on you, and you, your car, infrastructure. that's a big change coming. i think we will see a big change in productivity. >> watch the communicators on c-span 2. >> here on c-span, newsmakers his neck with democratic senator chris van hollen of maryland. then a look at the relationship between the press and the presidency. that is followed by president trump and republican leaders holding a news conference at camp david to talk about the congressional agenda. at 8:00, our conversation with heinrich meyer on cue and day. -- q&a. greta: this week on "newsmakers," congressman chris hollen, democrat from maryland and i want to you thank you for being here. we have kevin robillard who is with "politico" and sean sullivan with "the washington post." john sullivan for the first

question. sean: you guys in the democratic caucus have narrowed the republican advantage in the senate this week. it looks like there are some other interesting senate races. some retirements. we are less than a year for the midterms. will democrats win the majority back in the senate this november? sen. van hollen: so this was a great week for the senate. for alabama and for the country with the swearing in of doug jones, who ran a campaign based on kitchen table issues. i am not your negro am not going to make any predictions about global happen -- i will not make any predictions about what will happen. all i can say is the signs out there that she have an energized democratic base and a lot of independent voters who are crossing over to support democrats as they did with doug jones. and a lot of disaffected republicans. and i believe that the steps that the republicans and -- in congress have taken are

going to make things a lot harder for those republicans, including the passage of this tax bill which is a total giveaway to corporations while millions of middle class taxpayers will see their taxes go up. a lot to focus on in these campaigns. things are heading in the right direction. senator, when you are making priorities. is your priority going to be defending these 10 democratic senator who is are up for re-election in these trump states? or are you going to go on offense and win races like nevada, arizona, texas and tennessee, where you have opportunities to pick up seats? sen. van hollen: we think we can do both. if you look at our incumbents you've good lot of battle-tested , incumbents and the reason they've been successful, sometimes in politically difficult states is they always focus the people in their states. that has been their north star.

we are going to work hard to --p them come up most of all knowing what to do in their states. and we'll look for every pickup opportunity that are out there. there are a number of pickup opportunities. this is also a cycle where we have seen, as in the case of alabama, where no state is safe for a republican senator. kevin: so following up on that, where do you think you can expand the map beyond the races that have already started emerging and establishing? sen. van hollen: we've obviously got to work hard make sure they continue to succeed. then there are eight republican seats. alabama, of course, was a seat that we recently picked up. and all of those eight are going to be in play. we have candidates today in every one of those eight seats with the exception of

mississippi where we're talking to some very strong candidates. all of them are strong potential states. having said that, obviously, state of nevada is a big pickup opportunity for the democrats. arizona very much in play. but i wouldn't discount any other states. we have really good candidates. bill brandis and, former two-time governor of tennessee running. always governed based on a pragmatic governing approach. trying to address issues that were important to people regardless of party. kevin: you said you have these 10 states where you are defending that trump won and 2016. what's the one state that you're most concerned about? sen. van hollen: i'm not going to get into ranking the states here today. we take nothing for granted. more importantedly, our senators take nothing for granted. that is what they have been elected. they are very focused on trying

to make sure they serve the interest of the constituents and their states. sometimes that means fighting president trump. for example when it is a big tax giveaway to corporations paid for by people in their states. sometimes it will be working with president trump. again, their goal is to make sure that they have as their top priority the people in their state. look there are lots of , competitive states out there right now. but we also have incumbents who are really strong positioned. sean: in some of these state, we're seeing democratic primaries unfolding. the biggest one is california. could also be general election with two democrats. there are some other states that we're seeing incumbents get primary challenges. how complicated does it make your task this year as you look at some of these emerging democratic primaries? sen. van hollen: one of the stories of this election is how few democratic primaries we have, at least on the senate

