for the white house and president trump's reelection prospects. 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. the road to the white house is passing through pennsylvania, with joe biden formally kicking off his bid for the democratic nomination yesterday in philadelphia. tomorrow evening, the president in pennsylvania. you can watch the make america great again rally at 7 p.m. eastern time here on c-span television and live on c-span radio. as the 2020 race heats up, abortion is now front and center as much -- missouri joins alabama in passing among the

toughest laws in the country. essentially banning nearly all of abortions except if the health of the mother is at stake. that is our starting point this morning for this sunday on "washington journal," may the 19th. we want to get your reaction, your views on abortion. should it remain illegal at all times question mark (202) 748-8000 -- at all times? (202) 748-8000. should it remain legal at all times, (202) 748-8001. or should it be legal with exceptions? (202) 748-8002. or on facebook. post,"of "the washington the widening gap, purple areas fewerore progressive, and morens

restrictions in states like missouri, arkansas, mississippi, alabama. this is the headline from the hill.com. "sparking fears that the supreme court may overturn roe versus ."de kevin mccarthy was asked about the alabama law. [video clip] >> alabama just past the most restrictive abortion law in the country. >> it goes further than i believe. first of all, i believe the most precious gift god gives us his life and i defend my pro-life position for my political career. also believed in rate, incessant, or lack of a mother. .hat is what our platform says i believe that that is the point of where you find many of us where we stand. yes?

>> in that vein, you have tried to link washington democrats to some of the most political elements of their party. >> i have watched them not stand up against infanticide. let me let you finish your question. you think that people on your side of the aisle should be linked with things like the alabama abortion law or other laws like the six-week laws? >> i think that people should show where they stand and put their own actions with their own words. if democrats do not believe in infanticide. if they believe in the comments orthe governor of virginia the actions of new york, they have the ability to do something about it. they can sign a discharge petition and protect a baby surviving abortion and born alive. that's actually inside the house.

fair in theto be process, you look at my votes, look at where i stand, i'm pro-life. i believe in the sanctity of life. the same point i have always said. forlieve in exceptions rape, incessant, and lack of a mother, that's what i voted on. democrats say one thing but will not sign to protect a child that is born alive. i would not think that you would have to have that legislation. so if you want to compare the two, they have the ability to stand and show what they say they stand for and actually sign a discharge petition and prove it. host: those comments from kevin mccarthy. the house republican leader. we have a survey question on our twitter page, what are your views on abortion. participate in the poll, let us know you think, follow us on twitter. [video clip]

follow us on twitter. @cspanwj. this from "the missouri post-dispatch" -- what is roe v. wade? a decision handed down by the supreme court in january of 1973 that made abortion legal in all 50 states. the constitution was held to have protected a woman's right to the abortion prior to the viability of the fetus. it is a seven-to decision in , striking down the

texas abortion ban, calling it unconstitutional. tell us what you think. if you think that the abortion should be illegal at all times, you will see the numbers on the screen. let's get your calls. joe, north charleston south carolina. good morning. aller: i tell you, this is sad time in our country in this thing just keeps going on and on. i wish the bottom number would have said it with exceptions. i truly believe that abortion is such a terrible thing. of theother hand, health mother, rape, incessant. it's odd, the health of the mother indicates that there's a child involved. it's kind of odd. but you know, a living child, a fetus, i believe that life starts at conception. i think you might, too, i know

you're catholic, but i won't ask you, you can't comment. the aclu never comes to bat for the life of the child. it's always the mother or the patient, maybe. so many sides of this issue. if it wasn't so sad it would be amusing that people reacted to an alabama abortion law as a step back into the dark ages. actually, in the dark ages, abortion resembled more what went on in the dark ages. infants moved birthmarks were killed or left for wild animals to eat. it's just the way it was. it's not a step back. one of your guests, not your guest, but on "washington journal" this week said that if the definition of -- that the -- that the definition of death is a lack of heartbeat and brain activity the opposite is the true for life and i kind of conform to that. i tell you, we know now that the

alabama abortion law, they had an alter your motive of pushing this thing to the high court. but it's just, it's tough. you know, heartbeat, brain activity? ,o say one thing about northam if people agree with that? listen, we have no right to call other countries are variants anymore. i will leave it at that. by the way, the father is never consulted, and that bothers me, but that's my comment. host: you made reference to northam, that's governor ralph northam who made headlines earlier this year in which he talked about the issue of .bortion in an interview this tweet from a viewer -- host: tell us what you think. "usa today" with a breakdown of the abortion laws state-by-state.

first of all, it is legal in all 50 states. three states prohibit abortions after a certain point during a pregnancy. some say when the baby is viable. other states have restrictions after 24 weeks. more states are restricting abortions after 20 weeks. you can get more details at usa today.com. joe, southern city, california. it should be illegal at all times? >> at option is already -- always an alternative, that's the way i feel about it. i don't think there is any arguing that abortion is out of control in this country. killing babies in the ninth month. also with, you know, the liberals and so forth, they believe in abortion on demand. i don't how you can be a christian and vote for that on that issue alone. the term they'll

is like to use, a woman's right to choose. they have tried to fashion that and make it more politically correct, but really it's a sexist term. it took two people to create the baby. people should be involved in the decision-making regardless of her you stand on abortion itself. also, you know, the first part of the baby that's developed is a central nervous system. god made that for a reason. justnk that, you know, you -- to -- we have got to rein in the abortion and at least. it's extreme. i think that america and a christian sense is really wrestling with its conscience. i'm proud of the south. out of alabama for standing up for the rights of the unborn. you are never going to get that from the liberal democrats. i think that people should start voting their christian conscience. i don't care how anybody votes

or things like that, but at least make sure that you vote for your values and that it correlates on the left a lot, they will never run where they stand on the issues, it's always about character assassination. host: we are dividing our phone lines. those who feel that abortion should be illegal at all times or legal with exceptions, or legal at all times. the numbers will continue to be .n the bottom of the screen headlines from missouri, alabama, with the potential of heading to the supreme court. the post-dispatch, --

ust: next is audrey, joining from macon, georgia, good morning. >> good morning, how are you, steve? host: fine, how are you? caller: i'm blessed. to the previous caller coming yes, i am a democrat. i am also a woman. i'm a mother. i have children that i bore. that i adopted. i know all of these things.

but when a man have a baby and go through what a woman go through, he can say whether or not abortion is legal. my thing is this. i have never known -- i have no lots of people had abortions. i have never known anyone to five, 6, 7, 8, nine months. that don't happen. if any doctor do that, he should be prosecuted. it's getting more attention than guns right now and guns is killing people. but even with abortion as it is at this late stage, they are finding newborns in trash can dumpsters, toilets. on the side of the street injuring holes. weibring a child in the world that belongs to your father, your brother, your mama's boyfriend? someone who grab you on the street and rape you? weibring something into the

world that you know you are not going to treat right and you are going to hurt? at a decent time, i agree with abortion. i do not say kill a fetus that's jumping all around in your body. once the fetus start moving inside you, you got something to think about. host: think you for the call. this tweet --

host: send us a tweet, we will read it. here in washington, d.c., sheila , you should be -- you say that abortion should be legal at all times. explain. caller: i mean not after seven months, that's reasonable. i'm a lawyer in three jurisdictions and i don't think that the supreme court should take this case. should leave it alone. the supreme court has decided and decided reasonably and it's a woman's issue. the men who dominate the supreme court are the ones who are going to make a decision if they take the case. it's backwards. we all know that. we have to accept that. i have -- i hope the supreme court host: ignores it, frankly. host:thank you for the call --

ignores it, frankly. host: thanks for the call. portion of the comments from pete buttigieg. [video clip] >> this campaign must be largely about freedom. when you think of freedom, when you think of liberty, and who you think those words would be on the lips of, you would think of people on the right. you would think of our conservative friends who are preoccupied with making sure that the government does not restrain our freedom to much. that leads to positions on taxes, positions on regulation that suppose that if government is the opposite of freedom, then less government means more freedom. although it turns out there are .ome exceptions to this rule some of which we are observing in the american south today. now i come from indiana as a democrat. peoplere people i loved,

i trust, people who support me politically who view this issue different than i do. but i must say that i don't this that you are free in country if your reproductive health can be criminalized by the government. ♪ [applause] this is not an easy choice for anybody to face. i would be loath to tell anyone facing the situation what the right thing to do is, but that's exactly the point. i'm a government official. i don't view myself as belonging in a conversation. to see in alabama that if someone is raped and she seeks an abortion, the doctor who treats her will be penalized with a longer prison term that her rapist? it makes me question whether the

discussion about freedom in this country has gone off the rails. host: the mayor of south bend, indiana, pete buttigieg, at the chicago city club. this is the headline from abc news. hence in indiana, proud of the president and his administration for standing for the sanctity of human life." here are some of the details. "the vice president said he was proud of the trump administration for standing without apology for the sanctity of human life that avoided mention of the controversial antiabortion measures approved in recent weeks. phone calls. your mary elizabeth, new york city.

legal at all times? why? caller: it's a women's issue. it's a woman, her body, and her health care. you should be able to have the opportunity to seek health care from your doctor and it should be no one else's business. this sanctity of life, i was just looking at the quote from the vice president. borntionally, a child is and that is when the child is alive. many people believe that life begins at conception. as to whatguments that means and what the status of the egg and sperm are joining together in a woman's body. egg and the sperm may have joined together, they may have

created life, they may not have. but that is someone else's opinion about what's going on in another person's body. host: thank you for the call. this from john smith -- host: back to your calls. lisa is joining us from ohio. you also say it should be legal, explain. caller: what i'm saying is that the current framework works. let's get some facts on the record here. late-term abortions do not exist. they actually stop at 22 weeks. the term's induction. if a woman is ill or her child is not viable, the doctors will induce or perform a sincerity in section. there's no such thing as an abortion after that time frame.

it's a different medical procedure. let's get facts on the record about this infanticide narrative going around from ben sasse. thing as auch late-term abortion. a baby born alive from an abortion. abortion terminates the pregnancy. host: thank you for the call. this from "the washington post," "do they even know how abortion works"? states as laboratories of democracy while serving as mad scientist --

host: that's this morning from "the new millbank -- from dana milbank. lisa, idaho, good morning. caller: i'm in agreement with all the ladies who have called before me. i don't think it's right that these states are injecting their religious views upon the states and the laws. i think they ought to just throw the constitution out the window because nobody follows it. they just make whatever revisions to it they like. i think that a woman has a right to her own body and i don't think anybody should tell her what to do about it. the call.k you for from the outlook section of "the washington post," "if a fetus is

a person, it has other legal rights, to." you can read it online today. nancy pelosi this past week was asked about the alabama law during her thursday news conference. here's her response. [video clip] >> last week we had the bipartisan legislation passed over the price of prescription drugs by removing various generics in the market. we have again been doing this while the republicans at the same time have been dismantling and sabotaging and continuing attacks on health care. now for women, specifically, as we have seen in alabama, heartbreaking in this unconstitutional assault on basic reproductive freedoms. it's really -- i don't want to be a fearmonger, but i do believe that they are trying to go on a path that would totally dismantle roe v. wade and we have to be vigilant and express

