tv Washington Journal 10192019 CSPAN October 19, 2019 7:00am-10:02am EDT
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president trump's type of populism and its impact on american politics. as always, we will take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. washington journal is next. ♪ host: good morning and welcome to washington journal. 9/11, [inaudible] but today it seems like you will be a central figure in the impeachment of the president. cityr new york , his rudy giuliani relationship with trump under scrutiny in the impeachment inquiry. what do you think about giuliani's work and looking into president trump's political enemies in the ukraine? what effect do you think his relationship with president
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trump will have on the impeachment inquiry? republicans, we want to hear from you at (202) 748-8001. democrats, we want to hear from you at (202) 748-8000. is (202)nts, your line 748-8002. and since he was mayor of new york city for so long, we want to hear especially from new york city residents. you have a special line, (202) 748-8003. keep in mind, you can also text is your opinion at (202) 748-8003, and we are always reading on social media, on and facebook at facebook.com/cspan. our focus it will be on former new york city mayor will be on for -- former new york city mayor rudy giuliani. i will read a little bit for you this morning to layout this issue.
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current diplomat george kent told congressional investigators in closed-door testimony this week that rudy giuliani asked the state department and white house to grant a visa to the former ukrainian official who joe biden had pushed to have removed when he was vice president. according to four people testimony,th kent's he testified around january 2019 that giuliani requested a visa for former ukrainian -- for a former ukrainian prosecutor general to travel to the united states. of hisbeen pushed out position as ukraine's top prosecutor in 2016 after pressure from western leaders, including biden, over concerns that he was not pursuing corruption cases. giuliani has previously told cnn that he wanted to interview shok because the ukrainian promised to reveal dirt on democrats. kent told
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congressional investigators the state department had objected to the request and did not grant the visa. giuliani then appealed to the white house to have state reverse its decision. visa was never granted, although giuliani eventually spoke with him over skype. the incident reveals how giuliani's work on digging up dirt on democrats went much further than previously understood, and included an attempt to directly influence the actions of the federal government. waserns that giuliani inappropriately involved in shaping and driving the administrations ukraine policy form a significant part of the intelligence community was a lower's complaint, which prompted the ongoing impeachment investigation into donald trump. that is what is going on with rudy giuliani now, but that is not how most of america met rudolph giuliani. he came into attention outside of new york city after the events of 9/11. let's go back and look at a
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little bit of what he, his conversation was with cbs' dan rather after the 9/11 attacks. here it is. for every single person touched by this unthinkable tragedy, there is one man that above all else has been the beacon holding this city together. city, mayor of new york rudy giuliani. [cheers and applause] better city now that it was before the attack took place in terms of its spirituality and its understanding of what it means to be an american, what it means to unity. >> we spoke with rudy giuliani and his emergency command center in new york city. >> having gone through this and thece on the 11th experience the year before that, my thoughts go something like this -- every day, you never know. you never know what is going to
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happen to you, so you might as well take advantage of life and not go hide somewhere. we will take airplanes when we are supposed to for business or pleasure, we will go to public events and we are going to do the things that we normally would do. the best way to get your children to stop being afraid is to stop being afraid yourself. >> what do we tell the children? >> we have been a lot. we let them know they are there for them. whether you talk about it with friends, whether you talk about it with your children, you got to get it out, you got to talk about it, and children need that and some of them need it professionally. >> how are you doing? >> i am ok. at some point i'm going to have to go off by myself and reflect on the people i have known that hope. lost, and there was a personal part of what happened at the world trade
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center, but i have not had time to think about it too much because i am trying to focus on the things any to do to keep the city together and move the city together. realize how many friends i have lost. >> do you grieve? >> only intimately. i had to go to a funeral service and after the funeral service i went into a bathroom by myself, locked the door and cried for four or five minutes. yearsant to shift for a moment. what is your leadership philosophy? a lot of people are admiring your leadership. >> you have to lead by example and you have to be honest. you have to work as hard as the people you are asking to work with you and not be removed from them. go to jay, calling from arlington, virginia on the independent line. good morning. ander: good morning to you thank you for c-span.
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giuliani is actually a very interesting character. there are some that will tell thethat his rise was not 9/11 situation, it was over policing minority areas, racist tactics, partially corrupt police force he was running, but putting that aside into the current situation, when you look at the trump situation, it is interesting that what he is really buttressed by is people like giuliani and people these absoluted lunatic, far, far, far from the mainstream whose views on everything is skewed and makes absolutely no sense, and it is of no interest to the american to alland of no benefit
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but very, very few. when you look at the giuliani situation, how we take somebody and have them in foreign policy situation is furthers, and how this american strategic interests in the world or anything like that, i have no idea. i look forward to really listening to what the other side has to say, but when one just sits back and sees how this has been the flushing down of rome over the past couple of years, it has been interesting. those who study history will look at this and really shake their heads and put it down. thank you for your time. host: let's go to bennie, calling from detroit, michigan, on the democratic line. good morning. caller: thank you and i and -- and i enjoy your saturday and sunday morning shows. what i wanted to say, giuliani,
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i echo the previous gentleman's statements. i think that history is going to be divided and like history was divided before and after columbus -- ok, that is a line that is drawn. i think it is going to be the same with respect to the united states. it is going to be before trump and after trump, and let me just say this, please don't cut me off. i think that too often, we align trump and all of his followers with -- we accuse them of being racist. i have been giving this a lot of thought. some of it may be true, some of them are and some of them are not, but when you look at the lens of america, you have to look at it in two ways.
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african-americans look at it differently than white people, we look at racism differently. what i mean by that, as an african-american, when we look at slavery, slavery was living hell. as an african-american, few would disagree that the art of slavery was hell. but if you were white, slavery was probably the best thing since sliced bread. trump and weh approach this whole issue looking at it through two different lenses, and i think that with rudy giuliani and all those people, the sean hannity's -- i think they look at a different as we look at a different. callingt's go to ed, from willingboro, new jersey on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. listening to the other, the
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perspective from the other giuliani, me from living in new jersey, very close to new rush limbaugh, who had been an advisor to trump, very close to giuliani. tried, right now what is is very funny, how giuliani is so close to alignedecause it is all to what trump wants, or the same people that are aligned with trump have shaped this.
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that is all i have to say. host: let's go to pete, calling from des moines, io on the demo -- des moines, iowa on the democratic line. caller: hello, jesse. i love the show and i think you do an outstanding job. did anhe mayor, outstanding job after 9/11 of bringing the city and the country back together in recovery. but i think one thing should be noted -- after the first attack on the world trade center, i think it was in 1987, 1988, he decided to put the antiterrorist headquarters back in the world wase center, before it attacked again on 9/11. it was during 9/11, he was running around the city with a the city like a
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chicken with his head cut off, but once again, he did do an outstanding job bringing the country and the city back together. i think what has happened since tried to capitalize on it by running for president and look where he has ended up, supporting president trump. i think he has made a deal with the devil. thank you very much for taking my comments. host: let's go to mark, calling from oyster bay, new york. mark, good morning. caller: good morning, how are you sir? host: i'm good, go ahead, mark. caller: i'm disappointed in rudy. he was a great mayor years ago and now he seems like a lackey for donald trump and -- this is a guy who put a lot of mafia
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guys in jail and look at him now. i mean, wow. very, very disappointing. where oysterell us bay is. is that near new york city? caller: that is on long island. host: long island. when giuliani was running for mayor of new york, did you vote for him? no, i couldn't because i was not a resident of new york city. host: oh, ok. would you have voted for him back then, rudy giuliani back then after 9/11? is he the kind of person you would have voted for? caller: absolutely i would have. he was a tough prosecutor, he was a great mayor, but god, i don't know what happened to him. deniediuliani last month on cnn that he had asked ukraine to investigate joe biden before then acknowledging that he had asked ukraine to start an investigation.
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let's look at what giuliani said on cnn. [video clip] >> did u.s. the ukraine to investigate joe biden? >> no, i actually didn't. investigateine to interference into the election the benefit of hillary clinton -- >> you never asked anything about hunter biden, joe biden? >> the only thing i asked about joe biden was that how the case was dismissed against -- >> so you asked the ukraine to look at a joe biden. >> of course i did. >> you just said you didn't. >> i didn't, i said what was the allegation that my client was involved tengion tenderly -- involved with a massive bribery scheme, not unlike what he did in china. you explain to me how the kid got $1.5 billion -- >> i have no problem about launching allegations, just be
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careful of what you say. i ask you if you investigated joe biden, you said no. then you went on to say that you did. >> what i said was this. i asked them to investigate the allegations that relate to the false charges against the president of the united dates. -- united states. host: we should note that president trump's campaign has said they plan to sue cnn. here is a little bit of the story from the washington examiner. anti-trump comments attributed to the president and others at the cable network, president trump's campaign is vowing to sue the company for a substantial payment of damages. in a formal letter, trump harder citedles j. years of anti-trump by and set the network and claimed the cable giant has broken his promise of "excellence in german is him -- journalism." we want to point that out.
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let's go to mike from cary, north carolina on the republican line. good morning. caller: well, good morning. forks once again, c-span, confirming, with me at least, your continuing drift to the left. it has just been despicable for the full week. as far as my opinion on rudy giuliani, you listed his credentials. you put up his resume. this guy -- he was a u.s. attorney for the southern district of new york, as far as the justice department goes, that is the prime office to be working out of because of the proximity to the financial center of the world, so on and so forth. this guy fought corruption, he fought mob bosses, he fought terrorists. he convicted them. never any- there was hint, as far as i know -- i don't live in new york, you know, new york leads the headlines around the world and
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the united states. so he has been around about as long as donald trump, so it makes perfect sense that they know each other. and he gets elected to mayor of new york city and cleans it up after years, years of liberal decay. new york city was a cesspool when rudy giuliani was elected, and even people calling in, wondering what happened to rudy giuliani? nothing has happened to him. he is the same guy. such ald a man of stellar record of repetition, criminal justice and politics, the mayor of new york city -- the one guy, what? of the callerse was saying he was a fabulous mayor after the terrorist attack on 9/11, that he took some snarky shot about giuliani running around like a chicken with his head cut off, which was a totally cnn-type comments. they had to get the snark in.
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for giuliani to be going after potential corruption and criminal activity, that is what he does. it is in his dna. it is what he has been doing his entire life as a federal prosecutor and the mayor of new york city. our president, neither one of them had any hint of racism or corruption or criminal activity at all -- ok?r stuff, i will grant that with president trump. when you are a real estate developer in new york city and have to get buildings built and you know who -- everybody knows who you got to hire to get the trash taken away and the concrete poured, you will have some contact with criminal elements. all in all, there was no hint of anything serious, ok? for decades with these two guys. now that president trump put an r after his name and got elected president of the united states -- like i said, it makes perfect sense for these two men to be
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friends, allies, and pursuing an agenda that seems legitimate to people that are thinking and not just blinded by trumped arrangements syndrome -- trump derangement syndrome. oh yes, it makes sense for a guy with a stellar new york city reputation as a crime fighter and mayor to all of a sudden --b a bad bagman for the president of the united states. it makes no sense at all. host: let's go to chris from jefferson station, new york. how are you doing? caller: how are you doing? giuliani was a great mayor for new york state and new york city, and i do not know what happened. all these people, left, right, left, right -- forget about left and right, love your country. do you just want to make money for yourself?
