and then later, towards town university talks about china's global power. as always, we will take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. "washington journal" is next. host: good morning, it is saturday, january 19, 2019 as the government shutdown enters its fifth week, day 29. the president will make a major announcement of what he calls a humanitarian crisis on the southern border at 3:00 p.m. eastern. word of a breakthrough on border wall funding. we will get to those stories any moment but we start "washington journal" asking you about the politics in your state, what are the major policy and political issues facing your state where you live?

here is how to join the conversation and tell us about your state, living in the stern and central time zone, the number is 202-748-8000. mountain and pacific time zone, that number is 202-748-8001. we welcome your comments as well andwitter @cspanwj facebook.com/c-span is where you post your thoughts on policies and political issues facing your state. every year we covered dozens of state of the state speeches, we have covered a number of an are growth speeches -- inaugural speeches so far. first, the government shutdown and border wall funding, the new york times front page this morning, house democrats added more than $1 billion in border related spending to a package of funding bills that would reopen most of the government, even as president trump said he would have a major announcement on

saturday about the border and the shutdown stalemate appeared they write the actions were the first signs of indications over movement of the shutdown after a we governor shumlin harsh words between nancy pelosi and donald trump, the conflict culminating responding toent nancy pelosi -- they say the proposal to include more spending on border measures is scheduled for a vote next week, according to two senior democratic officials, the plan reflects a shift in strategy by congressional democrats who have maintained they would not give the president a counter proposal until he drops his insistence on a wall and signs to reopen the -- signs legislation to reopen the government. that is from the "new york times." fromdent trump will speak

the white house this afternoon at 3:00 eastern and we will have it live. he announced it yesterday afternoon and last night sent this video through twitter with further thoughts on border security. everybody knows our southern border is a humanitarian crisis. it is also a national security crisis. things are happening there and had been happening for many years, decades, but it only gets worse with time because a lot of people want to come into our country and a lot of people we do not want. we have criminals, gang members, human traffickers, drug smugglers, we do not want them in our country. take the politics out of it, let's get to work and make a deal. we sit down, a lot of democrats agree with me, they told me so, but they are afraid to say it. we have to secure our southern border, if we do not, we are a sad and foolish lot.

host: that is president trump through twitter last night. we will get to more on the border wall story and the presidents comments this afternoon. , thee program continues first hour asking you about the politics in your state, what major political and policy issues facing your state? 202-748-8000 the number to call in the eastern and central time zones. 202-748-8001, mountain and pacific. the wall street journal this morning writes about the state of kansas, the new governor is looking to shift course, the governor set out to make good on her promise to higher state workers and expand government services without raising taxes. she was sworn in on monday and she laid out a budget proposal laid out how she wants to spend part of their projected $900 million surplus at the end of

the fiscal year. the big items on her agenda are expanding medicaid, boosting school funding and hiring more workers at their child welfare department, the plan projects $686 million would remain in state coffers at the end of the fiscal year. read more about that in the wall street journal. about state issues facing your state, we will get your calls momentarily but first, what the governor of virginia said talking about criminal justice reform and legalizing marijuana. safe want to keep people but we should not use viable costlyment time in our prison space on laws that do not enhance public safety. i am proposing we decriminalize simple possession of marijuana. [applause]

current law imposes a maximum 30 days in jail for a first offense of marijuana possession, making simple possession a civil penalty will ease overcrowding in our jails and prisons, and free up our law enforcement and court resources for offenses that are a true threat to public safety. moving forward on this front will have the same significance as our work together to increase the felony larceny, one mistake will not define virginie ends for the rest of their lives -- virginians for the rest of their lives. [applause] continue our progress on

criminal justice reform by ending the practice of suspending drivers licenses over failure to pay court costs and fees. [applause] and by ending the suspension of licenses for non-driving offenses. when we take away people's drivers licenses, we make it harder for them to get to work and thus make it even more difficult for them to pay their court costs. we should not be punishing people for being poor. [applause]

these simple reforms to our criminal justice system will make our commonwealth a more fair and just place without threatening the safety of our communities. host: that's the general state of the state coverage available at c-span.org, asking you the state of politics in your state, major issues. pennsylvania, philadelphia, very, -- barry, go ahead. caller: i live in a blues state buffalo we talk about -- a blue state, but we talk about the impeachment process for this criminal in 1600 pennsylvania avenue. .t is ridiculous i have never seen my country in shambles like it is.

a medicare provider. it is terrible. my friend, a contractor, he has been laid off. yes, we are talking about impeachment. illinois, the state of politics in your state, go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my call and happy new year to you and everybody is c-span, you are doing an amazing job. last year was more off the charts. thank you again. i am from illinois. by state has been railroaded democrats for my whole life if not longer. , itave a governor in office seems like he wants to do a lot of good things like legalizing manyputting taxes on how miles you drive on your car, and

everything else that seems great for the democrat party in illinois. but tax revenue will not get us out of this mess in illinois. of thel not get us out mess in illinois and democrats will not either because look at chicago, they have ran that city for how long but i am sorry, i am from the metro east of st. louis, they have not had a republican mayor in st. louis since 1949 when my grandmother was five. there is correlation. host: who is the former republican governor, the name of your new democrat governor in illinois? caller: former was bruce rauner any new governor is j b pritzker. j b pritzker was talking with rob mccoy which -- rob blag ovavich about the senate seat. we have a literal criminal in springfield.

i hope people in chicago are watching this, if you are from chicago, you have ruined the state. host: we cover the speech by jv pritzker. also, the speech by governor cuomo in new york and we hear from william and walcott, new york. caller: how are you doing? i wanted to bring up a subject nobody has talked about. we live in upstate new york. it is gun control. they want to take away our guns. we do a lot of hunting. longutomatic weapons, as as there is no border control, people can rush over here. we have a newscaster like cnn was telling the whole world about "her's. -- about open borders. people will figure out a way to come over here. host: go back to the first

issue, gun control, do you hear something specific from governor cuomo on what they want to do in new york in terms of gun control? caller: i have not heard the latest on gun control but i know billions of people want to do away with our guns. england does not have guns. they would like to see that done here. host: join the conversation, thank you come on twitter, @cspanwj. what is the state of politics in your state, the major policy and political issues facing your state? jodey tweet, arkansas, just will raised minimum wage and a state senator said we did not know what we are voting for and he wants to nullify it. new jersey, moving forward with a progressive governor after

eight years of stagnation with chris christie, he says north carolina is going 3.6% unemployment rate with income taxes going down. a democratic governor and republican legislature. nothing will happen, all is well in the tar heel state. florida has been decimated by former governor rick scott and his cronies, the environment was sold out to moneyed interests and overdevelopment is destroying wildlife. citizens are suffering from a rigged economic system. send us your's. -- send us your thoughts. carol in texas. caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call. thank you for c-span. basically, what is going on in texas, republicans had a scare in the 2018 midterm elections where they used to win all their elections by tremendous margins and now they barely won.

two years ago, they were working on which bathroom we went to the bathroom in. that is what they were working on. now they will work on real issues like school funding, big problems we have in our state is our mortality rate in birth for women come in children, that of a third world country. we have the highest rate of noninsured children in america. even though we are one of the most wealthy states. another problem is, jeff sessions, when he was attorney general, under the current president trump, for the last two years, they made border security so much worse because they started separating children from their parents on the border. leadership, under jeff sessions, of our border patrol and everything, has made

a crisis on the border, they created it. we have problems with children coming in but they made it worse because they separated them. you have organizations like southwest key under investigation because they have had children die in their care. there has been a lot of problems. it is though the democrats were in charge of them -- everything and they had the congress and the house, the white house, everything, for two and they could16 have built their border wall then but they did not do it and now suddenly they created a crisis on the border. they will work on real issues. host: i appreciate that and we will spend time later talking about border security. the president speaking this afternoon at 3:00 eastern, but

we are now asking you about the politics in your state, political and policy issues. new york city, brian, good morning. caller: good morning, c-span. we are in dire straits in new york. it has been completely taken over by the radical left. -- debnd the blah zero lasio, a marxist leaning mayor. this is going on in the whole country. people do not understand. russia said in 1917 and every leader in russia said, from him to stalin, to the rest of them, that we will take over america without firing a shot. we will doing it by using useful idiots. when you have things like cnn news, and the fake news, look at

this debacle with the phony buzzfeed story. the news media in general, but cnn and msnbc in particular, use this for two days, they never stop talking about how this was the end of trump and we finally got him. and if this story is true, it went on for two days. i wondered if anybody would call them out. host: it is on the front page of papers, including the washington post, on the buzzfeed post, robert said it was not accurate that trump told michael cohen to lie about the moscow project, 'sey say robert s mueller office on friday denied an explosive report by a buzzfeed reported that investigators had evidence that president trump directed michael cohen to lie to

congress about a perspective business deal in moscow. buzzfeed's description of specific statements to the special counsel and characterization of documents and testimony obtained by this office regarding michael cohen's congressional testimony are not accurate said a spokesperson for robert mueller. the post said the statement was remarkable, the special counsel speaks exceedingly rarely and the statement seemed to drive a stake through a sensational allegation that democratic lawmakers had suggested earlier in the day could spell the end of donald trump. read more on washington post.com. asking you about the state of politics in your state. this is the season for state of the state addresses. the iowa republican governor, she called for funding state kindergarten classes. [video clip] >> our constitution takes away

the voting rights of anyone convicted of a felony forever. only two other states have similar provisions in the constitution and last november the people of florida voted to remove their van -- ban. the governor can restore those rights through the power of clemency and i have done that 80 times since taking office -- 88 times since taking office, but i do not believe voting rights should be forever stripped and restoration should be in the hands of a single person. election, someone stop me at my grandson's basketball rights had restored his and he wanted to tell me in person how much it meant to him. that when he stepped into the voting booth, he felt a dignity that had been missing, even after leaving prison. i do not think this man and others like him, who have

completed their sentences, should have to wait for my say or any future governor to say before they get the dignity back. our founders gave us a process to amend the constitution should the passage of time -- should the passage of time change our view. let's begin the process now. iowansve islands -- recognize the power of redemption and let's put this issue in their hands. [applause] [applause]

>> that is not the only constitutional amendment we should consider. as it should come our constitution deals extensively with the rights of the accused and convicted. but it never mentions victims. and all of the focus on second chances and forgiveness, we should never forget about the victims. i know each of you in this room believe that. let's show it. this year, let's start the process of enshrining victims rights into the iowa constitution like 36 other states have done. let's send victims a loud and clear message, we will protect you. host: kim reynolds talking about criminal justice reform in iowa. we will show you the new governor of colorado talk about kindergarten funding.

asking you about your major issues facing your state. 202-748-8000 in the eastern and central time zones. 202-748-8001, mountain and pacific. north carolina, charlotte, tim. caller: how are you? host: fine. caller: everybody keeps talking about the border states. arizona, about texas, i have been to all of them and people do not realize the border goes way out. i am from charlotte, north carolina, and you go on any website and look at the problems that have happened with you legal aliens, -- not legal aliens, death, accidents, atlanta, georgia, go on the o.t. is,, where the d.

