lawmakers can use pack money for personal expenses. you can join the "washington e-hour journal" is ahead. we'll get the latest on the mass hooting in virginia beach, virginia. nd how members use the money raised through leadership packs and we'll talk about the future of the i.r.s. begin taking a look back at this year's college season as we look at members of congress and a of federal officials. we're asking if college speeches have become too political.

202-3478-8000 is the number, 202-242-80012. ou can catch up with us on facebook. morning.od saturday we'll get to your questions and comments in just a minute on commencements, but first we wanted to update you on the virginiass shooting in beach. "virginia u to the pilot" just next door to beach.a 13 dead, including gunmen. there.cture that you see photo taken by a by stanneder of the scene. employee g-time city shot an killed -- and killed 12

making it the deadliest after he ing of 2019 ired at them in the city's scenic center of 30 brick colonial-style buildings. ne officer was shot but saved by his bulletproof vest. the "wall street journal" had reporting about the shooter alling him a long-time city employee who had entered the revenge.to exact they cited law enforcement as dwayne aming him craddock. inmade the firearm purchases recent weeks. legallyifle and handgun purchased. suppresser un had a

and there were multiple empty scene.nes at the that reporting late last night from the "wall street journal." new york times is reporting on 2020 ion from some of the candidates for president. cory booker, camilla harris, sanders and others expressed grief for the victims and their families and called congress to pass new gun control legislation. is in new york times on gun control. before the shooting yesterday preventing gun in ence has been brought up commencement speeches. ack on may 17, michael bloomberg, former new york city mayor, was at washington louis.sity in st. he spoke about gun violence.

spoke about also in issue of gun violence this country. we are asking -- you to call in with your and hts on the speakers whether you think the speeches are becoming too political. hone lines a little bit different. f you're a current student, 202-748-8000 if you're a student. president trump was at the air force academy. headlines.e they are reporting on his speech. aside politics in his address to the u.s. air echo academy, but he did some of his campaign themes especially when he talk about foreign policy. here's a little bit of president

trump from this week. graduating at is an incredible time for our country. well.ountry is doing our country is respected again. [applause] we are respected again. reawakening american pride, american confidence, and american greatness. you know it. these gentlemen know it, i'll you right now. thank you very much. thank you very much. that's very nice. restoring the fundamental loiltpal that our highest s to the american -- lotty -- loyalty to america's citizen. we will not sacrifice america's any foreign power. we don't do that anymore.

in all things and ways we are and it iserica first, about time. host: that was president trump at the united states air force academy. commencement speeches we will show you in the first hour on the "washington journal" will be available on our web site. you can search the search bar commencement speaker that you're interested in. call in as well. phone lines are open. urrent students, recent graduates, phone lines for all others this morning. in or join us on facebook or you can go to twitter. month in her commencement speech at the of ersity at the district

maxine watters did not shy away from publics. the stats you some of ut together who track commencement speakers. they look at the political speakersf commencement at the top 50 universities in this country. they put stats earlier this month on their tracking. saying that colleges choose more politically diverse speakers past by than in the selecting a near equal amount of conservatives and liberals. reform, onlycampus 26 had a measurable lean to the left.or liberals had outnumbered in ervative speakers 4-1

speakers democratic four at nine compared to by republican senators. they put that report out earlier this month. we'll go through more commencement speeches earlier the morning throughout first hour of the "washington journal." is the number for current students, recent 202-748-8001, and for 202-748-8002. today'she lead story in "washington journal washington journal," the threats, u.s. and mexican fficials are set to meet wednesday for negotiations on

immigration issues. you know when we know more about who will be in that meeting and we'll discuss that our program today. e asked if commencement speeches are too political. not shy away did from politics. division and discord is the president's bestows omments as he hate red to have those who questioning thout his motives. ultra c terrorism by conservative hate groups and taking te supremists refuge in the president's words programs to for contain and fight them is reduced. secretaries benefit from

industries they regulate, misuse tax dollars, and worse still dismantle programs and reverse that has been achieved dedication.des of instead of fixing problems, the attorney general is the president's own fixer. instead of oversight and accountability, the senate ajority leader, republican mitch mcconnell, wants to sweep the mueller report aside. he has the audacity to declare said, andally over, he case closed. the president makes decisions ccording to what is best for him instead of what is best for people.ntry and the from his tax giveaways for the session for s on building a wall and hotel prop -- prop tearing to he ten way that's he has basically obstructed justice.

according to robert mueller's up his o cover hisgitimate si and describe financial expenses, simply his financial of offenses. host: getting your thoughts on an encement addresses whether you think have become too political or whether you think the ones you heard back in your day were not political enough or what you remember about the commencement speech graduated from college. 202-748-8000 for current 202-748-8001 for ecent grads, all others, 202-748-8002. plenty to talk about when it comes to commencement speeches halls.n members holding town halls around the country. talk about c we'll later this morning, the number

922 so far ls, up to this year from january through april of this year. members, of course, are on the emorial day recess today and throughout this week, not coming back until early next week around the halls country. we'll talk about some of those town halls as well. from the townmber hall front as well looking at 922, that compares 2018 during the same time period. back in 2017, it was closer to it is today, 897. again a discussion later this morning in the "washington town halls as well. but for the first hour today we're talking about commencement addresses. getting your thoughts on commencement addresses and howing you some of the commencement addresses from speakers throughout this commencement season. maxine watters mention

-- justice department members of the justice epartment making commencement rosen es, including rob stooen. maker, the lawyer has an opportunity to be a good person. when you o compromise can do to without violating your principles. will face pressure to compromise on things that most, perhaps to trade virtue for the appearance of virtue, but you should exercise when circumstances tempt you to disregard principles. once said, eller there may come a time when you will be tested. may find yourself standing alone against those you thought were trusted colleagues. may stand to lose all that you worked for and it may not be an easy call. principles exist precisely for

those moments. onn you grow old and reflect times when you stood firmly for what was right although it was and costli, the most rank ult occasions may among your finest moments. remember that success can only measured over time. host: the former deputy attorney there. we are showing you commencement address from this 2019 season getting your thoughts on whether you think they've become too political. is up first out of orange park, florida this morning. eugene, what do you think? my three hispanic to dchildren were listening c-span and the president did not any hispanics that was sold out.

host: why do you think the address should get more attention. guest: everything. a lot of people liked it. a xhermable have commencement address from this scene or your time when you were if you went to college. guest: i didn't go to college military from e 1965 to 1969. learned more in officers school than i ever thought about in high school. host: ken is next from beaumont, texas. good morning. caller: when i look at this and maxine watters speech is an excellent example. graduated from college. that should be a time of inspiring students to do the best they can for the

their lives. watters is a e classic example of what happened party.former democratic it is no longer of the emocratic party of our fathers an grandfathers. theme-a-catic story. they are doing is pointing out to themselves and it is all about them. about -- it is not about anybody else. they are trying to convince you like them, think hey are you're politically incorrect and wrong. happen down onis the border and some of the other cancer in this country and it is the democratic party in this country. do you think commencement addresses are still worth doing.

if they have become too should we end that tradition? caller: no, when students spend that time in college, it is not easy to get a college degree and to go out into the work place. inspiring.sed to be when my sons graduated from here in all of them southeast texas, it was all about inspiring the students. it was about real-life people that had something to stand for, up and run their with and run things diarrhea of the mouth. but when people in d.c. -- this me of some of the stuff i've seen in the middle east and of the others where it is their way or the highway, if you any other way than the watters school of charm, and people need to call those

they are. for who to silent majority needs stand up and tell them to shut up and go away. do that is at the ballot box. when this country is salvage. reprieve when trump stay ut we need to vigilant. asking about whether commencement speeches have become too political. there talking to ken about the idea of possibly doing away with commencement addresses. possibility brought up in .p., an opinion writer the" diamondback news," a recent on this topic.

.d. writing in his column, i suspect commencement ceremonies not ure tradition, it is wrong as long as it is not harmful. traditions deserve to die and some commencement speejers us a reason to kill off the american commencement ceremony. pro-speech foundation has a of disinviting ommencement speakers ranging from rudy giuliani and others, i with some, and others are ridiculous. we can see the downsides, what the upsides? has anyone offered a worth while commencement speech? i can tell you what bloomberg will say talking about michael upcoming speech. he'll congratulate us on our chooechlts and not --

achievements and not get the face of n challenge, probably highlighting change. the point is it will be some version of what we heard a and we're probably made to analyze in high school english class. column in the "diamondback newspaper out of the university of maryland. are showing you some commencement speeches. it.e at the tail end of all of these addresses you can site available against to fight the idea of elitism in this country. here's that speech. is divided by at class where one class has all a society ges is

riped by high -- gripped by hierarchy and elitism. our elites don't use that word. privileged ir position comes from merit and achievement. s.a.t. int to their scores and prestigious degrees, hey talk about economic efficiency. the truth is the people at the op of our society have built a culture and an economy that worked mainly for themselves. cultural elites look down on self-sacrifice, hings like ewe milty and -- humility, they promote self- self-gratitude. and when they ship jobs overseas college orkers without degrees can't get a good job, they say, that was their fault. gone to ld have

college. i rather suspect if affected america's tech industry or banking sector hat we would hear a different tune. i slightly suspect we would hear how these industries are the american of the economy and must be defended at all costs, and that's just my point. elites assume that their vital while without.'s els are they believe they should prevail the middle of ng america. of elitism.nature getting your thoughts on commencement speeches. political?ecome too lynn is in maryland this morning. you think?do caller: they are getting too political. had ronald reagan on there and it was from 1993. a place down in south carolina.

and i listened to that speech. ou have to realize, i wasn't a reagan fan, but i listened to that speech. it wasn't political. political. we have changed since 1993, it is unbelievable. speech whether it is right or left, they are all political now. knives ine to get our everybody's back. we need to come back to something like that. that this speech with ronald reagan was not political, that's something i was not ke i said, a supporter of president reagan. see the night and day of all of our speeches today, we remember whock and we are. we are a country that needs to we've got to and stop this. each got to stop dividing other in political speeches. we are going too bad and the in the world that's enjoying watching this is the

leader of russia. got to come together again ecause if we don't, we're in big trouble and these political speeches, whether left or right, very political. you know, i mean we also had a -- you had the former first lady mrs. bush who died year. that speech was buchlt that's the kind -- beautiful. kind of speeches we need. we do not need the speeches that ofre getting from both sides the aisle. the one you just had on, he's wing.ight he's not listening to his people. i'm just mad that this has happened to such a great country. many blessings in this country. we just need to reach out. to each o reach out other and stop this hate, and it starts everywhere. the hate and the political

in every section of our life. host: lynn, that ronald reagan speech you mentioned was in carolina, september 20, 1983. videos a picture that's a from the reagan library, you can in its at speech entirety from ronald reagan from 1983.in todd in shaker heights, ohio. your thoughts. commencement speeches gotten too political? caller: no, they have not. the term political is being often esented much too and now it is gotten to the point where the term political politically e correct has negative con connotations.- which makescorrect,

more sense, someone elected to office for public service or to office of a public service operates in a maximum of efficiency of what that political office requires him to do, then we would operate in status as to what politically correct means and that's what we should be doing. the person that says that we of commencement speeches are absurd. at le come to speak graduations are picked by graduates or administrators in combination of that and they are the ones who the decisions. jackson came to he is a my college, moorehouse graduate. what it mean as for as dad, andtivism, being a a number of other things that

were completely in line with a good citizen and the president and leading a strong the past for yourself, your family, and the community hat you live in, and he was a political officer. he was a former mayor. that speech may have fell on deaf ears to some people, but value of that speech is was recordeded and what it would mean to be a good member of society. recorded, was somebody later on, ten years 32, 22 years later at say, he was right. i was there. i need to look at this. i was there and i'm glad i stayed in line with it. commencement f speeches. host: when did you graduate from moorehouse?