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you are supposed to be working for us, the taxpayers of the united states. are worried about oh, we are going to put them in my hotel -- no. love your country first, then your party. no left, no right. without the media, this would be like a third world country. we would know nothing. all we would know would be lies. host: where is port jefferson station? is that new york city? caller: long island. living east of oyster bay. host: were you in new york when giuliani was mayor? caller: i actually worked down that way. i had a route in downtown manhattan near the twin towers, i used to go right past it at 8:30 in the morning. callingt's go to rukia, on the democratic line from cincinnati, ohio. good morning. caller: good morning, sir.
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how are you this morning? host: i'm good, go ahead. caller: i would like to say, we are looking at people who say one thing and do another, so it is filled with a lot of hypocrisy. follow the money and you will know who was doing what and why. giuliani found an opportunity that he needed to get into office and he did just enough that would absolutely raise him having been in the area at one point after 9/11, i saw the split tween what they really went after, which was not the truth, and what actually got more people on their side and made them hot. the hypocrisy in our government and birds of at, feather flock together.
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the president, he is absolutely full of hypocrisy. why would he not gather around him people with the same kind of agenda? it is all about the money. wherever they can raise and feather their nest. i am a citizen of the united states, i have been all of my generations,all four generations served this country in the military. yet i have seen exactly what has been going on in this country, and whoever they favor. they only favor the things that would raise them up. host: let's go to james, calling on the republican line from san diego, california. good morning. caller: good morning, how are you doing today? besides that, i think your story is in complete a little bit. you went back and spoke about giuliani, he went to europe to get the ukrainians to further investigate -- hello? host: james, are you still there? caller: i'm still here.
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host: go ahead. caller: to investigate the 2016 election intrusions by the ukrainians. at the same time, you mentioned the department of state, the department of state refused to give him a visa. if you update your self, you will find that 38 members of the department of state are under disciplinary action for improper conduct regarding the hillary clinton emails. if you also go back and update your story a little bit, you will find that the server, which is still in the ukraine, is being looked at -- no, no, is being located so they can find those emails that are missing. those are some of the updates you need to take and put in when you speak about this issue. thank you very much for your day. callingt's talk to ken, from washington, d.c. on the independent line.
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good morning. caller: good morning, how are you today? host: i'm good, go ahead. caller: outstanding. your previous callers had the audacity to say that trump only used racism or discrimination or wrongdoing when it came to his building practices, when it talked about getting certain businesses to build his company. in 1975, the courts found he and his company and his father guilty of housing discrimination. supporters are racists -- inherently, if you go to a klan rally, you probably are. giuliani in 1992, and i recall this, september of 1992, mayor jenkins, who was black, at the time was calling for a civilian rebuke. there was essentially riotous behavior, mostly from the police.
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mostly white police officers. i remember they went to courttan and blocked the steps, throwing bottles and drinking, riotous behavior that i am quite sure people of caller would not have had the distinction of pulling off without being arrested. nevertheless, on top of one of the cars with a bullhorn was giuliani, and the things they were saying about mayor jenkins were beyond offensive and racially motivated. you do not call someone that without being [inaudible] he is trump are both inherently racist. -- youp and frisk know, he has been doing this from the beginning. and lastly, it is ironic because of trump'sjority followers are not racist, but they certainly are of low intellect, because no one would believe a liar who consistently lies on a daily basis.
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since the caller brought it up, we want to bring out a story printed by the wall street journal earlier this week about the clinton email discussion that has been going on. this comes from the wall street journal. the state department identified 91 security violations by 38 review ofs whose classified information on former secretary of state hillary clinton's female server. the culmination of several years of work by the department found there was no proof or persuasive evidence of systematic deliver it mishandling of classified information by anyone in government, according to a copy provided tot senator chuck grassley of iowa, who would share it with the wall street journal. that thise concluded put state department information at a greater risk of compromise because a private server lacks the network monitoring and
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intrusion detection of state department networks. the report also found while there were some instances of classified information being inappropriately introduced into a classified system, by and large, the individuals interviewed were aware of security policies and did their best to implement them in their operation. none of the 38 individuals were named in the report. if any remain in government, the state department can take internal disciplinary action against them over the security lapses. they are unlikely to face any other penalties. let's go back to talking about your views on rudy giuliani. let's go to jeff, calling from new york city. jeff, good morning. caller: good morning, how are you? host: just fine, go ahead. aller: i want to continue discussion one of your previous callers had regarding the hypocrisy of the mayor. he certainly is a tough guy and it shows in some of his policies.
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i was a resident of new york city at the time he was mayor. i will give you one issue, for example. he wanted to sell the new york toy public library system barnes and noble. that is his idea of civic engagement. two, there was an item in the news at the time, he pressured a commissioner of the brooklyn building department to aw, zoning the l law or building code law on a project for a financial contributor to his campaign. at the time, he was clashing with one of his police commissioners because the police commissioner finally made it to the cover of time magazine or newsweek and he could not stand the fact that the police commissioner had to do with the reduction in crime. whatever his positives or negatives, the fact of the matter is that new york city in the 1990's, certainly in the late 1980's, was one of the centers of drug fueled civic
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the nationwide drug epidemic had a lot to do with the crime in the country and in the city of new york. that's all i have to say right now. host: jeff, were you in new york city when giuliani was mayor? caller: yes i was. host: did you support him for mayor? caller: no, i voted for jenkins twice. many people do not remember that rudy giuliani actually ran for president in 2008. let's look at one of his campaign ads he put out during his presidential run. [video clip] >> right before september 11 and right before i had read this book about the greatest the book explains how great and how persistent and how courageous the people were in the generation that won the second world war. during the day of september 11, living through the things that i saw and observed immediately, when i saw people helping each other, the picture of the firefighters putting the flag children,are the
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grandchildren, great-grandchildren of the greatest generation. they have the same resolve and same understanding. and you challenge the united states, there is nothing that stands a better than the united states of america. the islamic terrorists are making a terrible mistake if they confuse our democracy for weakness. our democracy means we disagree with each other, but when you try to take away from us our freedom, when you try to come here to kill our people, one, we are going to stand up to you and we are going to prevail. i'm rudy giuliani and i approve this message. host: let's look at some of our social media followers and see what they think about rudy giuliani. calls one text that says, giuliani a fine, upstanding american patriot. another says he is a criminal and i have no idea how the new york bar association can let him keep performing criminal acts in foreign countries and not revoke his license to practice. brilliantlysays
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smart lawyer, but the man needs to shut his fat new york mouth. one more that says the greatest mayor of new york and personal lawyer to the greatest president of the united states of america. let's go back to our phone lines and let's go to ted, calling from irving, texas on the republican line. good morning. caller: hello, how are you doing? host: just fine. go ahead, ted. caller: i think giuliani is a patriot and a fighter, and that is what he has in common with trump. i think there is a lot of propaganda that goes on, and the people that cannot understand the difference between truth and fiction, they have been brainwashed and, you know, people like that, all i can say is the road to hell is paved with good intentions, but you know what? it ain't going to work. to elizabeth,
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calling from staten island, new york city. good morning. good morning. yes, ted i think you should go online and do a little bit of homework. i was in the neighborhood where mr. eric garner was killed by an officer. i love my neighborhood and my i love my neighborhood and my community and new york city. giuliani, if you look up online goresmanhings, like louima, and investigations by the hague, he was being looked into right before 9/11 happened. that saved his career, like many he deserves to
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be in prison. he is proving himself to be andsonous, quite honestly, the mayor before him, jenkins, he was a great mayor. he was doing great things for our city and your caller who it doesically much of come down to racism is absolutely true, and you can go online, you can look up the past history of giuliani and before 9/11, he was almost going to prison. that former mayor giuliani is going to be a constant figure in the upcoming 2020 election. in a story printed by politico, it points out that giuliani is going to be used by democrats as
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a foil against president trump. bit of that little story. america's mayor is now a punchline, fundraising tool, and political shield for joe biden. with rudy giuliani emerging as trump's of donald starcrossed operation to dig up dirt on biden in ukraine, the former vice president is using the former new york mayor turned presidential fixer in a different capacity, as a foil in his own efforts to fight back against trump's relentless attacks. ukraine agreements backfired so badly that the president faces impeachment and associates were federally indicted last week and accused of hatching a legal campaign finance games connected to the plan. then came the arrest that reinforced biden's giuliani strategy -- they just got arrested with one-way tickets out of the country, biden told
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donors thursday night. they've been indicted. they've been indicted. biden's newfound focus on giuliani is part of his ramped up approach. biden called for impeachment last week and aggressively attacked the president on what his campaign believes are major vulnerabilities -- corruption and dishonesty. let's go back to our phone lines and talk to spence, calling from clarksburg, west virginia on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning to you all. they are allhat looking for is an washington, d.c. in the democratic convention, sitting right there beside nixon's watergate machine, where they took the tapes from watergate. giuliani will be considered a traitor when this thing is over. in the beginning of the election, he came on television and told all of us that he had the dirt on hillary, we have friends in the fbi office in new
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york city that held back on examining the computer and used it for an excuse. congresser did go to and report in person on what he had read 11 days before the election. in six days he found it to be nothing because he had already seen it. out and got out before the election. he will be found to be involved in the election. i thought at one time, i did not know him personally, but at the time with the 9/11 issue i thought he conducted himself properly. but this is all coming together. it is sad. this is a dark day for our country. he is not following the laws, he just does what he wants to, and that is not a president. god bless you all and have a good day.
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ss,t: let's talk to je calling from akron, ohio on the independent line. good morning. caller: yes, there are a few things i want to say and i will say them quickly and get it out of the way. one thing people need to remember, if you are a whatician, i do not care level, from low-level or up, you do not deserve to be a politician. sheila,t's go to calling from greenville, pennsylvania on the democratic line. good morning. ,aller: well, mayor giuliani people seem to forget -- i remember a scandal before 9/11. he is morally bankrupt, just like trump. i remember a big scandal between him and his wife and his mistress and giuliani moved his mistress in the hall with his wife and children?
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scandal, then 9/11 hit, and i thought at that point wow, what a man. morally bankrupt. wow, what a man, morally bankrupt, just like trump. let'sgo to bill -- host: go to bill, calling from jacksonville on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning to you. basically, when giuliani first started investigating the ukraine, he was doing it as trump's lawyer, right along with the mueller investigation, correct? host: correct, bill. caller: pardon? host: go ahead. giuliani'sways, original investigation of the ukraine was going on alongside the mueller investigation because trump is his clients.
