the the on nuclear safeguards, and it is russian combating isis in syria and iraq. then, senator lindsey graham and representative doug collins at at the republican national lawyers association. on c-span3, a look at how the domestic political climate in the u.s. is affecting policy and national security. coming up on today's "washington journal," a look at the potential economic impact of president trump following through with closing the u.s.-mexico border with daniel griswold from the mercatus center. after that, national security attorney mark zaid talks about the security clearance process. and later, transportation consultant bruce schaller joins

us to discuss new york city becoming the first major city in the u.s. to charge a congestion fee on the "washington journal" for april 5, president to the mexico head to lasll later vegas for a fundraiser. that the law ays is on their side for the request returns.ax joe biden makes an appearance today in washington, d.c. for a speech. that at 11:15 a.m. today. on c-span. that job reports are expected to show solid gains. here's how you can call and let think.w what you

202-748-8001 for democrats. if you want to go to social need at the post thoughts your twitter feed, you can do so and make comments on our facebook page. the president's tax returns its is the -- it is house ways of the and means committee that looks at that. highlights on post the chairman it is invoking a 1924 l that gives the i.r.s. wig room. the tax returns are subject to that access to the president's tax records along

with records of i.r.s. treatment of them was necessary to determine the scope of any i.r.s. examination of the returns.'s tax looking at the political ituation of this, it was the house speaker, nancy pelosi commenting on the request of the tax returns. part of her argument from yesterday. and means request under has never been denied -- has never been denied. ways and means has invoked the course y in the normal of its oversight of tax dministration many times before. so, we are, again, honoring the constitution. like every time you turn o, we around, the power causes cancer, i associate my remarks with chairman grassley, it is an

idiotic statement. let's rise to a level of presidential in all of this. us the mueller report. how us the tax returns, and away because ing you said no the first time around. host: that's one of the topics of consideration. for the nt to call us tax away because you returns, you can talk about the president's trip to the u.s.-mexico bored issues, particular -- border issues, particularly what the past few days. joe biden, again, making a in washington after earlier posting the video about personal space and the like. can see that at 11:15 a.m. the march jobs report comes out later today. 202-748-8002.

rber writes for "politico." investigations for a living. he says this about the democrats. while it is true 65103-f, it code way with isted in a congress's constitutional authority. he supreme court said that congress has brought authority. kilbournv. thompson, congress can't use congress to delve into financial matters unless there is a purpose. writes, so the legal question will be is congress's purpose in the president's tax legitimate? congress can't mrausably argue authority of its since others have claimed that he house is conducting its

impeachment inquiry. congress's impeachment is vast, instead, it said that seeking the s president's tax returns included, but not limited to the extent to which the i.r.s. audits and enforces the federal president.ainst a there's more of that if you go to the political piece on its web site looking at this request from the house democrats. again, that, the president's california and other topics included in this first hour. robert starts us off in missouri. robert, good morning, go ahead. caller: how are you? host: fine, thanks. saying about just hitler and joe mccarthy and nixon, you know, these

believe in the three flipping, flopping, and, these people harm cause people removes them from hour. seeing the same thing with trump. leads the right wing. to the when it comes president, what do you think about his trip to california today? caller: it is another conflict ust like mccarthy did in the 1950's about the communist thing used to say sterilize to keep from breeding. nixon did the same thing. mary in 's go to washington state. morning. democrats line. caller: joe biden has respect

makes sureple and he that he gets it, and he is good at publics. politics. e's always been a very good politician. and he's concerned about doing and s right for everybody, he gets along with everybody. host: what do you think about apology he's had to made about how he treats personal joe when it comes to biden? caller: i think if they wanted that -- ifhing about they didn't like something he did, why didn't they say it at time? they are just doing it now because he's running for have ent, and they would -- it is not a big thing. it would not bother me at all for someone to do something like that. something would be modest. it would be wrong, and it should -- and that should have been done at the right time too.

he meant anything by it. he cares about everybody. meant anything in the wrong way. host: do you think if the former vice president president runs for the 2020 election, do you issue for will be an part of his campaign? aller: i hate to say that i think it ought to be blown over. think -- it is not compared to trump. trump.nothing at all like it is a friendly thing that he called since it has been to his attention, he will not do there were because certain ones that didn't approve of it. he wants to do what's right by the people. drop] host: okay.

the vice president gives a washington, d.c. 11:15 ill be at is 1: -- this morning, if you want to see c-span.o i'm not sure of the comments he will make. he might address -- [audio drop] 11:15 this morning on c-span. this ont page shows how is. [audio drop] [ joe, well come back, video in which the former vice president addressed his history of whom al comment some of have come forward in recent weeks that made them

uncomfortable. video in hands appears on his cartoonish d then a image of mr. biden's head comes the back of the vice president's head. again, that is president trump's twitter. he president is going to california today. democrats vice president's hea. terry is up next. hi. caller: hi. on, go ahead. heard.: my voice be almost rently paying of a $2,000 a t anthem blue or cross and in california it takes of the rest of my premium

for anthem blue cross. here ere are five doctors that will not see me with that insurance. i believe in medicare for all. nose up an turn their and their back away from who are paying for premiums they can barely afford to live with. host: what do you think about statement nt's earlier this week about pulling ack from making whole-sale changes to the affordable care act? caller: you know, he's going to whatever he thinks he's going to do, and i don't even want to about him because it just my mindset. from okay. want to see a level-playing field.

how long they and have had total health care for everybody. host: okay. terry in california. peaking of california, if you go to the web site of calexco chronicle, it covers the resident's trip. go to they say that the trip comes immigration and tru statement to close the bored. 2.2 mile border barrier was foot barrier.a 20 the project completed in fall of 2018 was initiated under the obama administration in 2009, did not begin n until 2018 under the trump

administration. of the $18 million octoberwas marked by an 22 visit by the home lan -- homeland secretary neilson. florida, rom independent line, stan. hello. when he starts paying -- trump has over he texts.en that and he became president. so biden, as far as his tax he's using the mon log piggy country club as a bank for him. host: why do you think it is to see the tax returns? caller: because he said it a ton of money off of saudi arabia.

think he's the worst president i've ever seen. he's only the president of the republican party. he does not want to expand his base. has alzheimer's. sometimes i can't understand a he says. host: another comment about the tax returns came from the minority leader of the tax returns. >> the democrats decided the day after the election they would not accept it. we put america through 22 the s of you know tatistics of 40 agents, 19 attorneys, going to 13 other countries, and they came back couldn't create something they tried to make up. so what do they do now? power of he government. the fear that every american

has. the government that has become so strong if they don't grooe you. -- agree with you. hen will they accept the last election? do we really want to have a body hat goes after people's i.r.s. reports simply because you politically disagree with them? the president provide every financial statement that they for president? yes. why do they use this? american they put the public first? why won't we start talking about the problems we have. why won't we produce legislation instead of resolution. this is all about politics. site,if you go to the web you can see what richard neil says. he was the one asked for tax returns. about his returns. asked if he would release his returns.

the road.ure, down that's nothing. quote, i've done that in the way., by the mr. neil's office did respond to a roll call and survey found no release of his tax return. they asked five separate times copies. the congressman rebuffed each request. jump in e should together. guessing some future release appropriate.e quote, i think that's the best it."to approach anna is next from texas, democrats line. good morning. thank you for taking my call. i just see because the hypocrisy of the democrats the republicans when donald trump has said awful things about women. about bragged about

everything and it is excused whchlt a democrat does something, it is the worst thing in the world. it is all political and it fall me that people can for the lies. there's hundreds and thousands of lies that he tells every day. host: you're speaking of joe this? when you talk about caller: no, i'm talking about donald trump. joe biden, they are making this big deal because he has do and t most people accept that you hug and ympathetic with people and not that you're just doing it for creepy reasons but some people some people don't. and -- and they are making it -- making it seem like he's this creepy old man that feel on touch and people, and that is not the case. is doing.t what he

host: you don't think it is inappropriate? caller: no, because if you look people d watch it, most -- everybody hug. if you're looking at this they are showing right now, other people are shaking their and hands and it is no big deal, and up see these people walking to joe buyed anded -- joe biden getting close because they want to take pictures of him. i don't understand. have donald trump bragging about going in and touching and feeling and having people are constantly -- women are paidantly talking about he for sex. he's a married man, twice he is, the d here president of the united states a pervert.ting like i'm sorry. host: that's anna from texas.

hear from another texan. his is tony from bedford, texas, republican line. caller: thanks for taking my call. i really, really love c-span. ryan out of ohio i think is running for president on the democratic side. wondering if i could ask you a couple of questions because you know i'm a me.blican, but it interests isn't he a moderate democrat? host: he's been on the show several times. he has varying positions on many things, but go ahead. caller: i'm trying to understand the guy. he running on public money or is he backed by special interests. do you know? host: those are questions, i characterize the nature of mr. ryan's campaign. go to cspan web site

if you go to the search box right there, type in tim ryan, in 2020 campaign, toip in how many yan to see times he's been on this program. to cross check tim ryan on social security or something comes up, you would find out more than i could tell you right now. i will answers the question and another reason why i love c-span. host: there is a story taking a look at tim ryan's campaign say the headline says he can appeal to all democratic factions. that ryannik writing, ended speculation, saying those who voted for donald trump and and got chaos and no plan and instability are for somebody they can connect with. i've been to wisconsin,

michigan, and ohio. ryan said that some of the voters, it is not hat they -- that they love trump. it was about coal mines and steel mines. believed it if they but he's the only one who focused on it. worse, i think the economy has started to soften. when it comes to plant. says in this story he is living -- leaving sun for iowa weekend. was last he will plan to speak wednesday in washington, d.c., he'll in new hampshire and fundraiser in florida. the vindicator web site to find out more. talk about the vice president's speech today or concerning former vice president biden. the president will visit the

and the jobs ed report is expected to come out this request and by the democrats for the all dent's tax returns of are up for discussion. in virginia, independent line, we'll hear from steven. hello. caller: thank you for having me on. illegals at the border were russians, do you think the nuts?licans would go host: why? aller: if the legals comes across, would they be upset? i think they would lose their minds. if congress wants to show, wants the president's taxes, then show yours first. i would love to see nancy's and

taxes.chumer's host: what about the president's border.closing the what do you think about that? to do what ill have he has to do. he illegals are flooding the schools, police departments, and fire departments. they can't keep up with the illegals living in my neighborhood. don't have this. our neighborhoods do. live with out of state tags and three or four families. victoria, oregon is next. democrats line. aller: who does the president nominate for the federal reserve? this guy who has had four women and he had to pay has ements and also nondisclosure agreements, and jeffrey out with

epstein and the guy accused of young girls and calling them prostates. i'm surprised that the evangelicals are behind him. profile of the front page of the "wall street president's latest herman kaine.nate selection -- the "wall street journal" writes that he nominate his former campaign supporter. this story asks that mr. cain of directors rd for kansas city in 1992. board's chairman. he earlier served as the the kansas feds omaha. e was the chairman of

godfather's pizza, and before he led the national restaurant association after that. it goes on for more of the profile of that. hen it comes to other appointments, the president is ending out on his twitter feed saying that i'm pleased to nnounce that he will be nominated as the new small business administrator. linda l be replacing mcmahon who has done an outstanding job. look forward to her joining my cabinet. gary from tennessee in nashville, independent line. caller: good morning, and thank god we live in a country where and say sometimes our country is wrong. wonder if maybe the current so-called crisis, or the immigration may not e called perhaps because --

might be caused perhaps because up.threat of the wall going people are going maybe we should they put upw before the wall. addressuld also like to slebts t that we idlize idolize celebrities and smoking ry i love a, and, anyway, my country, but we could do better. ost: the president travels to california to examine part of the wall, which i told you about. headline of the deadline hollywood, it talks bout a fun raiser he will take part in while he's on that trip.

