post deputy editor monica norton. >> i thought the film was visually beautiful. the thing that really sticks with post deputy you, just how d lovely the film is. his writing really does deal with love whether it is universal love, loving oneself, ,ove between people and society i think that is the overarching aim. a lot of people probably see him , because he was so passionate in fighting for the rights of african-americans that sometimes i think people mistake that for anger. butink he was not angry forceful in his to enunciate should of racism. >> tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span's q and a. host: we want to welcome david harsanyi, senior editor with "the federalist."

i want to begin with a piece on the democrats that you wrote last week. as you put it, their problem with anti-semitism. guest: a number of freshmen said somehave things that people think r anti-semitic. peopleill think our -- think r anti-semitic. that thosebelieve ideas are somewhat anti-semitic. i think that rift between young and old in the democratic party is going to grow over the next few years. host: one from elon omar.nator she apologized for her remarks on israeli money, jewish money. the troops on twitt

i don't know that she thinks there should be a jewish state at all and it is a debate worth having within the democratic party. host: she sits on the house foreign relations committee. guest: her opinions are not merely just insulting, they will have something to do with policy moving forward so it's important to understand what she really believes. host: you have some loud voices but is that the consensus of the majority of house and senate lawmakers? i don't think it is yet guest: we are trending in that direction or it seemed like we may be trending in that direction. many of the young progressive minded congressman -- even though the divestment bill of or voted downcked by democrats. i think it's worth having the debate to understand and if you see nancy pelosi -- when you have young against old you have to pay attention to the young people coming into congress and the senate.

host: this is the headline from the washington post. to read part of what the washington post is reporting saying the president in his political team plan to make his years long quest for a border wall one of the driving themes of his reelection effort attempted to turn his salese into a combative pitch that pits him against the establishment on the issue of immigration. his campaign is fundraising often showdown with congressional democrats over the border train the opposition party as more interested in political games than in the public's safety and faced with the fact that he has yet to build an inch of the concrete or steel wall he promised the president and his campaign starting to rely on a rhetorical sleight of the hand speaking the wall into existence. a largely assumes he remains popular enough to rely on the same strategy that delivered him

to the white house through a thin electoral college vote even though he lost the popular vote by 3 million. guest: it was a core idea of his presidency, or one of the core ideas. it might be successful. mostrats, for his excitable voters, i think the wall is still a big deal and the idea that democrats once voted for things like that but seemingly obstruct it any funding for it will be helpful for him. host: for the guy who wrote the book the art of the deal where was the deal with nancy pelosi or paul ryan? guest: i think there is legitimate criticism of the president to say that he did not make this the first thing he tackled. he dealt with taxes and things of that nature. in the end people want the wall or at least his core constituents what the wall so i

think it matters. i don't think washington is like a business deal. nancy pelosi has nothing to lose and undermining him. she has only to win so incentives are completely different. art of the deal does not really work in washington. here's the he david her president. [video clip] what >> do you say to those who say you are violating >> the constitution and setting a bad precedent that will possibly be used by democratic residents in the future? >> not too many people have said that. the courts will determine that. . expect to be sued very rarely do you get sued when you do a national emergency. other people say what are you using it for? we got to get rid of drugs and gangs and people. we have an invasion of drugs and criminals coming into our

country that we stop but it is very hard to stop. with a wall it would be very easy. i think we will be very successful in court. i think it's clear. and the people that say we create precedent, 56 or a lot of times, that is creating precedent and many of those are far less important than having a border. you don't have a border you don't have a country. world toall over the create borders for countries, but we don't create a border for our own country. i think what will happen is, sadly we will be sued and it will go through a process and happily we will win, i think. host: the president hedging his bets at the end saying i think. will the white house win? -- i thinkeems congress abdicated much of its

responsibility here. i don't know if he will win. he might win. it will take a long time. i think it's a terrible precedent because democratic presidents will use it. haveratic presidents abused it. part of the reason donald trump -- manydent is obama voters felt like obama circumvented congress to do what he wanted. i think that hurts his case with at least some people. host: if you look at this historically and you look at three coequal branches of government, if the president is successful, it would fundamentally change the power of the presidency and really dilute the role of congress. the president proposes, congress disposes. this would allow the president to do whatever he or she wants by declaring a national emergency.

is that not correct? guest: we are talking about moving money around that exist. obama funded subsidies going through the courts with money that was not allocated by congress. i think there is a danger in declaring an emergency because we all have different ideas about what a national emergency is. in that way even if it turns out to be legal, as a precedent it's a dangerous thing to do. host: let's get to your phone calls. jim is first up from georgia. caller: good morning. comment is this. our issues with central america are not recent. .hey go back decades if you look at the movie the good shepherd and you see how we

treated central america as basically a colony, now we are paying the price i think of not managing those relationships with those central american countries properly. going back generations maybe even. it just seems like that is something that is not considered in managing the problem. host: thanks, jim. is this in your wheelhouse? guest: we have been involved in central america for a long time. or a while we were fighting communism and other things but i think to blame the united states 30 or 40 years later is not a great argument. there's a lot of corruption and poverty. it's not really our fault that is happening. we've often try to help countries in central america with aid and things like that.

