eastern for legislative work. on c-span2 the senate takes a procedural vote on a resolution on the green new deal. legislation recommending ways to tackle climate change and economic and policy. former attorney general eric holder and former california governor arnold schwarzenegger talk about their efforts to stop gerrymandering. on c-span3 the aipac conference continues with remarks from house speaker nancy pelosi and senate majority leader mitch mcconnell. at 10:00 the house armed services committee looks at the defense budget with acting secretary patrick shanahan and general joseph dunford. coming up in 30 minutes, kentucky covers been james comer on the release of mueller report and future congressional investigations into president trump's business and political affairs. at 8:00, washington

representative susan delfin a on data privacy legislation and the news of the day. jason aldean meyer and tom davis discuss ways to improve the way washington works. host: good morning. it's tuesday march 20 sixth 2019. the house returns at 10:00 a.m. today and is set to take a key vote on overriding the president's first veto over his declaration of national emergency on the mexican border. the senate has teed up a hill pro -- high procedural vote on the green new deal. in the wake of the release of the initial summary of the mueller report. now that we have seen william barr's outline of the conclusions from that investigation we want to know what you think should happen now. give us a call. democrats can call in at 202-748-8000.

republicans 202-748-8001. independents 202-748-8002. you can also catch up with us on social media. good tuesday morning. we found out yesterday in washington and that the potential next steps that some around the city are proposing in the wake of those initial findings. proposingrats are that william barr release the the second.by april some are calling for renewed scrutiny of the justice to the reports about the steele dossier. then there's this story from the washington post this morning. president trump and his allies

have signaled they intend to use the broad conclusions of the report to forcefully attack opponents they perceive as attacking the opponent's -- attacking the president unfairly. >> its 100% the way it should have been. i wish it could have gone a lot quicker. there are a lot of people out there that have done some very bad things. i would say treasonous things against their country. hopefully people that have done such harm to our country. we have gone through a period of really bad things happening. those people will certainly be looked at. i have been looking at them for a long time and i'm saying i haven't they been looked at. they lied to congress many of them. you know who they are. they have done so many evil things. i will tell you i love this country.

i love this country is much as i can live anything. my family, my country, my god. a fullt they did, it was narrative. it was a terrible thing. we can never let this happen to another president again. i can tell you that. i say it very strongly. very few people i know could have handled it. we can never ever let this happen to another president again. host: that was the president yesterday in the oval office what do you think should happen now? atocrats can call in 202-748-8000. republicans 202-748-8001. independence 202-748-8002. bill is up next. go ahead. isn't there anything legally the ag can do to adam schiff and the rest of these people that looked into the

camera and lied? schiff, the subject of some of those concerns by the white house yesterday. this is continuing from that story we showed you earlier. kellyanne conway called on the house intelligence committee chairman adam schiff to resign immediately and house minority leader kevin mccarthy urged him to relinquish his committee chairmanship. that story goes on to talk about a letter that the trump campaign for 2020 sent to television producers expressing their concerns about some of those who have talked about the mueller probe and what they say expressed opinion that they think went well beyond the scope of what we eventually found out according to those results that were released over the weekend. the trump campaign communications director penned a memo to television host and producer's warning of the credibility of certain guests.

the memo took aim at a number of democratic lawmakers including richard blumenthal, jerrold nadler, adam schiff and eric swalwell as well as the democratic committee chairman tom perez and john brennan. eric swalwell responding on twitter yesterday to those concerns. he said the only person who has been caught lying about russia is donald trump. statementss i made he can sue me and i will beat him in court. what should happen now that we have seen the initial findings from the mueller report? roger is next in virginia. democrat to go ahead. caller: good morning. innocent whymp is did he put a new attorney general in place in time to scrap this report? people in trump's campaign were

all found guilty. his donald trump so stupid that -- they did nothing with the russians and he knew nothing about it you go -- about it? host: what is your opinion of bob mueller now that we have come to the end of his investigation? caller: i don't know bob mueller. i don't know who he is appointed by. i find it awful strange that he never draws a conclusion one way or the other. did trump do this or not? by rode was appointed rosenstein some 22 months ago. did you have thoughts about him as you learned about him during the investigation? caller: i tried to keep up on it

as much as possible. i kept hearing everybody say what a great guy he was. donald trump kept hollering about what an evil guy he was how he's destroying the country. out hisn it comes attorney general that he appointed to squash this thing. intelligence agencies say that donald trump's people data from prudence people. if that's not collusion what is it? host: this is dawn in miami, florida. independent. go ahead. barr,: i believe william the collusion is not with donald trump.

with hillary.n att's where the collusion is . we already know that. look what happened with the uranium one deal. the collusion that's going on with immigration. why isn't it -- who is responsible for these shanks very cities. there's no such thing as a sanctuary city. the democratic party are allowing sanctuary cities when you know that's aiding and colluding the sedation of our country. there's no such thing as a sanctuary's to do for anybody. people steal food as they can't pay their bills. is there a sanctuary for people who don't have money -- come on. your point.

this is the editorial board of the washington times today calling for a new actual investigation. department is examining whether obama officials who favored hillary clinton's presidential campaign supplied the foreign intelligence surveillance act with a dossier containing russian intelligence to obtain warrants to spy on the trump campaign. clintonasked if hillary played fast and loose with national security information. their concern about the russia witchhunt. next in germantown, maryland. democrat. go ahead. critics thanks for taking my call. was watching fox news last night and heard some of the most vile angry comments against the

so-called liberal media. they should know better. in report should be released full. the way i see it trump is surrounding himself with enablers. he has fox news on his side to the republican congress are scared to death of him because afraid the base and is they will lose their seats next if they dare speak out. think that everybody who supports this man who has done so much damage to our country will just stand back and do nothing. lindsey graham for example. he was the one who told john mccain to turn over the dossier to the fbi yet he remained quiet

about it very recently while trump went on to bash him to he is so terrified of losing. they are enablers. host: do you think talking heads in the media went too far in speculating about what the mueller probe would and wouldn't find? caller: no i don't. they were doing their jobs. washington post company are times, wall street journal. they were doing their jobs. they have to stay on top of it because the president continually lies all the time of aost: here's a replica jennifer harper in today's washington times on some of the comments about the media coverage of the mueller investigation. brit hume on fox news calling it the worst journalistic debacle of my lifetime. : collusion by the news media, not donald trump and rush limbaugh saying on his

program they have destroyed the business they work in. commentrrow, his journalism dies in self-importance. the last color also mentioning the statements yesterday by senator graham and his connection to the steele dossier when it was brought up to him by the late senator john mccain. here's the coverage of that to mr. graham reveals his own role in the dossier. he said he told his friend to give it to the fbi. says mr. mccain isn't the one who leaked the dossier. people in the mccain world did some things that were inappropriate but it was not john mccain. roger is up next in hawaii. independent. go ahead. i wanted to bring up the point about they should keep

mueller on and keep digging to from trumpsxes out lock and key. he stated that he didn't take any taxes before an interview and then someone asked him how did you do that and he goes, i'm very smart. but then part of his platform when he was running was to cut taxes and cut these loopholes. -- he'ss to cut his own making all kinds of deals. i think he's using the presidency to better himself and his wealth and his family. and i think it should be looked into very much and they have the right man to do it. robert mueller. thank you.

host: jim is next in fort lauderdale, florida. go ahead. have the word you should happen. what should happen is any logical person who isn't wouldtely feckless realize this whole investigation shouldn bogus and they drop all of this investigation and focus on moving this country forward. our education system is a are. if only the democrats would help , donald trump could significantly lower the cost of medicine. our infrastructure is falling apart and the democrats say they can do two things at one time. unfortunately they can't even do one thing at one time. let's everybody understand what's going to happen. the democrats are going to investigate obstruction of a crime that didn't happen and

wasn't even a crime to begin with. let's be clear. let me repeat that. the democrats are going to focus on investigating obstruction of crime that is proven never happened. and was completely within the power of the president to do if it was a crime. so i am ashamed of the democrat party and i am ashamed of the press. host: linda is next in detroit, michigan. encrypt to go ahead. >> i think the president doesn't want the story to come out. comey came to him the day after he was elected to tell him that russia was letting him know about him being in the hotel room with the prostitute.

at that time they blackmailed him and we no longer became america. becausee russia america they had a reason to blackmail him. host: what evidence do you point to for that and do you take anything from the summary that we've seen that robert mueller's 22 of the found that there was no collusion with russia? >> if you notice there was a lawyer for russia and there was a heavy man i think his name was gholston. he supported what they did to trump that night. and you don't see the lawyer anymore to host: do you want another investigation? caller: now. -- no.

i want the mammoths want mueller to give the whole report. host: do you think that's in the report? becauseit has to be this guy has been on rt tv and he says that he told mother that happened in the hotel room that night and he also told him that called and told him to take into the hotel because trump was supposed to meet him that night. host: if that's in the mueller why do you think that would be included in the summary that was released on sunday? caller: why do you think he's reading it before he lets little pieces out? host: a busy day in washington.

a voteoing on including on the potential overriding of the president's veto when it comes to his declaration of the border emergency on the u.s. mexico border. the senate is expected to take a procedural vote on the green new deal. the callse covering by congress on the release of the full mueller report. this happened late yesterday. trump administration now seeks a full repeal of the affordable care act and a significant shift. the justice department now says it backs a full repeal of the aca. it divulges position in a filing with the court of appeals. an appeal is pending. previously the trump administration had not gone this far in their arguments and cases about the affordable care act.

the administration says the entirety of the aca should now be invalidated. pelosipeaker nancy tweeted yesterday pledging to fight relentlessly to preserve -- dependable health care. back to calls on what should happen after the release of the summary of findings in the mueller report. in new york. independent. go ahead. caller: i would like to commend robert mueller for a fantastic job. you cannot convince some people who are already believing in conspiracy about russia. has 22 month investigation proven beyond any shadow of a doubt there was not any collusion period. so the democratic leadership has

to wake up and try to work with the president for the next two years with them. we need to help americans. american people will never believe anymore investigation after that. this could be a plus for donald trump. falters --economy democratic party now. the ball is in their court to -- court. host: you started your comments by commending robert mueller. what were your feelings about robert mueller during the course investigation? caller: i never doubted his decency. his connection with the former fbi brought me some doubt.

the president saved himself. robert mueller it could have been a disaster for him. president by allowing his process to go to the end they should be commended because they were saying we will never allow this. overall it is a win for the american system and a sad day for journalism because i was really confident -- how the issue was handled. ismp is done, impeachment coming. it's a disaster for our journalism but it's a learning process. you cannot overthrow president by any other means.

host: journalists continue to dig into the mueller investigation to find out what in terms of the larger investigation and not just the four-page summary report. robert mueller not reaching a conclusion on the obstruction of justice question leaving that conclusion up to the attorney general william barr. here's a wall street journal story on the background. the special counsel told the justice department three weeks before they submitted their report that he wouldn't reach a conclusion on whether president trump obstructed justice. mr. miller's announcement during a march 5 briefing at the department headquarters surprised the deputy attorney and it left mr. barr to answer that critical question in the investigation about obstruction of justice.

