staffer sebastian gorka discusses campaign 2020 and president trump's reelection strategy. you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. "washington journal" is next. host: good morning. it is sunday, september 15. one of the hearings we covered this past week on c-span took a look at the government's role in helping family affordability. what could the government do to help make raising a family more affordable? bet should government's role if any in helping family affordability? the plenty of ideas on the hill circulating. democrats call (202) 748-8000. republicans (202) 748-8001.

independents (202) 748-8002. if not by phone, you can use your phone to give us a text. 748-8003. comment ono post a social media. you can post a comment on facebook. we look forward to hearing from you. here is an article we found recently that starts to highlight all of this. can policy make it more affordable to have a family? they write that the annual american family survey has been released recently. it suggests that while most americans considered cultural concerns the most important problem facing families, they now see economic concerns the most pressing issue.

not surprising that young couples report having fewer children than they would like for economic reasons. last year, a morning consul parents said they expected to have fewer children than they considered ideal. three of the primary reasons were child killed expenses, financial instability, -- childcare expenses, financial instability, and the general state of the economy. families need to raise about a dollars,f a million $233,000 it costs to raise a child from birth to age 17. that is not included college or advanced education. intobreak up the costs three income ranges.

$233,000 for those on the lower end of the income scale. those making under 59 required an average of $174,000 to raise a child. those making in the highest $372,000 on spent raising a child. a lot of money out there and a lot of policy ideas. back-and-forth between republican congressman darren lahood of illinois asking the cato institute's ryan board if raising a child has become too expensive. [video clip] >> arguably we live in one of the most prosperous times historically, and yet many people claim having children is too expensive. can any of you talk a little bit about what is going on and some

of the reasons for that? bourne. >> i think we have to split this issue into thinking about how people exist with the costs they face today and changing expectations overtime. i agree with what mr. stone said earlier. if you look at the broad trends upcosts over time and bundle that basket of goods, the affordability of raising a family on fixed expectations of what you want to get or provide for your children in most areas and for most families has not gone up. over time, people's expectations rise about what they want to deliver for their children. you want to invest in afterschool clubs and activities. you want to provide them with the best childcare available. spentount families has

has risen. that is not to say policy does not play a role in raising prices from a more market friendly economy. much of my research has been attempting to show that in key markets that occupy large segments of family budgets, child care and housing, there are regulatory barriers which restrict suppliers of new goods, such that when demand rises for child care or housing, there is not an adequate supply response. host: that was from the joint economic committee hearing this past week. you can watch that on c-span.org. 3:50 easternit at today on this network. we will show you the entire hearing. as we begin to take the calls,

democrats call (202) 748-8000. republicans (202) 748-8001. independents (202) 748-8002. social media, we will take your comments. thatan text something new we have been trying out lately. keep it fairly brief if you can. (202) 748-8003. there are some policy items out there right now. many policy discussions on capitol hill. two of the main ideas out there, republican backed proposals would allow workers to dip into their own social security benefits in exchange for time off after the birth of a new child for adoption. another allows for tax exemption for personal parental savings accounts.

employerting a new payroll tax allowing workers to tap into for a variety of needs. call, is up, first republican. welcome to the program. caller: thank you. i think people in the government could get together. whatever president trump is saying was said by senator schumer in 2009 at the georgetown university center. it is exactly the same that senator schumer said then. then it was right. now it is wrong. host: are you making a connection between immigration and family affordability? caller: absolutely. people coming here illegally is going to cost someone something. nothing is for nothing. it is impossible.

the policies are exactly the same. it is a different person producing the policies. host: thank you. got the point. brian from illinois. independent color. caller: good morning. something i have noticed recently that both parties and the media do is they conflate illegitimate child birth, unmarried women having children, and they called and families. they are not. they are just a woman who got pregnant and had a baby, and they cannot afford to live. you look at the african-american immunity, it is 80%. that number is rising for all races. that used to be considered shameful behavior. note is considered no big deal. the media does not want to point that out. i wish you would have a demographer on some time and help the american people understand how rapidly human population is growing.

it is a huge aspect to this problem. host: anything else you want to add? caller: that is it for now. host: we will continue to take your calls on family affordability. facebook, writes on how about they stay out of their lives? federalls, not the handle these affairs. the federal government is way too involved in our day-to-day lives. alan from north carolina. good morning. caller: i certainly agree with the last caller. government is way too involved. look at child care, it is a desperate need everywhere. it used to be where you could go down the street, old residential was turned into commercial. it is impossible for someone to open a daycare. right now in asheville, impossible. you would not believe the

roadblocks. the person just bought a building to provide child care, really wants to do it. it is one thing after another. the city gets in the way. the state gets in the way. host: what kind of other answers are out there to make things more affordable? a quarter of a million dollars to raise a child. caller: i have four, and i paid for four tuitions. who did that? not many. i worked hard. i was blessed. i was not a rich guy. i started in a camper trailer. i worked hard. is thetom line government is in the way. 10 years old, i am running around. pickup baseball. everything needs to be supervised. kids don't play baseball in the fields. they are empty unless there is

adult supervision. kids used to go out and play. adult supervision costs money. everything they do now has to be supervised. afterschool programs have to be supervised. everything costs money. soccer, go around and kick a ball. no way. you have adult supervision involved. the government is in the way of everything. it is not a healthy environment. they cannot solve their own problems. going back to childcare. huge issue, government is too involved. of course it has to be monitored. it has gone too far where it is impossible. no one is going to get rich opening a daycare center. host: alan from north carolina. a social media comment from marlene, how about they let us keep the money we make, and we

would have plenty to live on? they waste most of what they take from us on golf trips and other stupid stuff. chris writes, the government's role should be to provide whatever services it can more cost effectively than the private sector. here is another passage from that hearing on the joint economic committee. moms rising about problems facing childcare. [video clip] >> when we talk about lack of affordable childcare, we don't mind speaking to -- i am a cosponsor of the childcare for working families act, which will create high-quality childcare options all year round. what are some of the proposals we should push forward that are most needed? >> thank you.

cosponsor.or being a it is an act that over a million members of moms rising support. we hear from our members about three key areas of crisis. there is affordability, accessibility, which 50% of parents are living in childcare deserts. no matter how much money they have, they could not find childcare. we really need high-quality early learning programs to make sure every child has the opportunity to thrive. that is where we see our strongest return on investment. we need to make investments starting from zero to age five. we are seeing incredible gaps in coverage. we need access to paid family medical leave. we need subsidized childcare.

needs a career and wage letter for childcare workers, who are among the lowest paid workers in our country. then we need to have universal pre-k. we need a whole system that includes the education of our children. parents need safe spaces for the children to be so they can work. parents are increasingly in the labor force. childcare workers need fair pay. one point people were talking about a moment ago was increased productivity in the united states. while productivity has gone up 70% in the past 30 years, actual wages have remained stagnant. host: we are taking your calls this morning on governments role in helping family affordability. do you think government has a role?

what do you think that role should be? carol is calling on our republican line. caller: good morning. i was thinking this morning how in the old days people like ben franklin's mother had 16 children, and there was no tofare and absolutely no one help any mothers, including mine, who was a single mother, not by choice. today, we have to pay people to take care of our children. i was the mother of four children. i enjoyed staying home with them. i loved playing with them. all of a sudden, they were gone. i am now a great-grandmother. looking back, i wish i had more time to spend with them even though i did have time. riod of my life, i had to go to work i had the college degree, but i prefer to stay home.

when they got older, i did go to work. they do take you older. you can always go to work. maybe mothers today prefer to go to work, but i don't think so. i see a lot of them that would rather stay home, but they cannot afford it. they have to actually look around. raise youreone else children in day care doesn't make sense to me. i think that is the reason why people are not having more children. you don't get to take care of them anyway. you come home, and you have to cook and put on different hats. it is just not the same. i feel very badly for moms today. host: alan is calling from arizona. does government have a role in helping families afford raising a family and if so what should

it be? caller: thank you for c-span. carol is saying the same thoughts i am. i have been in business for 32 years. i can tell you this particular discussion has to be changed to include all americans. is, this is what i want to bring up and see you have a discussion about, lowering the cost of living for every american. we used to get statistics on how to lower the cost of having. what carol -- of living. what carol brought up is a parent who wants to have more children cannot afford it. how do we lower the cost of living for every american? host: how do you do that? caller: huh?

host: how do you do that? caller: the simple fact is what affects us are many thing. the driving effect is the energy side of our lives. when we get gasoline down to $ 1.50 a gallon throughout the whole country, it affects every person. you see what i am saying? the second thing is to take the 287 departments in the federal government and get it down to about 50. care of this $22 trillion deficit and to eliminate it. by eliminating the federal departments that are not needed that are multiple people handing out trillions of dollars every year, and we say we don't have enough money to take care of ourselves it is because the cost the government

is driving the cost of living through the roof. host: thank you. more of your calls in a moment. where you live in the country matters in terms of the cost. the cost of of living have to do with where you live? they do say the most expensive region of the country to raise a child is the urban northeast. northeast includes connecticut, maine, massachusetts, new jersey, new york, pennsylvania, rhode -- vermont.

second is urban areas of the western region. areas according to the usda as places with a population under 2500 outside a mature area have the lowest cost. income married to parent families in rural areas average $193,000 to raise a child. hello, albert. caller: good morning. i just wanted to address that one fellow who brought up the thinkt of wedlock birth in african-american communities. that is great that he brought up a figure. my point is, where did he concretely get this figure?

it seems like people just throw out these numbers to prove their point, and the numbers are meaningless because there is no verification of these numbers. it is basically a racist statement in my opinion. host: move us forward to your own thoughts on governments role on family affordability? what do you think? caller: in all the time i have been married since the reagan administration, it seems like my father came to a different country from europe to america. he was illiterate. he made every one of his nine kids have some college. he bought a house. that is impossible these days. wages are stagnant. today's government is total baloney. they are justifying themselves. it is a total waste of money and time. everything that is being done

now is going to have to be amended to get us back to where we were before the clown took presidency. host: thank you for calling. let's move onto massachusetts, democratic caller luther. what you make of this question this morning? caller: i would like to thank the previous gentleman of pointing out the racism of the issue of the 80% that cannot be verified. i would like to contradict the gentleman who talked about who would try to get rich by doing childcare. two children that are raising children in child care, fortunents are paying a . lots of people would like to go into that to make a fortune.

