whose editor will talk about his title article, "you get baiting." about introducing certain topics to solidify support from ♪ host: with days before a possible government shutdown, the senate rejected a bill that would have kept the government open. in the house, an agreement by leaders which would put money for flint in a separate bill. thewith hopes to keep government open past friday. the israeli prime minister died after convocations after he suffered a stroke. he was 93.

that complications after he suffered a stroke. we are interested from hearing from those of you in the audience that are currently undecided about a presidential candidate. havent to hear what you not chosen one yet and we want to factor in monday's debate. did it help you? if you were an undecided voter, give us a call and let us know your thoughts this morning. 202-748-8000 for democrats. for republicans, 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002. also, twitter and our facebook page. the website has a story that was posted by -- taking a look at undecided voters. if we extrapolate the share of

undecided voters for the entire pool of registered voters in the u.s., it would imply there are 5.9 million undecided voters in the country. if we look at the slice of red voters that actually get out and vote, there are 3.8 million undecideds who will actually vote in this election. the share of undecided voters 4% andly goes between some of these undecided voters may be more undecided than they're letting on. many are registered to one of the two parties. they almost always end up voting for that party. perhaps you are one of those.

if you are in that situation, give us a call. tell us why. tell us if the debate influenced your decision making. if other aspects of this campaign will influence your decision making as well. for democrats. 202-748-8001 for republicans. and 202-748-8002 for independents. "the washington post" looks at undecided voters in north carolina. they were asked about their thoughts on who they were voting for. each of the men and women said they wer had not found a candidate to rally around. after the debate, they lean towards hillary clinton.

there is more of that in today's "washington post." maryland. laurel, calling on our line for democrats but you consider yourself undecided at this time. caller: yes, i do. host: go ahead. caller: i consider myself undecided because even though hillary clinton did come up me, in articulating

what she wants to do as far as --ling a president that donald trump did raise issues as far as nafta and everything like that. he did not really explain in detail anything that he brought up. hown't honestly see decreasing the taxes for the most affluent people in this country is going to trickle down much more income for the rest of the classes in our society. host: what will be the deciding factors on who you choose eventually? caller: the deciding factor will that'swill be the most at least belligerent and rude and how they deal with each other. -- who will be the least rude in howand rudand

they deal with each other. the international economy will increase our ability to grow as a country. in massachusetts. calling on our independent line. caller: i was just wondering if c-span is going to show joel stein's rebuttal to the debate. there is proof that 23% of independents and young people, , perhaps theyted could change the whole election. host: those are independents. have you decided upon a candidate yet? caller: i am trying to vote for joel stein. host: what do you mean trying to

vote for joel stein? caller: i would like to vote for her but if the younger people who are backing her between 18 and olderrs old people that are undecided would for her, possibly, she could change the whole election. host: those of you undecided voters this morning only come if you wouldn't mind. republicans, 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002. we are looking for undecided voters only. pittsburgh, pennsylvania, independent line. here is tom. tom, good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. debate, i'm leaning

toward hillary. i'm looking for as much free stuff as we can get. that would include college tuition and forgiving college loans and that kind of thing. that is the most important thing. whoever can give away the most freebies, that's who i'm voting for. host: are you serious or speaking tongue-in-cheek? caller: i'm serious. why should i? we already have $20 trillion in debt. what's the difference? host: when do you think you will make a final decision on who you vote for? caller: probably within a week or so. host: ronald in oklahoma. line for democrats. ronald, hello. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. the first thing i would like to say, if you listen to these people who call in, listen to

them very carefully, they know whether they are truly undecided. i'm leaning towards hillary clinton. more -- she makes more common sense than trump. that's just the bottom line for me. was there any time that you were considering donald trump? kind of sort of, but not really. if you just listen to the things that come out of his mouth, i don't know. in the beginning, i was really looking at donald trump, he might be somebody that will make a change.

then again, if you start listening to this man, you can't agree with anything he says. host: the editors of the "arizona republic" this morning putting out an endorsement for the first time supporting a democrat mother supporting allery clinton -- democrat, supporting hillary clinton. that is "the arizona republic"

with their endorsement for hillary clinton this morning. , if you want to tell us where you are at in your decision making process. thomas from california. calling on our republican line. hello. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. host: tell us about your undecided state, so to speak. ohio, ibeing born in automatically become a democrat. speecheslisten to the and everything, you go back and and one thing that kind of theers me is all the money democrat party gives away to foreign countries, to dig up -- obama just gave millions to another country --

i'm interested in what they are going to do for the retired people, which we are 60% of the ,opulation and social security if you have an intelligent givenment, why would you very little money in 2016? , windy youis state think you will -- when do you think you will decide upon a candidate? speaks more have he's going to help retired people with their social that's how he's going to help retired people with their social security check -- the only people who are overpaid in a retirement are government employees, people who work for the city's, but people who carried a lunch bucket of their life to make this country a better place are not being taken care of. callinglanda from ohio

on our republican line. caller: hi. i am undecided. i've always voted republican, , i docannot trust hillary not want a democrat but i don't trust trump at all. i've seen a lot of his past. i don't know where he really stands and even on the debate, he kept yelling and interrupting , he is so unprofessional and i am a minority and in my heart of hearts, i feel he is a racist. i wish i could vote for him, but i was one of the crew supporters, he was a real one of the ted- cruz supporters, he was a real christian man. i will write in something.

host: a third-party candidate? who would you write in? caller: i wanted to write in ted cruz, but there's no chance. i've never felt this disheartened in an election. i love going to the rallies and my i feelt this time like everything has turned upside down. i feel like i have nobody to go to, even the republican party when they were attacking ted cruz for not endorsing donald trump. it's like they are all some big group together and they will get whoever they want in. host: pat in texas. line for democrats. veter: i'm a retired army and i haven't heard none of the candidates talk about how they are going to help the veterans

get out of the situation we are in here. every day, you hear something bad coming out the v.a. and we are not getting enough money to help ourselves. we can't even get food stamps to help us with the little check we get. we haven't heard anybody take a position on that at all. they always talk about how they are going to help the rich, especially mr. trump. obama has done a lot to help the veterans, but i haven't heard nobody take up that topic yet. donald trump says he's helping the vets, hillary clinton hasn't said nothing about helping the vets. host: both of the candidates have addressed veterans groups. even from those addresses, you haven't heard anything as far as -- caller: they are using us as a pawn to get the veteran vote. has anyone addressed what they are going to do as far as the

medical and benefits? obama is talking about it tonight and he has done a lot to get everything started. they ran into a brick wall -- i haven't heard too much more. host: pat in texas. republican leaders reacting to monday night's debate. some republicans kept their reviews remarkably brief on tuesday. mitch mcconnell offered a nine "on theessment saying debate, i thought he did just fine." cruz repeatedly brushed off debate questions.

both candidates back on the campaign trail. hillary clinton in north carolina on tuesday. talking about donald trump's debate performance. [video clip] hillary clinton: he actually bragged about gaming the system to get out of paying his fair share of taxes. there is a strong probability he has not paid federal taxes a lot of years. this is a man who goes around our militaryate a disaster. all ofs around calling our institutions -- he probably has not paid a penny to support our troops or vets or schools or

health care system. [applause] : when iclinton confronted him with the reasons why he won't release his tax returns and i got to that point where i said maybe he has paid zero, he said that make some smart. -- makes himm smart. what does that make the rest of us? host: ian in buffalo, new york. democrats line. good morning. i saw a video produced by "the new york times" called "how to win an election."

in it, they interview a former media strategist and he pretty ofh describes the process how a campaign is supposed to influence voters and sort of voters --ry and poll pull voters into a candidate orbit to vote for them. it was produced so well. host: that has led to you being undecided? caller: i was undecided beforehand. like the policy proposals of trump or clinton. for garyng to vote johnson or joel stein but after i saw that video, i really -- i sort of realized that the candidates are just telling a

story to get us to vote for them. they don't have to do anything in office. they don't have to do anything they are promising now. back one more, looking what previous candidates have promised during elections, that happens. host: frank in florida. independent line. i watched it and i was disappointed because they do not really ask any of the questions -- sunday night, they had on 60 we are closer to nuclear wars today then since 1980 and i was remembering that ms. clinton in the state department signed off that we and uranium to the russians now, we are sending our b-52s

over there in a show of force and yet, nobody addressed those problems. i can't understand how we would uranium and now, we are in the cold war mode with them. as for mr. trump, he did not answer one question except soundbites. were you looking to the debates to help you make a decision about who to vote for? caller: yes. i would like to vote for somebody that will help us out and yet, i see that the are more -- i wasd in the money looking at stein and the and everybody tells

me if i vote for them, i will be throwing my vote away. looking for somebody that will help america to be strong. host: 84 million people watching the debate. about theat came in event that took place on monday. michael adding that the tv culturaledged out hallmarks like the finale of and even fell short of super bowl numbers. next up is ramesh in maryland. republican line. caller: thank you for taking my

call. i decided to vote for donald trump. and his electoral points were exactly what i expected because 1.i really point i really -- i am from the health care industry and i know in 1998, the health care industry was under clinton. she messed it up and all the doctors were losing their jobs. surgeons from california were moving to kansas and two small clinics and the same thing is happening right now. hospitals are merging and the jobs are going out. especially coding jobs, information jobs.

host: thank you. rich is up next in centreville, virginia. independent line. caller: i will try to be concise. the questions that were asked the other night, the question andt donald trump's taxes the business about their worried that somebody might have influence over him -- i don't know why lester holt did not ask hillary clinton about the clinton foundation and influence there. that is one point. the other about his taxes. donald trump over the years with tens of thousands of employees pays a portion of their medicare and social security. whato up in the air over is right and what is wrong. it seems like everything is slanted towards the democrats.

i was a democrat, i'm a republican, now, i'm an independent. host: have you decided who you're going to vote for? caller: i'm leaning towards trump because i'm so tired of everything being the same and nothing changing. nothing changes. when bush was in there, not barack obama, it's like the entire system is rigged against the 99%. you have no choice but to try somebody else. host: undecided voters only. if you want to give us a call about where you are at in the weeks before the election. 202-748-8000 for democrats. 202-748-8001 for republicans. independents, 202-748-8002. president obama and other

leaders will be traveling to israel -- moments after his , eulogies began pouring in from world leaders across the globe. president obama in a statement -- he is expected to attend the funeral services on friday. another one, he was the courage of israel's fight for and theence perseverance that led him to thosehis nation -- statements from president obama. let's hear from carl from montana. independent line. caller: how's everything going this morning? vote fort

hillary clinton because she is establishment. i like gary johnson's tax plan, get rid of the irs and go with a national sales tax. that way, everybody could pay their fair share. downe trump's trickle economics plan in the 1960's. john f. kennedy started the trickle down economics, a democrat. i don't like hillary's plan because she wants to raise taxes on the rich. her taxes and put it into the clinton foundation where she won't pay anything. the whole system is corrupt. we need a national sales tax. in an op-edohnson this morning in "the new york times." would begin the conversation about the size of the government by submitting a real balanced --get

bill is up next. bill is in delaware on our democrats line. talking undecided voters. go ahead. --ler: i would like to know thank you for c-span. why is it that hillary clinton makes a big deal out of donald he said before he was a politician and yet, the things she did were never mentioned? off rapehat man

charges and then laughed about it. i'm voting for donald trump. he's the best one out there. we've set aside the lines for undecided voters. donald trump traveling back on the campaign trail after his debate on monday night, talking about his opponent, hillary clinton. [video clip] donald trump: for 90 minutes, i watched her very carefully. i was holding back. i didn't want to do anything to embarrass her. i was watching her, she was stuck in the past. for 90 minutes, on issue after issue, hillary clinton defended the terrible status quo. plan tolaid out our bring jobs, security and prosperity back to the american people.

