prevention in the african-american community. as always, we will take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter as well. "washington journal" is next. ♪ host: good morning. it's sunday, april 28, 2019. two different programming options were available last night. one saw members of the white house press corps celebrate the first amendment and each other at the annual black-tie white .ouse correspondents dinner the other was the president 10,000ally with some chanting waving supporters in green bay, wisconsin. this morning we will begin with highlights from both events as we hear your thoughts about president trump's relationship with the news media.

let's start calling in now. phone lines are open. republicans, it's (202) 748-8001 . democrats, it's (202) 748-8000. independents, it's (202) 748-8002. you can catch up with us on social media, at twitter -- on twitter its @cspanwj. and on facebook it's facebook.com/cspan. talking about the dual programming last night during the first hour of "washington journal," we begin here at the white house correspondents dinner last night. this is the president of the white house correspondents dinner association addressing the dinner and the president's absence. [video clip] his don't want to dwell on absence. it's not his dinner, it's ours. but in the years as a reporter, i have been spit on by both

parties. i have been told by -- that i will never work in washington again. and there was a brief moment in afghanistan where a soldier said he would shoot me dead for taking a picture inside of a presidential palace. yet i still separate my career of 2017 andfebruary what came afterwards. that's when the president of the united states called us the enemies of the people. a few days later i was driving my 11-year-old son somewhere, when he burst into tears and asked me if donald trump is going to put me in prison. at the end of the family trip to mexico, hugh -- emus that at least uncle josh is a good lawyer and can get you home if the president tries to keep us in mexico. i told my family not to touch packages on our stoop. statement on a criticizing the president are celebrating assault on a

reporter. we have had death threats. too many of us have. it shouldn't need to be said in a room full of people that understand the power of words that fake news and enemies of the people are not names, punchlines, or presidential. names, punchlines, or presidential. [applause] the hard work of men and women make it possible to hold the powerful to account. night innwhile us green bay, wisconsin, the president holding one of his signature rallies. [video clip] night, is there anyplace more fun than a trump rally? joe,ou imagine sleepy , you look at the

candidates, right? i think pocahontas, she's finished, she's out. know, when it was found that i had more indian blood in me than she did? and then it was determined that i had non-, but i still had more. that was the end of her 32 year scam on colleges. can you imagine any of these people appear doing what i'm doing? 200 people which show up if they were president. if they were in president, maybe two people. is that right? host: an estimated 10,000 theorters there for president's address. today in "the new york times" president did not mention the

white house correspondents dinner by name at his rally, but he did talk about the media in general. here's more from the president last night. [video clip] >> member this. if i make any misstatement, if i'm off by a little bit, those people back there will the headlines. so i have to be very careful. fake news. they are fake. they are fakers. [chanting] you, you know what sucks? their ratings suck. host: by the way, if you missed either of those events last night, they are available right now on the home page of our

website, c-span.org. we are talking about them in our first hour of today's "washington journal." phone lines today, if you watched or if you didn't, (202) 748-8000 democrats, (202) 748-8001 republicans, independents it's (202) 748-8002 . james, democratic line, wisconsin. i'm not in madison. host: glad you called in. caller: but that's what i'm calling in for, john. do you believe that accuracy should be on c-span? host: yes, sir. caller: then i wish you guys took this show last night with trump. it was not in green bay, it was in schwab at on. if anyone bothered to look it up, granted, it's only about

half of a mile away to where green bay and the border is, but technically it's in ashwaubenon. all of their police emergency services are being charged by .he city i wish your producers are hearing this because he will replay this thing and put online, change your wording in your cai runs on the jump back to say a schwab it on. host: appreciate that. did you watch? caller: trump did not mention about the dinner. did you just say that in your interruption? that trump did not speak about the correspondence dinner? host: that he didn't mention the dinner by name. caller: when i watched the correspondence dinner and i didn't hear them speaking by name about them -- him being in [indiscernible]chwab it

host: mark is in schenectady, new york this morning. goodr: trump is doing a job by campaigning now in wisconsin, a state that he won, but a state that romney lost. this is an important election cycle and he is getting his support together. i only watched some of it. andas in primetime ratings you know, there's baseball and basketball and whatnot, but i was proud of what i heard of the little that i did hear. they talked about the border, the economy, so on and so forth, the things he's trying to accomplish. basically what he's been reiterating while he has been in office. market, democrats putting a focus on wisconsin next year, having their convention in milwaukee. why do you think the president

will hold on to the state? well i think he is resonating with a lot of the rust belt, ohio, detroit crowd. it's only 10 electors, but it's worthy ofw, yet still showing support in getting your base energized. know, every state really counts, but wisconsin seems like a state that was a surprise and it doesn't hurt to get it once again. do you think of there is a democratic and focus on the rust belt, as you said? caller: of course, of course, i don't take lightly sanders. he won the iowa caucuses last year against hillary. not last year, last election. a reals like he can get good, strong support again. i think he can definitely pull

it off. for therk, thank you call from new york. john, trenton, new jersey. go ahead. thanks for taking my phone call. ok. donald trump can call anybody nicknames. if he can call anybody nicknames , what's the use of him talking? we want issues. he can say anything he wants, but that doesn't necessarily say it's so. word, humpty dumpty, ty didn't have a wall, took a great fall. i can make fun of him like that. these people, democrat, running for president, they serve in congress in one form or another

and deserve respect. i would think that he would stick to the issues, you know? -- thank you, c-span, for your time. it's just no use for me talking about this. caller: great neck, democratic line, good morning. caller: good morning, sir. thanks for taking my call. i can't wait until we get this sick man out of office. just lie, lie, lie all the time. i can't stand these people just supporting him. read the mother report. read the report, ok? several,committed several, broke the law several times. fox,n to your friend on judge napolitano. he knows where it's at. watch the white

house correspondents dinner last night or the president's rally in wisconsin? caller: i watched part of it. part of the dinner. i never watch trump, never. host: what did you think about the dinner? caller: the dinner was fine. you know? can't stand the heat, don't get in the kitchen, and he can't stand the heat. y'all be blessed. host: the president skipping the dinner for the third year in a row. one of the headlines from "the hill" newspaper this morning," "focusing on press history and turnout speaker was ron , the address last night focusing on the first amendment, journalists, and integrity. here's a some of what he had to say. [video clip] >> it's as good a time as any to dedicate yourself and take

stock. donald trump will be the first or last american president to create jitters about the american presidency and the first amendment. be humble, be skeptical, and aware of being affected by the things you are fighting against. andpress is a powerful left that should be fired with reluctance and aimed with precision. high road,take the it's far less crowded there. some days in washington, let's face it, a high-minded politician can sail along there for hours without spotting another car. [laughter] >> you folks should always are member that you are asked to a grand crusading tradition that dates back to ida b wells exposing horrors. the manhattan slums, corruption, the machinations of standard oil. upton sinclair, the scandalous meatpacking industry.

woodward and bernstein, exposing watergate. the new york times and the washington post. this is a glorious tradition. you folks are part of it and we can't have politicians trampling on a -- trampling on it with impunity. ron turnout, the author of the biography and alexander hamilton, and he has been on c-span some 21 times now. you can search the c-span video , just type itm into the search bar at the top and you can watch his q&a interview on that program back on october 23 of 2017. he talked about his work on a biography of ulysses s. grant. back to your phone calls, getting your thoughts on those

dueling events last night in your thoughts and general on the president's relationship with the news media. mary is in brooklyn, republican, go ahead. mary, are you with us this morning? ,e will stay in new york waverly, new york, good morning. caller: hey, i got to ask a couple of questions. host: ok? caller: how can any mother be prowse -- you proud to say that she raised a man, a body that lies out of both sides of his mouth, cannot tell the truth, and has not a humble bone in his body. i got a no. i have raised several children, i'm over 80, and by god i have

never seen the likes on s.levision of this jack as i hope and pray to god that the people that voted for him are a little smarter after all he says about fake news. yeah, we get lots of fake news, pushing products and this stuff, but about that man i have not heard one fake word yet. host: where do you get your news from? caller: thank you so much for talking with me. joyce in news york. glenn, spanish fork, utah. did you watch either of the programs last night? caller: yes, i did. very happy with our president. i think he's doing a great job. he gets a lot of ridicule and he is trying to do the right thing for this country.

supporting the constitution. the other side makes claims all the time that they are about the constitution, yet they are trying to terra down. and i thank god that donald trump is our president. i want him to win in 2020. host: what you think about the president's relationship with the news media, the topic we haven't talking about? caller: it's hard for me to say. i don't watch mainstream news. i usually watch c-span because i like to see it as it's happening . i don't want summit he also explained to explain it to me, you understand what i'm saying? like so rather than watching cnn or fox and they report on it, i would rather watch live footage to see what actually happens. so i think a lot of the news is fake news because i think that people are opinionated and they

like to kind of twisted or bended in ways that accommodate them, does that make sense? host: defined fake news? well, like, like i said. you either hear it from the horse's mouth, or you let somebody else tell you what the horse said. steve, atwater, california, good morning. morning- caller: good to you, sir. i watch the correspondents and i watched the news this morning and they made the comment that there was an important figure missing last night from the dinner and they said donald trump and i laughed because the important person missing is , that's isoggi

missing. i believe that corpse would make a better president than this fake president. thank you very much. president trump beginning his remarks yesterday talking about the shooting that happened yesterday in los angeles, an euros that left a 60 woman dead at a synagogue in los angeles. a rabbi was left wounded along with a 34-year-old man and a girl with shrapnel wounds after that attack. it was the sabbath at the last day of passover, a holiday that celebrates jewish freedom. the attack about 25 miles north of san diego. this the most recent in a high series -- high profile -- in a attacks, high-profile including the one in sri lanka that came six months after the synagogue shooting in pittsburgh

and left 11 dead. here is the president last night at the rally. [video clip] nation isength of our found in the heart of our people. so true. is withamerica's heart the victims of horrific synagogue shooting in how way, inlifornia -- california. they stand -- we stand in solidarity with the jewish community. we forcefully condemn the evil of anti-semitism and hate, which must be defeated. that was the president last night in wisconsin. taking your phone calls this morning. jane is up next. go ahead. watched the dinner last night. the press is so important, i don't deny that at all, it's

just if they would only show both sides. they are so against trump that they just are not even rational. just give him credit for doing something right and show both sides, that's all i ask. host: give me an example of where you think the press didn't show both sides. caller: well every time you turn on the media, they just this trump, continuously, they never say a kind word about him. if you watch fox news, it's the other side. .ust the even, that's all i ask at the dinner, you know, so many comments were so negative. nothing positive hardly at all. it's just too bad if you can't show both sides. that's all i want. host: alice in chicago this morning, a democrat. good morning. caller: basically, donald trump has spent his two and a half years constantly doing rallies instead of governing and

bringing the country together. the previous caller was talking about negative. donald trump is the most negative individual on the planet. he incites a lot of this stuff. he's alow life, criminal, he should have been in jail in new york. i don't understand why we are financing protection for this guy. i don't get it. he is a terrible president. he uses terms that stalin uses. fake news? it came up with him. everything is fake with him. i mean, he's a terrible president and he's a terrible human being. thank you. host: the headlines today from ," "ron turnout -- ron chernow bringing history and

humor." they switched it up from last year after the criticism from michelle wolf last year, although ron did get a few laughs during his speech last night. here is more from ron chernow. [video clip] >> it was not, this -- the first saints and choir boys as mark twain said, it protects the rights of idiots. washington committed only one major blunder as a president. he failed to put his name on mount vernon and bungled an early opportunity at branding. [applause] >> clearly deficient in

the art of the deal, very sad story. [laughter] host: if you want to watch the entire event, you can do so, it's featured on the home page of our website. colleen is in wisconsin this morning, independent line. go ahead. regardings, this is the news and the term fake news, which has become really annoying to me, but -- because i don't think the news is fake. but it's unimportant. two years of election coverage? what else is going on in the world? joining the youth and i'm marching. flags and anything else i can get my hands on host:. years of you say two election coverage, a you talking about since 2016 or looking ahead to 2020? terrible.16 was i don't mean just what they said, but two years of it.