that carol, benjamin franklin times are gone. we must look at the conditions of our times and meet them. interest to best enable parents to take care of their children, to enable parents to provide for their education and development. there was a time when mom and grandma could take care of the child and send them to school. as a first involved grade teacher, third grade teacher, and she taught kindergarten for a while. she said the kindergartners who came in the best prepared were the ones in preschool. this was 40 years ago. you know it is necessary now. we need to become adults. .ace the facts we need to look at the cost.

we need to help people with the cost and time. it would be nice if we could bring down the cost of living. to $1.50e going to get a gallon gas? is someone going to come down with a magic wand and create gas that we can pay for only $1.50 when last night i paid -- what was it? $4 something. let's get real. let's look at the problems, address them so that we can all move forward. host: that is luther from massachusetts. john writes on twitter, and governments role is to grow the economy, for citizens to have a job to raise a family, and president trump is accomplishing

this. the family medical leave act is one of the big actions the government has taken. it is the only federal policy in the u.s. that guarantees time off for childbirth and illness. it lets workers take up to 12 weeks off work without fear of losing their jobs. the law does not care and t payment, and 40% of workers -- does not guarantee payment, and 40% of workers do not qualify. talking about the benefits of paid family leave. [video clip] >> i wanted to ask you a little expand onif you could how paid family leave impacts the presence of fathers and other caregivers in the life of

a child and what impacts come from that. paid family medical leave is a win-win-win. that one of those policies makes you want to give it a standing ovation. accesswhen parents have to paid family leave, dad's take the family leave as well. we see the wage gaps between women and men and moms and dads go down. parity, 50% ofy children would be brought out of poverty, our gdp would be increased by 3%, and we would add more than $500 billion into our economy. making sure dad has time with children helps moms rise. most other countries have some form of paid family leave except the u.s.

some have found that having dads have access to paid family leave is so beneficial for the whole economy because when women have money to spend and are making the majority of our consumer purchasing decisions, and 70% of our economy is based on consumer purchasing, we all do better. when we have this wage gap, we do worse overall. these countries that have had paid family medical leave in place offer a bonus package if the dad takes leave. the family will get an additional amount of paid family medical leave. other things about this policy, and i love this policy, we see that businesses are helped out with retention, productivity, and they have lower retraining costs. taxpayers are helped out. in some states like california, we can see there is a 40% lower tanf.or snap and

people have that bridge cost. having access to paid family leave at a crucial time is important. that was kristin rowe finkbeiner of the group moms rising. you can watch this any time at c-span.org. it will also be on tv on this network later today at 10 minutes to 4:00 p.m. eastern time. helping family affordability costs the taxpayer nothing compared to helping retired people by pontoon boats and go on alaska vacations. let's go to steve. steve is in ohio, republican caller. i am a 72-year-old male,

and i think the government needs to stay out of this as far as helping these people. having a family is a burden. i have never had children. i have no grandchildren. i'm so glad i never did. i have family members who cannot take care of their kids or grandkids. they want the government to get in. they want food stamps. it is ridiculous. i'm glad i never had any children. get out.overnment be responsible. take care of your family. if you cannot take care of three kids, don't have three children. host: harry, you're on the air. caller: thank you, sir. thank you for c-span. good morning, everybody. this is going to take just a minute. of need to have a sort historical perspective on this from my point of view. my parents started having my dad

fresh out of the war, started building a family in 1948. my father worked, my mother stayed home. my mother had a college degree, she stayed home and raised for kids, and my father worked and paid for it all. able to do it, and at and a nice two cars house in a nice neighborhood. fast-forward to when i was bringing up my kids, this was just before i started a family just before ronald reagan was elected. i'm going to say something's happened to corporate governance , either that or the amount of shame a corporation has about the amount it is willing to pay. either to theened

loss or something else that allowed corporations that allowed them to keep more of their money. it had something to do with stock options. it had something to do with the fact that when reagan was president, corporations used to have to fund their pension plans at 100%. then suddenly only at 20%. they became much more of an extractive kind of thing as far as the way they treated their employees. fast-forward to today. it costs this must have a kid, and yet i lived better on $30,000 a year in 1980 then i can now at 70 or 80. something has happened with the way corporations treat their people. two parents working,

and they still cannot afford it. the 1950's, kid in one of the criticisms of the soviet union was that both parents worked. this is what you heard pundits in the u.s. saying. both parents worked in the soviet union. that means the government has to raise the kids. all of a sudden you have the government pressuring the kids to inform on their parents. we have become the old soviet union, except it is the corporations run the government. they run it for their own benefit. get the point. we have just under 30 minutes left in this first hour of washington journal. we are asking folks about the government's role in helping families affordability.

southwest journal talks more about childcare, which has been part of our theme this morning. childcare is not cheap with the average cost for an infant exceeding $10,000 a year. include schoolot aged care were home-based 40% less ono charge average than day care providers. the ceo of new horizon academy compared childcare centers to educational institutions, saying his costs are higher because they keep their doors open for longer. they are "hours a day. in minnesota, every center-based room must have at least one teacher who meets the states educational and experiential requirement, including some post secondary study in a childcare

related field. requires the center-based provider have one staff person for every four children. lynn hoskins, director in minnesota says that staff is very demanding. just the flavor of what it is like in the childcare area. joe is calling from michigan. democrat. hello. caller: good morning. i am an educator. i think we have an inverted system of value used on people as commodities. $7,800igan, schools get a year to educate the students. on the backside of that, we

spend 50 grand to incarcerate a person. if we were to come up with a program where we had education from three-year-old to 20-year-old to give people a skilled trade. and the at kalamazoo kalamazoo promise where there are some investors, and people have invested in that community, when you start telling people when you go to college, not if you go to college. i know it sounds like even in europe and the socialized places that will upset people, parents of paid to stay home, 95% their wage, look at their data compared to ours, their education system, it is about the whole kid.

as long as we continue to commodified the system like your previous caller was alluding to, even in the sense of the babyife movement, once the is born, that movement gives up on the kids. where would we be if they were to take some of that energy after the child was born? i think we are inverted. as long as we continue to treat people like commodities, i see where i am. there is truth to the school to prison pipeline. a lot of this stuff starts early. we talked a lot of things about this country and how we want freedoms and all that, and it is to get our kids prepared to come to school. a lot of these things are generational.

preparing parents to be successful. thank you for your thoughts. i want to hear from janine in kentucky. caller: good morning. i have a few points to make. the cost of childcare, one reason it is expensive is liability. insurance costs are exorbitant because people sue if anything goes wrong with their kid. i understand why they sue. i'm saying we have to think about that in terms of childcare providers, what we expect from them. the other thing i wanted to talk about was we have to decide in this country who we want to take toddlers,fants, kindergartners, elementary school kids because the requirements are different for care at each stage of

development. there are european countries that say we need to increase our birthright. we need more children, and so if a woman has over three or four children, they do not pay any tax. if we graduate our tax rates to coincide how many children the family is raising, that is something government could do that they would keep out of our personal life that would lower the cost of having the children. that is what i wanted to say. host: thank you for calling. about a livingow wage? congress comes back into session this week. the house is out tomorrow. they will come back tuesday. take up a continuing resolution to fund the

government the on the deadline on september 30. band-aid to get them deeper into the year, into november or december. look for a continuing resolution on the house floor. corey lewandowski on the hill this week, new nominee for labor secretary. we have new coverage coming up tomorrow at 7:00. elizabeth warren from massachusetts will be in washington square park in new york city to talk about the condition here in washington, d.c. -- at 9:00 eastern time, president trump will have a rally in new mexico, a state he lost about nine points last time around.

double-header of political coverage. we have maria on the line now. good morning. caller: good morning. i agree with several of your viewers saying it is the cost of living. it is not just the cost of living that is keeping the millennials from having babies. you have to realize their childhood was not that great. their childhood was institutionalized childcare where they were forced to get up at 6:00 the morning, pulled out into the cold, and driven to a , really uncaring day care for nine hours. i don't believe in this universal pre-k because they don't allow a three-year-old to go one or two days a week. you have to bring your kid at

8:30 the morning until 5:00 at night five days a week. our children are being forced to handle adult schedules at age three. they are not getting a childhood. likeare being treated commodities. institutionalized pre-k and medical leave is not going to lower our costs of living. reforming medicaid. i wanted three children. three children i wanted. i only got one. why? i cannot afford three. on medicaidn pregnant with her third child. i cannot afford a third child, but she can with my tax dollars. , don'tare on medicaid have another child, or get

kicked off. if you are going to buy a house want one, you will get one, start saving now. thank you for calling in this morning. 20 of other news this morning catching up on the big story out of saudi arabia. smoke pouring from the saudi aramco facility after the attack on saturday. the headline says secretary of state mike pompeo is pointing to iran. this is photo from the story of the black smoke of the oil burning. the story says a drone attack when to buy the yemen who the rebels. risking the risk of a disruption in the world oil supply.

they're saying in saudi arabia half of its production capacity may be impacted by this. there is lots of speculation thisthey're saying in saudi araa half of its production weekend s and gas prices. the wall street journal writes that the oil attack is unlikely to affect the u.s. economy. the drone strikes would likely have a limited direct effect on the economy, but could result in higher gas prices. impact of the attacks remains unknown. analysts say the u.s. economy is very different from the 1970's when surging oil prices tipped the economy into recession. they point out that u.s. energy companies genetically ramp-up reduction in this country using new techniques like fracking. they are making the point that maybe prices will not go up as much as we think in the u.s..

lots of talk on this coming this week. patrick is on the line, back to our question on the government's role in helping family affordability. caller: good morning. when you look at the covenant from governments such as france and germany, it is absolutely stunning the difference in how the social systems support the families, support the mechanisms of childcare. my friend, whose son just had a ,aby, between him and his wife have a total year to care for and foster this newborn child and are able to do it without the enormous stress of what your

previous caller was conveying about the aspect of having to warehouse american infants in childcare that is unbelievably cost prohibitive. this is a declaration of war on the american people by a corporate oligarchy that has established a foundation that is now reaching a point where they are attacking the ability of the american people to exchange in verbal discourse via social media. a leading representative of the google has just come out and and we are now taking authoritarian position when it comes to free speech on all social network constructs.

when you look at the totality of this, you are seeing a framework of absolute tyranny in this country. takemerican people need to an approach like the french people who are saying enough is enough. you see french people in the streets every day. it has gotten so bad that the french government has used bullets. blind 24.alled the 24 people have been blinded. people around the country have had it with this insanity. thanks a lot for calling from pennsylvania. a reminder about some of the big policy proposals out there in congress. from republicans would have workers get into social security benefits, delaying retirement in exchange for time off after the birth of a child or adoption. another allows for tax exemptions for personal savings accounts.

