and facebook will be back on capitol hill today. it kicks off at 9:30 with a senate intelligence committee hearing. they will hear from twitter, facebook and google. at 2:00 p.m. the same group will meet with the the house select intelligence committee. watch both hearings on c-span3, online at c-span.org or listen live on the free c-span radio app. today washington journal is live with your phone calls. house returns at 10:00. noon.ative is ms. at we expect them to work on a bill to address wildfire and forest management. hourg up in about an california republican congressman tom mcclintock discusses the house republican tax reform bill scheduled to be released this week. don benton shares his view about the mission of the selective service and the pentagon's

recommendation to expand registration to include women. author and former obama administration official cass ,unstein talks about his book impeachment: a citizen's guide. host: there are eight dead and anleast 11 injured following attack in new york city yesterday. reportedly he shouted god is great in arabic after the attack. the attack was carried out in the name of isis. that we will tell you about in the first hour of washington genesys morning. we invite your phone calls on the attack and related issues stemming from that great you want to give us a call this (202) 748-8001 democrats. (202) 748-8002 republicans.

(202) 748-8005 independents. can post on our facebook page. abc news highlights some of the him thison about morning saying he became a legal permanent resident of the united states. he lived in cincinnati, tampa florida, most recently paterson new jersey where he lived with his wife and three children and that he rented the vehicle at a nearby home depot. he also worked as a uber driver. the company confirmed he was an active driver who pass the background check and recorded over 1400 trips in six months. from this abc story this

morning including the type of visa that was used. about whose pakistan. saying that area of the board -- world as a terrorist stores. -- source. entering primarily on the whosec movement of pakistan. report said ethnic whose banks were the central asian's fighting with the united states. 2000eport estimated that to 4000 central asians and total had joined the sunni muslim group. who's that nationals pose and added risk in many parts of the world they have been linked to a handful of terrorist cases in recent years including recent

events in sweden and russia. there have also been targeted in counterterrorism operations in the united states. phone lines this morning. democrats (202) 748-8001. .epublicans (202) 748-8002 0205.) 748-800 you can also post on facebook.com/c-span. the story goes on to say when it itselfo those pakistan it is among 11 companies targeted by -- isn't among 11 -- countries targeted by

the trump administration's travel ban. none of the countries on the list belonged to the central asian region and the u.s. department of homeland security didn't immediately respond to on whetherr comment tuesday's attack what influence further iterations of the travel ban. trump indicated changes are possible. homelandst ordered security to step up our already extreme vetting program. several members of congress including the president himself sending out tweets to this effect in the resulting from the attack that took place yesterday. the department of homeland security on its website. he calls for stepping up the extreme vetting program in the united states. this comes in light of the various travel ban attempts the administration has made and

overturned by the court and things relating to that. you can talk about the attack itself in this first hour. you can talk about related issues on the phone lines this morning. (202) 748-8001 democrats. (202) 748-8002 republicans. 2026280205 independents. from president trump, a statement put out by the white house. this is in part with president trump said. our thoughts and prayers are with the victims of today's attack. my administration will provide full support to the new york city police department with the federal bureau of investigation. offer thanks to the first responders who stopped the

suspect and rendered immediate of thishe victims cowardly attack. these brave men and women embody the true american spirit of resilience and courage. i will continue to follow developments closely. that was a statement by the president yesterday. going to twitter also posting his thoughts on yesterday's event in new york thanks to the nypd for rapidly responding to the tragic situation downtown. worried and saddened to hear about injuries and the loss of life. the horrific act of terror in new york city state rights gillibrand, my heart is with the victims and families. i am grateful to the nypd, the city hasas new york shown over and over we are resilient. we will not power to senseless hate. i'm confident that we will get answers.

other people offering their thoughts yesterday morning, hillary clinton. saying this. new york's resilience is stronger than a cowardly act of terror. thinking of the victims and their families. and the responders who saved their lives. yesterday it was the governor of new york going before cameras. making a statement along with the new york city mayor. mayor characterized yesterday's event as a cowardly act. that was picked up by usa today this morning. fairing from andrew cuomo himself, here is what he had to say about yesterday. the new terrorist tactic which they have called for publicly are these lone wolf's who commit an act of terror. this is all very preliminary. it is only been a couple of

hours. at this point there is no evidence to suggest a wider plot or a wider scheme. the actions of one individual harmeant to cause pain and and probably death. and the resulting terror. that was the purpose. we will be vigilant. more police everywhere. you will see them in the airports, you will see them in the tunnels. it's not because there's any evidence of any ongoing threat for any additional threat. vigilance and of caution. the truth is new york is an international symbol of freedom and democracy. that's what we are. and we are proud of it. that also makes us a target for

those people who oppose those concepts. with thise lived before. we felt the pain before. we feel the pain today. we go forward together and we go forward stronger than ever. we are going to let them win. the governor of new york yesterday talking about that terror attack. the mayor also speaking yesterday. you can find that online. (202) 748-8001 democrats. (202) 748-8002 republicans. 2026280ents president obama tweeting205. . new yorkers are as tough as they

come. we will start with dennis in washington d c on the line for independence. go ahead. dennis, go ahead. this is dennis from the washington area. i just wanted to make a comment about this nonsense of people having the delusions that a background check seems to be the way to go. it seems like all of the shooters and all the people committing these terrible crimes have been cleared and they got a background check. that system does not work. isn't a background check the be-all end-all of allowing people to do things. it's got to be more intricate than that. as proven empirically by what's been going on. host: when you hear the

president saying that we have to up the extreme vetting program, how do you react to that? if you look at somebody's record and say, they got a felony. yourself, you have to get more details. did that felony have anything to do with a gun crime. driving, domestic something or another. was a gun involved? if a gun was involved that takes it to a different level. if it wasn't the whole felony automatic not getting a weapon is ridiculous. crimek it depends on the and it needs to be of more interest. where this person was from. i think that's a big part of it. fromisn't saying everyone classic stan is going to do something bad. it's just a little but of a flag. you have to be cautious. i don't think you can do

anything about what happens. host: let's go to darrell in sacramento. good morning. caller: my name is bill. host: you are on the air, darrell. go ahead. caller: my name is bill. host: you are on the air, go ahead. what i have been doing i have been doing for the last 40 years. i'm taking care of business about all this silliness of all these people off the wall with their bad backgrounds. i am combining about a dozen american companies into a product. world-classo be because it's all for america. i'm going to be getting the top four in each area. arehe people who outstanding will be working with me. i have been out this -- at this long enough to know what's going on and i know so many people

that is going to have all these products that will protect you and it's this counter when you do military. host: what do you think about what the government already offers back to what you think the government is doing correctly or incorrectly? caller: i think the government is doing what they think is right. i am working with the government with everybody at the top. host: let's go to rich in arlington, virginia. caller: hello. real quick. i would ask you guys to do a little bit more research on this and explain to people have this program works. he came in on a diversity visa that was done in 1990 and senator schumer was the sponsor of the bill. all of these things go back to

the government. the sky and apparently with this diversity visa, you do it online. there's no fee. door toy we walk in the the country. he came here seven years ago. trace all of the stuff back to the government. host: the washington post highlights the fact about that diversity program and the role that senator chuck schumer played. talking, samantha schmidt under the headline extreme right genes of a culprit saying theattacks details emerged about the incident. prominent right-wing commentators seized upon abc seven story reporting that the alleged attacker had come to the unitedhost: states from pakistan under a state department program known as the diversity visa lobby.

they claimed was the brains behind the program and therefore bears responsibility for the attack. tried to pin blame on the new york democrat saying he alone was responsible for allowing the 20 ninth suspect into the country and terrorism and violent crime on the nation's immigration laws is standard right-wing fair. it's how president trump has justified his travel ban. president trump supported legislation to eliminate it in favor of a merit raised immigration system. john from massachusetts. good morning. caller: this is basically international government and corporate fascism colonialism. the same people that started communism, fascism, zionism and racism. it's your international cabal of

freemasons who run all the corporations. that's quite got jay-z in the music industry. host: of go to vero beach, florida. the islamic institution for example in egypt. freemasonsthey're using hundredf thousands of radical imam clerics that come from all over the world. those pakistan, india, china. pakistan -- whose pakistan was back was back use i hope you study and you will find out. thank you so much. morningmocrats this (202) 748-8001.

republicans (202) 748-8001. 628205 for independents. , hethose who knew saipov did not seem like a terrorist. after he moved to new jersey he eventually settled in paterson. it was tuesday night that law enforcement officials converged on an apartment building that was believed to be his home. he had earned a green card according to a law enforcement official who spoke under the condition of anonymity because the investigation was proceeding and had entered the country through kennedy international airport. a uber official stated that he passed the company's background check. we will aggressively and quickly

review his history with uber and we have not identified any related concerns safety reports. from jackson will, florida. rose, good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to say that all of the authorities have said the terrorist use social media to reach out to americans and get them riled up and influence them to go out and commit these terrorist acts. we all agree that they use social media to reach americans. wouldn't americans believe that russia and other people could use social media to influence our election? the incident from yesterday, do you think more monitoring on social media networks has to be done by the government? caller: of course it has to be. no one has a right to get on a

public forum and spew hate and violence and criminal activities. no one has a right to do that. not russia. no one has a right to get in our toial media in america influence elections. if you can influence somebody to commit a tremendous act of mass murders why couldn't you influence somebody to vote one way or the other? host: the new york times this morning, truck attack kills eight. the mayor of new york statement about being a cowardly act of terror. the city's deadliest attack since 9/11. orville in indiana, you're next. caller: ok.

i would like to just say something about the gun control issue. i think they really ought to do more psychological background tests. on some of these people. i would like to also address the hate. host: just to keep it to the topic at hand. what do you think about the incident yesterday specifically? caller: that's terrible. i'm sorry for those families. you see hate on social media. you see it on video games. you see it on tv. i don't know where this ability has gone. i am almost 70 years old and it seems like people just don't have any stability like they used to have. harvey is in new hampshire

this morning. thanks for calling. go ahead. caller: i think the governor is exactly right. those people who don't like the the way we in conduct ourselves want to take it away. for whatever the reasons are. we are perfectly imperfect and we will always be perfectly imperfect and we will always continue to try to be more civilized and influence other people to do as good by their neighbors and friends and other human beings as they possibly can. be a foreverto ongoing challenge and we just need to get better. if we can treat everybody we meet today better than we treated them yesterday as human beings i think we will rise a little bit higher. journale wall street

story this morning highlights that since the 2001 attack on the world trade center there have been 23 incidents of radical islamic motivated attacks that have resulted in 119 fatalities to the orlando anrida 19 -- according to april report by the u.s. government can ability office. fromatalities have reached one to 49 in a given year. many of the incidents have wolf attackers inspired by islamic state 11 the terror group to become an international threat without always directing the attacks itself. adding one of the presidents tweets from yesterday saying that it looks like another attack by a very sick and deranged person. franklin county, virginia. john. good morning. i wasn't aware there had been an attack until late or

early this morning. my concern is i don't know where this stuff is coming from. what do you mean? hate or whatever. it is supposed to be a peaceful religion. the whole thing on it. i don't know if it is islam inspired. that's all. host: you think these type of incidents can be stopped? caller: you would have to be pretty pragmatic or intense in how you discipline or enforce the law and things like that. i don't know. it's theoretical. host: a graphic of the bike path of the truck went down yesterday driven by the suspect is in the new york times this morning. he entered that path around 3:00

in the afternoon on tuesday. highlightingeports it was when kids get out of school. that's in the new york times this morning. new jersey, marcia is next. go ahead. caller: good morning. i wanted to say thank you for c-span. i want to express condolences to the victims and hope those injured heel. saddened i was going on in this country. first i want to say that the tax should not be passed unless it is in the interest of all people. host: i want you to keep your comments to the events of yesterday because that's what we are talking about. what do you think specifically about yesterday's events in new york? caller: i feel that what has because of what is

going on in this country. there are a lot of people who are very dissatisfied. and that's all i have to say. christie from wisconsin. you are next morning. caller: i just wanted to say on the events of yesterday that it's not really inevitable it's going to happen that people are going to slip through the cracks and things are going to happen like that. i think the travel ban is a good start. monitoring people on social media is a good start. things like this are going to happen. we have to educate people and teach people more that are ideologies i guess because it would be idealistic to say that. and we are going to get rid of all the hate in the world. teach equality and just educate people and keep an eye on their mental health and things like that and get rid of the hateful ideologies. i'm not seeing that everyone is

hateful but i personally don't agree with islam. in las vegas, things are going to happen. we just have to keep the pressure on. host: when you talk about the idea of monitoring the internet, or you think that proves a lot of other problems as far as privacy issues and free speech issues and expression? the idea of the monitoring of the internet itself. you puti think when something on social media is public anyways and facebook has access to it. it's not really private anymore. if you don't want something on the internet don't put on the internet is how i feel about it. i've spent a lot of time on facebook and i'm 25. i have seen some really questionable things. blatantly violent things towards americans.

