the nominationon of the head of the agriculture department. for mock senator bernie sanders will talk about his new book on the future of the progressive and thenat 7:00 p.m. followed by a conversation with former president barack obama and former secretary of state james baker talking about their time in public service and the role of u.s. leadership abroad. on c-span3, the senate armed services committee holds a hearing to review recommendations from the commission on national defense strategy. onenate subcommittee hearing federal trade commission oversight at 2:30 p.m. coming up on today's "washington journal," about theell talks challenges president trump faces with the new congress as democrats take back control of the house of representatives. noris henderson with voice of

the experienced talks about felony voting rights and opposed changes to the criminal justice system. we look at crime rates in the u.s. bruinius. ♪ host: good morning. it is tuesday, november 27, 2018. the senate reconveyance at 10:00 -- reconvenes at 10:00 a.m. in mississippi, voters head to the polls for the runoff that will decide the final senate contest of the 2018 election night -- and across the industrial midwest, communities are dealing with the fallout from the announcement that general motors will be cutting jobs to respond to changing markets and sluggish sales. that news is where we begin our program. we are opening our phones to

hear from you about the state of manufacturing jobs in your community. give us a call and tell us what it is like where you live. in the eastern or central time zones, 202-748-8000. in the mound nor pacific time .ones, 202-748-8001 special line for those who work in manufacturing, 202-748-8002 is that number. you can catch up with us on social media. on twitter it is @cspanwj. on facebook it is facebook.com/cspan. a very good tuesday morning to you. you can start calling now on special phone lines as we show you the headlines on front pages dealing with this gm story. gm deals blow to trump heartland by closing plants and shedding jobs. general motorsng plans to cut 14,800 jobs in the u.s. and canada and end

production at several companies. to adjustpany tries to adjust to weak sedan sales, the move would reduce their annual cost by $4.5 billion, freeing up money to invest in electric and self driving vehicles. the decision was called talus and prompted -- alice and prompt lous.s called cal here is president trump yesterday before he headed to mississippi for the rally in that runoff happening today talking about his phone conversation with the gm chief. [video clip] >> we don't like it. i believe they will be opening up something else and i was very tough. i spoke with her when i heard they were closing and said this country has done a lot for general motors, you better get back in there soon.

that is ohio. we have a lot of pressure on them. senators and other people. is noty the chevy cruz selling well. i said, get a car that is selling well. i think you will see something else happened. i am not happy about it. their cars are not selling well, so they will put something else breed i have no doubt in the not-too-distant future they will put something else in. host: that was the president yesterday. this was the statement put out yesterday. the actions we are taking totinue our transformation be agile and resilient and profitable while giving invest the to future. list of the plants that will end production by the end of 2019 on the front page of usa today, this morning's money

section, the lordstown assembly plant in northeast ohio, the plant in southeast michigan and in ontario, canada. baltimore operations part plant. the discontinued cars of the chevy cruz, volt, and impala. -- in light ofs that news yesterday, we want to hear from you this morning about manufacturing jobs in your community. tell us what it is like where you are. a special phone line for those who work in manufacturing. 202-748-8000. otherwise -- those who work in manufacturing, 202-748-8002. eastern or central time zones, 202-748-8000. in the mountain or pacific time zones, 202-748-8001. want to show you one editorial cartoon relating to this gm

announcement. there is gm as uncle scrooge saying making out a christmas humbug" noting the -- closings and jobs cuts. caller: thank you for c-span, you do a great job. host: appreciate that. caller: in my town upstate, ibm has been dwindling jobs over the decades by the thousands. i wanted to say this whole thing about bringing back any fracturing is a hoax. we are not bringing back manufacturing. even china is starting to lose manufacturing jobs to countries, vietnam, indonesia. the president -- he doesn't know what he is talking about.

he does not have a degree from the school of business, that is a hoax. --went to florida university he went to a university for two , new york.eens he transferred and got an undergraduate degree in business from wharton college. i know people who went to the wharton school of business and some of those people are brilliant. we are keeping our discussion to manufacturing jobs. we want to hear about the state of manufacturing in your communities. bill up next, go ahead. caller: down here in florida, there are not any manufacturing jobs. if you are a landscaper, you are in rough -- in luck. i would like to comment on mr. cuomo in new york, he will

subsidize four nuclear plants upstate. that will be put on the .axpayers in new york i don't think that is the right thing to do. i think there is enough subsidies going to these corporations and the nuclear industry is not wanted by most of the people in new york. you have got to get that right. thank you very much. host: carol on twitter saying most seem to be doing well around southeast palm beach county. aids the economy. we get folks from canada who stay the winter here. we are talking about manufacturing jobs in your community. if you are on the eight -- in the eastern and central time zones, 202-748-8000. mountain and pacific time zones, 202-748-8001.

for those who work in manufacturing, 202-748-8002. more reaction from newspapers from the midwest due to closures by gm. this is from the columbus dispatch, that job promises could haunt president trump with .he gm lordstown closure at the chevy cruze assembly-line could halt -- want president -- president donald trump. ohio lawmakers expressed fury over general motors saying they intend to close the 1600 plant in march. the company signaled for months declining sales and higher steel costs due to tariffs would hurt automakers. that story quoting david kellen saying donald trump will take the heat on this because he has been out in front about trade. he is the guy who said trade wars were easy to win.

youngstown area congressman tim ryan, a democrat with plenty of comments on twitter yesterday, here is a few from a large chain of tweets he put out saying thousands of families have sacrificed to build gm into what it is today and gm turned their back on us when we needed them the most. said so far president trump has been asleep at the switch -- hees the community a promised his corporate tax cut would lead to investments in our communities and that clearly is not happening. the valley has been yearning for the trump administration to come here and help us fight for recovery. what we have instead are broken promises and petty tweets. we want to hear your thoughts this morning about manufacturing in this country.

morning.wa, good caller: good morning. today just got a tax cut last year, the manufacturing company and gm got a big tax cut and now he is losing jobs. why are they getting rid of their employees when they got a tax cut? they got a big incentive. why they are losing jobs, i don't understand it. i think he lied to a lot of the people in manufacturing. it's not true. thank you. host: tony in tampa, florida. good morning. tampa, i am calling from florida. i work for a manufacturing plant . roofing shingles.

they have been in business for 50 years. the job they have is not because of donald trump. host: how are things going at your plant? have they been hiring? caller: actually, we have been moving study, they have been hiring. a lot of people are making over 6 figures working inside the plant. host: do you plan to retire? is this your job for life? caller: i am not going anywhere. i will be there until i retire. the standards they have had been in place way before donald trump. host: has there been any impact from the tariffs, the trade wars we see from this program? caller: my company has companies over in europe and different places like that. the stuff we make here in

america stays in america. host: here is a chart from the bureau of labour statistics showing the state of manufacturing jobs. these numbers in the millions. the manufacturing jobs before the great recession well over 13 -- a half -- $13.5 million 13.5 million. ,ou can see the rise in 2017 2018 on this chart. the gm numbers expected to 2019 and fiscal year those closures expected to happen next year. george works in manufacturing. what kind of job? caller: i used to work at general motors. i worked at ac spark plug and truck and bus when i was young. i started at general motors when i was 19 and got to retire at

59. what i think is happening in torica is the availability be able to consume these products. gm, ford has a lot of debt and so does gm. the people just can't afford to registration and now with interest rates going up, even then, they had a low interest rate and cannot afford car payments. the standard of living just isn't -- can support all this. cycle is going to be a hard fall when all these things come and on the market to resell the other part of the story is when you buy a new car, the

evaluation of the car. stillonomy, we are in -- not in enough money to increase the velocity of money. that is my opinion. host: how much do you blame gm? turned ourying gm back on them when we need them the most. caller: they would have to ramada kate -- allocate a product line. the products being bought or leased, those are high cost .ehicles in mr. ryan's area, they are sedans and people do not want them now. that could change if gas prices jumped. vehicle have a bigger at the same price they were paying for a sedan.

they allocate another product line, it will not be a big -- good story for them. gm.: more on this is on the back of the front page of the financial times, writing who got bailed out by the motor industry bailout in 2008 when uncle sam pumped 80 billion into general motors and chrysler? gaineds company workers more or less equally. -- otherwise would have been sacrificed had detroit gone under. it is becoming clear the benefits ultimately skewed to the investors. jason in baltimore maryland, good morning. think: the last caller i hit it on the head.

this is a corporation. the tax breaks is just a windfall for them. they had to take care of the people still there including higher option investors and a product like the cruze is just not selling. there is not enough money to get around. younger people i work with don't even own vehicles and gm looks about a dozen years into the future and don't see much of a market in the future. the younger people using lift lyft and uber. there is a schism in america between wealthy and people trying to scrape by. -- directedrs toward a middle cast -- middle class that is dwindling by the day. host: does gm owe the workers

anything here? caller: if anybody has been in business or through a plant closure, no, they don't. it is not the government. the government is supposed to work for us and a corporation is a beast. it is just there to make money and the fact that they give money to politicians is to keep themselves wealthy, not to have any particularly altruistic -- on society. host: here is more reaction. this is a democratic senator from ohio on twitter yesterday saying the workers on lordstown are the best at what they do and it is clear gm does not respect them. ohio taxpayers rescued gm and it is a shame the company is laying off workers right before the holidays. the company reaped a massive

break, failing to build the blazer in mexico. what consequences it's disastrous decision will have on the valley in ohio. my office is ready to do everything we can to help these workers. this is corporate greed at its worst. tell me about manufacturing in texas. haver: we don't really manufacturing. we are mainly a farming community. i did work for a manufacturing company that manufactured f-16's back in the 80's. i just have a thought. off-the-wall,ttle but all these companies that are taking their manufacturing jobs to other countries, if they are ,till an american owned company

they should have to pay a tax for permission to take that company to the other country and they should have to pay the workers in that other country the same base salary they would have to pay in america because it is still an american owned company. therefore, i think that would deter other companies from taking their jobs to other countries. keep themincentive to here by punishing them if they take them somewhere else. host: do you think tariffs have done that? caller: probably, but i am not that up on that great of this is just a thought that has been rolling around in my head for three years. the company i was with, they halterdown the first

making division for the f-16's. they closed that and sent it to mexico and that company is no more. boeing bought them out. the thing is, if somebody would say you want to pay cheaper labor, so we are still an american owned company, our minimum wage here in america, you have to pay at least that to your workers in that other country. host: donna in michigan city, indiana. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for what you are doing. i want to make a couple of comments before i tell you what is going on about what your listeners have said -- your callers. hit.ember when the crash the automobile industry, the dealers were trying to recover -fers.ing to first, -- two

