bolero --eugene mulero on donald trump's infrastructure proposal and the current state of u.s. infrastructure. yemoans on hate crime laws in the united states. eomans on hate crime lockton united states. -- hate crime laws in the united states. host: fidel castro dies. the raising of u.s. flag at the embassy in havana for the first time in 50 years. fidel castro is dead at the age of 90 and we will spend the first part of the program getting your reaction. and hearing what you think of the future of the u.s.-cuba relations. the numbers for democrats 202-748-8000 --. republicans --202-748-8001.

independents and others is 202-748-8002. we will look for your comments on social media. we will look for your comments on @cspanwj or facebook. all over the television news this morning and the internet, the new york times website, here is a look at their lead story. fidel castro, cuban revolutionaries who defied u.s. dies at 90 in a right that if the fiery apostle of revolution who brought the cold war to 1959 andemisphere in then defied the united states for nearly half a century as leader, briefly pushing 2 the brick of nuclear war died on friday, he was 90 years old. it was announced by cuban state television. he had been in declining health for a number of years.

looking for your reaction this morning, your thoughts on the future of u.s.-cuba relations. with a change in our presidency with donald trump, no word or tweets from donald trump. the changes the obama administration had put into 2014, weginning in showed you decline raising in 2015 at additional policies announced by the president earlier this year in history to havana. we will show you that in a bit. story, fidel castro dies at 90. an old picture of fidel castro in the glasses with his trademark combat fatigues. caribbean island into a potent symbol of the world's greatest ideological and economic divides of the 20th century has died. the son of a prosperous sugar planter, he took power in cuba

on new year's day 1959, promising to share the nation's wealth with its poorest citizens who have suffered under the corrupt order center -- quarter batista.ictatorship of interested in your reaction and --ring -- we are joined by we are hearing reaction, what have you seen so far overnight? surreal, manyty people in miami have been waiting for decades for what happened last night. there were entire stores dedicated to selling flags and memorabilia for five years, 10 years for this one moment. rumors had been spread that he had died there people would

start gathering at the same spot in little havana in miami. of people, it was surreal that this was the night it happened. davis --versailles, a a famous cuban café and there were hundreds -- up to 1000 people on the streets banging pots and pans, haunting, there was dancing, champagne, it was a ofebration but a little bit anger and chanting against raul castro and there was also a lot of people holding framed photographs of parents and grandparents who had not lived to see this day. a little bit of everything but mainly a giant party that is still going on. host: we are showing videos you have been including. what about the makeup of the crowd?

there has been a change in u.s. attitude and policy toward cuba, what does the crowd want to see after the death of fidel castro? ask peopleying to the same question but overall the death of fidel castro and the reaction in miami was much more symbolic than policy oriented. nobody thought of a specific thing that would bring about change, especially given the change in cuban relations over the last year. it was this kind of euphoric relief. a lot of frustration from the years. , i asked care much them about the thoughts of what would change, and they just had the tyrant is dead chanting energy. to discuss a night policy and a lot of them thought it was going in the right direction with the opening of

relations and the older cubans did not think so. there is a generational gap. get very far asking them those questions because it was more of a symbolic celebration of something that anyone under the age of 50 grew up kind of hearing, every new year, the toast was "next year in cuba, " and the younger generation obviously is not going back after all these years. host: we appreciate you joining us after reporting overnight. thank you for sharing your video with us as well and she is on twitter if you want to follow the story. thanks again. news that fidel castro dies overnight at the age of 90, we want your reaction come in particular, what is next in terms of u.s. policy towards cuba. , kirby int line

winston-salem, north carolina, good morning. ahead. on the line, go i guess we do not have you. robert in tarzana, california. go ahead. i turned on the tv this morning and i saw the people celebrating. host: we lost you. sorry about that. 202-748-8000 is the number to call for democrats. republicans, 202-748-8001. , 202-748-8003 and on twitter @cspanwj. members of congress very vocal in the florida delegation and elsewhere.

dead was treated and a new beginning can don on the oppressed island of cuba, people must be guaranteed liberty. just wonswoman who reelection, growing up in miami, i saw how fidel castro's control of cuba tour of our families and destroyed lives in both of our countries. be wrote that castro will forever remembered as a failed tyrant who neglected human rights that brought more than 50 years of poverty to cuba. he and his followers are relics of the previous century. and finally, she said with fidel castro's passing, we double our nation's resolve to seek cuba libre, a free nation and free people at last. let's hear from you and your thoughts. clinton pennsylvania, ray. know, a government

is putting out information that is incorrect. castro, ourfidel cia and the 1950's dedicated men and overthrowing a brutal dictator. destroyer, picked him up in nicaragua and where thed them to southeastern part where guantanamo is now and give him a bunch of arms to start the revolution. what he did was break the pact with america that he would receive a stipend and not demand any more from the american companies doing business there. that is why they got rid of batista who was a brutal dictator. it was only a small percentage of people who owned most of cuba. now, the the ones

ancestors in southern dade county, they want to take over all the land. the dell castro broke the pact and turned on the united states and kicked everybody out. the only place we could go ed, we start him out -- starv him out hoping they would get rid of him. host: what about the arc of changes in the obama administration in terms of what they have done so far in terms of cuba? caller: you will not be successful by trying to not do business with them, everybody else in the world is doing business with cuba, even canada. you have to risk flying down there, what is the reason behind this? nothing but political, especially with the republican party, they get that part of the vote in south florida, the cubans, that is what controls florida. it turns it for the republicans

in the election and if you turn on those people, the ancestors of those who left cuba, they will turn on you at vote democratic. obama was trying to do is turn those people to the democrats. voted fore republicans and republicans wanted to remain a key -- to keep cuba isolated but you cannot starve them out. we are doing business with china, oppressive, why can't we do business with cuba? i do not understand why the american people can see this. host: your thoughts, brett, on the passing of fidel castro. caller: good to talk to you. i think it is a prayer that he died. he has confined the cuban people for long enough.

as far as obama going down there , i think it is a said. vladimir putin -- i think it is a dom --sin. i think vladimir putin should take a listen, i think the ayatollah, our friends and china should see the example, you cannot oppress the people. you cannot do that. you cannot portray evil throughout the world. host: the news of the dow castro's passing announced late friday, early this morning, reports indicated his remains will be cremated at a funeral, initial reports say it will be next sunday december 4 with no word on whether the u.s. will send a representative or whether that will be president obama. the president visited cuba in

march of this year. the 1950'sime since that a u.s. president had been to havana. this is part of what president obama said in march. president obama: my messages to the cuban government and cuban people. the starting point for every revolution, america's revolution, cuba's revolution, the liberation movements around the world. those ideals find interesting fresh and i believe in democracy. not because american democracy is perfect but because we are not and we, like every country, need the space of markers he gives us to change. democracy the space gives us to change. we can reimagine how society needs to be and make them

better. already an evolution taking place inside of cuba, a generational change. many suggested i come here and ask the people of cuba to tear something down but i am appealing to the young people of cuba who will lift something up and build something new. [speaking spanish] [applause] host: the president at the end of the speech said the future of cuba was in the hands of the cuban people. reid on ourington, republican line, what do you think of the u.s.-cuba relations after fidel castro's death? caller: most conservatives praise his death.

witch is dead. googlepeople would castro brothers wealth. shows how site that many hundreds of millions of dollars they have reached. youtube, fidelon castro's speech, you will see black and white footage of him on the stage making his speech after he had taken over as dictator. --y let loose a cage of dogs doves and one landed on his shoulder, the crowd thought it was a sign of god. another captured that the dove defecated on his uniform and flew off. you showed the president's speech comparing the american revolution to the cuban revolution.

degrees different, the cuban revolution was a dictator implementing socialism which leads to complement that communism, the-- american revolution was opposite of that and it is astounding that the president compared it to which are completely different. our countrycrats in try to make the argument that socialism is different, not like it used to be, that it does not lead to communism. look at the dictator when he took power, he immediately was russia, ap of communist nation and was until he died and his brother today is still in the cap with china -- camp with china, a communist nation. trump rolls back everything president obama did with respect to cuba. earlier, all said

we do is increase their wealth with american dollars. the site i wrote down is therea lcuba.com. i am not promoting -- host: do you know who runs that site? caller: i googled it this morning, i am not promoting it. there are adjacent sites where you can see how much money the -- they have made. bernie sanders ran for president as a socialist, if you are to google his past, he praised the 1985 fidel castro and he said in his does on the political stash said it -- sandinistas. democrats,48-8000 202-748-8001 republicans, 202-748-8002 for all others.

a funeral will be december 4. isction on twitter, @cspanwj where eason is a tweet. -- is where you send us a tweet. back to the calls, fredericksburg, virginia, republican line. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. everybody needs to be concerned about the cubans, the amount of money they get when they come to america for free. another member of the family comes in and gets $15,000 if they come to america. we have been the greatest hoax in the world has been perpetrated on the united states in the last 80 years and this is a continuation of it. the gentleman that just spoke

about what obama had said about cuba, everyone needs to note that an common sense need to prevail in the united states. if this ever happens again possibly and possibly donald trump may be the individual to put it into play. host: money that cuban immigrants, those who flee cuba for america get/ it, whenou can google you arrive into america, you get an amount of money if you are from cuba, i do not understand it all, i do not understand much of what goes on in giving people that have never paid taxes money when we struggle to work your cell selling and get your kids through college and pay the taxes, moreney in

than college, more than two, it is an absurdity -- more than food, it is an absurdity. host: we heard about the celebrations, the associated press reporting, they said within a half an hour of the cuban governor -- governments official announcement fidel castro had died, host: democrats line, rona,

virginia, good morning. -- roanoke, virginia, good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. fidel castro was a tyrant and i am glad he died of natural causes. everyone should die of natural causes. many people died in jail just for opposing and speaking out against castro. some of them could be as young as 15 or as old as 82. and you would not get good treatment in cuba for a long time if you told -- if you knew d about castro and express yourself.

peace be with him. i am glad he is gone for now. he had family around him when he died. thank you. host: winston-salem, north carolina, kirby, i am sorry, hang on a second. in winston-salem, north carolina. sarah, in westfield, indiana, independent line. caller: this is a great day, america is a great nation. , i was bornafrica and raised in africa, i was invited to come here. explain, america is at a great advantage when we open our borders and get cuba involved

because if you think if the borders were open, people over there could be happier in america, it is a country that can take millions of people and the very strong and very resourceful. , i wascame to america nothing, i helped american companies be much bigger than what they are. deliver a plan which will bring the american health care system which will on thess than a quarter dollar, at 76 years old, my brother is a doctor and he could not help people and a lot of doctors do not help. health less than $4000 in my whole life. host: we go to alex and maryland, -- in maryland, independent line, your thoughts on the death of fidel castro.

caller: he was the best thing to happen in cuba and the worst thing to happen in cuba. the worst because he stopped the right of due process, you could be jailed for just about anything. you could not get out necessarily and the best thing to happen because he brought medicine and education to the poor. batista never would have done that. that was a great thing for the general public of cuba. it is with both regret and with joy that he has passed. caller: winston, salem north -- winston-salem, north carolina, kirby, independent line. caller: i am a person of caller and i have a second cousin whose father is from cuba. before castro, they still have civil rights problems.