i think that she be monitored and we should take note of that. host: the president highlighting the diversity visa program we told you about this morning. the terrorists came into our through what is called the diversity visa program lottery. i want a merit-based program. that's the president tweeting on this issue. the chicago tribune this morning on its editorial, terror by the ton. a pattern established oceans away now visits america. terrorists have been so successful with the vehicles that in 2014 and islamic state official urged similar attacks across the west. cheap and easy to execute is a paradoxical tribute to the detections that have denied extremists conventional weapons and easy access to air transport targets they enjoyed at the turn-of-the-century. we don't know if the subject was heating attack call on halloween

or was just thinking to choose to attack new yorkers on the trail in this neighborhood. we have seen enough of these attacks. they are all but impossible to predict or prevent. that's in the chicago tribune this morning. (202) 748-8001 democrats. republicans.2 280205 for independents. wisconsin is next. this is christie. christie from wisconsin, are you there? let's go to maurice in georgia. caller: good morning.

this individual is from uzbekistan which is where caucasians come from ie white people. just like the brothers in boston. i want to also know if number 45 is going to ban individuals coming from those pakistan at this point. velma in new york. go ahead. i would just like to say how come trump is not at fault for this terrorist attack? it happened under his watch. host: the wall street journal this morning, we read that one of the tweets the president sent out called the the story highlights a heightened intelligence group which monitors amtrak's radical groups online. they reported monday that a

pro-islamic french media group had called on lone wolves to carry out attacks on halloween. in illinois, this is lewis, republican line. wanted tos, i just say, nobody should ever think this is going to end. it will continue and it will can continuing. -- and it will keep continuing it is because they hate us. plain and simple. it's never going to end. my suggestion is this -- anyone coming into this country, if it's not raising their right hand and pledging their allegiance to the united states should not be allowed to come here. i don't care who cries it's

unfair. we better start changing our ways because it never going to and. that,so even if they did wouldn't that be an active symbolism for someone who wanted to do something in this country? people yet but these don't have the stick to it of mess to go through all that. one more thing i want to add come of this while they are building in mexico -- host: we are keeping it to the topic in hand, north carolina, joan. >> can you hear me? host: you are on. put in this program was place to help diversify america and it's a good program. analogy for the first amendment. if you are going to have guns and you're going to have guns and bear arms, you're going to have some murders. away the take

amendment for guns. just like this program, there will be one or two that might slip through but you don't get rid of the program of diversity for america. it's for the greater good. good of thisas the program, what do you mean by that? caller: the program to help diversify america's good because we get good people for the most part. there will be one or two that may slip through that will do about things like this. host: what about the idea of making this program more merit based? caller: i think that's a good idea. as long as the program is still in place. host: that's jones from north carolina. frank from oklahoma, you are next, good morning. i like to comment on the

islamist incident in new york yesterday. they're way of salvation, they don't have a savior like we christians have in christ. they have to give their life in service to allah. aqt's why they cry i'll kbar which means their god is better than any god so we are being exposed to this generic interpretation saying god is great. than any otherr god is what they say. that's my comment. host: you are saying when it comes to those it do these attacks, there is no changing hearts and minds to stop them? caller: no, that's the only way to get to heaven where allah is

and they have a system like our immigration system. one jihadist gets into heaven and then he can chain migrate a bunch of his relatives into heaven. graphic from the wall street journal this morning shows a little bit of the timeline from yesterday, saying it was at 3:05 p.m. that the truck entered the bike pedestrian path along west houston street. the driver struck multiple people. least eight people and collided with a school bus at chambers street in new york. at that point, the driver got out holding a paint all gun and a pellet gun. they shot -- police shot the driver of the stomach and then he was taken into custody. republican line is next. caller: good morning.

a comment about the previous caller, i don't know why we have to politicize this and say it happens on trump's watch when in fact, this guy was let in under obama. just putting that out there. i believe the visas should be merit-based and not diversity. our country is diverse. i don't know why everybody thinks we are a racist nation. this attitude has to stop and it will not stop the islamists. getting people to talk to them and change their minds, you will not change their minds. they hate us and we need to get real. we need to see it for what it is and stop thinking that things will change. caller, when you say you agree with a merit-based system, what exactly should be the basis of that? caller: vetting.

to backgroundy check these people. maybe they should not be let in. countries that don't have any system or cannot follow or tell is what these people are up to when they were in their homeland, they should not be let in, simple as that. in the past, you're not let in if you had an illness. we used to be more careful. we are not careful anymore because of a lyrical correctness. -- because of political correctness. people hating on people has been going on since the beginning of time. man is inherently evil and you will not change that. you can only defend yourself. that's all i have to say. oklahoma, our line for democrats. this is tommy. caller: good morning. that theike to say tragedy yesterday was one among many. we had one here in oklahoma where a parade was going on and

a young college student come a woman, went down and mowed down five or six people. also, she was feeling depressed and was having psychological problems. she went to church every sunday. there are many people, good and and everyry religion country. it's too bad these people have learned a way to do things like they are doing. alert too be more other things besides the terrorists. we have to be alert to our surroundings because there is so countryng on in this today. i love america and i would like to say i hope these people find some peace that have lost their loved ones. host: when you say you have to be more alert when you go out, does it change the way you view things? when you go out, are you more

aware of your surroundings and what potentially might happen depending where you are? caller: i look around more. if i'm in a big city come i watch was going on around me. i am not scared, exactly, but i'm more aware. yes. host: that's woodward, oklahoma, talking about yesterday's events, relating it to awareness. people are relating it to many different things. we will do so for the amazing -- for the next hour. if you're calling to talk about this, you can call us. we will show you some other stories in the course of this hour. another announcement in the halls of congress on the house side. representative jeb canceling out of dallas, texas says he will not run for look reelection

saying that the powerful chairman of the house financial services committee announces retirement tuesday afternoon. he is serving is a term in the house. he says he will not seek reelection in 2018. he says service remains is greatest privilege -- i want to show you this as far as the wall street journal -- to unveils were set their plan for tax reform today. it's not expected to happen today but tomorrow. this is the headline from the wall street journal.

we will talk more on that with our guest up next later in the program. back to the calls, jim in ohio, republican line. believe you hear about gun control but i believe if they would have been carriers, only a couple of people would have been killed. the people did not have to die like that. it people are downgrading people carrying guns. i myself prefer someone around .e with a gun it might've stopped a lot of people from getting killed. hawaii, sean is next on our independent line. go ahead. caller: hello. i find that everybody who preaches terrorism or creating terrorism, once they get to

america, they seem to be no higher than middle-class. it's not so much a terrorist attack. it seems like class warfare. you don't see rich people doing stuff like this. it's my opinion. host: so you think it's economic base. particular, in because they cannot get ahead. the american dream is not for them. they revert to whatever belief they have. i think it's economically-based. host: the bourbon county record out of him new jersey highlighting the attackers jersey connections. he lived in paterson and this is the cover of the paper this morning. picture of the bicycle and debris on the bike path after the motorist drove through them. it's near the 9/11 memorial. line,see, our democrats

annie go ahead. caller: hello, i would like to first give my condolences to all of the victims who have been lost in these senseless crimes. my next thing is we need more love. if we go back in history, it's the christians that persecuted people first. then the muslims, than the christians, then the muslims and it's all because they don't realize god is in each one of us. -- we need toect project the good from god that is innocent until we start doing that, we will have trouble here and all over the world. i have traveled all over the world mostly and i have seen love and i have seen hatred. me, america is in trouble when it starts spewing hatred which we have seen in the last couple of years or months. aboutd to start thinking

loving one another. we are all the same. thank you very much. let's start loving everyone and teaching our children to love. you see children in school now, they have so much hatred and been setuse they have back. the parents cannot find a job. in tendency now, we cannot drive down a street without getting in a pothole and it terry up our cars. i'm afraid to go over a bridge. what about fixing up america? there is a lot to be upset about now. host: thank you. it's november 1, the first day of enrollment for the new season of the a formal care act. the new york time highlights that.

there is a december 15 deadline for people to enroll. another story about health care in the pages of the washington times this morning, taking a look at democrats as they possibly seek to regain control of perhaps the congress after the 2018 elections.

from florida, we will hear from laura next. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. i'm calling regarding the

immigration program. i am 100% in agreement with president donald trump regarding curbing immigration, getting immigration into a situation where we are taking action. i have been to australia eight times. i have been to new zealand and all over the world. those countries have immigration programs that are much tougher than america. i wanted to live there and work with wildlife. as an american citizen, they scrutinize everything about you. it's a visa program based on age, education, background, criminal, everything. host: you don't think they do those things for those entering the united states? caller: we don't have the same kind of immigration. we've got other immigration program visas, diversity, how ridiculous is that? a lottery.

we don't need that. we need to get tough. you agree with the president, you agree with a merit-based system for visas? caller: it should have been done many years ago. host: what do you base the merit on? what things should the united states look for to allow someone to come to the united states? caller: education. experience,age, criminal background, no criminalities. all of those things, many things, all the things that can contribute to our country. give us some education. bring some scientists in. bring people in who can contribute to the country. that's what needs to be done here. i am 150% with president trump all the way.

