will have in the congress this year. and from my opinion, if it is not the strongest possible privacy protection, then there is no point to preempting the states that want to give strong privacy protections to their citizens. rep. walden: if you think about the internet, it is like this superhighway we drive down. but what really happens is eventually you need to take an off ramp to get into the neighborhood you want to go. the off ramps are your search engines, your social media. you think about facebook, google, and some of the other providers really have enormous control over what we see, what we access, how we access it. i think this is right for the public square, for debate. >> watch "the communicators" tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern ons tonight 8:00 eastern on c-span2. this morning, the latest on the robert mueller report and a conversation with paul rosenzweig, former senior

counsel for the whitewater investigation. we take your calls. you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. washington journal is next. >> no collusion with russia. the most ridiculous thing i have ever heard. there was no collusion with russia. , nonewas no obstruction whatsoever. total a complete and exoneration. the president is right, the mueller report, according to the attorney general's conclusion, found no collusion with russia. the special counsel said that while the report does not conclude president trump committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him. good morning, everyone. we want to get your take on what we know so far about the mueller .

democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. you can post your comments on facebook.com/c-span we will get to your calls in a minute. mr. mueller and the special counsel could not answer the question. he left it to the attorney general. within 48 hours, the attorney general and rod rosenstein concluded that the evidence developed during the special counsel's investigation is not sufficient to establish that the president committed an obstruction of justice offense. the speaker of the house, nancy pelosi, and chuck schumer, the democratic minority leader in the senate responded this way yesterday, the fact that special counsel robert mueller's report does not exonerate the president on a charge as serious as obstruction of justice demonstrates how serious it is

that the report be made public without further delay. given liam bars public record of bias against -- given william bias, heblic record of is not in a position to make objective determinations. jerry nadler, who chairs the house judiciary committee went before reporters yesterday. here's what he had to say about the attorney general. [video clip] prosecutors said there was a lot of evidence, which would lead one to think that he should be indicted. he did not make that decision. know, it is unprecedented for a special prosecutor not to make that decision one way or the other. it is certainly unprecedented for the attorney general to make that decision. anis unprecedented for

attorney general who campaigned for the wall by saying that president could hardly ever commit obstruction of justice. host: john mcardle is with us this morning as well to track the report and reaction to it in washington. good morning to you. guest: the attorney general's letter to congress yesterday offered a deeper glimpse of the robert mueller investigation. here is the probe by the numbers. robert mueller pulling 19 lawyers, assisted by a team of 40 fbi agent's and other staff members. they issued more than 128 subpoenas. they obtained more than 230 orders per communication records. they made 13 requests. interviewed approximately 500 witnesses. some other numbers. not included in the letter to congress, some of the results of the robert mueller probe. they include nearly 200 charges against 34 people and three russian companies. six of those indicted are former trump administration or trump

campaign advisors. so far, seven have submitted please. five have been sentenced for their crimes. among those is of course former campaign chairman paul manafort. he was sentenced to seven and a half years in prison. as well as former national security advisor michael flynn. former campaign aide rick gates. others included in that report. we are going to continue to go through that report. we will let our viewers know what else is in there. host: let's get our viewers' reaction to what we know so far. tyrone in new york. a democrat. caller: good morning. i think this has been republican -- been a republican-controlled and generated investigation.

the investigation with james comey started with a republican. i am trying to understand, where where the 12 angry democrats that were working for the robert mueller investigation that were is going to -- that was going to railroad donald trump? we are not the ones who started this whole thing. they are the ones who perpetuated the whole situation. i am not surprised about the outcome. hopefully this will all work out. host: what do you want to happen next? what would it take for you to believe this report and the conclusion? caller: i believe the report as far as no collusion with the russians. with his the situation trying to stop the investigation, i believe he did some things -- that he tried to

stop it. he felt he did not do this collusion situation, so he made an effort to try to stop it. he kicked this off when he fired the f -- the head of the fbi. that is what started a whole lot of this stuff going on. host: that is what triggered the special counsel appointment by the justice department. caller: absolutely. it was not the democrats. it was not them that started the investigation. it was his actions that got a reaction. we can continue to blame the democrats for what the president is doing, but eventually, we are going to have to deal with reality. host: republicans would say this all started during the obama administration with the dossier. that kicked off the fbi and what they did when they started the investigation. from the attorney general's letter to the members of

congress yesterday, he wrote, the special counsel did not draw a conclusion as to whether the conduct constituted an obstruction. on report sets out evidence both sides of the question and views unresolved with the -- difficult issues of law and fact. the special counsel states that while the report does not include the president committed a crime, it does not exonerate him. you can read the entire letter if you go to our website. it is posted at c-span.org. our cameras this morning are stationed outside of the justice department here in washington, d.c. as we wait for more news. the attorney general said he would like to make as much as he can possible, this molar report. there are issues -- this mueller report. there are issues that have to do with grand jury investigations that do not allow him to make

open to the public. we will see what the attorney general does next. members of congress want him up on capitol hill to testify. at least on the house side were democrats have control. they also want mr. mueller to testify. they can only happen if the report is made public. jim from west virginia, what do you think? caller: i appreciate you giving some clarity to tyrone. i think he has things a little twisted. you brought some clarity to him. there we have it. offended tivoli from a democrat, there was no callista -- definitively from a democrat, there was no collusion. floor of thethe house, a lot of legislators say .hat phrase they say i reserve the right to revise and defend my remarks. that sounds to me like what mueller did. dot: in what way did mueller

that? caller: to possibly open the door to examination and et cetera, direct exoneration to where people say that is it. it is kind of like, down the road, they find something that is pertinent and they will investigate it. let's look at this other side here. report did all the examination, all the witnesses, all the discovery. that is what they have. they did prosecute certain folks, but let's look at all the other investigative situations that have been done with the unmasking. also, the improper handling and leaking and all of the other stuff on the others that basically, when you look at it, because of the strategy they ore trying to either prevent

once it occurred, basically destroy, the trump presidency, that -- that is what has happened. we are not even talking about mr. rosenstein's episode of trying to bring the 25th amendment into the situation and trying to use that when that should only be used for incapacitated -- totally incapacitated, in a coma, not just difference of opinion. i look forward to hopefully, they will restore the rule of law and the equitable distribution and application of the rule of law to investigate all these other things and the people who quit at the doj. all the people who quit at the fbi. i am sure they have all got lawyers lined up. they know what is coming. , loretta lynch

having knowledge while we have a sitting president, this is the next avenue we need an independent counsel to go down this road. host: the wall street journal editorial board writes that democrats will have to understand -- will have to decide what to do with all of this. william barr in his letter promises to disclose as much as he can. but we also hope he includes in his disclosure, the documents that explain how this entire russian conspiracy story began at the fbi and inside the obama administration. with the conclusion, we now know that someone may have conned the fbi into one of the great dirty tricks in american political history. the mueller report will not end in american politics, but it should put the

russian conspiracy to bed. verona cut in -- veronica in ohio. they did do not think a complete investigation. they never said one thing about his tax returns, his birth certificate, and every other president has always show to. he has got -- has always showed them. he has gotten by without them. host: steve in north, south in charleston, south carolina. caller: i think i can qualify myself a little bit because i am an independent who did not vote for president trump. i voted for darrell castle of the constitution party. do you remember the movie a few good men? jack walsh used the term, i am

looking at the case without passion or prejudice. i am not sure the president -- i'm not sure the democrats have the capacity to do that. let's review what john said. 22 months, 19 lawyers, 40 fbi agent. 500 search warrant. that included an office rate. raid.ders -- an office 13 requests for foreign governments. when are you going to say enough is enough? it is time to put this thing to bed. i would say we need to release everything that can legally be released and get it over and done with. i do not understand rudy giuliani. everyone knows where he came from. why would he say something like, this is better than i expected? i would say, this is exactly what we expected. host: exactly what we expected in what way? caller: that he would be

vindicated. not exonerated. but vindicated up to this point. this as an orderly process. it is going to pan out in favor of trump. i can look at it without passion or prejudice in my situation. host: when you say work out favorably for the president, do you mean the 2020 election? caller: no, just the fact that he will not be -- that they will not find any collusion. that he will be exonerated. you cannot go to a grand jury with intuition. unless you want to get laughed out of the grand jury room. host: the new york times editorial board is calling for more investigation. they say, we know the russian government to feared repeatedly in the presidential election by hacking into computer servers of the democratic national committee and the clinton campaign. we know it did this with the

goal of dividing americans in helping donald trump win the presidency. we know that when truck -- when top members of the trump campaign learned of this, they did not fail to -- they did not just fail to report it to the fbi, they encouraged it. presidente day that trump publicly urged the russians to hack into hillary clinton's emails, they knew -- they did just that. they lied, sometimes repeatedly about their communications with russians. none of this is in dispute. pfister mother cannot find suspicious -- mr. mueller could not find -- the new york times editorial board goes on to write, vladimir putin interfered on his behalf and his favorite was elected president. from campaign officials knew about this amber more than happy for the help. this and werebout

more than happy for the help. congress and the american people certainly can. some are pointing to the 2020 election. thise way that americans, is what james comey wrote last week, that this is the way americans can send their judgment. more on the 2020 race. reaction yesterday across washington. ,eto o'rourke tweeting out calling for the release of the full molar report to the america -- for the full mueller report. there must be transparency. bernie sanders saying i do not a summary. i want the whole dam report. cory booker saying the american public deserves the full report immediately. not just the in-house summary from a trump administration official. jump harris, the

administration --, light harris, the report -- that is what transparency looks like. a short letter from the handpicked attorney general is not sufficient. plenty of tweets and reaction across washington. we will keep you updated. the president mostly re-tweeting some of his tweets from yesterday including the one in which he said the report is a total examine -- a total exoneration. ce campaignrump-pen for 2020 sent out a statement yesterday on the report and said, despite democrats trailing him every step of the way, trump has kept his focus where it belongs. he is making historic progress that benefits all americans to make america great again. the president will get a chance to talk about the 2020 race and the report this week. he is back in washington. he will be holding a campaign rally this thursday in michigan.

we will have coverage of that on our website -- we will have coverage of that. richard in louisville, kentucky. a republican. caller: i just heard you read that article from the new york times. i wanted to understand, -- itt: it wasn't editorial -- was an editorial, not an article. caller: don't get me wrong. this is not the first time the new york times has come out after donald trump. call at the op-ed, that is fine. -- call it the op-ed, that is fine. who is in charge of the presidency at the time? who was in charge of making sure our election was safe? who was in charge of making sure everything was on the up and up? it was barack hussein obama.

