>> live, wednesday on c-span, the u.s. chamber of commerce hosts its annual labor day press briefing to talk about economic and workplace issues facing u.s. businesses. in the afternoon, a ceremony at the arizona state capitol in phoenix where the body of senator john mccain will lie in state over the next two days. on c-span 2, assistant defense secretary randall scriber looks at talks between the u.s. and india starting at 10:00 a.m. on c-span 3, the white house historical association hosts the presidential sites summit in washington, d.c. at 9:00 coming up in about an hour, author and historian richard ,orth -- richard norton smith

then usa today reporter alan gomez talks about the effectiveness of the e-verify employee verification system. washington journal --"washington journal" is live now. join the discussion prude ♪ -- join the discussion. ♪ a shot of the u.s. capital where the capital staff remains at half staff -- capitol flag remains at half staff. go to c-span.org for more information prude this is the "washington journal" for august 29th. how involved should the government be in monitoring websites? this comes in part as president right -- president trump tweeted perhaps more oversight for twitter and google and the like were needed in part because of

google searches which the president believes -- more on that and the role of government monitoring websites. you can give us your thoughts. republicans, 202-748-8001. democrats, 202-748-8000. independents, 202-748-8002. you can post your thoughts on twitter at @cspanwj and on our facebook page as well at facebook.com/cspan. this started yesterday as the president sent out a couple tweets on this comment and here are the comments from yesterday saying google search results for fake news shows only the news media. in other words, they haven't rigged for me and others so that almost all stories and news is bad. results on trump news are from national left-wing media and very dangerous.

google and others are suppressing the voice of conservatives and hiding information and going on to say the news is good and they are controlling what we cannot see. this is a varied situation which will be addressed. it prompted floyd abrams, the first amendment attorney, author of the book "the soul of the -- he writesnt" this, should we allow any government to pass a judgment on the choices made by google and facebook and the like providing information to people who seek news about a public official? the very search results were response to the words trump -- is it it is conceivable we would allow a trump administration official to -- bad news becoming exaggerated and goes on to write from there. we want to get your idea on --

your comments on this idea of the government's monitoring of websites. 202-748-8001 for republicans. 202-748-8000 for democrats. .ndependents, 202-748-8002 you can post on our social media sites if you want. @cspanwj is our twitter feed and on facebook it is facebook.com/cspan. primary day in three states yesterday. joining us for a breakdown of that is lia. a reporter and analyst for the publication inside elections joins us to breakdown the result of the primary. let's start with florida, the governor's race. a good night for ron desantis it looks like. >> i think the big story ended up being the florida's governor's race and on the democratic side, that is probably where the biggest surprise happened of the night. the front runner was perceived

to be lynn graham with support from emily's list, the women's group that helps elect aggressive pro-choice women across federal and state elections. the winner ended up being andrew gillam, who is the mayor up tallahassee and ended up with an endorsement from bernie sanders and has embraced a more progressive agenda. that was not the expected result, but he will be facing congressman ron desantis, who was the trump pick and made a bit of a splash in the primary with an ad where he reads the "art of the deal" to his kid and basically made -- host: as far as the results, what was the turnout like and what did that do for both of these men? guest: democrats are enthusiastic about their turnout . what we are seeing is basically

what we have seen across the board in primaries so far. democratic enthusiasm seems to be up, but the republican vote is not suppressed either. we also have a closed primary in florida, so it is hard to take too much from those conclusions, but we are definitely seeing democratic enthusiasm, which should help across the board in the house and senate and governor's race in florida. host: let's hear a little bit from andrew gillam now running against ron desantis. [video clip] >> if we are going to make clear to the rest of the world that the dark days we have been under -- thatut of washington the derision and division that is coming out of our white house, that right here in the state of florida we are going to isind this nation of what truly the american way. way.is truly the american

start from the bottom, richmond heights, and make your way all the way to the top. [cheers and applause] >> and be in service of all people, have a message of love, community, connection, common sense, decency, of what is right and what is wrong and that message is big enough, wide enough, deep enough to hold all of us. host: in a previous story in the headline that says what we know or don't know about the fbi investigation hanging over andrew gillam at the time. guest: that was one of the concerns going into this. one of the reasons gwen graham may have been perceived as a safer candidate. the investigation into the city

of tallahassee has not touched the mayor, who is the gubernatorial nominee. that is still in the process. we will see how that ends up. in a perfect world, this would not be happening on the democratic side. i think what we are going to see -- one of the main takeaways from that speech and the gubernatorial race in general is that we are not seeing either candidate shy away from the president and the national scene. that is in stark contrast to the senate race where we see governor rick scott running for the republican nomination. keeping some distance from the president. same with bill nelson. we have two concurrent statewide races where we might have very different approaches to how to win in a swing state like florida. host: where do you think the president as far as direct involvement -- will they continue on as far as florida is

concerned? guest: i imagine they would. we have seen rick scott try to distance himself since he decided to run for senate. will unclear how much it help him, but it seems clear ron desantis' strategy involves around the president's involvement. host: let's turn to the arizona senate, two women running for this spot to be in the senate. what were the results? guest: in arizona we had kyrsten sinema. that is no surprise, she was uncontested and we have known for quite a while now. the republican nominee was a bit more up in the air. primary three-way between sheriff arpaio, he made news during the trump administration, and kelly ward. martha mcsorley --

mcsally would be the most likable. in a primary, it's hard to know beforehand even with a bit of polling who would end up making it through. did end at making it through, which is important for the senate map because it arpaio or ward had won, it would make republican's job very difficult. [video clip] >> i am as impressed as anyone that my opponent brags that she owns over 100 pairs of shoes. i have over 100 combat missions serving our country. applause] my opponent is someone who is left of the pelosi democrats, a

green party activist. she protested our troops in a pink tutu. she called to shut down luke air force base. she calls yourself a proud prada socialist. now that she is running for the ema -- ihollywood sin cinema. say that is hollywood cinema has undergone an extreme makeover, she is a fake production running on a phony script to full the voters -- fool the voters. guest: kristen cinema has had most of the airways to herself during this republican primary. while republicans have been battling one another for the last several months trying to

win the gop primary, kristen sinema -- westen are seeing what kind of attacks she will have to deflect. what will be difficult is that she has been on air long enough where she has probably developed some sort of image that will be harder to take down. she has established herself as a relatively moderate democrat and a few months before the election will be a pretty short amount of time for republicans to reverse that narrative. what you are seeing is that martha mcsally will tie kyrsten sinema to the national democratic party and you will see kyrsten sinema try to distance herself from nancy pelosi and chuck schumer. host: outside groups supporting either of these women, where do you see that happening and how much support do you think will come? guest: i think we are seeing two

women running for senator jeff flake's open seat. we are seeing there will be a woman senator from arizona, so you will see women's groups get involved on behalf of -- especially kyrsten sinema, groups like emily's list. you will also see republican outside groups, foreign money because arizona is critical to maintaining a senate majority. it will be difficult for democrats to gain a majority in the senate. they are playing defense this cycle, but they have a slim chance and that does depend on winning arizona from the republican party. been quickly, has there any indication from the governor of arizona on who will fill john mccain's seat? guest: we have not seen that yet. there have been rumors that cindy mccain or a relative of john mccain might end up being appointed. we should know in the coming

weeks. host: before we let you go, the oklahoma's governor's -- what were the results? the primary won runoff. democrats are excited about that. they believe he has a record that will be easier for them to work with and attack and that their candidate, drew edmondson, will be able to take a been a job in november. host: she follows this closely with inside elections reporter, leah askarinam joining us to break down the results. thank you for your time. guest: thank you for having me. host: for those of you calling on the question on the role of government policing websites, thank you for your patience. you can continue to call. 202-748-8001 for republicans. 202-748-8000 for democrats. independents, 202-748-8002. c-span also post on our twitter feed @cspanwj and our

facebook page facebook.com/cspan . just to show you the headline that kind of spurred our question for today as far as the role of government monitoring these types of sites, this is the president talking about these issues yesterday. we will play a little bit of what he had to say at the white house yesterday. let's go to rudy, democrats line. what do you think is the proper role of government in these cases? caller: i just want to say this country has the first amendment in our constitution. trump is adequate. it's ok for him to twitter nonstop and speak his mind, but it is not ok for the rest of the world to speak their mind on google with twitter. when obama was president, the secret service removed his blackberry. it applies to trump, too. they need to remove his cell phone. host: the overall monitoring of

websites and the like, you don't think any more should be done by the government as is currently done? caller: first of all, we need to reestablish our intelligence forces. we have like 17, the fbi, cia. this president is removing -- he wants to put people he can trust like putin. host: let's go to william in minnesota, republican line. you are next up. caller: i would like to comment on the role of government policing websites. i see the websites as being very vulnerable these days, especially to foreign swayration to try to political persuasions in the united states. that is a clear and present danger to the security of our country and when you talk to

somebody who is really into the websites, that is where they get all their news. a lot of millennials do that this a day. they are extremely dependent on their cell phone and their website apps to get news and a lot of that is what is commonly called phony news. that is a very dangerous situation. whereve a voting public their perceptions are polluted by erroneous posts and you cannot have an educated and informed voting public if you use of theonstant websites for lies, different directions away from certain candidates and this type of thing. host: if those are the

vulnerabilities, then what is the role of government at this stage? caller: the role of government at that stage would be to intervene and put very, very strict rules and regulations on the websites, okay? as they do in other industries in this country. almost every other production industry has rules and regulations for production they have to follow. host: let's go to -- this is chris in north carolina. caller: hello, thank you for having me and thank you for c-span. if people remember in the 1990's, there was a microsoft case that the government won. that was an antitrust case .gainst regulatory filings said the1, the judge case was no longer of significance and i want to bring up a few points.

businesses and governments are knowledgeable about information. they will use this information and misinformation to get their point across. businesses can simply move out of the united states and be free from this oversight that would be a problem. google moving to china or microsoft moving to vancouver, for example. host: the wall street journal highlights what the government is in broad -- is involved in when it comes to monitoring. white house could urge allies to change section 230 to the communications decency act landmark law that shields internet companies from liability by hosting content produced by others. it could push for investigations of online policy -- privacy violations. it is clear to me and most people that there is not bias in search and social media. man. is michael becker

he said the potential for further regulation, you have to take these things seriously. many of these stories highlight the fact that jack dorsey is expected to be on capitol hill september 5 for testimonies concerning the activities of twitter and the like. you can look for that on our website at c-span.org. the role of government and policing websites is what we want from you, your thinking on that. 202-748-8001 for republicans. 202-748-8000 for democrats. independents, 202-748-8002. again, if social media -- social media is available. it is @cspanwj for our twitter feed and facebook feed at facebook.com/cspan. here is the president from yesterday in the oval office. an event that took place, but was asked questions about statements he made earlier via tweet about google and the like and here is what he had to say. [video clip] is taking google

advantage of a lot of people and it is a serious thing and a serious charge. i think what google and what others are doing if you look at what is going on at twitter and facebook, they better be careful because you can't do that to people. tremendous, literally thousands and thousands of complaints coming in and you just can't do that. i think google and twitter and facebook, they are treading on troubled territory and they have to be careful, it's not fair to large portions of the population. host: google put out a statement on its own saying when users type queries into google search bar, our goal is to make sure they received the most relevant answers in a manner of seconds. searches are not set to -- for political agenda. every year we issue hundreds of improvements to our algorithms to ensure they surface high quality content in regard to -- response to user queries.

