sit-down to talk about the priorities president trump laid out in his speech. this morning on washington journal, we get your reaction to president trump's first state of the union address. join the conversation all morning with your phone calls, emails, facebook comments, and tweets. president trump: let's begin tonight by recognizing that the state of our union is strong, because our people are strong. ♪ president trump's first state of the union address lasted just over 80 minutes, with the president speaking to highlight his achievements and his first year in office, and set the agenda for the year ahead. this morning on "the washington journal congo we will spend all toning getting your reaction the themes highlighted by the president last night, including

infrastructure investments, trade, and the economy. but we begin this morning on the topic of immigration. after president trump laid out his four-point plan on immigration reform, we want to hear from you about what you took from the state of the union when it comes to the immigration debate? the phone lines this morning. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. 002.pendents, (202) 748-892 forave a special line illegal immigrants as well, (202) 748-8003. you can start calling in it now. we want to get your thoughts on the president's statements on immigration last night, but first, a few stats from the state of the union yesterday. 4.5 million tweets, this was the most tweeted state of the union or joint session address,

surpassing the three b's record -- previous record of 3 million tweets in 2017. as we pointed out earlier, it was a little over 80 minutes long, 80 minutes and 32 seconds. it was not the longest state of the union address ever, but it was close, and definitely the longest among the first state of the union addresses. you can see that chart from c-span. president obama's first state of the union address in 2010 lasted 69 minutes and 20 seconds. in terms of the topics that the president covered last night, the washington post broke it minutes spent each topic. when it came to the economy, the president spent 18 minutes and 17 seconds. foreign policy, 18 minutes, 11 seconds. immigration, 15 minutes, 13 seconds. health care, six minutes, 37 seconds.

that arends, four minutes and 10 seconds. the rest was other topics. president trump: under the current broken system, a single immigrant can bring in virtually unlimited numbers of distant relatives. under our plan, we focus on the immediate family, limiting sponsorships to spouses and minor children. [applause] president trump: this vital reform is necessary not just for our economy, but for our security and for the future of .merica in recent weeks, two terrorist attacks in new york were made possible by the visa lottery and change migration. -- chain migration. in the age of terrorism, these programs present risk we

can no longer afford. [applause] trump: these outdated finallyion rules, and bring our immigration system into the 21st century. host: to help us break down what the president said last night, we are joined now from our news desk by brian bennett of the l.a. times. what was the message the president was trying to get across last night at this front? guest: the president is trying to lay out his plan on immigration, making sure it looked like he was giving a generous offer, particularly to democrats, of offering a pathway to citizenship or 1.8 million people who came into the country illegally. in exchange for that, he wants big investments in border security. not just the wall, but increases in the number of deportation agents.

he also wants to revamp the legal immigration system, do visawith the diversity lottery, which brings and 50,000 people year out of the one million people that come to the , and he wants to tighten the family unification be the policies and restrict that two minor children and the pair -- to minor children and the parents. in certain circumstances, people can bring adult children and other relatives into the country. by no means the family unification be the policy -- visa policy allow people to bring virtually unlimited numbers of relatives to the country, as the president said. the: how much do you think president was talking to congress when it came to laying out this plan, and how much was it building a case with americans watching at home? guest: he is absolutely trying to build a case across the country for his immigration plan. he frames it in a frame of security, and the way he laid it

out, you can tell from the reaction in the room, rob democrats the wrong way -- ubbed democrats the wrong way, they did not applaud in the way they did when he offered 1.8 million people having a pathway to citizenship. it felt like to me that the two parties in congress are still very far apart when it comes to getting to a deal on this. the president is trying to sell it to the public. host: you said the way he laid it out. before he began talking about immigration reform, he talked about the dangers specifically of ms 13. how can you -- can you explain how he directed the discussion over the course of the 15 minutes? guest: you can look at what he said last night and over the past few months. the president has repeatedly tied chain migration and the visa lottery to the westside terror attack, where the person who came in from the diversity

visa lottery from pakistan killed a number of people in manhattan on halloween. he also has repeatedly brought up ms 13 gang members and the hasence that that gang perpetrated in communities around the country, and links that to u.s. immigration policies. a lot of the ms 13 gang activity is violent and terrific, but demographics and demographic ratees show that the crime among recent immigrants is actually lower than the crime rate among americans. while the president repeatedly cases ofed to specific recent immigrants causing crime and being responsible for murders, the larger trends tell a different story.

host: i know we are less than 12 hours away from the end of the president's speech last night, but does this change the daca debate in congress? did you get a sense last night that people were swayed one way or the other when it comes to the members were negotiating this? say, i think to people are digging in. i think the lawmakers are digging into their positions. i do not think it brought people together the way the president approached it. have -- itt it may may be making it more difficult for a deal to come together. i think the democrats in congress feel like revamping the legal immigration system, which would reduce the a lot of people who can come into the country legally dramatically is too steep a price to pay, even to create a pathway to citizenship for these 1.8 million dreamers. host: remind us the deadlines we are working under right now when it comes to this negotiation?

8 is the february coming deadline, so that is when the spending bill for the u.s. government expires and congress has to pass another bill to keep it open. that is a window when the immigration debate could come up , and the president has set a date in march for when the daca program expires. that is currently under a court injunction, so daca recipients, people who have received work permits and deferrals of deportation under deferred action for childhood arrivals, they are currently allowed to becauseose permits there has been a court injunction, a court stay on trump of the plan to end the -- trump's plan to end the program. but if it does end, that will be ended in march, and lawmakers will want to ask before and will

be -- act before and will be under pressure to act before march. host: and what about the bipartisan work by a group of senators? where does that stand now? largely at a standstill. they are working in the senate to put together a package along the lines of what the president laid out, but again, the feeling leaderhuck schumer, the of the senate democrats, and other people at the negotiating table is that the demand from the president was too much for what he was willing to give. the democrats want to get the discussion to border security spending and wall spending in exchange for a path to citizenship for some of these people who were brought to the country illegally as children efforts tode the completely revamp the legal immigration system. host: how much emphasis did you

see the president give to the wall and wall spending last night, and how does that compare to some of his previous comments on that? guest: he glossed over the wall of it. that hesized - wanted border security spending, and made the point that with a infrastructure on the border and building structures on the border, he also wants money to increase the number of deportation agents in the country. last year, president trump sent a request to congress, touesting that congress pay triple the number of deportation officers in the country from about 5000 to 15,000. if that went through, that would dramatically increase the number of people that immigrations and customs enforcement could deport from the country. host: brian bennett covers it all, the white house reporter for the l.a. times. you can find him on twitter.

thank you for your time this morning. guest: glad to be with you. host: and we are getting your thoughts this morning, specifically on the immigration topic and what the president had to say. we will cover that for our first hour on the washington journal, and switch to a few other topics as well throughout the morning. reginald is up first, houston, texas, the line for independence. good morning. caller: good morning. you know, sometimes change happens once in a blue moon, and in 1866 was the last time we had a blue moon. you had some dreamers who were coming out of slavery who had a independent and having a quality in these and there was also a dream that old men would one way -- all men would one day be created equal. that their dream

will come true, even if it takes once in a blue moon, that this will happen. so we have this dream of equality for humanity's sake, at peaceorld will be between the dreams the slaves had in 1866, the last time we had a blue moon. maybe something can happen in these america's that will wake begin a we can repetitive state and treat everybody equal. host: rick, boca raton, florida, line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning, thank you for c-span. i was more interested in what he did not say. russianabout infiltration of our election, russian cyber attacks, not a word about $21 trillion and growing debt and deficit.

have a businessman who has declared bankruptcy what, times, and the alleged possibility that after his yankruptcies, he was onl able to get funding from russian oligarchs. host: bring us to the immigration debate, which we are talking about in this segment. what did you think of video he put on the table for that? -- the deal he put on the table for that? caller: i am not a neck sprint on the immigration debate, but i recently had a conversation -- i .as shocked -- with a woman we were talking about russia and the russian investigation, and she is all for it. the conversation started to grow, and out of nowhere, it turned to hillary clinton. i said to her, you know, hillary clinton is irrelevant at this

point. she started to talk about bill clinton. i said bill clinton is about irrelevant. and then she started to talk about comey. i said we are talking about the russia investigation. host: we will stay focused on the topic of immigration in the first hour, a lot of time spent on that last night, obviously a key issue before congress with that deadline approaching. we want to get your thoughts on what the president had to say last night about it. in dallas, texas, a republican. go ahead. caller: good morning. first of all, before i speak on immigration, i do want to say that i thought president trump gave a great speech, and i enjoyed watching it. it was very easy to listen to, and i agreed with most to it -- most of it. other than on immigration. i would love to see e-verify. if we want to keep illegals from coming to our country -- they

are coming for jobs. so that would stop it right there. amo agree with the wall, i against chain migration, and several other things, but it does not look like anything will get passed because the democrats are not going to let him pass anything. if they have anything to do with it. 1.8 people thing, that would eventually -- that are called the dreamers, they would eventually get citizenship , i am against that. i would send the parents that brought them here and all of them, i would deport them. i would send them back to their countries of origin. i voted for him on immigration, that was one of the things and the reason i voted for him, but

it does not seem like he is going to be able to get anything done because of the democrats. host: we have a special line this morning for illegal immigrants. if you want to call in, (202) 748-8003, we would be interested to hear your thoughts on the president's speech last night. if you are in the dreamer program, we want to hear from you as well. dozens of democrats last night brought some of those dreamers to the state of the union address, saying they wanted people affected by the ongoing immigration debate to be present as president trump talked about how far he would be willing to go and what concessions he would demand security wise to grant them citizenship. this is from "the washington times," quoting congressman gree -- but yesterday, an arizona congressman did create a stir when he asked capitol police to check the ideas of

guests -- ids of guests and arrest any illegal immigrants in attendance. "u.s. capitol police operate with a sanctuary city style refraining from asking questions of those they arrest." that causing a bit of a controversy on twitter, including a back and forth between several senators. tony, pleasantville, new jersey, democrat line. your thoughts on the debate and what the president had to say last night? caller: good morning, john. first, a quick response to that lady from texas, blaming everything on the democrats? the last time i checked, the president was in the white house and the republicans were in control of the house and the senate. that should take care of that. now they know how we

felt the way republicans treated obama for eight years. now they want to kumbaya. of to get back to the state the union address, it sounded like a campaign rally speech to me. i agree with the caller before the lady from texas, but he is supposed to be a businessman and know how to make all these deals, and he has had more bankruptcies than the law allows. that is supposed to be a long order president -- he thinks he is above the law. that is why he is trying to stop the russia investigation. that is all i have this morning. henderson,t, kentucky, independent. good morning. caller: good morning, thank you for my call. dust born andnd raised in los angeles, california, and i live in kentucky now. in thoses of people spanish-speaking countries that are living here, and some of them are illegal, because i speak spanish and i know a lot

of them. i do not believe that mr. trump has any love in his heart for people who are not white. heo not believe anything said last night. he is intellectually inferior. ,e has no sense of compassion and i think the man is really heartless. i do not believe anything he says other than he wants people from european countries. he did touch on africa, africa is a continent. it has much to offer. europe raped africa for their riches, mr. trump's ancestors were a part of that. it does not take a berlin conference to learn that europe benefited from the riches of africa. mr. trump hasyour compassion for people of caller. i do not believe anything -- people of color. i do not believe anything he says except he wants to build a wall and ostracize people who are not white. here is what the president

had to say about his own compassion. president trump: as the president of the united states, my highest loyalty, my greatest compassion, my constant concern is for america's children, america's struggling workers, and america's forgotten communities. toant our youth to grow up achieve great things. to have theirr chance to rise. so tonight, i am extending an open hand to work with members of both parties, democrats and republicans, to protect our citizens of every background, caller, religion, -- c olor, religion, and create. reed.cee [applause] duty and themp: my

sacred duty of every elected official in this chamber is to defend americans, to protect their safety, their families, and their communities, and their right for the american dream. because american art -- americans are dreamers to. o. host: here are some headlines from president trump's hometown of new york. the wall street journal -- new york daily news, what a load of clap. trump praises himself on unity while bashing immigrants. date of the schmooze in is the headline the new york post went with. upbeat trump calls for unity. from you, hear talking about the president's comments on immigration. we have a special line for illegal immigrants. paul is on that line, frankfurt, illinois.

