sustained effort and leadership by the president, just like ronald reagan did in 1981, it will take that kind of sustained leadership from president trump to get his tax cut in 2017. >> watching how the president approached the hill, do you have any confidence that he has the will to do that? >> you will have to ask me that question later. >> "washington journal" continues. host: welcome back. we are taking your phone calls this half hour. we will start with the big news of the week here on the front page of "the new york times. ." president warns forces are ready. this is by the washington bureau chief. he writes --

here is president trump yesterday answering reporters' questions about his he did rhetoric -- heated rhetoric. [video clip] obvious,k it's pretty we are looking at that very carefully. i hope they are going to fully understand the gravity of what i said. what i said is what i mean. hopefully they will understand exactly why i said it and the meaning of those words. those words are easy to understand. >> [indiscernible] >> we don't want to talk about

progress or back channels. we want to talk about a country that has misbehaved for very -- for many years the decades. i have no choice but to take on the issue. veryll either be successful quickly were very successful in a different way quickly. wise angela merkel wrong? >> let her speak for germany could she is a friend of mine -- let her speak for germany. she is a friend of mine. she is not referring to the united states. >> [indiscernible] are only saying that because it's me. if somebody else uttered the exact same words, they would say what a wonderful thing.

we have tens of millions of people in this country that are so happy with what i'm saying because they are saying finally we have a president that is sticking up for our nation and sticking up for our friends and allies. this man will not get away with what he's doing, believe me. threat,ters one more overt threat -- which he has been uttering for years -- or if he does anything with respect to guam or anyplace else that is an american territory or an american ally, he will truly regret it. host: that reporter was peter baker. let's go to susan, calling from chicago. she is a republican. good morning. caller: good morning. host: what's on your mind?

caller: hello? host: you are on the air. what's on your mind? caller: what's on my mind is you aboutsegment earlier public housing. i lived in a very fancy neighborhood. less than a mile from all the public housing that the democrats put up. and they put all of these poor people in high-rises all along division street. and guess what happened. -- they stole toilets and ovens and ranges. the gangs took over. and it was all drugs.

now, the democrats put all this stuff up because they wanted to control all the people in chicago. poor,at happened is the black people were ruined. tore downd down -- all those high-rises that were put up in the 1960's. it was an effort for the democrats to control the poor people in chicago. and it was a tragedy. a service club of chicago and i spend a lot of money for poor black kids and minority children and white children who are going to -- i spend $4000 a year or more helping these kids that were put

,p in these high-rise projects they were nothing more than drug gangs. that was it. carolina's go to south where we have margaret, who is a democrat. what's on your mind? caller: two things. also a question. i wanted to know about the people who are anxious to go to war. i think it would be good if you come on todoctors show the aftermath of a nuclear weapon, a nuclear weapon that is going to damage so many people. in my opinion, that would be like giving someone our snack. c. giving someone arseni

it would take them 10-15 days to die a slow, painful death. it affects everyone. the other thing i would like to talk about is i could not get to the lady on the phone earlier children and early marriages. i came from a small town where everyone in that town was abusive. they had all the mothers and parents, they all got married at very young age. they were children. to me, children cannot raise children. but, what it could do is leave a bad aftereffect on the children who had to watch these things as they grow older. made the older, i

mistake of getting married at a and i stillage regret it and it left a lot of damage. i thought i was protecting my abuse.n from my but, it didn't happen. children cannot raise children. say, well, i'm sorry and i will do better than my parents did. it doesn't work. inside of you, you have grown with this for a long time and you cannot protect your children. host: little rock, arkansas. willie is on the line for independents. caller: i was just making a suggestion to all these people who are so aggressive in going to war. when the first nuclear bomb lands, they ought to meet up so

they can catch some of them. thank you very much. host: maryland come on the line for democrats, we have jim. are you there? caller: yes. me --if you can hear let's go to rachel in texas. she is an independent. caller: hello. a lot of people think this rush investigation is fake. fbi came to president obama and told him hthey were investigating this. why didn't the president come forward and say something during the elections? the fbi was investigating this. each one of these people who said they had no involvement with russia, the fbi has come back and said we proven you've

