talks about the future of u.s.-mexico relations. as always, we will take your calls and you can join the conversation on race book and twitter as well. "washington journal" ♪ host: good morning and welcome journal."gton investigators working on russian meddling in the united states government, several prosecutors filed papers implicating , accusingdonald trump his former campaign manager of lying to federal prosecutors about his contacts with the trump administration and with a man with ties to russia intelligence. this comes as the president's former personal lawyer michael coco faces sentencing -- michael

hen faces sentencing. republicans can call in at (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, you can call in at (202) 748-8002. you can always reach us on social media, on twitter at c-span wj and on facebook at facebook.com/c-span. the activity filed friday made all the major headlines. let's see a little bit about what was written. here's the washington post. special counsel robert mueller the third said friday that paul manafort, president trump's former campaign chairman, told multiple discernible lies during interviews, including about his contact with an employee alleged to have ties to russian intelligence.

in a document filed with federal court friday, mueller said manafort lied about his contact with trump administration officials after trump took office. heafort told investigators had no direct or indirect contact with white house officials since the inauguration , but he had been in touch with officials as recently as the spring. manafort told a colleague in february that he was in contact with a senior administration official through that time, and in a text message authorized another person to speak to a white house official on may 26. -- new york times right writes about what will happen with michael cohen, president trump's former personal lawyer. prosecutors said that president trump directed payments to ward -- the lawyerdal

said as the election neared, mr. trump directed payments to two women who claimed they had affairs with mr. trump. hesecutors in manhattan said acted in coordination and at the direction of an unnamed individual, clearly referring to mr. trump. what is the white house saying about this? a tweet came out yesterday, short and sustained that says -- totally clears the president. thank you. in a statement from the white house, we have here the story from the associated press. the white house says -- new court filings about president forever lawyer and campaign -- former lawyer and

campaign chairman offer nothing new or damaging about trump. sarah huckabee sanders says government filings about former trump attorney and personal fixer michael cohen tell us nothing of value that was not already known. thatis despite the fact the federal special counsel said in one of the documents that cohen was in touch as far back as 2016 with a russian that offered political synergy with the trump campaign. sanders also says the filing pertaining to paul manafort says absolutely nothing about the president, and is blaming the media for trying to create a story where there is not one. prosecutors say manafort lied to them about his contact with russian associates and trump administration officials. .et's go to the phone lines gilbert is calling from birmingham, alabama, on the independent line. caller: good morning to c-span.

with all the allegations and accusations coming out of the white house, nothing sticks on teflon don. as an independent, i have to admit that we have a gangster president. , andng stuck on al capone that is why i'm so elated about nancy pelosi becoming speaker of the house. ofthe other governing parts hisgovernment cannot -- income taxes -- if donald trump is not investigated for income tax evasion he will be the next president. if he is investigated on income tax invention desk evasion, that will be his downfall. -- evasion, that will be his downfall. host: let's get some more information about what is going on with this case. we have brad heath, investigative reporter from "usa

today." what can you tell us? guest: a lot was going on last night. , and pretty remarkable, two criminal investigations going on around the president, one overpayments to women before the 2016 election and the other over election interference collided yesterday in the case of his former lawyer. the justice department when so far as to say for the first time that they believe president trump directed michael cohen to commit two campaign-finance felonies. five minutes later, special counsel mueller puts in a filing with the budget information he did not have before about just cohen was cooperating with their investigation of russian interference. host: the white house says none of these documents had anything new.

what did we find out that we did not know from these two filings yesterday? something that has been into media reports but that robert mueller's office has never said before, including that there was outreach by russians to the trump campaign, or to michael cohen, as early as fall 2015 looking for political synergy with the campaign, which interestingly, he turned away that russian because he already had an of the russian. we learned that michael cohen continued to be in touch with what the special counsel's office described -- i'm sorry, paul manafort continue to be in touch with senior white house officials months after he was indicted. michael cohen was in touch with people in the white house through 2015. is of the nexus is of this

the president's business. special counsel mueller said has been able to provide information about the course of their investigation, whether the campaign coordinated because of, in part his significant contacts with executives at the trump organization. what is that all about? this filing on friday tell us about what is going to happen with michael -- michael cohen on wednesday? will the judge except the argument that he deserves significant jail time, or will that help him at all in the sentencing? guest: do not bet money on what federal judges will do. especially the filing by prosecutors in the southern district, was just an absolutely brutal takedown of michael cohen that nonetheless recommends he

received a sentence slightly below what the sentencing guidelines call for. that would be somewhere in the ballpark of 42 months, maybe even below that. served, asking for time which would be the hour or two it took for him to get fingerprinted by the fbi. the things like a pretty big ask. most people are sentenced within what the federal sentencing guidelines call for, which in his case would be three and a half to five years. the justice department is asking for him to get a little less than that. i would not be surprised that got granted. host: what does this mean for paul manafort? did he ever have a real deal with prosecutors or does he have a deal? how does what they filed on friday effect that? guest: i read that to say he has

a deal, he broke it, but they are not totally pulling the rug out from under him. if you have a plea and really screwed up, you go to trial. this is not reached that point. they still want to proceed with sentencing, but they really are downplaying the idea that he has been of any assistance to their investigation. , they laid out five discrete areas he lied about, which are fairly public. his contacts with the white house, and some of which including his contacts with a business associate who was a former russian intelligence outcer, are totally blacked in the public version of the filings so we do not know exactly what he might have been the special or why counsel thinks we cannot see that information yet. host: what does this tell us

about what special prosecutor robert mueller is trying to do with the white house? how much closer does this bring us to the end of his investigation, and what does it tell us mueller is trying to do? guest: i think you can read the filings, all of them on friday, and say it is much better to be a cooperater, even if the federal prosecutors in new york will say main desk mean things about you. thanill get a better deal if you are paul manafort, somebody who is lying to them. michael cohen was also charged with lying to congress. is accused now of lying to the special counsel's office. in every case, they are able to say we have significant information. we have witnesses, we have

documents. we know when you are lying about something. it suggests a great deal of knowledge. thatbvious take away is there are subjects that are part of this investigation that we in the public do not fully and mueller has r whoigned up a cooperate is providing pretty good inside information that they think is reliable from the president's inner circle, but i would not expect this to be done by christmas. host: what do you expect -- because we know it will come up next -- we know the michael cohen sentencing is next week and james comey testified on friday. what is next in the investigation? guest: george papadopoulos was also released from prison.

michael flynn will be sentenced, i think it is the 18th of december. what is interesting as we are seeing a fairly quick tempo in terms of legal action by the special counsel, and we have this mystery grand jury case of his in a federal appeals court in d.c. that nobody knows what that is about. it is totally sealed up and will be argued in secret next friday. hill, didcomey on the we learn anything from his testimony, from hearing about his testimony that we did not know? guest: house democrats said not a huge -- not a single new thing. republicans seem to have claimed that there was not anything because the justice department did not want to answer questions. we should see a transcript fairly soon so we can judge for ourselves. episodes are sort

of strange and fantastic to see the former director of the fbi going back-and-forth saying, you cannot force me to accept a security clearance to answer your questions, is not a thing i have seen before. host: there are so many tentacles on this investigation, is there anything else we need to know before we get back into the show? anything that you know that we need to know? guest: i feel the same way. there is so many threads and strands and details. the important thing to see yesterday is that there are two investigations around the president. if noteates legal peril for him, for his associates. really, those things collide in the world of michael cohen. they did that in a way that suggests the investigations are serious, there is more out there. inh of those will keep going

ways that will continue prying deeper into the president's orbit. host: we would like to thank usa today reporter brad heath for walking us through the many moving parts of this investigation. guest: my pleasure. host: i want to remind you -- brad talks a little bit about george papadopoulos being free again -- today at 1:15 eastern time we will have george papadopoulos, the former trump campaign manager advisor speaking at the american priority conference. if you want to hear what he has to say just leaving jail, tune in to c-span, c-span.org, and the c-span radio app today at 1:00 p.m. -- 1:15 p.m. live. let's go to rich from hickory hills, illinois, on the independent line. caller: thank you for taking my call. with all the stuff that has been talked about, it seems to me

that there is an overwhelming abundance of stuff that says that this should be taken into , the presidentms should be facing impeachment charges, it should go above and beyond politics and into the legal system, to be judged, because that is when you have tillerson saying the guy is asking me to do stuff that is illegal. that is a violation of the constitution. that is where i think this needs to go. this is like a mockery. it is a sham. the reason the man -- we have a special prosecutor is because the person running for the office of the president of the country suggesting that a foreign country should hack personal citizens of the united states' emails, that is all i

have. from barbara is calling berkeley springs, west virginia, on the republican line. caller: good morning. my comment is concerning the so-called payoffs to these two his --i don't condone are you talking to me? host: we can hear you. go ahead. caller: i don't condone trump's actions with women, but that is not my business. that is between him and god. but if messing around with women aside from your marriage is impeachable, john f. kennedy should have been hanged. my lords, he cavorted around with a spy, laid around with her. but now, he is a hero.

thank you. host: larry is calling from memphis, tennessee, on the democrat line. caller: good morning. i knew we were going to have a republican call in with dismay and lie about things so that he could get elected. that is the problem. there is no doubt that they colluded with the russians to take the election from hillary clinton. there is no doubt about it. the evidence is all over the place thing that is exactly what they did. administration is like nixon's administration. host: former fbi director jim comey testified in front of house republicans and democrats on friday, and he came out afterwards and had a few statements about what he said. >> i am coming back. to comescheduled a date back on the 17th after a full day of questioning.

