rhode island and republican congressman glenn tomlinson of pennsylvania talk about career and technical education programs in the u.s.. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪ and kimesident trump jong-un meet as they begin two days of discussion in an effort to get agreement about limiting weaponsh's nuclear program. the president will have dinner with kim jong-un later and another day of meetings taking a look at this topic. 8300 miles east, president trump's former attorney, michael cohen, testifies this morning. payments made to stormy daniels. 6 hours of testimony planned. you can watch that uninterrupted

at 10:00 on c-span 3, c-span.org , and our radio app. those topics are up for discussion. 202-748-8001 for republicans. 202-748-8000 for democrats. and independents, 202-748-8002 for independents. if you want to comment on our facebook page, it is facebook.com/cspan. on our twitter feed it is @cspanwj. we have about half an hour until our first guest. if you want to comment on the president trump --the president's trip to visit kim jong-un, you can comment on that. the house begins the first of two days of votes on gun legislation taking a look at background checks. those three topics up for discussion in this first half hour whether you want to give us

a call or post on our social media sites. the president and kim jong-un meeting for the first time for this second summit in vietnam. it was about half an hour ago the president made these comments. [video clip] >> an honor to be with chairman kim. an honor to be together in a country, vietnam, where they really rolled out the red carpet and they are honored to have us. it is great to be with you. we had a very successful first summit. i thought it was very successful and some people would like to see it. highs out the first summit was a great success and i think this 1 -- i thought the first summit was a great success and i think this one will be equal if not greater. the greatest progress was our relationship is really a good one. host: that in vietnam.

michael cohen to testify today. the new york times and other publications printing the comments he plans to make at that hearing at 10:00. part of it will deal with taking a look at how payment to stormy daniels was made. "i am providing a copy of a $30,000 check president trump sign from his personal bank account august 1 of 2017 when he was president of the united states pursuant to the cover-up, which was the basis of my guilty plea to reimburse me. ofs $35,000 check was one many check installments paid throughout the year. the president wrote a personal check for payment of hush money as part of a criminal scheme to violate campaign finance laws." that is one of the topics at least the printed copy of the testimony. of can see others, 6 hours testimony. c-span 3 is where you could see

it. if you go to the house side, the first of two planned votes taking a look at gun legislation. the new york times offers a breakdown. in back-to-back votes, the house will take up two separate background checks measures. on wednesday it will take up an act that would require background checks for all firearms sales including those sold at gun shows and online. thursday, it will change -- turn to the extended background checks acts. let's start with herbert, democrats line from georgia. go ahead, you are first up. caller: good morning, pedro. michael cohen, i don't care if it was when bill clinton said he did not have sexual relations with monica lewinsky. you have the same president who effect did not have any

paying off stormy daniels. and they brought impeachment charges on president clinton because he lied. it is the same thing now. i am looking for equal justice. we cannot let a person think he is exempt from the laws of these land. .onald trump or anybody else they have got to realize the taxpayers need to get the honest answer from any president. people leto let the politicians know they work for us. we are the taxpayers. host: republican line, hi. caller: hello, sir. dick nelid nelson -- son calling from pontiac. i am proud of our president,

very much so. i could not be prouder he is taking care ofs what he needs to take care of dealing with kim jong-il. i want to let everyone know we have a great president. he has a lot of people behind democratss just these trying to ruin everything he does. host: do you think something substantial is going to come out of this meeting with the president and kim jong-un? caller: i think something is substantial going to come out of the meeting because they keep meeting with each other. they actually like each other. they have been with each other and they are having a second meeting.

i do believe something substantial will come out of this meeting, absolutely. pedro in's go to warrenton, virginia. you are next. caller: you are pedro, also, right? i got that nickname in the summer of 1970, just south you know. i am not -- i am not -- host: that's fine, go ahead. denuclearization talks with north korea. i do research and i am an old time rate -- c-span listener right from when you guys open the radio in the early 1990's. maybeeally strikes me is we should have denuclearization talks with israel. they are the only nation in the covert nuclear

programs for nuclear weapons and nobody even talks to them about it. is they, the report original material they have for making nuclear bombs was stolen from a united states nuclear program from our pentagon nuclear program. it is a topic you cannot talk about because it is off the table if you say anything about certain countries, you get labeled with these names. tryingnly because we are to keep the topic to talks going on in vietnam, richard on the republican line. caller: i am not commenting pro or con on any gun legislation, even the points i am going to make on how cohen might come down on it. i think there is a point that is glossed over. -- the when discussion

tone we can give to family members. host: let me pause you for a second because the president and his team talking about this dinner. let's listen a little bit. [video clip] >> everybody having a good time? you are. one of the great photographers in the world. thatu could've heard dialogue. you would pay for that dialogue. it was good. we are going to have a very busy day tomorrow and we will probably have a pretty quick dinner and a lot of things will

be solved, i hope. it will lead to a wonderful situation long-term. our relationship is a very special relationship. [speaking korean] thank you very much, everybody. see you tomorrow. with that is the president his advisors meeting with kim jong-un along with his advisors. you saw the first meet and greet at the top of the program and then it will be on to another day of meetings. take a look at these discussions about north korea's nuclear program. you can talk about that. you can talk about michael cohen's testimony. you can talk about gun legislation being discussed in

the house today and tomorrow. elaine, independent line. caller: hi. i would like to talk about the cohen thing. i cannot really differentiate too much between a candidate who hasn't been voted into office yet having hush money and we have a congress that has been voted into office and they have moneyh fund full of hush for sexual harassment claims. ter is worse than the candidate. that is my opinion. host: jack in scottsdale, arizona. independent line. caller: hello? host: you are on, go ahead. caller: i am just commenting to talk about president trump, how proud i am of him going to take care of this situation that not

any of the presidents have been able to accomplish anything over the past 60 years that he is trying to do in north korea. and at the same token, we have the radical left wing setting up this liar in washington to testify that has already proven just a liar to congress for political hate. i was wondering, to ask you, turn the wheel around. what do you think about that? you are the commentator. why are we spreading stuff like this, showing this? 10:00we will show that at this morning on c-span 3. you can go to our radio app online and our website at c-span.org if you want to monitor the hearing. one of the stories that came out late yesterday regarding michael cohen's testimony involves matt

gaetz saying he tweeted a threat to president trump's former personal attorney on the eve of the testimony. hey, michael cohen, do your wife and father-in-law know about your girlfriends? i wonder if she will remain faithful when you are in prison. that tweet has been taken down. it was on the house floor later on yesterday where matt gaetz from florida goes to the house floor, talks about the tweet and why he wrote it. [video clip] willguess, tomorrow, we find out if there is anyone michael cohen hasn't lied to. we know he lied to congress, law enforcement, the irs, three banks and he is going to prison. i guess it will be relevant for us to determine does he lied to his own family? does he lied to his financiers? it will be one heck of an

inquiry because this is someone who has tangled such a web of lies that he is not to be believed and i think it is entirely appropriate for any member of this body to challenge the truthfulness and veracity and character for the people who have a history of lying and a future that undoubtedly contains nothing but lies. that is the story of michael cohen. we will see it play out tomorrow. i cannot wait to get to the bottom of things and get to the truth. host: that tomorrow is today. more our website for information. democrats line, christian. hello. caller: hello? host: you are on, go ahead. caller: wow. all the way out here in oregon, we are snowed in. for some reason. ?ho is this matt gaetz guy republican from florida, anyway? in a pinstripe suit.

-- what isseems like his name? black? host: is the michael cohen testimony what you are calling about? caller: i am calling about what is going on right now. i am calling from oregon. eugene, oregon, it is snowing out here. host: let's go to jane in florida, davenport, florida. democrats line. caller: hi, i was calling about the meetings president trump is having in north korea right now. my impression is that he is angling for a nobel peace prize. i don't think he has done much the regard to settling nuclear expansion of north korea . i have read a lot of articles at the time and i don't know why they did not get more coverage about the fact that what was reported is the last blast north korea did about a year and a

itf ago, maybe, the big one, cracked their launchpad, it broke the launchpad, so they had to go back and fix it and they just have not been able to launch anything. that turned into a big pr things, we aren't going to launch anymore missiles because these wonderful relations. it just seems like a dog and pony show to me. host: the wall street journal highlights some of the strategy that will be used by kim jong-un in these meetings. don lyons writing one negotiating tactic is to deal with mr. trump while keeping mr. trump's staff at bay, keeping talks on a leader to leader level allows him to avoid staff level discussions on the practicalities of removing weapons. another strategy can be termed

as self-directed denuclearization. the north korean leader offers to dismantle nuclear facilities of his choosing often of unclear value. the symbolic act gives the .ppearance of progress you can find more online. this is john lyons' story in the wall street journal. more video of the dinner taking place between president trump and his team and kim jong-un and his team. caller: good morning, pedro. good morning, c-span. you have matt gaetz, meadows, and jordan putting their alitical career on stage for president who really doesn't care about anybody but himself. i am interested to hear what michael cohen has to say today. he may be a liar, but he still has a story to tell.

we are not going to have three politicians standing up for this man in the white house tell us what we should and should not hear. we all should determine if he is a liar or telling the truth. if he has evidence, let's see it. -- and mikerdan meadows wrote an op-ed for the usa today taking a look up to the lead into this hearing. many democrats care about one thing and one thing only, impeaching president trump and -- am stier used impeachment as litmus test and is already applying it. look at the nearly 5000 democrats who voted to move forward with impeachment. some of our newest freshman have already vocally supported impeaching president trump.

you can find that op-ed on the pages of usa today. diane, you are next. from michigan. caller: hello. i have heard today since the southern district courts, the u.s. southern district courts are allowing michael cohen to testify today, that is an indicator likely that they are done issuing indictments. i am no legal authority, but that is what i heard. i heard it on chris cuomo's program this morning. that disappoints me. if no one in the trump family is going to get any indictments, especially from the southern district court of new york because that would indicate orre were state violations being criminal and president

could not pardon them. media -- it took the media all these months to go on and build up such a case against .hem i feel like i have been played by the media. host: here is more from michael cohen's planned testimony released by the new york times. he writes days before the democratic convention,'s i was in mr. trump's office when his secretary announced roger stone was on the phone. sanchez told mr. stone within a couple of days there would be a massive dump of emails that would damage hillary clinton's campaign.