.ur concerns on this legislatively and at the grassroots level. speaker ofs from the the house, nancy pelosi, this past thursday. lawalabama law can -- includes the following, complete the ban abortions except if a woman's health is in danger, no exceptions for victims of rape or in zest. the doctor could spend up to 99 years in prison, anyone who performs the abortion. right now it is scheduled to go into effect in november, facing almost certainly go challenges. pat is joining us from pittsburgh, pennsylvania, good morning. caller: good morning. host: you are on the air. you call on the legal with exceptions line. explain. caller: yes, i believe it should be. first of all, women are extremely vulnerable when it comes to rape and insist. situations,ticular

a woman has the legal right to because there is no sanctity of life for that child. a child that is born in those conditions is a child that will suffer for the rest of its life. it will either be taken away and adopted or put into an orphanage. a mother will always remember the circumstances under which the pregnancy happened. the child will not live a life with quality and dignity. i feel sorry for the child in that situation. and society also has no compunction about how they treated child that is a product of rape or infest. host: thank you for the call. another tweet from the viewer --

host: a number of states have passed laws called the heartbeat bill. basically it effectively prohibits abortion in those states after six weeks of pregnancy, when doctors can usually begin to detect a feel heartbeat. mississippi,ucky, iowa, north dakota, these laws are currently not in effect. voting to limit them in the middle of the second trimester. next is rob, joining us from new york city, saying that abortion times, nolegal at all restrictions. why? morning,teve, good thank you for c-span and your service on c-span. for this i feel bad

country. i feel bad for the women of this country. we're going backwards. abortion is a horrible thing. of course everybody knows that. this issue back up across the country in these states that are carrying on now the way that they are, a fetus at any stage of its development. to be human has to do with the construction of meaning and human meaning. that doesn't happen in the fetus. person, not ata any stage of its development. bots arethe russian

carrying on on the internet, using this issue to divide us even more. i'm surprised that since about a the mere mention of giuliani going to the ukraine to, to exalt, to involve the russians again through their counterparts in the ukraine. host: thank you for the call from new york city. note, "known as gg, a regular on "washington week review," gg passed away at 84 years old. cancelereen battling -- cancer and competitions from

pneumonia, and author of 10 books and has been a friend on program aof this number of times. syndicated columnist, 84 years old. back to your phone calls, brenda, indiana, pennsylvania, good morning. what i see, i think that this is the height of republican hypocrisy. the republicans get up on stage and talk about the sanctity of , yet the republicans passed the most expansive gun laws in under the stand your ground law? stand your ground law means that if you perceive, if you just perceive a threat to your health and safety, you can shoot that precious gift from god and we will work it out later. perhaps the pregnant woman is perceiving a threat to her health and life? maybe she is standing her ground

? which the republicans have ruled is all right. stand your ground, shoot that precious gift from god and we will figure it out later. host: thank you for the call. and demands, what do native americans want from a "?esident and the cover of time magazine, teenager on strike for the planet. back to your phone calls, d is joining us from lake okeechobee, florida. you are saying it should be legal but with exceptions. explain. caller: the morning. the way i'm looking at it, if a woman has health issues, ok, then i would say ok, get an abortion, ok? that should be legal. but a lot of these people are having children, ok, or getting pregnant because they don't use the cautions. not because they are having health problems, because they are having fun the night before and they find out a couple of allhs later, there are

kinds of different ways. it is for they get pregnant, ok? ie main reason i'm calling is got to issues with this whole thing, ok? one here is in florida, ok smart here on our beaches, ok? -- ok? here on our beaches, ok? they don't think that babies in the womb are babies, ok? beach, where the the turtles are laying their eggs, did you know -- this is true -- did you know that a person can be arrested for stealing a turtle egg? they can be arrested for destroying the nest. certain times of the year, they are not allowed to have lights on the beach so that the turtles can lay their eggs. people can get arrested for a turtle egg. that to me doesn't make any sense, ok? protect turtleo eggs that are alive but a baby in the womb that has a heart

beat is not alive? host: thank you for the call. club,"ertson on "the 700 conservative evangelical who opposes abortion had this to say about roe v. wade and what potentially is next. >> in other news, i think alabama has gone too far, passing a law that would give a 99 year prison sentence to people who commit abortion without exception for rate and insist. it's an extreme law and they want to challenge roe v. wade, but my humble view is that this is not the case we want to bring to the supreme court. i think this will lose. that from pat robertson. this tweet from of you were saying -- my body, my choice. your body, your choice. "the new york times," undercurrents of the activist

networks, the people lobbying behind the scenes, that's today in "the new york times." connie, new jersey, good morning. >> there's a lot of -- caller: there's a lot of talk about the voice of the women. how about the perpetrators? how about castrating them and that rape a woman. the men are untouchable. host: ok? thank you. d.c. --is is from keith, from madison, wisconsin, good morning. i believe it is a woman's choice. a woman's choice trumps the

rights of the fetus. i was at the chicago history museum and i saw a fetus in a glass case. i just wanted to bust that glass case and grab it and flush it down the toilet. laugh at myself, we are having a debate over this? it's a woman's choice. decide foro right to a woman what she is going to do with her body and what is in her body. it's as simple as that, all the way to term, actually. host: through nine months? yes, she should have a right to abortion on demand, absolutely. trey, baltimore, good morning. hi.er: i believe that women should have the choice to do with a wish with her body. you are taking away mothers natural right to figure out whether the baby will be able to sustain themselves or herself or

themselves or whether or not she is able to sustain the baby. i think it is the most economical way of understanding whether or not -- you know, we can accept another baby into this family or this world under the conditions the family is under, we have to take that into consideration. heather is next. about to talk'm about is unpleasant, but people need to pick about. what if the fetus has no brain but a heartbeat? -- it's a medical condition. things that are cruel and inhuman to carry a baby to term under. host: stamford, connecticut, you are calling on the line that says it should be legal at all times, no exceptions? caller: yeah, good morning. calling, ithat i'm believe that there is another

point. that point is about power and control. women are second-class citizens and men are exercising power and control over us. it's almost no different than rape. i feel that in my body i have a to people whoion are saying -- you can't get an abortion. women are subjected by men to so many indignities. for example, a few weeks ago you had on someone about the yaar a -- era. how many decades to women have to fight for equal rights? how many decades to women have to fight for the right to choose? host: thank you for the call.

"the l.a. times" had the story about roe v. wade and john roberts, apparently not eager to take up the roe v. wade case, at least not right now. on can read the headline their website. axial's, where does abortion restriction stand? the states that have passed laws. the quick summary, including ohio, kentucky, mississippi, georgia, utah, voting to limit .n the second trimester states considering abortion restrictions include louisiana, pass,carolina, failing to with minnesota considering a bill banning abortions after 20 weeks and west virginia introducing a fetal heartbeat bill this year in tennessee passing a bill that would ban abortions if roe v. wade is overturned. mark is next.

good morning, westwood, new jersey, your view on all of this? good morning, thank you for c-span. i appreciate the discussion, i know it's a difficult subject. i want to say that the hypocrisy of the right wingers is unbelievable to me. they talk about freedom, yet they want to limit a woman's choice to do what she needs to do. they want freedom for people to carry guns, they want freedom for the government to drop arms, they want freedom to kill someone committed of crime. they want all of these freedoms but they want to protect another woman's child and tell her what she can do? i'm just amazed that i live in a country that is so backward. that we can hold onto our legal rights. we have no right to tell women but they are supposed to do. if they bring the baby into the world and they can't support it, that's more cruel than getting rid of it when it is not even

conscious. host: thank you for the call. from "the washington post," states looking at more restrictions on abortion as opposed to those looking at more protections? new york and vermont are among those considering legislation that would enhance protections for a woman's right to choose. talking about alabama, missouri, kentucky,i, arkansas, indiana, north and south dakota, and utah,'s dates to keep an eye on in the months ahead. bill king has this tweet -- host: susan is next. hartsdale, new york, good morning. caller: i echo the gentleman who just spoke before me. the complete hypocrisy of the freedomng, to support

and the lack of government involvement in so many things, including gun control, yet they want to restrict the right of a heartbeathe six-week -- heartbeat law is absurd. most women do not know they are pregnant until six weeks because it takes four weeks till they get their next. -- next period. putting that can a pressure on a woman to make a decision within days? it's an appropriate. i echo again with the issue of gun control. there was a recent article in "the washington post" that more children have been killed by in 2012ce sandy hook than soldiers haven't killed -- have been killed since 9/11. what about protecting those children? where is the outrage about those children being killed who had already lived lives and become a part of families?

so the issue, these laws have been passed in these states, mostly by men, who have no like toof what it's have rape or in test occur to you. host: thank you for the call. we appreciate it. this is the headline from the l.a. times and a photograph of john roberts, supreme court not eager to overturn roe v. wade, at least not soon." a reaction from 2020 democratic presidential candidates, this from elizabeth warren, "last week republican lawmakers in alabama and acted the most extreme abortion ban in 40 years ," and then she provided her link to protect roe v. wade and her promise not to support anyone on the supreme court who doesn't support roe v. wade. joe biden kicked off his race

officially yesterday saying that theblicans are assuring in laws that clearly violate roe v. wade and they should be declared unconstitutional, roe v. wade is settled law and should not be overturned and the choice should remain between a woman and her doctor. new york city, good morning, welcome to the conversation. you say it should be legal but with exception. why? i hope i have a chance to correct some of the incredible misstatements, mostly from pro-abortion people. 40 years ago my wife gave her to a baby boy. the doctor told me the best avoid would not live, but he brought him out and i looked at .he boy, i looked into his eyes he was a beautiful baby boy. the irish have a say in, looks like you spit him out of your mouth. saw my childfore i

that died 45 minutes later, he was in my wife's womb. do people really believe that that child was different 15 minutes earlier? this late-term abortion, a lot of people called up that women have a right. here's your other misconceptions , we are not talking about a woman's body. the child is a different human being. it is not a woman. nature or god, however you want baby,lped to create that gives us the means to create a baby. , thather misconceptions it's a fetus? fetus means small child. misconceptions abound. three arebeen two or people on, it's a sexist remark says that men should just sit

down and shut up, as i have left-wing congresspeople say. because it's run of their business. that's pretty strange. you don't think it is the father's business? i had to bring girls and i took a very good care of them and i worked very hard. fathers have a responsibility for their child. so, you are telling me that you can kill my little daughter because it is up to the woman? that's another misconception. last misconception, the religious argument. this is not a religious argument. there even wrong about the first amendment, the separation of state they got wrong, to. but it's not a religious argument. it's people who realize that you can have modern technology now, you can look and you see a little baby in the womb say in the third or fourth month. children live in the fifth month when they are prematurely born.

you are killing babies, people. all the dopey rhetoric in the world will not stop that. host: i have to stop you there, we want to move on, other people want to comment, but thank you for sharing your story with us. continue to send us her tweets. a reminder for those listening on c-span radio, sirius xm, and the potus channel 24. asking about the issue of abortion now that it is front and center in many states, including alabama, the bill signed into law by governor ivy. missouri is now expected to sign the bill placing new restrictions on abortion, potentially moving it to the u.s. supreme court. this weekend we are traveling to milwaukee, wisconsin, site of the them aquatic presidential process. we look at the past of milwaukee, including its origins

of its socialist party and first member of the u.s. congress. here is the preview as we continue the c-span cities tour. [video clip] >> the socialist party started here under the leadership of victor berger and it took off from there. there were a number of factors that really led to the formation of the socialist party here. number one, there was a huge influx of german immigrants into milwaukee. been socialistd when they arrived in the walkie. those german immigrants kind of provided the leadership for socialist here in milwaukee. you had that. workerss a huge pool of in the machine shop of the world, there were numerous factories around the city.

so, you had this huge pool of working-class, largely immigrant workers who were very receptive promised tot benefit the working class. they could see that there was a wide gap between the owners of the business and the working-class people who were laboring for pennies. they could see that. the working conditions they had to deal with work not good at all. i'm in they worked in the hottest, the dirtiest, the most grungy jobs available. they were hoping that the socialists could make those conditions and their lives in general, could make that better. we hope you to remain as you travel to milwaukee, wisconsin, part of the cities tour today on c-span 2's tv and american history tv, you can check out every city online at

c-span.org/cities tour. this from stella -- host: the answer is yes, we focused at not only eight question but a segment on that issue. we are dividing the phone lines between those who think that abortion should remain legal with exceptions, legal at all times, or illegal at all times. we will go to marcia, next. good morning. caller: yes, good morning. i'm calling in because eyes saw bbcthing astounding on the channel, the british broadcasting channel, on friday.