it's a form of brainwashing. it really is. we cannot get news. we cannot get news. we don't know what's going on in europe, or africa. although we know about is candidates and hate. so i'm not seeing what you has report as fake, it's just not important. that's colleen, wisconsin. this is david in florida. good morning. cannot believe the trump didn't show up again, third year in a row, right? of? is he scared mean jokes? what's going on? host: why can't you believe that he didn't show up? caller: his third year in a row, is he afraid to be shown being made fun of to his face? what's going on? this is emily, san francisco, republican, go ahead. caller: i really enjoyed his

speech tonight, or last night, and i have to say that he is covering every area that i like. i particularly like that he's the mothers not let decide on who gets killed. and also, you know, the babies, they can be murdered on the spot once they are alive. that kind of thing, it makes me feel very warm towards him. and the fact that he was innocent. all the democrats against him, they admitted that he did nothing wrong. president,o be the run the world, but he's helping our country, not lying to us like the press has lied. it is fake news when all the good news that is important is not told. the gdp, for example, the gross

to messick product of this 3.2.ry going up jobs. he's not a racist. he used to go to parties where the people were racists and he built his own clubs and he let everybody in, as they say, in florida. i wish that people would try to listen to the truth. don't be so hateful. host: what do you mean that he used to go to parties where people were racists? caller: what you know, the very rich down there, they have -- they act like just like we know who we are and you can't come in. wherelt a lot of places everyone was excepted. well, not everyone, but you know what i mean. this is the kind of thing -- no one is telling you the truth about him. .e's only done good

i continued to ask, what has he done wrong? no one has proven a single thing against him. he's the most investigated person in the world and he's doing good for us. please try to open your eyes and your years and except what's going on. a lot of people benefiting from what he has done for this country and i thank you for letting me speak. bye-bye. on 7:30 oncoming up the east coast and we are talking about that dual programming last night, the president in wisconsin holding a night that theme white house correspondents association gathered for their annual dinner here at the washington hilton. as that event, this is one of the hints that was distributed to those who attended. the clyde mcgrady photo that he posted on instagram. he is a journalist for "roll "free austin tice," eight

journalist kidnapped in 2012 in syria, whereabouts currently unknown. a letter fromg tice's parents, mark and debra. here's what he had to say from that letter from the parents of the kidnapped journalist. "please take a moment to look around this room. he needs her voice. we ask that you take every opportunity to raise your voice from the newsroom to the white house. -- house." he asked attendance to remember those who have been targeted while on the job. that from "the hollywood reporter." ken, you are up next. go ahead. good morning, thank you. i watched c-span religiously because it actually delivers the neutral truth.

the woman who preceded me, i she hasry for her, obviously been watching fox news for the last 20 years and has a distorted view of the real world. all i can say is that i grew up in queens, i'm about the same ages our president. i actually lived a few blocks from him at one point. i never met him, but he is of a tight, a distant it -- distillation of a type of personality that lives in new york city and is distilled especially so in queens because queens has always had a kind of informed her authority -- had a kind of in fort -- inferiority conflict -- complex. he is an emotionally ill man. host: what did you take from the rally if you watched? i was not able to watch, we had social obligations last night, but i hope to watch both today via c-span and other sources. host: you can see it there on

our homepage. michael is next, go ahead. good morning, good morning, how you doing this morning? host: doing well. caller: that lady who called all the news stations fake, she calls the liberal news stations fake, but you've got to put fox in there, too. they never said any good thing about president obama, never. she wants to talk about fake, , or tvdio stations stations, fox is right up there. what do youchael, watch? where do you get your news? caller: i watch c-span, i get a little bit of everything, i just want to know what's going on on all the news stations.

prime time it's cnn and sometimes as to fox to see what they talking about, you know. lies. they just, they i mean they never, ever say anything about like democrats. it's always about trump. michael, when do you think the bias that you see in the news, when did that start? has it always been there? caller: it's always been there to a certain extent, but when trump became president? it really took off. , it was a lotow of his followers. they are going to see a one-day. fox is going down such a big old hole, they have got to be careful. with what they talk about. anyway, thank you for listening

to me, have a nice day. harold is next, from virginia, republican, go ahead. caller: how are you doing? host: doing well. caller: i listened to a lot of people coming up, the gentleman talking about how fox is so biased and so forth, when it's not quite -- i would say cnn, msnbc, the rest of them are more biased than fox will ever be. anyone listened to it, they have said good things about obama, so that's not true. the lady earlier said they said all these things that were not fair about trump, anybody can see that. anybody can see what they did to him in the investigation ahead of the trump collusion delusion. that's what it is. put theook at it and facts together, you can find there's nothing there, so now they have to go on to something else and they will have to keep

on going on to something else so they can run it to 2020. that's all they will keep doing. again that they will keep playing, i guy saying that trump is a terrible person. what do you call it if they don't have much time? i had never called anyplace, but i was sitting here listening and saying you have got to be kidding me. if he was such a horrible person, you never heard any of the stuff when he was on "the apprentice." live?e yeah, they all lie. president obama didn't lie? of course he did. he lied about a lot of things. i just think that the need to wake up and realize that all politicians are like that. was he a politician before? no. but if he was such a terrible person, where was all of that before. host: you say that this is the first time that you ever called into a news program? caller: any program. you don't want to, you get

nervous, you are on air and some of the things you know and want to say, i read about politics quite closely and when you get under you are just like -- i called and once one time on live tv and was like that wasn't good . but it's just amazing to me that they don't -- if they don't think that cnn, msnbc and the rest of them are biased about trump, they have got to be kidding me. a lot of the stuff he says about them is true, it's just true. it's a 30 day rule, but if you want to call in again down the road, please do so. we ask that folks calling only once every 30 days. our phone lines change occasionally by topic, but usually this is how they are. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002 that will be the numbers for most of the program today. you can catch up with us on

social media as well. josh smith wrote thin after watching last night's rally saying that trump would rather view the people that love him than the people that hate him. i watched the rally last night and felt beloved. greatcarter this morning, " example of showing how the media grasps at anything to criticize ."ump robert is a democrat calling in from california this morning. thanks for getting up early. caller: good morning, how are you? host: doing well. caller: the one thing i'm noticing about your callers, probably this is true of most religion.u see it as know, sidingou with one side or the other.

and as far as the correspondence, i would not expect trump to show up. a coward will never show up to face his adversaries. the people who think it is all fake because they want to point out a story that didn't look so good for this guy? i think that's what the news media is for. to hold people's feet to the fire. to tell the truth. host: what about the president not allowing members of his to attend the white house correspondents dinner? what do you think of that move by the president? well it's not surprising. it's really not surprising. trump is an egotistical maniac. he cannot face any criticism whatsoever. any of his people that go out and talk to the news media, he once the message to be controlled by him and him alone. so it's not surprising. for the people that want to vote for him in

2020, he's behind 3 million votes. they had better get busy and start catching up. i don't think he's going to have a second term. he barely lasted through the first term. we mentioned the white house banning those who work there from attending the dinner this year, although judy kurtz noted that some white house officials did attend some of the events surrounding the weekend.dents there's kellyanne conway, arriving at one of the annual brunch that happened in association with the white house correspondents dinner, noting that she breeze right past jay leno, who was also attending the brunch. judy kurtz writing in her piece about some of the events surrounding the correspondence that, along with kellyanne conway, the deputy, we're seeing along with jay leno

at that garden brunch that took place yesterday. the official event, though, took place last night. you can watch it and of course, if you missed it, right here on c-span, with the president holding a rally right here in green bay, wisconsin. one of those who spoke at the rally was the president's press secretary. remember last year at the white horse -- white house correspondents dinner, sarah sanders was the target of some of the jokes that received criticism, by michelle wolf, the comedian invited to speak last year. here's what sarah sanders had to say last night at wisconsin. [video clip] you, mr. president. obviously i thought it would be a bit cooler in wisconsin, but it's pretty warm in this room tonight. thank you to all of the amazing things you have done for this country. last year i was at a slightly different event.

not quite the best welcome. this is an amazing honor. i'm so proud to work for the president. they said that he couldn't win in two, but he did. they said he couldn't make the economy better and it's a booming. they said he couldn't rebuild the military and he has done it. they said there was collusion and there wasn't. they questioned him at every step and he has proven them wrong every single time. thank you, mr. president, for leading our troops. thank you. host: and you saw sarah sanders there last night, mentioning the 2018 white house correspondents dinner. here's one of the moments from that dinner in which sarah sanders was the target of some of those jokes by comedian michelle wolf. and we will show you that in just a second as we hear from lawrence in st. paul, minnesota. lawrence, go ahead. caller: hey, good morning. two quick comments, the

correspondent's dinner in the last few years has just gotten to be too much entertainment and to nasty. so i appreciate the fact that this year the focus was more on what journalism is or should be. that's my comment on the correspondents dinner. in terms of what a caller said earlier about why he watches c-span, it's the same with me. i really do want to hear the news and the information that goes on around the country. too much of the media spins commentary. my prime example is charlottesville has become the top of what hate is supposed to be in this country. yet still most of the media in this country doesn't talk about the shooting of the u.s. house of representative members and i think it was virginia.

horrible,e just both but you cannot overlook the fact that incidents like that happen on both sides and the fact that doesn't, theydia pass on what trump did say about the hate that happened in charlottesville in order to just spew more nastiness because of what he said about good people. so i guess what i'm trying to one,s i complement c-span c-span 2, c-span3, because i feel as though i could get information and i tried to be intelligent and making decisions based upon that information. john, always good to talk to you and thank you for your time. when you say the past dinners have gotten to nasty, where would you point to an example of that? great question. i don't know if there was one

particular incident. i noticed that even during the obama administration, the emphasis to me became more on having the entertainers turn it into a much -- minor saturday night live thing rather than just the jostling that went on prior to whoever. host: do you think that ashwaubenon -- that ron chernow set the right tone this year? caller: i do. i guess i love the press, i love the responsibility the press has . we can all make lighthearted jokes, but to me it has just gotten to be too plain nasty. one of those moments that many of the president's staff and others who have criticized the white house correspondents dinner have pointed to as one of those nasty moments was the michelle wolf appearance and some of her comments about sarah

sanders, the white house press secretary, last year at the correspondents dinner. here is that moment. [video clip] flex i actually really like sarah, she's very resourceful. facts and she uses the ashes to make a perfect smoky eye. like maybe she's born with it, maybe it's lies. probably lies. and i'm never sure what to call sarah huckabee sanders. you know, is it sarah sanders, sarah huckabee sanders, is it cousin huckabee, anti-huckabee sanders. what's uncle tom but for white women who disappoint other white women? oh, i know, and coulter. -- anne coulter. rally that we have an talking about today, all

available on our website, c-span.org. jim is in fort lauderdale, florida, did you watch either the events last night? i watched the rally. i have never seen a president treated as horribly by the press as this president. and bravestrong president and they can't seem to handle it. if the dinner last night had been honest, they would have had what "theenterpiece new york times" has said about collusion. "the new york times" said that we have to admit that we were wrong about donald trump and collusion. not a single word about it at this dinner. much hated, he is

attributed to donald trump. you mean to tell me that nothing in the obamappened administration? saturday night live had in obama an impersonator on maybe once or twice and boy that ever get thrown out. i guess there is some -- nothing really funny that happened in his administration. there's no good-natured fun that can even be poked at it. my solution -- my collusion -- conclusion is this. i think that god watches over this country. -- georgehink of gord washington who was offered a dictatorship as he turned it down saying that the country belongs to the people? abraham lincoln said that the future of this country was going off the rails for slavery, fdr, who guided this country through the second world war and now we have donald trump?