"wouldn't that be great." that is some of the written testimony planned, 6 hours of testimony expected today. all that starting at 10:00. tim in wisconsin. good morning, you are next up. caller: good morning c-span, and thank you very much. if michaele to know cohen can prove donald trump, jr.'s collusion with russia and/or wikileaks and if he should be indicted. i would also like to say i isieve donald trump's boat on fire. sooner or later, a congressman -- republican congressman are going to start jumping ship. you watch. of host: the world is. that is from -- you watch. the world is. host: that is tim from wisconsin

talking about michael cohen's testimony. you can talk about the president in vietnam. you can talk about gun legislation. all of that is part of our top stories that take place today. you can comment for the next eight minutes or so. 202-748-8000 for democrats. 202-748-8001 for republicans. .n independents, 202-748-8002 the washington post has a look at the committees involved particularly when it comes to topicl cohen and what they will talking about -- will talk about writing adam schiff worked out an agreement in recent days on how to divide up s questioning. they would stick to questions about potential conflict of --erest and intelligence committee members

will focus on russia and potential financial leverage other foreign actors may hold over trump and those close to him. some oversight committee democrats are arguing the public has a chance -- our right to learn why cohen lied to congress about plans to build a tower in moscow. these members and aides believe it should be fair game. .e will see how that plays out democrats line. pedro. good morning, i don't need to hear and many americans don't need to hear michael cohen say president trump committed crimes in order for him to be impeached. i believe the willingness of democrats and republicans to ignore the looming climate crisis, to ignore the rising health care premiums that are

literally kill people and will -- literally killing people and will kill people. host: you are not going to be watching the testimony, then? caller: trust me. i love to watch this stuff. host: you are saying you watch, but you are saying it is not that important. tell me if i am wrong. caller: it is certainly important, but compared to the other threats we are facing, much more accidental threats to our country's future. the newst is important media is important -- is focusing on this. it is the juicy gossip. i will also be paying attention threats we pressing are facing. caller: i would like to talk about the summit for a moment.

i believe it is appropriate for us to engage with our enemies and those we are in tension and conflict with, i think in this particular case, president trump is completely unqualified to lead these negotiations. he doesn't listen to the experts in his government on how to handle the situation and i think kim jong-un is playing trump for everything he can get. i don't believe kim jong-un will ever relinquish nuclear weapons and i think, unfortunately, the current administration will get out negotiated. to yous it significant we reached this point at all? caller: i think it is good, but i am not sure trump should be leading the negotiations himself because i don't think -- number one, it gives credibility to the regime kim jong-un wants and it is well-known he does not study,

does not prepare, does not read his briefings and he plays these gutgs by got and feel -- and feel. host: democrats line, we will hear from willie. hello. you are on, go ahead. i say we need to take playing thentry is price of those living here illegally. we don't have the authority to have all of our bills paid like they do. keepnnot afford to andybody in north carolina back to pay.ncome

for them here while we are not getting the things they get. host: that is willie in north carolina. amongst the three things we are talking about, one of the other things to highlight was in the house, a vote on the process of vetoing the president's border emergency declaration. when it comes to the washington post, there are two points saying the white house issued a formal veto threat on thursday -- tuesday that read in part the current situation at the border presents a humanitarian and security crisis that threatens core national security interest and constitutes a national emergency. it also highlights the fact there are 13 house republicans that oppose the president and supported that legislation against the emergency border declaration. those republicans include

representative justin amash of , jamesn, dusty johnson sensenbrenner of wisconsin, --an fitzpatrick, will heard francis rooney of florida, greg walden, fred upton, and cathy mcmorris rodgers highlighting she was a former member of house gop leadership. those are the 13 republicans that cited with democrats yesterday in voting against the president's border emergency declaration. dorothy will be the last call for this segment from cleveland, ohio, democrats line. caller: i am going to be watching the cohen testimony today. there are two things that interest me in it. was president trump knowledgeable about the meeting in the van and the other thing

is a he know when wikileaks were going to drop? i took exception to him saying black people were too stupid to vote for him. i think we were pretty smart looking at what we have right now. host: that is dorothy in ohio. she will be the last call in this segment. in our next segment, we will focus on president trump cost trip to meet with kim jong-un. we will talk with joel wit. he will join us to give his perspective on the current events in vietnam and what it might mean for the future of north korea's nuclear program. that conversation is coming up when "washington journal" continues. ♪

announcer: the c-span bus recently traveled to texas asking folks what does it mean to be american? >> to be an american, first and foremost for me means about living in the country full of opportunity and it is a country where people can make their dreams happen. i think this especially applies to students. we have so many opportunities of education. we get to learn a lot about politics. also, being an american means living in a country full of change and accepting change. lot country, we evolved a and also, the quality is a very american central value where everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed. >> what it is to be an american to me is plain and simple, it is

the opportunity to help people, the opportunity to speak for the for people that are held by financial burdens or cultural beliefs, i believe in unity. that is a keen part of being an american. >> i think to be an american is to be free to do what we want under the confines of the constitution and to be a part of something bigger, part of a diverse culture. the sort of melting pot in america. we need to be able to think about others and our environment for theetter ourselves future. announcer: voices from the road on c-span. watch c-span 2 for live coverage of president trump's visit to

vietnam to resume denuclearization talks with kim jong-un. our live coverage begins tonight through the overnight hours into thursday morning as president trump and kim jong-un greet each other at the presidential palace and talk -- start summit talks. after, a joint press conference with both leaders. watch live on c-span 2, c-span.org, or listen with the free c-span radio app. >> "washington journal" continues. host: joining us is joel wit with the stimson center in washington, d.c. and serves as the director of the 38 north program. he was part of the negotiating team for the 1994 united states dprk framework. from your experience as part of a negotiating team, what do you see playing out with this second summit and what are the reasonable expectations? guest: the common perception is nothing has happened since the

last summit. in fact, things have happened and you really have to read the tea leaves to understand that. what i have been seeing reading the tea leaves is a gradual movement on both sides closer and closer in their negotiating positions. that doesn't mean the summit is going to be successful, but at least it gives it a better chance to have more substantive results. ast: sketch out what you see are the negotiating positions of north korea and the united states as it stands today? guest: let's take the united states first. if you all recall last spring, john bolton had the libya model approach and that essentially means north korea gives up everything right away and we give them something in return. at the u.s. position has evolved from that to the point where i believe we are willing to move forward in phases with north

korea and we get something from them, but we also give them something they want in return. that is a big shift from before. on the north korean side of things, what we have been seeing is they have been gradually different concessions they are willing to make. for example, in the fall, kim jong-un told visitors he was willing to dismantle one of their main nuclear facilities in return for something and that was something i found surprising because north koreans really hold their cards close to their vest. recently, the u.s. special representative who is negotiating the deal gave a speech at stanford and there he was talking about how the north koreans had even gone beyond that and agreed to get rid of all their facilities that produce the material to make

nuclear weapons. to me, these are signs the two sides' positions are converging. i don't know what will come out of the summit. host: you traveled to north korea as part of the 1994 agreement. have you met with anybody in the current framework of what is going on negotiating-wise? guest: i hate to admit it, but i have been talking to these guys for 25 years. the foreign minister i know very well. i have known him for 20 years. he first participated in those negotiations and we met him privately in europe and asia since then. the vice foreign minister, the woman who has been there point person, i have met with her very frequently over the past 25 years. they are supposedly both very close to kim jong-un and his sister. of those are the two main people

i know well. host: when the negotiations come, will the bulk of it be done with those people? the equivalent on the united dates side? how much comes from the face-to-face of the two leaders? guest: it's not any different than any other summit. the two leaders do not sit down and negotiate the agreement in two days. it is already negotiated and they may change parts of it and there may be issues that are outstanding that they need to resolve. i would guess probably at least 80% of it is worked out ahead of time. host: joel wit will be our guest to talk about the current summit between in vietnam president trump and kim jong-un. you can ask questions. it democrats, 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. and independents, 202-748-8002. you can tweet questions or

comments at @cspanwj. when it comes to the trump administration's approach, how prepared do you think this team is? guest: that's a good question and a lot of the media coverage of what is going on is focused on the president. i understand that. i am not a big supporter of president trump, to be honest with you. i find myself in the strange position of basically agreeing to his approach to north korea and that is a top-down approach, to meet at the summit level and have your working level people deal with the details. if you go down to the working level and now we do have a special representative, his name is stephen beacon, you find someone who is very pragmatic, capable, not an expert on the issues, but has learned about them very quickly. that gives me a certain amount of confidence that our approach is headed in the right direction and also his public stations have -- statements have given me

that confidence. host: when it comes to the secretary of state, how important is his role? guest: what i have been seeing is signs there is a decision-making process emerging in the u.s. government that is essentially president trump, secretary pompeo, and stephen and i are the three main decision-makers. it's hard for me to tell what role john bolton plays. i suspect if he is smart, he is sort of standing back and not trying to make the process more difficult than it is. he will wait and see if there are problems and then he can step in and say i told you so. host: when you hear the term north korea's nuclear armament or what they have in terms of missiles, there is a perception most average folks would get. how does -- what danger does

opposed to the united states currently? guest: there is no doubt it is a danger to the united states and particularly our allies, south korea and japan. it is still a small arsenal in the grand scheme of thing, probably about 40 nuclear weapons. they probably have a handful of missiles that in syria can read to the united states, -- in theory that can reach the united states, but not entirely reliable. as a threat is not small, but not large. without this current process, it probably would continue to grow and that would be even more of a problem for us. thet now, i believe is right time to try and stop this and reverse it and whether we can actually get them to give up everything, of course, is the big question that i don't think anyone can really answer. the objective here is to see if we can move forward, to test

that hypothesis that they will give up all of their nuclear weapons and these missiles. host: is that the definition of victory in this case? giving up everything when it comes to what they have? guest: there are a lot of different definitions of victory here. you have the sort of complete verifiable irreversible denuclearization declaration, which is essentially a bumper sticker. a u.s.would say is if government official said to me we will know denuclearization when we see it, we need to be somewhat flexible about it. in the process, we also need to preserve the interest of the united states and our allies. we need to be careful about how flexible we really are. host: this is joel wit joining us. our first call for you comes from frank in new york. go ahead with your question or comment. caller: hi.

you already basically answered my question. my question was going to be do you honestly believe kim is going to give up all of his nuclear weapons after he spent so much money and has so much hostility toward this country? host: i am sorry. i am not hearing a question. caller: he said essentially you answered --host: he said essentially you answer part of it. if kim was willing to give up his weapons after the money he spent and the hostility he says he has toward this country? guest: that's a good question. north koreans have spent billions of dollars. it has been and in norma's investment. he has to trade that asset against the possibility of modernizing north korea possible economy over the long run. i think the calculation kim is making is that he is also willing to test the hypothesis that he might be willing to give

up these weapons if, in return, he can lessen the dangers to his country he feels comes from united states and its allies and improve the economy of north korea. host: that viewer classified kim's attitude toward the united states as hatred. would you share that? host: yes. if you read -- guest: yes. if you read north korea propaganda, that is coming through and that has been coming through for decades. north koreans are sort of a throwback to the 19th century. they practice balance of power politics. from the north korean like toion, they would become -- to have better relations with united states in order to counterbalance the threats they see coming from china. that is hard for a lot of people to understand because we all think china and north korea are.

