[indistinct conversations] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2018] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> today on c-span, "washington journal" is next on live coverage of the house where they are working on a build to remove the gray wolf from the endangered species list. then british prime minister on brexit talks with the eu. in about an hour, we talked to retiring congressman ryan costello about the future of the republican party. the virginte from

islands will investigate the trump administration. and the president of the congressional management foundation, brad fitch, on their role in coaching new members of congress and their staffs. ♪ host: in election related news, utah's republican representative, who is losing by a thin margin has filed a lawsuit asking to stop the vote count so her campaign can issue challenges if they dispute the validity of mail-in ballots. eight house races, senate races in florida and mississippi and two in florida and georgia have yet to be called. this is the "washington journal" for november 15. our first hour directed at republicans.

we want to hear from you on the lessons learned since the 2018 midterms. you can talk about the loss of the house and the reasons why and if you think there are other factors that contributed to that. what happened during the 2018 midterms as far as results and what are the lessons to take away as you go to 2020? 202-748-8000 if you live in the eastern and central time zone. 202-748-8001 for the mountain and pacific time zone. and if you identify as a republican and want to comment on our social media sites, you can do so. it is @cspanwj for our twitter feed and if you want to post on facebook it is facebook.com/cspan. one of those people offering comments was jim jordan, who was in the running for minority leader of the house and did not win over kevin mccarthy. he was on fox news on sunday and gave his opinion on why he thinks republicans lost the house. [video clip] >> there was an intensity and

energy about the president of people appreciate. they saw that in the senate when the senate defended kavanaugh, but they haven't seen it in the house. have we reformed health care and secure the border? those were the promises made. >> the leadership would say we said that stuff to the senate. >> only the health care bill. we did not do a welfare reform package. we only got 193 votes because we couldn't get republicans to do what we said we were going to do. we have accomplished what we told you -- we -- what we told you we were going to do. all we had really gotten done were the tax cuts. going forward, we have to regain the trust of the american people if you get us back in power, we will get those things done.

host: those were the thoughts of jim jordan. you may share those thoughts and give your ideas of why -- what happened on the house side and the senate and republicans only for this first hour. 202-748-8000 if you live in the eastern and central time zones. 202-748-8001 if you live in the mountain and pacific time zone --ayedthehour website pacific time zone. the headline for this story says it is supporters blaming president trump for that loss and some stories saying supporters of representative comstock place lame on the president. -- only grew in the midterm election helping ever went did win by 12 point. it can be frustrating to look back and see the result was preordained.

the election of donald trump made difficult -- life difficult for barbara comstock and members whose districts look like hers. it goes on to talk about the reaction from barbara comstock supporters, directing that the president trump when it comes to the 2018 midterm. what are the lessons to be gained from last week? from louisiana, this is mary. what do you think that take away was from the midterms? caller: good morning, pedro. , if the people don't wake to the democrats are going try to steal every election that they can. i used to be a democrat until i found out the truth about them. stand republicans don't

and fight, that is their problem, they don't stand and fight. he should have been fired when they found out what she did the first time. host: when you say republicans don't stand and fight, what do you mean by that? caller: democrats accuse them of everything and anything and they demonize the republicans, especially to the black people because so many black people don't know the whole truth and they don't know history and the whole truth. host: do you think that lack of fighting led to the republican loss last week in the house? caller: yes. yes. they could have done better, but some of them run away from trump. trump is a fighter and fighters when. -- win. host: let's go to brandon in las

vegas. good morning. caller: good morning. host: you are on. caller: i wanted to say about the midterms that i think it is par for the course what would happen. we saw this in 2010 with republicans sweeping the house. noticingme time, i am we have a broken government and we don't have leaders anymore largeo sweeping, transformations, big changes like fdr's the new deal or we don't have any of these leaders anymore. we have these leaders who talk a lot and do nothing. tax: republicans passed a package in the house and health care last year. do you think those weren't big efforts on the republican side? things no, those are the

they do all the time every time they have power. it is not really anything that is a big change as far as i am concerned. that is all i wanted to say. host: that is brandon in nevada. we let this hour ago for republicans when it comes to lessons from the midterms. if you want to give your comment on the results and what you think are some of the lessons learned, 202-748-8000 if you live in eastern and central time zones. 202-748-8001 if you live in the time zonend pacific sprayed of the hill highlights how some of the republicans who lost last week are not happy with of the president. they are thinking they were mocked by president trump shortly after the midterms. this story says house republicans mocked by the president after their midterm losses are pushing back on his rhetoric, arguing that embracing the commander in chief would not have changed the outcome of the

races. the republican of colorado, one of the republicans singled out by the president said while elements of the gop base love the president, embracing him would have likely caused them to lose by an even wider margin. it was obviously disappointing, but i think he has to know he is not popular in my district. he lost in a district hillary clinton won by 9 points over trump. he said a visit by the president would have helped him and that it was not offered. talked about some of the republicans that did not embrace him. [video clip] >> you had some that decided let's stay away. they did very poorly. i am not sure i should be happy or sad, but i feel just fine about it. coffman, too, mike

bad, mike. mia love. she called me all the time to help her with a hostage situation. being held hostage in venezuela, but mia love gave me no love and she lost. too bad, sorry about that. barbara comstock was another one. i think she could have won that race, but she did not want to have any embrace. for that, i don't blame her. she lost, substantially lost. host: those were the president's comments after the midterm elections. weleadad -- lead

continued to slip away and showed mia love gaining crucial votes. the democratic candidate and current salt lake county mayor is leading by 873 votes after more than 12,000 ballots were added and with the heavily republican utah county expected to update the count on friday, mcadams' precarious lead could potentially erode entirely. mia love's campaign manager appeared more confident. "since election day, mia has improved her margin and is on a steady path to victory." lessons learned from the midterms. bob in california, go ahead. caller: i would like to say the following. i think trump has done a great job on the economy and the lesson from the 2018 elections is that people don't trust him.

he says one thing and people feel that is not factual. overall, they don't feel they have a moral president, but they still enjoy the fruits of his labor in terms of the economy turning around and the stock market up until recently has been doing great. i wish he would take a lesson in the midterms and tell the truth more. if he did that, i don't think they would have gotten the schlocking they did. host: do you think republicans can change that anytime in the next two years? caller: i think if they put pressure on the president. if his advisors but pressure on the president, hopefully things will turn around. right now, anything the president says, people just don't believe him in some of the areas. he makes these comments he never starn affair with a porn

and yet everyone knows that is an absolute lie. he won't get off of that. he does this for a lot of things. he says one thing and it seems so obvious it is a lie, people don't respect him and it is sad because he has a lot of talent and he is sticking up for the united states, particularly with nato and having them pay their fair share. i just wish he would take a lesson from history and know that people are really looking forward to him to be not only a good president in terms of the economy, but a person who has good moral character and that would be a person who tells the truth and doesn't lie. host: the headline out of the last 24 hours, this is the huffington post's take on it when it comes to michael afterti, he was arrested

domestic violence allegations in los angeles. that is from the huffington post. in sann california francisco. go ahead. emily in san francisco. caller: can you hear me now? ok. i wanted to quickly interject i don't like macron. i think he was extremely cruel when the president was sitting a few seats away from where he was speaking and he insulted the american people about the award -- a war we lost fathers, husbands, sons, so many men died to save friends -- france. i think he has some kind of attitude that is not becoming a leader. host: the idea of the midterms and lessons for republicans, what would you say to that? caller: i think the democrats

are pushing. for days andlaws days, adding people that are not citizens, adding people that just don't belong and this es was involved, but there are many other people involved. i think we have to do something about -- about that particular county so our elections are fair. , he has been bush around when this was happening before and many other people in florida protesting. host: that is emily in california. tweetom cnn sent out a and it comes to the results of midterm elections saying a new federal judge in florida ruled the state must give voters with signatures, disqualify their ballots until saturday at 5:00 p.m. to correct those problems. lessons learned is what we are trying to gain from republicans.

nick, hello., caller: hello, pedro. good morning. host: you are on. caller: i think the real lessons ,hat republicans need to take and i am a republican and i have called several times and talked to you and others. i love c-span. you guys are doing a fantastic job. i think the republicans need to look at illinois. i was reading in the local newspaper -- they were saying illinois republicans basically did not even show out. i am talking about the senators and the members of the general assembly. they did not even really campaign and some areas did not put anybody up. republicans need to get their act together and i find jeff flake and the house freedom caucus -- i find them to be the

biggest problem for republicans right now. it has been since 2010, they railroaded obama. also have aemocrats problem. they call us names, we are irredeemable. we had no real candidates that were going to do anything like president trump did on the republican side and hillary -- it was a bad year for politics all around. it turned out to be a good year. host: this idea of getting their act together, how should they go forward with everything you said? caller: i think the republicans man to not necessarily behind president trump. i think the president's -- republicans need to cut deals with democrats, kind of what reagan did with o'neill and i

think both parties kind of need to stop this petty politics. i am 24. i am watching all this stuff go down and it has been my whole life in illinois. we have five governors who have been in federal prison for corruption and everything else. three from both sides. sad state ofa affairs our politics have gotten into. we all need to come together. host: that is nick, a republican calling from illinois giving his thinking on the lessons from the midterms in this republican-only hour. 202-748-8000 eastern and central time zones. for mountain and pacific time zones, 202-748-8001. maryland is next, bill, good morning. caller: good morning. i believe they need to --

because of the way the mainstream media is, they seem to have a more majority of advertising to attack the .epublican agenda a lot of it is fake, too. i think if the republicans took a lot of the facts that they the of past history of what democrats -- how the double standard -- if they would put so that itertising was seen on mainstream media channels that more people would see the real truth and maybe it would help change their thinking. republicansu think did a good job as far as selling the things they accomplished leading up to election day?

caller: not on mainstream media tv channels. i don't know if they are allowed to do that. host: what do you think is in a compliment they did that was seen on another channel aside from mainstream media, as you say? what the republicans have accomplished? host: right? mean, there is a whole list of stuff we have accomplished in two years being attacked by fake news. it has been a battle. it has been a war since day one. inyou look at all of that context, look at what has been done and the president is being attacked at the same time. you have to battle the people being mesmerized by a bunch of false narratives and they ain't

being shown the real truth about double standard and its proof. i am talking about facts. host: let's go to carol in washington state. caller: the only thing that was on my feet. -- host: you are on the air. caller: i hope not. host: clay in louisiana. go ahead. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i watch a lot of c-span. as to what republicans may have done better is stressing the coverage of pre-existing conditions on the insurance. the got -- on that issue by democrats. overall, i would say one of the things and a perfect example, this gentleman i am looking at in washington on television,

most of the information like the brookings institute and i can theyany number of them, emanate out of washington and the washington area. i don't think the gentleman in that area have a clue as to what people from louisiana and the midwest are thinking. a lot of this information on these public and other networks give a somewhat distorted picture. as the other gentleman said, i don't think a lot of the people because the democrats have ever accepted trump as legitimate president. i voted for him. i think he is a legitimate president and he is a -- there has not been a businessman in that office for a long time.