before castro the congressman from the south would go to cuba and his family was discriminated against and some still have problems. the treatment was no different than it was in north carolina, mississippi, alabama, louisiana, so when we talk about the people who remained in cuba and those who went to miami, we need to remember that it was not all just castro, it was both sides. about the racism and discrimination that happened before he took over. we still do not see many people of color in his administration but it is better for the people now than before. host: early in the morning on the east coast and the news of death announced overnight and no word on any possible funeral plans -- attended by u.s. officials.

we hear reports that the funeral will be next sunday it santiago, cuba. 202-748-8000 is the number to call for democrats. 202-748-8001 is the number to call for republicans. miami herald, fidel castro is the and they write about story goes fidel castro who towered over his caribbean island for more than five decades with his bearded figure in combat fatigues, his long shadow across latin america and the world is dead at 90, his brother announced the death late friday night. millions cheered on the day he entered havana and millions more fled the communist dictators repressive police state leaving behind their possessions, families, the island they love, and often their very lives, part of the paradox of castro that many people belong to both groups. oscar in silver spring,

republican line, your thoughts? caller: and my on the air? host: go ahead. caller: people have not brought up the fact, they are cheering his death but those are mostly the white humans, really the spaniards, he fought racism on the island. who left of the people with the white spaniards who had oppressed people and to have gotten all the money. thatact of the matter is things have gotten better for people of color there. an earlier caller said the american revolution was the exact opposite, in typical racist fashion they refused to mention that the american revolution had its very foundation with slavery and oppression of native americans. -- cuban revolutionary revolution was better because everybody had liberation, not

just for quite males. -- white males. host: the inspiration for the front pageution -- this morning of the new york times talks about the exodus of venezuela's leaving that country in the wake of economic calamity. the front page story with a picture of people boarding votes off of venezuela for the caribbean island of curaçao, they say venezuela was once one of latin america's richest countries, flush with oil wells that attracted immigrants from places as varied as europe and the middle east, after president hugo chavez fell to break the country's economic elite and redistribute wealth to the poor, the rich and middle class that the more welcoming countries in drove, creating what demographers described as venezuela's first the aspera -- diaspora.

150,000one is underway, venezuelans have fled the country in the last year, the highest in more than one decade according to scholars studying the exodus. i will show you part of the second page of the story on the exit is of venezuelans, and -- inprovided oil exchange for medical care and other trade with cuba over the years until the decline in oil prices. on that story of venezuelans living backcountry, the new york times says despite the desperate venezuela's are streaming across the amazon basin by the tens of thousands to reach brazil. they are concocting elaborate scams to sneak through airports in the caribbean nations that once accepted them freely. when venezuela opened its border with colombia for two days in july, 120,000 people poured across to buy food. an untold number stayed.

the venezuelans are now fleeing by drs -- sea. fidel castro dead at 90, the news announced overnight, your reaction and the future of u.s. policy with cuba. anthony is in brooklyn, good morning, independent line. caller: this is tony from broken and i was there in 1962 when cuba was revolution is. -- revolutionized. it, i hearnot see fortysomething's talk about that and they do not know shit. host: watch the language, tony. south carolina, democrats line, margaret. many people will not notice because so many people do not know their history. i am not good at history you do but i am good at saying that

this man saved my father's life. i will always be grateful to him for doing that. along -- deep-sea fishing, his vote sank -- boat say, my father and two people survived and they were ticketed and given dry clothing and food. when the storm was over, they were let go because they were not hostages. they were being cared for. i think that people forgot that castro or his property or his county, those things were put in hise, extremist -- strictness, so the united states cannot steal it from him. host: your father is an american

who was working on a ship? caller: yes. host: navy or merchant marines? caller: merchant marines. all the people drown except for a few. castro sent a ship out there to pick up the survivors. and he took care of them. he gave them food and clothing and i will always remember that because my father came home in december. that year he did not get there until february. caller: what year was that? what year wast: that? --ler: host: reaction on twitter, @cspanwj is where you send your

thoughts. cuba allowede of to cheer the death and cuba? i doubt it. americans have host: democrats line, freddie come indianapolis. caller: how could we judge 10% of the a mere people in this country own pretty much everything? we had an election in which won.d trump one -- the tyrants in this country is capitalism and these people who voted for donald trump think that he will do so much. the only way we will have

prosperity in this country is to get rid of capitalism and that 10% ceiling of those 2% who own everything in this country. -- 10% who own everything in this country. host: fidel castro dead at the age of 90. the washington post says to his legion of followers, mr. castro who is a hero. he was not afraid to point his this allowed the powerful. his admirers say he educated, that, provided helped her to his people and to the poor in other countries or family and generously than the world's wealthy nature destinations. -- the world's wealthy nations. he was among the world's most repressive leaders, a self-appointed president for speech, and iee ticketed or jailed thousands of political opponents. he abolished christmas as an official holiday for nearly 30

years while he dispatched cubans educated doctors and develop vaccines for the poorest corners of latin america. cubans in central havana found from as she shows him the of medicine and many lived in apartments and which they used buckets in their kitchens as toilets. miami,ear next from independent line. caller: good morning, good morning. i was watching c-span this morning, very educational. i have been in miami almost 70 years, i remember the cuban flight. when they came here, they made everyone become a republican to be free. if 80%at cuba, i say black over there and 20% white, nothing against that but the problem is the only wants to

come over are the white. es should be a lot more whit coming over. and when they get here they get free food stamps. they get social security for life. they do not put a nickel into the pot. -- lack america these people are arrogant, they do not listen, they see it their way, they have no way but one way. i do not want anyone to go under dictatorship because black america in america, we have been under that for the last hundred years. -- 400 years. for donald trump to have vladimir putin as one of his friends, to me that is an outrage. that should not be.

in america, you have the right to have your opinion, thank god for that. these people who come over here are very arrogant, i am not for a dictatorship but i think everybody should have a common ground. host: seeing reaction on twitter from members of the florida delegation, particularly those in south florida. they said the passing of the dictator marks the end of the long and horrifying chapter in the cuban history and the cuban people need our solidarity. mario diaz-balart, he says that a tyrant is dead and the fight for free and democratic cuba never stops. you can find out more if you go on twitter and see our list of members of congress and see them .

a few more minutes of your phone calls and we will continue this thoughts onking you the news of the death of fidel castro overnight at the age of 90 and what this means for u.s. i think you've relations. jason, bellerose, new york. good morning. you are on the air. go ahead. are you there? go ahead. greg is next on our democrats line. in new york city. are you there? caller: yes i am. good morning. host: go ahead. comments,o quick this is a telling day that the people of cuba are celebrating and chanting which would have been banned earlier. with our current president who went to cuba to restore relations and did the wave at a baseball stadium was a guy

responsible for murdering people. they prove is we have people in the streets celebrating his brother stepped yet our president of the free world is standing up and doing the way with this murdering guy. that message is strong. also, i heard it before, the message is great for other dictators, discussing dictators, they will not be showing this because of the propaganda. this is a message to those people who keep other people oppressed that it is now working. thank you for your time -- it is not working. thank you for your time. sayingbc, jeremy corbyn that fidel castro has been such a huge danger in our lives, rook: beat revolution, the missile crisis, the personal visits to cuba, jeremy corbyn praise the casters for their

recent rapprochement with the host: rick, independent line, los angeles. caller: despite the fact that fidel castro was a dictator which many other nations have, we may have one in the white house in january. africa wouldsouth still be writing had it not been for castro putting 20000 and 30,000 of his troops into angola and pushing back the south african troops. allowing nelson mandela to be free. , do not care what happened

particularly with the spanish cubans who were us racists when they came here as some of the southerners. , it iswhat he did actually free south africa. group to go back. whatever these other folks are talking about, they have no idea what happened in south africa because the person who they were fighting against was ronald reagan and his team. of 10 or 12one fact years of fighting the south africans is enough for me to say the man was great. host: new bedford, texas, tony, independent line. caller: thank you for taking my call, i love c-span. hd.sh i could get it on

i think it is an end of this i go and i think the americans played it perfectly. said that there and the world has moved on and that this great beer -- great leader of his revolution has died and it is the finish of it. i would hope that the republicans understand that it is geared up for the republican party. i hope they make the right decisions and use this as an advantage. host: given where the policy has gone since the announcement of the normalization of relations the cuba in 2014-2015, president's visit and further changes and the allowing of daily flights to cuba, what is next under a trumpet administration -- tropical -- trump administration? caller: when ever we bring up these cars, we can tell lots of

lives lost but there is no doubt it is geared up for a republican. jeb bush would be a great president for right now. did know that america is a world leader. they would embrace it and try to help others understand this is the way to live. it is a cycle and a fortunate one. i pray that our lawmakers understand what a circumstance that has occurred. i hope they embrace it. host: reaction on twitter. donna said he was under pressure despite free health care. urban dwellers, said the caller is right about the white cubans being arrogant, i work with them and they are prejudiced against white people.

vivian says americans can be hypocrites, we jail more people that castro ever dreamed of. one more call, we will return to this topic later in our program. jason and bellerose, new york, republican line. caller: i want to remind everybody that at the beginning of the gulf war, fidel castro and saddam hussein and some of the other communist leaders in , it wasd met in hanoi never publicized in the press here but it was publicized overseas, you could read it on the wire services. the vietnamese who we are pouring billions of dollars into right now got together and helping meeting in hanoi and dedicated themselves to working against the united states forever. people should be reminded of that, it was on the embassy website in hanoi.

