future of self driving cars. arizona reporter on the status of the proposed border wall between the u.s. and mexico. ♪ good morning. it is saturday, october 28, 2017. on today's washington journal, a federal grand jury has returned the first indictment in the investigation by special counsel robert mueller into russian election meddling and potential ties to president donald trump. it is i'm clear who will face charges but the investigation has focused on individuals including the former campaign chairman paul manafort and former national security adviser michael flynn. we are asking our viewers for your reaction of indictments in the ongoing mueller investigation. republicans can call 202-748-8001.

democrats, 202-748-8000. independents can call 202-748-8002. regis on social media on twitter @cspanwj and on facebook at facebook.com/c-span. more from the report from cnn about this ongoing investigation . it says a federal grand jury in washington on friday approved the first charges in the investigation led by special counsel robert mueller. the charges are still sealed under orders from the federal judge and plans prepared friday for anyone charged to be taken into custody as soon as monday. it is unclear what the charges are. the report goes on to say the special counsel investigation is focused on potential: between the donald trump campaign and russia, as well as obstruction

of justice by the president who may have tried to impede the investigation. cnn said investigators are scrutinizing donald and his associated financial ties with russia and they are examining foreign lobbying conducted by former campaign chairman paul manafort and former national security advisor michael flynn. and others. we are getting your reaction to that latest news in the investigation. fox news reports that there is growing pressure on robert mueller to resign amid the rush of probe. -- russia probe. it says he is facing a fresh round of calls from conservative critics for his resignation from the russia collusion probe amid revelations that have called into question the fbi's action and potentially mueller's and defendants after a bombshell that an anti-donald trump dossier was funded i the

democratic national committee and the clinton campaign house republicans asking to what extent the fbi, which received the findings and bravely agreed to pay the same researcher to gather intelligence on donald trump and russia, used the politically connected material. critics question whether mueller 's ties to the bureau and the fbi render him compromised as he investigates the allegations. republicans call 202-748-8001. democrats, 202-748-8000. callendents can 202-748-8002. we have someone on the line from north carolina on the democratic line. what are your thoughts? investigation is leading to exactly what i thought. a --se of the fact we have

since wiki leaks, we have a lot of information that is shared all over the place. i think that there is no ,nformation that can be secret even if secret negotiations behind, you know, held by people of a certain party. i think we get to the point where we have things leaking out. if our system can be trashed, we will be in a state of confusion. host: joe is calling in from sarasota, florida on the independent line. what do you think of the latest reports? caller: the president needs to resign like richard nixon. he is worse than richard nixon. at least richard nixon was

intelligent and new wants he was out, the vice president would come in and he needs to be wise. host: we do not know who, if anyone, at the white house may be the target of these indictments. they could be someone else. should we wait to see what comes of this before we decide what should happen next? caller: in a way, yes. look what happened to bill clinton. nothing. we spent millions of dollars. how many millions did we spend? and nothing happened. in a way, yes, investigate to the fullest. whoever is guilty, he or she needs to go down. i am pretty sure dollar trump and his family are so corrupt that donald trump and his family are so corrupt and need to step down. host: the hill has a little bit

more on this ongoing investigation, saying that a former cia chief among those who robert mueller spoke to. james woolsey has been in contact with fbi agents working under special counsel robert mueller regarding his knowledge of former national security adviser michael flynn, a spokesperson for james woolsey , hisaccording to abc news spokesperson said he had been in touch with the fbi, before and after robert mueller took over the law enforcement probe into potential collusion between the .rump campaign and russia michael flynn is a focal point in the investigation of reported interest to mueller is a meeting in september of 2016 and which james woolsey said he had heard a discussion about sending a u.s. based turkey clerk -- cleric back to turkey. the statement says there is some question as to whether that

action would have been legal. judy is calling in on our republican line from the louisiana. good morning. i think we lost judy. we will go to ed from seattle on our democratic line. caller: good morning. whys thinking out loud, doesn't the president pardon this individual? how will the country and the republicans react? it will be telling to note how they react. outragea lot of this over the sexual harassment with anthony weiner, almost a reaction to the way the president behaved. there is a certain amount of sensitivity going on right now and i wonder will the reaction that is my comment, thank

you. host: peter on our republican line from lighthizer, california. -- lake elsinore, california. caller: the democrats thought they would win the election. one -- won,her side a total outsider, it came to light because they would never -- they did not think he would win. these big coalitions, the years, decades, centuries of political leaders. it gets broken because we can get an independent and that is what has happened. the cobol is coming down. hopefully, we will start out with a new slate and have people who are not as corrupt because there is a lot of corruption in washington. host: the core of the mueller

investigation is about the role russia played and tried to meddle with the election. but, it is based on the dossier that was written and paid for by the democrats. they had i got right it. -- write it. most of the salacious part, the urinating on the bed, was written by the democrats. they paid $9 million to have it written. the meetings everybody knew about, they use that to make everything else credible, which is a total and the lies were written iv democrats advocate -- by the democrats and paid $9 million for. host: from newsweek, the resignation of a u.s. attorney could endanger mueller's russia

investigation. the report says that with the onignation of a lawyer friday as u.s. attorney for the eastern district of virginia, president donald trump has an opportunity to replace another obama era holdover in the department of justice. if donald trump demands the department fire special counsel robert mueller and if enough officials resign or get fired, rather than carry out his order, the decision to do so could fall on his successor. reaction to the news yesterday that the judge would be stepping down. michael is calling on the democratic line from new york state. caller: good morning. i was listening to the republican caller that just called in. understand, did not fox news have an interview with donald trump and he openly admitted to the shower thing they all have.

thesefunny how all of lies are being exposed by donald trump. there are a whole list of them. if robert mueller's due diligence and the investigation will yield a prize. i believe donald trump is very disingenuous with the country. he shows it through his administration. you know what? they are between a rock and a hard place and trying to explain donald trump's flies. if you think he is not a liar, i am paying taxes, i filed a tax return. let's see him file a tax return. no republicans are talking about that. it seems like a big hypocrisy, this will presidency. i think the impeachment process should begin. it is very interesting how they try to impeach mr. clinton on

his deals with monica lewinsky. you take a case like this with our president doing total damage and destruction worldwide. host: ok. karen calling in on our republican line from st. helena island. what do you think? caller: i really do not think robert mueller has any business doing intermittent -- any investigation of donald trump or anything after he has been involved with the clinton and the democratic party. he has connections with different people that are being brought up on television in the news. i think it would be fair if he would just step down and let someone else take over until the whole thing is cleared up for the democrats and the republicans, and the independents. when there is all of this going on and you cannot trust what you hear on the news, and you cannot

believe what people are saying, and what you are reading in the will we get fair justice in this country when we have to clintons with their emails being destroyed. people are saying donald trump does not care about our country that he cares about our country. if you did not, he would not give up his life as a billionaire with all of his money and time, and spent all this time trying to do something for us. we be people are the ones that elected him. we have a voice. host: we are talking about the latest news about indictments coming soon in the mueller investigation. republicans can call 202-748-8001. democrats, 202-748-8000. independents, 202-748-8002. other news on the front page of

the "new york times" -- conservatives were first to finance the dossier file on donald trump. the washington freebie can, conservative website funded by -- a republican donors major republican donor first tired the research firm that months later produced for democrats the salacious dossier describing ties between donald trump and the russian government. the website said it funded in large part by new york hedge fund billionaire paul singer, 2016 tom fusion gps and understand that you information about several republican presidential candidates, including donald trump. the freebie can told the firm -- stop ascon said to donald trump was clinching the nomination. conits website, the free bea

made a statement to its readers explaining what happened. it says, since it launched in 2012 it has retained a third-party firm to conduct research on many individuals and institutions of interest to help during in that capacity the election cycle and we retain fusion gps to provide research on multiple candidates in the republican presidential party. firmss we retain other for research into hillary clinton. they have a full statement on their website in reaction to the news they funded -- underway funder of that dossier. frank calling in on the republican line from maryland. good morning. caller: good morning. i hope we will distinguish between approximate and the original conceit, which was there was coronation between the donald trump campaign and russia. it seems like, if the indictment

is true, the former national security adviser, based on his higher duty as a former military official with turkey lobbying to disclose that, which he did not disclose to the pentagon. that is not really coordination. carter page with his lobbying for russian figures, the former merrill lynch work, that is not coordination. paul manafort with the lobbying for eastern european countries, that is not really coordination of the campaign. , becausef donald trump he relied on his previous business, so much on getting funding. a lot of -- pretty much all of this new york real estate developers were receiving substantial all-cash payments for scott rise -- sky rise

condos in new york and had a duty following sanctions from people like iran or asia. host: you were pointing out areas that did not necessarily mean coordination, even if coordination is not found, is it important for the mueller investigation to investigate the extent of efforts by russia and actors to interfere with the election? caller: i guess i think it is two separate things. it is parallel. you can show that russia tried to mess with the election. and that therefore russia is a bad actor. i think that the reason we are trying to delegitimize the president like we have tried for every president, whether current wanted donald trump or barack obama or george bush, instead of disagreeing and defeat them, we

try to say that, it is some sort wide manchurian type thing. yes, you can show russia tried to intervene. but i do not think donald trump campaign coordinated with anybody. it was a one-man shop going on intuition and visceral appeal. you can show that donald trump may be had an affirmative duty in business to investigate who were the all-cash pairs to some of his condo developments. you could show that for everyone. host: democratic line, new york city, ellison. caller: in response to your last caller, donald trump junior, jared kushner, paul manafort meeting with the russian lawyer regarding information that was meant to take down hillary

clinton, coordination. they were seeking contact with julian assange to get their hands on the wiki leaks emails hacked by russia, coordination. using information that had been hacked by russia from state and local precinct voter registration databases, coordination. these are all areas that mueller has looked into which directly bear on coordination between the trump campaign and the russian government. blindow, you have to be or not read, which is a disease these days to not be aware of the multiple instances of coordination regarding the trump campaign and russia. the second point is that this

past week, you have heard a lot of noise and seen a lot of smoke and mirrors regarding the so-called cooperation between the dnc about the dossier. last night, friday night, as we have seen throughout this campaign, the washington free be acon, said the origins of the dossier were unknown, they knew, because they originated the dossier. they paid for it through their billionaire owner, paul singer. this kind of absurd of the, everyone -- absurdity, everyone listening, including proud supporter -- donald trump supporters, the dossier was started by republicans, a fact admitted by them. on, goshington free beac to google and see that they originated the dossier.