i think if wife was better in mexico or other central american countries we would not see as much pressure on the southern border. that is a fact. i'm not sure how we tackle that. host: your family knows about this coming from hungary in the late 1960's. guest: my parents defected in 1968. facing socialism. note was poverty but it was the sort of poverty they are facing in honduras or places like that. it was more a lack of freedom or the ability to do what you could do in a society here with capitalism. i think they were running away from something a bit different. they were not going to star and they were not worried about their families starving. host: we know the president sleeps only a couple hours a night. up with a number of tweets. 93% of thel rating,

republican party calling that a record. pretty amazing considering 93% of my press is really bad. people are smart. guest: not sure how smart the people are. many people are smart. a lot of the support he gets is indebted partisan support any president would get. i think the democrats -- to the republicans it seems many democrats have gone left the don't see much of a choice. host: jeremy, democrats line. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. mr. president, the tweeting. so, i have never been more ashamed and frightened to be an american. congress has allowed abuse of

powers. we've known this was a possibility and our lawmakers did nothing. how can an unrealized campaign be designated016 a national emergency into this 20? it defies -- in 2020? it defies common sense. i think our republic has been damaged. the reminder to all of those trump supporters. i think think the try -- 33,000 gun deaths a year. trying to divert climate catastrophe. 47,000 people who died from dozen overdoses and two 17. 22 veterans committing suicide a day or veterans begging for money on the streets.

millions out of health care. millions under naresh. -- undernourished. supporting puerto rico or california which were obliterated in natural catastrophes. -- border with host:host: we will give our guest at chance to respond. guest: i agree that using the national emergency to circumvent congress compounds something that's been going on a long time. i think congress has abdicated its responsibility in lawmaking and this has been going on for decades. that't think every problem we face is a national emergency including all the problems he just mentioned. gun violence over the last 30 years has dropped tremendously in the same way border crossings have dropped. -- his point of view is important because it shows what

democrats are going to try to do if we move forward with this. host: this tweet from senator marco rubio who is in central america. i arrived in columbia -- ombia. prepared for delivery for the suffering people of venezuela. another country with a big mess. guest: the socialist disaster and disaster of corruption. something we have to deal with in some way. most americans don't want to intercede in the business of other countries anymore. it is still something that affects us. it is worth paying attention to. host: john and levittown, pennsylvania. on the republican line, good morning. caller: good morning. i'm from levittown, long island. we had eight years of a national emergency when we had president obama in this country.

thank god we have president trump. someone standing up for law-enforcement. i'm a retired policeman. i see what happens when people come into this country and want to do harm to us. you can go to an airport and as an american you have to take off your shoes and be searched. you can go down to mexico and look across the border and do harm to this country and nobody cares. the democrats are going so far .o the left i feel it's good to be a walkover for president trump in 2020. as a policeman there's no more riots in the streets, no more screaming kill the police. now we have law and order restored to this country after eight years of no law and order and anti-police rhetoric. i feel mr. trump, don't let them get you down. .he polls are always wrong

a lot of people feel the same. thank you for the call and i would like to say i feel the president is doing a great job. he's on the right track. he speaks the truth what a lot of americans want to hear just afraid to talk about it. host: we know the president watches the program. we will get a response. guest: i don't think president trump gets down over polls or anything of that nature so i think he's fine as far as that. i don't think it's going to be as easy as the caller believes for him to win reelection. if we continue to see democrats tacking hard left in my opinion it will help him in that effort. host: i realize we are putting a lot of issues on the table. this is a tweet from one of our regular viewers think venezuela's problem is , not socialism. you cannot conflate the two of us you are willing to lie.

guest: socialism always ends in corruption. when you centralize power and give it to the state and collectivized your economy it will always become corrupt. we have the system we do and it generally works pretty well. host: dorothy is from trenton, new jersey. are you with us? we will try ann in new carlisle, ohio. caller: good morning. they keep talking about there's border.em at the don't these people realize we paid for a wall 100 times over with all the immigrants coming in and all the things they get moneywise. it's time for the american people to wake up. these middle-class people, you don't have a chance in the world if the democrats get in.

bend over and kiss it goodbye because that is what's going to happen. this is the most corrupt government i've ever seen. host: thank you. from the carlisle, ohio. guest: there has been money allocated for the wall. we voted on a wall and into thousands excitedly many democrats who are still senators now voted on a wall. we still have a system wherein it is clear to me that this is -- that the president is circumventing congress that made it will apparent with the one point whatever billion dollars and he wants more. kentucky.y from you have to help me with the name of your town. caller: cynthiana. just north of lexington. host: you are on the air. good morning. caller: thank you.

i just want to take up for president abraham trump on the wall. so independentn as far as both parties. i feel like he is a third-party candidate himself in the future because no one on either party wants to take on the wall or theect our country from ills of abortion that are going on. why do we need immigrants in this country if we're not keeping up our population? we need to have these people to come in and help keep up our social programs. abraham -- at least have some type of control on our control in this country. he's been excellent at taking on will continueand

to do that because the majority of the people that voted for him feel like he is a third-party candidate. you also have the teachers that -- 85% to 90% of them are women -- host: thanks for the call from cynthiana, kentucky. guest: donald trump bags in many ways as a third-party candidate. establishment republicans in the primaries. in many ways would we look at his actual policies he's been pretty conservative -- traditionally conservative other than tariffs and things of that nature. the wall is an issue that's interesting because republicans have long talked about it but rarely followed through. host: good morning, kenny from arkansas. caller: i was wanting to talk about president trump and his tax reform bill.