from that web site. it says the president will head depoc for his 2020 campaign. air force 1 is expected to touch at 3:15 p.m. this afternoon marine corps one from beverlyd then travel to hills for the fundraiser at 4 p.m. in the afternoon. 405 will see white street - wide spread closers. more of that from the deadline hollywood web sight. from texas, republican line. aller: yeah, the reason i called in was because you read something in the paper a while go about the guy running for president that the economy was

soft. the economy seen booming like it is booming right now. busy.ever been this the other comment i wanted to make is don't you think if the a tax problem, the i.r.s. would have already known about it and we would have heard about it? host: let me go back to your first one. ou say you've never been as busy. what do you do? he hung up. let's go to shirley in ohio, democrats line. in mansfield.o caller: yes, i didn't hear my name. c-span.o much for you give us small people a voice. comment on vice president joe biden. i love the man. he's not the only one i ever publics. i loved a lot of republicans also. i had a great amount of respect lot of people. i had respect for paul ryan not ase showed me he was strong as i thought he was. think how, i don't

anything wrong with what joe biden is doing. he's a touchy, feely type of person. i think if he runs for it.sident, he will get also donald trump, i feel for him a lot of times because the eople that surround him, they have no good intentions. they are in it for themselves. of these people that he's complimenting when that they've done oo oo -- done a great job, why aren't they still there? disservice to donald trump for what they've done for him. that's what i would like to say. thank you. host: that's shirley. again, the former vice president at 11:15 a.m.t at joe buyed n's biden's former boss, president obama. he defends the former vice in the face of a .ounting political

e said he is standing behind biden, among the seven president , quote, obama thinks the world of him nd thinks he would be an excellent president. one source close to president obama who spoke to him, saying spent an infinite amount f time talking about his character and remain in touch but so far president obama has back on talking about the atest events, leaving unclear if the surrounding controversy around biden could be an exception. new rochelle, new york, republican line. caller: good morning. i'd like to talk about donald trump. verybody says they think it is about donald trump, but they never point to the good things. this country.for no president ever did it. this is not fair.

no no like donald trump matter what he's doing they things about d him. did clinton did? they should -- they should look them. this guy, he's a genius. this is terrible. this country -- what is this country come to? get so upset. those democrats, they should see border. good at the what do they want? to getrandchildren going killed with drug and everything? host: what did you think of the comments on the border saying that he is looking at shutting it down. caller: yes. he protects our children. he protects us. is right. he does everything. thank god he is a strong president.

he's not a politician. politicians know how to talk. he don't know how to talk. host: okay. york.is antonio in new the president himself referencing trade actions he's onsidering in dealing with mexico's border along the united states. comments from yesterday. here here they are. >> if the drugs don't stop, mexico can stop them if they the we are going to senator from the cars, the cars are very big. we will oesn't work, close the borders. that's massive numbers of dollars. if we don't see people apprehend and brought back to their countries. we see the massive kara advance coming up, coming right nothing.exico like buses are even given to them. hasn't three days it happened since i said we're closing the border. thing frankly better ut lass drastic than closing

the border is to tariff the cars coming in. it.know i'll do i don't play games. we will give them a one-year the drugs don't stop, or largely stopped, we're to put tariffs on mexico and products, in particular, cars. cars.ole ballgame is it is the big ballgame with many countries it is cars. doesn't stop the drugs, we close the border. host: those comments also available if you want to search but you can talk it -- talk about the president's to the u.s.-mexico border, thedemocrats pushing to see tax returns, former president joe biden expected to make a today and the march jobs report is out today. you can call to comment on that.

forecasters expect to report gains, the labor department releases its monthly report on unemployment. analysts expect to show u.s. 150,000 s added between to 2-00,000 jobs last month. improvement from february. there was a slow down for the months when jobley month growth average it 2 -- 233,000. that comes out in an hour. we'll show you those numbers through. come jerry in new jersey, democrats line. hi, a couple of things i wanted to comment on. biden goes, you have to realize. i'm listening to other democrats. to realize that his own democrats are trying to take him out of the race.

you can see it. is just like what hillary clinton did to bernie sanders. they are putting this to try to get him to not run. they don't want him in the race. a party of joe biden. that's what the democrats don't realize. radical in there. harris or amila booker. they want different people. they don't want joe biden. wake up.rats, this is a very corrupt party. they are literally eating their own. please, wake up. that's number one. umber two, as far as the immigrants go, these are illegals. please, i want people to not lump it all together. wonderful.gration is people are trying to come in the right way. i want them to come in the right way. but these are illegals are, and i committed a crime, i would be jail. we americans don't stand a prayer. we're in jail if we do something

wrong. so it is amazing. and as far as the debt, you listen to the democrats, they debt, but yet they are willing to pay these illegal's schooling and medical it is costing the country money. so the debt is probably really majority of -- really the majority is to pay for the illegals. okay. that is jerry in new jersey. she mentioned the presidential campaign. if you go to "u.s.a. today" ofre is a break down of some the money that these early candidates have raised, starting sanders raising $13.2 million in the first of his presidential bid. it started with $14 million in the total to ging $32 million. harris said that her campaign $12 until in the first 2019. months of

budadech said that his ampaign raised more than $7 million this year and the former has not resentative but sed his first quarter, said that his campaign raised a 4 million without taking dime from lobbyists, pacs, or corporations. of that is on the" u.s.a. today web site." on wisconsin, green bay, the democratic line. caller: hi. am i on? host: you are. my comment is on biden, and i believe he should be the because he -- he's a person -- ae person compassionate person, and i be --he could just really he's good. he's compassionate.

-- if he doesn't have compassion, you don't have -- president.have a this is how i look at it. couple ahead of -- that was on your -- your show, the lady said that trump did so much. wisconsin, we're losing farms because of him, are - and different stores being closed and he is lousy for wisconsin. i've got to say. host: the national section of new york times looks at as a potential battleground state, looking like toss up, saying that to showingthe blue wall is gains in michigan and pennsylvania both of which trump captured in 2016.

republicans had long held pittsburgh, in wisconsin, the apparent laws of judge hagodornrt leads. strategists in both parties said, saying that 2020 ate is a toss up in and its political identity is in flux. wisconsin's reputation as a battleground state is well 2020 and the and its recent elections and 2016, wisconsin had less than st margin, 1% in each election. agnes in georgia, republican line. hi, i was calling to ind out in the law that they passed after the cuban debacle set one foot in the nited states, they are given

asylum. that was passed, i guess, by the congress way back then. i was wondering why president trump can't put a ban on that and, you know, the one foot in the united states law is canceled while until they get the border under control. host: you mean the wet foot, dry foot policy? caller: yes. host: i don't have an answer for you. i will give the answer for a lot of people if they are interested. again, if you go to the web ite, you type in in the box at type inof the web site, wet foot, dry foot, it will show relates to that and how it applies to others. in the many years, 40 of them that have been in existence.

line, democrats line, jeffrey. hello. caller: yes. morning?you doing this thank you for having me c-span. -- c-span. show. your i would leak to comment on the democrats wanting to raise the wage to $15. you double the minimum wage, and double the price of everything in the economy. disparity between the minimum wage workers and people on the job making $13, 15 -- $15 an hour, if they do that it will hurt sh. -- everybody. border, people are coming in illegally. state, i k a law in my have to pay the price. these people are breaking the they coming here but don't have to pay the price and it is all because the democrats

flat-out battle. they've got to change the rules so they can win, and that's the are going to get the presidency back, i think. say.'s all i have to thank you. host: that's jeffrey in north of when it comes to is es, they said it withdrawing the nomination as he trump administration grapples with a massive inincrease in southern border easy solution.no the paperwork was sent to members of congress on thursday the decision was unexpected and met with confusion. vatela was scheduled to l travel ith the president but about will not travel with him but director.in as officials said it was a issue.ork they were not informed ahead of the time and the people had

letter nowledge of the but not able to speak publicly associated the press on condition of anonymity. texas, independent line. caller: good morning, america. i give trump four more years and is. you find out who he i was calling to talk about the sex scandal. catholic and they raked this over the coals. playing whack a mole with trump. got medicaid and real initiatives to roll back i guess we have to bail out the banks again. how the farmers going to do and hope everybody survives the floods. one more thing about the teachers in atlanta when they for tooif years i think it was because of test

scores -- okay. that is thomas in texas. the hill, if you go to its web looking at the president's personal view when it comes to comes to icy when it wet foot and dry foot. you can go to the hill to read there. in kentucky, lundon, kentucky. next, republican line. caller: yes, sir. host: hi. you're on. edr o. good morning, p caller: good morning. caller: happy 40th i believe it is. host: yes it is. i have a question. it is kind of a civics question.ional as i understand it, you can be a be naturalized but to be president you're supposed to be natural born. that is in dy be speaker of the house, which will be third in

line to be the president? that's been on my mind for a while. ask you why you're be speaker thinking about that. caller: well, i don't know. couple of shows back, last week or something, they were talking, there were eople calling in saying that you should be a natural born congress.o be in nd i -- i just got on my mind and it is been many years since i had a civics class so i -- to running through my mind. what would happen? ould that be a constitutional crisis if they voted somebody in to be speaker of the house and them to be up for the president and they weren't natural born? just a question. host: got you. o, er: another thing, p edr thank you, sir. is what are these idiots in going to do -- it is obvious they can't do basic math $22 trillion in debt. what are they going to do with

returns? trump's tax and -- host: do you think -- do you hink they should get access to those tax returns? caller: no. host: why not? well, they are upset because donald trump was a and wanting a -- this, living ong the government like all the have been.presidents so -- host: why does that relate to president's tax returns themselves? caller: it is none of their business. if they have a reason -- if they crime, go after it. do it. i mean, if they've got something do it, but not just a fishing expedition. host: okay. kentucky calling. we have about 15 minutes left. edition tax returns up for consideration, the president's trip to the border, about what you might expect from the job reports in march and also again,

speech in washington. that will be later on this morning. on c-span. host: this is maggie writing headline, trump to vote on i.r.s. nominee. insisted that the confirmation of a tax lawyer california, rbara, was a drop priority after the bill, but thee tax request the president made aised questions about whether the president had other motivations. he said that he would obtain the tax returns from the i.r.s. and this week the house ways and committee chairman formally asked the i.r.s. for 6

returns.the in july when mr. desmond was considered by the finance bloomberg said that he advised the trump issues.ation on tax a spokesman for mr. desmond told held a g that he had discreet recording matter for a subsidiary that was resolved impact.tax in private practice, mr. desmond side william nelson counsel to trump the trump organization. ou can go to the paper version of new york times for that. from dorothy in arkansas, independent line. caller: yes, i want to say that the taxes to for be gotten and it is time for taxes, get ten years of not 6 years. we need to know where the being how much being in the president has, and we've always known that, and that's the

favor of joe in kamala harris and mr. o'rourke. they make up the team that's the democratic side because we need character trump need to have more being -- on the character side. have that done away with. poor 't need anymore language and poor speech on the t.v. getting to bejust really bad to hear foul language on t.v. when it comes to the tax returns, what do you expect to learn if the returns from the are released? caller: i expect to learn, for being in because i am concerned about the trump amily making money off of the government just like they go round to different trump golf courses and being they have to pay all that money, and i am

about the being in. where does the being in -- i billionaire.e's a host: so is this the first president that you're concerned in?ut the previous being did you have concerns about revious presidents and examine those tax returns when they were released? caller: i was a 1988 delegate i remember we never had a roblem getting being in taxes from -- and being -- being a native of arkansas, and i ollowed clinton all those years, we never had any problems getting tax returns. that's dorothy in arkansas. in pinebluff, calling on our line, talking about he request by house democrats for 6 years -- 6 years, tax returns for the president making this request. joe, wood bridge, virginia, republican line. p edr o.ey, thank you for taking my call. just a couple of comments.