we never rank google search to manipulate political sentiment. texas, we will hear from bob. go ahead. caller: good morning. google's statement that it does not bias the search engine. there has been evidence that they do with people literally documenting. i think you need to look at news.'s consolidation of if you look at the google news site itself, all it does is primarily publish the predominantly left-leaning news organizations like new york times, washington post, cnn. if you go down and i do every day, i look through the google consolidated news website. it is like 85% slanted to the left. what is that is doing is presenting to the consolidated news information and for example, google says -- there

was an article on cnn, a headline that says the president claims google is biased and it is not. guess who said that? it was cnn. headline says google is not biased. what does that tell the american public and conservatives that read? consolidated new sites on google host: if that is the case you written --you layout, what is the role of government? theer: obviously that is conundrum for republicans and conservatives. google's management and facebook, twitter, the other social media sites need to come together and really do a hard study and not just let a few people in their publications groups set the standards. host: robert from twitter add to this saying the real argument is

the social platforms are preventing freedom of speech. that is our twitter feed @cspanwj, which you can post and follow us and like us on facebook at facebook.com/cspan. we will put some of those comments into the mix soon. marry in california, democrats line. go ahead. caller: good morning. thank you, pedro, for taking my call. host: go ahead. caller: i just wanted to say there was another caller that expressed my view that president obama's blackberry was taken almost immediately and i don't understand why that didn't happen with president trump. his use of twitter is horrible. i have been on twitter since 2008 or something.

and theeen a long time way he uses twitter is terrible. winning twitter changed from 140 characters to 280, i wonder if they did that to accommodate him so he can blather on. host: this idea of oversight of these types of sites, what do you think as far as the popper -- proper role of government? how much is too much in your opinion? caller: i do believe they should not have that much oversight monitor thehave to russian mobs and things like that. they have got to make a playing field fair. host: these are some of the comments from facebook. age is josh was saying

restricting of adult content, monitoring for child abuse and child trafficking to rescue those people and victims and nothing else. steven says specific laws must be set and enforced, no overstepping. over 200 people making comments to this idea of the role of government and looking over websites, monitoring websites and you can add yours to the mix. 202-748-8001 for republicans. 202-748-8000 for democrats. independents, 202-748-8002. tony is next. tony joins us from bedford, texas. you are on a republican line. go ahead. caller: good morning, man. i love c-span. i don't have it on hd. the role of government policing has to be based on a safety. it has to be legal and i think it is coming up because people have to understand that finding the truth is not simple.

just because you google something does not make it true. google, twitter, facebook are providing you access to the information, like a library. it is almost a duly decimal system of the internet. a lot of -- dewey decimal system of the internet and a lot of times people get too lazy to actually research the truth. as long as the government is enforcing law and making sure it's safe, public knowledge, you have to find the truth. you don't just get to click it. host: this is a reaction from one member of congress, brian schatz of hawaii, the top member on the chambers tech committee. threat to regulate is "crazy, authoritarian, idea." saying it is unworkable for everything our country stands

for. these ceos are now over correcting for perceivable bias. this is a stretcher six strategy -- specific strategy to control the way those platforms present information. the president's campaign cited the attack on google in a text message asking donors to donate --ad of a key front raising fundraising deadline and at least one house leader -- lawmaker, kevin mccarthy, purchased ads related to the anti-conservative censorship online. anthony in new york, go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my call. i want to agree with the last few calls from texas. if you wanted to google something -- anything about politics, the midterm elections the next -- who

will win the next presidential election, the sites are all left, liberal, democratic news stations breed for instance, cnn, msnbc, the new york daily news. you have to scroll down i don't know how far to see whatever, fox news. pretty much everything you do google, you will see that it will be leaning to the left or democratic. click on thel first few they see and that is what they show you. host: do you think that drives the need for more oversight of these things? he left us. we will go for another new yorker, alex, democrats line. caller: hi. before i say something about google, i want to say something about joe arpaio. i am happy you didn't win and if anyone needs a reminder, joe

arpaio burned a dog alive and laughed when the dog tried. host: to the topic of google, go ahead. caller: i am really happy about topic, iabout this want to say that every company to overcome and do something against trump. i know trump is not happy with google and other companies, but we should not be afraid of him, we should resist him and do our job to keep him out of the country. host: is it more of the company's responsibility -- he is gone, but you can continue to call on the phone lines. in the business section of the new york times, a story about facebook workers and some of the pushback against their company. shira out ofand

san francisco saying the post went up on facebook's internal message board titled "we have a problem with political diversity." it quickly took off. "we are a political monoculture that is intolerant of different views. a senior facebook" weineer wrote in the post, claim to welcome all perspectives, but we are quick to attack anyone who presents of you who appears to be at an opposition in -- in opposition to left-leaning ideology. 100 facebook employees have joined him to form an online group called fb'ers for political diversity. the aim of the initiative, according to the memo, is to create a space for ideological diversity within the company. democrats line, we will hear next from mickey, the role of government and policing websites. caller: hello? host: mickey from new jersey, go ahead. caller: i am sorry.

i have a question. why do i feel like freedom of the press is now dead in the united states? host: is this because of issues concerning content on sites? -- ir: it is just because hope i am not too hysterical or taking it too far, but i feel this is how hitler began. host: what concerns you most, then? give me an example to your point? caller: everything that i hear on tv, that i read in newspapers in new jersey. host: ok. that is mickey on our democrats line from new jersey. as far as google is concerned, the manager of outreach and public policy, it was earlier at thenth we took in

resurgent gathering and he did an interview there and talked about google search and those claims that his company has heard about conservative plates and if those searches -- conservative sites and if those searches downplay conservative sites. [video clip] >> you would be damaging the difference if you did that on purpose. the unintentional bias is something to be aware of and we put an unbelievable amount of layers of checks and balances to make sure that doesn't happen. .e do make mistakes it is a massive amount of volume we are dealing with. -- when youive search in google, you are not searching the web itself, you are searching our index of the web. the web exists entirely without google. it is massive and really hard to find tough, so search engines were the -- were invented.

google was the 19th search engine market. what you are searching -- we have spiders or crawlers that crawl the internet constantly to find all the new webpages and add them to our index. when you search our index, if every page in our index had a sheet of paper, that would stack to the moon and back 12 times. that is how big the index is an there are over 3 billion searches done on google a day. so you give us three or five words and we search this index to the moon and back 12 times in a split second and pull out what you want and that is the challenge the engineers are trying to grapple with with the constantly growing web. the algorithm is constantly updated. that's another misperception and this gets back to -- we do our best to keep any bias out. host: that event you can find on our website at c-span.org.

if you want to see his full comment on that topic and anything in relation to this idea of internet searches and internet overnight. c-span.org is the way you can find that. , republicannnesota line. hello. caller: this is a very timely subject for myself. and i wascebook linked to a number of pages that deal with firearms. last week i get up in the morning and i lone rock -- no longer have any of the links to my pages to the firearms, which means facebook has taken them down. i really don't know which way to go on this other than the fact facebook isare -- keeping me from seeing what i want to see and i don't really

think that is correct. i really don't know what the heck to do about it and that is really the only comment i have. host: as far as the government involvement, you are wary about that as well, i gather? caller: yeah. i am always a little bit leery about the government getting involved in anything. host: from our republican line as well, david in florida. hi. caller: how are you? host: fine, thank you. caller: good. i wanted to say people who use the internet, they do have certain responsibility to make sure they try and find the correct information. the gentleman who can't find his stuff on facebook, obviously he can go elsewhere. i think people need to realize the amount of information that is on the internet. yes, there are people out there who are going to kind of shop people off at the knees for the

information they are -- chop people off at the knees for the information they are looking for. that is going to happen. i think people are going -- need to police themselves. if they read what they believe all the time -- believe what they read all the time on certain websites, that is their problem and i don't think it belongs to anybody else. i don't think the government should be involved in policing anything on the internet. host: skip from twitter says i am opposed to government intervention. i don't think facebook, google, or twitter should be banning or censoring anyone. you can continue on with postings on those sites and the phone lines. --45 today, a senator ceremony set for senator john mccain in the arizona capitol as he lies in state. thursday, there will be a whichl in phoenix in

former president -- vice president joe biden is expected to speak. friday he will lie in state at the u.s. the u.s. capitol and saturday there will be a funeral at the national cathedral. you can monitor all those events on c-span.org. i encourage you to go to the website for the exact timing of those events. in politico under the headline of "mccain's choice of a russian dissident as the pall bearer as a final dig at president putin and president trump." as one of the dignitaries to carry his coffin to the front of the washington national cathedral proved the funeral or procession is one of the most-watched parts of any televised memorial service. the kaine appears to have chosen his -- mccain appears to have chosen his pallbearers with that in mind. the story goes on to say it was that appearshoice

aimed at sending a last message .o putin and trump an investigation into whether the u.s. president's allies cooperated with efforts to intervene in the 2016 election. it is mr. karamazov -- kara-mu mccain got right about russia is the title. he said much will be written about his military courage and famed bipartisanship and his unbeatable personal decency. his mount standing -- long-standing decision on russia deserves -- nothing could be further from the truth, he certainly was an enemy of those who turned russia

into an autocracy and looting ground at home and instrument of aggression abroad. if you want to read that full post, it is at the washington post. from massachusetts, this is a fran on this idea of monitoring the internet or oversight of the internet by the federal government and websites specifically. go ahead. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. i would like to make a comment about the use of twitter by mr. trump. he seems to use it to indoctrinate his base to his views. the news media's repeat all of his twitters. the news media is in a sense complicit with his agenda and this agenda is in line with what putin wants for our country. he wants to cause division and the downfall of democracy by creating factions. host: what is your thought is

your thought specifically than on the role of government on these sites. believe the gentleman that spoke maybe one or two times back where he said he felt as though it should be impartial, i think that is the way it should be. it's the government should enforce that it stay impartial, i think that is a good thing. host: let's hear from mark in maryland, republican line. hi. caller: good morning, how are you? host: i am fine, thanks. caller: i have an i.t. searchund and i teach and i will make two simple points. the current level of government regulation is adequate. secondly, this issue about search bias is something that apparently somebody made up and that is simply because most people really do not know how to search. if you put in "trump news" on

google, what you are going to get, you probably know this as a journalist, you will get the rank order of the searches pulling up those terms. if it terms up the -- turns out that rank order is trump news of cnn articles and fox news cbscles or trump news and a news article, that is the rank order as somebody pointed out earlier, millions of pages of entries. if conservatives want to see trump news with conservative coverage, you will have to narrow your search terms. i teach students -- i have conservative students that don't even know that. if you want to see trump news washington times, that is what you put in and that will pull up those articles. it will pull them up even over the rank order of the other articles or if you want trump

news of weekly standard or -- part,about the oversight sketch out how much oversight the government currently does. caller: the government oversight is just general oversight unless you are using offensive terms, terrorist terms, threatening terms or something like that. i think the government oversight currently is adequate. host: independent line from matthew in texas buried -- in texas. hi. caller: thank you for c-span. host: you are on, go ahead. caller: what is donald trump's problem? why is he pushing back -- he is ignoring crime. terrible today. why is it every time i switch to "washington journal" you look

unhappy? get it together, man. host: ok. powers facebook has the to take down the content at once too. it is not a government entity. in virginia, republican line. caller: i want to say something that confirms what the last gentleman said about websites and ranking. specifically, there are a lot of features websites can employ to optimize their rank in website searches and from what i found, i am a web developer and develop websites and i have looked around at a lot of the kind of off mainstream news organizations and often what happens is they are not using these same features, so their content is going to be lower in the results and so people are saying there is a liberal bias when in fact it is just some of these sites are less capable of getting their information higher

in the rank. is next, bronx, new york. democrats line. caller: good morning and thank you for c-span. i have to agree with the callers from maryland and massachusetts. when we go on google, we create our own algorithms of what we are searching for, so you are kind of creating your own bubble. that is what that is based on. i don't think the government -- i think the government is -- does an adequate job as far as looking for any threats. people searching for terrorist groups and things like that, that should be regulated. outside of that, people are creating their own bubbles. this is another divers and area tactic from trump and we are all ionary tactic from trump and we are buying into it.