in fact, i think because china is next-door to north korea, they see them as a potential threat. host: from our independent line in maryland, gabriel. hello. caller: thanks for having me. i have two comments. ie first is i want to say believe any communication is good with the north koreans. ismp, i think he unqualified. hopefully he is surrounding himself with people who are qualified. i think any communication with north korea is good. weapons in general are advanced and a lot of major countries are going to have them. i think if we have them, russia has them, north korea, we need communication. the second thing i want to say is with the deal with russia and

trump, it is revenge. trump --enge porn russia has on trump and that is the root cause. the: we will leave it to first one. go ahead. guest: aya cup -- i completely agree with that. communication is good. it's not just communication between working level officials or ambassadors. i think communication between top leaders is especially good in this case because there is so much that needs to be accomplished and so many years of hostility that the only way to really break through that ice is to have the two leaders meet and try to at least establish a better relationship. in the case of north korea, i understand it is an authoritarian dictatorship, there are lots of things we don't like about north korea. one thing about dealing with a

country like north korea is the leader says this is the way our policy should go in the future, everyone else falls in line. reaching out to the leader is the best possible thing you can do. host: the president sent out a tweet. the last line talks about these other countries. russia, japan,, south korea will be helpful in this process. is there reality there? guest: there is reality because everyone has differing interests , but there is one common interest everyone has and that is that north korea should not have nuclear weapons because that can lead to a conflict on the korean peninsula, which would not be in any one's benefit. democrats from our line is next. caller: yes, sir. do for ourhis economy? will this open more trade?

older equipment and help our farmers in the sale of food and the price to them? guest: i have to be honest, i don't think it is going to do much for our economy. the president talks about creating an economic powerhouse of north korea. that's probably a slight exaggeration. i think, certainly, lessening of the tensions on the korean ininsula is going to result increased economic interactions between north korea and other countries nearby. at that, in turn, has a security benefit as well. as north korea becomes part of the international system, the dangers of conflict will go down. host: from our republican line, susan, good morning.

from south carolina. caller: hi. i wanted to make comment. i watch your program quite often and i am very impressed with the unbiased way you present everything. also, i wanted to encourage anyone listening that president trump is representing the whole of america. he is just not a personality, he is the president and he is representing the whole of america. as a nation, one nation, we really should be more encouraging and supportive. he is representing our future, the future of everybody in this nation and i just want to mention that because people are so divided and so caught up with their issues, their separate issues that they fail to see that we are kind of one loaf of bread, that everybody in america belongs to america and president trump represents america.

i just want to mention that and say god bless to everybody. as i said know, earlier, i find myself in a strange position because i really don't agree with president trump's politics. on this particular issue, i have to agree with you. i think the approach he is taking, which is pre--- different from previous administrations, is probably the only one that can work with north koreans and my big concern is even if we make progress in these talks, that the amount of support for what president trump has achieved will be very low and as we all know, there is an election in 2020. a democrat may win. i am not sure democrats would support what he has accomplished. president obama's former security adviser has an op-ed and talks about a pathway to

denuclearization. she highlights a model and sites of the obama administration first reached an interim agreement with iran to freeze nuclear development and rollback access. toinal verifiable deal denuclearize iran. is that a good game plan? guest: it is not a bad game plan. i think there are parts of that that are useful. we have to move forward in phases. it is not going to happen overnight. we have to have verification provisions. i think the difference here is north korea's program is much more advanced than the iranian program and it will be much more difficult. iran did not have north korea -- nuclear weapons. iran did not have icbm's. i is not a bad framework, but

think it will be more difficult and we are going to have sustained meetings with the north koreans, including at the summit level. host: if it reaches that stage, what does oversight look like? does it mean a full-time presence in north korea? guest: this is a very important point. we have to remember north korea is not iraq. north korea is not a defeated country. i led the first inspection in north korea and it is not easy. we have to understand we are going to have to build cooperation with the north koreans on these inspections. we are not going to have a but ifnt presence, cooperation gets better and better, we will not be able to verify an agreement. host: when you say it is not easy, why not? 60 yearse reason for of hostility and dealing with

north koreans face-to-face on a daily basis is not easy because they have been steeped in that hostility. this is where we get back to the earlier point i made about if the leader says we need to move in this direction, that helps a lot because all the north koreans will know that and understand they need to implement the leader's instruction. host: is there a reality it got to that point north korea could stay here are the sites we have and at the same time have sites hidden away from inspection? guest: that is what inspections are about, to reduce the risk. that doesn't mean inspections will be 100% effective. there is always uncertainty. in the past when united states had agreements with the soviet union, if you remember, we had nuclear arms control agreements. --never expected the standard was we could

discover cheating in time to safeguard national security. .ost: this is joel wit he serves at the stimson center as the director of 38 north and here to take your questions on the ongoing summit in vietnam. 202-748-8000 for democrats. republicans, 202-748-8001. and independents, 202-748-8002. 30 eight north, what is that? guest: i guess we established this site years ago. myself and some friends who worked in the u.s. government and continue to meet north koreans were dismayed about the media coverage of the north toea story and we needed bring together the people who have experienced dealing with the north koreans and that was whether in the government or the

humanitarian assistance organizations or others, bring them together and have them write about north korea to bring a sense of reality to the public debate about what we were dealing about. host: where can people find a website? th.org.it is 38nor host: let's go to maryland, independent line. bob, hello. caller: hi. i am skeptical like you and most people that north korea will completely denuclearize after god knows how many summits. do inould south korea that case knowing north korea may still have few that could do catastrophic damage if it decided to because north korea will most likely affect south korea the most.

koreao you think south should do? what are the options? say, what i, let me think we need to do is be realistic. not optimistic or pessimistic, but realistic. a lot of people have ruled out north korea will ever give up nuclear weapons and that leads to the next statement, which is why should we even try? we need to test that hypothesis and that is what is going on here. aboutly on your point south korea, you are right. if we don't get to this at the end of the road, we need to have in place our alliance with south korea. i think the south koreans understand that because the alliance is the safety net. even if north korea has a few nuclear weapons left and we still have our alliance structure, i think that would

prevent any attack on our allies. host: what do you think of the idea this process will end up to a declaration of war in north korea? i studiously avoid predicting what will come out of the summit. we can see the negotiating positions at closer, there is always the wild-card of the last round of talks. in this case, you have an american president who may want to put his own stamp on things, which is not uncommon. . it seems like a declaration the korean war is over is the best bet for what will come out of this. shouldf experts argue we not do that and there are a whole host of reasons. host: what is the main reason? guest: i think the main reason is they feel it will put us on a

slippery slope to a peace treaty because a declaration is not a peace treaty. it is saying the temporary armistice that ended the korean war needs to be replaced and that starts the negotiation. it puts us on this slippery slope and some experts would argue the slippery slope leads to the end of the alliance with south korea and the withdrawal of u.s. troops from the korean peninsula. i don't see it that way. may is not something that happen. i don't believe it will happen. a peace declaration for me is probably the most likely outcome, but it has to be linked to other steps on their side to denuclearize. host: from our independent line in connecticut, audrey is next. interesting,s

during the olympics, i was keeping private eye on his watched what her report back to him was and i think there is a certain immaturity about him. i just got a feeling olympics meant so much to him and to be part of the rest of the world, his aspect of his obsession over the movies, basketball player, there is something about him that i feel there is -- something within him wants to be the real world, the rest of the world. if we can work on that to some hopet, maybe there is some to get him to travel throughout the united states or the world and see -- just like now, he will be in vietnam. this has got to affect him when

he sees what his country is like compared to other parts of the world. i am not hoping for a lot out of this particular summit, but i think there is something out of this man that wants to move and be a part of what is going on. especially things like the olympics and such. that is about it, but i hope for host: the best. host:yesterday's washington times highlights the fact north .orea could serve as a model guest: there has been speculation for decades about north korea's economic development. kim jong-un's father used to periodically visit china, factories there and he would go home and everyone would speculate he was about to initiate chinese-style reforms. degrees happened to some

. it is actually now a mixed economy, not a command economy. there are a lot of capitalist elements in their economy. having said that, we have to remember while kim jong-un was educated in switzerland and certainly has been exposed to western culture, as has his sister, the thing that drives him most is first, to maintain control of north korea for himself and his family. secondly, i think kim jong-un, who is only 34 years old, is looking to the future, looking to the day dies, how will he be viewed as a leader of his country? part of his vision may be as the great modernizer hook up list what his grandfather and father could not accomplish, and that is building up north korea's economy and maintaining an important role in northeast

asia. host: arkansas, keith is next on our independent line. caller: thank you for taking my call. world,been around the halfway around the world when i was in the military and i have learned that most conflicts are the result of the political elite and the business elites wanting to control, maintain or gain power. if you talk to the regular people, most of them want to be left alone to take care of themselves and their family. they are not interested in this mess. we are in a situation where we have the same kind of things going on. other than that, i have nothing else to say. thank you and have a great day. guest: i think you have an important point here. media or see the reports about north korea, you get this impression that north koreans are robots.

they all march to the tune of their leader. to some degree, that is true. it is a highly controlled regimented society. if you visit north korea or talk to the north korean elite, the people i have talked to or you interact with everyday north koreans, a lot of what you say is right. they are actually people who have their own daily day to day concerns. even the people i have met who are part of the elite, if you get to know them, they ask you to bring movies to the next meeting so they can give them to kids children or their have a cold they cannot get rid of, can you bring medicine, and they are human beings and this is a country that has its own national interests as we do. elites, howfrom the

would you describe the economic conditions of the average north korean? guest: the economic condition is not very good. in pyongyang it is not so bad because that is where most of the people live and it is easier to make a living. out in the countryside, it is not good at all. , it i would compare it to is part of the developing world. it is not a modern economy. it was in the 1960's, but it has gone downhill since then. if you think of north korea, not as comparing it to south korea which is highly developed, but comparing it to other developing countries, for example southeast asia 20 years ago, then that is about the right comparison. host: republican line from new york, hello. caller: i want to congratulate for not throwing politics into the mix.

it seems like all the democrats today want to pooh-pooh everything president trump is trying to do. no one has really done anything and they already have all the equipment and bombs and nuclear capacity. it is not the same as iran. at least someone is trying to do something more than just talk. , people complain about the way he might handle certain things but he has tried well as worked with difficult people and i for beingmr. wit about the country.

guest: thank you for that comment. that is exactly what i am trying to do. i am a democrat and i was part of the democratic administration, the clinton administration that did achieve a lot on north korea, but that fell apart for a number of reasons. i completely agree that on this , first, thessue president i think is taking the right approach and secondly i would hope that democrats would recognize that and keep all the other things going on between them and president trump from swamping any progress on this particular issue. host: aside from this big event, what does a day of negotiations look like? guest: i've never been at a summit because we have never had a summit before with the north koreans.

a lot of it has already been agreed to. there may be some issues that have not been agreed that need to be fleshed out by president trump and kim jong-un, but a lot of it is choreography. it is the public presentation. we are seeing that. all the pictures of kim jong-un and his motorcade, president trump and his motorcade. you will have pictures of them meeting -- eating meals together, shaking hands. that is all staged. underneath the surface, there is some give and take but not as much as people might think. host: as far as when this is the keeper'sis be going to north korea talking about things over there? how does this work? guest: this is one of the drawbacks of the first summit. we thought that after the first summit, they would be sustained negotiating between negotiators but in fact that did not happen.

