>> saturday night president trump is holding a campaign rally in green bay, wisconsin, skipping the annual white house correspondents dinner. he instructed his administration to boycott the dinner. watch the rally on c-span. following the rally, watch live coverage at 9:30 eastern of the white house correspondents dinner, with a featured speaker that is an author and historian. >> today on c-span, "washington journal" is next, then a discussion about gas taxes from the information technology and innovation foundation. later, the lawyers committee for civil rights harvard law host a discussion about hate crimes and white supremacist groups. in about one hour, center for climate and security director on

the national security risks of climate change. also, obama administration energy secretary ernest moneys and senior communications advisor in the 2016 trump campaign, jason and jason mille. [video clip] >> if you give donald trump 8 years in the white house, he will forever and fundamentally alter the carrier -- character of this nation. i cannot stand by and watch that happen. [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: joe biden has thrown his hat in the ring. we want to get your reaction to the news. republicans, 202-748-8001. democrats, 202-748-8000. and independents, 202-748-8002. join us on twitter at @cspanwj .com/cspan.co the former vice president made the announcement at 6:00 a.m.

this morning by posting this video. [video clip] ischarlottesville, virginia, home to the author of one of the great documents in american history. we know it by heart. we hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are byated equal and endowed their creator with certain, unalienable rights. jefferson himself did not live up to these ideals, but we have never before walked away from them. charlottesville is also home to a defining moment in this nation in the last few years. on august 2017 we saw klansmen and white supremacist and neo-nazis come out in the open, their faces --uminated by churches, torches, chanting the same

anti-semitic vile herd across europe in the 1930's. they were met by a group of courageous americans and a violent clash ensued. a brave young woman lost her heardnd that is when we the words of the president of the united states that stunned the world and shocked the conscience of this nation. he said there were "some very fine people on both sides." very fine people on both sides? with those words, the president of the united states assigned a moral equivalence between those spreading hate and those with the courage to stand against it. in that moment, i knew the threat to this nation was unlike any i had seen in my lifetime. i wrote at the time that we are in the battle for the soul of this nation. that is even more true today. we are in the battle for the

soul of the nation. i believe history will look back on 4 years of this president and aberrantbraces as an moment in time. if we give donald trump eight years in the white house, he fundamentallynd alter the character of this nation. i cannot stand by and watch that happen. the core values of this nation are standing for the world, our very democracy, everything that has made america america is at stake. that is why i am announcing my candidacy for president of the united states. america is an idea. than any army,r bigger than any ocean. it gives hope to the most desperate people on earth, guarantees that everyone is treated with dignity and gives hate no safe harbor. it instills every person that the believe no matter where you

start in life, there is nothing you cannot achieve if you work at it. that is what we believe. above all else, that is what is at stake. we cannot forget what happened in charlottesville. even more important, we have to remember who we are. this is america. joe biden has entered the 2020 presidential race, this will be his third bid for the white house, making that announcement earlier this morning. the drudge report banner page, they write "shock poll" biden opens with an eight point lead on president trump. this is a poll that shows the former vice president leads president trump 42 percent to 34% and leads among women and young voters in a hypothetical matchup. we want to get your thoughts on

this. first, pedro with more on vice president joe biden. host: matt albright with the delaware news journal has a piece online and highlights what joe biden stands for and may be questions about what he does not stand for. sayshigher education, it the former senator, former vice president endorse the idea of a three four-year college. he signaled support for a $15 minimum wage and when it comes to taxes, while he has not oddlyed a tax plan, he speaks about eliminating tax breaks and loopholes by wealthy americans. what we don't know when it comes to health care saying biden is a defender of the affordable care act, but has yet to publicly say whether he supports policies other democrats support. it says biden clearly believes climate change is real and the chief spokesman for the efforts of the obama administration to

address it, but does not say if he publicly supported a carbon tax. reaction from the republican national committee, rana mcdaniel putting out this tweet saying no biden wants to keep score in eight years, biden and obama had a net loss of 193,000 manufacturing jobs. donald trump has created 453,000 manufacturing jobs. host: let's get to our calls. one in alexandria, virginia. what do you think this morning? caller: good morning. this is a breath of fresh air. i am all in. it is time to remove this ugly stain in american history. joe biden is just an incredible leader and we will restore america to what it needs to be and i am just all in and all my

latino friends, i went online and donated $100 to his campaign. host: you did that this morning already? caller: yes, i did. i am all in. host: are you not as excited about the other 19 candidates on the democratic side? caller: i am equally excited, cachethink joe brings a and what it means to be an american. said, americaads .annot be a sign of hate i cannot tell you how excited i am to be for joe biden. host: how did you vote in 2016? caller: i voted for hillary. host: were you as excited? caller: no, not as excited, i have to say. this time is different. it is our democracy, our country, what america stands

for. we have got to move on from this ugly stain in american history. host: steve is watching in pennsylvania, republican. welcome to the conversation, go ahead. caller: good morning. a couple of ironies i would like to point out about mr. biden's opening statement, how donald trump is going to fundamentally change america and how him and his partner in crime, farah hussein obama, who -- barack hussein obama ran on fundamentally changing america and they did for worse in my opinion. host: how did they make it worse, in your opinion? caller: how did they make it worse? new tried to create a normal, that was their narrative. obama continually said this is the new narrow more -- new normal. we had kids growing up who are

trying to be good members of society and the workforce that don't know how to work. it was a new normal for them to laze around and expect to there are not going to be jobs and you have to have this stuff so the government would take care of you. host: what policies did he put in place that created that culture? caller: i don't know the policies off the top of my head and that is not the point. the point is -- another point is joe biden, and his third time to run for president and how they continually -- the democrat party continually tries to rail against the money and the big money and how bad it is except when it is their people getting it. joe biden is just another old white guy. another old white guy. host: pedro with more on the news this morning of joe biden running for president. host: particularly when it comes to endorsements.

eliza collins reporting the democratic senator from governor, chris coons out early with an endorsement. julianne ross reporting bob casey endorses joe biden for president as both the u.s. senator and our vice president, he delivered results for the middle class, keeping our country safe and strengthened our standing in the roads. -- in the world. there were reports about cindy mccain, the wife of john mccain possibly supporting biden. joe biden is a wonderful man and dear friend of the mccain family . i have no intention of getting involved in presidential politics. host: barbara in new york. caller: i am against joe biden's candidacy. not only do i think he would be a disastrous president, but i do not believe he can beat donald trump. joe biden has a terrible record

if people really look into it. he sponsored the 1984 comprehensive crime bill that increased mass incarceration. he also was enthusiastic about taking bankruptcy off the table for student debt. in other words, if you have student debt, even if you declare bankruptcy, you cannot discharge it. the most disgusting part, i went back to c-span's archives and looked at your april 7 washington journal where you showed an ad about joe biden and actions,y-feely behavior with young women and girls. if you look at that video and see him leering at this little girl and how she leans away from him, it is really disturbing. i do not believe somebody like

joe biden has accorded himself in a presidential manner and i do not think he should be president. host: who is your candidate? caller: either bernie sanders or tim ryan. host: why is that? caller: bernie has been long working in the field of civil rights, he has done a lot for working people, he has always championed the cause of working people. i think he would make a great president. tim ryan is a new face, i like what he did in the house of representatives. i like the fact he had the courage to challenge nancy pelosi for the speakership. i could be happy for either one of those. host: james is a democrat in massachusetts, hi, james. caller: good morning, greta. good morning, greta. i am not thrilled about joe biden getting into this race, but i do want to hear from him. i want to hear about his son,

hunter. i want to hear about the electron valence started under his regime and i want to hear about the attorney general report coming out and the report on james comey coming out. i want to hear how duplicitous he and his boss were in this before the next election. i think it is time to ask some questions. host: did you vote for president trump in 2016? caller: yes, i did. i voted for obama before that and i voted for trump in 2016. host: if vice president biden were to answer those questions, could he answer those questions to your satisfaction, would you vote for him in 2020? caller: no. host: no because of the 8 years of the obama administration? caller: like the republican before, he is a little old and a little out of touch.

i am still a democrat, i will always be a democrat, but i am not very happy with the democratic party and i believe we have been lied to tremendously about what is going on in the government. i think he is going to be more of the same. host: is there another democrat running you would vote for over president trump? caller: over president trump? not yet. host: not yet. not bernie sanders? caller: no. [laughter] not bernie sanders. host: you laugh, tell us why. caller: he wants all the felons in jail that murdered people and everything else to be allowed to vote. the whole party is shot so far to the left i just cannot support anybody. somebody has to come down to earth. caller: james, says he is a democrat and will stay a democrat, voted for president trump in 2016.

former president obama's spokesperson put out a statement on biden's entrance, no endorsement, but a positive signal from 44 that hasn't been given to others and the quote is president obama has long said selecting joe biden as his running mate was one of the best decisions he ever made. he relied on his knowledge, insight, judgment throughout campaigns and the entire presidency. they forged a special bond and remain close today. jaclyn in philadelphia, republican. go ahead, jacqueline. caller: hi, greta. i am still a republican. i think i would still vote for donald trump right now. joe biden, i never liked him and i go on and listen to him, watch his body movements, he is touchy-feely with that little girl. he think he is one of the better angels, whatever that means. he is conceited, that comes

through. he is no match for donald trump. host: why do you say that? on what? caller: donald is like one of the guys that we all know, we are all sinners, so is donald trump. that is what i say to people who argue with me. i don't get in arguments, he is a sinner, just like me. i don't trust joe biden. i don't think he is authentic. i think that is a front. i really think that is a front. he will be good, he will probably bounce those other people off the stage for the democrats. there is something about him i just don't like. i think it is having to do with being conceited. i think he is the better angels. what am i, then? a bad angel? lesser? echevarria, what do

you have? host: you heard from the viewer earlier talking about donating from the biden campaign, money is one of those concerns. politico reporting joe biden saying the money is important, we will be judged on what we can do in the first 24 hours. people think iowa and new hampshire are the first tests. the first 24 hours is the first test. beast, itto the daily talks about the one advantage joe biden might have, it is the obama email list. that was part of the american possibilities packed and it goes onto to say biden would utilize the list is hardly a surprise. it is one of the largest and reportedly helped raise 500 militant -- $500 million. that gives him access to a base. that is some of the analysis from the daily beast. host: i will show folks this

wall street journal article from tuesday, joe biden's expected 2020 bid is likely to rely on big donors. it's less focused on small donor contributions, which many declared candidates are chasing. there is another article this morning that already the president today after making this announcement will hold a fundraiser hosted by a comcast executive for the former vice president. it says several of the supporters will be attending the fundraiser, including bob casey, ed rendell, and michael nutter as well as several members of congress mostly representing pennsylvania. they include brandon boyle, matt cartwright, madeleine dean, chris evans, representative lisa blunt manchester of delaware. harris in miami, florida,

independent. what do you think of the news the former vice president is in the race? caller: i think this is going to be a disaster. number one, he is going to suck up all the oxygen out of the room just like hillary did and then you are going to see a situation where he is going to lose. and the reason he is going to lose is there is nothing new, fresh, or exciting about joe biden. joe biden is a great guy, i like him, but we are in a political space right now where it is all about excitement. go back to obama. obama excited people. there was something new, fresh, and exciting about obama. bush, peopleo gw go i would like to have a beer with this guy. it is unfortunate only policy wonks like myself care about policy. most people care about

personality. these are personality pix. obama was a personality pick. you ask most supporters what was his policy, they don't even know. host: was president trump a personality pick? caller: of course. this guy had no policy. the only policy he had, the only thing he has done is tax breaks. host: if you look at the field right now, democrat, republican, president trump is the only one officially running in 2020. who do you pick and based on what policy? having a guy come out to challenge trump -- host: you are right, bill weld. policy,in regards to the universal basic income is, i