they have decimated states. if they are arrested, they are deported, not tried, in a jail cell and then deported. it is outrageous that people do not understand what these people do, not in just border states but all over the country. the crimes they have committed and how they get sent back to mexico or honduras, guatemala, and never prosecuted. host: you mentioned georgia. mary tweets this about the new prefers, surprised, he a less transparent voting system for georgia. political and policy issues in your state, michael in pennsylvania, welcome. caller: i just have a local issue, they are rolling out pushing for 5g networks in

telecommunications in our area with the negative health effects it comes -- that comes with it. i feel there is all the talk about border security and everything else, it is a smoke and mirror issue of the local issues that do not get public. host: who is pushing out the 5g effort in your area? caller: right now, in most cities, they are trying to be the leading edge and the best medications, fast network -- best communications, fast network without ramifications about the side effects. we do not study now, everybody subjected to the radiation from networks, mainly telecommunications pushing for it. , what you hear and politics, one side wants this and one side wants that,

five years later they flip-flop to keep the argument going. host: california, steve in anaheim. what are the key issues in the state, you have a new governor sworn in recently. caller: gavin newsom is the new governor. issues are simple, we need water in southern california and we have water projects that have to be funded. we need public transportation and are trying to get high-speed rail which is running up against a rail. the other issues we have are a homeless problem. and simple funding of schools. the strikes we have going on now because the teachers are tired of having overpopulated classrooms and less funds. it is interesting because we

have a lottery system. businesses, weng have reached a point where we take taxes away from the businesses and rely on the lottery. they dropped that in the general fund and it turns into a blackhole and nobody knows where the money went. host: is the teacher strike close to being settled? caller: not even close. they are still battling it out. they are trying to get a 6% raise. the state says they can -- they do not have the money for it even though they have a surplus. it is political ping-pong. host: paul in fort lauderdale, florida. caller: good morning. outlook fory dark this nation. i am 73 years old.

i have seen a lot of history and a lot of leaders in this country. leader likeational nancy pelosi can state an face,ht lie, a lie on its about wanting to cancel a state of the union because of concern -- because of security concerns which do not exist. this is the legitimacy in the press -- de-legitimacy in the press and she is not taken to task. it seems like a small thing but i think it is a big thing. host: asking you about political issues in your state in florida. a tweet about this, in florida, if you buy a condo it goes back to the building owner, not your

heirs when you die. this is sanctioned by the corrupt state. front page of the wall street journal, the meeting between secretary of state mike pompeo and the north korean negotiators , they met at the state department and met in the oval office with president trump, announcing after that that the president and kim jong-un what have another summit in late february -- would have another summit in late february. we will hear from president on border security and possibly news on the government shutdown situation, now in day 29, we will have that live on c-span and c-span radio app at 3:00 eastern. rosedale, mississippi, jonathan, what is going on in your state? caller: thank you for taking my call. host: you bet. caller: in mississippi, they are pushing for education and prison

reform at the same time but also pushing for raising taxes, a 2% extra sales tax. they are not cutting down on making anything not legal. putting more and more people in jail. that is costing us more money. they still spent almost three times as much per year on inmates they do on students and school. host: what do they need the extra 2% taxes for? caller: for the education reform, but they are not cutting money on prison reform. host: you said they continue to make things illegal. jail?hings punishable by caller: yes, putting more and more people in jail for less -- for victimless crimes, drug offenses, 50 years for simple possession and things like that.

it is not proportional to the crime. host: in mississippi, does the state run the prisons or do they contracted out to private prison systems? caller: if my knowledge is correct, they do both. host: gilbert in birmingham, alabama, tell us about the issues facing alabama. caller: yes, sir, good morning and good morning to c-span. i would like to commend you for about -- fromords the virginia of governor. i was appalled -- i was elated by his speech, he gave me confidence that some states are doing good. here in alabama, the legislature had come together and tried to raise the gas tax. they will not allow the people to vote on legalized gambling

and most people in alabama who want to gamble, they go to bordering states to gamble. the alabama department of if they haven, their shortfalls by not repairing the rolls around the state of alabama, whose fault is it? house, andjority led governor, they allow all of these companies to come to alabama with big tax write-offs and want to come back and tax the people. it is atrocious in alabama. host: on the gas tax, they want to raise that, is that for roads and infrastructure repair in alabama? caller: that is what they tell us. red tail believe these politicians around alabama about

what they will do with the money. we do not have a voice. the working class in alabama do not have a voice. this is no more than that all dark he and needs to be -- oligarchy and needs to be exposed, do not of people who you that things have changed and -- fool you that things have changed in alabama. it is atrocious. host: we are asking you about the political and policy situation in your state. what are the big issues? 202-748-8000 for folks in the eastern and central time zones. 202-748-8001 for mountain and pacific. every year we covered dozens of state of the state addresses. c-span.org. that at is a formerrnor member of the house and now governor of colorado talked about funding full-day kindergarten in that state. >> making full-day kindergarten

set kids up to be more successful in school and throughout their lives, saves parents money, improves performance, narrows achievement gap, leads to early identification and intervention for those with special needs and will lead to increasing the high school graduation rate down the road. we will all share in those benefits. it will save taxpayer money in the long run by improving outcomes and decreasing the achievement gap. it will strengthen families, our communities, and our economy. as you know, the state only funds half-day kindergarten even -- leaving individual districts and parents holding me bag for the rest. most districts charge tuition for the extra half-day. result, kindergarten today in colorado is a picture of inequality where some students

attend free full-day kindergarten and some must pay for tuition. other families do not get it free and cannot afford it because of the cost. in colorado, families can pay $500 per month to enroll their kids in full-day kindergarten, money that could go to a good home, health care, college fund, retirement, starting a small business, or a nice vacation once in a while. alahoma has figured this out long time ago and with all due respect to our wonderful neighbors in the sooner state, if they can do kindergarten, we can do kindergarten in colorado. host: we will go next to steve and burnet, texas, good morning. caller: hello. will try to say this without going on a long rant. , we are eaten up by conservative republicans who are so misinformed, they get that

information, wrong information, because for 30 or 40 years, they have been fed propaganda and junk from rush limbaugh, glenn beck,fox news -- glenn fox news, the whole thing about being so bad is that they are so misinformed they cannot make informative the citizens. -- informed of decisions about who they vote for. until we can address this lie and truthss, we will not become undivided in this country. , the legislature is dominated by republicans with a republican governor. the legislature is republican as well? , we finally voted in a few this last election but not near the proportions we need to make it equal. host: that is stephen texas. a tweet from jeffrey about i am frome says,

indiana and the main issue is the opioid crisis, and a hate crime bill being considered. another view from indiana, charles is calling us from jasper, indiana. welcome. caller: i think the indian the government is doing an excellent job -- indiana government is doing a nice one job. at,school where i taught they got a compliment from a governor in the state of the state address. thingk it is a wonderful for the teachers that work so hard. they deserve to get more money. thank you, sir. host: thank you. clyde in huntington, texas. go ahead, good morning. caller: i want to say i completely disagree with the other caller from texas. i am so glad the state of texas has voted overwhelmingly

republican and no democrat has won a statewide office in decades. the only one that is feeding propaganda is msnbc, all they do is bash trump. he is the only one trying to do something to stop the mass invasion of these foreigners coming here that do not share our values. he is the only one. it is nothing but propaganda that msnbc, 24 hours a day, all they do is bash trump, how is that the news? host: thank you. new york, we hear from richard in new york. caller: i am retired. i am on disability. i get a check every month and i'm wondering if i will get my

retirement check. this month. even next month. i am worried about that. host: when does it usually arrive? caller: every fourth wednesday of every month. host: have you heard anything from social security or other agencies? caller: i have not. host: appreciate you calling. the closest recall it -- republican governor to the nation's capital is maryland's larry hogan. he spoke about the state of politics more broadly in the nation. this is from his inaugural address. >> do the right thing and the politics will work itself out, that was our plan. we faced our fiscal challenges

with steady resolve and eased the tax burden on hard-pressed maryland families, retirees, and small businesses. we cleared the tangle of regulatory undergrowth and pave the way for historic economic growth and record job creation. we funded education at historic levels to give our schools the resources needed to prepare our children for the opportunities of the future. we protected the health-care coverage of marylanders and provided lower insurance rates for the first time in a decade. we met our transportation challenges head on with historic investments in our infrastructure. and we practiced skilled stewardship of the environment which resulted in the chesapeake bay that is cleaner than it has been in recorded history. today, i asked my partners in

the legislature to join in reaffirming our pledge to continue on this bold new path. rather than engaging in rhetoric, let's continue to deliver real results for the people who sent us here. let's keep putting people's priorities before partisan interests. let's continue to tackle our common problems by accepting our shared responsibility to solve them. let's repudiate the debilitating politics practiced elsewhere, including just down the road in washington. where insults substitute for debate, recriminations for negotiations, and gridlock for compromise. where the heat, finger-pointing, and rank or suffocates the life,

and the only result is divisiveness and this function. -- this function. function. , people on both sides of the aisle refused to even give up a little to get a lot done. neither side wants to make progress. they just want to make demands and win arguments. that is not governing. that is just political theater. most of us are sick and tired of all that drama. host: that is the marilyn governor larry hogan, republican. for eastern and central time zones. , mountain and pacific. the issues facing our state. ronrepublican governor

desantis in florida, this is from the hill, he says man's all -- he suspends the top election official in palm beach county saying he would replace the .upervisor of elections they say palm beach was among the counties at the center of a lengthy recount process that left the outcomes of three statewide races hanging in the balance for weeks after election day. some thoughts on twitter from joe who says about new york, uf are at of taxation without representation, that is new york and michael says vermont is what the political class in vermont wanted to be, left and heading farther left. texas, william, good morning. caller: yes, sir.

my name is william. i am amazed, in 1995, william f buckley and george schulz, and milton friedman and others came out with the war on drugs, we lost. it seems like america is stuck on stupid. believe me, i have been through the criminal justice system, i am 62 now and him clean because i wanted to get clean. is if youal justice get to a certain age, you do not do it anymore, you do not have the energy and the time appeared we have buried people. i was on a maintenance job years ago in prison, i saw it on the wall, if it doesn't make money, doesn't make sense. said, if you want to look why something happens, look at who profits.

the man that called in earlier talking about the laws, when i was a kid, there were laws that were a misdemeanor, then a third-degree degree felony, and then a second degree felony, and then a first-degree felony, a rational person that waste everything out, people do not think of those consequences when they are doing these things. as milton friedman said, it is a moral crime to lock anybody up for drugs. i went to the drug abuse deals. i would tell them, i do not want help, i have no desire whatsoever to stop using. why would they waste their dollars to not let me go and have to attend about stuff? host: william in texas talking about criminal justice reform, an issue in a number of states. let's go to william in michigan.

what is happening in your state? what are the big issues? caller: as always, it should be schools and health care for most people. they have all this money they seem to throw around. it is a shame it does not get thrown to the right places. we have a new governor. she is he is turning -- turning things around so far, trying to work with the people. health care is a big thing, especially for people for load because of the strike. load becauseng for of the strike. haveve in michigan, we bridges, we have people coming back and forth all the time, we do not need a wall, we need a security presence.