oh, and ronald reagan, who ended the cold war. we have had great presidents and we have a great president now. when they start walking people over the corruption that the obama administration had during the last election, the press is going to have to cover it because these people are going to jail. brennan number one and a whole host of others will be going to jail and they will have to cover it. it will be interesting to see how many words they use, how long they spend on it. the utter corruption that the obama administration had during this last election was horrible. columbia, go ahead. yes, i'm just listening to all of these people talking and of thinking -- it's the responsibility of everybody in this country to look the on the, you know, one or two pieces of information and to gather the

truth because it's not just a lot of times sitting there looking at you straight in the face. you have to dig, you have to go to different places. listening to one source is not helping. just listening to the words that people are using like collusion. in the mueller report, the say that you can't even look at that. host: what sources do you go to? look at many sources. i'm a teacher and i teach my children -- you have to look and keep looking for the truth and it doesn't always stare you right in the face, but it's everybody's obligation to search for it. host: do you teach journalism? --ler: actually a teacher to teach a variety, but not journalism specifically. realize thatle to what's out there, a lot of it is information to

people and, you know, they need to dig deeper and not take anything by face value. optimistic that the children the you are teaching, the next generation, will be able to better navigate this media environment that we have found ourselves in right now? caller: i certainly do. i can tell you, when i was younger, you just took whatever was given to you as gospel. they told it to you and you just believed it. now i'm always telling them, you know, you have the tough job because now you have to go search for the truth. before, we just took with everybody gave. now we know that isn't true and you have to be a searcher for truth. you optimistics that they will be able to do because it? caller: have seen them doing it, i have seen them going. well this isn't true, you know? just to see them want to do

that. i mean that, that's better than sitting back and just watching videos. staying in pennsylvania, rosemary, scranton, independent, go ahead. morning, thank you, c-span, i love watching you. i had to call about a gentleman who had mentioned -- i watch fox, also. i have to say that i do think they are fair and balanced. they have -- can i give out names of people that are on shows? host: sure, go ahead, who do you trust? caller: marie hart, so knowledgeable. jessica karloff. professor nichols. juan williams. oh my gosh, he's so knowledgeable. as aonna brazil is on fox correspondent.

of msnbc watch a lot ad then i switched to watch report, called special report, at 6:00 and i have seen marie half, juan williams, and on another program i saw the jessica karloff and professor nichols and i think they had so much to add to the conversation. the democrat point of view. what do you think about the president's relationship with the news media on a night like last night, where the president's rallying with supporters outside the beltway while the white house correspondents association is holding their annual black-tie dinner inside of the beltway? can understand how he gets frustrated. because with the position that someone else is talking about with the collusion, when you know you didn't do anything wrong and people are constantly

saying that you colluded, thank god that we have the president not colluding with anybody. i can understand how he gets frustrated with certain outlets. it's, it's not fair. but as far as i can see, i have seen other conservatives on i don'ttworks, so understand that part. it is fair on some other channels. especially, god bless you, thank you also, c-span delivers. ofy really give so much different points of view and i truly appreciate that. thank you. thank you for that this morning. we are looking for calls, your tweets, social media posts as well as we wrap up the night in the whiteg after

house correspondents dinner in the presidents rally out in wisconsin. sammy posted this this morning -- one more from sandra this morning -- the keynote speaker at the white house correspondents dinner last night was ron author and presidential historian, he talked last night about presidents and their history with the press. here is what he had to say. [video clip] like every future president, washington felt maligned and generalized by the press, but he never turned that into a vendetta against the institution. [applause] in his farewell address, he never delivered in person, he had it printed in the newspapers

so that readers could digest it and consider it. the main theme tonight is that relationships between the president and the press are inevitably tough, almost always adversarial, but they don't need to be steeped in venom. about five minutes left here, getting her thoughts on last night's white house correspondents dinner. joe is in staten island. republican, joe, your thoughts. they set it on purpose, thank you to c-span for showing both. reagan.e fun of he was the winner of 49 states. i feel old. i'm 55. think of reagan. host: using president trump will win 40 states? caller: the states that hillary won will still go democrat, but maine, new hampshire, wisconsin,

also mullen will be the independent running again. so trump is going to get those votes. maine, new hampshire, minnesota, colorado, nevada, where the winner got less than 50%. host: that is joe's prediction in staten island. here in washington, d.c., lawrence. go ahead. good morning, c-span and america. i have been watching this donald trump of the behavior of the man and i would just like to refer your listeners to the history channel. look it up. there was a man exactly like believe that and i donald trump is trying to imitate this man's overall demeanor as far as running our country. please look up the history channel and watch the rise and

fall of the third reich and adolf hitler and how he rose to power. this is happening right now. what c-span is doing with all of these dinners, we are afraid to look into the mirror and see what will happen if we keep going down this road with donald trump. the man has no spirituality or morals. a key list from a commentator, you come up to it, but no one was to put a comparison. there is a history behind the behavior of a man like donald trump. it is called the rise and the fall of the third reich. -- third reich. host: allen, washington, go ahead. want towhy would trump go to a dinner and hang out with

a bunch of racist media people. everyone of them is a racist because they never, they all supported obama. ir blackett god, and that's why they hate trump. host: and that is allen. we go on to john. thank you for c-span. my comment is that i thought at thee jokes correspondents dinner should probably also cover the likes of msnbc, cnn, and the way that they portrayed the trump campaign and the issue of russian collusion and how they were very wrong about that. john brennan, for example, as a member of the intelligence community, kept saying that there was evidence out there of collusion. that should have been the basis of a joke. i'm calling on the independent line because i see that it is

ideology that bends the reality. each one of these news organizations, media outlets, bends reality to service their particular ideology. whether you are talking fox, cnn,wall street journal," or npr. i get my news from all of those outlets. my point is that we all ought to realize the press is out there and they are going to bend the news to service their ideology. that is john in virginia. you mentioned less jokes and less stars. a list and be list stars compared to the past. "hollywood reporter" last year noting that last year's partiers included several micro-celebrities of the moment, including omarosa, who had

written an anti-trump book, michael of a 90, and anthony scaramucci. all three were absent this year, along with most, many of the big name stars who have come in the past. when it comes to the speakernces by the key of the night, the hollywood reporter noting that according to at least one industry source, the correspondents association has already reached out to major talents agencies about possibly looking a comedian for the 2020 correspondents dinner. jay leno, who has performed in town the past, was yesterday for the garden brunch and says that he hopes going, the free is a one-year aberration and he said that about the show wolf last year was that she was very good and that when you do a show, everybody is mad about something. more on that this morning from

caller: hi. and what i like to say is that president is expert at branding. one of the things he did early on was he pointed the -- against the media. unfortunately, he's a liar. so the press's job is to tell the truth. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2018]] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] caller: you got a person that's going against that is a liar. obviously, there's going to be -- you're going to try to get your point out. in my opinion, the president doesn't like that. nd so he went after the press. it's embarrassing to see the president standing in front of these large crowds like he is on the screen right now with -- to point out the press, how they are bad people when he's such a liar. it's their job to get the truth out.

as far as the ceremony last night, i thought cherepanov did a great job -- cher november did a great -- chernow did a great job. and with that, i'm hopeful that more people will understand that trump is using branding to persuade the people against the media. and remember that we have a first amendment. and this president is telling people that disregard the first amendment. anyway, disregard the amendment. host: if you missed either of those events that we've been talking about this morning, both currently available on our homepage at c-span.org. you can click on the right side

on those events. more to come this morning on the "washington journal." hostxt, we'll be joined by and founder of "the young turks" cenk uygur, talking about "the campaign." and mueller report and much more and maj toure, the founder of black guns matters in the african-american community. but first on this week's c-span's "newsmakers" program. we interview ralph reed. he talked about joe biden getting into the 2020 presidential race and here's what he had to say. >> joe biden, while he's had a distinguished career, public service in the senate and is vice president, chairman of senate forums committee, he's been around a long time. he's been in public life for almost a half century. as a presidential candidate, he's not had a lot of luck. his 1988 campaign, he had to get out of the race, after

allegations of plagiarism and falsifying aspects of his resume and his curriculum and then in 2007 and 2008, he had not only iraqi launch but really never emerged as a strong candidate. today, it's a very different situation. you know, he's at least nominally in terms of polling, he's the frontrunner. i think the challenge will be twofold. number one, the party he is running now is totally different than the party he ran in in 2007 and 2008. it's shifted much to the left, -- donge don't -- donner ere like -- donor like biden would rely on and it'll be very

interesting to see how he's able o adapt to that. i think frankly after 2016, after what happened not only in the republican primaries when donald trump to the surprise of many emerged not only as the nominee but won the evangelical vote to the primaries. there were very few people who have predicted that and he went on to win the general. so i was never in the prediction business and even less so now but i think biden will be a formidable and strong candidate or the nomination. host: you can see that entire interview with ralph reed on c-span. you can also hear it on the free c-span radio app, watch it online at c-span.org. now, cenk uygur joins us back at our desk this morning, the

founder and c.e.o. and host of "the young turks." guest: we're the largest online news show and we are progressive nd unapologetic. we have about 250 million unique viewers and very happy to say that millennial generations are massively progressive along with us. host: joining us now, less than 18 months before election 2020, how crowded is the progressive lane in the democratic primary field? guest: not crowded enough. are two or three progressive candidates depending on how you define it. and i would say the other 15 or so are pretty solidly in the establishment lane. host: how are you define it? guest: a progressive is one that

things that you care about that bernie sanders has brought up. progressives also believe in getting money out of politics. it's easy to say things like get money out of politics but do you really mean it? do you believe in amendment? do you believe in do you believe in a convention to get it out? and public option or some sort f middle ground. and it's harder to trust. so those are all defining features. host: you talk about bernie sanders and we talked about bernie sanders. are you officially endorsing, supporting bernie sanders in 2020? guest: no, no. i tell the audience to keep an overwhelmed -- open mind and

bernie sanders is a wonderful progressive. i would be thrilled to endorse him and i think he has an excellent chance as the general election but elizabeth warren also has an excellent chance as a candidate. we were a huge bettors of beto o'rourke against ted cruise and mayor pete bude checking is also -- beaute chick is also very art. what are are you specifically concerned about? guest: so beto started out by saying no corporate pack money before the democrats did. so more of the credit to him on that and he took a no fossil fuel pledge and it turned out he did take money from fossil fuel executives. and he will keep taking on that money and it's troubling on that

pledge and especially on orporate donors. and then all of a sudden panic democratic washington consultants and all of a sudden, he's not for medicare for all. well, that's not all interesting. and mayor pete, the more you read into it, the more you say well, progressive policy. i don't really want to talk about that. i want to talk about values. that's political talk for i'm not going to do anything. host: mayor pete talking about bernie sanders in a recent "new york times" piece. here's what he had to say. the piece saying that he said his left wing proposals were no longer as provocative as 2016, expressed skepticism that a self-described democratic socialist could win a general election saying "i have a hard time seeing the coalition ultimately coming together there." guest: that's a terrible quote

so he can kiss a lot of progressive votes goodbye with that nonsense talks. then what are you? if you're not left wing, why are you in our primary? so, that's a terrible answer. and then he goes on to say well, there were novel in 2016. and novelties worn off. that means oh, i would have done it as a political gimmick and it would have been novel. what do you mean it's worn off? do we have medicare for all? no. oh, i thought it was a cute little parlor trick and if i'm president, i'm definitely not going to those things. well, you know, you could take a long walk of short political dock there. host: cenk uygur with us. joining join the conversation. democrats, 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002.

we should tell viewers why you're with us this morning. you're in town last night but you didn't attend the white house correspondence dinner. what were you attending? guest: yeah, the young thank you, every year hold a watchdog correspondence dinner right across the street at the rooftop and a lot of young reporters, producers and people who are not necessarily progressive, but actually care to do watchdog ournalism. generally, they're very beholden to power. host: we should chat with a few of our callers this morning. tyrone is first from new york city, a democrat. good morning. caller: hello. how are you doing, cenk?

i listen to your show all the time. my fear is that the media puts us in this false sense of security. we don't pay attention to the fact that trump is bad, yes. but we can get worse. we could have a president sean hannity, a president an coulter. president rush limbaugh because we keep thinking that we can't get any worse than donald trump and if we zeend up against him and we keep believing that he is, you know, he's the worst that we can get. we keep pushing back against progressives ideas and i think that's a forward idea that we are going towards the future when we are dealing with the way of ive way of our running our country. host: who do you think is the best candidate?