think, a huge thing that biden will not support because that is not his thing, he is not really a progressive. aat policy, andrew yang and lot of, kamala harris and a lot of the democrats are supporting 90%use the economy for the is disastrous. what is joe biden's answer for working people? there is over 6000 stores that have closed in this country. do you know how many jobs are being lost in service sector? in the retail sector? what is joe biden's policy that he is going to say -- how is he going to give hope and aspiration to people in the 90%? host: if you had to vote today, who do you vote for? caller: andrew yang. host: andrew yang has your vote. as he said, there is nothing

fresh or new about vice president joe biden, this is his third time running for president. he ran in 1988 and this is what he had to say when he announced his bid then. [video clip] >> although some progress has been made, many of the same issues that brought us together again. summoned us the issues we spoke of that day 10 blocks from here, public confidence in our political institutions, the threat to our environment, the danger of an ideological foreign policy, a dwindling commitment to education, and the pressing need to the unemployed and the poor, and the crisis of drugs confronting our youth, these same issues remain today at the heart of our national agenda and to joink you once again me this time in an even more arduous and improbable quest for

you are my friends and this is my home. your unyielding confidence in me and unbending support in good times and bad has been a source of strength and never ending joy to my family and me. it is your help i seek first as today, i announce my candidacy for president of the united states of america. [applause] was in 1987 for the 1988 election cycle. four months later, he ended his bid saying this. [video clip] there will be other opportunities, there will be other battles in other places other times and i will be there. i will be there seeking to share

with all americans and those who will stand with me the promise proclaimed in the communion hy mn you heard me cite around this country, and he will lift you up on eagle's wings and bear you on the breath of don. this country will be lifted up and i will play a big part doing it. host: the second attempt in the white house was the 2008 election cycle and he posted a video when he announced his intention to run in 2007. [video clip] >> the bush administration, because it worships profits over people, has forgotten that to keep america strong, we need a growing, vibrant middle class. we need our citizens to feel secure, secure that their children will get the health care they need when they are ill , secure that they will have the retirement income they planned on, secure that we are doing all

we can to end global warming, secure that jobs and opportunities will not vanish like so many have in recent years. the next century will be an american century, but it will require vision from our leaders and faith in our purpose. i am running for president because i believe we can stem this tide by restoring respect for america possible leadership throughout the world and by changing our priorities here at home. host: we will go to haze in kentucky. what do you think of the vice president running for president a third time? caller: i think he is a loser. he pulled the same stuff. i don't know if i will run, i might run, it was absolutely to stay and see if he can knock bernie sanders out of the running. if hillary clinton had not been favored to win, he would have stayed in then, he is doing the same thing now. he has been there over 40

something years. i have been a democrat 50 something years and i cannot support the democratic party anymore with the corruption and the dnc and the lies, something has got to be done. i think bernie sanders is the answer, he cannot do everything they are saying, but he can start a movement in this country. host: does it bother you bernie sanders has been involved in politics for a long time as well and he is nearly the same age as joe biden? caller: age is different for some people. i have seen some people my age that don't act nothing like me, far better, or for worse. you have to judge people on their actions. i think bernie sanders is as sharp as he was 40 years ago. there is a movement in this country, people want change. i was watching joe biden in 1987, he talks about that.

i took a terrible beating in 1988, lost my job, stock, everything that was going on and nothing ever changes. biden has been there 40 years. bernie sanders initiates change in this country and we have to have it, whether it is right or wrong, something has got to change because we are in trouble. host: jill collins writes he has been in national politics since 1972 when he ran and won his first senate seat and parts of of resume recover a lot explaining. he will be asked why he wants and weaken gun control ignored complaints about sexual harassment by a supreme court nominee. biden will have to talk about age, pete buttigieg and seth moulton were worn while mash was still on the air. joe biden was born before the debut of "howdy doody." hi, john. caller: good morning, c-span,

america's political network of record, thank you for your 40 years of service. a truly fair and unbiased political coverage. trump's relevant remarks regarding charlottesville were that the white nationalists and neo-nazis should be condemned totally. we seldom hear that on cnn or msnbc or any of the usual suspects. starts offt biden with, the usual lie about trump's remarks from charlottesville. host: norman in massachusetts. caller: thanks for taking my call. leftist.nion, i am a in my opinion, biden is even further right than trump.

he has been racist and sexist. he has been the foremost opponent of cannabis legalization and normalization of medical cannabis. for all these years, he worked against it and he has been the foremost supporter of dupont, the worst global warming polluter in history. if you google biden dupont, you will find he has made thousands of speeches praising dupont about how great they are and how much they help the environment. almostou have said he is more conservative than the president? president trump? caller: he is. he brings democrats even further right, which gives republicans an opportunity to go further right. we would not have had trump had we not had biden and obama with

their right-wing attitude changing --s and they introduced what they call the clean power plan, which is basically a fracking program and biden and obama strongly supported that and a lot of democrats now still support it. host: some have been critical of the former verse -- vice president for his tenure in the senate working across the aisle with republicans. the late senator john mccain's funeral, joe biden gave one of the eulogies and mr. biden addressed this recently at an event at the conference of mayors and here is what he said. [video clip] >> look, i get in trouble. i read in the new york times today that one of my problems if if i were to run for president, i like republicans. bless me, father, for i have sinned. [laughter]

[applause] where i come from, i don't know how you get anything done. i don't get -- i don't know how we get anything done unless we start talking to each other again. host: do you agree, disagree with the former vice president? should democrats work with republicans? is that appealing to you? pay low at your -- pedro at your echevarria,-- pedro you have more this morning. host: about joe biden's record on crime and how he should be proud of that. biden publicly defended his role in shaping the violent crime control and law enforcement act of 1994, which funding the hiring of more cops and encouraged more troops and sensing by requiring prisoners serve the majority of sentences before becoming eligible for parole. if you go to the section of the

gazette net out of new hampshire, there is a piece by arlene, she teaches gender studies at the university of massachusetts saying he has consistently been against federal funding of abortions. those of us old enough to have watched joe biden preside over the hearing for clarence thomas, anita hill was -- testifying about the abuse and humiliation she suffered from her then boss, clarence thomas. the daily hampshire gazette is where you find that piece. host: let's show our viewers that moment from the anita hill-clarence thomas hearings. joe biden was the chair of the judiciary committee and this is what critics have pointed to describing his tone as skeptical. [video clip] >> can you tell us in his words what he said.

.> i really cannot quote him i can remember something like you really ought to see these films that i have seen or this material i have seen. this woman has this kind of breasts that measure this side. she is doing all kinds of different sex acts. that kind of -- those were the kinds of words where he expressed his enjoyment of it and seemed to try to encourage me to enjoy that kind of material as well. >> did he indicate why he thought you should see this material? >> no. why do you think -- what was

your reaction? why did you think he was saying these things to you? >> coupled with the pressure about going out to him, i felt implicit in this discussion about sex was they offered to have sex with him, not just to go out with him. there was never any explicit thing about going out to dinner or going to a particular concert or movie. it was, we ought to go out and given his other conversations, i took that to mean we ought to ore sax or look at -- sex look at these pornographic movies together. host: the former vice president addressed how he handled the anita hill-clarence thomas hearings at an event last month. [video clip] >> i chaired the senate judiciary committee in a hearing in the first of its kind, clarence thomas hearing, appointment of a lifetime appointment to supreme court and

really notable a woman, anita hill, professor, showed the courage of a lifetime talking about her experience being harassed by clarence thomas. we knew a lot less about the extent of harassment back then, 30 years ago, but she paid a terrible price. she was taken advantage of, her reputation was attacked. i opposed clarence thomas's nomination, i voted against him, but i realize there was a real and perceived problem the committee faced, there were a bunch of white guys -- i mean it, sincerely, a bunch of white guys hearing this testimony. when anita hill came to testify, she faced a committee that did not fully understand what it was all about. to this day, i regret i could

not come up with a way to give her the courtesy she deserved. the hearing she deserved was a hearing where she was respected, where the tone of the questioning was not hostile. the fact that she stepped forward was recognized as an act of courage in and of itself. host: that was the president last month. the national organization of women put out this statement, he has not accepted the ownership of the fact that he was the most powerful person in the role and in the room at the time. i think he has a hard time because he doesn't really completely understand yet, he is still protecting his gender. danny and atlanta, democratic caller, what do you think about the former vice president running again? caller: i just want you to give me as much time as you gave the fake democrats, the trump supporters calling on the

democrat line. you can say a lot of things about joe biden, but you cannot with theiden was in russians, you cannot say that about joe biden. you can tell how the trump supporters are scared right now. we have to remember that donald 3ump lost the popular vote by million. in 2018, the republicans as a party lost the vote by 10 million or more. in 2020, i predict republicans are going to lose by 15 million to 20 million votes. one thing i like about joe biden, he is the one person that can step in right now and fix the government. donald trump and supporters have

broke the government. i know for a fact and you all don't talk about it, that the --te of new york is going to and i am just predicting this, that the state of new york is going to indict donald trump and his whole family. trumpump charity -- the university,, trump state of new york, borough of manhattan, donald trump will be indicted by the state of new york. also, once again, you can say a lot of things about joe biden, but you cannot say he was in with vladimir putin. host: i heard your point and i will follow it up with the politico article about joe biden on a conference call with a

fundraiser where he told folks i get calls from people all over the world, world leaders are calling me almost begging me to do this, save the country, save the world. one of the participants stressed biden was not making it sound as if he has a messiah complex, but rather that world leaders are looking to the democratic party to defeat president trump whether it is biden or another democrat. pedro. host: now that he is declared, where does a biden head? on monday he will head to pittsburgh, set to speak before union members and if you go to the local news website, they had an interview with a local political analyst on why joe biden needs western pennsylvania. [video clip] political strategist says minorities and white liberals are not enough to defeat trump in 2020. >> there aren't enough.

that is the base, you need more than the base. >> besides the base, the democratic candidate for president has two target groups in this region. first, white suburban republican women. were notare folks who necessarily comfortable with trump's personal life, but were willing to vote for him partly because they did not like hillary. >> then the white blue-collar males, many union members, that a moderate democrat like conor lamb attracted in his special election with joe biden's support. >> i think it is no surprise joe biden came out for conor lamb, has an appeal to white, blue-collar working-class folks. host: joe biden is in the race for president. we are getting your reaction to the news.

greg in massachusetts, a republican. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you? host: what do you think? caller: i don't think joe biden is presidential material. when he came out with his introduction to run for presidency, the first thing he ind was -- that is a lie north carolina, charlottesville, today, yous -- even have blackface and the ku klux klan in virginia. that says it all there. host: linda in dallas, independent. caller: hello, good morning, greta. i have been waiting for a long time. and ily do like joe biden think he is presidential material, he dresses right. host: linda, are you there?

caller: can you hear me? host: now we can. you cut out when he said he walks. caller: he walks like a real president, someone we can be proud of. you read a verse from the paper wanting toeaders was -- host: want him to run, yes. world leaders calling him. caller: world leaders are calling him because they feel the same way i do. he is very intelligent and his speaking and stuff. i believe he will make america proud, i really do. also, there is another candidate running against president trump i want to hear more and more about. host: bill weld. caller: i wish he could join the debate. i want to see that candidate as well because i have to make a decision between that candidate and joe biden. host: you don't have to wait if

you want to hear from that candidate. we covered an event or two with him. if you go to our website, you can follow the road to the white house there and all of our coverage -- all the candidates on the democratic side, also mr. weld and president trump has been hiding -- having campaign rallies as well. sadie in florida, democrat. caller: good morning. i am going to vote for joe biden 1000%. he is a gentleman. he is not the type that trump says he can grab women's parts and all that. loveiden all the way, i joe biden and i am voting for him for speed ahead. he is a gentleman and understanding, straightman, unlike donald trump. donald trump must lose. i do not donald trump to win

ever again. good morning. host: rob, tampa florida, republican. hi, rob. caller: hi, greta. there are two issues, biden has some issues for himself. his son has been working, having an account over from the ukraine and has been siphoning money and not declaring that on his taxes. on fox news, so they are running with it. host: okay. caller: i noticed you have republicans, democrats, and others. you need to put socialists when you call in because democrats are nothing but a socialist party now and they say they are a party of kennedy. kennedy, when he was in office, he said not what -- ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. these democrats are nothing but a bunch of socialists.