host: the washington times story takes a look at testimony by bruce or, a justice apartment official -- department official theing -- the fbi doubted avenue -- the dossier. not only did they know it was unverified, but they knew there were credibility issues if it ended up in a courtroom. that was mark meadows saying that. disclosure is the latest twist in a complicated saga. ties to those creating dossiers about allegations to president trump's ties to russia. nancy from pittsburgh, pennsylvania. hi. caller: hello? host: you are on, go ahead. caller: ok, sorry. i think this is just like the last gentleman said. it is a distraction. if you remember in the 2016

election when he started complaining when the polls changed, he started complaining it she wins, it is rigged. we are going to investigate if she wins and everybody bent over backward, including obama, by not investigating that one more because he did not want it said he affected the election. this is the same thing. now because they are in the minority, the viewpoint is in the minority and they are not getting searched as much. they know exactly where to go to get their opinion. the people -- the more people wanting to get that news are googling it and that goes into the googling algorithm i guess the word is and that is what comes up first. -- throwing another a rock across a room and say, look over there and then you don't have to pay attention to the dirty stuff going on. , you areou for c-span

such a service to this nation. host: we are asking folks if there is a role in policing websites and you can talk about broughtome people have up in google and what comes up in the searches. 202-748-8001 for republicans. 202-748-8000 for democrats and independents, 202-748-8002. off of facebook, this is ricky victor saying there should be zero government oversight. practices to regulate their own websites, the less involved the government, the better off we are. this is gary saying if governments are used to engage in illegal activity, the government should enforce the law using due process. jacob miller essentially saying governments should not police websites. those are some of the several hundred comments from this morning. people have been commenting on our twitter feed as well.

from betty in connecticut, democrats line. good morning, pedro, i have been concerned about this issue for ages. i am a retired college reference librarian and i would almost beg you at some point to have two librarians on your program to help with this issue. the issue, as far as i am concerned, is that people really do not understand enough about searching on google, for one, .ut on everything also, i don't understand why you don't sometimes have an article -- two articles, one liberal and one conservative and have people comment and learn how to read what the bias is, if there is one, in these articles.

i think people need to know that every information source is owned by someone and they have positions -- but there is a difference between an editorial position and an article. i will mention, pedro, that i andme a librarian at age 50 c-span was my absolute inspiration. at that time, things were a lot simpler on the internet. i learned so much from c-span, who used to provide some sort of aaching role and this is not simple, simple question and people are so radical in their ideas. talk to we did librarians, what specifically could they teach us about the process? why their perspective? guest: because they understand

-- caller: because they understand how the web is put together. they understand for one thing, when you have your internet address, which is called an url, you can understand what kind of source, whether it is commercial, educational, all that. someone called right before me can put in,ng you if you want, a conservative article. you can put if you want a liberal article and all of this, to me it is nearly insane with how people kind of expect to put something in and get the perfect article, that is what they want. that is just so impossible and so unhealthy. it is so unhealthy for our democracy. host: do they still use card catalogs, by the way? caller: no, there must be some

place, but no. every place is electronic and people really, really need to know so much more than they do. for: i apologize interrupting, but thank you for calling. that is betty from connecticut giving us the librarian's perspective. you can add yours in the 5, 10 minutes of this conversation. 202-748-8001 for republicans. 202-748-8000 for democrats. independents, 202-748-8002. stephen hall off twitter says google is widely accepted as the search engine of note for academics and laypersons alike. mr. hall highlighting the fact that he has a phd, making that statement on our twitter feed. jeff is next from north carolina, republican line. i agree with the president's observation. my own personal experience at

searching google is when you asked for detailed information that would look or reveal the truth about some democratic motives and stuff they have done to try to set trump up, they don't give you the information. newsmax isn news and about the best two stations that just give you the facts and let you see for yourself, not part of the facts and they don't edit. like msnbc and cnn always edit out the entire statement to fit their narrative. same with the google searches. c-span is home-field advantage for democrats and that is the way i feel, but i know that. so is cnn and msnbc. google is also home-field advantage for democrats.

facebook, they are all because they needed to for the economic marketing aspect. host: i would argue we are home-field for everyone in that case. republicans, democrats, independents. caller: and you, sir, you have to make that statement. posesestions this channel to trump was never posed with the same approach to obama. in fact, it was ignored. arguable on a lot of levels, but we don't have time to litigate that right now. robert in michigan, independent line. go ahead. caller: good morning. i thought i would be very brief on this. be american people, i would very leery of the government getting involved in this. i have seen it happen in germany and europe.

we don't want that in this country. people need to make their own opinion and cipher out the fake news. that is all i have to say. host: tillman off twitter says this should be called the search engine fairness doctrine. you can make comments on the feed for a couple minutes. you can continue on as most people do throughout the day. from the washington post, taking a look at north carolina, gerrymandering case ahead of the supreme court's. this is amber phelps saying democrats got a break from the court in their effort to retake the house of representatives. the new ruling in north carolina could be out -- turn out to be a course -- curse in disguise, proposing to redraw all the districts before the midterm election. whether that could be done in time or given how that work is very much in the air. this will probably go to the

supreme court next. the best case scenario for democrats is that the court has if new partisan maps are drawn, democrats could expect to win anywhere from between a 1 and three congressional seats, with several more republican dominated ones becoming more competitive. from new york, independent line, we will hear from adam. go ahead. caller: good morning, pedro. thank you for taking my call. , first-timewer caller. i really don't think it is a question of the government being involved. i think it is the tech firms themselves. i believe the consumer needs and thernet of rights more than government needs to get involved. host: from alabama, republican line, hi. caller: yes, hello.

i think google is doing a fantastic job. i researched the history of says -- ind google don't know where they got this from, but it was man-made and in all of us so religion is -- they think controls all people. livinge modern man was -- hey did not have a host: okay, we will leave it there. usa today writes about broadband companies including verizon bringing broadband to the united states saying two years ago the fcc -- deliver broadband areas that did not have access to high-speed internet. the agency set aside $2 billion

.n the connect america fund the 103 auction winners announced on tuesday included many small telephone companies and internet providers and verizon. businesses that will be covered through the auction will get download speeds of 100 megabytes per second. all locations will get at least 25 megabytes. performers must -- must reach performance targets within the homes and locations they bid within three years. ohio is next. this is tim from ohio, republican line. caller: yeah. i have an observation from the 1960's. hello? host: go ahead, you are on. caller: if you look at radio

free europe in the internet, in the 1960's, the government was a vermont -- undermining the communist government through the radios. it was a free, open society that put out the information to the russian people that freedom was great, it is great and it is advertised all over russia through the radio free europe. now they are using the social media of the internet in the united states to do the same thing. they are taking a page out of our playbook as to how to undermine our government. is the lastats line call on this topic. brendan from new york. caller: hi. this is really a hard one to tackle. of the fbi getting involved with facebook to look

further into what is going on personally with people, i am not comfortable with that. at the same time, when you have harm and injury happening to people such as what is going on , facebook played a really big role in that. i think an independent counsel to regulate would be a good way to go. host: the headline, which is a story that broke yesterday about post maria death in puerto rico, nearly 3000, that poll being calculated saying the total is a dramatic increase from a long hill count of 64, which is the administration of the governor left unchanged in the months of the storm. the estimate would be the official death toll for maria, making the storm the second deadliest in u.s. history, trailing over the galveston, texas, hurricane that killed 1900.000 people in

if you take a look at usa today, the role of federal contractors and their pay, saying -- kevin mccoy writing more than two thirds of the top 50 publicly paidfederal contractors their ceos more than 100 times the median pay of their workers in 2017. that is according to analysis from the -- by the institute for policies study, a think take focused on -- think tank focused on equality issues. the 82,406 average annual compensation for federal employees is roughly 5-1. in contrast, the report cited data that showed theraise for ty recipients for the 153 to one. 188 to onewas according to the data. that is it for this segment.

coming up, guests joining us. we are going to be joined by richard norton smith on the 50th anniversary of the m a credit and republican conventions. the effect gomez on of the e-verify system used by employers. lindseyjohn mccain's graham took to the floor of the senate. part of the speech looked at lessons learned. [video clip] i remember -- >> i remember the 2008 campaign. written off as politically dead, no money. determination after a , in a war rock --iraq

that they did not have to , and haveo fight expedited citizenship, in the , to did not make it but they were given citizenship that day. i remember 2000 soldiers wanted a photo and everyone got it. i remember being so hot i could not breathe but we stayed anyway. i remember getting the nomination only to lose. i remember that might very well. he had wanted to be president. he was prepared. it was not his to have. gaveember the speech he that night.

when you go through the world, people remember his concession speech as much as anything else. there are so many countries where you cannot afford to you lose -- to lose because they kill you. president obama is my president. he healed the nation at a time he was hurt. i learned serving a cause greater than yourself hurts. anybody in the military can tell you the risk. he could not put his jacket on. he could not come his hair. he got hurt serving a cause greater than himself. how easy it is to say and how hard it is to do. is to solve problems nobody else wants to talk about.

