military strike on syria. tour-span bus 50 capitals visits carson, nevada. ♪ ♪ congressman paul ryan was first elected to represent the first district in wisconsin in 1998. he was chair of the wanes and means that the ways and means committee, the -- the ways and means committee, the house budget committee, and was elected speaker of the house. yesterday he announced his intention to retire at the end of this term. we would like to know what you think. good morning and welcome to "washington journal." for are the phone numbers

republicans, democrats, and independence and all others. we will look for your tweets as @cspanwj. plenty of posts on our facebook already, facebook.com/cspan. here is how it is being reported in the local "janesville gazette." "ryan won't run for reelection. what's next? the new congressman or woman will start at the bottom in the next congress, far from the heights where the janesville native sits as speaker of the house of representatives, second in line of succession to the presidency. ryan emphasized he will continue pushing legislation and working

for the reelection of his republican colleagues as he finishes his term, which ends january 2019. and then? ryan did not respond to a request for an interview, but cnn's jake cap are asked ryan on wednesday whether he could consider running for higher office. 'i'm not going to run for president. that's not my plan. i'm always going to advocate for the causes i have. no plans for running for anything, and i don't think i will change my mind. 'ut governor -- my mind. " your thoughts on the retirement of paul ryan. before your calls, let's hear from paul ryan on among the

reasons for his retirement announcement. ryan: it is almost hard to believe, but i have been a member of congress for two decades. my kids weren't even born when i was first elected. our oldest was 13 years old when i became speaker. now all three of our kids are teenagers. one thing i've learned about their idea of an ideal weekend is not to spend all of their time with their parents. what i realize is if i am here for one more term, my kids will only have ever known me as a weekend dad. i just can't let that happen. i will be setting new priorities in my life, but i will also be leaving incredibly proud of what we've accomplished. some of you know my story. 16, theied when i was

age my daughter is. i don't want to be one of those people looking back on my life thinking i should spend more time with my kids when i know if i serve another term, they will only think of me as a weekend father. host: headline this morning at "the washington times," "ryan retirement sparks gop .oul-searching mr. ryan rejected claims that he was fleeing a sinking ship. he predicted republicans would keep their house majority despite headwinds in november's elections. actived to be an lame-duck speaker as he serves out the rest of his term cannot pushing for spending controls and the rest of the republican agenda." let's hear from janet in tacoma, washington on the democrat line. i have respect for paul ryan that he wants to be with , and i have nothing

against him as a person, but i do think that he was the main one that advised president trump to take away the benefits of the people that was important that the really need, like social security and medicare and even welfare, you know, that people really depend on. -- i think that he republicans that he doesn't realize how some of the people really need some of the help. ith has a fa

the same as i do, but i believe that jesus said the rich should help the poor. i do think that jesus did mean for the rich to help the poor, and that they do need help, we are supposed to help them. host: let's hear from loretto in pennsylvania, independent line. caller: yes. i can respect the fact that he wants to be more than a weekend dad, but most dads in the country are weekend at. everybody -- weekend dads. everybody has got to work. i think he's a quitter. i think you should hang in there and support president trump as i support president trump 100%. i like everything he's doing, and i think they ought to vote

to raise the voting age to 30. think thisu announcement makes it easier to get things done or more difficult for president trump? caller: well, i don't think it is going to be easy no matter who is the speaker of the house. everybody has their opinion. you gotlem with that is 100 and some people there and they all say something different. they talk, talk, talk and say nothing and do nothing. and botox facer pelosi and that old man that ran for president, what is his name? sanders? bernie sanders? come on. give us a break, people. mentioned nancy pelosi.

front page on the looking at potential replacements for the speaker. likely those elections won't happen until the fall. exit "bodes ill for gop chances. who could be the next leader of the house? kevin mccarthy, 53, is known for his mix of personal time, political savvy, and artwork. steve scully's -- and hard work. moved into the spotlight last summer after he survived a mass shooting. pelosi held the gavel for two years starting in 2008." the speaker of the opposition position doesn't go by party, necessarily. let's hear from robert in kentucky on our republican line. go ahead. caller: good morning, sir.

i think paul ryan is doing a great job. i was hoping the first two callers wouldn't be like this and have negative colin's. paul -- negative call-ins. paul ryan is doing a great thing to be with his children. i was more dads across the country would be like this. children need a parent who is a father figure in their life, too. inhear in coal country kentucky respect paul ryan very much. i would just appreciate it if the next few callers would not down paul ryan and give paul ryan some good talk. paul ryan, this is robert from kentucky, and sir, we thank you and respect you, and you have done a great job. host: one of our previous callers critical of senator chuck schumer, who had some words of praise for speaker ryan. with his newfound

political freedom, a hope that the speaker uses his remaining time in congress to break free right factions that have plagued congress from getting things done. as he is willing to reach across the aisle, he will find democrats willing and eager to work with him. i would say to speaker ryan, let's work together. you are more of a free man now. follow your instincts. your beliefs won't be the same as ours, but we can meet somewhere in the middle. the job may be made harder because congressmen scalise and mccarthy are now competing for ryan's job and the hard right's favor, but i believe speaker ryan is up to the job and can overcome that problem and work in his last few months here for the betterment of our country. host: on the speaker's

retirement, "the new york times" writing this morning "house speaker paul ryan's retirement announcement line cited many house republican candidates and their campaign leaders who were counting on him to leave them to victory in the november midterm elections. 's decision to leave congress at 48 -- his decision to leave congress at $.48 and undeniably pessimistic message to republicans, that stable, steady leadership is lacking in their deeply divided party as they head into a campaign season defined by the winds of president trump. ar a white house bracing for potential democratic impeachment a glory, the ominous impact of mr. ryan's retirement was unmistakable. he has made it more difficult to stave off democrats' taking control of the house, republicans currently holding a 23 seat majority."

carol says "ryan has been in congress for a long time. there are some that do get burned out and have had enough areas i believe his reasons for leaving. they make sense." paul in detroit on our democrat line. caller: number one, the sky is leaving because mission accomplished. he made his buddies richard then -- this guy is leaving because mission accomplished. he made his buddies richer than hell. this guy is part of the situation with mueller. he is also going to be a person of interest. the last thing is, i am always --zed at republican colors republican callers. it is not about president trump. the fact is, this guy is china to get rid of benefits for old people -- is trying to get rid of benefits for old people.

yet you still vote for these people. to me that is insane. thanks. host: calvin on the republican line. 20 think? that's what do you think? -- what do you think? caller: when i saw that yesterday on tv about speaker ryan, i am very appreciative of what he's done as speaker, i am so excited. i am republican, and i am so andted to have a shakeup get new blood in there. i believe that when it comes to draining the swamp, it is working. -- theme of the newer wins newer ones. i know people were surprised

that trey gowdy is stepping down. he was supportive of the president in the beginning. it was sort of hit or miss from moment to moment. now they are together. i just think it is a great thing for our country and our government, and i wish him all the best. to the storyng up on syria and potential reactions to the gas attack in that country, here's a look at "usa today" this morning. "tweets raise questions about planning." the right about the tweet president trump sent yesterday, ,aying, "get ready, russia because they will be coming, nice and new and smart."

general hodges at the european center for policy said he was "appalled" because it could box the u.s. into a course of action. president trump followed up with a tweet this morning about syria , following on yesterday's tweet. "never said when an attack on syria would take place. could be very soon or not so soon at all. in any event, the united states, under my administration, has done a great job reading the region of isis. nk you,s our 'tha america?" more thoughts on paul ryan's retirement announcement. caller: good morning, c-span. sir, those tweets you just read was, fordonald trump

some reason, he needs to be on twitter spewing out this foolishness, this is very important, sir. it is way more important than the topic you are talking about. this man is trying to send this country into another war. this is the only thing you should be talking about until you go off there at 10:00. this is really important. i am a veteran. i am tired of seeing these kids come back home with their legs missing and their limbs missing. it happened so much when we came back from iraq, it was mad. we need to stop this foolishness. i don't know how the heck dropping bombs on people are going to help them from some kind of -- some type of chemical attack that looks like old footage. we cannot find a way to start another war. it should not be a reason to keep our economy going.

china and countries like that do not have to do that. why do we have to insist on this? -- youruld be year the leads topic, boss, and that is real talk. host: getting your thoughts in hour on our first half paul ryan's retirement. caller: thank you and good morning. that i have a guy admired, even as a democrat. admired him, even as a running mate with mitt romney on that ticket. i like him, but i did not like mitt romney. however, since trump became president, he has disappointed me and disappointed a lot of americans. i can only wish him luck.

[indiscernible] refused to do anything. he refused to work with president obama. it has the biggest tax cut in the country for so many years now, and now we just announced that the united states will be having a trillion dollar -- a $1 trillion deficit. so he has lost the --

it is time for him to go. ahead and enjoy the money he has acquired as a congressman. i wish him luck, but his reputation is completely dented. thank you very much. host: he talked about the congressional budget office .rojections that is on c-span.org. and opinion from "the wall street journal" that says in part, "63 million people voted for mr. trump, and mr. ryan believes republicans in congress should use their majorities to help the country. the victory on tax reform, deregulation, judicial nominations, and military spending are a vindication of that strategy. e and mccarthy are both

known for their electoral skills rather than policy knowledge. that could be helpful if the gop loses its majority, but mr. trump isn't a normal republican president who will naturally pursue a conservative agenda. he may cut deal after deal with a speaker nancy pelosi, and the house gop will need to draw on younger talent to develop an agenda of its own. now is also the moment for the freedom caucus to step up. north carolina representative mark meadows is never short of suggestions for leadership. how about trying to actually lead? run for majority leader and show if you have the votes or a way forward that is more productive than being a credit on cable." on mark meadows, one of our viewers tweets, "mark meadows reminded me of underperformers on the job. they gripe about leadership. then, when given a chance to lead, they run for cover." we have not heard whether he intends to run for not -- run or

not for speaker of the house. sean is on our lines from baltimore, maryland. caller: good morning, sir. host: go ahead. is leaving thean republican party. you know how animals flee disasters? when the tsunami hit in asia a few years back, the animals went further inland and the animals in the sea went further out to see because they knew about the tsunami coming. they knew that a tsunami was about to hit the land and destroy. paul ryan is like one of those animals. he knows that a crucial disaster is about to hit the republican party because he put out that garbage tax bill. , and myiled my taxes tax lady was telling me that next year i can't do the auto lysed deduction anymore.

i usually -- optimized deduction omized deduction anymore. with all the things going on, trump, hels with knows trump is out of his mind, so he is fleeing. i actually respect him for it. you look at paul ryan, trey gowdy, and many other republicans not running for reelection. and alldy and paul ryan the rest of the republicans are like those animals. they know when disaster is coming. are fleeing because they know that the republican party is about to see a real big embarrassment because of that clown they have in the white house named donald trump. host: let's hear from our republican line in connecticut. nancy, hello there3.