ago.er: a long time host: what did you think of the illionaire tech investor lifting the debts of 396 letting e graduates them know at that commencement ceremony? that he placed value in the good citizens that produces.e he showed that although it is money to a 17 or 18-year-old, even though most do hey, youe showed that, met the requirements many you have finished and if you're any barriers in life, as in being black men, moorehouse graduates, this is one you won't have to get over invested his money correctly and he will find the guys not ity of those but to pay ward backward to those coming bind

him. good move. getting your thoughts on commencement addresses. have they gotten too political? 202-748-8001, es, 202-748-8002.s, good morning. caller: i watched two good peeches, one was from tulane talkeden deneres and she about where she came from and it wasn't a downer and then i the air force academy graduation and these kids that to war, our g graduates hook 991 hands and saluted them and that as inspiring and neither one was political. they can have it where they not makee citizens and it political.

thank you. ost: did you graduate from college? we lost nina. fort myers, florida. caller: hello. as far as speeches being -- too political. i don't know that it has been any other way. ways to build e dreams. hello? tom. i'm listening, how so? caller: as far as commencement becoming too political, agree any essarily that itt -- or disagree has been any different, and i'm 74 years old. independent, i mean, these people are eches going to face them in business organizations, i

in involved with san francisco with international trade. were many circumstances by which every speaker something.s i just wish our politicians to make lize they need the general overview more so else.anything that drives a% to seek more and more and more. didn't come from georgia, and -- and and yet small schools had the thriving need to have and more education, whether it was, you know, college a particular need for a career. know, as far as mr concerned, i think that he makes a very good

point, but you have to look at his perspective, simple. disagree.n agree or i think that he's partly right, the point -- host: tom? was he right about, caller: oh, about the elitist group. where you agree with him? there's some truth to everything that's stated so sort e to teach people to for what is good. florida.at's tom out of hawley.tioned josh i'll give you another member of ongress to watch, this is the chairman of the oversight speaking. cummings giving his

address. >> our democratic system has some time.siege for e must -- there's no room for error. we must confront and overcome attack on our elections from sources both domestic.nd e must address as well the failure of our administration -- his administration and some in congress that adamantly defend us against those attacks. despite -- this fight for the oul of our democracy has been raised inescapably by the actions of the president of the america.tates of both while in office and it may by his priorrmined conduct. i didn't come here to give a speech.al i came mere here to make it

got work to do. equally dangerous -- equally so, the s, if not more threats to our democracy have to metastasize by the failure of the current majority in the senate and the prior republican fulfill our y to constitutional duty to and hear the executive's abuse and hold this administration accountable. congressman d cummings saying i didn't come here to give a political speech address there. we're asking you if you think commencement speeches have become too political. 202-748-8000 if you're a current if you're 2-748-8001

a recent graduate. calvin from florida. what do you think? caller: i think if you have ecome and you are blessed to get up on your feet. it is not for you think -- for you are ink that arrived and people down in the the ditches is not important. because we are all as one, we re americans and we should listen to each other. like that guy talked about it shouldn't be nothing like that. we should be one many we all are elite whether we're poor or eally -- host: do you think commencement speakers are doing that more so than in the past or less so in the past? caller: i think the strong is ooking down on the poor and we shouldn't do that. i recently was working. on the job t attack and i was homeless for three

years many but this white attorney, who i don't know, came and fought for me and got me off the street. the street was on for three years. had major surgery. but he was looking out for me. got a little apartment, one bedroom. i'm not out in the cold. thank you for sharing your story. we're focused on commencement speeches, getting your thoughts the addresses that stood out to you whether you think the too hes are becoming political. deb.morning to the man n deference to in beaumont, i would say texas is more diverse. a graduate. when he graduated, they were from the first speaker. it was someone from the griculture department and the students should get to pick who

speaks. it is the time they remember in pivotal, and it is and i think it should be up to the students themselves because far as elitism and telling kids what they shouldn't or have, it should be inspirational. can t mueller, as far as i tell, and i wish you would show some of his. e was very good about his speech. he didn't mention anything about politics, it was about anecdote a little about his wife and learning to listener. i think you should spend time listening to robert mueller instead of mike pence they will go to war tourist ing like a guide. host: when you say the graduates in picking volved commencement speakers, what if there's disagreement there? efforts to disinvite

speakers in the past and the that of hat come of disagreement among students of a certain speaker. have the answer for you, dear. that's what student government is for. institutionalist, lementary schools should have student government. model u.n.'s. we're not teaching communication negotiation. we're not teaching to take an interest. to take a ing position. that's from my son, by the way. a student government where stay and the a administration has to step back aren't taught student government or civics and authoritative school doesn't teach anybody anything. tearing down confederate statues. you see what i'm saying?

ost that is a call from texas on the question of whether commencement speeches have been political. this is from jerry. politics affects life. else should they talk about? bachelor." this should be about graduates president.sgusting yes, maxine watters went too far we rring to the speech that showed earlier. maxine riting about watters, her speech is disgusting. story, there are many stories in the 1960's of who conducted themselves with grace and the r, now it is a race to bottom where the real bottom feeders live. few tweets and comments. we're asking you about commencement speeches. do you think they are too

political? southbend, indiana. caller: good morning. heard a i went and speech, my grandson was graduating. i think that was about five ago, and the speech was so particular ut this speeches thathese they are making are too emotional. it seems like these people talking to their psychiatrist. they don't need to be talking to no college graduate. deborah, what about that speech made it uplifting? they were talking about ore -- more entrepreneurship, getting community organizing, 501-c-3's.th

on were giving them ideas how to help the community and themselves. but these speeches here, there can gain that they from these speeches -- nothing. that is deborah from indiana. this is joseph. good morning. caller: i don't think the political.re too i think they are too unreasonable. the accusations being made and a trial rocess by anybody, by some of the democrats, not that i it, sarily disagree with but without a trial, due process, and a conviction, i say those they can things and they are whipping people up into a frenzy and nation is at ur this time. it is like a snowball effect a hill, it just keeps getting bigger and bigger. at a point because if it doesn't stop now, it will never stop. host: if commencement speeches

is another venue of what they do, was there a place where those sort of political from?s were kept away caller: if a political speech is easonable and they are not using inflammatory language that may be designed to whip people one r their side and then side or the other is taken and without even thinking you're i'm right, i don't agree with that. but a political speech that is reasonable, commencement draes, i have no problem with, and if truth, e telling the reading the mueller report, i didn't read it but i saw robert give his address, he said he wasn't commenting on the or innocence of any individual. he mentioned due process, one of the first things he did talk his address was only about ten minutes long, and he report is his s testimony. one side takes it one way, the takes it the other

way. without myself having read the could go nestly all i by is what mueller said. and if mueller commented the way a trial, mean without there can be no conviction. going to stick with the topic of commencement speeches and stay on that. of calls on that topic this morning. herbie from -- mississippi. caller: i think a speech should sent forward is the gentleman at moorehouse and how they people.ome successful everybody is attacking donald trump. donald trump don't have nothing to two words to say in order free himself from all of this. war. people were killed over there and everything else while they about a russia

collusion. they need to focus and regain what they have done instead of focus on donald trump. think this political thing, splitting us up, divide and for eight years talking bout ibaka, when all of the -- obama care, they are saying that donald trump is trying to do things with the border, trying solve problems with china, everybody was going along with china. at least is trying to stand up against china right now. host: shoaling you -- showing ou clips from commencement speeches from earlier this month during commencement season. in the conservative mike te town hall about pence's speech at liberty university. he headline, the right is probably going to go nuts over mike pence's commencement speech. here is a little bit from his

speech. have been home we rolling back the regulatory tate and weef been upholding the foundation of our laws by -- by nominating strong conservatives to our every level, and i promise you as of this last week 103 judges confirmed to our courts and every one of them god-given all the liberties enshrined in the kooun the united states -- in the constitution of the united states. entering in america where you have a president and administration that is standing for all the liberties we speech, the freedom of the freedom of religion, and we for the hout apology sanctity of human life.

host: vice president mike pence at liberty university earlier month. taking your phone calls about commencement speeches. have become they too political? englewood, new jersey. maxine i listened to watters and she may as well have campaign speech at a rally. it was a disgrace. long xine watters has a history of being disgraceful. hree years ago i went to a graduation of a friend of mine stanford and ken burns gave it commencement speech and was a 45-minute all-out attack and erything republican, specifically donald trump. he the then-president mr. nas y was applauding as if he and i have not given money to stanford since.

inappropriate. it is as if all republicans are scum. and, mr. burns, i of love his movies, but he needs to rethink going.e is the graduation should be about the students. to ou have some whiches.com give -- wisdom to give them, fine.s pence's speech went up to the line in my opinion also. about some life wisdom, not about your political positions and the entire speech politics. be about you don't know what the audience came there for. they came there to celebrate the academic achievements of the students. host: thank you. luis is in maine. louise is in maine. i graduated undergrad

bob and our speaker was hope. on the hope focused students. he was a very, very good speaker. not at all political. all, it id anything at was satire, you know, poking fun bad situations. defaming you know, other people or he had no agenda to give usother than hope and let us know we were to our ngratulated for efforts. graduation bsequent ceremonies, twice after that, speakers in that time us, and complimented us, and there wasn't this haranguing going on,

hich i feel is counterproductive. host: with people bringing speecheso commencement when did that start if it it is -- if it did not start during your time. do you have a sense of when changed? caller: oh, dear. t has been progressively hanging for the worse, i would say, i went through wounded knee racial riots in 1968 when i as actually teaching on the west side of dayton. of gs have always been kind tumultuous in our country but we it because to te do that takes away from the hope young people, and i think it got progressively worse 1980's and the

