a discussion on midwest flooding and river management. we will take your calls. you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. ♪washington journal" host: good morning and welcome to washington journal. robert mueller has delivered the final report to william barr. russiannquiry into interference in the 2016 presidential election. -- barr could brief congress as early as this weekend. media organizations report that there will be no further federal indictment. the report moves to congress and the states which will all have to deal with the fallout from the investigation. what do you think now that the special counsel has finished?

should congress order the mueller report released? should mueller testify publicly? let us know what you think. we are opening the phone lines. democrats at 202-748-8000. republicans at 202-748-8001. .ndependents at 202-748-8002 you can always reach us on social media at twitter at c-span wj and at facebook at facebook.com/c-span. the washington post has summarized the release of the weller report. admitted aunsel long-awaited report to william barr on friday marking the end of the investigation and possible obstruction of justice by president trump. the submission of the report ends the closely watched inquiry , a case that has engulfed the

trump administration since the inception. it leveled criminal charges against 34 people. departmentstice official says that they have not recommended any further indictments even as other investigations continue in other parts of the justice department. it is unclear whether a report that does not result in additional charges could hurt the president politically." karen,phone with us is the opinion writer from the washington post. karen, good morning. caller: good morning. host: what do we know thou -- now that the mueller report has been sent to william barr? caller: we know three things for sure. we know it is done, we know that the special counsel was allowed to conduct the investigation as he wanted to.

no point during the investigation where he wanted to pursue a line of inquiry, or subpoena the president and he was denied, that is a very important piece of information to maintain the credibility of this report. we also know that no further people will be indicted. this point,een, at we have had seven people convicted or pleaded guilty and 27 indicted. this was an important step. over the weekend, we are going to find out what they are calling the principal conclusions of the report. that, we are in a big struggle over how much of it is submitted to congress and how much becomes public. host: who in congress will of theseget copies

principal conclusions you are talking about? will it be delivered to every member, are there only certain committees that will get it? caller: that is a good question. my impression was that it would be delivered through committees. i am not absolutely certain. host: how much will the white house get? do they get the whole reports or do they only get the principal conclusions that were given to congress? noter: at this point, it is clear whether the president himself gets to see the entire report. one reason is that it -- the justice department will have to decide what the president gets to see. if there are things like grand jury testimony, there are only certain circumstances under which a president can be allowed to see grand jury testimony.

in whether he is considered pardon someone. at this point it is interesting because we do not even know that the president will get the full, not just the report but all the background invesco just -- investigatory materials. host: this is washington, so everything is political. what are the political ramifications of the report being finished now? caller: what we are going to see side as always happens, everybody gets to live in their own reality. there is a high chance that the president and his team will be emphasizing the parts that they say exonerate him of anything. and the congressional democrats will be talking about further avenues of investigation. do not forget that there are

also investigations going on, not only on the hill, but in the southern district of new york. that what is the next step we will see? we know attorney general barr says that he will talk to members of congress and give them the principal conclusions. is there a next step to look forward to? will robert mueller be coming to the hill to testify? what is the next thing? ifler: what happens is that congress is not satisfied with the amount of information that they are given and we do not know whether that will be the case, the committees in the rune, particularly the ones by democrats have subpoena power. subpoenas from congress are different from the kind of subpoena you get in a courtroom. a subpoena from congress, you either comply with the subpoena or you can be

charged with contempt of congress. , they were toe decide that they actually wanted to hear from special counsel mueller in person and if the justice department decided that they do not want to turn him over, that could trigger a proceeding of contempt of congress which could tie this up in the courts for a long time. that robertng mueller does testify in front of congress, what is his future? does he fold off his work and go back to private life? what does he do now? caller: that is a good question. everyone we -- everything we know about robert mueller is that he is not a limelight seeker. i am sure he will have all sorts of offers of book deals and everything else. it seems to be within his character to just kind of want to go back as soon as he can to

his normal life. there is something interesting this beingt washington and partisan as everything is, if he sees either side kind of spinning out portions of his investigation or findings in ways that may not be accurate in his mind, he may feel compelled to speak up. we do not know. host: how does all of this affect the 2020 election? affect theis possible reelection of president trump, and how will democrats who want to unseat him use it? caller: we just do not know until we have a better sense of in this reportis and how much we will get to see. world -- theng the

word collusion. that has no legal definition. i think the biggest issue that people will be looking at is whether it speaks to obstruction of justice anywhere, and we just do not know that yet. host: one more thing. think theo you attorney general will release publicly. is he under any type of constraint where he cannot release the caller: entire report? caller:-- he cannot release the entire report. heler: there are things that cannot release. grand jury testimony has protections. i assume there are things and there are a lot of very legitimate things that it would be -- that would be withheld. there is another category of material that might be subject

to executive privilege, the term for things that the president says people who work for him that are also protected from having to be disclosed or turned over. we just do not know. that mighthree areas be withheld for long -- and long recognized as legitimate reasons. host: we would like to thank karen for coming in and explaining a little bit about what is going on. thank you so much. whats actually see attorney general william barr said during his confirmation hearing in january, talking about what he plans to do once he gets the mueller report. [video clip] that it iselieve important that public and congress be informed of the results of the work.

to provide ase much transparency as i can consistent with the law. i can assure you that where judgments are to be made, i will make those judgments based solely on the law, and i will political, oral, other interests influence my decision. clip]video host: let us go to michael. good morning. i am a first-time collar, and thank you for c-span. i think that the report should be released to the public, so everyone can make a decision regarding -- regarding the 2020 election. i also want to say that i am not going to vote for donald trump. i will not vote for him. host: let us go from -- go to harold from controverted beach calling in on the republican

line. caller: i am an attorney and prosecutor for many years. i have made this point before. you do note, investigate somebody for two years. it does not happen. you might investigate someone for a week or a couple of weeks, that is it. when you now have this concluded, this should be it. there is no way on earth you can investigate someone for two years and you will continue on. let us stop all of this nonsense. of other plenty problems the country has. this is ludicrous. alan on the go to independent line from west virginia. good morning. caller: so, i have been listening. good morning. i have been listening to what they have been saying, and i

a great deal that of not -- if not all of it would be in the hands of the american people because this is such a terrible level of distress already. i would suggest that, if it is necessary to withhold, then the ranking member and chairman of the committee should speak up an agreement on what has been said and the reason why it has been withheld. confidence or absence of confidence in the tosident, and possibly it impeach or in spelt expel him. there is also a question of confidence of the people in the government in general, which russia has successfully undermined.

i could keep talking for a long time on them. host: how much do you need to hear from the report to be satisfied that you know enough? do you need to see the entire report, or will you trust that they will give out the most important parts of it? caller: this is the point. you really cannot know. hopefully, the totality of the report would be given out, but if there is reason, and those who spoke before mentioned what might be valid reason, of ongoing investigation, national sais -- secrets that need to be , that thoseand jury and a summary of what the information is rather than

the way it is gathered. agreedould be a good -- to by both democrats and republicans of the leadership that do get to see it. not have, people do any reason to believe that they have been exposed to the totality of it in a way that they can understand and react intelligently. emily, from go to san francisco on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. finally, it is over. i hope the democrats will start to work for the people. we have hundreds of thousands of people in the streets, or in rvs living in the streets. good morning. host: what do you need to hear. can you hear me? caller: yes. host: what do you need to hear from the report before america

can move on? caller: america should move on now, because everyone was involved in trying to find out what he had done wrong, and he did nothing. to,ink that he is going with this report, he is going to be able to deal with our enemies, particularly north korea, because all these countries that we have tried to deal with to stop them from starting more, and building more weapons believed that he was going to be impeached because of what the democrats did. if we can have the democrats get to work in congress, the people do not want any more of this. 50% of them said that in a poll, a recent poll. we will have to get there. might i say one little thing? president,onderful god has given him to us because we had a choice between two

people. he is a good guy. he has done nothing to hurt anybody. if anyone feels bad it is because they did not win. this cannot happen again to another president. to providence, rhode island, on the democratic line. caller: good morning. myot my name from grandfather. both my father and grandfather. now, here's the situation. even though i am a democrat, it is very sad. i have to echo a lot of that lady from san francisco, what was done to president trump, the establishment behind you, when he won the election, he shocks the system. they do not want him in here --

in there. i am not just talking progressives. i am talking about establishment republicans like the bush family and others. they set this whole thing up, and then the funeral of john mccain, john mccain had by enduring four or five years in the hanoi hilton. rifle company captured in the marine corps. i took fire. i fired back along with my people. john mccain is not a hero. he had endurance. webb is a hero. he really took fire. now president trump is taking fire and he will state -- and he will still take some. people will start to catch on that what was done to the man is disgraceful and the crimes committed by clinton and the others, we will see if they are charged. you whats it matter to

the mullah report says? that they have actually gotten criminal convictions on other people who work with president trump? caller: they have gotten those, but all of them are basically unrelated. that is a good question. they are unrelated to the primary thesis of the investigation which was collusion with a hostile foia -- foreign cap power. that was nothing with because there was never anything there. hoax set upope -- a by a fake dossier that senator mccain circled around. and then also, what a phony. what a phony and he campaigned for years on it. the man sickens my stomach the more i think about it. lindsey graham has tweeted

out several tweets about the mullah report. there is a little bit. -- the department of justice has notified me and ranking member feinstein that it has been turned over to attorney general barr. thatnotification indicates attorney general barr will pursue as much transparency as possible. it indicates that there were no areas of difficulty men between the attorney general and the acting attorney general, and special counsel regarding courses of action. i has -- i have always believed that mr. mueller always be able to do his job without interference and that has been accomplished. to bill fromgo babylon, new york. the independent line. caller:caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. thankful that this

investigation is over and hoping we can go on from there. i was watching one of the goingows, and they were after robert mueller saying that he did not go far enough in getting more convictions on the people. end,has to come to an because this is dividing our country. marine, we are so divided now. i just wish this could end and we could go on and do other things to better our country. thank you very much. ajay from raleigh, north carolina, the republican line. caller: good morning, thank you for taking my call. i am calling to say that i am glad that this witchhunt investigation is over. i wish the democrat party and those people in congress, whether it be adam schiff or

nancy pelosi, or chuck schumer, i wish they would turn their focus into trying to see what they could do to work with this president to benefit the american people. you started off by citing something from "the washington post" and i wish you would have shown another newspaper's take on it like "the washington examiner" for something. you keep reporting that 34 people were charged. not a single one of them were charged with anything that has to do with russian collusion. was chargedn because he is a crook with his taxi medallion thing. paul manafort is going to die in jail because 10 years before before he had anything to do his trump, he cheated on bank loan applications. that still has nothing to do with russian collusion.

