as an airport. cooperation, it probably never existed before these kinds of things happened. host: you mentioned airports, they have no fly list and in the past, some members of congress proposed a no right list for amtrak. how would that work? guest: it would be hard to england that if you are going to have connectivity between buses, subways, amtrak, we now have a

requirement for people to have ther ids and use those in -- and the conductors often asked those -- as for those on a random basis. we move is a lot of people a lot of the time -- we move a lot of people a lot of the time. know the trouble people across the country that have been identified by the fbi and we know when they are arranging a ticket for a ride that we can control that. to do it the same way as the airlines would be very difficult. host: joseph boardman is our guest, joining us during the busiest time of year for amtrak. if you like to join us. if you're are in the eastern or central part of the united states, (202) 748-8000. non-regions, -- mountain regions, (202) 748-8001. amtrak riders, (202) 748-8002.

we want to go to the north east train crash earlier this year. are we any closer to knowing what happened in the second or that crash -- seconds before that crash? guest: the investigators looked at everything and it was one of the worst days of my life and career. we don't know what actually occurred here or why they tried to go around the corner at the speed they did. host: what is the status of the engineer that was at the controls of that train? guest: he is out and still under investigation. outcomes thathe came out of this was safety controls for trains. can you explain the system and how it would've helped here and

where we are on the upper mentation. stop: it is a way you can train speeds and control the speed three works own and avoid -- through a work zone. that is a technology that has been around for a while. , fromin the north section new haven all the way to boston. the york toow washington also have positive train control -- below new york to washington also have positive train control. miles -- 363 miles -- some are controlled by commuter railroads and others where we don't have the train control, that will be a while, yet. that is what would have stopped the train. that particular corner that

occurred, back corner was good for 98 miles per hour. one of the reasons there was not a positive train control was a review that had been done about 20 years earlier from the accident near boston. there was no place between thatdelphia and that turn speeds were above 98 miles per hour. the decision had been made by collective 20 years ago that there was not a need for anything else at that corner because nobody would be at a speed above that. in this case, the exhilaration continued. -- the acceleration continued. another control slows down because north of that corner there was a 110 mile per hour speed limit. certainly cost is a factor. how much amtrak funding comes

from the u.s. government? guest: we have a budget that is about $4 billion. with capital, we are a bit over a billion dollars. host: what are you expecting in the coming fiscal year? guest: about the same is where we are. host: members of congress have criticized amtrak over the years for some of their spending issues. john mica is one of those who has been a constant critic over the years of amtrak. we want to show a clip of him in just a second. about yourask you relationship to members of congress when you go up and testify on these issues. guest: i think we have a good relationship. i congratulate congressman dishonesty oh and congressman denham. even john mica.

forak has been in business 45 years and all of those years have had criticism. john mica, his heart is where he wants to make it better. host: let's get some calls as well. linda has been waiting in connecticut on the line for amtrak riders. good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to thank mr. boardman for coming on. amtrak several times a year for 12 years. i am concerned about security in light of the terrorist attacks -- what kind of security to you have, can you be a bit more specific? i would also support more security. i would even pay more. also, i definitely support the positive or automatic train

control and wonder about that on long-distance trains. thank you so much. guest: thank you. weather at nighttime or any role area, wer in a rural have cooperation with local community police. we have a program called partners through amtrak safety as theurity, pass acronym is called. we work with and train police throughout the country to help them understand what security is about on amtrak and the connectivity with our conductors and those who are responsible on the train. we are making those efforts whether you are in the northeast colorado where we run one of our long-distance

system trains. guest: norfolk, virginia. good morning. caller: good morning. i have a question to ask mr. boardman. says the taxpayers do pay for 's cost --t of amtrak how much track does amtrak actually own and if they do not own it, how much do we pay per mile to subsidize it? we own 263 miles -- 363 miles, about 100 miles in michigan. most of our track is owned by the freight railroads. aim -- when amtrak started back

in 1971, they were not freight railroads, they were just railroads with freight and passenger. what amtrak it was relieve them of the responsibility of passenger. are required to pay them incremental cost for providing service along those tracks. the oftentimes provide us service like fueling. they also provide us power when we are -- will we have a problem. we have good relationships with them and provide them incentive payments when they do better than meet on time performance. we have good relationships with our railroads. amtrak operates over 300 passenger trains every day and connect more than 500 destinations. -- and connects more than 500 destinations. the first train was from philadelphia to new york.

