syria. as always we will take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. "washington journal" is next. ♪ host: good morning. it is wednesday, october 23, 2019. we begin in the wake of a 9 hour deposition yesterday. at the outset, former ukraine ambassador william taylor told lawmakers conducting the house impeachment inquiry that millions of dollars in foreign aid and a white house meeting were made contingent on ukraine opening investigations president trump wanted into the biden family in the 2016 election. we are getting your reaction on phone lines as usual. publicans can call in at 202-748-8001. democrats, 202-748-8000.

independents, 202-748-8002. you can also send us a text message. that number, 202-748-8003. if you do, please include your name and where you are from. otherwise, catch up with us on social media. on twitter it is @cspanwj. on facebook it is facebook.com/cspan. a very good wednesday morning to you, you can start calling in now. it was expected to be the most high-profile testimony of the week and there is plenty of reaction to get to. it was a nine hour deposition and most of the reporting comes from the opening statement that william taylor made yesterday. it was a 15-page opening statement obtained by the washington post and other news outlets. here is a bit of what william taylor told lawmakers at the outset of his testimony. he said gordon sondland told me that president trump had told

him he wants ukraine president zelensky to state ukraine will investigate the energy company where joe biden's son had worked and alleged ukrainian interference in the 2016 election. ambassador sans len told me he recognized we made a mistake by telling ukrainian officials that a white house meeting with president zelinski was dependent --a public announcement of ambassador sans len said something was dependent on such an announcement, including security assistance. more from william taylor yesterday in that deposition. lind --s ondland tried to prove to me president trump was a businessman. , top diplomatcker to ukraine used the same term several days later. i argued to both the explanation

made no sense. ukrainians did not owe president trump anything and holding up political assistance for domestic political gain was crazy. messages have seen already, or at least some of them have been released by the committee amid this impeachment inquiry. you can see william taylor entering yesterday ahead of a nine hour deposition. we are getting your reaction to what we know about it. republicans, 202-748-8001 is the number. democrats, 202-748-8000. independents, 202-748-8002. want to show you some of the in papers reaction online and around the country. this from the atlantic, david graham, the staff writer citing william taylor delivering the smoking gun. it doesn't matter what president

trump wants to call it, of course it was a quid pro quo. this from the new york daily news, president trump -- one of president trump's hometown papers. donald trump hanged himself. is faral diplomat's oath ning to trump than any thing democrats can say. writing yesterday that the u.s. ambassador to ukraine admitted in a closed-door hearing before congress he has been acting under the impression there was, indeed, a quid pro quo between president trump and ukrainian president. this is bad news, she writes, for trump and even worse for senate republicans who will be undoubtedly forced to take aside. -- a side. one more from the new york post,

this is betsy mcauley this morning. and the state department has been fighting presidents since long before president trump is the headline of her column. the first two paragraphs. house democrats are grilling a stream of disgruntled career diplomats in a basement hearing room of the capital. democrats leak snippets of the testimony daily. they are hoping it will add up to a case for impeaching president trump. all the testimony actually proves is the state department diplomats think they are not trump, ought to be running foreign policy. the most pressing constitutional issue is who decides the nation's foreign policy, the president or the permanent bureaucracy? some of the reaction we want to especially hear from you, elaine is up first out of washington. republican. elaine, go ahead. caller: hi, yes. i would like to ask your viewers

to review the ukraine treaty section 9, section 17. if another country has evidence of a crime -- and the crime was the dnc hacking, they have the server. they have evidence to that crime. they are compelled to turn it over and the president is compelled to ask them for it. host: why do you believe they have the server? caller: because they said so in the letter. he says you have the server. no, we don't., that is in the transcript of the phone call about the server. moot point. according to the treaty, he did exactly what he was supposed to do and they did exactly what

they were supposed to do. the election has nothing to do with it. the candidate has nothing to do with it. it is according to that treaty. hoopla know why all this over this because it is exactly right. host: if the election has nothing to do with it, if the candidate has nothing to do with it, why press for that investigation of the bidens and a statement publicly about that investigation from ukraine? y -- that had to do the another crime, which is getting quo for biden theprosecutor out of it and prosecutor testified in court -- e.u.urt in europe with the

that he was in the process of preparing the subpoena for hunter at that time. he testified to that and if you look, the case was not closed wasl april 2017, so it still active during all that period of time. that is why he had to ask -- that is another crime and he had to investigate. barr knows this and half the people who research it knows it. host: richard out of chestnut hill, massachusetts, a democrat. good morning. caller: good morning, john. can you hear me? host: yes, sir. caller: after that first caller, i don't know what to say. i will say a little more in contradiction to what the lady said. first of all, i am a loyal

c-span viewer, thank, and a friend, relatively frequent caller. i am a strong democrat and strong anti-trumper. that being said, i find it hard to follow all the ins and outs and all these characters. one thing is sure, when mr. trump, who does not tell a single truth -- that is his background and career -- says it was a perfect call, he is delusional. i don't want to throw ad hominems or give psychiatric treatyes, sir, but this -- i hear the "conservative" media talking and say the hillary thing is done with. people are in their silos. i don't want to get too far afield, but it does not surprise me. this country and republicans in congress, most importantly, it

is not about -- it is not about getting someone, gotcha, the clintons now trump, this and that. it is about the fact when you put a political quid pro quo, if you will, or incentive foreign policy, we, america -- look at what happened with isis -- that is beside the point, we are at risk. trump can sell us all a bill of goods and i fear for this country. host: tennessee, floyd, republican line. good morning. caller: our president is not a lawyer. all of our politicians that are elected, they are lawyers. our president isn't. if he was, he would manipulate language so that nobody would point the finger at him. this whole thing about the

bidens hadif the done something wrong, they should be brought to point on it . this all started before biden even started running for president. host: where do you think the language is being manipulated? caller: i studied to be a paralegal and i had to learn how lawyers the nippy late language manipulate language to argue a certain point from both sides. that is how they make their living. host: what specifically do you think is being manipulated here? caller: this whole ukraine thing. nsky to look into -- sonens and the sun and what he was doing in

ukraine. that is all he asked. host: is that ok? caller: yeah, because like the lady said, they are supposed to do that. if they were doing something illegal in that country, that country is supposed to investigate. the president has a responsibility to ask for that, doesn't he? that is what everybody says. host: is it ok to hold up military aid for that? understoodm what i -- i am a veteran and i sit and watch tv all night long. i watch these shows. he did not hold up the aid. i do not see how they get that he held that aid up. i just don't see it. like i said, i studied to be a paralegal. i am very intelligent.

host: that is floyd in tennessee . here is more from william taylor's written testimony, the top u.s. diplomat to ukraine stating what he members -- videoers from a july 18 conference, a regular national security secure deal conference call. i heard a staff person from the office of management and budget say there was a hold on security assistance to ukraine, but could not say why. it the end of an otherwise normal meeting -- someone said her boss had instructed her not to provide additional spending. the ukrainians were fighting the russians and counted on not only the training and weapons, but also the assurance of u.s. support. all that staff person said was the directive had come from the president and the chief of staff to the office of management and budget. just some of the details william

taylor lays out in the timeline he put forth in his 15 page opening statement obtained by the washington post and others and where a lot of the reporting from today's papers are coming from. getting your reaction to all of it this morning. herbert in georgia, democrat. good morning. caller: good morning, john. a the word of god it is said crooked man cannot walk a righteous man's path. met imagine if you and violated -- not only would we get a warrant for our arrest, we would get confined. he is violating the constitutional laws, the

subpoena laws of this land and we need to hold him accountable. partyve this 87% publican -- republican party. ifwill hold in confinement laws.late these trump for some laws of white america wrote in the constitution and you let this one man destroyed institution of law. host: this is lewis out of new jersey, republican. good morning. caller: good morning. this whole thing is a joke. it is funny how all these hearings are behind closed doors, but they leak out what they want. andp held back the funding

ukraine did not even know he was holding back the funding and he held back the funding because of corruption in ukraine and wanted to get to the bottom of it. this is a joke. if they had something, they would open up the hearings and let republicans in to ask questions. that is why they are not holding -- holding a vote. when a vote is held, it will go to the senate and the senate can bring all these people in and ask them questions. host: do you think it is time for the senate to hold separate hearings? caller: just let the democrats shoot themselves in the foot. what they are doing is -- millions of more democrats will vote for trump this time because americans believe in due process, not behind closed doors like they do in russia. three democrat senators went to

ukraine and wanted them to dig up dirt on trump and trump wasn't doing anything about the election, he is not worried about biden. biden is a joke, he cannot even form a sentence. that is all i have got to say. host: this is a column from 9:00 p.m. yesterday in the wake of this reporting that came out about william taylor's testimony. elizabeth ivanka writing after ghn writing #vau whereslindsay. ey. in search for the truth about the origins of the trump-russia probe and several other farces which have been thrust on president trump by democrats, yet he fails to act. the situation has now become critical she writes in the wake

of the testimony by william taylor yesterday. reaction from members of congress. here is a few tweets yesterday about william taylor and his testimony from lee's eldon of new york. him inviewers have seen front of those cameras we have outside where this deposition takes place prayed i spent another day in adam schiff's supersecret bunker -- this transcript should be released asap along with all the other transcripts. much of his leaked opening statement collapsed, but schiff keeps the public in the dark on that. president trump lied about the quid pro quo and committed an impeachable offense. horrifying in its seriousness and predictability rate hopefully ambassador taylor's bravery in testifying will

inspire other officials to come forward. this is marcy kaptur of ohio, democrat as cochair of the congressional ukraine caucus, i have always known ambassador bill taylor to be a true public servant. he is credible, professional, and has no reason to mislead the american public. justin amash, the former republican, now independent from michigan. bill taylor's testimony isn't devastating evidence president trump engaged in a corrupt act and quid pro quo. line for democrats, you are next. caller: yes, good morning, c-span. thanks for taking my call. listening to some of these republican callers, it is distressing to me. i can't understand how somebody sayingalk around

something they know isn't true or wanting to believe something that isn't true and it is so obvious they are fact free or lies they are using to defend this president. it is damaging and the two things about trump that really, syria andet me is in the kurds, what is going on there more so than ukraine. these are allies. ukraine was basically a new one we were supposed to be protecting and trump is trading like he has done his whole life basically bad things, criminal things. who, of our allies, are going to believe us or trust us after a man like this in office? deal,an deal, the nuclear

