ines of leadership skills c-span's the presidents. it's great reading available wherever books are sold. watch c-span today for memorial services honoring the late supreme court justice john paul stevens. eastern, his casket arrives at the supreme court were a private ceremony will take place in the great hall. at 10:30, he will lying in repose and the public is invited to pay their respects. onch live coverage today c-span.org, or listen with the c-span radio app. next, it'sp washington journal paired are guests include noah bierman of the los angeles times and siobhan hughes of the wall street journal previewing the

week ahead in washington three after that, benjamin friedman of defense priorities looks at the latest tensions between the u.s. and iran. plus phone calls and tweets. washington journal is next. ♪ host: morning. it's monday, july 22 and it's going to be a busy week on capitol hill as members of the house and senate prepare for the august break spending and the debt ceiling front and center. a new defense secretary is on the way. final work on the 9/11 victims compensation fund and of course the robert mueller hearings which happen wednesday. president trump meets for the first time with the new prime minister of pakistan. and there are many many more headlines over these past few days about the heated lyrical rhetoric here in washington and what it means for the future and

the future of politics. in fact, one observer of the process writes that no presidential candidate can unite the country. that article got our attention so we are asking you this monday morning, can any of the presidential candidates unite the country? democrats call 202-748-8000. republicans 202-748-8001. independents 202-748-8002. you can weigh in on social media. c-span wj is our twitter handle. on can also post a comment facebook.com/c-span. here is the opinion piece in the hill that got our attention. the author has worked on capitol hill. he is at duke university. he has worked in a newsroom in a presidential campaign. he puts it this way. calls for a democratic presidential candidate who can bring this country together wrongly assume a candidate can

wield such power. he writes that residents rarely unite the country. the they do it's often in face of crises like foreign attacks on u.s. soil or other national tragedies. such unity requires a leader eager to lead and a populace eager to follow. it demands a national dialogue in which americans across ideology, demography and experiences can participate. these days no national dialogue can connect america's splintered factions, he writes on the pages of the hill. houselook at the white and the current crop of democratic presidential candidates, one of them, joe biden feels like he can unite the country. here's a look back at his debut announcement. his first official announcement in philadelphia back in may. a different path. not back to a path that never was, but to a future that fulfills or to root -- our true

potential as a country. some of these people are saying, biden just doesn't get a pair you can't work with republicans anymore. that's not the way it works anymore. well folks, i'm going to say something outrageous. i know how to make government work. [applause] i've done it. i've worked across the aisle to reach consensus. to help make government work in the past. i can do that again with your help. to me, our principles must never be compromised but compromise itself is not a dirty word. consensus is not a weakness. foundersonly way our thought that lawmakers could govern. it was designed to way the constitution sits. it requires consensus. i did it when i was a senator. did as you're vice

president to work with barack obama. and it's what i will do as your president. in may.e biden back have a question for you, can any candidate unite the country. the columnist goes on to write the unite the country crowd is well-meaning. some reside in the moderate wings of their respective parties. others are true independents. vacuums are not solutions. yearning for the idyllic is not a strategy. we are a nation of two-pronged anger. and this is not the worst it has ever been although some believe we might be headed in that direction. the pew research center has put out a new poll. here is the top line of the pole. americans say the nation's political debate has grown more toxic and heated rhetoric could lead to violence. more on the back-and-forth in

that area in a couple of minutes. let's get to your calls. can any presidential candidate unite the country. dave is on the line in smithtown, new york. caller: the answer is no. a while ago in new york we had someone from not around here come and run for united states senator. her name was hillary clinton. use saw bumper stickers, shirts all over the place. go home hillary. and it was not racist at the time. go home, go back to where you came from. nobody said it's racist. now the same thing they say it's racist. all they demonstrate is you have 218 irrational people in the house of representatives, they can pass a resolution saying that a square is around. host: all right. edwin is calling on the democratic line. caller: good morning.

i think all the candidates on the democratic side, kamala canis shows me that she really stand up to the joe biden and really i hope that in the long run that the moderates on the democratic side to not get firedonald john trump's over the four squad people. they need to come out on their agenda of what they are going to do positive different than the president. you talked about senator harris. what do you hear from her and how do you hear it from her. what makes it -- makes you so confident in her ability? caller: she worked on the prosecution side in california. she could stand her ground on the issues. during the debate she really gave a knockout punch to joe biden.

i think that out of all the candidates -- and hear me out, i think it's time to elect a female candidate. but what i don't want the democrats to do is to get into donald trump's hands and the way you defend a bully is you ignore them or walk away. donald trump right now is onling his 38 to 40% base this whole deal with the four squad. -- wish thethe democrats and tom perez is the dnc chairman tells the democrats that are running that they knew to run on the issues and i'm more of a moderate democrat than a green deal the government pays for everything. i'm a retired military person with 40 years of federal service. example,ieve like for the president has not come out with a health care plan. where is his health care plan? climate change.

it's not even there. and this national debt, we ran up to trillion dollars on the tax plan. i had to file a longform because it didn't have benefit me. and the workers with no benefits, those totally are let down. african american unemployment is 6%. victor is calling from silver spring, maryland on the republican line. go ahead. caller: good morning. there's no way this country is going to be united. coming from the right, i'm a conservative. a blind conservative. sick and tired of the left calling me either racist, sexist, homophobic because i happen to daegis agree with what they are having to say. as far as the squad is having concern, squad stands for

socialist queens unmasking all democrats. host: ok. words of victor. a few more words from the contributor to the hill peace and doesn't feel like the country can be united. he writes that in today's climate cross party animosity cannot be easily untangled. shared mistrust and disdain permeates structures. rancor among elected officials is on the rise. media personalities stoke outrage daily. families are being torn apart not just physically at our southern border but emotionally in cities and towns across the country. polltle bit more from this . they writes that large majorities say the tone and nature of political debate in the country has become more negative in recent years. more than eight in 10 u.s. adults say that political debate

in the country has become more negative and less respectful according to this survey conducted in the spring. less 76% say it has become fact-based and 60% say it has become less focused on issues. pewcan read that at research.org. tom is calling from frederick, maryland. caller: good morning. most used president's words in his vocabulary is anti-semitic. i remember back during the severalesville riots, nazis walked with their tiki torches chanting jews will not replace us. and the president said, some of those are good guys. how can you not be anti-semitic racist crabve the

the president says about the neo-nazis? host: voice of tom. calling from massachusetts. independent caller. caller: good morning. i suppose my comment for you will be that we can't have stability because barack obama decided he wanted to make everybody hate each other. this is where it all came from. this is where it started and it's where we are now. if anybody wants to be civil, the democrats need to stop calling everybody a racist. i will never vote for another democrat as long as i live because all they want to play is a race card. everything isn't about race and everything that mr. trump said wasn't racist. he says if you don't like our country, leave. go back to wherever you came from and make your place better which in the three americans that were there, they should have gone back to their communities, really messed up communities and take care of their communities. and misses omar, well, the woman

is a terrorist upright. have a nice day. host: bob calling from massachusetts. so glad i'm not like that last fellow from massachusetts. goodness gracious. i want to talk about the 20 democrats running. i believe they are only running to be reelected for their seed. they know they are not going to win the presidency. host: what makes you say that? caller: look at all these when he candidates. they know they are not going to win. they have to run for their campaign so they can go back home and run for their senate or their congress seat. once they get that money, they get to keep it and run again in another election. you know what i'm saying? that's the problem. nancy pelosi is the smartest person in washington, d.c. period. pelosi.ke nancy

joe biden should be the president. nancy pelosi should be the vice president. -- up to be the speaker of the house and stop this fooling around. 20 people get together and go after one candidate. that's joe biden. stop running for your campaign finance. good day. host: call from massachusetts. we are asking folks can any of the presidential candidates unite the country. democratic side or the current occupant of the white house. we are taking calls from democrats, republicans and independents. we will read some of your tweets as well. one mentioned senator kamala harris in particular. here's a little bit of what she had to say about the nation and healing at her debut announcement a few months back. >> so today i say to you my friends, these are not ordinary times. and this will not be an ordinary election.

but this is our america. and so here's the thing. it's up to us. each and every one of us. fight,s remember in this we have the power of the people. dreams of our the parents and grandparents. nation.eal our we can give our children the future they deserve. we can reclaim the american dream for every single person in our country. and we can restore america's moral leadership on this planet.

senator kamala harris. here's a headline in the washington times this morning. trump pours more fuel on feud with four female democrats. from bjre of the words rendell in his opinion piece on the hill. he doesn't think any of the candidates can unite the country. he writes that a threat to our two-party system would be the surest way to end this political morass. it could come in the form of a strong and sustained third-party loses enoughf -- power, it will face its own existential crisis. change or die. this latter scenario would force the party to broaden its appeal and compete for more of the other party's voters instead of branding them as un-american. it would create opportunities for both parties to champion the same causes fostering more collaboration. there are no quick and easy to the question -- answers to the question how can we bring the country together. no one can undo what continues

to be done. the sooner america understands this the sooner we can all look inward and take personal responsibility for our role in this war against hate rights bj radel. he is at duke university right now and his observations caught our attention so we are asking you about that. can any presidential candidate unite the country? charles, new york city, democrat. welcome. ok.er: good program this morning. my quick answer before i forget almost be's going to virtually impossible in terms of who is able to unite the country. i would say right off hand it would probably be biden. but i would also say that it to findhoove most of us

some opportunity to watch the interview that went on this morning between brian lamb and ginsberg. come to you would as was saidow much constantly this morning we do not know how things work. comes toy when it government and bureaucracies which is -- trump is challenging this whole progressive movement. if got to have somebody who can and thatss the aisles is a very daunting task at this particular point. so my response would be the man would be joe biden and i'm not

-- i wish i could say one of the ladies. the wayay perhaps, but i see it now, our man is joe biden. thank you very much. q&a: charles mentioning our segment with benjamin ginsberg of johns hopkins university. is whate of his book washington gets wrong. just go to our website and type in q&a or benjamin ginsberg and you can see that full one-hour interview. linda is calling from columbia, maryland. good morning. caller: good morning. i wanted to say i don't think it's looking too good right now. the right has moved to the center and the left is almost off the edge. to unite this country we wouldn't hit a centrist and we all would have to agree on a few common themes for that to happen.

our respect for constitution and not allowing either party to hijack it. and i think that the left feels that their agenda should be enacted by whatever means necessary now and if that doesn't change our future is very sketchy to say the least. host: who is the centrist you have in mind? caller: on the left i would say tell see gabbert. i do like what trump is doing. shaking things up because i think both parties are very corrupt. for now that's what we need i think. to get back to what made the country successful at least. and i think we need to just get back to our constitution and rule of law. host: cornell calling from waterford. i think we are almost at

a new turning point as far as civility. i think the problem is that most republicans, well i can't say most republicans but at least at don't understand that -- they say they are racist. i'm knuckling to call president trump a racist but what i will his policies are inconsistent with civility hand understand thet things that he says and does is racist. whereas the first thing they say is president obama is the president that started all of this. but you know something, it comes back to civility. it comes back to donald trump is not concerned with that other

60% of americans. he has campaigned instead of governed his whole presidency. first it was lock her up. send her back where you came from. policies.racist and until we understand -- we are speaking two different languages. problem's a serious where americans can't understand certain things are racist and certain things are a lot. it's like we are speaking two different languages. as long as we speak two different languages, i don't see us as a society can move forward. is the reality is i think it one by one. individually we must not accept incivility.