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and he ended it in march, there were politicians and the ukraine, that information they wanted to get to the fbi and doj, but nobody would accept it, so they gave it to giuliani. because the fbi would not accept the information and at this point, nobody trusted the fbi or the doj because it had been so politicized under the obama administration. now all that is happening is the mainstream media is trying to tear down rudy giuliani and every caller before me is just parroting mainstream media talking points. giuliani is one of the most respected prosecutors in this country's history. one of the most respected mayors
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in this country's history. i mean, all this is is russia gate 2.0. has beenolph giuliani one of the major spokesman for president donald trump on the news throughout his presidency. here is one of the major things that rudy giuliani said about president trump and one of his scandals on fox news. here is what he said. [video clip] >> isn't that closer to the mandate and michael: cohen?ate than michael having to pay some stormy daniels woman $130,000, which is going to turn out to be perfectly legal. that money was not campaign money -- i am giving you a fact now that you don't know -- it was not campaign money. no campaign finance violation. >> they funneled it through a law firm.
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they funneled it through a law firm and the president repaid it. oh, i did not know he did. there is no campaign finance law. zero, for the president. >> everybody was nervous about this from the very beginning. i wasn't. knew how much money donald trump put in the campaign -- $130,000? he is going to put a couple checks of $130,000. i heard of cohen retainer for $135,000 when he is not doing any work for the president, that is how he is repaying it, with profit and a little margin for paying taxes for michael. >> did you know that the president did not know about this? this? >> he did not know about the specifics of it as far as i know, but he did know about the general arrangement that michael would take hair of things like this, i take care of things like this for my clients. i do not burden them with everything will thing that comes along. these are busy people. host: let's go back and look at
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more of our social media followers and what they think about rudolph giuliani. here is one that says giuliani was hired to be donald trump's personal lawyer. has nothing to do with the government. another one that says mayor giuliani fights hard for the usa, currently he is fighting the deep state and corrupt democrats in congress. they are fighting him back and it is a tough and fast -- nasty fight. don't vote for democrats. another one that says giuliani was once a good prosecutor and mayor. he has since lost his mind. the things he has done for trump are questionable at best and illegal at worst. politicians lawyers have no place doing foreign policy. another, the trump administration contaminates everyone who chooses to trade their integrity for an opportunity to get close to power. rudy giuliani, like my congressman kevin mccarthy, have
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abandoned american values to become an -- a trump sycophant. it really is true, everything trump touches, dies. let's go to andrew from florida, republican line. good morning -- oh, it seems like we lost andrew. i want to make sure andrew is ok, because we are having weather problems in florida is mine. let's go to lynn, calling from wisconsin on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning. this thing up to his ears, and everyone wants to get him out of there. got 19 businesses and two trump towers in turkey, and now he is pushing for the g7, which he will probably make the putinn he gets old
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over here. people ought to put a stop to this. it is something else. all he does is line his pockets. thank you. orlando,'s go to calling from the bronx in new york. good morning. caller: i grew up in new york, i still live in new york, and i remember when giuliani was mayor and some of the things giuliani has in common with our president -- one, giuliani's father was a member of organized crime and our president's father was a kkk far as crime in new york, i remember when giuliani had the police rioting down in city hall only because he did not want to pay for the payroll of someone who had been killed. the price of rent right now in due to giuliani, in
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his words said, you have no legal right to housing. as expensive as it is because of giuliani and followed up by bloomberg. thank you. host: let's go to john, calling from turtle creek, pennsylvania on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning, c-span. thanks for taking my call. i'd like to make a comment that really giuliani is an american hero. -- rudy giuliani is an american hero. everything that is being done to him right now is being brought on by the deep state in washington. they are the holdovers from obama, just like visio you whistleblower -- this yo-yo whistleblower who has second and third hand knowledge. what rudy is doing as his personal attorney, he is investigating into what the
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house should definitely be investigating into now, but they are too busy trying to impeach a president on just hearsay. they have no proof of any wrongdoing and if anybody has watched this week, the gentleman that testified on tuesday that was brought in to these special hearings that nobody can get into and nobody can know what is going on, but it leaked out that that gentleman went to vice president biden specifically. he was from the state department. bident vice president personally to bring up his son and what a problem it was with his son being involved with this. what did the vice president do? nothing. he blew him off and did not do anything. so just let everybody take this little comment and let it sink in deep.
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barr isgoing on, ag investigating and durham is investigating. when those reports come out and you guys see this goes all the way up to the president of the united states, barack obama, and his corrupt administration, it is going to destroy the democratic party because who would want to be a democrat after they find out what these people did? host: michael caruth and political magazine wrote about the relationship between trump and giuliani earlier this week. t what he wrote -- the relationship of trump and giuliani and estimation of those who know them well have always been a predominantly transactional one. most of them vengeful and constitutionally on trusting. interesting visual and resume the unapologetic.
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ideologically malleable, but a shaman -- show n's sensibilities and a willingness to co-opt each other same as their careers rose and fell. each retained residue about her bro resentment. giuliani born in brooklyn and raised on long island, trump a product of an enclave. they both seemed to see public together sort of sustenance. the above had a taste for black and white, law and order partnerships. let's go to kathleen in new york. good morning. rudy giuliani was a terrible x mayor of new york city, and his administration party was to shut and helegal strip clubs, lost everything to an adulterer.
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i believe x mayor -- ex-mayor giuliani is a fraud and not qualified to speak on behalf of the united states in any capacities concerning quid pro quo. thank you. host: let's talk to joe, who lives in laurel, new york. first of all, tell us where , new york is. cityr: i lived in new york for about 35 years and i lived through many different mayors. york,giuliani saved new and i do not understand why, why african-americans in new york city have it in for ruby. blacked many neighborhoods from drugs, guns, prostitution. he cleaned up 42nd street, times square, you can look at it. go look at it today.
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he was a hero during 9/11 and, say what you want, but rudy giuliani is a standup citizen, a standup gentleman. thank you very much. host: let's talk to charlie, herkimer, new york. go ahead, charlie. the woman earlier from new york city that said the mayor prior to giuliani did wonderful things for the city. let me give you the reality. a liberal black mayor could not win reelection in the city where democrats outnumber republicans 20 to one. that is how bad jenkins was. go to beverly, calling from columbia, missouri on the democratic line. beverly, good morning. caller: good morning.
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first of all, the paper said giuliani wanted investigation that was given to him? it was given to him by a russian oligarch who associated, was at the top with putin. this man is a crook, just like john all day trump -- donald j. trump. the state department has been out, they got rid of out, they got rid of all of them. as far as obama's leftovers, he's done gotten rid of all of obama's leftovers. obama was a much better president than this man. at least he was an out here taking food stamps and going after social -- he was not out here taking food stamps and going after social security to protect the rich.
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host: let's go to rosanna from new york, democratic line. caller: yes, good morning. hello? host: go ahead. -- host: go ahead. caller: i'm calling because i do not like giuliani. he is a problematic person to me, he always has been. and why in the world is he working for donald trump as well, another crook? i have no idea. bothly hope is that they go through inherent contempt, both of them, because they need to be in jail. they are not representing the country, they are not representing the american people, and i am hoping that the people that listen to all of these things that trump has been doing and continue to do, that they will remember this when they go to the voting box and make their choice.
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actually did a poll about rudy giuliani back in 2018. with this poll, we can see how opinions of him have risen and fallen. keep in mind, this poll is coming from 2018, but we can see back in 2004, he had a 65% favorability rating, which in 2007. 77% keep in mind, he ran for president in 2008 and we saw his favorability start dropping around that time, between 2007 and 2008 to where it is around 45% in 2008. skip to today. today, his favorability rating hisoday, in 2018, favorability ratings have dropped to 32% while his on --orability -- hia
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nfavorable ratings are now at 45%. you can see the american relationship with rudy giuliani has gone up and down since 2004. let's see if we can get a few more calls in before the end of the hour. let's go to kimberly, calling from washington, pennsylvania on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. i am to the point where the hypocrisy is overflowing. we have rudy giuliani being, what, basically crucified because he is doing what the fbi and doj and none of the other so-called protective agencies are supposed to do? the did not want any of information. last i knew, the ukraine is not russia.
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in ukraine are still investigating biden, but at the same time, all of this stuff we are reading in the news as well as what the democrats wanting to investigate the president, his son, everyone in his family for absolutely nothing. it is just amazing. elijah,t's go to calling from new orleans, louisiana on the democratic line. elijah, good morning. caller: when i was about 18 to 19 years old in new orleans, i heard a comment about donald trump taking money from russia when rudy giuliani was the mayor. it is amazing how people always forget and never want to speak the truth. fox news, cnn news, they both spread too much hatred that divides the country. just tell the truth about ronald
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trump -- donald and rudy giuliani and you will be fine. let's go to richard, calling from louisville, kentucky on the republican line. good morning. it say yes, what does about our fbi, the state department, and all these other agencies when the duly elected president of the united states cannot trust the people in these administrations ? you've got to take a man that he knows he can trust, rudy giuliani, to go over and find out what in the world has barack obama done to this country? barack obama has been behind all this crap to get rid of the duly elected president of the united states and here is my prediction -- donald trump will be the 2020 president-elect of the united states of america. go, president trump. thank you. host: let's go to james, calling from lawrence, massachusetts on
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the democratic line. good morning, james. caller: i have to say, i think what is going on here this morning is the most ridiculous thing i have ever seen c-span pull. you are trying to totally do a character assassination on rudy giuliani. when was the last time you had a show on james clapper or john brennan were bob and andy's -- menendez.-- or bob hunter biden was a crackhead who married his dead brother's wife -- this is ridiculous you are worried about rudy giuliani. have beend cia backstabbing everybody all along -- this is ridiculous. what about tony podesta, jesse? it is getting ridiculous that c-span has to try to do this to do a character assassination on somebody. host: let's thank all of our
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colors for calling in this morning. coming up, an update on the gm strike and state of the unions in the united states with ian kullgren of politico. later, we will talk with author bradford kane about his book "pitchfork populism." we will be right back. ♪ campaign 2020 bus team is traveling across the country, visiting key battleground states in the 2020 presidential race, asking voters what issues they want presidential candidates to address during the campaign. >> an issue to me that is the
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most important in the 2020 election is the climate crisis. i'm electing to call the climate crisis or the crime emergency to express the urgency of the matter. according to the famous report we have only 11 years to deal with the issue. we need to understand 11 years is not a lot of time in a historical or political context. this is absolutely an emergency. we have to be dealing with this right now. -- something we want presidential candidates to be talking about is the second amendment. i agree with the gun control thing. if something is being done on the black market, why do they want to take our guns away? what are they want to take away -- why do they want to take away from the civilians of this country and disarm us? >> i would like the candidates
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to address how to revitalize international solidarity and the trade union movement across , and also where they stand on the former president of brazil. >> education. our kids are being left behind and an education tells you you have to do this and do that, but no funding available. then the taxpayers have to come up with it. from the campaign trail, part of c-span's battleground states tour. "washington journal" continues. host: we are back with ian kullgren, politico employment and immigration reporter, and we will talk about the uaw strike in the future of unions in america. tell us what is going on right
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now with the gm uaw strike. guest: the strike has been going on for more than a month. a lot longer than folks thought it would. last week there was a tentative agreement reached between the uaw negotiator and gm. that was subject to a vote to but now itresidents, is the big test, which is the members. members are the ones that have to approve this. now it is up to them to review it and see if it is acceptable and accept or reject it. host: how many members get to vote? does everybody in the union vote? does everybody who works at the plant, are they all union members? tell us about the union itself and what the process will be. guest: the strike affects 50,000 workers across a number of plants in multiple states. the uaw is headquartered in
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detroit and this has been affecting michigan and areas of the midwest more than other areas, but at this point, it is up to union members to review that deal and see whether it is something they think is acceptable and whether it is something they can live with. it is not a guarantee. four years ago, we had autoworkers rejected deal from fiat chrysler. they made their negotiators come back to the bargaining table and iron out a few things with fiat chrysler in that case. it is not a rubberstamp. it is very much a real debate, very much a real vote. from the folks i have talked to this process, it is uncertain whether it will pass. there are no guarantees. host: to pass, doesn't need a ,ajority, a two thirds vote what is the margin it needs to be accepted?