it is not clear why. that slowed down the process quite a bit. one of the things we want to see coming out of this summit is the immediate and continuous meeting between negotiators to thrash out the principles that the leaders reach in the summit document. a summit document is not going to be a detailed event. host: we will hear from margie. caller: i am calling about north korea. that trump to say got to where he is today by bullying north korea. he called north korea all kinds of names. north korea knows he cannot beat the noted states, so he went to south korea and participated in the olympics. he went to china and got china

on his side. ist china told kim jong-un if you take the united states, you're on the own -- on your own. the united states attacks you, we are with you. do isrump is trying to swipe of a nobel peace prize but what these channels don't do is talk about what was accomplished. but it waspan out, started by president clinton and president bush. when clinton had inspectors on the ground in north korea but nobody talks about that. it did not pan out because when took power, he called them the axis of evil and that is when north korea kicked them out. big hothis is one of my buttons is the history of this issue, which i think most people don't understand.

and you are absolutely right. i was part of the clinton administration. we reached an agreement in 1994, which was a denuclearization agreement. it was highly effective and lasted eight years until the collapsed under the bush administration. there are a number of reasons why that happened. one of which was the north koreans were pursuing activities on the nuclear front they should not have been pursuing. another reason it happened is because the bush administration to the wrong approach in trying to correct that behavior. it is a mixed history. there has been some success, a number of failures and the bottom line is we have ended up in a place which is not very good. that is that north korea is now a small nuclear power and we are trying to change that. i totally support that approach. host: i want to get your response from this viewer off of

twitter. he says kim is reveling in his new legitimacy on the world stage with the president of the united states. guest: to some degree that is true, but there is no way around it. a publicnt to deny him relations campaign? do you want to deny him that legitimacy and still see him building nuclear weapons that can attack united states? or do you accept that and try to work on the real issue? host: from our democrats line in maryland, hello. caller: how are you doing? guest: fine. caller: what i want to ask you is, do you think we should have pulled out of the iran deal and the main reason that i asked that is he wants to take kim away,n's nuclear weapons but he took us out of the iran deal and that is something i don't understand. a --ou tell me -- there is

in maryland about iran's money. is that iran's money that we gave them? $150 billion. we heard that that was american money. can you answer that for me? your: i can't answer second question. i am not that much of an expert on what happened with iran. i supported the iran deal. i think it was the best we possibly could have done under the circumstances. i did not support pulling out of the deal. this gets to one of the quirks of president trump and i think that is that if he did not do it, it is not good. he sort of tries to reinvent the wheel and i don't believe that is the right approach to foreign policy but we are where we are. host: from washington, d.c.,

ann, hello. caller: thank you for taking my call. i thank you mr. wit. aboutou were speaking what kim jong-un's hierarchy would be, you pointed the idea the militarizing the zone between north and south korea was not such a biggie. that was one of the first things that kim jong-un asked the president for. one of the first things he wanted. why do you feel that that will not be important in considerations of handling whatever issues he puts on the table with the president at this time? guest: i am not quite sure what itarizing theemil

korean peninsula. kim jong-un certainly wants to see the level of threat go down from the united states. but of that has been that the u.s. has suspended large-scale military exercises with south korea. certainly north korean propaganda talks about the need for the united states to end its alliance with south korea and that south korea and withdraw its troops -- with south korea and withdraw its troops. happens, if the united states gradually pulls back from the alliance, and if the tensions on the peninsula decrease, what is going to happen is china is going to loom larger and larger in north korea's calculations. times in the past 25 years, the north koreans have said to us u.s. troops can

remain on the peninsula, but their role will be different. they said the role of u.s. troops would be as a stability force. what does that mean? it is code word for you troops are here to protect all of us against the chinese. host: republican line from west virginia, richard hello. caller: good morning. wit since hesk mr. is a democrat, what did he think of obama's foreign-policy, about giving $150 billion to iran and does he think that trump's cabinet c is a little more advanced and better -- trump's policy is a little more advanced and better? guest: i am not an expert. i know the obama administration trying to deal with north korea. during the 10 years of the obama administration, there were so many other problems that this one was not at the top of the to do list.

as a result, gradually over that time, the threat grew. we can all argue whether the obama administration tried hard inugh, but i would say that some ways, it could have done better. host: one more call on our republican line from ohio. caller: i would like to ask joel wit a question. host: go ahead. we are atether or not a cease-fire or a true armistice. host: repeat that? understand, we are at a cease-fire with north korea. guest: there is a temporary armistice that ended the korean war and that is what in place. what the north koreans and i think also the south koreans want is to replace the temporary armistice with what they call a piece regime or peace treaty --

a peace regime or peace treaty which would objectively end the korean war. there have been steps taken in conjunction with that. ande are a lot of legal boundary disputes between south korea and north korea and also, there would be a normalization of relations between all states involved. what we areit with going to see play out, what do you think is a good walk away with this administration after all is said and done? guest: a good walk away is more than what was accomplished at the last summit. if you look at this as a process, the last summit was a first step in thawing the relationship. there were expectations that may have been unreasonable for that one. in this one, what everyone needs to see is substantive progress

on the issue and that means north korea giving up its nuclear weapons but the north koreans also want to see substantive progress in that could range from the peace declaration to some sanctions lifting to the establishment of diplomatic relations with the united states. -- was part ofis the negotiating team in 1994 when it comes to the united states and north korea. you can also read his posts. thank you for your time. guest: thank you very much. host: for the next 45 minutes or so, we will get you to comment on one of three stories happening in washington, d.c. today. testimony.en's you can talk about the president's trip to vietnam to visit with kim jong-un. the house is set to vote on one of two pieces of gun legislation

today and tomorrow. if you want to talk to us about those three topics, (202)-748-8000 for democrats. (202)-748-8001 for republicans. and independents, (202)-748-8002 . "washington journal" will continue after this. ♪ >> what c-span2 for live coverage of president trump's visit to vietnam, to resume denuclearization talks with north korea's kim jong-un. our talks begin tonight and through the overnight hours into thursday morning as president trump and kim jong-un greet each other at the presidential palace. afterwards, a joint press conference with both world leaders. c-span2, summit on c-span.org or listen with the free c-span radio app. the c-span bus recently

traveled to texas, asking folks what does it mean to be american? >> to be an american, first and foremost to me means living in the country of opportunity. a country where people can make their dreams happen. i think this especially applies to students. we have so many opportunities of education. we get to learn a lot about politics. also, being an american means living in a country full of change and accepting change. evolve a lot.y a veryuality is important american central value where everyone has an equal opportunity to succeed. >> what it is to be an american to me is the opportunity to help people. the opportunity to speak for the

whochless and for people are held by financial burdens or cultural beliefs. as a very keynity part of being an american. >> i think being an american is being free and to be a part of something bigger. , theof a diverse culture melting pot of america. when he to be able to think about others and also our environment and to better ourselves for the future. >> voices from the road on c-span. >> "washington journal" continues. host: you can comment on michael cohen's testimony, on the trip that the president is taking to

vietnam and also the house democrats set to vote on two pieces of gun legislation. (202)-748-8000 for democrats. (202)-748-8001 for republicans. -- independents, (202)-748-8002. michael cohen said to give testimony on capitol hill. my guest will cover the testimony today. thank you for joining us. guest: gladly. host: walk through what we expect as far as the format is concerned. guest: i hear that there is no time limit, so lawmakers will be able to ask as many questions about michael cohen's relationship with the president as long as it does not touch on russia. russia will be held behind closed doors tomorrow before the

house intelligence committee. yesterday he met with the senate intelligence committee. we will not be hearing much about what he has between president trump and any ties to russia. otherwise he is going to get into his business dealings, the personal nitty-gritty of who he be and late last night, some reporters including myself received a copy of michael cohen 's prepared remarks. he is expected to dig at the president and make some explosive allegations against him. host: including offering up pieces of evidence, canceled checks and the likes. off by sayingts that trump is a con man, a racist and a cheat and then he

kind of walks through the different explanations. first he is saying that trump is a racist. he said that he allegedly said that black people are too stupid to vote for him. when he gets into how roger stone allegedly knew that wikileaks was going to dump the democratic emails to hurt the clinton campaign. he said this was done by listening to a phone call between trump and stone that they had on speakerphone. he also gets into hushed payments he made -- hush to women whoade claimed to have had affairs with trump. he will have to back that up, as well as making claims about trump's friend's to build a tower in moscow -- trump's

friend's to build 8 -- trump's plans to build a tower in moscow. talk to our viewers about that tweet and the impact it has heading into this meeting. guest: matt is a republican lawmaker from florida and he seems to be a close ally to president trump. he tweeted what democrats have is witness intimidation, basically saying that the truth will come out about infidelity your believe it said do wife and father-in-law know about your girlfriend? maybe tonight will be the time for that chat. he basically seem to be suggesting that some dirty

laundry about michael cohen will come out following his testimony on the hill. has since thee -- leader the tweet, saying he was only trying to point out that cohen was a lie -- what a liar, not trying to intimidate him. democrats say this was something that came at the direction of the white house. host: is he going to see any type of punishment or rebuke from democrats because of this tweet? guest: democrats are calling for some sort of push but he is protected from some of the comments he has made. there tends to be more latitude if you are a member of congress. and itnclear right now might be swept under the rug depending on how today goes. etz is seen as someone who will be inflammatory and will cross the line from what

republicans have been saying. i think that remains to be seen, but he certainly has angered some democrats ahead of this testimony. host: that being said, what do we expect from republicans on the oversight committee and how does the chairmen plan to handle these types of statements republicans might make? guest: republicans are planning to go after michael cohen's credibility. treatedt year, he guilty to lying to congress -- pleaded guilty to lying to congress about the trump tower moscow negotiations. they are trying to undercut his credibility and say he lied to congress, how can we trust him to testify publicly? credibility,ng his they are probably seeking to minimize the impact of whatever .ohen might have to say

sarah huckabee sanders and the white house also are saying why would you trust him? she said yesterday that it is laughable that anyone would take a convicted liar like cohen at his word and that it is pathetic he is being given another opportunity to spread his lives -- spread his lies. that is olivia beavers to reports from the hill, covering michael cohen's testimony today. you can see that testimony starting at 10:00 on c-span.org and our c-span radio app. we thank you for your time. that is one of the things you , orcomment on until 9:00

9:15. (202)-748-8000 for democrats, (202)-748-8001 for republicans -- independents, matt: independents, (202)-748-8002. comment on that as well. one more thing about the michael cohen story. the republican national committee put out a digital ad taking a look at today's testimony and the topic of michael cohen himself. [video clip] >> i want to tell you about the real donald trump. he is a unifier. >> the words the media should be using to describe mr. trump are generous. he is going to do everything he promises. he is going to bring success and make america great. compassionate. principled. found trump speaks from the heart. sympathetic, kind.

