during washington journal starting at 9:40 a.m.. withspan newsmakers democratic senator patrick leahy of vermont. followed by communicators with the u.s. telecom president and ceo talking about 5g development and broadband expansion. then a conversation with clarence thomas about law and the judicial confirmation process. later, supreme court justice ruth bader ginsburg talks about her career and creating diversity within the legal profession. this week on newsmakers, vermont senator democrat patrick leahy is with us for this week's newsmakers. we have a newspaper congressional reporter and an appropriations budget reporter. senator, we are going to kick

off with the conversation about judge brett kavanaugh. >> the new yorker came out this morning detailing an alleged attempted sexual abuse by kavanaugh in high school, a woman is alleging that he held her down when he was 17 and attempted to abuse her. i am wondering what your take is on this. do you think this confirmation process could consider and tell more evidence is found? >> i have not seen the story. on the process is -- this is then same republican leadership that for years, stalled any action on . supreme court nominee it stopped merrick garland who would have been confirmed overwhelmingly.

they wanted to see how the elections came out and allowed president trump to nominate whoever he wanted. now they are rushing to get done before the midterm election. as a result, there are thousands upon thousands of pages of material have never received about judge kavanaugh. a lot of background things we have not received. the issue you have raised, i cannot talk about it. i have not seen the article. any issues that have come a have been turned over to the people who do the background investigations. we will see what they come up with. >> we should note in the new yorker that by kavanaugh released a statement saying he categorically and unequivocally denies the allegation and that he did not do this high school or anytime. thatnator durbin suggested the confirmation process should be delayed until the fbi can

further investigate this. >> that would make sense. what difference does it make? we're talking about a lifetime appointment. two weeks, three weeks. whetherican people, they are republicans or democrats, are going to face the consequences of who goes on the supreme court. let the investigation get done. at a few more weeks and release all of the papers that the archivists say would take until sometime in october to get. when president obama nominated -- i was chairman of the committee, the ranking republican was jeff sessions. he said we wanted all of her papers and memos from when she was at the white house. i said ok. we joined together in a letter to the requested. we got 99%.

get, wee did not realized we did not meet those. the others for all their. -- there. we have 10% of judge kavanaugh's papers. >> it has been reported that the fbi is not seeking a criminal investigation into judge kavanaugh. cap the indicated to you or any members how they intend to proceed? senator patrick leahy: i am not the ranking member. i gave that up the -- to become the vice-chairman of appropriations. that is a question that they would discuss, i suspect, with senator grassley. >> i usually have my head buried an appropriations. senator patrick leahy: you work very hard. sometimes i am sympathetic because numbers of subsection

three and section five, blsah blah blah. >> i read all of the sections. [laughter] hasn at judge kavanaugh gone through other confirmation process, have you ever heard about this issue at all? i wonder why it did not come up. senator patrick leahy: i am just referring to a we have seen in the press. i have not heard about this before. >> is it appropriate that senator feinstein at this moment, a week before the senate judiciary committee is going to vote, make public this letter and asked the fbi to investigate? it is nottrick leahy: the fbi, i thought it was the people who did the background check. whoever it was, what would be inappropriate is if she had the allegations sent to her and did not have somebody look into it. >> but she has had it since july. she is patrick leahy:

usually very careful. and acts with integrity. i think about what would happen andhere was an allegation after a confirmation, somebody said, by the way, ask about this. again, this is the problem that happens when you rush something. when you get last-minute. i had things i wanted to ask judge kavanaugh about in the things thatecially are committee company -- confidential. i wanted to ask questions about that and at the end of the senate. about 3:00 in the morning of the hearing, they said ok. we're asking questions and there

was a republican staff member who still a lot of material from democrats on the committee. wanted to make public and we were finally allowed to, shows they were given to brett kavanaugh. some even suggest i do not want to meet with you at the white house or on capitol hill about my house or somewhere private because i want to show you these memos. the things he had were stolen. if senatorfy, feinstein had never shared the document, you think that would have been inappropriate? at least she shared it? senator patrick leahy: yeah. i allow the people to do the background checks. let them look at it and let them make the decision. i was a prosecutor for years. let's get the evidence to make