took call themselves the party of kennedy is totally wrong. ye in greenville, north carolina, democrat. good morning to you. caller: good morning. i am delighted mr. biden is running. i think we need his wisdom and his experience and if he chooses a younger running mate, i think they would make an unbeatable team. host: should he choose a woman? caller: man or woman. does not make any difference to me. i think we have some wonderful candidates, female candidates that are running for president and any of them would make a wonderful vice president. host: who do you like -- who else do you like in this democratic field? caller: i like mayor pete and kamala harris. host: robert, clinton, maryland.

independent. hi, robert. caller: good morning. joe biden, the issue with joe biden, your last caller brought it up, he had business dealings in the ukraine where he helped his son out of a jam and got the attorney general fired because his son was having business dealings in the ukraine. the caller from georgia said he had nothing to do with putin, but he had a lot of business dealings in the ukraine. he made a lot of money and help his son get out of a jam. was sitting. biden in the oval office when the discussions and plans were put forward for the orchestrated coup d'etat that has been implemented on president trump. we need to find out what he knew about the coup he orchestrated and have that looked into. if he is going to have a woman vice president running mate, she

needs to wash her hair with really good smelling shampoo because he sure does like to stick his nose in the rady -- in the lady's hair. rakes indle-class joe millions, the former vp on the brink of a likely presidential campaign has done quite well financially since leaving office . the former vice president watched his bank account swell as he continues to cultivate the image of a regular amtrak riding guy and it says he has been paid $100 million for speeches. i am trying to find the number. if you want to read more, you can go to politico's website. first elected in 1973, biden was one of the least wealthiest members of the chamber. by the time he left, they reported assets between --

in june of 2017, shortly after they inked a book deal, the bidens purchased their vacation home in rehobeth, delaware, for $2.7 million. pedro, what do you have this morning? host: hillary clinton makes an appearance via the pages in the washington post, the op ed talking about investigating the trump administration. congress should hold substantive hearings that build on the mueller report and fill the gaps. watergate offers a better precedent. was complement it by public hearings by a senate select committee that insisted executive privilege could not be used to shield conduct. recordd to the factual and crucially help the public understand the facts in a way no dense legal report can. more of that available in the washington post. you can note next week the

senate judiciary committee will interview william barr over his issues over the mueller report and the president might reference all these things at a rally, make america great rally set to take place this coming saturday. you can see that 8:00 in the evening on c-span. host: let me clarify from that politico article, the vice -- four -- the former vice president's office says he challenged -- charges $150,000 to $200,000 for speeches, although a reduced rate for colleges and universities. this is politico with the money the former vice president has made since leaving the white house. your take on joe biden. caller: i don't care for joe biden too much, especially when it comes to the ukraine deal. i am going to vote president

trump one more time and i want to say to the american people that if they have paid too much attention to what democrats have done over 30 years, i will sum it up by saying they are two-faced people in our government. gotfact that they have these three women on the democratic side that don't even acknowledge this terrorist and the stuff that has happened in america -- in pennsylvania, -- let's go to phoebe in pennsylvania, democratic caller. caller: i think joe biden is too old and he has had enough chances to take money from the government over the years, as you pointed out in article you read. i think's it is somebody else's -- i think it is somebody else's

turn and i wish he would get out of the race now. host: why? caller: i think he is harmful to the new, beautiful candidates we have that might make something of themselves if he were not in the way. host: look at these numbers, his favorability numbers, 63% have a favorable impression of him. caller: i think you could run mr. ed against trump and win this time. host: we will go to jimbo in california, independent. good morning to you. caller: good morning, greta. thank you so much for c-span and brian lamb. without you guys, we would not have our finger on the pulse of democracy, the service you provide every day is phenomenal. thank you so much. remember everyone that the electoral college has rendered our vote for president pretty much neutered.

my vote for president is irrelevant, this state is dyed voting i have been mickey mouse for a long time, it doesn't make any difference. the only opinions that really matter in all of this are about 90,000 people who don't care and are not even paying attention who live in three rustbelt states. reach going to basically those people, he can reach those people better than any other candidate that is running. basically, i think it is going to be joe and harris. i think that combination together is the old and the new together, i think the man has a really good chance. also, appealing to the fact that fairresident, by any broker, has behaved in a racist

and bigoted manner, that will appeal to a lot of us who think people ought to be judged by the content of their character as opposed to some other criteria. host: pedro echevarria has more on where the former vice president ranks among all the different democratic candidates running so far. host: as of april 24th, this reuter's poll puts joe biden at the top, followed by bernie sanders, pete judi dench, kamala harris, and beto o'rourke. elizabeth warren at 5%, cory booker at 3% and even those who do not know who they will support, 21%. if you look at polling in iowa, this is april 24, showing when it comes to joe biden, he tops the list at 19%, tied with bernie sanders. pete buttigieg at 14%, kamala

harris at 6% along with elizabeth warren and new hampshire polling, bernie sanders topping that list that 23%, joe biden at 21%. mayor pete at 15% and kamala harris at 6%. host: michael is a republican in maryland, what do you think about this potential matchup between former vice president joe biden and president trump? caller: quite frankly, i believe any of the candidates, democrat candidates can and will beat trump. just a disastrous leader, talking about ukraine, the and even has refused taxg to court to stop his report. what is he hiding? i don't understand how anybody

--ld try to while the sitting president is going to court, trying to stop the american people from looking at his tax report. one of the callers also indicated looking in michigan to theeady gone back democratic party. i think he won by the disaster of the campaign run during the time of the hillary clinton and bernie sanders supporters. right now i believe donald trump has no chance to win the presidency. host: michael's thoughts, republican. the vice presidents running for president since world war ii, full-term have

won. full-time vice president who ran for president, look at the history, richard nixon won in 1968. hubert humphrey lost primaries in 1972 walter mondale lost in 1984. george h. w. bush won in 1988 and dan quayle, former publican who ran in 2000 primaries later withdrew and al gore lost in 2000. david in flint, michigan. a democrat. hi, david. caller: good morning, greta. good morning, c-span audience. i am ready to throw my support behind joe biden and i was talking to my sister, i am ready to start giving now and i look forward to his campaign and i look forward to the united states becoming a country where we can all work together again blacks canhites and

get along again like we were under obama and we were growing closer. i am looking forward to that again, back to normalcy. host: rebecca, independent in new jersey. caller: yes, hello. person andbiden as a i think he is a great person, but i don't think he excites the electorate. i think we need someone with a little bit more of a progressive view, someone younger. i think he is a little too old-school. i find no fault with the man, but i would rather vote for a younger person and someone who can actually win against trump. i want trump out of office. host: pedro has more on the other candidates running in 2020. host:host: the youngest candidate receives his first three term from

representative don beyer of northern virginia. that took place yesterday reported by wtop. cory booker releases 10 years of tax returns if you go to the website nj.com, it has an analysis of his tax reform -- tax returns. it says the return for 2018 it said booker did not even earn any royalties from his book after taking in $1.3 million in previous years. deductions, lowered what 152,715 dollars. more of that analysis at nj.com. if you go to the website taxnote s, they provide a collection of tax returns for various presidential candidates.

host: sylvia. elizabeth, new jersey is a democrat. your reaction to the former first president -- vice president throwing his hat in the ring. caller: i am very happy he is running. i think he is a good person. he is a little older, but i think he is a good person and the one person who can go up against this person we have in the white house. get him out by any means possible. also, there was a woman who spoke earlier this morning that said something about joe biden leering at a little girl, unconscionable. he was just looking at her and if you can compare that to someone in the white house who ,alks about grabbing someone what planet did that woman come from? has a new poll

out this morning showing in a hypothetical matchup, joe biden is the front runner over the president 42% to 34% and they note he leads donald trump among women and young voters let's go to amory in connecticut. a republican. -- anne-marie in connecticut. the republican. -- a republican. caller: good morning. i would just like to say, with all due respect, i think joe biden is pompous. i hope he does run against our president. he made a comment that the character of this country needs to be changed. my goodness gracious. president donald trump has taken this country to right where it should be. no question about it.

every democrat that would or could run, i don't care what they call themselves, are basically progressive socialist communist. president donald trump will sweep country in 2020. penceloved vice president will also reign as president for the next eight years following. thank you for taking my call. host: anne-marie, a republican in connecticut. up next, we will be joined by and ernest moniz. it was the topic of a house services committee hearing last month. by chair opened the hearing discussing how the u.s. military is being impacted by climate change. [video clip] >> is the u.s. military ready for climate change?

recent events indicate considerable doubt. this last year, hurricanes anrence and michael leveled air force base in florida. california wildfires led to the evacuation of family housing at camp milton -- camp pendleton. installations are already experiencing significant flooding due to sea level rise. site in the south pacific is threatened by sea level rise and may not last 20 years. andpensacola atlantic base the naval academy are already experiencing flooding. melting polar ice in the arctic region has opened new sea routes and competition for resources.

the pentagon has not yet developed a systemic strategy for ensuring u.s. national interests in the arctic. u.s. military is one of the largest employers in the world. it's also one of the largest energy consumers. the dod owns millions of acres of global real property, including over 550,000 facilities valued at over $1 trillion. the department is uniquely situated to enhance its throughs and resiliency effective energy policy and programs. >> "washington journal" continues. host: john conger is the director for center for climate & security -- the center for climate & security. guest: my group is the center for climate & security. we are focused solely on drawing attention to the national

security implications of climate change and trying to get people to take commence her action -- commensurate action to address those impacts. host: you worked on this issue at the pentagon. over allhad oversight the insulations of environment and energy policy -- installations of environment and energy policy. the implications of climate change was one of the issues we had to deal with. i had responsibility within that context. we did some planning, some strategy. we started pulling together guidance on how one would deal with it, how you deal with flooding, how you deal with natural resources,, that sort of thing. host: what is the most pressing issue of climate change for national security? guest: if i had to put it into a

couple of categories, the implications of climate change for how the dod does its job today, what are the flooding issues that have operational impacts, what are the extreme weather impacts, right now, the largest impact we've seen from climate change are when you get stronger hurricanes or abnormal weather in such a way that it takes a base off-line for a number of days. that has cost applications. host: give us an example. guest: last fall, hurricane michael struck the air force base in the panhandle of florida. it essentially flattened the base. they are coming back online now. it did over $3 billion worth of damage. they flew out as many of the aircraft as they could in advance of the storm. were some that

weren't in condition to fly and they were damaged. that kind of storm, as we see more of the storms with more impacts, that has implications. there was that example. camp lejeune took damage from hurricane florence. river floods in missouri an air force base recently. host: how long does it take for these bases to get back up and running? guest: it's hard to say that they are completely up and running. the air force base is mostly back. they'veair force base, said that most of their missions are back. took $3.5 billion of damage. it is a much larger base. they will need that money.

the financialps, hit is bigger for them proportionally. host: republicans, 202-748-8001. democrats, 202-748-8000. independents, 202-748-8002. also, a special line for active military. 202-748-8003. what about the larger impact of conflicthange causing and strife around the world? what are the national security applications of that? guest: i normally think of it in a few different categories. you have how it impacts today's jobs, what kind of jobs you will have in the future, arctic dynamics, and then the whole geopolitical situation. as you have climate stresses around the world, shortages of sear, shortages of food,

level rise pushing people away from where they used to live, all those impacts create stress on a country. if you have limited governance , a government that is less able to deal with these kinds of problems, you get instability. that can sometimes lead to conflict. host: how has the trump administration treated this issue? guest: it's real interesting, the trump admit his ration gets a bad rap for how it deals with climate change. the military has continued to look at this problem. administration gets a bad rap for how it deals with climate change. their primary job is accomplishment of their mission. whatever piece of the puzzle we are talking about, whether its operations on a base or planning

for conflict around the world, they will look at it all in the context of the mission. theink you will see that military looks at it as a resilience issue. how do i deal with this problem when it happens? rather than how do you stop it. that the mindset administration is more comfortable with. host: let's go to david in pasadena, maryland. a republican. caller: good morning. thank you for having me on. are probablyou familiar with ip ppc. we are told that this is man-made global warming, man-made production of carbon dioxide causing all this. i have a chart from the ipcc

that confirms global cooling for the past 17 years. this global cooling is going on at the same time as the increase in co2. we are told that co2 increase in global warming go hand-in-hand. the evidence from the experts says it's the other way around. we have global cooling going on. time whene period of we have increases in co2. the so-called settled science disagrees with what the evidence is being ported here. -- purported here. guest: i love that you've gone into the ipcc report and dugout charts.

