harmless. >> and former president george w. bush on his book portrait of commander-in-chief tribute to america's warriors. first guy i painted was chris turner. i turned to him at dinner and said, why are you here? he said, i can't get out of my of mine ng a buddy killed. photost from pictures and and as i'm painting turner, i'm hinking what that must be like in his mind. >> for more on the weekend's go to booktv.org. >> "washington journal" continues. host: and it is open phones until the house comes in at morning.is we want to hear from you, especially on two of the topics we've been talking about this morning. one, the russia investigation on capitol hill, three senior officials e testifying yesterday and two,

he president's 2018 budget proposal was sent over from the white house yesterday to for review ahead of the 2018 budgeting process, a 4.1 trillion dollar budget and we'll hearing more about it today from various officials in the administration, including mick mulvaney, head of office of and budget, he'll be testifying at 9:30 in about 15 at the house budget committee. watch that live on c-span 3, on c-span.org,ut app.span radio betsy devos, education secretary, will testify about budget at 11 a.m. in the house appropriations labor sub-committee. steve mnuchin, treasury secretary will be talking about budget, 2 p.m. in the house ways and means committee, watch that online, along with betsy devos testimony, also

be showing it online at and 3 p.m. today, on c-span 3, you can watch the -- cuwatch the house appropriations homeland security hearings, where dhs secretary john kelly will be testifying about the budget in that agency. so you can be with us all dhs secretary day 2018 budget.ss we hope to hear from you over the course of the next 45 custart calling in. phone lines are open. e'll head first to windwood, pennsylvania, jim is a republican, good morning. caller: good morning, c-span. being there. russ a comment about the ian collusion, so-called collusion investigation. trying to get ahold of was essman ted lieu, who sure everybody was doing something wrong because he is a prosecutor.

i think the democrat party and emocrats in general, a lot of my family, are suffering from derangement syndrome, they can't come to the grips of the trump won the election and demagogue party, is trying whatever they can do stop his agenda, including the budget, which sounds like a budget to me. all people have to do is look at what democrats have done for the last 50 years, two generations, dominated,un totally i'm talking about the city of america. they have destroyed them. grew up in inner philadelphias like to go would not want certain places, people are killing each other every night, democrat.

not three-party system in those places. russian on the investigation you bring up, that is the lead story in today's "wall street journal." headline, c.i.a. russia links to trump campaign, testimony the yesterday by former c.i.a. irector john brennan in the house intelligence committee hearing. if you want to go back and rewatch the hearing, it is on c-span.org. the former c.i.a. director, one three sen yoor intelligence officials testifying yesterday. ews coming out of both house intelligence committee, the senate intelligence committee, on ery busy day yesterday that front. mark is up next, tempe , arizona, line for democrats, morning. caller: good morning. budget, it is appalling trump campaign the hole time i will not touch medicare, not touch medicare and to s out $800 billion cuts medicare and he wants to put a

bunch of money into the wall. unrealistic. is most hing that devastating to medicare, the prescriptions. prescriptions from pharmaceutical companies who the government and people over a barrel. omebody invents a drug like shaky leg syndrome and somebody else changes one molecule and patent and other claim they are coming up with new drugs everyday, meanwhile penicillin and antibiotics, there is no money to spend y don't want money for research. the government of the f.d.a. or should probably tell them if they don't come up with new drugs that maybe aren't profitable that they're not going to be able to charge these for these prices other drugs that are really, you more specialty drugs and

can get more money for. firsterator: mark, in the part you said funding for the wall is unrealistic, why do you think that? a key issue president trump ran on -- are going toxicans pay for that, not us. $1.7 billion or something, is the number? host: about $2.5 million per according to the cost estimate in the 2018 budget lan, the story from the washington times for the viewers. live : unconsciousable, i in arizona, you get to mexico, upon is layer upon layer ayer of border enforcement, immigration and ice and they are tripping over each other down there are so many. it is not like, it is just like hole. open are so over-manned they tripping over each other.