the american embassy website in hanoi where you can get local news from the vietnam. people should remember that back in the early 1960's, most of the revolutions that castro was involved in -- he brought all of these radical communist leaders of these revolutions together in cuba around 1960. they held an international conference. that spawned millions of deaths all over the world. the cubans participated in that. they participated in the vietnam war. they participated everywhere else throughout africa. there is a debt hole behind castro. host: we appreciate honor comments, more about the death of fidel castro later in the program as washington journal continues. to eugenee will talk

mulero who covers the white house and we will get a preview of how the congress and donald trump might work together on repairing america's crumbling infrastructure. later, postelection hate crimes on the rise, an american university law professor and top -- former top civil rights official at the justice department will be here to talk about his rhyme laws and how they are prosecuted. talk abouton "-- hate crime laws and how they are prosecuted. more ahead on "washington journal." >> some featured programs coming up this weekend on c-span, tonight at 8:00 eastern company state of the black role conference, the impact of the 2016 election. and listening to -- analyst include julian below, melanie gambill, executive director of the national coalition for black civil participation and the

moderator, host of "make it plain." and the mayor of newark, new jersey. >> when we get together as black folks and have an agenda, we also have to unite with other people to win. the object is to win, not just rubble 20 sick of struggle. -- not just struggle for the sake of struggle. all kinds of things going on, people are dead come we are not activists and revolutionaries because it is fun. we do not do this to be praised, they did it because it was necessary. values,sat on american the purpose of government and the founding fathers. >> the meaning of america is persuasion, love. the meaning of america is building a better product or persuading somebody to marry you

or persuading someone to join your church or synagogue. is a huge civic mindedness and american history. >> sunday evening at 6:30, newt gingrich, van jones, and patrick kennedy discuss opioid addiction and treatment. -- van jones: people have to change their minds and change their brains. this is a biological thing. once the doctor and you these bills after you break her collarbone, these pills damage your can. an.damage the org sunday, december 4 on booktv's in-depth, we are hosting a discussion on the december 1941 attack on pearl harbor on the

eve of the 75th anniversary. toomey, an author , and greg nelson with this book "pearl harbor: from infamy to greatness." had an interview with a pearl harbor survival, a first-hand account of pearl harbor. we will take your phone calls and email questions live from noon to 3:00 eastern. go to booktv.org for the complete we can schedule. -- weekend schedule. "washington journal" continues. host: joining us is eugene mulero. he is here to talk about what could be the first ever on behalf of confidence first effort from congress in terms of major progress -- projects, infrastructure, the president laid out his desire for infrastructure projects, what

have we heard from him during the campaign? what is the likely price tag, what does he want to do? two pricehave heard points for donald trump, he touted during the campaign and infrastructure financial plan said invest in infrastructure over 10 years by providing tax credits to companies that are looking to build large-scale projects, bridges, roadways. they will be privatizing in the existing and new infrastructure. the other plan from the transition campaign is a 500 and 50 billion. -- $550 billion investment in infrastructure but no further details. -- this $550 about billion plan will be through the issuance of bonds, that is more people from the campaign talking to reporters but there is nothing concrete on the trapped transition website.

transition website. host: you write that the industry executive saw the president-elect's interest in modernizing the country's infrastructure as a glass half full. why did they react that way? guest: for the transportation good whenlarge, it is lawmakers and the president is talking about infrastructure and the need to boost funding. that is where the optimism comes in. talking about the road builders, trucking associations, state highway officials, the chamber of commerce, there is enthusiasm that finally congress -- congress is finally committing to looking into a long-term plan. what the concern is, how will you pay for these projects? while they are enthusiastic about the buzz that donald trump

is getting, at the same time, the devil is in the details because these group would rather see an increase in gas tax at the federal level instead of going through privatizing roads because that would add to: and some groups -- tolling. host: this report card is a couple years old. it says all the same grades when you look at it. the infrastructure report, specifically on transport issues, a d and transport, c+.tion, roads, rail a trillion, all -- $3.6 you are saying the illustration -- the income administration is proposing what? guest: tax credits to companies

which will fall short of what you are pointing out that they say we need, almost $4 trillion through 2020 just to bring up our infrastructure nationwide to make it a place of good repair. host: eugene mulero covers transport issues and congress for transport topics. we are talking about infrastructure spending, what has been proposed by the administration and what likely will happen in congress. 202-748-8000 is the number to call or democrats. 202-748-8001 is the number to call for democrats. all others, 202-748-8002. .r send us a tweet @cspanwj some specificity for the people in the trucking industry saying that lawmakers that they would like to see lawmakers advance and donald trump sign a plan that would address the federal highway trust fund's

sustainability. what is that and why do they think it is not sustainable at this point? guest: it is an account of the department of transportation at the federal level uses to help states finance the project. that's big projects, minas projects and new projects guest maintenance projects and the projects which has been in place since the eisenhower administration and helped build the interstate highway system and relies primarily on revenue from the gas tax and diesel tax. our -- the countries fuel efficiency in cars we are not putting a lot in the gas tax which is why the highway trust fund is not getting the revenue it needs to sustain the infrastructure projects. all the states are scrambling for money to repair these projects. decade,past more than a

congress has been injecting short-term funding fixes to keep the trust fund afloat because it is unsustainable. and there was a new law last acted thated -- and keeps the trust fund operating through 2021. the question is what happens after that. want donald trump in congress to fix something and make sure there is a long-term sustainability after 2021. host: the money is now coming from other places, not enough money coming in from the way it has come in so far. guest: they took it from the federal reserve and the strategic petroleum reserve and not from the traditional way, from fuel taxes. host: donald trump infrastructure spending a key part of his speeches in the campaign and carried that through his election night

speech, his victory speech. donald trump: working together do the urgent task of rebuilding our nation and renewing the american dream. i have spent my entire life and business. looking at the untapped potential in projects and in people all over the world. that is now what i want to do for our country. [applause] trump: tremendous potential, i have gone to know our country so well, tremendous potential, it will be a beautiful thing. every single american will have the opportunity to rely on his or her fullest potential. be forgotten men and women of our country will be forgotten no longer. [applause] we will fix our

inner cities and rebuild our highways, bridges, tunnels, airports, schools, hospitals, we will rebuild our infrastructure. which will become, by the way, second to none. we will put millions of our people to work as we rebuild it. host: donald trump on his victory speech, saying we will rebuild the inner cities and infrastructure, a broad range of constituencies that he has to satisfy. what opposition -- the biggest opposition he will face on capitol hill? guest: right now from democrats and even though you heard nancy pelosi and chuck schumer say they will work with donald trump infrastructure, at the same time bernie sanders, who is now a member of senate leadership, he is calling donald trump's plan a scam which has been a good by

his colleagues -- echoed by his colleagues, democrats on the side, they say that bernie sanders will reintroduce a bill he has, a $1 trillion bill for infrastructure on his own which would be for raising taxes, the opposite of what donald trump is talking about. democrats will push back whatever effort of donald membersoposals but also of his own party. the house republican leaders, paul ryan and mitch mcconnell, what they have said is that we have a five year highway bill that keeps the highway trust fund funded through 2021. host: that was passed last year. guest: paul ryan was suggesting that there is no urgency to move

during the first 100 days like donald trump said on new infrastructure plans. cohead,ry in new york, republican line -- go ahead, republican line. 600 $50 billion that president obama got for infrastructure, where did that go, he also got some tart from the george bush. -- bernie sanders just called donald trump's plan a scam, we just lost the money for infrastructure. maybe put a new spin on it. guest: that point comes up all the time, the concept of shovel ready jobs, i will not put a spin on it, i will tell people billion that$800 the obama administration had proposed initially for new projects and to rebuild infrastructure, what has happened is that money has been allocated to states and has been

available to states. administration took some of that funding to create within the department administration a division called build america bureau which assists states in connecting through investors to build and maintain -- for maintenance projects on infrastructure so about 10% of that money from the initial obama administration on shovel-ready jobs has been enacted and put into place. the ress has been contained by states and is at the federal level, at d.o.t., and it's just a matter of going through the whole process, the regulation and applications, to get permits for these projects. we're talking big projects that are not overnight. host: at the they are still pending. guest: correct. so states have it, d.o.t. have it and it's just a matter for the states to go to d.o.t. and

go through the application process and get it through fin nsing, loans, grants, et cetera. zphoo and the so-called obama administration stimulus was passed in 2009. guest: and money from that, what we're talking about infrastructure, was divvied up into new programs, a grant program, an infrastructure grant prasm, a transportation loan program. so -- and my point is that it's not that the money disappeared and has been sitting there and nobody's using it. it's that it's a process that for some of the projects that, it takes several years for the application process and for stace to go through the regulations to acquire access to these moneys so they can proceed with these projects. host: typically, do you know about the average size of the grant that's pending from that 2009 money waiting to be spent by states? guest: not necessarily from the

2009 money. once it's been through the whole formula, money in to d.o.t., i know that d.o.t. we're talking about something like $2 billion for the loans to come out through the tiffia program and then the tiger grant program is -- tiffia is a loan program. tiger grant program needs congressional approval in order for d.o.t. to disburse that money. so that figure is something that once it goes through d.o.t. it's not that it's just sitting there. it's just d.o.t. has distributed through other financial avenues. host: let's hear from cincinnati. caller: thank you. good morning. my question is on a specific nfrastructure project.

i-75 bridge that goes over that's actually owned by kentucky. mr. obama stood if front of the bridge back in 2009, said this is one of the projects that needs to be done. and it's like a hot potato. i've lied here almost 20 years and they've been talking about it. it carries three times the volume it's supposed to and carries 4% of the g.d.p. of america and yet it doesn't seem like anything can get done on this bridge. it's really getting dangerous. i was just wondering if something is finally going to happen as far as getting a large enough amount of money to get this thing going. 's going to be like a $2.6 million project. guest: this is a local bridge that for your caller he should actually be optimistic because

mitch mcconnell, senate majority leader, has actually been calling for new money to repair this bridge. it's integral from the flathe corridor and that kentucky, indiana, area. and he's -- the caller has a good point that actually the states have been struggling to come up with the funding to repair this bridge. and this has been going on for several years. but on capitol hill with the republican leadership in the house and senate and mitch mcconnell being there, there's an expectation that he is going to follow through and -- not through earmarks because there's an earmark ban but through other channels. there's going to be an injection of assistance for this bridge project. host: we're talking with gene with transport topics, covers capitol hill. talking about infrastructure spending. just to recap some of the proposals that have been made

by president-elect donald trump. infrastructure, roads, pipelines, electrical grids, totally self-financing. he would tax the wages paid to construction workers and profits collected by companies and tax the income balances of the ref new lost to income tax credits. that's part of the plan proposed by donald trump. getting your thoughts and actions to what the president and congress should do. good morning to diane. republican line. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. it seems to me that the way that this will end up being paid for is by low and middle income taxpayers at the gas pump or other means. they need to go to work. and i'm wondering what the impact might be of a luxury tax instead. not instead, or maybe even partially paid for by a luxury tax on things that millionaires

buy. yachts, high-end cars, anything related to transportation. if you could comment on that, please. thank you. guest: well, you have speaker ryan in the house saying that they want to push forward with a comprehensive tax reform early next year. so that's guest: well, something that he does and he does include highway infrastructure financing in that package, there's an expectation that there's going to be either a series of corporate taxes or some maybe luxury taxes in the worked. i doubt republicans are going to pursue that but i can see somebody like bernie sanders really touting that. and too go back to trump's plan. it's actually written by billionaire invester ross who is in the short running to be commerce secretary. the one thing -- i've read the plan several times and talked to economists. the one thing about the plan,

this is the infrastructure one, is that i talked to two leading economist ons transportation and an economist over at my alma mater and what they're telling me is that the way it's written is very obtuse. it's not a very layman's document for everyday people. and the other thing is that you pointed out the plan would pay for itself by after you giving the tax breaks to corporations, that the income -- the revenue from the income tax on the employees that you would hire, that would make up for the tax breaks. so then what economists told me is that you're relying on the fact that you're going to hire millions of people for these new projects. trump said during the campaign that his -- this plan would in fact hire millions of new employees. but in an interview with fox business news, wilber ross, who

i reached out to the campaign for more details, he didn't endorse that number. he said it would be about $1 million. when i go back to the economists they tell me that would not be sufficient. the other point on the trusm plan is that they even write in the plan, and -- is that this whole concept of the revenue from the income tax on the employees to pay for the plan is a concept that is new. ok. so this is a new really untested formula to pay for infrastructure. and what the transportation groups are telling everybody is that we don't have to reinvent the wheel. we've had a good invention in the gas tax and the diesel tax. we don't need to toll the roadways. if congress actually just raised the fuel tax we could index it to inflation. we would have sustainability with this account. security for states looking to invest in big projects.

