at 9:00 p.m. eastern with a look at braydenberg versus ohio which questioned whether the first amendment was relevant to speech that could host roundtable discussion in fact of steel and aluminum care. then the senate returns at 3:00 eastern to consider a bill deal with native american tribes. over on c-span three, members of congress are a part of a conference focused on u.s.-israel relations in the middle east peace process. reporters from the new york times and npr discuss the trump administration and russia's influence during the 2016 election. today's washington journal, we will discuss the week ahead in washington with sahil kapur and jeff mason from reuters. michael eisenstadt with the

michael is to test for the washington institute for the middle east talks about the recent airstrikes in syria. ♪ morning.d it is monday, april 16, 2018. both chambers of congress are in today. 2:00 p.m. for legislative assistant. the senate reconvenes at 3:00 p.m. and we are with you for the next three hours. we begin in the wake of james comey's much-anticipated interview with abc news in which he called president trump "morally unfit to hold the office." ,ven before the interview aired president trump took to twitter yesterday. the escalating war of words between james comey and

president trump, we are asking you, who'd you trust? you can catch up with us on social media. a very good monday morning to you. you can start calling in now. former fbi director james comey's media blitz is underway and he is pulling no punches when it comes to his description of the man who currently holds the oval office. last night, he was interviewed by george steph annapolis on abc news. it was a much anticipated interview. he was asked whether he thought president trump was unfit to hold the office. >> yes. but not in the way you often hear people talk about it. i don't buy the stuff about

early stages of dementia. he strikes me as a person at above average intelligence. i don't think he is medically unfit. i think he is morally unfit. receives -- who talks about and treats women like they are piece of meat, lies constantly and insist the american people believe it. that person is not fit to be the president on moral grounds. our president must embody respect. the most important being truth. this president is not able to do that. >> if you're right, what is the remedy? >> impeachment is a question of law and fact. >> you are citizen. you have judgment. >> i hope not, because i think impeaching and removing donald trump from office would let the image people off the hook and

have something happen indirectly that i think they are duty bound to do directly. people in this country need to stand up and go to the voting booth and vote their values. impeachment, anyway, would short-circuit that. host: we will show you more of that interview. we want to your from you when it comes to james comey and president trump. who do you trust? the president yesterday morning targeting james comey in five different tweets. here are two of them. he also said --

front page of the new york post today talks about the state of our union. "this is us" is the headline. the front page of usa today with their exclusive interview with james comey and his -- in his mclean home. the interviewed him over the weekend. in that interview, they write -- we will go through that article as we hear from you in the first hour of the "russian to journal." -- of the "washington journal." jack, who do you trust? caller: i don't really trust either of them. background --tic

i have a dramatic background as trump has half. trump has some flaws and if his lawyer, i don't know what they found in the raid, if they find anything that is significant, there is going to be some problems. mccabe, he definitely committed crimes. we will see if he gets charged. cohen hasmr.: -- committed some serious tribes -- serious crimes. as far as trust, it is a question of degree. mr. trump being successful? it was his father was a workaholic. the men could not even stand to be on vacation's. he had to go back to work. the true german spirit. host: that is jack in rhode

island. eric is here in washington, d.c. caller: yes, good morning. thank you again for giving me the chance to express myself. it is a very difficult question to answer or to trust -- answer, who to trust. this country has a principal that the judiciary, the legislative and executive are supported. justice should be for everybody. right now, we have an fbi director, a politician. he instead of being a neutral arbiter has become -- has chosen a side. he says he was influenced by the poll. far back our country has gone. now he is talking about leadership. his comey a leader i'm -- is comey a leader like to follow?

i would like to follow? no, i would like to take my chances were trump. host: columbia, kentucky. go ahead. caller: i trust comey and million times over trump. trump, i have watched him. he can't five words without three of them lies. that makes him just as bad as he is. trump is unfit to be the president. we need to impeach him and with him all the way back to new york. host: larry, here in washington, d.c. caller: i just listened to this thing with comey. he committed perjury. so he assumed that she was going to get it and he is using blackmail tactics and they had

some top fbi agents. trump, he is not perfect that it shows james comey is a criminal. he deserves to be executed or treason, because he has been covering for bill and hillary since 1995. host: jim, go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my call. i think mr. comey is telling the absolute truth. i don't know what is wrong with american people. they heard them right on tv, mr. trump, say hello, russia. would you get emails from hillary? she was a high government official in the united states who had a lot of secret stuff in her email which is totally against the law. you forgot about him talking about trump grabbing the women by the genitals. you forgot about him looking at that little girl in the mall going up the stairs and he

looked over and said, i will be getting her in a couple of years. she could not have been over 12 years old. i think mr. trump is the most corrupt, immoral and unfit to run this country. the republicans need to impeach him immediately. they are going to go down with him. i hope people will get out and , this bunch of criminals out of office. .ost: jim in west virginia more from that usa today interview with james comey. they say in a comment --

that contained in the statement. president trump dismissed that dossier. comey said it while he did not know how much of the document remains unverified, its central premise that russia saw two interfere with the election was corroborated and consistent and was utterly independent intelligence. that is from that usa today front page story today. some background on comey's book and the publishing process for the book also included in the story. comey said he did not seek robert mueller's approval for the book and did not provide the special counsel with a draft before it was published by flat iron. the fbi did review the book before it was published to exclude references to classified information.

the former director said very little was removed. plenty of discussion over what would happen if president trump were to fire robert mueller are moved to take some action to make that happen down the road in that interview with abc news. -- down the road. in the interview with abc news, comey talked about the possibility of president trump firing robert mueller. >> what i would hope would set off alarm bells that this is most serious attack on the rule of law. it would be something that our -- that is higher than all of the normal fights about policy and it would be to the everlasting shame of partisans if they were able to see that higher-level and protect it. host: several members of congress went on sunday shows and talked about the future of the mueller investigation.

a wrap up of some of the responses in the usa today. susan collins said -- paul ryan speaking on nbc's meet the press said -- mary is on the phone waiting in potomac, maryland. independent. house: i called the white and said, because trump called comey a slimeball. i said, "the only slimeball that we know lives in the white

house." i have a reason. righty who has an affair after his wife has a baby is nothing -- you cannot get any lower than that. host: what was the response he got? who did you talk to? caller: they just take your comments. they do not respond. he says every comment you make goes to the president. i was delighted that he will come to know what i think and i think more than 60% of the people think of them. thingthe most egregious he does is attacks the press. he goes, you know, he is totally unfit because called putin and

congratulated him on this phony victory, as he does with other thugs. erdogan and the philippine president. slimeball,e issue of the headline of charles hurts column in the "washington times." he writes -- the column today, if you want to read more. are you withannie,

us? caller: i am a rural republican, and i have to say i agree with the points that the democratic gentleman from virginia made. trump is untrustworthy and immoral. a disgrace to this country could comey said he had to bring out the information of an investigation concerning hillary clinton, otherwise she would be an illegitimate president so following this logic i supposed since there was an investigation .nto trump trump is an illegitimate president. also, trump is aggressively antagonistic to democracy and our institutions. to all of our consumer air, justs, water, the safety of the american people, the justice. every agency we have, he is antagonistic to.

he is misogynistic and he exploits the american people. host: nancy is in california. for democrats. -- line the democrats. caller: i came to believe comey and i am from aggressive and i'm interested -- i am a progressive and i'm interested in hearing what my fellow democrats tank. a lot of them are angry that jim comey because of what happened 11 days before the election with hillary. a lot of folks here on the ground level seen to hold him responsible. i have a question for you about that legislation that is in --gress about protecting doesn't donald trump have to sign off on that? both if it were passed houses, it would go to the president for his signature. processalk about that in our week ahead roundtable with political reporters.

they are going to join us in our 8:00 hour. whether it is going to see daylight on the floor of the house and senate. so the comment from paul ryan -- you saw the comment from paul ryan. he says he thinks that legislation may not be needed. michael in clarksburg, maryland. caller: good morning. trust -- i just comey over donald trump 100%. , i believeent [indiscernible] man foratched this almost over a year now. there not a single day or one incident as far as i say, he is being true.

he always find something that will favor him and lied about it. -- and lie about it. he goes back and fourth blaming others. behavior and one thing that comey said last night, i listened to the interview. he is mentally unstable. morallyame time, he is -- he cannot -- that is the concern for our president. host: who do you trust in this escalating war of words between james comey and president trump? that interview on abc news last night coming ahead of the publication of james comey's book this week. the president taking to twitter yesterday to offer his opinion

about james comey. carl in berkeley springs, west virginia. caller: good morning. 20 minutes into this program and i think i am the second republican. the way comey bus the hillary clinton investigation, you just emails thater 3300 is subpoenaed by the congress. he did away with it. media, you want to turn this into a tabloid. i wonder what you guys at washington journal ever do when trump is out of office. who are you going to trash every morning? this is getting ridiculous. i watch your show every morning and i am telling you, you guys are getting too far out in the

left field for me. host: we will keep being here for you every morning. we try to create a form to have this discussion, this conversation. james comey's interview on abc, certainly on the president's mind. five of his tweets yesterday morning about this topic and this media blitz getting today including this exclusive interview with usa today. actionssked about his leading up to the 2016 election and some of the criticism he has gotten from hillary clinton supporters for the actions he took. they write in that story --

in that interview with abc news, comey also discussed his conversation with loretta lynch, that she asked that he referenced the clinton email investigation as a matter. the investigation that was going on, that he refer to it as a matter. >> did you think she was doing that to protect hillary clinton? >> i did know. it worried me as the clinton campaign have been try to come up with other words to describe it. >> the final straw? lynch's meeting with president bill clinton. >> i decided i have to step away

from her and show the american people, the fbi works separately. host: loretta lynch out with a statement of her own in reference to some of the comments that the former fbi director has made about her actions. here's that statement. getting your thoughts this morning on james comey's comments, the reaction of the president yesterday. jacqueline in flint, michigan. caller: yes, i believe in james comey. after the interview and before.

