house of congress. then acting defense secretary patrick shanahan and house armed services subcommittee chair jim theer speak at a form on 2020 budget and evolving priorities in space. later, the american bar association releases a 300-page report with recommendations on reforming immigration policy at the border, in courts, and in federal agencies. annette :00 a.m. on c-span3, a discussion on authoritarianism and the u.s. response -- at 9:00 a.m.. >> c-span's "washington journal," with the news and issues that affect you. tuesday morning, arthur brooks discusses his new book love your enemies, how decent people can save america from the culture of content, and harvard professor stephen levitsky talks about his ew book "how democracies die."

be sure to watch c-span's "washington journal," live wednesday morning. join the discussion. we continue our discussion about campaign 2020 with fred barnes. this time back in our desk, congratulations on your new role by the way. another week, another expansion of the democratic primary field. we saw beto o'rourke, we saw joe biden move a little bit closer. who should donald trump the worried about in 2020? guest: i don't think it's joe biden but i do think be is more excitingto and maybe he will be able to develop and do something. he can certainly raise money, very impressive, his first 24 hours he raised over $6 million, that's remarkable. and i've even heard some republicans from texas who saw and almost beating

ted cruz and the senate race worrying about him and thinking attractive,ic and somebody the democrats might hold onto other than the 76 or 77-year-old man. host: why the low opinion of joe biden? man, and a very nice he has run twice very unsuccessfully, back in 2008 he got 1% of the vote or something like that and dropped out. look, he has been vice president. an awful lot of people like him, but i just don't think he fits the mold of the democrats want to fit somebody into in 2020. host: one kamala harris? is their karma for kamala? her,: i was very kind to

just because i thought you had gotten off to a great start in her campaign in the first couple of weeks. i don't think she has done quite as well since then. but we will see. she's got to do well enough in iowa and new hampshire and then really score big in california. it's still possible, but she really hasn't soared. host: you talk about the obama model that could hover over her campaign. what is that? obama, you know, they are both african-americans. and you have to get that vote, but you have to go beyond it. i think in obama's case, obama scored early with iowa. it was just remarkable after that. repeathard model to

because obama was such an extraordinary candidate and had such a great campaign. she doesn't have that yet. role as senior columnist of the washington examiner started earlier this week. here with us this morning to take your calls and questions as we talk about campaign 2020. (202) 748-8000 if you are a democrat. (202) 748-8001 if you are a republican. guest: what i wanted to mention and kamala harris is an example, one of the things that's exciting is so many new candidates. usually i've met all the candidates. make thisis going to an interesting race which will really begin in june with the first official democratic debate. that fieldu look at if you are trump looking at that field, how does one strategize what he should be doing with a field that large? told he thinks that

elizabeth warren was going to be the nominee and he would like to run against her. maybe that's why he hopes she's going to be the nominee. he made fun of for and all these things. she's probably not going to be the nominee and he ought to start thinking about other people. host: is he worried about bernie sanders? guest: i don't think so. i think he believes he can beat bernie sanders. of ars is too much socialist, too far to the left. the debateat republicans want to have? socialism? guest: absolutely, that is going to be there big issue. we've got a long ways to go. other things can happen and probably will. but that's what they want to run against. and: taking your calls questions, phone line for democrats, republicans and

independents as usual. stephen is up first, democrat. caller: good morning, happy birthday, c-span. host: appreciate that. caller: i've got a gentleman here, he's a mayor. indiana. man is intelligent, he's not committed yet, he's still doing the exploratory thing. i think money might be an issue for him. but when you listen to him, this man has brilliant ideas. he's middle of the road. he's somebody trump should worry about. there you go. guest: he sounds like he's got a great career ahead of him. i really did not know anything about him until three or four months ago in the washington post. there was a long piece about him and i read it and found it to be very interesting and i've heard people say good things about him.

i don't think he could be the nominee, but you can get your name around, you can run for senate, obviously he's going to run for president. he can really make a name for himself and if he does that, he's going to have a great career ahead of him. host: he's probably going to need to help people learn to say and remember his name. guest: i will have to remember your pronunciation because i did not have one. host: hot springs national park, arkansas, democrat. caller: yeah, i just wanted to like aething and i would fair and open answer from people about trump. i've noticed every time he makes a speech, he will hold his right hand up and make a circle with and hold forefinger his other fingers up. i did not know what that meant until i saw this guy in new zealand in front of a judge make