i will tell you, this is not the end of this whole escapade. we have found that donald trump had nothing to do with colluding with the russians. i thought it was a little cheap that mueller said, i do not know if he obstructed or not. william barr, have to give him credit. no, rod rosenstein, you are not going nowhere until you read this stuff. he had rod rosenstein read this and say that donald trump did not abstract justice -- did not obstruct justice. part,ut not least, this as far as i'm concerned, this part of the investigation is over with. nadler, mad maxine waters, chris matthews, i think he is bringing again because of what happened yesterday -- he is drinking again because what happened yesterday.

you watch william barr. he is going to find out who started this crap, and people are going to go to jail. if he does not do this, then it is true that there is a two-tier system in this country where people can get away with almost anything. thank you very much. host: connie in chicago. good morning. what do you think? caller: it is troubling. interpretivebarr letter to congress. that is what i call it. they are putting a -- labeling it as mueller's report. that was william barr's interpretation. he was biased from the get-go. letter to me as a cover up to clear trump in the eyes of the nation. that makes it that much more imperative that the mueller

report be released in full view to the public and to congress because, like i said before, i do not trust william barr. opinion prior to being confirmed by the senate. underscoredans have and made it possible for this guy to be in the position he has in. to me, -- he is in. to me, it was troubling to see as soon as he took office, the mueller team was broke down. next thing you know, there is this report. there are a lot of unanswered questions. additionala lot of investigation to be had. that is all i have to say. thank you. host: who is william barr? the report gatekeeper, that is the head in the washington post

this morning. work atbarr reports to the justice department every day. our camera posted outside of the building this morning. from the washington post, they in, william barr believes broad presidential authority. a has long been known as proponent of broad presidential authority. soon after, a senate confirmation, he read a memo that seemed to recognize the immense pressure he was under. quote, the department has faced ever-increasing scrutiny from our quarters as new cycles have shrunk to nanoseconds. he thought mr. trump was right to fire james comey as fbi director. in an op-ed to the post, he expressed report -- expressed

support to fire coming. in the op-ed, he criticized james comey handling -- james they's handling of investigation into hillary clinton's emails. giving the impression that the fbi was a mess in politics. tied in california, and independent. todd, tell us your opinion. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. mueller should have come to a trump'son regarding innocence our guilt. he should have concluded that he did commit a crime because it does not make sense that all of these trump associates and employees just took it upon themselves to collude with russia and trump did not know about it and did not order it. host: ok, so what happens next?

caller: what should happen next is congress should bring him up on charges. that is not going to happen. host: why not? why do you think that cannot happen or would not happen? caller: because of the political climate. politicians that are running for reelection. republican districts would be too afraid to vote to impeach trump. host: ok. level: if cabinet positions were filled by putting the number two person to one instead of presidential picks, this can be avoided. host: ok, todd's thoughts in california. let's hear from robert in florida. thatr: what i think is since trump was exonerated, he should sue the prosecutor for going after him like that.

that guy roger stone in florida is going to be found not guilty of all charges. i talked to a lot of people in florida. he is going to be acquitted in florida. hearings, -- his hearings begin in november in washington, d.c. the democrat line. caller: good morning. my main concern about this case was inn president trump trouble with the election, he hired paul manafort to hire -- to handle his electoral votes. i wonder if you have that on tape. host: what do you mean? what on tape? toler: he hired manafort handle his electoral votes.

it was on tape. host: i am not sure what you are referring to. a specific event? the president talking about that? caller: yes, all of a sudden, he won the election and fired paul manafort right away. host: why do you think that is suspicious? caller: the fact that that is collusion with russia and trying to get him to win the electoral votes. he was using the popular vote. he decided to get -- to hire manafort to handle his electoral votes. in a fort already got indicted for fraud. host: john mcardle, what else do you have this morning? guest: in terms of where we go from here, the report may be over, but the investigations will continue on the house side. several probes already launched in the 116th congress. pelosi and schumer calling for the release of the full report as these investigations continue. here is a wrap up of some of the

investigations. the house judiciary committee we sell earlier this month, requested documents from some 81 trump associates. the house intelligence committee announced they would look into russian interference in the 2016 election as well as president trump foreign financial interest. the reform committee has announced several investigations including one into president trump's communications with russian president vladimir putin. who are the ranking members of those relevant committees. their reactions to the letter to congress. jerry nadler is the chairman to the house judiciary committee. in light of final beision-making, we will calling the attorney general to testify before the judiciary committee. the wrecking member of the committee is doug collins saying the investigation was long, thorough, and conclusive.

he tweeted yesterday there was no collusion. there is no constitutional crisis. the report does not establish the president was involved in an underlying crime related to russian interference. heading over to the house intelligence committee, adam tweeting,dam schiff the evidence does not exonerate trump. the entire report must be published. the american people can judge for themselves. devin nunes is the ranking member of the intelligence committee saying the investigation was based on false intel and false media reports. house intel found a year ago that there was no evidence of conclusions. democrats have needlessly invoked a within two year long crisis. -- more than two year long crisis. two more tweets. elijah cummings, the chairman of the oversight and reform

committee, tweeting that after reading the findings, chairman nadler, shift, and i call for all thease of th documents. jim jordan tweeting it is time to move on. if there is no collusion, if there is no conspiracy, then there is no crime to obstruct. washington post on their front page says president trump's mercurial behavioral and attacks on the fbi probably extended the length of the probe. the fact that many of the disruptions were in public view may have made it more difficult to show he had ill intent. a key element in proving obstruction. let's go to howard in indiana. an independent. hi, howard. caller: good morning.

the reportointed in in that it was not conclusive on these issues. i guess since he has to formulate a position of whether trump was engaged in a criminal activity, which is a high standard to determine. the results are what they are. as for obstruction, it is clear in public view that trump obstructed justice in many ways. veiled suggestions about pardons and the like. i hope that this effort public, which again, the popular vote, most people in this country did not want trump to be president. we have to keep that in mind. this is going to be a very contentious issue going forward. hopefully it motivates the

public to vote him out of office. i hope the democrats keep the pressure on the oversight obligation they have to continue to surface evidence about trump's behavior and history that continued to validate he is unfit to be president. he has a criminal. he is an unindicted co-conspirator already. host: and what are you referring to when you say that? unindicted co-conspirator. -- on the michael cohen issue as it relates to the payment of trump's mistresses, he is an unindicted co-conspirator. individual number one. cohen toed michael make those payments. the unindicted co-conspirator was confirmed independently of reflected in as

the documentation. there are a lot of details people do not keep up with. it is understandable. we all have better things to do then get the minutia of this. all of these things together make it clear to me this man is a criminal. he should not be in the white house. unfortunately, this report bolsters and furthers the polarization. that is unfortunate. editorialrk times captured it clearly. while his behavior may not be something you can prove criminally, he certainly was supportive of the help of the russians. one final point, i appreciate you letting me on here. the report said he did not collude with the russian government. we know the russians have a network of affiliates they deal with. between trumpon

and the affiliates is still an open question at least in my mind. thank you. host: i just want to follow-up on that because there is a piece in the paper today that talks about what you are mentioning. usesords that mr. mueller are important when he says that a trump campaign official, there is that definition, knowingly colluded or conspired with a russian government official. those words according to an opinion piece today are important because when it comes to roger stone, he was not a campaign official at the time. wikileaks is not part of the russian government. there are those questions that people are putting forth today. all of you can respond to them as well. mike in maryland. a republican.

mike, good morning to you. mike in maryland. all right, let me try that one more time. not sure what happened. let me move on. shirley in new orleans. a democrat. hi, shirley. caller: hello, good morning. know how thiso report took two years, and this man got the report on friday, has made his summation that he was going to get the next day. how did they do that? has his already opinions and his report written out. he has a republican hack. he was put there to make sure that trump -- who was a

criminal, you are not going to tell me that a person who micromanages everything did not , his son,everybody his son-in-law, all of his affiliates did not know what was going on? i cannot buy that. let me say one thing to you. when republicans are talking, you shake your head. yes, yes, yes. as if you are agreeing with them. i thought the moderator was supposed to be partial -- was supposed to be impartial. i have been looking at c-span for years. i am talking years. -- the party that mb belong to because they did not agree. host: i am not agreeing.

i ami'm doing is saying listening. apologies if you perceived it another way. shawn, nashville, tennessee. an independent. caller: i would like to make a comparison. host: ok. caller: yes, i would agree with the lady who says that mueller is a republican and is going to do everything to protect the white house because that would be an insult. the comparison i would like to make is being a police officer who kills and unarmed black man and covers it up and waits two or three years to show a videotape. they can get the people in place to do whatever they want. i'm going to leave it with this, the one thing they all have in common, they are all white men and cannot play fair. that is the way it is. people better understand that.

host: sean in tennessee. his thoughts. john mcardle. guest: as we come to the end of the investigation, one of the critics about those -- one of the critics about the cost of the investigation. this was one of the tweets from the gop. they tweeted that the total reported cost of the investigation through the fall of last year is over $25 million. investigation will go down in history as one of the most widest ranging and most expensive special counsel investigations ever. the investigation might actually be in the black and all is said and done. they added up not only the cost of the investigation what we know through late last year but also the totals of the fines and forfeitures and restitution payments based on those who have been sentenced through the mueller investigation.

of former trump campaign chairman paul manafort. thanll have garnered more 27 million dollars in restitution payments. rick gates, -- former personal attorney michael with $129 million. that is a hundred 28.6 million dollars -- host: the attorney general, william barr, ill be reporting to work today. there are more questions front -- will be reporting to work today. democrats who control the house, they want him to release the entire report. and, not just the entire report. all of the details. the documents, the evidence that collected over the last

two years. they want the republic to see it. they want lawmakers to be able to talk about it in the open. lonmin -- republicans are saying the same. the reaction from lawmakers yesterday was, make it public. william barr says he will have to follow the law. when it comes to rules, there are rules guiding guarantor -- guiding grand jury testimony. that is not allowed to be bade public. more coming from the attorney general. you will be sure to get reaction from lawmakers as they return to washington, d.c. today. the house and senate are in session this week. i want to share this piece i alluded to before. tom nichols is a national security professor at the naval war college. an essential question that mueller investigated, there is no evidence to link to the trump government.

if there was no canoodling with the russians, why was there so much lying? how did mueller managed to unravel what looks like a tangle , and then collude there was no collusion that and then conclude -- and then concludes there was no collusion. it is not news there are millions of dirty russian dollars in most of the world's major capitals. the second possibility is that parsing robert mueller. terms like knowingly, associates, and government are potentially doing a lot of work in liam bars letter. if roger stone -- in william barr's letter.

does this pass the test of campaign associates knowingly working with the government? roger stone was not officially associated with the campaign. julian assigned is not officially part of the russian government. for anyone following the breadcrumbs, it is an easier call. what a lawyer can prove and what with ayst might believe high degree of certainty are not the same thing. lynn in north carolina. a democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. theuld like to say we need bias from the facts. you cannot have a biased opinion opinion.to the ag's , $25obert mueller team million. 25 million taxpayer dollars to

do a report. we were very patient with mueller. we waited on him. he kept quiet. when it came time to the end of his report, of his investigation, he is still quiet? that is unacceptable. i also want to say that rosenstein, i want people to really remember that rosenstein was very outspoken in the beginning about this investigation. a ride with took president on air force one. i do not know what trump and his attorneys said to him. but then, he became quiet. he stayed in the back and would not be outspoken as he was prior to writing on air force one. when rosenstein was supposed to walk out the door, he should have walked out the door. why did he stay on?