ahead.o any other thoughts? caller: no, i don't. host: mike in ohio. go ahead. caller: good morning. this is ridiculous. if calming was so innocent, why was he fired? why were eight other people fired and reassigned. this is ridiculous. this will come out when the ig report does come out. , we've going to find out got the lesser of two evils to pick from. we got trouble over hillary. this will all come out and they will find out there was a coup d'etat in the fbi. thank you. host: alan is in washington. line for republicans. caller: you media people are really funny. you called trump all kinds of names and yet the minute he calls someone a slimeball or

something like that, you get your silk panties in a twist. the next time somebody says, are you going to fire miller, he should say i have fired lots of and competent people in my life, but i'm going to give him a pass. what do you think of that? host: why do you think he should get him a pass? caller: he is incompetent and he just said i'm going to give him a pass and i am not going to fire him. where do you think that investigation goes? do you think it will peter out? caller: he should fire both of them. you guys never look into miller's record -- mueller's record. you never talk about the times that he didn't put people in jail.

two of them died. the others got $100 million payoff. you never talk about that. talk about mueller's incompetence. he is so great. i will tell you something, being in the army, being in the service does not make you an honorable man. the same goes for mccain. washington.n clarida is in cleveland, ohio. morning, america. this is really thickening. i do believe comey. i do have some questions and stipulations. , why didn't the same standard apply to trump who ,as and is under investigation

and why isn't his presidency illegitimate? going back, comey came out and he said there is an investigation against hillary, but a test but he didn't tell us about the investigation against trump. he allowed hillary saying that he -- she would be called in for a grand jury if elected. she never was, and trump is being looked at and getting ready to be called in. if we have two candidates who , that wouldmate mean obama still the president. that is exactly how we need to fix this. although obama back in and go with the next election in 2020. thank you, america and have a great day.

host: and that interview, james comey talks about his first briefing with president trump and the issue of the russian meddling. here's what he had to say. >> shops first question was to confirm it had no impact on the election, then the conversation to my surprise moved into a pr conversation about how the trump team with position this what they could say about this. that is not done. >> he was struck by what they didn't ask -- you were struck by what they didn't ask. >> no one asked what is coming next from the russians. how might we stop it? it was all what can we say about what they did and how it affects the election that we had? morning's wall street journal, they talk about the ongoing muller investigation, where the focus has been. the headline investigators

cohen.g on: -- on president trump tweeting about the impact of that raid on the cohen's -- michael office. a column today by crote kanaan in the orange county register talking about that raid on trump's lawyers office saying the raid crossed the line into special prosecutorial abuse. there is the headline from the orange county register. writes this in that column --

he says in his column. if you want to read it today, tiny is waiting in michigan. caller: is this me? it is gini. sorry about that. [indiscernible] i also don't trust trump. but a couple of points. i heard comey say that he doesn't know about impeachment. he thinks the amazing people need to get out and vote. attackts -- that is an against people who did vote for trump. the american people did vote. my other point would be, really comey, trump and steph annapolis

i think they're all clinton people. benghazi was about this war in syria that we just dropped bombs on syria in the hillary and mccain to get the guns to syria and now we are assad fromside -- the right. i don't trust any of them. we are going to be talking more about syria this morning. both in our week ahead in washington roundtable coming up in 30 minutes this morning. at 9:00, we are going to be joined by michael eisenstadt. he is a military and security study program director. we are going to be talking about the u.s. strategy in syria and what happens. here's the front page of the new york times. the lead story --

the latest in a series of actions by both sides underscoring the deterioration of relations between moscow and the west. plenty more to talk about that coming up. wanted to keep you aware of news family.om the bush barbara bush, the 92-year-old former first lady of the united states, is in failing health and will not seek further medical care. a person close to the family says barbara bush has a long disease.- has a lung after several recent hospitalizations, bush has decided on comfort care instead of additional treatment. the statement said, it will not surprise those who know her that barbara bush has been a rock in the face of a failing health,

worrying not for herself, thanks to our abiding faith, but for others. she is surrounded by family that she adores and she appreciates the kind messages and prayers. comments already from members of congress and others around the country coming in about the former first lady. that pelosi tweeting barbara bush back to your calls in this first hour of the washington journal. barbara is waiting in texas. in this war of words between james comey and president trump, who do you trust? caller: i would trust the president. if you noticed in his interview last night how many times he said "i." "i had to do this." comey, didn't she have

someone under her who could've taken over the case instead of james comey. the double standard between the trump and clinton is ridiculous. they went in, they go into paul manafort and they take everything at him. they go into trump's lawyers office and take everything but they did not do that with clinton whenever she had that n.l. investigation. -- had that email investigation. they let her bring everything to them. it is ridiculous. i don't understand it. i don't see how you can trust comey anyway. host: more from president trump yesterday.

carolyn, mount vernon, new york. go ahead. caller: good morning, c-span. comey as opposed to trump, because trump, as you know, is not a true the person. he lies everyday -- is not a truthful person. he lies everyday. this is about the golden showers so an agreement with the russians all the time. i think they have the evidence. that evidence is probably -- has probably been filmed. in suchwhy he is

agreement with the russians all the time, because he doesn't want that information come out. this golden shower business has got to be seen or known about by the american people. host: here is the former fbi director last night in the interview talking about the steele dossier. >> how graphic did you get? >> as graphic as i need to be. i didn't go into the business about people seeing on each other. other.ng on each i explained, sir, i am not saying we credit this or believe it. we thought it important that you know. >> describe the look on his face. >> he was very defensive and started going to the list of people accusing him of sexual assault and how he did had done this. that theu tell him

steele dossier had been financed by his political opponents? >> i just talked about additional material. >> did he have a right to know that? >> i don't know the answer to that. it wasn't necessary for my goal which was to alert him that we had this information. >> did you believe his denial. >> i don't know whether the current president was with prostitutes in 2002. it is possible. >> help grieving -- how weird was that briefing? >> really weird. host: our question, who do you trust question mark the former fbi director james comey? or the president? the ever escalating war of words. getting your calls on for republicans, democrats and independents.

bill is waiting. go-ahead. caller: the reason why i trust james comey s -- james comey is because he comes across as believable. the fact that he has annoyed both democrats and republicans tells me he was seriously truthfully trying to do the best job he could. did he make some mistakes? yes. all in all, i believe he is a truthful person. an honorable person and that is all i have to say. thanks and have host: a great day. -- thanks and have a great day. host: laura, go ahead. caller: i believe mr. comey. i have a question. this dossier and the peeing business is a sideshow. the big problem and the truthful

problem is donald trump money launders and with the bankers in see fit to did not lend him any money, he went to russia where the multimillionaires had all kinds of money with no restrictions. another question i have, why is it our white house building is not satisfactory for the president to meet people? theyoes yet detections are -- why does he have to take votto?abe tomorrow -- i don't of a think he should be, i don't care what he goes in the country but this business about, as he said during the easter egg roll, while this place, whatever you call it. it is the white house.

i am a republican. thank you. host: the president is in mar-a-lago this week. he will be meeting with the japanese prime minister. abe six trump's here. he will ask for the united states to reflect tokyo's interest in upcoming talks with pyongyang and discussion with north korean leaders. he will be here later this week. we will be talking about it in our roundtable coming up in 20 minutes. jeff mason will be a part of that discussion. we'll get his take on what that meeting is expected to entail. herbie is in mississippi. caller: yes, i don't trust either one of them but trump tells a lot of truth. and he cane news shoot a man on fifth avenue and

nothing would happen to him. all white man in power has always been able to do these things. goes only back to back people fighting for civil rights. it shows the fact that this is nothing but a big soap opera. for us to stand around and wait for somebody to prosecute a rich white man, that is not going to happen. if you have to fight for civil rights, you are fighting against an individual who doesn't have civil rights. he is not even civilized. dealing with all the way but -- dealing with white people, we have to acknowledge white males have been trying themselves as god's. in god we trust. everything they try to do, the house of lords, that is what we are doing with here in america. we have a group of people being held to the standards of god's. a few comments from twitter as we are having this

comment -- having this discussion. we will keep looking for your comments and you can call us like gary did out of illinois. caller: thank you. i trust james comey. i think he is a very honest person. last night, i think he hit the nail on the head describing donald trump, that he was immoral. you cannot trust him. aboutk, when he talked the impeachment part, he wants

the american -- james comey wants the american people to vote these people out of office, put people that you cannot trust , ityou think it is a moral is really hard for me to think about living in a country that is unjust. i believe there has been a lot of unjust things that has happened since trump has gotten in office. think should be the next person to hold the oval office? do you have a preference right now? caller: no, i don't. not right now. i sure wouldn't put a person in there like donald trump. me that peoplend believe in this guy. -- whyt a bad history

would you be sued all the time? why have people done that to him? he's got a bad history? on potential 2020 candidates, here is a story. joe biden said in an interview that he is not -- he has not ruled out a presidential run in expects to decide that in of the year. biden left the door open and gave a new account of his thinking. --sharpton

charles is in new york, a republican. go ahead. caller: how are you this morning? host: i am doing well. caller: i listen to these people calling it. they are getting all their news from guys like you and the mainstream media. which are all anti-trump, 100% of the time. they don't realize that this guy is doing a lot of great things in the white house. here is what went down. trump took the queen out of play and that was the biggest problem. they can't seem to get that through their heads. in the meantime, he took loretta lynch out of play who was going to be the next supreme court justice. comey was going to be our next attorney general.

mccain were going to move up the ladder. when the queen didn't get our coordination, they offer doubt. it has been nothing but attack attack 20 47 since this man won the election. images on this -- if the media completely the other way like they did with obama who could do nothing wrong, you would see them change their tune in a heartbeat and they would be talking about how great a man trump is. he's got a fight -- he's got to fight the media, the fbi, the doj, deep state and all the obama lackeys which, there wasn't a presidency, it was a crime spree. the last thing this country needs is another democrat to gain the white house.

we all know what happens than. host: mount vernon, illinois. caller: yes, i believe comey 100%. i don't believe trump at all. he can be standing on a stack of bibles over his head and i still would not believe him. he cannot even get a lawyer to take his case. .ost: bob, louisville, kentucky who do you believe? caller: i believe in trump. i believe he is a patriot. he is the only one that i have seen and i am 80 years old that has been in the office that is not on his knees thing for money. that man stands up. he is like a guy from new york. he stands up straight. he's got a spine of steel. i trust him 100% over comey. sum -- whatre the are some of the ways you have seen them stand up?