out athe president sent tweet talking about a merit-based immigration system. thelma in new york, independent line, good morning. caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call. one of the things that concerns being more of educated, in terms of the plus, i that is spoken came to new york from alabama to and theira family

religion was judaism. i had ideas i brought. i got a clear understanding because i was told the youngster in the home was getting ready for his bar mitzvah and i was you whot jesus was age was a teacher and a leader. i became a clear understanding of my own religion and i went to religious science. the minister there was teaching ah meansaid one time all an all inclusive god. one that protects us all. it sustains us all. i think if our language -- saying that word trick or treat can be like, i don't know how --

when i look at it with the youdren who came yesterday, have to do something good for me and a -- or i will do something bad. knows this type of mindset? host: we will hear from logan in maryland, democrats line. just called to say --t of the problem we've got i know as a nation we need to step up our game a little bit and watch out for each other and that sort of thing. it large part of the robin is the fact that we sensationalized and run these 24 hour news cycles all the time. whenever these attacks happen, we give the terrorists exactly what they want. that's publicity. every single time one of these happen, one of these attacks happen, and they are recruiting

tools for terrorist and what we should be doing is taking care of them behind the scenes, not giving them the press time they want, not splashing their name everywhere, showing everything like that. i'm not trying to equate terrorism with streaking but when people were streaking at sports games, they stopped showing them. those incidences dropped. we need to stop giving them what they want which is the free publicity. i really think that once we do from getting them and the news of

cycle they want, then it will help reduce things in the long run. let's hear from jacob in virginia, republican line. caller: good morning. i enjoy c-span but probably not for the reasons you think. i just wanted to make a comment. diversity is not our strength. we are bringing into many people, too many cultures that are unwilling to assimilate and if we are not going to do that, if we are not going to regulate the immigration system better, the only solution would be to ban things like you all trucks -- like u-haul trucks and bike paths, it's so ridiculous. these people are unwilling to assimilate and that's my comment. host: is there a way to change immigration to help improve the assimilation process? i am in favor personally

at this point of just putting a stop on immigration, legal and illegal. the citizens that are here andady that are hurting even though i called in on the republican line, i don't blame democrats. -- i'm in favor of joining this one because both parties have contributed to this nightmare. it's not just the terrorist attack. or these types of attacks. happening with very economy. why not put a freeze on this and look out for our economy? and the citizens here and protect our lives? that's really the role of government, not bringing in people who absolutely refuse -- there are two factors, not just refuse to assimilate to our culture and respect life and the safety of other people but we coddling theses

people coming in, insisting they conform to the american way of life. they are bringing their own brutal cultures with them and their way of dealing with things. you can call in for the next couple of minutes on our phone lines or post in our facebook page. also we have a twitter feed. facebook, twitter, and google. the talk yesterday about the russian election and the information they came from social media platforms yesterday. the wall street journal highlights one of those hearings. taped that hearing but this is the story from the wall street journal.

there will be these executives from twitter, facebook, and google. you can see the hearings on c-span or go to www.c-span.org and our c-span radio app and monitor those hearings or see the hearing from yesterday. -- weretors regaling grilling these folks about these issues. in go to the c-span library and find those issues related to the tech companies and the russian elections. that's available to you right now. california, go ahead. caller: i have a quick comment to make. i am a third-generation immigrant from india.

i am a hindu. i did not come as a political refugee. works.the way democracy i have grown up and have known muslims and good people and bad people. i think in america what we are doing now is that we are walking around equating one group of .eople and their ideology that the in a way skills that helped put us -- put an end to the mafia or the drug menace or any menace, why don't we look at is more of a criminal aspect. methods we have done in the past. stuff thattelligence

will help us understand this subculture of terrorism as it occurs on u.s. soil. get goodalso help us partnership from other people who are from that religion but not terrorists and help us putting aside any judgment, just help us understand the terrorism culture or whatever you want to call it, as it exists in the u.s. today. is that we hadnt good functioning self driving cars, you would not be able to push them into crowds of people and hurt them. i don't know if someone is thinking of a solution along technology lines. those are my two comments. host: ok, thank you for calling.

a lot of domestic response to what happened yesterday. international responses coming in as well. the french president says -- i convey my emotion and the solidarity of france for new york and the u.s. and our fight for freedom unites us more than ever. from florida, democrats line, susan is next. caller: i was watching the hearings yesterday concerning facebook. , google, twitter, allowing the

russians to flood the internet with these false, hateful stories which were picked up by to and breitbart and so on persuade and convince americans how to vote. does anybody else hear or see the similarity between that and radicalizing former people who were not radicals before such as the doctor in the fort hood thing and this guy yesterday who has been on this country since 2010? he suddenly becomes radicalized in 2017. the internet is used to spread this is, hateful lies and that's something big that needs to be taken care of and addressed. thank you. illinois, sherry, republican line. caller: good morning.

lady. heard the if i did not watch fox news, i would not know anything. i believe that they should have a lie detector test the four they let them come over here. the truth is they need to stop all of them from coming over here until we get this problem under control. the guy from hawaii and the judges that's blocking it, how many of them are in hawaii? that's the way i feel about it. can you realistically get this thing under control so much that if you stop this program until you get it under control -- do you think we will ever get it under control that way? caller: it will take a good 100 years because they teach their children. it's going to take forever. we need to fight them over that re.we don't wane we have them over here already

thanks to crying chuck and the democrats. we need to focus on the united states citizens. we need to focus on history. we don't need to learn their history. we don't need to understand them. we need to stop them. we've tried understanding them too long. host: that's the last call on the topic in this first hour. i guess joining us for good portion of the program today. first up, we will hear from tom mcclintock of california. the houseussing republican tax reform bill scheduled to be released today, now scheduled to be released tomorrow. we will talk about those issues and more next. later on the program, don benton. he will talk about issues of the draft, women in the military, and other related topics. all that coming up when "washington journal" continues. ♪

join us this weekend for book to bv live at the texas book festival in austin. it begins at 11:00 a.m. eastern and it includes allies a monday, , kevin young, allen andr, danielle a and his book, deep in the shadows. , author ofllman "life and code." on sunday, our live coverage starts at three clock p.m. eastern with carol anderson and e: theok "white rag

unspoken truth of our racial divide." and then "bloodlines." and then paula deen and mark "violated:uthors of exposing rate at baylor university amid college football sexual assault crisis." the texas book festival live saturday and sunday on c-span twos buook tv. "q&a,"ay night on pulitzer prize winning author, ron chernow, and his new book on ulysses s. grant. >> hamilton was young -- and hing and -- and -dasi romantic. grant is a very different kind of beast. and leighnnin

aconic. the charisma of ulysses s. grant is that he had no charisma. he was not dramatic. he is no less fascinating, but he's kind of a much more no less deep in hamilton. is a very subtle character. he reminded me much more of george washington. george washington had a similar kind of reserved and magnetic quality. sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span's "q&a." announcer: "washington journal" continues. this is representative tom mcclintock, republican of california and member of the budget committee, also a member of the committee on federal lands, here to talk about a variety of things, first and foremost the status of the tax bill. the announcement yesterday that

there was a delay -- what have you heard about this delay? guest: it's just that could they are stil., that are still working out the details. it's a complicated issue when you're working out people's favorite tax deductions. all theemove distortions built into our economy with texas today and it gets politically quite tangled. host: isn't about just the directions or arbiter of issues? e there other issues? guest: i think it's just that. host: they are still talking about these issues today. are you concerned they can resolve these issues? guest: ultimately the core of the package is the corporate tax relief. that is what is going to be the driver of the economy. we have the highest corporate tax rate in the industrialized world. that is in trillions of dollars and millions of jobs overseas. we need to get those jobs and that capital back. the way to do that is to restore

competitiveness to the corporate tax system. if we can get it down to just 20%, that will mean $5 trillion of economic growth to our economy and about $2 trillion of direct tax revenues to state and local governments. that's a big deal. that's the core of the package. i don't think there's much disagreement on that, at least among the tax writers. it's the details involved in the personal income tax. host: that's the large issue of how this tax package will be paid for, isn't? it? guest: growth on the corporate tax side will not pay for all the personal income tax reductions. set $1.5t parameters trillion of debt when we are already carrying record that. that's a huge problem. the debt is driven by spending as are the taxes. its two sides of the same coin. that is the future tax. it is all based on future spending.

we decided whether to tax now or in the future. the house at least made a halfhearted attempt to get mandatory spending under control, but that was rejected by the senate. that is a big concern. host: where do you stand about the possibility to changes to the 401(k) programs? guest: i would prefer they be left alone. that's an important savings device particular for middle-class folks who are not covered by employees or pensions. host: when it comes to being from california, issues of state and local taxes and how they should be deducted -- should that be nullified as well? guest: being from a high-tech state like california, i would like to see that left alone. you have to see it as an overall package. as we started calculating the original parameters given, which was to take the tax rate below $90,000 to 12%, double the standard deduction, even getting

rid of these high state and local tax deductions in california, that still leaves most taxpayers much better off. you got a was if median priced home, which is about $400,000 in california, and you're earning $80,000 in order to support that mortgage. that couple if they have two kids ends up paying $400 more in taxes under the original proposal. that is a not acceptable. i took it to kevin brady and he was very receptive to changes that will assure that when the itl is finally put in text will mean a tax reduction for those families. host: have you seen the final product you? guest: i don't think there is a final product yet to see. we were given the overall parameters and 80 needed some adjustments and that's what's been going on the last few weeks. host: our guest is with us for about a half-hour.

if you want to ask questions, call us on the phone lines this morning. (202) 748-8001 for democrats, (202) 748-8002 for republicans, and (202) 748-8003 for independents. the house have to pass a version of the senate budget. where are you on that? guest: i supported it with great rea reluctance because the senate rejected mandatory spending that the house budget called for the next decade. it's a modest amount of $20 billion a year out of a nearly $4 trillion budget. to have the senate reject that was a bitter pill. that's a warning. the senate is not going to cut spending, at least not in its current configuration. that means the only way we are going to be able to address our debt is by economic growth.

over the last eight years, we only had 1.5% average economic growth. the average during the postwar period has been 3%. we have grown at half are historic average. reagan got it up to 3.5% average annual growth and he did it by reducing the tax and regulatory burdens crushing the economy. the trump administration has made great strides in reducing regulatory burdens and we see the economy responding to that. tax reform will be a very major part of that economic revival, which was the overarching issue of the last forma for national elections. host: i think you are saying it has to be higher than that to really have the full effect of this tax reform package be viable. model according to the that i've seen for the corporate tax side, we get the corporate rate down to 20%. it will be a one-year boost of about 5%. it will be a huge explosion of

growth and then it will settle back to 2.5%-3%. as much better than we have been doing -- and that's just the corporate tax issue. it does not include the impact of regulatory relief. that's going to be absolutely critical to start growing the economy again. if the senate is unwilling to restrain spending, that's going to be the only way we can address our growing debt problem. host: what's the best way to address the tax issue for high rate earners, those people critical of the program saying this program favors them? guest: a lot of that criticism is directed to the corporate tax reduction. i try to remind people that corporations don't pay corporate taxes. they collect them. there are only three possible ways that a corporate tax could be paid -- paid by us as consumers for higher prices come up a by us as employees through lower wages, and paid by us as investors through lower earnings. that's pension plans and 401(k)s and the like.

higher prices, lower wages, lower earnings. the corporate tax reduction is absolutely essential to not only grow the economy but also to ease the burdens on struggling middle-class families. our first call for youo comes from maryland. you're on with tom mcclintock, republican from california. pamela, are you there? caller: hello? host: go ahead, you're on. caller: good morning. i would like to know -- i guess you can address this to the congressman -- why the -- i'm trying to think of the right word -- weren't advised of this. why did we not get essay in the matter -- a say in the matter before the scan to congress? why was there not some type of

