ce in the world springs from every new generation of immigrants that come to our country and if we fail to recognize that, we will fail to be preeminent in the world. we cannot close the door he said. reagan'sd see ronald last speech. that's who we are as a country. our values are not reflected in what's happening on the border. could do more of the same of what is happening at the border. >> thank you very much. you want to know when you can go home, i know. >> thank you all. >> we will see what they come back with. >> a briefing is scheduled to get underway in a few minutes at 1:30 p.m. eastern time and we will take you there live when it

starts here on c-span. more live coverage will wilson center later with a look at yemen and possible peace talks and its civil war. intervention by saudi arabia, iran and the uae and the famine and disease in yemen over recent years. we will have that live at 2:30 p.m. eastern and the french meeting onhosting a nato and their impact on peace and we will hear from the french ambassador to the u.s. live at 6:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. you can watch online at www.c-span.org or use the free c-span radio app. severalruns out for federal agencies friday at midnight unless congress passes legislation. no agreement among the house, senate, and white house and one of the issues is president trump's request for funding a border wall between the u.s. and mexico. the housemates tomorrow for legislative work with those scheduled in the evening. the senate in session today working on criminal justice reform and you can watch the

house live here on c-span and the senate live on c-span two. host: our next guest leaves the office of the presidency has grown too big and it is no longer what the founding fathers envisioned. will's amazing what people take for granted. all of our politics. the press conferences and the pageantry. it all rests on a simple horrible truth. groominge's a colossus your country. a flatly unconstitutional viciously anti-democratic monstrosity. i'm referring of course to the presidency. >> they are like crazed people. i like that. rob montz is former

director of libertarian reason magazine. take us back to the constitution. what the founding fathers originally envisioned for the office of the presidency. guest: if people want to watch the full documentary they can just go to reality show president.com. it's run by youtube channel they should really check out. will findst people the original conception of the presidency wholly unrecognizable. it was purposely an extraordinarily modest office which shouldn't have come as a surprise given that the founding authors -- fathers had just shaken off a monarchy. they have seen what happens when you concentrate power in an individual office in a way that can be exploited. when they created the executive they specifically very tightly limited powers.

the president supposed to execute the laws that are passed by congress. --has some basic hearing boring bureaucratic rules to -- roles. acting as a correction against the populist passions. if congress goes wild the president can stem those. but that's it. how long did that vision for the office last? guest: about 150 years. obviously there's some presence that strained against it. abraham lincoln suspends habeas corpus over the course of the civil war. in almost every instance when the president exceeds his powers those limits very quickly step back into place. as i talk about in the documentary, the person who really of shoes and a profound and fundamental transformation is fdr. host: how? guest: it's basically the combination of and public trauma through world war ii and the

great depression. charming immensely aristocratic demeanor. high emotional intelligence. and the technological component can't be downplayed. the invention of the radio and the ability to have a president that can directly connect with every individual voter. chats, heside develops an extraordinarily strong unprecedented and intimate emotional connection with individual voters. host: and you think that's dangerous. guest: it was very promptly proven to be dangerous.

trying to lean an act -- it was prescient of certain diagnoses in america. host: did you have these concerns in the obama presidency? guest: absolutely come i think it had profound symbolic importance that we elected a black person president. it was also clear rhetoric surrounding the office exceeded that accomplishment. it was a kind of messianic tone and intoxicating iconography. you can look at all the advertisements particularly during the 2012 election campaign and it's all about how no president has faced such a challenging time and no man except for barack obama is well equipped to handle them. host: do you think most americans are ok with the current relationship between the president and the public in this emotional connection you are talking about?