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if the vote goes the other way, what happens if the members do not accept the agreement? guest: if the vote goes the other way it is a popular rejection of what negotiators had come up with. gm, after this month of back and forth. there would be sticking points, they would go back to gm and say our members do not like a, b, and c. we need to find a middle ground on these issues. one big thing that might be affecting it is the closures of three plants that remain in effect under the deal, including lawrence town, ohio, which has become a symbol of the decline of manufacturing and something that has raise the ire of president trump. he has tried to get gm to reopen it, on -- unsuccessfully. wondering what is
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negotiated in the deal to offset the loss of lawrence town and the other plants. host: sometimes we look at the strikes and do not see real-world consequences. how are americans, beyond the gm workers, affected by the strike? we know gm workers are fighting for salaries and benefits. how does the strike affects people outside of gm's orbit? guest: that is a great point and a great question. general motors is affected. they've been losing billions and billions of dollars from the strike. around $100 million every day the strike goes on. that has ripple effects throughout the economy. not only does the price of cars go up, but it has ripple effect to other goods and other sectors of manufacturing. on the other side effect point, i will point out, one thing the
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unions always emphasize and point out is these collective bargaining agreements can set a standard for an industry on pay, on benefits, on a bunch of other things that can translate to other industries and can ultimately help other workers, at least that is the argument and what we have seen throughout history. host: today would be day 34 of the strike. it would make it among the longest, if not the longest -- if not thee longest strike since 1970. what is the origins of the strike? guest: several months ago, leading up to september, we had negotiations going on between gm and the uaw. those were unsuccessful by the time the deadline started. by the deadline to strike. the uaw goes on strike.
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at that point it is round-the-clock negotiations between gm and the uaw. two of the sticking points -- number one was health care. it is very much tied into this national debate we are having about health care. employees to pay a higher percentage of the health care they were receiving. there was also the issue about temporary workers, where there was a separate pipeline of work outside the normal gm structure, where workers could come in and work in the plants, but they would not receive the same pay, the same benefits, that full-time uaw workers would receive. that was something that raise becauseof the union they saw as this permanent temporary workforce that could be taken advantage of. one of the big goals, and at this point they were successful, was to raise the conditions for
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people and set an equilibrium with the other employees there already. host: with these temporary workers have been union members were they have been nonunion members? guest: right. the temporary workers, part of the argument of the uaw is the temporary workers could come in and be laid off and hired back. there was a pathway for them to workers on the same status as everybody else, but the uaw would often argue there were too many loopholes and it was too easy for the company to exploit those loopholes. host: lets remind our viewers they can become part of the conversation. we will open up regional lines. if you live in the eastern and central time zone, your phone number to call will be (202) 748-8000. if you live in the mountain and pacific time zones, your number
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is (202) 748-8001. since we are talking about the up am strike, we will open special line for union members. we want to know what you think about the uaw strike. weyou're a member of the uaw want to hear from you. your telephone number will be (202) 748-8002. once again, union members, we want to hear from you at (202) 748-8002. ian, you mentioned president trump was upset with gm for the closing of a plant in ohio. what has been the white houses role in the strzok -- what has been the white house's role in the strike? have they had a role? guest: we reported last month the white house was trying to negotiate a deal that put it on the side of the uaw by trying to pressure gm to reopen the plant because it would be seen as a clinical victory for the
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president. -- a political victory for the president. we know the white house and the uaw were not successful in reopening that plant. ,e were told that peter navarro the president's trade and manufacturing advisor, was working behind the scenes to facilitate the conversation to try to reach an agreement between the sides, ideally one that would reopen the plant. host: we know there is no resolution yet, even though the sides are back at the bargaining table and there is a ratification agreement out there. what lessons can other unions take from the strike? is there anything here other unions can repeat or do unions learn something they should not do from this 34 day strike? guest: the prevailing wisdom right now is it is not a clear win for either side. it was a good deal for the uaw.
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they got a number of things they wanted. gm also got some things it wanted. the issue here is the strike itself. if you go back to 2018, go back to last year, you saw these teachers strikes in three states that captured national headlines for weeks. now we have one of the longest strikes in the history of the uaw. the longest and nearly half a century. what we are seeing is unions are more willing to pull the trigger ,nd exercise the nuclear option what they are guaranteed by the laws of the united states, which is they can strike and collectively bargain. i think we are seeing more and more unions seeing the benefit of turning to that option to stand together to try to do something when nothing else seems to be working.
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we will let our viewers join in the conversation. let's start with james, calling from fredericksburg, virginia. caller: good morning. please talk about the debt gm has and talk about the care that of health the individuals want a greater deal. let's talk about how much they actually pay, percentagewise and what is the standard in the nation for what an employee would pay and what the employer pays, and then let's talk about what will happen to gm because of the debt they have. they have an incredible debt that is so far out there it is incredible. host: go ahead. guest: certainly, trade is a big issue. we have both sides trying to get
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the usmca passed, reach a deal on that. host: what is the usmca? guest: it is the trade agreement to replace nafta. something, the debt and the cost of doing business is something gm has talked about a process,ghout this because they have blamed some of the president's policies on steel and aluminum tariffs, making it harder for them to do business. the company bottom line in that sense it something that has been at play. to answer james's question directly, the union members under the current deal do not have to pay anymore for health care than they were previously, which the union considers to be a big win for them and something they wanted outside of these negotiations. host: let's go to michael,
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calling from california. good morning. understanding of the situation is that the average uaw worker under this collective bargaining agreement makes close to $100,000 a year with overtime. disengaged in are these labor disputes because most americans, almost 90% of americans, are not part of a collective bargaining agreement, they are not a member of a union. they sit on the sidelines and watch this thing play out. they do not understand how it affects them in terms of the price of cars or the price of auto parts, etc. it is an isolated situation that only affects the uaw members and management. if the use of
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strikes is an effective bargaining tool anymore, and i think a lot of americans look at it and say this is the reason why these companies like gm decide to move their operations overseas, to avoid these kinds of situations. host: go ahead and respond. guest: that last point is certainly an argument that folks on the right often used. it is something going back to , it has been the subject of trade negotiations going on now. as for the pay aspect, the agreement would provide for about $32 an hour, which translates to about $66,000 a year as a baseline for all autoworkers. i cannot speak to the overtime piece. i'm sure that will be a factor. that is something gm also considers a win in this deal
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, in places like ohio and michigan, where i am from where there a lot of auto plants, that is a good middle-class living and it goes a long way. they consider that a major victory. host: one of the things the caller brought up was union membership in the united states. we know union membership has gone down over the last three decades or so. guest: very true. host: why do you think union membership has gone down and you see a possibility of that trend reversing? guest: the decline in union membership has been a long-running trend. in 1980, about 20% of the american workforce was unionized. last year it was about 10.5%. it is half. that is something the unions are trying to get their hands around and grapple with. how do we fix that? the public-sector unions were
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not helped last year when the conservative majority on the supreme court said they cannot collect mandatory fees for collective bargaining from their members. the supreme court said that was a first amendment issue, it was forced political speech, it had been unconstitutional for a long time. despite that effort, my colleagues and i reported that some public sector union theership was actually up same year in the year after the supreme court decision. most of the unions had more money and it is largely because they put more resources and more time into organizing more workplaces, new places, making sure they educate their members about what they see as the benefits of staying in the union, and all of that boots on the ground effort has a real cumulative effect. that was a lesson they took away over the past year that going forward we will see a lot more
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of. ,ost: let's talk to donald calling from michigan. good morning. caller: good morning. i just turned 80 years old. industry inrking in 1959, when i was quite young. uaw, i workedthe in the iaw. i was in the teamsters for a short time. i went into supervision and a number of manufacturing plants. when the labor union first started, unions were very badly needed, and the way the workers were treated was horrible. working conditions were terrible. then after world war ii, the had the main
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manufacturing in the entire world. the unions were quite powerful. firsthandi've seen was that way too many cases, they encourage their workers not to work. stewards telling them that forming cannot tell you what to do, and so forth. i went through two strikes with two companies. one was 11 weeks and one was 14 weeks. happened in, these late 1960's and 1970's, in both cases the unions do not get a thing. the manufacturing companies would either move out, at that time they would move south, now they go to mexico and so forth. the companies have to survive. yes, unions do a lot of good. they are badly needed, but they overdid it.
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host: go ahead and respond. aest: i am delighted we have union member with so much experience calling into the show. that is wonderful. i also love ludington, i grew up fishing there. a wonderful place to be. host: fishing for what kind of fish? , but lakemon, mostly trout, too. salmon are not as easy catch catch as they used to be in lake michigan. ludington is a wonderful town. to, so im a fisher wanted to know. guest: the pollard touched on -- the caller touched on a long-running debate about who is responsible for the collapse of manufacturing. it is one i grew up around, it is one that has been going on for a long time, about whether the unions did overdo it at some
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point throughout their history and throughout this process of trying to get better deals for their members. that isa balancing act difficult to achieve. certainly brought up salient points about his experience. it was great hearing from him. host: we have another union member on the line. this is paul calling from yuma, arizona. caller: good morning. a couple of items. one is i would like you to bring up executive pay, the white collar pay. the floor guys used to make about one 40th of what the executive pay was, now it is 400th./ you cannot blame it all on the union members. another factor is that in the
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1930's and the 1940's when the unions were fighting for a foothold, once they gained it and wages started rising for the middle class, it affected every worker. everybody's wages went up because the union wages went up. without that, the white collar executive branch of every manufacturing, they would be totally in charge and we would still have some of the atrocities for the workers we used to have pre-union days. people need to think about that. host: go ahead and respond. guest: i am glad the caller brought up the issue of rising wages for everybody. he encapsulated well the argument unions have, the reasoning unions have about why people should care about strikes like this in the overall economy. their view is when you have a wage floor like that, it does set a baseline and it can set a baseline for an entire industry.