-- failure andss success are different sides of the same coin. john told me i have become better because of my failures because it teaches us. those striving as a young person, remember john mccain. he failed a lot but never quit. the reason we talk about him today and the reason i am crying is because he was successful in spite of his failures. announcer: washington journal continues. host: we welcome richard norton smith to talk about the 50th anniversary of the republican and democratic conventions. before we go into the details, setup where america was at the time and issues that led to

events that led to the conventions. guest: it is remarkable. we think of the country as one differencesolitical . i think back 50 years ago when humphrey was preparing to accept the democratic nomination for president. his party reflecting the country , was split over the vietnam war. thats not just vietnam shredded the political conventions in 1968. you had the assassination of dr. king in april. two months later, the murder of robert kennedy. we will never know what might have been. lyndon johnson had been driven upstart,contest by the

improbable candidacy of the other minnesota senator, who had run on an antiwar platform. obj did not show up at his party's convention in chicago. it is adjusting how the convention came to be. presided for 21 years before the second took his place. he was a loyalist machine, the ultimate machine democrat. and 66a rough election -- in 66. ironically, it backfired. in the man'st only

face but that of the nominee. for four days, the american people saw -- 40 years earlier, the republican had torn themselves apart in the convention hall. goldwater rockefeller battle. and i 68, the democrats for themselves apart. something like 10,000 demonstrators outside the hilton hotel confronted 23,000 police and national guardsmen and there was violence. it was captured. imagine a split screen where you effect thatng in was tearing america apart, dramatized before your eyes

while the democrats were attempting to go about an orderly convention. it was impossible. they came out of that convention . there were some that thought that nomination was worthless. humphrey came out of that failing 25 points behind richard nixon. conventionsf those can be boiled down. that was the last year the parties ran conventions. 72, it was very much a television designed. it became infomercials, which evolved -- they have evolved into ever since. host: our guest will continue.

republicans: 202-748-8001 democrats: 202-748-8000 independents: 202-748-8002 us, you canto tweet twitter: http://twitter.com/cspanwj . guest: richard nixon was everyone's second choice. he had the stature. he also lost in 1960. it is rare for a party to give a loser a second chance. nixon in 1966,, campaigning for republican candidates in a republican year, had reestablished himself. his original opposition from the left, and those days there were liberal republicans. the governor of michigan was

thought by many to be the front runner for the nomination. his campaign never gained traction. you have these shadow candidacies, nelson rockefeller in new york was in and out and in again. the real threat to richard nixon and i believe the nixon people will tell you, came from ronald reagan. who then, in his first term as governor of california, was seen as having quality and not just because of hollywood connections. republicansere were post-1964 who were loyal to barry goldwater and what he represented. they were looking for a candidate. they could accept nixon but got excited with reagan. race.d this three-way was there was an unofficial alliance between

rockefeller people, reagan people and then there were governoravorites of rhodes of ohio. the idea was if we can step nixon on the first ballot, his support will he wrote --erode and be a battle of the titans, rockefeller and reagan. nixon only one by 25 votes on the first ballot. people forget how close it was. the republicans came out of their convention in a more unified states. nixon gave what people thought was an effective acceptance speech. they had been out of power for years. they were hungry. they were confronting a fractured opposition. let's not forget there was a third-party, george wallace the governor of alabama, who was

running on an openly segregationist campaign but not just in the deep south. he was favored in states. wallace was running in the north trying to poach on traditional ordinarily that would be assumed to go to the democratic candidate. while was a threat to nixon in the south. a threat to humphrey in the north. host: you talked about the fractured -- talk about the platform. debatethere was a huge which came to a head and there was a plank supported by the across is an kennedy forces. senatort mention -- a from south dakota got into the race, trying to rally some of the kennedy followers on the antiwar platform.

the party established what used to be called the machine, with the support of the white house, they managed by 3-2 to prevail over the antiwar forces. certainly, if you like drama, it is hard to beat. it is the most tumultuous convention in modern times. to, what it led to his fascinating. a reform commissioner, the fraser mcgovern commission, in the wake of the loss that year and the blame was placed on the , a whole series of reform were passed to diversify the democratic convention base. more women, more people of color. in a sense, the modern democratic party was born amidst

the tumult of chicago, 1968. host: photos of the riots that took place available on the new york times website this morning, also video of that where people are watching as they saw it play out on television at a time. richard norton smith talking about the impact of that convention, a republican convention. republicans: 202-748-8001 democrats: 202-748-8000 independents: 202-748-8002 watch, you went to the republican convention. guest: at the ripe old age of 14. i finagle to take it. richard'stt secretary, who i befriended. i was there for the week. it was a marvelous civics lesson for anyone.

i remember my contribution to the political violence of 1968 on wednesday night, the nominating night, august 7. in the rockefeller ford demonstration and i remember marching through a group of stalwart iowa farmers for nixon, one of whom i hit with my rockefeller sign. it felt good at the time. i knew we were not going to win. i had been doing my calculations. governor reagan came close. there were several states. florida was a critical state. governor reagan became one or two votes of breaking that open. close is not but good enough. host: let's take brad from kentucky. you will start us off. caller: i wish to bring up who would have been the democrats'

robertminee, senator kennedy. i think he was one of the most outstanding men of the 20th century. compassion for the american people. that has not been seen since. it is laughable to compare him nominee, mrs.cent clinton. and also to ethel kennedy, who is still alive, i would like to thank her and hope she is in good health. thank you. there is no shortage of people who believe given the momentum, that senator kennedy had coming out of the california primary, that it might have been enough to kill him all the way. on the other hand, the fact he

the entrenched forces that he will, that rallied around vice president humphrey, was very powerful. they called a lot of shots. it is something we will never know. host: how was humphrey as a candidate? guest: it was the wrong year. humphrey talked about the politics of joy. you think back and hubert humphrey was for many years, the leader of the liberals in the united states senate. the champion of civil rights, for example. a buoyant figure. the problem was the politics of realityclashed with the of the politics of 1968, which was anything but joyous. -- he hadsense he was the wrong speech. he was a gallant figure.

money.forget he had no which meant there was less humphrey presence on television. the democratic party -- the organization had atrophied under eight years in office, which can happen. verys going up against a well honed republican machine, with plenty of money. and the country was more than restless. the country was in the mood for change. it was not his here. it was not his here. host: in modern politics, you usually have a team of candidates getting ready. was that the same in 1968? was there a team? guest: both candidates had their inner circles. nixon's was more organized, more

orderly. that reflected the candidate's personality and the nature of the parties. democrats traditionally rebel and a certain amount of creative instructive chaos. but humphrey became appointment figure. -- appointment figure. defining question became can you as vice president establish your independence? that is challenge that all vice presidents confront? humphrey had sacrificed much of his standing among the left of his party because he had followed president johnson's vietnam policy. he gave a speech with the less money in the bank from salt lake city in which he broke with the johnson policy and talks about taking chances for peace and

stopping the bombing. he moved unilaterally in the direction of the antiwar plank that a month earlier had been defeated in the convention. redefines attempt to his candidacy and from that point on, he began closing the gap. people forget how close that campaign was and at the end, it was a coin toss. richard nixon at the republican convention, same thing. who was the key advisor for him? guest: people who would become familiar, and some cases notorious, john mitchell who was campaign manager. , gas on the right who had been with nixon a couple years at that point was writing

speeches. searsung man named john who would go on later to manage one of our -- ronald reagan's presidential candidate. the next and white house incubated the careers of a whole nixon white house incubated the careers of a whole generation of central white government. some theorists, some polemicist's. it replenished the stock of ideas and the republican party. host: we hear from queen. you're on with our guest. republican line. caller: mr. smith, i am in doubt with powers and i have always wondered why are there so many and whyn this country do people of the african origin

in this country? host: let's go to tim. independent line. caller: i have a question. i have heard rumors martin luther king and robert kennedy were forming an alliance where if kennedy was elected, king was going to be vice president. do you know if they got together and formed any kind of political alliance? guest: i have not heard that story. there is no doubt they were sympathetic to each other personally and politically. there is no doubt that robert kennedy, if you had asked dr. king to choose a candidate in spring 1968, that he would have named kennedy but the idea of any formal alliance, much less the notion that dr. king would be on the ticket, that is the first i have heard of that.

host: the republican party, how did they embrace civil rights? guest: i will never forget being on the floor was when dr. ralph abernathy came by. he of course would have been dr. king's designated successor with the southern christian leadership conference. the poor people's campaign in d.c. during the interim and they brought a version of that to each of the party conventions that year. i met dr. abernathy on the floor. , thenk it is safe to say party in 1968 was more on the road. more diverse than in later years. on the other hand, they were people who felt richard nixon -- he was running a law and order campaign.

people thought that was an way appealin a soft to the constituency, to say i sympathize with your views. do not throw away your vote on a third-party candidate. elect me and we can pursue this. speechesis nixon gave on the issue of civil rights in 1968. when he was vice president, he was speaking of dr. king. he and dr. king had formed an alliance of sorts to promote a civil rights bill in 1957 and to be honest, i think to push the eisenhower administration a little more aggressively in that direction. the party in 1968, this is for the republicans think

today's americans are frustrated about the future and frustrated about the past. mastering rather than permitting them to master. our convention in isis 68 could spark. which translated into it is time for a change. every out party suggest that every four years. what is significant about 1968, not the convention but what happened as a result, it had begun earlier in 66. there was a period of republican dominance which continues to this day with exceptions. if you remember, jimmy carter is an unconventional democrat. the southern governor, not a creature of washington. not a new deal democrat.

and bill clinton, famously said the era of big government is over. and to confirm, the country moved to the right. permanently in reaction to vietnam but also and we could have a debate about this, in reaction to the society and the perception that government had overreached or overpromised and under delivered. host: you are on with richard norton smith. democrat. caller: i would like to say if thesmith could talk about october surprise in the chanel nixon violatede the slogan act and if that truth had been told, he never would have been elected. just wondered if mr.

smith could talk about that. guest: it is a complicated story. it is told in the best form i biography ofrrow's richard nixon published last year. he had the goods. farrow had done the research that confirmed. a lot of people suspected over lbj wanted to prevent's nixon election. october, in effect he announced a peace initiative hubert humphrey is catching up day by day. the main people in the democratic camp who thought the nation would be enough at the end to put them over the finish line. and the nixonsay

people will dispute this to this not seem tois was be an interest of richard nixon. but -- you lived in washington was the widow of claire -- come a hero of the second more than someone who was well-connected in vietnam. emissary some kind of conveying messages back and forth between the nixon camp and president hugh, the upside of which was just as lbj trying to build momentum. word comes out of the government unofficially that they have not signed on to this plan. throwing cool water and making it look more cravenly political. again, the debate goes on. mrs. chennault always denied it.