taxes.st on the i do not believe trump should release them. it don't think congress has the authority. this is another example of emocrats committing political terrorism against their political opponents, so i don't think that should go forward and think it will. on joe biden, i'm a father of four children. men now.grown but i think, as i was raising had young daughters, especially, and some man leaned n and put their hands on my daughter's shoulders or my wife's shoulders, sniffed their kissed the top of their head, i think i would punch them in the face. i know exactly we're debating whether this is behavior because it is. third, on the border, i would dvise president trump to do a couple of things. we have a crisis on the border because of congress, not because illegal ailens. congress has failed to act.

that's why president trump has declare a national emergency. i think the next step will be to law along the outhern border and give i.c.e. and our military personnel to arrest illegal ailens and deport the spot. host: joe, back to your first oint when it comes to the tax returns. why is it not important to know, a, how much is the president sources where did the of money come from? caller: i think it is valid for an one to say they have interest in, you know, how any candidate makes their money. there's nothing -- i mean there's nothing that says that listening and to idential candidate has release his tax records. o i'm not understanding the whole point of forcing a resident except that it is donald trump and the democrats have been committing political terrorism against president and his family since the day he took office. so i don't think it is a debate

know.ting to the debate is, is it legal? and it is not legal. a judge will rule that congress does not have the someone's o subpoena tax records without the existence of a known crime. host: okay. virginia.e in let's hear from the democrats line in maryland. hello. aller: thank you, p edr o, for taking my call. one thing people don't know, all people who come to america is because united states, for past 450 year -- for the years, they need people they need the farm, -- and they get paid nothing. to guatemala or honduras, most of the hand is the united states.

mines, the silver mines el salvador and multinational. their country is owned by the states. the united states needs cheap labor, that's why they encourage illegally.ome that's the only reason. people are bashing undocumented don't know they nothing about it. from that is a caller maryland talking about issues on the border. u.s. took my baby is the headline here. i'm the mother of three children. a month my youngest from my was separated -- from her father and me by the u.s. government.

reunited i would be with my daughter in a week, but irst i needed to fill out paperwork and provide a credit ard for her flight, an impossibility for me. officials refusioned to say who her.ooking after when a social worker put my daughter in her -- in my okay.hing would be she was so sick i had to take her to the doctor. resisted me,ks she fearful. she still cries out for her father at night. alone.i'm not 300,000 immigrants who have asked for help. john in pennsylvania, republican line. caller: hi. thanks for taking my call. c-span.y birthday, i wanted to make a comment.

barack obama? joe biden is getting ripped apart. why nt he -- isn't he defending this guy. he was his vice president for doesn't have d he the courtesy. oh, that's right. he was too busy before the to make all ut kinds of bad comments about the sitting president, which is this country.in year, ng to be 57 this i've never seen a past president go after the sitting president barack barack obama has done t trump. trump 2020, thank you. host: if you want to read comments of the former president, go to the hill web site. we showed you a story a bit ago taking a look at that. headline, obama is quiet as under attack. people have spoken with the former president about joe biden. so you can look at those comments at the hill web site.

in oklahoma, democrats line, last call. hear me?an you host: i can. you're on. caller: okay. thanks. c-span, for taking my call. wanted to just say the double tandards that -- that these republican people calling in talking about the taxes. and everyle candidate single president that we've had in our history has shown their taxes. the s because they are leader of the government. we are the government of the see e, the people need to that, you know, the president of taxesited states pays his like everybody else in the united states has to pay taxes. therefore that's one double standard. another one, the last guy on the about trump going -- obama going after trump. after obama way

before he became president and was running for president he was going after obama. go afterhad a right to trump. are just standards absurd. -- : the caller was talking about mer caller talked obama and biden. what do you think of that? to go after want anybody who is running for president, they want to bring up these issues about the me too movement and things of that nature. that's a double standard too. host: okay. ronald in oklahoma. that's the last call for this segment. several guests joining us. griswald ear from dan to talk about the economic southern uld the border be closed. next, laterk with us about white id,

house security experiences. those conversations coming up on "washington journal." >> sunday, on book tv. at noon eastern, in-depth is live with naomi parens for an interactive discussion on her career and latest books, " collusion, how central bankers rated the world." join our live conversations with phone calls and facebook questions. ward on thes, vicki careers of jared kushner andy ivanka trump and their roles in the trump administration in her book. formerinterviewed by a new york observer editor-in-chief.

>> donald trump, this is the dynamic, willing he become so much of an obstacle for him that he just has to let them go? he goes back and forth on this. he was furious with them when they misused emails because that is what he had gone after hillary clinton with. almost for him to say, john kelly get rid of them. it is theis that president who cannot pull the trigger on his own daughter, and then he seems to forget about it. onlodge book tv, sunday c-span two. day, douglashumana brinkley talks about his book american moonshot, john f. kennedy and the great space race. >> it goes back to fdr and

thought the new deal was too. but fdr did well was the on social security and things, he built the tba grand coulee dam. and eisenhower had the highway system. kennedy is thinking what is my big public works thing. he picked the right number, technology. the can to -- the computer chip gets developed in the 1950's. -- modern had aviation starts kicking in. runs in 1960nedy there are no computer science classes. by the time he is killed, they are everywhere. air travel is replacing automobile and plain travel -- train travel. airports are being developed. it was the jet and space age and kennedy grabbed onto it and made that the cornerstone of the new frontier. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern

on q&a. washington journal continues. serves asel griswold the trade immigration project codirector at the mercatus center and is joining us to talk about issues related to the border. what is the long-term and short-term impact if the border should be close? guest: huge for tens of millions of americans. new mexico is our number three trading partner and number two market for u.s. exports. day ins $1.5 billion a goods crossing the border. 15,000 trucks a day crossing the border. i have seen them lined up. half a million people across the border every day legally to work, to shop, to visit family. if the border was shut down it would be devastating for border communities. it would affect all of us. mexico is a major source of not only magnetic -- manufactured

goods. fresh produce, we get a lot of it from mexico, particularly avocados, cucumbers. americanrtantly, for production and supply chains and nowhere more important than the u.s. auto industry. 25 years of nafta has given us and into granted -- integrated north american manufacturing platform. cost moreparts that than seven or eight times the production of the car. you would the border, see manufacturing plants in the united states shutting down within a week. think of the ramifications that would habited the economy. theyll a lot for mexico, are the number two market, so u.s. manufactured goods would be affected. auto parts, car, agriculture, corn, meat and poultry. our farmers are dealing with a

lot. the pair incident -- the president's other tariff wars and the floods would be devastating to farmers. host: the president talked about of potential shutdown of the border and stepped back from that. yesterday he brought up the topic of cars and automobile parts. i want to listen to what he has to say about that. [video clip] >> if the drugs do not stop, we will tariff the cars. the cars are big. if that does not work we will close the border. i think that will work. that is massive numbers of dollars. if we do not see people apprehended and brought back to their countries and massive caravans coming up, right through mexico and coming right through mexico. buses are given to them. the last three days it has not happened since i said we are closing the border. the only thing better but less drastic than closing the border

is to tariff the cars coming in. i will do it. you know i will. i do not play games. we are doing it to stop people, we will give them a one year warning, and if the drugs do not stop or largely stop we will put mexico and products, in particular cars. the whole ballgame is cars. with many countries, it is cars. if that does not stop the drugs, we close the border. [end video clip] host: what is the result? guest: it would be negative. the president has put his finger on drugs and illegal immigration. we could talk about those all day. mexico iscars from the wrong approach. there is no connection, because our industries are so intertwined, he would really be taxing american producers. of our exports to mexico are

auto parts, and that comes back to the united states. itn you buy a car for mexico has a whole lot of american content. he is really taxing an important american industry, and violating a major privation of the proposed new ex-mexican, and canada agreement. the agreement has not been signed but we did sign a letter saying that we would not tariff mexican cars. he is already backtracking on that. what signal does that send to other countries that we want to negotiate on trade if he is so quickly backtracking on an important future. host: our guest until 8:30. if you want to ask him questions, 202-748-8001 for republicans. 202-748-8000 free democrats, and , 202-748-8002.s

state,se on a border 202-748-8003. it was in 2018 when the u.s. imported 3 million $42 in god. the shipments working prized 43% -- were comprised 33% of auto imports. have we seen a response from mexico or what do we suspect a response might be? guest: the president is saying that his tough rhetoric out them to cooperate. i think mexico has been cooperative. the mexican foreign secretary says they have not changed and continue to be cooperative on drugs and illegal immigration. there is only so much they can do. that is one of the other benefits of 25 years of nafta. games --eaped economic gains and a supply platform, but we have the best relation with

mexico we have had in our long 200 year history with mexico. they have been cooperative, and the left of center mexican president has been particularly responsive in wanting to work with the united states. they have been cooperative all along and i do not think anything has changed. i am glad the president backed off on that. host: does history teach us anything about border closures? guest: do you remember after september 11? the border slowed. president bush ordered that we redouble our checks, and there was slowing. it was not totally sealed, but we saw immediate results. some auto manufacturing line shut down because there could not get their parts. that shows you how sensitive the supply chain is. host: our first call from west virginia from carl in berkeley springs. republican line.

you are on. good morning. caller: good morning. i noticed that you mentioned all the negativity about the border. i will tell you some positive things. the main thing would be they would be more high-paying jobs in this country for american citizens. it would not cost us $100 billion a year to feed and clothe and give medical attention to those crossing. and the democrats would have fewer people voting for them. i could go on and on about the positives, but i'm sure you will have the negatives to tell me about. guest: thank you very much. there would be some industries that would gain if we shut the border, that would not represent a broad swath of america. we are so intertwined that it would affect the auto industry

and others. the u.s. chamber of commerce says that 5 million american jobs would be immediately affected. there have been studies done on the benefits of nafta and they tend to be towards places that voted for president trump, the upper midwest and agricultural communities. trade is a two way thing. you cannot just seal the border one way, it is sealed both way. americans1.5 million live in mexico. can they cross the border if it is sealed? it is a bad idea all around. host: melissa says that if you hit mexico with tariffs and shut the border she summarizes that america will survive economically. guest: we would survive. we survived the great depression, but we do not bring it on ourselves. if a foreign power tried to blockade our southern border, we would consider it an act of war. do we want to do it to ourselves with all the negative

implications that would happen? no. let us let trade go forward. it is good for us and them. let us deal with real problems in a cooperative spirit not a confrontational spirit and we are threatening broad devastation and pain on both sides. host: from arnold in missouri. you are next. guest: good morning -- caller: good morning and thank you. him, when i to ask worked in 1964, all automobile manufacturing was made in the united states including parts, before nafta. when we had nafta a lot of jobs went to mexico. wet makes them think that cannot manufacture parts in the united states anymore? guest: the u.s. auto industry has certainly changed. i grew up in the 70's, and we do not want to go back to those

kind of cars. we have safer cars and cars with better mileage. because we can buy imports and have an integrated supply chain. in some ways the u.s. auto sector has never had it better. they are thriving. production is up since nafta. we still produce 11 to 12 million units of automobiles and light trucks each year. we export more than 2 million vehicles a year. we have never been a big exporter, and we are now. i think the u.s. auto sector is doing well. automakers do not want to see the border closed and they do not want to see tariffs go up. they realize their future is in selling 90% -- 95% of the world's people and three quarters of the spending power is outside of the united states. be auto sector needs to integrated in the global economy to be able to survive and thrive. host: we will hear from rob,

