about recovery aid to puerto rico. as always, we will take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter as well. washington journal is next. ♪ host: good morning on a picture-perfect spring morning her and washington, d.c., when congress returns this week look for potentially contentious hearings, especially in the house. tuesday, bill barr testifying before and appropriations committee to talk about the justice department budget, but expect the mueller report to dominate the questioning. we will be carrying it live on the c-span network. ahead of "the washington andnal," aid to puerto rico the domestic terrorism unit within the department of itsland security, what is future? we begin with your calls and comments on news it you may or

may not be reading your local community. we want to find out what is available for you live, especially in the newspapers. for those of you in the eastern or central time zones. for those in the mountain or pacific time zones, (202) 748-8001. you can also join asuncion -- social media, @cspanwj. good sunday morning. holding a form this weekend that included greta vest -- greta van susteren. want to share from you first from the poynter institute a look at 1300 communities that have lost news coverage. as you can see, the areas and read our communities without newspapers. particularly in the central and western parts of the country and of course in alaska, you can see entire parts of the state without any local newspaper. we want to find out what you are reading, what is available in your local community.

have you seen a change in the last 10 to 15 years? an issue that we are focusing on and the first hour, our phone lines are open. for those in the eastern or (202)l time zones, 748-8000. if you type it greta van susteren, here's what she had to say. [video clip] >> i had many wonderful years a cable news, but for me as a viewer i know what everyone is going to say on cable news before i turn it on. i'm not really getting news. i also think because of the money issue, and i am in broad the stateroadcasting of iowa and who did you think

the candidates wanted to talk to? the people who broadcast free -- state? the state's or did they want to talk to cable? all of the voters in iowa can actually watch in they could reach alaska, hawaii through the whole network. now, i have an answer for you on the free thing, if i may. local news is so important. think the news industry should do much like major league baseball, go to capitol hill and get an exemption from the antitrust collusion and figure out a way so that you can have, you know, you have people paying for news, but you don't want to charge people if the washington post can't, but even on the local level, if you would just know, becauseu it's so important, be allowed to solude on reasonable pricing

that people will pay for news. host: that again from greta van susteren with questions from jonathan capehart looking at the of news and local communities. from "the washington post" the following -- that from margaret sullivan. tell us whether or not there are local newspapers in your community. what is available? what are you reading? let's start with joe.

we have one major paper here, the post and courier in downtown charleston. there are some what i call community newspapers around town that don't really get into politics much. but it has become so expensive that it cost prohibitive for me to get a printed copy in my driveway every morning. i rely on the basic three global tv channels for news. newspapers are playing against a stacked deck. one of the things that kept them alive was classified ads. people mow that. what has happened is craigslist has taken over that part of the paper so instead of having to's pay so much per line, they just go there for free. they have lost a lot of customers there.

the problem with that is that as you lose customers, you have to keep going up on subscription .ates to pick up the difference it's a sad situation. let me tell you, i think the paper is essential. i wish that people would -- would read what thomas jefferson had to say about the free press. and i mean the printed media, which is different from the media as a whole. everything is instantaneous now, the situation with the press you in his day was this -- either didn't have instantaneous news reporting other than a town crier. news had the chance to be edited before it was printed the nest it -- the next day. a free press is absolutely essential and it's one of the real checks and balances in this country and i'm sad that we have to pay so much for papers, i just can't do it now.

guest: -- host: former senator fritz holland, the longest conserving -- serving junior senator in senate history. strom thurmond was the senior senator your home state. what's his legacy? as you know, south carolina is a red state. people loved first -- fritz hollings. he came to my rescue when i was being treated unfairly. it was him and one of his aides, named lawrence thompson. i will always give him credit for coming to my aid. he did look out for people. obviously he was a democrat, but he was well-liked and he really cared about people. and by the way, he was a good friend of joe biden and we expect joe biden to show up for that funeral. he showed up for his wife's funeral a while back.

host: in 2012. caller: that's exactly right. fritz was well-liked, he really was. .ost: thank you for the call our phone lines are open, (202) 748-8001 if you live in the mountain and pacific time zones, and for those of you out east, (202) 748-8000. welcoming our listeners on fmpan radio, 94 point five and every sunday morning, potus channel 124. we welcome you as well. britain, viewers on the bbc parliament channel. the question we are asking us -- what is available in your local community? we covered audrey cooper this last week about what is and isn't available out west. [video clip] >> at one point we had probably more muslim american reporters than any other newsroom and

because of that we did stories on the muslim community that we never would have gotten any other way. you know, the transgender community, the black community in town, these issues are so inextricably linked to everything that's happening in the bay area, in san francisco, to not have people reporting on their community, to not have people seeing themselves reflected in bylines is irresponsible. it's crappy journalism. patrick is next. ethical, new york. basically getwe the tabloids and "the new york times." journal,"he ethical which we call the urinal now. but it's from usa today, all they do is copy the news from

usa today. we don't get "the wall street journal" where i buy the newspapers. there is no newspaper outlet or store. we have two universities here. the printed word is just dissolved. but i don't go on any of the computer stuff. i get my news in print. i have to have "the new york times," i consider it a historical document, but it's hard to talk to people about newspapers. host: give it a sense for how things have changed. was a different 10, 20 years ago? post, whichnew york is a disgusting tabloid, and the daily news printed in california, and thank god for "the new york times," i remember years ago when they went on strike, it was terrible.

we have to have that paper. the local newspaper is terrible, it's just a reprint of "the usa today," and they only pay the reporters minimum wage. they never have bylines. editorials are copied from whatever the usa editorial is. host: we should point out that "new york times" subscription rates have increased significantly, with a goal to have more than 2 million subscribers by 2020. you can get more details from their website. trump asking the jewish people for support on tighter borders, he spoke yesterday in las vegas. here is part of what the president said. [video clip] >> asylum program is a scam. some of the roughest people you have ever seen. people that look like they should be fighting for the ufc.

page given byttle lawyers all over the place. you know lawyers. they tell them what to say. you look at the sky and you say wow, a tough cookie. i am very fearful for my life. worried that i will be a costed if i am sent back home. no, no. he will do the costing. ccosting. he's afraid, he's afraid. we don't love the tattoos on his face, not a good side. he'sn't love the fact that carrying the flag of honduras or what a mama, only to say that he's petrified to be in this country. this headline from "the washington post," he announced

representative omar in a speech to the jewish audience one day after an individual was arrested threatening to kill the freshman democratic representative. local newspapers, what is or isn't available in your community. cornell, waterford works, new jersey, good morning. the newspaper business here is a dying business, as it is throughout america. inquirer,"iladelphia a competitive paper, the numbers are down. i have been working for the newspaper for 26 years. just this week the "philadelphia inquirer" went up to $4.95 on sundays and two dollars and five cents on dailies, which hopefully that will boost our sales, but i don't see it coming

back. people with the internet, with computers, they are uninterested. but we do have a solid base but every time we look at the obituary section, that's a customer we lost. this is from list -- liz host: and this from steve -- host: want to share with you this story from the bbc as the debate and uncertainty over brexit continues. "i had no choice to -- but to

approach a labor," from theresa may. the prime minister saying "there was a stark choice of leaving the union with deal or not leaving at all. some conservatives have criticized her after mp's rejected her plans on three separate occasions. three days of talks stalled without an agreement on friday. jeremy corbyn said he was line move see the red and hasn't noticed any great change in the government position, but in mind, the u.k. is due to the you are friday -- e.u. on friday. with a possibility for an earlier departure if a deal is agreed upon. more details at the bbc website. the university of north carolina, studying global newspapers with these results. metro and community

newspapers in the united states, 1800, have gone out of business or merged since 2004, when about 9000 were published to a co- next up is carl, good morning. from travers city michigan. caller: good morning, steve, happy 40th. host: thank you. i do love newspapers, going all the way back to working on my high school paper in the 80's. hoops. .- oops i live in the northern michigan rural community and we have two pretty excellent papers that do excellent regional coverage. the traverse city record eagle and the cadillac evening news. cadillac is a city with a population of about 2000. it's a small paper, it's family-run. i have known some of the family members, the publishers. they do a really good job.

the smaller ones do seem to -- they go with a lot of ap stories and they're pretty heavily edited to. you don't always get the full length of what the story might have been. the traverse city record eagle, however, does excellent local news coverage with a particular focus on local government and they are probably reaching seven counties? their papers are available to buy in the stores. , you are papers available know, out-of-town papers that you can get. you can get them at some of the supermarkets. i would encourage anyone to go to a library, depending on how big your town is weary they may have out-of-town newspapers on a daily basis. areones i mentioned published daily and on weekends and they do, you know, good local news coverage. good local sports. that's their focus to try to

stay alive, to make them relevant, it's the focus on local news. one more thing i will add to the mix of what we are talking about, we have a kind of a north.te called my it's a cooperation between local radio, tv, and newspapers to offer local coverage and you will be able to see that through throughon, as well as other internet type services. i would just say that if you want to know what's going on locally, you need to read your local paper. host: a transformational time. karl, thanks for phoning in and we appreciate the wishes as well. jan, sayingeet from that she noticed the decline in reporting when channels starting asking viewers to send in news and photos of videos. most papers use ap stories, from p or frome seen

this from cherry, "i get my local sunday paper delivered the old-fashioned way, to my doorstep. newspapers have much for information than anything on the internet or the mainstream media." bloomberg news with this headline, "small-town america dying and less than 1/5 of any of the local stories have anything to do with your neighborhood and there are consequences for social cohesion, voting, even bonds. entered this, "a recent study from the journal of communication found a direct link between political polarization and the decline of the community newspapers, the public is more likely to get news from national cable outlets and from national talk radio shows that traffic in opinion and outrage rather than broadcast from large coastal cities." sam is next from greenwood, missouri. caller: hello, thank you for

taking my call. i want to talk about flogging the response. a republican from missouri wereg that the courts formed by radical environmentalist lobbies that are forcing the agency to farmersze wildlife over . i want to say something that is really important these days and one of the most important headlines in the news. i'm inclined to change but none thatr shows want to do regarding this issue, but they make fun of it and they don't care about those people dealing with the trouble in the consequences of the disaster. but if you take a look at other countries, you can learn a lot. listen to them. take a look at these recent devastating flaws in iran and see how all of the officials and at the irgcple

gathered together in order to reduce the damages. joining forces to prevent damage to the city, it's in full force. host: thank you for the call from missouri. the) 748-8000 for those in eastern half of the country. those of you out west, (202) 748-8001. asking about local newspapers and curious to find out what's available in your own community and has a changed in the last 10, 15, 20 years as we have seen a decline in local newspaper ownership? we welcome your participation. this is from "the wall street journal." "americans hate social media but ."nnot give it up and from david cicilline, he was a part of that panel that we covered this past week, offering this observation. [video clip]

>> it was announced this week that you are both sponsoring a piece of legislation called the journalism competition and preservation act. why are you joining forces on this issue and what exactly are you trying to accomplish? >> this legislation, which i'm proud to be dealing with, will create a safe harbor for local journalists and online publishers to band together for purposes of negotiating with the two large technology platforms. it grows out of a recognition that we need to do something to give local media and news publishers the ability to survive. you know, we have seen a significant decline over the last decade of about 45% of the jobs in the newspaper industry and over the last year facebook and google have generated revenues of about $60 billion over the last several years. the revenue for news publishers is down about 31 billion.