-- hello there. caller: hi. can you hear me? host: we can. go ahead. caller: i just wanted to agree with the veteran from maryland. i think really this issue of an impending war is really important. with paul ryan, and i hope he has a great retirement. . thank you. host: next up jimmy and south carolina. go ahead. caller: good morning. i would just like to say that i think paul ryan's departure, he hinted on it last year, but i think it is a good thing. i think it will lead the way for some others, not because of anything going on in the republican party. is because he has family issues and everything else like normal people. i noticed that most of your democratic caller's have such a hatred for donald trump, and i am just like appalled by that.

i mean, give the managing. i vote -- the man a chance. i vote democrat, republican, whoever i think would be best job. i don't vote parties. i think some of these callers have so much hate in their heart for someone they don't even know. give the man a chance. demand that said he got $10,000 on the back of his taxes, i would be grateful if i even got half of that back and i work 50, 60 hours a week, so whatever he is doing, i wouldn't complain. i appreciate you taking my call. you have a good day. youer: host: -- host too. reminder, we are continuing to take calls on the retirement announcement of paul ryan. mark zuckerberg, the founder and ceo of facebook, wrapped up the up the three

committees he testified for my up aurs of -- wrapped total of, between the three committees he testified for, 10 hours of testimony before congress. gave knowledge that regulation of social media companies is "inevitable," and disclosed that his own personal information had been compromised by malicious outsiders. after two days of congressional testimony, what seemed clear was how little congress seems to know about facebook, much less what to do about it. >> i want to take a minute to talk about some of the civil and regulatory penalties that we have been seeing. i am aware of two class-action lawsuits that facebook has settled relating to privacy concerns. facebook, settled in

2010, amounted to no money being awarded facebook users. is that correct? >> i am not familiar with the details of that. >> you are the ceo of the company, correct? >> yes. >> this major lawsuit was settled. do you know about the lawsuit? >> congresswoman, i get briefed on these. >> do you know about this lawsuit, lane v. facebook? yes or no? >> i am not familiar with the details. >> i will just tell you, there is this lawsuit and the users got nothing. in another case, it resulted in a 2013 settlement fund of $20 million being established, with $15 individual payment payouts to facebook users beginning in 2016. is that correct? >> congresswoman, i am not familiar. >> you don't know about that one either. ok, well i will tell you what happened. as a result of a 2011 ftc investigation into facebook's privacy policy sd know about

that one? -- do you know about that one? >> yes. >> you entered into a consent agreement which carries no financial penalty facebook. is that correct? >> congresswoman to my door member if we had a financial penalty. >> you are the ceo of a company, you entered into a consent agree, and you -- consent agree, and you do not remember if you have a financial penalty? >> hiram or the consent decree, and a doctor if we have a financial county. >> i would think the fight -- i remember the consent decree, and i do not remember about the financial penalty. >> i would think the financial penalty is important. we continue to have these abuses and data breaches, but at the same time it doesn't seem like future activities are prevented. i think one of the things we need to look at in the future as

we work with you and others in the industry is putting really robust penalties in place in case of improper action. host: all of our hearing coverage available at c-span.org. at about the same time yesterday's hearing getting underway, paul ryan, speaker of the house, and announcing his retirement lands. as the headline in "the wall street journal." "ryan exit ads to gop challenge." to gop challenge." caller: i wanted to comment on paul ryan retiring. apparently seen the writing on the wall. this president can't run the accountfrom his twitter , and he knows he is in hot water when his attorney got blasted the other day and they tried to blame it on mueller.

well, it was the new york office of fbi agents and federal judges that found there was enough evidence to go in there and go through his personal items. they are making it look like the fbi is nothing but a witchhunt. well, i am sorry to say, but the republicans are the ones that appointed all of these, and they are republican lifelong fbi agents and stuff. back in the we was next an era that this -- the nixon era, that donald trump should be and will be impeached. it is just a matter of time. nixon didn't do half of what donald trump has done. there is so much evidence against this guy. he is being pushed back into a corner, and now he is trying to run the country from his twitter account. he needs to just go ahead and resign and get it over with. he's making this country a

laughingstock of the world. host: let's hear from dean on our republican line in louisville, kentucky. caller: yes, i'm sorry to see paul ryan leave. i thought he did a good job. i don't blame him, to be with family. running our congress now is going to be a big job. i am a republican and i did not vote for donald trump. i look at donald trump as a madman, and i am a republican. one of the main reasons, when i was in vietnam getting shot at, deferments --six donald trump got six draft deferments. thank you. host: mike pompeo, currently director of the cia come also

telephoned hillary clinton and john kerry, the last two democrats to run the state department, the likes of which rex tillerson bypassed, similarly well received by career diplomats in the run-up to what is expected to be a contentious confirmation hearing for mr. pompeo. that hearing coming up this morning at 10:15 eastern on c-span.org,ine at and on the c-span radio app. president trump tweeting this, " good luck to mike pompeo during his confirmation hearing today. he will be a great secretary of state." one more call on paul ryan's announcement, on the republican line -- the independent line. caller: good morning. i have a comment about ryan. he is a joke. go around the rnc looking like a clown.

he needed to retire. he was part of the swamp, and he needed to go. as far as president trump, he's the best thing we've put in there in a century. all these other callers with their tax rebates, it is about time maybe they paid in instead of sucked all the money out of government. i am glad ryan is gone. that is my comment. host: we welcome more of your comments. we will continue the conversation about paul ryan, about u.s. potential action in syria, about tariffs and more. our guests coming up next is republican were a davidson for a republican representative warren davidson from ohio. ♪

announcer: sunday night on "afterwards," authors of the book "russian roulette: the tin'se story of pu war on america and the election of donald trump." >> if you were looking for a moment that the trump-russia story comes together, it is there. ,ou have donald trump in moscow and he is there to preside over the miss universe pageant, but what is his real agenda? it is for a business deal to build a trump tower in moscow, and secondarily is to meet vladimir putin. we talked a moment ago about how to build a tower.

you need to have putin's permission. but to do anything in moscow, really. to connect with an oligarch friendly to put in -- friendly to putin. he starts tweeting in mid-2013, when iutin be my new bff bring the pageant to moscow?" c-span, where history unfolds daily. 1979, c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies, and today we continue to bring you unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court, and public policy events in washington, d.c. and around the country. c-span is brought to you by your

cable or satellite provider. announcer: "washington journal" continues. host: congressman moran davidson represents ohio's congressional district. let's start with we left off with our viewers, the announcement yesterday by paul ryan. how is that made known to members? rep. davidson: there's been rumors for a while. there's been journalists in the hallway asking about it. there's been speculation about it for a while. for a lot of folks, the first they heard about it was a tweet from politico saying they were expecting an announcement. i had been in the gym that morning for i saw the tweet. he did also talk about the schedule, how busy the schedule is and how little time he's been able to spend at home, and how important that age is for kids.

-- my sonided to run is a senior in high school this year -- you miss out on some of those years. he is in the prime ages where they are younger and had into those high school years. as a family guy, i think it is an important decision for him. host: you have a fairly unique view on the speakership. you were elected and a special election in 2015 to fill the seat vacated by john boehner. it is obviously an election year. do you think it will be difficult to move forward legislation you want to get done? rep. davidson: i think it is a good thing for us. really paul ryan and i both have our current jobs because of speaker boehner's resignation. of got to know the current speaker pretty well in that time come but also -- in that time, but also been in touch with the former speaker.

it is a thankless job, a pretty brutal schedule. , it is, this district great to have the speaker of the house as our member of congress. but then a lot of folks would say it will be nice to have a regular member that can be in more stuff in the district. that is a challenge even for people in the district. the speaker's job is truly a national job. people were happy to have a president's from their district, and even that is a challenge for a speaker, much less a family life. i think you will be very successful in whatever else he does next. i look forward to seeing what he does. host: obviously the announcement happened after you folks returned from your easter recess. when you were back in your hometown, what do you hear from people as priorities that they would like to see congress get done over the next couple of months. -- over the next couple of months?

rep. davidson: it sets it up for us to take a different path. for better or worse in any organization, the leader is responsible for what happens. as i talked to people what town halls of all kinds and gatherings of small one-on-one knew thatmost no one the house passed all of our spending bills back in september. getting that message out has been very hard. i think speaker ryan deserves it fair bill of credit for getting the work done. a lot of people were very upset by the fact that we just spent far more than we have on a $3 trillion bill in a way that broke the brand promise of we read the bills before we pass the bills. they are anxious for us to go the other way, the way our brand has been. and that this sends a signal that we are open to fresh ideas conference leadership.

is nothing so much about the person come up with the path we are on. host: among the bits of news that came out during that break where the tariffs, the intended tariffs announced by the administration. you are quoted as calling the tariffs "a big mess," asking how it would impact to the agriculture community. what did you hear. that was actually right before the president made the formal announcement of his tariffs. markets were already moving off the expectation that we were going to 25% on every country in the world for steel and a 10% caret on every country in the world for aluminum. --ple were really concerned every country in

the world for aluminum. i've been on the receiving end policies.de the tool business is being crushed by trade practices and differences in not just cost structures, but the way governments subsidize. given canada has a subsidy program that hurts u.s. tooling businesses. >> after the recent announcements, there's a headline in "the wall street "the trumpat writes, administration is seeking to aid from depression era

programs to stabilize farm , which permits barring of as much as $30 billion from the treasury to finances activities." have you seen legislation to help the outer culture industry -- the agriculture industry? host: secretary perdue has been touring with the small business administrator linda mcmahon, i was in our district on a day i was out visiting with dairy farmers. i was able to have a sidebar conversation with him about this. he kind of reassured me and others that the president is committed to making sure that as we deal with china's trade in particular, and as china takes action that would hurt our firm, the president is committed that our ability to deal with trade and trade violations with china aren't going to hurt our farmers.

are farmers will not bear that cost. we arty have cropped insurance programs. are outside event of things that are regularly able to be insured by the market. the market definitely isn't going to ensure government actions. forome level it makes sense the government to do something as a countermeasure because they are the person that is supposed to be enjoying this. host: in general, are you satisfied by the way that markets in the agricultural industry and make a festering -- and manufacturing has taken in the news of tariffs? host: we are making it about the negotiation. that is the part i 100 proceed agree with. with have to take action -- i 100% agree with. we have got to take action.

i may free-trade guy, but there is no such thing as free trade when you deal with a country like china because free of government interference. they've had some significant things. my hope is we can they do a negotiation with china that is productive, and with all our united trading partners to say, likeis what a foul looks and this is what we are going to call a free throw, and we would be shooting a lot of free throws. host: we would like to hear your thoughts and comments for republicans, democrats, and s.dependent quickly before we get to calls, another topic. you spent a dozen years or so in the military to west point. your take on where we are with syria and the president's

upcoming, apparently, decision on what to do in response to the gas attack. rep. davidson: i think that it is important we get the grand strategy right in syria. we were dialed in on isis. isis was a threat to the united .tates of america there was an affiliate of al qaeda >. we defeated -- of al qaeda. we defeated isis very effectively, so much so that when i was in israel, and israeli journalism was the -- was concerned defeating isis would create another power vacuum. in that gap, iran has use proctor groups and aside -- proxy groups and a side to -- push.sad to

host: the groups that are currently controlling syria, most of it in orange come under ssad.ol of a you see rogue states and the islamic state, pretty much marginalized within the country of syria. we have plenty of calls. let's get to them. billy on our democrat line. caller: good morning. really think the taxcutting job necessaryd are very to make jobs competitive with overseas.

you are disturbed about how the benefits would affect all industries come but i am worried about the new endowment tax. that is imposed under the tax -- on the tax bill under the auspices of a tax cut. something like having a large endowments wouldn't -- it is just going to create more austerity in the job market for higher education. host: ok, and maybe more broadly your thoughts on how the attacks cut his working. rep. davidson: brian: i think he led with the right message, that it is working. iis is a -- rep. davidson: think you lead with the right message, that it is working. this is a bipartisan issue. bill,e first passed the your average voter was out there going, i don't know who is telling me the truth.