it was the recent medical news, they operated on a baby boy named jackson in utero. his mother was in her 27th month. they had diagnosed him with spina bifida. they could see the cord, the spinal cord. went in, theys showed a diagram of the pregnant woman and of a show to the tools and they had a tiny camera that went all the way right to wear the baby was. they corrected it. if that doesn't change your mind about -- they wouldn't perform surgery if this wasn't a little human. he was born, his name is jackson springer, his mother's name is sherry. was in great britain. they showed her holding the baby and how thrilled she was that her little boy would not be spending the rest of his life in a wheelchair. most people don't watch this channel.

i think that science has begun to change the view about abortion. a totallynt to see overturned. i can agree to it up to a point, eight weeks or 10 weeks or so or -- or things like that, but there comes a point now, they talk about the woman's health issues. this was this little boy jackson's health issue. this affected the rest of his life. host: this was on the bbc america channel? caller: yes, it was this friday. they had it on repeatedly. i went and i got my husband. i said turn it to bbc because they repeated throughout the afternoon. you for the call, marcia. the story getting the attention this weekend is from missouri and from "the st. louis post-dispatch," designed to trigger a court challenge that the gop sees as the way of overturning the landmark roe v. wade decision that made abortion legal wide, having drawn

nationwide scrutiny and bringing an emotional end to the five-month legislative session in missouri, banning abortion in the state of missouri at eight weeks of pregnancy except when the life of the mother is threatened. there are no exceptions for rape, in test, or human trafficking. coming up at 9:00 eastern time, withonversation [indiscernible] i hope you will be watching this morning, no commercials. thank you for the tweet and the promotion. i hope you stay with us until 9:00 eastern time. pam is joining us from port orchard, washington. caller: good morning. i thought i would call in. i used to believe that abortion was ok when i was in junior high and my science teacher told me it was just a blob of tissue. then i found out the actual truth. and then i found out i was

adopted, too. i just think that people are not really considering that life really is important and we have instead just created a culture of death. host: when you found out you were adopted, what was going through your mind? caller: well that's a whole other ball of wax. i was lied to until i was 18 years old, i didn't even know, that's a whole other story. fine, i'mow, it's totally ok with it and i wish that more people would consider adoption. and yeah, i just think we have a culture of death now and it does lead to people you know, taking guns and shooting people and i would just like to think that the constitution that we have here is one of the greatest inks however, it really does say that we are supposed to protect life, you know? at the same time, you have to balance that. i heard the other caller talking about people with the second amendment rights. i think we need to try to get back to the basics of our

constitution. if we stick with that we may not have so many problems in this country. pam, thank you for sharing your story with us. i need a, missouri, what do you think of the pending law in your state? caller: as a person from the , one of thesourah many states that the republicans have gerrymandered, to the extremes, i think that there should be some new laws coming. any man who takes a life for any reason must be made a unit. any man that a woman identifies as a rapist must be made a un eunuch. any man that commits incessant must be made a eunuch. any man who violates a woman in any way must be made a eunuch. any man who beats a woman must

be made a eunuch. i would think that these laws would be the next step. ourn't help but think that rights were taken away by paul ryan and the folks who looked at the country and said -- the only way that we can do this is to gerrymander every statehouse in the country. as a person from missouri, i am horrified. i just can't believe what's going on. host: thank you for the call. this is the tweet from lisa -- the next caller is lorraine, from covington,

louisiana. good morning. caller: we are still talking about the abortion issue? host: we are, yes. caller: the only exception that i would support is the one that threatens the life of the mother. there was a movie years ago called "the cardinal," it dealt with this whole issue. the other thing i would just add is that there were 60 million abortions at this point, the nation is threatened. i believe that social security is having problems now because of the 60 million lives that have been taken. the only exceptions are threats to the mother's life. host: thank you. from "the washington post," " antiabortion laws are anything but conservative." kerry is next from mechanicsburg, pennsylvania.

good morning, what is your view on this? caller: republicans are going about it all wrong. instead of laws like this, they need to say that if you are going to have a child, we will support you with ways of raising the child instead of cutting funding after the child is born. having a child is a lifelong commitment. we need to support the parents with this decision. they don't seem to want to control,ou on birth which would end this problem. they don't support family planning clinics that are there to help a woman and look at her as a real human being and say we will help you with your choices. if this is what they want, i want to hear more of a follow-up on how they plan on helping the mother after the child is born. for the u.s. and iran and new concerns about iranian airspace for commercial jetliners, among the topics we

will be talking about with senator ben cardin on the newsmakers program at 10:00 eastern time, 7:00 for you on the west coast. we hope you tune in for that as well. joe is next, pomona, kansas. good morning. caller: it has an a while since i talk to you. host: good morning, how are you? caller: it's been great. i was listening to these arguments, i had to call in and put my two cents in. i hope you have time to play a little bit of henry hyde's thing on abortion, partial-birth abortion. i don't know if you are member that. host: i do, absolutely. yes. caller: it would be nice to have a limit of that on there. i am against all abortion except for that of the life of the mother. i'm amazed at all the people, one man called in and said that if they can't feed it, just kill it. just kill it. is that what they think babies

are? if you can't feed them, kill it? the last lady said that republicans should help support them. hey, lady, if you don't want your kid, give him to me, i will support him. host: thank you for the call. this is a tweet from president trump over the weekend. he wrote the following -- host: that from president trump over the weekend, outlining his news on abortion, as well as mike pence in indiana.

jeanne, you are next, from detroit, michigan. what is your view? that it should be legal. let me explain. i wrote a paper before roe v. wade was legalized. very appalling, all the different methods that women used for abortion. going to back alley doctors, using scissors, knives, jerking potions, whatever. the bottom line is that women were getting abortions before roe v. wade and they got abortions after roe v. wade. what roe v. wade did was make it legal for them to go into a hospital rather than a back alley butcher. get an person needs to account of themselves, they have to understand before god. when they use the religious , the woman has to give

the account. host: the conversation continues on twitter, [video clip] i want to share with you a moment on the campaign trail. you never know what will happen as voters meet with candidates. this exchange occurred. >> thank you for coming on. say, -- theto campaign financial reform really resonates. it is really important. youuld not have heard about -- any candidate that sits down with c-span, i just want to let you know. >> thank you for coming out.

host: dave burnett on the campaign trail with one of them more than 20 presidential candidates. we approved that message. thank you for the comments about the c-span coverage. all of our coverage is available on our website at c-span.org. we were live yesterday with vice president joe biden. 7:00 easterning, time with president trump in lycoming, pennsylvania. coming up, stephen moore is here to talk about the economy and what is next with the u.s. economy as we head into the 2020 race. later, michael smerconish. host of his own program on cnn. we talk about 2020 politics and other issues he has been talking about. you are watching and listening to c-span's washington journal on the sunday morning. we will be right back.

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military families. i thought, i cannot waste this platform. i have to get better at this. >> three new nonfiction books today starting at six: 20 p.m. eastern on book tv on c-span two. >> starting memorial day, may 20 seventh, all week in prime, c-span has coverage of commencement ceremonies taking place at colleges and universities across the country. featured speakers include marilyn representative elijah cummings, patrick shanahan, stacey abrams, resident donald trump, and supreme court associate justice sonya sotomayor. our commencement coverage starts memorial day at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. watch online anytime at c-span.org. listen on the free c-span radio app. >> washington journal continues. host: we want to welcome back

stephen moore. he is with the heritage foundation, serving as a fitting fellow. he is the co-author of trumponomics. good sunday morning. guest: thank you for having me. it is a pleasure to be here. host: we are glad to have you back. let's begin with the news for you personally. you were nominated to serve on the federal reserve board. in the wall the -- street journal, what did me in was gutter campaign tactics and personal assault. what happened? guest: this was five or six weeks ago when i got the call from the president. i worked as a senior advisor to his campaign on the economy. he asked me to serve on the federal reserve board. there are seven members of the board of governors on the federal reserve. when thete honored president asked me to do this.

what happened was, i kind of was naive. i thought there would be a debate about my economic ideas and my philosophy. i worked with the president on the tax cut and his other initiatives. about my economic ideas. it was about this campaign. there were six or seven full-time investigators looking at every aspect of my life. i had probably written thousands of articles. i've been on shows like this. media appearances over 500 times. given hundreds of speeches. people would take out a sentence or something i had written. in some cases, 20 or 25 years ago, and built this case against me that i was sexist in this or that. some of the columns i had written were humorous. i'm not playing the victim here. i look back at some of the things i might have written 25 years ago, people know that i am

irreverent and politically incorrect. some of the things i said were insulting. by regret about this whole thing is that i hoped it would be a debate about the economic ideas. the fed is one of the most powerful institutions in this town. it really never got that far. it became so problematic for my family. i did not see any alternative but to resign. i am not a quitter. me one guy who was with throughout this whole process was donald j. trump. i called him a week or two before and said, maybe i should step down. he said, no keep fighting. . host: the politics behind this, he has been criticized i going after jerome powell who is his -- criticized for going after jerome powell who has his own hand-picked. guest:guest: chair i had gone after him too.

that you concern was would try to force the fed to keep interest rates where they are. outt: there was a concern of the gate that i was too tied to donald trump. let me be clear. i believe the fed should be independent of politics and partisanship. we do not want the fed tweaking interest rates based on the election cycle. that was analytic -- that was a legitimate complaint. , ifefense against that anyone reads my book, they know there are many things -- i agree with donald trump. there are many times i have disagreed with donald trump. if i had been at the fed, my duty would have been to try to make sure the fed was providing stable prices. it happens to be that we both have reached the same conclusion, that chairman powell

and the fed had beta mistake -- had made a mistake and hurt the economy. what happened was, in december, the fed made what was a catastrophically bad decision to raise interest rates. januaryhad to admit in it had made a mistake. that, the they did economy has been on a good run. the fed does have a lot of power in terms of what happens with your retirement account and interest rates. one other quick thing. was in favor of having more transparency at the fed. why should it be a secret temple of economist coming together and making major decisions about our economy and people not knowing how or why they made the decision? i would still be in favor. i would love to cc been covering

what the fed is doing vista -- i would love to see c-span covering what the fed is doing. host: if they are ever open, we are there. let me go back to one other point. this is from a chief u.s. economist. the failure of two potential suggesting there is strong bipartisan support for continued independence of the fed and fed policy. the fact that affect that -- that the senator said this is not right gives you indication there is a place where you can inject politics. the wall street journal editorial put this very well. i was defeated and had to step down. it had nothing to do with my economic ideas or this issue of independence. that was a good subject of debate. it was about things that were

written 20 or 25 years ago. i tell this story in my piece in the wall street journal. the media went to the fairfax county court and unsealed my divorce and splattered all of those over the newspapers. i think any fair-minded person would say, what does someone's divorce have to do with whether or not that person -- it was a personal character assault against me. it was not about my economic ideas. my one regret about the procedure is that i wish i could've gotten to that hearing to make my case. it was a teachable moment for the american people about what the role of via -- of the fed should be. host: have you talked to the president? guest: i have. he has been incredibly supportive. there are many things he does i do not agree with, but on this, i agree with him.

he said you are a fighter. your reputation has been enhanced because of the way you have conducted yourself. host: would you work on the campaign? guest: of course. this campaign that is coming up is going to be hugely important for the direction of our country. you have two parties that have diametrically opposite views on what to do about the economy and how it should be conducted. i will do whatever the president asked. host: we will get your reaction to what former vice president joe biden said about the economy. first, let's get to our phone calls. the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. i agree with some of the things you say and some of the things you do not. misfortune have the of being paired with herman cain who had a terrible reputation.