you are seeing a shift of all these two large technology platforms and they occupy such a big dominant place in the marketplace that they essentially dictate to local news publishers and content producers the terms of using their content in a way that is making it impossible for them to survive. this bill for a limited time they say they will authorize you to work together to level the playing field. so you can survive. sayinghis is a tweet that "today is the 21st century, factual objective journalism the longer exists, that's why print journalism is laughed at and ridiculed. cable and broadcast mainstream media is in a similar state. you need to get the objective review of its going on by watching c-span." we appreciate that. trish, seattle, good morning to you. good morning.

i just enjoy this topic. my grandmother passed away, i got her cedar chest. i was fascinated not by what was wrapped in the newspaper, but with the newspaper itself. consequently, i have started a collection of newspapers. i think that my most interesting one was when i was in cairo and barack obama received the nobel peace prize, i have that. i consider the newspapers i have saved as a piece of history. and who knows, maybe it'll be on antiques roadshow, because they really are becoming a relic in our world in this digital age. they fun to read, when you go back to look at the old stories and even the old advertising? oh absolutely. theearlier collar said community wasn't cohesive without these small papers? and you would read about who had

a sunday gathering in who all attended. i mean it's just such a lovely thought that people could stay connected without the cell phones and, you know, maybe they didn't go to church, couldn't go to church or whatever. like i said, i have these newspapers, i have them all saved. and then if i have somebody, for example, during the mccain palin nomination i had a friend from st. louis send me that paper. really kind of developed a collection and it will be fun to see if, for my future nieces and nephews and their children, how they will see this when i pass away. trish, thank you for the call. up early there in seattle, washington. planet fox, inside the murdoch empire of influence and from time magazine, boundaries in the age of trump, vice president joe

biden will reportedly officially enter the race after easter according to a story in "the new york times," chris is joining us from watertown, wisconsin. good morning. caller: when i grew up, my local paper in water barry, connecticut, had stories from a five or six per week and now there is only one. back when i was younger, it was scout awards, awards for children, things going on in school. now the only types of stories that you see are government meetings and crime, things that they can cover very quickly. i noticed that when i moved to wisconsin, the largest papers in madison and wisconsin, milwaukee, they take their

editorials around the country, they don't generate them locally either. if you don't invest in reporters , you good editorial staff aren't going to get the readership, unfortunately. host: thank you for the call. "finally some good news, trust is up for local media. finally some good news, trust in the media is up since -- us -- up in the last year. the pointer media trust survey found 76% of americans across the political spectrum have a great deal or a fair amount of trust in their local television news and 73% have confidence in a local newspaper." next up is maria. you are myve, favorite. even though it's early i try to watch you, at least part of you,

your time there. "the los angeles times" has been resurrected, hallelujah. the chandlers owned it for many years in than they sold it and it went down, down, down and they lost a lot of wonderful -- wonderful reporters, like ronald ramstein. now he has invested millions. he hired mr. bernstein and the new owner is a chinese doctor and i don't want to miss pronounce his name. hired mr. perlstein, who is 72 years old and has a lot of experience and contacts in journalism and told him to hire the best and then to hire his replacement. so, they have -- many people in very good, new

people of color on. they have resurrected the withon, they merged it another saturday section so it will stand on its own on thursdays. that's wonderful news. also he has a beautiful new building. the old building will have a little bit left, it's a very , butric voting downtown the new building had to be utilized because of the wiring and the technology that was needed, so he has invested millions. we also have a south bay daily breeze that gives local news and has reporters covering the south bay and it won a pulitzer prize a couple of years ago and, then it's been san pedro, published every two weeks. a wonderful newspaper by a local man. so, here we are really covered and it is very exciting to have this positive news.

are: how far away from you -- how far away from l.a. are you? only about 20 minutes away, we are a part of los angeles. host: thank you for the call, thank you for getting up early. ,n editorial on herman cain "another reckless attack on the fed as mr. trump threatens the board integrity with his ."commendation from "the new york times," "politicians with strong opinions on what the federal reserve should in shouldn't do, they have pushed for lower interest rates and easier money and for this or that policy on bank regulations or consumer protections. they have summoned fed leaders to the white house or congress to persuade and control and in that sense there is nothing new in president trump's aggressive approach to the fed, calling for lower interest rates and quantitative easing, signaling the potential nomination of

vocal supporters to the board of governors." calls, we are asking you about local newspapers and we are curious about what is available where you live. is it jerry or gary? caller: it's gary. host: good morning. caller: morning. yeah, i'm in part of the newspaper business. atong time ago i was newspaper delivery person in the morning. a carrier. we all did that when we were kids, didn't we? yeah, but you can't do that anymore because you have to have a car now to deliver 200 papers a day to make any kind of money. the best paperback then, the dayton journal herald.

winning pulitzer prize editorial cartoonist, mike peters. people don'ts that report on the editorial cartoons anymore, or you can't find any that are any good and i was just wondering whatever happened to editorial cartoons. i would look at that first thing every day when i got the papers. i would look at like the peters cartoon to see what was the topic and whether or not it was funny or not. i think that's was missing in the papers, cartoons. host: we will go to pat and utopia, texas. caller: i will try to make my comments short. about 70 miles west of san antonio. they have had a local newspaper

oute and when we moved here, of course, i subscribed to the paper. what i liked about it was that they really do -- they don't cover any national news. it's all local. they cover the local schools, the local sports, just anything local. it has been in existence since the late 1800s and they do really support the business community. what i personally like about it, i came from houston, where in the space of 10 years i was able one letter to the editor published because of the different rules they have which prevent you from really, really participating. and there are so many people doing that. here the rule is once a month, if you can write a letter to the notor and it's not the --

-- they don't edit them, you can write about any subject you want, as long as it's not, not, what you call it? anyway, i have been able to publish i mean i have been able to write a letter every month for the last 82 months at least since we moved out here. host: wow. caller: they are very good about publishing it. my letters are different than most. but i, i like to put a lot of effort and thought into them. i don't like to insult the readers. having said that, what's nice about it is you get a good variety of letters to the editor and they are begging people to write. one of the big problems that i see is that people who are qualified to write debtors to editor that are informative, they just don't do it. host: thank you for the call. inside of "the new york times"

sunday magazine, "rupert murdoch destabilizing the most important battle -- countries on earth, even as his sons battle to control his empire. what's next for the world's most powerful and chaotic media company? bonnie is next. welcome to the conversation, good morning. hi, i'm from modesto, california. it's a pretty good town, but i quit getting the newspaper delivered several years ago because the cost got really expensive. i don't, even finding out any kind of politics without the newspaper, you can't even find out any local politics. because our local station is from sacramento. you hear all about sacramento but nothing about modesto. thesince i quit getting newspaper, i'm just not informed about anything about our town.

i was even trying to figure out who the mayor is, we had to go online to find the mayor of modesto. i really miss the local newspaper. i'm just not informed about my city anymore. i know i can go out of the way, but it's kind of like to get the newspaper, but it's very difficult to get the information. the thing that really had me craig getting at was the main news was about a tv station that tv show that it was very popular that hit the front page in that was what the front page was. and the "bee" is now printed in sacramento and the information isn't really about modesto anymore. times,"om "the new york the dangers of overusing medicines.

is "fungus immune to drugs quietly sweeping the ."obe and this from "the pittsburgh post-gazette," not the same since rob rogers was fired by donald trump. doug collins, republican from , cosponsor of the legislation trying to preserve and protect local news, talk about what he referred to as news deserts in more rural areas, including his home state of georgia. we are finding that local advertisers, local businesses who depend on that local newspaper, i love being a congressman from those districts. not only do i see who is preaching revival and who died, but i can also see the local business. this is where it became real for them to stay in business, not

skimming the news where they can get the local content instead of onbeing who gets the scores the weekend. i talked to one of my local publishers just the other day about this. he said they have to adapt. but my father, what he found was that if he he was getting two he wentions everyday, down to one, the local over the one that he was getting because the local was just taking some of the same articles from the a gettinghe was content, so that's where it means a lot. next.wilfred his myler: i wanted to put in two cents for the carriers. since january of this year,

upper i am now, you get all the papers if you go to the grocery store. "the financial times" as well and you can get some of the others. the post delivered all the papers in the area. the 7-eleven will never have "the wall street journal," but you can get that at the grocery stores, too. let me go back again to the poynter institute in this chart in the midwest and out west, the areas and wet -- in red, these communities are without any newspaper whatsoever. we have "the washington post," what about these towns that have nothing? caller: i don't know. they don't try to put out anything at all. you do get some community news,

but you have to go online. you for the call. aberdeen, good morning, thank you for waiting. thank you for c-span. i grew up with newspapers. my dad always subscribed to the atlanta journal-constitution and in seattle we had "the seattle times" and now i live in a small town that has an excellent newspaper called "the daily world. they are not biased from one side or another. we get different essays with bloomberg,ews, from los angeles, new york, but also a local opinion. i subscribed to it because i feel like, you know, as a community we need to change our support all of the

local businesses. like a newspaper. i mean, i don't shop at walmart anymore. i would rather shop at my local family-owned grocery store. i think it's up to citizens to actually support their communities. which is i think one of the reasons why a lot of newspapers are dying around the country. i am lucky to have an excellent newspaper. they do a great service to our community and they do have a lot of local advertisements. the local people do support this newspaper. the gentleman that was on about the want ads, he's correct. craigslist, amazon, they have all taken away from communities. like i said, it's up to, you know, the community members to support. margaret, thank you for

the call. this tweet, "newspapers" cannot stay in business without .dvertising below the full here, "20 years since the horrific shooting at thembine, high school and headline, "the man keeping columbine safe 20 years since, the job of john mcdonald is to make sure that there isn't ."other one has your local newspaper changed in the last 15 to 20 years? that event based in part on something we covered, type in "washington post" or the keyword of some of the participants, like doug collins or david cicilline. this is a tweet from jodey. we love the picture, by the way, delivering the newspaper in el

paso, writing up motorcycle at west for "the el paso times have another 20 minutes, if you have a picture delivering the news april, send it, we will show it. oak grove, good morning to you, michael. caller: good morning, and i on now? host: you sure are, go ahead. caller: i just wanted to say that when i was a little boy in cleveland we had a paper route where we could, for one week it cost $.37, including "the sunday ."per we wanted those three extra pennies for a tip and people would keep them for the next week. now when you go to the store, you have to pay three dollars or five dollars for a sunday paper? it just shows you how -- or why people are going on the internet for their news now. it's because of the cost difference.

and i bet you had to go door-to-door to collect the money as well? i did, we did, and sometimes we didn't make it from one week to the next. sometimes have changed. but that five dollar bill on sundays set me back a little. we, we used to, we used to wait for those three pennies for our tip. for the call.u chester, joining us from adkins, arkansas. our local newspaper is called the russellville career. something about our newspaper that i'm really disappointed in his they won't print any hard news. i have come to them with documents that prove what i am saying to them about local

officials, like the county sheriff taking county property and transferring it to his buddies. i show them that the law has been broken and they will not print a word of it. they won't print any hard news. our newspaper here is just a that, frankly, if you have anything to say or can prove anything against democrat, especially if it's a democratic public official, they will not print it at all. it's like when you have a local newspaper that has an agenda, unusual amount of control over the perception of public officials in here in polk town t, if you are elected to public office, it's a license to steal. this point similar to yours, "the new york post," still with the reputation of being the communist paper even

after the murdochs got it and it and --a gossip rag, rag." "i rarely watch any of the cable programs, except for "the washington journal." programspeople, these were there only exposure to travel. bill, good morning. caller: i've been in the newspaper business since the early 1970's, when i got my first job at a daily newspaper, which happened to be "the boston globe." it was as a photographer. i lived in a lot of different towns. i father was in a business where he traveled quite a bit. it's a small town paper called ."he globe and the intelligencer is in doylestown.