now people are saying it really is making a difference, especially in our international competitiveness for companies. if you look at apple, idol but anyone has ever accused tim cook of being some right-wing guy. it is not like he forgot to make $3 billion of investment when barack obama was president. they didn't have hundreds of billions offshore because of political ideology before3 they had i -- before. they had it because our tax policy was much more broken that it is today. part of the reason that is , let's of the contributions to these big endowments are big deductibles for the people who give them generously. you are looking at universities that sometimes have billions of

dollars of cash they are not deploying. you have student debt crisis, all kinds of things were oh all of this money, this is an opportunity for universities to make sure these students get great jobs. tj is an ohio, independent line. caller: congressman davis, thank you -- davidson, thank you for taking my call. i just have a two-pronged question. as a self-proclaimed christian, how do you justify your continued attacks on poor people and sick people in this country? as a multimillionaire, how much do you think a gallon of milk costs? thank you. i will hang up and listen. rep. davidson: thanks for your

question, and it seems very objective. i would like to answer your milk question. i just spent time with dairy farmers. milk prices are down. not as much as you see in the stores, like in our area kroger, walmart, meyer. sometimes you can get a gallon of milk for as low as $.99 or a dollar 29 -- $1.29. the real cost for milk farmers is closer to do dollars. -- two dollars. but when you go to the grocery store you can get it a free portable stuff. as for attacks on poor people, i don't know why you would say that we spent an hundred billion dollars on two means tested programs3 we have a big safety net in our country3 americans --

programs. we have a big safety net in our country. a lot of people say we should grow it. people have talked about health care, for example. medicare and medicaid, we spent 350% more, so we are compassionate. we do take care of people in , three and a half much times as much as we used to. it is not compassionate to bankrupt america. host: brian is in fairfax, virginia. caller: i apologize command of the . i apologize, independent line. when the congressman said that republicans are the party of fiscal responsibility, that is a joke. that ended when ronald reagan started ballooning our deficit.

every eight years, the democrats have to come in and act like adults and instill a proper tax code, and the economy does well. right now the economy is still riding on the hotels of what itsident obama did because works so well, but i'm expecting it to crash. it is the party of fiscal irresponsibly, and he party that voted for a man that, while his third wife was pregnant with his fifth child, brag about sexually assaulting women. i would say the fact is definitely identify the republican party. rep. davidson: is a lot of alternative facts there. the speaker yesterday was asked a similar question about the deficit projected by the congressional budget office. here is how speaker ryan reply to the question. >> mr. speaker, you got your long-sought tax cuts and tax reform legislation through, would you consider to be a greatest achievement.

you did not speak to its biggest consequence modes is a $1 trillion deficit. what is your response to that? reforman: entitlement is the other thing i've spent my career working on. an extremely proud that -- i am extremely proud that the house passed the biggest entitlement reform. i feel that all the budgets that i passed in the house passing entitlement reform, of course, more work needs to be done, and it really is entitlements. that is where the work needs to be done, and i am going to keep fighting for that. host: speaker ryan talking about the bill that the u.s. house has passed, but not able to get through the senate. what you think it is going to take to get something like that through the congress? rep. davidson: it takes the senate. if you look at the spending bill, the house having a much more responsible spending plan back in september. hadad wade beller that it

way better policy riders that would have shaped the economy in a much better way -- it had way better policy riders that would have shaped the economy in a much better way. but if you talk about the health care bill the speaker referenced, that was a major restructuring of the way we fund some of our programs. there was a lot of false narratives about the bill that the house passed. really a gave bloc grants to the state. it didn't cut money. reason it spent at a lower trajectory, but still increasing, is because the fiscal reality we are in. the senate has had a very hard time dealing with this. it may be that post 17th amendment, senators are essentially populists. they don't want to vote until there is an 80% issue. host: you said earlier the house had done work on an appropriations bill to pass these spending still so that when the infinitely came in an

omnibus spending bill, you voted against the bill. what was behind that decision? rep. davidson: there's 90 of us that voted no on the bill and 25 that voted no on the rule because i thought we should have a longer period of time, and that it broke our promise in terms of spending. been a bipartisan effort to get $21 trillion in debt. they can't be like one party can go out there and say we have been fighting the fight. the campaign literature will all say that. the words they've got down, but it is the deeds. we got to quit talking about it and be at about. -- james isw is up up on our democrats line. caller: i have been watching this year after year and seeing what you republicans, you get in up untilun the debt

democrats get in office, and will let them spend a dime on the people. we do it over and over. you say you have a problem with trade, but everyone knows, if we have a problem with trade, why did we get out of tpp? at how the factories that we have now are outdated. everyone knows that is what really broke the back of the manufacturing workforce in america. you start pulling the false narratives about people lost these jobs because they became a lot more mobile and progressive. you waste the money on these ridiculous tax cuts for .usinesses you talk about cutting taxes to get employment. it just makes me sick to watch you guys do the same thing year after year.

i will listen for your comment off the air. host: that for the -- rep. davidson: thanks for the question. i think that is exactly what people on the left want you to believe about what republicans have done. agree with the republican party platform, so we disagree, but i feel great concern about the exact same things you are talking about. the reality is we haven't been on some sort of austerity plan. spending has gone up massively. it always goes up. that is the problem with how we have the debt crisis. it wasn't like president obama was handcuffed in terms of the amount of money he spent. he spent wildly. we went from $9 trillion deficit trillion, so the deficit more than doubled under democratic administration. that is not to say the trajectory on the deficit was

going great under republican administrations. spending has been bipartisan. it is not like the cash flow is cut off for democratic presidents or administrations. --k, factories, i agree manufacturing helped make america great in the first place and is one of the ways to make -- make america great again3. technology is changing. if you remember, bill clinton always talking about the knowledge economy. people said that is for silicon valley and flyover country is going to get left behind. part of what is going on a manufacturing today, they are just applying technology to the factoriesoor and the are getting cleaner, brighter, more well lit, but the skill sets required in more of these knowledge economy skills, we've got to keep connecting so that

people, regardless of age, even later in life can go back and get a refresh on those skills. there are great jobs everywhere, and it has gotten significantly better since the previous administration. growth rate1.5% under the old way to run the economy. in the new way there is a better than 3% growth rate. policies do bacon difference -- do make a difference. there are better jobs out there. absolutely i would concede the point that spending is a problem. host: that caller asked about the transpacific partnership, criticizing the president for getting out of that. in hindsight, using we would be in a better position with china if we were part of that partnership? rep. davidson: i think we could have done a great deal with tpp. unfortunately, barack obama negotiated it. in the presidential campaign, hillary clinton said she was going to pull out of the tpp. obviously president trump said he was going to pull out of the tpp. lots of others that did not win

their party nominations said they would get out of tpp. what the house was saying was, president obama, if you could change three or four things in this deal, we would be able to vote for it. and he was like, no, take it or leave it. it was not going to pass the house anyway. i assume it was the same kind of concerns in the senate. i think we were very close to having a good deal at tpp. i would have rather seen us pullback and renegotiate a fwe elements of it -- a few elements of it. may not be too late to go back on the framework of it. host: we hear from hannah in clarksburg, maryland. caller: good morning representative davidson. thank you for taking my call. i have been listening to other callers, and i am convinced that the brainwashing and dumbing down of americans has almost by the fake media

outlets like cnn and msnbc. i also just want to preface this by saying i was a lifelong democrat. i left the demon-cratic there is no accountability in the democratic party whatsoever. all the facts you brought about when increasing the debt he promised during his campaign he would cut it in half, that completely eludes all the people up there, the democrats. frustrationiggest government is the impotence of government -- of congress. they just appears with this fbi thing going on it is so egregious to all americans -- you know, what they have done with, you know, the attorney-client confidentiality, and rating the president's attorney office -- i think we

are losing our freedoms and liberties. and i don't see congress tolectively standing up protect americans. i know the democrats want to protect the illegal aliens that are here. that is to they care about. not americans, just illegal aliens. i turned to the republican party inause you are the adults the room, and i am want to know what you can do about the fbi going rogue here. how do you stop this? guest: thanks for the questions. when you look at party leadership, and, you know, you look on the democrat side, for 20 years that has really been three figures -- the clintons, the obamas, and nancy pelosi. they have dominated it. if you look on the republican job foreaker ryan did a little while, speaker barner -- spiegel weiner did the job for 8

-- speaker john boehner did the job for a while. gingrich, morewt active. the bushs have been more quiet until president trump was president. there is a dynamic that is different. democrats have been turning hard left. if you look at some of the most famous democrats, jfk said, for . what yourask country can do for you, but what you can do for your country." mantra --the whole today, the whole democrat mantra is about what your country can and should do for you. expectation except for everyone that has more wealth than their neighbor at all they can do is pay more, more taxes and more government. host: on the flip side of the caller's point of the fbi and their role, "senate bill

protecting -- senate panel to take a bill protecting mother -- mueller." take on the whole role of the special counsel and where the situation stands now? guest: i have been a long-term fan of jeff sessions. i was very excited when he became our attorney general, and i think he has done some things really well. i think the idea he would recuse himself and appoint a special counsel, at its heart, was addressing what was going on under the previous administration. everyone felt the doj had been highly politicized, whether you are talking under loretta lynch or eric holder. so, he went to have a clean break from that, and he tried to do that by saying let's have a special counsel because it would put more dignity into the office of attorney general. he would be an arms length piece.

the problem is rosenstein picked mueller. mueller's resume would have said he would have been a good pick, he seemed well-qualified, but everything about the way mueller has conducted this, from putting a team together full of clinton partisans -- the result is legal talent in america for him to cap, but he has only brought in legal talent with a clinton affiliation. it made it seem his investigation was tainted even from the staffing. then when we find from him when out, it is tainted. you have people there. i was encouraged there were consequently. people were demoted, reassigned, even off the investigation. inside the fbi, the doj, that has gone on. then you see actions taken over and over again that seems this is more of an inquisition than an investigation. i think everyone will be very

surprised if mueller's investigation concludes and concludes in a way that unites america improves to be credible. host: let's see if we can get one more quick call to make a, new york. dominic on the republican line. caller: i keep hearing the republican party is in trouble. listen, the republican party is not in trouble. 40,000 americans are dying from. overdose is. democrats do not want to close the border. as long as democrats fight the i don't think with going anywhere. you have the governor of california pardoning five illegal immigrants. you have the mayor of new york city protecting a gang member coming out of rikers island on a gun charge, who now they find out was involved in homicides in long island.

i think the american people are tired of it. we want this country to be safe. the president is doing a good job. democrats are doing a lousy job trying to screw them up. thoughts on- last immigration, border security. guest: i think he is dead on -- the idea that borders don't matter, citizenship doesn't matter -- i cannot understand how that become -- how that has become a partisan topic. if you want to say in a free speech sort of way we welcome people here that are from other countries -- that is great. america is a land of opportunity. we have been that way before we test the constitution. that is how the place got populated. the idea that in this country does not matter whether you are a citizen or not is antithetical to our whole way of life. we have to secure the border, not just for the drug issue, but let's take the way the census is done. this became controversial.

we take the total population and divide by 435. we should do total citizens. i have a constitutional amendment proposed to settle that language clearly so that citizens are the one that counted. california, if they have 3 million people there illegally, they are getting three or more extra members of congress -- that is all year every year. figure three extra electoral votes. when you have funding i can is that say we are going to give x dollars per capita, we should not be providing services to people here illegally. funds flow to states that have a legal populations. by and large, the california attorney general, the people provided sanctuary's -- i assume as long as they are not russians -- if they were russian illegals, maybe they would not the president or congress to represent russian illegals, i don't know. we have to secure the border. border security is national security. host: the house with heck of a