that story in today's wall street journal. ron is in detroit, michigan. i'm very interested in hearing you guys this morning tried to explain why the decision from mueller is not binding. we know that trumps son met with somebody in the trump tower talking about that information on hillary. we also know that the information that was given relative to the dossier was even upa time when trump just lou . i wouldn't be surprised that he went in blue up to i think mueller is very smart, very wise.

when they were appointed this man who is now the attorney there is no question that whatever he did it wasn't going to go through but we will see. i think the problem we are going tell onis trump will himself and it's not over. go --when is it over yet over? be over when all americans get the opportunity to get the real report and they find the truth. the truth is there. we have had the truth come out. i watched the russians celebrate election.won the they were just celebrating. the video was on youtube. election. all i'm saying is mr. trump, i really feel sorry you because he's getting older and there's

no way that he's going to be this one now. a half dozen democratic committee chairs have called for the release of the full mueller report by april 2. yesterday jamie raskin democrat from maryland to about the full release of the report. here's what he had to say. >> we don't have the narrative recitation of the events. we don't have mueller's interpretation of either questions of conspiracy or or his direct interpretation of obstruction and we know he thought there was substantial evidence of obstruction by the president. get is this kind of carefully worded sanitized version by attorney general barr who after all doesn't believe the president can ever be guilty of obstruction of justice because he controls the executive branch government and so if he tells prosecutors to

stand down on a case they have a responsibility to do that. basically we feel that we know we do know and what may be misleading and we are demanding what the full house of representatives demanded on a 420 to zero vote which is the complete mueller report and all of the underlying evidence. host: for his part trump said, it wouldn't bother me at all. regina is an independent. go ahead to -- go ahead. our tax dollars paid for this investigation. has an obligation to see the port and the findings of it. once it's been redacted and -- i findeneral barr people whoing that

voted for him are shouting no collusion from the rooftops. why did he fire jeff sessions? why did he fire james comey? mccabe?he fire andrew i think mitch mcconnell just stated he's not going to make it public. i think he needs to be held accountable for that. he interviewed some of the main people in the trump administration. undern't subpoena trump federal perjury. he didn't subpoena jared kushner jr.vanka or donald trump, and he was the one above that meeting with russia in trump tower. host: you mentioned your concerns about william barr. what are your feelings about rod rosenstein, the deputy attorney

general? caller: i think the attorney general should be put in by the -- prove his agenda. i question rod rosenstein as well. i think he helped william barr this report and through the report he came to his own conclusion which he is not post to be doing as attorney general. host: what he said is that he may be conclusion about obstruction of justice the saying itorney general have concluded that the evidence developed during that investigation is not sufficient to establish the president committed an obstruction of justice offense. that muellere reported to over the course of this investigation. do you have those concerns about rod rosenstein's over the last

22 months? concerns overad the entire investigation and i don't think it does anybody a service to look at it through an extremely partisan lens because i'm an independent voter. i think they'll need to be -- i don't completely trust him. like to say that congress is doing their own investigation right now and the department of justice investigation is not completed yet. trust robert mueller over the course of this investigation? caller: he has not even subpoenaed trump himself who is the center of the investigation. did not exactly do a thorough job of investigating. if he hasn't done a car a job i can't trust him. host: regina in texas. you mentioned other investigations.

time magazine with a wrapup of the other investigations president trump spaces. noting there are more than a dozen other investigations and lawsuits pending looking into the president, his business, his family and associates. a dozen lawsuits and investigations continuing. as the mueller investigation has come to an end. we have come to an end our first 30 minutes. we want you to stick around. we will talk with two members of congress. who is asman republican from kentucky and a democrat from washington. stick around. we will be right back. >> sunday night on cue and day. a supreme court reporter talks about her latest book " the chief." about griffey of chief justice john roberts.

>> -- a biography of chief justice john roberts. roberts vote will determine the law of the land. aberals want him to come over little bit but the conservatives are trying to hold him back. where he always was. you have this chief justice declaring there is no such thing as an obama judge or trump judge or bush judge. he wants to project a bench that when they allal have their agendas. >> sunday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span's q and day. >> the c-span bus recently traveled to new mexico. asking what it means to be american. >> to be part of the greatest nation in the entire world. to have opportunity and prosperity for all.

the opportunities are unlimited. >> pride. having pride in our country, my flag, living in the land of the free and the home of the brave -- because of the brave. we hope to do the right thing and work hard and make a better life for our children. >> besides liberty and freedom we have an awesome country to live in. we have awesome people to live with. those are the things i like the best. the wonderful landscapes we have in this country, especially out here in the west. but also the wonderful people we have all over the country in every corner. i have visited every state in the union and i would find wonderful people to visit with. >> what a great question what it means to be an american. for me it is pride.

opportunity.nd i am new to the area where i am right now, i moved from another area from another city. i now have more opportunity to do what i want to do and i would only have these opportunities in america. i am proud to be an american citizen. i have traveled the world and i consider myself a proud american. >> voices from the road on c-span. >> washington journal continues. republicanlcome congressman james coburn who represents western kentucky's first district on capitol hill and heads the oversight and reform committee among his assignments. now thatstion to you we have seen the initial summary of the mueller report what should happen next? adjust to theould

information the attorney general does give to congress. all indications it is over. there was no collusion. that is what the purpose of the entire investigation was, to investigate whether or not donald trump or his affiliates had any wrongdoing with russia. it is clear they did not. we have had a two-year investigation in excess of $25 million that has consumed the national media's attention for two years. very thorough investigation and it is time for congress to move forward. democrats on capitol hill say they plan to bring the attorney general to talk about the investigation. what would you ask the attorney general? >> i would ask his thoughts on and looker report forward to hearing what he has

to say with respect to obstruction of justice. that is where the democrats continue to crop out. if there is any proof of obstruction of justice mueller when i put it in the report. if you are listening to interviews from my democratic colleagues at the capital today they pivoted from collusion and now talking about obstruction of justice. theueller had proof president had obstructed justice he would've included that in his report. lot of the proof the democrats are trying to find our tweets, public tweets to the president made. i hope democrats move on from this issue. host: one of the a concerns democrats race was this was a 22 month-long investigation that was delivered to the attorney general on friday. that question was left open by robert mueller. and the attorney general in

conversation with saidosenstein he did not constitute a structured of justice. not just in washington but the national news media and across america that we are hoping this would be a bombshell -- that were hoping this would be a bombshell and would lead to his impeachment. it was not the bombshell a democrats would hope. the other thing they helped would happen would be proof of structured of justice. obviously mueller did not have enough evidence to prove that. rob rosenstein who the democrats have praised for over a year now agreed with attorney general barr it did not constitute any type of obstruction of justice. in my opinion we need to move forward. there are so many issues in america that the average working american cares about and the

mueller report was never one of those issues. host: if you want to talk with republican congressman james comer of kentucky the line for democrats (202) 748-8000. republicans (202) 748-8001. independents (202) 748-8003. .-(202) 748-8002 orbitn the president's are concerned by comments made by democrats over the course of the investigation. this is a quote by kellyanne conway about adam schiff who is the head of the intelligence committee. " he should resign, he has been on tv promising this president would be impeached or indicted. someone should put him under oath and say, do you have evidence, where is it?" >> adam schiff is the biggest loser of them all with the final result of this mueller report. i think that will be up to speaker pelosi and how she handles this moving forward.

he did say countless times on tv there was proof of collusion and there was evidence of obstruction of justice. i think he should come forward with that evidence. run of the 48 hour news cycle. before and after the mueller report i'm sure there has been a massive drop in his approval. with respect to the trump administration i think everyone needs to move forward. if adam schiff does not come forward with the evidence should he lose his committee chairmanship? caller: i have no cop -- guest: i have no confidence in adam schiff. i had to accompany its in him before and now i have no confidence in his ability to lead the intelligence community. i don't think you should be on every talk show every day if you are really truly sincere about leading the intelligence community. you are privy to classified information that the average member of congress is not privy to.

i'm not a of the day member that calls for another one of my colleagues to resign every time they say something controversial. commentse with omar's and some of my republican colleagues comments. to the voters to decide whether they should return or not. i think the losey has a big decision to make. -- pelosi has a big decision to make. does she keep someone who went on television that implied there was proof of wrongdoing in charge of the intelligence committee. chairman of your oversight committee is continuing with their probe of the trump administration. congressman elijah cummings of maryland. >> i have confidence with german comings. i have served on the oversight committee and i think he is sincere in wanting to get to the truth. if you look at the role of the oversight committee we should be trying to find ways to fight abuse in government.

i take your oversight role seriously. mueller had over 2000 subpoenas and 500 witness interviews. he had the full resource of the department of justice on his side. this was investigated as much as we can investigate it. if chairman cummings wants to beat a dead horse and have witnesses like michael: come before the committee we will do our best. host: we will turn our energy towards the collars. rubin from fort lauderdale, florida, a democrat, good morning. caller: how're you doing? mr. james comer. guest: yes sir. you were about 25 or $27

million that was spent on the investigation. you don't care about the $11 billion when they shot down the -- there is a lot of waste fraud and abuse in the federal government. primaryuld be the role of the oversight committee to determine where the tax dollars can be best invested. we have a of the day serious spending problem in congress and we need to try to balance the budget. i think we need to take every expenditure seriously. is the numbery one priority for most the people in my district and i think that is something that we need to invest in as a congress. host: what do you think happened with a veto override vote

scheduled to take ways around 2:00 this afternoon? guest: i will vote no. i support the president's effort to secure the border and the majority of the people in my district in kentucky support that as well. i do not think the democrats will come anywhere near having enough votes to override the veto. i think they will fall short on the vote. host: they need to thirds. -- 2/3rds. guest: i think there will be some democrats that vote no. host: what is the minority leader telling the conference ahead of the vote? >> they have not said to vote this way or that way. he says we -- he knows we are going to vote the way we think is best. this is a huge issue with americans. we have a growing epidemic in america and we are starting to see disease outbreaks we have not seen in a long time. many people suspect this is coming from illegals coming into

the country. we have to take border security seriously. the president has a plan that comes directly from the people on the front lines from border patrol agent. i think it is a good plan and we need to take border security seriously. it is unfortunate we have to go this route to get the funding for the wall. host: kevin mccarthy is in the top leadership position of the republican conference. he has been in leadership for a long time. has he ever said you have to vote this way or that way? guest: no. ashave conferences each week do democrats and they make the case for how leadership would like for the conference to vote area at the end of the day we are all independently elected. and we willlicans vote how we feel is best for our district. in california george is an independent, good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. a couple of points that

question. i distinctly remember donald trump saying on nbc-tv he fired james comey over the whole russian thing. that as understanding thered to the idea that is a witch hunt with collusion for donald trump the mandate for robert mueller was to find out whether or not the russians interfered in our elections and to what extent they interfered in our election. is,question i like to ask when does the outrage over the fact that the russians interfered with our elections overtake the outrage that people are picking on our president. i will take my answers on error. guest: there is outrage over russia. interfering in our elections. that is something we have known for several years. russia did things mainly to try to interfere in the election.

