policy issues facing the trump administration. then later alberto gonzalez served as attorney general under george w. bush joins us to discuss the immigration policy under the trump administration. ♪ host: good morning. it is 7:00 a.m., daylight saving time. the bill would provide additional federal dollars for students and teachers, and law enforcement officials. a key hazards could be an indicator of the 20 team midterm elections. voters in pennsylvania go to the polls on tuesday in a special election to replace a former republican house member who stepped down after a scandal. the race in western pennsylvania

state as a tossup. president trump in the white house this morning after a campaign stop just outside of pittsburgh. this headline from the washington post, stormy daniels aims to rewrite the script with a lawsuit. that is where we begin this morning on "washington journal." we want to find out from you whether or not you think the story involving the president and stormy daniels is relevant. if you support president trump, (202) 748-8000. for all others, (202) 748-8001. we will take your tweets at cs panwj. good sunday morning. thank you for being with us. the story began to break in early january with reporting from the wall street journal, this headline, trump lawyer arranging for a $130,000

keep a to form start -- porn star silent. (202) 748-8000 for those who support the president. all others, (202) 748-8001. joining us today, alex eisenstadt of politico. let's begin with the story about guns, the capitol hill, and the president. what can we expect this week? guest: it is unclear because there is not really been any movement whatsoever on guns since the shooting at part one high school. there has been a lot of talk for some time, but no actual movement, anything legislatively. host: this is an issue playing

out in western pennsylvania. so is the tariffs issue. i will that play out on tuesday -- how will that play out on tuesday? guest: that is interesting because you have a lot of gunowners in that district. the democrat running, conor lamb, is running as a fairly conservative candidate. you have republicans starting to attack him as being too conservative on guns. it is an interesting approach. they are trying to weaken his support among democrats and liberal voters, weaken their enthusiasm for him. the president speaking last night are almost an hour and 15 minutes, a campaign style 2018 where he talked about and an eye on 2020.

what was your take away? guest: this was trump being tr ump. this was a very long speech. he spent a lot of time talking about things other than this race, including his own reelection. he did give an endorsement of rick saccone. pennsylvania is so important for him, his political coalition, his electoral coalition. a loss in this race would be a real black eye for president trump, a district where he won by 20 points. it is quite essential trump territory. he gave his endorsement last night to rick saccone. this would be an embarrassment for the present, the fact that this is a race we are talking about this morning. but: not only that, allegheny county in

pennsylvania, which includes pittsburgh, gave him the largest vote total in 2018. we carried the speech yesterday. we aired it earlier this morning. the president yesterday just outside pittsburgh. [video clip] in two we start running years from now, the new slogan is going to be keep america great!. keep america great! [cheers] we can only do that if we elect people who are going to back our agenda and fight for our values, and that is why we have to defeat nancy pelosi. [boos]

-- a very waters,a low iq individual. you ever see her? we will impeach him. ng hasn't done anythig wrong. it doesn't matter, we will impeach him. she is a very low iq individual. you have maxine waters and plenty of others. and nancy pelosi, you can't have that. and connor lamb, lamb the sham. he is trying to act like a republican. he won't give me one vote. i haven't met him. he is a very nice guy. he thinks he is good-looking. i think i am better looking than him. he is slightly younger than me.

slightly. he is all right. personally, i like rick saccone. i think he is handsome. [cheers] and you did a great job on television today. i watched you. that was a great interview. i appreciate it, too. host: the president last night in moon township, pennsylvania. this headline at politico .com, president trump endorses himself at the rally. guest: what was interesting about this rally, in this came clip, he talked a lot about 2020. the president has been talking a lot about 2020 and for the last few months really, he has seemed to be fixated on it. he has already named his campaign manager for 2020.

he is getting ready for that race. he is going around the country and starting to campaign for 2018 republicans, and that saccone.rick during this final rally, he gave conor lamb a nickname, which is something a lot of your viewers will remember him doing in 2016. he tried to make that stick in voters minds. host: let me ask you the story involving stormy daniels because it now involves the mainstream media focusing a lot about this. is the white house concerned about it? guest: they are definitely concerned about it. they are not talking about it really at all. they are not really saying anything about this, even from the podium. sarah huckabee sanders is not talking about this issue. it is an issue gaining much more

traction. it is something that is now much more in the mainstream in terms of a getting a lot more focus. the question is do people care? is this something that really matters to voters and to the public? we don't know much about that yet. host: alex eisenstadt, reporter for politico, thank you so much for being with us on this sunday. guest: thank you. host: with stormy daniels making headlines, you want to find out from you if you think it is relevant. a lot of coverage over the weekend, including this from nbc news, the payment to stormy daniels could be in election law violation. the case of the present, the payment, and the porn star has raised questions that merit a federal inquiry. that is from an election law expert, professor of political

science at uc irvine. there are questions of whether ment was,000 pay made to silence her because her story could hurt the presidential trump candidacy. ryan from texas. good morning. caller: check out the president's character. he is the president of the united states. no character. i am 46 years old. you remember ronald reagan. you remember jimmy carter. you remember clinton. those presidents acted presidential. a porne an affair with star. you hold the highest office in the land. this guy doesn't have any

character. you would get more from someone who doesn't have near as much is this dude. this dude is a clown, man. a trump you are supporter, the number is (202) 748-8000. all others, (202) 748-8001. we welcome our listeners on c-span radio. the stormy daniels story, is it relevant? this is from carol who says, we know president trump was a womanizer, and many of us voted for him because we cannot vote for crooked hillary or a socialist like bernie. his decorum is improving as he becomes acclimated to the job. michael is joining us from pennsylvania. welcome to the conversation. go ahead, please. caller: i really want to thank

you for running the campaign speech again this morning. i just watched it again. it was pretty awesome. you said something about allegheny county, in pennsylvania, he did lose allegheny county. the district in western, democrats have the edge in registration in the district. i want to call you out because i love c-span, and i want to hear you say all the news. thank you. stormy daniels doesn't matter. il.t: we will go to gal caller: i think the stormy daniels story is relevant. the legal issues, the fact the president wasn't telling the truth. the president doesn't seem to ever have any shame about

anything, and i long for a president that does have some shame about what his actions are. the difference between bill clinton and trump is that bill clinton was ashamed. you could shame him. i think this thing has legs finally. i hope it proceeds. thank you very much for letting me make my point. host: thanks for the call. this is from the fox news website. the headline, stormy weather, attempts to silence the porn star hurt the president? caller: good morning. i think a lot of the problem has to do with ethics. i feel the way things are going, we have an issue.

i don't think it is ever going to be taken care of as long as y is theis -- this gu present, i don't think anything will get a copley square it all has to do with his -- will get accomplished. it all has to do with his ethics. host: thank you for the call. gina is with us from texas. good morning. caller: hi. host: good morning. caller: my thing is everybody is complaining about trump. what president hasn't done it? the guy before me has he is a clown. what does he mean a clown? you put clinton in the oval office. maybe he did this. maybe he didn't. i don't know. he is doing more for the united states than anybody has in

years. he is doing what people want him to do, but nobody will admit it because we are a bunch of weanies. host: thanks for the call. carol, you are next, new york. is this story relevant? caller: no. for a simple reason, go back to most of the presidents. was it jefferson, i don't know who it was, who had children by his slaves and everything. no. i think trump is probably the best president we have ever had. host: thank you for the call. sebastian, you are next. do you think this story is relevant? caller: i don't because donald trump has proven nothing matters when it comes to him. all the things he said during the campaign, i love the guy, but come on, nothing is going to

stop them. the stormy daniels stuff, 20 years ago, it would have probably ended a presidency. this is business as usual. hise keeps on touting economic policy, i don't think it matters. i think he is our president. i don't think he should have done that. i don't think it matters to most voters. host: thank you for the call. this editorial from inside the washington post, silence is not golden. question money in the stormy daniels saga should be investigated. peopleg and buying off may have been the norm for mr. trump in the business world, but it has no place in the oval office. stormy daniels should be able to tell her story, and the american people should judge for themselves what these events say about the character of the president. ,hat editorial, the headline silence is not golden.

from is joining us kentucky. welcome to the conversation. caller: hi. how are you? host: fine, thank you. caller: my comment is people are trying to find things. i am not a trump supporter. people are trying to bring up with someoneaffair that he had before he was president. heryone loves clinton, and was getting a knob job under his desk while he was in office. host: david, you are next. what state are you from? caller: south carolina. host: go ahead. caller: i don't think it is

relevant. you go back to the kennedy era. kennedy had more than one mistress in the white house. this happened about 12 years before trump was even elected to office. h whe -- host: the story seems to be the $130,000 that came from donald trump's personal lawyer. caller: his lawyer paid him. he did not. host: he took out a home equity loan. the question seems to be whether that money came from donald trump himself or the campaign. caller: they contract that money. they know where it came from. it did not come from the campaign. this is just another -- the way i see it, the vultures circling, trying to find something. every time he gets a little space, they come up with

something else to attack him. now they are attacking him personally. come on, man. let's go to politics. let's not worry what he did in the bedroom 12 years ago or hush money paid by a lawyer. host: thanks for the call. this is the headline from politico, talking about donald trump, he gets a mulligan on life and the issue of stormy daniels. frank is joining us from florida. good morning. caller: good morning. it is totally relevant. it is like anything else. you have got to follow the money. if there's anything illegal about this payment, you should investigate it like everything is. this man is not above the law. host: we will go to jane from cincinnati. good morning. caller: hi.

yes, this is jane from cincinnati. i am for trump all the way. as far as i'm concerned, i think everybody up there, republicans and democrats, senators and all of them are messing around. you would have to clean out the whole house. that was before he was president, too. clinton, he did it all through his term. hillary, she even defended him and threatened the women and everyone else that he had sex with. thank you for listening to me. host: thank you. this tweet, absolutely relevant, think how great the economy would be doing if he had two affairs? stormy daniels has nothing to do with me getting tax cuts, jobs coming back to the usa, the

border getting protected, making america great again. a member of the president's religious advisory board also spoke about the stormy daniels story and whether he thinks it is relevant. here is what he said. [video clip] >> it is absolutely ludicrous. evangelicals know they are not compromising their beliefs to support this great president. evangelicals still believe in the commandment, thou shalt no have sex with a porn star. whether this president violated that commandment or not is completely irrelevant. evangelicals knew they were not voting for an altar boy when they voted for donald trump. they supported him for his policies and strong leadership. tonight, you saw another example, the result of that strong leadership in the announcement from north korea.