host: we just read a report on that about the dossier. in the washington post, there is more about the subsequent funding for the dossier. it says the lawyer for the democratic party who took over the funding had authority to make the request. it says when the general counsel for hillary clinton's presidential campaign hired a private research form -- firm in the spring of 2016 to investigate donald trump, he drew from funds he was authorized to spend without oversight by campaign officials, according to a first person for his law firm. gps, didhired, fusion research that resulted in the dossier that alleged connections between donald trump and russia. while the funding for the work came from the national -- democratic national committee, he kept the investigation information closely held and advise the campaign on its strategy, according to the

spokesperson who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the internal dynamics. libby is calling in from illinois. what do you think from the latest revelation? caller: i wanted to tell the readers that on september 17, 2017, c-span iran booktv date morris's lecture on his new book. in his lecture di,ck said christopher steel gave the dossier to john mccain in a clandestine meeting. and john mccain get it to james comey. admitted tosteele james comey that many sources were unsolicited and unverified. james comey said the content was not true but he gave the dossier to president obama. this is how it started. dick morris hypothesized it was started by the british because

they were upset with donald trump because he supported brexit. searchst the viewers c-span archives and type in k morris and -- dic that may put a spin on things. host: that video and all past videos from the last 30 years on c-span can be found on the website, c-span.org and search as she said, to find it. long beach, california on our independent line, aaron. ,aller: i am calling in because whether democrat or republican, you can tell a fruit -- a treat by the fruit it bears. by the fruit it bears. donald trump is not fit to be our leader.

whether it was a lack of response and puerto rico. the u.s. virgin islands. or things he said on the bus about sexually exploiting women and grabbing them, and these sorts of things. or even the tweets he sends out. possibly getting involved in a war with north korea. these are not norms. i do not believe that a man fit to run the free world would r tweet and say these things. when i look at this behavior, there was one explanation, he needs to be impeached. host: we are talking about the latest in the robert mueller investigation into president trump amid the new reporting that indictments have been

handed down by a grand jury. republicans call 202-748-8001. democrats, 202-748-8000. independents, 202-748-8002. the washington post reports that the congressional investigation into russian meddling are being steered into a new directions i the president and republicans. they demand new scrutiny of hillary clinton's actions as secretary of state, potentially jeopardizing investigations of russian meddling in the 2016 aretion just as the probes closing in on donald trump's inner circle. in a week, house and senate republican leaders announced to investigations into obama era decisions involving a uranium deal that increased russian share of u.s. nuclear market and another into how the fbi handled clinton's use of a private email server all secretary of state. donald trump cheered on this

which resurrected some of the president's most favored jabs against clinton during the 2016 presidential campaign. independent line, long beach, aron.ornia, a caller: in regards to the dossier, from what i've heard on the news, they did not need to use the dossier in order to come to their findings. when we circle back and look at this man's behavior, and his need to win, i would not be surprised. needs tok that mueller continue the investigation. i also do not believe that donald trump needs to be interviewing his new u.s. attorney, especially in the territories where he has properties and interests. on theinda is calling in

democratic line from orange, connecticut. caller: good morning. i also haverat but served as a juror and a grandeur for a federal case. let me assure my fellow americans that we sit in a room the way our constitution and our courts have decided that we should do. they are in that room, you are a juror, not a democrat or a policeman, not a republican, you are a citizen. you do understand that the responsibility you have and you sit there as an american first. people need to have faith in their peers who do serve on these federal juries and make decisions. they do take it seriously and base it on law.

it is not what the new says and what the press says. it is what our constitution and our laws say. we have to put ourselves as americans first. we have done it before with other presidents and other leaders. politically, one side likes it and the other side does not. ultimately, the citizens and america does come first. we all need to sit down and watch that play out. and accept the truth. and move on as americans, just as we have done before. that is all i have to say today, everyone have a great day. host: other headlines in the new york times, it says donald trump pushed the justice department to allow informants to testify in the russian uranium case. it says, the white house acknowledged friday that president trump push for a gag order on an informant to be lifted in a federal investigation into russia's attempt to gain a foothold in

the united states uranium industry during the obama administration. it raised questions about whether donald trump, eager to turn the tables on multiple investigations into whether his campaign coded with russia and the 2016 presidential election, violated an unwritten justice department rule against the white house involvement in criminal investigations. it came three days after house republicans said they were opening an inquiry into the obama administrations approval of a 2010 agreement that allowed a russian nuclear energy agency to acquire uranium one, which owned access to much of the uranium in the united states. is analling in, he independent from florida. good morning. caller: i want to remind everybody that robert mueller is a republican. james comey is a republican.

these people were said to be the greatest people in the world i everybody in congress. now they are trying to make him look like he is a crook. he is a vietnam veteran, a lawyer, and doing a job. they are trying to make it all about hillary and all about obama. they are scared to death about dollar trump because of steve bannon, running against these guys. everybody in congress wants to invest clinton. -- investigate clinton. does everybody remember benghazi, the ruined her poll numbers. this is ridiculous. if she is guilty of something, put her in jail but do not let donald trump off the hook. he is charging the secret service harvey's and at the -- park fees, at the golf course, he plays more than tiger woods.

he has nothing to say about anything, he has always a comment, john mccain is not a warrior. is one of the most worst presidents i have ever seen in my life and i cannot leave at night when i think about him with the nuclear codes. is calling in on the democratic line from macon, georgia. what are your thoughts? i listened toow, all the people calling in and supporting number 45. timeman spends all of his doing all of the things -- we spend a lifetime teaching our children not to do. we tell her children to not call names and hit people. he says, i hit you and you hit me harder -- you hit me and i hit you harder. i would not want my children anywhere around them or their children. you are not teaching your children anything.

host: james calling on the republican line from kentucky. what are your thoughts? caller: i am a veteran. i also think it is time that americans get off of it and get together and work together for the future of our country. our grandchildren, and all of our families are going to suffer for the things going on right now. the president -- i do not approve of everything he does, but i do approve of some things he is trying and he has tried to do the things he said he would do. that is why i voted for him. though sue -- those who want to condemn need to stop. and let our country come together. thank you. ,ost: we are taking your calls

getting your reaction that the first indictment in the investigation by special counsel robert mueller have been handed down. they could be revealed as early as monday. republicans can call 202-748-8001. democrats, 202-748-8000. independents, 202-748-8002. calls, weait for more will look at some other headlines this morning from the hill, they say senator orrin hatch denied he is planning to retire to make way for former massachusetts governor mitt romney to run for his seat. orrin hatch's office disputing reports that the nation's longest-serving republican senator has decided to retire to make way for mitt romney to run for senate from utah. according to the atlantic which is sort -- cited five sources who said orrin hatch will retire

at the end of his term in 2018. changed since the atlantic published a carbon copy of the same story in april, likely with the same anonymous sources who were no more informed on the senators thinking than they seem to be now. said in a response to the atlantic. michael is calling in from mineola, texas on the republican line. what are your thoughts about the latest news on indictments in the mueller investigation? caller: i think it is about time. i think there will be many more afterwards. your callers seem to be living somewhere in a whole. i do not think they watch the news. how could you possibly not make

one decision based on everything that is going on that this guy is dirty. this president needs to go and go quickly. or this country will go downhill quick. if not get into a nuclear exchange. that is what i believe. host: pilot calling on the republican line from sterling heights, michigan. hello, violet. caller: i wanted to tell you that it is literally hard to understand how republicans can say anything about mueller. -- president literally hello? host: you are on. caller: i wanted to ask the republicans to explain the president refusing to implement russian sanctions. he barely signed the bill.

from what i understood, october 1 was the due date to implement sanctions against russia. he does not do nothing. he just refuses to do it. he refuses to prepare our country against new attacks against our election. our media. how republicans justify this? that is all i wanted to say. host: on the issue of russian sanctions, the washington post -- the headline russian entities targeted, saying the state department on friday listed 39 russian companies and government organizations tied to the defense and intelligence sectors and warned that anyone in the united states or elsewhere doing significant business with them could be hit with sanctions starting early next year.

the list was a belated response to legislation which president trump reluctantly signed in august, giving him until october 1 to produce a roster of targets for new sanctions designed to punish moscow for its actions in ukraine and interference in the 2016 u.s. election. the bill was seen as a way of forcing his hand and it had broad bipartisan support including new sanctions on iran and north korea. patrick is going in on the democratic line from toms river, new jersey. what do you think about indictments being handed down in the mueller investigation? caller: i cannot wait until monday. i want to reiterate my statement i made to the person who answered my call. you seem to have a agreement from your callers. how this despicable excuse for a human being became our president is beyond me. but he needs to go.

host: charles is calling in from pennsylvania on our independent line. good morning. caller: how are you? host: good, what do you think about the latest in the russian investigation? caller: it is just the tip of the iceberg, at least i hope so. since the investigation has been going on, they have slowly just started bashing mueller, another caller had said, he is a republican, he is spoken well of by republicans all this time. now they attack them. last night, after this came out, i watch for a news to get away from me democratic push and the republican push. every station i looked up, whether george abela -- cnn, bbc, but fox news was attacking hillary clinton. not one mention -- most of these

people supporting donald trump sit there with fox news on all the time and will not go to an alternative new site such as the bbc. and see what is going on, like in puerto rico, he is claiming we are supporting them and i am watching on german television that people are suffering. and we are doing nothing. he is making us a joke in the world. something has to change somehow. i do not know how they will do it but i pray somehow they do. and at some point we can set feellimits to where people more free to speak their minds and not worry about being reelected. i think that is a huge problem. host: in other headlines, the hill reports that a study is predicting that the gop tax plan could cost $2.4 trillion. it says the tax plan would cause

revenue to drop between $2.4 trillion and $2.5 trillion over the course of a decade, even after economic growth is taken into account according to an analysis from urban-brookings tax policy center. analysisr's initial drew fire from some conservatives for not including the effect of economic growth on revenue, the updated report found almost no difference with growth dynamic scoring. we talked to you about the latest on the mueller investigation into russian meddling and the news last night that the first indictment had been handed down by a federal grand jury. and that an arrest could take place as soon as monday in the case. we do not know who would be the subject of that but are getting your thoughts. republicans, 202-748-8001. democrats, 202-748-8000. independents, 202-748-8002.

dennis on the republican line from las vegas. caller: first off, i will like to mention that -- i watch washington journal a lot and this is one of the first times all three parties seem bipartisan on the same decision about donald trump. that is showing unity in our country. that we are all rallying behind the one problem in our country. and it is the leadership. . think it is a good thing instead of everybody bickering on this show. something i have never seen before. host: what do you think about the latest news itself? he will not spend any time in jail, he is a bureaucrat who will get a slap on the wrist. donald trump will not

be reelected and it will be interesting to see who is elected president then. host: in today's "washington matus-- defense secretary decried north korea's outlaw behavior during his recent trip to asia. it says the defense secretary james mattis visited the border of north korea on friday, calling for the complete verifiable and irreversible denuclearization of the korean peninsula while drawing a contrast between life in the two koreas. to the south, a vibrant country, a vibrant economy, a free country, and it's underpinned by p is loving members of a free society. behind me, to the north, unimpressive resume that shackles its people and denies the freedom, their welfare, and of human dignity in pursuit of nuclear weapons and the means of delivery to threaten others with catastrophe you the secretary speaking alongside the south

korean defense minister. he said that north korea has engaged in "reckless outlaw behavior and that the united states and south korea are serious about solving this problem." continuing our discussion about indictments in the mueller investigation. our on our independent line from michigan. what do you think? caller: just like the temptations said, this world is becoming helter-skelter, charles manson said the same thing. -- pardonshould everybody, hillary clinton, bill clinton, obama, donald trump, smooth it out and say we will not investigate and we will work on working on this country. we will work on jobs, work on infrastructure. we should kick all of that to the curb because it is not doing any good. somebody said donald trump will get a slap on the wrist, if he

gets that. hillary clinton, nobody will get time. wake upongress would and say we are not having any more investigations and will get down and get a tax bill, we will get together. for the flag everybody stands up for and puts their hand over their heart. host: let me ask you -- what about the issue of a foreign country trying to interfere with the election? experts say it will probably happen again. do you think it is worth robert mueller and investigators to continue looking into that? caller: did you hear what russia's said? they are getting ready for elections and are scared we will do it to them. russia and anybody else can say anything, if you are ignorant enough to believe -- in other words, the american people are sheep and believes anything they tell them.