990's until now which is just unconscionable. i just can't believe how america changed. i spent a major part of my life in europe america teaching school and, you know, armed forceses personnel, you have to be upbeat positive with young kids. and these young graduates have much to contribute to our nation. you have to give them hope. you s the major thing, and have to compliment them for a job well done and get off your about what you believe or don't believe in. that's about all i have to say. host: thank you, louise, the caller from maine. do you think, from hamilton, ohio, what makes for a good commencement speech? caller: i think it is presenting their career path and

aspire to the highest path they choose. it is disconcerting to me that the liberals take the platform belittle the highest office in the land and especially mr. trump. i just don't think that's the platform for it because perhaps a future peaking to president that may disagree with views, but ir policy i just don't think it is the right platform to criticize a president. it should be more about them in ring to the highest whatever field or career they choose. ost: do you think those in politics make good commencement speakers and inevitably with an could tipficial, that toe into political issues. think we all i draw from the resources of our own experiences and i think they talk about their career

paths, you know, their obstacles had to obstacles they overcome to achieve whatever gains they made in life. the platform it is on belittling people because you their ideas. host: thanks for the call. s. underwood spoke and talked about her path and the obstacles he had overcome in her life as part of that commencement speech. if i didn't have a preexisting condition i probably run. have you see, in april of 2017, i congressman's town hall and heard him promise to protect health care coverage for preexisting e with conditions, and i believed him. now, you should know i'm not thinks that my elected representative and i have to agree on everything, but when they mick a

promise they should keep their word. twohen he went back to d.c. weeks later and broke that promise, i was mad. more than mad. had to do something. i decided to run for congress. [applause] host: about ten minutes left in segment of the "washington journal" asking about your thoughts on this year's speech season. for current tudents, 202-748-8001 for recent grads and all others 202-748-8002. jasper, good morning. caller: the commencement excellent.heard were thank you. host: who in particular did you like? caller: well, no one in particular.

i heard vice president pence speech given, i thought that was excellent and others. as all the host: what makes for a good commencement speech, charles? caller: keep the politics out of it. host ralph in winstead, connecticut. caller: i don't understand these republicans that are supporting trump. he's morally bankrupt, he's a criminal. dangerous. guy is host: bring us to commencement speeches ralph. caller: that's what i was getting to. the democrats have to keep point. the anyone has the platform in this ountry today must go after donald trump. he's dangerous, and it will come -- it will come. see in the end what they've elected. the ignorance of this country is

mind that they can support this g.i. over and over. molested. he raped annex wife. ex-wife. ost: ralph, on commencement speeches and do you remember when cement speeches president obama was in office it the same? caller: it is different. christian. he's a decent man. donald trump is garbage. awful, filthy, disgusting human being. host: that is ralph in id in upper -- upper marlboro, maryland. commencement k speeches should not involve publics. think it should focus on how great our country is and what

our country has to offer for graduates to serve in our government, to be mighty men of god. i, myself, am a veteran, and you know bha? i -- and you know what. i came back from the private ector and still serve our country. i take pride and honor in nation.our he wisdom and the knowledge i have gained from school and what y country has given back to me and i think commencement speeches should be focused on tot and what our country has offer not on political agendas. used as ld not be platforms to inspire our young - our young graduates in the wrong direction. pence's -- ed mike vice president mike pence's speech, and i think it had no political overtones. i just feel our political

leaders should focus on that and to offer ountry has and not on some political agenda. defeats the purpose in my opinion. andrew is next from fall rivers, massachusetts. good morning. caller: yes. on the commencement speeches, i get away ve got to from the political stuff and if make fun of yourself, you've got to raise up he students enthusiasm and hopes and dreams and not tear by putting in this guy's an idiot and so forth. just try to get the kids minds orking on the future and themselves and what you did, are is irrelevant to the students that are coming

forward. to are the ones that got put this world forward to a better place. andrew, thanks for the call. our last call in in segment of "washington journal." stick around. plenty more to come today on our program. look at the t, a political dynamics driving the 2020 race. jason russelln by of the washington examiner and ater we will look at a new republic piece on how democrats can use the i.r.s. as a campaign 2020.in matt ford will join us for that conversation. we'll be right back. t.v."on "american history

atc-span 3 at 2 p.m. looking african-american story telling colonial williamsburg. >> i went to his room after they ad done all of this parading, and i said when you put on 18th it makes you ng, feel important. it inspires you. -- it makes you hink that the 18th century was what it means to be an american. clothes i wear, i feel like a slave. we continue our coverage of the 75th anniversary d-day at 6 p.m. with istorian, author and reenactor jarrod frederick. mile off nded a half course. there was hesitation as to what should do.y

commander, need roosevelt said we're going to start the war at 6:30 d roderick talks about landing on utah beach. y theyn they show d-da show omaha and the carnage, but they make it look like they did not have difficulty and we lost 197 men and a fourth division on the beach but the next day, when we attacked, we lost 50% of our men within three or four days. >> this weekend on american history tv on c-span3. "washington journal" continues.

host: jason russell is from the washington examiner. what does the contributors and are due? -- editor do? editor, itributors edit the contributors, it is fun because i get to interact with interesting people on all sides of the aisle and even with very different ideologies and priorities on those sides. we have a roster of about 150 or 200 contributors, some of them write two or three times a week and some two or three times a month. it is fascinating to hear from them and edit their material. host: the latest column from the washington examiner contributor, america's energy boost, changing geopolitics as ronald reagan foresaw and liberals do so they can make doctors violate their

religious police on transgender and trumps lose, lose, lose mexican tariffs. have you take them? guest: it is not a strict process, whoever we see his writing interesting pieces, we will reach out to them that we saw you write for whoever or a great interview you did with whoever and we would love you to write for us. persones it is just a has a nice parties in a certain subject -- and expertise in a certain subject and sometimes they reach out to us, a scene in analyst, james, -- a cnn , heyst, james, a former fbi has experience and insight almost no one is in the world can write about. he has been a fantastic contributor, from james comey and other topics like the

mueller investigation, security, tragic shootings. host: what is your goal for this page? are you looking for balance? >> yes, balance, but it is also expertise. that is the main goal. we have our fantastic six or seven commentary writers who do -- we have but they foreign-policy experts and economic experts but we do not have fbi agent experts, we do not have a religious liberties legal issues experts on staff and we have those through contributors who can say these are not issues that come up every day we need to pay someone to have full-time but we can have you working on and doing your own work and have you write a couple of pieces in a week or a month on that issue to keep our readers informed.

news incidentng like the shooting in virginia beach. a lot to learn about motives and investigation to be done. if someone says i want to write about a gun issue in the wake of the shooting, what advice to you give them? >> a lot of -- guest: a lot of let's wait and see. we do not want to, bad metaphor, but jumped the gun. if only we had done this or enacted this reform, this could have been avoided, i think that happened with the pulse nightclub shooting on both sides, if only we had done a better job of cleaning out refugees and migrants, it would not of happened or if we banned guns, the pulse nightclub shooting would not have happened. you need to wait and see rather than jumping to conclusions and

waiting for the evidence to come out here. host: jason russell with us until 8:30. democrats call 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002. we talked about your work as contributors editor and you occasionally write your own opinions and you worked as a commentary writer for the washington examiner and your most recent piece was about president trump and what the mueller report said about the president's reaction to learning about the report. this past week we saw the robert mueller speak. what was your reaction to robert mueller's comments in the press conference in which he did not take questions? it is the reaction to about this investigation, robert mueller has been a professional bookn objective and by the

person this entire investigation. sometimes i feel bad for robert mueller because he has been so maligned by president trump in everything he said. and criticized. in the end, i thought, it was not a total exoneration but president trump could not have asked for anything more positive that what came out of the mueller investigation. people on the right are criticizing robert mueller for saying if we had confidence the president did not commit a crime, we would have said so. i can agree with some of that criticism but i think he intended to say that the crime of attraction of justice is -- of instruction of justice is tough to define an hard for him as a prosecutor to say this is what happened or what did not happen.

if you cannot define that crime. he could have provided more context and said this is the crime for congress to define and take action on but i did not have a problem with him. host: what is your expectation forcing robert mueller and -- in front of an open committee during or closed doors? guest: i would be shocked he agreed to an open committee think -- if democrats want him to speak, it would have to be through a subpoena. if he would agree to it, it would have to be a closed-door, if not, confidential and closed hearing without cameras or any journalists. host: despite congress being away, plenty of news to talk about with jason russell of the washington examiner.

chuck in mount joy, pennsylvania, independent. caller: how are you doing today? host: doing well. caller: fantastic. in 2006, nancy pelosi says you she was against impeachment no matter who was the president and now the robert mueller public -- robert mueller report came out and we have pages of his testimony and evidence presented to the american people and over 60% of television networks, and viewing pleasure for the american public, says nothing about the content of the mueller report, we only have the barr and theill president to what the mueller report says.

they continuously inform us that there was no collusion and no conspiracy with the president. when in fact we can see from the downer report, if we get in our summertime beach reading, break open a mueller report in the washington post and read it, absorb it, we will know and we congressard to the beginning to consider doing an ongoing trump criminal investigation. host: jason russell? guest: it will be interesting to see how nancy pelosi the is with impeachment because she has been the one slowing it process and wants to make sure no one jumps

into it without more evidence. i think she does generally support the further investigation that house committees are doing but i do -- shenk she wants to wants to focus on other agenda issues. host: of those further investigations being led by a variety of her committee chairs, which one do you think the president should be most concerned about? guest: that is a good question. i do not think he should be too worried about his tax returns coming out, i do not -- i do understand why he does not want them to and am not saying he should or should not release them but he should not be worried about that because worst-case scenario they show he is not as wealthy as he says he is. that is not why voter support him, they like his policies. there may be concerning things in the dealings with deutsche bank.

we will see more about that when we get more information. that does seem to be kind of fishy. with anything, you are always looking for a smoking gun and when it comes to the obstruction of justice debate, tough for a smoking gun. he firing mueller -- he tried to fire mueller but without a secondary crime hard to say he broke the law, not as simple as when bill clinton committed perjury. the evidence is less clear and a lot more vague. there is a possibility to get a smoking gun in the deutsche bank information here. host: new york, republican, matt. caller: please hear me out, i have a theory on what is happening with the 2020 election. sanders would not have said i do not want to hear

he could haveils, been president of the united states and that scared the democrats. a lot of the democrats are far left, the democrat party has put them in their and they know they have no chance but they are pulling away votes from bernie. with their extreme views, it makes joe biden seem like he is palatable and a reasonable person when his history is nowhere near that. i would like to remind people that joe biden dropped out of the 1988 race because he plagiarized. he is a liar. we said back then, i wish you could pull up the archives, he actually said he is more intelligent than the average american. that is the kind of person we want in office. the whole thing is a dance

comedy scene in town halls -- the cnn town halls, they have ringers in the audience the people know ahead of time they will be asked and they have the answers right away. host: jason russell? guest: there are two schools of thought on joe biden as the front runner in 2020, some people see him as a powerhouse who is almost destined to get the nomination. i think he has a point about joe peoplegainst 20 other who are splitting a lot of votes. course has the most name recognition. he has a lot of power and money and political endorsements behind him. he is also very entertaining and will do well in debates. he does well in the public speaking format. at the same time, the other school of thought is joe biden is the rudy giuliani of 2020 or