this is more important perhaps, evangelicals understand the concept of sin and forgiveness. we are all sinners. we all need forgiveness. that forgiveness is available through christ for anybody that asks. whether the present needs that forgiveness -- president needs that forgiveness is between him, his family, and his god. host: maureen dowd this morning reading about stormy daniels, episode is- the exactly the kind of embarrassing episode donald trump wiggled out getting the help of friends and employees to pay accusers. this isn't going to mollify the millions of women who find the

president's behavior unacceptable. porneadline, the first president. stormy daniels making the parents -- appearances today. is this a relevant story? caller: hello. host: good morning. caller: first of all, i am not a trump supporter. i have no problem with trump. at least i know who he is. the people who are racist i don't know, that is a concern. he's not going to be a puppet. they are trying to control him. last week, john f. kennedy, marilyn monroe.

daniels was in fort lauderdale this sunday morning. go ahead. caller: i think the story is relevant because i heard on tv recently that stormy had an abortion, and trump sent her to have an abortion. call, hecalled -- you re said a woman who had an abortion should be sent to jail, and the man should get off free. host: thank you. (202) 748-8000 for supporters of president trump. (202) 748-8001 for all others. welcome to the program. caller: thank you for taking my call. i think the story is relevant. the republicans, if donald trump

was a democrat, all the republicans would be screaming for his impeachment. because he is a republican, they will stand by him no matter yet. say sinselicals that are forgiven, they do not forgive hunting. -- clinton. they keep bringing him up. trump has done despicable things to women. shame on the republicans for not standing up for women. the democrats do. said, because donald trump is a republican, republicans will stand by him no matter what. if he was a democrat, he would have been impeached by now. they wanted clinton impeached for doing less than trump has do ne. what does this say about republicans?

they are not evangelicals. they don't believe in god. they don't believe in standing by the bible and what it says. what can we do? we can just go the way we know is right. host: thank you. tweet, imagine the reaction from so-called evangelicals if the story broke about barack obama having sex with a porn star and paying her for silence. it is not about the sex, it is about the payoff and the hush money. house leader nancy pelosi was asked about stormy daniels late last week on capitol hill. [video clip] >> is there a role for congress to get involved in this matter? >> i am more concerned about the president's policies, which

the american working family, for example his medicare,tting cutting medicaid, cutting social security disability, cutting food stamps, cutting education. we should get involved with, you put forth a budget that is not in line with our national values. i'm not sure we need to get involved with any of that. if any of that were happening with the democrats, the republicans would be very involved in it. host: that is from nancy pelosi on the hill this week. the stormy daniels story, is it relevant? joe is next from florida. caller: good morning. people don't understand that everybody going against trump is going against the country. not trump, but they are going against the country. a lot of those people are

stupid. andsi uses a plane government money, and none of that is coming out. that was before he was president. every president from day one has done that. what is the big deal? from frank, you are next utah. caller: i think it is relevant, but possibly for different reasons. i am a democrat. i have voted democrat most of my life. i have been saying for quite a while that the democrats are fixated on trump. yes, trump poses many complications. i don't like him personally. i worry about his foreign-policy , things like that. he is the president of the united states, and you are

outletsow that news that i have respected for years are fixating so much on everything that trump does that i feel they are losing objectivity and perspective in a feeding frenzy about trump, no matter what it is. i think this is just another example of that, whether it is a he said something or whatever. onseem to be so fixated -- donaldmp behavior trump's behavior. i don't think it is a service to constantly fixate on everything he does. there are so many other considerations we could be discussing as a nation.

on on thee are going wrong track. host: thanks for the call. , did not caret about the gal, it was lying under of. -- oath. cnn conducting a poll, looking office, 53%r for say it does not matter if he is doing a good job running the country. poll is available at cnn.com. anderson cooper set down with stormy daniels for a 60 minutes interview, an interview that will air at an undisclosed time. is a contributor to cbs's 60 minutes.

good morning. caller: i think this is irrelevant. donald trump is doing a good job, taxes. he is doing everything he promised. obama and michelle obama, what is going on there? they have been together a long time. this is strange. host: sandra, you are next. as a christian person, i am very does what did disappointed the so-called white evangelicals who say god forgives all sin. if god forgives all sin, then does he not forgive those persons who had an abortion?

cannot bet be -- double-minded. all the godod things trump is doing for the average person. how many of his supporters are actually in the stock market? it goes up and goes down. we have to stand for the word of god. host: thanks. you are from georgia, not far from where jimmy carter was born and lives. this from liberty, only lower the bar for evangelicals who got trump elected. breitbart news is reporting on

the stormy daniels story. this is the headline, voting joe argued that he president trump made a decision on north korea because of stormy daniels. people can deny that all they want, but if you are doing that, you are in the tank for donald trump. joequote from joe carson -- scarborough. good morning. caller: good morning. this last thing you just read, certainly ridiculous. the reason donald trump is going to meet with the north koreans is because they were willing to come to the table. the south koreans made the announcement. one of the main reasons for them doing so was the tough sanctions and the embargo and the naval blockade.

donald trump is doing a fantastic job. unemployment is the lowest in history. it is the lowest unemployment with blacks and hispanics in a order history -- reported history. all they do is constantly pick on him. it is disgusting. they have already made him thing for this stormy before they know any details at all. i think that is a shame. it is wrong. the other thing as far as christians go, i am a christian, but he appointed not just one supreme court justice that is pro-life, but i think it is 12 or 18 other justices in lower courts that are pro-life. this is what we are looking at. we are looking at the media

being extremely unfair to the president. this is another example. there was a whole row of women in 2016 that clinton had affairs with during the debate. the media didn't do anything back at the time. stard,this from evilba what they think is so funny with trump supporters is they think trump is actually going to meet with kim jong-un. the question should be, why would a lawyer mortgage himself to make a payment to a client's lover? there is much more we don't know yet. this one of our regular

tweeters, cap trump in front of a grand jury, get him to live about a porn star, then impeach him. a photograph of stormy daniels in fort lauderdale at a strip club this weekend. headline, stormy daniels struts battle.f amid a legal stormy daniels speaking about her relationship with president trump, suing the president to void a nondisclosure agreement with president trump. by the end of the performance, her undergarments were stuffed with dollar bills. the whole story at the new york post. susan from texas. good morning. caller: good morning. i don't understand how the women can continue to support women in

this manner. if you put raw meat in front of a dog, he is going to take it. host: we will move on to david in maryland. good morning. basically i don't know why anyone could be trump'sd about donald supporters. electedtrump was because he was a racist, and he calaimed that he could have shot somebody in the streets of manhattan and still be elected. stormy daniels i don't think we'll have any affect on trump's supporters. trumpics should not morality and ethics. it is very sad that the

christian community, those who call themselves the moral conscience of the nation are willing to sacrifice their own morality and the preachings of their gospel to support the racist just because he is a racist. host: thank you for the call. this tweet from rebecca, if kennedy's dalliances came out while he was president, it would have been devastating to him politically. these, she was paid $130,000 just before the election in what she calls a his agreement to conceal special relationship that began in 2006. the white house denied the affair. mr. trump's lawyer has a knowledge the payment himself. a restraining order was taken out to prevent stormy daniels from speaking out publicly.

from cnn.com, how stormy daniels could impact the russia investigation. an investigation into michael cohen could open the door into examining the payments. if investigators are already looking at finances due to the campaign, they could broaden their review to include the payments to stormy daniels. any potential ties between trump russians, and the obstruction of justice, and any matters that arise or may arise directly from the investigation. it is that phrase robert mueller could use to investigate the payments to stormy daniels. that is why we are asking the question whether or not all of this is relevant. eva is joining us from louisiana. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i think most of your callers are

missing the point. most of us know trump has no moral compass. what we're looking at is the payoff, the hush money. why was it made? were madether payoffs on things that did not even include stormy daniels? the money needs to be looked at. the fact this lawyer would make that payment for trump, he would mortgage his home just to hush her up, that is relevant. the money, where it came from, why, and are there other payoffs we don't even know of yet? as far as the moral issue, i think it shows we are in moral decay. we are not holding anyone, whether he is president for our next board -- next-door neighbor to the standard it should be.

host: thank you for the call. magazine, make america great again is the cover story. proud, deficit spending becomes national policy as the growing debt increases to almost 21 trillion dollars. mcintosh will join newsmakers. the weekly standard, the charade must go on. a look at the election in russia later this month. the cost of america's immigration crackdown. welcome to the conversation. caller: yes. gene. sal. i will go to

good morning. caller: hi. i want to point a few things out. first of all, good morning to you. host: good morning. caller: first of all, whatever i feel, i feel this is not relevant. the stormy daniels story is not relevant at all. i see a lot of people comparing what trump did to what former president clinton did. former president clinton violated federal law, which is different than donald trump, who had, if he did allegedly had this affair, it was certainly before he ever even thought about politics. aen you're talking about public servant who had sexual relations with another public

servant in a federal building, which is the white house, that is against the law. this happened while he is president of the united states. wet we need to focus on is had this issue now with north korea. there will be a meeting. we don't know if history is going to repeat itself. we don't know the economic effect of the tarrifs that are out there. theould lose jobs, rifs, rather than gaining jobs in the real economy. to focus on a woman who is only trying to make a name for herself, which is why she is stripping. she is famous rainout. she has her 15 minutes -- right now.

she has her 15 minutes of fame. host: from the new york times, the president and the porn star. pointing out that if michael: paid his own money -- michael cohen paid his own money, and he intended to help the campaign, then it is illegal. tweet, no morals in the country anymore. the sex is irrelevant. there is this from another viewer, how soon we forget about other presidents, responding to earlier tweets. melania had a good lawyer when she negotiated her prenup. is this all relevant? caller: it is not relevant. hello? host: you are on the air. go ahead. caller: i would like to focus on

bodyorn star who sell her for living. i would like to focus on the united states president who is working hard. voting him.n, i am host: thank you. next from michigan, good morning. caller: good morning. i think it is relevant. i think it all has to do with his character. what kind of man would do something like this? it seems like there isn't any decency any longer. i find that appalling. host: thank you. we will go to tony from connecticut this morning. is it all relevant? caller: it is relevant. he goes back to morals. it also goes back to edwards.