caller: good morning. i just want to say because i break two laws and maybe create a felony by working in the country illegally, the fact that this country,n legally or illegally, should trump any laws that exist. if anyone wants something bad enough that they will break the law to get it, they should be allowed to have it. host: when did you come to the united states? caller: it is a long story. i was convicted of a felony years ago and came back from canada. the point is if someone wants something bad enough they feel they have to break the law and come in the country and get it, if they see a car they want, they should be able to come into the country and get that car. host: eric, good morning. caller: good morning. let me start off by saying this. ancestors and there's have

been on this land for over 100,000 years. misidentified as black people, african-americans, and let me say- this. number one, the only illegal people here on this land are the europeans. where are their green cards? they came from europe. herely -- europe illegally, so trump has no right to talk about illegal immigration when he is illegal, his wife is illegal, his children are illegal. they are not aboriginal or indigenous to this land mass. get the facts straight. first of all, starting from there. it does not matter what trump is talking about, the only people here in legally are the europeans from europe host:

michael, mississippi, line for democrats. caller: good morning, how are you? ima a 67-year-old white male, retired from a long history of work, and i have worked around blacks and latinos in the position i was, and i do not see much common sense in what is going on in this debate. i agree with the folks that are dreamers and -- who have worked hard and are in the country through no fault of their own, but contrary to the gentleman who talked before, if you want something, steal something, come to the country and do that? that is absurd. we follow the laws, and the laws are go through the process. what befuddles me is that the people that have been here for years have gone to the point where that is what they think. i want something, so i do not

have to follow the law. the white people are wrong because they are making me get out of the country. that does not make any sense. there is a sense of entitlement that puzzles me. granted, we people are going like the popular tv personalities said. yes, we will die off, but what bothers me is that the sense of that folks feel they do not have to follow the laws. yesterday, after the state of the union address, democratic congressman joe kennedy the gave of the kennedy family the democratic response, the official democratic response. this is what he had to say about dreamers. the dreamers watching tonight, let me be absolutely clear --

spanish] you are part of our story. we will fight for you, and we will not walk away. [applause] >> america, we carry that story on our shoulders. you swarmed to washington last year to make sure -- and sure that no parent has to worry that they can afford to save their child's life. you probably marched together

last weekend, thousands on the streets of las vegas and the streets of philadelphia, nationally. you sat high atop your mother's a sign thatd held said "build a wall, and my generation will tear it down." [applause] >> you bravely say me too. black lives matter. ,ou wade through floodwaters battle hurricanes, brave mudslides to save a stranger. you that all own quiet battles every single day -- battle your own quiet battles every single day. you drag yourself to that extra shift so your families do not

feel the sting of scarcity. to' leave loved ones at home serve overseas, patrol our neighborhoods at night. you serve, you rescue, you help, you heal. that, more than any law or leader, debate or disagreement, is what drives us towards progress. host: that was congressman joe kennedy last night with the democratic response. four other democrats giving responses to the president's state of the union last night, including virginia delegate virginia guzman. bernie sanders livestream to his response. maxine waters, who did not attend the state of the union, delivered an exclusive rebuttal on b et. former democratic congresswoman donna edwards delivered hers on

behalf of the working families party's on facebook. several different responses. if you missed the state of the union or any of joe kennedy's responses, you can go back and watch it all on c-span, all available at www.c-span.org. we are talking for our first hour and 15 minutes this morning about the president's case were dreamers, the wall deal for immigration reform. we want to get your response. we have lines for democrats, republicans, independents, and a special line for illegal immigrants this morning. , if you are age reamer who is impacted by this deal. jason is on that line in west virginia. good morning. caller: good morning. i want to say we call ourselves christians in this nation, you know? putting a wallop, what kind of message does that send to everybody else?

i am tired of the rich politicians running this country, and i have had enough. enough is enough. the wall is not the solution. we need to be humanitarians. host: when did you come to the country? caller: i have been in this country since 1981. i am a dreamer, i am a poor man in america, struggling. everybody struggles. everybody struggles in rural areas. it is not easy. the jobs are far and in between, and i'm tired of not making it. people struggle. people, the things that we worry about in this country, is not what we need to be thinking of. we run it politically, but this is mother earth. host: what country did you come from in 1981? born in the united states. i wanted to get my voice across. host: we ask people to stick to

their lines, we are saving the line for illegal immigrants so in thehear their voices mix. -- thent talking about president talking about immigration reform. lines for democrats, (202) 748-8000, republicans, (202) 748-8001, independent (202) 748-8002. caller: i feel that president trump didn excellent job -- did an excellent job, and we are feeling of -- spending a lot of time talking about dreamers, which are very important. the points he was trying to make are the points he got across, with unemployment being lower for women, for hispanics, for the tax cuts. all the good news that we have .ad in the last 12 or 13 months

we need to focus on that. this tax cut will help the caller, like the one we just had before, before me. i think president reagan -- i mean president trump has been extremely sincere, and the offer he gave the democrats last week could and the dreamer situation, and the problem has been kicked down the road for 20, 25 years. areel that the democrats not being sincere. they want this to stay an issue and use it as political leverage against republicans. thank you for having me on. host: rhonda, new jersey, line for democrats. go ahead. caller: good morning america. jersey, a small town, and it is very personable. here,e lots of immigrants

and i would really like to say that i think that we as a country need to have more compassion. these people are up at 5:00 a.m. gentlemen,ing, these standing in front of 7-eleven and looking for work. they get picked up every single day. we need immigrants here. i am a homeowner, i have been in my home, i built it 14 years ago. and i could never afford to do repairs on my home if it were not for the immigrants. hear people talk about immigrants like people who are basically sitting on their behind, making excuses for not finding jobs, you know what i tell them? when i see you standing out in front of the 7-eleven at x :00 a.m. in the morning, waiting for work, then you can complain to

me about the immigrants, because i do not see any blacks, whites, anybody but them. let's give these people a break. we are americans first. host: randy is in south carolina, independent. good morning. go ahead, randy. i think he gave the democrats everything they would like. i do not know what else they could ask for, but i do not think it would have solved -- they want to solve the problem. i think they want to continue it so they have something to scream about in the next election. i think he made them a completely reasonable offer. but five to one, they will never take it. here is the editorial board of the washington post on that offer on immigration, part editorial today.

no pivot insight in the weight of the president of the state of the union. president trump showed no sign that he would touch from his maximalist demand on immigration. if this is what he considers compromise, he does not understand the concept. that is what the editorial board here right. another piece from the washington times editorial boards today. the headline there today, the lead editorial, the democratic the trail of the dreamers. they write that democrats regard the reamers as valuable ponds in a scheme to get the open borders that they want. they know without getting the money for the wall, president trump will not agree to the amnesty that the democrats seek. but terrified of a party base that moves farther to the left, the democrats might keep the issues unresolved and boiling. they want no restrictions on illegal immigration, and seek nothing more than the california cation of- californi the rest of the country.

don, orlando, the line for republicans. caller: good morning, thank you for taking my call. i am so fed up with the democrats. sitting on their hands -- everything the president talked were, all the positives items that were done this year, the first year of his presidency. , and it on their hands is just pathetic. it is so obvious. it is in our faces, and the liberal left does not want to even admit when it is in their face. attempting to move our government back like this -- i am so fed up with the liberal left it has me sick to my stomach. thanks a lot for letting the event. i believe the president is on the right path. i believe this country deserves better from that liberal left. the democrats need to find themselves a middle avenue, not that left. that left is obstructing.

host: what is the middle avenue on immigration? caller: do you know what? i believe the dreamers should have a path for being in this country. i do not believe they should step over the line with people who have been waiting to become citizens. i believe they do deserve to stay here, but we need to get out of our political witchhunts and all this stuff that has been going on the past year and start , making iteast easier for laws to be passed so we can get some kind of recourse. this is not just a republican problem, this is the whole country problem. host: jared, minnesota, line for independence. go ahead. would like to talk to the guy who is just on there, i would like to say he sounded

like he was pretty upset. i wanted to say that weren't the thepeans who followed native american's rule of law, andve mexicans rule of law, then put into slavery here in america? i want to know, because even the u.s. government, when they got hawaii, they broke their own to getutional laws texas, california, hawaii, all the caribbean islands. they broke their own laws. they do not even follow their own rule of law, but you want everyone else to follow the rule of law? trump is bringing the country back into the 1930's, were black were in slavery, native americans were able to get redskin.r being a

back to call? -- coal? come on, people. -- orpower israel nuclear nuclear energy, you are digging for dinosaur bones in the ground. you think that is the way of the future? stick around for our last hour of the washington journal, we will be talking more about trade and the economy and the economy in those messages from the president. on the first page of the herald tribune in sarasota, florida, bigger with the headline "america is our dreamers -- americans are dreamers too. nancy pelosi responding to that statement on twitter, saying dreamers are americans too. here are more headlines from around the country. the denver post focusing on immigration, trump warns of immigration dangers in the state of the union address.