ohio, republican line. guest: good morning -- caller: good morning. i wanted to comment. , i had an interaction here as well. it is, all these people bum rushing the border. thousands of them. i had to go to the hospital, to the va, a week ago. i get over there and they take me in. they checked me out, i have hepatitis and jaundice. so i inquire with the doctor and say how would i get something like this? he said i'm not supposed to tell you, but with all these people coming across the border, there is not one of them that i am aware of that has the shots for their vaccines for this -- for these diseases, leukemia,

measles, and mumps. i think america is going to have a wake up to what is going on there as well. of allt the economy these fruits and vegetables, but to their health and welfare, because, i think, they ought to on it because there are two new people coming in and to many diseases with them. guest: thank you for your comment. there are a lot of reasons for the growth of some of these municipal issues. i think kids not getting vaccinated and people not getting vaccinated is a big part of it. immigration has been a blessing, but i agree with you that we need more legal immigration which would take the pressure off illegal immigration and the border. the ultimate -- the immediate answer is not more fencing and border wall. that would take years to build. we have a crisis now and it has

to do with the asylum program. we need more judges, detention beds and more agents at the border to process that. we need to change our laws so it is not so inviting to get in that way. we need to expand legal migration. we are a growing economy and need workers for the future, domestic and foreign born. daniel griswold from the mercatus center. what is it? guest: a nonprofit research institution. we do research on trade, regulation, on taxes. we have been around for more than 40 years. host: when it comes to issues at the border that is one thing, but to change topics. seek talksow do you with china going? guest: i think we are making progress. there are things china needs to do. they need to protect intellectual property and relaxed rules on foreign

investment. it is good for a country to protect intellectual property because not only foreign but domestic technology is more likely to be used constructively in the economy. i think china has been making progress in recent years and i think the president's tariff war and the retaliation has been bad for the united states and because consumers -- cost consumers billions of dollars and industry jobs and production, and exports. it has hurt soybean farmers. i think the right way is to file more cases, to work with japan, the european union, and others to bring more pressure. wtoave taken china to the over 20 times and they have modified virtually every time. host: a strong approach to this has shown improvements in the previous years? guest: it has brought them to the table, although we have had

negotiations and they have yielded some results. i still tend to think the cost of the president's approach -- we have not seen any results yet. let us see if we get some kind of grand deal. there are other, less confrontational and self damaging ways of dealing with china. if you go to the mercatus website, we published a paper on how to respond to china's practices on intellectual property. host: letter show you a little bit of the president from yesterday assessing those trade talks. >> -- [video clip] >> the vice premier is here and people who want to make a deal. it is got to be a great deal, we have been losing over many years, four, five, $600 billion a year, and we are losing $200 routinely for dust to china. it is going to be a great deal. it is going well.

and iticials are here, is a very complex and big deal. it is one of the biggest deals ever made. it will be a great deal for our farmers, technology, intellectual property theft, and everything is covered. ,e could have made a quickie, but we are in a good economy. -- we are in a good position. our economy is way up, and we will make a good deal or no deal at all. it looks like it is moving along nicely. [end video clip] host: what about your assessment of those comments? guest: there is a lot at stake and these are important talks and we are making progress. i disagree when he says we are losing $500 billion a china. that is what we spend on imports. those make our lives better. every time you go to a big box retailer, you are benefiting,

especially for americans on lower incomes. let us not forget china is a major export or the united states. all of those $500 billion that go out come back to the united states either to buy our goods or services or to invest in the united states. the chinese by a lot of treasury funds. our government deficit is going up to $1 trillion a year. if the chinese do not buy those funds, the u.s. has a harder time borrowing money to fund schools and other stuff. host: from florida, elijah on the democrats line. caller: thank you for taking my question. so, i was wondering, since we know about 90% of the drugs brought -- crossing the southern border come through legal points of entry, if they did close the border, how easy would it be for the cartel to navigate away from

legal points of entry to a legal points of entry? guest: that is another complicated question. it would make it more difficult to smuggle drugs into the united states if we sealed border, although they can come by air or sea. there are ways of getting in. that is a complicated issue and we need to reform our drug laws. we are demanding all of those drugs, and because of drugs being illegal here, the price goes up and there is profit opportunities. you also bring up an important fact. 90% of the drugs are coming through legal points of entry. that is an argument for more agents at the ports of entry. i have been to el paso. we have sophisticated machines that can screen vehicles and detect drugs. i would like to see more of an investment in that. the wall, however -- much as built will not do a thing to interdict those drugs. it will take years, to build the

wall as he envisions it, it would take 10 years. we have the crisis today, so the wall will not do any good. host: from washington state, republican line. caller: hello. is that in to you cannot see the sense in not we are the border when allowing this invasion to our country happen. actually supporting slavery, human trafficking, child sex slavery, 90% of the drugs do not come through those ports. that is a bunch of hogwash. that what is- going on. would we survive without it? we would. we do not need all of that. we made that agreement with the president when we voted him in.

we would be willing to sacrifice in order to secure this country and to make things good for the american people and our freedom. hatee never seen so much against the u.s. constitution. and, pure hate of our president. elected to oury country and people are trying to say that he is not doing the right thing. that is not true. i think we have a lot -- guest: i think we have a lot in common about the constitution and freedom. solutionsintelligent aimed at the problem. sealing the border would be like an act of war. it would be like bringing upon ourselves the kind of disaster that happens not just from a hurricane, but from a war or blockade.

it is so extreme as to be beyond. it is not just trade policy experts warning about closing the border. mitch mcconnell says it would be potentially catastrophic. ted cruz, who represents texas and is a good friend of the president says that closing the border would be devastating to texas. -- u.s. chamber of congress commerce that represents businesses says that it would be an unmitigated economic debacle. solutions have better to these problems than this self-inflicted wound on our economy. host: we focus on our neighbors to the south, let focus to the north. from thea comment canadian foreign ministers calling for the re-examination for labor issues would open up a pandora's box when it comes to the poor -- when it comes to the process. u.s.-mexico-canada

agreement is the administration's revision of the nafta. there are pluses and minuses. we will not go through those. the politics are flawed. the administration was hoping that because they have labor and environmental provisions and tighten the rules of origin on automobiles that they get more democrats on board. that has not proven to be affect. there are 30 democrats that traditionally support trade agreements, there is not any sign that they have expanded it much beyond that. the canadian is right, reopening the agreement will be reopening the can of worms. a lot of the democrats are saying we need to do that. and: it comes to the issue -- of enforcement. guest: correct. i think the administration is running into the fact that democrat demands are pretty high and go pretty far beyond. most democrats did not like

nafta, but the administration says this is 90% of the old nafta with other things added on and a few things taken away. i am actually not that surprised that democrats are lukewarm, if not opposed to it. we will see what happens. i think it is no better than 50-50 that the usmca gets past -- passed by congress. host: democrats line, michigan. called six months ago about this trade business and i told you that the chinese would never give in. the border, trump, he has got to have his enemy. like this last lady, you can tell her talking points come from fox news. i will pose the border and do health care. he has a double talking buffoon. host: do you have a specific comment? caller: the border.

trade, what is he going to do about trade? i said that they would not do anything, and has got nothing done. host: is that a fair assessment? guest: the president has unorthodox views of trade. i think trade is good for the united states and it has been our policy since world war ii to engage nations to lower trade barriers around the world. trade 1940's, the average carrier was over 22% against u.s. exports. it is below 5% today. we have free-trade agreements with 20 other nations. this is what our politicians say that they want, a level playing field all around with some of our major partners. our economy has changed. we have humor manufacturing -- fewer manufacturing jobs although we remain a powerhouse. two $.3 trillion of value added trillion of- $2.3

value added last year. remain competitive, we are just doing it through integrated supply chain. we are exporting to the rest of the world, which have created opportunities. i'm a big proponent of trade. we need to help people transition, but technology displaces more people. we need to prepare ourselves and our children for the jobs being created today and tomorrow. host: jan -- daniel griswold from the mercatus center. bernard, on the republican line. caller: i would like to say thank you. ofare kicking in doors law-abiding citizens in the middle of the night because their child was not vaccinated. we are letting all of these immigrants come into the country, illegally and taking them by the thousands a week, and yet we do not even look at

having them vaccinations as soon as they step on american soil. they are coming from third world countries where diseases are back to 100 years ago and we are starting to see that now. if we do not start vaccinating these people, they are not american citizens. if they want to come to america and we will bring them in, we should -- they should be vaccinated or we will see diseases that we have not seen in over 100 years. host: that is bernard in new york. guest: i agree about taking the proper steps to protect public health. i think it is a myth that immigrants are bringing these things in. illegal immigration until recently was declining in terms of net growth. we have fewer immigrants in the united states today than we did have 10 years ago. the average immigrant is better educated than the immigrants have been before. the wave coming in are better educated than the average american.

thisration is not driving problem, there are other issues we need to deal with. host: from west virginia, independent line. this is doug. caller: thank you for taking my call. i want to make a couple of short comments. think, at first i thought the wall would be a good thing. now, i do not think it would be such a good thing. i think more of the military should take over that. , back inoes to trade the day, i remember i voted for bill clinton because i thought clinton had good ideas. but the rest of them since then are not very good. trump, if he would just learn to keep his mouth shut we would get a hold -- we would get along a whole lot better with our naples -- our neighbors to

the south and around the world. here in west virginia, the coal industry at one time was king in west virginia. and a declined so much, lot of it is from overseas. that is the reason that hillary clinton did not do good. host: that his dog in west virginia. guest: you put a lot of issues on the table. i will say that he'll clinton has a mixed legacy but he did important things on -- i will just say that bill clinton had a mixed legacy and did important things on trade. the creation of the wto, and andring china into the wto, i have an article on why that was a good thing. i agree with all of that, and it is important that you bring up how west virginia has been transitioning. it just reinforces the point that it is just trade that can cause disruptions. trade is a small part of it. it is changing consumer tastes.