why is he causing taxpayers more money to pay him to stay on longer? for what? to support william barr and his biased opinion? paidobert mueller got taxpayer dollars, $25 million. we need to hear from robert mueller. we do not need to hear a summary from william barr in 48 hours who needed rosenstein to stay on and hold his hand. we need the facts. the biased facts are nothing but --ial biased facts that make that make america great again and take us back to slavery. wake up. we paid, we supported, and we stayed quiet rain this investigation. -- stayed quiet during his mitigation. host: we want to hear from mr. mueller himself. let's go to bob in kingwood, texas. caller: good morning. the last caller is typical of

the media. it has just been a rant. it is time to move on. it is time the country tries to get behind the 2016 election that was decided. this whole investigation has been a way to try to denigrate the presidency and the election. some of us may not like trump. we have got to move on. the country has to heal. the media takes a tremendous responsibility to do that. we need to have a lot of these speculations and hyperboles people are talking about -- people need to calm down. live their life. let's get the country working to put people back in jobs and get things going. host: bob, d think it would help if the robert mueller report -- do you think it would help if the robert mueller or is made public? caller: absolutely, but the

report will be made as public as the law allows. when it gets completely out there, it is going to be redacted. when it is out there, you know what is going to happen. then media will parse it to death. we need to work on the big things in this country and forget about trying to bring each other's party down. it is a sad situation. people have to grow up. host: bob in texas. jim is an indic -- is an independent. lancaster, new york. caller: first of all, i have watched you forever. you have never ever shown any kind of bias when you are on tv. i am sure you have your own opinions. they never seem to bleed over to your programming. i agree with the last gentleman. everyone needs to go out. enough is enough. mueller found nothing. william barr agrees with him. it is quite obvious that the

democrats want to get trump at any cost. they are to dagan date until they -- they are going to date and date -- host: did you vote for trump in 2016? caller: yes i did. host: before that, have you voted for democrats or republicans all your life? caller: i vote by the individual and not by the party. i want andook at who what i agree with. that is who i vote for. host: i am wondering, as an independent, although you voted for the president, keeping that in mind, do you think that democrats risk going too far? it sounds like that is what you are saying. caller: i think so. if they keep hammering away at him, all of this nitpicking, sooner or later, the country is going to say, we have had enough of that. that will help president trump get reelected. host: jim in new york. david, north carolina.

a democrat. hi, david. caller: how are you doing? host: i am doing fine. what are your thoughts on the report about what we know so far? caller: first of all, a little housekeeping. , i shirley from louisiana give a shout to her. criticalng to be as with a moderator so to speak. keep doing what you are doing. take criticism in a positive way. -- two years ago into this report, i take my hat off into -- my hat off to mr. mueller. just like the gentleman said a while ago, if you note anything -- if you know anything about parsing, parsing is digressing and taking a step back and bifurcating the word.

you got no collusion. let's break that down. on the side of collusion and conclusion? is there a word connotative so to speak think. say i am a to criminal justice. i want to direct you to a piece i did on the presidency. it is well thought out. host: let's take to the mueller report. maynard in pennsylvania. a republican. caller: good morning. i like your style much better than the men on the program. i do not think shaking your head is agreeing. we have become a banana republic.

justice -- they are going to cheat -- they are going to keep on trying. russians have to be sick of laughing. they did not really do that much. they threw this in as a secret weapon. it really worked. we are tearing ourselves apart. they are standing over there laughing. let's get on with running the country the way it should be run. there is a saying, there is not se who so blind as tho will not see. host: john mcardle. guest: tracking more reaction from you from members on capitol hill and others. a democrat say very early this morning, until we hear from mueller, call at the william barr report. park meadows saying, my democratic colleagues keep seething on this line. prosecutors do not exonerate

people they either find -- exonerate people. either find evidence or they don't. the former governor of new jersey, chris christie making a similar point. we are all presumed innocent under our constitution. prosecutors do not exonerate. that is not their job. they either prosecute or they do not. we are innocent under our laws. a tweet from former fbi director james comey. he tweeted simply, so many questions. that was just an hour and a half after the report came out. a response yesterday from senator lindsey graham on capitol hill. saying,ed, his response he hopes to ask jim comey one of the questions. sarah sanders, the white house spokeswoman was on the today show and was asked about whether the president would revoke

executive privilege and it comes to releasing more detail of the report. [video clip] >> is he willing to waive any executive privilege so this can be made public? >> i'm not going to get into executive privilege. that is a determination that the attorney general and white house counsel's office would have to make. they do want to protect the vigil americans. they also want to protect the office of the presidency. this is something that frankly should have never happened. host: that was sarah sanders on the today show. jackie in jacksonville, north carolina. an independent. caller: thank you. i have two things or three things. senate andts in the congress, they want to pursue this again. are they going to pay for the new investigation out of their pockets instead of the taxpayers pockets?

folks are on the cable, but you are not on the broadcast, the free airwaves. how come? host: good question. we just celebrated four years. we are on cable. however you get cable, whether it is at&t or other communications companies, it was started by the cable industry back in 1979. they did it as a public service to their customers. they continue to do it over 40 years on c-span. we have added c-span2 and c-span3. that is why it is something that you have to -- that is offered on your cable if you are a cable subscriber. five cents ever cable bill goes to c-span. we are not government funded.

we do not control the cameras in the house and the senate. our goal is to bring you coverage of those proceedings on the house floor on c-span1, the senate floor on c-span2, and we have added hearings and conversations that happen around washington. coverage of the white house, et cetera. all of that, you can find if you go to c-span.org. let's hear from richard in california. a democrat. caller: good morning. say, we have to see the entire report. obviously, william barr was biased. he already drew conclusions, which is not his job in terms of offenses by the president. that iscongress's -- that is withess's job in dealing obstruction. the only thing i can say about all of theon, maybe

contacts with the russians -- i do not know how many different people in his administration may not have reached the level of conspiracy and a smoking gun of a tape to that effect like with nexen, -- with nexen, but obvious -- with nixon, but there was one thing the influence of the russians in the election. putin wanted trump and hated hillary. on obstruction, it looks like the conclusion is it did not exonerate him from obstruction. the question is, did it reach the bar of indictment? there are questions about whether you can indict a sitting president a goes back to the congress. congress is important in this endeavor.

if you want to look at the russian connections with trump and his businesses, look up bill track. there are seven -- you cannot tell me that did not influence things. host: i will pick up on what you were talking about. solicitor general under president obama writes, themany problems with facts, then the government would have to prove that president trump acted with intent. how did william barr know? robert mueller did not interview the president. questions were answered from his lawyers. what kind of prosecutor would make a decision about someone's

intent without trying to talk to him? particularly in light of mr. mueller's statement that the report did not exonerate mr. trump. the reason may be that there is troubling evidence in the record he compiled. we do not know why mr. mueller did not try to force an interview with the president. he could have concluded that interviews are better done within the context of a congressional impeachment investigation. or, william barr could have a good -- could've -- could have concluded that the special counsel could not have done such an interview. write, sometimes, momentous government action leaves everyone uncertain about the next move. this is not one of those times. congress now has a clear path of action. it must first amend the release of the robert mueller report so americans can see evidence for themselves.

then it must call for william barr and mr. mueller to testify. ian inear from oceanside, new york. good morning. what you think about the robert mueller report about what we know from the ag's principal conclusions? caller: everyone is saying he rushed to judgment. rod rosenstein has been informed along the hallway. he was right there with him. there is no rush to judgment. rod rosenstein knows everything that was happening. let me explain something to you. committed, nots one person was charged with anything to do with russia. when there is nothing, you cannot obstruct somebody. why would trump try and block people from finding out he did nothing? just like exonerating. if you did nothing, there is no

crime. there is no need for exoneration because there was no crime in the first place. -- you havee hillary clinton. christopher steele. then it went of phony russian stories. then mccabe. written by, a letter rod sosa -- by rod rosenstein to fire him. how in the world is rod rosenstein go and get a hunting dog? you have all of the 13 democrats who went after him. if they could find anything, that is a -- that is good for president because these were people who work looking for something. they made this up to frame him. the 25th amendment, all of this is going to get looked at. noon as is putting -- nunez is putting criminal referrals and

passing them up. the jury is out on the other side where collusion did exist. where corruption did exist. look at what they did to this president. ,hank god he is strong of mind doing business in new york and building high-rises. dealing with people and politicians. everything you have to do prepared him for this moment. years all these last two of these takes going after him. he lets it rolloff and keeps doing all the great things for america. host: i'm going to leave it at that point. john mcardle. guest: the conclusion of the robert mueller investigation, the release of the letter, has caused reflection over the past 24 hours in the media about how the probe has been covered over the past 22 months. here's one story from the washington post. post mediaton critic, the conclusion of the report raises --

he writes, it was a thunderclap to mainstream news outlets in the cadre of mostly liberal leaning commentators who spent months emphasizing the collision thosethur: -- host: among he points to is matt with rolling stone magazine, a columnist there. he is the author of a new book coming out. how and why the press makes us hate one another. his column from over the weekend, he writes that every new russian every headline like the watergate break-in. nothing trump is accused of from now on will be believed by huge chunks of the population. a group that thinks this story is larger than his original base. another critic of the media and how they have reported on this

investigation, glenn greenwald. majoris a reckoning that parts of the u.s. media oh to the public for the historically played ing role misleading lands of people for over two years. tweetgreenwald went on to that they need to check on every msnbc personality. see even one iota of self reflection, humility, or admission of massive error. president weighing in on the end of the mueller investigation. sayingesident pence today is a great day for america. after two years of investigations and reckless accusations by many democrats and members of the media, the special counsel has confirmed

what president trump said all along. there is no collusion between the trump campaign manager russia. just some of the wrapup of the reflection going on in the last 24 hours. host: we will continue to get your reaction to the mueller report. 8:00 a.m. on the east coast. keep calling in with your phone calls. what do you think about what you know so far? the principal conclusions drafted by the attorney general william barr sent to members of congress and the media yesterday. ishelp us, paul rosen flag joining us this morning, the former senior counsel for the whitewater investigation. as a national security and sever security senior fellow. let's begin with the first part of these principal conclusions outlined by william barr.