the democratic sponsored bill would create a new employer and employee tax. we will see how far those proposals go. the idea of using social security benefits came up at that joint economic committee. here is republican senator mike lee of utah. about this idea of drawing forward social security benefits. [video clip] >> at the end of your testimony, you say that our laws should communicate to the citizens that we as a society see parenting as worthy, dignified, and important work. opinion, what our laws do a better job of communicating that message if we allowed parents to draw forward social security benefits following the

birth of a child so mothers and fathers alike can access their own savings at such a pivotal moment? >> absolutely. i share the view expressed by several people on this panel that having our lack of any is aion for leave time serious issue, and having the option to do it in a way that is not inhibiting a mother's odds of being hired because when you waste the bill onto a company, the the is diminished hiring of mothers. if you pay for it out of public coffers, you have difficulty with passing the bill due to where is the money going to come from? doing it in a way that is budget neutral is a great improvement over what we have now in terms of communicating to parents and

to potential parents that society is with them on this. you are not doing this work alone. host: st. louis. what do you think the government's role should be in helping family of order ability -- affordability? caller: i am 70. i understand the problem. you have to know what the problem is to solve it. the federal government, and i mean both parties. that is the worst thing you could do, dip into social security. they are crazy. the federal government, and i mean both parties, they caused the problem. now they have to solve the problem. it is all because the rich fund campaigns. they control everything behind the scenes. they are like the puppeteer.

jobse have to work more because of the bad trade deals. visas. immigration, h-1b the rich are always searching the globe for cheaper labor. they cannot afford health insurance and day care. host: do you have children and perhaps grandchildren? caller: i do. host: what is the role of the extended family? that was a question that the committee. they have some, but the government has created these problems. dollar tax trillion cut for all of his rich republican contributors, and now the working class has to pay that off. unless you really deal with this

problem of how the campaigns are funded, nobody has a chance. to tom steyer or bernie sanders. they understand this. they talk about it. the national debt is getting bigger and bigger. we should not have to pay for a trillion dollar tax cut for rich republican contributors. that money could go for a number of things. they could really help people. host: thank you for calling. let's go back to another clip from that joint economic committee hearing. this is the democratic senator from new mexico talking to chain will hold the about the role of extended families in childcare. [video clip] >> one of the other challenges we have in my state, and i think this is an issue across the mexico, more than 10% of children are being raised by grandparents.

extended families have been an incredibly important part of our culture and represent a significant asset to all of our communities. what should we be looking at within the federal government sure that as make we are supporting families, we are not just thinking about mothers and fathers, especially in those cases where another family member is the direct care provider? >> it is a really important question. citingtistics i was about 40% of workers having some , thater paid family leave pertains to parents who are entitled to these programs. grandparents are often boxed out entirely. the grandparents are not even in the lottery because they are

categorically ruled out. it is heartbreaking as you hear these grandparents who have taken on these grandchildren and are not able to get access to the programs. we need to clean it up. under the fmla and state family paid paid leave laws, there is a lot of debate about who counts as families. we should be including grandparents. denyingould not be those benefits to the child as long as they have a legitimate caregiver. >> exactly. >> many of these people are well into their retirement years and have fixed incomes and have all of the incredible burdens of trying to raise a child and also help them through their education. twitter, l king writes, we can spend billions in

foreign aid and an equal amount helping our own families. down to the last seven minutes or so. joseph from boston, democrat. caller: good morning, c-span. i'm sorry, i called on the democrat line. i am a registered independent. there are many ways of solving the problem. we need to get back to basics because 40 years ago, you need to just one income to take care of a family. now you need to jobs just to survive. of the american workforce was you is. now it is less than 12%. i don't know if you remember daniel patrick manning him talked about the new growth families. comment, he made that

25% of the black family was born out of wedlock. it was 9% for white america. for white america, 72% for black america. workgle black woman has to a full-time job and get health insurance. there is always going to be a problem in the system. they are going to find the weakest link. i was in cuba. health care is free and universal for everyone. the parents could afford to put their children in a government run day care. , it is impossible. in 1970, the average ceo made 20 times more than the average worker.

now the average ceo makes 400 times more than the average worker. peopleto educating the -- we need to educate the people. that's the problem. we can solve this problem. i support, child even though i was a democrat -- support donald trump even though i was a democrat. americans live in poverty. when you are trying to work a regular job with $11 an hour, and you have to pay rent, day care, it is almost impossible. homelessness is at a record high. , 26,000 county

homeless. as a result of the housing have 5of 2008, we million and no one is talking about it. they are not discussing with the need to discuss. host: we get the point. thank you. michigan, republican, it is butch. what would you like to say? caller: mathworks. math always works. all they have to do is do the math. the money is there. american people $31 billion a month to spend. all you have to do is take the phone companies, the cable tv, the internet companies, and the most they can charge you for phone service is 10 bucks. that saves middle-class families.

bucks a month -- families 300 bucks a month. that is a lot of money. that puts money in american pockets. there are other ways to do that. there are plenty of ways they can do the math. math is what works. if these people in congress would just break out a pen and pencil, they can find the money. host: william is in wisconsin. good morning. comments -ust had to - two comments. one of the rules of the government is to protect american society, but the government dropped the ball with regulating wall street. one, i set up a home and obtainedy wife a license to operate.

i wanted to say about regulations, they cover things about is the house safe? is there space for each kid that is going to be cared for, including things like proper sleeping arrangements? you have to keep records for accidents, nutrition. i would rather put my kids in a licensed day care. then a day care that someone set up on their own without any guidance or regulation. host: thanks. william had the last word for this hour. you can watch that joint economic committee hearing on c-span.org. at 3:50 pm today eastern time on c-span. you can hear all the ideas and policy put forth.

when we come back, we will talk with gabriel rubin of the wall street journal on the latest on what is ahead for congress. and we want to let you know about our newsmaker program. we interview the chamber of commerce chief. here is a brief preview. >> have the tariffs gotten to a point where they are offsetting the benefit of the tax cut? >> there have been to aspects to tariffs. the first are the ones that are in place that are already cost. the second is the uncertainty of other tariffs. that's going to be playing out over the next several months.

,f you are running a company it's not just large companies, you are having difficulty planning. you don't know the cost of the goods you are buying to sell to consumers or to put into something that you are making here in the united states. that is thede of being spain opponent -- done in opposition. people have more money in their pockets to spend. if you go to the business side it, you see a downturn in investment. you see manufacturing slipping into a recession. it's not just large companies. we have seen for the last nine months fortune 500 companies concerned about tariffs. companies,midsized

600 employees, it's affecting their business and their ability to plan. the next phase is small businesses and consumers. about isill be worried the uncertainty goes through small business and to consumers. that's a recipe for a recession. we think the next several months are critical. it we can keep the economy growing and wages rising. you can see this whole interview with the chamber of commerce policy cheap -- chief on c-span. you can hear it on c-span radio and watch it online anytime. joining us at the table is gabriel rubin, politics reporter

for the wall street journal. we wanted to take a look at the action here in washington. let's begin with the wall street journal. you wrote, the national security advisor hopefuls are getting an audition. you have a picture here of a gentleman named robert o'brien. what is happening with the search to replace john bolton. fort: these the envoy affairs. he is reported to have a good reputation with president trump. accounts, the president likes the look of him. that is known to the an important criteria for the president when looking for new people to fill roles, he wants them to look the part. he also comes with a very

impressive resume. possibilities5 for the national security advisor job. host: any other names? there have been rumors about mike pompeo filling both roles. that has also been shot down a couple of times. as with many job searches in the white house, we won't be sure until the person is chosen. host: what is the fallout from john bolton's departure? we've been reading about discussions over iran. once the larger story? is thethe larger story clash between the isolationist administration and the neoconservative wing, which

mr. bolton represented. is the are seeing presence tendencies to negotiate with people like kim jong on and other global leaders who have unsavory reputations, that are dictators. the inclination to negotiate with those people is winning out. were also issues over venezuela. mr. bolton advocated the removal of maduro. he remains in power. essentially, there have been numerous clashes between those two opposing wings in the white house. we will see who is the ultimate choice and how they bridge that

gap between the two factions. host: the phone numbers are on the screen. he is the politics reporter for the washington journal. democrats (202) 748-8000. republicans (202) 784-8001. .ndependents (202) 748-8002 just leave your name by city and state. keep your comments relatively brief. we look forward to reading them on the air. we should talk about the strike against the oil installations in saudi arabia. i'm sure that will be a lot of discussion in washington. this is the photo in the washington post today. are claiming they did this. secretary pompeo said there is no real evidence of that. he is blaming iran directly. looking at?u be

guest: what we know so far is this is affecting 6% of the all oil supply. that could have massive impact on the price of oil, that is an issue for any administration. there has been talk of cap it into our strategic reserves. that exists for these sorts of situations. think what secretary pompeo shows is he in the administration you this as an attack by iran on saudi arabia, which marks a significant increase in the conflict in yemen. it will lead to more conversation on the hill. many senators have been very skeptical and opposed to the

u.s. supporting the saudi's in yemen. andy froms go to florida. good morning. caller: given the situation in saudi arabia, i would like to comment on that. i have a little bit of insight. an issue with drones. i'm sure technical people are handling it. i really want to talk about health care. it's my opinion that the system of tying health care to employment is on the verge of failure or on heavy decline it. you expect the decline of the health care system reach a crisis? will beuppose there some accommodation or transition away from employer-based health plans?

host: what would you transition to? caller: much like a national health system in britain or the canadian system. when we talk about the affordable care act, i did some study of the german and british systems. they function quite well. i have a doctor who works on my neck. his father is in canada. he did not wait very long for a knee replacement. i had an equivalent wait time for my knee replacement. host: over on the hill and at the white house, what is the biggest aspect of the health care discussion? guest: one of the things we have to look at is the lawsuit over the affordable care act. this is aer side, major debate in the democratic party.

it consumed the first half hour of the most recent debate. host: this is one of the headlines from that. they are not all on the same place on this. the discussiont was very illuminating. some people made the case that it is not tenable to throw off 100 million people from their employer-based insurance. on the other side of the debate, you had bernie sanders and elizabeth warren say what son tenable is the current system , onlyyou have people tied getting there health care through their employer. what happens when they lose their job? what happens when they change the health insurance they offer?

thator sanders pushed back it's the proper mode of delivery for health insurance. host: where are we now with prescription drug prices? where thes unclear administration's proposal is on that. in terms of the hill, we will see separate proposals. it doesn't seem like we will see significant movement on this before the election. congress, there is a lot of disagreement. host: let's go to our next caller. it's not going to accomplish much on health care with the way the system is set up now.