host: all right, let's go to nottinningham, maryland. morning.d caller: good morning, are you there? sir. i am, caller: i want to reflect back on what the congressman was to when it came to the budget. i'm is the same reaction -- sorry, are you there? host: yes, sir. go ahead. aller: this is the same reaction wall always get from politicians and i don't care we can't cut at this, we can't cut that. he american public, between elections, screams about how much money washington is tadah, tadah, comes to the point of saying what do you cut the budget? nobody, nobody wants to give up things.ittle special they just won't do it. and then they want to scream and about too much money

going to washington. it's ridiculous and continues to this day. host: paul, what would you give paul, what are the things you think are right here to cut away? caller: what would i give up? i'm on social security and i two pensions, that is what i have in life. i don't have any credit cards, i have any automobile payments, i don't ask for anything from anybody, i have up.ing to give guess what, i'm 72 years old and i've given up a lot in my life. and a lot of it went to people who didn't t know need it, but they cause people don't take from the poor, don't take from the lame, don't take from the broken don't take from the people in god, don't take from mmigrants, don't take from anybody except the working american man and woman, that is hat i have to say about that issue. as far as this russian

investigation, please, three eople testified intel people yesterday. not one, not one could show or any evidence nce, whatsoever that there was or usion between trump anybody in this administration, none of them. brennan, who, let's face begrudgled ex-employer, that was he couldn't say there anything there, he just had suspici get you s, that nothing. host: paul, show our viewers what the former f.b.i. director exchange with congressman trey gowdy at house intelligence committee yesterday. guest: i saw information worthy f the investigation of the bureau to determine if cooperation of collusion was taking place. us a lot.esn't help what was the nature of the

information? > as i said, mr. trey gowdy, this committee has access to the type of information i'm eluded and re, it is classified i'm happy to talk about it in classified session. directly between the candidates and russian actor? >> that is not what i said. i talk about it. >> that was my question and you answered it, you didn't answer that way. no, i responded to your query, i'm not going to respond o particular elements of your question because i think it is inappropriate to do so here. ican only repeat what i said, was aware of intelligence and information about contacts russian officials and u.s. persons that raised oncerns in my mind about whether or not those individuals were cooperating with the ussians either in witting or unwitting fashion and serves the basis for the f.b.i. investigation to determine such collusion cooperation occurred. ost: that was the moment that generated the most headlines in

today's paper from the russia investigation hearings yesterday. if you want to go back and watch the hearing, you can of course, c-span.org. line in copis, michigan, for independents, good morning. caller: good morning, can you hear me? ma'am.yes, caller: i'm on one of these cell phones, whatever. love youuestion was, i guys. question, i'm wondering, in the budget, any year, is there a ategory that is for legal issues? we pay for is, do the prosecution and the defense? elected private or an official gets brought up on for their we pay defense? and so do we get double-dipod

i guess is what i'm wondering. thing, just whatever, you know, i think, we enemy and thatst sounds terrible, i know, but said, now, just what i just saying that, anyone internet, i ey have don't care if they are russia or know just because we do have free speech, just do something, isn't mean that we should. i think we're our own worst enemy. i find out so much -- host: when it comes to the information, you think we're our own worst enemy, is that what you are say something oh, god yes. host: do you think the federal government does enough to secure information online? c-span, just watching ou will get calls and they'll

be calling from britain or from wherever wherever, so many of our take ls nowadays, they great pride in the fact how many countries they go to. well some stuff, how would i worth of the top of the empire state building, i whatever. host: you think there is too much information online? online or my god, online n the computer, n the t.v., whatever, and some of the things, if we were there would be a country that would be saying -- if we were -- we do this to other countries, we'll on the band wagon, we need

to intervene. then we get -- host: hilda, got your point this morning. call.ciate the a few tweets on the topic of the budget that we've been discussing throughout the here on the "washington journal." jeremy writes, terrible budge math error that reveals a lot about this administration. writes, if we don't cut the spending, we won't have the oney to take care of folks who really will need help. and richard rogers referring to omp director, mick mulvaney, saying he's not credible, what i hearing in his president donald trump budget proposal accepted by the g.o.p. his on arrival, is question. dead on arrival was used by twitter ccain on his account yesterday referring to concerns about the defense