thanksgiving is a major travel time. expect about 141,000 on sunday -- we expect about 141,000 on sunday. it interesting to talk about 300 trains. -- it is interesting to talk about 300 trains. with all the commuter operations that are out there, we handle about 900,000 a day, people moving safely on our tracks. on twitterndividual wants to know how amtrak got linked with the federal government. guest: that is one of the issues we have to deal with, today. a lot of people don't understand the history of what happened with amtrak.

it started back in 1971. it was a federal decision what routes we would operate. towas a federal decision relieve the railroads at the time of passenger services. because they were not made -- moneymaking services. as a matter of fact, they were losing substantial amounts of money. today, we cover 93% of our operating costs. abouts subsidized, that's $300 million a year that we received from the federal government. the rest of it is pick up. in 1976, we picked up a responsibility for the northeast forward are -- corridor. capital is a big need for the court or -- for the court or -- for the corridor.

today, it is the busiest bridge in the western hemisphere. 450re carrying upwards of trains a day across that bridge to go through the two tubes under the north river. just this last july were we had to shut down because of power issues in new york. people began to understand what amtrak really means to them and new jersey transit for moving people in and out of manhattan. host: if you have a question or comment, president and ceo of amtrak. states,tern united (202) 748-8000, midwest, (202) 748-8001, a special number four amtrak riders (202) 748-8002. caller: i have a question about

the individual stations and how they fit in with the security. [inaudible] you would need more use of the facilities by disabled. the security people may not know how to handle a disabled person. host: is that something you or a family member has had experience with? i know of experience is happening and i would not like to see them in the sure -- in the future. guest: we made a strong commitment to the disabled community to make improvements on the stations. the security, depending on where the station is, is different across the country.

certainly in the large stations, we have, not only amtrak police -- but often police from the communities as well. interestingly, and it kind of hit me recently, to understand the nature of the number of stations that amtrak operates. we operate 523 scheduled stations across the u.s. to provide service and the ability -- and mobility. operate 200 stations of scheduled service. we operate out of more stations than the air of -- the airline industry. weyou look at ridership, would be the fifth largest airline in the u.s. we are in a position where we are making improvements.

amtrakas a long lag by in meeting ada requirements. that is being directed and has been over the last eight years -- that is being corrected and has been over the last eight years, but there was a lot more to do. amtrak rider calling in from new york, good morning. guest: good morning. caller: i'm calling to ask you why you have the policy against having dogs on the train. i happen to have two that our service dogs. they are tiny. a apartment and can go anyplace and the perfect. i would be happy to pay for a piece of carpet.

years ago we used to be able to take them. i would like to be able to take the train. guest: you can thank congressman who reallyenim pushed for trains to not be able to have pets on them. -- who really wants to push for pets to be on train. he felt that it needed to be happen -- needed to happen and we are working with the community to make that happen. pets and bikes are the things we're trying to promote and find out the best way to deal with and handle to the future. you will be able to do that, we are working on the details and policies and how it would work, both for bikes and pets. those and we are seeing those as a strong way for us to go forward. host: we talked about northeast

regional 188 from maggie, here is a story from last week about a train derailment in missouri. no injuries in that derailment. someone on twitter wants to know, should trains the operate of less -- operator less? guest: operated without an engineer. some of the freight do that now, especially in the yards as they move their trains. they have someone standing outside the train in those locations and actually moving the trains back and forth, switching in the yard. we are a long ways away from doing that, especially for the rural areas like missouri and along the northeast corridor. i think you are safer with an engineer that knows what is going on with the train and the conductors on the train services. host: we want to give you a

chance to address the gateway plan. how long did that take to implement? guest: we don't know how long it will take. this is a plan that needs to be done to improve mobility and capacity along the northeast corridor. if you were to shut down one of the tubes that goes into penn station, for example, we handle 24 traits in our. -- 24 trains an hour. when you shut down one of the tubes, it goes down to six trains and that is unacceptable. what happened in july was there was an emotional understanding for people that cannot get to work, that businesses were in trouble because of that. they could not get home or day care, they could not take care of their kids. real estate values may be affected. still theer is

defining barrier to new england like it was 300 years ago. with that one rail tube underneath the hudson river. tunnel.is about a new and expansion of the station under new york. that is where you need to go because that is where the trains go. changing and refitting the grid. is now well over 100 years old. but tunnels are 100 years old. -- the tunnels are 100 years old. the need to expand and improve and modernize the rail structure , there is a number of people that will grow in the north east of the next 30 years -- over the next 30 years. host: for the expansion to

happen, you would likely need a lot of support and funding from the government. we talked about one critic, john mica. we want to play a quote from him at a house transportation committee hearing. guest: is this appropriate? host: yes. >> this is our last chance in six years to bring some reforms to amtrak. i consider myself -- i consider myself one of the strongest advocates of moving people by passenger rail. i believe amtrak is the last vestige of a soviet style monopoly, particularly in the northeast corridor. opportunity to open competition and service and catch up with the rest of the gave, congress will never $150 billion to amtrak and that corridor. the private sector has the knowledge and expertise to move