we must get back to right and wrong. wrong can never be made right because the majority pushes that premise. society can as a we findve forward until what's right and wrong and stand on those principles. host: ok. gilbert,s calling from arizona. can any presidential candidate unite this country? caller: i don't think a single presidential candidate in the history of the country has united the country since probably about andrew jackson. makeup hasy's racial been extremely diverse and it's very hard to uniquely define what is an american. because even if you look at the ideals that people have, they have vastly changed so there's no one thing other than just like the citizenship and even still today that's not really the thing with all of these b

eaners coming in across the border. host: we will let you go. here's a tweet this morning that i don'the latest -- believe the four congresswomen are capable of loving our country. they should apologize to america and israel. they are destroying the democrat party but are weak and insecure people who can never destroy our great nation. that was the tweet yesterday. here is the headline in the washington times. trump pours more fuel on feud with four female democrats. they write in the times that after a full week of feuding with the democrats and defending himself against accusations of hateful rhetoric, the president showed that he will persist with his criticism of the four female lawmakers as a high-profile argument for his reelection. this week program yesterday, elijah cummings was

asked if he believes the president is a racist. here's what he had to say. >> yes. no doubt about it. i tried to give him the benefit of the doubt. i've got to tell you, george. saidi think about what he to these young ladies who are merely trying to bring excellence to government and trying to make sure that generations yet unborn have an opportunity to experience a true democracy. when i hear those things it takes me back like i said. remember still bleeding from my forehead when people were throwing bottles. and these were adults throwing bottles and saying go home -- and again, the president has to set the tone. he needs to be a role model. i would say that the president right now, right now, mr.

president, we want you to be a role model. we want somebody in that white house who our children can be proud of. who our can emulate. who our children will look up to. and that is not the kind of example that you are setting. and i'm telling you, mr. president, you and we, our nation is better than that. host: representative alexandria ocasio-cortez from new york was quoted. she said she feels the president enjoyed hearing supporters at a campaign rally last week chant back her back here for -- ." a town hall meeting in her district. in indiana, good morning. caller: how are you? us.ink what can unite i don't even know if there's a candidate out there.

centristrobably take a who is an extreme problem solver. i'm in independent but i have voted for republicans but identify more with democrats at times great i just don't think our president can unite us. i lived through the 60's and watched elijah cummings and others getting beaten down there in selma by those racists and i see the same racist hate and some of those people's faces at those trump rallies to me, it looks like a clue cliques clan rally. rally.lux klan and this is destroying our democracy. comments of orville in indiana. one of the front page stories

today, racial issues divide democrats. however, they unite in indignation over trump. from a democratic strategist. we need to have a serious adult conversation about race in this country. we have to recognize that donald trump is probably never going to be part of that constructive conversation. a couple passages from the jump on this piece. voters are acan crucial constituency for the democratic party. a huge share of african american voters in early primary states especially south carolina means democratic presidential candidates must connect with black communities or pack it up after new hampshire. -- less than a year out from the iowa caucuses -- something they failed to do in 2016. trump's attack on the democratic congressional women unified the party, other racial issues could test that harmony. that's usa today. we have debbie calling from

henrietta, new york. independent caller. caller: good morning. i don't think that anybody can unite us right now. i'm on social media a lot. people stand up for the most disgusting things in and children are being treated horribly on the border. separated from their parents. congress are getting death both sides, it's all political. they don't have common decency anymore and i just don't feel like anyone -- and to tell you the truth i'm kind of worried about who loses this time. because i don't know what's going to happen at that point. people are getting really ugly. i'm not sure what else to say.

host: thank you for calling. debbie mentioning the border. acta the pages of the hill. trump says he will meet with schumer asap after a border visit. the senator visited the u.s. mexico border. the president tweeted senator chuck schumer has finally gone to the border. this is a great thing. nearby he missed a large group of illegal immigrants trying to enter the u.s. legally. they wildly rushed border patrol. trump tweeted they pointed out that schumer has led a group of about a dozen senate democrats on a visit to the border to see detention facilities. it looks like maybe we will see something this week from the president and the minority leader. harold from florida, good morning. i think any good leader can unify the country. we don't need a war or disaster

to do it. we just need a good leader. i will say this -- one problem trump has is that he is in new yorker and if you've been around people from new york, if you want to say nutty things to them and yetr anti-semitic you have jewish grandkids and a daughter who married jewish, it gets old. you call them out against women and he hires these women at high level, he will respond. he is just a man from new york is acting like a typical new yorker. he's not going to take any of this guff. he will unify the country because people are starting to realize that democrats are wild radicals. it's crazy the things they say. they call him a traitor and they say he should be impeached. says if yoully

don't like it, you can leave, what's the big deal? they are the ones that said all the this stuff first. when you have ocasio-cortez saying she story she makes mistakes but her hearts in the you understand what she is saying? she is saying i'm never right but i really think right. that's a bunch of junk. you want somebody who can get something done and be correct and that's trump. yes, he can unify the country. it's not a big deal, every president we've ever had can do this. it's not a big issue. -- the callerrmap mentioning alexandria phocas you alexandriakc of -- boko zero cortez

[video clip] the president did not like the chance and i did not like the chant but that happens at rallies. >> what about his tweet this morning about them not being capable of loving the country question mark >> that's his opinion i don't agree with it. york, go ahead. caller: when trump was campaigning to become president, i already knew that he would

start a race war. i already knew it. host: how did you know that? when he started talking i mean, i'm 507i never voted a day in my life and when he started talking about i stood up people, in my mouth dropped in my eyes popped out, i started pacing back and forth and i'm like great, now i have to vote. to be honest with you, i'm not can unite.body the people in this country. as the i love them. four go, they are full of passion for this country and not one time today hear any of them saying i hate this country, not

one time. he keeps saying that over and over again. fresh andoung and they have a lot of passion and their flame burns high for this country. when you look at the people who have been in there for years and now, when i look into their eyes and when they talk, it's like their flame has burnt out. as the beautiful, innocent children at the border, people on death row get treated better. understand trump. he is igniting hate. i just don't understand people who hate people who are different. let's put it that way. i love diversity. i love it, i love it.

god created all of us. go on to alex in burke, virginia, welcome to the program. caller: good morning, i didn't plan on calling into c-span until i heard quite a number of lies being told and to the lady from new york just called as , young advise her people's flame is not out. the right has lost its collective mind this country and has hitched their wagon to a man who is a self admitted sexual assault or and has cheated on all of his wives and even with his kids at home. this is the party of family thumping in the united states. not that they have seen what progressives and democrats are

going to stand for in 2020. they are terrified. to answer your question on which candidate shows the best opportunity of uniting the country -- i don't think it's joe biden. i don't think progressives are excited for him. to theldn't come down lesser of two evils once again. i think 2016 could happen again in 2020. believe most i would probably either be elizabeth warren or bernie sanders, especially bernie because he marched in the civil rights with mlk back in the day and had his -- and has had an unflinching record that has remained constant and is not flip-flopped on issues. i think he could console the rust belt voters, some of the ones mentioning their economic help whend 2016 and some votes back to the democratic party. yeah, thank you for your time. host: thanks for calling.

a couple of stories from "the washington post" this morning -- they also take a look at the budget story. they are trying to work out a deal to avoid potential problems and other issues.

we know that over the weekend, the president promised spending cuts in his second term so we will see how all of this plays out. 11 -- one more story on the president of puerto rico as you know, the island has been dealing with significant financial issues including many more brought on by the recent hurricanes there. barry from georgia, hello. i'm getting tired

is play partou do of what trump said. what he said is that they needed to go back to where they came from and fix what happened there . he did not specify them to go back to their country. host: what's the distinction? he said that, he was not trying to be racist. he was trying to tell them to go back to their state and fix that and come back to him and tell them at -- and tell him how they did it. nobody is seeing that part. they are excited about going back to your country. he didn't say that. he said go back to where you came from and fix what's wrong there. it didn't specify country. he didn't specify a nation. all he did was just say go back to where he came from fix with wrong there and come back and tell us how to do it.

what he was meaning was go back to your state and fix was wrong there and come back and tell us how you did it but everybody is fixated on saying he said go back to your country which he didn't say. from ok, jim is calling buffalo, new york, independent color. caller: good morning. i listened to the last gentleman and his right. when i want to criticize trump for what he said, they should have the whole quote. not being this country, look at omar's comments about israelis. let's talk about family values and how trump cheats on his wife. what did clinton doing the oval office? -- due in the oval office? if a baby is worn through a bosch abortion, -- through a bosch abortion, you don't have to save it and democrats voted

against that. elected, the gets other side will start hammering immediately and i will not say which side is right, that's the way it will be. maybe it's time we save our energy and figure out how we split the country in half and once on could be liberals in one side can be the conservatives i bet it will work out better. dame writesnday this morning -- here is the voice of vice president max -- vice president mike pence on cbs face the nation responding to the controversy over the chant at the presidents rally last week. [video clip] >> were those chants appropriate? if you are unhappy with him, do you want them repeated? is this part and parcel of the

2020 echo of the trump campaign? it's a simple question. >> no, the president wasn't pleased about it and neither was i and the president has been clear about that. about also not pleased the fact that there are for members of congress is as close ass everything in american politics on this could go away with a simple phrase. you have a chance to say it right now. don't do it again, is that your message? >> the president was very clear. millions of americans share the presidents frustration about sitting members of congress engaging in that kind of reckless rhetoric whether the anti-semitic or referring to runningatrol agents

concentration camps and the president thought it was important to stand up to them and i'm glad he did. >> can you be patriotic and oppose the president's reelection? >> of course, but with these members of congress have been doing is referring to our country is garbage. >> that's unpatriotic. >> it's unacceptable and president trump will continue to stand up for america and call out that kind of rhetoric by those members and it's time the democratic leadership in congress did the same step host: lots more of your calls coming in. anthony from st. paul, minnesota, democratic line. can any presidential candidate unite the country? ♪ caller: i'm not sure. i don't believe one person can do it. it will have to be we as americans who have to start teaching our kids not to hate. children are not born to hate. put all the kids together in a play together.

i want to say something about one more thing. i continue to hear when they say unpatriotic and they say israel, do we have 51 states? it's ridiculous how every time they want to call you unpatriotic, they go to get another country involved. the thing that bothers me also with his border thing is that we cut the funds for helping the people in south america but if people in america we use the internet and stop going to the point where they see what they are looking for or what they believe in and stop looking, we are living in the most accessible educated time ever of mankind. andid that to south america then we cut off the aid and the people will run. youou had people telling they were going to kill you and your kids if your child doesn't become a prostitute, this is

ridiculous. have -- iry needs to don't know what we need, i'm not a religious person but we have too many guns, too many angry people. i'm afraid to even go out because i don't know. i'm not worried about somebody from another country. i'm more worried about the americans doing this. i have grandchildren. i'm 60 years old. i have never seen this country in this type of situation. it's not going to be a race war. it will be a civil war. it's not going to be north and south. this means you have your neighbor thinking crazy and thinking anti-this and that. don't accept what other people say, they want to fight and be angry. it's about compromise, people. you compromise in your marriage and everything.