he is going to stay true to who he is. he is going to be an amazing president. humble, honest and genuine. mr. trump's memory is fantastic and i have never come across a situation where mr. trump has said something that is not accurate. although trump wants to do is make this country great again -- all donald trump wants to do is make this country great again. host: let's go to our first caller. in thisi am interested morning whether there is going to be any congress people who are willing to ask michael cohen about not only the payments to women of age but to the allegations before the election and how he might have helped cover them up, by people who said that jeffrey -- and donald trump were involved when they were teenagers in very bad and unlawful acts towards them. my sense is that there may be a bit of a cover-up here in terms

of michael: -- michael cohen's, one lanny davis who has been representation for -- who has been linked to high levels of organized crime tied back to the kremlin. i wanted to see if elijah cummings or some of these democrats will actually help protect the republic and innocent girls across the country and ask about the question of michael cohen being dollar trumps fixer -- donald trumps fixer -- trump's friend's are. -- trump's fixer. caller: i think michael cohen should be given the opportunity

one more thing i want to say. host: would you believe him even though he is going to jail for lying to congress? i will believe him if he presents credible evidence. but if you line and everyone accuses you of lying and at some point you present credible evidence, i would you -- i would believe you based on the evidence. is painful to wake up every whenng to listen to c-span a lot of people have this denial of the fact that the money that obama sent to iran is not american money, it is not taxpayer money. host: john in maryland,

republican line. caller: good morning. this is a question for your expert on north korea. i would like to know his opinion on joe biden and his views on north korea. it seems like joe has been on the wrong side of history on every foreign-policy issue and i would like to know what he thinks of joe biden's foreign policy chops since joe might be a candidate for president. host: he has already left us. we finished up that segment. north carolina is next, independent line. caller: i just want to say that this attack is continuing. the fact that they are putting this on today when he is doing one of the most important things , saving people from possible nuclear war and the possibility that the korean war could end. there are some real things to talk about and they are talking about hush money to an adult

when the man decided he was going to be a president. he knew he had to clean his image up a little bit. pay,er he paid or did not is that going to make the moon not shine in the sun not rise? matter to the legitimate average person who really cares about the united states. not electy who did the man, it could be everything. the lies and the lies. nothing that really pertains to important things in the united states. attempt to beat back all the onrush of hate coming at him. i almost feel sorry for him. host: we will hear from rich in indiana, democrats line. caller: donald trump finally

made it to vietnam 50 years late , but anybody who thinks kim jong-un or anybody from north korea are going to keep their word, i have a bridge in brooklyn i will sell you. host: why do you think he won't? he is not going to give up his nuclear weapons. kim cares thinks about their economy, billy thing he keeps it -- he cares about is food in front of him and he could not care less how many north koreans starved to death. he has how many tens of thousands of north koreans locked up in gulags? this is the same guy who murdered his uncle and stepfather and stepbrother. host: let's go to kevin in texas, democrats line. caller: thank you for taking my call.

like the last caller said, i ironic that this guy who was able to dodge the draft, cheat his way to become president is now back in vietnam as a republican who used to be strong on defense. the irony is amazing. host: what is the irony in the president going to vietnam -- is this because of the trip itself? guest: he is a draft dodger. ,e goes back as the president but when it is time to answer the call, he did not go. he got a deferment. host: republican line from florida. caller: good morning. as a retired international relations person is that if you don't speak with your enemies, then they will continue to be your enemies.

if we don't have conversations with those who oppose our views, then the world will simply not get better. i do not understand democratic issues concerning trump's prior arrangements with whatever. but i am concerned with is the future of america and a world that is increasingly nuclear. anything we can do in my eyes is a good thing. host: why do you think -- do you think this triple accomplish that? knows -- thatody this trip will accomplish that? caller: everybody knows this is a step-by-step process. this is not 12-year-olds complaining to diane feinstein, this is nuclear war. every step obama took to avoid it was lauded. what is the difference?

that is my issue. we seek a peaceful world and trump is trying to do that. host: that is greg in florida. areof the three topics we engaging in until 9:00 and if you want to make your comments known on either what is going on in vietnam, talk about the votes on gun legislation today and tomorrow or also talk about michael cohen. and :00 is when that hearing will take place. you can see that on c-span three, c-span.org and our c-span radio app. from joe in north carolina, democrats line. caller: good morning. what islike to know wrong with the people of the united states. they are about the stupidest people going. you can't open your eyes and see? this man is promoting communism. he hangs around communists all

the time. coming as leaders, russia -- communist leaders. russia. host: that is joe in north carolina. video from earlier today. this is the first meeting between the president and kim jong-un as they met and exchanged pleasantries. a short speech from the president. a dinner that followed. another meeting set to talk about details when it comes to issues when it comes to the program. from texas, democrats line, kyle. caller: i just want to point out need tole we do negotiate with our enemies and have to indication, donald trump is not the right man to be doing that. he has already threatened kim jong-un with nuclear holocaust. he is not looking out for the

interest of the entire world. is more interested in profiting from his presidency. that is all i want to -- he is more interested in profiting from his presidency. that is all i want to say. host: our next caller on the republican line from ohio. caller: this is just trump's way of draining the swamp. when they are trying to go for our guns. those rights shall not be infringed. he took an oath of office to uphold the constitution. host: i read talking about the votes planned of the house when it comes to gun legislation? caller: yeah, those rights shall not be infringed. i think he is going to drain the swamp with it right there. host: two pieces of legislation being considered when it comes to guns. joining us to talk about this , -- who serves as the legal affairs staff writer. let's start by describing a quick description of these bills being considered. guest: good morning. -- the firstthat

one is the bigger one and would require background checks on all gun sales. for the backers, that is including gun shows and online sales. now, only licensed firearm dealers are required to do background checks. unlicensed sellers do not need to do it. the bill includes some exemptions. transfers for target shooting, hunting or self-defense. if someone is going to become a law enforcement officer or is a family gift. the bill has five republican cosponsors. the second bill would expand the gun dealers must wait on background checks before making a sale. currently it is three days. that would be extended to 10 days and it would add a process that could add another 10 days. that is the so-called charlestown loophole.

nine churchgoers in south carolina and one of the examiners during the background check was trying to sort through some confusion about a previous arrest of the shooter. time expired and he was able to purchase the gun. host: what is the point of democrats on the house side proposing this bill considering the future of might have in the senate and the white house? guest: you are right to point that out because the white house has already threatened to veto both of these bills. they say the first one is too partisan -- too burdensome. they say it is not compatible with the second amendment. the second one is the extension of the deadline for how long they have to wait. they say that is unduly burdensome on the second amendment. in the senate, there is almost no sign that majority leader mitch mcconnell would bring this up for a vote or they would be hearings in the judiciary committee. this is not backed by

republicans. this is a really popular issue. the pew research service in october did a poll that found 91% of democrats want to support background checks for private gun sales and at gun shows and 79% of republicans also support that. they think it is a really positive thing to do. they also think that politically this is good for them. the backer of the first background bill, mike thompson of california, he told me that all 40 house seats that flipped to democrat in this last election had gun violence as a concern of voters. they see a winning issue here, even if these bills might not go anywhere. host: when this vote finally comes down, do we expect a partyline vote or do we expect republicans to cross over? there are five republican

supporters for the first one, that would require background checks on all sales. you will see some crossover but the rule to get to this bill passed. mostly along party lines, so that is what you are going to see. done,when this effort is what is the democratic strategy when it comes to this issue? guest: what they hope to do is put a lot of pressure politically on republicans and make this a good election year thing. i also think that democrats have wanted to do this for a while. now that they have the majority, they are able to do this, to move this kind of legislation that is popular and force republicans to answer the question of why they are not backing bill that seem to have public support, broad public support as they are running for reelection. host: this is todd ruger joining

us. he is with cq roll call and serves as her legal affairs staff writer, talking about these planned votes looking at run background checks. thank you for your time. guest: thank you for having me. host: you can talk about that, the president trip, -- president's trip, michael cohen 's testimony. next we will go to connie on our independent line. caller: good morning and thank you for having me. i would like to as an throw my total support behind the president and everything he is trying to do. issues, thingsal to do with people that lean more with economict government issues, i would lean more toward the right. individual that would ever put me on the line

and say you must vote republican or democrat. aboutwhat do you think this current efforts going on in vietnam? i totally support his efforts and i think things will get better. they are better. nobody will give him credit for it. our president is doing what he was voted into do, which is support the american citizens, american taxpayers. representing us from a position of strength, not going out and apologizing for us doing well. he is there because the american people wanted him there and we want him to work. host: let's hear from becky in virginia, independent line. caller: thank you for taking my call and letting people like myself call in. all, i am a democrat

but i am leaning more toward republicans because as far as i'm concerned, the democrats have gone off the chain. ishink that elizabeth warner cuckoo and should be put back in the clock. i think sanders should be looking at the nursing home. i think cortez needs to go to venezuela and hook up with maduro. host: that said, when it comes to either michael cohen or vietnam or the effort on gun legislation, what is most important to you? caller: i think people should be able to bear arms and i think it is our right and it should not be taken away. as long as it does not get into the wrong hands of people, i think there is nothing wrong with it. i think that as long as president trump is trying to do the right thing and protect our country and jobs. our unemployment is great. let him do his job. that is what we put him in for

an that is what he is doing. host: that is becky in virginia speaking to the legislation that we talked about earlier. the house republican conference chair in some criticism about these bills that are about to be presented by house democrats. [video clip] >> we are here today because we've got serious concerns about hr-11-12, two bills that the democrats are putting on the floor of the house. the bills are under the guise of saying they will adjust issues related to gun violence -- address issues related to gun violence. neither of these bills would of done anything to stop some of the tragedies we have seen. what they would do is clearly prevent law-abiding citizens from having access to firearms and what these bills would do is create a situation where the beingge of weapons and able to lend her weapon or

private firearm sales would not be allowed and then you would see this is the first-ever tour the creation of some sort of federal gun registry even though the bill says they will not be doing that. we would see as these bills, if they were to pass and become law , a situation were they cannot be enforced ultimately without a federal gun registry. host: that took place yesterday. michael cohen's testimony will begin today. you can watch it on c-span three, c-span.org and our radio app. from pennsylvania, republican line. hi.les, caller: the gun laws that they have, we have enough of them. these two are different going to hurt us as legal gun owners. i am an nra member and we cannot let this bill go through. it is just going to hurt us.

the president is doing a good job. you have to give him a chance to get things done and the democrats are not letting that. michael cohen having a hearing, i would not trust him as far as i could throw him. next,rhode island is democrats line. caller: i want to thank you for taking my call. i wanted to say i think it is hilarious the way people are focusing on other issues today and not looking to vietnam where we see once again donald trump is cozying up to a dictator and we are seeing a cognitive shift from north korea having nuclear weapons and now we are giving them access to nuclear weapons and i wonder what president trump is getting in return. i wish that people would focus on what is happening in the it now. host: grant is next in massachusetts, independent line.

caller: i just wanted to point out that the parallels between perilouslynd the delays -- legal situation facing the president our guard -- are stronger by the day. that only do we see parallels between michael cohen and john dean who was ruthlessly attacked before his testimony we also see trump attempting to pull a net and in china moment and cozying up to distract from his problems at home. . host: the president met with kim and there was a short statement before that as well. other events will take place as the summit continues in hanoi. we will bring more about that tomorrow, especially as the events take place through the course of our day. a lot of things happening between this, what is happening with michael cohen and the gun legislation up for a vote.