over. you need to open the door and allow them to continue. the rest of the western world is now requiring competition in state-supported rail service. it's pitiful, the train runs from new york to boston at 68 miles per hour. it is pitiful from washington to new york. congressman john mica last week at the house transportation infrastructure committee mary -- committee hearing. the last vestige of a soviet style monopolies how we described amtrak. guest: he enjoys using the word soviet. i never agreed with that, obviously. i was thinking when your previous guest was on here. i was in vietnam in the 60's and the difficulty then with cryptography is very different

than it is today. think one of the things he was talking about, $151 billion is not gateway. werewas the ever we talking about, how do you get to 220 mile per hour railroad, how do you make those changes? the key for us and for people today is even though it will i to go those kinds of speeds, it is the time it takes to go between two communities and the frequency and reliability of that service. beforethe real issue is, -- there was not any real competition with the airline. today, 75 percent of the people moving between washington and new york ride on amtrak. that is three to one for the airline in comparison. not the same numbers, but the same kind of concept between new

york and boston were today, we carry more than 50% of the traffic. -- where today, we carry more than 50% of the traffic. what'secause of happening across the industry, whether it be highways or aviation or railroad. it is not funding. it is the equity investment necessary to upscale the infrastructure and take care, whether it's railroad, highway or aviation. we need to have next generation air traffic control systems, we need predictable multi-year funding for highways, when he predictable multi-your funding for road -- we need predictable multi-year funding for railroad. john mica needs to help with that, along with the rest of congress. joseph boardman is that -- is our guest.

after serving in vietnam, he served in many positions on the new york or to transportation, now he is the president and ceo of amtrak. we have a special line for amtrak riders. stafford, virginia, good morning. the same question people used toat travel on greyhound, and there was only one greyhound bus service those days. $60 one way charge to new york. once they had competition on the road, now new york one way is $20. monopoly on the basis of amtrak. i wanted to give you one more thing -- why amtrak is not spending money in the service because i just happened to drop off one of the past -- one passenger at quantico the other day.

i saw something that is happening in third world's now a day, even they have a better service. down a sort of bench to stand up and then go to the train. this is [inaudible] -- there was no platform, and this is a waste of money that amtrak is getting from the government. it is tomuch politicized and they should have competition. guest: you are right. there is 100-year-old technology because that is the investment or lack of investment there has

been in rail. areas of the nation where we operate nonelectric , it is, in many cases not a platform kind of environment. sometimes a low platform, but you still need a step for many people to get on and off. that is going to happen for a long time. those rails were built and made for freight, not for passenger services. you will see that happen again for the future. amtrakthe problems that -- not amtrak, this nation has is its not a real culture like europe is an many of the asian nations where rail has become the key way for people to get around. we are at capacity on the northeast corridor. even if you had a different company bidding for service, there is no real increase in service. the increases come from the commuter railroads.

the mark service in washington -- it is grown and taken up the capacity of the railroad. it is improved, but not by amtrak intercity services, but commercial commuters. host: you caller, good morning. caller: i was born in new jersey. i have relatives in new jersey and i always go through kansas city and up to chicago. topeka,t we go from kansas city, st. louis to network or wherever -- to newark or wherever? why do we have to go through chicago? guest: all trains go through chicago. it is like all roads lead to rome.

all railroads lead to chicago. of years,couple because of such low on-time performance, i asked for and created a blue-ribbon panel of experts to look at what's going on with chicago that we can't move are there. it is not a new problem. there was a chicago create program. it was to improve the movement of freight through chicago. freight moves, passengers will move and freight stopped moving in the past couple of years. the tremendous growth of the oil industry, the continuing growth -- in order to get youhere west of chicago, need to go through chicago to do that. the routes follow the same routing as freight railroads and

that is why you go through chicago. host: caller from jacksonville. caller: mr. boardman. i caught the train up the eastern corridor. matter of fact, i am leaving tomorrow for the holidays. the train used to stop that goes west to mobile after the accident in the swamp. the stop in mobile was discontinued. [inaudible] it is: -- guest: something that has become of interest again by the governor of mississippi. they see that as important to their communities and the gulf coast. we've had discussions with them about the potential of doing that.