two cars for the price of one. my father was 95 and could not believe what he was seeing. i can tell you what is happening here is i am about 35 miles from the steel mills and on the border of michigan. we have had a couple of plants that have come here. toyota came here. they were going to open a plant about nine miles from my home and they announced in the paper whether it was true or not that there were not enough skilled workers and we had an opioid plant, so they moved the to alabama. i don't really know all the time what is going on when these companies make decisions about when they are going to settle or if they are going to move to mexico. they seem to be saying over and over again there aren't enough

skilled workers. maybe that is a problem we need to solve. we need to bring older workers back and get them educated. they don't always know what is going on technology wise. that seems to be a problem. there are a lot of signs in the -- for jobs in the steel mill. manufacturing plants opening .ere i want to say one other thing to your listeners and watchers this morning. there was a gentleman. 2000's,ack in the early he had a big fire in his plant. i believe it was massachusetts. do you remember that? host: i don't, donna. tell me. caller: instead of laying everybody off or they all lost their jobs, he continued to pay them a living wage even though the plant was completely demolished from the fire and it

took about a year before they finally got their jobs back. he paid them throughout that whole process and batman was a hero. i wish other companies would look at that -- and that man was a hero. i wish other companies would host: look at that. the tax cuts from last year, does gm owe its workers or america something? caller: i heard one of your callers say it is a corporation. i am 66 years old. i have seen corporations, and eat up smaller companies and take over. very often they are per trade as monsters -- portrayed as monsters that don't care. i think it was one of the presidential candidates that said corporations are people, too. they have a big problem with the advent of technology and

everything happening in the car industry with self driving cars -- iber and a lack of don't know if sales are up and down, but they have to make a determination of what they are going to do in the future. if you are going to lay off 15,000 people, you should give them some kind of severance pay or something as you kick them out the door. it seems like they are making millions of dollars and the least they can do is do something for their employees and not be a scrooge. that would make them look so much better in the eyes of the american people as they figure out what they are going to do in the future of their industry. host: thank you for the call. i was able to find the story i think you were referring to in the massachusetts business owner , mills, the textile plant.

the largest fire massachusetts had seen for a century. the town was devastated. large one of the few employers in the town already in desperate straits. the only thing that went through thirdd is the owner, the generation owner of the mill was how i can possibly re-create it. i wanted to keep the business alive and wanted it to survive. he made a decision, one that other scott hard to believe. to believe.und hard he made another decision for the next 60 days, all employees would be paid their full salary. host: from twitter, rebecca writing in on the state of manufacturing jobs. first the farmers and then the factory workers who are used to making good money. anthony sang illinois is not doing well in this. hopefully with the change in government power, we will see

new growth. layoffsthere might be soon. we want to hear about your community and what is happening with manufacturing in your part of the country. 202-748-8000 if you are in the eastern or central time zones. 202-748-8001 if you are in the mountain or pacific time zones. a special line for those who work in manufacturing, 202-748-8002. as you keep calling in, it is run off day in mississippi. republican incumbent senator cindy hyde-smith is running to fill the last two years of the term of thad cochran who retired from congress in april. my guess become a former congressman and agriculture secretary in the clinton administration is running against her. president trump was down there making his final pitch. here is what the president had to say last night. [video clip]

citizenasking every from every party, community, background, race, color, creed, religion for your support tomorrow. cindy hyde-smith. [applause] i need the great people of mississippi to send a message to crying chuck schumer, nancy pelosi, maxine waters, the radical democrats by electing cindy. we want cindy tomorrow. this is the greatest political movement in the history of our country. host: that was the president last night. if you want to watch that in its entirety, you can do so at our website. look for our coverage of the mississippi runoff starting this evening as votes are coming in. you can watch it on c-span, c-span.org, listen to our coverage on the radio app.

we will talk about it tomorrow morning on "washington journal" as well. back to your phone calls, the special line for those who work in manufacturing is 202-748-8000 . -- 202-748-8002. dean is calling on that line from louisville, kentucky. in the past, obama got -- raised prices on the new cars because they used cars had been crushed. when the government gets -- dictates to people how much the price of a car should be and bailout the manufacturer when the people cannot afford $50,000 cars made in the united states. host: should the government have not bailed out the auto industry

in 2008? caller: yeah, it helped them out. is $10,000. 14,050 -- $14,050 at the dealership and they said they raised cars now -- raised prices on the used cars now. in pennsylvania, good morning. caller: hi, how are you? host: doing well. caller: i have got three short points to make. i live in a county in pennsylvania where the income that most families get is not really big. we have three situations. one is an aluminum exclusion plant. they are expanding and adding jobs, which is great.

we have a large concrete beam manufacturing company that sense concrete beams and road repairs or whatever. their sign is always out of the the thirdiring and case is right now i am retired. i work at a gulf coast -- golf course cutting grass. there were two gentleman who worked with me. both of them got jobs this summer at a pump manufacturing company. they went from earning 10 or $11 per hour to earning 19 or 20 dollars per hour in those jobs. , they had a car called a 10 yearsive eight or ago that sold tremendously. it was a great car and did not have a -- had a great price.

they discontinued it. my last point is most of the bailout that president obama did help a lot ofo union interest or whatever. they got part ownership in the company. wherever all that money went, i don't know. host: can i ask you about the two young people who got jobs at the pump manufacturer? did you get a sense this was a lifetime job for them? something they want to stick with and retire? is that what manufacturing jobs are for young people these days? caller: for these two in particular, i am not sure if either one of them graduated high school. they were working at the golf course for a little bit above minimum wage and the opportunity to apply for these jobs came

along. they applied and were interviewed and i guess they were lucky enough to get in and they are unbelievably happy because they have a wage where they can buy a car and buy a house and support a family. all the retired guys who work at the golf course urged them to do this and told them you try to stick to this because this is something that will work for a long time. i heard one of them worked on a weekend and got overtime pay and was earning over 30 dollars per hour. i assume they will stay there and are happy about it. host: steve in arizona, good morning. caller: good morning, america. happy tuesday. hope you have a good week in america. sticking on the topic of manufacturing a replant from the detroit area. i would like to talk a little

bit about the decline in manufacturing in this company. as i was growing up in the motor city area, i noticed a decline in smaller shops that were providing parts for car assembly not too far away in the detroit locale. this has been going on for decades. we cannot blame trump or obama or bush. what we can blame is the fact the corporations want more money. i have been a painter working in body shops and machine shops. i had an opportunity to work for a major manufacturer as a subcontractor, working, cleaning up what they call paint booths in the auto factory where they made two types of vehicles and hired outside workers to come in and clean the lines down because

it was toxic chemicals and stuff. the thing is, there were tons of robots on the line. the robots had been replacing human workers for a long time and that allows the company to save on wages. the robots can work without taking a break and that allows a company less downtime. do you see where i am going with this? it appears to be trickle down in a respect that maybe it worked and all he motors got was a gold watch and a bible . a few guys came to the funeral parlor from the shop. i went there and try to get a that. they cannot even hire me to sweep the floor. there are people doing well in this country even today. the focused switch -- the focus switch from manufacturing car

parts, the screw machine industry has gone to craft. if you want to work in the defense industry, they have a lot of opportunities. unfortunately, it seems there is a lot of profit in war and not in peace. if it were the other way around, it would be a much better world. host: two the point you are making, the editorial board of the financial times today making perhaps a somewhat similar point talking about the change in this country from industrial to digital. they are talking about a different company. general electric has always been 26-year-oldr the innovator that build a global empire off the back of the book lightbulb has gone -- rating agencies cut its credit rating thanks to chronic mismanagement and debt issues.

ge is a fable of what happens when managers try to run an industrial business like a financial business then become too much enthralled in headlong pursuit to shareholder value. the lesson is in the nature of the economy that is fundamentally changed from industrial to digital while it has weathered many business able to sellge was investors on the shift from industrial, financial, to high-tech services. financial times. james in iowa is next, good morning. in 8 years.t time 70 years old.

people listen, but they don't understand. -- he can't come through on promises. i buy cheap -- you don't always get what you want. he is a con man and conned a lot of people. host: you don't have to wait 8 years until you call again, it is only a one month wait on calls. this topic, i called in before a few years ago regarding manufacturing unemployment. this has been going on for decades. started talking about jobs going

overseas like china and mexico for decades. here in michigan, our industrial arts -- i went through two major downsizes and bankruptcies, lost my home due to the manufacturing jobs leaving the state and then i came to find out down the road which hurt even more that our whornment gave these ceos ship our jobs out tax deductions for the total cost of moving our jobs to our enemies like china. not i found that, i could believe it and then i got to figuring, china attacked us in the korean war so technically we are still at war. isn't china our enemy? are we giving aid and comfort to china by sending all of our jobs

over there? i dealt with it for many decades. my family suffered because of it. i don't see it ending. i just don't. host: what do you do now? caller: i am retired now. i am a disabled veteran and i fought off my disability for many years until they caught up with me. i was proud of my job, i knew a ton of other people who worked so hard just to put food on the tables and their jobs were sent overseas down to mexico. it is really sad in michigan right now. everybody is devastated and our football team lost and now this. we did not need that hurried host: hector in lawrence,

massachusetts works in manufacturing. what kind of work? caller: thank you for taking my call, john. host: what kind of manufacturing work do you do? in many manufacturing states, i am talking about coldpressed, lithium, precious minerals. heavy steel, gold miners. this is a state of washington of coldpressed. this is a strong dollar, john. view on --about your how we should read these gm closings in the overall manufacturing economy in this country. caller: we need a strong collaboration with nissan, genesis, all these industries.

