-- we will take your calls and you can join the conversation on phase of and twitter as well. washington journal is next. good morning, a back to work week for congress. headlines -- the testimony of trump'scohen, president one-time personal lawyer. he once said he would take a bullet for donald trump. doorsarings behind closed but wednesday's session will be open and live on the c-span network. it is sunday, february 24. ahead ofahead on "washington jo" the winter meeting of the

government association -- governors association continues with a dinner at the white house. how would you grade the job that your governor is doing in your state? that's our starting point this morning. we are dividing the phone lines between those in the eastern and central time zones, (202) 748-8000. mountain or pacific, (202) 748-8001. join us on twitter and facebook, and good sunday morning. a lot to talk about. one body recovered, a boeing 767 cargo jetline heading to houston disintegrated after crashing yesterday into a day just east of the city. telling emergency personnel that the twin engine plane went in

nose first, leaving debris along trinity bay. probably a crash that no one could survive said what eyewitness. the cargo plane making a steep descent shortly before 12:45 p.m. central time. according to faa tracking it was being operated by amazon and atlas air. pictures courtesy of "usa today," three deaths as a result of that plane crash. houston is en route to to investigate exactly what happened. want to share with you this map courtesy of rasmussen. there are 27 republican governors across the country, 23 democratic governors. one of the republican governors is former house representative in south dakota and in event covered on friday cosponsored by politico he talked about the issues he's facing in south

dakota. we will have that in just a moment. we will also let you hear from some of the other governors. we have an carrying their state of the state addresses across the country. this story from inside of "the mexicanon post," on the border, the pentagon examining the proposal, allowing the acting treasury secretary to look at a way to reallocate the $3.6 billion for the wall. this as the pentagon prepares to allocate billions for wall, andon of the it's the most visible for ray to date by shanahan, an executive who became the acting pentagon as shanahanonth examined the proposal to shift the money for the border wall, a by thede possible

perceived threat from undocumented immigrants. bywe should point out that the house and senate will continue to debate on the national emergency to begin on friday with the announcement by nancy pelosi to try to stop the president from enacting the use of a national emergency for the border wall. we now have the governor from south dakota. [video clip] we have peoplees saying what they believe without saying why. a lot of times may be quoting statistics or economic theory, but not really talking about the family and the situation that they are in today and what we can do to make their lives better. have is a story that i told a couple of times previously where i was home on a weekend grocery shopping at 11:00 at night in our local grocery store and iran into a young mom who had her grocery cart full of generic food with

her hands full of coupons and going to"when is it get better"? electricity costs are going up and it's cold. she kept asking when it would get better. we stood there and we talked for 15 to 20 minutes and we ended up talking about the farm bill in food production, but also energy regulation. we talked about tax reform. we talked about a lot of things. but it was about remembering to think about her every day, raising her kids in south dakota rather than just thinking and standing by our theories and policies, that every day we should wake up thinking about what we should do to make her life better. focusing on the next generation that is coming. her website,on

c-span.org. what is the number one issue in your state? how would you grade the job your governor is doing on that issue? david, jackson, mississippi. good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead, david. caller: still talk? hello? are, david, good morning. i will caller: -- morning. we are going to go on to john. caller: right now i'm living next to a dump that has a bunch of nuclear material in it and it's on fire. i'm worried about that. i'm not sure what's going on with it. it's been going on for years. host: the fire is going on now?

caller: i believe so. it's an underground fire, like a dump. they use a lot of nuclear stuff here. they put all the nuclear trash in a regular dump and it's right next to the lambert airport. you know where lambert airport is? host: we do. in st. louis. the center for politics, a look at virginia politics with a new poll showing the governor ralph butham's approval is weak virginia is not demanding resignation. a political note from mile and biggestho said that the issue they have in iowa is steve king and the governor is doing nothing to get rid of them. here's this from ghost tingle. candidates producing tax

returns, he says, no one should be fooled in 2020. ralph joins us from d.c. our biggest problem is our leaders. we are trying to get statehood here and let me tell you, this city has four times as many city workers as any other city of its size in the country and now they are talking about making it a have the second highest paid city workers with the worst education system in the country, with the highest paid in the country. it's massive. the first thing that they say is ok, we will expand the salaries of the city council, expand the number of city council members,

expand the size of the government, and already we have $50,000.x, we have a bunch of idiots in charge, a bunch of basic socialist who think that putting more city workers to work rather than giving people an education and a job is the way to go. next up is bill. canton, illinois. what's the most important issue in illinois? caller: it's to bring companies in, to produce more jobs. it seems like our governor is taxing everything, making it unfriendly for businesses. i talked to several business because theyate are raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour and they are looking at other states, the surrounding states, to do business. they want out.

also a lot of the people that live here one out because it just seems like, you know, now that the state's total democratic control, they think that the best way to do everything is to tax everything and to produce more money and it's ridiculous. we got a state that runs on a $3 billion deficit, we are $145 billion in debt to the state pension system and they are not addressing any of that. there's just no solutions. it's just tax, tax, tax. for the call.u we are asking you what the most important issue in your state is. the winter meeting of the nga continues this weekend and we will have live coverage getting underway at 9 a.m. eastern time, 6:00 for those of you on the west coast. it on our website,

c-span.org. next is charles, joining us from white plains, maryland. caller: yes, good morning, steve. and good morning to your audience. from the great state of maryland, which generally has a good economy and leadership. except for one particular item, that's the city of baltimore, my home city. city,s a great, great with many, many fine qualities, ,he economic engine of maryland yet it is not getting the attention from the governor and from the other legislative leaders. this particular city needs more because it could offer the state of maryland a great

deal of success and i'm hoping the rise in of crime and murders in the city that the governor of the state of maryland and the legislature will pay more attention to this youu --ty and the hbc hbc's that cover the state. thank you for your time. host: this is from rebecca, saying -- from old bridge, new jersey. bridge,phy is your new new jersey. phil murphy is your new bed -- democratic governor, repeat -- replacing chris christie. what's the most important issue in your date? >> probably the into the of the state and the

infrastructure. i mean for the last like 15 years the budget has been getting worse and worse, more and more jobs leaving the state. in my neighborhood alone there is a bus stop that goes in new york city and 200 to 300 bus stop going into the city. there's almost no growth here. almost all the areas are residential and small business oriented. there aren't any major deals going on. that's why i was afraid of a democratic governor because in times like this we can't really play identity politics. i also have a different perspective on what we are trying to do. i was talking to an intellectual guy who told me that on his ship he had a bunch of fellow crewmen from new jersey and when i asked them what they all thought about it, this logistical mission to

other ports, basically the whole crew [applause] host: let's go to carl -- the whole crew [no audio] host: let's go to carl. caller: good morning, c. i'm 80 years old, it's like going to bother me much, but the it, these illegal people flooding our country are driving wages down to the point where the average working man just can't afford to live. you know, we let those folks in here and then a robot takes their job, the blue-collar job and you know it's going to happen? it's going to be anarchy in this country. you are going to have people roaming the streets trying to feed their family and they will want to take what you got.