spending levels in that budget. in miller's t tavern, virginia, line for democrats. olivia, good morning. caller: good morning to you. first of all, i have a statement the question. the statement being is i don't why so many people complaining about trump now. american people is the eason for him being in office, besides, i know about the voting investigation, the russian hack, of the american people consciously voted this man, that it was so apparent before he ver got in office, his demeanor. that is the part i don't understand, how can you vote the office that is doesn't tful to women, care what he says around -- i a prosecute was supposed

to represent a higher standard nd for people to vote him in and disregard all of this media, i mean tis not just him, you words coming out of his mouth. host: what do you think about as president since he's been sworn in? before his actions and he got sworn in, i mean, the edia shows how he disrespects women, made all kinds of comments before he got elected the american and people turn a blind eye to all showing his hot temper, his demeanor of certain groups women, didn't care kids e say, knowing that television. host: david in dennison, texas, line for republicans, david, good morning. good morning. first i'd like to comment on the last statement that the

congressman made in response to the other lady talking about how third were o the appropria appropriate. three allegations from anonymous sources unrelated or related in paraphrase them, in his own way, put them together in a statement so inflammatory, the democrats, they talk about how trump acted the election and i as a won't say there are things i wish he would say differently on occasion. democrats have become totally nhinged, if you want to chalk up any kind of civility, no comparison to the type of name-calling, the -- it's been unbelievable. they just had a thing in showed some hey

democratic party function where being led in tage a chant, f trump, everybody finger up in le the air. it is unbelievable. 95% of the you have or s registered democrat independent, none republicans. 95% of the state department like 99%, state department, all government money todonating their democrats. host: where do you get your number? remember don't specifically about the reports, i get them on c-span, i listen to c-span all the time. there was a boring thing about the defense budget on just your show today talking how they are filing -- i'm republican, i support defense

spending, it needs to be set up audited. same thing with the fed, we need fed.dit the trump, semany reports about harvard ey start, the study that came out this week, cbs, 87% all negative reports about trump. times their primary news and it is easy when everything about trump, they start out, talk about something they like, like the speech in saudi arabia and they'll say, but it is od, complete reversal. he didn't say radical islamic he said islamic terrorism, islamist this, that other.e obama administration never put the two words in the same neighborhood. go back, they spend all the time reporting on, he said such and such as a and take it out of

shorten paraphrase it, -- nato, he never wanted remission needed to be updated and they needed to pay their share. please, one more thing. host: david, we got a lot of callers here. wrap up? okay. we lost david. rebecca, springfield, massachusetts, independent, line for independents on open phones. ahead., go caller: thanks for taking my call. host: go ahead. caller: okay. formerlly agree with the caller. i left the democratic party ecause they no longer represented my views. in terms of russia and the hacking thing, i see that as overblown. there actually is no current looks like a scandal might not be. we reported that anyway. democrats really

missed the boat. people voted for trump, not ecause he was the perfect candidate, but because they wers imposed upon antics them by the democratic ideology. can't, the democrats no longer accept the decent from who don't agree with them and i think that is where the and why trump won the election, so get a clue. you mentioned , earlier estigation this morning paul ryan was at axias, the online news organization we profiled last journal, he washington the issue of james comey's firing came up and he was asked that. here is what he had to say earlier this morning. director, mer f.b.i. james comey, does it concern you

the president referred to the former director as a mess up? >> i don't agree with that. and he's not. >> does it concern you that the president in the meeting with vice president of the attorney general asked to eave and then asked the f.b.i. director jim comey to let flynn go? don't know the veracity of these things. we have an investigation. what i will not do is comment on review.nder ongoing we've got three investigations going on right now. you have a house intelligence investigation, senate intelligence investigation and run by bob sel is highly credible, i don't know him well, but known him for 15 years, i think. what i'm not going to do is do the arm chair quarterback thing play-by-play or prejudge the outcome.