-- we need to collaborate and make it that are. host: you are talking about these companies working together to build these cars? is madethat is what usa of. i pledge allegiance to the united states of america in liberty and justice for all. we need to diversify and keep a strong dollar. a strong cold press state of .ashington host: two tim in california, good morning. hi.er: first off, most of -- we don't .ave any huge manufacturing

i worked -- work in a warehouse for magic company that makes magic tricks and kits and stuff. most people work for the state in sacramento. that is the state of manufacturing here for the most part. most of the warehouses have closed. from -- volvo has a new deal similar to a cell phone -- the way verizon lets you have a cell phone. $600 awhere you pay month and you get a brand-new car and you get full coverage and ince, full-service -- potentially that .ould be the future

people not wanting to lease a maybe maythey own it contribute to -- i don't know. uber. talk about lyft and -- owning ae people car, my mom, she wanted to own the car. -- owning a car, myhost: when gm is doing td offering up $4.5 billion by the end of 2020 and possible investments in electric and self-driving vehicles, do you blame them for trying to reposition themselves? caller: yes. i think they are doing what they are allowed to do. they have a board. i don't know how beholden they

do we own a part of gm? when that bailout happened, i votes -- volts on the road. it was a failure completely. i never saw any chevy cars. chevy trucks, maybe. -- they failed. the volt was a failure. host: the volt, the cruze, and the impala discontinued cars as a result of this decision. ray in new hampshire, good morning. caller: i wanted to follow-up on shortlyden mills -- after they reopened, they did file for bankruptcy.

theid a good thing and help people along. you have to think a company has to make money and he ended up going into bankruptcy and the company was bought by venture capitalists who reopened over a different -- under a different name. with fordfollow suit and chrysler earlier this year and discontinue passenger cars. people's tastea have changed to crossovers and pickups and suvs -- people's tastes have changed to crossovers and pickups and suvs. companies are starting their own .ide service

more people move to cities and don't buy the cars, instead of a --ail a ridee h service -- they hail a ride service. eventually cars will be on demand and if you need to go to the grocery store, you pull it up on your smartphone. when you are done shopping, another car brings you home. they have got to do what they have got to do. do you keep a plant open? people were not buying the vo chevy volt or -- impala.e for the if you are not buying the cars, you cannot keep making them. host: one chart that makes the point you were making on passenger cars versus light trucks, you can see the red line

on this graphic, the percentage of share of total u.s. auto sales of passenger cars 1990 edging up toward 70% now in the 30% range and you can see the changeover to light trucks back in the 1990's in the 30% range now edging up toward 70% of the share of total u.s. auto sales. host: bill works in manufacturing in chicago. good morning. caller: i am retired. host: what did you do? drove -- worked at the see -- the thing people really don't know about running all over the world. started --nd has

japan is making -- [inaudible] we also have a police force in america whose cars run on water. well water, rain water -- host: got your point. stephen in connecticut, works in manufacturing. go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my call. i worked in the aerospace industry. i went back to school for advanced manufacturing and god bless united technologies for giving me the opportunity to work for them.

actually, they are going to divide the company. i am a shareholder in the company. the aerospace industry, from what i have observed is going -- i ama renaissance concerned about tariffs, aluminum and steel. i am concerned we have better relationships with china. a lot of our products go to china. that is veryder, interesting. as far as workers, we are super focused on quality. -- my personalis

observation, i think it will be hard to recruit people back to work on the shop floor. we are having a renaissance and we need workers. host: appreciate the call from connecticut. more reaction from elected officials. republicans in ohio, here is a few of them. governor john kasich talking about that lordstown plant closure. saying lordstown has been part of the gm family for more than 50 years. see if work with gm to anything can be done to preserve a future for the plant and in the meantime, we set up a job center to help employees find .ork as quickly as possible we will do everything we can to help the families affected have opportunities.

bill johnson from ohio saying i am disappointed with gm's decision to close the plant. senator robm portman of ohio, imdb frustrated with gm's decision to shut down their plant in lordstown and disappointed with how the employees have been treated throughout this process. just some of the reaction to that announcement. 14,800 positions being eliminated by gm over the course of the next year. james in new jersey works in manufacturing. good morning. caller: thanks, c-span, for taking my call. i did it for many years manufacturing all types from textiles, whatever. this is the problem that i see.

system.ed to the school i was taught different things in school -- when i was in high school, how to do different things. school --duated high -- when i dropped out of high .chool, i got a job school, got at high $20,000 a year for one student school totto to go to teach the student to do something. blame it on the high school, not teaching the students how to do something like they used to do. were teaching students

how to do things like they used to do back in the days, then the students would be ready to get which they feel cannot be filled because they are not qualified. host: john has been waste -- waiting in new york. caller: good morning. there is not too many manufacturing jobs by me. i used to work in the printing industry and that job dried up on me. there aren't too many me faction me. by i want to say one of the things i find about trump, one of his shortcomings is the fact that he has not looked into leading edge and cutting edge technologies. granted, he loosened all the

regulations concerning coal, gas, etc. to stimulate our economy. he hasn't done much with respect to trying to prevent global warming and that is probably because he does not take it seriously. he thinks maybe it is a joke or maybe all political. what 90% of all scientists have been telling us for i don't know how long. i am not saying that is wrong, i do believe the earth moves in cycles. if you go on the internet, you will see we are like steven greer says, we are operating 100 retardant with respect to what has been released upon the american public. the gentleman calling earlier going on about cars running on water, i have seen videos like

that. a guy named ken mayer allegedly built a carburetor that would run on water and he got assassinated the day he sighed the contract. he drank some kool-aid and came out and said to his brother, droppedsoned me and dead. host: this story in today's wall street journal, president trump saying he doesn't believe the central findings of a report released by his administration that climate change could cause billions of dollars -- billions of dollars a year. i have seen it, i have read some of it, it is fine. when asked if he agreed with the assessment of economic impact, he said he did not believe it. the measures u.s. communities and companies are undertaking to counteract the effects of rising temperatures have so far fallen

short. we talked about that report on our program on saturday morning. philip in maryland, works in manufacturing. good morning. caller: i used to work in manufacturing. good morning to you and thank you for c-span. there were several plants in heavy grace, maryland, that -- havre de grace, maryland, that closed. people should remember what happened back in the early bush years when gm folded up plants in michigan and other areas because they had a vehicle that could run on electricity. they folded the plant up and closed it. it seems to me and other folks i talked to that gm is looking for ways to help out the gas industry by promoting big vehicles that use a lot of gas. this isn't anything new for gm,

.hey have done it before even after the bailout, they were pushing big vehicles. it is no wonder they will be looking for bigger vehicles and other areas to start their companies, especially out-of-state. host: do you know anybody who works at that transmission plant in whitemarsh, maryland, by you? caller: i know one person in baltimore, maryland. he was working there for about 15 or 16 years now. i haven't contacted him to talk to him, but i know him personally and i think it will bring a real hardship on his family once they do close because that is all he has got. he is a fairly young guy and it will bring hardship to his family. he has a beautiful home and he

will have to try another job. i don't know how successful it will be. in maryland, they say jobs are boosting, but there is a lot of people out of work. storythe washington post touching on that aberdeen plant and putting this in context of some of the other political themes of the year. the bombshell news comes at the end of the year the auto industry occupied the center of the stage. -- ford has said it absorbed a $1 billion hit because of the policies. the north american trade agreement with mexico and canada includes sourcing requirements that will propagate supply -- complicate supply chains. a policy that would increase the

cost of imported cars by an estimated $6,000 and illuminate 600,000 industry jobs. patricia has been working in new york, time for one more call, go ahead. caller: good morning. i wanted to talk about gm's decision to close the plant and looking for something else to manufacture. i owned a malibu max and it was a wonderful car and i don't know why they discontinued it. i hear people saying that everybody wants an suv. i am a retired schoolteacher, i don't want an suv. i did want to go out and buy a malibu maxx and they are not available. toish you had an ear to get gm and tell them to look at bringing the malibu maxx back. it is a wonderful car. host: patricia in new york. our last caller in this segment

of the washington journal. plenty more to come today including up next, family research council ken blackwell will be here to discuss the results of the midterm elections and what it means for republicans going forward. later, voice of the experience founder director norris henderson will discuss voting rights and criminal justice reform. we will be right back. >> sunday on q&a, we visited the washington library at mount foundingr the 2018 debates program featuring historians. discussing what it means to be american. >> one nation, indivisible, was a sense of emma we are all together. that is somehow elemental to what it means to be an american. >> the american character, what it means to be a look to

improvise. when you look at george washington, the dark days of forge,r, 1777 at valley the ability of general behington to improvise, to like a guerrilla fighter, live off the land, do what we need to do to get the job done. beginning, not all groups were included in what america is. certainly, minority groups were not. certain women's groups were not. women were not really considered citizens at least. that changes over time. over time, more and more people are brought into the american family. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span's q&a. c-span, where history unfolds daily. in 1979, c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies.

today, we continue to bring you unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court, and public policy of events in washington dc and around the country. c-span is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. washington journal continues. we welcome back ken blackwell to the program, senior fellow at the family research council, conservative columnist, former ohio secretary of state. this is our first chance to chat with you since the 2018 election. i wonder what you're reading was, what message did voters try to send to washington? major i think there was a choice before the voters, and that was, do they choose gridlock or do they want cooperation, to get something done across party lines?

i think what they did is they sort of evened the playing field. we saw the republicans take a couple seats advance in the senate. just shy of 40on seats in the house and took over control of the house. , the onusquence now is on can the two parties find some common ground? i would hope that that common ground includes kernel justice reform, making sure we deal with the challenge of drug pricing, that we come together and figure improve, refresh our infrastructure. there is plenty of work to be done. , i believeof the day

the parties will, in fact, have to really work hard to find their common ground. into instinct is to go combat and to ready themselves for 2020. here is a clear message that the american people do not want gridlock. i think what they want is clarity and cooperation and the will the will be parties hear the call, the clearing call of the voters? host: we spent a lot of time on this program focusing on what the house democratic agenda will be when they take the gavels of the various committees. i wonder what role you see the house republicans playing next year in the minority?