we've done studies on what it takes to do that. we work to see what can be done and what the demand is. see a resurgence and interest in making something like that happen. host: last year during the thanksgiving travel, amtrak carried 772,000 passengers. amtrak gearing up for its biggest week of the year. joseph boardman with us for another 10 or 15 minutes or so. virgil from las vegas, good morning. caller: good morning. wondering why we can't get with service from east to the west. [inaudible]

guest: let me answer the last question. we nearly make it profitable with auto train. we are close, we are still working on that. it is a very popular service for andetween lorton, virginia florida. it is something that at this time of year, there was a lot of activity. -- there is a lot of activity. people have tried now to connect las vegas to los angeles and make improvements, which have never really panned out. they look at it for high-speed rail. it is something that many people are interested in.

it was not directly on one of the national network routes that were approved by the u.s. dot back in the 70's, at least from what i remember. outraw those rail fans there -- there are those rail fans out there that will correct me if i'm wrong. we operate through reno, but not through las vegas. host: the line for amtrak r iders, (202) 748-8002. otherwise, we split the lines regionally. david from massachusetts, good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i am amtrak rider, but i find myself riding the bus more because lately, -- i noticed

that amtrak is pretty anti-bike. they want you to take your bike apart most of the times and put veryto a box, which is a inconvenient thing. it is more trouble than it's worth. , which there are a lot of now, let you put your bike underneath the bus. amtrak understand why can't let you just roll your bike onto the bus. guest: i think bikes are important. -- we will dos have life racks so we are making changes about that in the future. we are doing that with pets and bikes. we are trying to improve

ourselves for the future. there is a danger to having bikes on the regular train, just from a safety standpoint from tripping and falling hazards. we are trying to make sure that does not happen, but we are positive about bikes. we understand the difficulties of taking them apart. i ride a recumbent myself. that would be impossible to do, i understand your concern. host: walter in iowa, good morning. caller: i am a child of the 40's. the railroade between orlando, jacksonville and savannah to visit relatives when i was a child. atlantic coast line with the carrier back then. , have a crazy vision for rail

i ride the scenic excursion trains all around the area. the great smoky mountain train. it seems to me, the biggest , could not elevated train or runway along interstates be developed for passenger travel, local and express service to bring rail service back to this country like it used to be during the war years? people that are just sick and tired of going or the rigorous applying and driving on the highways. i would love to see the expanse of rail service in this country. i have a vision of elevated trains or trained in the median of the interstate system -- or trains in the median of the interstate system where you would have a local train or express trains for people

traveling hundreds of miles and they would have their service. i know it's probably a crazy idea. you are the expert, i will listen to your answer off the air. . guest: thank you. i have a child of the 40's as well, and i have lots of raising ideas. one of them was when i was the commissioner of transportation in new york was to put that railroad right down the center line of interstate 87. happen because there was an inability to find the investment in this nation to make those improvements. that is not where people want to spend their money. it is still not a place where people are willing to spend the money necessary for the investment necessary to have an elevated railroad unless it's locally done and financed.

one of the things that's happened in the last eight years is, we've shifted the responsibility to the states in many ways. anyad the 209 programs so thanline that left -- less 750 miles has to be supported by the state government to make that railroad continue to operate. that came to be just about three years ago. the national system is still supported by the u.s. i think it's an obligation they continue to do that, 15 routes across the nation. the northeast corridor, which pays for its operating costs about the rails. -- above the rails. usedof those revenues are to help offset some of the rest of the nation's rail service. the capital is what's needed in the northeast corridor.

that's what we were talking about with the gateway service. before you leave, let's follow up on a potential aspect of future rail travel. week,gton post last maglev trains, a system -- would between baltimore and washington, d.c. explain what maglev is. guest: its exciting technology that has been around for a considerable period of time. the japanese technology starts off on wheel and gets to a certain speed, about 90 miles brower, that it rises up and rides on a magnetic yield and really accelerates to about 200 miles per hour. its exciting but expensive technology. commissioner,k as we had senator moynahan.

i river being called into his thece and asked if i was brain-dead commissioner from new york who was not going to implement maglev. i had just gotten finished reading about the limitation of by premierermany shorter. i said as a young commissioner, if he does it, we will take it seriously. he did not do it. most people have not done it across the world. even the japanese only have test tracks. wonderful technology, it was developed by the u.s. on long island. it is a good thing, but we can get between washington and bwi in 20 minutes with regular service.

that's what people look at. they look at the trade-off, what is it going to deliver for the economy? host: joseph boardman, president of amtrak, joining us at the beginning of his busiest week. thank you. guest: thank you. host: up next, we have on the phone's backup to the question we asked at the top of the program. has been obama struck the right town after the paris attacks? phone lines on the screen. you can start calling it now and we will be right back. ♪