about thekeep saying $5.6 billion they want for the wall that mexico was supposed to pay for, now they are asking taxpayers to do it. if it was asked for planned parenthood, i doubt people asking money for the wall would give it to planned parenthood. if you want to do something special, do something like that, match every dollar you put in the wall for planned parenthood that people need that are suffering and i would vote for that. host: getting back to the topic of the issues in your state. washington state, seattle times has a headline about the state of the state address, a time of great peril but also great promise, they urge action on mental health, climate change. there is a but of what he had to say on the issue of mental health in washington state. >> we need to write about mental health.

while we have taken significant steps to improve our physical likeh, and medical schools he'll support college of provide at wsu, we can -- improve our mental health care. we need to transform behavioral health. from a system that response to crisis to one that helps people before they reach crisis. for those with a loved one who has waited too long for the right kind of treatment, we know this challenge is urgent. our families and friends are suffering. we can do much better. we must find room for hundreds of people at new community-based facilities so patients receive services and places close to their families, their homes, places of worship. in their communities. we must expand our professional workforce so patients are

treated. that is why i am proud to pursue a new partnership with the university of washington, to create a teaching hospital to serve these patients and to train behavioral health providers using a unique new curriculum. we can turn this story around. and direct it towards hope. i am pleased we are at the beginning of a bipartisan effort to do just that. yearll create a story this about a holistic model for behavioral health that encompasses the family, the community, and the promise of timely care. host: back to your calls on your thoughts of one of the major political and policy issues in your state. bernadette, go ahead. caller: good morning. i am a firm believer in the

preamble to the constitution. i feel that, with the technology we have today, we should be able to turn on our computers in the morning, look at issues locally and state, federally, and vote on them. you. bernadine, thank maryland, what are some of the big issues facing your state? forer: first off, thank you taking my call and i appreciate these type of conversations. basically, we are in a unique situation, especially in maryland where we have had for the last couple of years, ended our year with over 300 murders. it seems as though we cannot keep a police commissioner.

yes, we have a republican governor and i am a democrat, and i voted for the republican governor, but he is different than most of the republicans you hear and see. he actually cares. other republicans are afraid to say anything to donald trump. they are afraid to rebuff anything, even the outlandish lies he spews. it goes over their heads. that is a big problem. especially when you are trying to negotiate, you are trying to be the president for everyone but you are playing only to your base and giving them red meat like mexicans are rapists and running across the border. when, in actuality, most of the drugs come through tunnels so a wall will not do a thing because they would dig underneath it.

fact-basedo proposals coming from the republican side. host: let me ask you about your republican governor. you said he cares and you voted for him. he was reelected back in the fall by a fairly large margin and a lot of democrats crossed over to vote for governor hogan. is he the kind of person you can vote for if he were to run for president? caller: actually, yes. i think he has a unique perspective where he is not just one party line. .e wants to make sense he wants others to think about what you're doing, not just vote because that is what generations have been voting. illinois, in canton, the new governor in that state. caller: good morning, c-span. we just elected a new democratic governor in our state, he is the first billionaire governor in

the united states. one of the first things he did was, doubling the salaries of his appointees. because the state is are ready $135 billion in debt to the pension system that already $135 billion in debt to the kitchen system -- pension system. last year, the mayor of chicago dumped $100 million of the teachers pension into the state of illinois for the taxpayers because he said he could not pay for it. yougovernor then said that have to come up with a plan before we pay for it and the governor of chicago -- the mayor of chicago did not come up with any plan. our state is in a fiscal mess and the governor stated he wants to tax the upper class and the richest people in the state, which means that those people will leave.

that is the only choice they have and we need businesses in illinois to get us out of this debt. i do not have any good thing to say about the future of illinois. host: the new governor is jv pritzker, democrat. big marches in washington this weekend, yesterday the march for life, we cover that. today is the women's march this afternoon and we will cover that at 1:00 -- 1:30 eastern live on c-span. washington post reporting about both marches and the headline is surpriseump-mike pence crowd, the vice president and his wife spoke at the rally yesterday, also spoke at a dinner last night. the posed reporting about the women's march, third year, divided and diminished is the washington post headline, for thousands of women the first women's march on washington was transformational, many who had

never participated in a protest were thrust into the heart of the resistance, those who attended the 2017 rally called the crush of people who filled the streets inspiring, the energy electric and it pushed them to keep protesting and write letters and make phone calls and register voters. on saturday, today, during the third annual march, thousands of women are expected in washington but all organizers wrote application weeks ago they expect a similar turnout, hundreds of thousands of experts said they expect a fraction of that number regardless, we will have it for you today on c-span at 1:30 eastern. georgia, maurice, thank you for calling. caller: good morning, how are you? it does not mean the energy of the women's march has dissipated. look at the 2018 election to know that they have had an effect and will continue to have an effect.

the state of politics in georgia is stable but there is tumult.ant tomorrow -- the governor was not elected in a manner with which there is a great deal of confidence that he was duly elected. right torams has every go forward with the lawsuit she has been going forward with to examine what happened in this election. i feel confident that, when the evidence comes out, there will have been seen to have been a great deal of chicanery by the now governor who was the secretary of state at the time, regarding his conduct during that moment. forward, he will be hounded for the next four years with the evidence and the truth. i do not think he will be

reelected but that is for years into the future. stacey abrams has a bright future and we will see what happens with her. she will be statewide elected official at some point in the near future. host: a new governor in south dakota, replacing the former member of the house, here is a bit of the new governor's state of the state address. >> we have long participated in a program but as land values have increased, areas like ours have begun to disappear, greatly affecting populations appeared partly blame folks for making decisions on land values are high but it has an impact on how and where our pheasant population can nest and produce the next seasons birds. the statewide pheasant populations have fallen 65% in the last decade. while in the u.s. house i authored a provision to increase acres to 29 million acres nationwide, a priority for many

south dakota outdoorsman, and as governor i will continue to push federal policymakers to enhance this further. but we can and we must do more at the state level, which is why today i announce the official kickoff of our second century initiative, the first entry of pheasant hunting put south dakota on the map as a designation for every hunter but we must preserve and expand habitat to ensure a second century of is in hunting will be as great as the first. we will work to increase resources or habitat management, without raising taxes. maintaining and improving habitat is essential to the future of pheasant hunting and to south dakota. i am directing today the department of game and fish and parks to explore outside the box voluntary funding solutions such as an expanded hunt for habitat program. in which a limited number of hunting tax would be reserved at premium prices, programs like this will be -- have proven to be lucrative in neighboring states, all proceeds will go

directly into habitat. we need south dakota and thinking of pheasant hunting and pheasant habitat, not just in october when we are cleaning our shotguns, but year round to raise visibility and more funds, i will ask the division of motor vehicles and game, fish, pork, for a special license plates in which all proceeds will go directly towards habitat management. pheasant hunting is a statewide tradition, but statewide economic impact. maintaining a growing industry require statewide involvement. this means we will get aggressive on predator control and we will start a bounty program. young people will have a chance to get out and help reduce the threat to our present population. -- pheasant population and this means this must come from an increase in private and foundation dollars. host: that is the new governor of south dakota. quick takes on twitter, nicholas says ohio is

gerrymandered beyond her and matthew says kansas did the right thing and electing one party to run the economy. this one says voting is rigged iowaorida and someone from response. alabama responded to another caller, alabama tax rate is 5%, you are not being taxed to death, you are surely taxed until death. we hear from bob caller: hello, c-span. there is no problem in michigan. we are in great shape. we just finished eight years of rick snyder who is a conservative republican, put us in good financial condition. the new governor, wretch and ,hitner, -- gretchen whitner

the only problem she could run $2 billione spending a year replacing roads and bridges, but that was a big campaign subject in the last election. other than that, michigan is great. we have population coming back into the state instead of leaving. there is the auto motive industry but that has been going up and down for years. host: the economy pretty good in grand rapids? caller: it is. it is not flashy. it does not have highs and lows but it is study. we have full employment in the western part of the state and even the southeastern part of the state is coming back. host: i am going to let you go and get one call. from baltimore, tom. what is going on in your state? caller: i wanted to make a

common. first, let me say i'm a democrat. it is not that democrats do not believe in a wall. it is the fact that the wall is a silly idea that doesn't really get to the heart of the matter. host: we are going to let you go on that. we will talk about border security later on. the president's address this afternoon. 2020, we will talk politics with daniel strauss of politico and look at the 2020 field of mostly democrats and what could be in store for republicans. later, james jay carafano joins us. sight?e is shut down in ♪

>> on afterwards at 9:00 p.m. on sunday, sebastian gorka on his book "why we fight." >> my parents used to take me to france on holiday as a child and my father was an amazing athlete. he was on the national crew team. he comes out of the ocean -- i am eight, nine years old, and i see these white lines on his wrists. he is far too been young to be wrinkled. i said, what is that? he just said, that is where the hands police bound my together with wire so they could hang me from a torture chamber. that changes your outlook. age, i understood that freedom is as fragile as it is precious.

the great ronald reagan was always correct when he said sooner or later, the loss of liberty is always but one generation away. >> watch book tv this weekend on c-span two. c-span, where history unfolds daily. in 1979, c-span was created as a public service by america's public cable television companies and we continue to bring unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court, and public policy events in washington, d.c., and around the country. c-span is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. "washington journal" continues. host: we are going to talk 2020 politics with daniel strauss come for -- daniel strauss,

campaign -- with politico. it is almost like a train hitching together. what is your sense of the numbers of democrats who have been out so far? are you surprised by the people we are hearing about? guest: now we are hearing the conventional top-tier or second tier. warren was definitely someone most political observers expected what announce some move toward running for president, and gillibrand was more of a surprise, but not huge or unusual. other presidential candidates from the democratic arena who are in announcing tours or making preparatory moves have been on shortlists. host: does it feel more

wide-open than before, for democrats? guest: it feels more wide open than in past cycles. the expectation was that the field would be very large and full of federal lawmakers, some governors, and outside candidates. one of youradline, stories -- and we just showed some of jay ensley's state of the state, and the headline from politico -- jay ensley plans a new hampshire visit. does it seem there is a bit of a cause and effect as some potential candidates announced and others go, i think i could explore? does it seem like there is more of that? guest: that is one of the interesting dynamics i have been noticing. it is less than individual candidates are spurred by their competitors and more by their lane.

warren angela brand -- warren and gillibrand are in the same -- the more blue-collar repeal, white man candidates like joe as anxious toeem get into the race. host: that is the big, maybe wrong metaphor, elephant in the room. joe biden, what is your sense? guest: some days we hear he is close to running and other days it is very quiet. ,f he does jump into the race his splash would have a great deal of ripple affects. he is one of the best-known democrats in the country and is seen as one of the most viable and formidable candidates against donald trump in a general election.

he is one of the few candidates that would give other democrats pause. host: if joe biden enters the race, does that mean potential other candidates would separate themselves from generally more moderate, little left of center politics that joe biden typifies that more candidates would want to distinguish themselves? guest: distinguishing is the key in this primary, every democrat, because the expectation is the field will be so large every democrat will try to distinguish themselves, focusing on a single issue like jay inslee and climate change, or a single claim, sherrod brown would use his campaign phrase "dignity to work." i do not think that would change much if biden got into the race,

but others would be hard-pressed to gain attention. host: more with daniel strauss, we are talking 2020 politics up until about 8:30 eastern or so. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. kirsten gillibrand announcing her exploratory canada -- candidacy. >> i am filing an exploratory campaign for president of the united states tonight. >> thank you for telling everybody here. honored that you are here. why do you want to be president of the united states? >> i am going to run for president of the united states because as a young mom, i will fight for other people's kids as hard as i would fight for my own