-- 2012 ierry of 2020 am referring to where everyone thinks he will be the front runner and come fall or whatever it may be, out of contention for whatever reason. i am more aligned with the powerhouse one. but i would not be shocked if people get tired of him and are looking for a fresh face. he is so entertaining in the town halls and the debates but he does need to do the hard work and iowa and new hampshire and shakes enough evidence and kisses enough babies. -- enough hands and kisses enough babies. host: who should donald trump be most concerned about? guest: that is a good question. it depends, it is the flavor of the week kind of thing, 2018

when beto o'rourke was running against ted cruz, he got nice media profiles but now in 2020 and he is running against democrat, the media attention is not quite as positive and he is running against 20 other democrats and not ted cruz. there is pete buttigieg who is getting attention. furthere gets that it -- vetted further, there could be more negative press. that is a tough question. klobuchar is interesting, not a lot of media attention now but if she found a way to get those flowery media profiles for a week or two in the right time during campaign season it would be interested to see -- especially -- she is not quite as moderate as joe biden but in

the middle lane between moderate joe biden at elizabeth warren, you know, saying i support the goals of the green new deal without saying i support the policies of it. she is like that on several other issues. host: 15 minutes left with jason russell, contributors editor of the washington examiner. york,d catskills, new independent. caller: it is the town of catskill on the hudson. i am curious of your age. you are very young. i mention that because at your age i was a conservative and at 71, i graduated to being a liberal. did you grow up in a conservative household and do you see any change in your political orientation as you were going through adulthood?

host: stick around, ken. guest: i am in the millennial generation, graduated from college in 2013. i was raised in a very conservative, republican household. growing up, i did not know much about politics. we supported republicans and it was good when a republican won in our opinion. as i aged and i learned more about politics and policy, it was fascinating to understand the reasons why people believe these things. views say that some of my did moderate a little bit. immigration, i am very much in favor of more immigration, it is good for the economy and generally for moral reasons, especially with refugees, to welcome more migrants and refugees here.

it is fascinating to think about the people in the books who have influenced me growing up. people who i know but just books i read in college. host: talk about your career path. , i studiedollege economics and political sites and now i am a journalist who never took a journalism class. i did a little bit of opinion work for the campus times at the university of rochester where you cannot be too far from catskills. was the manhattan institute and their washington, d.c. office in doing economic short. and doing some opinion work. examiner, it the event, he hadh an edited one piece i wrote for the "examiner, iand offered to let me apply,

did not think i qualify but have been here for 4.5 years. republican, good morning. linda? with us, let's see if we can get linda on the line. democrats call 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002. on the line for independents, pat, huntington, west virginia. caller: good morning. this campaign, particularly on the democrat side, reminds me of a song take williams junior did called "the conversation." then the song he says, talking about his father, said back then they called him crazy and

nowadays they call him a saint. the ones that call him crazy are still trading on his name. everyone of bernie sanders crazy ideas in the 2016 campaign have been -- every one of them have been adopted by some or all of the people who are running against him in order to muddy the waters. everyone knows that bernie sanders has spent 40 years standing up for the small guy, the little man, the people that work for a living, and the democrats are trying to destroy that whenever they talk about being the very party that it is supposed to be for people -- for the little guy. that is my comment. i hope bernie gets the nomination. guest: fair enough. that is one opinion. ideas butike bernie's i would contest the idea he is

always for the little man. i do not think someone who campaigned in support of the marxist party in the 1980's if someone who is always for the little man, someone who wanted to implement communism in the united states, that may have been his intent but i do not think communism is good for individual rights. i would contest the idea bernie sanders is always for the little man. but that is a much longer debate. host: you brought up immigration and this is a lead story in the examiner today about president trump's latest terror threats, -- terrace threats -- tariff threats. your thoughts on the presidents latest action on the tariff issue. guest: i think it is a bad idea. [laughter] guest: you mentioned big piece

being lose, lose, lose, how they are bad for american consumers and bad for american workers and bad for american businesses, especially american businesses with production facilities in mexico. specifically referencing ford and gm and fiat chrysler who are all based in michigan, my home state, and all have production facilities in mexico. iffsr is a case that the may bring back jobs from mexico but that is not the stated intent with the tariffs. the harm to those companies will not play well in michigan, which trump needs to do well in in 2020. there is a legal aspect, the president can unilaterally say that for reasons of national security on implementing these

tariffs, i think it has been abused for a long time but especially by president trump. when it comes to the reasoning s, immigration is something we have always thought of as a domestic issue, something we need to do, we need to secure our borders and we need to do a better job of supporting illegal aliens, that is the debate. but to say that we will impose until a country does what we want them to do regarding the border, regarding economic, but he is not making the case it is an economic security issue, he is bending me justification -- the justification for national security tariffs. i have been hoping for a long time congress takes their

authority in terms of imposing tariffs but particularly hope this is something republicans will say that this is bad and do not do much, but i am hoping they will say this is the time we will get together and do something. host: does this derail the usmca agreement? guest: it did not help that nancy pelosi did not bring it up for a vote. certainly, it does not help. we do not know if mexico will withdraw from the agreement but certainly, when you are trying to get a trade deal past, you do not want to say, just kidding, here is more tariffs. that is not how you do international relations or personal relations. host: georgia, jimmy, a

democrat, good morning. are you with us? let the people vote in 2020, let them vote him out of office. who is playing for the airplane rides? host: talking about the president travels? how much that costs? jimmy. we lost he will be traveling overseas this week. guest: that is part of international relations, something you do often see reports of, this trip by the president cost this much. it is good we do have those numbers and there is transparency on the numbers. it has me going back to the obama administration and before that. -- it has been going back to the

obama administration and before that. a large cost of the travel is logistics and security, regardless of party you are, you should hope the president is secure. as long as those costs do not become excessively luxurious for the president and his family, they are fine. there is a little bit of sketchiness when they travel to properties he owns, his properties may take some income from that from taxpayers but i am not exactly sure. he is probably saving money by staying at those properties and not being charged for staying elsewhere. he does not often stay in trump tower anymore because it is very hard to secure it and expensive and disruptive for people of manhattan. i give him a little bit of credit for that. host: departed -- the present

going to london this weekend in france in normandy for the 75th anniversary of d-day. mark, boston, massachusetts, independent. caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call. i wanted to revisit the subject of the mueller investigation and what they covered in the two years plus of investigation. during that time, there was very little look at the people involved, like christopher steele, as far as what was his ambitionswhat was his , which was obviously to not have donald trump take the seed of office. -- seat of office. there was clearly a conspiracy between intelligence offices, hillary clinton, a number of people on the democratic committee, to remove him from office. we have intelligence services

weaponize to overthrow a duly elected president. that would have been something robert mueller should have looked into. do you find it curious he did not look into the -- look into that? guest: not very curious. he followed the scope of the investigation. we will see where attorney general william barr's new investigation into the investigators goes. that could yield new information that would be interesting on that front. think that i sometimes people in the beltway make too much of both sides of this issue. russia wass, we know trying to meddle in the election but we have no proof -- no proof they hacked the election, it

makes it sounds like they were hacking voting machines and changing both but there is no evidence of that. there was an influence campaign that happened. i would like to see more forward-looking work from the trump administration to see how that can be discredited and stop in the future. ultimately, i think voters care about so many other issues than this kind of inside the beltway stuff, they care about economic issues, they care about their family, and they care about their community. sometimes that is lost in this debate. host: one more call, virginia beach, the site of the latest mass shooting in this country, yesterday afternoon. bill is in virginia beach. how are folks doing in virginia beach this morning? caller: i am doing fine.

it looks like we have another disgruntled person who lost or was about to lose their jobs and decided to take it out on the people they worked with. i would like to know how he got the gun. the reason why i called was with regard to the 2020 election. -- i am quite disappointed in congress, both sides of the cane, i realize presidents follow through with some promises but they need congress to improve -- approve action before it comes final. the thing that bothers me the most is the political parties are fighting for power over the country instead of maintaining the solvency of social security, medicare, and the national debt. in the 11th hour, all they will do is borrow more money and added to the national debt so they can extend these programs

and keep them alive a few more years. i am disappointed in both political parties for that reason. host: i will give you the final minute. guest: he is exactly right. we are praying for your community, that virginia beach heels. in terms of the national debt, he is exactly right, on both sides of the aisle, there is far sm, they arert-termi worried about two years from now and the cycle today, not worried about when social security trust fund runs out of money. which we know is coming. it is forecasted in the next 10-15 years. the sooner we deal with it the less painful it will be but no one wants to be -- no one wants to touch it. he is right that we will probably run out of money and borrow more money to deal with it later. host: jason russell is the contributors editor for the

washington examiner. appreciate your time. next on the "washington journal," more of your phone calls, the question is, at the end of the memorial day week, have you attended a congressional town hall this year or in the past? we want to hear your experience, what you asked and what you found out. phone lines for republicans, democrats, independents are on your screen and you can call now. we will be right back. ♪ >> washington journal mugs are available at c-span's new online store. see all of the c-span products at c-span.org. sunday at 8:00 eastern, in his new book spying on the

south, the lead author tony horwitz recounts the travel of noted landscape architect and journalist frederick olmsted who wrote about life in the south during the lead up to the civil war. he take this program on may 20 and died may 27 at the age of 60. >> i think it was the vividness of his writing about the south in that era. and my curiosity of how he got from there to central park. of, i willis mission go and across this divide and try and understand what is happening in this country at this moment. ,> 9:00 eastern on afterwards 60 minutes correspondent scott kelly on major news events he covered as a reporter and his thoughts on a free press. his latest book is truth worth telling and interviewed by cnn political analyst david gregory.

>> what is the fastest way to destroy democracy? terrorism, another great depression? i don't think so. i think the fastest way to destroy a democracy is poison the information. that is what we are seeing now. we have moved from the information age to the disinformation age. >> watch sunday on booktv on c-span2. "washington journal" continues. host: at the end of the memorial day recess week for congress in which many members of congress held town halls, have you attended a town hall? we want to hear about your experience, what you asked and what you found out from a member of congress. phone lines, republicans, 202-748-8001. democrats, 202-748-8000.

independents, the number is 202-748-8002. as you call in, we turn on the phone with nathan williams, cofounder of the townhall project, they track congressional town halls across the country. in your latest report, mr. williams, you say the townhall is back, why? >> hello, john. 2018, aetween 2017 and significant drop-off in town halls by members of congress, surprising because 2018 was a reelection year for most of them, and we are heartened to see the numbers of total town halls had increased in 2018 from troy 17 and the number of members holding town halls was -- 2018 and the number of members holding town hall's increased. the freshman class of this congress are far and away holding town halls at a much higher rate and we hope the

trend continues. host: who are some of the specific members leading the way in holding town halls? guest: among the freshman, i would highlight jona dusan colorado, antonio delgado in new the longest-serving members, the state of oregon is pretty exemplary. greg walden in the second district. both senators in oregon. they hold a high number of town halls. host: what is the townhall project and how do you track down the town halls among all members of congress? guest: we are a project locally volunteer driven. research volunteers around the country to track members of congress through social media, newsletters, press releases, calling offices, trying to make

their public record more available to the public. some members are good at this and some members are not peopleted in making aware of opportunities to engage with them and we are dedicated to making this information more accessible to a wider number of people. host: your website in the about section talks about the progressive values that the project was founded on common is it the website for republicans and democrats to come to and use? guest: absolutely. we make no missives about the fact that most of us come from a background of working in progressive side of politics. to thisery dedicated thing nonpartisan and democrats need to be held to account just as much as republicans and we hope this is not a partisan value and 2017 democrats often portrayed it as fired up people

on the left. expressing their displeasure to republican incumbents but that is a very small minority of our experiences. most congressional town halls are very polite and civil discussions. people have serious concerns about what the government is doing. something republicans and democrats should do, regardless of who shows up. host: beavers can check out david -- viewers can check out the latest numbers. 922 between january and april of this year, that compares to just 551 between january and april of 2018. before you go, mr. williams, what other members do you highlight from that latest report? guest: i would highlight a significant difference between the parties. that is something we would love to see out.