how do they stay relevant, is this a house republican minority that is any less divided between freedom caucus and leadership, under minority leader kevin mccarthy? guest: i think there were moderates that lost, that if anything, there will be a clear, conservative voice coming from the house of representatives. leader willminority before thephone interests and concerns, and the policy initiatives of his caucus, conference. have made itocrats clear that what they are going , you know, investigate,

investigate, investigate. there is a great chance that they will overreach, much like the republicans overreached in the late 1990's. that will come back to haunt them. i hope there is not that ,verreach and that we find again, some common ground consistent with the interests and advance of this nation. look, the president has some simple, simple objectives at the beginning of this administration. , makerate economic growth sure we create an environment that would bring back 2 trillion to $3 trillion back that was parked offshore. he did that by dealing with a complicated regulatory environment, he made it more

coherent, more capital and investment friendly. the other thing that he did, he cut taxes. as a consequence, we have now seen that flow of capital and we have seen accelerated economic growth and job creation. that is important for all of us to focus on, republicans and democrats. there is still plenty of work to do, infrastructure. also ran on making sure that our borders were secure and that we could stop the unchecked flow of folks that would do us evil and who would, in fact, bring not only criminal behavior through human trafficking and the flow of harmful drugs, but that he would the securing of the borders to underline a respect

for the rule of law. at the family research council we believe in the primacy of the individual in our political system, and the centrality of god in the life of this nation. there has been a clear and consistent pushing of god and faith out of the public square. when that happens, it creates an environment for the expansion of government in our lives. what has made us unique as a country is the fact that god has been central, and as a consequence, individual do not depend on big government. but the cradle of liberty has been the family. haverk to make sure we constitutional governance, that there is an environment where

people can practice their faith and thatblic square, we understand the privacy of individual liberty really does turn on putting a harness on the reach and scope of government. that is what we believe, what we work for. actuallyhe president embraced that agenda, and therefore, we are working with the president to create that sort of environment, that sort of opportunity for americans and american families. host: ken blackwell with us until the bottom of the hour, taking your calls. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002.

james, mississippi. democrat. go ahead. you seemr. blackwell, like a man that was well raised. i wish we had more people like you in office. as far as trump being down here yesterday -- i am just to the north of where he was at yesterday. i would not drive down the road to see him anyway. is, i don'tout it understand why so many people around here claim to be christians. i understand that, that is great . but it seems like trump is so against, the way that he ask, lies, and stuff. somebody said something about asking for forgiveness, and he said he didn't know what he had to ask forgiveness for. i don't know how these people can claim to be christian and somebody that seems to be in opposition of the way that

-- the way that a man is supposed to live. anyway, i appreciate you being on this morning. i wish we had more people in office like you that could come together and work together with folks. host: mr. blackwell. and wewe are all fallen all work dearly -- at the family research council, we start with a daily devotion. today, we are focusing our attention to genesis 33. you can go to your bibles to read about that. we understand there is often a gap in what we profess to believe and how we act, and we ask god to put us on the straight and arrow, a path of righteousness that helps us to close that gap, to get our

behavior in line with those things that we profess to believe. then, us, every now and go off of that path and ask god for his guidance, his strength to pull us back. at the end of the day, the president understands nations profess one thing and then behave another. has he has done, he embraced an agenda that puts us back on a path that respects religious liberty, that respects liberty in general, respects the fact that in a capitalist society, you need capital. that is why he has created an environment not only to create capital but to create jobs to put americans back to work so they can maintain their independence. his agenda is an agenda that i

think is right on track. his embrace of a clear agenda of appointing justices to the supreme court and judges across the federal system that respect the fundamental fact that the constitution puts a harness on the reach and the power of government to optimize individual liberty. as a consequence, i think this president, as he struggles day ,n, day out, like we all do with his personal behavior, to align with what he professes to believe, he has embraced a policy agenda that is in keeping with what has made the united states of america the most prosperous and most diverse mockery see in all of you and

history. host: 15 minutes left, lots of phone calls. robert is in chattanooga, tennessee. republican. caller: thank you for the opportunity. esther blackwell, i think you are very much an extremist. i don't think the african-americans or republican party think as you do. i will reflect on something that somebody said. i never want people to tell me how to live my life. ronald reagan oncerobert is in , tennessee. said, we want democrats in the party to vote for us, but we don't want to elect democrats. viewsve some very extreme from the people that i know. aam a black man and republican. i've been in this party all my life and i'm 70 years old. i do have ground to stand on. i come from a state where we have always had liberal senators

, howard baker, lamar alexander. bob corker didn't know what he was doing. obviously, your pitch about the party i think is wrong. i think you need to go back and stay away from those evangelicals. they are the most dangerous part of our party. host: mr. blackwell. guest: look, let me take a step back. i have had the privilege of ,eing the mayor of my hometown so i have had the opportunity to walk the streets, talk with folks, be very much a part of their lives. but i have also been blessed to have the opportunity to represent our nation at the united nations as the u.s. ambassador to the united nations in charge of human rights.

so i had the opportunity to interact with representatives from 193 other nations. i have always been clear on a couple of things, and i don't think this is extreme -- and i can bring it down to a current challenge. nations of the united nations, they are all defined by a nationstate by their borders. their borders to find them. as a consequence, all of those 193 nations work to control their borders. i don't think it is radical for the president of the united states to want to protect our borders. there are a lot of folks who believe in open borders. if you embrace that thinking, that undermines the notion that there is a nationstate defined

by concrete mortars -- borders, governed by the rule of law. thinks that caller that is a radical notion, he has a funny definition of radical, radicalism. i actually think what is radical is the notion that we can have voters without borders or a nation without borders, opening ourselves up to all of the criminality and disorder of a country that is lackadaisical about its borders and the rule of law. we are the most diverse democracy in all of human history. we have had open arms for those who want to find opportunity here.

but since the existence of our nation, we have controlled the borders and we had determined and canfact, comes in pursue citizenship and life in this country. there has not been an administration that has given ,nto this notion that we should in fact, have open borders and a complete collapse of the rule of law. that is not radical. that is common sense. state andserved in public office in ohio, plenty of calls from ohio this morning. tommy is in akron. a democrat. from wintry morning ohio. i've been winning to talk to you for a few years in a q&a. i heard you quoting out of genesis and the old testament. when you are at the pearly gates and st. peter pulls out the book of life and ask you about the

time when you and former governor bob taft corrupt -- in fact, he is the only governor to be indicted on a felony charge. how would you answer the corruption charges? you use president trump's montross it is all fake news. i will take your answer off the air. guest: thank you, sir. i think i have gone through the looking glass. i was elected by the voters of term ase of ohio for a treasurer and two terms as secretary of state, which means that i had hit my limit. we were term limited as secretary of state. know what the caller is talking about in terms of my corruption. let me give you an idea of how things do get turned around. i see radicals and leftists and extreme partisans say ken

blackwell, in 2004, was responsible for long lines in franklin county, the county where our state capital is. and that was some form of voter suppression. nobody ever goes to find out the secretary of state -- they said i did that because i did not place enough voting machines in certain precincts. the reality is, the secretary of state does not make that decision. elections boards of make that decision. that year, the head of the franklin county board of elections was a democrat labor leader. they made a decision as to where those voting machines, you know, were located. i will tell you, they didn't have a bank of voting machines.

they had to make a decision based on past actresses and voting populations, turnout. they did the best they could. but this notion that all of a sudden, for convenience, that it was the secretary of state who made that decision fits into this sort of alice in wonderland notion that the caller suggested, that i would ever be charged with some form of corruption. i was never charged. so the charge was not even there. we have political decisions, political back-and-forth, but when you take political back-and-forth and you try to criminalize those differences and political points of view, that is a very dangerous place to go to. host: i wonder what your thoughts are on the high profile recounts in florida, the charges of voter suppression in georgia from the 2018 election three weeks ago. again, i think in

florida, particularly in broward there was really bad election administration. there is a chronic pattern of bad election administration. led to that has sheicular supervisor saying will not run for reelection. there were 65 counties in florida that got it right. there were two counties that had chronic disorder and disruption. counties willtwo be dealt with by the incoming administration. she was duly elected by the district --r

host: you are talking about brenda snipes. guest: yes. host: dawn is waiting in dayton, ohio. caller: good morning, c-span. esther blackwell, you are still quite infamous in ohio, maybe not for the voting machines, but i remember something about some ballots, on inadequate paper? don't.no, you that is another one of those urban myths. mid-1990's, then made ary of state taft decision at the strong recommendation of a lot of election administrators from across the state. at that time, newspapers were

running aggressively voter registration forms in the the were encouraged to fill them out and send them in. what the post office then told secretary of state taft is that you need to get a stock of paper for those registrations because when that news print is coming back through our mail sorters, those registrations are being destroyed. in place as an when itration directive took over as secretary of state. electionrough the 2004 , people came and said, look, people are not sending in these voter registrations anymore. most of them are bring them in by the truckload.

therefore, we no longer need that requirement because newspapers were not printing the voter registration forms on newsprint. we then took a step back, changed that directive. this whole notion that that was voterseation to suppress is again an urban myth. newspapers, if you look at how they covered that change, they got it right. but this is politics, and i ,nderstand it, i engage in it but i will not allow urban myths to go unchecked. host: five minutes left, a couple more callers. republican, pasadena, california. i help you train for the dallas cowboys.

i want to tell everyone, you were the mayor of cincinnati. i feel you are doing a great job, i'm proud of you. they dida democrat and not run you again, and then you ran for counsel. you had bipartisan success in cincinnati, ohio around 1984. i know you know who i am. i'm proud of you, god bless you. you are remarkable man. you have gone way beyond what i thought you or i could ever be. guest: [laughter] host: your response? guest: the love is mutual. day, i tellf the you, i have been blessed. when my dad came back from world war ii, he came back to a city where there was a housing shortage, vestiges of segregation. abouted in public housing

half a mile away from city hall. to think that i could come out of those projects, graduate from the cincinnati public schools come ago two xavier university, and come back and be the mayor of my hometown really was a blessing. it is an experience that i would not trade for any that i have had. i served on the international and national level, but it is that hometown pride, that hometown connection that made public service meaningful for me , and inspired me. blessed toas been have its roots in cincinnati. you: earlier in the program talked about how you thought criminal justice reform could be a place where republicans and democrats could find common ground in the divided congress.

can you talk about the first act that we have heard a lot about, whether you are supporting that prison reform legislation? guest: yes, i have worked with the jared kushner and the white house on shaping that legislation. i have worked with the judiciary committee and senator grassley on giving it shape. was very much involved in its advocacy in the house where it passed overwhelmingly. we need to reform our criminal justice system at the federal level and we need to take the lead from states like georgia and texas, louisiana, where they was,stood the system as it in the case of the states, presently in the case of the federal system, all too often,

as opposed to being a system for rehabilitation, actually hardened criminals. ,his is a common sense approach a tested approach at the state make humanitarian changes to our system to give people a real chance at getting their lives together, holding families together, and contributing to the well-being and advancement of our community and nation. i'm a strong supporter of this initiative. host: when are you expecting a vote in the senate on that? guest: i'm hoping they will vote on it before the recess. this thing has been kicked for too long. there are 60 votes in the senate . senator mcconnell said if there were 60 votes, he would bring it to the floor.