host: as far as republicans themselves, what do you think they could have done differently going into 2018? caller: one of the things they could have done differently was emphasized pre-existing conditions for health care. i am a senior citizen and health care is a big issue. the image projected by the democrats is republicans would not give her -- would not cover pre-existing conditions. that was a huge mistake by the pr effort by republicans. i will grant you that. host: that is clay in louisiana. one people that advocated for pre-existing conditions was tom macarthur out of mississippi. he lost his race in new jersey against democrat andy kim. this is the hill writing mr. macarthur lost the seat to andy kim wednesday resulting in a near wipeout for the gop in the state. democrats successfully flipped

four republican seats in new jersey this year, some of which had been held by the gop for decades. come january, there will be one republican congressman, chris smith, who easily won reelection. him forters berated authoring an amendment that helps republicans secure votes necessarily -- necessary to get the bill through the house. macarthur faced criticism for being the only gop to vote for the tax bill. new jersey, which has some of the highest property taxes, one of the states that benefited the most from unlimited deductions. we will go next to lisa in tennessee. hello. caller: hello? host: you are on. caller: ok. i was calling and watching the program and i have noticed that

they don't know the american people anymore. they are so far away from us. they have no idea what we live with and the health care or the job situations, which is bad in tennessee. for the first time in my life, i am seeing food lines, trucks bringing food. this is something i never thought i would say -- see in my -- so much wet can do, why are people needing food lines now? and jobs. if republicans were more in touch with those issues, you think they would have done better? caller: i think the democrats and republicans both.

i think they are so busy keeping jobs they don't know the american people. they are so far away from us, .hey don't have a clue they talk and they talk and they talk and i flipped channels until the day comes when you say do something, it might not be that big a deal that they do, but all you hear from any of them is a little talk. host: california republican kevin mccarthy becomes the new house minority leader in the 100 16th congress, someone who ran nowposed, steve scalise is the minority whip and talked about what republicans plan to do going forward. [video clip] >> i would travel around the country in a lot of swing districts and people love that we have a booming economy. they see how tremendous success

has been. history10 was working against us in the house and it caught up -- history was working against us in the house and it caught up to us. minorityk to earn that -- majority back, do a better job getting around the country and letting people know what we stand for, those conservative principles that have been proven to work and get the economy back on track and hard-working families counting on us to deliver for them. in a lot of those swing districts, you never heard democrat candidates talking obstructtracting -- ing and subpoenas. it will be interesting to see if they keep their word to voters. they want people that will work together for the common good to keep this economic success going working with the president

focused on getting this country back on track. as we constitute this new leadership team, we will be refocused on efforts to let people know why these conservative principles are so important to get the majority back in two years. host: republicans only for this first hour, your lessons learned from the 2018 midterms. you may reflect what majority say.scalise had to wanda is next, hello. caller: i don't know if this phenomenon was nationwide, but where i live in chico next to , every time during a townign, he would have a hall rally, a bunch of democrats would show up in a mob and manage to shut the whole thing down so he ended up not having any rallies at all and no town

halls or anything because the democrats made it impossible. i don't know if that is nationwide or not, but maybe that is why some republicans lost their campaigns. host: you are saying if they had in town hallsons and they were able to do so on interrupted that could change things -- uninterrupted, that could change things? caller: yes. andcrats showed up in a mob started shouting and he got so harassed that he could not have any town halls. do you think republicans did when it comes to delivering a message in the 2018 midterms as far as what they accomplished? caller: i think their message was sort of the raised by cnn --

by race -- sort of erased cnn and other networks. host: what do you mean by that? caller: all they did was talk up the democrats. host: that is wanda giving her thoughts on the 2018 midterm elections. how women willp fare. the house will have at least 102 women next year, up from 84 this year and likely have a woman as speaker if it to pelosi of california wins her bid. some women will rise to house committee leadership. the story goes on to say the number of women in the house remains less than a quarter of the chamber's 435 members. the number of female senators is unchanged at 43, although that could raise to 44. the number of female governors will increase to 9 of 50.

south carolina is where ken is. you are on, go ahead. caller: i just think -- like a lot of people have said alreadyy have to get backbone. of retired, right after trump because they kept hearing there was going to be a blue wave. they would have lost the house. if they had not retired. you cannot fix stupid. a lot of these -- for example, the arizona senator that just got elected, she is an outright marxist and admitted it. one is a 29-year-old -- i keep forgetting her name -- she cannot give a straight answer and she has a degree in economics. this is what people are voting for. if republicans started getting a backbone and saying, no, no, we

did this and we did that, and quit trying to please everybody and be so afraid of i might offend somebody, they would get a lot farther. -- i livethis country around a lot of people and i drove a truck. when trump was running, i did clintona hillary sticker. i got trump stickers everywhere. you cannot stick -- you cannot sit there and be passive. like that one lady just said about getting shouted down in the democratic townhall -- well, republicans have to get that talking -- and i am not violence, but if they want to ram heads, ram heads. -- physically, but republicans just keep taking it and taking it. minute,e to say, wait a

we did this, we did that. in southt is ken carolina. susan is in arizona. caller: thank you. we have an immigrant problem, so you are going to have a lot of people voting that cannot be verified, or their minds are supposedly changed. you will have problems with flake,enators, like jeff and the legacy of john mccain lives on. a lot of the election was motivated by the fact that john mccain promised for years -- he would go ahead and do the health revamp and he did not. , in the first ran year that trump was not going to be around, so those people are out of touch with everybody in america. plus voting for democrats, and 90% plus putting out negativity for republicans. they have to find a way to get some backbone.

the reason trump got voted in is 430-plus years, those -- for 30-plus years, -- plus the fact, all i have ever had in my life fromoblems for employees, female, liberal democrat behavior. they are cheaters, liars, will do everything they can to win and ostracize you. host: in arizona there, what contributed on the senate side for the victory? it was a do not think totally legitimate thing. unfortunately, i am in the people's republic of tucson, so you are going to get -- these people do not know how to vote for anyone except a tax-increasing liberal democrat, and i am a fish out of water. we have been getting an influx of people from california who do

not want the problems in california, so they have brought them to the maricopa county, phoenix area. i will be leaving after living here for my entire -- almost my entire adult life. host: we saw the president talk a lot about immigration in the final days of the campaign. the you think that should have been more of a message for republicans running for office? caller: yes. i do believe we have way too many lawyers in this country. people need to open up all this health care, insurance companies, to every single state. all of us in business have had to do so for years. get out there and compete and these problems would go down. being taught, children on of being told about history, free enterprise. or capitalism. now you have a warped view from these kids who think all of this

all caps you cortez -- ocasio-co rtez -- those are the problems. host: thank you. michael from minnesota, you are next. hi, and happy holidays. i am so tired of all the drama about what is going on in the white house. i come from a big family, a military family, and i have watched this inside have grown up. the idea of democracy and politics -- you know, they have got all these petty little things about trump. let the man do his job. let him focus on what should be thought about our country, dealing with other countries' trade.

spending all this money on all these lawsuits, and it is just drama. host: michael, the topic we are engaging in is the midterm elections and the lessons from that. what are the main lessons? is, youthe main lesson know, stick to what is important about the politics of health care, the nation, what is best for the nation. wasbring immigrants -- it in the declaration, as far as you are coming to the country, you have the baby in the country, it is a citizen. it is kind of like going back on what was put down on paper years ago. this has guided us. now we are not going to let people come in, you know? is it fair? people think what is best for the country. host: that is michael in minnesota. in "thehe editorials

wall street journal" is about new minority leader kevin mccarthy, california. kevinrite this -- mccarthy is no policy walk, but focusing on the electoral details of winning seats, is more important to policy. can playublicans important roles in defending trump administration officials, when warranted, against democratic success. host: he went before cameras yesterday, after becoming the house minority leader, to talk about going forward. to have theled privilege to serve and leave this conference. getnumber one goal is to

america to continue moving forward. we serve in a divided government, in a divided country. our goal is to unite us back together again. our second goal would be to make sure we win the majority back. we know the challenge of what we are working on. we wanted to hit the ground running. the democrats have a plan. they want to disrupt, they want to try to impeach, and they want to stall what achievements we have been able to move forward. great forerica is too smut -- for such a small vision. we know we have our challenges. we will do just that. is and believe america will always be the strongest nation on the face of the earth. host: we will hear from mark and ben salem, pennsylvania. caller: good morning. say whatbe easier to

the republicans do right, which is not much. they have no consistent message where they are not stabbing the president in the back every time he tries to do something. the people that got behind the president in the last election won their elections. the ones that did not were people that did not agree with his agenda fully. there is too much splintered group, and they do not know how to use -- how to fight. republicans sit there -- it was a signature piece of legislation that they could do nothing about. they did not have a replacement plan and allow them to say we have a better idea. obamacare was the biggest disaster that happened in this country, and they could not articulate it to the american people. their problem is messaging. they do not fight back and they deserve to lose because they have no message that resonates with the people. iny knew it was pulling good the midterms and they did nothing about it. they said they are for pre-existing conditions.

they did not say how they were going to fix this and basically abandoned it. they could have came back and voted for it. when they pass the repeal -- they could have passed the repeal and they refused to do it. they should learn from that. host: thank you for that. theou think kevin mccarthy, new minority leader, will bring that sense of fight or messaging in the next two years? a problem, that was with speaker ryan he stabbed the president in the back, and i do not think this guy is much better. jim jordan was a fighter. this guy is not a fighter. he is a go along to get along kind of guy. speaking, saying if we just get more republicans, we can fix this. no, you need to fix your messaging and get behind the president. you better wake up or you will lose another election. the democrats stick together like glue and never criticize each other. they will have a problem now

with all these other young people with differences of opinion, but the last group stick together -- stuck together like glue and that is why they won. host: the next caller is from minnesota. go ahead. caller: good morning. i am calling because i really noticed that there has been such -- i think that if mccarthy opened up a more broader view for the people as a whole and not just economically wealthy areas, that it would also he is looking for support from the rural communities. i think if the republicans and took it as a whole every piece and put every piece together and included every

voice, you know, they would have more support. you cannot really just jump into as americas as far is concerned and not address the whole picture. there are different classes, there are people struggling. i think the democrats are looking for support from the republicans. then, what mccarthy said about just adjusting the -- about ruralness of the bea, these places would not broken down economically and having as much hardship, to gain support from the different age groups, the different classes, the different social classes. i think it would be more helpful if they tried to work together and not just mccarthy going into the suburb areas. if he would go into the rural areas, that would be more of a

force. int: that is desiree minnesota, giving her thoughts this morning. "the hill" talks about senator jeff flake, a new proclamation from him saying on wednesday that he would oppose any of the president's judicial nominations until robert mueller gets a vote. but i have informed the majority -- er that i would not or vote to confirm the 32 judges awaiting confirmation on the senate floor. until the bill is brought to the full senate for a vote, his thread will block the judiciary committee from approving judicial nominations. host: scottsdale, arizona, is where our next caller is from. this is jack. go ahead, jack.

caller: first of all, the woman you talked to a few calls ago about losing seats, you have to picked mind that trump up three senate seats. that has only been done twice. host: you are on. continue your thought. caller: the woman upset about losing seats, trump picked up senate seats and that has only been done twice in 100 years. -- they lost two who retired. what is that? host: you are on. you are listening to the television and there is a delay. caller: i turned it down. sorry about that. you have to keep in mind, the 60 i -- obama lost like cannot hear you. host: do not worry about what

you are seeing on television. 60.er: obama lost what's his name, clinton lost 60. trump is doing a good job. listen to what i am trying to say. arizona is right. also the guy from washington. what has to happen here and what is going to happen is once they start in january the democrats pushing this left-wing, radical agenda, you will see all those red state trump people come out, went the one guy in south carolina said. they are going to come out and butt heads now, and when they do heads, you will see the country divided and people standing up and saying enough is enough. you are going to start proving how really everything is wrong

with these 30 million illegals here and everything else. from that is jack scottsdale, giving his thoughts. if you are just joining us, we are asking republicans only in to give you a sense of lessons learned from the 2018 midterm elections, economic issues, immigration issues. .48-8000 -- 202-748-8000 radio and television correspondents association presses access issues on capitol hill to make sure those exist. one of the people heading it up for the last year is our own capitol hill producer, craig kaplan. not only organizing the dinner every year but also to take europe issues that problem during -- that pop up during the course of the year.

