than three years after the protests and ferguson over the fatal of michael brown. later, chris walsh from marijuana business daily talks about the potential impact of changes in enforcing federal marijuana coliseum -- marijuana policy. ♪ good morning. it is saturday, january 13, 2018. ready forn officials november's midterm election, federal officials are ramping up efforts to protect against russian hacking and other types of security threats. the department of homeland security is speeding up security and lawmakers are crafting plans to help thwart russian interference in the midterm. they're asking viewers, do you have election security concerns? democrats can call (202)-748-8000. republicans, (202)-748-8001.

independents, (202)-748-8002 . you can also reach us on social media on twitter at --@cspanwj and on facebook at -- facebook.com/cspan. more from the hill about how operations are underway for the midterm elections and keeping them secure. top cyber security officials at the department of homeland security said wednesday that they expect the department to complete a rigorous selection security test requested by a number of tests in april. acknowledged previous reports of backlog of brisk and phone ability assessments, which the department has offered to states as part of its designation of election infrastructure as critical. politico reported -- reported that there is up to a

nine-month wait, leaving little time before the 2018 election for states to mitigate potential flaws in their voting system. let's take a look at what he said about the efforts to secure security and how the department is taking it seriously. [video clip] >> i would say we have seen evidence the russian government has changed the content or its capability to cause duress to our election system. that may not be the only concern we have in the future the way that these security things tend to happen and you could then see take similar activities to do similar things. makes this and national security issue. there is a threat out there in speaking with experts that we have done over the last couple of years area there are

vulnerabilities in our system and perhaps fewer that are assumed and there are opportunities but there is a threat out there and vulnerabilities that we need to address. the washington post reports russian hackers that targeted the dnc in the last election have also targeted emails. they say the russian hackers who stole emails from the dnc to interfere with the 2016 election has been trying to steal information from the u.s. senate, according to a report published friday by the computer security firm. it was meant to look like email systems available only to people using the senate's internal computer network and in a report by trend micro. the sites were designed to trick people into develop -- into

double gene their personal credentials. the associated press was first to report it. techniques are typically used by the russian group, which the company dubs palm storm, to read or copy emails or other private documents. are yousking you, concerned about security in the upcoming midterm elections in november? chris calling from california on a republican line, good morning. caller: good morning. host: are you concerned about the security of the elections in november? caller: i am not as concerned as you are. i see this as pretty much a hoax . what is going on is the fbi pay to gety to go to russia a bunch of misinformation and surveyat so they could

oh spies on americans, and then they unmask those people. they are friendly outlets, like "the washington post" that you know, the only real contact with russia going on is the obama administration, hillary clinton, and the reset button that he has with these talks and obvious other efforts of obama to reach out to putin were embarrassing. host: let me ask, there have been election officials, state secretary's that have said there were at least an attempt to gain access to things like photos -- voter rolls by hackers in the last election. though none were successful, there were attempts in 21 states. do you have concerns about the integrity of the elections with such a big election in november? caller: yes, thank you.

fair enough. of course, they will be those efforts, but they are miniscule. like you said, they did not succeed. describe russia's placement of facebook and those were miniscule. they were really on behalf of almost black lives matter. and were trying to upset our social and political status. in fromrina is calling missouri on a democratic line. are you concerned about the election systems? caller: yes, i am. -- i mean, this is going back to the presidential election and the electoral college in the previous election. is 22 states had

their systems breached in some way, i think it was 22, it seems -- in the three states that swung the electoral college to the current president were among see -- i amdo not worried a have not investigated to make sure that the small amount of votes that's one good were not actually changed by the hacking, that there wasn't actually something that affected themselves. the votesy say that were not affected, but i have not seen proof of that. votesld not be that many that had to be changed to swing the electoral college. there were not that many votes. host: what about where you votes?