senator grassley and its bipartisan supporters have communicated to senator mcconnell that there are 60 votes ready to pass this bipartisan legislation. it will be a big feather in the cap of the president, but more importantly, it will be justice for a system badly in need of reform. lisa has been waiting in indianapolis, indiana. a democrat. morning.ood mr. blackwell, i think you are the biggest part of the problem we have in this country. i cannot believe that you buy that he has embraced your christian agenda. if you were a true christian, you would understand that he does not follow any agenda except for what is in the wind at the moment. you say he respects liberty for christians, but what about

liberty for muslims, gays, what about liberty for agnostics? you want him to only embrace you, but he is the president of other people in this country. host: mr. blackwell. guest: look, religious liberty is religious liberty for all. demonstrateid not how the president's policy initiatives in any way discriminate against one religion or another. religious liberty within the actuallyional context knows no faith or affiliation. it basically allows for religion to be practiced in the public square that respects the rights of others to practice their

religions without the dogma of one religion or another trampling on those other religious expressions. manassas, virginia. william. independent. caller: good morning. i wanted to continue weighing on the previous caller. i think this man is unfortunate. he uses the bible and christianity to drive his own opportunist ideas. those who have used the bible or christianity to hold office, he is one of those people. i agree with the previous caller. betweenthe difference extremists who are being condemned, as month him -- muslim fundamentalists, and you

say evangelical christians is the base for the foundation of this country and the constitution? i think you are unfortunate and you should not have another chance to hold office. host: mr. blackwell, i will give you a chance to respond. number one, i'm not looking to hold office again, i'm 71 years old. i am here to advance various policies. i'm glad that i'm affiliated with a number of organizations that have allowed me to do that, and to do that quite successfully. day, i was a the mentee of someone from cincinnati who was also a mentor of martin luther king, an associate of fred shuttlesworth, one of martin luther king's lieutenants.

i worked with a lot of religious-based civil rights leaders. the greatestod threat to religious liberty was moral relativism, the demolishing of moral absolute. that was at the heart of what dr. king understood. when you have moral absolutes that guide you, that keeps everybody within the four squares of that morality. it is when you do away with those absolutes that you, in ,act, if you feel good, do it and a total disregard for other people's right to religious expression as a way of expressing their individual commitment to the furtherance of life. great tonow, it is

hear that there are those who advocacy formy that sort of consistency in the civil rights movement of this it is fascinating, interesting to hear those arguments. but i will not be deterred by them. just as the family research council will not be deterred. we are a christian-based organization but we respect the police -- the rights of others to believe their particular religious beliefs. frc.org if the viewers want to check it out. greensburg, kentucky. a republican. go ahead. caller: this is just an fyi. a guy called the other day about the 1960's and what he forgot, the program he was talking about , migration in, migration out.

come to work seasonally, take the money back home. it helped their country. anyway, i traveled with my ex-husband in the 1990's. we went to south mexico. he spoke fluent spanish. traveled.the bus and he could interact with the people. i could not but he could. he was asian. he could speak their language, he was learning the indian languages. anyway, when we got to the hotel, i would say, are they saying what i think they are saying? he would say, yes. were they really calling the stupid? he said yes. they give away their country, and we take it. that is what they were telling him. these were guys talking about how they would chain migrate up

to the lines. just an fyi to everybody. watching the knives. very good with knives. host: mr. blackwell. again, i worked within the united nations framework with 193 other nationstates. they were all defined by their borders and the rules that govern civic life within those borders. any notion that we should be is a notion that is really not worth giving a lot of time to. -- again, shey personalized something. let me just say, i had an uncle, hart hovered.ee

he was the first black american to win an individual gold medal in track and field. he did it in the 1924 paris games. against he was to run eric liddell in the 100, high hurdles. he was to compete in the long jump. he eventually -- set the world record in the long jump andwon the gold medal. but when he got to paris in 1924, he was told the 100 and the high hurdles were white only events and could not compete. he told my mother's generation that god has blessed me to put in front of him the example of eric liddell. showed,eric liddell more important than winning a gold medal or setting a world record was ability to his faith.

that became a watchword, term in our family. fidelity to faith. what i dost suggest on a day-to-day basis, what i do within the context of the family research council reflects a fidelity to my faith. nothing is more important to me than that fidelity. im anddelity defined to what my agenda is, and what other agendas i will join. host: ken blackwell is the senior fellow for human rights and governance at the family research council. you can also check out his columns at the patriot post. we appreciate your time. guest: good to be with you, sir. god bless. host: up next, time for open

phones, any public policy you want to talk about. democrats can call in on (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. start calling in now, we will be right back. what does it mean to be american? that is this year's c-span studentcam video competition question. students and teachers from around the country are posting on social media about it. illinois tweeted, what does it mean to be an american? show some studies students brainstorm a constitutional rights of national characteristics, and important people and events of the nation. tweeted,om florida civic students brainstormed ideas for a c-span studentcam. gary has to the new students recognized for their projects in recent years.

i think he is going for a trifecta. indiana senator todd young visited a high school today to speak with a class and i was interviewed by students participating in c-span's studentcam scholarship program. fort lauderdale, florida tweeted, studentcam 2019. project-based learning at its finest. check out the post. askingar we are middleton high school students to produce a five to six minute documentary asking the question what it means to be american. we are awarding $100,000 in total cash prizes including a grand prize of $5,000. the deadline for entry is january 20. for more information, go to studentcam.org. washington journal continues. host: open phones.

any public as a issue you want to talk about, now is the time to do it. you can start calling in, as phone lines for democrats, republicans, independents. for those that follow us online, we had been hoping to talk to norris henderson from the voice of the experienced. we are working to reschedule that, he cannot be with us this morning. that is ok because that allows us to have more time for open phones with you. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. .ndependents, (202) 748-8002 we especially would like to hear from those in mississippi this morning because it is run off day. the president down in mississippi yesterday to promote the candidacy of cindy hyde-smith, the republican looking to fill the final two

years of the term retired senator thad cochran. she is running against mike espey, the democrat in the race. 50%andidate was able to get plus one of the vote on election day so here we are in the runoff. this is in the washington post about the runoff, calling president trump's a visit yesterday a rescue mission that may bump heitzman to a victory. elections have become more nationalized and more polarized trumpe trumpet area -- er era. he carried mississippi by 18 s in 2016. the president would not be coming to mississippi it heidi comfortably ahead and

running an effective campaign but national republicans are leaving nothing to chance, especially because the ghost of roy moore in alabama still haunts their nightmares. your thoughts on the runoff for any issue in this open phone segment. devon is in philadelphia. democrat. go ahead. caller: good morning. as a conservative democrat, i support trump 99% of the time. i think he is doing a good job. he beat them at their own game and came in, now he is president. that is very good. we need a business executive running this country for a while. but we have to make sure we also take care of the downtrodden in this country, the extremely poor. we have a lot of poverty. i look in philadelphia, massive poverty, massive low wages. we need to increase minimum wage

significantly and also pump more money into the economy. this doesn't make any sense. we are the richest country in the world and you have massive poverty. cities in this country's are ran by democrats. as a democrat, i say what is going on? it doesn't make any sense, and i blame naacp and the congressional black caucus. sentome they haven't anything to the president to help african-americans in this country? conservative democrat, what are your thoughts on nancy pelosi and her efforts to become speaker of the house in congress? caller: i think she needs to take a backseat and support the younger candidates, the new members coming in. give them an opportunity to be leaders, to be speaker. host: who do you think, of the

younger generation, can step up and be the next leader of democrat party in the house? i think the newest member of congress from new york, she is good to be in leadership. definitely. she can rally the young people all across america to get them involved in the process, get them boating, get them jobs in voting. about ou are talking cortez? caller: yes. you want to get the young people involved in elections. if you continue to keep the old regime in, you cannot grow with that. you will stay the same. right now i look at all the candidates that are potentially going to run against trump in 2020. the democrats don't have anybody. but theirto say that

policies, how lax they are, they have to get organized. host: chris is in marietta, georgia. republican. go ahead. caller: concerning the southern border crisis, i wish people would keep in mind full context of why we going through what we're going through. was the federal government's responsibility to secure our border. both parties are responsible for not securing that border over the past 40 years. now someone comes along, president trump columns along, try to do something about it, he confronts the problem. say what you will about him, i will at least give him credit for taking on this issue after members of both parties put it off for decades. we know it is not pretty, it is

unfortunate in some circumstances what is happening, but in my mind, we obey the rule of law, we obey the laws in place right now. i wish people would just keep in context why we are at where we are today. that is because this problem -- people have procrastinated on it for the longest time. host: you might be interested in checking out the washington you might be interested in checking out the washington times editorial today, chaos at the border. the editorial board writing the obama administration bears much of the responsibility for this border think that administration border think that administration broadened the categories by which migrants could apply for asylum. the arab domestic and getting violence became sufficient for entrance into the u.s. this was an obvious way for central americans to get citizenship. even under obama rules, the united states would have granted

asylum to a canadian victim or pakistani who feared gangs that path?his president trump became president and the u.s. return to historical precedent which set out that neither the mystic violet star gang violence alone would be sufficient cause for granting asylum. by then it was too late. the migrants learned they could gain residency by siding. of gangs or abusive husbands. they then began the walk to the border and the ugly scenes we saw earlier this week on the border near california. in annandale, virginia. independent. caller: it is hard for me to listen to [inaudible] the old maxim that you can prove some of the people all the time. complaining about immigration, laid off 15,000 people. who is going to take your job?

the one migrant worker or the corporate boss who lays off a town of american workers and move those jobs overseas? the issue that i care about currently is monopoly. we have been through both parties, indoor and -- ignoring the proliferation of large that are not really american companies anymore, they are global companies. they don't have a stake in america. we keep treating them like they do. we gave them this giant tax cut expecting them to create jobs. they really didn't. are continuing on the progression of the obama path. there is not this huge explosion of jobs. there is not a real increase in wages. where is the money? it is going to the ultra-wealthy. amazon just moved their companies to northern virginia and d.c. and are basically

conglomerate in wealth in large cities. i feel like people are looking at the bushes and missing the sky. i will say, i tend to support democrats, but they are as bad on this as republicans. no one is willing to fight monopoly. they are both in bed with money interest. i hope the democrats will do a ,etter job empowering congress taking on money interest. if you think trump is going to do it, good luck. att in annandale, virginia on the gm news yesterday, the company ending production at multiple plants across the midwest. one story from rollcall today about the potential political impact. didnews could hurt trump's in 2020. the president won both states what promises of manufacturing jobs to come.

