states. then we talk to radio host and author tavis smiley about his book the covenant with black america 10 years later. join the conversation on facebook and twitter. ♪ host: donald trump, ted cruz and the others, the headlines from last night's gop debate in charleston, s.c.. if you watched it, we want to hear from you on the washington journal, who do you think w on? 202-748-8000, democrats. 202-748-8001, republicans. 202-748-8002, independents. you can join the conversation on twitter or facebook and vote on

who do you think one or send an e-mail. the washingtonof post, donald trump, ted cruz cease-fire comes to an end. monthsunthinkable a few ago, no longer it is, donald trump's durability in national polls and his standing in the early states have forced gop confrontnd rivals to the possibility that the new york billionaire and reality tv star could end up leading the party into the fall campaign against the democrats. he is anything but a typical front runner, he is the most unconventional and atypical front runner for as long as anyone can remember and unless and until he wins primaries and caucuses, the race will remain what it has been four months, a confusing mashup between candidates looking to be set -- pick up the pieces of a possible donald trump breakdown. he goes on to write the gop race is now commonly defined as a

para of concepts, the first readers donald trump and ted cruz fighting to emerge as the leading candidates and what is either defined as the anger lane, or the outsider lane. in their own ways, both donald trump and ted cruz and body be hybrid antiestablishment anger of the grassroots. the other contest is the battle among more mainstream conservatives, representatives in one form of another of a nervous party establishment worried about protecting candidates in the fall. that battle features marco rubio, chris christie, john kasich, and jeb bush. normally the establishment is in the driver seat in nomination battles, this time the candidates have found themselves on the defensive and struggling to adapt to a donald trump dominated environment. here is a little bit from last night's debate on immigration. >> it has been about someone who

has been here, may be legally available to for a job, this is not about that anymore. this issue has to be more than anything else about keeping america safe and here is why, there is a radical jihadist group manipulating our immigration system and not just green cards, they are recruiting people who mentored this country is doctors and engineers and even deion saiz. -- fiancés. they are looking to manipulate us to get people into the united states so our number one priority must be ensuring that isis cannot get killers into the united states, whether it is green cards or any other form of entry into america, when i am president if we do not know who you are or why you are coming you will not get into the united states of america. is a different issue than it was 24 months ago, then it was -- you did not have a group of radical crazies named isis who were burning people in cages and recruiting people to

enter our country legally. they have a sophisticated understanding of our legal immigration system and we now have an obligation to ensure that they are not able to use the system against us, the entire system of legal immigration must be re-examined or security first and foremost with an eye on isis. was notal terrorism admitted 24 months ago, we had al qaeda and hamas and hezbollah , we get iran putting operatives in south america and central ierica, it was the reason why stood with jeff sessions and steve king and led the fight to stop the gang of eight amnesty bill because it was clear then like it is clear now that border security is national security. that also the case, that rubio, schumer amnesty bill, it expanded barack obama's power to let in the syrian refugees in -- and enable the president to certify them without mandating meaningful background checks, i

think that is a mistake, that is why i'm leading the fight to stop it. you favoredto say doubling the number of green cards and used to support a 500% increase in the number of guest workers, now you say you are against it, you used to support legalizing people here illegally, now you say you are against it appeared you said you are in favor of birthright citizenship, now you say you are against it, not just on immigration coming you used to support tpa and now you say you are against it. i saw you on the senate floor flip your vote on crop insurance. that is not consistent conservatism, that is political calculation. host: who won the debate? 202-748-8000 for democrats. 202-748-8001 for republicans. independents.or

more from the washington post. given polls that so -- oh donald trump well ahead, the impact in iowa-- a trump victory in would have shots -- and shocks to the party, no republican has won both the i will caucuses and the new hampshire primary in the modern era. iowa wouldctory in rattle the establishment almost as much as a donald trump victory. unique among the elected officials in the race, ted cruz campaign from the start with an eye towards tapping into anti-washington sentiment among party conservatives. party leaders feel that ted cruz could bring about a landslide cruz, whoovember, ted s played the campaign as smartly -- has playedate the campaign as smartly as anyone to date wants to disprove the doubters. mark on the independent line. are you with us?

caller: can you hear me? host: i did not punch the button. caller: thank you for taking my call. won.nk none of them i would have preferred rand paul who was not on stage. flabbergasted -- they just and they are aly bunch of losers. host: thank you for calling. comments dealook with the fact that rand paul was not on stage. kathy says that rand paul won the townhall during the debate, figuring that fox fixed the debates of the only candidate who does not have a foreign policy that includes shooting down russian planes was

not allowed to speak on the main stage. someone else said rand paul won, his townhall on twitter was better than the debate and a liberal democrat says they have watched every republican debate and john kasich is the only credible candidate the republicans have and he is not be noticed because of the carnival show that goes on between donald trump, marco rubio and ted cruz, such a shame. line, wilson in columbia, mississippi. caller: my name is will c. host: go ahead. -- nobody asked mr. trump about his bankruptcies. thought that you cannot run a country if you run your business bankrupt.

anybody can build up a big company if they do not pay their bills. he does not pay his bills. did he ever pay his debtors back? nobody asks questions like that. host: this is steven in columbia, maryland, republican line. who won last night? caller: none of them. i am very disappointed with the republican party. the party should have already stood firm for the rights of the people of this country. we cannot win if we have people are islamicle who phobic, who hate gays and lesbians. this is disgraceful. i am resigning from this party. i am resigning from this party. host: johnson from a north

carolina, a republican. was there a winner in your view? caller: i think mr. donald trump was the winner. he is the only candidate that is willing to stand up and take a stand and he has a passion and desire and the ability to bring greatness back to our country. we need jobs, border security, and he is the only non-politician in the group and i think we need someone who is willing to take a stand and go against the establishment. ,ost: in new york, thomas flushing, new york, another republican. veryr: rand paul have a strong stance on american security. host: here is a little bit from

rand paul on twitter last night. i want to show you this video. still.s still -- or this he held a twitter town hall last night during the debate. next call is david and clean, texas, republican line -- texas, republican line. won.r: i think ted cruz an dad was earning $.50 hour. he knows what it is like to come from being poor to where he is him.w and we need we need to go in the neighborhoods and help our own neighborhoods before we bring in people from other countries. trump he was bankrupt several

times, people do not want to talk about that. what they need to talk about is how many times he has been bankrupt. thank you. host: carol tweaked in it was the best debate yet, all are well-qualified, donald trump have his best debate. marco rubio, ted cruz did well, even bush. from the wall street journal, the other candidates did seem to be the others, they appear to think they could stand up most not by fighting with those two, mr. trump and mr. cruz, but by going after the enemy in the other party, president obama and the leading democratic candidate, hillary clinton. they're subtle and sometimes not-so-subtle message was that they had the advantage in the race that really matters which is the one against democrats in november. here are a couple of the

candidates talking about hillary clinton. clinton would be a national security disaster. she wants to continue down the path of iran, benghazi, the russian recess, dr. frank, all the good -- dodd frank, all the things that have gone wrong with this country, she would be a national security mess. is under investigation with the fbi, if she gets elected, her first hundred days, she might be going back and forth between the white house and the courthouse, we need to stop that. >> let me go one step further, she would not just be a disaster, she is disqualified from being commander in chief. someone who cannot handle intelligent information appropriately cannot be commander in chief and someone to the families of the four victims in benghazi can never be president. host: the most recent nbc, wall street journal poll, front runners strengthens his

position, that is donald trump, cruz hasr 30%, ted increased his percentage, up to 20%. marco rubio a little bit of an increase and ben carson lost quite a bit, down from 30% to about 12%. jeb bush lost some support and then the others. they asked would you be willing to support this candidate. and could see supporting, 71% of republicans said they could see themselves supporting ted cruz. six to 7% said marco rubio and .5%, donald trump 60% ben carson and 48% chris christie. 42%, jeb bush. robert, good morning from tennessee, republican line, was there a winner last night? caller: i believe there was, ted cruz won.

i think he can put hillary clinton in jail. host: have you been supporting ted cruz for a while? caller: not actively -- i have not actively supported anybody, i have listened to everybody. some basic principles we agree on. i think ted cruz is a man who can take the white house. i need to make a comment. real briefly. i would like for all the republicans and independents to listen to what i have to say. when they called in, tell people what you think. i think it has become increasingly obvious that calling in on the

independent and republican line and it will only get worse for the election. i would suggest to the republicans and independents, for 30 days, totally boycott washington journal boy -- or start calling in on the democratic line. i will let them dominate the conversation. what do you think about that? host: i do not have an opinion, i appreciate hearing from you. is there a gop candidate you would not support? caller: there is none of them that i would not support. i support any republican. democrats arehe putting up, a socialist and a crook. .ost: good to hear from you john and gets he, new york, independent line.

-- poughkeepsie, new york, independent line. caller: i am thrilled to listen to these republicans telling you they do not want to listen to you, they are losing, nobody on the stage will be president. trump's just donald golden ring. -- clownsan people play like they will be president but they will not be. hillary sanders and bernie sanders best hillary clinton and bernie sanders will eventually join together. whoever wins the nomination for the democratic side will make sure we win and make sure they do not. because if they get in, you will talk about a world on fire, it will be a world we will not recognize. we will fight each other. host: who are you supporting? caller: democrats.

i am not trying to get caught up in the crazy republicans. they are throwing everything at the kitchen sink to win the nomination. no way in the world there should be anybody on that states should be president. host: the new york times, formally dismissed ted cruz emergence as a skilled debater. he did not just dominate much of the republican debate, he slashed and mocked and charmed and outmaneuvered everybody else. none as devastatingly and as thoroughly as this campaign's most dominant performer, donald trump. , the high school student who once recited the constitution from memory and princeton debater who dazzled judges with his ability to entrap less true rivals, show the american public that his emerging candidacy is not a fluke, 26 minutes into the

previously -- evening, a moderate -- moderator asked him about -- whether his canadian birth disqualifies him from serving as president and mr. cruz was ready, starting off with an expression of generosity. that can september he said my friend donald said he had his lawyers look at this every which air,his hands sweeping the there was nothing to this, this further issue -- mimicking the man standing to his right. he paused to let it sink in as the crowd applauded and delivered the blow. since september, the constitution has not changed, as the rising applause rose to a roar, the poll numbers have. genuine and unfamiliar expression, nervousness, crept

across mr. trump's face, he clinched the podium. his leg jiggled. that is in the new york times. cruz and mr. rubio -- and mr. trump, it here is a little bit of ted cruz talking about new york. trump suggested mr. "embodies new york values." could you explain what you mean? >> most people know what new york values are. you are from new york, you might not. [laughter] in the state of south carolina, they do. there are many wonderful working men and women in the state of new york. understands that the values in new york city are ,ocially liberal, pro-abortion

pro-gay marriage focused around money and the media. reason ild note, the said that, i was asked that, donald trump plays bruce springsteen's born in the usa and i was asked what i thought, i said maybe he could play "new york, new york." the concept of new york values is not that complicated, not many years ago donald trump did a long interview with tim russert. explainedterview, he his views on a whole host of issues that were very different from the views he is describing now and his explanation come he said i am from new york, that is what we believe in new york, those are not iowa values. that was his explanation. i can frame it another way. not a lot of conservatives come out of manhattan. i am just saying. [laughter]