edwards got busted for this and campaign finances. it also goes back to ethics. he has no ethics. to when hes back told reporters to come at me. you cannot keep telling people, and they say he is a good man. he is not a good man. he is not representing the country the way it should be represented. he is not bringing us together. it goes back to all those things. he is not a good man. host: thanks for the call. this is from the chicago tribune, the headline, why nobody should care about trump's alleged affair with stormy daniels. she writes the following, here we go again, getting sidetracked. this time, we are allowing a former porn star to distract us from the greatest task facing

the american people, lived in a -- limiting president trump to a single term. we have to come with something much stronger than allegations that he slept with an adult film star a decade before he reached the white house. the details so far are pretty juicy. we learned president trump was reckless enough to have sex without a condom and was rather unspectacular in bed as she calls it. fromso want to show this the new york times. the social media warriors from parkland, florida. these are the high school juniors and seniors staking out their claim on twitter, the gun debate after the shooting took place at marjory stoneman douglas high school in florida. inside the new york times is

this full-page ad, march for our lives will take place on march 24, 2018. from the marjory stoneman douglas survivors and never again movement founders. we will carry that live on the c-span networks. good morning. caller: yeah, good morning. host: good morning. caller: yes. know, the stormy daniels story is relevant. you know, andsir, you don't choose to tell me, there are details. what happened to the family values? please tell me, if you would. and any of those

other right-wingers saying if former president barack obama did 1% of the things this man has done? to answer guy afraid any questions from the podium? i will be glad when mueller closes in on him. host: thank you. from the huffington post, stormy who? democratic leaders won't talk about president trump's porn star payoff. another regular of the program and friend of c-span, we can see why the national enquirer will never go out of business. that is a tweet. 10 more minutes with your phone calls. paul, good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call.

i want to know why you all make it a big story. the president himself is the greatest accomplishment. these people want to bring in stormy daniels and stupid things. is c-span joining cnn now? why do you attack the president? no other president has been able to accomplish his great achievements with north korea. stormy daniels, who cares? the man is the president, and he is governing the country the way it should be done. from charles, your next richmond, virginia. caller: good morning. thing you asked is in am idonald trump for -- is a donald trump supporter? i listen to the people that call

, and i am trying to figure out ,xactly this morning evangelical people are saying it is ok. i am not going to criticize stormy daniels because she is just a girl out there trying to make about. -- a buck. she is doing things that a lot of women do, which is try to make a dollar. she knows donald trump. they are friends and all of this. their relationship is not even relevant. what i am listening to his people who actually claim they ,re evangelicals and love god and they are going to church this morning, and i hate to make but they bad, have to take a look at what they think and how they feel about

religion. this is not even about barack obama. every time we turn around, what would barack do and how he acted. we have to remember one thing about politicians. one more thing, putin has successfully torn the fabric of our society apart. donald trump did not do that. putin has done it. stormy daniels has not done that. the way people act and handle their lives, willing to sell their soul to the devil just to prove barack obama was bad. everything about the nra, the nra will probably ruin the second amendment just because they don't want to walk rate and do things that cooperate and do

cooperate and to do things halfway right. host: thank you for the call. the front page of the washington post focusing on tariffs unifying pennsylvania steel country. towardocrats take steps curtailing superdelegates in the 2020 primaries. our next caller is from virginia. good morning, james. you are next. caller: steve, you doing alright? host: i am fine, thank you. how are you? caller: fine. i want to quote one of the greatest prophets of our generation. have some sympathy because the liberal media is after me.

have some taste because i done it with a porn star. host: susan, good morning. caller: i think the democrats want to keep the stormy daniels topic going because they don't want to talk about how their party is so anti-semitic. the black caucus will be in bed with louis farrakhan. he is the worst of the worst. host: thank you for the call. air ine of ads on the pittsburgh's second district. the seatone seeking after the previous republican stepped down. [video clip] >> america is one of only seven countries that allows abortion for any reason after five months. science shows unborn babies can feel pain. north korea and china do too.

so does conor lamb. conor lamb says he would vote against a ban on abortion. rick saccone is a pro-life champion who will protect mothers and their unborn children and will work to end late-term abortion. the election taking place tuesday, and we went speeches tuesday night from the pittsburgh area. conor lamb appeared with former vice president joe biden earlier this week. here is one of the latest advertisements from the lamb campaign. [video clip] >> in tv ads, rick saccone and his supporters use images of opioids for their gain. here is rick saccone talking to families struggling with addiction. >> everybody wants more funding. we need more funding. we don't have any more funding. we're going to try to cut. where am i going to take it

from? where do you think i should take it from? we don't have any more funding. we are going to try to cut the budget. host: that is from the conor lamb campaign. pennsylvania, urging support for the gop house candidate, taking a swipe at chuck todd, calling him the sleepy guy. good morning. caller: how are you? i want to state one thing. i am a cruz supporter, but i will tell you this in 2020, i will support donald trump. he has done more than any president. you want to talk about barack obama and clinton and his rapes kennedyers and ted leaving his friend to die. done moreresident has than a them and that is ronald reagan. caller: thank you for taking my

call. host: sure. caller: i cannot believe some of the people calling in about this. it is irrelevant what he did. the thing is, when the churches tolerate whatnd he has done and still support him, and the house and the senate pass bills to block russia on trade, he won't do that. he does what he wants. republicans sit back and let him do it. they lose their freedom. they start losing their jobs and medicaid and all that, see how loud they cry. host: thank you. this tweet, when barack obama said he would meet with the north korean dictator, republicans said it showed weakness and capitulation. go figure.

ron is next. good morning. caller: thank you. i think it is probably irrelevant unless he broke any laws. i want to remind anybody that doesn't want to tolerate the president's past behavior. if he is guilty of these things, it's all remember, he was a liberal democrat supporting chuck schumer and hillary clinton back in those days. i think donald trump is probably trying to change his ways and has to a certain extent. as far as the christian support, i think a lot of them think he is probably trying to repent. reporting on the payment to stormy daniels, it could be an election violation. the story reads as follows, the case has raised questions that merit a federal inquiry. there is enough. that warns an investigation.

warrants an that investigation. if donald trump's lawyer paid his own money and intended to help the campaign, it is illegal. the same goes for president trump and his companies. payout of his own funds, it is not an issue candidate can contribute to their own campaign if they just does it. -- disclose it. you can read the full story online. it would turn our attention to the situation in north korea as we hear from a representative from third way. mieke eoyang will be here to take your calls. later, robert wasson there, -- wasinger, joins us to discuss

the president and his administration 14 months in. mcintosh is our guest on newsmakers. tariffs oncuss the steel and aluminum and the impact it will have on the race it is definitely deflated the momentum that the tax bill gave the public. republicans were becoming competitive again and could win more senate seats. there was a poll that was released that showed five democrat incumbents would loose pollsif the election health. that is tremendous news for the republicans in the senate. but i think if we see a general ,ariff war develop, frankly paying $100 more for a car takes away part of the $1000 that a

typical family got from the tax cut. so i think it will could republicans because the president did that but hopefully theill play out by the time elections come around. >> what can congress do and what should congress do? four years, congress delegated a lot of trade authority to the president were moreecedents traders been congressman. now, we see that this is reversed. steppingongress is back and learned a lesson. we shouldn't give away our power that way. they could try to repeal that. i don't think they have the votes for that. but they could hold up the trade authority. it has to be up in a few months.

and using that to pull back that tool, it is clear that the majority of the republicans in the house and in the senate as well, they do not think this is good policy. they want the president to succeed but they think this was badly served. i think it was badly served i has protectionist move. macintosh, president and the for growth" full interview is available on our website. you can listen to it anytime on the free c-span radio app. eoyang.now is mieke let me ask you about your reaction to the president

agreeing to sit down with kim jong-un. .he details are tbd is this significant? i think it is a question as to whether or not it will actually happen. we haven't had a president said down with north korea since the founding of the country. some people were very surprised to hear it. i think that once the invitation was extended to the president he accept it.to you want to be sure you lost -- make sure you exhaust all options. how significant where the olympics in south korea that led to kim jong-un meeting with his to thisarts that led with president trump? the olympics have always

been an opportunity for goodwill. the fact that this happened at the time of tensions was fortuitous. it comes amid heightening pressure from the united states. strong rhetoric. korea, feelingh pressure across if variety of places along the world. in a directiong of trying to get north koreans and south koreans to start talking again. host: the president talks about north korea and here is an excerpt. >> obama said it was the biggest problem we had. and south korea went there. we put very strong sanctions and lots of other things we have been doing right from the first day i was in office. and after having gone to north and --seeing kim jong-un

no, it is positive. we now have to be very nice because, let's see what happens. the south korean top representatives, they walked out the white house to a throng of these characters. big room. and everybody wanted to find out what happened. and just left north korea north korea is tough. they are doing a lot of things. this should have been handled over the last 30 years. not now. they should have handled this. this should have been handled. and everybody will say it but that is ok. we handle things. host: that was the president, also tweeting over the past few days saying "north korea has not

conducted a missile test since november 28, 2017 and has promised not to do so through our meetings. i believe they will honor that commitment." reaction? north koreans are pausing in their testing because they progress.tremendous it doesn't hurt them deposit. there are questions today about whether or not they are stopping testing. the president is giving an account of how he feels this is going. and he is very much interested in the drama of this. talking about south koreans going out to the media and it was a production. flattery tends to work with this president. i think the challenge here is that this is a situation where you cannot wing it. it has consequences.

and for the president to walk into the meeting, the president has to study up. listen to his advisors. and understand what the possibility is of getting something out of the north koreans. worldave disappointed the over and over again over the claims that they want to negotiate and then walking away. we have seen this now with administrations. this -- thethe way way this unfolded. it was the president to came to the briefing room announcing that would be a announcement at 7:00 at night. guest: that's right. you see the president here as a one-man band. which is dangerous. how manygerous given

different moving parts there are two this. it is not just the south koreans to worry about in the region. there are also the japanese and in chinese have a stake this. so everyone, including rex tillerson, are getting taken by surprise. host: do you know if he was part of the negotiations or discussion that led to the president accepting the invitation? guest: it has been reported that he was not. the decision about whether or not to meet was just the president. host: we get to your phone calls in a moment. (202) 748-8000, democrats. (202) 748-8001, republicans. line forave a independent callers and you can send us a tweet. anytime we talk about north korea, the name auto warm beer comes up. his tragic death. based on what you know, what

happened to him? guest: i don't know that we know .xactly what happened what happened inside north korea, we don't know, other than he was clearly badly mistreated by the north koreans. they do not have a good rapport with not just people who come to the country but also with their own citizens. ast: down the road, is this concern about the north korea and south korea? more -- think tried is i think china is more concerned -- if they are less inclined to cause trouble in the region, it is better for china.

but we are a long way from that. the germanears past reintegration. given how hard that was for germany. host: the other issue that has come up is whether or not we would move troops from the denuclearize stone. i think -- guest: the weapons that they have had over the past 15 years, giving up nuclear weapons, you are more full herbal a regime change. that gives their leaders very concerned that someone may try to topple this regime. host: our guest is mieke eoyang. you work for which members and senators? guest: i worked with senator kennedy and i served on the house committee staff.