they will be glad to hear that some is reading their data. forn't believe it's helpful scientists to talk to nonscientists in the hopes of coming to some scientific revelation. they have said it is settled that the preponderance of the evidence shows there is more carbon in the atmosphere, it is caused by humans and it is causing global warming. it's a complex system. it's not just about one temperature gauge. there's a levels rising. there's a whole host of implications. talking about the science and how you are going to change your life is not what the military is dealing with. the military is dealing with how they see things happening today. they look at sea level rising

and they are concerned about the impacts of extreme weather. they are looking at how they will deal with today's problem. the navy is looking at how they change their operations and how they plan for an arctic with no ice. andice is receding now russia and china is moving forces north. china has more icebreakers than we do. this is not a science debate anymore. it's a real world debate. host: alex in new york. caller: just a comment. it seems like -- first of all, climate change is one of the greatest threats to our future and national security. it seems like more work and effort has to be done to find thatasive messages approach climate change from a national security and free-market perspective. it seems like that might unify

more of the nation around the science, which is complex, but undoubtedly points to grave costs and security concerns for the country. guest: we certainly see those costs coming forward and those implications. i can talk about the impacts of extreme weather. we are seeing more and more billion-dollar weather events and the dod has seen those, too. they are starting to think about how to make bases more resilient to those impacts. as sea level rises, it takes less of a storm to have that operational impact. i don't think the military needs to be convinced anymore. their budget reflects this. their policies and guidance reflects this already. they are taking this into account as they move forward. host: john in tysons corner.

a democrat. caller: good morning. hoax, it's all a myth. i work for the department of defense. i was at the pentagon, i was at voir here in virginia. bad weather will happen in the florida panhandle and on the east coast periodically. it's been that way for centuries. it's not going to stop because we are using electric cars. the whole thing is just a myth. host: let's hear the reaction to that from john conger. guest: i worked at the pentagon, too. we can all work at the penning on. i worked at the pentagon from 2009-2017 and in the 1990's as well.

-- we can all work at the pentagon. there is an increased pres storms.tce of larger with warmer waters, you get more energy in the storm, higher wind or more water. when you have record storms over and over again, you start to wonder if there's something different going on. a scienceink it takes degree to see that the arctic ice is melting. there's more trading going on in the arctic along the russian northcoast. we have to be prepared to deal with that. norfolk is seeing the sea level rising. iers are raising their p because of that impact. year, they are asking for a

$49 billion project to raise floodwalls. they are concerned when they cut open a ship, if they get a big storm that overwhelms their current floodwalls, that will do damage to a multibillion-dollar piece of equipment. they are looking to protect themselves. this is about resilience, not about electric cars or your emissions or anything like that. how do you deal with the impacts ?appening today active -- johnhe is active military. caller: soon to be retired. host: what are your thoughts? caller: you do not have to believe in the science at all. the laws of science will dictate what happens, with the people believe the sea levels are

rising, they will rise, people will die. the carbon emissions will be itered, it will fix itself, will come to homeostasis, equilibrium, if you will. whether you believe in it or not, it's going to happen. guest: that is fair enough. dod is trying to start to prepare for this sort of thing. whether it involves getting their bases ready to deal with flooding or more extreme weather events, if it means they are making investments in the right places -- i will give you an example. the strategic command -- they just flooded, over $1 billion worth of damage. they are building the new strategic headquarters up on the hill.

that is just smart planning. youdo you take the money were already going to spend and spend it in such a way that you don't lose your investment? host: bob in pennsylvania. democrat. caller: good morning, john. i am a nurse. body, bodiesd the produce co2, send it through the lungs transform it to oxygen. take co2 andungs transform it into oxygen? is there something we can learn in cutting down pollution by studying the lungs? guest: thanks for the question.

science is part of the formula we will be dealing with going forward. i'm talking mostly about problems the military sees today. you will think about how do i have cleaner emissions, you will have to innovate out of this problem. the projections for the path we are on is relatively unsustainable when you think about what the results will be in the longer run. host: senator elizabeth warren questioning the outgoing air force secretary about how prepared that branch is for climate change. [video clip] >> how would you rate air force installations as a whole in terms of their climate resilience? >> there's a lot.

i couldn't give you a chart on that at this point, but i know that overall, we have significant info structure challenges from a number of factors -- infrastructure challenges from a number of factors. tothey are requesting funds rebuild air force bases in florida and nebraska damaged by natural disasters. i think it's very important that the air force and other military services continue to incorporate climate change in their planning so that when disaster strikes, the impact on the operations is minimal. this clearly is a readiness issue. host: john conger? >> that's absolutely right. secretary wilson was characterizing it correctly. how do you make sure the impacts are minimized? the air force has a smart strategy when a hurricane comes

in. they fly their planes out. the reason events at the tyndall 20% of thease, only f-22's were in condition to fly. they had to store the other 40% in hangers. that's a challenge they will run into. minimize the damage to expensive infrastructure? host: there is bipartisan .egislation, the readiness act what will this legislation do? guest: the readiness act was recently introduced. tell the military to assess their vulnerability to climate change and come up with ways to address that vulnerability holistically. there isn't one problem and one answer.

everyone has different elevation, different vulnerability to flooding, different proximity to the coast. they have to think about it base by base and then figure out what we have to do. the example with the navy at the shipyard is an example where they are asking for money to lift their floodwalls up. that is a local project aced on a local risk and local vulnerability. you will have budgets like that at the various bases. remind viewers what the trump administration presidential committee is doing. guest: it doesn't exist yet. it was a proposal inside the national security council. they wanted to take an adversarial review of dod assessments of the implications of climate change.

the washington post reported there were some pushback's on that -- there was some pushback on that. we've got concerns about political drivers towards undermining the signs dod -- science that dod is using their assessments. you should use more peer-reviewed science. that is helpful. i don't know if this committee will accomplish that. host: maryland. independent. caller: this is kevin. my statement is in support of saying climate change is a serious issue for the general population as well. issue thatistential should have a top priority in political circles.

just going back to the gentleman that called saying he worked for dod and the pentagon -- i work for dod and the pentagon as well. for him to say it's a hoax or anything like that, we can all have our political views, but there's a lot of signs to back up the fact that climate change is a real thing that impacts the military. the military is taking it seriously, whether or not our politicians are taking it seriously. our military happens to be taking it very seriously. would make a couple of points in that context. think about it from the military perspective. if they had 97% of their intelligence analysts saying there's a minefield in front of you and 3% saying that's a hoax, would you walk through the field? you would probably walk around it.

we have the preponderance of scientists saying this is a real thing and we have to get ready for it. space have in this been pretty good. there were a whole host of climate resilience measures passed within the armed services space. they did that in the context of trying to help out the military protect themselves from these threats going forward. host: john conger is the director for the center for climate & security. continue talking about climate change and environmentalism with former energy secretary, ernest moniz. later, jason miller will be here to discuss campaign 2020 and president trump's bid for a second term. first, an update on climate change. >> our capitol hill producer

sent out a tweet saying the houseplants to take up climate change legislation next week when house members return from break. to addled an amendment the green new deal resolution tax to the bill. what happens if someone is found in contempt of congress if they don't obey a subpoena? jan wolf of reuters reports on that this morning. she talks about some of the process. the supreme court said in an 18 case thatcase -- 1821 the congress has the authority ohionding its deputies to to arrest the brother of the attorney general who refused to domefy on the teapot scandal.

alternatively, congress can ask the u.s. attorney for a federal prosecutor to bring charges against a witness who refuses to appear. if you go to the pages of the --erloo cedar falls courier an interview with joni ernst. she's a member of the senate judiciary committee. concerns she has about that. that's in the pages of the waterloo journal courier. the committee will hear from william barr after the release of the mueller report. you can follow along with this hearing next wednesday at 10:00 in the morning. or can watch it on c-span3 c-span.org. you can also listen along with

the c-span radio app. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we want to welcome the former energy area secretary -- energy secretary, ernest moniz. where do you work now? guest: i have a mixed set of response abilities. -- responsibilities. one inee two nonprofits, the clean energy and climate space and one trying to reduce the risks of weapons of mass destruction. that is called the nuclear threat initiative. host: what is the energy future initiative? guest: it's an organization i started with two principles i've worked with for quite some time. we do an analysis of energy issues, social equity issues, all consistent with a low carbon future. agossued a report two weeks

on how california's pathways to its low carbon future could evolve. the conclusion was on the one but it'scan be done, very challenging and costs have to come down. host: california's roadmap is a realistic one? guest: yes. you can meet the 2030 and midcentury goals, but it's tough. we followed 31 different technology pathways. you have to do very well on all of them. host: what are these technological pathways? what is california doing? guest: california for 2030 has various goals -- i will mention 1990a 40% reduction from in greenhouse gas emissions by

--0 and then in that neutral a net neutral carbon economy. take transportation. transportation is california's biggest emitting sector, 39%. a big part of that is cars, light-duty vehicles. one in terms of reducing emissions, you have to stick to the cafe standards. you also have to hit the target of 5 million battery vehicles on the road by 2030. the legislative requirement for lower carbon fuels have to be met. you have to hit the whole portfolio to get close to the target. host: they can do it? guest: all three of those are possible. you have to hit them all. the cafe standards, there's a

tug-of-war going on with the federal government. 5 million vehicles, that is a big ramp up of electric vehicles on the road. it is not beyond the realm of possibility. you want to increase that from 5 million to 7 million. you have to hit it to reach the 40% economy wide goal. industry.ave to do that has some tough problems. you have a real challenge with agriculture. you certainly have to hit your mark on d carbon eyes and -- deicity -- d carbon the electricity sector. you need a big portfolio of technologies.

you should not be excluding arbitrarily some of those directions. already --, for 2030 i'm using california as our example -- california needs to get on it for carbon dioxide capture and underground storage. also, we would argue for midcentury in particular, they need to think about advancing nuclear technology as part of the portfolio. host: what is the breakdown of how they are powering their homes and industry across the state? >> california is a bit unusual compared to the rest of the country because they have had so much success with energy efficiency. in california is 60% of the emissions. nationally, it is about 28%. it's a bit of a different mix.