why can't we compromise when we $172,000 perople year to sit and say nothing and be angry all the time and stop trying to tell women about how they should be able to do with their bodies. they payize israel and for abortions there. that's something else, think about that, america. host: moving on to dennis from georgia, republican, what would you like to say about the presidential candidate? any of them, can they unite the country? millions of children disappear every year and no one is talking about it. and there's a major problem with that. nobody is solving the problem with the missing children. that is satan that we are dealing with here. something's got to be done.

host: thanks for calling. free lunch usa writes let's hear from michael in schenectady, new york, good morning. caller: good morning and thank you. i don't think there is anyone who can put us back together and the reason being is the history i was taught, i'm 70 years old, is not the history being taught in schools today. i was taught to love our country and think about founding fathers as great man for founding this country. they are now being taught, as you see through aoc, that our founding fathers were nothing but fools and racist murderers. the kids that they don't love the country from the

beginning, you'll have what we have here today. if anybody takes a real good look and if you look at chapter 118-122 of the commonest constitution any really carefully, you find out that's with the democratic plan is for america today. thank you. terry in's hear from kansas city, missouri, good morning. caller: i think joe biden could unite the country. he appeals to voters in michigan and pennsylvania. he is not a socialist. warren orts run bernie, they will lose two to their socialism. the country does not want socialism and biden is not trying to go in that direction. host: can joe biden unite the democratic party first? caller: i think so because he is a successful vice president. he seemed the logical candidate to me. they've got someone right there

who is ready for this particular time in history. host: thanks for calling. one of the big events this week of course, perhaps the biggest, is the hearings with robert mueller which we will have on c-span3 this wednesday beginning at 8:30 a.m. he will meet the judiciary committee in the afternoon. here's the intelligence chair in the house, adam schiff, the congressman from california featured in politico. on wednesday, they will be up

against a witness who did not want to testify in the first place. here is congressman, chairman shift who was on with the sunday morning programs yesterday. [video clip] >> we want bob mueller to bring it to life, to talk about what's in that report. it's a pretty damming set of facts that involves a presidential campaign in a close race, welcoming help from a hostile foreign power, not reporting it but eagerly embracing it, building it into their campaign strategy, lying about to cover up and then obstructing an investigation into foreign interference. that's a pretty damming set of facts that most american people are not familiar with. the president keeps trying to deceive them about those facts.

who better to bring them to life than the man who did the investigation himself? we want the people to hear it directly from him, not filtered but from thebarr man who did the work himself. host: the new york times has this lead story --

that's part of the writeup in "the new york times" today as the robert mueller hearings begin wednesday. that will be at 8:30 a.m. eastern time. gordon, san jose, california, good morning. caller: good morning, it wasn't planning on calling today but i wanted to reply to someone calling from georgia to get the full quote.

on july 14. -thed trump posted progressive congresswomen who originally came from countries whose governments are complete and total catastrophes. if we are talking about multiple women and the countries they come from, i want everyone to examine what that could possibly mean for them to not go back to their states. that's why people are so up in arms. i just want to throw that out there. nobody in the democratic party party is trying to make america a socialist party. we are trying to move and be progressive as the country has from the beginning. we were born of being progressive.

i don't think any presidential candidate will be able to unite the country for quite some time. i will be lucky if my one-year-old daughter has a president who can do that. host: let's hear from david in los angeles, independent caller. do you think any presidential candidate can unite the country? caller: that's an interesting question this morning. my inclination is senator warren. from an historical point of view, george washington wasn't able to do it all the way up to link to this fellow we have an office now. have in office now. lincoln's attempt brought us to a civil war which i believe never ended. i think what's going on with that is the manifestation that war has never been concluded. here we are today.

all of our worst angels, if you will, from the inception of this place to now is on full display. = with trump. the question is, somebody mentioned perhaps it is time to actually do the separation. i'm never going to submit to white supremacy. and white supremacy is such where it only sees itself as being supreme over all. no one is going to submit to this. are you still with me? host: i am, finish up if you can. questionhat is a great that i think we should all seriously ponder in the light of history. not this whitewashed history that suggests that one point and place in time, we were a united states.

the inception was with killing the native people, enslaving the akron people -- the african people. over was subject to what the immigrants are going through now. this is our history so we need to stop lying to ourselves and come to grips with the truth because the truth, according to scripture, is the only thing that can make you free. are you still with me question e? host: i am. caller: we need to back up and listen to what the question is and ponder it, like i said. host: thanks for calling. down for last couple of calls on this question -- can any presidential candidate unite the country? anare following up with op-ed in the hill published recently by dj redell/

. he writes that no presidential candidate can unite the country. here is another look and you can read it at the hill.com. houston, texas, democrat, what do you think? caller: first of all, good morning. can unite thell country. what the question is saying to me is disturbing because it brings a lot of negativity to the conversation and it divides the country based on not one person. the question should be can one person who becomes president stopped speaking as a racist. happens, then those who want to be racist, who want to

speak against those who have diversity, then they will have to deal with that themselves. yet there are people out there that are running on the democratic party, i believe, they can stop speaking in a manner that will divide the country. we all have to love one another. if you give me one more minute to speak for the ladies -- youngeve that they are yes, they have a vibrancy about themselves. maybe they might have said things that were not acceptable to a certain degree. i believe in my heart that they are really champions. that's the next generation. it's not about being a socialist. it's about helping one another. when we have a president that is

willing to get on national tv or twitter or whatever and continually -- and continuously condemn individuals -- those ladies were voted in. it hurt my heart to see that we continually down people for their color. i'm a black woman. and i am proud to be black. -- the question is a good question but it moves away from the truth. the truth is that one person cannot do it all stop we as a country can but we need a spokesperson whether it be a woman or a man that will not allow the conversations to come about. those conversation should come about in our communities. we are worried about israel and all that but what about the

states that are struggling now? host: thanks to everybody who called in. semiore tweet -- expressing positive sentiment thank you for calling in this first hour and we will take a short break and then we will preview what we've been talking about in the week ahead in washington, d.c. with the l.a. times white house reporter and we will talk with the wall street journal congressional reporter and later on, fresh tensions between the u.s. and iran and we will talk about what could be next with the policy director for group priorities. "washington journal this for julygton journal" 22. we will be right back. ♪ ♪

>> tonight on "the communicators," we will discuss the role venture capitalism plays and start up companies with scott cooper, author of the book " secrets of sand hill road." >> members of the founding team come in and i have a powerpoint presentations of a generally haven't built a product yet. it's really an opportunity for the entrepreneur to tell us about their expansive vision for the company. how big can it take -- can i market opportunity be and what can i look like at scale and ultimately, why is this team the right team to go after that so it's up fun and intellectual process by which we get to learn new and interesting things and ultimately be able to make a decision about whether this is a

team that should have that opportunity. >> tonight at 8:00 p.m. on "the communicators" on c-span two. >> robert mueller testifies to congress on wednesday about a possible obstruction of justice and abusive power by president trump. and russian interference in the 2016 presidential election3+ . our live coverage starts at 8:30 a.m. eastern on c-span3, online at www.c-span.org or listen wherever you are with the free c-span radio app and before the hearing, listen to the complete mueller report at www.c-span.org mobile device.or the audio is courtesy of timberlane media. watch c-span today for memorial services honoring the late supreme court justice john paul stevens. at 9:15 a.m. eastern, justice stevens'casket arrives at the

supreme court were a private ceremony will take place in the great hall. afterwards at 10:30 a.m., he will i in repose in the public's invited to pay their respects. watch live coverage today on c-span.org or listen with the free c-span radio app. in c-span3 residential leadership surveys taken between 2000-2017, woodrow wilson drops and bill clinton rises. your favorite president rank? learn that and more about the lives and leadership skills of the 44 chief executive in c-span's, the presidents which is great vacation reading, available wherever books are sold or at www.c-span.org/the presidents. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we will take a look at a very busy week in washington

with our two guests. noah beerman is one of them and we say good morning to shivon huhughes. let's start with the new large hearings which will happen on wednesday live on c-span. to will get each of you weigh in but we want to hear from jerry nadler, the chairman of the house judiciary committee on fox news and was asked why he's putting robert mueller through a congressional hearing. [video clip] >> we want the american people to hear directly from special counter mueller what has investigation found. the president and attorney general and others have spent the last few months systematically lying to the american people about what the investigation found. they said it found no collusion, it found no structure and, it exonerated the president -- all three of those statements are absolute lies. it found a great deal of collusion and a great deal of obstruction of justice by the that itt and it found

refused to exonerate the president. we think it's important for the american people to hear the fact because this is a president who has violated the saw -- the law six ways from sunday. if anyone else had been accused of what the report finds the president had done, they would have been indicted. not have aant we lawless administration and a lawless president will stop it's important people see where we are at and what we are doing and what we are dealing with. >> i want to follow up with him violating the law. the 448 page report. do you believe the president is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors, the marker for impeachment by the house question mark >> i think there . >> i think there were substantial evidence that the president is guilty of high crimes and misdemeanors and let miller present those faxed to the american people and see where we go from there.

the of ministration must be held accountable and no president can be above the law. onne: let's begin with shav hughes. what is the mood on the hill leading into the hearings and what can you identify as awin or something for the democrats to say this was worth it question mark guest: i would say the mood is one of anticipation on the part of democrats but also of anxiety. the stakes are very high for democrats. nancy pelosi has said they will not proceed to impeachment proceedings unless they can bring the public along. democrats are viewing bob mueller as the best shot at doing that. beerman, was the current posture of the white house leading into these hearings? worst -- best and what is their best and worst takeaway? tried toey have undermine the credibility of the investigation so there will be a

lot of people on the hill making that case. thingsmply, one of the his allies can do is to continue to ask out loud -- there are things come as much as there are difficult things in the report, there are things in his favor which is the ultimate questions of cooperation with russia to become involved with the election. and the fact there wasn't enough evidence there to form an --ictment of the president not an indictment but recommend impeachment on that issue i think is an important point. host: the hearings happened is wednesday and you can watch it live on c-span3 starting at 8:30 a.m. and at www.c-span.org with live replays in primetime on the c-span networks. we will put the phone numbers on the bottom of the screen for our guests.