host: john is joining us from new jersey. good morning. caller: when you look back over the last few presidents with eight years of bush and obama and clinton -- that is quite a good number of years. quarter of a century where nothing has really been accomplished. as far as denuclearizing north korea. the opposite is actually happened. and i listen to the experts on the shows and i think trump is doing the right thing in that he is making progress towards something and he is trying something different. the sameanity to tried thing over and over again. i think we do see an opportunity here. i think the real question is whether the president can make it into actual progress.

the jury is still out on that. with his doubts personality and the way he likes to negotiate. host: we go to leave or a next. president of north korea finally got his missiles in place. he can do an assault now. i think that we do see a slight change of policy in this administration, putting diplomatic pressure on the north koreans, that isn't necessarily just this president. but you are right in the sense that north korea has made technological advances. and they have moved differently in these negotiations.

host: the secretary of state was in ethiopia. and when asked about whether or happen, here is rex tillerson. >> as trump has indicated, we do have positive signals coming given the korea korean dialogue with south korea. we are playing close attention to what president moon is saying. them withviding meetings. negotiationsut the -- we are a long way from negotiations. let's be very clear and realistic about it. but what i said before, we need to have talks.

icause i don't know yet -- don't know if we will meet face-to-face with north korea, whether the conditions are right. and that is the current state. host: that was rex tillerson. and that was on the same day when a few hours later, the president announced he would meet with kim jong-un. what role is he playing in shaping foreign policy? guest: what is he rex tillerson of smallthere is a lot blocks that need to happen to raise the pressure on north korea. and with the state department we see a pressure to push that forward. it is important they are keeping the focus on diplomacy. whenard talks previously the president said they were considering military options but

this is part of the decision not to go forward. there are real questions about whether or not a military strike is actually under consideration by the administration but the consequences would be devastating. host: and the so-called bloody nose strategy -- explain the approach and why that is on the back burner? esko it would be a strike south koreanon strategy. is even a bloody nose strike a big operation and it is an act of war. it is taking action not u.n.stent with the charter. and for the u.s. to be the first actor in this? have different conventional capability. rockets in south korea and japan, they could kill hundreds

of thousands of people, including many americans who live in both of those countries. the retaliation would be terrible and there would be terrible long-term retaliation for that. the: if you go back to point that since harry truman, no president has met with the north korean leader, the other side of the coin could be, why not? why haven't we talked to kim jong-un? here ishat we have seen notthat the present -- is that the north koreans have taken positive steps to release tension on the pill into a other than opening up a channel to the south koreans. holds out the possibility of the talks over and over again and the world rushes in and they get something. food, aid or fuel which benefits them and then they returned to

their own ways. host: based on what you know of the north korean government, if this meeting would take place, how much coverage of that would it get in north korea and what would it give him in north korea? guest: north korea is not a democracy. they don't actually care that much about what their people think other than as a propaganda piece to show their people that they would say he is being respected on the world stage and they want to make him seem as an equal which is not true. him. an internal boost for host: let's get back to your phone calls. maurice is joining us. i don't you can't discount the ultimate outcome of a reunification.

kim jong-un was educated in the west and he is a fan of western culture and he knows that his country cannot go further to the right than what it already has. so he can't go further in that direction for his country or himself. secondly, and this is a question. ultimated be the outcome of direct talks between this president and kim jong-un? they aren't going to give up .heir nuclear weapons they are just protecting themselves. speculate would be the ultimate outcome of these conversations between the two factions? guest: i think we have a real question because everyone agrees. a are likely to give up the nuclear weapons. one thing you could have as an outcome here is additional

inspections into the north korean regime. very small step and it doesn't do a lot to reduce the security threat to the united states. but there are some things we could get but they are small steps. raisegger question you about what happens with a reunification of the korean peninsula and how much further they could go on this approach, they do understand that they to be an outlier that doesn't participate in the world economy and the question is, what is the path out for north korea? and many people are looking to what china did when they were a closed country. not sitting in the global andomy and have had a long slow process over decades to come back into the global economy. meeting, if it

happens, it would be in may. would it be in a neutral country? i think these negotiations about the how and the wear and the shape of the temple and the people participating -- all of these will take a long time to negotiate. host: and we do not have an ambassador to south korea. guest: that is correct. they declined to go forward. it is speculated it was his militaristict the stroke. and i want to say one thing about the possibility of a military strike on north korea. for the be bad not just lives lost and infrastructure lost and the impact on the global economy but in a geopolitical sense, the real winner if the u.s. strikes north

korea is china. the reason why the u.s., the largest military power in asia that you accept our presence here and we make sure war doesn't break out. the problem is, if we start the war then the security guarantee comes under serious question by other regional players. host: back to your phone calls from virginia. caller: good morning. -- i think weg have a wonderful president and not just because i am republican. he is a smart man and he knows talking to this korean man is going to get him somewhere. everybody talks about him. if peoplereat man and stick together as americans, we should respect our president. we respected obama.

why can't we respect donald trump? he is a wonderful man. he has says some things that are not funny but i am so happy. he will get with this korean guy. trump. he will love mr. isaac give will be wonderful and i am glad. so there are real questions of substance here that we have to see how it goes into negotiation. is that problem here this is a president to is prone to improvisation and who does what he thinks and doesn't like to be told what to do by his advisers. but in a high-stakes situation like this, you can't just wing it. you wouldn't want someone to wing it in an international corporation and we don't want someone to do it here.

host: we are talking to mieke is chris from milwaukee on the democrats line. caller: thank you for taking my call. could commente about what some partners are talking about with missile technology? vladimir putin and kim jong-un are working together and in addition, this meeting seems like it was suspiciously timed in some regards. to connectedseems to the russians in some way or form. and it elevates north korea and it diminishes us on a world stage. could commentou on that.

host: we do want to draw attention to our peace with the washington post mentioned a moment ago. "location, location, location >> ." guest: the connection between this president and you investigation by special counsel .ob mueller but it is important to connect strategy. they are trying to reduce america standing on a world stage. their interest. so you do have to wonder what role they are playing in all of this. and i don't think we know. on fox news, they already talked about the possibility of donald trump receiving the nobel

peace prize. that is a long way away. agreeing to talk is not the same as actually achieving any piece. and they think there are many who critique a nobel committee the wording potential and not achievement. i would expect a backlash in that. we should wait to see if there is any achievement out of these negotiations before anybody gets awarded anything. at the time when barack obama was elected, given how poor the u.s. standing was in the world the u.s. is toal global leadership, his presence with restoring america's standing, that was a big shift as to what happened after the iraq war.

host: where our relationships today with nato and the european union and japan and allies in asia? guest: our relationships with friends have declined precipitously and we did see that at the nato summit. trump went to nato and he tried script and we came out of the meeting with the sense that the u.s. is no longer the most popular country and nato. the leader of the alliance. and how that alliance has now shifted to the french and german. that hasn't been true in the history of the alliance. the president was isolated. he was a building good relationships with our allies and that is a sign of the u.s. having a tough road ahead. not having as many friends who will help us get the job done

for what we need done. host: we do welcome our radio audience. , you are on the air with mieke eoyang. caller: she stole my thunder. i wanted to say the nobel peace prize people are somewhat integrated. if you look at the things that , syria, egypt,d russia, crimea, georgia, the ukraine and they gave him a nobel peace prize -- he didn't accomplish one dog on thing. guest: i strongly disagree with the collar about that. one of the most vital threats that the united states faced was

the possibility of a nuclear armed iran. presidentnt -- this obama rallied the global community in order to do that and it was a huge accomplishment. not only that, that was a decades, who, after tracked osama bin laden down to the ends of the air that and made sure that he could never hurt americans again. i don't think it's fair to say obama didn't do anything. he also had to put the country back on the right track after depression economic we'd ever seen. host: you said that the president approaches negotiation as a zero sum game? guest: yes.

way to approach negotiation where do everything i get, you lose something. the other way is to find how we both get what we want out of it. for the president to win, someone else has to lose. so going into the negotiation the other party to lose something. and that is a very poor position for the other party to bn and it makes it much harder for them to sign on the dotted line. see howident, when you he negotiates with congress and other things, he puts people through a process where they have to be humiliated on the way. and it doesn't make anyone want to make a deal with him. host: we go to georgia. good morning. i did not vote for trump. i don't like for trump. but i have to give credit where credit is due.

he pushed back against kim jong-un last year, it occurred to me that he may actually make in this particular situation. so fast forwarding to now, there are reports that kim jong-un is i thinkout of cash and he has come to the conclusion that life can't go on like this. i think that maybe why he is opening up this conversation. that these me negotiations could turn into a three-way negotiation with china. and i think the earlier, that maybe there is a path for north korea adopting china's path a left the scene, is a possibility. i see that is the only way.

i don't think china wants are subsidize to keep peace in the region. host: if i could turn that into a question? what does kim jong-un want from the u.s.? the u.s.e offer that has put on the table is that you have a choice. you could have a nuclear weapon or an economy. north korea has not had access to the global economy. and as the caller noted, they are really suffering. they're people are starving and they don't have the energies they need and they are not producing anything in the world. it is a dead end path. and that was will be put forward for iran as well. an economy or a weapon. reevaluate has to weapons over an economy.

host: if you could put a number on the percent of chances that the meeting happens? guest: i'm not optimistic. 60%-40%? but whether or not there is a good outcome? i am really not optimistic. is mieke eoyang from third way. thank you for joining us. robert wasik or will be joining us. and later joining us from tennessee is president bush's attorney general, alberto gonzales from 2005-2007. washingtontening to journal on this sunday morning. back in a bit.