the same way.as he got caught thinking that he knew something that he did not know. not a single one of them can still be said that they were charged with colluding with russia. this line need to stop. these people are destroying this country. if they could do what they did to donald trump, turn the whole legal system against this man, imagine what you, an ordinary person with the full force of the american government comes down on you. imagine how you would fare. these people are wrong and they need to stop. they need to stop it because they are tearing the country apart, for what? so that they could put alexandria ocasio-cortez and bernie sanders up? mistaken, areot not republicans in charge of the justice department? majority 51 or 52

where they cannot rely on republicans to vote with republicans. host: the only attorney generals who have been in charge have all been republican appointees. caller: the attorney general was dumb. he recused himself for a reason that nobody could think of. this man just met with somebody at a convention. a casual meeting, and he recused himself. it neutered him and caused other people to take over this thing. it is ridiculous. to antonio from miami, florida. democratic line. good morning. that --i wanted to say mi online? host: go ahead. caller: a lot of these republicans are delusional.

no matter what trump does, they make up any excuse for him. hillary were in power, they came up with a lot of lies. they love lying and trickery, trying to trick the people. no matter what they say, they do not believe it. john from clifton park, new york. independent line. 2001, our country was attacked. we had am and -- an independent connate -- commission. in 2016 our country was attacked , shortly thereafter, various people were calling for an independent commission. through the course of the sean hannity, judge

jeanine and everything else called for an independent commission. mitch mcconnell placed his interest in the republican party over the concerns of the american people, all american public --mocrats, republicans, and independents. had followed he through with an independent commission he would not have this partisanship and this divide. the person who is responsible for our country being in this condition, with its extreme dividenship, its extreme are primarily place on mitch mcconnell. go to golden valley, arizona. republican line. good morning. caller: that one lady kind of took my thunder. i feel the same way.

say, i am soody glad a rich person is going to jail. i hate to jail. i do not like anybody going to jail. mueller should go ahead and say everybody in guilty, and put us all on probation. the sentences are way too harsh when molesters get out in two years. people you have to remember, everything that they are doing to donald trump they can do to you. he is showing us where the propaganda and where the deep state is coming from. it is not the republicans. need to hear anything from this report? i think she has left us. carol, on the

democratic line. good morning. caller: i do need to see more from the report. but, i think they all need to recognize that you can be immoral, incompetent, and still be within the legality of the law. exactly what i think we have. prefer a bright, intelligent person over someone withpetent, and getting by crimes thenlegal getting by with inappropriate behavior for anybody.

that i can being gotten like trump, no. i cannot be gotten because i have not done anything questionable. c-span you very much for and for the expression. i do appreciate hearing the wide range of responses. one reason for the division of the country is because republicans and democrats cannot talk to each other. and, there is no excuse for that. we are not trying to understand each other and we are not speaking to each other. mixed from a family of everything. again, i am sorry to see such a divided country, and thank you very much. host: adam schiff put out this

tweet about the mueller investigation. investigation began as a counterintelligence inquiry into whether individuals associated with the trump campaign were compromised by a foreign power. by law that evidence must be shared with the committee. his report must also be made public, now." let us look at some of the tweets we have gotten from our viewers. the mullerrg tweeted " report is not the be-all and end all. we will drive many more future investigations and indictments. ." as much aseads " possible should be released. americans have very active imaginations, and some are susceptible to info that confirms delusions.

what they do not know and we'll make up in their minds will keep the u.s. from moving on." the report does not signal the end of anything. we need over here -- we need hearings by congress so that americans can hear and know the corruption in the administration. hearings."n ag barr must know that the american people are not interested in his summary, and the unredacted -- but in the unredacted text." froms go to christopher massachusetts on the independent line. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i called into the line a couple of days ago. basically regarding the report that robert mueller released to i amttorney general,

actually glad that this is , in the 2000ause 16 election, i did not vote for donald trump. since day onethat he was a person that was very unprofessional and was always someone who did not, in my opinion have the best interest at heart for the issues that the general public in america really care about. the russiang investigation, which is what the report is about, i really do hope that the report is released to the general public, and nothing is covered up, we would be able to see it in full frontal, because it really shows and i am hoping it will show 100% president trump -- who president trump really is. chris, you said you called

in a couple of days ago? we have a 30 day wait after you call in to make sure that we have calls from everyone around the nation. you need to wait another 30 days before you call back in, just so we make sure that everybody gets a chance to be on air and get their voice heard. let us go to roger from virginia on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning, how are you. host: go ahead. about: i am calling donald trump. being in only human the political arena, republican, or the democrats, that is looking out for the goodwill of the american people.

he is draining the swamp. democrat swamp. professional manipulator the whole united people working class behind him. you will never, ever beat trump. host: does it matter what the muller report says? do you want to hear what it says? caller: absolutely. i want to hear every word of it. has rocked them for over two years.

it is totally ridiculous. you cannot trust anybody's word. for people, donald trump would've been out of office two years ago. he stood his ground, no matter who you were. board, he ison going to nail you to the wall. has the middle class, working class people behind him 100%. from let us go to janice tennessee on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning. i am glad.

i want to see the report. i do not talk about redacting it. outr words they are taking stuff that they do not want us to hear. if he was truthful, he would have gotten up there in front of us, gone to congress and answered those questions. he is a liar. he lies too much, and then the gentleman that just got through talking to you said he has for the middle class. how in the world is he for the middle class when he gave all of the tax breaks to the rich? he lied saying that he would get ticket jobs here, and the jobs are not here. he closed down the government and a lot of people who voted for him. it has hurt him and those people. let me tell you one more thing. those people are just like trump. they do not like anybody but white people.

he isre talking about how draining the swamp. he is the swamp. from let us go to lewis louisiana on the independent line. i am sure i mispronounce your name. pronounce it for me. lewis. al host: go ahead. caller: trump is an immoral person, and yet still some of the people elected a man that do not care about nobody about -- but himself and nothing about anybody but money, and i do not know why you are trying to make him look like he has for the people. he is not for the people, it is for his people. he is not for the united states. you can fool some of the people some of the time, but not all of the people all of the time.

he has so much confidence in himself that he thinks he can pull a game over everybody. , and he hasimmoral mental problems. somebody needs to wake up, we need to wake up and realize who we are dealing with. from jeremy a tweet mueller by the numbers. forller has been on the job 675 days since may 17, 2017. 37 defendants have been charged, 37 -- 34 people and three companies. seven people have pled guilty. trump has tweeted witchhunt 170 plus times." go to gary on the republican line. good morning. to say thatuld like

i have been keeping up on this pretty much through the whole time, and i think that president trump has done the best he can for americans, and he has done me good because the last president did not give us a raise for the last eight years. raises, and me two in the past two years and it has helped me considerably. host: what are you talking about, raises and what? caller: and my social security. host: you said you do not get any increase before president trump? president obama gave nobody nothing for eight years. on disability or social security. when trump got in there he gave us all a raise the first year he was in there and the second year. and now the house has been taken over by the democrats and we

will not get raises now. after all the -- for all those people who had raises that do not like trump, they already go to social security and give their money back. think there were social security adjustments before president trump, but what do you expect to hear from the muller report. with that make any difference? caller: no because he has not done anything wrong. all he has done is try to straighten out what is going on up there at the hill. coming thing, what is next is going to be coming down on the democrats because they will start investigating the people that started the pfizer abuse and lobbying, and -- lobbying and going behind the court. and trying to get the spying on the -- it is wrong.

host: mary from pennsylvania on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to let people know was mueller's report limited in scope. he was only allowed to investigate certain points of the dossier. to pass on permitted criminal information to other departments and agencies within that president trump conducted businesses with. exactlyking to see where did president trump receive his dark money from. was it from another country, if it was from other people that was associated with other countries. this is why it is important that

we look at every person who has run for political office where, where are the tax returns, at least for the five or 10 year period. theygives you an idea if are colluding with other countries, if they are basically selling their vote, and it tells you a lot. when president trump denied the american people of seeing his tax returns, lying and stating that it would be -- that it was being audited. this should have been a red flag for everybody, because if you are not paying your taxes to provide for the people in this the aging, the disabled , for your military, that tells you that you care nothing about your country. host: let us go from green --

froms go to don, massachusetts on the independent line. caller: just a quick statement. we the united states of america? the problem is that we need to be united and forget about bipartisanship, and could you not spend millions of dollars on any president throughout the history of this country and find bad things about them. i think we waste too much time and money on looking at the bad things about all of these presidents and everything that they have done, need to come together as one and move forward. thank you. host: several of the democrats seeking the presidential nomination to run against president trump have tweeted out about the ending of the muller report. here is what a few of them had to say.

asnator bernie sanders, " donald trump said, let it come out. i call on the trump administration to call -- to make the full report public as soon as possible. no one including the president is above the law." americansrris tweets, " deserve to know the truth. the report must be released immediately. ag bar must testify publicly about the investigation's findings. we need total transparency." o'rourke tweets "release the muller report." let us see what our viewers are saying. it is a witchhunt if not one person is indicted for collusion. regardless of "

what the report says, the voters will have the final say." from new to pat hampshire on the republican line. good morning. caller: hello. i just -- i am curious to see what the democrats' responsible be once the report comes out, and it shows that the hillary clinton campaign is the one that financed that fake dossier. this whole thing leads back to the democratic party and that is why they are shuffling and trying to change all of the rules now. it is like, come on you guys, get back to work. this thing is over and americans have had enough. host: do you care to know what mueller found? do you need to see the entire report? caller: of course i do. the president has been saying from day one, show it. this is pathetic.

every time the democrats do not like what is going on they want to change the rules and change the country to socialism. they need to back off and get with the program and start working for the american people. you sayingrules are the democrats are trying to change? republicans are in charge of the senate? caller: they are trying to change the electoral college, because they did not like the way that came out. too bad, it is in the constitution. every time something does not happen that they do not like, they try to change the rules. ,ell them to get back to work their constituents should be telling them to get to work. from let us go to linda orange, connecticut, democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning. democrat,ll, i am a and i am also a capitalist.

i am not into communism or socialism. i would like to make that statement. thendly, we are forgetting fact that the new york state attorney general is also investigating president trump and his foundation, and all of this. this muller report is not the be all end all of the investigations. everyone commenting on a report that they have not read yet, i think they have to calm down and everybody get the facts, and then we can move forward from there as a nation. everyone have a good day, and calm down. take care. from florida on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. i want to ask the question that nobody asked democrats or barrlicans, is when is ag

going to appoint a second special prosecutor to look into the other half of the story. we got mueller's report where there is no collusion which has not satisfied the democrat callers. they are talking about new york is going to do something. country, i of the would think the democrats would recognize how many investigations, if you get a municipal investigation and that is not getting your answer, then you will want a county investigation. and so on and so on. if you look long and hard enough, you can find something on anybody. reasonable, and is it cost-effective? the thing is, we need to be looking into how this dossier was put together, and all of the things that led up to this, which made it a witchhunt that trump has claimed. host: republicans have also

started tweeting out their reactions to the muller report. we will bring a few of those tweets to you. senator richard burr tweets " special counsel mueller has conducted a fair and thorough investigation, and i look forward to reviewing the report. ." here's one from steve scalise, " the only collusion or between democrats and the media because they continue to refuse to accept the results of the 2016 election." lookingdan tweets, " forward to reviewing the findings. this distraction is finally over." .et us take more calls starting with cassie on the republican line. good morning. sayer: i just wanted to that i agree with your previous caller and with representative steve scalise's comments.