-- i forget the term for it? when we are in midterm voting for this particular tax reform bill, why were we not advised of it before it went to the floor of the house? host: ok, pamela, thanks. guest: it has not gone to the floor of the house yet. it's still being drafted and there are negotiations going on. once those negotiations are concluded, it will be released in print. we will get a great deal of scrutiny. ultimately i think within days of the plan being announced before it's voted on, there are going to be tax calculators all over the internet or you can go and calculate what your new taxes would be under the tax relief act. i think it's going to be a very, very pleasant surprise to the vast majority of americans. host: will there be hearings,

markups, any chance for democrats to respond to this package? guest: the whole process is designed to the sense that the 'sposition party responsibility is to either win the majority of its way of thinking or to at least point out flaws in the majority's proposal. aspect of aentral deliberative process and that's what the congress is going to do. guesthost: there will be hearings on the bill presented? guest: there will be debates in the capital and the amerco people. -- the american people. host: robert from massachusetts, you're next. caller: i'm watching this program on tv right now. to see someone blatantly say a we heard about ronald reagan's trickle-down economics. it never worked. it never will work. we have all these people in washington right now that are

doctors, lawyers, indian chiefs, preachers. all you want is a tax break for your church. gave thege bush initiative because of hurricane katrina because of the republicans do not want to do their job, although sudden they want to give money to the churches. host: the caller says tax issues have never worked in the past. guest: that's just bad history. ronald reagan reduce the income tax rate from 70% down to 28% and our income tax revenues doubled. by reducing the tax and regulatory burdens on the economy, ronald reagan produced one of the largest and prolonged economic expansions and the nation's history. if you remember the 19 and 1984 commercial morning in america, the reason

they resonated so deeply in the country is that people could feel that relief and the economy expanded. remarkableperiod economic growth. reagan policy -- john f. kennedy did the same thing in the 1960's with the same result. for harding and calvin coolidge did it in the 1920's with the same result. harry s truman -- people forget that in 1945 that truman reduce the federal income tax. in fiscal 1946, he abolished the excess profits tax. he took the federal budget from $85 billion down to $30 billion. he fired 10 million federal employees. the keynesians that .5% unemployment would set a great depression. instead we get the postwar economic boom. we know how to repair and economy. lower the tax regulatory burdens and the economy expands.

increase the tax where burdens and the economy contracts. that is what we had under the last eight years of barack obama. that is why we watched our economy stagnant all through that period. regulatory burdens are being released by the actions of this administration. we see consumer confidence return and wages go up and employment go up. we see people who left the workforce now reentering the workforce. we have a long way to go to fulfill the overarching mandate that the american people gave to the congress and the president in the last four elections and that is revive our economy. host: here on the republican line is rita from ohio. caller: yes, i'm here. whynt to ask this gentleman in 2014 on my000 ira and my savings, which they clean me out? it tax person that had done

came up with some in different figures and i've never heard from him before. what can i do about this? guest: i don't know. it's not clear to me what you are referring to. host: reader, do you want to clarify? are you talking to me or that man? host: i'm talking to you. do you want to clarify your,? comment? every statement and everything and they took all my ira, which i worked hard for. i have to pay $58,000 in 2014. why did i have to pay all this money? why was my ira and savings cleaned out? guest: this was done by the irs? who cleared out these accounts? was at the irs? caller: the irs and the ira. was in the tax bill -- it

a tax bill? she: the call dropped, but talked about concerns to the larger issue of retirement savings accounts. i know you have not spoken about it. do you think the proposals you have heard so far -- what do you think the public reaction might be? guest: i don't like the idea of restricting retirement savings, 401(k)s. the president made it very clear he did not like that either. i would be very surprised if that is still in the bill when it's announced. if it is, i think the reductions will be very limited and only in the upper income levels. that whenou think the president speaks out on this that it couple kids the ways you find out how to pay for these tax cuts? guest: a clarifies where he stands and where he wants the tax reform to move.

thatlps us craft the bill will ultimately require his signature. host: next is jim. the representative, one specific part of what i'm going to hear is going to be part of this tax plan is doing away with the personal exemptions. this could be really big for the middle class. you take a family of five -- mother, father, three kids -- and it will cost him $20,000 in their income. fall from the 15% to the 12% tax bracket and that may save you something, but is it going to make up for the difference? this applies to people with standards adoption or itemized. if the standard induction oubles, they will lose $22,250 and inductions. that will still leave them with taxable income. dropped might

have some impact on that, but that personal inception -- i hope it's being looked at. that's not been finalized. that is going to take a big hit on a lot of middle-class americans. guest: yes, you are forgetting the other half of the equation, which is increasing the child tax credits between 1500 and $2000. ands take the higher figure the family of five will lose the personal exemptions on those five, but those five children are then going to be claimed as tax credits. that's going to be between $7,500 and $10,000 directly off their tax bill. not deducted from their income, but directly off the tax bill. they will come out way ahead in that case. host: donald in louisiana, democrats line. caller: good morning. isconcern to the congressman

about the deficit actually. this plan is cutting the taxes and the corporate rate and all that. they are relying on the economy growing to make up for any lost revenue. what if that doesn't happen? anddebt goes up even more we are even worse off than what we are. has anybody considered that? guest: all yes. your point is absolutely spot on and i cannot agree with it more. that is a very big concern. debt is simply a future tax. we either tax it now or borrow it now and tax it later. if we put it under the nation's credit card, our children end up paying that tax and we are leaving them within the norm is debt. in the meantime, we have to pay interest on the debt we have

accumulated. on our current trajectory, our interest payments are going to see what we currently spend for this entire defense budget within the next six years. . you are absolutely spot on with your concern. the reason the tax cuts are moving forward right now is because of recognition, particular on the corporate tax side, that we have got to expand the economy. that is one of the single greatest impediments to economic expansion. , lowerwages for workers prices for consumers, and higher earnings for people on their pensions and 401(k) plans. there is no substitute for spending restraint. spending drives both the taxes and the debt. taxes and that are the only two possible ways to pay for spending. as i said earlier, the housemaid made a modest effort to bring spending under control. there was a comprehensive budget that would get us back to balance and four years not by

cutting spending but restraining the growth of spending so that family incomes have the time and the room to catch up. congress has fallen short on that mainly because of a refusal by the senate to address the situation seriously. and that isorrect the biggest concern after we get the economy expanding. spending restraint is absolutely essential. there is no substitute for it. cutsry tells us that tax on the corporate side are going to produce an anonymous amount of new revenue. the estimate is that between $1.8 trillion and $2 trillion as a result of economic expansion. the income tax cuts do not normally pay for themselves. they pay for about a quarter of lost revenues. the rest has to be addressed by spending restraint or we are

taking a monumental debt problem and making it worse. storythe "usa today" highlights the fact that there will be three brackets. it also adds in the line that it was the house speaker sang a fourth rate for those at the top of the income scale will be added. is that still in the works? guest: i'm sure it is, but i don't know the current status of discussions. we are all waiting for the smoke to rise from the ways and means committee on that. host: would you be ok with that fourth rate? guest: i don't like it, but again what we are going to have to do is wants the plan is released, we are going to need to look at it as a total package. your earlier caller was correct. personal intentions go away, but the child tax credit expands dramatically. deduction may be reduced, but you have to view that in the context of the rates going down and stated seduction doubling. are you paying more or less tax as a result of this plan?

will be a lot of text cap leaders out there on the internet. every american will become chelating whether they stand to gain or lose under this tax plan and it's going to be absolutely imperative to the success of the plan and the s the succes of the administration that the answer from the majority of americans is wow, this is pretty good. host: our guest represents california. tom mcclintock from the budget committee. our next call is from california on the republican line. caller: the old congressman and now the great guy from california that we met with gil ferguson at power over politics. guest: that was years ago. caller: serious stuff now. how in the world -- we live in a digital age now. we live in a global economy. i have three points row quick. number 1 -- how can you possibly change the federal tax code

before you finalize all the international trade agreements so you know which companies win, lose and, whose left out? you are from california, goodness gracious. you cannot possibly support any bill that is going to remove the double taxation of us having to tax andfornia state then turning around and paying on top of that federal tax. that's double taxation. you have been against that for as long as i've ever known the. you've got to be against that. the third thing is that we are talking about the middle-class tax cuts. are you kidding me? that goes up to $162,000 a year. you're telling me you're going to do away with the personal exemption. ,nd in the child tax credit most people don't have kids anymore. that make that much

money don't have children. host: thank you. guest: again, you have to view it as an entire package. the standard deduction is doubling and the rates are coming down. you will have a very clear idea how this impacts you once the bill is announced. it is going to be very important to all of us that you are pleasantly surprised when you do that calculation. with respect to the state and local text reduction, i am a californian and i pay california size taxes. i would rather see the deduction stay in. how i'm going to evaluate this plan though is how does this affect the folks in my district? how does it affect middle-class families? are they going to see tax relief or are they going to see an increased tax burden? if it increases their tax burden, i'm not going to be for it. the national taxpayers union, the largest grassroots taxpayers group in the country, voted me the best in congress for taxpayers. i will not support a tax measure

that increases the burden on middle-class families. we are all going to know very soon how that impacts each of our families because we are going to know the details and be able to calculate next year's tax bill. host: our guest also serves on the natural resources subcommittee. there's a story today in "usa today" that talks about hurricane and wildfire costs. what does that say to you? guest: on the wildfire side, it means we have to stop raiding our prevention funds in order to prevent forest fires. that establishes a negative feedback loop. , wemore we spend on fires prevention, thentia more fires we have. the bigger problem we are facing is that our forests have become catastrophically overgrow. i represent the sierra nevada of california. an average acre will support

between 20 and 100 trees depending on topography. the average tree density is two under 63 trees per acre. there are many parts of our forest that we have four times the amount of timber that the land can actually support. resist the longer natural forces like drought, pestilence, disease, and wildfire. why have our forests become overgrown? we enacted laws 45 years ago that made their management virtually impossible. cost prohibitive and endlessly time-consuming regulations that make management all but impossible. the result is our forest are now catastrophically overgrow and the old adage takes hold. all that excess timber comes out of the forest one way or the other. is either carried out or it burns out. we carried it out and we had healthy forests us and a

thriving economy based on the cost of that generated. when we stop carrying it out, we had an 80% decline of timber carried out from the sierra nevada. and we saw acreage destroyed by force fires. host: why is it currently structured as such where you have to raid one account to pay for the other? is there a essential changing the? that? guest: we have always done it this way and we discovered it has not worked. we have a bill on the floor to be taken up in the house which would not only treat our forest fires the same as any other natural disaster, but it would also begin to remove the impediments toward proper management of her for us. host: from new york, independent line. caller: hello? host: you are on. go ahead. caller: hello, senator. i'm kind of off track here. you guys went so far past my

question, but all i wanted to ask is is about the statement that you said that trump has led beinges raised. can't we attribute that to the whichnemployment rate happened under obama? i did not believeest: that we can't could quite to the contrary, i think obama's policy made it work. we increased the tax regulatory burdens and guess what? the economy did very poorly. the removal of those burdens that causes the economy to expand. we see that on the regulatory side already. this administration basically has reduced regulatory burdens to both the congressional review act measures as well as

executive orders. ase seen estimates as high $300 billion of regulatory relief just from these actions alone. the house has passed the choice act, another trillion dollars of regulatory relief. and the economy is now responding. we have an awful long way to go and we are not going to do it through regulatory leaf alone. it is also going to require major tax relief and tax reform. that is what we are dealing with now. host: perry in illinois on the republican line. caller: good morning. my comment is that the woman she did not have a say so in taxes, we did. it's called voting. president trump waited out very clear and plain english what he wanted. that's what we wanted. that's why we put him in office. republicans and the democrats are bullying him. they need to sit down and they

need to work together. because you are going to lose the house, you're going to lose the senate, and you're going to lose the white house. host: thank you. to that point, potentially announcing that he's retiring 25 other members. , does that concern you about the power of the house being held by republicans? guest: it's all going to depend on the answer that people give to reagan's question of long ago -- are you better off today than you were four years ago? everybody knows the answer to that question in their own lives. any pundit or politician who tells them otherwise ends up looking very foolish. it's going to be very important to fear the vast majority of americans are able to say yes, i'm doing a lot better than i was four years ago or even two years ago. the proof is in the pudding. in order for that to happen, we have to have tax relief in place before the end of the year so it has time to work through the economy. that the entire

success or failure of this administration and this congress and for this country is going to th depend on the answer to that question -- are you better off today than you were four years ago? host: do you think the molar indictments handed out going forward complicates matters as far as the administration's ability to get the agenda done in congress to get it done? have: the indictments nothing to do with russian collusion or influence and the campaign. this involves financial transactions that paul manafort was involved with many years ago. the one guilty plea they announced involved a guy who got his date wrong in answering questions from the fbi. apparently he was trying to arrange meetings between russian officials and the campaign. that is not unusual by the way. our country does that all the time. all countries do that when you have an election. i have a friend who was the ambassador to australia for many years.