>> the woman was pregnant. that is why she couldn't keep up. they were drinking filthy water and you know, they did make it to a village and border patrol got caught. and i was the agent to took them in. and, you know, i started talking with them. and it turned out that this pregnant woman had grown up in iowa. and she spoke perfect english and she was a schoolteacher in iowa. and i think her husband saw that

we were talking and that we had a connection and he leaned over at one point and said, hey, man, can we skip the entire arrest and deportation? can you drive us back to the border and let us cross into mexico? be a brother? hesitate to say no. this is my job. i can't do that. and what i remember about that encounter is that every member asking their names and introducing myself to them. and i remember wanting to remember them because i had this connection and i wanted to hold them in my mind. i want that woman to be safe. and for their child to be safe. and a couple hours later i went back out on patrol and i had completely forgotten their names. and the reason that encounter sticks with me is because i think that's the first step in

the dehumanization. forgetting what makes someone an individual. tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span's q and a. host: we want to welcome robert -- robert wassonert washing inger. election monitoring in battleground states. with a particular focus on pennsylvania. we put every thing together so we could watch election day. how is he doing? i think he is doing great. both democrats and republicans are on the same side. they both support the president. was inhe president

pennsylvania last night and said the world is watching this special election. a race in which he won by 19 points in his district and it is viewed and now as a tossup. guest: i think the republicans are going to pull it out. the race in southwest pennsylvania is going to be interesting to watch. but the more interesting thing is that both democrats and republicans agree with the president on terrorists. to the hillntribute and breitbart. 24-7aid that despite negative coverage, trump was able to transcend the unremitting attacks by going around the mainstream media,

even turning the hostility to his advantage. at the time we were getting a daily whacking. and ipicer was coming in don't think we were putting our best foot forward. anthony scaramucci changed the dynamic. in the first few minutes it was painful with the daily press briefing. trump is a master in interacting with people. when he does a press conference himself, he is really good about communicating his views directly to the american people. and for the first few months, it just wasn't happening. host: he has had a higher turnover from his west wing modern president. why? guest: the fact of the matter is that whoever the president's

staff is, he has stayed true to his policy that he talked about in the campaign. andaw that with the tariffs health care. the guy in charge and he does stay true to his priorities throughout. host: we are talking live with singer.watso you say that trump has that hasd the debate baffled his clueless opponents. as a result of his ability to connect directly with voters. to beere he allowed controlled by the republican class with their indispensable knowledge of how governing and legislation works, trump is met with debacle after debacle for his agenda. in large part because the agenda of the establishment republicans

inside the beltway is at complete thoughts -- complete with that of the man that won them the white house by ignoring stale gop priorities and pushing a populist agenda that carried him over the top. i don't think we have had a serious shot in any of those states since the reagan years and it is because trump talked about his views of populism and terrorists and those were things .hat resonated if you remember steve bannon's interview with 60 minutes, one of the things he talked about was that trump embraced the republican establishment. so what that meant were repeated efforts over obamacare were met with failure after failure.

and we can call that a huge win with the tax cut. president said that during the campaign he would let obamacare fail. i think they should have led with something else. the president recently spoke for an hour and 50 minutes. he focused on 2020 and the special election in pennsylvania and chuck todd. >> the south korean representatives just left north korea and they came outside to the throng of press. they announced that north korea, kim jong-un would like to meet with president trump. this doesn't happen. they say that obama could have done that but trust me, he couldn't have done that.

he would not have done that. and neither would bush or clinton. and they had their shot and all they did was nothing. give awayton did billions and billions of dollars but as soon as they made the deal, the following day they started working on making more nuclear weapons so that is not a great deal. in 1999, i was on "meet the press. " host: let me ask you about that language. some of the pitch -- is that presidential? he is a down-to-earth guy. he communicates very well with voters. i think the rally in pennsylvania is very good. host: and chuck todd said that

we are wide awake and they are ready to go. we will get to your phone calls. our guest is robert wasinger. (202) 748-8000, democrats. (202) 748-8001, republicans. how critical is mike pence to the trump agenda? guest: he is critical. very instrumental in staffing large parts of the administration. i was in the administration for a short time in the state department and i know that we work very closely with the vice president and the personal office. host: during the campaign, trump was very critical of hillary clinton say our national

security was at stake but we have a number of officials who did not have the right security clearances including his own son-in-law. is there a double standard when it comes to what he said in 2016 to what trump is now doing with his administration? guest: not at all. what hillary clinton did would land anybody else in jail. themg emails and moving around, if it get you in big trouble. that is not the problem we are having. he is making the right moves to top-secret clearances are given to people who have passed the full test. is robertn, our guest wasinger. from michigan, good morning. caller: i have a couple of comments. the first thing i want to say is

andh trump's campaign with medicare and medicaid all and a current tax cuts, it being offset with the rising costs of tax care. health care is going up. i came into this and i figure i should get something out of this. think you. last let me take her point. entitlement seems to be an issue that if not this congress, the next congress will need to work out on. congress has been trying to address this for years and i don't think they have had much luck.

they haven't come up with real solutions. they don't get a chance to vote on this. and the arcane rules of how the senate works is that you can't bring up those type of reforms .or those projects so we need to do a whole overhaul. we see that with the this is noton and the decision you have to make between medicare, you need to reform all spending. they are beginning that process now. from the next caller is england. this program is carried live from great britain. just wanted to make a comment that in my impression, all of trump's policies are connected. if you think of the tariffs is

also scaring the chinese. the trade imbalance is in their favor with the united states. you can see them looking at all of this trade. this is a point that the media is not making. this is a good point. if you watch the president when he did his first trip -- it was very illustrative of trade policies. he is looking to engage in more agreement for fair traits with people. connected and tariffs with china and how we deal with them is something that is not helping american workers

but helping to facilitate the process going forward. i think we have also seen the diplomacy with how he is taken on north korea, that has improved as well. host: the president has continued to call the robert mueller investigation a witchhunt. is it? guest: i think so. we have found no evidence of .ussian collusion we haven't found anything where administration was a part of it. is a good campaigner with marketing his ideas. man andan and generous

he has a bad rap with a lot of people in the media. and that is why he rallies with communication. he goes above and around. getting the message out. from maryland, on the democrat line. thank you for waiting. caller: my question is, you were asked directly as to whether you felt his comments yesterday were presidential. woman and iar-old haven't always agreed with the politics of whoever is in office. but this president is bullying and his comments are immature. do that indren school, we had called. this is not presidential. well, he has redefined certain aspects of the

presidency. and what you see is what you get. there is no buffer between the thoughts and the communications. i think this shows up in the polls. i don't think the midterms will be the bloodbath that the democrats are predicting. he was doing a great job. host: here is the tweet i wanted. is sunday, daylight savings time can't stop us. we are wide open and ready for meet the press." forth ise back and fine, healthy. not a bad thing. the president is just like anybody else. does the president respect the media? with theere is respect

media. he has gotten unfair treatment from the media. have --d other networks they have been aided and abetted by the establishment types that are trying to effectuate an agenda. the media is the one institution that we have left that has lost the senate. they are desperate to get back into power. i ask this question because it was so unusual on thursday that it was the president who came out into the white house briefing room to announcer was an announcement on north korea. your reaction? guest: i love that style.

the president runs the white house. and that is why the staff turnover doesn't really matter. i love that style. we go to the republican line with robert wasinger from the president super pac. caller: i am a very conservative and the rhetoric and language that trump used, i don't want my nephews and nieces to hear that. and the women that come out -- can yoump that talk about that a little? the women, a lot of those things are fake news. a lot of it already has been dealt with. in terms of the president, he is redefining the presidency. the communication, connecting with voters, it is effective.

but the issue is with stormy daniels. the $130,000. president has been clear on this matter and so has his attorney. i don't think there is reason for concern on that. the court will handle it. go to charles, good morning. caller: good morning. can you hear me? good morning. i didn't vote for trump. i am a democrat. he needs to go to the schools and start having prayer. need to be doing that. -- [indiscernible]

may god bless you and you have a good day in jesus' name. president is obviously committed to combating school violence. and i think you probably agrees with some of the sentiments. write "merry christmas" in december which shows he isn't afraid of what he believes. host: this is from an essay you wrote last may. "long before this presidency, the white house briefing has developed into a daily ritual with gotcha moments facedown press secretaries paid to make no use by defecting questions with bland media speak. under this of ministration, the daily briefing has gone from useless to ridiculous.

it is, of course, absurd. if the white house communications team is spending all of their time responding to questions about the latest stories of washington post, they are losing. i read that adult different time. that was when sean spicer was press secretary. this is basically all it was. a lineup of people trying to get a gotcha moment with sean spicer. i think the administration agrees. eventually they did face amount and they started doing it through teleconference instead. sarah sanders has done a fabulous job. the briefingsatch

today, are they more useful? guest: they are more useful. they have gotcha moments. is carlton from new york. good morning. good morning, how are you gentlemen doing? i have a quick comment and a question. i watched the speech with he does atrump and lot of obama bashing throughout his campaign. he has been obama bashing. you is, whaton to is the origin of the korean war? it iserstanding is that the spread of communism. china has just solidified their

president to be the communists president. proving he is doing it in russia. interesting questions. even if he wanted to step down, he couldn't. them, it isking for less of an issue. is more concerned with putting america first. making america great. he has pursued his policies in such a way to do that. host: why did you get involved in the trump campaign? blue-collar voters had

been elusive. i didn't think any of the other candidates brought his message to the table the same way and articulated it in the way that resonated with voters. john kasich will be in new hampshire in april. do you think the president could face a primary challenge? guest: i think he could be. i don't think it matters. the result would be the same. is joining us from new mexico. caller: good morning. how are you today? i'm doing well, thank you. i love our president. i think he is doing a great job. in a frank with you i am

wheelchair and handicapped. and theymale over 55 don't know what we want. , thear democrats talk president is right. he is a businessman. the united states is not a political platform. it is a business. people need to listen to him. that is all i have to say. thank you. from michael who goes back to your earlier point saying "the press corps likes tabloid stories rather than hard ews." guest i think he is right. and that is why there is a daily

briefing. as they do a much better job conveying the message. we go to alabama, good morning. caller: good morning. good to see you. i know that you change hosts sometimes. i'm a senior also. and the young man with america first, you might think liberals and liberal media are doing whatever -- that isn't it. we are all stupid. we are at home, watching the news every day. it is in the majority of americans that agree with him.