, which is why i believe health care should be a right and not a privilege. it is why i believe we should have better public schools for our kids, because it should not matter what block you grew up on. i believe anybody who wants to work hard enough should be able to get whatever job training they need to earn their way into the middle class, but you will never accomplish these things if you do not take on the systems of power that make all of that impossible, taking on institutional racism, taking on the can's -- corruption and greed in washington, taking on the special interests that write legislation in the dead of night , and i know that i have the compassion, the courage, and the fearless determination to get that done. the setting ofs,

"the late show with stephen colbert" an announcement of an exploratory committee. what does that mean? guest: it is not fully jumping into the race. it is taking preparatory steps. it is complicated, but basically it is doing the groundwork and allowing a candidate to be able and set up the infrastructure for running for president. it offers the candidate a little -- they can announce their actual campaign. not every candidate for ansident announces exploratory committee a great deal ahead of time, and not every person who has set one up runs for president, but most of the time they do. host: cody is in aurora,

colorado, democrats line caller: . -- democrats line. caller: what do you think the likelihood is that andrew yang will be successful in 2020? he is the most exciting part of this upcoming election for me personally. yang.the man is andrew tell us who he is. guest: he is a longshot candidate from new york and his profile is pretty low as well. he is a contender for the presidency of the united states. yang can increase his name recognition to a point with he is able to compete gillibrand or warren or president trump, that would be a remarkable twist in this election cycle. right now, his relatively

unknown. host: from our republican line, anna in new castle, delaware. about: you are talking the great person joe biden would be for president. kerry werend john involved in a multibillion-dollar deal with the oligarchs in china in 2015. what he was trying to do was get kerry's stepson a business in china. they made out all right because the pictures in the book shows with aobama, joe biden cocky look on his face, and john , valerie jarrett was

there. big multibillion dollar deal. does joe biden have political baggage? guest: that is the feeling that his would-be opponents have. biden has been in public office and run for president multiple times before. in this cycle, you should expect if he does run, a lot of questions about his handling of anita hill in the early 1990's. there will be questions about his tenure as vice president and to that end, biden has a penchant for speaking off-the-cuff which can backfire. host: a story from the washington post -- howard looking at running as an independent for president in 2020.

we are really heard from tom stier, the billionaire, he made a big announcement that he was not running. do you expect to see more independent voices running? guest: it is a possibility. -- isz was definitely definitely one of the more how profile would be independent candidates. it is surprising he is running independent because it is much more difficult to set up, as to getting your name on the ballot and other basic advantages that competitors running in the democratic or republican primary have. there could be more but i doubt there will be that many. carolina,erton, north brock on our republican line. caller: that jell-o brand clip -- gillibrand clip demonstrates a bigger problem.

the field is getting bigger on the democratic side but they still have no clear message. every candidate will say the same thing and that will be a problem. host: let me ask you about your reporting on sherrod brown, one of your many pieces of the past several days, sherrod brown .lanning to tour iowa what advantages and disadvantages the sherrod brown come a coming from an industrial state? and his advisers think he has an appealing set of qualities in this primary, somebody who won ohio multiple times, especially since it has turned more republican in nature. they feel he has a distinct appeal to trump voters and voters who might vote for democrats. he has a strong background with

the abilityort of to appeal to working-class voters that went for trump. host: what does it mean to go to iowa, when a potential candidate goes to new hampshire or iowa, how did they set up the mechanism to talk to voters? who do they organize with? guest: usually they reach out to and set up -- they retain locale, and activist or strategist who knows the state and can facilitate those things. brown in recent days has been doing those and it is reported he lined up someone to be a sherpa in new hampshire and iowa . host: someone who is locally politically familiar with the ground game. connie is on our democrats line, talking 2020 politics. caller: i turned on the tv and

the first was politics in our state. , youentleman, daniel here are seeing more people getting into politics because they are not happy with what is happening and they have strong views of what is going on, and they want to get out and try to straighten this mess that we find ourselves in. yes, sir, more people are getting involved, which is very good. age, 75, i see a lot of different things going on. some of it is not very good. people are getting more involved with politics. the said part is they are older people who probably cannot afford newspapers, do not watch tv, do not have cable. here in wisconsin near madison,

we have cable, and our local stations do not talk about politics but cable does. it gives you more insight into what is going on. i do have a question. whenight of the elections, runs, i was flipping channels and i'm sorry to say this -- i am not sorry because i have to say it is it bothered me very much -- a camera crew caught at one of the campaign headquarters of trump, a gentleman that got the word trump won raised his hand in the -- in the hitler sign and several responded back. that shocked me. i have not voted for trump but when i saw that i was thankful i did not.

more and more of his behavior is very radical, very unstable. ,ost: she leads us into a story the president is ramping up for 2020, staffing and things like that. possibility of a primary challenge on the republican side? guest: trump and his team are taking steps to prevent that. they are trying to make sure that bylaws and rnc rules insulate him from any real threat. but have been rumors about that for a while, especially from former ohio governor john kasich who has run for president and strongly suggested he is planning to run for president. he says he is open to it. it would throw a wrench into there islans, because a small segment of the republican party that is dissatisfied with him and would like to vote for someone else.

marilyn governor larry hogan has taken steps toward signaling that he is thinking about running for president in the republican primary. host: this week on our newsmakers program, our guest is tim chapman of the heritage action, talking about 2020 politics and the potential challengers to president trump. here is what he said. >> if they nominate somebody who is actually a moderate, or more moderate, i would say, but can also -- like a biden keeps me up at night. he is perceived as more moderate it has credibility with working class voters. thegame in 2020 is whether republicans can create -- re-create the revolution of 2016. losing the working-class voters could make it hard for

republicans to win. host: it is newsmakers coming up. two things he said -- biden keeps him up at night, and wondering if the republicans can keep together that coalition, the states that won the electoral college for donald trump. guest: that is something that sherrod brown's people and joe biden steam point out as advantages. team point out as advantages. any democrat who has progressive the fides and can win midwestern states where trump won, a democrat could appeal to summer voters -- southern voters. potentialthere any

democrats saying, that is not the strategy? we will try and win florida and elsewhere outside of their and not focus on the industrial midwest or other high population states. guest: i do not think any democrat would say that now. the map is too unclear and the field is still forming, but there are democrats whose advantages lie along the coast. it is not hard to see elizabeth warren's argument for her appealing on the east coast, or kamala harris or eric garcetti, their argument that they can win california. that route is the easiest route. kansas city,o missouri, terry is on our democrat line. caller: i would like to see joe kennedy iii run for independent. fighting my views racism and semitism, -- an anti-semitism, income inequality.

i really like him and think he would make a great president. host: joe kennedy. who are the other top progressives? guest: progressives is kind of a fluid word because that is the democratic mono curve for good. bernie is someone we have not mentioned, amy klobuchar -- bernie sanders is someone we have not mentioned, amy klobuchar. house, joe kennedy's name comes up often but i think he is more interested in staying in the house. too.maltin host: springfield, virginia, bob is on the republican line. caller: thanks for taking my call. my question has to do with the fact that a year from now, the

democratic field well that will whittle down -- will whittle down to maybe just two. who do you think the leading contenders will be in march 2020 for who will be knocking it out for the democratic ticket? guest: no one really knows. that is a foundational dynamic of this primary. there is no clear, definitive front runner as in previous cycles. it is the opposite of 2016 where the safe money, the smart and reliable money was on hillary clinton. even someone like joe biden whose name recognition is arguably higher, or beto o'rourke, it is not clear where we will be. host: just a little over a year from now, the iowa caucuses and new hampshire primaries. sophie is next in flagstaff,

arizona, democrat line. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. caller: i have than thinking about the 2020 election a lot lately. actually, i can't wait for it to happen. i really can't. the way things have been going -- iy, i have pretty much don't know, i have had it. i have had it with the trump administration. i am looking forward to the campaign of 2020. i keep hearing different rumors about who is going to run for president, who is not. she, he is going to. i am thinking, who would i vote for if there was another person they chose to run? -- that chose to run? i am not saying obama is

considering it but if he did choose to run again, i would certainly vote for him. host: he is term limited. announcing a week ago or so in texas, here is his announcement. julian: i am running for president because it is time for new leadership, new energy, and time for a renewed commitment to make sure that the opportunities i have had are available to every american. in the years to come, we must go forward as one nation working toward one destiny, and that destiny is to be the smartest, the healthiest, the fairest, and the most prosperous nation on earth. [cheers and applause] host: what is your take on julian castro? guest: his name id is not superhigh. his interest in running for the

presidency has been apparent for a while. he has a resume that is the envy of other candidates in the field as a former member of the obama administration, as a person of color, and someone who hails from a southern state. these are all qualities he can use to leverage his viability of someone who can bring in new voters and an active base. host: do you think the current debate over border wall funding hurts or helps his candidacy? .uest: he is not in congress -- he is nothim the standardbearer of the party right now on the border wall and immigration, but it is definitely something he is happy to talk about.

it is really hard to say. he has only been in the pre-presidential arena for a little while. host: louisville, kentucky, lisa on the democrats line. caller: thank you for c-span. i have a couple guys i like that of not been mentioned, eric swallow, chris van hollen. i think if we get too progressive we will lose a lot of independent votes. this free education for all stuff has got to go. would consider talking about community colleges and transferring over, and i agree that medicare for all is a good idea. people up there, it is not free. you do have to pay for democrat -- medicare. host: any thoughts? guest: there are other candidates in the field who have

signaled they are interested in that lane. i would point back to the potential 2020 governor's bracket like terry mcauliffe, john hickenlooper. that is an argument that some democrats are making, that a more moderate -- moderate candidate is the way to go. host: tell us about tulsi gabbard, set to run for president and she made a statement about some of her previous stances. guest: she is a former bernie sanders surrogate and vice chair of the dnc, she has strongly signaled -- she has said she is planning to run for president. gab -- president. is a controversial member of the party. her views go again some of the party leaders and she has a history which came up almost

immediately after she announced ,er plans to run for president strong opposition to gay rights. in the past, she has had to spend more time for apologizing and stressing that those are not her current opinions. that is something that will persist as long as she is running. host: augustine, georgia, good morning, terrel, democrats line. caller: i would like to see beto o'rourke. he would go into the red states. you would think he would be a president for all people. hopefully, we can get someone like him in. biden, we need to change the guard. host: you have not talked about beto o'rourke. he is on a listening tour? guest: he is driving around by

himself, needing real people, and that is a distinctive approach. beto o'rourke is a former congressman who ran a competitive race against ted cruz in texas and gained a national following. republicans are worried about him. do notight now -- we know much about what kind of presidential campaign he would run or what kind of lane he is in, and that scares republicans because he appeals to or could appeal to every democrat. he just sort of -- there is not a lot we know about him other than he has a charisma and viability that party leaders have found impressive. host: daniel strauss, campaign writer with politico, thank you. there is more ahead. we will talk next with james carafano about the shutdown and

what may be a head with president trump's announcement today. our spotlight on magazine series continues. the piece on china's rise as a superpower, oriana skylar mastro will join us. ♪ 3, super bowlry sunday at noon eastern, author and sports writer dave's iran is our guest. author of many guests including full?", "howme, politics has turned the sports world upside down." >> i love sports and we need to fight for sports, reclaim them and take them back. if we do so we need to know our history.