16% of the emissions. the big ones, transportation, cars, heavy-duty vehicles, airlines, air travel you have to worry about. california is a big refinery state. part of it is capturing the carbon dioxide and storing it. near now, they are nowhere on this, nor is the rest of the country. we have to pick up the pace. more importantly -- this is interesting in terms of the context of what's happening in congress -- energy technology innovation is essential. moving withjor bill bipartisan support in the congress to dramatically increase research and

development and deployment on the innovation site. hope on some glimmer of bipartisan approaches recognizing we have to pick up the pace on innovation. host: what is the green real deal? thedoes that differ from calls for a green new deal? guest: early in march, a andy, and i mine, published something called the green real deal. pillars, theg foundation of a green new deal -- we are strictly in the energy climate space -- we say the green new deal is about simultaneously addressing low carbon and social equity,

implementing the low carbon agenda in ways that do not disadvantage those who are already disadvantaged. those are the two principles of a green new deal. we endorse those. how do you develop a real program to implement it? that's what we called the green real deal. is thatamental tenant we certainly have to get beyond -- it makes no sense, the so-called climate deniers, but we also have to get beyond what we think are completely unrealistic proposals for the pace at which we can to debonized -- we can carbonize. be onerection has to upon which we can build a broader coalition.

you were just talking about national security, for example. it's about the environment, it's about national security, economic growth, social equity. we have to recognize that while the low carbon transition can be little with very macroeconomic impact, within that, there are often distributional issues. some parts of the country will be affected in different ways. some parts of the country will have different tools for addressing it. let's put together a pragmatic program of low carbon reduction while we observe that these distribution impacts must be handled or else the political headwinds will remain brisk. host: jay in florida. a republican. caller: good morning.

i have a couple of questions for your guest. offntly, we've had a drop of arctic ice up in alaska where they have sectioned off 200 feet of glacier that keeps dropping every 3-5 days, which shows the ice is growing, not shrinking. water,in florida, on the been checking the tides for 10 years, i have not noticed any increase in the water height. california, the entire west coast is a fraud. every single one of these states, california, oregon and washington have all started growing marijuana. more than anying byer state in this country

allowing this drug to be grown in these states. and is a liberal agenda this man is a fraud. ask him how much he makes off these nonprofits every year. guest: let me comment on the issue of the arctic. the arctic is the canary in the coal mine. expected and by measurement is roughly double at lower latitudes. floods issurges, location dependent. on average, we know a warmer atmosphere has led to greater storm surges. things like insurance rates for real estate close to the water in many places is skyrocketing. that's one of the examples of the impact. this is not speculation.

these are companies who are exposed to those damages. --h regard to the west coast i'm not getting into marijuana policy. i have no position on that. clearly, there is going to be -- pressure to increase electricity use in and pushesas to reduce electricity use -- the sector that is most able to lower its carbon intensity considerably. we have seen that happen. california has shown that by having its emissions from electricity reduced to 16% versus the national average of 20%. there are forces in terms of sustaining an economy,

sustaining the energy requirements, but doing so in a increasedoes not greenhouse gas emissions. host: the question about your salary -- how do you make an income these days? guest: in any nonprofit, of course, people have to get paid their salaries. these are not large entities. we are talking 50 people in one and a dozen people in the other. we are able to attract very good talent. in the nonprofit, the whole point is all the incoming into pursuing the mission of the nonprofit. efi is to provide

technically grounded analysis ntilow carbon pathways and is to minimize the risks, lower the risks, which unfortunately are too high for the possibility of the use of weapons of mass destruction. host: go ahead, steve. caller: i have two quick questions. nuclear energy would be zero emissions. we power our nuclear subs that way. no accidents. we power our aircraft carriers that way. why don't we pursue more nuclear energy? will our efforts matter much when china, india and other countries are bringing coal-fired power plants online on a weekly basis? all, you areof absolutely correct that not only

our nuclear summaries but also our aircraft carriers are nuclear powered. the department of energy works together with the navy to design those nuclear power plants for both subs and aircraft carriers. we will have a new generation of nuclear power plants there. that allows the navy to project its power globally in many ways. in terms of the civilian sector, i am certainly a strong supporter of the idea that nuclear power has to be part of the low carbon future. some places will decide to not employ it. germany will complete its phaseout of nuclear power. many other places are moving forward. i happen to think the united states future will be new technologies, small, modular

to 50rs, typically megawatts versus the 1200 megawatt -- 250 megawatts versus the 1200 megawatts reactors. we need to demonstrate those reactors by deploying some of them in this next decade. that will require the federal government work with the private sector. in the entire history of nuclear power, we have not seen as much technology innovation as we are seeing today. there are over 40 companies in the united states that you might call wearisome stages of start up companies that are advancing in nuclearlogies fission and nuclear fusion. how do we get the most promising

use of those technologies where they can raise the kind of capital to deploy the first of those reactors so we can all is,n what the performance especially in terms of economics, of these new reactors? it's very important to move that forward. host: ray and texas on our line texas on our -- in line for democrats. caller: good morning. i have three quick points. we live in texas. my wife and i were very interested in an ev. wedrove down to the kia -- were going to look at the kia ne ro ev.

we were surprised that kia does not sell them in the state of texas because there aren't enough places to charge them up. that.e amazed to hear we have solar panels on our home. of notnot like the idea being able to use our solar panels or use that investment whenever we go off the grid. credits and get those back, which we really like. that leads me into my third issue -- batteries. thingies is the next big because batteries could be used in power generation -- you know how the grid works. it works on demand. the power companies have to do

that, right? powered battery system would allow the companies to fill the pot, so to speak. that would make it easier for the power companies to deliver power. and then use the batteries to charge the grid, so to speak. i believe batteries are a huge industry. haveat tesla and what they been able to do with their battery technology. they just bought out maxima, which has interesting technology in their batteries. thislly tried to follow and follow policy. you are absolutely right. --e of the policy that is how do i say that -- some of it

is just asinine. a say that we need to have manhattan project type of --ject in our country there's no such thing as keeping a secret anymore, but you get where i'm going. host: i will have the former secretary jump in. on.t: you are right on the first point about the electric vehicles, it is very critical for any new fueling vehicle being one andhose, but also biofuels hydrogen, what's often forgotten is the infrastructure for that coevolve with those

vehicle types. example,a is a good many states in the east as well, have focused on developing these infrastructures to allow the consumers to buy those vehicles. texas, a major issue is to provide those charging stations spaced out in a reasonable way for allowing that growth, probably starting out in the urban areas. you mentioned the manhattan project and some of the problems with calling it that. it turns out that senator , the chair of the appropriations subcommittee of relevance here, he is calling his major innovation initiative

a manhattan project for doubling investment in energy r&d. he then names nine priority areas. one of those is exactly as you say, batteries, or more broadly speaking, electricity storage, energy storage. battery costs have come down dramatically in the last decade. we need another factor of two or three in that cost reduction to open up the electric vehicle space. in the electricity arena you alluded to as well, tremendous progress is being made, especially when there are incentives provided by policy today. you have a number of utilities that have given long-term agreements, they get a guaranteed price to buy a

certain amount of electricity over a 10 year period. ate of those are coming in approximately two cents per kilowatt hour for solar plus storeies so that you can electricity being produced for 2-4 hours. this is a major transformation that is happening. it is absolutely essential. let me also say that even as the costs of those batteries come down, let's say lithium-ion batteries, currently the wekforce -- the workhorse, have to remember for a system that is designed to incorporate large amounts of variable renewable power, wind or solar, or both, that four hours of storage is very important for

being able to manage the grid. it's also important to have days of storage, weeks of storage, and frankly, imagine you have a system with a very large amount of solar energy, in our latitude , it is not surprising that we have a lot more solar production in the summer than in the winter, so if that's a large piece, we have to have storage that spans months to use that excess energy. batteries, pumped hydropower, the possibility of storing large amounts of heat. one could be using the excess renewables to make hydrogen which you can then use as a fuel for industry or for vehicles or the like. these are all too expensive

right now, but that's what innovation is about. new technologies, new materials that will lower those costs. bullish and optimistic on these technologies. now, the issue inwe need to go all out terms of deploying what we have in developing the breakthroughs that in 10-30 years will redefine our energy system in ways that are reliant, resilient, economic and low carbon. host: mary in louisiana. a republican. caller: good morning. host: go ahead with your question or comment for mr. moniz. caller: i have some comments. they want to go with this green new deal stuffer

energy -- people aren't going to be able to afford that. how would you like to be in an andtric vehicle traveling then the battery dies and there's nowhere to recharge it? second of all, god is not going thislow man to destroy thing, he's going to do it. think that's another way to get people hooked on this so they canal invest in all this stuff to make more money. host: first of all, the disenfranchised minority communities, you move in this direction ever nubile fuel --

direction of renewable fuel and they are left behind. guest: we have to recognize the rapid growth of renewables involves market forces. this includes in the southeast of a majorhe board utility in the southeast. operating in states to the east , none of those states have requirements on renewables and yet, the utility shift from coal to liquid gas and renewables. we have to get past this idea that renewables are tremendously expensive. the cost reductions have been

incredibly dramatic over the last 10 years for wind and onshore solar. earlier, the green real deal we are promoting adheres to the green new deal principles of not only low carbon but a social equity. we need to make sure we are servingg -- we are those in the low income distribution. our color self identified as a selflican -- caller identified as a republican. former secretaries of state george schultz and jim baker and others, all republicans who orved in the george w. bush george h w bush or ronald reagan administrations, they have

proposed putting a carbon price on emissions. that is the mechanism for dealing with low carbon. proposal also make a as to how that can be socially thatessive to make sure the lower income people are being covered. you put a price on it, that means some funds are collected, but they say return those to the whole,and whole -- in don't keep those for other purposes, return those to the people in an equal dividend for everybody. indicateser modeling that the lower 70% of the income distribution would come out ahead in that way.

how onean example of could accomplish both aims. that's from a republican group of senior statesmen to address low carbon and social equity at the same time. the other issue in terms of infrastructure, the concern you raised about not having charging , it's renewable costs coming down, battery costs coming down, but you need the third pillar, build the infrastructure so that everyone is confident in their driving habits. host: sam in california. independent. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. my original question was around nuclear energy, but you already addressed it. i will keep it local. i live in california.

gas to fill up my tank than anywhere else in the country. why is that? for gas than more anywhere else in the country. guest: i don't know in detail, but presumably, there are issues tax is onr the state fuels. dynamics of all the exactly how the prices are set, but it's also true that california in oil is something of an island. tied in eitherly petroleum or natural gas to the rest of the country. butn't know in detail, certainly the combination of the infrastructure with regard to

the rest of the country and the state tax structure are factors. -- they willmoniz be discussing the road use tax. what are your thoughts on that? guest: there are a variety of ideas about how to have people pay according to how much they use the roads, a variety of ways of doing that, pay at the pump insurance and the like. there are various mechanisms. the caution i would raise here i believence again, we need to look at these policies through the lens of social equity as well as reducing carbon emissions. here is one intent that is very important, lowering

vehicle miles it. a lot of our population, particularly those at the lower end of the income distribution, where we find things like urban real estate prices to be extremely high, they inherently have to live some distance from their work often. to be honest, president obama recognized this very much. there was a very interesting discussion he had on the south lawn of the white house in october 2016 with leonardo dicaprio and katherine hejo, and he said explicitly, let's think of the head of the family who has to drive 50 miles each way to work every day just to barely balance the budget. the price of gasoline is very important to that person and to that family. and so we need to address that

if we are going to be able to explain broadly in the public the need for and the opportunity to address climate change. so that's the balance that, frankly, in our green real deal, we are trying to emphasize, that there can be unintended consequences that can be socially regressive, and we need to protect those individuals and those communities. host: the reaction from the actor? guest: leonardo dicaprio? well, i don't think he said too much in direct response, but the discussion went on. i might add, just to add one more controversial issue, at the same time, when president bama addressed that issue of riving, etc., he also just brought up what he said explicitly would be something not well received by the

audience he had on the south lawn, and he said let's talk about natural gas and fracking, the fracking revolution. and he said, look, let's get real. the revolution in natural gas has, without doubt, reduced carbon emissions very, very dramatically. it's more than half of our carbon emissions reductions have come from the shift from coal to natural gas, mainly market-driven. we addressed that earlier. secondly, at the same time, there's no doubt it provided a major edge to our energy-using industry, so it created jobs in that way as well. and he said, look, clearly there are issues to be addressed. there are environmental footprint issues in terms of production. in the long term, gas itself, actual gas combustion itself, will have too many carbon emissions, so we have to address the problem. but that's the attitude.

look at where you are with carbon emissions. look at where you are increasing the economy. but also look at the problems we have to solve through innovation going forward to address low carbon and social equity. host: let's hear from walter, a democrat from naples, florida. caller: hi, good morning. host: good morning. caller: all these questions that i've ever heard, i've never heard anyone address jet fuel and rocket fuel, and when you think of the amount of that snapshot of that september 11, when they had to ground every fleet in the u.s., and you can all remember that snapshot of our country, that was just 9:00 a.m. on a monday morning. what about noon? what about 5:00? what about all of europe? it looks like that too, i bet. ut no one, they all talk about