caller: i'm still with bernie. i love elizabeth warren. but she's not polling well or what have you. little love elizabeth warren. i would love for pete to beat donald trump. that would challenge his manhood to no end but that would just be a thing of getting back at him. host: tyrone in new york. cenk uygur. guest: i would love it if anybody beat him up but every one of them drives him crazy. if elizabeth warren beat donald trump, do you know how much he would lose his mind? if bernie sanders beat him, what? i don't understand it. because he's smart. and he actually cares about the american people and you're a

liar and you said things on the campaign trail that you never intended to do because you're a typical sorry corrupt politician. that night when we defeat donald trump, it's him in the election, it's going to be one of the greatest nights we've ever had. and at this point, we're in excellent shape to do that. he's got 49% of the country saying they will definitely vote against him. he's a paper tiger. host: tyrone, the caller just now, talked about polling. this is the latest from "the washington post" there. abc "washington post" that was on the field last week. some 54% of democrats poll had no preference right now. of those who do, 13% supporting joe biden. 9% bernie sanders, 5% mayor pete. kamala harris, 4%. elizabeth warren, 4%. beto o'rourke at 3%.

does any of the polling matter? guest: yes, joe biden's matter does not matter because he's incredibly soft. they've yet to see his record and when they see the record, generally speaking for joe biden in presidential elections, hey slides down and precipitously. but for bernie sanders and elizabeth warren, i can't imagine that you're in that camp today and thinking that, well, if i like bernie sanders, maybe i'll like joe biden. hat is unlikely. host: here's one minute from -- about a three and a half-minute video. >> he said there were "some very fine people on both sides, very fine people on both sides." those words, the president of the united states assigned a

more equivalent between those spreading hate and those with the courage to stand against it. it is that moment i knew the threat to this nation was unlike any i have ever seen in my lifetime. i wrote at the time they were in the battle for the soul of this nation. host: on the tone of that announcement and where joe biden decided to go to, not introduce, but sort of reintroduce. guest: yeah. look, i didn't mind that announcement at all. and i think he's right to point out that at charlottesville, donald trump showed what a monster he was. they've chanted the jews will not replace us and he said they're very fine people on that side. we're talking about a conversation whether this guy has any morality, any decency at all? if it was any other politician, they would be resolutions against him and driven out of this town.

but we've gotten used to him being such a terrible immoral person. but they killed somebody in charlottesville and he doubled down after biden's comments and said yeah. he said i said it perfectly. so, donald trump, i'd like to-and-you. can you name the very fine nazis n charlottesville? which of the nazis were very fine people? i don't know you. probably follow him on twitter. so you tell us. host: gene is in maine, a republican. good morning. caller: good morning. i want to talk about the green new deal but i also would like to say about this comment in charlottesville. there were a lot of citizens just ordinary citizens who liked their town and liked that statue who did not want to see the

statue turned down. and they had nothing to do with either side. they just wanted to keep their town safe and keep their history the same. guest: nonsense. look, first of all, if you went into a rally accidentally where they were chanting the jews will not replace us with torches, at least then you should have the decency to go out and say man, i'm not with those people. ok. so i took a left when i should have taken a right or whatever it is. if you still say they're good people who chanted that and they were like oh, yeah. so what? it's a bunch of nazis. what's the big deal? then you're a terrible person. i'll go further. oh, they just wanted to protect their history and their heritage with robert e. lee statue. they're the same excuse that donald trump made. robert e. lee, terrible, immoral, horrific person. you know what he was? he was a traitor to america.

he committed treason against america. this country has not had a bigger traitor than robert e. lee helmet killed way more people than osama bin laden and more than the germans did. so to have a statue of a man who literally fought and murdered americans is an affront to this country. so watch how who you're rooting for. by the way, he was a slave holder. he was vicious to his slaves. he personally whipped them and would pour toxins into their skin afterwards. he separated families. maybe that's why donald trump likes him and some of donald trump supporters like him. he was notorious like that. when they captured black soldiers in the civil war, his troops murdered them on the spot at the battle of the crater. he would not trade black soldiers for white soldiers and then whatever -- whoever they captured, they would parade

through southern towns as people would spit on them and insulted them. so, putting up a robert e. lee statue, spit in the face of america. host: juan carlo is next from new jersey, an independent. good morning. caller: hey, good morning, good morning. thanks for having me on. so i just wanted to talk a little bit about -- first of all, thanks for pointing out what a heinous human being robert e. lee was and everybody who supported him at that event as you described. but i just wanted to say something quickly about biden's video. notice the tone. notice what he's trying to do. he's trying to garner that same, you know, i am the person who will make all the issues that came in 2016. i will make them go away. that kind of bandwagonning, that kind of emotional appeal, that's something we need to be aware of and i think going forward, he mentioned how buttigieg is really coming hard on this value

edge, this value appeal to people. we have to be wary of that going into debates. we have to understand that the issues we face now, we need solid policy proposals to solve them. and emotionally appeals, yes, they garner support but they're not going to get that job done. so going into debate, we need to see what kind of policy proposals the candidates are coming out with and we've seen a couple already. and, you know, that being said, with the kind of values that i have, i'm supportive of the kind of things that elizabeth warren has brought out so far. host: what's the best proposal you've seen? caller: i mean, we have to understand that educating america will alleviate people from misunderstanding the supporters of charlottesville as good people are very fine people. so her taking action to cancel the crippling student loan debt that is bubbling at a rate that we have, you know, seen only before the financial crisis,

it's serious. and we need to do something serious to tackle it. just like we need serious action to tackle the climate cry is and also about educating america. so that being said, that is something i am absolutely behind and i will go out -- i am going out and talking to people about it because like i said, we need strong policy poems here. host: juan carlos, thank you for the call. guest: yes. fantastic points all across the board. in terms of joe biden, he's basically saying let's go back to a time before donald trump, the good old days when me and obama ran the country. well, let's be honest about that. so was barack obama a good steward of the economy? yes. was he a good president? i would argue question. but did we fix the underlying problems of this country? absolutely not. wages are still flat. so the top 1% recovered, the top 10% arguably recovered but the bottom 90% are still flat lining

and it was a situation bad enough that it got donald trump elected. so no thanks to the overall message of joe biden in that sense but buttigieg talks about values what, do you mean values? we all have i hope the same progressive values. we don't want to let any kids die if they don't have health insurance, etc. but i think what he's referring to is with a lot of corporate donors and the democratic party like. they're good people. they don't want gay people to have less right than straight people and having african-americans getting shot and immigrants being separated at the border. so those are all good values. but a lot of the corporate donors say on top of that, i don't want my taxes increased and i don't want too much regulation. so they say i'm socially liberal but i'm economically

conservative. well then we don't really share your values because we believe that the country's going to be way better off if we are also progressive on economic issues because that helps the entire country and not just the top 10%. host: define socialism. guest: thank you for asking. i really appreciate that. everybody's having a conversation about socialism without ever defining it. the reality is we all live in a mixed economy. so even talk of socialism or capitalism is misplaced. so what is the difference between the united states and a social country like norway? the difference is they provide health insurance and we don't. wow. what a giant difference. there's some other things around the edges that are far better to people who are detained in their prisons, for example in norway and day have a reset victim rate that's much lower. and they don't allow private

schools. there's some tiny issues around the edges but overall, it's pretty much the same economy. so the big argument that the so-called anti-socialist capitalists have is oh, yeah, we would ruin america if we all had health insurance and nobody's kids died. i'm pretty sure it wouldn't ruin america and they never acknowledge the social programs we have. social security. socialist medicare. polling at 84% and 77%. medicaid also very popular. about 70%. also socialist. you know what is socialist? the united states military. i don't know if the knuckleheads on the right wing realize it but it is run by the united states government. host: president trump and the administration talking about socialism quite a bit in recent weeks. this is the vice president mike pence at the n.r.a. convention on friday. this is what he had to say. >> mr. president had said before

it's a battle between independents and government control. and ultimately, it's a battle between freedom and socialism. you know urge the guise of the green new deal and medicare for all, the same democrats who want to take away your freedom openly advocate a failed economic system that is robbed the liberty and impoverished millions of people around the world. but let's be clear. it was freedom, not socialism that gave us the most prosperous economy in the history of the world. [applause] guest: well, that's incredibly unintelligent and demagoguery at its finest. if we have universal health care coverage, somehow we're not free anymore? what a laughable proposition. what a stupid thing to say. so right now, there's 28 million people that are uninsured in the

country. if their kids get cancer, they can't go on the emergency room. you know what happens? they die. monsters like mike pence says so what if they can't afford health insurance. let the kids who have cancer die. we used to have private fire departments in this country. a long time ago. we decided it was a really bad idea because if you don't have fire insurance or your neighbor doesn't, the whole neighbor's going to burn down anyway and we're pot going to let kids die in a fire. but to this day, this system says if your kid gets cancer and you don't have health insurance, i don't care. i'm going to let them die. and that's who mike pence is. let me talk to mike pence. mike what, are you talking about? you love taking away people's freedom. you say if you're gay, you get to live the same lifestyle as the rest of us do but you don't have the same rights. you hate freedom. you talk about big government. you want government so large you're getting between a woman and her doctor, you're getting inside -- a lot of these right

wing states are passing ultrasounds that are -- look, the only way to say is invasive, ok? and some do not make an exception for rape. so after a woman has been raped, they and a transvaginal ultrasound on her that's mandated. you're inside our uterus, mike pence and you're telling us you're in favor of small government? no, you're not. you're a giant hypocrite. i don't care about your so-called morality. i find you deeply immoral and in a country like america, we're not led by mullahs or priests or rabbis. we are led by a united states constitution that says you should not intermingle state and church. so i'm not interested in your interpretation of your church. keep it at home. host: atlanta, georgia, is next. deck, democrat. good morning. guest: caller: good morning.

the problem with obama and the democrats was went they came into office, they bailed -- they could have waited to not help the republican, put in the economical system that they wanted. hey could have took a one -- raised the minimum wage but they want to work with republicans republicans don't care. they rip their economy. so when they get out of office, they put in the tax cuts after clinton got out. they put in tax cuts. tax cuts when it's good and when it's poor. they are going to serve their donors just like trump. he's running a socialist government. he's bailing how the farmers. do they whatever they want to do when they get in office. they don't care. they don't listen to no democrats and the bottom line is pelosi is working with them. she's going to talk to trump. monday, about an infrastructure. no. we want them out of office. they need to run on putting them out of office so they with cut in their own type of plan. host: derrick, got your point.

guest: i think derrick's right on every front there. so, i don't want democrats are going to come and telling me oh, we like to compromise with republicans. i would not like to compromise with republicans. i would like to defeat them. i would like to crush them. so mitch mcconnell is not going meet you halfway. mitchell report -- mitch mcconnell is going to -- not oing to change his mind. he is the most corrupt man in washington. even more corrupt than donald trump. and he only does what his donors tell him to do. there is no negotiation there. so democrats, they've been so weak for so long for god's sakes, fight for your side. so go -- it's your job is not to apiece mitch mcconnell and donald trump. your job is to defeat them. go and fight them and win.

