who served in the vietnam war, and later became a vocal opponent of the war, shares his views at the lyndon b. johnson library in texas. >> we did not receive the welcome home, nor the benefits or the treatment that they deserved and needed. in the fundamental contract between soldier and government was not honored. >> 10 at 8:00, on the print -- then, at 8:00, on the presidency. >> by eisenhower immediately called his former attorney general and said, what a fine speech ronald reagan had just delivered. he then called a former special assistant and said, what an excellent speech ronald reagan had delivered. aight eisenhower wrote back multi step political plan for ronald reagan to follow. reagan would end up falling eisenhower's advice to the letter. plesonhor jean coble'

discusses the pivotal role the 1960's.t played in the for the complete american history weekend tv schedule, go to www.c-span.org. has ourw.c-span.org government related programs, like the house, senate, and congressional hearings. they stream live on the site. you can watch on your desktop, laptop, even your smartphone or tablet. you can watch the c-span archives. if you miss an episode of ,"ashington journal," "book tv or any other program, you can find it online. in fact, the c-span video library contains more than programs and of

the powerful search engine helps you find and watch programs going back many years. to watch our television, c-span publishes its on air schedule for all three networks and its radio station. www.c-span.org is a public service of your cable or satellite provider. if you are a c-span watcher, check it out. it is on-demand at www.c-span.org. bushe campaign 2016 continues its travels to honor winners. the bus made a stop in new jersey to recognize six time winner matter line for her second prize video, "when the house becomes a home." she was honored before having a chance to visit the bus. the bus then travel to tensile then you t -- traveled to pennsylvania to honor two eighth-graders. they donated much of their local

winnings to a local charity. following this event, the bus drove to clinton township middle school in marriage new jersey to celebrate the video "the next big problem." many elected officials joined in the ceremony for zachary. a special thanks to comcast for helping to coordinate all of these visits. you can watch all of the winning videos at studentcam.org. >> tomorrow, donald trump will meet with house speaker paul ryan, who so far, has refused to give his endorsement to the presumptive republican nominee. on "washington journal," we talked about that meeting with congressman tom cole. this part of the program is 40 minutes. host: back with us is tom cole. let's talk about your district. i want to show our viewers this

is "associated press" video of the latest tornado in elmore city, oklahoma. that's in your district. guest: correct. host: how are people doing? what happened? guest: they're doing well. these are always difficult. we had lost some lives. two people were killed. some serious damage, fortunately, most of this was in a very rural area. so it wasn't in one of these massive strikes in the metropolitan area in 2013. it's probably our closest calls called ways was the town winniewood of 2,000 people but refinery, oil excuse me. and so you always worry that catastrophic damage would come out. but it's the spring. this happens pretty much every spring, someplace in the state and certainly someplace in the region. we're awfully good at it.

and we get terrific support. our first responders are excellent. the state and federal authorities always do a great job and these folks are pretty tough. host: we saw the tanks. guest: yeah, that's massive. that's the largest holding complex for petroleum in the united states. there's literally tens of millions of oil there at any given time. host: what kind of vulnerability does the state of oklahoma have to these tornadoes? guest: a lot. tornadoes cause a lot of damage where they strike. but it's not like a hurricane. it's not like a sandy or a katrina. the bad one in 2013 was on the ground for a few -- a little over half an hour, 45 minutes, 17 miles long. inside that area, everything is devastated. but immediately outside, everything's fine. so, again, not like a hurricane or something that could put

hundreds of thousands of square miles out. host: this is a picture of a citizen cleaning up in texas but it says in the caption that mary foulen declared a state of emergency for 15 counties tuesday the day after two people were killed and the storm system raked the central united states. so because she has declared a state of emergency for those 15 counties, what does that mean for federal money and federal support? guest: well, the still has to sign off on it. and then it goes to the administration to make the decision. we've always gotten terrific response regardless of the nature of the administration, democrat or republican. people are sympathetic. they understand things like this happens. you are eligible for a variety of loans and disaster clean up, the locality -- the federal government pays well over three