the front page of the montgomery advertiser, time to live, dream. president offers open hand to help with infrastructure initiatives. we are talking about the comments on immigration, he thet about 15 minutes in speech talking about immigration last night. the total length in words for the president was over 5000, 5139 words. compares to president obama's first state of the union .ddress, with some 7300 words and yet, president trump's speech was longer, a little over 80 minutes, compared to president obama's state of the union address, at 69 minutes. the five most frequent words of trump's speech, american, 29 times, america, 27 times, people, 26 times, tonight, 234 times,

times. we want to hear your words and comments this morning after the president's state of the union address. we are focusing in this first segment on immigration. richard, austin, texas, a democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. i am upset with all these people who keep sitting around thinking donald trump is going to do anything but what he has been doing. he has been lying all of his life, he has been stealing all of his life, the republicans who put the law into effect gave you 1995 tax reform you saw canceled that growth right after that. we believe in the law and order, and yet they elected a president who admitted he stole $25 trump university. i do not understand how, as a news organization around this

country, keep backing someone who keeps lying, who keeps giving classified information to there is a young lady in jail right now because she passed along that message, showing that republicans were engaged in illegal treason. in the last election and prior to it, and she is still in jail. in jail? donald trump you saw him handing the classified material from israel to the russians? host: we will move on to tony and continue the conversation about immigration and immigration reform in the wake of the president's comments last night. augusta, georgia, line for republicans. caller: i appreciate you taking my call. an africani am

american, and i believe that l.a. times opinion piece is so on point. and i agree with my brother from florida. the thing is, trump has been on point with what he has been doing and what he has offered the democrats. i am somewhat of a historian myself, and he has been an honest broker with a lot of our country. the democrats keep up these firestorms over all kinds of issues, especially with what is going on with the investigation. they created these things. the people need to educate themselves about what is really going on with our government and what is going on with immigration, and see how all of this stuff was created. we will get back to the real truth about what is happening and people will be right with deciding how to make honest decisions about political issues. thewe will not tell unadulterated truth. a lot of the media will not tell

the unadulterated truth. that is where we are both having our problems. host: rutland, vermont, independent line. go ahead. caller: i lived in northern virginia for 10 years, and i witnessed a lot of immigrants seeking work. wonderful. my problem is with the employers that pick up these people that do not collect the federal and state taxes, billions of dollars go out of the usa untaxed. to thele would go department of interior or commerce, they would find that information. that is my problem. untaxed money going out of this country. thank you. host: mia is an think claire shores, michigan, line for republicans. go ahead. caller: i think it is absolutely

disgusting how we bash this president on a daily basis and do not get back to work. if everything has shown what he has done in the past year, it would stop this hatred. it has gotten to be way over. it showed the world last night with all the democrats sitting on their hands. it was repulsive. absolutely repulsive. we all need to come together and stop this. i grew up in florida, and now i am in michigan and i watched the you been -- the cubans work. why can't they be legal? go by, they do not do anything. i watched people live in tents in florida, and they all got legal. absolutely wrong. host: host: you -- host: you mentioned democrats sitting on their hands last night. there were also plenty of democrats that did not attend or

boycotted that state of the union. at least 11 democratic lawmakers had planned to boycott the capital during the state of the union address. than the 60r lawmakers that boycotted president trump's inauguration, but still a significant amount. several folks on twitter, while watching the event last night, and it out -- pointed out that congressman luis gutierrez ended up leaving the state of the union address. here is a tweet from the daily wire, one of the reporters showing the moment when the doubt, hen storm said, of the state of the union. congress and gutierrez put out a statement last night after the state of the union address, saying his thoughts about the state of the union. canan show that when we pull that off, but let's go to

jimbo in bakersfield, california in the meantime. caller: i want to say thank you to brian lamb, my american patriot. without c-span, i would not know what my house of representatives and senate were up to. so kudos to brian lamb. and i am really concerned that we will start having mass deportations come march 5. one thing people don't understand is right now, about 120 people who came to this country when they were small .hildren are being deported now it would appear that we are gearing up for mastech were deportationsass come march 5, with 800,000 of the daca people, already people from el salvador who are going back to be killed by the death squads are getting sent back to central america, honduras. so these deportations are already starting, people. you are just not paying attention.

year up for mass deportation come march 5, because there is no legislative fix in the works. i thought i would share that with people, as well as a friendly reminder that north korea is getting ready to test a hydrogen bomb on an intercontinental missile in the bikini atoll area. they will launch it from north korea, violating both south korean airspace and japanese airspace. host: how to you know? caller: have you been looking at some of the things coming out from the journals in terms of the military journals and some of the journals that are dealing from other countries? fact-based journals that are out there that you can read about where north korea is in terms of all of its stolen technology from china as well as from russia as well as from ironic.

-- iran. host: we got your point. that statement from luis clip ofz, we saw that him walking out during the speech. he said in a statement after the address, saying "even though i disagreed with almost everything he said, the speech was clear and well delivered. whoever translated it for him from russian did a good job." he also said "i am still hopeful, but i do not see this congress and this president coming together for an agreement that prevents the tatian of dreamers. the white house agenda is to got legal immigration in exchange for allowing some of the dreamers to live here. for those of us to support illegal immigration, and that is most democrats and many republicans, it will not fly. and the dreamers themselves have said they do not want legal status if it comes at the expense of others who will suffer more as part of the bargain. the speech did nothing to bring the pro-and anti-immigrant sides closer together."

you can read the rest of the statement on his website. monique, oklahoma, line for democrats. caller: good morning. i want to know one thing from that last caller -- i want to know how did them daca people become dreamers? they are illegals. the only dreamers we have in the united states are american citizen children. if they have someone to blame for being over here, go blame their parents. they are criminals who brought them here. they all need to be deported. let's do for the whole family unit. this is crazy, giving special to illegals. who represents american citizens in washington? they don't, they just want to represent illegals and they all want to be deported. that is my comment. host: mark, zachary, louisiana, line for republicans. caller: hey, i voted republican and democrat. thent to talk about forgotten dreamers, the people in african-american communities

who do not get economic opportunities. they seek as much of a chance to as daca, and the immigrants who come here. to me, they are the forgotten ones. they were forgotten under bush, obama, and they are forgotten now. what are we going to do about the people in baltimore? you send them to jail, sending the immigrants back to get theed, but what about people in african-american communities were getting slaughtered or get sent to prison? what kind of a life is that. they have dreams for america to prosper. host: did you hear the president address those dreams last night? caller: i wish he had addressed it more. i wish he would have brought it to the democrats and said are we forgetting somebody? i have a lot of friends who are african-american, and i talked to them, and they discuss things like this. they think they are forgotten, they really do.

they think they are forgotten. they think that all the people want to talk about are the immigrants. look at what we are talking about here. are you talking about the african-american community, how many are forgotten? the schools are run down, and they are thrown in jail. people keep bringing up what will happen to the immigrants when they get sent back? what is going to happen to african-american communities when we do not have a way to prosper? they get sent to jail, they commit crimes, they serve life sentences because of a life they were put into. it is very frustrating. host: tom, hardeeville, south carolina, line for independents. caller: good morning. one of the things i think we need to do is celebrate the message -- separate the message from the messenger. trump, unfortunately, is a flawed messenger. -- his waysentation of presentation leaves a bit to be desired, but there is a lack

in the state of the union that congress could move on. candreamer act or daca fix be done if both sides sit down and say ok, we are willing to give up some things if you are willing to give up some things. but after the state of the union, you heard both sides say well, we want what we want, and if we do not get it we are not been a do anything -- going to do anything. infrastructure is the same way. there has to be some coming together by congress that has not happened. a did not happen in the obama notnistration, it did happen in the bush administration, and it is not happening in the trumpet minister nation. maybe we should send congress home. we will be around, sticking around on the subject of infrastructure and the $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan. we will be joined by joseph fisher of the congressional quarterly, a transportation

reporter to take us through the proposal. that will be our next topic of conversation this morning. stick around for that discussion . until then, we are talking about this headline from the washington post, "trump present his case were deal on dreamers and the wall." about that and this debate. diane, michigan. caller: hello, i think it is rather rude when you have a conversation with someone and right away, they come out with calling people who immigrate into the country illegals. they are not illegals, they are people, they are immigrants. as soon as you say -- it is like calling a fast car a fast. with the terms straight, stop , use the dog whistle words

english as it is meant to be used to describe and discuss people. have that much respect. thank you. host: kevin in fort wayne, indiana. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you, c-span, for this opportunity. in due deference to the previous caller, the reason the president and this congress needs to take action is precisely because there have been millions of acts of illegal activity as people have crossed our sovereign borders illegally. for decades. i believe the president last night laid out a clear and enunciated plan that i hope will spark action on the part of congress, which has been derelict in its duties as a body, as an institution, for far too long on the matter of immigration. i think we hear many people

speak about the sacrifice the daca people made and have been making. there is no doubt very talented people amongst them. however, what i think the president was alluding to in his draws attention to a very important fact, which is in allowing for them to be here and allowing illegals to flourish within our country, as many of them, being law-abiding, is fine, but as he noted, there are many others who are not. as a result of which, we are running the risk of sacrificing a very strong principle in this country, and that is the principle of the rule of law. i hope with enunciating his plans, congress picks them up and keeps in mind that we need to protect our sovereign borders and have our laws obeyed, and

have a legal path to citizenship be retained. john, district heights, maryland, line for democrats. go ahead. very much.nk you it boggles the mind. this man has no moral high ground nowhere. nowhere does this man have any moral high ground at all. the man has been proven to be a liar, a thief, a groper, a he will stand there. all you have to do is look at the man's history. everything he says, he does not follow through. everything he has done so far for this nation has hurt the people of this nation and helps nobody but his own particular economic group. it is beyond my contravention that people -- comprehension that people can believe what this man says, given where he comes from. were people there what someone else wrote for him and he is a showman, and all of a sudden he is a great man.

this is unbelievable, how ignorant american people really are. host: do you think immigration deal will hurt this country? caller: no, because this country has more money than any nation on the face of the earth. it is just misappropriated. that is the problem. there is enough jobs to go around, but everything is twisted from one sign to the to the other between those who have and those who do not have. look at the senate republicans. have any morals. everything this man has done, the regulating -- deregulating everything that hurts the american people, and they want to pat him on the back for everything he has done. tearing up all of the departments, transportation -- i mean, talking about drugs. this is so disappointing to me, how ignorant these people really are and how this man has stacked the courts, federal courts, with all of these racists and bigots

for life. but they will talk about this man like he has some moral high ground. thank you very much. host: john in maryland, our line for democrats. it is a clock on the east coast. we are wrapping up last night's state of the union address -- just about 8:00 on the east coast. we are wrapping up the last night's state of the union address, and the policies presented in the first hour. we have been talking about the president spending 15 minutes of that speech focusing on immigration. here is some of the president giving his pitch on immigration reform. >> in recent months, my administration has met excessively with democrats and republicans to craft a bipartisan approach to immigration reform. based on those discussions, we presented congress with a detailed proposal that should be apported by both parties as

compromise, not where 1 -- where our country gets the critical reform it needs and must have. [applause] president trump: here are the four pillars of our plan. the first pillar generously forrs a path to citizenship 1.8 million illegal immigrants who were brought here by their parents at a young age. that covers almost three times more people than the previous administration covered. [applause] plan,ent trump: under our

those who meet education and work requirements and show good moral character will be able to become full citizens of the united states over a 12 year period. [applause] the second --president trump: the second pillar fully secures the border. [applause] president trump: that means building a great wall on the southern border and it means hiring more heroes to keep our communities safe. host: a visual chart looking at one year and two speeches, comparing the president's state of the union and his speech to a

joint session of congress back in 2017. the different colors showing the different topics and when he talked about them. when it comes to immigration, that is the dark blue line. you can see the president talking about it, quite a bit. more spread out from his joint session address, back in 2017. we want to get your thoughts on the president's proposal on immigration. left got about 15 minutes to talk about this topic before we move on to infrastructure. please do have that line for immigrants, -- we still do have that line for immigrants, (202)-748-8003. democrats, (202)-748-8000.

andblicans, (202)-748-8001 independents, (202)-748-8002. caller: thank you for taking my call. i am cherokee on my father's 'sde and chickasaw on my mom side of the family and trump did not pander to me last night. i was a native american, but he did not pander to me as an american. he stands up for americans. democrats stand up for the illegals and the numbers came out last night. illegals in0,000 now.ountry from 2010 until 100 million illegals.