they hacked some emails and they also bought some facebook ads. implyosters trying to they were with a campaign to try to have influence on a certain base of voters in the 2016 election. and i knew that which is why i voted to put sanctions on russia. a bad personn is and russia is a bad actor. 2016 when obama was president. we had security breaches from a foreign country, that was on obama's watch. that had nothing to do if trump. the mueller investigation proved there was no collusion with the trump campaign manager russia. this was a bad country trying to do bad things in the election. unfortunately that was during obama's watch as president. we need to continue to have sanctions against russia and

beef up our cyber security at the pentagon with elections to make sure that we don't have any damage done to our elections. at the end of the data facebook ads and hacking emails did not have any influence on the outcome of the election. we need to keep an eye on russia. russia is a bad actor and i sure you there is outrage among republicans about russia. you constantly hear leader mcconnell criticize russia. severaleen on record times saying russia is a bad actor. i believe that is due to majority members of the republican conference. host: in terms of republican outrage outrage over the so-called steele dossier. this is the editorial board of the wall street journal calling for accountability. " a dirty trick that started the collusion --" will there be a new investigation on that front? there should be.

that is something ranking member jordan has been vocal about. this whole investigation was born with a few people in the department of justice over the steele dossier. we led the country on two years of unnecessary drama about , potentiallylusion having a president that was a foreign agent. there needs to be some accountability for how this whole investigation got started. dossier wasle allowed to take precedent at the department of justice's -- as credible intelligence. i think that would be something good for the oversight committee to investigate. i doubt chairman comments will want to go there. this is something the american people deserve to know. host: virginia, democrat, go ahead. caller: good morning. i have a comment and a question. that when trump

took over the government obama brought the deficit to around $450 billion from $1.2 trillion when he took over in 2009. he did that very responsibly. he did not the burden on the poor and middle class. he handed over a very nice economy to trump. a stable country and a good economy with decent growth. overhen after trump took and trump or in power for two years until january this year and the deficit this year in 2019 is going to be over $1 trillion. that happened while the republicans were in charge of all three houses. those are my comments. youuestion to you is, since

are in power and your party was in power for two years until january this year you had all three houses. what did you do for the middle class of this country? youare going to say that gave the biggest tax cut in history. that is $1.8 trillion on our debt and deficit out of which $1 trillion went to billionaires and millionaires who don't need one penny more. yourr: -- guest: criticism is warranted. i am disappointed that the the debtns allowed of to continue to increase during the two years wherein they were in control of progress. both parties should be ashamed of the $23 trillion federal budget debt. that is unacceptable and immoral. to what both parties have done to our children and grandchildren.

i supported the tax cuts but when you cut taxes you have to cut spending as well. voted for the tax cuts and i voted against the spending plans. i will continue to vote against spending plans until we have a balanced budget. it is unacceptable to continue to spend more money than you take in. a couple things happened after the tax cuts. that had war began and an effect on the growth rate of the economy. the economy is growing much faster than it did under obama. trade war going on and we have a massive labor shortage. that is one of the things that is holding our economy back. there is a shortage of workers which is why republicans have tried to pass welfare reform to get able-bodied people that are currently out of the workforce and force them back into the workforce because we have industries every day that are complaining about not being able to find workers.

obviously there is a massive shortage of workers each industry. moving forward we have to reduce spending. i don't apologize for voting to cut taxes but i am ashamed that republicans did not cut spending more. the president tried to propose a buzz it -- budget that reduces spending. we need to try to have a balanced budget. guest: what has been the impact of the trade war on your district? guest: it has been harsh. you have a huge agricultural district. we are a big producer of soybeans and bourbon. those industries have been hit hard by the tariff situation. we have so many soybeans to have not sold many soybeans to china during this trade war. >> what happens to soybean farmers in your district? tost: there was a bill

assist them and they are now having to sell last year's crop and depressed prices and trying to make a decision, it is time to plant, whether to grow soybeans or more corn. if you grow much more corn you will depress the corn market. the trade war has been harsh farmers support the president because they realize we have to do something to bring manufacturing jobs back to the u.s.. it has been hard on automobile parts manufacturers in kentucky. a lot of companies that make parts for automobiles in kentucky. their supply chain has been disrupted by the trade war. we are hopeful this trade dispute with china will be resolved in the next few months. host: less than 10 minutes left with congressman james comer of kentucky. we mentioned your work on the oversight reform committee and the agriculture committee and education and labor committee.

regina from norfolk, virginia on the independent line. caller: congressman, thank you for taking my call. happy to say that i am you are going to investigate the steele dossier. ist i am most interested in having you actually investigate the actual content as to whether or not it is actually accurate or not. one and getting characterverybody's being assassinated and impugned in deference to the president. last week it was mccain. this week it is the democratic senator. thingsy think there are besides salacious factors in the steele dossier. host: i think we lost her. guest: that is a great question.

whole thing that intrigues me most about the steele dossier is it appears that -- it was produced by a democrat opposition research firm. and was given to high-ranking officials at the department of justice. that was the basis for which they used to get the fisa warrants. the fisa process was clearly abused by the department of justice based solely on a democrat opposition research firm, the steele dossier. i think there needs to be a lot of questions asked to the high-ranking officials at the department of justice and we need to ensure that never host: aagain

conservative news site has said it was the firm that produced the steele dossier, that reporting coming out mid last year. it was the fall of 2017 when they acknowledge that. guest: they certainly need to investigate the origin and we need to ask the high-ranking officials at the department of justice that use this as a basis for the fisa warrant how they atermined that you could use democrat opposition research firm's report to be able to get a fisa warrant to investigate a major presidential campaign. that to me is most concerning as a member of congress. the fear of collusion with russia i never did believe was there. we now know it was not there. the fact that the department of

justice abuse its power and had major credibility issues by using this dossier. we have intelligence community for provides great work america but we have had some lapses. we can go back to the gulf war -- with elijah cummings in charge i doubt it. a republican from minnesota, good morning. caller: i have a question. a few minutes ago watching the washington journal. i believe you said that the mueller report said there was no collusion. is that correct? >> yes. caller: my question is for clarification. on the internet on the new york times there was a copy of the mueller report.

one little excerpt i took out of their i will read it out. as the report states the investigation did not establish that members of the trump campaign conspired or coordinated with the russian government in its election interference activities. you can correct me but i do not see or interpret that to mean there was no collusion. that stated there was no evidence. host: i will give you the exact wording from the summary that was released on sunday. counsel'sial investigation did not find the trump campaign manager anyone associated with victims fired or coordinate with russia in efforts to influence the election." guest: that is the information i received.

adequate evidence or minimal evidence of collusion i think that would have been highlighted boldly in the mueller report. i think the people affiliated with the mueller investigation and the major news networks did have some type of smoking gun against the president and the president's campaign team. the president has been completely exonerated. allen on the line for democrats, go ahead. this has been so crazy. i know donald trump -- it is like a lynch mob. he knew there was a lot of good people on both sides when that

kid ran into the crowd. i used to work in undercover work and i'm a believer in the scriptures. i am a good person and i would be investigating some of those people. i would be involved with one or the other group as other agents would be. he said there was good people on both sides, he would be correct. andle misunderstood the man hangs him like alleged mob because that is where the lynch mob works. directoreen the fbi determining there was come for march -- controversial information given to us by britain. and that a seriously man should have been terminated because he should take care of his own house and made sure -- it put our allies in jeopardy just because of lynch mob crowd

at six. -- ethics. guest: i have been in washington 2.5 years and i'm astonished at the number of leaks especially coming from our intelligence community and people like adam schiff, the chairman of the intelligence committee. the president has trouble with people leaking information from his circle. there is a huge leaking problem in washington. that is why i'm confident that the mueller report did not have any smoking gun or i think the mueller people would have already leak some information that barr may not have included. host: from wisconsin, john is an independent. ok.er:

john just ask your question and turn on your television. i am an independent, i used to be a democrat that i voted for trump and now i guess i'm kind of independent. all thesesh investigations would just stop. all this money we are wasting could be providing medical care for those people at the border, we could be decreasing border , fixing bridges and roads and giving people work. why do we have to waste all the money. i think whatever committee wants to do that to somebody, especially our president, should have to pay for out of their person. completely and i think that is the dilemma

speaker pelosi has. the american public are fed up with this mueller investigation. i think everyone was anticipating its release. it took too long. one year would have been plenty of time, this was two years at a huge expense. they had an unlimited budget and the full resources of the department of justice behind it. and i think pelosi realizes her conference states to move forward. we have an oversight committee that is exactly what it says it is. it oversees different areas of the federal government. with so much a waste fraud and abuse we need to turn our attention to those areas and try to uncover any wrongdoing. with respect to the russia investigation it is over and hopefully the democratic majority in the house will realize that going forward. host: our time with you is over but come back and talk to us down the road. james comer a republican from kentucky. coming up will be joined

by a democrat from washington to talk about the mueller ideas totion and her improve data privacy. >> sunday night on cue and day. supreme court reporter talks about her latest book " the chief." a biography of chief justice john roberts. >> however john roberts votes now that anthony kennedy is gone he is going to determine the law of the land. the liberals want him to come over and inch over of it. the conservatives are trying to hold him back where he always was. you have this chief justice is no such thing as an obama judge or trump judge.

there is no such thing as a bush judge. he wants to project a bench that is not political when they all have their agendas of sorts. at 8:00 eastern on c-span's q and day. a government supported service called pbs. in 1979 a small network with an unusual name rolled out a big idea, let viewers decide on air on their own what was important to them. c-span opened the doors to washington policy and you unfiltered content from congress and beyond. in the age of power to the people this was true people power. the landscape has changed since. c-span's big idea is more relevant today than ever. no government money support c-span, it is nonpartisan --

it's nonpartisan coverage of washington is funded by your cable and satellite providers. c-span gives you an unfiltered view of government. suzanwe welcome democrat delbene a democrat from washington state. our question to you, now that we have seen the initial summary of the mueller report what should happen next? guest: we should have the full report. it is important we have transparency. the work that happened and the detail behind that. congress wants to see the report but the public wants to see the report as well. i think it is important that is released. think it will be released and how much redaction will be in it? guest: it is an open question. i think it should be released

and will continue to ask and the attorney general needs to respond to congress and let us know. he should be releasing that so the public has a full accounting of what happened and people can draw their own conclusions. chairman's of various committees want the attorney general to come and talk to them . if you get a chance to talk to the attorney general what question would you ask? guest: i would ask him how he came about his summary and why he is not providing the full report. if he does not plan to release it. host: a major story today on capitol hill, the vote in the .ouse around 2:00 the veto when it comes to the president's declaration of the border emergency do you think democrats will get within two thirds? guest: it is an important vote because there is not an emergency.