we have three separate lines to phone in on them we will get to your calls in a couple of minutes. staying with the mueller hearings, take us to the gop side of these two committees question mark what are they hoping to achieve with these hearings? it's an opportunity for them? guest: exactly, a big focus for the gop has been to the credit -- to discredit the report, in particular the origins. thegop is not convinced russian interference grew out of anything legitimate but they feel it grew out of a dossier for aas compiled republican taken over by the clinton campaign. the arjun has to do with a tip that the federal government got s but wrapped up in this information was in the dossier. there are three hours for robert

mueller to testify. however, there are 41 members who technically are entitled to five minutes each. if you do the math, you can see that there will be 25 minutes and those 25 minutes technically comes from the democrats time. it will be interesting to see if republicans use all of their five minutes and maybe go over and make the democrats anxious that some of them are not getting their time. host: what else will you be looking for? guest: i think that's always the question with these hearings. how much are we seeing individual members try to showcase their own talents as interrogators or defenders of the president? that's always huge. another thing i am looking for is democratic leadership which is anxious about this energy toward impeachment, there seems to be -- they want to keep the pressure on robert mueller -- through mueller on the president at not so much so as to get

groundswell toward impeachment from their own members because they are not sure politically of that the best thing to do. you pushed the throttle but not too hard? what is success in those terms when you put so much pressure on these hearings? general notion has been reported that robert mueller is a reluctant witness. he had to be subpoenaed to come in and says don't expect them to stray from the report that he what tactics might you be looking for members of congress to go off script? that robertight mueller's letter came out that he was -- with the report, happened to spot him at his favorite restaurant. he was with his wife and another couple in a quiet mood in a quiet restaurant. he does not like the limelight at all. siobhan wasts,

caring in a book -- was carrying in a book this thick but most people of not read the report. if he stays within the four corners of the report, there are many things the american public is not aware of and if they can get him to say those words out loud, to bring those stories to light and the voice of a credible person, than they are getting that information from the public in a way that might not otherwise. not read theans do book and maybe they will see the movie. that is essentially how democrats are viewing this. in particular, they were focus primarily on five episodes. they will take you back to june of 2017, the washington post had just reported that special counsel was investigating mr. trump for obstruction of justice on that set off a dramatic phone call from the president to don mcgahn. that is a big moment you will be taken back to. host: calls for our guests,

robert is calling from new york city, either. -- hi there. caller: thank you for taking my call. two things about trump -- first i want to use this point to hiso tweets about the four congresswomen. i think he has criticized america more than them. the hypoxia this man. he has spent years criticizing from praising foreign dictators and himself in the process. it's despicable and continues to show he is unfit to be president of our great country. he once said of you don't clean up our country of the garbage going to do aust tough spiral and he tweeted that on september 17, 2017. he called this country third world country and the washington greataid the idea of

american greatness as leader of the free and unfree world has vanished. host: with that commentary, do it -- do you have a question for our guests? caller: sure, i want to ask one thing. time that we should have evidence to call him what he is, a racist. he has no respect for the presidency and we have had some pretty bad presidents in contrast to donald trump but they have some respect for the office. right, let me go back to the tweet about 24 hours ago that started a new fresh round of back-and-forth about all of this. the president wrote that i don't pollute before congress women are capable of loving our country and they should i apologize to america and israel for the horrible and hateful

things they have said, they are destroying the democratic party and there we can insecure people who can never destroy our great nation. can you give us insight into where that tweet came from? guest: i think it came directly from the president. we know these kind of tweets don't have a lot of consultation with others in the white house. act ands been so much forth this week inside the white house about whether these kind of obligations are helpful or hurtful for the president politically. we are also discussing the merits. i think the president does not like to back down and we know that. as much as he may have been persuaded by members of congress to somewhat dissociate himself from the chants, he was quick to was back and say, which predictable, to double down on this. hughes had this

piece last night about rashida tlaib. to leavenapologetic his fans in michigan. take us to michigan. i went to the district over the weekend and i discovered she has an equitably strong base of support. her voters really like what she has done in times of trying to protect the environment but there is an asterisk next to that. what they don't like and what makes them uncomfortable is that rashida tlaib, the day of her swearing in, got up and said i will go in there and in peach. they think that language is an appropriate and at least in some parts of the community, particularly in the african-american part, it's a majority black district. people are wondering is she getting so much national

attention that she is not going to deliver for us back home? frankly what we need his help. host: chicago, kathleen, you're on. caller: good morning, how is everybody? i wanted to ask everybody on the panel -- all i hear from the talk shows to people like democrats, democrats -- are we a two-party nation or one? why is it everything has to be done is on the democrats? .e elected a senate those a republican sitting over there. they are getting paid like the democrats. why shouldn't they have a stake in what's going on? trump is hurting both parties. trump is hurting everybody, john -- not just the democrats. everybody should have a problem with what trump is doing. when i hearnors people say trump won back down and trump is this and that. he is not a holy.

i have seen several times on nationwide tv like the time trump was at the podium and i forget what state he was in campaigning. one man went to climb on the stage and he would tell people if somebody comes up in her, not them down and i will pay your way. when he turned around and saw that man coming up, just one man, one-on-one, if it hadn't been for the podium, he would have fallen off. if you want to make trump to make out something he's night, you are feeding the monster. back to my first statement, this is a two-party system. if everything is on the democrats, why are we paying mitch mcconnell and all of those republicans thousands of dollars per year to do nothing to blame the democrats? this is everybody's fault. trump doesn't hate immigrants. i say that because he's married

-- because he married two of them. he just hates the dark ones. his kids are parasite immigrants so we need to get straight with trump. he is not what america has tried to make him. he's a big nothing and he's not getting away, he's getting by. his day is coming so it wish people when the, these shows would say it's everybody's problem, not just the democrats. host: thank you for calling, let's hear from our guests. there are concerns in the white house that this vitriol will completely stop progress on legislative issues? there are things they want to get done. guest: that's a good question. we don't know what will happen in the president's main legislation is the renegotiated nafta. that's a legislation that has a

chance. toomore it becomes difficult for the parties to work together and the more it becomes too difficult for democrats to work with trump, that's a danger for him. to getek, he needs spending and debt ceiling issues resolved to avoid risk of default of the country. track.oks to be on things can always fall off track and we have seen that. i think there are issues and we need to make sure that as much as they are playing for 2020 right now that they don't completely make it to toxic for democrats to work with. take us up to congress and the posture of the democratic leaders. how are they balancing with their hearing from the president and what some are saying back but also the need to move forward with legislation and balancing talk of impeachment? take us through the mindset of the democrats? what a lot of people view

as racist tweets from last week have been incredibly unifying for democrats. they are in a somewhat better spot than i have been. underneath the surface is this tension between the group that wholeheartedly wants to impeach president trump and the group led by nancy pelosi thinks this would be an absolute disaster for the democratic party. offill take democrats ewyes the ball. they want to improve people's health care, lower pharmaceutical prices, and the youership is terrified that risk undercutting yourself by losing the election. this headline in the washington times -- gives a preview of what that meeting might be like. guest: things have been fairly tense as i'm sure you and your viewers know between aoc and nancy pelosi. pelosi has given an interview tomorrow in doubt where she says

they have their public whatever and they are on twitter but so what? backas furiously fired that the public whatever is called public sentiment and it's how you affect things in congress. they will just have to have some kind of rapprochement between the two sides of democrats are going to be able to proceed forward and not get caught up in their internal politics. host: dave in rochester, michigan, democratic caller, good morning. caller: good morning of thank you. i'm curious what church journalists or panel thanks -- i'm curious about what your journalists or panelists think about the upcoming hearing. will they mention the people and trump's orbit that made contact with the russians? one thing that interest me and i asked my republican friends, when paul manafort gave the of then information

battleground states with the russian agent, if that is not called collusion, what was that? is that being neighborly? these kind of interactions between people and trump's orbit and i hope they focus on that. they lied about it whenever first question so to me it's for interesting what was going on there. do you think they will cover that? guest: i think you raise a very big point of what we can expect with this testimony. there is no impeachment recommendation that there were individual pieces that may be troubling to people and there were efforts by the trump campaign to capitalize on some of those things that russians were doing including some of them perhaps unknowing, retreating tweets.

some of the more specifically like trying to keep tabs on what was going on and roger stone becomes an important character in all of this. i think democrats will try to highlight that and the fact there actually were enticements that pre-suit of the report that were related to russia and members of the trump campaign being involved in activities that got them in trouble with the law. guest: the caller hit on something that a lot of democrats are really concerned about, the episode in which paul manafort shared polling data with the russians. a lot of democrats of privately said that if that's not collusion, what is? in the area of the house intelligence committee which is volumeo be focused on one of the report, the portion that deals with russian interference. the caller shall look for that question to come up there. host: that's the second of the two hearings? guest: yes and it begins roughly

at noon. host: house judiciary begins at 8:30 a.m. and will go a few hours and take a short rack and -- it -- take a short break and come back with the house intelligence committee. watch all here on the c-span networks. john from orlando, thank you for waiting, republican caller. are you there? caller: yes. host: go ahead, sir. [indiscernible] you have palu see and schumer talk about -- you have pelosi and schumer talk about calling him a racist post up he has given more to the naacp and all this than any other person i have seen. why is it always the media out malign trump about everything? host: why do you think that is?

caller: they hate trump. host: the media hates trump. how do you keep objective in this reporting about everything going on? trying to do just our job. i know that sounds like something we sail up but it's true. there is a lot to cover. he gives us a lot to cover. we don't write the tweets and we -- we are reporting on how people respond to them and certainly many people responded to the tweets at the rally, believing they were either racist or inciting racism and whether or not the president , where he fits in that spectrum is another question. we certainly cover it and it's newsworthy when the president says these kind of things. hughes, let's talk about the emerging budget deals in recent days.

we know the spending limits and the debt ceiling are two of the biggest issues that they want to hammer out soon. what is the latest on the negotiations. post" "the washington came out with a report that we are close to a deal on budget caps and raising the debt ceiling. we have not been able to report that ourselves so i cannot give you details on that except to say that it looks from the tone that we are on track to have something by the end of the week. were multiple calls between nancy pelosi and treasury secretary steven mnuchin over the weekend and talking is always a good sign. host: what is the likely outcome? it may include few if any spending cuts. guest: that's a problem for republicans. there was a message appealing to donald trump saying that we have a problem with spending cuts in

many to get the budget under control. standing posture of that committee so there is an asterisk and am waiting to see how that plays out. deal and then a pulled back and change his mind and i don't know how that shakes out. host: the predatory's the white house and the president? guest: there is a debate within the white house how far to push justpending cuts versus getting it done. steven mnuchin is on the getting it done side but mick mulvaney, a former budget hawk in congress who is the acting chief of staff has advocated for more spending cuts. he has been unsuccessful so far while working for trump in getting a lot of budget cutting. it is been more of an administration that is not as concerned about the deficit so that's an area where the president campaign is a deficit hawk but also campaigned as somebody wanted to spend more money on the military and

veterans and want to give tax cuts come all these things make it difficult to also be a deficit hawk. so far the president's inclination is been to get it done and get past this. talkingti-deficit is a point you don't usually get penalized at the polls for it. host: there is that headline. we did hear over the weekend that the present said there will be cuts in his second term, maybe not now. how is that likely to sit with his republican colleagues? which ones.pends so far, they have not been willing to cross this president. to the point why the senate is not going after the president which is republican-controlled controlled as they are not willing to cross him. who have been bigger critics of this president are mostly gone.

we have seen over and over again that even if there are issues where they may have stood on one side before he became president, they are following his lead and especially on the budget. host: a half hour left with our guests -- hughes.rman and siobhna from is on the line caller: georgia. good morning. we have chuck on the line. caller: the hearings will be wednesday. who will watch them? i believe it will be the people who have their minds made up. everybody else is on vacation. the country is in great shape. people are making a lot of money. democrats want to run the country down. i don't understand it. we are in good shape. there are no wars going on. all the democrats talk about is how bad things are.