the -- they held their dinner last night. one of the awards given was a memorial award given to a videographer, someone who is a asd teacher, a good mentor, a longtime record on capitol hill. c-span was honored that one of our own was the recipient of this year's award. as part of that honor, not only did he get an award, but he also made a speech at the dinner last night. here is a portion of that speech. [video clip] c-span as a 24-year-old kid, straight out of roosevelt, new york. i was covering congressional hearings and press conferences. it was awesome, but i remember this one day, we were doing a room,g in the mansfield in the capital building. up and i amsetting guyy knees and this big

comes into the room and he had whte hair, and i was like, oa. the reason why i got excited about that was because my father used to talk about it. he used to love to o'neill. that is exactly how i feel now. i am excited. i am blessed. i am pumped because i am in a room with the best professionals. awesome. video photographers, producers, reporters. world, the best in the and i am a part of that. and i want to thank you. [end video clip] that is our c-span videographer getting an award last night.

a hearty congratulations on a job well done. we go back to the calls. this is jim from ohio. go ahead. first, thanks for your show. starts the day off great. me and my wife both voted for donald trump, but we did vote bipartisan this midterms. hasly the economic upswing not affected us. we are kind of in the middle class, but it has not affected .s this much we voted bipartisan because we are tired of what is going on. we both want respect brought , and if we office have to vote in democrats, so be it. the republicans need to know it is not carte blanche. it is not going to go the way everybody is going to fall in line. the majority of people we talk to and work with just one some civility brought back the economy is great and everything, but honestly, we both talked.

if trump runs again in 2020, i think we are not going to vote for him. we want some peace brought back. andcountry is so divided, you see it everywhere. we do not even like to turn on the news. i watch your show in the morning man, it the day, but, has just got to swing back where everybody at least has some kind of respect. this last thing president trump and france, and talking about them and the french losing these wars and all this stuff -- where is the pr here? host: jim and ohio. this is staten island, new york. anthony, you are up. caller: donald trump is only in that office because of immigration does not get fixed. the people are still pouring across the border and it is costing us money to feed these

people, given medical, and all the things they need. did try to fix it, but i believe the republican party is trying to sabotage him, especially mr. ryan. the second thing is, how the democrats stick together. in new york state we have the governor who is making a deal with amazon and giving them a 3 billion-dollar tax break. $3 billion in my money -- of my money. mr. cuomo is going to run for president of the united states. will he get a billion dollars back to run for president? so we pay for mr. cuomo to run for president? the teflon governor seems like it is -- like he is going to get away with it again, yet democrats need to go after this guy -- democrats do not go after this guy. that shows you how the democrats stick together. host: the british prime minister, theresa may, went over

issues known as brexit. the country suffering a severe setback on that front, saying secretaryrexit resigns, saying that he could the term, dealing with the e.u. last night after the united kingdom european union agreed on the agreement, british chancellor philip hammond held a conference call with business leaders to convince them the draft was the way forward. host: let's go to lead in california. good morning. california.n

good morning. the democrats do what they always do. they still money from people who earn it and give it to those who do not. that it is just wrong. i hear people calling all the time saying why would you vote against your own interests. one of the reasons i voted republican is for freedom. people who earn the money should be able to keep it. without the government taking it. , whatwith that in mind are the lessons for the republican party from the midterms? well, i think the problem with the whole country is that they got away from god. host: but specifically to the republican party, what do you think the lessons are from the 2018 midterms?

say, but they to started stealing money from people who earn it and giving it to those who don't. texas, you are next. good morning. caller: i will be brief. the lesson i believe is that people are still behind trump. they want the swap drained and drained,ant the swamp and things cleaned up. the republicans lost the house because they ran a lot of the candidates, their establishment type candidates. unfortunately, the republican party did not get the lesson from this election. look at what just happened with the leadership of the house. everyone who is leaving was allowed to vote for the new leadership. it makes no sense.

they should have waited until all of these congressmen were in place and then voted on leadership. then jim jordan would have won. mccarthy is no different, not going to be any different. lynn cheney -- are you kidding yet a this is just a who's w entrenchmentthe establishment, and nothing is going to change. host: when it comes to elections of leadership, republicans, house republicans on thursday will consider changes to the internal conference ruled that would include several member -- several amendments. the biggest proposed change comes from wisconsin's mike gallagher, who wants committee is to choose their own chair men. the heads are reported by the republican leader, but the selection process under the conference current role --

host: the story adds that mark meadows, a proponent of allowing those committee members to select their leaders, has an .lternative amendment available if an amendment from representative gallagher fails, meadows' proposal would reduce leadership's influence in selecting committee leaders. sharon, hello. caller: i think republicans really should just stay the course. overall, the republicans did pretty good. they kept the senate. an overturn of some of the seats in the house is -- is to be expected, and probably really

good. good for the balance of power. forward, what the republicans need to do is embrace one thing the democrats embrace thes really newer republicans like myself who are joining the party, more diversity in terms of people that are running. there is a big diversity of republicans out there that i do not think are being heard, in part because we are just intimidated. when you have been a democrat your whole life, i mean, god knows what is going to happen at thanksgiving dinners this year. the republicans need to really embrace the walkaway movement and the people moving to the republican side. let's hear from robert in new york, saratoga springs.

caller: good morning. i would like to say that i agree with the last two callers. i would add also during the election, i was watching many of and one thing that was a common theme was out of forrol property taxes residents across the nation. each time they were talking about the burden of high taxes to the middle-class. you take president trump's last tax law, where he limited the tax write off to be $10,000. that is a huge tax increase to many of the rich. you do not hear that being discussed. if you watch the news, there is a record amount of mansions being sold across the country, and it is obvious based on these

people using it as a tax write off. that is an important piece because immigration is being handled. host: ok, that is robert. we will go to steve, last call, in texas. caller: i do not know that they can learn from it. maybe the politicians, but the average people -- they have been brainwashed for so long that they just cannot seem to realize that all of the narratives that they throw out about the democrats is absolutely incorrect. they say they have this extreme left-wing agenda and it is not true. they are average people just like the rest of host: last call for this segment, but we will continue on in the conversation about the

future of the republican party from one of the members who is retiring, brian costello from pennsylvania -- ryan costello from pennsylvania. later we will hear from stacy plus get, a delegate -- stacy . we will-- plaskett talk about how the democrats might investigate the trump administration in the new congress. ♪ >> join us this weekend for live coverage of the miami book fair, starting saturday at 10:00 a.m. eastern with journalists discussing their book. at noon, an interview with

supreme court justice sonia sotomayor on her past -- path to the high court. at 1:00 p.m. eastern, trump trump 2020 -- trump 2020 leader discusses her book. contrast --iew jonah goldberg. on sunday, our live coverage continues at 10:30 with alan dershowitz discussing his book. a.m., guardian columnist alyssa cork. politicsfox news editor crist eyewall discusses his book. former secretary of state john kerry with his memoir, "every day is extra." watch the miami book fair live this weekend on the span to dutch c-span2 -- c-span2's

booktv. c-span, where history unfolds daily. in 1979, c-span was created as a public service by america's television -- cable television. we provide unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, supreme court, and public policy events around the country. c-span is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. "washington journal" continues. host: this is representative ryan costello, republican of pennsylvania, serves the sixth district and a member of the energy and commerce committee. guest: i need to say hello, ryan, my little boy who will be five in less than a month. make sure you treat baby caroline as well as you can.

i promised my wife i would put that in. host: you are retiring, is the family matters one reason? guest: there is a multitude of reasons. that was one of them. my district got redistricted last minute and became heavily democratic. i have had some well-documented frustrations with things along the way. host: documentation with the prompt administration -- trump administration primarily? guest: yes. host: what is your biggest issue? guest: everything has become to be about the president. i did not sign up to be chief critic, but i think republicans do best when we talk about economic growth, regulatory reform. i think there are some suburban issues we have not laid -- eaned in on, such as what our policy prescription for reducing carbon emissions.

climate change is real and thus far we have not done anything in offering a corollary to the president's announcement that we are with drawing from the paris accord. onversal background checks gun sales is common sense. on the immigration front, most americans see the far right and far left using immigration as an issue to inflame everyone come at not an issue they want to solve. most people think we need more border security but we should deal with daca in a humane way. our visa program is so out of whack. we have very talented, young men and women coming from overseas and then they have to leave our country because we have not set it up in a way that we can make them permanent residents and they can have a job. they often go on to create new companies and new jobs. that is a middle-class, middle-of-the-road agenda that i

would like to see us focus on. host: the current makeup of the republican caucus, will it make it hard to be unified considering the freedom caucus? guest: it does, to be sure. on climate, immigration, and on some gun stuff, i would not represent the ideological nucleus of the conference, and that is ok. i respect people having differing opinions. if you had a centrist democrat, they would probably speak about some of the things progressive members would want to do. as the majority, i view this election as more of a lagging indicator of what i have felt, and my perspective over the past couple of years. that is in no way intended to be a poor reflection on leadership who, you cannot leave -- lead if you do not have the majority of the conference behind you. i felt with health care in

particular, what we had to do to get health care to the finish line -- and i voted against it -- i did not have a good feeling that would end well for us. host: if you want to ask him questions, (202) 748-8000 for democrats. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. what do you think of house minority mccarthy as he takes the 116th congress, particularly with the state of the republican party on the house side? guest: it will be a united front likely come against what i expect will be multiple investigations, calls for impeachment from the far left. as much as democrats do not want to focus on their investigative piece of this, every democrat is going to want to investigate something different. i think quickly, that will be front and center. on the issue of infrastructure,

it will be interesting whether the democrats come from the perspective of trying to get republican votes. we need to put revenue on the table if we are going to do a big infrastructure package, which is also a community safety package,a job creation global competitiveness package. you can do some clean energy and other good things in it infrastructure package. that is one area i think you can see agreement. it will be interesting to see where the democrats go on gun safety and whether they go so far as to have republican say, not doing that. if you focus on universal bactrim checks -- background checks and bump stocks, that is common sense. i do not know what the democrats will do. it will be interesting how many votes democrats put up in order to scratch the itch of the progressive left. do they want to do $15 an hour

minimum wage? i do not think the majority of the country feels that way. if you increase the minimum wage by one dollar or two dollars, most americans say it is about time. some of that will depend on how much of an iron grip presumably speaker pelosi, but i do not know how -- who it will be, will have on the floor. host: did you vote for kevin mccarthy? guest: i did, and had i run and then reelected i would have run for -- vote for him. -- voted for him. host: it seems that being a moderate but you at odds with the rest. what is the status of moderate republicans in the house? guest: those who one would recognize as being moderate members from swing districts, the numerator and the denominator of house republicans has been diminished just because of virtually every seat democrats picked up, whether it