these are independent investigations, they are going the facts wherever the facts go and we need to let that happen. around and it comment on stories and facts and proceeds.s it let the innovation take their course, don't prejudge and let where it goes. >> last one, what do you think of jim comey? i like jim comey. i know there are people on both sides concerned about decisions he made. i think he was put into an impossible position. on that hen lynch went plane or clinton, i can't remember which one, put him in impossible condition. i remember getting that letter from him, october 28 or can't ng like that, i remember the date, i was campaigning for house time, that at the took me by surprise. and i remember thinking to an impossible no-win position or decision he had to make. guy was forced into

nearly impossible decisions, to get ndably going criticized for making the decisions, but he served his ably.ry host: about 20 minutes left this morning before the house comes for the day. we'll be taking viewers there. it is open phones here on the topicsngton journal," two we've been discussing all morning long, the russian investigation, as you just heard from speaker of the house axias event this morning. and president trump's 2018 budget plan, which was yesterday. one thing we're watching for later expected to happen today, new budget office score on the republican plan to repeal replace obamacare, the affordable care act, as it is known. happening today, we'll look for that score when it omes out, expected to be a hot topic of conversation on capitol hill all day long. virginia,ting reston, line for republicans, maggie,

good morning. caller: good morning, thank you my call.g i am a lifelong republican. my 50s, i had -- i really struggled with this election and make my decision on whom would vote until i was in the voting booth. how low the om republican party has gone. the party of lincoln, and we're filled with racists, who have no eople regard for the rule of law. our intelligence agencies, institutions, we used we're told we shouldn't respect them by this administration tell us that the russians, before and after cludeeds in our hear these d i republicans calling in and they don't care, they say there is no evidence. have you to have an

investigation. host: maggie, what is the you mindyou made -- do if i ask the decision you made booth, who did you vote for? caller: i have a hard time pro-lifehis because i'm catholic and it is a really important issue for me, but when and in the voting booth saw donald trump's name on my ballot, i couldn't go there. i could not go there. and i voted for hillary clinton person she was the only who could defeat him. and it killed me to do it, his clinton, diit. ost: maggie and reston, virginia. johnny in woodbridge, virginia, good morning. you for taking my call. i want to say something, not anything, be cruel or ut all you have to do is think and you'll understand why trump russians to be

embarrassed, he spent a little got lonelysia and he russians obliged him by sending a couple prostitutes to hotel room and they had their cameras rolling and got him. host: you are discussing that came out? caller: i'm referring to that information nobody knows but the russian spy agency, they taped those women time hit the door, they had their cameras rolling and they got him he's terrified they , squeeze to find out it out of the russians he don't is why he's at doing what he is doing. ost: should note the president denied allegations in that dosie

dosier. phil, good morning. caller: yes, good morning, thank taking my time. i'm lifelong independent and i'd to express to you the udget issues are a concern to me. that president trump ran on was that he was not oing to involve cuts to social programs, he's done so. but my main concern i would like express to viewers of c-span this morning and america in what i believe should be done and this is purely my opinion, rather than playing public hearings director x-f.b.i. comey and others and the udicial system have a closed-door session with joint senate in attendance.

closed door. sk every question that is necessary to get to the bottom investigation with the judicial branches and then present their findings, if need amongst the entire senate, theretire congress and if are charges of impeachable offensives made by president present that to the and proceed in an orderly fashion and the best way n my opinion to do so is by having a joint meeting with a for all questions to be asked and the american find out if impeachment processes are issued the supreme court that they

something.ound host: impeachment process the ed by congress, by house and senate, david is in new mexico, republican, david, good morning. caller: yes, sir, thank you for on.ing me god, military brat, raised country and family and i'm otally amazed at people that get on these shows and talk. senator caller, the from california, you know, they get classic talking points and hey go over and over and over again and expect us to buy into it, which a large majority of people, i guess, do. i have a lot of trouble with, about e looked into it, the firing of james comey, he was not an elected official. everybody that i've looked into and every situation that i've the internet up on

says that he has total -- he can any time for reason, so reason, he got fired that, is okay with the -- he had the right. stuff on the leaks office, again,his the president has the discretion decide what is classified and what is not classified. as far as the congressman in he'sornia, he talked about all for the rule of law, i'd definitionw what his of illegal is. believer in legal immigrati is,gration, but the problem illegal is illegal, whether you re a drug dealer, stealing cars, whatever. illegal is illegal. host: all right, jame necessary phoenix, arizona, line for democrats. james, good morning.