the same signs that trump makes. they said it's a white supremacist sign. i'm not saying he's a white supremacist but i would like an open answer, what do you think, is there anything to that? guest: i can give you an open answer, i don't know. i don't know about the sign. and that trump would be doing the same one as a killer in new zealand, i don't have an answer for you. host: these charges of white nationalism against the president came up again on the sunday show with mick mulvaney going on foxnews. here's the exchange that he had. >> the president is not a white supremacist. i'm not sure how many times we have to say that. you simply ask the question every time something like this happens overseas or even domestically they say it must somehow be the president's

fault, it speaks to the position of everything i think is undermining the institutions that we have in the country today. let's take what happened in new zealand for what it is. tragic act andl, figure out why those things are becoming more prevalent in the world. is it donald trump? absolutely not. there's something else happening in our culture where people think today, i'm going to go on tv and livestream me murdering other people. may, all i'm saying is the president speaks out about a lot of things that he's not responsible for any does not feel that there's any link. terrorism, why not make a speech and make it clear that there is no place in america for this kind of hatred? >> i think you saw that yesterday. i'm not sure what more you want a president to do. you may say you want to give him a national speech, maybe we do that, maybe we don't. you get down to the basic issues, the president is doing

everything that he can to prevent this type of thing from happening here. the president is doing everything he can to make it clear this has to stop. the work that we do to prevent this happening is a very central part of defending the nation. thata tragedy and i get and we are in a hyper partisan time in the country and i get that, but that does not mean we need to marry these events. asked, dohat question you think trump should make that kind of speech, would that be helpful? guest: i think that would be a good idea. do you think he will? guest: it did not sound like it from his chief of staff. he sounded, mick mulvaney, anyway, sounded like the president thinks a tweet which he has already done is enough. i think a speech would be very helpful. to what thes back president said after the events

in charlottesville. have both been to the university of virginia and we know about charlotte's will and that event were the president said there were good people on both sides. one of the sides with the white nationalists side. that was a huge mistake, he has never overcome that remark. it has dogged him since then. host: texas, independent, good morning. caller: good morning, nice to meet you. i have a question going back to when we talked about joe biden. and i'ma young voter from texas so obviously i'm kind of partial to beto o'rourke, but i feel like they don't talk often about who would be a better running candidate against trump when he runs for reelection. more --anted to share to hear more from mr. barnes about why that's not a good option, i guess? host: what are two reasons why you think he would be awful?

caller: who? host: joe biden. it's too just think liberal? and i feel joe is more centered, but that's just my opinion. host: thanks for the call. caller: guest: you probably saw this quote from biden the other day saying he's the most progressive candidate of all. he wasn't calling himself a candidate. host: that was the moment that he almost dropped that he was running. guest: we assume he is running, and more power to them. joe biden is a lovely man. whenever i would run into him when he was a senator, he was always just wonderful to talk to, other senators like him. he's a lovely guy. he's not an exciting candidate and you need to be able to andrate some excitement have a real following. reagan peopleere

and someone? candidates have huge followings often and i don't think he has one. i think that's sort of necessary. host: today's washington post, writing and sanders are too old. do you think they are too old? guest: i do. biden is 76 and sanders is 77. they are too old. andgetting around that age i think you don't have the same energy among other things. -- it don't think they think democrats want somebody different this year. 2008 withebody in barack obama. when they went back to somebody, hillary clinton in 2016, old

hat, it didn't work. host: what do you think this idea of a pledge to serve one term? guest: terrible idea. host: why? guest: why restrict him? why say that? i don't think you gain anything and it's particularly designed to say you can vote for me now because i'm only going to serve one term and i will be 80 my fourth year and i won't stay around anymore. i don't think that it's any votes. host: diane is next from maryland, democrat. by whati'm alarmed appears to be a media blackout on joe biden's career. he was chair of the senate judiciary committee. is responsible for putting clarence thomas on the supreme court, despite evidence that when thomas had the equal employment opportunity commission, he led more than

13,000 age discrimination cases. the man had a track record of incompetence and biden trashed anita hill and also elizabeth warren was very critical of the legislation that biden passed congress because it puts corporate interests above those of the consumers. there are so many reasons why biden is a terrible candidate and nobody talks about that and i am a strong supporter of bernie sanders. host: barnes? guest: i remembered the hearing with clarence thomas nominated for the supreme court and joe biden was chairman of the senate judiciary committee. but i remember a bit differently. i don't remember biden being really mean and rough with what turning, who accused --

host: anita hill? being whatsed of would you call it, he did not lay a hand on her, but she said he had been nasty and abusive in a sexual way and so on. remember, democrats tending to take her to testimony very seriously and liked it. and we are glad to have her there. you know, thomas, i don't remember this thing about these cases that were supposedly, he did nothing age discrimination ,hen he was head of the eeoc that he did not do anything on. the truth is thomas now has after allredibly these years, and incredibly influential supreme court justice on a lot of issues that