-- we couldre clear have done this in open settings and when you read the transcript you will see that we are talking again about hillary clinton's emails. i am not sure we need to do this toall, but i'm trying respect the institutions and answer questions and a respectful way. you will see that and the transcript and in the transcript of my return visit, and then this will be over. when the new attorney general nominee served as attorney general last time, do you have confidence he can act with partiality? >> i like and respect him. caresan institutionalist deeply about the integrity of the justice department, so i'm sure he will use the standard career resources he has to judge what he should and should not be an involved in. person, is a talented was a good attorney general.

i think he will serve the justice department well. i am sure he will talk to the career officials. >> how sensibly have you cooperated with the mueller investigation? >> i cannot talk about that. >> how many times have you spoken to them? >> i cannot talk about that. >> have republicans paid notice that the government and ploys -- interference for the shutdown, is that so and what topics are not discussed? >> when you read the transcript you will not see that happening. >> are there specific topics you cannot discuss from your time as fbi director? >> the fbi, for understandable reasons, does not want me talking about the details of the investigation that is still ongoing. i was fbi director so it makes sense they do not want me going into those details, but that is

a tiny part of what we talked about. we have a lot about hillary clinton's emails, which will bore you. host: dallas is calling from path less -- pennsylvania on the democrat line. caller: it is a shame we have these honorable republicans up ande like comey and barr people will not face the facts that these men are doing a wonderful job bringing down this ,an who is corrupt as he can be makes al capone look like a juvenile direct -- juvenile delinquent. it is just ridiculous. and i havers old never seen a country in such disarray as it is. get out of there before he destroys the republican party. host: matthew is calling from armada, michigan, on the democrat line. caller: thank you for taking my call.

c-span has talked about mueller three or four times. the most important issue that has occurred and has faced the world, and maybe in the future of our country america will see that again. riots in the french security forces. another region with yellow vest protests. the french policy -- the yellow vest protests. aboutsomeone has to talk these important issues like paris and some european countries. thank you very much. host: sarah is calling from edgewater, maryland, on independent line. caller: good morning. i just wanted to say that to me, this indicates this country is being ripped apart from the inside.

i think we should all be concerned about that, and i hope that the investigation reveals the truth and the proper actions will be taken. the other thing is, i wish that congress would do its job, working on behalf of the whole country and not be as bipartisan as they are. if they cannot get their act together to work on behalf of all people, i do not have that much hope that anything will change. one last comment i would like to make, i would've never thought in my wildest dreams that i would see the united states of america actively participating through arms sales, in the systematic extermination of a group of people in yemen, where millions of people are being starved to death by the saudi government and we are standing idle by and we do nothing. allowedllion people are

to die in yemen from starvation because we are selling and supporting the saudi government, i think we should take a look at that as well. let's go back to world war ii and let's take a look at 6 million jews that were exterminated by hibbler -- hitler. these atrocities are crimes against humanity. host: let's go to steve calling from almonte, california, on the democrat line. caller: i agree about the mueller investigation. i just hope it is not shut down. that is about it. thank you. host: we have gotten some tweets from some of our viewers. thisweet says -- what does have to do with anything? none of this is illegal. anyone who follow the trump campaign is aware that mr. is building things all over the world. i remember him telling us about

the hotel project in russia. another tweet says -- this is a long investigation, hope we learn what russia did. to bean elections need protected from crooked officials and gerrymandering at state level. mike is calling from baltic, connecticut, on independent line. caller: this whole thing just seems crazy. i am an independent and i voted for trump. people that voted for trump knew what they were getting. for some reason, people on the left think we were tricked or fooled into somehow being -- into voting for him. but we knew what we were getting , and now people are upset about it and they are just trying to overturn it. it is just not right. the only other option, if you're going to overturn an election, is violence. that is what they are going to

cause by china to overturn an election that was done rightfully. they do not see what they are doing. host: bernie is calling from bradenton, florida, on the democrat line. caller: i just listened to that guy. i do not know what land he in, but anyway, this is a mess. , and these folks sit here and try to justify. this in thejustify greatest country in the world thank you. white responded to some issues that happened including james comey on the hill and the filing of some of these documents in the trump administration and the democrats weekly arrest. >> deep into 2018 after donald

cohen was michael negotiating a deal with russian officials to build a trump tower in moscow. trump family members knew about it. there was even a proposal to give a $50 million penthouse as a "gift" to vladimir putin. here is why this is so important. saidthe beginning, i have a top priority for this investigation is to follow the money. following the money has uncovered massive corruption and revealed a growing web of lies told by the president, his aides, and closest associates. the pattern of trump flattering andent and -- putin misleading the public is impossible to just ignore. it is not a matter of if he will

interfere with the mueller investigation, the interference is a really happening. the president attacks mueller on a daily basis. he dangles potential pardons like carrots to influence potential witnesses. he installed an active attorney -- acting attorney general whose prior prejudicial comments suggest he is hostile to the investigation. that includes musing about ways of killing it behind the scenes. , thes the bottom line mueller investigation is rooting out crime and corruption the trump and his associates are desperate to cover up. that is why the president is lashing out. there is bipartisan legislation at the ready that would defend bob mueller against trump's , but leaderis work mcconnell has blocked it at every turn. congress must make clear that nobody in america, not even the president, is above the law.

that is one of the founding principles of our nation. host: let's go to paul from fort lauderdale, florida, on the republican line. caller: hello. mueller comes up with some a sperm stain on a blue dress, then i would say that we have something going on here. i would like to issue a warning to the democratic party and the press, that if they think they are going to get an acceptable impeachment proceedings because cohen is saying donald trump is guilty or manafort is saying donald trump is guilty, just on their word, it is not going to fly. you are going to have a dangerous upheaval in this country, the likes of which no one has ever seen before. is in a war with

donald trump and because of this, this nation i think is going to be unstable. let me give an example. papers thatlast were divulged, people are making a big deal about the synergies that were discussed. they make a big deal about this like, this is it, this is the smoking gun. they failed to say nothing came of it. cohen did not do anything about it even though it was discussed. if i call you and say i will give you $10,000 to kill somebody and that person gets killed, somebody finds out you have got that phone call, hey, you must have killed him, we got this phone call even though it was not solicited. you cannot stop people from unsolicited comments over

circumstances that you had no interest in. that is what is going on here. mueller is trying to convict the by emulsifying things that are unrelated, from people who are basically liars. this is dangerous. people will not stand for it. host: audrey is calling for macon, georgia, on the democrat line. caller: good morning. i always heard that a hit dog why holler, and that is trump is hollering so loud about collusion. the comment from the independent caller from connecticut, he said that they know exactly what they were getting when they voted donald trump in. i know what they were getting as well. they were getting a man that gave all the raises and hate filled people the right to step

out of the shadows and start throwing racial slurs, fill this country with hate. and is what he is all about happened to -- what common sense? host: howard is calling from carmel, indiana, good morning. caller: good morning. i think the mueller investigation is uncovering evidence that confirms donald , and the fact that this is an illegitimate president. he did not win without cheating .nd conspiracy for that reason, i think we as a country need to marshal together to get him out of office, to nullify his president, nullify

all actions he has taken as the president including all of the judges he has appointed, they need to be nullified. all the laws need to be nullified. this is a horrible time in american history that we have such an awful person in the white house. to me, he was unfit to begin with. now it should be clear to everyone as this evidence emerges, that he is unsuitable. he needs to be removed and should not be able to gain from cheating to get in the white house. he should not be able to get the laws in place, get his phony tax cuts in place, and all his other phony deregulations he has been able to put forward. this should move very quickly and should marshal a lot of support to get him out of office. host: let's go to bill calling from york, pennsylvania, on the republican line.

caller: thanks for taking my call. and just going to say, it is funny to me dems then over backwards to find anything on trump, but totally ignore the obvious on the clinton side of the campaign. everything they are looking to ,ry to place on trump everything they try to place on trump, if they just look over their shoulder they can see the clintons that it. ignored.lly plus, it is not a crime to pay those ladies off, use his own money. the law says you can use as much money as you want. it is not a crime to pay those ladies off. he can simply say, i have been paying women awful long time, even before i ran for president. the only eight icy is from the angry screamers on the democratic sign -- the only thing i see is from the angry

screamers on the democrat side. you do not see republicans doing that. host: here is one tweet that says -- this is why the gop gets usa in trouble all the time. the voters do not understand -- who they are voting for and do not understand that it is not about him committing adultery like the other presidents. trump telegraphs his intention before he asked. his campaign solicited foreign donations despite warnings it was illegal. this was a precursor as to how he would run his administration. he chose unethical people to carry it out. we want to hear from you on our phone lines. republicans can call in at (202) 748-8001. democrats can call in at (202) 748-8000. .ndependents, (202) 748-8002

we are reading tweets. you can reach us on twitter at c-span wj and on facebook at facebook.com/c-span. d is calling from washington, d.c. on the democratic line. caller: good morning. how are you doing? host: just fine. what do you have for us? caller: the last caller about the democrats looking back on the clintons. the last time we checked, the republicans -- they was investigating the clintons like crazy, so what is he talking about? it is confusing to me when we actually have a crime family in the white house. it is obvious this guy colluded with russia. he clearly paid off these porn stars so they could find a way to cover up that whole thing, so he could find a way to get into the white house.

he cheated. this is a guy you are supposed to tell your kids, this is our president? are you kidding me? is that ok? he hired people, fired people, and othera dumbass stuff. this is pathetic. trump need to go. his entire family needs to be thrown into jail. host: cassie is calling from tuesday -- kathy is calling from tuesday, oregon, on the republican line. caller: good morning. host: good morning. caller: i just wanted to say that i knew what i was doing when i voted for donald trump, for president trump. i really like the job he is doing for my family. personally, i don't think that i was tricked into voting any other way. i watched what i was watching.

i read and i made an informative decision for myself. no one trick me. it was not fake. it is all real to me. i like the job donald trump is doing. good job, president trump. host: paul is calling from chesapeake, virginia, on the independent line. thatr: i would like to say what the lady -- i agree with everything the lady from oregon just said. what i am mainly calling is one, this is why we need term limits. two, this is all about power, whether it is democrats or republicans. one of these things that a lot of people are talking about russia, russia, russia.

thatpeople have forgotten jack lew and john woo -- jack china and theu in investigation in 1992, there was a big congressional investigation the got shut down after the republicans to our of .he house of representatives fred thompson was following the line. and he wasdemocrats about to investigate republicans , and that was when he got told to shut down the investigation. a lot of people have forgotten that china at one time, we had a big investigation into that sort of thing. separateople have to the difference between collusion and conspiracy.

host: you said earlier you are for term limits. the presidency is already term limited. what term limits are you talking about? caller: congress, the congressional term limits. if people need to change things, they need to change their representatives. i live in virginia, but if i don't like nancy pelosi i have to move to oakland. host: entree is calling from deerfield beach, florida, on the isocratic line -- andre calling from deerfield beach, florida, on the democratic line. caller: i would like to comment on the virginia caller. i agree with the virginia caller , because in order for us to change what is going on, the presidency is just a platform. we have to get that straight. the presidency is a platform. what they do from the presidency

is, so what their vision our country, hopefully that aligns with our country. our country is governed by congress. they write the laws. they set the standard. they write the budgets. he is right, if we want to change, because we do not need to go to war or fight because whatever colluded or conspired or agreed with or was holding chinese --russia and because it was chinese and others, but they have not mentioned the others. my thing is that, let them do their jobs. let's not scrutinize their jobs because we do not do their jobs, as common folk out here. , let'ss that are elected see what they do, like the tea

party. what is happening today is everyone is showing their true colors. we have a saying in african-american culture, when you show your true colors. we can see the true colors and vote them out of every district they are in, and have change. whatever happens to the presidency is done next year, unless he goes to war and wins another four years because traditionally if we go to war, we stay with the same president. we do not like to change presidents when we start war. president trump -- if president trump decides to go to war, which has secretary of state and defense secretary are both kind , but if along that path

we do, that is israel election campaign. -- has reelection campaign. ray is calling from tennessee on the republican line. caller: good morning. i first of all would like to say , you have a congressman on just a few minutes ago. that man told a lie right out of his mouth. he knows that there was no penthouse promise to putin. he knows he is telling a lie and he is going had. host: we have not had anybody from congress on this morning, so i do not know what you are watching. caller: you had the right, you had him on. ron: you mean the senator wyden? caller: ron wyden, he told a lie. he knows that penthouse thing is a lie. it has are been debunked.