[applause] donald trump: 490 minutes, she argued against change while i called for dramatic change. we have to get rid of obamacare, we have to strengthen our depleted military. we will do a lot of great things, folks. november 8, you have to get out there and vote. host: hugo in fairfax, virginia. independent line. the you consider yourself undecided? caller: i do. thank you for c-span. i watched the debate the other night. i found myself up in the air between both candidates. on one hand, i'm not excited about the prospect of a donald trump presidency.

when he talks about what he wants to do with taxes, andcially corporate taxes positively influencing companies to stay in the u.s., it seems like a great business incentive to lower the tax rate to reduce the inversion. some of the things he said don't make any sense. he has a weak background. on the other hand, we have secretary clinton, she has a great bio, she gives you that look that you get the sense that she is presidential but then she's got all these troubles with the e-mails -- what's not understood, unfortunately, she does not seem to understand the damage she's done to the united states. ralliesd one of the recently and she explained that she had a special facility that

she used for classified material. on the other hand, she sent information that should not have been sent over unclassified means. we find ourselves lost. what do we have to look forward to? i will continue to agonize over it and figure out what the lesser of two evils are. hugo in fairfax, virginia. there are also congressional races taking place. here's a sampling of stories about the congressional races and things going on with that. from "the washington examiner" this morning. the national republican

congressional committee is to playing former house speaker john boehner in its fund-raising effort. -- deploying former house speaker john boehner in its fund-raising effort. at what's going on in pennsylvania, this is from "national journal." in coloradot currently leading -- bennett maintains a much larger advantage in the colorado race. that's "the national journal."

events stemming from the first debate, saying if you are confused about who is up and who is down, you have plenty of company. the political community is being bombarded with new national swing staples. -- swing state polls. we urge you to avoid the cherry picking surveys. it's dangerous to offer confident predictions about how the public will react immediately after the debate has concluded. we will have to wait until the end of this week to see what happened. , aing a look in maryland la, over the

years, a lot has been seen as month slinging that's one local candidate taking it to a new -- cox posted a bizarre .weet jan in minnesota. independent line. caller: good morning. i'm a political refugee from

czechoslovakia, 1960. i've been voting in every election since 1972. this is the first time i am so disillusioned with washington, all the politicians, it reminds me so much of what i escaped from. how theyn't believe ,ersonally attack each other but nothing i've been listening to at their debate is talking about the everyday person, everyday american that gets up in the morning and goes to work. millions and millions and millions of dollars being spent on this election. i find it so pathetic. , i'maving a difficult time

not going to vote. host: kenneth into also, oklahoma. democrats line. tulsa, oklahoma. ,aller: after this first debate i was not a conservative, but after this first debate, seeing social security, as far as hillary is concerned and donald trump with his stop and frisk, i'm pretty sure now. i'm going to change my vote to hillary clinton. i would like to see what social with the town hall debate i want to say,-- with the police shootings and

like that'si don't when there were two white folks that shot people in washington -- i want to know why there's no coverage on that. when they talk about police -- when republican start talking about police shootings, whether it's right or wrong, it always makes the news. now, we've seen with the last -- maybe we can do a show on that. host: also reports of another shooting of a black man by police in california. morning,ont pages this reports about what might happen on friday when it comes to a

government shutdown. democrats are pushing towards that, especially with actions that took place in the senate yesterday. here to tell us more and give us an update, scott wong of "the hill" newspaper. can you set up what happened in the senate? senate,in the yesterday, we held a procedural vote that went down in flames. come along with a handful of republicans, decided to block that procedural vote. reasons andty of with the central reason for democrats has been this aid money, $220 million for flint, the water crisis in flint. that democrats want included in the government bill.

republicans have said that is not the appropriate place for it. has refused to include that $220 million. we did have a breakthrough last night in the house in the rules late tuesday night to mother was a compromise between democrats and republicans -- they have decided to allow a on aon $170 million in aid separate water bill. this was something that gop leaders and the rules committee chairman did not want to allow earlier in the week. they were reversed course and , will allow this vote on an amendment providing $170 million in aid to flint. this is sort of a breakthrough

and it creates a path for both sides to potentially avert a government shutdown this week. host: walk us through what happens today and through the end of the week. if in fact this $170 million is authorized on the water bill today in the house, that could appease democrats an up on both sides of the capital, including the senate, to move forward with the government funding bill. the idea would be something that speaker ryan and the majority leader have been talking about for the past week, the water bill is the appropriate place for the flint crisis to be addressed, not in the government funding bill, the continuing resolution. the senate has already moved forward with their water bill, which includes money for flint.

if flint ada survives in the house on the house water bill, those two bills would be reconciled in a conference committee. that would provide enough assurances to democrats and satisfy democrats are not they would be ok with moving forward on a government funding bill by friday. there is chatter in the capital that because of this late timing , we are only a few days from a government shutdown beginning short-term,, a very maybe even a few days of funding would be required in order to prevent a shutdown and allow senate and house negotiators to wrap up their work. this clearly provides a viable path for lawmakers to avert a shutdown. has washington in itself

prepared for a shutdown? because we have had a shutdown in recent years, back issue3 over the obamacare , not only lawmakers, but federal agencies and the office of management and budget have been going through the motions preparing for a shutdown. they're preparing e-mails to , theyo their employees are making lists, determining which emergency workers will be onuired to come into work those days if there is a government shutdown. steps are being taken. if you walk around the capital, there's not this sense of panic inting in that we've seen

past situations. everyone is remaining fairly calm. there is definitely a different feel in the capital. and many democrats don't want a shutdown just a couple months before the election. everyone is eager to return to the campaign trail and get back to their districts, get back to voters and talking to voters. both sides don't want a shutdown. on the campaign trail. that's why you're seeing a calm in the capital. host: that's the update on the potential friday shut down. , thank you for your time, sir. let's hear from some more undecideds. bob from an island. -- bob from rhode island. you are on. go ahead.

caller: i listen every day to c-span. ,our program is, in my mind should be played more than once a day so people get a feel for what people all over the country feel. i am very undecided. i watch every morning. i watch every opportunity i have to watch at least the first 45 minutes of your program. i have so many things on my mind. i was listening to the other callers. if there was ever an election that we needed to have more voices in, it is this one.

over and over again, you hear the commentator saying that people don't like either one of these candidates and yet, they gary johnson and joel stein. -- jill stein. if ever there was a time that we needed more voices to balance things out, this was it. one of the things i look at when i'm trying to decide -- the -- i'm 76 come i don't feel like i'm 76, i feel like i'm younger. the only reason i know is when i walk around.

one who includes others and who is the exclude r? i know that i can't vote for trump. it would be unbelievably difficult to vote for hillary. i would have liked to have more out there to look at. , liberty,more call south carolina, independent line. john, good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. caller: people have to realize that this runs a lot deeper than just the presidency. it's all through the congress were all our cooking stuff is. stuff is. crooked

donald trump -- host: you are on. go ahead. it runs alter the congress, all our crooked stuff. host: john in liberty, south carolina. coming up, we have two members of congress joining us. representative steve russell of and later on in the program, representative steve cohen of tennessee. on the house floor yesterday, it was the flint representative who blockingleadership funds to fix the contaminated taking a look at

possible agreement on the flint water system. a democrat from michigan was on the floor talking about this took and the bills manager offense to his digestion that these issues have things to do with race. --e's a bit of that exchange suggestion that these issues have things to do with race. [video clip] house,leadership in this when they think about flint or when they look at flint, they see something different. they don't see american citizens, they don't see people in need. there is something about this poor community, this poor, thatity minority community

s them from the kind of help we have provided time and time again to people in crisis in this country. i hate to come to the conclusion that there is something about that causes this congress to decide they don't need that help. that is a shame. gentleman from georgia is recognized. >> i'm so incensed by the presentation. i know my friend is passionate for his folks -- i live in a majority minority county. people want to know why they can't get things done together, they can use that presentation how dare you -- said just folks don't care about your community. how dare you suggest that race is the basis -- when i sat in my committee working on this issue hour after hour and not one

member brought this up. i am incensed. i reserve the balance of my time, mr. speaker. we owe each other better than that. you all are better than that cometh this is is better than that. i know the gentleman is passionate, but that kind of vitriol is not going to get us to where i know you and i both want us to be. yield an additional 30 seconds. >> i appreciate and understand the gentleman's comment. my issue is this -- prove me wrong. you have it in your power to take up this legislation. it's not me who is blocking this legislation. i don't want to come to this conclusion. to takery difficult time and time again this question to the floor of the

house and wonder why flint is exempt. sympathy doesn't get anywhere. there's all kinds of sympathy for the people of flint, well wishes. but when it comes time to act and actually do something for this community, nothing. >> "washington journal" continues. host: i first guest for the morning, representative steve russell, republican from oklahoma. a member of the armed services committee. serves the fifth district of oklahoma. good morning. -- you are latest thinking right now of what's going to happen if there a government shutdown by friday. guest: people will work hard to avoid that. there's a lot of activity in the senate. we were all looking at what came out of last night -- what we will see this morning is a bit of reaction to the inaction.