we are shutting down coal-fired plants around the country and that is affecting communities. rather than trying to stop that, i think there are good economic reasons for that. let us help people transition and let us not try to fight to change, let us accept it as progress and something good and help people transition. job retraining, more flexible labor markets. there are things we can do so a broader swath of americans can enjoy the benefits of a modern, high-tech, open economy. host: the work of our gas can be found at the mercatus center's website, mercatus.org. he serves as the project codirector. thank you. if you are interested in the topic of security clearances, especially as of note in the last couple of days, our next guest will explain how they work, and some of the concerns

that some have had. mark zaid joins us. we will have that discussion next. later on we will be joined by bruce schaller to discuss new a --city's plans to get give a fee to vehicles traveling in the city. ♪ >> all month, we are airing our running student documentaries. we ask students to answer what does it mean to be american. our c-span bus was recently in arizona. here is what people there had to say. >> for me, what it means to be an american is to be compassionate, supportive, and thankful for the person, the veterans, the institution, and the processes that protect our freedom. proudm american, i am so

in what that means to me, and it means that i, a former undocumented person to came in search of the american dream was able and was given a pathway to citizenship. and now, as an american, i serve americans in arizona, and every dream is possible. that is what it means to be american to me. that i canit means work in a country that allows me to have any job i want. i am 69 years old and still teaching students. they allow me to do this. american government, american history, i have the choice to effect students lives. >> thinking about what it is like to be america on, it'd --

american, it is a fight for justice. our planet is in dire peril and our country is in turmoil, and we need to help those more vulnerable and help our environment. we have to make sure that our grandkids and kids are the same as today. >> voices on the road, from c-span. >> washington journal continues. zaid, ais is mark national security attorney to talk about issues with security clearances in the trump administration. could you set up the story of the last few days concerning one person from the administration and her concerns over security clearances? guest: we have a whistleblower who has come out of the white house and is doing things the right way. she went through her chain of command and has gone through congress. indicated is that security clearance

determinations through the system in the white house, there have been decisions or recommendations to deny 25 members of the white house inner circle. those decisions were overturned by her superiors, not on the basis of national security but on the basis of something else. whether it is politics, or indications that president trump has asked or directed clearances to be granted to individuals like his daughter and his son-in-law. this is something we have never seen before. i least, and all the times have asked around historians of white house history and national history -- national security historians, we have never seen a situation where the president has intervened into security clearance determinations. this is usually career staff, career employees of the u.s. government making these determinations and on the basis of adjudicated guidelines and we

can discuss them if we need to get into detail. we have never seen this type of numbers, this high level of numbers come about, and it is concerning. host: she kept the list, went to her superiors which got nowhere. where did she go from there? becausehere is a case she is alleging discrimination. dwarfism rare form of and has indicated that they put files too high on shelves that she cannot reach in retaliation and she has already suffered a two week suspension. she has gone to the house government reform and oversight committee. politics has gotten involved on both sides and we can go into that. there are good points and bad points from both the republicans and the democrats. she had, this past saturday, a deposition that was undertaken by primarily staff of the house government reform and oversight committee, is led by elijah

cummings, from maryland. they are pushing forward in exploring the notion of security clearances. they had issued a subpoena for her former boss, tricia newbold's former boss. host: you can join the conversation by joining us on the line. it is 202-748-8001, for republicans. 202-748-8000, for democrats. 202-748-8002, four independents. what would be a red flag for someone in the process of a security clearance. what would be the way to caution someone? guest: security clearances are about guidelines that are issued from the white house. they were issued a number of years ago, revised a number of times, and they go through a litany of issues. if there are foreign connections, debt, alcohol

issues, mental health issues, allegiance to the united states from guideline a to guideline m. who happens is that anyone gets a security clearance inside the united states, myself included, you fill out a form called the sf-86, a very long form. it goes through all of your history, criminal history, drug use, et cetera. you have a background investigation. depending on which agency will depend on what agency does the background investigation. on the white house, the secret and top secret level clearances are handled by the fbi, generally. and, the white house office of security handles the adjudication. if there is need for fbi access, you hear it in the context of top-secret. that is an adjudication usually done by the csa, or maybe nsa or

other intelligence agencies, but usually the cia. we have heard disqualifying conditions. , that isve five dui's a disqualifying condition. if you have relatives that live in syria, i have a hearing this afternoon about just such a case. those are disqualifying. that is not mandatory that if you have those you do not get a clearance. you have to present mitigating information. had one's, you have not in 20 years or a drink in 20 years, and you lecture at aa meetings. that would be good evidence. the foreign national connections, do not speak to your foreign relatives and have no connections to the foreign government. they do not know what you do for work with the united states. there is no real risk involved. what ms. new ball did -- new

bald dead, as she went through her sponsor abilities for assessing clearances and we do not new what these are aside from kushner and he ivanka trump. it has range the gamut from custodians or senior white house advisors to the president, and there were recommendations by a careerls, and she is veteran of the federal service. is made anddations approvals are drawn up. in doing so, the superiors overturned those recommendations , and did not pay attention to the disqualifying conditions, and what she has alleged is that there is a process in which the supervisors would indicate why, and what mitigates it to document that in the system. allegedly, they have not done

that. it raises concerns of politicization, whether that was ordering of individuals to have access to classified information. even though, on paper and in general they would not be qualified. the president has the legal authority to grant access to classified information to anyone he wants. that is unquestionable. there is a process and there should be a standard and consistency, that is how our democratic system works. host: this is mark zaid joining us, a national security attorney. our first call is from florida on our democrats line. this is pat. hello. caller: hello. first about missus newbold. she is a american patriot and she has a lot of courage. i hope that she is not thrown out to dry. -- hung out to drive. -- dry.

it is common knowledge that jared kushner met with russians to discuss communications that would avoid u.s. intelligence scrutiny. i want to know wise he allowed in the white house, let alone given a top level security clearance? , what herant to echo first comment was. have done things the right way. i founded a group called whistleblower aid year or two ago where we provide pro bono legal services to whistleblowers. do not represent ms. newbold, she has experienced lawyers in town. she has gone about it the correct way. we do not know who these 25 people are because she should not be revealing that publicly. they have privacy rights including to jared kushner. he is in the white house because

the president wants them to be. unfortunately, the president of the united states obviously is the dominant types ofo decide these issues with respect to access. i imagine that we will see some additional nepotism laws come into the books like we did in the aftermath of president kennedy and his brother robert kennedy becoming the attorney general. congress will need to address it, but after the president leaves office for obvious reasons. the issue with jared kushner are very delicate. there are many disqualifying -- respect tooot jared kushner, some were mentioned by the caller. those types of contacts with foreign government officials would have to be put down and listed on his sf-86. we know in the sense that his lawyer did confirm this and there are lots of reports that he had to modify his sf-86

multiple times. it happens, you do not usually see it that often. i think some of the modifications are because his lawyers made them. i am not as concerned to it. i think they overdid it when they were listing information, they did not have to in that sense. what we do not know are the mitigating conditions. i want to be fair to jared kushner, we do not know what that literally -- the mitigating additions were. he has 100 millions dollars of debt the chinese. that is a significant disqualifying condition. i've had clients denied clearances because they had education debt of a few hundred thousand dollars. host: is disqualifying parallel to nefarious? guest: nodded all. the case i have later today in the defense department for foreign influence, you have relatives overseas. the individual who may be the clearance holder did not do anything wrong. it is a risk assessment with the

u.s. government, does having that person have access to classified information create a risk to the united states there could be a potential for some leakage or any type of other activity that would be to the detriment of our country. host: independent line, california, michael, go ahead. caller: good morning. i was hoping you could update us on jared kushner, again it is common knowledge that the a $1.3 building has billion mortgage payment due. if so, is it the house intelligence committee responsible, and who will it be? i know jared kushner's father served his time and was convicted of witness tampering, tax evasion and other things. do you know if he is involved in the kushner industry? secondi do not know the

-- i do not know the answer to the second question. it was interesting enough, given the closeness to the governor and the trump campaign. jared kushner's situation is unique. this whole white house has been very unique. one of the problems to why there has been so many problems in the white house with respect to clearances are people like jared kushner andy ivanka trump typically do not come -- and he ivanka trump do not come to the white house. you do not have individuals with so many extensive international business ties and economic issues and with respect to the debt and the building in new york city. most times, and for over 20 years, i have had very few white house cases, because the individuals who typically go to the white house are experienced

individuals, either career or sometimes political. they already have security clearances, or had security clearances. the reciprocity just shifts over and they are very high caliber people and there are no problems. and i have had clearance cases, it has been entry-level the visuals -- individuals. first time clearance holders. even then, the white house did not deny the clearances. they were just able to leave their position without having a negative adjudication. again, i have to go to the president has the ability without question to grant classified information, and to order security clearances to be granted. we have never seen it before. the closest i have been able to find was there is an allegation against vice president nixon in the mid-50's that he had sought or did revoke a clearance, and then, on tape when he was

president, he was heard saying that he could use clearances as a weapon, but no evidence that he ever did. it never rises up to that level within the white house. this presented a unique challenge to the security officers in the white house and cia to the extent that they were involved with the sei determinations to balance all of the concerns with respect to individuals like jared and ivanka because of their connections overseas. i can understand why there were problems. in the news that apparently the president had intervened. carolina, north republican line, penny, hello. caller: i would like to talk about this with the security clearance that they have been talking about. i agree that it is a problem, because i come from a small town. how are you? guest: very good. ignore your television,

and just speak into the phone. have -- i donot not know how to begin this. the question is to you. someone that gives security --arance should host: i will put you on hold. if you would, turned on your television so we can have a direct conversation. we appreciate it. line., new york, mcgrath -- democrats line. caller: i have a comment and a couple of questions. you may have answered one a minute ago. my comment is that i am concerned about the secretiveness and the ability for donald trump to keep things hidden from the american people. i am wondering if his daughter and son are getting security

clearances, it is a high level clearance that they are privy to classified information? that disturbs me greatly. i would like to know your comment on that. i feel that, possibly there is a link with the mueller report as to why they want to keep secret what is going on, and it may involve, and do you think it could involve his son, daughter, and their business deals with russia and korea? i am just wondering what you think of that? guest: we know that jared kushner was receiving briefings of the contents of the president's daily brief, the pd. -- the pdb. that is the most secretive documents that presidents receive, whether it was an actual document, or briefings verbally which is more -- more of what this president does to

high-level information as to what is going on around the world. kushnerknow that jared has been involved with middle east peace negotiations. jared kushner has had access to some of the most sensitive secrets that the united states has. back inpoint in time, 2018, some of that access was pulled back when john kelly was the chief of staff. he started to tighten the ship with respect to who had an interim security clearance. and mediay media fans individuals and journalists. there is no such thing as a permanent security clearance. termone wants to use that because you go what is the opposite of interim, it must be permanent. -- what is the upper set of interim, it must be permanent. interim,hner had an

and it was generally longer than what we typically see. john kelly reeled that in. we have heard not as much about e ivanka trump's access other than that you see her at meetings where she is there with world leaders and other cabinet members. it is obvious she is getting access. i am not sure that i have seen what she has been privy to or topic wise. host: there is a story that broke with "the new york times" about jared and ivanka using private event -- private emails. is that a disqualifier as far as holding a clearance? guest: it depends. if they use it for any type of classified communications, absolutely. formers the notion with secretary hillary clinton and her emails and whether there was classified information on a private server that is unsecure. you can only use certain

communication mechanisms that are secure for the purposes of transmitting classified information. there are other statutes that apply as far as using your personal devices for work-related reasons. you have to forward the email to your work account and make sure that it is preserved for work purposes. criticismis that the that they leveled at hillary clinton for doing the same thing , and now they seemingly did that. whether they were circumventing normal channels that have those communications is one thing, but hopefully they were not using anything classified. they were circumventing the rules. if any time there is ruled raking and there is -- rule breaking and there is a guideline that deals with technology, which would come up in the context of anyone who illegally downloaded music, or movies, that would be a violation because it is against

the law, or if you hacked into someone's email account or gave someone your password at work in order for them to get into your account or the system, those could be disqualifiers for clearances. host: let us try penny again. go-ahead. caller: i have a question. think that youou should really screen people for ,he benefit of this country that when you give security clearance it is given to someone that isgoing to have it from a with a low iq small town that i came in contact with that is already breached everything that is and hedly confidential

gets confused when he met -- when he gets met with arrogance. i corrected him, he did not meet trump, because trump is over them. he is from a small town and given out -- giving out information of everything that is supposed to be held by security clearance for a reason. host: thank you. that would not meet the standard. guest: the usual answer is always it depends. let us take her example with respect to she described a former felon. can a former felon obtain a security clearance? the answer is yes and it depends on the case. there have been many times over the years where i have represented individuals who have been convicted of crimes and served time in prison. we were able to get them there clearance.