we had basically put a lock on their nuclear development for a number of years. trump just threw it out. now what are they doing? enriching nuclear fuel for bombs. and people support this ticket some judges -- this to get some judges -- a bunch of dodges -- judges to start a new chapter in the supreme court. two who should not have been on there. host: ivan brings up the syria topic we spent a lot of time on on this program yesterday. here is the latest after that meeting we were watching for yesterday between president vladimir putin, president erdogan of turkey. here is the results of that meeting. russia-turkey struck a deal to control a large zone in northeast syria that recently was monitored by american forces and they agreed to remove kurdish forces that remain in

the region as the u.s.-brokered turkey cease-fire expired yesterday, filling a vacuum inspired by trump's pullback. the turkish foreign minister said russian foreign police will help push back u.s. allied kurdish forces from a buffer zone along the border. in a signed a note in the washington times piece of bipartisan opposition to president trump's move, mitch mcconnell introduced legislation announcing turkey's invasion of northern syria and urging president trump to halt his withdrawal of u.s. troops. at latest from the washington times reporting. jim, watsonville, california, republican. you are next. caller: hi. believene why i don't this guy, taylor, the president of the ukraine said there was no

quid pro quo and that he had many -- no idea any aid was being held up. , ownguy, taylor's testimony. he did not have any proof there was a quid pro quo. "in my opinion," things like that. taylor is most likely the whistleblower. sondland trying to get information out of him about any kind of quid pro quo. he was trying to get it out of anybody he could meet and the last thing on this guy, taylor, is the media is talking about him the same time they were talking about mueller. he is a war hero, trying to set him up with a suit of armor. we all know what mueller turned out to be, a doddering own fool

who did not know what was in his own report. this is a set up by the democrats. host: here is some of the biography of william taylor. a west point graduate who served 6 years as an army infantry officer including with the 101st airborne division in vietnam. he served in every administration of both parties since 1985. he served as the ambassador to ukraine under the george w. bush administration. mr. taylor's focus at the state department during the obama administration was the middle east, supervising assistance to egypt, tunisia, libya, and syria. he also served in jerusalem. after the ouster of the former ambassador to ukraine, he became the ambassador and because ambassadors must be confirmed by the senate in a process that can

be grindingly slow, he became the top u.s. matt to ukraine. the chief of mission is his title, that is why he is not officially ambassador again, was at one time. that is why you hear him referred to as the top u.s. official in ukraine. michael in lake worth, florida, independent. good morning. caller: good morning. the resume sounded great, it sounded like a real washington insider -- exactly like a washington insider. when you were reading his testimony, i was surprised that everything he said that was any substance was all hearsay. i heard this from this one, i heard that from that one. it seems like a real bad hit job on the president and it is just a shame. host: here is the reaction from the white house yesterday. this is from the white house press secretary stephanie

grisham. her statement saying president trump has done nothing wrong. this is a coordinated smear campaign from far-left lawmakers and radical unelected bureaucrats raging war on the constitution. today was just more triple heresy and selective leaks from secretive closed-door meetings. more taxpayer time and money is wasted. president trump is leading the way for the american people by delivering a safer, stronger country. plenty more reaction to get to, but we are focusing on your phone calls in the first hour of this program. republicans, 202-748-8001 is the number. democrats, it is 202-748-8000. and independents, 202-748-8002. just some reaction from a couple

democrats on capitol hill to the white house statements specifically and their comments about william taylor and others who have testified here. adam schiff saying ambassador taylor went to west point, served in vietnam, left retirement to take this assignment at secretary pompeo's request. he proved today to be among its most staunch defenders. noting they statement from the white house is "panicy word vomit. no one is going to buy bill taylor, fiona hale, and kurt volker are "radical bureaucrats." " bob, you are next. caller: is that me? host: yes, sir.

i am really upset i watched mr. biden's son because he made $50,000 a month. when we were at our nonprofit organizations, like the boy million. america, $1.6 nobody cares about that when the kids are peddling somebody as ceo -- host: i am going to hold off, is that your seatbelt buckle beeping? caller: it is okay, i am right here. i was waiting at my house. also on c-span, i watched about pregnant women. host: we are going to let you fix the beeping, it is distracting. we are going to go to steve in pennsylvania, republican. caller: good morning.

a couple things i want to bring out with this biden thing. several years ago, ukraine was investigating that company his son was in and somebody in the obama administration shut it up. his dad married his wife he has now -- he was broke. there is something fishy. this is not only a takedown of the president, but it is a coup, an inside job. if you go to court and you are facing charges, they don't go by hearsay -- i say something, you say something without proof that is tangible that you can see and make your own rational decision. i don't see that at all. if you were in a court room, that judge, after a period of time would throw it out. they want to see proof, there is no proof.

i also say on the obama administration -- in, thelary clinton was administration gave half of our uranium to the russians, which is used for nuclear weaponry. tot: if and when this goes the senate for an impeachment trial, don't you think the senators will demand proof from this investigation? caller: right now, there is no proof, it is just hearsay. there has never been a president impeached. --you go back to johnson lincoln, he was never impeached. he stayed in power until his time was up. this is a thing dealing with individuals in our government who don't care about our rule of law and are trying to take the president down.

unfortunately, you will have socialism, which will lead then to a communist state. host: a few tweets that have come in amid this conversation. bob in illinois talking about the spin democrats have leaked out saying i won't believe it until transcript i made public and if confirmed by a republican who was present. carol in florida saying trump is a crook and corrupt embarrassment, a liar of the highest order. he must be impeached and thrown out of office to save the soul of this country. just after 7:30 on the east coast, about a half hour more to get your reaction. plenty more to talk about today as well including hearings taking place on the u.s. policy in syria and high-profile ceoing featuring facebook mark zuckerberg. we will talk more about both of

those. mark zuckerberg is appearing at 10:00 a.m. you can watch that live on c-span 3, c-span.org, and the free c-span radio app as he talks to the house financial services committee. alex is next, an independent, good morning. caller: good morning. i want to go back to what the first caller said read she is right about the treaty that was trump does president have a right to ask does another country have information about an ongoing investigation which started back in 2016 -- that he has a right to ask about that is thether thing -- they are so

hard-pressed to get impeachment from day 1. however, if they had such a case or strong case, why hide it? why not let the public, the so we see these hearings can see what is going on? this is my first time calling, by the way. host: one of the explanations adam schiff has said when he has been pressed on that is that this is the investigative phase. that doing this behind closed doors makes sure the witnesses cannot coordinate their testimony, that it helps in trying to verify what they are working on behind closed doors and they will eventually bring that out when it comes to the articles of impeachment and if that then passes the house -- the trial in the senate. caller: i heard him say that, but i think it is a cover-up

excuse. it still should be out in the open because when we get these leaks, how do we know for sure what is really being said? one at thee, the hearing yesterday, it is all hearsay. it is his opinion and all hearsay. he wasn't getting the first-hand information. also, i want to say something on the side note. those that call and say trump is a liar, i need to tell everyone a lot of politicians -- no matter what, if they have an r or a d after their name, they all lie. they say what it takes to get into the white house and then the first promise they fulfill is those that donate them the highest donation.

trump whethere to he lies about this or that. there is also another thing i wanted to say going back to the phone call with president trump and the president of ukraine, they are hanging on the word "favor," and i noticed trump says favor all the time. he says it all the time and we all say that as an expression. "would you do me a favor?" " would you hand me that paper over there," or something. that was part of trying to make an exchange agreement. that is all i wanted to say. host: that is alexa in georgia. concernfirst point, the that this impeachment process has been happening, republicans complaining about that as well. jim jordan was on the floor talking about that read [video clip]

>> what are they hiding? trying to impeach the president of the united states 13 months before an election based on an anonymous whistleblower with no first-hand knowledge with a bias against the president, worked with joe biden, wrote a memo after the call, described the call as frightening and scary and then waits 18 days before he files the complaint? and then who does he run off to see? adam schiff, the guy running this secret process in a basement in the bunker of the capital -- in a bunker in the basement of the capitol. americans know this secretive process is not fair. only adam schiff knows who the guy is who started this charade. adam schiff, the only one who knows. why don't the 300 million people who we all get the privilege of representing? why don't they know who the people are who started this

process the american people see through? americans get fairness and they know this is instinctively unfair. host: congressman jim jordan on the house floor. taking your phone calls in the wake of william taylor's testimony behind closed doors to the members conducting the house impeachment probe, a nine hour deposition, a 15 page opening statement is what most of the reporting is being based on today in that statement. william taylor laying out a timeline of events during his service in ukraine. getting your reaction and showing reaction from around capitol hill and the country. here is one more of the editorials today on what is contained in that opening statement. this from the washington post editorial board calling it a quid pro quo spelled out. mr. graham and other republicans can recognize the corrupt ukraine campaign for what it was. if you want to read the

editorial ordered of the washington post, that is in the paper today. randy in michigan, democrat, you are up. caller: good morning, john. i would like to start by thanking all the men and women who bring us this program. host: kind of you to do that. caller: this is quite interesting. we are getting the frontline testimony of people. i cannot believe how many .mericans are playing ostrich i don't know if he should be impeached, but the integrity of our constitution demands that this man, who is leading us right now, be investigated. you don't just ask for the chinese -- let's have the chinese investigate that daughter of his because i heard she got patents when nobody else could get a patent out of china. maybe we ought to investigate

that. we have, myhes fellow americans, get your head where you dirt read are talking out of right now with your head in the ground isn't making much sense. host: linda in california, a republican. good morning. caller: good morning. i want to say i wholeheartedly agreed with what representative jordan was saying. actually, my opinion is that the investigation of the 2016 elections was evidently getting family ando biden's that is when this whistleblower idea came about. anythingnot showing us to where i can say as a fact

that isn't going on. it seemed to me as soon as they hit close to -- actually, they are accusing president trump of doing what it is said joe biden is raising ady thought about what joe biden dated, but they are all incensed that -- home i, look what he did. bidenhey have proof and saying so and admitting to it. we can't look at that, don't look at that, look only at what this person is saying in secret that we may or may not ever know who is even making the accusation. i think the democrats ought to hang up there investigating on the factttle in that we elected donald trump our president and quit trying to