he wants told me there was a major election going on a in australia at the time and he was in contact with all the candidates. he was trying to get their views on issues important to the united states at the same time, the united states positions made clear to the candidates. that is common practice. so far, i've seen nothing on that side that would suggest any illegal behavior by the trump campaign. twore starting to see now major developments with both the gps fusion scandal involving a phony dossier financed by the democrats and possibly used to the fbi in order to justify wiretaps against a national political campaign based on phony information provided by the russians. that is a very serious problem. of course, the uranium one scandal. there's is a lot that will be uncovered in the coming days. the truth will come out. it always does.

we follow the facts and let the chips fall where they make. y. host: the events in new york yesterday -- your thoughts on it? he president tweeting out that it suggests may be a change for the visa program. guest: i think the president is absolutely right. we have not done a good job in putting people allowed into this country. our government takes no notice of a person's religion and it should not. right toevery judge a person's intent on entering the country and we have done a lousy job of it. the result is incidents like the attack in new york yesterday. host: representative tom mcclintock, thank you. guest: thanks for having me. host: we are going to me the head of the selective service, don benton, when it comes to the draft and the pentagon's recommendation that requires rim women to register.

sunstein.caps on washington journal continues after this. ♪ >> join us this weekend for book tv live at the texas book festival in austin. coverage begins sunday at 11:00 a.m. eastern and includes the book "code girls," "thursday night lights: the story of black high school football in texas," ice,"" "a farewell to ,"niel allen in her book, "cuz "deep in the shadows: undercover in the ruthless world of human code: ag," and "life in personal history of technology."

on sunday, live coverage starts at 3:00 p.m. eastern with carol anderson and her book "white rage: the unspoken truth of our racial divide," "bloodlines ," and "violent: exposing rate at baylor university amid college football sexual assault crisis." the texas book festival live saturday and sunday on c-span2's book tv. sunday night on "q&a," pulitzer prize-winning biographer and author of "alexander hamilton" ron chernow in his new book on eules ulysses s. grant. >> hamilton was young and dashing and romantic. he was a perfect leading man for musical.

grant was a very different kind of beast. laconic.aying and the charisma of ulysses s. grant was that he had no charisma. [laughter] the drama very often was that he was not dramatic in different situations. he's no less fascinating, but he's kind of a much more no less deep than hamilton. kind of a very subtle character. in many respects, he reminded me much more of george washington. george washington had a similar kind of reserved enigmatic quality to grant. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span's "q&a." announcer: "washington journal" continues. , and heis is don benton is the director of the selective service, joining us to talk about the service and issues of

the draft. good morning. guest: thank you for having me. host: people have a perception of the service, but what is it? guest: it's an independent federal agency. we are part of the executive branch, but we are independent. our job is to make sure all men 18 to 25 register for the selective service in case there is every national emergency or crisis where we have to call up meant to defend our nation. host: we live in the age of the voluntary military force. why the need for that? guest: the voluntary military force has been a fantastic job and they deserve a lot of credit. we have done a voluntary military for a long time now and we have been able to handle any crisis that has come up. that is to our enforcements credit. we stand behind the reserves and the national guard in the third tier to back up our all volunteer military just in case something really disastrous were

to happen that required a tremendous influx of manpower right away. that's the purpose of it. host: for the day-to-day activities of the selective service, what do you involve yourself with? guest: the mission is twofold and i'm focused on a two-pronged mission -- readiness and registration. you can only have a truly fair and equitable selective service if you have good participation. complianceabout 92% average throughout the united states, which is really good. the irs wishes they had our complaints. we wish we had their budget. host: how much of a budget? guest: we operate on $22.7 million and to most people surprise when i tell them, that has not been increased since 1983. on the sameting dollar budget that we operated on nearly 40 years ago. i do not think

you can find another federal agency that can say that. host: how much manpower is needed? guest: we operate 400. we have three regional offices in denver, chicago, and atlanta. each of those regional offices divvies up the country. they have 17 or 15 states each give or take. they process registration and do training for what we call our reserve force officers. even though we are not active and we are not drafting and i don't think we will likely ever have a draft again, knock on wood, we hope, but if we do, we have to be prepared. that is the key here. why do we need it? my response to that is, why do you need fire insurance? we have building materials now that don't burn. a lot of building codes require people to put spring was in the house. it would be easy to say you don't need fire insurance anymore. you need fire insurance because of the off-chance that you might have a fire.

i think that's a good analogy for the selective service. we hope we don't need it, but for as little as it costs, it is the cheapest insurance policy this nation could ever have against disaster. host: don benton is the head of the selective service and serves as a director. if you want to ask them questions about the service and its work, (202) 748-8001 for democrats, (202) 748-8002 for and you can post thoughts on twitter as well. through what would happen if a draft is called. who makes that decision? guest: the night sits congress and the president of the united states. i work directly for the president. a lot of people think we are part of the department of defense. we are not. we don't work for the department of defense. i don't report to general mattis. i report directly to the president. we are an independent agency.

requestnd to congress's and to the request of the white house. they would have to actually pass a bill. the president would have to sign it for us to actually move into action and begin sending notices to men come asking them to report to the military. think and i don't think anybody really in washington today thanks that will happen or could happen. but the remote possibility that we may needed is enough to warrant the little expense that agency costs to operate. we have 11,000 employees, but 10,800 of them are volunteers essentially. so they are unpaid employees. host: you serve on the trump transition team and were senior advisor to the president on the epa. you have the military background. is that necessary? guest: it's not necessary. i think the president chose me because of my management skill, leadership skill, financial

skill. he wanted the leader to lead the agency and bring it to the 21st century. our computer systems are pretty antiquated. we have some work at some improvement to do. i did join the united states army. i reported when i was appointed by people trying to detract from the president's decision that i never served in the military. that was a perfect example of fake news. the fact is i joined the army right out of high school. my father is a world war ii veteran and helped supplied british ships for the invasion and both of my brothers were the above veterans as well. history ofas a long military service, although i don't think that's a prerequisite to do this job. this job requires good leadership skill and good management skill in good financial skill. again we are operating on a budget that has not grown in a most 40 years. host: the first call for you come from san diego on the independent line. this is mark for don benton of the selective service.

go ahead. caller: sir, with all due respect, i was a drafty and i was the last year they drafted for vietnam. you should not call it the selective services. it is a system of potential non-thatthat is almost the 1% ever serve in. with all due respect to my because i mades, a statement of conscientious , that i'm consistent with half a century later, somebody tagged my records. it, i challenged my president and the democratic and republican leadership. i'm a veteran still unpaid. my name is mark stockdale. i served above and beyond the call of duty. john mccain -- i was in the unit

that helped get you out of hanoi. host: thanks, mark. mr. benton? guest: i didn't really get a question from mark. i got a lot of statements about what happened during the vietnam era. of course, i was not here. my older brothers were serving in vietnam along with you, mark, so thank you very much for your service. andeciate you stepping up doing what we hope all americans will do when the time comes. i can't really speak to some of the flaws you are talking about in the system. i do know that there have been a number of improvements to the selective service system since vietnam. that's in terms of deferments and how those work, the local boards. .e work very hard we have 3000 local selective service boards throughout the united states. one of the big differences is that each community now will have people from their own community serving on those boards. we try very hard to make sure that a local community board has

the demographics of that community so that when a young man and that community comes forward and says i've got an issue or a problem and they called me up and i can't serve, it is local folks from his own community making that decision on the deferment. there have been a number of improvements in the selective service system since the last time it was used. host: let's hear from bob in michigan. caller: yeah, i have a question on registering to vote and everything else. it's about to be a big issue in this country. if we are required to sign up ,or the draft at the age of 18 why can't they register you to time? the very same that was one of the amendments passed in the constitution when the vietnam war was going on. everyone was getting drafted at the age of 18, but they were not

allowed to vote until they were 21. they flip that. why doesn't the selective service register us to vote at the very same time? host: thank you. guest: great question, bob. i think part of the answer would be when you vote that you do not just vote in federal elections, you vote and local and state elections. controller require the state and the county auditor , but in eachistrar county, there is a person elected responsible for elections because the votes are counted at the local level as you know. the states would want to be involved in any decision in terms of who is registering and how they register and so on and so forth. it's a state and federal issue could if the selective service was a federal issue although we have a lot of state partners that help us.

licenses have driver's legislation so that when you get a license you can sign up for the selective service at the same time. that helps us a lot. most people don't sign up because they don't know it's a requirement. challenge in getting back to the question earlier of what is the mission, it's twofold. readiness and registration. we want to keep the registration rates up, but we want to be ready if we are called on. bob, i suggest that you offer that to a member of congress and see if they want to introduce a law or bill. the selective service is responsive to congress. we don't introduce legislation obviously. what happens if you know someone is available for this left of service and they have not signed up? guest: that's a good question. it's a federal law. you are in violation of federal law if you have not signed up. the law says that all young men 18 years old must register

within 30 days of their 18th birthday or face a stiff penalty of $250,000 or five years in prison. the department of justice has not prosecuted anybody in recent memory. and i don't think they will. congress over the years has added a lot of incentive. so rather than the stick approach in terms of arresting people who don't sign up, they decided to make benefits to people who do some up. you cannot work for the federal government if you have not registered for the flex the flex service. that's a law. you cannot receive student aid or federal worker retraining dollars. there are a number of federal benefits that are tied to selective service registration. in addition, several states and even some municipalities have passed local ordinances that require a selective service member. i was recently in alaska.

you cannot work for the state of alaska if you cannot produce a select the service member. a number of states have done this. there are a lot of benefits that you actually lose if you don't register for the selective service. and we give you a lot of time to do it even though the law says you must do it within 30 days. there is no penalty if you sign 23.hen you're 22 or as long as you do it within that window of 18 to .5. when you are 26, you can no longer register. that present a problem because you have a lifetime of benefits that you cannot drop on. we get thousands of calls from people who are 27, 37, or even 57 who are tried to get a student loan or some benefit and they cannot get it and they want us to fix that for them. we have no ability to do that. host: is there a loans is for conscientious objector? guest: that has nothing to do with registering.