because, what were the circumstances of the crime, how old were they, and what have they done since then to rehabilitate themselves? in all of those -- all of those, into factors. when i lecture, i always give the example, well this person was convicted of murdering someone, could they get a clearance? you would think, no. how could someone get a clearance. let me add acts. -- facts. they were 16 years old, their mother was being beaten by her boyfriend, he ran into self-defense and was convicted of killing the individual. the court said i'm going to defer the sentence maybe if you join the military, i will neville -- never allow you to join -- to go to jail. this happened a lot in the 40's. the person serves for 30 years in the marines. this person was a chaplain in

the marines, meant toward young men and -- mentored young men and women. this is great mitigating information. and then the person becomes a defense contractor. can they get a clearance? they murdered someone. yes. host: how does someone authenticate a certain level of clearance? guest: there is an issue called need to know, over which every clearance holder needs to make that determination. if i walked down the hallway and see john and say how are you. john makes a need to know determination to say mark, i am doing well, how are you. been working on this nuclear missile system or maybe you can help me with it, because john may know that i have the proper clearance level to have access. you have to inquire because it is not as if you wear a button that says where you're clearance

level is or what color badge or a red shirt on star trek to indicate you will die versus a gold shirt as a surviving officer. blue badgegreen or which is contractor versus government official, but it will not indicate clearance level. have to ask around to make sure that you do not inadvertently give someone access to information that they should not have. if that happens that is a security violation and you have to report it and you could lose your clearance. host: points for the star trek reference. gertrude, florida, democrats line. go-ahead. caller: is it true that jared kushner's high school teacher said that his grades did not merit getting into harvard, but his father donated $250,000? as a result he was accepted? guest: i know that has been reported. let us take this into the context of how could that be

relevant? if we look at the college admissions scandal that is going on, in a security clearance processing, you put down your education on your form, and that will be checked. the government will pull your college transcript and just make sure that you graduated just like you said you did, hopefully accurately. these students who had their parents buy their way in, would that be a factor? probably not if the student had nothing to do with it. there could be issues. clearances are about trustworthiness and integrity, and ethics. that is taken into consideration. i can come up to a star trek reference with anything. i use them in security clearance cases all the time. there is an episode that can apply to any current situation. host: back to the whistleblower. what happens about her job and

if she loses her job? what protections does she have? guest: we very rarely have whistleblowers coming out of the white house. it was great to it was great to see in the markup authorization yesterday where they were debating whether to issue subpoenas to compel testimony in this case that both republicans and democrats were saying how strongly they felt about protecting whistleblowers. congressman mark meadows and congressman cummings had a real back-and-forth about that, where they were finally showing bipartisanship. that is fantastic. a lot of times it is the congress that can really make a difference statutorily, but also from a protective standpoint, to say we are going to protect this individual so they won't be fired. it is not easy to be a whistleblower, and i'm sure she is not having an enjoyable time back at work right now because everyone knows what she did. i'm sure she actually has a lot

of support, perhaps quietly, from her colleagues that are other career civil servants who i'm sure probably agree with her on a lot of the issues. but this is politics, so there is going to be concerns. i certainly hope for the best. like i said, she has done it the right way, and whistleblowers like her should be rewarded. she might be wrong on a number of things that she has said, but that's fine because as long as she has a reasonable, good-faith belief -- and i don't have any reason to doubt that from everything i've seen -- then that is fine. but there are certain things she has said that i've seen elsewhere in agencies that actually don't concern me, and she may not have the full picture either, but she has raised really legitimate concerns, and i will say this proper oversight authority of , the intels

committee, the house government havem committee that generally looked into clearance issues -- i testified back in the to thousand's about clearance issues including with respect to valerie plame and how the white house dealt with her revealing her covert affiliation with the cia. these are all issues that are totally appropriate. the question is what can the committee do at the end of the thebecause it can't reverse determinations, and it has to protect the privacy of the individuals concerned regardless of whether they should have their clearances. host: national security lawyer mark zaid joining us for this discussion on security clearances. thank you for your time. coming up, we are joined by transportation consultant bruce schaller to discuss new york city's plan to impose a congestion fee, and other cities that might follow.

that conversation coming up. ♪ announcer: watch the american story unfold on american history tv, saturday at 2:00 p.m. histories,"oral with an interview of a world war ii navajo code talker, looking back at nato's 10th anniversary. , the00 p.m., rocket girls launching of nasa's jet propulsion laboratory come on seep -- laboratory, on c-span3. in 1979, let viewers decide all on their own what was important to them.

c-span opens the doors to washington policymaking for all to see, bringing you unfiltered content from congress and beyond. in the age of power to the people, this was true people power. in the 40 years since, the landscape has clearly changed. there is no monolithic media. broadcasting has given way to narrowcasting. but c-span's big idea is more relevant than ever. it's nonpartisan coverage of washington is funded as a public service by your cable or satellite provider. on television or online, c-span is your unfiltered view of government so you can make up your and mind. -- your own mind. announcer: "washington journal" continues. host: bruce schaller is the -- serves as a consultant

for his firm. here to talk about the idea of h congestion fee -- of a congestion fee that new york imposing. what is the best way to think about a congestion fee? guest: the way it is going to happen in new york, and it is very similar in new york -- in london and stockholm and singapore, is if you drive into the downtown area, you will pay a daily fee. so if you come over the brooklyn bridge and come downtown, you drive up to midtown, you pay a $12 fee for the day. there's some exceptions. if you go up the west side highway, you don't pay come as long as you exit at 50th street. you are basically paying a told to get into the area. host: what was governor cuomo's justification for implement invest? reason wasnumber one

to raise money for the transit system, which is in dire need. it is very crowded. it is unreliable. there's a lot of improvements that need to be made. this will mostly go towards capital improvements for the transit system. the other big reason is to redo togestion -- is that due congestion in manhattan, speeds have gone down. the average speeds in midtown are about five miles an hour. it is really horrendous to try to get around town, whether in a car runner where or on the bus -- car or uber were on the bus. pattern there a direct or something of historical or that a city that imposes this fee, you will see reduction in traffic and increases in revenue? guest: that's right. london is probably the best example because london and new york is so much alike in many ways. london imposed congestion

pricing into thousand three and in 2003eduction -- a 21% reduction in congestion. host: if you want to ask questions, we've divided the lines differently. for new york city residents, it is (202) 748-8000. if you are a resident of another city, (202) 748-8001. all others, (202) 748-8002. who areis rolled out, the winners and losers once this congestion fee is imposed? guest: i think the winners are anyone using the subway system the bus in new york because there will be less congestion. the city economy and workers are the big winners here. the reason manhattan exists is

to get 70 people into a small space to get earnings and productivity that comes from a place like new york. with london, that is only possible with a robust transportation system. and drivers think they are a loser in this, but i think they are also winners because they will have less congestion, and secondly, people who drive to work in manhattan need the economic vitality as much as everyone else. so i think everyone is a winner in this, even though some people will have to pay. host: a gentleman wrote about this issue recently that served as a new york assembly meant. he said, "congestion pricing is a regressive flat fee that punishes people of modest income while letting wealthy car owners off the hook. it is regionally discredited or a, burdening queens, brooklyn,

the bronx -- regionally discriminatory, burdening queens come up brooklyn, the bronx and staten island drivers. it is a terrible precedent for dealing with grouting of public -- with crowding of public facilities. it ignores the real cause of the spike in auto congestion, namely the proliferation of uber and ly ft cars." guest: it is not discriminatory. lower income people are more likely to be taking transit services. the people who really have the loudest complaint about congestion pricing are people live far from the subway, like in eastern queens, who say i don't really have a transit choice. but the flip side to that is that even from those same areas making that same commute, 2/3 of people are using public transportation, often the bus or

long island railroad, that kind of thing. the neighbors of the same people saying i don't have a choice are actually using transit. the funding will go to improve those services. the last part of this is the uber and lyft and what is happening on the for higher side. i agree that has been a big increase to congestion in manhattan. the city and state took the first steps at the beginning of $2.50 perwith a fee of trip for trips to manhattan. london has seen the same thing with traffic from the for hire taxi sector as a whole. it is something we will need to be doing more about. host: why not focus the fee on those services rather than everyone else? the mainrs are still

traffic on the east river bridges, for example. 50% to 60% in the morning rush-hour. taxis are about 1/3 of it. we need to be focusing on all of these. fee onlon rides -- the rides specifically addresses those. it needs to be a cover program. .- a comprehensive program new york city the first city in the united states to impose this? guest: that's right. host: if they are successful, what are the changes other cities might do the same? guest: other cities have been really watching new york closely , like san francisco, los angeles, portland. some of the east coast cities as

well, maybe chicago. what is new york doing? and then they will see how it works. the i would say is that particular solution in new york would probably be applicable to some of those cities, like san francisco and seattle, where congestion is very much on downtown streets. you get to a place like los angeles, most of the congestion is on the highway system. so the pricing needs to be adapted to the particular geography and kind of problems you have in different cities. i think what cities will really take from new york is the inspiration that you can do something, and after it is implement it, this inspiration of seeing that it works. host: there's a story in "the washington times" that los tolles is considering a $4 that could be imposed. bruce schaller is our guest.

formerly worked in the bloomberg administration. here to talk about this idea of congestion pricing. let's hear from debbie in north carolina. hello. caller: hi, thank you for taking my call. i just think you're ridiculous. you know, i grew up in new york, and i fled that area because of the taxes. my daughter lives there right she's commuting every other week or so with her job, so she's in and out, and you are .axing her like crazy i just don't get it. i just think that new york is out of control, and that is why i won't move back there. we have family there, and i would love to live near our

family, but i just can't deal with your taxes. host: ok. that is debbie in north carolina, a former new yorker. mr. schaller, go ahead. guest: i think the traffic is out of control. i think the crowding on the subways is out of control. you really have to pick your poison, anyway. is it better to reduce the traffic to improve the public transportation system, or better not to charge people to drive in? people can have different opinions about that, but interns of the future of the city, in terms of fairness and equity, congestion pricing is definitely the way to go. host: in connecticut, steve is next up. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i also was annexed new yorker, was anis ash was -- ex-new yorker, and it is true

just being drained of all of the taxes. but getting back to the system you are, limiting, this i presume would be an ez pass system. my question is when is there going to be help for the easy pass customer who gets overcharged two to three extra tolls on a high-volume customer that goes over all the bridges? i actually witnessed that personally, and i think all of who are possibly listening have had all of the charges, and it was so painful to get credited that they don't bother making that phone call to get it done. so i think there should be checks and balances on helping the consumer who buys into the system that if there is fraudulent charges, that they get credited and be able to get a balance sheet. i mean, it is just another means

that bloomberg, when you were under his administration, that just allows easy access for more money to come in and the consumer who gets overcharged on additional tolls, how are they able to make a phone call and get credited on a fraudulent charge? host: ok, go ahead. guest: sure. i would agree if you are being pass, youed on your ez should get credited for that. i'm sorry if that's happening. there is a related issue about whether you will pay the congestion fee if you come across the hudson river, or the holland or lincoln tunnels, or midtown on the east side. that is going to be decided toward the end of next year when the final details of this are settled. host: this is scheduled, if i understand it correctly, to start in 2021.

for the transit system, what happens if they have to accept even more people who want to use them because they don't want to drive in? guest: one of the key things to congestion fees is to expand transit. we worked on details plan -- on detailed plans for people in eastern queens who are far from the subway to add subway service so there is room to fit on the tracks. the mta is doing a big project to change the signal system to space the trains more closely together and add trains. really, the subway system is a victim of its own success, and a way. the capacity of the system needs to expand to reduce the crowding and speed up the trains and the service. host: this is bruce schaller, former new york city deputy schallerner, also of consulting, here to talk about

congestion pricing. we've heard about other programs where moneys were supposed to be designated to a certain thing. what ensures that if this goes into place, that money will go directly to transit? guest: one is there is a lockbox written into the law so that the money can only go to public transportation from the congestion fee, and also a real estate tax, the same thing for that. the other is public pressure and everyone looking to make sure and saying to their elected officials we have to make sure this money gets used as it is supposed to. number one, there is a reform package so that not only does he get used by the mta, but used onl, and is not just spent long delays and projects that never come to completion. host: four new york city residents, it is (202) 748-8000. if you live in another city, it is (202) 748-8001. for all others, it is (202) 748-8002.