side. i expect senator dianne feinstein will do very well in california. but in other states we have really very few primaries whereas on the republican side, you have lots of very bitter primaries in a whole range of states. partly caused by the fact republicans were unable to recruit their top contenders and so you have very tough fights among the republican primary contestants. kevin: focusing a bit on california in recent years, , we've seen some case where is -- where republican campaign committee has had to spend money in the republican primaries to protect their incumbent. do you anticipate this an area where they need to go into california which is a very , expensive state and help out senator feinstein? sen. chris van hollen: we strongly support senator feinstein but we also believe

she's in a really strong position both in terms of her record and fighting for the people of california. and the campaign that she will run. so, i don't anticipate having to invest any funds in the state of california. sean: zooming out a bit, talking about the messaging, a lot of democratic activists and some democratic lawmakers have expressed some serious concerns about the president to the point where they have said there should be a move to impeach president trump. two questions. one, do you think president trump to be impeached, do you think congress should move in that direction? and what sort of messaging mean on the campaign trail, especially in some of these red state where is president trump is very popular? sen. chris van hollen: so i think the focus for people who want to make sure that we hold donald trump accountable is to win the 2018 election in the house and in the senate. that should be our focus. and that means fighting on these

issues that are important to people in all these states. so we saw the country rally in opposition in the effort to eliminate the affordable care act, which meant millions of americans losing access to the affordable care act. you some republicans, independents and democrats rallying to fight that. rural hospitals were very longly -- were strongly opposed to that effort. that was the first signal that donald trump and republicans weren't really out there for the forgotten americans. in fact, they were targeting forgotten americans. and this tax bill, you tell me the big corporations are the real forgotten americans. they do very well in the united states congress and now they have a big tax windfall. at the same time millions of folks in the middle will see their taxes go up. foreign stock holders in 2019 are going to see a $48 billion windfall. foreign stock holders. how is that america first? so there's a whole lot here to talk about on the issues that people care about and that should be our focus. sean: does it make it harder

than some of your democratic colleagues and activists when they're talking about impeachment? sen. chris van hollen: i don't think any of our senators or senate candidates are focused on impeachment. i think they're focused on the kitchen table issues. that's what doug jones did in alabama. he really focused on issues that people care about when it comes to income security, job opportunities, pay, pensions. those were the issues in his campaign and on election night, he talked about protection the children's health insurance program. those are the kinds of priorities that folks will be focused on. kevin: this week it was report that a psychiatrist that traveled down from connecticut to d.c., she worked at yale to talk to members of the senate and members of congress about president trump's mental health. i think some more questions about that came out after his tweet regarding the button in comparing his button to kim jong-un's in north korea.

is that something where you have any concerns about and something that you think that is the type of thing that could potentially lead to impeachment? sen. chris van hollen: i have concerns about the fitness of donald trump to be president. i have said he is unfit in my view to be president, which is why it's important people hold him accountable. what i find is people in red state, blue state, purple states want members of the senate who are going to hold the president accountable. and again, that means fighting the president where the policies that he proposed are bad for their states. where he proposes policies that are good for their states, our members have been willing to work. we've been willing to work on a bipartisan basis. we laid out early on this tax debate a number of principles. number one was if you're going to have a middle class tax cut, everybody in the middle class should have a tax cut. nobody should see their taxes go up. they raised taxes on folks in

the middle. we said that folks at the very top should not get a big tax break. in fact, steve mnuchin, the secretary of treasury said that folks at the top, we're not going to get a tax break. well, at the end of the day, folks to make $1 billion a year get an annual tax break of $70,000 a year while corporations get a permanent tax cut. so we're going to be very focused on those kind of issues and our members have been always willing to work on a bipartisan basis when it's in the interest of people in their state. sean: some of your republican colleagues were over at the white house today to talk to the president about immigration which is at the center of the policy debate going on in congress right now. would you be willing to vote for another spending bill if it comes up later this month for around january 19 if a daca solution is either not included in that bill or has not been resolved before that time? sen. van hollen: so there are a