-- even though he live in florida, and i know jet travel varies, is that the problem, people don't talk about this, because it would affect all those private jets and the entire economy? host: let's talk about it. ok, walter, we'll talk about it. guest: well, i don't think the issues are being driven by the use of private airplanes and the like. the reality is that for air travel, it's one of the hardest problems in terms of how you could alternatively fuel travel. today, air travel, i believe, is responsible for about 2% of our emissions, but that will be growing with time. so it's an important issue. but that's a case where, look, there are a number of individuals and small companies that are working on electrification of air travel. i would say show me. that's not a very easy innovation pathway.

i think what we're going to need in my view more likely are alternative liquid fuels that are made with very, very low carbon. for example, it could be a very advanced biofuel that is compatible with today's jet engines. there are many cases where this is being made in the laboratory, but it's not being made at a cost that is viable today, but, again, innovation may take care of that in the future. you know, the reason here is that one should acknowledge what is a fact, and that is that in terms of the amount of energy available per volume, let's say, per leader, or per gallon, frankly, you cannot beat today, a petroleum-based fuel. much, much higher energy density than a battery, for

example. and so for air travel, where you really need high energy density, again, it's hard to beat right now a petroleum-based fuel, but we will need to do that with these advanced fuels 10, 20 years down the road if we are to be effectively addressing climate change. host: wanda is watching in chico, california, republican. caller: hello. i would like to recommend a video for c-span to present the opposing view for a change. this video was on bbc, and you can watch it on youtube, and it's called "the great global warming swindle." and this whole lie started in 1970, and it gets revised about every 10 years. now we got 11 years and 11 months before you're going to

start the countdown all over again. and another thing, i wish your guest would please start -- so people won't have to wait to ver for his trivially -- be finalized. thank you very much. host: mr. moniz, what about her view and other views that you've heard that this is overblown, this is alarmist? she points to this video. how do you respond to that? guest: first of all, let me say, i can only apositively giles for the length of my response, and if it taxes the attention span of certain viewers. but i don't wish to be offensive, but i'm afraid that the statement about the swindle is simply completely unsupported by science. i don't mean complicated science. very, very simple. global warming is a measured fact. and the idea that it is caused

by human behavior, burning of fossil fuels mainly, is essentially a fact as well. there are many who argue correctly that way, way back in the earliest history, we had even higher co2 concentrations, and that is true. but we're talking not about geological time frames. we're talking about decades in which the carbon emissions and the carbon concentration in the atmosphere are simply measured and are happening much, much faster, completely tracking human use in the post-industrial -- in the industrial era of fossil fuels. so this is, again, where we need to get past what i would call magical thinking that somehow we are not driving global warming, which in turn is driving many of the climate change issues we see, affecting everyone in the united states

from droughts, from wildfires in california, from storm surges along the ocean. noticed many of our callers are from california and florida, and it's no coincidence, perhaps, those are two places that have seen very, very directly the impacts of global warming. host: janet, southfield, michigan, democrat. janet, you're on. caller: oh, excuse me. excuse me. host: no problem. question or comment? caller: yes, i do. i was just wondering what kind of research is being done. i saw a program last year regarding co2 extraction, and i was wondering if there's any research going on with extracting co2 and turning that into fuel for cars. apparently there's a canadian company that is actually doing

this. and says it's like a technology that's ready to go. so i was wondering if mr. moniz and his research companies are, you know, if you guys are doing anything with regards to that. thank you. guest: the company you're referring to in vancouver is called carbon engineering, and the scientific driver, the person who drove that is a professor named david keith at harvard, who i know quite well. so i'll return to the technology spefbling, but let me say, in answer to your last point, yes, in my little nonprofit, we expect to come out with a report in june that will be called carbon direct removal, and among the many technology pathways will be the one that you're referring to. specifically, carbon engineering, and a number of other startup companies in the

united states and canada, in switzerland, in germany, are looking at something called direct air capture. so the idea is that you literally are able to, in some sense, reproduce what a tree does in terms of taking carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere. it's very expensive today. there are arguments as to exactly what the cost is, but let's call it nice round numbers, $1,000 a ton, with a goal of getting that down to $100 or maybe $200 per ton. some are even more optimistic. that stretches my imagination. now, you said it very, very well. great, let's capture billions of tons of carbon die ox outside. now what do we do with it? you got two choices. either you put it underground to store it, or you convert it

into some useful product. and carbon engineering, for example, the company you referred to, says, ok, let's combine that carbon dioxide with hydrogen to make an advance the fuel that essentially reproduces a hydro carbon fuel. this is very relevant to the question we addressed earlier, for example, it could be a replacement for jet fuel that would be net no carbon. so this is a very important pathway of innovation. to say it's ready today, i would question in the sense that -- and i think david keith would agree that today the cost would be extremely high to do that at scale, but again, we hope with innovation it will come down. but there are many other pathways for removing carbon as well. and our report in june, we'll talk about those many pathways and the need to pick up the pace in innovation.

an example, by the way, would be biological sequestration. well, first, expanding things like forest cover would soak up carbon dioxide. but frankly, we may also be able to use modern biology, synthetic biology to be able to generate some plants, some grasses that could fix a lot more carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere into the biosphere. so the many, many pathways going on, and this is exactly the kind of innovation agenda that we will be advocating. host: want to get your reaction to the news that former vice president joe bide suspect running for president again. guest: well, the vice president, i have to say, is a great friend and one with whom i completely enjoyed working with, and that was across the board. he was present for our rolling out an integrated view of energy infrastructure all the

way to the department of energy . it may surprise people, but ith a long history in terms of genomic research, stepping forward to help him with his cancer, moon shot. i think the vice president has a lot to offer. , i have to say, right now know very, very well many, many of the candidates, and i think there's a lot of candidates coming forward, an awful lot of really strong candidates coming forward. the vice president is truly among those. host: no endorsement from you then? guest: again, i think in terms of this current primary season, i'm happy to help all those candidates who are putting forward, i think, constructive plans certainly around the energy and climate issues. i think almost uniformly we see the candidates advocating i think very, very sensible additions. host: thank you very much for the conversation this morning.

guest: thank you. host: coming up next, we're going to talk to former trump campaign spokesman jason miller. we'll talk about road to the white house, campaign 2020 and the president's second term, a bid for a second term. but first, pedro has more on 2020 news. >> president trump weighing in on joe biden's entry into the race on a tweet this morning, saying welcome to the race, sleepy joe, i only hope you have the intelligence, long in doubt, to wage a successful primary campaign. it will be nasty. you'll be dealing with people who truly have some very sick and demented ideas, but if you make it, i will see you at the starting gate. that's off his twitter account. the vice president in detroit talking to automakers, this from wednesday, talking up the united states, mexico-canada agreement, from the "detroit free press," part of his statement saying our priority now is to have congress approve the usmca. once we address the inequities that existed under nafta, we'll give considerations to other tariffs that have been imposed.

but the priority is to get usmca approved by congress and have canada and mexico approve it. both gentlemen will appear at the n.r.a. annual meeting live on friday starting at 11:20 in the morning. if up to the see the comments from both gentlemen in front of this group, c-span is where you can see it, c-span.org, as well as our c-span radio app. the federal trade commission weighing in fines against facebook this morning, reporting by "wired" magazine in a story this morning, saying when facebook released quarterly results wednesday, it said it expects to pay a fine of $3 billion to $5 billion to the federal trade commission for violating terms of a 2011 agreement with the agency to better protect users' privacy. you can see more of that story on the facebook page. politico this morning has a tweet coming from the from the white house, taking a look at the white house correspondents' dinner set to take place this saturday. here's the headline of that tweet, how trump took the shine off washington's glitziest night.

you can find that piece on facebook, talk about the changes for this year's dinner featuring the historian, ron chernow. if you want to watch that event, you can do so this coming saturday. it starts, at least our coverage starting at 9:30 on c-span. you can also see it on c-span.org and, as always, if you want to, you can download and follow along on the c-span radio app. >> "washington journal" continues. host: at our table this morning, jason miller, former communications director for president trump's campaign and also for the transition team in 2016. thanks for being here. guest: good morning. host: talking about the president's bid for a second term. we get the news this morning that the former vice president, joe biden, wants to get the democratic nomination and challenge him for the white house. your reaction to the news? guest: well, i love the fact that former vice president bide suspect jumping in. i think i take a contrarian view than many of my trump

allies who look at the current polling in the head-to-head matchups with biden versus trump in a number of these states. i think people need to realize that elections are a lot loor sporting event, where it ultimately comes down to the competition between whether it be two teams or between two boxers, and for trump to be successful in 2020, he needs to continue being the change agent, the one who's trying to change washington. with former vice president biden, someone who's been in office for 45 years, president trump can point to him and say you're part of the problem, i'm still trying to clean up the mess here. and so in these head-to-head matchups, the polling numbers might look good for vice president biden at the moment. but i think once they get together, president trump is really going to take it to him. even as you talk about just the interpersonal dynamics between the two, i think president trump can make some of the jokes about biden, and with the recent goose with the hair sniffing and all kind of the weird things, and president trump is the one type of candidate who could really kind of make that a humorous point on a campaign trail. but i think overall, if biden is the status quo and the way

things were, and trump is the change agent, that's good for the president. host: yeah, one hypothetical matchup between the two this morning, a national poll, politico has the former vice president with an eight-point lead right now. guest: yeah, and it's early, and that's where i said going into the college national championship game, everyone thought alabama was going to steamroll past clemson, at least obviously a different result there. we thought that secretary clinton was going to defeat now-president trump, and obvious that will didn't happen so. until you get the interpersonal dynamics, until you see the candidates on the stage, and you see them campaigning against each other, but trump really has the change message, and i think it's important to keep in mind that you still have a pretty volatile electorate. we saw this in 2018, how it swung back, a number of these seats went from republican over to democrat. voters are still pretty frustrated and angry with this divide between the washington and new york elites versus the rest of the country. we've seen, even though the overall economy is going up, we've still seen a lot of divide between the haves and

have nots, so to speak. that's not even just specific to the u.s. we're seeing that all around the globe. we're seeing it with the yellow vests in france, we're seeing it with brexit, even before the 2016 presidential election. so this divide that's going, i think the electorate is pretty fired up. host: what hang has president trump made so far to washington just in his first two years that he'll be able to point to when he's campaigning for a second term? guest: first and foremost, it's going to be the economy. he's going to point to record low unemployment rates. we've seen some of the greatest labor participation rate increases amongst african-americans, hispanics, with women, a number of these states, even pennsylvania, for example, put out yesterday that they're literally at a record low unemployment that they've ever had. so these are some good numbers. and people vote their pocketbook. going back to the old james carville, it's the economy, stupid a. lot of that still remains. but i think when you look at the way that president trump is deconstructed a lot of bureaucrat i can state near washington, i think that's something to keep in mind that his voters didn't send him to

washington to go and measure the drapes and put up new ones. they really sent him to go to tear them down and say we want this place to be responsive to the rest of the country. host: the mueller report that was released last week said this, the evidence we obtained about the president's actions and intent presents difficult issues that prevent from us conclusively determining that no criminal conduct occurred. accordingly, while this report does not conclude that the president committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him. jerry in addition her, chair of the house judiciary committee, was on "meet the press" this past sunday, and here's what he had to say. >> yeah, i do. i do think that -- if proven, if proven, which hasn't been proven yet, some of this -- if proven, some of this would be impeachable, yes. obstruction of justice, if proven, would be impeachable. >> and you're going to go about to see if you can prove it? >> well, we're going to see where the facts lead us. host: mr. miller, are you concerned that the efforts on