the evidence seems to be strong. host: our guest is an author, a presidential historian. at can find more of his work his website. guest: we do a couple doors. towardsed doing does go a year that were presidential. we went to presidential sites. now we broaden a bit where at the end of september, we are doing a frank lloyd wright and hemingway tour of wisconsin and michigan and anyway, we are doing a trip to ireland's next year. -- ireland next year. england trip, 11 presidents in 10 days. patriots.com. host: what is your latest book? guest: i am not in the home

stretch but well past the halfway point of a big biography , a surprising biography of gerald ford, who i knew. actually, as an intern in the ford white house, and i am surprised i thought i knew him. i'm surprised 45 years later, there is new information, resignation and other events. it is -- you just have to dig. i have done 170 interviews for this book. you dig and dig in the archives. , who discovered remarkable evidence, it is still there. that is why digging for gold -- host: this is stand in florida. independent line. caller: i am looking at the tv

and it says 1968 convention. i was around during the 60's. i was 25. when vietnam was going on and lbj and his press secretary was coming out, lying to the american public about what was going on. they were shooting kids on campuses. it was the worst rioting that had happened since the marches in the 20's. and yet, on the tv, they are telling us this is the worst time in our history about conflict between two parties. haveee that the system we since i was 25s whos old, every republican has been in office, the democrats have brought a special

counsel and they have gone after them and it ends up nine times out of 10, has nothing to do ,ith the original mandate especially the council has, which is what we are in now. , ist: i would add to that think this is bipartisan. as you remember the clinton presidency, bill and hillary clinton, who were dogged throughout the time in the white house by a succession of special counsel's and investigations and impeachment attempts, i think there is a larger issue. think the caller raises up an important point. i think the extent to which we have criminalized political behavior is a significant concern. back. is true if you step it is i able to look at

anniversaries like this because of the perspective they offer on what we are going through. to suffer what has been called maoism. the more you know about america's past, the more optimistic you are likely to be about her future because the fact is, whether history is cyclical or not, it does repeat itself and we have been through any number of tests of the political process, certainly 1968 was one. watergate was another. the clinton impeachment was another. arguably, we're going through another. the remarkable thing is not that we test the system but that so far, the system has been found to work. host: republicans: 202-748-8001 democrats: 202-748-8000

independents: 202-748-8002 the previous caller talked about the role of media and especially coverage. since we have seen video of the rights that took place. guest: that is different. we would have been a different media. in 1968, there was three television networks. there was no internet. there was no cable tv. three men sitting in towers in new york wielded enormous influence over the what the american people saw. that was a point of contention with the nixon ministration and has been appointed contention with conservatives generally. which of course, went to the creation of fox. we live in a totally different -- and i would, we have created new problems. with a 20 47 news cycle.

-- 20 47 news cycle. likek to people who feel this is happening so fast and they cannot escape it even if they want to. that is a subtle but critical difference from 50 years ago. host: we have video of president withon's phone call president frank staton about coverage of the democratic national convention in chicago. [video clip] if i hangto tell you my head, what i want to say is unfair, personalized reporting of these fellows. i think you want to know that opinion because you were going to be disappointed in me down the road if i did not tell you that. i am telling you that i think your industry is wrecking all of us. you lyndonells

johnson, who knew something about power, knew who to go to. he went to the president of the cbs television network. what he left out is what viewers were seeking and the fact is they were seeing, there was a ,amous incident when dan rather a noted correspondent, who was literally roughed up on the floor. there were other networks and i think mike wallace, and there was a famous moment when l -- obj when walter cronkite, unfathomable poker walter -- uncle walter, at one point he had been talking to rather and said looks like we have a bunch of thugs down there. --t was a pretty but

remarkable thing coming from the most trusted man in america. that is what lbj was reacting to. today if that happened, there would be one anchor among dozens. i am not sure the president would know who to call. host: let's go to brad in minnesota. caller: i enjoyed listening to the historical parts of what is happening in the united states. witharted in 1950 operation mockingbird in the cia manipulating the people through the media, but as we know they stopped the operation mockingbird by stopping the payments. the media was never -- got caught because they went with this eia doing this and now we have it that the media continues with the manipulating with the people.

what you see is almost a pendulum. control from 1955 to 1995. not until we get a different part of the media, which is fox news, the conservative station. what is going to happen in the midterms? the democrats are going to get crossed and i do not know if and are not going to change keep the media from running their party. they have no chance so i feel bad for them. i have to tell you, i take exception. i am as good as anyone else as using the term the media is if --, thatsome sort of they meet in secret in new york .nd plot the irony is, and quite frankly,

conservatives have enormous plaut in the modern media marketplace. , whethern publications , and of course fox, sinclair, the internet is the wild west. left -- think writer has a legitimate complaint of being shut out of the debate. host: the president made those remarks talking about google and twitter, put that into context. guest: i think at this point, anything that comes out of the white house, and by the way that is true of the opposition. the viewer, listener might want to filter anything you hear

through the context of what is nowg to happen 70 days from , everything is being said, done, proposed with an idea of potential impact on the midterm elections. host: from massachusetts, good morning. caller: good morning. how are you? host: you are on with our guest. caller: thank you, mr. norton. i appreciate what you have to say. i am an average american citizen, a son of immigrants who came from cambridge. as a boy scout, i never finished high school but i have been a hard worker. the question comes to the united states, i hate that we are going to the process of rebirth. we have to understand that there were things that were done that were wrong and we have to be

contrite. and iakes america special think you will agree, we have people all of the world -- from all of the world. we know the -- what took place in history. we are trying to outgrow that. the principle i was raised with is a boy scout was to make america good. we have gone through a number of changes and it is a rebirth and understanding of our personal enlightenment and the evolution process that is going to happen. we have got to change. we want america to be great. there are things happening and there were people within the government within the united states, within me, within you, that have done negative things. we to -- need to obtain a new form of development towards

perfection in order to make america good. guest: i share his basic optimism. pastore you know about the , as the scholar lutes to --alludes. what we are going through, and the most overused term is crisis. it is devalued by overuse. annette -- one man's crisis is another man's opportunity. think of it as an incubator of change. change is never easy. times of change or challenge. we are challenging ourselves in a lot of ways. we are being challenged in a lot of ways. the strength of our democratic institutions is being challenged as we speak. so far, i think the evidence is overwhelming that we will come through this. 50 years from now, someone will be citizens -- sitting on

looking backurnal and drawing a similar conclusion. host: independent line, mike. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span. i am not a c-span watcher. i watch the senate and house. my question is about this. there was something called the fairness doctrine back in the day. could the gentleman explain a short synopsis of what the fairness doctrine meant and what it was about and who removed it and how it had an effect on the media and propaganda? if you could comment on that. thank you for c-span. guest: that is a great question. --re was probably no single

that has occurred in 50 years that has been more responsible for the transformation of the media climate. the federal communications come in for something called the fairness doctrine, which said we are responsible for overseeing american commercial broadcasting. cable has been a different animal. with profound consequences. in terms of commercial broadcasting, which at this point was dominant, and the fcc said we have a responsibility. they do find that as requiring that both sides be aired. the both sides have access to the audience. the drawback of this is a could be used, for example richard nixon did not want to debate hubert humphrey in 1968. doctrined the fairness

and not including george wallace come a there were a lot of things. i think it was in the early 70's that it was in effect repealed. in, as iid was usher say, a kind of electronic and now digital wild west, in which well, for example talk radio as networksolved, certain ,ikewise with a very distinct almost monotonous editorial viewpoint. they are defined by their editorial viewpoint with no obligation to incorporate the other side. what thatp to think over the last 40 years has done i doe political discourse,

not think you can turn time back. ino not think politically this climate, you are ever going to see the fairness doctrine reinstated. there are those of us who are nostalgic for the time when it defined our politics. -- hownot know how much important it was until it disappeared. host: one more call from kentucky, john. go ahead. watch: i usually do not this, have no idea why i got on it today. but i have been listening to mr. smith and he renewed my faith in america. what you said is spot on. we have been through tough times and this is just another tough time. we are going to make it through. thanks a lot mr. smith. guest: thank you. you are new my faith. host: richard norton smith is an

author, here to talk about the 1968 historical convention. thank you for your time. coming up, we are going to discuss the employers' role in immigration enforcement, particularly the e-verify system. alan gomez joins us. announcer: sunday night on q and a, historian trounced calhoun talks about his biography on the 23rd president of the united states, benjamin harrison. >> he was in indianapolis and at his house, people thronged and he gave four speeches that day. his campaign people said this is the thing to do. let people come to you. over the next five months to the election, that is what happened. he slept in his own bed.

he would meet these delegations. he would visit from around the state, around the country. often, the coal miners. the wheat farmers, the cotton farmers. harrison would give them a short mostly attuned to their own interests but something that would resonate with people. he had his own stenographer taped down what he said. they would do well for what he said, make sure it was what he wanted people to read and give it to be associated rest the next morning in the newspapers. announcer: historian charles calhoun. sunday night, on q and day. announcer: c-span, where history unfolds. in 1979, c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies. we continue to bring you unfiltered coverage of congress,

the white house, the stream eventsnd public policy in washington, d.c. and around the country. c-span is brought to you by your cable satellite provider. events in washington, d.c. and around the country. host: put e-verify in context because of that case. guest: this was a terrible case out of iowa that we have been hearing about the last couple weeks. a 20-year-old college student, mollie tibbetts was out for a jog. she was apprehended. she went missing and when they

were able to find somebody in charge of the murder, that person, christian rivera, ended up being an undocumented immigrant from mexico. he had been working at a nearby farm in brooklyn, iowa. the derry -- a dairy farm out there. they had tried to run a check on this guy to make sure he was available to work in this country. there was back and forth over the process they used and that ended up he had allegedly given a false and an education to get his work there it's. what that case has done is drop attention to the fact that there are half of the people who work in the fields in the u.s. farms and ranches and nurseries are undocumented immigrants. the e-verify program has said the big light on the program, which is a federal system that allows employers to check the immigration status for the worker authorization. databases toinst

see if they are legally allowed to work. people are calling for that program to be nationalized. it is only required of federal government contractors and to some data -- degree in 24 states. , walkif i am an employer us through the process. guest: if somebody comes in, you run them through the usual hr paperwork. one thing everybody has to fill out as an i-9 form. they take that and run it to the e-verify system. you do it on your desktop. you put in the information given to you and the government runs that through the social security administration database and the department of homeland security database to see if there are any red flags. the person is given a provisional period where he is allowed to work till the check is cleared. if a problem comes back, the worker is given time to rectify their record if there has been

some problem. at some point, you are supposed to get a check to allow your worker to continue working. host: how often do somebody come back is unauthorized? guest: that is one of the rubs with this program. there have been several studies done that question how often it flags people undocumented. one study done in 2009 for the federal government, it turned out that 54% of undocumented immigrants run to the system were approved. that is because a lot of them were using stolen identities or identities they borrowed from relatives or friends. that study is old but we have not seen anything since updating the data but it shows there are big problems and these numbers can get big. there are over 30 million e-verify checks run in this country last year. 8000 companies are using this because they are required.