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that can spread to other industries. that is a very real thing. in the first flint sit down strike, the employees were able to win a race of five cents an hour, which is about a dollar an -- in 201919 dollars. the rising wages are the center of the discussion. they have been at the center of the discussion about how we balance our relationship with mexico and canada when we trade with them. it is one of the reasons the democrats, before they sign on to this new trade deal, are trying to make sure there is an way they can monitor employees union rights in mexico , to keep that even playing field. gallup did a poll asking
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americans whether they approved or disapproved of labor unions. over the years, we can see how the numbers fluctuating. it was up to 64% approval for labor unions in 2019, versus 32% disapproval of labor unions in 2019. why do you think that is? why do you think the approval of labor unions, we have seen it going up since 2009? why do you think approval is going up? guest: i did see that paul and it is a fascinating one. 64% is a big deal. if you're a politician and you had a 64% approval rating, that would be considered a big success. i'm sure the president would love to have a 64% approval rating right now. the key thing you said there was 2009. if you look at the trend, it has gone up since the great recession. that can benk
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overstated. with thevetailed rising skepticism of corporate leadership we have seen, both on the left and the right. bernie sanders and elizabeth warren encapsulate that well. it is something, in the wake of the great recession, people are thinking a lot more about and thinking about how to stand up for workers and thinking about how that should be done. i think in the context of the economy writ large, these questions about unions are part and parcel to that. in the wake of a recession like we had, it is natural and expected that people would be thinking more about that question. washington, so politics are included in everything. we saw earlier this week that
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the working family party, according to politico, the working family party endorsed elizabeth warren over bernie sanders. what are the unions places in this upcoming presidential election? specifically, the democratic race for the democratic nomination? what place will the unions play? will they have a place in this debate? guest: they will certainly have a place if they want one, but the question is whether they will want one. part of the dynamic we have seen so far is that unions burn themselves in 2016 by jumping out early and endorsing hillary clinton without fully the undercurrent of support for bernie sanders among some of their membership. he was speaking directly to them and talking a lot about the issues they cared about.
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it put some of these union leaders in an awkward place with their membership, and they received backlash. in 2020, a lot of what we are seeing is unions recalibrating the way they do endorsement, to where it is not just executive leadership. there is some element of a direct vote among membership. a lot of them are waiting, or some have told me they may not endorse at all and let the chips fall where they may in the democratic primary, and then spend their efforts trying to defeat president trump in the general election. ant: bernie sanders got endorsement from the united electrical radio and machine workers of america. rare union endorsement. do you expect any other unions to jump out in the democratic race for the nomination, or do you expect them all to sit back and wait to see who wins? guest: we have not seen any ,igns any of the major unions
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uaw, teachers, afl-cio, united food and commercial workers, the big dogs, we have not seen any evidence they are chopping out to endorse anybody, which is why that bernie sanders endorsement was noteworthy. cycle, thatelection would not of made the headlines. because that union endorsement was so rare, it was something they could hold up. i think we will see a lot of caution, certainly waiting until iowa, new hampshire, super tuesday to get out there and endorse anybody, if at all. host: let's see if we can get more quick calls in. patrick is calling from california. good morning. caller: good morning. i was a member of the hollywood union for years and years. this all started with globalization and the fact -- globalization did not happen to get us cheaper socks, it was to get slave labor.
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a lot of our jobs disappeared overseas because the unrealistic expectations of probability at the top demanded they feed their stockholders over the workers. that they feed the top and not the middle. that is why the middle class disappeared. without unions, we would barely make our wages. they tell us unemployment is not a problem in this country, but underemployment is still a tremendous problem in this country. $66,000 a year will not take care of your family, even in those places, very well, unless your wife works, too. host: go ahead and respond. guest: the issue of underemployment is something economists have been talking about for the past few years. there has been a lot of discussion about, especially on the left, and a point of lot of folks on the left make is that the unemployment rate the
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president touts as being historically low may be true, but what kind of jobs are those people having? are they good jobs? they have good benefits? do people have to work more than one job westmark in many -- more than one job? in this day and age many people do have more than one job. that conversation has been central to unpacking the president's claim and his pitch for reelection that the economy is the best it has been a long time. when you dig into the data a little more, there are a lot of different ways to read it and interpret it. the underemployment issue is one that has been central to that. call from lorenzo from louisiana. good morning. caller: good morning. my comment is about without the unions, if you live in one of these right to work states, they can fire you at will.
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also these carmakers are making so much money off of one car, i do not see why people will not get behind these unions. will be paying the same wages they are paying in mexico. also with the union, you get good insurance and you get protection because you can get an attorney with the union. i think these guys that went on strike, they said more people should join these unions to have some type of protection. that is my comment. host: thank you. he brought up right to work states. we will show a quick list of some of the right to work states in the united states. do you see more states adopting right to work, or do you see unionization growing around the country? right to work is something that over the past
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several years has become more popular. , the capital of the auto industry, where the you will w -- where the uaw is located, passed a right to work law several years ago. right to work laws say people do not have to be a member of a union in order to work at a past. as they did in the they do not have to pay the collecting of bargaining dues. this creates a free rider effect where people can opt out. one thing we have noticed is that, at least michigan's right to work law certainly did not stop the union from going on strike and did not stop it from collective bargaining. there is probably going to be a lot of analysis and a lot of conversation about how the right to work law may have affected this strike, which is really the first major one we have seen
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since that states right to work law was passed. whether it is something the unions need to recalibrate their strategy towards. host: we would like to thank ian kullgren, politico employment and immigration reporter for talking to us about the uaw/gm strike. thank you so much. guest: thank you. host: coming up, we will pivot to campaign 2020. we want to get your calls about what is happening in the local campaigns. republicans, (202) 748-8000. democrats, (202) 748-8001. .ndependents, (202) 748-8002 you can always tweet us or reach us on social media. we will be right back. power in washington is like crack cocaine. once you get on it and you have
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it, you do not want to give it up. you will do everything to stop someone who is going to take your power away from you. 9:00 eastern on "afterwards, joe fox news legal and political analyst offers his thoughts on the robert mueller report and the interference -- and russian interference in the 2016 election. he is interviewed by the chair of the american conservative union. >> robert mueller should never have been special counsel. he was not honest with the president. he did not say to the president, by the way, i've agreed to be a special counsel to investigate you. he was not forthright. he was not honest and truthful to the president, which to me is unconscionable. >> watch "afterwards" sunday night on book tv on c-span2. campaign 2020
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coverage continues live today at 1:00 eastern. senator bernie sanders at a bernie's back rally in new york city. watch on c-span at any time on c-span.org, and listen wherever you are using the free c-span radio app. >> the house will be in order. for 40 years, c-span has been providing america unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court, and public-policy events from washington dc and around the country so you can make up your own mind. 1979, c-spanble in is brought to you by your local cable or satellite provider. c-span, your unfiltered view of government. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we will open up our phone
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lines and go back to the topic of campaign 2020. we want to know what you think about what is going on in the presidential races around the nation. .epublicans, (202) 748-8000 democrats, call (202) 748-8001. independents, your line is (202) 748-8002. and we always text us are always reading on social anwj andn twitter @csp on facebook. one of the major things that happened this week is the working families party endorsed elizabeth warren for president. let's look at a little bit of the story written by politico. the working family party endorses elizabeth warren for president on monday, delivering a victory for the massachusetts senator and a blow to her liberal rival, bernie sanders. senator warren strikes fear into the hearts of the robber barons who rake the system and offers
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hope to millions of working people who've been shut out of our democracy and economy, maurice mitchell, the national party director said in a statement. the endorsement, first reported by the york times, is bad news for sanders, a democratic-socialist who presents himself as a voice for the working class. last month, he won a rare union endorsement from the united radio, electrical, and machine workers of america. bernie sanders national political director was the executive director of the new jersey working families allowance. sanders in the vote of working family party members, gathering 61% of the vote compared to sanders 36%. have of the total vote share went to party leaders, and the other half to members who register their choice online. there are a couple of other things we will talk about. let's get a couple of calls in before we go. go to scott, who is calling from
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thomasville, georgia, on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you? host: just fine. caller: i want to comment on the media coverage of the campaign. i read yesterday that joe scarborough, who i've followed for years, made a reference and call trump supporters stupid and said they should have to stay away from blenders. i would like to know, when is the media going to say you crossed a line? what if someone had said that about obama followers, i think you would have outrage. the media needs to call him out on that. he should not call groups of people stupid. trump supporters are not stupid. they know that may be a lot of things are not true, but they support him. plenty of people, if you watch the debate the other night, the democrats definitely made a lot of lies. free health care, free
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education, free childcare and not bankrupt look country. thank you. host: let's go to john calling from fairfax, virginia. good morning. caller: good morning. my main problem with this election is that lying is becoming rampant in the republican party. facebook is allowing untrue postings that they could take down, but they will not. i think when you have a campaign based on lies and gullible people who believe them, then you're losing your democracy. let's stop the lies and let's be honest. thank you. dennis,t's go to calling from salem, oregon on the independent line. caller: i think people need to slow down and think about what fake news is doing to america. they are brainwashing america. that is how the democrats got the big blue wave. they just said bad trump, bad trump.
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people get up and go to work, they do not watch the news, they just here with the neighbor says. i think it is terrible, and i -- whene new should be they tell lies, they should be fined for telling lies. all cnn and everybody else has been doing. god bless america. thank you. host: there was another endorsement coming out this week , in fact i think it is coming out today. this is earlier this week in the "washington post." alexandria ocasio-cortez of new york, one of the most influential voices among liberals, plans to endorsed senator bernie sanders for president and appear with him at a rally on saturday, according to two people with knowledge of their plans. representative bill hanno mark, a number of member of the squad of four liberal congresswomen,
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also announced she was backing sanders. the endorsements were a political coup for sanders, who had been fading in the polls and faced growing questions about his age and health. before tuesday's democratic debate, he had been sidelined by the campaign trail for two weeks by a heart attack. on the phone we have a national political correspondent for the washington post, and he is going to preview bernie sanders rally today in new york city, where alexandria ocasio-cortez will endorse him. good morning. guest: good morning. thanks for having me. host: what we expect from the bernie sanders rally where he expects to get this endorsement? guest: we expect a gigantic crowd. this is the reason sanders picked this location. in 2016 he was getting gigantic crowds everywhere. he has not gotten that as much this time. he was focusing more on small
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but theyts events, want to officially reintroduce them to the campaign trail with a rally that will make people sit up and pay attention. i even noticed elizabeth warren had 4000 people at a rally in norfork, virginia. sandersupportive of drawing attention to how the venue could have fit more people. a little bit of krausman ship going on, all designed to say -- a little bit of crowdsmanship going on, i'll say this candidate is as active as ever and people should not be writing him off. host: this is the first major rally bernie sanders is holding since his heart surgery. the rally is called bernie is back. what they need to accomplish with this rally? guest: the crowd and the speech will take care of themselves as far as the campaign is concerned. bernie sanders is a consistent candidate. he does not use notes.
