i hear your perspective in terms .f small businesses it is not a one-size-fits-all solution. certainly, we shall look at if there is a small business under a certain amount of employees, do we exempt them from a minimum thoseequirement and help workers through the expansion of the earned income tax credit and other means? aspirational he, having a $15 minimum wage for some of the bigger corporations, walmart, big retailers, the food service industry, big tech companies that can afford it makes sense. certainly as sympathetic to the idea that there may be small businesses like your parents' data may need to have some exemption. there may not be a one of cross the country. host: we have been talking with representative ro khanna, democrat, who serves silicon

valley. thank you for your time. guest: thank you, great conversation. your we want to give thoughts on if congress should investigate russia ties to the trump white house. we'll her various forms of --sent and the disagreement we have heard various forms of consent and disagreement on the issue. especially in light of michael flynn. for republicans. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. (202) 748-8002 for independents. you can call the line now. we will get a sense of what is happening in congress. christie marcos of the hill joins us. can you tell us where the senate is on an investigation? guest: that they have been sending mixed signals of the last 24 hours. in the house, the leaders that

are charged with oversight not expressing a lot of interest in investigating what trump new and what led to the circumstances that resulted in michael flynn's resignation. chan chase is deferred -- ffetz deferred. they said they were more interested in the underlying story. speaker paul ryan said he wants to withhold judgment until he knew the whole story. some republicans are saying you need investigation to know the facts. on the senate side, you are send more prominent members who are expressing interest in pursuing an investigation. possibly you will bring in michael flynn to testify before congress. host: why do you think there's such a difference and looking at the issue from both the house and the senate? guest: for the past two months

since the issue of russia's ties to the trump campaign, you see more progressive interest in investigating from the senate side. you have senators john mccain and lindsey graham as you may recall, they joined with the democrats in calling for bipartisan commission to investigate this. on the house side, they are a little less eager to pursue that route. host: on the house side, for democrats, among the leadership, is there some kind of plan or proposal to make the message a known on their interest of a hearing? guest: democrats have been holding a blitz of press conferences and sending letters and doing everything they can to keep the issue in the spotlight. this is something they argue if it were the underwear around and this were the obama administration or clinton administration, people like z would have issued

terms of subpoenas by now. that if there a sense we get a hearing on the senate side, when they would take place? republicans of the who showed support for an investigation called for keeping it within the intelligence committees which are already revealed how russia tried to influence the election, the scope of that review includes campaign communications with russian officials. effecte in fact -- one is those panels are both very theetive and limits opportunity for public televised hearings to air this out in a public setting. host: this is cristina marcos from the hill talking about the reaction into what michael flynn and other issues. you can find her reporting on the hill website. thank you for your time. this, your thoughts in half hour, taking a look at an

investigation and should congress pursue one. you were our guest talking about the house and senate. what you think about the act of congress to do so? we will start with chad, baltimore, maryland, democrats line. you're up first. go ahead. caller: thanks for taking my call. i appreciate your time. i want to make comments about if there was meddling by russia in the election, what -- would not be surprising. is my opinion. moving on to outside of the united states, there seems to be instances of meddling by russia and therench election

races for offices over there. it very closely resembles the influence of the media towards one side and releasing information to propose one candidate over another and withholding information to basically in the same sense promote the same candidate. it is like a similar recipe and i would be interested to hear thought and conversation on the repeat that we are seeing in and is this the start of a regular campaign to the floors of the world in addition to the united states government, the french government and destabilize european union, the world so that will crumble? host: let's hear from roger. independent line. your thoughts on investigation by congress. caller: well, given the fact that the trump made such an

situationof the email and a there was evidence -- there was evidence of russian interference of the hacking of the democrat -- her email server and democratic party and some of their internal documentation. it seems to me like the only way that trump can actually avoid looking like a complete the n,one b, --u -- buffoo hypocrite are potentially dangerous security risk for the united states would be to have an investigation. however, i do want to say something else about the previous guest that you had. there are no simple answers to the job questions. all of the answers do not work. there are answers what they will require imaginative solutions. host: we will have to leave it