100 million? where did you get that number? caller: it came out last night. host: where? caller: it was census numbers. 100 million. host: what do you think about the president's proposal to give 1.8 million dreamers a path to citizenship? -- if it was only 1.8 million, i would be fine. the democrats want about 10 times that much. they are not going to go along with this unless -- the democrats are in trouble. they don't stand up for americans. they stand up for illegals. host: let's hear from a democrat in georgia. good morning. in.k you for letting me

whyst want to understand people are using the word illegal immigrant. everyone is a immigrant in this and donald trump himself is a immigrant. what would they do if the native indians all got up and said all of the illegal immigrants like donald trump should get out of our country? nobody should call them the illegals. --on't believe what was said i don't believe it.

he does not like me. immigrant, so nobody should call anybody illegal. host: montana, line for republicans. caller: thank you for taking my call. republican and all of this immigration hoopla, president obama, during his eight years had the power of the pen for two of those eight years and all the blacks in this country, they can't get a grasp on why they are still arguing and complaining and whining and crying. they had a president who they elected two terms. two years. host: why are you focusing on african-americans? caller: he did nothing.

to joe in new jersey, line for independents. caller: how are you doing? trump made a lot of comments last night. he was talking about apple coming back to the united states and bring back jobs. apple does pay a higher wage, but apple went overseas in the first place, so why would anybody want to work for apple? there are two sides to the story, and the democrats with their rebuttal could not really help the situation because you want to bring in a -- i voted for bernie sanders. i would like bernie sanders to

be president, thank you. host: a couple callers have talked about jobs and the economy. we will be focusing on that in the last hour of washington journal. here is the president pointing to job numbers and economic numbers during his first year in the white house. president trump: since the election, we have created 2.4 million new jobs. [applause] includingtrump: 200,000 new jobs in manufacturing, alone. [applause] years of trump: after wage stagnation, we are finally seeing rising wages. [applause]

president trump: unemployment claims have hit a 45 year low. [applause] something i am: very proud of, african-american unemployment stands at the lowest rate ever recorded. [applause] president trump: and hispanic american unemployment has also reached the lowest levels in history. [applause] president trump: small business confidence is at a all-time high.

the stock market has smashed one record after another, gaining $8 trillion and more in value in just this short period of time. [applause] president trump: the great news , retirement,, 401k pension and college savings accounts have gone through the roof. promised, 11 months ago, we enacted the biggest tax cuts and reforms in american history. host: we will talk more about trade and the economy and the president's comments in our last hour of washington journal. i did want to show you a few of the tweets from members of the president's. -- of the president's cabinet. sayingasury secretary

the progrowth agenda is working for the american people. callingerce secretary the state of the union address the best in recent memory and one more tweet from the agriculture sector -- secretary who was the so-called designated -- of thef the member cabinet member who is not in the chamber. time for one more call. the topic we have been talking about for our first hour of the program. george from tennessee, line for democrats. caller: thank you. i would like to know how do somebody who was forced to come here or made to come here through no fault of their own get a name like a dreamer? a dreamer is something somebody

urines for, but if you come here like everyone says through no fault of your own, how does that make you a dreamer? that is just a observation. also that response from the ,emocrats from that individual maybe democrats are not too fond of women. i guess that is all. host: that is georgia and tennessee. we turn now to the topic of infrastructure. one the headlines on if it structure from this morning. trump's friend structure plan has a $1.5 trillion price tag. to talk more about that, we are joined from our news desk by jacob fishler, a reporter with congressional quarterly. what is the president proposing when it comes to this new infrastructure investment? guest: what we heard last night was very similar to what we have

heard in the past. the biggest thing is that headline, the jump from -- we are talking about 1.5 trillion. that is in total investment. we think the federal share of that is about $200 billion and that would be supposed to spark spending at the state and local levels. we are not sure how that would .ork it is kind of a two-pronged plan. the dollar amount is part of it permitting report -- reforms. taking 10 years to get all the necessary permits. it would be down to an average of two years. host: when are we going to see a plan before congress and debate

on the floor, when it comes to what the president is proposing? year, all through last there were several times when the administration said we are going to have a plan out, soon. a couple months, and of this quarter, etc. that never quite materialized. now,es seem more immediate but we are still waiting on that. we spoke to a frustrated democratic member who said he had given up on the idea that the administration would put forward a detailed plan. i think it is going to come in the next couple of weeks and then it will be up to congress to work through it with hearings. i think it will be written at the committee level and it will be on the floor, i don't think in the immediate future but in

the span of a few months. host: talking to jacob fischler, a transportation reporter with congressional quarterly about infrastructure. we invite our viewers to call in on this topic. we will get to your calls in a few minutes. the phone lines as usual, democrats, (202)-748-8000. republicans, (202)-748-8001. independents, (202)-748-8002. going back to that $1.5 trillion price tag, how much comes from the federal government and how much comes from state, local and the private sector? guest: the president did not say last night, but an advisor said about a week ago, that what we have been hearing for a while is that the federal government would pay about $200 billion over 10 years. , we don't really know the breakdown, but stay

governments, local governments, private entities, and the biggest part of the spending would be in the incentives program. a state or local government would come to the federal government and say we have this plan for a road, a bridge, a port, broadband, whatever and here is the money that we have, to use on it. it is our own money, we are partnering with a private partner and it would be evaluated on how much money they are bringing to the table. host: when it comes to the president's proposals on streamlining regulation, is that something that agencies can propagate rules on their own? the fastback in 2015, there was some reforms on her permitting.n

it has not been fully implemented by the department of transportation and the agencies. some people say we should wait for that to be fully implemented , those improvements to be made before we evaluate where we are, next. there are others in congress who want to move with more legislation to further streamline that process. that is something that is going to play out in the months ahead. host: infrastructure has historically been more of a bipartisan issue. first year, in this of the trump administration? guest: it is bipartisan because everyone supports infrastructure . it breaks down when you talk about how to pay for it. democrats are pushing for direct federal spending. to spend have a plan $1 trillion directly from the federal government.

the idea that state and local governments are going to pay more than they are already paying is not popular with democrats. the idea that private entities will come in and take over something that they see as a core government function is also kind of a nonstarter for them. they believe that will lead to tolls. tolls are used by public and private entities, but are not a very popular thing in the democratic party. on the republican side, you have issues about how do you pay for it? if you're are a fiscal hawk, you don't want to authorize without any kind of way to pay for, especially after this tax cut bill in december. playerso are the key that we should watch, that president trump would likely be reaching out to?

guest: the chairman of the house transportation infrastructure committee, a republican from pennsylvania, relatively close with trump and he's got the expertise on this issue. he has talked with the white house about this. and ranking member of the committee as well. -- a ranking member of that committee as well. they have worked on their own kind of plan and it could work with the administration. on the senate side, you have john barrasso and tom carper and bill nelson. , aould also say mark meadows influential guy in the house, chairman of the house freedom caucus. that wing of the party will have a lot to say about it. host: why specifically the freedom caucus? guest: they have something to

say about everything, but in context with trump a lot, the idea of a big spending package is something that is going to have to get by those people on the right. meadows is not completely against infrastructure. he believes that could be a way to talk about domestic spending. if you want to add to the cap on that side, infrastructure could be the way to go. is on the transportation and infrastructure committee and he is close to trump. host: jacob fischler, covering it all for the cq. thank you so much for stopping by. guest: thank you. host: we are taking your calls for the next 40 minutes on the president's offer of $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan. we want to get your thoughts after the state of the union.

springs, valley independent. caller: thank you for taking my call. , after this big tax bill, the government has no money after they give all of these tax breaks to the rich, which was a big part of the income for the united states. now there is no money. how are they going to pay for this? these republicans who hounded years about we have to pay for everything and now they don't have to pay for nothing. this is unbelievable. i think somebody needs to investigate the republicans, not just the president. there are a lot of republicans that may be spies for the russians, the way they are acting. are: you think democrats

suddenly more concerned about spending than they were under president obama? that is no change. fiscally --een more they have been more fiscally responsible than the republicans for years, all the way back to the bush administration. everyone complained about how much money, but it was all the republicans who spent it all, not the democrats. we are in a fiscal problem because of republicans. here we are, talking about money we don't have. host: to joe in boston, line for democrats. caller: it is gerald, sorry. host: go ahead. caller: i agree with the gentleman on the line in california. you can recall back in the 2016 election, people were walking around.

the republican candidate was walking around with how much money you are spending all the time. all of this money. like his head was on fire. then they talk about the deficit. deficit hawks giving away money to rich people. i don't think most of the american people understand that he is not for the ordinary man. he is for the rich woman or the rich man. is just a sham. -- it is just a sham. the republicans are complacent. they are agreeing on everything. it is like they are hypnotized or something. host: jimmy is in tennessee, independent. you got the democrats to go, there.

i love that. .he democrats stand and tax infrastructure, yes, go for it. the world, whyld can't we rebuild the united states of america? host: when it comes to the infrastructure proposal, the president looking to take $200 billion in federal spending over 10 years, coupled with cutting private and leveraging and state and local investments for a total of $1.5 trillion when it comes to a new infrastructure investment in the united states. that is what we are talking about in this segment as we approach it: 30 on the east coast. here is the president talking

about his infrastructure plan. president trump: as we rebuild our industries, it is time to rebuild our crumbling infrastructure. [applause] president trump: america is a nation of builders. we built the empire state building in just one year. isn't it a disgrace that it can , just to get ars minor permit approved for the building of a simple road? [applause] president trump: i am asking both parties to come together to give us safe, fast, reliable and modern infrastructure that our

economy needs and our people deserve. [applause] president trump: tonight, i am calling on congress to produce a bill that generates at least $1.5 trillion for the new infrastructure investment that our cut -- that our country so desperately needs. every federal dollar should be -- byged and partnered partners in state and local governments and where appropriate, capping in the private sector investment to permanently fix the infrastructure deficit and we can do it. [applause]

president trump: any bill must also streamline the permitting and approval process, getting it down to no more than two years and perhaps even one. together, we can reclaim our great building heritage. [applause] we will buildp: gleaming new roads, bridges, highways, railways and waterways, all across our land and we will do it with american heart, american hands and american grit. host: we have been showing you headlines, this morning about the president's speech last night. the arkansas democratic is that this morning. pushes for infrastructure to the

front page of the indianapolis star. the president reaches out, uses the state of the union to help craft immigration and infrastructure plans. we want to get your thoughts on the infrastructure side. republicans,or democrats and independents, this morning. caller: it looks like a lot of the welfare checks come in, this morning with these idiots calling in about the deficit. where were they for eight years with obama when he and the trillion ran up $10 deficit? double the deficit. not a peek out of them, back then. my comment is that was one of the greatest speeches -- i think that was better than ronald reagan. trump is a genius businessman.

he is a self-made man. he knows business. at theshed high university of pennsylvania school of business. genius. about the money. every time the gdp goes up one point, and remember, obama, the 1.8 gdp.as now, trump has had it over 3% and each 1% ads $1.5 trillion to the coffers. remember that. you think it is a good time to invest $200 billion in infrastructure? caller: he has a plan.

he is so smart. you'll get private industry investing in it. he will get the states investing in it. there, fromll be the gdp going up. we just now announced here, the largest new automobile plant in the nation is going to be built in huntsville. , andazda and toyota chrysler is going to build the biggest one they have had, bringing their money back from mexico into detroit. people are being hired. everybody i have talked to are just deleted. host: thank you for the call -- .ust easily did -- elated host: thank you for the call.