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he has been giving a speech, self -- some elements of which have not changed, he still talks about them. for people in new york, they will gather the usual names, the sign-ups for people to make phone calls and volunteer in new hampshire, and then for the image people will see around the , it will be a demonstration that this candidate who is the oldest candidate running, who has had a health care -- a health scare, that he should remain in the mix of candidates. i am not sure how convincing it will be to people who have written him off. i have been in iowa, and you found with people who voted for sanders before, they have all kinds of reasons they supported him in the past and are less interested this time. the sanders campaign is operating under a theory you can build a major grassroots movement of people who do not normally vote, working-class voters who find both parties to be pre-disgusting.
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mass mobilization like this is a big part of the strategy. saying if you sign up you are joining an already in progress mass mobilized movement. host: you broke the news that alexandria ocasio-cortez was going to endorsed senator sanders at the rally. why is her endorsement significant for him? guest: across europe or to started in -- alexandria ocasio-cortez started in politics i supporting bernie sanders. she was recruited to run by justice democrats, a group founded by veterans of the sanders campaign who had a theory that has been playing out more successfully than a lot of theories, that to change the democratic party you need to elect a beachhead of young left-wingers. alexandria ocasio-cortez with the most successful of that group. someone with no political experience who rush right into
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it. she had been courted by elizabeth warren and bernie sanders. she agrees more with policy on sanders. you dance with who brought you to the dance in this endorsement. bernie sanders has been proposing more left-wing policy, more in line with what alexandria ocasio-cortez has been focused on in congress. be is not somebody who will on his ticket, she is too young, but it is a booster shot to say people will tell you it is fractured, it is moving between different candidates, but we have the original here and you should stay with him. host: you said she was also courted by elizabeth warren. as senator warren or her campaign responded to this endorsement? guest: only to congratulate sanders. this came at an interesting time , where the warren campaign has
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been underestimated by a lot of people for a long time, less so in the last month. there was the idea over the summer that the left-wing vote in the democratic party is only so big, and it will be split between them, so they cannot choose one nominee. what elizabeth warren has done in the last few months is capture perhaps all of the sanders supporters she can capture with him in the race, and then expand with voters who chose hillary clinton last time, voters who consider sanders, and more radical voters compelled by her anticorruption messaging, which is little different from sanders. he has a different critique from capitalism than she does. she thinks she can set rules without disruption or a brand-new system. she has moved far ahead of him in support without reaching out to democratic-socialist like alexandria ocasio-cortez. card-carryingtwo
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democratic's of america in congress. that organization endorsed bernie sanders and made a point of saying it will not endorse anybody else. left that democratic is very active that will not endorse elizabeth warren in the primary. this endorsement emphasize that. host: how long can the two of them, considered to be the left-wing banner holders and the democratic presidential nomination race, how long can they coexist in this race? at one point is one of the other have to say it is not going to work? guest: it is determined by the early states. away fromut 106 days the iowa caucuses. there is a general sense you cannot get campaigns to talk
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about this, it is not their favorite subject, a general sense that if elizabeth warren were to win those two states, there would not be much of a path for bernie sanders. if elizabeth warren were to lose those states, especially if you , theno lose new hampshire she would probably lose her path forward in the race. there is going to be a confrontation, but not for 100 and some days in this election. a lot of campaigns deeply underrated her campaign, they assume that because of mistakes she was not going to catch on. she did catch on. she is a problem for cory booker and joe biden and for amy klobuchar. a lot of campaigns are trying to cut into her support, not just bernie sanders. host: national political correspondent for the washington post. we would like to thank him for talking to us about the bernie sanders rally.
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dave, thank you so much. guest: thanks a lot. oft: c-span's coverage bernie sanders rally in new york city will be on later today, beginning at 1:00 on c-span, c-span.org, and you can also listen on the free c-span radio app. let's go back to some of our callers and talk to mike, calling from beaverton, oregon on the republican line. mike, good morning. caller: good morning. can you hear me? host: go ahead. caller: the thing i was thinking president would be the last when i was thinking of voting for. he turned out to do not such a bad job. looking at his competition there, it seems as though is not any other choices.
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billy, callingto from brooklyn, new york, on the democratic line. caller: the last pollard said there was not any other choice apart from voting for trump. if you want social security and medicare, i think you should probably not vote for trump, since trump aims to spent 1.20 5 trillion less on medicaid. trump keeps undocumented migrant children caged. republicans want to indefinitely and notldren in cages give basic treatment to immigrants, letting them have a toothbrush, basic necessities. saye republican callers elizabeth warren and bernie
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sanders plans will bankrupt the country, but no one talks about how the republican tax cuts will bankrupt the country by reducing revenue, and 83% of the benefits going to the top 1%. if you want to have an oligarchic policy where you have 82% of benefits going to the top 1%, then vote for trump. if you want to have social security and some basic social safety net, then you should not vote for trump. host: let's go to dave, calling from georgia on the independent line. dave, good morning. caller: good morning. i want you to quit telling people good morning because then they take up time saying good morning. i'm going to stick to the things could when somebody calls, say go ahead please, thank you. goodbye. dion, calling to from gary, indiana. caller: how are you doing? i want to say how can you be
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sure that when you vote in 2020, the election will be fair? i wonder when we will all stop acting like we are all divided. we are all human beings. we should all get together. why is it that when what is going on in washington, the white-collar crime -- i think why they are doing the stuff they're doing is because when you sell drugs they give you 20 or 30 years, but when you give a white-collar crime, you get between one and two years. can you imagine doing one to two years selling drugs. then you can say the people in washington are almost committing treason. you say what about our democracy? shouldn't we be together, whether you are a trump fan or not? i did not vote for the man, but i want him to do right by people. to do right by the
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people. it does not matter what you have done in the past. we can compare him to richard nixon and other persons who have done wrong in the white house. what he is doing is nothing like no one has ever done before. thank you. you have a great day and a great year. linda, callingto from stanley, new york, on the republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. thatt want america to know this working people's party who everybody thinks is great, they are for elizabeth warren. years ago, they were known in new york as the communist party. becausenge the name communist party did not sound too good. i think trump is going to get reelected no matter what lies the left tells. to the guy about keeping kids in
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from, those pictures were the obama administration. that is all i have got today. thank you. host: senator warren spoke to some of her supporters in norfork, virginia yesterday. here is a bit on one of her ideas, the wealth tax. [video clip] >> here is the idea behind the wealth tax. your first $50 million is free and clear. i see people saying -- [laughter] you are in, you're good. people are saying i can do business with this woman. she is reasonable. first $50 million is free and clear. dollars,n and first you have to pitch in two sense. [laughter] cents on every dollar after that. just so everybody understands about a wealth tax.
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anybody own a home or crop with the family that owned a home? you've been paying a wealth tax. it is called a property tax. all i am doing different is for the guys were really rich is to sell your property taxes not just real estate, it is your stock portfolio, the diamonds, the rembrandt, and the yachts. [applause] here is the thing. i want us to do this, i want you to think about this. i'm not pushing a wealth tax because i'm cranky. or punitive or mean. poor billionaires. it is none of that. people who have built great fortunes -- understand, that $50 million threshold on assets, that is the top 1/10 of 1%.
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about 70,000 families in this country. that is all we are talking about. 1/10 of 1%. you build a great fortune in america. they say i got out there, i work hard, i stayed up late at night. unlike anybody else? [laughter] ok. you had a great idea, you caught the moment. if you built a great fortune in you built guarantee it at least in part using workers all of us helped pay to educate. who iset's go to danny, calling from denver, colorado, on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning. bernie sanders is the real mccoy. i wonder if anybody remembers walter brennan being the real mccoy? bernie sanders -- the last election i supported hillary clinton and i was very disappointed that she did not put bernie sanders on the ticket. i do not know if bernie sanders did not want to get on the
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ticket. i hope sanders and warrant do not make the same mistake. they need to combine together for the workers of america. workers need to join unions to protect their wages and to protect their benefits. sanders is at this campaign and platform for long time. senator warren is a great candidate, and she has had her beliefs for a long time. these people have stuck together -- have stuck to their beliefs and on their fight for a long time. the last time bernie sanders on an opportunity to be on the ticket, but they did not give it to him. i do not know if he did not accept it. these two want to work something out where they are on the ticket together so we have the real mccoy up there and he brings his platform, the democrats have accepted his platform for the last 10 years or so. he is a real candidate, so is
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senator warren, and they deserve each other to combine. do not do the same mistake hillary clinton did the last election. , calling's go to harry from oakland, maryland, on the republican line. caller: good morning. just real quick. i've been comparing take-home pay when the tax breaks came. $250fe and i saw between and $225 a month. $2000 extra a year, that meant a lot. it was a big help. when i hear somebody like elizabeth warren with this class envy, it makes me sick. the worst thing you can do is worry about what other people make. mood,l put you in a bad maybe things do not seem fair.
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i generally find you make what you deserve. you acquire whatever. why should i worry about what you make? as the host of c-span? that is between you and your employer. thank you. host: let's go to myron, calling from milwaukee, wisconsin, on the independent line. caller: i am calling about, i've not heard any of the democratic candidates talk about the immigration issue we are having in this country. we need to speak about it because what is going on in mexico is not a drug war everybody is talking about. it is terrorism. we have had cartels dragging a mayor at the end of a pickup truck. we had 14 police killed in mexico. a wall would not do anything to solve this problem. mexico even issued their army to help solve the situation because it is that dyer.
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i do not understand -- it is that dire. host: let's talk to mary calling from auburn, new york. say i: i just called to really don't care for the rhetoric and the bad language and the name-calling. also, i would like to know what the viewers think of president obama endorsing a minister who wore blackface many times. what message does this send? it's ok to wear blackface no matter how it hurts people. i would like to know what they think. host: coming up, we will talk , whoauthor bradford kane
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will talk about his new book, pitchfork populism. this week, we will explore the american story as we feature the history and literary life of toledo, ohio. tve is a clip from our offering this morning on c-span2. >> this comes amount in the summer of 1794 after george washington has negotiated for two years. we want the ohio river. we've got the backing of the british to stay out of our country forever. what sets george washington off is this place. when he is still negotiating with the indians, the british come down from detroit. they won't get off american soil.