we are talking big numbers. host: the e-verify system topic for our conversation with alan gomez. republicans: 202-748-8001 eastern time zones. you can also post thoughts on quit or -- twitter. what is typically the reaction from business owners about this system? do they embrace it? are they hesitant? guest: i think there is two reactions. there is a pretty broad agreement that there should be some system in this country to check if that person sitting in front of you is eligible to work. so you do not have to run its to problems later if they turn out to be undocumented and the question of whether you knowingly hired someone or not. there is some agreement that

some system like e-verify is made better should be there. but especially in industries that rely knowingly are not on the undocumented population. there is resistance. industry,icultural which is what we are focusing on in this story, they are arguing if you implement e-verify tomorrow, a lot of their workforce is going to disappear quickly and that is going to affect their businesses and consumer prices and have a snowball effect. they say they need a workable system or they are allowed to bring in foreign laborers to work the harvest and fields because they cannot find enough american workers to do those jobs. they say they can take it. , butey implement e-verify

expand our guest worker program. if they can get the workers they need, once they are driven to the e-verify program. host: in the mollie tibbetts case, what is the, but expand our guest worker liabilid legal recourse? guest: iowa is not a state that requires all employers to use e-verify so there is no legal obligation for the owners of that farm to use this system. they voluntarily -- at first they said they had been using e-verify. turns out the person who ran the checks was using a different throughhere you can run the social security administration, make sure a name and d.o.b. matchup. that does not check the other things we're talking about. there is no liability. they were not required to run somebody to the e-verify system. they willafter this, proactively begin using the program because they want to ensure all future workers they hire around to the system properly. to thehen it comes

states that have the system, how many states compared to the rest of the united states? guest: right now it is 24 states that require some businesses to use e-verify. some cases, for the most part our state contractors. some work for the state the government -- state government. the larger businesses, the universitythe larger businessese university systems and some of the states are required to use. they have taken different approaches and implements desperate women to different rules but there are 24 states using it now. there is always talk about expanding that. in 2010, when arizona passed its 1070 lawon law, the sb that raised headlines, and that several states followed suit, that is when a lot of them started adopting e-verify. we are up to 24 states. host: this is buffalo, kentucky.

james, you're on with our guest. caller: thank you for c-span. also, i welcome y'all's guest. thank you. host: you are on. caller: thank you for c-span and thank you for your guest. here is how i feel. illegalothing against immigration. i'm not a racist. toeel if you should come in this country illegally, it would -- should be a ten-year sentence. the liberals should be paying for it. and i am talking paying my heart taxes. and another thing. the liberals, it is ok for people to die. i lost a brother to an illegal. the liberals are like, well as

long as it does not happen to my family. happen, you got what you asked for. host: do you have a question directed to that? caller: that is the thing too. you should use e-verify and the reason why people do not go out and work, is because it is temporary and they do not pay enough. i do not care what they say. there's not enough money. the farmers are making out like a bandit. the farmer is making out like a bandit and as greedy as all get out. host: pick from that as you wish. guest: my condolences to your family for whatever happens there, but several issues there. when it comes to when you talk about the greed when it comes to farmers, now we have a program that is the main visa that employers used to bring in guest

workers to work in agriculture. in that case, what is happening is that program requires employers to show that they are paying a decent wage and that they have advertised that job. and that they have done it extensively. i have sat down with farmers. they have to post the job in local newspapers. they have to post in state employment board websites and get the word out that they have advertised it as much as they could and could not find anybody to work it. this is run to the department of labor. there is a check the department of labor runs whenever these pieces are being applied for to ensure they are not paying under minimum wage or cheap prices. the mechanism that is in the process that they are trying to ensure, that if you bring a guest worker, you are paying a decent wage.

that program has a lot of flaws and it is something congress needs to get into an something congress needs to improve to to improve to ensure the kind of things you are talking about. hearing from pam in florida, go ahead for -- ahead. caller: you said 54% of a successfullyrants run through the system using friends and family id, so my first question is, how would you know that? my second question is, use of the study was done in 2009. why has there not been anything more recent? guest: two good questions. study was run by a private company that was doing pork for u.s. citizenshi services. they did a follow-up study in

2012, but they did not cite that statistic in that report and ever since, there has not really been that big of a push to law in thisify country which means agencies have not spent as much time analyzing the program. we are all waiting to see a good update on the success of the program, the flaws, and how much is been corrected. three steps, create a st, close thet co case -- how long is that transaction? guest: it could take a couple of minutes. checkit, you get a green but comes back and the vast majority of cases, that's what happens. 99% ofike 90% or

e-verify checks come back with that check mark to allow a person to start working for -- working. you're a tentative, nonconfirmation, a tnc, that tells the employer there is something wrong here than that is on the employee to go deal with the social security administration, deal with the federal agencies responsible for clearing up their record to clear up whatever discrepancy there is so they can be approved. or if they are using stolen identification, and many cases, that person goes to another company or if we're talking about unscrupulous employers, they will find another identification for that person to use. host: from kentucky, ron, go ahead. caller: i have used e-verify for years and i wanted to bring out

a couple of points. blamed e-verify for the incident but if theed, employer had used a valid drivers license which has a photo id and makes sure that person was who it said it was on the valid drivers license, you cannot blame e-verify when the couldoyed -- employer of been able to make sure the person in the drivers license valid id photo matched up with the person sitting in front of them. that was one thing. i am not sure how we tied in tidbits of the tragic death into the employer-immigration thing. there was some 30,000 people killed by guns in the last 12 months, and nobody is talked about that but they did want to bring up this one issue.

guest: it is really interesting what he is saying. -- there is a lot of questions about how much rononsibilty somebody like should have in the determining of someone in front of them. the way the law is written, if ged,s blatantly for their responsibility to turn that person down, but there are a lot of good forgeries out there and it is very difficult and asking a lot of employers to be the first line of defense when it comes to these things. there are a lot of steps in the e-verify process, but that is one of the things they are looking at when they talk about improving and making modifications. on the second

point, the reason we are talking about this and the reason molly case became as prominent as it did is because within a minute of the farm owner -- the law-enforcement official announcing the arrest, as soon as he said that rivera was in the country immediately, we heard the ramifications. huckabee saying that shows how sanctuary cities are discouraging and we need to crack down. president trump cited the case in a broader discussion about illegal immigration and the dangers posed. the reason it is on our front page this morning is because republicans were very quick to make this an issue. a of them brought it back to 2016 in a very similar but different case with the woman

who was -- died in san francisco and an undocumented immigrant was suspected in her murder. it was very important for us to provide context about the e-verify system, about undocumented immigrant laborer in the agricultural industry because immediately, this was made a political issue. said the employer has the responsibility to turn someone down if they do not pass the test. do they have the responsibility to report their concerns to authorities? guest: they do not. people are running a lot of these checks, so they will come in -- if that person is turned down and not work authorized, the employer, all they have to do is say, sorry, you are not turning up authorized.

if they get a final nonconfirmation, they are officially deemed as not being work authorized. all the employer has to do is i amthank you very much, sorry, you are going to have to go. there is no requirement to call ice. host: your story of the number of employees in the e-verify being enrolled started about 5300 grew to 800,000 -- what do you cite that growth to? mental growth in the last decade using this program. a lot of it has to do with states passing laws requiring the companies to use the program. one of the other things that especiallyemployers, in industries like agriculture and construction which are very heavy with undocumented of them will lot voluntarily sign up for the program. i've heard from attorneys who tell me, they do so under pressure from the federal

government to threaten to raid their factory, nursery, or farms. they will sign, up for the program. or under the obama administration, they used a lot of what is referred to as i-9 audits. george w. bush used the high-profile work raids, president obama went with the bureaucratic report with a audited all paperwork. can reallyof audits drain a company and make it difficult for them to continue their normal operations to operate without the cloud of uncertainty over them. a lot of them take the steps of signing up. companies that just wants a sign-up to show that they are trying to abide by the work authorization rules and stay away from a federal audit or big raids.

gomez is joining us to walk us through the e-verify system. that is part of the story can today." oday's "usa michael, go ahead. caller: in my opinion, the not what told work for the low wages on the farm if the liberals would push a living wage on the farmers push for atrying to living wage in mcdonald's and a taco bell. wage, and ascent long as the u.s. chamber of commerce and the business roundtable have their claws in , they are, you know not going to pay a living wage.

host: got you, michael. mcdonald's, targets, do they fall into the e-verify system? guest: i am not sure how much they get into it to be honest. i've not looked at these bigger companies. michael brings up a good point. employers are paying -- to bekers clear, there are plenty of employers out there who knowingly and willingly recruit to try to america bring workers into the united states knowing full well they are going to pay them well below market rate and the knowing the condition some of these people have been put through is remarkable. they will put these workers as and thatd servants, normally takes up the job of what drives down the average wage for other workers in the field. i have metell you,

with so many farmers and a lot of them around the country want to do this right. some of them are doing quite well and they have no problem paying very good wages to their worker. they needed a program that works so they can have a consistent opposed to scattered approach the a lot of them have to take by just picking up whatever immigrants coming in, and praying that they are here legally. host: john from iowa, hi. gomez, you are the one that is starting to politicize this. chuck schumer and none opposed to of the other gud anything about this. and i just do not know why you

want to politicize it. had arl is dead, the kid license out there killing people -- somebody is the verify or is going to keep happening. writing about the e-verify and the state of undocumented workers in the agricultural industry, i did not hear the news about the molly -- mollie tibb etts death. the president spoke about it immediately. there were republicans throughout that day who immediately were trying to turn this into a political issue. we are tying it again to the murder from 2016 and san francisco who was saying that the woman's death was reason to on sanctuary cities.

they were the ones to eating bats, they are the ones saying that on fox news throughout that and that is why later that night i decided to write a story about the politicization of that case and how quickly it backned and why we came with a more in-depth look at the agricultural labor situation to lay out some facts. we have a story today and we had a story couple of days ago with a more in-depth look that is a basic explainer of the e-verify program. politicizetrying to this, we are just reacting to what happened in washington after the news of her death was announced. host: from new orleans, this is walter. i appreciate c-span taking my call. about whatstion initiates this e-verify?

if i'm an employer out there and i have a group of people, prospective employees, and some of them i believe, by the pointge they use, at that , do you have to initiate the airfare -- the e-verify, and when does it end? guest: that would tell you that i hope you do not question immigration status of people based on the way that they look or the language they speak. if you use e-verify, you are supposed to use it for all new hires. under all laws passed by washington and the 24 states we are talking about, none of them require employers to go back and check all of their employees on staff. it is a forward-looking system. the way they have been passing these laws is to look at new hires. once you are enrolled in

e-verify and using that program, you are supposed to use it on all employees on matter what they look like or darling which scales. systemhey've a patchwork of 24 states, is their efforts in congress to make a 50 state type of system? guest: absolutely. there are a couple of republicans, representative lamar smith from texas has been anhing in e-verify -- e-verify bill for years. it would require e-verify to be nationwide. this is one of the interesting e-verify bill for years. things -- and obviously, his bill has gone quite a lot of attention in the past week, people saying queenie to look strongly at that. president trump -- people think we need to look strongly at that. trump has always maintained e-verify is one of the pillars of histhings immigration enforcement.

he wants that to be nationalized as well. the reason it has not gotten there is because democrats insist, and a lot of republicans as well, insist on the guest wor areprogram before they willing to require every company to use e-verify. host: could the president to make an executive order and order states to employ this e-verify system. -- e-verify system? in the president has very broad authority when it comes to our nation's immigration laws, but this is something that congress would need to pass. they signed a law by president clinton in 1996 that created the first e-verify pilot program, and the president would have to go back to congress for to be required nationwide. host: from virginia, we will hear from jay. caller: good morning. i want to tell you a story about

what happened around here. there is a lumberyard right down the road. up and told him they would do an inspection on them. the employer took all of his illegal aliens and ship them down to north carolina to a mot el room the whole day and night until the next day, ice came and inspected. if you gave them jail time, fromn't that stop them shipping them out? guest: are you referring to the jail time for the employers or the workers? host: i apologize, i already let them go.