whole lot of items that we need to resolve before january 19. we need first of all, to make the adequate investments in our country, in our national defense, yes. but also in our kids' education. right now, we've got republicans proposing to dramatically increase defend spending and cut that portion of the budget that we invest in our kids' education, in innovative research. if we want a strong country, we need a strong economy and we need those investments. second, children's health insurance programs. i mentioned doug jones talked about this on his election night. we need to resolve that. we need to make sure community health centers have funding. we need to deal with pensions. there are some folks who put their money into pension plans. we need to make sure they're strong. and before january 19, one way or another, we have to deal with the daca issue. i mean, these are kids who were brought here through no fault of their own. they've grown up in our schools. they've always pledged allegiance to the american flag. we need to resolve these issues.

and frankly, mitch mcconnell promised senator jeff flake that we would address the daca issue when he voted for this tax plan. so we hope to be able to resolve all of these issues. we can't be kicking the can down the road. greta: specifically on this daca legislation, the dreamers, if it has not been dealt with in one way or another before the spending bill is brought to the floor, how do you vote? sen. van hollen: so i want to make something really clear, which is that donald trump is the only person who's tweeted about a government shutdown. republicans now have majorities in the house and in the senate and they control the white house. so they need to work with everybody to make sure that we don't have a government shutdown. and the extent that they're unwilling to work with everybody else to resolve these issues which have been around for a long time, then they're going to have to shoulder the responsibility for any kind of government shutdown. the funds in the budget that

we will be voted on are some of the money that donald trump wants to use to report the daca recipients in march. we need funds to make sure we educate our kids and invest in our schools. so this has got to be a negotiation and it's got to make sure that we deal with these priorities. so we've got to address all these issues by january 19. whatever form it's in. maybe there's a freestanding vote on the daca legislation. maybe it's part of the budget. but all of these issues that we're talking about need to be addressed and resolved by january 19. we can't keep kicking the can down the road. kevin: do you think it's good politics for some of these trump state senators that are facing re-election to draw a line in the sand on daca? some of these people, senator tester for one, voted against the dream act, i believe, in his first term. do you think it's good politics for them to now draw a line on

the sand saying we're not going to continue to fund the government unless we get a solution? sen. van hollen: so, first of all, i make it a point never to advise my colleagues as to what's best in their individual states because they have obviously a much better sense of doing that. right now, our entire caucus is in support of the dream act. how we resolve those issues and how each member resolves those issues is something that, you know, they're going to have to decide in the context of what's in the budget, what's in other legislation and, again, always focus as they have been on what's best for their state. sean: this week, we saw the department of justice take a step to reverse a marijuana policy that had been put in place under the obama administration. first off what is your reaction , that move? and secondly, is this a decision that you think could affect some of these campaigns across the country that we're seeing unfolding? some of these senate races that could decide the majority?

sen. van hollen: it could. let me first say with respect to the decision. i think it takes us in an absolute wrong decision. we should be focusing our federal law enforcement resources on going after violent criminals, not locking up people in federal prison for marijuana use, especially in states where the people of those states have decided to either decriminalize marijuana or to legalize marijuana. in my view, we shouldn't be locking people up for marijuana use in any event. so that is a bad use of federal law enforcement resources when we have so many other challenges here. i would point out that corey gardner, republican senator from colorado sent out a tweet this week indicating that the sessions decision was a total contradiction of what sessions had told him. senator cory gardner, prior to

the confirmation. area where you have common cause between republicans and democrats in certain states. again, that is always a decision to be made by the senator representing the particular state. kevin: a two-part question here. do you support the full federal legalization of marijuana? and considering that marijuana legalization is now extremely popular in public opinion polling more popular than it's , ever been, pretty overwhelming majority of americans support it now, why haven't democrats fully embraced that issue as part of their political platform? a lot of people suggested it's a good way to increase youth turnout. sen. van hollen: these decisions have to be based on the policy merits. not the politics. and my view is we should decriminalize marijuana and leave the states to make decisions with respect to legalization of marijuana.