president trump talking about those car factories in his speech, last night. charles is in michigan. caller: i wanted to talk about the infrastructure. i am in michigan and our roads are by far the worst in the country. i have driven in almost every state east of the mississippi except her jersey and a few, west of the mississippi and i have yet to see any roads that are this bad. we've got potholes the size of raccoons. i literally feel like my car is going to fall apart, on the road. and ireally that bad, think part of it has to do with the way that they are structured in michigan. how the state government goes with the contractors. they build roads to start failing within five years and we truly need a new infrastructure plan because.

there was a pothole last year in one of the cities, that the city actually had to pay people to get their cars fixed because the pothole was that bad. will do you think regulations about those roads, you say they don't last five years. do you think we would be better served if there were more people checking to make sure that the infrastructure being built last along the way? -- lasts along the way? caller: part of it. you have these contractors that deal with the state and the state is giving them these sweet deals and does not demand anything of the contractors, so they build these roads to fail. that is job security. here's another multimillion contract because the road you already built fell apart. host: sharon is a democrat in

dearborn. was just listening to chuck and part of the problem we have in michigan is the truckers do not have any weight limits. the man with the problem about obama. obama was paying off the deficit and mr. trump gained the upper half of 1.5%, $1.5 trillion of our tax money. he keeps talking about $1.5 trillion and this and that. it looked like one flew over the cuckoo's nest over -- after his speech. they were all running around slapping each other on the back. nine of them are going to be contributing to that $1.5 trillion. it is coming from the middle-class. he is very happy to hand out our money. i wonder how long we will be able to take this.

are you concerned with the president says he wants to streamline the promoting progress -- process and get rid ?f some of the red tape that,: as soon as he said i said yeah, we can have new shorelines. when he wrecks that, we can build new waterways. did you see what they did with the oil from the drilling? that is pretty scary, to think that our water will look like that in five years. host: to paul in chesapeake, virginia. what did you think about the president's pitch of $1.5 trillion in infrastructure investment? caller: it is interesting because we have two former governors here who entered into partnership and

it is mark warner and tim kaine. they know how this works. that thereed was were repairs on tunnels in the tidewater area that needed to be done, and they entered into the partnership.c they can do a good job, but you are going to wind up paying /publicn these private partnership roads which is what has happened in virginia. the private company has the ability to raise the tolls without even going through the state legislature. that went through court. when you're talking about infrastructure, we are talking about more than just roads.

people have to know that. there were callers from michigan. they have the water problem up there. we have the electrical grid. the intercoastal waterway coming down through virginia. there is a lot more than just roads and the $200 billion is really seed money to get these things started. government will reimburse x amount of dollars for so many years as in some other programs, and then they will turn it over to the state. many of the states are already having fiscal budget problems. x amount of dollars and say we will reimburse you for this much. now the state is on the hook. getcitizens of that state

put on the hook. there is mark warner and tim who are real familiar with that. a lot of people were upset with that private/public. the department of transportation went through without using the legislature. host: here is the front page of the usa today of this morning. state of the union inter-'s new era, talking about the reach of the state of the union, last ,ight -- enters a new era talking about the reach of the state of the union. it has been reduced by the political circumstances of the day and the way the 41st president communicates with the world. his personal social media accounts have a bigger audience than the one he will reach when reading prepared remarks loaded in a teleprompter.

audience of about 47.7 million people during his speech to a joint session of congress last year. the president has yet to tweet, this morning since the state of the union. 's last tweet input -- his last tweet inviting his followers to join him live. that was retweeted about 16.4 thousand -- 16.4 million times. we will keep you updated if the president tweets again. philip in oklahoma, line for democrats. caller: on this infrastructure deal, i wish they would take the money that they are trying to get on the border wall and put in these highways and things. he kept on about mexico will pay for the wall and it makes me

sick every time i see it. that won't work. callerof that, we had a from alabama that claims this is some genius businessman? a genius businessman does not file bankruptcy multiple times. they need to get this guy out of office before we really blow up. what i mean by that is before he blows us up or north korea. he is not a businessman or a genius. he is a idiot. host: on the cost of the border wall versus the infrastructure investment the president is looking for, some estimates about $18 billion for the first phases of the border wall. the president looking to leverage around $200 billion over 10 years for infrastructure investment, to help create a total of $1.5 trillion in infrastructure investment around

the country. those of the numbers stemming from the president's state of the union last night. we are getting your response. indianapolis, indiana, independent. caller: thank you. night, our mayor was on the television with the -- and he stated that it would cost $2 billion to fix the roads in indianapolis, alone. indianapolis is not a major american city. it is not huge, it is a major city but it is population light. that is just one city. furthermore, i have never seen so much hot air come out of one room in my life. his condescending attitude. i would like to give any president in the -- any president a chance, but the way

he condescends and his overall delivery and his gravitas. host: what is an example of something like that that you could not handle from last night? caller: when he turned to the democrats who are not standing and applauding him. he would put his hands out like well, are you going to get up and clap? i found that to be very arrogant and very undignified. he appears to have no humility. host: did you ever feel that way about past presidents when it came to the other party and the interaction between clapping and not clapping? view, iin my point of don't think you need to clap after everything. we are trying to listen to what he wants to do and it is more like cheerleading, to me. i found it to be that way with previous presidents, obama and bush and down the line.

i do think we have had a great president since kennedy. i was a little girl, then. i was only six years old when he was killed and they had just been undignified. there is no humility, there is no -- they are just arrogant. host: do you think it is time to do away with the state of the union? caller: that is interesting. i think it is good to come on and talk to the nation. i think it has its place. just dispense with all of the theatrics and the pageantry and just say what you really want to do. i wish more presidents would speak from their heart. hearst, come off silver even obama. i found him to be arrogant,

even. i would like to see more humanity in the president. host: charlie in wisconsin, a democrat. caller: i've got two questions. over the course of all of this discussion, i don't know, how does mexico feel about daca? inhave 1.8 million people the united states who can go to mexico and possibly change the and is thel network reason they leave is because they can't sustain their own economy? host: thomas is in ohio, line for republicans. the president pitching a $1.5 trillion infrastructure plan.

what do you think about it? caller: look at all the jobs that have come back. host: you got to turn down your television and speak through your phone. the lady called in and said about mexico paying for the funny,nd i think it is mexico is paying for the wall because look at all the jobs that are coming out of mexico, back to the united states. it is just common sense. if all the jobs are coming back to the united states, jobs that were going to mexico, that money is going to help pay for the wall. host: on twitter, kevin writes in, invest in america before investing in any other country or making more debt on the american people. dana writes in, if the economy cannot pay for this infrastructure investment, then the u.s. should wait to rebuild

roads. the democrats will not prevail if they act like spoiled children. jimmy is in south carolina, independent. go ahead. caller: trump is a businessman. somebody who can bounce back from $2 billion can certainly manage this country. speech lastucture night, people need to realize there is more than just president trump making these decisions. there are so many people that call into your show that have a distinct hatred for president trump and not viewing his policies on things. that is all i got to say on that. host: larry is in phoenix, arizona, a democrat. mentioni just wanted to that he has talked about

infrastructure and repairing the roads. he is just going to invite them whenney in, and they repair the roads, they will own them forever. he is offering to give away public infrastructure private corporations. this is a way to sync the country, something that will cost people everything, forever. the man is a crook and a thief. that's all i've got to say. host: a caller was talking about the number of applause lines during the state of the union. president trump nearly breaking all the records for a modern state of the union address, generating 15 rounds of applause for his first official review of his presidency. -- 115president obama

rounds of applause for his first official review of his presidency. former president obama was interrupted 90 times and former president george w. bush generated 80 applauses during their addresses to the nation. caller: c-span, you are a national treasure. the bottom line -- host: we lost tom. richard is in massachusetts, independent. your thoughts on this infrastructure investment? the gasinfrastructure, tax was supposed to take care of it goes moree, but into public transportation. amtrak. that is not what it was meant for. that takes most of the money.

amtrak has its own police department. mbta up here in massachusetts. that is coming from the gas tax. bridgespposed to be for and streets and that is why it has never been done. there when you get contractors shame.t, -- it is a the taxes that we pay for the tax -- for the gas tax are supposed to go to the roads, not public transportation. host: do you think we should look at fixing that before we invest an additional $200 billion infrastructure into new -- billion into new infrastructure? fixing the gas tax now so the money goes to bridges. caller: yes, that is one it was done for.

it was done to keep the roads and the bridges up, not to do public transportation. public transportation is a rip off. that is the biggest problem with the government. we pay more taxes. they waste of the money and it goes to the wrong places. thank you. host: peter in washington, a republican. caller: i was just wondering if people remember in the earlier obama years, the $800 billion to shovel ready jobs that were not shovel ready. $80 million was basically thrown down the tubes. inm not a real believer

public-- private get-togethers on this but at the same time, the nation cannot afford a lot of this stuff, but if the contract is right and i would trust this man and even though i am a republican, i have my questions about our president, but i think we are desperate and we need to do things a little different these days and it might be a good idea to get the right kind of ontract for infrastructure us and looked over in a way that the money is not spend on foolish projects that go nowhere. here in washington, we have construction that is going on in tacoma for a good 10 years and billions of dollars spent on it and it is -- there are off ramps and on ramps to know where and that stuff can be handled.

that is what the government should be interested in, is keeping an eye on these contracts incident trying to decide, picking winners and losers when it comes to construction. that is my consideration. several callers bringing up the president and the economy. we will focus on the economy and trade in about 10 minutes. one editorial focusing on the president inflated -- president's inflated view of the economy. writing there was a three-way relationship amongst the economy and the truth and you would have to say it is complicated when boasting about economic achievements. the president generally avoids a tangible falsehood that he is famous for in other areas, but exaggeration they say is pretty much the norm, particularly in

regarding the president claims he has turned around a second -- after a somewhat slow start last year, the economy grew by 3.6% -- with regulatory changes and a passage of a $1.5 trillion package of tax cuts including a reduction in corporate taxes. that is the editorial of usa today. one political cartoon that is also in usa today, next to that lead editorial is this one by nate buehler, showing the state

of the union address with the vice president and the speaker behind president trump and robert mueller looking over the president's left shoulder. concerns by congress about the potential bias from the justice department. house speaker paul ryan said yesterday that there are legitimate questions about the fbi's behavior in targeting members of then candidate donald why theteam and that is house is pressing ahead with the release of a controversial memo on the subject. mr. ryan says the public deserves to see the conclusion of the republicans on the house intelligence committee. he says quote, what we want is this memo to come out for the .ransparency can reign supreme

we are expected to get a message from the white house in the next couple of days. on his way out of the chamber, president trump was encouraged to release that memo and it was caught on tape as he was shaking jeff with congressman dunham. >> let's release the memo. president trump: no worries, 100%. clip from our c-span twitter page where we are tweeting out. you can go to c-span's webpage, c-span.org to watch the entire event yourself and watch any of our events here from c-span.

a few minutes left to keep talking about the president's push for a one point $5 trillion infrastructure investment that would include $200 billion in .ederal dollars caller: i don't care which president may be in office, but it seems the last ace up their ,leeve is infrastructure plans may it be obama or go on forever, but it seems like every time the united states gets in trouble and we are out of jobs, normally they pull this out and then war comes eventually. what scares me is who is going to do the actual work?

anybodyf we don't have coming over like the chinese did with the railways and not -- i am a little worried about the kids nowadays because most kids don't know what work is, because they are so used to being babied thanks to the obama administration and obama closing down most of the schools such as the well-being and schools that teach trades. -- such as welding and schools that teach trades. caller: i wanted to talk about infrastructure a little bit. i live south of detroit and we do have a problem with our roads. i feel that we shouldn't be paying for the wall and doing more with our roadways.