have you ever been concerned about how safe or secure the system is in missouri? caller: well, no, i have been more concerned about intimidation at the polls in a red county. missouri is a red states. i asked one year at my polling , i asked them where something was related to the democratic primary, and a guide only knew the answer for the republican and just looked at me and got kind of angry and said, i do not know about the democrats. that was one of the election officials, so it is just things like that, dean outnumbered and feeling intimidated -- being outnumbered and feeling intimidated. host: npr reports trump

administration officials say they are taking the threat seriously but so far, there has not been a lot of efforts. president trump has shown little interest in fighting the threat of russian hacking in u.s. elections but a lot of interest in fighting voter fraud, something he insists, without evidence, is widespread. it goes on to say the acting deputy in the department of homeland security on the other hand says officials gathered this week and that the threat of russian hacking in future elections is "a national security issue." it goes on to continue that russian government had probed the system, although there is no s that were the vote possibly perfected. host: on a republican line from ohio, are you concerned about

the integrity of voting systems ahead of the midterms? caller: no, i am not. you guys keep talking about this russian meddling in the russians when theynd that, but are reporting this, they don't say anything about what the russians did. no, i am not worried about it. it is silly. we are not that stupid of a country that we cannot defend our voting system. not just in the united states, but other countries have reported efforts by russians to interfere with elections in places like france and the u.k. don't you think that russia has an interest in trying to mess with western countries, particularly with something as important as voting? caller: they might. i read a book on russia this time last year. i started reading a book on

every country. 190 six countries, so it will take about forever. russia is a stinking country. i do not know who in their right mind would want to live there. they are the evil country. from portland,n maine, on a independently, goodwin, duane. caller: good morning. i just wanted to say, there has been lots of good work done by investigative reporters about the russia hoax and he is nonpartisan. he broke a story for newsweek in the 1980's, so he is not a republican, and he is saying -- and a lot of people are saying -- the russian thing is a complete hoax. and domestic policy and terms of fear, and surveillance

state apparatus, and there is nothing really for us to be afraid of in terms of external threats because we watch those and concede with what is happening to those, but internal justification for cracking down, the russian threat that is being talked about all over the place from three intelligence agencies, where experts were picked specifically for the conclusion, it is the same thing as voter fraud and has no validity. i am not a fan of trump. i know it is a hoax the idea that we have voter fraud in this country. that is not where it is. it is electoral fraud. if you look at real fraud, if you look at the primaries and the democratic party, where there was last of the regularities, i am worried about internal threats, about people who will use fears of external

threats that justify internal crackdowns. that is what i am more concerned with. there is no voter fraud, russian threats, and there is no evidence. the article you quoted from, they put a big headline out there about russian meddling, and there has been no evidence of it. they will keep talking about it as long as they can get gullible people to be afraid. with trump, we may not like him -- i do not think many do -- but he was not elected by russia. he was elected by americans and we had to address why. paperlet's listen to what -- what was said at a conference recently about the election commission about concerns about safety and security. [video clip] >> one thing i want to point out that does not get a lot of attention in cyber security, i think a lot of the focus on

cyber security in the country that the the impact security of the election system can have on the integrity of the outcome. we want to make sure that the people who won the elections are the right people, do not corrupt the result through intrusions into the election system. that is important. i want to suggest that in many ways, election security is about something that is more important, the security of individual voters. all of us are sources of tremendous amounts of personally identifiable data link to things we care a lot about. our life savings, homes, inc. accounts, and details of our personal lives that we do not want shared with the highest bidder. in many ways, election files are keys into those faults for individual voters. while it is incredibly important to think about cyber security as a way to protect the integrity

of the election system in the abstract or at large, i also want each of you to think of cyber security as a way to protect the individual voters you work with. host: we are talking about your thoughts on election security ahead of the 2018 elections. democrats can call (202)-748-8000. republicans, (202)-748-8001. independents, (202)-748-8002. pat is onon the -- the democratic line from corpus christi, texas. good morning. caller: yes, i believe in voting. that is our rights. but i think the government attacked us first before russia did. our own government packed itself, you know what i'm saying? when you do anything with electricity, it will always be informative to whom ever is on

this earth, you know and same? gina callingave from virginia, harrisonburg, virginia, on our independent line. are you concerned about election security? and thankod morning you for the program. i watch it daily. thoseot know a lot about voting things, but i was under the impression that they are not actually online. that they are localized. one. and two, if i'm not mistaken, other countries have been messing with other countries' as elections for a long time, like president obama sent a delegation over to israel to stop meeting. that is all i have. host: what about when you vote?