.hat is our greatest ammunition we need to know the history of the athletes, sports writers, and fans who have stood up to the machine, if for no other reason, knowing this history allows us to see that struggle affects all in this world. >> join our three-hour zyron attion with dave ay noon eastern on booktv in depth on c-span2. q and a, author and journalist patricia miller and 19th-century sex scandal. >> william campbell preston breckenridge, and the number of middle names he has should signify he is in the southern elite. he had been a confederate

colonel in the confederate cavalry. at the time of the lawsuit, he was in his fifth term in power -- in congress. in contrast, she was a poor girl from kentucky with literary aspirations he was hungry for education. she was a hungry young woman who ran into breckinridge at a time she was desperate to make something of herself and get an education. >> sunday on qs -- c-span's q and a. "washington journal" continues. fano: with us, james carada talking about the border security debate, the government shutdown in its 29th day. what do you think people don't understand about the current situation of border security between the u.s. and mexico? guest: that is very difficult

because there is the rhetoric and reality and they are not the same. we saw something similar, if you remember the muslim travel ban, there was a rhetorical debate and the reality of why they did the ban, which is the nature of the threat in the middle east and theging administrated wanted to make sure they had measures in place to block foreign fighters coming into the united states. that never got into the debate. it was all about whether we hate muslims or not. when we passed the secure fence act, the threat and need at the border was severe due to expedited removal. they said, what matters is what is called the melting point, the point of once you get across the border, how quickly can you get to an urban center or

transportation network and disappear into the interior? if they catch you not at the wall, but before you get to the interior and you go through expedited removal, they pick you up and toss you out. that is an important deterrent, many of whom would spend money for human traffickers to get them to the port. the is changed is combination of policies the last two years, the success of actual security at the border, catchy people and sending them back, and some court rulings -- catching people and sending them back, and some court rulings saying human traffickers have learned to beat the system. you cross illegally as a group. whether legitimately or not, you call it a family, and you claim

refugee status. you cannot go through expedited removal and there are limits as to how long you can be detained. then you get released into the interior for a hearing process and you might never show up. those people, the only way to stop them is physically keep them from crossing the border to begin with, which means you need in some areas much stronger fencing, not just pedestrian fencing but being able to stop vehicles and stop people from tunneling under the fence. the other issue is, we are more concerned about drug trafficking, particularly fat no -- fentanyl. we are increasingly ramping up security at the border crossings and people are shifting out. if people want to cross at the mexican border, we want to drive

them to go through the legitimate border crossings where we are best prepared to screen for drugs, criminals, refugee claims, public safety issues, health concerns. that is the issues -- purpose of this stage of border wall. radicallythat changed in two years since the obama administration? guest: that has evolved over the last four or five years. the actual requirement for the wall, what the president wants to do, it reflects the changing nature of what needs to be done. unfortunately, the political debate is a rhetorical debate that never, the actual issue of the efficacy of the actual plan hardly ever comes into what we debate. host: do you think the democrats understand the reality of that or is their stance is strictly political stance on no border wall funding? guest: i don't know.

i don't know why they take the stance as they do. what i do know -- and this is identical as the travel ban debate -- as we look at the debate on both sides, we hear a lot of strong rhetoric and very rarely do we actually get to the substance of the issues. host: the president will speak this afternoon, announced by tweet, 3:00 p.m. this afternoon. what would you like to hear from him on border security? guest: i have no idea what he is going to say, which is really interesting because many analysts and companies who agree with the need, the layout is right, the administration has not told us anything. i am not sure what the president can say, because i really think

the requirement he has laid out is reasonable. people said, we do not want a wall. this is not about funding a wall . it is about reinforcing or expanding 200 miles of wall and immigration judges and border technology. if it was any other president, it would be a perfectly reasonable request. to come to a solution and a negotiation, but this is a purely political debate. i am not sure what the president can say to break that. welcome your calls and comments at c-span wj on twitter, (202) 748-8000 for democrats, (202) 748-8001 for republicans, an independents, (202) 748-8002.

the president has criticized caravans from central america. , someravan enters mexico 1500 central americans sourced their way across the southern border and began their trek to the u.s. this is the state department. their most recent report on andorism says at the year's there was no indication that international terrorist group does terrorist groups -- terrorist groups have partners and mexico, although terrorist groups are likely to try to seek other means of entering into the u.s. familyravan issue of claiming refugee status. this opens up the potential of potentially weaponizing migration. if you can put 10,000, 15,000 people on the united states --

on the road and send them to the united states and there is no deterrent and there is a high political motivation of people doing this, that is a great threat. you do not want the caravans to be successful. is a huge political threat. what will happen is the administration has dealt with ,hat by working with mexico offering asylum to some people, and saying you have to wait in mexico and process your claim at the border crossing. that is an effective deterrent. let's take those people to places not at the crossing, and if they get across the u.s. has to accept them, that is a problem. it will put more lives at risk goes the farther you get from a border crossing point there is no water or shelter.

a humanitarian concern goes up and it expands the requirement for u.s. -- obstacles at the border. read of this is the reason why we want to do this, you want to get at the problem. we are not saying masses of drugs going across the open border and masses of refugees across the open border, and the answer is, you do not want to. they will flow to where the weaknesses, so if you do not have obstacles, you will have more people move into these areas and there will be a greater humanitarian crisis, more childhood endangerment, more of a humanitarian crisis. in theet's go to will forest, wisconsin, an independent line. -- the independent line. caller: why do they never talk about the regions -- reasons

they are coming for asylum and the numerous invasions we have had in the latin america's that make it almost impossible for people to live there because of our foreign policies that create policy, crime, and makes it unhealthy for people to live in their own country. thieveslabel them as and everything else when they get here, rather than letting the american people know what this country has done in that part of the world. guest: that question brings up a good point, which often confuses people, the issue of making a legitimate asylum claim. it has to do with a credible fear, not just the economy in my country is bad, i cannot get a job, i live in poverty, someone in my neighborhood was colette -- arrest by a gang member.

credible fear is you are genuinely in fear and you can put in a documented claim. the issue with the caravans is it is widely believed the vast number of these people will not qualify for asylum. they will not meet the standard. -- is not theight right to move from guatemala to the united states because you do not like your country. this is a concern i have, going back to the weaponizing of migrants and we have seen that. part of the reasons these caravans were organized, political forces wanted to embarrass their governments and destabilize them politically. getting people, recruiting them and setting them on the road was a way to put pressure on the government's. if we encouraged that behavior we are incentivizing bad guys to say, if you want to hurt our

country, but thousands of migrants out and send them. we saw that in syria with the turkish and russian and syrian government were pushing the crisis to force more refugees out of the country and to force people to politically negotiate. if we encourage this kind of behavior, we will create more human suffering and poverty, poor governments, more crime, and we will allow bad people another weapon to attack others with. host: james from sierra vista, arizona, on the republican line. caller: yes, hello? host: you are on the year. caller: i live literally 12 miles walking distance to the border. here,y that doesn't live they do not understand the issues and problems that we are having in here because of

illegal immigration and drugs and everything. they fly ultralight airplanes across our border, that kind of thing. if you do not live on a border area, you will not get what the issue really is, and it is an epidemic and it is an invasion. the other thing that it creates on an tucson sector average, especially in the summertime, we are picking up dead bodies all over this desert. we have humanitarian groups leaving water in the desert and they are just now starting to be prosecuted for doing this. yes, it is a misdemeanor in tucson, but like i said, i live 12 miles walking distance. i could be across that border in about four hours if i choose to. it has gotten so dangerous that i will not go into mexico

anymore because of the cartels and things going on. host: you said ultralight aircraft? caller: you really will not understand what is going on. i have been to the tucson sector and the border many times , and have been dealing with this for about 16 years. .he dynamics are the same somebody wants to do something and somebody is trying to stop them. i am not arguing that putting obstacles at the border will solve the problem. this is one of the false things. it is security at the border and in. one of the thing that this administration gets the credit for is ironically, for all the rhetoric, this administration actually works extremely well with latin america. it has partnered well with mexico trying to address these issues, and demonstrated concern

and initiative in improving and economicents transitions, so people can live their own destinies and do not have to fear and fully. -- flee. for the ultralight thing, it is a good illustration. the new talking point is, the problem is not at the border. everything is coming at the crossings. what we have seen with smugglers is they cannot lose -- they can afford to lose a lot of product and people. they are always looking for new places to cross. one tactic that has been used in the past is load up drugs on an ultralight and landed or crash it. -- land it or crash it. are notthese

successful, they are stressing the security team to go to more places. mayor,he border president went down to texas and the border mayor said he does not support the wall. guest: i cannot speak for that mayor. there is 2000 miles of border. if you have seen a mile of border, it is all different. because you do not have a problem in your community does not mean somebody else does not have trouble. where i'm community at the u.s. consulate for mexico and the united states and he rolled up in a giant armored humvee. his guys had body armor and weapons and i'm like, why are you dressed like you are leaving a green zone in iraq? he says, that is appropriate for the security situation. host: from the democrats line in minnesota.

caller: i listened to what you said before the questioning started. he said that people were being brought across the border not at the ports of entry. smugglers were bringing them across and telling them to act like families. on and on. they bring people to the ports of entry and they are blocked at the ports of entry, and people wait in line for months and are not allowed to go to the border and asked for asylum. for ther question independent that called in, you never answered the question. you talked about asylum but did not answer the question about why our government is not dealing with the countries where these people are having problems? guest: i actually did answer that. administration has been

working incredibly closely with mexico and the central american government, not just on the migration issue, but on all the things to make those countries better. they recognize that is part of the problem and part of the issue is they get no credit for that. here is the problem, another problem i have with the caravans, which is a silent is an awesome tool of international -- asylum is an awesome tool of international effect. it has saved tens of thousands of people every year, from death and the most extreme forms of exploitation. it is an important global tool but it is designed for a specific purpose, to help people that truly have a credible fear of their life because they are being persecuted. by many estimates, at least 90% if not more of the people in these caravans do not have a

legitimate asylum claim. they are clogging up the ports of entry. 90% of the people are clogging up the line so maybe the 1% or 2% or 5% that need our help cannot get to the head of the line and get the help they need. i do not think that is a hit on the administration. it is a hit on the people who put these caravans together. exploiting it for political purposes. host: from little rock, arkansas, teresa, republican line. go ahead. guest: i don't know what he has against little rock. host: go ahead. caller: i want to talk about the cost of these illegals coming into our country. i had seen the show last week, cnn aired it.

they were talking about the cost congress has spent on border security since 1965 and gave the figure of $64 billion. he said that is the same thing it costs the military each and every year. yearst figure is true, 50 and $64 billion, it is pretty bad. the other thing is the cost of these illegals in our country, and i saw an article -- and i do my own research -- that said the health care costs in 20 was over $18 billion in state, federal, and local taxes. we can be using those for veterans and poverty. i am agreeing with your first statement.