to there. let's go to bill. the president tweeting out about severale of information times this morning. this is the latest. the real scandal is the classified information illegally given out by "intelligence" like candy. very un-american. republican line. caller: i think it is another slow down of the progress that the president needs to get the meaning because they have slowed him down enough. i think it is more than important issue to find out who did thoroughlys -- who did the leaks, that is detrimental to this company. that ---- it will show there's stuff behind it. now that the republicans, some of them are with the democrats

to slow it down. does one of the republicans on the senate side was on capitol hill yesterday and asked about the potential investigation into the matter and here is his comments from yesterday. perhapsnal security is the most important function or responsibility a president has. i think the president made the right decision to ask for his resignation. you cannot have a national security adviser misleading the vice president and others. the president was right to ask her his resignation. i think it was the right thing to do. let's speak about russia. i have always been a russia's active. new administrations try to have better relations. -- i have been a russia's skeptic. hillary clinton and the obama administration did the reset. i understand it is reasonable and rational to improve

relations with russia, that is what new administrations do. i will leave it to the administration what brought to the point. the key is as soon as this person law the president's trust and that was the right thing to do. i will not prejudge circumstances. i think administration will describe. the intelligence community has been looking data, involvement with russia. it is important as soon as they realize they were being misled they asked for his resignation. i think we need to get all of information before we prejudge anything. apologies, that was speaker paul ryan given his thoughts on the matter of michael flynn and other issues. we are asking you about investigations, should they take place? bill from maryland we heard from. let's go to roger in indiana. roger, democrats line. hi. for full,call

independent investigation of the whole mess. that's all the way it will get cleared up. host: what you think should be looked for? caller: anything they can find. this is just an outrage to a lot of people. russia should not be involved in anything that has to do with america. dixie from pennsylvania. independent line. caller: first of all, i have several things to say. i do not believe the president should have asked for flynn's resignation. if we can let him go a little longer, we may have found out the truth. i do not believe in the resignation. then't believe that congress should be playing around like kids in the school yard. i do not believe they should have the press involved in this.

get back to work. do your job. we are accountable you the same way we are counted our president and i.t. were for taking this call. host: why not look at it? caller: i think it was too soon. premature.was to i do not think they had enough information. i will support my president but i do not approve of this resignation at all. host: you heard from the house speaker. let's hear from senator blount, asked about issues of investigation. a member of the select committee on intelligence. here are his comments. of the member intelligence committee looking at what the white house in general flynn decided yesterday, was the right decision. service to the country over decades has been admirable. his service as the director of defense was in my view admirable

and relationship we had with our committee and him at the time. if you're going to be the national security adviser, your credibility has to be absolute. i believe it was the right decision and i wish general flan well. the intel committee, intelligence committee is looking at what is the obama administration left on the table about russia and our elections and chairman for as -- and chairman burr will decide who will go before the committee. i think flynn will be asked to come and talk about postelection activities and any other activities he would be aware of. host: east brunswick, new jersey. here is joseph. you are on. caller: hello, thanks. i think donald trump represents a unique president type we have not had before.

he has managed successfully a privately held corporation and the democrats are refusing to accept the outcome of the election. i see this whole thing as basically they are trying to tear down his administration. the leak problem is very troubling to me. like donald has said, the first amendment guarantees freeman -- freedom of press but the league journalism has taken to new heights, new levels and it is dangerous to our democracy. we do need to have a strong presidency, a leader. leaks can tear apart any administration. at the same time, the foreign influence over our democracy is not exactly unique to this a posted russian case. the press in england constantly writes editorials about our election in places like "the guardian." is that unreasonable? what constitutes?

what obama was doing with netanyahu election? i do not think it should be going forward the way it is. maryland, let -- from we will hear from lisa. democrats line. caller: i had a couple of comments. i am finding it hard to believe that anybody, in particularly the media believes that trump was unaware of flynn's discussions with russia prior to being told by the fbi. i find that extremely hard to believe. of course, he knew about it and more than likely encouraged and prodded slant to make the call and perhaps have the discussions. i also think of that the use of person,y a 70-year-old who is the president, the

strongest country of the world to communicate his thoughts to the public is extremely childish and unprofessional and immature. that is lisa in maryland. we've heard from 2 republicans on this topic of investigation looking at the acts of michael flynn. we will hear from adam schiff. here's what he had to say. >> the resignation of michael flynn was brought about not by discovering the falsehood but by the fact that the falsehood became public. and that ought to be deeply disturbing to everyone. that the white house would have contemplate that contemplated a national is security visor who would lie to them and the american people through the vice president. this backs a lot of questions about whether those conversations between flynn -- this begs a lot of questions