caller: he don't bend toward the media. he don't bend toward traitorous democrats because they are traitors. they are making sanctuary cities. did never tried jerry brown for treason. host: florida, go ahead. caller: isn't it interesting that people can sidelines when they call other people liars but when people called donald trump a liar, they never cite a lie. what lie? what did he lie about? let me give you some whoppers that we experienced. lbj, our destroyers were attacked in the gulf of kentucky and. hillary clinton, i never got a memo about security in benghazi. obama, you can keep your

doctor and you will save $2500 year on obamacare. you know when it comes to james comey, i'm ashamed of him. ashamed of him. he had a circle of people who are protecting hillary clinton and the only reason he talked about reopening the investigation is people outside of the circle had run across documentation that she was lying classified oneing her server. that is the only reason he said that. fbi anduted by his own the nypd. when you start talking about lying, just think about those whoppers. to me the courtesy of telling me exactly what lie you are talking about when you call donald trump a liar. host: how do you feel about robert mueller?

mess.: you know, it is a you know what? i am ashamed of the whole thing and what it is doing to this country. i wish mueller would get up in the morning and say, is it worth caring this country apart by caring on this investigation? -- by carrying on this investigation? i wish he would be truthful with the american public. host: the new york times editorial board taking up the issue of the mueller probe. they ended by saying --

new york times editorial board today. gladys is in chicago. good morning. caller: good morning how are you doing? comey a million times over trump. the man who just humble, -- just

hung up, he is so sad. trump do forwhat peace of mind, but he need praying for. he is so sad. we don't have to count the lies that trump tells. just wait until the morning, he will tell a whole bunch of lies tweeting on it -- tweeting on his phone. concerned, asy is far as anybody is concerned, i don't trust trump over anybody. the world don't trust trump. that maybe do trust trump, it is people that don't trust him, they are going to use them. -- use him. i wish somebody would tell me

what kind of mine do you have to have two trust donald trump -- mind do you have to have to trust donald trump when anything ? host: go ahead. caller: it is amusing to listen to this every morning. i thank you very much. you can tell who was the scene and has indoor the fox news channel has -- you can tell who are the cnn heads and the fox news channel heads. look at the mainstream channel and look at fox news. you can kind of find out where you need to be thinking from. this comey interview and book was rushed out before the ig report becomes public. that is all this was. comey ended it last night with a push for democratic voters to get out and vote this president and congress out.

that is all this was. just sit back and observe. what's your opinion without getting every fact you can before hand. thank you. host: five minutes left in the segment. we are going to be joined by jeff mason and sahil kapur. talking about the week ahead in washington. one of the major issues this week will be the fallout from those strikes in syria over the weekend. here's the front page of the washington times today. we are going to be talking about how they will be doing that this week and how the president will be over the course of our 8:00 our on the washington journal. your calls on this question on who do you trust? james comey? or president trump. joyce's and euston, texas --

joyce is in, houston, texas. caller: i'm an 85-year-old black republican and i voted for trump. i want to talk about the common situation. when i looked at comey, i feel so sad for him because he can take any situation and you can become that are or better -- become better or better. but hed've become better has become so bitter. evidently, he didn't have anybody around him to encourage him to become better instead of being so bitter. the heads ofabout foreign nations who want this united states of america destroyed, and we as citizens are giving them all kind of fodder.

hillaryo angry because clinton did not get into office. as a black citizen of this voten, i was not going to -- he was having sex in the white house with an intern not much older than his daughter. nobody seemed to have a problem with that. i was told if his wife was ok with it, then how -- then i should shut my mouth. host: you were told by who? caller: by many people. the democratic situation because i am black, i am a republican. i think for myself and i was told that many times that if his wife was ok with it, then i should shut my mouth. host: that is joyce in houston, texas. langley, kentucky.

a democrat. caller: good morning. i am a democrat. i voted for trump. the reason why is if you go back and listen to everything that the democratic party said, schumer, pelosi, all of them, they were backing hillary up for a crookedness. i felt in my heart that were she was selling out our country for the benefit of herself. who is an american citizen, that woman don't deserve. she needs to stay in the woods. what comey done was a disgrace to our president. yes, i trust him. he is trying to put our nation back together. he is trying to help the american people to survive. what they have done over in benghazi and what he gave all that money to iran, he was trying to destroy our country,

obama was. all of the democrat party, yes i would vote for trump again. i hope if we can fix it, like china did, we can keep him in there forever. host: who was the last democrat you voted for? we lost jane. mark is in lincoln, nebraska. 1993, there was a high-ranking fbi agent that was caught selling secrets to the russians. this is on tv -- this was on tv. boss, heeller, his probably should not be investigating the president. york.tom in new our last caller in this first segment. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call.

the biggest liars in the town are democrats and james comey is a phony. they are all phonies. they have been attacking our president. we elected him. we like what he is doing. he is going to continue doing that job. democrats don't like it, tough luck. suck it up. thank you very much. host: that is going to do it for the first segment of the washington journal. we take a look at the week ahead in washington. we will be joined by sahil kapur and jeff mason. later, we will talk more about the syrian strike and the united states response. stick around. we will be right back. ♪

>> the communicators looks at the spread of personal data on goodman.with lee asksl of the politicians for 10 hours -- they have been using data mind from american citizens to communicate their voters.ents, to target >> the issue is how data is collect did.

>> watch the communicators on c-span 2. >> tonight, brandenburg v. ohio. clarence brandenberg convicted speech.e our guest to discuss the case, the former head of the american civil liberties union, and law professor at new york law school. watch landmark cases tonight. c-span.s at we have resources for background

on each case. it is linked the national constitution center's interactive constitution and the landmark cases podcast at c-span.org/landmarkcases. unfoldsn, where history daily. as a79 c-span was created public service by america's cable television companies. today we bring you unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court, and public policy events in washington dc and around the country. c-span is brought to you by your cable and satellite provider. washington journal continues. mondays we look at the week ahead in washington. to do that, we are joined by sahil kapur with bloomberg news,

and jeff mason for reuters. two stories that dominated the weekend driving the news into the week, the james comey book and the fallout from the syrian strikes. thented to talk about latter. walk us through the news that the french president help convince president trump to stay in syria? guest: that was interesting. n said he said -- macro a convince the president to stay after he said i want to take u.s. troops out of syria, and he convinced the president to focus on chemical weapons after the president had gone too far in his tweeting. i asked the white house about that as i am sure some others did. he said the mission has not

changed in president trump has made clear he wants to bring troops home as soon as possible. denial saying there is no way they're going to -- but it was a statement i think in particular aimed at the base to say we are staying on track with president trump's plan. we going to hear from the white house today? sanctions in regards to russia? guest: yes. they should be coming at some point today. nikki haley said that sunday. on what sheased said it will be aimed at companies are russian companies involved with production of chemical weapons. we expect to get something on that at some point today. host: have you heard anything more on this? guest: the white house is deeply

convicted on what to do in syria. you have this campaign promise to pull out of the middle east. on the other hand in forcing his promise chemical weapons use will not go unpunished. the last year he had a similar response. the pentagon said it has been twice as strong in syria. how to reconcile the long-term strategy is even murkier. it is not clear there is one. how do you take down assad while also preventing isis from gaining influence, bolstering ?he moderate opposition it is a complicated puzzle. host: walk us through what is going to be happening on this end of capitol hill.

what do we know? guest: reaction has been m mixed. this is one of the things trump has gotten a significant amount of praise on both sides. many democrats are saying the president needs congressional authorization to go further. congress has given up quite a bit of war powers to the executive branch over the last decade. democrats want to take that back. guest: you have democrats saying you need to have a series strategy. that was criticism directed at the obama administration. you have a president saying as we have already discussed i want to take troops out, and taking this action about chemical

weapons, making the fight against isis a key foreign-policy issue. hast: senator john mccain suggested that president trump's remarks he wanted to pull troops emboldened assad. so he is being hit from all sides. host: when does this president believe he goes to congress for authority? guest: good question. that is not clear. saying,ress, as we were democrats and republicans are making clear that the separation of powers is such you need to congressional approval if you're going to declare war or take military action. these particular targeted strikes, that is going to be part of the debate. that can you set up

debate, who is going to be leading that debate for the voices who want more congressional approval? guest: sure. you have paul ryan who said a few days ago he doesn't want to tie the president's hands with an authorization for the use of military force. one of the reasons, they disagree on the parameters. a lot of lawmakers don't want to get their feet dirty in this. defer tor to do fo the executive branch. has been the most vocal about needing authorization. critical of president obama's use of this, and he has ofn critical a president trump as well.

you have democratic leaders who are suggesting the president cannot continue down this road and escalate without congressional approval. what exactly they say he needs approval on his murky. they have not drawn a line. they have been giving up a lot of their war powers. host: phone lines are open. republicans can call-in, democrats, independents. before we leave, the syria , when is mission accomplished? guest: there is a lot of explaining for that over the last few days. the president use the term mission accomplished in his tweet after the strike. the background on that is that president george w. bush during the iraq war stood at one point in front of a banner that said

mission accomplished when the mission was not accomplished. that dogged him politically. thepresident criticized media for focusing on that. that it related to that exact mission. politically and militarily, different terms. whether it hurts the president is tbd. -- : that tweet yesterday this. they would seize on we said the first hour of our program would be about james comey.

five of his tweets focused on james comey. i want to talk about where that goes in the wake of this media blitz. it has gotten deeply personal. he did a long interview, he called the president morally unfit to lead. he said he doesn't value the truth or honesty. he would not like to see the president impeached because that would let the american people off the hook. he would prefer they vote him out. i think this is only going to escalate. the white house has tried to discredit comey. they have called him a leaker and a liar. jamessn't sounds like comey is going to be backing

down on that. host: the president is an mar-a-lago this week. are we going to be seeing him in person responding? or is he sticking to twitter? guest: it might be a little bit of both. he is going to mar-a-lago and he will be holding meetings with prime minister abbé of japan. that will be the main focus of what he is doing. i think there will be an opportunity for him to speak with the press. no doubt this will be one of the questions if he does. host: take us through what the president wants to do. guest: a few different things on the agenda for that. this is that relationship the president has worked on. meet withhe first to president trump after the election. what they will be talking about this week will be looking

forward towards a potential meeting between president trump and kim jong-un. that meeting is something the president has foreshadowed. that is of great interest to japan. i suspect they'll be something they discuss. they will also be described seeing -- discussing trade. host: why can't trump hold that at the white house? guest: a terrific question. i don't have an answer. he could do that at the white house. he likes to do these at mar-a-lago because it is special to have a foreign leader come to location.cular there is no reason why he could not have done it at the white house. legislativethe main agenda items that viewers should be looking for this week? than majorinations pieces of legislation coming out of the week.