[applause] >> are you sure about that? mr. trump: conservatives actually do come out of manhattan, including william f buckley and others. could, he insulted a lot of people, i have had more calls on that statement that ted made, that new york is a great place, great people, loving people, wonderful people. when the world trade center came down i saw something that no place on earth could have handled more beautifully, more humanely than new york. [applause] two 110 story buildings came crashing down, i saw them come down, thousands of people killed. the cleanup started the next day and it was the most horrific

cleanup in the history of doing this and in construction. i was down there and i have never seen anything like it. the people in new york fought and fought and fought and we saw more death and even the smell of death, nobody understood it and it was with us for month, the smell. we rebuilt downtown manhattan and everybody in the world watched and everybody in the world loved new york and loved new yorkers at that was a very insulting statement. host: the new york daily news this morning, here is their -- hey ted cruz, you do not like new york values, go back to canada. you can see the statue of liberty gesturing. if ted cruz does not like new york values like the values they portrayed after 9/11, they can go back to the candidate -- he

can go back to canada. republican line, floyd. caller: thank you for taking my call and thank the staff. -- he was far ahead of all of them. one reason is the only candidate on the stages that will save social security for older people, we paid in to that, all the rest of them will cut you out. [indiscernible] you -- taketake care of you. he will save you. he talked about the fire tax which i think will be wonderful because if you work you will be able to keep your check. i cannot see why people will not

go for him. if they are going to cut social security, why would you vote for somebody who will cut social security if you are an older person or has a debt or mom on social security, he is also on foreign policy way ahead of everybody. he said we do not -- he says the military is the military and it is -- its purpose is to kill the enemy, not to build schools. let somebody else take care of that. it is to get rid of enemies who will destroy our people. we need somebody to take care of us and our grandkids. computer.k on your i'm sure c-span has it. virginia. is floyd in angel on our democrat line from south carolina.

tvn down the volume on your otherwise we get the delay. we will move on. who do we have? caller: this is angel. give me some notice. do not tell me what i need to do. host: you will hear everything like we always tell you. caller: i am waiting patiently. host: you are on the air. with?: who am i host: this is c-span. caller: i believe the question is, who won the debate? host: yes, ma'am. caller: i think hillary clinton won the debate. there was nothing demonstrated that theytus -- stage

are capable of leading the united states, let alone the free world. it is so obvious. in talkingeone call about democrats are calling in on republican lines. democrats do not call in on republican lines come it republicans do that -- republican lines, republicans do that. that is -- host: angel in south carolina. the next debate is sunday night, the democrats, and nbc, youtube debate sponsored by the congressional black caucus institute, all three democrat candidates will be present on

sunday night. stanley in california, republican line. you are on the air. caller: thank you. i just think rand paul shines bigger than anybody last night, trending number two on twitter after donald trump. are not know who the people who do not want rand paul, it scares me that the country would not want him, we do not somebody -- want somebody who wants -- does not want to send our kids to war. it is kind of ridiculous. that we have all the guys on stage ready to send our kids to war. and we have guys on stage beholden to special interest. of thehave a blackout only candidate who is a conservative. host: is there anyone -- would

you vote for donald trump or jeb bush? caller: i think donald trump is a democrat, everybody knows he is a democrat. he is saying what the people want to hear. he has been in television for 40 years. he knows what to say to get the republicans to follow him. if he wins, the republicans lose, democrats win either way. host: sorry, thought you were finished. post, howe washington paul ryan is quietly shaping the presidential race. with the gop base deeply unsettled, paul ryan is claiming a central role in shaping this year's agenda and promoting a high-minded vision for his party , one that conflicts with the populist bombast of donald trump another residential candidates. the 2012 gop vice presidential nominee is vowing to turn the house into an election year think tank, telling reporters that the retreat that the

republicans are on in baltimore would be about how do we take our principles and apply them to the ar host: that is a little bit from the washington post article on paul ryan. barbara is on the independent line. it can warning. of -- good morning. caller: i thought the winner was chris christie. i am a 9/11 new yorker.

i left new york because i could not live with what was going on. floors in thet 22 trade center. i need to remind people that the leadership that brought new york out of that time of crisis was mayor giuliani and mayor bloomberg. they were republicans, their wisdom brought that city back. i was disappointed in mr. trump. i felt he did not come up to the stand. chris christie has the next areas. -- experience. because the background and he understands terrorism. i think it's a shame that more people are not supporting them. i thought carly fiorina did a great job yesterday. those are the people i thought were the winners. ge movingreaction to

out of connecticut? caller: yes. oft happens to be a result our current leadership. unfortunately. i know our governor was dissipated that he did not get a shout out sitting next to the first lady. that's the way this is. i will say this, my feeling , having beenicut through a terrorist situation, connecticut is a court or between boston and new york. we need to be thinking about our national security. the railroad runs straight through. there's no way to protect our citizens. has would happen if amtrak

two lanes of train traffic? what happens if someone brings that down? we need to come together as a country and stop this infighting. we don't need another first-term senator. we don't need somebody learning on the job. we need people who understand government. money, we know donald trump's heart is there. he does not have the experience to bring our government together. host: this is carol in ohio. caller: i have two things to say. saw, 44% werei and and and and the democrats have to get half of the independents. the republicans have to get two thirds. i don't think they can do that.

none of those onstage could be president. heard heard -- when i trump talking about not liking the microphone, that's not what president should do. he is not presidential at all. i don't think he could run anything. he demeans everyone. he tries to crush everyone. we don't need that. host: what do you think about your governor running for president? caller: i would not vote for him for president area --. host: from "the washington post" sanders isg, senator showing he has a chance of winning south carolina and

crashing the southern firewall. sees momentum once voting starts, there is a growing believe that mrs. clinton's lead in south carolina could evaporate. host: sandra's in utah on the republican line. good morning. who won the debate last night? caller: i think on a point

basis, ted cruz one. however, my pick would be donald trump. i am going to support whoever is the nominee and i would encourage republicans to do that. be donaldicket would trump and rubio as running mates. that would be my own thing. i think we have too many people who have been in washington for too long. i want to see somebody who will shake things up and come to the table and say these are the points we agree on. let's start there. i think donald trump can do that. i think he will get sidetracked with all of the social issues sent theas that have republican party chasing

rabbits. that's all i have. aboutjeb bush talked donald trump's ban on muslim immigrants did desperate --. >> this makes it impossible to build a coalition to take out isis. the kurds are our strongest allies. they are muslims. countries have role to play in this. we can't do this unilaterally. we have to do this with the arab world could sending that signal makes it impossible for us to be serious about taking out isis and restoring democracy. i hope you will reconsider. the better way of dealing with this is rocket rising there are refugee populations.

we should tighten our efforts to deal with the entry visa graham -- program. terrorism's,amic -- what kind of signal is that western mark --? them -- themade poll numbers went up eight points in south carolina. >> 11 points, actually. >> are you saying all those people who agree with mr. trump are enhanced? >> absolutely not. i can see why people are angry and scared. there is a condition where our national security has weakened dramatically.

you're running for president of the united states. this is a different kind of job. you cannot make rash statements and expect the world to respond as though it's just politics. we send a signal of weakness, not strength. asking him to consider changing his view. host: in "usa today" this morning, they will debate a ban to -- on donald trump.

host: we will have a taped or live, the british debate on banning donald trump from the u.k. thanks for holding. dustin, you are on. caller: it's rand paul for standing up to the machine. pulling,en pulling -- they put basic -- john kasich over him. he is a top-tier candidate. have you attended any campaign events with him? caller: it was sometime in the summer. he was in jefferson and i got to

ask him a question. paul drops say rand out of the race at some point, who is your second choice? caller: being libertarian mostly, i want someone who's not this going to defend the second amendment and every amendment in the constitution. if you go, the next best candidate is ted cruz. host: that was dustin in new hampshire. our next caller is from texas. you are on the air. caller: i don't think anybody one the debate. is problem with this country lies. they are putting this country in the sewer. we need some honest politicians

in there. host: who is an honest politician? caller: it's hard to tell. do what they promise. the country is in bad shape. the republican party does everything for the top 1% are in --. rick calling in from idaho. how are you doing this morning? i am 12 miles away from boise. the direct reflection of your presidents ability to make decisions can be done by doing one task.

my proposals -- we did not get what we get. you pay for what you get. vote is going for donald trump. race, go to a horse you've got 19 trained dogs. you've got a leader that knows how to make decisions. i love you to death. god bless america. rick calling in from idaho. discussed, one of the debate topics last night was citizenship of ted cruz.

he was born in canada. here is a little bit from last night. >> i am glad we are focused on the important topics of the evening. back in september, donald said he had had his loggers look at this from every which way and there was no issue. there was nothing to this issue. the constitution has changed. the poll numbers have. and i recognize that he is dismayed of his poll numbers are falling and i what. the facts of the law are clear

under long-standing law. the child of a u.s. citizen born abroad is a natural born citizen. that child is a natural born citizen. was is why john mccain eligible to run for president. if an american missionary has a child abroad, they are a natural born citizen. the end of the day, the legal issue is straight forward. that he has been relying on, some of them in sister you must not only be born on u.s. soil but have two parents born on u.s. soil. disqualified, marco rubio would be disqualified, and donald trump would be disqualified. because his mother was born in

scotland. she was naturalized. >> but i was born here. >> i am not owing to use your mother's birth against you. >> i don't care. i think i'm going to win fair and square. they said there is a serious question as to whether he can do this. there are attorneys who feel a very fine constitutional -- he was not born on the land. we are running. i choose him as my vice presidential candidate and the democrats sue because we can't take him along for the ride. i don't like that. is, if he beats the

see, theye field, don't like that. they don't like that he beats the rest of the field because they want me. if he beats the rest of the field, the democrats are going to be bringing a suit. you have a big lawsuit while you are running. who the hell knows if you can serve in office? esquire magazine has donald trump on the cover. on sunday, there will be a discussion on natural born citizenship. back to your calls on who won the debate. will is in north carolina.

how are you? it depends on whether the to talk. run, -- n the short host: do you have your television up? caller: no i don't. host: go ahead and make your comment. we have other collars on the line. we are listening. caller: we are headed for a constitutional crisis. says you muston be a u.s. citizen and born on u.s. soil. that is will and in sylvania. hello, louise.