what did obama get it for all of his concessions? including giving away the public option and the affordable care back. did he get a single republican vote in return? no. they are never going to agree with you. they're paid not to agree with you. wake up to the political reality. these people either don't know politics at all. nancy pelosi calls herself a master legislature. hilarious! what on god's green earth have you passed? the affordable carapace. that was a heritage foundation plan one that romney put in place in massachusetts and you got a pass with super ajorities. show me an progressive proposal that you've gotten pass ordinary even introduce introduced. she's actively fighting proposals using right wing talking points and going over to negotiate with donald trump stop it, man. actually fight for us for a

change and they never do. host: lynchburg, virginia, is next. richard a republican. good morning. caller: how are you doing today? host: doing well. go on. you're on with cenk uygur. caller: well, i've been listening to everybody talking and gosh, it kind of threw me -- verybody is against everybody. it's such shame. we need to get up in the morning. and put our t-shirt and blue jeans on and go outside and just see what is -- what is out there for us? it's free. if we seek -- we need to stop talking and thinking about different people other than just everybody is the

same. we all don't come together, this world's going to go to the dogs. let's quit talking about all the -- you know, the statures. i mean, if people want to bring them down, let them bring them down. let's not ride and kill and murder people because of everything that you don't believe in. let's all get together, hold hands and get to work and make merica better again. let's just stop talking -- the senate the cofpblge they've got their hands full, all these bills, all this paperwork. let's just all of us go out and do something. guest: ok. i appreciate the sentiment and there's a pathway that we can get there where we're not always going to agree, of course. this is a mock schism we're not

going to hold hands and sing "kumbaya" all the time. on the other hand, we can get to a situation where we have honest disagreement instead of the mitch mcconnells of the world throwing up a watch. they called him the grim reaper. if you have a democracy, not a popular position to call yourself the grim reaper. but mitch mcconnell thinks rationally so i don't have to appeal to voters. i just have to appeal to donors and i'm going to raise so much money and in my ads, i'll lie and pretend i'm on your side. the poison is money in politics. all these politicians, almost the entirety of the republican party sun and fortunately a huge share of the democratic party, they work for their donors. now, they work for their voters, then we would actually have honest decent conversations in

this country and not be so divided. but if a donor says i paid you for that position, then you're not open to different ideas. you're not open to different perspectives. the only thing that's opened is your checkbook. -- guest: i'm really interested in all options. i've interviewed tulsi a couple f times and andrea yang was on "the young turks." it was the first media outlet that i interviewed him on and he's going to come back on in about a week or so. so does that mean that i think they have positions that are better than bernie sanders and lizabeth warren? i was very opened towards beto and buttigieg. i knew some of kamala harris's record but not all. i encourage you to look into all their records. some stuff that i don't agree

with perfectly but that's normal. give people a chance if mayor pete rose up like he did and other candidates can too, i'm just saying you should look into their policies and give them air hearing. you can go there and we have 60,000 videos but you'll see our latest videos and you could type in buttigieg or videos about him but the interviews on yang and gabbard, you just type in their names and you'll see it. host: cenk uygur with "the young turks" with us. taking your calls as usual. phone lines, democrats, republicans and independents. we'll go to line for independents. kyle in santa monica, california. good morning. caller: good morning. so i used to be a progressive and i just say it simply.

to me, it's a three dimensional world. so left and right is ridiculous. but the american eagle has two wings. it need both a left wing and a right wing to fly. when the right calls the left snowflake, that may be rude but when the left calls the right racist and sexist, it's pushing away a lot of people, and i would be curious and there's a lot of examples of it. so there's a silent majority as much as your guest is excited and i applaud his work in a lot of ways. there's a silent majority of people who have been silenced -- silenced by the bullies coming out of the left and i would like to hear him have a calmly respond in an effort to give his side credibility and not push more people away. he's thrown out a lot of passionate comments today.

but not backed it up with a lot of facts. guest: that's totally not true. i've backed up every single thing i've said with facts. ok. look. the right wing invented identity politics. first of all, it's called slavery. it's not like black people decided hey, you know what, we think we'll have an advantage by calling people racist 200 years from now. so let's sign up for slavery. that is not what happened. what happened was white people in prison, slave, killed murdered black people in this country. now am i saying that you're responsible for that sitting at home in nebraska somewhere? no. no, we're not saying that. what we're saying that acknowledge that history, acknowledge that slavery was identity politics. jim crow was identity politics. discrimination was identity politics and it's the white right wing that has been playing that game. so does that mean you should blame all white people?

of course not. but you should acknowledge where all this came from. so when black lives matter says could you please not shoot black unarmed black men? that's not identity politics and that gets people killed. look, white people and black people smoke marijuana at about the same rate. black people are in prison at four times the rate four times the rate. that's identity politics that robs them of their freedom, their liberty, destroys their lives. and when they push back and say hey, could you not arrest us at four times the rate? then people turn around and go i can't believe they're playing identities politics. stop putting them in prison unjustly. that's identity politics. the republican party did this other strategy where their whole-minute was to go get race first the south and vote for hem.

it's real and its intent was racist. so, when you build an entire political party on identity politics and white supremacy, don't be surprised when people push back and go well, i'm not a white right-winger, so i'm not interested in that party because you seem to dislike people that e of my hue, race, religion, etc. and conservatives love to be advice. that's their favorite thing. oh, my god, can you believe it? somebody said happy holidays to me instead of merry christmas. you want to talk about a snowflake. i mean, that's as big a snowflake as you can possibly imagine. can you still stop being unfair to minorities? now i'm the victim. you're playing identity politics. i was having fun institutionally discriminated against you all these years and now you're going to ruin it by saying i should

stop discriminating. you are doing identity politics. i don't accept that. it's just not true. host: newport, north carolina, is next. julie, a democrat. good morning. caller: good morninging and thank you for taking my call. i would like to make a comment and first of all, i'd like to say that the first time i voted was one week after my 18th birthday in 1972 and i voted for george mcgovern. wonderful man. and i also work for him. i'm concerned about joe biden running because i frankly think he's too old. i would like to see some of the younger categories -- candidates come up. they have really great ideas. i haven't zeroed in on anyone and i will support whoever is the democratic nominee. but i just feel that mr. biden needs to let the younger folks come along. host: how old is too old to run for president?

caller: well, at this point in me, i think we have a lot of -- forgive me, old white men in government. we need to get them out of government. because they are so entrenched in their ideas. so i guess i'm thinking anybody over 60 and i'm 64. guest: ok. so i have to respectfully disagree on that one. i don't think it is their age that drives the issue of being old. the question is whether you have old ideas or not. and so joe biden, look, he's had some great votes and pushed for some progressive ideas. it's not a black and white world and the people that are running that are not your favorite candidate are not evil. they're not bad people. but it's ok to disagree with them and vote against them because that's what a primary is for. but in terms of bernie sanders, he's about the same age as joe biden. but his ideas -- host: slightly older, right? guest: yeah, he's one year

older. host: bernie sanders is 77. biden is 76. guest: yeah. one-year difference. so it's not about the age. it's about the ideas. and bernie sanders' ideas are ascend dependent and some people say he should step aside. wait. that makes no sense. it's his ideas. why wouldn't you trust him the most to execute those ideas? and if i thought there was a copy of bernie sanders that was younger, maybe we have a conversation about that. but the reason people trust bernie sanders is because he's been saying the same thing and been principled for the last 40 years. so this also an advantaging in that. we know he didn't change his mind. this is what he's always been in favor of. so judge them based on their ideas and not necessarily any demographic issues like age. host: by the way, we should note president trump turning 73 in june. about 10 minutes left with cenk uygur. promise we would ask you about the mueller report.

you tweeted last week that after the report came out, you're now in favor of impeachment. why? guest: well now we know that donald trump has broken two laws clearly. so one before the mueller report was campaign finance violations his co-conspirator is going to prison for three years. that's michael cohen. and if he was any other person, including a right-winger, actually, de sousa went to prison for a similar crime. it's a felony. and after the mueller report, we know that he did obstruction of justice and mueller said to congress you should take that matter up. so if nancy pelosi and the democrats say we're not going to pursue those two felonies, i'm worried about the principle of the matter more than i am about the politics. that means that the president's above the law. that's a terrible fronte set. i wouldn't do that under any circumstance. host: tyreke hill's op-ed,

here's what she wrote. congress should hold substantive hearing and fill in as gaps, not jump. she says watergate offers a better president than is now. ere was an cor-up -- guest: i don't agree. seeing the can down the road. you're going to do more hearings if it turns out you've got three crimes, eight crimes? how many crimes would it take to compete and two is plenty. and we got a petition of tyt.com/impeach. you got to get going. and what nancy pelosi said was

donald trump's been really good for democratic fundraising. and so i think they want to just keep up the hearings to do their fundraising. we've got plenty of evidence. he clearly broke those laws. let's impeach. host: to indiana, where dennis is waiting. line for republicans. go ahead. caller: i got a question for this whatever you want to call him here. he's always talking about the morality of the republicans not wanting to give insurance to children and stuff that i bet yo you being a progressive here that he has absolutely no problems with the slaughter of innocent children in the womb. how would he like to answer that question? guest: i would love to answer that question. you should read your own bible. the bible is pro abortion. if you think your wife cheated on you, give her a toxic potion. she did cheat on you, she would have a miscarriage. in other words, god will perform an abortion. i didn't write that. god wrote that. read your own bible. it's not pro-life.

it's not even pro-choice on the bible is pro abortion. so all this is built on a total mythology and dennis, we live in america, not in saudi arabia. so if you don't mind, i don't really care what your religious beliefs are and they're not not going to dictate what i do in my life. you know why? because i believe in freedom. and you plarnle -- apparently don't. i said to you you have to follow my religious laws. my guess is all of a sudden, you would be screaming freedom, freedom. why do i have to follow your religious laws? i'm not in your religion! it's a really sad day for you and i'm not and so are hundreds of millions of americans are not in your religion. so, i don't -- one, you have your own religion wrong. massively wrong you built a whole political party around being wrong! ok? and secondly, i don't care with a your religion is and third of all, you guys claim that you're for small government. then go. oh, no, no, no. i'm going decide what you do with your body. i'm going to do this, this and

this. the reality is i believe the supreme court got the least policy of it right, which is that if a baby is viable outside of the womb, then it is an independent human being and the state must protect it. but if it is not viable outside the womb, dependent on the mom and the mom gets to make the decision. and that's actually what drives you guys crazy. why did you purposely misinterpret the bible to take away women's rights? because, including the bible, women are property. and so you treat them as such. well, we have to interest in that today. so we don't agree and we'll fight back. host: i did want to get your thoughts on the attorney general appearing on capitol hill this week. some news cnn reporting this morning. william barr has more democrats on the house judiciary committee that he won't show up say? stick by the format that the chamber has proposed for the questioning.

although it's still possible they could reach a deal before thursday. of course, william barr expected to testify before the republican controlled senate judiciary committee on wednesday. guest: yeah. so as usual republicans are hypocrites. they demanded that the obama administration going for them what was eight or nine investigations on benghazi? and the first seven cleared them. and the eight also cleared them. and if they had a 9/11, that also cleared them. but the democrats kept going back and going back. and now we have a legitimate issue of law breaking. the president is a criminal and all of a sudden, participating with congress no no way. they call it presidential harassment. what the hell does that mean? i think i read the constitution. vitae ever read the first amendment? it's called freedom of the press. this is no such thing as presidential harassment. that's made up because donald trump's a snowflake. host: david from new york, a democrat. good morning.

caller: hi. i think you got my name wrong. it's luke. i was really angry. i was talking to some of my friends who say we need a bold centrist to go against trump. and i don't agree with that at all. i believe trump is as right wing as you can get. i think pete buttigieg is a bold groff. if you look at bold progressives who can get the sludge through congress t very clear that bold progressives can get things done in congress. guest: yeah. obviously, i agree. bold centrist. i'm going to stand right in the middle of the road. actually, that might be bold. no. i don't find the corporate democrats to be bold at all. oh, look at that. i took a donor check just like the republicans did and it turns out yeah, you need to cut taxes. that's fine and drug companies, you want to make sure that the american government can't negotiate with you? that's fine. yeah. i don't find that bold.