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least theill see at remnant of therefore. they come down here. here to arming down and align with the indians. that upsets washington. negotiations failed. take your army and begin marching. don't go to the capital. come up toward the river and make a right and head for that british fort. somewhere between greenville and that fort, the indians will attack and you must win decisively and keep marching to that fort. take the fort. he was given quite an assignment. >> washington journal continues. host: we are back with author
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bradford kane. we will discuss his book, pitchfork populism, the forces that shaped and election and continue to change america. good morning. let's define populism. in the book, you talk about it as a movement of this engine -- disenchanted people who are motivated. is that populism? just alet me go back bit. there is a long history of populism in the united states. there has been economic populism. there was the populism of the 1800s. i would also note the progressive party, teddy roosevelt in 1912 had an amazing
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agendas it was a populist agenda. it was fascinating. it got enacted over many years. populism isform of not actually populism. normally, it's based on elevating the people, elevating the masses. in this particular case as was really inn 2016, it's the case of donald trump, he motivates his base to empower him rather than him empowering the masses. host: once the difference that youhe populism identify here and the populism from the past? is there a literal difference between the two? is trump taking advantage of something from the past and reshaping it for himself? is this completely new? guest: where there is
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consistency over the years is the level of the people. recognized inump 2016 was there were a lot of disaffected people, they felt from the economic crisis they had not elevated from the rubble of those years. there is discontent with both political parties. donald trump saw that. he used mention globalization and trade as part of the lever for that, as did bernie sanders. usingf them were different nuances. bernie sanders is focusing on billion ears. there is a similar route. the continuity between the 1800s and now, people are feeling discontent and disempowered and left out. they don't appreciate that and
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they make their voices known. is this next question, a republican thing or a democratic thing? does it cross party lines? guest: it's very much an american phenomenon. i talk about the different forces that distinguish the different trends in chapter one. national identity between individualism and rugged individual and -- individualism. there can be discontent and populist feelings on both sides for different reasons. host: you said there were 10 dynamics of politics and society. tell us what those are. guest: the first one that sets the groundwork for all 10 is the national identity question.
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we see that. it goes back to our colonial days. it's deeply rooted before the united states. it, therens through are demographics in terms of the racial composition evolving in the united states. there is the importance of policy. i discuss how a lot of leaders usually govern according to principal and policy. what we see now is something that is largely a matter of personality and psychology. of the other chapters talk about the evolution of media, the democratization of the political structure, trade and globalization, bipartisanship, a shift in voter behavior. that there is a big
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political divide in america right now. no one would disagree with that. is that new? is this political divide something that only occurred in the last few years? has it always been there? guest: i contend that it is all -- always been there. it is taking new forms. i am an advocate of empowerment and franchise meant and people participating in the process. at different stages in our history, different groups of become activated. right now, there is a particular group that has been dormant and found a voice and got involved and got engaged. that's great. others have become activated as a result of that. that is how we got the outcome in the 2018 midterms when we saw a counter reaction.
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do you still believe that today? we are the product of our life experience, our environment. from the time he came down the elevator as candidate donald trump, when he had the words about mexicans and mexican americans that upset so many people. he showed his colors. maya angelou said when someone tells you who they are, believe them. what we have seen since then, we can go through a long list of examples from charlottesville to the children in cages at the examples, many other
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that is something that seems to be his message. host: you called the election of a political earthquake. guest: it was a perfect storm. the economic crisis, the aftermath of that. there was disaffection with both political parties. there were feelings about the candidates. . number of factors combined it's important to note that according to reporting, donald trump didn't think he was going to win the election. he was surprised. the interesting thing is what happens going forward. i would contend that the population that became involved
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will remain activated and involved. so will other communities and demographics and constituencies. will it take the same form it's taking right now? i believe it will not. it would be foolish on the other hand to think this was just a chapter and we move on from it. everyone, we are all proud to be americans and all americans deserve to be respected. it would behoove anyone going forward to recognize political forces that are out there and speak to them in addition to other forces, not excluding some and unifying. host: you say that the population that has been activated, they will continue to be activated. are we talking about people who voted for president trump? they didn't vote before?
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you expect them to continue to vote now? what is that population? guest: i don't see it as a monolith. all, different people do different things for different reasons. basically, a lot of people were republicans for decades and will be. that's not really who i'm referring to there. i'm referring to what donald trump sought, disaffected people who thought they were ignored by both democrats and republicans. that they got involved, will they stop being involved? i don't think so. whether you are a democrat or republican, you need to be mindful that there are people who have these particular points of view or needs that need to be addressed. host: what impact do you see
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pitchfork populism having in the 2020 race? directly, whatou impact do you think it will have on the 2020 election? sure, the thing for need for unity and recognizing that we cast a wide net in the united states. that still doesn't mean you compromise values. it's possible to holger values while at the same -- hold your values while not excluding the concerns of other people. some of the people who were activated by donald trump have been calling for economic opportunity. there is a need for more job skills training in the united states. for recognizing the economy has shifted from what has been a generation earlier. we do have to do more in terms
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of making sure people have a route toward prosperity. host: let's let some of our collars join in. let's go to albert who is calling from chicago. good morning. caller: good morning. i would argue that the pitchforks that are out today are not the result of populism, but the result of demagoguery. tru populism did not produce pitchforks, it produces hope and a feeling of what can be achieved when we come together. that is my comment. that very much dovetails with my thought in terms of the national identity, individualism . on the -- it's very clear donald
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trump is on the individualism side of that and he is taken that to another level. being in the electorate, being a whatituent observing that, you are saying is part and parcel of that. individualism at one level is something -- i should say both individualism and collectivism are equally core elements of the american psyche and our history. when they go so far that it becomes transactional behavior and becomes consistent policy set forth and decisions are based on the whim of the individual who holds the keys, that's when what you are saying can result. that can be problematic.
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to a caller in palm desert, california. i am pretty sure i butchered your name. go ahead. i am with the republican party. i came to this country when i was very young. aboutmy education political people. i don't like the socialists. that is very close to commonness. this is the best country on the whole planet. i speak four languages. content with where we are now. i love this country. i love my american flag.
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i want president trump to finish the job. want outsiders, keepver really wanted to this. does with china and the middle east, i love the way he is working. guest: i think that's very important point about capitalism and socialism. it dovetails with the concept of digitalism -- individualism and collectivism. capitalism and socialism have been intertwined historically, going back hundreds of years. for people who strongly
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articulate the views of capitalism, many of them are also receiving medicare or oficaid or are beneficiaries cooperatives for their technology services or are getting veterans benefits or disability benefits. all of this is finding the right yes on theween capitalism site we want to make sure people have the opportunity to fulfill their dreams in whatever way and at the same time we have a social safety net. that is part of the american community. host: david is calling from pennsylvania on the independent line. caller: thank you for taking my call. him for thisnk essential book. mym sitting here with grandson.
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he is four months old. what is going to have the greatest impact on his life and his generation's life? guest: a combination of a number of things. this book was written out of patriotism. 2016, you we saw in could see in the united states there was a divide. throughple were going the stages of grief while others felt like they won a lottery ticket. it was a question of how we find a way to find some unity and establish some understanding of what's going on and be able to keep everything together. of my roots, in the
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beginning, i put forth a number of principles which are my core principles. there is no such thing as anyone person being objective. we are all impacted by her own life experiences. i put forward what my guiding principles are in there. host: the book is called pitchfork populism. why open court -- why "pitchfork?" guest: i was sharing the concerns of the people who became activated. the manifestation of the concerns brought to mind when you see certain rallies or epitaphs being thrown for people get nullified, it
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creates an image of the frankenstein movie, where you see people gathering with its forks and torches to storm the castle. that would be the image behind it. who iset's go to ann calling from maine. caller: i want to talk about ballot box populism. i want to talk about voter suppression. i would like to give a shout out to four directions, they empower native americans and helps them claim their voting rights. you can inspire, you can do all of these wonderful things. you can register voters. at the end of the day, the republicans absolutely are lawless from county clerks up to
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the supreme court. they are disenfranchising americans. that's not only suppressing the vote of people who want to vote arere registered, people targeted and don't bother to register. when the head of the league of women voters, which is a nonpartisan group, has her own name stricken from the ballot republicans, we are in serious trouble. proceeds from the bulliesf the maga hat at trump rallies to the head of this iseme court,
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disenfranchising voters and being lawless. it's a problem. there is a long ugly history in the united states of exclusion from voting of , thething from poll taxes jar of jelly beans from a long time ago. more recently, it's quite disturbing in contradiction of the voting rights act. there are a number of states that have passed restrictions. things like which id is acceptable, in texas you can show an acceptable form of id. card, but an unacceptable form was your student id. those tools are being used. whenis administration, former attorney general jeff sessions was in control of the
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department of justice, they scaled back everything from their preclearance which went before the courts. that changed administratively and judicially. there have been a number of -- enforcement has been downscaled. everyone should be able to vote and encouraged to vote and it should be made as easy as possible for everyone to vote. host: steve is calling from bangor, maine. good morning. caller: this is a good discussion. you say pitchfork populism. i see it more like scorched-earth populism. the democrats and republicans want to turn back anything the other side has enacted, that not just change it, eliminated,
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decimated. it, decimate it. betterlling to give up pay, better wages, health care in order to manifest my populism against democrats and liberal thought. i will live in poverty to support this president. is that something new? is that consistent? guest: i appreciate your insight on that. as i see it, things are become more contentious over the last 30 years. each action,at for there is a reaction. there has been a snowballing process.
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the thing we don't know is whether this established a new or fastcontentiousness forward and look back to this. will this be a transitional. when we try to aggregate what each other did? everything got ratcheted up so intensely that at a certain your point about the back and point -- fourth is clear. there is hope. host: let's take a question from our social media. this comes from ralph in new jersey. the united states had been a leader in globalism. now we see populism here and in other countries. model post-world war ii
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outmoded? can we move back to greater international cooperation? the world is more intensely networked than ever before. that is a reality. years, we haveee pulled back from a lot of our engagements, checking out of ,rees, disparaging -- treaties disparaging our allies. it is partly a question of diploma. it's the reality of economics, travel, our lives are intertwined. people have families in different countries. interdependence is very much inculcated throughout the world now. the fact that there has been this drawing back, that is not
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sustainable. host: bill is calling from new jersey on the independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. am i still on? host: go ahead. caller: i don't know about populism. i think one of the reasons why people vote for a person, he has common sense. le other side, they have a ack of common sense. they are talking about medicare for all. they are going to get rid of the insurance companies. right now, i am on medicare. medicare plays -- pays 80%. if there is no private insurance, medicare pays 80%.
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if i have medicare for all, i have to pay the other 20%. if they are going to pay 100% for all, that will never happen. it's impossible. you wind up having doctors working for a lot less money under the present medicare and private insurance. they are talking about taxing the rich people. that,d of talking about if you want to do something to get money from the rich people, make it so social security is taxed no matter how much you make. makinge big sportspeople
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$75 million a year. social security out of their money and their employer had to pay half, you would get money from the rich. taxing the wealthy is ridiculous. i appreciate your point about common sense. i believe it's very important when looking at the current political landscape, you look at it not in terms of policy, boil that down below that to values. what do you believe in? what is right? that is the starting point. you were talking about health care. that discussion goes directly into health care.