donald trump allies and they believe that. you are all sheep -- donald trump lies and they believe it. you are all sheep. i do not get on twitter. that is hearsay. russia is scared to death that the united states -- vladimir putin especially, that we will do something to his election and get him gone out. which would not be a bad idea. host: independent line, virginia beach, virginia. caller: i am in agreement with the indictment for this white house. with regards to the current president, he will not stand up against any russians, he will not stand up against white supremacist, he will not stand up against anything that we fought for. that is people from every race, creed, color.

speech, hereedom of will go after people on their speech, he will go after anything and everything, except for russia. personally, i feel he has sold our country to russia. and that people in america need to learn russian real quick, because he was bought and paid for by russia and that his job is to turn this nation to a totalitarian nation and he agrees with everything that is a dictatorship and needs to go. news, it ise other reported that there are some concerns cited over the deal in puerto rico to help with the post hurricane efforts. the federal government disaster relief agency said on friday that it had significant concerns about how a tiny montana company

won a contract for up to $300 million to rebuild parts of puerto rico's hurricane ravaged electrical grid. the federal emergency management agency which normally helps pay for storm recovery warned that it may refuse to cover any cost of the contract between whitefish energy and the puerto rico electric power authorities known as prepa was known to be found in proper. -- improper. yes it did -- the power authority represents warrants -- that fema approved of the deal but in a statement fema said that in which in any contract between pr epa and whitefish that says fema approved is not accurate. we continued to talk about and i am it's under -- indictments forthcoming in the robert mueller investigation.

joe calling from omaha on the democratic line. caller: it is my understanding that the american congress passed sanctions against russia. they were to be implemented the first of october. the president has refused to sign the sanctions. as a retired military officer with 25 year service, i am a called that the american -- are called the american congress and american people can give this president the options of signing what he wants to. whitefish, $300 million, to employees -- two employees, as i said when trump when into office, let the looting began. host: alan on our republican line from washington state. good morning. caller: this will be a good morning. this will be a great trial. -- i mean, james

comey to testify. and all of that. thewasn't the democrats and congress screaming for impeachment when obama sent 2500 guns to mexico to drug dealers. irswhen he sanctioned the to spy on americans. another never bigger crook that obama and never bigger liar. they talk about dollar trump being a liar, -- donald trump being a lawyer -- liar, obama lie all the time, you can keep your plan. lying -- host: diane from georgia on the democratic line. what do you think about the news

that indictments are forthcoming in the mueller investigation? republicans dang gave him a break. host: in some other headlines, from the new york times today, the justice department is ,eeking to end daca lawsuits the justice of from filed a motion on friday asking a federal judge in brooklyn to throw out to lawsuits that seek to preserve an obama era policy protecting young, undocumented immigrants, claiming the government has absolute discretion to end the program for any reason or no reason and with or without notice. the filing in the federal district court in brooklyn was the donald trump administrations first real attack on the lawsuit trying to reverse its decision in september to wind down daca. it was a policy that permits

800,000 young immigrants to live and work in the country legally. after jeff sessions made the announcement about ending daca, a coalition of immigration lawyers and 16 democratic state attorneys general filed separate suits in brooklyn, charging the repeal of the program was an illegally arbitrary act. fromis patty calling in connecticut on the independent line. what do you think about the news of indictments in the mueller probe? caller: i think it is bs. , he is should step down involved in the uranium deal with hillary. james comey should be put in jail for lying. this is a big farce. it is russia, it has a lot to do with hillary. everybody is getting excited. you are reading negative articles all morning against donald trump. you never talk about what he has done.

which is more than obama, clinton, and bush. i am getting fed up. all these democrats, maryland, california, it is ridiculous. your callse taking and getting your thoughts about the ongoing investigation with robert mueller and news there are indictments that have been handed down by a federal grand jury. republicans, 202-748-8001. democrats, 202-748-8000. independents, 202-748-8002. headlines, the washington post is reporting that citizens and tendency are nervous about -- tennessee are nervous about potential classes and rally set for this weekend. businesses along downtown main stretch have shuttered until monday as police officers have been told they will work this weekend, all anxiously holding their breath. two saturday rallies called by

white nationalist groups have prompted a wave of boring in this tendency town of shelbyville about one ourselves of nashville. chief among the concerns is it will bring violent, racists like those who attended a similar rally this summer in charlottesville where a woman was killed. or the ones that opened fire at counterprotesters last week in gainesville, florida. we talked to you about the mueller investigation. johnson is going on our democratic line from illinois. good morning. caller: good morning. host: what are your thoughts about the indictments reportedly coming as early as monday? issues i do not have no or concerns about the indictment. news.h the however, i am a 31 year veteran and i just want to give my

service members, male and female, you know, keep pushing forward. i did 31 years in the military and just recently retired. i have never seen a president that tweets as much as he does. the indictment, i do not have anything to do with that. opinionanted to give my because i like your show. i wanted to put information out there and let my service members no that i greatly appreciate you all serving this great nation. host: rosa is calling from naples, florida on the republican line. what are your thoughts? caller: i am outraged that robert mueller, who was involved in the uranium deal, where hillary clinton filter pockets

with money -- filled her pockets with money from russia and gave our 20% of our uranium reserves. is puttingirty cop, efforts to indict people and that is a total joke. and the fake news media like cnn , msnbc, abc, nbc, they have not spent any time on the russian deal. mueller should be indicted and james comey should be indicted and hillary clinton should be in jail. there is no journalism in america anymore. all of this fake donald trump collusion, he won because i voted. floridaand i am from and i am hispanic. i am sick and tired of people that have become traitors to this country, like hillary clinton. i love this country more than hillary clinton who was born here. and a naturalized american

telling people to wake up because this fake news media is selecting, there is no more journalism in america anymore. the fake news media is selecting what they want to say, instead of saying what they have to say. that is all i have to say. i love america and wake up america. mueller needs to be indicted. host: katy calling in from pennsylvania on the democratic line. what do you think? caller: i am listening to a president who keeps saying he is the smartest, he has the highest iq. projecting himself to have the best memory and yet he has to rally himself with people now being indicted and probably will be indicted. he is sitting in the white house claiming all of these things.

happens, itomething comes back to him. he throw something else out there. how can he be the smartest, if he was not smart enough to surround himself with people who cannot be linked to russia? either he knows something, he is involved, or he is not as bright as claimed. i am in america and i love my country. i wake up and see the news and see journalists trying to tell us what is going on. we are being told it is fake. says.atching what he i do not care what the reporters do, i respect them but watch what he says and am smart enough to know that it does not make sense. stop calling our reporters fake and saying they are trying to help us. they want us to know. our country is in need of better leadership. we need our country back and i love america also.

have a great day and thank you for this opportunity. host: republican line, susan from providence, kentucky. good morning. caller: good morning. mueller should keep with his investigation. i have been hearing on all of the news channels, fox is one of the worst, they are just trying to deflect away from what mueller is doing. i do not think it is right. he is independent. along with the rest of his staff. i think mueller should keep on. that is all i have to say. thank you. host: joe is on the line from pennsylvania on the independent line. what are your thoughts? astonished to listen to the progressives defend this position of the russian investigation. when you read the progressive manifesto, it tells the --gressive to clearly accuse

they hung up on me. host: we hear you. caller: i am sorry. the progressive manifesto tells those people to lie and accuse your opponents of exactly the behavior you are engaged in. i wish they would read that stuff. they are so toxic to what the americans and my relatives fought for. they are killing it. the thought that clinton gave 20% of the uranium which is used to build nuclear weapons to our archenemy so they say. it is appalling. and you defend that, you are sick, read the progressive manifesto and get in line with the real americans. enjoy your day, thank you. host: joe calling in from georgia on the independent line. caller: good morning.

iwant to start off by saying am watching the show and listening to the personal opinions and emotional responses. we, as the public of this in focus on what the president is putting out there himself. and then saysing he did not say that, and he is already documented himself lying to the public. so, everyone that has been side,g in on whatever never mind are personal opinions or personal views, what we need to focus on is the fact that hand. and as far as the indictment goes, my concern really is if this was any other person, any other servicemember, you know, they would not still be out, you know, doing all these things that found is still doing, you know? he is causing so much harm to

this country. we have to wait on these indictments to come in before anything can be done. if it was any other person, they would have been put out of their position. they wouldn't -- they would be facing some sort of jail time or anything. but trump still carrying on, and the longer we have to wait for these indictments to come in, the more harm he could possibly do. host: ok. coming up, we are going to take a deep dive into the u.s. military presence in nige and throughout africa. jacob zenn will be here for that conversation. later on, self driving cars are coming to a highway near you. we will give you a status update with eddie alterman. we will be right back. ♪ >> this weekend on american

history tv on c-span3, tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on lectures and history, university of california san diego professor louise alvarez on the 1943 los angeles riots and how the suits were used to challenge racial identities. suitors wereerican viewed as public enemy, if not number one, the number two right behind japanese-americans. they were seen as un-american. >> sunday at 6:00 p.m. on american artifacts, saving slave houses project explores the green hill plantation. >> greenhill plantation, this site, has the original slave owner here. he was active in the slave trade. one of the things he decided to slave his yard is a

auctioneer stand. >> you can definitely feel the power of this place. that auction block standing where it is is why this site is so powerful. really thehave been last place men, women, and children would've been with their families. after this place, they would have been scattered across the united states, so this is really ground zero for that experience here. >> and 8:00, an interview with a historian on the stonemasons who built the outer walls of the white house. door, which isnt carved with lilies and flowers and acorns. it is very lush over the front door. probably the finest example of gardening in america for 100 years. >> american history tv, all weekend some every weekend, only on c-span3.