i find it sad. so if you're looking for a bold progressive, i love that you're doing that. >> lynn, north carolina, republican. go ahead. caller: yes. i would like to ask this fella what is his authority to sit up here and spew all this hateful, all republicans are racist? do you live in my household? do you know me? you cannot sit there and tell everybody i'm a racist so people can come and attack me. y'all are the problem. y'all were the ones that spewing all this hate and dividing everybody. guest: lynn, do you support donald trump? caller: yes, i like donald trump. guest: well, that's why we think you're a racist. lynn, do you get it? the guy, after they found out the central park fire they can five black kids did not commit the rape. he said who cares? keep them in prison anyway. they probably did something he's

a terrible guy. anti-semitism. channing jews will not replace us. he's saying we should ban muslim. that's bigotry. calling latinos criminals and racist. you're on board for that, you should look in the mirror. caller: right now on the tv, you are the racist. you are. and you have no right to say this. guest: no, i do have a right. see, you're used to republicans being strong on television and democrats cowering. new day in america. we don't play that game. progressives, we actually fight back. so, you can call me racist based on what? ok? and i never said anything about white people. i said right wingers and people who support donald trump. that's why i asked you if you support trump. i'm judging you by the people that you're backing. i'm not doing it blindbly and i'm not doing it based on your

race. but it's donald trump that makes assumptions about race over and over and over again base odd on the stereotypes. he's got sitting on the back of his head and so when those people in puerto rico needed help, he didn't give them the help and he called them lazy. that's because he's a racist. he's had that stereotype about puerto ricans his whole life and he caused thousands of lives down there because we didn't get them help enough. that is policy. that makes a difference. those people died. when we say hey, we're worried that he didn't take action because of his stereotype callaway of thinking about puerto ricans, that's not racism. that's saying for gods sake, go help those people and we're worried that you're not because of your racial attitudes. so you don't get to cry victim after you abuse every other race in this country and we push back and say could you please stop doing that? and you can't then go oh, my god, you're so racist and the systemic way that we oppress

minorities in this country. no deal. no day in america. this time, we fight back. host: cenk uygur, founder and host of "the young turks." come back again. appreciate your time. guest: thank you so much. host: up next on the "washington journal," we will be joined by maj toure, founder of black guns matters. we will have discussions about gun violence prevention in the african-american community. stick around. we'll be right back. ♪ announcer: once, tv was a giant network and a

government-supported network -- service called pbs. and then a network rolled out a big idea. let viewers decide on on their own what was important to them. c-span opened the doors to washington policy making for all to see. bringing you unfiltered content from congress and beyond. in the age of power to the people, this was true people power. in the 40 years since the landscape has clearly changed. there's no monolithic media, broadcasting has given way to narrow casting and youtube stars are a thing. but c-span's big ideas is more relevant today than ever. to government money supports c-span. it's non-partisan coverage of washington is funded as a public service by your cable or satellite provider on television and online. c-span is your unfiltered view of government so you can make up your own mind. ♪ announcer: monday night on the communicators. a conversation on privacy and

internet developments with co-author mary stone ross and daniel weiss for the from the m.i.t. internet policy research initiative. >> the stakes are higher now because we're talking about deploying automated decision making capabilities. that is the ability for machines to ethicist with decisions about people or in com some cases make those decisions about people. >> i'm a lawyer. i read so many different private policies and they're not meant to inform a consumer about what information is collected and thousand that forest is going to be used. we need to have meaning content about using a product or not. announcer: watch the communicators monday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span2. "washington journal" continues. host: maj toure is at our desk. he's co-found other they have group black guns matters. what is black guns matters and

how did it start? guest: we're firearm safety and training training. we go to areas where there's high gun control, high racism and inform people in urban america about their second amendment right, about firearm fety, conflict resolution, de-escalation. host: how many members do you have? guest: i have no idea how many members. i believe if you bought a t-shirt, if you donored go fund me. if you support our stuff, then you are down with black guns matters. i'm not a fan of list. if people want to identify themselves, we do. but we are crowd source. host: your t-shirt says call gun control is racist. why? guest: it is. it is directly aimed at black people that is older in america. some of those rules were if you happen to see a native or a black person to have something that looks ike a weapon, you have the ability to kill that

man or woman. well, not even woman. so gun control, even after emancipation when cool white folks or black folks fought for liberation saying this whole freedom thing, maybe not so much for the black people. so that's the basis and origin of gun control in america. host: how did you get into this work? guest: we just keep seeing the same people catch the same case and you start seeing that hey, the guys are going to jail for a simple possession of a firearm even though our second amendment said shall not be infringed. i've had personal experiences with guys, good job. work at a bank. buy a firearm lawfully. doesn't know he has to spend $20 to fill out paperwork and he can license himself to protect his life in that rough neighborhood. get caught with a firearm. go to jail. catch a felony. lose a job. lose his apartment. because of an infringement. so for us, we're talking about

locking people up from urban america. a lot of that happens to be black people. just for having a gun. once we knew the was information, we said ok. we can do this. we are inform urban america about their rights and push back against a lot of those racial policies. host: phone lines different in this segment. it's split by gun owners or non-gunners. if you're a gun owner, 202-748-8000, if you're not a gun owner, 202-748-8001. maj toure of the group black guns matters will be with us for about the next 45 minutes this morning. you mentioned your work in philadelphia. i want to show some folks your youtube video of an example of one of the street gun classes that you helped conduct. here are some of the work that maj toure does. ♪ >> what's up? hey. how are you? >> yeah, you too. >> all right. so this is what we're going to

do. an impromptu gun safety class right here. all right. it's your firearm. this is your firearm. now. you just muzzled him. he muzzled his own shoe. here's his knife. so that's one of the reason that you broke offside. so what we got right here is replica firearms. it doesn't matter. this is safety. these are not firearms. you want to shoot this like a light labor. if you ever go to the range, this is what the safety officers doing this. they're moving. they handling it to each other this way. so this muzzle like in "star wars" anything -- you want to treat it the same way. boosm you give me this. boom. bam. see how we did it? he's sweeping up. make this magazine out and i

would rack this collide make sure that slide racks backward and make sure there's no brown in there. host: how often do you do that sort of thing? guest: every day. this is my life now. we're in a space right now where there's a lot of policy to the right and the left that are in direct violation of our human right, natural law. so, knowing that we have a connection on the community as stated in the second amendment. knowing we have a connection to a community that no one else does, this is something we have .o put on not only 24/7 it has to be 24/8. host: did you know the guys in that video? life, we a different were involved in other activities. but they turned their lives around. amend got murdered, the security guard -- a man got murdered, the

security guard at the store where we was at. there was 30, 40 people out there learning about firearms safety. biting the bullet. host: have any police come across these demonstrations? guest: oh, yes. host: what goes on? guest: if they are legitimate law enforcement, they do not have an issue. i think they have more of an issue with someone telling people to get guns and shoot the police. description,r job your uniform does not dictate who you are as a person or lack thereof for review should champion us teaching people, all across 40, 50 million americans how to be safe, responsible, law-abiding citizens. groupmaj toure from the black guns matter with us this

morning. while not, mississippi, good morning. caller: good morning. i live in mississippi. a lot of my friends hunt. rabbit hunt, squirrel hunt, deer hunt, turkey hunt. ahead.o your point about hunting? a lot of your democrats now are trying -- they want to ban assault weapons -- in 16's, main reason, they want to get down to taking control of every gun in this country. you know, a lot of people in my part of the country loved to hunt.

is this is something that not going to go well with the people in my state. jerry from mississippi. maj toure? guest: i agree. most gun owners understand whether it is for hunting, shooting sports, whatever it is, but the biggest thing is to protect the people from tyranny. that's all in there. when you try to isolate urban america and take the rights away from the people -- urban americans of all races, right? dictate the lessee for the rest of that particular state. what he was saying, in a bigger city they will implement policy, along with the ignorance and start coming for those hunters' firearms as well. were all connected. host: do you hunt? guest: no, i protect. host: how many guns do you have? guest: a bunch of them.

i'm not sure. host: when did you first pick up a gun? lawfully or unlawfully? unlawfully, i think i was about 16. my uncle left the garden in the house spirit you go outside. you think, i wish somebody would , and unfortunately no one got hurt. actually, i have an uncle at that time in vietnam, reenlisted, went to desert storm , all these different places. i had a different position with my friends and how they work handling firearms and my uncle. he was like, yell, yocum a yoke, you are idiots. complete idiots. yo, you are idiots. he went down to georgia or something like that. my point was, i had a difference between someone doing it properly and again the people doing it improperly. host: when is the time you fired

a weapon? guest: at the range. yeah. statute of limitations -- host: it said it like you're going to talk about something else. guest: yes, but i'm smarter than that. [laughter] joseph from greensboro, north carolina, a non-gun owner. , i want totoure applaud you for what you're doing. i was raised in newark, new jersey during the 1960's riots and i was raised as a child to believe that no one should have officer ort a police a criminal. i have lived in north carolina for 40 years. the 40 years i have lived in north carolina, i have had family members, black-and-white, and white, whok own guns. when you look at the murder

rates for the state of north carolina compared to the murder rate in the state of new jersey, there's a tremendous difference. am kindnt to say is i of a born-again gun person. i do not own a gun myself. i do not use a gun. i choose not to have a gun. but my stepson carries a gun. it is legal. he is fingerprinted. and i certainly believe that african-american americans should be allowed to own and carry firearms. guns are not the problem. it is people who are the problem. that's all i have to say about that. guest: i will give them a little push back there. the reality -- it's a human right. even at certain times can you had americans who were enslaved, right before this session here, we got from the young turks that were just on, he spoke about certain rates. harriet tubman understood the

human right to self-defense. again, as stated in the second amendment of the constitution. he's 100% right in that regard. what happens, because people are not aware of the history, the racist history of gun control, and they are not understanding act,ed knee, the monfort california, the very unconstitutional state it is in right now are because of those types of policies that are very racist. i think african american people, maybe more so than any other people in america, who have a long-standing history with firearms, they should be the group of people overwhelmingly going, no, i need firearms to protect myself, my family, my life. columbus, ohio is next. mark is a gun owner. good morning. caller: good morning, sir. i'm glad you're doing what you're doing, man. i am so tired of white people

just thinking they own this country and black people are not allowed to do anything. . am a gun owner i also have a permit to carry my gun concealed, but i don't anymore because i am scared in the city of columbus ohio because this is where the most black people are killed in america. there's a little short white guy or a short white woman sees meet with a gun, i am liable to get shot. that's not cool. there's two things to that. we can get killed unarmed and that's all citizens. when you are in one environment, if your environment has 10 bad cops and that's the only interaction you have with the 10 bad cops, you will have disdain for law-enforcement, right?

the reality of the situation, white males in america are also getting shot i law-enforcement, too. a race not necessarily issue. gun control is a racist concept. this is tyranny. making sure americans have the ability to defend themselves, especially with the biases and bigotry we all have. the other part of that is, i just want to be sure to be very, very clear. black people,-- and i'm specifically talking about black people, black people with the history we have had in america -- jim crow, willie lynch, slave catchers -- you are almost insane to continue to support politicians from whichever party that is in alignment with more gun control. we have rules against murder. we have rules against don't

shoot a person. stand your ground. castle doctrine. what. you still have to prove justified deadly force. i don't want people to have this concept that, oh, i'm not going to -- be afraid. if you were afraid. i carry a firearm for the same reason police officer does, to protect life. i am not the threat, especially if i went to their the process of getting fingerprinted. i literally like the card-carrying good guy. host: can you explain who philando castile was. guest: absolutely. he was the young african-american. he was killed -- she was murdered by a law enforcement officer, he was murdered because he was a card-carrying good guy and he ran into a bigoted, biased, fearful law-enforcement officer that should not have been a law-enforcement officer.

he also lived in a state that was not duly notified. that means, do you have a duty to notify law enforcement if you firearm.ing a minnesota is not a duty to notify. if i could rewind time, jump and his buddy, and say, you do not have to let this officer know you have a license to carry. that's not the law in your state. mr. casteel would still be here. i believe that the officer should have been locked under the jail. the contradiction which is a must looking like it's not equal protection under the law -- if some officers are not being n citizens are murdered. if i make a mistake and murder someone because i fear for my life, i have to prove my life was in imminent danger as a with a firearm. we want that standard.

there's nothing we can do to bring him back, but we can use these things as teachable moments. i wish a lot of organizations would have jumped in and exposed contradiction. everybody is quite about it. not black guns matter. we went there and taught resolution and firearm safety right after the verdict. raycancian: rate -- host: is not a gun owner. go ahead. caller: i listened to this young man. it sounds like he has a lot of good sense and made a lot of good points. my comment is about the previous guest. be ashamedought to of yourself. you let this man have an hour of propaganda. thes no more than any of professors in these colleges that are driving this liberal progressive trapped him in

throats of these young people. that is why he is in the business. he could not convince people with age, a little bit of knowledge about his craft. watching, if you keep c-span you will see views from all sides on this network. keep watching. maj toure is here right now. a lot of folks are waiting to chat with him. ohio, a gun owner, good morning. caller: you make interesting points, but i have to say it goes both ways. after all, they shut down a 12-year-old kid in cleveland. understand ohio is a right to carry state. they saw him and unloaded on him. case, they have a are not going to prosecute because america is so racist you can't get people to put a guilty conviction on a cop. even when they shoot a guy in the back, which we learned as kids is a cowardly act.