i wanted to say, people need to put themselves in president trump's shoes. he was investigated on some salacious document that was made and if you go to court based on bad evidence, and in the end they make a report about it, should it be shared? opinion, if it was me, i would say no. the second point i wanted to make is that anything that they collected on this case is the fruit of the poison tree. any case that they made based on is not anylent claim good anymore.

i would say that they need to throw out all of the other cases. host: gladys from chicago, illinois, on the democrat line. good morning. caller: good morning. say that i am not really interested in the report, because it is involved in the law and i do not know about that. i do note from what i -- what i do know is what i heard from donald trump's mouth. he has a vulgar man and racist. and that putin thing, and all those dictators, that is what he wants to be. from myant to know how come you guys

want to come together and impeach this man? he has said enough that i am sure that impeachment is unwarranted. furthermore, i wonder if these people out here have children. this man lies to beat the band. lies, andwell he maybe he should not tweet no more. go to marietta, georgia, on the independent line. good morning. seeer: i would like to itsler's report in entirety, hopefully unredacted because i think it is important. second thing that i want to say is, especially for our black democrats in the december -- and the descendents of the stolen africans that they talk about

trumpople that support blindly were the same way with president obama. in the black community you could not say anything about president obama. he could kill someone in the streets and the black immunity would go along with him. it is the same. i am an independent because democrats and republicans both follow their parties blindly. they have no judgment, they go along with whatever the party says. black people news, are just about into msn as they were pews -- as they accuse republicans for being fox news. host: we have a tweet coming mccammon who reports that representative madeleine dean says on msnbc that the house judiciary committee is having a conference call with todayairman at 3:00 p.m.

in light of the muller report. it seems like the congressional wheels are or -- already turning. froms go to charles prescott, arkansas on the republican line. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. mirror an is going to earlier comment about the mueller team. these were all excellent attorneys, and they should have known that they were dealing predicate toal begin with. $40 million have been spent, and they should be held liable to reimburse taxpayers. host: does it matter that they have gotten guilty convictions and indictments? callers haveher

said, if you turn the resources of the federal government against lots of people you would find something wrong. , this whole thing, if you listen to the calls, has torn this country apart. there are people who have been brainwashed to think that trump is a terrible person, he is not perfect, but 60 plus million people voted for him. the people who think he should be impeached and in jail, and so forth, they are totally ignoring those 60 million people and why they voted for him. to mike fromgo laurel park, new york. good morning. caller: i guess we are not going to hear anymore about hillary innton and what happened whitewater.

the stuff that they put her through, and obama. i would like to make a comment that a guy said that he got two increases from trump. you got a tax increase -- a tax cut from obama. the misinformation that people come on is straight out -- out of fox. i would like to say this too, trump went on stage and said russia if you have the emails, released those emails. if you do not believe that he was not talking to putin or if someone was in between them, you must be nuts. aboutwas another thing trump on stage, and i asked him a question if you believe there was interference after the cia said that there was and every intelligence agency said that there was.

trump said no, putin said no. that is collusion right there. florida, from orlando, on the independent line. good morning. caller: new york -- i will not comment on new york, he has problems. the two things that need to be talked about is this. this whole investigation, the way it started was a hoax, like trump has said. the fbi should never have started this, whether it was a republican or democratic candidate. that should have never been started. now the real investigation is going to start with the investigators. i'm talking about the fbi, the doj. they are not the only two agencies. they are involved in it, because it had to go past and beyond the doj and fbi. there are a lot of things we have not heard.

the second point i want to make, the liberal media push this thing for two plus years, almost three years to the american people, and guess what? guess what news organization was spot on? number one, fox news. all the liberal stations had it wrong. peopleey -- the american -- they owe the american people and donald trump an apology. democrats, you need to look at what the media did. to linda fromo staten island, new york, republican line. just have a comment. i think the newly elected politicians from new york should stop trying to exert some overreaching authority into the executive office of the white house and focus on trying to bring our state and city back to

normality because they have to turn it into an insane asylum city and state. there are real people's hurting who really need them to focus on us instead of worrying about the president. host: coming up, we will talk with nicholas armstrong from the institute for veterans and military families about job opportunities for veterans. later on, our weekly spotlight on magazine. we will look at the agriculture industry and its impact on rural america. we will be right back. ♪ >> the 30th anniversary of the exxon valdes oils will -- exxon valdez oil spill, remembering george h dubya bush and the inventor of the world wide web. all this weekend on american

history tv. today starting at 12:30 p.m. eastern, three programs marking the 30th anniversary of the exxon valdes -- valdez oil spill, the second largest in the u.s.. >> the captain called the coast guard in valdez immediately. and said we are hard on ground, and we are leaking oil. and he said on the radio that he was going to try to get off the reef and proceed. which was a terrifying possibility. the ship was so badly damaged, there was a chance that it would have sunk, or capsized. eastern on the00 presidency, former secretary of state james baker remembers his friend, president george w. bush. bush -- georgeya h. w. bush. a i was fortunate to serve wonderful friend and beautiful human being.

to serve as secretary of state to a president who understood that he had to defend me, protect me, even when i was wrong. ofon the 30th anniversary the world wide web, a conversation with its inventor, tim berners-lee. the pieces of the puzzle are in different people's brains, but they connect on the internet. so can the web would be a place -- it should be a place where if i have an idea i can easily -- and as i wander around the space , looking at other ideas, i can pick them up and tape them together. so i can look at this and say you are thinking that and i'm thinking this. >> watch american history tv on c-span3.

>> washington journal continues. host: we are back with nicholas armstrong, who works at the syracuse university institute for veterans and military families. we are going to talk about veterans employment and stem. nicholas, good morning. >> good morning. it's great to be here. >> tell us what the institute for veterans and military families is, what do you do? >> -- guest: it's based in syracuse university and we serve close to 25,000 veterans and military families across the country each year. we exist to help advance their lives. we serve them in four different areas. one focused around career readiness and vocational preparation.

another focus on business and onto printer ship training. and we help communities through coordination of services. we also do research like a traditional academic institute. through those portfolio areas, we are proud to be serving folks not just on campus, but across the country and across the globe, in and around 18 different military installation communities. it's really great work to be able to leverage all of the onources and human talent the university campus like syracuse to serve this community. host: do you work directly with veterans and employers? or is this an advisory role? guest: both. we work with employers, ourrofits in philanthropy,

institute also works with service members and families in transition through employment and transition support. training in high demand providing in demand training and connection to employers. we like to think of ourselves as multilingual. we are able to connect with different stakeholders who serve the community, and work with the community hand-in-hand. let's talk about what happens to military members when they leave the service and try to enter the workforce. the veteran unemployment numbers for february were 2.7%. put that in context for us. what's the trend? guest: it's a huge downward trend in the unemployment statistics. this last report that was

released by the bureau of labor statistics was the lowest unemployment rate for veterans since they started tracking this more than two decades ago. and we saw a pecan veteran unemployment in and around 2011 and 2012, as the economy was in a much different position. we saw a lot of folks transitioning out then. there was a pecan unemployment, particularly for post-9/11 veterans and younger veterans who were experiencing higher rates of unemployment compared to civilians of similar age groups. and really for the last eight to nine years we've seen a downward now it's the lowest we've ever seen. on the surface, it's a great new story. recent years, as we have been peeling the number back and

starting to look at how different subgroups of veterans, like women, folks with different age groups as they transition see we are even starting to improvements there. are the top issues that you see veterans struggle with when they try to find a job once they leave the service, or at any time? are there issues that specifically affect veterans that don't affect civilians? it's important to understand, when veterans are in they may notften have everything at their disposal, to be able to make informed choices or decisions about opportunities that are out there for them. there has been a big focus at our institute and those we work with at the private sector, to see improvements made to the transition assistance program, and through legislation and

federal agencies like the department of defense, labor, and the v.a., to help provide more information, we say upstream, so prior to the point that service members take that uniform off, providing them access to training. we have the department of defense partnering locally with ,mployers, and other entities providing transition support training. to provide that taste and understanding of what it's like to be able to transition. resume,ike preparing a interviews, being able to tell your story and translate those skills and experiences that you have as a servicemember and provide value to a potential

employer. the sooner we can get folks prepared for that transition. the better we see them do. the more likely they are going to find a good fit within employer, and the employer can see and take advantage of the great talent that military service members bring to the workplace. host: we want to make sure our viewers can join into this conversation. we are opening special lines. we want to hear from veterans and employers who are looking to work with veterans. we will open up some special lines this morning, if you are a veteran we want to hear from you , if you are a000 veteran we want you to call in at (202) 748-8000. if you are an employer, we want to hear from you, we want to hear from people out there who are looking to hire veterans and the challenges that you face. if you are an employer we want

to hear from you at (202) 748-8001. once again that number is (202) 748-8001. if you don't fit into either category, if you're not a veteran or employer, we want to hear from you, call in at (202) 748-8002. everyone else, if you are not a veteran or employer, we still want to hear from you at (202) 748-8002. keep in mind, we are always reading on social media on .witter and on facebook what fields are veterans finding the most opportunities in right now? guest: stem fields in particular, stem is an actor and standsan acronym that for it -- that stands for science, technology, engineering, and math. those are particular job occupations we have been seeing

an upward trend, particularly in the last five years of veterans finding opportunity there. jobs like information technology, computer science, engineering. we see an uptick in jobs that are available, and we anticipate them being available for the next five to 10 years. so the job outlook looks great and we are seeing an increase of folks going into that. are there particular states where veterans should search for these jobs? or are they available around the nation? guest: they are available around the nation but there are particular states. the west coast, california, texas has seen the most growth of veterans in particular in stem occupations. the mid-atlantic and southeast,

virginia, florida, georgia. that general region, those tend to be hotbeds. but there are other pockets, colorado, washington state. a handful of others. of course, we see a lot of veterans in those areas. there's a good geographic distribution or spread of that across the states. employers arehink doing enough to recruit veterans into these stem areas? guest: there has been a to hunt of effort by the private sector, really over the last decade or more to recruit veterans generally. fields, cyberstem security is one area in particular where we see a lot of effort, and employers see the that service members

bring, particularly in cyber, which is a growing field within the defense community, generally. and you see a close connection there with a lot of effort to be able to capitalize on the talents and service members already have these experiences that they already gained in the military. they are finding great opportunity in the private sector. in stem,ay not just but manufacturing and retail, there's a number of different industries where we have seen major efforts. there have been coalitions of major fortune 500 companies that have come together. the u.s. chamber of commerce has hiring our heroes. there's a number of different coalitions that have made significant impact in hiring

veterans. i would say this is starting to trickle down into local and regional markets. we are starting to see major mind areas, spur comes to -- pittsburgh comes to mind, where there is a real business case value to hiring veterans. it's not just a nice feel good thing to do. but really to understand, this is a trained and trainable talent pool to capitalize on. it's just a matter of helping employers recognize what those values and skills are. and think through how to best recruit and where they should focus their efforts and how to capitalize and position veterans for success in the workplace. host: let's let our viewers join

imperial go to david, from los angeles, california, he's a veteran. good morning. a comment that i would like to make, and hopefully this is something that you can respond to. in 2009, president obama passed the first executive order he passed with the veterans employment initiative. i was hired under this program. in 2011 he passed -- he signed a bill into law staying -- saying all small businesses who hire veterans will get a huge tax break. these two things alone they say had a profound impact on veteran unemployment. they say they cut it -- they cut it in half. hopefully your c-span listeners , the people who said that obama did nothing for veterans. i would like you to comment on that. in.t: if i could jump

certainly the veterans appointment initiative, i'm glad you brought that up and thank you for your service. to your point, that made a huge dent in the veteran employment situation. we actually did a study with the u.s. office a couple years back, to take a look at what growth that had in terms of new veteran hires into the federal government. and looking at the trend from the time the order was signed to , at the time of the signing i think the federal government veterans.y 25% now it's well over a third of the entire federal workforce is constituted by veterans.