>> "washington journal" continues. host: we are now joined by jacob zenn, he is the african and eurasian affairs fellow at the jamestown foundation, and he is america'sscuss military presence in africa in the wake of the ambush in niger that killed four american servicemembers. the hue for joining us. exactlytell our viewers what the jamestown foundation is what you do? guest: the jamestown foundation is an analytical think tank in washington d.c. that specializes in research and analysis on areas of key geopolitical importance in the united states are often underresearched. host: you can find more information about the organization at jamestown.org. -- what is the latest that we know are don't know about the ambush? guest: we know about the ambush

on october 4 -- about 12 u.s. special forces members went out with the team of soldiers who were part of the culture of niger near the board in -- near the border and ambushed by 50 to 60 militants. the u.s. military said affiliated with the islamic state and part of the faction of a militant faction. what is unclear is exactly what they were doing. with a helping to build critical infrastructure? were they searching for this militant group? were they engaging in general training and assist operations with them? stilltypes of details need to come out amid the political hot issues related to the president's and of the families of one of the slayings. what i want to talk about they were sent there to do. i want to read you one headline

from earlier this week from nbc news that says, u.s. soldiers in niger were pursuing an isis recruiter when they became under attack later this month. they have been pursuing a senior militant. the officials do not provide the names of the target home one of the officials described as an isis recruiter. the soldiers did not succeed in catching him. so, what was the original mission of these troops in niger ? and in what way has that mission changed? guest: the exact nature of the original mission is to a little bit unclear from the military is saying. but according to the report you mentioned about u.s. special forces pursuing islamic state, or isis affiliated militant or recruiter, this is likely the militant that i just mentioned, who is a very experience militant in the west african region, and was originally allied with al qaeda. but in the past year or two, he

switched his allegiance to the islamic state. but the most recent report suggest that he may be operating somewhat independently, which is why there are russians as to why he is loyal to the islamic state? host: we are talking with jacob then -- we are talking with jamestown's jacob zenn about the ambush in niger that killed four american servicemembers. republican members can called 202-748-8001. immigrants can call 202-748-8000 . and independents can call 202-748-8002. explain to our viewers what is africom. it is a military command focusing on africa except for egypt, which is still a of the different military command. it was formed in 2007 largely in response to the growing threats of al qaeda and other insurgencies in africa, and to

allow the u.s. military to the closer relationships with african partner countries. guest: and how many troops are deployed across africa now? guest: estimated around 4000 u.s. troops deployed around africa. the majority of them are in djibouti, which is in east africa, however, country such as niger host a large amount, as well as other countries like a maroon -- as well as countries like cameroon. you will find in most african countries, some members of u.s. africom engaging in various forms of assistance, relationship building, and counter insurgency operations with partner countries. guest: and pri reports said the pentagon is looking at stepping up its role in africa, particularly to counter the emerging crisis threat there. if his officials are considering a larger campaign enough get to

pursue isis. the move comes after isis lost qqa ine fact of capital ra syria this month. said.s. military's officer on monday, what can we learn from that press conference? especially with the general dunford about the direction that the operations in africa are going to take? guest: there are several development in africa leading to u.s. military to consider a greater presence. france has traditionally been the major international power in west africa. france is currently overstretched because of the current insurgency efforts. we see the u.s. increasing its presence in part because france cannot continue to be a protector there. islamic state has lost its caliphate capital.

it had members from sudan, members from north africa as well as members in east africa and even boko haram pledged its allegiance. there is a concern that islamic state fighters in syria and iraq , now that they lost the territorial holdings, might return home to north africa, west africa, east africa, raising the level of insurgency in that continent, and therefore, the u.s. africom will partner with countries to eradicate what might be a growing islamic state presence on the continent. guest: we are talking with jacob zenn from the jamestown foundation of the military operations in niger and across the african continent. margaret is on the line from our independent line from des moines. that morning. caller: good morning. i would like to know why trump did not do more towards the men that passed away, and the way they are making up all the

stories, saying he did not do it correctly, contacting the parents and the wives and stuff? notified of what happened right away, and why did he step in to help more than what he did? guest: and there was reports after this attack in niger that some of the families had a difficult time finding out information about their loved ones, as well as the way the president contacted them. doing anything more about that? guest: we probably don't know more today and we did a few days ago about this incident. what we do know is that there is no official standard protocol of how a president deals with these matters. it is very generous and benevolent when a president does contact families of slain u.s. special forces soldiers directly and expresses sympathy with them. in this instance, it appeared it did not happen immediately with

the president contacting the families. them, theredid call was either a miscommunication or misinterpretation. this has -- this is what has led to the political boiling moment in the u.s. led to the president's call to the families one of the slain soldiers from florida. guest: in today's" wall street journal," is a report on that niger attack. fish u.s. forces were denied an armed drone. the u.s. military officials sought permission to send an armed drone to a patrol of green berets before a deadly ambush on october 4 in niger, but the request was blocked, raising questions if those forces had adequate protection against the dangers of their mission. information shows the green beret team was part of a larger mission. one potentially more dangerous than initially described. and one believed to merit to warrant an armed drone.

this raises the question -- do the troops that are there have the support that they need? and is bureaucracy a problem? guest: this is one of the biggest developments to submerge from this -- to emerge from this issue is protocol. -- the. special formers u.s. special forces members were in a place of hostility. they were not given adequate protection. get ant they had to armed drone for surveillance. one of the biggest developments to come out of this is how to ensure smoother protocols when the u.s. is operating the partner nations in africa. host: ok. bill is on the line from illinois. our independent line.

you are on the jacob zenn. caller: good morning. this is my question that i find so disturbing. we are engaged with isis basically all over the world. -- aof this was started little surprised that we are in niger. yet we have done all of this without a declaration of war. aboutt a general debate what our mission is. how do you put this into context that we are engaged in multiple countries? and yet, there has been no definitive declaration of war? guest: that question addresses theof the key challenges of counterinsurgency against islamic state al qaeda, which has become a global insurgency. when you have cells and groups theaffiliates from

philippines all the way to west africa, and in five to 10 years, places find cells in like latin america, let alone europe, which we are already seeing. the question is, is the u.s. going to take them all around the world and expand the military footprint and expenditure? missionthe u.s.-africom is to enhance relationships with partner countries so they can combat these insurgent movements so the u.s. can operate behind the scenes. issue youis also this mentioned, which is there is no declaration of war, and there is a concern this can become a perpetual, long-term, border less, battle. host: currently, this mission is part of the operation for the use of military force issued after 9/11 from 16 years ago. is there going to be a renewed

push in congress for a new -- in light of this attack? guest: i don't think this will tip the boat on this issue. this could become a political issue in future presidential elections or they may remove the almf. al qaeda issue11 is as a concern today. i am not sure in the political circles that they will be considered obsolete. hollis is calling on her democratic my from illinois. caller: the question i have is with qaddafi being ousted, was libya play more of a role for -- from some of the african providences he mentioned? and then it -- and then when

they were trying to form the united states in africa, what happened to the forces they were using in relation to give them support? thank you. guest: bringing up the libya civil war in 2011 is really important in understanding this current incident in niger. mentioned,the caller qaddafi was a big financial supporter and backer of various sub-saharan countries in trying to engage in some united states of africa, which is kind of symbolic. but what is more importantly discuss qaddafi is that once libya became destabilized and he was overthrown, the matter what type of dictator he was, it led to a chain of events that led to the destabilization of molly and affected nigeria. and of course mali is north of niger, and it has put terrible stress on niger to do with these

growing insurgencies. thatsulted from weapons less qadhafi's arsenal after 2011, and militants from mali that had served as mercenaries with qaddafi and return to their home country, ignited ever gotion in mali and that bled into niger. the destabilization of libya has had an enormous impact on the security of neighboring states. host: we are talking the jacob zenn, a fellow of african eurasian affairs at the jamestown foundation, and is testify before the house committee on foreign affairs, subcommittee of europe, eurasia, and even merging threads on islamic, military threats to eurasia. are talking about the latest in left after the attack that for servicemen dead -- four servicemen dead.

talk about resources. is that one of the resources -- is that one of the reasons we have u.s. troops in niger? there are natural resources there including gold and uranium. uranium-richa country. france exploits those resources even more so than the united states. that being said, there are resources lot africa, and that is one reason the u.s. is increasing its military presence to ensure those resources can be exploited, and that they can be the belief that it is a benefit to the united states and its allies to have those resources exploded, -- those resources exploited. if the u.s. does not have a strong presence and africa to secure those resources, there will be a big demand for them. that is where the discussion of the growing u.s.-africom presence with china comes into

play. host: is the purpose for the u.s. to have control of these resources, or survey to keep them out of the hands of the bad guys, so to speak? guest: i think part of it is to keep it out of the hands of extremists. you don't want extremists of the islamic state getting control of the uranium, or being able to as ate in diamond ines way to make money -- diamond mines as a way to make money. the other part is oil, gas, uranium, in keeping that in the hands of u.s. and allies. and looking 50 to 100 years down the future, preventing those becoming in the imperium of china. have a caller on the independent line. caller: thank you for taking my call. i could not agree with jacob zenn more. i served as an officer for 20

years. there is no real way i think that the president or any president of anytime could address these families. the path we are on right now, the way president trump is leading, and with north korea, i think he is going to have a lot -- a lot ofa lot of time to address these families. try to get behind the president of anytime, but president trump is not a leader for the people. i think he is more concerned about himself, his family, and his voting block. i hope in the near future, he will wake up and figure out that he is the leader of the united states of america. that means all americans. and he for taking my call and you guys have a great day. guest: i think that colin has the right attitude about supporting a president -- i think that caller has the right attitude about supporting the president.

really working to empathize with the families of slain soldiers. even if the president had the words can beon, interpreted both ways. it seems like it was received that it wasn't welcome. and greater emphasis could go a great ways in dealing with that as a caller mentioned. host: larry is on the line from texas. i, larry. caller: hey, good morning. listening to jacob and some of the other comments that the other callers have been making here, me personally, i am a retired army guy out of fort hood here and spent a lot of time over in the middle east. and just the damage that is being done from all this rhetoric and getting down into the weeds of, you know, missions

of the military. i think it was very plain from one of the commanders, the generals, on the mission that , not linking up with the other team. you know, this is all very good propaganda for isis. calls withe phone the families and the tearing apart of, you know, between republicans and the democrats. i think this is just doing more harm. and we are going to pay a price down the road. host: all right. guest: i think the caller makes a good point. something i would clarify about what the caller said is this attack on u.s. special forces in niger is such a mystery in some ways because islamic state, isis

, did not claim this attack, nor did al qaeda, despite that this would be a great propaganda ploy. vegas, there was no evidence that al qaeda was involved, but they are claiming it. why is islamic state and al qaeda trying to claim it? that is when you get into the weeds of who actually did it and what is the relationship with the islamic state? host: i want to talk about the readiness of our military. i want to show a clip from the commander of u.s. africom after hearing back in march when he was asked about readiness. [video clip] >> the impact is really capacity for us. we have had to center their activity mostly on western africa. so, some of the missions in eastern africa that they would be able to deploy to in the past, we have to coordinate and we used marines from the sitcom

ofthe ground to take care crisis activities, especially in south sudan. the readiness of the airplanes have gotten better, but when you go through a time, the capacity is impacted. we have to do better about sharing communication. host: what you think of the general's comments, and was readiness an issue? mest: what rings a bell to about what the general just said about readiness is that, we talk about the united states and a or westlike niger, africa, it is a challenge for the united states to be ready because these are not areas of the world where the united states has a significant amount of experience. this is like niger and mali speak for a little english. they speak several languages. their other countries like

nigeria and kenya whether united states might the more ready because we have more history with those countries. , wecountries like niger have a very new experience and it is difficult to know what tribes are there are languages are being spoken. that might affect our readiness, just as it was difficult for the west to understand afghanistan and iraq. host: eric is on the line from white plains, maryland. good morning. caller: good morning. and thank you for allowing me to express myself this morning. i have only three points. allow me to express them. host: we are running low on time, so can you make them really quickly? caller: i will make them very, very quick. my first one is racism in america. host: eric, this discussion is about the niger attack. do you have a question about this? caller: it is connected to that. had, fourons that we

service members were killed. they were white and one was black. the only one have the problem was the black one. she had a congressman there sharing a private club between the president and the sergeant who died for america. there are the ones politicizing it. and what the u.s. army is doing in africa, remember, president killeds the one who qadhafi. and now the islamic state is really implanted in their. -- in there. it was president obama who was responsible for helping expanding the islamic state back in africa. remember, under bill clinton, the worst genocide in africa whenned under bill clinton two tribes killed themselves,

and president clinton had the intel and he did nothing. host: talk about how some of these other events could be contributing to what we are seeing happening today? mentioned, caller the genocide happened under a democratic presidency. this happened under a republican president. i don't know if you can associate these three incidents with the fact that a president was a democrat or a republican. think that some of these instances show, particularly libya, is series of presidents on how to create a stable world can be challenged when a president ask it comes to power. when you have a situation like libya, the idea was to get rid of a dictator, and create a democracy and crist ability, which it did not. but that was the theory at the time. these things can be debated between president's, not based on parties.