maryland, an democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. democratng-standing but i voted for trump. i am feeling sorry about it every day. we are all immigrants, unless you are native american. i definitely disagree with that. i don't know where we are going. i honestly don't know. any futureve up to fightming trump in 2020. i really don't know. i'm worried. host: from the washington times today on the president's comments on the measures used against migrants at the border

as they made a rush for the border fence on sunday. in the news, we saw, yesterday, trump defends the measures against migrants, threatens to close the border permanently. we saw the president tweeting about that yesterday. sheldon in washington. good morning. caller: i have a few points, i agree with the caller from virginia about how gm and many other big companies are international countries -- companies. they hold no allegiance to this country. they were asking for bailouts from the public. they were building the largest car manufacturer in china the very day the ceo was sitting there with his hands out. two point about c-span. the screener who just took my call didn't ask what i was going to say. i hope that is a change because i've been watching for 25 years or so and it didn't used to be that way. the last two years it's been

that way. i don't think the caller should ask when you are going to say. thank you for changing the policy back to what it should be. another suggestion, maybe instead of some of these esoteric segments like your money, spotlight on your magazines, maybe dedicate an hour or two a week bringing in journalists that can do real journalism on what the real problem is in our country. legislature, they are doing these shady deals and are getting rich. pelosi has made $19 million. how do you do that on a $180,000 a year salary? ud research and you have all of the shady real estate deals happening behind the scenes, left and right. a lobbyist instead of giving them a check will sell them a , six monthsperty

later, they sell it, and that is how they get their money. i wish c-span would focus on this. i am a pro-second amendment person. this one continuous caller calls in, he tries to say the solution is to have insurance on firearms. host: and you disagree with that? caller: how does an insurance company evaluate risk? let's do a quick hypothetical. somebody has one handgun with six bullets. all handguns have more capacity than that. forgive --, god forbid they use it against , they expendent all six bullets into six people. what is the pale for the insurance company? the point i'm making is the premium is undoable. no insurance committee would write it because it would be tens of millions of dollars per bullet. n is in largo, florida. a democrat.

good morning. caller: there is only one party in this country, and that is the party of too much money, bribes and corporations. it was not written that way. he used to have turned qualifications for office. when we are running on has nothing to do with the constitution. i think we should go back to a constitutionally qualified candidate, according to the constitution, instead of saying what is your spending level. that means you can be a viable candidate. most of the people, half the people are broke. we have the internet, we don't need you to prove that you can purchase time in every market in every state. i have proved my constitutional qualifications and i cannot get recognized as a human

constitutionally qualified candidate. down athattered meetings in florida. they don't want to hear constitutional republic. they only want to hear, can you provide money to the media? host: do you think that that is changing in terms of how , thedates are running importance of money in this age of the internet? caller: no. think they have a media blitz greek for one of these people that have too much money. there are other candidates. there are people who are qualified who have declared those people in the federal election commissions, proved their qualifications and would be listed and described and people could see who they are. about when you

purchase money on msnbc, fox, cnn, then you are at that level. ofgives you a distorted view the whole world of government we live in. it is not a united states government, it is the world government. they say the revolution would not be televised, but it is. inas arrested in detroit 1995. i was supporting don hackett for president. i did not get any recognition whatsoever. they just put me on a commercial in the detroit area for stop the violence, let there be peace. i did stop the beatings. but you cannot get recognized. cost of terms of the the 2018 election, here is a

list of the most expensive raises, just senate races. some $110senate race, million raised, $94 million of that spent in the florida senate race. $96.5 million raised in that context -- contest. acid juices, $49.7 million. open secrets.org is the place to go to look at those spending numbers. john is in california. republican. good morning. i have a couple of things. the couple of guys that talked about monopolies, they should take an economics class. they should also realize donald trump spent his own money on his campaign during the primary. they ought to check into beto

o'rourke, where he gets his money. when i called about is the wall. i'm always about the wall. i think it is passive. it is not resent effective -- 100% effective. you don't have guns and rocks and people like we did on sunday. if you google the cost of illegal immigration, there are a couple of sites, they put it at $135 billion. illegals pay about the $5 billionin taxes -- 2$20 in tax could just lower those expenses by $5 billion, the wall pays for itself. you're actually making money.

you're not spending money. ohio.missy in caller: good morning. my issue is with republicans and democrats ignoring medicare for all. they are not putting any effort into it. mcconnell want to strip everything from people. people are dying in the streets for cancer treatments. there is no recourse. i am tired of seeing people die that should be a right for all americans. we are the richest country in the world, but we have the worst health care. i think it is ridiculous. host: nebraska, a democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you? host: i'm doing well. caller: i want to talk about the

pension reform act that is supposed to come up today were this week for pensions. it has not been in the media. nobody has talked about it. i have watched five hearings with 8 democrats and 8 republicans. never once did they talk about fiduciary responsibility. these pensions have been plundered. when wall street bundled up bad mortgages and sold them as good mortgages, that is like bundling up that money and selling it as good. congress is going to come up with some sort of solution, and you can bet it is going to involve some sort of cuts. that is not right. i hope the media takes more notice. host: thank you for the call. more of your calls in just a moment. the president is tweeting this

morning. about half an hour ago, the president saying polls are open in mississippi. hyde-smith in mississippi. go out and vote. that was his message. we turn to the mississippi daily journal's reporter who has been covering that race specific. the president was in mississippi yesterday making his pitch. what was the message he gave last night? guest: the message is the same thing we have heard from her campaign, which is she is the conservative on the ballot. she supports donald trump, and he wants to see her elected in a race that has tightened in ways that people did not expect a couple weeks ago. how she has made

an impact in a short time span, that is how the pitched it. she was appointed to the senate earlier this year on the retirement of thad cochran. night,his quotes last she is a very special woman, and in a short time, she has made an impact. that is the message he wanted the crowd to take away. in october, he rallied for her, he did not talk about her all that long. he spent a long time talking about supreme were nomination of brett kavanaugh, which was in the news that. -- then. last night, he talked about her campaign, which i'm sure her campaign was happy about the he moved on to immigration -- abo

ut. he moved on to immigration last night. host: how close is this race? do we have a sense if it is a couple points were larger than that? guest: there is not a lot of isiable poll data that publicly available. reports of republican polling showing race within five points. on the democrat side, there is a lot of passion. a lot of people are looking to alabama. democrats really need a win in mississippi from their perspective. they have been shut out for a long time. there is a lot of enthusiasm on that side that this could be a shot a win the way doug jones did. there is enthusiasm the republican side to keep that from happening.

i'm not sure there is a lot of enthusiasm about this candidate, but there is a lot of feeling that we cannot be like alabama. everybody on both sides is talking about alabama. it is on everybody's mind. the key will be how big the enthusiasm gap is and whether the chris mcdaniel supporters, this is a runoff, he got about 17% of the vote. his voters are very conservative they don't like cindy hyde-smith. out, that would be good for the democrat, mike espy. if they show up, that probably puts her over the threshold of victory. mike i want to ask what espy has been talking about. what is his closing message? things, he elements

of his campaign, health care. he has been saying cindy hyde-smith does not support protections for pre-existing conditions. he has been trying to pitch himself, saying cindy hyde-smith is a rubberstamp for donald trump your he says he will not be a rubberstamp -- donald trump. he says he will not be a rubberstamp for the democrats. whether he can actually reach across the aisle right now, i'm not sure, but that is his's message -- is his closing message. host: where will espy need the votes? guest: the mississippi river corridor, delta and the state capital of jackson and a little bit of south in hinds county. that is where the democrat vote is concentrated. he needs big numbers in those

counties. if republican counties like rankin county, which is to the county, whichto if wethe memphis suburbs, see low numbers for republicans, it will be a big night for espy. host: appreciate your time this arning at the start of very busy day for you. guest: thank you so much. host: back to your phone calls for the next 25 minutes on "washington journal." democrats and republicans as usual. herby is from mississippi, a democrat. your thoughts? caller: the whole thing is based on race. we are the only state with that rebel flag still. we are the most recent state.

for some reason, -- racist stat e. for some reason, cnn and the other networks don't realize the problem is right here. the solution to the problem is based on cindy. it is the white woman. she is in support of the white man's racism. that is what supports him. they benefit. the biggest people to be insulted by this is women. takings no other man people's rights but the white man. behind the closed doors she votes for this man so she can benefit her children and her. the biggest problem and the solution is all white women should turn on the white man, and the black women need to stand up against the white woman

and let her know that is her man causing these racist problems. it should be a human rights thing. it should be the human race against the white race. host: one more story out of mississippi, reported by the clarion ledger today. nooses were found hanging from the state capital in jackson, mississippi, monday. ooses.uth lawn had two n channel described as hate signs. the governor said the perpetrators of this act would be identified and prosecuted to the full sticks that of the law. are hanging"we nooses to remind people that times have not changed." need someone that will

respect the lives of lynch vi ctims." caller: good morning. i wanted to say that i think one of the biggest problems we have as a nation is situational ethics. they are supposed to be taking an oath to the constitution and not to a party. when they have these hearings, the truth is ignored depending on who is giving the testimony. the department of justice is supposed to seek out justice and truth. they have yet to do anything about the sanctuary cities. i feel that everyone in the government is in cahoots because it makes no sense for them not to put up the wall. to let everyone into our country is subversion. why doesn't anyone act on it? nobody has said where president obama was during benghazi.

there were rumors on the internet that he was under the influence. he made a joke at the washington correspondents dinner that he was going to be telling jokes for goldman sachs. why doesn't anyone look into that? sites do you go to for your news? caller: this was several years ago. i wish i had written it down for you. nobody has made a comment -- host: got your point. john in virginia. go ahead. caller: i was just calling on a recent comment from another caller about immigration. he professed that we are all immigrants. i think there is a distinction between an immigrant and a settler. the first citizens in the united states were settlers. next, virginia,

democrat. caller: good morning. country of immigrants. all of our people came from many nationalities. this issue atave the border, i don't understand why the department of justice and homeland security have not gotten together to try to get all these young kids that are already in this country, and we .on't know where they are at we have to hold everyone responsible for this. if they were in the right perspective, we would not have 50 children missing.

even though there are people coming into this country at the mexican border and california and all of this, i don't think the u.s. armed forces need to be in this. it needs to be a collective of all democrats and republicans together. next, republican. caller: thank you for taking my call. i want to make a comment about duringt night reporting their broadcast about the news. horrible. news is so a comment about it was somebody racist, but they have no proof. they just give out opinions. we don't want opinions. we want facts. you got facts, fine.