i live in the suburbs. if you live in a troubled area and gangsters are around, how are you going to defend yourself? there is a woman cleaning buildings in downtown and she has to transfer buses and come back late or early in the morning and she has to carry a weapon to defend herself against rapists and murderers, and yet the police are going to consider her a legal for carrying a gun? i applaud what you're doing. i try to do the same with young men. if you have military training, know how to use a weapon. all these things you need to know if you are going to defend yourself. i am and 100% agreement. that is the contradiction we have america. oncannot ignore that stain the flag. that's called slavery. it's there. it happened. that's the reality. at the same time we can

understand and acknowledge and never repeated again. firearms is the ability to protect against that if you're talking about afghan american spirit if your talking about irish immigrants, jewish people, you understand very thoroughly, you have things to protect against. especially state-sponsored violence. but that does not mean america racist place.very that's the pushback i would give to the caller who just called him. but he's right. i can't say, i thought this guy was going to -- i feared for my life. i feared for my life, so i shot him. just because you were afraid does not mean your life was in imminent danger. what he's talking about, the child that was murdered, ok? because, oh, we got a call that somebody had a gun in an open carry state. it's an open carry state. there's no law being broke even if you get the call that someone is around with a gun.

after that happens, law-enforcement officers are getting off. what does that say about, you know, the balance of prosecuting people, the citizens, and law-enforcement equally? that's not happening. we have to start suing people. even if you think in the criminal scenario -- they can lose in the criminal scenario and i have to rehash this point. stop saying that -- because i might get shot. if you're getting shot unarmed, i want to advance my chances, know-how to communicate, how to share with law enforcement officers. how are you doing, officer? my firearm is located here. how would you like me to proceed? training in conflict resolution. that is why we raise money, to keep these classes free, for all

americans, especially in urban america. host: are you a member of the nra? guest: i was. i'm not anymore. host: why not? guest: they lied. they like to me for years. i have questions about policies they are supporting. red flag laws, very unconstitutional acts. i'm not supportive of an organization that says without due process, because somebody maj ismething -- oh, dangerous. this t-shirt could scare people. and the police ignore due process. that's not the america i want to live in. that's not the rules of engagement for americans. because we think you have guns we will ignore due process and we will come in your house with a no knock warrant to take your firearms. not even me. that removes due process. the nra has supported that. i was very open when we started black guns matter. they are clearly not in urban america.

i am objective. if something changes, i will switch along with that. i think that they have policies that are not in alignment with americans freedom -- and american's freedom. as americans our highest alignment is to truth and justice. some of the policies that they promote right now -- host: oliver north saying yesterday that he would not serve as the president of the national rifle association, a surprise after dispute with wayne lopp year, the longtime public face of the organization ierre charged north was trying to let him out of the organization. any thoughts? the nra says they have 5 million members. there's over 100 million gun

owners in america. ok? we are treating the inner a like it's the federal reserve. we're centralizing the situation. that's not what it is. -- we are putting the nra like is the federal reserve. i think we keep giving the nra a lot of this energy as if they are the only people who speak for gun owners and that's not the case. they don't even speak for urban america. we do. you've got a guy who, out of his own mouth told me that they want to work and support the work we .re doing it hasn't happened. now you look at this weird relationship between them and the pr firm that premature and stuff and you look -- have they changed the racist policy or are they pushing for more of those rules? they are. we still have to talk about the are in how many women positions of power over at the nra? that's sexist.

loesch love to see dana the president of the nra. that's what i would love to see. letou want to send money to guns matter and all of that, that's great. i would lovehat, for the people, the actual people to get in alignment with their human right to self-defense and if you want to have a conversation about that, if you want some help, we got you at what does matter. host: tennessee, carl is not a gun owner. good morning. caller: i go along with this guy, but let me put it to you like this. even when you are licensed to carry a gun -- you are clean, you are up the standards of what ever they want to say. what is to stop the police from shooting you just because you

are black? the nra is part of this racial stuff. misleadingjust plain people. that is the whole thing about it, man. ?ost: maj toure reason that i the am not a member of the nra anymore. we want to change things. we want to make things better. you have to do the things that you said you are you have to go, ok, this is where we were wrong. we can support folks, we can strengthen our union, strengthen the republic. but that has not happened. that is the first point. the other point the gentleman just made, it's no one else's responsibility. what stops the policeman operating as a thug? because if you are licensed, you know the protocols, you move as such -- and you do that and that law enforcement officer still tries to take your life, you have the right to defend your

life. they do not have a license to kill. all right? i mean tupac shot two off-duty officers whont were harassing him and he didn't go to jail. we have countless videos from youtube. one right here in d.c. law-enforcement officers taking a young black man, they have him in handcuffs and they have to hand him his firearm back because these licensed to carry. i do know what people to fall for this rhetoric that "oh, they are going to kill me just because i'm black." we are in a space that is different when slavery was happening. we are not falling for that bluff. americans, not limited to black americans, should be armed, responsible, safe, dealing with conflict resolution their life from anyone -- regardless of their life -- and most law-enforcement

officers will be ok. i'm a good cop. i'm not harassing someone unnecessarily. there's no reason for it to go there. and if it does i'm a bad cop. mr. cancian: -- host: of the shootings of shootings in philadelphia, 84% were lacked last year. guest: how many were suicide? host: we will look on the chart to see. 81% nonfatal., how many were suicides? do you know the stack? nationallylly about it 60% suicides. my city has a tremendous issue with mental health. my city has a tremendous issue of conflict resolution. a lot of these guys -- i am going to sound sexist -- a lot of guys and women do not have formal firearms training.

this is my community. they do not have a good handle on conflict resolution and de-escalation. civics.tand all of this is being taken out of the school. as they become better fighters, they fight less. one because i'm aware of what i can do to you and i'm aware that you're probably not even trained. , right?at stat philadelphia is one of the most blue cities.- carry.vania is open philadelphia, if you carry, you concealed, which supersedes the philadelphia state constitution, which is unconstitutional. with that being the case, there's less firearms training, education, safety, and that's indicative of across the country.

everywhere there is less , that is where the murder rates are. chicago, compton, detroit, atlanta, what, miami. all these places where there is poverty. very little civics. very little respect for firearms culture at mesa commitment minute. they go hand-in-hand with ignorant. , they aretch that notorious for lower violent crime. there's a great study in a book called "more guns, less crime." that is there. bye, mr. joe biden. mass shootings are in gun free zones. we don't have an issue with firearms. if gun owners were the problem, everybody would be dead. everybody would be dead. there's 100 million gun owners

we are aware of. there's over 300 million guns we are aware of. guns are not the issue. ignorance is the issue. our guest has been on the program, has been on the network some 38 times if you search on c-span.org for john lott. taking your calls with maj toure . on owner waiting in fremont, ohio. -- a gun owner waiting in fremont, ohio. good morning. caller: hello. i want to thank you. i do have a permit to carry. it's just for defense. gentleman is the first person i have been compelled to call on. i want to thank you. what you are doing is wonderful.

what you are doing is you are teaching rights. was raised in a military family. my father served 21 years. i lived in other countries. amazed.st what religion you are, what color you are, what sex you are, you have rights and what you are doing is teaching and i thank you. as soon as we start exercising our rights and lose our fear, we -- we respectre each other. what i hear from people is a lack of knowledge because they have fear. i really applaud you. i'm going to look up your organization and i will be donating to you because you're

doing what we need and just keep up the good work. host: if folks want to find out more, how do they do that? guest: they can hit us on twitter. maj toure. gofundme. we have raised about $180,000 over the last two years. we have $18,000 left to raise year of 2019. if someone hears what they like it was to do something, go to black comes matter. host: how many cities are human? three years ago we said we will do 13 cities like the 13 colonies. i have not been off the road in three years. leicester we did 70 events, 40 or 50 cities. i do not you and remember no. the cities start to blur. this year were doing 25 cities.

we cut in half because we did 50 leicester. we cut it in half and added political education as a component. yes, it's about a firearm, but it is so much more than that. i am not a gun guy. that's the other thing. i'm a freedom guy. the firearm is just the way we ?efend our freedom, right the bigger impacting thing is letting american citizens know this is your human, god-given, natural birthright to defend your life. that is why it is coded number two in the bill of rights. it's not a government granted right. it is right when you are born. changing the conversation, especially in urban america -- if you have a gun, you better be

law enforcement or a criminal. that is false. if that's true, harriet tubman was a criminal, all these different, great american heroes. frederica wilson on twitter -- he wrote, teachers need the resources required to give our kids the best possible education and to be properly compensated for their hard work. guns are the absolute last thing they need. your thoughts on arming teachers. guest: i think a teacher who decides that they want to be armed as a human -- why are we creating a line? why are we telling these teachers, hey, you can't bring firearm -- safe, responsible gun owner that raises our children -- you can bring a firearm into this place to potentially defend if need the? that is the most backwards thing i ever heard in my life. and the

other thing. ok, let's say you going to the say, i know the guy, the security guard in the front will have a gun. what if it is the janitor. it is the janitor? what if it is the security guard? teacher, saying, hey, every day you have to defend your 20 or 30 students from a weirdo. we're not saying that. if you want to train yourself, we can create instructions so you can protect our children and i will guarantee you, more of those weirdos will not be running around in schools. teacherse telling our they don't have the right in their lives to defend our ?hildren if need be that's the most backwards thing

i ever heard in my life. glenn, good morning. caller: good morning. i really like this young fella. was 13earned gun since i years old. that was the first time i owned a firearm. the thing that i would like to people who own firearms are bad people. people who don't own firearms art that people. -- people who own firearms aren't that people. people who don't own firearms aren't bad people. john, i have a bone to pick with you. two segments ago you let a guy and you did a guy prime example. shooting, the

synagogue, the guy was stopped by somebody in the church with a firearm. and you neglected to read that in the paper, and then when you put trump on, you neglected to finish it where he praised the guy for stopping the shooting. so that is big news -- fake news. young man, i wish you would get together with the guardian angels and go to chicago. the only way you will clean chicago up, it will have to company people who live there. i love you, man, and keep up the good work. host: who are the guardian angels? guest: the guardian angels are like a biker group. they have media spend, and it makes them look like, oh, they are all meth dealers, things like that. they are guys with backgrounds from rough neighborhoods that do

positive things. the guardian angels will go to children's hospitals and give toys and things like that. i did move to chicago. i moved there to do conflict resolution. i think a lot of organizations, they go there as a photo op. they don't live amongst the people. you're not from the place, people will not follow you here it does not feel the same. made inroadsat we in urban america is because black comes matter -- black guns matter is urban america. we had the serious conversations that affected demographics. all we did was conflict resolution for an entire month. it was a big holiday in may. small dent, but just based on

people sitting down and saying, hey, this is what conflict is. this is what conflict isn't. say, stay in your bathroom for 23 hours. are you ok with that being your life? little things to show these people who don't have a point of reference. so, we moved to chicago to do that work, no cameras, no safety net, just amongst the old. that is what needs to happen. one of our viewers says, i still don't think that people need ak's on the streets. his right to express himself. i don't agree. when you say people do not have on the streets.

i can't conceal my ak. i cannot conceal my brand of rifle. i want to go hunting, if i wanted train, so forth and so on. not having an ak on the street is a personal choice. if he doesn't want to have one, that is his right. i will always defend someone's right to choose. semiautomaticut weapons? guest: your personal property is your personal property. we have rules against murder. if i use the c-span -- if i want to use this cup to do something wrong, i will go to jail. i use this tool for the wrong thing. this cup is not a thing to be people in the head with. it is a cup. you drink coffee. i will go to jail. i will serve my time. portions of the right and the left think it will be, oh, my god, this is a thing.