host: all right. is calling in from greensboro, north carolina. caller: i appreciate you taking my call. at the end of the day, regime change is not worked in the last 20 years and america has tried to implement it. under ae implemented it democrat and republican president, yes. the housingat crisis, 800 billion dollars being spent by a certain president, culture changes. president trump has only been indifferent nine-month. he is trying to right the ship. as an african american, i can only give him the props of what he is doing. we don't look at the courts, the supreme court, the cabinet that he has picked, and congressman that are trying to right the ship. isis has been decimated in syria and nobody is talking about it. in the last by month, we have strengthened leadership with the

muslims and the european nations. host: host: i want to give jacob zenn a chance to respond. guest: the caller mentioned making progress in saudi arabia. it is unclear whether that progress is mostly superficial at this time. the president did visit saudi arabia. for the first time, he has taken active steps to deal with some extremism and the issue of women not being able to drive in the country. islamic state has been driven from syria and iraq in the last eight months. the caller makes good points. you can focus on some of the positives and negatives and not everything needs to be interpretive in a partisan way. host: levi is on the democratic line from charlotte, north carolina. good morning. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. the gunman seems pretty knowledgeable about stuff -- the

young seems pretty knowledgeable about stuff. can you adjust people who could not get visas to the united states -- could you discuss people who could not get visas to the united states? guest: the callers talking about the travel ban. citizens of several nations of the world have found it more difficult to get visas to the united states. one of the countries affected by the most recent travel ban was chad. there's a lot of mystery behind that. chad is an important counterinsurgency partner of the united states in africa. ?hy were they put on the list it forced chad to reconsider their position. on a more general level, the travel ban was a very political issue domestically in the united states.

the intentions to keep people from countries that have a lot to make itts in them more difficult for them to come to united states without a high level of vetting. some countries did not have terrorists coming in the past, but there are concerns with the way islamic state emerged in iraq and syria, than in the future terrorists might come from there. host: it and find out more about the jamestown foundation at can find.org -- you out more about the jamestown foundation at jamestown.org. thank you for joining us today. we will be taking your calls in with lines for republicans, democrats, and independents. first, "newsmakers" interviews

the new president of the naacp. reason theout the naacp issued a travel advisory to african americans about flying on american airlines. [video clip] we recognize that as a possible tool to inform our members and constituents of concerns we have identified as an organization. with the travel advisory for american airlines, our goal is to make sure our members and the african american community at large will be notified there is a pattern we have identified. we want to make sure when they in lies the dollars to plan -- they utilize their dollars to plan trips that this has risen to level where we are concerned as an organization. the business community and many supporters have applauded our approach in this matter. our goal is to be measured, focused, and effective. that will be something i will continue to do in my tenure as

naacp president. >> what type of response have you received from american airlines and specifically the airline industry after the travel advisory? >> we have only heard from american airlines. they reached out yesterday. our general counsel spoke to one of their v.p.'s, initial contact. the president of the company has since reached out. we plan to get on the phone and talk. ourgoal is to ensure members are aware of what we have identified as a pattern, but to work with the company to ensure the necessary sensitivities around diversity, particularly african americans, is on the forefront of their employees' minds. we also recognize when these incidents take place it could be a result of the lack of diversity in the decision-making positions of the company. it could be the lack of diversity among the police or

the level of sensitivity on how a company makes certain decisions and the customer care they take. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we are taking your calls in the segment, getting an idea of what is on your mind about the headlines of the day or anything else. let's look at some of the headlines in newspapers across the country. "the chattanooga times free that" has the headline senator bob corker is not ruling out a presidential bid. senator corker announced he would not be running for andection after two terms has been critical of president donald trump in recent months. news" has headlines talk by the recent lease on the j.f.k. assassination. "we won't get new suspects,"

anticipating it might have been over-hyped. this is about the crackdown on catalonia as catalonia seeks independence. the spanish government has been pushing back on those efforts. in ohio, "the career" has u.s. seekingut the help from russia on north korea. president trump invited some children of members of the press into the white house. let's take a look. president trump: that is a scary outfit. who are you? wow. come right over here, honey. i cannot believe the media produced such beautiful children. how the media did this, i don't know. come on, kids.

dads are the moms and here? come on over here. come right here. come right now. you know they are? do you know that they are? they are the friendly media, the press. are you crying? come here, sweetheart. are you ok? she is japanese? beautiful. i'm going to be in japan in two weeks i will be a japan. you know that? these are beautiful, wonderful children. are you going to grow up to be like your parents? mmm. don't answer. i can only get in trouble, i question -- that can only get me in trouble, that question. you have wonderful parents, right? halloween is special, special. that is a very scary outfit.

a everybody is scary. pres. trump: that is very scary. everybody having a good time? you ready? this is from the white house. see what that says? >> [indiscernible] pres. trump: who likes this? host: that was president trump reading some children of the press corps at the white house with halloween treats. independentsthe line from milford, ohio. go ahead. caller: there's nothing. i don't see it on tv. host: tell us what is on your mind. caller: they were talking about the mission. i think he was thinking she was talking about the exact mission

when our soldiers were killed. the larger mission, why are we in niger, why do we have troops in niger? lays to the whole war on terror. we will have to be the policeman of terrorism forever. this war on terrorism will go on forever. cannotded to why france play their role in niger because somehow they cannot afford it anymore. i am bringing up the concern we have to be the policeman in the world against terrorism forever. that is my comment. host: all right. dorothy is calling in on the republican line from ventura, california. thanks for calling. caller: i just wanted to say i was originally for ben carson for president. trump was a little too coarse

for me to back him originally. but i have come to believe ben carson was much too nice of a person to clean out that swamp. and i think trump is capable of doing that. he is being attacked on all sides. and so, it is lucky he has gotten done what he has gotten done so far. if you can get term limits past, that would be fantastic -- if you can get term limits passed, that would be fantastic for his term. i'm hoping for that. that would clean up that slump and give somebody else a chance to get in there and do what is right for the american people. thank you very much. host: one thing on the president's plate is naming a new fed chairman. journal" street reports that decision could come next week. president trump said friday he would make his decision public next week declaring he has

someone specific in mind. host: bob is on the democratic line calling from madison, wisconsin. caller: my biggest concern is the military budget. we don't understand. we think it is a foreign policy think. actually, it is a domestic policy thing. it takes away scientists and engineers from manufacturing. since world war ii, we have almost lost our entire and wasted on military spending instead. here it captures the political system and drives up the crime rates.

crime rates are proportional to military spending when you look at the g7 countries, the major countries. it is the collapse of empire. high military spending brings about the collapse of empire. we've gone away from the washington tradition of avoiding standing armies, their tradition of a small military between wars and then volunteers during wars. that had been a successful tradition that worked all the way up through and including world war ii. and now, we have followed this other pattern and had a bunch of disasters --disastrous wars trying to be the world's policeman. it is a failed strategy that implodes the entire society and takes away the manufacturing and drives up the ugly statistics. we lead the world in obesity, mental illness, crime, and

murder. we have 1/4 of the world's prisoners. host: all right. jimmy is calling in from illinois on our independent line. caller: the harvey weinstein scandal has opened up the eyes of women. when hillary was running, she had overwhelming support from women. i am not here to bash trump. but we were clear about trump's history with women. be anught it would h outcry for women to support hillary. for some reason, a lot of the support was lukewarm. i am a man. talking to women, i do not understand why there was not an outcry of support for her. and now with harvey weinstein

and all of those things come in therom women workforce coming out and saying they will not take it anymore. host: let me ask you a question. secretary clinton, her husband, former president bill clinton, had his own accusations against him. do you think the two sort of canceled each other out? caller: that is a legitimate argument. but trump has had a history of these things with women. you had him on tape saying various things. but you are right. bill had his own history with women and so forth. i just thought women would be more supportive of hillary knowing her stance on women's rights and her history and so forth. i think now with is coming out with harvey weinstein in the next election you will looking at things in a different light. perhaps a woman candidate will come forward who will be a good

challenge in either party, democrat or republican. line on the independent from lynchburg, virginia, what is on your mind? caller: hi, c-span. this is james. my question was for the gentleman on your previous segment about african and eurasian affairs. the question was about the ban on chad. it wasmy understanding u.s. paid, that the them the money the u.s. owed them for retaliation. they were put on the list of countries to be banned. i want to know. does anybody have an answer for that? you know, what was the total outcome of that back and forth between the united states and

chad and why was they put on the travel ban list? host: all right. shelby shelby -- host: is on the democratic line from louisville, kentucky. caller: good morning. i want to thank "washington journal." i recommend to all my people. i am a proud african american and came from the continent of africa. brotheray this for the who is the new president of the naacp. i am a past president of the naacp. i am a past president of the national black police association. let me say this. this whole thing is about money. africa is with a gold and diamonds are. you have a president right now who lies. we say it is not ok to lie. we do not tell our children to lie. and this man is running the

country. and here we have a woman. a woman has never been the president of the united states. malvery one of these came from a mother, a womane. this is a serious thing. , how diden pointed out i know the president of the united states had a mental problem? others with more education than i have know this. we have war because we make money off of weapons. we make money off of it. host: all right. other headlines today on the front page of the "washington post." it points out the upcoming week will be tax week for republicans. the president is acting for the tax cut plan.