i would highlight a significant difference between the two chambers with members of the house holding town halls at a much higher rate than the senate. you may say that is because most members of the senate are not up for reelection immediately but they represent the people for six years. we hope to see more senators it out there in the townhall's in their states. host: makin waves is cofounder of the townhall project. -- nathan williams is cofounder of the townhall project. thank you for your time. we are taking your calls, we want to hear about town halls you have been to and what issues are important to you and what you have learned at the town halls. republicans call 202-748-8001. democrats, 202-748-8000. independents, 202-748-8002. susan is up first in ridgewood, new jersey, a democrat. caller: good morning.

host: go ahead, what townhall did you attend? caller: my first townhall was here in bergen county, my congressman is josh gottheimer, i first met him in november of 2017, he does cup of joe regularly. i met him and he gave me the opportunity to explain to him what my issue was, what the solution was, and right then and there he said he would write a bill for me. he and his staff have been very helpful. as it turned out, the problem and the solution i shared with him was also shared with some other members of congress. while he offered to write a bill for me, he is phenomenal, a united states senator also offered to write it and was further ahead. introduced,bill was

s560, the identical house version is 1379, and this bill, in short, will protect all americans who are born with a birth defect and when they have an absent or malformed body part , this no nonsense bill was simply mandate benefits to restore that person to function in this world. since the bill was introduced, i have met -- i saw congressman gottheimer in april at another townhall here -- at another cup of joe in my hometown, and he is nothing but supportive, he has written to the problem solvers caucus that he cochairs with tom reed of new york.

my -- hisched out to fellow congresspeople in the state of new jersey. he has been nothing but helpful to advance this bill. what i want your listeners to know is that we do have a say in what happens in our democracy. but we definitely have to be a participant. in my experience, reaching out to congressman gottheimer, it works when you work it. he is amazing and this experience of trying to advance the ensuring lasting smiles act, introduced by senator baldwin and senator ernst of iowa, and in the house by congressman peterson and riggelman of virginia, it has been a beautiful experience and in 2.5 months we have 92 cosponsors in the house. this bill is a grassroots effort. people all over the united

states, mothers, fathers, aunts, grandfathers, working to advance this bill and with the help of people like congressman bill will behis signed into law in this congress and i am most grateful to him project, whichl was just brought to my attention, is so needed because we the public need to know where our lawmakers are going to be so we can suit up and show up and share our concerns. if we do, people like congressman gottheimer -- host: thank you for sharing your experience. betweenhall's health january and april of this year by members of congress and 522 by democratic house members and 286 by republican house members. 65 town halls by senate democrats and 49 town halls by

senate republicans. those are the numbers from this year. have you attended a town hall in the past and what issues did you bring up and your experience? carol in new york, a democrat. caller: she was a hard act to follow. the townhall i went to was about 1.5 months ago, i am from , in the 22ndyork district of new york. that avery lucky freshman representative anthony brindisi does hold a number of town halls in comparison to his predecessor, claudia tenney, who held none. the question i asked at the ago, was, about a month when infrastructure was on the

what he would do to support that kind of program, it being down his alley as a member of the blue dog caucus and a problem solver. one other thing i would like to say, there are a few hundred people in the townhall meeting and it was well represented by people of all political persuasions and parties, a lot of republicans were there. event forreat public the town. host: thank you for calling in. republicans call 202-748-8001. democrats, 202-748-8000. independents, 202-748-8002. members of congress tweaking about their town halls and sharing their invites to members of their community. here is one of those from a freshman member of congress

anthony del gato who made the list of the townhall project superstar freshman for those holding the most town halls. antonito got a saying -- anthony del gato saying he is having his 14th town hall in the 19th district of new york, saying where it is being held and when it is being held. we will show you throughout the segment of "washington journal." washington -- robert and new -- robert in new jersey, republican. caller: thank you. i just wanted to call and say i am also from new jersey. it was nice to be able to come on and talk today. one of the biggest issues i want to highlight is that i think my congressman is holding a lot of town halls because i met josh gottheimer in february and

talk to him about my hopes that his budget proposal does go through. one thing we can work on in a bipartisan manner is being able and being this budget able to make this work for all americans because our national trillion and $23 frankly i think the worst thing we can do to a future generation is not only leave them broke but leave them with a debt of other people. frankly, we should try to give our children a better life, a unitedgive them -- states not saddled with debt. we can do it if we balance the budget and pay down the debt. with townhall's coming forward, the biggest priority for all of us should be trying to get our congress members to do sensible

things to balance the budget. host: that is robert in new jersey. 922 town halls i members of congress and the first four months of this year and likely over thousand at the end of the memorial day recess. one of those town halls with the most attention this week was just in a mosh, robot -- justin amash, michigan, the first republican to call for the house to impeach president trump. here is part of his townhall from this week. >> i think -- we cannot let conduct might that go unchecked, congress has a duty to keep the president in check, and it is a difficult process. congress worried about and treating on the president's powers consistently, it is a difficult process to remove someone from office. it is not easy. no one is suggesting that just

because you started process, a person is removed from office, we have a job to do. we owe it to the american people to represent them, to make sure the people we have in office are doing the right thing, are of good character. are not violating the public trust. [applause] why i took the position i did and i would do it whether it was a democratic president or republican president, it does not matter to me. [applause] you elected me to represent all of you, i am not here to represent one party, i inherited to represent everyone in the district -- i am here to represent everyone in the district whether you voted premier or not. that is the job -- voted for me or not. host: we are getting your

thoughts on whether you have attended a congressional townhall and what you asked and what you learned. tweets from congress, greg walden, republican, oregon, talking about his 21st town hall underway in lakeview this week. a photo from his staff talking about his meeting. ron wyden also from morgan holdinghis 9 -- oregon, his townhall and interacting with his constituents in the state. one more from congressman john curtis of utah, republican, saying we are not done yet, enjoying the beautiful scenery. you see the setup for his townhall on the 28th of this week. some scenes from town halls this week. have you attended one this year? republican,a,

norcross, georgia. is in: my representative the seventh district, i have attended a townhall, most of his are over telephone. essentially, i found them to be a complete waste of time. i asked him some questions, what specifically was the republican from 2016,ngress 2017, what they had passed, what they had done, he could not say anything. most of the time they are advertisements for how good they have done. host: what it have been waste of it was sometime had it been a person? caller: not really because then they pick the questions.

they did that a few years earlier and usually they ask you to write your questions and take questions most of the have nothing to do with your congress. they are about sosa security or a passport and does not do with the -- social security or a passport and not the district at large. that is built in georgia. pennsylvania, independent. caller: hello. i had the same problem as the general man before, he holds -- gentlemen before, he holds nothing but telephone town halls. i say they are scripted. they ask you what you are going to ask.

i ask a question that is controversial and i did not get on the air. all of the other things, how great he is and everything else. i say, it is a waste of time. ask this question from the man before, who was probably a republican, i wish that congress would have more independents than republicans and democrats. i would like to see more independent thinking men in congress and in the senate. host: more of your phone calls in the next 10 minutes we have left in this segment. keep calling and about your experience at town halls. republicans, 202-748-8001. democrats, 202-748-8000. independents, 202-748-8002. in, we want to let

you know that this weekend our c-span cities tour continues in the history and literary life on american history tv and at noon eastern today, all of programs from the city will air, including a look into the process of bookmark printing inside the university of nevada reno blackrock press. here is a look. >> a lot of process involved in making the book and we joke that people who are printmakers and artist bookmakers like the process because it can be a bit tedious. there is a lot of attention to detail going on. bookudents in the class, a art advanced class we offer as part of our curriculum, they are working on typography, the process to come and set metal type and now you see the mixing ink to get the correct colors to

put on the press. behind me, a student working on his typography. take the metal type and created this abstract pg. -- pig. piggy gln all of its ory. this team is working on setting up a description, the home stanza they wrote in relation to their typographic be steering. it is a detail oriented process. making sure all the individual pieces of metal are locked up nice and tight so it can stay standing upright while the press exerts extreme amount of pressure on to the type. and impresses the text into the page. host: watch booktv and american history tv this weekend as we

feature reno, nevada, the site for our cities tour, c-span.org/cities tour. that your phone calls asking about your experience during this memorial day week or earlier this year, or whenever you attended a congressional town hall. want to know what you asked about any answer you got from congress? host: democrat, maryland, go ahead. having listen to your last callers, it may be a republican strategy to only use town halls where you get to state your question and they turn off the microphones and you cannot respond. at live town halls, written questions. they read the question, if they like what you said, they tell you how good it was but if they do not, they tell you where you're wrong but you can never

debate them and tell you -- tell them why they are wrong. budget, idisastrous -- it may have been to a brokerage house, how much does it add to the deficit? he responded with the words fake news. cbo.sn't fake news at the what is the point? if you do not have dialogue, you shouldn't bother. i am in a gerrymandered district , republican distant in a democrat state, part that would be more balanced, we may have different town halls, it is a smaller community. we saw 900wn hall people, he said rowdy but it was not really rowdy, they just did

not like what he was saying. in maryland. dale halls, that issue from the minneapolis star tribune, a story in the past week on town halls by freshman members of congress in the state of minnesota. here is a little bit from the story, minnesota has five new members of congress and only republican congressman pete stauber in the eighth is taking a pass on a physical townhall. he said he took a poll and found 75% of respondents would rather participate in telephone town halls. he traveled 27,000 miles to meet with them in person in a large district with two phone inns with constituents this year and dean phillips of minnesota incumbent who never had a townhall and the new congressman has had three townhall's and several community

conversations on single issues such as the overview and economic -- such as the opioid epidemic. republican, when did you attend a townhall? caller: i do not know exactly, a year ago probably. my congressman is doug maltz -- he tries to have town halls but every time he does, a mob of democrats show up with the goal of disrupting and shouting down our congressman. it is a total waste of time. i suspect that is what happens and that is why a republican does not conduct town halls frequently. tifa shows up and you cannot do anything because there is a big mob. host: republicans in the first four months of the year have

combined members of the house and senate with 335 town halls. hallsed to the 587 town conducted to587 town halls conde democratic members of the house and senate. those numbers from townhallproject.com. william, from arlington, texas, independent. when did you attend a town hall? caller: good morning. thank you so much. i must admit it has been a few years back, and i must explain myself a little bit. i looked at a cable access program, and the representative was mary faust. as a result of that, ms. faust would come in every friday night at 8:00 in the evening, directly from the, and have a live call-in show. being that i was in the production part of it, which was actually great, at the end of

it, we would have our own little personal chitchat, and she would of course floor questions at the life:. ry successful. of course there was a degree of control of it, that is no foul language, but she also did a library every saturday morning. and theery productive, issue at that particular time was congressional term limits. everything i have heard so far i am kind of opposed to, but i had nothing but a positive experience from it. host: william, thank you. steve, grand rapids, michigan, last caller in this segment. go ahead. caller: yeah, i am a democrat. i certainly did not vote for just in a mosh -- justin amash.