quarters of the burden. so it's extremely helpful in getting an area back up on its feet. host: let's turn to politics now. the campaign, speaker paul ryan sat down with the "wall street journal" yesterday. here's the headline. ryan seeks unity for the republican party. was it helpful, hurtful that speaker ryan last week said i'm not ready to support donald trump? guest: i think probably helpful. i think the speaker put it pretty well went he said let's not pretend year all unified when we know we're not. but i think this is a very constructive way to go about it. let's sit down and have a discussion. find points of agreements. we don't expect everybody is going to agree on every issue, but, you know, i think this kind of dialogue, particularly between probably the two most important political figures are presumptive presidential nominee and the highest elected republican in the country, the speaker of the house who is in line for the presidency. they need to be working together

and be comfortable with one another. they clearly have not known one another. but i thought mr. trump's response was pitch perfect in terms of welcoming that kind of discussion and dialogue and sitting down. so i expect a productive meeting. process of getting to know one another and figuring out to know one another. and at the end of the day, i think they both arrive at the same point. honestly, they both need one another in the fall. paul's main job is to hold the house majority. and you're not like throw preside over a convention of your nominee and disagree with that or allow a rift to develop between the speaker and the presidential nominee in a fall campaign. that's just counterproductive to both mr. trump to win the presidency and to paul ryan. host: if it starts this way and as you just say, it goes on for a while, doesn't that weaken the republicans in the general election? guest: i don't think so.

we're all probably pretty shocked at the republican nominating process is over quicker than the democratic process. they're still in the middle of campaigns against one another. and running ads at one another. and so, you know, i think this stuff is pretty natural. it was pretty vigorous democratic primary in 2008. i didn't see that it kept people from coming together for then senator obama. i think the same thing will happen here. and there's something deeper at work here. there's clearly major changes going on in the electorate. and a common anger left and right, quite frankly at washington, d.c. and whether what has or hasn't been done. that's generated not only donald trump, but bernie sanders who is performing much better than most democrats i know anticipated he would. host: what's your advice to donald trump to get folks like

speaker ryan and other republicans who say there are principles that i'm not going to compromise on that make up the republican party and they are concerned that donald trump does not share that -- those same principles. guest: i think donald trump has to show himself to be what he is, which is, i think, a work in progress. most candidates change over the course of a campaign. and i don't mean that -- they just learn more and this is the first time candidate at the highest level. so i think you're looking for growth. you're looking for maturity. you're looking for inclusiveness. you're looking for somebody willing to listen to your point of view. i think those things are there. i don't think that's going to be -- it's hard to do. and you can never underestimate, frankly with all due respect, how well hillary clinton unifist republicans. so i think it's not going to be hard. the choices comes in the post-convention period for everybody are pretty clear.

you can vote for hillary clinton or donald trump or a third party which will be a dear vote is essentially meaningless, but each american will come to that conclusion. ryan, hese of speaker does have to think, and i know he thinks more broadly because he represents the house majority and 240 odd house republicans who look to him for leadership, so he has a special responsibility, but he has never done anything but discharges as possibilities with integrity and effectiveness, so i think he will do that again. exit polling from yesterday's nebraska primary for republicans. ditch eyes with other exit polling during the process. -- it jives with other exit

polling during the process. a significant number of republicans in nebraska are not wholly comfortable with donald trump in the office. four out of 10 say they would be scared or concerned if mr. trump gets to be president. think more are probably scared at hillary clinton becomes president. once the focus is on her, and that is what republican voters are thinking about, you will see that real quick. host: what is your advice to fellow republicans? what is your advice to the folks who are all up in november? .uest: to be prepared we have not lost a single the primaryet in season, so control things you can control. make sure your campaign is operational and you have kept in touch with constituents and they know you reflect their views and values. in terms of the presidential,

almost overwhelmingly the great majority will support the nominee because they will also be voting for the republican nominee for president. even in a few cases, people feel like they need to do other things out of principle or out of political expedience, given the nature of their district, i think that is inappropriate for them to do. i think mostpart, republicans will end up supporting the republican nominee. host: donald trump will be meeting with the speaker of the house as well as others in the house and senate on thursday. david, you are up. democrat, welcome. caller: good morning. you are doing a good job. i just want to say i think the media did a good thing. i have never heard the president in my lifetime, i will be 66 month, talk billy donald trump talks. -- talks the way donald trump