guest: jail time for the undocumented immigrants themselves as one way to solve this problem as we already heard if you ares, but talking about the employer in that case, that is true. that is a flagrant violation of all kinds of laws. that is one of the things that democrats and a lot of people would like to see changed. it is impossible to just say undocumented immigrants are committing wrong here. we have a long history of employers who are more than to conceal that they are working here. down onou crack employers, what kind of penalties do they face, what kind of jail time do they face is one that has come up repeatedly. george w. bush

administration, the audits of the employers themselves -- so under president bush, focusing on those high-profile worksite rounding up dozens of workers at a time, and arresting all of them -- but under his administration, they ran about audits of-- 503 employers. when obama came into office, they pushed that up to over 2000 audits of employers every year. bush administration, one company was barred from getting federal contracts. in the obama administration, it is over 700. he shifted the focus quite a bit to employers. under the trump administration we have seen the all of the above approach. they are going after workers, employers -- and

they have increased radically the audits of the employers. in the first half of fiscal 2018, there were over 2200 audits of employers so that could end up being the double of what it was under obama which is already quite a bit more than it was under president bush. we are seeing a gradual increase in the focus that is being paid on these employers. where bush was more on the employees, obama is under the employers -- trump is going after everybody. host: the dallas morning news reporting that hundreds of workers suspected. january, the administration ran a high profile raid against 7-eleven can be in stores around the country.

we have started to see some very, very big raids around the country. of first six or seven month the top administration, i was wondering if they would employ that. now we are seeing that and it has become clear, that was the intention from the beginning. it just takes a longer time to carry out these big operations. what we have been seeing over the past year, ice and other agencies have been doing the legwork to do these big raids which is why we have seen so many of them. perfect timing to show just another one in texas. host: from oklahoma, you are on. caller: yes, sir. thank you for being neutral, your facts are against both parties, the employers, and the employees. thank you for remaining neutral. workers, itly the is also their kids. when i moved from state to

state, my son do not have a vaccine that was required here and they would not let him start school until he had that. but the students that are coming in -- there are illegal students in the high school, and those cats do not have to have immunization records. e-verify, that should apply to everything. we have to have id to get a te -- i license, to vo do not know about everywhere, but here, i do. i am a disabled veteran so just to get my access at the v.a., i have to have my id card. takene thing that i did exception to was the word that you said that everybody had automatically politicized it. it is not a political issue, it is a commonsense issue. the people are breaking our laws and sneaking into our country.

i have a wall around my yard. i guarantee that nancy pelosi has a wall around her property. the white house has a wall all around its property. it is for security. guest: a few points made there -- we would need a whole other show to focus on the border wall, but the idea that you need id to be clear. to be clear, you still have to show a valid form of photo identification, to show that that is you, to show your id and to prove who you are. what the e-verify program does is takes all of that and that is the next step. it is one more way of verifying. right now, the only

responsibility for an employer who does not participate and does not have to participate in the e-verify is that they get the worker's information, get and if it's id, looks ok, you're not supposed to be able to decide that that person is not the person that they are claiming to be on the edification card. -- the identification card. the e-verify system is to help the employer and do that work for them. host: on the ipad, we have the it, itm, and underneath seems like several pages, one for basic information, one for the employer section, and a list of unacceptable documents allowed. guest: right. information you are providing is your name, date of birth, and social security number. everything else is just more information to verify that. host: a copy of the i-9 form is available online. let's go to iowa, tom is next.

caller: yes, i wanted to make a comment. i've a relative in the midwest, they have a 10 acre horse ranch, and they hired two illegal on the ranch for five years, paid them $200 cash a week, and every year they would go back to mexico, visit their family, and return. they were absolute gentleman, hard workers. i do not have any other point but just to give you an example. guest: i will tell you, i've heard those examples throughout my career. i've covered immigration for a long time and here firsthand -- and hear, for -- and hear, firsthand those stories. i bet the employer once the

workers to be able to do what they do legally. and return to their family. thethat is the problem was system right now, it makes it so difficult and it is so cumbersome and so hard for these ranchers and farmers to use that a lot of people use it it is their- only option, but i bet a lot of farmers and ranchers wish they could do with the gentleman you are referring to is doing. host: is it a specific type of software -- how complex is it or is it just something you do online? guest: you can do it on your laptop, ipad. you go to the e-verify website, you're anre, if employer, you can assign up your company and put in all of your information that you are signing up for the program, and then

to ayou are in, you go different page on the website that allows you to start inputting information for your job applicants, people who are coming to work at your place. it all comes back online, it will show you immediately within a couple of minutes at that worker is verified, if there is a problem, it will alert you, you tell the worker to go and see if they can resolve that problem, and in all of the updates and the changes in the case, everything is reflected in the website. a new not the download program, and was designed to be as easy to use as possible. we have talked about a couple of the red flags with the problems with the program so far, but it was designed to be as quick and easy as possible. host: ellen from california. caller: i have been thinking about the problem with the legal aliens for a long time -- with

the illegal aliens for a long time. i'm very fond of the mexican people and culture but illegal is illegal. the main problem is the social security administration and this goes back to the report from do not clean up the social security number files. there are people who are been dead for years that still have active social security numbers, in this report, there had two corporations that 35,000 tax returns that could not be verified because of the numbers not had matching, and there are many people on one social security number or enough money that one person would are in a lifetime instead of a year.

i believe the president could clean it up with an executive order to clean up social security. secondly, make e-verify mandato ry for everyone. individuals, people who are going out to try to get construction jobs and they see that there are illegals on site, report the company. make these companies pay a huge fine. make them pay major fines and perhaps jail time. host: thank you for the call, we will let our guests respond. guest: on the second point, we are differently saying that under president trump, cracking down on employers. but you raise a good point. one of the things that any of for isills calls

cleaning up these databases maintained by the social security administration and homeland security to ensure they can communicate better. one of the big problems they have are people who are deceased but the social security numbers are still active. provisions would allow somebody to lock in their social security numbers so no one else could use itcleaning us maintained by the social security administration and homeland unless you approve it. several people getting jobs based on one stolen or fake identification. the other component is that there is so many other errors in these databases where if you have -- happen to have a common name -- and a lot of asian names, a lot of hispanic ofes -- there are a lot flags that go up when you put in your name. one of the studies suggested -- 100 64,000 illegal workers would be flagged because of problems with databases and problems with

inputting our names into the systems. everyone agrees that we need to clean up those databases. host: one more call it, tony from new orleans. caller: first-time caller, longtime listener. i've been listening since about 1981. i've watched c-span. back in 1986, i was in los angeles visiting a friend. we were watching these boards of cars pull up to the border right at the san diego coming from tijuana, and 15 or 20 people would jump out of the car and run across an oncoming traffic. hartmanfind out, tom was discussing these companies in wisconsin, south dakota were running spanish ads in mexico.

telling them it, if you can get here, we will pay you $16 an hour. ronald reagan stopped prosecuting the employers for each violation of each employee. when he stopped prosecuting the employer, you see this sudden flood of people coming to america. just a look back at the beginning when this first started. when you start seeing all of these people rushing to america. weay, we look at and say have 30 million people in america who are basically undocumented. i do not have a position one way against them, but we have to look at the facts. host: thanks for the call. guest: with about 11 million people in the country who are undocumented in the country right now, but i think the caller raises an interesting cite for you-- this countries had this debate for a very, very long time. even in times when the united

states was trying to minimize people coming into the country during world war ii when we were sending people to japanese internment camps, we had a separate program that allowed workers to come into our country and work our fields. millions of people came in that way. when president reagan signed into law what is now referred to as the amnesty of 1986, almost half of the people who got amnesty -- about 1.1 million of them were agriculture workers. with13 when the senate debating an immigration bill, there was one special card voucher for agriculture. aboutgislation talked with representative smith, to nationalize e-verify, the only caveat is for agricultural workers.

they have 2.5 years before they have to start using e-verify on their fieldworkers because there always been a recognition in this country that a lot of that work is done by undocumented immigrants. here we are now hopefully trying to have a discussion in washington to try it to moderniz -- to finally modernize that program. host: alan gomez joining us from miami, thank you for your time. guest: thank you. host: we will have open phones until 10:00. republicans,1 for (202) 748-8000 for democrats, (202) 748-8002 for independents. ♪ livein us for booktv's coverage of the 18th annual library of congress national book festival. a.m., ourt 10:00 coverage and includes a viewer call in from our set at the washington convention center

with pulitzer prize-winning biographer john meacham and his america." soul of historianrize-winning with her book. host and his book "andrew jackson and amerco of new orleans." annual national book festival. live on saturday at 10:00 a.m. eastern. q&a,nday night on historian charles calhoun talks about his biography on the 23rd president of the united states, benjamin harrison. >> he was in indianapolis and at his house, he gave four speeches that day. thisampaign people said,

is the thing to do, let people come to you. over the next four or five months until the election, that is what happened. he stayed home, you slept in his own bed, he would meet these delegations from around the state, around the country, often, they would be very special interest groups -- cotton farmers, coal miners, whatever -- and harrison would give them a short speech. mostly attuned to their own interests but something that would resonate generally and he had his own stenographer take down what he said, then he would go over what he had said and make sure it was what he wanted people to read, he gave it to the "associated press." onhistorian charles calhoun q&a. >> "washington journal"

continues. host: a couple of different ways you can participate in open phones, off of twitter @cspanwj, you can post on our facebook page, facebook.com/c-span. republicans, democrats, an independents. if you go to "the new york a conversation saying there is a building named known as the conscious of the senate. standing alone is a building with the namesake. when they famously broke the filibuster of the civil rights led theator russell

filibuster that almost killed the bill, a show of defiance that underscored his support of racial segregation and white supremacy. leader is now writing a letter to rechristened the building to honor john mccain. -- name would be a race and would be erased. they use the augusta senate of chamber to press the white supremacist cause. a number of republicans including the senate majority leader of mitch mcconnell appeared ready on tuesday to dodge the issue. mr. mcconnell said he would appoint a bipartisan group of senators to hash out ways to honor senator mccain. -- would be erased.