and we could do the maintenance and -- of what you pointed out, an infrastructure system that has earned a d-plus gray. host: one of our viewers karen also questioning the funding of the mechanism. bernie in ohio. good morning. caller: good morning. it seems to me that the way to money -- the way the money is allocated doesn't make any sense. in columbus, ohio we have a ring of highways which are now up to 12-13 lanes across and we still can't handle the traffic. to me, they won't stop building highways until they pave the entire city. they'll pave every piece of property available. it doesn't make any sense. and then they will finally go through public transportation

like subways and busing and light rail. this doesn't make any sense. the second thing is if states want the money why don't they raise the taxes? they have the people in front of them. if they need a project they should raise their own taxes. in my mind it's best to lower the taxes so they go to public transportation and stop all this nonsense of paving the entire united states until there's no place else to pave. host: the issue of public transportation. one is it addressed by the trump plan. secondly, would congress like to see that included? guest: my review of his plan, i didn't see anything about transit projects. however, trump had talked about rail. but nothing that i saw. congress has many -- members of congress of congress from urban areas really tout transit and rail as a way to help with mobile, especially in urban centers. it's worth noting that the federal highway trust fund, the

way it's allocated, 80% is meant to go to highways and bridges and surface transportation networks. the remaining 20% give or take is for transit projects. your caller also brought up that i think he said that states should raise -- host: yes. guest: actually, states have raised the gas tax recently because many states have raised the gas tax, recently my home state of new jersey. host: 20 cents. guest: 23 cents. i went back home for thanksgiving in central jersey and i was surprised that everybody at the dinner table was talking about the gas tax. host: why was it raised so much? guest: because new jersey has thousands of bridges that are structurally deficient and they have lacked federal support. this is according to legislatures. and there was an effort -- the

locals at state transportation fund was -- had been on the brink of bankruptcy and running out of money. they couldn't wait for the federal government to come in with a boosting and injection of support, so finally they ran out of what other places to inject money from. people lators went to and said we need to raise taxes. and they said it was time to do so. chris christie signed it in to law and then they even had a referendum on the ballot in november to ensure that that money would stay in a lock box. that it wouldn't go -- the transportation fund would not be used for other projects. and then the new jersey -- it's a test case for what proponents of transportation projects say should happen at the federal level. that this is a very big urban

center. new jersey, a place that connects philly and new york. and they needed the money, they make money, and they needed to push forward. and the federal lawmakers should emulate that. host: that's 23 cents on top of the current federal gas tax. guest: correct. host: here's where that federal gas tax stands now, 18.4 creants gallon, the diesel tax is 24.4 cents a gallon. if it's indexed the gas tax now would be about 29 crenlts a gallon, diesel tax about 39. they haven't had an increase in the federal gas tax has not increased since 1993. chris on our democrats line. welcome. caller: thanks. quick question i want to ask about the railway systems. so we've been giving subsidies to amtrak for a long time now, since their inception, and the

republicans recently passed a bill to keep securing those subsidies. so when you look at the trump plan as well, it seems like they want to put a strategy forth where corporate welfare is incentivized and that would create jobs. what i'm trying to get at is how are these subsidies making it more efficient for our -- people of this country to get from point a to point b. you look at amtrak and they've been losing millions of dollars since their inception. how is that efficient for the american taxpayer? thank you. guest: i can touch on that. your caller brings a good point about amtrak. so amtrak does make money, a profit, on its northeast corridor line which goes from boston all the way to d.c. where they lose money is on their rural routes. you have lawmakers from --

representing these parts of the country who say that their residents need access, an alternative other than cars, to get around. that's why they push on capitol hill to subsidize amtrak funding on these rural lines. it's actually a very big debate on capitol hill because within the republican party you have those who would like to see is the subsidies and others say get rid of the lines. have amtrak be where it is corporate and make profits. one of the outgoing members of congress john mica of florida has been a staunch critic of amtrak where he has been calling for the privatizing of many of these rural lines and even perhaps the northeast corridor. so they subsidize it because the rural lines don't make enough money and you've got proponents on capitol hill who would want to still see that

connectivity there. host: let's hear from nevada. good morning dave, republican line. caller: thank you for taking my call. i just want to talk in general about trump's campaign promises, transportation, but all of the other entities that he has promised. he has the power, because a nonpolitician, he has the power to use -- a power that no other president in the united states has ever used and that is the power of the people. if any congressman or senator is opposing his campaign promises, he can ask the people to go stand on their doorstep at their lobbyists to their grocery store, restaurants, and tell them they're hurting america, to get on the program. to get with the new administration to fulfill their campaign promises. instead of saying they wouldn't let me do it. or i had to do an executive

order. so that's my comment. host: is there a rural and urban divide in terms of the infrastructure needs? obviously infrastructure with cities is important. what about the roads themselves? are the cities more needy than the rural areas or places where the interstate highway system connects to? guest: metropolitan centers are the wunds that really need the help. so it's urban centers and centers that are referred to as freight corridors. so a freight corridor in the arizona, the phoenix area. the corridor points in dallas, chicago, chicago also being an urban center. so your cities are the ones that are in the most need of assistance to build and rebuild these roads. another thing to point out in this trump plan is that it also is calling for building new

projects. and what the states are telling capitol hill is that they don't really need new projects. what they need is funding to maintain existing projects. that's the problem, that these bridges are ending their service life, roadways have ended their service life. you heard from the ines hour -- they're from the eisenhower era. so they're scrambling to come up with the funding for these roadways. and also on the rural level, places in rural america that need new projects, the trump plan -- if we're talking about privatizing roadways, that would mean putting tolls and you're going to have investors reaching out -- investors are going to be looking for projects that will return a profit. you do that through volume. if you're an invester and build in rural america, you know that -- you know you're not going to

have enough traffic in that road to get your return on investment. you're going to do it where there's going to be a lot of cars. and the places where you have a lot of cars is where you have the trucking industry say, hey, we're stuck in traffic. if you put a toll there you're not only going to tax us twice but you'll slow down our trucks. host: rose on our democrats line. caller: thank you for taking my call. i really like the thinks that you've mentioned about the tax plans. putting them in to perspective. a couple of things that i would like to say about the transtarnsy of money, like sweden apparently doesn't use cash bills any more. they do electronic funds. so what you mentioned about taxing the employees, the incl struction workers. now they're being taxed and there's some money from that presents the disparity of let's

say immigrants that are being paid off the books, that i think that trump should have to look in to because he's been accused of that. but so there's more transparency, more income. the positive train control with amtrak that supposedly was finally approved of, amtrak like you said the northeast corridor. there's absolutely no train stations signs. so as you're arriving at the strain station if you're in the middle of the night on a silent train you have no idea your stop. so a lot of concerns. so is the luxury tax is a great idea. so my question is, as far as reforming the tax code, what can you tell us about more transparency about taxes that need to go in to these? not just the gas tax. because, as you said, now i understand why it's just underfunded. guest: the whole concept of

transparency has come up transportation groups are bringing that up. so i'm reforming the -- on reforming the tax code it will be how much access the lawmakers give to the public on how they go about tweaking and reforming corporate tax reform. if it's something like if we see something like during the -- when they were working on obamacare and they did that behind closed doors or do they actually put it out in the public so then you have debates and markups, et cetera. and the other point on transparency when we go back to trump's infrastructure plan, there's going to be -- the d.o.t. is going to look for -- is going to reach out to companies to -- let's say -- it all depends on congress. congress will have to approve this plan. let's say they do. you have d.o.t. reaching out to private investors. so now you have construction companies that would get these contracts. one thing about transparency is

when you talk about the administration is that we haven't seen the full dose yea of the finances of donald trump through his -- so we don't know if the trump organization has a stake or an interest, equity, in a construction company. and if that company gets a bid and it wins the bid for a infrastructure project, then ergo trump organization would see a cut of that profit. so transparency is very -- not to be redundant -- very important here. and the critics of this plan point to that. the trump plan misses out on the transparency. host: on paying for it here is what alfred tweets. what does he mean by offshore? uest: so the trump plan also

theerizes that a way to get the private equity to come in for the plan is through repatriating overseas corporate profits. that is, putting a tax -- taxing profits on offshore accounts and then bringing that money at a very low tax rate to incent vise to bring that money back. host: is that a popular idea on capitol hill? guest: it's an idea they have some support. democrats have touted it. i believe senate leaders have been talking about repatriating. and i think hillary clinton talked about repatriating a little bit through -- and then also her infrastructure bank. the obama administration talks about it. and trump was very critical of the hillary clinton proposal and now it's peculiar theags talking about repatriation in this plan. if leaders go with repatriation, it will be part

of this whole tax reform package that paul ryan wants to move forward with. host: lets hear from sergio, independent line. caller: thank you for taking my call. on the repailt ration issue, that has been done before. it was done in 2004 under the bush administration. and there was a lot of talk about repatriation of money going to spur economic development. and then we had the meltdown of 2007-2009. second thing. i'm a science teacher but i like to look at the math of this whole infrastructure thing. paul ryan is pushing for a corporate tax cut of 35% to 15%. so tax ref nuzz will decrease there. we're also talking about giving tax incentives to corporations, big businesses for infrastructure spending. but then on the far end of this, it's supposed to be paid for by taxes by people who are supposed to be carrying out or working on these infrastructure

projects. i don't see how the math works out. thank you for taking my call. guest: your point the economist that is i talk to agree with you they don't see how the math works out. i read the plan many times. i shared it with colleagues and peers. and then when i really study the interview that will bur ross did explaining the plan, he really talks about the theatricals of that if -- the what if's of the plan, but not necessarily really commiting that in fact they are going to have enough employees, to move forward with the plan. another criticism of this plan is that when you go back to the campaign trump kept touting the fact that he was a real estate mogul and a builder. that's why he was more equipped than clinton to handle infrastructure. well, we did an analysis of his

firm and the trump campaign -- i'm sorry. the trump company has not built projects in the last ten years. what they do is they do acquisitions of projects and they lee the trump name. so this concept of trump being this master builder like robert moses was in new york city, that's a myth. what trump is is a person who is a very good marketer and he really marketed this plan well. and he has leased his name. but transportation groups never saw this person as this visionary infrastructure man. host: a couple of look-backs at the 2009 stimuluses. writing in the "washington post" opinion page.

let's get one more call for our guest this morning. jim is here on the line in san antonio, texas. go ahead. caller: i've been a republican my whole life. my family and everything. and ever since bush got in to office apparently he just went spend scrazey and nobody raised

taxes on the rich. i'm hoping that the people that voted for trump will have to force trump to tax the rich finally. do you think that would happen to pay for everything? guest: that's an age-old question. who do you tax? talk to bernie sanders he says tax the rich. last i heard, trump is a rich person so he will be taxing himself. there was a lot of speculation whether he paid taxes for the past 20 years. this is something that paul ryan is going to look in to during the tax reform issue in the spring. host: we're seeing the headline in transport topics. senate democrats receptive. that's chuck schumer of course. he said his caucus would challenge trump to follow through on large-scale infrastructure proposals. he warned if his administration were to backtrack, he would be reaking his promise.