>> sees ben has the best coverage of the house with live coverage of the house on c-span and c-span2. harrison buddy carter from georgia -- congressman buddy carter from georgia, at 10:30, representative donald and longtime union electrician, friday to neglect eastern, preservative mark desaulnier and former -- restaurant owner. saturday morning it to neglect eastern, congresswoman amy former state senator who interned in d.c. at 10:30, timers been set woman -- congressman set woman -- seth. sees ben has your coverage of

the road to the white house, where you will find the candidates, the speeches, debates and your questions. this year, we are taking the road to the white house coverage into classrooms across the country with our student contest , giving students the opportunity to discuss the important issues they want to hear the most. follow the contest and the road to the white house coverage on tv, radio and online at c-span.org. >> washington journal continues. host: in the last 40 minutes, we are discussing what president obama has and has not said in the 10 days since the terrorist attacks. we are asking viewers, has he struck the right tone? from the story from boston npr's news station. the headline, the language of

counterterrorism. the story noting that president obama has been careful about how he frames terrorist attacks in the fight against extremism. some say he is too careful, the story noting a columbia university professor saying his tendency is typical of the administration to want to keep a very calm language and not use register -- not use rhetoric that is inflammatory. on the other hand, using terms like setbacks is understated and received some criticism. thatlanguage coming after first press conference on monday of last week in turkey. the president holding other news conferences last week, including yesterday in kuala lumpur. there is a bit from the press conference. >> one of the things that has to happen is how we report on this.

we have to maintain perspective empower these terrorist organizations or elevate them in ways that make it easier for them to recruit or make them stronger. they are a bunch of killers with good social media. dangerous, and they've caused great hardship to people. the a ruling majority of people -- the overwhelming majority of people who go about their businesses every day. the americans who are making things and teaching things and saving lives as firefighters and police officers, they are strong. way of life is stronger, we

have more to offer. we represent 99.9% of humanity. host: we are talking about his statements since the terrorist attacks. as he struck the right tone -- has he struck the right tone? hyattsville, maryland, democrats line good morning. caller: good morning, i would say he did strike the right tone. republicansf these that are just helping the terrorists recruit. they have been second-guessing this president every -- ever since he got in office, and matter what he does. -- no matter what he does. the ones that are not elected always have something to say. john is up next from texas, democrats. caller: i agree with that last

caller. i wish you would ask these people, these are the same people that call into your station on a regular basis complaining about the budget. -- a lot of them don't have any kids or grandkids or anything else going into these wars. if they want to go into a war, you can do just like these guys are doing. go on a plane and fight them on your own, we are tired of it. host: here is some of the criticism of the president's town in his news conferences last week, following his news conference in turkey on monday. a story from the daily caller, a conservative site. obama takes a harsher tone with republicans then isis -- that isis. -- if we can pull this up we will get it to you.

obama shows how to take out bastards. pastors -- we are getting your thoughts this morning on the president's tone. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. .ndependents, (202) 748-8002 mike is in wilmington, north carolina, line for independent. caller: good morning. i don't think obama set the right tone. could i go back -- are you there? host: yes. caller: could i go back just a second. the host when president obama was first elected.

i don't think he loves this country, then you refer back to what congressman steve made yesterday morning when a caller said that he thought he was muslim. state said -- steve said obama is christian. just because he calls himself a .hristian, he is political i think he is destroying this country. i think he is unqualified and -- host: what words do you want to hear from him? what kind of town do you think he should be taking since the terrorist attacks? caller: the same tone he took with republicans. he gets heated up and energized. i thought he was supposed to be president of everybody. sure you have to lean, but he is the most partisan.

[inaudible] inhink he arranged to get and can't see anything else but the race. he is just divisive. i was hoping he would be better. he is intending to stick. -- antagonistic. host: married you is up next, republican line of danville, virginia. obama hasesident taken the wrong town all the way through. -- wrong town all the way through. he is spineless and does not belong leading anything. unequivocal,n is he is going to send these guys this god and i hate to say as a christian republican, but

if anybody should be leading the world movement against isis, it is vladimir putin and that says something about what we have in the white house. host: the you think this might be the right tone? this is the message from marco campaign's first tv spot which is set to air on tuesday. the washington times has the text of that tv spot. he says -- this is a civilizational struggle between the values of freedom and liberty and radical islamic terror. what happened in paris could happen here, there is no middle ground. these are not disgruntled or disempowered people, these are radical terrorists who want to kill us because we let women drive and girls go to school. either they win or we do. is that the right tone? caller: yes.