was an open seat or a challenge, was from the more moderate members. i have been a member of the tuesday group and the main lostt group and we have about 20, 25, 30 members as a consequence of the 2018 election. host: this is ryan costello joining us for our conversation. the phone lines are available to ask questions. we will start with maryland, coleman is calling on the line for democrats. caller: good morning, mr. costello. i heard you this morning speak a little bit about visa lottery immigration. thank you for that. however, i am one of the recipients of visa lottery. when i heard the president talk about us, it takes me completely away from the republican party. if i come around to think a

little bit if i could myself the republican, i do not see how i could result. talking about the visa lottery, coming from nigeria, i have not wayn any way -- been in any -- the benefits nor from the country of my organ -- origin. i will always vote democratic. all of the rest of the recipients of the visa lottery that i know have gone to become medical doctors, lawyers. i am one of them. my masters program. the rest of the time i have cannot saymerica, i that i have not contributed. for the benefit of the country. guest: let me pick up on where he is. rather than respond directly to

some of the things that he raised, let me enhance what he said. the issue of immigration is very sophisticated. there is multiple layers to it. i feel both political parties ultimately dumb down the issue to such an extent that most americans look at it and say, you are missing so much to what is a very complex issue. i think if we were to make this a muchre sensitive -- more substantive discussion and have anyone understand you will not get everything you want, we would be able to accomplish more. immigrants are a positive contribution to the american idea. that is how we were founded, that is how we grow. a lot of the rhetoric, some of the rhetoric that the president contradicts that notion of immigrants being a positive contribution and i found it troubling. host: what was the reaction with

the president's rhetoric on the caravan? guest: that was a political loser. i knew it would be a political loser. we do not hear about it anymore, do we? i was critical. i am not dodging the issue in as much as i was critical of it. the president is going to say what he will say. host: when the president sent the national guard to the border , what is your reaction? guest: i do not know enough about the news of it. i have read a couple of headlines saying they are there but do not need to be there. if a caravan is coming to the border and evaluating who was a refugee is very common sense. some of the president's border security policies make a lot of sense and are common sense, and a lot of people rally around him for that reason. he does sometimes say tough stuff that is true and people

feel very strongly about it. the problem is, he sometimes says stuff that is not true and that makes it difficult for a lot of americans to know which is which. i think republicans are right on border security and democrats have it more right on how to deal with daca. host: here is from texas, we will talk with george. good morning. caller: good morning. you know, i don't understand how mr. costello ever got elected as a republican. i have listened to him for the last 15, 10 minutes. anything that i would even vote for as a republican. democrattealth propagandist, in my opinion. guest: very good. just so you are aware, the reason i got elected is because people voted for me in the philadelphia suburbs. that is how i got elected.

theer: so a bunch of democrats, anyway, is what you are telling me. guest: they are americans, i am positive they are americans. they have a right to vote. caller: you cannot solve the problems we have got. immigration is the most important problem we do have. guest: how are you going to solve it? caller: if they do not get a handle on the borders, we will be a socialist, one-party state. host: thanks. guest: i agree we have border security issues and on the interior enforcement side, i was very clear about that. perhaps the gentleman was not listening. host: does that going for as far as the wall? guest: i am rooting for the eagles versus the cowboys. host: does that go for the wall? guest: there are parts of the border that should have a wall. colleague has spelled it out very well.

some parts do better with infrared and other tech knowledge he surveillance measures -- technology surveillance measures. we need to beef up border control employees. it is a combination of things. i have always viewed build the wall more as a figure of speech. it can be big and beautiful in certain parts, but there are more effective ways to do that along certain portions of the border. host: from new york, kevin. caller: hello? host: you are on. ryan castella is a republican, i want to know if there are any chances of putting legislation in terms of paid vacation. that would be something that both parties would like. [indiscernible]

you have like guaranteed a minimum. host: thanks. guest: i just saw in "the wall street journal" that some democrats want a jobs guarantee. i think that mandating -- i get concerned about mandates in the private sector. they jive up costs. it costs -- drive up costs. it costs more. if we raise the minimum wage one dollar or two dollars, i would vote for that. system,ally free market free-marketly system, you would not have a minimum wage but it involves the government to make sure there were workers rights. administration advocates for paid family leave, which you go that far?

guest: i would have to see the specific proposal. i was open to the idea but not committed to the bill that i believe rubio and lee were on board with. by the way, most people would say that senator mike lee is more conservative than i. to the gentleman from texas. host: kentucky next, this is gary. caller: immigration was downplayed by the democrats so much and they ran mainly on health care. i have not really heard anything about health care since the election day. , if you take a look at the screen behind you, that picture of washington, that is exactly the way it looks for the next two years after the midterms. thank you. guest: i think -- a couple things. you are not going to see anything big happen in the health care space.

the democrats, one of their policy agenda items is to protect people with pre-existing conditions. that is already the law, so you do not have to do anything. that is not part of the agenda. republicans have not removed the protection for pre-existing conditions. having said all that, where you will see health care improve you will probably see the president forward with something in the prescription drug arena on pricing. very complementary of fdapresident's team in the in just one agency. in terms of moving forward with telehealth and some other programs they have had, they have been extremely effective. also, getting medical devices and new pharmaceutical drugs approved quicker.

if we want to bring down the price of pharmaceutical drugs, one way is to make sure more generic drugs are getting approved because the data shows you need two or three generic drugs in a particular space to bring down pharmaceutical drug costs. host: from florida, tom, go ahead. caller: good morning. i was not going to get on, but when you mentioned that you believe in immigration because we have to grow, why do we have to grow? since i was born in this great country, the population -- guest: it is how we grow. caller: we should not grow at all in population. we are destroying the planet. the united states uses so much finer resources and everything, and we are destroying the planet. the reason we have global warming. i thought i believed in trump.

i did not vote for trump because i was afraid of him because he is such a bs artist and he is going to fix immigration, all he talks about is the wall. 40% of illegal aliens come in on a visa and stay. he never says anything about these illegal aliens that come in on a visa. host: thanks. guest: i do not know how to respond. the data he cites is correct, for sure. host: you had criticisms of president trump and his administration. what would you tout if anything as his accomplishments? guest: i believe the tax cuts will demonstrate growth over a 10 year period, which will produce more revenue. we have seen in the past six to nine months democrats and some in the media say this is creating deficits and debts ad for an item. -- ad finitum.

high -- at is that a a high. , lot of the regulatory reforms as well as sending a message that we are focused on businesses innovating and selling in hiring, not on finding ways to regulate industries. that has sent a message to main street and the investment community that we want to see more growth. on the economic side of the equation, we have increased day for our military men and women. we have increased defense spending which in an ideal world you would not have to. we are the world's superpower and have commitments do not just nato, but providing stability across the world. there are a couple other areas the president has got it right. by and large, the main concern i've had is the rhetoric and the style. my experience has been in a

suburban district i represent, there are people actually that are in favor of more of his policies than against, but because of some of the things he says and does they will not vote for him. even if they are republicans, they do not identify with the republican party. that concerns me going forward because you cannot grow the party by becoming subtractive, you need to become additive. you need to look at the issues the american public looks at and says, they are not being solved. you cannot solve them with a narrow majority. you have to grow the majority. the ones i mentioned at the top of the show are the big ones. host: the president was asked about tone issues and the style he uses in terms of his rhetoric. [video clip] trail, youampaign called yourself a nationalist. some people saw that as white

nationalists. >> such a racist question. >> there are some that say the republican party seen as supporting white nationalism under your rhetoric. >> why do i have my highest voting numbers ever among african-americans? why do i have the highest poll numbers among african-americans? that is such a racist question. i know you have it written down and you're going to tell me. that is a racist question. >> mr. president -- >> you know what the word is? i love our country. you have nationalists and globalists. i do not mind helping the world, but we have to straighten out our country first. we have a lot of problems. to say what you said is very insulting, a terrible thing. [end video clip] host: the president's response, what do you think?

guest: it energizes conservatives because they see him fighting back. republicans take exception to the fact that it is the party of racism -- racists and white nationalists. this globalist versus nationalist thing, to me this is a false argument. we live in a global economy. we sell all around the world. the reason we have a trade deficit is because we have a lot of consumers in this country. we get growth through our exports. i do not understand -- i have never understood -- i think maybe some people politically identify with america losing jobs, particularly in certain small cities around the country where we have lost manufacturing. i think he speaks to those americans in a way that no other president has, and he doubles

and triples and quadruples down on that when he is asked. for as much as that may agitate some, i think those who it agitates are largely those who did not support the president. , ise who love him even more because he does not back down from those kinds of questions. host: from our republican line in massachusetts, doreen is next. caller: thank you for taking my call. i'm calling about immigration. i have been hearing politicians for years on both sides, democrat and republican, say they are going to build the wall and stop illegal immigration. when you say the president tells the truth and in other instances, he lies, the majority of politicians lie. i have seen the debates and seen so many politicians lie on both sides. they all lie. when george w. bush was

president, i heard 11 million illegals in the country. that was over 10 years ago. they were still saying 11 million. no, that is not true. it has got to be 22 million or more because people have been crossing the border. you can see it on films and everywhere. as far as the caravan, i do not believe it is a stunt. i saw the videos. you can clearly see there are thousands of people coming in. host: what would you like the guest to address specifically? caller: they say these people coming in our refugees, i did see a reporter on fox interviewing -- i forget his do orbut he is on telemun one of those hispanic news medias -- she was interviewing him as he was on the street and the caravan was coming through, lines of people coming through.

, counted as they were coming they were waving, giving the high five, thumbs up. i counted 11 women and 78 men. they were not old men, not real young. they were about the age of 25 to 35. guest: we have trillions of dollars in infrastructure needs in this country. on the climate issue, with rising sea levels and if you look at the hurricanes and the fires happening in california, we are going to continue to have disaster relief packages in the coming years in the hundreds of billions of dollars until we have an energy policy and environmental policy and infrastructure rebuild that addresses that are climate is changing. as her such complex issues that -- those are such complex issues that require buy-in from both

parties, i do not talk about the caravan and i do not talk about what i think are pieces of the immigration debate, because a lot of people are focused on these little pieces rather than the broader infrastructure reform that has to happen. i immediately pivoted to infrastructure and environmental concerns, because these are big, generational type issues we have to lean in on and talk about, and not just focus on a wall and caravan we are a country that is great, but we need to continue to move forward in a way that is addressing the big issues. host: democrats line from pennsylvania in pottstown, glenn. chestertown a pottstown or montgomery county? caller: montgomery county pottstown. guest: very good. caller: your last name sounds italian.