we know now. he actually intervened with trump in the case of naomi row who had been nominated, was working in the trump white house and had been nominated for brett kavanaugh's seat on the district of columbia u.s. court of appeals. and she won. one issue that did not come up, was the fact that when we started the weekly 1995, sheagazine in was my first intern. she had just graduated from yale, had not been to law school. left asr a year, she interns frequently do and went to law school and became a really spectacular lawyer, which catapulted her to the u.s. court of appeals. host: you talked about the

weekly standard, what was the reason for its demise? guest: there were a number of reasons, i think, and there's some disagreement among us at the weekly standard. i thought there was too much criticism of trump for a whosevative magazine clientele, whose subscribers were mainly conservative. so some of the circulation declined and so on. hand, phill andrews had another magazine that he was more interested in promoting. and that is the washington examiner where i am now working. , it has takeno over the weekly standard subscribers who still had time that they paid for. it's doing pretty well and i'm

glad to be there. host: you talked about the criticism of trump in that magazine. trump bringing the criticism right back to the weekly standard, a tweet from the president back in mid-december when it was announced that the weekly standard was folding, he called it pathetic and dishonest and run by a failed prognosticator who never had a clue about business. how did you feel about that? i thought it was highly inappropriate and unnecessary. what does trump get out of that? was no longer the editor, he did not have the influence. you know, it is comments like that that i think trump needs to stop doing because they don't help him. and i'mhink they do sure you've heard this so many

times, this is who he is, he's not going to change, he can't change, it's impossible for him. of course he could change, he just doesn't want to. host: what would make him want to? time he would be cleaning up his act, and let me say, i think as president, he's been very successful. as a man, that something quite different. what would make him stop doing it? he stopped after the hollywood thing came out in the last few weeks of the campaign. he cleaned up his act completely in the last the weeks of the campaign. reading from prepared texts and so on, did not make a lot of comments that might have hurt him. he needs to do that again. host: about 10 minutes left if you want to join the discussion. phone line for democrats,

republicans, and independent. jenny is a republican from north carolina, go ahead. caller: i have a couple of things that i wanted to say. they had brought up the charlottesville, and i'm pretty meant to there's good people on both sides, maybe democrat and republican, whatever. i hate that people jump to that because that's all they have against trump. hasknow, everybody something that maybe they said it wrong, but did not mean it wrong. that's true, that can happen. but he said it in a way that made it sound like he was accepting of these white supremacists and they were good people. a mistake, that was whether he meant something different or not. i don't know, but he said what he said and it has haunted him.

host: michigan, independent, go ahead. caller: yeah, happy anniversary to you, c-span. i just have got to think, as we pulled up to the election cycle, we should start really considering going back to john kerry. he was my man. a lot of knowledge and as he lost the election, we put him out as secretary of state for us. people draw ast lot of international attention, a lot of familiarity, and they are familiar with our reputation and our believes and someone in the united states. with that said, i really pay attention a lot to the running

mate is. john kerry, i forgive him. mate who say his running a the time -- i pay attention lot to that, i am sure it's not just a yes person behind the scenes as a vice president as a running mate. i pay attention to that. and also, the international community, i would like to see more ratings on what the international community may have something to say about the final. guest: certainly had a lot to say about donald trump the washington post in particular has done stories about how much they frown and disagree and fear trump. particularly, the leaders in europe, not the traditional allies of the united states,

they have trouble accepting that trump is different and he has a anderent view of the world how the united states fits in and it certainly clashes with what they found and liked in presidents over the years. and trump is not changing. and they are just going to continue not to like him. think, as someone like biden who obviously knows leaders all around the world and he can talk about that in the campaign and so on, i don't think that would help him. i just don't think that's what people are really looking for. particular, inn 2020, i mean, we are moving into a different time. ad i think they want somebody

generation or two younger. host: what are the best qualities to have if you are that running mate? i think what you need to have is great discipline, and you need to have that as vice president because you want to be able to give the president the best advice you can possibly give him on any number of issues not let the press find out what you are actually saying. if that happens, the worst thing that could happen to you as vice president, and even as the vice presidential candidate, is if you have some thoughts that would endanger your relationship with the president, you have to keep the post from coming out. the press would love to have those things. i think he was, which made him a pretty good vice president and