for president, pounding his chest, saying how great and intelligent all those fancy words he attributed to himself. when the true facts start coming out, people -- you may like the president, value not like what he has done to our country -- but i do not like what he has done to our country. his knowledge of economics is zero. i see him as a bully. new york real estate person. guest: he certainly is that. he is a real estate guy. he has an extremely successful businessman. it has made a lot of difference that we replaced a community organizer with someone who does know something about business. he has been a blessing for the american economy. i respectfully disagree with the

caller. anyone who looks -- we have the best labor market in 50 years. if you are looking for a job, there has not been a better time in our lifetimes to find a job. we have low unemployment not just for blacks and hispanics, women without a college degree. i talked to the president every month or so. i checked to him, this -- i said to him, this agenda has worked out better than i imagined. that is great. let me say something about my friend, herman cain. i think herman cain would have been a wonderful addition to the federal reserve board. right now, the people at the federal reserve, most are phd economist. that is a criticism of me. been a disruptive influence. there was a great article in the wall street journal saying i do

not even agree with the things steve moore says -- stephen moore says. it would be a great thing to have a successful businessman like herman cain at the federal reserve board. orwould only have been one -- one of 10 or 11 votes. everyone over there is a phd economist. let's have some diversity of opinion. let's have someone who knows nothing about farming and small business and banking. host: does the debt matter? by all indications, it will double under eight years if the president is reelected. $22 trillion growing rapidly. tax cuts bringing in fewer dollars right now. guest: i agree with everything you said except for the last statement. the number that just came in show federal tax revenues, even when you take into account the tax cut, are growing.

last year, we had the highest level of tax revenues in american history. host: spending is outpacing revenue. guest: there is the problem. we do have a debt problem. i think every american understands that. host: how do we solve it? guest: i have to say, you and i have been in this business a long time talking about this debt. i am frustrated. it seems neither party is interested in being serious about the debt. shame on both of them. come forward with a plan. there was a report they came out with a federal auditing geo. billion dollars a year of fraudulent payments in social security, food stamps. my goodness. what private business what a low $150 billion in fraudulent pay?

that is one example of the extraordinary waste and inefficiency of our government. donald trump has this penny plan. eucha a penny from each agency in that -- you cut a penny from each agency during the first year. i think it is a cancer cell for our economy. one of the things that larry kudlow, president trump's chief economist, he and i used to tell the candidate donald trump that the most important thing is to grow the american economy. make sure the economy is growing faster than the debt. up, buter keeps going at least our economy is growing faster than the debt. we have stabilized things. we have to bring that number down. host: the book is trumponomics. it's co-author stephen moore at the table. michael is joining us from

illinois. good morning. caller: good morning. senior.int, i am a i am disabled. i'm a veteran. my, and minute to make my question. first, and is -- first comment is that you should use -- you should loose your tax exempt status because you had mr. marrone, who is a propagandist. i voted for trump. to giveollars went up jeff bezos a tax cut. interest rates have cap them artificially -- they have kept them artificially low for years to help the business community even though they were sitting on a ton of cash. they did not need any help. so, how do you respond to that?

he said his taxes are higher. guest: i do not know this gentleman's financial situation. the fact is that 98% of people who make less than $100,000 got a tax cut. we have done some analysis at the heritage foundation and looked at how this has impacted people of various income groups. making 50 andrson $100,000, the cervical family $25 a year ond their taxes. that is a positive thing. when you add to that, the wage increases the workers are getting because we have this tight labor market. a much more real take-home pay. i am with the 72% of americans that feel the economy is going

in the right direction. 72%. this gentleman, i want to say thank you for your service. he said he was a veteran. he lives in illinois. i am from illinois. if you are a wealthy person who makes a quarter of a million dollars a year and live in illinois or connecticut or new , because welifornia put a cap on the state and local tax deduction, if you make a -- aer of million dollars quarter of million dollars, your taxes go up. way too high in london in california and new york. you have to go to your state capitol and get them to reduce your taxes. host: our guest is stephen moore from the heritage foundation. guest: can i add just -- one thing that is interesting and what happened is this issue of

withholding. some people looked at the refund from the government and said, i refund a smaller. therefore i tax cut was smaller. i want to clarify that. one of the things we did, we wanted the tax cut to get an in people's pocketbooks right away. in people's pocketbooks right away. we change the withholdings of the people did not get the tax cut at the end of the year. they were getting more -- a bigger paycheck each week or each month depending on when they get paid. people are a little bit confused about that. if you get an extra $50 in your paycheck, they might not have noticed. they did notice that there refund was not that big. i does want to clarify that. host: that was the average, 50 to $100. guest: i am estimating. saying, theblican molar report revealed that

president -- the robert mueller report did reveal that president trump engaged in a pattern of behavior that meets the threshold of impeachment. this is a republican saying it over the weekend. i am not an expert on the robert mueller report. that has been a process to sort out. my feeling about this, this is a layman's position. i have not been following the report very closely. we have an election coming up in 15 months. if the american people did not like the job donald trump has done, they should get rid of him. if they think he has done a good job -- my preliminary reading of this is that there is no collusion. this was a waste of money. we should not have had this massive investigation. is,s let -- what i'm saying my advice to nancy pelosi and the democrats is, let's let the american people decide. host: former president joe biden kidding office campaign --

you're biting kicking off his campaign and discussing the obama economy president trump inherited. [video clip] president trump taking credit for the economy and economic growth. president trump inherited an economy from obama. just like he inherited everything else in his life. [applause] [indiscernible] >> we have to get the work done. if we had not done it, we could've had another great

depression. folks, working together matters. it matters. want thecan people economy to work. ,ost: was joe biden saying trump inherited a strong economy from barack obama. guest: people should read my book. it is a very different situation in my opinion. 2000 -- aftern in the 2016 election, barack obama's last year in office, the economy grew one and a half percent. that is pathetic. there is a good reason why donald trump won the election. the economy was not in good shape. trail,as on the campaign when you go outside of the city and go to places like yeary, pennsylvania and rockford, when a, places like lansing, michigan, we would go to those

places. i would ask the voters, how is the obama recovery going for you. you know what people would say? what recovery? if you lived in silicon valley or hollywood or wall street or in this town, you did great. places in themany country that were left behind. ofwas the last two years bush. obama's eight years in office were not good for middle-class workers. they did not see any raise in their paycheck. down toelection comes the trump economy versus the obama economy, trump is going to win a 40 state landslide election. people can see the increase. we have taken the growth rate from one and a half to 3%, you're going to get the 4%. goodness, when you have the lowest unemployment rate in 50

years, it is hard to complain about this economy. host: let's go to brian from wisconsin. one of the state president trump won. caller: thank you for taking michael. good morning, stephen. i have a few comments to make. the economy did improve under obama, in spite of obama. the things he enacted while in office actually hurt our economy. taxndly, i did get a refund. you very much. it has been very helpful to me. americanevery single be behind the president in dealing with china whether you like or dislike trump.

this is a critical issue. imagine how our economy would be with your cooperation of the democrats in congress. host: thank you for the call. let me take your lead and follow up on china. it appears we are in a holding pattern until president trump and xi jinping meet next month at the g20 summit. what will happen or what could potentially happen? guest: i do not think anyone knows the answer. so much of it depends. the ball is in beijing's court. i appreciate the gentlemen's comments. under obama, we have the weakest recovery from the recession since the great depression. if donald trump is elected president -- people were saying this in 2016, it will cause a second great depression. now we have the best economy in

50 years. liberals are having a problem explaining why the president is going to cause a depression. in terms of the china trade --uation, i am interested in i am interested in what people around the country think. i think this is the epic battle of her time. china versus the united states. china is the second largest economy in the world. i think donald trump -- i know he agrees with this. we are and an abusive trade relationship with china. they cheat, lie, steal. they have a rogue government. they are involved -- they still $300 billion of our intellectual property, our patents, are copyright. this is a country that is way out of hand. i applaud what donald trump is doing, standing up to them and saying this is not going to stand.

you're going to start playing by the rules. i am not so sure that a tariff is the right way to punish them for this. we cannot move forward with the current relationship. i guarantee you this, he is not going to back down. view, he is a great negotiator. if people want understand him, you have to read his book. donald trump understands we have leverage over china. he used to say to me, if we cannot trade with china, we sneeze. if they cannot trade with us, they catch pneumonia. it is a punitive thing. i am hoping they come to their senses and say, we are going to start behaving ourselves. we will open up our markets to the u.s. i defy anyone watching the show, tell me one thing donald trump is asking of the chinese that is unreasonable. everything he is asking them to do, they should.

many of those things are not just in america's interest. it is in their own interest as well. host: let me follow-up. david lynch made this point. he said there are winners and losers in a trade deal. if the president gets a trade deal, the democrats will focus on the losers. donald trump will focus on the winners. is it more likely we could see a trade deal next year oprah 2020? guest: i think the president has to get this done before the election. this is the dark cloud over the economy. it is holding back growth. -- itd say it is going to would knock half a percentage point off of our gdp growth. this is a high-stakes showdown. the consequent is our gigantic. i view this as short-term pain for long-term gain. if they do all the thing trump wants them to do, it will benefit both of our economies.

i am to make a prediction. i think you are going to get a deal done before the end of this year. i would put the odds at 65%. when i get stunned, -- gets done, it is going to be like shaking up a champagne bottle. he cannot wait until 2020 because it is going to be too rough on the economy. host: here is what one farmer told the house at committee last week -- the house ag committee. >> it all comes down to markets. our community is diversified and resilient. it is its own economic engine. if we go farther out into rural america, there is my concern. it is about the communities. it is about the farmers that can spend money in those communities , thateeps the schools keeps the medical industry, that keeps the infrastructure.

it is just commerce. vitalcommunities are so to our whole demographic and our ability to keep family farmers on farms and keep our cropland from being owned by corporations , which in turn, i feel would turn into foreign investment in farmland. possibly some of the loss of our own food supply or control of our own food supply, excuse me. to answer your question, i am not going to speculate or guess. when farmers do not have money, they cannot spend in town. not having the markets that are need to getlars, we ships tied up to docs in foreign countries. i do not think we can accomplish that by telling our customers how to act. minnesota is from a farmer.

senator joni ernst saying you have to get it done this year. soybean farmers are hurting. donald trump would lose iowa if he does not get it done. guest: we will see about the. -- about that. i agree with everything that farmer just said. i am from illinois. we grow more corn than any state in the country. i do feel for the farmers. they are taking the hit. let me make a subsidiary point. -- the beijing government has been clear about the tactic. they are saying, we are going to target america's farmers in the midwest. illinoiske ohio and and michigan and pennsylvania. we have had a debate for two years about russian collusion and russian interference. here we have the chinese. the american people should be outraged. what we have the chinese doing is trying to influence an american election by using tariffs in a political way.

to punish trump voters. . is outrageous. it is the patriotic duty of every american to get behind our farmers. this is an attack against american agriculture. this will not stand. chuck has a plan say, let's use the tariff dollars from the chinese to help america's farmers. this will destroy rural areas of america. on the other hand, we cannot allow china to win. the worst outcome of all would be for donald trump to standdown. when you standdown to a bully, their behavior gets worse. host: we will go to tulsa, oklahoma. caller:. good morning. i had a question about the tax cuts. is it correct that the tax cuts were permanent for corporations but temporary for individuals? if that is true, do you agree

with that policy? thank you. guest: it is a great question. there are some aspects of our tax cuts that we did that are temporary and some that are permanent. that is because of the esoteric budget loss in washington. what i believe in and what donald trump police in is that every facet of the tax cut should be permanent. trumpry -- what donald believes in is that everything -- every text -- every facet of the tax cut should be permanent. the tax because we did for our businesses, i'm not going to apologize for that. we have seen businesses expanding more and hiring more workers. pro-worker without being pro-business. unapologetically pro-american business because e employers.