how soon do you think this debate over infrastructure spend willing get under way in the 115th? guest: i'm expecting to see it in the first trump budget proposal. i'm expecting to see the nuts and bolts of it there. if it's not there then i don't see it in the first 100 days. host: that proposals comes out when? guest: february, march. but it's worth noting that even if the trump administration pushes infrastructure early on, there's going to be a big traffic jam on capitol hill on other issues. the repeal of obamacare, the undoing of dodd-frank, nominations, supreme court nominations. and this is something that transportation proponents were bringing up to me that, ok, so you're going to talk about infrastructure. but it's just there's going to be a lot on capitol hill. and mitch mcconnell said that infrastructure was not on his top items on the agenda.

host: one way or another a big debate ahead. follow eugene's reporting at transport topics. thanks for the update. look forward to hearing more about it. more ahead on "washington journal." we will revisit the news this morning of the death of fidel castro. post election hate crimes are on the rise. and william yeomans a law professer at american university and top civil rights official at the justice department. here to talk about hate crime laws and how they're prosecuted as "washington journal" continues this morning.

for our complete history

schedule go to c-span.org. host: if james madison is the architect of the constitution, then george washington is the general contracter. if you ever build a house or put an addition on for some it looks more like what the general contracter has in mind than what the architect has in mind. >> president george washington's role in unifying the country and ratifying the first federal document in his new book george washington nationalist. >> what they wanted to do is recruit washington in. hamilton had already talked to washington before about this democracy stuff is never going to work. you're going to have to be our king. washington was a true republican. he believed in republican overnment. host: bill yeoman a former

assistant attorney general teaching law at american university here to talk with us about hate crime laws. the f.b.i. reports on 2015 the rise in hate crimes particularly against muslims in the united states at a record level. step back for a second. when we hear the term hate laws or hate crime, rather, what specifically what is a hate crime? guest: generally what we're talking about is some conduct that is motivated by race, color, religion, national origin, sexual orientation, gender identity. there's a patchwork of laws across the country both state and federal that prohibit conduct that is motivated by those things. so most of the states now have some form of hate crime law. they prohibit -- they cover

different categories of conduct. and at the federal level, there are now several hate crime laws. there is the matthew shepherd james bur jr. hate crime act passed in 2009 which expanded the original hate crime law, federal hate crime law passed in 1968 along with the fair housing act. it was passed as part of the 1968 civil rights act. what those do is to prohibit generally the the use of force or threats of force against someone because of their race, color, religion national origin, sexual orientation, disability, gender, gender identity. nd if the crime is motivated by race, that's enough. if it's motivated by something else and if it's by race or religion that's enough. if it's something else like gender, disability, sexual orientation, then the federal government has to prove that there's some nexus to interstate commerce.

host: in most of these cases they're not either federal or state level existing stats tutes that would cover the prowess cushion of an individual regardless of whether there was a hate crime law on the book. guest: there's an important distinction. at the state level almost everything that a state could prosecute is otherwise covered as a crime. and the hate portion of it is an add-on. and it's added on because society has determined that crimes motivated by these categories of conduct inflict greater harm on society. so the punishment is greater. at the federal level, you know, there is no general federal criminal code. so at the federal level these crimes can only be prosecuted because they are hate crimes. and it's the hate portion that is the nexus that allows the federal prosecution. host: what about the term hate speech? how is that defined? and is that also codified into law? guest: well, of course we have

strong protections for freedom of speech in our society. generally hateful speech is tolerated. only when it crosses the line into some form of direct intimidation or is a threat, a true threat that violence will follow the speech, can it be prosecuted. host: give us an example sort of when that crosses. are there recent examples of somebody's speech crossing the line? guest: generally, take an example of if someone says i'm going to kill you. the context of that statement matters enormously. you could be friends in a swimming pool and somebody dunks you and you say i'm going to kill you. that's not a true threat. on the other hand, if let's say a muslim woman is walking down the street and three men come up behind her and say i'm going to kill you. that is a serious threat. host: on the specificity of

that, this is a story on the f.b.i. reporting on hate crimes . anti-muslim assaults in particular. they say the number of physical assaults reached 9/11 era levels last year. according to the pew research center their analysis from the hate crime statistics there were 91 reported aggravated or simple assaults in 2015. you teach law students obviously at american university. does this type of law come in to your lectures? guest: absolutely. and i teach civil rights law.

so we do talk about this a great deal. i think the increase in hate crimes against muslims or incidents against muslims is very significant. the f.b.i. reported there was a 67% increase between 2014 and 2015. and obviously there are different causes for that. terrorism has contributed to that. the attacks from paris into this country have spawned sometimes an unfortunate violent reaction. but i also think that as we enter the presidential season we got into dangerous territory and president-elect trump started his campaign by denouncing mexicans as rapists and murderers, and then calling for a ban on muslims coming in to the country. and i think that along with continuing statements really emboldened people in a way that was unfortunate. and that we need to address.

host: here's how to join the conversation. the numbers are on the bottom of your screen good morning to erik. caller: good morning, america. i'm glad i was able to be the first one to start this off. one of the things i find out what we're dealing with here is we have a very violent problem here in america. as i recognize the difference between islam and christianity is the word compassion and mercy. islam's state of mind teaches an eye for an eye revenge type of way of thinking. christians, we forgive. this is fulfilling of the churches. this is what we're experiencing here in america. even the church is teaching

misinformation to people that women cannot lead. this is why mr. donald trump was able to win the presidency because all the misinformation going on here. we have a culture of violence that needs to be worked on. it starts at home in our own communities. this is the year jubilee. jubilee is the year of debt relief. freeing everybody. the pope came here last year in 2015 calling for climate change, a spiritual climate change to bring balance to the world. jubilee is on the liberty bell. this is why the liberty bell is cracked. because we never did it. every 15 years as this country is supposed to start over. guest: i think it's very important to address violence wherever it occurs. frequently the -- what we need to address is cultural as well

as political. and the laws obviously can't do it all. we need to use every resource we have to limit violence in our society. host: here's baltimore, bruce, independent line. caller: good morning, america. so let's get this straight. i'm for civil rights. i agree with dr. martin luther king jr. stood for 100%. but let me tell you something. there's an awful lot of hatred of 's really thrown at some the trump supporters and voters which i am. i went to a trump rally in baltimore city downtown and i s spit on merely because i supported. and pushed around. and the officer in charge, the police officer in charge and the police broke it up right away wouldn't arrest those people that spit on me and assaulted me. so let's tell it both ways.

and some of the things that black lives matter are saying against police and against white people. and let's talk about morgan state radio. there's a guy named mark steinham that every day attacks and dispargese white people and police. the police department. so let's talk about that. let's get it straight. i supported donald trump and i'm glad. let's talk about some of the racism and discrimination that happens in that way. host: you laid out several things there. thanks for your call. guest: let me draw an important distinction. what the caller is complaining about is he says he was attacked because of his political views. because of his support for donald trump. that is not a hate crime. we're talking about something that's slightly different here, which is crimes that are motivated by the victims' race, color, national origin, et

cetera. crimes that are motivated by political opposition simply are not covered by hate crime laws. now, states, congress could pass laws that would do that. they would be very sensitive because of our first amendments and because we need to be very apolitical to debate but his experience is not a hate crime experience. host: there are five states that currently don't have state hate crime laws. arkansas, georgia, indiana, south carolina, and wyoming. just from your experience, what is it that -- so the 45 states that have hate crime laws what is it that propels a state to take that on? guest: i think a concern that, as i said before, crimes that are motivated by race, by these other factors send a very powerful message to society. they send a very powerful

message to these communities that they will be subject to violence. and so what these states have decided to do is to punish those kinds of crimes more severely as both an object of deterrence and sending a message to those communities that the law will try to protect them. host: i know one of the states is wyoming. you mentioned the matthew shepherd law. i believe was killed in wyoming. guest: he was. host: so the matthew shepherd law is a federal law. guest: it is. matthew shepherd was a young man who was beaten to death and hung out on a fence in wyoming because of his sexual orientation. and spawned the passage of this new federal statute. which has now been in effect since 2009. the last statistics i saw the federal government has charged 250 people with hate crimes.

not all under that statute. host: our guest professer of law at american university. also former assistant attorney general for civil rights. getting your comments and reactions on the phone. also some reaction on twitter. a followup to our baltimore caller. we hear from deborah in milton, florida. good morning. good morning. during the 2012 election, i was walking across the street and a

car with a bunch of white people in it sped up and almost hit me. and they were yelling out of their car get out of the road, nigger. and i was so upset. i didn't come out of my house for a whole month. you know what? my family -- my husband was in the army for 20 years and i have never, ever been treated like that at all. i was just so hurt. it does, it still upsets me. i never did anything bad to anybody. i'm not a racist or anything. and it just hurt me real bad. host: thanks for sharing your story this morning. we go next to richmond, virginia. allen. welcome. caller: good morning. look, i'm an african american in my 40's. when i tend to think about racism i think that as being a white which struct.

when i think about hate crimes i also tend to think of that being somewhat affiliated with white people. so if the gentleman would just -- just give me a quick comment about that. i would really appreciate that this morning. guest: so i'm not sure i entirely understand your question. hate crime laws have a now in this country have a long history going back to at least 1968. and they were passed the first hate crime law was passed in response to a great deal of racially motivated violence during the civil rights era. and so -- and it was the first time when the federal government really stepped in and said that it would take over some of these cases that were not being prosecuted by states. throughout much of our history racially motivated violence has been used as a tool to maintain our racial cast system. it was racially motivated

violence was the foundation for slavery. then during the jim crow era, the combination of jim crow laws and racially motivated violence were used to maintain white supremacy. and so the passage of the 196 act i think was an effort -- 1968 act was an effort to make in roads. host: from a legal perspective which is more difficult to prove? we heard the woman from florida, being called a very horrible word on the streets of florida that's obviously hate speech. but in terms of proving something is a hate crime based on the statute, is it harder than, say, racism in housing or employment? guest: well, first of all it's a crime so it has to be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. most discrimination is subject to a civil action. so it's only a preponderance of the evidence. but also it's necessary to prove and if it goes to trial to prove to a jury that the iven tent was to undertake this

violent act because of race. so you really do have to show to some extent what was in the defendant's head at the time that he or she committed the act. and that can be difficult. but frequently there's a lot of circumstantial evidence. for instance, take the example of dillon roof who is now being tried in south carolina for shooting nine african americans who were engaged in bible study in charleston. before he committed the shootings he wrote a long racist creed about how he wanted to start a race war and left that behind. so his motive was pretty clear. frequently in these crimes we do have evidence like that. host: obviously he's charged with horribly murdering nine people. there's a murder charge there. in terms of what he is charged with murder and on top of that this hate crime would be another offense. guest: well, he's charged both federally and by the state. and so what is happening now is the federal trial.