caller: i find it interesting that donald trump is ahead of everybody. domain, takingt land from people. look at the people he quotes. it's amazing to me that people would what to vote for this man. bushsonally think the ship is the only person on the stage capable and a call my sensible way to bea calm present. -- president. it's all noise. the man from georgia yesterday was talking about noise. bush and theate

liberals are afraid of him. i really hope that people wake up and vote for jeb bush. the country needs him. i want to ask you about this story. host: if you want to vote in the primary in virginia, you have to sign a loyalty pledge to the republican party. the you support that? caller: that comes from ross perot. donald has been put in as a ross perot. the clintons one with 41% of the vote in 1992. disgrace.he worst 1996, only 38% of the people voted.

nobody wants the clintons. wall street loves them. cnbc and these other people love them. i personally can't see what would make them desirable, you know western mark --? i like the bushes. they are decent people. become richer and politics. the last time i remember somebody reporting they were worth less than $2 million. honesty is important. up.sh people would wake let's get on with doing something. host: that was louise in virginia. 45 miles south of

washington dc. here they are over the weekend. they are restless.

host: they assemble for the debate on sunday. mike huckabee has seven events. stephanie is in florida on the democrat line. one last night? -- who won last night western mark --? caller: i find it very interesting now that ted cruz is running for president that it's ok to be a non-natural born citizen. president obama's mother is a citizen and even though he was

born inhawaii -- hawaii, they still had to see his birth certificate to make sure he was born in the united states of america. running,ed cruz is it's ok to be born outside the united states. i don't think any of these guys would make a good president. i think they would be a disaster. president obama has done a great job pulling this country back off the cliff. guys out if any of these gets in there. donald trump is a complete joke. you'd have to be crazy to vote for this man. that's what i have to say. in newhis is bernie jersey on the independent line. caller: i watch the debate last night.

television controller was away from my reach. i don't think anybody one the debate here in --. they are more concerned with running down the president. to representoing the war dynasty. the other thing is in new jersey, governor christie is a double dipper. he is done so much against people with the sandy funds. canada, hes born in cannot run for president. the key for the next besident is going to

something with hillary clinton and sanders on the same ticket. president obama is a good president. have been a would leader in the world in getting ahead with jobs. this is joe in a staten island. nobody one and trump lost. i don't care where ted cruz was warned. i like his tax policy. host: willie is in jacksonville, florida. it, it was way i see

an interesting debate. the top candidates are flawed. hillary clinton is flawed. if you weigh that against trump being banned from great written, -- great britain, our number one , we already know ted cruz is a canadian and mr. rubio might as well have been born in cuba. he doesn't have a chance. they are all flawed. will be the next president of the united states. in -- bush is offered

an air of democratic presidents because he destroyed the economy. host: this is just coming out. lindsey graham will be endorsing jeb bush this morning and south carolina. -- in south carolina. who won the debate? caller: before i get into the debate, let me address some of the hillary supporters. you can't serve as president if you are indicted or in jail. anybody who has a top secret clearance knows it's a violation of federal law. she is going to get prosecuted for it. debate, i think donald trump clearly won the

debate. he is garnishing voters that other candidates are attracting. they are all going after the establishment voters. going and ted cruz are after evangelical christians. donald trump is bringing in and independents and libertarians. i think trump will trounce any democratic candidate they put out there. unless they are able to knock him out in one of these debates, he has a completely different voter support race than any of the republican candidates out there. host: very quickly, pressure mounts for filibuster changes.

republicans are meeting in baltimore. they are arm of their colleaguer the filibuster arguing that it is time to change the rules that republicans held a special meetings and the u.s. capitol on wednesday to assess proposed changes that would make it tougher for the minority party to block a slow legislation. there is strong reluctance among senators to limit the filibuster. a republican senator from nebraska has an op-ed this morning in the wall street journal. ending the filibuster would hand progressives a huge victory. the filibuster is an outgrowth of two filament -- congress nobodies. the house should reflect public opinion with a two-year term. the senate is built for defense. it exists to cool popular

passions of the house and to serve as a break on the powerful executive. the senate is not superior to the house. the gap between house and senate, with it are constitutional safeguards. filibuster, the conservatives should understand that the debate exist to protect the constitution. we reject the notion that washington can manage all of life's challenges. we dismiss the fantasy that we are only one strawman away from solving life's problems. nebraskae senator from is writing in the wall street journal this morning. coming up, two guests. robert woodson is one of paul ryan's at the state of the union. he is with the center for neighborhood enterprise. we will be tauscher but the issue of poverty in america.

after that, we will be talking about the most recent book, the covenant with black america, 10 years later. mondays martin luther king jr. day. we have featured programs on all three networks. c-span, coverage of the british house of commons debate on whether to ban donald trump. the debate is expected to last three hours. our coverage will we air. -- re-air. university of wisconsin professor william jones and his book in march on washington. jobs, freedom, the forgotten history of civil rights. >> when philip randolph went to 1941,ze the march for

everybody said you need to get martin luther king. you need to get his support. he went to martin luther king and martin luther king said i'll support you, but let's expand the goals. aboutrch is not just winning equal rights for jobs. and employment discrimination. it is also about winning the right to vote in the south. x at age: 30 as a representative recalls his involvement in the movement in his book march, book two. the second part of an illustrated adaptation of his life. on american history tv on c-span3. at 2:00 p.m. eastern wilhelm bondy professor at the london school of economics on the cold war partnership with the united states. >> a ron had -- iran has to look at the sovereign power of the imperial ambitions of britain and russia. in the 1930's they look to germany to play that role. also, the second world war, a hold -- a whole generation will

look to the united states. a country with no imperial ambitions. and no history of colonialism in the region. >> at 8:00 on real america. they 1963 interview with martin luther king jr. on his nonviolent approach to civil rights. the comments on president kennedy's civil rights bill and how gandhi influenced his work. for the complete schedule go to c-span.org. >> washington journal continues. us on c-span is robert woodson. the founder and president for the group of neighborhood enterprise. you are a guest of paul ryan at the state of the union. when did you get to know him? guest: i knew him when he was 22. the late congressman and secretary. i have known paul over the years. aget reacquainted with him

month before the campaign ended when he called me and asked if i could assemble some grass roots leaders in ohio for him to meet. i did. we met 20 leaders. i want to, paul said have a press conference, i do not want them to feel used. after the election was over, paul called me and asked me if i could take him on a quiet, nonpublic listening tour through the country to low income neighborhoods that we have been servicing. so he could listen and learn about where are the solutions to poverty. what is going on in these neighborhoods. they need to be restored from within. every month, we have spent a day for the past two years going to the most crime ribbon -- crime-ridden, drug infested neighborhoods and spending time with our leaders. so, he can sit and listen to those that have been transformed

and redeemed as a consequence of what these programs do in these communities. i think that has had a profound impact on his worldviews of poverty and what it takes to cure it. host: have these tour is continued since he became speaker? he just became speaker. we will be together in dallas on monday. he is renewing these with the same profile. no press. he wants to keep in his understanding of what he is experienced in the last 2.5 years. host: where will you take them on dallas? what will be the discussion? going to sell be dallas. we'll be talking about violence reduction. one of my most popular and effective leaders, mr. omar joa has met with paul several times he has run a group called vision regeneration. they actually have recruited x

gang members whose lives have been transformed and they become healing agents to young gang members. they have a gang intervention effort. they are in 14 of the public schools. they help counsel young people to be peaceful and to act appropriately. so, paul will actually have some interactions with some of the people whose lives have been transformed as a result of omar. peoplewill interact with whose lives have been touched in this very violent neighborhood. host: that's wonderful. what is the goal of the center for neighborhood enterprise? what do you do differently than the government? guest: i started in the center 34 years ago. i'm a veteran of the civil rights movement. i became disenchanted when i realized that a lot of the people who suffered and sacrificed most did not benefit from the change that the

sybarite movements was more about promoting the interest of middle-class blacks and less behind low income blacks. i spent some time at the american enterprise institute, the national urban league, i stopped at the center because i did not feel that low income leaders had a voice. especially on the public stage. so, the center has provided service through grassroots leaders. i called them joseph's. they are indigenous communities. we provide training, technical a geigere, we act like counter going into low income crime-ridden neighborhoods. governmento at the does or private charities, they go in and harvest failures of the poor. then, they promote these proposals where the money comes. 70% of all money spent on poor people does not go to the poor.

it goes to those who serve poor people. they ask not which problems are solvable and fundable, but with the center does they go to high crime neighborhoods. are not raising children who are in trouble, we go to the 30% who are not dropping out in jail or drugs. we want to find out what they are doing that is different than their neighbors. those are the healing agents. those are the people at the solutions. , we try tod them help them to better manage what they do. we get miracle grow in the form of training and access to capital. so, perhaps, a group that is helping 50 people can now help 500 people. we hope them to go -- grow. we network them run the country. then we try to determine what public policies will be in place that will one, ceased to injure

them, but more, how to promote what they do so that the public can learn and benefit from the achievements of these organizations. have impacted around 3000 states that look to us to leadership. -- doing? at is the 30% guest: they apply all the values to a new vision. they have to understand that a set of complaining about what you have lost, they have more concerned about utilizing the skills of what they have. another words, they understand that there is no monolithic definition of poverty. there are four categories of poor people people who are poor because they're broke. they do not have money. their characters intact. for them, they use the system of help as the way it should be. as an a.b. let's not a transportation. category two are the people who

their characters intact, but they look at the disincentives, if they get a job they will lose day care. if they get a raise they will lose benefits, so they can include that is a reverse incentive. then you have the third category of people who are physically or mentally disabled, but they need help her the fourth category as a group that concerns most people. those are people who are poor because of character deficiencies. these are the people, giving the money or certificates, injures them with a helping hand. what they need is transformation and redemption as a precondition of help. the groups we support around the primarily onntrate that category number four. so, if we will reduce poverty, we have to understand it is not just a financial crisis, it is a moral and spiritual crisis.