-- will take up a constitutional amendment. how much does your constitutional amendment -- how much support does it have? guest: fairly not enough to get a book it. host: thank you for being with us. guest: thank you. host: we will open up our phones. anything you are reading in the news, paul ryan's retirement announcement and more -- we look forward to your calls and comments. -- >> sunday, conservative politics -- when perceived liberal excesses and disenchantment with araiza government gave the rise to the right, richard nixon, ronald reagan made his debut as a

presidential candidate, foreshadowing the conservative revolution. -- guests are robert mary, author of "where they stand." author of "the right moment, ronald reagan's first victory and the decisive turning point in american politics." -- america in turmoil, conservatives in politics". open phones for the next 20 minutes or so. any topic -- just a quick update on our story we started with this morning. the retirement announcement from paul ryan. here is a report from mike allen and jonathan swann -- the headline that ryan may be forced to leave speakership by summer. they rep. p. ryan: plans to remain as -- they write paul

ryan remains -- plans to remain as speaker, but he might be forced out sooner. host: west chester, ohio. . patrick on our public in line this morning. go ahead. i'm sorry. patrick. petra, are you there, westchester, ohio. caller: are you there? yeah, i was actually calling to talk to congressman davidson, but i think he is probably gone. calling to talk about fake news and russian complicity in

involvement in our elections. davidson said in august of 2017 -- he told a story that was apparently a russian fake news story -- he said tim kaine said the catholic church will no longer be in america unless they accept gay marriage. he is allegedly a catholic. he is not there, but i'm how weng how he would -- would expect him to be able to counter fake news and counter russian involvement in our elections if he is actually repeating that fake news months after the last election. host: where did you hear congressman davidson talk about that story? at a town hall, you said? caller: it was not a town hall. it was for republican constituents. it is on his website, august 2017. he repeated a story that is completely fake news. i imagine most of the republicans there didn't believe

him when he said that horrible lie about tim kaine. host: let's hear from nicole next. independent line in fort wayne, indiana. caller: i actually wanted to talk to the senator, too, that i was just wondering, i keep hearing about how the democrats and everything, bernie sanders supporters, they all want these open borders, and i am just trying to figure out how that is really so, considering that ande people are in power benefiting from illegal immigrants that come in. i want to know his stance on what the koch brothers have said about that. host: well, the california borderhost: is being boasted by moves from that state governor jerry brown. here is the headline.

host: governor jerry brown said he would accept --

host: in his most recent address, he called california a border-free state worker mills can run free. sent a tweethe supporting the governor, host: open phones. steve is next in indianapolis, indiana, democrats line. caller: it is funny or reading that story -- that is one of the false narratives republicans are good at putting out there -- things like that. democrats don't want support -- secure borders. do, -- obviously, they do, but they put stuff out there for constituents they believe such ignorant stuff. for them to vote in this guy that has done nothing but has cost total chaos in this country, and paul ryan, good riddance. they ran up the deficit. they got what they want, got the

tax break for the rich, doing nothing but hurting the working-class people of this country -- they got what they wanted they are on the run now. they don't even care as long as they can take care of their rich friends, all on the working backs of the people, the working backs of this country. you have republicans that buy into all their crap and go along with it. it is terrible to direction the country has gone since he has been in there, and his mind-blowing they can still support. host: let's hear from bill in west virginia. independent line. go ahead, bill. calling to suggest a guest, paula jane swearingen -- we have an open to life in prison primary against senator joe manchin. he is well known, but not well-liked. let the teacher's uprising that began here, the progressive wave

will start in west virginia. host: new york city is next. henry is on the democrats line. caller: good morning. thank you. i am calling in reference to an article online in today's "washington post." the headline reads "trump chooses impulse over strategy as crises mount." what occurs to me is a few things. firstlse over strategy ," of all, i suggest anyone who agrees with this, go online, look at any university or college near you and look at the political science department and start reading about the complexity involved in making decisions and studying this subject. nothing has to do with impulse. i can only imagine -- i will make this kind of quick because i want to get my point across, i

am only -- i can only imagine i'm sitting in graduate school and i write a note saying dear dr. so-and-so, i have an impulse, and i would like you to read it -- i would not get much mileage out of that. what it means is making doctrine from impulse, and this rejects history, expands, doctrine, and it is dangerous. -- experience, doctrine, and it is dangerous. if anything, i would suggest hiring a no rows just to sit to sit-- a neurologist around and talk about it. this isn't good. host: henry, here is that article -- "trump chooses impulse over strategy as crisis mount." it is at washingtonpost.com. it might be referring to the president's plans for responding to this area gas at -- syria gas

attack. the president responded to that in a tweet this morning. david on the independent line. go ahead. you for taking my call, c-span. there is a lot this morning. first of all, the congressman this morning, i think he is delusional. there is no empirical evidence that republican economic policies have worked, and i don't understand why they don't look at history and look at empirical data that shows what works and what doesn't work. they know what works and they know what doesn't work. as far as paul ryan, i think contributionis from the koch brothers to his ofpaign finance committee $500,000, and now he is leaving. i think he is probably leaving because that could be brought up as an illegal gratuity, but a --

because it looks like it was pay for play to the koch brothers and the corporations. i think that there was one caller that said president trump is the best president we have had in 100 years, and people need to pay their taxes, but i don't think he realizes that president trump hasn't paid taxes and he brags about it. i think people need to wake up and me to realize that what the republicans have done is the same thing bush did when bill clinton, under his administration, we had a surplus. bush came in and said we need to fix something that is not broke. let's give the richard tax break, and what happened to the economy? in, the republicans don't work with them, the economy is slow, and enabling him. now we're back to square one. trump has made it even worse.

if the economy was doing so well, why did we need to give the rich a tax break? host: all right, david. open phones. headline on the syria situation -- "u.s. and russia trade threats over syria strikes." they write a series of exchanges between president trump and moscow raise the prospect of host: well, the president updated his thoughts were coming. he said he never said when an attack on syria

meanwhile, the british government is planning their response to the attack in syria. prime minister may's headline in reuters this morning -- host: durham, north carolina. richard on the republican line. hello, there. whyer: i would like to know we are not hearing anything about what israel is doing in the gaza strip, number one. number two, israel has a reputation of being an apartheid state, and they are about to expel the africans from their country, refusing to offer them asylum. why not one word has been mentioned on any of the main media about what they are doing, killing the palestinians in gaza? host: richard, you said they

have a reputation of being an apartheid state. what you say that? yes, because they use a lot of code words to say that. they want israel to be a meaning jewish state, that they have wanted a white country, and they are expelling the africans from their country. without offering them any asylum. some of the jewish people are saying the africans have been a benefit to israel. host: ok, let's hear from john next in wisconsin. democrats line. it is open phones. good morning, john. caller: hi, how are you? comment aboutto paul ryan and his retirement. i am glad that guy is leaving. like all the republicans here in

wisconsin, none of them ever go to the inner-city and talk to the people because there are too many minorities there, and they don't address anything. they never go there. -- to talk to the voters or any of that kind of stuff, and that is the way it has been for a long time here for was constant. -- wisconsin. that is what i have to say about paul ryan --i am glad he is gone. ryan'sohn is --in paul district? caller: no. we are north. we are in the north shore where i live. our area is well packed as far is money is concerned. i can see everything that goes on in the inner city of milwaukee. they don't go in milwaukee. they just don't do it. i go out here because i went to school and everything. i graduated from m.i.t..

i can see the things they are doing. ryan,brenner, walker, they are all the same. that is why they cannot get voters. they are so racist, and that is all it is. thank you. host: a follow-up to our story about governor jerry brown of california sending 400 national guard troops to the border. steve tweets this -- governor brown is only sending troops to stop crime, not to enforce a look at immigration policy. guillermo is in texas on our republican line. caller: good morning. independent, actually. host: ok, guillermo, you are on the air. caller: yes, independent, actually. i have no political affiliation, but i am a little bit concerned about tweets trump is saying in regards to syria. you're going to

attack somebody you don't say you are -- i'm a former u.s. marine and i am a patriot. i believe when you say something, you had better keep your words, and if not you will lose face with the rest of the world. with regards to paul ryan, he is a pretty smart guy. he made the right move. the situation is not a good one. the ship is sinking. most of the people have left already. he made the right choice by leaving because he does not want to be part of something that is tanking, you know? it is dragging everyone dump it i have no political affiliation. for thisay the best country. so far, my prayers have not been answered. i missed -- i miss the other president. what can i tell you? host: thanks, guillermo. we go to linda, pittsburgh,

pennsylvania, democrats line. caller: yes, i would like to make a comment about what congressman davidson said, and really what all republicans are saying about how president obama doubled the debt. when he came into office, he had to deal with things that president bush did when he was in office, meaning that he had two wars which she did not put on the books. drug program. -- a drug program he did not put on the books, and he gave a big tax cut he did not put on the books. when president obama came in he actually did the right thing and told the american people what was going on at that time, and he did actually record all those expenditures. debt,he did add to the

but it was bush's debt that nobody talks about. -- thank you. host: there was 10 hours of total testimony by facebook founder and ceo mark zuckerberg. this is a report in "west virginia news online." they write members of the delegation took their turn raising questions with mark zuckerberg this . host: here is that interaction. [video clip] america is in the midst of one of the worst drug epidemics

in this country, and it is not just across this country, not just west virginia. your platform is eligible to circumvent the law and by drugs without a prescription -- by drugs without a discussion. with all due respect, facebook is actually enabling illegal activity, and in so doing you are hurting people. would you agree with that statement? zuckerberg: thompson, i think are our number of areas of content we need to do a better job policing on our service. regulation works here in review is people can share what they want open late on the service, and if someone sees an issue they can flag it to us and we will review it. >> you can find out, mr. zuckerberg. you know which pharmacies are operating legally and illegally, but you are still allowing that to be posted on facebook and allow people to get this

scourge, this ravaging in this country, being enabled because of facebook. my question to you as we close on this -- you have said before you were going to take down those ads, but you didn't do it. aftere statement statement about things that you are going to take those down within days, and they have not gone down. that is what i just put up from yesterday. it is still up. my question to you is when are you going to take down these posts done with the legal digital pharmacies? when are you going to take them down? mr. zuckerberg: congress, right now when people report the posts to us we will take them down. mckinley: if you have all these 20,000 people, you know they are up there -- where is your accountability to allow this to be occurring, this ravaging of the country. mark zuckerberg: congressman, i

agree this is a terrible issue, and when there are hundreds of billions of pieces of content shared every day, even 20,000 people reviewing it cannot look at everything. will need to do is build more ai tools. representative mckinley: you have set before you would take them down and you have not. host: again, both of the hearings available on c-span.org. here continuing with open phones. we go to woodstock, connecticut, to hear from elliott on the independent line. caller: good morning, and thank you for taking my call. i wanted to speak to a comment by congressman davidson. . he had been discussing the situation in california with the census, and the comment i wanted to make is i believe that congress was conflating the issues of citizens versus non-citizens, and equating noncitizens to illegals. i believe that is misinformation. that is one of the data problems

we face in this country, people will spout misinformation without seemingly checking the facts. i am fond of saying everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but not their own facts. notfact that the census has asked for citizenship since 1950 and it has never been an issue until mr. trump brought it up and decided to add the citizen question which tends to scare off some noncitizens from answering the census, even though they are not illegal, the fact they are noncitizens doesn't mean they shouldn't be represented in congress. that is the comment i wanted to make. host: is james and fredericksburg, west virginia. republican line. caller: thanks for taking my call. my question is in my statement is to all people -- it appears that mr. ryan is walking away with $7.8 million in retirement. that seems like a lot of money for an individual who is presumably a servant of ours,

and i wanted to say i have lost so many friends because of having voted one way or the other, and the driving force to wedge between us has been politicians. i would like to hear what people think when i say that politicians are enemy number one in our nation. they are those that drive wedges between all of us. they are our servants, but they appear to leave office with such sums like $7.8 million. how does a person who works four days a week, flies for free, gets clothing for free, has a house in washington, is able to write off the depreciation of said home -- how does an individual that is supposed to be a servant of our nation leave office with $7.8 million? host: james, you said that

figure a couple of times. i've not seen that figure. where have you read that? caller: it is all over the internet. i was looking at it this morning, and i was so shocked. i said paul ryan's net worth -- i was shocked. to tell you the truth, $7.8 million, no wonder he is retiring. at 27, and i did not have $7.8 million. host: on the political front, after the retirement of paul ryan, here is the cook political report. writingdavid

host: air is christopher. randallstown, maryland. caller: my name is chris. i have two comments to make. the first is why -- a caller earlier asked this -- why is no one covering what is happening in gaza? the second thing i would like to ask is trey gowdy came out and wastinguch said he was the time of taxpayers chasing years, yetnton for you have a lot of people that still like defending him. this is the issue with politics. no matter what happens, if somebody does something like this, they are not held accountable. you know, he can come out now

because he is retiring and say for years we did this, it was all partisan politics. now i am leaving, i can speak about this freely. host: chris, thanks for the input. more of your comments. next we will speak with congressman gregory meeks of new york, from new york city, the queens area. congressman meeks will talk about potential military action against syria amidst tension with russia. more "washington journal" coming up. ♪