the president is overstepping on this issue. it is very unfortunate this is what happened. the house and the senate speak out. i hope we are able to override that veto. it is important for people to know as well. our last guest james comer confident that democrats will not reach the two thirds needed for that veto override. if not, what happens next on this border issue? guest: we have been pretty clear we need to make sure we have strong immigration policy, we need comprehensive immigration reform. helped introduce comprehensive immigration reform when i was first a member of congress. we have a broken immigration system and we need comprehensive reform. it is terrible what this administration has been doing. i would love to see us have legislation to address what has been happening at the border and also make sure we have policy going forward that works for our

country. host: defined comprehensive. guest: all issues. we have people in this country who are working. and we want tos make sure they have a path forward. making sure we address issues of backlogs were folks are overstaying visas. that is part of competence of reform. host: congresswoman susan delve any with us --suzan delbene until the top of the hour. .emocrats (202) 748-8000 publicans (202) 748-8001 -- republicans (202) 748-8001. independents (202) 748-8002. a big issue for you is data privacy. what would this ask do? guest: i think it is important that we have a national policy to protect data. it would make sure people opt in and we get to choose whether

your data is used as opposed to opting out in the scenario that we have today that says you can go in a make sure your data is removed. to make sure things are delivered to you in plain english. to make sure you can understand that and to make sure we have an enforcement mechanism when peoples -- people's data is not protected. they would have the authority to provide that enforcement. theye want to make sure are in control of what happens to their information. host: counted we get the system we have today? the opt -- how did we get the system we have today? guest: the privacy policies that were put out people were not able to understand them. you go in and log on to a service and you have a lot of legalese in front of you. assumptions were made data can

be used in different ways to put it on agree with and we've seen more and more what is happening. in terms of how company might be handling the data. >> the respondent your legislation from the consumer side. talking more about the industry side what would mean -- companies like google apple and twitter?? >> you would have to describe what happens to someone's information in plain english and then they can make a competent decision that they want to have their data used that way. opt in might change the way you sign up for a service or use a certain application. host: what sort of penalties with those companies the under if they are in violation? guest: in legislation we would have the ftc be enforcement authority. we would work with them and put

forward rules for how that would work. >> it would be the type of action that a company might take whether or not they take it down we would have an audit process in place so companies are audited every year. and that when people are made aware they are able to -- they respond to that quickly and protect that information. host: where is this bill? guest: i have not introduced at but i'm hoping to do that soon. suzan delbene with us this morning until nine caucus. topeka, kansas, democrat. go-ahead. caller: good morning, washington journal. about theuestion

mueller report. the only thing we have seen is a summary by someone that was appointed by president bush. we cannot trust that. if anything how is the house of doingentatives investigation than asking questions because two years and he came up with that that is ridiculous. . have another question host: did you trust robert mueller at the beginning of this investigation or during the investigation? caller: i trust him, it is great news. wasound out our president not upon from the soviets or russia. that is good news. it is inconclusive. the only thing i have heard from the news is that the soviets --

the trump- administration was contacted several times that did not help them. why did they not inform the fbi? host: congresswoman? guest: the report should be released. this is very important information. we have a brief summary of what happened. we know there have been indictments and things that came out of the work from mueller and his team. we should see the full report. anhink that will be important conversation that we have now and i think there is a lot of interest in that so that we have full information and transparency. host: do you trust robert mueller? guest: i think he conducted a full investigation and i think we should see his report. barr?do you trust william guest: i think the attorney

general was appointed by the president but there is obviously concerned he is coming in with a preconceived idea of what should happen here. i think that is why it is so important we should see the report. host: what about rock rosenstein who oversaw the mueller investigation? -- rod rosenstein who oversaw the investigation? guest: once again we should see the report. we should see the reports of congress -- report so congress can make decisions and what it conclusion should be gone. this is about transparency. in ohio, republican, good morning. caller: [indiscernible] i have a few questions. about the mueller report. [indiscernible]

we are asking for the report to be released, yes. caller: as a congresswoman you know that the entire report cannot be released. guest: there may be confidential parts of the report that need to be cap private. i think that is also a conversation to understand what parts would need to be redacted or kept confidential. as muchd see the report as possible and congress should be given access to that. host: in michigan, george is an independent. caller: thanks for taking my call. about for theused guys at c-span and the congresswoman, what i cannot figure out, every time we talk about this dossier they say it dossier.ocratic

the fact of the matter is that it was paul singer from new york , a republican operative, billionaire, who started and initiated it during the primary. why are these facts always left out. especially at c-span. i can't understand why they never question that fact. that is a crucial fact. there is no doubt about that. we 6 -- we seceded the middle east to the russians. we are going down a rabbit hole that i don't know. in the middle east it is ready to explode. india, pakistan, all these issues are going to come back at us. we have a deficit that is unbelievable. the last crisis as far as i'm concerned he blamed it on the housing crisis.

i really hope we can come out with some ideas. going down these rabbit holes. host: congresswoman, did you want to respond? guest: we should see the mother investigation report so we have full the. we have manythat discussions we need to be having on capitol hill on policy that helps working families throughout our country to make sure we have responsible tax policy and talk about housing. legislation on the low income housing credits to make sure we have more affordable housing in our country. there are many issues that are critically important on infrastructure and investments on infrastructure that are important to working families throughout our country and that is a top priority, something that maybe gets lost in the news cycle about what is happening

with the mueller investigation. very important piece of the policy that we need to move forward to help working families. host: is the data privacy issue an issue that you think has gotten lost in this discussion? it seems like when there is a big week of personal data a story comes up but it seems to fall off after a while. we probably don't talk about it enough and it is a national priority. , the european union has put forward privacy policy. this is a domestic policy issue and also part of what happens to andinternational community how we make sure we are part of the conversation of international standards on privacy. this is a very critical issue. start the digital trade caucus that is part of digital information and exchange of data is part of our international trade policy.

this is a very important issue and something we need to be moving forward quickly. your home state of washington is looking to be the second state to pass state data privacy laws. states are moving, in the absence of the federal government moving, on this issue. is about protecting consumers and making sure they have control over the data. there needs to be a federal policy to do this so we have protections for consumers across the country. we have a standard that is part of this international policy. host: what are the standards washington is proposing and is it different from the ones in california? guest: there are small differences but at the highest level it is about consumers having control over the data. there are specifics on what and what data is information is already public and what information needs to be protected. these are some of the

differences in the debates that have been happening today. consistent federal policy. .> about 10 minutes in overland park, kansas, go ahead. republican. caller: first thing i would like to say is welcome to the united states of mexico and the world. this congresswoman and whoever it was from the house of horrors has said she wanted to give social security to all the illegals. how stupid is that? is that--host: something you said? guest: i'm not sure where that particular comment comes from. come ofwe should have immigration reform and talk about immigration policy. areave a lot of folks who

living in this country who are contributors who are working on agriculture and helping us put food on the table every day. who havereamers incredible opportunities and incredible futures in our country. we need comprehensive immigration reform so that we have humane policy that we have consistent policy throughout the country. i do believe we should have a path to citizenship for folks who are here. this is an important conversation and it is really terrible that we haven't passed immigration reform in congress already. this is a bipartisan effort. we have bipartisan support for comprehensive immigration reform. in a terrible we are still situation and terrible to see what is happening at the border with families having children taken away. we need responsible policy,

congress needs to act. we have another caller. caller: i would like to see the full mueller report. i would like to know if you have any objections to seeing the full clinton report. that is just it. guest: i think it's important that we see the full mueller report and i think transparency is important. i think there has been transparency in the past so there is precedent for this. the first timebe there is a request for transparency and information to congress. that is what needs to happen in the situation today. we have yet to see what the attorney general will do. do you think there will be an investigation about the steele dossier? renewed scrutiny by the justice department of the obama

administration during the 2016 election? guest: i think we need to see the mueller report and we have to have conversations about what we are going to move the country forward in terms of helping families and addressing infrastructure and dealing with our changing economy. these are important conversations. we just had a hearing a couple weeks ago on infrastructure and making sure that we are talking about how we are going to invest in infrastructure and what we are going to do to make sure we have a long-term strong economic feature for everyone in the country that needs to be a top priority. we have an oversight role and we need to see the mueller report. we need to talk about what we are going to do to have economic opportunity for working families. host: a lot of discussion about impeachment. do you think impeachment discussions are a distraction for democrats or something they should consider? guest: i think we should focus on fact and get the mueller report.

focused onshould be our oversight role in terms of making sure we are doing our constitutional duty of looking wewhat the administration -- should be moving for policy that helps working families. host: in texas, david is a democrat, good morning. caller: good morning. all the headlines are saying the mueller report released. what has been released is barr's opinion of the mueller report. expect?- what did we rosenstein is a republican and mueller is a republican and barr is one of trumps men. host: before you go, what did you expect? we lost david.

guest: i think the question was about the report that is been released to the attorney general but has not been released to the public. that is the difference in semantics he was asking about. host: mark in nebraska, republican, go ahead. that you have a way could do away with the deficit by giving the irs the power to go after low-interest loans that are being misused after the federal government gives it to the state. host: explain your plan more? in 85 when i was going after a democrat governor in the i -- in nebraska i had some information to give to an

agent of irs cid. i asked him, what about these federal low-interest loans that go from the federal to the state? they are being misused. back,n't they be grabbed it is not set up that way. the iris can't touch it. what did of curiosity you mean by going after the governor of nebraska? was protected by a three-year statute of limitations. law. was a territorial they never got rid of it. he stole $20 million out of two-state banks in lincoln

nebraska. the former owners of the savings -- loan host: that was mark in nebraska. the question was on oversight of loans to the state government. guest: he also talked about the irs having resources. i think we had a hearing recently on this issue in terms of understanding how the irs is operating. in ways that the problem of resources, they have all technology and not enough people . shutdowns had on people possibility to get information when they are filing tax returns. making sure we have resources

for the irs to do its job. sure that we fund the government for a full year at a time so that we don't have shutdowns that have this terrible impact. it is unfortunate that the resident put us in a situation with pasthut it down this terrible tax bill that heard a lot of working families. host: you have been in congress since 2012 and you took over a seat from a congressman named jay inslee, now governor jay inslee and a presidential candidate. your thoughts on his chances? guest: i think he is making an important case on climate change. a conversation that has not come up as much as it should come up in this congress since i have

been here. we haveming up now that a democratic majority and we are able to it knowledge that. that is the top issue of his campaign. something he has been giving a voice to and i think that is important conversation. i'm glad someone is doing that. >> are you backing him? guest: i have not made a decision. a lot of folks running and i will take some time to see before i make a decision. let a few callers jump in before you we let you go. loretto and cleveland, ohio. caller: good morning, representative. i have like three quick mueller questions. cil- pen a handy? the sanctions. who authorize the changes in the sanctions language?

-- andhe mueller up for did the mueller report or barr say anything about the sanctions? why was the form changed? russia or didact putin make this a demand for his help? host: will take that question because we are running out of time. fort: she is making a case wanting to see what is in the report pushing at the information she needs. question thats a a lot of american public has, so reall -- releasing that report, obviously things that need to be you -- be red part of thed be a report, but we need to have

transparency. next.paul, your call is caller: i appreciate your station. is going to do just as much as he can possibly do to get away because we do not have anybody to override him to see what he is doing. paul, butink we lost we will give you 30 seconds or so, congresswoman. caller: we have a constitutional -- have a constitutional responsibility to provide oversight and that needs to happen in all areas. i think we do put forward policies to help working families to deal with the changes that are happening in have new typeswe of businesses and technologies coming forward and how we are going to adapt to that change. our futuresting in that we are investing in infrastructure and education so

we have opportunities for people starting -- young people starting out today. these are all things that need to be top priorities. thank youresswoman, for your time. guest: thank you. host: up next this morning, a .usy day in washington dc the trump administration and federal court moving for a full repeal of the affordable care act. the house is set to vote to override the president's veto on border wall funding. the senate takes a bill on the green in new deal resolution, and senators continue to call for the full miller repor. -- mueller report. you can start calling it now and we will be right back. ♪ >> the only thing we have to

fear is fear itself. what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country. -- nd the people [cheering] >> c-span's newest book "the rank the" historians nation's best and worst. stories gathered by interviews with noted presidential historians. challenges they faced and the legacies they have left behind. published by public affairs, c-span "the presidents" will be on shelves april 23. you can preorder today at orpan.org/thepresidents wherever books are sold.