host: lorraine is on the line from california. what is on your mind? caller: i heard a man just wamp and donald

trump cleaning out the swamp. my question is, how can a swamp monster clean out the swamp? i don't understand it. everyone knows he lies. i just get so frustrated. he talks thing is about bringing back all of these jobs from overseas. why is it that the american people who support him don't he bring hising -- companies and his daughter's companies back? isn't that two-faced? i don't understand the american people. host: john is calling in on the republican line from vicksburg, mississippi. good morning. what is on your mind? caller: thank you for accepting my call. problem going on from

june 26 getting caught up in scandals with russian affairs. i am old-fashioned. in 2017, he is president. it that if itike walks like a duck and ask like a duck, it must be a duck somewhere. host: all right. jeff is calling in on the republican line from columbus, ohio. caller: i'm amazed at all the stuff going on in this world, everybody fighting president trump. he is trying to do what is right for everyone and make america livable for everyone. there is divided in this country. men, women, black, white, yellow, brown. nobody is going to be totally satisfied. we need to come to a common ground and let the president do what he says he's going to do. host: jeff, what is most

important to you that the president accomplish? caller: keep this country safe and quit giving away our money to illegals and bringing in welfare recipients. i live in ohio. and we are overran with people. every time i go to the store, i beeneople that have not here but for a few days and they are pay with welfare moneyi. i work 40 to 50 hours a week to make it here. i have no privilege. there is no privilege for us. i don't get where people think we have privilege. this country is headed in the wrong direction. we need to get behind our president and work to make it livable for everyone. host: ok. willie is on the independent line. from fieldton

virginia,. how are you? caller: i am good. oy.is r host: apologies. caller: no problem. i listen to show almost every morning it is on. i see the same thing over and over. the side says this is totally wrong. that size says this one is totally wrong. that is why i am an independent. nobody can be totally wrong. i hate to bust the bubble of the other gentleman who is an independent, but the reason women could not vote for hillary is her husband. that is my comment. thank you. host: other headlines today. the "wall street journal" reports more people could get free health care plans under the affordable care act.

host: a side effect of the decision by the president. hirley is calling. good morning. caller: we all watch different

channels on the news. nbc, cbs. you know, there are other channels that give an unbiased opinion when you talk about what is going on in the world. if people would watch the news and world news, they would get an unbiased opinion. you have channels that have an opinion like fox and nbc. if you really want to get your information, watch what is going on in the senate. look at the world news because they are not biased to any particular news station. really, that is all i have got to say. one more thing if i can. we all live in this world together. we all go to grocery stores and care of our business

together. republicans, democrats, independents. i love everybody. this is our world. we call the shots, not the white house. that is my comment. host: dennis is on our republican line from north carolina. caller: hi. i would just like to say this about president trump. i was once a democrat and i turned into a republican after eight years of obama. what i would really like to say , this right here. hi, how are you doing? host: go ahead, dennis. caller: i would like to say he is the one president standing for our constitution which has been objected to the past years. i've 59 years old and i have never seen the world subdivided and so separated in my life. if people give him a chance, he would bring back the

constitution and our laws which i stand for and our government. i think they should start the draft back, but that is my opinion like everybody else has. that this division in all of this mess -- but this division and all of this mess today needs to come to a stop. everything is offensive to the news media. mr. trump, everything he says, somebody says it is offensive just like with the little kids the all showing earlier -- y 'all were showing earlier. he is a good president and i backed him 100%. host: the next call is from birmingham, alabama. caller: good morning. i would like to say this about president trump. i did not vote for him and i would not vote for him. one issues i can support him such as the corporate tax

reduction and the individual tax reduction. that i can support him on. all of this talk about nuclear war. i do understand it on one hand but it frightens me on the other hand because nothing good comes out of nuclear engagement. i fear we cannot allow north to gain an intercontinental ballistic missile nuclear warhead that would reach the united states. is a very unstable just asn north korea, president trump is a very unstable leader in the united states. and i feel he is an embarrassment to the united states with all of his tweets and insults he has. those are my comments. thank you very much. have a great day. host: matthew is on our democratic line from north

carolina. caller: good morning. about of wanted to speak the new tax reform. person, i am making about $35,000 a year. it will increase my taxes. i don't see how it will help the deficit. if the republican party is so set on reducing the deficit, how can they get a tax break to corporations? as an american, we know taxes don't really come down and then go up. anybody who thinks by cutting medicaid, certain things, education department. areou really watch c-span, looking at the senate hearings, are looking at the house of representatives. and you see where they are already putting forth the bills to do such a thing. how are we going to combat the

opioid epidemic if we are reducing medicaid which gives money for people to go into facilities? it is really an issue i think people are overseeing. i do support our president. he is our president. i do that for him, but he is our president. host: ok. tampa, is calling from florida, on our republican line. caller: i am a registered republican but i did vote for trump. as far as, why are we in africa? why are we putting troops in africa? ring fore been war years and years. i understand trying to prevent isis from spreading, but is it really over isis or are we just trying to secure resources in africa? our country starting to go to war over resources no? -- are countries starting to go to war over resources now? up, we will be

talking about self-driving cars. later on, eight hundred types of the border wall were unveiled this week. we will get an update on the process and when construction might begin. we will be right back. >> tonight at 11:00 eastern, 70th anniversary party in washington, d.c., for the book publisher. eastern, the nbc news correspondent reflects on the trump campaign in the 2016 presidential election in her book. it is no secret politicians don't like reporters generally.

nixon had a fraught relationship with his press corps. there are legendary stories about ron ziegler, his press person, getting into it with reporters. what was unusual about this was the very public nature of it, the way he would go after reporters, myself included, from the stage of rallies. and encourage the crowd to essentially turn on us and boo us. >> at 9:00 eastern, the journalist and former host of "face the nation" on the impact of changing technology on journalism in his book, " overload." >> we have to keep doing what we are doing. that is trying to sort out the true from the false. that is an overwhelming job now. it is a bigger responsibility than we have ever had because we are dealing with so much more

information. we now have access to more information than any people in the history of the world. but we are running a little short on curators right now. we are getting so much information that we really cannot process it. >> for more of this weekend's org.dule, go to booktv. >> "washington journal" continues. host: joining us from ann arbor, ofdie alterman "car and driver" magazine. thank you for joining us. the latest issue is dedicated entirely to driverless cars. why did you make the decision to do that and what can readers expect to find inside? guest: we felt there were a lot of myths surrounding the

driverless cars and we want to you spell some of them -- dispel some of them. chief among them is that driverless cars are here now. that is not true. host: when you say driverless cars, what exactly do you mean and why is there that confusion you mentioned? there is a ton of confusion because there are five levels of autonomy or self-drivingness. we are kind of between two and three right now, between when the car can steer and accelerate and brake itself with a lot of human intervention to level three which is called conditional autonomy where the car can do all of those things by itself with minimal human intervention. host: can you explain currently what the technology is, what exactly can the current state of the so-called driverless cars do?

is there a comparison in terms of safety? started longdea ago. they said in the 1930's we would have driverless car's by 1960. exhibits a 1968 buick called "the intelligent highway." you take the car on the highway, and the highway would drive the car. now that technology is frontloaded into the vehicles themselves. even if the cars can navigate most highway systems by themselves at this point, safety issue is the key one in terms of how safe the car is itself in its environment and how safe it is from hacking in cyber security. host: we are going to get to the cyber security issue in one moment. i want to remind our viewers we are joined by eddie alterman, editor-in-chief of "car and

driver." he is talking about the latest issue as part of our spotlight on magazines, that issue devoted entirely on driverless cars. we have aligned for republicans, democrats, and independence -- we have lines for republicans, democrats, and independents. my biggest concern about self-driving cars is being worried if i see a vehicle going down the street without a driver inside. rranted?ears wa absolutely. when you talk about safety, there is a huge psychological component. it really does matter who is striving -- driving. when we drive, we feel it we are in control and nothing will happen or we can control it. that when you hand control over to a machine, that is a different involuntary risk. it is more like getting on a

plane. what our reporting uncovered is foridea that in order self-driving cars to be accepted by people, they don't just have to half the number of fatalities. they really have to reduce fatalities to almost 02 really -- zero, two really deliver an aeronautical level of safety. have aill these cars better safety record than the cars driven by humans? guest: absolutely. put until they are so demonstrably safe and bulletproof, it is very hard for people to trust machines. host: rodney is calling in on our democratic line from california. caller: good morning. how are you? guest: good. how are you? caller: not too bad. leonardo,'s has nothing to do

with the subject. the name is leandro. host: i am sorry. i'm terrible at pronouncing names. caller: you are not the only one. every time i hear that name, they say leonardo. leandro. i don't know much about driverless cars. aviation forirline many years. some people have the notion of pilotless airplanes as well. to me, it is ridiculous putting people safety at risk. you know. that is just really my opinion. maybe there is more to the technology. i believe we have some now in silicon valley driverless cars. believe it or not. but i don't hear much about them having accidents, so perhaps it is working.

i would hate to see a bunch of cars on the freeway, a highly crowded freeway, especially where the speed limit is 55 or over and stuff like that. if you want to comment, fine. i cannote meantime, talk about the russian indictments, can i? host: we are focusing on driverless cars. can you explain more to our , how is it that these cars could be safer than those that are not autonomous? guest: well, you eliminate stuff like drunk driving and destruction from the equation -- distraction from the equation. that cuts road fatalities by about half which is hugely admirable. the obama administration realized vehicle safety and deaths on the highway were a national health risk. they addressed it as such.

as more people have gotten smartphones and are texting while driving, those numbers have gone up over the past few years. we are now over 40 thousand hwy deaths a year, which is -- we are now over 40,000 highway deaths a year. host: like his calling in on the independents line from minnesota -- mike is calling in on the independents line from minnesota. caller: i am wondering. i don't know if this exists with these cars because obviously i do not have one. like cruisele control person could take over the car if there is a dangerous situation to take over the car. when you think of that, and when

you think of energy independence which is an issue for many countries, should they be electrical to get away from gas as we are moving into the future so we have more gas for other things so you're using less gas and cars? those are the comments i have. what do you think. guest: good questions. one at a time. to the first point, what you are talking about exists now in high little cars. cadillac has something called super cruise that drives for you as long as you're looking ahead. audi has two good systems that provide a hugely high level of driver assist. it is sort of like cruise control on steroids. the thing stays in the lane. you can take your hands off the wheel. it will drive for you. it does take human intervention. to the second point about electrification, that is not a

dependent issue with driverless cars because there are internal combustion cars that are driverless now. but it is an enabling technology. if you can plug cars into the grid, absolutely can take advantage of off-peak hours and stabilize the grid and try to achieve energy independence. of let's remember, a lot electric cars are actually coal powered cars depending on where the energy comes from. host: josh's calling from tennessee on our independents line. you are on with eddie alterman. caller: i was commenting on the driverless cars. i'm visually impaired so i was wondering about the safety as well. it would definitely come in hand with someone who could not see and would have to have a driver to drive them around because i lost my vision about six or seven years ago. and i have a hard time getting

around, to getting a driverless car would definitely be a good thing for somebody disabled or blind. so i think that is a good idea. i am also concerned about safety. if safety is good, i am all for it. host: could this be a solution for people with impairments? guest: absolutely. that is one of the great appeals of it. it increases mobility for the elderly, people who have had their licenses taken away by overzealous children, and people who are visually impaired. i want to read a rate -- reiterate the fully driverless car, meaning you don't have to intervene, the car drives itself, that problem has not been solved yet. that is a much thornier issue that requires psychological surety of the technology. it also requires a highly

matrixed environment where cars are talking to the infrastructure, and we are just not there yet. eddiewe are talking to alterman, editor-in-chief of "car and driver." devotedh's issue is entirely to driverless cars and autonomous cars. we have the line for republicans, democrats, and independents. edition wasthis edited by malcolm gladwell. he is somebody who normally do not think about in terms of automobiles and automobile autonomy. why the choice to have him as a guest editor in this issue? guest: it turns out milton glaser well is a car guy and itds "car and driver -- turns out malcolm gladwell is a car guy and reads "car and

driver." we were contacted by him about a on acceleration issues. he got in touch with us. .t kind of became a bromance we have really enjoyed working with him. .e is a tremendous thinker he does not go from point a to point b. he is hugely insightful on this topic. the way he frames this, this is a battle between control and convenience. are you in control of the car were are you prepared to give up control in exchange for convenience? talk about cyber security with these cars. is there a danger they could be hacked? guest: absolutely.