you've seen that in certain states like colorado, washington state, now california. i really think that in this case, we need to make sure that the states have an opportunity to sort of weigh in on that. we should at the federal level watch closely. i don't think we should preempt decisions made by states. one way or another. but i do believe we should decriminalize it across the country marijuana laws to the extent that we can. i do not think people should be locked up the united states of america for possession of marijuana. that's not right. and it's certainly a bad use of federal resources to go after that kind of activity. sean: in previous cycles we've seen some democratic campaigns, i'm thinking of senator mccaskill when she ran, meddling in republican primaries in a way that's advantageous to democrats. you mentioned mississippi which is a state where there could be a pretty intense republican primary.

maybe some other places. are you open to perhaps spending money to try to dictate the outcome of a republican primary that's here in a way that would help the democrats? sen. van hollen: in this cycle republicans are doing a very good job themselves of beating each other up in these republican primaries. so i don't anticipate us getting involved in those republican primaries. obviously, that's a decision for people in the states going forward. but, there is clearly a situation on the republican side, a very anti-establishment mood which is complicating things for the senate races. kevin: do you think that presents any opportunity that anti-establishment mood in republican primaries?

do you think there are case where democrats are going to be facing weaker candidates than they might otherwise? sen. van hollen: all i know is as of right now, you have a whole pile of republican primaries in a lot of these states. how they will resolve themselves, i don't know. but -- i do make it a point never to get in the middle of a republican civil war. but it clear is a factor. we've heard republicans talk about this battle between mcconnell forces and the trump forces and the bannon forces. so you've got all of this going on. but i think at the end of the day, the big issues in this campaign are going to come down to questions of are you standing up for people's economic opportunities? are you there for people on these big issues? if you look at the republican budget, which included the green light and the structure for

passing this big corporate tax giveaway, it also calls for almost $500 billion in cuts to medicare. it calls for $1 trillion cuts in medicaid. every senate republican voted for that budget that calls for those cuts. so it's going to be very hard for them to explain how they voted for a tax plan that had a big giveaway to big corporations. and it's part of that same plan. they called for cutting medicare for seniors and medicaid which people discovered in the debate over the repealing the affordable care act which helps a very broad sector of the american population. sean: who do you see is the leader of the democratic party? sen. van hollen: you've got in the senate chuck schumer is , the democratic leader. and in the house, nancy pelosi

is the leader. but one of the good things about both the house and the senate is you have lots of voices that are at the table and participating in decision making. obviously, we have tom perez at the d.n.c. who is also the -- also part of the conversation. we have very good collaboration between the d.n.c., the democratic senatorial campaign committee. dccche teacher will see -- , the democratic campaign committee. we obviously don't control the white house. 2020 will be here soon enough. can't get here soon enough in some sense. but i think you've got those, obviously, those leaders of house and senate. greta: time for a few more questions. senator, when does a democrat -- one of the democratic names in the party need to emerge on a

national stage for you to be competitive in 2020? sen. van hollen: oh, goodness. i'm so focused on 2018, right? the midterm elections are the opportunity to make sure that we hold republicans accountable. it's an opportunity for our senators in each of these states to talk about the issues that are important to people in their states. you're going to have obviously, a long line of candidates going into 2020 on the democratic side. and that process, obviously, will takes it seem to sort out. and i think let's get through the 2018 elections and then we'll figure out where to go after that. but these are really important elections for the country. i think that's why you saw so many people mobilize to come out in alabama. that's why we saw in november, huge turnouts for democratic candidates in virginia and many other states around the country. and it wasn't just that we won the governor's race in virginia.