in virginia, they use paper ballots. do you think other states should virginia didts? away with the computerized election voting stations. caller: i think they should all be using paper, but i also --ieve that they should have i have seen videos of people or stacking aaway bunch of votes and putting them in at the last minute that have videos of that, and i find that pretty scary. host: joe is calling from michigan on our republican line. what do you think? you have concerns about the security of election systems? caller: well, i do have concerns. thanks for having me. with with what

it they are provided with. some are provided by a company owned by george soros. i do not know what other people think about that, i would like to know. calling ind radley from atlanta on the republican line. what do you think? caller: this is the first time i have ever called in, i got through, so i'm excited and i am concerned about electronic systems. i hear fellow republicans buying into this trump stuff that there is no collusion. why when herue, a, sit down and talk to robert mueller? i voted for trump and i'm here to say that i apologize. i made a horrible mistake for you this guy is a buffoon and that is what i wanted to say. host: the washington examiner reports that the department of

homeland security has no plans after the voter fraud issue was sent to them. it says that the homeland security department's election security unit has no plan to review voter fraud. president trump announced he was dissolving this commission and said the effort would shift to dhs, but the department said it had no immediate plans to investigate voter fraud. according to a rotor's report, -- reuters report, multiple officials said they were not planning to investigate the matter. jose is calling from rogers, arkansas, independent line. what do you think? caller: thank you for taking my call. there is no fraud. i also want to say in mexico, they half a national id voting

id, i do not know why the united states does not have that. i don't think there is an issue. everybodylls, media, never saw it coming. they think there is a lot of stuff going on in the government now. the fraud.s about the media does not talk about that stuff. know he makes a lot of mistakes, so he is not careful with his words, but he is a hard-working man and i think he has for america. i am an hispanic and i work for him. i wish he could stop before he

tweets sometimes, but he is doing a good job for america. if he decides to run again, i hope he runs, and the changes his treating style -- tweeting style, but i don't think there is any fraud to read we need a national voting id. that is what we need. host: business insider reports there are 22 states that allow online voting. only 57.5% of americans voted in the 2012 election, so to increase turnout, many believe online voting is the answer, and while online voting is unavailable in some states, certain states have used it to help cast absentee ballots. they mostly fall under the uniformed and oversee citizens.

unfortunately, those voters pays difficulties sending and receiving absentee ballots. leanne is calling in from sutherland, oregon, democratic line. are you concerned about the security of election systems ahead of the midterms? caller: yes. host: tell us why. caller: why? because i do not want trump back in. i do not think he should have ever been voted in. host: do you think that russian hackers may try to interfere with the election in 2018, when we are electing our members of third ofand the dissented. are you afraid russia will interfere with those, as well? caller: yes. host: ok. alan is calling in from scottsdale, arizona, on our republican line.

caller: thank you for c-span. i always enjoyed listening very early in the morning. it is 5:27 here. one of the things i would like to say is when i got into business 31 years ago, i was required by the city of phoenix, thumbprint tot a sell remanufactured equipment in the state of arizona. when it comes to voting, there are multiple agencies across our --ntry that are asking first asking for thumbprints. we are down to an id and thumbprint. let's clear this cold thing about our election fraud. the other side, the gentleman from maine said some really spot on things, and part of the things that is being transparent right now is that the security

agencies, the state department, the arts governments, when congress asks for documents, there withheld, redacted. with these congressmen that have high security, they are not getting the documentation and we need transparency in the security side of our government. most dangerous people out there. i do not trust any of the security people. fbi, nsa, cia, any of them for what they have done in this last election. i am so concerned. if you have a question for me, i would love to hear one. you have such distrust of the united states? caller: well, if you wait in the next months, you will see what has happened to our government

theterms of elections and fisa warrants, giving them to spy on trump. before the election and after. and it is still going on. these people, there is nobody that has been put in jail yet, right? nobody has been put in jail or sentence. yet. with all of this corruption, it is massive corruption, and the people of the united states see it. if you want to take some real have onei suggest we million people come to the mall, say hello, and give our votes right there. as everyone else in this country. godove our country, and bless america. host: lisa is calling from

houston on our democratic line. caller: in the state that i vote in, the actual machines that we .ote on, there is no paper there is nothing you have to record what you voted for. it is just a digital kind of electronic machine. once you press cast your ballot, there is nothing for you to confirm that it actually did anything. these machines are kind of cold. probably from 14 years, 15 years ago, so that is one concern that you don't really get to know what your vote is. the next thing that i am concerned about is just the voter rolls -- rules. it sounds like the data collected in the county on when

you actually go to the polls, you have to give -- in our stay, you have to give your id, and they determine whether or not you can vote or not. roles,re all electronic so i just know there are vulnerabilities that can happen there, and that needs to be looked at because i read the simpson testimony, documents, and they said that there was political, digital espionage conducted in the last campaign when the dnc, the democratic national party, was hacked, and -- emails were put on public and all of their emails were put for public. that is a crime. i think it is a crime and it is