thatostello, did you know when you have a tax cut have got to pay for it? guest: yes. caller: when you raise tax, you have to pay for it. my question is, where is the money going to come from for you and donald trump's tax cut? also, this country has the world's best economy in the world. where do you think people are going to go? if i was in mexico, i would be coming here the same way. host: thanks. rates,when you lower tax businesses invest more. they hire more and raise wages. for middle income families -- and there is no such thing as an average family, every family is different -- but a middle income family is projected to receive

about $2400 in additional income year, andfrom last that is before wage growth might be factored into it. as a consequence of more consumer spending and business investment, over a period of years, that increased economic activity will lead to more receipts at the federal level. host: our last call, the show is from west virginia, independent line. caller: thank you for c-span. thank you for taking my call. i think it was great to have this guest on. i probably would disagree with some of his views, but i'm really impressed with the fact that he is talking about common sense negotiation, getting things done, getting out and talking with each other, and he is 100% right about issues like immigration and people using it to fan the flames as opposed to

solve the problem. the last thing you had, should the republicans take away from the midterm elections, a lot of these callers are saying, we need to be more to the right. we need to be more extreme. i think that what it really shows is that people want to work together. those things get people drive out to the polls. if you see a state like texas with beto o'rourke and ted of -- ted cruz and how close it is, it shows that people have a lot more in common than they do differences. all this rhetoric is just to inspire people but does not get anything done. guest: two points. since made -- seen postelection analysis come everyone is drawing their own conclusions. when i think is kind of obvious in terms of what happened. the other thing i would say, the

woman referenced how she liked what i had to say, disagreed with some of what i had to say, and i would say to everyone, that is normal. i think it would be better if more elected officials said everything they thought and expected that amongst the kaleidoscope of different things they think, we do not all think alike. not all republicans think alike, not all democrats think alike. independents certainly take a hodgepodge approach which party they agree with on issue set. we want politicians to be honest and more transparent, mindful that i have had people vote for me who do not agree with everything i think. we have this emerging set of issues that i do not think has been neatly organized into one political party or another. i think the real challenge over the next 10 years for the republican party and the democratic party and independent

, is to move forward in a way that is bold and attracts more people, not because they agree 100% with their policy agenda, but because they know they are trying to solve the big problems. host: when is your last day of service? guest: january 3. host: what then? guest: be a dad. i have not signed up with anybody. i practice law. i will not practice law. i think it will probably be a blend of things in washington and the philadelphia suburbs. costello, is ryan retiring member of congress, serves the sixth district. coming up, open phones. you can call us, (202) 748-8000 democrats. (202) 748-8001 republicans and independents, (202) 748-8002. post on facebook and twitter feeds as well. we will be right back. ♪

>> in the view of the warren commission, they describe fully the circumstances of the assassination of president kennedy. is there more to the story than the war report ever discovered? >> this weekend on "real america ," on america history tv, the 1967 new series, a cbs news inquiry, the warren report by questions into john f. kennedy's assassination. we hire vr is bald and whether -- lee harvey ahs walled and whether he acted alone. >> it seemed evident that we should try to establish the ease or rapid fire of that performance. how fast could that rifle be fired?

ca" saturdayel ameri at 10:00 p.m. eastern on c-span3. "washington journal" continues. host: our facebook page is facebook.com/c-span. @c-span wj.feed, , democrats.48-8000 (202) 748-8001, republicans. independents (202) 748-8002. this coming out of the miami herald, broward county. starting later than miami-dade and palm beach counties and encountering various and is -- the cultural -- the races finished early thursday. staff announced the vast

majority of the machine recount was finished at 1:00 a.m. thursday, the deadline 3:00 p.m. today. the latest on the election results, make your comments on that during this open phones, or other issues. get on our phone lines or social media. a story about the trump administration backing efforts when it comes to mandatory minimum sentence laws. "the new senate package includes language that lowers mandatory minimum sentences for drug offenders. that provision would not be allowed to take place retroactively, a major concession from democrats. it would include language that retroactively provides the fair sentence he act of 2010 which the disparity- between crack and powder cocaine offenses, and when a gun is used in a violent crime or drug offense.

the latter would not apply to people already sentenced for those crimes. dominic in alexandria, virginia, democrats line. caller: good morning. actually, i am in springfield, virginia. my concern is, i've been watching the reaction from the major networks about the firing advisorational security at the behest of the first lady. the way that the media covered like, the first lady is angry so she and then her husband backed her up. ,t is like a comical look at it but i was struck by how nobody noticed that this is a national security advisor and not one of

the first lady's secretaries or one of the gardeners at the white house. are thiscations here person works for the american people. knowledgely possesses that is crucial to the survivability of these united states. host: that is dominic in springfield. it is the deputy national security adviser, leaving the white house monday after the first lady's office issued an extraordinary statement calling for her dismissal. in aid said she clashed with the first lady's staff over the visit to africa. it is unusual for the first lady to weigh on security measures, especially in the president's national security.

michigan, you are next. caller: good morning. major concerny about the caravan that is coming , that some people have already arrived. my concern is that i do not think the democrats are taking it seriously enough. i married an illegal immigrant back in the early 1980's, and we went through getting him legal. we did it the right way, because that is the only way i was going to have it. now the democrats are saying this is nothing to be worried about. i'm going to tell you something right now. everybody needs to be worried about it. these people continue sneaking in and they are undocumented. there will be a lot to worry about. democrats better wake up and pay attention. host: from indianapolis, indiana, andy is next. orler: hopefully you guys

somebody in your organization would find out about some of the guys that lost in the election, what they will do next. obviously, he did not have a good answer, but that would be interesting to find out. host: why do you think that it is? caller: are they going to stay in d.c. and keep working or what kind of jobs are they going to take? host: if someone is staying in d.c., what would you think of that person? caller: that is what i kind of expect, i think. it is what type of job, what think tank, where they going to go. it would be interesting to see that list of all of the people that lost, what they did next. host: that is andy from indianapolis. politico reporting this morning that iowa senator joni ernst on wednesday the nebraska's dead

fish to win the vice chairmanship, that will return the bulk of the leaders. time all mark the first woman is in senate gop leadership. fisher quickly moved on and told reporters she would be very active in the caucus report. 2020 is up for election in and plans to face a credible democratic challenge. that mitch mcconnell and chuck schumer, republican and democrat, were reelected by voice vote to rate -- to lead their respective party. michigan is next, jeremy is on our line for democrats. jeremy from michigan? caller: this is jeremy from eau claire, wisconsin. host: sorry about that.

caller: thank you for c-span. it has been a pleasure to watch. if you just take a step back and listen to the retiring representative, the individual being interviewed by yourself, how does anyone think that with government operating you can pass a legitimate infrastructure bill? host: why out of everything the representative talked about, why does that come to mind? caller: if you think about his expertise on the energy committee and you think about how he feels about growth, and if you think about how he feels regarding what it is going to take to substantiate a decent infrastructure, i just don't -- astand how our current current or former governor

believes they can a copper shinny thing. -- accomplish anything married -- anything. host: anthony. caller: i am calling this morning and supportive nancy pelosi. i am a product of baltimore city public schools. nancy pelosi came out of little italy by the inner harbor. nancy pelosi is battle tested. she is the best person for that job, speaker of the house, as opposed to anybody else. when you got, through where she grew up in little italy, those italians are very respective, they are very well organized, and they do not take any bs off of anybody. she is battle tested. host: the british prime minister theresa may, according to this headline, vowing their efforts

on brexit will happen. this is despite a wave of resignations over her plan to exit the european union. a sixth resignation from hours, fromn five the ministry of justice, tells theresa may this is not taking back control. bloomberg government saying the areing brexit accor -- back is calling for a leadership challenge after several ministers resigned. prime minister may went before cameras to talk about this issue. there is an example of how it is being played out in the papers. she talked about the status of brexit, especially in light of these resignations. [video clip] the brexit talks are about acting and the national interest, and that means making what i believe to be the right

choices, not the easy ones. i know there are some who have said i should simply rip up the uk's commitment to a backstop, but this would be an entirely irresponsible course of action. it would mean reneging on a promise to the people of northern ireland during the referendum campaign and afterwards, that under no circumstances would exit mean a -- brexit mean a return to the borders of the past. it would be impossible to deliver an agreement. i have a responsibility to people in every part of our country, and i intend to honor that promise. [end video clip] host: linda is next from york, pennsylvania, democrats line. caller: there is so much talk about. there was three specific things. number one, i am very glad the democrats got the house because this person in the white house definitely needs some checks and

balances. number two, what is wrong with the state of florida and what can be done so that their election process can go a whole lot smoother than it has been? number three, i hear so much and get so upset about trump's tax cuts and the unemployment rate is done. i am medically unable to work. i live on social security and a very small pension, and so far, i have not seen anything. i'm am not the only one in this bracket. i am wondering what is supposed to be done by us, and especially if we get a cold or cough on social security, it is just amazing that medicare part b that we have to pay out of our social security goes up that exact amount. i am wondering exactly when is this stuff going to change? now that the democrats are in, maybe things will change.

-- missedou were yesterday's program, we had a law expert from florida state university talk about the status of the recount and some of the legal and technical issues about the election process. c-span.org you can see that interview as part of this journal program yesterday. there's a lot of information about events that took over -- that took place in the last 24 hours in washington. new york is next, a few in martinsville. caller: thank you. i missed mr. castillo from tello fromia -- cosre pennsylvania and i wanted to pipe in a couple of points. you have to listen very carefully to what these politicians say.

in regard to the tax cuts that were the proposed outcome, proposed outcome was to be higher wages, more jobs, better jobs. ,ut the thing is, in actuality it is a trickle-down theory. again, it didn't work before. it is not going to work now. that is number one. number two, mr. castillo -- costello made it a point to mention he thought he knew what his constituents wanted. republicans, the refuse to have town halls, so how would he know? here who isative up a republican just flat out refused to have town halls. how does one find out what their constituents want? host: matthew, if you are still on the line -- since you are in

new york, how do you feel about the amazon headquarters being based there? caller: you know, to be perfectly honest with you, i really did not like the outcome. i think it could've been more beneficial to other areas other than the ones that were chosen. the thing is, you have got to let these things play out, find out what happens in the long run. host: do you think tax breaks associated with these kinds of efforts, are they appropriate? is that something you would support? caller: not necessarily, as you have got to generate revenue somehow and you just cannot be giving away the farm to every company that wants to come around. that is my feeling. host: that is matthew in new york. missouri up next, this is craven. craven from over growth, -- o

growth -- oak grove, missouri. caller: what can we do to resolve the entire situation, to get everything solved? host: regarding what situation? caller: all of the immigration laws and different things going on, what are some insights that they could do? host: when i comes to immigration, what do you think are the most pressing problems that need to be addressed? caller: they say about the border and all that, what can they do to fix it? host: what are you think they should do? caller: that is what i'm wondering, what should they do to try to stop people from coming in illegally? host: maybe someone will answer in the time remaining. a couple of economics stories. "the wall street journal" about firms reacting to trump

administration's use of automobile tariffs. the threatened auto tariffs have emerged as the largest threat to u.s. competitiveness. u.s.asked to rank competitiveness, auto tariffs would nearly cancel up the positive impact of the administration's 2017 tax overhaul. a few of the respondents come from the automobile industry. that is according to the president of the ofii, which makes the results striking. if you turn to the pages of "the washington post," when it comes to issues of trade, david lynch reporting the president deferred until next year a president to -- or himself on

chinese imports when he meets at the group of 20 summit, refraining for now from moves that would mean higher prices for american consumers. we will hear from beth in north carolina. caller: i just wanted to call in to clarify. previous caller, i think she was in york, pennsylvania, said that our medicare premium is going up as much as our cost of living. that is not true. i am on social security. have a small social security benefit. our medicare premium is going up $1.50. my cost-of-living increase is $30. no, the medicare premium increase is not equal to the cost of living increase, and it is unfortunate that a lot of people just spout this stuff. they do not really check into it. if you look at the letter that

was just sent out for the medicare premium increases, it says it is going from $134 a month --$135 $.50 a month.0's -- $135.50 a people vote believing this misinformation. host: fargo, north dakota, democrats line. keith, hello. it was about the border wall. these mexicans come over here in the summertime, they work farmers' fields, and they do the jobs that we would not want to do. so why keep them out when they are doing something that we do not want to do? host: that is keith in north