he is. some presidents are good but not wonderful man, he's a wonderful man and i think he was a fine vice president. being elevated to the presidency at age 76 is going to be hard. host: california, melanie, a democrat. caller: good morning. i have a question for this gentleman. thatwhite racism thing trump is pulling, this nationalism, it's very apparent that is what he's doing. he's surrounding himself with dictators and my worry about this election is the whole addressing the socialism of bernie sanders. we have two guys that are supposedly front runners, when joe biden puts his feet in his mouth and cries on tv and the other guy is a socialist. i think the democratic party is in trouble because they are wrapping their arms around

people who aren't really representing us. they are not going to be able to stand up for us. does that make sense? host: who do you support? caller: kamala harris. i'm not sure exactly what the question is, but if you believe that someone who's a devout socialist would be a hard candidate, it would be difficult to win in the general election, i think you are right. republicans certainly would want to run against that. if that's bernie sanders, he's got the age question as well. he certainly has a dedicated following. i think we are going to discover that it's a little smaller than it was four years ago. let's wait. you have to have a little patience. this race is not going to begin to define itself until we have this first debate among how many

candidates, 16, 17? and we will see. remember that these debates are important. in the first republican debate for years ago, -- three and a half years ago, who emerged as the strongest candidate? donald trump. unexpectedly, i certainly did not expect it. inbe somebody will emerge that debate in june, and it will be sanders and biden will be able to benefit just from the name recognition. host: in terms of how democrats what you to me about write about in the wall street journal and the downside of antitrust rage? guest: they have overdone it, the so-called resistance with a capital r. it has been a mistake. achieving them from

some things particularly in the tax bill they could have gotten, but if they compromise with republicans instead of just opposing them. they are just having hearing after hearing, it's hard to imagine trump as someone who is being picked on but democrats act like that's what they are going to do, and that won't help them. host: time for just a couple more calls. republican, good morning. caller: good morning. here are my questions. bidenve twice called joe a lovely man, so you know him. you said he knows leaders around the world, so you know all about him. two eventsyou about in his life and asked if you have ever written about these in your previous magazine, weekly standard. joe biden flew on an official united states troop while vice president to china and arranged

fundchina a $1 billion business with his son and a partner with a chinese national bank. did you write about that privilege that joe biden took? biden's wife and child were killed in a car crash, his wife was at fault anyone for 20 years telling people that the man driving the truck was drunk. you ever write about either of those joe biden infamies? guest: i didn't, and i have written over the years very little about joe biden at all. i'm trying to think of any story in particular in which i did write about him. others wrote about him. wrote --whether i ever i'm not sure whether i ever wrote a single piece. in any event, certainly not either of the things that you mentioned, i did not write about that. host: that all important primary

state of new hampshire, tyler is waiting period. caller: i want to talk about elizabeth warren. i think she's been lining up for it'ssidential candidate -- --t looking like [indiscernible] host: you are a little blurry there. let's just talk more about elizabeth warren. know, to be a candidate, here's what i think is her biggest problem. has what many people would call, and i would agree with, lived a life for a lot of years, and that's the question of being a native american, which it's clear that she was not. she took that dna test and yet

she was writing that on documents and so on. i think that's something that's going to be very hard to overcome. that she'so the fact someone is pretty far to the left. trumphe whole thing that has made it a deal out of, calling her pocahontas and so on, which is pretty nasty, but it's there, it's not going to go away, that question. host: one last call, bethlehem, pennsylvania. caller: good morning. mr. barnes, do you think it is important that we see the president's tax returns, and when do you think the nation will see them? guest: i think probably never. i think it would be interesting but i don't know that it is all that important. it's certainly important to democrats and they are going to try and legally i know trump is and people areit

going to think he's hiding something. well, maybe he is. now: you can see his work at >> c-span's washington journal, live every day with news of policy issues that impact you. coming up, the american institute president arthur brooks discusses his new book. and harvard professor stephen --itsky talks about how his talks about his new book. be sure to watch c-span's washington journal, join the discussion. >> the only thing we have to fear is here in itself. >> ask not what your country can

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stephenson takes questions on the state of technology, telecommunications, and five g technology at the economic club in washington dc. live coverage begins at 12:45 p.m. eastern here on c-span. and federal reserve chairman jerome powell holds his march of news conference on the economy and interest rate live at 230 on c-span, c-span.org, and the fruited -- the free radio app. fda commissioner scott gottlieb discusses his tenure and the future of the fef. he is stepping down from the position in two weeks. from the brookings institution in washington, this is about one hour. >> good afternoon, i'm david wessel, direction of the questions center on fiscal and monetary policy. on behalf of our