our grassroots joseph's are experts at helping to transform people like that. host: boisvert woodson is our guest. phone numbers on the screen. -- robert woodson. will talk about different approaches -- conservative approaches to poverty. we will begin calls in a minute. at the state of the union speech, the president spoke about increasing economic security. we'll play this and get your reaction. president obama: if a hard-working american loses his job, we should not just make sure that he can get unemployment, we should make sure that programs encourage him to reaching for a business ready to hire him. if the new job does not pay as much, there should be a system of wage insurance. that we he can still pay his bills. even if he is going from job to job, he should still be able to save for retirement and take his savings with him. that is the way we make the new

economy work better for everybody. i also know speaker ryan has talked about his interest in tackling poverty. americans are about giving everybody willing to work a chance. not just a handout. i will welcome serious discussions about strategies we can support. like expanding tax cuts for low income workers. [applause] president obama: there are some areas where we have to be honest. it has been difficult to find agreement over the last several years. the fall under the category of what role the government should play in making sure the system is not raked in favor of the wealthiest corporations. host: robert woodson. guest: i agree with the he is talking

about those in category one and two. people whose character is intact, they just have financial disincentives. you can do that. i would agree with that. arelso said those who willing to work, the ones who -- welling up jails, treat the people in categories -- a liberal tends to look at all category one. and conservatives in category four. so, we miss one another. if we can aggregate that population, and have an honest discussion about how we address those at the bottom, those are languishing a party because of the chances that they have taken. but, what interferes with our ability to do this is a raise. talk about holding people responsible for what they are doing. people say we are blaming the

victim. they say that is racist. it is racist to expect people who have been a victim of injustice to do anything to help themselves. that is the difficulty we have. race exempts people on both sides. leaders, particularly black leaders who are running the various cities where property and crime is the highest from any responsibility from fixing it -- the voting rights act was supposed to elect black people to run these institutions with her the promise and the expectation that they would be operating more effectively than those whom they replace. yet, we have 40 years of experience with some of those same people in place. conditions have not gotten better. race also exempts some of us were saying to the people who are victims, that the victimizer i.e. racism or your family not to down, that the victim has to

get up. so, it is insulting to people to look at them as impotent children. uplift as a lot of traditional policies do. we think that -- it is crippling to people to say to them that you are a victim, your life is defined. therefore, your fate depends on what somebody else i does for you. center, we do at the love and respect low income people in category for enough that we have the highest expectation of them. therefore, we enable them to be agents of their own uplift. we do not expect them to be dependent. bill bennett, the former secretary of education summarized it. he said when people on the left cc poor people, people and write

cac of aliens. the challenge is do you want to be patronized or ignore? i think at times, speaker paul ryan is stepping into this to say that republicans and conservatives have been missing when it comes to addressing poverty. is what have heard from liberals are doing does not work, so let's cut the program. paul ryan is trying to change us narrative by joining with to give a voice to these voiceless people in these communities. and validating what they're doing. so that we can begin to advance policies, not come from the left or right, but coming from grassroots leaders who are suffering. let the people doing with the problem defined what is in their best interest to help them. instead of always looking to experts, orde, professionals who design remedies for the poor, and then

parachute them into the communities. host: let's take some calls. robert woodson is our guest. let's begin with dave, a democrat in fort myers for the. caller: good morning. think there is a reasonable conservative approach to end poverty in the united states would be to hand out -- or hand over george bush and dick cheney. i think we would save thousands and thousands of dollars. host: we will let his comments stand and move on. republican line. lori and carolina. caller: good morning. if you have to know been to the chicago area and have had a chance to identify some of the problems dealing with the gang and drug infested areas. if you have any solutions to those problems. guest: we have. we had a violence free program. that went on the most dangerous high schools.

it is one of the grassroots leaders there. group, they in his are doing a fabulous job of going into a movie worst high whools with young adults are serving as moral mentors and character coaches. they work to reduce violence there. but, chicago is interesting because it has been run for years. i have the same approach of parachuting in remedies to these problems without much change. tweets, what is the republican plan to do with party? guest: i don't know. that is what car ride is trying to find. i know it is in the interest of poor people for republicans to come up with a plan, because they really need -- it is in the interest of the nation and the poor for republicans to be

competitive in this area of reducing poverty, because when you look at the most severe poverty, it is occurring in cities run by liberal democrats. detroit, chicago, you name it. i think it is important for the nation, and for poor people for republicans to develop an agenda. speaker ryan is trying to do just that. host: in the new atlantic. can't paul ryan push republicans to prioritize poverty -- prioritize poverty? it said poverty is not a policy area cut -- area that drives republican voters. guest: i think what paul ryan and other republicans understand is that you cannot look at thatca narrowly and assume you can just use demographic data. that i doo understand not know of anybody, democrat or republican that does not have

brokenness and their live. a family member who is on drugs. of problem. all of us have challenges and brokenness and our lives. it is important for republicans and anybody, when you are looking at voters, you need to look at them not in a narrow said we-- paul ryan has need to visit people regardless of whether they are a potential that, forn you do instance, a republican in los angeles back in 1990 went into a high crime east l.a. and establish a relationship. he built a center there. --ause he planted charitably charitably, he harvested politically. he was the first republican elected mayor and 35 years. so, it is demonstrated evidence that when republicans show up and do something to help the

least of these, the benefit will be that people vote for you. host: there is a map in the new york times. it mapped poverty in america. the darker the blue, the worst the poverty. you can see some of the indian reservation areas. pockets out west, throughout the south. we tweeted that out at c-span wj. pamela in chicago, illinois. you are on. caller: hello. i love your platform and your category. , republicans that have a tendency to group all people of color and all blacks no matter where they don't want to help your the president has tried to do things to help

uplift the community, everything has been voted down. it hasn't even been brought to the floor. and help thefocus caucus realize the benefit of helping this community. the category force. for? he category guest: the president has not done that much to do with poverty at all. i think there was an article in the wall street journal beth reinhardt, looking at the 2012 election of the 100 highest poverty counties in the country, neither the president nor romney visited emmy of those counties. 100. you have places in east ohio where there are dirt floors and no technology in a house. none of the candidates, neither romney nor obama visited any of

the 100 lowest income counties, because they are transfixed on helping the middle class. i do not agree that the president has done so much to help low income blacks, or anybody -- in terms of low income. host: what does the government spend per year on anti-poverty programs. about $800 million. we spent trent d -- $20 trillion on programs. that is more than we have spent for every word that we have executed. we could buy up all the agricultural properties with that money. so, the amount we spend is not related to effectiveness. washington, d.c. leads the nation. in 18 categories of poverty, we're almost dead last in terms of poor kids. there is no connection between what we spend and outcomes. host: we show this chart

earlier. it is from the census bureau. poverty in the u.s.. , 46.7erty in the u.s. million people -- 14.8% of the u.s. is still in poverty. -- 10%african-americans of white people. guest: yes. what we need to be doing, is again, focusing on solutions. when jack kemp who is a mentor to paul ryan approached me some years ago, there are examples of how there can be dramatic improvements. one of the worst public housing projects is in parkside in washington dc. -- residence with high crime the residents decided they are tired of this. under the leadership of kimi gray, there are three streets named for her, she raised five children as a divorced mother.

cough of welfare in three years. center kids to college. in 12 years, she motivated the entire community to take responsibility for itself. they weren't getting the money that went to the housing authority. they hired their own people. there have been dramatic changes in those communities. welfare dependency is down. violence was down. drug dealers were gone. in st. louis they did the same thing. or a single scholar government official ever came into evaluate the effectiveness of these efforts. 60 minutes did not find it. some networks found it. none of the scholars that write about this did. nor has this been the subject of replication. oh these did not say are solutions that obviously work.

what can we do to then take these and promote them throughout the country? the remediesse came from the people suffering the problems. not from the experts who just profit from the misery. host: from chattanooga. democrat. wanda. caller: good morning. know aboutng to things in the category you're pretty people in. for, i wasategory wondering about when a person is 17e goes and has a child at and comments of the children getting the money, they have to pay the courts $50, so, when someone is trying to take care of their child, and they are in jail, they cannot get a job. i don't understand how that will help the child. children, they do

not have support. when we were growing up, sports were the things that kept us out of trouble. one isi feel like if no really interested in what is going on, in the category for people. guest: i agree with you. one of the reasons i fell out of civil rights movement was on the issue of forced integration. i was supporting of strengthening neighborhood schools. that is what we have done. we have come up with policies that and up destroying the social net worth. 1960, aberrant behavior or bad behavior was not associated with poverty. it is only since the 1960's that we associate crime, violence, out of wedlock birth with poverty. ther to that -- i think in

60's we entered a time of moral deregulation where we absolutely separated work from income and all of this. all the social institutions particularly in the black community they used to be intact. that explains how we were able to sustain life and prosper. those social institutions and responsibility was taken out of the neighborhoods like lady was saying and transferred to government or distant bureaucracy. so, people began to look not to their own neighborhoods or institutions but they look to someplace outside for support. host: eric. california. independent. caller: yes. hello. i would like to say that you are doing a great thing. the labels of conservative and liberal that fit these things. came,re, when the crash

three out of four houses had closure signs. section eight, we were increasing crime through younger people who are out of control. nots not so much whether or people have monday. it is a self respect. guest: i agree with you. i did a book some years ago called on the road to economic freedom. were i look at the history of blacks, how they survived and whatnot. there were 20 blacks going into slavery who died millionaires. 20 that were born into slavery and died millionaires. because of their grit and determination. when blacks were denied an opportunity to open hotels, every major city had a black run hotel. the black community was able to survive and thrive at a time of segregation, then what

is the problem today? it is a matter of will. it is a matter of self-determination. it is a matter of looking to yourself to uplift. everybody needs help. but, it has to start with you determining that you need to be an agent of your own elevation. saturday, the can't form in south carolina, jed looked -- jeb bush talking about poverty and his plan. senator bush: first, i think what we should do is not just talk about laboratories of democracy, but mean it, do it. create measurements from the federal government. -- do not create resistance restrictions on how states create upper nobility. when people are stuck, their second poverty. the notion of some that somehow they want to be there, is ridiculous and wrong. in fact, we will never win

elections if we folks on that. will become a minority party. i know people in this room do not believe that. if you start with the premise that the states, if they gotcha chance to do it in their own way as chris says, each community might have a different approach. are three big programs. the tennis program, the food stamp program and the housing assistance program to states, the state group federal relationship would be focus on outcomes. getting out ofre poverty, not how many people are staying in paris. right now, it is in effect. you can mention the program i have a people is on the role. that is the mention of success. around.to turn that second, we need to have one income eligibility requirement. when i travel around, i see a lot of people not on government assistance. in fact, the majority of of americans are having our -- our

two paychecks away from a life altering circumstance. they are working as hard as they can't. they might have two jobs. they might be an intact family are not. that does not matter. there should be equity between people receiving government assistance and those striving to live an independent life. the biggesto be requirement. no more waivers. there should be real work eligibility. that means we have to transform education and training. right now, we have a skills gap. it is great to give people a job, if they do not have the first step it will not work. we need to revamp our education. host: what you think of what he said? guest: i sort of agree. i do not think local government is less bureaucratic and federal government. i would rather see it of all directly between the visuals between the g.i. bill.

whethered this in 1943 or not helping veterans, we should send the rest of the institutions or send the veterans. congress of one vote, voted to give the money directly to the veteran so they can decide exactly what kind of education they need. we need to do something like that now. if you have a tax liability, rather than sending it to the federal government, descended to a nonprofit in these neighborhoods. so that anything that evolves more resources to individuals, i support. host: fox reports that both president obama and speaker ryan would like to double the earned income tax credit 1005 per person. work? -- does it guest: we should always do anything that encourages work.

we should help people in category two, who because they are afraid to take a promotion, because it will take them over a line of eligibility for charitable tax credit help, we need to help with that. it goes onto say that the odds that obama and run will come together and have a serious discussion about passing the plan are not particularly good. the survey agreed on how to expand the young tcp or they do not agree at how to pay for it. guest: that may be the case. democrats are great about talking about free this and free that, but then when you ask where the money will come from, that is where things get confusing. ,ost: wanda is in hayward california. democrat. you are on. morning.ood mr. woodson, i appreciate the fact that you first mentioned

that you do not understand what ryan republican stance on party would be. that probably would have been my first question. that -- haveg is you actually looked at paul ryan's budget tea is used? how he would have had to destroy social security and medicare. how, even at this point, they are trying to repeal obama care what sexually helps and lists some people who are working at walmart and other corporate entities. they still have to get food stamps. rich onlyts to the poor, because,he take her instance missouri.