i am in his district. i was not able to get into his most recent town hall, where he talked about his call for in the met, but i admire him tremendously, because he sticks to his principles. i think he is not with the republican establishment at all. and he is very conversational, explains himself. i do not agree with him, i did not vote for him, i do not like his positions, but you have to admire someone who works as hard as he does and cares as much and sticks to his principles, and i really think democrats have to think about supporting him so that republicans do not knock them out, even though, again, i do not support his positions. host: steve, what you think of congressman who spent a lot of cablend effort getting on news programs and getting their

face out there? that is not what your congressman does, but do you think that would be more help for him and his efforts, or do you like the tack that he has taken here? caller: yeah, i mean, i do not know about getting on cable news. i do not know is fox news would have him on any longer. maybe msnbc what. -- would. but he is not a guy that she is not looking for publicity. true atmps that is not all. he is a thoughtful guy. you cannot argue with the fact that he is somebody who cares about what he does, cares about his district, and he votes his conscience, and he sticks to his principles. i do not think cable news actually likes people like him, because he is kind of a reasoned person. host: steve, thank you for that

call, from grand rapids this morning, last call in this section. we have more to come in the last hour. coming up, we will talk with aboutepublic's" matt ford his latest piece, "make the irs great again." using -- for expenses, michael beckel. if we just look at the last tragic act, we are not doing a service to our veterans. i said today at the coalition to prevent veterans homelessness, we need to take a strong look at homelessness, addiction, and mental health. at the v.a. for mental health is $9.5 billion, yet we have not even reached the

spot next stage in this country -- the spot next stage in this country in terms of getting our arms around it. i support a whole health approach to tackle veterans suicide. the great tragedy for me is of commitveterans who suicide, one or two are on active duty every day. another 10 we have never seen before. we need to work closely with the states and localities, nongovernmental organizations, veterans who we have no contact with, and i have seen in many cities, places like new orleans, jacksonville, houston, where the charities go where the v.a. can't. and i think that will be one of the keys in getting our arms around it, but again, it is much larger than veterans. we must be the visible manifestation of this tragedy, but the entire nation needs to have a deep discussion about life and particularly mental

health. >> "washington journal" continues. host: each week on the segment of the "washington journal," we spotlight a magazine. and week is "new republic" matt ford's piece, "make the irs great again." you begin by pointing out millions of americans fear that tax purveyor, but not the wealthiest. why is that? guest: the main reason is the irs has gotten less adept we have seenle decline in august for people making over $1 million a year. we have seen a decline in the a lengthyty for investigation but it takes to uncover the wealth being hidden, and as a result, we see less than a taxpayer coffers, and that is having an impact. host: you talk about and lack of

resources. 2010, the iris budget slid from $14 billion to $10 billion. of 42% of audits overall. irs had 2.3 million instances where people did not file tax returns at all. that number fell 362,000. who gets the most attention with the irs has fewer resources? guest: the people who have the least money to offer. you, me, the viewers, we're part of the payroll taxes. it is very easy to determine when somebody is not paying their fair share. the wealthy, they have their assets tied up in mutual funds, charitable donations care that makes it easier for them to obscure the true size of what they possess. mississippi and

the irs. guest: over the years of talking about the wealthy avoiding taxpayers were to me, you would think beverly hills would be the county ininized america, but it is actually humphreys, mississippi, 40% line, a 70%verty african-american population. this is a community we have seen most heavily scrutinized by tax collectors, where it does not make much sense to bring in those resources. host: matt ford is a staff writer with "the new republic." you wrote the piece that we are focusing on in our spotlight a magazine segment in today's "washington journal." the headline --"make the irs great again." you can join on the conversation by calling in. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. as folks are calling and, more

from that piece. you write "it may be politically uncomfortable for the democratic candidates in 2020 to stand up to the internal revenue service and its enforcement of the nation's tax laws. after all, the irs ranks among the least popular federal agency, but they have to do so .or their agenda to work now might be the best time to make such a case for american people, not only good policy, but it might finally be good politics." why might it finally be good politics? high-profilee had stories in the news. after russia, part of it was the tax fraud case made against paul manafort, bringing in tens of millions from the ukraine, people like michael cohen. would notpeople who have received scrutiny has been caught up in the special counsel's gaze. we have the president of the states who has refused to release his tax return. we know from the "new york times

example, thator he has done some maneuvers in the 1990's that really obscured how much wealthy had and how much he was paying to the irs. i think this is a time where taxpayers can be convinced that this is a major issue. host: meanwhile, some of the democratic candidates' plans, the social programs they look to create in 2020 rely on new taxes irs that can do its job. remind people what the wealth act is from elizabeth warren. guest: elizabeth warren has proposed a tax at a 2% rate on assets higher than $150 million. you will be given a 2% tax on that. her and her economics team estimate that would bring in sorry, 2.7on -- i am 5 trillion dollars over the next 10 years, which is a pretty sum, and it is pretty advantageous for her, because

when people ask how are you going to fund childcare, how are you going to fund free college, she will say look at this amount of money. some economists have noted that that figure may be t relying on too-- be relying on a optimistic figure that the irs can get from wealthy people. it is not to give up on a wealth tax, it is to make sure that those people are paying their fair share. host: the story again, "make the irs great again," taking your phone calls with matt ford, a staff writer at "the new republic." ralph is up first this morning, sugar hill, new hampshire. independent. good morning. caller: good morning, gentlemen. i want to create a few things. he says that the irs has greater opportunity to worker,ze the poor, the but he does not mention that if you have a brokerage account, you still require the brokerage

account to send the 1099 forms in. is is not that the resources, the problem is that the tax code is too complicated, and we spent so much resources on tax preparation, and our tax laws were simpler, we could take those resources that we spend on tax-preparation and do other things with it. so you really have sort of a washington elite group think mentality to this, and we do not want a powerful irs, because then it is going to be unchecked, and more trouble can occur. .i will listen to your response off-line . host: matt ford. guest: when you have a tax code

system is complex, what we see from republicans reporting, especially, is that the wealthiest are able to evade taxes simply by relying on that complexity, hiring the best attorney, resources that average americans do not have. and that makes it harder to enforce laws of the irs, when you think of it as a mighty government agency, but when you are faced with people with pockets that deep, they can wear the irs down. host: the modern democrat, talking about your headline, "make the irs great again," 2010g "like the irs of using it as a political weapon, the biggest political whipping history, now the fbi is the democrats political weapon of choice." guest: it was taken out of the lois lerner scandal, basically the big fear was of the iris was

using resources to pursue republican organization, which would be troubling if that were the case. after years of investigations, congressional, federal, the concluded thatal progressive groups were targeted as well. but that did have an effect. it led to a certain decline in the budget. billion in 2010 to about $12 billion now. that has really hampered the irs. there are 40% fewer audits now than there were 10 years ago. host: san diego, california is next. dave, independent, good morning. . i did my taxes this year, at line for line, compared to other years, i was really i had a few hundred

dollars far less than anticipated, and now i am at a point, i am just going to let it call,do not even dare to but at the same time, i would like to know what mistake i made for moving past the next year. thank you. guest: one thing that is really striking about this is the level of inequality that really comes out. people who are working hard and trying to get by and still pay their taxes, for them, it is the difference between paying and not paying can be pretty severe. but for the wealthiest americans, if you have $50 million, and you lose 2% of that, you are still pretty well off, but if you are paying a 15% somebodyall in all, making $50,000 a year, that is significant change. host: a story in the "wall street journal" talked about the

irs, 10% last the year, marking the seventh annual decline for federal workers, the total down from .26% the year marke, hitting the lowest since 2002, according to data released this month by the irs. what has been the response by treasury secretary steven mnuchin, by the acting irs commissioner? guest: the biggest problem they have had is revision in the tax code that came out in 2018. the trump administration has not really taken a hard line on this. what they have done instead is focused on shifting the conversation toward tax cuts, tax rebates, which is an important part of the conversation, but it is very glaring for some americans, putting their hard-earned money into taxpayer coffers, while the riches are not. host: matt ford's story, "make the irs great again."

democrats to fund their ambitious policies of agencies and forth tax laws fairly. that is the headline and sub headline that we are following this week. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. about 10 minutes left in this segment. jerry is a democrat, good morning. caller: i was wondering, sir, use of the president was devaluing values, looking into that, do you know anything about that? thank you. guest: i do know that we are about to get the answer pretty shortly here. one thing that flew under the radar for could be quite significant in the last month is the new york legislature voted to allow state officials to

release the president's tax returns that he felt of the state level to congressional tax committees, and that could provide a snapshot into the president's financial accounts that we have not been able to have so far, that virtually every presidential candidate for the last four years have given. massachusetts, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning. matt is correct. we do need more audits. we appreciate small businesses and what they do, but the smallest small businesses, i work with a small business for years. the smallest small business, mom-and-pops, shareholder type things, i see what they do, they take people under the table, they have one health insurance for themselves and their families and another, a lesser plan for everybody else, which is also illegal. so we definitely need more audits. i just wanted to ask matt if he

knows anything about -- what about the enforcement race for for immigration, for employers? . have not heard about anything thank you for your response. guest: i am afraid i do not know that off the top of my head, but we have heard meeting in the middle for the rates for taxpayers to make $200,000 to $400,000, they are now being audited at the same rate for people who make more than $1 million. it is not just a matter of more audits but who is being audited. there are estimates about how much unreported income exists, the people people -- the income people make that they do not tell the irs about. estimated that 5% of

americans, the riches of the rich, account for one-fifth of that, so it is not just about more enforcement but who is facing that. host: oak harbor, washington. aaron is a republican. good morning. caller: good morning. i have three questions, but i will only as two of them. host: thanks for trimming them down. caller: why can't they make things simpler? i make about $58,000 a year, and it takes me weeks to do taxes, which i am not a tax attorney. i am not a lawyer. so why can't we make it simpler, so that they take out what i and i can can -- owe, fill out a couple of form lines and turn it in? host: and what is the second question, eric? caller: what relief can those people on fixed incomes expect? host: things for the question. guest: for the first question, this is an issue that has come up on recent months when

taxes came down. i was was considering a bill that would allow the irs to not produce a free text service. it is really another side of inequality. what happens if these companies are marketing a product for you have to a just a figure out how to do your taxes, or without i have to use a software, because i cannot figure it out. if you are wealthy enough, you tax lawyer to do it for you. fortunately, it did not pass, but it really shows how the wealthy americans can influence the structuring of attack system. host: any thoughts on relief for people on a fixed income? guest: it can cause a problem. are moreless income susceptible to variability in

inflation and other people. that is something to be addressed. i am afraid i do not have an answer for that. host: in north carolina, howard, democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. i have two questions. i get the federal rule conserving, i think it is 6103, irs share give her, i would like person why isn't the that is obeyed the person that is obeyed that law, which they broke the law, really was not arrested for breaking the law. and the other, i am disabled, and my sister take care of me. she was going to use me on her taxes as a dependent, but we found out that somebody else is using my social security number, and she could not file. so i called many times to try to find out who is using my social security number, because, you know, i cannot draw taxes because i am disabled.