about 10 minutes before we had to our next segment. let's go to mark in texas, republican line. comment onanted to the gun-control legislation. host: go ahead. caller: i watched the hearing on i thoughte house and the republicans on the committee -- quite a few reasonable and i think that the biggest thing is that even if a person is already certified as a safe person, they still have to go through a background check for each purchase.

it seems like they could streamline that person -- that process if they want a lot of public support. that is my comment. host: you heard a present of cheney earlier talking about their concerns about this guy legislation. one of the aspects she brought up was the creation of a gun registry. mike thompson also spoke about the legislation and that he talked about republican concerns. -- and then he talked about republican concerns. [video clip] >> poppycock. the bill specifies that nothing in the bill could be used to create a national registry. i know the politics of it. i know they put out the buzzwords. they do this and need a national registry, trying to frighten the american people but it is just not going to work. create at here to national registry. we are here to create a first line of defense to ensure that

people who should not have guns .on't get access to guns host: next is for the. -- is florida. hower: i want to talk about strict everyone is about abortion laws as well. i feel like everyone is saying that trump is doing such a great job but he is not focusing on anything that is for the better cause because everyone is saying they don't need stricter gun laws but they need stricter laws on abortion when these are all protecting lives and you can save one life -- say one life is .ore important i feel like everything that is going on in florida and the contradiction of keep the guns thereep the babies, but

is no median and i feel like every thing needs to be controlled and i feel like the passion that republicans have for saving babies needs to have the same floor -- host: when it comes to the background check legislation, that is being considered in the house, is that something you support? caller: of course i do, especially with everything, the whole parkland thing and how kids are having easier access to guns. be al like there has to stronger position on that. host: larry is next from georgia, independent line. caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call. i would like to comment concerning president trump's talking with north korea's president, concerning the nuclear. one of the things that has not been talked about is the fact

that nuclear is only one part of the equation. biological and chemical, has note known as nbc been addressed by president trump and this is one thing that needs to be addressed by president trump to protect both america and the rest of the world. tony ispublican line, next from pennsylvania. caller: good morning. ridiculous,think is there are enough background checks right now. we are not going to register our guns. i am a 70-year-old guy -- never had a felony or anything else.

this was back in the 70's, they retroactivelyand i could not buy a gun. i wanted to buy a 22 to shoot rats on the farm. this is ridiculous. everything to try and take peoples guns. they will continue to do that if they keep making these laws because that is what they want to do. take your -- take the guns away so the government can just take over. if you lose the second amendment, you are going to lose everything. host: michigan, democrats line. we will hear from linda. caller: regarding the north korean situation, i keep hearing from republicans about what a great job he is doing. he has backed away from disarming the nuclear threat to

well, as long as he does not test. ,epublicans calling in about god for bid the inconvenience of waiting 20 days to clear a background check. boo-hoo. people need to pass a background check. they should have to get training, too. we have idiots here in michigan. one woman firing at people in a parking lot and home depot because they were running from security. she is going to shoot somebody in the back without even knowing what they allegedly did. they were shoplifting. she took it into her own hands. another incident where a kid was lost and came through the door to ask for directions. the man came out with his gun and shot at this kid. i am sorry, but some people are too stupid to have their second amendment rights. the rest of us suffer because they still do. post the washington highlights a photograph from

getty images about kim jong-un, the fact that he took a 65 our train journey from pyongyang to the vietnamese border. this is him in hanoi, arriving by limousine along with security. the president also in hanoi. is next next -- mike from missouri, independent line. thatr: i am pretty sure who gaetz is the same idiot -- a marjorie stillman marjorie stillman father who lost his son and told him that a border wall would have done more to save his son than gun laws would do. now he is threatening michael cohen? i want to know what is happening to the republican party, the party of lincoln. they are supposed to be the truthful party.

i think maybe that people should know that nice little setting you are showing with donald trump over there in vietnam, that the american reporters were kicked out because they asked a question donald trump did not like. once again, here we are with donald trump with a dictator and he does not want americans to know what is going on. host: one reporter yesterday said that one of the reasons they were kicked out was because kim jong-un actually had a problem with that but there are a lot of things going on between here and hanoi. indiana is next, republican line. caller: thank you for taking my call. on,gentleman that was just he sounds like he is a little confused. the republican party is doing good. i for one sure do appreciate a president that is taking the

chance to go over to a foreign country and try and straighten out what the other presidents have not done. i would like to leave my comment , what albert einstein once quoted. he said the world is a dangerous place to live, not because of the people who are evil but because of the people who don't do anything about it. donald trump is trying to do something about it. he stopped the rockets coming over over one summit. now he is trying to do more with this summit. they don't want to give him any credit whatsoever. it is pitiful. host: that is rodney in indiana finishing off this segment. coming up, we are joined by two representatives, representative james langevin of rhode island, a democrat and republican glenn thompson. we will discuss careers in technical education programs. that conversation coming up, but first because many of you mentioned the gun debate, scheduled to take place today

and tomorrow. it took place leading up to the votes. to bring republicans and the democrats -- and a democrat each giving their various perspective. [video clip] >> the gun related murder rate in the united states is 25 times higher than the average of other high income countries and hundreds of times higher than some of them. the good news is that we know the to do to begin to end crisis. we must close the loopholes. in 1994 the brady handgun violence prevention act went into a fact and required dealers to contact the fbi to run a background check through the backgroundstant check system. the brady act made it illegal to sell a firearm to felons, the fugitives, to people who have been committed to mental institutions, to drug addicts, domestic abusers, undocumented immigrants and other

disqualified categories. it worked as far as it went. more than 3ed million illegal purchases of firearms by violently abusive partners, fugitives, the mentally ill, and so on. but there are gaping loopholes in the law because unlicensed gun sellers, the people who sell at gunline today, or shows or in other private transactions can sell firearms without having to run any background check whatsoever. more than 1/5 of u.s. gun owners acquired their most recent firearm without any background check at all, meaning that millions of people obtain millions of firearms without going to the brady system and the people that commit gun crimes overwhelmingly obtain firearms through unlicensed sources. a 2013 study should found that 80% of all firearms acquired for criminal purposes were obtained through sources that were not

required to go through the background check. the criminals are not stupid. they follow the loopholes. they go to the internet, they go to the gun shows. they go to a convenience store parking lot to get their weapons of mass destruction without any background check at all. our legislation will close these dangerous loopholes by guaranteeing that there is a thorough background check on every transfer with only a few carefully defined exceptions for intrafamily gifts and a few other cases. >> hr eight will also turn everyday law-abiding citizens into criminals if it becomes law. the amendments that were rejected by the democrats in the rules committee and in the judiciary that offered to protect law-abiding citizens from becoming criminals. amendment --was an i thought common sense, that someone thinking of committing

suicide would be exempted from temporarily turning over their gun to a friend. it's not allowed under this bill. they would become a criminal. someone that wants to commit suicide cannot transfer their gun to someone else. if a law-abiding citizen wanted to let someone temporarily use ,heir gun on their own property they would become a criminal under this bill. rancher wanted to temporarily lend a gun to a ranch hand for the purposes of ranch activities, the farmer would become a criminal under this law. victimmestic violence was in fear of her life and wanted to temporarily borrow a gun from a friend to protect herself, she would become a criminal under this law.

let's also look at common sense amendments rejected by the democrats that would have prevented undue burdens and duplication of law-abiding citizens that have already passed the background check but now have to go through another background check under this law. people who have security clearances. this is the application to get a government security clearance. page, background check, extensive background checks. yet someone who has this and has gone through this still has to get another background check. >> washington journal continues. of congressmbers running us. we are joined by representative , cochair of the technical education caucus. also joined by representative glenn thompson, pennsylvania, cochair of the same caucus, to talk about the idea of career

and technical education. both of you gentlemen, thank you for joining us today. guest: thank you. host: why is this an important topic to talk about, representative thompson? guest: it's about exercising the power of work. i'm find a saying that her are not too many social ills that cannot be overcome with access to great paying family jobs. the caucus is very successful, both in appropriations of the past year, but certainly with a reform bill that the president signed on july 31. about restoring the rungs on the ladder of opportunity for people to be able to access that, to get a little bit of training. we are not talking about a college degree. we are talking about a skills-based education, could be stacked credentials. get a new job, maybe a first-time job for a while. more money.

host: you guys talk about the skills gap when it comes to this area. give us a sense of what's going on. >> one of the highlights of my time in congress, working as cochair of the career technical education caucus, was to narrow the skills gap. we hear it repeatedly from businesses. i go around my business -- my district as i do every weekend, 2007, 2008, kept hearing about this need for workers with the right skills for the jobs that are available right now. so, we are trying to narrow the gap. that is what our legislation did , career technical education for the 21st century act, addressing real-world needs right now so that people have in demand skills for in demand job it's. the economy is revolutionized, especially in manufacturing and

in many other fields, career and technical education. we saw that is a great need. we worked together over the last several years to get it authorized and into law. give an overview of what the bill does. guest: make sure that there is close alignment between what we are teaching in the classrooms and what the needs of businesses are. themes i have heard constantly from business owners, they tried to find workers with the right skills and what was being taught in classrooms was not relevant to what business is needed. it narrows the gap, teaching relevant skills in the classrooms, making sure that businesses, by the way, have a seat at the table when curriculum is developed so that they get this closer alignment between businesses and what the workers needed and what we were

teaching in classrooms. at the high school level but also at community colleges, for example. it also authorizes higher funding levels. we are still not at the peak that we were several years ago, but at the higher reauthorization levels we authorized $1.3 billion for fy 19, 1.2 7 billion. we've got a bit of a ways to go to meet the top number. now it's about getting the appropriations, the dollars for the program, which i'm confident we can work with. career technical education is the topic. central time zones, (202) 748-8000. mountain and pacific time zones, (202) 748-8001. if you have experience with technical education, (202) 748-8002. what kind of jobs are we talking

about? guest: the tools of current education are so varied. it's the wonderful part about this. one of the things you think about, people like about hammers, wrenches, welding tools . it's pink process, stethoscopes, farm implements. certainly, keyboards. the amount of individuals needed in the industry today for entering data, for doing that's the -- amazing part of this. there is something out there for everyone and as we go around the nation these jobs are available. stated most was recently that it was 7 million jobs out there. employers, as jim had mentioned, , employersame thing are looking for individuals who are qualified and trained. lots of people are interested, but the skills gap is keeping them from being able to do that firsthand on the rung of the ladder of opportunity.