election and6 start kind of looking at that trade deal with canada and work ford doing some the people, not making bills up and naming them for the people, we don't need them to be our bosses, we are theirs. host: you are talking about where they are telling us to look and what to look at, how do you feel about what the white house is doing? how president trump is doing when it comes to responding to the accusations and the impeachment inquiry? do you think the coordination is there between republicans on capitol hill and the president? do you think more can be done? caller: in coordinating between, you mean? host: having a unified message of response. caller: i don't know if there is

a unified or can be a unified when you don't really know what you are being accused of. all you have is fear of what someone is saying. my opinion of this is that we have an ig report getting ready to come out and we should be -- they should have held off and waited until that report came out and also, they did not even wait -- nancy pelosi not even wait until the transcript got put out before she filed for impeachment. i want to know. i want them to do a vote because i want to know and i think the american people should know. every one of those people who in never so caught up

trump, never trump even though he is our president. host: that is linda in california on the message response from the white house. this from the wall street journal. president trump signed off on regular conference calls between senior white house aides and select republican lawmakers to coordinate messaging and legal strategies on the house impeachment probe, one of the few proactive edgers undertaken by the west wing, who has so far been unwilling to cooperate in that investigation. the weekday calls started recently as a response to criticism from conservative allies that the white house was leaving them out of the loop according to white house officials familiar with those calls. ruth is next out of williamstown, kentucky, independent. good morning. caller: good morning. i have listened to everybody so happened to be able to

start at 7:00 when they come on p. host: i appreciate you doing that, ruth. caller: in listening to both more, i am just a little confused because i have watched, periodically, your program, and i have actually heard some people, republican, independent, ask you why don't you show the because on some of the shows, not c-span, that i watch, they actually show that part of the transcript where the one paragraph where president trump was congratulating zelensky and zelensky said he armsd to buy more of the

-- that paragraph right there, he was talking about buying more then, thehat, president said i would like you to do a favor. i think if c-span would show that one paragraph, you always say it is on your website. some that would persuade people to rethink. host: you are talking about the paragraph right before the president says "i would like you to do us a favor? " caller: i am talking about that whole paragraph. host: it is available on our website, whitehouse.gov. here is the paragraph i believe you are asking us to read, part where -- partway between their

phone call. turns out even though logically the european union should be our biggest partner, but technically, the united states is a bigger partner than the european union. i am grateful because the united states is doing much more for ukraine, much more than the european union, especially when we are talking about sanctions. i would like to thank you for the support in the area of defense, we are ready to continue to cooperate in the next steps. we are always ready to buy more evelyn's for defense purposes. is that the one you are asking for? for defense purposes. is that the one you are asking for? caller: yes, i am. host: anything else you want to add? caller: he said to buy more arms, he wasn't talking about what was being withheld? ? right or no? because i know you guys are more

democrat than central. it is proven by all the commentary -- caller: good morning. i am so happy to get on. i wanted to make a statement. we still don't know what the phone calls were all about that mr. trump made to putin and if people look at what has happened in syria, it looks like all roads are leading to putin and it is unfortunate and sad in this country -- i guess the only thing that is going to prove from the republicans that this man is not doing good work for us is if putin moves into the white house, which doesn't seem too far away because mr. trump

loves him, he loves dictators and he wants to be a dictator. i don't understand why poor people continue to vote for him. host: this is steve in california, republican, good morning. , i base myically opinion on the first report that was due in the judicial hearing. if you fast-forward sort of to durbin wasre and talking about the money coming in from indonesia and they only glossed over it and kept going. you-forward to today where

passed the first report and you get the corruption where giuliani -- his lawyer is basically taking money from ukraine.ndividuals in that is what i base my opinion on why he should be impeached and everybody keeps missing that annt to where he is such opportunist, this is how he operates. kind of hard to talk, i haven't gotten my coffee out here. tot: we will let you get your coffee, appreciate the call. jeff in rockport. caller: thanks for taking my call, appreciate the work c-span does. i wanted to talk about the corruption that should be investigated, but it is not really hunter biden that is the problem on the board.

we have on the board, a man he is probably the deepest, darkest cia agent of the last 25 years. believeof leads me to -- i don't know what expertise the cia agent would bring to it other than the interest of the cia, which leads me to believe it is a slush fund for the cia, that they are laundering money from the imf. host: before we get too far down the conspiracy theory road, where do you go for all this information? theer: well, just go to board of directors page and you jack's photo on her

there the past president of is fairly also, he well known. book inn woodward's 2002. he was the head of the counterterrorism committee in the cia. he was made head of it in 1999, it was his job to track al qaeda when war was laden cleared on al qaeda after osama bin laden declared war on us in 19 signees -- in 1996. host: circle back to 2019. service --leaves the

host: let's talk about the impeachment inquiry. caller: he is mitt romney's security advisor and now he is on the board. host: nick in new york city, good morning. caller: thank you and good morning from c-span. we have been trained not to believe facts anymore and it is not working, but that is what succeeded in has us no longer believing facts, interpreting facts for what they are and i was going to say i

worked with someone who was a chronic liar for 20 years and i lierstand for well how they about just about anything and everything. often for this particular man, it had to do with how much money he pretended to have and how much real estate he pretended to have an constantly building up his ego. to get to the truth of what this particular person in my life, who was an absolute day by day -- minute by minute, divide what they say in half to get to the truth and divide it in half again to try to get to the truth . i the case of our president, would say consider the exact opposite of what he says and you get more closer to what the truth is in particular context

of what he is talking about. host: about 54 10 minutes left in this segment, getting your reaction -- about 5 or 10 minutes left in this segment. william taylor behind closed doors for nine hours yesterday, a 15 page opening statement with a timeline of his experiences working with the trump administration in the trump state department in ukraine and his reactions to what he saw along the way. some other stories in today's papers, want to point you to this from the washington post and other papers noting the author of the anonymous column in the new york times back in 20 who was identified as a senior trump administration official acting as part of the

"resistance in the tell-all government." warning" istled "a being -- behind-the-scenes portrait of the trump presidency -- some reaction to that news today from eric swalwell. his tweet yesterday afternoon sayinghis story came out anonymous could learn a thing or two about courage from ambassador bill taylor. eric swalwell has been in on these impeachment inquiry testimonies and stopped by the cameras yesterday outside of the deposition room to talk a little bit about his reaction to william taylor's testimony yesterday. [video clip] >> ambassador taylor highly

detailed credible accounts that came across that he has a very steep recall. we are not asking people to recall something that happened 3, 4, 5 years ago. we are talking about events in july, august, september. these were recent events and he had a recall i think that matched other witnesses that have come in. host: taking your phone calls on the washington journal. phone lines as usual. tony in bedford, texas, a republican. good morning. caller: thank you so much for having me. i love c-span. i cannot get it in hd. let me go over this part. my party has a big problem with arguing the fact of the process -- this is not

constitutional the way the legislative branch is handling this. actually, i do think there is one commonality and that is there was a special counsel brought in and the special counsel said okay, congress, you figure it out. this is nothing more than a grand jury. are coming out, that will be the impeachment and then it goes to the senate and the senate decides to convict, or am i crazy? isn't that how it works? host: the senate gets the vote on conviction and removal from office. --ld you agree with greg clinton and nixon had their day. i never heard anybody saying democracy was being hijacked. this was a lot of people impatient to let the process reach its conclusion. caller: i think i have to agree

with that because democracy -- fortunately, it is run by the people. there is a process here, but it seems like it is going the way the constitution is designed. , texan, republican, but let's see what happens. i can't side with the republican arguments in all of this. this is not leadership. host: tony in texas. -- thisa net --annette is annette in columbus, georgia. caller: i want to start off by saying i pray for our country as a whole and all of us have accountability of what we hear and say and speak upon and to facts and start

hear people -- you , theg it is a witchhunt worst thing of his presidency, and we get that from watching the news because we are an impressionable people. i would caution everybody to stop, take a breath, and when somebody says something, go back and look it up. look up the companies, look up that they put their names out there and see what they are about and who they are connected to. out the story. sitting here and just taking , this particular

news media event of it, because they are for it or against it, is crazy. host: one last call from sharon, staten island, new york, line for democrats. caller: thank you for taking my call. i cannot believe that the and theans, the leaders people that vote republican are seeing this in black-and-white and still not believing it. it is just like president trump said before he became president, he could shoot someone on fifth avenue and still not be found guilty. it is unbelievable. texas fornd tony from saying let the process play out, and he cannot follow blindly with other republicans.

host: stick around. plenty more to talk about. we will discuss facebook ceo mark zuckerberg's testimony on capitol hill with a washington post reporter. filmmaker and democratic activist michael moore will be here here -- will be here to talk about the democratic field and his support for bernie sanders. ♪ socialist, i am not caring too much about popular opinion or pleasing a consumer. and we socialize things like health care, everybody will get

it, you will not worry about your bills, but you will have to have rationing. >> sunday on afterwards, in his latest book, kentucky republican senator rand paul talks about the history of socialism and argues there is a new threat of socialist thinking on the rise in america. he is interviewed by congressman matt gaetz of florida. >> seems as if you are making the argument a country that becomes more socialist becomes more selfish. >> it is true. it is an irony. everything is professed to be for someone else but it is driven by selfishness. >> watch afterwards on sunday at 8:00 p.m. on c-span's book tv. night, twoday candidates challenging president trump for the republican nomination, a conversation with

andrnor bill weld's -- welt governor mark sanford to talk about their plans, strategies, and running against the president. they will take your calls, ,weets, and facebook coverage 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. watched any time on c-span.org and anywhere you are on the c-span free radio app. >> "washington journal" continues. host: the technology reporter at herewashington post" is with us to talk about mark zuckerberg's testimony on capitol hill. why has he been asked back? guest: he is coming back to talk about facebook's plans to launch a digital currency. facebook was circulating a proposed digital currency and that has gotten log -- pushback from lawmakers.