i will give you one amazing statistic. according to the latest labor market report, there is something between seven and seven a half million unfilled jobs. thanis more unfilled jobs the entire population of the state of indiana. according to the same labor market report, there are 6 million unemployed people. what that is telling you if my math is right, even if we put unemployed -- every single unemployed american into a job, we would still have a million and a half jobs open. that is how good this economy is. you see companies like target, they announced they are raising heir starting wage to $13 an hour. donald trump wanted higher wages for middle-class workers. we are finally starting to see it. marilyn will go to

next. -- to maryland. caller: i followed you for many years. i enjoyed your economic commentary. i think you got a wrong deal on your fed nomination. i think we need a corporate tax cut that makes the u.s. more competitive. same pretty regulation. tariffs are not -- same for regulation. tariffs are not a good idea. for leverage, they are good. right disagree is on health care. the republicans need a plan before the election or they might lose. i am wondering if they could offer the democrats a grand bargain where republicans give the democrats something on health care in return for something on immigration. what i would suggest the republicans could offer on health care is a public option tied to taxable income so that 1% of your income, 10% may be

your deductible. then you demand price transparency so market forces can bring down the price. what would you think of trading that for something the republicans could get on immigration? guest: it is a great question. there is the issue of the health care and the issue of immigration. care, if you look at what i will trump is trying to do, -- on what donald trump is trying to do, republicans try to repeal health care. it is increased the cost of health care. insurance premiums have gone up. of not allow people, instead getting rid of obamacare, let people have alternatives. if you want obamacare, you can be in that. if you want other kinds of more affordable health insurance plans, a lot of young people cannot afford obamacare, let

people buy insurance across state lines. havemall businesses associated health plans. let people buy high deductible plans. everyone should be able to buy whatever health insurance they want. the problem i have with obamacare is one-size-fits-all. you and i may have very different desires and attitudes about what kind of health insurance we want. let me say something about the immigration plan. i work on this with jared kushner. they have done an incredible job. this is an interesting and important issue for our country. who are we going to allow to become americans? what donald trump wants to do is say, we are going to retain the immediate family. spouse,ave a child or a your first in line to allow those people to come into the country.

this idea you can bring in a second cousin and that people can, in based on who they are related to, -- can come in based on who they are related to, let's shift to what canada and germany has done. you pick the immigrants and select them on the basis of their skills and talent. as an economist, i would say, if we could let the brainiacs in and the engineering and the science. the great thing about america, we can be selective. and pro-immigration. if you bring in people who are highly skilled, bill gates was on capitol hill and said, every time microsoft is able to recruit a high skilled immigrant, that creates four new jobs for americans. people should take a good look at what president trump is proposing. host: let me summarize. it is merit and skill-based. formping the point system

those reapplying for citizenship. using funds for new border wall construction. does this eliminate people who come to this country as farmers and laborers and those who clean bathrooms and hotels? guest: the way this program would work, the family system is -- for immediate family members, you get to come in. we would also continue our refugee and asylum program. if someone has a well-founded fear of persecution, we would allow this people to come in as we have for the last hundred years. we are going to shift towards a skill. -based system let's say you are talking about someone who wants to come in as a unskilled labor. they're not going to be first in line. up,one who has a job lined a mathematics or physics degree, that person who will do a lot of good for the american economy,

we will put that person first. it will shift the system to those who are going to create jobs and businesses. host: democrats call it a nonstarter. essentially nothing will happen on this for the next year and a half. let's have a discussion. with they like about the plan? host: it does not address the dreamers. guest: that is true. they will insist on some amesti program for the dreamers -- on some amnesty program for the dreamers. i do not know where that is going. the heritage foundation as opposed to the. you might see it at the end of the day, some kind of deal that was struck where you move towards this new legal immigration system. maybe there is some system for allowing children who are brought into this country by their parents to have a path to legalization. let's at least negotiate this. this every sunday morning,

program is carried live on serious xm. stephenme our guest moore from the heritage foundation. patricia from florida. i'm a crestline. caller: good morning -- democrats line. caller: good morning. anave to say, in truth, $13 hour, is that a salary? we doher thing is, what not talk about his age discrimination. long-term unemployed. where are the people who lost their jobs at the beginning of this mess? i am one of them. i had an interview a year and a half ago. i had the most experience. why did i not get hired? guest: what did you do? host: she is gone. guest: this is a great labor market. we have a million and a half

jobs. there is never been a better time to look for a job. i'm not saying some people are not struggling. the economy is changing in dramatic way. people need to be -- i work a little bit with ivanka trump at the white house. she is involved with what she calls the rescaling of american workers. reskilling of american workers. i love this labor market. we militate are -- we melt tell grandkids, their was a time for me had a three and a half percent on a planet right. it is hard -- unemployment rate. i go everywhere from portland, oregon to portland, maine. i talked to employers. whoher it is the person runs the grocery store and major

ceos. you know what they tell me their biggest problem is now? finding workers. we have a shortage of skilled workers. host: going back to the immigration plan. guest: that will help. you're going to bring in the workers who have the skills. the workers who would be brought in would have jobs lined up with a microsoft or apple. they would have to pay certain wages. this would not undermine the wages of the american workers. instead of having one silicon valley, we could have 10 silicon valley's. one of the big issues we are concerned about, china has this plan. it is called china 2025. they went to be dominant in artificial intelligence, robotics, those kinds of things. if we keep getting the best and the brightest and combined that with homegrown ingenuity, there is no one who can compete.

it is strategically advantageous to bring in the workers who are the biggest contributors. host: this response last week from nancy pelosi. [video clip] >> they use merit. it is a condescending word. are they saying family is without merit? most of the people who come to the united states are without merit because they do not have an engineering degree? we want to attract the best to our country. that includes many people. from many parts of society. i will quote ronald reagan if you want me to. speech through his last as president. what he said about newcomers to our country being the vital force of america's preeminence. that,e fail to recognize we will fail to be preeminent in the world. we cannot close the door.

every president has recognize that since ronald reagan. except as president. we will see what values are reflected. merit, which is merit in the eyes of trump. host: how do you respond? guest: i am very pro-immigration. i think immigrants are great for our country. i agree that throughout our history, the vast majority of immigrants have been great assets to our country. immigration is one of our country's great comparative advantage. we renew ourselves every generation with new people coming to the country. the question is, why not use merit? this is a great thing for our country to debate. one of the things donald trump was concerned about if you let and a lot of low skilled

workers, they will compete with america's low skilled workers. why not compete with -- why not bring in people at the higher end of the scale? this is a good issue for us to debate. other countries that take immigrants like australia, canada, japan, germany, the use a merit-based system -- they use a merit-based system. isn't it more important we take people based on who they are rather than someone who is just related to someone. some -- should someone who immigrates here be able to bring 12 relatives? are they more deserving than someone who has a science or engineering degree? host: we will go to alex in cincinnati, ohio. republican line. relates toquestion federal reserve policy. my question is, is there any concern among the administration

that the failure to raise interest rates, and i think president trump has talked about lowering interest rates, is that high levels of corporate debt? there have been news reports regarding corporate debt being a bubble. artificially -- question, part of my cincinnati, ohio rules. guest: thank you. i think of what he was referring to, did he say cincinnati, ohio rules? column manyn this years ago or i said, cincinnati and cleveland are the armpit of america. i have always had a rivalry with those cities.

that got picked up. let me be clear, i love the state of ohio. i wrote a column saying ohio is on a come back. you go to cincinnati and cleveland and columbus, ohio is making a great comeback. one of the reasons ohio is on a come back is because of the shale gas revolution. people are behind the green revolution, the green energy -- host: degree new deal. -- degree new deal. guest: this would destroy hundreds of jobs in pennsylvania. i have this $20 bill. let me discuss what the role of the fed should be. worth this $20 bill to be two years from now, five years now -- from now to be worth what it is today. the reason we have a currency is we feel confident dollar will retain its value.

me, what was your strategy? it is to make sure that prices remain stable over time. that is what you should do. donald trump was right that the fed was too tight. we talked about the farmers. soybean prices. cotton prices. corn prices. they were falling. when you have commodities falling in price, that is an indication of deflation. that was my worry. that is why i think the fed should cut interest rates. president trump wants a 100 basis point decline. i think what they did in december should be reversed. we should have a quarter-point percentage reduction because i worry about prices falling. when we passed of the tax cuts, we shifted the supply of goods and services. when you have more production, that means prices fall. , this the mythologies

idea that growth causes inflation. growth does not cause inflation. it causes deflation. that is something a lot of the economists at the fed do not get. host: is jerome powell an effective fed chair? guest: i will give him a b grade. he is learning on the job. i used to say that if i had gotten to the fed, i would have wanted to make sure jerome powell was the most successful fed chair ever. he is learning on the job. he understands the fed staff misled him. i think he has been a good chairman. the president does not like him too much. he has been hypercritical of donald trump, of jerome powell. the fed needs to be independent. he needs to be accountable. that is what i want those -- i want the c-span coverage.

even though herman cain and i will not be on the federal reserve board, he will put two outstanding people on the board. host: bernard is next from maryland. the democrats line. caller: good morning. i wanted to speak about the social security raises we got under the trumpet administration. we got two in row, averaging $50 a month. i make about 2000 a month. people who make a thousand or less, they get 25 or $50. under the obama administration, the last rays i got was seven dollars a month. people making less getting 350. do we want to go back to seven dollars a month? i am addressing all of the seniors who are listening. make up your mind for 2020. i would like to hear your comments.

guest: a lot of seniors are living on social security. i understand what the gentleman essay. you and i -- is saying. you and i have talked, i believe we should move toward a system where seniors are getting the money they have owed -- they are road. -- they are owed. i believe young people should have the option of outing -- of opting out of social security. they put it into a private personal savings plan where they can build up more wealth. we have done analysis that shows the average young person would require -- would retire with twice as high. if you think benefits are too low, you should be in favor of letting your kids and grandkids put money into an account. you can pass that money onto your kids. we need a whole new system. we need to make sure people are paid money they are owed. this is a great issue for the

millenials. i want every millennial demanding they have control of their own money. host: what would that mean for social security? guest: you have to have some kind of transition from the old system to the new system. you could have some kind of new bonds. you could cut other government spending. we cannot go on with a system where for young people, we are ripping off our kids and grandkids for social security. they are going to get a negative rated return. they would be better putting their money under a mattress. guess what? when you send that money to social security, it is not invested. there is no compound interest. it is spent the minute comes in the door. host: we will go to bill in illinois. caller: good morning. that washit on a point top of my head. i almost forgot it. andsocial security money

some of the taxes we pay, income allowedan individual is to keep the and make an investment instead of putting an end to the social security fund, we would be far ahead. china, we should have someone standing at the ports. turn a couple of ships that carry garbage that we do not need anyway. send it back to them. host: thank you for the call from illinois. guest: a quick point. i am a free trader. says thehor of my book four pillars of prosperity are sound money, free-trade, less government spending, and lower taxes. there are sometimes when you have to stand up to an abusive

country like china. here's what i am hoping for. i think there is a good likelihood this is going to happen. the outcome of this is going to be that both the united states and china reduce their tariffs. -- tariffs, notwithstanding when trump came into office, our tariff was three and a half to 4%. it was not a level playing field. let's have both countries reduce their tariffs. when it be something of donald trump -- that is working with europe. a couple days ago, trump is delaying these auto tariffs, which i think is a bad idea. free-trade has to be a level playing field. host: our last caller is from ohio in -- on the democratic line. caller: i used to be a democrat. then i was an independent. then i read your book.