good grief. host: that being said, are you going to watch? caller: actually, no. i'm going to head to the beach. i won't be watching this. host: beach, barbecues, summer, nobody cares. siobhan hughes, is that sentiment correct? guest: that is certainly something democrats are worried about. a lot of democrats think they will have a wide viewership, but chuck is not wrong in that democrats could be talking only to their own base. guest: i guess we are the only one carrying the mueller report to the beach with us. i think that is a serious issue. i think that is one of the reasons you see a lot of attempts to make moments at these hearings, because they know most people are not watching them gavel-to-gavel. they may be seeing highlights later, so people are trying to create highlights. that is so much of what we are

doing now and politics. they just want highlights and viral moments. i think that is what they will attempt to do. some people may not even see the highlights because of the beach. i wish i was going to the beach with you, check. --chuck. host: you can listen to the hearings as well. they start wednesday at 8:30 in the morning. the house judiciary committee goes first. the intelligence committee we expect in the early afternoon. this wednesday. brighton, massachusetts, you are on the air. caller: good morning, c-span. i don't think a lot of people will watch these hearings. they will see highlights in the democrat election ads. i would like a reporter to ask some representatives to take back their intense rhetoric about the detention facilities as concentration camps. there was just an attempted

terrorist attack there. using theers are language democrats are using. shooter tried to shoot up an asylum -- if a shooter tried to shoot up asylum center, it would be in the news for weeks. good to hear from you reporters if they think that is here --fair or thought. host: let's start with noah bierman. guest: it is interesting. trump's rhetoric against the squad has obscured a debate that was internal in the democratic party about how far to go in their own rhetoric on the immigration issue and specifically with a.o.c. using the word "concentration camp" which is a very loaded word. i don't think you will see democrats back away from the criticism overall of the facilities for asylum-seekers

and others at the border because some of the reports out of them have been fairly shocking and showing some fairly difficult conditions and deaths. i think we probably are where we are. host: there is a tweet from the president last night. hastor chuck schumer finally gone to the southern border with democratic senators. this is a great thing, writes the president. nearby, he missed a large group of illegal immigrants trying to enter the united states illegally. some agents were badly injured. they rushed border patrol. based on the comments made by schumer, he must have seen how bad for the border it is. it is not a manufactured crisis. he says he wants to meet. i will set up a meeting asap. siobhan hughes, what would a meeting between the president

and the minority leader look like? guest: it is hard to imagine that sort of meeting would go smoothly. the democrats are very concerned by the quality of life with what they see as subhuman standards of living in those facilities. i am not sure any deal would come out of this. host: any thoughts? guest: yeah. you certainly have had chuck and trump originally dubbed them, they have been interested in meeting with trump, but i think the appetite has shrunk over time particularly when these meetings have been fully televised and they felt the president was using them. i think there would have to be a lot of preconditions before they would agree to do it. and even with preconditions, i think siobhan is right that it might spiral out of control quickly. you: any legislative action

see in the immigration area? guest: at a minimum, there will be a vote on the house floor this week in terms of standards for some of the facilities. that is likely to clear the house. probably not go anywhere in the senate. i expect there will be a lot of conversation on immigration deal and nothing happening. host: leo is in pittsburgh, democratic caller. caller: yes, i want to make a comment on president trump's claim that he loves america. if he loves america so much, why has he embraced china and russia? why has he cheated on his taxes? dodger ifs he a draft he loves america so much? the only reason he claimed he loves america is because he was able to cheat and make millions

of dollars from this country. host: comments from leo. noah bierman, want to take that? guest: that gets to the heart of a lot of difficulty of politics when you try to determine who loves america who does not. that is probably an individual interpretation by the voter. host: let's go to mary in louisiana. hello. caller: i want to tell everybody i used to be a democrat until i found out the truth about them. andnt way back in history saw they brought slaves over here in 1619. i'm going to tell you why they hate trump. the democrats hate trump because for years they had demonized the republican party. they branded them as being racist. a lot of people don't know

because they do not read history. it is like this. reason they hate trump is because trump fights back. he is just like a stallion. he will wear up and kick right back. now i will tell you what is going to happen when trump is out of office. if the democrats ever get the presidency and get the senate back, they are going to destroy this country. they are going to turn this country into venezuela or puerto rico. you can smile, baby, if you want to, but it is like this. the democrats, the only thing they care about is getting into power. i want to make one more statement to all the black people out there who think the democrats care about them. forl are being traded in the south american people.

it is up to you all who you vote for, but i will tell you this. if trump is thrown out of office, this country is going to regret it. host: rob is in missouri, republican caller. go ahead. caller: actually, i called on the democrat line. good morning, everyone. i wanted to ask your guests if they have seen the series " the loudest voice" on showtime. fascinating series. it explains how one network has effectively divided this country against itself, and the rest of the right-wing media as well. the question i have your guests is that greece just went through an election. thery centrist person won prime minister. greece went through a similar crisis like the u.s. with the immigrants and everything.

and the right-wing nationalists coming in and saying we are going to fix it, we are going to kick the immigrants out, and they did not do anything. this guy beat a very populist prime minister and won. sticking to the policies about how he would ask the problem greece is facing with the european union and their relationship with america. the stock to the policies and did not give into the populist -- he stuck to the policies and did not give into the populists. what are your thoughts on that? host: thank you for calling. have either of you seen the series? guest: i have not. host: to the caller's point, is there a comparison to be made between what is happening in greece and what could happen in the u.s.? guest: i think the question you bring up, and i am not as familiar with greek politics.

i know it is often difficult for us to compare our politics on the micro level two european countries where they tend to have slightly different forms of democratic governance. i do think that question democrats are grappling with now that you brought up. do you really want to make this a clearly policy-oriented debate for 2020 or do you want to talk about personality of trump, which we hear from the callers is so polarizing? i think democrats felt in the midterm elections where they were successful that they did well talking about the policies and then being aware voters were certainly aware of trump. and they did not even need to talk about trump. they just knew that voters were aware. we will see this week that equation may not be the same. that is certainly the debate between pelosi, who i think is more toward let's talk about the

policies and leave trump the personality as a player but not the central focus. base of democrats and the is fired up and believes trump needs to be front and center in election. caller was talking about, can the middle rise? one person interesting to me but the republican party did not join the democratic party. he became an independent. he has begun to question the two-party system. republican aides privately will talk about, does there need to be a real lineman? democrats andm of republicans need to be rethought and are we at the beginning of that? dan, hi. noahr: my question is for bierman. my main question is rhetorical. out criminal referrals came

of the robert mueller report? the answer is zero. all right? mike second question is -- my second question is, i am very interested in you. what was your education? "l.a.s it like being an times" reporter at the white house? guest: thanks for asking. i will take your rhetorical question first. there were indictments. they preceded the report. there were many people indicted on a variety of issues related to the investigation. an "l.a.at to be times" reporter covering the white house. i am not from los angeles although i have family there and have gone there a number of times. i guess it speaks to the broad interest we have in the federal government and specifically this president. we have about 20 people here for

the "los angeles times" working as reporters and editors and covering every aspect of the government. we are fully committed to that. is very important that we get a broad array of outlets with different interests. we have different interests coming from the west, some of the water and environmental issues that impact our region specifically. , wejust like anybody else are all interested in what is going on in washington. as much as we are talking about disunity in the country, i think there is a unified interesting what happens in washington for sure. host: noah bierman educated at duke university. he has worked for "the boston globe" and the "miami herald." we are also talking with siobhan hughes. prior to working at the "wall street journal," worked at "gq."

cbs news reminds us a vote is coming in the senate tomorrow on the 9/11 victims compensation fund. it was quite a path getting to this final vote. bring us up to speed on where they are and how they got there. guest: it is looking like the senate will vote probably tomorrow on making permanent the 9/11 victims compensation fund. people, maylot of be an estimated 90,001st responders, but also a lot of other people who inhaled contaminants at the site. a lot of people remember jon stewart coming to the judiciary committee and raking the committee over the calls for the poor attendance at the hearing. that probably propelled a lot of the impetus behind the movement. the bill passed the house. likely to pass the senate this week. host: rand paul put up a blog of sorts last week.

why and how do they get past that? guest: rand paul put up a blog on budgetary grounds. he decided the fund needed to be paid for in some way. this caused a huge uproar. it looks like republicans may offer him some type of amendment vote. for this is an instance when mitch mcconnell would be willing to burn up for time. host: senate vote tomorrow on c-span2. you can watch it live. leaders willtani be at the white house visiting the president. here is a headline in "washington times." "meeting outcome uncertain." what are the goals? guest: white house officials are downplaying any potential for a breakthrough or news with this meeting. i think they have described it as a getting to hear each other out meeting. getprime minister wants to in better graces with this

president. but there is still a lot of concern from the united states about cooperation on terrorism, on afghanistan. that has been a long-standing issue with pakistan that has gone back and forth. host: what else does the president have on his agenda this week? we willhe big thing probably see the most from is a rally wednesday to counter whatever happens in the mueller hearing. interestingly enough, last wednesday's rally which tended to be the news of the week because of the "send her back" chants was originally scheduled because mueller was supposed to testify that day and got moved back. to rally is there for the president to have a chance to say his piece. discordy, the level of right now made these rallies even more rollicking and more of

a chance to go off the rails as they did last week. host: had her details about where the rally might be? guest: scheduled for west virginia. a colleague of mine will be there. read the los angeles times wednesday night or thursday morning, you will find out what happened. host: got it. back to the hill. the senate will vote this week on a new defense secretary. who is he and what does he bring to the table? guest: he is mark esper. what he brings is an actual defense secretary at a time when there is a lot of turmoil around the world. the u.s. almost intervened militarily in iran. you do need somebody at the top making decisions. host: noah bierman, how does mr. esper fit into the picture at the administration? guest: this is the longest we have gone in our history not having a full-time defense secretary. i think he is going to be

confirmed largely on that basis. democrats and republicans want somebody there. last week, we had more tensions with iran and continue to have hotspots around the world. withve not had somebody full confidence of the president and senate which is strikingly important in that position. and so, i think with the white house, i think they realize they have had a little bit of trouble with her last nominee so they are happy to have somebody likely to be confirmed. lara in washington, republican caller. caller: good morning. my concern listening to the reporters is that there are a lot of facts being lobbed around. for example, regarding the

russia/mueller thing. is a proven thing there was false evidence brought by obama, clinton, and the rest of them. those are facts. that is not an opinion. concern right now is the four -- whatever they are called -- the group. those people ascribe to an ideology that has 27 million black african slaves owned by country, muslim countries. that is not 150 years ago. that is now. where are the democrats leading us to? i have to ask that question. guest: i have to interject. if we are going to talk about facts, let's not accuse these

congresspeople of owning black slaves -- owning slaves. one of the congresspeople was born in somalia. they have never owned slaves and have not advocated owning slaves. i don't think we want to go down those roads. guest: this is one of the things happening. republicans consciously made a decision to focus in on the four members of the squad. as the face of the democratic party and trying to focus on the fact they are socialists. they are also people of color. instead of focusing on policy, we have started to veer into questions of race and identity riskare very personal and

taking us down the road of violence. host: robert is calling from virginia. good morning. caller: good morning. i got a little off track listening to that. i have been calling for the past six months. i'm going back to the budget. have you looked in seeing what whatresident -- and seeing the president has done since they pulled out of the nuclear deal? he is trying to bankrupt this country. from the time they pulled out of the nuclear deal, it was katie bar the door. he started spending our money like it was his own personal stash. he did not want any investigation. the more money you could spend out of our pockets, the more he likes it. for six months now, he has set us up for bankruptcy. he has already planned this war before he even got started. he already knows what is going to happen.