-- take for instance missouri. the police department, because they can i get the tax breaks, what they're doing now is that they are doing fees and other things to collect on poor people. that is where they are getting their taxes from. host: i think we got your point. let's get a response. --st: first of all, i agree i think there is a myth that somehow poor people are poor because rich people are rich. i remember some years ago, with tax on john kerry past a luxury items. cars and boats. what the rich people do is that they stop by and boats. guess what happened yet -- happened yet go -- happened yet go -- happened? inple stopped working

factories. senators kerry quickly rescinded that tax break. there is another type of informal tax on the poor. for instance, my daughter lives in costa rica. i call her every day. it cost me nothing. if she was in prison, it would cost me one dollar per minute. taxes the families of inmates. it is a $1.2 billion industry. people who have people incarcerated pay crazy fees to companies. the profit share by prisons. that is something we should look into that should immediately improve the lot and strengthen families without costing the government anything. i'm trying to convince others that we should look at prison phone calls. also, cash bail for people engaged in non-violent offenses.

where people have to put up $500,000 of bail and they have to go to jail. they lose their job. these are the kinds of regulations we need to be changing. i think jerry brown in california business, i think that we have those kinds of taxes on the poor. are you in support of banning the box on employment applications go --? -- applications? guest: yes. when we brought together the liberal and conservative legislature, that means if you were in prison, and you are an electrician or barbara, once your release, you lose your ability to work. your license is suspended. so, i think we need to take these kinds of barriers off of people who have served time in

prison. let them come back and work. jail, you cannot get a drivers license. when you go to jail they take your social security card and drivers license. they toss them. when they get out of jail they are required to get a job as a condition of parole. if it takes somebody to get a drivers license six months. there are common sense barriers like these that we could change overnight. that is if people would focus attention on these kinds of small barriers that prevent people from assuming a normal life. host: devon is in north carolina on the republican line. just as robert woodson. caller: yes. i appreciate you guys holding this poverty segment. mr. woodson very much and what he is saying. we need to get rid of the boxes on the applications. let somebody's character and mindset and work ethic go

through the interview process, and prove that they are worthy of the job. at the same time, running for mayor in north carolina dealing with an inner-city african-american community, i understand what i read for on the republican ticket. it would be hard for me to advertise myself to the upper echelon of caucasians. it was not hard for me to do that. in there and characterize myself. i gave my mindset and my viewpoints. i was endorsed by many parties and conservative groups. i think that the stigma with the black community is that republicans are all, greedy and selfish. out for themselves. do not care about anybody. it is about individual assist and personal responsibility. once the inner-city blacks get to that point of understanding is the responsibility getting to that point, going through obstacles, going to trials and

tribulations, the mindset will get to the point where it is ok. i can strive and make a good point of an opportunity. it is a minimum wage job works you to a higher juncker yes, education needs reform. i have african-american family members who are able-bodied citizens. they want to sit at home and collect a check. they want to sit at home and wait for a utility check, without going out to apply themselves to get a job. understand this. i am wishy-washy with paul ryan. the transpacific partnership, it is losing jobs to the u.s.. of bill clinton are losing jobs. what we do to bring manufacturing jobs back? host: we will get a response. what did you do with the republican primary in greensboro? caller: i appreciate the

knowledge meant. i live in a largely democratic district. for me, being an african-american, i tried to get theinto the projects and "ghetto" black people do not understand, this is what is going on. this is how we engage in the political process. we need to get people into these offices that want to strengthen us and give us an uprising so that we can make better of ourselves. not do that well. it was my first time running. win, because a black man can go into the realm of the caucasian people and give institutions the idea that we need to start focusing on everybody not just one sort of people. not just the tax break. host: thank you so much. guest: i think it is refreshing

to have a well-informed young man who was progressive to understand that conditions today are not what they were 50 years ago. we are not in the 1960's anymore. you are correct. he brings up another point. that is only things holding us back is that we are unwilling to practice moral consistency when it comes to the issue of corrupt officials. commitshite democrat either an illegal or immoral act, the expectation is that other democrats will distance themselves. republicank or white , like the man in florida who was caught buying drugs, we expect other republicans to distance themselves. when a black corrupt official engages in corrupt or a legal action, there is either silence from the population, he or she

is expected to run for re-office. for instance, will talk to -- has beencago, chicago in the second congressional illinois district. they have been representative -- represented by other politicians. jesse jackson junior, that 33 years of people representing the district that have engaged in corrupt behavior that sent them to prison or they were censored, but yet, jesse jackson got reelected when he was not even showing up to work for five months. he was reelected overwhelmingly. it is most important for the we have fords that accountability of white elected officials, we need to do the same thing for black elected officials. we are not looking at the correlation between crime in the

sheets and crime in the streets. any correlation between high crime areas in chicago and the fact that it has been poorly represented for 33 years by corrupt officials? that the blackem community must addressed internally. we must hold people accountable, and not let them use race to shield them from personal responsibility. host: sheila. virginia. independent. yes.r: i like talking about the issue. i have been working with an yearszation for about two . they help i was down and out. people are not really realizing what is out there. people we aret of dealing with. sometimes 20 hours per week. a lot of corporations. they are out doing this.

i'm sick of this. i mean, people are making billions of dollars. they cannot even see somebody 40 hours per week. they are coming to my food learn howey need to to use food stamps wisely. we have these drives. you name it, anything i can tonk of, we will send money make food stamps and money go farther. we are doing that. , theederal government legislatures, they forget about it. it has been this way for years. host: thank you. we got the point. guest: i think we have to look to ourselves. in one out of 20 we support in indianapolis indiana, kurt more. he served 13 years of federal prison time. and is in the church. emmanuel missionary baptist church. programweston has a

where they have hundreds of men coming out of jail where, he is teaching personal responsibility. what did kurt more do? did he complain? no. he started washing cars in the garage. after four months he started doing car detailing. within six years he has 20 employees working in the community. it is and what he high crime areas. now, we're helping him to broaden and grow. there are other people like him who understand that it is the victim who has to get up. what he's asking for is a hands up, not a hand out. promote thebegin to whole spirit of self-help personal responsibility, your well-being is not just tied to how much money you make but what you do with the money you do have. that is a story from new jersey.

there is a program called debt-free where he is going through hundreds of churches to try to help people to make better choices. he is saying debt is as bad as slavery. like alot of debt is high-tech sharecropping. when you get into debt, we really need to not just talk about poverty in terms of how much money we can get into the hands of the poor, but how can we make them -- help them make better decisions. not just spent $50 per month on the lottery. host: george, jacksonville, florida. you're the last caller. caller: thank you. you are presenting good ideas. a lot of colors are talking about bringing jobs that. i agree with that. i want to point out a third thing. to talk toe for you one of the republicans come al

i did a petition on usa funds. obama called it my ira. you talked about $800 billion going into poverty. to have amost enough 401(k) of retirement for $1 million for everybody. along with getting jobs, we need to look at what we will do with people in poverty after they retire. people out ofof work. 94 million people. we can give them more jobs. we also need to look at getting people into the stock market. guest: i agree. some people, albert einstein said imagination is more important than knowledge. what we need to bring to the discussion of poverty, we need to stop the ideological combat over the issue.

we need to bring people together with the best ideas. people are motivated to change when they are presented with victories that are possible. not injuries to be avoided. ishink that is what speaker -- ryne is trying to do. he is trying to use political celebrity to promote the whole notion that we must come up with new solutions. we need to go to a different source of that. they source is among those suffering the problem. be taking speaker ryan to dallas to tour an area that he is working. thank you for being on the washington journal. 10 years ago, talkshow host and wrote aenneth miley book, the covenant with black america. just published. later, we are looking at some of the results. he is next on the washington journal.

>> booktv has 48 hours of nonfiction books and authors. here are some programs to watch out for. at 1:30 p.m. eastern time watch booktv's coverage at the bill of rights book festival. from the national festival of philadelphia. on afterwards, pulitzer prize winning journalists discuss the book, one child. the story of china's most radical experiment. about the impact of china's recently discontinued one child policy. also is the author of agent ambition. approaching faith in china. >> china should grow economically. it is a wonderful idea that one

or two generations we see people go from a bicycle on asp eyring to a bicycle to a bmw. good for them. if the one child policy helps people get to that state, i would be all for it. then, the problem is that it did not. it did not have much to do with economic growth. >> on sunday at 7:15 p.m. eastern time courtney on discusses her book black to visit him. him, they say -- >> breast-feeding blames individuals themselves for poor health outcomes and for the soaring cost of american health care. >> watch booktv all weekend every week and on c-span2. television for serious readers. >> he said to them, you know, we

have college age kids covered here. it is really the kids in the elementary school who are suffering. kids arean-american getting core education, horrible buildings. but not equal. >> sunday night on q and a, documentary filmmaker aviva talks about her book rosenwald about julian rosenwald and his work with booker t. washington and african-american communities in the south to build schools and bring elementary education to children in rural america. said weirst time they put together the small houses. why do not just use than? the best thing he ever did was say no. just like we do it test geeky, i want the community to build it. -- teske -- from that, it morphed into 5000 schools.

they are all over the south, including maryland. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern time. c-span2 monday. >> washington journal continues. host: kenneth smiley, 10 years ago, the covenant with black america. this is 10 years later. what are you trying to get at 10 years ago? guest: first of all, happy new year, good to see. 10 years ago, we are the middle of the bush administration. hit005 hurricane katrina and kanye west said george bush doesn't care about black people. whatever they think that he did or did not do, it was black people who lost most of their lives in new orleans. in 2006 black people had basically had enough. we were sick and tired of being sick and tired. we put together an agenda that laid out the top 10 issues important to african-americans and what could be done through national plan of action to turn the tide against all the ills

and ailments. from everything from health, health, criminal justice, the environment. to the digital divide. withop 10 issues african-americans and educations, the book comes out. it is number one on the new york times. your point,to tenures later, one has to ask the question based upon the agenda, what progress has black america made a decade later? the book is out now. it is the cover 10 years later. in the introduction, here's what you write. america has lost ground in every leading economic category. guest: you have to go are the data takes you. you have to go are the facts take you. there are certain candidates and the conversation for another day. at least in my writing i wanted to focus on the fact of the data. with the data tells us is what you just said. black people have fallen behind

in every major category. i went to indiana university, to ask them to give me the data that i need on these 10 issue areas. the book is not my opinion. these are facts and data. if you want the truth about the state of black america today, and some statements about the future, this text lays that out. you can imagine how when the data starts to come in, it hit everylly hard to realize major economic category, black people have lost ground over the last 10 years. host: let's start with health care. first chapter. originally written by the surgeon general. to uninsured. number one. but the top, hispanics remain uninsured 20%, black population has dropped in the last 10 years from 19.5% to 11.8%.