guest: i thought so given that they keep electing these guys to office but given the response of the documentary, i think i put my finger on something that has been bothering people in a nebulous way. they kind of knew something was wrong but did not know what it was. what i'm trying to do is articulate that. the: let's talk more about response but let's allow our viewers to respond, teresa is up first from dandridge, tennessee come republican, go ahead. mornin, trump is exactly what we wanted. we knew everything about trump when we voted for him. we knew about the payoffs and we knew he wasn't perfect but trump is exactly what we wanted and he has exceeded our expectations. up for obamaered so much and obama was so fake

and corrupt and did things in the dark. at least we know what trump is. we know what he is and he loves this country and is doing everything for this country and that's why they are out to destroy him. we still guest: support him. i think the question serves as evidence or my point. trumps it -- there are voters that knew he was a bit of a council. why did they excuse it? they excuse to because they in the most vague sense, and he would make america means. many people were willing to excuse a because they thought he would turbocharge the economy and make them rich. again, that's part and parcel of this cult of the presidency which is the notion that the the chiefas -- is executive officer of the american economy and that trump has individual responsibility for the direction of an

extraordinarily complicated multi-trillion dollar american economy. notion of but this needing to attribute economic who holdce to the guy that position in the white house, it's a common assumption and i think a lot of people are willing to excuse what he is because they expected him to make it rain. i think she is actually right about the media giving a pass to , absolutely. there is one example, donald trump routinely calls the media the enemy of the people. that's not good. that's corrosive rhetoric. however, barack obama initiated more espionage act prosecution against the press than all of his predators -- all of his predecessors combined. how often was that covered in the media? how often was barack obama

portrayed as someone who was a champion for journalistic freedoms while his lawyers were rapidly going after the new york times forgetting leaked documents. the point is, presidents can get away with that abuse and that expansive executive power because they are able to whichate this mystique incapacitates people's critical faculties. she is right on that point. host: north carolina next, democrat. caller: what a great topic and forgive me if i babble on the allow me to get my point out. i am a senior citizen and i appreciate this topic. he has said is absolutely true. if you listen closely, you understand what he is saying. this is where i get from you is that we the people are looking for a savior, somebody to fix it, somebody to make it right, somebody to make us feel better. for me in a nutshell, donald

trump is not my savior. he is just someone who was put in office to supposedly run domestic and foreign affairs and keep the balance of power in place where we don't go to nuclear war. we live in a frightened society, people are afraid and instead of looking to a savior, they are looking to donald trump to fix it and i'm sorry, it's wrong. the young lady that spoke before -- i didn't vote for donald trump. i voted for someone i thought had the wherewithal, the understanding of government, the understanding of foreign affairs and how things work in the world . unfortunately, donald trump does thosessess characteristics and was all over the place and is not listening to anyone but his inner man. i agree with the gentleman when he said donald trump is not a i willbut you know what,

say what you need to say for me to just for you to be on my side. guest: will put. -- well put. this entire notion that every four years, our job is to make sure we elect the right alpha male superhero savior to solve the country's problems is a fundamentally undemocratic action. that's not what democracy is. the that's like a soft monarchy. what we are voluntarily doing is outsourcing democratic agencies when in fact what democracy is is every single day, doing the grubby, sometimes boring, ofetimes frustrating work staying informed about issues and holding all elected officials accountable. it means being informed about your local city council welligns which if you are informed about that and have

strong opinions, it's probably not going to get you much social media affirmation but that democracy is. would you have been on this issue had hillary clinton been elected president? guest: i think i would have been equally disgusted. for the democrats, they are equally enthusiastic about expanding executive power which i know hillary clinton would have been but they don't talk about it openly. any merits,ump has one of them is he is forcing us to confront precisely what it is we have said without any of the niceties. without him being charming at some georgetown cocktail party. host: munro, louisiana, independent, good morning. caller: this is kind of cool. you have a republican, a democrat, and an independent just dovetailing and digging everything you're saying. andi'm 61 concern

these foreign policies are so complex that i'm ready for trump to do something that really the reality tv that's maybe have situation where he uses his authoritarian powers to lawi'm calling for martial -- for martial law because the financial situation is complex in the educational situation is so complex and the news media so deep status so complex and hollywood narratives are against me that i think we pe to have ar conversation aboutri what we believe and why we believe thatod and where we have come from and where we are now and where we want to go in the future and how we might get there. i think there are millions of us who would start a civil defense movement from the bottom-up of

the military would help from the top down to say yeah, we really want a fair expression. given the way that trump talks about the office and talks i am american democracy, sympathetic to the worry and he would engage in some sort of tyrannical activity. is thatic twist to this trump at least rhetorically is the pure protest extension of trends that have been building this office for 100 years. as far as his use of the formal powers of the office, he is actually one of the least active presence we have had probably fdr. before there is a lot of big flashy executive orders like the muslim trouble bound that gobble up attention. as far as the rate of the use of and throughders shuffling through legislation through congress, trump is extraordinarily inactive.