♪ >> the c-span bullis is stopping of the schools of our studentcam winners, recently in columbia, douth carolina to awar second-place prizes to three students at richland northeast high school. >> when we saw the topic, we immediately thought about because the tuition and the first thing that came to mind was the bill of rights, especially freedom of speech because that is something that is so ingrained in the american , and is the topic that has been at the forefront of the past two years in terms of the are increasingly divided political climate, so how can we not approach the subject and apply it to what is it mean to be an american. top 21 winning entries on c-span in april. and you can watch at studentcam .org.

>> "washington journal" continues. host: plenty happening in washington today. this is your opportunity to call it an chat. -- and chat. democrats, (202) 748-8000, republicans (202) 748-8001, independents (202) 748-8002. here are a few of the happenings, the bow in the house at about 2:00 on the override vetoon president trump's regarding his declaration of the national emergency at the u.s. mexico border. in the senate, also a high profile vote. republicans in seeing an opportunity in their green new deal vote, senator mitch toonnell forcing democrats take a stance on the green new deal. the story in "the new york times" noting that plenty democrats are arguing that the

resolution of for the vote is not anything like the fully leadd piece of -- of legislation. they intend to keep the green new deal in the spotlight as long as possible. course, plenty more happenings as the discussion today we have had so far as mostly involving what is next for the mueller investigation and the mueller documents. there was a 22 month investigation, the report is sent to the justice department, and the battle over how much gets released publicly. this story from usa today, we that the trump administration will ask the federal courts to throw out the entire affordable care act. the trump administration saying that the filing late monday would ask the judge to end the entire affordable care act which

casts further uncertainty on the future of that law. senatir letter, the ors said that the lower courts ruling on the law should be affirmed. they argued that some parts of the law including an expansion of medicaid should survive. the justice department's letter yesterday reversed the decision. defend theowing to health care law despite new attempts by the republicans to challenge the law. those are the stories we are tracking this morning. we want to hear what you are interested in. the phone lines, democrats, (202) 748-8000, republicans, (202) 748-8001, independents (202) 748-8002. tom in washington, democrat. caller: i just wanted to say

that what is being done with the mueller report is reprehensible, because they do not want to show going to walk it out very slowly with the parts they want to walk out. it is basically just another republican rollout. if anyone falls for this, it is because they are easily manipulated, just like so many american people. they are easily manipulated, and donald trump is a master of reality. he can create his own reality and he has been doing it before he got the presidency. people are still falling for it. i find more and more of my friends are starting to fall in line, and i am wondering where this country is going. host: do you think there is some sort of smoking gun in the mueller report we have not seen? caller: how can we see it when we have not seen any smidgen of the report? their see is

interpretation, and they are not going to show us anything that they do not want us to see. host: do you think that robert mueller -- caller: with our own eyes -- host: do you think that robert mueller and his team would remain silent as they thought that what was released was whitewashed or was not a fair picture of what they found? not -- even if he was even if he did not remain silent, common people -- they will go after him, too. they already have hundreds of times. they have gone after anybody. people are falling for it more and more. i remember history. how many people now ever took history classes, because they do not remember that history repeats itself. it is happening. host: this is bob in california, republican.

caller: hi, good morning. thanks for taking my call. i'm going to change the subject and go on the deficit. and social security to be specific. i'm going to make a comment. taxpayers or that anybody, or any family that has a gross income, and a net worth over $5 million should not receive any social security way i would see to pay backhed is these people what they contributed into their social security. i would say over a working career, they paid $150,000 in the social security. will the government give that money back, not the money that

was contributed by their employer, and take them off the rolls. off the, take the cap pay, in other to words, whatever it is -- i'm retired and i get a pension and social security, and i am living okay. but i really feel that people that are $5 million and more should not receive social security. host: do you see them getting paid out for their own contributions in one chunk when they become eligible? caller: yes, a lump sum payment. only theirum is money that they put in. the government can keep the money that their employer paid. and just take them off of the rolls. i cannot do the math because i but i know the facts,

really feel a significant amount of savings and a significant amount of time it would be before it goes broke. it is supposed to go broke in 2030, and it will probably move that way out. let's take the cap out. everyone should be paying into it. whatever it is $110,000, $120,000 -- take that cap off. that may improve the deficit. to thatat cap is up amount of money, but everyone is still paying into it, it is just one you reach the top limit of the cap, the money you make after that, you are not paying the social security on that. caller: right. take the cap off. , at: brian in illinois democrat. caller: good morning, thank you

for taking my call. i appreciate it. host: what do you want to talk about? caller: i want to address the issue of health care. and these new threats coming from the republican side threatening the aca, and what it is. if repealing the is the best plan of action for the republican side, do you presidencythe trump has given any thought to adopting a policy more similar to medicare for all or a similar proposal by democrats as something that might live up to trump's campaign promises? to your knowledge, what plan exists that would cover millions of more americans and provide better care than our previous plans? host: brian, what do you think?

i very much support bernie sanders plan for medicare for all. i am not as knowledgeable on the subject as i wish i was. put in further research, but it seems to me that deeming health care as a human right would be the most ethical solution. that is an opinion. int: that is brian illinois. the trump administration is moving to seek the ending of the entire affordable care act in an ongoing lawsuit. it is one we have talked about before that started in texas. the lawsuit in the northern district of texas. when it comes to the affordable care act, the main parts of it is the exchange program, the about care exchanges and

11 point 4 million people signed up for coverage of this year. people signed up for coverage this year. on the exchanges, it fell from 300,000 from the previous year, which administrators the health law. came from states that relied on the platforms for relies onates, which advertisements. caller: thank you for taking my call. to this woman you had from washington and it is the same old thing. i am not afraid of the russians. i am afraid of the democrats. and if they continue on, they are going to destroy this country. that is about the size of it. host: why do democrats scare you

more than russians? caller: this is a political coup. mueller needs to go to jail. these people need to be held accountable. they need to be hauled up in and, thea judge and -- whole thing needs to be laid out. people are not satisfied with the mueller report. the guy called in and said, attorney general is a republican, and etc. all of the lawyers on this case were democrats. they did a lot of digging and looking and spent a lot of money and they did not find anything. they are not going to. if they get by with this, we are going to be in trouble. host: before you go, why do democrats scare you more than

russians? caller: look at what they are doing to the country. this woman who was out there talking a few minutes ago, she did not say a word about the deficit. it should be one of her top priorities. the whole congress needs to start working on getting this deficit down. get us a balanced budget. cannot just keep going the way we are going. it scares me, that solve. host: -- that's all. host: in south carolina, this is steve though in maryland. caller:hey, how is it going? russia is a thermal nuclear arms adversary and the democrats have spent the last two years poking them in the eye and saying, they stole an election. it goes beyond the idea of what

is happening in this country where the president could not negotiate with other countries with the kind of moral authority that he should have had when he won. but i'll take a minute, take a breath and deal with the reality. he won. what is scary is we have now pushed the russians through this farce to the point of open hostility. there are people in russia that wear t-shirts that show the nuclear missile launch vehicles they have as if it is a fun thing to talk about. we have come to a place where fun and games here and simplenet seriousness -- and simple nef ariousness has led to geopolitical implications that puts my children at risk. i do not appreciate that. those guys across the ocean would not have been interested we had not spent the last three years on russia, russia, russia. host: they had the interest

in the 2016 election. caller: sure. host: we have seen indictments of russian officials and citizens, and americans when it comes to russian interference. caller: yes or. absolutely. i work in cybersecurity, and i can tell you that russia is doing a lot scarier things than putting facebook ads and trying to trick the feebleminded. what is a real concern is they have a control of our industrial control systems, the grid, so to speak. premiseng it on a false is the confluence of those two things. there are inherent badness, plus, like the president -- he called the evil. it is evil and it was a failed takedown.

people need to accept the fact that that is the case. the report is not going to say things like a call -- like, trump called for comey's firing. host: column by joe scarborough in "the washington post." the headline, you lost this one democrats, move on. richard is in massachusetts. caller: thanks for taking my call. i want to make a comment on and thes statement domino called about the democrats remembering history. as far as the republicans, they that thelay this russian cyber attack, the usinglogical warfare cyber in social media attacking

america does not have an effect. then why do we advertise campaigns? why do actual politicians put out bad stuff about their opponent? why does the united states government backed up the campaign with funds matching funds in order for people to put out fake ads if they do not have any affect? if they do not have any effect by the russians, they do not have an effect by the campaigning politicians. going to the gentleman talking about history, president trump was born and raised in the era of joe mccarthy. he is using mccarthyism tactics to scare america into doing things this way or that way. people have been crossing the border since texas got there republic. the bottom line, there is no attack on america.

i was off on the coast of irene in 1979. on aver fired a missile people who took our embassy, yet we fear people tal crossing our border? please. these are not kids and vietnam hand and you grenades. these are kids going for a better life and freedom. the same thing -- that is our product. freedom. trump is making us look like morons. host: that is richard in massachusetts this morning. just a few minutes left in this segment of "washington journal." we want dinner from you about the stories you are interested in. phone lines are democrats, republicans and independents, we will get back to your phone calls. the news from yesterday -- heator tom udall announced will not seek reelection for a third term in the senate despite

being confident that he could have run a strong campaign in 2020. the story in "the washington times" noting that the senator said the next two years are an incredible opportunity to reverse the damage done to our planet and the scourge of war and stop the president's assault on our community. he said leaving the job was not an easy decision to make. the senator coming from a very political family. he is the nephew of the former longtime arizona congressman and cousin of former senator mark udall, colorado democrat. is from the house side, so news as well about the makeup of the next congress. the representative pose -- presented of -- the representative jose serrano says he will not run for a second on's due to parkins

disease. he has repeatedly won reelection with over 90% of the vote. recently changed his mind quote "i come to the realization that parkinson's will eventually take a toll and i cannot predict in advancement." nancy pelosi putting out a statement last night about jose no's service. she said on twitter, the congressman has been a relentless champion for the working families in south bronx and across america. we wish him the best as he prepares to start his next chapter. back to your phone calls, robber is waiting in greenville, texas, and independent. -- robert is waiting in greenville, texas, an independent. caller: i wanted to make one brief comment. all of this stuff is great about the mueller report coming out, or barr's

interpretation of the report, but i still want to get back to where i first started calling into the show about 2.5 years ago -- follow the money. follow the money. when congress finally gets a hold of trump's tax records, which they talk about doing here a month or two ago, when they finally get that, they can start putting pieces together. all of these people 11 going to jail around trump, lying, covering are doing whatever -- a whole host of dirty things, you are going to find it is all about the money. enrichmp trying to himself through russia. lied connections he about having no interest in when he was running for president, but the truth comes out that he even continued it after he became president.