i think senator rubio just convinced me to vote for him in the primary. that is the problem. we have to remember that some of this is overblown. tanks are not rolling across europe tanks are not rolling out across europe and the way they were during world war ii, and these belgian terrorists were raised in there, and then they went to training camps. most of the wars we have to fight is on our own turf against people who have been set up already to plan these things. them willure bombing do it. we have to use every tool at our disposal, and i agree very much with donald trump and everything he has planned. sherry is up next in hampstead, north carolina. the question, has the president struck the right tone. do words matter, does action matter more here?

let's talk about action, when he went into office, what a terrible economic situation we were in. look at gas prices, the the pointnt rate, that the national debt has not been paid down as much as when bill clinton was in office. 9/11,a republican until which should never have happened. at that time, i became an independent. our young men and women go over to the middle east and die. if those people are not going to fight for themselves, we cannot do it for them. turkey, all those

countries sitting over there, they need to be fighting. i am not against going over there to train them, but as far as us going over and having our young men and women killed, it is time for those countries to go ahead and support themselves. obama is doing exactly the right thing. twitter, president obama does not sound angry enough about the isis threat. the president made several news conferences as he made a trip meant to beiginally on asian priorities, but changed in the wake of the attacks on paris. here is the president at the g20 summit last monday talking about the concerned that he was not

using tougher rhetoric when it came to isis. >> with respect to the broader , to somemy critics degree, i answer the question earlier. when you listen to what they actually have to say, what they are proposing, most of the time when pressed, they describe things we are already doing. maybe they are not aware that we are doing them. some of them seem to think, if i was more bellicose in expressing what we were doing, that that would make a difference. because that seems to be the ,nly thing they are doing talking as if they are tough. but i have not seen particular strategies that they would suggest that would make a real

difference. host: we are taking your calls on this question. has president obama struck the right tone after paris? curtis in dallas, texas. the for democrats. good morning. caller: first time caller. i want to remind all of the hatemongering people that hate the president just because there is a black man in the oval office to remember that most mastic terrorist attacks are not committed by isis or al qaeda but my angry white males. last week, i went to oklahoma where theisited merrill federal building once stood. the people that committed that crime were not isis. yes, they are a terrorist organization in the to be dealt with, but most domestic terrorist acts here, such as dylann roof shooting in south

carolina -- is that was a black man wedding into a white church about fox news and all of the other hatemongering stations would have been all over that. it iswhy do you think automatically about the color of the president's skin? do you think these are differences about the president's policy? caller: some of the opposition to him is simply because of that. most of donald trump's followers are racist fear mongering burgers. republicans have never try to work with the president to get anything done. -- birthers. his temperament is not one that gets angry, like donald trump. to the republican line. paul is waiting in coopersburg. i think we should stay

out of isis. president obama has the right idea. let them take care of it over there. you have other countries that could help out out there. nn is in louisville, kentucky. i want to comment, iwatch almost every day, and i callingired of people in and saying people that disagree with obama are racist. it.over he was elected president. to be able to say they are racist is just an excuse because he is a failure as a president. speak, when hem is asked a question at a press conference, how can anybody take it? he goes on and on and he says nothing.

it is so exhausting. host: what are the words you want to hear? caller: i want him to answer the question. and listen to him and he is saying nothing. he is buying time so he doesn't have to answer the question. he has gone on and on, you forget what the question was. as far as isis, which he likes , and i'm much or why he does that -- i'm sure it -- he says the greatest threat to our country is global warming. that is insane. when we look at these terror attacks and people fear going to a public event, and he says global warming -- it is just a joke. he is an and there's met. --and there is man. embarassment. piece on the a

president's tone, some criticism for him not using the term radical islam when referring to isis. a columbia university professor, stewart gottlieb saying, it is a fair criticism. you have a president that says something about the indoctrination of the islamic world. if you want to read that story or listen to it, it is on the boston npr station. the question we have for our

,iewers for the last 20 minutes ,emocrats (202) 748-8000 republicans, (202) 748-0001, .ndependents, (202) 748-0002 host: call. caller: i think what the president is doing is the right thing. he is handling it with the right tone. that thing over there is going to go on and on. ands try to keep us safe doing what we can. i'm tired of people on the other side complaining about we leadership -- about leadership. if they actually looked at what was happening in the country, they can figure it out quickly. politicians are just giving them a lot of rhetoric. but he is doing a good job.