there is concerned this would give facebook more power than it already has, and people do not trust the company after privacy transgressions. mark zuckerberg will be on the defensive and trying to win lawmakers over because he said previously they will not launch this project until they have approval from u.s. regulators. libra is whatect, it is known as. who is likely to be in his corner and who is likely to give the most pushback? guest: we have seen the back lash the political spectrum. president trump is tweeting about his concerns that he does not trust digital currencies and called out libra. then you have maxine waters and the democrats on the committee, have slammed it. you are seeing this is going to

be a challenging day for zuckerberg where he will not have many allies. host: unusual to have maxine waters and president trump on the same side of an issue? guest: definitely these days, but facebook is an issue that seems to be drawing the parties together. we see it on libra and with other issues, privacy, antitrust concerns. -- members members of both parties raise recently. host: give me libra 101. guest: facebook is pitching it as a way to help people who currently do not have access to mobile banking, get online and participate in the financial services. we haveat this stage largely seen a white paper from facebook and the criticism is that we do not have a ton of

details about exactly how they will run it. doesare pardoning partnering with other country -- companies -- partnering with other companies to launch this. regulatory scrutiny, partners like visa and mastercard are dropping out. host: would this be the equivalent of bitcoin? guest: facebook is taking steps to ensure it is less volatile than bitcoin, but it is similar in that it is a digital currency , it relies on cryptography. with us this morning to talk about mark zuckerberg's appearance on capitol hill, you can call in as usual. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. independents, (202) 748-8001.

the house financial services committee, facebook impact on the financial services and housing sector. guest: there have been concerns recently about facebook advertising practices and whether they can be discriminatory towards certain minorities. one of the issues that will come up as steps facebook has been taking to address those concerns. the company several months ago reached an agreement with a group of civil rights groups and basically overhauled its advertising practices so that when it comes to ads for things like housing or credit, you cannot use micro-targeting features to target people in a certain zip code or gender. that certainly is one of the topics on the agenda. this is a company fighting many battles on several fronts, and i think it is rare for zuckerberg to come in and do public testimony on capitol hill.

this is the first time in 18 months he is doing that, so we will see the conversation expand. host: you mentioned ads. will it expand into political ads? guest: it is likely. facebook is bracing for that. last week, mark zuckerberg did interviews and gave a major speech at georgetown about the company's commitment to free speech. we saw zuckerberg double down on the company's statement that he will not be a referee for politicians' speech. host: this is the georgetown speech. mark: we are at another crossroads. we can continue to stand for free expression, understanding its messiness, but believing that the journey towards progress means confronting ideas that challenge us. or we can decide that the cost

is simply too great. i am here today because i believe that we must continue to stand for free expression. time, i know free expression has never been absolute. some people argue internet platforms should allow all expression protected under the first amendment, even though the first amendment does not apply to companies. i am glad our values are inspired by the american tradition which is more supportive of free expression than anywhere else. even america represent test recognizes that some speech infringes on people's rights. to allow things like terrorist propaganda, that most everyone agrees we should stop, as well as i do, and content such as pornography, people are not comfortable using our platforms.

once we take this content down, the question is -- where do you draw the line? host: mark zuckerberg at georgetown university last week speaking to students. who was the audience he was actually addressing? location is clear, the , the hall of georgetown has been used by heads of state, he was talking to regulators around the world, particularly some of these 2020 presidential candidates raising concerns about facebook's policies on free speech. there hasremember, been controversy over the position to run one of president trump's ads which makes misleading claims about joe biden's clot -- ties to the ukraine. the company knows it is getting backlash for that decision, particularly from democrats, that zuckerberg is coming out in defense of that. host: if you want to talk

facebook this morning, happy to do it. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. .ndependents, (202) 748-8002 our guest is the technology policy reporter from "the washington post or cow joe -- "the washington post or cow joe post." "the washington joe from maine, independent. caller: he has made all kinds of money. hello? host: what is the next part? caller: he is coming out, he took rubles for payments, putting false garbage on facebook. everyone knows the garbage is garbage. i cannot hear you. cat talk aboutet

russian ads on facebook. guest: thanks for your call. zuckerberg is going to definitely get some questions and scrutiny about election security. makingfacebook announcements they have gotten better at detecting foreign interference since the 2016 election. during that election, we saw that russian actors were able to purchase ads on the platform that targeted american voters and sought to stoke political tensions. facebook has made some major changes to advertising policies about who can buy ads. you can no longer buy a political ad on facebook using a foreign currency in the u.s. they are still working on this. they just made several announcements this week about tweaks to their policy, particularly around this issue

of foreign interference, how to better identify what might be coming from state-sponsored media. they are going to be flagging those pages more. facebook detected a russian campaign that was targeting the 20 candidates on instagram. and theheating up challenge is not going away. host: what more are members of congress likely to ask of him on that front? you set down with the chairwoman of the house science committee to talk about this. what are they going to ask? guest: one thing we are seeing is facebook is making efforts on foreign election interference and they are doing more to address russia interference and take action against iran, raise concerns about chinese interference. ,articularly from democrats

there is concerned of what is facebook doing when the source of disinformation is domestic and what about when the source might be the president of the united states? the company has been making these announcements on how they are going to address disinformation from foreign governments. democrats have criticized the farany is still not going enough. host: randy, arkansas, independent. caller: i have a question. caught some of the other hearings and it seems like i remember somebody asked, is this libra going to be backed by the u.s. government? that is my question. guest: this libra project is going to be headquartered in switzerland. the association is running it.

facebook has promised regulators they won't launch the partner -- project with these partners until the government gives them the green light. host: sylvia out of las vegas, a democrat. caller: i am 57 years old. i never fell for this facebook thing, even though for years friends have said, it is the perfect way to catch up with family, pictures, hook up with high school boyfriend. i think facebook has been more harm than good. it is the perfect vehicle to influence people and to brainwash them. just the fact that the trump administration has spent millions on ads that are complete lies is atrocious to me. it has gotten to the point now that other countries understand the power of influencing people on facebook and they are taking

advantage of us, and they are completely turning our views and trying to make wrong look right. i am appalled. guest: i think you make a good point that other countries are learning from this. saw a russia interfere on social networks to influence american voters. now we are seeing more countries borrow from that playbook. we are seeing campaigns from iran, concerns about china. biggestl be one of the challenges for facebook moving forward as they address election security issues that came up in 2016. actors, fighting more and mark zuckerberg has called out the u.s. government on this, saying they need to have a stronger response to election interference. host: mark zuckerberg prepared

remarks came out yesterday ahead of today's hearing. did he get into the advertising issues or stick mostly to libra and the focus of the title of the hearing? guest: he largely stuck to the focus of the hearing. he did acknowledge that facebook is not a great messenger for this idea of libra, on capitol hill. he acknowledged the political scrutiny the company has been under and mentioned briefly at the end that the company is doing work on privacy, election security, these issues, but called on government regulators to help them with some of this. that is one of the interesting things we have seen this year, facebook saying, we want regulation on some of these issues. host: jamie, west fargo, north dakota, independent. caller: good morning.

west fargo, north dakota is the epicenter of north america, just for everybody's information technology. i am going to be running against president trump and i got more content that you -- then you can imagine to show what a real man who cares about people can do. host: you are running for president? guest: i plan on showing people what a real man can do. disruptor, manager named john cosgrove said i was a disruptor to the industry. i guess they foresee more stuff in me. host: how are you going to disrupt the race? guest: it is called mechanics arts and i am a master artist. that is what these land grabs are founded on in the 1800s. host: richard in fort worth,

texas, democrat. caller: how are you doing? i disagree with cat. i think the democrats have been taken over by the far left. i believe in freedom of speech. they are making face man does facebook a bogeyman -- facebook a bogeyman and you're just as mongering.ear host: what makes a moderate democrat these days? caller: a moderate democrat stays in the middle with logic and region -- reason. you talk about disinformation on cnn and msnbc, have no credibility. we need to unite together and protect our freedoms. who does a moderate democrat support in the primary? caller: i am having a hard time, still looking for him.

host: mark in massachusetts, independent. caller: good morning, thank you. after what happened in 2016 and the election, it was pretty pathetic what facebook allowed to transpire with all the fake ads and foreign interference. since gotten rid of it, due to that in part, gotten rid of my account. a lot of people that use facebook like let's say there is a billion users are 100 million users, 80% of the people who use it view facebook as the internet. they view it as a search engine. they view it as news, view it as everything. that might be the only app in their phone and they use it for everything. host: have you seen that where you are in massachusetts?

not specifically, but i have heard people, callers, that think news on facebook is all pertinent and true. they use it as a gateway to the internet, you know what i'm saying? they don't know google is a served engine -- search engine. guest: that is an interesting point. you bring up the power of facebook. they have a massive user base and are increasingly touching people in different parts of their lives, whether it is where they get their news. people forget facebook owns instagram and whatsapp. has these issues around election security and privacy, it has increased the drumbeat in washington for antitrust scrutiny.

there are lawmakers who are concerned maybe facebook should not have all that power. that is why we have seen in recent months the house open and antitrust investigation into silicon valley broadly, but facebook has been a target. they requested documents. we are seeing federal regulators and dozens of state attorneys general joining in antitrust investigation of the company. your concerns about facebook's power and the role it plays in people's lives is something that is getting a lot of attention in washington. host: i want to talk about the point about deleting his facebook page. he brings up some of the statistics, this from the facebook website, one point 6 billion daily active users on facebook. that was in june of this year.

monthly active users. close to 3 billion people around the world using at least one of those services each month. can you talk about the rise and fall of facebook users? guest: there has been a real push in the u.s. for a delete facebook campaign, but the company has still managed to have strong growth internationally as it is facing these pitfalls. the other thing we have seen is while there is a lot of distrust of the main facebook platform, instagram and whatsapp are really popular with younger users. facebook is something that parents and grandparents are on. host: pushing some of the younger users off of it? guest: we see them going to instagram and whatsapp.

you now have a rise in competing social media services. one facebook has been talking about is tick-tock, which "the washington post" has a big account on. that social media account is where we are seeing young people , and facebook is making the rise of tictoc central. that app is based out of china. host: in terms of people deleting their facebook accounts , when is the last time the numbers went down? guest: i do not have those numbers in front of me. the company's business metrics despite the regulatory scrutiny, have remained strong. i would have to take a look at that. host: one of the charts on the internet says it is growing consistently from 2004 through