talked to these people. ok come i forgot, we did talk to them. for them to say it is based on leaks -- we need to know if the president we have today was pers peoplee of the involved in the campaign was indebted to russia -- this thing , trump asked him why can we not use nuclear weapons four times. that sent a message that this man is crazy. we are dealing with a crazy president and we will be in a war because he is fixed on his image. he does think he's king. he scares me. all these people that believe in

him, give it a couple of years and history will tell what kind of president we have. these other countries, the world thinks he's a nut. host: missouri, we have david on the line for republicans. caller: good morning. i would like to speak about the opiate problem that's going on right now. host: the president said he was going to declare it a national emergency. what did you think about that? caller: well, there's more than one side to this. i have children myself and i don't want anything to happen to them because of something like this. but i've been disabled since i was pretty young. i'm almost 60 years old now. i was in two major accidents when i was in my early 20's. i've had to take strong opiates

for 33-34 years. anyone that takes them gets an addiction like that. but i've never gone outside the doctor to get the medication, ever. never been in trouble for anything like that. they are talking about taking this medication from me and i've told them, you take this from me -- my doctor has told them, you take this from him and he will die. i wonder what people think about people like me. am i that expendable to society? i don't get it because that's not being talked about. host: carolyn is on the phone from georgia. she is a democrat. guest: good morning.

address the to gentleman who just came on the addiction.the opiate there is a larger scale problem that is really being addressed in a number of ways to also included this excitement about the possibility of going to war. along with the opiate addiction and some of the medical concerns that we have about dropping the globalour answering a an it's like overpopulation and all these nato countries are responding in kind. we are seeing it play out with the excitement around korea and the possibility of war.

because that eliminates people. every country has a 23 million quota they need to eliminate . that is not being talked about. the reason they are having all these issues with the health care provisions, all of that will eliminate people. it is a sad thing that this is how they are doing it. they are not being honest to the public. host: lafayette, indiana. independent. good morning, terry. caller: good morning. live down there -- i how when there was the prohibition of alcohol, gangs -- forcohol

13 years. .hen they repealed the law it breaks up all the murders alcohol gangs. they need to stop the war on drugs. it's ruining the world. increase in the murder of women and children in south america by the drug gangs that are propped up by our drug habits and our drug dollars. mexico wants to legalize. get rid of the rigorous drug gangs -- murderous drug gangs. the strong as marijuana sells for $8,000 a pound. that is insane and ridiculous. all you need is sunlight and water and a little fertilizer -- host: rhode island, we have john

on the line for democrats. caller: good morning. i want to make an observation. country to me that this is in turmoil. it's almost as if we are reliving the civil war all over again. absent the guns and armadas of still being shot and killed. there have been more killings weapons ints and then alltry since 1968 the wars combined, beginning

with the revolutionary war and the ongoing war in afghanistan. more killings in our streets due to gun violence than in all those wars combined. that data can be checked out. and proven or disproven. host: surely is calling from indiana. she is a republican. caller: good morning. i'm calling because i wanted to come they are missing with -- they don't care about our country. russia, we already told them when i was three years old -- they told them not to put them and they should leave that alone. let them be in their own country and let them do their own thing.

i voted him in, donald trump. these building one that talk to them people and got the people only one -- he's the to talk to them people and got them people worked up. they shoot off the missiles and stuff, no telling which way those things are going. it's got everybody upset and scared. host: was donald trump your choice from the very beginning? caller: yeah, i picked him. i was voting for hillary clinton and that man i was voting for anded up on my ballot sheet i didn't have no other way to go out. him, really, for

but his name jumped up on my ballot sheet. comek with the government i'm licensed to work with them and stuff like that. i don't know where he came from. i pushed my button for hillary clinton -- host: you didn't mean to vote for donald trump. caller: no. when i looked up, they had his name on my ballot sheet. i said, oh, my god, what are they doing here? i didn't see him up on my ballot sheet. i was going to put clinton in that spot. host: shirley calling from indiana. on the republican line in south carolina, we have frank. caller: i'm here.