we spoke in the issue with charlie miller who became famous for hacking the cheap and taking control of its acceleration and braking. ittalked to him and he said hack and you could autonomous car but it would take a lot of money and time. he is not sure anybody would be so inclined. darrell is on the independent line from detroit, motor city. marriage isousin by an engineer that works at general motors and he works on this program. the problem i think it's human nature. you mentioned about the aircraft carrier. we don't have any choice. when they put an aircraft on

autopilot, there are still two pilots to guide it if something goes wrong. there is also a time factor. they have many seconds before it could possibly hit the earth. guest: that is right. caller: if we have a glitch, you can move 200 feet in three seconds so there could be an accident. i'm in southwest detroit. aaa says there are 300,000 accident a year. what can we expect? 30 years from now there will be zero with self-driving cars? not likely. let's say it is cut in half. here is the problem. when the newspaper headline says, "self-driving car kills seven in fiery car accident." [inaudible] host: i want to give eddy a chance to respond. guest: the colors right. there is a huge -- the caller is

right. there is a huge psychological factor. there is a house bill called the self-driving act. turns over the innovation to the broad latitudeas for companies to innovate. the problem is psychological. that is what we found out in our reporting. the analogy to aviation is absolutely apt. i think the caller could not be for spot on. host: we are talking to the editor -- editor-in-chief of "car and driver," eddie alterman. andas previously founder editor-in-chief of "mph" magazine and website. clearly an enthusiast.

what is the timeline where a majority of cars on the roads could have at least some autonomous features? autonomoussemi feature proliferation is happening now. they are about 7% to 15% of the cars on the upper echelon of luxury cars. that is trickling down now. honda has something called honda sensing that is a similar autonomous -- semi autonomous suite of safety features. they will continue to improve. they are a separate path from full autonomy. host: the next caller is from .ississippi caller: good morning. i have a hard time wrapping my head around this because of

human error and ask of god. i don't see how it can happen so quickly. it could be a deer running in front of your car. it could be a person that is tired. how would these cars react in this type of situations? guest: the cars have a tremendous number of sensors and cameras. is a bird flies in front of a car, it could take out the sensors. i think we underestimate the power of our own brains and the power of our fight and flight responses. the computer does not have that kind of blizzard brain. it does not have that primal brain that protects us. that has to be engineered into it. the way they are engineering it into the cars is through artificial intelligence. the car computer is thought of

as a brain. it is not a brain. our brain is sophisticated and has been evolving for millions of years. we are just at the beginning of this with automobiles. host: talk about federal interest or the potential for regulation. how is the government responding to the growth in autonomous features in cars? guest: the government is saying, "you guys figure it out and then we will start to write some laws around it." is similar to what happened in the earliest days of the car. you could have your steering wheel on the right or left side in the teens, depending on how you want to the car built. over time, as rules became codified -- those rules became codified into the federal motor vehicle -- i don't remember what it is. a lot of acronyms in this business. hospitaloint with the

-- house bill, self-driving act, washington is basically saying show us the best solution, we don't want to put too many barriers around the kind of innovation the car companies are doing. host: we have a question on twitter. i wanted to ask you about the impact on communities. what could be changed in current road construction to assist in the development of self driving vehicles? talk to the impact of these cars on communities and infrastructure and how infrastructure projects can respond to them. guest: key question because right now, the sensors on the cars read lines. if they are not visible because of rain or snow, the car can lose the scent. to have truly aeronautical levels of safety, the car has to be communicating with the

infrastructure, the lights, lanes, other cars, even pedestrians, in order for it to get a truly bulletproof level of safety. host: all right. calling in from oceanside, new york, on our republican line. caller: good morning. i wanted to bring up a point. a truck killed somebody. a car blew through a red light. thank god did not kill nobody. who is picking up the insurance when your car runs somebody over? the onus is not going to be on the driver. as the insurance lobby, how do you overcome that? it is bad enough people do not pay attention with one hand on the wheel. what makes you think when women are doing their makeup or when somebody is eating a bagel and popsing coffee and a deer out, you think you are going to grab the wheel and pull off some

stuntmen maneuver? that is lunacy. is cars will get somebody killed like they did -- those cars will get somebody killed like they already did. there are way too many negatives to get that plus. guest: reliability is absolutely an issue. i don't know of any automaker wants to assume all of that liability because of the system driving the vehicle. it is an open and very serious question. the: i have to imagine increased use of autonomous vehicles will have an impact on the insurance industry. differently depending on where they live and what they drive. how do you see these vehicles affecting rates? guest: they could go down or up. who knows?

if the cars attain a reliable have of safety, they could lighter crash structures. there are a bunch of even to allow these -- eventualities. because we are at peace early stage of development, we just -- because we are at this early stage of development, we just do not know yet. host: ken is on the line. caller: i think he is a bright editor-in-chief. i think what we are dealing with is a problem with the data directing -- big data directing a policy. how athem to tell me self-driving car can possibly vehicle if another makes an untoward decision. this happened to me the other

day when a tractor-trailer was wavering back and forth. another vehicle shot out from the shoulder. i had to change lanes in a second. how is this self-driving car going to take all of these variables? it may work 99% of the time. .001% is that 1% or even when it is up to the individual to make the decision that is problematic. guest: to your point, it is probably true cars driven by humans and driverless car's cannot interact at this point with any degree of safety. they have done experiments were they have a driverless car at a four-way stop. caruse the driverless cannot pick up on the body language of the drivers, it never moves. driverless level five

autonomous cars will probably start in cities where they are all talking to each other in a heavily matrixed environment. car might not be allowed in that environment. a human-driven car might not be allowed in that environment. magazinetest in the for leading automakers that are most closely associated with this technology. surprise, surprise. we thought tesla who had gained a lead certainly in perception has sort of stagnated in terms of its technology. and cadillacdi were doing the most with the technology. audi is the leader for the entire vw group.

and i believe cadillac is the same for general motors. host: tom is on our democratic line from bloomington, minnesota. caller: i was going to say one thing quickly. iti g20t. 1995 infin it has 120,000 miles. i love the car. almost nothing would match it now. very hard to find something that would replace this. i think people are crazy. all we really need is not level five cars but cocoon cars. my sister-in-law who is from the philippines just got a new car. she did not know how to drive. she just got a new car. my brother bought her this new car. toyota, rav 4.

the thing can hardly get into an accident. it protects you from forward collisions. if someone hits you from behind, you cannot do anything about that. but it keeps you in the lane. it brakes. if a person runs in front of you, it is like co cannot get into an accident anymore -- it is like she cannot get into an accident anymore. host: i want to give edey a aance to respond -- eddie chance to respond. guest: all of those features are in cars now. the caller is right. you have to be ignoring the car to get in an accident. but sometimes, those things malfunction. sometime with rain or snow, those sensors cannot see the vigilance is the key. you cannot relinquish control to the car yet. host: john is on the

independents line from newton, massachusetts. caller: a lot of times when you are driving, something will happen on the road. humans will have the option to do something that will do the least damage or avoid damage altogether. how do self-driving cars decide what the best thing to do is when there are multiple options? what algorithms are used? guest: it is called the trolley problem. do you hit the elderly person or the pregnant mother? no good solution. car willhe driverless not get to that point. it will hit a building. it will do something else. host: raymond is calling for michigan on our democratic line.

caller: how are you this morning? tothe way, kim, did you go [inaudible] high school? host: i did not. my dad did, but i did not. caller: ok. i am a designer i am a designer engineer. [indiscernible] unless it's you. you are safe. and drawn from new york to -- a drive from new york to

california with one charge. is, the interior designs sensors areg with frequently out of sight. are you going to for yourbstations vehicle. that is wind and solar. i want to get any a chance to respond, but talk about the energy aspect of these cars. ? it helping or hurting

car sits forerage about 95% of the day. if you had in the future a robotic fleet of cars that could at a moments notice for city dwellers for whoever needed it, you would increase .hat efficiency massively think about a city bike in new york city. if you plug those things in the grid, absolutely, you are ,trengthening the grid itself depending on when you plug it in. but electrification and autonomy separate things. they are related, but they are really two separate the very undeniable forces in the automotive industry right now. you can find more on "car

and driver's" website. thank you so much for joining us today. toing up, we will be talking "the arizona republic's" reporter raphael carranza -- rafael carranza. he will be joining us with an borderto the u.s.-mexico wall. we will be right back. >> this weekend on american history tv, saturday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern on lectures in history, university of california san diego professor luis alvarez on the suit suit riot and how the suits were used to challenge conventional gender and racial identities. >> zoot suitors, mexican-americans and suitors in particular, were viewed as numberenemies, is not

one, the number two or 1b japanese americans. they were seen as un-american. >> sunday, exploring the greenhill plantation. >> greenhill plantation has the slaveowner here was very active in the slave trade, so one of the things he decided slave in his yard was a auction block, and auctioneers stand. feel this definitely place. that auction block is so powerful. this would have been the last place men and women spent with their families. after this place, they would have been scattered all across the united states. this was sort of ground for that bad experience.

>> the swagger for student over the door, which was carved with lilies and flowers and ribbons and acorns. probably the finest example of carving in america for 100 years. allmerican history tv weekend every weekend, only on .-span3 "washington journal" continues. joining us now from phoenix is "arizona republic" reporter rafael carranza to talk about the status of the proposed border wall between the united states and mexico. thank you so much for joining us today. thank you for having me. appreciate it. host: there are samples along

the border by folks who are proposedmake the wall by president trump. talk a little about this proposal that went out and how many companies submitted bids. this process started in march of this year and we had over 200 companies that expressed interest. we do not have the exact number because the federal government has not released those, but this is a process that was under way for several months and there were several delays, confusion over what the government was asking for, but eventually, at the end of the summer, when -- prototype, that is when the federal government awarded contracts to six u.s. companies to build eight prototypes. for the designs were supposed to be made with reinforced concrete

and the other four with alternate construction materials. construction on the prototypes began at the end of september. the deadline to finish them was this past thursday on october standing. they are they will let them sit for about 30 days or so and then the government is going to put them through rigorous tests that they had required in their call for submissions. they had a test of what they were looking for so they will be putting them to the test. in your story about these proposals and the process to make samples of the border wall, you write that behind the scenes, there was an unusually confusing and haphazard process that hundreds of bidders faced as they tried to submit proposals in response to a foia request. your paper obtained nearly 200

chroniclingils continuing confusion over the most basic details of the problems -- deadline, stage counts, how to submit bids. talk about the confusing process. guest: this is a specification that arose from donald trump -- plusdent donald trump promised to build a border wall. he has elected customs and border protection to do this almost on one of his first days after his inauguration, and there was not a lot of details. has come up with a way to ask for submissions, and they say they did this because this is a way to get input from the industry on best approaches for building a structure like this, and as you can imagine, building a wall or any sort of physical structure this imposing is a very tall order, so the way they

did about -- went about doing this was asking for submissions, asking for designs from could use thatey approach to settle on, like, a better design or better idea how to implement, but in doing so, the proposal was hundreds of pages -- or dozens of pages, i should say, but there was a time that there was information that of thesing or some information was not as clear. for example, the deadline to submit the applications -- that was not found anywhere in the document until you read through about 30 pages or so after you first started reading it. there was a lot of confusion, and you also had delays that the agency put forward giving companies more time to submit some of the proposals. when you add some of that

language, confusing or unclear language in the call for submissions, and you have the agency itself who adds some of these delays, it created a lot of confusion for the bidders as to what were the actual they were not deviate a lot from what they specified in the request. for example, the proposal had to be no more than 10 pages including a cover page and the mockup of the designs they were to submit, so a lot of these questions that cbp had to answer -- and we were able to obtain those documents through public records requests. we're talking with rafael carranza, a reporter with "the arizona republic" about the prototype of the border wall the president has called for.