it was the margin of victory that was very large and the depth of the victory. in the house, the delegate races and others. so what we saw in november and then in alabama is a very clear sign that you've got a lot of energy among the democratic side joined by a lot of independents who want to send a message that they want sensible government and republican, moderates, who have come over to support democratic candidates. kevin: you earlier mentioned the republican tax plan. you noted that it does increase tax on some members of the middle class. however, lots of independent analysis found that the overwhelming majority of americans in the middle class and out of the middle class would receive a tax cut under this plan. republicans said it would be more popular and could turn around their midterm fortune. what do you think that analysis wrong?

sen. van hollen: for a couple of reasons. first, there are millions of americans in the middle class who will see a tax increase. both paul ryan and mitch mcconnell, many, many months ago said that their plan would not raise taxes on anybody in the middle. they both had to reverse their statements. it does. secondly, those cuts for folks in the middle, they're relatively small and they're temporary, while the cuts for corporations are huge and permanent. so when this plan is fully in effect, actually, folks under $70,000 will see a pay -- a tax increase when this is fully phased in. whereas the corporate tax cut, they're forever. this whole idea of trickle down economics ran into a brick wall in the early 2000's with the bush tax cuts. the big winners are corporate executives and folks who are going to benefit from stock buybacks. and i can tell you that every four or five months, we're going

to ask workers around the country whether they've gotten their $4,000 a year pay increase. that is what president trump promised. that's what republican senators promised. they had big charts on the floor on the senate. you're going to get a pay increase. not a one-time bonus. a pay increase of $4,000. that was their trickle-down prediction. i hate to say that it's not going to happen. and they're going to have a lot of explaining to do why they gave these big tax cuts to the folks at the top. we could have made sure that nobody in the middle, nobody had a tax increase. but they decided to raise taxes on millions of folks in the middle. phase out tax cuts for other working americans and give a whopping big increase to corporate americans. by the way one third of the , stock holders, the value of the stock in these corporations is owned by current stockholders. they make out like bandits.

in 2019, they get a $48 billion -- foreign stock holder paid for with tax increases from millions of middle class americans. that is not a winning formula for our folks, no matter where you are in the country. greta: senator, we have to leave it there. senator chris van hollen, thank you very much. sen. van hollen: thank you. greta: appreciate it. and we are back with our two reporters. sean, can they take back the majority? what are the numbers looking like right now? sean: they're looking very difficult and i think we saw that reflected in his answer. he was very cautious and not willing to say we will take this back. it's gotten better for democrats over the past year. they pick up a seat in alabama. but they still are defending a lot of seats, more than the republicans are. and the biggest thing is they're defending seats in states that

not only donald trump won but he won overwhelmingly like north dakota, west virginia. these are going to be very, very difficult for democrats to hold. and if they do hold, they still need to find a way to pick up a couple of seats elsewhere. so the climate politically has gotten better for democrats and it's encouraging but if you look at the map, it's still a pretty daunting map that they're facing. greta: kevin, you say which one state kept him up? is that the answer, nevada? which ones are look the most uphill? kevin: the one that i hear democrats express the most to worry about is actually florida. senator bill nelson right now looks ok but that's because he doesn't have enough opponents. his most likely opponent is rick scott. and the real fear is scott is both a terrific fundraiser and personally wealthy. he can put an overwhelming amount of money into this race and democrats -- the

resources from outside groups wouldn't be able to compete there. it's a situation where republicans feel that if scott does get in, it's a sure pickup for them. but if scott doesn't get in, nelson is probably safe. but right now, worrying about whether or not rick scott gets into florida would be what would keep me up at night. greta: and the florida governor's approval ratings and how is he handling the hurricane? is he doing well more? kevin: the is doing much better. he's pretty consistently have lower approval ratings. it's been in the past year or so that his approval ratings have come up quite a bit. sean: you make a great point. when you have somebody who has pockets as deep as rick scott does, even if at the end of the day scott comes up short and nelson is able to win, well, democrats are going to have to spend a lot more money there. that's money they're not spending in states you mentioned like nevada and arizona. others that they're hoping to pick up. at a minimum, it makes them make investments that they would be making elsewhere and that puts a big strain on their overall strategy when they look at this map this year.