"landmark places -- landmark cases" -- was convicted of hate speech under ohio law, but the supreme court ruled state law violated his first amendment rights. our guests to discuss the case is the former head of the american civil liberties union and law professor at new york law school in manhattan, and a senior attorney at columbia's university nine first amendment institute. cases" mondayk and join the conversation. follow us at c-span. we have resources on her website for backgrounds on each case. the "landmark cases" companion book, a link to the national constitution center's interactive constitution and the "landmark cases" podcast. --t:

>> sunday, new ferguson on his book "the square and the tower," networks and power, from the freemasons to facebook. what is striking to me is not their power, but their sense of powerlessness. when you think about the events of 2016, just to take an example, not many members of the suppose it world government planned that britain would vote to leave the european union and that donald trump would become president of the united states. donald trump is deathly not somebody that gets invited to those meetings -- definitely not somebody that gets invited to those meetings. take the financial crisis of 2008, 2009. nobody sat there saying i think what we need for the was government is a massive financial crisis. " q&a" sunday at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> "washington journal"

continues. host: joining us as congressman gregory meeks of new york city. he represented a good bit of queens in the queens borough. guest: and a little bit of nassau host: here to talk about syria and other issues. let's start with speaker ryan's announcement yesterday. how surprised were you buy that, and what sort of rebels did that have in the democratic caucus in the house? guest: well, i can't say i was very surprised. it had been rumored for a while. republican colleagues, and the public and caucus is in a little bit of disarray. you look at the number of individuals that are not running anymore. you look at what is happening with the freedom caucus, look at what happened with john boehner when he was forced out. i cannot say i was surprised. i think that between the distractions with the president and, you know, his own caucus,

that paul decided that he wanted to go back home to his family. and to be fair to paul also, i don't think he really wanted the job in the first place. scenario, heicult was going back and forth, and he gave certain deadlines for that -- guidelines for him to consider the job and it was dealing around his family. i think his family played a big role in his decision to leave as well as the disorganization of the republican party in general. host: we saw a report this morning that said he may leave earlier. do you think this sort of limbo, what suitable have termed lame-duck status for the speaker is healthy for the overall body, democrats and republicans, getting things through? guest: no, but we're not getting things through now. it shows the dysfunction of the party. the biggest sigh of relief was john boehner, when he talked about the crazies within his own party and what -- when he left,

the relief he felt. i don't know he will leave before him, but he made because of this complete dysfunction in the republican party led by the president of the united states. asia, theserve on emerging threats subcommittee. the headline this morning in a number of papers and here in " usa today," about potential action in syria, the headline "the u.s. might launch wider missile attacks. the president and his advisers considering what might be next on the reported gas attack that killed 40 people in syria. what are you hearing about what the military response might be or should be? guest: you know what, i think people are still puzzled because no one knows until the president tweets, not even his advisers or the generals around him. they find out the direction he

is going on based on a tweet he is made. they are caught offguard sometimes. and mostmocratic side, people that are involved in foreign policy are hoping there is a policy the president would be trying to put forth, and not just something that is random, motivated by a tweet or by fox news, which he seems to be, you know, watching, and deciding what he is going to do a policy based upon the fox news cast. response clarifying this morning, saying "never said when an attack on syria could take place. it could be very soon or not so soon at all. note, on the goal of getting rid of isis, the so-called islamic state, how do you think the military has done? you know, i always

applaud the men and women of the military -- they do their job, just like i applaud the state department. they go hand in hand. if you let them run and advise the president, we would be better off for better-served, at least under this president. it is my hope the president listens to someone and not just listens to what he just feels when he wakes up in the morning to go tweet. clearly, i think it started in the obama administration and it continues that we have had isis on the run. we have done things in that regard in a multilateral way. it is not just the united states. we have various partners, and it is important. host: congressman gregory meeks our guest for the next half hour. we welcome your calls and comments. host: look for your comments on

twitter as well. where thelimmer of administration, what they might be thinking in response to a question at the white house briefing. we want to show you the remarks of sarah sanders, the press secretary. [video clip] >> it sounds that the president has not left a lot of wiggle room -- he said all options are on the table, but when the president says get ready, russia, the missiles are coming, how is anything but an announcement of a pending airstrike? secretary sanders: that is certainly one option, but it does not mean that is the only option or the only thing the president may or may not do. just because he does one thing, does not mean he cannot do another action as well. he is not laid out a timetable, which would be broadcasting his intention. host: the president not laying out the timetable, the press secretary saying. the president is full of contradictions. one day he says one thing, the

next day he says another thing. thee, the problem is president is trying to run the notice government as if it was a reality tv show, or his business that had some family employees -- a family-based business, i should say, and no one really to advise him on how to run it. it is no way to run a country. when you talk to our allies around the world, you know, you're supposed to have dialogue, and precision, and working collectively together. that is not how this president operates. it is just no way to run a government, and it is just very unfortunate. host: i want to ask you about the sanctions that have been applied to russia in the wake of the 2016 election and other issues. to headline today in the new york times in the international section that says "the sanctions may force russian oligarchs to choose washington's imposition unexpectedly-

tough sanctions , host: your thoughts on our sanction policy and in general our relationship with russia. guest: i think it is about time the president and limited the sanctions with russia. congress, on almost unanimous basis, months ago past insulation against some of the oligarchs, and the president had not implemented them. finally something is happening that regard. it is my hope we continue the pressure. in fact, we work with some of our other allies. here is what my strategy -- part of what my strategy would be, even as it pertains to syria in regards to the chemical weapons.

look, if we dealt with, and we had -- here's where you have to have conversations with china, conversations with our eu allies, conversations with japan saying russia, you were supposed to make sure syria did not have any chemical weapons, because that is what happened under the obama administration. there was an agreement. russia said it was going to take the chemical weapons out of syria. if they are still there, then russia has a responsibility to move -- to get rid of those chemical weapons, and to tell assad they should not and cannot use them, otherwise there would be consequences with that relationship. then you put those multiple sanctions, and russia says he either you produce with us in a universal manner, or the world is going to say we're not going to allow this kind of humanitarian crises to continue,

and there is a price for you to pay. host: is the venue of the united nations the only place where that can be enforced, and secondarily, how concerned are you that the russians have such a close relationship now with the leadership, bashar al-assad? guest: i don't think the venue of the united nations would work in this instance because russia of veto power, but a number countries including russia came together to put sanctions on iran. i think as we have done, and i have seen sanctions work previously, it is a multilateral operation that is then puts the pressure on a government to say ok, i have to do the right thing. it happened in south africa. oa.happened with jpc we have to work in the same direction here.

if we will be successful in north korea, the same thing. host: the president has a deadline coming up in early may, further implementation of the i ran nuclear deal -- what is your concern there? guest: that the president violates the deal and says he is pulling the united states out. here is a deal -- it does not make sense -- i think it will hurt our allies in those part of the deal. it will hurt our credibility. it will hurt any dialogue or conversation we could have with north korea. i think pulling out would be disastrous, especially when even our ally israel says thus far there has been no violation on the part of iran to the deal. therefore, there is no reason for us to pull out on a unilateral basis. host: calls now for condiments .eeks -- congressman meeks we hear from mary first in

niles, ohio. sir,r: i have it on now, and i have one thing to say -- he is a crook and i will never vote again until they get him out of there. host: i will let you go there, mary. lebanon, new jersey. independent line. mike. good morning. caller: i want to follow up on your comment about his tweet. first of all, what that reflects is he declared war on syria before we had approval from our congress. why are you so derelict in not convening a hearing before we go to nuclear war with russia? why are you concealing from the american public the dangers, risks, and consequences of representing the interest of terrorists to overthrow the

government. you are a fascist, white supremacist agenda of the republican party. we have seen it for the last 20 years. we have a lunatic in there, and i voted for donald trump. he is a lunatic. he lied for us about no foreign wars, no interventions. he is going in there. he wants us to believe that in light of the fact -- in light of the fact that he said a week ago that he was going to immediately withdraw our troops from syria because it was all over with isis. really? ok. one day he says that, now he wants us to believe that assad would use chemical weapons at this point, in which you have renegotiated the withdraw of terrorists from doma, and secondly he wants the world to

believe that he would hisberately evoke war on own country, knowing that the united states would react to that? host: lots there. we get a comment from congressman meeks. guest: what i would say that mike is right about is that it is the congress's responsibility to decide whether or not to authorize the use of military force, and i think that we are avoiding our duties if we are not saying that we want the president of the united states, whoever it is, to come back and get the authorization from congress. we are the people that represent the people from the united states of america, and it is within the constitution -- the constitution says it is our choice, not just the president's usely, to determine when we military force them should have a vote to do that. so haveforts to do fallen short -- not just with the trump administration, but

the last few years of the obama administration. it does not seem at there is a lot of stomach for taking that up in congress. guest: as i said, the last few times it has been the republicans who have been in the majority. they should simply bring it up. suchdent obama asked for use and congress refused to take it up. and mr. trump has not asked, but congress should demand. i think that and i have said that with obama, that we should have a vote on the use of the authorization of military force, and i say that now. it is our response ability, and by us not doing that we are avoiding some others possibilities we have. i will say this -- that is the most difficult, and it, had to vote whether or not to go to war or not, that was the most difficult voting member has. host: your initial vote in 2002? guest: yes. host: do you regret that vote? guest: no, because i voted not to go to war in iraq.