inhas to set up a war different parts of the world. do you know how much money that will take the fight a war on two continents? war on theing a south of the border war. he is putting millions of dollars into that. his wall, he likes to spend money on that. he likes to spend our money like it is his own. he can spend his own money, not mine. guest: i am not sure i am as confident as you that the president was to wage war. i think you're talking about iran weather has been tension. i think he is very skeptical. there could be more provocations. there could be strikes. the president pulled back from launching a strike against iran last time by his accounting. he is not eager to be

involved in a war, whatever complaints you might have about his governance. at this point, he has not been someone eager about getting the military involved overseas. dan from north carolina, a republican. caller: i want to thank you for the program. sometimes you get long-winded people on here. i will try to be -- considering the mueller circus, it is going to be going on tomorrow. i intend to watch it. i think anybody that is expecting anything significant to come out of it is going to be very disappointed. i think what we are going to is a big firm fight between the democrats and republicans on the committee, just like we did at the

kavanaugh debacle. i think what we will hear more is, "mr.hing else " and "pointobject of order" and all those other andlistic phrases i everything. it will be sort of entertaining but i don't think much will be resolved. what siobhan hughes, wil will you be looking for? will this be easy to watch? guest: the format is we toggle back and forth between republicans and democrats. it will be hard to stick to a cohesive narrative. as soon as you get to one moment, you will be dragged back out as another party focuses on their own interest. it will require active involvement by the viewers. host: as we run short of time,

we will have time for a couple more calls. i want to look ahead further. siobhan hughes, the obvious break is coming for the house. the senate will be in part of next week. what us to the want to accomplish before they go out for august? guest: the big one is the caps and spending deal. if the country does not raise the debt limit, it literally runs out of the credit it needs to keep operating. and say mark esper is the other say mark- i would esper is the other big one. democrats have been doing these domestic votes because they would like to say here is what we are trying to accomplish for you. mitch mcconnell wants to confirm as many judges as he can because he has an agenda of reshaping the courts. that is part of the message he takes out with him in august. with the towns hall meetings, there seems to be one thing. do you see one thing emerging? guest: i think trump is such a

dominant figure and the tweets aimed at the squad, it is hard to see how that does not dominate the entire new cycle. host: noah bierman, what does the month of august look like for the president? guest: he likes to spend a couple of weeks in new jersey. i think we will probably see that. hopefully for him, the weather will cool off a little bit. i think that is the main thing. later in august, he will be going to the g7 in france. that will be a big international stage. the g7 before, he had quite a few clashes with allies and it dominated any of the official business that was supposed to happen on the conference. host: let's get the final calls in for our guests. patricia from iowa, independent caller, thank you for waiting. caller: good morning.

about to say one thing the mueller testimony is the truth and that is what we are after. president trump sucks so much oxygen out of the room that we are not talking about his cabinet and what is going on. temporary ore 14 acting heads of departments. out why theind security clearances were approved by him and what they were about. what really concerns me is the 30,000 regulations that were repealed. on thate things going never get talked about like a pesticide that will kill bees they are trying to get, about people losing their jobs, scientists, because they have 30

days to move to kansas city or somewhere from washington. he is doing things that never get talked about on tv because we are so busy talking about him. host: let's hear from our guests. guest: this is exactly what democrats are contending with at this wednesday's mueller hearing. there are so many things happening on open cabinets. we need a replacement for alexander acosta. it looks like they have found their man, but it is one more story line. guest: i think the caller is right on this. there is a lot that gets ignored. the instability in the cabinet is a big deal. presidentvented the from getting a lot of his agenda done because there are not people loyal to him at the top of some of these agencies so you tend to centralize things in the white house. they can write executive orders.

put who will -- but who will execute the executive orders? a lot of them are open-ended because they do not have the power of law behind them. host: let's go to tennessee, democratic caller. wondering, do not ay know this is democrat or republican problem. right now, we are dealing with an american problem. i remember when obama had come in. there were a lot of things that needed fixing. he tried to fix them. the senate would not approve anything he was doing. now that we have trump in there and they are approving the same things obama wanted to approve, i am wondering, do anybody realize no one wants to be in a place where they have to ask for help. everybody wants to be able to reach their full potential. we did not break the glass ceiling with hillary clinton,

whowe did with donald trump is letting capitalism sink through the cracks. now the problem before obama came in is even greater. how is that? people are not paying attention to what this country needs. it needs people to work. i'm really tired of hearing that. host: that was our final call. we have time for one last comment from our guests. let's start with siobhan hughes. guest: the big thing i am focused on is the mueller report and seeing whether or not some of the dramatic details can actually be translated into a made-for-tv movie. host: noah bierman? guest: i agree with that analysis. i also am interested to see what the president might do to try to distract attention from that testimony. we saw last week, he is fully

capable of doing that. we just don't know how or when it might happen. host: noah bierman and siobhan hughes, thanks to both of you for your time and insights this monday morning. we have one hour left in this monday edition of "washington journal." when we come back, we will talk about renewed tensions between the u.s. and iran with benjamin friedman, policy director for defense priorities. and we will take more of your calls. you are watching "washington journal." we will be right back. host[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] discuss thewe will role venture capitalists play in startup companies. >> members of the founding team

often have a powerpoint presentation so they generally often have not built a product at this point in time. it is an opportunity to tell us about their expensive vision for the company. how big can the market opportunity be? what could this look like in scale? why is this team the right team to go after that? it is a very fun, intellectual process by which we get to learn all kinds of new, interesting things and be able to make a decision about whether this is a team we should back for that opportunity. >> tonight at 8:00 on "the communicators" on c-span2. >> if you want more information on members of congress, order c-span's congressional directory available online. robert mueller testifies to congress on wednesday about

possible obstruction of justice and abuse of power by president trump and russian interference in the 2016 presidential election. our live coverage starts at 8:30 a.m. eastern on c-span3, online at c-span.org, or listen wherever you are with the free c-span radio app. before the hearing, listen to the complete mueller report at c-span.org. audio" atler report the top of the page. in c-span's three presidential leadership surveys taken between 2000 and 2017, woodrow wilson dropped to 11th place and bill clinton rises to the 15th spot. where does your favorite president rank? learn that and more about the lives and leaderships of the executives. it is great vacation reading

available wherever books are c-span.org/the presidents. >> "washington journal" continues. host: our guest is benjamin friedman, policy director for defense priorities. thank you for joining us. what is defense priorities? guest: it is a think tank that realist advance more policy in the united states. it is nonpartisan and we are focused on u.s. wars and maybe ending a couple of them. host: we asked you on to talk specifically about iran. there are any number of headlines this morning we can talk about. here's one from the bbc talking about the tanker seizure. prime minister theresa may is chairing a security meeting on the crisis. remind us what happened with this british tanker. guest: the iranians, we think in response to u.s. economic pressure, have been doing

things, including harassing and now it seems seizing oil tankers, now this british oil tanker. it is notable it is a british-owned tanker because the british recently seized, as part of sanctions enforcement on iran, an iranian oil ship which the british and united states claim was headed to syria to sell oil violating sanctions. iranians deny that. it seems this may have been a tit-for-tat thing. host: put this in the broader context with the renewed tensions involving the u.s. and iran. guest: it seems like desperate times for the iranians. their economy, because of the sanctions -- largely because of u.s. sanctions which make it impossible for a lot of european companies to buy oil and finance iran, in a run -- in their economy has gone into recession.

it has lost 4% of gdp in the last year. their currency has declined 30% over the last year. they have massive inflation, 40%. they are looking for may be a way out of that to create a wedge between the trump administration and some of our allies to get out from under the sanctions. times"financial editorial makes the point that take her dispute is not only britain's problem. a firm response needed without damaging diplomatic efforts. how does that get accomplished? guest: hard to say. the british are not nearly as enthusiastic about the sanctions as the united states. they might have been doing it just at the behest of the united states. but now, they are the ones that have gotten a tanker seized. hopefully there can be a deal worked out on the side quietly where they release the iranian ship they have any iranians release there is in return. host: our guest is benjamin

friedman, a graduate of dartmouth, working on a phd now and has written a couple of books on foreign policy issues. the phone numbers at the bottom of the screen for our guests. we'll get your calls as soon as they start coming in for mr. friedman. we are going to take a look at mark esper. he is going to become the new defense secretary, provided the senate votes its approval tomorrow or sometime this week we think it is happening. here is a look at what he had to set the senate armed services committee confirmation hearing about iran. [video clip] >> secretary of defense robert gates reportedly made the following statement. an attack on iran, in my opinion, would be a catastrophe. it dramatically worsened the

situation elsewhere. it is hard to overestimate. do you agree with mr. gates assessment? >> i agree we do not want war with iran. we are not seeking more. we need to get back on a diplomatic channel. >> that raises the obvious question. how do we take steps that would mitigate possible escalation leading to kinetic activity? how do you do that? >> a couple of things. we try to foreclose the opportunity for miscalculation and misunderstanding by that iing a concept understand we have set up a meeting to brief this committee on soon called operation sentinel where we do passive patrolling in the strait of hormuz and the persian gulf to deter any provocative acts. at the same time, from the highest levels, we are said we will meet anytime, anywhere, without precondition, to discuss

issues with the iranians to get assigned diplomatic half -- on a -- to get us on a diplomatic half. -- path. host: d.c. conflict potentially happening? what is the best way to avoid it? guest: given the news, we are at substantial risk of a war with iran, either because of a blowup in the strait of hormuz or because the trump administration decides iran's violations of the iran deal are unacceptable and they decide to bomb. there are certainly people in the trump administration that would like to do that. we have sort of pushed him on into this corner where it is not clear how we get out of the situation other than stopping. it does not seem there's a lot of desire in the united states for relaxation of sanctions which the iranians say would cause them to go back into the iran deal and serve its limits

even though the united states has left the deal. host: what would be your advice to the administration? guest: secondary sanctions on our allies are bad because they upset a lot of major powers around the world. our european allies. if we were to relax sanctions on iranian oil sales, the iranians have been clear that they would go back to observing the limits in the iran deal. that would sort of defuse the crisis. we have been sending troops to saudi arabia, 1000 announced over the weekend, and i think that is a bad idea. as soon to be secretary esper said, they could be targeted. exactly senator reid that said troops -- it was actually senator reid that the troops could be targeted. why would we want to send troops into a place where they are likely to be sparked for a conflict instead of preventing

it? host: how would you rate the president's approach? >guest: i think it has been a slide toward disaster. luckily, it is not too late to arrest it. a way to deal with iran in a way that is not a referendum on what we think of their policies. we need to do what is in the american interest. producing have been everything people in the trump administration say they do not want. they are making a small movement toward nuclear weapons. they have not ended their support for extremist groups. we have empowered hard-liners in iran because people do not like being pushed around by the united states. and we have caused them to make zero concessions on this long list the united states has asked for concessions on. i think a more conciliatory approach might help cut a deal. host: dan in ohio, republican

caller for benjamin friedman. caller: thank you for taking my call. i think we don't need to go to war with iran. the iranian people do not want to go to war with the united states. they are turning away from extremism and the people controlling the nation. they had democracy demonstrations that were shutdown brutally. i was watching "the 700 club" a while back and heard there is a revival going on among the people by the tens of thousands converted to christianity in home churches. it is illegal there, but i heard it was thousands of people. i think the lord jesus will change iran before anybody else does. i don't think we should go to war with them. it would cost us lives, blood,