he continues to sit back and tell the people over the air that is happening. that is the way they are doing it. the other thing, the reason these people can't understand trump is because they do not understand lane talk. -- plain talk. he is telling people how it is. he comes out with some crazy things, but the bottom line, he communicates with the american people. we do not want to hear all this pc stuff. we want to hear the truth straight out, nothing else. in american people better understand that the people of this country are trying to sell our country out, after all of he and my relatives fought to keep this country free and safe. wake up, america. john, calling to from center also be, new hampshire -- new hampshire. caller: thank you for taking my

call. regarding the mueller investigation, people are speculating based on their suggestions, based on the reports that have been coming andagainst manafort, cohen, what have you. the president has been proven to have lied, at least almost 7000 times now and it has not been a full term. with his tweets and what he is causing, this disruption in america, the republican party come up basically the check on the administration has failed to do their job. this country is in dire straits and we do not even see that. i do not understand why people cannot recognize it. maybe it is partisan, which may being an independent, i cannot fathom the thought to watch our

country just disintegrate from within. , you have what is happening in yemen, human rights, we just never allow that. hill, ashe sea on the reagan said. i believed in that and i love reagan and i loved george h.w. bush, but that is gone and i'm sorry to see that. host: don is calling from sacramento, california, on the democratic line. caller: good morning. this here ain't nothing but bible prophecy. donald trump is the bible speaks of, because he is the leader of the white race. and esaw is- esaw

the end the world, and jacob and the israelites, the blacks, hispanics, native americans there is a beginning of the new world. his white race, are people of war. this is part of why we ran them out of civilization in the ancient days, because they were like can. they are not people. they are animals. host: tyler is calling from north carolina on the republican line. caller: good morning. i am calling on the republican line because i could not get thrown the democrat line. people calling from pennsylvania, tennessee, and connecticut -- host: dave is calling from michigan on the republican line. all those comments about white folk, i happened to be black, white, and cherokee

indian. jew.d is a slavic russian my mother was from black ireland, one of those redheaded ladies with freckles, and my grandmother was a 100% cherokee indian. i going to sit here and claim victimhood for the rest of my life. what a bunch of fools. is imment on mr. trump feel that he has done what he said he was going to do. all his promises, and these people trying to connect him with russians are going to be sadly mistaken when all of this is over. believeeally cannot that they speculate so angrily and so hostile he about that good family in there. we have the best looking lady that ever walked through the white house doors in the first

lady. she reminds me of jackie kennedy. he has kept every promise he said he was going to do, except that wall. that wall has got to get built. what it will do, it will keep all the proletariat's from getting into our world. order is coming on steroids, and if you read about the proletariat and the bourgeoisie, these failures around the world, they think we in america are the bourgeoisie. they want to take it off us. that is what globalism is. communism on steroids. wake up. you and people of color, people that are white, blue, green, if you are an american, the rest of the world wants to take it off of you and you just want to hand

it over to them? there.t with you host: let's go to carol calling from fairmont, west virginia, on independent line. caller: good morning. i am calling -- i'm an independent -- and i am upset with congress and the white house. this mueller investigation, i think the media and people in congress are using this, it has got the american people to the point where we are watching opinionated pieces on the media and everybody has taken sides. i have never known america to be that way. and seeking if we wait where the investigation actually comes out to, then we decide about impeaching trump. i agree with the callers from tennessee and new hampshire.

those two spoke to what is going on. now, as far as we, the american in place ofink taking sides we need to start using our common sense and figure out for ourselves where this country has gone, and quit leaving it to the people in congress that is playing in gridlock really. he is trying to figure out how to get done, but at the same time i think it is -- hee is just trying to is trying to go over where his bounds are not supposed to be. thank you for taking my call. you guys have a great day. from phil lando is calling -- filando is calling on the democrat line. caller: i have been very patient. i have two points to make. the republican party missions to

rush limbaugh and sean hannity. they basically told them not to believe anything against this president. my second point, the clintons, hillary clinton and bill clinton are not in power. if they was in power, i was a dem -- i am a democrat, i would investigate them. trump is in power. if republicans say they knew what they was getting, they are telling us they knew he was a criminal and a racist. they voted in a criminal and a racist and they knew it. that is my comment. host: let's go to dominic from staten island, new york, on the republican line. caller: how are you today? host: what do you have? caller: this whole witchhunt is insane, and it is not racial. people are talking about racial.

i think trump is doing the right thing. who is perfect? seems to me that the perception a lot of -- of a lot of people is that people are supposed to be perfect. i live by the code of principles before personalities. personality is's a little risque but he is getting things done and they are doing everything possible to bringing him down. he is doing what is best for the country, not what is best for trump. it is what is best for the country, and the country voted him in. i am a vietnam vet and i fought for my country. when i see what is going on, it is ridiculous. there is no free lunch here. whatever you put into something is what you are getting out. this is the first president besides reagan, that whatever he says he is going to do, he is trying his hardest to do it, but

he is fighting -- it is ridiculous what he has to go through. he is our president. we voted him in and this is not a racial thing or any other kind of thing. host: let's go to brad calling from london, kentucky, on independent line. caller: good morning. i just wanted to say i voted for 2016 and my mind has changed quite a bit about things. i think to anybody that looks at the whole situation fair and knowing thatnd trump is no moral pearl in the world, but he never claimed to be. it is pretty clear to see that he is being set up. it is a set up, the russian thing began before he even took office.

it is clear it is a set up. it is clear that they are going scalps.ts --dca i am worried for the country because the powers that are after him to see him fail are greater than the american people's resolve, sadly. i am worried for the future. i am a young man and worried for the future. host: david is calling from charleston, rhode island, on the republican line. caller: good morning. that person who just called from kentucky who voted for hillary clinton could not be more right than he is right now. crew c -- -- coup. secondnot have our amendment -- it is for a to radical government.

at the an absolute coup top of the administration. it is a set up and it is absolutely disgusting. every conservative republican and democrat should be able to see it. they do not like what he is doing for the people. the people want control. there is a certain group in this country that wants control and they want to keep that. -- losingiving that, that, having donald trump in control, and they are willing to do anything. we need state militias. state militias that go after this government when it is tyrannical, it is becoming tyrannical. these people at the top, mueller, rosenstein, they are all crooked. they are dirty. they are traitors. we cannot have that in this country, absolutely traders.

traitors. host: james is calling from tallahassee, florida, on the independent line. caller: in reference to the mueller investigation, i agree with a lot of different remarks that have been made. it seems that those of us who are kind of streetwise out here, they do a big sweet and take your friends and family and everybody you associate with and try to now you to the wall. that is what appears is going on in this investigation. myself personally, i am also black, white, and american indian. in my family, when they hear things, my children hear things like let's kill all white people, and they say that is my family and you would not know it from seeing them.

people need to get their things together and stop all this animosity. by how peopleused always give away their personal power over one man in the white house. what we need to do is abolish or repeal the 16th amendment and that will take care of the senate. they will be appointed by their legislator in their states like was originally intended in the constitution, and that will take care of money problems and all this gerrymandering and everything else. yemen thatference to that lady was talking about, let's remind everybody that obama went into yemen and now it has to be cleaned up. ,n reference to saudi arabia turkey and saudi arabia are enemies. this man was killed in turkey and turkey is going towards islamic terrorism.

saudi arabia is trying to be more democratic. i don't know if that is not set up. i have one question in reference to the. they have an audio of this killing and if that is so, why did they stop it? why did they let it happen? as far as trump, i think he is doing a great job and everybody fears him because he does not carry any party line. i do not think it is immoral to put up a wall. it is the best thing we can do because we cannot afford to keep taking care of all these people. i know i don't want to, because it makes life hard. thank youout college, very much. host: we are going to talk about the legislationbill with roger e national farmers union. later, we will continue our spotlight on magazine series with a look at the small

business cash advance industry. we will be right back. stay with us. >> this weekend on american , the battle of antietam through letters, photographs, and diary entries. on lectures in history, david cortright on immigration and the rise of nativism. a panel discussion on retired supreme court justice anthony kennedy. conversationca, a from 1974 with democratic -- resswoman kathy griffin this weekend on c-span3.

coming up this weekend on booktv, today author lindsay hilsom talks about the life and death of war correspondent mary hill. person was always the that was that much braver than the rest of us. she always got the best stories and made the rest of us feel just a little bit ashamed. p.m., richard:00 burr kaiser discusses his book on chief justice john marshall. >> john marshall was always the smartest man in the room. many of his colleagues were brilliant as well, but they always acknowledged him. >> tucker carlson discusses his

book. he is interviewed by the chairman of the american conservative union. >> if you give everybody the vote, but only a small percentage share in the spoils, everybody else is going to be angry, and they are going to punish you with the political power they have by electing a populist. is a red alert that something is wrong in your democracy. population could not get the attention of policymakers, so they elected donald trump. >> watchable tv this weekend on booktv thisatch weekend on c-span2. host: we are back with national farmers union president roger johnson. coming up soon will be the farm bill. have you had a chance to see it? what can you tell us about what would possibly be in that bill?

guest: we have not seen it yet. it is not been released. we have a pretty good idea. there will be a very modest improvement to the safety net for farmers. snap will be the provisions that were so controversial in the house that basically eliminated, i forget fromany million recipients eligibility. those will be pulled out. it will be more like the senate version. there will be conservation programs, beginning farmer programs, those sorts of things. host: what is going to be the biggest win for farmers in this bill? what parts of this bill are you concerned about? guest: i would say the biggest win is the fact that we are getting a bill. we are living in very troubled times right now. farm income is half what it was five years ago.