wayally do not like the president trump talks. he exaggerates. you talk about being a bully. he acts like out -- about china being a bully. he acts like a bully. money, i do think in this country, we need to do something in the educational or just not talk about it. democracy depends on people who vote. who want to get aps of the pie. host: based on what you're are saying, who are you going to vote for in 2020? well, i was certainly thinking i would definitely vote for donald trump. i am shocked because i believe

he is mentally ill. he is a bully. he got people interested in government. he has the economy working. host: thank you, donna. guest: i am so glad we are ending on this. thank you for calling. this is exactly the voter donald trump has to win. if he is going to win this election, it is people like donna, and i have talked to so many voters who say, i love what he is doing on the economy, i do not like the way he behaves. selleck city in said, same policies, less policy. guest: i was there. i agree with that. trumpd love to see donald change his behavior. when you're president, you're not as president of the people -- you are not just president of the people who voted for you. this is going to be a tough fight. you're going to have a lot of

fun covering it. if people would vote on the results, trump would win a huge landslide election. personality,on his then you could have a joe biden as president. i have gotten to know donald trump very well, personally. he is a great man in a lot of ways. see,imes the character you or he says or tweets outrageous a whip he is as smart as and he has been good to me and the people around me. opinion ofative donald trump when i went in for the first meeting i had with him, i did not like his persona. you can tell a lot about a person how they treat the people who work for and they love him. his public persona is not the way that he acts in private. -- because i hope

love donald trump -- i hope the american people vote on his results and not his behavior. host: with the heritage foundation, thank you for stopping by. guest: i love c-span. you are the one place in america you can get truly both sides of the issue in a fair and balanced way. congratulations to you. host: we appreciate your time. he is a columnist and radio talkshow host, michael smerconish is joining us for the full hour as washington journal continues on this sunday morning. we are back in a moment. ♪ >> today at 6:00 p.m. eastern on american artifacts, we are at the library of congress to learn about a muslim scholar from west africa, he was captured and shipped to south carolina and sold into slavery. he wrote the only known american

slave narrative in arabic. the curator shows us his autobiography and several documents from the library's collection. >> it was important enough to carry on. n bye were others writte those who were enslaved but this is the only known existing manuscript in arabic. american history artifacts today at 6:00 p.m. eastern on c-span3. eastern, a8:00 historian discusses his book, a story about settlers who brought the american ideal westford >> it is like going to a country i have never set foot in or going on a detective case. that is the adventure. i try to look at all of it with

a fresh eye. somethinger not found that was ignored or not discovered. pioneersook, about the who establish the first settlement in the northwest material, it is all that nobody knows much of anything about because it has never really been looked at. eastern onat 8:00 c-span's q&a. >> the complete guide to congress is now available. it has details about the house and senate for the current session of congress. bio information about every senator and representative. plus information about congressional committees, state governors in the cabinet. directoryongressional is a handy, spiral-bound guide.

order your copy from the c-span store for $18.95. >> washington journal continues. host: he is heard monday through friday on siriusxm, saturday mornings on cnn, joining us from philadelphia, michael smerconish . thank you for being here on c-span. guest: thank you for having me, it is nice to be back. host: we can get the conversation you had with your viewers yesterday on c7 -- cnn. you had itabout -- as a survey question. nearly 10,000 people responded saying it should not be included. why? guest: what surprised me about the result yesterday on cnn, and we get this enormous volume of voting in the span of just one hour, it was completely at odds

with the result from telephone callers on my friday radio program. i love conversation about this issue. i have a bias against the s.a.t.. back in the day, i did poorly on the test. i tell you that right up front. i should say my wife and i have four children, the last of whom just completed the college application process. my view is not sour grapes. the kids outperformed me, for sure, and each of the four instances and they are doing terrific relative to the process. i don't like so much emphasis being placed on one exam on one saturday morning. i understand kids will end up taking it more than one time, but in comparison to 12 years, or look at the last three or four years, of academic achievement in high school, i think we are out of balance and far more attention should be paid with what goes on day-to-day and the high school

curriculum rather than the one test. i also understand that by virtue of the common application, making it so easy to apply to so many schools, but in my era i think i applied to only four or five. today, it is nothing for high school seniors to be applying to almost 20 schools at once. i think that is the upper reach. it forces the university -- it forces the college to use that metric as an immediate means to decide if someone is going to get a fair look. far too much emphasis placed on the s.a.t. to begin with, now comes the adversity scale, or the contextual data as the college board had told me yesterday on television. i think it assumes too much. i think it assumes you have adversity if you are in a particular zip code or attended a particular high school. it assumes if you lived in a

neighborhood like mine that all is well, when in fact you don't know what is going on behind closed doors. you don't know if there is alcoholism or opioid addiction that a well groomed front yard may mask. i think it is a step in the wrong direction but i appreciated the conversation i had with mr. coleman, the chief executive of the college board. host: as you pointed out, american university, wake forest university, university of chicago not using s.a.t. or act exams as metrics to accept students. guest: i think the number is more than 1025. they include some of the better-known and better rated schools in the nation. here is what i said in my commentary and part yesterday, if i had it to do over again for our four, i would give serious consideration right up front, in

or about the ninth or 10th grade, we are not going to be a act or sat household. instead, we will take all the money where we would have written a check for some prep course, all of that time our children would have spent in preparation for just one exam, and instead we will say we would like them to be proficient in a musical instrument or would like them to do community service, or take up painting. is over, what. you have to show for it? you have a college admission, but you would have gone somewhere. instead, you could have taken that resource and make yourself a better person, a more complete human being. host: let me take up a second point, your conversation with jeffrey rosen. the national constitution center in philadelphia where you are. he said something intriguing, he

did not think chief justice john roberts in this court ready to take up roe v. wade. guest: to know what is interesting, jeffrey rosen, a really bright guy and i deferred to him on these constitutional issues, but for the atlantic, he wrote an essay about a -- about what a post- roe world looks like. he wrote it in 2006. in anticipation of my interview with him on cnn yesterday, i wanted to read that essay again and you are absolutely right. the point i am trying to make is is that is not a recent observation of jeffrey rosen. he thought that in 2006 when chief justice roberts could not be taken for granted. if you hear some of the criticism rush limbaugh has had of brett kavanaugh, expressing some disappointment of him not being a pure conservative, the

point i would make is you really don't know exactly how they will line up. you probably know how clarence thomas will line up, you probably know how some of the liberal justices will line up, but there are some gray areas among several members of the court. i don't think the alabama case ever reaches the supreme court of the united states and if i was someone in the country watching c-span of a decidedly pro-life point of view, i would be disappointed that alabama has done what it has done. i would be disappointed been very has done what it has done, because those cases are very easily dismissed. the more difficult cases for the court to grapple with are those that limit access to abortion providers. host: let me put another issue on the table. piece, this is the headline -- numbers 44 and 45 broke the mold. what does that mean for the future of the presidency?

centurieshan two until the election of 2008, american presidents all looked alike. they were white and male and each one came to office with experience in military. the african-american -- barack obama, the first african-american president broke the mold. donald trump, who had no military experience or government experience broke the other. it is an interesting argument. if joe biden should win the democratic nomination and be elected president of the united states, then won't we be back on the same trajectory that we have been on for our history until barack obama's election in 2008? if mayor pete is elected, these obamard factors, barack

in the first african-american president, and then here comes donald trump with zero history of electoral history and he wins, the question is which way are we about to go in the 2020 election? either this trend will continue or will not. is 2323 or 24, i think it with bill de blasio in. will we have 23 candidates competing for the democratic nomination had we not just had the experience of both obama and trump? i say no way. the attitude of these elected officials is, what the hell, i might as will take my shot. maybe get a book deal or a cable if when it is all over, even i am not successful. the idea that you did some requisite level of experience to run is not there, you just need to be well known. host: you will use this tomorrow on your serious xm program,

which carries this program every sunday, he goes on to say in their own ways obama and trump were two of the most unlikely people ever elected to the presidency, raising the question is whether voters in the country are using a new lens through which to judge the qualifications of presidential candidates. and trumpies of obama have rewritten presidential politics. guest: i think what is driving much of that is social media, the internet. the fact that traditional parties have lost the power that they once held and today, in order for you to be regarded -- look at aoc. she is probably the best example of what i am talking about for better or worse. she is a freshman number of congress that argued with the best-known, other than nancy pelosi, and the entire country.

no matter -- no longer to someone you to go to washington and accumulate seniority and leadership and then become well known. today, with the benefit of an iphone, you just say things that are provocative, you attract an audience and you can fund raise as a result of being provocative and having that following. you are a superstar. in that respect, all the rules have changed. host: michael smerconish joining us from philadelphia. republican line, go ahead. caller: thank you for taking my call. having a good job is important. i have several siblings who are republicans the tell me the same. -- so is clean air and water, so is being civil . so is being respectful.

so is keeping promises. so is having a leader that is respected worldwide. so is being informed and intelligent. i am a republican. i support donald trump. so many now, he has let people down who voted for by not being those things. him inill you vote for 2020? look, morality is at an all-time low. division is getting worse by the day. loss of international respect is unmistakable. violence and mass shootings have intensified. not -- that is what i am not going to vote for him in 2020 and i hope he can change that, by electing someone to the presidency that can make us

proud to be americans again. host: thank you for the call. let me pick up the point of a former vice president biden, michael smerconish, what did you hear from him? unity i heard a pitch for and i heard a pitch that made sure he drew a line in the sand to separate himself from president trump. i thought, and this is not an mine, it wasght of the kind of speech you hear from a front runner. he did not take many risks. he said the things he needed to say. did you notice when joe came out aviator, he had those lenses on, there was a skip in his step. he took off the sport coat and rolled up his sleeves. i think it was as important for him to convey energy and youthfulness as it was a message. the object of it are very

important and i think he pulled it off. it was a good start. host: you have interview just about everybody. have you interviewed joe biden? cycle i did, in the 2016 with about 10 days to go in the election. i interviewed him in st. louis. he was doing an event for jason kander. i traveled there on the day -- as the matter of fact, i was the first person to interview him after the anthony weiner laptop was back in play. if you can remember that whole episode, it caused the fbi to tap to take another look at the hillary email issue. it seem like they would not come to a conclusion until the election was over and they came to a conclusion there was nothing there. i was the first person to interview biden after that subject came to light. i remember when i asked him about it, and i almost caught him off guard because the news

was just breaking, he looked at me and said on camera, anthony weiner ha? i am not a fan. it was hard for me not to laugh because it was such a good line. i have had that opportunity. host: our listeners and viewers can follow your work online. frederick from north carolina, republican line, good morning. caller: good morning. how are you? host: good. caller: i am a retired air force pilot and by point that i would that it ise is interesting that the chinese were negotiating well what does until joe biden hit 30 points and then all of the sudden they backed away. my opinion is is that they are basically going into the muhammad ali rope a dope and are going to try to wait out the

election until trump is defeated, because he is probably the only one who would stand up to them. the republicans started the thatse opening, hoping showing our system would open up the country and that has proven to not work. host: thank you for the call. stephen moore who was with us the last hour said he is confident something will pass this year so the president can run on it next year. guest: i guess if you're asking me for a reaction, i understand the caller's observation but i don't think there is a connection. i am saying the chinese walked away from the table at the same 6ers lost game 7 to the raptors on the buzzer beater. it does not mean they are related. i would be shocked if there was an arrangement made with the chinese long before the general

election day. if the chinese are banking on the fact joe biden will be president of the u.s., i would say they don't understand our system because there will be so many bounces of that ball between now and election day 2020 that is almost impossible for any of us to predict which weight will go. host: donna, you are next, st. louis, missouri. good morning. caller: good morning. host: your state is in the headlines because of the abortion issue. caller: i know, it is sort of embarrassing. trump is not just the worst president ever, he is a terrible human being. boss.more like a mob bernie, not trump, would have one less time if hillary and her diehards had not screwed him over the primaries.