intainly that was a piece the broader trend, alongside a recovering economy. from let's go to terrence, cincinnati, ohio. he is an employer. good morning. caller: good morning. my name is terrence, i have veterans on the staff and team. we partner with local businesses and companies, looking to hire veterans. iraq warlf a two-time veteran, i served in combat in 2007, 2000 8, 2009, 2010. i'm really interested on hearing more discussion or listening to advice on how i can help bring that type of initiative here to cincinnati, ohio. and also look for ways to better part work -- partner and network

with businesses so we can do our part in hiring more veterans and ultimately lead to better outcomes once they transition out of military service. i would like to hear any advice you have to offer in terms of how someone like myself or a business owner could help forge partnerships and bridge the gaps , and bring something like what you're offering in syracuse here to cincinnati. and thank you for your time. guest: sure. thank you for your comment. i'm glad you brought that up, one thing for the general audience. we know, from the data alone, veterans are over indexed when it comes to small businesses and entrepreneurship. veterans are more likely than civilians to start businesses and are quite successful. and we have data to back that up . we have a number of different

entrepreneurship training programs. one in particular that i think inld be potentially helpful, our institute we have a center of excellence for veteran entrepreneurship. and has a host of resources things for local business owners and other partners to be able to help support and grow businesses, locally. so we are happy, if you can connect with us, we are happy to connect you with those resources. there is also a coalition for veteran businesses. a group of major employers who are really interested in helping growing veteran businesses become supplier ready. to help feed them into their supply chains. that's another way to connect supporting small businesses owned by vets, across the country.

also in terms of recruiting and veterans coming out of the military itself. there is an initiative called onwards opportunity. inre helping those transition, and serving those in skills -- and serving those with skills training to match across the country. we are at 18 military installations to help develop this pipeline of ready-made talent and folks who are going out and going back to their communities. this is another program called onwards opportunity. to give you this information at the end. but it's another talent pool to be able to capitalize on. thank you. we have a tweet from a

viewer, asking for more basic information. the parameterse to be considered a veteran? do you only need to have served one term in the military? do you need to have served in a war zone? webb's new g.i. bill working for veterans? guest: that's a great question. their different legal statutes, the v.a. finds veterans one particular way, at least for the services and programs we deliver . if you served in uniform, you are a veteran as far as we are concerned. and we deliver those programs for free. when it comes to eligibility for federal benefits, the usual standard definition is tied to , but notty service necessarily tied to combat

service. the legal definition varies, depending on the type of program when it comes to the programs we deliver. if you serve, we are -- you are a veteran as far as we are concerned. host: a republican from florida pennsylvaniat from are cosponsoring the veterans in stem careers act. let's hear more about the importance of this bill. [video clip] have skills and training aligned with stem careers, particularly with information technology. and this shows that veterans face many barriers as they reenter the workforce, including a lack of formal, certified stem education, career guidance, and the difficult task of transferring military credits to civilian college credits.

our nations veterans deserve every opportunity to transition to a rewarding and successful civilian life. this bill will help those service members to continue to serve our nation in new ways, with a feeling 21st century jobs, and keeping america on the cutting edge of innovation. host: nicholas, what is the best way to connect veterans and -- and those transitioning back to civilian life to careers in stem? guest: i think it's through public-private partnerships. the dod, in terms of partnering , andthird-party entities helping to provide those industries with skill sets that are not just about two and four-year degrees, but providing access to in demand certification and training that is tied to the in demand jobs.

employers are looking for a set of skills that are recognized that may not necessarily be tied to a traditional two-year or four-year degree. it's about providing and building those pathways and reducing those barriers by partnering with companies that provide the training and other philanthropic or nonprofit partners that are providing those pathways for service around military installations like onwards opportunity. is what is helping transition and find those opportunities with companies that are really in fieldsfor talent like i.t. and cybersecurity in particular. let's go to tom, from arlington, west virginia. suggesti would highly

any veteran looking for employment, that is maybe not necessarily college material, to apply to the building trade unions. whether it be operating engineers, plumbers, electricians, or hvac, or ironworkers. the country is going on a -- full now, there's pre-much employment and many of these trades nationally -- there is pretty much full employment in many of those trades, nationally. typef you are not college material, you can still make a very good career out of this. and need i remind you that the ,nions fought for decent wages and decent retirements. so please, for god sake, if you are a veteran come apply for these jobs. or they will end up going to people, possibly, we may have to import them to do these jobs. host: nicholas?

guest: i'm sorry, i did not catch your name but i think the caller is correct. trades are a huge opportunity for those in transition. i think that is part of the intent around this skill bridge initiative that was put into place by the department of those toto allow for provide apprenticeships and things with similar programs to help those in transition acquire as they are, just taking the uniform off, and getting them plugged in to local opportunities in the trades. i think that's great advice. host: how often will you find that your career in the military prepares you perfectly for a job in the private sector? do those always match up?

or is there usually retraining involved for moving into civilian life? great question. it depends on where you are at in your transition. if you met a veteran, you've met one veteran. i think we all know veterans are not a monolithic group. we are different. we come to the military with different sets of skills, and based on what our jobs were in the military -- different set of skills based on what our jobs were in the military. those all confer different sets of skills. hard and soft. particularly soft skills are more difficult to put onto paper in a resume. but i think what is important is for folks to understand, especially those in transition, how to translate those skills to the employer that they are potentially interviewing with,

or working with. ways,s a lot of different things like leadership skills, teamwork. that, which are not necessarily easy to quantify. but these are great stories to be able to articulate in an interview. we think the things are important for folks to understand. that with connect making it valuable for the employer, based on the industry or skill set. it's ansay, individualized question that requires individual focus. but part of it is just helping folks understand, what is required of them and what the skills, to for their

the career in the job they are looking for in that particular industry and whether they need to get additional vocational training, a certificate, or even go back for formal education. a two-year or a four-year degree. it's really about helping folks understand what's in front of them and how to make the best choice for themselves. is calling from silver springs, maryland. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. nicholas, i want to ask -- there are some companies who are literally laying off veterans, you mention i.t. many times. they do not want to pay them as much money as they pay others so they lay off veterans and bring in employees from overseas. do you follow up and see any complaints about veterans being

jobs being provided for people overseas? do you follow how many companies hire veterans? i would like to listen to the answer. i don'tnfortunately have any specific data or know of any companies where that may be the case. that's not to say that it's not. unfortunately we are not tracking that. there are some initiatives underway that help to reward or recognize employers that are taking that initiative to hire veterans. the department of labor recently stood up -- set up a new program called the higher vets medallion vets medallion

program, and award recognition program for veteran friendly employers. but part of the requirement to receive such an award is they have to share their figures in terms of hiring numbers. they have to meet certain requirements of so many new hires, and so many within their workforce are veterans. those that meet those minimum requirements will be eligible for those awards. so it's a good thing in terms of inter -- encouraging employers. this is going back to the true business case for why you want a veteran with your company. it's not just about the nice thing to do. it's about recognizing that there are certain skills and soft skills, leadership that i mentioned, the ability to work under pressure, to working teams

-- to work in teams, and the trust and integrity that comes with military service. there are other tangibles that make veterans attractive to employers across the country. are there any veteran owned companies that do a good job of hiring veterans that are that areseparated -- recently --. are there companies that we can look to where we can say they are doing a good job of employing these veterans? guest: there are thousands out there. no one in particular comes to mind at the moment, but there are many. paul, from go to indianapolis, indiana. he is a veteran. good morning. caller: good morning. i wanted to point out that it would be a good idea for

veterans to take a look at employment with the federal civil service. there are several advantages, the civil service has lots of internships for positions that require a degree and they will help you get that degree. artillerymanrom an to an accountant and got my cpa using an internship and ended up with a 33 year career, counting my military time and civil service time. and they actively recruit veterans. , evend strongly suggest if you're a grunt like i was, to seriously consider looking at the federal civil service. not just dod, i have friends who work for the state department, hud, you name it. host: go ahead. guest: i'm a former red leg

myself, and i appreciate your call and comment. the federal government has made significant efforts with the veterans employment initiative, and there's a whole website that the office of personnel management has created for this very reason, of helping to support veterans that are looking to go into the federal system service. fedshirevets.gov is the website. there's a lot of information there on internship programs and colleges. host: before we get to the end of the segment, give people your website so they know where to get more information about you and your organization. ivmf.syracuse.edu. you can find all of the information

they are, whether it's focused growingr preparation, or starting your small business and entrepreneurship, communities looking for support and technical assistance in helping to coordinate care, or research on any of the things we've talked about. it is all there. we are glad to support the community, whether you are a veteran, a military spouse, and nonprofit supporting the community. there is a wealth of knowledge there. speaking of government, what role does the veterans administration have when it comes to supporting veterans careers?n stem a whole arm.a. has through their veterans benefits is aistration, there

strong role in that transition. the transition assistance program, the tap program, is a program spearheaded by the department of defense, but run in partnership with a number of agencies, particularly the department of labor. they worked together on providing that initial training ,upport for those in transition around employment opportunities. also the v.a., through its engagement,ommunity they are trying to do their part in terms of connecting veterans to local employment opportunities as well. it is truly serving this community, because we cut across different sectors, it requires an inner agency and a hold of the nation approach. stridesve been great made in outreach across federal

agencies and in communities over the last several years. like to think that capitalizing on that and continuing those collaborative efforts in communities, we often that servicemembers don't transition from one federal agency to another. they transition back to a local community somewhere. there are all of the stakeholders working together to serve that's, and that's where we will have our greatest impact on this population going forward. calling from richfield, minnesota, he's an employer. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for allowing me to get in on this. back in the hvac business in the 80's.

i served initially under jimmy carter, i went to trade school, then to college on the g.i. bill and i got my associates degree. now i'm completely out of the 60's -- i aman my in my 60's. i went back to the v.a. and got a job as a volunteer, and because of that i allowed myself to get into a transportation company. the guy saw me driving as a volunteer for the v.a. and he asked me to come over and work for his company. i've been with that company for 15 years. a lot of us can get in on the job through the v.a., as a volunteer. and it can turn into a career. story.that's a great another oneon is that we can trough -- touch on a lot. there's going to be a huge demand for that for the next

decade. it is certainly another area of , not just driving a single truck, but there are a number of transportation companies that are looking for veterans in management roles. they are looking for that experience, to be able to plan and work with others and i think that's another huge opportunity for veterans to take advantage of, who are interested. host: last question, say you are in the military and you know your separation is coming up soon, what should you be doing now to ease your transition into civilian employment? guest: you should certainly be looking to your local .nstallation transition office looking at different resources, whether you are looking at going transition to a

particular career. first look to your local installation for those resources. sooner you can have a plan, the better. -- the sooner you can have a plan, the better. take advantage of all that's available to you in the transition process. recent legislation has been passed to offer that transition earlier, not just within the six months of separation, but as soon year prior to taking the uniform off. being able to take advantage of that, meet with those around your installation, take advantage of everything you can in the tap process. and look around the installation for programs that are available to you in those fields you are interested in.

as i mentioned, we offer one of with a focus on not just i.t., but also business management. there are 30 different tracks of training. anywhere on 18 military installations and we offer the program by distance. that's a key resource that folks can take advantage of. the sooner the better. host: we would like to thank nicholas armstrong, research and policy senior director at syracuse university's institute for veterans and military families. thank you for your help this morning. guest: thank you for having me. host: coming up we will take more of your calls about this week in washington. for democrats (202) 748-8000, for republicans (202) 748-8001, for independents (202) 748-8002. we will be right back with your calls.