i think that was the right vote then based upon all the evidence, and i went and studied as hard as i could, and i voted to go to war in afghanistan, and i stand by that vote also because i think it was a connection through afghanistan with the attacks on the united states. next let's hear from john i and -- in lockport, new york. caller: good morning, john. i wanted to ask the congressman what he thought about term limits because i think our founding fathers intended not for elected officials to serve for life or make a career of it. i was chris with e-commerce and thought about term limits -- i was curious what the congressman thought about term limits. thank you. guest: i think the reason why thatave the term limits,

is when people vote you out. what is taking place right now with republicans and others that are retiring, and the turnaround that is taking place when who takes control of the house -- that is because people are getting defeated. you hold folks to be accountable in that regard, and to me that accountability leaves when an individual knows that they are lame duck him especially legislatively, and so the focus is not on the desire of the people they represent. i think they inherit term limits if you don't to what the folks want you to do -- they will pull you out of office. host: paul ryan announced a number of personal reasons, his family, maybe -- mainly. do you have to make the decision we think to yourself i have a lot of personal things, i can do this one more time, but you made a decision to go ahead and run? have you had difficult years

where it has been tough to run? guest: absolutely. this is a job that is not a 9:00 a.m. until 5:00 p.m. job, and it is not even a 4, 5-day week job. your family sacrifices a lot if you are a number a -- a member of congress. if you have children, some important events you miss because you are in washington, d.c., and you are back and forth. it is not a natural week -- a natural job. friends and events that people take for granted. you don't do it in this job. and family issues are something you have to consider. the family has to be a part of it. you check with your spouse, and your kids, and it might get to a point where they say we need you home. host: but you have not got to that point yet? guest: not yet. host: nevada. tim. independent line. caller: good morning, how are you guys doing?

host: fine, thanks. caller: i have two quick comments -- really three. one is i believe obama went into tripoli without congressional powers to get gaddafi out, and i also believe he made many statements about drawing a red line in the sand with syria when actually he did absolutely nothing while many, many civilians were being gassed, killed, murdered -- this is the whole time with obama as president. with trump knocking on the same plane as the protocol you would use, but let's look at what obama did -- absolutely nothing. i would like to make it, to all the democrats. i know they hate trump, and i can understand it to a certain extent, but let's look at new york and california as two hotspots where you have governors and mayors that are sitting there with the cities that have just gone ballistic

with the legals, -- illegals, and all the crime and everything else. you take a hard, down-two-the ground looks, where democrats are running large cities in large states, they really are in bad shape. host: let's look at crime. guest: new york city is now the city -- thesafest safest big city in all of america. crime is at an all-time low in new york city. so it is not that crime has gone up. it has gone down. it is the most diverse city you could ever enter into. so, he could not be further from the truth when he talks about the fact that there is diversity, etc., in new york. crime is all the way down in york city. host: what about his other points on the conduct a raid and also president obama's redline -- so-called red line in the

sand on syria? line in the sand -- i think your choice of words are important, but let's go back to what took place. the redline in the sand is when he went to congress and said congress, can you give me the authorization of military force? wow that debate was going on, and when it was clear congress was not going to do that, he did strike a deal with russia that ,e hoped and thought would work that all the chemical weapons that were inside of syria would be released, given, and protected to russia. now we find out -- that is what i stated earlier -- there has to be more pressure on russia, because if in fact they did not sure all the chemical weapons -- a all the chemical weapons are out, we need to make sure will be needed to negotiate is what russia -- that russia has to enforce it, and not just trust them, there should be individuals in a multilateral way on the ground to verify that

all of the chemical weapons out, and there are none. syria should give consent to that with russia saying this has to be done, so the rest of the world can be assured now there are no chemical weapons in syria. host: we go to our democrats line in baton rouge. it is rene. caller: hi. i have a question because i'm a little older. and liberia had a civil war we begged for help, i wish we could've gone there faster, but we did help. then in rwanda, that horror, and everybody in washington said never again would we look the other way while humans are slaughtered like that. how do you find the balance in congress, and how do the american people find that balance, went to help, and when it is none of our business, because i do not believe in regime change your nation-building. the u.n. and nonprofits can do that, but how does congress find

that balance, when to get involved and when not to? guest: that is a very good question, and it is a very difficult question, because what you do is -- you have to talk with our allies and so you can make the appropriate determination. i know president clinton said the biggest mistake and the biggest regret he had is that we did not act in a more aggressive manner in rwanda and allowed that atrocity to take place. for me, that rung in my ears when you were talking about libya and the threat that could off the -- what off he -- was going to annihilate hundreds of thousands of his own people. i have talked to european allies the samend they said thing and showed evidence of that possibility. because nato wasn't something president obama initiated on his own. we have got to do something collectively.

it was a nato action, not just an american action, that went into libya to prevent a rwanda-type catastrophe. to thisst an update morning on the syrian situation. report saying the russian military saying the syrian government is in control of the town on the outskirts of damascus held by the rebel and the site of suspected chemical attack. the russian defense military saying this morning the situation in the town of douma is "normalizing." charles from south carolina, good morning, democrats line. caller: how are you doing, c-span? host: doing fine, how are you. caller: representative, good to meet you. do you support a military strike against? syria. does the president have the authority to launch a military strike against syria?

bring our troops home. everywhere we sent our military, we make things worse, not better. i will this into your response off the air. guest: i don't think just a strike without a strategy is wise. you have to have a strategy and not just a strike. we should have learned that from president bushad come up on the ship and say mission accomplished and nothing was there. there has to be a strategy to go along with the strike and i think that strategy should also include our allies. it should not be a unilateral peace. in that regard. in answer to the question, no, not a strike without a plan. on theou also serve

financial services committee. a headline about a hearing held by that committee yesterday with the director of the consumer financial protection bureau, mick mulvaney. he defends his role as a consumer watchdog and democrats criticize him. i am not sure if you were at the hearing yesterday. what did you hear from mick mulvaney? thet: number one, and i had opportunity to ask him questions and was puzzled i some of his answers. one, going before the city administration, he was one of the strongest advocates that said he did not like the agency or want it to exist. he thought it was silly for it to exist. he did not believe in anything that would be protecting consumers. i asked him about that and asked him if he would change his mind. it seems to me that he has been at the cfbp not to protect

consumers, but try to destroy the agency and then asked him, he is still the budget director. i can whether or not being the budget director was a full-time job. he said yes. i asked whether or not being the temporary head or the head of bp and he says, yes, he is there and that is a full-time job. i don't see how you can do a full-time job at least 8 hours a day in one spot. i do not see how he is doing two jobs and how he allots that time he was not able to articulate. host: what is the future of that agency? -- that would hope agency is tremendously important for the american people. when you look at the fines and how it has advised the american consumer against the ripoffs of some of the biggest corporate americans, to make it a level playing field.

under this president, i think it and i think it is important for us as members of congress to preserve what took place and what was put in place whenresult of dodd frank we got out of financial crisis we were put into in 2008. host: let's get back to calls in here from maria in beverly hills, california. you are on the air. go ahead. this isn't maria. this is james. host: go ahead with your comments. caller: yes. i would like to make a comment about syria that trump said we were going to get out of syria and then 24 hours later syria was attacked. that is a false flag. host: we talked about syria a bit. any further comments for his

comment? is,t: basically his comment who knows what trump is going to say and do. is an unfortunate situation for our country. int: one more call, sidney alexandria, louisiana. caller: i would like to know where you have any proof of who did the gas attack because the story in england about the poisoning has fallen apart. they caught the english guy over there lying when they said he committeeand when the come out with the findings, they said that was not true and we just seem to jump at anything without verifying anything. we are just reckless and we don't follow the proper procedures. host: we will point you in the report that a bbc

french president mc ron is saying he has proof of the chemical attack. is saying he has proof of that chemical attacks. you will be able to read that. guest: i think that what happens is oftentimes the government's are talking to one another and i am sure that prime minister may has shown the president macron and president trump and others in that international community the evidence that is there. sometimes you don't talk about the evidence in public because it gives away other secrets. done not something that is in that regard. and from myar to me travel visiting some of the airlines, that they have sufficient evidence that connects russia to the poisoning. meekscongressman gregory representing the fifth district in new york for nearly 20 years. thank you for being with us.

we will be back with more of your calls and comments, open phones here on "washington journal." any topic you want to talk about in terms of items in the news. 202-748-8001 for republicans. 202-748-8000 for democrats. all others, 202-748-8002. ♪ c-span liveend on saturday at 5:30 p.m. eastern, "road to the white house 2020" at the new hampshire party -- with jason kander. withoverage continues steve bullitt in polk county, iowa. at 7:30 p.m.urday eastern, a feature on black classic press in baltimore. at 8:00 p.m., and author receives the paolucci book award.

c-spanican history tv on 3, saturday at 4:55, prominent figures in american law, in theng elena kagan late thurgood marshall. sunday at 4:00 p.m. on reel america, two cvs "face the nation" programs from 1958. watch this weekend on the c-span networks. c-span, where history unfolds daily. in 1979, c-span was created as a public service i america's cable television companies and today, we continue to bring you unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court, 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 --"washington journal" continues. host: we continue with open phones. the house coming in at 10:00. 202-748-8001 for republicans. 202-748-8000 for democrats. all others, 202-748-8002. weler, we mentioned this as -- with a collar and congressman meeks, here is the report in the bbc this morning, the syria chemical attack. of this is france's president, macron saying he has proof that the syrian government attacked the town of douma with chemical weapons last weekend. he said he would decide whether to strike syria. western states are thought to be preparing for missile strikes in response to the alleged attack. urgeds main military ally against any "steps which could lead to an escalation of tensions."

uk. can read more at bbc.co. on the democrats line, open phones. good morning. caller: i want to say that i -- when he tweet that he is going to war with russia, i hope he is just kidding or just bluffing because this is no joke, going to war with a nuclear power country. thank you. host: michael, next up, walnut creek california, on the democrats line. caller: good morning. first i would like to say that for congressman meeks, i have watched different programs and the president has talked to our allies about what is going on in syria, but even going further dog that, as a blue

democrat, there is not much way i can say the democrats are willing to work with the president, who i did support. i do support and did support. on anything that he wants to do. for example, daca, i believe he is absolutely right that they want this as a campaign issue rather than an issue they can take care of. and thes china goes free trade agreement, i remember -- i am not a young fellow, we used to have a congressman named george miller and i called his office and said, at some point in time, we have to go to task with china to start eliminating some of these problems and all i got was rebuffed. since then, we have had several other congresspeople and even our current congressman, i gave the same message to his office and it has always been rebuffed.

i have to agree, i realized the farmers are going to suffer and , miami going to suffer. at some point in time, you have to be willing to take on china and say, we are going to have fair trade agreements rather than free-trade agreement costing the american people trillions of dollars. you have to have fair trade agreements rather than what is going on right now. host: thanks, michael. brad next up, minnesota on the republican line. caller: good morning. i just have -- i have been wanting the hearings with zuckerberg and i was wondering why nobody asked him if his platform was being used to manipulate our election and how it looks -- not only is facebook trying to manipulate it, but so is 90% of the media, including c-span. i want to get your take on why

you think it's ok for c-span to manipulate and put everything -- don't -- dump on trump. host: tell me what you mean by manipulate? caller: if you look at all your programming come it's almost all pro-democrat. you cannot deny that. if you look at your newspapers, it's almost always some thing against trump. do you think trump does anything good? all you are showing in your broadcasting is to try to manipulate the people that think he is the worst thing in the world, that he is satan. he is not, ok? i have got a real concern here. not just myself. a lot of people in america do. i don't know. what do you think? host: i appreciate the feedback,

brad. the program off asking you about the retirement housecement yesterday by speaker paul ryan, that he will not continue as speaker. he will retire his seat and not return in 2019. joining us on "washington aurnal" is paul kane with look at ahead at what may be next in the speaker's race. in terms of a race, lay out for us how this may develop. when does an election for house speaker have to happen? least it has to happen at sometime between the election in november and maybe thanksgiving. that is an unusually long time for leadership election. traditionally, democrats and republicans have wanted to hold these elections fairly quickly

so you don't have any sort of lingering divisiveness, especially when there is no clear alternative. a leader that only announced they were retiring like this was harry reid. he did it on a friday morning in a march, 2015 and by 2:00 that afternoon, chuck schumer had everything sewn up and locked down to become -- to replace him. this is the opposite. you have kevin mccarthy out there as the number 2 who probably wants to run, but he did this before and could not get enough votes. there is lingering at number three, steve scalise. he is standing there as an alternative just in case kevin mccarthy can't get enough votes. that creates a seven-month long debate andternal there are a lot of people who are wary this conference, which

manyewn many did -- shown divisions in the past, cannot withstand a seven-month internal fight. host: there was a report this morning that said there are some rumblings the speaker may step down early. what have you heard, if anything, and what sort of challenge would that present? aest: i think that could be misreading of some things. brian was very clear -- ryan was in aclear both publicly press conference and an interview with several others, he feels this is not going to be and he has a plan of some sort out there, but he is not willing to talk about it right now. he very much in tens to serve out his term, that is for sure. he said that is one of the reasons he would not -- one of

the traditional things would have been to run for reelection and after november, basically announce he is not going to serve. he said that would be a lie to the people of wisconsin. i think quitting now would, itself, be an abandonment of his bow to the people of southern wisconsin. i think it is just a little bit unsteady right now. i think we will wait to see some sort of signal from possibly and/or ryan about how they want to see this play out. trump could make some statement that right really tip the balance or put the powder cake -- powder keg out of danger of exploding. host: you and your colleagues john wagner writing in the washington post today. ryan joins republican members' exodus from congress."