considered a crime. that is an actual thing done by what was determined of the russian hackers were the ones that did that. it was interesting in that same document, they said in 1996, the chinese had used another method, not a different method and actually they were trying to fund through i guess different ways as the democratic candidates, so that is a different country, a different candidate. it is something we have to look. we are not only going to be -- wars, boots on the ground, that thatvious, but cyber war, is the thing -- we do need to be careful. host: let's take a look at this abc news report about how

democrats on the senate foreign relations committee are responding to donald trump's attention to this issue. it says president donald trump has ignored the threat posed by vladimir putin to western democracies, including the united states, leaving a vacuum tot presents a challenge america's national security and foreign policy interests, according to a new report democrats on the senate floor and relations committee. the report released and made public is the first from on this about russian interference over the years ahead of the greatly anticipated findings from the senate intelligence and judiciary committee. let's look at what the foreign relations committee, a democrat from maryland, said about russian interference in 2016. [video clip] -- we are clear that

several european countries have stuck up to the challenge. it was a wake-up call which led to political resolve an action. for others, the directive these russian tools have been present for decades and they have organized accordingly. we learned through this investigation that it can be countered with the right mixture of political will, defense and deterrence. the countries that have a degree of success will have one thing in common, political leadership who publicly said, enough is enough. from there, mobilized their bureaucracies to respond. this unfortunately stands in sharp contrast to our current situation. following attacks like pearl harbor, 9/11, u.s. residents have rallied the country and world to address challenges facing the country. united states barely acknowledges the threats like mr. putin's repeated tax on

democratic governments and institutions. leadership shown that is necessary to counter this kind of aggression. never before has a u.s. president so clearly ignored a great threat and growing threat to u.s. national security. host: in the reports, according to abc news, it says russia has a host of tools it uses and the arsenal includes full-scale military invasions and cyber attacks and also disinformation campaigns, the two euro support for -- material support for political groups, and the report documents russia deploying those tools in 19 european countries as an example of what russia is capable of doing. from alexandria, an independent line, what do you think? caller: thank you for taking my calls. greetings toto say

all of the people and happy new year. this situation is very simple .nd easy to resolve a daze a simple process. i do not know what politicians antinue to make it so it is complicated issue. one votes, one person, a receipt, the same kind you get when you buy a lottery ticket. the same you get from buying groceries at the grocery store. all you need is a receipt with proof with who you voted for, when and where you voted. they are trying to complicate the issue like the other callers said about hiding the threat about russian interference in the electoral system when america has interfered with every electoral system on the planet and continues to do so. of projection,on or they are projecting the

things they are perpetrating on other people on russia so they can keep people afraid of some outside force and not see the internal threat, which is defrauding them of their their taxrights, and dollars and everything. these sayings are easy to solve. everybody continues to attack president trump, when president trump as turned the focus on the inside of this country, where there are severe threats dedicated to bringing this country down to the level of death, and they are not in anyoneeven devoid who was voted in the system. host: is there concern, especially given the fact that the democratic national committee had its emails hacked

before the elections? there is a report today that the same hackers may be looking at senate. is there concern about hacking in the election, if not to change results, but the lack of confidence in american system? caller: all you have to do is listen to the donna brazile and what was said about the democratic system of rounding. and what happened with a guy that was leaking information out organizationatic who mysteriously ended up murdered, so we all understand that they are going to continue to project everybody else as being guilty of some kind of electoral interference when they themselves stole the election from bernie sanders. host: host: josh -- from josh is calling in

california on our democratic line. are you concerned about the upcoming elections and security? caller: good morning and happy martin luther king's day, but i am definitely concerned. to hear a person like this guy who just got off the phone, isking about how great trump , whatever his name was, is really, really pathetic. he has got these guys, had anyly that have not concern about the fact that trump is nothing but a crook. -- everything this guy has done is to benefit himself and continues to do so. it bothers me to be 80 years old and still trying to figure out

our voting rights, and i am concerned about the happiness -- about what trump has done. he has laundered money through the soviet union anti-is afraid he cannot turn around and try to get these things corrected. it is bothersome, and everybody not concerned, they better wake up and tried to do the best we can as individuals to make sure go throughnot another election that putin is trying to take our country. host: let's look at other headlines. nbc news reports that steve bannon may testify before the house committee as soon as next week. he will testify before the house intelligence committee. sources familiar with the matter told nbc news on thursday night and they are scheduled to testify in a closed session.