the american people, if they ever get access to his financial records, they are going to be able to put two and two together. the truth will set you free. let's follow the money. the mueller investigation may be over, but as time is atne notes there, least a dozen other investigations and lawsuits continuing looking into the president, his business, his family, and associates, his trump organization's financial spendings, and spendings on his inaugural committee. mike and harrison, michigan. a republican. caller: yeah. i know everybody is wanting to hear everything about the mueller report. i would like to know when they are going to start investigating dossier and all of the

corruption with the russians with the democrats. that is all i have to say. caller: do you think that will happen? the think that the justice department will make that move? caller: i think it should happen. they want transparency, i think we should see it. host: and the editorial board of the wall street journal thinks there should be an accounting for the dossier as well. the dirty trick that started the collusion needs exposing is one of the headlines for the lead editorial today. the caller is next in michigan. caller: i think it is incredible that they keep using this was aology about, it witch aunt and her now that he is exonerated, everything is okey-dokey. well, it is not. this thing about a takedown, they did not take him down. he is still free to do the destructive things he is doing, but i think this is just the beginning.

so manygoing out and different branches. the money laundering or the clause, there is going to be something. until he leaves office and i think it will be hopefully that he will not be reelected. they tried toif impeach him. this dossier thing -- why do they keep saying all of these things? that was started by a trumpersn, the never did not want him to get the nomination and once he got the nomination, they quit it. then the democrats picked it up and look at all of the money they wasted and how many times about the benghazi thing? and thenferent -- kevin mccarthy goes on tv saying .hat adam schiff should resign

he said that when he bragged on did not buy they anything from the benghazi hearings, but so what, they brought hillary clinton's numbers down at the pole. he should have -- at the polls. in today's washington post, george well with a column talking about mueller's gift to the nation. the 2020 mueller, election will not be about the 2016 election and it will be about other issues and not what happened in 2016. what are your thoughts? caller: about the 2020 election? host: view think it will be a rehash of what happened in 2016 -- -- do you think it will be a rehash of what happened in 2016? caller: i hope not. i am a democrat, but i am beginning to think that they just love to shoot themselves in the foot. not vicious like

republicans, they just get a freebie and and they screw it up. hopefully they will do what is right and what is good for the people, and not about some election that is done with. host: that is elizabeth in michigan. our last caller in the section of the washington journal. joined by two former members of congress to talk about their recommendations for improving stability and making politics less partisan. we'll be joined by two representatives.

>> the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. >> ask not what your country can do for you. do for your can country. who knocked these be with all will of us soon. > the presidents noted historians rank america's best and orst chief executives provides insight into the 44 merican presidents gathered by interviews with noted presidential historians. xplore the life events that shaped our leaders and challenges they faced and left.ies they published by public affairs. t will be on shelves april 23 but you can preorder your copy today rd cover or e-book c-span.org/thepresidents.

>> the c-span bus is stopping at cam winners in columbia to award prizes at richmond northeast high school. we saw the tong what it means -- topic we thought about the first ution and thing was bill of rights. especially freedom of speech that is something that is so ingrained in the american topic that is owe forefront of the past few years n terms of president and our increasingly divided political climate and how could away not subject and apply it. > see the top 21 in april and watch them at student cams.org.

back for the launch for the eud -- study congress about undering gridlock. to have that t conversation in the shadow of the mueller report being at least the week, surgery? guest: it is critically important to have the but in the d environment nge e it is difficult because people come in with their point of view not dy established and interested in new information and when new information comes ut that does not support their point of view then they try to find a way to fight back against that. congressman tom davis you talk about the media environment of ne of the causes

partisanship. did you see the headlines after release of the preliminary mueller report? uniform.hey were pretty the real headlines. but when you get cable elevision it is a very different very quickly. people live in their own bubbles friends that with think like they do and watch validates their thoughts so you have different people with completely different outlooks and facts and think they are smart and everybody else is done. business models. i never considered it seriously. they have worked well. he talkted in 1986 with t they didn't have to show both sides and now it is on crappy content ratio is very high and no

and rs on the internet people walk around believe being a lot of stuff. creating talk about it a vicious cycle. talk about that. uest: you have search algorithms what you believe and it reinforces of what you less of a you have willingness to work with other point of views. problem with the current congress and the way it is disconnected from the public is electing people from the partisan extremes and to survive ou want to survive in public office you have to appeal to the extremes. there's no incentive to reach across the aisle because you are punished for compromise. host: there done for the center and udy for the president ongress is founded under the eisenhower administration dedicated to these types of issues. issues of ough the

the day, whatever they happen to be. currently the commission that co-chair is the political reform and civility commission. washington, ngs in other parts of country. we have former members of senators, ambassadors, eople from grassroots, political reform groups. spectrums. we issued this and have get mendations on how to through this environment. host: we are coming off the in est government shutdown a tory and stpeuldeficits over trillion dollars and tracking a showdown over separation of a potential override of the president's veto, yet in you are rt you say optimistic about keeping partisanship or at least the of minimizing partisanship. optimistic?

guest: we have been through these trends before where things hand and voters bring it back. what has really happened the evolvedyears is we have starting with the voters in where entary behavior they vote for the party versus the person. if you go back 30 to 40 years whose parties on a basis other than philosophy. philosophical of alignment and when members come to congress as voters are voting not person, they vote the party line if you will. the inority party is opposition party and the resident's party is just an appendage of the executive protect their o quarterback if you will. but it hasn't worked well. way e trying to sort our ought of this want to 10:00 if you

join the conversation as we talk about this report and the it you can ons in john on democrats, 202-748-8000, it is 202-748-8001, independents it is 202-748-80 202-748-8002. one reason for optimism in this point to is some of the ballot initiatives that took place in 2018. some of them you point it? guest: if you look at michigan, missouri, they ing gerrymandering reform where ou draw the lines for state reserves and members of congress and that forms an independent votersion and allows for to choose their elected rather than elected officials choosing voters. maine and that and ranked check list and california two primary so we don't

recommend any specific reforms but we recommend experimenting opening up the primaries so more voters can participate in the process. host: congress davis will we see more ballot initiatives like in 2020? guest: they are. more of the at tates don't have that and the elected legislators have benefited from the current system. what jason stand nets is you are -- notes is you are seeing changes at the ballot box is a frustration the voters recognizing the current system something ng them they won't. jerry ight hapight hand -- planneder i plannedering do not solve it ecause it is nothing more than a constitution formality. to live in cities and kefb actives in rural areas hard to draw districts

in the wrong areas. there is a frustration with the way this is going on and i tart we're seeing voters s t starting to rebel. host: are there ways to change system that could help that? guest: california has two soented with the top if you are in a runoff with another democrat republican to s matter and you want maybe offer them something you would not if you worried about straight democratic voters. rank choice takes third parties out of the equation basically what we call stpapbt run afters -- instant runoffs. to proportional voting where parties get members on the proportion of votes that is akin to the trying ntary system and different things to see whether works. usually what works is replicated other areas. host: an overriding idea is give the candidates a reason to

to people other than the far extremes within their own party. primaries not just to independent voters but even voters of the other party and everybody is on the same ballot regardless of arty affiliation and every voter shows up and votes within that election. for officere running in that system and just appeal to your narrow base you are going to lose. a much wider message to appeal and when you get into you will view things from a more moderate point of view. if t: out of necessity nothing else. we have a saying that liberals passion, vatives have moderates have lives and a lot like pennsylvania where jason was representing they are prohibited from voting primaries and in others they don't and primaries belong to passionate. if you are from a single party district your whole re-election based on how you treat the

voters.nate former memberswo of congress with us for our discussion. ou can join the discussion and check out the report that is titled political reforms fixing system through the study for study of the presidency and congress the is where to go to find that report. gary, e a call from georgia. a democrat. caller: good morning. a lot about earing civility and talking about ringing back civility and it only seems to benefit those with vein.st cruel and i'm not longer going to be civil

to people who enable when somebody takes away children rom their parents to be cruel to those parents and punish them. i won't be civil to people who that to women or anyone and justify it as being boys just being boys. this thing about civility is a real anger and and hate in bad our society and i'm not doing it any more. won't be polite to people who don't care about our democracy. them down and ut go out and vote and vote for people who will shut them down also. host: before you go did you feel like you used to hold your issues?n those i think she hung up. guest: that reminds me of defense of liberty virtue. we have seen there from time to ime from people on the ends of

the political spectrum who are just frustrated with the pace of things. power ase a balance of a tkpl si and we -- democracy out of philadelphia in 1776 because they were willing to make compromise and recognized that we have a system that rpls r relies on that. all.re not winner takes there are checks and balances. the checks appear balanceses lessened over time and correct me if i am wrong has iminished its power and it has gone to the executive branch but if everybody starts shouting at been through have these and we don't have happy ends. caller who hasis every right to voice her opinion but that is one reason that good are lent to run for -- hesitant to run for public folks because you have out eating with their family in restaurants and terror

water thrown ing at them. shouted out of theaters. supposed to have disagreement and debate in a ivil manner and elections to decide outcome of disputes. we should not do it other ways. rapidity of he change i think amy the caller of change rustration that is not happening fast enough. there are injustices going on are hold-ups to this and there are other folks who changes too hand and their status threatened. we are seeing this with brexit england and five star movement in italy and it is from as well.d states we just don't think ultimately that works for our system which than those systems because we are not a parliamentary season. first ran for congress in 1994. if this political environment happening back then with be run? been more hadn't to

guest: i came from local government where everything is a deal. local budgets and zoning issues and everybody had to get along or the place broken down. if you have continuing government in local or school shutdown or police you could not do that. to grips with maybe you are on the board four years and something you don't along. u have to get it worked pretty well. n fairfax county where was board chairman we were the best managed county in the government. things fight on i will but came together on big issues but things have changed. advent of the single party district is more pronounced. live in like minded enclaves. you have the voting right act pack minorities south strict in the deep you are having white republicans and african-american democrats

talk to the other side because of the way the constituted. that is not necessarily good. the media models have certainly everybody gets their own truth about what they tune into. has moved in politics away from the parties which were a centering force for 200 years for that middle so they can gain control to the on the right and left so they have gone from central to here and the way people get news is it factual out to here and the money has gone from the parties out and what do you expect in under result. host: what about the difference 2006 when you were running and today? guest: i think it is similar. election when the democrats retook control of the house there was a move from the left from perspective to primary moderate democrats to challenge them to

with the party to not exercise independent judgment nd i think it is only gotten worse since this new class has come in and brightest light with the the people loudest voice, not the best idea. when you have that type of who speak from the center who are moderate in their oint of view and willing to listen to the other side and have a discussion on issues, hey are not the people you see on tv. they are not the people carrying the day in debate. unfortunate. host: do you think alexander good? cortez is guest: she's very skilled at social media and getting her voice out there. of her lenging members own party presupposing she districts their better than they understand them i think that is a problem for the party. add we have been through that model on the call it the de we

t the arty it is a race to west to get nominated. it is how the party gets through that.and ham you want -- handle that. you want to take the enthusiasm the ground she brings but you need to couple it with swing voters and that is at voters and tough mix. republican.o idaho a host: good morning, c-span. a couple of questions for -- altmyer and mr. davis. to say the gal who wants to confront everyone, you know, out here old saying what goes ou can -- around comes around. if you want to do that, don't walk away le to because they are not getting it any more. you, uestions i have for mr. davis and mr. altmyer.