capitol hill, that they're going to be holding these hearings, they're going to be investigating whether or not there was obstruction of justice, and then possibly move forward with impeachment sneargs guest:, to be blunt about this one, i think democrats pursuing this against president trump and people in the president's orbit i think is politically good for the president, because if the democrats are talking about impeachment, they're not talking about healthcare or other issues where they may have a better matchup against the president or republicans. i think it's bad for the country. and i think it sets a really bad precedent that we've gone through this, it's not just the two years of the mueller investigation, there was a complete year before that where the f.b.i. and d.o.j. were going through this. but the fact that former director mueller did not recommend charges against the president i think speaks a lot. it's important also to point out that there's obviously, he did definitively say no collusion, not only by the president or the campaign, but no american. we should all be happy that there was no american that was involved in any sort of collusion with a foreign

entity. but specific to the obstruction part, director mueller is a pretty smart guy, and he's a pretty straight forward guy. i know that capitol hill is ultimately a political environment, then it becomes a political debate. and so in the absence of a specific declaration saying that there were evidence of obstruction, then director mueller knows sending it to capitol hill just throws it up into essentially becoming a political football. and you're going to have the bloviated talking points from both sides of the aisle, and in the absence of any specific recommendations, people will default to their traditional party norms. and look, i think with respect to chairman in addition her, no one is going confuse him with inspector crousseau, yet alone perry mason. i don't understand what he's going to get to the bottom of, which that was thinks line. it doesn't matter that we have the full report, now we need the full, unredacted report. what is jury in addition her going to come one former director mueller and his team couldn't over a two-year investigation? i think the answer is nothing. host: however, are you concerned that the democrats point to the mueller report,

volume two, pages 3, 4, 5, 6, where robert mueller lays out factual results of the obstruction investigation, conduct involving the f.b.i. director and michael flynn, campaign's response to reports about russian transport for trump, the president's termination of comey, appointment of the special counsel, efforts to remove, efforts to prevent public disclosure of evidence, further efforts to have the a.g. take control of the investigation, efforts to have don goingman denied the president ordered to have the special counsel removed, conflict towards flynn and manafort, conduct involving michael cohen. guest: to the specific point we saw the president, i believe it was this morning, tweet out saying that he did not direct mcgann to go in and remove the special counsel, but i think it's important to go back to the point i made a moment ago, which is that director mueller did not make a recommendation on the obstruction part. he's a very literal man, very serious reputation, even though

many derms are now trying to tarnish that. if he had seen something, he would have written it up, declare actively, saying that charges need to be filed or that this specifically needs to be dove into in a much more concrete way. but the fact that he didn't means that he didn't find it, he didn't find enough to go and pursue any charges or anything, and i think a lot of this, when you look through it, made everyone get sucked into the inside baseball, i call it the post fire and fury world in washington, d.c., where everyone wants to hear about the inner workings. white house or the perceived dysfunction that might be going on. i would point out that it's rather remarkable to the president has been able to do as much he has over the first two years, whether it's two supreme court justices, the economy, the deregulation, the sentencing reform, being able to accomplish all these things despite this cloud. i think a real testament to how well he's been able to do. but look, now we're heading into 2020. we're heading to a campaign season. there's one other risk that i got to point out as far as on the national democrats, for

every moment that they're talking about impeachment, it's not just say issues like healthcare or climate change that they're not having a chance to talk about, it's also stuff which we're going to get into on the 2020 candidates, and it's cutting off the oxygen. if jerry in addition her is having a hearing on capitol hill, nobody is covering beto o'rourke in iowa. nobody is covering elizabeth warren in new hampshire. they'll be covering the hill, and that will drive the democrat party's messaging. host: where do you work now? guest: i'm at a global c. c.e.o. advisory firm working on communications strategies. i am out of politics, not doing any campaigns. i usually will tell people i miss the action, but i don't necessarily miss the brain damage. host: we'll go to mike, a democrat. laurel park, new york. caller: hi, greta. keep on sticking it to him. he's in full swing mode. so he's a lobbyist now selling access to trump. big surprise. i'd like to point out that

trillion to t $2.5 pass a tax cut that's going to yield maybe 2% g.d.p. this quarter. it's good for six months. that's only piece -- that's the only bill he passed. and the fact that there was a governor elected in wisconsin, michigan, a democratic one in wisconsin, michigan, p.a., i think, and another one is leaning to whoever is in there. what's going to shop the same people who said that they weren't going to vote for trump in 2016 are saying that they're going to vote for him now, but they're not going to do it when the time comes. host: let's get a reaction. guest: excellent. thank you very much for your question. i'd say a couple of things on the political front. yes, you pointed out that the democratic gubernatorial wins in both wisconsin and michigan, but what you failed to mention was the fact that republicans

had a huge supreme court win in wisconsin, so that's still a very divided state. and it's tough to go and take the 2018 election results and match those up to 2020. as i start off at the beginning of the semmingt where i talked about it's really about the matchup between the two candidates, and i really feel good about where the president is in the head-to-head matchups, particular well biden, warren and with sanders. i think on the democratic side, i think kamala harris, beto o'rourke will be much more formidable challenges to president trump, and that's because they excite the democratic base in a way that vice president biden, for example, hasn't been able to. and so you also look at what the president has been able to do as far as the economy, look, there are two things that we have to do when you talk about both the deficit and then the overall debt. i'll agree with you on this point, mike. number one, we have to make sure that the economy is booming. i think that's what the president is doing with the tax cuts and making sure that we have this continued g.d.p. growth. and that's ultimately what we're going to have to grow out

of way out of this a lot. now, the big question, really the unspoken aspect, we're going to have to tackle entitlement reform at a certain point if we're going to get the overall both the budget and then the overall national debt under control. that's something i would like to see the administration take a tougher position on, maybe in a second term. we saw obvious that will former president bush tried to dive into that right in the beginning of his second term, didn't work out quite as well. until we do something on the entitlement reform, this is going to be a challenge that confronts both president trump and any future president. host: lynn is next, independent in bishop, california. caller: yeah, good morning. you know, i would like to see maybe c-span have some people on that are actually showing what is being done instead of all this investigation. everybody knows how corrupt washington is and the rest of the country is just trying to go out and make a living. i just wanted to say one thing,

being from california, your last guest, california is no example. it is falling into the sea. it is such a mess. so maybe your c-span directors couldmaybe you're c-span directs can actually start having some people on that can show us that maybe is getting done. host: we will take your point. jason miller, what has the president done? guest: i think that is an excellent point. there is growth management in california. by the way, i love california. formerly a resident of san diego and lived in orange county. love southern california in particular. don't like the tax rate. i think the tax rate is a little bit bonkers. you might want to consider moving to nevada or arizona. much better tax rates. that is my personal advice to you. but as you look around a number of states around the country, seeing these record low unemployment rates, people reentering into the workforce.

we are seeing the people who are traditionally left behind in the economy when we talk about african-americans, hispanics, women, being pulled into the workforce at a higher participation rate than we have seen in the past. over the last couple of quarters, we are finally seeing wage growth higher than inflation, trying to get past this wage stagnation we have seen for decades. it is something that has held america back. seeing a lot of enthusiasm with industry. manufacturing jobs are coming back in many places. there is a revitalizing of the american entrepreneurial spirit, which i feel good about. a lot of states around the country are feeling good right now. i know sunshine is there in california and it is fine and you have hollywood, but taxes are better next door. host: what will the president .2 what he has accomplished for the working class americans trying to make a living? guest: exactly.

that is where we are getting government out of people's lives. wage growth is one. talking about the below 4% unemployment rate. the fact of the matter is that there are more jobs that are available and we have people to go fill them. that is a good feeling. it was only a decade ago, not long ago, where we were double digit unemployment. people were concerned, however my to put food on the table? how am to get by? there is no hope -- how am i going to get by? there is no hope. in addition to the wage growth, you have the nonwage benefits. whether it be health care, whether you have different benefits, different retirement matches and things like that that companies are putting out there, you have companies voluntarily looking to repay student loan data. that is a whole other conversation we can get into. people are offering benefits to get workers to their company because it is competitive.

that is a good feeling. it is not a feeling we had a decade ago, but it is a feeling we have now. host: a democrat, good money to you. caller: good morning. how are you doing this morning? host: doing fine. caller: jason miller. i like you. i watch you unseen and sometimes but i have a problem with the tax cut because it did not benefit me one bit. i know it helped the corporate and big banks and stuff. why did the president come in and take away everything obama did that was helping this country? not saying obama was a perfect president, but he did things helping a lot of americans. the tax cuts did not help me one bit. what the republicans snuck on everybody, it was wrong. trump, i don't have anything against trump. i'm a democrat. but we should be more truthful with people. stop lying everybody. i like you, jason.

answer my question about that. why i had to pay taxes? i don't make so much myself. host: ok. guest: good question. obviously, i cannot speak to your particular tax situation. i'm not an accountant. i believe the number for the average family around the country was to see eight $2000 savings but i cannot speak -- a $2000 savings but i cannot speak to your specific situation. there are so many jobs that are available right now and jobs are starting to pay more. we are seeing more benefits being added in. for your particular tax situation, it would not be appropriate since i'm not an accountant to dive into that. the one issue i would point out is that i think we are starting to have a bit of a reckoning in many of the states around the country. obviously, you live in maryland, the beltsville area. marilyn has a high tax structure.

even though governor hogan has done a very good job try to keep the state pointed in the right direction, the fact of the matter is state taxes are too high. the split between the federal and state i cannot speak to for you but i know the average family is saving about $2000 a year. host: independent. caller: yes. to pay forone has the expense of the united states. i would rather the people with the money do it than me that makes about $50,000 a year. it is not extending benefits to the new employees. i lived in houston. the average rate is about $10 an hour. the accomplishments that the president has made, what has he done? republicans stole one of the seats for the supreme court.

money fromcans stole the middle class. when you look at the tax rate, there is a 10% difference in the average income. a 10% difference in the amount of tax you have to pay. that did not help the middle class. what are you talking about? what has trump done to enhance employment? nothing. absolutely nothing. host: can you point to specific policies? guest: specific policies, again, the tax cut is the biggest one. what we have seen in addition to the tax cut and the reduction in regulations, we are seeing this boom in american business right now. you look at one president trump came into office. everyone'sre retirements, not everyone, but to was1(k)'s are pinned at 18,000. we have seen that grow by over one third.

hitting records on the dow and s&p 500. people are seeing their retirements going up. i want to go back to something that you said a moment ago about this went to the wage growth issue. we have seen wages grow the last couple of quarters under president trump at a higher rate actualflation, an substantial wage growth for the first time in decades. the anger and frustration that you have i think is not unique to you. that is something the president really cares about. people who wake up every day, show up to work, earn a paycheck, and realize how tough it is to get by, that is why he is pushing so hard on many factory jobs. that is why he is trying to renegotiate some of the trade deals to make sure we are keeping their jobs in the u.s., realizing we have a long ways to go to make sure we are seeing bigger wage growth for people in america. i totally relate with your frustration. i think that is something the

president cares about also. host: fred in jessup, maryland, a republican. caller: yes sir, good morning. i want to start out by saying thank you for your service and god bless president trump. people need to realize he is our first citizen president. he is not a polished politician. he is not a career corrupt politician. he is doing what he thinks is best for the country. the tax cuts benefited all of us. they went from the highest in the world down to 25%. i think he wanted 22%. i'm a school bus driver. i earned $33,000 a year. i make an extra $200 a month, $50 per paycheck, because of the tax cuts. they benefit me. i am no rich corporate guy. i also wanted to make a comment on the obama energy secretary. allowed aa, that man solar powered company -- he gave them $500 million.

three month later, they claimed bankruptcy and fled. i would like to know what happened to that money. on c-span, he did not mind if gas went up to $10 a gallon to get us off oil. host: i believe it there and get jason miller's reaction to the other candidates in the 2020 field. talked about the former vice president jumping in, and he leads the polls. when you look at those behind him, bernie sanders at 15%, what is your advice to president trump? how would he run against bernie sanders? guest: against bernie sanders, trump will hit him over the head with the socialist rhetoric. it will be a contrast in the way we are going to go in and pull everybody up. people talk about this spectrum of conservatives being here and liberals being here. i think it is really more of a circle where you see that on many of these issues like trade

for example, bernie sanders is not that far off from president trump on their approach to trade, on the effort to make america first. they have different solutions about how to do that. bernie sanders obviously wants a $32 trillion medicare for all, something we are never going to be able to afford. that would make taxes go up in a huge weight. there were a lot of bernie sanders voters who crossed over and supported president trump in the general election as a rejection to secretary clinton in 2016. i think the democrats want a real risk this time with how they treat bernie sanders. bernie can surprise people with his fundraising. people, they never clapped for secretary clinton the way they clapped for bernie sanders. you will see with joe biden, it is telling in his announcement today that he is not having a big rally today. he put it out in a video that looks to the past, does not present a forward vision.