they have hired a washington lawyer to represent him before the committee. calling from greenville, north carolina on our independent line. are you concerned about the security of election systems? caller: i am concerned that our government is nothing but a continuing criminal enterprise. what they are doing right now, they are breaking the law every day. only theump, not president, all the generals around him, they are going along with this. what about the people at the recall what to not he said or have no comments? that is lately being a coward and liar. they were not tell the truth. aderholt system right now, i democratic system is on the brink of a disaster. being taken over by a

foreign government. host: on the issue of elections, in north carolina, are you confident with how secure the voting booths are where you vote or have you seen things that cause concern? caller: absolutely. overthe republicans took the last time when we had the government here, everything has changed. my wife and i just got our drivers license renewed. we get it through the mail. at that drivers license place now, we cannot even use the one we used last time to vote. we have to get a special id from the dmv. voter suppression, redistricting, everything, we are going in the wrong

direction, and the democrats have got a lot to do with it also. i am just telling you that i have never thought i would see what is going on. it is a reality show and we are being played and lied to every single day. we are going to have to get out and really the public is going to have to take care of this because our government is incapable as they are corrupt and that goes for both sides of the aisle. host: other headlines, the front page of the wall street journal today reports that president trump's lawyer paid a point star there the election and $130,000 payment was arranged before the 2016 election as an agreement that precluded her from publicly discussing an alleged sexual encounter with mr. trump. michael cohen, you spent nearly

a decade as a top attorney at the trump organization arranged payment for stephanie clifford in october 2016 after her lawyer negotiated the nondisclosure agreement with mr. cohen. her stage name is stormy daniels, and has privately alleged the encounter after they met at july 2016 golf tournament on the -- 2006 golf tournaments. mr. trump married melania trump in 2005. he also faced allegations of inappropriate with women -- inappropriate relations with women and the mentally denied them -- and denied them. john from new york on the republican line, are you concerned about election security? caller: let me let you know this. the way the election turned out this last time, who knows why it happened that way, but it happened that way. i think hillary would have been

a pick and bernie would have been a pick, but it came down to one -- did they vote for hillary and bernie at once and it was between the democrats who they wanted? host: there was a primary with three candidates in the democratic side. -- er: host: is that you question? i think we lost john. we will go to mike in texas on the republican line. caller: one reason i have concerns is getting back to the gentleman who called in who is concerned about george soros, i thing hened about any is involved with globalization. when you think of al franken, he won his senate votes by less than 300 votes and they were 2.5 million votes cast in the

election, so it is easy to get in there and change something up some way. there is always a way to get around almost everything. i believe in strong voter id and having a receipt that you quoted a certain way and that every person gets a receipt. a receipt if you get after you both, that does not necessarily mean a hacker -- caller: that is right. you are right on that. -proofot know how you fool floating elections. and there are some states that will not take dead people off the rules. what is that about? lady in the obama election's who worked at the election sites bragged that she voted nine different times. of course, she was tried and convicted of that. host: a couple of threes from

our viewers -- tweets. -- you would think they would have identified these mysterious russian hackers by now. vivian -- until we figure out how to stop russia from hacking our elections, should not have online voting. in some other news on the front page of the new york times, it says a gop senator reportedly scalded president trump for his comments made during a meeting discussing daca. after president trump finished reeling in the oval office against african immigrants he said came from and lindseyuntries" graham from south carolina, who was there, spoke up. america is an idea, not a race, he said, according to three people familiar with the exchange. adversity was a strength, not a weakness.

hethe way, the senator added was a descendent from immigrants who came to the united states from "shithole countries with no skills." more on the fallout from that meeting over daca in that meeting this week. david is calling from new york on her independent line. ari you concerned? -- are caller: you concerned? totally. the fact that the machines themselves have computer chips that have been known to have flaws, that they are packable, should be nothere computers involved. everything is vulnerable because of the chips being vulnerable. that is a security issue. we should do like iowa, throw them all to the scrap pile and go back to paper voting. ast: even states that have

brew are often read electronically. caller: that is what i mean. all electronics out of the picture. thumbs.opposable , nopaper ballots electronics involved at all. that is how we secure the votes. simple as that. host: carl from iowa under democratic line. what do you think? seems to be a a lot of misunderstanding about what actually the intelligence all unilaterally found, so if you are looking at the reports, it says -- russian president vladimir putin ordered and influence campaign in 2016 aimed at the u.s. presidential

election. russia's intelligence service thatcted cyber operations they hacked into multiple u.s. state boards. they possessed the type of systems russian actors targeted or compromised may have been involved in voter registration, not vote counting. russia also ran the propaganda machine intended to assist the election of donald trump. this is what our own intelligence agencies have got. if you are a trump supporter or .gov.go to dni can i give them the link so they can read it? www