greta: go ahead. kevin: interesting that van bashing my i do think it was -- i do think it was interesting that van hollen made a point of saying that they think they can put every republican held seat in play. that's really a remarkable statement to make when you think of where some of these republican held seats are like in deep red states like nebraska. one he mentioned was mississippi, which is another deep red state where trump is very popular. the d.s. this year and past year has done a good job, even in deep red states finding serious candidates, people who can't just immediately be laughed at or shunted to the side. but i still think it's a big uphill to say that you're really going to start putting nebraska or mississippi in play. greta: on the legislative agenda, the senator talked about all the items that need to get done, including a spending bill to keep the government running past january 19. what is the timeline for getting this all done?

they're not in. they were not in this past week. they do come back this week coming up. but how is it possible? and what are the negotiations like right now? are they happening? there have been negotiations. come to an agrem on the government and remain unresolved and immigration is ones and youggest know democrats ton say we need extend a solution to daca protection to individuals who were brought to the country, know, illegally as children, and republicans are saying, to dealu know, we want with that, but we are willing to separate the two. thisuestion for the end of

month is how many democrats will be willing to take a stand and voting nor until daca is resolved but heard from the senator who wouldn't say one the other. he is trying to deflect, the talk of a government shutdown, reality is,ans but there is a growing end mer gin democratic party right now, to stand against republicans. hey, we may be willing to not if you the government don't meet us at the table and find a way to deal with immigration. greta: there were reports of protest on capitol hill hill did notat democrats take that stand before they left for the holidays, so politically could there be fallout for democrats in 2018 if they don't big issuea bigger, a and tie it to the spending bill? >> yeah, there could be. when you look at the map that democrats are facing in the tk cue floor pick up and they are going to need heavy turnout.

the two best turnouts are in nevada and arizona. another state with big latino population there is the possibility for some political fallout for democrats if they don't deliver on this when it seems they have a pretty path to at least you know, hold their ground and so it is definitely possible but it is still, we're not quite at the point where it looks like it is major political just yet. you hear from your sources that they didn't hold their ground the first time around? >> absolutely. you look at the energy in the the democratic party you have seen flowing over the last and no doubt up with look at the special elections and you look at the rallies that democrats have organized across country. energy. uptick in one thing that could dewere priest that if they look at the own party leaders and say they on issuee their back we don't really carry about and not willing to go to the mat turnout andffect

could affect turnout in all the states that the democrats need at order to have a chance the senate majority or even prevent. s from losing ground so i think this is a difficult issue for schumer, for pay pelosi, what do they do? what are they willing to go? is, you know purchase they do those, do they get blamed for government shutdown. ta: sean sullivan and kevin with plitco, thank you both. kevin: thanks once again. in 197 c-span was created as a public service and brought to you today by the satellite provider.

tonight on c-span's q&a. propose action now before it is too late. i propose it for the sake of a world, but i say, again again, that i propose it for our own american interest. >> henrique with the book arthur vandenberg. the man in the middle. vandenberg found himself in opposition dr is elected and take majority of the senate and easing up opposition for the next dozen years and that meaps that to get anything done which some ofant resisting franklin roosevelt's initiatives, there needed to be coalition. he had to reach across the aisle. 8:00 eastern on c-span.

announcer: next, experience in working in the white house and trump compares to the administration's relationship with the press. they talk about transparency, access, messaging and the state department's role in communicating the administration's foreign policy. hosted by the washington senator for internships and academic under an this is just hour. >> all right. excited for the next panel and very excited to introduce who is a white house correspondent for the they mail.com and covered 2016 presidential race and the editor of on-line publication media d.c. the parent company of the weekly standard and contributed to all publication and covered the presidential primary for