i have always been a republican and then conservative. we voted for president trump we was not wanting hillary clinton to be reelected. as far as the republicans being for the rich, i can't say that. on the tax reform bill enacted last year we got back and asked her $1500 on our income tax this year. i only make $30,000 a year. i can't see how people call in and say republicans are for the and democrats are for the people. middle class and lower income people. i can't see how people can say that when i got an extra $1500 this year. guest: when you have across-the-board tax cuts the rich pay a lot of our taxes and below is get a bigger cut and this is something's republicans have had to deal with since they have tried to cut taxes and it's a good talking point for

host: but i agree with the caller. let me get your reaction to this story from nbc news. the president's foreign policy facing dissent in congress. republicans backed the measure. perhaps a more critical component of the measure is it was offered by mitch mcconnell who has been careful not to publicly split with the president. hofe backed by jim in -- the resolution that basically condemned the president's resolution to draw troops from syria and afghanistan." guest: one of the biggest grips of the republican party, what are we doing abroad. the establishment in washington do not want to remove troops from anywhere. the president has not made a great case for why but i think

he has more support in that area than people believe. why are we still in iraq? i think that is something to watch and could hurt -- could help the president with many independents. host: steve, good morning. democrats line. am moremorning i independent than i am democrat. i called both lines trying to get through. i have a couple comments. filmu guys go and take a from hitler's in his speeches, turn the volume down and you will see almost the identical thing. almost 8000 lives in his presidency. how can republican people back this man? soon as he hit hit i think the discussion becomes pretty ridiculous. i'm not really going to talk about that.

the president exaggerates and he lies. is he far outside the norm? i think he's just not as good as doing it as other politicians. i think it's more obvious and i focuses on it a lot more than they did in the past. he does not lie, he does, i just think it is not as far out of the norm as people might suspect. host: i want to put a tweet on the screen from lindsey graham. .epublican from south carolina i stand firmly behind president trump's decision to use executive powers to build the wall. a democratic president issues some sort of emergency, how do you think senator graham would respond? guest: probably he would say it was not an emergency.

unfortunately hypocrisy runs through both parties all the way through. host: we did see the senate republican leader supporting our president taking power out of the legislative branch and giving it to the president. guest: they've let the president make too many decisions for too long and this is one of them. want a barrier they should either vote for it or elect more people who will. this is about moving funding and i'm not sure that is applicable to all issues democrats have brought up. perhaps on a green deal they might move money around. --s not host: how can people follow you? guest: at david harsanyi. host: our guest is the senior editor for the federalist.

wayne from bolton, mississippi. good morning. caller: i have a question for david if i might. close is this country moving to the failed experiment of socialism? i will hang up and listen and reserve the balance of my time. guest: i think it is a problem because i think it has to do with the cold war ending in many young people not understanding what communism and socialism was really about. you see many younger politicians embracing ideas that would have undermined their election election prospects a few years ago. a problem.t is though, the american system is setup and a way where it will be difficult to nationalize

industry. i worry about the energy industry, other areas where americans might move in that direction. host: our last call is from bloomington, indiana. lizzie, good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i have been listening the whole time and i really think there is something very wrong going on with the president and with the republicans. i think -- it feels like they are trying to become a dictatorship. i do not understand why -- we need to fight this. i don't think it is a good thing. controlling, going above for congress. host: thank you. we will get a response. of criticize republicans, and republicans of criticized a democrat president.

guest: obama bragged about using a pen to pass legislation. every party gets mad. it does get worse and worse as we move forward. i do worry about it. it is not a dictatorship. he is moving around money to build a wall. i don't know why that is a dictatorship. president trump has done many things to pull back executive power. i don't think it is because he doesn't want executive power, i think he was rolling back obama era initiatives. the paris accord, things like that. maybe each president will roll the of the president's abuses back and maybe that is a good thing. maybe the partisanship and -- that way. we are not close to a dictatorship. people who say that are undermining a debate we should be having. host: while we have you come as the 2020 field begins to take shape, we learned what am welcome her republican governor of massachusetts in the 1990's,

now back inside the republican party, and gearing up to challenge donald trump. does it make a difference? guest: i don't think it will make a difference. if anyone was going to challenge trump, it would be on the right. you would have a conservative on the right. a more moderate candidate, i don't think is going to hurt him. activist conservative voter, especially in the primaries, one not vote for someone less conservative. they made to vote for someone more conservative. you see a more conservative candidate jumping into the race? guest: i don't. he has been good on that stuff that the constituency cares about host:. thank you very much for stopping by. come back again. host: we want to welcome back if familiar face, donna brazil. interim chair of the dnc, author of a number of books, teacher at howard. you are one busy person. donna: i'en