numbers like these are lost in the politics of the issues. cost to ourcuss the nation and other things like that. host: thanks. guest: that kind of gets to the core of this administration's policy, which i agree with, against, we are not immigrants coming to america. if it is a public safety perspective, it is indisputable we would be better off if people came to the united states through a legal system. that way, we accrue all the benefits and a limb and i the downside -- eliminate the downside. she talks about we spent $64 million at the border. the cartels are in $80 billion industry. during the recession, they are the only ones who did not ask

for a government bailout. they smuggle guns, money, drugs, and people. this is a master of -- massive criminal enterprise designed to make the border fail, and that is what we are competing against. what we are ignoring is people are throwing serious money to make this fail. host: charles in farmington, connecticut, democrat line. caller: nice to meet you. just a comment, i think part of the problem we have in the u.s. is brought about by both sides. i do not know the heritage foundation, what they do. when i noticed watching different tv networks is you get differing facts from differing sides that support the argument they want to support. fentanyleman mentioned

was one of the big things coming through the sudden -- southern border. i think that is coming through china, their anchorage, or other ports of entry. he also said the refugees, once they get past into the middle zone they just disappear in the country, when i hear from the other side that illegals actually show up in court more often than regular u.s. citizens do for crimes they commit. ,hy don't we just sit down instead of having a 24 hour news cycle where we listen to the same baloney over and over to ourand have a daily c-span talk show where you get both sides together and talk about facts? host: we are trying to do our piece here on that. guest: i agree with him. part of the problem is because it is a political debate, people

pick the facts they like. i do not dispute the many ways that fentanyl comes into the united states. when it is to fight politically convenient. as you crackdown on other areas, it will happen more. it is not something to just ignore. the point i would make on more refugees do show up for court, that is true that in many cases, whether it is somebody making an asylum claim or somebody in a deportation hearing, oftentimes they will go through the process. the question is, after they are ordered out of the country, do they show up for deportation? the results are not super good. customs we have enough

and border patrol, ice officials to handle the situation on the southern border? guest: that is a great question and no permanent answer. as we do things, criminals will try other ways to beat the border so that number will probably fluctuate. youres not tell you that problem is definitely getting worse or is permanently solved. border cbp, ice at the is probably appropriate. stressed by the caravans and that is why they brought the military in. the judges and judicial system, very much the legal thing, if we had some legal fixes that we could more expeditiously process refugee claims, it would serve refugees better and would be a better deterrent because people with false claims would not be

able to get into the united states and stay. more call from laguna woods, california, mike. caller: i am a libertarian and as ai am a libertarian, and as a result, i do not believe it is within the function of the government to protect adults born here themselves, that is drug addict. one of the costs of drug prohibition, similar to alcohol we maketion, is it easier for those who really intend to do a lot of harm to them, byby giving making it easier for them to enter the usa. please?ve your comment, guest: yes, great comment. i do not know if you can advertise on here, but if you have not seen "murder mountain" is a great it

illustration of where the dynamic is. complaining how the play started in the middle of the play. we already have a massive criminal enterprise that is pushing drugs, and that is not going away. that is the problem we have to deal with. i often make an analogy with prohibition, regardless of whether you thought prohibition was a good idea or not, prohibition fueled a massive criminal enterprise. what happened when we de-criminalize alcohol? aspect of not go away, it just found other areas. we could debate, but at the end of the day, we have to defeat these massive criminal enterprises, otherwise they are always going to be a threat to us, not just in the united states but throughout the country, because they are throughout the country, and they go into canada. in my mind, at the end of the day, if we did not have these massive criminal enterprises in

the western hemisphere, we could have a lot more calm, reasoned discussions. host: james carafano, retiring lieutenant colonel, now at the heritage foundation, and he is on twitter. thanks for being here this morning. guest: thanks for having me. thanks for c-span. host: we will continue our conversation on the program. we look to our spotlight on magazines and hear from oriana skylar mastro and her piece in "foreign affairs" on the rise of china. that is coming up here as "washington journal" continues. ♪ >> for the first time in the state's history, iowa voters elected women to the u.s. house of representatives last november. both are democrats, and both defeated republican incumbents. congresswoman sydni ask me earned her nba from the kellogg

school of \ management before working under three ohio governors. she and her husband have a design firm. is abby finkenauer. she previously served three terms. three members of the house, all democrats, two of whom defeated republican incumbents. democrat sean casten represents the sixth district, and he was the ceo of two clean energy firms earlier in his career. congresswoman lauren underwood now represents the 14th district. she was a senior adviser at the department of health and human services during the obama administration. she also has masters degrees in nursing and public health. and representative jesus garcia, recognized chui, was in illinois' fourth district.

cook county the commissioner and on the chicago city council or. he is also the executive director of a local development organization. new congress, new leaders, watch it all on c-span. watch c-span for live coverage of the women's march in the nation's capital today beginning at 12:15 p.m. eastern live on c-span. >> "washington journal" continues. spotlight onur magazines series. we are joined by oriana skylar mastro, who is an assistant professor at georgetown university in the nation's capital, and author of the "cost of conversation." with us to discuss her feature piece in "foreign affairs," the most recent "foreign affairs," "the stealth superpower: how china hid its foreign ambitions."

what profited you to write about china? trump and thent administration had clearly laid out the fact that we were now in a power competition with china. for many people like myself, this was a welcome move, but people want to know why did he take so long for this to be the case? china has been in competition with us for two decades. so this explains why it took so long. host: the cover of "foreign affairs" is "who will run the world: america, china, and the global order." where previously had china fit in in the so-called global order? guest: the purpose of my pieces to question how we are thinking about china and the global order. historically, when a rising power is building power, they do it in a distinct way. today, we are trying to figure out -- what is china doing in the order?

what type of order is china going to build when the time comes? right now, it is to exploit the u.s. order to build their own power. host: give us some ways that china exploits america's power. example,r international institutions, in the 1980's, china went out and joined the vast majority of international institutions, and the signals to a lot of people in the united states, this was a whative move, but instead, they did is in some cases, the wto, they can use the institutions to benefit themselves, increased trade, increase their prosperity. they basically use their role as a high senior post in those institutions to make them ineffective. host: in your piece in "foreign thatrs," you write "beijing truly does not want to replace washington at the top of the international system.

china has no interest in establishing a web of global alliances, sustaining a far-flung global military presence, sending troops miles away from its borders, leaving international institutions that ownd constrain its behavior, spread abroad, but they are spreading their money abroad, in terms of the new belt, new road project." what is in it for china to do that? guest: they are using economic assistance as a political tool to build their presence abroad. a lot of the money does not, with strings attached, but they do come with political things, like the country has to support china's position on taiwan or other sensitive little issues. so the economic is a way that china can project its own power globally. china relies very heavily on the economic component, so just because you do not see the chinese military running around the world like the u.s. military does not mean

they do not have those ambitions. host: our guest is oriana skylar mastro, and we are talking about the rise of china. we welcome your comments. here is how to join the conversation, (202) 748-8000 for democrats, (202) 748-8001 for republicans, and for independents and all others, (202) 748-8002. a lot has been written over the last couple of years about the rise and naturalization of powers, power by president xi has the rise of china been strictly under his presidency, or has this been a long-term project for the chinese? so the rise of china and its competition with the united states has been going on for three decades. xi jinping's predecessors all had their own plans for how china could build power over the long-term. xi jinping came into power when china is reaching closer to parity in the united states and

when the chinese military is more powerful. at the term of the millennium, chinese military was backwards. but xi jinping is the head of a system that outhouse much more power. host: what about the new administration in washington, president trump's policy, the decision to not be part of the tpp and china's presence in the south china sea? how has that changed the chinese approach to their growth? guest: well, the chinese used to call it a strategic window of opportunity, because the u.s. was so distracted with the war on terror, it allowed them to rise for so long. they continue to be optimistic with trump allah sees. in many cases, what they do now is expand international

institutions are we need to increase economic relationships to maintain power in the region. step in the right direction, but unfortunately, as you mentioned, is no longer in play. i am a big supporter of the president's understanding of the relationship that we are in a competition. my fear is now he is pursuing policies so that we lose that. host: let's go to jackson heights, new york. dan is on our independent line for oriana skylar mastro. hi. go ahead. caller: hi. interested in understanding the old relationship between the soviet union and china and how was sort of reversed today. i mean, there is clear indication that the chinese are very interested in dominating in whatever way possible the central asian territories and then russia itself. of russia fromon

the eu has greatly weakened the eu. of course russia and the eu cannot be the kind of regime that it is now, but it would be very good to decide whether an integrated power to defend against this chinese incursion, both strategically and economically the way it is doing in other asian areas, or whether we are just going to consider russia ultimately as just the enemy that china encroaches upon. i would like you to tell me what you think is the situation. guest: well, you point out very clearly, and i think rightfully so, the increasing points of russia in terms of the great power competition between china and the united states. the main concern, however, is that russia and china are becoming closer. in september, they get a

military exercise together that werectually an interstate exercise, that is, they practiced the two of them fighting another country. he is now using language for relationship with the united states, how important the relationship is with russia. so moving forward, i am skeptical that these two countries are actually going to come together and a line. havechina does not really any interest in being partners with what they consider a little brother, and they do not have the interests in europe, but we might see a closer delineation between russia and china on issues, and this could be problematic for the united states. but as you point out, there is so much animosity between these two countries, for example, in central asia, but i am not quite as concerned about the bilateral relationships moving forward as some other u.s. strategists are. host: up next is joey in pennsylvania. good morning. on the democrats line. caller: yes, don't we owe china

a lot of money? and the amount of money, the amount of debt held by the chinese on us, isn't that a big factor here? guest: so we do have debt to china, but china is the largest holder of u.s. debt among other foreign countries. of by far the largest holder all u.s. debt is the american people. while china has a lot of influence as the largest foreign holder, it is actually he smallest of the u.s. that. it does give china some leverage, but only to the degree that the united states allows it to do so. many states take the specific countries and use it to punish them and makes it unhappy. just because china, for example, right now, is only asking canadian citizens, not harassing

citizens of other countries, this not mean the rest of us should stay silent, especially the united states, which has more power than some of ours while her allies and partners. host: we are talking with oriana skylar mastro, at georgetown university, assistant professor of security studies. we hear from lee now in jackson, missouri. hi there. caller: yes, hi. i have two questions, if that is ok. the first question is i heard a rumor that in the last administration, some of our national parks were sold to china, that they actually own some of our national parks. my second question is -- have we done anything to stop the china poisoning our dog food? which apparently a lot of it is made over there. thank you, c-span, for your help. host: oriana skylar mastro, can you address either of those issues?