here in the up woods and i'm well armed and it ain't going to happen here. host: thanks for the call from west virginia. from the new democratic governor he outlined in his agenda to lawmakers in sacramento the year ahead. [video clip] >> there's a lot more that deserves our focus. climate change, the tax code, criminal justice system, universal preschool, community reimagining the dmv. [applause] there's a so reimagining the tas and more in the coming months. at my inaugural a few weeks back, i quoted the sermon on the mount. about a house it did not fall in the face of flood.

i promise that together we will build one house for one california. you started drying up a blueprint for the house and together we are going to finish it. but this goes deeper than budget numbers are even program details . this is about the bond between us as human beings and when all is said, we are many parts of one body. we are all diminished when one of us struggles. the problems that we face are as hard as they come and they are in many cases decades in the making. i truly believe that we have the tools and technology and the know-how that most importantly, we have the generosity of our people. that from gavin newsom, the democratic governor of california, part of our state of year toe series every find out what's happening in your state. --rity has this, saying

host: this from another viewer, saying -- referencing the caller from outside st. louis, missouri. and this from david, saying -- host: and finally from this -- linda, good morning. issue ishe biggest illegal immigration. our roads are so crowded. once they allowed illegal immigrants to have driver's licenses, the housing costs are up. it's supply and demand. there's not that much supply, the demand is up, rent is

outrageous, our roads are full of potholes, even though we charge an extra gas tax. the schools are so overcrowded. people who don't speak spanish have a difficult time getting a job. all of these problems arise and it's more monetary. in three --mes things like that. i focus on the monetary aspect of it. i would give our governor a f.inite host: thank you for the call. this from steve -- host: we will get back to your calls in just a moment as we deal with other news this

morning. the 800 page report issued by robert mueller, fox news has this, manafort repeatedly and brazenly violating the law. here are some of the details, courtesy of fox news. accusing the former trump campaign chairman paul manafort of repeatedly and brazenly violating the law according to a redacted sentencing memo filed on friday in a washington courtroom.

patrice is joining us. atlanta, georgia. you have any republican governor, what's the most important issue in your state? caller: to tell you the truth, the most important thing for me is what people to know their history. i'd like to comment on the person talking about statehood and so many socialists in d.c. right now we have a president that is using racism for his power base. that's fascism. he has taken over the money for deciding what he wanted to give and use the money for. that's fascism. north korea, vladimir putin, that's communist. i will take a socialist anytime

at per day. money to colleges for my kids and grandkids. anyone who knows our history would know how dangerous it is. the last word about people coming in and taking the jobs. they are not the migrants. we have a system that could be enacted and enforced today. so that they couldn't get the jobs. the people coming to take our jobs that i care about are the h one visas flooding this country. no one's talking about that. those are the jobs we should care about. engineers, doctors, scientists. those of the jobs we are losing everyday, ok? not people going to the farms in the hotels. if you want to stop that, get trump and all of the buddies that he supports to have -- to put in either, $20 billion. it could be enacted and import -- enforced today. this from cnn politics,

not currently any african-american governors, but this piece by zachary wolff says here is why that will change. you can read that on cnn.com. sippy --ton, missive mississippi, good morning. caller: a lot of people have trouble getting internet in my state. i'm a gamer. we live in a society where the internet plays a big role. host: good morning, sandra. caller: i'm in the hospital right now. i have thesesue is people who are multicolored at night taking care of me. i can't understand them, they can't understand me. i don't know whether they are

legal, illegal, they are to wipe the but or stuff like that when things are slow. someone needs to figure this one out. host: what are you in the hospital for? caller: i got stray cat and then i got urinary tract behind it. let's go to michael from marietta, georgia -- good morning, michael. caller: good morning. host: on the air, go ahead. caller: the biggest issue in this state is basically the overcrowded and -- overcrowding and the racism, for me. the identity politics and all this stuff. states, someferent people have nothing, other

people have everything, so they be complaining and whining now. they complaining about illegal immigration, which is not actually a crisis or anything. people complaining about they can't get jobs, which is false. i've been employed for the past decade, working at every place i ,o to, any place i want to finding work that i'm qualified for. i don't see the big issue. it's the overcrowding, the overtaxing, the money, the economy, that's what it is, how it is for me. call.thanks for the this is the headline from "the washington post," trump heading to vietnam for a second summit, the first one took place in singapore last year, and it's also available online, the reporting, "days ahead of the

second summit with kim jong-un, president trump is redefining to bid to force north korea hand him public expectations amid evidence that they've done little to curb weapons production."

again,t: again, -- host: that story and the headline from "the washington post." from raleigh, north carolina, ray, you are next. caller: my issue is illegal immigration also. we have places in rural florida that used to have a issue with a lot of violence. me is notthe naacp to the same issue it was when i grew up. you have them fighting for , but whatmigrants about the families and durham that want to rebuild the black

community? the naacp is for colored people, but first it was for blacks. we as black people should not get involved with this issue. it doesn't help us. the people coming here don't hire us. like the only reason we deal with mexicans and other people is for drugs. i think that the naacp should refocus on the issue. this -- joiningxt up is anita us from sarasota, florida. good morning. caller: my call is more or less of a comment that a problem. we dodged a huge bullet here in florida by electing and keeping our state in republican hands.

i worry, though, we have so many people coming down from as far as california that not only is it bringing the money, but they are bringing their attitudes and the way that they vote. i see them redefining florida in such a way that we won't be the sunshine state. pholell turn into the cra that you see in new jersey, california, and new york. if they want to come down here and lee -- live down here, leave the attitude and the way they vote back north. host: they do for the call. the colorado governor, the first openly gay democratic governor in that state. he talks about the issues he's working on, like campaign-finance reform. >> --[video clip] party standst the

for campaign-finance reform. i always have. we need to get rid of the special influence in our election system. we need to have a fiamma way to have people powered campaigns. at the federal level i supported john sarbanes, matching donations for small donations. the state of maine is an example of the campaign-finance system smallorks and can empower donors and we would love to see colorado moving in that direction. >> what about wealth and the way that they are talking about that? >> i was wealthy and remain wealthy. i think they saw it as an asset. i was successful in business. i don't think it would have thought i would make a good governor if i had been multiple times a failure. i think the coloradans want they areho knows what

doing to be governor and not someone with repeated failures or bankruptcies. that was the governor of colorado. emily, georgia, good morning. how is the governor there doing so far? caller: yes, i'm calling from georgia. my name is emily mcduffie. i bought my property in 1972. here, the been living next-door neighbor is named al davis. been here and kind of set me down, i got raw sewage coming in my yard. i wish i could get somebody from

the white house or someone from the naacp to help me. we will go to john, next. what's the most important issue in your state? and what's the job your governor is doing on that issue? the former attorney general, former republican senator, mike dewine, how's he doing so far? dewine, how's he doing so far? caller: we will see how this road tax goes. personally, i believe that the most pressing thing on the fun d's turn limitations. until we get that, we have nothing. i have been a business owner for 20 years, very successful, made a lot of money. and again i don't have the wealth that these politicians have. it's mind-boggling for me. these people go into lifelong careers and politics and they leave with an incredible amount

of money and we just don't get it as a society. until we have term limitations, they are always wanted put party before citizen. .hat's the biggest problem until they do, we have nothing. we are tearing each other down. we continue to travel through new hampshire, the first primary state scheduled for february 11 of the next year. today at 12:30 we will be at the private home of nashua, new hampshire is the follow amy klobuchar. we will have a chance to see that later in the schedule. this is part of the road to the white house coverage.