talks. he calls hillary crooked hillary. i cannot understand how in the world we can have somebody -- and i like some things he said, if he can do the things he says he can do, kind of like a lot of the other folk. if they are going to do all this stuff, but they don't ever do it. stayingng just keeps the same way. i don't understand it. what he talkst on about the name-calling. it is unbelievable to me. guest: it is not my style to call people names, but i think right now the tolerance for that is considerably higher because the voters are mad and frustrated, just like you are. they are ready for rough language. there has been rough language from a number of the candidates,

not just on the republican side. i cannot tell you that i particularly like that language. one of the reason i like paul ryan is he is uplifting and upbeat personality. ,opefully, it will get better but my hopes are largely centered on the other side of the election. people think the country is going the wrong direction and they really want to shake up washington, d.c., and they want to do that for the left and right. the rhetoric of the country has been pretty rough for the majority of the time. they called the president of the loser, thatr and a was harry reid talking about george bush, so i do not think this is new with donald trump. it is something i regret. host: cathy in georgia, republican, you are next. myler: thank you for taking call. donald trump certainly is not my first, second or 15th selection.

i am 58-year-old woman in georgia. it is a matter of conscience. it is going to be hard for me to and i have been a single republican conservative voter my whole life and it will be really, really hard. language, i think he is an opportunist, i don't think he is a republican. i voted for every other republican, but i will have to think more than twice to support him. he will be onpe his knees when he goes to talk to paul ryan. we need a true statement. i am ashamed to have him represent our country. host: can you respond to that? guest: that is pretty candid and obviously heartfelt. . cannot disagree with anybody

tothe other hand, i look guys like paul ryan and i have a lot of faith in him. he represents the future of the republican party to me and i hope the republic itself at one point. you just have to look through these things. that a voter with this level of concern will still go votes. i worry and negative campaigns tend to depress turnout across the board and they get disgusted with both sides. i don't think you will affect the process by not isticipating, so the caller clearly trying to work this through in her own way and to represent her country, and i'm hoping she wants to make sure she boats and it is registered. we will let the process work out and wherever she ends up will be the right place for her. host: paul ryan, senator ted

suspended his campaign, return to the senate. the headline in the wall street defiant ted cruz returns to the senate -- and he refused again to endorse a donald trump and he seems emboldened by his strong showing in the race and shows no interest in be more accommodating to the washington establishment to campaign against. what would 50 do for the party of senator ted cruz were to say, i am supporting donald trump and i went all of my supporters who voted for me to vote for donald trump? guest: it would be helpful. he did run a terrific campaign. he was the last man standing other than trump himself. d is a bright, articulate and able guy. said,y, as mr. trump [indiscernible] i suspect he will weigh what he thinks is the right thing to do.

he is a conviction politician. he will also need to think about are betterand it you off having played a role in helping hillary clinton become president, i do not think so. i don't think most republicans a want to look in the mirror after we lose the presidential election and say, i enable this. there goes the supreme court, the united states senate, we could lose the house in a bad election, so people have to work through these things. real that these are competitions, tough personally. i have had to do this several times. i understand. at the end of the day, if you're going to be on the republican ticket, either now or in the future and not just on top but on its, you ought to be supporting the other republicans. you can certainly not be afraid to spell out the differences. at the end of the day, if the

choice is hillary clinton or donald trump, for republicans, that will be an easy choice to make. host: polls that were released yesterday shows the kid being that connect between the front runners with swing states. take a look at florida, ohio and pennsylvania. you can see that right now, the party front runners are essentially tied. steve, independent, south carolina. caller: good morning. leave out, do not michigan and virginia, who have had more republican turnout in the primaries and they may flip this time. either way, i went to reiterate i am independent. i am a realist. i will go to the booth in november and push the number with the constitution party and that is my way. oklahoma isst and

going to be read and south carolina is going to be read. that is a given. we have local and state elections also. here is the problem. party seems to be in a state of disarray with so many people in the establishment coming out and speaking out against support of donald trump. however, we know that donald trump has energized people to come out and he is mainly responsible for the record voter turnout in the primaries. does the feeling amongst trump supporters that is really not most difference between washington democrats and the and thatn republican, is where the problem is. in the meantime, let me speak to the lack of support by people. here isford them down my congressman. he has found not to support donald trump.