this is the way of trying to frame the difference between the two parties. addedassed a tax cut that a trillion dollars to the deficit and increased spending dramatically. there is interesting juxtaposition. host: some of the issues driving the week, we want to hear from viewers. dan is up first. good morning. caller: i wanted to talk about truthfulness. instances where i know trump lied. one about his taxes, and one about spending his time in the white house. if some could come -- if someone could come up with situations where comey has lied i would listen to that. i just want to say your name is the same name of the mayor of independence.

thank you. guest: i did not know that. thank you. host: anything you want to pick up on? aware of the lie that the president would do not stay in the white house. he has been traveling. he goes to florida pretty regularly. i am not sure what he is referring to. host: does he have other major meetings on the agenda? besides abe? guest: he is doing a fund raising event as well. themain thing will be eighth visit. day, should note it is tax coming up tomorrow this week. that is a topic we have focused on quodd quite a bit.

good morning. caller: good morning. c-span, i love you. you are unbiased. , andbloomberg are the best bbc are the best sources of real news. i appreciate what you do. used -- [inaudible] three miles away from donald trump. host: can you tell us the end of that story? caller: he was in mcdonald's on hillside avenue in jamaica, new york. to get ating on line burger. he came in at the store. i was 17. i was in school. to the leaderdid

from macedonia, he tried to push his way in front of me. i said no. this is not happening. he backs down. host: did you know who he was at 21 years old? as a fighter against bullies all my life, one punched is not make a fight. that one small attack on syria hurt nobody. it was a glancing blow. i do not think that is going to change much. -- i want to read the definition of morality. the quality of being moral. it pertains to the distinction between right and wrong, and the rules of conduct. that is all i have to say. don't try people in the media. let this go to court. let everything go to court.

everyone has an opinion. happened to truth, justice and the american way? host: thank you. i will let you pick up on the one strike issue, and the possibilities for follow-ups. can you talk about what you are hearing? thank you for the kind words about bloomberg, much appreciated. i was waiting for reuters to come out. next time we will ask him about reuters. guest: as i was mentioning this is where the president has been deeply conflicted. be people including people in his own party who will say he is not doing enough. lindsey graham in south carolina, usually a trump ally who wants the united states to have a more full some

,nvironment -- involvement replacing him with a different kind of leader who does not gas his people. the question is how much money has to be spent to do that? how many lives are going to be lost? what price will the united states pay? weary,n voters are war after that war and the fact we have an endless war in afghanistan. the president campaigned on ending the military commitment, which is why he wants to show his toughness but he doesn't want to get involved in a quagmire. host: nikki haley was on this week, and was asked about the commitment in syria. here is that interview. >> they are int indications assad used chemical

weapons, and there had been no response. agreed just an horrific. are you saying going forward any use of chemical weapons by assad an immediate u.s. response? >> you said it. this was agreed just. it was barbaric. disgusting. ofre had been a wave constant use of chemical weapons. wouldknew that russia cover for him and he got reckless. he used in a way that was more aggressive. usean't allow the smallest of chemical weapons. that is why you so the president strike this past weekend. he expelled russian spies. this is something that could happen in the united states if

we are not smart and conscious of what is happening. we will see how smart he is. you saying that going forward there is zero tolerance for any use of chemical weapons that will trigger a military response? >> i don't think there is any way i can answer that. we don't know the level he is going to do this. andpresident is watching the national security team is ready. we will watch his actions. happens.es what thefully he has gotten message. it was a strong message. not only did we go after their strongest research facilities we .ent after their storage units i am sure it is going to take a lot to recover from this.

host: that is nikki haley. since the strikes, what have we found out about the voices that the president heard , and whos inner circle influenced him? guest: to pick up on what the ambassador was saying, the ministration is painting this as something that was successful, that will set back the syrian government for years on chemical weapons. it is the case they could have gone further and made a decision not to. they were targeted. they did not take military allies.hat would engage that is something that was part of the discussion before the strikes. mccrones like president may have-- macron

played a role in that. president wasthe influenced by the chemical weapons attack and that affected his attack. think that is something that clearly has had an impact on him. from your calls, democrat kentucky. areer: i don't think you political at all. i love your show. i watched every day. good morning to you. i have two comments. what is going on with scott pruitt and the epa? know, isike to somebody tracking him, has he changed his habits? i'm concerned about his policies

on deregulation. do leave syria, we throwing the kurds under the bus? are only been are al in the region. i'm concerned about what position we are going to put them in. host: we will let our panel take up your questions. coming up at 9:00 and 30 minutes michael eisenstadt will be , the director of the military and security studies program. we will be talking about the strategies and what if's in syria, and what happens afterwards. i will take prewitt first. she asked of prewitt is being watched. the answer is yes.

the white house is looking into allegations against him in terms of travel and questions with congress. looking into the records of his expenses, people are certainly looking into this. there the day they said they would be making a decision about prewitt. there was also praise for prewitt. host: if you house about and sub called on prewitt to resign. guest: it is a special deal he got on a capitol hill condo. snowbally continues to . this is a remarkable series of revelations.

at least three house republicans , facing reelection, and difficult parts, in south oneida and new york, and who is retiring. gets askedpaul ryan these questions what is he responding to? he defers to the white house on personal matters. i think trump is facing a barrage of pressure from the -- his history of activism ironically. host: in indiana, go ahead. i am calling in reference to mission accomplished. i am a former marine. accomplished,ion

specificed to a target. like when we dropped the atom bomb. these were one mission. it was a mission accomplished. even though the war went on, it is a specified target. wai, we won the battle of that was mission accomplished. it specified by the military or the marine corps and you took that target host:. when you saw the president use that term did it -- did you playing? caller: scherer, no. he got that from mad dog mattis, saying we are locked and loaded. locked and loaded is a marine corps term.

she said we are locked and loaded, getting ready to go again. it is a military term. the same point nikki haley made with regard to the criticism, this is a military term in reference to these military strikes and it doesn't have any implications beyond that. the president is a politician. some will take what he says on twitter and in person as political rhetoric, and politically the mission broadly in syria is not over, because there is a lot more there the u.s. is looking at doing. host: you mention this is the time of the day he often tweets. two minutes ago, he tweeted --

guest: there is a lot to unpack. take one part. he talked about poll numbers. one thing that he said last was aware of the political climate. he was operating in a world where hillary clinton was going to be donald trump. he was concerned if you did not publicly -- if he wasn't more forceful in his critique that it would appear a democratic administration was protecting the democratic presidential nominee and he worried hillary clinton who he is would be president would be viewed as illegitimate. that is a fascinating dynamic going on in his mind. politicalosed to be a but he was attuned to the political climate, reacting in

ways, assuming how people would respond. host: senator g. is that senator grassley? guest: it could be senator graham. , the judgesng of chari committee -- the judiciary committee, walk us through what is coming up in committee. committee,judiciary chuck grassley has signaled an interest in bringing up legislation that is bipartisan, supported by numerous senators, that would protect the mueller investigation, raising the bar for the white house to fire him. it would create a review process through the ministration would have to show the firing was legitimate. this is tied up in another partisan dispute. there are democrats concerned that republicans will try to stick in an amendment that new jersey at.

grassley says that is an unfounded concern. get to the long to floor. anytime mitch mcconnell is asked he said i am no concerned -- i have no concern that he will be firing mueller. if it gets through the senate, it gets through the house it would have to be signed by the president. guest: exactly. it is difficult to see the president signing that legislation. if he vetoes it will send a powerful message. that is part of the conversation. they want to make clear they are doing their job. host: that situation where they sent him a bill -- guest: i think that would be interesting for the white house, if they had to make that

decision. the signal they would send by vetoing it would be quite striking. that said, you know better than i with the dynamic is on capitol hill. with people like mitch mcconnell saying i am not concerned, where he announced his resignation, is notthat this considered -- it seems unlikely he will get that far. guest: people in the white house do not always know what the president is going to do. guest: true that. guest: i would add caution to anyone who is going to predict. i would have jason pick up on that. guest: things change so quickly. you can speak to one official one day or one hour, and then the president will tweet something after that or say something that everything will

be up in the air again. host: how many years have you covered the white house? guest: this is my 10th. host: how has this year compared? guest: it is completely different than the obama years. the first year of president trump, it is similar. every day is an adventure. you just never know what is going to happen. a lot of these big stories would traditionala more news cycle or political universe, more legs. writingrom one day about stormy daniels to about comey to call me -- to accusing the president being unfit for office. host: including tweets like this from minutes ago. russia and china are playing the

current cd valuation game. -- currency devaluation game. guest: one of the things the president has repeatedly brought up dating back to the 1980's, this is one of the most consistent things, the fact that other countries are taking advantage of the united states on trade. i think he has gone after china many times. this has been a struggle. there was an indication, a hand in that tweet that china has in artificially devaluing currency to gain a leg up. there has been retaliation. like on syria between a campaign promise he made, a worldview that he has put forth for a considerable number of years, and the consequences of those

trades, this is the heart of president trump space in rural .tates they have less access to these markets. another topic for the a bit meeting coming up. guest: the trade, we were talking about stories that move quickly, trade was a big story. notsaw markets responding particularly well to the possibility of a trade war. even other countries in the world. that story has gotten a little less attention. rhetoric has's changed, as has other countries. president xi jinping was more consolatory. now we are talking with

the possibility of rejoining the tpp. guest: fascinating. that is something the president argued strenuously against and was critical of the obama administration for being a part of. now it is back on the table. inconsistent with the other practices. working to renegotiate a trade to findt, nafta, trying more favorable terms in that agreement is not completely inconsistent but it is still surprising. host: is there an open invitation waiting that we can pick up and start negotiating again? guest: it is hard to know right now. tpp was one of president trump's favorite piñata's. hillary clinton was undecided. facing her own pressure from

bernie sanders, she came out against it. there was a rare piece of consensus. it doesn't play well. the downsides are understood. people see jobs lost in places like the industrial midwest. how many americans when they buy cheap products credit china with making them? very few. the president has ordered his economic advisor and his u.s. trade representative to look into this. he has said only if there is a better deal will be considerate. we don't know what a better deal is. host: what congress have to approve a new deal? guest: that is something for down the road. president trump had been -- president obama had been negotiating.