what did you make of what mr. barr wrote in that letter yesterday when it comes to russian interference? paul: there are two parts to that question. the first part is that he was quite clear that the special counsel had found that russia did interfere in the 2016 election. both through social media efforts and through hacking of the dnc. that boxes off one issue and kind of negates a theme that the president has been talking about is that there is no evidence of russian interference. the president famously said that putin told me it didn't happen. know that is not true. conspiracy between the trump campaign manager the russian government, mueller was also clear.

and we also have to tentatively accept those conclusions, that there was no affirmative coordination or collusion between the campaign and the russian government. and fundamentally, that is good news. it is good news for america. the president wasn't conspiring with russia and it is very good news for president trump. when it comes to obstruction of justice, he writes that because of difficult issues of fact and law, the special counsel did not conclude that the president obstructed justice and left it to the attorney general to make that decision. the attorney general made that decision over the weekend. that is getting critics back up. general wouldney make that decision after 48 hours when the special counsel took 22 months. what do you think? paul: one of your collars made the point that it is a bit of an

unfair criticism. most of the activity that we have been talking about is already in the public domain. firing jim comey, harassing jeff .essions and the deputy attorney general pullingnstein has been for the premise of the investigation since day one. rosenstein was a hero for defending the mueller investigation. a can't automatically become traitor to the investigation because he reached a conclusion based on the evidence that mueller found. laying out the facts on both sides is probably the right way to go. both for theision attorney general and ultimately for congress and the american public when the full scope of this issue comes out. to get your

reaction to the president yesterday. he leaves florida after spending the weekend there. he is on his way back to washington, d.c. this is what he told reporters. after a longmp: .nvestigation after so many people have been so badly hurt. after not looking at the other side. a lot of bad things happened. a lot of horrible things happened. announced there was no collusion with russia, the most ridiculous thing i have ever heard. there was no collusion with russia. there was no obstruction. none whatsoever.

it was a complete and total exoneration. it is a shame our country had to go through this. to be honest, it is a shame that your president has had to go through this before i even got elected. it began and legally. and hopefully, someone will look at the other side. takedownan illegal that failed. and hopefully, somebody will be looking at the other side. it is complete exoneration. no collusion. no obstruction. well, i wish the president in a moderate his behavior way that conveys accurately what has happened. that accordingt to mr. barr, there was no

evidence of a conspiracy between his campaign and russia. is not right that the special counsel found no evidence of obstruction. contrary, the special norsel neither condemned exonerated the president because of the difficult legal and factual issues we have talked about. and for the president to return to the tired trope that this was an illegal investigation or that there was worse on the other is really unfortunate since there is almost no evidence of any of that at all. he should take his victory and move on. but i guess it is not in his nature. host: when the attorney general rights this about the making ation -- "after thorough investigation, the special counsel considered

whether to evaluate the conduct under governing and determined not to make a traditional prosecutorial judgment." what is he telling us? paul: that the president's case is unique, which is a fair summary. it is an assessment of whether or not the evidence gathered can beyond a reasonable doubt and if the resources are worth the investment of prosecutorial time and energy. there are cases where it is quite clear that someone has imported a small amount of drugs but the prosecutor will decline because the case is not big enough to waste his time on. judgment the types of a prosecutor makes.

he asks if this will deter other people from similar conduct. those are all encompassed in the principles of federal prosecution which are an internal department of justice manual. is thatis telling us rather than go through that calculus of assessing the provability of his case, the deterrence value, and the investment of resources, the --er factors of resources the special counsel chose to do something differently. to list at the evidence that obstruction or evidence that might have negated obstruction. and to not make a final determination as to whether or not charges should be brought. reaction tos your what you just laid out?

and the criticism that mr. mueller could not make that determination because he did not get to talk to the president. intentd not get to because he did not get to talk to him. neil patel writes an opinion piece that that is the problem with mr. barr's letter that there was no obstruction because neither one talked to the president. that is almost certainly theof the factors that led special counsel and mr. mueller to affirmatively decline to develop a final view on whether or not obstruction could or should be charged. also, however, one of the realities that makes investigating the president unique. sought testimony

, i am sure that that would have engendered a lengthy delay. with the resolution that i am not at all sure which way it would come out in the end. and so for mr. mueller's perspective, i think you made a judgment-- he made a as he couldr without starting fights like that. rather than investigating time and resources in an 18 month long fight. it may not have changed the result in the end. i hear neil patel's criticism. he is accurate. it didnfortunate that not happen. but i'm not sure what else mueller should have done, nor am i sure that anybody could've secured the president's testimony when he is unwilling to give it.

host: cause are waiting for you. charlie, a question or comment have been a i democrat since 1960. let's move on. let's get it over with. to have people call up and criticize mueller is terrible. host: what do you think? is over, -- it is over, move on? continue congress investigation or get access to this report? i think it is a value in greater transparency as to what is in the report with respect to the obstruction piece we have been talking about because the equity. seems to be in counsel,nk the special

if what he said is that all accurate, i think the special counsel with over two years and hundreds of subpoenas and thousands of interviews has done about a thorough his job -- as thorough a job as he could. -- a bit like a have going after the white whale. host: john, go ahead. caller: good morning. i just want to say that there had to be some sort of baseline support of the american people. of some of myy friends and facebook friends and i got a bunch of people that supported the mueller report. 25 out of 100 white people supported it. 30 out of 100 ages -- asians.

support amongd the american populace for this investigation. i still support it. host: any thoughts? mr. mueller's writ was very narrow. any possible connections between russian interference and the trump campaign. is done and we should probably draw a line under that. there are other aspects of the that are's behavior worthy of continued examination. both by congress in its oversight role and ongoing criminal investigations in the southern district of the

pre-presidential behavior which probably seems worth continuing given what you know on the record of that. not: given mr. mueller found collusion and that the ag has ruled no obstruction of justice, was this worth it? paul: absolutely. thing, it was useful in a systematic way by demonstrating america's adherence to the rule of law and our belief that everybody is subject to the law. and they can be investigated. a great procedural lesson to the american public and the rest of the world that we mean what we say when we say nobody is above the law. importantly,ually on the fundamental question of there werenot

problems with the 2016 election, and inquiry gave us -- think when it becomes more fully public, it will give us great confidence, to conclusions. that the president did not conspire. it which is good news. there is a that fundamental weakness in the way in which we conduct our elections that the russian government attempted to, and did, exploit to some degree. a we are going to maintain functioning democracy in which americans are masters of their own choices and not subject to outside influences that are surreptitious and covert, we will have to do some real hard work over the next 18 to 24 months and over the next two or three years to fix that. that is a good message that was worth learning as well. is a nationalols

security professor and writes a piece that says, still unsolved. mystery of trump and russia. likemr. barr writes terms knowingly, associates, and government -- excuse me, when mr. mueller writes that, he is doing work. does this past the test of campaign associates? knowingly working with the russian government. for a lawyer, perhaps not. stone was not associated with the campaign and julian assange is not part of the russian government. following the breadcrumbs, it is an easier call. when a lawyer can prove and when a counterintelligence analyst might believe with a high degree of certainty are not the same thing. your reaction to that? paul: tom is accurate in the

difference between a criminal investigation and a counterintelligence investigation. mr. mueller's criminal investigation needs ultimately to determine if the proof beyond a reasonable doubt that would satisfy an unbiased jury. he has concluded there is not. in the counterintelligence world where tom works and where i used to work, we work on supposition, circumstantial evidence, coincidences that we impute a nation to. all of which are perfectly -- too.e an explanation all of which are perfectly fine. that is what the cia and nsa do every day. they make conclusions with low, medium, and high degrees of confidence. but those are not provable in a court of law.

and they are not provable in a court of public opinion since the facts are often gathered through covert sources that can't be publicly disclosed. share times view -- tom's view that there is reason to be concerned that some men trump's were under the influence of or in communication with the russian government. and it may be that congress chooses to look further into that. and it may also be that a counterintelligence investigation of that sort ought to see too much letter day for reasons of national security in the first instance. happen if, ford those people that had been in contact with russian officials

-- maybe not russian government officials. what happens to those people? ofl: there is a number things. some like roger stone get indicted for their connections. others should be removed from positions of trust. they should lose their security clearances. particularly that it might bear on the continued service of jared kushner and ivanka kushner, a ivanka trump in the administration. counterintelligence conclusions could get processed through the system. that is a legitimate concern. but criminal law is reserved for crimes that can be proven. much good to hope that we can do more with criminal law than it is capable of achieving. it is a narrow set of facts and

questions. that is the way the system is built. host: let's go to rob, republican. caller: you are looking very nice this morning. i would like the liberal democrats to call in and explain swayed russia collusion them to vote for donald trump. i have never seen that proven. there was never a voting machine that was changed by russia. this is like the movie where the head wag the tail. vote swayedybody's by russia? it has never been proven. is peterbeen proven stroke, l.a. page, susan rice, and the ex-president, mr. obama.

guys have a reversed situation of us by -- of spying on a guy running for presidency. and there is an effort to take the guy down. that is my comment for this morning. well, i guess it is stuckunate that we are arguing about hillary's alleged connections to the russians which have as little providence as the president's have proven to. the investigation began when one to an advisers boasted australian ambassador that the campaign was getting dirt on hillary from the russians. we know that now.

it was a legitimate fact to inquire about. and we are quite glad to prove that the guy was probably just posting in his drunken cups and did not have much to show for what he was saying. that is where we should draw the line. as for proof that nobody was influenced, in some ways, the caller makes the point that social media can perpetuate meemes and ideas that don't have much grounding in fact. likelyn we do, it is that that influences how people perceive their voting options. he is quite right that there is no evidence of votes being changed. there were apparently significant efforts to hack into election systems, another area

that we should be working on. evidencealso ample laid out in painstaking detail in two of mr. mueller's , extensive social media campaigns to influence the and createblic dissension. government'sssian affirmative successful efforts to steal information from hillary clinton's campaign and from the dnc, working with wikileaks to release it to the public. conclusionst the about the president, you have to accept the conclusions about russia as well. host: tom, democrat. you are next. paul: a quick comment and a

question for your guest. i think this whole thing could have been avoided if you get rid of the electoral college and we went to be in this fix right now. -- we wouldn't be in this fix right now. starr's report came out, it was rolling off the press the next day. i don't understand why this report has to go through congress, the redacted, -- the , and be -- be redacted combed through. i think the public should have full disclosure. thank you for letting me speak. host: we will take those questions. asks why this is being done differently than the starr report. there are a couple levels of answers.

enstar's report to congress was direct -- ken starr's report to congress was direct to congress. the law at the time mandated that can star give his report to congress. starrt can star -- that give his report to congress. nowadays, the report goes to the attorney general, to congress, and to the public. we changed the law because we thought the way that the starr report rolled out was a mistake. in 1999, 2000, 2001, congress looked back at the event and decided in a bipartisan manner that what had reportd with the starr going willy-nilly on to the internet without anybody vetting it was an error.