ourthings he likes to do the image making. it loves holding big rallies, he loves the confrontational press conferences, it lets sending the viral tweets. hard,ly doing the concrete work of policymaking is either of no interest to him or he and his team are incompetent at it. that actually fits with this lease is in the sense that now is have a president who almost entirely rhetorical come almost entirely about the kind of nihilistic entertainment. it's completely detached from any hard-core policymaking. it's all about feeding this 24 hour, vicious, nihilistic new cycle which he is excellent at. host: how much of the president's team is devoted to image management and is that different than previous white house teams? guest: as i point out in the article, about 1/3 of the white

house staff is exclusively devoted to image management and that has held constant for 60 years. the image that they specifically craft often times has extraordinary little to do with the actual hard-core policy accomplishments of the guy who hold that office. host: democrat next, good morning. caller: a quick question -- the policymaking that you are things like the dakota pipeline and the environmental impact that trump anreversing, is that not exhaust? does the executive power really have the power to override the courts? doesn't seem that office guest: byolds that the constitution. i can't speak on those specific issues but as we have seen with deferred action da for the

ruling, that wasca imposed fairly unconstitutionally by the obama administration to provide temporary legal status to kids brought here by illegal immigrants. at the time, everyone said the white house definitely cannot order this unilaterally. very quickly, once trump took office, we learn the dangers of having the white house make policy in unilateral ways were the president immediately rescinds that order. what should get is a lot of policy instability because these difficult decisions are not running through the appropriate deliberative branches. instead, they are happening willy-nilly in unconstitutional ways by whomever is occupying the office. the instability has a lot of negative effects. obviously, president trump has quite a bit of power at the

point i am making is that often will acts as if -- he complain about certain agencies or departments as if he's not the guy that runs them. he doesn't seem to be that interested in the exercise of formal power which maybe is cold comfort for people who think he will usher in an authoritarian dystopia. the dystopia would require some legislation but he is not interested in that. he was sold as a savvy mixhe waf border wall security and economic populism. the economic populism dissolved on contact as soon as he takes the office of the white house. he outsources all the decisions to standard issue reaganomics, .entric republican philosophy and what does that

say about how he is committed to policy outcomes? host: we have about five minutes left, nebraska, republican go ahead. caller: i agree with a lot you have said. there is no doubt it's been a chaotic two years. however, to say that he has not gotten a lot of things accomplished, that's just not correct. that's inaccurate. what i would like to know from your interview is the press. before trump, we all know that the press was biased in one form or fashion write down the line and the only one we had on the right was fox. there's no question now is in --body's mind i don't think this point in history has told us that our press is crooked, that they will give us whatever want.and there is no doubt in anyone's mind and i don't know that's

ever will go back any other way than the way it is now. i would take issue with the categorization of fox news as the only independent unbiased news operation in this country. talking about the press as crooked i think it sat in the that theyint which is will pretend as if they are critical of the president but i think they love that he is constantly feeding them things to put on their stations. iny are equally complicit this constant, suffocating churn or if you're even slightly engaged, you cannot go more than six hours without hearing about president trump. that's because donald trump knows how to play the news cycle and because the vast majority of complex and- media

washington, d.c. is more than happy to play along with that came because it drives clicks and views. sense, it is a corrupted industry. and what it often means is that issues of genuine importance go wholly ignored because they are not titillating. i host: think they're cooking in that way. in terms of the power of the office of the presidency and what the founders envisioned, do you think this is a one-way street? does it ever go back in the direction? my not really joke answer is the only solution is for a constitutional amendment to sell it -- just -- to branch ofa fourth government like a royal family like the united kingdom where you have a queen and you have her family who are just the depository for all of the people's hopes and dreams. they served as necessary symbolic purpose but they basically have no formal powers government.