.dni.gov/files/documents/ica_20 17_01.pdf. read it. several have had viewers who say they have concerns about whether they can these officials that you cited. what would you say to them? caller: here is what we run into. we have multiple converging with theth collusion new york chief for the guardian. we have multiple empirical objective sources, all which lead to the same facts, and people objecting to it, they don't provide facts. they just say sources name, or they say they do not trust clinton.

we have got to. read, rely on facts, and be evenng to accept evidence, if our promotions tell us we don't like it. read this report area you have got thousands of civil servants, republican civil servant. most people who work there are republicans. host: the new york times reports the president's decision to skip the trip to london has pleased some british critics. wasys his cancellation welcome by many critics in britain, even as it deepened the diplomatic problems confronting a british government struggling to forge closer ties to washington without offending opinion at home. it diverted the risk of public protest that have threatened to embarrass mr. trump and britain's prime minister theresa

may, who has recently square -- squirmed to distance herself from an american president who is seen as divisive by many britain citizens. the announcement, which came in a twitter post by mr. trump included a false jab at former president barack obama is the latest reverberation from a hasty and don't just imitation meat around a year ago. york,ockaway park, new independently, are you concerned about election security systems? caller: yes, i am very concerned, especially because the internet has gone too far, too fast. we have gone very far with little security. more importantly than that, we have no uniform voting laws. from state to state, it varies.

lens are not allowed to vote in the presidential election. 10 states. use of your time, you paid your price, he went on allowed to vote. in the other 40 states, that has no bearing. risk at theggest all this is done is money and politics. the fact that billionaires can contribute their sons of money to get their puppets into power, a few billionaires can do this, dollars in william campaign contributions, even now have a $1.5 trillion deficit. it is because of the people who are put in place by these billionaires. i do not know who the billionaires -- we know who they are, but regardless, when every

man and woman has a right to vote, that is fine. electoral college of 535 political appointees, and two out of the last three presidential elections, which, by the way, is the only office in this country that is not directly elected by the people, the last two residential elections, the popular vote of by theple was frustrated electoral college, research it varied research the history of the electoral college. it will only land -- anyhow, thank you -- basically, we need to have a uniform voting system throughout the united states, like in canada. host: becky is calling from massachusetts on our public in line to read what do you think? to the i was listening

last guy, and one of the things i agree with, i work the elections in massachusetts, in the function very well. i do not think there is any fraud within our town. i would like to see what the last guy says that it was uniform over the country has to how you deal with elections and sign in. you can only vote in your district, and now in new hampshire, you can go in the day of the election and sign up to vote in the election. that is not right. cane is no way that they correct things. voting, i think that is wrong. people -- ithe

voted for trump, i am happy to say, and i am still with him, and i think the rest of the people should get over it elected,t hillary was there would be no russian collusion, there would be no voter fraud, no nothing. it would be a dead issue. get over it. he was elected president. host: in some other news, on the front page of the wall street journal, it says the u.s. is giving warnings over the iran deal. the trump administration valid pullout of the landmark 2015 iran clear core without substantial changes to it, setting the clock ticking on negotiations with washington's european allies and it imposed punitive actions not directly related to iran's new rear -- nuclear program, and a recent crackdown on iranian protesters

after waiting penalties against tehran on friday, mr. trump next faces such a decision in may. i have outlined to possible hats forward, mr. trump outlined, either fix the disaster, or the united states will withdraw. kelly is calling in from maryland on our democratic line, are you concerned about security? caller: yes, i and. i wanted to comment. you had a caller that just hung phat speaking about -- hung u talking about empirical evidence and experts in the field and not going on people's emotions and conspiracy there is about our and actually reading the actual professionals