up our minds based on that. i have found that people do the background checks, whether they are republican or a democrat nominee, are very professional. they have to be given the time to do it. what point that have annoying -- kavanaugh issues bump into the senate schedule. do you think there could be antics that result from this? senator patrick leahy: i don't know. my work in the senate has been very concentrated on the appropriations bills. we have gone sometimes decades without getting them through. when i became vice-chairman, i and id working at cochran

color doing our work. doing what we are paid to do. and he became chairman, he his wife are very close friends , we areand marcel's poles apart politically, but we believe in the senate and we want to make it work. one of three committees and the senate who has a vice-chairman. we started working earlier this year, the two of us, we talked about it at great lengths and traveled together. we said, let's make it a place to grandstand the right or left. things that we

individually might like to have seen past, but no kill the process. on both sides. as a result, look where we are. the senate has moved our past it , farther past it and has in years or decades. we will continue to move. the appropriations bills will continue. i am looking at my notes. that is a trillion dollars. >> nearly. >> 999.8 billion. close enough. >> the senate has made great advances, the house, not as much but some advances on some things, looking at the way they have been able to --

consistently report. looking ahead to the elections, i wonder, how would democrats control things to family if they were in control in the house, the senate, and looking ahead further to the presidential election, how do you keep this bipartisan comity when there are a bunch of deals for the next fiscal year and there is a presidential election running up against the process you are carefully trying to manage? senator patrick leahy: excellent question. i have been there longer than anybody else. senate,ame to the republicans and democrats worked together. hubert humphrey and very go bar chitchat talking about things and work on a deal. nobody would ever break their word. to the senior

center with bob stafford, mr. republican. --m the only democrat democrat ever elected to the senate. we worked together. the senate really was the conscience of the nation when it did that. i want to come back there. i will continue to work hard. date shelby wants it. i do not know who will be in the majority next year, i hope democrats are. i want to continue to do this. i invite republicans and democrats to meet with me privately in my office at the capital, which has a beautiful view. we can sit around and chat about everything from our family to how do we get out of the bind we are in. let me tell you a short story of

how this works. back in the 80's, baker was the majority leader. he had a bill on the floor and he was going to keep us until midnight. some of us worked out a deal. we went into his office, ted kennedy, and myself and we worked it out. take a recess and we will have a written up tomorrow. we guarantee you we will go. we kept our word and we did it. 45 minutes after we left and all the staff had gone home, everyone had left the senate, a bomb went off. people forget. in a corridor outside the senate chamber. we came in in the morning to shards of glass. paintings were destroyed. you could smell the gunpowder. the doors were blown in and the place was a mess.

how many staff members would have been killed or injured?' how many senators would have been killed or injured? the majority leader took the word of republicans and democrats. i want to go back to those days. off, thery was better senate was better off. we can do it if we want to. >> going back to that, as a tool for appropriators, we see you are in support of this. senator patrick leahy: my earmarks are telling me a billion-dollar capital does not mean a billion plus 20 million per year. a, theyody proposes have to have their name on it. then we vote on it. understood why, when

we will not power really say how it is spent, we just turn it over to whoever is in the white house, republican or democrat. >> i wonder how you sell that to the american public who hears senator bob jones is getting his project. make suretrick leahy: it is all done publicly and openly. there -- you have something that people care about. sometimes what somebody wants is a pet thing but it turns out to be very good. when i was chairman of the agricultural committee, i wanted to get a bill to accept organic

farming in the country. it is a $52 and billion industry. almost every state in the country think of the people employed by that, the people who worked for that. sometimes these little things, they could be able to pass in a way that everybody knows what it is and it cannot be done behind closed doors. you have to have your name on it. >> i want to ask you about hurricane relief funding. i saw something that said we have $26 billion and the accounts. are we confident that will cover this hurricane season? senator patrick leahy: i don't know what is happening right this weekend. you watch the news and see pictures, it is something i have

never seen before. i remind everybody that we are the united states of america. i remember when hurricane irene hates and it was devastating. my parents told me about it when they were youngsters. huge distraction. i started getting emails and calls from other senators, including several very conservative republicans, saying, they stood with us when we had the earthquake or tornado and we will stay with you. we are the united case of , whether it is a volcano in hawaii, and earthquake in california, flooding in the carolinas, or puerto rico. we are all part of the country.