some people do vote for him. he is supposed to take care of america. he is saying america first. also, class and character goes a long way. i miss class and character, and this person has none. don't tell me this crap about he is redefining the public. it doesn't need to be redefined. withresidents started george washington. he is a disgrace. i am really sad what america is going through now. host: we will give our guest a chance to respond. guest: thank you for your comments. obviously, i disagree. the president has traveled whole

country getting his message out. he is fighting for all of us. insee the tariffs pennsylvania were there to help that state, the paris climate change, the tax cuts, which will obviously take time to have the full effects on the fiscal side about six months or so and helpful to americans. he does represent all of america and doing a great job. host: what will america first critical action taken 2020? guest: i think it is yet to be determined. i think it will be active in a lot of races across the country, again, promoting the policies and getting his message out. host: our last call is from new jersey. caller: good morning. thank you. i am calling to comment on the president of the united states of america. i am a muslim. i came here as a refugee. to what theeaking, president is doing now, for the

economy, i think it is a tremendous, tremendous experience for the country. people don't really understand what the president is trying to do for this country. he is trying to do something that will help this country in the future. if you look at what the president is doing to the economy, it is something you cannot comprehend. the economy, everybody has money now. it will invite the industries of this country to come back. how can a country operate without industry? host: thank you, your response? guest: another great points. the president has added roughly 3 million jobs to the economy so more people are working. a big factor in economic growth has been a massive deregulation

that has happened. i think he has revisited about a thousand 600 regulations and that is going to continue to be a factor to economic growth, as well. you put tax cuts on top of that and we have a situation where we will have sustained economic growth, which numbers are already showing. wall street, the stock market goes up and down, but the economy is humming along in a way it has not in years. host: we're talking to robert lessig are -- wasinger, who worked on the trump campaign, rustocusing on some of the belt states, including pennsylvania. midterm elections are almost always referendums on the party of power. we have seen that from the beginning of time of our country, so what can we expect in 2018? guest: i think it will be a lot better for republicans. you have seen the backlash or the country switching directions, going back to

that,ine, or maybe before or before the bush administration, it did not happen. there are 33 senate races up this year. 23 are democrats, and trump won content of those states. at least five in recent polling show the generic republican defeats the democrat in those states, said the margin in senate is slim, two votes, but five are very much imperiled and poised beneath the generic republican. how side, they have to flip. we will see how it goes. earlier, the texas raises on class last tuesday and it shows this blue tidal wave is not what people are thinking it is going to be. host: next on our newsmakers, our guest essay republicans need to do more than run on tax cuts and a strong economy. they also have to provide a

strong agenda for 2019 and beyond. guest: i think that is right and that is why i think republicans in racesll last cycle across the country because we were talking about what we were going to be doing. to keep that going, to keep articulating the clear message, keep america great, i think that will give us a synopsis to what we are trying to do. your robert wasinger, first appearance on c-span -- guest: thank you, it was fun. host: please come back again. guest: i will. host: when we come back, alberto gonzales, who served as george w. bush's attorney general from 2005 two 2007 from nashville, tennessee, as "washington journal" continues this sunday, march 11. we are back in a moment. ♪ ontoday at 6:00 p.m. eastern american history tv's american

heart attacks, herbert block -- artifacts, herbert block spent years covering presidents to bush.er see his latest work at the library of congress. >> one of the missions of the library congress is to document the creativity and intelligence of the american people and preserve it for future generations area -- generations. >> i think it is a mark of a free society that we can gather opinions with which we do not agree i collect them and preserve them for future generations. there are a lot of countries in the world where nobody would dare do that, and to we are, steps from the u.s. capitol, and we have a variety of opinions on cartoonists, and mr. block is a great example of one of the artist we had collected. atwatch "american artifacts"

6:00 p.m. eastern today on american history tv on c-span3. c-span, where history unfolds daily. created as aan was public service by america's public television companies. today, we bring you unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court's, and public policy events in washington, d.c., and around the country. c-span is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. >> "washington journal" continues. nashvilleing us from is alberto gonzales, the former u.s. attorney general, now the dean of belmont university school of law, thank you for being with us. good morning. let me begin with news from the justice department involving bump stocks in the debate over

guns. the president saying he wants to eliminate this device that essentially turns weapons into automatic machine guns. what is the authority of the justice department? what can the president do with no legislation? guest: the president of the united states, the executive branch has a certain amount of discretion because of the execution of laws passed by congress. so i think that with respect to the department of justice looking at this issue, there is a division within the council, a memory of the executive branch with respect to authorities and you look at this issue and make determinations in the executive branch. there is authority to take action that would affect the bump stocks, so the attorney --eral exercises his law for

law-enforcement authority and can move forward and take this kind of action. my perspective is someone who is concerned of some bump stocks, and they are in our society, i would prefer to see legislative and congressional action, which makes it more permanent. to those of us concerned about bump stocks as a possible danger within our society, and within some sort of fashion, make sense, and attorney general sessions has the ability to take some kind of action and the department of justice is going to take action. host: is this something that onld face litigation based the second amendment, the right to bear arms, could the nra or others tried to block this in courts? guest: no question about it but it is clear to me that the supreme court has ruled that these restrictions upon gun ownership is certainly consistent with the second

amendment rate that is why we are allowed to have background checks and the courts have allowed certain bands in the past. yes, i suspect the nra or someone will take some kind of action challenges but the question is, is this a reasonable this section of gun ownership under the second amendment? courts will find it is reasonable. host: the justice department made news when the attorney general traveled into sacramento and went over california as a sanctuary state, taking aim at the mayor of oakland, california. here's what he said -- [video clip] >> we have a problem, a series of actions and events have adversely impacted the work of our federal office. for example, the mayor of oakland has actively -- has been actively seeking to help illegal aliens avoid apprehension. actions support those who plowed the law, for the validate

illegality. there's no other way to interpret those remarks. to make matters worse, the elected lieutenant governor of the state praised her for doing so, bragging about and encouraging the obstruction of lawlaw enforcement and the -- i'm afraid this is an embarrassment to the proud state of california. host: jeff sessions, the u.s. attorney general, and when he says california, we have a problem -- what is the issue and what can the justice department do when it comes to sanctuary cities or states? guest: to me, this is a very, located situation. i, for one, have a great deal of respect of the rights of states and local communities, cities to take action on behalf of their citizens and community. cityve a state or

purposely abstract, to take deliberate action, to make it more difficult for the federal government to enforce our laws, to me, it is problematic. it is different than the city or state making a decision and saying to the department of justice, we're not going to cooperate in any way, but actions to impede the work is problematic. this has gone too far, and i support general sessions and taking steps to ensure that the department is able to do its job. we have to remember, the department of justice exist to enforce federal law. and the department is simply trying to do its job and to have

the city -- and to have the city to purposely impede the action is problematic and that the general sessions is probably doing the right thing. host: after he delivered his speech, with protesters outside, the governor brown saying these immigrants come to california to pick berries, clean hotels. they are here to find employment and turn that money back to their families and mexico. they're not here to commit crimes. if you buy the arguments, is the solution to illegal immigration a wall or do you go after the employers in the u.s. who hire them? guest: i think it is a combination, frankly. i think the right immigration policy happens with some type of border security and we have to know who is in this country and laws, wein a nation of are a nation of immigrants and laws, and we cannot have people in this country who were not

some kind of legal status. the fact that we have some kind status with millions of people, i think it is automatic. do provide a service and are very helpful in promoting certain industries, but they need to be in some kind of legal status, so we need a comprehensive plan that puts those people who qualify into the legal status. when i say qualify, people who don't have a criminal record, they pay back taxes, the qualify, but i also believe in immigration policy needs to punish those employers who routinely and repeatedly hire people they should not be hiring. i also believe that a comprehensive immigration policy is one that revises our process. half of the people in this country unlawfully came under a lawful visa, student or were, and expired and they were in the country. we need to prevent that from happening.

finally, i support putting our dreamers in a legal status. president trump tim allen a proposal and said many of those folks would be eligible for some kind of citizenship. i believe these people were brought here with no fault of their own, the only home they have known, and i support putting dreamers in a legal status. it is a comprehensive plan. i think you cannot just have one or the other. to deal with the problem effectively, we need an immigration policy that deals with all of the factors and parts of immigration policy. host: our guest is a graduate of pricing university, earned his -- of rice university, earned his degree of law from harvard and joins us from nashville. our phone lines are open at (202)-748-8000 but democrats. and (202)-748-8001 for republicans. we have a line for independents, send us a tweet at --@cspanwj.

i want to get your reaction to what president trump, the latest volley back-and-forth with his justice department and general sessions -- why is ag jeff sessions asking the inspector general to investigate potentially massive fisa abuse? it will take forever. it has no prosecutable power and already late with reports on comey, etc. isn't the ig and obama got? why not use the justice department lawyers? disgraceful! if president bush named a tweet at you, what would your reaction have been? guest: we are talking about something that would not have happened, frankly. i had the type of relationship with the president -- we would have a private conversation. we have to understand something about the relationship between the department of justice and attorney general and the white house and president. the attorney general, mike -- unlike any other cabinet member, one, you were chosen to promote

and carry out the president's he enforcement agenda, which campaigned on in the presidential election. you are part of his team, but you also work at different hats, with their spec to investigation and prosecution, and that is you follow evidence where it may take you, even within the white house. your job is to enforce the law. people lose sight of the fact that the attorney general where's this two hats. it is appropriate because you are a member of the president's cabinet to be subject to criticism of the president of the united states. you serve at the pleasure of the presidents of the united states. if he no longer has pleasure in your service, you leave, you are fired, or resign. if the president has displeasure in sessions' service, it is appropriate to convey it to the attorney general. i think normally, i think it is fair to say, normally, it is

conveyed privately. it the president is unhappy with the performance, generally what happens is the chief of staff contacts the cabinet official and tells them, we think this is a good time for you to leave and quietly the cabinet official leaves in three or four weeks. what we are seeing publicly is different, but my own sense is that this is the way that this president deals with people he is unhappy with, issues that make him uncomfortable, and it may very well be professional. i don't know this to be the facts, but there may have been a private conversation between the president, and attorney general, where he says, listen, i am unhappy about the situation. i will be critical about this. i know you are tough and can take it. i want you to understand this is not going to result in you losing your job but i'm going to

make public comments. that conversation may have happened. timeis not the first president trump has been critical of general sessions, yet, he remains. perhaps this is a way donald trump deals with the attorney general and the attorney general understands that continues to do his. it is unusual and different than the way president bush dealt with his cabinet officials. we have a different residence, dealing with a different attorney general in different circumstances. host: jeff sessions responding and it reads -- "we have initiated the appropriate process that will ensure complaints against the departmental be fully and fairly acted upon, it necessary. as long as i am attorney general, i will continue to discharge my duties with integrity and honor and this department will continue to do its work in a fair and impartial manner according to the law and constitution." gary directly, if you were jeff sessions and you base this public criticism, would you

personally state believe? -- they only -- stay or leave? guest: it depended on the circumstances. if privately the president assured me i am happy with your performance and said i will say comments that are tough, that would be ok with me, but if i have the feeling the president is truly not supportive and doesn't have confidence in my work, that would make a big difference in terms of whether i would stay or not. i would say i have been very pleased and very happy with the response of general sessions throughout his tenure as attorney general. i think the appropriate response is to say, listen, i have a job to do. i will do my job with honor and integrity. his honor is to protect the justice of the men and women can work there day in and day out. he needs to be sure the men and women of the department of

justice focus and not be in any way demoralized or discouraged by the criticism. i will say it is the one thing i worry about that even though the president may be criticizing only the attorney general, it is inevitable the morale may be affected in a negative way with constant criticism of the work of the department or leadership at the department, so that is something that i do have some concerns about. host: we will go to michael in indiana. good morning. thank you for waiting period caller: good morning. -- thank you for waiting. caller: good morning. i think i don't care if he is a mayor, governor, whoever he is. if they swear on that bible, they swear to uphold the laws. the law says it is legal. change the law or fire the going by there not law. host: thank you.