2017. remy is next out of rockland, new york, democrat. caller: you showed a clip amended to go with regards to zuckerberg answering a panel before, and people were sitting behind him, it is humorous that you have people with round faces. faces. frown they look distraught and i'm wondering if they were placed there. the talking heads he is going before today, this is something that has got people in the realm of politicians nervous about what is going to happen to their revenue they are deriving from thatilitary contractors they get through their lobbyists , is that currency going to be affected by the digital currency

that is just being talked about? is that what their main fear is about? guest: interesting question. we have seen facebook buildout -- buildup its own lobbying force in washington and particularly around libra, spending a lot on building these politicians on this front. there are a lot of questions just about what this currency would mean for the u.s. inebook is positioning it zuckerberg's prepared remarks, that this would be good for the u.s. economy because this currency would allow the u.s. to maintain an advantage in cryptocurrency as other countries like china are moving more into that. at the same time, the association is based in switzerland which has lawmakers raising their eyebrows. the jury is out and we will see

a lot of questions of what the u.s. stands to gain. host: out of ohio, rick, a republican. caller: my question is with facebook and these other companies, they collect information and they sell it. they should have to pay the public when they sell your information, should have to pay you a fee for doing that. with the social media, social media was the start of all these bad words we have going, especially in the united states. host: on your first point on what you should be paid, what is a fair fee that should be paid to you for using your information? caller: i don't know what the fee would be. rates on your credibility or your reputation and a lot of it is fake.

it is not even a real rating. they just put it on. to try to get off facebook and stuff like that, it is hard to get off. they want you to opt out. if you tell them to take you off, they should take you off. guest: those are great points. these are things we see coming up more and more around who owns your data. is a big debate in washington now among lawmakers basically all around the world. we are seeing more politicians proposed something along the lines of what you are talking about. andrew yang has talked about this idea that people should own their data and companies should pay them to use it because of its value. it gets a little tricky. disagreetechnologists over how to measure what data is

worth, and there are concerns that would give people an advantage around privacy if they are wealthier. if you are lower income, would you be selling more data? that gets into an issue of inequality. host: carmine, edgewater, new jersey, independent. ask,r: i would like to with the research she has conducted, have there been examples of countries that have interfered in each other's political systems, and what has been the result? if we get to a point where we disregard and find that our election process has been contaminated to a point where it doesn't work, what are the options? guest: those are interesting questions. we have seen around the world since 2016, more and more countries engaging in

coordinated and authentic havey are on social media. -- behavior on social media. the question you raised of countries interfering with each other's elections, i am not sure, but this is a trend we see on the rise globally where more and more countries are engaging in these tactics. on your second point about whether an election is contaminated, one of the real concerns now, and one thing that mark zuckerberg himself says researchers and historians will be looking at for years to come, on the the real impact outcome of an election? we know these campaigns are happening, but it is difficult to measure how many people did that stop from going to the polls? i think that is going to be a real challenge for the companies, civil society groups,

lawmakers, to ensure that americans can remain confident in the u.s. election system. aware of these threats, but the big task in washington is to make sure that people can trust the election system. host: robert, baltimore, maryland, democrat. caller: given the nature of the calls and my appearance on the subject, i was hoping you could go back to the basics of the differences between modern electronic currencies and what we are all used to. my employer doesn't give me a wheelbarrow full of cash and i don't in turn give you cash for that poster you are ready to sell me. transfer money into my bank account and i venmo it to you. technology is not unique. i would like you to describe

what some of the similarities are between what we are familiar with, and this new stuff. host: let's take up that first part because we are running out of time. guest: facebook is still defining what this project is going to look like. the regulators' concerns, some of the bills proposed will have an influence on how much this influence -- the system looks like bitcoin or more like some of those ants -- those like venmo. this is not tied to one particular country's currency. when we are sending money in venmo, it is likely in u.s. dollars. this would be run through this separate station. host: independent, burke, virginia. caller: i just wanted to make

two points. we cannot lay all the responsibility on mark zuckerberg. the second and third part is that, they are a content provider and people get that. when you give your information to them freely, you are signing on to allow them to do a lot of things. i think that people, as american citizens, we need to become more knowledgeable about what is going on because there is a lot of low information individuals being taken advantage of because they are not doing the due diligence to understand what is going on with their data and how is it being used to shape existing schemas that exist within society. think the really interesting point you brought up first about what mark zuckerberg's responsibility in this and what we will be seeing

on capitol hill, a big question for these issues around free speech, around election security is should one person have so much power over this? you mentioned the point of user data, and that is a hot topic on capitol hill. it will be mark zuckerberg's first appearance since facebook reached a $5 billion settlement with the ftc over its data practices. host: you can watch it all happen on c-span3 today at 10:00 a.m., that hearing before the house financial services committee featuring facebook chairman and ceo, mark zuckerberg. we will let you go get your seat, but thank you for your time. up next, time for your phone calls, asking about your top public policy issue. phone lines are open, the numbers are on your screen, and

we will be right back. ♪ >> we are making it easy for you to follow the impeachment inquiry on c-span.org. search ball of c-span's coverage and video on demand of the congressional briefings and hearings, as well as the administration's response. log onto our impeachment inquiry webpage at c-span.org/impeachment, your fast and easy way to watch c-span's unfiltered coverage anytime. journal" mugs are available at our new online store. and see alle mugs of the c-span products.

"washington journal" continues. host: time for your calls this morning, asking for your top public policy issue. phone lines are open. republicans, (202) 748-8001. democrats, (202) 748-8000. .ndependents, (202) 748-8002 we are having this conversation for the next 20 minutes or so before we are joined by michael moore to talk about the 2020 presidential campaign, his support for bernie sanders. that conversation coming up. robert is up first in idaho, republican. what is your top public policy concern? caller: thank you for taking my call. my concern is president trump's commitment to building the wall and to addressing the issue of

the invasion of illegal aliens in america. i have been dealing with this issue since 1996 or so. i actually lost a job because i wrote an opinion piece about english as the official language. -- and stille time is -- part of the amnesty group. believe president trump is keeping his word. secrecy an onslaught of in trying to impeach him since the day he was elected is proof of that. host: what is the job you lost? caller: i was a community resources development specialist for the state of iowa health and welfare. host: who did you write that speech for? caller: it was an opinion piece i wrote.

i think it was 1994, 1995, somewhere in there. my boss took offense. one of the amnesty people called him and said, why his he writing -- why is he writing about us? i didn't understand. i am a combat vietnam veteran and i told my boss my people were american citizens. host: you still think english should be the official language of the united states? caller: absolutely. host: cheryl out of port orchard, washington, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning and happy day. i have to understand and let you know that our number 45 in adent was basically put military school when he was 13 years old. in his birth order book he

states from his autobiography, i don't do a job for money, i don't need money. i really don't care about the outcomes. all i am saying is for all of us who saw it from the very beginning, it was the beginning. host: derek in massachusetts, good morning. caller: good morning. i just wanted to talk about three things. this country should lean more towards education. i am a veteran from the marine corps and did two deployments in iraq. the military needs as many funds as we can give it, but education should be a priority in this country. host: how do we lean more towards education? are you talking about more funding for scholarships? making college free? caller: free college, i am a

proponent of it but i'm a realist. i don't think we can get anywhere overnight. i think doing free college off the bat, never you do something quick like that it can be chaos. i think we should lean towards eventually getting free college, but the government should set aside more education for things like satisfying student loans. making it easier for people to actually have the benefits of the education they got, and spend a boatload of their income on their education. people should be able to get a loan,e for your student it may be a government subsidy. host: where does that money come from? spendingore taxes, not money in other places? back, theknow way

600 some oddent billion dollars on the military. they spend a lot of money elsewhere. i have looked this up. education is not really a priority when it comes to major government spending. they are spending on social security and medicaid, and i understand that. it would solve a lot of problems if people have more access to , if people weren't worried about the overwhelming cost of school, education. i think people would be more informed and more likely to send their children to school. students in low income areas would look forward to going to college and not worry about paying a boatload of money, just worry about learning. that is one problem in this

country. more point, i don't want to spend too much time. real quickly, i just thought, i love this country and it is hard watching democrats and republicans go at it like we are playing a football game. we need to focus on unity. last note, when the democratic party asked what they did -- what they could do for the first 100 days in office, get mitch mcconnell on the phone. host: asking simply about your top public policy issues and keeping up-to-date on the news of the day. this was the president just about three minutes ago, tweeting out -- the big success on the syria/turkey border, saison created. cease-fire has held and combat

has ended. kurds have worked nicely with us . i will be making a statement at 11:00 a.m. from the white house. we will look more from the president on that news, that russia and turkey struck a deal to control a large zone in northeast syria that was recently monitored by american forces, and they will remove kurdish forces in the region as the cease-fire remains. notingshington post" they are filling a power vacuum when president trump pulled forces out of syria. it will help push back u.s. allied kurdish forces from a buffer zone along the border. ray in lake dallas, texas, democrat. caller: good morning.

is, forst thing example, you have a republican, democrat, doesn't matter, taking any kind of money from the lobby, let's say the oil or gun and it is something they do not want to vote on but the gun lobby wants them to vote on or not vote on, then the lobby turns around and says, if you vote on this, we are going to put somebody in the place of you , wherever your district is, and run somebody against you. it is all about trying to stay in office. wherethe continual deal people are either in the house or senate, are constantly running for their office. they are not getting as much done in congress.

needestly believe that we to completely revamp how lobbying is done in our country. i feel if we don't we will never get anything done. host: some candidates in this cycle have pledged not to take donations from corporations. is that a step in that direction? caller: heck yeah. bernie, that is one of the reasons i am a bernie supporter. he does not take pack money. -- pac money. that is the overall people of where it all starts. it is so deeply entrenched and if you do not understand it, you often hear people call in -- and i hear it all the time and i'm sorry -- i refuse to believe what these people say because to me, they are completely misinformed. host: just a reminder to our callers to turn down your

television when you are waiting to talk with us. you will be able to hear the conversation through your phone. james in clifton heights, pennsylvania, independent. caller: my concern is we are paying -- trump imposed these tariffs. a tariff is just a tax on what is going into the country. this tax money, where's it going? our coffers must be filled. it is not going to the people. we are not turning it into new steel mills. where is the money going we are paying in these tariffs? i am paying more at the grocery store for food from other countries. where is the money going from the tariffs? hillside, new jersey, democrat, good morning. is the my main concern existing senate corruption.