white people 7.6%. there is some improvement. guest: no doubt about the fact that obamacare has led to greater insurance coverage for african-americans. , think that in the long run the president has to get that through, it appears now that it will stand. supreme court challenges will be able to improve this. it was not universal health care. what he promised with something better than nothing. he hopes that we can improve on that. insurance rates for black people have improved. the problem is that most of the provisions have not kicked in yet. onepre-existing conditions -- one conditions taken people will get better for that. black health is not measurably better. number one -- and number two obamacare did not do anything but health disparity.

black women continue to die disproportionately from preventable diseases. we celebrate the passing of obamacare. i await the day the provisions kick in. i hope to see the positive impact. disparities, the has yetement involved to be addressed. host: is there a personal responsibility with health care? guest: yes. there is a level of that on every issue. i listened to your conversation with robert woodson. there is no doubt that before black people or any people can hold others accountable, you first must hold yourself responsible. host: "the covenant with black america: ten years later come ane the goal of providing equal education to all of students and it has yet to be realized. guest: there are pockets of

progress on some issues and there is evidence we are making a bit of progress. number one. number two, my issue is how we approach education over the last 10 years with this notion of racing through the top. program,he name of the race to the top and that always struck me funny. -- aght to be all right right. we put so much competition into it and there is so much money to i think of it, that every child should have access to it. speaking of rights, we have not guaranteed a child everywhere in the country any quote and high-quality education. the matter what state you are born in, they have options to any quote and high-quality education. something is wrong will we have to wait for the ball to bounce your way and hope your number

comes up. something's wrong when you hope they pull your name or you are on a waiting list. people love talking about school choices and there has been some progress, but i don't think it is about school choice but how we make all schools of choice education for african americans does not measure up, we have a problem. about criminal justice, economics, economic opportunity, environmental justice, divide issues, rule groups, and democracy and participation in our democracy. we will go through a couple more, but we have to get to your calls. rick and their fax, virginia, republican line. -- in fairfax, virginia, republican line. caller: according to the budget office, it is on average effectively progressive.

with theoogle that distribution of taxes, so actually, the tax increase we had in 2013 increased the overall effective progressivity of taxation. i think that was all a diversion from the spending side of the equation. year 5.9 trillion according to the bea. if the wasted just 15% of that, that would be close to one trillion a year, -- host: where are you going with this? caller: isn't it a diversion from the real problem of spending and regulations? i don't know if you are familiar but the cost of government, it is 51% of average income, which includes manufacturing

income. people cannot get jobs because -- basically, poor people cannot get jobs because government related costs are so high and there is no business formation. guest: i am not altogether sure of the point you attempted to make, but what i do know is that dr. king said once that budgets -- budgets are moral documents. so when you can say what you say, that you are a you are, and we know who you are, we see who you are when you put your budget on the table. the problem with our budget priorities is we have not prioritized the lives of those who are suffering the most. we could have a great debate about government spending, what we ought to spend more and less on, but if budgets are moral it ought to say

something about what matters to us. again, over the last 10 years, we have not put enough spending in the right places that is a debate we could have for hours. texas, you're on with tavis smiley. caller: hello. guest: how are you? caller: good. i agree with most of what you are saying, but i will add that the problem with like america is our family has -- with black america is our family structure has crumbled. have of them decide to child's aunt wedlock, i think 77% of all black children are being born out of wedlock and they are living in poverty because there is no family structure. there is no more husband and wife. a black e-mail, most of the time, the black females family is deemed subsidized by the federal government. section eight housing has destroyed working-class black

communities. homeownership and the revenue from homeownership would go to improve schools, but because our neighborhoods are crumbling, not because of the government, but because of our own behavior, there is no homeownership and tax revenue. host: we are going to get an answer, but what do you do in arlington, texas? electric am an technician at the manufacturing plant for 10 years. host: thank you. guest: let me say three things, you had a lot in the statements. with the factrt that i am not sure that we can state most women who are single mothers, most black single mothers are on government assistance. i want to caution on that one i don't know if most are. number two, i would not go higher and argue with you about the breakdown of the traditional or nuclear site as we know it,

but i would add that when you talk about the american society and how it has changed, we are becoming a single-parent society across the board. let me put it another way, the problem is that black folk do not get married, the point you cannot stayite folk married and that is like divorce numbers are so hard. that is essentially the problem, black vote to not get married, white folk cannot stay married. we have more divorce than any country in the world. i don't like that we have this conversation that life folk are the only ones leading the charge for us becoming a single-parent society. on the issue of housing and funding for schools, i hear you loud and clear. i am starting to rethink it funding schools through taxation is the best way to do it because a lot of them do not have kids, and they have a problem paying these taxes themselves. they don't see how they are

being benefited by their money going to schools. people are now starting to rise up against paying property taxes. i don't know that i know all the answers, but i understand that we think whether or not property taxes are the best way to fund education anymore. unequal justice, criminal justice reform, and there has been movement in this area. guest: there has been movement. i think there were good decisions made about how to go forward in processing drug crimes. it is always thought that a health crisis more than the criminal justice issue. office,e left the ag's he made good moves in terms of sentencing and what kind of crimes and i celebrate that. you did not go after anybody on wall street, and nobody has paid the price for the pledging of the fall of our

treasury. wall street is making more money than ever now and nobody has paid for the crime of what they did to bankrupt or try to bankrupt this country. some progress has been made on criminal justice. look at area i can these issues or them at the partisan -- whether my feet are partisan -- where there might be why partisan. they have support for reasonable limited justice, so i think there is a lot that can that itand i highlight is the best thing i have read on many years. i think there is probably starting to be some shifting. the funny thing is sometimes, they do the right rings for the

wrong reason, so the democrats areare talking about reform doing it because they care about justice and reforming the way we do this in the country. i am not saying republicans do not feel some of that, but my sense is most of the concern is that they figured out we cannot spend our way out of this and we cannot be the nation that leads the world in mass incarceration because we are spending so much doing that. for one group, it may be justice and the other, judiciary, but at the end of the day, i don't care how we get there but as long as we get there. think the do you president thinks of that issue? guest: even when i question people's politics, i never want to question the motivation. i don't like their practices, strategies, i cannot say anything about motivation. ann, in louisville, tavis

smiley is listening. caller: first of all, i wanted to say i think it was interesting that now he diminished the previous caller's points by diverting what the about black -- said families and started talking about the divorce rate among whites. i don't think that was a good answer, but what i wanted to what i see is the situation to where when two people start caring more about their own situation and their own destiny than allowing someone else to care about it? when you get to the point where you are waiting for someone else or expecting someone else to help improve your situation, instead of you, the person, the individual, caring more about yourself, caring more about your children, eu having the

lifewithal to improve your instead of waiting for someone ,o come along with the program teachers and school -- host: i think we got the point. guest: there are a lot of generalities there. i don't know exactly what to say, but i started the conversation this morning by saying, we first have to hold ourselves responsible before we hold other people accountable. we agree with their message if that is your point about accountability. to the other point about me diminish in the previous caller. if that was your impression, i apologize for that. i do not want to diminish anyone. i tried to expand on his point and i started by saying, i agree with you about the breakdown of black families. i moved on. i wanted to expand on his point and say it is not just lack

families broken down. it is the family at large in this country. our divorce rates are too high, and black folks do not seem to get married and white folks do not stay married but i wanted to expand and not diminish his point. host: a tweet, what is next after president obama's term is up? we go after his next potus for not following issues concerning the minority/ ? guest: certainly. i love and respect bill clinton and we have traveled around the world together. there were a number of issues during his presidency that i challenged him on. does a good job of exposing the truth and my job is to try to get at the truth and raise issues that otherwise cannot be raised to get americans to re-examine their assumptions, expand their ideas.

that is my work on pbs and public radio, to try to get people to look at our issues through a different prism. by trying to the different truth on the table. the truth that i do know, i try to put that out there. justicet like the department, his wealth for reform, and ire certainly did not like the way secretary albright sat on their hands and did not go into rwanda to stop the genocide, the worst mistake i think and he has said since that he believes it is the worst mistake. sometimes, you have to fight with your friends and i did that with clinton. to president thing obama, who are like and i'm proud to see him as the first african-american president. me and thes to president, my philosophy is

straightforward. i respect my president, i will protect my president, especially this one from white supremacist attacks, and i will correct them when i think he is wrong. i have done that in the past and i will do that in the future, particularly concerning african-americans on the agenda and when they are not on the agenda. host: something you write about in "the covenant with black america: ten years later," to me arise, walter scott, cedric -- scott, you, walter continue to write. guest: it will be challenging yearsstorians to write from now. they try to juxtapose a lot about the president's time. the historians will have to wrestle with how in the era of the first black president, black boys and black men have been shot and killed in the streets

and our cops are getting away with that. let me say, barack obama campaign, not once, but twice, the mayorthey support of chicago. they knew this tape existed and they sat on it for years. he ought not to be, he has disqualified himself from continuing to be the mayor of the city of chicago. he had to make the link and the connection to those who support him after this egregious act and something is wrong with our country went, not just black vote, but citizens across the board, are starting to trust law enforcement less and less. not to say law enforcement is a bad thing. in black communities, we are demised so we want to be protected and served by police, that i do not support the incidence continue to happen with black man in their lives. -- with black men's lives.

these cops continue to get off. we can talk about incident by incident, but how many incidents make a pattern? there is a pattern and historians have to deal with how in the air of the first black president, black folks are being shot and killed in the streets and they're getting away with it? how did the bottom fallout for black america? ,very major economic category the president will get great credit, and he deserves great credit for the things he did get done against the head went and amongst the republicans, but on this slice, his most loyal constituency, black people, lost ground. how are they going to explain that in the future? host: eric is calling in on the republican line. -- i don't come why isn'tity, but

anyone talk to hannity about being black? we will just take the first part of that question. guest: i go where i am invited if people are open to truth. because i show up somewhere is not me night route for the policy. sean hannity and i are friends, our careers as sickly at the same time. we both happen -- i was a radio host and the late at the time and he was a radio host in atlanta. the day o.j. simpson was supposed to turn himself in the police and the low-speed chase ensued, we were sitting together at cnn.et because all the reporters were downtown and waiting for oj to show up, the studio was basically empty and we were just trying to fill in time and talk about what the chase would yield. most was short. sean and i were basically stuck

in the studio as the only analyst they had. for almost six hours, we did commentary and just watched the chase because we happened to be there, the right place at the right time. i cannot speak for sean hannity, but when i got off the air, i had so many media calls because they saw me talking about it so i was invited to talk about the o.j. case. long story short, my career took off because of that and sean hannity ended up on fox. both of us have been blessed to do well. our policies are different, but we get along and we have known each other for 20 years. he even invited me on his show from time to time and when i can, i go on and i debate the issues. if you believe in your point of not be afraid to defend your point of view and sometimes opening your own eyes by talking to people you disagree with. host: did you refer to donald trump as a racial arsonist?