caller: hello, sir. you know what, i'm totally about the whole thing. putting trump in office has a lot of, a orld -- unruleing and things this man has done. just don't understand the budget he would take away social security disability which people have paid into all their lives. i mean, i don't understand what s wrong with the government these days, don't they understand what is going on in his world, what this man is doing or why he's ruining the people and the american first, he preached at, the american people will never be he's just impeached and out of that office because put in my favor and self to god

lead us. you know, because like this sense anymore.y people need to wake up and see hat is going on in washington because it is very, very unfair to the american people. noted, ll right, as we the office of management and budget director mick mulvaney is currently testifying on capitol hill talking about the twept 2018 budget. in to now, let's listen what he had to say. >> when we looked at the budget for the first time, i picked it the new day. foundation for american greatness, i spent most of the reading it. as i went through it, it struck with a uld have come up different title, the taxpayer first budget, because the first in my memory at least, this s a budget that was written from the perspective of the people who actually pay for the government. through ine by line what this government does and

asked ourselves, can we justify are to the folks who actually paying for it? money and g to take spend on a program, can i justify to him actually spending money. if i take money from you, can i justify it to you? and look you in the eye say, i need to take this money from you in order to give to disabled veteran and i think i can. i'm not sure i can look at mr. take l and say, i need to your money and give to a program that is ineffective, doesn't with nybody and right waste, fraud and abuse. that is perspective we brought to the budget from the beginning. maybe that is what is new about the new foundation for american greatness budget. other thing that is new, it does balance, for those who have een here a long time thas been a long time since the president's budget balanced, it hasn't happened since i arrived washington, d.c. host: mick mulvaney testifying right now before the house budget committee. over to c-span 3, also

showing it at c-span.org and you on the c-span radio app. time for a few calls before the phones on in, open the "washington journal." ric is in evansville, indiana, republican. good morning. caller: hi. thanks for your -- thanks for me, i've been a democrat until about six onths before the election, i woke up and seen what happened his last eight years with the open borders and the lawlessness what obama did, he obstruct justice to try to stop e-mail investigations. he's got into other elections. wrong, not one h investigation on this guy or hillary o show him collusion, russians giving her money and her foundation, and it is all they want to do is resist

trump, all trying to get him out office. this is ridiculous, come together and build our country year in, the last eight its got destroyed, all he wants to do is give away everything countries. other trump has come in and rebuild elationships and other countries as we fight terrorism and other dictators around the they want to do is trash trump. he didn't have to do this, he was a billionaire. to make thanksgiving our country great again. it got destroyed by lawlessness, liberals that don't even want to abide by the law, they do. host: all right, president trump overseas y through his trip in the vatican today, met pope frances today. yesterday, the president met the palestinian authority abbas there. meeting dent with his with the pope from earlier

today, vatican time. getner, florida, morning.d caller: good morning, thank you for taking my call. his call simply to address elected officials that took oath laws, defend the constitution, yet come out and behavior, such as illegal immigration. the legislation process is to laws, but rather than do that, they tried to take a short illegal behavior. i believe that any official that that should immediately be impeached. f you cannot uphold the oath that you took and immediately start to defend illegal behavior, how do you expect for anyone to respect you? my feelings. i think it is the feelings of the country. live byake an oath, you the oath, you don't immediately

lie. thank you very much for taking calls. host: summer point, new jersey, go ahead.ing, caller: good morning. host: good morning. caller: good morning, just all ning to the show morning and listening to everybody's opinion and really very quite sad. an elected our dent that has changed country completely. a year before he was elected and days into his presidency. this is a disgrace. basket of deplorables that supported him are coming out and trying to support him. okay, that's understandable. don't blame the democrats, they're the blame. he's in there, it's a disgrace, what he did to president obama years on the birth certificate issue was a disgrace and it turned out to be a lie. mr. trump continues to lie he's in our beautiful

white house. and how dare him bring in the to our white house. no further -- i don't believe he our president and i hope it all comes to an end very soon. illinois, robert, republican, good morning. aller: yes, thank you for taking my call. i have a quick comment, i'll make it brief. able to ver been understand how the hard-working conservative and republican country have gotten behind this man, who oesn't seem to share those values, he's not -- he's had verything his whole life and doesn't seem to hold those atngs that the rest of us do the forefront of his position there. thank you. on : robert, before you go, the line for republicans, did you support a different republican in the election? we lost robert. rich, raci newisconsin. good morning.