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you get health care if you can pay for it? because you are human being, you have a right to health care. that's were values come in. will there be a public option that is popular? there are a lot of possibilities out there. in the case of medicare for all, you mentioned that in terms of instead of supplemental insurance, it would cover everything. as for the practicality of that, if the system were established where corporate contributions to health care, everything went into a public system, there would be incredible net savings. a lot of that money is being siphoned off by insurance companies. host: you count the media as one
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deception of propaganda that poisons the well of popular prison -- popular opinion. that makes it sound like you are directly pointing a finger at social media. how is this affecting our political system? all, robert of mueller's report, that documents a lot of those practices. there is the good, the bad, the ugly with the evolution of media. on the good side, it's empowerment. people who didn't used to have a voice, the media was controlled by a few very wealthy people. they held it themselves and controlled the message. today, that's different and that's a beautiful thing. anyone who wishes to become involved can become involved.
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host: the more voices the better. guest: the downside is there is no curator. are some things that are not fact-based. what i tried to do was put forth a number of recommendations to impose some degree of consumer protection in the media. that is needed. is that what we call fact checking? does that fill the role you are talking about? what is yourlso source? one of the things in particular are sources. it's problematic when foreign sources are trying to manipulate the u.s. popular opinion. one of the suggestions i have art documenting sources and who
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in the united states would validate that. when you talk about u.s. politics, it needs to be based on what americans think. host: how do you maneuver around or make sure the first amendment doesn't get involved when you're trying to figure out who can say what and what should be believed? don't you run into problems? guest: there are liable and slander laws -- libel and slander laws. untrue,ngs are patently when it's a question of foreigners partnering with a disclosurea or of sources. we can have transparency. host: let's go to peter who is calling from florida on the democratic line. good morning. caller: good morning. i am largely in agreement.
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mediaeally tired of the in general using the term "populist" in the way they use it to refer to donald trump. with texaseement hightower, he repeatedly asserts that true populism is anticorporate. movement that came about in this country at the turn of the 20 century by the -- 20th century against the rich and powerful, the railroad industry at that time. it is an asserts anticorporate movement, the opposite of what trump is. trump has benefited corporations tremendously with tax cuts and other measures.
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about comforting the comfortable and afflicting the afflicted. he is not a populace. guest: i am very much in agreement. i consider him to be a faux populist. he is not a populist. normally, a populist empowers the people. he motivates the people to empower him. going back to your other point about anticorporate, the word itself means the people. it's all about the people. corporations basically limiting the freedom and taking advantage of the people, everything you said is exactly my point. host: let's go to michael who is
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calling from tampa, florida. caller: good morning. kane. to say hello to mr. the last caller was interesting. blocksorn and raised 12 from the capitol in washington dc. i'd move to steinway boulevard. however, i don't think it's archie bunker on steinway boulevard. a guy growing up in new york, i think it's more frank sinatra is the image. that's the culture of new york. big business, wall street, all of that. trump wants to run it like one big international corporation. populism, that's questionable.
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i just think he has some sympathy. americans whofor are the underdog. media has that the racist,about him being he would not have had a friend like don king. he would not have had that friend. host: go ahead and respond. guest: i appreciate your point about frank sinatra. iis mostno doubt that he famous line is i did it my way. that is on point with donald trump. i hope he doesn't try to sing
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that. host: the next caller is from aurora, indiana. caller: we've got a complete mess. takeemocrats want to everything the working people work for. talked about how much money they want to take from the rich. these guys create jobs. america is under siege by the democrats. they are taken away all of our want to give us everything free, which will never happen. will never happen because god says the world would be destroyed by fire. he has talked about people on the streets. everyhat we've got in country. i never thought i would see a day when our children wouldn't
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be safe at school. it's the people. guns don't kill you. it's the people behind the guns. democrats know nothing. they are stupid. host: go ahead and respond to that. guest: first of all, i believe in science. that the more we focus on the science of things like the climate crisis, the better off we will be. the consequences will only be worse the longer we put off the inevitable change in our regulations and conduct so we can sustain things. the most important thing i hear in your comment is it's a generational difference.
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if you look at what we do for we be ok in 2020? when you look at the climate impact and the transition of jobs and the economy, it's about the next generation. what do you do for sustainable growth for the long-term future of america? if we don't adapt, we suffer. many people are talking about things that can be growing pains as we try to adapt to future circumstances. we need to spend more time in detail on that transition. host: we spend a lot of time talking about pitchfork populism and the executive branch. just affect doesn't the executive branch. it affects the legislative and judicial branch.
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how are they affected? longer-term,ly for it time in the white house has a limit, whatever date that will be. the impact in congress can be longer. the interesting thing in the 2018 midterms, we saw what happens when a lot of americans who are upset about the pendulum, we saw the swing the other direction. there are still because of gerrymandering and where people are concentrated, there will be some people who believe in the trump point of view who will remain in congress. there are certain districts where that point of view will continue to be aired.
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the bigger impact is in the judicial branch. with jeff sessions, when he left , he appointed 80 judges, federal judges. between cam and the new attorney general, we are well over dashcam and the new we are welleral, -- over 100. host: do you see the pitchfork populism we've been talking about, we've seen movements come and go before. we saw the occupy wall street movement, the tea party movement, is this fading anytime soon? fading, in you say
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don't see it being the most prominent. i don't see it being as prominent as it is today. once again, these are americans. sauce fore secret politicians going forward is to recognize these are all issues and to adjust accordingly. jobsxample came up about and the economy. more has to be done that transition to be able to accommodate those dislocations for certain workers and help with job skills training. that's and it sample -- an example of how it remains. to to john go calling from west virginia. good morning. caller: i hope everybody is
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good. i'm not in a very good mood. i'm really ashamed to be a democrat. i want to give california and new york a warning. you don't tell me what to do with west virginia. i've got a warning for nancy pelosi and all the democrats. i am never going to vote democrat again ever. they fixed it. they opened my eyes up. i'm not a socialist. i am not a baby killer. i'm not voting to anybody close to that. i can't wait till the
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republicans take over congress. they don't do nothing except stall. think of how good this is doing right now. respond.ahead and guest: this ties into our previous discussion. it's important to accommodate where there is economic pain. when you go back to what robert byrd and jay rockefeller did for supporting they were innovations and transitions. they were doing what they could to be able to make accommodations for west virginia's. i think we can achieve a balance. host: one of the things the
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caller brings up is a democrat in west virginia is not the same as a democrat in california. a republican in new york might not be the same as a republican in mississippi. those national parties represent a lot of diverse people. continue to be the same party when you have people in different parts of the country who believe in different things? guest: the democrats and republicans are a sickly -- basically big tents. they are coalitions. i believe it's a mistake to talk about them as monoliths. there is a question of local issues. there are local needs and sensibilities. part of it is geographic and income-based. part of it is demographic-based.
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the more one pays attention to , you make sure that people are supported within different groups. that's how we are better off serving people. alan callingalk to from washington dc. timer: i have a hard believing that last caller was ever a democrat. i see that on c-span quite often. there are third rail issues that intrigue hasalace been subduing. i will give you one example. demandeding fathers bankruptcy rights in the constitution. those protections have been stripped from student loans. there are 55 billion people with student loans. 30 million of them are headed for the fall.
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nobody hasissue handled in any way. if you want to talk about a sleeping populist giant, look at the student loan problem. donald trump had better get his arms around this. he used bankruptcy laws quite effectively. to him to turn a blind eye 55 billion people who are cosigners, that's a lot of voters. that. i appreciate i think you've touched on something emblematic with the administration. one of the biggest problems approach transactional and his style of what he's doing appointees,rs his including his cabinet and down the line to also do things that
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don't necessarily respond to the people and don't respect regulations and laws. an example is student loans. when you look at what betsy devos has done in the department rulescation, there were thecourt orders in terms of case of the for-profit schools that went bankrupt, the department of education continued to collect student loan payments when they were not supposed to. your point is very well taken. that remains a big problem. there is a lot of attention paid to the burdens of student loans and we see solutions. host: you talked about the 2016 primary. the debates were informative, not so much about the issues but about the dynamics that
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motivated the electorate. the efforts to appeal to those constituents. even as the debates provided car crash moments which were amazing, they illuminated the electorate's appetite. are you watching the debates this year? is there anything like that? thet: it's by no means same, but absolutely. you see based on what the candidates are saying, you can see who they are speaking to and what their concerns are. you learn a lot about the united states of america with every opportunity. in 2016 a republican debate where they talk about health care. people shouted out from the
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audience that was not sympathetic. that is not something you would see at the democratic debate. there are other dynamics that come out. the more you watch, the more you learn. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for giving me the opportunity to speak my own opinion. trump in 2016. i will vote for him again in 2020. i think he is a populist. for america first. there is nothing wrong with that. charity begins at home. at immigration, you can see where he stands on those issues. he is not a racist. one of the previous speakers
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mentioned boater suppression. votergree with that is -- suppression. getting an id, showing a valid id to vote, i don't think there is anything wrong with that. i believe that is talked about. student can get -- if you go to get a drivers license, you will be asked if you want to register to vote. you can do that as well. you can say you are a citizen. students showing up with student ids, that makes it very difficult to know who is who. host: go ahead and respond. guest: i believe it's very
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important to boil things down to values. values, ifld trump's they married with yours, i understand your point of view. when you talk about america isst, one of those areas branding and marketing. he does an outstanding job of branding. what does it mean? he looks at slogans and he will not define it. if it's a america first or drain others,p or plenty of these are branding slogans. seeneeds to drill down and what is he doing about it? what does this translate to in my life? with regard to where donald racism, weon the
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will disagree. from guy is calling florida. --ler: host: i think we lost guy. good morning. caller: hello? host: you are on. go ahead. caller: i wanted to talk about america first. it's not just a donald trump slogan. if you listen to democrats, they do not use that term. they say that. i am retired. i have medicare, i also have a supplement. i still pay for my medicine.
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someone thateside is not a u.s. citizen, can't even speak the language and they can have big bags of medicine and never pay a penny. worked all ofnd my life. afford my medicine when i get in the office. think that is upsetting a lot of people. for the people that think the border should be opened up, it can be opened up. all you have to do, we have laws for it. sponsor and say i will this family for 10 years. i will be responsible for his medicine, for his or her living
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expenses. i will take care of them. whenund out what happens he offered to send these people to the states that wanted them. i would like to know what you think about that. is it right for america? i am 77 and i am still working. i am still paying taxes. how theu tell me democrats figure it's ok for an american not to be able to even though they're working to afford their medicine when they have to stand there and watch people that don't work? guest: i am very sorry about your situation with your medication. that goes to the heart of
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something we discussed earlier about the social safety net. it is not serving you. have i hear you loud and clear. first, thatamerica was not defined by donald trump. us believe what we wanted to believe. i get your point. we should be first taking care of americans, and i believe that is something that we can all agree, but for example when you include the question of immigration, while americans are compassionate people, we also -- our country was built by welcoming people. of course that is a shorthand, it is more complicated than that. i feel for you and our concerns.
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the secret for america first might be strengthening the social safety net. host: we would like to thank bradford kane author of " pitchfork populism" for being with us today. we would like to thank all of our callers and guests for being with us for another edition of washington journal. we will see you tomorrow morning with another addition. everyone have a great saturday. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] 2020 coverage continues y.
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