people think registering for this left the service is signing up for the military. it is not. they are two very separate and distinct actions. legal,e 18 years old, documented, immigrant, doesn't matter. if you are in this country and 18, you are required by the law to register. congress and the the president decided to implement, that is when you would make conscientious objector status known. thatave seen the movie talks about a conscientious objector. we have ways of handling that today that were not in place in those days and he would go before that local selective service board and make your case and it would make the decision. host: this is from black park, new york, david, hi. waser: i was thinking this unconstitutional and discriminatory that only males have to register.

why not females? they are enjoying the exact same benefits. eost: thanks for the senatgu because the pentagon just waiting. guest: that's a great question and thank you for asking it. for several years now, the department of defense has said that women can serve in combat. that decision has been made. any woman who wants to serve her country can go down right now and join the marines or the army and be serving their country next week. servicelaw on selective by the way brought back by president jimmy carter and supported by both parties and both presidents ever since, specifically sales male 18 to 25. there is a commission that has been formed by congress last year. they are meeting. they have not had their official first meeting yet, but they will start meeting very soon. in 24 months, they are required

to present a report to congress on the registration of women and a number of other issues as well that they will be looking at. that issue is coming back around . there's a congressional commission reviewing it looking into it. if the congress and the president tell us to register women at the selective service, by golly, that's what we will do. we are at the service of congress and at the service of the president. if they tell us they want to register women, we have the systems in place to go ahead and start doing that. host: to have a document out saying the country should stick with mandatory registration and advocates for women, saying it would add a large amount of numbers to the role and help with moralities. do you agree with that? guest: i used to be a state senator. i was a state senator for 20 years and people would ask me my opinion on a number of issues. should women serve in the military? should we have traffic light cameras? i have an opinion on everything.

i don't have the luxury of having a personal opinion anymore. i work for the president of the united states. if the president and congress tell me to register women, then that is what i will do. if they tell me to continue to do with the way we are doing it, that is what i will do. i don't really see a problem with it frankly. they are already in combat and can join now. why not? that's not a decision left for me to make. my opinion in the matter is not important. what's really important is the opinion of congress and the opinion of the president on this question. host: let's hear from rob in texas on the democrats line. caller: yes, just one quick question. most of the conflicts in the past that the draft has been enacted, there are draftdodgers or people evading the service to their country. who creates the policy and the procedures that allows for

loopholes for people to not actually serve their country through the selective service? guest: well, congress actually creates the law, writes the loss thaaws that we follow. if we are notified and congress passed conscription and the president called me up and said, you need to spring into action, then we would immediately notify 56 state directors. i know that their only 50 states, but we have six territories that we also consider important that we have state directors in. we would notify 56 state directors and it would be setting up state offices. we would initiate the lottery system and we draw the numbers by random and it's by state. it's depending on how many people department of defense needs. we notified that many people. begin notifying or contacting their local selective service board if they want to

differ for six months to finish college or whatever reason. maybe they have had a medical problem since they registered for the selective service. a number of different issues. those boards are trained and that's what we spend our time doing now. we do to sometimes three trainings a year for local board members. they are up on the rules. they are up on what can and cannot be done. there are local appeals boards and there are national appeals boards appointed by the president of the united states. if you are not happy with the decision at the local level, you can appeal that to the state level and up to the national level if you are not happy with what happens. there's a number of steps involved, but the rules are very clear. you have to have a bona fide

medical or financial hardship reason and you have to document that before a local selective service board before they will give you a deferral. host: what's the timeframe if a draft were called up between the start of the process and presenting people to the branches of the military? guest: do it sooner than that, but plan from thetten last time we operated. more call, jacksonville, florida, republican line, we'll hear from ed. ed. caller: good morning. i have two questions. started one about female. are you aware of the back draft, happening e what is today with the air force pilots that are being called back to i y and not only that, noticed when i was in iraq, that soldiers, their atf date was extended beyond the

ets date, it was considered the back draft. ere is my other question is everybody thinks everybody gets drafted in the army, i kind of that, i never met anyone drafted in the air force or coast guard. caller.anks, gree guest: great question. with what you refer to as back draft. once someone joins the military, department of defense deals with them and their service, not t selective service. that is up to each service to and that determination we're not a part of that decision at all. nd so, that's not part of the selective service, but it does happen. you nk anybody will tell that when we're operating both in iraq and in afghanistan, it's strained our deployments, people were deployed longer than they deployed, so a lot of families made a lot of

acrifices for this country during that time and if it went on much longer or we had a third might be reason then to keep selective service system around. selective service, have you been hearing from the don benton, thanks for joining us. guest: thanks for having me. up, what does the constitution say about the president? we will find out from cass sunstein, author of citizen's t, a guide." >> join us for book t.v. live in coverage begins saturday 11 a.m. eastern and includes mundy and her book, michael erd and his book, "thursday night lights," and kevin young, "rise of oxes, post

facts and fake news," peter wadham, fare well to ice report from the arctic. daniel allen, and her book, and acosta, deep in the shadows undercover in the world of human and ellen alman, "life on sunday, live coverage starts at 3 p.m. anderson and carol her book "white rage, the nspoken truth of our racial thede," melissa del bosque, drug cartel, the f.b.i. and battle for a horse racing lavine and paula ark slabal, exposing rape at baylor university amid college football sexual assault crisis. festival live saturday and sunday on c-span 2's book t.v.

biograph ographer., >> hamilton, young, dashing, romantic, perfect leading man for a musical. know, bigrant, very different of beat, he was plain and laconic and the charisma of charisma, he had no he was a very auc often, not dramatic, he's no less a much ing, but kind of hamilton, deep as subtle character. reminded me more of george washington, the george had a similar kind of

mattic quality to grant. >> sunday night 8 eastern on c-span's q&a. >> "washington journal" continues. cass joining us now, sunstein, he teaches at harvard university law school and author "impeachment, citizen's in obama d he worked administration for office of information. morning., good guest: good morning to you. host: why the book and why the book now? the : the real reason for book, my family and i moved to concord, massachusetts, to a that was a place british 1775, that got n me fixated on what happened on fateful day and events that led to the american revolution between the d revolution and constitution. i've been studying impeachment

years, but hadn't understood the centrality of control of the chief executive the project that let's say animated and fired up the the 18th ate in century. hoen saying u write this, impeachment lay at the feet to alance refining commitment to liberty equality and self-rule. central nt was component of the ballot is little understood by the people country. can you expand on that? guest: yes, the great alexander in lton won a victory philadelphia, to get a powerful president who could do a lot of was deemed on balance to be essential, given the fact that the u.s. went into after the revolution because we didn't have a chief executive. weple were very worried that feturtuse of monarch and he betraying principles for

which people lost their lives in the revolution. one of the safeguards that meant we would having a republic and monarchy was power of impeachment. without impeachment, the would not have been ratified and a lot of people in the philadelphia convention thought their document was fatally flawed. ost: what do you think impeachment means to most people today and what is it actually perception whaf it actually is? guest: i think it means one of three things. obscure word that might have to do with fruits or england or something. possibility is that the house of representatives do what it to wants, which is what gerald ford mistake.that is a big grounds for impeaching the president are limited by the constitution and the third view speaker pelosi actually said not long ago, if the president is committed a can be impeached.

that is doubly wrong, there are lots of crimes that are not impeachment, the president not lks or shoplifts he's impeachable. things short of crime, going on for six in paris months, that is impeachable, or abusing the pardon power, that clearly impeachable and neither of those things are crimes. ost: as far as specifics, what are impeachable offensives? guest: i want to have maybe one general category and then a few examples. alexander hamilton talked about abuse of trust. put it is abuse of power. so if you have something where exercises his legal authority in a way that is wrong or abusive, that is kind of the category we're talking about. declaration independence, that is a good examples would be first and foremost, bridging civil rights and civil liberties, massachusetts, good place to be called out,

that is where the revolution started. during the ratification debate as ground for impeachment. is to neglect authority in a terrible way, not pay attention to the laws, not pay attention to your obligation, that would be impeachable. way thatre acting in a was kind of going after your opponents, not because they are wrong on merit, but they belong in jail or they rased by internal revenue service, that would be impeachable.e anything that involves entanglement with foreign theyes at the core of what were worried about in the 18th century. host: cass sunstein joining us about "impeachment," if him questions about it, on the topic, democrats 01 for 202-748-8002 for republicans and 0205.endents,

line for democrats, you are on with professor cass sunstein, go ahead. caller: professor, how you doing? very good. scientist, i'm a retired in the space station and i have done a lot of research on electoral college and i'm concerned about commander in 45 right the number now and the thing that chaos hat this country has been put through, we were in a crisis ight now and i have difficulty understanding why this president assist in the as ce that he holds and demagogue, what the scientists hawkins, a famous scientist in england, said he asked about the president, e said, i -- seem to be demagogue, lowest common

denominator and i'm a scientist and i feel that way. difficulty, professor, can you explain to us how he's this thing, why is he allowed to even sign executive order? you. thank professor, go ahead. guest: good. of the last year in the 18th century and i aven't focused as much as many people have on current events, presidentay that if a is a demagogue or signs executive orders, he is not that reason.or if he commits a high crime in he is sdemeanor, impeachable. we have had many presidents one has been e other categorized as demagogues and if fair, aracterization is that is not good, but that is part of the political process. signing executive orders goes way back and executive orders managing mate way of the executive branch.

so if president trump says, i to restrict the flow of new regulations and here is an by which my er cabin will be disciplined, that is completely fine. all is something presidents, recent presidents, have done some version of that. as it doesn't override the will of congress, that is all right. caller and i appreciate the concerns and democratic he process is the mechanism of the ballot box is the place concerns expressed.nd are host: ed, sorry, rob in new york. line, rob, go ahead. caller: good morning, thank you c-span. the obvious question is -- is it power to have fired f.b.i. director? would it be abuse of power if and president dare step up try to fire mueller?

nd, you know, i think it's a tremendous threat to our discredit o try and our journalists and our news people and i insulting and -- newswhole business of fake feeling as a -- has a authoritarianism. host: rob, thank you. guest: constitution allows impeachment for high crimes and misdemeanors. jam adison, described the wanton discharge of mertoruous officers as impeachable offense, he said republic. in the so whether it is obama or some democratic president or reagan or the current president,

to ask.e fair questions to fire the f.b.i. director circumstances and even under not very ordinary circumstances is not an offense.le the f.b.i. director is an t-will employee of the president, the president can get rid of the f.b.i. director. o get rid of the f.b.i. director for certain reasons that have nothing to do with his job performance, but have to do let's say the rector tude his orrectness of investigation of you, then we at to be ave a conversation had. in the particular circumstances of comey discharge, it would be, i think very challenging to make an argument that the discharge was impeachable offense. very, i think, my view, distinguishedmely career, but controversial figure discharged he was and for any president to want a

ew start is not an impeachable offense, whether or not it is a good offense. o fire the current special prosecutor, that is robert mueller, would be very grave act. and the reason is, it would be very hard at first glance to good faith justification for getting rid of independent of wanting to insulate one's self from what isration therwise a lawful investigation. so to call out potential act as impeachable, whether the president is republican or very severe thing to do and someone like yours truly who worked for president obama something like that about a successor, should be very cautious about, so will phrase cautiously, that is discharge of the current special would legitimately initiate discussion of whether impeachment arer met and i'm phrasing that

cautiously. host: professor, are there we learn about the impeachment process from impeachment of presidents nixon and clinton? guest: yes. and clinton impeachment lessons are negative lessons, anti-precedence, johnson was actually impeached for he hada cabinet head and a right to do that. that was impeachment on which looks unkindly, illijit mat impeachment. clinton, what he did was not fine, if he did perjury himself. hat is to obstruct justice or engage in perjury with private lawsuit for sexual harassment, gravity ould minimize of those acts, but that is not what hamilton and madison and were think whenning they were thinking of high crimes and

misdemeanors, that comes out of involve abuse of presidential power. nixon case is a much stronger one. there were diverse articles there. the lesson of histories, if the uses apparatus of federal government to oppose his there we adversaries, are right in the core of what the impeachment clause was about. if the president uses apparatus of the federal government to try stop what would otherwise be legitimate investigations into own rongdoing of his operation and possibly himself, then we have a serious impeachment discussion. host: this is al, in ohio, republican line. caller: good morning. i appreciate the call. questions. quick since it is in the news now, going on, has conclusion with the russians, is impeachable?