that is why i was worried about the way puerto rico was handled. they are americans. this is part of the u.s. what are we doing? we will do it. i have not talked to a single republican or democrat who has said we can't find the money. we will find it. which is why i am worried when i say, the white house taking money out of fema and putting it oro ways to support people handle the mess they made along the mexican u.s. border. >> the eighth two hurricane sandy became politicized. you don't anticipate that happening? senator patrick leahy: some might try to but i would fight against that to do now. while they are republican states, i will fight for them. >> i want to ask more broadly on hurricane aid. congress --t does

they cannot open the purse string anymore? we have these disasters after disaster of horrible weather and often in a very developed areas. how do you change how we approach that? senator patrick leahy: that is going to be a debate, and a debate we should have. open your eyes. we have to take steps on that. states have to take steps. we cannot have a place that is flooded out. two years ago, three years ago, four years ago. you don't have development in those areas. you have to start being realistic on it. realize that we are the united states of america. we have to figure out what is best.

there will be real debates on environment, global warming, on these things. you do not deny that by having the u.s. is the only country in the world pull out of global warming treaties. or agreement, rather. so. curious, i think it was your colleague who said in the past couple of days, that getting to a point of disruption and politicization that a supreme court nominated by president that needed to be confirmed by a senate controlled by the opposite party would no longer be able to do that. you agree? senator patrick leahy: i think the senate should be working the way it should be.

i voted for most of them, not all of them. you have republicans and democrats talk about what is best for the country. there worry about is that is destruction in the integrity of the federal courts if any president can politicizing. one president trump says i am going to have this at the -- at -- advocacy groups give me the names of who they will accept and i will pick from there, no. you are picking not for a single issue or inefficacy advocacy group, you are picking for the u.s. i think that is what is hurting the country. also, the senate should stand up and do what they should do. look at the terrible thing robber dead.

we forget republicans, and number of republicans voted against robert for. some democrats voted for him. it all the republicans voted for him, he would have been confirmed. would drygan hoped he his name. republicans said no, he should not be there and they voted against him. go back to the time when you can do that. anthony kennedy nominated by ronald reagan in a presidential election year one all that one or two votes in the senate, republicans and democrats. >> i have a burning question. how do you finish the fiscal 19 process, the current officiate -- appropriations process? given that the homeland security bill is so divisive and that president donald trump has made the wall between the u.s. and mexico seem like a keynote task for his signature for the bill.

does that mean we do not finish fiscal 19? senator patrick leahy: they take it out of money for cancer research, money for things that atually help us just to make that everybody has said will not work. we have parts of the wall. a wall across the whole western border, that is a fantasy. it would destroy a lot of people's homes, americans, texans. it totally breaks the promise that donald trump made during the campaign in mexico to pay for it. they will not pay one cent. >> now they say 5 billion is what they want. is that too much? senator patrick leahy: they want 30 billion.

it will probably be 40 billion. to the american people want $40 billion spent on a useless wall to fulfill a campaign promise that was never intended? or do you want to spend it on cancer research? approving the da health-care system? i could go through a whole list of things in the u.s. that we need. that is really the question. bring it to an upper down vote on the wall in the u.s. senate in the house of representatives. up or down. i guarantee you, it would not republicans and democrats know how foolish it looks to most americans. >> paul manafort's plea deal. senator patrick leahy: yeah. >> what is your reaction to it? what stands out to you about this? senator patrick leahy: we are

still getting the details. i was a prosecutor for years and i never had cases like that. i look first at what happened in virginia, where 11 of the 12 jurors wanted to convict him on all counts. one was a strong trump supporter who held out so there was a mistrial. but he still got convicted. on very serious cases. thereis, i would assume deal.plea out -- robert mueller is the own -- one person throughout all of this he does not speak to the press. i have known robert for years. i have avoided calling him during this for obvious reasons. he is very methodical.

prosecutor is a prosecutor. if this is a plea agreement on a case where they could have easily gotten him on all of the counts, i suspect there is an .greement for cooperation there must be a lot available in the corporation, at least that is looking through the eyes of a former prosecutor. >> does it give you a timeline for when will or might wrap up the investigation? myator patrick leahy: is hedge of mr. mueller is usually several months ahead of where all of us think he is. that is the mark of a good prosecutor. i don't know. he is not taking anywhere near as long as ken started. -- star did.