very -- i watched the state of the union last night and for some of the things that he talked about, it just blew me away. like your other caller talked about, with him being very condescending, i felt that way as well. thank you for your time. host: what specifically made you feel that way? . abouthat your caller said him telling the democrats to stand off -- stand up, when he mentioned a couple of the other -- is that the democrats accommodate some things on both sides. i believe that, but at the same time, we have to make sure that

we are taken care of, more than just paying for a wall. roads and pay for then what he said about clean coal. i live close to a coal industry. it is not clean coal. host: one more call on infrastructure. democrats.for caller: i am all for infrastructure. it stop using barack obama's name -- they need to stop using barack obama's name. you had a line for illegals to call in. you did not get many calls. instead of using the word illegal, try using undocumented from now on. you may get a few more calls. there was going to call and say they are illegal -- who is going to call and say they are illegal? host: thank you for the suggestion. coming up on 9:00 on the east

coast. we are going to spend our last hour of the washington journal today talking about the economy, talking about trade when it comes to president trump's message from last night. the president saying that the era of economic surrender is over. one quote from his speech last night. we want to hear from you on that topic. democrats, (202)-748-8000. republicans, (202)-748-8001. independents, (202)-748-8002. mcgregor,ned by sarah economic editor with bloomberg. thank you for being here. what was the message on trade last night from the president? caller: we heard some familiar phrasing from trump about trade. he wants to have reciprocal trade deals which essentially chargingcountry x is

for the level of tariffs or putting up barriers, then the u.s. is going to do it right back at them and i think anyone who is looking for specifics in the state of the union about how he is going to do that is not going to get that. it was all speculation and rumors that he might announce something about nafta or something on the chinese investigation into his -- into its intellectual property practices and we did not get any specifics like that. language and a pretty firm stance that he tends to crack down on unfair trade practices. host: this is a president they got a lot of votes really against trade deals. why shy away from talking around -- talking about the specifics of that? caller: on the 1 -- guest: on the one hand, announcing a trade deal would overshadow the main

message of his speech which was talking about unity. i think the messaging probably would have been kind of of us it a speech for a domestic audience . i think there were important trade aspects. one was on this ip investigation. as one of the practices that the u.s. wanted to crack down on. host: ip being intellectual property. thet: looking into long-standing allegation by the u.s. that china forces u.s. companies to hand over their intellectual property or the secrets to their success in order to get access to the chinese market and the u.s. has been looking into this. the trade representative's office does not need to hand over its report until august. there was some speculation that trump would try to make a stand

during the speech. trump did look at that as something that he would want to crack down on, specifically. the second thing that stood out was a named china and russia as rivals, economically. that was a hint that his constant mantra that china has been unfair in the trading arena might be an area he is going to pursue this year. where are we on the nafta negotiations? when can we expect some action from the white house on whether to withdraw? guest: the last meeting just wrapped up in montreal, last week. a third of 30 chapters were closed. there has not been much progress on the hard issues and that is what is going to make or break this deal. congressman spoke on cnbc and hopefully that will be progress.

-- there will be progress, but he repeated his threat and it seems to loom large that trump will pull out of the deal if you cannot get better terms for the u.s. -- if she cannot get better terms for the -- he cannot get better terms for the u.s. the president about a week ago imported -- put a terrace on imported solar panels and washing machines and this was a company initiated take. trump did not go out on his own by putting the tariffs on it, -- people have seen that as a sign that he asserting to get hard on his trade agenda and we have not quite seen that yet. the ip investigation on china might be next. perhaps nafta will see some progress in the next couple weeks. host: we have heard the term

trade war. can you explain what that would mean? . it is the idea that -- thet: it is the idea that menstruation putting restrictions on trade that were unfair or outside the trade organizations role, then other countries would reciprocate by putting up barriers. it could mean the comfort -- the country would try to hit the -- america where if a hurt the most. if we put up barriers for something like ip, china might hit back and say ok fine, your putean exports, they might up barriers to that and it could create a domino effect. host: on the larger economic message from the president last night, is this the same president we saw in his speech daffodilss? -- from -- from davos?

guest: he did not spend a lot of time -- he did not spend a lot of time on trade. the same message, may slightly different packaging. he could have gone a lot harder. for now, it looks like everyone is still on the edge of their seat, wondering if this is going to mean more on trade action, is this going to lead to heart actions that could set off a trade war or some sort of harsh economic ramifications in the u.s. economy. host: what are you looking at as the next hint of whether that might happen. caller: -- guest: we are covering every round of the nafta negotiations. the u.s. has said it wants to make progress in the next few weeks. i think we are just looking for what kind of progress is made on that and will the talks be extended into later this year and into 2019 and what is that

line that could be crossed that the u.s. would actually withdraw from the agreement? host: sarah mcgregor is the economic editor with bloomberg. we appreciate you stopping by. guest: thank you. host: the lines are open as we spend the last hour of our program talking about trade and the economy. the president's statement last night that the era of economic surrender is over. we want to hear your thoughts on that. democrats, (202)-748-8000. republicans, (202)-748-8001. independents,-- (202)-748-8002. scott is up first. caller: good morning. in reference to that statement you made about economic surrender, that is probably real true because we don't really have anything else to surrender, , ituse of nafta literally

has all gone to china and vietnam. we don't produce anything here anymore, so we don't have anything to surrender. of the cape the rest -- of the taxpayers way to the billionaires and without a tax base, you cannot run a country. he is literally just -- i don't know if it is necessarily -- goldman sachs in the office with him. not worries me is there is a lot produced here anymore, so we don't really have a lot of leverage to deal with any of these countries like canada and mexico and china, especially. i was watching chinese tv the other day and china literally said why is america blaming us? everything we have, america gave to us on a silver platter.

we just took it and ran with it. that,really wanted to fix he would eliminate nafta, just get rid of it and force these corporations who built their countries on the backs of america and then left and went for the low wages in china, which makes them traitors in my view. force them to make up their mind , they will either be a chinese company or they will be an american company. host: that is scott in maine. betty in wisconsin, a republican. caller: yes, i think with one guy that comes on tv and says return america to the original, which was when we were a christian nation and every one of those guys, we were in the 1776 is an all that stuff was written, it was because we were a christian nation. you took god of our country, no

one can mention the word god and you have to act like you are ashamed of having a faith, that is terrible. just like now with the germs from the flu, you are supposed to not take communion? god told us to take the blood in the body of him and he is -- host: paul is in new york. comparei would like to ebenezer scrooge take a story to the democrats and republicans. scrooge was asked to give to the poor and he said let them perish and make the earth lighter and then he went through a spiritual change and he gave bob cratchit a raise and gave the family at christmas goose and gave tiny tim health care and made him well again. he went from being a republican to being a democrat. host: susan is in florida, independent. caller: thank you very much for taking my call.

i think i am disgruntled for a lot of reasons. i did see the press conference last night and to be honest, my lies with many issues. host: what do you think about trade and the economy? trade and the economy, i think that we are being falsely led as far as what was express last night. i don't think the african-americans have more jobs. to be perfectly honest with you i thought whole thing was nauseating. i was physically nauseated. i have been a public school teacher here in florida for 35 years. single mother of an autistic

handicapped child. i am already worried about medicaid. person has quite haskly pretty much depressed the entire nation. it's nauseating. that's susan in florida this morning. we are spending our last hour on washington journal talking about trade and the economy and the president's message on those topics from the state of the union. here's the president last night talking about unfair trade practices. finallyca has also turned the page on decades of unfair trade deals that sacrifice their prosperity and shipped away our companies, our jobs and our wealth. our nation has lost its wealth but we are getting it back so fast.

surrender isonomic totally over. from now on we expect trading relationships to be fair and very importantly reciprocal. [applause] we will work to fix bad trade deals and negotiate new ones and they will be good ones but they will be fair. we will work to fix bad trade and we will protect american workers and american intellectual property through strong enforcement of our trade rules. getting your thoughts this morning on the washington journal. kingsley in charlotte, north carolina on the line for democrats. caller: two quick comments.

i am tired of our resident. he is exhausting. every day. the wholeand country is worn ou. daily chaos. now i don't ever watch tv because he is exhausting. he aggrandize us himself. have patience with democratic party leadership. it has no leadership. they are dos style. and talkot stand up with the members in congress. countryabdicated their to trump who is taking our country to a dictatorship.

ryan and the senate leader have practically given our country to a dictatorship and he should be prosecuted. how do you start a separate investigation from your own committee? and he should be prosecuted. vincent in alabama on the line for republicans. ahead. caller: yes sir. i'm calling about our little town. usased to have a capital and i was just wondering are we going to be able to get our sock factory back in the united states? paynest directly in fort but a few areas in and around north alabama. host: when did they leave?

back in i think 2004 or 2005. somewhere in that area. some of them went to mexico. some of them went to hong kong or other places throughout the like tod i would just see them come back here. because our town, we do have a few businesses here. children's place. ferguson's. but our little town needs to be andructured for better jobs our town really needs a good helping hand. host: do you think that is coming under president trump? that iti am praying will be. and if it does happen it would just make fort payne become back to life. and bring good industry in, good

tourist and maybe the attraction, too. host: did you work at one of those sock factories? caller: no sir. i'm a retired v.a. veteran and i have been working on my service connection which is still in holding pattern. but i'm patient. let me rephrase that. since they have gotten rid of -- correct me if i'm wrong -- employees who were not doing their jobs in the v.a. host: you are talking about the president's comments last night on that? caller: yes sir. my main concern is our town needs the sock factories back in here. also around huntsville, alabama

they got the toyota business coming in. the factory to build cars there. i would like to see something bigger in our county to come in with a big factory. host: thanks for telling us about fort payne. ted is in shelton, washington. line for independents. caller: i am sitting here trying to figure out how we borrowed $2 trillion for a corporate and break becauseax 90% went to them while corporations were already sitting on billions of dollars in the united states that weren't investing and weren't increasing wages. the bonuses were going to the top. the republicans opened the door for repatriation of billions of dollars but the money came from

american jobs sent overseas. my question is now we have corporations and companies are bonuses and wage hikes using the money that we borrowed to give us wage hikes. pay back plus interest. now trump wants to give public-private infrastructure which in turn turns out to be nothing but a tax on the middle class and the poor because here in washington state we already have toll roads and we have stuff like this and we are actually getting ready to open a big tunnel. the poor and the middle class can't afford to pay this so they drive around further. that's the problem with what the president is trying to do. we are just selling out to the rich and it puts everybody into slavery. thank you. host: james in virginia.

line for democrats. go ahead. i just wanted to do a reality check. for one thing jobs don't move overseas or out of the country because of taxes. they move out for cheap labor. that's a fact. i think it hasng been predicted in 50 years we will have a hispanic president. so the conservatives are way off on that. and that's about all i got to say this morning. thank you. host: a caller just a few minutes ago was talking about party leadership during the state of the union address. we saw several shots throughout the night of nancy pelosi. here she is with a group of democratic women before the state of the union address all wearing black saying the

of the time's up and me too movement is about more than demanding decency and respect. we must cherish and recognize the brave people who stand up to demand their stories we heard. -- be heard. blackcolleagues wearing on the floor. also in terms of clothing that was worn on the floor, democratic congresswoman alma noted that the congressional black caucus were cloth to honor the countries the president proclaimed to be s-hole countries last week. luis in san antonio, texas. line for democrats. go ahead. caller: yes. i just wanted to say that i will

start having some faith in his real interest in our economy when he and his family bring back some of the businesses that they got overseas and establish them here in the united states. back some of the businesses that they gotand also if he quit hirg mar-a-lagoto work in i'm sure there are plenty of people in florida or puerto rico that would like to have those jobs. and to the men in alabama that talked about trump being a self-made man well i'm sure if he inherited $200 million from his father he could be a self-made millionaire, too. and him being so happy about all of the auto companies coming back to his area in alabama? we wouldn't even have an auto manufacturing business if it wasn't for the fact that obama saved that industry.