at the federal level he can only be charged because he actd with the racial motivation. it's not -- every murder is not a federal crime. there has to be some particular circumstance that brings it within federal jursdicks. his racial motivation does that. so he's been charged with a number of hate crime offenses and the federal government is asking for the death penalty. the state has also charged him and will charge him with all these counts of murder. as you said, south carolina is one of the five remaining states that does not have a hate crime law so he will be prosecuted for murder under south carolina law. host: cindy in west virginia. republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. good morning to your guest. the first thing i want to address is your guest said that donald trump was inciting hate because he referred to mexicans as rapists and murderers. i am so sick of hearing this

bant dangered over and over. -- bantered over and over. what he was referring to is the criminal element in mexico that they were more than happy to get rid of and send across the border here. with our open border policy, that criminal element has been allowed to just reek destruction. he did not mean all mexicans were criminals. but for some reason people in government want to keep repeating that over and over and over. that's one thing. the other thing i wanted to say is now i'm 56 years old so i've had the benefit of watching things change as i get older. what i see is in our universities and our schools children are taught the meanings of words have changed over the years. whenever government wants to fulfill their agenda they will dd to -- the government starts

changing the vern acklar that we use in the first place. and people coming out of universities are saying you can't say anything against this group or anything against that group. or you're a racist. i can't tell you how many times i've been called a racist because i support trump. i don't support trump because of any racist issues. the whole group black lives matter. and if you try to tell someone well all lives matter. oh, no, no, you're a racist if you even think that all lives matter. host: a good point there. thank you cindy in west virginia. guest: thank you. words are extremely important. and i think when someone is campaigning for national political office words become even more important. and it is incumbent on people to think through the consequences of what they're

saying. so the initial statement about mexicans was a broad statement. it was followed up by a number of other statements. and then i think what's happened since then which has i think emboldened people i would rather not embolden is the president-elect's embrace of what has sometimes been called the at-right. the at-right is a group, a movement that has openly white nationalist views and in fact they held a conference here in washington, d.c. last weekend where several hundred people attended, as i understand, and the video from the conference ally i think should be quite feeling for people because it had strong nazi overtones. there were people in the audience giving a nazi salute. so these are people who feel

for whatever reason emboldened by president-elect trump's election, by his campaign and his embracement of steve bannon who -- of bright bart who ran bright bart news which was the principle platform for these people has only increased the message. so when we get the 2016 statistics about hate crimes, remember from 2016 the stats sticks i think will be worse, i'm afraid. and the reports since the election we've all heard these and there's still anect dotele so we don't have numbers but we're hearing reports of incidents, lots of incidents, and the southern poverty law center has started to collect those. within a week after the election were over 1,000 reported incidents of hate type behavior. so i think this is something we need to be very careful about. i think we need political leadership on this issue. and i think it really is

encouple bent on the president-elect to come out and address it. >> host: one of those incidents reported in the relincolnen section of today's "washington post." their headlines, after church was defaced community had a different message.

within a day its members had collected the funds to rush order a new banner for that church. edward's up in chicago on our democrats line. good morning. go ahead. caller: good morning. i know we're talking about hate crimes but i want to talk about this brother which is racism. the reason i want to talk racism because i always hear .bout there's only two, three i'm not worried about the 2 or 3%. i'm worried about the 98 or 97%. those who allow or open that door. t of that, i would say 40% are good people. i'm worried about the rest.

i use this here. those people who condone that come right up to the line, it's like having a friend or brother that's an addict. that you ask them are you an addict? no i'm not. but you do addict tendencies, you do addict things. it shows that you are. so those people saying i'm not a racist but you run up to their line, you condone things. so birds who flock together they are together. host: when you say they condone things, give us an example. what do you mean? caller: like the caller when -- the lady when she said donald trump. he said all these things. what did she hear? no he's not saying all mexicans. he should have clarified himself what he said.

host: appreciate your call this morning. guest: i think the caller makes a very good point. we frequently think of racism as only -- racists as only people who commit hate crimes. it's probably not helpful for the most part to label people racists but i think it is extremely important for people to think about racism. and to -- in our daily activities to think about how they will be perceived and what we're actually doing. so i think one of the things that we have seen in recent times is an increase in the level of our tolerance for racist behavior. and i think that's very dangerous. we all need to be on guard. we all need to try to prevent it. host: you talked about the accused charleston shooter dillon roof and his racist cede. here's the headline this

morning. judge rules roof competent to stand trial. the jury selection starts on psychiatricwing evaluation. in the specific thing you have that his writing on that, jg on twitter asks how do you punish built based on thought crimes? this is more like hate speech without having the ability to read minds he is seeing a dangerous policy. if people were prosecuted for those thought it would be bad. it crimes always involve not just speech but translating the speech or the thoughts into action. into criminal conduct. it is the conduct that is punished. the motivation can also be punished. we punish people for their motivations throughout criminal law. the reason you kill somebody can determine if it is first-degree murder or manslaughter. to figureys of trying

at how people were thinking. we have circumstantial evidence sometimes. sometimes it is very direct evidence. sometimes with the statements of the defendants themselves. with testimony from their associates. convicted of bad thoughts. host: douglas, good morning on the independent line. caller: good morning, a question and a couple of comments. have you ever heard, are you familiar with the genocide convention treaty? are you familiar with that? vaguely.es, the caller: there is a section that talks about causing someone mental harm. that america is the greatest country on earth, and of the person could say that i called them into harm. isi say that homosexuality

wrong, a person can say that i have caused them mental harm. isn't that the basis for all the hate crime laws, and the political correctness? if i say that jesus is the only way to salvation couldn't a person of another religion say that i have caused the mental harm? guest: no. ifonly becomes a hate crime you say one of those things and then you hit someone in the head, or attempt to run them down with your automobile. conduct, your action, that makes it criminal. not your thought or your saying. host: from iowa, good morning. caller: i am so glad you are

having this debate today. i am very concerned about the people were been involuntarily committed. their papers that, but people that a been involuntarily committed. they said they were even sure he -- eventually placed them on the no fly list. i feel that i would like kellyanne, who has helped an analysis on all mental people who have -- what is the percentage of them hurting others? i think you'll be surprised to find that it is probably the lowest percentage of any kind of group, as we put it, in this that actually hurt anyone. i feel that it is some kind of agenda, and makes people feel uncomfortable. people with disabilities,

whether bipolar or manic, those things tend to be a concern. do anlly speaking, if you analysis of a percentage, i think you will discover that hardly anyone that is going to go out there and hurt you. host: due to boot disabilities fall into that category? guest: in many states and under federal law, crimes committed against people because of their disabilities can be prosecuted. one thing to keep in mind under federal law is that under the nafta shepherd crime act -- the matthew shepard crime act, the needs to be some connection to interstate commerce to be prosecution. host: we're talking with bill yeomans, about the issue of hate

crimes. about 10 more minutes and part of it motivated by the 2015 fbi statistics that came out. the latest report sheds light on serious issues. one of our viewers on twitter says that the fbi has shown itself to be highly unreliable. i want totistics -- ask you about the reporting of the statistics. it is a problem. it has been a problem. congress passed the hate crime statistics act in 1990, i believe which authorized the fbi to collect statistics on hate crimes. provide a mandate. the rest of on state and local jurisdictions to report hate crimes. to the collects them uniform crime reports. those are voluntary and reporting has been very spotty. when it first started the only got data from 11 states.

the fbi has worked hard and increased the number of jurisdictions that participated. there are still huge gaps. guest: other similar levels of other types of crime from the states? host: guest: yes, but i think his crimes have suffered disproportionately because they came to the game late. think jurisdictions, some jurisdictions traditionally have been much more reluctant to report hate crimes. reluctance to some extent to acknowledge the hit crimes in the community. many don't get identified as hate crimes that could otherwise be so identified. it is clearly numbers that we have represent severe underreporting. the numbers of hate crimes are far larger. host: now out of new york, jeff, good morning, on the democrat line. caller: thank you for the call. a really hot topic. i appreciate you guys doing

this. politicians, if they are promoting racism, or racist policies, like registering muslims or jews or racist is this a form of terrorism? could it be considered a crime? not entirelys i am sure of the details all of what you're suggesting. , therely, the government are strong constraint of the government's ability to act on the basis of race or religion. the constitution in many instances prohibits that. on the other hand, with regard to immigration when many of these cases have come up, the government has very broad discretion. can draw allt

kinds of distinctions that it could not draw among citizens. that is what we see a lot of what you're talking about playing out. we've been talking by donald trump, he is named jeff sessions as his nominee to the attorney general. he served in the justice department. your thoughts on jeff sessions's qualifications and also what those hearings might be like, what they will ask him about in the nomination. we wantell, certainly, to hear what senator sessions has to say. for people in the civil rights world, not a happy nomination entirely. , as many of you know, was rejected for a federal onrt judge ship based substantial testimony to the republican-controlled senate judiciary committee that he had engaged in racially offensive speech while he was u.s.

attorney for the southern district of alabama. becoming a senator, he has frankly consistently opposed civil rights initiatives. he has been a principal opponent of immigration reform. he was probably the leading opponent of the matthew shepard hate crime act in the senate. the act he will be expected to enforce in this area when he becomes attorney general. i think there is jump edition. there will certainly be questions about what happened in 1986. they will be questions about his views on a broad range of civil rights issues. in particular, i hope he is asked about his views on hate crimes. host: a couple more calls. tonya, on the independent line. caller: thank you and happy thanksgiving. i have a disability. the last two years my fiance and

i have been taking care of his father after his mother passed away because his sister has been stealing money. it was really bad. once she found out about my disability, which is severe because it is extremely rare, she started going after me. i put assault charges -- i did everything i could to protect myself. keeps continuing to come after me because of my disability. i can do tothing protect myself? she is gotten it to wear -- all she has to do is come at me because i have no adrenal glands. i've no cortisol or anything. host: let's get some thoughts. yout: if she is targeting and assaulting you because of your disability, you should report it to local authorities.

you may want to report it to the fbi as well. i don't know the nature of the assault, but people with disabilities are protected under federal hate crime law and many state hate crime laws as well. host: the headline here in the boston globe about breitbart news, where steve bannon will be a chief advisor. a major advertising technology provider has barred breitbart the conservative online publisher violated its hate speech rules. to scrutinize the website after president-elect to donald trump to be theve bannon white house strategist last week. the digital ad from beside the publication had breached a policy against content that incites violence. in general, what do you see as organizations for

like this. facebook has been joined into the news on related issues. guest: i think it is him endlessly import and for our social media to step up and be responsible. want to play't strict limits on speech. we live in a society that willie found these free speech, and should. people are advocating race-based violence, other forms of violence, social media needs to police itself. caller, goodcan morning. the republicand number. this is just my opinion, i don't want to be categorized as an angry old white man. and have the old opportunity to look back over the course of the social unrest in our society. the first thing i want to address is that horrible word

you just mentioned earlier. this horrible word seems to be completely exempt from one category of ethnicity in their music. usic uses that word over and over again. maybe that is not punishable, but i want to say that my life experience up until recently when i had to observe the predominance of one ethnic group burning cities all over the country, i can't understand why some of this isn't categorized as a hate crime. some of these utterances of these people that are rioting, you can't describe it as anything other. that is certainly hate crime oriented. host: that gives us an ability to go back to the definition of what constitutes a hate crime. generally, they are

defined as the intimidation or infliction of injury because of someone's race, religion, or national origin, disability, gender identity, or sexual orientation. the important thing is that someone is engaging in criminal conduct because of the race or whatever of the victims. that is what is motivating them, that is what is causing them to behave the way that they are. has a special interest in punishing that kind of crime. the supreme court is recognized it is appropriate for jurisdictions to punish aspects of hate crime. host: let's get one more call, susan, good morning. we just separate people into groups. martin, theyayvon call george zimmerman a white

hispanic. have you ever heard of a white hispanic? he doesn't fit into a category. it is important to the federal government to do this. it is a scam. it is a game. why don't we just call it killing, murder, assault, battery? white, doinglin this, blacks, doing this, let's get rid of the hate crimes. matthew shepard, that wasn't -- that that crime crime wasn't based on him being gay. it was based on drugs, robbing for drugs and money. host: you mentioned this briefly in terms of the 2015 statistics about hate crimes. your thinking is the 2016 reporting will be much higher. guest: i think so. we have every indication that it

will be. the press is full of accounts of incidents. i was talking to a colleague from the department of justice to other day who said judging by what is coming across his desk, the most dangerous thing to be in america is a college aged muslim woman who covers her head . aey are being subjected to salt ranging from ripping the head cover off to actual physical assaults. and think need to stop about what is happening care. we have an opportunity to think about it. it is incumbent on our political leadership to step up and bring this down. host: you talked about trepidation in terms of your reaction to jeff sessions being nominated as attorney general. he spent time as the chief counsel for the judiciary and he spends time in the justice department asked him what are your concerns in terms of those

bodies, judiciary under the republicans? thet: well, i firmly hope justice department will continue to live up to its responsibilities. it is a great institution. it survive changes in administrations. has a long tradition of independent and commitment to the rule of law. i hope that will continue. that will require vigorous enforcement of our civil rights laws. as far as the senate goes, the senate is an interesting body. it is hard to make things happen in the senate because of the filibuster rule. i do think one of the problems we're facing baby in lack of oversight. with republicans in control of both houses of congress, we are not going to have an institution where the opposition can call hearings or there can be investigations and people can be

called to account for their decision-making must up that is my fear. guest: host: former just the, thank you for being with us. the news we are making up to this morning many of us woke up to the news that fidel castro, age 90 has died overnight in havana. we are interested in your thoughts on that, particular the future of u.s. and cuban relations. democrats at (202) 748-8000, republicans at (202) 748-8001 and independents at (202) 748-8002. back in a moment with your calls. ♪ >> every weekend, book tv brings you 48 hours of nonfiction books and authors. here's what is coming up this weekend. a circuit judge for the u.s. court of appeals for the first circuit provides a history of debate between the executive and legislative branch over the constitutional right to declare

war. book, joining him at the national constitution center in philadelphia is theodore ruger, dean of the university of pennsylvania law school. >> they are in a dance with each other all the time. congress checking the president, backing down from the president, the president being worried about taking it too far. at 9:00 on afterwards, guardian journalist looks at gun deaths in america over a 24 hour period. a chronicle of 10 short lives. not possible to only talk about guns for stability er, societal thing that

dehumanizes people. that means when their lives are taken, that has already been accounted for. i think there is a real problem want to start saying he was an "a" student. there's a suggestion there is a great you can get where it would be worthy to be killed. to book tv.org for the complete weekend schedule. >> we have a special webpage at c-span.org to help you follow the supreme court and select supreme court is the right-hand top of the page. for the most recent oral argument heard by the court this term and click on the view all link to see all the arguments covered by c-span. you can find recent appearances by many of the supreme court justices, or want them in their own words -- watch them in their own words.

those is also a calendar for this term, a list of all current justices with links to quickly see all of their appearances on c-span and many of the supreme court videos available on demand. follow the supreme court at c-span.org. >> washington journal continues. last 40 wrap up the minutes getting your reaction to the news overnight that cuban leader that l castor has died at the age of 90. a funeral is expected sunday has week -- fidel castro died at the age of 90. a funeral is expected on sunday of next week. the poster right in that fidel castro turned his island into a potent symbol of the world's greatest ideological and economic divides of the 20th

century has died. it was announced on cuban state tv by his younger brother, raul, who succeeded his sibling years ago as the leader. cubaastro took control in on new year's day 1959 share his nation's wealth with its poorest citizens. castro, chomping monstrous cigars became a spiritual beacon for the world's far left. more from that and other reports let's go to your calls and reactions on the death of fidel castro. illinois, philip, good morning on the independent line. caller: i was born in 1959. at least 50 years the u.s. has been having an embargo on cuba.

do? was castro supposed to here to control every element of the government or would it have -- it would have definitely failed. aroundeople were running in cuba and florida celebrating. understand, but they don't fully understand what the u.s. was trying to do to cuba to make it small tourist site, like they have done to jamaica and other places in that area. i applaud him. mentioned somer of the protests on the streets of little havana in miami. we are joined by daniel chang with the miami herald. tell us about the events that have been going on in little

havana and elsewhere this morning. guest: good morning, as you can imagine there has been a lot of celebration as your last color just noted. traditionally, people will breakout their pots and pans and bang them. of crowds waving large cuban flags. because we have exiles or emigrants from many parts of latin america there are folks here in solidarity from venezuela, colombia, ecuador, in other countries. after theed shortly new started to spread. i would say maybe around 1:30-2:00 a.m. people started spilling into the streets. setting off fireworks, people in their pajamas, this has been awaited here for a very long time. there was a lot of pent up was released. some of it is bittersweet because cuba remains under

fidel's posthumous rule. many of the folks who ts of repudiation and had their homes taken from , manynd suffered greatly of those have passed away. the children feeling he bittersweet sense of victory perhaps. i'm not sure if that is the right word. there are a lot of emotions here. host: do you think it is a hopeful crowd? many of the restrictions on cuba have been changed. changing with the obama administration's policies. are you finding people mainly hope now that castro has died? guest: i think that people have -- the attitudes towards cuba have softened with the new agenda into didn't exactly grow up under castro. i think that generation has taken advantage of the opening,

or easing of the relationship. they travel there and they send not just remittances, but clovis and whatever they can. what people are hopeful, they are still -- raul is still there. that holds back their sense of exuberance, perhaps. that may temper their hope for what comes next. again, fidel may have passed, but the government and systems he created are still very much in power. i think that is important to people. you talked about banging pots and pans, but so far nothing violent or out of hand in miami? spoken withve police and have not heard of any incident. i think the police also deployed an extra police

officers. again, a lot of folks have planned for this day when this would come in miami. as long as the demonstrations remain peaceful, i think the will continue. we haven't heard of any violent so far. host: we will let you get back out on the streets of miami. thank you for the update this morning. guest: you're welcome. we hear from jeff next in honolulu, and hawaii. thank you for calling. morning, listen, i have been watching the news this morning and none of the major news organizations are telling any of the american public about how fidel killed over 50,000 of his own people. he has up to 10,000 prisoners down and gulags down there.

the only reason the president normalized relations with cuba is for obama's legacy. it didn't have anything to do with cuba. it was all for obama's legacy. it is a good idea right now that we do all that we can to help the people on the streets of cuba. tyrants that run cuba, but the people that cuba belongs to. the others goat next, and quick. ,ost: here we go with tampa charlie is in tampa, florida on the republican line go ahead. it is not known but for a many people but cuba has one of the most articulate dynamic ballet companies in the world. what is interesting about that is that the thing that used to

be called arabia is now audsaudi arabia because the saudi family owned it. the castro family sold the entire nation of cuba stole it and still own it. right, los angeles is next up, your reaction to the death of fidel castro and what it means for u.s.-cuba relations? cuban history,n and american history, and the founders of america, i heard in one program somebody was insulted by the fact that obama compared the founding of this country so-called founding .athers with fidel castro he was highly insulted.

now, the thing with america is ordrink this history -- d,ould i say history kool-ai of the so-called american revolution. was something front down from heaven. america is still in the process of dealing with its demons. sessionin of the dealing with hate crimes. here we are 300 years up from a annihilating one group, enslaving another, and the group of the so-called free this country was landowners and slaveholders. who spoke at once out of their mouth about the so-called liberty in the equality of men

while they held slaves. mandela, freedom fighter, martin luther king, freedom fighter, these were the allies of fidel castro. people who were dictatorg the vicious that america put in place over the little island of cuba before fidel took control. what was the nature and condition of that place? immigrantsw many to get $15,000, stipend started. why is this given to the cuban people? host: lots of views from capitol hill and the house and senate will be back next week. he was ed royce who released a

statement on the passing of fidel castro saying for more than half a century the cuban people have suffered under the castro plan. nobody should rule anybody as long as fidel castro did. raul castro is no better for cuban to your -- who your for free -- yearn for freedom. the duck castro's death cannot bring back his thousands of victims nor can it comfort their families on facebook. -- nor can it comfort their families. on facebook he fights -- writes that today we remember them and honor the brave souls. donald trump tweaking a little after 8:00 a.m. eastern fidel castro is dead.

republican line, chicago. good morning. sorry i called on the wrong one. i just wanted to say to you it typifies a change now in latin american dynamic system i think don't understand why people are celebrating the death of this man. cubaould be learning from and how they manage their medical resources. a small island country that can provide free and adequate health care with the results of lower mortality rates. it is kind of appalling to see people who have no idea how severe the property was in cuba before fidel castro came in. there is a reason he has been in power all of these years.

the cuban people on the island support many of the initiatives. the previous color was correct in pointing out that fidel castro has been very active in ending apartheid. go toto this day they parts of the world united states would never go to. host: talking about how long he has been in power they say fidel castro held onto power longer than any other living national leader except queen elizabeth ii. he became a towering international figure who's important in the 20th century far exceeded what might have been expected from the head of a caribbean island nation of 11 million people. on the democrat lineup, go ahead. -- line now, go ahead. caller: i always wanted to travel. when i had a chance to i went to

a travel agency and saw the map of the caribbean and cuba was blanked out. cuba didn't exist for america. , who must be remembered as a great man who the power ofom america. americans used to go down there d, andmble and whore aroun stuff like that. cuba became free of american domination. he went too far like most dictators will do. but his initial value to the cuban people cannot be underestimated. now that you can travel to cuba, would you travel there? caller: possibly. i am worried about borders. i can't get health care in toada because i'm too old

become canadian. the border issue of both cuba and canada and the u.s. crossing the borders is so difficult taking a life with you back and forth is very complicated. i think we should get rid of borders and get rid of governments. a lot, douglas on our independent line, go ahead. yes, i was pretty young one castro took over. i can remember this, that america was full of castro. .hey were against the batista one castro took over, -- when castro took over, he got into the hotel then went back into the bush and got those -- they were treating the black folks like mississippi at the same time was treating black people here. he integrated cuba.