♪ [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] sunday night, robert caro on his book, working. and his search to find out how political power works. stairs, into the this modest cottage. but he had torn out the walls at the end. so it was all one big picture. he sat in the center of this black leather chair. if you look to the left out the moses, there's the robert causeway. and on the right-hand side it was the tower of robert moses state park. so there is robert moses, framed by his monuments. it's intimidating. i'll never forget, he got up and had this wonderful charm and smile. mighty, stilltill

at the height of his power. he was 78 and still at the height of his power. and he said you're the young fella who thinks he's going to write a book about me. 8:00 easternht at on c-span's queue and day -- q and a. of journal continues. host: once again we are going to open up the phone lines for your telephone calls about this week in washington. for democrats (202) 748-8000. for republicans (202) 748-8001. for independents (202) 748-8002. keep in mind, we are always reading on social media at twitter and facebook. a lot of us are talking about the molar report, but there were other things that went on in washington this week, including

president trump nominating to the fed board economic .ommentator stephen moore here's something the wall street journal row. president trump said friday he would nominate stephen moore to serve on the federal reserve board of governors, which would put a fierce critic of the central bank's leadership inside of the consensus oriented institution. this are trump made the offer earlier this week administration official said, after reading an opinion article that he wrote, fitted -- criticizing jerome powell. a regular target of mr. trump's disapproval. the article was published last week in the wall street journal where he had previously worked as an editorial page writer. keep in mind you can often see stephen moore on this show, he is a frequent guest. other issues that happened that we can talk about, the dow. here's a story from cnn business

who reports that the dow fell 460 points on friday after a u.s. recession indicator blinked red and a report on german manufacturing raised concerns about europe's most important economy. the index of one point 8% while the s&p 500 closed out at 1.9%. 5%.nasdaq plunge two point the worst performance for all three major indexes since january 3. once again, the phone lines are open for you to talk about any issue that happened in washington this week. , in ohio, onzabeth the democratic line. good morning. are you there? caller: yes. they should get rid of trump. i'm 86 years old, i've never seen a president like him in my life.

people, orespect for anything else. cusses over the phone in front of the kids, you know there are kids watching, and he should be out of there. vincent, ingo to pennsylvania, on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i was hoping that what was released so far would indicate some kind of green light on maybe parties coming together. some unity in our country. but this morning, all the news stations are complaining about how much money was spent on the public, and then they turn around and say we are not showed -- so trusting of the ag and we want to see what they wrote.

the contradictions go back and forth. i don't think people realize that we don't have a politician president in the white house. thele elected a man of land. a self made person. i think they are two critical, -- too critical. he doesn't even take a salary. he's there for the american people. that's all i have to share. , fromlet's go to jean south carolina, on the independent line. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i voted for john kasich in the primary, but i think trump is doing a good job, overall. steve moore to have at the federal reserve. he's an honest man. maybe he will figure out what they did to the $4.6 trillion

worth of funny money that went on while obama was president. it seems to me that if they are doing qualitative tightening, all of these equities and bonds that they are putting back into the market, there has to be a half ofenough to settle the national debt. i hope they will look into that and see that he is an honest man and that he will let us know. have a great weekend. host: one of the other stories that happened this week revolved around north korea. and alsongton post -- a tweet by president trump. the washington post reported this way. president trump sparked confusion by calling off an upcoming round of large-scale economic sanctions against north korea in a tweet. the announcement caused a rift with top aides who called for a

tougher posture with the regime and a larger breakdown of the white house public messaging strategy. it was announced today by the u.s. treasury that large additional sanctions would be added to those already existing sanctions on north korea. i have today ordered the withdrawal of those sanctions. as tweeted by president trump. at the source of confusion was trump's restaurant -- reference to -- reference to today. it was announced on friday, referring to a round of sanctions imposed on thursday. in fact he was referring to a future round of previously unknown sanctions issued for the coming grays -- coming days. declined to specify what those sanctions would entail. it has forestalled future sanctions and it represents an attempt by the president to

salvage negotiations with north efforts led face of by john bolton and others to increase punitive economic measures against the regime of kim jong-un. , on the to claude democratic line, from north carolina. good morning. caller: good morning. i wonder what the republicans are going to say when a democrat gets in and do all of the things that trump has done. it seems like two different sets of standards. one for republicans and one for democrats. complain about the minute things democrats do, and now we have a man in the office that's cheated on his wife. lies all the time. and if i was democrat, and

ofebody asked me about some the minute things democrats do, i would ask if you are a supporter of trump and did you vote for trump? if you did, you need to get out of my face. sherry, fromo to indiana, on the republican line. can you pronounce the name of your town for me? guest: you actually did fine. -- caller: you actually did fine. in earlier caller called in and said he thought that since president trump actually said whoever has the emails on hillary clinton that they should get those out there and he thought that was a bad thing. when i was watching the campaign i said the same thing, when i was watching tv. as american people we deserve to know what our politicians are doing. whoever has those and they are releasing those emails, get them

out there we deserve to see this . i don't see how people can think that's a bad thing. press wasthe american not investigating this and getting the information out to us. i was just glad to hear it because i would want to know what politicians are doing and they need to be held accountable. guest: let's go -- host: let's go to michael, from connecticut, on the independent line. caller: good morning. i watch this show on the weekends. a lot of the times i can't believe that i'm in the same country with half of the people that call-in. the way they talk about trump and how he was sent here by god. that's just crazy. this whole administration is kind of crazy. mike pence can't be in an elevator with another woman because he doesn't trust himself? what's going on with that? and trump's new slogan i think is going to be everybody lied about me.

-- lied but me. they will probably not find collusion but they will find a lot of other stuff. trump lies every day, many times a day. and all republicans ever say is obama said you could keep euro doctor. he lied once. -- your own doctor. he lied once. but what happened to making america great again with new and better health care? he is never done anything to make health care better. it was just repeal, there was no replace. and the wall, really? mexico? hello? what's the matter with you people? steve, fromgo to phoenix, arizona, on the democratic line. caller: good morning, happy birthday c-span.

lastted to talk about your guest, well-meaning as he may be, he's encouraging people to get into transportation. there won't be a future for transportation. you can't compete with a machine that can run 24 hours a day. and the only two success stories that came up on the last segment was one guy went to work for the v.a., and the other went to work for the civil service. their skills were not transferable to the general market, they were only transferable to the government. thank you. host: let's go to phil, from baltimore, maryland, on the independent line. good morning. caller: hello, i just wanted to say there is some good news for our soldiers in syria with the end of the caliphate. i wanted her a mind america that

there is a lot of people out there, soldiers still out there in harm's way. and i just wanted to let people know. martin, in talk to mississippi, on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. ,y comment was more or less they've been on trump since he has been elected. the day he has been elected, cnn has been on him every day. it's hard for a man to run the country when somebody is biting your tail all the time. my concern is why they never got on clinton when she was in office and she represented the city, and country. and she did all of this corruption stuff. and they are going to bypass or to hang him when she was representing the country when she was in office.

she should be prosecuted before him. , andhey are jumping on him he didn't have time to run anything because he's busy fighting with his own courts. everyone is on his case. but nobody says anything about ms. clinton. where all the money went to her foundation. how did she get all this money in the foundation? how many other countries where she paid by doing stuff for other countries? gladys, fromo to alexandria, virginia, on the democratic line. caller: thank you for taking my call. a lot of people are talking about the mueller report, and attaching it directly to trump. it's not all about trump. it's about our democracy. people have to believe in our democracy. that was an attack on our democracy, with russia and so many people being convicted.

i think people should get out of the different parties and think about our country. a lot of these people treat trump like he's a rock star. they laugh at everything he says. it's not about that. they need to open up their eyes and look at our country, and do what's best for our country. thank you. , in: let's go to anita missouri, on the independent line. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call, and for c-span. i'd like to comment on the previous caller remark about taking his salary. i would be more impressed if he didn't take a pension. at this point, i feel like he thanaused -- cost far more his salary and i would like to know how much more it costs every time he goes to mar-a-lago to make money for himself, instead of going to camp david,

where our presidents have typically always gone. about really want to know how deutsche bank figures into presidents, and how a who went bankrupt so many times went to russia, then suddenly gets all kinds of money from deutsche bank, which is where the russians have done their laundering of money. areeems to me like there lots more things to be answered about this president, including how he has violated the emoluments clause. to me he makes hillary clinton look like a saint, which we know she isn't. next, austinup ick will talkfrer about his piece on the agriculture industry and its

attacks on rural america. we will then turn our attention to floodplain management in the midwest with shayna udvardy. but this week's c-span newsmakers interview to tom perez, one of the topics was how democrats would manage debates with so many people running for president. there is what tom had to say. the republicans in the last cycle had so many candidates, and in the early days no one was happy with who got on which stage with which debates. how are you speaking with the networks about making this fair for the candidates? >> what we are doing is unprecedented. as we correctly pointed out, there has never been a grassroots fundraising rush holt to get on the debate stage. -- a grassroots fundraising effort to get on the debate stage.

thewe've also learned from last cycle that the varsity jv undercard format, in my judgment, did not work well and was not well received. that's why what we are doing is unprecedented. let's assume for this conversation that 14 people qualify for the debate stage in june. we will have consecutive nights, seven and seven. and we will do random assignment. no varsity, no jv. we will do the same thing in july. i think the upside to that is -- i know most of these candidates have worked -- they are spectacular. people ask if i'm worried about a big field and i'm not. i welcome it. it's a world-class challenge, and these candidates all have a story to tell. a record to talk about, and division to share with the american people -- and a vision to share with the american

people. i want to make sure that we had that opportunity and by not having jv or varsity i think we will have record viewership. >> continues. with austin back frerick, who writes as a contributor for american conservative, and we will talk about agriculture in rural america and what is happening to our farm industry. so first, what made you decide to write this article? guest: this is an article that has been in purgatory for a while. i have been writing it on and off for th since last summer. fully realizing that the system is truly broken and connecting thedots of, oh, wait, system is broken, but there is an opportunity for a 21st century populism here. -- host: how does that happen?