his seat is coming up. jenny horne, who thousand to support him, will be running against him, and she gained national petition after the emmanuel conflict with the confederate flag down, so she is pretty popular. what does this say for the republicans? thatme about this notion there's not much difference between washington democrats and republicans and that is why trump is so popular. extraordinarys an amount of difference. you can look at any survey and voting patterns on the house and senate rolling and find they are farther apart today than they have ever been. some of the frustration is in the in a system of divided government. most of the things that people in my area are mad about where the president is concerned happened in 2009 and 2010 when the at the super majority in the

senate and a much bigger majority then we have today in the house. that is for you have everything from obamacare to dodd frank. if you look at republicans, they repealed them immediately but it is hard to get past. they also have cut the deficit from 1.4 trillion to only 430 billion and that is a pretty rapid rise. all the tax cuts expired while president obama was in office and that is $2200 more for every $2000, so makes the it was tax cuts for all americans. they also got the measure of entitlement from last year. i think we have been fighting the good fight. at the end of the day, you have to extract for the time. the other problem is what i would put as an antiestablishment establishment out there today which spends a lot of time convincing republicans that the problem in

washington is republicans, but the problem is barack obama if you are a liberal democrat or conservative republican. if you want to get things done and you want to change on a massive scale, one party or the other has to conform all three branches. the american people have been a little schizophrenic about this. they gave the president huge victory in 2008, overwhelming control of the house and senate. two years later, took the house away from him and narrowed the senate. then they reelected him in 2012 and they took the house and senate away in 2014, said that suggest a great deal of electorate andhe a lot of changes going on. 60% of the republican conference elected since 2010. the average age of the state senator fell by 17 years.

there are lots of new basis and turmoil. i think we are in a prolonged time of realignment and at the are in ae day, people fiery mood right now. that is ok. sooner or later, they look at the combination that they like and they think is working. they have not gotten there yet. over time, the system seems to get to where the american people want it to be. i have a lot of confidence in it. host: sarah palin thinks that speaker ryan is the problem in washington and says that she becausek to unseat him he was not getting behind donald trump right away. [laughter] says he has seen a ryan'srm that support to comments but he has been favored by 81% of republicans and gop leading independents who are registered voters.

ryan and hispaul family has lived there for generations. he is well known, well respected, well-liked and unloved figure in his area. he is distinguished enough at 45 to be a vice presidential nominee and the youngest speaker since the mid-19th century. -- that is a heck of a record and i'm willing to in on my chips on paul ryan anyone trying to defeat them inside or outside of the district. i think the speaker has been honest about this and we should not pretend we are unified when we are not. we need to talk to these issues and find common ground. i think that is what the is doing. he is leading us, which is what

he is supposed to be doing. that is a good thing and not a bad thing. just bear with him. i think people who can watch them operate will note that those of us who have served with them in the house know, a person of great integrity, a thoughtful person and he does the right like almost end, 100% of the time. i don't know if he was an eagle scout, but he should have been. i respect his leadership and i think he will make us a better team in the fall election and that is what matters. host: we will go to cleveland, ohio, joe, republican. caller: good morning. thank you. i am and 85-year-old christian and i have seen a lot of politicians, but let's take politics out for a moment and look at the american public and what they're looking at. number one, i don't know why people that are packing trump

are not putting this out there. he just hired more people of diversity than any other person who has run for president in my lifetime. he has done more construction, he knows how to talk to tradespeople, the common man, the educators, he has built off courses, the people hired dark hispanics, asians and african-americans. he also has -- the people he has hired are hispanics, asians, and african-americans. this is an opportunity to be productive, not political, but production. the other issue is the socialist party or the democrats, everyone at the city's going through racism and murders in the black community end up falling apart economically are all the democratic cities and you make good points. pointed out.e that is why the american public is upset. this man that came into office