who do i need to talk to concerning who is using my social security number? guest: well, to answer your second question, first, whenever you encounter a problem with something like that, usually the best person to contact is your member of congress. a lot of members of congress have actually constituent systems, and they are able to navigate the bureaucracy of federal rules a little bit easier than other people might be able to. as to your first question, the present tax returns are a subject of legal battles in the courts. the tax committees have used the mechanisms from the 1920's to try and obtain those. the treasury secretary and the irs commissioner said we are not going to hand them over. a federal judge will probably rule in the next few months over who is right and who is wrong. host: about five minutes left with matt ford this morning. a lot of calls for you. browns mills, new jersey, independent. go ahead. caller: hi. how are you doing? good morning.

my question is the president has not shown his tax returns. would you -- i would expect all politicians to show their tax returns. the leaders of the house pretty much have more control than the president right now. be -- ie their interest was wondering across-the-board, our leaders being honest. thank you. guest: i certainly would not oppose that. i know many of the 2020 democratic presidential candidates released their tax returns. i am not sure how many members of congress have also done so. but i think it would be useful for americans to get an insight into how much their elected leaders are paying in taxes and what sort of advantages they are taking advantage of. host: you mentioned the 2020 democratic of canada's. wealth tax.oreign who else is proposing tax increases that robust irs what require a moe for them to work?

guest: bernie sanders have been pretty famous for calling for higher taxes on wealthy americans for years, and he would face a letter problems with nonparticipation rates that warren would. illinois, a is in democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. i am surprised i got through so quick. gotled my taxes, and that i a letter past the six weeks deadline for the return, asking for me to send them some documents. the thing is, the documents they wanted were withholding on social security, and now my tax return is delayed another six weeks to eight weeks. i still have not received it. it is because of this shutdown, targeting people with different refunds.

call thether place to caller's member of congress? guest: yes. they can help navigate the system a little more easily. massive government backlogs, as we have with audits, with other aspects of the system. government shutdowns can be a serious factor, and disrupting those functions. host: jodi on twitter wants to happened to the tax for my postcard?" guest: it is a good idea, and the thing that works so well is the irs has most of that information already. if you pay payroll taxes, if your employer does, if you are part of that system, the irs has access to a lot of this information right off the bat. sending forms like that to lower-income americans or even middle-class americans would be a great way to simple five

attack system and make it fair for all of us. host: in missouri, bob, independent, good morning. caller: good morning. i think the irs should do away with the consumption tax. there is no reason for the abuse of the taxpayer. a reasonable tax is 7%, 8%, and tell congress look, people, this is how much money you have to spend this year. don't come back and ask for any more. balance the budget, look at what you have to spend, and this is what it is going to be. do -- every able to single paper to do a tax return, go with that. thank you. host: matt? highlightscaller that the complexity really

drives the unfairness. the average american has to set aside weeks of time to go through their taxes and figure out what they owe the government is a little too much. there are some complexities that anybody can expect, but navigating the system is something the rich have definitely a leg up on. host: paul is in florida, a republican. good morning. go ahead. the question is -- how many of these irs people work overtime during peak season and filing season? does any of them work overtime? guest: i do not have the exact number at hand, but i suspect quite a few of them do. caller: my understanding is a lot of people have the information, so i don't know if hireire -- i know they extra people, but i'm not know if they work overtime. answer out to get an

of one of these people, and you will be on the phone 45 minutes to an hour, and you finally hang up. host: caller, thanks for the call. guest: this is an issue we have seen across the board with internal revenue service, especially over the last decade. when you have budget cuts over the decade that take billion out of the agency, you will see a decline in the quality of service. host: we have been spotlighting the piece "make the irs great again" in the "the new republic ." what are you working on right now? guest: as always, we are concerned about the end of the this year.rt term gerrymandering, those of the interesting to see how the court ds.ponse host: matt ford writes about all of them, at thenewrepublic.com. thanks for joining us.

guest: thanks for having me. bet: michael beckel will here next to talk about the new push for paying for personal expenses. we will be right back. ♪ >> sunday on booktv at noon eastern, "in depth" is live with author and biographer evan thomas. his latest book is "first: sandra day o'connor." she knew when to do your job, winter retreat to fight another day, and also how to avoid controversy, all the deals, verymake

pragmatic, skills that she brought to the u.s. supreme court. >>'s other books include "the nixon."" and "being join with your phone calls, tweaks, and facebook questions. c-span two. >> i can only see it from her perspective. pray forot of people me, and as a christian, i believe that she really has a divineng tradition of healing, so i certainly do not think it is not possible for god to heal people. ," sunday on c-span's "q&a duke divinity professor kate bowler talks about her book

"everything happens for a reason," about being described diagnosed with: cancer. >> there is no more pain in your stomach, right? that is real. prayingu can see him for her, his confidence in himself as a vehicle, but she would not have pain in that moment, and she was definitely healed. it was a very dramatic approach to faith healing and one that i found to be somewhat manipulative. >> "q&a" sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span. >> "washington journal" continues. one's michael beckel joins us now for a discussion on congressional leadership pac's and how congress uses the money that flows through the. before we get to that report, remind viewers what issue one is. guest: issue one is a relatively

based here in washington, d.c. dedicated to political reform. that makes usngs unique as we are certainly bipartisan and our mission. we have put together coalition of former members of congress, former governors, more than 200 from all 50 states, both parties, almost a 50/50 split between democrats and republicans, all urging for more transparency in election, more government accountability, so we are very active on ethics issues and political reform issues. host: and how do you go about doing that? guest: we do a number of things. we have got a small policy team working here in washington at the capital, pushing for new legislation. and i am the head of our research program. i am a former reporter who spent a long time covering money in politics, and we are issuing a number of different reports, tracking some of the trends that we are seeing as well as advocating for solutions, what can be done to fix some of these problems?

host: the latest report focuses on the use of so-called leadership pac's by members of congress. what is a leadership pac? guest: a leadership pac is a political action committe controlled by a member of congress feared these reform in the late 1970's as a way for politicians to raise extra money to give it to their political allies, but today, they have proliferated nearly every member of congress in both parties operates a leadership pac, and the majority of money that leadership pac's are spending are not going toward those original intended purposes of contributions to political allies. instead, we are seeing them being able to you be used to pay lavish vacations, five-star some of fine dining at the fanciest restaurants in golf buying golf to

resorts, tickets to events, and often they are being used as flesh funds to be able to pay for one fundraiser at a fancy location to be able to pay for the next fundraiser at a fancy location. host: an exposure of leadership pac's, you were kind enough to tweet out the numbers, this 18% of sitting house numbers are not have a leadership pac. another 99% of sitting senators do have one, and 82% of sitting house members have leadership pac's, according to the reports. the researc that you did at issue one on this. what are the rules that govern and how they differ from what we know as a campaign committee and the fundraising you can do for that? guest: all politics since have an official -- all politicians have an official campaign that they can use further election issues, so being able to pay for

tv has come a digital as, canvassers, all of those come and thisur campaign, cannot be used for those kind of campaign expenses. instead, they were designed so they could dole out money to political allies, so whether you were trying to run for a committee chairmanship or subcommittee chairmanship, you could use your clout to raise extra money and spread that money around. but the statute that governs the personal use of campaign funds, as a member of congress, as a politician, you are prohibited from using your campaign funds t o, sya, buy a rolex. that would be illegal. that statute was written at a time when no one in congress envisioned a separate political action committee called leadership pac's, so the law is a little bit less explicit, and there has been, i think, a

rampant misuse of leadership pac's, because there has been less enforcement. host: money and congress and leadership pac's in particular is our topic until we end our program today at 10:00 this morning. if you want to join, michael beckel of issue one, you can do that on the phone line for republicans, (202) 748-8001 .democratics s, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8002. know theways want to most egregious examples. moneyart from your words, continue to buy leadership pac's, and that is just in the three months between october and 100 $13,0002018, was spent by member leadership pac's at five star luxury inorts, one particularly georgia. $82,000 spent on private jets. posh dcc house,

$15,900 at restaurants and hotels in las vegas. namesnt so far as to name in your report. what we've found is that leadership pac's are a bipartisan program. problem. you need tople say raise money at these fancy locations in order to successfully wine and dine wealthy donors and treat them in a way that they want to give you money, but one of our key findings in this for or does that a majority of leadership pac spending today is going toward things other than contributions to candidates and liberal groups, so for many members of congress, who operate these leadership pac's, they are 40%, 20%,you know, 10% or less on these donations to their political allies and instead are spending it on some of these very lavish things. host: who are the people doing

that the most? guest: we see that democrats and republicans alike are named in this report-. about a republican from north carolina, for instance, who spent about 80%, george holding, 80% of his money during the his last two years went toward things other than contributions to political groups and political allies, being able to pay for a trip, for instance, to london, staying at a very elite club over in london. named, a number of individuals in this report and this is just the tip of the iceberg. by no means is this a comprehensive list. host: taking your comments and questions on the issue of leadership pac's and money in congress, michael beckel with us until the top of the hour. rose is with us in nashville, tennessee, a republican. rose, good morning. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. i have two questions.

one, this money from the leadership pac's, is derived from taxpayer dollars? and the other question is, i was wondering if that slush fund was still around in congress, which i understand is taxpayer money to pay off people that are accused of sexual harassment. and we heard about that a while back and never did hear anymore about it, so i was curious about that. is that slush fund still around? thank you for taking my call. host: rose, thanks for the question. guest: thank you for a much, rose. those are great questions. do off the top of my head, i not know the ins and outs to your second question, but i can say to your first question, this is not taxpayer money. leadership pac's are separate political action committees that are raising money typically from special interests in washington, so you see a lot of lobbyists you see a lot of wealthy

donors, you see a lot of labor pacts, trade association pac's, funding leadership pac's on both sides of the aisle. its is not taxpayer money, is as money mainly from washington power players who know how to play this game. individual americans have not heard of a leadership pac and are not donating to a leadership pac, but you can be assured that washington power players know that this is very much part of the game to buy access and influence in washington. host: i want you to explain what is going on here, a map up here some $16,900ll, spent in just three months between october and december through leadership pac's at charlie palmer's steakhouse. then there is the capital grille, a little bit farther down pennsylvania avenue, $11,800 spent there.