we also have a line for those who live in border states. (202) 748-8002. one of those residents is gene. caller: i live about 180 miles north of the border in miami, arizona. i thought the berlin wall went down. by the way, i am a 78-year-old disabled vet. this country's racism is alive and well in america. in america! i thought the racism and they are doing it again. country bad that this

cannot except how great they are. we are not great. treat all people equally and we will be fine and dandy. just talked gene about now, that is a common concern. a lot of people we spoke to that live in the border area on the mexican side, they do think that this is racist or does have racist tendencies and has to do with the president, when he first talked about his campaign, talking about how mexicans are rapists and criminals. they do see this as another manifestation of that, but on the other side, customs and border protection officers, are onpatrol agents an who the front lines every day, they are encountering the number of migrants having gone down.

there are encountering more drug traffickers and more potent drugs coming in from the border, so they feel anything that can be put in place to stop the flow of drugs, and of people but especially drugs, they view it as another tool in the toolkit that can help an enhanced border security. host: you write that six companies were chosen to make these protests. talk a little bit about the prototypes. what were the specifications, and what were they based on? with a based about with the president talked about on the campaign trail? caller: the requirement that the on what the based president talked about on the campaign trail? guest: they had to be between eight and 13-feet long, which is what we see now, just giants squares. but they had to have characteristics build and like anti-climbing features so people would not be able to use hooks or any other tools to get over it. they had to prevent tunneling at

least six feet under these prototypes, and then they also have to be a certain width or so so they can withstand any .urgeon -- certain breaches for concrete, they have to withstand breaches for an hour and for other material, for 30 minutes, to give law-enforcement enforcement time to get to the reported breach and either detain who is doing it for prevent someone from doing that -- or prevent someone from doing that. one of the interesting aspects, as i mentioned, cbp made some changes to the call for submissions, did reflect the president's desires. he wantedpaign trail, a reinforced concrete structure, so the call for submissions does call for four of those designs to be concrete structures, but

when he became president and started meeting with people who were law enforcement at the border, they made it clear that they wanted a see-through design because it is in their best interest to see what is .appening on the other side they call it situational awareness. the sickly knowing what is going on. if they cannot see what is going to happen, they cannot anticipate if they have people coming or criminals. changes that they wanted -- it was not a requirement, but they would like to see some of these designs incorporate some of these features and we have seen some of those as well. jack isack --host: calling and from buckeye, arizona, also a border state. onler: i wanted to comment

the caller couple calls back who lived in miami and was a veteran. .'m a 10th generation american let's make one thing perfectly clear -- this is not about racism. this is very cut and dried about right now, 80% of the fentanyl is coming from south of the border. the president just gave a speech on our opioid epidemic. if you folks cannot see the big just not all's that, it's the doctors and everything -- but we need to attack this on every angle. it's very simple. the wall is not going to go up for 2800 miles. it's going to be put in crucial areas. we're going to do this professionally, and it's going to deter as much as we possibly can.

we do not need any more bad elements coming in to the united states of america. that's what this is about. host: i want to give rafael a chance to respond to that and also to talk about what happens next. after these prototypes, what is the next step in realizing this border wall the president proposed. president donald trump was an actuated, the flow of people crossing the border decreased significantly, so it raised a lot of questions about the need for having a border wall or any sort of additional border structures, but as you mentioned, there is still a lot of drugs pouring through. arizona happens to be the busiest section for marijuana , and you also have areas along south texas where you do have large quantities of

marijuana and other drugs that are making their way through, so that is one of the reasons border patrol talks about the need for additional tools and additional structures in place, but i counter argument is also that a lot of the more potent drugs like fentanyl and methamphetamine, cocaine -- those are not increasingly test those are increasingly coming through the ports of entry, the legal entryways through the united states. we have seen a lot of attention .eing paid with executive orders, president trump has talked about hiring additional border patrol agents, but we have not seen a lot of focus on the men and women in blue who work at the border ports of entry because they have kind of a triple duty, not only androcess the legal traffic business coming through these ports of entry, but also, they are at the front lines of this

increase in drugs and very potent drugs trying to be smuggled through these ports of entry. to answer your question about what happens next, as i mentioned, 30 days have to go by for the concrete to cure on these prototypes, and then the 30 to 60l last about days according to cbp. host: will one of these prototypes be selected for the wall? then what? so far, congress has not appropriated the full funding for this border wall. guest: the funding was appropriated, so they had the money to go forward with the prototype process. they will need funding from congress, and it's kind of an clear if they are going to get that at this point, but cbp has said that this was a way that

they could try to come up with a good design, and they may choose one winner or they may choose all eight, or they might not choose any of them. they say the likeliest option as they will like some of the features and one because it will work well in a particular region, but they might not like another feature -- they might like another feature, so they might create a sort of hybrid based on what they have seen, but before they move forward, they do need to get that money for additional funding. the money that congress has been discussing which people have labeled kind of a down payment for trump's border wall, that will be to expand sensing -- so itg that we see today, would not be for the structures we have seen on camera, these prototype designs. they would be for some of the fences that are already there. kelly is calling from

another border state, lake county, california. good morning. caller: i have not listened to c-span in quite a while, but i wish after listening to a lot of callers this morning, why couldn't we not politicize yet another issue that the why can we not have a construction expert instead of a border expert? someone familiar with the bidding for u.s. contracts? if your son or daughter dies of an overdose, will you resent that you opposed the wall? my god, come together, america. rafael carranza has been covering this process. guest: again, i think a lot of these drugs -- i think there's a bit of a crisis that the government feels opiate drugs are making their way through, and i have to say with border patrol, a lot of the drugs they see tend to be more marijuana

and oftentimes the migrants themselves who are coerced by the cartels into walking across with bundles of marijuana. those of the drugs that most people in border patrol would encounter in the field. that's one thing to think about. if additional barriers and structures are put in place, a andof these types of drugs more potent drugs as i mentioned like methamphetamine, could be funneled through ports of entry, and if there is not the funding in place to hire more officers -- i mean, there's chronic understaffing in a lot of these. there are large wait times already for people living in the area and trying to cross the border. building additional structures, if they do funnel a lot of those drugs through the legal ports of entry, that could have consequences there.

host: talk about the border barrier that exists right now. what do we have in place, and how much of that border is protected, and if this border wall does go forward, how much of it would need to be built? guest: right now, we have ofween 650, 700 miles barriers, varying according to topography. a lot of areas of california, you still have the vietnam-era .trip the focus there has been on doing kind of a double layer fencing. several dozen yards within the u.s., you have secondary fencing which is 18 feet tall, kind of enforcement a dual that allows border patrol to

have situational awareness and control of the border area, but then you have places like that has a little bit of space in between, but then it only expands throughout the urban areas. is vehiclee barriers, and you have mountain ranges and a couple of other natural features where you do not have anything at all. in texas, it is a whole other story because you do have the , so you cannot build a structure on the river or the banks of the river for flooding their yearsyou have that sometimes cut people off from their land, and there's fights in of legal texas because a lot of that land is privately owned, so eminent domain has been one of the tools the government has deployed frequently to try to seize the land, and many of those cases

are still pending. is on the line from upper marlboro, maryland on the republican line. good morning. caller: thank you, c-span, for allowing me this opportunity to express my thoughts. in our country, we have a sickness. we have a wound, and the wound manifests itself in the form of additional resources we cannot afford for drugs that are pouring into our country and affecting our people, for gangs like ms 13. i want to think about immigrants that come in from, like, say, norway. gang withssociate a them as significant as ms 13. we have a significant wound. the narrative i'm hearing from your host is almost like you do not even do something as simple as wash the wound because there is nothing you can do to prevent what is happening, but on the

other side of the coin, what we need to be talking about is the actsruction of a wall that , what weier to entry to keep moreburden than these illegal immigrants coming into our country than we can manage. in addition to the wall, we need additional border patrol, border protection, and border officers, but the bottom line is we need to go back to where we can manage our immigration so that we do not have our channels flooding over with immigrants that commit these crimes, and, yes, i heard president trump make that comment. he did not say every little mexican is a rapist or a thief or a murderer. he was specifically talking, as we all know, the inordinate

amount of these illegal immigrants that are charged with thosecrimes, that even are not being managed properly -- host: i want to give rafael a chance to respond to that. go ahead. think the issue of criminality among immigrants is a topic that i could obviously spent a lot of time discussing. you can find research to support either side. either say that there is a lot of criminality and immigrants and others say it's a lot less than the general population, but you know, this is a very controversial topic and it will definitely be politicized because there is a lot of funding it taken a lot of question about resources. going back to one of the points he brought up earlier about a wall controlling immigration, we projectn a long-term looking at some of the unintended consequences and one

of the things we often found is that when it comes to immigration and illegal immigration, borders is only part of the problem at this point because increasingly more and more of the people who are coming into the country illegally -- they arrived in the nation's airports and either came on a visa that expired or as a tourist and decided to stay, so that is another component and the u.s. currently does not have a way to track who comes in and when they leave. that is something we have also perhaps other alternatives to a wall or .dditional structures as i mentioned, increasingly, more and more people opting to stay illegally came here legally through the airports. carranza, reporter

for "the arizona -- you can find his work on the website a zcentral.com -- reporter for "the arizona republic." -- hillaryng note clinton and amazon ceo jeff bezos and billie jean king will attend human rights campaigns and washington, d.c. we will have life coverage beginning at 7:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span. you can also catch it online or on the free c-span radio app app. that is all for today's "washington journal." 7:00ll be back tomorrow at a.m. have a great saturday. >> coming up on c-span, a hearing on the regulation of

political advertising on social media. in light of investigations into russia's influence in the 20 16th presidential election. then portions of the future of health summit and washington, d.c., followed by british prime minister theresa may addressing the status of the brexit negotiations. , amazonillary clinton ceo jeff bezos, and billie jean king will be attending the human rights campaign's annual dinner and washington, d.c. live coverage begins at 7:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span. >> tonight, at 11:00 eastern, the book publisher's 70th anniversary in washington, d.c. >> [indiscernible] >> sunday at :00 p.m. eastern, nbc news correspondent katie turner reflects on the trump campaign