in the redistricting is that eligible voters? seem to be this being pushed more by the democrats than the republicans? guest: democrats are pushing it because t now republicans control more seats after redistricting table the 2010 sencensus because they a lot of legislators and governor ships and could carve,more. democrats control they did a pretty good job of carving out republicans. you are hat is why seeing more complaints from the democratic side. longparties do t. we think term from 30,000 feet you are etter having neutral people draw these with other things in ind than disadvantaging one party or the other. you look at 2018 and offyear will join mocrats

more seats than last time and you will have some split verdicts. we just think long term that is the best route to go. >> gerrymandering is not a partisan issue. because of the 2010 elections which favored republicans more tate legislators and governor offices were held by republicans so they controlled a range of agree the democrats were disadvantaged. but it could be different in 2022 and the first example of that was new jersey last year a state thatcontrolled tried to do a restricting plan hat went far beyond what was viewed as an appropriate distribution of power and got a back. push so both sides have about guilty from propose taking that the elected official and returning it to the people. ost: even the supreme court will play a role because jerry plannedering back before the

cases one fromwo maryland where democrats drew one of s to eliminate the two republican seats and other from north carolina where t was republicans who drew the maps it strengthen their power. guest: i think that these eforms are better made by the voters and states themselves than having the court step in. -- afraid if the court electricback federalist 46 they were not factions.f washington was worried about regional factions but parties ere not contemplated in the constitution and to you to come in and say we are going to put rvor into this fehr is a bit of a stretch. happen. more importantly how do you draw this criteria? and when partisan isn't it? you will see more court suits every time you have this.ricting on the court can find themselves a

wading in but i think there's an acknowledgment that this is going too far and top.the guest: the issue is not just who ly disadvantaged but the real issue is the type of that type of district gets into congress and into the legislature. a safe democratic district or republican district issue mary issue is the running for office and you appeal to the extreme. not just ndering is having more r's or d's but the type of people representing you. host: from florida jean is waiting. caller: i want to ask if the investigation is over without questioning and i around the policeman aol and 5

voted for trump hillarythey didn't like and now they are sorry. so they ought to try to get the back. and the republican coming to now and im a democrat certainly will not vote for trump. a president. sit down, sit down. get out of here. the way treats the world. him.s the world laughing a host: to your question about questioned trump lawyers submitting written answer over the interview but think it king if you is over. guest: well, i don't think congress thinks it is over. we haven't seen the mueller report. excerpts and rief attorney general's headlines. but remember this, robert

who by the way was in will you skl for me and i have him.highest respect for he is a guy of the highest integrity and i think you have a lot of comfort into what he concluded. i don't think congress is going any additional reach that robert mueller didn't because he had the power to congress doesn't. people pay more attention to his congress.ower than to he may not have the last word but i think he has the main word. still don't know what he says. this report hasn't been revealed i think it is will be debated over the next few weeks. the wind is out much the for some who got ahead and news comments the 24-7 cycle was talking heads and i regret me of them will they got too far out and others will continue the narrative.

host: what about calls like schiff n conway saying seat?d lose his guest: that is up to voters. i don't agree with adam but i be a very him to intelligent guy. he has a different world view on his but i think the name calling really isn't helpful to the whole process but it is in cative of where we are the polarization in the country. guest: i understand democrats disappointed with the result. they had a higher expectation that more information would be found. but i think there is obviously a political outcome that can arise impeachment and further investigation. i hope they step back and think for the t is best country moving forward based on the information that is available. highly skilled investigators this nation has to ffer with every resource at their disposal and they issued their report which appears to a lot less than

democrats will hoped. but that do not mean they should up mantle and continue further investigations. i don't know that is the right approach. guest: one other thing on lection day in 2016, 17% -- this is a cnn exit poll -- had opinion of donald trump and hillary clinton so away did always get the choices choices.ut they are the mid terms were morals a referendum on the -- more or referendum on the president and we saw with obama suffered massive losses. it is not indicative of what happens the next general will be a cause that choice between donald trump and somebody the democrats put up depending who they put up will determine whether people vote for trump again or not. like somebody but you vote for them because the opposition is even more scary. to warren, ohio, kneneil.

independent. caller: i commend you guys on we mission here and when talk about civil iity. it is observation, serling would be to be alive today because i feel like we live in a now in this right country. the observation is we have the far left and now you have, of course, trump and his far right. pointing nt they are fingers at the far left stating next stepalism is the to communism, yet you have the resident and people he hads surrounded himself -- he has surrounded himself with maybe he collusion directly at the people around him and you see him meeting with putin there's no there isn't a dictator, a

dictator he doesn't love so. game and like ng you said, how do we get the work done?hat needs to be youngstown, warren and sharon and it has been devastated. takes our eye s average all and the citizen loses. that is just an observation. are you t kind of work in? >> i work part-time at united i have a vice and small business. i have a small self-storage business. a landscape and garden center business. ost: why don't you have that any more? healthcare was tough to keep insurance for family.s and my

nd in our area a seasonal business is tough so i did fine was time to find thanks for the call from ohio. guest: this is the region i used to represent from the country -- of the country. i knew people like the color well. they do not wake up thinking about the mueller investigation or thinking about who is on top of the political fire or whether alexandria or take a course as -- who isria cortez my sports team going to play this weekend. that is more important to them on a daily basis. as we talked to them earlier, the problem we have in pushing this type of report where we talk about political reform, working together, and compromises, unfortunately, the people you see on television

pontificating in the public domain do not generally speak for people like neil. they are speaking for people on political extreme because that is what the people choose to cover at this time. mahoney county, trump really over performed there as opposed to republicans in the past. i think a lot of this was a rebellion. democrats were moving toward the cities, new york times readers, and weren't talking to these people. donald trump connected with these people at least in the last election. are not benefiting from arising american economy to a great extent. there is a huge alienation and this will be a battleground in the next election. guest: that is where the next election will be decided. that type of voter. host: our conversation this morning about gridlock and partisanship this morning and how to fix it. we're talking with tom davis, former representative from fromnia, and jason altmire

pennsylvania to the report is from the center -- presidency congress. fixing a deadlocked system is the title of that report. the presidency.org. we are taking your calls. waiting in tampa bay, florida, republican, you are next. caller: good morning. thank you so much. a lot of the speaking this morning is just so true. each of the to ask gentlemen if they remember prior to the 2016 election, before president obama left office, he andcommissioned a study signed into his mandate or his and how it the brain processes information that it hears. also, i would like to ask them if you remember the quote on the

television when mrs. obama left , sayingith her husband now that president trump has been elected, all hope is lost. thank you. i don't remember her saying that it a lot of people did say it. this is a polarized country. a lot of republicans did when obama was elected. it is a divided opinion p or we have bubbles of people who have similar worldviews who hang around with friends and neighbors and watch the media validate those worldviews. a we walk through, it is just very polarized thing. i don't think anyone is wearing a white hat in terms of reaching out and trying to be inclusive. that is one thing we're trying to get at. guest: as far as the study on how the brain works, i don't remember that, but tom and i have researched this from a political perspective for our different books. the fact that people have this cognitive dissonance where they

do see the world as they want to see it, they reject information that is different from their own point of view, they are very willing to accept very dubious information that seems to support their worldview, and that is a big problem in the political system when they are just unwilling to listen to the other side. host: your book, "dead center," and congress and davis' book, " congress in crisis," can you talk about -- >> i was a republican campaign chairman. we got thrown together on talk shows arguing with each other. we identified the underlying problems were the same. so we decided to write a book about it and try to explain why this actually makes sense when you underlying causes for the polarization here. would add that it is not unique to the united states.

it is going on around the globe at this point. .e have got to learn the world is struggling with this and the united states is struggling with this. guest: when i was in office, i was ranked to the national journal of having the most centrist voting record of anyone in congress. that is why i called the book "dead center." i felt the need to talk about what it is like in that position, to be someone who looks at the world from center and reaches out to both sides and the pros and cons of that politically and from a legislative perspective. i felt i had a unique story to tell. joseph is next, if, new york, a democrat. a question that may seem odd. what is being treasonous?

the congressmen varioustors have stated conclusions that are treasonous. thanks for the question. i think these words get overused and hyped up. i don't think anyone i am aware of in congress or the executive ranch is close to anything treasonous at this point p or is basically when you are comport -- point. treason is basically when you are importing with another government. as i said, we are in an atmosphere where bad behavior gets rewarded. the more outrageous you are, the more likely you are to get up on cable news. guest: this is an example of the problem we are trying to address. the rhetoric becomes so heated and you throw terms like "

treasonous" around. it is a capital offense. that is unfortunate that we had a caller earlier talking about confronting people she disagrees with. .reason is a very high bar coordinating with the foreign entity to overthrow your government to that is very different than having a dispute in the political realm. host: you are on this program today but how often do you go on cable talk shows these days? guest: i haven't in the last few months because it has gotten so polarized but i have done a fair amount. hundreds if not in the dozens over time. i did a lot in congress. writing the book, i did a fair amount of it. when you go on these shows, they want to know what you're going to say sometimes and if you are going to fill what their messages of the day and i'm an independent thinker and that is not for me. guest: i go on the shows pretty often and usually they want you

to conform to whatever their message happens to be. i'm a democrat but i come from a centrist perspective and they often want me to play the far left. host: who is "they"? guest: they will tell you the subject and want to know what point of view you are coming from. sometimes as a democrat, i agree with the position they would like to guest to take and sometimes i don't. and i say i can't go on tv and say that because i don't agree with it. host: what do they say when you tell them that question mark guest: -- that? guest: thanks for your time. you very much. i want to comment on the conversation that is being had today. i do think there is a little bit of a false narrative that your guests are pushing and that is inherent in the question. think that people in the united states are really together on the fact that they are not being represented by

either party. the fact that you know, partisanship and gridlock only the sense of what is trying to be done for the ordinary person. when something needs to be done arecorporations, there people, the parties are able to work together and get things accomplished and get bills passed. really, it is a how mucher problem, domestic companies and corporations are able to influence our election. i truly wish you would talk about that much more than the russian-ish -- the russia issue. i don't think any american out there actually believes that russia influences our elections more than all of the money coming in and effecting it care i wanted to call and say that

and hope you could change the tone of the conversation and focus more on the loss of any representation for the average person in the united states. host: thanks for the call. the reportalk in about four things. the primary system and how that incentivized partisanship, the gerrymandering reform issue we talked about, the idea that partisan media and people's willingness to accept points of view is affected by that, and the fourth is campaign finance reform. it is a big part of what we talk about. there is a restriction on being able to deal with that on the federal level because the supreme court has equated's -- free speech with money. the issue at the state level has been dealt with in the variety of what -- of ways. some states have put limits on campaign contributions. some have and money from referendums coming out of the state, in a variety of different ways, banned foreign contributions, that is pretty