that number is comparable to somebody's salary. losing half of your salary. having a farm bill that has got some certainty, that provides at least modest price supports is going to be really important. what i wish they had done, and almost certainly they did not, is they should have tightened up payment limits. there is no good public policy reason for the very largest farmers to receive unlimited funds. policy limitsgood for the extended family, cousins, nieces, nephews, everybody who is related to be eligible for these farm payments. historicallye that farmers union has been concerned about her we want the benefits -- concerned about. benefits to

go to family farms. any concerns about the farm bill not that the democrats are taking over the house? republicans will retain control of the senate. guest: i don't think it will have any impact. it is going to pass during the lame-duck. it is still the current congress. even if it did go into the next session, the ranking member in the house right now is a democrat, collin peterson from minnesota, a sort of conservative democrat. or the thenhair, ranking member on the republican side, will be the same people that work on the bill. typically farm bill's are pretty pretty bipartisan. it was less so in the house this

time around. it proposes a five-year, $87 billion bill. is there concern about what will happen with trade over the next five years and how farmers will be impacted by those changes? five years is a long time. guest: it is. there is a lot of concern about trade right now. there is a lot of concern about what trade is going to be like over these next five years. there is no question about that. we have argued from the beginning that the special payments usda has put out to compensate farmers for the loss in income from the trade dispute this administration has been involved in, we have argued those dollars should be put in a farm bill so there would be long-term predictability. we did not win that argument, obviously.

picked anistration has fight with virtually every trading partner in the world. that is not a good thing. they are absolutely correct to take on china and to hold them to account, but the way they are , i think, is going to do a lot of long-term damage to agriculture. our reputation is not going to be the same as a consequence of how we behaved in this. host: if you want to join this conversation, we have some phone lines for you. if you are a farmer, we want to hear from you. .all in (202) 748-8000 if you work in the agriculture ,ector, you are not a farmer but you still work in the agriculture sector, we want you to call in (202) 748-8001. if you don't work in the agriculture sector, or you are not a farmer, i still want to hear from you, call in at (202)

748-8002. we are always online. you can reach us on social media, at twitter, and on facebook. you are a third-generation farmer. how has farming changed during your lifetime? guest: dramatically. changedy technology has a lot. farm sizes have increased a lot just because of the economic pressures. we have seen dramatic changes in the climate of growing season. in north dakota, it is quite a bit longer than it was when i started farming. the weather is more variable. was a kid,-- when i the only corn growing in our part of north dakota was only for silage.

it would not mature. it was used for feed. today there is corn grown for grain all over the state. the genetics have changed. you have shorter season corn variety. the growing season has lengthened, so there is more time for corn to grow. host: have you had to incorporate technology into your farming? my parents are farmers as well as mississippi. i know we have seen the tractor technology change. we have seen the equipment change. now computers are being used to out how much you should plant. are you seeing that? guest: there is no question technology is changing rapidly in agriculture. are of the tractors today auto steer. host: i remember when we were

excited to have power steering. believe me.too, you will see much straighter rose then you are used to. eye.d to do it by there is a lot of precision agriculture today, which is variable rate seeding depending on the soil type you have, variable rate fertilizer applications. you are seeing a lot more precision in the industry. calling from maura salt lake city, utah on the farmer line. good morning. caller: hello. i am from a farm family in kansas. i am still related to this family. we are spending more and more

money on farm equipment, and we find that growing season -- pardon me -- the growing season to be much more unpredictable. you saw where i am right now. they irrigate. it snows on the mountains in the winter, and the snow melts in the spring, and it runs down. they catch it in ditches. they use that water. in kansas, we depended completely on mother nature whether we would see the right amount of rain. too much, too dry.

farming is a very difficult thing. farmers worked very hard to produce food to feed this nation. that is all i wanted to say. e truly appreciate farmers and the food they put on the table. guest: thank you for that comment. it means a lot to all of us who are farmers. host: let's go to travis, austin, texas. good morning. caller: thanks for having me. i have done some farming before. it has not been in my family. i don't do it right now. two questionsk for your guest. number one, seeing as climate change is a real issue, is denying climate change, as our current administration continues to do, going to end up creating that policy that hurts farmers?

since the current invention nation does not seem to understand what is in our best interest with other commodities such as oil, driving down the there anyil, is evidence that this administration understands what is good for farmers in this country? well, probably the best evidence is that farmers as a ls,munity, according to pol still strongly support this administration. obviously that is not true for everyone. we would certainly agree with the premise of your question that denying climate change is not helpful. i think we are seeing this administration rollback a number of the things that were put in place that were designed to tackle the science behind

climate change, better understand this phenomenon, and then put policies in place to reduce emissions. if there is good news in agriculture, it is that we are a sink.ial enormous carbon a lot of farming practices are going to have to change in order to do that. we are going to need to do much more conservation practices. we are going to have to do ill, manage no t rotational grazing, cover crops. there are a number of practices that will take carbon out of the air and put it in the soil. when it is in the soil, it becomes organic matter, which makes your soil more resilient, able to hold more water. , very high a drought organic matter soils, there is

the likelihood that more of the moisture that came down earlier is going to be there. tend to get faster water infiltration into high organic matter soil. if you have these dramatic rainfall events that we are seeing more of, there's a tendency for more of that water to stay in the soil instead of run off into the rivers and streams. there are a lot of things that can and should be done to provide the right kind of incentives for farmers to change these practices. that is where we ought to be focusing our efforts because agriculture can play a big role in helping to solve this climate problem. we have got to focus on. right now there is insufficient focus on it. tweetlet me read you a from jodey. my farm is not big enough to receive subsidies from the farm

bill. my neighbor has a computer for his new hay bale. more young people into agriculture? i know there are groups like future farmers of america. i used to be part of it. how do we get more millennials, more people in the future to go into agriculture? we need food. guest: that is how we get it. provisions number of in this farm bill. we have seen versions when the senate passed in the house passed, there are more incentives in this bill them there have ever been before. programs,ams, grant educational programs, incentives for retiring farmers to transfer land or to take crp land and move that to beginning farmers.

there is a lot of attention focused on this. there is a big transition out of agriculture that needs to be reversed. caller made an important point by talking about being a very small farmer with a neighbor who is a larger farmer who is struggling. that is true in agriculture. we have more than 2 million farmers in the country. only about 60,000 of them produce about half of all of our food. we have a small number of very and a very large number of very small farmers. over half of all the farmers in america received less than $10,000 in gross income in a year. that gives you an idea of the disparate size relationships in agriculture.

all.ed them a lot of these small farmers tend to be fruit and vegetable farmers. those are things that we need more of, that we eat more directly, that have high cost of transportation associated with them. we can produce these locally. that is good for us. there are programs we have to have in place for all of them, and we want them all. let's go to vicki on the farmers line. caller: good morning. i am a tenant in common with my brother here in ohio. we share crop. some man rants the farm from us and usually produces soybean. my property tax on this 30 acre $2800.ast year was 2 my profit on the farm was something like $1400. i paid far more in taxes than i

got in profit. my brother was so upset with this new tax bill that they contacted the state legislature. they said if you would grow ethanol corn, you could afford your property taxes. i'm not sure i would make that direct correlation. vary fromty taxes state to state. they are not a federal policy. you will see enormous differences in property taxes, real estate taxes on farmland from one state to the next. it would be difficult in a program like this to say much more than that except to say that in many states, because of this push to cut taxes either on the federal or state level, the residual is that property taxes tend to get levied largely on the local level. all that demand for services gets pushed down onto property

taxes. as you see tax cuts on the national level, generally you will see an increase in property taxes on the local level. as to whether you want to be growing corn or soybeans, most farmers who grow one, grow the other. one of the things that is really good for more resilient farms is to have increased rotations so that you grow more and more crops. it is better for the soil, climate, the environment. i am not going to sit here and tell your farmer who is farming your land how they ought to be farming. host: we have middleton calling from west virginia on the farmers line. good morning. guest: good morning -- good morning. i am just a small farmer.

we sell our products at the farmers market. we sell heirloom tomatoes and stuff like that. you take these commercial farmers. there tomatoes have got such tough skin that you can throw it a mile, and it will still stay solid. our vegetables don't have a chance. in that resell farmers. they are not producers. so that.s us it is horrible that this is what we have to put up with, trying to sell our stuff at the farmers market. people don't understand what a farm grown vegetable is supposed to look like because it is not perfect. it is not round and all this stuff. the flavor is unbelievable compared to this tough skin stuff you get from a big old farmer.

they have to raise stuff because it has to be produced and stay for. -- form. it cannot be perishable. it is horrible with a small farmer has to put up with. we had to fight tooth and nail for everything we get. guest: you raise a lot of really good points. time, as been, over tendency -- take the case of tomatoes. years ago to breed tomatoes that have a thicker, tougher skin because if they are going to be shipped long distances, you don't want them to be bruised and squashed. that is why they had that tendency. the caller is right that a lot of these locally produced fruits and vegetables, they are fresher.

from as a lot of demand select group of consumers for these kinds of folks. i would urge anyone who is listening to patronize your farmers markets. they do work hard. it is a very risky business. the little bit of money that much.et isn't if you look at the statistics for a lot of these folks, they are living in poverty. do your part in trying to go to farmers markets and patronize fromand help by this food local farmers. they work hard, and they want to produce a safe and good tasting, healthy product. host: it tastes better. i grew up in mississippi.

the vegetables from a farmers market tastes better than anything you can get anywhere else. guest: there is increasing demand for this. you are seeing in a number of the stores where they are trying to figure out ways to bring in this local produce because they know their consumers want more of it. the cost structure associated with that is higher. that is something a lot of folks are struggling with because at the end of the day there is an interesting publication we put out. i encourage folks to go to nfu.org. that's national farmers union. our website, we do something called the farmers share. it is on the front page of the website. it talks about the share of the consumer dollar the farmer gets for what he or she produces. i can tell you -- i am a farmer

from north dakota. we raise wheat. wheat that a farmer gets a pack of dinner rolls -- we just did this analysis for thanksgiving dinner. $2.99.s 0.04.rs get $ that is obviously more highly processed that fruits and vegetables that you need directly, but overall farmers food dollar. $.15 it is a tough business. earlier aboutd the trade war with china. i want to get more into about how that is acting farmers. is there anything congress can

do or should do? guest: it is directly impacting farmers. one of the things we saw after the administration with these -- put these tariffs on steel and aluminum, and they did it not just on china, but all of our trading partners, including canada and mexico, so canada and mexico and these other trading tariffs put retaliatory on stuff we sell to them. the immediate impact of that tariff is we saw a two dollar drop in the price of a bushel of soybeans. that two dollars, incidentally soybeans was about eight dollars to $10. that is typically all the rocket gone.