let's say that again, so people got it. in the 1980's, farmers were getting $.38 on the dollar. guest: yes, every dollar you spend at the grocery store. host: now how much do they get? guest: $.15. host: how does that happen? choices andy congress putting corporations ahead of farmers and workers. you have farmers on the one end, food workers on the other, and they have not seen a wage increase. less than three dollar wage increase whereas the ceo of midfield may $290 million last year. is some definitions here, when you say food workers, who are you referring to? guest: anyone who raises animals, slaughters animals, or your coffeeho made

this morning. we need to expand agriculture to different areas. host: when you are talking about farmers, you are not talking conglomeratengressiona forms, you are talking family farms, or are you talking all? is an interesting question. even congress does not know your something should be family farms. getting the subsidy, that is hard as a farm. host: what happened to the farm industry during the great recession? guest: rural america has not recovered from the great recession job wise. the corn economy had an ethanol alone, but we have come down from that. there was a story yesterday about how farmers are using credit cards to keep afloat, adding to flooding, and it is going to get worse. it is a pretty grim situation,

especially with rising interest rates. host: now, one of the comparisons you made in your story was the current store situation for rural america farming, sharecropping. first of all, how does it relate to what is going on today? guest: sharecropping means you have no power, you have no control of your destiny. there is a really good book by chris leonard. he talks about tyson. farmer in a chicken arkansas, tyson leases you the essentiallyre babysitting the words in a shed you built, you sell them back to tyson, they weigh them in a room you cannot see, and i whoever ways the most gets paid the most. so if i like you more, you can get paid more. by the way, they spot themselves

th to do the power at, chicken 51% of is want to chicken farmers in america live in poverty. chicken farmers in america live in poverty. host: ok. i want to make sure that i understood you correctly. guest: it is a shocking fact, and it is atrocious that we let people who carry all the risk, for one family to carry all of that money. walmart is doing the same thing with milk. working with the same amount of process. costco is doing the same thing. this is a common thing in the american food system. host: this is something that we need to look at. the outlook for rural communities is grim. than thereewer jobs was a generation ago, and the ones that remain pay lower and lower wages.

america's agricultural system is predicated on an extracted model where more and more of the profits flow to a few. if current trends continue, rural america will soon be owned by a handful of families and corporations who will run their with driverless factors -- tractors and poorly paid staff. is this going to happen in 40 years, 50 years? guest: it is happening right now, jesse. i was at a market show, and they had driverless tractors. able to kill be anyone, they will go into a ditch. this is the industrial ization that only a few benefit from.

and it is purely driven by markets. get yourno reason to pepper from argentina. it is only going to grow faster and faster. host: let's get our viewers involved in this conversation. we will open up special lines, because we want to hear from some of the people of this directly affects. if you are a farmer, we want to hear from you. there is a special line for you if you are a farmer and you work on a farm, we want to hear from you at (202) 748-8000. once again, that number is (202) 748-8000. and if you live in a rural area -- you do not farm, but you live in a rural area -- iowa, nebraska, mississippi, a farming area, we want to hear from you as well. your number to call and will be (202) 748-8001. once again, if you live in a rural area, we want to hear from you, (202) 748-8001. now if you do not fit either of those categories, you do not work on a farm, you're not a live inyou do not

a rural area, but you want to talk about these important issues anyway, your line is (202) 748-8002. once again, (202) 748-8002. and keep in mind, you can always reach us on social media, on twitter @cspanwj, and on facebook at facebook.com/cspan. so you grew up in a rural america. guest: i grew up in cedar rapids. host: [laughs] guest: in iowa, that is urban. host: how did your upbringing affect your view on this issue that we are talking about? guest: um -- it took some time. these things do not happen overnight. my dad was a beer salesman. and allillers, coors, of that, so i grew up in that world with different grocery stores, different products.

my mom ran a bakery, so after church, she would go work that. free labor, you have got to enjoy it, kids. i grew up with a family, but none of us come from farmers, and as i grew up, i realized so much of the town was educated on growing corn as food. i think it was coming to d.c. after college and going back home and seeing parts of these countries are separated. richest areasx in america rdc suburbs. -- are d.c. suburbs. i do not think people get that. what is going on here? why are these incomes not rising? one you have pigs, and becomes farm vet, that is 10 families that do not have people

spending money in their time. it reminds me of 19th-century appalachian: in towns. -- coal mining towns. democrat in montana is a the toponsanto -- democrat in iowa is a former monsanto lobbyist. you don't do that. host: with all of this, is there a future in this area? guest: oh, yeah. i think facebook is a good example of that. this to ouran use food system, which is clearly broken. with all the health stuff, climate change, anything you can use to move into a more sustainable model, taking animals, moving to a pastoral base, putting pegs back on land. why not have more farmers in america? up not have someone who grew in an urban area say i want to be a farmer, i care about that lifestyle, the independence.

a lifestyleove to that allows that to happen, and it also means challenging the vested interest. these companies are huge, they spent tons of dark money, and they buy up the system and corrupt the process. we need to challenge that. host: let's have our viewers get in on the conversation. let's start with jeff, who is calling from idaho falls, idaho. jeff is a farmer. jeff, good morning. caller: good morning. i am living this exactly what -- i turned on the tv this morning, and i am in the middle of arizona. host: go ahead, jeff, we can hear you. caller: yes, i am living exactly what this young man is saying, in rural agriculture right now. farmingff, what kind of do you do? caller: i am a potato developer. i am from idaho.

i have been all my life in potatoes. i grew up in a family farm in , a few miles from where the father of the potato uhustry started, and i have, -- it is kind of strange to be watching this online as it unfolds here, so bear with me, i am trying to get my -- host: you might want to turn your television down a little bit. i think that is the delay you are getting. caller: just a second. so, i think we lost jeff there. so jeff says he is going through exactly what you're saying, and he is going through it with potatoes. guest: i want to say something real quick, this article is in

"american conservative," and i am a democrat. this is a bipartisan issue. king and people like steve are going to blame immigrants. i say blame tyson. a partisan coalition could be message by just extracting the multinational corporation. host: let's go to mike, who is calling from harrisburg, pennsylvania. mike, good morning. caller: hi . the farmers in the midwest backed trump for election, and he immediately with his immigration policies scared immigration workers from the farms, and then he impose these chinese goods, and out the chinese will not by you namecorn, hogs,

it, from american farmers anymore, and my question is why were all of these people in the midwest, conservatives and republicans, backing a guy who is hammering an already difficult situation and making life worse for them. can you explain that to me, please? guest: yes, democrats are not have an agriculture planter i have a prominent, top governor candidate who did not know the farm bill. democrats are urban parties. part of this is learning the language. i still have not talked about seed monopolies in iowa. when the price of corn seed years, that is good. part of democrats problem is they do not talk about it, they do not have a vision, they do not articulate it like republicans do, to some degree. host: let's go to wyden from

ohio, who lives in a rural area. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. this is a big problem. i know it is all over the place. farming isporate undoubtedly one of the most highly subsidized industries, from cotton, just like the tobacco used to be and that kind of stuff, and after tobacco basically landed on a dud with all the settlements going to the lawyers and the big companies and that kind of stuff, people are just devastated. most will talk about the influences of the corporate entities that really kind of impose on that. you have got the american soybean association. you have got the farm bureau and that kind of stuff. it is great if you are a corporate farmer and you are labor on cropeap insurance and that kind of stuff, but if you are atypically rural-inclined person and you want to do that kind of

stuff for your rural community, it is much more difficult. but universities come in with their usda connections and this and that kind of stuff, and you have to qualify, and they tell you what to do, and you are limited. it is really difficult to try to make it. everything is geared toward corporate and shipping stuff overseas. i think the earnings to be more of a focus on providing for local farmers who really aren't geared up or don't desire to be super industrial type farmers. thank you. him, youore you answer talked about the iowa farmer, the very first paragraph of your article, i want to read that, "a senior official at the iowa farm euro, the nation's largest agricultural organization, recently told me most rural communities will soon disappear. even though the organization's nominal mission is to help farm families prosper and improve their quality of life, the commissioners seemed eventing about this fate,

if it happy about it. either way, he told me that nothing could be done." and that is coming from the farm bureau! guest: two things. i agree with wyden. people in my family used to be paid farmers, and they blamed themselves for not succeeding. the system is not set up for that. the farm bureau is a company pretending to be the voice of farmers. the iowa farm bureau is the single largest corporation in america. it has a $900 million a year offering budget. the executive director made $800,000 last year. they do not feel, they do not care, they do not propose these mergers, they actively opposed climate change in 2015, and you have record historic running in the midwest -- flooding in the midwest that will only get worse. they have a vested interest in these monopolies. host: let's go to trevor, who is

calling from tulsa, oklahoma. trevor is a farmer. trevor, good morning. . tell us what you farm. caller: i am a marijuana farmer. [laughter] guest we have been running cattle for about three generations now, and we are about to switch our operations to medical marijuana, and i would like your guest to touch upon bacteria guest: it is easy to say legalize it. why not touch on additional commodities. is the best example of the laboratories of democracy. i think that is a louis brandeis quote. i should know that. he is an antitrust person. but how do you regulate, tax it, how do you do that? multi-ot controlled by corporations.

it has a good system, it is three-tiered. i know i like about the alcohol system because of my dad. host:] guest [laughs] guest: i would be in middle school with a big miller lite, coors light towel. they sell three different things, usually. it kind of depends on the state. why am i not opposed to something like marijuana? because we saw prohibition, if you power one company, they will use through an by defusing the power, you can then kind of keep a healthy regulatory market going. host: let's go to patrick, who is calling from annapolis, maryland. patrick, good morning. . caller: good morning. am 100% -- i i understand what is going on, and i am 100% behind it. i think it is awful, terrible, but i believe it is capitalism. it is what it is. , ok, amazon, i am

familiar with crystal city outside of washington and queens, new york. they are transit people. the last place you would want immigrants ago are those two places. why would you don't want them to go to, like, the ohio, michigan area, the tennessee valley area? chineseone reason the are going to blow by us. they are planning 20, 30, 40 years down the road. it makes so much sense. i am totally against the billions and billions of dollars in tax breaks also. guest: patrick gives us a good example of we are living in a second gilded age. it is very clear that is what this moment is. we have never seen before in this country's history where one has one of then

biggest newspapers in this country and gets every city to put forward their best bribe. in this country's history, and we saw it in the last gilded age, it took the gilded age, but then it ushered in the progressive movement, because we demand something different. host: you said earlier you think we are at the edge of a trump busting. why do you think that? first of all, what do you mean, and why the effect that? guest: monopolies are everywhere in america. warren buffett sells about 50% of trailer homes in this country. it is everywhere. peanut butter, 50% market share. this model is broken, and it is part of -- a man named robert board i have learned a lot about recently. the famous friday, saturday night massacre, he was

homophobic, racist, sexist, you name it, he was it. we are living under his notion of monopoly, antitrust enforcement. basically big is ok, because it leads to lower prices. these hired gun economists who write bs numbers to justify huge mergers. even though this is evidence-based theory, there is no evidence. these companies get super big, but it turns out they get big, and they become cartels. they raise prices, they hold down wages, add these type of trendlines are not sustainable. papersnot have local dying because two companies are sucking up all the ad revenue and do not want to delhi and eight any responsibility -- billion it in a responsibility. -- to delia designate any responsibility. host: why do you think they are doing this? guest: take chuck grassley.