treasure. i respect the president for trying to get away from it. i know there are neocons and defense contractors and people who are lusting for war, but let's keep our nation out of this debacle. thank you. host: ben friedman? guest: i suppose i should have said before that president trump, when he canceled strikes, does not seem to want a war with iran compared to some of his aides. he has these policies that have gotten us to this point. he does not seem to have any way or idea right now how to exit the impasse other than a war with some of his -- which some of his advisors seem to want. john bolton has advocated it in

public for years. if the president does not want a war, we need different policies. iran, like the united states, has politics. we cannot control what happens in iran, but we can do things to try to not hurt the people who want to cut deals with us and and the hardliners -- pressuring them helps the hardliners. host: what assets have recently been put into that area? guest: we've set a couple thousand troops to the region. we said we were deploying about 2000 troops in two iterations a month or so ago. i am not sure it is totally new troops. the government was vague about where they were going. now we said we are sending 1000 ground troops to saudi arabia. we have the point some naval assets -- we have deployed some naval assets to the region. most likely scenario is an

airstrike and a strike coming from u.s. ships. host: but at the same time, we heard mark esper say we are ready to talk without precondition. what do the iranians think about that proposal? guest: if you look at it from the iranian perspective, the iranians cut a deal with the united states and the international community where they got sanctions released and send money back and agreed to give up their nuclear program for at least 15 years. the united states canceled the check on them. they did not get the benefits they thought they would get. europeans could not stop there sanctions because their companies were threatened into compliance. it is hard to see how the iranians, having complied with the deal and having the rug pulled out from under them,

would feel great about going back into another deal. however, i think they want economic relief so they are willing to agree to some limited thing where they say we will not enrich past limits and get sanctions relieved. that is doable. a big deal is not going to happen. host: democratic caller from virginia. caller: good morning. is showing how powerful it could act. as an observer, i can tell you iran have the right to seize the u.k. tanker. they won't trust us ever again to talk things through because agreement.led the the main thing i called to at thisis what we need time with such tensions in the

who iseast and iran showing how easily it could seize our ally's tanker is a well educated president with apport.litical r all you can do is insult different people -- all he can do is insult different people. thank you for taking my call. guest: it is hard for any president now to negotiate with the iranians for the reasons i was giving. it is hard for them to trust the united states. this administration has had difficulty cutting deals with anyone, despite all of the talk about making deals, including the north koreans. there is room for a lot of skepticism about what can be accomplished. focusing on doing minimal things to avoid war right now is a good place to start. we can take it from there and see if we want to expand to missiles and controlling iranian

activity in other places. i think we have had a fixation in the united states for years with iran as this great evil actor. medium-sized. they do some bad things. we don't want them to have nuclear weapons. they are not nazi germany or the soviet union that we need to be obsessed with an station troops to control them. when he said they had every right to seize the tanker, what is he saying? guest: from a legal perspective, that is not true. as far as we know, the tanker was in international waters which the iranians dispute. they don't have the right to seize it. it is a violation of international law. i think the caller, speaking from fairness, says iran was complying a net you are seizing our oil shipments which we need

to make money. maybe from that perspective, one could argue it is fair. from a strictly legal perspective, it is a violation of the british neutral shipping rights it appears. host: these headlines from the last couple of hours. arresting 17 and sentencing some to death. they are saying they have arrested some of their own for being u.s. spies. what is your take on the headline? guest: it is scary and tragic 17 would be arrested and some they say will be executed. it is also not a great surprise. the cia and probably other foreign intelligence services are active in iran in recruiting iranians to find out what is going on. i don't know anything about the specifics of what these people are accused of, but it is certainly not shocking the cia is spying. host: president trump responding with this tweet saying the report of iran capturing cia

.pies is totally false geteconomy is dead and will much worse. aubrey in virginia, democratic caller. you are on with benjamin friedman. caller: one of the problems i of is our own lack historical perspective on this business with iran. we go back to the history of u.s.-iran relations as far back as 1979 with the hostage crisis. but they are looking back at least to the 1950's when we .ntervened one thing i have not understood and have not heard anything mentioned or give any commentary schism andunni/shia

how much that is influencing what is going on in the middle east. we continue to give donald trump a pass on his incompetent foreign policy that for the most part seems to be motivated by an anti-obama fixation. but in the meantime, we are ground we what little have gained on having a normal relationship with the iranians. and that is not even get into the politics of israeli influence on this whole business. we, as americans, need to start becoming more educated in foreign policy rather than sitting around listening to propaganda from fox news and similar sources.

things i'm really interested in is how much the area-shia schism in that is influencing things. not how we look at it but how people in the region actually look at it. host: thank you for your question. let's hear from our guest. guest: iranians have been giving rebels ino the hutu shia.which are the recognized government of yemen are sunni and backed by the united arab emirates. earlier in the civil war had a similar breakdown where is backed byime them. at one point, the rebels were

funded by a lot of gulf money and so forth, sunni islam countries. a lot of the tension in the region reflects that schism. it is not the only schism. s" arealism and other "ism also important. i don't think we should limit things to just the sectarian schism. the united states has stayed close to saudi arabia. the trump administration refused to cut off support for the war in yemen over congress' objections largely based on the khashoggi murder which is attributed to the saudi's. i think we don't need to be great friends with the saudis anymore, we can have a more normal, distant relationship with them like we have with most countries rather than being close to them. we don't need to be on the iranian or saudi side. we can be on our own site and take a more distant approach. europeans are almost

universally opposed to the united states party actions in terms of leaving the iran deal and reissuing sanctions and the maximum pressure approach we have taken. the russians are opposed, the chinese, japanese, almost everyone as opposed to it except israel, the saudis, and probably the united arab emirates. there are about three countries in the world that support what we are doing with the wrong -- with iran. we are going far too alienate some of our closest allies with these policies. host: north carolina, independent caller. caller: i hope you're both doing well. i heard an interview the other night with the foreign minister from iran. he said when the united states is whates, the policy

is mine is mine and what is yours is negotiable. is not theout iran one who has backed out of not just this agreement but the climate change agreement, trade agreements, and so on. the point was raised earlier, and i am walking so i apologize for the breathing, i am walking uphill. thatoint was made earlier any president would have trouble negotiating with iran because iran does not trust us. i think the way to solve that is to be trustworthy. the answer to the caller before ought to acknowledge that. thank you. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] benjamin friedman -- host: benjamin friedman. guest: one wants to be

trustworthy and have other nations see u.s. trustworthy. people observing the u.s. system would have to have trouble cutting a deal with the democratic president given the other party is likely to undercut it. maybe the north koreans can trust the democrats on the deal trump cuts with them because they know democrats tend to be more dovish. clearly, you can never trust the united states entirely because it is so powerful and we have a contested political system. i think that is one reason why the north koreans will not give up nuclear weapons. it is sort of an insurance policy. we are giving the iranians some incentive to say maybe we should have put a couple weapons in stores before we negotiated with the united states. look what it did for the north koreans. host: you mentioned internal discussions in the u.s. take us to tehran, what are the political dynamics like

currently? guest: i am not an expert on what is going on in iran. the foreign minister was just in new york and is a very articulate guy on twitter and speaks greek english. i think he presents well for the iranian regime. he is not the face necessarily of the iranian revolutionary guards who have become more powerful and controlling of the economy. they have the supreme leader who seems to give a lot of rope to the revolutionary guard to do more provocative things. it seems to oversimplify that you have a moderate faction president rouhani and you people in the irgc with permission from the supreme leader that are more hawkish and more aligned in a strange way with the hardliners in the united states who were against the deal in the first place and criticized are high for cutting it -- rouhani for

cutting it. host: a couple more calls. plenty to your reaction to this lead story in "the washington post" today. they are saying state militants who escaped the defeat earlier this year have been slipping across the border bolstering low-level insurgency waged across the central and northern part of the country. they are talking about 1000 fighters crossing back into iraq. what is that mean? guest: it is not surprising some isis presents would reemerge, particularly in iraq. there has been a lot of journalism warning about the possibility. it is obviously a negative development for the united states, but we still have troops and we haver 5000,

been working with iraqi government forces to go after isis. i hope the iraqi government can take the lead in dealing with the problem of isis and not totally alienating population of that part of iraq, in large parts of the united states can finally leave and not be told we have to stay there forever because of isis or whatever the new problem is. host: our guest has been benjamin friedman, policy director for defense priorities. thank you for your time and insight. we are going to take your calls in a couple of minutes about the presidency, the country. can any presidential candidate unite the country? we will return to the theme of the first hour of the program. can any presidential candidate unite the country? we will get back to your calls on that topic in several minutes

because we are going to take you live to the u.s. supreme the u., where you can see live pictures as the police officers will be serving as pallbearers, bringing the casket of the late justice john paul stevens out of the hearse into the supreme court. and into thethere great hall, where he will lying in repose following a private ceremony later this morning. so we will sit and look at the pictures now. we will be back in a few minutes.

host: john paul stevens died last week of a stroke in florida at age 99. we have been watching the casket of the justice arriving at the supreme court, being brought now into the great hall. supreme court police officers as pallbearers. former law clerks are serving as honorary pallbearers. what will happen now is a short ceremony inside of the great hall. the casket will be placed on the which is often, used for large events like this. of justicertrait stevens will be on display in the great hall as well. if you turn to c-span2 today comedian watch the rest of this activity in -- today, you can watch the rest of this activity in the supreme court. we will have full coverage of

the ceremony that is about to begin, then the public and dignitaries will come and they will pay their respects. we will show all of that live from the great hall of the court today over on c-span2, before the senate comes in at 3:00 p.m. eastern time today. what we will do for these last 20 or 25 minutes is get back to that question that we asked this morning, can any presidential candidate unite the country? here are the numbers. democrats call 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. .ndependents, 202-748-8002 we are asking because of this commentary piece in the hell, it caught our attention. inwrites, no presidential -- the hill. it caught her attention. he writes coming no residential

candidate can unite the country. one writer saying, calls for a presidential candidate who can bring the country together wrongly assumes a candidate can will do such power. presidents rarely unite the country. when they do, it is often in the face of crises, like foreign attacks or other national tragedies. such unity requires a leader eager to lead, and a populace eager to follow. it demands a national dialogue in which americans across ideologies and experiences can be dissipate. these days, no national dialogue can connect america as a splintered factions. that is at least his opinion. we took a good hour of because of this morning on this topic. mixed opinions. we will go back to calls on this now. wayne in new york, thank you for waiting. go ahead. caller: i do not think the democrats have anybody that can do that. i think donald trump is doing a good job. he has been under so much

harassment it is unbelievable how anybody can focus on being president, when all of this time is spent -- i mean, the attorney general in my state alone, he is not even a person who has any he isuge background, following the governor inslee to investigate trump and all of his dealings in new york. host: what do you make about the criticism of the president? is any of it justified? are you still there? what about all the creases in -- what about all the criticism of the president, is any of it justified? caller: i could understand the way that he speaks sometimes, but i do not think it is in direct or aimed directly at people. democrats have said terrible things about this country. but they also say that their constituents, i do not see how they can say that they are

against israel and all those other things. it is crazy, i never heard such things before. host: linda is calling from illinois, a democratic caller. what do you think, is there anybody out there who can unite the country? caller: i doubt that. i think our country is far too gone for anything to come back. i think that just like the caller said, it is he said and she said. can't we all get along as americans? it will take a major national disaster or human disaster to make americans come together again. host: linda, some have made that point, but then they also make the point that once the disaster fades away, everybody goes back to their corners. is that true? caller: no, i do not think so. i think we should get rid of everybody on both sides, because they have been in washington for too long. put term limits on the senators

and congressmen for 80 years and be done with this. the next generation will take care of this. eight years and be done with this. the next generation will take care of this. host: what would term limits accomplish? caller: no career politicians anymore. let the next generation, who has better ideas and more education, come up and figure out how we can get back to where we were at one point in time. there was no politician that could ever speak of the things that the president is speaking of, none whatsoever could have done that. but now it has gotten into such a cesspool that not even people in the world even like us. my daughter-in-law went to asland last year and as soon they found out they were americans, the entire bar walked out. they all assume that we believe what donald trump believes. that is not so.