refer back to the last decade, last president, and figure out what has gone on here. this is a complicated issue. let's go to miami, florida. the line for republicans. caller: good morning. i believe the president acted event,t after the france and has been acting too soft all along. he does too little too late. action,ft in words, or and does it matter, the difference? both, words, followed by no action. he thinks the u.s. must be repented for something evil that they have done, when we have been the best country in the world. as a cuban-american, i am extremely grateful to have come

to this country to be a citizen , and to have my family here in freedom. he has done too little too late, making friends with everyone. it is no good for the u.s. host: we will continue to take your calls, has president obama struck the right tone on the paris attacks? the numbers are on the screen. later today on c-span, we continue with our landmark cases series. we are focusing on brown versus the board of education versus of topeka starting at 9:00 tonight. on the topic of the supreme court, a recent article discussed one of the key jobs of the chief justices, the power of running the court's opinion on a specific case. joining us to talk about that story is the author richard

lazarus, joining us by skype. good morning. guest: good morning. how are you? host: i am good. take us through the article, the administrative side of the chief justice. i want to talk about this power to assign cases. why is this an important power of the chief justice? do,t: what the justices they vote on a case and then decide on whether to reverse order affirming a lower court judgment. there are many different pathways to writing an opinion that ends up with a reversal or affirmed at the end. chief assigns a court opinion to justice a, it could have one opinion, but if it goes to justice be, it could have a

very different outcome. the opinion could be very narrow or very broad. 10 years into chief justice john roberts term as the supreme court chief justice, what can we say about how he has wielded the power? guest: very classic john roberts. thatstent with the notion he believes in judicial modesty. he is very equal in this assignment. is more equal in the number of opinions that he has given to each of justice on the court. john marshall aside almost all of the opinions himself. andas on the court himself issued himself 547 opinions, another one of his colleagues got about 15 at the time. justices,t chief

almost the exact same number of opinions. it is a hard thing to do. the opinion of assignments happen over several sessions over the year. it is difficult to get the number just right. that is quite significant. at the same time, as any member of the court to tell you, not all cases are equal. some are more important, some are unimportant. are hard to write, some are easier to write. the fact is, the chief, in equal, butumbers, is he does make a lot of strategic judgments by deciding which injustice it decide which case. host: you are going through some of the high profile cases the john roberts has assigned, how it is broken down. while it is more equal in

numbers, you say it is less equal when it comes to the high profile cases. assigned to himself, anthony kennedy, 31%, 16% to samuel alito, 15% to justice, and so on down the line. take us through specifically those first two. he likes to keep the most high profile for himself, and why is justice kennedy the next? guest: that is traditional for a chief justice. you expect the chief to speak that way to the nation on the most important cases. chief justice warned in brown versus board of education assigned himself. justice is the chief should speak to the nation. in that sense, they should assign a fair number, but not any different, and to some extent, less than those justices

historically. justice kennedy has a very high number. he is the one member of the court who does not need to rely on the chief's assignments. the chief asides about 80% of the cases in court. when he is not in the majority, the senior justice is justice kennedy. so he can and does assign a lot of the important cases to himself when he is the senior theice, so he does not need chief's help, like the others do. i think the chief assigns to kennedy because he needs to make sure that kennedy stays in the majority. a quick way to make sure that the justice does not wander is to give them the assignment to write the opinion. then you can make sure that they will not abandon you. conference, a 5-4

if any one of those five wanderers in the opinion writing process, which does happen, then the majority could switch. if you are the chief, give it to someone like kennedy, who is on the margin, and you can be more confident to keep his vote during the opinion writing process. host: so some of the strategy. how much does send your ready into some of the high-profile cases? looking at the chart again, , sotomayor, in the single digits or 04 justice sotomayor are. question, more senior justices expect to receive the more significant assignments on the court. andfact that kagan sotomayor are on the lower end is not raise any eyebrows. has zerothat sotomayor

after about 20 opportunities or so, does raise an eyebrow. the most interesting thing to look at in terms of seniority is hell relatively low justice scalia is. after the chief, scalia is the seniormost justice. he does not receive a higher share that you would expect. in fact, justice alito, who is quite junior to scalia, who just got on the court in january of 2006 -- scalia was on 20 years earlier -- justice alito has as many as justice scalia. in many respects, i think it is significant to see the chief seems to like to assign opinions to alito and the shies away on a relative basis from assigning to justice scalia. host: is this radically

different from how other chief justices have used the power to assign cases? guest: the numeric equality is quite different than in the past, certainly from 50 or 60 years ago. it continues a trend we have seen in the past couple decades when chief justice rehnquist became pretty equal. ,ut all the other strategies the idea of favoring certain people that will write in a way that you like, all the chiefs have done that. they have followed the same strategies. reveals a lot of things about the chief. he likes narrow opinions, not broad opinions. one thing that he likes in particular, he likes to promote the image at the court is nonpartisan. if he has a liberal justice that -- if he has a

conservative, he may assign that judge a liberal case. this is not a court of democrats and republicans or liberals and conservatives, but a court of justice is doing their work. host: if you want to read more on their strategy and history, the article is in "the harvard "aw review. richard lazarus, thank you for being here this morning. guest: thank you so much. host: if you want to watch more, follow our landmark cases series. it continues tonight, focusing on brown versus the board of education, starting at 9:00 p.m. left.utes let's return to the question that we are focusing on, the language of counterterrorism.