guest: on the national parks, i have not heard that rumor. if i had to guess, i would say it is probably not true, given that i have not heard anything about it. but i do not have any specifics about it. in terms of the dog food issue, this is a broader issue about the safety of chinese products. in china, they have a different concept. maybenot that they are purposely trying to export these products, but they do not have the accountability at the same level that we do in the united states. for this reason, when it is like for mytant, dog or for baby formula for other individuals, buy american, just to be sure. host: you say you were a translator. did you live in china for a while? guest: i did. host: how many years? aest: i lived there for about year, and when i go back, i tried to stay for two or three months at a time. host: you write in your "foreign affairs" pie in the political

ece -- -- pic host: how much of this do you think goes on in the u.s.? guest: i think a lot goes on in the u.s. china is very entrepreneurial and how it sees its power. in this case, they're trying to use a broad base of chinese citizens that they have in this country to shape the narrative about china but also to gain information about the united states. to be clear, it is not always the case that these individuals board.ly on

chinese students in the united states, for example, with a return to china, they are asked to stay in class. it is not something that they want to talk about, but they do not really have a choice. host: what are these confucius institutes? guest: these are institutes on the outside that are basically teaching chinese culture and language at many universities around the united states, but in many cases, they are promoting certain ideas that are positive to the communist party. host: more calcium now, michael in illinois, good morning. caller: hi. want your guests to comment on this issue. funded, china's rise, china's meddling, has all been funded by the u.s. business community in their greedy pursuit of profits at all

costs, shipping jobs over to china. i can remember when they sent went to china in 1971 or whenever it was. front, oh, one billion people for customers, with no money. with noion people money. we transferred the wealth of the geniusn middle class, businessman, to china, and now we have a problem with them. and it does not matter, the earlier comments regarding trump and his picking up on this, is not going to matter when you have a business community that constantly sells out the best interest of the american people to foreign powers and also for domestic grade. host: all right, michael, we will get a response, thanks. guest: michael, to be fair, it is not u.s. companies alone that have fostered the economic relationship between china and the united states. u.s. consumers have profited greatly. all of us, when we look at the

things that we buy and the products that we buy, we can afford the lifestyle we have largely because of chinese goods and because of our trade deficit with china. the first thing is we have to think about that. also, with this decision was made to be more integrated with china economically, as i mentioned before, they had a navy that could not build beyond a visible range on the coastline, they had pilots that could not fly efficiently at night or overwater. the fact that we do not have a debate about security concerns years ago makes sense, and we should not blame our predecessors to much for that. the point about the economic relationship and how much it matters, right now china is so power economically that i do not secret policies of this administration as trying to maybe hurt china economically or maybe going to have any impact since they are already at such a high level.

host: a report this week in the "wall street journal" talking about a defense intelligence report, the defense intelligence inncy report found that addition to traditional military advances, china is increasingly shifting attention to emerging demands, particularly cyber and outer space. the people's liberation army ofains far short deploying military forces globally, but that they could reach adversaries anywhere within its cyberspace and nuclear capabilities. guest: china has been somewhat wise in this way that into compete with the u.s. as a losing cause,s a so instead with a have focused their military efforts on is the impact of the united states and united states' ability to operate in cyber. the most important about that --ort from ice perspective,

my perspective, the reason we have that scene, china using we haveot that deterred them with costs, because she thinking is not sure that the chinese military will prevail. once he is sure, i think we will see low-level conflict. i think china will give its military a try, and then when they reach taiwan, it is possible they will rely more on the military on to accomplish foreign-policy goals. host: our next call is on our democrats line. good morning, bruce. caller: yes, i am calling -- colleges in the united states are embedded with china also. there was a hearing in dce recently where over 300 government employees that work at these colleges in the research departments were also getting money from the chinese government.

now that is breaking federal law, which they actually signed on to be attached to them, that you are not allowed to take foreign money, and there has that there concern has been transfer of some of the technology that they use to do their research, has already gone to china. these people should be dismissed .mmediately it was a recent hearing. i do believe there is going to be an investigation into it or . host: ok, bruce. guest: the national security concerns associated with china are real. the chinese government has not been shy about their defense of nation strategy, foreign technology, and to try to use those civilian partnerships. so moving forward, the united states is actually much better

than other countries in terms of protecting our technologies, ensuring it is not used for national security reasons in china. that being said, we still have a lot more to do. we have to increase the government's capacity to review a lot of cases of u.s. businesses, or u.s. research centers, cooperating with china. but we also have to be clear that we want to stop the cooperation when it has a national security purpose. i do not want to see politicians using national security as an excuse to promote more protectionist economic policies. it is some sort of economic corporation, even if it hurts the united states economically, and the competitive region, if it does not contribute to the chinese military, then i think as a free trading country, we should allow those to move forward. host: let me get your thinking on transfer technology and chinese technology, the whole story of the arrested chief financial officer of whah

uawei, china responded by arresting several canadians, and a person in jail there has been sentenced to death by china as u.s. waits for the extradition meng.st of ms. what is going on here? guest: this highlights the different systems between the u.s. and china. uawei executive has not been tried yet, so i cannot make statements on her guilt. lawshere was evidence that were broken. canada has followed the rule of law throughout this process. china has responded by trying to be retaliatory. this to harmt do china, you did this because china's executives are doing this behavior around the world, and it undermines democratic

principles and a lot of different countries, so it is extremely problematic that china can randomly decide to arrest citizens,an harass and sentenced to death. also to followers like myself who enjoy spending time and researching in china. host: does it give you pause for any future trips to china? guest: it does. with chinesetions colleagues, they say do not worry, it is just canadians. my point is, until when? president trump could do something or ruin some trade deal and the government could target me. it has given me pause, and that is, i think, unfortunate for the people come the relations between the two countries. host: a few more calls here. let's get to jacob next in pennsylvania. welcome. caller: huawei, i thinkhi.

thanks for having me on the show, c-span. muslims that are being detained and arrested almost basically at these internment camps, and i saw that the chinese government had a trip conducted with other muslim outside party to come see all of these, and it was a very planned trip. i want to know your plan on china not only being a rising group of power but when you can compare to the united states and next in line. as a history major at hsb you, i am always fascinated with certain empires, when they make certain decisions, they normally tend to bite them in the river rear-end. i am fascinated why they would

peoplealmost 1.8 million in a year, close to 2 million. why they would do this that might harm economic growth or exacerbate the trade disputes. guest: i am not a human rights expert, but it is my understanding that while there has been criticism, and rightfully so, of china's , with theof uyghurs european countries, most countries are not willing to speak out on this. unlikely to get a u.n. resolution condemning china. but to the broader point of the competition between china and the united states, this is one area that i think forgets is to their advantage. even though we do not have a perfect track record of living up to our values, by and large, international order benefits

countries other than ourselves. and when we look at how china behaves internationally but also we they behave domestically, have to ask ourselves -- is this a country that we want to dominate the indio pacific region? that we want to be able to call the shots? thatrsonal opinion is answer is no, and that means the united states has to focus more this his time, efforts, and resources in maintaining its position in asia than we have to date. host: the next is david and alabama. good morning. caller: good morning, c-span. for you.l is good i would like to go back and think about how the china thing has started. when i was a kid, they were known as the red china commies, and they were starving back in china, and we had to finish what was on our plate. and richard nixon opened up, i guess, negotiations that went beyond the great wall of china, and then in the 1990's, bill

clinton cozied up to the chinese. 2001, they were in the world trade organization, and now it is like china wants to take over the world. mastro, iere you, ms. would not go to china, because they do not play fair, and they have always been a communist nation. they are locking up christians, they are, you know, they are communist. joseph brings us back to the beginning of our conversation, talking about the wto. some final thoughts. guest: the history between the united states and china is very collocated, and i'm sure the future will be as well. they decided to move forward and start the normalization process because of the threat between from the soviet union. this was also during world war ii, we fought together against the japanese.

now, the united states in the 1990's and since then has benefited greatly from an economic relationship with china. now china finds itself in a situation where china's more confident, more militarily capable, and willing to use all sorts of things to get what they want. this is not an ideal situation, but we also have to remember that the rise of china has benefited, as you mentioned, a lot of chinese people 700 million people have lifted out of poverty. i would conclude that china is much less communist in terms of how they run their economic this time. the main problem that you are alluding to is their autocratic feature. that is going to be a huge divide, and ideological divide between the united states and how it sees asia in the world and china as an autocratic country. host: oriana skylar mastro, herpes in "foreign affairs," the

stealth super -- ," her piece in "fos "the stealth super power," also at george washington university. thank you for being with us this morning on "washington journal." guest: thank you for having me. like to know what do you want to hear from president trump today? the numbers are on the screen. we will get to your calls momentarily as we continue on the "washington journal." >> monday, martin luther king jr. day, we discuss the u.s. guests live on c-span's "washington journal." on c-span2, discussion on race in america.

>> voter suppression. voter suppression is real. i can name a couple of states, florida, georgia, texas, north dakota, yes. today in 2019, we are still dealing with this issue on dr. king's birthday. >> and on american history tv on america," theeel 1957 film a time for freedom documents the rally at the lincoln memorial. us the banner, and we will no longer tolerate the government of a lynching mob. vote on the our end thend bring to the perpetrators of bondage. thistch c-span3 booktv

monday, martin luther king jr. day. >> "washington journal" continues. host: president trump this afternoon will speak to the american people at 3:00 p.m. eastern. we will have live coverage here on c-span and c-span radio. the president saying and a tweet yesterday he will be speaking about what he is calling the humanitarian crisis on the southern border, talking about border security. we want to hear from you, what do you want to hear from president trump you (202) 748-8000 is the number to call for democrats, for republicans, (202) 748-8001. and for independents and others, (202) 748-8002. the president tweeting this morning that he is going to dover air force base, he will speak at the white house at 3:00, as we mentioned. a possible breakthrough on the democrat side, the democrats have added more than $1 billion

in order spending to a package of bills that would reopen most of the government, even as president trump said he would have a major announce that this afternoon on the order and the shutdown stalemate. they write that the proposal is scheduled for a vote next week, according to two senior democratic officials. it reflects a shift in strategy by democrats who maintained they would not give the president a counter proposal until he drops his insistence on a wall and signs legislation to reopen. also in that story, reporting from julia hirschfeld davis who funds were incorporated into a package of six spending bills that republicans and democrats agreed to last year and which would cover funding for all of the closed portion of the federal government, except for the department of homeland security." "times" writes also

"democrats are also considering a new funding bill for the includent, which would 1.3 billion dollars allocated for border security. the proposal would include additional border protection measures they have endorsed, such as more personnel and scanning technology to intercept illicit drugs let's go to andy in kentucky. good morning, andy. go ahead. hi, i want to thank you all for what you do, getting the word out to the american people. i would like for the president to go with the $1.3 trillion. if he is still unhappy with that, the emergency order they are allowed to do, he needs to be protecting america, which i think he is trying to do, and pelosi,ocrats, ms. chuck schumer, i pray that they will soften their hearts, and

they need to start putting our country first and protecting america. that is what they are supposed to do. and the democrats need to stop being upset because trump won. i am a conservative. i am a democrat. i voted for the bible. have left the bible, and the democrats need to start doing the right thing and supporting the bible and standing up for the bible, and ,et's get the wall built because they are to serve and protect america. gaston, hear from alabama. caller: good morning, sir. i would like to hear him just tell them we are going to build this wall. if they do not like to live in this country -- i am a veteran -- if they do not like to live

in this country and they do not feel like this country is going enough to die for and to serve and to protect, let them go to singapore or somewhere else. think we lost you there. we go to frank next in canton, ohio on the independent line. what do you want to hear from president trump this afternoon, speaking at 3:00 p.m. eastern? caller: i support the president. i would just like to know how much democrats and republicans have voted for, how much the department of transportation on all of these walls around our interstates. thank you. host: thank you. frank in canton, ohio. scott in california on our democrats line. go ahead. caller: good morning. yes, i want to hear president trump make an announcement to reestablish or re-incentivize

something like john f. kennedy's alliance for progress. chimera, as a econom pipe dream. it is put to solve our problems. all of the people of the south happened to be black and brown people, people of the native american race, and the black people imported from africa to , wereves in america building a wall to keep ourselves free from those people. obvious, the racism is so obvious that you can see it. it makes me angry. i would like to -- i have had the opportunity to travel overland from the united states to, through central america many times. themazes me that

opportunity has not been taken more often, and it surprises me upt the country would wall against all of these populations to the south by putting up a wall, our problems will be solved. those people are desperate down there. take a look at your underpants, see where they were sowewn at. honduras. take a look at the bananas you buy. shame, we what a already throughout the government of guatemala in 1954, and we are still messing with them. so let's take an adult look at the western hemisphere and address our resources here rather than to the middle east or anywhere else in the world for that matter. host: that is scott in california. the president, we mentioned, is speaking this afternoon at 3:00, tweeting a short while ago, "mexico is doing nothing to stop

the caravan, which is now fully formed and heading to the united states. we stopped the last two. many are still in mexico. it takes a lot of border agents if there is no wall. ." easy or c what do you want to hear from president trump this afternoon when he speaks? van nuys, california, john, on the republican line, go ahead . go ahead. john, you are on the air. caller: i am a few miles south of the previous caller, who was from camarillo. i am from sherman oaks, california. quite frankly, the wall is a deal breaker for me. the last time there was a dealbreaker for me was in 1992 when george bush senior broke taxes"ad my lips: no new pledge.