with the promise of making things better has made it so much worse and has stirred up so much hatred between the races. i have never seen anything as disgusting in my life. thank you and god bless our country. eloquentrtainly very remarks. i think the point that donald an exceptionally successful business guy is a big part of his appeal. time he has been outside the political system like the caller suggests and that is to create jobs and opportunities. he has made himself fabulously wealthy, but a lot of other people, too. americans like that. i have seen no evidence of discrimination of any type inside of his organization. he seems to be surrounded by a lot of people that think highly of him with a diverse background and points of views.

he is certainly not the traditional republican. no doubt about that. people always said they wanted someone who does not follow party lines. here is a guy that does not follow the party lines quite often. i think we will learn a lot more more than ween know today, and he will be confronted with a lot of questions and challenges, contradictions, and every candidate goes through this. particularly candidates at the highest level. the american people will see the candidates, make a judgment, and if they make a mistake, they fix it in four years. have a little faith in the wisdom of the american voter. they tend to get us to the right place. att: a tweak -- for cruz, the end of the day, it is the choice of supporting clinton or the "pathological liar, narcissist, and serial philanderer." what to you make of those comments? guest: it makes the point that

you ought to be careful of your language and the political campaign. 17 people were running for the you are going to be confronted with choice. you all signed a pledge, so i try to be measured, particularly in the contest with other republicans, because at some point, you want that friendship. if you are fortunate to be the playee or if you want to by the rules of the game, you will have to be willing to support the person your own party chose. each candidate has to work in their own way. i would be awful careful about rhetoric. you can be sharp about issues, nothing wrong with that. we have candidates that if you followed them over their career, at one point, mr. cruz said wonderful things about mr. trump.

trumpd not excuse mr. from this situation. basing to have given as good as they got, rhetorically, but at the end of the day, they will be offronted with this dilemma what you support hillary clinton or rally around the person that the party, that you are part of, chose? i think you're better off to play within the rules of the game and accept the verdict of the voters. host: we will hear from alice, democrat, ohio. caller: good morning. i have a question about supporting donald trump. what group could possibly listen to his language and except that as it being ok for their children to listen to? that boggles my mind.

if you could give me an answer, i would appreciate it. guest: i would agree with your point. i wish the language were different in this campaign, but if you are voting evangelical or not, why would you support americanwho put security at risk, frankly breaking their words to the president about that? why would you support some of you engineered a reckless work in libya that opened up isis? why would you support someone who [indiscernible] projecting power to the middle east in a way they have not since the 1970's and doing loop the loop's? i think there is a lot more serious issues here than just language. there are going to be sharp differences. no questions about that. it will be a hard-fought campaign. both are entering the general election. it is the first time in american history that that has happened,

that the boat is upside down. , about onel recently third of the electorate cannot stand either one of them. that goes from republicans, democrats and independents. they will decide who wins the election. you do not know if they will stay home, but for the lesser of two evils, change their mind, or come out one way down the ballot and another way? we do not know. as manynow that americans as possible should exercise and go to the polls and choice. this will be a consequential election. it will almost certainly should the supreme court for generations. control of the senate is at stake. i think in election this volatile, control of the house is also at stake. if you liked 2009 and 2010, you may want to vote democratic.

if you want to really change the system, i think some are better off with trump or a next her term of president obama. they could change status quo election. hillary clinton is very much the status quo candidate. she has positioned herself that way. the country needs to decide if they want to change directions. i saw something like this in 1980. you remember how close it was withen carter and reagan the republican split and john anderson running as independent. the american people will go up the day before the election and said, we have double-digit interest rates, double-digit inflation, i will try the cavalry, and they did and they liked what they got and they got change. i did not know if this is the same parallel but i think it is the same volatility. host: richard, florida, independent.

go ahead. caller: good morning. the people who have spoken to not want donald trump. if ryan cannot get on board, he needs to resign and you were talking about when the republicans took the house and senate, well, when they took the house, speaker boehner said that he was going to secure the border, which he did not two, he would be funded obamacare, which he did not to, and said he would cut the budget $100 billion, which he did not do. these two parties are basically one party. the overall objective is to keep the power away from the people. what thed up with government has friend, basically by attorneys, that tried to convince people that right is wrong, wrong is right good is bad, bad is good.