doing?: how you i'm dumbfounded the people call president hing the without any actual evidence. inuendo, smears, he previous campaign basically opened up intelligence and turned it into a weapon, the same way he did the i.r.s., same way the doj, the fund.d sludge they basically put a watch with the f.b.i. and the investigation clinton.ry it is just amazing the people keep call nothing and ripping on trump. i guess the media is doing its job. host: rich, you talk about inuendo and smears, do you think the congressional investigation, special counsel investigation is a good thing to find the facts in what may or happened?ve caller: i hope they do. i hope they do. to, i d like trey gowdy loved it when everyone gave trey

gowdy his time. he can get to the bottom of this. i think john brennan is a hack who is worked for the obama administration and in the mean, i think i career politicians to the bottom of this. i think john are doing an njustice to our loyal intelligence community who fight for our country everyday. same thing with the military. i don't think we respect the the jobs that nobody wants to do. -- we need to start teaching civics again, i don't they people understand, are calling for impeachment, we sake, thee a crime for crime is obama administration just dumping this. about how they smeared him with stuff, you know what, over the bounds so much, he wasn't called out, we tongue. we bided our time, we elected

to clear outwanted the republicans and the i don't think se any of them are working for our interest. rich in wisconsin. headlines to show you, the topic we talked about yesterday on the program, still very much in the news today. the ombing in manchester, front page of guardian newspaper out of britain this morning, terror is stolen by theheadline there, focus on person who has been named in hat event as the killer, the bomber, who murdered 22 people numbers casualty list still going up. another headline from u.s. reaction to that bombing in great britain from the houston chronicle. highest terror alert, headline from the orange county register asking, is it possible concert goers safe?

another headline from the miami herald, the manchester bomber id'ed and they are looking for possible partners. be tight at track, the indy 500 track is what talking about there, the upcoming indy 500. back to the phones before the in.e comes patricia, baker, louisiana, line for democrats. go ahead. caller: yes. i'm calling because i hear all in all ents coming around. they keep talking about the edia, the media is only reporting what they hear. mean, everything come out of donald trump's mouth is ignorant, he's a crook nfor the people, crooked friends and his family. these dy with all comments and trying to drag resident obama, donald trump cannot measure up to president

obama, period. on him n't have to call before anything. robin, a ht, republican, good morning. caller: good morning. i just wanted to say that i am disappointed, what is wrong with these people, it is causing all t are this and us deplorable, we are donald trump.r what he did in saudi arabia was wonderful to get the countries against this ght terrorism. and i am so sick of people talking about trump. obama did that deal with the this money aim all we don't know where it came from and he also lied about the healthcare bill saying everybody could keep their doctor. nobody is saying nothing about benghazi, nobody saying anything about that stuff. all i can tell you, i think we democrats out and let them learn a lesson from them running their mouth and they are talking

about. host: bob in new jersey, an bob, good morning, as the house is getting ready to come in this morning, go ahead. good morning. thank you for taking my call. i have one real question. when all this comes out that trump had nothing to do with fixing the election, russians nothing to do with the election, trump did nothing wrong, are the democrats going actually get behind him and start working for the american eople or drag their feet and bring up accusations of stuff he done? you got to remember, they were ones behind comey when he acquitted hillary in his own way when he came back on the 28th with his letter, they fired and now trump fired him and it is because of the russians. they don't get it. host: bob, what do you think the answer is to your own question? my own the answer to question, let's get this hearing tarted and finished in a reasonable amount of time.

let's not drag our feet because over 100 ve wasted ays, and nobody has done anything or came out and said anything he's done illegal and happens, we're just dragging our feet, wasting, wasting goes by, quality time. host: bob, we'll end it there. this use is coming in morning. we'll be back tomorrow morning on "washington journal," live coverage of the house begins now. the clerk: pursuant -- the clerk: speaker's rooms, washington, d.c. may 24, 2017, i hereby appoint the honorable trey hollingsworth, to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, paul d. ryan, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the order of the house of january 3, 2017, the chair will now recognize egg members from listed by the the majority and minority leer