if president trump breaks his pledge to build a wall, i am a supporter of him, but this is a deal breaker for me. host: the political effects in "new york times," on the front page, senator dixon against the wall, risking the wrath of alabama. jones scored ans upset win in alabama for the -- te seat

at ny read more times.com ashland, ohio. good morning. caller: good morning. i like that the president had given to the heritage foundation, and let's the american people know what the population of the united states is, and i would like to find out what the cost of illegal immigrants are two american taxpaying citizens, and i would cost ofknow what the

illegal immigrants are doing, what their cost is two american taxpayers, and to divide it up and find out what it costs each and every taxpaying american citizen, how much it costs them every year. it is their money come all right. host: in brighton, colorado, emmanuell. go ahead. yes, when i would like to hear is trump saying he now recognized the technological means of controlling illegal immigration, it is the best way to spend our money. wall is extremely ignorant, because most of the people coming illegally are coming on visas, whether that be work , they areourist visa coming here and overstaying their visas. the problem is larger than any

solution offered by a wall. and secondly, i would like to hear him say that one of the reasons why we are having the illegal immigration problem is because employers, mostly republicans, by the way, are hiring undocumented workers, because they offer lower wages. host: ok, we will go to our republican line next, lewis in new jersey. go ahead. caller: what i would like trump to say is the first thing is he will admit is e-verify, which democrats voted against, so illegals can work. the other thing i hope he says as he is going to build a wall to preserve jobs for black americans, hispanic americans, and white americans. not having a wall is a last -ditch effort to restrict

unemployment for blacks and hispanics and poor white people. thank you. larry, southht, dakota, what do you want to hear from president trump today? caller: i would like to hear not lies but truth from him. i would like to hear what he has poked his finger in the eyes of mexico, canada, china, all of the european nations. that guy -- then he says mexico will pay for the wall. shutdown the border. if there are no good things coming over, we are not doing no trade at the mexican border, they will eventually pay for the wall, or because he is a billionaire, let him pay for the damned wlaall. i am sick of it. thank you. host: thank you. president trump speaking this

afternoon at 3:00 eastern. we will have the live for you of course on c-span, c-span radio. i also want to know that the president announced by tweet yesterday, not surprisingly, following yesterday evening, friday evening, he put out this video with a bit more. take a look. [video clip] pres. trump: everyone knows by now that our southern border is a humanitarian crisis. it is also a national security crisis. things are happening there and they have been for many years, decades, but it always gets worse with time, because a lot of people want to come into our country, and there are a lot of people that we don't want. have gangiminals, we members, we have human traffickers, we have drug smugglers. we do not want them in our country. take the politics out of it, let's get to work. , and let's make a deal we sit down. lot of the democrats agree with me, they told me so, but they are afraid to say it. we have to secure our southern

borders. if we do not do that, we are a very sad and foolish lot. host: let's get back to you, your thoughts, what do you want to hear from president trump when he speaks this afternoon? we go to joann in oregon, democrats line. caller: hi. thanks to c-span. [indiscernible] host: joann, we are losing you a little bit. caller: can you hear me? host: are you on a speakerphone? caller: no, i am on a regular phone. host: now we can hear you. go ahead with your comment. caller: thank you, c-span, for letting us have our opinions. i think we should work with both companies, and if he decides on signing something, follow

through with it, and the wall should be completed if he has all the money for it, which is going to cost about -- it is more than $5 billion. it is going to cost, i believe, $36 billion to $50 billion. because if you are quick to do it, you have to do all of it, because most of the drugs are coming in from ports of entry, and they found a tunnel in arizona. so we have got to look at the whole picture, is what i am saying. host: on the shutdown, lindsey graham senator from south carolina, weighing in. he is overseas in turkey. this is bloomberg reporting. to thesays an end shutdown possible "in a couple of weeks." andsenator says a deal to the government shutdown, now in its 29th day, could be in a

couple of weeks. they were at a stalemate. and ankara,mberg turkey today. with the good news is i have behind theg scenes with the president and the vice president. i believe there is a deal that could be reached quickly, in a couple of weeks, not a couple of months. that is in bloomberg. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. first of all, i keep hearing people say that they will hire extra people to put on the border instead of the wall. stop and think, how much money are you going to spend over a paying all of those extra people to be standing there. that does not make sense to me. i think you are to build a wall regardless. as far as the people coming in

from honduras, my job was sent to honduras, so what of those -- we have people over here that are living under bridges. we have kids that are hungry. we have children that are second cannot afford insurance. the elderly, and i am one of those, we live from month-to-month, and these people have their checks cut off. they keep talking about how we have to get into our savings account. i do not have a savings account, because i live on a fixed income, and my husband passed away. i live from month-to-month. why isn't anybody addressing that instead of jumping all over president trump? because of people begin so ignorant, they drag those children all across the country, that is there fault, not ours. host: you just said you lost your job, it went to honduras. what were you doing? stock mailing.

this used to be the stock now capital of the world, and it is not anymore, because it went overseas. host: we will hear from george in north port, florida. would like to hear the president speak like the statesman, the leader of the free world, and tell us why what he is doing is the most important thing, in terms of the wall. i get the wall going up, but what i don't see is where the wall is going to be built. there has never been a schematic as to where he proposes the wall to go. in terms of yelling about -- yelling is not the correct word, but declaring a national emergency, it either is a national emergency, or it is not , and therefore act appropriately. dangling the national

emergency as something of an event that you are going to address if you are not going to address it. it is sort of like a specious argument. so be presidential, be a statesman, show the world that we know what we are doing. thank you. host: thanks, george. thisck programming note, weekend on our c-span cities tour, we explore booktv in american history tv, traveling to independence, missouri to see literary life. all of our literary programs from the city will air together in one time block. the harry truman presidential library, see and hear about the books that have influenced the life of harry truman's political career. [video clip] side of the bookshelf has a lot of the books that truman read as a young man. the oldest books, we know, are called "great men and famous women," and it was a set of four books the were given to truman

when he was 10 years old by his in 1895 -- actually, 1894. but truman also likes to read the classics. thedecline and fall of roman empire. we are standing in the office that harry truman used at his presidential library in independence. these books here are clearly books that truman wanted to have -- ad him, and so it says lot of these books say more about him as a person, what he really enjoyed, and as president, a lot of these books are things he read as a young man and as a senator before he ever became president. and: to into booktv american history tv this weekend as we travel to independence, missouri, and to watch video of independence and all of the cities we visited on our cities tour. go to c-span.org/citiestour.

a few more minutes to get in your thoughts on what you like to hear from president trump when he speaks at 3:00 eastern here on c-span, c-span radio, at 3:00 p.m. eastern, and @cspanwj is how you can reach us on twitter. this is what fred thinks. "i want the president to declare a national emergency. the safety of the american people come first, and i do not understand why democrats are not understand that we the people deserve safety and our own country." dan in south carolina. caller: a quick question. i do not understand why we are building a wall in the first place, because this was not our land in the first place. how about if the indians would the put up a wall when pilgrims came over, because in that bunch, we had murderers, killers, rapists, we had all of that, we had disease.

so when we say we are protecting our rights over here, what about all of the kids at all of the the indianse did to and so they land? in austin up next texas, republican line, good morning. caller: "foreign affair good mo. host: go ahead. you are on the air. up in austin, texas, san antonio, a lot of mexican people. trucks going by, and the police say oftentimes they are smuggling people. the other day, we had people from pakistan crossing our border. so the people who call in, especially democrats, they know nothing about how important it is on the border, because they do not live in a border state. host: austin, texas, and also from south carolina. a couple of minutes left here on

"washington journal." morningo point out the editorial in the "financial times," their editorial cartoon, lookingof two cities," at westminster, tangled up big ben, and the nation's capital, talking about brexit. this is in the "washington post" this morning, i will read a quick part of this, a parallel and a crisis. they write "on both sides of the pond, governments are wracked by chaos. in the u.s., president trump's bid to get funding for a border wall has triggered the longest federal shutdown in u.s. history. theresa may clings to power even after a historic defeat in parliament this week that would have failed earlier governments. the second crisis mount, safeguarding u.s. ports

of entry are now working without paychecks and are furious about it. in the news of a catastrophic no deal, brexit within 10 weeks, mays government said it would be mobilizing army reservists to help deal with the headache and crashing out of the european union would bring." that is from the "washington post."read it at washingtonpost .com. from to seattle and hear mark. what do you want to hear from the president? caller: thank you for c-span. you guys are the greatest. what would i like to hear from president trump? first, nothing. i am weary of his divisiveness. that the just realized u.s. southern border is on the rio grande -- the texas border is on a river, guys. you cannot build a wall on a river. created this problem by blowing up the bipartisan bill -- i could not believe democrats

and republicans actually came together before christmas with the deal. so trump lou this all up. the wall is to wall you in, people. and putin is laughing at us. host: we will get one more take, from maurice in miami. caller: hello. i want to expand on an earlier caller who spoke about the jfk alliance for progress. undeveloped,ot of fully developed countries in latin america benefited, and we have into that mindset and abandoned these small countries, poor countries to the point where they are having to try to desperately cross our border for health, and i think that is a crime. these people, i mean,

the wall is really unnecessary. it is just a big political thing. immigration -- illegal immigration at border crossings are substantially down from over one million a decade ago to over 300,000. in fact, the net loss of immigration. so it is all just a political game for trump to distract from his russia problems, and the in one of columbia took million venezuelans, the much smaller, former country of colombia took in one million immigrants. and the agriculture sector -- it christianity, on lots of values, and racism that has pervaded this country.

host: we will let you go there, maurice. thank you for all of your input. we appreciate you tuning in. "washington journal back tomorrow morning, 7:00 a.m. eastern. kathal be joined by pollitt, discussing the state of women's issues, the women's march happening today. also "business week's" -- "bloomberg businessweek's" peter coy will be talking about alexandria ocasio-cortez and her influence on capitol hill. and american enterprise willtut's dalibor rohac discuss brexit and the influence of prime minister theresa may. we will see you tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]