guest: well, i agree with that sentiment. obviously, every mayor, governor, and every cabinet official takes notes of the laws, and that is what general sessions is trying to do. i think politically, the action is taken by the officials in california may resonate with the public, and that may be part of the reasons and motivation behind action they are taking. in this instance, while i respect the rise of state and local officials to do what they think is right for their constituents, the fact they would take action to affirmatively abstract to work at the department of justice is problematic. host: leo is next from new hampshire. independent line. caller: good morning, people. question -- you mentioned earlier we are a country of laws.

do you feel that president trump has broken the law by releasing the old federal post office downtown in washington and renting it out as a motel and particular countries going in there and spending lavishes amount of money? guest: i have to admit that the appearance is troubling. as to whether or not there has been a violation of law, that is something that don't have enough obviously, heout. will be getting advice from his counsel, the department of justice. congress can look into whether or not there is a violation of law. if they believe there is evidence to support the prosecution of a violation, they can make a referral to the department of justice. i remember that in the early day of the bush administration, we had conversations about the convex that we caution the

cautiont -- conduct we the president about. with president bush, it was clear to us we did not want to do anything that would create the appearance of a conflict of interest. i am assuming those kinds of conversations happened at the beginning of the trump administration. as to whether or not there has been a violation of law, i don't have enough information to offer that opinion. host: we are talking to former u.s. attorney general alberto gonzales, adviser to the bush campaign, white house general counsel, and u.s. attorney general. he is now the dean at belmont university school of law, joining us from nashville, tennessee. anthony's next from maryland. good morning. caller: mr. gonzales, i think there iz plenty of evidence -- mr. gonzalez, i think there's plenty of evidence that demonstrates he violated the law. weren't you brought here as a

dreamer? as young guy by your parents, who were illegal, that is my question? guest: i was born in sending to a, in this country as an american citizen -- i was born in san antonio, texas, in this country as an american citizen. sanarents were born in antonio, texas. i understand this is an emotional issue with how we appeal to dreamers. i am in the majority of americans who understand that polls show a majority of americans provide -- support providing some kind of legalization and diamond that camp. we have not been able to deal with that issue because it the competitions with respect to immigration policy. i think like so many issues and washington, it has been hijacked by politics and i think it is unfortunate. i am with the caller with respect to providing some kind

of relief for the dreamers and some kind of legal status. host: for you, personally, what is a more challenging learning curve, the coming attorney general or dean of a law school? guest: [laughter] clearly, becoming the attorney general but that doesn't mean being dean is not challenging in its own right. it certainly is a different kind of challenge and i think in many ways, as dean, you feel you have less authority to deal with individuals at the law school that when i was attorney general . host: what makes a good lawyer? guest: judgment and integrity. i think those are a couple of things that would make a good lawyer. when i talked to students, i talk about the importance of judging comes from wisdom and wisdom from experience. no one is born with wisdom. it comes from succeeding, and that isfailing,

something you acquire over time. judgment is very important and integrity. you have to have total integrity with clients, in dealing with colleagues on the other side, reputation is very important. to talk about the importance of integrity, judgments, and quite frankly, being a lawyer, it is and the compensation can be very good. you work long hours and people have great expectations of you. sometimes we talk about life and liberty at stake, and finances at stake, so you want to do it right. you want to work hard for your clients, so it can be a difficult job but i think lawyers are a force for good. despite all the jokes to hear in america, when people get in trouble, they turn to lawyers,

and when i am asked, will i be able to get a job today? if you are good lawyer. given the nature of our society, if you are a good lawyer, there will always be a place for you, so i have seen the best of our profession in so many ways and am proud to be a lawyer. host: ralph is joining us next in washington, d.c. good morning. caller: good morning. a few points to make. i agree about sessions going after this mayor. she was way out of line. the whole problem of this immigration policy is the rapid innate kraft sandwich called racism. a few disagree with me on immigration on racism, you have to be a racist. you are looking at the total number of people working.

and it represents 70% of construction jobs. if you don't believe me, i walk into home depot's and see how many monday through friday americans are in their shopping for something as opposed to illegal aliens. this is the last point. this goes into wages -- they are stagnated in this country. if i have an unlimited supply of cheap labor, not only does it impact the lower labor classes. because of black labor, black income has marked -- marched backwards the last five years but it propagates the pool. it impacts everybody. host: thank you. you will get a response. guest: i agree that we need to have an immigration policy that doesn't hurt the ability of american workers to get a job. if we had a policy where we put people in some kind of legal status, we have the ability to

gauge as to how that is going to impact american workers. i think it is fair to say that -- i believe this to be true -- there are some jobs americans simply are not interested in doing because of the amount of wages that are tied to those jobs, but i do believe that if we simply deported 15 million undocumented immigrants, it would prove devastating to certain industries and take a while to recover. or not even recover. i believe there is value in those people here unlawfully today doing some of those jobs. or my perspective, the answer is to put them in some kind of legal status. as i have said earlier, it has been tolerable we have so many people in this country not here as some kind of lawful status and to make sure that we know who is in this country and it is

the responsibility of our government to control our borders. that is where i think we have really failed. host: we will go to bruce from pennsylvania. on the democrat line, good morning. caller: hi. is, it is about that florida gun law that they just passed in florida. actually, it is about the age group, raising the age limit from 18 to 21. group are in that age for something -- they are law-abiding citizens. and they are adults now and they are added there home now from the family and that. defenselesse left because they cannot by any guns to protect themselves, their

, maybe him and his wife, whatever. i do not see how that flies. now withbeing compared felons. when they go to buy a gun, well, you are not 21 and they do the same thing to a failing. a failing tries to buy a gun and they deny him for nothing happens to the felling. they let him go and he is a law-abiding citizen with no crime, criminal record, and he is not defenseless. thanks. we should point out going back to the issue of the second amendment, the nra is going after florida on the very point that bruce is talking about. guest: i don't -- i must confess, i don't know all the particulars of the florida legislation. raiseght it prohibited a

of age with respect to assault rifles and i did not realize it would cover handguns, as well. maybe it does or doesn't. i understand the concern or the optics of having individuals who may go into the military and are trained to use these weapons at andr 20, and yet, come home is unable to purchase such a weapon in florida. we will see. it will be a challenge. this is an action taken by the tote as to how they want lower gun violence in the state of florida. in response to the call, in respect to the difference between the slot and felons, a felling but not be able to purchase a gun at all, ever, or beyond the age of 21. we are not saying that all individuals are prohibited from

owning go up forever, but only until 21. whether or not the courts will say this is a reasonable destruction, and we will defer to the legislation of florida remains to be seen. the test is whether or not -- it isn't whether or not you have a restriction but whether or not the restriction is feasible under the second amendment and the legislators in the state of florida and the governor believe it is reasonable. host: what is your assessment of robert mueller and his investigation? are you confident he is conducting it in a fair and equitable way? guest: i have confidence in bob mueller. he was the fbi director when i was attorney general of the united states, so i know him pretty well. diligence, and determined. i think there have been some mistakes and hiring some of his team, and some of his members of bias andhave expressed

some email communications. i think that has been unfortunate and hurt the reputation of the investigation, the perception of the investigation that may be biased and it has been harmful. as a general matter, i have confidence in him and the way the investigation is conducted, methodical, slow, and there are so much we don't know. yes, to answer your question, i have confidence in him. i think this represents the best opportunity to find out what happens with respect to the election and russian meddling. we need to be careful about how far the investigation goes with of the into the finances president, his family, his business, but that has always been the criticism of special counsel. they're often given a mandate and often we see investigations go from the initial mandate into

something else beyond that, so we will have to see what happens. host: one final point because there was news late last week that the white house was still trying to negotiate with robert mueller that they would allow the president to talk to him in exchange for an agreement to a drop of this investigation. guest: i think as to whether or not -- obviously, if you are the council of the president, you are going to try to get some kind of deal like that to get it wrapped up. i think it has been a distraction within the white house and i think the perception around the country's people want to get it wrapped up but they want to know what happens. if someone did something wrong, they should be held accountable. by that, i mean the country of russia. depression did something wrong, there has to be some accountability and we need a public pronouncement about that, we need to punish russia in some way for doing what they did and put measures in place to make

sure it doesn't happen again. this is very serious and we need to find out what happened, so i support the investigation moving forward. getting back to your initial whytion, yes, i understand the president's lawyers would want to have that kind of agreement. as to whether or not robert mueller will agree to it, perhaps, or maybe he is close to wrapping up in any event. a lot will depend on where he is with respect to the investigation. host: you spent seven years here during the bush administration. do you miss it? guest: iguest: miss going to work every day at the white house, standing in the oval office and advising the president of the united states, who should he appointed the supreme court. i miss driving to work every day to the department of justice and working with 100,000 people who i know are dedicated to the pursuit of justice.

and incredible privilege to work at the white house and department of justice, but i don't miss a lot of local stuff, testifying, dealing with it felt itsometimes was unfair. at the end of the day, i would do it again because it was quite a ride. formerlberto gonzales, u.s. attorney general, now they deemed at belmont school of law in nashville, thank you. guest: thanks for having me. host: this is the headline from the pittsburgh post-, the -- thent risking steel president boosts steel. we will go back to our first question on this sunday morning. time.7:00 a.m. eastern if you are a supporter of president trump, (202)-748-8000. for all others, (202)-748-8001.

you are watching and listening to c-span's "washington journal" on march 11. we are back in a moment. ♪ >> tonight on "q&a," former u.s. border patrol agent francisco cantu talks about his book -- the line becomes a river -- a memoir about what he has learned since leaving the border patrol. pregnant, thats is why she cannot keep up. they were lost for three days after the group left them, drinking soapy water from cattle thanks. they made it through a village, and the board of control -- border patrol got called and i was the agent that was supposed to take them in and i started talking to them. it turned out this pregnant andn had grown up in iowa spoke perfect english, and she was a schoolteacher in iowa.

i think her husband saw that we were talking and we had a connection and teaming dover at one point and said, hey, man, can we skip the whole -- and leaned over at one point and said, hey, man kelly skip the whole immigration thing and can you let us cross back into mexico? be a brother? i did not hesitate. i said no, this is my job. i cannot do that, and i took them in. what i remember about the encounter is i remember asking their names and i remember introducing myself to them, and i remember wanting to remember them because i had this connection. i wanted to hold them in my mind and i one did the woman to be safe and further child to be safe. and a couple hours later, i went back out on patrol. i was in my car and i had completely forgotten my names. the reason that encounter sticks

with me so much is because i think that is the first in the humanization, forgetting what -- and de-humanization, forgetting what makes someone in individual. >> tonight on c-span's "q&a." host: we want to turn our attention to the stormy daniels story and whether or not you think it is relevant. howard kurtz of fox news is writing about it at foxnews.com with the headline -- stormy weather, can lawyers attempt to silece the point star hurt the president? he writes --

website,m the fox news the story online. first new york times, the foreign president -- the fi with t photo of the president -- she writes, the stormy episode is exactly the type of embarrassing episode that trump denied, denied he knew women who would accuse him, playing the media angle to kill stories, getting the help of rents and employees to pay off women. the times have changed dramatically.

they tried again to bury the story, same we have addressed this extensively. i have nothing else to add that that will not modified the millions of women who find the president's behavior unacceptable. damien from port saint lucie, florida, good morning. caller: how are you today? host: good morning. citizen ofm just a the u.s. and all i really care about is the president does well. i understand there are a lot of things that happened in a person's past, some good and bad but as long as we can keep the country moving forward and all these personal things that happen to people -- nobody is perfect. nobody is going to be above everything in the world that they can control, and it would be nice if everyone was honest about every single thing they do, but i would support any president in this is the case now. president trump is the one

leading the country and we wanted to do well. that is a. host: this headline from nbc be anom -- this could election law violation. from pennsylvania, good morning. are you with us? we will go on to john from michigan. good morning. caller: good morning. yes, -- host: is the stormy daniels story relevant? caller: yes. host: why? caller: because if there was any litigations, they would call the police and find out what the matter is. and again, the prime minister of north korea had an announcement for south korea, and stormy daniels came out different times. host: we will go next to fred in alabama. good morning. caller: good morning.

host: go ahead. caller: yes. you are doing this about the stormy daniels when there are so many more real things in the country and world going on. i am an independent. i vote for whoever is best at what they are doing. i would love to tell you that john kennedy was a really party dealer but not a problem. bill clinton -- he was not a partygoer, not a problem. interesting, only when you get a man in their life may be reagan -- a man in there, like reagan, like a son, this kind of crap matters.it is a shame. this country needs to grow up and recognize what is important

and what isn't. host: with bill clinton, he was impeached for his indiscretion. caller:, on. do you really -- come on. do you really believe that? host: why was he in peach and -- why was he impeached then? caller: that was the grounds, or what has happened to him? did you go to jail? -- did he go to jail? no, he is still glorified on television. all the news programs do it. damn thing,do a pardon my french, he did not do anything except play around and steal from the country. host: frank from alabama, this editorial from the washington post -- silence is not golden. and from their website, stormy daniels needs to tell her story, by enough people to keep your

secrets may have been the norm for mr. trump in the business world, but it has no place in the oval office. stormy daniels should be able to tell her story and americans should judge for themselves what the events say about the character of the president, that from the washington post. joe is joining us from florida. caller: first, i want to clarify something you may have made a mistake on. presidenton was the of the united states when this incident happened. he had a next her marital of their in the white house, -- he had an extramarital affair in the white house. he gave an intern access, that is why he impeached, it had nothing to do it the extramarital affair itself. was basedimpeachment on grounds he lied about having a relationship with monica lewinsky. that was the premise. caller: it was primarily because

of it happening in the white house while he was president. i voted for donald trump. i hate the media narrative and i'm sorry c-span if you follow it, too, where you have labeled people as trump supporters or opponents. i do not agree with everything president trump did in office but i don't believe a relationship with a point star prior to his getting elected in office matters so much. host: let me jump in. to be clear, we are not talking relationship. the issue is the $130,000 payment that came from his lawyer, who took out a home equity loan to pay for it. where did the money come from? was it a campaign contribution? we don't know. was it from donald trump personally? we don't know. caller: you are right, great question. at the end of the day, did it happen before he became president? yes it did. was it campaign money?that

could be illegal, true. if it is proven not to be campaign money, as much effort as the media, cnn, unfortunately, c-span, would you go forward and retracted and say, donald trump should never have been investigated over this? host: remember, i read from fox, as well, they are writing about it, so everyone is covering the story at arias levels. caller: and it is unfortunate because we made groundbreaking discussions with north korea and all we are talking about is some por star. nhost: stormy daniels claiming she wants to tell her story in an agreement signed by the president's attorney but not by donald trump himself. next sunday, we will begin a nine part series looking back 50 years ago at one of the most tumultuous years in american

history, 1968, beginning with president johnson's decision not to seek another term, the assassination of dr. martin luther king, robert kennedy, the nominations of richard nixon, hubert humphrey, and nixon winning that year. and the escalation of the vietnam war. also, our mission to mars, when year later in 1969. our focus begins next sunday, 8:30 to 10:00 eastern time, every sunday morning, 1968, america in turmoil. we hope you tune in. let's go to rita from little rock, arkansas. good morning. you are next. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. caller: i am calling about the stormy daniels thing with donald trump, and i am actually one of the people that i think personal

issues are one thing, but when you are bribing and giving money where it should not be given, it theomething going on within house that are built for the people, and i am not seeing where this house built for the are beingif you conniving in one area, how are you helping the people in the other area? host: ok, thank you. this is from dick, who says the potus slept with a porn star and then pay direct to keep her quiet before the election. smacksif it is relevant right wing journalism. was lewinsky relevant? this headline, how a could impact the rush investigation. and invest -- how stormy daniels

could impact the russian investigation. couldpossible they include the inquiry to include the financial arrangement with daniels. special counsel robert mueller was authorized to investigate russian interference in the 2016 election, any potential ties between trump associates and obstruction of justice and any matters that arose or may arise from the investigation directly. that last fries, -- phrase, is how robert mueller could investigate the payments to stormy daniels. next from ohio, welcome to the program. caller: good morning. host: good morning. caller: am i on the air? host: yes, go ahead. caller: i am calling about the stormy daniels thing, too. i am a woman, finally you got a woman to put some -- to give you some input. star whowashed up porn

was not making all kinds of money because she is getting attention. i think it is ridiculous. all the things that trump has been recently that is good for the country is what you all should be talking about. channel,every news including you, which really upsets me because i really love c-span, but talk about what is real. we don't care about some washed up porn star who is trying to make a living because she has not had any money. she was on the air the other day talking about how she used to only dance once a month and now she has four a month and she cannot keep up with all the assignments. what do you think she is doing this for? money. i'm sick and tired of the trash that people keep throwing up at our president. it is disgusting. thank you. host: we will go on with threes

says, lintonvian was impeached for lying, not having an affair. another says, he was impeached for lying under oath and he lost his law license. another viewer said the payment violated campaign finance laws and she had an abortion, so yes, it is relevant. charlie from florida, good morning. you are next. caller: i think it is kind of relevant. i think it shows that he is prone to the kind of beings that were brought up in the steele dossier, the seedy parts, and he could be influenced by foreign influences. i'm afraid even with this so-called progress with north korea, i think putin probably ng-un, the only

person he supports in the world, putting him up to make concessions to south korea and then south korea is happy about that. oneink it is mainly putin team trump to look better. until we get rid of the stench of the russian influence on our election, anything trump does i think is going to only because -- only be because putin wanted him to do it. host: breitbart news is reporting on the comments of msnbc comments, the cohost of morning joe argued that president trump may the decision on north korea because of stormy daniels. he said people could deny that all they want but if you are doing that, you are in the tank for donald trump. the new york post is also writing about stormy daniels, strutting her stuff amid the legal tufts of donald trump. there is a photograph of her as she is trying to tell her story and go after that agreement she signed with michael:.

michael:.iels -- stormy daniels is also sitting down fo. a 60 minutes interview. did air date is to be determined -- the air date is to be determined. good morning. caller: thanks for all you do to give a balanced reporting of everything that goes on out there. my comment is, and i am not putting all democrats in the mix except the leaders of the democrat party. effort forconcerted the democrats to clean up their mess, which they have been trying to do for the last year. they have gotten rid of the senator from minnesota and this is a whole part. now, it want to go after mr. trump. we did not vote for an angel. we voted for a person who would get the job done. what mr. trump did before he was in office is quite different to what mr. clinton did while he

was in office. he basically raped three women to five women in office. they have come forward with their stories, so it is an entirely different ball of wax. i am not exonerating the president. i am just saying it is ridiculous. the stories that the democrat leaders are throwing out there. that is all i got to say. host: thank you. from jodey, this tweet -- stormy is just like trump, old and washed out.another tweet, the cost and amount of campaign #the apparently. joining us from california. we will go to linda, sorry, from maryland. good morning. caller: good morning. isopinion is that this totally irrelevant and it is a distraction. she is a porn star, the word

porn, so, please, he is the president. the people have chosen him for who he is. figure, soan unknown let him do the job. let us help them do the job. he is a businessman with no political experience, so please, let him do the job for the people. people chose him and this has to be respected. a porn star i do not respect at all. host: this is from another viewer, there is a word of people who accept money to be quiet, implicit. linda, you get the last word. us?would this? -- you with we alive tomorrow morning with a live simulcast of c-span's washington journal. guests, the washington times representative. the table as we look at the week in washington with the president

in town and the house and senate vote in session, taking it measures to provide additional funds for schools dealing with gun violence. later, your money segment, todd harrison with the center for strategic and national studies to look at the pentagon's budget and what it means for 2018. tomorrow morning at 7:00 p.m. eastern time. newsmakers is next. hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend. have a great week ahead. ♪ [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. 2018] with theakers next, macintosh. director ofts, national intelligence testifies at a searing tenant -- senate

hearings on global threats. and in president trump signed proclamations for tariffs on steel and aluminum imports. steve: joining us on "newsmakers ," former congressman david mcintosh. thank you for being with us. joining us with the question is stephen shepherd, chief polling analyst for politico, and al weaver who covers politics for the washington examiner. you had some real concerns about candidate trump in 2016. based on his announcement at the white house, are those fears realized? david: great question. one of our concerns and 2015 was his strong commitment to more protectionist views of trade. we are committed to free trade at the club for growth. we have been very supportive of the president on his agenda. that was our number one initiative last year, and we worked to get it passed. the deregulatory