you got opinions, keep them to yourself. connecticut, democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you doing? host: doing well. caller: and my on the air? host: go ahead with your comment. caller: the idea of having the refugees setting up camps in mexico with the u.n. supervising, we will have to pay money for that. it will be well worth it rather than having a wall and the rest of the stuff on the border. they have to be humane. i am happy for the agreement. i hope it works. host: do you think refugees would go to those camps? would you still need to protect the border? is like a turkey has an agreement with the european union to stop refugees. it is not working because they are not funding it. if we come up with an agreement

with mexico, we could have the camps. they would be forced to stay there. host: that is tom in connecticut. we mentioned the runoff taking place in mississippi, the final federal election of campaign 2018. there are still a couple of outstanding house races. that race in utah is no longer one of them. ve has lostan mia lo her seat to the democrat in that race. the washington times story on her concession in that speech, they talk about her slamming president trump in that concession. [video clip] >> when the president took a jab at me because he thought the was --s overcome and i was over, i was somewhat

surprised. with every decision i make, i ask myself at what cost? his behavior toward me made me wonder what did he have to gain from saying that about me about a fellow republican? it was not about me asking him to do more. was it about something else? vision ofme a clear his world as it is, no real relationships, just convenient transactions. that is an insufficient way to implement sincere service and policy. host: about 10 minutes left in open funds. waitingas been in indiana, republican. caller: thank you for taking my call. mi on? -- am i on? host: yes. caller: i want to wish you a

belated happy thanksgiving. i am happy for the revitalization and positive attitude donald trump has had on our country. i remember when barack obama said is 0.2% gdp growth would be normal. he has blown that out-of-the-box. unemployment is the best it has ever been. our economy is humming. he is not apologizing for america. he has slashed corporate and individual tax rates. he has eliminated so many laws and loopholes that bind our entrepreneurial spirit. i hope president trump will stand firm. we must secure our borders with the wall. when we talk about immigrants, they say we will take your tired masses, but your

everyone forgets about the last four words on the statue of liberty. it is beside the golden door. picture of the little baby and the mom running, but they fail to show the rocks and bottles. nobody has a right to come in this country. host: you are talking about your enthusiasm for the economy right now. i wonder, did that announcement jobsrday by gm of 15,000 being cut across the midwest and north america, does that put a damper on that enthusiasm? i think we lost -- are you still with us? caller: bottom line, dollars. i don't look at it that way. i look at a president that loves this country and is brought about it. thank you for taking my call. host: jim, illinois, independent. caller: good morning.

what i wanted to talk about is everybody says take the illegals in. we take in over one million every year. that is standard. why should we make an exception with these? me made aman before point about we were all immigrants, but my ancestry was legal immigrants. that is all i have. marshall, georgia, democrat. caller: thank you for answering my call. are we a democratic society or communist society? i'm a vietnam veteran. i am a social scientist. i am looking at the policy, how we are following the trump administration. it is more leaning towards communism than democracy. i am black. problem andace people in america say we don't

have issues of race, but then we drew who invented blood plasma, who was black. a lot of them are really rigged in a sense. that's why i say are we in a democracy or communism? i served in vietnam to stop communism. host: why do you think elections are rigged? i have been in politics since i was 12 years old. i am 68. i am from georgia. i notice from georgia, south carolina, florida, since 1964, civil rights act, had to have poll monitors.- now you have electric methods of reading. you vote for one candidate, and another candidate comes up on the screen.

i question the process. i question the people in the process. election in georgia with the secretary of state running the election until the last minute, but he is the overseer of the election process. we we a democracy, or are practicing communism? host: have you ever thought about volunteering to work at the polls on election day? worked at the polls. i have been in politics. i helped jimmy carter get elected in six states. i'm a political scientist major. i know the politics. they took civics out of school. my question is, are we in a democracy, or are we perpetuating communism through the methods of what we are doing to perpetuate racism? with closing gm, that is another

move. it reminds me of the people's, the poor people's march on washington with dr. king. host: arkansas, republican. good morning. caller: how are you doing? thank you for taking my call. host: go ahead, john. caller: about this immigration thing, this country cannot absorb that kind of people all the time. we have to push one or three for french, and all these people rushing the border. you can only take so many. this country cannot afford it. just like australia. you best have money to back you to go to australia. we cannot put them on our welfare system. it is just not right. caller onara, last open phones, oklahoma,

independent. caller: good morning. i want to say something about the border. understandle would that we have -- coming from mexico in our border. these people are doing this legally. they are doing it illegally. we are going to stop what we cannot absorb. the only thing that has changed is this man in the white house calling them names. tohe would just talk to them they are not armed military trying to take over our country. been going on forever. they are just immigrants asking for asylum. they are not people sneaking across the border. we had people that stopped them. every president has stopped them.

they are going to keep stopping them. we don't have to be brutal to them. we don't have to be mean to them. they are not coming in unless we tell them. i would just like to think the republicans for helping us here and getting a hold on our and some checks and balances on this president, who is obviously a racist by his actions, not by what people say about him. he tells us what he does. thank you. i am your friend. i am not your enemy like this man tells you. i am your friend. i don't care if you are republican, democrat, whatever. we are americans. we can come together like we did this last election. there was something we needed to do, and that was put checks and

balances on this man so he will not hurt our country. we do love each other. i think most republicans and democrats alike are americans first. host: that was barbara, our last caller in this open phones section. next, we will discuss declining crime rates in america. we will be joined by the christian science monitor's harry bruinius. british prime minister theresa may went before the house of commons to give her defense on why the brexit deal was good for the u.k. here is a portion of that. [video clip] >> our duty as a parliament is to examine this deal in detail, to debate it respectfully, to listen to our constituents and decide what is in our national interest. there is a choice this house will have to make. we can back this deal, deliver on the vote of the referendum,

and move on to building a brighter future of opportunity choosesperity, or we can to reject this deal and go back to square one. because no one knows what would happen if this deal does not pass. it would open the door to more division and uncertainty with all the risks that would intel. mr. speaker, i believe our national interest is clear. the british people want us to get on with the deal and honor the referendum that allows us to come together -- allows us to come together again in the country whichever way we voted. this is that deal, a deal that delivers for the british people. thank you, mr. speaker. i thank the prime minister for the advanced copy of her statement. the prime minister may want to try to sell yesterday summit is

a great success. to borrow a phrase, the reality is nothing has changed. the prime minister says if we reject this deal, it will take us back to square one. the truth is under this government, we have never gotten beyond square one. thiseal is a bad deal for country. all yesterday did was marked the end of this governments failed and miserable negotiation. there can be no doubt that this deal would leave us with the worst of all worlds, no say over ules and no certainty. even the prime ministers cabinet cannot bring themselves to sell this deal. the foreign minister said yesterday, this deal mitigates negative impact. that is hardly a glowing endorsement. the silence from the rest of the cabinet is telling. they know these negotiations

have failed, and they know this deal will leave britain were soft. >> washington journal continues. harry bruinius joins us now from new york, staff writer for the christian science monitor. you point out in a recent story that public perception about crime rates in the u.s. is different from the actual data. explain. guest: it is interesting. nature question of human and the nature of human media. you go back as far as aristotle, and you see we are a species of rubberneckers. aphorism,ism, we have if there is a story, dog bites man, it is not a story. it is a common occurrence. if the story is man bites dog,

there is a lot of attention paid to it. we pay attention to stories that are anomalies. stories of violence have always attracted our attention. stories like dog doesn't like man is not a story. we have had this astonishing decline in crime, but it is just not what people are almost programmed to understand. fbi, violentom the crime in the u.s. in 1993, 750 crimes are 100,000 residents in the u.s. in 2016, that number dropped to 286 crimes per 100,000 residents in the u.s. take us back to the early to mid-1990's at the peak of violent crime, the peak after a

three decade increase. what do experts attribute that increase to? it thei have called great debate. in some ways, scholars, criminologists are still thinking about what happened. there is a general story about the revitalization of american cities starting around that time. cities have lost manufacturing jobs. they had been hollowed out. crime began to fester for decades. it reached a crescendo in 1993 when it all started to begin this steady five-year decline. -- 25-year decline. it is a variety of things. one thing that is underreported

is the role communities themselves, there began to be new efforts of community groups, block captain who became involved in taking back the streets. the other big story is the rise of more precision policing. this is an area in which there are huge debate about what is the role of policing? in new york city, it played a huge role. if you look at the overall landscape, crime has declined. certain cities have not seen that. has declined.ime there are still trees where crime may not have declined as much. it is a complicated landscape. one other thing you can say about the revitalization of american cities is immigrants

started moving in around that time and became more socioeconomically and racially and ethnically diverse. then people started moving in. as neighborhoods start to revitalize and become more prosperous, crime actually starts to decline. that a complicated swirl includes new policing, changes in revitalizing cities, and lots of factors that have contributed to what is an extraordinary jaw-dropping drop in crime. -- f four are more visual or our more visual learners, this chart with with the story. overall violent crime per 1000 people in the u.s., you can see

it dropping significantly from 1994 through 2016. the blue line is the public perception of crime. that survey of respondents saying crime has increased over the last year. we want to know what you think about it. join the conversation by calling in. if you are in the eastern or central time zones, (202) 748-8000. if you are in mountain or pacific time zones (202) 748-8001. mentioned new york a little bit ago. can you talk about the influence the new york police department and its tactics and equipment have had throughout the country, the role it has played in leading this crime decline. guest: the new york city police department has been the main laboratory of new techniques of

policing during that time. 1980's, andn the through the early 1990's, it started with cops that -- comps tat. that became more and more precise. there was the story of stopping frisk, which is part of a larger frisk, which is part of a larger story of mass incarceration and the story of who is being policed. new york's crime rate has fallen. the rest of the country and the rest of western europe, crime has declined around the world. in new york city, it has been more extraordinary. there are more than 2000 murders in 1993 in new york city. last year, there were around

200. that is a 90% decline. overall, crime in new york city has declined in new york city by 85%. some cities have not seen such declines. certainly one of the reasons new york city has been so extraordinary has been the work of the new york city police department. host: one of the cities that is not seen that the client is baltimore. -- decline is baltimore. last year baltimore saw the in its murder rates history. you wrote a story about that. what is happening in baltimore? why is it going in the opposite direction of the overall national trend? say,: one thing you could the resources that are in new york, not just the nypd, but new york city is in some ways the mecca of social services.