let's hear from joseph in houston, texas. caller: good morning, commissioner. my name is joseph. i am totally against this idea only because of so many things that are volatile, and the gas prices of today. problemon isn't the with human beings driving. it is a problem with design of and how we go to places. but my point is this. implement --lan to and this is just another layer of bureaucracy -- but what would improve for $15 billion that new york city would acquire and notice a difference in their movement in that city? that's all i have to say. i'll listen now. thank you.

host: thank you. guest: short. i appreciate -- sure. i appreciate the question. there are a number of things on the list of what this money will pay for. one of them i mentioned before in terms of the new subway signal system. another one is to do the next stage of the 2nd avenue subway expansion, moving it further up into harlem, and then eventually street in 63rd downtown as a big extension. so you canrailcars add more service, improve the bus system. there's a long list, and it is not that hard to come up with a very valuable list of how to spend that money. i think people will be seeing, just as they've seen in the 1980's and 1990's with this huge influx of money for the mta, and people very much saw improvement for service. now it has gotten crowded because it is so popular.

now we need the money to accommodate those crowds. host: here is george in jacksonville, florida. you are on with our guest. caller: yes, good morning. i've lived and worked in 10 states and 12 foreign countries. there is something i have really observed, and that is middle-class quality of life precipitously drops when you have more than 600,000 or 800,000 people or you have less than 5000 people. what we should be doing is spreading the people out over the country. , spent three weeks in new york and i will never, ever go back there and live or stay any significant amount of time. i like the towns that are responsive to the public, especially the middle class. you're just not there with new york. it is too big. you are looking at the wrong problem.

i understand it is your job, but why don't you look at moving the population throughout the country? say isone thing i would that people have a choice. you can choose to live in jacksonville. i can choose to live in new york. people can make choices in between. there is no one best place to live. sometimes i wonder why do i live here. but just having growth in small towns and the like, what we've seen in city after city is after they grow, they have more and more congestion. so diffusing the population looks like it would be an answer, but it turns out then that you have sprawl, and then you have congestion from that, and you end up with the same problems you were trying to escape. the other thing i would say is ,hat if you look at the economy and i said a little about about this before, the places in the

country that have the most dynamic economies that engineer growth in terms of productivity and innovation are the big cities. people working in close proximity to each other are where you get the new ideas and impact onget the big quality of life and if efficiency of the economy. so big cities, but i think is we need more big cities. ,ore wealth and more innovation and we need to make sure that is spread equitably. we need to deal with housing prices, which is a big issue. but i think the future of the country is really intimately tied up in the future of cities like new york and the other big city and -- big cities in the country. we really need to work on solving these problems, and then people do have a choice where they were to live. host: one organization ranks the

commute times and did a ranking of u.s. cities. boston coming in first, followed by washington, chicago, and then new york city. is there a common denominator as to why people lose so much time in traffic? guest: it is the same thing the caller raised. the big cities have the most congestion. the reason is they have the density and the large population. is key thing in these cities to have alternatives to driving, and that is obviously public transportation. so the better the public transportation systems, you have a choice of losing your time in traffic, or you can take public transportation, which hopefully is comfortable enough that you can do other activities and at least not just be wasting the time in traffic. host: from new york, this is christopher. caller: thank you for taking my call. i am a resident of the east village.

myay $650 a month to park car, which is an 18% tax. am i going to have to pay every time i take my car out of the store, togo to the go? out of the city and my going to have to -- to go -- to go out of the city? the way this is being set up, if you leave and come back at some point, you might or might not, depending on the details that are worked out next year. it might be that if you go to queens through a tunnel and pay the toll there, you wouldn't pay extra. those are details that need to be worked out. but if you stay within the business district, you would not pay.

host: is there any potential impact on tourism? guest: tourism is a big growth factor in new york. i think that people find it hard to get around, so it will make being a tourist easier while you are in manhattan. very few tourists actually drive into manhattan. they are smart enough to know not to do that, i guess. so i think it would be a plus from tourism standpoint. host: from bellevue, new jersey, kim. hello. caller: thank you for taking my call. this additional tax of going into new york city has really upset me. i am disabled, and i am immunocompromised. i only come in to go to my doctors at hhs. where i live, i go through the lincoln tunnel.

i do have difficulty not only being compromised, but also mobility issues, so going up the i feel io the bus, would be trampled if i tried to take a train. thebesides the mobility, immunocompromised situation. so taking a car really is the safest way for me to come in. but i am on disability now. it was one thing when i was a nurse and making six figures. now i am not. so it really is a great impact for me to come in my doctor -- come in and see my doctor who i need to see. and it is bad enough what the pass is to come through the tunnel, but to have this additional tax for someone who is disabled and only coming in for healthcare services, that is my comment. i am hoping they will do something for the disabled, for those that are in my particular situation.

again, thank you for taking my call. host: thank you, caller. guest: that is an excellent question, and something that is covered in the legislation that passed earlier this week. there is an exception to the fee for people who have a disability, and for that knees and -- for that reason the two driving. so that caller would still need to pay the tunnel toll, but not need to pay the fee. that is one of the few things we know for sure about how this would work. host: have other cities taught us about unintended consequences of imposing such a fee? the way to think about congestion pricing -- guest: i think the wages and about congestion pricing is about a larger plan that needs to cover improved transit eervice, cover the for hir vehicles and yellow cab, and also needs to be sure there's

things to do on the street in buses, preventing freight vehicles from blocking traffic while they make a delivery. all of those need to be part of a plan. it is not like you can do one thing and solve a traffic problem. so the lesson certainly from london, where congestion have gotten worse because they didn't charge the ubers and other for hires, is don't think about this on itself. think about it as an overall strategy and program you need to put in place and keep up to date as conditions change. host: let's hear from kevin in hudson, new york. caller: good morning. the guyng to address from austin who was talk about -- she was talking about the money being raised. what is the mta doing with the money now? why do they need all of the money?n it -- the extra

i think the mta finances need to be looked at. you also make the point the trains are too crowded now, so how can you extend the train lines? thething you could do is bridge could be utilized to take trains from the bronx into queens and brooklyn. i will take my answer off the air. guest: interesting idea. there is an expansion of the commuter rails so that they will be more rail service in the as long islands railroad trains are able to go to grand central, and vice versa. metro-north trains will be able to go to penn station. that will be going into manhattan, but would also give access to people coming from the bronx and want to go to queens, so really extending the network. that is one of the ways to add capacity, which the caller mentioned is a really important part of this whole program.

so yes, we have real capacity subway systems. i keep talkingem about will be able to add capacity and is really critical to this. it is really a series of steps .hat will be important host: when this goes into effect, how do you gauge success? guest: i think you gauge success by looking at the revenue raised , by looking at how it is used, by looking at things and improves for transit service, and looking at improved speeds for traveling around manhattan. host: bruce schaller, former new york department of transportation official as the deputy commissioner for planning

and sustainability, here to talk about the topic of congestion pricing. thank you for your time. guest: thank you. host: our next segment, we are going to ask you if you've ever served on a grand jury. this discussion comes as congressional debate takes place over the secrecy rules when it comes to grand juries as it relates to the mueller report. we want to hear about your experience. if you have served specifically on a grand jury, what was it like? how long did you serve? what kind of information did you learn? those kind of things, especially as it relates to the congressional issues. if you specifically served on a (202) 748-8000 for the eastern and central time zones. in the mountain and pacific time zones, (202) 748-8001. speaking of the pacific, this week on the c-span cities tour, st. louis of espoo,

california -- travel to send louis a biscoe -- two a -- travel to san luis obispo, california. here is the mayor. driversof our economic are agricultural, which have had a huge impact here. tourism is, of course, really big here. it is a beautiful place to live. it is a lovely place to visit. it is the seat of the county of the same name, so we have the county offices here. we have a lot happening here. there tends to be a lot of folks congregating here for various reasons. that also means we are facing more challenges then potentially

the rest of the county on some issues, especially the un-housed , which is growing all over the state and i think all of the country, but especially in california we are really seeing homelessness rising quickly. we are definitely no exception here in the city of san luis obispo. california is a very unaffordable place to live. it is desirable for the weather, the political climate, all of those sorts of things, and san obispo is one of the least affordable places in the entire country. it is an extra challenge for the city, so that is one of the main ways we are addressing the unhoused is by providing housing. the city has more affordable housing then the entire rest of the county combined, so we are doing a lot, but as you know, it is an issue that it seems like there's never quite enough that you can do. host: "washington journal --

announcer: "washington journal" continues. host: we are asking you about your experiences serving on a grand jury. isyou want to call in, it (202) 748-8000 for those on the eastern and central time zones, (202) 748-8001 for mountain/pacific. serves as the basis of our conversation. mark jensen joins us on the phone of "usa today." can we start with the basics? what is the purpose of a grand jury? why are they convened? guest: the purpose is for a prosecutor to review evidence with people from the community. of similart is sort

to a trial jury, and maybe if i just mention the definition, a trial jury is typically six to 12 people called a petit jury, a small jury. they would decide whether someone is guilty or innocent of a crime. before that point, you have the grand jury, a bigger jury of 16 to 23 people. they decide whether they should indict or bring the charges against the person, so the prosecutor brings evidence to the grand jury. the grand jury can question the leastce and they need at 12 votes to decide whether to indict somebody and go to trial. host: when someone is chosen to be on a grand jury, what are the requirements usually of that person? guest: it is typically still a member of the community. the goal is to have peers, your own similar folks.

adultsould be presumably , citizens. they would be chosen probably in the same way the trial juries are chosen, off the drivers license or property tax rolls. the idea is to have your own peers judging if there is enough evidence to go forward with this information to press charges. host: when someone is part of this process, what is the usual commitment of time for them? guest: grand jury's can -- grand juries can go on for quite a while. trial juries might be a week or several weeks, but a grand jury could meet one day a week for months as they review, depending on how complicated the case is, and in the case of this mueller investigation, actually i don't know.