were ounce to they retiring or resigning out right, some to run for other office -- 10 powerful committee chairman bowing out and others decided to leave as they no longer find the job rewarding. we heard the announcement from dennis ross, announcing his retirement. are you expecting more? guest: yes. i think even the campaign chairman, steve stivers, spoke in ohio and admitted to reporters there would probably be more retirements coming. he capped it at fewer than 10. there are still half a dozen or so states that haven't hit the filing deadlines for running, which gives people more time to think about whether or not they want to fight for their seats, fight for those seats in order

to take a job that a lot of them are deciding is just not worth it. i think -- you will be over 50 by the time this is done and this is a real massive turnover of the entire republican congress. so many chairman retiring -- republican conference. so many chairman retiring, the speaker retiring, so many others deciding to walk away for something else and that is before we get to the incumbents who lose, election day. they could have upwards of 70, 75 people who took the oath of office on january 3, 2017 who are not there come january 3, 2019. host: paul kane with the washington post. thanks, as always. guest: thank you. harrison, arizona. we go to our democrat line, robert is on the line. hello.

i am sorry, robert. caller: i tried to call in earlier and did not get to visit with the congressman. beginning the conversation was about terrorists on aluminum -- s onorists -- tariff aluminum and steel. april 24 last year, the president put a tariff on canadian lumber and it had a huge effect. i had an inverse -- invoice that went over $1200 on the input -- over the weekend and they made the tariff counter -- retroactive. it went on three months earlier. this is canada that buys twice the exports from us as china. this was our closest ally and said if they were a little unfair in the way they let their loggers get into the timber

woods. they provide health care for their loggers. for this whole year, i have tried to find the answer to this question and i hope c-span can help me. i have seen my sheeting go from $14 to $22. we went through hurricanes, floods, we have allowed $80 billion in funding to help repay, which includes lumber and materials in this, which includes that tariff. the question i cannot get answered is how much money has the government received from this tariff and where is it going? i wish c-span could help me with that question. thank you very much. that is a great question. perhaps on an upcoming segment, maybe in some of the hearings we cover, appreciate you asking that. sam is next up, thousand oaks, california, independent line. caller: thank you for taking my call. this is open phones, so i wanted

to take the discussion a different direction. over the years, i have developed a system by which i evaluate fees, not on the basis of presidential politics or personality, but -- oft helps in terms separating the fact from opinion and policy, i look at it as how does it affect me and, specifically, does it hurt or help me? if you look through that lens, for this particular president, the only policy he has enacted which directly affects me are the tax changes and in that case, my tax has gone up because i live in california and there's a $10,000 limit, etc. a tally of as it has helped

or hurt me. right now, it is hurting me. hopefully there is something in the future that might help me. host: congressman david stan won the special election in -- on thessman davidson wib= special election in ohio. 2016s elected in june of -- john boehner is back in the news, the headline in usa today, ex house speaker joined pot company. he dropped his long-held opposition to marijuana to join the board of a rapidly expanding cannabis company. he left the house in 2015 and briefly served on the board of tobacco giant reynolds american after his retirement. he said on wednesday that his thinking on marijuana has to join, prompting him a critical in along with former massachusetts governor bill weld

, also a republican. he said "i am convinced the scheduling the drug is needed so we can do research, help veterans, and reduce the opioid epidemic -- reverse the opioid epidemic." next up in baltimore, democrats line. caller: good morning. i just have a statement for christians and people that that this god president trump and all of his philanderers and disrespect pray for, i just his wife and his family because he is dragging them as well through the mud. i do wish everyone listening, take it in that light. i know church and state does not go well together. that is my thought. thank you. host: mark in massachusetts on

the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you. i hate to pile it on the republican party and trump in general, but it is like an exit is. .- exodus they gave this guy a shot and thought something was going to happen, but they don't want to .e dragged down as far as facebook is concerned, i think representative mckinley had it a little wrong. you cannot blame them for everything that is going through their website and there are plenty of other websites that have problems as well. the one thing that i remember reading last year, a friend of mine wrote on facebook and i am no longer affiliated with it,

actually. he said zuckerberg, in regard to the election, really did not have the fortitude and wasn't responsible enough to run a company that was basically so ingrained in our culture. illinois, we will hear from donald on the democrats line. caller: good morning, c-span. good morning to the american people. i just want to make two statements. one about paul ryan. i think that's the best thing he could do for the country, resigning. he is the guy that wanted to get rid of social security and that, we come of american people pay into. glad. one thing about president trump saye his supporters everybody is picking on him. i give trump credit for one

thing, he works the media so great with twitter. he tells the people every morning what we are going to talk about and what the country is going to listen to. himself. this thing on he tells us what we are going to hek about, who, what crisis wants the country to hear. we have got to wake up and realize this president is out for trump and not the american people. god bless our soldiers out there in the battlefield and god bless this country. host: in other political stories, the fate of missouri governor' eric greitens. eric greitens says he is the target of a political witch hunt and thousand to fight. vows to fight.

-- allegations of blackmail and sexual misconduct. among those, calls for resigning. claire mccaskill tweeted "i have read the official report from the republican led missouri investigation including the sworn testimony. it is clearly time to put the interests of the people of missouri first. the governor should resign." craig kaplan saying that statement from missouri attorney general, governor grains should resign immediately." we will keep you posted on development. the catherine in ohio, democrats line. caller: good morning. here is my question. when obama was president, he had asked the congress multiple .imes for a declaration of war they told him they wanted him to attack syria, but they did not want their fingerprint on it, so they would not give him a declaration of war. will this same congress refused

to give the man that sits in the white house a declaration of war? will he start a third war without a declaration of war? at what point will the republican party stand up for constitutional law, rule of law, and high moral standard? this is what they have told me. i am almost 70 years old, they have said that my entire life. here we need constitutional law. we need rule of law. we need people who have a high moral standard and we get none of that. it, butet is talk about talking about it does not get the job done. thank you, sir. i very much appreciate c-span. they give us, the people out here, a venue where we can say

something about the misuse of our government. thank you, sir. host: thank u, catherine. we hear next from nina in new jersey. caller: this is nina. host: you are on the air. caller: i am from new jersey. say, iwould like to would like to know what is going on with the russian collusion and i expect mueller to apologize to our president regarding the russian collusion that our president had nothing to do with. i think the president needs to continue building the wall, very, very important. i am behind him all the way. he is a good man. he is not a racist. he is trying to do the best he can and i back him up completely. thank you. i do think mueller should really

apologize to the president and stop looking for other reasons him inct him or get trouble. thank you very much for your time. host: we welcome your comments on twitter as well. tweet us at @cspanwj. matt tweets "democrats are happy to work with trump. maybe he can start by undoing his repeal of daca." mike is next in california, modesto on our democrats line. caller: hello. if we get a few more people calling in about everything went bad when we dropped school many brews famously said more and more people are getting away from the church and back to got -- lenny bruce famously said

more and more people are getting away from the church and back to god. i woke up to the caller saying -span is biased to us lefties. -- the big example of fake news is everybody got it wrong about the election. they did not get it wrong on purpose. they were not trying to push the needle. some of them were, obviously. basically, everyone was fooled. than the emotional lefties on aththe air lost it. the other thing is, democrats accept how it is an go along. nobody is going to whine about the fact you put the republican phone number first. the other things -- my notes,

they are so pressure. ,he game of the nra, us lefties we are not trying to take the guns away from anybody. the nra's'sgam is t convince the gun people they are coming for you. every time there is an incident, gun sales go through the roof because they have people convinced, they are going to take our guns. i must have something else precious to share with all of you. that is it. the election results are not fake news. the nra is playing a game. host: i am glad you had your notes with you, that is great. appreciate you weighing in and getting up early with us in modesto worried we had a caller earlier say that paul ryan's net worth was $7.8 million and i asked him where he had seen the information in our producers have discovered the reporting on paul ryan's net worth is at opensecrets.org.

megan writes "as paul ryan rose to the house, his money rose with him." has been of the house at it for 20 years and now he might not be at it for very longer, announcing he will -- he was not seeking reelection, 'you all know i did not want this job. i took it reluctantly and i have given this job everything i had.' -- as introduced nearly played the role of everything from vice presidential nominee to speaker of the house. as he rose through the ranks, his money went with him. his net worth has multiplied from $1.8 million in 2005 to $6 million in 2016." kalamazoo, michigan, we hear next from don on the republican line. caller: good morning. am i on? host: you are.

caller: i would have liked to talk to the politician that was -- helier because he had would have known the answer. since i did not get through, i .ill say a few things anybody that wants to can go to the library and check it out or the internet. one of the first things i would say is check out a speech bill clinton gave december, i believe 1998. of that is enough information you can get it. then he also fired missiles into iraq before he was in office for 6 months. into baghdad, the capital of iraq. he also fired missiles in 1996 into afghanistan and i believe, some other country. , december 16, the same date as the speech, he fired a bunch of missiles on iraq i think for 4 days.

he wrote in his book, after the attack, we had no way of knowing what we had destroyed. then, there were no inspections of wmds for the rest of his term, which would be 2 years. then it took bush a year or so to get them back in. my question is if clinton would have continued the inspections for those 2 years, it would have term.ght on into bush's how would he have ever gotten the vote to go to war in iraq if there had been inspections all the way through the clinton administration? host: thank you, don. we are doing open phones until 10:00 or so, any topics you are reading in the news. topics we covered this morning including the 2 days of hearings with mark zuckerberg and the focus on artificial intelligence. zuckerberg says ai will solve facebook's problems, but not how

or when. artificial intelligence will solve facebook's most back think problems. justst vexing problems, he cannot say when or how. to aiberg referred technology more than 30 times, saying it would be one day be smart, sophisticated, and eagle eyed enough to fight against .latforms a reminder that we have got all of the hearing online at c-span.org. one more look at ai and a column in the washington times. aii e -- their eye on column. is this thes " technology we should be relying on?to monitor our own conversations