-- look at korea. it was something that we didn't start, but we got involved in it and we didn't finish it. we didn't let macarthur finish the fight. in vietnam, we didn't finish that. middle east, we didn't finish that. we go around and get involved in this stuff and say we are going to do nationbuilding and start cultures. it needs to be a lesson learned here. what do the south koreans think? what do they want? we haven't heard anything about what the south koreans want. all we're hearing about is what the political figures want. even though we are getting in all these skirmishes, a lot of people made a lot of money, we need to have term limits on these congressmen and senators and get some leadership in our country.

that's all i've got to say. host: barney calling from florida. he's on the line for independents. caller: i don't think america can be this dumb. to think the russians did in hack -- didn't hack the voting machines. host: they certainly tried. caller: don't you realize if the united states would admit that the russians hacked into the voting machines, it would be a big uproar? host: margaret is calling from iowa. she is a democrat. caller: i would like to know why trump is making so much trouble in washington by changing all these people and bringing his family into it and everything when his son is getting into some much trouble. i would like to know what they

are going to do to straighten out washington. host: we are looking at pictures from the president's press availability the other day. you can see a banca trump -- ivanka trump on one side of the table and jared kushner on the other side. caller: i don't think he should have any family in there, pe riod. i don't even think he should be in the white house . host: john is calling from herndon, virginia on the line for democrats. want to tell all these callers, north korea is fake news. when the media is telling everything about people who voted for donald trump, this is what they were talking about. host: what makes you think anything related to north korea with the president's reaction to it, the reaction from rex

tillerson, the reaction from the defense chief, what makes you think any of this is fake? caller: this is the reality. the media is reporting the news and everything they say about this president was fact and the people are saying that everything the media is doing is fake news, this is the consequence. handleesident cannot these problems. now, he's talking about his wealth. he sang every option is on the table about venezuela. this president doesn't get it. when you don't know what you're doing, you need to hire people who know the job and he's not giving any options whether it's

secretary of defense -- they cannot speak, they cannot say anything about him because he will attack them anytime they try to explain something. he's attacking the person. that is not how you run a country. host: this is from "the washington post." force is ant says option in venezuela. it's been years since the last direct u.s. military intervention in latin america. that action would cause an uproar in the region and would be questionable under international law. mike pence travels to latin south america, where he will visit columbia come argentina, chile and panama. from virginiag in

on the line for independents. caller: three points. i go on the word of our former president, obama. am -- two, with the , we need toof war make sure jared kushner is registered to serve. point, he moved his desk has he moved his clothing line from -- the last point, has he moved his clothing line manufacturing from china back to the united states? host: homestead, florida. we have carlos calling on the line for republicans. good morning. caller: good morning.

i have three things i want to say. trump spent eight years building a water plant and now, they use it to enrich uranium. bush let them off. obama spent eight years and did absolutely nothing. what are we supposed to wait for them -- they already have the bomb. are we going to wait for them to attack us? the president is doing the right thing. i support him. i think we are better off confronting them before anything else. that's what i wanted to say. host: dave calling from youngstown, ohio. a democrat. good morning, dave. i was watching pbs about

world war i, they were talking about the efforts during world troopsent sentte to evict them from washington. there was a movie that they how war is a racket. the book was written by a major general in world war i. pbs,is clip they showed on it showed where macarthur and patton and the ones that were in

world war ii, that led world war i, they in world war their sabers with and pulled their sabers out and even good desk evicted -- and eveicted all those veterans who wanted their bonus the government promised them. they need to the money now because of the way -- there was the depression going on. , "war is a racket," warsexplain that all the were for-profit. there were a few that made money off the blood of the americans. anotherer seeing

documentary called "the great war: world war i." --an't think of the name host: the point you are making is that the war zone is a money -- moneymaker for the government? is that what you are saying? caller: it's like jpmorgan, jpmorgan carnegie, all of these 1% ishat are like the top actually making money off of war . jpmorgan was selling shells and all the ammunition to all of our allies, but he wanted to sell them to everybody in world war i. host: all right. we have to stop you there because that is the end of our program. we want to thank you for making "washington journal" part of your saturday. we will see you back here tomorrow morning. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy.

visit ncicap.org] ♪ announcer: next, the results of a recent assessment on teen road day 3 and live at 10:30, ts the net roots -- netroo conference. on wednesday, the family, career, and american leaders of america announced their -- teen road safety national press club. this is about 40 minutes. >> welcome everyone, good morning. less traffic today. not for me, but for most people, i am sure.