asidements and putting the emotions, you know? host: what do you think? do you think there is some reason to boost up protections ahead of the midterms? do you think there is something to the claims made? caller: absolutely. it is not just in the united states, we have not been the only once targeted area i believe there is also not been an understanding of the capability or the cyber world. the president doesn't email. this whole entire administration has been sloppy and has had even grammatical mistakes and some of the reporting and documents. i think we need to bring back -- we have a lot of intelligence in this country and world. we have experts. we need to be relying on them

and not just the winds of -- whm whims oflion -- billionaires in office. it is a travesty what is happening to the country. the democracy has affected our democracy for a long time. int: and dee dee is calling from raleigh, north carolina on a republican line. do you have concerns? caller: yes, i do. i have a lot. i wanted to let everybody know, i have family in pennsylvania and wisconsin. wisconsin, where some of my family went to votes, they did not know until the day they ids, that they needed two so they got turned away. in pennsylvania, they did not know that their names were purged off of the list to vote, votes, they had to go

they had to go to another city to pick up a form so that they could vote. a lot of people were not able to do that because they wanted to vote to your work. i am very yes, concerned. a lot of people are purging, they are suppressing the boat, and a lot of the democratic machines were malfunctioning. they are against everybody in congress, too. host: do you think that is a bigger issue than the potential of russia or some other foreign country trying to interfere with the election? caller: i do think russia is trying to get in and temper with our elections because putin is getting enabled by trump. i do believe that. and i do believe he will try to

put trump back in. and i am hoping not because around the world, we are a laughingstock. and every time we come about, it is going to be more and more else isnd everybody going to turn against us and we are going to be isolated. host: the wall street journal reports that arizona congressman is jumping into the gop senate race. congresswoman martha mcauley said friday that she would enter the race for the arizona senate seat opened up by the retirement of senator jeff flake. she is a republican and entered the contest and it ended earlier this week when joe arpaio joined the race. his entry ensures the fight for arizona's gop senate nomination will be anything but a humdrum campaign focused on policy differences with democrats.

mrs. nick sally did not endorse president trump during the 2016 campaign satellite herself with him in a series of speeches. do you have election security concerns, eric? caller: well, you have to start back. does everybody conveniently have amnesia? running forhe was president, donald j. trump, did he invite the russians to hack into hillary clinton's private email? that was a big concern for me. for everybody. ourody hacking into

country hacking into our democracy should be a bipartisan issue. it should not be republican, it should not be democratic. it should not be independent. that is what gets me. everybody -- that is it. the one last thing i would like , and i know i am going off subject and i , i was in the united states coast guard and i pulled haitians out of boats in the 1980's that were getting away from a terrible dictator. they are notink worthy of coming into this

country, then you need to look back at your ancestors and see what is going on. host: diane is calling in from woodstock, georgia. are you concerned about election security? caller: yes, am i concerned. dulyd trump was not elected president of the united states. i fully believe that. he said throughout the campaign the election is rigged, it is rigged. why in thendered world is he saying that? hillary clinton rolled her eyes. i rolled my eyes and thought, what in the world is this man talking about? he knew it was going to be rigged because he had his people and the russians do it. he knew it was going to be hacked. yes, the election was hacked. host: coming up, thomas schatz will join us with the citizens

against government waste, and he will talk about the possibility of the return of earmarks to congress. we will be right back. ♪ >> this weekend on american history tv from c-span3, tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on lectures valleyory, lebanon college professor james broussard on the lead up to the american revolution. >> we will have a tax on things the colonists import. paper, led, glass, t, and we will collected at the ports. no one else has to be bothered. that is that. big surprise.

more outrage and anger and fear. reelnday at 4:00 p.m. on america -- it earns techniques to sustain himself in the distant reaches of the jungle or an arctic wasteland you'd above all, he knows the ultimate alternative faced by the special forces man in action, adjust or die. >> and at 6:00 on american artifacts, a preview of collections for the u.s. diplomacy museum set to open next year. lee, the first professional diplomat, conducted these two treaties. this treaty of commerce was essential at granting france most-favored-nation trading status. the french were very excited about being able to sort of get into that economic trading war with great britain after the war was over, and this treaty would

remain in effect for several years afterwards. >> american history tv, every weekend on c-span3. c-span, where history unfolds daily. in 1979, c-span was created as a public service i am america's cable television companies, and is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. "washington journal" continues. host: joining us now is thomas schatz, president of citizens against government waste. he is here to talk about the possibility of congress bringing back your marks after a comment -- earmarks, after a comment made by president trump last week. remind our viewers what is citizens against government waste. guest: it was founded in 1984