the lexington minuteman in massachusetts. the denverthere was " post and rocky mountain news and they were all great papers. the problem is that advertisers need larger and larger groups of people to come to their internet, and the which is looked at by a lot of people, has a good platform for people to advertise. bill, thank you for the call. mary with this -- with finding out it's going on in the statehouse. we mentioned this earlier, but fritz hollings passed away, 97 years old, he served in the 1960 six until his retirement in 2005 and was 97 years old. a former governor and one-time presidential candidate.

more from the panel discussion with david cicilline on what he sees as the future of newspapers and his concerns about what's next. [video clip] my home state -- >> my home state newspaper is a fraction of the size it once was and they are trying to compete in a market that isn't working and what's alarming to folks is that this isn't not just a sale of widgets. this is about access to reliable, trustworthy information that is essential to a functioning democracy to hold local and state and national government accountable, to hold power to account, to expose corruption. all of the things that the media does so importantly is threatened by a marketplace that isn't functioning properly with real consequences. that from david cicilline ."om "the washington post

anthony, south river, new jersey, what's available where you live? caller: thank you for the call. i get two papers here. the newark star-ledger and i get two others, the county you i read with chester, the coverage is very one-sided. i will give you a specific example that i think is pretty outrageous. our local council election a couple of years ago, the winner was a winner by three votes. ok? and then you didn't hear close it was. how to me it was a great opportunity to say that every vote counts, youris the importance of sacred right. later on the other party filed a notuit and it came out

through the papers, but just by talking to the people at the council meeting, and if you didn't watch the council meeting you didn't know -- that actually what had happened was that there were three votes that were not accounted for, meaning that when you went in and voted, you signed a take it and handed it to the person at the voting machine and you cast your vote? well, they didn't have three tickets. so you had an extremely high number of provisional ballots that year and it happened to come in where the provisional ballots didn't come in in a sealed bag. but you didn't hear anything about that and when you read the editorials and everything, it's very one-sided. that's the problem and that's why they are going out of business. again, thank you for the call. anthony, thank you.

we want to find out was available in your community. (202) 748-8000 in the eastern half of the country and (202) 748-8001 for those of you in the mountain and pacific time zones. 20% of alln mind, metro or community newspapers in the u.s. has gone out of .usiness or merged since 2004 20% of all match row and community newspapers in the u.s., about 1800 have gone out of business or merged since 2004. let's get to some tweets. post is the one that everybody reads in new york city." "i wonder what it would look like if speeches were printed word for word, what it sound like the incoherent word salad that we hear all the time"?

papers are nott responsive when an issue misses your driveway." caller: we have a him local paper here, owned by warren buffett. there's nothing finnish city more. most of its advertisement. you know, he owns papers all over the country. i don't know if people know, this man, it's coming up in may, they have their corporate meetings here, but he has got four foundations and he gives over $150 million each year to each of his kids foundations. know if people are even aware of that. the paper, they have lengthened the obituary and you don't even read local news anymore.

and the price has quadrupled. there's nothing in it anymore. what's in there is biased. you know, i'm a democrat but i voted for trump. thank you. host: going back to margaret sullivan, "one problem with losing local coverage is that we never know what we don't know. corruption can flourish, taxes can rise, public officials can indulge their worst impulses and there's another reason that results get less attention in our terribly divided nation. we need the local newspapers to give us common information and an agreed-upon set of facts to argue about. from colorado, jim, you are next. caller: hello? host: you could turn the volume down we could hear you much better. go ahead with your comments. caller: yes, hello?

this is jim preston, hello, am i there? i live in carbondale, colorado. we have three local papers here. dailies. ," the aspenimes daily news, and the post-independent. we also have two weekly papers, one in carbondale and one in basalt. very active politically here. we get plenty of local news and lots of letters to the editors. one of the reasons i love living here. thank you for the call. peter, you are next, from wooster, ohio. caller: wooster, ohio. i get the akron journal. they get local news from akron and wooster, but what i don't

like about it is they have got this -- now they have got this , faust media out of ohio is like a regional conglomerate? and you get some of the same in -- from both papers sometimes. sometimes they will publish from wooster, here in the akron paper. then you get stuff from the canton repository. but i don't like, we stand have this other, you know, what were they called it? dix communication owned "the daily record" but then they got took over by this gatehouse media. sometimes they had some of the ine, same, same articles

both papers. if you are variety? we will- nine host: leave it there -- i mean -- host: we will leave it there, thanks. joe is next from florida, good morning, welcome to the program. caller: several callers, we seem to be singing the same song. add it to the list of things that used to be good and are no longer here and available. there is a number of reasons for internet, but also the writers, the reporters can't .rite, they can't spell

like one fellow said, it's nothing but advertisements. we dropped the sentinel about two years ago. i get my news now from a lot of different sources online. , but anyway, time thank you for taking my call. this from another viewer, "our local paper has been all in on hate trump and local -- and russian collusion delusion," and another viewer saying "my local paper is nothing but a right-wing propaganda rag." matt, good morning. caller: hi, how are you? host: fine, how are you? caller: wonderful, wonderful. we have the post argan here in saratoga. we have "the times union kmco covering the region as a whole, and i feel that in many of the small cities, where the

population is probably 25,000 or 2000? you are looking at some writers and journalists who are just getting their legwork in. maybe a college with junior writers there and a couple of editors who have been there for years, but they are not making a lot of money. they are getting as much investigative journalism is -- in as they can and try to captivate the local region as best they can as well. really, any story that comes out, its obituaries, it's your typical paper. we really have everything pretty much covered under the sun here. i think that it allows for people to, you know, the informed about their community and a lot of different ways and really have a stake in it. and of course, to be able to maximize their use of things that are offered locally, as well as things that are going on at the local, state, and federal

level in terms of governance. you know, people are informed and they know what's going on, and it makes it to the people in power can't really put forth anything that would upset the public. host: matt, we believe it there. last week, "snl" taking aim at "donald trump." this week it's former vice president joe biden. >> it is clear that nothing is getting 30 you. she's a is a software engineer r oracle. the trilogy, the matrix get better as they go. abouty that bragged assault on tape. >> unlike his father's, your voters actually care. >> show me mrs. d.

i'm sorry. mean toy, i did not overstep. >> i know who you are. >> you do? obama's granddaddy. >> low five. boom, boom, boom. grab some cake. thank you. i love you, baby. appreciate it. wow. her thumbs. >> that is not how i wanted that to go. did we learn anything today? >> not really, no. the important thing is i am listening. i hear you. i feel you. let's hug it out, america. woman in 2020.

we can do that. host: courtesy of nbc last night, snl. when we come back, we will turn our attention to the issue of domestic terrorism. joining us is nate snyder to the departmentt of homeland security is restructuring the domestic terrorism unit. and later cheryl chumley and sophia tesfaye discussing campaign 2020 and the debate over former vice president joe biden's behavior. topjim jordan is the republican on the government reform committee talking about the democratic efforts to get the president's tax returns. here is a portion of that conversation. [video clip] >> the president should make his dexterous public? >> if he wants to. fine if he doesn't want to. is no law that says they have to be public. is the fact that

you have leaders in the u.s. congress, for political reasons, trying to force the irs to make public and american citizens tax returns. from theave sought it treasury using a 1924 law that allows them to examine it in case there is evidence of conflict of interest. do you think what they are doing is legal and they will ultimately get their hands on the tax return? >> i think we have people in congress for political reasons who are trying to get access to someone's tax returns, that is as wrong as it gets. scare everyhould single american that this is where the chairman wants to go. frankly, it probably should not surprise us. a few years ago in the obama administration systematically

targeted people through the irs for their political beliefs. they did it. we call for investigation. inspector general of the treasury did the investigation and said yes, they were going around this country at conservative groups for their beliefs. they should not surprise us that democrats are doing it now. it does not make it right. i think it is a scary thing we are seeing. jim jordan, the ranking republican on the house oversight and reform committee. that re-airs at 6:00 p.m. eastern time. you can watch it online at c-span.org or on the free c-span radio app. we want to welcome nate snyder, former chief of staff for policy at homeland security. he served in the obama white house.

i want to share this headline, the homeland security department domestic terrorism unit. what is this about? guest: thank you for having me. this has to do with the re-prioritization of resources who focus specifically on domestic terrorism threats. when i say domestic terrorism, i mean violent white supremacists, sovereign citizens, silent neo-nazis, silent militia. i think this is extremely jarring given what we saw globally in response to the new zealand christchurch attack and the recent rise of domestic terrorism threats we have seen in pittsburgh, charlottesville, and charleston. host: how does this were you and why? guest: this is a major concern of mine. formereard from

colleagues. one way to think about this is restructuring within federal agencies within the vocal of the beltway. where it really matters is where ,ur local first responders frontline law enforcement, and other folks who are responding to these issues where the spigot of information getting to them has been narrowed to a slow drip. host: let me share some numbers with you courtesy of the fbi. 900 domesticmately terrorism investigations ongoing. this year there have been 25 arrests so far. last year 120. in 2017 150. those are good numbers. the bureau is doing a phenomenal job in what they are doing. when you look at the mission of the bureau, they are in the mission of harassment and ofests -- the mission

arrests. when you look at the mission for the department of homeland security, the point of it post-9/11 was to make sure they were at all threat streams, all bits of information and taking that and putting it into operational form for the folks that need it on the ground. if you are limiting that capability, you are limiting the capability of our front-line officers from doing their jobs. the mission been in of the fbi. their mission is investigation, arrest, interdiction. the department of homeland security, their mission has been consistently supporting law enforcement with information. in my office, our focus was on prevention. from one side of prevention

versus when you are talking about law enforcement action going in for a takedown or opening an investigation. they are different worlds. host: can you explain how these investigations are conducted? where does the information come from? guest: information may come from various avenues. you have potentially if the fbi has opened an investigation, maybe a compliment -- confidential informant, maybe interviews that have happened. let me put it so simply. ann you are opening investigation, you are already in response. a lot of these threats you can intervene and prevent. when you get to information that has been narrowed significantly, you cannot do that work of preventing. instead you are on your heels and always in the responding

aspect. host: according to the anti-defamation league in 2015, there were 50 people killed as a result of domestic streams him, 37 in 2016, 70 in 2017. they are not eliminating this agency. >> i have seen the proposal on how they want to make sure there are not any redundancies with federal agencies, specifically the fbi. when i was at the department until recently, there was unique dhs specific analysis that looked at various intelligence and information streams that came from other agencies, our fusion centers, information

sharing centers around the country, and these important points were getting to the secretary to inform them on the emerging threat or trends in the threat. this information was getting to our front-line law enforcement. that is really where the rubber meets the road. the information getting to those because theyical are in the best place to respond to prevent more so than federal government can currently. one way to look at it is the likeucturing right now is when you have a small child rearranging food on their plate to make it look like they have eaten more than they have. is out oft matters that restructuring, what does it

mean in regards to the outputs and information shared with folks out in the field? that is what matters, and that has been significantly narrowed. host: our guest is nate snyder now with cambridge global serving as a senior advisor. which is what? guest: i'm advising them on counterterrorism issues, law enforcement, terrorist use of the internet, and cyber security. host: let's get to your phone calls. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. if you are an independent, (202) 748-8002. good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to know what is the number one domestic terror threat based on statistical data? host: what is the number one issue?