much across the country. we are trying as best we can within the parameters of what is realistic and what is legal within the supreme court's ruling to deal with the issue that money in politics is a big problem. the caller is correct that we have to find a way to deal with that. guest: corporate contributions have been illegal for federate -- federal candidates over 100 years ago. this came after teddy roosevelt was exposed for taking corporate contributions and then came back and worked with the representative from south bill.na who sponsored the corporate contributions have been banned directly. now they can give through super pac's. the corporation's powers are not just limited to that. i had a lot of corporations in my district. their welfare was important. we can see amazon coming into all these different cities around the country and the cities are embracing and trying to get this country -- company

because of the jobs. the tax breaks it rings so you can pay for other programs. i think understanding how corporations work is an important part of governance. having been chairman of the of the largest county of virginia, fairfax county, if you did not have a tax base, you could not feed the hungry or have a good school system here you couldn't have a good police force. over and above the dollar influence, and they didn't give much money at least in the local election, it is important for the government understanding how -- where the money comes from. corporations are big part of that. i think that is not understood by the average american. guest: another thing that is not understood is the difference between individual contributions and political action committee, corporate legal action committee contributions. not to be confused with the super pac's that tom was just talking about. individual contributions have been found to be more partisan in the donor passes intent. they are more polarized in their

philosophy. where as the political action committee, which is more about access, having a voice, working with people currently in office. when you think about the different sources of money, if your goal, as ours is, is to reduce the level of polarization, you have to look at individual contributions as well because that is a big part of the problem. host: on sources and amounts of money, what about virginia laws? since you came up through virginia state politics, as i understand it, you can contribute as much as you want p or you just have to disclose all of your donors in virginia. is that one way of letting people know question mark -- know? guest: i figured is better than what we have nationally. dark money, they don't know where they get that money.

for the 501(c) 42 coming to virginia, they have to disclose who their donors are. virginiatay out of politics but everything else is there p can take money from anywhere. look, what i would do if my opponent was raising a lot of money from sources i thought were inappropriate, i would go after her contributions. and say this is who she is beholden for. congress,lection for my opponent took a ton of money from labor unions, hundreds of thousands of dollars, and voted against nafta. i was a strong supporter of nafta. we hung it around her head caret we said she is bought and paid for. you're not going to get a deal on free trade. host: is disclosure more important than contribution limits? guest: i think so. i think voters are smart enough. contribution limits, individuals can spend as much of their own money as they want on campaigns. people they limit on everyone

else, you are just advantage the very wealthy. i think sunlight is the best disinfectant. brad is a republican, good morning. morning.ood another good conversation about fixing the gridlock in washington, d.c. this is happening again today, as the media is pushing just the foolishness. is run by the people that actually vote for them and not the media, because the media actually is running the dnc, we are going to have the electorate being manipulated that is why you get the gridlock and the partisanship, and then we all -- why were we are at are where we are at.

they have got to give the media the boot, ok? host: are you concerned about the media influence at all on republican leadership or republican committees? from 1955 to 1995, the house was controlled by the democrats alone. they controlled everything. happened to be in 1995, 1996, you happened to get fox news. fox news isst like the antichrist to these people. they are not. we are where we are at today, because we have been manipulated since the start of the media inception. the democrats know it. just like the gentleman said that, if he doesn't conform to what they want him to say on the shows, they won't even let him on.

being the media has manipulated the people for so long that they basically have taken control of a party. host: that is spread in minnesota. fort: one of the reasons fox's success is they represented a different point of view then you got in the mainstream media, which i think tries to be fair. they've that the news. it is a question of what stories they choose to cover. these people, many of them come out of the same cloth, they go to the same types of schools and come from the same zip codes and have the same worldview. i think in their own way, they believe they are being objective. is their worldview that gets established in this. that works until it does not. withame up and walked away a ton of viewership from people who wanted to hear a different perspective. , inow the new york times know all of these reporters,

they are good people and smart people and they write these stories. there, for a story the most part, i can look at this as pretty factually based. where the biased -- the bias comes in is what stories they choose to cover versus what stories they choose not to cover. in researching my book, the caller is exactly right that in the mid-1990's, fox came on the scene and there was a study that was done that researched the different markets. fox didn't just appear across the country all at the same time. they appeared in individual markets as they grew throughout the country. research -- a research study was done that study the voting trends with in the markets that and thoseed in, markets did have voters that voted more republican over time. i'm not saying that is a good thing or a bad thing. that did affect the political activism of a certain constituency within the district. there is no doubt that media has an effect on people's

partisanship and their enthusiasm. i just would hope they would use it a little more responsibly instead of getting people angry and fired up and wanting to challenge the other side sometimes in a way that goes beyond an appropriate way. and debate issues in a more civil manner. guest: we are picking on cable news. they are only a small portion of the public that watch cable news. most people get their news this way, over the internet. craft to content ratio coming over the internet is very high. there are no filters. i get things forwarded to me by people all over that i have no idea if it is true or not. sometimes you know it is not true. what people walk away believing this because it validates what they want to believe. key point. is a if you think about the fact that we have 225 million voting age population in this country and on any given night, if you add up the viewership of fox, cnn, msnbc, it is about 7 million people.

in a nation of 225 million voting age population. so it is a very small portion of the population. that that is what you see and hear if you are interested in politics. andrew is next in tennessee, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning. i just have a couple of points i want to bring up. first, i was so disappointed came out with his report, no collusion and no obstruction. butxcept the no collusion disappointed when president trump came out then the kid himself completely -- a vindicating himself completely of any and all charges, which is typical of mr. trump. he madet to myself, that brief statement and then immediately went on the attack of democrats and the media.

takehe says democrats, i that personally. i am not looking at the representatives. to continue dividing the country. ifhought wouldn't it be nice he was more gracious, came out and said look, let's put this want the whole report to be seen, there is nothing to be hidden, and let's get reunited. that intry is so divided have fears of civil war. i am afraid for my children and grandchildren. point. was my first i miss having a really intelligent, well spoken president, somebody whose job is to represent all of us, to care about the entire country, regardless of political party. who was the last president in your mind that did that? caller: i think president obama.

i don't think he was always successful. i think a lot of that is because of fox news. i was tilted the exact opposite. we all know that is trump tv now. but in my mind, he was very spoken, andery well of course, i am a democrat but to me, the always tried to unite the country. guest: i think that says it all. i think she speaks sincerely and passionately and represents a substantial view in the country. i was not disappointed that the report came out and showed no collusion p i was relieved. i don't root for my president to be taken down, whether it is president obama or president trump. but i think you have a lot of people out there, this has almost become a football match with blue jerseys versus red jerseys. that is not the way we want this country to begin. but i understand her point of view. i would add there were a lot of people who thought president

obama was a very polarizing figure. for donald trump, he spoke directly to them and spoke more to their values. that is part of the problem. i am not going to defend every -- every comment president trump has made. he is a tremendous marketeer. he speaks directly. some people like the style and some don't. in my upscale suburban district, it probably did not sell as well as in a lot of other areas. but we have to be rooting for the president and not against him. the caller in this case shows the divide we have in this country. i appreciate her call. host: she said when president trump said democrats, i take that personally. guest: it is unfortunate for the conversation we are trying to have in issuing this report we are talking about, on political civility and reform of the government, that we do have a president and that is in all likelihood the most polarizing political figure this country has ever seen, one of them.

in part due to his own behavior but also in part due to the polarization we have seen and the political environment in the country. on the dominant figure political scene to an extent that i don't think we have seen recently. so yes, he behaves in a manner that is very different than anyone we have seen in the public scene for a very long time. but that doesn't necessarily mean that that is the root of all evil. the fact is that of the political system we are talking about has been broken for a very long time. what we are trying to talk about our ways to fix it. mistrust and the between parties was very well represented by that color and a few other colors we have had. to voiceery right their opinion. we are simply saying we feel the moderate and centrist voice should be heard as well. i don't think trump is the cause of this polarization. i think he is a manifestation of it. host: time for just a couple of

more callers in this segment. robert in brookland is a republican. go ahead. caller: it has been a while. the economy is doing so good. the deficit keeps on ballooning. the second concern also is [indiscernible] [phone ringing] host: we will let you get to your call. guest: like it or not, i think the numbers are pretty good right now. heads thatse talking predicted five of the last two recessions. they are always looking at some gloomy news, but when you look at unemployment and the way the country is doing, it is very well right now. guest: it is the longest sustained period of job and economic growth we have seen.

caller's question about annual deficits and the national debt, that is in part why the economy is doing so well. if you continue to charge things you willedit card, stimulate growth and financial activity. at some point, the bill comes due. that is when the problem arises. guest: someone will sit in the oval office at that point and take a hit for decisions made long before them. host: go ahead. caller: thank you. these gentlemen hit the nail on the head right here. because you are right. exactly. fox news and these people out here are doing this for attention. they doing this for, if there is negativity against people of color, they going to top of -- talk about that. they interfere with anybody who has something different to say in their opinion about someone else. those -- you have got to bring them back to what they said this morning, whatever they say, we have the best audience because these people speak the truth.

bring somebody on here [indiscernible] back,ng black men in the black women on the street, and coming out here and nobody is doing nothing about it. as soon as a white kid or somebody get hurt, they will pass a law to protect them. you ought to see the violence going on in our street. this is very bad. a black man got shot in the back [indiscernible] a white man walked up with a gun and he shot a man. this is bad. ask them about this. thank you for being on the show. host: we haven't talked about race and identity politics. guest: look, i hate to have political parties revolved around ethnic and racial and tribal groups. i think that is more akin to something you will see in the middle east and south america than what we would like to see in the united states but that is the way it has evolved. this speaker speaks for a lot of

people who look at america one way. a lot of people in other parts look at it a different way. what we need our unifier's at this point. but the voters don't seem to reward unity at this point. they reward polarization. host: who is the unifier and 2020 question mark -- 2020? jason talk foret the democrats. i like john kasich to he has reelected 70% of the vote in ohio and was able to talk to everybody. the left and the right didn't like him particularly, but you have -- in colorado. some members out there. the former governor of pennsylvania was pretty good in terms of really a governance guy. he talked to everybody, he was more fact-based. those governors i think are fewer and farther between than he to be. but i think that is what the country needs. how do you get through the nomination process in a very polarized nominating primary

process for people who express this wide view? if you get to the democratic caucus and say i want to work for republicans -- you change votes. host: unfortunately -- you havefortunately, to get through the primary process. 14, 16, 18 potential candidates in the race will have to appeal to the far left extreme. , politicalis next reform, fixing a deadlocked system question mark -- system? guest: there is a group to talk about reform and we will work with those groups to put --ether a sizable at constituency. guest: i think we will see what we can figure out. this is complex stuff. it is easy to echo the platitudes and what has to happen. as we have seen in politics, for other -- for every action, there is a reaction. host: