americans save for retirement. after that, a republican serta just joins us to discuss the 2020 presidential the 2020 presl campaign and the chances of president trump being reelected. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪ host: there is still no exact time for the release of the redacted mueller report. that is not stopping the house judiciary committee to gain access to the full report. the committee is reportedly issue to -- ready to issue a subpoena as early as this friday. it is the "washington journal" for april 17. it was in this week's town hall featuring bernie sanders that he was asked about his age and if that could be a factor for considering him for the highest office in the land. for the next hour, we want to hear from you on the topic of

age and when it comes to the presidential candidates, does age matter? here is how you can let us know. if you are under the age of 40, 202-748-8000 is the number to call. if you are between the ages of 40 and 59, 202-748-8001. if you are 60 years and over, 202-748-8002. on social media, you can post on our twitter feed @cspanwj, participate in a poll on our facebook page at journal@c-span.org facebook.com/cspan -- at facebook.com/cspan. if you take a look at the ages of the current democratic candidates, including the current president. president trump at 72. bernie sanders at 77 years old. joe biden, 76 years old. elizabeth warren at amy klobuchar, 69 and 58. which leaves kamala harris at 54. cory booker at 49 and beto o'rourke at 46.

the lower on the list, the former hud secretary at 44 and mayor pete booted judge of south bend, indiana, at the age of 37. that is the wide ranges of ages considering the current field of candidates and it comes to the 2020 campaign. if you look in the washington post outlook section from earlier this week, a piece taking a look at a candidate's age and if that should be considered, can a parent -- president be too old. the universityt of virginia, adults between the ages of 61 and -- showed a decrease in cognitive speed and a drop-off in memory four times as great. memory loss causes slowed speed.ing that is according to a study done at the university of alabama.

he relates that the issues when it comes to considering a presidential candidate. you can find that at the washington post website and it was bernie sanders who made this case during a fox news forum asked about the topic of age and how that should factor in in considering him for president of the united states. here is senator sanders' response. [video clip] announced heigieg is candidate for the democratic nomination. he is running and here is what he said in south bend. >> a moment like that calls for hopeful and audacious voices from communities like ours and, yes, it calls for a new generation of leadership in this country. [applause] >> buttigieg is the youngest candidate -- certainly be the youngest president if he were to win at 37 years old and you are 77 years old. he is calling for a new generation. what do you say to those who

have raised the question of whether or not you would be too -- old at 79 as a president. >> follow me around the campaign trail. [applause] also, it is a fair question. all i can say is thank god my health is good. when i was a kid, i was a long-distance runner and i have continued to have my endurance. when you look at a candidate, you can look at age, that is fair. you can look at experience. i was a mayor for eight years and know a little bit about local government. i was a member of the house, i am a member of the united states senate. i have been all over the world talking to heads of state. i think it is a combination of factors. at the end of the day, it's not whether you are a long -- young or old, it is what you believe in. i have to say -- and this is not fox, this is the

criticism of media in general, there is too much focus on individuals and not enough focus on the american people and the needs. host: that is senator sanders' response when it comes to the age issue. we want to hear about you about the topic of presidential age and does it matter when you are considering them. we have divided the lines for those under the age of 40, between 40 and 60, and 60 and over. you can also post on our twitter feed and facebook page. this is christine in richmond, virginia, over the age of 60. thanks for calling, go ahead. caller: i feel like age is less of a factor. i think what is more important and health and -- is health and attitude. if the folks are flexible and have a great deal of experience, to me, that means a lot. matter,e number doesn't

other factors matter, what do you have in mind when looking at everybody? caller: it is going to be tough to choose. as far as who is running, i think maybe mrs. warren. host: elizabeth warren. caller: she would be a topic on my choice. host: because you talked about experience, does that factor in to looking at her and if that is the case, what is it about senator warren specifically? caller: her attitudes on policy matters, i think that is a big factor. host: that is christine. jim is next in grand forks north dakota between the ages of 40 and 60. go ahead. caller: can you hear me? host: i can, you are on. caller: i called a couple of weeks ago, but the phone went dead, so i did not get a chance to talk. does age matter? it very much does.

i am 55, i am the very last of the baby boomers. i was born in 64 and i have five older brothers. my mom had 6 kids. i liked reagan. i never voted for him, but i remember the early 1980's when he was running in 1983, 19 84, that was a huge factor. sam donaldson would scream -- follow him around and scream about him turning 73 or 74 and he would always say that famous scream howy would old are you? he would say it is the 30th anniversary of my 43rd birthday. are often right for the wrong reasons and sometimes republicans are right for the wrong reasons. dementiad full-blown in the late 1980's, by 1987, 1988. i had a mother who had dementia and she is by -- dying of

alzheimer's in pennsylvania. dementia comes on very subtly. one day this great woman who could cook like you could not believe, could not even fry an egg overnight. these guys like biden and bernie, they are 76, 77, they have two years of a grueling campaign. that is going to make them about 79 just when they get in there. first year, they will be 80. it is going to be a little bit like 1933 germany having baron von hindenburg walking around slobbering into the microphone. host: that is jim in north dakota talking about considerations of age. a piece by jennifer rubin appeared in the washington post march 21 taking a look at joe biden should he decide to run saying he should take a page in makingn's playbook those considerations. recall when ronald reagan dealt

with his age in the 1984 debate, wisecracking i will not make an age -- make age an issue, i will not exploit my opponent's youth and in experiments -- inexperience. voters have every right to ask whether o'rourke is ready for the presidency. the way to deal with ages not to underscore it with tricks and gimmicks, but to show you are forward looking in your thinking instead of being like president trump. biden can show he is fully immersed in the concerns and issues of the 21st century. that is from jennifer rubin on march 21. most of you probably know when it comes to what the constitution says when it comes to an age of somebody considering the presidency, it was article 2, section 1 saying shall be eligible to the office of president, neither should any person be eligible to that office who shall not have

attained -- attained to the age of 35 years and being -- 14 years of president within the united states. this is tommy, hello. caller: hello, pedro. i think there should be an age limit. should be the maximum age. i realize biden and mr. sanders are over that age limit, but i think there should be an age limit. my vote right now is for amy klobuchar, she is a cane democrat -- mccain democrat and i would rather have her as president. she is either 50 or 49. i think an age limit of 75 would be the best way to go. do we really need a president who -- you are talking about the generation of people raised on

lard. that affects your heart and a lot of things, parts of your body. in theone who was raised margarine and butter generation, my health is not perfect, but it is certainly in better shape than these people running around with these bad arteries and bad hearts. host: that is tommy in tennessee. we will be joined next by sal in jersey city, good morning. caller: yes, hi. i would look at age as two factor. one, physically, it is a very stressful job. i guess that is why it is very important for a presidential good viceto pick a president because the older that person is, the riskier it is for

running the country. what i am really concerned about is that the older a candidate is , that there is too much policies in developing . many people at an older age see the past as better than today. -- a youngerthink candidate to be focused on can older- concerns for candidates -- how important do you think that is? caller: there are cultural changes that -- i think it is important when you have cultural up-to-datet are not

-- a presidential candidate with. up-to-date i think that is probably why there is such a distance between the way younger people think and older people think. president trump as an example may be going back to the 50's where, yes, there was greater there wassecurity and a more defined place in the people.y for theredays are gone by and were different circumstances that we had in the 50's versus today. int: let's hear from lucille savannah, georgia, identifies over the age of 60. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you this morning? host: i am good, thank you for asking. matter.age doesn't

if someone is 100 something years old, they should not run -- be a candidate for the presidency, but i really believe if they are in their 70's and 80's and still in their right mind and they have wisdom and knowledge, i think they should run. i don't see nothing wrong with that. host: in this case, age is just a number. caller: repeat that again. host: in this case for you, considering a candidate, age is just a number. caller: age is just a number. anyone can do anything through christ jesus, that strength in them. host: we will let you know what you think about age being a factor when it comes to considering a presidential candidate. we have divided the lines differently. under the age of 40, between 40 and 60, and over the age of 60. there was a piece taking a look

at mayor pete buttigieg talking about that and using it to talk about discussions of age saying you do not have to be 37, but age should matter. -- dids the president not serve an office of the military, did not trouble himself to learn about the u.s. system of government. buttigieg seems to understand all of that, his resume is short, but packed. a rhodes scholar, naval reserve veteran who served in afghanistan. most important lake, for this campaign, his thoughts on challenges to policies sounded sensible as opposed to incoherent and polarizing. you saw it sunday at the kickoff rally, the type candidate to use to define themselves. if you are interested in hearing from the candidates when they do their kickoff rallies or interviews or forums in iowa or

elsewhere, we invite you to go to the c-span website. if you go to c-span.org and type candidate's's's name in the small box and you can even crosscheck that with a 2020 crosscheck, type their name in and you will get all the things we have taken in on the candidates and positions they have taken. you can check those out at c-span.org. in maryland, you are next up. caller: yes. host: you are on, go ahead. caller: i would like to say the democrats have shown on tv how terrible they are. how can we allow an old man that soon will not be able to take care of himself. how can you have him run a country when they cannot even run the democrats in office? they the most disgraceful bunch i have ever seen. the age of the person, look at kennedy. he was 34 and now you have

trump. trump is doing such a wonderful job. his age, he has done for this country what nobody else could do, but the democrats will not even say his name to the public. who do they think they are? they work for the people, not for themselves and trump has done so many different things for that -- for us and the blacks. host: if the president is an older general -- gentleman and he is running the country, why not apply that to someone who wants to run on the democratic side? caller: when you get older, you get problems with the body, i am not saying he can't be a good person, but i am just saying, his age, he is too young to run the country. host: from glen cove, new york, this is jonathan. hello. caller: good morning. i would like to say, i don't think age itself is a good

measure of whether or not someone would be a good president, but there are certain basic standards i would like to see. we already do some basic health examinations after someone is elected president. i think there should be basic psychiatric -- basic psychiatric evaluation or health screening for cognitive decline of candidates. i would also like to see candidates past and fbi background check. there should be may be a polygraph examination on some basic questions and i also would like to make sure the president ,as certain basic knowledge about geography, the rule of law, the legislative process, i really don't want a president who is going to be terrified of the idea that there might be terrorists operating along the border, they are not even on the same continent, the president

should know that. host: that is jonathan in new york. when it comes to ages at inauguration time, it was theodore roosevelt at -- sworn september 15, 19 no one, president john f. kennedy at 43 years and seven months and when it comes to the oldest president's at inauguration, it was donald trump at a 70 years and seven months followed by president ronald reagan at 69 years 11 months. amy is next in texas, hello. caller: yes, sir. i am calling in regards to the age related issue and yes, i personally think the age related issue is important. if air traffic controllers are forced to retire at the age of 56, and that is for a good reason.

if an air traffic controller has to retire at the age of 56, then maybe we should consider all of the factors that a president would be under the kind of makes and be forced to instantaneous worldwide public facing decisions clearly age should be a factor. i am in agreement with the gentleman who said we would like an fbi background check. we would, we would like an fbi background check before they are president. we would like some vetting. host: senator sanders said when it came to age, that was a factor, but you should also consider things like his fitness, his ability to handle situations. why not factor those in as well and not the pure number of age? caller: i would factor those things in as well. i don't think it is the only factor, do think it matters and i think we would benefit as a country if we had a

younger president. i am not saying they have to be 24, but i think there are plenty of reasons to consider the age factor in this day in age. host: is there a number that sits in your mind of a person's age running for president that disqualifies that person? caller: no, it is not an automatic disqualification to me whether they are young or old. however, it is a factor. host: that is amy in texas. we put -- we put a poll on our facebook page if you want to participate, you can make comments. charles johnson saying age matters, but the importance is insignificant unless it compromises his or her health. cynthia said the age of all candidates matter, we need to enact a mandatory retirement age of 65. big of af isn't that

factor except when poor health might be a concern, which could happen at any age. that is just some of the postings on facebook you can go to at c-span.org --facebook.com/cspan and twitter as well as @cspanwj. this is arthur in michigan, hello. caller: hello. .hanks for taking my call i don't believe age matters. i believe you go ahead and give them the psychological exams. i have had opportunity to listen to mr. sanders personally when and ie to michigan believe he is the candidate. he was born in 1942. he understands america, the nuclear issues. he understands the issues with

great, and he is in health, he is in great shape. age is equal to experience then as far as your mind? there is an equality there? he is thes because first person that was not of color that said he marched with the civil rights marchers and he understands the heartbeat of my country and i believe that he will make a great president. host: arthur talking about senator sanders and his age and experience and when he factors and who to vote for as president. you can let us know those as well, several of those candidates making rounds all over the united states in interest of becoming president of the united states. the youngest candidate, mayor pete buttigieg, will be in des

moines iowa addressing the asian and latino coalition. you can see that at 12:30 this afternoon on c-span.org and our radio app. kiersten jell-o also making an moines, iowa.des at 7:30 this evening, those other platforms you can see there as well and beto o'rourke will host a town hall in washington, d.c. -- close to d.c. in alexandria, virginia at 3:30 this afternoon. find out information on those events when you go to our c-span.org website. there is a section you can point to and click on all of these things. lower on the website, you can find out what we are covering and find out all that information. marise in washington state, hello. caller: good morning. host: good morning, how are you? caller: i am doing fine, how are

you doing? host: i am fine. caller: idle think age should come into play. i really think we need candidates that are well-rounded, just like you would apply for any position of great authority, you should be well-rounded and know the people you are representing. i really like the stuff bernie is talking about and the things that come into play. if he is in his 70's and he can go ahead and still run a mile, then go for it. i don't think we should really be concerned about his age in this matter or any candidate as far as his age is concerned. it should really be his character. host: darlene in oregon, good morning. caller: good morning. i was to just calling to mention i believe age will matter in this election and i think it is going to be very important who an older candidate selects as

vice president because if something were to happen while he was in office because, generally, it may be as little as four years, but it could be the 8 years, that the vice president in this day in age will make a huge difference and i believe will come more involved if we have an older candidate. i believe joe biden, who said he will select his vice president running mate early on will make that happen for all the older candidates. host: if he does pick someone younger, you are not concerned about the age mr. biden would be at currently should he decide to run for president? caller: no, but i do believe it will make a difference in the election. as far as him being an older president, i don't think really am age matters other than i 67 and it has been my experience that as you age, a lot of times

you become more conservative and i think the country is not as conservative as donald would make us all -- would like to make us all think it is. to go ahead with more progressive ideas and i think joe biden and bernie sanders, even though they are older gentlemen, are still in touch with most of the country. host: as a person of your age considering voting, have you at least an sitter to some of the younger candidate as far as them potentially getting your vote? caller: absolutely, but the one problem i have with this large group of people running for the office is that it is going to come out that we need someone .ho is more experienced joe biden is very experience with government, as is bernie sanders, because we need to be able to put our country back together, rule of law, we need

to put some of our institutions back together. we need to redevelop our relationships with other countries, our allies, even countries that are not our allies. it will take someone with a lot of experience that is gathered over a long term. host: that is darlene calling on the line for those over 60, you do not have to state your age when you call, telling us what she factors into her considerations, you can do the same thing by giving us a call, you can post on social media and let us know what you think as we go for another half hour up to the top of the hour with this question. chris is in ohio between the ages of 40 and 60. go ahead. caller: good morning, pedro. what i have come to understand, i am dealing in the service industry and what i have come to understand is the older people

gumptionn't put much toward being bullied around and pointed the wrong direction. there seems to be a lot more toward taking the straight path. some of them can have beliefs -- beliefs that put them in different realms, so to speak, but for the most part, they don't seem to be swayed one way or the other. the older -- younger generation types, they see more of the social media stuff and seemed to push more towards selling an idea, the corporations have control over for most of us. for the most part, i would trust an older person. the retirement age is going up, so they should be able to be healthier longer. host: those younger candidates, you are afraid they are too swayed by social media and things of that nature? caller: just of the overtones, the character that comes in

social media. if they are paying attention and put any stock into it, that could be a bad thing. it is not always positive coming out of social media. host: that is chris in ohio. one of the factors that take a look at this issue are the late-night television shows. it was jimmy fallon on the tonight show taking the character of mayor pete buttigieg running for president of the united states, jimmy fallon taking at issue -- taking a look at issues concerning his age. >> you are watching mayor pete buttigieg's presidential endowment -- presidential announcement. now mayor pete. >> thank you, thank you, south bend. i am pete buttigieg. -e-t-e buttigieg. just google it. by age 14, i knew i wanted to be

president of the united states and the two years since have flown by. i am a rhodes scholar, a lieutenant in the united states navy and the two smartest kids in the world stacked on top of each other. i was so excited to go to -- harvardrvard. bribed me to go. most of you recognize me from the rallying cries of hope and unity across the nation. the rest of you know me from my hit series, the boy who became mayor, only on disney channel. now i am proud to announce my run for president. in the past few months, i have risen in the polls more than any other democrat and i would like to thank each and every one of you for that. most of all, i would like to thank my husband, who has become so popular -- this excitement,

people still wonder what a millennial president could bring to the table. this is the enter ration that served overseas and fighting climate change. this is the generation that said what if we put avocados on everything? host: that is from the tonight show. the des moines register reporting yesterday about mayor pete buttigieg in iowa talking about the response he is getting while on the campaign trail. barbara rodriguez reporting he looked out into the iowa crowd, what a meet and greet he said to the audience of more than a thousand. when he told ioan in early february that he wanted to be president, he faced a group of about two dozen. he appeared to really be there for the coffee, a being grinding machine drowned him out. the town hall event originally scheduled to be indoors was moved outdoors to accommodate the masses. you can see more of his campaign play out on our c-span website, that is the des moines register

story if you want to read it online for yourself. we will go to barbara over the age of 60, hollywood, florida. caller: good morning. i did not expect to be on as soon as i am. however, age -- i am feeling that age does not really matter. not in the world of politics. actually, age can enhance the political and world stage. ae has a tendency to bring kind of wisdom, quietness, and thelso still maintains force, the useful force. it is according to how you put it. winston turk -- winston churchill had been way past his prime and look what he did for the world stage. ronald reagan, yes he did

definitely say some things that were kind of offline, meaning he did not have it. however, he did do a lot for the country at the same time. it is more your thinking and your feeling and they are feeling. i like bernie sanders because he is forward thinking, futuristic in his thoughts and i like that. he is old enough to know when to hold back and how to hold back and deal with it. .t is a combination i think if you can handle it, you can do it, you should. for them to become or run on the positive theym have to go through a lot of things. they have to go through the mental, the physical. there is a lot of things you have to go through and by the way, you have to know that you

were born in this country before you can even start. host: that is barbara in hollywood, florida. she mentioned president ronald reagan. it was 1984, october, the second presidential debate between reagan and senator walter for his content, including the topic of age, here is a bit of it. [video clip] >> i want to raise an issue that i think has been lurking for two weeks. you already are the oldest president in history and some of your staff say you were tired after your most recent encounter with mr. mondale. i recall president kennedy had to go for days on end with very little sleep during the cuban missile crisis. is there any doubt in your mind that you would be able to function in such circumstances. all and i want you to know i will not make age an

issue of this campaign. i am not going to exploit for political purposes my opponent's youth and inexperience. [laughter] [applause] if i still have time, i might or that it was seneca cicero, i don't know which, that said if it was not for the elders correcting the mistakes of the young, there would be no state. host: let's hear from jack in fort lauderdale, hello. caller: actually, my name is jeff. host: apologies, go ahead. caller: no worries. a couple of things occur to me. first off, i would say certainly having an age limit, i am currently 63 and i think having an age limit does make sense.

one of the prime examples of when thelast year senate was questioning mark zuckerberg and essentially had clueless questions of him and just did not have an idea at all how the social media platforms worked and how those businesses worked versus recent questioning about what to do if, in fact, you have a shortfall in your budget by the younger, junior freshman senator . i think that is one aspect. another aspect is that the younger politicians understand that they have got more of a stake for themselves and their immediate families in the future of the country, facing things like climate change and recycling and things of that nature, things for the planet.

it is easy to not really pay as much attention to those things as an older individual and the last point i would like to make is the supreme court, in my view, has also -- should be changed from the standpoint of lifetime appointments. here you have the opportunity to put somebody in charge of actually making decisions, including something as important as decisions a president could make and have to be that check and balance of that particular branch of government and they have a lifetime appointment, which really could be a problem. host: that is jeff in florida, this is deborah in south bend, indiana. caller: good morning. are inthis climate we now, i am noticing about age, too. it is not the president. i think age should come to

affect back when -- the congress and the senate. if the congress is too old, they are too stubborn in the senate. it is impossible to get a decision going because the older you are, the more stubborn you have to be. we have a young congress and a young senate. a me, the president is just figurehead, he is not the power, it is the congress and the senate. host: what do you think about mayor pete and his campaign? caller: i am all the way for him, he has done a wonderful job. has brought, especially western avenue, this place was old. it is beautiful now. he is useful, he is young, he is not stubborn, so he can negotiate with both sides. host: would you support him if

he became the presidential candidate in the 2020 campaign? caller: i am a republican, but i will support him because of his youthfulness. host: kenneth is next in michigan, hello. caller: pedro, how are you doing? host: i am fine, thank you, go ahead. caller: i am a big fan of yours because you have a lot of class about yourself and your culture. someone like bernie sanders would make a great candidate because he does not have that donald trump the 1970's president mentality leica tycoon attitude. i think when it comes to the people we need like the it'll class and the workers, i am retired three summers now. i am going through that, but i was always around my elders growing up. dad was a world war ii veteran -- that being said, i think bernie sanders would make a we needesident because

will and get down and dirty with them and just kind of help them go through what they have been through and make changes for the better for all. you know what i am saying? and i appreciate you and everybody on c-span because you all give us a gift we all need to hear and be around. i appreciate it and i thank you. host: adrian off of facebook posting this morning saying anyone over the age of 50 is a stain on progression. sherry says experience matters. saysfacebook tasha -- security matters. if it compromises his or her health -- those are some of the responses off of facebook. you can make yours there, too, and our twitter feed from boston, massachusetts, this is richard, hello. to do. i did not have a

i think we should have a younger president and older vice president. that way they could guide and raise younger leaders for our country. host: that is richard's idea for choosing or at least of the age factor when making considerations, splitting the difference, so to speak. in pennsylvania, jimmy, hello. caller: how are you doing, pedro? host: fine, thank you, you are on. caller: i have a slogan for joe biden's campaign. pale.amale, sterile, and i don't think everybody is on the sidelines saying joe has got to get in because they know nobody is going to beat trump. host: you are saying joe biden is too old? pale, and stale.

the democrat party is not going to vote for him because he is a male, a white, and old. we need some new blood in this party. the people like biden and the rest of them have run this party into the ground for 40 years. i like that young mayor, i don't think he can beat trump, but i like him. if trump is in there for another four years, this country is going to -- i don't know what is going to happen, but it is not going to be good. host: that is jimmy from pennsylvania talking about joe biden and mayor pete buttigieg. to the front page of the new york times takes a look at the candidacy of senator bernie sanders, jonathan martin with the headline sanders surging has democrats jittery again. -- immune to intimidation or incentive and wields support

from an unwavering base without simply enforcing the establishment is out to get me message. from at mr. sanders least preventing a contentious convention could prove difficult for democrats. he has in norma's financial advantages and substantially out raising democratic rivals. populist addenda is what the country needs and he has proved in metal having emerged as surprisingly strong -- more of that story on the front page of the new york times or on its website taking a look at senator sanders' candidacy. this is linda in washington, hello. caller: hello. linda, go ahead. caller: i want to say yes, age does matter. i am a 65-year-old woman of

color. feel 74. you can feel everything about you diminishing. when you get older, white males and even a person of color, it does not matter, when you get older, in your 60's, 70's, it is time to hang it up. you can say you can keep up, but you cannot and there is a reason know, younger people should take over. it is their future, it is not our future. older white males bring in nostalgia, how the world was when they were younger. host: that world is gone. some of our viewers saying the age brings experience that younger candidates might not have yet. haver: that is true, we do experience. like i said, to me, the main purpose is the future. our future, the future belongs

to the young. when you are in your 70's, you are almost out of here, one foot in the grave, the other on the banana peel. host: jeff is next in west virginia. hello. caller: good morning, pedro. i wanted to say i think age cannot convince the young in reference to climate change. it seems the older generation especially in our congress and senate do not seem to care as much about climate change as the younger generation is going to be mostly affected by that. with commentsjeff on taking a look at the issues of the age factor when it comes to presidential candidates. you can make yours as well in these last 14 minutes or so of this hour. we have divided the lines differently for those under the age of 40 if you fall between the ages of 40 and 60 and if you

fall over the age of 60, you can make comments there, too. pick the line that best represents you and you can call us and post on our social media sites. if you go to our facebook page, we have put a pole up that you can make your comments on, you can participate in the poll and make your comments. not a scientific poll by any means, but just a sense to get where people are. that is facebook.com/c-span. claude in riverview, florida. hello. caller: hi. host: go ahead. caller: i am in firm belief that age does matter. when you get older, you do not have the same innovative thinking as you would when you were 30 or 40. however, it is important to understand where we are right now. if you look at donald trump, he

is a co-conspirator. and he is unwilling to admit, this is to say the truth concerning things that have gone on and that he has done. in addition to the fact that separating children, these are things younger people would not do in addition to the fact that divorcing the united states from the royal -- world stage. host: why are you confident younger candidates would not do those things? caller: i am very confident because they can see the future in the sense that these are important relationships, especially with the law, he is flouting the law, criticizing judges, doing so many different things that are not american. host: that is claude in florida. we know the mueller report set

to be released sometime thursday, the hill reporting on some preparations going on on both sides leading up to that. this is from the hail website saying democrats and republicans are preparing arguments and talking points ahead of the release. democrats are reported to go after william barr and has redaction. president trump will quite -- point back to the conclusions by the mueller report to argue the president has been exonerated and the investigation should no longer be an issue. it goes on from there as far as the other reporting and behind-the-scenes preparations taking place. from new york, this is sal, good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. caller: okay. age don't mean nothing. what it means is how to make money. host: what do you mean by that? caller: okay, because so many people are running, they are not

millionaires. all these poor people donate money to these candidates. let's figure this out real simple mathematic, let's put it this way. they collect $6 million. they could keep 20% of their money. they -- the other 80%, they can spend it on what they like to do anyway. they go here and there, anywhere, they can spend the money, so they get a free ride. host: exactly how does that factor into the age of a candidate and how that matters? caller: because they can keep 20% of the people that donate their money, they can keep 20%. host: let's go to brian in missouri, you are next. caller: i actually don't think the age thing is an issue. i am a millennial and if you look at the oldest candidate in the race right now, it is bernie

sanders, he is 77. he is doing quite well with the younger generations in the polling. he has been talking about the issues important to us and the younger generations for about 40 years now. i think he has plenty of credibility. if you watch him on the campaign trail, i think he went to four different states over the weekend. , he canlenty of energy basically recall statistics from 20 years in the past, i think there is no problem with his age. thank you. considering are senator sanders, you have not considered some of the younger candidates as potential people you can support? caller: i have taken a look. i watched pete buttigieg's announcement. really, it did not do anything for me. he talks a good game, but i am ready for somebody who is able to clearly and so singly talk

about their agenda and what they are going to do for the american people rather than trying to make everybody feel good about themselves. host: when you say talks a good game, can you expand on that? caller: yeah, it is the presidential language, the traditional -- the media lines, the things that -- i don't know, it just does not do anything for me. missourit is brian in giving his thoughts on the age of the candidates and candidates he is factoring in. one bit of international news from the washington times taking a look at a summit set to take place between kim jong-un and vladimir putin. this has been wealth crank -- wolfgang writing the meeting carries benefits for both sides. it would allow putin for him to seize the global spotlight and -- mr. putin could claim he was able to make progress where mr.

trump has come up short. deliver --, it may deliver an opportunity to give a jolt to the economy. north korea could appeal to mr. putin as a witch in a community that has been relatively united behind washington's lead. that is the -- from the washington times. david in new mexico, hello. caller: hi, yes. i would like to say something about the age limit. oldlieve that no matter how you are, young or old, the main thing here is that you are never, ever going to find anybody like president trump. everybody else is going to play the part. everybody else is going to lie. they are going to say things people want to hear and when they get to the top, young or old, they are not going to do nothing for anybody.

the only person doing anything for america is president trump. wise.is old, but he is he has wisdom with everything going around with everybody. host: ray in arizona on the age of the presidential candidates in yuma, hello. 72.er: this is ray and i am these old guys have got to get out of the way. as far as trump's is concerned, he is a bully and a liar and a punk. host: when you say the old guys have to get out of the way, expand on that. what do you mean? inler: i am 72 and i am pretty good shape, but i would not want to try to be president. i have had enough success and failures in my life to not be up there trying to wheel and deal. host: you are saying the job is

too emotionally, physically, intellectually demanding for someone of that age? caller: oh, yeah. i am pretty sure if we really knew what was going on with him, or if it really sunk in what people are being told about him -- host: i am generally talking about a presidential candidate of an older age, that is what you are saying? caller: i want someone younger. i need some new ideas. i need somebody who cares about the future, somebody that is not a megalomaniac. host: amongst the current field of younger candidates, who do you like the most? caller: i have not made a decision yet about who i am going to vote for, that is for sure. host: does someone stand out in your mind? caller: i like the young woman, the young african-american woman, she is pretty good. host: kamala harris, the senator from california? caller: yeah. host: why is that? caller: i think she is pretty

sharp. pretty smart. host: okay. we will hear from joe in connecticut, new fairfield, hello. caller: hi, how are you? i don't believe age really matters. what matters is the quality of the candidate and how they deal with the issues. take benjamin franklin's example. on his deathbed, he knew we should get rid of slavery right away. for me, it has more to do with the quality of the candidate. host: who are you particularly looking at? caller: i would have voted for bernie sanders of clinton had not gotten in and i will vote for him now. i voted for trump in the past. i am reasonably happy with him, but the guy is a buffoon. there is no way i could put a -- in there.eir host: what is it about bernie

sanders that you support? honest i think he is a man and cares about america. host: this is keith in mountain berg, hello. good morning, pedro. how are you doing this morning, sir? host: i am fine, thank you. go ahead. onler: i have got my tv mute. the reason i called was to say my neighbors are staunch republicans and they were going to vote for vernie last time in the presidential deal. i know a man who is 97 years old and he is smarter than anybody around here. age does not have any difference at all to me. bernie can do a fantastic job. he probably cannot get medicare for all and all that, but maybe he can get medicare for who needs it. i will not take up more of your

time, pedro. ist: let me ask you, if age not a factor, what other things do you look at when considering a candidate? caller: if they have sense enough to know what is happening all over the world and everything, and i know bernie does. he uses people that does know all that stuff in those committees, like overseas committees and all, you know? cattleing to go to the sale this morning. this is hard for me to talk to you when i can hear you win you are talking to me. host: it is okay. we appreciate you turning down your tv. are you a rancher by trade? caller: i am a builder by trade. , i canire, i can plumb build a house from the ground up. i am disabled, i broke my back a couple of times because they did

not get started before the frost was off of the tow place. i ask is only reason because you said you were going to go to the cattle sale, i thought maybe you were a rancher. caller: yes, sir, i am a rancher. i have 10 goats right now and five babies that live behind me here and my daughter and my wife . she was abused when she was a child and she is a mess. anyway, i am going to the cattle sale and rest my mind a little bit. host: gotcha. that is keith in arkansas. dave is the last call for this segment in ohio, go ahead. caller: good morning, how are you. fine caller:, thank you. i think it is time for old-timers to get out and next veneration to come in. world war ii guys, god bless you, but we need new ideas. host: what convinces you that older candidates do not come

with some new idea? stuck in the 40hey are pass, 50's, and 60 plus. it's time for america to move ahead and we need new ideas. host: that's dave, with the rest of you, calling about and discussing the age of a candidate. we appreciate all of you who participated this morning. when it comes to new ideas, one comes from two i -- to bring women who join us next to talk about retirement accounts. kathleen kennedy townsend and randi weingarten join us next to discuss their idea. later on in the program we will hear from republican strategist rob smith, iraqi war veteran and contributor to "turning point usa," to give us his take on the forthcoming mullah report and campaign 2020 -- mueller report and campaign 2020. all of that as "washington journal close continues. -- journal" continues.

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about congressional committees, state governors, and the cabinet. the 2019 congressional directory is a handy spiral-bound guide. order your copy from the c-span online store for $18.95. "washington journal" continues. host: talking about a former retirement security with two guests joining us. one in studio, randi weingarten, president of the american federation of teachers. joining us from florida, kathleen kennedy townsend of the economic policy institute. served as the former lieutenant governor of maryland from 1995 to 2003. both of you, thank you for joining us. guest: good to be with you. guest: good to be with you, randi. host: this recent op-ed of yours took a look at a guaranteed savings account. why the need for the op-ed? why did you feel the need to write it?

guest: we have been writing about retirement security for a long time because half of americans have nothing save for retirement and we think that's unacceptable and we believe that we need to have an answer for that and the answer is a guaranteed retirement account that would allow every single american who doesn't have a savings account to put money and would have a monthly paycheck for the rest of their lives. you can get more details if you want, but that's the top line. work.give us how it would how, technically, would it work? every person who works for a business, half of all businesses in the united states don't have retirement plans. for all of those businesses, the person that works there would take 1.5% from their salary,

match it to their employer salary, the employee would decide which fund it would be and the fund would follow them. it would be easily importable across state lines. they could invest in a private fund like fidelity or state street or the federal government system. and then when they retire they would get a monthly paycheck for the rest of their life. if they make under $40,000 per year, they would get a refundable tax credit so that it wouldn't come out of their paycheck. tohave tested that, thanks the american federation of teachers and 70% of americans like the idea. what people want is something , andhalf of americans have ira, 401(k), or a defined benefit plan, a pension, a terrific retirement system. we want to make sure the other half of americans get one as

well. you tested this. what did you test and what did you look at in terms of this idea? when the recession started, there were a whole bunch of rich folks who started for -- fighting against pensions for everybody else. you saw in a lot of companies when they closed those pension plans go bye-bye. or pension plans got frozen. so, the plan that a lot of people who were baby boomers, or before, the line on social security with a pension plan from the company or from teaching, things like that, what we realized several years ago is we put together a retirement security task force. we said yes, we need to make

sure that teachers and nurses have retirement security, but we actually need to make sure that everybody has retirement security. our kids parents, our kids grandparents have retirement security. so, we have been on this track with kathleen for the last five or six years. we wrote the op-ed together, we have been pushing the idea together. we wanted to make sure the public was with us. so last year we did extensive polling, online focus groups, things like that to find out if, you know, if people really were. and in some ways, just like when c-span talked about retirement security a few days ago and the phones were ringing off the hook , we are saying this is a silent crisis. because people see as they get to 40 or 50, oh my god, what are we going to do?

and so the polling that we did showed that over 70 -- over 80% know that they needed retirement security. it keeps people up at night. but then we tested this idea that in addition to social security, if you contributed some and your employer matched it, if you don't have another pension plan, you contributed some, your employer matched it, and we put it in a guaranteed account so it's recession proof -- you know it's there, you can see it, it's your money, it then acts liken annuity -- an annuity on retirement. host: does this only apply to organizations that don't offer a retirement plan on their own? guest: so what we are trying to do is require that every employer has something. and that so that we don't want to take from what people already have.

this is why it really requires federal legislation. this is essentially what happens in australia. happens in other places as well, but every employer, if you don't have something else, you know, teachers have defined benefit plans, a lot of them, so you get a formula at the end of your career. 401k's are basically whatever you put in, whatever the employer matches, but it goes up and down and the employer controls it. this would let you, the employee, control it. and it grows. you control it, you see it, you see the fund and that's on top of social security. when we tested that idea, basically three quarters of americans, younger americans, millennials, they wanted it even more, they understood it because of the student debt crisis. but what kathleen just said about the debt crisis, half the

people in america have not saved a penny. and so they are relying on social security which, frankly, may be lower 20 years from now than it is right now. many of us will fight, fight, fight, fight, to keep social security, but people need more than social security. host: let me invite the callers to ask questions of our guests. if you are an employer and have a retirement plan, (202) 748-8000 is the number to call. if you have no plan, it's (202) 748-8001. if you are retired and want to give your experience, (202) 748-8002. you can also reach out to us @cspanwj. what about those who say they can't afford to set up something like this if they don't have something in place. essentially, are you requiring them to do that? only one .5%.t's they would get a text adduction for1.5 -- tax deduction

1.5%. i don't think most could afford that out of the gross income. that is what we have discovered and looked at and that is what we have seen. they can afford that. haveustralia they implemented it and every employer in australia israel , and to contribute 9% the most has one of great economies going in the world, which they have done for the last 25 years. they give that -- lamented this 25 years ago and they have a $4 trillion retirement fund. they are the 20th biggest country in the world and they have the fourth largest pension fund in the world. theye call it their super, are so proud of their retirement fund. , shegested that to randi

said that wouldn't go over well in new york, because superintendents, they get problems if they don't pay attention, but the point is that a much smaller country, australia, was able to do this. they started at 3% with their employees, half of what where , twice what we are requiring, excuse me, and they brought it to 9%. if australia can do it i think the united states can do it. and what has happened in australia is that conservatives and liberals alike love it. .t crosses partisan lines let me add one thing regarding what you said about small businesses. we have a study that shows that for every dollar that a retiree spends, there's more than two dollars, two dollars $.75 -- $2.75 of economic impact.

in all of these areas in america where small businesses need to thrive as we have the aging of america, if retirees actually had money to spend, you would see it spent on main street. then you wouldn't have this vice of do i pay for rent, do i pay for my prescription jogs, or with happening in a lot of american now, my generation, the sandwich generation, with aging parents and kids. we need to find a way to say to people who have basically had the country on the shoulders that we understand, you have a right in retirement to have a decent life and this is a way to do this in addition to social security. guests, talking about -- guest: can i add something to this? i went to a college campus and i

said we'd -- they said they don't plan for retirement, it's too expensive. i explained the plan and the students said that's too low, it can be 5% and i said to them -- you just said you couldn't say. and they said oh, if you make us safe, we will save and you should make us save 5% because we know we have to save. they were all in. andnt to another college they were 100% for this. they said that this is our money, we know we have to save, help us save, we really like this idea. let's hear from arlington, mike starts us off, gets retirement from his employer. mike? good morning. caller: what about personal responsibility and telling americans to take ownership for

your own retirement? what about that? look, we talked to a lot of people. there are a lot of people that don't even have the ability to enroll in these things, have a .ank, or for that kind of stuff what we are actually saying here is that the employee should own this, as opposed to the mutual fund or other things that now exist in federal law. we are actually making this employee driven and having an employee and employer match. the other piece is this. we are saying to all of the funds that want to get in on this, you will have to actually guarantee the contribution. you can't people into risky ventures that they don't actually really understand and then say -- groups, we lost all that money. there is going to be real responsibility on everything and everybody.

but yes, the employee has the responsibility of the 1.5 cent, but it is employee driven as opposed to wall street driven. host: let's hear from michigan. marilyn is retired. caller: hi, this seems like something that is going to eventually replace social security? guest: no, absolutely not. caller: you don't think so? i do. guest: we need to do this on top of social security. we are very, very clear. i feel like that's what's going on right now. the problem with that is that they have been trying to get rid of social security for a long could telling us that the funding is not going to be there for the next generation and i think that this is probably the answer that they are going to come up with, that you have to save for your own retirement.

1.5% is a great deal of money. believe me, i know, i got into my 401(k) early on. but what i want to know is -- how are you going to roll people in who have spent their whole life on welfare? how are they going to be able to manage? host: miss townsend, you want to take that? guest: if they have been on welfare and haven't worked, they would not be eligible. this is for people who have worked. that's the easiest answer. this is for workers. are twohat there questions here. one, does this replace social security, the answer is absolutely no. as you can imagine, my family has been working on strengthening and working for ,ocial security all our lives number one. we believe that it's extremely important to have social security. it protects all americans. social security helps people who

can't work because they have been disabled or because they have, like paul ryan, they are orphans. so, social security is a much broader program then retirement alone. we need social security and it needs to be strengthened. a lot of presidential candidates are saying that this year. that's number one. but half of americans are lucky enough to also have a retirement plan. we think that the other half of americans also need a retirement plan. that's what we are working for. we need them to be able to save part of the half of the americans that are able to save and have something saved for retirement. we are making it easier for them to save. we need a 21st century savings program that is portable across state lines. that can go, that follows the

employee rather than the employer. the people now change employers much more quickly than they did in the 20th century. this is what this plan will help to do. host: if you are asking people to take responsibility for these plans, how do you plan to educate them to make sure they are making the right choices? guest: what you can do is what they do and australia. you can default them into a very good plan and then, if they change their mind, they go into another plan. but they default it into a fund. and by a fund, it's not like a 401(k). it's a diversified fund, more like a pension fund. if you haven funds, a lot of people in the pension funds, like the federal system has very low fees. like a calpers or the new york state fund, which is 105%

funded, which is what we want, it's a very well diversified fund. so that's the kind of fund you would want to default in in the first step. that's what you do in australia, you are default it into a fund it if you don't like it you can get out into something else. guest: just like what kathleen said, we have both been to australia, we have talked to the people who are in charge of these funds. and some of it, as you can see from your callers, some of it is about trust and fear. what we have seen across the country is that people who work, sometimes small businesses, which say they can't afford things, it costs a lot of money to set up an ira. basically, what you see in terms is thatand 401(k)s basically it's about a heard of the businesses that do it. what this is is saying that both businesses and individuals, we

are going to make sure that these big funds in the united states, like teachers retirement systems, are actually -- they are professionally managed with and, as a result, really guarantee that you have the funding and tell you what your accounts are in plain english. will also take responsibility and want to take responsibility for these asset. so the default position. if you defaulted -- a hate that word. ,f you didn't make a decision but somebody put you into the big federal pension fund, or the ,ig teachers retirement fund you would actually see your individual account every year and you would see where it grew and then, if you went from arizona to colorado, you would take that money with you. if you changed employers five times, you take that money with

you. so, it is actually lifting up the responsibility of everybody. to the other caller who said -- what about some social security? there are -- not just kathleen's family, this is part of what the union movement is about. we will fight like we did each and every year to make sure that social security is there for everyone. but it's not enough to ensure retirement -- going to say it again, half the people in america, people who have worked their entire lives, they don't have retirement. and we need to change that. let's hear from steve in massachusetts. hello. caller: thank you for taking my call. this is nothing but economic eugenics. you know the word? the descendents of communists, fascists, and zionist are here, this is basically another hack see, you see how they

hang up on me? guest: nobody hung up on you, steve. caller: the question is, you're going to keep repeating the same ponzi scheme where we have enough money to send hit into ,ther countries like venezuela people who have been overtaken, their resources, but we don't have any kind of money to take care of our own? ok, we will go next to sherry. sherry is next from minnesota. hello. question.have a big i'm retired, i'm on social security and the government has fundrating -- raiding that for years and years to the point where it's not going to be solvent. ?hat is going to change in this soon as there is money built up in the accounts, the government will come in and take all that

money away from us and -- first of all -- first of all -- caller: the money we paid for the years will be gone. guest: first of all, the money won't take your money, it will be owned by you. let me just say, it could be managed by state street, by fidelity. by like mason -- legg mason. in other words, you will choose who it will be managed by. the government will have no authority or ability to take that money away from you. it's your private property. so, the money cannot be taken away from you. that's number one. number two, it is not true that the federal government has taken away the money from social security. i don't know where you get that idea from, but that's just not the case. we can get into that detail,

that is a false narrative and i don't know who has been spreading it, but that is really not true. host: -- guest: what happens is that social security is a pay-as-you-go system and now that people live longer, thank god -- if you said today -- what amount of money do you need in social security so that today it would pay for everybody forever? that's a big number. and what the government hasn't done is it hasn't funded the present value of that number right now. but let me just tell you again that we -- look, someone could have made that same argument 401(k), about other kinds of things, but what we are trying to do is make sure that the people who are not a part of the 1%, the people who cannot put $400 together for an

emergency, that they actually have a root, a path to supplement social security with property as private a responsibility, like kathleen says. they put in 1.5%, the employer puts in 145 -- 1.5%, and it can be carried everywhere. host: if such a program existed and somebody needed to get into pay for an emergency medical procedure or the like, could you? guest: you can create a loan program against that program. first iteration , because theat save for retirement security, but you could create that as well. host: off of twitter comments is the problem with the savings program is that the money never keep space with inflation, it becomes inaccessible for emergencies and winds up not

eating enough anyway due to the rising cost of living and dollar value. how do you answer that? guest: well, the idea that this is going to be invested and the investment should be able to keep pace with inflation and grow. that's the idea. that's the idea of being in a fund. in a fund you should be able to figure out the best way the investment should grow. so, some days it will be in stocks, some days it will be in bonds, some days it will be in commodities. that's the idea that you have people who are professionals who moneyave large pots of that will be able to invest at low fees. host: michigan, you are next up. hi. caller: thanks for c-span. i was offered -- i worked for a really nice company. fast pace trailers.

the 401 matching funds and i just said no, i want to be in complete control of my money, i was making good money and wanted to be in complete control. i became disabled in 91, broke my back, got disability. and when i just recently got living unlikem $800 a month but it's working out fine for me. like $800 a month, but it's working out fine for me. but these guys who aren't paying taxes, like the president, who gets a big kick out of not paying taxes, got all these lawyers and stuff, the trick is that those guys will be making the money and that today in real world they can pocket more money and put some money in the bank. the local company here, it's a plastic money, they sold to another company and all the people in the company have their money invested in the insurance

pension plan. the company that moved in said they can't afford the new plan and we will come down and here is the pension plan companywide if you don't take our new offer. well, they kissed their insurance plan goodbye, the company is still in business. but if it was george w. bush that spent all my social security money, when he went to war and gave all these giant tax breaks, killed off the three point 5 trillion that clinton created by taxing the large fatcats, that's where the money went. i looked it up. it's even archived on c-span. right.so, you are in the united states of america preferences have been made to enrich people who are already rich. you are completely right about that in terms of all of these kinds of tax cuts and things like that. what kathleen and i are talking about is how we actually have federal laws prioritize other

working people who are not rich fatcats. that we actually prioritize and have something in the federal law that says you take 1.5% off of pretax dollars before you get tax. the employer does, but you drive it, my friend, so that if you are 40 or 35 years old and you are working somewhere, you then make a decision where that money goes and what we are talking about, because we both have worked in these fields for a long time, if you invest them like australia does in professionally managed pools of assets, the fees are much lower, you won't pay the. you will pay very little of that. your money is going to go and invested and grow in that kind of way in a place that is

reliable and is not going to lose if wall street goes down 1000 points and all of a sudden your investment earnings are shot. joseph in new york. hello. caller: yes, good morning, ladies. i have been thinking about something, but this program is the third leg of a three-legged stool. once in this country it was how we were secure as elderly people. a third leg has been knocked off, we need to grow a new one. guest: exactly right, thank you, well said. is if: what i look at it's invested properly, there's plenty of good mutual funds, low index. i'm sure the smartness of where you people are doing investment could thing is that yield. .- bring a good yield

along with the possibility of the project its bonds for the right people. possibly another candidate for president to pick up on. or a president that comes in. employee may be able to contribute sometimes a bit more. it can be difficult for the employer right away and that but be a lot of organizing, i would appreciate -- i do appreciate what you are saying. host: ok, thanks, caller. you want to take that, ms. townsend? guest: thank you. you are right. what we would love to do is have a number of the candidates say that this is a critical issue and that we do need to have answers for how we are going to solve the retirement rices and we would love to have a number of candidates adopt this proposal, so thank you very much. host: following up with a question from twitter --

host: this townsend, you want to start? -- miss townsend, you want to start? guest: they probably will not be affected by the proposal. we want to cover half of the employers that don't offer anything. those who affect already have an offer. guest: this is about ensuring that most people who need it have retirement security. often the people that need it most have the least access to it. so, there would be -- for people who have already defined benefit

plans -- sorry to use the mumbo-jumbo of these words, but for people who have defined benefit plans and contribution plans, the employer would show that or she is already doing this and that employees already have -- are already doing the contributions. this would not substitute for that. this is supposed to be additive and supplemental. sorry, kathleen. that's right. and who doesn't have those kinds of plans? 40% of hispanic women, african american women work for companies that don't offer plans, retirement plans. about 80% ofo white men, who do work for companies that do offer those plans. so, there is a real unevenness about who gets to have

retirement plans and who doesn't . there is an inequity as to who works in such companies. that's what part of the challenge is that we face. ,ost: kathleen kennedy townsend -- guest: excuse me? host: i'm introducing you, kathleen kennedy townsend and randi weingarten are here to talk about guaranteed retirement accounts. how did you come together on this question mark you represent teachers, how did you come together on this initially? [laughter] guest: so, i have been -- listen, like -- and kathleen has a good gory about this, but like the caller that talked about the three-legged stool, we, we fight every single day to have people have a better life.

remember, i represent 1.7 , virtually all of whom work in professions, nursing, public services, professors, teachers, guidance counselors, who want to make a difference in the lives of others. we are embedded in communities all across america. people --ee is that people want to take responsibility. they need a decent wage. they need health care so that they are not one pre-existing condition away from bankruptcy. and they need to make sure they are ok and retirement. on so we, week, we focused not just the retirement of -- we, we, we focused on not just the retirement of teachers. a lot of people are focused on medicare, medicaid, and health insurance. we said -- this is a silent

crisis. so we have been doing a lot of work in the ad camp. kathleen heard me give a speech on this monday about the number of people -- the number of african-american women who have no retirement security. the number of hispanic women with no retirement security. what do you do when you are 62 or 65 years old? you finish the story, kathleen. guest: what happened was i was working for an investment management firm called rock creek, as you can imagine, headquartered in washington, d.c. i was at a conference and i heard randi weingarten give this incredibly impassioned speech. i said -- my gosh, i had been lieutenant governor, working in investments, and i didn't know the statistics. i was shocked. i was public policy, i was investments, and i didn't know how bad the situation with retirement security was.

if i didn't know that, though they might be worried about retirement, they don't know the old picture. i thought i would love to work on solving this problem. that's how it started. i called her up in said i would really love to work with you. luckily we are now at the economic policy institute and rock creek is still very much involved in helping out and, i have to give them credit, from the new school, along with tony james, a lot of people had said that this was a certain -- a huge issue and we have got to solve this issue. we are gathering support from across the country. teresa wrote a book about this and there are starting to be a lot of gathering for a lot of dollars, the fear is because things have been taken away from people so much, so that's a legitimate

fear. it was a solution. but if you have these accounts in addition to the retirement security plans you have right now, and in addition to social security, you would get to that three-legged stool that the caller was talking about and we would protect people who have spent their lives helping america. we would protect them and retirement. this is shelby, in florida. hello. caller: good morning. and good morning to the two ladies whose life and work speaks for them. this topic on c-span this morning speaks to our need here, we are looking at the brotherhood of man. the contest -- in the context of bringing together the collective common good for our people.

representsft teachers, i'm a professional academician myself. children now in medical school in their 30's. whove a 90-year-old mother is a part of a retirement human health care. i think i have a good understanding of a generational understanding. the economic policy research brings together for me almost every day and email that read about current events and discussions in the edssroom for the higher graduate students. particularly,men as ms. townsend kennedy stated, are the recipients right now who

were lifted out of the poverty index because of social security. when we look at a society that right now, here in florida we have bills being put forward in our administrative session across the nation -- i think that this is actually a local, state, and federal partnership that has to come together. we just did taxes on monday whereby most people are not going to put or are able to put 65 -- $6,500 into an ira that would do them the opportunity of a savings account. thank you, caller, we will let our guests respond to that. guest: this is holy week, it is passover. i happen to be married to a rabbi, but i do believe that what luke says, too much who is

given, much is required. we do have to have in america -- we started this with the new deal, some safety net that requires her sole responsibility but also enables people to live their lives. and you know, this is a part of that kind of safety net. it's -- it's -- it's like when people have a pre-existing condition. that happens. we need to ensure that people as safe and are not bankrupt , you know, someone in their family got cancer. retirementatter with security, if you work for a small business that couldn't afford a defined benefit plan or couldn't afford all the fees and everything else in terms of creating a 401(k), this would be a way through federal law to ensure that everyone had a with social security

and agr a. townsend -- miss townsend? guest: i'm in florida myself, my mother turned 91 yesterday and i'm here with three of my daughters and one of her children. i see the generations together with that idea that we help one another. but the whole idea of bankrupt to that randy just, right now we have the highest bankruptcy rate among seniors ever in our his. it has gone up five times in the last couple of years. why is that? think goodness, we are living longer than ever before, and as a result, people don't have enough to live on. we have got to rethink retirement. reset retirement and make feel that they can breathe easy about it. that means systematically changing what we do and that is what the gra does.

they say half of americans don't have anything saved for retirement. we have got an answer, let's implement it. let's make sure. it helps not only the seniors, it helps young people know that they can take chances, they can do things because they don't have to worry about retirement. when you talk to young people about how they are going to grow old, they are nervous about it. why not let them know that they can save. that that will be there for them . that it will be there for them and that their children won't have to worry about? see, now that we have for generations, i mean this weekend, living together, it just makes things a lot easier. host: this is james, who says he has no retirement plan. caller: i worked for a company for 12 years.lina

it was a nafta agreement and they penalized people and swept up the rest. i would like to know what can be done to stop countries from doing that to people. thank you. some of us are actually fighting to ensure that the that theotiated nafta president negotiated actually has enforcement provisions to it. that there's no promise without a kind of remedy because of the things you just talked about. some of us -- i was in ohio on monday -- sorry i'm a sunday with bernie sanders because we were saying to gm, retrofit that plant. don't close it. don't send the jobs to mexico. you made $11 billion here last year. i agree with you, sir, we need

made it america. we need an industrial policy to do that. but what we are talking about here is that a company couldn't do that with a gra. because it is your money, the moment you start putting in the 1.5% and of the company production 1.5%, it becomes your property. it's different from a 401(k). one of the differences and one of the reasons it's portable. host: patricia in minneapolis also says she doesn't have a retirement land. you are next, good morning. calling inually, i'm on the republican line. i started the ira back in the 80's and i stayed out of debt. with two never agree women, but i don't see anything wrong with this idea, i think it's a really good idea. however, i think the teachers

should have been teaching this in school and i resent the job that the teachers unions and teachers are doing with our kids. they are not teaching them history. they are focusing on social justice, quote unquote, instead of teaching them the basic things they need to succeed. i wish the democrats were more like mrs. townsend's uncle, i mean john f. kennedy. he cared about taxes in america. bernie sanders will destroy the health care system and the financial system in america. absolute disaster. host: that's patricia in minneapolis. what about this idea of fiscal literacy among the young? giving a speech tomorrow on issues that patricia you would probably agree with me on. people need the freedom to teach the things that really matter to as opposed the focus on

testing. frankly there has been a fixation in the last 10 years of just focusing frankly on math to giving usposed the authority so that we can actually teach history. there are differences in terms of how you teach it, but i totally agree with you that we need to have fiscal financial in high school. frankly, in middle school. to give people the confidence to understand money and understand choices. this is, again, something that shifts i class. .ich folks have this we need to make sure that people in the middle class or who are aspiring to the middle class have that, to, and what better way of doing it been through did public education -- doing it

then through public education. host: henry, hello. caller: yes, i would like to call about the lady who commented on government taking money from social security. denying that that occurred. the fact is, the government are as money from social security and they pay very little interest rate because the fed set the rates so low that, you know, there's no payback. support that lady. they do take money from social security to fight wars and stuff like that and in the past they used to call it -- well, you could buy war bonds and they changed it to a savings bond which paid very good interest for people. guest: you -- sorry, you go, kathleen. guest: i would just say that what social security does, they

do take treasury bonds, which means they get this interest rate. securityve social invested in the stock market, which some people said they getld as a whole, you might better returns, and that's an argument. some of you are thinking much better returns and then in other years they would get worse returns. that's a huge question that some people want to engage in. but when you get it from the treasury funds its 2% per year, better than nothing per year. would be preferred that social security get a 2% return over the nothing per year. host: i was going to ask both of you, there has been a long ending debate on capitol hill over preserving social six 30 for future generations and things like that. are those things that you would advocate for? -- guest: personally, i

think the cap should be lifted so that there isn't a cap that says you pay of to $137,000 of your income or 100 and or you thousand dollars of your income. basically, i think it should be progressive, to whatever your income is. i think that that would help enormous and that would be fair. but the point i was trying to make is there are many of us -- many callers that raise the .ssue of social security social security is a government program started by frances perkins and at the art. it is one of the few government programs where it doesn't matter if you are a republican or you trust that it's important to have an that's a good thing. there are those of us at our fighting heat that problem alive for success will -- successive

generations. in the question i hear the year that someone will take it and i want to say to the questioners, that's part of what they would -- unions. we fight to make sure that it's safe there for everyone. that's what we are trying to terms of this gra plan. fighting to make sure that those who don't have retirement except for social security, that they actually have a little bit more on which they can live. host: same question to you, miss townsend, does social security need to be restructured? well i definitely believe we need to raise the cap. it struck me as strange when i was working and my taxes went down but i made a certain amount of money. and i also think that you could -- why are we just

taxing income from work from social security? you could tax income from other sources for social security. that's not probably necessarily talking pi or for myself, but my father thought we should do sources of income for social security. anyway, i think that there is a couldtaste way that we base income from social security that would be more fair. broad-based way that we could base income from social security that would be more fair. caller: i have been a contractor most of my life, i'm now in a all-time top where i get a 401(k), but it's like -- in a full-time job where i get a 401(k), but it's almost too little too late.

from minnesota, that caller, i couldn't agree more. schools should build this into the curriculum from the earliest grade, building in the values of delayed gratification. we have drifted into a society where those values are not taught by families or by the schools. thing i worry about with a 401(k) system. i have a modest 401(k), it's so low i'm embarrassed to tell you the amount, it will just make me cry. but what i don't like about the 401(k) or defined pension systems is that you can raid the accounts over and over again and take the money out with pretty low penalties. i think that's why we have a crisis. it's human nature, if you don't rules orhink about the the future, you live in the

moment, certainly in america that's our value system. but we do have an armageddon upon us, i agree, but i think the 401(k) system has too many loopholes for not horsing people to stick with a savings program. finally, just quickly, i am a conservative, but i love kathleen townsend, i am a native maryland are going back 16 generations. living in maryland when she was lieutenant governor was a great honor for me, she was a great public servant. guest: well, thank you. host: mr. townsend, you can start first. guest: thank you very much, i appreciate it. there are a number of challenges with the 401(k) system. i think that once we get the gra , it will show us that there are different ways to reform the entire system, but first of all,

we need to help the half of americans who have nothing saved . i mean the whole retirement system is going to change as we grow older and will be working for part of our lives and not working part of our lives. i think you raise a very good issue and thank you so much and thanks for your compliment. host: miss weingarten? guest: iv review, kathleen has been a fantastic tenant governor and it has been an honor to work with her on this project. i also agree with you that we have to try to think about what in elementaryht schools that create community, that create responsibility, that create radical thinking. what happens is that more and more and more responsibility is -- is laid on schools. instead of pretending that that's not happening and that

teachers have all the responsibility, we should have wraparound services on schools, we should focus on the well-being of children. we should have this kind of work in terms of financial literacy so that kids know from the earliest ages how to deal with money and it doesn't also sosive -- doesn't feel elusive. this is something we have to work through, unfortunately, with that big school bureaucracy up and down the line. but i agree with you and with the caller from minnesota. is reallyliteracy important. sometimes kids can actually, then, if we teach it in a way where people feel confident, they can help their parents. we will hear next from south milwaukee. this is dawn. caller: good morning, ladies.

guest: good morning. caller: i wanted to discuss with you, i'm 51. i'm disabled. i have had 95 parents to deal with. i have a personal retirement for myself that i have scrapped and saved and sacrificed for, but one of the things concerning me at the moment, even the amount of money i have saved, the cost of these retirement facilities and assisted living are $10,000 a month. that -- lastast five minutes with that kind of pricing. it's mind boggling to try to understand what pile of money that would come out of. that's my biggest concern. like i said, i'm 51 and disabled. have a good amount of money

set aside, but not for $10,000 a month. host: thank you for sharing, go ahead. guest: this is the anxiety and thank for calling. this is the anxiety that you hear when you push that this issue. where people feel very scared about what's going to happen in terms of retirement. my nieces andd nephews that you are going to have to take care of. but -- of me. but this is a real fear, that there is not enough money in the world to pay for regular working folks to pay for assisted living programs, all of these other things. so what are we going to do?

long-term, we are going to have to deal with the aging of america and not actually say that the millennials and the gen xers, who are now being strapped ,ith student loans themselves what will ultimately happen is if we don't deal with this as a society using government to do , then what will happen is our newest generation, the millennials and gen xers are going to have to pay for all of us. and that's fundamentally not fair. way to solvend a these problems. host: our guest has been randi weingarten of the american federation for teachers. also kathleen kennedy townsend who serves as the retirement security director for the economic policy institute as well as former lieutenant governor of maryland from 1995 to 2003. thank you for joining us today.

coming up, we will have a discussion about aspects of campaign 2020 with rob smith, a republican strategist. a recent op-ed of his takes a look at mike pence. he serves as a contributor for turning point usa. that conversation coming up next. ♪ the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. >> ask not what your country can do for you. ask what you can do for your country. knocked thesewho buildings down will hear all of us soon. , thespan's newest book presidents. noted historians rank america's best and worst chief executives. lifedes insights into the

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there's no monolithic media. broadcast has given away to narrowcasting. youtube stars are a thing. but c-span's big idea is more relevant today than ever. no government money supports c-span. it's nonpartisan coverage of washington is a public service supported by your cable or satellite provider. c-span is your unfiltered view of government so you can make up your own mind. >> washington journal continues. host: joining us from new york is rob smith, a republican strategist who also serves as a spokesperson for the organization turning point usa. good morning to you. >> good morning. takes aur recent op-ed look at the back-and-forth that has been going on between vice president mike pence and pete of indiana. can you talk about why you wrote this?

op-ed.ote the as part of my duty for turning point usa i went to a conference we had in chicago. as a gay man i was a little unsure, as a conservative i was thrilled. vice president mike pence is going to be the speaker and i had to unpack why i felt so uncomfortable with going to an event where the vice president was a speaker. so i realized that i believe that mike pence was an advocate for conversion therapy. wanted to unpack why i believed that so i did my research and what i found when i did my research is that that is th absolute lie and my based on a complete distortion based on some language in a bill that he made when he was a governor and i have seen this lie repeated over and over again in the media. so a lot of that piece was about coming to terms with the fact that that was a lie and though

there are some pretty strong critiques that i can be made with my party when it comes to lgbt writes it's just absolute ts, it's just absolute fiction that the vice president supports conversion therapy. i have to argue with a lot of people on the left and some of the critiques are valid but this myth ision therapy just based on absolute lie. host: how did the myth come into being in the first place? >> this is what happened. there is language from the ryan white care act back when he was governor pence. he basically said that he wouldn't reauthorize funds for this care act unless there were funds that were dedicated to "hanging the "sexual behaviors of people likely to be infected

with hiv. people took that language and said that it means conversion therapy which is a distortion of the language. changed sexual behavior can mean anything from safer sex practices, more condom use. all of these different things. lgbt activists on the left took that line, distorted it and they repeat the lie over and over again. that sentenceake and say it is widely interpreted to mean conversion therapy and then they will define conversion therapy in the pieces so that people who are not particularly media literate will take it to mean that the vice president at one time supported conversion therapy. and i have seen that done over and over again and still to this day there are people that believe that miss. when you have mayor pete buttigieg who is running for the democratic nomination for president, when you have him picking this fight with the vice

president and you have him advocating for gay rights in that way, it's based on a lie. what i think it does as a gay christian is that it moves us further apart instead of bringing us together. talk a little bit about the fact that this back-and-forth between the vice president and the mayor -- how that affects -- that this is an issue to begin with, what do you think about having an issue? >> what i think the left is doing is they are making this an issue where nothing really exists. what the left really wants to do to gays and lesbians is they want to make them another victim group. i want to make them another victim group because gays and lesbians right now the lgbtq devotes 82% for democrats. that's a really big number. they want to make sure they keep that 82%. if they can convince the vast majority of the lgbt community

in america that they are going to be under some kind of continued danger under a republican presidency that they have that vote. and that's what i think the goal is with this conversation right now. us, (202)guest with 748-8000 republicans. democrats.001 (202) 748-8002 independentss. when it comes to the trump administration itself, how do you think gays have been treated and what has to go forward especially in this campaign? what should the ministration be saying? >> as of right now you have an prettytration that is much is spearheading a global initiative to decriminalize homosexuality. on the left say

right now that america is so bad for lgbt people. there are places in the world where gays and lesbians are killed in the street. were there are thrown off rooftops and hung in the streets. where it is criminal to be gay. where people are thrown in prison for being gay. i'm proud to support administration that is spearheading this initiative to decriminalize homosexuality worldwide. have to get all, we back to talking about the fact that lgbt americans are not single issue voters. we are of various races, genders. we are not a monolithic group of people. and for me personally, my red pill moment, when i became a conservative, is when i saw the the postaction to orlando terrorist attack when a terrorist walked into a gay bar in orlando, florida and killed

49 days and lesbians. that was a devastating attack on our community. and the only people that were forceful enough to call this out for what it was were people on the right. americans that lgbt want to be safe. we want to know that the western way of life that we live that accepts gays and lesbians more or less right now has integrated us into the fabric of this society. you want to make sure that you have an administration that will protect us, that will call out this stuff for exactly what it right nowat i think is going on in the left is i think that they are afraid to call these things out. i don't gay american, necessarily feel safe with democrats in charge. host: rob smith is with a point -- is with the group turning point usa. for those that may not be familiar, what is that?

>> turning point as an organization that is basically building the next generation of conservative leaders on college campuses all across the country. our slogan is big government sucks. what we're trying to do is we want to make it safe for college students on college campuses to be open about being conservatives. that is ok for them to be conservative. age, i self,nd people call me a white supremacist, people, trans-phobic, people call me racist, self hating, all of these things specifically because i subscribe to conservative beliefs. what we are trying to do is create a space on college campuses where these kids can be open and honest about their beliefs because the college campuses right now are the battlegrounds for the culture wars. that's where people learn their politics. so manywhere they learn things. we want to make sure that conservative principles are represented on college campuses.

host: does it surprise you that there's a story out today that there is a christian university in indiana that has invited the vice president to come speak and that is drawing a lot of protest from the university because of that invitation? >> it doesn't surprise me at all because like i said, people have bought into the myth so much. what i think that really boils down to and this is a conversation that i have a lot. we do speaking engagements. we are on campuses all across the country. -- when i was in chicago at the event the vice president spoke at, i talked to some of the kids and there are some kids that are trying to reconcile their support of gays and lesbians and support of lgbt writes with their more rights with-- lgbt their more traditional christian beliefs. what i say to them is we need to start talking more about what joins us together as christians

instead of what separates us and i think that right now a lot of those students want to protest because he doesn't adhere to what they believe are the christian beliefs they want to it here too. and that's ok. this is america. but i think that we need more conversation, not less. you need to hear more points of view, not fewer. and an issue that we have with the left right now is not that -- this is america. everybody can believe what they want to believe. that's what makes this country amazing. we have a lot of people that would rather shut down opposing ideas and viewpoints rather than hear them out and discuss them. that's what i think the major problem is going on today. from our first call comes gaithersburg, maryland. democrat line. you're on with our guest, rob smith. go ahead. caller: hello? host: you're on. go ahead. caller: hello?

host: you're on with our guest. go ahead. caller: hello? host: we're going to put you on hold. we are going to go to gary and mckeesport, pennsylvania. caller: hello? host: gary? go ahead. caller: your guest was talking terrorizing or creating fear among the lgbtq's. you can extrapolate that to pretty much everybody else. commercials,the the campaign commercials here, it was basically vote for us or the republicans will take your health care or vote for us or the republicans will take your social security. and like that. it's basically fear mongering is what it is. it's gotten to the point where hate speech and white

nationalism and things like that are the new epithets really. political epithets. host: ok. we will let our guest respond. i absolutely agree. you made the point that these terms like white supremacist, white nationalists, racist. it's almost like they're used so much that i almost start to mean nothing anymore. when you have somebody like me or candace owens or charlie cook or any of these people who are really just conservative thinkers, when you have people throw out that kind of language. number one, the language is offensive and incendiary, but the language is meant to shut down conversation. the language is meant to shut down opposing viewpoints. and i think you are absolutely right that there's a lot of fear mongering that goes on. too much fear mongering goes on on both sides.

i always advocate for more conversation, not less. more ideas, not fewer. more discussion. i think that is the only way we going to move forward from this really specific point in history that we are at right now. host: in texas, republican line. tony, go ahead. caller: first of all i have to congratulate c-span on bringing on the gentleman like this. somebody over there clearly had some courage. they need to be congratulated. i'm a black man. i'm 63-year-old. i have been a democratic presidential voter since jimmy carter. i voted for jesse jackson when he ran. i even voted for hillary although i didn't want to because i believed exactly what the media told us about trump. i knew nothing about him as well so i voted for hillary. i'm glad she lost. man reminds me -- if martin luther king could see him, he would say we have

arrived where you should be judged by the content of your character. but you get a lot of hate speech. this gentleman knows what i'm talking about. he comes he is black. he doesn't fear the police officers from killing him. the lesbian and gay community want to be victims. he's right. i've been black all my life. everybody wants to be a victim but they don't want to be black. try being black in america when you have two, all the things that we go through each and every day including up until today. we don't all consider ourselves victims. we don't even get victimhood status when we deserve it. i don't blame vice president pence. i don't blame him -- these people are crazy out here. the left is crazy. don't meet with women who are not your wife. i'm a businessman, i don't meet with women anymore in a one-on-one. i don't do that. i don't associate with women outside of office hours.

i go home. i don't do any of those things because you can be accused of anything. and of course you are target. he's a target. simply because he doesn't agree with their accusations that everyone is a victim of the republicans. host: ok. we will let our guest respond. number one, that's a really good compliment. i appreciate it. i'm very thrown by that. he makes a really good point. there is a reason that i don't particularly find myself a very controversial figure. i'd also getting any of these things that i'm saying are controversial. as a matter of fact, i worked hard to not use incendiary language. but the reason why people like me whether they are black conservatives or gay and lesbian conservatives are so controversial is that both of these groups are -- have had this victimhood status drummed into their head. it has been going on as long as i have been alive and i'm sure the gentleman that called in can

go back even further than that. we are seeinghat and what i'm really excited to z --rt of millennials, jen saying we canare live without having these things completely define every aspect of our being. we can live without having these things define every aspect of our politics. and i really do think that african americans in general in this country, one of the reasons why i'm doing what i'm doing as far as the part of the movement and being open about being a black conservative, you can't have any political power in the country when 90% of your vote goes to one party. i think african-americans that have been voting democrat for all of their lives and we see what the policies have done for us over the last 50 years which is actually not much.

i also believe it's really important to pass policies that support business owners, that support job creators. people that are actually bringing the jobs within the communities. is why so many african-americans are moving to the republican party. specifically african-american males. out there on the road a lot and i talked to the people and i talked to a lot of young black men that are coming over to conservatism because they are business owners and i think that's really important. but i would like to thank the color for his complement. i really appreciate that. host: from washington state. democrats line. you are on with rob smith. caller: good morning and thanks for c-span as always. smith, i'm a democrat. i'm almost 85 years old. i'm also a disabled veteran who spent 30 years in the military and i lived among and worked among people of all sorts throughout that time. came to accept an off a lot of

people. people. lot of farming days would never have expected. i have openly gay friends and i can tell you that over the span of my lifetime there have been tremendous improvements in the lot of most of our citizens. i'm a democrat. -- david eisenhower. that's a long time ago. i'm a democrat and you define me differently from the way that i think -- mr. trump in the white house does the same thing. by demonized every day people who don't have a single clue. who have never walked in a democrats shoes. who has never striven to make this a more equitable world for everybody. folks, white folks they

did not mix. you didn't talk to each other. you avoided each other in every way. in 1960 i was a scoutmaster for three years. had two more years to go. the phone rang in my office. i answered. it was a woman obviously because of the tone of her voice she was black and she asked of her son could be a member of the troop i told her of course. bring him over to our meeting. that night the boy started the meeting. i had talked to him for that. paperwork so they could get merit badges and the like and comes a knock at my door. and it was a woman standing there. a very very large woman. chargedrom my desk and across the door, had open, should her hand, welcome turkish i asked her where her son was. she said to me, you know he's black. i said ma'am, did i ask that question?

she said what will the boys think? i said bring him in, let's find out. i took hair out in the meeting room and asked the boys if anyone knew this new young lad. and asked if they would like to have a member of the troop. and the hands went up. and in southwest texas in 1960i was getting questions from blacks and whites and -- how can you do this? host: we will let our guest respond. that -- i i think think that what you're saying from the comment in the story is you think that republicans and democrats kind of identify each other a little bit too harshly. i'm saying that liberals are bad and democrats are bad and you guys are saying republicans are bad i think there's a point there. we like i said, i think that

need to have more conversations across the aisle. i'm harshly critical not necessarily of democrats and liberals but what i like to call leftists. gothe leftists of the world to the events that i have on college campuses and have no desire to do anything but shut the event down. scream, shout, posters, bullhorns. all of that stuff. those people i'm very harshly critical of because i think that they are getting in the way of democrats and republicans or conservatives and liberals actually having a conversation about how we can get together and help of this country. so i understand what you're thatg and i deftly agree sometimes we all identify each other a little bit too harshly and that's nothing we can all work on. i'll take that. host: regarding the policy of the administration, a recent one dealt with the military. this was a ban that would go into income and transgender troops in the military.

what did you think of that move? >> what i think about that is that it's really complicated and i am going to be doing a lot more work. i'm going to be doing a lot more work in terms of writing about it and really unpacking it. i haven't tweeted much about it. i haven't said much about it because i really do think that transgender is not a one-size-fits-all identity. i'm not entirely sure if there needs to be a one-size-fits-all rule. i think that's a very complicated discussion. i don't have the 30, 45 minutes to an hour to really unpack that. but what i hope to do is to use the knowledge that i have about the transgender community and some of the connections that i have to really not only unpack morean -- ban a little bit to be a my work but to understand what exactly transgender identity is and how can we understand that a little bit more. host: you are an iraq war

veteran. do you support the ban all -- at all? >> it's complicated. i'm not on record as saying i support it or i oppose it. it's very complicated. first of all, when you want to talk about serving in the military in general because i did serve in the military and i did protest against don't ask don't tell. i got arrested protesting against don't ask don't tell during the obama administration. when you talk about the trans man, there is a lot of medical stuff going on. there is a lot of psychological stuff going on. the fact of the matter is that 71% and that number may be a little high, but a very high percentage of adults to matter what between 17 and 24 are medically disqualified from military service. so the difference between the transgender ban and the band ban fromian --

lesbians, gays and bisexuals is there is a psychological element to the transgender conversation that really complicates things and there are a lot of people who don't necessarily understand it. i think the public needs to be educated a lot more in a more straightforward way about the intricacies of transgender identity because you have a lot of people that are trans activists on the left that are saying one thing and they are saying things that are not based in reality and there are trying to abolish biological sex and all these different things and you have people on the right that don't really know a lot about transgender identity. all they know is that boys that identify as girls are now beating boys on the sports field. i think that it's a really that weted conversation would all do to really look in grandto host: junction, colorado.

republican line. you are on with our guest rob smith. to ask mr.anted smith if the citizens are getting in the way of them. i was just going to say that i thought the fact was they were illegitimate because obama said he couldn't change gay marriage but then the supreme court decided they were going to go ahead and make it so and we know congress makes the law and if i say anything bad about it you know all men are created equal but not hate speech. what's controversial is the fact that the pledge of allegiance says one nation under god and you know that's not the way it should be. i will pray for your souls. >> i don't even know what to say to that but ok, thanks for calling in. hold on, let me respond to that. that's a gay conservative i get a lot of messages like that on social media. i get a lot of messages from people that are conservative the sinnerke, love

hate the sin everything like that and this is what i always say. i'm a gay christian. i have a relationship with christian. god loves me and i love god. we are good. there's not a human being on this planet that is going to tell me that god has more or less love for me they stormed their interpretation of christianity. host: do you get asked about evangelical christians who largely supported the president and the position they may take to somebody like you and they >> iot agree with you? really do get asked about that a lot and like i always say, look. this is america. everybody is entitled to believe what they want to believe and it's a very specific area that i'm in right now being somebody that is a gay republican christian and a lot of people have questions about this and what i say to them is as long as what you believe is not hurting me in any way you can believe whatever you want to believe.

but i think that sometimes people will -- people's christian beliefs can wait into the waters of discrimination when it comes to public policy. i don't conservative agree with any federal dollars being used to discriminate against anybody because my gay tax dollars are going to this. so that's a very complicated conversation that i am thrilled to have with evangelical christians. mentioned mayor pete buttigieg. what does that suggest to you about the future of this issue particularly in politics? >> the fact that he is a credible candidate for the presidency on the democratic side tells me that we have really pushed the needle forward

it comes to acceptance of gays and lesbians in america in all capacities. republican. he's a gay democrat. we have really pushed the needle forward and what i'm trying to do with the space that i occupy right now is to push people beyond gay as an identity or gay that means a whole lot when it comes to people's political beliefs. as a gay men should be able to believe whatever i want to believe. pete buttigieg should be able to believe whatever he wants to believe. that's what makes america great and what i'm trying to do right now is to open the eyes of lots of gays and lesbians in america and say hey, maybe democrat policies don't work for you. maybe voting with your sexual orientation is not going to be the thing that is the most important for you when it comes to your bottom line and the

changes you want to see in your day-to-day life. host: here is larry from chicago. independent line. for our guest. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i want to upgrade the conversation. this idea. think of >> a working-class president that thinks like ronald reagan and plays guitar like elvis? yes. ok. with the segment on studentcam winners. at the end of the segment it was the american flag next to mcdonald's. franchise america. that's not healthy. from california originally print frank capra was a friend of mine and i got him to come to the information school in indiana in 1980 to discuss the why we fight series. is to preserve freedom and hopefully bring us together as a people. so that's it.

brian lamb knows me. hope you have a healthy day. host: let's go to rudy in california. good morning. caller: good morning. i agree with you as an old black liberal that colleges should allow people to speak. i have called colleges to allow that here in california. now my only problem is about the conservatives is they don't have enough african-americans representations in their ranks. i realized there's only a certain amount of chairs at the table but if the republican party looked a lot more like the country as a whole i think they would have a better shot. they only have those complex republicans in all of the congress on the conservative side so i would like to find out what's that problem with conservatives bringing an african-american politicians.

thank you very much mr. smith. >> thank you and that's an amazing question. i definitely agree. and the republican party have a branding problem. we really do. i think part of what i'm trying to do is be one of the people that can change that. when you look at how many blacks are represented in the republican ranks compared to how many blacks are represented in the democrat ranks you have to realize that republicans -- i feel like the conservative movement is just now getting to a point when it comes to people in the media, people represented on social media. we are just now getting to the point where there are real credible voices that are out here saying that you can be african-american and support the republican party as well. i think the democrats have had only kinds of voices, not

have they been politicians but they have also been african-american celebrities, rappers, entertainers, ballplayers. you have so many people that are represented on the democratic side whose entire existence is about pushing the idea that blacks can only be democrats. pushing liberal policies and liberal ideas to the african-american community. understand that the conservatives definitely have a branding problem in that way and what i think is really special about this moment right now and if anybody has heard of candace owens and the movement for black exodus from the democratic party , there's a really interesting movement happening with black conservatives and they are getting their start on social media. i just started speaking out and becoming more visible about it on social media. that is what i truly think is going to move the needle for african-americans to come over

to the conservative side and i think it is very important that we have a republican party that looks like america and reflects america. democrats havee us because they can trot out every color, religion, orientation of people under the we represent everybody. the conservatives have a really hard time doing that. i think it's getting better. i think it's changing. the organization that i'm part of it is really amazing at finding these young conservatives of every color and getting them on the college campuses and really train them to be the new generation of conservative leaders. i really do think that we are moving the needle right now. when you look at what's going on i think you're going to see a whole lot more representation of african-americans on the republican side. host: do you get that sense of outreach with trump administration with its 2020

campaign? >> i do. from seeing what i'm seeing on there is a major play for african-american voters that is going to happen leading up into the 2020 election. what a lot of people don't realize is that democrats cannot win national elections without african-american voters. specifically without 90% of the black vote. you moved that needle to even 13, 14% of blacks voting republican they cannot win a national election without us which is why we are suddenly having the reparations talk and we are suddenly having this talk on the democratic side with just more handouts for african-americans and no real solutions. line,from the republican this is from pennsylvania. i think you are doing is awesome.

turning point movement i just think that's wonderful. what i want to say is as a republican myself, i think it's terrible that the democrats and the left are putting such fear in the people and especially the younger generation that are of voting age. they are putting fear and everybody that is of voting age to make everybody think that republicans are racist. as it is now, republicans can't go on campuses. you can't go outside anybody if you are republican and where a matter had been fear of being attacked. i think that's terrible. meat in my own family, my daughter and my son are totally against what i believe in. so i've lost contact with my daughter over it. it's just terrible. but i give you credit and i love you. i love you guys. i love what you are doing.

keep it up. i just think it's terrible. al sharpton had his convention with all of the democrats people that are running. they put all of this fear and hate into everybody that was there saying that trump hates everybody, he's a racist. and that's just terrible. they are telling lies. >> i just want to say your story is heartbreaking and i really wish that didn't happen to you. on the lefttrategy right now and the strategy on the left is to make it so completely unacceptable to be not only a conservative but to support this administration that it's really people are losing friends. withe are losing contact their family members. to me it is absolutely insane. when i came out as a conservative, it's always been the year.

i said, i'm just going to be open about these beliefs. i did lose friends. i did lose acquaintances. i was iced out from social networks. i'm a gay guy that lives in new york city. i was iced out of a lot of social networks. i definitely understand what's going on. i always bring it back to the fact that the incendiary rhetoric kind of needs to be brought down a little bit. not in terms of what politicians are saying or what's going on in social media with journalists or whatever but in our day-to-day lives. tear ust let this stuff apart as americans and when i hear a story like that it breaks has art that somebody fractured relationship with a blood relative over politics. host: rob smith, republican strategist with turning point

usa. we thank you for your time today. for the remaining time of our program, we will get your thoughts on the current status of campaign 2020. potentiallk about democrats running against him and here's how you can reach us. republicans,1 (202) 748-8000 democrats. (202) 748-8002 independents. we will take those calls when we come back.

>> on television and online, c-span is your unfiltered view of government. so you can make up your own mind. >> the only thing we have to fear is fear itself. >> ask not what your country can do for you. ask what you can do for your country. >> the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon. book, thes newest

president. notice historians rank america's best and worst chief executives. provides insight into the lives of the 44 american presidents. through stories gathered by interviews with noted residential historians. explore the life events that shaped our leaders. challenges they faced and the legacies they have left behind. published by public affairs, c-span's the presidents will be on shelves april 23. that you can preorder your copy as a hardcover or e-book today at c-span.org/the presidents or wherever books are sold. >> washington journal continues. host: you can make your comments about campaign 2020 by calling us. this was just posted on the website's nest inside her.

the headline, there's a growing amount of evidence that the president has a great shot at being reelected in 2020. the author writes that the president's approval rating is currently around 45%. his most recent predecessor had an identical approval rating at this point in his presidency and was reelected in 2012. in 2011 shortly after he renounced his election bid, the president's approval rating was hovering between 43 and 45%. of 1995ively, mid-april bill clinton had an approval rating of 46%. the president is also dominating democratic opponents in the fundraising race. the president has about $40 million in cash on hand. that's from business insider. usa today this morning takes a look at those on the democratic side highlighting bernie sanders

about: that's been done. this is william cummins saying that when asked whom they would support from a list of 20 candidates including someone named bernie sanders and 24% named joe biden in emerson college poll released on monday. they were trailed by the south bend indiana mayor pete and a judge who was the pick of likely democratic primary voters. that noarris and overarching each came in at 8% and 7%. william cummings wrote the script -- the story. you can see that in the pages of usa today this morning. 2020 are some of the things we will talk about in the 15 minutes or so we have left. (202) 748-8001 republicans. (202) 748-8000 democrats. (202) 748-8002 independents.

in ohio, good morning. caller: i wanted to respond to the question of what my issue andin the presidential race i'm a little bit of a cynic about it. i just turned 18 two weeks ago. registered to vote. i am looking forward to voting for the first time but for me -- i haven't found a candidate to fully back yet but i'm going to be backing whoever can really just help unify the party as well as the country in the general election because no any policy decisions president trump makes are going to be overturned most likely by any democrat who is elected. about the damage that he's doing to the institution of the presidency. our democracy as a whole. most likely going to be backing a candidate not solely on policy but more on their ideals.

if they can help bridge the divide in our nation. host: in indiana, independent line. hello. caller: i would like to say that become allce has about do you support gay rights and -- i think america should slow down. host: ok. let's hear from jerry in washington state. caller: this is jerry. about theally calling robert smith guy. he's a nice young guy, but he's young. they are going for the younger african-american males. that's because the crisis that goes on with african-american males. xitsaid he got into the ble

movement or republican movement about a year ago. if you tell someone i'm going to put you on tv in a year, they will do anything. i feel sorry for the kids. the backlash is terrible. they don't understand what they are doing or why they are doing it but they are getting immediate fame. candace owens is full of fiction. she has been to credit -- discredited on everything. she has sued everybody. she is just ridiculous. that's jerry in washington state. by the way, candace owens appearing in front of a committee in which she had an extended back-and-forth with legislator ted lieu. it hit really impressive numbers. if you want to see it for yourself, type in her name and ted lieu's name in the box. all that is available at c-span.org. the mayor of south bend indiana, pete buttigieg in des moines.

this story also saying that protesters shouting about sodom and gomorrah interrupted the mayor on tuesday at a rally. he hopes to become the first openly gay president in american history. one of the men who shouted about the biblical cities destroyed by god rest for their sinful ways was randall terry, a christian activist who founded the antiabortion rights group operation rescue. the group now considers him to radical. too radical. the mayor continues on in iowa. he will be in des moines today. if you want to see some of the comments he will make later on you can go to our website at c-span.org, monitor it at c-span. you can see it on c-span.org and our radio at. senator kiersten gillibrand, democrat from new york also in des moines.

see her comments at 7:30 this evening on c-span. you can also listen to that o'rourke. he will be in alexandria, virginia at 3:30 this afternoon. all of that part of our road to the white house 20 three coverage. you can find everything that we will show you when it comes to campaign coverage. at national tennessee. democrats line. >> good morning. the gentleman you had earlier was talking about the name-calling. the gentleman that you had on earlier today was talking about the name-calling and the bashing of gays and all of that type of stuff. i just think that if we get rid of trump than a lot of this stuff. and that's just my comment today. thank you.

host: bill is next from jefferson township. republican line. hello. voter: my main issue is i pro-life. until the democrats did on board and start respecting life, i can't vote for them. that's my main issue and i would like to see the candidates have real issues. especially on the democratic side. their main issue is getting rid of trump and he's not as bad as they want to make him into a devil, the demon. and he's doing a lot for america. got to stop drinking the kool-aid and wake up, the democrats. host: the publication new york on its website talks about the team that senator elizabeth warren has put together as part of her 2020 campaign saying that by the end of the first quarter warns campaign had 161 staff members with about half of them currently positioned in primary

states. the sanders campaign had 86 people on payroll at the time and harris had 44. resident donald trump's reelection campaign reportedly spent around 31,000 during the first quarter and receives help from the republican which has hundreds of staffers. jerry in detroit, michigan. republican line. hello. ander: hello pedro greetings again from motown. -- i53-year-old black man wanted to respond to one particular white-collar. i wanted to ask him but i couldn't get on if he thinks white people in america really haven't changed as far as their views of black people in america is i don't really think especially with the older generation and let's just say baby boomer age white people.

that they really have changed as far as their views and their hatred of black people. as far as those last two white colors regarding talking about demonization of trump, weren't these the same racist white people who trashed barack obama and gave him a lot of help throughout his entire presidency but they have the unmitigated gall to complain about trump being vilified? of whatdoesn't smack hypocrisy on the part of racist white conservatives than what else can it be? host: that's jerry in michigan. we will hear from susan. she is in tampa, florida. independent line. caller: thanks for taking my call. just a quick comment in general. candidly, i guess if i had my way i wish we could drop all the labels. conservatism. i respect republicans.

i respect to democrats. i respect moderates. i respect progressivism. think and this probably won't happen in my beetime, if we could just people and drop all of these schoolsi taught public for 35 years and i didn't label all the kids. i really feel if we drop the labels maybe we could just come across as being individuals. i think it would be helpful. thank you for your time. host: the washington post this morning takes a look at money raised by the democrats. it highlights christian gillibrand. than $3 million. he highlights that senator sanders of vermont lit with 18 million followed by kamala harris. pete buttigieg 7 million. elizabeth warren 6 million. amy klobuchar 5.2 million and

senator cory booker of new jersey 5 million. the gillibrand campaign has kept afloat with nine point 6 million left over from her last senate campaign which gives her the third most cash on hand. you can see that story at the washington times. in tennessee, floyd is next. republican line. caller: i'm ready to talk if he's ready to talk. host: you are on right now. go ahead. get rid ofthey trump, north vietnam is going to get rid of -- liberate south vietnam. the russians are going to liberate the ukraine and everybody is going to start paying taxes that go to the south china sea. there is anybody else that's going to be strong enough that they will keep dealing with us. thank you very much.

host: mississippi next. this is richard did go ahead. -- richard. go ahead. louvre we have to vote and get the democrats back in office. wins thedemocrat primary is fine with me and all i have to say with people that want to vote republican or follow along with trump that birther is an is racism and donald trump is a racism -- racist, simple as that. the business section of the new york times this morning, a story taking a look at a forum held by david axelrod. this was with 2020 campaign previous and presidential campaigns talking about the 2020 campaign and what they should be aware of going into it. some of the highlights saying most political journalists spend a lot of time on twitter tracking the real-time thoughts of pundits, activists, campaign activists -- and reporters like themselves. most said that was not a great

idea. you have to be skeptical of what you are seeing and reading on twitter. bureaucnn's washington chief. if you think you understand what's motivating viewers because you are reading it on twitter you may be completely wrong. reporter cautioned conference cruisers -- voters to steer clear of prognosticators. more of that in the new york times. from paul in michigan, republican line. wanted to call in from michigan. president trump will win michigan again. i'm a uaw republican. about 50 to 60% of the uae

uaw voters will vote for president trump. we will get moderate and conservative democrats crossing over. he's renegotiating trade deals, project -- protecting the border. legal immigration like we all have. the melting pot. we assimilate. we are all very patriotic here. i think we're going to do very well in michigan for president trump. host: besides your own assessment what evidence do you have for that? caller: from the last election. i was out there handing out signs for president trump and i talked to people who are union and nonunion. we talked about it. that's right from the road. i'm just telling you. i volunteered for the campaign. out here in michigan. basically the trade deals, i work in the factory. it in the 90's when nafta was

started, that was to combat the euro. is the jobs. ross perot talked about that. everybody saw that and you can see it in the manufacturing sector. to 12% to 14%n average. host: ok. this is from the washington examiner saying that beto o'rourke and his wife appear to have underpaid their taxes for two years. they made a mistake in the way they reported their medical responses. that is according to an accountant who looked over the returns for the wall street journal. o'rourke and his wife released their tax returns on monday and .ook medical expense deductions after becoming aware of this error the accounting firm was

informed and will file an amendment as appropriate. let's hear from john in trenton, new jersey. republican line. >> thanks for having me on your program. ex-republican now. donald trump has got all the coming now and they are going to up their time on tv and things do not look good because he has not released his taxes. if he released his taxes and he got something going positively that thecampaign have powerid not over him, then they would not have all these committees constantly taking up his airtime, he may have gotten reelected. st