and going even beyond that, some of the other parts, to try to deal with this bias, this bias that every young person -- although this bill actually serves every adult, every american of every age, but for kids there has been at bias for decades that everyone needs to go to a four-year college. we are not opposed to that and that's a great pathway if it's the right pathway for someone, but we believe there are many different pathways to ask -- to success in life. would introduce awareness of the types of in demand career and technical education jobs, what i like to call's gills-based education in the middle schools now, doing it earlier. we also have skills and provisions to deal with very specific needs, with americans who found themselves incarcerated, helping them turn their lives around through skills-based career and technical education. to be able to come he you know,

reenter the community in a productive way. there is so much in this, in this law, it's very exciting. how long does it usually take to gain this kind of skills type education and what are we looking at for potential salaries? guest: having kids early on in their academic career, and junior high, particularly at the high school level, getting ready to enter the workforce at some point. skillsn gain will of the in a relatively short time. i know that in my home district of rhode island, where we build of the nation's best nuclear submarines in the world. right now we are genetically ramping up the workforce. there are programs now for example at our high schools that are teaching welding schools -- skills. computert learn on a

and it is actually a mock sort of submarine type situation where they would actually do physical welding as well. , you can paying jobs earn a significant salary coming out. starting salary for example in many cases is over $20 per hour. in many of these fields. way, also work-based learning. not just classroom, but hands-on learning incentives where the kids are actually doing the work and entering the workforce with career ready modules that are college ready. by the way, going the education route, going to college they can certainly do it simultaneously

or after they have a good paying and go to college part-time. you talked about the perception think that in manufacturing by way of example, we think of our fathers, grandfathers, thinking of the old, dirty, noisy factories. looking at the advanced manufacturing facility right now, the equipment, the ,achines, computer programming these are all high tech and in demand skills. electricians, plumbing, pipefitting, could be those aspects of technical traits and career traits. health care. a whole range, including cyber

security. said -- a print and apprenticeships fall into this category? guest: they do. lifetimesntry many ago, we had the apprenticeship program and we got away from that. we have reinvested in apprenticeships, the value of those in how important they are. absolutely. they are a very important part ,f what we are going to see now as a result of the legislation that has been enacted. host: let's take a call from jack in washington state. you are on with our guests. go ahead. morning, i was wondering about artificial intelligence. do you think it's going to replace a mass amount of jobs in the near future? that --ell, i think even before we get artificial intelligence, just technology is replacing jobs. far fewer people are working in manufacturing today than at any

time in history. but manufacturing is such a larger part of our gdp growth than at any time in history because of the application of technology. a lot of minimum wage jobs, we spend a lot of time arguing about minimum wage but a lot of those jobs are going away if you look at fast food restaurants or platforms, you are paying their with fewer people working in those settings. grocery stores, convenience stores. there's just a lot of places. it, though,eauty of anything that uses technology, including eventually what will be the ai, it leads people to build those programs, to monitor and operate those programs. it's a different skill set and that's what we are -- i think our legislation really does help the position in this new economy, i guess, that we are in, to help people get the skill

sets to be successful. guest: and ensuring a dynamic will, since it requires that businesses have a seat at the ,able in curricular development maintaining that as technology changes and business needs change, we are ensuring that the curriculum stays relevant to what businesses need overtime. not just a one and done, but an ongoing effort, hit right in the head, as our economy continues to evolve, things like machine learning and ai come more into .he mainstream but we are going to need our askforce to be able to adapt older technology jobs, for example, might be phased out. one thing i am concerned about for our workforce is in the area of self driving cars and self driving trucks.

there are so many jobs that require drivers right now. as self driving cars and trucks come into the norm, if you will, they have replaced a lot of those jobs in those workers are going to need the relevant for jobs that support driving will be available. when people say they graduate from high school if they think they are going to go into a truck driving job, for instance, it may not be there. we need to make sure that those young people, those workers have the relevant skills for the 21st century. from atlanta,ar georgia. steve, hi. caller: thank you so much for your call -- for taking my call. i love your program. i'm a supporter for what the general is talking about. as a matter of fact, in my class were in ourlarships

class for those people in technical areas. because what has happened, due to the old-fashioned way that we put us markets, the smart kids already get big money. really like to do is get a number and get some information where i can go around to the, to my former and i wouldthers like to have something in writing. i'm not good with the internet and all that. you: representative? guest: can call my office or go online. we have information about the career technical education act, the 21st century act and that

will have more information about the bill. your localg with departments of education, local we heard from someone who had relevant workforce skills that used to be where things are trending towards. sometimes they had guest speakers and if that is what the gentleman was discussing. host: is there an inherent bias towards those paths? there has been and it has been a bipartisan mistake for decades, literally. we have shown the leadership to be taking some real steps to put an end to that bias. the other place to reach out to perhaps in terms of net worth would be a local career .orkforce investment agency

those are in every region in the country in those are workforce about the professionals. i loved what the caller had to say. spot on. a pass to the education workforce committee last year. the higher education reauthorization, that gives us the -- that act, it needs to be done. i'm hoping that the 16th congress will do -- will do it. for the first time we got to the point where financial aid would be extended to individuals involved in career and technical education. it wasn't a four or six year degree. it didn't even have to be an associates degree, but it is still important and frankly it is higher education in terms of post secondary education. i'm very pleased that that was in the template for last year and that we are starting over again with that and i sit on that committee has one of the senior members and i'm going to do my best to make sure it would

be part of anything that we advance in the future. we should limit helping americans achieve greater opportunity to just a certain sector of depending on what school they are going to. opportunity is pretty broad. dade city, florida, patricia, hi. caller: good morning, thank you for taking my call. i am a graduate of a technical education school that i attended in 2009 to become certified in billing and coding and business administration. at the time the country was in the beginning stages of reeling from the recession. there was no placement. there was part-time if you could even find it and it only paid anywhere from 10 to $12 per hour. you cannot live in long island on that kind of money. truthfully, the state of new york sent me because i was one of those affected by the

recession. the other question that i have is that the jobs today with the data entry, if that employer will not give you the opportunity to put two feet on the ground running, how do you gain that experience? where do you go to even remotely use what you want to technical education for? host: good question. representative? guest: great question. i don't know what the caller's situation is right now. i'm hoping that you found something that gets your interests in your skills. that's what the apprenticeship and work-based learning will be as we include the new law here. hopefully you are again working so that students are learning. they are actually doing at the place of business.

the owners and operators of these countries are actually solving their own workforce needs. show the students your way of doing business and when they graduate over there, transition to a job where the apprenticeship, in the ideal world, it will work in every circumstance, but hopefully the at thethat are gained business school will be relevant to other businesses that have job opportunities. --st: the caller, that was a it's a bad time. we had record unemployment at that point. the economy makes a difference. i can see where the struggle would have been, but it's a different day, today. with a robust economy and the number of jobs, millions of jobs it there open and available,

think most employers today, where they were not accepting job applications in 2008, today they don't have nearly enough. i think that with your skill the state'm guessing helped you as a -- is the result of you losing a job in a tough economy, you would probably benefit from another piece of legislation that we work on, the workforce innovation opportunity act that provides funding for individuals who are unemployed or underemployed to be able to get that skills-based education. that was kind of the first of three bills that we worked on. there was the second where we did great work on career education and the trifecta was the clear and technical education bill. today it's a different economy. skills are absolutely in demand and the demand is growing with the skill set that you have, congratulations. to bring guests joining us

today. you just heard from representative glenn thompson of pennsylvania. also representative james langevin, rhode island, both cochairs of educational caucus -- the educational caucus. here to talk more about their efforts. (202) 748-8000 four eastern and central time zones. (202) 748-8001 for the mountain and pacific time zones. if you have02 experience with technical education, like our last caller and want to share that and ask a question. a quick sidebar for both of you gentlemen. there was a vote yesterday about the emergency declaration on the border wall. how did you vote on it and why? guest: i voted against the house joint resolution last evening that would have prevented president trump's emergency declaration going forward. from this standpoint, when i look at the amount of not just

you legal immigration, we need workforce. this is about meeting illegal immigrants to help fill the need . but it's also about the barrier wall for me, it's about stopping human trafficking. and so commonread -- it's so evil, it's modern-day slavery. and on top of that is the amount of drugs flowing in. in 2017 there were 17,000 americans who died as a result of opioid overdose. that's just one year and of those 28,000, at least 28,000 involved fentanyl. it comes into the country two different ways. measures to stop that, but there are areas on the southern border. border, i have 27% of the land met -- landmass of

pennsylvania going up to the new york line. very rural. everyone one of those communities has experienced death, loss, and devastation as a result of the drugs flowing across the border. to me that constitutes a national emergency. if that's not, just the number of citizens we have lost, you take that 70,000 for one year and take it out five years, the impact of that, nothing really comes close. host: representative james langevin? i'm concerned about drugs coming across the border and human trafficking, but there is a better way to do border security and its technology and evidence-based, intelligence based. i voted for the resolution disapproving of the president's

declaration of a national emergency. a national this as emergency that would rise to the standard that would fit that definition. i did support, do support, strong border security, no doubt. part of the immigration reform process that we have gone through. last year in 2017 i think we looked at a number of people that came into the country illegally. the people had a legal visa, tourist visa, or some other kind of visa coming into the country and they just overstayed the visa. building a wall doesn't solve that problem. and i just reject president trump's vision of building a

wall from sea to shining sea on the southern border. i don't think that will keep us secure. in some places it may be a physical barrier, but in other places we can use technology, for example. we need more border patrol agents, that was in the recent funding bill that we just passed. congress with its legislative process to build the wall, it's not a campaign promise. i just reject that and disapproved of his declaration of a national emergency. host: our guests are the cochairs of the technical career education caucus and that is what they are offering as far as brief legislation. and in maine, go ahead. caller: oh yeah, i'm happy to see both sides working together on something.

nephew in theand , it's the vocational part of it. being able to purchase the power back in that. people,s employing we've got what, a million people retiring every year? it's a great thing if they can get this going and i believe they should ring back civics and government. there's no civics classes anymore. it's around my area and it should be one of the main courses. seems the younger crowd has too much interest in social media. thank you.

gentlemen, tony from twitter asks -- hope that's the hands-on aspect of apprenticeships, helping to address that issue. making sure that we have a robust, relevant curriculum that helps kids to learn quickly. a career path. not just telling kids to go to college and get a degree in general studies. look, we're all good of those and we have a natural intellectual curiosity about how to do something that we really enjoy. whether it is sports or a career, if you do something you

love and enjoy, you will learn -- learn faster. >> you know, i agree with the tweet that the gentleman sent. thought i also agree and lifelong learning and i think that part of tried to do was to almost reconstruct our technical education perspective and system that is not once and done, but something with portals that people are able to enter into and a time and they have a need. it may be just a case that they need a little bit more training to get a better job and arrays. we are not done, we are dedicated and passionate about this issue. in response to one of the callers, the previous caller who surprised, we obviously

don't agree on everything. you highlighted that with the emergency declaration. day in know, every congress the large majority of legislation that we pass at the end of the day is bipartisan as it is done under the suspension of the roles, 290 votes. you need people from both parties to reach the number and it just doesn't get a lot of coverage in the mainstream media, what we are doing. skills investment act is one of those that speaks to this. this would allow individuals to tax, basically, tax-deferred savings account for their investment in their own career and technical education. they would be able to put money back, treated well under the tax code. also an opportunity for employers to contribute to that. recognize that we are a changing

economy. manufacturing is changing, new industries are emerging. old legacy industries transform. so the new -- the new skill sets are needed. it would allow for personal resources and employer support resources so that people could go out and helped to improve and expand their skill set. is from louisiana. chip, who has experience in the technical field. go ahead. i just wanted to call in and add my applause to the others who have called about the excitement that i have to hear about the legislation from these two gentleman working together. we hear so much coming out of washington that's good to hear about this legislation. been onlouisiana i've the board of supervisors of the

louisiana technical college system. in louisiana we are really taking and providing leadership in aligning workforce deeds with programs. a couple of things i would point out. one, most of the people enrolled in computing and technical colleges are the average age of 27. so, we are pulling adults who are underemployed or unemployed back into the workforce. once they complete an industry based certification or two-year program, they actually come out and making more than a person who graduated from a four-year college. that's not to put down four-year theege graduates, but , imunity technical colleges do have a question for the gentleman to ask about the legislation, which obviously i haven't seen.