people are not trying to work together. i was calling because i think it would be a great idea to not only do universal health care, but come up with universal social security where those that are productive to society can dip in and get a certain amount per month. something like andrew yang proposes. people500 a month for who have a job or are in college. host: you mean draw forward on future benefits? pull social security early? when you work, whenever you start to work you pay taxes into the system. withdraw liked andrew yang has proposed, do some sort of sales tax nationally.

trumporm of tariff like has proposed. host: thanks for the participation. yang'sbringing up andrew primary contribution to this primary debate has been bringing the idea of a universal income. idea that is getting some traction among some people. some people think it's not a particularly good idea. at the same time, drawing out of social security as an able-bodied working adult, i'm sure there would be a lot of justack from people because of the solvency of so security being in the question. there on how out to keep it solvent for many

decades to come. many people would say if we start drawing on that too early, it would be a question. host: the president is expected to announce gun control legislation this week. the substance of it is a mystery. guest: there has been some chatter about background checks. there was reporting this week r hasattorney general bar been pushing for it. .hey are negotiating i think while we do not know the proposal, the democrats will leave that does not go far enough. , there hasocrats

been a swift movement towards advocacy of more gun safety measures, more gun control measures. in betoost evident o'rourke's comments during the debate, talking about we will take away your ar-15. that is not the orthodoxy in the party. that is getting a lot more traction in terms of we need to get assault weapons off the streets. host: john is calling from washington dc. about them very upset saudi arabia situation. you've got speculation about oil prices. angry for years because we were told when we got dragged into iraq and some of

the middle eastern wars that there would be a piece dividend. it had to do with oil. and our energy prices. we never got that peace dividend. press oronservative holdsberal press, nobody their feet to the fire regarding whatever happened to the peace dividend. the major producer and major exporter. we don't need saudi arabia anymore technically. global scarcity would affect the picture. is that part of your answer? this president and congress have options come more than they would've had 30 years

ago. in cases like this, more of our , more freedom to use the strategic petroleum reserve. is there a dividend? caller: go ahead. what did you say? host: does that equate to some sort of dividend? caller: it would of the consumers noticed a reduction in cost. we didn't really experience that. home heating, we haven't experienced that. most people are getting a break on home heating my going solar or other types of systems. host: the broader discussion about energy? guest: to the point of the piece dividends, there has to be peace. iraq is not a peaceful place.

it has not been since the start of the war. the larger discussion about seen anwe have explosion in energy production over the past several years. of beingis on the cusp a net exporter of energy. global demand continues to go up. a global economy in the united states. energy prices are affected by the supply in the world. one point the caller made in terms of one way to be more energy independent is to add solar panels on your houses. in terms of energy prices in the global market. host: let's go to bradley in georgia. caller: i was just thinking,

saudi arabia has this thing coming out, it's a state-funded company. upy need the oil price to go to make their initial offering profitable. if you look at who benefits from , it looks like saudi arabia is going to benefit. israel and saudi arabia can use this against donald trump in negotiations with iran. arabia.trust saudi benefits government from what happened. i do not trust saudi arabia. the knockout of millions of barrels of production is not

necessarily good news for them. the point about global oil prices rising does benefit oil prices. host: i want to get back at the gun debate. they are talking about the senate, there is not much legislating. plug the gun debate into the current senate situation. nomination after nomination on the floor. people are getting very impatient, including some republicans. guest: there are a lot of senators who are comfortable with the fact that they are filling a ton of judicial vacancies. they are read shaping the judiciary in a conservative direction for decades to,.

at the same time, they have not done much legislating. people in tossup states, susan collins in maine, make sally in arizona, it would be nice for those folks to have some legislative accomplishments. host: fred is in ohio. go ahead please. to ask thisnt question, i was hung up on. it's the government ever going to a their debt back to social security? host: what concerns you about that? caller: my future kids, someday

when they retire. brief enough. gets back tok that what we were just saying. it's a concern to both sides of the aisle. ofhink there are a lot different ideas. comingan spent some time up with proposals. to there largely related privatization of social security. non-rats would prefer privatization approaches. it'sto make sure that viable going forward. we don't know yet. we don't know what the solution is down the road. raymond is in new york for

gabriel rubin. good morning. can i discuss so security or gun control? host: say whatever you would like or ask a question of our guest. i have a discussion on gun control. as far as gun control, all of to the gunong owners. should focus on the type of

crime of the shooter. they were all mental. law and thered flag should be morek than sufficient. they should look at these mass shootings. how they were caused. one, the shooter ran patrol cars, killed a postal worker. thanks for calling. threediciary marked up

bills. is there any chance of passage in the senate? probably donk they have some chance. we won't know for sure until the white house comes back with their proposal. support from the president and mitch mcconnell are crucial going forward. host: there is a government it septemberine, 30. what is happening this week in congress to avoid that deadline? guest: they will pass a continuing resolution to keep the government open and allow them to negotiate funding levels of existing levels. just politically, i don't think there is much appetite for another shutdown.

the previous one was very costly in terms of money and lyrically. when we had a multi week we are not looking at one of those again. there are a lot of moving parts on the hill. they might decide to is and political interests or in their policy interests. host: john is calling from oregon. go ahead. caller: greetings from the great pacific northwest. good morning. regarding the situation in saudi arabia, this president has been butcher,g this bloody not to mention there doesn't

seem to be a bloody dictator around the world this president doesn't see as some kind of friend. , it's been identified as a humanitarian disaster. this administration has been giving the saudi's a blank check. they are giving arms and munitions to support their campaign rather than finding a way to end the war there. i am a moderate democrat. look with trepidation at the nomination of a progressive to be president. of giving a lot of

i yearnway to people, for a strong moderate to come forward. amy klobuchar is a proven negotiator of bills in the senate. i just think she would be able to make progress work across the aisle which the american people say they want. at some point, we are looking at the result of moderates leaving both the republican and democratic parties in the coming and dependents. i appreciate your answers. think his comments echo a certain segment of the party that is hoping for a more center

left standardbearer. whether that person is amy therehar or joe biden, certainly is appetite for that. there seems to be an appetite ,or a strong progressive someone who moves the party in a leftward direction. supportvident in the for elizabeth warren and bernie sanders. host: can he away from the last debate? guest: the moment everyone was byking about, the comments julian castro about joe biden possibly forgetting what he is set a few minutes earlier. there was some consternation among democrats.

what remains to be seen -- it doesn't open up former vice president to concerns that there should be a newer younger standardbearer for the party. that's a debate that is only just begun. host: we will take one last call from david in tennessee. good morning. what would you like to ask our guest? caller: i want to talk about the piece dividend for the iraq war the caller raised before. war, irunoff to the remember paul wolfowitz saying to congress that the united states would take over the production of oil in iraq and

finance the war from those revenues. that hasn't happened. is $10t of the iraq war trillion. put that in perspective. that is $100,000 per u.s. family. what did paul wolfowitz get? he was made head of the imf. guest: i think it's very clear the debate over the barak war 17 years ago continues to rage. it showed up at the democratic debate, it shows up in comments from the president all the time. our guest has been gabriel

rubin from the wall street journal. thank you for your time and information. we have a busy week ahead. coming up next, the head of the naacp. derrick johnson will talk to us and take your calls about her discrimination and other issues. later, it is sebastian gorka talking about the campaign. we will be right back. you're watching washington journal.

>> monday night on the cochair of the artificial intelligence caucus on the future of artificial intelligence, whether big tech companies need more regulation. lacks if we want to look -- >> if we want to look at business know the department of justice is talking about doing investigations in these companies. it's good to look at this and make sure the companies are behaving. i don't know that breaking companies up is a good idea. they have a lot of employees. it,ou can manage to do there are unintended consequences.

>> today on american history tv, a discussion about shakespeare's influence on u.s. politics. on american artifacts, the norman rockwell museum traveling exhibit. explore our past on american history tv on c-span3. >> washington journal continues. host: our guest is derrick johnson, president of the naacp. thank you for joining us on this sunday. you had a town this week on critical issues. , thef the most critical most high priority issues moving forward? guest: we have members in 47 states and across the country.

we are hearing what are we going to do about the 2020 election. it's not one single issue. it's the process of the elections. african-americans are enthusiastic around engaging in this current landscape. they are concerned about the census project and the possible undercount. host: you testified on voting discrimination. what do you think are the biggest concerns right now in that area? act washe voting rights pretty much got it. we have seen an aggressive reemergence of suppression methods carried out by state and local jurisdictions. the active suppressing african-american votes is an undemocratic process. of section 5, many

individuals would not have been elected to office. what you hear from members at the hearing? what is being done about your concerns? guest: we had one set of members that were concerned as well, the election in 2016 and what we know occurred from a foreign , it's very troubling. we are serious about our democracy. if you can't protect the right to vote. others want have a distracting conversation. really deal with the problem we are facing in this country. host: you have been head of the naacp for two years. he will be taking your calls for the next 40 minutes or so.

let's put up the phone numbers. democrats (202) 748-8000. republicans (202) 784-8001. independents (202) 748-8002. you can send us a text. leave your name, state, brief message. thatll be happy to read text and social media posting. naacp doing to encourage turnout? are infrequent voters? how we communicate with those individuals. -- presidential elections are always a high voter turnout. there is so much more at stake. who are the unlikely individuals to vote. host: who are they? guest: they are rural and urban. they feel a sense of hopelessness or in a they are

often neglected in terms of how the role of government plays out in their lives. these are people who work very hard every day. they have not been provided with the proper education around why it's important to engage in the process. host: has president trump reached out to african-american voters? guest: i have yet to know of a single time where this president has had an audience with african-americans that was not a controlled environment. of a never spoken in front national organization. ,ny time there is an outreach he responded to our request. he did not like the format and did not attend. host: the naacp took a vote.

the unanimously called for impeachment of president trump. guest: what was behind the vote is the anxiety many african-americans across the country are feeling. where we arerocess defining public policy. there is resounding disapproval of his presidency. see the department of justice engage in special counsel to do an independent investigation and as a result , it'she level of findings time for congress to act and open an evidentiary hearing. we have a caller. good morning. -- hello?

host: go ahead please. caller: good morning. republican. i believe in free enterprise. i do have some liberal leanings. i had a question for mr. johnson. i want to know what the naacp is doing for the african-american athletes that helps these colleges make billions of dollars playing football every weekend and they are promised a future pro contract. they are not getting the money. suing so they can't even use their own likeness for social media and to make money. it's just a disgrace. it needs to be abolished.