along with the banking industry. they don't want to recognize those facts. they are totally blinded to this man and i just hope that we don't all end up paying for it in the end. thank you. darrell in detroit, michigan. go ahead. caller: good morning. there's two obvious vacancies we have for the president of the united states and the reporter you had. neither one talked about the $700 billion trade deficit we are running. whencans don't understand $700 billion falls out of this country it has to be made up and the vacuum has to be filled by something. and how we have been doing it now for the last 20 or 30 years since 1975 is by deficit spending to cover the holes. --e trade is something

taught by the schools. which has not worked since the ancient egyptians 7000 years ago. current and has continuous outflows of cash from their country the wealth of their citizens is withdrawn. thank you. that's all i got. host: richard in hershey, pennsylvania. republican. go ahead. caller: hello. i am calling regarding your show. i am a fan of the c-span and what it does. but sometimes i think you as a host has to basically clarify when this information is being tv program.your for example everything is anti-trump, anti-trump. i don't see a buddy calling and saying about the devastation that the democratic party displayed last night. if i was sitting in a boardroom and i have been on several boards.

if i saw one of my board members perform the way the democratic people performed last night i would have had him removed immediately. we are a country that votes for our leaders. we sometimes don't agree with got elected but unfortunately those are the people that got elected. so i'm asking you that when you and i assume you do understand that most of this information is incomplete or incorrect. why don't you take the time to set the straight -- set the information correct so that people get a better understanding? your job is to inform and educate the public. that's your purpose. but when you have guests on that obviously are biased that takes away from the purpose of your show. a lot of these people are calling in with a predetermination they don't like a certain person that got voted in but unfortunately if you don't like it then go back to

the polls and vote in who you want. but take a look at where we are today. we have improved. denied thating she the black people are getting more jobs. get her facts together. state it. in hershey,d pennsylvania. karen is in chester, pennsylvania. line for democrats. caller: thank you for taking my call. i wanted to make a quick comment about the economy. the lady before was correct about the labor costs. not the taxes. that could all change for years from now. people in other countries -- people on capitol hill act like the rest of the world doesn't have the internet and can't see c-span and our government shutdown. they see us fighting over the government. us andey lose faith in the u.s. dollar is no longer the world's reserve currency we are

going to be a third world country overnight. karen int's pennsylvania. the caller does kobach was looking for a fact check on the stats about african-american unemployment. in today's washington post. when the president said last night that african-american unemployment stands at its --est rate ever reported recorded this is a flip-flop by president trump. during the 2016 campaign he used to claim a four pinocchio statistic that 50% of african-american youths were unemployed. the official unemployment rate for black youth at the time was 19.2%. about one third of the rate that president trump used. now that he is president he is all too happy to cite an accurate unemployment rate for african americans bragging but it's the best since the turn-of-the-century. the african-american unemployment rate has been on a relatively steady decline since it had a peak of 16.8% in march 2010 during the great recession.

.he rate had already fallen when trump took office. trump taking credit for this is like a rooster thinking the sun came up because include -- it crowed. go ahead. caller: yes. i was totally totally appalled at the disgraceful behavior last night. disgraceful toly the president. it was disgraceful showing the -- host: behavior by who, lois? caller: the democrats. the world is watching. and you just can't have such behavior. not trump.nt trump, host: what specific behavior did you not appreciate? caller: sitting down.

lumpsitting there like a on a log. you don't do that. you respect people. you can agreeably disagree but you don't totally disrespect. in such as that. host: did you feel that way when president obama was giving his state of the union addresses and republicans would sit during his part of the address? caller: seriously i did not notice that. but this is the present time. and go back to united you are strong. divided we are going to fall. aparterything is falling because the democrats don't -- are going to do everything and everything they can against trump. in south carolina. five democrats offered responses to the state of the union lessnau night.

the official response coming from congressman joe kennedy. here's a little bit of what he had to say. bullies may land a punch. they may leave a mark. have never not once in the history of all our united states strength and spirit of a people, united in defense of their future. politicians -- [applause] kennedy: politicians can be cheered for the promises they make. our country will be judged by the promises we keep. [applause]

rep. kennedy: that is the measure of our character. that is who we are. out of many, one. ladies and gentlemen, have faith. have faith. the state of our union is hopeful, resilient, and enduring. [applause] god bless you, god bless your family, and may god bless the united states of america. host: just after god bless you,d bless your family, and may god 9:30 on the east coast. a half hour left. we're talking about the president's message last night on the state of the union and trade in the economy. the euro of economic surrender is totally over. we want to hear your thoughts. palm coast, florida, line for independents. 9:30 on the east coast. a half hour left. >> i want to make a comment about the opioid crisis.

he said the drug dealers and street pushers are responsible really, he mentioned nothing orut the drug companies, from dea, ramsey had come forward. even in the 60 minute lease, which clearly revealed the president had at knowledge that, thisthis was the cause of -- what was behind the opioid crisis. .e made no mention you have to question, is he putting the drug companies in front, for using positioningitical but not really calling a spade a spade. host: victoria, line for democrats. a lot of republicans set

for obama''s speeches and one guy yelled out "you lie." target had to increase wages two years ago so walmart was forced to. munication workers of america, a union, negotiated with sprint, at&t, and all of those with a $1000 bonus. they questioned writing a $4000 bonus because that is what republicans said they would get. andt of these are labor these are also wage increases due to lifting the minimum wages and most of those are democratic states. a lot of misinformation out there. timmy in lakeview, arkansas, line for republicans. caller: thank you for taking my call. a couple of things. the last one being a comment that you brought up from hershey, pennsylvania fellow. tariffs, we do not

understand how little terrorists there are on all of the things that come on this country. if there were 10% across-the-board, that would be an equal tariff and would fund a lot of the necessary federal government. back to the other subject, the hershey, pennsylvania guy asked you to point out misinformation. he went to a washington post story and you said that trump said african-american unemployment was the lowest in history. no. he said the lowest and 45 years. go back and watch the tape. theaid it was mexican-american unemployment that was the lowest ever recorded. first, read from usa today, listed two things that were supposedly trump lies. will excuse me, you could call it wiretapped or ease drop --

, so they could spy on him. what news sources do you trust? caller: well, trust... trust... you have got to look at all of them and you have got to look bias of those -- i have got to call them leftists or progressives. not all democrats are in that boat. that stood lastre some night for the various things. but hard-core progressives, or leftists, socialists, they just want to fight everything. they don't want to give any credit for anything that they don't do. and obviously, they don't want to deal with anything. i couldn't believe the deal he was going to give for daca. 1.8 million is bigger than for

small states. amnesty,e you give nothing happens afterward as far as control. i could not believe he was going to give the democrats this, but you know, #lyingsackofs schumer, he did not care about those issues. host: what the president said last night on job creation in this country. president trump: we have created 1.4 million new jobs -- [applause] includingtrump: 200,000 new jobs in manufacturing alone. [applause] president trump: after years and wage stagnation, we are finally seeing rising wages.

[applause] president trump: unemployment have hit a 45 year low. [applause] president trump: something i am very proud of, african american a plymouth stands at the lowest rate ever recorded. [applause] president trump: hispanic american unemployment has also reached the lowest levels in history. [applause]

president trump: business confidence is at an all-time high. the stock market has smashed one after another. $80 million and more in just this short time. [applause] president trump: 401k have gone irough the roof and, just as promised, the american people, from the podium, 11 months ago, we adapted the biggest tax cuts and reforms in american history. left inout 20 minutes our program. pat, and independent. good morning.

i had to call him this morning because i appreciate you. so many times these people call and they are saying well you did this and you don't do this and all of that. look. i was so glad when you asked the abouthat did she think how republicans responded when made his obama speeches, his address to the nation. let me tell you something. they quickly forget, there was even someone who shouted out to the president, "you lie." something, who just sits there and acted like the democrats just did but it is what the republicans did when president obama was doing his

he was saying, if someone did that in his tort meeting, he would have them removed. that is the hader ship and it is not america, it is not the free america we know. keep it up. i wish more of the moderators would come out and challenge some of these people. yout of times when challenge them, they cannot even give you an example of what they are saying that is going wrong. thank you. host: what do you think about the president's message on trade? the topic we have been talking about for the last hour this morning. the arabnts that economic surrender is totally over? caller: we do need work done on the trade agreements here. taxing of the the imports and exports, and all of think at least he

started it, but then, you know, he has taken a lot of credit for stuff coming off the back of but all he has done is rescinded everything that president obama wanted to do. host: scott, line for republicans in texas. caller: pre-much, i was just listening to everybody and i just wanted, from everything i've heard so far, i think trump is doing a great job. i have seen him talk about 401(k)s and economics and trade. we are getting businesses back. my personal 401(k), i have looked at it. i am not what you call a high-level republican. i'm low level. my 401(k) has hosted since he has been in office.

out attacksot given , bonuses, like home depot has done. but he is doing such a great job. i mean everything he has done, he is doing the best he can and democrats keep filibustering everything. they do not want to see the president succeed. obama did a couple of things. i never voted for him, but he did a couple of things in his first term that were decent. being talking about trump a dictator. obama was a dictator and when constitution and implement things through executive orders that were against our constitution. and then trump is trying to revert us back to where america was america where we follow the .onstitution

everyone saying it is a race for between each other -- race war between each other. big crime syndicates. i was watching tv last night. a cartel, i'm sorry, border patrol had just found a shipment of drugs, heroine, in wax. it was down in this state. host: we have been talking all morning about the state of the union address of the president. spentst amount of time he was 18 minutes and 17 seconds talking about the economy, foreign policy, 18 minutes and 11 seconds on that, health care, six minutes, 37 seconds. those numbers tracking by the washington post.

the great unmentioned, nowhere in trump'speech, did he address, the special counsel investigation into russia's attempted meddling and possible collusion with members of his campaign. trump uttered the word russia only once. president trump in a speech of sensibly about unity and bipartisanship would it -- host: here is the one-time president trump did mention russia. as we rebuildp: america's strength and confidence at home, we are also restoring strength and standing abroad. we face wrote regimes, terrorist rivals like china and russia, that challenge our interest is, our economy, and our values.

confronting these horrible dangers, we know weakness is the surest path to conflict, and is the surestr means to our true and great defense. for this reason, i'm asking congress to end the dangerous defense sequester and fully fund our great military. 15 minutes left in our program today. at 10:00, we will take you to a press conference of house democratic leaders talking about their reaction to the speech. we want to hear from you on the phone lines until then here on washington journal as we spend the last hour talking about the president's trade and economic message. bill, go ahead? caller: yes.