one that we face is finding instructors at technical colleges. many of the people in our state with petroleum technology, welding, pipefitting, nursing, it is difficult to find people in theseighly skilled areas. oftentimes these are people who work in the. and we are trying to recruit to come into education and teach. they would have to take a huge pay cut in order to do that. it's very difficult to recruit faculty to teach in some of these highly skilled technical programs. host: we will let our guests respond to that. guest: the caller raises a great point. more for the educators wasn't addressed in our bill per someut you would hope that

of the people that gain these interested ine coming back at some point and being educators. i know that this by the way, they helped to solve their own problems by allowing the atloyees to teach part-time one of these colleges and universities. , anow for example amgen joint manufacturer and pharmaceutical manufacturer, that's a facility in my district. i know that they had some of their employees teach at colleges and universities in a great collaboration between the two. wet's just one example, but need obviously more people in the education field teaching the next generation. health care, for example, is a

great example of where there's a real gap and a need for more nurse educators. there's a waiting list of students wanting to get into nursing programs. i have a young niece in a nursing program right now and i know that the waiting list of students who want to go in and the reason they don't have a way , they don't have enough educators because as the caller pointed out, it just doesn't pay enough. a first-year news -- nursing student for example will be earning more than the nurse educator teaching the next generation. i know in other states across , if the nurse wants to become a nurse educator, there are some programs to help pay down the student loans, but it's a small amount compared to what the need is. we need to do more in terms of

closing the gap around what we pay our nurse educators and what they are earning in the field. from michigan, iris, hello. caller: well hi there. i think there are too many departments in our government. all of the politicians are to benefit something their constituents rather than the country as a whole. i believe in canada you can go to school through the 13th grade. when i was going to school you could take for college prep a business course. they taught technology. car repair. , sewing,oking dressmaking. are very expensive. it's tough to come out owing so much money.

forgetmeantime, don't it's people who develop technology that take jobs away from the people. host: caller, thank you. guest: thanks for the call. law willyou, the new strengthen what jim talked about. i appreciate his service. that board for career and technical education. it's about being able to pivot to what the needs are.

you could even have a new sheoyer show up, and he or would want to create 100 to 500 jobs, but it was a skill set that wasn't in the community. the local current technical education center would love it, but under the old bureaucracy it to be able tors make the change, get approvals from washington at the state level. we provide more -- we delegate authority back down to where it should be at the state with local stakeholders to be able to meet those needs. we do have great programs today by the way in terms of students who are able to take college-level courses. education,t's using sometimes it's going to college campuses. those opportunities are all out there but i do think we will see more meaningful career and technical education courses offered in training that will lead to good family sustaining

jobs as a result of this legislation. our guests are the cochairs of the technical education caucus. before we let you go, something you may disagree on or not, to bring bills taking a look at gun background checks. as it stands, where do you stand on those? guest: yeah you know i disagree with those. there's nothing in them that i have read that would have done anything to stop the tragic shootings we have had. they certainly have made the news. i also think it compounds and creates issues. i like to bring in local law enforcement once per year to offer safe gun handling for ladies. received.well i'm not saying all of these ladies go out and purchase a handgun, but they are more comfortable around them at that point and some of them do, actually. under this law i wouldn't be able to do that because we obviously after, the instruction

lawctually done by local enforcement and city police who donate their time. under this law, the laws we are looking at that we will be voting on this week, they wouldn't be able to handle handgun to somebody to be able to use like that. and there are a lot of other examples of unintended consequences that are pretty negative, from my perspective. plus it doesn't really address the issues in the news. wouldn't have stopped any of the terrible evil shootings we have had. so, i will be voting for the bill that requires a stronger background check. i don't believe -- and no one should be thinking that anyone bill is going to solve the problems of gun violence in america. but what we are trying to do is make sure that we keep the guns out of the wrong hands. what i believe is -- let's start

isone area where someone going to buy a gun, go to a gun store or a gun show or an internet sale or private sale. that some type of a background check is done so that the individual that is legally able to get the gun will have no problem getting the gun, but for someone who has if for some reason a criminal background that would preclude them or a severe mental illness, we need to make sure we do everything we can to keep guns out of the wrong hands. host: thanks for joining us today. guest: thank you very much. host: michael: testifying about 50 minutes. present trump is in vietnam and as our guests talk about, gun legislation. all up for discussion in the final minutes of the program. before that we will show you a bit of the room where michael cohen is set to testify.

it's filling up quickly. then we will take your calls.

host: michael cohen's testimony in about 50 minutes. you can call about it for the next 15 minutes or so, or the other topics we have been looking at. again, that along with the

president in vietnam and along with the house set to vote on two pieces of legislation looking at gun background checks are both up for discussion in the final minutes of our program . from earlier today it was the president in hanoi after meeting ofh kim jong-un and a couple comments about what he expects to happen over the next couple of days. >> it's an honor to be with chairman kim, an honor to be together in the country of vietnam. i had a very successful first summit. i thought it was very successful. the first summit was a great success and i hope that this one will be equal or greater.

i think the various problem with our relationship is really a good one. tom -- host: tom from maryland will start us off. comment and i will leave it at this. as a democrat and to the people of my party, i'm totally disappointed in them with their behavior and what's going on. i think that this man that we have an office is the greatest leader we have ever had in the history of the united states and probably will be the greatest leader in history of the world. in 2006 or 2004, when he does a second term, we are all in a big mess. have a great time. host: next, independent line, .lan

caller: career colleges, students going to these career colleges are default on their loans over 70% of the loans and it's not their fault. this predatory lending season -- system is wrecking this people. previous representatives have sat for years and watched as clearly every consumer protection has been taken away from student loans for these people. it's a tragedy. there's a bill in congress right .ow, a republican bill i fully expect these gentlemen that you just had on to vote for this bill. what it does is return the standard bankruptcy rates that exist for every other type of loan in this country. it there.ill leave lester, indiana, go ahead. caller: i have a question.

i want to know why michael the attorney was supposed to be seeking twice and they postponed it for medical reasons. and then it just so happens that the democrats can get him up there to ask his questions on the day he's meeting with north korea. that just doesn't seem fair or right to me. using his twitter feed to talk about the testimony, earlier he wrote "michael cullen is one of the many lawyers that represented me. unfortunately, he had -- represented others as well. he did bad things unrelated to trump and his lying, he's a crooked lawyer." that's the tweet sent out by the president while he was in vietnam attending the summit. we will go to the house of

representatives when it comes in at 10:00. if you are interested in watching this hearing, sees and three is where you can go. also, the.org radio app is how you can look at that, too. joe, hello. yes, hello, combat veteran, lifelong republican. all i really want to say is i just wish people would look at the facts. the facts are that this administration has broken all records of lying to the american people. i'm a republican, but i also see facts. and then when you couple michael:, who has been a lawyer of this president and the only reason why he lied was to protect the president. and then once he found out that the president is not going to protect him, this is where we

are today. so, all of these callers that say that trump is the greatest , it is justveteran astounding to me how much he has .een with the adversary my entire military career, we and focused on beating being an adversary that they could never, ever touch us in combat. host: so caller, joe, do you take michael: when he gives his testimony, take it at face value? caller: 100%. 100%. host: because? caller: because of how many the bowelss been in of the trump administration. the entire family. all of the financials.

so i definitely will listen to and i think that he wants redemption. i mean, it's an individual that now wants redemption. he's known what he did in his life and he wants, you know, an act attrition. he wants to tell the american .eople i'm not proud of myself. host: got you, got you. sydney. hello? irene with the caller that was just on, but also this gun bill. the people are ready for the inference and its in the constitution, short and sweet and says it all. the archer -- going to try to pass one of them. they are both bad. 2000 take -- pages. the democrats, this is what they , the two people that

were just on today talking, in 2004 they started open lines. they were talking about what i heard them talk about on c-span monday. what they try to do is use five different salespeople to try to start a new focal point of basically incorporating a hitler's type fatherland brainwashing military structure in the schools. they will make it in exchange for your college tuition. we will let you be the military for life. five different people are framing it under technology, girl scouts, boy scouts, being told it's a religious duty. host: ok, we believe it there. andrew, hello. caller: good morning, how are

you today? host: fine, thank you. caller: awesome, man. like the young lady before me, there does need to be a sense of what's coming from a bipartisan standpoint. growing up here in washington i lost so many friends to gun violence. it is something that we definitely need to take a look at, but to put a fine point on today's issue of michael collins testimony, this is unprecedented. he is talking about the circumstantial role to convict donald trump and he is really cut and dry. there is no question about whether trump was treasonous with the russians, with julian assange, or was in coordination with roger stone and paul .anafort to get other documents it's really imperative that the american people are able to see this testimony today and that we can get all of this laid out before us. why, why, why are you

interested, why do you believe michael:? caller: it's not that i believe michael cullen, but if you look , michael: has cooperation in terms of documents, checks, intel's, correspondence, tapings of donald trump. to be honest with you, being from los angeles, having served time it myself, circumstantial day. are made every why can't one be made against donald trump? because he's a white man question mark that's not a high enough threshold to not convict him. that's andrew in los angeles. his hearing just about to take place, lanny davis walking in, the attorney for michael cohen. this hearing is about to start in a few minutes. c-span3 is where you want to switch over. matt gaetz tweeting yesterday,

don't know if it's going to it will be on c-span3, the.org, and radio app. go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my call. this will be an important day in repairing the damage that has been done. host: arkansas, go ahead. they were talking about the hearings this morning and they made it clear that this had nothing to do with russia or the russian investigation.

they are going to be focusing on mr. trump and his payments to , i'm a fair guy. it's not illegal to pay someone #eight. it happens every day in this country. michael jackson paid the parents of the child he was accused of molesting millions of dollars in hush money and it's fine. we have many, many congressmen who paid staff members to keep quiet about sexual assault. they did it with taxpayer money. you can see here michael: walking in as he approaches the table. six hours planned for today. maybe it goes longer, we will see. proceedings will start on c-span3, that's for you can watch them. however, since this show is ending and the house is about to come in for its daily work,

including as we heard about earlier today, this work on gun background checks, a bill set to be voted on today, tomorrow, all of that up for consideration. we will take you there now. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. the clerk: the speaker's room, washington, d.c., february 27, 2019. i hereby appoint the honorable tony cardenas to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, nancy pelosi, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the order of the house of january 3, 2019, the chair will now recognize members from lists submitted by the majority and minority leaders for morning hour debate. the chair will alternate recognition between the parties.