i have begun to see the merits of such a system. kanyeappy to nominate west and kim kardashian to occupy that the we can have a national ballot to see who it is. it's a joke but not really a joke. i think the realistic answer to your question about whether this is a one-way street unfortunately is yes. that it'sn the sense not as of democrats and learn from the last two years that maybe we have been investing too much in this office th and thate the american people is that we will drain it of importance. thinks they need to get their own superhero in office to counteract the other. it's the same heroes and villains. host: cleveland, tennessee, republican, go ahead. donald trump was trying

to pull us back from what europe in their style of government and he is totally against that. job.nk he's doing a good the reason i like donald trump is because he sounds just like me. and i don't want any bull throat like the clintons would do. that's why a like donald trump. someone who is so viciously opposed to socialism, donald trump is quite attracted to socialistic domestic policies. dollarses billions of of tariffs sunshine these products on the way he decides to cleverly counteract the profound economic cost of those dumb trade policies is to read billions of dollars of subsidies for the affected parties in america.

under already happened his administration that's straight up economic engineering. that's socialism without the branding. fact that caller thanks that trump is some libertarian hero is proof positive of my point. you get so attracted to the symbolics that you don't actually asked the critical questions about concrete policy achievements. of trump asrector destiny and why the presidency was inevitable. guest: people should check it out at reality show aesident.com and it runs on youtube channel. host: thank you so much. the budget and associations -- an appropriations reporter joins us now ahead of the midnight deadline for a deal that needs to come together before a government shutdown.

what's the latest on the state of the negotiations and who's doing the negotiating? to be a staring contest right now between senate democrats, house democrats and the white house. we know they have been in conversations for months now about how to address border wall funding and whether they will do one $6 billion for somewhere between that and $5 billion. right now, it seems we are in the final days heading into that deadline. then there is a little bit of confusion about who was supposed to be talking to whom and when they may getting together with staff. senator schumer said that republicans are nowhere to be found where republicans are saying it's up to senate democrats and the white house to negotiate. it seems like there might be a lot of cross wires right now. actually doing the negotiating? is the staff talking to staff? other telephone calls happening in the background? what's happening behind closed doors. many issues are

being negotiated that are not the border wall. the staff talks continue between republicans and democrats in the house and senate. it's very much in the weeds. thear as whether or not 2020 census will have a citizenship question. isseems like the border wall just congressional leadership and the white house at this point in time. host: the house does not come in until wednesday. anything in the timing is terms -- as far as terms of the negotiations? guest: congressional leadership is around and president trump is in town for the people who need to be here for these conversations are here. you don't necessarily need rank-and-file members or may not be on the appropriations committee in town going to holiday parties and possibly getting up to mischief. host: what about the timing?

is there enough time for a deal to come together? can i get it signed by the president friday? depends, if you want all seven of these final spending bills to get rid out by the committees to make sure the language is correct and there is no typos that would cause issues, you need a couple of days to do that. members generally want to be able to have their staff recruited dental three through the bill and be brief so we're getting into the final hours. a tentativesee agreement by wednesday afternoon or wednesday evening, we're looking at either a very quick continuing resolution, a temporary funding extension, or partial government shutdown. any reliability that president trump would sign a temporary funding bill? this is one of the biggest problems lawmakers are facing. president trump is an

uncertainty. they don't know what he may agree to it they sent him a temporary spending bill. if he vetoed the resolution, mitch mcconnell and speaker ryan in a tough position of whether or not they conceive they can get enough votes to override a veto and keep the government open or if they let the shutdown begin. host: what is your sense and talking to republicans about their willingness to do that? .uest: i'd don't think anyone wants to discuss it everyone is talking around the question because it's politically divisive and problematic. host: with us until the bottom of the hour and we are talking about the shutdown showdown friday at midnight. the white house and congress has until them to come up with a spending bill. you can join us in this segment at the usual phone lines.