it's only a thing because that weirdo allegedly did a thing -- i'm not going to say he did a thing. he murdered people. he murdered people using the bump stock. uses a think if someone tool we start violating people's rights. i smoke cigars. cigarettesars and create cancer. it's my choice. i drink every day. i love bourbon. i love whiskey. i drink or clearly that's a problem. it's not good for me. i'm american, i have the right to choose that. right? someone, i go to jail. we are telling people come your personal property, the government says, you better turn it into us or we will make you a felon, even though you did not do the wrong thing with that particular jewel. host: should every garden purchase go through a federal background -- should every done

purchase go through a federal background check? guest: we already have that. backgroundcharacter check. we arty have that. federal firearms license he sell you i cannot that. we have those things. i think that goes back to the misinformation thing. we have all these politicians and this space -- i in the space, we have these politicians with the armed security detail -- the rules they put for everyone else they are exempt from but they are telling american citizens what they should and should not have. i think that's a contradiction. they already exist. every time you purchase a lawful firearm, that is a background check. not: glen bernie, maryland, a gun owner, good morning. caller: good morning. how are you?

host: good morning. you are on with maj toure. sir, i want to say you are absolutely right and you have an exclusive and wonderful platform and we thank you. i want to tell you what happened to me. my husband and i were driving from maryland to texas. we stopped in virginia. there was a white man standing there. the husband went into the store. there was a white man who walked up to me, pulled his coat back and showed me his gun. i had no idea what i was working with. but today, you brought it all out to me and i want to thank you for that. maj toure. guest: where does. what he was called -- what he did was called brandishing. which is unlawful. he attempted to intimidate her. he brandished it. was it to a point where if he was with me -- my life at that

point would not have been in imminent danger. but let's say he does that to a woman at 4:00 in the morning as she is coming home from her job? let's say we are creating spaces and rules that the weirdo is not going to care about the rule. clearly, he doesn't. he's walking up to random people at the gas station showing his gun. that guy is a weirdo. what if he decided to pull that firearm out and potentially wanted to kill and/or rape her? that woman meets the means to defend herself. we live in america. the freest nation, ideologically, the freest nation in the entire world. but we are telling citizens we don't have the right to defend ourselves from citizens and weirdos are out here. do we live in communist china? running things? are we in venezuela? are we in places where the government says all for me? i thought this was america. that is what i thought.

i will quickly move somewhere else. one last call. mike has been waiting period a gun owner. you for the thank work you're doing, sir. that's great to see. i wish more young people would go through that. i know my son has been through and i'm encouraging my daughter too, also. but what i want to talk about is why he is gun control is started and i think a lot of people do not understand the history. they think, we are trying to get guns out of bad people's hands, because white out democrats did not want black people to have guns because they were afraid of retribution, afraid of being attacked. think if more black people would have had weapons, they would have stood a better chance it when i watch videos, and

made me understand what this is all about. and ik that you continue hope that people get the message and i appreciate your work. host: maj toure, i will give you the final minute this morning. crux of it.is the gun control. that is what the founding fathers were so adamant. the british were, yo, send them rifles back. the revolution of some decent music spirit as a black man in america, there's a contradiction. i will take full advantage of my human rights regardless of where i am. what that caller just said is the origin of gun control in america. just like power corrupts it starts --

spreading and now we got to fix it. gun control is the same thing. like people specifically. white brothers and sisters, my agent brothers and sisters, my spanish brothers and sisters, whatever. gun control is just out of one and trying to make all americans subservient to the government. direct opposition to what the founding fathers road town, created, fought for. if you believe yourself to be an american, you will not support politicians, businesses, policies that are in alignment with anti-american values. , founder ofure plaque guns matter on twitter. easy enough to find you up next for our final 15 minutes or so

today, getting your thoughts on two different programming inside the beltway, the white house correspondents dinner took place. the other was president trump's rally in wisconsin. getting your reaction to both events and her thoughts on president trump's relationship with the news media. phone lines are on your screen. we can start calling and now when we will be right back. -- you can start calling in now and we will be right back. ♪ tonight on "q&a," david brooks on his book "the second mountain: the quest for a moral life." mosthave motivated the amazing people. they are motivated to do good. life is hard for them. they have taken on heavy burdens

and do not have a lot of money, but they live very inspiring lives. >> david brooks on c-span's "q&a ." >> monday night on "the communicators," a conversation on privacy and internet developments with the california privacy act co-author and our guest from the m.i.t. policy research initiative. becausetakes are higher were talking about deploying automated decision-making capability is, that is, the ability for machines to assist with decisions about people or, in some cases, unilaterally make decisions about people. i am a lawyer. i have read so many different policy policies -- privacy policies. they are clearly not formulated to inform the consumer. the consumer news to make a decision about using a product or not. >> watch "the communicators"

sunday night at 8 p.m. eastern on c-span2. >> you're watching american history tv. all weekend, every weekend on c-span 3. -- continues. journal" the annualould watch event,ng, the black-tie and then president trump in with 10,000allied supporters. the headline from "the new york times," "president trump has his eveaway from reporters' here isnts." [video clip]

president trump: is there any place more fun than a trump rally? sleepy joe,ine crazy bernie? you look at the candidates, right? i think pocahontas, she's finished, she's out. she's gone. no, when it was found out i had more indian blood in me than she that it was determined i had none, but i still had more. that was the end of her 32-year scam on colleges. but can you imagine? there are the 200 people who would show up if they were president. if they were not president, nobody would show up. is that right? about 10,000 people showed

up in wisconsin near green bay. that was the president last .ight as the white house correspondents dinner, the president, olivia knox addressed and presidente trump's absence from the event. we will show you that and other clips. clip] on the not want to dwell president. this is not his event. it is ours. and it should stay ours. i will say this. in 23 years, i have been assaulted by republicans and democrats, spat on, and shove, i have been told i senior officials of both major parties i would never work again and i whenht there was a moment an afghan officer would shoot me dead for taking a picture inside the presidential palace. and yet i still separate my 17 -- between ferrari

february 17 and after because that's when the president called the press enemies of the people. i was driving my son to soccer practice and he burst into tears and said "is donald trump going to put you in prison?" hey, uncle josh. tell my family not to touch packages on our stoop. my name is on a statement condemning the president for criminalizing -- condemning the president. i have my name on death threats. too many of us as. it should not have to be said in a room full of people who understand the power of words, but fake news and enemies of the people are not pet names, punchlines, or presidential. reject politically

expedient assaults on the minute women whose hard work makes it possible to hold the powerful to account. if you misseday, either of those events, they are both available on our website at the span.org. you can click over in the ofht-hand column for either those two dividends. we want your reaction. connie is up first in florida, and independent. good morning. caller: good morning. i did not watch either event. i just want to say. i think trump is a con man and ignorant buffoon, but i do have to say this. who keeps the media accountable? the head of the journalists association says they are doing the citizens a great favor by keeping those in power in check, who keeps the media in check? nobody. that is why have to say i agree

with some of the things trump does even though he's an idiot. let me tell you one thing. the mainstream media, whatever you want to call it -- corporate media, commercial media -- has lost all credibility. to npr, which i can hardly stand some of their shows anymore. i listen to the bbc. i listen to pbs newshour and "democracy now," because i can hardly stand any corporate media. look at abc news, for example. i believe they were the first to , and now sheazile is working for fox news? why is she not shunned by so-called journalists? because they are interested in appeasing their advertisers. host: one question on your thought about the media, who keeps the media in check. do you think the media does a

good enough job of that on its own? obviously conservative media, very quick to call out what they see as liberal bias and vice versa? you don't think that that system works? the media keeping itself in check that way? caller: how can you police yourself? flipe like david folk and on npr? -- they areritics insiders themselves. they cannot look at themselves in an objective way. , the poweris doing of the press, he is questioning their motives. i don't agree with most of what he says, probably less than 2%, but this idea i do agree with because he is saying, look at their sources, look at their motivation. i watch msnbc. i used to be a great fan of people like chris hayes and rachel maddow and i'm a liberal. i consider myself an independent

liberal and i can hardly stand to watch their shows myself because it's all about their agenda. if they want to choose the story and take a story that was out there and edit it for liberal bias, that's exactly what they do and it's unconscionable. ann, jamaica republic, new york. you are on. watched the washington event, and i found out that i'm really not a republican. i'm an independent. i just had to dial on the republican line. i thought it was great. it i thought it was history. i thought we learned something trump going on the rally, i think that was great because i think he is a buffoon. i live in new york and he is awful. something learned

from the history of the whole thing last night and it was better than him being there. authorho was there, the and historian rob turn out, the keynote speaker. he talked about presidents and their relationship with the press. this is what he had to say. [video clip] like every future president, washington felt maligned by the press, but he never generalize that into a vendetta against the institution. in fact -- [applause] when he wrote his farewell address, he never delivered it in person, he had it printed in the newspapers so readers could digest it and consider it. the main theme here tonight is relationships between presidents in the press are inevitably

tough, a most always adversarial, but they do not need to be steeped in venom host:. -- in venom. host: that was ron chernow. if you want to see it again, you can watch the event in its entirety on a website, www.c-span.org. philadelphia, democrat line, good morning. caller: good morning. i have a comment about trump and his followers there at the rally. believe that what we call evangelical christians, evangelical is the word christians used to hide their inside know meon

nomian, i believe is how it is pronounced. when i see trump, he is no morality. is this what our country is going to? i'm sorry. i can't accept him. thank you. host: miriam, florida, republican. good morning. good morning. the first lady, i agree with her wholeheartedly. she's a liberal, and yet we can agree on the press and the way they are treating the present. i have watched c-span since 1979 when you first went on the air. i have to comment on the has then who progressive party or the progressive wing, that is the most hateful, meanest man i have , and i wouldc-span like to know who the producer .as

i have never seen a guest speak so rudely to the callers. as far as his second guest, the man with the motive of getting guns to protect themselves, i'm a non-gun owner, but i think i should protect myself from these radical progressives. there will be violence in the streets between the conservatives and the progressives. we are not going to take this lying down. take it lyingg to down and i think we are going to see some bad times and i want to buy a gun to protect myself from these radical progressives who refused to compromise on anything. as far as medicare for the whole country, we tell us medicare is broke. social security is broke. it's going to die. i appreciate what you do do, but let's get some people on at the

same time that can talk back to this man and give an opposing becauseides the callers we were just a little this morning by him. host: thanks for the feedback. about two minutes left. some for a couple more calls. melanie, national, tennessee, independent go ahead. caller: yes, hi. are you ready? host: go ahead. caller: my name is melanie. i declare myself independence on the issues. i was a democrat during the kennedy administration, stopping the war, desegregation. i am almost 70 years old. i've also been a republican win it is -- when it's time to take your business like during the reagan administration. i vote on the issues. i would rather be a libertarian, but my problem is right now that , who camedent trump

from brooklyn, who was a democrat his entire life, then --s over to, you know, ohio care nurse forl 30 years. my husband was a salesman of comcast, who you guys love, for 28 years. the thing is, i am really sick and tired of the biased media and the mainstream media, winning pulitzer prizes overlies. i actually encourage my daughter, who is about to graduate with a bba in marketing and was considering going into media and communications and journalism, but no because you are full of lies. and trump is not a buffoon. he's a very good businessman. this radical left, i am with the

previous guy. left, i think we are on the verge of having a civil war in this country. i'm a got -- i'm not a gun owner either, but guess what i'm doing today? heading to the gun rally and getting six of the biggest ones i can possibly get. host: you encouraged her daughter not to go into journalism. caller: i encouraged her to go into journalism. she said, forget it, i'm going into marketing. she is dating her boyfriend of four years. host: that is melanie, nashville, tennessee. the last caller on "washington journal." we will joined by a look at the week ahead by josh creche hour. raushaar.

we will talk about attorney general william barr. also tomorrow we will be joined by john material. the group economic innovation will be talking about his group's new report. we will see you back here. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪ ♪ >> here is a look at some of today's c-span schedule. "newsmakers" is next with ralph reed, chair of the faith and freedom coalition. vicelks about former

president joe biden's entry into the presidential race, president trump's chances for reelection, and his thoughts about impeachment. at 10:35, "she the people" posted several democratic presidential candidates, talking about health care and higher education costs. after that, president trump addresses the national rifle association. then afl-cio president richard -- richard concha -- t rumka's thoughts. >> tonight, new york times columnist david brooks on his book "the second mountain. david: they are not motivated by celebrity. they are motivated by the desire to do good. they take on heavy