we will try to get at some type of deal by the end of the week. host: concerns for money for zika and flint. guest: in some cases, like the natural disasters we've had in the louisiana or when you have certain disease funding that is an emergency, we have to take care of those things. flint, michigan becomes more difficult because it's dealing with infrastructure and state and city governance and decisions that are made their. -- that are made there. it's not created by a natural disaster. host: is it appropriate to put money towards that? guest: we've had hearings on that. i think there are cases where assistance could be provided.

we've not had some of the deliberation with many members we want to have with that particular issue. host: you're ready to sign the senate version of the bill? guest: we want to see what they are offering. we all would like to see that we keep the government funded. i'm very concerned about our soldiers and national defense. these things create incredible hardship on our military. host: you are still hesitant about the senate version? guest: we have not seen it. host: what would cause you pause? thet: we want to fund things that need to be funded, we don't want some knee-jerk reaction to create billions of dollars in waste. host: such as? guest: when you are funding a structure that was maybe a port of solution -- poor decision politically.

it's hard to compare floodwaters or hurricanes or something of that nature where it was an act of god -- americans need that support and help. not to say that people don't need help when we see poor political decisions, but because of the political nature of it, we are kidding ourselves if we think that is going to be a clean process. about.what the debate is host: steve russell is our guest. if you want to ask him questions , 202-748-8000 for democrats. 202-748-8001 for republicans. 202-748-8002 fo independentrs. the governing a part of that come is that a concern for you? zika becoming a part of that, is that a concern for you? ebola becoming a national

emergency caused a lot of people pause. an emergency fund was built and the appropriation. what the public does not realize is in the operating dollars today on zika, they have their funding to continue their research. that has bought us some time. it is a crisis, we have to deal with that. that's why we have the cdc, that's why we have a federal government to deal with those emergencies that affect all human beings. host: planned parenthood comes up. i don't know that it belongs in the zika fight. a recent report of yours takes a look at spending in the federal government, waste watch is what you call it. it --you hope to do with what would you hope to do with it? guest: this is waste watch number five.

what we are looking to do is to root out the waste, we are $18 trillion in debt. we got there one poor decision at a time. i'm fighting a counter bureaucracy. let's try to cut it one piece at a time. if every single member of congress could find $2 billion-$4 billion of waste and cut it, we could eliminate much deficit spending. host: 10 areas of wasteful spending, you highlight the total, $10 billion. guest: identified in this report. each report will introduce new ways that we find.

-- new waste that we find. thanks people just check your heads and go, that's probably not what we ought to be doing. host: the front page, you talk about the $1.7 million aid to iran for the legal settlement. on the next page, you take a look at the $22 million spent on tortoises. guest: i lived the tortoise stream -- i like turtles. most people do. they are amazing creatures. they are not on the endangered species list. when we are asking our united states marine corps to fly these turtles out of their training areas at the tune of $22 million, that could have funded two battalions of marines. we have a problem.

god's green earth and we should be good caretakers of it, but in a case like this, there has to be better solutions than forcing the u.s. marine t from theirer training and spends $22 million in the effort. we get a lot of our information from the wonderful folks who work in our general accounting office is. who work in the inspectors general -- now that we've become known as one of the waste watchdogs, people from around the country go, oh yeah, you ought to see this. from seen things come up people who are concerned about our out-of-control spending. the fifth onetch, to come out. we have a call for you. we have a call lined up for you.

from georgia, hello. tonya.good morning, host: go ahead. on theo on to sweetie democrat line. caller: good morning, thank you for taking my call. i have a comment and then a question. it's good to see that someone is working on the job. on your c-spang job. steve, you are working at your committee. but your congress has nothing to do with the president. i think you have too many people in there. too many people getting paid to are not willing to work. for, i have worked for 50

years of my life and i am 67-year-old, and what it's done for me, to last year he took off from work because i am retired and i'm getting social security and a pension. but i'm going to go back to work. because that is what you need to do. when you do work, it do excellent. don't talk about it, do excellent. my question is, regardless of orther you have a democratic republican president, do you think anyone will get to the bottom of the issue, pass laws, have compassion and get this country in a better space? because america is the best country in the world. guest: i agree with all those statements. peoplentry has resilient and we have tremendous resources. i think there are very few things in our nation that we

can't solve if we work together as a team. my background as a soldier for two decades, we worked as a team all the time. i would tell you yes, there are folks who try to work through the issues. in fact, the president signed one of our wasteful prevention measures this summer on software reform and i worked with matt cartwright who is a democrat from pennsylvania. we worked on this issue closely together and it was successful. -- so you successful are right. let's roll up our sleeves and burn the midnight oil and do the things we need to do rather than the political posturing that we see. deborah in virginia, hello. caller: good morning. my question is, the discretionary spending, it is just a small part of the whole

pie. where we always hitting on that watching the more than 50% of the pentagon waste? i'm a trillions have they lost? pentagon, it is certainly there and we do go after it. but it is discretionary spending. the nondiscretionary spending would be things like social security or medicare. and then you have other things callwould be what people entitlements. we have to have some reforms ofre because of that piece the pie continues to grow, as you correctly mention, the discretionary portion of the budget -- we can't go after that.

there's no way to get there when so much of the pie is unapproachable and we aren't allowed by law to touch it. with regards to the pentagon, it the discretionary pie that we have. and that is important that we have our defense. that we deal with contingencies. that we deal with crises like ebola when they come up that we expect our military to work on. but we need to make sure that there is not waste their. thisct, we just talk morning about $22 million wasted transportation. and we need to go social security and medicare to be solvent. we need to take a look at some entitlements and say, is it necessary that we have these programs and that we waste these

dollars? chris is up next from philadelphia. the morning. caller: good morning. i would watch c-span every day if i could, i really enjoy it. the republican philosophy of and notesponsibility spending more money than you have is great, however, i will ofnt out that $10 trillion the $18 trillion from my understanding has come from invading iraq and starting a war we can't pay for. and then the philosophy seems to go out the window. so i have an issue with that, myself. that's my comment. guest: i think wars are always going to be expensive. historians will continue to pour over iraq.

view on it having participated in the capture of saddam hussein and serving as a warrior for two decades -- i have a perspective, certainly, on why we need our military and why we need engagement in the world. unfortunately, many things in the middle east, if we are not and like las vegas, what happens in las vegas will stay in las vegas but that is not true in the middle east. what happens in the middle east can follow people to other continents. i agree that we have to be fiscally responsible and we look at the billions of dollars that .et poured into major policies where we have emergency deployments rather than good planning. a lot of the involvement with syria and iraq was usually precipitous departure we saw in 2011. we should have really focused all of our estimates of national --er -- diplomatic, economic

so that five years later we weren't just costing even more money. it's a complex world and their people who hate the united states. citizenso protect our against that and that is an expense. tell us a little bit about your role of you had in iraq when it came to the capture of saddam hussein? guest: i commanded one of the and in theg the hunt 122nd infantry. we were involved in a six month manhunt from may until he was caught in december, and then we were also there for about five months after his capture in iraq during the first year of the war. i've detailed all of that experience in my book, "we got him."

mmr. it has also been covered by booktv on c-span. -- were youurprised surprised on monday at the debate with the subject of iraq? guest: no. be so mischaracterized in so many different factions. regardless of our personal experiences there, to the warriors who fought, we sacrificed a great deal. we lost a great deal that we knew. we buried friends in arlington and other places around the country. so when we hear, like we heard in the debate, flippant discussions of date, did not, as adid not on support -- warrior, i think back on it and think, when our nation made the decision, we should have put our shoulder into it.

the most humane thing to have done would be to get the nation behind it. nation, we found our divided. we saw place that became very divisive on both sides of the aisle. and then really undercut a lot of our efforts. and despite that, the warriors turned it around during the search. they turned so many things around into a positive direction. and america, through its politicians, was convinced of surewar weariness, i'm not how the politicians were war weary, maybe they were there? i don't run for seeing them. let's stop the debate. rather than have a smugness about who was right and who was not, we had issues to deal with now that are of consequence. so why do we deal with those rather than try to go back and

revisit who is to blame? let's deal with the real crisis we have today. host: one of the issues today being isis. has any candidate offered a secure plan? plan: i haven't seen any that is sufficient in my view, that woulder, be sufficient with isis. i think that would happen once they were elected and had their cabinet. can'tin thing is that we accommodate. we can't show any type of weakness or equivocation. there are many aspects that have allowed isis to be successful in their communication on social media that we could have prevented so much of that, early on. we know how to take down

systems. we know how to eliminate cell phone towers. we got a do things through electronic warfare and other things. , for soed, early on much of the infrastructure to be in place. and it caused great recruitment efforts for isis. and that created tens of thousands of them to fight. we made a lot of mistakes. we do see better conditions in the fight and on the ground now. but the real question is, militarily we can always get applies but what do we do politically? what do we do diplomatically? ?hat do we do those questions are not answered. here is marshall on the independent line. caller: thank you for taking my call.

i really enjoy this program. both sides should be locked in until you compromise. guest: i agree. trump scares me to death. he's not welcome. isis is caused by war. bush went to war, he said hey, we will be out of here in six months. the saudi arabian president's day you will be here for six years. worship those people i have do, i don't, but a friend who is a muslim guy and he is a nice guy. but this is ridiculous. this us tied up the whole country. people are in need. this is ridiculous. i don't disagree. we ought to buckle down and burn the midnight oil.

i've been saying it. many of my colleagues have been saying it. challenges do that, we could not done 60% of the discretionary fund and will be a huge use of the government high just to get to that. and then we have other options to keep the government going. there was a lot of support for that. unfortunately, we see mr. reid in the senate who is drying , and i knowof lines that both parties are trying to work the political structure to deal with how they can best retain or take over the senate house, wepeople's would like to get the work done. let's get the work done. cleveland, ohio on the democrat line, this is lee. caller: hello representative,

how are you? guest: i'm doing well. how are you? doing well, thank you. thank you for your commitment and your service. i'd like you to elaborate on the congressman's comments regarding the minorities living within flint, and specifically how the house -- and their blocking tangible progress? i didn't hear the comments, so i'm not able to comment on them accurately. as far as something specific that he has said. i know that in the debates that we have had about flint, it is howrtant that we look at the situation occurred. and then what responsibilities the state government had. and also, the local government. it isn't that you don't want

people helped, that is not the issue. but the issue becomes, at what point has the government, the been usurpingment the government of the state? and what point do we see bailouts of state through political divisions? we can agree or disagree whether or not people should be helped or not because of political decisions but it does open up a constitutional issues. and that is where some of the difficulty is. host: a story from the associated press saying that a democratic lawmaker in flint, michigan said that the house republican leaders are refusing because a the aid majority of the flint residents are african-americans. " adds that the gop leaders don't see american citizens" when they look at the people in flint. would bethink that

uncharitable and it certainly doesn't reflect my views, for the record. fact, only look at the zika virus or the floodwaters that we in various with states and their people of all ethnic makeups and i think that is an unfair statement. but it does go back to the issues that, if you do it for one city, are we now required to do it for hundreds of cities across the country. that becomes the issue. noun terms of providing aid to flint, i don't think the question is should the aid be provided. but the question becomes, the amount. what level as if the federal government's responsibility to usurp the power of the state and local authority. louisiana on the democrat

line, homer, go ahead. guest: good morning, homer. caller: how are you doing today? we pay chosen security and they -- wherethe money fighting wars with our money. i don't understand. anst: you bring out excellent point when it comes to the solvency of our social security. work.u're right, you did so we will get to a solution on saving the aspects of social security -- the disability

portions in particular are at greatest risk right now because of abuses. but we have to do this in a bipartisan fashion. we have to get together and work on the issues. there is so much common ground on this issue. why? because we get it. we all left to certain ages, we all have relatives, we all see the programs as being necessary. so we have to get to that end you are exactly right. when the social security trust was rated to solve problems in the general budget or with america's deficits then it has placed a greater burden. arei know that most of us committed to trying to find solutions on social security. but we have to knuckle down and do it. it can't just be rhetoric. we have to get in the room and do the reforms and we have to set aside the political posturing so that we can get to

a solution. guest: -- host: philadelphia, mike is on the line. caller: good morning. thank you for your service. you do amazing work. you.: thank we do a lot of good bipartisan work in that committee. i totally agree. my question is, well, it is more of a comment, i was like to have your thought on day testimony two weeks ago, and whether they will be back in front of your committee? the question is about mr. combat a -- dealing with secretary clinton's e-mails in secretary of state. we see that you have had a couple of these people from the flat river network as they pled

the fifth. which is their constitutional right. we had another one who was given immunity from the department of justice. so we only had justin cooper to answer questions from andy was forthright but it created a whole series of additional problems. , sir, is this.it i've been down into the vault. i read the fbi 300 two investigation briefs. i looked at many things. all i can say is this. them, it became apparent to me, and i think it would to any american, that they knew what they were doing was not appropriate. and they tried to cover it up. those two factors become obvious to me. so then it becomes, to what level was the wrongdoing?

and how do we combat it so we don't have a situation like that again? from spokane, washington. laura. caller: good morning. nice to talk to you this morning . my question is the troops and the equipment that they have. i want to know how they're being treated and it want to know if they get adequate equipment. one of the rumors i've heard is home pointl ops at had to share a gun, or something? i want to know where the money is going and i want to know how are troops are being t reated. guest: well, i think our are incredibly resilient. they fight with what they have but that doesn't mean that we can't make the decisions to adequately supply them and to give them the best weapons that

we can. we do have major problems with the state of the military. cutsilitary, if the continue this year as scheduled, we will be 30% smaller per capita than we were in 1940. and no one thinks he were ready for anything in 1940. i personally believe, having had a military career prior to congress, that we are placing our nation at great risk. i'm not familiar with the example that you gave on the special operations community. i know that they are well and streamlined in many locations, separate from the traditional defense budget. what i will tell you that when we see marines have to strip spare parts off bcm pieces, we have a problem. and only have continued resolution fights and when we see an extension of not doing the job or getting the budget

, then the problem that we have is that it throws the military on hold for months at a time. they can't train. they don't have ammunition accounts. they don't send troops to schools. it causes major problems. i lived that as a commander. and now that i'm in congress i want to continue resolutions because i know what our men and women in uniform have to deal with. host: wayne is up next. guest: hello, wayne. caller: hello. you want to fix medicare and try to fix social security. but how about using common sense? don't tap social security. and medicare -- we have a free market. this is baloney.

you have pharmaceuticals coming along and whatever. it is ridiculous. martin charlie, look at that. free market, my foot. is all he talks about. wewe can't fix incomes and are retired. you're talking but who will solve this? this is impossible. well, it sounds like we are in agreement. we shouldn't let this go as solvent because people rely on this. like yourself. my point is this. let's try to get to the solution. we know it has to be reformed. we know that we have a crisis exceeds theyout

income, that is a problem in my household and years. if we live that way we would be in serious trouble. we have talent in the public and private sector, but we need to knuckle down and do that work. i agree with you. we can't let social security and up where it's no longer an option for the american people. host: tell me a little bit more about two rivers arms. when i came back from iraq and afghanistan, i was disappointed that i couldn't bring home any souvenirs from my time as a warrior. greco roman times, people brought back a shield or a spear. we saw worldkid, war ii veterans that had brought back rifles or different things. and that was kind of the motivation.

i wanted to make a company that would build souvenirs for returning warriors. and that is how we created two rivers arms. and we make replicas of iraqi firearms. it caught on. host: working replicas? guest: yes, semi automatic only. to they look identical actual rifles that soldiers would have encountered. sport shooting community and collecting community, they really enjoy them. our rifles were featured in clint eastwood's movie "american sniper." the reason i ask is because one of the things that came up in the debate was the issue of guns and one area of bueement is the "no-fly, no

y" agreement. candidates are so -- i know these laws. here are the facts. there is approximately one million people on the no-fly list. are foreign nationals. so they don't qualify under any kind -- if you are a nonresident you cannot purchase a firearm, legally. if i were to sell you one i would be committing a felony. so they already can't. the laws already in place. of the few hundred -- i think it might be 700 -- of those who remain who are american citizens, they are flagged.

so that if i made a background check and i were to call in on them, they would be flagged and there would be some determination made. so while it's a great political soundbite -- if you can't board a our you ought not to buy firearm -- it sounds good but it isn't the fact. you already can't do those things. so let's be accurate with the facts. neither candidate on the state understood that. host: our guest is representative steve russell, a republican from oklahoma. he represents the oversight committee and the armed services committee. you, where doe you stand on donald trump? guest: look. i think america is in a spot right now -- i am a republican and i will support the republican nominee, i have been

clear on that. mrs. clinton, in terms of her foreign policy -- the only thing reset with russia was the cold war. we've seen the north african rim more volatile than any time in my lifetime. we seen the crisis in the middle east and a lot of decisions that have been made with iran and the a foreign so just in policy aspect, she had a chance to do a lot of these things and couldn't deliver. and when it comes to the supreme court justices, i am a constitutionalist so her nominees would not align with mine. the free exercise of religion and the second amendment with the firearms rights, their differences that i don't think mrs. clinton will reckon -- reconcile. hampshire, hello. good morning.

i have a few points those like to make. our experiment is not working as the founding fathers envisioned. i am a veteran and i thank you for your service. and he mentioned that countries hate us. they hate us because we invade their countries. we get involved in internal politics where we really don't belong. since world war ii, the wars have been declared and a have a lot of friends as a vietnam era veteran. and we should have learned from went intohe french vietnam at a lost and we thought we could win and we didn't win. it pains me that there are people hungry in this country and that our infrastructure has fallen apart and yet we spend

all this money on wars. and we should be taking care of the american people. we will let our guest respond. guest: i think that you and i can both agree that there been cases in our history where we in excursions or things that had no outcome. we certainly saw that in somalia where there was no torastructure with which work. it was no governance to build a foundation. there was nothing there. we went in for humanitarian aid and it morphed into a different situation. so we stopped our country precipitously leave. with regards to the other things, look. the world is inhabited by a lot of countries. and unfortunately, a lot of them

do mean us harm. but we cannot become isolationists. i don't think you are suggesting that. commitment with the military has made a difference. we've seen seven years of peace in europe due to commitments in nato. 70 years of peace in europe due to commitments by nato. spentwas a lot of money but can you imagine the devastation and billions of dollars that could have been wasted and millions of lines with continued violence in europe? the difficulty becomes one of patients. we want things now and debugging and we wanty -- things instantly. but human beings are clever and

modes of survival kicks in. so there is never a clean, easy solution. right of my service, i want peace more than any other man. and that is why when i sit in the halls of congress and i hear people something chest about different things, i look at it with a critical eye because i know the sacrifices. when we getote, ourselves into something, we need the full backing and commitment of the nation. not divisiveness and critique and undercutting everything at congress while our soldiers are in the field. host: from maryland on the republican line -- go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my call. i have a question for the congressman. i really like the comments with you said to stop looking

who to blame and for those responsible. you are saying to look behind for who is responsible. you are being a little inconsistent? guest: i appreciate that. i do think we have to evaluate and look at things to see how we got there. but my point, where i was looking back, it's more of a experiences asy a soldier in iraq or afghanistan or other places i've served, it's very painful for the warriors back home. so i'm trying to presented from that point of context. look, let'sl that try to get to some solutions. what could we do in iraq?

mozilla is likely going to fall back into the hands of the iraqi government. so what do we do when that happens? we have the kurdish question and we have the sunni arabs and the shia arabs. now an't we exert investment of diplomatic effort and economic effort in conjunction with our military effort? because the military is not going to feel defined to military solutions. that is through the political instruments of power. and i do think there are possibilities there. the senator from massachusetts and i have a lot of discussion on this and he has excellent ideas on a strategy that i am in complete agreement with. there are ways we can get to solutions. host: before we let you go there is an effort in the senate to overturn the september 11 bill.

what do you think about the effort? guest: well, i think the congress is the same place where the people of the country are on the issue. it is overwhelming. we start critical bipartisan support on that issue in the house. 97%, and when you have that kind of sentiment that is reflected of the people, we are not going to move on. we believe it and the people get it. so i do think that if those things come to the floor there will be sufficient numbers. host: do you support that effort? guest: sure. i think it is important that victims of terrorism have justice. there are funds that might have been available to them, and they should be. those funds should be a made available to them. representative steve

russell from oklahoma, thank you for your time. up next, and other representative. he is representative steve cohen. have r.r. reno. all of that as washington journal continues. ♪ >> what makes movies or stories

crisis, and in a the crisis is changing them or everybody else, and if you don't orw conflict or flaws someone growing out of their flaws, you are seeing something that you can't connect to and it doesn't have the same impact. naand a. night on cue anq itself has a show business story, about how the band got together and recorded the big hits. it is pretty strikingly effective. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern. c-span.

created by america's cable television companies and brought to you as a service by your cable or satellite writer. provider. >> washington journal continues. host: joining us now is representative steve cohen. can we get your thoughts on the potential of a shutdown? what do you think about the issues involving it? especially in recent days about the flint water debate. leader pelosi is quite an effective leader for the democrats and i think that she and paul ryan have worked out an agreement to get the flynt: michigan crisis dealt with. there may be something in the continued resolution as to -- it'lle borrow or

probably be tomorrow or friday but we will get a deal and the government will go on. we will rescue flint and the state of louisiana at the same time. host: what do you think about the issues that were raised on the floor of the house yesterday? guest: there are a lot of problems in our nation with race. a lot of people are seeing ugliness her collate up through the campaign. and anti-latino rhetoric by the presidential candidate of the republican party, suggestions that we ban entire groups of people because of their religion, these things are not presented of of america. affects amendment african-american women other than anybody else, because they are on medicaid, low income we -- it eliminates

it, economically for low income women. so there is a lot of race that is the undercurrent. theust had the opening of smithsonian african-american museum. a wonderful facility and it is needed. a needed memorial and remembrance for the history of the african. they did build america. literally. war, we had civil slaves in this country and then you had jim crow for 100 years. we didn't get over that easy. it is the same folks coming to power. host: two issues were raised. one was the level -- and the other is, does the federal

government has to step in to every state or local issue as far as helping out and assisting with funding? guest: you know, it it is a question but when it is such a situation with young people drinking poisoned water and one of theg health, greatest people in the world was clear about the opposite of love is indifference. you cannot be indifferent to suffering. you can't be indifferent to people in your country who are being poisoned. connection,te there's a lot we need to do. we can't afford this. representative steve cohen with us to talk about issues with the federal government. he is a member of the judiciary committee.

(202) 748-8000, democrats. (202) 748-8001, republicans. (202) 748-8002, independents. you are attached to an effort looking at the donald trump foundation. guest: a letter which all letters of the democratic judiciary commitment signed, to look into the foundation. it was precipitated with the fact that he'd taken a was supposedthat to be for charitable purposes and he took twitter $5,000 and gave it to a political candidate. he was fined for that. it was the wrong thing to do. he paid the minimal fine. this was for the attorney said theyo earlier will look into the donald trump foundation.

after the contribution campaign, the trunkt look into community college. it has all the appearances of a bribe. and he admitted to that and they paid a fine. clear, it was. host: sohost: what are you hoping as far as evidence to prove that claim? guest: well, you can prove it on circumstantial evidence. sometimes you can see from the the conduct that surrounds the exchange that it was intended to be a bribe. we are just starting with the justice department to look into it. and there was a great piece done

by a reporter, i think with the and it showsst, all of the efforts the fund has made. portraits of donald trump. things for donald trump as if he couldn't afford them himself. and it turns out, it's not even his money. he convince others to give him money and then he gave it out as if it was his, for the donald trump foundation which it wasn't. for the last eight years, he has but no money into this. so there are other problems at the foundation where he has used it to pay off legal civil suits. so in order to make certain payments he used the funds to pay off the civil suits. host: the chum foundation responded to that story and they said there could not be any all of-- that said that

those were disclosed. that mr. trump's generous both with his money and his time. guest: he hasn't put any money into the foundation since 2008. it gets to me right here. one of the most important institutions in our world, certainly for my hometown, saint jude children's hospital. udall mess with st. jude's. treat all these children at no cost. cures for cancer, doing a great job. and somebody said he had given them $20 million but the fact is he's given $10,000 in his lifetime and he took credit for giving $20 million. that's kind of how he is.

he is a liar. host: our guest with us, calls lined up for you. the first one from texas on the democrat line. you are on with our guest. caller: good morning. i am a 100% disabled vietnam veteran and my wife retired recently. i wanted to talk to the .epublican but he finished so i'll put the same points to you. for the last two years, i myen't gotten a raise and wife hasn't gotten a raise. i want to know why, after 31 years, she gets $900 a month. host: social security? caller: yes. and she put a lot of money into social security. guest: let me thank you for your

service to the country. is because the index we used to determine the social security index is not a good index. and the cosigner of a bill to change it to an index that is more indicative of what we need to spend money on. senior spend more money on health care and certain other items than the general population and the cost of living index for the general population doesn't indicate the cost that seniors have. we need to change the index but the republicans won't put that bill of for a vote. they don't want to change it and they won't take it into consideration. fuel prices have gone down and that is why the cost of living has gone down. thesome of that has gone to seniorspulation but

drive less than the average population. so the fact that gas prices are down doesn't really help seniors that much. seniors often use public transport or taxis or they are not using the gas savings. so there needs to be a different theurement of the cost of index for seniors. and i support that. i will continue to support that for it. host: from florida, bud. hello. hello. let's go on to randy and i went on the democrat line. go ahead. caller: good morning. mer last guest through through a loop. the chain cbi should the what we're worried about. but my question was, in regards to you mentioned it -- i am all

flint's watert system, although it is a republican create a problem. where they cut taxes and cut taxes. it's notso deep that really where i want to go with it. the point i want to make is, aboutou explain to me louisiana and what is going on there and why they need money, that was a republican experiment brownback.own -- sam they gave all the money they had in surplus, louisiana had $1 billion, and then they had tax cuts for the wealthy and corporations. the now they are in trouble financially, because of bobby jindal. the same thing is going on in texas -- or, in kansas with governor brownback. he wanted the commission to follow him as he cut all of

these taxes and created this corporate nirvana that he thought would trickle down. to now, he won't even listen his own commission because the commission is telling him it doesn't work. our: what would you like guest to address specifically? is, he'she point dealing with the problem of republican governors cutting taxes and not dealing with their own problems at home. i've got you. thank you. you're right. bobby jindal ran for president and used surplus money. he was in congress with me when i started. his desire was to be governor and then he wanted to run for president. too many people in politics get elected and they immediately want the next office.

rather than attend to the constituencies and what is important, they look at the broader constituency and basically use the constituency to elect them as a platform to get into another office. i've never done that in my life and i never will. i'm honored to be in congress. i've been here for 10 years now. it's a great honor for me to serve my district and i'm not going to go anyplace else. so many people, p are at they get to be a congressman and then they run for the senate and they get conservative on their districts so they can appeal to the rest of the state. bobby jindal did that in louisiana. he did advantage of louisiana i did was terrible. host: on the independent line from ohio. hello. caller: good morning. i want to ask a question. i want to know where the $9 billion that went to the and i want to know

where the $13 billion that donald trump -- host: keep talking. you are hearing yourself on the television. caller: i want to know where the $13 billion went -- host: you have to keep talking. you can't listen to yourself on the television. money: i want to know the -- what is the $13 billion about donald trump? that had me intrigued? caller: oh, no. rumsfeld. so why if federal investigation, as well? guest: he's looking into the investigation, but the federal investigation will be as to

whether it was a bribe. it is the foundation, but it is whether it was a bribe as the general. and the outs of a local prosecutor in florida looking at that is not likely. that's similar to police shootings and i have a bill on that to say there should be independent prosecutors in the police use of deadly force. because a local prosecutor makes that decision, whether or not there should be a prosecution or not, oftentimes it is home cooking. law enforcement is the witness and retired law enforcement is often the investigator. they have politics. they get elected to the police union or the sheriff's deputy union. -- there is and any question about the integrity. there should be an outside prosecutor making those decisions. and if a local prosecutor made

the decision, there is possible fallback from the law enforcement in the way you get cases prosecuted. so it is a bad solution. we have a bill to try to make that happen. the bill got this response by the national association of police saying that the national statistics of deadly force -- it says that the legislation doesn't provide a comprehensive definition of deadly force. guest: that's easy enough to secure. i think that is a different bill than what we are referring to. because ours doesn't refer to data, per se. but you have to think about, why would the police chief be against a bill of independent prosecutors? justice is supposed to be blind. and you're supposed to get a fair shake. -- a case in 2015, a young man

was shot, unarmed, killed. terrible. the prosecutor came forward and recommended a voluntary manslaughter charge. -- the district attorney could indict a ham sandwich because they do what the prosecutor asked them to do. they came back with no indictment. something happened in the jury room. it wasn't right. it might just be a law enforcement bias. the justice department say it wasn't willful action and i can see it is a burden but the man was killed. baltimore, where the prosecutor but after the police, law enforcement was really upset with the prosecutor.

and i'm sure it's hurt the relationships between the prosecutor and the witnesses. so that's why the police are against it. they have home cooking. their membership is their constituency. police associations represent the constituency. host: on the republican line from brooklyn, new york. caller: good like to ask a couple of questions. the teachers union voted to strike in chicago. the democratic party, they say the united workers for granted. is because most of the union leaders are getting a bottle of wine and a phone number from the biblical leaders? states, a lot of that people don't have restrooms to use. why are they keeping the poor

black people in those states? they are spending millions of dollars to planned parenthood but no one is spending money to the schools. and the justice department is doing nothing about it. chicago, i don't know what is going on. i don't think they're giving out wine and phone calls to labor leaders. the issue about ruraln-americans in areas, the democratic party has already been, they have been the best for the party of people who need helping hands. the democratic party provided for medicare, medicaid, social supporting social

security, voting rights, you name it. democrats want more money for people who need help with groceries. snap for groceries. democrats support those programs. the republicans come up and say, we can't afford it. in my house, we turn the to 32 degrees. ridiculous stuff. the congressional black congress does have one black member but the rest of the members are all democrats and there is a reason, because they serve their constituents. so i totally disagree with the malarkey about democrats not helping african-americans. we look after misconduct and discrimination. and economic it rigidities. all the opportunities. we don't do enough but we do

more than the republicans do. who basically say there will be trickle down. and you can work on the golf course at trumps marriott. as far as planned parenthood, it is a wonderful organization. caller: good morning, guys. was just wondering fwe're spending $900 billion andal levels before warld wor ii, where are they puting that money at? the main question is this, why do republicans try to three-tier state of

government? they're trying to get rid of the the tive district, executive set and the ju dish why are they trying to destroy our government? congress is where the republicans have most power now, democrats in the hands last seven and a half years. and another ope our or eight years, we'll have presidency again. hey're trying to cut back on authority. fights between the powers and article i is legislative branch and it gives us a lot of power, but there are issues. hey're trying, a lot is attackos barack obama and he hasn't been able to work with congress from day 1 because our job is ell said to see to it he doesn't get a second term. term, his a second job tofs ruin him. they wanted their country back. the highest marks of

history.ident in barack obama has been out standing president in difficult times and with a difficult with, who work didn't want to work with him at all. e had to take executive action to protect air and water and get regulations passed to protect this country. dreamers who were born here. when you have immigration law, to prioritize, prioritize with people who going crimes, not people to school and future productive citizens who will be great americans. to do that, they have reform.immigration the president has had to take action himself in a lot of areas has responded to it because it is the way he gets around congress. your pause about the future of the presidency, does that address concerns about the office?ton in guest: she's got to win, in my opinion. think she's going to.

it is unfathomable the people or donald trump, the most unqualified person in the history of the nation to run for president of the united states. human being, od you wouldn't want to have him as your neighbor or date your daughter. you concerned as far as polling numbers and everything else concerning the campaign, are you concerned where it is at leading up to the election at this close rate? guest: i think you have to be concerned. i think she's leading, she's electoralng number of votes to elect her. does tend to map favor democrats, it is all the smaller states where the states ans are and red take them in massive numbers. catastrophe uld be if this man was put in charge of nuclear weapons, put in charge policy.gn he enjoys, seems to relish in people asty things to and you don't do that as the ead for policy, have you to be a diplomat and the man doesn't

know how to be a diplomat, just bully.be a host: were you surprised with the discussion over stop and monday night? guest: yeah, stop and frisk has been ruled unconstitutional. was wrong, it didn't reduce murders have gone down since stopping stop and frisk. profiling ally people, african american and latinos. tool.not an effective police need to spend time concentrating on violent crime, murders, on robberies and drugs. to be stoping to be stoping and frisking kids and taking marijuana and putting them in jail. look at meth and crack and cocaine and heroin, look at those drugs. if you do meth and crack and cocaine and hearn, there is likelihood you will get addicted. classified schedule malarky.ch is fu get addicted to major drugs,

get do you do if you can't it? knock off a 7-11. if you are on marijuana and it, you don't enjoy donut so much. host: independent line, hi. caller: thank tou c-span. i'll back up here. it took me so long to get on today. to what refer representative cohen's first trump was ifut mr. it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, it's usually a to be a duck f. that were true, your the dential candidate on democratic side would be in jail. touch base ond to the stop and frisk. worked in new york. it clearly worked in new york there is no denying that. i don't know where you come up ith convoluted facts, but it worked. host: david, let's go back to

donald trump, what he said about top and frisk and you can respond to what mr. trump said and respond to the caller, as well, how about that? let's show the clip first. >> stop and frisk was ruled unconstitutional in new york because it largely singled out black and hispanic young men. wrong.are t went before a judge, who was a very against police judge. it was taken away from her and mayor, our new mayor refused to go forward with the case, won on appeal. look throughout the country, many places -- a form argument is it is of racial profile something >> no, we have to take guns away and people that have them are bad people that shouldn't have them. these are felons, people that and shouldn't be -- when you are 3000 from ngs in chicago january 1. when have you 4000 people killed by guns from the

beginning of the presidency of hometown.ma, his you have to stop and frisk. >> rudy giuliani added this frisk, jt found volume of stops and focus on the african american community made practice, not unconsty applied.ionalad guest: that is the only way mr. its applied and it was applied in new york. they were after minorities, they were mess withing them getting them out of time square, moving them around and not wanting them certain neighborhoods. it wasn't unconstitutional. unconstitutionally applied and that would happen n. emphis, they brought in this fellow from new york, stop and risk guy, hired him to be a consultant, that was a mistake. they shouldn't have him in consultant anywhere, his work failed.

went to cuba, it is great we reopened relationships with cuba. a utiful people, not such good government or economy, it will get better as they have contact with americans. contact with europeans and canadians, people want to visit. don't have a problem down there. they have a communist government and cracks down on them they don't really have due process. you want to give up due process, rights, you know, put in some strong man, fine, is what trump is and what it talks like. muselini. host: independent line, hi. caller: thank you for taking my mrchlt cohen, you want to -- look at hillary clinton, biggest liar that ever united states. guest: pretty broad statement. second?d you say is

caller: i guess you are. you.t: thank caller: democrats has always raised the dead up. if illion dollars and hillary gets in there, we will be 20 more. this? going to pay for we've got highest united states working. guest: were you for the florida gators this saturday? for the vols? people.i'm for good for donald trump. i'm a trump, one of the deplorables. host: thanks, linda, we'll let guest respond. guest: you know, hillary clinton super ly intelligent and intelligent lady. she knows the issue. said, president obama most properly prepared person to be in the our history. senator, tes states first lady and involved in many decisions the president made and familiar with

them for eight years. same thing when first lady in who was goingknew on in state government and federalism. state.ry of she has the experience and knowledge of the issues, she's you to foreign policy, have to know the different parameters, lots of factors play into it. donald trump, he says he knows foreign policy, he watches television. headlines. there are things you have to know about different governments factors and different trade agreements and the different supply lines and that go into making policies. hillary clinton knows that, lady.an intelligent she's shown from beginning and the collegee out in graduation, one of the first student graduation speakers and work with the children's defense fund. her heart is in the right place. the importance of getting to solar and wind and alternative forms of energy and looking after nd people that might lose their

jobs and old industries. she understands the need for us to have a fair tax system to wealthy, like donald trump, who is upper one-tenth of pay their fair share of taxes. that lady we just heard from tennessee, she probably paid taxes than donald trump if she paid a dime. nd we need to get rid of the loopholes that billionaires use. tax ed to keep the estate at least keep it at levels we've got it. it should be reduced. was the $5 million and $10 million, sing and he will to for we raise today exemption levels, you can live with that. it is still money, 2300amount of people per year pay the estate all theseebt tax, and people, probably like the lady in tennessee, probably doesn't let's not beethat, for the death tax. death tax $2300. the country.e in what they were concerned about,

the rate they pay once they pay. 10%, they wered by want to get rid of that entirely. rump is worth, he claims $4 billion, well, 10% drop on that $400 million s get each, or for the group. they would like to get rid of it. of alks about getting rid it, talk about a conflict of interest. ost: to georgia, republican line, david, you're up next. caller: yes. how you doing? fine, thanks, go ahead. caller: yes, everybody is about here and there, maybe re a time that hillary may have bribed the f.b.i. to cover up all the e-mails and everything? benghazi thing straightened out now and taken care of? benghazi was not secretary clinton's fault and position with y

experience or position of authority have questioned that, her.y political attack on it was a terrible situation and fine ambassador lost his life, e made the decision he thought he was well liked by the people in libya and could go there to unprotected outpost. it's sad what happened and but certainly secretary clinton was not responsible for that. happen, 't want that to it's been a terrible attack. i think the family members of the victims have not appreciated the republicans have done with it in trying to mriticize it. as far as the f.b.i., we'll have hearing today in the judiciary ommittee oversight of the f.b.i. with general attorney general can appear before us. questions will be asked. i don't think anybody has anybody. she bribed i'm sure she didn't brib komi. upset him saying she was wrong, usually f.b.i. do not give opinions after an investigation, they just -- the

facts, nothing, but the facts. is dragnet, just the facts, man. e gave opinion and drew conclusions. host: conviction in the investigation? guest: no conviction, no indictment. she did not do things willful. host: you were satisfied with managed?was guest: pretty much. i had questions about the was ments he made, it unusual. unusual case. i don't know what the attorney general might have asked of him, what he needed to do, he knew there would be pushback from the right for not suggesting charge. we'll learn more today at the hearing. is in oklahoma city, oklahoma, democratic line representative steve cohen of tennessee. going to chew was you, but listening to you, you idiot re sense than any

republicans that call in. if you would, tell the people was george bush who said that we were going to pull out tell them that my president, barack hussein to keep us in iraq, but they would not sign the agreement.e but once again, i mean, you, going to chew you, but everything you are saying, a , for you -- why are you reason? uest: i'm not, i'm a democratic. i'm from memphis. caller: i was getting my children off to school. apologize. guest: thank you. caller: absolutely. you are right. he republicans, just like that red neck lady that called in, she has no idea what she's speaking about. said, tell these people that it was george bush who said we are going to pull out of iraq and president obama was going to

keep us in. remember george bush is the one killed 4500 of our soldiers. into iraq without the proper equipment. ad people being killed because they didn't want to fund it and did not give us the proper equipment. over ve you people coming from the war killing themselves because of the stuff they had to party.r the republican so once again -- host: thanks. thank you. guest: i don't have to say it bout george bush, we went into a war we never should have gone into in iraq. war donald trump was for before he was against it and it war.nfortunate the bush administration told us there were weapons of mass weapons of mass deception. we went in there and that is isis.created trump goes and says, barack obama created isis. malarcky.

what isis came out of was going in and killing people in iraq. this is reaction and it was sunni-shia thing and we have the power now with the shia and the sunnis were upset about that and sunnis didn't like us go nothing and we shouldn't have gone in. whole war, bush and kuwait, okay. wrong, rumsfeld, bush, cheney, bad. isis. we have to deal with it now. -- soldiers need all the attention they can get. more money fored the doctors who treat them. prescribe ble to marijuana, it helps with ptsd syndrome. host: benjamin. caller: yes. cohen question for mr. here about hillary saying she of power.play

i'm 22 years old, this is going to affect my generation if we go war. why would we go to war again if own country our straight with all the police shootings and other stuff. earlier,ly spoke on it but that is my question. guest: you are right about it generation and your generation will be affected by so much in this election that and whether have you rights, whether roe v survives, citizen united is overruled, clean air and clean rules and regulations that bring that about and solar nd wind and climate change and oceans and not having beaches in coastal towns, the younger more to be as affected than pedro and me. to be around g when miami beach is under water, y'all might be. don't want to go to war either. hillary clinton doesn't want you either. war she said we will not have boots

on the ground in the middle east isis.ght with special forces, and that is -- are boots on the ground, but not what we think of as major boots on the ground of forces. there will be air power, there will be help for training of over there. but we're going to be in nato nato.ave to be strong with i've been in the baltic region, litheuania, astonia, they are concerned about the russian presence. russians are near them and play with them all the time like cat and mouse. good situation, we allies. support our nato freedom sometimes doesn't come with easy cost. we have problems in this country have to deal with and we will deal with them. become sn't mean we isolationists and refuse to be involved and protect human around the emocracy globe.