take us back to the white house meeting last week with chuck schumer and nancy pelosi and the president and what that meeting did to the state of negotiations on this funding bill. guest: i haven't gotten a good sense of whether that meeting helped or hurt them. trump and the democratic leaders needed to show their bases that they were going to fight for their key priorities. for president trump, that is a border wall and that's something he promised on the campaign trail but he said at the time that mexico would pay for it. schumer and pelosi have a lot of members of phyllis money could be betterfor president trump, ta border wall and that's something he spent on other programs throughout. i think the meeting helped a little bit to get everyone out there and show their respective parties that they were fighting for in terms of actually working through negotiations, i don't think it helped us at all. that what both sides were planning to do in that

meeting? did they think we could take care of this funding situation? guest: i think there was hope from schumer and pelosi that they could get a real negotiation going and get some type of handshake agreement. staff washite house brought income i think they realized it was going to be more of a political reality show than a serious negotiation. host: did both sides know that that would happen? guest: i don't know. if there was an agreement if the cameras host: should have been in the room. we talked about a partial shutdown. departments are still awaiting funding for 2019, the department of agriculture, department justice, department of homeland security, department of interior and department state and department of transportation and department of housing and urban development and several smaller agencies. that's why it's a partial shutdown.

funding through the year and who's not worried about the shutdown? are mostlybig issues funded, department of defense, department of labor, health and human services, education, the army corps of engineers, energy projects, the entire legislative branch which is a big one to remember, congress and the staff won't the impact that there is a shutdown. what does a shutdown look like from your perspective? these agencies are starting to come up with shutdown plan so can you paint a picture? it will be department by department and agency by agency because there are exempt and nonexempt employees. anyone exempt needs to report to work but they may not get paid on time depending on the length of the shutdown. the department of homeland security roughly 90% of the staff reports to work. depending on the length of the shutdown, you'll still have tsa doing airport screening. the airports won't shut down for

the holidays. one thing we would expect is when -- if there is a shutdown and some type of legislation to reopen those departments, there's almost always a provision for back pay. for everyone. host: has that ever not happened? so, not don't believe reporting ofome of the this, hundreds of thousands of employees impacted would be exemptedd essential, from the shut down. you named a few. the fbi, the atf and others. we are talking about this deadline that is quickly approaching, midnight thursday. theodore is up first from massachusetts. what is on your mind? caller: yes, hello. i am just making a comment about

building a wall has never accomplished anyway way of curtailing invasion. ask china. go tor thing is, if you dr. trump with a serious condition, he will put a band-aid on it and say, that will do for now, when the actual problem is never, ever adjust. that is that central america as a whole needs america to help it out of the situation that causes them to come to this country in the first place. that is my comments. thank you very much for accepting me. host: one of the agencies impacted by the shutdown, the state department, is on that list. that is the department that would deal with these relations issues. can you talk through that? guest: a lot of state department staff are exempt. they will continue to work. one of the interesting points

brought up-- caller that is important is this border security versus border wall debates. this is a real debate and several republicans do not necessarily think you need a physical structure throughout the entire u.s.-mexico border. there is a lot of discussion of technology and other aspects that are not a physical barrier that could enhance border security. host: you talk about the history of funding for a physical barrier and how much agreement there has been in the past before we got to this point and the marker that president trump has laid down. what president trump signed into law had roughly $3.7 billion. roughly $25hat -- billion. they said, you cannot get that all done in one fiscal year.

i think we're getting to a point see many more to miles than he could get with the $1.6 billion in the senate legislation, which would be roughly 55 miles in the rio grande valley. or a can keep that $1.3 billion level throughout fiscal 2019. host: good morning. go ahead, mary. caller: my question is, the federal retirees, do they get their checks next month? retiree paychecks? guest: i believe so, yes. medicare, medicaid, those are mandatory, on autopilot. that definitely will not be impacted by this. host: that is a question we got yesterday. paula in d.c., a democrat. good morning. caller: good morning.

i am an hr director at a federal agency. while beings that involved in several shutdowns over the past few years with the democratic and republicans -- republican administrations, it really is a situation where not only is it disruptive, but it is a waste of federal employees' because -- it is not a waste, but a poor use of a rampingemployee's time, up to the shutdown that either occurs or does not occur, occurs for a day. being in human resources, it is work,r, major upset to my my daily job, in order to prepare for a shutdown.

that is just my comment and my two cents. host: before you go, our human resources staffers at your agency, are you considered exempted, nonessential? caller: we are considered nonessential. i work for a small agency. my role is to come in if there is a shutdown to make sure there is an orderly shutdown conducted. am to be on call if necessary, to return to work if needed, to bring more people back. host: when you return to work, how easy is it to pick up where you were after a shutdown? depends on thely agency. the agency where i am now,