they are shrouded in secrecy, so we don't know who is on the grand jury. we don't know precisely when they meet. but people who followed the courthouse would see lawyers assemble, would see the room being used, so we know they tended to meet on thursdays. if they met weekly, we don't know if they were the same people, but presumably a grand jury met for 22 months as mueller pursued his investigation. longer timebe much commitments for the participants. host: if the participants are in the process of evaluating evidence and the like, how did they come to consensus whether to accept something or not? well, part of -- observers say because it is a one-sided procedure, just the prosecutor meeting with just the grand jury and presenting the evidence and saying, ok, do we

think we have enough here? what more would you like to see? what avenues should we also pursue? the prosecutor brings in witnesses, brings in evidence for the jurors to look over. they are able to question the evidence. but because it is a one-sided procedure, the defense, the suspect doesn't necessarily get to make his case. it is possible they could call the person in to testify. there was some question whether president trump might be brought in during this investigation to at least speak to prosecutors and then perhaps it would have provided the transcript to grangers -- two grand jurors. in lower-level cases, it is possibly a suspect could be brought into give their side of things, but they wouldn't be accompanied by a lawyer, so it is a risky proposition for the

person to be questioned. they don't know what other evidence might have been built up by that point. so after the grand jury reviews is much evidence as the prosecutor provides, then they vote. basically, they need 12 grand jurors to indict. if they have the. 23 it would be a majority. host: we want to hear from you as well about if you've ever served on a grand jury. if you want to tell us about your experience of it, for the eastern and central time zones it is (202) 748-8000, the mountain and pacific time zones (202) 748-8001. bart janssen, hang with us for just one second. let's hear from steve in texas. you've served on a grand jury? tell us about your experience. caller: it was in 1988, and it

summons from the federal courthouse to come in. i thought it was just for jury duty, but next thing you know, they put us in a separate room called the -- separate room, called the 23 people, and a next thing you know we are being sworn in and on it for three months. we met once every two weeks. host: during that process, what did you think about it? what were the things you remember most distantly about that process -- most stink to flee about that process -- most distinctively about that process? caller: the security. escorted. the prosecutors explain things in concise ways, and we voted on things, but we heard all kinds

of things from all kinds of people. -- all kinds of people i didn't want to hear. [laughter] host: when you were done with the process, could you talk about it? where there are rules about not talking about it? the federal prosecutors told us that once we are through with it, we can't talk about anything for 12 months, but after that you could use your discretion and talk to anybody about anything, but there's some things in there i will never tell anybody about. host: what was the end result? did you see some finality for your efforts? caller: actually, we did. there was a congressman in the concessions some with one of the bases, and they brought it to us and said, shall we investigate this?

we looked at more stuff, and next thing you know, they brought him in, brought charges against him, and about a year later after i was already off the grand jury, i got to go down and sat in the courtroom and watched part of the proceedings. it was pretty cool. but it is justice served, absolutely. host: would you do it again? caller: yes i would, but this time i'm probably going to do lunch a little different. [laughter] you can't go back having a taco plate and pay attention. host: that is steve in san antonio, texas. mark, talk about the security aspect. guest: yes, they take the secrecy very seriously. really, they don't want you to know that a grand jury is even meeting. you learn that indirectly, that

they are meeting, if you observe around the courtroom enough. assemble.e them but they do not want you to know which witnesses are coming in. that is part of the secrecy, so we don't really know who all has testified during the mueller investigation. a curious aspect of the case is there is still a company, a foreign-owned company, that is under subpoena. the government wants to get some sort of information from them. we don't really know what. they are refusing to provide it, and they are now under fines of $50,000 a day for contempt of court for not providing the information. they are continuing to fight the case. but we don't know anything at all about this company, and they have tried to predict their secrecy as the case is debated,

as the subpoena is debated, to such an extent that they closed off part of the courthouse floor so that you couldn't see which lawyers were assembling for the company's side to try to determine who it is from that point. so yes, the government takes the secrecy of the procedure very seriously. host: the previous viewer talked about he thought he was showing up for jury duty, and finds himself in a grand jury. does someone get clear notice that this is what they are going to serve as? guest: i guess i don't know. it probably varies slightly by jurisdiction. i've never received a grand jury summons. i've received petit jury summonses. i guess i am not surprised it would be different. the difference would be typically a trial jury is going to last a lot shorter. there could be a time commitment that is may be a problem for some people to fulfill. host: if you don't mind staying

with us a bit longer, this is from florida. patricia, hi there. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i served on a grand jury in queens, new york. night,30 days at beginning at 5:30 in the afternoon and ending at 7:30 in the evening. quorum of 16e a people in order to vote whether havet we were going to something go before the criminal courts at that time. there were a lot of times where we didn't have that quorum, so we were released, but i did serve 30 days, and it was the most interesting experience because one of the nights, there were people being brought up on charges that i knew -- not personally, but i knew of -- so i had to recuse myself. that was another interesting aspect of the whole thing.

would i do it again? yes, most definitely. it is something different than a normal jury, a civil jury, as i want to say. but i had a good time of it. because itjansen, takes so much time on a person, could someone go and say i can't serve on this? guest: i would assume that you could try to get off jury duty via the same reasoning you would with a trial jury. thatally it is not just you have a job come because -- a job, because all sorts of people have jobs. but if there are other extenuating circumstances. if you have children and you had to get home from daycare, i don't know if you could serve as partition did -- as patricia did in the evening.

so there are ways to get excused from a jury, but they try to have the people who are called actually serve because that is a way to spread around the obligation. host: because we are talking about this in the context of the mueller investigation, what is the precedent for this type of investigation releasing the grand jury information? guest: typically grand jury information is not released. there are four major reasons. as the grand jury is meeting, one of the things you want to do is protect the innocent. the reason this was created under the fifth amendment to the constitution to say unless you are indicted by a grand jury, you shouldn't have to face what they called infamous charges. you shouldn't face serious charges without this basically preliminary jury saying there is enough evidence to at least go forward to trial. so you protect the innocent,

first off. you also protect the ability to prosecute. if you are calling in on a mafia case underlings to testify against their boss, if the boss knows they are testifying, something might happen to the witnesses. something might happen and how the case is handled so that they want to preserve the evidence as they gather it. in addition, it prevents flight by the potential defendants, so perhaps the mafia boss would flee. i am under investigation, so i will leave rather than face the charges. and the secrecy ensures the freedom of deliberation by the grand jury. it allows the folks to talk about what they want to pursue. oh, well this bit of evidence is curious. maybe we should follow down that. maybe it is a dead-end. it doesn't lead to a charge. but then they go back to the bulk of evidence.

there are those four major reasons why grand jury's meat and deliberate in secret. jansen at "usa today," their justice and homeland security reporter, think you for your time. guest: thank you for having me. host: we will continue until the end of our program, getting your experiences with grand jury's. if you want to talk about that, (202) 748-8000 for the eastern and central time zones, and (202) 748-8001 for the mountain and pacific time zones. in washington, d.c., justin. good morning. caller: good morning. i had the pleasure of serving the d.c. superior court for six to seven weeks, three days a week. it was an incredibly disruptive process by the jurors. by the end of it, folks were pretty antsy about getting out

of there. i think we passed out about 76 or 77 indictments by the time we were done. host: what kind of cases were you hearing information about? guest: violence, drug case -- caller: violence, drug cases, assault and battery. things like that. host: when you are in the process of deliberating this information, how easy was it to come to consensus about the value of the information you are considering? caller: that was definitely one of the most surprising aspects of the process to me. we actually arrived at consensus sometimes within an hour or two, and it was a very fast process, at least from the perspective of some of the cases we were considering. we had some folks who were very engaged, others who were not. what was most surprising was the willingness of some of the jurors to just pass down indictments. host: were you compensated for your time? caller: if you consider five

dollars a day for metro benefits compensation, then yes. i also got caught in the government shutdown at one point, so i wasn't even getting that. host: would you do it again? caller: absolutely. it was a very enlightening experience, and obviously very important for our civic duty. the courts took protecting the identities of the jurors very seriously. we weren't to have any electronic devices when we convened. i can only imagine some of these higher profile cases, that might be a consideration. host: that is justin in washington, d.c. marcia is next in pennsylvania. caller: how are you doing? host: fine, thank you. caller: i served on a grand jury in brooklyn, new york. it was a different experience. i tried to get out of it, but

couldn't find an exemption that would apply to me. judgeank goodness i had a that understood we didn't like being locked up in a room all day. they served us lunch after about a week. he understood. on third wing if someone called off sick. if someone called out, they would call me to come in. too.awyer was good, it was for a weapons charge. is we were strange present, but the trial jurors were also present on the other side of the court. also, the person charged, the

person pressing charges against him was present. it was kind of confusing. but the judge understood why were cooked -- why we were confused about all the things going on, and he was trying to explain it to us. questions we had any about it, just let him know and he will get back to us. just tell the bailiff. we also had a pregnant woman who present, so we had to convene early. sometimes we were there for an hour or two, and that she would tell the bailiff she had to go to the bathroom and they would let us go for the rest of the day. host: did you find the experience stressful? caller: yes, it was stressful. i found it stressful because i didn't like being locked up in a room with all those people.

you know, one of the considerations i was thinking, i think they should have drug testing done because this one particular person was definitely under the influence, and i was like, wow. but it was an interesting experience. host: that was marcia's experience in mechanicsburg, pennsylvania. of viewers couple share their experience about this process. for the eastern intentional -- eastern and central time zones, (202) 748-8001 for mountain and pacific time zones. let's go to richard in ohio. caller: good morning. host: so you had experience with a grand jury? caller: yes, i was on a grand jury for probably three months. host: telus a little bit about the experience.

caller: as the previous caller difficult.s with -- on the table. many of the cases were unpleasant to listen to. learned a lot about the jurisprudence. i really wasn't impressed with the whole operation. it became obvious it was a fishing expedition. of course, that's what it is. but what i didn't like is people listen to the prosecutor and try to read between the lines what he was conveying, and they became was always settled the way the jury was sure he wanted it to go. almost like he didn't even need a jury. host: what kind of cases were you hearing information about? caller: all kind of cases. police corruption, many sexual

cases against minors. everything you can possibly imagine. we met about three days a week for three months. host: how do you think the process could be improved? caller: [laughter] i don't know. it was soing was obviously overcharging and most of these cases. andtched the paper later, just a very small percentage of what they were charged. many people pleaded guilty that obviously weren't guilty just because they had overcharged so much. i think that was my main complaint. host: from alabama, we will hear from james in point clear. hi there. again. up talking about this idea of grand juries, particularly as it relates to the mueller investigation, we appreciate those of you who have shared

your experiences with us. that is it for our program today. don't forget, another issue and comes your way tomorrow at 7:00. later today, warmer vice president -- former vice president joe biden addressing a forum here in washington, d.c. you can see that on c-span, go to www.c-span.org, or listen to it on our c-span radio app. thank for watching today. goodbye. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2018] announcer: as you just heard, we indeed will be live with joe biden at a conference this morning at 11:15 eastern here on

c-span. later, twoit -- events looking at nuclear verification and monitoring in places like north korea and iran with the head of the international atomic energy agency. she is expected to participate in that. that is lie that one up at eastern -- that is live at 1:00 eastern. a "new york times columnist will discuss her time reporting live in syria. that is on c-span, on www.c-span.org, and on the c-span radio app. from the labor department, the latest employment statistics for the month of -- the month of march. the u.s.

>> watch the american story unfold on american history tv, saturday at 2:00 p.m. eastern on oral histories, with an interview with a navajo talker. looking back at natives' 10th anniversary. at 9:00 p.m., rocket girls, women of nasa's jet repulsion laboratory. all month, we are airing the winning studentcam documentaries. we ask students to answer what does it mean to be american. our c-span bus was recently in arizona. here is what people there had to say. means to be anit american is to be involved, passionate, supportive, and veterans andthe institutions and the process that protect our freedoms of

this great democracy. i am american. i am proud and what that means to me is that i, a former undocumented person who came in search of the american dream, was able and was given a pathway to citizenship. and now, as an american, i serve americans in arizona and every dream is possible. that is what a means to be an american to me. canor me, it means that i look at a country that allows me to have any job i want. i am 69 years old and still working and they allow me to do that. students, american government, american history. i have the choice and freedom to affect students' lives in these areas. >> to make about what it is like to be american, for me it is the

fight for social economic and reform.ental we need to fight every day for those more vulnerable for our environment and to show that the world we have today is at least as good for our kids and grandkids as it is for us today. >> voices from the road on c-span. >> fbi director christopher wray testifies about his agencies 2020 budget. he talks about cybercrime in the challenge of keeping up with changes combating sex , trafficking and agent recruitment. askedawfully briefly whether or not he has met the robert mueller report. this is from yesterday and it is about one hour and 15 minutes.