a standing room only rally in her husband, bruce mann and don bailey were intel. strong group of supporters and curious onlookers injected a more conversational tone into the speech while touching on key issues of universal health and child care, affordable housing, and stamping out corruption. host: that event at some estate , here's part of what he had to say about tuition and education expense. [video clip]

a commuter college the cost $50 a semester. what i could pay for on a part-time waitressing job got me a job as a public school teacher and catapulted me into america's middle class. that is real opportunity. that opportunity does not exist in america today. i am in this fight as i believe it should be there for all of our kids. today in america, people are half trillionnd a dollars in student loan debt. think about that. about it this way, every year some people come to college, right, they get to be old enough to go to college, they borrow some money. finish paying. if the college population stayed roughly even, which it is, you would expect that $1.5 trillion

in debt to stay about the same. high interest rates, fees, defaults, penalties, that ball of the debt is growing in america today at the rate of $100 billion a year. the comments of elizabeth warren from massachusetts, she was in new hampshire yesterday. part of the road to the white house coverage. we are following amy klobuchar today later tonight. in the next half hour we will turn our attention to the case that was part of our landmark cases series here on c-span. we will be talking with john moines of the des supreme court. we had been hoping to hear from mary beth tinker, she will not be of the join us, we apologize for that. john tinker will be joining us

coming up. a reminder of the nga winter meeting gathering at 9:00 eastern time following a short program. kathleen is next from montana. what's the biggest issue in your state? caller: i believe that our biggest issue is money. you can watch our governor on c-span, using his speech, in my mind he doesn't come close to representing our state. the other guys in washington, d.c., they are clueless as far as what montana is. all of the people that i know that were raised in montana are sticking in other states and nations. they are not sticking around waiting for payments from the farm bill. know, i really just can't say much more. see embarrassing to me to

what we used to call leadership is nowadays influence peddling. that's all there is to it, influence peddling. thank you for the call. penelope with this tweet -- host: one other note about kim jong-un, traveling to vietnam, "new york times" this morning reporting that he will be doing so by train and it will take place midweek. we will have live coverage on c-span. wanda, california, good morning to you. good morning. yes, my issue is the american people. don't you guys understand that this is our money? that these people are spending?

they have money to kill not to heal? this is our money. not their money to spend. they don't tell us what they are going to do with our money. host: thank you for the call. kate bremen was here in washington on friday. one of the issues that she discussed? female governors across the country. >> we have tripled that number to six. we can do better than that. our really critical that elected leaders, particularly governors, reflect the diversity of our communities throughout the state. i'm going to keep fighting to make sure that we have more women elected. what is it going to take? it will take voters seeing women in executive positions, in the roles of mayor, governor,

feeling comfortable. the reason it was easy to see women in legislative roles is because they see women as having these natural collaborative skills and they want someone who is tough. take more's going to women and people getting comfortable with the idea that women can leave if they do it differently. i would say that we have been extraordinarily successful. host: that was kate brown. the story involving justin fairfax, he was the suspect -- subject of a restraining order in 2008. i will scroll down and read you the details. he accused the virginia governor of sexual assault in 2008 according to politico, the man reportedly in a relationship with her claiming that she held

him against his will in his north carolina vacation house, denting the trunk of his car with her fists, threatening to kill herself. this comes as there are questions in richmond as to whether or not there will be a joint hearing involving democrats and republicans. republicans planning to hold that hearing with justin fairfax after the to act as asians of sexual assault. ye's next from alliance, nebraska. good morning. caller: i think rickets is ignorant of what's going on in our state. he keeps saying that the economy towning great, yet in our we just lost a kmart. it's like 10,000 people here. the only things left our two dollar general stores. i'm just baffled as to where he comes from. most people, i wonder if they

realize, $10 per hour is $20,000 per year. you can't survive on that, you can't make car payments, you can't even make rent. $15 is $30,000 per year, you can't even make it on that. host: michael cullen, agreeing .o testify behind closed doors wednesday's house committee will be live and open to c-span cameras. we will be providing the feed to the other networks. bet you see from them will c-span cameras, michael cullen agreeing to testify. here are some of the details. give mr. cohen, one of trump's most loyal aides, a rare public platform to try to explain his work for the including an illegal scheme during the 2016 campaign to pay hush money to women who claim to have had affairs with help his, promising to

administration -- host: more details available at nytimes.com. next, edgefield, south carolina. what's the most important issue in your state? all across the country, the medical expenses.

i've been diagnosed with a heart aneurysm. i woke up about a month ago with some heart pain. got me a little scared, i went down to the emergency room. they did an x-ray and got my blood pressure. charge me $3600. this is a big crisis in the country. another thing i wanted to something going on in berkeley this week, not being covered by any of the news media other than fox. i'm not a big republican, but i think that fair is fair on news coverage. i just wish it would be more reported as to what has been going on in the country. thank you for taking my call.

host: thank you. someoneident tapping new canada -- tapping a representative to canada. a look from rest nice and makeup across the u.s.. population, 60he 3%, live in states with democratic governors. tina, good morning. from grandma array. i have a very serious issue that we have been fighting for about 10 years in the state of minnesota.

the tact the nights started to deteriorate and the machines came in, miners were losing their jobs here, now they want to bring in copper, silver mining. copper nickel mining. that would destroy the northern part of minnesota. you would have something like 18 different sites in the state where they are testing for the mineral. we have two mining companies that have aggressively pursue and the scientific evidence shows that because it , the devastation will be unsalvageable.

our state will become inhabitable. like i'mem exaggerating, but i'm very upset. we have had two democratic governors and neither one has really strongly put up against the mining. host: thank you for the call. if you are interested in the unemployment rate in your state, this from the ncl.org website. the states the unemployment rate remains in the low to single digits. joining us from london, kentucky. good morning, brad. caller: baby c-span can help me out with this. from what i can tell, and this is not only in kentucky, many other if not most states, there ina massive pension process

which things from what i can every state is underwater in their finances. rather soon, i don't see anyway -- any way, it doesn't get reported or spoken to a lot. maybe you all could elaborate or help me out on that. as far as kentucky, i would like to brag on our governor, who is often tone deaf, but i am proud, he has not ever claimed that he would let a newborn die on a table. i guess that makes me a little proud of him. was part of the nga which meeting yesterday. live coverage at 9:00 eastern time on c-span and c-span radio. we are also taking your tweets

at c-span wj. join in on the conversation. of utahblican governor talked about how he would use his relationship between his state and washington, d.c. [video clip] collected works for the few and not the many. as judge brandeis said, the states of the laboratories of democracy. but what i say is the little pilot programs are working on different issues to address our national governors association. we actually highlight success with respect to the states. democrat and republican, they address issues and solve problems. they are much more nimble and effective at addressing policy and fixing problems. i think that we ought not to be the junior partner. we in fact created the federal government of states and we

ought to have a recognition here with the federal government of the preeminent role the states ought to have. governor herbert, republican of oklahoma. what's the most important issue in your state and how is the governor performing on the issue? we are asking that because of the winter meeting of the nga, the president and the governor hosting -- the president and first lady hosting the governor's. good morning, dolores. i'm concerned about the crime here in tennessee. peopleg and killing every day. our representatives, the governors and senators, they are not saying anything else. people talking about the crimes, this needs to be addressed.