-- profit gone. 25% of theout to value. a two dollarbrazil per bushel price premium. china quit buying soybeans. far thed to buy by largest amount of soybeans we asked it in this country -- exported in this country. they are now buying entirely from brazil. brazil is going to be producing more of this. farmers are going to faith even more competition from other .ountries throughout the world this is a dramatic impact on our prices. this is likely going to be here for a while. ironies aboutat

this is happening is i don't hear many people defending china. nor do i. china was misbehaving under the wto. they were allowed in at the beginning of this century with the understanding that they were going to change their philosophy more what we have in western countries. lesse economic system, government control. they have not done that. they have gone in the opposite direction. they lie, cheat, steal technology from us. they need to be held to account. you should be doing that by bringing the rest of the world behind us to bring china into account. instead we have china and the rest of the world arrayed against the u.s. because of the

way we have prosecuted some of these trade issues. on theet's go to clyde farmers line. caller: good morning. thank you to c-span. what is the national farmers union position on cultured meat and the fact that we are importing this beef from all over the world and calling it meat in the usa? guest: there are kind of two pieces to that question. let me take the cultured meat, lab grown stuff. our position is it needs to be labeled, regulated. knowmers need to clearly if it is supposed to be beef that it comes from a cap. -- cow. if it is cultured meat, it should be labeled different. consumers may

prefer that. it needs to be labeled. we have been long-term proponents of something called ofl, which is country origin labeling. we think consumers have a right to know that. we believe farmers and ranchers want to tell them that. we are proud of what we do, what we produce in this country. we think consumers ought to know that. what has happened, because this industry has become so incredibly concentrated. in the case of beef, there are four companies in this country that control 85% of the beef market. these companies are pretty much all multinational companies that will import products from around the world and then sell it in this marketplace as though it is

u.s. produced beef. our argument is, listen, we are not opposed to you bringing it in. you ought to label it from where came from. we lost the case at the wto on this. we won a bunch of court cases in the u.s. on this. it was legal in our country. do wto said we could not this. congress eliminated the law. we ought to be honest and transparent. host: let's take one more quick call from vanessa, who is calling from florida. give us a quick question. caller: good morning. whyuld really like to know, has the backbone of civilization become the most ignored sector of the economy? the food on her

table and etc., we look around and see him proper practices mproper practices costing more. these chemicals have after lives of up to 12 years in the soil. they are still destroying the natural flora and insects that would be in there. you are looking around private sectors. in my neighborhood, common gardens are banned. we are not allowed to collect rainwater. bees.led off half of our .e killed off half of our bees you have gentlemen and ladies doing right and tried to produce good crops and doing what they

can to regenerate the soil. you have some people like down , u.s. sugar.da they are polluting our waterways to the point we have guacamole style algae floating on top. host: can you give us a quick answer to her question? guest: there is a lot to that question. she started by saying the backbone of civilization, referring to agriculture. i could not agree more. there is something different about agriculture when it comes to trade. buying anotherut flatscreen television. we can go without buying another car. buyingot go without food. we ought to treat it with more

respect in my opinion in this country. pointe got to get to the where we do more and more of these kinds of practices that are more sustainable for our climate. it is important for civilization in the long run there is an increasing movement in agriculture to do more and more of this. we need to have public policies that are aligned with that so that there are economic incentives for farmers to do more of these practices. host: this is obviously a fascinating conversation. we will have to have you back so we can talk more about farming. we would like to thank roger johnson of the national farmers union for being with us. guest: thank you. host: coming up next, we will open up the farm lines to talk about any public policy issue you want to talk about. the phone lines are on screen for you right now. we will be right back in just a

moment. c-span, where history unfolds daily. created as aan was public service by america's cable television companies. today, we continue to bring you a unfiltered coverage of , theess, the white house supreme court, and public policy events around the country. c-span is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. q&a.nday on people worked with four who were once and future presidents. jimmy carter, bill clinton, barack obama, and donald trump. manyter oslo, publisher of best-selling nonfiction books. >> i came to understand about donald trump, and this is

profoundly important. donald trump in his heart of hearts believes he always wins. here is a guy who has been in new york real estate, gambling, real estate, boxing, wrestling, beauty contests, construction, never been a target of a criminal investigation. that is astonishing in new york city. >> that conversation sunday night on c-span's q&a. "washington journal" continues. host: once again we are going to open up the phone lines to all of you to talk about any public policy you want to talk about this morning. i will remind you of those spotlights. republicans, you can call in at (202) 748-8001. democrats you can call in at (202) 748-8000.

atependents, you can call in (202) 748-8002. you can reach us on social media, twitter and facebook. we are going to start out with donnie from idaho. republican line. good morning. good morning. i am so sorry i did not get to talk to mr. johnson about agriculture. that is a big topic, especially in idaho right now. along the land, people moving to idaho getting a lot of land now because farmers are giving up. small farmers to stay competitive have to lease equipment. because they have to lease equipment, lots of times they end up losing the equipment. they sell out to developers, and some of the richest soil it is in the u.s., volcanic soils.

inther point is that northern idaho and a lot of areas, montana, everywhere, they used to, years ago, they would heatfarmers not to grow w because we were buying from other countries. when they did that, they killed all those towns up north. you bypass now where there used to be train tracks that would go from town to town to pick up agriculturalher products. it is killing these little house. people are moving out of these towns to the city to grow the -- to gohough to work to work in refineries. host: have you done any farming

yourself? caller: yes, i have. host: what did you farm? wheat, barley,, and sugar beets when i was younger. i grew up part of my life on a farm and a ranch. it is not enough for anything that i could farm, but i am going to do more ranging now than i am farming because of that. the point is i feel really bad for the farmers. it is true like you said that farmer,ts goes to the and the rest goes to the packaging and selling of the product. even down in california where i

come down here to work the all the orchards and stuff, they are taking out the orchards. they used to rotate their crops, and every so many years, they would pull the trees out and replant new trees. they are tearing them out now and putting homes in. it is easier to build in that area because you don't have to land is more- the level. the farmers are giving up. that is sad to see because we have got to feed ourselves. we cannot always rely on other countries. i feel for the farmers. i am hoping people would open their eyes and see what is happening to us because the farmers are giving up. you can give up your land and work at mcdonald's or someplace because they give up.

the kids are seeing how hard their parents have it. let's go to maureen. caller: good morning. how are you this morning? host: just fine. go ahead. caller: talk about jesus christ. isn't noow that, there such a thing as democrats and republicans. they are not going to work in that white house unless everyone get on the same according. we have got to get on the same base. god, love one another regardless. hollowly at. just talk about jesus. do the right thing. they put their hand on that bible. when they running, then you

don't hear no more. they throw god out the door and do what they want to do. they go to church some of them. sitting in church and not doing the right thing in that white house. love one another. hatred in their heart. don't care what you do. host: let's go to jerry calling from illinois on the independent line. good morning. caller: i do echo some of the sentiments the other caller said. we have to work together. when you look at the farm way thathey leave in a makes people wonder why so many trump? are voting for tria taxes in oklahoma. their policies support donald

trump. on -- person who came there is a contradiction in what is good for us. understand, and i china has to play better. the way you galvanize other countries to support our policies. i am saying those people in states where farming is prolific, think about who you are putting in public. two senators who are republican. they are the third leading state in terms of farming. have itthink democrats all right. i don't think republicans have it all right. we need to get the best for all of us. thank you for taking my call. callingt's go to ken, from montana on the democrat line. caller: good morning.

i am calling in regard to the trump supporters. this is not the general republicans, but the trump supporters. a very basic thing in your support, and there is really only three reasons to be a trump supported. reason one is you are ignorant. two is you are naive. three is you are stupid. if you are stupid, you were born that way, and you'll always be that way. if you are naive, turn on the channels other than fox and see the whole picture. try to be more rounded. if it is ignorance. if you are being ignorant and not paying attention, i have no separate the for you -- sympathy for you whatsoever. the nails are in the coffin.

the state has been sharpened for the vampires heart. soon we will see some results for this. thank you. host: let's go to dig calling from massachusetts, republican line. caller: good morning. appreciate you taking my call. some of my relatives are farmers. i am quite impressed by the hard work they do, long hours. it has never been easy for farmers. hundred years, we have been reducing farmers. people have been pushed out of farming. they don't like being pushed out of farming. they hang on as long as they can. if the government can have policies that can do some good for the farmers, we certainly all need them. we need food. i was listening to liberal public radio recently, a canadian station.

they were talking to some form or some farmers in canada. they were very upset over the changes in the nafta treaty. discussion.ot of i got online and looked around. the new york times said president trump has trashed the .afta agreement liberals at brookings. from listening to the canadians, we have made changes. i don't know exactly what the details were, but they are upset that they are losing some of the protection they have had against having to compete with american farmers in the dairy industry. to hear some of your colleagues in the news industry, you would think prior to 2016 that there is no such thing as a tariff, that donald trump invented tariffs to cause trouble for

people. i think the evidence is in that raising tariffs as a tactic to get the other country's attention to level the playing field. the 1940's. the marshall plan was a great idea in the 1940's. our trading partners have grown up now. they don't have to be our children anymore. they can compete with us on a level playing field. he is just trying to move in that direction. peoplee of those stupid that support trump he was talking about. my academic background with the would bely that. that's my opinion. host: let's go to shannon in florida, independent line. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i saw you are having open

formats. i want to talk about what is going on in michigan, wisconsin, and north carolina concerning the republicans trying to limit the power of the incoming administrations, which happen to be democratic. it seems like they are subverting the will of the people. it is pretty brazen and quite hypocritical. creating an entirely new education committee because the education board is now going to be majority democrat, and they're trying to keep it from being in the purview of any of the democratic offices coming in. i have not heard much about. i thought i would bring it up, and you guys might have a better conversation. from let's go to madeleine west virginia, republican line. caller: morning. thanks for taking my call.

i would like to tell the man that said that trump supporters , he betterand dumb look in the mirror. the trump supporters that our christian are trying to straighten the country out. the ones that call us stupid and dumb don't believe in god because the man that was on this morning that said republican people depend too much on god, well i want to tell all of them, i am a christian. i am a trump supporter. i believe in my bible. i want to tell the ones that hate our president and will not

work with them or give him any say that he has done what is right, they surely did andlisten to the preachers the things that were said at our s funeral. they are going to do all they helpingead of going and until this presidents time is up. if he has been so bad, vote him out of office. ont causing the carrying that is going on. hatenot believe people can like they hate that man. it is a shame.

i want to thank you for listening to me. ryan, calling to from california on the independent line. caller: hello. thank you for taking my call this morning. i believe this country is one of the few places in the world that if you have a dream and truly try to pursue it, it really can happen. that is a beautiful thing. i believe we need to protect that. look objectively, overall we have our mannerisms. we all go to work, just like donald trump. he is a regular person just like us. i think that is why they voted him in. people don't like hearing the truth. it is not a pretty world. they are not good to get a

pretty answer when you are not bought and paid for. republicans and democrats are both paid for by the same people. donald trump is not paid for by anybody. you are going to get a straight up answer. people don't like hearing the truth. it is going to take him a while to get used to. host: let's go to marry, calling from new york city, democrat line. caller: good morning. happy holidays. i am calling to discuss the responses i have heard from some callers who talked about the mueller investigation is about a anp and overturning election. that is not what the mueller investigation is about. the mueller investigation is to determine how much russian interference existed in the 2016

election and who in the trump campaign collaborated with them in this 2016 election. hismueller is doing investigation. he is a respected researcher, prosecutor person. we have to wait to see what is report says. there have been many talking indictments that he has put out. there is smoke. called a few minutes ago and said she was the rest of that christian, and she hated that people hated mr. trump. as a christian, you should wonder why he could be so mean to hillary clinton during the campaign.