they are going to do the same thing for biden, another corporate, like hillary, on the issues. did as good as any human being could do when he took over. he took over after the financial totdown of 2008 when we had bail the banks out for billions of dollars. he did the best he could. i would ask stephen moore, has he heard of visas? my daughter majored in high-tech and companies like disney bring these indians and chinese over get educated here on visas and americans have to train them and they get laid off so these people will work for less. we are going down the tubes. thank you. host: we have to get you one of the c-span mugs, as well. [laughter] guest: the only mogg i have is

the cnn one, if you said be one i will use it. host: there was a merit-based system for immigrants coming into this country. guest: i have yet to see the president make the evidentiary area pitch that i think is necessary. i remember when he addressed the nation going back a number of months and i would hope there would be a ross perot like tape and he would show us aerial footage and graphs, and fully detail where in the problem lies. there has not been that kind of conversation, it has been just soundbites. it leaves someone like me at a loss for trying to understand where do we need an additional barrier? i am sure we do. 2000 miles worth? i'm sure we don't. it is a light on data and too much with the soundbites. host: another point you spoke about that has been getting a

senator amytion, klobuchar had 1.6 million viewers when she did a town hall a week and half ago. senator elizabeth warren said she will not appear on fox. what are your thoughts? guest: short-term, elizabeth warren has the right idea because she is looking to get some wind at her back. she needs to distinguish herself from the other 22. she is not doing badly, she is behind bernie and most of the polls i have seen and he does not seem to have the traction he had four years ago. shines aort term, she spotlight that she is willing to forgo reaching the fox audience and therefore willing -- unwilling to give cover to the fox advertisers that might have trepidation about continuing to write a check. themayor pete is on

network, amy klobuchar is on the network, bernie did a town hall and 2.5 people watched, how toxic it be? i get what she is trying to do. she wouldal election, need fox viewers -- not a lot of them -- but she would need fox viewers to win the election. i get the strategy, if she becomes the democratic nominee, she will probably have to rethink it in the fall. host: joe, you are next. good morning. caller: how are you doing? guest: hello. caller: i was wondering why the media is not looking at the strategy of the democrats right now as one of the common strategies in local elections where you flood a primary ballot with a bunch of people to knock out the ones you want to -- the one you really want to oppose. i am thinking with 20 people in

the race for the democratic nomination, what the democratic establishment is doing is essentially take a little piece off of bernie and say indiana with mayor pete, or pick off rural new york with kirsten gillibrand. every piece comes down and then you chip them away so when you get to the convention, there is no way bernie would get the 50%, because right now we are looking at joe biden at 30%. i think bernie would be able to eclipse him if a lot of these other people were not in the race. host: we will get a response. guest: two things i want to say. steve, let me say this to you ed c-span folks, joe the nerd is a smart guy who does a lot of blogging and he wrote this provocative essay a few years ago about the static nature of

the size of congress. why, if the country is growing exponentially, are we at 435 it used to be a member of congress would represent 250,000 people, now they are more than 500,000. how long will we let that go? that is food for thought. on the issue of the democratic nomination and where it is all headed vis-a-vis the convention, i don't expect biden to stay at the level he is. i don't think that is what the historic model shows. i am not saying he won't hold on and win, but i will be surprised if he walks away with it, especially after the debates begin. the democratic voting is proportionate -- i think this is some of what joe was getting at. it is entirely conceivable -- this is my point, is entirely conceivable the democrats could arrive in milwaukee without anyone securing that nomination.

for those still upset with happened to bernie in the last cycle, thinking that deck was stacked and worrying then about the roles of superdelegates, who by the way hillary did not need, but that became a focal point of bernie supporters. it is entirely conceivable that in this cycle, the democratic nomination will be decided on a second, third or fourth ballot by superdelegates. they don't get a say in the first ballot but if biden or the others don't have it locked up by the time they get to the convention, it could be a very exciting time in milwaukee. host: could you imagine what that would be like? guest: i go back and forth. on one hand i say, what a disaster for the democrats because they would not have a candidate secure in the knowledge going into the convention that he or she was going to win. that would have a fundraising ramification to it. there would not be a favorite for the running mate.

there would be some upsetting of the traditional model. on the other hand, it would be darn exciting. those conventions have become a bit of a snooze. if all the sudden you go into a convention and america did not know how it would end it would be standing on the stage thursday not, i think more people would be watching and would be keyed up about it than ever before in the modern era. host: if you look back in 1980 when ted kennedy challenged jimmy carter, he funneled a liberal at jimmy carter. more recently it was hillary clinton and barack obama in 2008 and bernie sanders and hillary clinton and 2016. candidates, 23, 24 have joe biden who is the front runner in so many progressives, it is a different race. you will not just have an alternative, you will have 5, 6, seven alternatives. guest: you run the risk that

when you leave it is not a kumbaya moment. when you have such disparate interests going in and so me different lanes within the party, what is the likelihood you can come out unified? i get that. that would be one of the most difficult aspects to overcome. host: colorado, independent line, good morning. caller: good morning. guest: hello. caller: what you think about all this stuff? i sit there and watch trump to all this -- he is a poser. why are we not in the gdp? that is a way to fight back with china? packguy gets out of the j -- ian and it seems like have watched trump say we are going to get rid of it and all his supporters are screaming but

nobody is asking, what are we going to replace it with? know,ms like -- i don't are americans brain-dead? i don't get it. host: thank you. guest: the only thing i can say to that is, looking at it differently, he told and he has. inthe 46% who put him office, i guess they are getting the return on what they wanted. there was no prize about the affordable care act. i understand your point. i am one who believes that the only way you can take care of people pre-existing conditions as if everybody is in the insurance pool. the only way you get everybody in the insurance pool is through an individual mandate. the business model requires everybody have insurance, or we are not going to be able to take care of a portion of those among us. he came into office without having to answer.

the question that i just raised, how are you going to protect people? he just said we're going to get rid of obamacare, we are going to get rid of that individual mandate. fact thatking at the it was a heritage foundation idea premised on personal responsibility. socialism, but our attention spans are not that long. andave a good sound bite say i'm going to blow up the affordable care act, that's enough. so have you personally sort through all of this on radio, on cnn, when we listen to you in the morning, we also listen to your commentary action, that's probably equally as interesting if not more interesting. have you sort through all of this? i'm constantly reading in the. is my extraordinary radio producer who has a hand in the television show as well. morning, 6:00 on a

sunday morning, i said to her 20 things that i find interesting. she also got a list from the yesterday, 20 things i found interesting on a saturday. we are constantly looking at what is in the news and then i will make a decision in anticipation of monday morning radio programs, what do i really want to drill down on? the three hours goes pretty quickly. you know my approach. to have aches particular issue i can focus on in the 9:00 hour, a particular issue i like to focus on in the 10:00 hour, and then we lighten the load. more about lifestyle issues and a host of other headlines that did not qualify to make the earth or second hour of the program. i'm always seeking to mix it up is my point. host: when do you sleep? do for ais is what i living. people often ask that question. to stay conversant in the news. much like you, i am a news junkie.

it comes rather easily. if i'm not reading headlines, i'm reading books for interviews that are coming up on the program. book, i went to bed reading it and i read a chapter before coming on c-span because he will be on the program this week and i don't want to fake it. i want to make sure that i've read that book before i start to speak to him. host: chena 124 which also carries this program sunday. we will go to colorado, democrats line. caller: yes, good morning. i really enjoy the show, i remember you back from your radio days. you for beings to an objective conservative, that is what we need. i know they have a constituency,

i know they have a base here in those articles -- those are cults. 4 million people. the ones who do watch it like myself, i primarily watch fox rather than cnn, i'm a liberal. also a fox because i'm communications professional for 30 years. with a masters degree in pr. i have never seen anything like that. i watch it scientifically. you will shift not a single mind. 4 million people. , 1% black. 69 years old, rural or southern. i don't think you need to that we to us democrats have to support the legitimize

business model. it's a successful business model like rush limbaugh, there's no point of us going on any platform. host: thank you. guest: tell it to be good judge who is it -- tell it to pete buddha judge -- pete buddha judge -- i'm not here to carry their water. steve scully asked me whether it was that were in was making the right call and i said by not going on walks, in the short term, she's making the right call because she has distinguished herself from the remainder of the pack. in the general election i think she will need to appeal to some fox viewers. cnn, i have a program on cnn, but i watch it all. that clicker is always in my hand and if you are seated next to me on the sofa, you would see me watching cuomo, it would see me watching the hannity opening monologue. you would see me watching rachel maddow.

at night to go to bed unless i know what everybody is saying. my beef is with those americans who are loyal told me one network, in a bubble, not getting all sides represented. because somewhere in the mix, somewhere in the middle, lies the truth. host: you've made that point on countless occasions to get out of your silo. guest: yes, absolutely. think of it this way. i know that game of thrones is wrapping up tonight. i'm not into the show. a great modelsuch of what i'm talking about. it used to be that if somebody said to you, are you watching sign up, are you watching all in the family, we all knew what the show was, we were all watching the same thing. now, a person says to you, are you watching such and such show, chances are you've never even heard of it because technology has allowed us to go our separate ways.

charles murray wrote about one impact of this. fewer commonny experiences, especially when so many americans are not serving in the military. what i'm trying to say is that the media is just one facet of where we are in our own silo or bubble without a common denominator of other folks. it's time to break out of those doubles and make sure that we are much more aware of what our neighbors are up to. >> let me put another issue on the table. my guess is that this will be part of the conversation into the week. republican congressman from it nown saying that appears as if the president committed impeachable offenses. does this in any way change the dynamics? guest: no. if you said to me, i have a question or a riddle for you, there is a member of congress is a republican who now think that

the president has committed impeachable acts, who is it? he would be at the top of the list. for those who pay close attention, i don't know that it's such a shocker for him to have crossed this precipice. i don't think that the needle moves on the impeachment issue until and unless robert mueller testifies and only if robert mueller testifies beyond that which was in the report itself. unless he gives us a new interpretation of the conclusion , which is entirely possible by the way. i deleted -- i'd like to speak more about the deficiency of the mueller report, but only if you want to get into the weeds. it is nothing that farr -- that barr is going to do, it's not that trump junior is going to testify. i don't think any of that is going to move the needle because people's opinions are baked in. the biggest favor that build bar

did for president trump -- that bill barr differed trump is that, at a time when americans had theworked, but barr report, he wrote that summary level that the president trumpeted as no collusion, no and i think for a small time, americans were paying attention. after all the hype about the report, what did he say? and then we took barr and trump's word for it. it's going to be very hard to get people intellectually to reopen. i don't mean the partisans, but i mean the vast majority of americans to reopen the analysis is let's face it, they never read the report to begin with. they just rely on what they were told. >> thank you for waiting. caller: good morning. solutionto suggest a for the reparations that are descendents of

black slaves, and that would be to establish opportunity accounts and pay the children of slaves every day that they show up to school, pay them more for doing well in school, and therefore providing a form of recognition to people other than their sports ability. i would like you to discuss that and maybe bring it up on your radio show, thank you. host: thank you, john. that i couldhink support the idea where we are going to have a financial reparation to every descendent of a slave now living in the united states. i think the mindset behind programs like affirmative action, even though we haven't drawn a direct link, was with that in mind. it was in recognition of the fact that some among us, from

the get-go, have not been afforded equal opportunity and we want to level the playing field, but not through a direct check writing. that i can't see as being a practical solution. it's another issue that is at least part of the conversation in this democratic primary. guest: well, it is. i thought it would be more of an issue. it hasn't taken hold recently. if we are talking about the role of voters in this process, i think the biggest surprise to me so far has been the way in which joe biden according to the poll well withis doing people of color, particularly in a state like south america, like south carolina. i almost said south america. i guess i did. here's what i find significant. obama ranarack incredibly strong, as you expected that he would, with people of color because barack obama was setting a new

president, shattering one of those glass ceilings. i get that, i remember when frank rizzo in philadelphia ran 1975 and hadand overwhelming italian-americans four. i remember when my mother, who , iver member when she and her sisters were sending $20 donations to people who they knew nothing about other than he was a yugoslav. we support our own and break those barriers. but then after you have had the taste of victory and after you've had one of your own in that office, how long is that feeling last? this is a long-winded way of saying that so far, it doesn't -- and i think this is healthy, by the way. it does not seem like kamala warranted necessarily black support or the cory booker has been able to do so, but that

african-americans had success with barack obama and are now serving the entire field in a way that abb would not have been willing to do 2008. where?nd that comes from guest: my father's side of the family, and i lost my dad last fall, but my father's side is from the austria hungarian empire. growing up we would often say it ukrainian. personig ancestry.com and i've been able to track where his side of the family came from to one of two towns in modern-day poland. my mom's side of the family is completely nailed down. was aher's grandfather cobbler for the last king of montenegro. he actually had the montenegrin equivalent of a royal warrant because he made boots for the king. host: sorry about the loss of your father, by the way. guest: thank you. host: let's go to larry in illinois.