that is in "the new york times." the open phones starting is off in california, democrat line. reggie, go ahead. caller: yes. i've been a union painter for 20 years in california. are in thespanic men union, they do not employ the black painters in the union. they send you away and there is no recourse had it with the union. i would like to know what could be done about that? host: what would you like to see done? what i would like to see done is across the board where everybody is employed equally. they would at least give you the opportunity to paint to see if you are

excellent or not. they do not even give you the opportunity to do that or not. it falls on deaf ears when you go to the union and complain about it. host: richard, west virginia on the republican line. last caller was talking about immigration, i think you did a reasonably good job of staying neutral. [indiscernible] it was interesting to me that the last thing he says he remembered[indiscernible] it was interesting to me that the last thing he says he remembered was that she was going to call police if he did not leave her alone. and judging by the fact that the [indiscernible] fella had illegal identification, it is certainly a possibility that the reason he went off on her was he was afraid of being caught and being deported. that in my view the way that

illegal immigration played into the soul murder. host: isaac from texas, republican line. isaac, hello? caller: yes, i was calling in regards to speaking to your last guest, talking about the girl that had gotten killed by the illegal immigrant. he did not mention anything about the boy who was 24 years twothat killed those people, can you tell me why he did not discuss that? host: anthony is next from new york. caller: thank you for the dialogue. i would like to hearken back to stories that have not been revisited as far as the clinton administration. when mclean's first game to office, half of his inter-circle of the cabinet of appointees could not take the position because they all had illegal workers whether it was nannies,

chauffeurs -- they had businesses of undocumented workers. overnight, clinton had changed the laws so he can have his cabinet. there was another story where the clintons had a briefcase of $150,000 in cash cken to hillary clinton's campaign which he first ran for office. the briefcase had been stolen from the house, it was the daughter of tyson's chicken had a party and one of her guests had stolen the briefcase. it just shows you that there is a blatant abuse by the a stock in by the aristocracy this country when it comes to immigration. unless we address it at the top of the food chain, it is not going to stop.

but the rules have been blatantly abused and it needs to be addressed on that level. you keep looking down and you really need to look up to fix this problem. hello.eorgia, cheryl, caller: thank you for taking my call. i want to bring up something that is a real, real old. the polarization of the republicans and the democrats is horrific. sometimes, the president speaks about democrats like they are d irt. i do not even think my president likes democrats and i am a democrat. it is unfortunate. i know the polarization did not just happen under president trump, but it has accelerated for you -- accelerated. host: a story in the "washington about i private meeting that the president held

with evangelical leaders. the president warning those leaders of violence. it was a closed-door meeting with those leaders but president trump warned of violence on the left if him a cat 3 take control of congress in november. the comments which mark an escalation of trump's rhetoric come after deep investigation into the president's associates. they will overturn everything that we have done and they will do it quickly and violently -- and trump told the assembled leaders at the white house dinner according to reports tuesday going on to say, "there is violence when you look at antifa and you look at some of these groups -- these are violent people." tampa, florida, democrat line, hello. caller: hello. i'm a registered democrat. i am a christian first, a

registered democrat, though i have not always voted democrat. that i wish that everyone would stop saying -- mainly trump -- that all is open borders and criminals. i believe in securing our borders, i just do not believe in exactly the same manner that they do. i am not for open borders and i do not want criminals here. i believe in ice,i am i do belie it should be are formed, and that is why i voted for gill am, and i hope he can united florida. host: what do you think about his overall chances against ron desantis? caller: i did not think he had much of a chance against gwen graham, and i was very proud that i made my choice.

my choice as a personal choice because i listened to his speeches and my debate and i made it as a personal choice because he did have the gumption that he wanted to join and to unite all of us and i think that is what we need across america. not division. i do not care that he is a democrat or republican, i want to muddy that is going to reunite -- i want to muddy that is going to reunite america and not divide america. host: does affect the bernie sanders endorsed him influence your decision at all. caller: actually, i did not even know that he did that? i watched the debates and i watched some of his speeches but mainly as commercials. makes you want to stand up and say, what can i do 55-year-old person who is

, cannot make it paycheck-to-paycheck -- what can i do? i said, the only thing i can do is cast my vote for a man i believe could make a difference in florida. host: lisa from tampa, florida talking about some of those primary results. you go to our website, there will be a breakdown that we did earlier today. florida, arizona, and oklahoma. out of arizona, the arizona republic highlighting that it is two in that race for the senate. tweeting out ant tweet of support for martha is any saying she extraordinary woman, she is a highly respected member of congress, she is strong on crime , the border, and are under siege second amendment. as my total and complete endorsement. that is in the president's

twitter account. from west virginia, republican line, hello. caller: hello. this is -- thank you for taking my call. in the 1980's, i was a truck driver in north carolina. i saw thousands of people lost their jobs. mexicans in the textile mills, i would watch them get paid in cash every week or so, and they would tell me that down in mexico, there are places that had billboards where they would have names and the towns and phone numbers and they could go downet -- they would come to the border, bring them back to work and north carolina in the mills you legally. host: independent line from annie, tampa bay, florida. i cannot believe i got

through so close to the lady out here in tampa. i am north of tampa and i wanted to tell her that i did see the i cannot believe i got through so close to the lady debate, and my husband and i did discuss. i am 61 with disability, we vote very religiously. live in mr. coyly's district. i wanted her to know that it is not going to turn out. he is a great debater. he really is. the other thing i wanted to tell her is that the reason it will not work out for the democratic party here in florida is because of the diversity in terms of the agenda for the democratic party here in florida. it is just not going to work out. really am sad because i see a parallel with him with barack obama. i wanted to vote for barack obama and we had a family reunion and we all sat down and

discussed it, and it turned out exactly what it turned out for her. office, gets gillam in i'm going to give him an open and and i love gwen graham, i want you to know, it is not going to work out for her. host: the jew -- did you vote for ron desantis then? caller: we did do desantis because we know what putnam is up to. and one more thing to the lady, i do want this to happen for you with mr. gillam, he is a great debater. i do not see him going forward. isfar as mr. desantis concerned, is just like donald trump, the people who voted for donald trump, we are going to give him some time, but it is a short leash. host: when it comes to the

senator race in florida, who did you vote for? caller: i am an independent so i would have to give you my husband's phone. host: peter, washington, pennsylvania. republican line. caller: thank you for taking my call. i am very concerned. i think this country in general is becoming very violent. i've just seen the producers of get overun is going to the internet, you can get it that way. basically, i see the struggle between democrats and republicans. it is like a struggle between the mensheviks and the beingviks -- mensheviks the majority which is the democratic machine. they seem to be at every branch in every part of government. becamelast year republican, but i think the

russians have accomplished their goal which is not to be -- pick any particular party -- but cause chaos and violence in this country. we even have some people in the espousing violence. host: let's hear from michael in new jersey, democrats line. caller: i am in the construction business. bring twoted to things into the discussion. aree i live, there sometimes 50 men hanging out on church a lot at 6:30 in the morning, by 8:00 in the morning, they have all gotten jobs for $15 an hour, 10 hours a day, five or six days a week. the wholeircumventing system. many of them are collecting social services, i suspect.

everybody in town knows that these people are getting paid, but nobody wants to enforce the laws. why? i do not know. maybe because there are no penalties to the employers. the second thing, construction work and manhattan. there are a lot of construction workers from port countries -- from poor countries that overstay their visas. i hardly ever see the discussion. it is so blatant in the construction business i just figured i would put it out there for people to chew on. host: carmen from florida, democrat line. caller: i am a little concerned with the immigration laws. they, for many years, knew that people were standing in the corners and being picked up, ok? and they did nothing about it. now we are talking by 1980's and we here in the 2018, now it is

out of control. nobody knows who is where, what they are doing, but the government know that we have a have illegal people and they also know where they are stationed. we need to go out there and enforce the law and give these companies that know the immigrants. -- know the immigrants high-fives. host: al is next. last night before i went to bed, i saw that a democrat wanted to give free insurance to all illegal aliens. i cannot even afford mind right now. -- mine right now. host: linda from florida. caller: si se puede!

yes we can. i am so glad that andrew gillam n the democratic primary and we are going to get him in. nevertheless, what the lady had n the democratic primary and we are going to get him in. to say from florida who said she was voting for a religious aspects. keep your relationship with god to yourself. that is a personal thing. host: technically -- you have put a wall t, butn you put a bu think about what she also said. , he is in for barack the same vein as barack, give him a chance, i am open to this is for what sant he said. host: from greg in raleigh,

north carolina. caller: thank you. i've traveled quite a bit throughout the united states. temporarily, anyway, and north carolina. back in 1986 and i came to north carolina, on sunday afternoons did not have to work in the tobacco fields, they would dress up in their best to shirt, pants, boots, and relax with the family. they have a tendency to gather around a large grocery store. would be picking tobacco and tobacco was hammered and faced out. they started and a landscaping area and that displaced blacks. , andgot the concrete that displaced blacks. they started doing the trimwork,

plumbing, heating, air i was aning, until superintendent on the job for 20 years. my son -- the pathmy they have taken, pretty much to the top of the field. with aeman pulls up helper, both of them are spanish and neither of them can speak english, a contract in my company was lebananian. host: patrick, hi. agree. i was going to the immigrants, they come in illegal and they have been artificially keeping the wages depressed in the country well before 1985. we had an immigration bill back then and more people even came,

the first wave we had. i think ronald reagan, his administration. the men that are working in these construction sites, their wages would increase tremendously if it was not for all of these immigrant wages. they come in and they cut the job down to half the price with what a regular contractor would charge. host: by the way, on open phones -- twitter, catdog putting out there, where are trump's taxes? in twitterticipate and on our facebook page, you can post your thoughts there, too. mary in kentucky, republican line. caller: i just want to say, i agree with that fella just before me with all of his comments. why don't they make some of this immigration enforcement, why

don't they take it to the state and local levels and have more enforcement through them? that is my only comment. host: cindy in wisconsin, independent line. caller:that is my only comment. people who i really believe are quite e many end want to give benefits to illegal aliens need to realize that the only money that the government has the giveaway is the money that we than the to other unbelievable amount we borrow from other countries like china. the money we are giving away is our money. thank you. concerningal events senator john mccain to take place this week. a ceremony at the lies in state in arizona today. a lie in state at the u.s. and thenn friday,

saturday, funeral at the national cathedral. youh of those on c-span, can also do that on our c-span radio app. from st. louis, missouri, study talk will about what the republicans are doing. republicans aren't doing anything for the poor people. i don't understand. lying.t to stop i have diabetes. you are trying to take away our health insurance. he's not doing anything in the white house. off every weekend. he doesn't care about people. goodbye. this is from the washington post this morning. saying lawmakers issued a rare view of president rouhani.

host: from illinois. next up is lee on the independent line.

caller: thank you for taking my call. the rhetoric about everything but there is one thing that everybody is talking about social security. republicans keep up with what they are doing, we won't have anything at all because in security out of his own account and then they encrypted us. the democrats do the forensic accounting and put it into an account along with all of the interest we have lost since then. we wouldn't even be close to being broke. host: that was lee from illinois

. we go to renee from north carolina. i'm sorry, illinois as well. caller: i wanted to congratulate gillingham on a historic win. what the days ahead are for us but we may need to come together to support each other in one way or another. and i wanted to encourage everyone as humans. host: you are congratulating someone who won in florida, why is that? caller: it was an historic event. it was someone who suggested it was a barack obama event. it stood out. we need each other and i wanted

to encourage and congratulate those who won and that we pray for one another in the way that god tells us to. on the republican line. hello. caller: thank you for taking my call. i wanted to speak about the previous scholar who said that trump hasn't instituted any policies benefiting the poor class in the country. i am part of the poor class myself. i am now making more money than i ever have and i am paying less taxes. and according to everything put out, we have less food stamp participation and historical lows in minority unemployment. host: that was edwin's call. now, we take you to the u.s. chamber of commerce hosting their a