he has been a politician since before the minnesota vikings have been a football team. and you seestem, with members of congress, on the house side, the young people, we need more people like that. we need them to say enough is enough. we needed at the ground level. who iset's go to suzanne calling from mississippi, also a rural area. good morning. think people who every time they go to the grocery store, walmart or whatever, and get a plastic bag do not realize how many jobs have been lost in the loop through areas of the south when we lost the bags. -- paperbacks. -- lost paper bags. they talk about climate control, get rid of plastic. it willto paper bags,

expose and get the job back. look at the paper mills that were closed down. you can drive through the south, and there is nothing but pine trees. they are not getting any money for them anymore. it is a shame, and i do not understand what is wrong with people. paperbacks.ally get [laughs] host: reusable bags. guest: i am laughing because in my head, i do not know if people remember this, but joni ernst in her state of the union rebuttal speech talked about plastic bags as a kid. people in iowa, because snow and it gets in your boots, you wrap your feet and plastic bags and put it in your boots -- host: i am from mississippi. we did not do that. [laughs] guest: what was that town name, by the way? host: --

guest: that is a cool name. host: let's go to glyn in iowa. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you doing today? guest: is this glyn hearst? caller: it is, austin. host: you know him? octor. he is a rural d the effect that we are having on the rural family farmer, that affects ripples out throughout the community is, as any small business owner in a rural community, they can tell you how the agricultural market bottomg by their own line. if farmers are not doing well, then the rural grocery stores are not doing well, people forego medical care, a lot of basic needs, so i think it is incredibly important that we

cannot just say this is, you know, capitalism at work. we have got to face the reality of how important the rural farmer is to the entire economy. isst: just south of glenn red oak, iowa, home to senator joni ernst. e on have about 75% fore trade, and that tells you everything about this moment appeared that is why teachers tell me they feel like they are more of a social worker than a teacher at this point, because wages collapsed. host: let's go to area was calling from peers berg, illinois. to larry, who is calling from illinois. larry, good morning. caller: i have been listening as i have been holding on, and i have to agree with all of the

callers who are talking about the change to small family farms. i will give you an example. my grandfather raised five kids on a 200-acre farm. 19t was back in the 1920's, 30's, and 1940's. guest: what kind of farm? caller: then when i was in high school, a 600 i hate been acre farm -- a 600-acre farm was a good farm. a lot of the schoolchildren, they are not farming most of them. it takes apparently some big outfits 20,000, 30,000 acres to make a profit. i have seen this with the hog industry. a lot of the hog producers started with these confinements, and they really excelled at producing the big outfits with good quality hogs, and then the

big meat markets come in, and i do not know what happened to them, but they are all taken over now by corporations. so we just see this trend, and then there was a big problem i have seen is that we do not have any -- we are not keeping up with the rural people out here as far as our broadband connection. i have got to go to wi-fi that i try to keep up with, and it is running us about $10 a gigabyte. and this these are not that great. of thingsre a lot that i feel the little guy has been left behind out here. host: my parents in mississippi, we are still trying to run little wi-fi hotspots. we cannot get broadband where my parents are, either. guest: yes, i cannot stream

netflix. friday night, you go to watch tv, and you cannot even do that. host: yeah, it is, you. yeah. [laughs] guest: rural america interacts with urban america. they go to the mall. urban america does not go to rural america. they bypass it on the highway. they do not understand the decay and powerlessness. i think some of the this the next, not seeing the pain of the other, is part of this problem. host: is part of the problem that urban america has no idea where their food comes from? they just know they go to the store and they buy it and they complain about whatever the price is? guest: yeah. if we change the way we make our food, it also tastes better. farm fresh eggs will taste better. is just -- even at whole foods -- what is so funny about whole foods, the whole michael pollen thing is oh, it consumer focused.

the big boys own it through owns whole foods. even though you are walking out of the system, you really are not. that is the thing, to challenge the system. host: let's get one more caller in, let's go to amber calling from iowa. guest: amber! host: another person you know? guest: yeah. about 20% of our income from farm, and this affects another system with a town,treet program in my and i want to talk about the program cuts proposed in that. to me, the usda is one of .he best in the agency the program cuts just go to show you that sonny perdue only cares

about the big boys. cuts, anotherram example of the corruption we see around us. it is not what is the healthiest best foods for america, it is how can these two companies get bigger and richer? host: we would like to thank totin frerick, contributor "the american conservative," and author of "rural america." to shanawill go udvardy and talk about flooding in the midwest and the damage it has caused. we will be right back. ♪ >> sunday night on "after

words," historian victor davis hansen talks about his book "the case for trump," which talks about the election of donald trump. he is interviewed by dave brat. left is in a conundrum. eir anticipated therth democracy by about 50 years. they are not sure how to make people vote monolithically according to their skin color rather than the constant of their character, so i think they are in a dilemma. meanwhile, donald trump being around thety is going back and seeing you in detroit and you in newark bakersfield, san jose, i will get you jobs, in the way you never did, and it will go in there and vote, and they are so leverage and having a 95%

african-american voter or 75%, they cannot afford any him a hemorrhagin. ords" on "after w booktv on c-span2. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we are back with shana udvardy of the union of concerned scientists. we are going to talk about what is going on with the midwest, the flooding, and the light floodplain mess. first of all, shana, good morning. guest: good morning. it is great to be on your show. host: tell us about what the union of concerned scientists is. guest: it is a nonprofit environmental organization. analysis together to help inform policies, and our goal is to have informed policies so we have a safer planet and a healthier world. riverso let's talk about and floodplain management.

first of all, what is the best way to define what are and floodplain management is? that has is something to be holistic, so rivers and watersheds are made up of a a lot of different things, natural environments but also development, so it has to be holistic, and looking at the whole landscape that is in one watershed. host: so who is responsible for planning, designing, and the construction? are we talking about cities, towns, states, the federal government? who is in charge here? single level,y someone is involved, so there is federaltate, and governments that is involved. so at the federal level, there is the corps of engineers that provide technical analysis as well as funding to help build these structures, and then there could be funding by states and

local sponsors. host: this is almost an ironic question given what we are seeing in the midwest right now, but how prepared are the current levees and dams for current flooding and future flooding? guest: one of the things we like as floodplain managers if win but where a levy will fail. when they get more pressure on them through flooding and higher river levels, they are most likely going to either breach or over top. is that what we are seeing now in the midwest, or is there something causing the flooding that we are seeing? guest: what is happening right now is the upper midwest is we had a cold glass that kept the and then welting,

had more temperatures with more rainfall that fell on frozen ground, and that caused a lot of from the melting snow, run off that went to the andutaries, the missouri mississippi rivers come as a that kind of flooding, the rainfall, this gnome else really produced the type of high river onoding set often fell rivers and landscape that had already been high -- the rivers were a high stage to begin with. host: so what better levee and dam construction to begin with, or is this going to happen no matter what? guest: what is happening with climate change as we see warmer temperatures are in fact, the fourth national climate assessment came out, and it tells us that we have actually warmed the planet one degree celsius and 1.8 degree fahrenheit since preindustrial

levels. so warmer air means we have more evaporation, warmer air holds more moisture, so we will see more intense and frequent rainfall, and that is going to be contributing to this type of flooding, and in fact, the scientists are getting much better editor reading climate change through different events, while we cannot say one of it was caused by climate change, but what we can do is look at a events.nd of different a recent study came out to look at hurricane harvey, and it shows that a storm like hurricane party was three times more likely and more intense because of climate change. host: now, how much federal money, how much involvement of the federal government have in maintaining the dams and levees to hold back from some of these levees? guest: the corps of engineers

has some control, but most of the levees are managed by local to bers, and that tends the problem, because we need to have more regulations to help arere that those levees being updated and can handle the risk coming into the area. we need the science to help ensure that that is informing how high the levees should be and have a maintenance that is needed. i want to get some of our viewers in on this conversation, impacted byve been the midwest flooding, the flooding we are talking about right now, we have a special line we want you to call in on. if you have been impacted by the midwest flooding, we want to hear from you at (202) 748-8000. now, if you are outside of that area, we have lines for you as well. if you are in the eastern and central time zones, we want to hear from you at (202) 748-8001. oryou are in the mountain

pacific time zones, we want to hear from you at (202) 748-8002. shana, do we expect more flooding this spring? what are we looking for as we go into spring? andt: the national oceanic atmospheric association, or know just released its spring outlook, and it is dire for mississippi and the upper midwest. oft they found is that 2/3 the lower 48 are at risk of high levels of flooding. and this is going to be from now intimate. we have really got -- into may. we have got a big problem on our hands. they project the flooding can be worse than what we saw in the mississippi valley in 1993, in 2011, and they project that at about 13 million people that

will be impacted. that is the size of belgium, practically. so this is a lot of people that are already feeling the flooding and the impacts from this current flooding and may continue to get flooded into may. host: so why are we see in this increased flooding risk? what is causing this? guest: as i mentioned, i think climate change is playing a role. the national climate assessment, the fourth climate assessment came out and found that we are seeing higher levels of heavy rainfall more frequently in the upper midwest region, and so this is contribute to it. we also have more development in floodplains, so that means that the water cannot be held as well in those areas, and there are other intervening factors. we talked about levees and dams. that is a whole structure of

dams and projects that need to be looked at holistically in order to project how much rainfall can be, you know, absorbed by the whole system. host: let's let our viewers get in this conversation. let's talk to andrew, who is calling from nebraska. andrew, good morning. yes, i would like to ask a question. i live in an area where i cannot even buy flood insurance, and i would like to know why. guest: well, i am not sure what the problem is with buying insurance, but you should be able to get flood insurance through those two programs. host: let's bring this up. there was a story that the "wall earlierournal" wrote this month about the trump administration planning a flood

insurance overhaul. "the trump administration says it plans to overhaul government-subsidized flood insurance in a sweeping proposal that could raise rates on more expensive properties and those in higher risk areas. the new rates would affect most homeowners who own properties in flood prone areas, where flood p coverage is provided but few companies provide flood insurance. the plan would start assessing properties individually, according to several variables, including hurricane rainfall, coastal surges, and the distance thanbody of water, rather applying one formula across an whene flood zone, assessing flood risk and contract cost." you can find that in the "wall street journal. let's go to minnesota. frank, good morning. caller: climate change has

little to do with this. of farmers 80 years tilling their land, and you could avoid all of this by making beavers a protected species. host: what do you think about that? guest: it is a really good point. we do not know about how climate change effected this specific event, but beavers are a really imported animal is a system, and they provide really good habitat for the beavers themselves but also for other types of animals, and it is also part of the natural -- infrastructure. they are important, as are many other animals. he also talked about tiling as a way of getting water off the land and the agricultural landscape, and that is contribute to the problems.

i am glad he raised that point. callingt's go to vena from nashville, tennessee. good morning. caller: good morning. i would like the speakers were addressing talk about the way we can manage our landscape. about landscape management, and policies that -- ourom our flight floodplains. i will take my question off the air. guest: that is a great question, and there are federal rules that help ensure we have a more natural way of managing risk. there are certain ways forward that reduce risk of

management. you can leave them in natural areas, and part of the rule is by the usda, who can help provide funding to help put easements aside for flood risk management. they play a super big role. and then at the state level, they can also provide incentives by funding, putting funding aside for these types of measures. host: let's talk to lori, who is calling from utah. lori, good morning. is that orem, utah, lori? mi pronouncing that right? caller: yes, it is orem, o-r-e-m. i am calling to address the gentleman who said he cannot purchase flood insurance in his area. go ahead. he was asked a question

as to why he could not purchase it. if his mid municipality does not participate in the program, then he cannot. it is not cost anything, they just need to be a part of the program. guest: that is a great point, but what i can say is there is private insurance. hopefully there is private insurance there. really important to have insurance, and the flooding is making it all too real. the other parts of the national flood insurance program, in addition to interest mitigation and mapping, and mitigation is -- how do we reduce the flood risk? and mapping, you mentioned earlier, knowing where the flood risk is. host: shana, we saw pictures earlier this week of the air , wherease in nebraska

the base is just taken over by water. has flooding become a national security issue? guest: climate change has played , ande in national security it is an issue to our federal government and the department of defense. they recognize that this is the case and address it as a threat in their latest threat assessment. what happened at offutt, my heart goes out to all of the families working at that installation. installation was flooded, and they are still working on recovering and getting all of the debris that came with that flooding out of that installation, but what that means is a lot of the infrastructure that is there, that plains and other important pieces of the installation had to be moved elsewhere or were maybe impacted from the flooding, so this is going to continue to be causing a

national security issue, because that means that military installation is not as ready to send out their troops, or maybe just the people that are working there, the military personnel, cannot get to the installation, so it will continue to be a national security issue. the good news is that the last national defense authorization goodrovided some really policies to help face much better, insurance at these installations better flood and climate change. so future construction is built above the flood elevation. host: let's go to lisa who is calling from houston, texas. lisa, good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for having this topic. my personal home was not affected by harvey, but as you know, that was huge. it was very awakening to the

dangers that we have here in houston in terms of flooding. according to understanding of the army corps of engineers, the 40 years ago, they kept weres back, you know, that kept back, i don't know, 50 inches of water that fell. what i am wondering, they are 40 years old. who is it that i, as a nee to bed sure to either elect or support or continue to talk to about, you know, what are we going to do to reinforce the dams that are old? and also, by the way, they did have to release, they had to decide to release some water, of theflooded, like, 1/4 city proper, because they did not know if the dam could hold more than that. i wonder if you can tell me who the people are that i need to

talk to, elect, and so forth to make sure that they are really taking care of these dams, and also that they had allowed people to build in the floodplain of the dam. what about that? guest: well, that is an excellent question. play a role, but it was also a lot of other contributing factors. city ands a very flat region, and there are a lot of different watersheds within that area, so it is to take management and your advocacy at every level, so local, state, and federal level, so i am really glad you are passionate about this and want to reduce the flood risk. there are also county commissioners. those are very important. there are a lot of different watersheds that feed into the flood risk. at every level, it is so

important, and that is why it is important to have a flood risk management and that will help get out on a lot of these issues and bring these different partners together. and your point about the dam is a really good one but also about the development. i am glad you brought that up. there is too much development that is allowed in the floodplain, and development needs to be flood ready, so whether it is infrastructure or homes or businesses, they need elevated above flood elevation, and that is where building codes can play a role, where local, city, and county commissioners can play a role to make sure that policies are in place to build above the flood elevation. the good news is that houston did recently passed policies to do exactly that. who iset's go to mike, calling from greenland ferry, pennsylvania. mike, good morning. caller: good morning. message is is my

that the president, instead of writing an executive emergency about our southern border, he should be doing what is now with the climate change. if this is not evidence to the transporter that it is not made up, it is not some fake news, just look at these farmers, look at these people, their houses river, theg down a rivers are taking over large swaths of property, and supposedly it was not supposed to be done. built 30, 40ere years ago obviously cannot maintain against this tremendous so whyof pressure, doesn't everybody in this area to rise up and say look, this is an emergency, there is global change going on, because when have you had this much rain or this much melt or the weather that we are having?

and i would like to see people really wake up in america and understand we are important, and it is important to have a strong southern border, but look at all of these people suffering now? and i think this is a perfect example of climate change. guest: well, i could not have said that any better. i think that you raise a really good point. there are four states it leaves that have declared a natural disaster declaration. president trump does have a role to play with his leadership on climate change, and we would really like to see him move forward on that front. the good news is that a lot of the different federal agencies understand the risk, particularly the department of defense, as i mentioned earlier, but we are going to need a lot of different resources. currently we do not have that type of structure in place. we definitely need to be putting more resources to data and science and making sure that is

informed policy decision, and to make sure we have resources in place to do this type of planning, and really, as the caller mentioned, have the resources for, you know, how are these people going to get their lives back together? there are many communities, may be low income or communities with a high level of oaks that are elderly that are on fixed incomes or a low incomes, and they are going to need help to get back whole again, and they whatit flooded again, so is the national policy that is going to help get us this? we have a lot of different policies, but we need federal leadership from this administration, a on this front, and it is very the trumpe that administration repealed the executive order to ensure any funds going into infrastructure and ruptures in the above the light elevations.

structures are built above the flood elevations. that just makes sense, and foolishately it was a policy that he repealed. situation where we are going to see this flooding get worse, as noaa projects, and we have to be thinking comprehensively about the resources that we are going to need, not just from inland flooding but from sea level rise. we know many coastal communities are struggling with tidal flooding that it's happening more frequently and more extensively at extreme heat that we know was going to become more intense in certain locations, and many other climate impacts. host: let's go to charles, who is calling from foley, alabama. charles, good morning. . caller: good morning. i would like to ask the lady in question. on the mississippi

river north of baton rouge, louisiana, and i am 57. i have watched the mississippi were consistently grow higher on the floods, and we have a 100-year flood every 10 years. it rendered our family farm completely useless. don't you think that the levee systems that we have put in place all the way up the river have caused the water to back up into the midwest, into the tributaries, that feed them into it? that is ally, man-made situation, and it is not all just climate. i mean, what is your opinion on that? guest: you are exactly right, and i am really glad you asked the question. i am so sorry to hear about your farmland. we are seeing that right now in the upper mississippi where the water rose so high and so fast, there was a lot of erosion and dumped a lot of soil and sand on some farmland that may be too

expensive to clean up after the flooding. but to your point, levies and other structures like dams are causing the rivers to rise higher and flow faster, at least levees are. but when we get extreme flooding conditions, that water has to be released. the rivers are already hire from rainfall, snowmelt, we may have to remove some of the water from dams upstream. we have seen that time in it the mississippi river, and the need to be thinking strategically about that management, it is a complex system, and we need to have an informed by climate change and projections of diamond change and -- climate change and management. host: let's talk to amy, who is calling from richmond, virginia. amy, good morning. caller: yes, hello. there was a man who called and how president trump, and i would

say a lot of people in congress, do not acknowledge that the flooding and everything has is caused at least partly by climate change. as far as i can tell, they just don't care. he has stacked his cabinet with andand gas lobbyists anti-climate change people, anti-science people. and until we can get some leadership that actually isnowledges climate change real and that it is contributing to a lot of these flooding problems, it is only going to get worse. and i just don't understand why people who live in these areas continue to back the president. guest: that is absolutely right. we doneed the federal -- need the administration to step up on climate change. a lot of the folks that are running for the next election to be president do understand that climate change is a threat and

are speaking out on climate change when they are talking to different communities. so that is the good news. that is a little ways off. your absolutely right. when it congress to step up much more on this front. there are a lot of opportunities. there is a lot of intensive on doing an infrastructure built. we think there is a lot we can do in the next piece of legislation to help address some of these climate change issues, things like making sure that, as i mentioned before, having a flood standard be incorporated to any new infrastructure, so it is elevated above the flood. making sure congress authorizes an expert panel to bring all of the different federal agencies together to address these issues. and there are many other ways. funding is going to be critical. how are we going to afford half the country to address and mitigate these risks that are going to happen in every single

community, whether it is extreme heat or rainfall or sea level rising? so we really do need comprehensive efforts on this front from congress and from the administration. i think that we have also another opportunity with needing reauthorize the national flood insurance program, which comes up in may, it needs to be reauthorize the by the end of may, and that means informing based on climate change projections, insurance that is risk-based but also has affordability provisions. congress has been kicking that can down the road for a long time. and when it policies around increasing mitigation so we can reduce this risk. repetitivelyeaving flooding land into permanently likespace, and things buying out homes through the floodplains so we do not have the costly disasters time and again. host: we would like to thank

shana udvardy of the union of concerned scientists for being here today to talk to us about midwest flooding and river management. shana, thank you so much. guest: thank you so much for covering this important issue. all: we would like to thank of our callers, guests, on viewers on c-span's "washington journal" today. join us tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. for another "washington journal ." have a great saturday. [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] >> get to know the freshmen members of the 116th congress monday on washington journal. learn more about the most

diverse group of lawmakers in history. >> i am real and authentic. >> small town lawyer from lexington. >> captain of the national guard. served in afghanistan. >> mcdonald's franchisee for 22 years. >> i want to find the answers. >> it is new for me. i have been a physician for all my professional life. >> my dad was a lifetime republican who has never voted for a democrat. morning, joinnday the discussion -- watch it monday morning. >> congress is in recess this week. nancy pelosi has announced next week the house will vote on an override of president trump's veto of the congressional resolution that would terminate his national emergency declaration on border security. both scheduled for tuesday. on thursday, the house will vote on a measure rejecting president

trump span on transgender -- president trump's ban on transgender people serving in the military. when the senate returns to session, lawmakers debate judicial nominations. later in the week, a resolution of support for the green new deal. when the senate is back in session, blocks the chamber live on c-span2. -- watch the chamber live on c-span2. >> once tv was three giant networks and a government supported service called pbs. in 1979, a small network with an unusual name rolled out a big idea. let viewers decide on their own what was important to them. c-span opened the doors to washington policymaking for all to see bringing you unfiltered content from congress and beyond. in the age of power to the people, this was true people power. in the 40 years since, the landscape as changed. there is no monolithic media.