? artificial intelligence is only as good as the programmer, kind of like climate change modeling is only as accurate as the data inputted. it's not as if facebook has a great track record when it comes to discerning which speech can go and which can stay." ,ewis on the democrats line salisbury, north carolina. caller: good morning c-span and america. there is a lot of people, especially from supporters and trump himself, they always try to bash president obama. i love the man because his heart was in the right place for america. they talked about obamacare and ran a campaign about getting rid of obamacare. then a lot of trump supporters found out obamacare was the aca so everybody rallied and said, you cannot do it. at first they wanted to do it

because it was obamacare. they want to talk about the iran deal was so terrible and crazy and everything and they cannot see what trump is doing to america. i just want the trump supporters and all the people that are patriotic and love america, i want them to remember this. when obama came into office, came and-- one man had attacked america and brought down two buildings and then he other to go after two buildings. obama got together with the nsa, cia. he got those people together and he got bin laden. he went on and took this man out .o went on and caused war if they don't remember anything else, i want them to remember,

they will not see bin laden's face anymore causing havoc and terror in the united states. remember that, the obama administration went on and took affected person who war on our soil and our land. he is one of the greatest presidents i think america will ever see in my lifetime. host: let's hear from mike in new york on our republican line. caller: how are you doing? good morning. host: good morning. caller: after the rush a hoax -- russia hoax and the real criminal organization against obama gets settled, i want them to figure out who will pay back the american taxpayers. host: gop's senators concern about trump's picked for va chief. facing mounting skepticism over

whether he has the management experience -- comments come from several senators, particularly those with issues -- senator jackson will have to work overtime to convince trump's on party he is qualified to oversee the agency at a time when senate republicans are already juggling other controversial nominations that will consume much of the political oxygen on capitol hill. one of the president's nominees, mike pompeo, to be secretary of state, he is the current cia director. he's coming up between the foreign relations committee this morning in the u.s. senate and we will have live coverage on c-span 3 beginning at 10:15, about a half-hour away during online at c-span.org and on the c-span radio app. here is robin in minnesota. republican line. caller: i have a comment for the

previous democrat caller. on obama and how great he was. we would not be in the situation we were in of obama's team did -- do regime change, take gadaffi took out the prime minister -- if the iran deal was so good, why did we secretly send a plane with over $150 million in it? i don't think our economy has ever been better since under this president. we would not be having this 2002 --ssian thing if if obama had not one, we would do the same thing because they interviewed -- interfered with the election back then as well. obama did not get osama bin laden, our military did, and it to find them.ears sorry mr. democrat who thinks he

is almighty. he isn't. he destroyed a lot of this country and really destroyed a lot of the world. thank you. host: next up, brentwood, tennessee on the independent line. caller: i was wondering, given the russian-syria relationship and our president's questionable to let ties, i wanted people know about a business insider article about the warning that trump was apparently going to give russia before any attacks. i found it interesting even like last year when we were having theyame discussion that did this grandiose bombing, but only one airport. thinkht of everything, i it has definitely raised eyebrows. thank you. next in go to helen lake michigan, democrats line.

good morning, helen. caller: good morning. .hank you very much for c-span i just want to say, it bothers me so much they keep calling everything a witchhunt and everything else. acks like a it qu duck and walks like a duck, it's probably a duck. take off your which had, take andbroom out of your butt possibly we can start understanding why all these been investigated, why his attorney is being investigated. this is a just what ever and who will pay for that? whoever said that once the democrats find out that he is so republicans, are they going to put the money out

there because you've got 40 of them retiring or leaving, quitting? that is how i feel about it. illinois, next up we hear from david on the republican line. caller: good morning. this is my first time calling and i would like to make two comments on two previous democratic caller's. our taxes pay for an agency -- whatever c-span is -- host: your taxes do not pay for c-span as -- at all. we take no government funding. we are funded by the cable industry. go ahead with your comment. caller: all right. i apologize for miss stating something -- mistating something. the one caller said paul ryan should quit. -- could somebody explain to me what medicaid

recipients in the country or state of illinois are paying into the medicaid system that allows them to go to the same hospitals where my son spent two and a half years getting the same quality care and not paying the $5 million my insurance company spent to take care of my son who recently past away. way. ssed a the most recent democratic caller, when he talks about that president obama was one of the greatest presidents, he seems to forget that obama, like the previous caller mentioned, without any approval from the senate, the house, or anybody, believe0 billion -- i the previous caller said million, it was billion, to the number one recognized state leader in terrorism, iran. don't think anybody argues that.

that was providing them another $150 billion to continue their operations all over the world. we can sit here all day and claim trump for things and blame obama for things. unfortunately, this process you have every morning allows a lot of people to make statements and as you welcome them, maybe sometimes somebody should be correcting them and saying -- had a chance to reply and glad you are watching in illinois. as you may know, the c-span bus has been traveling the country as part of our 50 capitals tour, touring the and start -- touring the entire united states. next up in nevada. >> stop number 28 on the 50 state capitals tour and we are in carson city, nevada today. joining us on the c-span bus is

governor bran sandoval in his final year as governor of that -- of that state. what are your legislative priorities in your final year as governor? >> thanks for having us. this is the year our legislature only meets every other year, so this year.t meeting i am continuing the work of what we did last year in 2018. we are working on fighting the opioid epidemic, juvenile justice, workforce development. we have been wildly successful bringing new is this is to nevada and diversify the economy and we want to make sure we have an education system to match. systemrking on our k-12 to make it the best it can be and we are always working on infrastructure and building the public works project in las vegas. working on renewable energy. even though it is my last year, i am working harder than i ever have. >> you mentioned the opioid

crisis. i read recently nevada is leading the nation unfortunately in methamphetamine deaths. why has it hit nevada so hard? >> it is hard to say. with regard to the opioid nevadansand we lose a a day. i want that to be zero. we were -- there was a third-party entity that rated had touch and nevada points in 6 different areas. that is a continued fight we have to have. to be responsive to your question, we have a very large urban area in las vegas and ofo, but also large swaths rural areas as well. it's continually trying to balance resources to address the issue. i am payinging attention to and we will do everything we can to provide people with the help they need.

>> given that you are sitting currently ft. worth -- 400 miles , 500 miles from las vegas, but las vegas is about two thirds of the state population and economy, how much of your time is spent focused on vegas? >> i spent quite a bit of time there. i was there last week and i am leaving for las vegas tomorrow morning and will be there through monday. it is two thirds of the state population and, frankly, it's the fastest growing urban area in the country. that has a lot to do with the economic successes we are having. there's always work to do. as governor of a very big state, i have to balance my time. certainly, i spend a lot of time in las vegas, our largest urban center. >> there's about 3 million people currently living in nevada. -- fast-growing state and a fast-growing latino population illegal and legal.

how does that affect your view on immigration? >> one of the things i have focused on is with regard to the english language learners. regardless of if an individual is documented or undocumented, they deserve the best education possible. we created what are called zoom schools that provide resources to the english language learners. we have probably the most diversified school district in the country. in clark county, it's the fourth largest school district so it's very important to provide them with the resources they need. with regard to immigration policy, i am one of those continually urging congress and ae administration to find middle ground where we can have some good immigration policies so everybody knows what the rules are. boon orbamacare been a a bust in nevada? act hasffordable care been very successful in our

state. i was the first republican governor to opt in with regard to the affordable care act. we were able to take nevada from being 50th in the country with regard to the number of bills that -- those that were uninsured. we have added several hundred thousand people that are getting the medical care they need. i think it has been very successful. we took more than 80% of the individuals registered with regard to medicaid into managed care, which worked out well for us. it has been good for the hospital. most important way, it has been good for the people of this state. >> the october 1 shooting last year, how has that affected the psyche and the attitude of the people of nevada? hard.was frankly, on october 1, i received that phone call and could never imagine a mass

tragedy like that. it,ve said often and i mean it has taken something out of me i can never put back. something i am proud of is the resiliency of the people of this state, the way our first responders conducted themselves that night, the health care providers, law enforcement. everybody who was responsible for addressing that horrible attack. i think the outreach from other governors, other states, conventions has been agnes is in. there are people who have said we are going to keep coming to las vegas. las vegas has recovered extremely well. our visitation is as good as it has ever been. we will continue to work hard, but we will never forget the 58 individuals that lost their lives that night as well as the hundreds of people that were injured. it is an ongoing responsibility of mine to inshore the victims -- ensure the victims that

survived are getting the behavioral health services they need and people are being compensated properly so that those who were affected the most can get whatever they need. >> nearly 50 million people visited nevada last year as tourists. did that shooting affect your view of the second amendment? -- it'sf the things actually more than 50 million. it is remarkable. one of the things that really bothered me were the bump stocks and that was something that allowed as a shooter to essentially replicate an automatic weapon. that is something i have been supported in terms of eliminating the bump stock. with regard to the second amendment, i have always been a strong supporter of that. the people of this state voted last year to expand background checks in nevada. that has been the subject of litigation and debate.

certainly, it has caused me to take a second look with regard to what happened that night and what happened -- the terrible tragedy in your -- in florida, has caused me to appoint a school safety committee. is legal marijuana affected your state, if at all? >> that is another voter approved measure from last year. frankly, the voters overwhelmingly have voted for the approval of the sale of recreational marijuana in the state of nevada. it was something i opposed. once the people had spoken, i felt that nevada needed to have the best regulated environment in the country. illegal sales of recreational marijuana started on june 1. my knowledge, there haven't really been any problems. we are finding that nevada is becoming a national model with

the way we have handled this. we are using the tax proceeds from the sale -- retail sale of recreational marijuana for our education system and we will continue to moderate -- monitor it closely. i want to make sure it is not sold to minors and that it is sold in a responsible way. >> now that you are in your last year of office, when it comes to your $11 billion state budget, do you feel secure in the revenue streams with no state income tax? upi am glad you brought that . i am really proud of the fact we do not have a state income tax. people are coming to our state. our general fund budget is about $8 billion if you don't include the federal money. .he economy is doing well we are funding education, as it should be. there is always work to do, but

unlike other states, i think we are doing well. we have money in our rainy day fund, which we did not have. when i became governor, we had a $2 million budget deficit. we have -- we of the federal government $800 million for unemployment and we now have $1 billion in that fund. our state ratings have gone up dramatically. when we need to borrow money for bonding and infrastructure, we are getting favorable rates in that regard. i am really happy with where we is in our constitution and i am not someone who would ever support and income tax in nevada. >> governor sandoval is chair of the national governor's association. what is next for you? myfrankly, i am focused on job. it is a privilege and honor to serve as the chairman of the national governor's association. my initiative is called ahead of the curve and with regard to all the improvements in technology aerialted with unmanned

vehicles, drones, artificial intelligence, that was an opportunity to really introduce those issues, which we have taken on in a big way in nevada to the other governors throughout the country. ims to give early focused on my job. i have 8 or numeral -- i am job.larly focused on my i have 8 or 9 months left. do workforce development, ensure we have a robust renewable energy portfolio, and have the best quality like you can possibly have. >> governor brian sandoval joins us in carson city, nevada. we want to thank spectrum on our state capital's tour. our next stop is salt lake city. see any of our previous interviews or a schedule of stops, visit our c-span community paid at c-span.org/community.

that will do it for this morning 's "washington journal." a.m.tomorrow morning 7:00 eastern. the mike pompeo hearing is getting underway at 10:15 on c-span 3. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2018] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. the clerk: the speaker's rooms, washington, d.c., april 12, 2018. i hereby appoint the honorable steve chabot to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, paul d. ryan, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to thed orer of the house of january 8, 2018, the chair will now recognize members from lists submitted by the majority and minority leaders for morning hour debate. the chair will alternate recognition between theti