guest: i did. his name came up in conversation this week with george stephanopoulos, and the comment was that donald trump, to my mind, was an unrepentant, irrational, religious and racial arsonist. and then i went on to talk about so that there were two points that were made and the point that got got picked up was the point about donald trump and the remarks about donald trump coming after me with his tweet and it felt like being on nixon's enemies list, but the media was just so titillated by that story went around the world in a matter of seconds after mr. trump tweeted that. after talking about this book

and donald trump, but at the end of the day, my point is simply this -- donald trump is being covered by the media but not being challenged. he is being covered with not being condemned. when you see that xenophobia taking place, that racial and religious bigotry, it has to be challenged. and the country and media ought to be better than that, but we know what is happening. there is a sort of codependency. they are so codependent because of how much money they make. it is almost as if it is a quid pro quo that if you give us what we want, mr. trump, we will give you airtime and the coverage of newspapers and magazines. business,s in the people loved this because it is not predictable, we have a cat fight on the left, who knew that we may have the republican with those 80 guys are running at one time, and we may

have a republican nominee before democrat because bernie sanders is on a tear right now. we thought hillary was foregone conclusion and then donald trump came in. the media is loving this. nobody wants this to go away anytime soon. too much money is being made, but corporate media is complicit in this game that is being played, and nobody wants to challenge or check donald trump on his xenophobia, so he got around within hours about treating about me, but he is not treated yet, unless it happened in the studio, about this white supremacist group that has been running robo calls to support them, he has not denounced them yet, but you have time to treat about me but you cannot announce the white supremacist group running robo calls to support you in iowa? again, it is sort of a codependency and i don't know what the facts tell us what the facts tell us he is rising in the polls and this might sound

tonterintuitive, but listen me. sometimes, you have to look past the facts to get up the truth. you have to look past the facts to get out the truth. the facts tell us he is leading the polls, but the truth is that he is sleeping in the polls because he is appealing to the dark side, to the night side of america. if we are looking for the highest in the land and we let are get away for this, we on a slippery slope. if you talk about people because of their race, faith and nobody checks you on that and the media is excited -- donald trump is calling for sunday morning shows and they are so desperate to have him on and he calls in on never seen- we have -- i have never seen anything like that. thishow up like i did morning but he calls in on the phone and they are so happy to talk to him, that they take them on the phone line on the sunday morning shows. i have never seen anything like it in my life. my only point here is that the

media has got to stop playing this game with him and start to hold him accountable like the old everybody else accountable. host: "the covenant with black america: ten years later," tavis smiley is the author and barbara is on the phone from oklahoma on the democrat line. caller: good morning. smiley, you touched on different subjects, but i wanted to go back to the subject about black women and their approach to not getting health care. i'm in the women's business and have been so for 30 years with african-american clientele. one thing i will say is that black women do not forsake their health. a very low quality health care when they do go in.

more than enough african-american female clients who are diagnosed with cancer and went to six months of treatment to find out they never had cancer in the first place, so one of the problems i see with african-american females and i cannot speak on the black man because i do not deal with them -- host: two are for your call. guest: i cannot agree -- host: thank you for your call. guest: i cannot agree more with her. there is the key word, preventable diseases, so i celebrate obama care and i hope in the coming months, they will benefit all of us. in the meantime, we are losing the lives of too many african-american women. i should add that one of the things that help industries have to deal with at some point. andhe most multiracial

multiethnic america ever, we have to get serious about competency when it comes to help care. so long as color continues to expand and grow in the country amongst citizens and doctors and coverage do not keep up, we have to talk about for how these persons ought to be treated and that is another conversation for another time, but there is a myriad of issues were health care is concerned then he to be addressed. all is not well because the affordable care act is passed. host: you write in the this, does that say, let's try something different? blackwellsays that has evaporated and we have lost more black wealth over the last 10 years in the history of the countries. the last 10 years has just wiped out lack wealth. -- black wealth. they put up a statistic of the most recent unemployment at 8.5

percent for black unemployment and my first thought, that is not the real number because we have the unemployed, the underemployed, and those who no longer looking for work. they .5 number is not real to begin with. number two, i said to the interviewer, let me break out said, let'se gang celebrate, but there is nothing to celebrate. at the end of the day, work needs to be done. not just for black folk, but for all of america and how we get to a living wage, not just the minimum wage. this point ont the documentary and that will be out on pbs in the spring called "getting ahead," and it is drilling down into this notion of the minimum wage, in certain places, seattle, l a, new york,

ny minimum wage is being raised and significantly. this movement is gaining steam, there is momentum, it might be a movement, but we need real the living wage in this country and that would benefit not just black folk but all of americans who saw this stat that we have lost ground. if thisinto it and see textured, layered, but the unemployment an issue blackwell, these issues are very real. host: hans is an massachusetts on the independent line. caller: thank you for taking my call. mr. smiley, i want to ask a couple of questions. rise as a public intellectual is impressive. that these comment

are structural problems and a lot of the callers are trying to reduce it down to the individual. we want to be careful with that. 40% of americans are double the poverty rate. almost everyone of them is some sort of public assistant. inequality is rising sharply and instability and stagnation are climbing and it is a long-term problem. i would like to take us back to your mention of dr. king's moral budget and about how he pushed the idea of the freedom budget, which i think is crucially important. ofs ties back into the issue race, the structural problems of the economic system. i think that is an important thing to get back to. one more comment and hope you

will address this, once we get to a moral budget, we are not just talking about the racial issue. it becomes a black-and-white issue. the vast majority of people that are poor are white. that is not to say we do not have racial problems. i think your right on by pushing this look and it was important when it came out during the bush era and i have not read the most recent version. host: we are going to leave it there and get a response. guest: thank you. about structural inequality, you are right. these issues architecture and, layered, long-term. entities,remind all certainly if i talk to african-american audiences, that i am clear that the issues existed prior to barack obama's residency.

cash presidency. -- presidency. i don't know if we can redeem the time, but i recognize these issues were a conundrum for the nation before barack obama showed up, so we cannot blame him for these issues. they are structural and you are right. secondly, to the point about the moral document, you are right. about the, we talk budget being a moral document and you are talking about humanity, dignity, so it is not just a black thing. put another way, you make -- when you make black america americayou make all of better. we cannot continue to render this suffering invisible of the community this large and significant as part of america and say nothing to the fact that so long as this community loses ground in these economic categories i cannot close the

achievement gap, america is leading talent go to waste. we cannot regain our position in the world's leader in so many areas where we have lost that extension. we cannot regain that if you will let all this good talent in black and brown america go to waste. there is too much talent to tap into. we do not have a single soldier ,o waste in the fight to make as donald trump would say, to make america great again. been given a role to play, but we cannot do that if we push only some people to the margins. host: educational attainment in the u.s. in 2013, 21% of white students obtained a bachelor's degree, 13% of black students did the same, 12% of white students with a phd or masters, 6% for black americans. african-americans bachelors were 19% overall with the white students having 33%.

guest: for all of these students, education is getting more and more difficult. we are going to have to figure out a way. i know that bernie sanders is talking about it, hillary clinton, i don't know if the republicans are saying, but we have to have education become more affordable. number one. number two, there are 50 different ways of doing education and that is not there to young people who it you are born in mississippi, you do not have access to as good an education as you do in washington state. how is it your fault you are born in mississippi? 50 states, 50 different ways for america's schoolchildren. , this is incation the new book, education is not the great equalizer that it used to be, so that stat you just looked at, if i would ask an american, and i have the same

talent, the same resume, the same qualification you have, you would get the job. if you end that equally qualify, you still get the job. if you happen to be a black woman with the diversity issue, we will both lose out to the black woman because they can check out the black woman and diversity box. it is not a level playing field. people are not competing fairly for all kinds of opportunities because of the way that race factors in all of this and class factors in. at the end of the day, education is not the great equalizer it used to be. i know african-americans of phd's that are looking for work. economy is slowly starting to turn, but what makes that turn, will black folks still be left behind? even though we have degrees and advanced degrees. is bernie sanders going to

get the kind of black support that bill clinton got? that barack obama got? that hillary clinton gets? guest: he is fighting for it and i love it. i said it a while ago and i got in trouble and all hell broke said but i thought, and i that, that hillary clinton needs a challenger. this is not a coronation, it is an election. it certainly is not a coronation and i said hillary clinton needed a challenge. would one, because it make her address issues and push it to be progressive if she is challenged. number two, it will make her, i hope, less hawkish on foreign policy. i have spent time with her over the years and hanging out, but on my mind in foreign policy, it

is a bit hawkish, so i would hope a challenger would call into question some of her views. thirdly, i know that barack obama became a better candidate because hillary clinton pushed him. it hillary clinton has a real challenge and goes on to win the nomination, she is going to be a better candidate because bernie sanders pushed her if she is to be the nominee. for all those reasons, i wanted her to have a challenge and i do love bernie sanders and i did not know he would be coming this card. feel the bern and you can feel and see what he is doing. host: and cornel west. guest: yes, people respect dr. west and i certainly do. not, what you have is the black vote being competed for. you want your vote to matter so much that people ask you for it, that they compete for it, that and they this issue

look at these issues and they see were black america is and they lay out their own version of the marshall plan, if you will, to make black america better so you do not feel like you are being taken for granted. i love to see this fight. whoever is going to win is going to win, what i love to see that black people's issues matter and they get to put an agenda on the table. this sunday night, there is a isate on nbc and lester debating, but it is one of the only that will focus on black issues, so we will see how tough the questions are. i hope that they will all of the facts and truth about the state of like america. we will see what they get into with regard to their agenda to make black america better. host: that is being sponsored by the black caucus institute. in texas, republican line. caller: thank you particular call. mr. smiley, in the vein of the

discussion you were just having, when you encounter in almost every aspect of society voluntary organizations of cominguals who are together like the black caucus, dock student organizations, you believe or how can you reconcile that with the overall theme of a desire of diversity if itity among the races seems like organizations to those nature are at least passively or suggestively encouraging and us and them mentality? guest: because i do not agree with your assessment that they are passively suggested. that is to say that black people can vote to support each other and at the same time, be happy and proud to be in this country. on my tv show on pbs the other night, we talked about this

issue. what came up in the conversation was a chart that breaks down how a dollar turns over in the community. we call it the exact number, but in the asian immunity, one dollar turns over five weeks or six weeks, in the jewish community, 20 days, in the hispanic community -- it went on and on, but for how many days a dollar turns over in a particular community. in the white community, for multiple days. in the black community, this i do remember, in the black community, a dollar does not turn overher days -- four days, but six hours. it only turns over in the black community six hours. everybody else turns their money over for days. what we are saying is that you cannot expect black book to come up [indiscernible] we have to be responsible to

ourselves before we can try to hold other people accountable, so this is not a separatist movement. i think donald trump called it that with immigrants cannot come in, but that is donald's agenda and not mine. agenda and not mine. what i'm suggesting is black people have to look out for themselves. we -- when we make black america better, we make all of america better. it is america's word in. factsare two significant and no one is trying to beat separatist. i believe a real patriot rebukes his country when one country is wrong, but you rebuke the country and black folk are still the best patronage, not because but in spite of, we love the country.