heard a leader in your position stand up for that. guest: thank you for the call. we agree with your position. we have long had a position that the billions of dollars that colleges and universities are generating as a result of this playersve process, the are in these schools. we disagree with an athlete who goes to a school on a scholarship and may get injured and is unable to play. they lose the scholarship. they make television revenues and endorsements worth billions of dollars. we have long supported not just tweaking but a read doing of how this process is done.

host: this is the voice of a former espn writer. they serve a vital purpose. she has been charged with urging black athletes to attend those colleges. guest: it's a powerful argument. they would have been banned from going to some of the same colleges because of their race. now, they are sought after to generate profit for nonprofit schools. historicalot of black colleges with athletic programs that are underfunded. as a result of that, they cannot participate in this windfall economy that we call college efflux. host: we will get back to calls in a moment. we want to hear from the president who spoke at a conference about his efforts.

quacks in my first weeks in office, i took action to make them a top priority once again. i have signed an executive order to move the federal hbcus initiative to the white house where it belongs. over the past 2.5 years, we have listened and learned from you. we have taken very major action. i signed legislation to increase federal funding for hbcus by a record 13%. that was the highest ever done. when members of the thurgood marshall college fun asked us to for a ban on pell grant's summer classes, i included that change in the budget.

we worked with congress and got it done. host: you said he has made it a top priority. guest: i don't think it's a top priority. the overall budget decreased, that's not a top priority. hbcus,s serious about there are specific things that were requested when they met with him at the white house. there has been very little done. the president of these colleges said this is what we need. we also need to deal with the hit that this has colleges.ly black we need real reform on student loans. as a result of that, these to als are being impacted negative extent.

i don't see this as a top priority. there is a blueprint he has been provided. host: how important are historically black colleges and universities. guest: you have many individuals who were robbed growing up in public school districts because of a lack of will to address the crisis in our public schools. black colleges fill in that gap to allow students to understand their full potential. it is that bridging between where they come from based on the zip code they were born in. mike int's hear from wisconsin. this is an interesting program. i would like to hear mr. johnson's views on -- do you think there has been passed

people in your position who have kind of prejudiced views toward some of our leaders? i don't know the man's name. i remember comments made that were untrue about the second president bush. exactt remember the conflict. know, i enjoyed listening people who are evenhanded in their thinking. i don't know that your past presidents have been that way. i would like to hear your view on that. courtning education, the youlem with poverty, do have any issues in your organization that would address the 3 million less words that a child in poverty here's -- hears

. i live close to chicago. education system in chicago, their lack of work ethic with teachers in the do theychool system, ever address anything like that? with are core problems uplifting everything. it's the same thing in a different culture. the not sees broke down the education of the views. host: let's hear from our guest. guest: thank you. predecessors, if you were talking about president was, the head of the naacp dr. benjamin hooks.

he was an active republican. if you're talking about the second president bush, it was a former congressman who was a democrat. we have members and leaders who have been active in their previous lives for both parties. it is not prejudiced to disagree or have a different point of view. you seet prejudiced if the priorities of this country in a different light. that's why we have different parties. that's why we are a nation of critical thinkers. they can enter the public discourse arena and struggle through solutions. i'm not familiar with any past views of any predecessors that were prejudiced. positions of past

the association. as it relates to education and where we are as an organization, the number one problem with a trueon is we lack political will to reform a system that was built for the early 1900s. education policy is driven by local industry. we have not stepped up to the countries andy understand we are in a global economy. lack of investment in prekindergarten education. no child should be trapped in a reality based on their zip code. the issue of teacher pay is something we must address. the quality of teachers is

really important. , they pay their teachers the value of that profession. will to truly pay teachers. this is not about union versus nonunion. it's about quality. make notld be able to only a livable wage, we should treat teachers at the same level that we treat doctors. they are providing support for our young people. let's hear from and do -- andrew in new york. caller: i have to say that i called the wrong line to start out with. host: which one did you try to call? i should have called the republican line. host: we will let you go

through. caller: good morning. for the lot of money school district up here in rochester. the problem is the teachers aren't allowed to take control of the class. if they get tough with the students, you have lawyers waiting to feast on lawsuits for alleged abuse. i think you are right about teachers getting paid more money. the teachers in rochester get paid a lot of money. we have one of the worst school districts in the united states. i was wondering what you think about the paper ballot for the voting? i think a lot of people are concerned about that. i would like to hear your answer on that. guest: let's start with the

paper ballot. absolutely. we need a process that is transparent and accountable. anytime you have a touchscreen system and the voter cannot verify their vote, there is no way for us to really discern the votes. something we fought for when it was passed for many jurisdictions that use machines, they purchase touchscreens that generated a paper receipt. some of those machines began to malfunction. the companies would encourage them to take the receipt portion off the machine, leaving the voter without an ability to determine whether or not the ballot was cast as intended. there is a tremendous need to out thehow to carry

elections. paying teachers isn't enough. we need to revamp the delivery of public education. we need to elevate the status of the profession. that is something that should be front and center so we can recruit and retain an even higher pool of individuals in that profession. host: from lexington, it is scott. dependent,m in and that's ok. the first thing i want to address, i believe that the system, unions in the when you have all the kids to go , when you are talking

about spelling, math, history, every major subject, only 30% test forthe standard incoming students to go to college. this is choice. it's not public education. public education has destroyed. they don't want to teach math. they want to teach more about gender. guest: it's unfortunate that we go to this distracting conversation. we are facing a crisis in this country of a critical feature shortage. we have more teachers in some states retiring in a given year than entering the profession. that's not the fault of the union. that's the lack of the states to put this profession on a

plateau. we have teachers unions in germany, they don't have the same problems. teachers unions in canada don't have the same problems. we don't value the profession. we don't pay a livable wage. local tax-- based on bases. talentedur most candidates who could be teachers are exiting the profession or not entering it because it's not a viable degree for a quality living. the black unemployment rate has fallen to a record low. recently, they released a report that showed the economy gained 130 thousand jobs. fell to 5.5%.ment

5.5, the overall is 3.7. guest: the question is the quality of jobs. what can we point to doing it? it's great there are more jobs. it's horrible that they don't pay a livable wage. there is nothing to celebrate has doubled inte the greater society. when you drill down to the same numbers, are people still requiring to work two or three jobs just to make ends meet? that's the question we need to be exploring. next call is from houston, texas. caller: besides reparations, i

want to speak up for the prosecution and murder of people in tanzania. we talk about education, a white male high school dropout makes us much as a black woman with a masters degree. we are talking about the façade of education. it's not the issue alone. we are talking about the miseducation of the public. america, overin 77 million americans volunteered in political campaigns or nonprofits.

a volunteer our is around $25. that's what they based the economic contribution on. goes at the rate for your legal services. our morevolunteer laborle then an hour of sectorprivate or public where minimum wages $7.25. guest: it goes to the question, the quality of the jobs the individuals are getting. we have not addressed the issue of minimum wage in many years. $7.25 is not enough. there is a robust campaign around the fight for $15. we have seen record profits of

companies across the country. compensationrecord for heads of companies. we have not seen that trickle down to the average american worker. when you compound that on the history of race, the payback -- pay gap needs to be closed as well. host: here is a text from a viewer in illinois. guest: the greatest threat to the black community is the greatest threat to america, the subversion of our democracy. live up tooing to the dream, we have to have a true representative government were voters can purchase a paid at a level in which they know their intent is registered properly and would not be suppressed by outside forces.

host: we saw another democratic presidential debate. areh of those speakers speaking most clearly to the naacp? guest: we do not support and i tell all the candidates, speak to the issues. if you speak to the issue, then your message can resonate. the destruction of attacking one another were attacking the person in the white house is not speaking to the issues. we need to meet the issues as they are confronted in the communities. we come from different loss of life, there are fundamental issues, the pay gap is an issue for us, policing. speak to the issues. what are the plans. what would you do to make the quality of life not only for the african-americans better, and that is our focus, but also for

people of this nation better. booker spoke about criminal justice is dr. here is a look. [video clip] booker: our criminal justice system is so savagely broke entered if you're african-american, you're almost four times more likely to be incarcerated, destroy in your life. we have a criminal justice system that treats you better if you're rich and guilt even if you are or an innocent, so i whole fieldged this -- weekend specifically and demonstratably show that there are 17,000 people unjustly incarcerated in america, and all of us should come forward and am the president of the united states, we will use money -- be specific. the only major bipartisan bill passed under this president for criminal justice the form led to thousands of people coming out of jail to it 87 people of the united states senate come

out and say these sentences are way too long, and we change it, but we did not make it retroactive, we can point to people unjustly in jail right now. stage should this say we give clemency to 17,000 people here and i challenge you, don't just say a statement, back it up with details of the people in prison right now looking for one of the most sacrosanct ideals of this nation, which is liberty and freedom. we need to reform this system, and we must do it now. every day we wait, we wait too long. >> thank you, senator. host: derrick johnson, reaction. guest: it is evidence in plain sight. everyone knows in this country that our system penalizes the poor. it is not equitable. you have a woman serving five years for registering her child in a school district, she was homeless, and they said she was trying to steal education. she did nothing but be homeless and take her child to schools, as required.

and yet we see someone stealing a seat in the class, and that person will spend 14 days in jail. host: lou, calling from highland park, illinois, democratic line. hi, lou. good morning. caller: good morning. good morning, mr. johnson. guest: good morning. caller: i have a question about voter suppression. i noticed that you need identification in order to register to vote. me that the states make it very difficult to get registered or get identification, for example, i have got my new drivers license. a firstuired certificate, not a copy of a birth certificate, but the birth certificate. recent water bills , and i'm wondering, is there collusion between this governmentarts of

getting proper drivers license identification? guest: the problem with the delivery of our election system are policy members holding positions across the country and state. you want to look at voter fraud, voter suppression, it is not an actvidual act, it is an carried out by state, legislative bodies, and adopting rules that completely subversive five democracy, or local jurisdictions carrying out rules that completely subvert democracy. u.s. is no reason for a citizen to have to jump through so many hoops to cast a ballot. in australia, 96% of the population votes. in canada, 92% of the population votes jet in germany, 93% of the population votes. 65% of registered voters, we think that is a high turnout.