i think congress would have a say before any of this goes into effect. john from california. a republican. go ahead. caller: i wanted to ask your guests what they felt about comey. myself, it looks to me like he hisrying to justify him and his staff -- obviously overbooked overlooks the errors hillary clinton made using her private server. you go back and look at the meeting between bill clinton and the attorney general janet lynch -- it is too much smoke and no fire.

and also while i am on the line i would like to say i think the military action we took against syria is 100% justified. i think it will send a good message to a dictator in north korea and in iran, and putin. a couple of different things. all, what was his first point? ,omey in the investigation especially what happened with the clinton investigation and loretta lynch. he asked for our observations about that. clearly comey is in the process of selling books right now. that is why you are seeing the media blitz. by listening to what he said and reading what he has written, he believed he needed to do this.

believed he needed to share these observations with the country. both of a kratz are finding reasons to be skeptical about some things he has written and done, including with regard to how he handled the hillary clinton investigation. that is something republicans and democrats are unhappy about. guest: comey is going to be a central player in the history of this era. it is true he is selling books. happyblisher would be with the attention it is getting. he has been in the room with the president. his recollection of events matters. he was asked on a number of occasions, he made allegations against the president. foraid people can decide

themselves. good morning. caller: this money that whoident obama gave iran, is it for? was it u.s. money or iranian money frozen in banks. i thought it wasn't our money. guest: that is my understanding as well. it was iranian money that had been frozen for years. part of the deal was to unfreeze that. guest: there has been a per trail that this was duffel bags of cash and dropping it into ron -- tehran, which was not the case. caller: my biggest worry is we saw president bush standing on a naval destroyer with a life vest on telling us mission was

accomplished and years later we found out there were no weapons of mass destruction. the true mission that was accomplished was to start a two that bankrupts america faster than a one front war. do you suppose our president has jumped the gun in syria but also stating mission accomplished? mission is to his or is hewo front war, getting pressure from lindsey graham in the military industrial complex that wanted to be the main players in causing war in the world. host: what do you think? caller: what i think? i think there were no weapons of mass destruction found and we started a two front war to bankrupt america quicker. i believe we will find no gas in

syria. there is gas that goes across america in trains. what are they doing in america? why shouldn't we be worried about in america and say that people in the desert fight it out. host: can you talk about the middle attack in syria and how they have tried to get that investigated? lecture. there was a call on saturday with administration officials explaining about the attack. they talked about evidence they gases that were apparently used. it was clear that chlorine had been used in that attack. they had information to suggest aaron was also used although the information for that was less

pronounced or they had less evidence. host: they felt less certain? guest: it is interesting. the person who spoke to that said we assess chlorine and say gas were used. any say the formulation was intelligence formulation and not a suggestion they are 100% confident. point, i think the president as we have been discussing is conflicted in many ways, and getting advice from military and political advisers to do more in the region than he wants. there are also reports he wanted to go further in this attack.

the is a man who has kept promises he made the 2016 campaign at the forefront of his mind. one of those main promises was we are not going to go and continue to star wars the way he believes his predecessors have -- start wars the way he believes his predecessors have -- have. guest: these words are inexplicably linked to president bush and the iraq war. thousand american troops died .hile fighting in that war the country descended into chaos. americans remember that. that ended up being viewed as one of the biggest pr blunders of the bush administration. whatever president trump is trying to suggest it is hard not to have that recollection as well.

bloomberg.com and reuters -- easy to find as well. jeff mason is the white house correspondent. bill is waiting. caller: i think we should be terrified about these predawn raid the justice department has conducted against paul manafort and donald trumps lawyers. behavior, more engaged with dictators. i have a speculation i would like to make about why they are doing it. i think they are doing it not for what they are seizing but for the access to these people's residences and offices so they can plant bugs all over. i am sure they have highly

sophisticated listening devices. when you have hours in an office , you can put things in. they have gone to manafort, insisting he cannot go outside of his house, which is extremely unusual. they are now have gone to every a voyeur lived or has access to. why would they do that? it is unusual. a couple of things on that. a commonality between the raid michael:,nafort and they were no knock warrants. the prosecutors had to convince a judge if they knock the person whose information they were trying to obtain would have a credible threat of destroying information or that knocking

would put safety at risk, the police or the individuals themselves. that is a high bar they have to clear. third worldto the countries, it is important to know the fbi director overseeing this is christopher wray who was nominated by president trump and confirmed by a republican senate. to whom the general fbi director reports is jeff sessions. he is recused from parts of the investigation. but it is not as if these people are -- have an ax to grind. the president tweeted out -- guest: the nice thing about the caller bringing this issue up am

a gives us a chance to talk about another big story, michael hen going to court. stormy daniels will show up as well. they feel some of the things that might be discussed at that session would be relevant to her. storyill be another big in this universe. host: explain what he is trying to do? guest: he is trying to have some say over the documents that were seized and prevent them from being looked at. guest: one important angle to watch is the different view of attorney-client privilege, with the government on one side and trump on the other side. to peers attorney-client privilege you have to have evidence the work product or communications were used in

furtherance of a crime. i think the president has suggested he wants to look at that information before it can go into evidence and be used to make sure it does not violate that relationship. host: a democrat, good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. at the risk of sounding like a conspiracy theorist, i understand how atrocious it is that we are in syria, but other tontries -- why do we seem laser focus on certain bad people? it because of israel or a pipeline, or things we

don't talk about much in the media? you go, the attention in the strike and last year stems from it being the use of chemical weapons and that being one of the reasons for the focus. you think that is a proper reason? i certainly think it is a terrible thing they are doing , chemicalam saying is weapons and i guess that is against the geneva convention but there are other conventional tortures people are doing that we seem to not care about if there isn't something strategic in our best interest for it. that is what i'm wondering. host: where do you think the line should be drawn? caller: good grief, i am afraid it is beyond my capabilities. something seems -- i tried to put a lot of things together.

industry, it gas seems trump is against the -- he is very much a gas person now. i know the pipeline -- something about the pipeline. i don't even know if i have all the information. i apologize, i just wonder. is a: i don't think this conspiracy. i think evidence is pretty strong this was a chemical weapons attack by the assad regime on its own people. where individuals want to draw the line in terms of what is acceptable and unacceptable, and what the united states should respond with that is a matter for debate. but i don't think this is a conspiracy and i don't think other countries are using chemical weapons against their own people. i don't think this is a matter of we are only focusing on that. i don't think it is happening. guest: i agree.

the issue here is about the use of chemical weapons and that is what drove the united states to intervene in the way they did. there are good questions to be asked about what criteria requires intervention. host: here is what i want to bring up. on fox news,review this from the wrapup. he said i think one of the things donald trump has made clear when there is video of kids suffering he responds. that is his redline. i am not sure this is a coherent strategy going forward. guest: are calling from the washington post was in the pentagon briefing and asked a question along those lines. the syrian government is killing his people in more conventional ways on a regular basis and that hasn't sparked intervention. what is the difference? the answer from the

administration is chemical weapons and the use of chemical weapons is something the international community has agreed on since world war ii is unacceptable and that is the reason for this. it is legitimate to say what about the other killing that is happening? guest: it is more of a visceral reaction and long-term strategy. host: dave armstrong, line for independents. caller: i'm curious about the long-term strategy. you brought up stuff i was going to say. the use of chemical weapons, as horrific and illegal as it is in the world view, he has been dropping these barrel bombs for -- says the less chemical attack. that,y showed pictures of the outcomes of that they would be more horrific than you see

with the video of the chemical attack. what is our strategy? are we just went to react to that and everything else is ok? i don't get it. thank you for the comment. next, this is a big part of the conversation we are going to be having in four minutes, we will go to larry. line for democrats, good morning. caller: good morning. i have a quick question here and a comment. , since chinato ask is getting involved in syria and turkey, and other countries, does syria have any kind of oil? my comment is dealing with what a caller brought up, mission accomplished.

when barack obama was president joffe --yed cap dictators. why can't we do that? he is going to continue to do the same thing he's done before if we don't destroy him. the biggest problem, if the united states does decide to take down a side, how do you prevent isis from taking control of syria? they have controlled parts of the country. the group of people the united states would prefer to take over have not proven themselves organized. there are questions on if they could gain the trust of their own people. -- do you feel that -- phil fill that power vacuum?

syria is a complicated set of challenges that i don't think anyone has been able to figure out. other i would add the complications, the back syria is .ligned with russia and iran if the west, the united states in particular and its allies were to intervene more directly it would risk a broader escalation of the conflict in the region. or two moreor one calls. line for democrats. go ahead. caller: first of all, a couple of things. there is gas in syria. course -- are the russians going to get it? who is going to get it? who made these chemicals? let'sria just get up and make chemicals?

someone game than the chemicals. these are two issues that have to be dealt with. third. russians have an interest in syria. maybe it is gas. it is a little bit of business with the russians. host: the geopolitics here on syria. for russia this is a regional issue that affects them closely. involved,oing to be have an interest in any u.s. response. suggester is right to any action the united states takes in syria will wrap itself up in a larger conflict that we are having now. host: you have been covering the

white house for over a decade. sad news from the bush family, barbara bush declining to seek further medical treatment. have you had a chance to meet barbara bush? guest: when i covered john mccain's campaign we went out to the bush property. we saw president george h.w. bush. some reporters on his invitation walked around the property a little bit. saw barbara bush from the window. she waved. i was not one of them. i talked to president bush. i can't remember having ever met mrs. bush but is she a popular figure in the united states. everyone's hearts are going out to her and the bush family now. host: our thoughts are with the bush family with that news coming out. thank you.