they wanted to put filters in between. those filters are in place, working, and some are saying that i want to go back to the way the starr report came out. that is a fair point. we changed the law on purpose. is thath of the matter neither answer is 100% correct. there are good reasons for wanting filters and there are good reasons for not wanting filters. and where we are today is a reflection of where we were 20 years ago. go back to the other way after this, i think. host: not related to the release if you couldt, explain the difference between an independent counsel like ken starr and the special counsel robert mueller. paul: that is a great question. after watergate in which

president nick fired the special prosecutor, congress took the nixon firedident the special prosecutor, congress took the view that we needed someone acting independently of the attorney general and of the president. after watergate, it provided a ,echanism by which the courts at the request of the attorney general, would appoint independent counsel that would report to them. strictly speaking, they did not work in the executive branch, he worked in the judicial branch. we had that law from watergate to the clinton-lewinsky examination. looked att counsel's the iran-contra affair, and at the end of the 25 years, congress revisited

it. it was due to be reauthorized. they decided independent counsels were a bad idea. of them became like a had chasing the white whale. chasing the white whale. they kept going on and on. iran-contra took over three years. whitewater took four years. old way ofack to the allowing the attorney general to appoint a special counsel. but that guy works for the attorney general, not the court. and we may go back to independent counsels as the pendulum swings back and forth. but today, we are in a post eraewater, post-lewinsky where we don't have an independent reporting requirement. host: let's go today know, independent -- to daniel,

independent. caller: i want to ask about the letter excluding huge swathes of what we think of as russian collusion. there was talk of no collusion. it is all about the hacking. there is no mention of the real estate deals, no mention of the ukraine platform. there is no mention of the sanctions deal. there is a lot of what we talk about, that there is public reporting and court filings not .entioned in the bar letter should we read that as mueller didn't touch it? or that william barr is only giving part of the story? how should we understand that? paul: that is another great question. the honest answer is we should not read it anyway until we see what mr. mueller actually reported, or more of it. it is hard to say.

you listed, my speculation is that some of them were examined by mueller and some of them were not. for example, i think that the allegation that the republican platform was changed to be pro-russia and anti-ukraine as part of the campaign was probably deemed by mr. mueller to be inside the scope of his investigation because it related directly to the campaign and rush upon -- and russia's activities. we will probably find out that he looked at that. hand, the general connection between president trump and russian money that has been put out and some of the public media probably comes from a time that was well before the actual campaign itself. at least in the reporting i have seen.

my supposition is that was not in the mueller report and that mr. mueller has spun that investigation off to the southern district of new york that will continue to look at if illegal acts of mortgage fraud, tax fraud, and money laundering occurred in connection with russian sources being used to fund the president's new york business empire. a less clear and less direct connection from what we know now to the actual election campaign itself. it may have more connection to the policies at this point. you think about michael: testifying before congress that during the campaign, he and felix were working on trump tower in moscow

but the president saying otherwise? paul: i think that relates much postclearly to a pre and real estate deal that is probably the ongoing subject of investigation in the southern district of new york. what we think we know is that almost everything related to and the trump tower business negotiations has off of the mueller investigation. mueller didhings pretty well was keeping his focus. he wanted to be done quickly. in terms of white-collar criminal investigation is pretty much a land speed record. he kept it focused on interference.

related pieces like trump tower and deutsche bank money going back to fund the trump tower in there is anyf investigation continuing, it is done by someone other than mueller. trump associate and russian is testifying before the house intelligence committee this wednesday. so go to c-span.org for details. kathy from clearwater, florida. republican. caller: so here is what we know. the donald ran for president. the donald is not a typically highbrow or moral kind of guy. punches,ole with the play hard and fast and get the job done guy. he is on his third wife, god bless him. i am a fan of ivana. i think so.

what we know is the dems try to dig up -- host: kathy, are you there? i'm not sure what happened. i will go on to bradley from clear fork, west virginia. caller: good morning, c-span. i am kind of putting this to a poll. i have been a democrat for 50 plus years and i don't know how much longer i'm going to be one. the gentleman a while ago said these witchhunts should be paid by the democrats. $25 million they spent. trump wants $8 million for the wall. how many walls could you build with that? it is sad that the country has spent all this money for nothing. let's finish our

conversation with you by asking, what are you looking for next? what will you be watching for? paul: there are three things that will happen in the next six months to 12 months. first, we will have a discussion about how much of the substance of the report can be released publicly. about what its contains may change when and if we see more of that report. will see something pretty substantial from the department of justice within the next few weeks. and there will be fighting over if there should be more. that is number one. number two, we will see, for sure, continuing criminal investigations of president trump.

in the southern district of new york, the attorney general is conducting an investigation of the trump foundation. this is not the last that we about investigations of the president's conduct. third, this will be the start rather than the end of congressional oversight. it is probably less about russia and more about other aspects of his presidency ranging from immigration and as the caller just mentioned, the wall. monument to security clearances for his family, all of which are subjects -- from emoluments to security clearances for his family, all of which are subjects of investigation. they were waiting for the mueller report to end here you ater will come before the house

for the mueller report to end. will come before the house intelligence committee next. in 2020, the american public will get another do like and they will get to be president. that will be where the ultimate judgment is made. not any of these other forms. paul rosenzweig, thank you for the conversation this morning. paul: thank you for having me. host: we will continue by getting your reaction to what we know about the mueller report. that is the principal conclusions laid out by attorney general william barr yesterday in a letter to members of congress. we want to get your take on it. tracking the reaction, john,

what do we have? john: here are some of the headlines from papers and other countries starting in canada with the toronto sun. told you so. collusion.ds no theher canadian paper, national post, "mueller finds no collusion." mueller wentobert to church yesterday at st. john's episcopal church right near the white house. several organizations picking up the photo. the irish times this morning, there is robert mueller with the white house in the background. trump cleared of conspiring with russia. starting on the conservative side, breitbart with the headline from late yesterday,

"collusion dreams dies, resistance humiliated. hoax?"t will be the next , severale report different headlines. trump wins. no collusion with an asterisk saying that the findings are still secret. meltdown, media rocked, d.c. on edge. a tweet this morning saying that it is a drudge homepage for the ages. from the daily beast, trump world gloats about mueller. the fat lady has sung. begun.ht has only just and a headline from the huffington post.

-- just a little how it is playing out around the world. host: and the democratic leaders, nancy pelosi and chuck schumer put out a statement yesterday following up. it does nott exonerate the president on a charge as serious as obstruction of justice demonstrates how urgent it is that the documentation be made public without any further delay. bias,the public record of is to bar is not a neutral observer and not in a position to make objective determination about the report. the president saying he is directly -- he is exonerated directly contradicts mr. mueller's words. what do all of you think? martin? this is about the importance of president trump to

congress. as long as president trump is in avoid, congress can infrastructure, homelessness, health care, student debt, energy, environment, and crime. that congress is going to keep him in office. it is the people that are for and against him. if he is not there, they have to do something. that is my comment. host: tim, republican. what is your comment? people for american the last two years have been drug through this whole debacle. corner ofd at every everything. say it was auest

whirlwind investigation. really? i would like to see a long investigation. it was two years that we have been drug through this. it is time to move on. the american public will see this as exactly what president trump said. it is a witchhunt. the fact that the democrats are not giving up and will continue to look into this or that, no. let's get on and let the president do his job. he has been extremely successful even though they have been looking into him for the last two years. let's move on as a country. host: do you think the investigation should be made public? mader: as much that can be public i think should be made public. i think there are some instances where there are still investigations going on. not bell probably

allowed to investigate. democrats will say they are not showing their entire hand. william barr is an extremely reputable person. and for chuck schumer and some of the democrats to be saying what they are saying now, it is wrong. what they are saying about mr. mueller is wrong. they have been saying what a great guy he is. they are questioning some of the things he is doing. we need to heal and let the president be the president. the attorney general will be reporting to work at the justice department today. there is the building on your screen, located on ninth and constitution between the capital and the white house. we will be hearing from mr. barr in the coming days about whether or not or what he can release from this report. democrats and republicans

-- house and senate democrats and republicans have said they want to see the report. some say they want mr. barr or mr. mueller to testify as well. linda, an independent. good morning to you. i wanted them to keep it up because it makes my job easier. more democrats are changing to republicans. they don't think it's right. i used to be a democrat. but i changed and people have been going to the opposite. people are changing to republican. host: john, what do you have? john: over the last 24 hours, we have been digging into the

letter on the preliminary findings. one thing it does is offer a deeper picture into what the mueller investigation included. some of the numbers involved 19 different lawyers that were employed by robert mueller. of 40 fbi agents and staff issued more than 2800 subpoenas executed -- and than 230 orders for communications records. they made 13 requests of foreign governments. on thetnesses investigation side. robert mueller's team filed nearly 200 charges against 34 people and three russian companies. magazine on the actual charges. andof the guilty pleas charges in one spot. 26 are russian nationals. seven have submitted guilty

pleas. five have been sentenced. former trump campaign chairman paul manafort sentenced to 7.5 years in prison for financial crimes. also michael flynn pleaded guilty to lying to investigators. as well included in that list. those are some of the numbers we have been able to see as a result of this preliminary report that came out yesterday. jim is watching us in cairo, missouri. your reaction to the mueller report? caller: good morning. let's see. read an article earlier, trump doing things, let's say, in broad daylight. help. questions for

a firing comey. when i see one. the fact that mueller could not whatever, ist, or more a reflection on the reality of the ag. why is barr the ag? because sessions would not pledge loyalty and protection to trump. so trump fired him and replaced him with a man that would protect him. myself, i'm bringing an old report out. we are a nation of lawyers, not a nation of law. 12 jurorsther see look at that report and decide with common sense what is right and what is wrong.

not going to suspend my beliefs on morality, patriotism, or whatever just because you have one side saying that this is all great. thank you. president will be kicking off his campaign for 2020 in grand rapids, michigan. that is thursday at 7:30 p.m. eastern time. .e will have coverage on c-span it will be on c-span.org or you can listen with the free c-span radio app. the president flew in last night from florida after spending the weekend there to do some golfing. saturday, he took a picture with kid rock who was his golf partner. on sunday, he played golf with mick mulvaney, his chief of staff.