they talk out of both sides of their mouth and say the same thing. host: let's have the congressman respond. should speaker ryan resign if he cannot get behind donald trump? absolutely not, and first of all, i think he will, so i speculate, but the districts he is accountable to made him speaker. degree ofhigh confidence behind him. cut think john boehner did the budget by the way. the deficit is down on an annual basis. we are spending less money than we did in 2008 and that is what the caller was talking about. it was entitlements that did not get reformed. in terms of these other things, i know john boehner, with all

due respect, never made any claim he could secure the border. third --lled one excuse me, one half of one third and he did not have the senate almost every day of the speaker. tax cuts forent everybody, including the caller, he got entitlement reform, so it is a record to be proud of. you cannot promise that the senate is going to do, let alone with the president of the united states is going to do. if you want the kind of change the caller talked about, he needed to win the 2008 election. andot majority of the house that was pretty amazing given the scope of the victory, over 5 million votes. their appeal of obamacare to the president and the be towed it. he vetoed the planned parenthood funding.

the keystone pipeline, he vetoed it. it suggests to me that the problem is not what congress is doing. it is a different point of view. in our system, he has the right to veto legislation and we do not have votes to override it. is for the american people. the president got elected there and square. they are different parties and different points of view. host: jackie in georgia, democrat. coler: hi, representative , how are you? guest: very good, thank you. caller: good. my question is if republican policies are so great, can you tell me why all red states are the poorest in the nation? guest: i don't think all are. we have 31 governors right now, and i don't think we have 31

poorest states in the country. we are successful in lots of different parts of america. with all due respect, i disagree with your premise. host: diana, virginia, republican. caller: i have a question in regards to someone is looking at donald trump's financial standing? he has seems that really spending so much money and he is not [indiscernible] and this whole thing with trump elected, ifif he is he is prosecuted or found guilty is president, so i wonder if people are really

looking into his financial standing and if that could impact him? because i certainly did not want the president that is a fraud. guest: there is only one candidate involved in an fbi investigation, hillary clinton and not donald trump, but believe me, there is enormous .crutiny under way every penny that is being spent, researchg being done, is being done by both parties. believe me, the fbi, the last time i heard, had over 200 members associated with the ,ntegrity section that looked particularly congress, but if there is something wrong out there, there is a pretty good chance it will be exposed. host: before you go, it is believe to-- i refuse -- i refuse to believe that the last sane republican

-- guest: i try to respect everybody in the process. with secretary hillary clinton. i do not believe she was a good secretary. and i havey disagree seen them moved further and further to the left as she has chased bernie sanders. you, you weresk the one that supported the idea of a contested convention and possibly having paul ryan as the nominee. guest: [laughter] i think that is dead. first of all, paul ryan to not want to do that. close does not count. it is not horseshoes. you have got to get the number, but with no opposition in the field, trump had two states last night, note reason to think he will not have this before the

seventh of june, so i think he is the presumptive nominee at this point. washington journal, live every day. thursday morning, washington post political reporter robert costa will join us. republicanornia derek isil will -- darrell issa will discuss civil forfeiture asset laws. and, connecticut democrat congressman will be on to talk about legislation moving through the house to address the opioid crisis, including a bill he sponsored which would provide $600 million in emergency funding. from "thedefrank national journal" will talk

about his coverage of both george w. bush and george h.w. bush. he will also talk about the bush family strong dislike of donald trump. "book tv" has 48 hours of nonfiction books at authors every weekend. saturday at 10:00 be -- 10:00 p.m. eastern, don watkins. >> the reason i say inequality isn't a problem, is because we are concerned with how much money you had, but how did you get? did you get it through a way that was fair or unfair? when you try to equalize people who earned their money honestly, we are trying to say that is not a fair way to treat people. t-rex in the book, mr. watkins not the american dream is limited by income inequality. on sunday afternoon, and iraq