bloomberg news national reporter there. we will be talking more about syria and the u.s. strategy. we'll be joined by michael eisenstadt. back.be right >> tonight on "landmark cases," brandenburg versus ohio. brandenburg was convicted of hate speech under ohio law. unanimously ruled state law violated his first amendment right. nadine strasman,

liberties of civil fallow, from ie columbia's knight institute. "landmark cases," tonight, join the conversation, our hashtag is us dmark cases" and follow at c-span. and we have resources on our background on each case. the "landmark cases" companion national to constitution center, nternational constitution and pwebsite.cases" facebook c.e.o. mark uckerberg privacy issues with

o'connor and lee goodman. >> they asked mark zuckerberg hours, every 10 one of them has been using data from american citizens to communicate with constituents to mailing lists, to target oters and a lot is for good reasons. >> really the meta-issue for me used, data is collected, secured and processed by the companies with which we engage in a very ne world comprehensive and pervasive way. > watch the communicators tonight 8:00 eastern on c-span2. >> "washington journal" continues. ost: michael eisenstadt joins us, director of the military and ecurity studies program at washington institute for near east policy military and security studies program. last week before the latest strikes, you wrote that the problems in syria will

ot end with a single set of strikes. so what did and didn't the nited states and britain and france accomplish with what happened on friday night? guest: we probably did some to chemical weapons capabilities, although the department of defense briefings struck the only targets that would not likely so lt in harm to civilians, there probably were other chemical weapon related targets that reason. for our experience in the past, you year after the strike a ago, it didn't stop the regime weapons.ng chemical there was a pause for a while, perhaps we will buy time as a and using less ethal agents such as chlorine, rather than sarin. there might be beneficial results from this. in terms of how this, in terms f stopping the regime's military operation, chemicals

are not that important for the were a game never changer, they were more important earlier in the war. regime has preponderance and russians and hezbollah behind them, chemical weapons aren't important, probably won't -- affect the overall host: if they are not that important, why do they keep using them? it drew u.s. strikes, why do they keep using them? they: part is just because can and to show they can. they are condemned for doing it ago, ook a strike a year when they last used sarin to people, se to 100 basically show they can't be coerced, won't be bowed and like ancing on your enemy's grave, way to instill terror and hopelessness in the hearts of opposition because a large

part of these kind of campaign not just ogical, defeat enemy militarily, force be fear nternalize and sxfl they won't ever fight back again. how would you describe the coalition establishment right now? punishment? guest: i think the defense department and secretary mattis deterrence, establish deterrence, there is norm gainst use of chemical weapons since world war i, enshrined in international agreements and was being eroded. north al crisis with korea, who believed fo have this genie back in the bottle, could have implication if the norm is eroded. days after the strike, what is assessment of strategy that was used, what was picked to hit? targetsagain, we hit the we were able to hit without

causing civilian losses. near damascus and my understanding is that is really r&d center for chemical weapons in the country. also hit storage facilities that precursors or ore chemical agents itself, in form.ized form or bulk all appearances from tactical oint of view, mission accomplished, but overall mission in syria and our policy it yria, i don't see how contributes to goals of consolidating our successes against isis by tabilization and by deescalation zones, other goals it doesn't address. parts of the strategy are a work in progress. where could you accomplish the goals, hurt the assad regime wedge between syria and russia?

guest: one thing i advocated in week, let i wrote last me just say, i think it is regrettable we are involved this conflict at this point. think would have been more desirable to have a proxy strategy based on supporting could rampmembers we up support of to put pressure on the regime. involved directly, i think beside hits hemical-weapons related facilities, should have hit, if possible, delivery means, lthough it is possible disbursed as result of the resident's tweets and the syrians knew something was coming and moved aircraft by the we ians on the assumption wouldn't strike those as a result and i think that was assumption.correct could have probably hit the units involved in building on successes, or the of the eld effects chemical weapons. they then move in with ground

small number of unts we involved in that and if hit those units or headquarters of the units and killed people to the closely tied regime, may have had a greater also logical effect and tangible effect. it would have had the deterrence would be ave gotten more long lasting and also would their ability to prosecute the campaign on the battlefield. i would have preferred something broader, but again, we had to be care to feel avoid steps resulted in escalation with iran and russia and i support that. host: phone lines are open. republicans, 202-748-8001. democrats, 202-748-8000. independents, 202-748-8002. the el eisenstadt is with washington institute for near east policy military and security studies program. who aren't iewers familiar, what the institute does?

grist for the ide mill policy makers. olicy analysis in the hope we might provide ali-add to people making decisions and the dvantages we bring to bear, a lot of us have been dealing with decades, a lot of continuity and institutional built-up institutional knowledge. host: what is your background? guest: middle east specialist by training, georgetown university studies, i served from 1991 turkey, ern iraq, in mobilized in 11, various stints in iraq. host: with us, talking to viewers for the next 20 minutes. first, humble, texas. good morning. aller: yes, i worked around hazmat material and i didn't see

no one with gear on after the bombing. seemed like it would have spread or something like that. nd what is report on afghanistan and expenditures out $5 e, i think missing like billion? thank you. syrian eah, feelings of and russian personnel in douma, he area where the chemical attacks reportedly took part. my understanding is that a lot both chlorine and sarin are onpersistent agents, they evaporate very quickly. so, you know tis possible to -- where, youthat know, chemical weapons have been hours or a fewew days, although probably prudence so, youictate you not do never know whether there is of in that is kind puddles or whatever, but the lasts for a few minutes or

on the agent or temperature. ost: rond align for independents, good morning. calk kauktd /* kaukd did the investigation go through? guest: i think what the caller s talking about organization for chemical war fare sent a team, i'm not up to date in erms of whether they have been on the ground and in the past they have been denied access, access.s allowed i don't know what the current state of the play is, with inspection team. host: can you talk about what the governments of the united and great britain had been able to find out? what theybriefings on believe was used in the attacks on civilian? guest: yes, my understanding and hasn't been a lot release body this. have, at least french claimed to have concrete information based on blood tests

in the vicinity, which ndicated at least chlorine and possibly sarin was used. reports it was some type of possibly of nerve agent. is clarity to be given to the topic. u.s. officials have said they information which led them to believe this was the case. you wouldn't launch a strike unless have you definitive information in this regard. here is one of the pictures. 76 missiles struck that research development center before awn in community outside of damascus. there is the picture on the front page of the "wall street remains of that facility and the bunker and storage site that were hit in the attack. alexandria, virginia,

line for democrats, go ahead. aller: thank you for allowing me to speak. it sounded like you said that president trump sort of preempted or gave update or alert to those who had chemical allowed them to move. i want to know if that is common officials to either pre-emptiv ely put out something allows the enemy to move the target and if so, what is law, or ed in u.s. consequence? host: referring to the tweet? uest: referring to the tweet last week, let me be careful and ust say in 1991, after the saddam, of kuwait by president bush said, this shall not stand and moved toward the countering the iraq invasion, that is a different situation. troop volves movement of and deployment easily seen by

everybody. strike in respond, as the last week, there would probably have been indications that the united putting assets into place, even if the president had not said anything. not sure what impact it really had in the end. reports that the -- to hit other aspects of nfrastructure such as delivery means. host: did the sometiming of that come after that first tweet about this? that is my understanding. quite possible, every time we use forces, the pentagon repairing a response, it is possible they would have done th anyhow. strike of last year after these of nerve agent it was possible they as matter of prudence disbursed

forces. know what would have happened if the president hadn't said anything. is whether they moved agents at the site. '91, did that in disbursed it in open field and that. like there is no, according to pentagon, no evidence the agents themselves were disbursed, but military ome of the force was disbursed. that would probably preclude targeted. still, we don't know at this point. nashville, tennessee. independent, good morning. caller: hi. all just f we are american fools? i mean, are you telling me that used chlorine gas on their eople as a public relations event so that it would make

and knowing itar would result in us bombing them, is ridiculous. chlorine gas is available everywhere and they don't know evidence as tono who did it that was presented. also, there were ready and waiting to go in where the team investigators, this has and awe written all over it. we're being drug own a hole of warmongering and every bit of our moral fiber is for what?aded guest: actually a lot of questions there. some of to address them. first of all, i think no indication that the president be involved in the war in syria and that is why

his response to fema ran agents in contrary to trajectory he's taken on american-syrian policy. think there is actually a desire on the part of the resident and most senior advisors to get more deeply involved in there and i don't believe we should be more deeply involved directly ourselves. it would be ideal if we could strategy, although we've taken steps in the past, that has made things more difficult. with regard, yes, you are right. that is one reason why they are lethal, not the most psychological -- the scenario you describe, i don't what actually

happened, i don't think they thought we would respond. i think the regime for these w regimes overreach and right now the regime in damascus is on they are kind , f -- they were in the final stages outside of damascus and kind of wiping up resistance. i said, the term i would graves of g on the your enemys to humiliate and eal the victory by showing not a dam thing you can do and we use -- host: a caller in an earlier series wanted to know what role kurds play in syria. 60,000 now e of active in northeast part of the country. part of syrian kurdish called wing is ypd, ary

kurdish group., and they turned out to be effective partners in the fight against isis. you remember the fight a couple years ago, we initiated the pyd.tion with outsidehey engaging the government? moved to hem have invaded northern syria. it is not clear what turkey is want to r, they prevent, you know, a continued kurdish rule in northern syria that would reach to syria and ts of mediterranean. salie nt byd in this the town of eph rain, to break kurds control. the kurds in the east have gone

the east and it is on hold now. we don't have enough fighters arabs and a lot of leadership is kurdish. commanders, kurds have gone, on hold in the east and brought us into, caused tension with the turks, remark terrorists, say we are partnering with terrorists and that narrow to walk line with turkey. damascus?change in >> they are actually, their particular ir own -- cultural and degree olitical academy in terms of selling of oil -- they are accommodate, i think they would rather not. they like having us there in

against turkey. and that raises question if we out as president has said, to be honest, i'm not thrilled to have 2000 americans ground there, it does create complications, but so does our leaving potentially. we've seen elsewhere, we've often played a role we don't terms of shoring up status quo in various places. in 2011, it iraq had, as we saw, a dramatic impact on stability of the country in terms of leaving it the side and to the khadafy -- gence of leave from the northeast, it might have consequence in terms of