lindsey graham, the chair of the senate judiciary committee joined him. and former congressman trey was a golf partner on sunday. we will let you know what is happening in washington today. the american israel public affairs committee will hear from the vice president. they will hear from bill de blasio and nikki haley, the ambassador to the united nations. that again'sage of at 9:00 a.m. eastern time. -- begins at 9 a.m. eastern time. will hear from mike pompeo, senator chuck schumer, and kevin mccarthy, the minority leader in the house. that coverage is at 4:30 p.m. eastern on c-span3, c-span.org, or the c-span radio app. prime minister benjamin

netanyahu is in town to meet with the president but will not be speaking at aipac. he will be returning to israel. he was originally scheduled to speak but he will now meet with the president and return to his country. letting you know what is happening in washington this week. this is the headline in the wall street journal. courts to the sect district mapmaking. they are taking up -- to dissect district mapmaking. they are taking up gerrymandering. those cases will be heard before the supreme court. larry hogangovernor writes into today's washington post. politicians can't be trusted to draw electoral maps. searches for a solution to and gerrymandering, voters increasingly outraged by

the practice is doing something about it. voters in colorado and other states passed measures to put the redistricting into the hands of nonpartisan commissions. toy would be wise to listen and work with the people they represent to strengthen our democracy. we support reform efforts that would take a nonpartisan approach to redistricting. reform will come, and it must. unite the left and right to and gerrymandering once and for all. people should choose their officials, not the other way around. that will be before the supreme court this week. will beident's budget looked at this week with testimony from the secretary of state on wednesday for the house foreign affairs committee. he will also testify before the house appropriations committee.

notes thatton times the senate committee led by chairman mike enzi will be taking up the budget proposal this week as lawmakers hunt for ways to turn around a bleak u.s. the countryre as posts its worst deficit ever. government spending sort of power by increased payouts to the pentagon and social security and medicare. go to c-span.org where you could schedulean find our and coverage. back to the mueller report. david on the phone. good morning. onler: was trying to get was on.ul whatever please don't have him on without a counter argument sitting next to him.

we got so much one-sided lack of information or knowledge of what is going on from the standpoint of the actual beginnings of how the investigation began and why there is a desperate need to continue the follow-up. the idea that only a lawyer could say this was worth going through, 42% of democrats still believe trump was a russian stooge. a guy called in and said he doesn't care. after two years of saying mueller is the site of them all and we will believe it, you have heard what has been going on since then. $12 million paid for by the hillary clinton campaign to the dnc for that fake dossier that has never been proved. deposition, the they could not get a pfizer warrant.

even going after him on a pfizer warrant was insane. to the fbi and cooperated with them in 2015. the russians were trying to get him to spy. he was a cooperator. he was never indicted or faced charges during this whole thing. they needed him as an excuse so that they could start the surveillance. trump in dewar did human -- spies, wiretaps, and signal surveillance for years. 500 witnesses, a million pages of documents, and he is cleared on the beginning point of this whole thing which was, according to andy mccabe, the backup plan of what to do in case he got elected.

this was leaked in october before the election. i believe buzz feed had already printed it. they were talking about it in the last debate. the reason for john mccain coming up recently and the depositions, it was made known that they wanted to get a republican to introduce the uote-unquote the q fbi bloodstream because it would be more believable if it was presented by a republican rather than a democrat. but it had already been passed around all over the place. pieces of it and other parts were coming through. bruce orr, his wife. there is so much to come. host: given everything that you have laid out, do you believe that this mueller report and all

the documentation, all of the evidence, should be brought to light for the public? caller: absolutely not. they changed the law after the special counsel in bill clinton because they released everything. they investigate a bunch of stuff and get people to say things that are not necessarily true. they get people to testify to things and ruin families. information that has no bearing on anything. a million pages of stuff and 90% has no bearing on anything. it is just stuff. they are not supposed to release anything from a grand jury standpoint. they should not release anything that has anything to do with executive privilege and conversations. keep in mind what happened to drop after the election -- trump after the election.

conversations with world leaders were leaked two weeks before he took office. the obama administration changed the way information was distributed. so david, i want to leave it there because i want to pick up on what you said about the grand jury. writes, based he on my initial review, it is apparent the report contains material that is or could be subject to federal rule of criminal procedure which imposes restrictions on use and disclosure of information relating to matters occurring before a grand jury. that is what william barr writes . that is what could limit what the public gets to know. john: we have been tracking reaction throughout the morning. that we trackups

a lot is freshman members of congress. it is well over 100 members when you combine the house and senate. here is the reaction from with the democrat of he cank who tweeted stay, he can go, but removing trump will not remove the infrastructure of an entire party that embraced him, the dark money that funded him, the online radicalization that drummed his army, nor the racism he amplified and reanimated. of texas, you have been exposed is what he says. stop the charade, there was no collusion. you used your unique position on the intel committee to convince the american people that you had access to evidence of collusion. you lied and misled in order to pursue your political agenda.

congresswoman, a freshman senator, i am glad to see special counsel or -- special counsel mueller's investigation reach a conclusion. -- saying time for democrats and liberal media to face facts. get on with the people's business. mike levin is a democrat from california in the house. -- clear that in firing comey, he deliberately tried to stop the fbi from investigating a foreign attack on our democracy. this may not have violated the

law but it did violate his oath. another tweet from one of the most veteran members of the senate, lindsey graham just a few minutes ago, giving the press a heads up about a press conference coming up at 11:00 to discuss the mueller report, part of the blitz this morning by trump supporters. we saw kellyanne conway just a few minutes ago in the white house driveway and she was talking with reporters there. we will see what more comes out as the day goes on. host: the justice department on your screen, a lot of reaction happening in washington, d.c. lawmakers are making their way back to the capital and as you can see they are sharing their views on twitter this morning. we expect to hear from them on camera, on the house and senate floor as well. you can watch our house coverage on c-span and senate coverage on c-span two. we are watching -- we are getting your reaction here on the washington journal.

we have about an hour left in our conversation with all of you. david in texas, a republican. good morning. caller: a couple quick things if i could. washington, even before parties were formed when he just called them factions, you have the hamilton federalists which washington tended to favor and jefferson and madison. jefferson was the secretary of state. he and madison were working very hard against washington. they literally brought a guy into the state department just to write horrible articles that were lies about washington. host: your point? years, they were writing these articles. jefferson was doing them as well as medicine. host: your point? caller: the point is the idea

that -- that has been -- the idea has been put out there that trump has this new level of stuff going on inside his cabinet that has never happened before. what happened to washington in the first days of his administration having these guys in his cabinet working against him? the only reason they wanted washington around was they were so scared of hamilton they wanted washington to play off of hamilton. host: we will go on to don in michigan, independent. caller: i just want to set the record straight on the last guest you had. he issued a complete and total falsehood, a complete lie when he indicated that the trump campaigner should not have sent their people over to london to brag about the dirt they had on clinton. it was the other way around. he must've been referring to

papadopoulos, and you can look up the transcripts. fest.d it was not a drunk he was fed up. he was not the one bragging about dirt on clinton. the other guy was pumping him, that australian intelligence guy. they were pumping him for dirt and he was not buying into it. he said the whole time it felt suspicious and i felt he was trying to record. so the remark that paul guy made was complete fraud and when you have people on with such bias, you should have them counterbalanced as you did earlier with that poisonous new york op-ed which made no sense to put on and even dragging up the washington post. a guy to callers ago had it all on spot on. thank you and keep in mind you on as experts that

can issue fraudulent statements. host: that is the beauty of the show. you can call up and give us your opinion about what they have said and ask them questions as well. we do try to balance the viewpoints. take a look at the washington journal over time, not just today's show. that on all different topics. lily in ohio, democrat. question and ia have a comment. didn't theyis, why give -- have him give his tax where ahis income taxes lot of this could have been avoided and a lot of money could have been saved and it would have been a better benefit for

us because they would've known how to follow some things around and what was really going on. none of the, people, republicans, democrats, independents, there is no victory in this because there and one thing i am going to leave everybody with because i know it is going to come out later on. i am not looking to put anyone down like he does and some of the lies he has told, but there is a scripture in the bible that says everything in the dark will come to light and the people need to start praying because whenever something like this happens, god is looking down and seeing what is going on and who is telling the truth and who is not telling the truth. i don't want them to put everything up there because it

would destroy families, people would get killed and some people would commit suicide but what the independents, republicans and democrats need to do, they need to start praying and people need to start repenting because we are moving into revelations. host: the democrats do want to ask william barr questions about how he came to the conclusions that he came to this weekend, that there was not enough evidence to prosecute the president, indict the president on the question of obstruction of justice and he cites the the muellerrt and investigation having inefficient evidence to tie the president or anyone in his campaign to conspiring with russia. the chair of the house judiciary committee, a democrat from new york talked to reporters yesterday and he was asked about his confidence in the attorney

general. [video clip] -- and his job by writing a 19 page memorandum giving a very strange view of obstruction of justice and presidential power, basically saying no president could commit obstruction of justice. given the fact that the special counsel found ample evidence of and he said we are not exonerating the president after 22 months, for the attorney general reviewing that record in 22 hours is a bit much. i would wonder if the attorney general pressured the special counsel into not making that finding so he could make that finding. i am not aware of any case where the attorney general made the decision on prosecution for obstruction of justice. host: questions being raised by the house to dish year a

chairman, jerry nadler. your reaction to the mother report. beth in new york, republican. -- to the mueller report. beth in new york, republican. caller: a lot of things i would like to talk about but i don't have the time. of $30s cost us upwards million. i don't know if that is correct or not. i would like to know who is paying for this? where is the money coming from? we certainly have more important things going on in this country. there is so much devastation right now in the panhandle. they have still not recovered in the panhandle. people are still living in tents in nebraska. people have lost everything, their livelihoods. they have lost their whole herds. you know what this is going to do to the price of food if these

people are lucky enough to be able to start over. was inrastructure terrible shape before and a lot of towns and cities and states, look at it now, look at all the bridges and roads that have been washed away. this is a cost to the taxpayers. the taxpayers paid for the special counsel's investigation. they pay for the work that the committees do on capitol hill, so this is taxpayer money that is used for these types of investigations whether it is the special counsel or capitol hill. julius in atlanta, georgia. caller: i must have a misunderstanding about corruption and things like that because if donald trump was an honest man, he would not have

told 6000 lies. i don't understand the meaning when justice is obviously being neglected. the justice that i believe in is the constitution and the bill of rights, which donald trump has completely destroyed, and i want manay when they know this has done so many things howughout his life from many things. he has turned people against one another. i do not understand the mindset of why people believe in him when he does not even truly

believe in himself. host: the attorney general writes in his letter to members of congress, the special counsel's investigation did not find the trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with russia and its efforts to influence the election, so the words are important. did not find that the trump campaign or anyone associated with it conspired or coordinated with the government of russia. until we learn more, if we learn more, the attorney general also writes that the special counsel investigation determined there were two main russian efforts to influence the campaign. the first involved attempts by internet research agencies to conduct disinformation and social media operations in the aim ofstates with the interfering with the election. the second element involved

government efforts to conduct computer hacking operations decide -- designed to gather information to influence the election. fromis what we know so far the attorney general's letter to congress which you can read, all four pages for yourself, if you go to c-span.org. daniel in pennsylvania, democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. like to say i would shame on the democrats. they picked the wrong person in 2016 to run against him and they won't accept the fact. i am a democrat and i would not vote for her and i did not vote for her. she was not talking about what he was talking about, getting jobs, building the economy. everything she did was attacked trump. shame on the democrats.