r the same question is, has anybody been impeached for this before? conclusion or -- guest: thank you. terrific questions, particularly good one. have ay, it is good to ind have neutrality in investigating impeachment. if ou are opponent against president trump, you should bracket that and think, would i think this act was impeachable loved him and voted for him? if you are a fan of president it's a d supported him, good reality check to think, if i disliked him very much and if was my least favorite politician, would i think he was in achable for the act question? that is way of ensuring you are being objective. question, if alar low-level advisor of a interactsal candidate with unfriendly nation, to try say, intelligence, let's on a political opponent, then

certainly if the candidate it, wasn't about responsible for it, can't impeach the guy, that's just, know, a terrible and subordinates t pie and the president can't be charged for that. on the other hand and this goes the founding period, if a candidate, democrat or interacts with an unfriendly nation or acts orruptly in such a way as to procure the presidency, then we are in the domain of impeachable. will be super hypothetical here and use politician other current one. let's suppose a future emocratic candidate works with china to find out information republican candidate, and exposes that information rather true or false, to the discredit order to the republican opponent and it nvolved a secret interaction with china, to illicit that

is definitely at impeachable act, that is the kind of thing they were thinking in philadelphia. host: frank in north carolina, independent line. caller: yeah, hi, good morning. thank you for taking my call. every morning. my question is with regards to term "enemy e nation" or unfriendly nation, i onstantly have these discussions with people who are trump supporters who are all of such great friends with the russians and just love them because their cult leader likes him, as well. define the term, "enemy nation," or unfriendly nation? s it occasional term or is it well defined that we can determine whether or not there on it?son based guest: okay. o if we are talking about

formal international relations, hen there would be definitions that we could use. 'm speaking and i think many people are in the context of russia, not in terms of formal law, but ternational that ms of ordinary about relationship tochlt describe a ation as an enemy is pretty categorical and to do that is arguably appropriate for some globe. on the i think it's better to say nfriendly and i say that notwithstanding the fact the history eople are over great friends of the american people people, friends across the world, americans and russians, but the leadership of the the an government and american government have been unfriendly and that continues to

this day. ambassador to the united nations has had tough things to russia and so russia is not like canada or france in they are not allies of ours. if russia is trying to intervene in the election, as evidently it presidential candidate did and there is no evidence as of now that he did, there is evidence one subordinate did try to take advantage of russia capacity ce gathering to defeat political opponent, that would be very grave. nation is unfriendly in he sense that they are not working as our ally across range of the most important questions the world today. host: if a president is impeached, must he leave office? does it impact the administration of the office? guest: impeach s. like

indictment, we had indictments doesn't mean t anybody has to do anything except face a process. in the re is a trial senate, where the senate acts and it is very majestic if it is right.g the senate is acting like court and has to convict by two-thirds majority. is the point the president has to leave office. there are certain kinds of acts nixon case was one, where each a serious inquiry is let's say signal.ently loud for the president to remain in office voluntarily would be a mistake. cases, like that of clinton, where the highly tion was so politicized that the president stayed. it simplistic to say the senate does the trial, the charges?ngs the guest: accurate, the house is prosecutor, like though it made independent, kind

of judicial decision impeachment appropriate and house helps anage preceding in the senate, which has to convict, by two-thirds majority. we have in our constitution, two big safeguards of the president against let's say losing his job because congress doesn't like them. the first is high crimes and isdemeanor standard, we've talked about how that can be met liberty like invading or abuse of the pardon power or countriesg with other in certain ways, high standard and there is institutional rotection, majority in the house, two-thirds in the senate. host: cass sunstein of harvard author of citizen's guide," thomas in ohio, go ahead. steps to at are the get to the 25th amendment? a fabulous question. the 25th amendment is another

avenue by which the president be relieved of his of his ons and here duties. different are two ideas. the first, the 25th amendment is perform the to job, rather than about bad acts, amendment the 25th as not about actions, but instead about condition. the president is suffering some terrible physical or mental disability, then the president can be removed by the 25th amendment. what it is for. it was done in the aftermath of he kennedy assassination and a thought was what if president kennedy had been shot, but had what would we do, if he couldn't do the job? 25th amendment gives the answer. mechanism by which that inability is triggered, unless it, but in the s

25th amendment, this is how it is, the vice president and majority of the cabinet has to decide that the president can't do the job anymore and notice pretty tough burden because the vice president and be cabinet are going to pretty loyal to the president and not going to want to say, job anymore orur initiate that conversation unless the president is really kind of g with some impairment. host: you talk about in the book learned about the impeachment process and this from the reagan assassination briefly tell ou that story? guest: yes, so i was kind of kid awyer in the reagan administration and my boss early on tapped me on the shoulder and said, please learn about the th amendment and write it up. i didn't say what i thought, which is what the heck is the amendment, i actually didn't know, which is embarrassing, kind of supposed to know. i did write it up, but i thought it was a bookish exercise, what does this have to do with anything, we were trying to run a government and this was like

an academic exercise. later, president reagan was shot, we were watching the very cheerful upbeat t.v. that said he was fine and my boss tapped me on the shoulder and said, remember that 25th amendment memo? i said, yeah. he said, it's a lot worse than hey are saying, president reagan is in trouble and you have to send memos over to try transfer responsibility to the vice president. do you know how to do that? i think i remember that. he said, good, you are in charge here. the white house and with my little fingers, i don't think my voice had changed i was quite young, i was in charge of transferring power. we didn't have to do that for that i think are still not fully public, but it was very much on the table. john in texas, republican line. caller: good morning. standing back from all this to the other side of the party find it almost

hysterical or like 1984, to have professor talking about a newly elected president, when his wife, who powers did -- violate the and he tion under obama violated the law more than anybody else. this man has no talking be on t.v. about impeach wment integrity of the election. say.is all i have to guest: i appreciate freedom of speech in this country twhochlt corrections, my wife's name is samantha power, not powers, and a that important, but it is little bit important and second, unless asked say. guest: about any particular current official. doesn't mention president trump and really the constitutional system and my hope is that whether you're republican or to appreciate the

1770sty of what happened in and 1780s and people put their way that e line in a had more risk, i think, in some ays than any other time when americans put their live on t-- line.n the we weren't a country yet. to appreciate what happened in inspiring , that is and whether you want to think impeachment in connection with any president, that is really up to you, that is what constitution gives. we the people are the bosses of impeachment process. host: leo in louisiana, independent line. caller: good morning and thanks, c-span, for allowing me to be here, i've been trying to get in for sometime. find that your show is extremely informative and my to tion is, in reference that lected officials,

abide by the constitution and in reference to discriminatory acts. a fact. give you we have a president that is an elected is fficial and i will say multiple, but for one certainly, that basically states that donald trump in to being -- following stipulates ory acts, that because of his financial able to dodge as the draft or enter the military. a military veteran and due weree fact that my parents not financially suitable to do where he had a

document that stipulated he had illness, a medical senator today is saying it is law.lly against the host: okay, leo, we'll leave it there. thanks. guest: okay, well first, thank for your service. my dad served in world war ii, brother-in-law served in vietnam, debt of gratitude to you. of impeachment, this is, i think, extremely important understood, that with one exception, actions that becoming does before president are not impeachable. reason is pretty simple. impeach cemetery for abuse of authority.al you can't abuse your authority if you're not president. you atever anyone did, know, clinton, reagan, nixon, whatever they did before president, it is not a basis for impeaching them. one exception, as discussed, if you procure the presidency by

illiji legitimate means, that was basis for impeachment and there are laws there. we have self-governing society president in ahe way that's corrupt or illicit is capacity nt with our for self-governance. host: more canning learned from "impeachment," cass sunstein joining us, thank you for your time, sir. guest: thank you, pleasure. we will finish the program in the last half-hour or so started bout what we the program with, the incident out of new york city, terror eight, injuring 11, getting your thoughts on the it.t and issues surrounding democrats, 202-748-8001. 202-748-8002. and 202-628-0205. we'll take those calls when we come back. q&a, pulitzert on

author ron g his book on grant. >> hamilton, young and dashing way, a ntic, in a perfect leading man for a musical. know, grant is very being, he was of and the laconic charisma of grant was that he know, the isma, you drama often is he was not dramatic in different situations. he's no less fascinating, but of much more deep than character.subtle in that respect, reminded me more of george washington, the a similar ington had egmatic reserved and

quality to grant. >> sunday night 8 eastern on c-span's q&a. join us this weekend for book t.v., live at the texas book austin. in coverage begins saturday 11 a.m. includes liesa mundy and her book, michael herd and lights, thursday night the story of black high school football in texas, kevin young, the rise of k, hoaxes, humbugs, phonies and news, peter wadham, to ice, report from the allen and her acasta, michael a., undercover in the world of human almond, lived ellen in code, personal history of technology. n sunday, live coverage starts at 3 p.m. eastern with carol

anderson and her book white unspoken truth of our racial divide, melissa with lines, true story of a drug cartel, the f.b.i. and the racing dynasty, lavine, authors of book on baylor. and sunday on c-span 2's book t.v. >> "washington journal" continues. host: you can comment on event in new york ity on our social media channels at c-spanwj, twitter, facebook.com/c-span, is how you reach us there. democrats.1 for 202-748-8002 for republicans and 202-628-0205 for independents. website story on its say whatting they know about the victims so far from yesterday's

argentinang that five nationals and belgium were among those killed when a man plowed pedestrians and cyclists in new york city. the suspect tified as sayfullo habibullaveic saipov, who once worked as an shot the r, police suspect after he exited the shouted a alternate side is in effect. he is as stigating the ins dept act of terror, lists the names adds one mores and person, martin morrow is hospital and the currently resident of newtown, massachusetts. then, that is some stories, information coming out since yesterday. give you a chance to talk about and comment on it, on the phone lines. 202 area code.the 202-748-8001 for democrats, republicans, or

628-0205 for independents. democrat's line, jeff, go ahead, what are your thoughts about yesterday's event? i wanted to make a comment to the good people of in muslim faith here america. be tell them that it should an effort within their national religion that clerics privatelypublicly and a statement which denounces terrorism. and that they should for lack of a better word, preach within mosques, that this is not within their thing community or within their religion. i think on a national level, hey should make their congregation open and available for the government to make sure people who are for

ack of a better phrase, muslim terroris terrorists, can be found and sought out. think that they should also mosquesthin their local that if people know people who their e this, that it is not only american esponsibility, but their religious responsibility to tell omebody about it, tell officials so they can be found. people who do these things, their re people within religious community who know this is something they would like to do. tennessee. bob in bob, good morning. caller: good morning. as we've got two fronts we need to attack this on. agree with president trump, and securing borders, the travel ban and vetting.