no. against democracy, so all the people that say they stand with the flag and this is a democratic country, we are subverting democracy in plain sight, and we should not do that, so is that collusion? absolutely. these are policies driven by think tanks that have been implemented across the country and that is why we need to reauthorize section v of the voting rights act, to ensure that all voters have an opportunity to dissipate. host: the next call is from charles an in traverse city, michigan. he said a number of polling places have been collosed. is this true? guest: it absolutely is true. there have been over 1000 making voting more difficult. when you see long lines, it is a result of two things -- not

enough machines and places, and elections should not be held 12 hours within a work day and we expect a full participation-. i holiday,ould be should be held on a weekend, or extended early voting to ensure that we have a true representative government, and we refuse to do that. host: anthony is calling from las vegas, independent caller. hi, anthony. caller: hi, how are you doing, mr. johnson? guest: good morning. i am an african american, and i have known people involved in the end at the highest levels. i would like to know, and i am curious, when hillary clinton females were leaked, if you ever read them, because i took the time, and i read them. i also read john podesta's emails. and i want to know that if you know in those emails that black voters were called "stupid."

and also in the emails, it proved that the elections were rigged on the left. and i was always a democrat up until 2016, and that is still kind of being covered up in the news. i would like to know what you think about that. and also, i want to applaud c-span for this. i saw on your history, a clip of whatd trump helping, um, jesse jackson started come of the rainbow coalition lift african-americans out of poverty, the taxpayers and a person that pays for your station, i would like to see you pull a clip of that up right now and show the viewers, because i saw that on your station. host: thanks for calling, anthony. are not funded by taxpayer money, we are funded by cable companies, but to your larger point, do you want to respond to that? guest: absolutely.

we saw a lot of stuff uncovered in the presidential election 2016. now the question is -- how do we make the next set to open up democracy? at the naacp, we are a nonpartisan organization. we have members of the republican party, democratic party, green party, you name it. we stand for democracy, opening up democracy, so everyone can participate. individual candidates, individuals have a perspective, there are opinions that we do not agree with it, and we will fight against it, but we are talking about structural deficits in our system, and that is what we need to be fixing. i commend anyone who steps up to fight poverty, and also condemn anyone who creates some areas where poverty should exist. ago, the true impact that you can have right now is your elected office. host: and your website,

naacp.org, you let folks know that the organization has the largest delegation of toican-americans to ghana mark the commemorative year of return. 300 african-americans, ages four to 90 come as you write, from jamestown, virginia two jamestown, donna. -- to jamestown, ghana. this marks the year of the slave trade, unfortunate abuse, not only of use, unfortunately, just a massacre of so many people, and we want to retrace the journey. how did we get to this nation, so we can reaffirm not only our relationship but reaffirm our commitment of freedom and liberty. wonderful trip. close to 300 people attended. and we traced that journey.

we wanted to go there and commemorate that moment and trace it all the way back, going , walkhe slave dungeons through those dungeons and where people were stuffed into those small boxes, there was the church of england right above there. there is something wrong with anyone who would allow for that level of human suffrage -- based on profit. all of this was done to exploit people for profit, first for gold, next for the human labor, and those individuals who came here built this country. i am looking at the u.s. capitol there. so many individuals who were in the system of slavery were soced to build this capital, we are as american as anyone else in this country, and at the same time, we must recognize the journey to create our status as americans. host: let's go to ken. derry, new hampshire,

on the republican line. good morning. caller: yes, hi, and thank you. good morning, mr. johnson. guest: good morning. caller: a quick comment and then my question. , design voter turnout, and i ise heard how voter turnout suppressed, because it is on a tuesday in november. i think all americans, that is a good time of year, because if you do it on a holiday or a weekend, sometime during the summer, people are out on leisure time, and therefore they are just not available to vote, so i do not think that is a real issue, in my opinion. my question is, voter suppression for black americans, i noticed through the years, blacks through the years, your organization, naacp, and black members of congress, etc., always claim voter i.d. is voter suppression. in life, who does not function without an i.d.? whether anything in life, you

need an i.d. to function. i would like you to articulate to make him in detail, sir, how voter i.d. is a suppression when you need an i.d. to function in life? guest: thank you very much. here is the problem. from 7:00 to 7:00 is the only time individuals covered is great in an election, and individuals -- to participate in an election, and you have an eight hour work week, and you overlay that with not enough machines and long lines, and you really frustrate the process of allowing people to participate. there are remedies. early voting. allow people in extended period of time over two weeks to cast their ballot. we could have election on saturday, when most people are not required to vote. for some states, they had sunday

voting, which were very successful. since the supreme court decision, they eliminated saturday voting, they eliminated sunday voting, and some states, they shortened eliminated or shn the period of early voting. it is a method. in north dakota recently come on the native american reservation, it was learned through court proceedings that you had a high level of individuals and simulated not have -- who simply do not have i.d. because they were born on a reservation. we have a high level of individuals who were born at home or i impoverished position to do not have an i.d. we navigated a lot of life with an i.d., but this is not about the majority, this is about the fraction of the citizens, less

than 1%, so as much as suppress, three boats here, nine votes there, there has been the goal. the real question for you, what can we do to open up democracy, what can we do to ease voting? no one is trying to steal anything. everywhere is front of participate in a country that we call america, and we call it america because it is a dream of something that requires a higher standard, and that higher ourdard is that all of voices matter, that each individual is equal under the constitution, and the constitution guaranteed us the right of citizenship, and that citizenship allows us the franchise that we call the vote. host: we go to rick for our last call, annapolis, maryland, republican caller. hi, rick. caller: good morning. how are you doing? host: fine. guest: good morning. johnson, listen carefully, and iv 625, a small group of guys got together to set up the housing of urban

development. they went to baltimore, they bought the worst sections of land in those cities, because it was the cheapest. they financed, developed, and to this day own and manage the section 8 projects. there are about 42 million blacks in the country today. doing fabulous, the derrick johnson's, oprah educated, the athletes, the actors, about 40% are doing fabulous, making millions, lots of them. the 60% that are living in the hellhole section 8 projects, your organization, that the black mayors, republicans and democrats have done nothing to help them. they have the worst school systems, no job, and now that same small group are privatizing the prisons.

so you go from the projects right to the prison, $42,000 to house a young black boy in presented a. the top blacked principal in d.c. and said how can you have a 50% dropout rate? she said, would you like me to call the auditorium and say look, you have got to stay in schooland get a high diploma, then you can go to the donald and make $30,000 a year. they say, what, are you crazy? you can quest gold tomorrow and go and sell drugs and make thousand dollars a day. host: all right. guest: section 8 of the housing act was a great step forward, program that is not accountable, it can and has been exploited. we have found a lot of legitimate section 8 explications. there aretion 8,

programs for people to become homeowners. that is a program that is not highlighted enough. it is now being returned to fight in detroit as high-value land. we have a problem in this country, and it has always impacted our housing patterns, aggressive grand lining beau biden republicans that have taken place, before -- aggressive redlining by republicans that have been taking place your there is no reason why it is right, michigan, on one side of the state, insurance is double the cost been right across the street, and there is no crime difference at all. with you, and i disagree with you at the same at naacp, wee in dubli have multiple lawsuits addressing housing patterns, multiple lawsuits addressing how this government has undermined and or and peter the social mobility of african-americans. ofs determines the quality

life of young children, including education. the problem with education can betray straight back to housing patterns, and housing patterns is something that they are forced to provide equal access in terms of resources through education, they use housing patterns to re-segregating and local tax driven systems create impoverished tax basis, have poor schools, high wealth tax areas. it is a systemic problem that at naacp, we have always advocated to change. host: derrick johnson if the naacp president and ceo. thank you for joining us. guest: i appreciate it. host: hope you will come back. we will take a quick break and then have the final edition of this "washington journal." it will be sebastian gorka, the white house ever, talking about campaign 2020, the resident's

strateg, followed by your calls and questions, social media. we will be right back. ♪ the studentcam experience is really, really valuable to me. >> the studentcam has really helped us grow, as people, going into our college years. >> for past winners of the c-span studentcam video tary competition, it has sparked an interest in dr. mary. >> i get to be right in the

middle of the caucus season, and i get to meet so many candidates, and because of c-span, i have had experience in equipment and the knowledge to actually film some of them. >> this year, we are asking middle school and high school students to create a short video documentary answering the question -- what issue do you most want presidents to address during the campaign, including c-span videos and reflecting different points of view? awarding $100,000 in total cash prizes, including a $500,000 grand prize. >> be passionate about what you are discussing, no matter what the audience perceives it to be. i know that in the greatest yourtry of history, view does matter. >> for more information, go to our website, studentcam.org. on americane

history tv, at 5:00 p.m. eastern, a discussion about shakespeare's influence on u.s. politics. and ethics 6:00 on "american artifacts," the norman rockwell exhibit.traveling explore our nation's pass on american history tv, every c-span3.n hon >> "washington journal" continues. host: our guess now is sebastian gorka, the former deputy assistant to the president and a staff member. good to welcome you back. guest: thank you. host: pictures like this all over the news, this from saudi arabia, smoke pouring from the aramco facility after an attack on saturday. the who the rebels claimed responsibility. the secretary of state here, mike pompeo, views it a little bit differently. he is pointing directly to iran during if that is true, what should the response the? -- be?

guest: exactly what the president has been doing. one of the key things we did when i was in the white house is we ended the disastrous jcpoa a ron deal we inherited from the obama administration, continuing a sanctions package against iran. the phrase we have the white house's behavior modification. iran is one of the most dangerous, and it uses the houthis to further its mission. host: considering and iran attack that would break the regime's back. guest: i do not agree with the mp. he is a little bit too keen to use military force. that seems to be has reaction. we are seeing that they are desperate. they just said they want to see a complete drop of sanctions. they will do certain measures in the oil industry as a result.

they are feeling the squeeze. the economy is on the brink. keep the pressure on current we do not a military reaction right now. right now, the sanctions are working. host: we will put the phone numbers on the bottom of the screen for sebastian gorka. democrats can call (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independentss, (202) 748-8002. social media, facebook, twitter. if you want to send a text as is your02) 748-8003 number. our guest, sebastian gorka, is also the host of salem radio's america first program. when did this come out? guest: it is coming out on amazon.com, "the war for america's soul," it comes out in two weeks. host: what do you say in the book? guest: how the obama

thenistration undermined trump campaign manager what they have done on the left for the last three years with the russian revolution host, it is what working for donald trump was like. 2016 was historic, the first time we have elected a non-politician, and non-general to become commander-in-chief. my conviction is that 2020 will be even more important than 26 was. host: here is a "new york p clashing over-- sanctions before the iran deadline. what happens, and what is the impact of this departure? guest: the impact will be minimal. the fact is donald trump has a foreign-policy stance. reaction is always nonintervention first, to bring our boys and girls home. we have had general plan, h.r. mcmaster, now john bolton.