me they spent two years investigating it and he collude and $25 million spent on nothing. host: let's follow up on that. you say $25 million spent on nothing. we have more on the cost of this investigation. guest: that $25 million figure is likely to go up. those are the numbers by late last year. we have not seen the number from the mueller team in terms of how much they will have spent but usa today with a piece looking at how much money the mueller investigation has brought in, in terms of fines and forfeitures and restitution's based on sentences. former trump campaign chairman paul manafort has agreed to give millione area of $26.7 in terms of his plea agreement.

that package was included in the agreement. ,hat includes the real estate 73 point -- $7.3 million estate he had in the hamptons. ofng with the total value $26.7 million from paul manafort , additional fines imposed on others who have pled guilty in this investigation. richard gates, a former trump campaign aide with $50,000 in fines and penalties he has agreed to pay the government. n, $1.9 million in terms of fines and forfeitures. of those fines imposed, about $28.6 million, that is more than the cost so far of the mueller investigation. host: brad in minnesota,

republican. caller: good morning. today butthat i am on most people are looking at this, saying the hoax is kind of over. hillary is like the godmother to this and the russian dossier that should never have even been done but the more important thing is that there was a poll taken that 42% of the american electorate thought that trump was colluding with russia. comes out and says there was no collusion so here is the question. believing% get to that trump was colluding? the answer is the media was manipulating them. john is on the set and i have talked to him about operation mockingbird and that is how the

media manipulated people. it was the cia that paid for it. i are back at square one and think that the democrats have shown their hand. they will do anything to win and then you've got the media running the democratic party and then you have a bunch of sheep out there that just follow along and it is a sad day. host: you are saying that the line fromtaken the democrats that there was collusion and went with that. guest: the media is -- caller: the media is the one that is actually pushing it. the media runs the democratic party. don't ever think that they don't. kellyanne conway, advisor to the president, at the white

house this morning in the driveway, talking to reporters. here is what she had to say about the report and the intelligence chairman, adam schiff. [video clip] -- is that your personal opinion? >> that was my personal opinion. many of others who are not represented here have allowed this person as ranking member and now chairman of the intelligence committee to let a lie fly for two years, going out not under oath and saying day , that there is a mountain of evidence of collusion against the president that may be bigger than watergate. people involved in watergate reclaiming it would be bigger than watergate based on nothing other than their inability to get on. chairmants to be the of the intelligence committee, he should get off tv and go and do his job but he has not been

doing that. he has been able to have unfettered access to all of you, some of whom let the lies fly for two years. what you have done to people's lives and the presidency, not you, don't feel sorry for yourselves, you made a great becausef donald trump he upset you with the 2016 election results. conwayhat was kellyanne in the driveway at the white house. principal collude -- conclusions outlined by attorney general william barr. our next caller, independent. caller: i am shocked. thank you for taking my call. the really worried about way this country is going. i was a democrat and i actually left my party.

i did not like the way it was .olling they are going along trying to make lives miserable. individuals to harass people in restaurants. i am in north carolina. was night right then and it is not right now. i am really worried about the way things are coming down. woman,onally as a black i am voting for trump again. because i know where he stands and he keeps his word. this man was given awards by jesse jackson and others for his help toward minorities and all of a sudden he is a racist? people in the united states are not stupid.

they know what is going on. he is going to be elected again because what is going on right socialism andg of my father and grandfather fought against that. socialisticave a society and have it work for everybody. take a look at venezuela. personally, i am looking forward to 2020 and i know where to cast my vote. host: independent in north carolina. mary is in fort washington, maryland. a democrat. caller: good morning and thank you for being on the air. the lady that just spoke, i disagree with her. socialism is social security, medicare, medicaid. that is a different story that i hope you bring up in the future. the media is going to do what they are going to do. they will play around with this headline. this is not over.

new york is going to take up the rest of the investigation. mueller is a republican. was handpicked by orange 45. i don't believe this. i do not believe this. the report needs to be put out where we can see it and we can make up our minds. oneel like i am being pat the head like a puppy. we have a long way to go to find the truth. he did collude with russia right in front of our eyes. every day. for black people who voted for trump, i do not know where you think he is going to help you. he is not. house intelligence committee on wednesday is going to be asking questions about the president's ties to russia when

they hear from a russia -- a russian former associate of the president's. -- that will be on c-span3. you can also listen on the radio and on the web. 9:30 a.m. eastern time for that testimony. danny in silver spring, maryland, a republican. caller: good morning. today is groundhog day in washington, d.c. because today i feel like the same i did two years ago when trump won the election. when he won the election, the democrats could not believe it. hillary was crying, the media was proven wrong and the deep state tried to get rid of trump but they could not do it. the same thing today. now the democrats are standing there with egg on their face, their pants around their ankles, the spotlight is on them and not

only democrats. the media and the deep state and everybody. kellyanne conway, one of the president's advisors in the driveway also had these thoughts on the question of obstruction and the former fbi director. [video clip] >> the attorney general said mueller kind of punted on the issue of obstruction of justice. do you guys where she had weighed in fully on that -- wish he had weighed in fully on that? notes, nothe closed obstructive conduct. clearly the have concluded no obstructive conduct. i will take that versus the collusion collusion, watergate watergate for two years. obstructionto find means that no obstruction was written into the report for a reason. let's not forget where that came

from. that came from leaks and accusations that started with jim comey, leading to lots of folks saying he specifically leaked information hoping it would draw an investigation. aggrandizing himself. maybe we will hear from him again. john: following up on that conversation by kellyanne conway in the white house driveway, she was referring to this tweet by james comey from yesterday as the mueller investigation concluded and as the attorney general was submitting his letter to congress. james comey writing, just so many questions. i believe those were the redwoods she was referring to. he got a response from lindsey graham, saying that he could not

agree more, see you soon is what lindsey graham tweeted to james comey. speaking of james comey, his remarks to congress confirming the fbi investigation into the trump administration took place two years and five days ago on capitol hill. c-span's communications director on twitter dug this out of the c-span archives. show you that clip in just a second. we are keeping track of the reaction on capitol hill and we will continue to do so. back to our viewers to see jim comey two years ago. sam in tennessee, independent. off, this is just a summary of the report. the other thing i have to say is

, it did not take barr 22 hours to come up with his summary. rod rosenstein when you look at the last 22 months, barr has been looking at what rod rosenstein had. they already had most of the -- most of it done. [indiscernible] oath saidons under comey was fired because of comey's testimony when he justified his handling of hillary and that he would do it again. the reason why trump did not comingmey in was because decided what he wanted to do with the russian deal. that was not his job. his job was an investigator and he failed.

john: this is james comey from 2017. [video clip] >> this is one of those circumstances. i have been authorized by the department of justice to confirm that the fbi as part of our counterintelligence mission is investigating the russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election and that includes investigating the nature of any links between individuals associated with the trump campaign and the russian wasrnment and whether there any coordination between the campaign and russia's efforts. as with any counterintelligence investigation, this is one of those circumstances. i have been authorized by the department of justice to confirm that the fbi as part of our counterintelligence mission is investigating the russian government's efforts to interfere in the 2016 presidential election and that

includes -- host: the former fbi director two years ago. if you want to try to find and look at the events that have happened over the two years to get us where we are today, we have our coverage in the video library on our website. go to c-span.org. let's hear from michelle in michigan, republican. caller: good morning. i think it is a wonderful thing that they are done with this witchhunt. it is too bad that the government can't go on and start doing their business instead of trying to find anything they can to hang on donald trump. i don't understand a lot of these democrats. forhad a lady calling in how we should pray for her and

this and that but does she realize that her party approves of dismembering children to do an abortion? does she have a problem with that? other people that call in cannot think of what donald trump has done wrong. donald trump has done everything he promised he would do other than get the wall built and that is just because everybody is fighting him on it. also they approved it with barack obama. this attitude of congress against donald trump has got to stop. host: michelle in michigan, a republican and you are looking at a live shot of the justice department building in washington, d.c., the headquarters for the justice department, completed in 1935 and renamed after the 16th attorney general of the united in 2001.

the attorney general's principal conclusions, a four-page letter that he sent to members of congress yesterday. it was to the chair of the senate judiciary committee, lindsey graham, the ranking member, diane feinstein, the house chairman of the judiciary committee, jerry nadler and the ranking member, doug collins. this letter, outlining the conclusions, the findings, a summary of the mueller report. democrats and republicans calling for a full disclosure of the report as well as all of the overentation and evidence the last 22 months. richard in tennessee, independent. good morning. caller: i have been watching this since trump came down and i never did care for trump.

i thought he was arrogant and a lot of things but the truth of the matter is, he has done more for this nation. he is an independent. he has played them all for a fool. remember lindsey graham? he wanted to borrow money from trump. hillary and bill wanted to borrow money from trump. everybody liked him until he ran for president and realize he is not a democrat or a republican. i have been watching c-span and all the news media. it is not take an educated person to realize what is going on. the one thing i am concerned aboutis, i am concerned the black community in this country. everyone the calls and except for a handful is against trump. they are being fooled again. i want the black community to succeed in this country more so

than any foreigner that comes into this country. they helped us build this country. when i hear them call in and put trump down. -- daughter and her husband the first person that got out of prison was a tennessee man who was black. jackson, all of them up there that have gotten rich from the democrats have sat there and they backed trump but now they knew trump -- host: let's go on to tina in alabama -- richard in connecticut, a democrat. caller: hello. host: go ahead with your thoughts. caller: until we get the full report and until we get it before congress, the one thing i would like to know is, did mueller ever get trump's tax

returns from 2012 to 2015? host: you want to know if mueller got the tax returns? if he looked at the president's tax returns? caller: yes. returns,get to his tax collusion, obstruction of -- they just'd is did not find enough to charge or indict him with but the evidence was there. is trump's front man. we cannot trust what he says. i want to know what mueller has to say about the collusion and obstruction of justice and the tax returns. host: richard in connecticut, democrat. john: we have been monitoring the president's twitter page to

keep you updated. he has mostly been re-tweeting some of the comments from yesterday, including this one, no collusion, no obstruction, complete and total exoneration. those supporting president trump and his family members also commenting quite a bit. here is donald trump, jr. from this morning on twitter. while this was a great vindication for the president, it was an equally amazing day for all of his incredible supporters who stood for -- who stood by him faithfully. more from the c-span archives. this was 24 days ago, donald trump, jr. at cpac asked about the mueller investigation. here is what he had to say. [video clip] >> we will have the freedom to declassify documents that expose what the other side did to

exonerate hillary and unfairly go after your father. at least i hope that is what happens. >> as do i. put it all out there. how about don't redact anything? ,f i am a subject of this thing they would do anything and it is because they needed it to be true. it was not about facts. they needed to explain, not our policies, our candidate is terrible. they needed to explain donald trump because it was not lost on me that the great irony of 2016 was it took a brash billionaire from new york city to be able to reach working class america, to speak to them, not at them, not lecture them but to have a conversation with them and they got it and they realized this was a guy that was going to fight for them. host: that was don jr. at cpac.