guest: we are looking at a lot of groups that were once dormant. i saw this in the lead up to the changing administration. we saw a rise in violent terrorism domestic after electing president obama, then a steady uptick and a boiling point in the 2016 election where we are now seeing dormant groups that were once quiet showing an online presence. we are actually getting information from communities around the country that they are now saying these groups such as ku klux klan, violent neo-nazis recruiting in the open. we had recruiters targeting high schools come targeting evening football games, targeting other folks that could be at risk. we have not seen that activity before. right now we are seeing with the current rhetoric that is

happening a lot of these groups getting organized. they are being enabled. they are using this rhetoric to consistently recruit, radicalized, and in some cases inspire folks to make attacks. host: john from new york city. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. look no further than the closing statement from michael: in his testimony to congress. i fear if he loses the election in 2020, there will never be a peaceful transition of power. cohen knows what this man is capable of. host: your response? what the viewer is speaking about is what i mentioned in terms of the rhetoric the leaders in this

country are using. words matter. they have an effect. we have seen that throughout coverage. host: christopher wray testifying before the house appropriations committee was asked about the rise of white supremacists and violent extreme groups in the u.s. here is that exchange. [video clip] >> the danger of white supremacists, violent extremism is significant. a assess that it is persistent, pervasive threat. we tackle it through our joint on thesm task forces domestic terrorism side and our civil rights program on the civil side. whether i see any significant difference or trend, i would say in general domestic terrorism in this country has changed in the

sense that it is less structured, less organized, fewer groups, more uncoordinated one-off individuals as opposed to some structure hierarchy. that presents its own share of challenges. certainly we tackle it through agents, analysts, professional staff, and technology. there's a lot of social media exploitation that comes with it. it comes back to this theme of data analytics and the volume of data. host: those comments from christopher wray, the fbi director. guest: i have to agree with the director. to of the threats i want pull on in regards to domestic terrorism being decentralized, i think there is a direct analogy here to what we are looking at

with the bureau, the department of homeland security, and frontline law enforcement with regards to isis inspired terrorism. you are seeing an evolution of domestic terrorism, right-wing violent extremism. it is metastasizing. they are taking pages out of the playbook of isis and al qaeda terrorists in regards to inspiring lone actors and social media. he brings up a good point. this is where it hits home. when you are looking at traditional tripwires as the director mentioned, agents and analysts and informants, that is great. those things have been working to an extent possible. when we are talking about prevention, those traditional tripwires have been inadequate, especially when you are talking

from the federal side in regards to prevention. that is where the information that dhs was once going out into the field to our fusion centers and frontline law enforcement because they will understand the true in regards to their communities, who made the mobilizing, where these conversations are happening and what to look out for. they are not getting that information. they are relying heavily on what we all do. they go to google. not information is necessarily entirely accurate. sometimes it violates civil rights and civil liberties issues. we are leaving local law enforcement out to drive if we are cutting off the spigot of information. we want to share the spokesman from the dhs quoted in

the daily beast. the fbi, state law enforcement, and the national network of fusion centers together information regardless of the threat or ideology. let's go to ronnie in new hampshire. go ahead. caller: good morning. i just wanted to tell you about im completely -- i'm completely trumped out. over where we are supposed to be. that guy has got to go. we have got to get rid of him. he is bad for the country. host: we will go to vincent, republican from pennsylvania. your thoughts on this? thisr: my thoughts on all was watching al sharpton and all those folks running for

president. american,d me as an thethat i am praising president to the point that i stand on top of a rooftop. i think what they are using to promote themselves and put him talk is all this racist scary. you could get heat up for wearing-- beat up for the right had. if a bunch of black folks think you are a donald trumper. think martin luther never came and did what he did. host: what are you hearing? guest: one thing to make abundantly clear with the capability that has been arrowed, they should not be democrat or republican issue. i think politics does have an issue in this.

it is really a national security issue and should be addressed as one. we are hearing the rhetoric that is coming out from some of our leaders does matter. it is not just the general public. host: this headline from the daily beast, the homeland security department disbanding the domestic terrorism unit. analysts looking into those attacks have been moved. the intelligence and analysts routinely work with federal partners, inc. fbi, -- including, fbi and state and local law enforcement. they have invested heavily in interagency relationships to enhance analysis on homeland threats. iselligence and analysts focused on ensuring intelligence

that is not duplicated by other agencies and where agencies can add the most value when the department and intelligence and analysts identify threats, we immediately coordinate and share it as widely as possible. read between the lines. guest: that was a bunch of terminology the department throughout. -- threw out. one piece of the article that , a a red flag is an officer local officer. the fact of this restructuring is having. the l.a. sheriff's office worked with us very closely on domestic terrorism threats. if you have somebody who is a veteran law enforcement official who deals with this every day

and suddenly says the information i used to get is now quiet. i am no longer getting the site -- the insight and analysis i need to do my job. that is proven the putting when we're talking about what this restructuring, how it has been detrimental. going back to my analogy of shifting your food around on the plate, that is what you are soundbite that long of what the department gave in response. host: this is from the l.a. county sheriffs department. it has been very quiet lately. it has changed with the new administration. does not seem to be as robust, active, and important. it does not seem to be a priority. does not seem like engagement, outreach, and prevention is a priority. there was more activity in the past, more training, or seminars.

now it seems like it has gone away. going to clayton, north carolina, republican line. caller: good morning, steve. thank you for this show. i am an avid listener. you are an important stronghold in the media. and brian lamb as well. shout out to everything he has done. question in reference to what is for trying toegy separate the extreme factions, the most extreme factions within both sides of the spectrum from the people that are in the middle? i preface that by saying when it seems like it has been effective in communities where you separate the factions that lay

on the outskirts and have the most extreme ideology, it seems like sometimes the strategy has to be to pull away or find a way to drive division between those groups and the groups that are somewhat on the fence. i wonder what the tactics are. we saw h.r. mcmaster did that very well in iraq. that was one of the reasons he was brought into the administration. i am curious on your thoughts on the best way to move forward in making that delineation. host: thank you. we appreciate the call. we will send your best wishes to brian lang. guest: i think the viewer makes a lot of great points. getting to the point and what is

the best strategy, this boils down to what is happening on the ground level. the federal government is doing its job on sharing information to the extent it can. when it gets down to the prevention side of things, working with all sides of the spectrum where this rhetoric may be bubbling up, it comes down to folks in the community understanding the community. i think the daily beast article in regards to outreach, engagement they need to do that job is critical because that is where these connections are made. example, when i'm talking about folks in the community, i'm talking about parents, teachers, soccer coaches. i'm talking about firemen. officials, folks who would have that reach and leverage with those who may be

at risk or who are being targeted for radicalization and recruitment. that is where things matter. one other point i want to make out that has been detrimental to , terrorism overall prevention at the local level, my former office at one point employees withe a budget of around $22 million. we are looking at this office that has maybe seven and a half full-time employees with a budget of $2.7 million. not only what we see here at the department of systematic negligence in regards to restructuring of its intelligence analysis capabilities, but then you have the programming arm that would use this information with communities to actually put in prevention efforts. att: this story is available

the hell. -- thehill.com. is this effort led by secretary kiersten nelson? issue behind us? is the trump administration behind this? guest: i think you have several people making decisions in regards to priorities and resources. i think that is the elephant in the room. when you look at this administration, their response to the charlottesville attack, the pittsburgh attack, and the lack of willingness to fully incident wehorrific saw at christchurch to where domestic terrorism is only a small group of people according

to the president. when you will look at it in terms of lack of priority, i don't think it is rise that we are seeing the actor fee of the prevention aspects that would deal with domestic terrorism. now you're seeing a restructuring of the folks that would provide critical information to the folks on the front line. host: we will look at the numbers from the fbi can listen to david from north carolina. good morning, david. caller: good morning. this is an interesting conversation. i think this man is a little bitter because he is no longer in his job, and donald trump is trying to downsize 17 investigative agencies that are not needed. you have got an investigation for everything. you have got the fbi. you have got the cia or overseas you have defense intelligence. you go down the line.

you have all these different intelligence agencies. why is it always the white man, the white radicals that you preach upon when you have muslim training camps spread out all over this country. you have black muslims that come their belief is that the white man is the white devil. host: thank you. we will get a response. just to hit that last point on the head in regards to looking at the various threats, the numbers speak for themselves. when you look at the issue of domestic terrorism versus al qaeda and isis inspired terrorism, it is somewhere within the last decade around attributedfatalities to terrorism at large were by

right-wing violent extremists or domestic terrorists compared to prices and al qaeda inspired terrorism. it is not that we are looking at politics in this aspect. i want to make that clear. it is the response we have consistently gotten from frontline law enforcement. they would tell us when we engage with them this important information you are sharing with inspireds and al qaeda terrorism, however my officers are consistently running into violent neo-nazis, violent militia, violent white supremacists and sovereign citizens. that has been a consistent drumbeat not only from the obama administration, when i was at whenbut it was consistent you look at the department under judge chertoff as well.

that is what we are talking about, looking at the actual threat. host: for two years, he served as chief of staff in the office of community partnerships, nate snyder. denise, you get the last word on this from ohio. caller: good morning. i would just like to mention that we do hear a lot about the white supremacy going on. i think we forget what is actually happening in our country is there is a whole lot of black gangs and mexican and asian games that terrorize people everyday. we don't focus on that. i don't understand why we focus on what's premises, but we don't look at our own backyard and see what is really going on. i live close to toledo, ohio. there are shootings every day. i come from los angeles. that was an everyday event. i don't understand why we're not looking at our own backyard.

we are so focused on white supremacy and not focused on black and mexican and asian games that are all out there, but our focus continues to be on white supremacy. why is that? guest: going back to my previous comments, i think the numbers speak for themselves in regards to what the real existential threat is. that, when you look at gang activity and criminal activity, there is a fine separation between criminal activity versus terrorism activity. the terrorism activity is related to political and ideological motivation. when you are talking about gangs, you are not looking at the same lens. when you are looking at fatalities based on ideology advancing a certain political agenda, we have seen a rise in domestic terrorism. thatusly making sure

looking at external international threats is a priority as well. thank you for being part of the sunday conversation. guest: thank you for having me. host: road to the white house 2020. will there be more than 20 candidates running in 2020? cheryl chumley from the washington times and sophia tesfaye from salon will be here to talk about it. and later jonathan levin from bloomberg will be here to talk about recovery a to puerto rico. obispo,l to san luis california, we visit the spanish mission. [video clip] [bells]

>> i have been ringing bells since 2005. my mom and grandmother were bellringer's here. i'm a third-generation bellringer. we ring the bells twice every weekday. we also ring the bells at every mass, weddings, funerals, new year's, and honig up. regularlywrong very by about 15 to 20 different bellringer's. today on booktv at noon eastern, in-depth is live with in-depths for an discussion on her latest book. all the presidents bankers. conversation with your phone calls, tweets, and

facebook questions. words, eastern on after jared kushner and a ivanka trump in the trump administration, miss ward is interviewed by elizabeth spires. trump, at some point will they become too much of an obstacle for him that he has to let them go? he goes back and forth on this. misusedurious when they emails because that is what he went after hillary clinton with. he said to john kelly, can you get rid of them? it is the irony that donald trump cannot pull the trigger on his own daughter. then he seems to forget about it.

wants booktv today on c-span2. washington journal continues. host: our sunday roundtable looking at presidential politics. us, anchumley is joining opinion writer at the washington times. sophia tesfaye from salon. congresswoman tim ryan says he seeks a united nation. he is the latest entry, more than a dozen now in this race. what does he bring to the 2020 presidential race? some: i think along with new recognition he is able to speak to ohio. the end of last him ao cap a rep -- built reputation in the democratic party. with so much of the narrative as

groupthink and everyone being pushed to the left, tim ryan has a credible record to say he has pushed back against the party. he has a credible record as a moderate. there are some moderates in 2020. tim ryan has a record of confronting politics in that way. hometownm the newspaper in youngstown, the vindicator, we carried this. you can go to c-span.org and search representative tim ryan. vindicator, congressman tim ryan says he is running to bring the country together. he says he wants to bring the values he has seen in youngstown to the white house. his challenge is to make it to the first democratic debate on

june 26 and june 27. the debate will be two days with lineups chosen at random. a candidate needs to have at least 1% support in three polls or privately 65,000 unique donors. i think he is a moderate voice that is much-needed in the democratic party right now could -- right now. i think john hickenlooper is one of them. i think he is a voice the democrats need at a time when socialism is corrupting the once noble message of the democratic party we saw under john kennedy. have ad be nice to

moderate element. from his announcement in downtown youngstown yesterday, democratic congressman tim ryan. [video clip] toi am running for president try to bring this country back together. [cheers and applause] country is aided weak country. we have politicians and leaders today that want to divide us. they want to put us in one box or the other. you cannot be for business and labor. you cannot be for border security and immigration reform. cities andbe for rural america. it cannot be for the north and south. you cannot be for men and women. i am tired of having to choose.

i want us to come together as a country. we are a great country. and we can do it. we can do it if we come together. i want you to know this one thing. the competition we are in today is fierce. we don't need a superstar, and we don't need a savior. we need to come together, and we it and determination and the ability to work together for a better future not just for us but for our kids. that is what this is all about. host: congressman tim ryan, the latest entry into the race for the white house. next week cory booker formally entering the race along with mayor pete who judges. guest: cory booker needs to bring a message that is a little more inclusive to all of

america. so far you hear that he speaks strongly on lgbtq issues. that is such a small segment of concern for most of america. i think the democrats in general, cory booker and other candidates, kamala harris, bernie sanders need to grab hold of issues that are big ideas for americans, not so much identity politics or smaller segment issues. with booker, he is good to have a particular direction towards iowa. he is going to put all of his attention there. i think that is where he can build on the legacy of barack ofma and carry that mantle bringing a larger group of people together. he does have a personal connection to the state with his family.

he will attempt to do that by with walls record street and as mayor. directly appeals to voters in iowa because of his experience in indiana. ryan, mayor pete has that same appeal, i can speak to every man. they are also going to have to speak for every woman. host: this is the headline for the washington post. quick,real gay real comments while he was campaigning. his emergence gives americans their second openly gay presidential candidate. activist frank carver sought the gop nomination 2012. many americans are celebrating

his quicklime as tangible progress. others wonder whether talking about his candidacy as a stork undermines the notion that sexuality does not matter. he will suddenly have to sentiment as-gay his campaign continues. any gay voters symbolizing acceptance they could have hardly imagined a decade ago. guest: i don't think the emphasis on his sexual orientation is coming from his campaign. i know it has a very viral social media presence. anytime he is asked about it on the campaign trail, his remarks tend to follow along the lines that it is a stork, but that is not why i am running. historic first, i don't think trailblazers want to

be known as trailblazers. if his sexual orientation is something that voters in the have a hardrimary time getting over, i don't think it will be in the first couple states of iowa and new hampshire. host: let me get your thoughts on joe biden. weirdest apology the campaign kickoff ever. at i amou are starting sorry. that is not the best place to start. you want to say i am running, here is why. i'm sorry means i am running. donald trump took off on a golden escalator. it was from a position of authority and not a position of something that has been denoted. in many ways it is going to be indicative of how his campaign

is going to have to be run because his record is so long. currently not really in sync with democratic primary voters. host: joe biden's defenders are wrong, this is your piece. explain. guest: i disagree with what you said because i don't think joe biden issued an apology. theink he sidestepped apology and went to excuse making. he basically blamed his behaviors on the past and up to the present on social norms and changing societal values. to that, i think that is a ridiculous defense because there has never been a social norm where it is ok to reach out and stroke little girls in intimate manners in front of their parents. i think that is where joe biden gets his creepy label. i think excusing his behavior

due to social norms changing is deceptive. host: he addressed this issue friday. he spoke to a union gathering at the washington hilton hotel and afterwards spoke to reporters. >> do you think you owe them a direct apology? is ie fact of the matter made it clear, if i made anyone feel uncomfortable, i feel badly about that. .t was never my intention to >> are you sorry? >> i am sorry i did not understand them. i'm not sorry for any of my intentions. i have never been disrespectful intentionally to a man or woman. that is not the reputation i have had since high school. >> you have always said you are not wearing any funny hats.

is this going to change how you are going to campaign? >> i think it is good to have to change somewhat how i campaign. the new thing is the selfie. everyone wonders why i take the selfie. if i have the camera, i make sure it is a photo and not something else. what areto wonder these being used for. it is all changing. it is changing with you guys. them inyou are aware of your personal relationships. it is not a bad thing. it is a new thing. it is important. i'm sure it is good to take a while for it to settle out. it has settled out for me. host: that was former vice president joe biden. jonathan martin in the new york times, biden did not rush into 2020. the race came to him anyway. the new york times, far from

remaining above the fray, mr. biden will enter the campaign as bruised as any of the other 16 campaigns already in the race. they are in this never never land now because they are being treated by the outside world like they are in the race. he, and they are not. that is a tough place to be. have been told to expect an announcement after easter. mr. biden has secured the services of mark vadon, democratic ad maker known for making gripping cinematic commercials. guest: if you are asking if i think joe biden is going to enter the race, i definitely think he is. recently andme out said he intends to be the last democrat to announce entry. situation,is current

guehink that is going to pla him and prevent him from being the democratic nominee in part. the other reason i think is the democratic party is looking for a little more youthful energy. it is already shown that on capitol hill, where you have io-cortez going head-to-head with nancy pelosi and nancy pelosi stepping down. be the think biden would nominee. i certainly think his ongoing somethinggoing to be that is going to push him to the side. ,ost: do use that line creepy you think that over being warm and friendly. andt: i have seen the video the images. this is not something that has cropped up recently.

this has been part of joe biden's reputation, whispered among political circles for years and years. it is my view that if you are a politician and part of your job is to read people to get their votes, you should know about the reputation you have. if you are stuck with a reputation like that, a good politician, a decent human being would work hard to change that reputation. the fact that joe biden has not but has laughed it off and excuse it as being simple friendliness has defied logic. host: what about president trump, who has talked about women's parts, that access hollywood video, and 18 to 20 women claiming he has abused them. if you want to make a case out of president trump, that is fine by me. there were certain valid questions that were asked of president trump on the campaign

trail. he has had to deal with that issue. the difference between joe biden and donald trump is that republicans by and large came out and accepted the fact that donald trump said these things and voted for him anyhow. acceptanceen, that is not there. admit theneed to behaviors of joe biden, that they are creepy. then you can decide whether or not to vote for him. you cannot deny dismissed. host: let me go back to the new york times story available on the web. mr. biden's uncertainty over how to address his past conduct and how contrite he ought to be captures the tension at the heart of this emerging candidacy. can he retain the unvarnished, tell it like it is political brand that appeals to older toers while appealing

youthful and diverse constituencies? good morning. caller: good morning. windmill cancer today. that is how lucky i am. i think a president is supposed to embody our national conscience and set the tone for our national conversations. i think the leader is made to make our populace reach for higher and better than we imagined possible. there was recently a trump -- he told theed fbi he was a patriot. mentioned donald trump. the coast guard mentioned trump.

the terrorists mentioned trump. is invoking sarcastic terrorism. communications to insight unpredictable violent acts. host: we will leave it there. do you want to respond? guest: i don't know what the question is. guest: i would say i think what aller is expressing his something democratic voters are acutely aware of. when they go to vote, they will not be judging these candidates in a vacuum. veryone will be judged relative to the present. i think what was being expressed is something a lot of voters are

frustrated with. host: from wisconsin, tim. you are next. caller: good morning, c-span. good morning, america. i recently had a friend of mine who is a staunch republican. i have many friends who are republican. he asked me if i had seen the tim ryan town hall. he po tim ryan town hall, lls the audience, asking them if they want their children to grow up with the same values of donald trump. he asked them to raise their hands. from what i saw, not one hand came up. i like tim ryan. i don't know much about him. i see that he is trying to pull the country together. that is what i want to see. i would really like to see washington journal on at prime time so that maybe on public

television so that maybe people who don't have cable could still participate. being on in the morning, retired watch, butothers can i want working america to be able to participate in this program. host: thank you for the call. thank you for being a loyal viewer. so many candidates, the question is how do you get traction in detention and raise money? guest: in the democratic primary in 2020, unless you are joe , i don't think there is very much space for the amy klobuchars and hickenloopers. i think it is difficult when the juggernauts in the party are bernie sanders, even though he is not a democrat, mayor pete, and kamala harris. these are the people that are speaking to the more progressive

message. host: you also have stacey abrams, candidate for governor still thinking about running for president. michael bennet said if he is cheered of cancer, he will enter the race. we may have 20 candidates in 2020. host: we get -- guest: we definitely could. we know that joe biden, bernie sanders, and molly harris, and beto o'rourke are the money draws. i suspect wants biden announces, the money game will change. the big donors will have to choose a candidate. it will say a lot where the big money is put. there will be a lot of shifting. host: let's go to new york, republican line. caller: good morning. thank you for c-span.

i just want to say that unless the democrats get something to run on besides hating donald trump and reparations now, they are all touting that. they have nothing. they are going to lose in a landslide. that is what i predict. it is all about the economy. the economy is doing great. it is roaring along. everybody is making money. i think this whole thing, the democrats better come up with something better to run on them what they're doing now. they have hated donald trump for the last two years. that is not doing anything. it is not drawn the country together to vote for somebody. it is bad news. after all this time, they ought to come up with something. two they have anything? host: thank you for the call. thomas mint jim jordan said 100%

chance -- congressman jim jordan said 1% chance that donald trump will be reelected. defeatwhat it takes to donald trump is wisconsin, pennsylvania, just a few states that went to this campaign, marginal votes. i think a barack obama like traditional democrat would be able to take the seats back. host: we go to ohio, independent line. caller: thank you for c-span. i live in tim ryan's district. i live in the extreme northwest corner of akron, ohio. just to give you an example of the gerrymandering that goes on. i am happy to be in his district. my question involves donald trump's tax returns. convinced and wants

to convince the american people that molars investigation is a big hoax, he should be eager to show his tax returns. in your face. the whole thing was a hoax. why would he not want to show those tax returns? what makes them so special? every president has done so. before we get an answer on our guests, it was not an issue in 2016. do you think it will be a bigger issue in 2020? guest: i think it caller: i think it should be. guess you just alluded to what my point was. the tax issue should have come out during the campaign since season. the molar report showed there is no collusion on the part of

donald trump and russia during the presidential campaign. we have not seen the full contents of the report. we'll have the memo of william barr. redactedreport in its version will be released. now the fact that democrats and the left are crying for donald trump to release his tax returns, it is a little suspicious, almost as if they are looking for the next witchhunt to go after this administration. i would say if you want donald trump to release his tax returns, just wait until the 2020 campaign season. host: here is part of that exchange in which 2020 politics came up. [video clip] >> the president was in ohio ohio, weeks ago, lima,

the airport to the tank. there were people lined up on tn the intersections. we went by an elementary school, and it was like apple pie. in our state, and we are considered one of the key bellwether states in determining president, the next i think he won by 10. sophia tesfaye, politics editor for salon.com, your perspective. guest: i actually agree with the congressman. i think there is plenty of evidence that democrats come of the state of ohio is pretty red. you really -- you don't need ohio. you can still have wisconsin, pennsylvania --

host: michigan. guest: michigan, there you go. they are not exactly like ohio. put them together. with these gm closures and an candidate,mocratic they have to insight enough people to turn out. to turnant your base out, or will you try to vote, get independents to come out? -- as far as a long, democratic debate, i do not think democratic voters want to play the game in 2016. way, and our podcast, "the weekly," we focused on the history of the electoral college. you can download the podcast on the free c-span radio app.