become all thes policies being made. host: what policies are you worried about? caller: you have betsy devos, she just received two 4 million-dollar contracts for a student debt loan collection business. all of these colleges -- policies -- 53 policies made against workers. host: what worker policy are you most concerned about? caller: some make it hard for them to unionize. some allow employers to take tips away from employees. there is quite a few publications on it. the main thing is the corruption and dark money in washington. i like the candidates that are not taking big pac money.

host: what do you think about the strength of unions today, between the auto workers strike in michigan that got a lot of attention in chicago -- attention, in chicago the teachers strike. what do you make of the power of unions? caller: because of policy, unions have been weekend. -- weakened, we need to get to where unions are the strength of america and we have built up the middle class. good wages and health benefits, and they can live on one job. go to work, one job, get paid, and supportive family. host: john is out of akron, ohio, independent. caller: thank you for allowing me to voice my opinions.

inquiry is not an impeachment inquiry. takeover byempted certain politicians with outside help. it needs to be stopped immediately, and the people that are responsible need to be held accountable. thank you very much. host: two front pages of national newspapers today on the impeachment. times" "the new york .rump tied aid to envoy from the ukraine was on capitol hill nine hours yesterday. they called it the most damming account yet for the impeachment

inquiry. that is one headline. another one from the front page --"the washington impeachment inquiries sidelining pelosi's agenda, william taylor the -- subpoena that was issued, 10 more than the 46 house bills that have gone on to become law this year. it is far from a subpoena record , but is complicating pelosi's attempt to portray her troops as focusing on their agenda. hal frommichigan -- michigan is next. bring to would like to your viewers' attention that found evidence of

a cover-up of the benghazi incident. they mentioned hillary and chelsea's website where they were talking about wedding plans , and they also mentioned obama. i would like to see how many other news stations this morning will continue to show the results of judicial watch. thank you. host: this is brad in london, kentucky, independent. caller: good morning. i was calling in reference to withdrawing troops from syria. i never seen the amount of criticism come down on strongly, not only so but from so many people and so many different realms. pat robertson, lindsey graham,

nancy pelosi, and mitch mcconnell released a similar statement within about an hour. his political courage to do something like that at a time when he is being opposed as he , is at least if nothing else, impressive. i think withdrawing troops from the middle east of course is a good idea, and the american people for the most part support it. i think they are misled a lot. isn you ask someone, betraying the kurds, our allies, is that a bad idea? of course they will say it is a bad idea, but that is not necessarily what is happening. i am impressed with his push for peace and despite this entire complex of the military-industrial complex,

which is both parties. apparently pat robertson and others. host: you mentioned the pushback you senator from kentucky, mitch mcconnell leading the pushback on syria. we saw the op-ed over the weekend in the sunday "washington post." therts to push back against president on his move in syria. what do you make of mitch mcconnell, who is up for reelection in 2020? caller: thank you for the question. mitch mcconnell is my senator. he sticks with the president and seems pretty loyal to him most of the time. the fact that he has cited with these warmongers as i expected him to, is not a surprise. our other senator, rand paul, is one of the few people -- i don't know of another actually -- that

has sided with trump to support the idea of withdrawing troops, and who of course says spending $7 trillion and losing 7000 men and women in the middle east has been a bad idea, especially considering we went there to look for saddam hussein's weapons of mass destruction. this mitch mcconnell up cycle, rand paul in 2022. betty jane, danbury, connecticut , democrat. caller: can you hear me? i am so sorry. host: go ahead. the policies are good but they cannot happen. they are stopped by a good democracy. if you do not have a stronger

democracy, no matter how nice the goals are, they will not come to fruition. committee to work to improve democracy for all the people, and the way to do it i think is to educate all the people so they can make a healthy decision. host: who could lead that bipartisan commission? who could be a good face for a strong democracy and bipartisanship? caller: gosh, there is a lot of people. i hate to make that decision for everybody. i wish i knew more, but i have a lot of respect for nancy pelosi. thingsroaches unemotionally with logic. host: you would want her to lead the bipartisan commission? caller: that is my choice.

i did not prepare for that question, but right now i have the most respect for her. out of alliance, nebraska, republican. caller: my biggest concern is the economy. they keep saying all these manufacturing jobs. i don't see them. i look in the newspaper, newspaper carriers is what they want. cdl jobs. the local walmart which is 50 miles away cut their hours. where is the economy? prices are going up. i don't see any improvement. host: what is the main industry in alliance? caller: the railroad. host: what has happened with the railroad over the past few years? caller: it goes up and down. it is totally dependent on that.

many factoring jobs are minimum-wage. housing has gone up. i do not see the improvement. when i asked my congressman, where is the manufacturing jobs, he cannot tell me. host: when is the last time you saw improvement in alliance? caller: it is just dying. we have lost our kmart, shopko, nursing home, and there are 10,000 people. host: have you ever thought about leaving? caller: i can't. i owned land and pay taxes. where would i go, chicago? . question.sh your caller: where are the manufacturing jobs? host: jim out of new york, independent, good morning. caller: i just want to say about the guns, when they get these mass shootings, cable news

channels almost salivate to get their cameras set up, waiting for something else to happen. nobody says anything about how many people are being killed by driving around staring at their phones all the time. almost every day on the news and in the newspaper, someone drives into a tree or hit somebody and keeps going. the hit and runs, i don't think people ought to hit pedestrians even though they do not hit anybody. host: on people dying in mass shootings, what can we do about that? caller: i don't think there's any way to address that. i think that is just the way that is just the way it is. -- the way it is. you have got to get into somebody's line. i can understand the mindset, because i have called the

station many times on illegal immigration. this town is completely out of control. from april until october, i get these loud parties every week. off. pretty pissed if anyone was a poster boy of being able to restrain himself, that would be me. kentucky,n frankfort, democrat. caller: good morning. i just wanted to say that our leader, mr. mcconnell, of the republican party, needs to bipartisan.e that is one thing. the second thing i am concerned about is election security. after we found out what happened with our 2016 election and although now mr. trump obviously

is asking a foreign person to interfere, that is not american. host: do you think mitch mcconnell will get reelected? who do you think he's going to run against in kentucky? caller: i hope it's mcgrath. host: do you think she has a chance of winning? hope we are awake in our state of all the things he's been blocking. democrats of things. call in thist phone segment of the washington journal. going to be joined by filmmaker and democratic activist michael moore. we will be joined by republican congressman tim burchett of tennessee.

♪ >> sunday night on q&a. wall street trader turned photojournalist chris are naughty on his book dignity about the plight of those living on the margins of society. theas empty because all semi's were gone. immediately her intelligence just kind of came right through. we spoke for about an hour.

she told me her life which is cliche oft like a everything wrong that can happen to somebody. eventually i asked her what i asked everybody i photograph which is how do you want me to describe you? back, that's what i am. a prostitute, a mother of six and a child of god. on 8:00 eastern on c-span's q&a. >> c-span has been providing america unfiltered coverage of , theess, the white house supreme court and public policy events from washington, d.c. so you can make up your own mind. . by cable in 1979. c-span is brought to you by your local cable or satellite

provider. c-span. your local unfiltered view of government. >> washington journal continues. moorefilmmaker michael joins us for a discussion about impeachment and campaign 2020. just days after you endorsed bernie sanders for president. why bernie? host -- guest: because barnett can crush trump. i say that as somebody from michigan, a statement bernie won in the primaries in 2016. we lost by michigan, wisconsin, pennsylvania. he can win michigan, wisconsin and probably pennsylvania. host: why and how? whenever some people are looking for in trump and i hope many of them deeply regret it, bernie is not part of the system that they see as corrupt.

not speaking to their needs. across the speak street here spending most of their time raising money for the next election. peoplei think to most even if you aren't for bernie you would say he's the real deal. he says he is. he will follow through. he will not be bought off. inwill stand for the things the things that i stand for. we have a great group of people running for president. many good people running and i like at least half of them. what i've been telling people is if you believe the polls that say the top five in a head-to-head with trump according to most of the polls would win. so if you believe that we can beat trump then you should in

the primaries vote for the person who most closely resembles the things you believe in. wins we getever behind that person in november, of who it is. host: progressives who haven't made their choice yet. what your mind separates bernie sanders from elizabeth wine? host: i love elizabeth warren. i had her in my movies. inirst interviewed her before sheet appeared in anything on tv. for the people who support her i think they are supporting a good person. bernie would probably say the same thing. -- iernie, because bernie don't know how quickly your control and can throw something up on the screen but if you add that photograph of him in

chicago 1963 where he's being arrested by the police because he is demonstrating against andegation for civil rights that's 1963 bernie. for over 50 years this person has fought for things that used to be thought of as crazy weather it was you should be able to marry the person you're in love with no matter which gender paid -- gender. yes. that's the picture. they are hauling him away because he is standing up against racism. look at where the american people have come. al the polls show that majority of americans believe in climate change. they believe women should be paid the same as men. if you go down the whole list of the issues bernie was right on those issues 50 years ago and he's fought for those issues for 50 years.

and now the majority of the country has come toward where bernie has been for all this time when it was a crazy idea to think about paying people $15 an hour. that is so powerful to me and i've known him for a long time and he is consistent and what you see is what you get and i think that a lot of people and i think he would excite young people and others to come out and vote next november. host: you were with him at that heavily attended rally in new york. did you get a chance to talk to him about his health? host -- guest: yes. and his wife. basically his arteries got cleaned out and she said now on their morning walk, she can't keep up with him.

of blooda free weight going through -- freeway of blood going through. he's in great shape. on saturday, i really think you could beat me in a 100 yard dash. trakstar and he was in high school. put that picture of of him winning the big race in new york city. i'm not worried about that at all. when we talk about health, i'm less worried about bernie's health. about flintried michigan or the health of this planet or of an unarmed like person sitting in their home. shoter it was the woman through the window in fort worth or in dallas, the black man who was a cpa eating ice cream

watching tv. that's a health issue. so when we talk about health that's what i want to talk about. when we talk about heart attacks what i would like to say is the only heart attacks anyone needs to be worried about is the heart attack wall street's going to have when he's inaugurated president of the united states. show,e the 1% running the that's the end of that. host: filmmaker michael moore taking a phone calls on the washington journal. >> good morning. this is my lucky day. i get to talk to michael moore. bernie is my man. andre doctors and nurses every high school has a kid

coming out to be a doctor. they say it's a radical idea. social security and medicare was englandl idea, to declaring independence was a radical idea. this is a country of radical ideas. let's get on that. guest: where do i talk to richard? which camera? those are great points. in 1850 wass day the first national women's rights conference in wister, massachusetts. and 900 people showed up to and the newspapers wrote about them like they were the craziest people on earth. the new york herald road they are trying to get rid of the bible and the constitution and make no mistake about it.