if you want to watch everything he had to say, go to our website, c-span.org. let's go to tina in alabama, publican. caller: good more -- republican. caller: good morning. browder has a wonderful , aerview done on c-span speech he made it has to do with the russian meetings. the fisa court is unconstitutional. it came about from the patriot act back in 2001 and that involved the department of homeland security. if we did not have the patriot act we would not be in this mess the president --

that needs to be highly considered. host: monica is an independent in south carolina. one of the callers before said this is not over and she is right. 220 $5 million of our taxpayer money has been wasted and more to come. host: hold up. $25 million. caller: i'm sorry, excuse me. money couldt that be done with in our community. washington takei democratic powerhouse like -- washington's democratic powerhouse. talking about bullying, racism, they are the ones promoting that. they are the ones causing

trouble for this nation. one more thing. when people refer to president trump as 45, they call him the orange teedo, it is a disgrace -- orange cheeto, it is a disgrace. we have men and women protecting , andountry that we live in to call our president that is a isgrace and democrats, this what is happening right now because of all the sludge they are doing. i hope our country can recover from this. thank you. host: philip in minnesota, democrat. what do you think about the mueller report? caller: good morning. i am glad it is done.

concluded there was not enough evidence to prove collusion. they will be plenty of other investigations going on in the ninth circuit court to maybe shed more light on this presidency. , wasn't it true that the republican candidates started the russian dossier and the democratic party took it over? it was started by a republican, you are correct, by -- thecation that wanted president looked into at the time and the democrats bought that information, if you will. your point philip? it took four years for watergate.

these things take time and i think this president in my opinion is not fit to be president and i wish people would look at his background. this president is here to serve himself. i don't see that changing. host: the new york times has a piece they wrote in 2017. about the dossier, what we know about it. fusion gps wasrm hired by the washington beacon, a conservative website to unearth potentially damaging information about president trump. senator marco rubio told fusion gps to stop doing research on as mr. trump2016 was clinching the republican nomination.

host: does it it depends on your politics. -- does it matter who paid for it? it depends on your politics. virginia, republican. caller: i see where you just showed an article about the investigation in may of 2016. article withad an president obama committing to an investigation in december of 2019, shortly after the election

if there was an investigation going on, why would he come back into -- in december 2016 on russia investigation -- russian turned over to be to him before he left office before the inauguration? it does not add up. host: john? john: more callers with criticism of the media coverage of the mueller investigation. that conversation taking place within the media itself. here is one of the stories about that from washington post. piece,e on his conclusion of the mueller probe raises a new, criticisms of the coverage. barr's announcement was a thunderclap to mainstream news owsley -- news outlets in the country of mostly left-leaning

cash one of those who commented yesterday about the washington post article is glenn greenwald, a journalist who has been critical of the coverage round. he referenced that article saying it is about the reckoning that is parts of the u.s. media oh to the public for the historically humiliating role the eagerly played in misleading millions for two plus years. saying check every msnbc personality and liberal centrist outlet and if you see even an iota of self reflection, humility or admission of their massive ever. stoneo quotes a rolling element two is working on a but -- working on a book -- rolling stone columnist who is working on a book. every pungent and democratic

poll in washington hyped the russia headline. nothing trump is accused of by the press from here on will be believed by huge chunks of the population. hill,re story from the mike pence talking about the media's role and how they reported on the mueller probe, saying today is a great day for america, president trump and our entire administration. investigations of and reckless accusations, the special counsel has confirmed what president trump has said all along. 10:00we are approaching on the east coast on the washington journal with a live look at the justice department where william barr the attorney general reports to work in washington, d.c. and lawmakers also making their way back to the nation's capital for a week of legislative work.

we are getting their reaction on twitter and we are sure to hear them before cameras either on the house floor which you can watch on c-span1 or the ccn -- for the senate floor on c-span -- -- four the senate floor c-spansenate floor on 2. caller: a couple points. it is a great day for america. i would think the people would be happy we can get on with the business of government. i wanted to point out a couple things. investigationthis talked about influencing the election when the last administration not only unmasked american citizens identities and monitor them illegally --

withored them illegally , wegally obtained evidence have literally had every social media outlet and 90% of the media coverage in this country news --and fording real to back up hating this president and the fact that he won. gone between the big tech companies. the democrat party has sunk so low that they would allow this theo on, assuming that american public would go along with it. it is a frightening day in america when privacy and the rights of the individual are put aside because somebody hates the president. because of barack obama and his thing that they did but it is

because donald trump was so bad. it does not matter that they broke the law. barack obama will say he did not know. loretta lynch, the entire group worked together and the american public has been buying this about russia. it is so frightening and i tell my children it is the longest running temper tantrum in american history. i did not care for donald trump. i think he is arrogant but i think he loves america and it is frightening to me. nadler, the first words out of his mouth is something derogatory. they are not for america. they are for their party. host: on twitter, some reaction. two years with no indictments on russian collusion and no evidence. all we heard from dems was wait for the mueller report.

what exactly is that? russell says investigations don't set out to exonerate people, they set out to prove guilt. buckle up folks. bob in north carolina, democrat. caller: good morning. voted for a republican in my entire life and i agree with everything margaret said and what this is really about, when the russians stepped hillary and the barack obama and administration from overthrowing syria. that is what it is really about. host: explain that? caller: what do you mean? hillary put those weapons in

their and armed them to overthrow yet another middle eastern country. russia stepped in because they have a naval base there and they stopped it and that is when all of this started. the media will not talk about it. hermann in louisiana, republican. caller: good morning. with.lad this is over [indiscernible] all unhappy with what they did. they should go back and check , the reason they hate is he did things they had

in mind to do and would not do it. instead of spending all of our tax money overseas on all of this nonsense, [indiscernible] host: barbara in oklahoma city, independent -- oklahoma city, independent. caller: i can't believe everybody is calling in and just forgets about how many lies this man has told. he keeps putting down the democrats over and over, for us to hate them. every day. at the border he is telling us they are coming to get us. how do they come here illegally?

they come to the border. host: tie this to the mueller report. report has mueller not been known yet. he knows he was going to pardon anybody that came up and got people when the new york can do this without it being charged. we spent $30 million on him every weekend to go to mar-a-lago. they said something about him letting this girl go. prison but00 out of he did not make a show of himself. host: john? noted, a lot of the discussion taking place in the

coming days and weeks and months perhaps is how much of the full mueller report gets released. from the on that front president's attorney on cnn earlier this morning. here is the story. he said that he does not want written answers that the president submitted to the special counsel to be released, describing them as confidential. as a lawyer, you don't wave privileges and investigative details. you would have to weigh a lot of factors. he said that such a move would be quote, very inappropriate and added it will be a decision that the attorney general makes. want to follow-up up on the caller who talked about the cost of this investigation versus the cost of the president traveling to mar-a-lago. npr had a story february that found from a report that the

's earlier trips cost taxpayers $3.6 million each. that is far higher then trump's estimates which were about $1 million per trip. what do you think about the summary put out by the attorney general? he shouldbelieve release the full report, not just what he wrote. i need to see the whole report. i am curious why president trump did not get to sit down with bob mueller. i am curious why that happened. is that i think he he could more or less stop this investigation and

he fire jeff sessions, he fired james comey for investigating russia. i don't have any questions. i did not find out anything. i don't understand. host: the questions you raised are questions that have been raised by the likes of jerry nadler, chair of the house committee, how could attorney general barr could come to the conclusion over the weekend that there was no obstruction of justice when mueller nor mr. barr got to sit down with the president and go over intent. those are some of the questions laid out in the paper. celia in massachusetts, republican. caller: i just have to say a

couple things. shame on the democrats and the freshman democrats. they are against our president and they will keep putting him down. this never ends. shame on them. that is my comment. thank you. host: we have a few minutes left. claude in illinois, independent. caller: hello. host: go ahead. becausei was calling what is going on is very similar to the trial of christ. a bloodys brought to and torturous and of his life -- end of his life by pontius pilate. pilate did not find any fault with christ. he did not want to convict him himself. he gave it over to the people

and then he washed his hands of it. this is exactly what robert mueller did in his report. he washed his hands of the whole incident and he gave it over to barr to make the decision on the exoneration, exactly the same thing they put christ to death for. host: chuck in colorado, democrat. caller: thank you for taking my call. it seems that the divider in chief has won according to the outrage industrial complex, fox news and their cohorts. that the divider in chief did not get rid of it when he fired comey and then

jefferson -- jefferson beauregard sessions had to recuse himself and he could not understand that so he got another grifter like himself who auditioned for the job on cnn, jeff whitaker and then he had to get rid of him and lowered the bar by dragging in william barr, a retread from george h w bush's and administration. bush'sge h w administration. the iran contra scandal was ended because barr advised bush did not just pardon weinberg but the whole cabal. host: to your point? out of they pulled barr the closet to -- end the iran andra special investigation

that is how this all started. it started with the paris peace accords when nixon undermined lbj and got elected and escalated that war after told the vietnamese he was going to end that war. he lied to them. what started? what are you getting at? the republican party as it stands. itt: i am going to leave there go to john in maryland, republican. caller: something in the collusion worth noting is their same thing shouldn't have thereed, one said that were many offers from russians to help the campaign. later candidate says russia, if you are listening, see if you can find hillary's.

he loved wikileaks. this is an awful lot of that and it certainly is relevant. it should not be an appeasement -- impeachment. nothing couldey, be clear that he's tried to obstruct the investigation. not so much with collusion but to stop it all for his benefit. it seems to me that is the thing that is important. it should be investigated carefully. host: there is an investigation into roger stone and he has been indicted and his court proceedings began in november here in washington, d.c. this is on the indictment that he liked officials about his contact with wikileaks. catherine in new haven, connecticut, independent. i have been listening to

a lot of comments and it is stifling how people -- i don't know if they can't put it in perspective or have an opinion that for the most part if you are a republican you are going to side with the president and if you are a democrat are not going to change mine. there was a coup d'etat to andve a sitting president christopher steele and brenner, the whole lot of them, including comey, the truth is eventually going to come out that there was a conspiracy to remove a sitting president. frankly't matter, quite -- i did not support this resident but i will support him in 2020. it is despicable what the media has done to this man. they have not prosecuted him, they have persecuted him

continually from the day that he took the seat in the white house. host: we have to go. that is it for today's "washington journal." the bipartisan policy center hosts a discussion examining the impacts of immigration policy at the state and local levels. it is an title a call for clarity and the perspective of state and local issues and live coverage here on c-span.

>> and good morning, everyone. they give for joining us this morning. i service the associative legislative director. the immigration reform task force. thank you for joining us.