it's a national crisis in tennessee and in other cities. it's dangerous, you are scared to get out and go anywhere. they are hiding it here in it's a national crisis in tennessee and in othertennessee. marsha blackburn, like i say, is not addressing this at all. host: the you for the call. the president said he wanted a during veterans day celebrations. that did not happen, but moments thatthe president tweeted they would be having one of the biggest gatherings in the history of washington, d.c. on july 4, called a salute to america. it would have entertainment and an address by your favorite me."dent, that from after obama trump. came in 30 seconds ago. president at the white house this weekend because of the winter meeting of the nga. a look at the sunday winter magazine. what makes a good job good?

this from time magazine, philip elliott. a look at donald trump and those peering in, including potential or announced 2020 candidates. phil is joining us from bend, oregon. >> we have a high rate of homelessness and with that brings issues of mental health and crime. seeing we want to spend a lot of and as i was told by a

, ronald reagan's pastor years ago, he and i corresponded in florida. i had great ideas of trying to solve the world's problems, but we have to look at and realize that we have very strong and urgent issues. we need to take care of our children, obviously. they are our future. we need to do this by setting an example and taking care of these children, our teachers. they need a lot more respect. my father was a principal.

i do know that we can do this, but we have been dominated by the democratic governorship. we have one now and that's fine. host: how's he doing, by the way? caller: well, you know, there's a lot of controversy. i try to stay inspired. she could be doing a lot better, a lot better. bill, thank you for the call. if you're interesting getting some advanced work on our next segment, the case featuring the 50th anniversary today, tinker versus des moines. we will talk with john tinker at the top of the hour to take your phone calls. that series is on our website. mary from naples, florida, good morning. here in florida,

particularly on the gulf coast, i think the greatest issue we are facing right now has to do with our environment and the water quality this past year. the red tide algae bloom is a typical phenomenon. host: that's a big issue, that's a big issue down there, isn't it? caller: it was a major issue this past -- i would say six to 12, maybe 18 months? it's not typically a year-round phenomenon. it's usually something that occurs for say three months, but this year it really affected our wildlife with a lot of quality and as a result, we are state -- i'm very blessed to live somewhere where i don't have to pay state or local taxes because we have a lot of tourists to pay for taxes whenever they are renting cars and staying at hotels. those people come

here to enjoy our beaches and , thate water activities could have major implications on the entire state. is this something that you are seeing on the atlantic coast as well? caller: far of near the panhandle and on the ocean side of the state as well. host: really? yeah.: this year it did. and it's scary. yeah. this year it did. and it's scary. i am definitely a liberal democrat and i did not vote for ron desantis, largely because of the inclusion of his children and some really tasteless television ads and his alliance with donald trump. but i will say that not -- not long after he came into office, he has really taken the bull by the horns regarding

environmental issues. something like $600 million was set aside to tackle some of our water issues. it's doubtful that i would support him in the future, but i definitely give him a thumbs up for taking that bull by the horns and focusing on that very important issue to us. not only the environment, but also the economy. thank you for the call. "the road to 2020," bernie sanders is ahead, followed by joe biden. the will hear more from senator bernie sanders. he will be in brooklyn, new york next saturday and sunday in chicago for his kickoff tour where he will be covering the event -- we will be covering the event on saturday on the c-span networks. bob, chesapeake, good morning. caller: how you doing?

host: good, how are you? caller: pretty good. the local paper is my biggest problem. it reflects "the washington post. for the last few years, c-span starts a question that is not really a question, but some sort of an accusation. and then they split the callers in half, automatically creating the false narrative that half of the country is against the president. the second thing is that "the " editorials are 90% negative against president trump. therefore, for c-span to be fair and not reflect prejudice, they should not put -- they should not be quoting these sources anymore than 10% of the time. when you use them continuously, it creates the impression that

c-span is 90% against president "the washington post" and "new york times" are. host: what other sources should we be using, bob? well, something right in the middle. all of these government agencies that make up these continuous reports of all kinds. i'm sure that you can get an from the various government agencies all over the place. but those two newspapers are definitely anti-trump. they have an agenda. ,ost: thank you for the call bob. as always, we appreciate your comments. you can probably send them to us on our facebook page and on twitter. heather wilson is our guest on the c-span newsmaker program. she is of course the air force secretary and one of the topics we are talking about was the

directive this past week to create a spaceport. [video clip] think the first several steps are? when might we see some legislation moving over to capitol hill? with thel go forward theet, i mean it's about timing of these things as you can imagine, but in the next couple of weeks that draft legislation will be underway. >> what are we looking at over the next five years? >> the president gave us guidance saying that we would propose to establish a space force that would have a chief of staff, but not a completely finance.nt acquisition remaining within a department of the air force with an undersecretary for space. i currently have oneundersecret. it would expand that to two.

by doing that, the president is elevating the importance of putting a kitchen table conversation for the country to recognize that there is a threat in space. the overall cost is significantly less because the president has directed proponents to keep the cost down. engagegoing to begin to with congress on both the house and the senate on what their priorities are. agreementsery broad that space will be contested and it is because we are so good at this. the united states is the best in the world at space and our adversaries are seeking to develop capabilities to deny a space in times of war. we will not allow that to happen.

we will engage them on how best they would like to see this organized, so there will be discussions over the next several months after the president's proposal goes forward. host: today marks the 50th anniversary of a landmark supreme court case. in just a moment we will be talking to one of the key players in that case, john tinker joining us from des moines, iowa. first, courtesy of cbs news, walter cronkite. caller: -- [video clip] >> the supreme court endorsed the right of students to protest as long as it does not interfere with the rights of others. a dissenting justice says this begins a revolutionary era. -- black antiwar armbands. freedomnot leave their

of speech and expression at the door. host: two of the key players in this case, marybeth tinker and john tinker, joining us from des moines iowa is john tinker. good morning and thank you for being with us. guest: good morning. host: we apologize that your sister could not be with us. we understand there has been some ice and whether in the des moines area -- and weather in the des moines area. guest: that's right. briefgive our audience a -- guest: we wore black armbands to protest the war in vietnam back in december of 1965, and when we were suspended, we decided to sue the school system for violating our first amendment rights to freedom of expression. we lost at the district court in des moines.

we appealed to the appellate court in st. louis and there, so we appealed to the u.s. supreme court. there had been a previous case coming out of the fifth circuit where students have been given the right to wear freedom buttons around the civil rights movement. with the split between the circuit courts, the supreme court agreed to hear the case 7- as you mentioned, we won 2. host: our goal for the next hour and we should point out we welcome our viewers on c-span3, american history tv, is to discuss this case and 50 years later, how and why it is relevant today. from the majority opinion, the following quote, worst amendment rights applied in the school

environment, it could be hardly argued that students and teachers shed their constitutional rights to freedom of speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate. can you explain the significance of that decision? guest: this is the first time that the court, the supreme court has recognized that students in the public schools andpersons under the law, therefore they are endowed with first amendment rights, with the proviso that they not disrupt the educational environment. there cannot be a material and substantial disruption of the environment and the cannot infringe on the rights of others. this is the first time that had been articulated by the u.s. supreme court, so that was a significant change in the way that students in the public schools were seen. the: while today is anniversary of the historic supreme court ruling, the

genesis began in the mid-1960's. let's go back to what the country was facing in that time. lyndon johnson had just been sworn in to a full four-year term and the war in vietnam continued to escalate. there were estimated 184,000 u.s. soldiers in vietnam and look at the increase from the previous year where there were just over 23,000 soldiers and the death toll from a few hundred in 1964 to nearly 2000 in 1965. explain what you, your sister and others were thinking about in that time. guest: i was 15 years old. i should explain that my sister and i both came up, we grew up within the civil rights movement. our parents were both activists in the civil rights movement. iowaved in a small town in

that only had one black family and the kids in that family were not permitted to use the public swimming pool. my father was a methodist minister in that town and he brought that issue to the city council. instead of just correcting it and allowing the kids to go to the swimming pool, they denied the kids permission and the church were my father was a pastor thought that that was a divisive issue, so they did not renew his contract. we moved to des moines. he was appointed to a different church, and in des moines, my mother made sure that we had black friends. she became involved with the civil rights movement in des moines and we did have black friends and when we invited them to come to our church, that church also did not want to have

black people in it, so they also did not renew our father's contract. at that point, he began working for the american friends service committee and his job title was peace education secretary. speakersas to bring in about world affairs and to basically promote peace. that is the environment we grew up and. -- grew up in. by the time the war in vietnam was building up, it was natural for us to be opposed to it. thanksgiving of 1965, there was a large demonstration in washington, d.c., there were two charter buses from iowa. they were college students from the state university, but there

were also other peace activists. i asked for permission to be on that bus trip to go to washington, d.c. and i was able to go and on the way back from that, there was a discussion on the bus, what we might do to continue to protest the war and the idea was raised that we could wear black armbands. black armbands had been worn during the civil rights era to memorialize the three girls that were killed in birmingham. the four girls, i should say, and the three civil rights workers that were also killed. to wearery natural black armbands to mourn the deaths on all sides of the conflict in vietnam. we also wore them to promote the idea of robert kennedy had for a christmas truce that year, so

when the school authorities found out that we were going to wear armbands, the principles got together and decided that the armbands would not be permitted. we decided that we really should wear them anyway, and so we wore the black armbands, a completely silent symbol of our opposition to the war. we were suspended from school, there was a community decision among the peace community in des moines and in iowa that we would go ahead and pursue the matter in the courts. that is how it got into the court system. host: we are talking with john tinker. if you are a student or teacher, (202)-748-8000. for all others, (202)-748-8001. we have a picture of your home in des moines.

your family had moved to st. louis. armband, you were alongside christopher eckert. your sister was in middle school and you had two younger siblings in elementary school. they also wore the armbands correct? guest: that is correct. we were all opposed to the war. we all thought it was a horrible loss of life going on in vietnam and we were all morning their deaths, so we did all wear armbands. mary beth woret the armband, i was delivering newspapers and it occurred to me that we had not had a group discussion. it was not just our family and christopher eckert that wore the armbands. i was part of a humanitarian youth group and pretty much the whole youth group had decided to wear armbands, but after we

found out that school authorities had banned the armbands, we had not had any kind of a group discussion. while i was delivering newspapers, i was thinking we should get together and i got on the telephone and called people told them to hold off until we could have a discussion of what we were going to do about that. mary beth had already gone to school and she left early and when i got a hold of chris, he said i don't care, i am going to wear it anyway. after the two of them were suspended the first day, we did have a meeting at chris's house that afternoon and we tried to call the president of the school board and he told us that it was not an important issue and that we should wait until january and

take the matter to the school board. that would've been after the christmas period. we thought it was important to support the christmas truce and we thought that we had a first amendment right to wear the armbands. the rest of us wore the armbands and we were suspended the next day. host: did you ever get an apology after the fact from the principal or a school board member or other people who said you could not wear the armbands? guest: we never got a formal apology, but i don't feel one is required at this point. the des moines school system has been very welcoming to us and has treated us very well and provided opportunities for us to veryto students and been -- they seem to be very supportive of the case as it sits now. host: why is your case 50 years

later, relevant today? guest: think of all the issues that students have. there is obviously the gun violence issue. the parkland shooting being a very large one, a year ago. shootings of school have taken place. global warming is an issue that students are very concerned with. though our local issues that students encounter. -- there areon of local issues that students encounter. speech,ression of schools are embarrassed because students are putting out problems with the school of administration -- with the school administration. schools throughout the country have things that they want to say -- students throughout the country have things they want to say and i think it is good for our society if they are allowed to say it. host: let's get your phone calls

as we look back at the 50th anniversary of this case, one of the cases we featured in our landmark cases series. michael from florida, good morning. caller: good morning. i have to say this is a real honor to do this. john tinker, your name is on the ap exam every year, so it is cool to talk to you. guest: thank you. ,aller: i always wanted to ask and i am glad you segued into it. are we just fortunate that you guys were protesting something noble like the war. the other reference you made, some kids want to protest about civil rights and other noble causes. what if eight students came in to school wearing swastikas on armbands or something that is a borat -- something that is a

borat -- abhorrent? how would you respond to that? host: thank you. back, our case, looking it was fairly simple in some ways because there was a silent symbol. we were not standing up on the desks proclaiming anything. we were just wearing our armbands, and it was obviously a political statement that we were making. it fit right down the center of what free speech is all about. that is fortunate in a way. if you had a swastika or a hate symbol of any kind, i think it would complicate the matter because the disruption to the educational environment is a

very important consideration because in our country, we have compulsory education in public schools are what they call a creature of the state. it is a kind of double-sided issue. we have to have an appropriate educational environment. yet because it is a creature of the state, it has to be true to the constitutional rights that we have. coincidence ofte a nondisruptive protest and purely political statement. host: our guest is john tinker, a petitioner in the case tinker v des moines. did you have a chance to listen to the oral arguments? guest: this is kind of a sad story for me. i arrived at the airport in

cedar rapids. plenty of time for the 11:00 flight. but i had a long day and when i got to the terminal full of people, i fell asleep. when i woke up, everybody else was gone. i was kind of surprised that nobody had bothered to shake me on the shoulder or something to wake me up, but there it was. i don't know if the fact that i had a beard and long hair at the time had it -- had anything to do with that but i missed that flight and in the morning, i could only get a standby flight and i got bumped off of the flight connecting from chicago to washington. ,y the time i got to washington and my father and picked me up, it was all over. i have since been able to hear the oral arguments and they are quite interesting. if anyone in the audience would

be interested to hear those arguments, they are available online. host: they are available on the c-span website. we carry oral arguments at c-span.org. you can also go to landmark cases for our 90 minute program on this case. greg from massachusetts, thank you for waiting. caller: good morning. tinker like to ask mr. what his views are on kids not being able to wear their maga hats and shirts to school. host: thank you. guest: my personal belief is that we should permit all forms of nondisruptive expression in schools, especially ones that have political components. there was a case in california where students had wanted to wear american flag shirts to school on cinco de mayo which is a mexican holiday and my sister

write a brief on behalf of those students that wanted to wear the american flag. i would support the wearing of maga hats or shirts. i disagree with that decision but i would certainly support their freedom of expression to wear those. host: is that the original armband on your arm this morning? guest: no. this is an armband that has been ,rinted up by the tinker tour which is a project my sister has organized and it is a commemorative -- it is commemorative of this 50th anniversary. the original armband was simply black. it did not have the peace symbol on it. we kind of elaborated. host: the website is

tinkertourusa.org. mary beth tinker who is part of our landmark -- landmark cases series describes what happened in 1965. >> i was very -- [video clip] >> i was very shy and i was only 13 years old and in eight grade. i decided to go ahead and try to be brave like the other kids i had seen as examples, on the news and things. i had an armband and i had it on and i picked up my friend on my way to school and she said you better take that off. school, i saw one of my favorite teachers after pass and he gave me a i went to the office and i looked around the office and the

vice principal and they said to take off the armband because it is against the rules. now, in astudents great stand up of courage and conviction, i said ok and i took off that armband and gave it to them. i learned a very important lesson. you don't have to be the most courageous person in the world. you can be you. you can be scared and shy and still make a difference. host: mary beth tinker along with her brother who made history in a landmark case with the ruling 50 years ago today. john tinker is joining us from des moines. if you want to follow us on c-span -- if you want to follow us on twitter, we have a poll. do students have enough -- enough free speech rights at school? you can weigh in on the twitter

polls and follow us at @cs panhistory. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. caller: how are you doing sir? this is richard from california. here, i came from des moines to southern california. i lost my fiancee, my wife, to cancer and we moved down here and i got my son out here in school and he is now 13 years old and schools are having sexual abuse going on, something like that and i am just not and nobodyng it

calls me in to talk to me or say we need to address this or that. it is weird how they do it out here. i just want to say god bless you -- and host: thank you for the call. do you want to weigh in on that point? guest: i am sorry to hear about your fiance. school officials have a tremendous task and i have nothing but admiration for them and what they are trying to do a. -- trying to do. with regard to our case, you had mentioned earlier, justice black's dissent in our case,

saying now is a time that students are going to run riotous in the schools and that generally has not happened. feltnally, some investors they were going there -- that they were not going to know how to handle this freedom of expression that the students now had but a lot of them have andred out a good balance it is often an educational opportunity when you have problems in the school related to expression. remember that the students in school are not just learning math and science and history. they are also learning how to be citizens in our democracy. the firstrtant that amendment be respected and that students are taught to respect the first amendment and not

think that it is just something that we say because it sounds good but that the first amendment is something we really believe in. host: our landmark cases series which included not only the tinker case but also your times v -- also new york times v. sullivan and greg v. georgia. all those at landmark cases -- landmarkcases. c-span.org. -- for her role in supreme court history and continued to work as an advocate for first amendment rights. back to your phone calls. diane in new york city, good morning. caller: i am 12 years old and we are learning about your case. thoughtndering if you whether certain slurs targeting homosexuals or others should

still be allowed. host: can you still be on the line while he answers? i want to follow up. guest: my feeling is that, and this is not the official legal position or case law necessarily, but my feeling is verges --expression ventures into virtual assault. i know that a salt is defined purely as physical violence but a threat can really cause physical consequences on the receiving end. there is quite a bit of controversy over the issue of hate speech. supportivelly very of speech and i think that our people is better off if , theiress in words

opinions of things but i know towardreats can verge in the actual nature of violence, so it is a complex issue. speech outside of school that affects what goes on in the school, it is a very difficult issue and i think that generally speaking, we should avoid suppression of speech and that speech should be done with circumspection and a great deal of concern that we not infringe on the speaker. i hope that society can find ,ays to work out its problems especially without resorting to

physical violence. i think that is a very bad breakdown obviously. though it way we have is with words. we really depend on our ability to communicate in words, in order to avoid a more serious breakdown in society. i am very hesitant to restrict what anyone might say. the underlying argument in that decision, the first amendment to the constitution which provides freedom of speech , as a reminder it says quote, congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion or prohibiting the free exercise thereof or abridging the freedom of speech or of the press or of the right to people -- or of the right of people to peaceably assemble to petition

the government for a retracement of references -- redress of grievances. we have a photograph. john tinker was 15. do you think you would have the courage to do what they did more than 50 years ago on issues you are facing today in high school or middle school? caller: i think if it was affecting our country that it would be affecting me too and i would want to play a role in that and speak out. host: thank you very much. where do you speak out? caller: i go to -- school in the bronx. host: john tinker, what do you think? guest: that is wonderful. we need that kind of courage from our students and i am sure they will carry that courage and them as they grow older become more active citizens,

voting citizens. i think that is a very good attitude to take. host: you're in des moines, iowa and that is where rachel is joining us. she is a teacher. caller: good morning. i am a middle school teacher in des moines, iowa and our students studied your case and it is a great honor to speak to you. my question concerns the internet and speech on cyberspace. the court seems conflicted on how to apply the standards of tinker v. des moines and how student speech rights do not stop at the schoolhouse gate and cyberspace is something else. thinkstion is, how do you the standards set by tinker v. des moines could be applied to the internet which you said could be very disruptive?

thank you so much. host: before we get john's response, what was the reaction from your students when you taught this case to them? caller: they were fascinated by it. something that was incredibly influential to our site -- society at large and it was specifically about student rights and it happened here in their community. they love it. host: thank you very much. guest: thank you. here an honor for me to be speaking with you. problem,ifficult cyberspace and freedom of speech. is we should be distinguishing between speech conveying ideas and speech which is threatening and

is an attempt to intimidate. how that can be done by the courts, i am not sure. insidetinction between and outside of the schoolhouse gate is becoming blurred. i will go back to my general position regarding freedom of speech and the importance that it holds for our democracy. careful whenvery we consider limiting speech. i would encourage our culture, to teach kids to try and see things from the other side. when you have hate speech, you have someone who is trying to intimidatione or on another person and you have a person on the receiving end of that.

an old principle in law and ethics and morality is to look at things from the other side, from the other point of view. it is not always easy. if it was, we would not have these problems. it is an educational opportunity for an adult with immature sense of right and wrong -- with a mature sense of right and wrong. it is an opportunity for an adult to help students sayingand what they are and how it is going to be received at the other end. i know that there are cases where that works, and i would encourage teachers to help their students find a mature position. dan argued the case on your behalf. what did he tell the justices?

-- guest: they asked him whether speech inside the schools should be -- with speech outside the schools and i believe he answered yes. that is not exactly the position the court took. it is not exactly the same freedom of speech that you have inside the school that you would have on a street corner or a soapbox. the educational environment is fundamental. it is important to the functioning of the school. a speech that would be disruptive of the educational environment cannot be permitted.

in order to limit speech in the schools, it must be materially and substantially disruptive. he says that minor irritations, minor disruptions have to be tolerated because that is the nature of our society. in our society, we are going to have disputes and we are going we can'tontention and try to cut them all out. we can only control it if it is going to be materially and substantially disruptive, or if fear.is a reasonable black,ustices harlan and the dissenting judges. suspended, your friend christopher accor.

-- christopher eckardt. guest: he actually became the class president of his class. he went to the unitarian church i attended. i knew him through that. williamnts, maggie and were very strong civil rights advocates. advocates. peace our families knew each other. we had for parents who were very strong, chris also, very strong peace activist. and a good guy. he was not a close friend of mine, but we knew each other and i respected him. as i said, he became the class president. the student body as a whole respected him. host: by the time the case was

decided, you had moved to st. louis. this was pre-cable tv. how did you find out about the decision? guest: when my family moved to st. louis, i was attending the university ofdecision? iowa so i was living in a dormitory at the university and i was in my room and a reporter from the daily iowan- daily i/o in -- called me up and informed me that we had won our supreme court case and he asked me how i felt about that and i said i am glad. i was happy that we won our did --ut i realized that that it did not end the war for us to have won our case. we wore the armbands to protest the war and the war continued

several years after we won our freedom of speech case. , the victoryas not on speed -- on free speech was not our primary goal. our primary goal was to end the war. we understood we were a small part of that effort. host: let's go to gary in connecticut. caller: good morning. i am a retired teacher and engineer. some of to relate to the trials and tribulations i went through in high school, being asked -- being opposed to the war in vienna. i considered myself a conservative. history andd history told me that the war in thenam was a mistake and in five history classes i took, debates would often arise and i would take the view of being opposed to the war.

as a result in having written several editorials to the school newspaper, i was fired from my job. the end of my senior year in 1967, there was a history award that was to be given out in my school and i had had always in the five courses i had. i had a perfect score on the history sat and the head of the history department was the dar chairman for the local community and denied me the award because she said i had not really learned history if i was opposed to the war in vietnam. it was a real struggle of being ostracized and just for holding a point of view that i thought was historically correct and i think history has proved it was. host: thank you gary. guest: that is quite a story. i am sorry it happened that way. if you thinky that

you are a patriotic american and you feel the way to express that patriotism is to suppress and cause problems for somebody that disagrees with your opinion, in my opinion you are not really being a patriotic american. us supreme court vindicated in this sense. they said they did not pronounce upon the war in our opinion but they said that what we did was n american thing to do and to express your opinion about war or any other issue is a very american thing to do. if we are going to bring our country healthily into the future, we need to be able to express our opinions and not just express them, we need to be able to hear other people when

they express their opinions, and so you have told a story which illustrated a time in history when people were not so good at doing that, and i hope going forward into the future, we can improve on that score. host: eric is a teacher. thank you for joining us. caller: it is a great conversation. in 1965, uprs old here in new york going to school. i am calling and asked if we could expand the discussion somewhat because i think if i am going to make a point that there was a larger issue, the right to protest is very important and that has been the theme here. i read a lot of history as a teacher.

1961, we got involved in vietnam and all the way through eisenhower and kennedy into the 60's, we were involved more and from what iwas not researched until 1964 where there was an incident, a kind of naval, it might have been an attack, it might not have been but then congress authorized military involvement and in 1968, congress repealed the gulf of tonkin revolution -- resolution. what i mean by expanding the discussion is the old notion that we can be involved in the without congress --horizing it and how they they're constitutional responsibility. i am thinking this must have been part of your protest not to

just protest for the sake of that a an armband but is consideration, how congress was not authorizing this military , or not the primary responsibility of congress and can you give your thoughts on how that is part of the whole matter at hand? host: thank you. that is a very important point to make, a very important question. personally at the time, we were opposed to the war because of the suffering and death and district -- and destruction. hoping thatarmbands the christmas truce that robert kennedy had proposed would be taken seriously and possibly could lead to an ending of the war. but to your point, this is all

post-world war ii. the russians and the soviet union was our ally in world war ii to defeat cannot seize -- to defeat the nazis and the japanese. that, that war, there immediately began an arms race between the west and the soviet union. the growth of this huge destructive potential in the nuclear arsenals of both sides. the nuclear weapon is an instrument of terror in my view and the threat of a nuclear weapon is tantamount to terrorism. the mutually assured destruction, we were all living

with a sort of suicide pact. is that the kind of life we quotationsu read the , to dwight eisenhower, our president in the early 50's who had been -- you had been the supreme allied commander in world war ii, warned us strongly against the growth of influence by the military-industrial complex, because he saw that there was a prophet motive that was driving -- profit motive that was driving militarism. andand the threat of war the threat of death, it causes people to behave in a very primal way and it kind of moves our behavior closer to the brainstem and we lose awareness of our higher consciousness and

value systems. as you pointed out, there has not been a declared war since world war ii. given aways really its prerogative to be the declarer of war. that is a real problem in our country. i would very much like to get back to having a more judicious consideration of when we should go to war and when not. i forget the number of conflicts that we are involved in at the moment but if you look back to the iraq war, you see a war that was put together on false, even and the fastsons distraction that -- and the vast destruction that caused and the vast amount of treasure it cost and the fast us.

those dollars could have an well spent here doing things that we need to do. the growth of the military-industrial complex that dwight eisenhower warned us against has actually occurred and we are in that era of that being the rule. the military budget grows year-by-year. the threats of military action arethe military budget now taked lighter circumstance. the threat now against venezuela and iran. those are significant things. our support for the saudi's in yemen and these are the same saudi's that cut up the journalist for the washington times in the saudi embassy in turkey and our president dismissed that as well, that happens, but remember that the

saudi's by so much of our military equipment. moralt the ethical and position that that is taking. withof us grew up religious traditions that that is completely a boring -- abhorrent to. we as citizens need to figure out some way to turn it around and get back to a truly civilized society. host: john tinker, your reference to jamal khashoggi, a journalist for the washington post. i want to summarize, we have had dozens of tweets but this one really summarizes the sense of what our viewers are thinking. the morningv. address only those conditions we consider political or other

possibly disruptive expressions? it does address the central core. political speech is the most protected speech in the u.s. system. i am a believer that all sorts of expression needs to be protected if it is not disruptive and if it does not violate the rights of others. i am reminded of the ways the notches considered abstract art -- the nazis considered abstract art somehow a violation of society. there are all kinds of expressions besides political expressions that are central to being able to express human values. complex and are thankfully so.

our society is made up of many more things than politics and political law. the arts are very wide and ferried -- and varied. we need to express all forms of the arts as well as political speech. i am a proponent of freedom of expression and freedom generally if it does not destroy our society and if it does not violate the rights of others, you are going to find me personally in support of it. host: we welcome our listeners on c-span radio. we are talking about the case tinker v. des moines. the decision was handed down 50 years ago again -- 50 years ago today. you and your sister were talking about the case. i want to introduce our audience to a journalist at marjory stoneman douglas high school, which of course a year ago, a horrific shooting which forever

changed that community. here is what she told your gathering on friday in des moines. [video clip] schneid.e is rebecca editor in chief of the eagle eye at marjory stoneman douglas high school. year, it was the site of a shooting which killed 17 people. i don't think that is what marjory stoneman douglas high school is all it is known for now. we are not a school of victims, we are a school of fighters who understood our first amendment rights to speak up for what we foreve and and to advocate the rights we believe we deserve, a right to live. if you are going to take anything from today, it should be that it does not matter your age. if you're old enough to be affected by the yoke of society,

you're old enough to stand up for what you believe in. a survivore that as of a school shooting but as a journalist. werete about stories that important to me and my classmates whether they feel -- whether they be lgbt issues or violence in the inner cities or on the streets or race culture, diversity. each of these are just as important as the other. if anything else is important to you, i encourage you to stand up for your rights and to also speak up for them and write about them. i have seen that student voices are the most important thing in this country right now. these are things that hold everyone else accountable for their actions. whatever you believe in, whether they are the issues i say or something else, speak about them and affect change. thank you. [applause] host: that event in des moines,

we will later air on american history tv. back to your phone calls. eugene joining us from maryland, a teacher. caller: good morning. i want to tell you that i am a 77-year-old man who wanted to protest something when i was in elementary school and what i wanted to protest was the requirement of singing the national anthem by francis scott key. one of the reasons that i wanted to protest it is that francis was a holder of bombastic violt national anthem. old, i am am 77 years protesting. that allesting youngsters throughout the united

states of america should learn the negro national anthem by james johnson. james johnson wrote the anthem in the 1900s and it was set to music in 1905. if you go to wikipedia rightjamw and looked up james johnson, you would find that there was a contest between james johnson's lift every voice and saying and francis scott key's national anthem. james johnson had one bank, but the judge rejected it and now we have the national anthem full of the bombastic violence. i say to all people no matter can't do age, if you it when you are young as i was, do it when you get old. host: thank you for the call.

guest: i think that is an excellent idea. that is a wonderful, and it points out the need to bring it up and to say it to us, to let us know that and lift every voice and saying. it is a wonderful song and i agree that the francis scott key song really is a glorification of war and i think the lift every voice and sing would be a better national anthem. i don't know her other people feel about that and i think it is open to debate. i think everyone should say what they think about that and let us know what they think but that is an excellent idea. host: you heard from rebecca as you and your sister continue to travel. what are your general

observations about this -- about this generation? guest: thank you rebecca. i have had the opportunity to meet with journalists from and the schoolda there that has had the terrible shooting. 70 students killed and to the student journalists, they are very aware of another court case , which limited press freedom in schools, is an important impediment to student thenalists in some parts of country although there have been 14 press. that is a very important thing to do. students today are more aware and more active by far than the

students were when i was in school. i think it is a very positive development and society will benefit greatly from it. i encourage student journalists and students of all kinds to speak up and let us know what you think. i think it is essential to our society that you do so. host: and a good morning from florida -- andy, good morning from florida. caller: i am just retired now. i am 60 years old. certainly you would have to admit that the congress was swayed by what might very well have been an overplayed incident students, thethe students need to be vocal and

they should be given full rights. the problem i have most recently and intel at political leaning is is that citizens united case which opened pandora's box even wider on corporate purchase of elections. being just lobbyists, now they can just fund elections. what do you think about the chance that it would be reversed or will roberts lean in the direction of stereo -- of looking into the past and hold that stand? host: the fundamental premise of that case is also freedom of speech. guest: right. question.ortant

decision iss united one of the most bizarre decisions that i am aware of. to say that money and speech are can wee thing, distinguish between money and speech? -- can't we distinguish between money and speech? money is money and speech is speech. we have had a do virgins wealth since the 1970's, where the rich have been getting richer and the poor have been getting poorer. since back in the eisenhower years, the maximum marginal tax rate was 91%. now i am not sure what it is. it is around 20% or 30%. somebody else can tell me. to equate money with speech is a very strange thing. if money were speech, i would be able to go down to the sport -- to the store and talk my way into whatever i wanted.

money is not speech. when you equate money and speech, you are basically handing your money to speech, you are basically handing your democracy over to the people with the money. whether that is corrected through the people at the supreme court or people through legislation, it has to be corrected. and it will be hard to correct, because that same money, people talk about by in congress. well, it is not totally like that, but it is significantly like that. money does rule a lot of congress people. their opinions follow the money. if you are going to have a democracy, you are really going to have one or send, one vote, not one dollar, one vote. i think it is a central issue, and i think we need to elect a congress that will overturn it is the supreme court itself will not overturn it. minute, our final half

let me bring you back to this case, 50 years ago today, why is it relevant today? guest: well, it is relevant today because the world has not shed its problems. in a lot of ways, there is an it has hardlyt progressed on some of its problems, and some of its problems have become much worse, in thefreedom of speech schools, among the students who have the future in front of is absolutely essential, in my opinion. host: john tinker joining us from des moines. joining us from the landmark case, tinker v. des moines. thank you for being with us. guest: thank you for having me. it is a pleasure. host: and a reminder, the , thept that you saw historical society in iowa, it will air tonight at 5:30 eastern time and 9:30 eastern time on

c-span3's american history tv. the 50th anniversary of that landmark case. a reminder that c-span's "washington journal" tomorrow morning, 7:00 a.m. eastern, 4:00 a.m. on the western coast. a white house reporter for the associated press and michael dell bonubonis, he covers congrs post." "washington y discusses dal the u.s.-china trade talks. that is tomorrow on "washington journal." just a moment ago, the president tweeting on that as well. let me share with you what the president is writing on twitter, is perhapsim relies

better than anybody else that without nuclear weapons, his of the greatome economic powers anywhere in the world because of his location. he has more potential for rapid growth then we suggested. host: those tweets from the president, again, within the last hour. a reminder, live coverage of the the --nd senate before

all of it available on our website at c-span.org. right now, we will take you live to be married hotel here in washington, d.c. and our continuing coverage of the winter meeting of the national governors association meeting. thanks for being with us on this sunday. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. isit ncicap.org]

>> next, live coverage of the national governors association winter meeting. are wrapping up today with discussions on trade, innovation, digital skills, and education. the coverage of the governor's association is available on c-span.org, or you can listen to it on the c-span .adio app sessions ares expected to start in a few minutes. while we wait for the first discussion, here is some of yesterday's meeting. a great panel today to kickoff and talk about many of the facets of creating jobs for all americans.

secretary penny pritzker is entrepreneur, civic leader, philanthropist with a wide array of public and private spirits is unlikely secretary of commerce where she let the first-ever skills workforce initiative of the department. she was cochair on the council on foreign relations independent task force, which recently issued the work ahead, machine skills, and u.s. leadership in the 21st century. we are so pleased you could join us today. ms. pritzker: thank you. gov. bullock: richard haass certainly needs no introduction. for anyone who has not had a chance to work with him, he is an american diplomat, the president of the council on foreign relations since 2003. third, the director of department planning, richard was a close advisor under secretary colin powell, had a long history of service to our nation's diplomatic corps. and for the last four years, deborah and james fallows have

been traveling through rural america, reporting on innovation of all kinds. their national best-selling book on the project, "our towns: a 100,000-mile journey into the heart of america," was put out published in may. james is a longtime correspondent for "the atlantic" magazine, written 12 books, won a national book award worked for , two years in the white house as president jimmy carter's key speechwriter and is the founder of new america. deborah is a writer and a linguist, working extensively on language, education, families and work, china, traveling for "the atlantic," "national geographic," "the new york times," and "washington monthly." james, deborah, richard, please and secretary, thank you so much for joining us. please get them a round of applause. [applause] gov. bullock: secretary pritzker i will open with you. ,as the cochair of the council

of foreign relations task force, and this is something that, when i read, i knew that we need to have you speaking to our overall crew. i know that you and your team came up with serious recommendations along the way. can you give us a sense of that? mr. prizker: sure. thank you for having us here today. governor, i think the fact that you have made good jobs for all americans a central these what you are doing at the nga is really important. future, so we are looking at innovative technologies coming down the pike over the next few years and will have >> an impact. we are not democrats and republicans. we are be ceo's and the states that get to build coalitions. >> it is finding better ways to move our ss