as we talked 2020 politics is cheryl chumley from "washington times," opinion editor, and the sophia tesfaye, politics ever for salon.com. julie is joining us from minneapolis. good morning. caller: good morning, steve. host: good morning. caller: i had to call. i am enjoying the c-span radio app, so i am not sure who is speaking between the two women, but when i hear accusations about jill biden, stroking little girls' hair and things like that, things like that, speech like that cheapens the need to movement. what joe biden was accused of was making women feel uncomfortable. night and day what the current president is accused and was accused of. i think we do the movement a disservice.

also, i do not consider myself -- i consider myself an independent, but i really think that democrats really go down the wrong path when they try to destroy and try to make bigger than they are, just like the same way they ran al franken out of -- did not give him due process. oft the mischaracterization biden'sen's -- joe actions and trying to put them in the same pot donald trump, harvey weinstein, it is really a disservice. host: julie, can you stay on the phone for a minute? caller: sure. host: don't hang up. this is from great america pac, supporting donald trump, focused on the former vice president. let's watch this and get your reaction. [video clip] >> it happened so suddenly, very

unexpectedly, out of nowhere, i his hand onen put his shoulder, get up very close to me from behind, lean in, and plant a slow kiss on the top of my head. how could the vice president of the united states do that to me so unexpectedly and kind of out of nowhere? it was shocking. it was shocking, because you do not expect that kind of intimate behavior, you do not expect that kind of intimacy from someone so powerful and someone you have no relationship with whatsoever to touch you, to be so close to you .n that way ♪

host: so, julie, that from the trump campaign. that, watch and listen to i know you're listening on the c-span radio app, your reaction. caller: yes, before i answer, steve, i want to tell you how much i love you and c-span and happy anniversary. i think -- i cannot blame the people that are for the president for making that ad, but i think that we -- or i think democrats really gave them the material to make the ad, and i think it is a disservice. it is definitely over-the-top, and women who came out against the president, they were over-the-top in their descriptions. i think a couple of them were politically motivated, bernie sanders supporters. but that is what we are going to get. crazy accusations like that in a political ad.

i think it gives everyone a disservice. thank you. host: thank you very much for the call. we should point out the lieutenant governor candidate from nevada was a bernie sanders supporter. she was the first to come out. there have been others since then. what do you think of that a d? guest: it is not surprising. of course republicans will capitalize on what came out with joe biden recently. michael thing is this has been going on with joe biden for years. to movementa need thing. i have written about jill biden and the creepy factor for years. other people have written about joe biden and the creepy factor as 2016 an even earlier. people want to say that the whole thing with joe biden now is politicized or simple politics, it is politics that is hard-hitting now, but it is not

political in that joe biden's reputation has been that way for years. and i look at this with joe biden as more than chickens coming home to roost. due being paid now for years and years of behaviors that have been over the top your reaction in your comments -- over-the-top. host: your reaction and your comments. exists comethink it and i think that reaction is cultivated in conservative so circles, but i do not think it has penetrated the democratic voters. i think the defense you just heard from the last caller is one that you are likely to hear throughout the primary. host: we welcome our radio audience on c-span radio and on sirius xm, potus channel 124. with us frome's salon.com and cheryl chumley of the "washington times." our next caller is from raleigh, north carolina, republican line.

thank you for waiting, cindy. caller: yes, i also do believe that joe biden's reputation is being blown out of proportion. affectionatea very person, and he always has been, and i will take a hug for him anytime. people saying he is creepy, women have an obligation also to say no. they can say no at any given time to make sure that they are so these people up there talking about joe the way you are, that is just wrong. host: we will get a response. guest: i don't know why it is wrong. i don't know why it is wrong to look at video and images and stories and read news and see online in images and videos how joe biden has touched not just women but young girls, and i don't know why it is wrong to draw a conclusion from that,

that it is over-the-top touching. it is toointimate, friendly, it is creepy, and i do not understand why my opinion is valued any less than the opinions of women who think there is nothing wrong. host: this is a tweet from james. give it up. it is bernie. if you look at national polls, joe biden and bernie sanders get about half of the democratic votes. he raised $18 million in the first month of his candidacy. host: and they are still reluctant in the media to report of the bernieasm sanders campaign, as has been shown. one of the most interesting things that have gone around with the sanders campaign is that i think with the last reporting of his financial contributions, which hit $18 million, i believe, most of those contributors under the age of 39, a significant voting block this time around or

turnout propelled barack obama into the white house in 2008, and i think that same energy can push bernie very far in the primary. i do think if he were to win the nomination, he could then be the catalyst for howard schultz, an independent that is all but dead at that point. host: tom, harrisburg, pennsylvania. good morning. caller: good morning. your guests sophia, she is right, you do not need ohio, but you know what, no democrats win pennsylvania right now. zero. there is one democrat have any chance to win pennsylvania, and unfortunately that is joe biden. in 20, bernie sanders would have but in 2020,nia, joe biden has to get out of the way of these allegations, but a

2020 bernie sanders, there is no chance. trump is extremely popular, and look at michigan, when he gave candidate --this when was the last republican who could go to michigan and draw 20,000 people? inrump comes to speak pennsylvania at hershey or something, he will drop 20,000 people. there are zero democrats that will be able to do that. is one person, and i would agree with your guests, conor lamb, he will be a great --ocrat frannie running mate great running mate for any democrat. host: thank you. guest: i think it is a little candidateay what granit would be great to run against donald trump, but he had said he would have had a harder time hillaryld it been

clinton, so i am not sure where donald trump stands on a face-off with bernie sanders right now, but i think it is a little early to predict how democrats might fare not just in their primary but also even farther down the road against donald trump. host: there is a story online at politico.com. the headline "here is a trump campaign strategy that democrats are eager to embrace." " president trump left many in washington scratching their heads when he put the 2016 campaign digital chief in front of the entire efforts. now democrats are embracing that, among the white house campaign digital folks. it is from raising breathtaking email. money via today in a low-price politico,

the stakes are even higher, early success online can entirely framed the candidacy, and a misfire can doom a nascent bid. democrats see a war that instantly parlayed the online attention. page of the judge, the mayor of south bend, population 102,000. i think democrats were right to follow his lead, every moment of the campaign, digitalg the aspects. they are being more and more integrated into campaign structures. again, that was something that was built off of barack obama's and the hillary clinton campaign alec giving the digital leads -- elevated digital needs pretty high up in the campaign. so when you see the work, fundraiser, everything goes online. donna ands go to

somerville. i am taking the democratic ballot in 2020 and voting all of the republicans out, and the people who voted for donald trump, they did not even know who they were voting for, and they did not even read the fine print, and i am going to vote democratic, and i hope the democrats will, because people that don't know how to vote voted for donald trump, and they made a mistake, and now they have made their bed, so now they can just lay in it. host: thank you, donna. let's go to patrick, south carolina, on the republican line. good morning. caller: thanks for taking my call. i am a c-span junkie. i do not get out much, you know, so i was everything on c-span. i do it for several reasons. news pretty straight.

but anyway, years ago, when they would have a swearing-in service for the new members of congress, and i would be watching it, and joe biden would be, you know, you hear people saying well, he is friendly and everything, he was awful friendly -- he was not friendly with the older women or the man, he was just friendly with the younger women and the pretty ones. you can go back, and c-span, you all have got it on tape. host: it is all in the video library, you can go to the site and type in the vice president joe biden's name, and everything will come up, including the eight appearances during the swearing ceremonies of the members of the u.s. senate. moment agou solve a from the trunk campaign, uses some of that c-span footage. guest: i think how this will probably play out in the

democratic primary is that younger voters, young women essentially understand the dynamic between a joe biden and someone like themselves. i do not think it is tolerant for that type of behavior. again, everything is relative. is joe biden as bad as donald trump? of course not. as bad as other candidates who are better and don't have that record? yes, democrats have a lot of options. host: we will go to daniel in miami, florida, our line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning, c-span. i am ashamed that this dialogue is being discussed on tv. there is so much more important things. joen never believe that biden is so aggressive a woman, not one outright argument that

he is trying to full around a woman or do something, and there are so many other men around him doing the same thing. grew up in an area where there was so much touching theg on and touching of people, and this was a sign of the times, and you are going to castigate the guy for doing things like this who has never towardny tendencies brutalizing women or anything like that. i am ashamed of this. that isa situation doing down america, to bring vengeance against the world and the political sources are using them to come out against innocent people so that they can squash him. to my mind, i was surprised to see that. host: thank you for the call. let me take this point and move it in terms of strategy, because it took a week for the former vice president to speak directly

to reporters about these initial charges. it came out friday a week ago, and the former vice president is this past friday in washington. does that posed a problem in our hyper immediate news cycle? guest: i think it does, but for joe biden, it is all about moving forward. what is he going to do now that these are being openly discussed some of these allegations, the reputation that has haunted him from the past? back, my, i come personal view is that joe biden, and faceoes announce the democratic race, i just do not think he will be the candidate who wins the nomination. host: here is what donald trump has to say about the investigation, he says biden is too close, too friendly. [video clip] pres. trump: i think i am a very good messenger, and people got a kick out of it. he is going for a situation --

less see what happens -- but people got a kick. we have got to do it a little bit, right? no, i do not see joe biden as a threat, no, i do not see him as a threat. i think he is only a threat to himself. i just don't see him as a threat. he has been there a long time, his record is not good. he would have to run on the obama failed record. you look at what happened with so many different things, north korea, the middle east, the economy never got going. no, i do not think joe is the threat. i would love him to be. look, i would be happy with any of them, to be honest. host: sophia tesfaye. guest: i do not think there is any greater political motivator than donald trump for both sides. i think when donald trump goes out there and pretends to give -- i think moral

democratic voters throw their hands up, and i think republican voters eat it up. that is what may be our 2020 giving. mccain is the daughter of late senator john mccain on "view," also weighing in on this. here is what she has to say. [video clip] me thisg has been really difficult for me to watchhan: -- really this has been difficult for me to watch, because no woman has come out and that i have been sexually assaulted, and that is what the me too movement is about, and i know joe biden. he is a man of true character, he is someone who could beat president trump. he loves his wife, jill, he loves his family, and when you talk about pain, i know people who have gone through intense pain in their lives, and 10 strategy, and he has better insurmountable tragedy, and you are right, instead of going is angry andne who