russia tryingat to take over our country through our election system. that worries me. russia is not our friend. i hope mr. mueller is able to find out exactly what they have done and to stop it from happening again. >> patrick leahy, thank you for being the 's maker. thank you so much. we are back with our reporters. kate, let's begin with the brett kavanaugh nomination for the supreme court. you are the senator request not just in light of the letter that senator dianne feinstein has sexualblic about alleged abuse when judge kavanaugh was in high school, but beyond that, democrats say that it does not take place. one is a vote supposed to take place?

>> sen. feinstein: knotting the letter public. but the allegations are public. the vote is scheduled to go forward on thursday, october 20. senator grassley has made no signs that he plans to delay. came out thisions morning, his office sent out a letter that 65 woman from judge 's life spoke toward his character. have accused senator feinstein as using a delay tactic. it remains to be seen what it looks like a plan to push forward with the date. >> october 20. one with the full senate picking up? >> i do not know if that has been decided yet. i am not sure. senator mcconnell has said he

would like it to happen soon. the other topic for senator patrick leahy was the budget appropriations process. he is the vice chair of the committee. by seeing what happened he has been able to do this or that they haven't been able to do in years past. >> is is a watershed moment for the senate. they have been trying for years to move bills to the process in a bipartisan manner. i think the joint effort by chairman richard shelby and senator patrick leahy has gotten a lot of these bills onto the floor and into conference. i was struck by his willingness to bring back your marks -- your marks when i asked him how or whether democrats might run things differently if they were in control. that follows along with what some republicans have been saying. minoritycrats, house

came out in favor of this. it shows that as congress puts more efforts into the appropriations process just in terms of time that they have been devoting to this on the floor and committee, they have relies that in order to find the specific projects it is hard to do it without an earmark especially if you have a little water project in alabama or something, a water treatment to fundow are you going that through a grant program? sometimes an earmark is the way that you fun things more efficiently and that was the pitch that senator leahy was making. things like the pretty interesting moment for appropriations reporters as it was just in 2010 everyone was saying the hall -- earmarks were the hallmark of corruption.

it sounds a the tone is changing. >> he sounded optimistic that withenate would help out the response to hurricane florence. that the congress would divide money that is needed for this hurricane and any other noticanes, the season is over but how would they do that? are we talking about an emergency supplemental bill? >> it depends on how much money is in the disaster relief fund and given the fiscal year starts october 23 -- october 1, given that the new fiscal year begins that date there would be a healthy amount of money in what is known as the disaster relief fund but it is possible with such profound flooding that we have seen because of the surging that those funds could be exhausted. what happens is in the aftermath inone of these storms fema partnership with state and local governments is responsible for putting together the disaster needs assessment.

either things that fema could do to open up those and so the paths will setup opening and the levels of funding will start draining. we need to wait for the white house request, more supplemental funds for the hurricane relief. it starts to get processed into the bill by the appropriators. that is when it goes through the house and senate process and it gets to that president. that would be an interesting and procedural issue that we will be watching in the next month or two. thank you for being part of this week's newsmakers. >> thursday morning, watch the senate judiciary committees debate and vote on the nomination of judge brett kavanaugh to the supreme court.

>> if this man is successful, he could become the deciding vote on major legal issues that americans care deeply about. to report to the committee for brett kavanaugh to be some -- justice of the supreme court. >> join us or us and with the .ree c-span radio app bob woodward is our washington journal guest monday at 7:00 a.m. eastern talking about his new book fear: trump in the white house and can star joins ,s to discuss his book contempt a memoir of the clinton investigation. watch next week on c-span's "washington journal." up next, the communicators takes a look at 5g development and

broadband expansion with u.s. telecom president and ceo jonathan alter. the conversation with clarence thomas about law and the judicial confirmation process. ginsberg talksor about her career in creating for city within the legal profession. >> c-span, where history unfolds daily. and 1979 c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies. today we continue to bring you unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court, and public policy events in washington, d.c. and around the country. c-span is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. >> u.s. telecom is a u.s. based trade association