happy holidays to all. claudia, northto dakota, or hold the line -- repu blican line. go ahead. [indiscernible] they need to get straightened out. we need to bring the deficit down. carlos,t's go to calling from california on the republican line. caller: good morning. i have to agree with roger. california is considered the fruit basket of the world, not just the united states. a little town called orange cov

e. california,supply the united states, and overseas. guatemala, mexico. keep before they can producing fruit, they have to build more dams or stop building housing. we are running low on water in california. farmers are struggling. the have to stop producing oriculture for the world, stop building housing, or build more dams. they can't be division or

are not getting anything solved. russian collusion, there was no collusion. donald trump was chosen by god. believe it or not. prophesied that god was going to choosing. god is not a god of hate. he is a god of love. host: let's go to robert, calling from north carolina. caller: good morning. i would like to say donald trump did us a favor. he exposed the republican party for what they are. they are organized crime at the

highest level. thank you. host: let's go to richard from new york on the republican line. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. we hear you. caller: it seems like everybody today is responding to the call called before you a lady in from new york saying mr. mueller is a smart investigative person. i hope she is right. after two years, enough is enough. if he is so smart, why hasn't he found anything yet? does it carry on for two years? i think two years has been long enough for him to find it. host: next up, zeke faux will be here for his piece on the cash

advance industry and its impact on small businesses. payanon, we'll have tony of the baker institute to discuss the future of u.s.-mexico relations. stay with us. 8:00 p.m.,at conversations with retiring members of congress, republican representative lamar smith of texas, retiring after 32 years in the house, and michael capuano of massachusetts. >> you faced a contentious primary this year. did that surprise you? >> not at all. i have been telling people for a while that my constituents were angry. they are very angry. they are angry at the democratic party. they are extremely angry donald trump got elected and the way he has governed.

they forget we have a republican governor in one of the most democratic states in the country, and he is one of the most popular governors in the country. overwhelmingn victory. partisanship is not it. it is part of it, but it is how you do. my constituents are angry, upset, they want to change. smith that goes to washington. >> not everybody is going to be familiar with that jimmy smith movie. i shamelessly played up that with bumper stickers that said mr. smith to washington. it might be an idea to try to auction off a poster from the called jimmy

stewart, who was a republican, and he autographed the poster for me, which we auctioned off in my first or second fundraiser. i had a friend pay $1000 for that poster. was the biggest contribution we had gotten so far. he has the poster to this day. that brings back happy memories. >> lamar smith and michael capuano tonight on c-span. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we are back with our spotlight on magazines week where we will be talking with "ke fox about his article in

bloomberg businessweek" magazine. good morning. hi.t: host: what prompted you to write this, zeke? probably -- if you are a merchant you probably know about the cash advance industry. it has not gotten a lot of mainstream attention. we decided to investigate their lookcollection practices, at what happens to borrowers who take out these loans. host: start by telling us what happens -- what you were talking about is exactly what happens to them. tell us their story. nelle: so, doug and ja duncan had a real estate brokerage in the tampa area.

they needed to refinance some debt. they got an offer saying that they could get a term loan of may be as much as $1 million at a low rate. it sounded like what they needed. ory spoke with the salesman he said, before you get the term this you have to take out smaller loan. they said, all right, if that is what it takes. forloan turned out to be $30,000 or 40,000 dollars. it was quite expensive. they figured, let's do it. it was a step toward the long-term financing we need. they were making payments on the loan. the merchant cash advance is required daily payments. they withdraw straight from the bar work's inc. account. takenday, $800 was being banktheir business

account. but the interest rates -- these are not disclosed, but the interest rates can be a hundred percent or more. for the duncans, it seemed worth it because they had this bigger loan coming. got a call, janelle from a stranger who told her to watch out. he said there was a cash advance company called abc that was right now in the process of seizing her assets. she thought, what could this possibly be about? i took out this loan, but we are making payments every day. she called the cash advance company. they said everything was fine. she called a lawyer and he said, there is no way someone could seize your assets without you knowing. you would get a warning from a court. the worry about this. this sounds like a scare. -- don't worry about this. but everything the caller said came true.

the cash advance company had gone to court without her a case against her, and it did freeze the bank account, making it impossible to access the money they need to run their business, and had $50,000 i believe about from them. it was a total mystery. even once the bank accounts frozen, they still did not know what happened. they called the cash advance company. they said everything was fine. they called their bank, suntrust , and the bank would not tell them what was going on. it was a total mystery that left them in a really tight spot running their business. it turns out, as part of the application for the loan, the advance like many cash borrowers, and had signed this obscure legal contract called the concession of judgment. that is the key to how cash advance companies are able to be

so aggressive with their debt collection. me be clear. this came through a cash advance company. not a bank. not a credit union. the keywords words -- i hereby confess judgment. let me read from your article about what this is. this is an arcane legal document called the concession of judgment. loan, borrowers take a they have to sign a statement giving up the right to defend themselves if the bar were takes them to court. it's like an arbitration -- if themselves if they are taken to court your it's like an arbitration agreement, but the borrower always loses. armed with a confession, a lender can, without proof, accuse borrowers of not paying and legally seize their assets before they know what has happened. what protections do business

owners have? is there any protection? making these is people take out these loans. if you are a business owner, you should definitely be careful what you sign. but when the duncans got their loan, a game with a big stack of papers -- came with a big stack of papers. this was hard to understand. they thought, i am going to pay back this loan. what does it matter? it does not seem like something that could happen in america. but once you sign one of these, the lender can go to court without your knowledge, file this document, in which you admitted in advance that whatever the lender says is true. they automatically when the case, no hearing, nobody is told. armed with this judgment, they can have your bank account frozen.

so, we investigated new york state court records and we found that cash advance companies all over the country were using new york city courts to do this against borrowers, also all over and they had obtained judgments worth an estimated $1.5 billion against small businesses like these arrears, truckers, contractors, anything you can imagine. why new york? the cash advance companies around the nation are doing this. why are they bringing them to new york? thisr: this can -- guest: concession of judgment is an old idea. in the charles dickens novel "the pickwick papers" a landlady is tricked into signing one and inns up in debtor's prison.

banned themhave from the loans to businesses. the duncans are in florida. confessions are not valid there. you can't use them. but the cash advance companies sign documents that say, i give you permission to file this in new york. in new york, it's totally legal concessions against business owners. they picked new york because it is the best state for this that collection practice. are going to open up special lines this morning. if you are a small business owner going through something like this or you know someone going through something like this, small business owners, we want you to call in on (202) 748-8000. if you are a lender and you have used this practice, we want you

, andll in (202) 748-8001 if you are anyone else who does not fit into those categories, we still want to hear from you. and do not forget we are on facebook and twitter. what is the new york marshall's 's part this -- marshal of this? guest: they are sort of like sheriffs. they do not get paid by the city. they get a 5% fee for collecting debt. these are the guys who cut off your electricity if you do not pay your electricity bill.

but what we found was there were a couple of new york city mar takingho specialized in these judgments and sending them to banks, and they make them look superficial. it has a badge on it, a legal order from a new york city , and even if the bank is not in new york, not a new york city, the new york city serve these still orders and get the accounts frozen and get the business owner's money sent to the cash advance company. it has become a very lucrative business for some of these marsh als. 1.7out one of them had made $5 million profit, making him the highest-paid city official. host: by law, the new york city

authority is limited to the five boroughs. to a loophole allows them vastly extend their reach. they are allowed to demand out-of-state funds as long as the bank has an office in the city. why are the banks participating in this? they are not making these loans. why are they going along with these cash advance companies and handing over their customer's money? were a bigs say you bank like wells fargo. maybe this is a customer in texas. they have many offices in new york. they received the legal order from the marshal. all of this happens very quickly , within a day or two. the bank has what looks like and what is a legal order, and some banks take the time to really investigate and see -- does the hal have they mars

authority to make this order? but others treat apparently legal orders as if they were valid and turn over the money, leaving it to the are aware -- borrower to protest. bill froms go to northbrook, illinois, a small business owner. good morning. caller: hi. thisld like to extend conversation beyond small business loans. the idea of giving access to your bank account for the paying of magazine subscriptions, all kinds of stuff -- in the old days, we used to get an invoice. we would make out a check. now, if you pay by credit card wants, boom. it it -- if you pay by a credit card once, boom. it comes out permanently. and if you want to cancel,

everything becomes more complicated when you give someone a direct pipeline into your bank account. you never read much about all of the abuses of what can happen to once you have given direct access. concession to judgment is one type of access, but there are unbelievable other things that happen. host: what do you think about that, zeke? there are a lot of scams that depend on getting access to your bank account or your credit card billing information. i did in investigation earlier this year about people who pills, rainet pills, things like that on facebook. they say it is a free trial, but once you hand over your billing information, they will bill you month. a

definitely be careful before giving some company you are not familiar with your credit card or bank account information. to doris, calling from demott, arkansas. good morning. caller: good morning. good morning, how are y'all doing? privateling as a citizen. i participated in maybe one of those scams. i bought a car, pay for the car, and they turned around over a year and a half, said i still owed money, and pulled my car in. avenues to move forward? i went to the better business bureau, i went to the attorney general. , theseid, well companies, finance companies, lending agencies have begun to

run over everybody, and i wonder to do?e is anything i have run into several people who have the same complaints. , in this situation, what are your legal options? do you have any legal options? the business owners who have their accounts frozen, by the time you find out it has happened, you have already lost the case and you do not have access to your money. you can try to hire a lawyer to get this undone if you think there is a valid reason, but you're going to have to have oft lawyer to new york some which will be expensive, and we have found cases where people have done it and they lose. it's a tough thing. you have already signed away your rights when you apply for

the loan. the cash advance companies are totally unregulated. there's no one to complain to. so, to the caller with the car loan, you could at least, i complain to the consumer financial protection bureau, but if you are a business owner, consumer protections do not apply because this is a business loan. host: let's go to louise massachusetts. louise is a small business owner. hi, good morning. i wonder if the journalist would look at the underlying cause of this. dodd-frankank -- bill, i believe inadvertently, was crushing to community banks, as mine businesses such rely on community banks.