is president obama striking the right tone? the phone lines are open for the next 10 minutes or so. is waiting in vallejo, california. i hope you do not hang up on me while i am talking. every time i get to talking about scripture in the bible, either you or the people behind you cut me off. anyway, all of this talking ne, i don't care what it will be. will not helpump america because america will be destroyed. this is babylon. is not a negro. he is an african. the africans to the israelites and the jews. host: let's focus on the past

week and the president's news conference. what language do you think she should be using in these new conferences -- he should be using in his news conferences? caller: everything that obama is doing is gearing us toward the third world war. a bombingoing to be of america. it is just a matter of time. the lord has set this up. to be destroyed. in vallejo,n california. antoine is with us in texas. caller: i think he is taking the right tone. first of all, these people need to fight the battle with themselves, if it is going to be won. we tried this with the first

administration. also, i do not want to say that these people represent islam, no more than the ku klux klan represents christianity or the area nation. this was a terrorist attack. but asky are islam it, any real muslim, and they will tell you that does not represent me. andink his tone is correct he is just trying to separate these people from the actual religion of islam. they are terrorists, but you cannot say that they are holding up the islamic flag. you might be interested in the op-ed in "the new york times "anti-muslim is anti-american."

some polling numbers on party identification. 70% lean democrat, 19% are independent or no party preference. say 11% of american muslims they are republican. the story also noting the percentage of muslims who say the president is friendly to muslim americans. , 15%n the democratic party in the republican party. today, sender ted cruz has a piece in the commentary section of "the washington times talking about limiting the flow of syrian refugees. the infiltration prevention act would protect america. ted cruz talking about that in "the washington times."

southfield, michigan. the line for democrats. good morning. i would like to say this. almost eight years of trying to get this country back , is the sky still not blue, is there not one fish in the sea yet? come on. everything that the republicans have to offer now, they do not even stand up against obama, in my opinion. host: one of those leading the polls right now is donald trump. a different tone in response to the paris attacks. here is a bit from a rally last week where he talks about the threat of isis. >> you are a christian, they chop off heads. they drowned them in cages.

this has never happened. maybe the middle ages, maybe medieval times. he used to read about it. there has never been anything like this. i said, do not go into iraq. i was right. i say now we have to knock the shit out of these people. we have to do it. talking about language, tone, rhetoric, whatever you want to call it. the town that the president and others have used in the paris attacks. give us a call. scott is in oceanside, california. line for republicans. good morning. and thankod morning you for taking my call. you are one of my favorite hosts. i agree with the previous caller ann, when she said it is not only tone but also action, and

in this case in action. for all the callers, using the copout of racism, i agree. it is because he is a total failure. for a president to say the day before the tragedy in paris that isis is contained -- if that was a republican, the media would be on that nonstop. also, for this president to take the time to attack republicans, he showed more passion against republicans than he did about the tragedy. it is mind-boggling to me. to disprove people that say because you disagree with the president you are a racist, i carson, and to prove i'm not a sexist, i like carly fiorina. of us are thinking

americans, we don't care about what color they are. we care about what action they will take. host: one other headline from last week. in the wake of this discussion about tone. obama's rhetoric bears little resemblance to reality. that is at the "eagle tribune." maryland, line for republicans. maria, good morning. caller: good morning, i don't really care for the president's tone in some ways. whenever he is speaking about muslims and the terrorists, he is very mindful in how he is speaking, which is presidential and understandable, but last week at the g20, when talking about the syrian refugee situation, he talked about americans who have anxiety about the situation.

isis almost like he disgusted with americans. i don't think that is a presidential way to talk about who he is representing. i feel that most americans just want to have a dialogue about it. however, i also feel, on the republican side, they are on the other end of the spectrum, and they are ignorant. both sides need to have a dialogue about everything. last caller in today's program -- but we will be here tomorrow. in the meantime, have a great monday. [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] >> all persons having business before the honorable supreme court of the united states are admonished to give their attention. >> coming up on landmark cases, brown versus board of education. for it to be a kansas third-grader, linda brown, separate but equal meant a six-walk -- block walk to the school year and though the all-white school was just a few blocks away. her father sued and her case as well as others made it all the way to the supreme court. we will examine ci