good morning, larry. caller: thank you for remembering that. , i'm having aer hard time talking, pertaining to the people of color. if we are going to do it for them, what we have to do it all the native americans if we were off their land? which youstion i had, will not like at all, but i'm handicapped and everybody that i call a republican or democrat to get information, they always tell me they don't know what i'm talking about or they can't did it for me, and i've even tried calling the white house. looking for phone numbers for senators and representatives of offices and such, and even getting a copy of the robert mueller report. just general information. i'm always told that i can go to the library or do this or do that, but i've never been able to get it. i do you do that as a person on the radio? guest: i'm not sure if i

understand that second question. how do i get the information, or how would i advise you to do so as one who is struggling with a disability? in my case, i accessed the robert mueller report because it was publicly available via the internet. i found it to be unwieldy to read 400 plus pages, i ended up going to amazon and ordering a copy for i think eight dollars that in my case came from the washington post. rizzo,ou mentioned mayor if he were alive today. pete but judge -- tigieg is higher in the poll ratings than gillibrand, even the mayor of new york city. why is that? guy, he is art likable guy. i don't know if it last.

because i think if he continues to progress, at a certain point, you're going to ask questions about whether this is a guy who has the requisite experience to sit with vladimir putin, to negotiate with the iranians. i say that, and then i catch myself because i say well, then again, we were asking the same questions about donald trump four years ago, and that did not hold him back. i do think there will be an accountability for those who don't have a great deal of experience as we think about it traditionally, but we haven't reached that point yet. >> going back to the front page story, a new view of the presidency, we will go to john who is next from tennessee. good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead, john.

caller: there a interesting show this morning. i'm 77 years old, i've been married a couple times and have numerous children, grandchildren. i admire listening to michael it has beenow great to watch his children succeed and become what they are also that hisfe, family tree traces back to numerous ons and uncles -- numerous aunts and uncles. none of us would be here if we were the result of antiabortion parents or ideas. can he imagine a boarding one of his children were having aborted one of his children? because i can't. i had a boy when i was 16 years old and he's been the greatest son that you could possibly have. host: thank you. guest: wow, what a heavy

question on c-span. here is the way that i choose to answer it. i think that the ruby way decision makes sense. it doesn't completely make sense to me as a lawyer, i'm an attorney, and when i read the decision and try to understand how it was reached on an interpretation of the 14th amendment, it's hard for me to see. but as a practical matter, it makes sense. by that, i mean the idea that says that up until a point of viability, the state is not going to have the say. at that point, the rules change. weeksr viability is a 24 or 23 weeks, i'm not sure today. i think it makes sense, i really do. i don't know how well you can define how the law should apply to that very delicate situation. willn view is that what

change the landscape of the abortion laws in this country will be medical advance, not something the supreme court would do. by that i mean if the point of viability becomes 18 weeks because of medical advance, then all the laws will shift accordingly. how about if i say it this way: roe v. wade is the worst possible legal outcome on abortion except for all the alternatives. host: let's take it one step further. do you think that this now sharpen the focus on both sides of the aisle, the role of the supreme court in 2020, the roe v. wade issue, and if you are pro-life or pro-choice, now your enemies. guest: that is a great point, the answer is yes, i do. if you were to ask me which side benefits more than the other, it is neither. i would think that the pro-choice side is going to benefit.

and ich is that, as you are speaking, there is a ton of money being raised by pro-choice planned parenthood type of groups and they are pointing at alabama and they are pointing at missouri and their pointing at louisiana just to name the top three that come to mind. i don't know that it makes sense. in fact, i think it doesn't make sense for the white house. trump, come fall of 20, do i want this to be the issue, this cultural issue? sure, it will file up elements of my base. or do i want it to the economy focused? i would argue that trump is far better served talking about full employment, talking about a dow that is on fire, talking about standing up to the chinese for the theft of intellectual property, and every conversation that focuses on abortion is one more where i think he totally writes off suburban women and

jeopardizes his election. areas,ays well in some but this should not be the overall message. host: lances joining us from florida, democrat line. caller: good morning. michael,ike to say to you are one of the few times i watch cnn because i feel you stay at active and say what you mean. what is bothering me lately, i've been a democrats and 90 that new one when i got the right to vote. i look around me and what used to be a bubble in washington has now extended to most national media. talk and the democrats they think that we are with them, and they are not even close. what scares me is they are going to lose the house. trump will be reelected because they are just not giving it to anybody because they are being fed on by the media.

much, theare you as idea that the democratic party has been destroyed? gop, as little as i trust the democrats, i always believed that the idea with the adversarial system where we bump heads to find the truth, that seems to be an idea that has gone past. i will take your answer off-line. a --: i'm not sure if this if this is a direct answer, but there is this perception that the republican party is on the ropes. antagonistic for the president say look at the way in which he has governed, this is terrible, it has caused the party to be much more monolithic. it is older, it is whiter. the gop is doing just fine. might be unsettling news for many of you, but the republican party controls the senate, the white house, most of the gubernatorial mansions, and

most of the state legislature. donald trump will go, where it's at the end of this term or some impeachment process which i think is highly unlikely, or whether it's after serving a second term. forces who put him in office are still going to be with us. whatever it is we are experiencing right now is not short-term and it's not limited to just trump. the second thing i will say, i had an interesting guest on a radio program last week named richard. his company is called engagous and he is doing focus groups in swing states among swing voters and axioms is his media partner if you want to all or -- if you want to follow what i'm creating from my memory. he recently was with a small focus group of swing voters. who vote.people they don't just sit back and offer opinions, they have to have a documented history of voting.

and they voted for obama and then trump, isn't that interesting? what are they thinking about for the 2020 cycle? the take away from the most was theycused group are not thinking about the same things that dominate the news every day. they are not caught up in the robert mueller report. they are not paying attention to most of the democratic field. they were aware of biden, they were aware of bernie, and they were somewhat aware of elizabeth warren. they did not know her by her policy, they know her by her identity when they were told what are policies are. they just did not associate them with elizabeth warren. my point is, i think many of us are caught up in a bubble and those of us in the business sometimes need a reminder that the vast majority of the country is not dialed in. not paying attention to the same things. they are worried about employment. there are worried about health

insurance, how they are going to pay for health insurance, and a number of other issues that don't get the kind of conversation that they should. host: john, from maryland, thank you for waiting. caller: good morning to both of you. i just wanted to ask a question. our right to vote is a very fundamental point for our country because it basically what our country was developed on and freedom. my question is, i think a bill is passed through the house of congress to do a paper type of voting system where it can't be hacked or interrupted by russia or china. host: michael?/ state look, i live in a where it election day is tuesday and i am shut out. i'm shut out because it's a closed primary state. and you can say that is on you, join a party. i don't want to join either of these parties.

i'm against closed primaries. measures likeese we have in pennsylvania where election day is relegated in general, one day from 7:00 to 8:00 at night. we have no early voting and their absentee voting is only for cause. stay,st dialed in on my but it's typical of what goes on around the country. making itstead of easier for people to exercise the franchise, we instead have state legislators whose day, which side would benefit if we made it easier, or if we took this measure? for example, the age-old conundrum of voter id. i'm all for requiring id being shown as long as it is mindful of what kind of identification cards people who live in this particular community might have. and if not a lot of people have drivers license is in whatever community this might be, it

should not be only a drivers license. my point is, let's be reasonable. boostmportantly, when we voter turnout, we are diluting the fringes. and it is the fringes, i maintain, that have driven us into this ditch. hardard left and the right, leaving the exhausted majority of the rest of us in no persons land. question, irity would hope that in my lifetime, there would be an electronic means of voting with some type of backup system. i fear that the russian effort at hacking in the last cycle has probable the really jolted peoples's confidence as to whether we can ever do that. we do so much with our computers, why can we vote in a similar fashion? host: with a half a minute left, the president in the state tomorrow. is pennsylvania the epicenter for .1? -- for 2020? guest: it absolutely is and it's

so exciting to be a pennsylvania at this time. joe biden has to be the strong biden-trumpa pennsylvania because he could keep in the democratic column those who abandoned the party because they could not vote for hillary. his cnn program every saturday morning, his work available online and monday through friday on sirius xm. thanks very much for spending part of your sunday with us. guest: thank you. host: it with the season finale of snl last night and a return to poking fun at the president of the united states. let's watch. >> let's wrap this up, the nba finals are coming up. i need to invite the three white players over for mcdonald's. wait a second. [applause]

have something very important to say to the american people. something they need to hear. >> no collusion, no obstruction. >> don't stop us now. we might even get rid of -- don't stop us now. having a good time. don't want to stop at all. guys, it has been fun. i don't know what is next for me but i would not be donald trump if i didn't say tune in next season to see who lives and who dies. >> spoiler, i live. i live for another 150 years. on snl as itg skit

wraps up its last season last night. journal continues tomorrow morning at 7 a.m. eastern time. newsmakers is next. i live conversation with senator ben carson. the sure to check out our program on c-span2. thanks for joining us on this sunday. enjoy the rest of your weekend. ♪ [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] here is what is happening on c-span this morning.

newsmaker starts in a few minutes with ben cardin talking about iran and trump's immigration proposal. after that, eulogies on the -- including mitch mcconnell and mike pence. later, a forum on political imprisonment and iran, saudi teaching theria washington post journalist who was detained and held for more than a year. then, highlights from some of the key capitol hill hearings including maternal health, the boeing 737 next rope, 5g wireless technology, and an hiv prevention drug. tonight at 8:00 eastern, historian david mccullough discusses his book the pioneers: storystoric -- the heroic of the settlers who brought the american idea west.

case.ng on a detective that's the adventure. i tried to look at all of it with a fresh eye and very often, i've never not found something. that either has been ignored or not known about. pioneersook, about the who established the first settlement in the northwest material, it's all that nobody knows much of anything about because it had never been really looked at. announcer: david mccullough, tonight at 8:00 eastern on q&a. starting memorial day, may 20 seven, all week in prime time, c-span has coverage of commencement ceremonies taking place at colleges and universities across the country. featured speakers include maryland representative elijah

cummings, acting defense secretary patrick shanahan, former georgia house minority leader stacey abrams, president donald trump, and supreme court associate justice sonia sotomayor. our coverage starts memorial day at 8 p.m. eastern on c-span. watch online anytime at c-span.org and listen on the free radio app. once, tv was simply three giant networks on a government supported service of pbs. then in 1979, a small network with unusual name rolled out a big idea. let viewers decide what was important to them. c-span opened the doors to washington policymaking for all to see, bringing you unfiltered content from congress and beyond. in the age of power to the people, this was true people power. in the 40 years since, the landscape has clearly changed. broadcasting has given way to

narrowcasting, youtube stars are a thing. ideas are moreg relevant today than ever. no government money supports c-span. it is not part of the coverage of washington and is funded 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. joining us from baltimore and c-span's newsmakers program is then carson, a member of the senate foreign relations committee and joining us in the studio, covering congress for politico and a senate reporter. senator, let's begin with some news over the weekend. a learned that the faa issued warning to u.s. commercial airlines flying over the gulf of oman and over iranian airspace. how concerning is this to you? >> first, it's good to be with you.