i know in the two years after dodd: frank went in, only two new community banks -- dodd-frank went in, only two new community banks applied. i remember reading that a few d-frank, thered was a meeting of whatever the association is -- i believe sheila bair was there. stunned thaton was the community bankers actually her when she spoke. she apparently had the sincere belief that the little banks would be happy about hammering the big banks. she had no understanding of the

ecology within the banking community where small banks depend on large banks for certain functionality that is not economic for them to do. you know, most business -- and another thing. i think it was 2016, there were more companies that died in the u.s. than were born. that's really an inversion of normal functionality. i thought, my god, most startups , they are not ivy league guys who drop out of school and become billionaires in eight years. they are joe and barbara who say, let's put a second mortgage on our house. banker knows our family. let's buy that laundromat down the street. i would really like to see an interesting journalistic exploration into this. i think it's a real underlying cause. i understand there has been some bank reform legislation that

came out of the house in the last year, but i don't know if it passed through the senate and i don't know what came of it, but i would like to encourage ike to look into that and will follow him to read it. thank you. tot: has anything been done regulate this issue that you wrote about, this cash advance, freezing assets issue? yes, so senators sherrod brown and marco rubio saw the articles, and they proposed a bill that would close this loophole and make it illegal to confessions to judgment against small business owners. if it gets traction. i was surprised to see

bipartisan support for this proposal. state, isew york anything happening? is anything happen on the legislative level? or are they ok with this? guest: i have heard rumbling that something might happen, but nothing has announced yet. mayor bill de blasio of new york city's said on a radio interview the other day that he thinks he will take another look at this new york city marshal program collect these debts. also new york's attorney general barbara underwood announced an investigation of the industry and released subpoenas to the largest firms. host: john, good morning. good morning. i'm an attorney in michigan. if people have not figured this out, never sign one of these confessions of judgment.

most lenders do not ask you to do this. in a regular contract, they will get a judgment if and only if they can prove a default on the contract. with the confession of judgment, the bank steps out entirely. the lender no longer has to approval, because you have admitted in a deus they are inside -- admitted in advance they are entitled to a judgment. what are the key things business owners or anyone needs to look for in a contract to make sure they do not sign something like this? legal language can be difficult. are there keywords to look for? caller: well, confessions to judgment. if you see that, never, ever signed that. if the lender is trying to get you to sign that, it's not a reputable lender. do not sign it. -- it is wellgs

worth it to pay a few hundred dollars to an attorney to review these documents before you sign them. is a greatink that point. i mean, business owners that take these are often in a tight spot, but taking out a big loan is really a big financial decision for your business and it's worth it to spend the time to read the documents carefully, get some advice from a lawyer or someone independent of the loan company. sam callinggo with on thek ridge, tennessee line for small business owners. sam, good morning. sam, are you there? caller: yes. host: we can hear you. closely related. it's not -- there is a company called buffalo and associates, and they sued me for advertising debt.

i was practicing law, to you will. the previous caller is right. if you are in a -- i was practicing law, too. if you are in a bind, you need the money. they got the judgment, never went to court. they would get the dismissal without prejudice, so they could still sue again, and they kept suing over and over and over. there's actually a book about it, called "the new york credit lobby." i recommend people read it. these collection practices are extremely predatory and aggressive and you simply cannot get out a bit. you pay $700, all of a sudden, you owe $200. pay the $200, you owe $300. it does not stop. i went through it for four or

five years. it hurt my credit quite a bit. say borrowersu rarely get these judgments overturned. why is it so hard to get these overturned in new york state? guest: by the time you know what is going on, there has already been a court case you do not know about and you lost it. you would have to start a new court case and sue the lender, often do notwers have the resources. it's also an obscure topic. it might be difficult to find a lawyer who has experience with this type of case. borrowers when have tried -- when borrowers have tried, courts rule against them, and say, hey, you took out the loan. you owe them money. this is your account. what's wrong with that? they just have not had much luck

fighting these judgments in court. host: real quickly, let's go back to the duncans one less time. did you ever find out who was the stranger that called them? someone's this got on conscience that tried to warn them. did you ever find out who that was? do they know who it was? i think -- i'm not sure they know who it is. this practice has spawned a business ofary credit counseling. these guys will watch the courts and they will see when the castle brands companies files one of these judgments and they will call the borrower and they will say, hey, this is happening. i can help you in exchange for a fee. some of these guys might give good advice. other ones might try to -- there are complaints that these credit counselors will charge the fee and not provide the service. it's important to be careful if

you deal with those guys, too. case, what duncans' the guy was -- what the guy said was true and they should have listened. i can't blame them for not listening to some random guy. but he did have good information. california -- to rohnert park, california? am i getting that right? yes, it doesn't matter. not really, it does have to do with the confession of judgment. mentioned the courts in new york. we had him incident -- we had an incident that the company here ,ocally was buying our products and before we even knew, they filed bankruptcy, and they wanted more product from us.

the next thing we knew, they filed bankruptcy in new york, and the new york bankruptcy court -- we got a lawyer, too -- the new york bankruptcy court, somehow it works out we ended up having to pay them for the product we sold them, and we had to sign a document saying the amount of money they still owed us we were giving up. we could not pursue trying to collect that anymore. my question is -- you mentioned this was the new york courts. why people go to new york and file these things? is it something going on in new protectw do you yourself from someone who buys your product, does not pay you, and decides to go to new york and do this? and you are out $20,000, $30,000

. we did get an attorney. we paid him, and he told us the same thing. he said, the him out it would cost us to fly out there and go to the courts, and he would have to go with us. it was not worth it. go ahead, zeke. what is to new york that is allowing this to happen? like athat sounds terrible situation. i am not sure what is special about new york in that case. for the cash at leo's companies, they like new york because -- for the cash advance companies, they like new york because it allows the confessions of judgment. they cash advance companies have their own perspective on this. which is, you know, we lent people money. we want to get it back. they would say, if one of them was here, if someone borrows money, they should always pay it back and the court system is too

slow for getting the money back in the normal way, so that is why they use this debt collection practice. go to walt calling from pittsburgh, pennsylvania. walter, good morning. he is on the lender side of this. caller: good morning. how are you? host: good. caller: i wonder if this is a bipartisan effort? this clown you have on their is sticking up for them -- what a joke you people are, honest to god. host: well, he does not seem to be a fan. [laughter] yes, it is a bipartisan effort, yes. we have sherrod brown, the

ranking democrat on the banking committee, and then marco rubio, the florida republican, presidential candidate. they both sponsored this bill to close this loophole. we will see if it gets any traction. host: well, i would like to zeke faux for being here. thanks for bringing this to us. guest: thanks for having me on. host: next, we will talk about u.s.-mexico relations with tony payan. so stay tuned. but on "newsmakers," a discussion on messaging on nafta 2.0. here's a preview of that that airs tomorrow at 10 a.m. and 6

p.m. [video clip] there is no question this administration handles things differently. we think there is a window here. we are encouraging the chinese and our own government, there are serious problems. there are solutions to these problems. let's take advantage of the resolution that has been created. let's come to a resolution. you think that they can come to a real agreement and the timetable they have laid out? >> i think we should have every expectation that they do. >> what role will the chamber have in advancing nafta 2.0 in a congress that is divided? >> we would like to see congress ratify the agreement, put it in

effect in many ways. it's an improvement on nafta. there are a few areas where we moved backward. on balance, it is a good agreement that deserves to be approved. there are steps the administration can take to get us on the pathway to securing the votes. the tariffs on steel and aluminum from canada and mexico. and from there, we will figure out what we need to do to get this across the finish line. trade agreement would include a provision that would strip the president of the power to unilaterally impose -- is that something the chair with support, taking away that executive discretion? >> we believe the authority to impose tariffs really does reside with congress. >> "washington journal"

continues. host: we are joined the last 30 by tonyof the show, payan. how are you? guest: good. host: let's talk about the new mexican president, andreas obrador.pez what we know about him? to attainhas tried the presidency several times. he finally succeeded this year. believes the current economic and political model is not working for mexico. the model of the economy and politics that mexico has

followed for the last 30 years, he thinks, has been the wrong model. that has been something that is deeply based on a very close partnership with the united states. great things on a range of subjects from the economy to security. we will say. he just started his term on december 1. dor,: president lopez obra what is his approval rating? what is it like for him in mexico right now? guest: we have to acknowledge he was elected by 53% of the vote in mexico. about 2000t since has gotten above 30%. he accomplished something that other presidents in mexico have

wanted for a long while. he has both houses of congress. in that sense, he has the support of the majority of voters, and he started his presidency with about an 80% approval rating. obviously, we are in the honeymoonperiod, -- d, which will last about three or four months. every mexican citizen will give him the benefit of the doubt. for now, he has broad support from a majority of mexicans. majorwhat was his campaign platform? what promises did he make to win the office? what can we expect? guest: three things he promised, i think him or are very important. one is to fight corruption. he knows most mexicans are very unhappy with the levels of indeed, in most international indices, mexico has lost on the corruption

score. of 180ctually now 135 nations or so. it is one of the most corrupt nations in the world today. economya surprise mourn that is really the 12 largest economy in the world. -- this is a surprise for an economy that is really the 12th largest economy the world. during the campaign he said, we will fight corruption. will you achieve lower levels of violence? yes, by fighting corruption. he is always going back to that one issue. however, there's a lot of disappointment on that because in his inaugural speech, the very first thing he said was he is not going to go and dig in the past and punish former politicians and functionaries who may having gauged

incorruption. instead, he's -- may have corruption. instead, he says, we will no longer be corrupt. my administration will not engage in corrupt acts. clearly he broke in important promise in the campaign. the second promise he made was to turn the economy away from neoliberalism. mexico's economic openness and even the north american free trade agreement economy, which has a very poor level of economic growth. he promised a 4% economic promised tothen he cancel a major airport.

he promised to cancel all kinds of expenditures and cash transfers, which, i think, in latin america have a poor record , and on and on. the final promise he made, that i think is very important is to lower the levels of violence and the levels of crime that mexico has seen in the last 12 years. i think he has promised to andte a new national guard to restructure the public safety and security apparatus, but i do not see yet what is exactly different than what other presidents have done that will really, truly prevent the new national guard from falling into the same old habits and the same forcesion other police have fallen into. those are the three things we will be watching for very closely. economic performance.

his relationship with corruption, and whether he can bring those levels of public safety and violence down. let me remind people they can join us in this conversation. republicans, you can call 202-748-8001, democrats, you can 202-748-8000, atependents, you can call us 202-748-8002. and we have a special line for outside of the united states.