and that's a futuristic approach, i mean. refugees is we've got ere for decades and especially no visa lottery, which was vetting and i think a lot of here, but now we've got social media that has them back to their childhood roots, maybe, and rethinking and yeah.-- host: i got you, bob. several photographs in the papers this morning. "wall street journal" this morning. associated press providing the photograph, from yesterday, the bike trail where this event took place, this incident took place involving the truck and hitting several people. just some the graph, from aftermath on photograph.

brent in oregon, you're next up. couple okay, i've got a thoughts. media justk that the blows all of these events, whether a school shooting or any murder attack, such a sensational thing, when you ofk at the total numbers out population 335 million people, very, very small percentage of people affected by the media blows it out of proportion compared to human hings that take lives. nd the other thing is, we keep talking about dealing with symptoms, treating symptoms, rather than the root cause of problem, which is primarily young men that don't feel part alienated and a lot of that is result of not job or having any prospects of having a good job future, so they turn to

violence to be part of some kind of cause or something like that, to keep talking about building border walls, alleasing police forces and that, spend resources trying to solve some causes instead of symptoms, we'd be better off. host: in california, next from on the independent line. caller: hi. how you doing? i want to make a comment. muslims are terrorists, but 99% of all terrorists are long as you let them come into the country, we'll have a problem. come into m should the country as long as we're at war. when the war is over, let them come in. the war is over, you shouldn't let them in our country, they will do stuff. coming, my a storm god, it is raining. well, yeah, so that is my point. to do something, either check them out more than they that stuff wouldn't happen. as long as at war, shouldn't let them in the country. host: claudia is next from

michigan, democrat's line. happened d about what n manhattan, but if other we're note over here, exempt for what our country does over in other countries to them. there, and do er the things they're doing over in countries and killing their families and blowing up destroying their countries and cities and neighborhoods, and way of life, come over here with green card and they are mad, angry, because what we done did over there to them. over here to retaliate f. we learn to stay at home, if america learn to stay at home stop tropping bombs and oisoning land and taking land and stealing and killing and murdering and pillaging everybody else, maybe the rest people coming over here

ouldn't feel the same way over here. look at the root problem of the cause. travels s at home and abroad. host: claudia calling from michigan, talking about the event yesterday in new york call, as well, on the phone lines, 202-748-8001 democrats. 202-748-8002 for republicans. 2 22 -- i'm sorry. 0205. the republican leadership was unveil a bill taking a look at tax reform today. delay on that has been announced as of yesterday. joining us on the phone to fill in the blanks and where we go here, bernie becker, politico tax reporter, good morning. how you od morning, doing? host: fine, thank you. what is behind the delay? simplest way to put it, tax reform is really hard, they are trying to cut tax rates. do that, have you to find

other offsets to pay for that. and offsets are pretty popular, they have had trouble rounding within their ort conference to move forward. of : so where is the source trouble? is this among the house freedom caucus, amongst other people? of is leading the source trouble, as you described it? guest: sort of the most central now is with northeastern republicans, who aren't usually your trouble makers, but there is in the tax code, you deduct taxes, very al important for higher tax states like new york and new jersey. original house g.o.p. plan would have totally cut that, that was nonstarter with a lot folks. now they're looking at sort of way to compromise on that and save maybe just a tax rate for property taxes, that they are they are

working through right now. host: if there is a conflict on that issue, what is the could resolve it? guest: that's sort of the main question right now. i think they will probably be able to do something within the house to move forward. they will probably find a way to playicate northeastern but long-term, what you are seeing, this is the already p and they are delaying there. to get a bill through the house, through the senate and to get veryone resolved on one bill, this sort of shows that if you have a problem one place and try to put pressure there, you could problems elsewhere. just sort of shows how difficult this process will be long-term. anything been revealed about how 401(k)s might be bill?ed under this guest: no, that is another pretty big issue. brady, the house, the very rday that at least 401(k)s would stay as is strengthen them, find way to for people to save more. pretty casey on that,

that is another issue, people concerned that with some reports coming out, there would pretax ine in contributions, he's not saying whether that would be in the bill. do will allow people to save as much or more. has white e becker, house responded to this tla at all? guest: they haven't yet, i think taking e been sort of more hands-off approach on sort of crafting of the legislation. do know that president trump of the idea a fan of changing retirement plans, so that has been another pressure point for republicans, sort of placate the president who has opinions on these things. though, it stands now, is there 100% expectation that some type of plan will be tomorrow? guest: i don't think you can say that for sure there is still big issues they have

to work through. so, you know, we thought it they are saying tomorrow, i donhink you can wicertainty. gospe us.: bernie becker joining thanks for your time. guest: thank you. host: again, back to your calls, look at the events of new york city yesterday, phone lines are on the screen. florida, democrat's line, go ahead. caller: yes, sir, thanks for my call. i just wanted to say as a proud highly t, i find it appalling when i hear some of these calls. some lunatic decides to commit a heinous act like this, the typical response from racist and d to be bigoted, to paint all groups of brush, ith the same often it's bad, when something group pens, paint every member of the group with that

brush. they don't do the same when it's a member of their own ethnicity, the guy that committed the most heinous terrorist act in killing the most people, was a rich, white guy. heard talk about banning all white people coming to merica or banning christians coming to america. this is a country of immigrants had a very set certain ve history and groups of immigrants when they arrive in america, but at its this is a country that should not be afraid of a richnts because it has history of accepting people from world.er the host: earlier today. thank you, caller. president trump sending out talking about s diversity visa program. his willingness to change or his it and the ange senate majority leader schumer's

it, chuck schumer responding off twitter this morning saying just this, i uess it is not too soon to po liticize a tragedy, reaction from the senate minority leader my full statement and response to president trump's proposed funding cut to efforts, set by the minority leader, too. other tweets include senate mitch y leader, mcconnell, saying we stand with the people of new york city in terror. of this act of mourn those injured and killd and grateful for the first responders. nancy pelosi saying we join in thinking of dead, the wounded, thanking first responders and sending our love to all of new york city. ryan, the house speak,our hearts are with the victims of this act of terror in new york city. you for all the first responders. patty in arizona, you're next up line.e republican caller: yes, i was going to omment, apparently this

terrorist did come under iversity visa lottery program that was started under obama administration. sure, we know that creepy come in all different colors, like the previous caller obama seemed to about terrior motives america that a lot of people didn't really want to talk about. he ink personally i think wanted to dilute the white race, hey say that this diversity visa lottery program, this person person, uzbekistan or wherever normally , they don't have immigrants. it was created just to bring them here. no purpose to try to lure immigrants, you know on their n, they come own. host: from john in florida, independent line. caller: hi.

how you doing today? host: fine, thank you. yes, the last caller, that is just sickening and epulsive comments from another racist. the root cause of this, all of tax and such, is american and one mp overseas noter mentioned that we are at war anymore, everything is okay, let these people back in. leaving the ver wars, which are actually just occupations, like in afghanistan instance, we're never leaving there, this country will be there for no end to there is and can empireallism expansionism. host: couple stories to point you to. topic of k at yesterday. this is from the "new york times" today. scott g out of the epa pruitt stripped half dozen scientists and academics of positions on tuesday

and issued anyone who receives panels ney serving on that council the agency on scientific decisions, the move will bar large number of researchers, many of them experts in fields ranging epidemiology,y to advising on scientific matters, ince the aigence seone of the largest funders of environmental research. also, "wall street journal" this as president trump plans friday, to asia from story by jonathan chang and others says three u.s. aircraft scheduled to be traveling near the korean military may , decide to keep the area coincide with the president's coming to t to asia, according defense officials. first military exercise involving three u.s. carriers in area since 2007, officials said, sending message to north tensionstime of rising over pyongyang clear weapon program. reuben on the line

for democrats. hi. caller: hello, pedro, how you doing? hello? host: you're on, go ahead. caller: oh, yes. just like everybody else, it is bad.to -- ut one thing about it, america will prevail. just -- people, it is in the bible, all people got to do, read the bible and see. genesis to revelation, thank you very much. ost: michigan is next, independent line. hi, brian, good morning. caller: hey, pedro, can you hear me? can. i caller: to those of us, we don't know everything, we spent time east, saudi arabia, bahrain and other places, actually on the ground with no protection, we've been trying to tell people country for years, until the women have the same exact as the men to raise their

sons as they see fit, this type going on for be decades to come. there is a big difference no if it is in america or any land, the woman has to have a man to ights as raise their sons, otherwise you're going to end up with this basically forever and also, pedro, let me end on this, 9/11, we did all the reports and what we found, of course, hijackers of 9/11 overstayed their visa, from what understand, this young man didn't, but we also looking at night, td.h.s., we our half a million in have y today that overstayed their visas, this needs to be looked at and stopped. host: executives from twitter, google have and facebook on capitol hill yesterday and today talking about the russian role in the elections, social media was

used. we have that first hearing vailable for you at our c-span website at c-span.org. you can watch those hearings ith the executives today, two hearings that one points to. it0 and 2:00 this afternoon, will feature key people being of tioned by members congress about their website or their technology companies, how those technology companies ads and news service and information, especially when it involvement ussian in the 2016 election. c-span3 and c-span.org. republican line. caller: hello, pedro. this is carol. just want to comment on the it is at i mean, i think razy not to crack down on immigration. 'm -- people might think kentucky is in the south, okay,

rom tennessee, also from my mother's side, and i wraised in grandfather'she my great, great grandfather is lincoln's there with grandfather. i'm direct descendent from james madison. in the t racist here south, it is not just people think we are, you know. -- i have 27 ancestors also that fought in the revolutionary war. ost: okay, larry in tennessee, democrat's line. good morning, go ahead. caller: good morning. is larry jammison from camden, tennessee. at c-span and have this comment, they were talking racist is --

host: larry, keep talking on the pay attention to the t.v. go ahead. jamison ins is larry tennessee. he biggest terrorist group we had in the united states all along, nobody says nothing about the ku klux klan. host: wade is next, south carolina, republican line. wade, good morning. caller: yes, hi, pedro, i think come up with some kind of deterrent for these people in country and i hate to say it, i'm thinking we'll have to if they commits, crimes in the country, we're oing to have to put them in prison or like senator graham said, take the families and them back to countries of origin. got to come up with some kind of know that sounds harsh, but what is the alternative? sending nch president out a tweet this morning about

the events of yesterday in new york city. i convey my emotion and the solidarity of france for and the u.s., our fight for freedom unites us more than ever. hashtag, manhattan, the u.k. she's inister says appalled by the attack, together we will defeat the evil of u.k. stands d the with new york city. belgium prime minister saying our thoughts go to victims and the attack on manhattan, we stand by the people of the u.s. new york is johnny, democrat's line. caller: hey, how are you? thanks for taking my call. the problem that we have is that we don't recognize extremism, extremism unless it is only and directly affect particular set of american society. new york, terrorism affects everybody, because we're a melting pot. remember, in america, the history of terrorism stems the ku klux in,

supremacy and we tend not to take those groups sears seriously, even though they have killed scores more americans han any outside islam or islamic terrorism whatsoever. we've got to deal with this at first. host: hear from keith, in north akota, our line for independents. caller: good morning, c-span. related to my work, travel frequently over the last years. and, they have solved the problem of visa overstays. guest commented on visa overstays. their passport control station when you arrive in russia. have been a -- standard procedure, but i filled that had my signature on the left side and right side of that form with all