there are things that will happen, our word in our credibility is nothing anymore. host: ok, moving on to robert in lynchburg, virginia. good morning. caller: good morning, everybody. that person just said that nobody will be able tonight the country against donald trump. the governor, they are going nuts. and mitch mcconnell is not doing anything because his wife works for this president. and all of them are going to hell. they will gain the world and lose their souls. they are following trump. you can't believe what i am saying. thank you for taking -- can believe what i'm saying. thank you for taking my call. host: dee from ohio, go ahead. caller: i was told that america

would fall from within and i never could understand how that could happen, until now. when we threw god out, we threw america out. we will never be united. we were one nation under god, and when we done away with god, we done away with america. for those people that call and complain about israel, the bible says you come against israel and he will be cursed. so they better watch out what they want. they might get it. caller from ohio, there. we will get to your calls for the next 15 minutes as we wrap up the program. an article in the hill about whether a candidate can unite the country, the writer says, "the unite the country crowd is well meaning. some are two independents embracing a balanced approach to governing that puts a sound

policy about politics. the solutions and vacuums are not solutions. yearning for the idyllic is not a strategy. we are a nation of two-pronged anger. this is not the worst it has a ribbon. -- not the worst it has ever been." in today's climate, he writes, "shared mistrust and disdain permeates political and social structures. brain core among elected officials is on the rise. media personality stoke outrage. --ilies are being torn about torn apart, emotionally and physically in the cities and suburbs across the country." ill.com to to the h read that article. this is from a longtime observer of this process. now. at duke he has worked on capitol hill and elsewhere. charles is in bethlehem, pennsylvania. good morning. caller: i think donald trump

could get the world united, it is just the democrats will not give him a chance. every time, they are fighting him from tooth and nail to tooth now. you cannot do this. they have to come together. host: what did you make of the president's tweets yesterday where he fired back at the four women of congress. it,headline, if i can find says the president is pouring more fuel on the feud with these female democrats. here is the headline. what do you make of that? caller: well, it is hard to say. -- damneded if you do if you do and damned if you don't. it is not right for her to say that it is in the benjamin's against the jewish party. i do not believe what she did, she fueled the fire as well. all of them. host: ok, charles, thank you for

calling. here is the tweet from yesterday morning, starting a new round of back and forth. congress women are not capable of loving our country. they should apologize for the hateful things they have said. they are destroying the democratic party. they can never destroy our great nation." james from mississippi on the line. hello, good morning. caller: bear with me a little bit, i have been watching all morning. listen to me real good. you said, you can bring the country together? it is women. it is time for women to stand up and fight for what they want. i am tired of republican women and democratic women, and independent lumen -- women listening to these people in the holding, ornate and not holding the president not for the good

things, but for the negative things. women are the most valuable thing right now in 2020, and we are going on right now. every woman who is a politician, every woman who is a mother, every woman who is working -- it is the women that need to step up. when you divide women from women with these statements, venue try to -- you know what you do? you destroy this country. it is up to the women to stand up now and hold these men on both sides, because the president has never repented. he has never repented. host: james, one moment. let me ask, you speak about the women, are there any fema candidates running that are -- female candidates running that should be good in this area? caller: there is one of them -- every last one of them can do better. i am saying this, that if they women do not hold -- stop

letting men divide you. this is politics and the republican party in the senate, they have no backbone. they challenged president barack obama for eight long years, they called him all kinds of names. they never gave him any kind of praise for what he did . so now, women, please -- listen to me. when a man has not repented of his sins, with evangelicals he is all right. that is good enough for me. host: let's get some other voices in. we have linda from pennsylvania. caller: good morning, can you hear me? host: yes. caller: i agree with the gentleman apart from mississippi. i agree with his viewpoint on women. i cannotecond thing -- afford a smart phone or smart tv

or a computer, so i am technologically isolated. however, with your question about any presidential candidate uniting the country, i think it boils down to legislation. nothing is getting done. all of your callers are saying nothing is getting done. and i truly believe in my heart that since mitch mcconnell is up for reelection, he is the one who does not bring any kind of legislation that he does not approve of. he does not bring it to the table. and the last thing, because there are so many things -- i am terrified for my country. do believe that you cannot legislate character or honor or integrity. you either have it or you don't. and i certainly hope things change. but right now, i do not see any

candidate reuniting this country. ama democrat to my soul -- am democrat to my soul and i truly believe if the democrats want to nominate a woman, i believe they should get behind elizabeth warren. that would not be my choice, but the majority of rules. that is really -- i am able to journal" and ion have access to other news media, but not nearly as much as other people. that is all i had to say. host: thank you. to north carolina, it is david. what would you like to say this morning? caller: good morning. personal make a observation and i will try to be brief. when president obama was elected, i was glad in a way because i really thought we had hope for the united states, for the population to be united.

all along racial lines, if nothing else. what concerned me is the transformation of the country. then we heard, you know, for the first four years we heard about race. he brought it up a lot. then after four years, i was pretty sure that he was making a lot of mileage. topic,n it comes to that there is a little bit of asymmetrical political warfare. because they are allowed to talk about color and race as much as are want, but conservatives generally uncomfortable talking about race. trumper -- when president was elected, by that time there was -- the divisions were thick. i noticed it in a number of places. and the country was polarized by the time that president trump was winning the general

election. to the point that i told my kids in less than a year that the president, or the democrats, would successfully blame trump for all the divisions in the country. and they have managed to do that quite well. i think that he was elected as the result of divisions and from a reactionary movement with the constant use of race and things like that. it is an example, the squad, they set themselves up as a group based on being female and nonwhite. that is what unites them, that is their purpose, so if anybody disagrees on them on anything, therefore they must be a racist. and at is illogical. so it is part of the asymmetry in political warfare that we see. i really think that there is a very strong movement for a permanent democratic voting block, and i do not think anything is going to stop them if anybody gets in their way.

they will have to answer the question about which candidate could unite the country - -i think -- i think if you examine the current president's actual words, you will find little or nothing at all racist in there . nobody will agree with that on the left, but if you just look at the words, i think if it was not for a strong desire to transition the country into a socialist nation, i actually think if trump could go to finishing school and quit tweeting, he could have a chance, along with may be more help with uniting the nation. host: thank you for calling. the writer of that piece goes on to write, he wrote this and it was published on july 18. he says the answer to all of this might be "a threat to our party, our two-party system in this country." he writes, "it could come in the form of a third party movement,

or if the democratic or republican party loses enough power for a sufficient amount of time, it will face its own existential crisis, change or die. the latter scenario would force the party to transform its ideals, and it would mean competing for more of the other parties voters, instead of branding them as un-american. it would create opportunities for both parties to champion the same causes, fostering more collaboration. there are no quick and easy answers to this question, how can we bring this country together? nobody, not even a perfect candidate can undo what continues to be done. the sooner america understands this, the sooner we can look inward and take personal response about it for our role in this war against hate." hill.rds of b.j. in the brad is calling from kentucky. go ahead. our currentong as state of our political economy is made above denominations of

division, i do not expect any candidate, whether they wanted to or not, would be able to unite the country. as the question was asked. host: anything else, brad? caller: i am not sure if uniting the country is what the goal is. i do not think it is a top-down -- it is easy to say that the government, nancy pelosi, donald of the- it is the spirit american people that has grown -- it starts at home. it starts at home with our family, friends and neighborhoods. if we can unite and grow back together there, things will work up. until then -- host: ok, thank you. jack from ohio. what would you like to say, can any candidate unite the country? caller: yes, joe biden. he gets a raw deal because of his age.

presidents west have had were older men. i do not think they are treating him right at all. the man has great experience. and insight. host: you think he can win the nomination? caller: absolutely. lynn from texas. good morning. caller: good morning, sir. i will answer that question. but first i want to identify myself. i am a vietnam veteran. that the guyeve who called in, he is said that the ladies could change the direction of the country it is going in before another civil war starts. if things do not change, that will happen. or those who believe the

country is going this way, that is where the war will start. that is the way it was when i was in vietnam in the 1960's. america pushed their way into that country. that is how i feel. host: time for a couple more calls, but we want to take a look at pew research. they did a poll on these issues and came up with a headline, americans essay the political debate has grown more toxic and heated rhetoric could lead to violence. they have several pieces of the ball -- poll, saying that a large majority of americans are saying that the nature of debates has become more negative. they say that donald trump is a major factor, and people's view, about the state of political discourse. they write a majority of americans have strong feelings about what is acceptable for elected officials to say in debates. they say that americans broadly agree that elected officials

should avoid using heated language, because it could encourage violence. they say that republicans believe the national climate for political discourse is more hospitable to democrats than the gop, and they also said most americans say there is no consensus in the public on what constitutes racist or sexist language. you can see the details, who they spoke with and percentages at pew research.org. we have herby on the line from mississippi. welcome. caller: good morning, i have two points. two part solution is you willto go ahead and there have to be social programs. they will have to become sellionaires in order -- becau in america, it takes money to have freedom and justice. this people are due freedom because they have worked harder than anybody else in america to help america obtain

where we are. women, youask why speak about white women. they gather with black women and talk about women's rights, but their problem is they do not want women's rights because they are benefiting from the white males being the ones who have all the money. their children and everybody is benefiting from it. so we need to get rid of this two party system and bring, we will have to take care of black people and making them the wealthiest people in america, because they have paid the biggest dues. white women will really have to stand up for women's rights, and they should be standing up with those black women right now. the republican party is nothing but a bunch of old white men and they -- in america, majority rules. that is what we need as a social program. we need a social program for black people to unite ourselves and make ourselves the richest people in america. host: we will move on to annamarie in georgia.

good morning. caller: yes, good morning and thank you for taking my call. i would like america to know about seth moulton. i think that he is a third term congressman from massachusetts. he is witty, he is smart. i think that he would be a great candidate up there on the stage. unfortunately, the democratic party wants to make this about money, who has the most money, to make it onto the stage. but i am going to support him and i think he would make a great candidate. host: ok, that was our last call. the house is out of session today. 3:00enate is in session at p.m., watch it live on c-span2. they will take one of the final votes on secretary esper. they will take a procedural vote later today. on this program tomorrow, we will look ahead to the robert mueller hearings, which will happen on wednesday.

first on the house judiciary committee, then in the house intelligence committee. we will have several guests tomorrow focusing on different aspects of the report. we will also hear from another journalist, a biography of the former special counsel the former fbi director, robert mueller. we hope you enjoy your monday. we will see you back here tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. for "washington journal." take care. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] announcer: on this monday, the u.s. will resume debate on the nomination of mark esper to be u.s. defense secretary. a confirmation vote is expected tomorrow.