americathis changes the first policy. john is a friend of mine. i think it is disgusting with the way he was tarred with the brush of being a warmonger. there will be a new security advisor, and we will move on. host: why have the president had three national security advisers in three years? guest: again, do you know how many ronald reagan had in the first two. the idea that people stay in the white house for a long time -- a year and a half is the average. it is like dog years. it is like serving 20 years in of administration. the clinton administration collapsed in the first nine months of the first year. they had to replace key members of the administration feared these are tough jobs, and the president, as someone is way to me, there are people who served with purpose, their time comes, they execute a mission, and then the president moves on. it is really how d.c. works. host: lots more talk about was

sebastian gorka. victor, you're up first in maryland on the republican line. the morning, victor. caller: good morning, dr. gorka. guest: victor is one of my regular callers. i recognize his voice. caller: [laughs] good morning, c-span did one of the things donald trump different country is to make us now.ly independent we do not have to worry about the middle east anymore, because gas.ve our own oil and we are drilling for it, we are producing it, we do not have to put up with the watermelons that want to get us on wind power, which stops when the wind stops blowing, no electricity, as trumppoints out. i love the way rush limbaugh environmentalhe wackos, watermelons, green on the outside, red on the inside,

and during football season, i used to hear them do the environmental football picks, and they were a lot of fun to hear, and i won a lot of football pools because of his environmental wacko football picks. guest: look, victor, the fact is we are energy independent and energy exporters for the first time since the founding of our republic, and the absurdity, the asinine vision of having a democrat candidates in the debate this week say they are going to ban fracking, i think alexandria ocasio-cortez saying you need to ban internal combustion engines, no more flying planes, just as we have become energy independent shows the reality of the president's these people,us you're right, watermelons, they are only as green as much as the rind. inside, deep, deep socialist red.

host: some type of gun legislation was sent to the hill this week. where are you on the gun issue? what would you expect in terms of the new law? guest: i am a huge second amendment advocate. on my show, we dedicate a whole hour to the second amendment every week. concerns, because there is a pattern in all of the recent shootings, a pattern of young men who live normal lives and then all of a sudden kill a dozen people. they have patterns in their lives in which they run into trouble with the law, and the parkland shooting, i have the father of one of the parkland 41 negativey show, interactions with law enforcement with no consequences. known the recent killers in high school to be in possession of a rape and kill li -- i donothing happens

not want to see more legislation, because you cannot legislate against psychosis. what we need as local authority to do their job, whether it is high school principals, medical professionals, or local law enforcement. make local authorities liable for the deaths of anybody that is killed in a mass shooting, because they did not do their job. they did not see some action to prevent these kinds of killings. host: to the independent line, henry, in michigan, good morning. caller: good morning. sebastian, i do not know why they keep having you on here, because you are so predictable -- guest: in america, it is called the first amendment, my friend. caller: absolutely. first of all, i would like to commend you for befriending and your work with the special ed community. victor seems to be a good project of yours. guest: victor, the last caller, so you werean,

making fun of someone with a disability, but that is typical for the plus, carry on. caller: probably in more ways than one. guest: carry on with your insults of americans, go on, henry. caller: sebastian, i would like to first of all say if you think about it, one of the most racist times in american history, if you go to any city, and you stand at a freeway overpass, and of 6:00 in the hours the morning until 10:00 in the morning, and from 2:00 to 6:00 in the afternoon, you will see the most racist time. calledon in chief has baltimore "a rat infested city." our cities have problems, but it seems like the worst problem our cities have is we have white suburbanites coming into our city, stealing our jobs, taking our tax money and our revenue, and then

running back to the suburbs, there, andeir grift then denigrating our people in the inner-city. do you support the us tariffs? do you support white farmers being ruined and put on where welfare? are you going to talk about farmers like you talk about the people in the inner-city being put on welfare? host: let's get a response from sebastian gorka? respond todo you make somebody who made fun of somebody with a handicap, like victor. the idea that we have a racist -- no, we had a racist american when we had obama as commander-in-chief, he saw people only based on their skin color. henry could not care -- we have

these are all democratic talking points your we have the lowest black unemployment and generations, lowest in hispanic sense record-keeping began in fairfax do not matter for the left. facts are optional. i worked for donald trump, and he does not see color. he is remarkably colorblind. he wants to things for all americans. you to be safe, and he wants you to be prosperous, a irrespective of skin color, and it is callers like you, henry, who insults host: black americans. host: rhonda on the republican line for mr. gorka. hello, rhonda. caller: hello. guest: hi. caller: how are you? a democrat for over 40 years, and i could see that nothing was being done, so in 2016, i changed to a republican, and i am so glad that i did.

i think donald trump is doing a marvelous job, and i wish people , you stop badmouthing him know, calling him names and putting him down. let him do his job. i mean, this is ridiculous. democratsck of the always throwing negative things out there about our president, you know, give him a chance. guest: right. caller: he has proven over and over that he can get the job done. host: thanks for calling, rhonda. sebastian gorka, what would be your best argument for the reelection proposal? guest: [laughs] the real world you are welcome, rhonda come over to the side of truth insanity. attackings about people because you have no policies. as i talk about in my book "the it isr america's soul," not an accident that hillary --nton intern for solo that she ran her paper at wellesley on him, it is not an

accident that the only photo you can find of presiden president "ruless him diagramming for radicals." they have no arguments. when the platform is to keep borders open hand to provide taxpayer-funded medical insurance for illegal aliens, platform, it is insanity, so they attack, attack, attack. things are going to look very good for the president in just over 400 days. int: the "washington post," the opinion pages today, if you missed it, bring back the presidential primaries. asked what they have in common, that they are running again, they run many have dates,

canceled their nominating contest for 2020, so what does that say. loyalistsat the trump canceled the primaries and caucuses, claiming the president will win by a landslide, and therefore it is a waste of money, but, they write, since when article numbers the basis for deciding whether to give voters a chance to choose their leaders, much like their president. answer, we don't. guest: we have been doing it many, many times, democrats have ve republicans. this is the academy of fake news. is "washington post" publishing an article co-authored by joe walsh, who tweeted out the birther movement. that is fake news. host: a democratic caller, hi, you are on with sebastian gorka.

underreportedder fact or i that a person that united states treasury department, who is in charge of the sanctions against iran, happens to be an israeli citizen. not find that problematic, but given the recent article in the "new york times" by ronan birdman, documenting how the israelis trying to drag the united states into conflict with iran, i kind of they have this is germane, this kind of conversation, and i remind you of a quote by the late senator fritz hollins in may of 2004, in which invaded toq was secure israel, and everybody knows it. that is a quote. benefit us could with your knowledge in that area. thanks a lot, and have a nice day. guest: happy to.

this, again, is so, so disturbing. i do not know if this person exists, but what he has done is demonstrated the innate anti-semitism of today's democratic party. what this caller just did is bring up the harvard, anti-semitic cliché of dual loyalties, just like rashida tlaib did. the fact that you have alexandria ocasio-cortez, rashida tlaib, proud anti-semite in the democratic party, the face of the democratic party, supporters of the outrageous boycott, the sanction movement, with basically questioned the legitimacy of the israeli state, our closest ally in the middle east, who actually questioned the loyalties of congressmen and women who happened to also be jewish is where we are today. if you want to see institutionalized racism, anti-semitism,n and he just gave us an example. host: let's head back overseas. the white house says osama bin

laden's son was killed in a u.s. operation. what is the impact here? most cases now, now that it is 2019, we are a generation from the september 11 attacks made is less a question of the functional impact, yes, they had a role in fight al qaeda, but it is a symbolic one. this is what i call phase two of the global war on terrorism. you have to attack the hypocrisies of the organizations that do you harm, but most important of all, the will to fight, and once you kill osama bin laden's son, who was seen as the heir apparent, you do the deathblow to the proceeds. host: i want to show you the "washington post" magazine, today they focus on afghanistan, 16 years of war, america is finally on the right of leaving afghanistan during the sacrifices and cost seven staggering. was it all worth it? what is your answer? aest: we do not have

constant, strategic plan for afghanistan. i visited afghanistan, four different provinces after 9/11, and what we saw is under the bush and obama administration, , the income at 12 months plan would change, and it is hard to win a game if it changes . afghanistan matters today for the same reason that mattered in october 2001. that piece of real estate in never be usedt to execute mass casualties in the u.s. that is the only reason. it is not to build hospitals or finish what not even the soviets could finish, it is to make sure that they could not harbor terrorists. strategic sanity, and this president is bringing it to afghanistan. a lotthe president took of heat for negotiating or wanted to negotiate with the taliban before they called it off. what is your take on that part

of the issue? guest: the taliban are bad g uys. let's be clear. there caliphate vision is very localized. the president as a pragmatist, as a patriot, knows that the afghan government has never really functioned in a western sense, the idea that the country, it never did, except for maybe seven years during the monarchy. if you want to bring some kind of spaces to afghanistan, you have to have the taliban at the table. your trusted -- remember, what reagan said, trust but verify, but they have to be partners on the arrangement, but when you kill american officers as well, he was absolutely correct in canceling those negotiations. host: just under 20 minutes left with sebastian gorka. grant is calling that in the nation's capital. independent caller. good morning. caller: i did not want to talk about this, but i agree with the previous caller, the question of

the office of terrorism and financial intelligence, which itsc lobby to set up, and sort of string of hard-core pro-israel leaders from stuart leavy to david cohen to senegal egalate for -- single man mandecker, so i think it is entirely legitimate. i do not think you need to be smeared as an anti-semite to say hey, you know, these people are looking at the treasury. there are a lot of treasury positions that do not allow dual positions to work in certain areas, and that includes the federal reserve system. anyway, my real question is this -- guest: there is no such position in the u.s. government. you just know that, right? you stated a fallacy. sharp' latestemy reports, they talk about the edge that u.s. is supposed to

maintain for israel, but they never seem to mentioned that israel has nuclear weapons, and the cia said that publicly in 1974. the dod released a report about the nuclear infrastructure over there. just wondering if sebastian and other pundits believe that it might be good to stop lying by omission and talking about the allocated military edge and are talking about israel as the leading state, and middle east nuclear proliferator instead of -- guest: "proliferator"? what are you talking about? you have got to live in the real world, grant. try it. you might actually liv and enjoy it. the idea of questioning people because they are pro-israel, since when is an incentive support democracies in the middle east to our invaluable to our intelligence efforts and to stabilizing that region. again, it is saddening, it is sickening that we have underlyingc frauds

the is to c-span. i am pro is really -- pro-israel a. everything i have written is to support the jewish people. the idea that someone in government supports israel, yeah, and we support many countries, israel is one of them, but to question people enlist their names because they have jewish names, only fascists make lists of people with jewish sounding names. stop it. robert kagan writes about israel and what he sees as the decline of the liberal order. the rise of nationalism around on world may be reflected tuesday. what is your perspective? guest: again, supporting your nation is not a bad thing. people wantt representative government, whether it is 17 million people in the u.k., whether it is trump, or whether it is people

who support bibi netanyahu, the purpose of the government is to serve the people of the nation. one of the proudest moments in my last book, "why we fight," is the speech the president gave the rose garden of torres 17, i absurdus out of this climate accord because i was elected by the citizens of pittsburgh, not paris. that is what every head of state should say and act. host: riley in ohio, democratic caller. hello. caller: thank you for accepting my call. host: you're welcome. caller: i am a registered democrat, and in this last election, i voted for trump, and i am glad i did. host: why did you vote for the president? caller: because he promised, and he held to that. he stood up to foreigners on the job.