when you run for president, you have to give people a sense for optimism. you have to give people a sense of where they are going to go. if you look in the rearview we were, it is easy for president trump to say you are the status quo and passed. i'm the future. host: joe barton is heading to pittsburgh for a rally. what if the president is up to mayor -- up against mayor pete from south bend? guest: he is an unproven entity at this point. it is a great story that he is surging. it shows that in america people can come from nowhere so to speak just as we saw president obama surge out of nowhere and beat secretary clinton. but the one thing the mayor will find pretty quick is that in the competitive democratic primary like this, the knives come out quick. they will be coming from fellow democratic presidential candidates. they will be ruthless and sliced him up. can he withstand the test?

we will see. we will see in the debate. kamala harris, for example. host: in the most recent reuters poll, she is in fourth place behind mayor pete. guest: she had a huge kickoff, had great crowd support, good fundraising. she is someone trump trump who as a supporter, i would be -- she is someone who as a trump supporter, i would be more nervous running against. they can enthuse their base. here is where, the harris had her deer in the headlights moment. in the town hall the other night, she was asked a question about the whole voting rights for felons. you start seeing those little things. you go back to the little moments. like what michael dukakis made that ultimately tanked his candidacy. those clips whether it is, harris or bernie sanders either not having an answer for the

boston bombers or advocating the should have voting rights, those are things that when you start talking about the rest of the country, people kind of year that and say that is kind of weird, kind of outside the mainstream. i still think kamala harris has a very formidable candidacy. mayor pete needs to watch his back from his fellow democrats. they are coming after him. host: one more. we will stick to the top five in the latest poll. bento o'rourke. guest: his has been confusing. he put up a good run against ted cruz last year in texas. one of my former bosses. he came really close. he showed good fundraising ability, able to put rallies together. i love her president trump jumped out and talked about the hands. beto o'rourke and the crazy hands things going. you cannot look at beto o'rourke anymore without looking at his hands. trump is a master marketer.

he seems to be on a soul-searching mission at the moment. i still think he has the ability to excite the democratic base. but where you have mayor pete or kamala harris or elizabeth warren, bernie sanders, who are all coming with very specific policies and proposals, beto just seems he is on a mission to find his inner child. i just don't really see what his candidacy is about at this point. host: in houston, texas, democrat. caller: hi. good morning. thank you for taking my call. because i'm just listening to this gentleman here. i think he is out of touch with the poor people. with the tax and everything. so i'm trying to see what is going on with these. i have been working all my life people areand rich

getting lower tax and the poor people are not. president obama, he is the one that started with the high wages on that and everything. i'm a real live person down here. i know who is making with the cleaning people, cooking, in restaurants, and who is out there working on streets and everything. president trump has not done anything. has not done tax or anything. he is not dealing with real people. the unappointed wind down with president obama. the debt went down with president obama. -- the unemployment went down with president obama. the debt went down with president obama. here.s just not life i want to see where are you coming from, sir? you are not in the real world. evidently, you are rich. i'm with the poor and everything else. these people are really struggling here. guest: i very much appreciate

your question. i have had the opportunity to go to a good university and be able to provide for my family, but what many people might not realize is i grew up in a single-parent household with my mom and little brother in a two-bedroom apartment. much of that time, we were on government assistance growing up. i know what it is like to go to the linenk, to go into at school and have free lunch and wait until all the other kids went through and have lunch until you went through because you had to tell them you were getting free lunch and you did not want to have people laugh at you are thinking something was wrong. so i very much understand what it is like to have that struggle and to have the electricity turned off or wonder if you have enough money to send in for college applications. i come from a perspective where i very much understand and knowledge that. when i look back at the opportunities that my mom did not have, someone who ended up getting her aa degree when i was

myself as an undergraduate in college and other opportunities became available. but i look at the folks who don't have the opportunity to get that education to get to the next point. this is what i think ministration is doing with so many of these retraining jobs. and the effort increases in vocational opportunities that are coming up, the blue-collar jobs, we see about somebm talking of the new industries people are going into. especially where you are in texas, texas has a booming economy. there are a lot more opportunities for folks in texas now that were not there in years. a lot of that is because we are seeing this energy renaissance. the u.s. is now finally in energy exporter. there are opportunities. there are now more jobs available than there are people in the u.s. that is a good opportunity.

i cannot speak specific to your situation, but i know that for a lot of people, there is hope where there was not hope they couple years ago. host: in missouri, mike, you are next for jason miller. caller: good morning. host: morning. caller: trying to figure out where to start here with all the hypocrisy i heard from your guest. he is talking about joe biden smelled women's hair when donald trump has over 20 women accusing him of assault. i got to wonder why he isn't being investigated for that. obamaly, president brought unemployment down 17% to 7%. forre praising trump bringing it from 7% to 4%. what i just heard your guest say about being a single-parent family and all the things that

helped his family get through, now the trump administration wants to take all those things away from americans. they are try to take health care from americans. the attack on the epa that donald trump has brought on is just ridiculous. if lying and dishonesty is the way of the future, which is what donald trump is, our country has no future. host: mr. miller? guest: so i'm going to take a shot in the dark here and guess that you probably did not vote for president trump. i hope the president is able to earn your vote this next go round. when i was making the point about vice president biden and some of the behavioral things, the point that i was making was that he is the one candidate where president trump can turn that around and make that something -- host: even though the president was accused by 20 women and

achael cohen said he paid off woman? guest: if that will be an issue for them or if they want to support the policies the president is behind, the president has denied these things. people have made their decision going through in their mind in 2016. in 2020, the strength of the economy, america's improved standing in the world, and when they see president trump take issues like trade, for example. trade is a proxy fight for fairness. people think there is a lack of fairness. several of the callers this morning brought this point up as well. there seems to be this continuing divide between people in washington and new york prosper and do better than people across the country. the trade deals president trump is working to renegotiate whether it is nafta, the usmca, the u.s. and eu, bilateral deals with the u.s. and japan or u.s.

and india, which will come along after we get through the major trade issue with china. these really speak to the issue of fairness and how we bring back a lot of these jobs or preserve these industries. here is what a lot of people don't realize. one point on china. we get so caught up in the moment for what is in the new story, top of the news, but we do not think about the future with the real long-term issues here. the next 50 to 100 years of human civilization is going to be dominated by this u.s. versus china trade competition. what president trump is doing right now is protecting those industries of the future. you talked about ever not asked, automobiles, robotics, ai, semiconductors, even aspect of health care, pharmaceuticals, different things like that. if the u.s. does nothing to address that trade relationship now, we will not be a global leader in these industries 10, 20 years down the road.

even jobs that people have today might not be here unless we get this trade equilibrium balanced out here. that is an important thing president is doing. he knows how to turn that back and make a pocketbook real life issue for people in a way no one else does. host: if he does not have a winter .2 on trade, whether it is passing nafta 2.0 or china, is that i concern? guest: he will get a win on china. i'm confident they are moving in the right direction there. the issue is the nontariff barriers and the enforcement that go into it. we need to make sure we can see capital flowing in both directions. i'm confident the president will get a win on china. as he said, not a good deal, he will get a great deal. host: nashville, tennessee, republican, we will go to rose next. caller: good morning, jason. i really don't have a question, but i have a couple of comments.

first of all, i want to say that i love president trump. i thank god for president trump. all of my friends, we all feel the same way. every time he has a rally, we want to see it. we don't care what else is on, even if he repeats the same things over and over. we love him. we love him and we got his back. i like to think of myself as a patriotic american. i love this country. i could have never withstood all the bad media and the lies and everything that have been going on to this poor president and his family. i would have thrown down my maga hat and say you could have this job. i thanked him. the only thing i wish is he would release the unclassified documents that he has the power to release. i wanted to say that the democrats are real arrogant about winning the house in 2018.

but i think a lot of people were disgusted with house republicans under paul ryan. and maybe there is a possibility that the democrats won the house because it was more of a protest vote by republicans. host: ok. i want to take that point. you are shaking your head. guest: i agree with a lot of desperate much everything you are saying -- i agree with a lot of, pretty much everything you are saying. let me unpack this because you are spot on. one of my biggest frustrations as a longtime republican, i've always been republican, but someone who is a longtime activist and political serving roles to help good conservatives to office is when president trump won, republicans in the house and senate literally should have been waiting there as if with a cake to replace obamacare. and they didn't.

wastingident ended up entirely too much time in the first term try to get to a plan that repealed and replaced obamacare. i was very much frustrated with capitol hill republicans not having that ready to go. when you talk about the cloud, the whole investigation hoechst that hung over the presidency for the last few years, despite all the great things he has been able to do, it is important for the president to keep the pressure on the investigators, to keep the pressure on looking into whether there were any illegalities involved in this fisa process in the beginning and how some twentysomething campaigndvisor to the helped launch this multiyear investigation. sounds like there is a lot of funny business that was involved there. i want to see that investigator because until folks are held accountable for things like this, then we can see these deep state folks, whether they be in

bureaucracy, on the outlying fringes of law enforcement, make similar moves like this in the future. we really need to get to the bottom of this. devin nunes on capitol hill and mark meadows and jim jordan have been absolutely fantastic with disregard. i completely agree with you. i would like to see the department of justice ig report and other investigations put out publicly so we can see all these things. i would agree with you also with regard to president trump, the amount of abuse and attacks he has had has been pretty remarkable. keep in mind immediately after the election, democrats said it was the popular vote. he basically tried to delegitimize his presidency, that he won the electoral college and not the popular vote. and then it was james comey. and then we had the entire russia hoax. now once we get past that, it is onto president trump's taxes or whatever thing they are going to come up with next.

it is kind of a sad state of american politics right now. i'm not saying that people need to be president trump supporters. i realize it is a divided country and half of the people watching right now want to throw something at me and the other half want to give me a high five. i get that. any of the things we haven't seen the last couple of years is bad for the presidency and country because of this cloud they have kept over president trump. host: brenda in manchester, democrat, go ahead. caller: good morning. well, first of all about the texas, yes, we need to see the taxes because we need to see how trump is benefiting from his new tax plan. the taxes will show us how he is charitable, who he is beholden to. onto the robert mueller report, there was a lot of collusion. there was no conspiracy. in order for it to be committal conspiracy, you need an agreement, tested or expressed, between the two parties. even though trump and vladimir

putin were both working to get him elected, there was no express agreement. that is why there is no criminal conspiracy. also, most of the reductions were due to ongoing matters. that will be interesting. and the report does indicate that mueller wanted congress to take up the issue of obstruction. as far as you said he is a master marketer, he is a master manipulator is what he is. he brings all this on himself by his own behavior. all the religious folks out there, i don't get it. he does not follow the teachings of jesus. he is mean. he is cruel. he is corrupt. host: ok, i believe that there. james in greenwood, indiana, republican. caller: good morning. guest: good morning. caller: thanks for the conversation today. joe biden, he is a nice guy, very wealthy, but he is 20 years too late. i'm calling from indianapolis.

it is like joe biden is entering a model t ford in the indianapolis 500 this year. somebody called in a couple weeks ago and described joe as male, pale, and stale. right now for this year, he is the wrong gender, color, age. he is a victim of a culture of his own making, where old white men these days are just passing. host: i have to leave it there. guest: a couple of great questions. first with regard to joe biden, i might be a little bit of an outlier in the trump allies and trump world and many in the media who think joe biden is a strong candidate against trump. i think trump absolutely whips biden at the ballot biden turned president trump into the youth