especially with health care, -- he's notn is rocket science. he's just proposing what every other industrialized country has. the health care system where it's a human right and you will never go broke. total number of people in canada that lost their homes due to doctor bills because they went bankrupt, zero. zero in sweden. zero in france. zero in spain. zero in germany. why we can't figure out how to do this when we are the wealthiest nation on earth. no offense to canada, seriously. where are they getting their money. they've made a conscious decision as a people to say we have to take care of each other. people say, our taxes will go up.

they pay a little bit more taxes in canada and france. here's what they don't pay for. they don't pay for health care. many of these countries don't pay for college. you go to college for free. in many countries daycare is either free or nearly free. now,eople watching right how much do you pay in daycare every month. how much do you pay to take care of your pains. what your student loan payment this month. i think the average is 200 or $300 a month. it's easily $1000 a month for daycare. it's close to $20,000. we don't call it attacks in this country but that's what it is. we are all being taxed an extra $20,000 a year depending on how many kids you have. roughly we are paying that already and what if we just paid

those bit more and all of things were covered. host: have you calculated what your tax rate would be under a bernie sanders tax plan? guest: yes. first i calculated my savings under the trump tax plan. do so my commitment and i this only because it's a moral issue with me that i cannot pocket whatever mother i -- money i might be saving now because i do well in making my movies and selling my books, whatever. that money that i save has to go to something else. the first thing would be to removing the person who gave me the tax cut. that would be my first priority. that has to end and people have to pay more. me have to pay more so that the middle-class class and especially the working class don't have to pay more. some people should be paying less actually.

ofave a pretty good idea what it is and i'm more than happy. april 15 i think is a wonderful day. i actually like paying my taxes. i don't always like what they go for. fact that ie the get to be an american and i'm so proud to pay for that privilege of having the things that i have in this great country and i think people like me actually should be contributing even more to that. i was born in the 50's. i remember a time as a small child watching hollywood newsreels and seeing how the rich lived. , 70, 80, being taxed 90%. look at any pictures of the rich in the 40's and the 50's. they were doing really well and they helped to pay for things

like an interstate highway system that president eisenhower gave us and had that thing built pretty much in a 10 year span of time. host: this is tim. independent. you, bernie and ralph nader are my heroes. it is such a pleasure -- pleasure to talk to is a retired machinist. i had to comed home to take care of my non-. she's 89 now. thank god for unions because there's just no good paying jobs. i was going to support warren but after seeing the rally with bernie because i gave bernie

$900 for his campaign. to ralph nader's campaign. host: what was it about the rally that convinced you? caller: i was thinking maybe we need a woman. bernieth warren mirrored sanders pol a g's. like mike, i like paying my taxes. hour imaking $30 an should pay my fair share. i like to drink clean water and when i flush the toilet i would like to know it's not going into a river or lake that i would like to eat fish out of. next time you are in traverse city hi would love it if you stupidutograph my book white men which by the way you stole from me because i was saying that before you even wrote the book.

i would love to do that. if you want to just bring it by, i restored a couple of old movie theaters in northern michigan. bring them by the state theatre in traverse city. just leave it in the envelope with a note and i will get back to you. i would be happy to do that. i'm so glad you said that about our taxes. if you don't like how we are spending our tax money and we don't a lot of things, we have the ability to throw out the people that are missed spending our money. we supposedly still have a free press where that press can do their job and that press can tell us what we are doing with our tax dollars. i'm glad you are supporting him but elizabeth, too. this is such a great year that the majority i think of the

people who are going to be voting in the democratic primary voting aggressive. they are for elizabeth. this is a good thing and i want to underscore what you said. we've goneng that 200 plus years and only one gender has served and for half of those years women couldn't even vote. it was a crime if you were a woman to vote. woman three years ago but we have to get rid of the electoral college. she won by 3 million votes. just in case president trump is watching, i always like to by overim that he lost seven million people difference between trump in the others. the people who did not want him to be president of the united states.

host: linda out of missouri, go ahead. caller: i voted republican for mccain because i really like him. but throughout my voting career i have voted democrat, republican and independent. republican but a i've been having my thoughts. i was born in the 50's. and i admire mr. moore a much. i love his movies. and his books. explain toe you to me because i do have five grandchildren that i worry about, what is the difference socialism and democratic socialism? because i do really like bernie but i'm not really positive.

guest: these terms are all messed up. i was on hannity a couple years ago and he said, so you are a socialist. i said, actually i'm a christian. it's kind of the same thing. you like to say a word because it has all these connotations. the democratic-socialist is really, the focus should be more on democratic or democracy. problem is that the choices we are given when they say it's capitalism versus socialism, i think it's wrong. that's the wrong equation. it's capitalism versus democracy. believe that our economy should be run in a democratic fashion? it's a democracy in the sense of our political institutions and we get the vote. it doesn't matter if you win the election it doesn't necessarily mean you win the election either. we can't just be a political democracy. we have to have an economic

democracy. the economy needs to be controlled by the people or representatives of the people. we have to have a say in this and capitalism is anti-democracy to me. i heard somebody speak the other corrupt capitalism, when you say that you are thinking of the old capitalism. adam smith and the early capitalists said this a system won't survive if it doesn't have a heart. and it's noted capitalism. hitting a 21st century feudal system. now is what's happening that halfat statistic of the american public doesn't have $500 to their name. if a loved one died tonight across the country, they don't have the cash on hand by the

plane ticket to go to the funeral. half of our fellow citizens. the economic system we want to live in? so when bernie says that that kind of socialism means everybody gets a seat at the table and everybody gets a slice of the pie. and some people might get a bigger slice than others, but everyone is going to have a slice and that's not the way it is now. host: mark zuckerberg is going to testify on capitol hill. what would you ask him? guest: i'm actually going to head over there. i probably shouldn't alert them that i'm coming. what i would say to mark inventedg is, you something that has eliminated the middleman and allows us to all kind of talk to each other. that's a good thing. and it's interesting that the

motivation for this invention was simply that he wanted to meet girls. that's really how he started in college. became what it is. and what it is has become harmful in many ways. in the 2016 it did election. probably what they are going to talk to him today is has this really changed? are we going to go through in the next 12 months what we did in 2016? with all of this orwellian fakery going on to actually move people in directions that they wouldn't move to had they not been lied to. i don't think he's got to feel good about facebook having become a lie machine. i wouldn't.

i think they need to really press him on this and the larger issue of monopolies and the lack how one or two companies now control so much, is that democracy? is that really truly an egalitarian country when one or two companies control everything? the i was being raised in 50's, we were told that the kind of country that says we only need one media, we only need one car company, we only need one airline. that was called something else. odd that the so-called supporters of capitalism have shifted our system into where like the old soviet system there is no competition. there really isn't a free market. all of the things they say they believe in they really don't. they believe the best kind of company is if they could buy up

all the competition and have the old soviet union back. host: julie in wisconsin. democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. i am from wisconsin and i'm kind of like that lady, kind of voted -- voted all over the place. i questionng this, it because i don't believe the news because some of it is so fake. voted i did not vote for hillary because i did not trust her. ok. now with everything coming out and beginning to think maybe we should go with bernie sanders. wondering am also

what's he going to do to our social security. guest: what's a 78-year-old going to do to social security? [laughter] you can't have a better person being responsible to make sure that everybody over the age of 65 is going to be protected by somebody over the age of 65. i think you have nothing to worry about there. i am 60. i just turned 60 a while back. i'm on social security because of my disability. i have a learning and spelling disability and i have a bad back condition. i do worry about things like that. host: let's take that up and your advice for julie. guest: i would encourage you to vote for bernie because he is somebody who cares so deeply about what you just described and making sure that you have a safety net.

that you don't have to suffer because you have an ailment. i could go down a whole list of things from what she's talking about. what's going on with what we've read in the paper this week about boeing aircraft. this is what happens when you don't have regulations. they are able to build planes anyway they want to build them. there's no regulation of how they produce the pharmaceuticals you end up with pills that were made wrong. somebody that is going to be on top of this and is going to always be thinking about the people. i would say bernie is the best for that in my opinion. but there are other democrats who also have a strong heart and a strong conviction for these things. wouldn't?that guest: they have dropped out.

they are not on the stage. the 12 that are left on that stage all have strong convictions about these things. centristmoderate and ones, the bidens and the others. now i guessed pete buttigieg would be one of those. or going to take things slower. halfway measures. things i don't approve of. i think we all learned from obamacare that great things happen in terms of pre-existing conditions. but anybody who has obamacare knows what the cost of those deductibles are outrageous. all of those things that people shouldn't be paying for and if you've got the bronze plan, it's the berlin -- bronze plan. canada live a life similar to ours half a mile across the detroit river and they cannot believe that the richest country on earth can't

figure this out. the canadians and the others if you've traveled to these countries have this sense of way. .- we and we have sadly gone into this place of need. most of the great religions say the most important thing is to take care of those who are the have-nots. and that's our most important michigan -- mission here on earth. say,e heard a preacher what's the way to get into heaven. when you get to the pearly gates, you need a permission slip from the poor. that said that when you were here on earth, when you are hungry you fed them. when you were homeless you gave them shelter. you took care of them. you were fair. you are just. you were honest. we can't lose these things and i fear that we are slipping away from that.

waiting in has been nashville, tennessee. with they question is level of partisanship in congress and the lack of focus in passing laws, i think to increase cooperation and progress, what to think about term limits for both congress and the judiciary. thank you. think generally that's a good idea. on the other hand i sure wouldn't have wanted to get rid of president roosevelt in the middle of world war ii so there's that. i see the arguments on both sides. partisanship let me say something in favor of partisanship. it's good that you believe in something. if you are republicans and you have strong beliefs in something, you should fight for those beliefs. run for office. run locally. get involved in the system. fight for the things that you

believe in. some things don't have a compromise. you either believe that a fertilized egg is a human being or it isn't. there's no halfway to that. there is no halfway to the death penalty. you either believe you can execute somebody and that's morally right or morally wrong. you can't halfway execute somebody. the whole way. just like every other country has figured it out. people if they've figured it out in portugal. if they've figured out and most of the world away to take care of each other, we can do this, too. let you get up to capitol hill. thank you for stopping by. guest: thank you for the show and thanks to c-span for existing.

