taking my call. host: that is the last call. plays ollow this as it out throughout the rest of the day and the week, as well, we invite you to join us on the which starts 7:00 tomorrow morning, right now, an gh, we will take you to event featuring former president representativec clinton,cummings as they convene hopkins university, blo loomberg school of public health to talk about the opioid epidemic in light of the president making declaration of health emergency last week and what it means for the ederal government, states and localities, that event set to start momentarily.

>> we are alive this morning as leaders are gathering to discuss the opioid epidemic. among the speakers, former

president bill clinton. also maryland congressman elijah cummings. weingarten, and later during a second panel, former director of the white house office of the national drug control policy in the obama administration. the johnssted by hopkins bloomberg school of public health in baltimore, maryland. it should happen in a couple of moments. while we wait, a look at what is happening this week in the administration. this morning's washington journal. >> their involvement in campaign 2016 to come to life. documents last weekend, going into the first indictment, as many headlines said today. us, their white , goodcorrespondent

morning. could you tell us how the white house reacted from friday's announcement and continuing on through the weekend? >> they have a big week anyway. they are trying to turn their attention to other things until they know more details. the big tax plan is out this week. president trump leaving for a cold day trip on friday. he promised to name a chairman of the federal reserve. they are breaking through what happens today. host: the president took time yesterday to send out a series of tweets, talking about other issues. give us the nature of the tweets. obviously, he tends to

try to distract sometimes. hillary clinton a lot, which is not surprising come of that how she is really the one who should be under investigation. careso talked about health . congress is not taking that up at the moment. he does try to distract. if he are waiting to see will respond to what will happen. is there any other talk about what to do with the special counsel overall? that? not really are you see pundits saying he will fire up mueller now. is just people talking about here is how president trump might react. they have no idea a scheduled withing today at 1:00

sarah huckabee sanders. really big week until i am sure what they will say is many of the questions have to be answered by the attorneys and not the white house. we will see if they stick to that. long before 12 days, five countries, extremely grueling, 12-14 hours ahead depending on where he is. the biggest part of it is probably china here he will visit china at a time where north korea is extremely dangerous now. tests, and thele two presidents need to talk about what to do about that.

the white house is telling us the big push will be president trump asking the chinese president to more to help curtail north korea. this is what the united states president always asks the president. here we are. we are still in the same boat. to figure out a way to get them on board and to do a bit more. he has a variety of other meetings. having toeconomics, summits. it is surprising he is going this long to this many places. go, youfore we let you mentioned the announcement of the fed chairman. stories in the paper that one of those could be the governor, jerome powell. what have you heard? we hear all different names. a handful of people.

we have not heard officially from the white house. i believe it is president trump who said he would make the decision before he leaves. time on his schedule, most of what we have seen is will you -- what you would expect. host: the white house correspondent joining us, thank you for your time today. guest: thank you. we are alive this morning waiting for the start of the combating opioid -- opioid use. we're expecting bill clinton and maryland congressman eli shook coming spare this is hosted by the johns hopkins blumberg school of public health in baltimore, maryland. it should get underway a couple of moments. while we wait, we will show you a conversation from this morning's "washington journal" about political polarization am divisiveness. the author of "republican

left thehowever liberal bubble and learned to love the right. you open the book with a story based on your not -- on your own neighborhood. and it sets the stage for what you tell that story? guest: sure. i was in mount pleasant in washington, d.c., in a 100% democratic household. a lovely neighborhood with a lot of teams. in the neighborhood. there are a number of block parties. the biggest is called porch best. at the beginning of each porch best is a parade of the kids and it begins with the street clutch. every year, the pledge is different. one year it went something like this -- all are welcome here. men and women, gay or straight. anyone but republicans. it was meant as a joke. but he really wasn't a joke. as you peel into the data around

polarization, how deeply this has affected us -- in that moment it was a wake-up moment for me to say, listen. we have to think about this differently. host: you are a self-confessed democrat. what was your perception of democrats before you did the book? -- republicans before you did this book? guest: the washington post did a word cloud a few years ago. they asked democrats about republicans. the top words for democrats and republicans were negative. greedy, selfish and racist. but i didn't like to think that

i thought so that in truth, i probably did. so i had to deal with that that i thought of roughly one third of my fellow countrymen in fairly negative terms. host: so you went through a whole series of events. how did you choose them. give our viewers a flavor of what you did over that year? guest: i went to churches. you cannot know republicans without knowing evangelicals. you have to explore different parts of the country. i went to youngstown ohio. i went to kentucky. liberty university. i tried to get all sorts of different experiences. at 1.i saw a quote in the paper from the head of heritage action who said what people to know about was the awesomeness of america. and how to find it. so i went to -- who i knew

slightly and said, i want to find the awesomeness. he told me to go paid hunting in texas. so i went. everything from the philosophical to meeting people in diners and out their homes. host: we are getting the experience from ken stern, the author of "republican like me." if you want to know what he learned, republicans on (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independent callers, (202) 748-8002. how did your friends respond to what you are about to engage in? guest: it was interesting. i learned not to talk too much about it inside my house. my family, like a lot of democrats, have a concept of what i would find. and as i came back and shared stories. they were interested but they