closed off, he decides to empathize with people and to touch them and to of them, and i will take that any day. and the second accuser, amy, said we have four women candidates running, he should throw his support about them through if this is about you wanting a woman candidate, just say that. and part of it is if you do not think he is progressive enough to be the candidate right now, come out and say that, but do not attack his family and his character, because i am telling you, his kids are feeling this, and i have not spoken to them, but i can just imagine going through this is a hatchet job. [applause] host: from abc's "the view." here at the table, cheryl chumley of the "washington times " and sophia tesfaye of salon.com. beene, you have

waiting patiently. we should point out you are on the republican line. go ahead, george. caller: thank you. yes, i am a republican. biden has been doing this for many years. everybody as noted, the democrats some of the republicans, and it has just come up mount your my major concern is not really about whatever he is doing is perversion, my problem is joe struck a million dollar deal with the chinese government 10 days after his father went to china, and this is when he was vice president. things like that bother me. i am not worried about biden and more whaties, it is he has done to the united states. host: thank you. we will get a response. guest: i think he raises a good point in that here we are stuffsing joe biden, and that he has done in the past,

stuff that is ongoing, but step that has absolutely nothing to do with this political record. and that kind of underscores what a poor political candidate he would make for the democratic party. if he cannot even move past the party and talk about his issues and defending some of the policy stances that he has had through the years, that i would say he has zero chance and he might want to consider -- reconsider even announcing a run for the democratic ticket. because as it looks right now, this is going to play him throughout the entire nomination process. host: sophia tesfaye, there are literally hundreds of video clips of joe biden our website. he has been in the senate since 1972. we started archiving in the late 1980's. before he announced, the mayor pete,th indiana, mayor had -- there is a long paper trail for people like joe biden but not really for people like and mayorto o'rourke

pete buttigieg dutch. . guest: experience is what people want to judge, and they often judged negatively, especially with people like joe biden. i should mention was a record is examined, it is going to be whatingly out of step with public polling shows democratic primary voters are in agreement again,ertainly, and primary voters are some of the most active, but it does not mean they are the most progressive in all of these states, but they are the most active, and i think, in some ways, that could go well for biden, because being active means you are a party faithful, and yearning for the obama days i think is still there, but

the vibrancy and the lack of a record i think will bode well o'rourke,pete, beto and elizabeth warren, she has a record, and i think her record is more in line with the progressive party, and the more she speaks on hers, you will see her numbers perhaps rebound from her campaign. the democrats cannot just run against trump, they have to run for something. let's go to peggy in massachusetts. good morning. caller: hello, yes, thank you. can you hear me? host: we sure can. caller: ok, thank you. iwould just like to say that voted for obama, president obama twice, and i voted for donald, and subsequently, after his attack on the press, which i find incredibly autocratic, i moved back to being a democrat,

presidentialse hopefuls and new members of congress are voicing their opinions, it is, for me, it is and i wouldhe left, never want to vote for trump again, but i am almost thinking about staying. thei think joe biden is only sort of blue dog candidate trump,uld possibly beat although i am sort of taken by the charisma of beto o'rourke. but this criticism of him i find sort of hard to bear. and these new members of congress and the green deal and medicare for all, it is just too far to the left, and for me, even though i am very opposed to israeli apartheid, what i call it, to have these new members of congress come out and assault israel, i mean, it is just so

politically immature. i kind of find infuriating. it is hard to -- i was one of the people who encouraged my sisters to push past trump's "locker room talk." host: thank you for the call. let me put it another couple of comments on the table. this is from our who says "i believe this noises brought on by democratic-socialist wing who once the democratic to get the nomination. personally, i agree, i want a younger female democrat to get the nomination. bbiden is too old and too old-school to get the nomination." cheryl chumley? guest: the comment about biden goes to what i said at the outset of this show, but i too think that biden is a little too present democratic party, to represent the youthful

voice that is emerging. that is not to say i like the youthful voice. placek socialism has no in the american political system. i actually agree with jim jordan at this point, which means nothing, because the election is months away, but donald trump is definitely the winner of the white house once again. i think that the democratic party needs to work hard on bringing forth a moderate voice and developing some issues that are not just anti-trump. they need to speak to health care, they need to speak to immigration from the national security standpoint, not the civil justice or civil rights standpoint. and they need to talk about taxes and the economy. those are three issues that, if the democrats would start harping on, and maybe the people in the independent wing of politics what start paying more attention to them instead of just dismissing them as radical. host: sophia tesfaye. host: i think we have a couple

of data points. there was a 2018 midterm. democrats took back the house, and republicans went back to the senate with fewer seats than i think they anticipated. and we do have trump's consistent low polling numbers as well as his fumbling of almost every agenda item he has, from health care to the border, doingd the economy was quite well, i would point out, during the midterms, and still republicans were unable to maintain control of the congress. so the notion that trump is just going to walk right back into the white house is kind of, i think, built upon trump's own butoric and bluster, voters, i think, as evidenced by his unable to break up 50%, are not that flexible with him, even integrated t even in a great ec. host: the strong face a

challeng republican challenger? guest: [laughs] no. does run, ioesn' think john kasich, the former governor of ohio. but it would be for the sake of argument. i do not think there is a credible challenge of that actually knock him out in the primary. host: cheryl chumley, you will have the last word. guest: i think he will have more judge, johnll kasich will come in, i think there will be more establishment-minded republican candidate, the never trumper side of things will come in challenge trump, but i still think trump will win. host: if people want to follow you on social media? @ckchumley or find me on linkedin. @est: and i am on twitter

stesfaye. host: thank you to both of you. in exchange that took place between hogan gidley and allie jackson. we will come back again jonathan levin's perspective. [video clip] good: there has been some confusion. president trump got $91 billion for the hurricane. that is not true. hogan: they are getting $91 billion. he does not have that, he is getting it. hogan: -- hallie: that is not true! that is not a true fact. we have had mismanagement

and you've seen food rotting in the ports, the governor has done a horrible job, and he is trying to find someone to take the blame off of him for not having a good grid. thate: these are things are not true, just on a factual basis, because of hurricane katrina, and it is estimated to cost more. let me ask you about another fact here. president trump says puerto rico is only taking from the usa. that is part of his tweet. i thank you and i both agree that president trump knows u puerto ricans are u.s. citizen. hogan: correct. allie: does he think they are not equal u.s. citizens? why would he say they are taking u.s. -- hogan: that is absolutely ridiculous. i was in the senate watch when the president addressed this topic, and he told people you need to vote for this bill, democrats want even more than we have already given, $600 million more, part of our relief packages. you have to vote for that.

-- ave to vote for them and you are not answering the question. puerto rico is part of the united states. you are rolling your eyes, and i'm not know why you are rolling your eyes, because there is a lot of confusion as to why the president would say this. hogan: that is ridiculous. he actually traveled to puerto rico after this ridiculous hurricane. hallie: and then talked a lot about things ever since he returned. hogan: he gave them a lot of money. they mismanaged that money, and her their people, and that is what he is upset about. host: apple video is on the msnbc website. joining us now is jonathan the bureauhe is chief for bloomberg news. guest: it is important to

distinguish essentially $40 billion has been assigned to the commonwealth come up with something on the order of $10 billion has actually gotten there. $10even within that billion, it is very important to distinguish what that means, right? a huge chunk of it was out late in the immediate aftermath of the storms, clean up debris and things of this nature, to ensure that no more lives were lost in the immediate aftermath, and also, to a certain extent, for administrative expenses. when we talk about what fema projects,at permanent real infrastructure projects that are meant to bring the infrastructure back to pre-storm levels, we are only talking about something on the order of $375 million that have been promulgated, and even and i that, we could go

can point out that only $335 million have been out late for her minute projects. thankedt the president 91 billion dollars have been out late for puerto rico. where did that money come from? we understand the 91 billion dollars to be the $41 billion that has essentially been assigned plus a long run estimate of what could be spent over time, and that is understandable. you look at katrina, but $120 billion was spent over time. that was over years and years and years, and that is essentially what you would expect in the timeline in puerto rico as well. host: we are dividing our phone minds regionally. if you are a resident of puerto rico, (202) 748-8002. otherwise, for the eastern half of the country, (202) 748-8000. those out west, (202) 748-8001. of the island itself, how has the recovery effort been going? mean, iell, look, i

spent roughly the first month after the storm on the island, and certainly it is night and day between my first visit and some of the subsequent visits that i made. the capital of san juan has improved dramatically. outside the capital, things are still fairly wanted. all that is not to say that everything is back to normal. the electric grid is sort of but showedack up, another storm rolled through the region, the island of puerto rico would be in a lot of trouble, and then there are sort of isolated projects, isolated pieces of infrastructure that i could went to. in a recent piece of reporting that we did for bloomberg, we highlighted a remote hospital that hason the island been trying more or less to navigate the federal bureaucracy since right after the storm, and to date, the entire island of

--, which is of course part of puerto rico, is reliant on a former storm shelter and a series of trailers on an asphalt thisng lot, to serve as host. --t: let me share this with president trump writing "puerto rico got $91 billion for hurricane money, more than ever before, and all local politicians do is complain and asked for more money. the holes are grossly incompetent or spend the money foolishly or and competently, and only take from the usa." he goes on to say "the president juan has donean

such a poor job of bringing the island back to health." jonathan levin, your response. guest: it is certainly much more complicated than that tweet. issues with the san juan goes back a long time. however, the governor of puerto democrat,is in fact a has, i should say, at least in the very beginning, fairly differential in his dealings with the president. havenk he saw the need to a long run, good relationship , and every remark that i thought of his about the extremelywas in grateful, even at a time when many others were criticizing

president trump's reaction. host: you had a story at bloombergnews.com, the governor of puerto rico calling president trump a bully. guest: that is correct. certainly he has changed his tact over time. he realized, one way or another, that what he was doing was not getting the job done. the criticism,d he is the governor that will be up for reelection in 2020, and he will face the mayor of san juan who has gotten quite a bit of coverage for going head-to-head with the president of the united states. host: here is a story from jonathan levin, who is joining us from miami. chad is on the line. good morning and welcome to the conversation. caller: good morning, and thank you for c-span. for those of you who do not

know, seized and have great website where you can go online and read a lot. in the military, and at the time of puerto rico did not pay federal income tax. do the people of puerto rico not pay federal income tax? puertosir, people from rico pay some types of taxes, generally speaking, they do not pay personal income tax, however, as you thunderstorm, i think this is a very important when with some of the recent misunderstandings about rico. weekends are very very much u.s. citizens -- puerto ricans are citizens, much u.s. and perhaps the most important with regards to that is puerto ricans have been serving in the united states military, in conflict zones, since world war i. host: the next caller is richard from missouri. good morning. richard, are you with us? [no audio] hello? yeah,

host: good morning. know it person who has property down at st. john's, and they had a hurricane there. the building materials and st. john's is astronomical. i mean, is the same thing true in puerto rico, that, you know, everything has got to be hauled tothere, and the process rebuild is astronomical down in them places. host: obviously, jonathan levin, puerto rico is an island. [laughs] guest: that is correct. the cost ofion is rebuilding on an island vis-à-vis the mainland, certainly there are challenges. you have to get the materials they are. this whole recovery has been more challenging, for many reasons, because it is an island. it is objectively true that it was harder to get federal

staffing to the island in the immediate aftermath, in part because puerto rico is an island. it is not like florida, where folks could just, you know, come down by truck, by bus, and so forth. host: this is a tweet from mary beth munoz with a picture of president trump, when he did this at the island after the hurricane, and he was throwing paper towels. how did folks react to that? guest: not well. we conducted some interviews when i was on the island immediately after that happened. thatnk there was a sense many, many lives were still at risk at that point, and i think the data has in fact beared that out. estimates of the death count many thatest that took place as an indirect result