i think we are going down a slippery slope when we talk about tariffs. specifically, i'm thinking the great depression. there was an act passed by two , it was aople precursor to the big depression we had. they raisedd is tariffs so high on all of these other countries and their isorts that the country reciprocated and we started going downhill. .e careful about that i also wanted to say because of didn'terbert hoover agree with it but he signed for and he was actually a humanitarian and then after that, he was nothing.

didn't do well at all. ist i would like to see c-span get an historian on there to talk about what is going on because history repeats itself. journalists, i'm thinking margaret -- thinking margaret hoover, let her talk about great-grandfather herbert hoover to see what mistakes he made right before the depression. i appreciate the suggestion. topic weg, certainly a have covered there. it might be a way to find what you're looking for. go ahead. would like to mention, in terms of trade, there was a between theerence

state of the union he gave last people -- they go to meet one another and of course president trump was talking about, let's make a lot of trade deals. these are the precise people who have, no, they have reaped huge profit. and, you know, leaving the workers behind in poverty wages or struggling just to survive. economic of development, a program yesterday or the day before, the internet, they were wonderful speakers and particularly, i want to talk about weber, who has written the book. she is apparently an analytic futurist and a professor.

that means she is looking at the future and saying our government does not have anybody adequately to figure out the policies of where we are going. they are way behind on the internet. that they are something new, except they have been around a number of years and a kind of damage they can do is staggering. we are not adequately addressing that. we are also not adequately addressing new opportunities. what is artificial intelligence? what will we wind up with when we have driverless car's? we appreciate the comments. the first program you mentioned, a q&a interview with the author of super hubs, how the financial elite and networks rule our world back from february 2 of last year, if viewers want to go back and watch it. dennis, line for democrats.

republicans call in and call trump a genius. don't hire someone like sessions as attorney general, who ends up being his biggest critic. if trump is such a genius, how come he has had so many wives? that is my comment. host: republican, go ahead. caller: first of all, i wanted to say i appreciate -- i appreciate c-span. you're always unbiased. seenestion was, i have not print things that you have shown -- everything i have seen so far, i have not seen the program, but it was negative. i want to see if use -- if you showed any print things this morning praising trump. i also wanted to say i thought he gave a great speech and was very presidential. everything i have seen online

today has been positive about him. he is a great president. i was so disappointed in the and nots sitting respecting our president. obama.cted i did not vote for him but never put him down. i never did like these democrats are doing. have you shown anything this morning that is positive? so many journalists are against trump. we showed this during our first hour, discussion of immigration comments from the president last night, the democratic portrayal of the the lead- dreamers is editorial and their discussion about the president's immigration before -- proposal and what he is offering for democrats and why they think democrats are betraying the dreamers and what the president is offering here. that, it isto read

in the washington times today. go ahead. caller: good morning. i was just talking about how he isnt and talking about american community and hispanics. i wanted to say that yes, there but i know athere, lot of african americans and hispanics who graduated from college and they cannot find jobs. innow engineers working restaurants or supermarkets or stuff like that. they are employed, but they are not using what their talents are and whether degrees are. i see a lot of incarceration. i see a lot of deportation in the communities. where is he getting the numbers? sad that african-americans

will have to work in a and there are jobs like google, not google, amazon. or ups, and because of the holidays and the technical stuff . there are a lot of ups jobs in amazon jobs but they are not using their degree. the president announcing he signed an executive order in cubay to keep indefinitely, suggesting he will use it to house new terrorism sus x for the first time in a decade. the washington post with his breakdown of detainees and numbers, 41 prisoners remaining in guantanamo they can't spirit five have been clear for care -- the military commission process. here is the president last night

talking about plans for guantanamo bay. president trump: today, i'm keeping another progress -- another promise. i just signed an order directing secretary mattis, who was doing a great job. thank you. [applause] president trump: to re-examine our military detention policy and keep open the detention facilities in guantanamo bay. we want to keep getting your reaction to the state of the union address. , go, line for independents ahead. >> i am from south carolina.

joe wilson -- a congressman. he yelled out, when obama was given his speech, that he lied. this was disrespect not only to the man, but the presidency. democrats were not president ortheir their particular leader in office speaking, that is not disrespect. but disrespect is when you call a man a liar. that is my comment. host: a republican in virginia, go ahead. are you with us? tom is in palm city florida for democrats. go ahead.

lady was talking about a lot of american engineers were unemployed. i have been fighting illegal immigration for about four years. back to the engineers, lady came up to me and had an unemployed husband who was an engineer and -- should mean heart from she showed me an article from the london times and it was an american company asking for engineers in england to come your to the united states, and they would pay their way to go to work. and that is what we are doing. trump is talking about how we need more immigrants that have brains, like engineers and all and doctors and all. we have our own engineers and all and doctors and all. uses, you know, he has got

inigrants coming into work his mansion in west palm beach cared what a hypocrite. on theetter than nothing immigration issue. that is it. some of the top tweeted moments last night involved the president talking about immigration. the second most tweeted about according to twitter pluses government handle. the president discussed ms 13, it was the third most tweeted about moment. we standpresident said for the national anthem. about 4.5 million tweets were sent out about the state of the during that state of the union. it was the most tweeted about state of the union or join a surpassing the

past 3 million. for republicans, go ahead. caller: i would like to say first, trump as president, the economic surrender is over. i also wanted to mention something that happened a few minutes ago. i want to fact check. i do not know if you say noticed, it was about african-american unemployment and the fact checker went back to a statement 58%p had made, it was like were unemployed. he then cited a bureau of labor statistics of like 19.8%. host: 19.2%.

caller: right. ok. out, i'mike to point butsing he was citing one, the statement of, if it was 58% of unemployed, it is probably accurate. in now or oh people that maybe would take a job but were out of the market, that being unemployed, there were people on the street corners that are not in the system. do think the president should stop using his bureau of labor statistics numbers? i am making the point

that whether you are a politician or what, you will make statements of support your side. a fact checker, he should not have used the statement, if you want to check that 58% of black youth were unemployed, you would never use that,. you would find that data from outau, but he was calling trump a liar but in fact, the fact checker needs to be fact checked. that is jack this morning. the fact checker, his column in the washington post, viewers the stand atthat, the lowest rate ever recorded. ellen is in new york city, a democrat, good morning. >> good morning. he was absolutely right about

the nafta agreement. the textile industry, the the industry,ry, transporting the stuff act and forth. the nafta agreement, they never worked a day in their lives in the private sector, the clintons, and yet they turned over high-paying jobs, service sector jobs, which were lope. it was something trump was absolutely right about. ok.: we're waiting for a press conference to begin of democratic leaders offering their reactions to the state of the union. we will take calls while we wait for that to begin. tom is in washington. good morning. good morning.

i would like to thank c-span forgiving and informed voice. i could not help after watching struckch last night, with the overwhelming sense of how we have all had to do with whos people in our lives did not have, let's say, a similar personality type that we like to get along with peer but they were selling a great wanted.we really it had options we did not like and some that we wanted that we didn't have to we wanted it but we -- didn't have to do with the salesman. in mind, i find it very difficult to invest my with someings financial investment type person

who has declared bankruptcy six different times. i am having difficulty when i look at him and wonder, what is the motivation here? ties loomingussian in the background create an overwhelming sense of uncertainty that i cannot believe anything the gentleman is saying. host: the front page of the new york post went with the headline -- trump calls for unity. other headlines from papers around the country. this is the daily news out of new york. what a load of clap. one trump raises himself, while bashing immigrants. of front page, trump warns dangers in the state of the union and one more for you from the front page of the herald

tribune out of florida. americans are dreamers. the quote from the president is getting a lot of play 12 hours or so after the state of the union ended here charles, line for republicans. go ahead. first off.ependent i think i'm coming back strong with the results they have shown. i thought the president gave a wonderful's reach and i thought he nailed every detail that needed to be said. democrats the , i would likeude to say one thing about daca. actan, it was an illegal partyn a president whose

is trying to make it a given. it was illegal. illegal children are illegals. if you want to hear more, a press conference is getting ready to start on capitol hill. we will see you write that cure tomorrow morning and sunday. in the meantime, have a great wednesday. which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2017] >> the house itself and the senate not in session today due

to the republican retreat, house and senate republicans in west retreat.for a two day they will hear from vice president mike pence this evening. we will cover that over on c-span2. president trump will speak to the group tomorrow and we will cover that it's well. democrats will have their policy retreat next week on the eastern shore of maryland and we will hear from democrats in the wake of yesterday's state of the union, which will re-air for you. can see that now at c-span.org. news from the administration that the cdc director is resigning. president trump's top health official will resign after mounting questions about financial conflicts of interest. that thewrites resignation comes one day after political reported that dr. fitzgerald, the director of centers for disease control but

shares in a tobacco, drugs, and food companies one month into the job. can read more about that at politico.com. we will wait here live as the democrats come out. ahead of the agenda next week, the short week because of next week's policy retreat. [indistinct conversations]

>> we will be hearing from house democrats in a minute hurt after last night'state of the union, democrats -- president trump's first, here on c-span coming up at 4:00 in the afternoon, a look at the supreme court's midterm review at georgetown university law scoop -- law school. that is coming up at 4:00 p.m. eastern. we will also bring you a state bythe union review hosted the senate for strategic and international studies. coming up today at 5:30 eastern. reaction to president trump'speech last night. they should be getting underway shortly of the capital. the house and the senate are out

today and through the rest of the week because of republican policy retreat in west virginia. mike pence, the president will travel tomorrow to make comments . next week, it is the democrats turn, to have a policy underway in maryland. [indistinct conversations]

>>'s democratic news conference should get underway shortly. a reaction to the date of the union address last night and while we wait for it, we will bring a portion of today's "washington journal, the entire program looking at the state of the union with the immigration

portion of last night'speech. to help us break down what the president said last night, we are joined now from our news desk by brian bennett of the l.a. times. what was the message the president was trying to get across last night at this front? guest: the president is trying to lay out his plan on immigration, making sure it looked like he was giving a generous offer, particularly to democrats, of offering a pathway to citizenship or 1.8 million people who came into the country illegally. in exchange for that, he wants big investments in border security. not just the wall, but increases in the number of deportation agents. he also wants to revamp the legal immigration system, do visawith the diversity lottery, which brings and 50,000 people year out of the one million people that come to the , and he wants to tighten the family unification be the

policies and restrict that two minor children and the pair -- to minor children and the parents. in certain circumstances, people can bring adult children and other relatives into the country. by no means the family unification be the policy -- visa policy allow people to bring virtually unlimited numbers of relatives to the country, as the president said. the: how much do you think president was talking to congress when it came to laying out this plan, and how much was it building a case with americans watching at home? guest: he is absolutely trying to build a case across the country for his immigration plan. he frames it in a frame of security, and the way he laid it out, you can tell from the reaction in the room, rob democrats the wrong way -- ubbed democrats the wrong way, they did not applaud

in the way they did when he offered 1.8 million people having a pathway to citizenship. it felt like to me that the two parties in congress are still very far apart when it comes to getting to a deal on this. the president is trying to sell it to the public. host: you said the way he laid it out. before he began talking about immigration reform, he talked about the dangers specifically of ms 13. how can you -- can you explain how he directed the discussion over the course of the 15 minutes? guest: you can look at what he said last night and over the past few months. the president has repeatedly tied chain migration and the visa lottery to the westside terror that c-span.org p or it would take you back life to the capital for the democrats reaction to the state of the union speech. congressman crowley: i am the chair of the democratic caucus