dakota. the justice department putting out at stake on the appointment of the acting attorney general matthew whitaker, defending the move, asserting wednesday that a senior executive status at the department "unquestionably authorized him to serve" despite his lack of senate confirming. opinion.20 page it allows for the appointment of a senior staffer who has been in office for at least 90 days before his appointment. whitaker was chief of staff to jeff sessions who was fired. michael from crosby, texas, democrats line. caller: how are you doing? i have three comments. the first comment, i like you. i like your style. style sowant that bs they can learn to confront

people when they are talking negative. where'd you come from? that is what i like about you. you make them speak their mind, not just run off at the mouth. second thing, the representative get theh he would senator to be our aid to go to washington. let's see how he would work down in texas. maybe they would learn how to get along with each other. third, the republicans are not on the right. they are on the left. if they are a check and balance, they will still be [indiscernible] the woman talking about the if it is the backbone together we might win. host: "the atlanta

journal-constitution" posting this story when it comes to absentee ballots, saying a federal judge ruled georgia must count absentee ballots and he is preventing the state from finding electoral results until this. although steve jones agrees with stacey abrams, he rolled against them on two others. he will not allow -- or except provisional ballots tested by people who attempted to vote in a different county than where they were registered to vote. they are entitled to preliminary injunctive relief, he wrote in the order that was finalized late wednesday, going on to say plaintiffs have not shown they are entitled to preliminary injunctive relief as to the absentee ballot resident issue and provisional ballot issues. it is unclear how much of an effort jones' ruling will have

on those results. robert is next from brooklyn, new york. caller: the republicans have been in this election cycle particularly shameless and obvious in their attempts to steal elections. the reason for it is they realize that in a few more election cycles, no amount of cheating will be enough because the millennials and generation z are much more left wing and liberal than the baby boomers and generation x. host: the vice president mike pence giving comment when it comes to status of talks of north korea's nuclear program. "let ago" reporting the second summit -- "politico" reporting the second summit will work toward creating a viable plan -- verifiable plan. an accounting of pyongyang's nuclear weapons and test sites will not be a prerequisite.

arguing for the trump administration, "has made tremendous progress in denuclearization talks." in hurley, virginia, good morning. caller: i have 3.5 like to make. benghazi, that was all you would hear. what about the four soldiers killed in nigeria? we didn't have any hearings, nobody cares. , where is donald trump with his jobs in china? he supports their communist country but not ours. number three, these republicans charged withple felonies. they are going to go to jail. this party, i believe, has lost its mind. let's hear from stand, delray beach, florida. independent line. caller: i'm calling about the

guy talking about immigration. nobody talks about what it costs the 48% of americans that pay taxes. paying for all of this health care that these guys , all of these people are getting, coming into this country, and they don't have inoculations against disease. we have epidemics in our country of diseases we eradicated 15 years ago. debt owned by 44 million americans of $1,000,000,450,000 for education that they are not paying back. we need to put pressure on them. they need to pay it back some way or another. one more call, denver, colorado, democrats line. caller: hello, this is days. -- dave. and i on? i would just like to call in.

everyone says that your views are unbiased, except since brian noticed left, i never you had anyone on like christopher hitchens, someone coming from the other side, a nonbeliever. i wish you would have more -- people whoaybe could present the other side. so many guests calling in with religious sites, every type of religious leader on here except the atheist side, and i believe it is one of the biggest demographics growing in virginia. host: we've done interviews with atheists over the years, nothing in my recent memory, though. caller: i haven't seen every christian or muslim or rabbi, but i've never heard of anyone on our side. you think your

perspective adds to the conversation? caller: we are in the 21st century and we have people calling in, just saying, i believe that we can't continue to live with fairytales from ancient babylon in the 21st century. dave in, that is colorado. linda is in york, pennsylvania. she is the last call. ander: i called before wanted to respond to that lady that said she got a letter for medicare telling her how much her medicare was going up. i've been on medicare for eight years and i've never gotten a letter from them, i had to call. two, i wish it would be different, but i can't afford a orputer or an ipad or iphone any kind of internet connection. i wish i could, because i

believe it would help me. that is all i had to say for that. linda from pennsylvania, you are the last call. we are going to speak with democratic congresswoman stacey plaskett. here to talk about how democrats might approach investigating the trump administration, through congress, plus other issues. plus, the other members of congress in washington for freshman orientation. brad fitch of the congressional management foundation will give us details on what they are learning and how to become a congressman and what they are learning in the process. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2018] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] when we study the history of memphis, tennessee, there's pre-april 4, 1968 and there's

post. >> memphis was the place of a lot of racist tension, but also the place of a lot of racial harmony. >> had there been no cotton economy, there may have been no need for a transportation hub. tour takes yous to memphis, tennessee, with the help of our comcast partners. author -- talks about his book, " down to the crossroads. and author charles hughes on the role of music played, through his book, "country soul." on american history tv, sunday

at 2:00 p.m., the history of cotton in memphis. then a visit to the national civil rights museum. watched c-span's cities tour of and sunday at 2:00 p.m. on american history tv on c-span3 as we explore america. c-span, where history unfolds daily. 19 79, 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. washington journal continues. delegate stacey plaskett

serves the virgin islands and is part of the oversight government reform committee. folks about the committee and its role in the investigative process. as the name states, the committee on oversight and government reform deals with the oversight of our government, as well as passing laws to reform or make government work better. so, all of the agencies we the operations of those agencies, the government employees, postal services, etc.. host: the trump administration comes into consideration? guest: it does, the different agencies and their operations. many democrats in this congress actually joined in a lawsuit because we had requested from gao the lease agreement pertaining to the trump e oforation's leas government land, that being the post office where the trump

hotel is in washington, d.c. in the past, that information was given to us. after the inauguration, it was denied. those are the kinds of things we will be looking at due to the emoluments clause and the need for elected officials and those in appointed positions not to beginning financially -- not to gain fromfinancial government operations. host: when it comes to the administration itself, are you the body that would look at tax returns? are with waysurns and means. i know there was discussion of waters, but the actual tax matters and subpoena of the presidents tax returns will go to ways and means. the oversight and government reform committee, which is often times where the select committees are formed from the

willrs of that committee, be doing questioning, interrogation of actual officials of the administration and the operations that go from there. host: does issuing subpoenas become part of that? guest: it does, unless they give , you know?tion up in the past, there is information we have requested that administrations have readily supplied. thousands of documents, millions of documents that have come to the staff of the oversight and government reform. subpoenas are issued when there is reticence or push back against being transparent, sharing with the rightful body that oversees them, the legislative body. host: you might know the name kirk gardella -- senior advisor oversight committee, a

republican who became a democrat . he had an idea about subpoenas and the trump administration. anyone talking about a flurry of investigations and subpoenas is falling into a darrell issa trap of taking a smart, strategic step back -- instead of doing so. ultimately, the results will speak for themselves and will withoute impact than the partisan preamble. guest: and i said the subpoenas are a last effort. i think, by talking with elijah cummings, chairman of the abouttee, spoke with him the plan. he's trying to be systematic the chair of judiciary, along with maxine waters, chair of financial services, and even the intelligence committee. what is your purview? so we are stepping on each other's feet, acting

systematically and giving the american people what they want, performing our function, not to destroy president trump, but to be the legislative body and check and balance the administration. host: do you have any concerns about the level of investigation overshadowing democrats' abilities to put an agenda forward? guest: we can walk and shoot guns at the same time. i know i sit on the bag committee,-- the ag and we want to do legislation that supports farmers, rural areas, extending broadband to rural communities. transportation and infrastructure is excited about the notion of robust transportation bills, which modernizes areas of transportation and expands others. to work withlity republicans on those issues even though investigations might be

at the shadow of that? members ofink that congress, even when democrats were in the minority, still worked on things with members of the republican majority. samenk that works in the way, when there are areas we can work together on. whether it is issues of climate change, creating solutions to that. we've seen so many disasters come up that are related to that. some agreement about drugs and drug pricing that many members have, as well as fixes to education, labor, and other. host: if you want to ask her questions, (202) 748-8000 free democrats, (202) 748-8001 for republicans, and for , (202) 748-8002. here's the picture of the new freshman class.

pelosi, far as nancy questions on whether she will become speaker of the house. do you have any doubts? i understand there are quite a number of members who have said and made promises to their constituents that they would not vote for her. i have concerns for them, that their first vote in public not be a removal of what they told, going back on a promise that they made. i know there's been discussion about others coming up. i think our bench is deep. i think nancy pelosi has done a tremendous job of being speaker, of being our leader, holding us strategic,eing very but i don't think she is the only person that can do that. i know there is discussion about marcia fudge, discussion about others possibly being able to take over. one of the things i find bass or about karen

marcia fudge, is an african-american woman. i know that we would not be in the majority without african-american women, either through running or through voting. we have karen bass, speaker of the legislature in california, or marcia fudge, congressional black caucus chair, and also head of our convention in 2016. judge,een on mayor, a and was part of -- largest significant black sororities in this country. so i think there is a possibility, and i think that having this discussion is a good thing for us, as democrats. i think we made a mistake in acompli,aving it fait

with hillary clinton as nominee, and that hurt us. i don't think she was a good candidate, because we didn't have those discussions. i think nancy pelosi is an extremely strategic woman and a .reat fighter so, having this discussion and back and forth does not diminish her in any way, but if she comes out as speaker, makes her a stronger speaker. those women of actively campaigns against her, would you cast a vote for them versus nancy pelosi? guest: in a great fan and marcia in washingtonntor here. i would have great consideration for her in a fight like that. the: a report this morning, 17 democrats signing a letter -- that letter,ot on but as you hear from me, i would consider marcia fudge. i think the 17 are individuals who are putting their pen to

paper, but i don't think that necessarily accounts for everyone. i know there are letters going around now, trying to box individuals into supporting one person or another, and when we have a caucus vote, it is supposed to be a secret. putting people, making them sign a letter now, i think, removes int we thought was important the caucus, that secrecy. i think people should leave their options open. host: the degree of pressure on these young democrats, how would you assess that? think it is unfair. it comes from lieutenants, others areof her and pressuring her. i think they are hearing in orientation, just getting their feet into washington, but i'm sure they've been pressured well before they came to washington this week. comes fromirst call chesapeake, virginia, calling on the republican line. , c-span.ood morning

are you going to go after trump all the time? waste taxpayer money, just like pelosi? she said, you got to voted in before you see what is in it. would you buy a car before you test drive it? i don't knowaid, if you heard earlier, that the democrats will be engaged in a lot of activity. we are really concerned about notng the pieces that were fixed in the affordable care act, a transportation bill which expands infrastructure and modernizes american transportation. we are also interested in fixing the farm bill and making sure it ins through, sitting conference right now. there are issues of criminal justice we are working on.