we tried to make sure that our dignity and humanity is respected and that is at the heart of the data. host: tweeted into you, your the flip on the crisis? -- flint water crisis? guest: tragic. they ought to get subjected to racial and environmental injustice, so when we look at the black population in the city of flint, it is significant, not exclusively black, but significant. for all the people who have enforced to drink the water and those have contracted illness and are sick, these things will continue and these hazards will pop-up as long as we do not take these environmental issues seriously. on our program this week, we are having one of our guests or we had it last my, if you go to pbs.org, but last night, erin

brockovich was one of our guest and talking about the issue. about porter ranch in l.a. with a hazard that, so we will keep seeing these things happen from time to time and so often in poor communities because that is where these issues exist. in harlem, one in three children in harlem has asthma, one in three. these environmental hazards are real and it is always black and wrongful, why we call it environmental racism, who are forced to live near these wastelands, these horrible pollution-producing facilities. we all have to care about the environment, but there is a part of our country that gets subjected to these ailments worse and worse. int: last call is ed washington, d.c. caller: good morning.

guest: good morning. scientist and phd [indiscernible] concerned and i will try to get them quickly. media andc -- a, this right wing hated media, something needs to be done about that. there was a lot of paint media against females and female bashing. -- hate media against females and female bashing. a lot of it is aimed at african-american women. people are people of power. we have power to vote. i went to get to a point [indiscernible] i am reading several books right now, and it ain't is that our

people have made a difference in this country and we can make a difference again. or the the thing is that thing about bernie sanders in the polls, i can support bernie sanders in a lot of ways, but i believe the best chance to get a democrat in the white house again is hillary clinton. super near the commander in chief quality. host: thank you. guest: i appreciate his comments. his second comment most especially. he is right about the fact that black people do have power. i do not like seeing the black community economically exploited, socially manipulated, or politically disenfranchised. that troubles me the same way it does you, so there is a great deal the black america has

contributed and will always contribute. -- warn us ofn how much time we have left to turn the tide. i do not know. optimism suggests there is a particular set of facts or circumstances or conditions you can see, feel or touch that gives you reason to believe it will get better, so i am not an optimist, but i am a prisoner of hope, and i believe you can always build a life on hope. these days, hope does need some help. i hope that this book will be the kind of help that will point us at the truth, giving us the data about the state of black america and what can be done to turn that around. i love my people, i love all of humanity, but i have a particular love for african american people, and i do not like seeing black people forced to live beneath their privilege. this book is a small

contribution to the effort to mike -- to try to make black america better. blackou make all of america better, you make all of america better connecting we can work on these issues. host: who is on the cover? guest: i don't know the name, but you do this when you put books together, i was very much involved with the cover, and i wanted a picture that would speak to the times that we live. the cover that came out 10 years ago had a different more hopeful cover with the face of a child. of hundreds and thousands of photos of african-americans and it was beautiful. we asked on black radio for people to send the pictures of their loved ones and we took all of them and created the face of this dutiful little girl who created the hope of the future. at this moment, we did a cover that would speak to what the times are. there are a number of ways to do that. i love going to booksignings and

asking the audience what they see when they see that picture. the most moving part of my interaction is talking, not just about the data and the truth in the text, but what they think about that picture and what they see. some people see a black man on his knees with his hands on the back of his head, assuming the position that police want to put you in, some people see a black man who was frustrated -- how did we get here, what is next? -- there is so many things to see, angst, anger, hopelessness. there is so much in that picture. you say you cannot judge -- basic cannot judge a book i is cover, well, you can judge the book on this cover because the stuff in it is not some new and to jump about and shout about, but at the end of every one of these chapters, there is a list of things that every individual can do. what you can do, what government can do it public policy and prescriptions and suggestions.

what the private sector can do, what the community can do. these are sections at the end of every single chapter of what can be done. and then there are short stories about what is happening on these issues that is good because people are making a difference. we cite examples of things that are being done that we ought to scale up in our country, so the book is not a book full of hopelessness. we put the data out there, tell the truth, and at the end of every chapter, retail have to tell howituation -- we to fix the situation to make black america and america better. written -- there is an afterword written by dr. cornel west. thank you. it was one year ago that tavis programas on book tvs and you can go to book to be.org and type in tavis smiley and you can watch three hours of him

talking about his books. up the phone lines and talk to about whatever topic is on your mind. we talked about debates, , etc., and weess will be right back to take those calls. ♪ onfeatured this week and american history tv on c-span3, saturday night at 8:00, burke simpson on the president's includingr -- role, no congressional declaration. educate, and and the president to say, i know you do not understand this is no reason you should have understood this, and it was not a place far, far away where people speak a different language, so i am going to explain to you what american

interest are and what the people in congress respond to that, and i will but opinion makers respond to that end i will educate you, and you can help make a decision. i will ask you to do this, explain why you think this is a course of action to pursue. >> sunday morning at 10:00 on the road to the white house rewind, the 1996 campaign. his walkxander and across new hampshire to greet voters. later, at 4:00 p.m. eastern on "real america," an interview with reverend martin luther king jr. on his nonviolent approach to civil rights, his comments on president kennedy's civil rights bill and how gandhi -- on how how gandhidhi -- and influenced him. >> i came to the conclusion that it was the most potent weapon

available to oppress people in our struggle for freedom and human dignity. i would say that this overall direct action movement with citizens, wayne binns, -- with wait-ins, and other elements at the end of the struggle have had a great deal. >> for the weekend schedule, go to www.c-span.org. journal"ngton continues. minutes have about 10 left in this friday edition of "the washington journal," so he will get to your calls. in alexandria, virginia, republican mike, paul. your show and i always enjoyed mr. smiley. i want to say about the minimum

, if it goes up to high, it knocks people off the bottom end of the economic ladder. if you cannot deliver $15 an hour to your employer, you will so get hired at $15 and now, i would be very cautious about pushing the minimum wage up so high that it knocks people off, particularly minorities, teenagers, and people with a college education. phoenix, steve on the democrat line. caller: good morning. my comment is, and no disrespect, but my comment because i am a business owner and i do lots of business, and my experience with the republican side that they are the business party that likes to make money and the only used a half of the poor -- used they

have for the poor is there a market and they want the money that market has. as far as doing anything for them, there is no chance of that because what they like is making money and helping the poor will not put more money in their pockets. thank you for c-span. ,ost: in south carolina independent line, johnny, you are on. caller: first of all, to our particular call. i want to make two comments. at the donaldpset trump early he had. had,nald trump rally he but they had a lot of people that were chanting white power. i was looking at msnbc, and they had a program that they have the white supremacist group that was endorsing donald trump and telling iowans that they need to whoort them because that is

their candidate is. i would never say that every republican is a white racist, but every white racist is a republican. also, i wanted to say something about ted cruz. where would ted cruz get his birth certificate from? would it be the canada birth certificate? if it is a canadian birth certificate, also, he was not born in america but point a canadian. host: johnny, are you ready for the media storm that will hit your state after iowa and new hampshire happens? that i the only person see on there for a side that i would consider voting for would be john kasich. the rest of them is -- [laughter] i would be scared if any of them were president of the united states.

host: senator lindsey graham just endorsed jeb bush. group: he is part of that and they always stick together. that is why they are trying to push donald out. i like donald, i think he is funny and i would want to see donald, but i would not want to vote for him. he makes you laugh and he is entertaining. eer a stop for the candidates? caller: i am not sure. i think he wasn't greeneville at one time. when they came down here with donald trump, it was at the ralsa core -- bon secou wellness arena and i had planned to go there to see donald trump. there were a couple of people that came out of there and they were saying how impressed they were with ted cruz.

tried -- iways just find it amazing that you can get elected and people will constantly elect you because you are trying to stop what the president is doing and you try yourself -- i for am talking about marco rubio -- about the progress which did come from the president. i just think that is so ridiculous. host: that is johnny in greer, south carolina. in philadelphia on the republican line. caller: thank you for taking my call. i am a republican and it seems like the caller is right that this [indiscernible] i think president obama has done a great job.

i am a rand paul supporter. [indiscernible] trump.donald he has done a great job and the really calls, but i about the politics. we need to get this nation back a northern thinking state style of freedom. veteran who loves and i know almost every law and every stay, but we have to straighten out the politics. go rand paul. is in columbia city,

indiana, the south side of fort wayne, on the democrat line. caller: can you hear me? host: we are listening. caller: what i would like to see happen, i would like to see every black family in the united states given $100,000. it would just be a broom for the whole -- a boom for the whole economy and now like to make the kind of like salesman at the same -- i would like to meet a cadillac salesman at the same time. host: that was jerry. mike in new jersey, democrat line. caller: good morning. i will be short. year, i saw on msnbc or cnn and i have been watching ted

cruz father who was a preacher, and he was preaching in a church, and he was preaching that the bible but on president obama and how he was born in kenya and they will send him back to kenya. i want to ask ted cruz and his father, is he going to send his son back to canada and maybe he could follow him, too. host: where are you from originally? caller: yugoslavia. host: how long have you been in the u.s.? caller: 47 years. host: why did you come over here? caller: he was in charge, but i have nothing against him. my choice was to come to the united states and live over here. we have one quickie from

ted. caller: i always call republican, but i am more conservative. enemy we have been the united states is washington, d.c., not the democrats or republicans, but the capital. earlier, mr. smiley said that everybody in america have the privilege and that is where he is wrong and the black community will always struggle and so they learn the country is not equal and you have to earn what you get. god bless america. host: you to everybody who called in this morning. that is going to wrap up the "washington journal" for this morning. enjoy your weekend. we will be back at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow, sunday, monday, tuesday and 365 days.

[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪ >> some endorsement news following last night's republican debate. bloomberg politics tweets jeb bush claims lindsey graham's endorsement. hill tweeting. the nations's capital, discussion on the middle east in particular, whether iran and saudi arabia are poised for more conflict. live coverage on c-span at noon. the united kingdom and ireland considering proposals to ban donaldmp