capital,locks from the 9000 spent. $4000 spent at a restaurant closer to the house side on capitol hill. explain why restaurants have become such a magnet for the spending. guest: that is right. there are a number of establishments within blocks of the capital building that politicians are going to to try to raise money for the campaign committees and for their leadership pac's. so this map highlights just leadership pac spending in the final three months of 2018, and you can see that there are a number of establishments within walking distance of where lawmakers have their day jobs. and so they can just skirt off for a breakfast meeting, a lunch meeting, a dinner meeting, to be able to use leadership pac funds to pay for fancy dinners at some of the best steakhouse is in town. is there something that

they tried to submit a receipt from their congressional campaign committee, why couldn't they be reimbursed for that, if they were having a meeting about a campaign? guest: if they were meeting and doing official business, that is one thing, but if they are an event, and many of these are designed for their leadership pac and not fundraising for their committee, you can make a whole separate fundraiser for the campaign committee, but these leadership pac's are a way that many political action committees, corporate pacts, labor union pat summitt trade knowsat association that they can show up to these fundraisers, cut a check, and have an opportunity to mingle with a number of congress, to anre their ideas, to have opportunity to build a relationship that others do not

have come and they can step away blocks away from the capital and have these kind of meetings. host: plenty of coals for you. mary is in key largo, florida, a democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. ofseems like the membership these leadership pac's is something like a pyramid scheme. isn't that illegal? thank you. guest: one of the things that we are very hopeful about at issue one as there does seem to be bipartisan interest in curbing the abuses of leadership pac's. i think a lot of people across the country are concerned about how these things are being used. there are some of the strongest conservative voices raising concerns about leadership pac's as well as some of the strongest progressive voices. in this congress alone, you saw a group of bipartisan legislators come together in the house to propose some reforms to leadership pac's, and we think that is very heartening in this era when you have so much

partisanship in washington, this does seem to be an issue republicans and democrats agreed reforms are needed. host: some 99% of senators and 82% of house members have leadership pac's, how hopeful are you that they will want to reform this? guest: it is certainly an uphill battle. we know that there are some people who are using leadership pac's in ways that we would think anyone should be concerned about, and there are other people who have long defended this as part of the status quo in washington. you will know that the big h.r.-1 legislation, which the house passed earlier this year, which is the biggest political reform bill in a generation, whether you agree with what is in it or not, does not even mention the issue of leadership pac's. so that speaks volumes. i think it is an uphill challenge, but clearly an area where democrats and republicans have shown an interest in coming together to make meaningful reform. host: where the members joining

together to try to push legislation on this? guest: the main members pushing for this include republicans capital,agher and john and democrats kathleen rice and derek kilmer. they have an issue that issue one has been supporting. look at you want to what we have been discussing, it is at issue one. more examples from that report, specific members, specific spending by their leadership pac's, only 36% of the $1.6 million in spending between january 2017 and decembe januar8 by senator thune went to contributions. alone, it went from charter jets to accompany, a minnesota-based company that focuses on luxury vacationers. bene also appear to traveling in luxury on the

ground, $1400 in just the final two months of 2018 on transportation that included perhaps luxury services in his state. only about 43%u, of the $829,000 in spending for jenny great way 17 and december for january of 2017 and december of 2018 went to contributions of political groups. $800,000 on a luxury hotel in vermont as well. from theese numbers report from issue if you want to examples asific well. we are talking about it with michael beckel of issue one. , anlie is in new york independent. charlie, good morning. caller: good morning. corruption in our government, we will have to change the words, because the words are very important.

when somebody gives a politician money to get favors from them, it is called a bribe, and yet we are calling it leadership pac money term, and i do not think we should do that. i think we should call it what it is. that will be the power of words, and this will tell us what we need, this money out of our government. guest: that is a very important issue, charlie. i think there are a lot of semantic games and word games played in washington, but clearly we know that contributions to leadership pac's are part of the way that money flows into politics from very well-connected special interests, and most constituents, most americans who might be inclined to make a small dollar donation to their preferred candidate are not the people funding those leadership pac's, and clearly the relationship between money and policy outcomes is a very big

concerns was that issue one. host: it is part of the way that money flows to politicians from special interests. can you run for all the ways it can do that? guest: absolutely. leadership pac's are one slice of a very big pie. there are a number of groups spending tens of millions of dollars on lobbying expenditures, paying for lobbyists to go to capitol hill to pay for their positions. you have cancer pain contributions to members of -- you have campaign contributions to members of congress. raising tens of millions of dollars on a regular basis, turning to lobbyists sometimes to bundle those campaign contributions. even if you hit the legal limit of how much money you can donate to a candidate or a political turn toou can, in turn, your friends, business

associations, and act as a fundraiser to help cure more money for these entities. and ever since citizen united, we have seen in the last decade a proliferation of super pac's and dark money groups, which have no contribution limits. you have individuals, corporations, labor unions able to write sometimes six-figure, seven-figure, a figure checks to these organizations, and that is a huge avenue for money flowing into the system. host: from grand gorge. caller: good morning. a news program that set in 21 government agencies, 60% of the time of employees is spent on watching porno and games, and i am not sure whether this has anything to do with pac's, but if people are donating money to things, this is a terrible infringement on the public. host: might be two different issues there. guest: yeah.

i think most of the money that we see going to leadership pac's is all money from private interest groups. this is not taxpayer money. this is not funding, you know, taxpayer activity. this is what politicians are using the separate political action committees to do. some donors are perfectly ok with how politicians are spending this money. they want to be able to attend the fundraiser or that meeting, that event where they can make a with a lawmaker and share their ideas in a private setting, and donors do not care if they go off and use the check that they get today to fund a trip to go skiing in colorado or go to the beach in florida. we know other donors might have qualms about that, but leadership pac's are a totally different animal. host: former congressman jason chaffetz, at the end of 2018, there was spending on supplies

at costco from his leadership $1200. the tune of $2800 at the trump international hotel in washington, d.c. what happens to a leadership pac when a member leaves office? guest: another great question, where the rules governing all political committees, whether a campaign committee or leadership pac, generally allow some members -- they allow members some amount of time to be able to wind down, say if they are not running for reelection again, they might incur some costs for phone bills or rent that it makes sense they would still be paying a few months after they lost their election or resigned from office or whatnot. but there is no law in the book that says you have t wind down your committee by a certain date and time. there are people who put forward proposals, to set rules, but in

some cases, these committees can essentially live on forever, that politicians can operate a political action committee, whether you call it a leadership pac were not is sort of a matter of new ones in legalese, but politicians can have these political action committees under their control ad nauseam until they decide they want to terminate them. host: fort lauderdale, florida is next. jack, independent, good morning. caller: good morning. it appears to me that you have while perfect case of viable candidates running for office should be given free television time and free newspaper ads in the paper, because i work for a major company, and the lobbyists interfered with a lot of things that were going on, and 15 guys got fired, and five guy went to jails for doing the same

thing, for taking from lobbyists. i think the only way to straighten this country out is to take the lobbyist money out of the political game. and you have made a fabulous case, and i thank you very much for exposing everything that is going on in the country. thank you very much. guest: thank you for your kind words and tuning in this morning. one of the reasons we wrote this report was trying to raise more awareness about position. i think a lot of americans are concerned about the appearances, at to play politics, and issue one, there are a number of reforms we are pushing to try to curb that influence of big money in politics, and we hope that more people read this report and follow us on our website at issueone.org. host: atlantic heights, new jersey, tom, independent. good morning. caller: good morning. what i'm curious about, even if it was not settled structurally like rules or having to put in an actual reform or measure, if

you put just one on and announce the fact that they were only going to receive any money anonymously, that they do not want to know who, they just want to receive anonymous money, and they are glad to take it, because they need money to make things go around, so getting rid of all of the money i do not think is feasible. but to say i do not know who you are in particular to represent my ideals, and when i've run on is my stump speech. i wanted to know your thoughts on the. guest: i want to be clear. at issue one, we are most concerned about the influence of big money in politics, and we want to see politicians do more to get more money in the system from ordinary americans. we think that there is a lot of energy right now around small dollar donors, for instance. you have politicians that are running the gamut, from president trump to senator innie sanders to everyone between, really trying to get more people invested in the political process.

and one way people are invested is making small dollar contributions, and those people typically are not giving money for the same reasons that you have washington lobbyists and power players and special interests giving money. people getting involved in the process is good, but special interests being able to use the process to their advantage is when we start having more concerns. tot: we will head up wisconsin. michelle is a democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. i was also wondering with this leadership pac money, which comes from special interests, big donors, wealthy people, and so on and so on, how did this citizens united ruling have an effect on this? because i am thinking it might run into glitches trying to get is underway so that way these, you know, wealthy donors and outside interests cannot just come in and influence our

politics and politicians. always under the assumption that politicians work for all of the people, not just lobbyists and wealthy people. thank you. guest: thanks for the question. clearly citizens united presented another major advance them for wealthy donors and special-interest groups, big labor unions, big corporations. that decision gave them new ways to play politics, being able to fund super pac's, being able to fund dark money groups that would run ads, being able to funnel money for a serious upgrades to do those kinds of things. funnel money through a series these kinds of things. voters around the country are being barraged by those types of

ads. indership pac's were created the 1970's as a way for politicians to give away money to their allies, whether you like that system or not, it is clear that it is proliferated, that the abuses are running more rampant today, in part because both congress and the federal election commission has fallen down on the job. there is more that the leadership pac's can do and there is more that the elections commission itself can do to curb the abuse of leadership pac's. host: do you know if the total amount of money that flowed through leadership pac's in the 2018 cycle? about $150 million had floated to all of the leadership pac's, controlled by sitting members of congress last year. host: time for one or two more calls. in shreveport, go ahead. i know that there

are supposed to be contributions, but wouldn't they be taxable in some ways? another reason not to trust our politicians. thank you. i will take your answer. guest: good question. good question. every time that you make a political donation, that is entirely different than making a donation to a charity, so that is not a tax-deductible activity or aou as an individual political action committee or a corporation or a labor union. these are political expenditures that they do not get to write off in that same way, so when you have that money flowing in to leadership pac's, this is money coming from these interests, and as the report shows, more and more of it is getting spent on some pretty lavish expenditures, such as trips to luxurious resorts, golfing at some of the best golf

resorts in the country, fine steakhouses. we were shocked to see that in the past two years, only 46% of the money and leadership pac's were going to contributions to political candidates and political groups. host: this report from issueone.org is available to look at, and it focuses on october through december of 2018. winter we expect the first look at leadership pac's in the 115 congress? guest: leadership pac's, unlike some of the other political animals out there, only have to file their reports generally twice a year, so you can circle your calendar for july 21, if you are the type of nerd who wants to dig through these filings themselves. that is when the midyear reports will be filed, but we will not see the full calendar year of these impacts until january of next year. host: we will circle our booking calendar as well and have you

come back to talk about it. michael beckel of issue one, thank you. guest: thank you so much. host: that will do it for "washington journal" today, but we will be back here tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. eastern, 4:00 a.m. pacific. in the meantime, have a great saturday. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] c-span's interviews with some of the newest members of congress. then, we will show commencement speeches from around the country beginning with acting naval secretary patrick shanahan at the naval academy, followed by represented of elijah cummings at morgan state university.

>> olympic and professional athletes from a variety of sports joined a series of discussions on how athletes are participating in assorted activism. they talked about the me too movement, lgbtq, black lives matter, civil rights in the 1960's, and other movements. watch the event hosted by "the atlantic" night at 8:00 a.m. -- 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. president trump leaves for europe sunday night. asday, he will be in london queen elizabeth welcomes the president on his first state visit there. he and the first lady will attend a dinner with the queen and prince philip at buckingham palace. british he meets with prime minister theresa may who recently announced she would be stepping down june 7. wednesday is the d-day ceremony in portsmouth, one of the