dramatically escalating the war and en turkey and the pyd perhaps also having the syrian egime return to areas that it formerly controlled in the east, as well 6789 host: so what is the good option? guest: no good option, bad and worse. it is bad option is stay where the e right now, preserve status quo, i would have liked to be involved in continuing to support the opposition with arms simply because i believe all, this puts pressure on the outside regime. i don't believe we can get rid them. i never supported the idea of getting rid of them. be something better. opposition never showed it was capable of doing that. e never really supported them to give them that option, they were divided and fractuous, syrian opposition is unfortunately a mess. but i still think there is still value in arming the opposition keep pressure on the regime so the regime is not able to first of all on

humanitarian reasons. if the opposition is able to continue to areas that it controls now, at least those eople will not be living under regime control, won't be mass refugee flow into turkey. potential for mass refugee flows and keeps pressure keeps them nd occupied so they cannot engage in rouble making elsewhere the region. seeing as result of victory and allies, possibility of hezbollah it will be -- we -- stay thering now might be best way to prevent that. host: peter, good morning. caller: good morning. thank you to c-span for doing excellent job, as usual. questions. first, my understanding as of a month ago, there were still fighters on the ground air base there. those fighters, may or may not

involved in this eries just conducted over the past few days in syria. to, you know, how he sees the situation vis-a-vis, nato air base, easier to y, so much run raids in syria, if we wanted o, but are we really on dicey ground now that the russians anti-aird up the s-400 delivery to turkey, which is questionable, , given the nato implications? that is my first question. -- second one is host: peter, hold on, let michael eisenstadt answer the lot there.ion, a guest: the air base, the united states uses is critical asset in the n syria and region. my knowledge, the aircraft in the raid over -- weekend were not based

basically all elements we relied bombers that participated in the strike, probably flew out of the gulf or -- garcia, i came from the opposite direction. red sea editerranean, and persian gulf and british fighters came out of cypress and think the french fighters may have flew out of france, air navy as far as -- if i'm correct. don't think we used that strike for syria over the weekend. i think our ability at the base limited this point because of the relationship with iraqi relationship with the turks, but still there. i just i'm not clear in terms of whether they are still flying over syria. i think most aircraft flying missions over syria are coming region. gulf host: peter, did you have a

quick follow-up? north yeah, back to korea, i mean, it took forever to the el to fess up act the 2007 raid on the nucle involved- yes, we were in that. there was a footprint there, that was an footprint unmistakable and the syrian and north korean connection goes you know, decades. what about i have, the north korean and this gas attack situation, has that been brought that has been out? is there nothing there at all? i can't believe that is the case. actually h, there was a report by u.n. experts, who out once in s come a while from the u.n. looking at compliance of north korea and u.n. countries with sanctions.

they said the north korean are yan chemical r weapon program. they had, actually, available public domain, very well done studies, based on from numerous countries, open sources. so there is a north korean angle syria chemical weapon program, the caller is right. ost: ohio, cliff is a republican, good morning. caller: good morning. can you address the historical on this syria issue? holy that russia, their the m ve port on mediterrane mediterranean. the entire middle east situation 19th century great game politics, that is one thing. addressr thing, too, to he people that say there is no

weapons of mass destruction -- counting and and was ts in iraq that there convoy of what could have been chemical weapons going into iraq. into syria at the time of the invasion invasion, can you address the two points? a lot i never really put of credence in that report. simply because i believe saddam believe we were going to baghdad in 2003. from his point of view, i think he thought we had limited goals, from his point of view, he thought we wanted iraq soil and the soil is basically in north and far south. we don't need to invade the iraq country if you want soil. had a handful of divisions to having troubleas holding the country down with 20

divisions. from his point of view, crazy to no py the entire country, need to, we only want his oil. no reason to send chemical syria, large parts would remain under his control. force in 2003. yemen, and rce to elsewhere, to iran, to preserve it and get it back after the war 2003, he buried it in the esert, in hopes it would be saved, wouldn't be hit by the united states. nd then dig it up, he would be controlling part of the country. i don't think he believed we the whole way. host: question on russian aim necessary syria. you very much. great s an element of gain to geo-positive is involved here. from i think or, my point of view, geo-political

you know, general on aeus called it -- impact his neighbors and long-term impacts take a long time to work and figure out. if you look at impact on uropean politics and rise of antiimmigrant sentiment, terrorism that came out of syria the war there, he kind of rise of the populists in europe, more putin american.an inelieve we have an interest shaping developments without coming directly involved militarily. had a proxy option in terms of opposition forces that could put pressure on the regime. host: running low on time. troy, michigan, line for republicans, go ahead.

caller: good morning. job, as always. the mr. michael eisenstadt, i if you could just give us a little more information in regards to the feelings of the people in that area. the other night i was listening broadcasting and the gentleman that was instrumental taking down the statue that when ad of saddam hussein we went in there and american trucks pulled them down. was imprisoned 11 years under saddam and he said we invaded ry that that country because the country than it ever ape he under saddam, even though as a dictator and did things dictators do, he said not one person in iraq wouldn't wish him

back because the christians were not persecuted and i know that have some ecause i iraqi friends that are christian their t they hear from families left there and syria, too -- is the question? aller: i guess i'm saying, our involvement for 17 years, area, i object to the president dropping those bombs ago leaving these craters when in the united in our e have craters roads that look like they were bombed. this money spent in the wrong area. point.ot your guest: i wouldn't presume to speak for iraqis, i will say iraqi friends.m there are some that deeply regret we did this. we did the right thing, but we made too many

mistakes and i would agree. way more mistakes than to great power has the right make and this has caused a lot more harm than it needed to have done. i think many iraqis will say, look, in the end he was a hundreds of ator, thousands were murdered by him. did to get rid of him fwe had done it in a more think anybody i who served there would agree, sustainable ow a democracy there. iraqi characteristics, far from and ct, the nationalists anti-american politics are regretful, but on the other it is sustaining itself now. so there are some positive iraqiss and i think many will say, you know, there were benefits.

it is a mixed bag. james, good morning. caller: good morning. -- i want say that mr. michael eisenstadt's opinion this. i don't think the conversation should be whether or not we a ove assad, it seems like lot of people are agreeing with that now. but what i want to of callers e a lot who are from generations much hear a lotmine and i news make ut in the america great again in the ostalgia in the time we were the only power aside from the soviet union. are we move intoing a multi polar world from a unipolar world? if we are, how do we respond to ifferent forms of government without overreacting to states?ratic >> let me just say, the way i

ould put it is that the problems we face nowadays are bigger than one country can deal with. with allys to deal with problems we face, in the middle east or elsewhere. we are seeing now with rise of hina and india and russia playing an important role in the middle east in part as a result think we made, there are other actors that we've not been accustomed having take account of their interests. so that is just a fact of life and something we have to get to and live with. and also, the bottom line is, in said before, invading a rt of country, which we will not do at least for another generation, vietnam we said never again will we fight insurgency ended up doing that and interact withing afghanistan vote, e the enemy has the we don't get to intied the wars

we enter into once we made that decision. just think that we have to a way to look at problems take lear-headed way, not ideological approach. is.is what it there are americans who are ideologs, we all have blinders, included, as long as you play a major role in the world and trying to shape the overseas in countries you don't understand, you will make mistakes. make mistake necessary our own country. you know, we saw this in the election, how many americans didn't understand their own country among fellow americans. it is difficult overseas and you are dealing with foreign countries and cultures, so you're going to make mistakes, minimize the mistakes you make. host: michael eisenstadt,

washington institute for near east policy military and security studies program, if you want to find them online washingtoninstitute.org. appreciate the time, come back again. up next on "washington journal," phones until 10:00. any public policy issue you want to talk about, the phone lines to do it. republicans, democrats, lines dents, the phone are on your screen. start calling in now, we'll be right back. >> as a follow-up to mark zuckerberg, the communicators look at privacy issues raised by the spread of personal data by nuala o'connor, center for democracy and technology and lee goodman, former chair of the federal election commission. >> all of the politicians who questions zuckerberg or 10 hours, every one of them

has been using data mined from american citizens to community their constituents, to build mailing lists, to target a lot of this is for good reasons. > really the meta-issue for me is how data is collected, used, secured and processed by the which we engage in the online world in a very comprehensive and pervasive way. >> watch the communicators tonight 8 eastern on c-span2. >> tonight, on "landmark cases," ohio.nburg versus ku klux klan leader clarence of denburg was convicted hate speech under ohio law. the supreme court ruled state violated his first amendment right. our guest to discuss this case strasman, head of civil liberty union and law

manhattan and katie allow, senior attorney at knight first amendment institute. watch "landmark cases" tonight conversation. our hashtag is "landmark cases" nd follow us at c-span and we have resources on our website for background on each case. companion rk cases" book, link to the national interactive center constitution and podcast at c-span.org/landmarkcases. >> "washington journal" continues. > open phones on the "washington journal," any public policy issue you want to talk about, the phone lines are yours morning.00 this republicans, 202-748-8000. 202-748-8000. independents, 202-748-8002. the front page of the arkansas democrat gazette focusing on two big stories we spent a

lot of time on this morning. fall-out continuing from the strikes in syria. questions about what happens next. u.s. to punish russia for supporting syria, we hearing will put nited states sanctions on russia this week syria's to support for chemical weapon program nikki haley. and words between james comey and president trump headline, unfit, comey telling the interviewer, abc night.terview aired last the ex-f.b.i. boss, there is some evidence of obstruction. you want to talk about? daniel in rusk, texas, an independent. go ahead. caller: yeah, i'd like to talk comey's interview. outrageous that a

federal employee and that is all he serves at nd, the pleasure of the president he -- nd host: he no longer serves, director..i. an er: uh, i've never seen f.b.i. director and i can jay edgar hoover, i running him on t.v. his mouth there. talking about donald trump being immoral. who is he to be judging that? we elected donald trump for good trump'sand i knew donald aults there and for him to set over like he's the pope and judge us. he judged donald trump, he is judging us and i heard it of the investigation

that some of these people and and ustice department f.b.i. went down to southern virginia, where working class worked and military people and said they could smell shoppers on them. that is outrageous. ost: where did you hear that, daniel? caller: it came right out of paige 's e-mails there. rusk, texas. in daniel, to your point, in their with james terview comey that happened over the weekend at his home in virginia, susan paige and kevin johnson the story orters on conducted that interview, they rite in their second paragraph story, never before in american history has current or former director principal law enforcement agency publicly described a president in such a matter.g

comey on trump, he's morally unfit. fort lauderdale, florida, a democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. how you doing? doing well. caller: great. well, comey and -- going to down, he coming down, he ain't nothing, but a crook, say. got to host: rory, is in california, ahead.or republicans, go aller: chicago politicians taking campaign drug cartel money to help their drug regular aliens at the expense of american poor eople taking away their benefits to help aliens. hello. roy, tell us more about this. about it, s talking apparently you got to -- chicago taking money and the soldiers hide among aliens

and then they are doing it so actually hurting people in chicago. host: and roy, tell me where you story.his caller: didn't read it, talked to the border patrol people in and arizona and they won't say anything directly, but it's gossip right true.d it sounds americans seem to be hurting thisin chicago and some of wouldn't be happen nothing san francisco. host: roy in california. the is front page of chicago tribune this morning, on theead story focusing fall out after the missile syria amid trump is the headline. accomplished as the president faces questions about policy in syria. ouse and senate are in this

week, both will be in today, the for coming in at noon morning hour and 2:00 for legislative business. 3:00, ate coming in at we're expecting plenty of discussion on capitol hill in those strikes. tim is in wilson, north carolina, an independent, go ahead. caller: yes, good morning, thank you for taking my call. c-span to challenge something and everything because seem like we as americans are missing, really, really missing the point. will not, for some reason, have a discussion on israel. called, n't want to be don't call me anti-semi, no way i am. the h people are some of greatest people in the world. you have jewish lobbying and murdoch, who probably owns, pulling strings behind the as far as c-span, y'all have changed from when brian lamb was up there. tim, we have plenty

abouisraeli policy, what policy do you want us to discuss? kauk caller: the policy of israel entering into the country and stirring up things and trying to get leaders out they don't want. they started with saddam and all countries border israel. they started with saddam, now.ing syria they are spreading this stuff region over there and pulling and yous we're getting involved. host: got your point, tim. line for republicans, go ahead. caller: hello. how you doing this morning? host: doing well. caller: well, good. just want to say that i think behind ple need to get our president and support him. afterall and ident

he's doing the best he can, more most presidents have done. he's been a good president so i think he will continue president.od so what if it didn't meet all needs of everybody concerned he went over there to syria. people that the were chemical weapons were being used on, killed them, the babies. , where is compassion in can't try to stop something like that and he did. can name time and time aga he did his best -- host: carol, when do you think again?ld do it what would rise to the level,

you think, of time to have nother strike or do something more? caller: well, you know, i where it does affect american life, of course, but at people overe, those there do matter and i do think weapons is a no-no, it hould literally be the red line. and yes, every time they do it, bomb them and harder every time. gretchen in montauk, new york. good morning. morning, my monthly call calling from the hamptons. the last 10 say, days of the election, when comey with ut with that -- e-mails, he er's

totally infected the election hillary, butled had instead we got trump. thank you very much. next month.u host: gretchen, stick around for a second. readon the line, i want to you from "u.s.a. today" interview with james comey, about the y talking incident you are referring to and get your reaction. comey, who has reputation for self-righteousness, didn't for the decisions he made in the clinton case. before the days election that the e-mail investigation had been reopened, options as d his really bad on one hand and catastrophic on the other. he picked a really bad choice to reveal. i even hope hillary clinton at least reads those parts of the book, i think she will walk away kn saying, i still think that guy is an idiot, but he's an honest trying to do the right

thing here. caller: i don't believe hillary no, no.saying that, overqualified to be president. a really good hance to have progressiveness feed our country along and not going back with with trump.eness i can't enumerate, i try to keep it out of my head and look the november 18th 2018 election. gretchen, appreciate the call. shelia, in georgia, line for democrats. go ahead. caller: yeah, it's -- host: go ahead. shelia. it's host: sheliagahead.

caller: anyway, about barbara bush, can i get that in? always a very fine lady. the 80s, she was in and out of the hospital all the time. she's 92 now. to the won't go back hospital. no more and all her family is with her now. she'll be gone pretty soon. the have you ever had opportunity to meet her in person? no.ler: but i -- back in the '80s, i was all ublican and i called the time. and i talked to her on the phone one time. host: you called the white house her?talked to caller: yeah, the -- yeah, i did. host: what did you tell her? i wrote her a

letter. she had been about in the hospital. been sick, i just wanted if she was feeling better. yeah. about this comey thing, i comey.e i totally believe comey. host: why is that? trump is cause immoral. his interview he didn't want trump to be impeached, he just wants to the votes.o host: speaking of president to p, he is heading

mar-a-lago this week, leaveing air force base, live pictures from andrews right there.re is marine one we'll show you if the president does come out in the next few makes his way down to florida. dominik in new york, line for morning.ans, good caller: good morning. i think president trump owes you to comey. i think he made the case last night where the whole thing out.d be thrown there was a question george sked him, why didn't you tell president trump the dossier was hony, paid for by the clinton foundation? comey didn't know how to react. if there was corruption, i think was through comey and his people. i think, he did tip the scales that, mp, i'll give him he did do the right thing. a book, nk he wrote make some money and disappear. to the bushshoutout

family, you know, i'm hoping everything goes good with them, good day. host: thomas in mississippi, line for independents, as we you live pictures from andrews air force base, the president expected to be marine one any second. thomas, go ahead. like : yes, sir, i would to talk about what is going on and presidentisis tru what doingis now and on s and patients that rely medicine to do just our normal now we're being treated like drug addicts this medicine. i've even lost my children because a court judge is calling taking my ddict for doctor-prescribed medicine and dealer.r, a drug host: if you could ask the president to do one thing on crisis, what would

it be, thomas? the r: well, to look at fact that not opioids are bad, them and not all doctors that are prescribing are meaning to do anything wrong. my former doctor hasn't even got a license now that i had for 10 years ago, two or three years ago he lost his happened, something not sure what, but he isn't a doctor anymore and i had to go another pain management doctor and start all over. host: thomas in mississippi, the boarded there, just air force one on the way to week.-lago this fran in michigan, line for ahead.ats, go caller: hi. thanks for taking my call. this is completely nuts because is a movie called "wag the dog," and this is what is donald trumph this

thing. look at me over here and i'm doing this over here, this is you know, just really strange that nobody can see what will not doing and stand up to this man. he can't even run his own family. times has he been divorced? he can't do his own thing. has he filed bankrupt? a lot more times than we have. i've never filed bankrupt. any time somebody else does omething stupid in the campaign, he blames everybody else. he's fired more people than anything. elk creek, nebraska, republicans. live scene at andrews air force base. go ahead. caller: yeah, good morning. an, i always blame but tarting world war ii, then harry truman or trump, he ight be trying to start world

war iii. id truman actually have the congress' permission or did own, you it on his kn -- and now trump wants to move to jerusalem and that strip syria there is jews about, you know, i'm iii and bout world war trump now, can anybody tell me or sure if harry truman had congress' approval or did he declare war himself? time.you for your host: and appreciate the history question this morning. verona, missouri, line for democrats, go ahead. caller: yeah, well, the -- president until after the war started, let that go. this , this thing with

guest attack and all the rockets and all that, wonder how much costs in dollars and cents. rockets ain't cheap and the -- ning exercise, probably go ahead and bomb something, make the american people feel good they are doing something. thing is we have 2000 troops over there, they here, bother us much over we have 2000 troops over there, right where they can do something to them. hat is nothing else the military need to consider before they start doing stuff like this. is my t off here, that peace. host: what would you like to see the president do in syria? of er: get the hell out there. xhchlt em people alone home. what are we accomplishing over there? trouble.ot of come home and take care of us. people do let them their own thing, that is all i can say. support hard, do you

president trump when he ran for office and made the make america his slogan for running? aller: well, he's immoral, everybody can see that, he's a big phony and it is making money that's all. just a business deal. host: i thought you were done, richard. ben in lexington. air force one takes off from base.ws air force go ahead, ben. supposed to be a member of the national epublican senatorial re-election committee. i'm one of the people that .elped get trump in the only reason we let trump in, lesser of two to vote for. we had two traitors and the was trump.he evils he is in office. soput an idiot in office and

far he's -- fantastic job of made a commenthe on national t.v. that he had business ing doing with the so far he has done a fantastic job of doing nothing. he made a comment on national tv that he has been doing business with the russians. business withing the russians for many years. he got the tower built. i still say there is a conglomeration between putin and trump. host: that is our last caller today on the washington journal has we see air force one takeoff one-- as we see air force take off and head towards

florida we will see you tomorrow. have a great monday. ♪ >> on capitol hill, the house returning at noon with legislative work starting at 5:00 on several natural resource committee bills. one would help establish a fallen educators memorial and the rest of the week, debate on bills in recognition of tax day, measures intended to protect taxpayers and ensure the irs and government agencies are more responsive.

we will also hear speeches on the floor about the recent airstrikes in syria. the senate is also back today, working on a water rights bill. they are supposed to take up legislation safeguarding against the firing of special counsel robert mueller. you can watch live senate coverage on c-span2. this week, the supreme court takes up the case dealing with internet sales taxes. experts will offer a preview of the oral argument in south dakota versus wayfarer -- versus wayfair. we will have that for you on c-span2. also, it would get u.s.-israel relations and the middle east , benss with bernie sanders cardin, brian shocks and susan rice, live at 1:00 p.m. eastern on c-span3. you can also stream that discussion live on c-span.org. later tonight, a look at the thep administration, --

2016 election and russia with reporters from the new york times and npr, in discussion with -- live at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span three, online and by using the radio up. cases,ght, on landmark brandenburg v. ohio, ku klux brandenburg was convicted under hate speech. caseuest to discuss this is the former head of the american civil liberties union and a law professor at new york law school in new -- in manhattan and a senior attorney at columbia university's ninth first amendment institute. watch landmark cases tonight and join the conversation. follow us at c-span. we have resources on our website for background on each case.

the landmark cases companion book, a link to the national constitution center's interactive constitution and the landmark cases podcast at c-span.org/landmarkcases. missouri's former democratic secretary of state and potential provincial candidate jason kander spoke at the national democratic fundraiser in new hampshire. he talked about his appointment to afghanistan and his thoughts about the priorities of the democratic party. well so hear from new hampshire senators and congresswoman and mclean custer. this is just over two hours. [applause] >> it is a reminder that i can see all of you. i know who is sitting and who is still talking.