about whether those conversations between flynn was done so by the administration and why they do not correct the record. all of this merits investigation. that investigation, i believe, ought to be done in part through the intelligence committee as part of the investigation we are doing now. i was disappointed to see the speaker today unwilling to commit on investigating these communications between for lan and the russian ambassador. if he is not willing to commit, formation ofow the an independent commission and get out of the way. they are far too important to go unanswered. host: melissa is next from maryland. good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to say i've heard a couple of collars mention they think congress should get back to work. ist of this investigation

their job. congress of pottery job, oversight committee, they need job,vestigate -- congress' oversight committee, they need to investigate. it increases their culpability. as a side note on general flynn, i served and my husband has served and we have done in listed an officer side as well and there's nowhere general flynn did not know better. every officer once you get to higher ranks has to do every couple of years, the counterintelligence polygraph where they are asked about their foreign intelligence contacts. there's no way that a man got to a general rank without knowing exactly what he needed to disclose. any disclosure than not happen was unintentional. host: let's go to sue. she is in middletown will maryland. republican line. good morning. caller: good morning.

thank you for c-span. appreciate it. i do not think he should be investigated at this point. i really appreciate that paul ryan is standing behind our president and it is good to see. i think there has been just a complete backing of the president. i do not like to hear all of the negativity. i want to hear balance in the news and media. i think of the thing about nordstrom was terribly out of line for them to drop ivanka. she is the president's daughter. host: why not an investigation? caller: i do not think it is at that point. if it comes to the poor where there's more information, ok. right now, i want everybody to get behind our president is supportive. ,- if it comes from that point

there's more information, ok. we are lucky to have him. he has given up everything. his business. he had to release the business to his sons. about,at america is going and making the money and employing people, which is what he has done. let's go to cliff, democrats line. hello. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. i appreciate c-span. i think it is very appropriate for congress to do oversight of the administration because that is part of their responsibility, particularly in the house committee with representative chafe its. power suchy foreign as russia is in flowing -- influencing our officials in a way that is detrimental to our national security, every american should want that investigated and exposed.

this is not a political witch hunt. there are reports from intelligence officials, former and current, who say members of the trump campaign, not to the trump administration made numerous phone calls and contest with russian intelligence and if is no appropriate reason for it any campaign to be contacting a power to encourage them to commit espionage against the democrats, republicans or any other individual. that is precisely what did the fbi and the intelligence community are investigating right now, whether or not the trump campaign officials, mr. manford and others were working with foreign intelligence agencies to commit espionage which is the most serious matter any president or country can face. matter oft a partisan

such as the benghazi investigation which went on for years, will pass it shelflife. of such as the benghazi investigation which went on for if there is undue influence on the president of the united states because they have something on him, we need to know that as the american people. so that we can know we are safe when we go to sleep at night. host: the headline from "the new york times," which are caller reference. aides had repeated contest with russian intelligence." liz in houston, texas. coloring thank you for taking my call. my comment -- caller: thank you for taking my call. my current mitt is i am an american first. -- my comment is i am an american first. if anything was done below board, it needs to be fixed. investigation, it

needs to be done. the last caller mentioned benghazi. things were not investigated enough. in the samee killed things we had now. people can die because of that. , let's get it above board and get it all out. at fault like flint, he resigned because he knew he was wrong. appreciate. host: we have had some caller's essay the focus of the investigation should be about the leaks in this instance than the act by general flynn, do think old should be equally look that or just wanting presidents? nce?recede caller: boulder should be looked at. is not like they are our big buddies. -- both should be looked at. they are a power and we are a powerful so who will win out?

we will hear from gary. independent line. caller: how are you doing today? i cannot believe my ears from my republican. if this was hillary clinton, we would never hear the end of this. investigations an is concerned, what are your thoughts? caller: [indiscernible] hillary clinton has been investigated since 1972 when she was the first lady of arkansas. you know, it should be investigated. find outn, just to what is going on. we investigated hillary clinton her whole career. nobody found anything she did illegally. host: let's go to donny. last call on this topic. republican line. go ahead. i would like to say something about investigation of flynn. i think yont