i don't think we should be the power that goes out for the and se of creating trade making money for global eyed forces that are making monocheap labor, unsafe working conditions all over the world and taking jobs away from americans. protect americans with good trade policies and good manufacturing here at home. but we still have to be concerned about democracy and globe.ights around the host: representative steven scully on the judiciary committee. for your time. guest: the city of memphis. anniversary s 25th of the civil rights museum in memphis. assassinated, but has risen, great civil rights telling the story of history xhchlt to memphis, go to eat barbecue, listen to blues and have a good time. steven presentative scully represe steve cohen repr memphis. of

we will be joined by rusty who talks about his latest article argument e makes the about the democratic party, what uses to society about discrimination and exclusion. that discussion next. and new york congresswoman ferraro.e >> you can walk around saying things are great. we have been hearing the couple als the last months. they expect the american people to believe that. tonight.start

>> they delivered 21 and a half percent interest rate. they deliver whatted they called malaise. they delivered interest rates off the charts. take-home pays, checks that were shrinking and optimism.vered 1h1 1998 debate with dan quail and lloyd benson. >> vifar more experience than others that sought the office of vite president in this country. have as much experience as jack kennedy did when he sought presidency. >> senator, i served with jack jack kennedy, jack kennedy was a friend of mine, senator, you are no jack kennedy. 2008 vice presidential debate between delaware center biden and sarah palin. ourselves, mit

everyday american people, hockey moms across the nation, we need ban sdpth say, never again. >>the middle class needs relief, it now, , they need need help now, the focus will change with barack obama. watch saturday night on c-span and any time on c-span.org, or the radio app. host: "washington journal" continues. spotlight on r magazine segment. in the segment today, we're inturing story you will find the magazine "first things," by reno, and the ty author of "resurrecting idea of christian society," the article "bigot baiting," joined by rusty reno, editor of things." the viewers tell

about the magazine? guest: it covers religion, culture, politics, all the things worth arguing about and hat we're told not to talk about at dinner parties and with our families. we so we approached these a conservative point of view and try to look at the deeper trends that are at our society, rather than address the news cycle directly. the intersection of faith and politics. host: are you funded by, you say in politics, funded by a subscription? guest: subscribers pay for the magazine. we raise money through our is no one , there particular foundation or individual that supports us. pretty broad base of support we have from readership. host: the title of the article baiting," and -- it is provocative, why choose the title? harkens back to race baiting. our country is in turmoil in

purposes of of the the law and order rhetoric, clearly, i machining retrospect, to draw voters away from george nixon, to richard somebody who was going to put he brakes on the social transformations and which bred a sentiment among working class americans. what i've observed is that the baiting has shifted and what has me is how pervasive homo itions of bigotry, phobia, racism, xenophobia have on the left and this inspite of the remarkable ransformation of our society for the better over the last 50 years. maybe this e think has a function of trying to mobilize the democratic party's base, just as bigot baiting, race baiting was attempt to

party's the republican base generation ago. host: you said, though, you will things still exist today? guest: those things, not even emotely in the same form as when i was a child, in baltimore, maryland. black and you came into the italian neighborhood, you got beaten up with baseball i mean this is just the same as in the '60s. remains important political issue. we saw that in the debate on monday night when hillary accused donald trump of and sexist.st unprecedented in politics. nixon d be like richard of being ubert humpry a facist. on why has thect

temperature risen in this retic, social realities have changed and i think it is bait minority voters to make them feel like, democrats, ote for we're at risk of being pushed of voter -- the idea id as kind of return to jim crow. that is understandable why politicians want to use rhetoric. host: you start with transgender example. as an guest: right, it strikes me, it s very odd to me the obama administration would double down n something that is such a marginal influence on social -- not actual people, we're talking about large numbers of people, rubled high school kids, numbers.l but i think it is a way of

eeping this question in the forefront. what kind of society do you want, voter? wicked e society or the racist society that the republicans are going to give you? kind of sharp is i think a political dynamic that really important to think about as we go forward in this particular campaign. host: our guest with us until end of the program, here to talk about his piece in his arguments. 202-748-8000 for democrats. 202-748-8001 for republicans. independents, 202-748-8002. it is from the magazine "first the article is "bigot aiting," and rusty reno is our guest. first call from rachel, who is in texas on our independent line. guest.e on with our good morning. caller: yes. cindy. host: cindy? caller: cindy, yes, sir. you know,to tell you, i voted republican and democrat.

my has nothing to do with religion and here lately all i ear is liberals doing this, liberals passing gay marriage and this, that and the other. doesn't matter how you vote, there is -- i'm going to you, there is a lot of republicans that are gay and just because the way you vote, i believe in god, and the way i vote don't have anything to do with it. i don't like how y'all connect way people votes on how they how they live and all you're do suggest separating this country. host: okay. guest: for the record, vialso voted democrat and republican years.e last 30 in fact, i made a point of for pro life democratic candidate necessary nebraska, where i lived for 20 it is because i think important for the pro-life cause for there to be pro-life

we will , the only way make progress. has to be bipartisan consensus. think, cindy, i would say, i don't see the future of our purely partisan republican and democratic terms. bobby, rochelle, democrats line. racist yes, saying -- ways. host: say that again, sir. racist donald trump has ways. guest: well, my view of donald that there is a lot of 1950s queens in donald trump and more like the construction workers that he well-educated he folks who have learned to speak bout racial matters in a much more sensitive and delicate way. demotic luster, i think violates a lot of rules of

political correctness. but i just find myself, i find to conclude that he's being -- to call someone a of death a sort penalty for a person in public life and i just don't think that applies to him. lots of reasons to vote against donald trump, that would not be, one of them. host: so if your argument is the emocratic party would use tactics to bring onboard groups of people, what, just continue the party itself? guest: look at the democratic party, what it is, mostly white, liberal leadership, that has over time lost the confidence of white working class workers and trump is especially been effective at siphoning away. potentially, we don't know of course, siphoning away those so the party has become more and more rainbow jackson n, as jesse prophesied in the 1980s.

keep that have to cause together there is not a interest mony of between wall street bankers who support ore likely to hillary clinton than donald trump and hispanic farm workers in california. how do you keep these people together on the same page maintain thatd to coalition? guest: republican party has their own problems, they are cht has to do with libertarian versus conservative party nd the republican has techniques to keep people together. the nism, if communism, great glue that held the american right together and the fall of the soviet union has, know, i've always said to my republican friends, the worst us g that ever happened to was end of the cold war. one of the worst things that democratic to the party is our monsemulti cultural society. that will be difficult for the democratic party to survive that.

it will lead to the splitting groups from rent that coalition. people naturally have different interests. host: groups, you are saying, trying to attract and keep? guest: keep. no.have to say you emphasize multi cultural ideals, but you insist they have realized as a way. so you can't make progress, progress, for fear, you can't admit you're making racial it will lead ear people to think, we don't have to put emphasis on this, think interests now and not my cultural interest. the tactic e saying is us versus them, that way they goinged to the democratic party with them. guest: right. race baiting means you put the hook for the voter. acism was on the rise or white americans are xenophobic and immigrants.ve out that goes into voter's mouths and pulls them back into

coalition. host: butler, kentucky, you are on the line. richie,an line, this is hi. caller: how you doing today? years old and i lived through this whole deal, you know. thing. to stress one my family has lived all the way ack to the civil war and, you know, white people never get credit for what we've done in civil war to free the black people. we thing is this, you know, have to quit telling people that we're abusing them. have e to self-responsibility. i sit here and watch the people iraq and of afghanistan and fleeing from, responsibility to pick up their arms and fight for heir country like we have this country? we can't continue to bring have no re who don't self-responsibility for

themselves. the black gener gentleman was the air, his hands in that was sad, it really was. the other gentleman who pulled a the officer was shot, look at it, he's been arrested times.13 and one had seven children. you know, i can only afford two children, that is what i had. your question? host: he's gone. you want to respond to anything said? guest: from rose in colorado, independent line. caller: yes. am i on the line? host: you are on, go ahead, rose. you.er: thank i'm calling concerning mr. opening statement that lbgtq community was just a in our oup of people country that are young.

teenagers and confused. senior ne, i am a citizen. i am an african american. and i am istian straight and have been married 45 years to my husband, male and female. but, when he opens with a statement such as he made that totally untrue nmy opinion, to comment more on and because i do believe not only do i believe, i know country and his generally the mass media, is baiting and ce bigotry and bias against minorities of all sorts. gender and of

age, they want things to go way, rather than the people's way. to your t me go back challenge to my statement about rights.der the -- something like 600 people have had ted states sex change surgery. so we're talking about small number of people. the obama administration has focused on the north carolina issue had to do with hols, chools, we're talking about teenagers and percent of the population that identifies as transgender is, you know, again, small.ingly or.001% of the population. what i look at in the bigot piece, why has this come to the floor as an issue, you pressed in s being the public elm?