202-748-8002. relationshipct the with mexico and the president donald trump to be? trump when president called for a renegotiation of the north american free trade agreement, which has resulted in , this new agreement, yet to be ratified by all three mr. lopeze bodies -- a critic of nafta. but he understood the umc a, whether it is nafta or the new usmca, whether it is nafta or a, it is important.

he has come around. i think on that, mr. trump and rador will get along. i expect their relationship to deepen and broaden, especially is a much more sophisticated and modernized agreement the nafta was peering in that sense, i think he will, agreement- modernized then nafta was. in that sense, i think he will come around. the immigrants coming from central america, that will be a difficult thing to negotiate. mr. trump believes -- believes the best way to deal with the caravan is to have them stay in mexico, take a number, and wait in line to ask for asylum and in

the meantime, push for building reinforcing the u.s.-mexico border. dor has a obra different idea. he is convinced the problem of central america is one of improvement. he would prefer to sit down with canada, the united states, and of course, his own administration to negotiate a grand marshall plan for central america. i do not think mr. trump will buy easily into that. he believes in reinforcing the u.s.-mexico border instead. my expectation is they will likely clash on this one issue. the other issue i think will , druge important is drugs trafficking and crime in mexico. obviously, we have a huge problem with the opioid crisis

in the united states, with drug consumption, and part of it is these organized criminal groups that bring drugs into the united states and distribute them in the united states do operate through mexico. that cooperation between the two on law enforcement related to drugs is fundamental to the united states. a. lópez obrador has different idea. he has promised to legalize marijuana in mexico and there is ineady a bill in congress mexico to legalize marijuana. he has promised to stand down confronting organized crime in mexico the way that former did.dent pena nieto i suspect that will not go well with u.s. law enforcement and the agencies that have a presence in mexico.

issues, immigration and the war on drugs, i expect a lot of disagreement between mexico city and washington dc -- washington, d.c. host: let's go to bradley calling from virginia. good morning. caller: good morning. you.talking to i'm a vietnam veteran and i am strongly in favor of the wall, shutting down the borders. i am not just talking the mexican border. we need to shut it all down. this country is going to the dogs because we have so much imports coming in here. the generaln, ohio, motors plant setting down, and whether he knew it or not, he made a mexico. and his plate is getting shut down. -- and his plant is getting shut down. that.'t even

a good company moved to vietnam. hey, i will not buy them. the american people need to wake up and start buying american products. need to sellpanies it there. don't bring it back here. sell it there. these foreign car companies coming in here, they are flooding the market with all foreign cars and everything else. 124 foreign cars in a car magazine for the new year. cars.s only 26 american that is pitiful. another thing that really sets me on fire is to see american ' plate on the back of a foreign car. my god, wake up, america. host: what is the position of

on new mexican president immigration coming in and out of the american border? if i: first of all, understand broadly his concerns -- one of the things we have not acknowledged in this country, although there are some publications talking about that, is the neoliberalism that mr. lópez obrador complains about in mexico and that has left so many people behind clearly let a lot of other people behind in the united states, and the government was not quick on its feet to compensate those people for thet their jobs kind of manufacturing that moved to mexico and other countries. in some respect, i fully empathize with what he said. i think i understand it. understandy mexicans it. many americans understand it. the question is, what is the

government doing that is completely different? i honestly do not think president trump truly understands the plight of these workers that are being displaced by these companies. i think almost every public policy move he has made is simply going to make it easier for these companies to do business in the united states and abroad, and for the very wealthy to get even wealthier. i do not see any particular policies that have been proposed that actually benefit the kind of people that bradley is talking about. i think there's an overall reaction in this country, by bradley and many other americans, but also in mexico, against neoliberalism. we are in the middle of a major transition that is leaving a lot of people behind, and the government ought to take responsibility for them. this is what put mr. trump empower. this is exactly what took lópez in mexico.power

-- this is what put mr. trump to power. to kyl ins go pennsylvania on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. of the the building wall, is that going to hurt relations between the government's? we are trying to protect our border, but still work with other countries. you know what i mean? will that cause a problem? we still want the wall, but we still want to work with them. do you know what i mean? guest: yes. that is a very good question. let me tell you what i think about the border wall. obviously, mr. trump was to spend anywhere between $25 billion and $40 billion on the wall. it's a major infrastructure project that will have a deep

impact on border communities and the environment. there's plenty of literature on that. we can all access it. what is the wall supposed to stop? it is supposed to stop drugs. mr. trump is said that. i do not think it will stop drug trafficking. all of us agree that 85% to 90% of illegal drugs -- cocaine and heroine, but also methamphetamines and other drugs -- come through points of entry. in cargo, in containers, and socles, platforms, on, right under the nose of our agents. a border wall will not stop drugs. they will come in very different ways -- we have seen titles. we have seen catapult. we have seen drones that fairy kilograms of cocaine and heroin

across the border. kilograms of cocaine and heroin across the border. even if you shoot it down, you do not know who is flying it. immigration from mexico is at a negative. the mexican population in the united states has flattened out and is decreasing. many mexicans are leaving the because it is almost impossible to live in this country without papers. it is impossible to work in this country without papers. it is more and more difficult. and it's more and more difficult to come into this country without papers. what is happening now is most america,on is central coming through mexico. the united states has to work with mexico to find a way to stem this immigration from central america, and these people are coming to the ports

of entry, presenting themselves to border agents, and asking for asylum. something they have the right to underer american law and international law. a wall is not going to stop them. they will suddenly come to the lord of entry and say, "i'm asking for asylum -- the port of entry and say "i'm asking for it's a very expensive project and it will not do the things that mr. trump has said. it will be a waste of taxpayer money and certainly cause friction with mexico. mexico has 700 miles of border fence with a re-fortified border, a heavily-marital allies border.ly-militarized the to do things the wall is supposed to stop, i think, will be solved by this great wall

president trump wants to build. host: let's go to our caller from ohio on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. i just want to say, it is reported that mr. trump talks about mexicans the way that mr. hiller talk about jews. say somethingto about that. that is important. i do not think mr. lópez obrador is in anyway anti-american. he felt he had to respond to some of the statements mr. trump has made about mexico and mexicans. but if you look at mr. lópez nationalism, and he is a nationalist, he is more focused on mexico. he is, what i would call, and inward looking nationalist. inward looking

nationalist. i do not think he is a fundamentally anti-american president and he is not fundamentally anti-trump. to michigan.o brian, good morning. caller: yeah, hui. i. -- yeah, hi. most americans have not studied up on it. i think they will find they do not want to be so-called globalists. sovereignll remain a nation. i bet we will go with the border. you talk about the border will do this or it will cost too much money. that is false. once you do put up a border, that will allow us to move the resources around properly, manpower, too. when you put out figures like by crossing of the border

mexicans or central americans has gone down. when you compare numbers, you have to compare it to the overall, and overall, we have had a problem for decades, sir, and we are going to solve that problem. harsh's not about being with mexico. i might look at mexico's gdp. ,ou have a time of potential just as we do, but the deal of , we are $21 trillion in debt, and overall, our figures , net, $115ts net .illion a year u.s. taxpayers are wasting their money on people that do not belong here. i will close. i have traveled to 26 different countries a my life. i would never dream -- and i share a border with canada. if i want to go out fishing, if i go out fishing on lake huron,

i would never go more than 50 miles because then i would be in canada. the reason i would not do that -- i am not worried about the canadians putting them in jail. it's out of respect, sir. it's called respect. we have a border. we are not going to invade mexico. from not want people mexico or central america, even canada -- we do not want them coming on our side. it's not about being hateful. we are a sovereign nation, which in a competition throughout the isld, what we want to be what reagan said, the shining city on a hill so other countries will want to be more like us in their own way. you have to use your resources. why do you look down on yourself and central america? potential tove the

do these things. you have to try harder. you have to get rid of your corruption. the united states has to do things, too. to be is a failure for us $21 trillion in debt. host: how would you like to respond to that, tony? guest: this is a complex commentary. it of easley involves a lot of different issue -- it obviously involves a lot of different issues. one thing that strikes me. we as americans are torn. we know we want the united states to be a beacon of light for the world. we want to show leadership. we want to invest in our leadership around the world. and yet, we do not want to pay for it. paying for it means we have to invest in developing other countries and trying to marshall that will be developed in

other parts of the world. building walls and refusing to interact with other countries in a way that will show our leadership will only create vacuums around the world that will be filled by other countries, i.e. russia and china. so, we are torn. there is a lot of tension and the comments made by the caller. i fully understand that. to set our we have priorities straight, both at home and abroad, and we have not yet done this work. let's go to carlos on the democratic line. good morning. yes.r: i would like to comment on this border wall and on the fence -- what do they call it? and i have been -- i'm a veteran

, for years in the veteran. see themrts me to build a wall. after all i served in the vietnam conflict. understand why these ,eople are leaving honduras these poverty-stricken countries, because they want to seek a better life here. and do you blame them? guest: well, no. obviously, america is made up with people that came from italy and poland and russia and germany and many other different countries, and mexico, too. we have to remember that mexican immigration is decades long. it goes back to the 1930's at least. people came tof

this country looking for a better life. maybe in the future it will be people from the middle east or south asia or africa. what we do need is rational immigration policy. we have not changed our immigration policy for a very long time, since the 1960's and then the mid-1980's. we need to look again at immigration and we can look at ways where we can get the workers what they need. i can tell you one thing. on several committees. one of them here in houston. one of them is the immigration .ubcommittee i can tell you 25% of our foreign-born. many professors, many doctors, many nurses, many workers in the service industry and the hospitality industry and the foreigntion injury are -- industries are foreigners,

many of them are undocumented certainly in the service industry and the construction industry. we know we need that labor. we know native americans -- by that, i do not mean the indian native americans, but by us, people who live in this country who arewho are citizens are notg children. we have a dynamic economy that needs these workers. we are not allowing for an immigration system that would get these workers here and perhaps get them home after they work and make some money. we need to look at the immigration system. i do not think there is any will.cal we do need to look at immigration policy and have a much more rational policy than simply building a wall. that will not take care of the signs of need that our own economy has. the: we would like to thank

mexico center director at wright university's baker institute. with thank you for being us. i would like to thank our viewers and colors that were -- and callers that were with us for "washington journal." stick around for george papadopoulos' first interview after leaving jail. once again, see you tomorrow morning. ♪ >> coming up on c-span, senate majority leader mitch mcconnell looks at the outcome of the midterm elections. former florida governor jeb bush reflects on the life and legacy of his father, george h.w. bush. a home healthw

care costs can be reduced in the united states. the "wall street journal" held its annual ceo forum in washington, d.c. we will hear from mitch mcconnell reflecting on the outcome of the election and talking about s.dicial nomination >> thank you for being here. you know, we had an election. you might have heard. there might have been a blue wave. you're going to tell me because you guys picked up 40 seats in the house, took control, but you lost ground in the senate. you won some important governors' races. so donna brazile, was it a blue wave and perhaps more important, were those pro-democratic voters or anti-trump voters that we saw out there? >> well, thank you so much. it's good to be in the room where all my subscription money goes. [laughter]