there are programs for people getting out of prison. there are all sorts of small community groups that are really active. those are things that are not as --nearly as common in baltimore. the killing of freddie gray was a blow to the baltimore police department and the community as well. things got out of control in baltimore the last couple of years. that it peaked, and crime is starting to go down, as it is nationally. overall, 2014 was one of the safest years in the u.s. on record, certainly as modern records have been kept. it ticked up the last two years.

the 2017 numbers, crime has gone down. after a spike over the last two years in chicago, you are seeing early estimates that in some of these cities where violence had been such a problem over the last two or three years that it is starting to recede again. declinee great crime since the 1990's is our topic. harry bruinius of the christian science monitor is our guest, taking your calls, your comments, your questions. nathan, you are up first. caller: thank you for taking my call. my question has to do with a recent book i read, which references a decline in crime starting in the 1990's as being in part because of roe v. wade

and the availability of abortion across the country. situations that have reduced the population in groups that have been plagued with crime. at the same time, birth control came in for women. rights came ins as well. women could choose. did you touch on that in your article? thank you. that: that was an argument was made about a decade ago. i believe it was popularized in a book called freakonomics. i believe that hypothesis has been criticized to an extent because one of the reasons is you don't see trends like that in other places. it is not uniform. the argument is there was a decline. most crime is committed by males 17 to 23, and the argument is

after roe v. wade, with greater access to birth control, that this population is diminished. that is not necessarily true. the criticisms of this hypothesis was that when you look closely, it doesn't measure up. i don't talk to many criminologists that put much weight in that argument anymore. it may have an influence in certain places, but just talking to criminologists and scholars over the last couple years, that idea made a splash over a decade --, and i don't think it is that scholars cite this as a major factor in the great crime decline. host: rory, new york city.

you are next. go ahead. wondering if the degree of sensationalism by the media has an impact on the public perception. what percentage of time or number of stories that are reported on violent crimes versus other types of news? thank you. guest: that is such a great question. it is such a complicated question. as i mentioned earlier, it has a lot to do with who we are as a species and the nature of media. media and storytelling in general focuses on anomalies and tragedies and focuses on violence, even if you think of our fictional media. these are the things we look at, tot we crane our necks

see. it does skew our perception of what is happening. i think that is a reason why the great crime decline is not such a source of great celebration in the media. story dog doesn't bite man just isn't a story, so if everything is going well and the way it is supposed to come it is almost as if there is no story to tell. we are -- i have been telling the story about the great crime decline for years. especially in the last couple of years. it is a good question. i have suggested that it is part of human psychology that we just don't focus on things when they are going normally in the way they are supposed to. we are rubberneckers. host: you mentioned the media. what about the stories politicians tell, that they make

on the issue of violent crime, whether it be in campaigns or political ads? of course, that is immediate issue as well. fear works. you emphasize that crime has obviously not gone away. horrible things still happen, they just happened last. -- a lot less. what is reported is not proportional to the numbers that are actually happening. , depending on the context, can talk about crime is doing great. here in new york city, before the election of narrative osseo, there were many -- mayor the -- de blasio, there were many that said with a new liberal mayor, you would see crime shoot up every year, crime

keeps going down. that means there are other factors at work. any politician is going to use what data is out there to help. president trump made a lot about the fact that in 2016, the murder rate jumped up. filing crime jumped up -- violent crime jumped up, even though it was still at half the level it was 20 years ago. 2014 was the safest year on modern record. shock to see go up in 2015 and 2016. that could be used to say what is happening? why is it happening? there were some serious concerns about certain cities, which were driving those national rates u

p. it was concentrated in certain places and cities. crime iss that violent again starting to decline in 2017 and 2018. it has certainly stabilized and is not going up. it has gone down slightly over the last year and a half. lee. good morning, i don't know where he is getting his charts. i live in henderson. i work in las vegas. we used to have areas in las vegas that were nice. murdering, people robbing people. it is ridiculous. if he thinks crime is going down, look at our statistics. it has gotten worse. i don't blame the police. herad a girl that was in

teens, 14 or 16, she was doing her homework. this gang came over, out of the car, blasted the building, killed her. it was groups, we have the wrong house. every time the police tried to do something, it is we are picking on this person or that one. the only people that seem to get richer are the lawyers. guest: i brought up the analogy at the you can look numbers for the forest and see the great decline. of course, there are pockets of trees which have not seen the decline. there are always pockets around the country in which crime is still a problem. i don't know specifically about tes in the last couple of years in your area in las vegas.

certainly there are localities in which there are still problems that are cropping up. as we have seen over the last two years in certain cities around the country, there has been a profound spike in violence. we should not forget that there rising crimewhich is a problem. the point i am making is that looking at the last 25 years, there has been a jaw-dropping drop in crime around the country. i think that is important for our viewers to understand that when we look at the forest, there is been this tremendous decline. in the last two years, there have been some spikes in

violence in certain urban areas. that appears to be the case in your area. you should understand that local issues and larger national issues or trends don't always line up. what are your thoughts on the focus in recent years on aggressive police tactics and the pushback against those? concerns by some individuals that too much of a pushback might lead to police not doing their job, to people getting away with crimes. i am not sure that there is evidence that either policing is declining or that the clash in certain neighborhoods with police, although profound, is leading to a reduction in policing.

that is part of the story. it is being called the ferguson effect. to see thearly precise causes in these spikes. the issue of aggressive policing and mass incarceration over this for is one of, certainly minority neighborhoods, which have been on the receiving end of precision focused policing, has devastated certain communities. the rise of the black lives matter met and the protest of aggressive policing, and stop ruledisk in new york was unconstitutional. young black men were being

frisked almost daily on the streets. 2013 when stopping frisk wastop and curtailed. crime continued to drop in new york. when it comes to nonviolent drug arrest,s, marijuana that old adage that you focus on the low crimes in the area people smoking a joint on the street, arrest them and prosecute them. that leads to devastated lives. the trend is to see this is not that big of a deal. there are people in prison today for carrying amounts of marijuana that would be considered most states is not worth bothering with.

nyc has changed its aggressive approach to things like marijuana smoking because of this national movement protesting these aggressive tactics. with 10 minutes left harry bruinius of the christian science monitor. michael from north carolina. thank you for waiting. caller: hello. host: go ahead. caller: you are showing the charts from 1993 comparing to rates now. how much of that permission is updated considering the rate of population growth in this country and how that might things.r change those you talk about perception. it seems like a lot of news

agencies, they will only pick and choose parts of each story to put out there for their narrative. it seems to me not telling the whole truth is fake news. not accusing this man or anybody else of fake news. what would be the adjustment population rate in this country? thank you. host: thanks. guest: yes, these charts are adjusted for population growth. are the number of violent crimes are 100,000 residents in any given area. survey thatederal is done. a lot of these numbers are taken by sampling around the country. the question of how these numbers are gotten is a good one. one that people should ask.

these fbi numbers are always based on either a population, the rate is per 100,000 citizens. you look at the rate of crime, not the hard numbers. as population grows, the numbers go up. toorder to compare, you need compare the rate, not the overall number. the chart you're looking at is a number.on adjusted host: we mentioned the fbi statistics earlier. collect datai

every year. it takes them about a year to get their numbers. we will see the 2018 numbers next year. the fbi sample from police departments across the country. it is often an estimate. bureau asks a survey that asks people their experience with crime. a lot of crime is not reported. violent crime, murders are always a hard figure. the bureau of statistics looks at people reporting their crime. 12, is based on people over and they use chunks of 1000 people. how many people per 1000 in any given population are experiencing certain crimes? was 80 violentit

crimes per 1000 residents over 12 years old. crimes per 1000 residents over 12 years old. john, chicago. you're next. caller: it is such encouraging data. i am a physician. i work on the south side of chicago. was put in my neck and shot. guest: i'm from the south suburbs, by the way. caller: oh, yes. clearly for me, i am concerned my life. i am driven from home to home by a young lady. i worry about her life. you mentioned marijuana. it seems to me it would be so simple to solve the problem in chicago by the legalization of that marketing concern.

harry bruinius. guest: that is argument that many people are making these days. that is an argument that is ascendant as more states legalize marijuana for medicinal and recreational purposes. that is a trend that i think is going to continue. suggestion isour a right one. i think marijuana possession as thiswere often used is your first in. you pass someone down, and they are carrying a joint, and you arrest them to get them off the street under the assumption that this person you are arresting for a minor marijuana crime is

someone who in all probability, they think, may commit other serious crime. then there is a focus in certain neighborhoods on black and latino men. , if wemportant to say just look at white and black use of marijuana, all surveys show it is equal. men,ially with young white they probably smoke at higher rates than latino men. there are different surveys out there. roughly 60% of the country is white. white.of the country is most of the marijuana in this country is being ingested by white people. the people that are being put in jail for marijuana is overwhelmingly, 85%, black and latino. it is one of those structural

things that is happening in the veryry that leads to diverse -- i mean, the inequity between how the country over the last 50 years or so has the policed marijuana crimes has been skewed profound. i think what you are suggesting to decriminalize marijuana will -- again, in some ways, the question would be how much crime and how much social negatives does marijuana caused? the data people are looking at now is that it is quite nil especially compared to other substances people take legally. you, not allto ask kinds of crime are on the decline. your thoughts

on hate crimes in the u.s. it is up for the third year in the route in 2017. more than 27,000 incidents reported around the country, up 16% from 2016. guest: the numbers when you look at them are always relatively small. there has certainly been a climate in the country over the past three years that has seen -- that is seen muslims and immigrants in a negative light. expressed in acts of violence and harassment, discrimination. those are being tracked. , when yount to say look at the hard numbers, in the

context of overall crime, they are up. i get fair to say they are still anomalies that there are certain types of people that commit these types of crimes, but that is trending upwards, but it is still a small trend, again, that may happen more intensely in various parts of the country than in others. i don't mean to minimize it or diminish it, but it certainly is -- there is more visible evidence of people of acting groupsly towards other and committing more of those kinds of a crimes, certainly those are trending upwards. i think it is important to note point -- talking about the media before, i don't think it's a concern, but it

should be something that has been stood against and i have written about it many times think that it shouldn't be something that emphasizes the fear but -- host: you can read his work in the christian science monitor or follow him on twitter at harry bruinius. a's going to do it for program today but we'll be back here tomorrow 7:00 a.m. eastern, 4:00 a.m. pacific in the meantime, have a great tuesday. [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] ♪

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