boards let local school make accommodations? i continuing has to do with the fact it serves a political is to keep the struggle for liberation front and so that you can draw contrast. in ou are democrat, you are favor, you are against big tree. if you are republican, you are bigotry, a very useful dynamic if you're a democrat. definition of bigotry in your mind is -- anybody who dissents from any exual revolution at level is a bigot. the fact that i don't think a cancan marry a man or woman marry a woman is bigotry. hat is clear in the public realm, i'm labeled a bigot. pretty much every human person until the last 25 years has been a bigot. t is absurd when you look at it. but, that is why we have to ask his question, why has this

political atmosphere emerged? i think because it serves purpose. host: obviously true believers care about the cause says. question to ask, why politicians gravitate and put it front and center? it because it helps them get elected. host: viewer from twitter says gop has history of using racist politics to win. what is your response to that? guest: as i said at the the ning of the segment, republican party in shift in the and conquering of the outh as republican politics certainly use those tactics. the e '60s, '70s and into '80s, i just don't think it's een relevant or effective in the present, which is why there are no republican politicians tactics.ace baiting i think that what law and order

means out of the mouth of donald not what it meant out of the mouth of richard nixon. by a longshot. caller: yes, good morning. morning.d caller: the two most important topics to talk about at dinner are religion and politics. guest: good for you. caller: the i think they should separately.out guest: culture is the politics culture.gion is if you don't talk about those things you are not talking about the world.og in caller: indeed, indeed. do think they have gotten mixed up in the political sphere we should be kinder to one and take each other's they are. know, as i wonder what you think about

on politic?ourse i'd like to hear you talk about in. and with religion mixed guest: right. s i try to layout in my book, "resurrected idea of christian ociety," i think religiously founded society is actually more capacious and tolerant and less society.han secular the problem with secularism, it politics, nothing transcends the struggle for the future of the earthly city, is no heavenly city to which we have higher loyalty. to lower the y blood pressure in the political greater actually a influence of religion in our country as a whole. the same as having religion influence politics directly. dogmas do not dictate party

politics. a person of faith can ake a decision to go left or right in our political context. christian faith as 11 in the entire political brings us around to seek common good for everyone. binginghamton, new york. lil senext. aller: yes, i find him absolutely atrocious. host: who? uest: the stuff coming out of your mouth. caller: the democrats are the are race baiting. i don't know what planet you're but you hat you read, need to really get out in the real world. of my and was raised part life in the south. if you think that all through '60s and the '70s and '80s there was not a race problem and republicans were not pushing it, you are dilutional.

sorry, but you're mistaken. i specifically said that republicans did push race baiting in the '60s, '70s and '80s. caller: they needed help, by having them come to our property meal, could get a fwd they could get money and trade.tes could those fat white guards sat there with the p their face thanfood and acting holier thou. host: susan is next from virginia. republican line. caller: hey, good morning. wow. good conversation. i think the problem is earlier a called, madenessee her opinion, and then right fter that, a young gentleman called, i'm assuming he's black, he sounded black, he called her redneck. we throw words around and we're

attention. of ess i lost my train thought. i'm so sorry. i'm in et me just say, favor of having thicker skin in debates, so that we can be more forgiving of the slang at people use think we can , i have thick skin and recognize, i believe most americans really all to flourish together and so we docked it a bit more in our society. one way to start is to not sort to take lly quick offense. host: from west palm beach, florida, democrat line. norma, hi. caller: hi. go to byron. cleveland, tennessee, republican line. morning. on er: there was a war

christianity and pushed by the democratic party because they pushing a socialist agenda and people need to understand that socialism and communism are one and the same, really. guest: well, i'm not convinced that socialism is a threat in america. but i do think that there is a rising number of people who have religious affiliation in america and they have more and more frustrated with influence christianity has had and continues to have on our society pushing that of is being done to push christians oneof the public square and reason first thing exist system to reassert the voice of andstians in public affairs to do so in a winsome, intelligent and forceful way. host: when you talk about topic of bigot baiting, you say it end soon, the shriller denunciation directed our way

of theom rhetorical need democratic party. can you expand on that? guest: yeah. can't, the republican party, i think, has over the least, worked at this hard to present image of inclusive, what have to avoid those accusatio accusations. work becauseoesn't this is a rhetorical need for party.mocratic again, i think we saw that at when hillary clinton ulled out the 1973 justice department lawsuit that included the trump family's real estate --dings in queens, which was they rolled up the major real estate developers throughout the ortheast who were not red lining, as were all real estate up until red lining the civil rights act and it took

number of years for it to be implemented. so to go back to that and then technique to pin is racist label on trump very important for the democratic coalition. the median for voter, i don't know, interesting question. i think race, it is the hot issue at the center of culture, has been divisive, destructive issue. it is so divicive and destructive, i think most white americans try not to think about it at all. it is just too dangerous. you can get executed if you say wrong thing and so the fact that people like me have pushed of our stion out conscious just as much as possible, because it is so dangerous. could be just don't process, you say the right things in

ublic, but don't process any thoughts about race and racism in america. politically, i have a hard time seeing the future bout whether or not this is going to be effective for the democrats. t is necessary for their own coalition. host: from philly, from republican xas, line. caller: yes, sir, i hear not a ot of democratic, but talking about the racist thing with the officers and stuff. the debate, it seemed like donald trump was the only say hat had anything to about law enforcement. also, you know, i know lester registered republican, but he never talked anything about the clinton foundation and of the things going on there, didn't talk much about e-mails. the income tax donald trump hasn't paid or didn't talk anything about possible -- well,

a 12-year-oldn to girl that hillary clinton happened to get out of jail and it later on. next, atlanta, georgia, democrats line. to begin.ere first, good morning. i got a couple quick questions, you allow me. i would like to ask the gentleman, how many black specifically did he interview in the writing of his book as pertains to african american? i can tell, zero. i'm a democrat. i'm a black man. about why i support the democratic party. don't -- this morning you're trying to tell white people what we ignore racist beliefs, create that. i know why i vote democrat. speak to me about what i do that. a veteran, i'm not stupid and neither is the majority of black people. idiots in every race, obviously, thank you.

15 years l, i was for a member of interracial church, know lots of black democrats, i'm not ignorant of why people vote one way or the other. also, black ed, republicans and black democrats, i'm fully aware of that. host: austin, texas, republican line, christian, you're next. you for takingnk my call. calling just because wide ranging conversation, which i appreciate, but i did want to take it a few steps back the desk kind of made or maybe correct me, what i comparison kind of hubert maybe humphreycomparable to calling racist.rump as a republican, i voted 2014.ght republican, 2012,

i've been disappointd and appalled the republican andidates have not called out donald trump for his rhetoric, which i see as blatantly racist. i would like the guest to comment on maybe if i what he was saying, but i can't get around the fact must recuse dge himself because of mexican heritage, not even mexican being indiana, but having mex tan heritage, that causes him to as a o recuse himself judge? i can't really get around how good cause to be -- status as racist called into question. i would like the guest to comment on that. you. sottomayor gave a

speech and argued being of hispanic background was influence on her approach to being a judge and she thought that was a good thing. we have developed identity politics way of thinking about identities, racial identity, ethnic identity, where we on the denounce people like trump for appeals to it, which to id cynically to try intimidate this particular judge, but i don't see it as of racism. identity s logic of politics, which tells us that we determined by our identities. think h, that is why i 2016 is not 1966. that was a long time ago. that was 50 years ago and the society, t divide our the nature of our tensions, is i of our conflicts think quite different and so i categories e that and sort of moral rhetoric of 50

directly to lies our time. host: editor of first things reno, first ty things dot com, is the website. is "bigot baiting" we heard him talk about it. justin, you line, are next. caller: hi. on the transgender issue. i'd just like to say that when talk about what a small ercentage of them there are, marginalize them and give the ability for us to ignore them they face severe violence both within their families and society at large. the first tribes who discovered this country actually knew them spirit people and were christ-like in treatment and respect for them than you seem to be. the race question. in rural south

and i'm very certain that this -- the republican party is the last of the white supremacy in the country. look at the supreme court, rights down the voting act, first thing alabama did was and at the d laws ame time, close down dmv's in largely black communities. how can you reconcile that? thank you. guest: well, in some states where the voting laws have been try to prevent voting fraud, black participation has not down. also, this is part of the politics, i think, and one reason why the supreme court released southern states from oversight of the justice voting practices is the conviction that the democrats ggle of versus republicans, which

to uglinessill lead in terms of how they try to uppress votes is motivated by partisan and not by racial issues. is on the nce democratic line. hello, mr. reno, i'm trying to control myself really. how can you possibly republicans aren't racist, as soon as barack obama the first ident, thing they said, you're out of here in first term, no matter what. not work with you. and they didn't. callers i've of the been hearing calling in, they're peaking the same thing to you and you put it down. people, policeot officers that i respect cutting people like crazy.

wrong. is plain there's too much of this and you the own the -- i'm sorry, gay, the lesbians and all that, calling them minorities. minority, too, i'm handicapped, but that doesn't any less worth. these republicans are trying that best to make sure only white people run everything. see an't tell me you can't that. guest: well, i think that your the nts are helpful in sense that viewers can recognize h could possibly be going on that intelligent citizen thinks half the country is motivated by immoral racial animous. the would be like saying democratic party is dominated by to destroy ho want america. troup we get on

the right with obama. ut i think it is quite marginal. you don't have people over in capitol, our representatives don't say that. we do democratic party, have as i said, debate. racist charge is something that democrats use. again, i think we need to be say, why, why such rhetoric surrounding racism, s of bigotry, homophobia and so on, which i things s not to say the don't exist. why if it is out of proportion i just tryeality and to be thoughtful and look at the so difficult, re difficult to hold any coalition together in a democratic system is only two parties. and so, this seems to have

important way ry for democrats to understand why they need to hang together to the wicked t adversary who is going to drag jim crow or into closet gays back in the or whatever your image is, that seems prominent in democratic need to about why they vote democrat. host: independent line, you are on. good morning. mr. reno, i'd like to try and experiment with you. you're the child of the devil. and as child of the devil, it is your birth certificate that the devil is your father and mother. i'm going to spend years on television promoting you as the devil and i'm going to go on year after year after have nd then i'm going to a television station called "fixed news" and will spend years of you being

he devil and child of the devil. how would you respond to something like that? bigotry? guest: i'm not sure i follow the analogy. watch fox news, i can't help on this one. after o even amongst writing this, what has been the reaction, aside from what you phone call wise? guest: a number of friends found they also are interested in trying to understand the political dynamics of our time. one thing, when the obama dministration decided to support contraceptive mandate, there was debate in the white bill and joe biden and daily said, you don't want to go to war with the catholic church. obama and hillary clinton said we need this and he president went with the mandate. it turned out, surprisingly to the white house, this was a winner for them. the war on women mean of the

2012 election helped them. so, i think they discovered culture wars the actually work in their favor now. frenzy ofto whip up a anxiety about exclusion and and that rimination really helps their base. it motivates their people to go to the polls. see that with the callers. is are convinced there wickedness that needs to be fought against. thank you. reno, guest: thank you. host: we go to the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: puuant tthe order of the house o january 5, 2016, the air wilnow regnize mbersfrom lists submitted by theajoritand minorit leaders for morningour debate . chair will alternate wreck -- rcognition between t parties with ea party limited to one hour d each member other th the majity and mity