he said he would close the borders. that is what took my job, with immigrants come over here and work of these factories, they for together, and they work five dollars, six dollars an hour. let me tell you what happened to me. i lived in kentucky. when the democrats come out with that welfare stuff and giving that -- they just talk about giving. and that don't work. and i was a drunk, and i stayed on where fair, i had kids. at 34 years old, -- chrysler hired me at 34 years old, chrysler did. a good job, the government no longer had to give me insurance, no longer had to give me welfare, i stopped drinking, me and my wife have been together for 47 years now. i am 70 years old. things just changed in my life, -- a black, a white,

we all in this country need to stick together and work with each other and forget about all and makeiscrimination these companies give you health insurance and pay you different wages. that it goes down -- i was disgusted, because i cannot even support my family in kentucky. you work as a backer in the field, and it pays about two dollars an hour. now, who can live on that? host: all right, thanks for calling. let's hear from our guest, sebastian gorka. guest: first thing's first, congratulations on staying clean and staying dry. god bless you. that would be an advertisement. clipcould be a campaign for 2020 that is the message of the president. as ave come together

nation, irrespective of your skin color, whether you were born here or are a legal immigrant, and we pulled together to make america great again. god bless you, robbie get i think it is fascinating, paul, that we now have multiple callers who say i was a democrat, and i voted for trump, that is the silent majority that swept into the white house in 26. it has only grown in the last three years. host: we have about 15 minutes with our guest, sebastian gorka, who was on the trump administration's white house staff. host of america first on salem radio, and have a book coming out called "the war for ."erica's soul that last caller touching on economic themes makes me want to ask you about china and the president' current postures. first question -- what has been the damage so far in the trade dispute? the president said he would

consider an interim deal with china, rather than a comprehensive deal. what is your take on this whole trade dispute? guest: i came into the white house as a strategist mostly expectation thatatio because that is what i did in the defense department. once you read the analysis, i t opened my eyes. we will deal with iran and russia, there is one strategic threat to this nation today, and it is kind, and i discussed that in all of my recent books. the only damage done in the trade war with china is to china. i think it is so telling that this week, what do china do? for all of the bluster of the preceding months, they said we are going to drop the tariffs on american pork and soy. as a friend of mine said, when you cannot feed your own population, it is hard to get into a trade war with the most powerful economy in the world. so this is the threat.

the president understands it. he has a plan. right now, xi jinping thinks he can still play the president. foolish position for him to have, but sooner or later, they will buckle. at the heritage says, "when we sneeze economically, china catches the flu." we do not need them. it will be tough for a little while, but we can do without china. they desperately need us, and that is the ultimate measure. host: moving on to ryan, on the republican line in michigan. go ahead, sir. caller: a very little known farm town in southwest michigan. host: good to have you. caller: good morning, mr. gorka. it is a special privilege to be with you. i listen to you on breitbart news daily. i have been listening to you for a couple of hours.

i do not normally listen to c-span, but one thing i have heard from democrat callers repeatedly as criticism of the president for really conflicting reasons, and to your point, mr. you have been talking about how the president will fight for any american, all americans, no matter where you spectrum, and how important it is for us to work together and support our president and the administration and the congeniality of getting along with foreign powers, the it iss of foreign nations really important because apparently the democrats do not want the president to take us to war, but they do not want the president to get along with foreign leaders, either, and that just does not make any sense. i do not have a question for you, i just wanted to say that i appreciate your voice, and thank you for having me on today. host: thanks for calling. caller: thank you, ryan, and

thank you to everyone in baroda. dissonance istive high to it we have been told for three years, as soon as he became president, of course, it was not the case, but the industrial complex has said donald trump is a racist and then what do we have? we have multiple callers to c-span saying oh, who are these pro-israeli people in the trump administration. well, which is it? s, that havemear no founding, or is it that this president is the most pro-israeli president sense, perhaps, the founding of the pro-israeli state. this is the cognitive dissonance. as my friend says come of reality for the left is optional. host: democratic caller, nita for sebastian gorka. good morning. caller: good morning.

it is such an honor to be able to talk to you. i had a few points, not the last caller from michigan, but the one before that is obviously a tlaib supporter, and i think he should be monitored, like she should. klobuchar would not announce anything, as omar did, and she is from minnesota, but she should not even be allowed on a debate stage. nothingt trump has done but good things, and to see them ,n the debate stage, democrats and how they reacted during the impeachment hearing the other day is disgusting, and just keep up the good fight. i would love to see you some more in a lot of different places to keep this going, keep us strong. thank you. host: thanks for calling. act, settingiciary up rules for the impeachment inquiry.

will it play into the president's favor in 2020? guest: absolutely. look at the figures out there. people see through the lies of jerry nadler. a man battling a compromise, "we are setting the rules for impeachment or co- when the speaker says we are not going to impeach the president, when they say this is a bad idea, on the left, look, it is on the one hand laughable, but also it demeans the congress. you cannot take congress seriously, especially a democrat in congress, when robert mueller's investigation, $45 million, came to an understand standstill and collapsed like a house of cards, and now they want to increase the president. it is saddening, but that is the democrats today. host: on the campaign trail, is there one democratic concerns you about a head-to-head matchup with the president? guest: i am not really concerned, as long as they talk about taxpayer-funded medical insurance and illegal aliens and

taking away your ar-15's, you know, most of americans see through them as sort of demi demagogues and totalitarias. when the "washington post" in one week and npr attacked biden, he is over. his campaign, they may as well get a fork and stick it into them. he is done. harris come out of the gate very thirsty, very hungry, but she was shut down because of her very troubling record in san francisco and california. as a result, badly, another socialist is probably going to get the nomination, as the president said when he launched his reelection campaign. 2020 -- a very simple decision. you can choose between socialism or liberty. it will be that binary. host: in philadelphia, a caller named ruben. caller: good morning.

thank you for taking my call, c-span. i was listening to sebastian gorka earlier talking to one color, and he said it was un-american for him to talk about the handicap. what about when president trump openly mocked the reporter on the campaign trail, with that on american? guest: he didn't. you really should not be a victim in a hostage to fake news. go out there and do a little bit of research. the president has used that gesture on numerous people, including that reporter, before reporter,that rightfully so, for his covers. the idea that he was doing it because of that person's physical condition -- it is a lie. you should look things up for yourself and not be a victim. host: ruben, anymore? caller: yes, did you get my point about how in my being anti-semitic if i am pro-israel? and what about the birther

movemen? many people thought that it was criticizing our only african-american president, starting with the birther movement. guest: it had nothing to do with race. they had done it with the late, he had done it was senator cruz, they have done it with mitt romney. are any of those people black? thank you. host: let's move on to jim. caller: i had a question for your guests, and then i remembered something about him while i was on hold. this man wore a pin on his jacket inside of the white house that represented a military unit his grandfather or something was a part of, that joined forces with the germans to attack russia. is that true? guest: no, again, guys, do your homework. on the inauguration ball, i wor fatheral inherited by my

, he was awarded the medal because he resisted the communists, was arrested at the age of 20 after having been doubled as a british agent, was tortured, and given a life sentence. again, primary sources, my friend, jim, please do your homework. thank you. host: down to our last call or two, south florida, pompano beach, trip, good morning. caller: good morning, guys. pleasure to be on the show. we are quite frankly dealing wit a modern -- there is no george washington, no donald trump, there is no america. -- they have a problem with his masculinity as well. he is a guy's guy, a man's man. he is dealing with the biggest rehab center. good luck. guest: he is right.

i think a lot of the hatred, a lot of this against the president is because of his alpha male characteristics. they hate it. he is not a man of manhattan. people like to say he is from manhattan, no, he is the kid from queens, and he is real starting american -- reasserting american leadership. on the right, they love tradition, and the left cannot take it. host: ronald if they are from west jefferson, north carolina, democrat. hey, ronald. caller: hi, how are you doing this morning? host: i am fine. caller: thank you for your show. i enjoy watching. host: thank you. caller: the question i have for mr. gorka is about fuel energy exporting more fuel come almost, right, at this time, then we take from other countries. i was just wondering, you were talking about fuel efficiency dependency, and so i was wondering, how does the fact

that we export more oil than we import, how does that help us here, when this tragedy that happened in saudi arabia, with the drone strike on their largest refineries, how will that make our fuel prices go up, if we are exporting our fuel to other countries? why don't we just use the fuel in our country and not import from venezuela and saudi arabia and iran or wherever else our fuel comes from? host: thank you, ronald cured all economics. a good question there. guest: thank you, ronald. it is not a zero-sum game. ourre independent for energy needs for the first time ever since our founding, and it that we have a surface can sell, so these are not dichotomous. e have our own energy

supply, whic is incredible, which insulates us from the instability of the geopolitical environment, and we can also sell it. it is a win-win game. again, this is the difference between the left and bright clear the left is happy to divide up the pie. real worldive in the always realize is that wealth is being expanded and created. that is what has happened to our energy sector. host: we are out of time. gorka,st is sebastian former divisor to the president advised the visor to the trumpet meditation, host of the america first program on salem radio, and the author of the latest, his book called "the war for america's soul," thank you for coming back to the table. guest: anytime, paul, thank you. host: we are back tomorrow, another edition of "washington journal." we are up at 7:00 everyday. tomorrow, our guests include robert costa, a reporter for the "washington post," a moderator at cbs. we will also