all of that will occur and members of congress will do their job as well, which is, in fact, to look at the administration and look at the overd conduct oversight the administration in the same way that republicans conducted oversight over president obama and his administration. that is the function of congress and we are going to do our job. host: independent line. vincent from pennsylvania. , how are youday doing. i'm glad to have made contact with you. i have something totally different, been trying to call in since last night. i think you are doing a great job in your position. the farm bill and the different thing you guys are speaking about on tv today, will that extend to the virgin islands? there are a lot of things going on there since the hurricane. and i'm wondering, how are we

going to use all of these things to benefit not only the people of the united states, but the people of the virgin islands and other territories out there? guest: i think that is a great question and it does extend to the virgin islands. one of the reasons i'm on the agricultural committee is that most of the virgin islands is considered rural, so the department of agriculture has a tremendous amount of -- there's opportunity for agriculture. one opportunity is really expanding broadband. we know there is a digital livee between students who in rural, underserved areas, as well as for our utilities, telecommunications. all of that falls within rural development within agriculture. even little things like supporting areas with drought. probably aware, several years ago, there was a tremendous drought in the virgin

islands and puerto rico. because we were not on the drought monitor, they were not able to give us funding. we fought, going forward, that that is taken care of. from twitterwer says, it would be ok for newly elected members to vote for nancy pelosi against their pledge, if, and she puts it in capital letters, they can clearly explain to their constituents what they didn't know before being elected. she asked that karen bass is good, too. guest: one of the things that older members tell you when you come to washington is, don't let anyone take your voting card from you. one of the reasons i think the in the majority's we ran a 50 state campaign, we had individuals who fit each district, each constituency. they are the individuals they

want in washington to speak for them, and i think they will have to listen to their constituents and what they want and be able to address that in their own fashion. host: have you been talking to any of the freshman yourself about this issue? guest: i spoke briefly with some of the freshman. they are really busy with their orientation. we are seeing them at receptions, talking about a lot of things. what are their committee assignments going to be russian mark what are the best places for them to have staffing? issues theyof the are working through, and i think it is really leader pelosi who has served us well by allowing us to have until the end of november to have this debate and discussion, because it allows freshman and others to really take a look at the composition of our party now, the ,omposition of the democrats and who is going to be the best

team to lead us in that. we focused a lot on leader pelosi, but there are quite a number of other positions that are going to be in leadership as well. a majority leader, a whip, and assistant democratic leader. we have three members of our messaging and policy groups, as well as who is going to head up our congressional campaign committee. so those all can really show the diversity in the democratic party, and i think individuals will be thinking about that. host: next, also months springs, florida, rich joins us on the democrat line. morning, thank you for c-span. i have one question. how many viewers do you think you have daily, then a couple questions for stacy.

host: we don't take ratings, there are other things we look at. we don't technically take ratings at all, on our network. caller: ok. i was curious, which island is she from? guest: i live on the island of -- and i represent all of the u.s. virgin islands. caller: i used to work with a great gentleman from st. croix, haven't been there lately. i'm curious if there has ever been a thought about the islands joining with puerto rico and becoming a state? and i'm trying to figure out, you think you have more democrats for more republicans in the islands, and who helps you more in congress. in your case, probably democrats. what do you think of the citizens united decision? guest: that's quite a number of questions. i talked to jennifer

theirez-colon about quest for statehood. i think version islanders are proud to be virgin islands, and the notion of being consumed by puerto rico is one that most of them are not in favor of. supports, iwho follow the mantra of, we look for whoever is going to support us. of myk one of the reasons advocacy and leadership for them is that i work with whoever is going to be supportive of us. it appears right now the democrats have been the most supportive in terms of supporting legislation i put forward, but that does not say that republicans have not been. supporters of amendments and bills when they were in the majority and i'm grateful for that. as registered democrats, as registered voters, there are more democrats than republicans, but we've had republican

inresentatives here washington, republican governors. i think that is a misnomer people have about the territories, the assumption that we are people of color and only vote democrat. that's not the case, we currently have an independent republican, was a going into a runoff with the democratic challenger. in each one of the territories, both of those positions, governor and representative in washington, our republican or democrat, one way or another. host: we have a question on twitter, responses to puerto rico and the virgin islands in the government? will see that you now that democrats are in the majority. that's not to say republicans would not. committee, howmy the recovery was going, i think there is a need to ascertain how

that recovery is going both in puerto rico and in the virgin islands, and in several communities, whether it be natural resources, oversight and government reform. we will see transportation and homeland security, which looks at fema, to see what has been the good and bad, the pros and cons. the purpose of hearings aren't you," but togot see what we've done well, what we've done badly, and if there are laws congress should work on for the future. host: illinois, independent line, paul. caller: i'm listening to the democrats again, and -- host: keep going, you are still on. are you there? let's try another line. this is from missouri, lisa. i am a democrat, i have

been a democrat for over 30 years, but the 2016 election, i voted for trump because i thought he was getting things done. he had great ideas, and he has so far kept a lot of his i haves, and that is why no desire to vote democrat again. all i hear the democrats say his investigations, investigations, investigations on trump. i'm sick of investigations, i want to see action, democrats get off their keister's and start working for the american people and do what needs to be done for the american citizens in this country, the middle class. and stop worrying about giving everything away and having investigations, investigations, helping the illegal democrats. guest: thank you. i think that is an interesting position that you have, that it

is the democrats doing investigations, when in the last two congresses, run by republicans, all of those initiated bys were republicans. i think that if you've listened to me this morning, you heard me say there are real issues the democrats want to work on. you talk about the middle class. the tax bill that was passed in this last congress did not butfit the middle class, the wealthy. which is why you are now hearing president trump talk about a tax break for the middle class. that is something democrats are tremendously concerned with and want to address. we also want to address issues of transportation, issues related to creating more jobs, creating more innovation, creating an environment with small businesses in the united and supporthrive, for our veterans and ensuring our children have a leg up by having the best educational system possible so that all children have a level playing field to thrive. viewer on twitter

says the best thing democrats can do for the american people is impeached donald j. trump. would you agree? guest: that's not my focus in washington, but delivering on things that the people in my district have told me, which is that they want opportunities, opportunities to thrive, support for small businesses. theirant to ensure that children have safe schools as well as proper resources and support for the teachers in those schools. aree are the things that important and the things that i am here in washington to work on. now, i do support the mueller investigation and think that the senate should insulate him from president trump and whatever his rash decisions made be -- decisions may be, but my immediate thought is not to impeach donald trump and i don't think that the democratic

majority is of that mindset. i think each committee will do its job and where things fall is where they fall. host: you have a legal background, what did you think of matthew whitaker taking the temporary post? guest: i think it is a travesty that negates the great importance of the department of justice. for the department of justice, work for james comey, worked for larry thompson before that under attorney general ashcroft. and i think that chris wray is a friend of mine, and it really disturbs me that someone who was not senate confirmed is in that position where you have individuals down the line, whether it is the deputy attorney general attorney general, one of the dozens of assistant attorney general's that could have taken the position. host: does it violate the act as far as his appointment? from a legal background. guest: from a legal background, i think it is fuzzy.

i think that the president can appoint who he wants to appoint, but there is a point at which it needs to be senate confirmed. i think that in an exit in or emergency circumstance -- exigent or emergency circumstance, he could do that, but i do not believe we are in that timeframe. i believe he skipped the line and brought in someone who he thought was going to meet his needs rather than the needs of the american public. host: your committee has been looking into russian interference. how would that be shaped as democrats take the house? guest: i hope we would allow mr. mueller to finish what he does and make sure that information comes to the house and becomes public. one concern about whitaker is that he would not allow the american public to see the outcome of that investigation. i think that once we have those findings, much more thorough than what has been going on for some time, we could do a short

investigative period to see what we could do. host: bob on our republican line from tennessee. doing. how are you i was a democrat until 2016, and let me tell you. if something had not been mentioned, and everybody knows what the democrats are trying to do. they want to overflow this country. when someone like oprah winfrey stood up and said this would be a much better place when all the old white men are dead, that is racist. -- dr. democrat party kings at all -- host: your question for our guest? we will leave it there. guest: i don't believe oprah winfrey made a statement like that. i can't see her making a

statement like that. i think this is everyone's country. think this ison't a country that belongs to black women for white men, it belongs to all of us, and that is what makes us american. every hue, gender, and ethnicity. my concern is for those who thwartork that -- would that. i think the rhetoric of donald trump, to people, especially people like myself, black women, and when he threatens and gives license to police to go after the thing that is most precious to me, my sons, my husband, something that is that causes us to rise up against that kind of rhetoric. not the person, but the rhetoric. host: delegate stacey plaskett,

serving the virgin islands. coming up, we will talk about the two members of congress coming to washington and the things they are learning. our discussion will be with brad fitch of the congressional management foundation. we will be right back. ♪ [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2018] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] q&a, jackie speier talks about her memoir, undaunted. in thes on an airstrip remote jungles of guyana, having just concluded a delegation tour with leo ryan, and we were ambushed on that airstrip, and shot. congressman ryan was shot 45 times and died there.

journalists, one defector, and i was shot. bone jutting out of my right arm, a wound on my leg the size of a football. and it was, oh my god, i'm 28 years old, this is it. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span q&a. for lives this weekend coverage of the miami book fair, starting saturday at 10:00 a.m. discussing the book "russian roulette." then an interview with supreme court justice sonja sotomayor, on her path to the supreme court. mediarump 2020 campaign advisory board member gina loudon discusses her book, man politics. columnist,al review

jonah goldberg, with his book, suicide of the west. sunday, our live coverage continues at 10:30 eastern, the case against impeaching trump. 11:15,"squeezed." then fox news politics editor chris steigerwald discusses his book, every man a king. then former secretary of state day is extra.ery watch the miami book fair on c-span two's book tv. washington journal continues. joining us,itch president and ceo of the congressional management foundation, talking about the orientation for new members of congress. remind people of your organization and what it does guest:.

we've been around for 41 years, nonpartisan, nonprofit. what we try to do is improve trust between citizens and congress, trying to give them a good leg up on how to set up their offices, manage themselves, how to hire staff, build websites. all things that these small businesses called congressional offices need. we also train citizens on how to be better citizen advocates, the other part. comes to new members, how is this education done? through a seminar or class? guest: trial by fire, like you'd imagine. they come here if they are house members and get two weeks of to understand the rules they have to live by, a little bit about their jobs, and how to set up a congressional office. not the decisions they have to make. what people don't realize is, setting up the congressional

office has all the difficulty of a small business, with the red tape of a bureaucracy. you have to do all the things that a small business does, but also comply with a significant and unusual group of rules and laws that apply only to members of the house and senate. is ethics education a large part of the process? is definitely a usual part, i wouldn't say large. many rules are different from normal corporate rules. you have to report on any stock transaction, for example. file your personal financial disclosure forms by april of next year, reforms for your -- file forms for your spouses. any time you spend taxpayer money, that has its own set of rules host: if you want to learn more about what new members of congress are learning as the 116th session comes, (202) 748-8000 for democrats, (202)

748-8001 for republicans, and (202) 748-8002 four independents . our signature publication is called "setting course," a 300 page handbook on how to be a member of congress from the management perspective. how do you create a strategic plan, set up the organizational chart in your office? what kind of member do you want to be, a legislator or ombudsman ? we are excited we just published the latest edition for the 116th congress. host: another one, the 90 day roadmap of setting up in congress. guest: it has checklists on what members need to do, little ,preadsheets in table format of what are the average salaries, average budget? bookdea was this 300 page

that was a little hard to put in her pocket, you might want something a little more user-friendly. we took all the advice from our other research and put it into the checklist format. most commons the question that a new member of congress will ask your organization? hiring,ne of them is on the most difficult or important question. we are often asked, what is the most important position? we surprise them by saying, scheduler. you can have weak people in senior positions and they might phase out and the office will run ok. like the aircraft controller. either the planes are crashing or flying. also, the person who is the liaison to the family. theneed a person in position to understand the personal and official needs host:. host:coming into this congress, alexandria ocasio cortez talked

about things like rent in washington, d.c. do those kinds of things get asked, and if a stipend is provided? guest: we get occasional questions like that. -- put abig fan of book on instagram. we do get practical questions. i lived in washington 32 years. ,eople ask, what are the good safe neighborhoods to go to? they actually don't get any stipends of any kind. they used to, in the 1800s, that is how they were paid, but now they are given a salary, and not given a lot of official advice on the personal living situation, except from colleagues, and that is where they really need to turn, to colleagues who have been here for a few years and how they transitioned. new member of congress is coming in, how much would that person make russian ? hostguest: $176,000 per year.