of the hurricane in fact took subsequente months of the storm, at the health care was not yet as accessible as it needed to be and so forth. host: ron from salem, missouri, good morning and welcome to the program. caller: yes, good morning. my question and comment with island and the contractors there to be able to handle $91 billion dumped on them at one time, that is way to spread out over a period of time, and your guests knows that. thatnly that, it shows they could not handle the release that they got when it was sent down there. i remember the mayor of san juan standing in front of a bunch of water bottles, and saying that she did not have water. the problem is not just the money, it is the ability of the people there to use that money wisely, and that is what the president is getting at. he is saying that they do not have the capability, and they have not demonstrated that they

have the capability, so we should not be just flushing money down the tubes. the electrical grid was a terrible mess before the storm. it was a terrible mess. so now they have a new electrical grid. it is a hell of a lot better than it was. host: ron, thank you. we will get a response from jonathan levin. guest: it is correct that the government is taking steps to disburse money little by little, as they typically do. rico, i thinkerto you are seeing probably unprecedented oversight. that was sort of the case before the storm. reference tokes some of these, you know, the issue that this governmen island government had had before the storm, puerto rico was going through a bankruptcy-like proceeding, and there is a congressionally-appointed fiscal oversight board that was looking over order rico's -- puerto

rico's finances even before this happened, and once this happens, federal authorities demanded a great deal of oversight about how the money would be spent, and so i think you would find a very robust sort of accounting procedure that goes on. difficult approval process that takes place well before any of the money can be dispersed. host: we are talking about recovery aid for puerto rico as senate democrats continue to block the bill, saying it is not enough money for the island territory. our guess is jonathan levin, a graduate of the university of pennsylvania. terry is joining us. good morning. caller: good morning. i am sorry, but i kind of have to laugh at this. $91 billion? they do not pay federal taxes?

geez, can i get that deal? where do you sign up for that? $91 billion after a history of corruption? how can you pretend that this is a realistic news story. thank you. host: thanks for the point. guest: i think i would point terry to my earlier remarks on the actual breakdown of the funding. it is, of course, demonstrably not true that the island has billion,eceived $91 and in fact, the actual number four permanent rebuilding projects is something on the order of $375 million, much, much smaller. host: and a follow-up from , who sent us the earlier tweet, and to clarify, she said over 3000 deaths on that island of the usa, how many people did die as a result of the hurricane? is there an estimated realistic death toll?

is 3000, andtimate the 3000 comes from an independent audit carried out by researchers at johns hopkins university. there was criticism of many parties immediately after the island -- immediately after the disaster that there was not much clarity as to what that number might be. what they ultimately did was they conducted what experts call an excess mortality study, so essentially you look at how many overall deaths you have in the hurricane maria, and you compare that to what you would expect in a typical year of fatalities in puerto rico, to what led researchers they believe to be a very figure, of around 3000

deaths. i would also point out that a number of independent researchers have looked into this, and many have, to something similar to that figure. from park storm -- "why do trump supporters hate puerto rico so much?" that is a tweet @cspanwj. "democrats did more damage in puerto rico than hurricane maria to read it was a poverty-stricken welfare island before hurricane maria. why do democrats want to make it tasta state?" let's go to break in tennessee. caller: yes, my comments as i have been to puerto rico many times during the years. vieques.wo weeks on

puerto rico had a lot of problems before this hurricane hit. it was an unprecedented hurricane. they have, i believe, received easily the adequate amount of that -- ind i think love the puerto rican people, know, therehat, you is an issue with her organization as far as their thatistrating the funds have been given to them. that is my comment. host: thank you. jonathan levin? follow myyou reporting back a number of years before this hurricane hit, there was no question that historically puerto rican governments, of course this current administration could not be argued to be responsible for

the deaths of the past, but, you know, this is an island, a relatively small island of 3.2 million people now that managed $70 billion in debt. there were mistakes made, onectively speaking, based very meaningful and complete audits of the situation. were infrastructure projects that did not need to be undertaken. there were poor tax collection practices. whose rico is an island administration has made many mistakes over the past decades, and that is a fact. host: this is from steve, saying "puerto ricans cannot vote for president. no taxation without representation," on our twitter page. another tweet from kiki,

"hurricane maria and the death 2975 deaths, according to an independent study," as jonathan levin just said. do so many people say that puerto rico is not part of the united states of america? and how can we have a president that are so stupid to think we only have nine or 10 people that died in a hurricane when this island is sitting out in the middle of the ocean like that? lose moree going to people if a hurricane that size hits florida, so if it is sitting out there, what makes him think that with all the people that we lost out there? i just don't get it, and people jump behind this man like he had some kind of compassion or something, which he has none. thank you very much. host: brenda, thank you. let's hear from robert joining us from trolls found, rhode island. good morning, robert. caller: good morning.

, i will repeat some of the articles just written about puerto rico. i want to start my comments saying i am half puerto rican. my mother is from puerto rico. our families have had properties over there, and that state is a failed state. people have been leaving there for the last 15, 20 years. my family come of the properties that they cannot give them away. people have been breaking into family's apartments, robbing them, stealing, drugs. it is a failed state. the government is not taking care of that country. it cannot work. and i will tell you that some of the worst thing we did is make sure they are on government assistance. they flooded into new york about 20 years ago, they burnt down the block, and i will tell you personally, because i am half puerto rican, you can see a difference in the puerto rican people, the people from brazil, the people from south america, the mexicans, the difference is

that they are not that much interested in drugs, but that country is a failed state. the money that we poured into them was probably down a rat hole, because they cannot even govern them elves! need moremocrats a we money. that is the problem with the democrats. they have been running that country for hundreds of years. thank you. host: robert, thank you for the call. for $1.1mocrats asking billion in aid, holding up emergency relief effort in the u.s. senate. jonathan levin, your response. guest: i do not understand the generalization that the caller was trying to make of the people from puerto rico and different countries. host: let's go to ralph in washington. good morning. thank you for waiting. caller: hi. i have got a few friends from puerto rico, and one of the things that keeps coming up is the fact that you have tax breaks in puerto rico for external people who go in, it encourages people to go into the country.

the problem with puerto rico is they get all the federal ,enefits and federal expense but they pay no federal tax. so they have an island tax, which is quite high. the moment you make puerto rico a state, they become taxable under federal law, which means in puerto ricote will be really nearly twice what is in the united states. if you do not think that is going to end up destroying puerto rico, then you had better think again. host: ralph, thanks for the call. let's take a step back and ask about the debate over statehood for puerto rico, and then if you want to respond to ralph's point. guest: sure. certainly if puerto rico became a state, it would change the physical reality in a major way. the current administration, ricardo, wants to become a state. it is a cause that his family, a

political family, his father was the governor as well, and he also fought for the cause. people who believe in that cause, and many of them believe very strongly, believe that puerto rico is subject to fundamental inequalities because they do not have representation in our congress. this point, there is no path to statehood, however, you have some presidential candidates talking about it in a very serious way. i know beto o'rourke has mentioned it. host: our next caller is from puerto rico, donald, good morning. first, how are you watching the program? i am watching the program, and my blood is boiling from the list of callers. first of all, they have to realize that the banks brought

us into the $75 billion deficit. satander and owe it others, and what they did was stripped the property of all the money. it was like a junk bond. they were selling puerto rico bonds that were junk, and then they borrowed money so they could get out of it. puerto rico did the best they could. if i have a credit card, and i we $8 billion, are you going to loan me another $18 million? you have got to be out of your mind. the governor knows that, the president knows that. rican,e anti-puerto anti-anything they can say, puerto rican, mexican, dominic an, anti-latino. it boils my blood to listen to this.

my grandfather, my father was a veteran from the korean war, my uncle was a veteran of the korean war, i have three brothers, one has two purple hearts from the vietnam war. these people think they are more american than us? we are basically as american as the indians, that is the way we are. we fight for our liberty, and they come over here saying that we cannot handle our money. what money to white house -- do we have? the banks ripped us off? blame puerto rico for the laws that they have. it is incredible how stupid most of your callers are. rican veterans have the medal of honor? tell them to look it up. host: thank you for the call. you can sense the anger in his voice, jonathan levin. guest: sure. i believe the point is that lenders were perhaps reckless in

lending puerto rico as much money as it got. look, puerto rico got into the situation that it got to, it is sort of an age-old story in the business that i am and come up is primarily business and financial news, right? borrowers borrow quite a lot when times are good, when economic times were good, and then all of a sudden, suddenly the music seemed to stop, and it became much more difficult to pay those debts. again, we are talking about $70 sillion, roughly, all told, a puerto rico is currently working its way through a very difficult bankruptcy like procedure. what is next in terms of the debate here in washington and when puerto rico and other states affected by hurricanes, natural disasters, floods, and fires will get the assistance? guest: well, it is not clear. host: jonathan levin joining us

from miami. he is the miami bureau chief for bloomberg news. thanks very much for being with us. guest: thank you very much. host: i want to show you a tweet a moment ago from the president, saying "it looks like bob mueller's team are illegally leaking information to the press while the fake news media make up their own stories with or without sources. sources no longer matter to our corrupt and dishonest mainstream media. they are a joke!" reminder, our roundtable will focus on a busy week in washington ahead, including bill barr, who is expected to testify tuesday in front of the house were nations committee, and of course questions on the mueller probe or will be -- the mueller report will be front and center. and we will have a discussion on retirement savings. how much do you have, and will that be enough? on tv andn journal" also on the free c-span radio app. thanks for joining us on this sunday.

i hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend. have a great week ahead. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, >> next, newsmakers with jim jordan, the top republican on the oversight committee. he talks about investigations they are carrying forward and how much the public should know about the motor report. after that, the house judiciary committee to bates to authorize a subpoena of the report on a russia interference during the election. director testifies about

the 2020 budget. >> this week, douglas brinkley talks about american moonshot. fdr, hees back to thought the new deal was too big. what he did well was beyond social security. tva, eisenhower had the highway system. kennedy thought, what is my big public works thing. he picked the right number, technology. we think of the computer chip today being developed in the late 1950's. modern aviation starts kicking in. when jack kennedy runs in 1960, there are no computer science classes in universities, by the time he is killed, they are everywhere.

replacing is automobile and train travel. airports are being developed all over the country. kennedy made that the corner store and -- cornerstone of the new frontier. >> wants, tv was three giant networks and a government supported service called pbs. in 1979, a small network rolled out a big idea. let viewers decide what was important to them. topan open the doors policymaking for all to see, bringing you content from congress and beyond. this was true people power. in the 40 years since, the landscape has changed. there is no monolithic media. youtube stars are thing.

c-span's big idea is more relevant today than other -- ever. no government money supports c-span. c-span is your unfiltered view of government, so you can make up your own mind. >> our guest on newsmakers this week is a familiar face. congressman jim jordan, republican of ohio's fourth district. welcome back to our program. >> familiar face because i've been in congress a while now? >> and on the c-span screen often, yes. he is the lead republican, called the ranking member of the oversight and reform committee in the house of representatives. also a member of the house judiciary committee. puts him in the middle of all the debates, over investigations into the president, which we're gonna talk about this morning. let me introduce the two reporters. susan returns to us today, washington examiner's chief congressional correspondent. and kyle cheney is back from politico where he cove