to havewe are going whites, they were all going to be cubans. hilton into a school. that is one america turned on castro. america turned on castro. they said he is taking the kids away from the parents. problemwhen the started. the southerners in america that the pressure down. that is when the problem started with castro. i have been watching that for a long time. host: if you want to respond on twitter you can also send us a tweet. one saying castro was so great thousands risked their lives during the berlin to of 1980 to escape his wonderfulness.

thought castro is bringing democracy free education and health but not so great. one says it is a example of how things can change without considering the possibility of the worst. now in misery, democrat line come up it -- missouri, democrat line, good morning. caller: i sorry my voice is shaky. that the cubans will regret reestablishing relations with the united states because the interests here will be in returning cuba to a one that itntation economy was when castro had his revolution. no sympathy i have

with miami, cuban immigrants. a couple of the wealthy once established the american school for the americas, where we teach torture methods. established a systems fordical freeuban people. they have education. they produce doctors that are sent all over the world. offered to united states doctors after katrina that we couldn't even provide ourselves. the death of castro was announced on state television late last night in cuba by his brother raul. here's some of what that looked like. [video clip]

foreign language] host: the cuban president role oastro announcing -- raul castr announcing the death of his brother. we get your reaction to what it means for u.s. and cuban relations. daniel is next up in our democrats line from pennsylvania.

touch: hi, i was going to on the educational and the medical parts of cuba. much everything has been touched on by the previous caller. speak on the cuban five, the spies that were a terrorist group in miami that we going to blow up a caberet, that was going to blow up a bunch of tourists. they went to the fbi and they told them about it and they were sentenced to life in prison.

many of those years were spent in solitary confinement. is about i guess that all i have to say. host: he was kenneth on our -- here isline kenneth on our republican line. c-span because it is the only reliable information available in america. when i was young, i worked for the united states military. refugees from cuba. they had been tortured by fidel castro. theiro longer could hear, eardrums had been ruptured. runught them how to machines and toe grinding machines for to these men when i left there these four men broke down and cried because it been

so long that anyone had ever try to help them in any way. it was a horrible, horrible experience for them in their homeland of cuba. is dead. fidel castro i hope he spent eternity in hell. city, go, salt lake ahead on our democrats line. caller: yes, good morning c-span. i just want to say [indiscernible] i'm sorry, you're breaking up a little bit. the connection was bad. here's the new york post reporting on the death of fidel castro this morning. the commonest dictator, fidel castro who took hold of cuba with a bloody revolution in the ruled it with an iron fist for five decades it died on friday. the ruthless leader who

impoverished his country and caused countless migrants to sue the island, died at 90 years old. his brother, the country president, said on cuban state television. his body was scheduled to be cremated today according to agent and the french press. the death comes just months after president obama normalized relations between the cold war enemies. the cuban leader executed thousands of innocent people. he once admitted to holding 15,000 political prisoners and forced gays into reeducation camps. jack is next up in new jersey, democrats line. caller: good morning. we tend tot is that criticize,-ism governments fund criticize -- communist governments, but in

reality they are all oligarchies coming into fashion. at the island of cuba the life expectancy is higher than most other countries as well as the literacy rate. i would just like to know the thet senator cruz, what literacy rate is in texas. in cuba, it is 99%. news on incoming trumpet administration, the washington post has the headline ills white house counsel in national security jobs. on fridaymp announced he named a libertarian election lawyer as his white house counsel and a hard-line former reagan administrator to a top post in his national security staff. a controversial former member of the federal election commission who services campaign lawyer will be his white house counsel.

mcgahn will serve as the legal advisor. served tohe past has occasionally argue to restrain the chief executive. he will serve as a deputy under -- under deputy retired lieutenant michael flynn. drums pick for national security adviser and a fierce critic of the obama stance on islamic extremism. jesse, west virginia. i hope i got that right. i will sleep better tonight because when in the early 60's it was one of the black ops teams that went in to castro.ill fidel

two of the fellow soldiers did not make it back. they went out on a five man gun team to kill fidel castro. the three made it back, and he did not. i guarantee this man will sleep better. host: how old is this neighbor of yours? .aller: this is an elderly man his benefit from our government because he went in under the black ops where the man that came in to give them their orders was a man in sunglasses.

he given their orders to go out. it was a five man gun team. hislast trip out, two of partners did not make it back. , i guarantee you, this old man is sitting back in the oxygen bottle watching the computer today. cannot even get his benefits because he did black ops. host: sorry about that you message is lost -- we appreciate your story there. glenda's next up in dallas, texas, democrat line. caller: if you give me a minute i want to respond to the caller from texas about the cuban people he trained before. i sympathize for the cubans.

i want to a knowledge the fact that here as a black people, how they suffered also and that there was no acknowledgment on the behalf of what blacks suffered here in america. i just want to say that because this is where we are now in our differences. as long as we are not able to acknowledge and recognize our differences, then we're going to have a problem here. i do sympathize with the cubans, and the man that spoke on training them. in the benefit of being able to sympathize for others. and also for black lives matter. thank you. host: ok, walter is next in florida on the independent li ne. all thei can understand sympathy for the death of castro that he may have done some good things for the cuban people.

however, i think the american people must recognize the major thing that i think of when i isnk of cuba's castro missiles pointed at the united states. that should never be forgotten. host: what do you think of fidel's role in that legacy? caller: i think that was unfortunate. the united states, even though it may have disagreed with the cuban government and castro's philosophy of ruling his country, was one thing. but pointing russian missiles at the united states, i could never forgive or forget that. russian president vladimir putin had words of praise this morning for the late cuban leader. on our republican line

from massachusetts. caller: i want you to remember all of the businesses that were appropriated by the cuban government down there. how they would take people and put them upials and against the wall or shoot them in their own grave. but some also forget the asylum he gave that woman who murdered a new jersey state trooper. that is all i have to say. an associated press story this morning, fidel castro clung revolution washis slowly dying. communism had collapsed in cuba's soviet lifeline was severed. track two is rusted in the tropical heat. factories rusted in the

tropical heat. china and vietnam embraced free markets, castro clung to his socialist believes. way he became a godfather to a resurgent latin american left mentoring a new generation of leaders. in argentina, bolivia, and ecuador, no other third world leader prompted so much u.s. hostility for so long. he brought the planet to the brink of nuclear war in 1962, tens of thousands of troops to aid leftist governments in africa and new churned -- nurtured guerrilla movements that saw -- fought u.s. backed government across latin america. caller: hello -- sorry, jane, apologize

that is jane in ohio, go ahead. was fromy husband cuba. he was put into jail because he would not go into the military. that with his two brothers came over in 1980 on the embargo. comingre really upset, over on the embargo my husband said they were off the boat into the water. my husband said that cuba is good, but it is castro was not good for anything, and his brother is worse. host: sam in virginia, good morning. caller: i just want to say that fidel should get the prize for the number of assassinations he escaped from our --

[laughter] caller: the number of assassinations that were planned on him. to make it to 90, that is a miracle. i think he is a courageous man. he was nonverbal honorable man and it's a good thing for his people that she was an honorable man and did a good thing for his people. just wast: marco rubio reelected as a senator in florida releases statement saying in part but a castro seized power promising to bring freedom and prosperity to cuba, but his regime turned it into an impoverished island prison. cubans were forced to flee their own country in those opposed were routinely jailed. mean freedoms not for the cuban people, or justice for the democratic activists and

political opponents he and his brother have jailed in particular. the dictatorship has not died. tom is in new jersey, next up is leroy on the democrat line. caller: i was in the marine corps in florida during that revolution. i remember that months before that happened, downtown miami, there were rallies of thousands of people supporting castro against batista. killed and a shot people most of, when castro wants toot in, he eisenhower and asked him for 1000 tractors. turned him down that is when castro flipped and became a true communist. i lived it. you, now abraham in new york your thoughts on what is next in u.s. cuba relations. to make arst i want

comment with what is going on in america. i think it is hypocritical to judge a man like him for his are committing crimes against native americans and taking over their sovereign land. thank you. a couple of comments on twitter. in 1969, i met an elderly cuban in madrid. her family had been very wealthy. castro took everything she left. they say every human being has two sides a good side of fidel was committing his medical corps to work in rural africa. tweeting is it any wonder they were trying to come to the usa when they were handed tax benefits that u.s. citizens paid for? good morning, linda. caller: good morning at just

want to say to all of these americans in the so-called christians who are hailing the .eath of this individual they want him to go to hell. reprehensible to when we speak about people and talk about the love of god. look at what we have done to people. what did he say about their neighborhood was not going to cuba'sad tonight because leader died? he doesn't even know why we went there, why they fought and why they overthrew cuba. read history, white america. host: linda, do you think people are protesting more about what he stood for what he actually did rather than the individual himself? that would answer to

be looking at both sides, some of the treacherous things he did when he got into power like most people do when they dominate. look at the good he did also. like they are a pressing people in the land of cuba was a look at what we did to saddam hussein. .ook at what we did to qaddafi all we look at is what the media tells us. if you are not looking at c-span, free speech tv, bbc, you do not know what is going on outside of your borders. cursed until you make it right with people. the world is doing everything that we do. doing tohat israel is the palestinians. host: i will let you go there as

we wrap up the program. we are just getting one of a statement from the white house that has just been released. a statement on the passing of fidel castro. of his passing we extend a hand of friendship to the cuban people, we'll this moment feels cubans -- in cuba and in the united states -- with , recalling thens countless ways in which fidel castro has altered the course of individual lives, and the cuban nation. and judgell record the enormous impact of this singular figure. for nearly six decades, the relationship between the united states and cuba was marked by politicald profound disagreements. during my president, we have

-- worked hard to put the past behind us, pursuing a future in which the relationship between our two countries is defined not by our differences but by many things that we share his neighbors and friends. today we offer condolences to fidel castro's family and our thoughts and prayers are with the cuban people. in the days ahead, they will look to the future. people must know they have a friend and partner in the united states of america. the statement from the white house. more news available throughout the day on c-span. we will update you on that and thank you again for all your comments and participation this morning. we will see him again "washington journal" tomorrow morning at 7:00 eastern. ♪ [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.

visit ncicap.org] next, wikipedia founder jimmy wales. than some of the speakers at this year's conference in san diego. after that, foreign-policy discussion with henry kissinger and former british prime minister john major. >> this weekend on american thisry tv on c-span 3, evening at 7:00 eastern, from president lincoln's cottage in washington, d.c., we will have a conversation with candace shy hooper about her book, four women who influence the civil war for better and for worse. >> you can see that women have had, um, have a means of reinforcing even the best in their husband or the worst. what this study

is. . >> from the field to the production office and from there to the central office at oklahoma. ♪ our littleht telephone board was lit up like a christmas tree, calls from new york, california, houston. bit by bit we began to realize how big a thing this was. >> the film promoted the financial benefits for farmers of leasing land for oil exploration and was funded by the american petroleum institute. sunday morning at 11:00, panelist discussed the life and legacy of novelist and journalist and photographer and social activist jack london and how his novel "the call of the w ild" influenced generations of writers. thee always looked back to natural land, to his ranch, to the beautiful scenery in california and elsewhere in the south pacific. to center himself and to find relief from the