get the samengress health benefits as any federal employee, similar to about half of all americans. your employer pays three quarters or little less and you pay the rest. and they also learn of how they pay their pension system, just like a federal employee pension system. you need to spend 20 years to get a really good pension. so you will learn that a lot of the myths they learned on television is that it is more like schoolhouse rock than house of cards. obamacareow did change that, or did it change that for members of congress? guest: they were required to go to individual exchanges. that caused headaches for the office of personnel management, who had to deal with it, but they worked it out. we've heard that generally, staffers were ok with making that transition, to going to the

individual exchange for the district of columbia. so, their health care is a lot like everybody else that goes into the exchange. host: we are learning about this orientation process for new members. michigan, first call, independent line from roger. caller: i was wondering about the taxes that people are having to pay, and the president himself said in an interview or press conference that he didn't pay any taxes because he is too smart to pay taxes. won 300e guy who just million dollars or something in the new york lottery and he ended up with a lump sum of 125. host: thanks, roger. taxes. guest: that is a tough one because we are a non-policy

organization, but from a congressional perspective, numbers of congress do get a special tax break of about $3000 per year, one of the only perks mostning, things that people don't get. the expectation is that they maintain two households in washington and their home district, which is why they get that small extra tax deduction. will be paid for congresspeople who have to travel back and forth to their home state? they get a budget between $1.3 million and $1.4 million, but it is taken up in salary, district rent, and travel back and forth. they are allowed to spend their money on travel back and forth. our research shows that about eight out of 10 members of congress go home more than 40 weekends per year. that's a lot of travel. that might sound like fun, but if you talk to members of congress, having to deal with airports and taxis 40 times per

year, times two, it's rather arduous. for: when they take trips travel or congressional work, when it comes to disclosure, what do you teach them as far as how much they have to disclose? guest: we generally don't teach them, we send them to the house ethics committee or senate rules committee, they have jurisdiction over that kind of thing. strict ingot more 2007 with the passage of the honest leadership and open government act. if members are traveling overseas, they have to put the agenda in advance as a number of public record so people can see their spending. these things are junkets, these things are vacations. the funds, because they are type a personalities, but they are work jobs, traveling for work. members of congress understanding international situations, learning from our allies and sometimes from people who are not our allies, but they

aren't junkets, vacations. they are work. sometimes congress, part of your work is going to israel or italy or afghanistan. host: jamie from maine. caller: am wondering, as this new crop of freshmen come in, -- many of them are going to because they feel they are confronting a congress that has failed to take on putin? he has become an enemy of the state and it really does appear that some of our own representatives are becoming enemies of our own, by protecting food and and whatever he did -- protecting clinton and 2at hputin and whatever he did years ago. guest: there's a lot of challenge to orthodoxy and authority, and that is one of the things that the election results met.

raising questions that had not been raised in previous congresses, and that is what you want with a new crop of freshmen members, people willing to take more risk. a lot of people think that really stale, but we get a lot of new ideas every two years. 90 members of congress are going to be freshmen, they will be looking to make their marks legislatively. one thing we try to coach members to do is identify those issues early on that they think are important to them and their constituents, and stick with them. hopefully, they will listen and follow that and have a more successful first turn then if they tried to do too much. members of congress have trouble saying no to people because they are politicians. what we try to coach them is you have got to say no to a few

people. i think they will probably challenge authority and raise questions that jamie raised. host: when it comes to the office space, how is that doled out? is a quirky, old-fashioned system. members of congress later this month will go into a lottery and pull a ticket. either you are number one or number 90. number one, you get your first choice. i remember doing it in the 90's. back then, we didn't have cell phones or big pictures of the office. you had 15 minutes to make a decision. staffers,wo or three get a lottery number, find out which ones are left, then three or four staffers would literally run to those offices and make phone calls back, we've got to take this one in longworth, extra space with built-in cabinets. , butays it is less hectic

the real estate on capitol hill is not like you've seen on house of cards and west wing. i really laughed when i see these videos of them having these mahogany rooms. in one west wing episode, a waiter in a white coat was pouring coffee in a silver pitcher. i was watching in saying at the time, i don't work in this congress, i work in the other one. it's not how it is portrayed on television. termsre great offices in of location, but they are kind of cramped. host: deborah on twitter says i'm all for congressional barracks and a town hall -- provided by taxpayer money? or food isousing provided by taxpayer money, though you aren't the first russian to come up with the idea. -- one of the most brilliant -- lars on congress

would bring them together, but i don't think it would. shower, ito take a might be a little awkward, but you are the first person. host: you've talked about members going to the gym and not only working out, but talking about issues of the day. guest: members of congress, when they get together, they often do build bipartisan relationships with friends and colleagues and mentors. as you just heard delegate plaskett say a few minutes ago. it also happens on international travel. one of the downsides, of criticizing travel for members of congress, which the media has done. not c-span, but everybody else. bipartisan relationships have flowered. i can point to legislation that i know has occurred because of a long trip back from africa, a few members talking about the peace corps.

they were democrats and republicans, and then we saw more money go to the program. that didn't happen in the 80's and 90's, in part because of the scrutiny they been getting on travel. host: steve from florida. our guest is brad fitch. pac's: wouldn't the super that go around helping these people get elected, would that not be considered an emolument? and number two, i am a disabled veteran and i would like to have people say what they think about the celebrations in france and the united states. your question.or not going to handle trump questions today, i hope you will give me a bye on that one. i'm not an expert on campaign funding, but i'm aware that it is illegal for members of

congress to use their own campaign funds on personal activities. there are members of congress even now that are under scrutiny for doing that, it is a pretty big no-no when it comes to the commission. they don't really get that kind of perk. the perks that members get are smaller than you think. a parking spot at the national airport, certified parking for both the supreme court and u.s. congress. and i talked about the tax advantage they have. other than that, it's not like it is portrayed on television. host: of you are on twitter says each congressman gets a budget, how many staff members do they need to hire? the average in the house is 16. in the senate, it varies they stop the size of the state. that number has not grown since the 1970's. people think about all this growth in government, has not

happened in the u.s. congress. to 2014, 1 institution cut their budget by 20%, the u.s. house of representatives. primarily serving constituents, answering constituent communications coming in primarily by email and social media, responding to requests and assistance with federal agencies, acting as ombudsman on behalf of their primarily working as customer service representatives for constituents. host: is the training different for members of the house and senate? a little bit. the senate has more of a mentoring system because it is a smaller class, they have more time to ramp up and will often team up with a more senior member, probably of their same party, same with the chiefs of staff. so training is different but the

orientation is shorter. host: from nebraska, fred is next. caller: hello, sir. retired truck driver, and -- united states government in 1980. they deregulated trucking and started a recession. one company was 10,000 employees. they put them guys on the street, out of work. but nobody ever approaches this government, took around, i don't know, 20 billion, $39 billion , andf a pension fund somebody juggled the books and they know that they took the money, and it's been investigated, sir, and been proven it's wrong. ernst,rassley, joni

young from iowa. host: got your call, comment if you wish. back to policy issues, we try to stick to the practicality, i'm sorry i can't speak to that. host: bill from alabama on the democrats line. matter i think it is a of qualified versus disqualified , you know, in their dealings. that weend to us , ourise our training discipline, so that we won't be disqualified, so to speak. host: thank you for calling. bradford, you said that part of the work of the organization is

educating the consumer and taxpayer. guest: under a program we called the partnership fund for a more perfect union, through the various nonprofits they joined, to understand how congress works . that is a win-win for everybody, because citizens come to meetings prepared and understanding what members are looking for, they will make more informed public policy decisions. we do a lot of work with food banks through the nonprofit, feeding america. giving those food bank people communication on the impact in their community, and what would happen if they were not there for the taxpayer. that is what members of congress are looking for. is a system this driven by special interest or campaign contributions. research is showing that they listen to constituents. one member of the house and senate staff -- has not arrived at a firm decision on an issue,

how much influence might the following advocacy strategies directed to the washington offices have on their decision? of congressional staff said that in person visits from constituents was the answer. the number one question i get is how do i talk to freshman lawmakers who don't have offices or emails setup? one of the best ways is social media. in the first quarter of the year, they will still be active on social media, looking at their feeds. our research shows they are constantly looking at what people are saying about them on social media. it's wonderful, almost a narcotic for members of congress. a you want to build relationship with a freshman lawmaker, one of the best ways to do it is with twitter and facebook. freshman lawmaker comes to washington to get trained, did they get trained about the role of lobbyists and influence of them, and how to

deal with them? they will get advice from senior members, and if they hire staff in washington, we encourage them to do that. they will get general guidance. it is not as nefarious and tricky as you might think. is just a good truth teller, good deliverer of the facts. what a lobbyist cannot do, a citizen is the only person that can tell their story. a professional advocate cannot do that. our training programs, we are coaching individuals on how to tell their story and how it relates to a public policy question. host: john from michigan, go ahead. can, tell meu , mr. the health care plan president obama signing the waiver for the social plan. there's a lot of

misunderstandings about members of congress and their health care plan. most very similar to what americans have. 50% of americans get health care from their employer and their employer pays about three quarters of that. that's the exact same plan members of congress are given, from their employer, which in this case is the united states congress. it contributes about 73% of their premium, and the member of congress pays the other part. we also have a situation, because it is a big campus, some people bring up the physician's office and nurses office. in the have those office, but so does google. a lot of people think congress is different, but it's not, it's just like any other large employer. the employees in this case just happen to be members of congress. host: keith from ohio. caller: i understand that each

one of the congressman and senators get $174,000. now, they have a budget that they work through that is $1.3 million, $1.4 million. what is that detail? what do they get in that budget? they have got to have their staffing, travel. i don't feel sorry for their travel. they should be there on the job instead of traveling home every weekend, they waste a lot of time. guest: thank you very much. generally, i agree with you. toily getting moved washington, they might have better relationships with their colleagues, but this is a very personal decision on where your kids go to school, so we don't quibble with that. their salaries, as united and, most of their budget goes to staff, 60%-70%.

next is the rent for district offices, depending on the district a are in. in a metropolitan area, it would be harder. that a smallthings business would spend money on, computer hardware, computer software, reimbursing staff for travel. they use their own cars, we don't have any government issued cars. you've got to lease your own own cars, andr they get reimbursed by the government at whatever the rate is. host: insurance? guest: something like $.40 or $.50 per mile. they get paid back, usually enough to cover the cost. host: what is going to be the most important take away for new members of congress? impugn upony to them that the higher process is the most important thing. don't hire someone you can't fire.

if someone says, talk to my cousin's nephew, that's not someone you want because you can't work with them. take of the washington staff. we need people in d.c. to help you get started, great, talented people. host: brad fitch is with the congressional management foundation, resident and ceo. if you want to find out more,-- we now take you to the house of representatives. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for polil