host: coming up next, tim burchett. we will be right back. >> book tv has life weekend coverage of the texas book festival from austin turning saturday at 11:00 eastern. with author discussions on the trump administration's immigration policies with julie hirschfeld davis and michael scheer. the life and career of former u.s. ambassador cement the power. the impact of disinformation with former under secretary of state richard stangl.

texasve coverage from the book festival continues sunday at noon eastern with surgeon and professor dr. marty mckay offering his thoughts on health care. fox talks about her time as a cia operative. life weekendr coverage of the texas book festival. bookre to catch the miami fair month on book tv on c-span2. thinking about participating in c-span's 2020 competition but you've never made a documentary joan -- film before? teachers will find resources on

the teacher's materials page to help you introduce studentcam to your students. >> the final topic that you are truly passionate about and pursue it as much as you can. towe are asking students make a documentary about issues you would like students to address on the campaign. $100,000 inaward cash prizes. >> go get a camera and produce the best video you can possibly produce. visit studentcam.org. washington journal continues. burchettgressman tim joins us now. one of the three committees conducting the impeachment inquiry. were you a part of yesterday's deposition involving bill

taylor? >> sure was. host: what was your take? guest: the new york times has pretty much given it all up. the thing that bothers me about this and i'm not a lawyer, we don't trust the american public with this stuff but we don't allow members of congress to basically leak it out. the process is not there. we are not allowed to bring in and sheriff,sses he is a master at it. he controls it in his favor. to me it's a little disconcerting and i think that's why they're are losing ground on this fight. host: why are they losing ground? guest: the american public is not following it. we want our pizzas in 30 minutes or less and that's about our attention span. misjudged the american

public and they are not buying what they are feeding them. it seems like every time somebody is up there and speaks in the group, they bring in a diplomat or a member of the state department or whatever. seem like they're disgruntled. they weren't in on the conversation and they say time and time again we warned them or something along those lines. they were mad because they weren't brought into the conversation and then one guy, he's going to retire within a year anyway so he retires and discussed in six month so you can go out on the martyrs note i guess. to me that just completely reeks attitude that i that existed in the state department.

it.hows i read people. i'm not as learned as some of my colleagues are but i read these folks and to me there's an arrogance that kind of carries over on everything and i've been around people like that. wayou don't do it their then they would leak it to the press or something that you were allegedly doing which you weren't. and then they would try to wreck it. that's what they were doing. host: and i now deposition yesterday. based on that 15 page opening statement getting most of the attention, can you fill in the details as much as you can about what was said after the opening statement or what else we should know about what happened behind closed doors yesterday? guest: no. i really can't. i'm not supposed to talk about

that. that leaves the republicans at a compete disadvantage because they are honoring that and i feel like some of our colleagues across the aisle are leaking this stuff. went to his testimony and they broke for lunch and i went upstairs and sure enough it was already being quoted in the printed press. in one meeting i thought it was kind of interesting where i believe it was mark meadows said and our chairman of foreign , ranking member, he said that he and meadows showed an exhibit of the tweet that had been sent out and it attributed the quote to one of the democrats. , hethey asked chairman shiv

had just got finished telling us we are not supposed to talk about this stuff and this was quote that was attributed. open it up and let the american public decide and quit spoon feeding what they want out because it's an unfair advantage for the democrats. host: if democrats aren't honoring the rules? why continue to honor them on your side? guest: because they are the rules. personally reviewed the transcript. again, i'm not a lawyer. i don't see any reason why the public shouldn't see it. it was like watergate deep throat. you had to go into the parking garage and go through this area. water was dripping down. i thought this was like some 60's spy movie.

i believe three committees have access. members of congress are being turned away. now they have to have apparently a democrat has to be there to watch you view some of these documents. to me it's just totally ridiculous. i think the public needs to know are beingealize they spoonfed stuff that's me is put out the legally and when the republicans honor they are saying, why don't you stand up and say what you know. we will continue to follow the rules. host: the house gavels in at 10:00 a.m.. taking your phone calls. a budget committee member. are we going to be in a government shutdown mode in less than four weeks when this continuing resolution runs out?

guest: possibly, but i think we will be gutless and pass another continuing resolution. from,nessee where i come a lot of the people above the mason-dixon line. we drop a load of asphalt on the interstate to pave, it's paid for. it's not blotted out. the united states of america could learn a lesson from the state of tennessee. it's ridiculous the way we do it. day, we arether going to have to get a bunch of surgeons in here. when we pass these continued resolutions these guys get on the house floor and pat themselves on the back. they're going to throw their arms out of whack because they congratulate themselves on doing

what we are supposed to do. we haven't done it for over 20 years. to me it's disingenuous. i know the public is not following it, but i wish they would. that's what's important. that's what's going to wreck this republic. host: kevin. independent. caller: i listen to you and it seems most of your argument seems to be on profit my key concern is the actual substance of what was done. i have the chief of staff admitting to it. i have the testimony from seems to be honorable lifelong republicans and state department officials. corroborating it. and as an express to her, i've got to tell you. the fact that you are all being processed as opposed to just commenting on whether this was

done or not is really troubling. know what he's getting at. the question is what is it. if you think that we are billions of dollars -- giving billions of dollars to foreign entities -- the president was talking about 2016. he wanted to know what the corruption that happened in the past. joe biden is the one who brought up the ukraine portion where he said he withheld money from them and they turn around and fired i think youtor did are kind of picking and choosing . i wish we'd cut back on our aid to a lot of these countries because they are bad actors. legislation dealing with that. i doubt it will go anywhere because it steps on too many toes. snowflakes we have in this world

today are so afraid to be inconvenienced a little bit. i feel like the president was asking about corruption and he has a right to ask about corruption if we are giving these people are hard earned tax dollars. mexico is another one we ought to be looking at. caller: could mourn. i'm really upset about what you're talking about. i don't understand how as a republican and stand there and say how things are on the border when the president said exactly what he did. same with his advisory board they are all involved in this cover-up. i don't understand that. host: let the congressman respond. the president did admit to what you are saying and

i don't see what he's trying to cover anything up, i'm not sure where you're going with that. to the original statement. originally he was dealing with the russians and we heard that. shiv said he had undeniable proof of that and he went on and on for weeks and then didn't produce it. and here we are in the same situation. what was he talking about. the 12 people that were listening to that conversation said nothing was wrong. the ukraine and the president of the united states said nothing was inappropriate. and now you have someone who is probably at disgruntled employee saying that. thelly i still go back to point if you are a nation and we are giving you our hard earned there should be some

contract. you have a plumber and you pay him to fix your pipes and it still leaks i would say you are probably going to pull back on that check. if you hire a lawyer if you don't get representation. host: where would you like to see tax dollars go? the washington times saying democrats writing more subpoenas than laws. there's a couple you are working on. guest: i wrote a letter to the department of justice about the cost of insulin. catholic, but the bishop in knoxville says i'm honorary catholic. i don't drink but i'm pro-life so i'm halfway there. the bishop had told me about some of his parishioners. he is in fact diabetic.

some of his parishioners really having trouble paying for their insulin. making the choice between food and medicine and to me that's a horrible decision to have to make. and sure enough, , it was putcreated out on the market 40 or 50 years ago and the prices have just gone up astronomically. to me at the monopoly of a couple of companies and the price should be coming down. it should be more affordable. i've written a letter to the department of justice and i hope ag barr sees that letter and does something about it. i think it's wrong. host: what could he do about it? guest: there is antitrust laws and things i hope could be investigated. the you're seeing now isn't free market. it's an incredible amount of

greed that has infected some of these countries and they need to straighten it up. when congress does it it probably will make the situation worse. you would see those prices start to come down. attacks that we have received from mickey, had the attorney general taken the whistleblower complaint seriously, opened a legitimate investigation, adam schiff would not be playing the role of special investigator here. what do you think? guest: that's more legal things. i'm not a lawyer. i'm not more comfortable commenting on it. why don't they impeach, because they don't have the votes first of all. -- theysi knows she has

are afraid to put those people majorityot because the and in the balance. it's a little tougher to call this president murder because he's very aggressive with his tweets and things and he will pop you which he has a right to do but i think you're going to see that. that's the main reason they're hoping they get a single bullet. maybe death by thousand cuts. i don't feel like it's impeachable. , michigan.ark caller: good morning congressman. the congressman is complaining about the republicans are not being represented. his peopleuld let

come forward, we would hear what they have to say. so you need to stop complaining if you don't want the republic to hear what they are saying. i don't see why you have a reason to complain. very valid point and we are not articulating that enough. the problem is that the hearings, i don't know legally exactly what they are because it hasn't been voted on by congress. it's ongoing from the day i was elected. if you remember when we were elected you had one representative saying we are going to impeach and used some expletives. i'm afraid my daughter could be watching. christian academy of knoxville and i might be reprimanded if we go into those cuss words. congressd members of that -- ms. pelosi alluded to it that we've got to impeach him.

that sets the tone. it's just a fishing expedition and they are just going to keep digging. it reason they won't allow is it's basically a kangaroo court. we are not allowed to call our own witnesses and it's just completely controlled. the hearings are not being run in a judicious manner. host: jeff is a republican. good morning. caller: just out of curiosity since we are all making up our own rules, i just wonder if andh mcconnell can go ahead once the senate gets the impeachment order, if he's allowed to go ahead and say, ok. now these are my rules. andre going to go ahead give the wiccans in the house a two month time period --

republicans in the house at two month time period to call the witnesses in the house and we will all watch and in the senate will do their job after that's all said and done. and then we will see what happens. say that's a very likely scenario if it gets to that point. i don't know if it's going to get to that point. there's been some talk that they will do it before christmas. they've spent way too much political capital. the usmca for instance, the trade agreement. united states, mexico, canada. realize nafta was three pages when it was typed and was originally done. when it was past it was over six feet tall stack. just full of typical washington garbage that they tacked onto

it. the usmca agreement, mexico has already agreed to it. in canada there parliament they have to pass it three times. they passed it twice. now they are waiting on this country. won't bring back to a floor vote. dollars and she won't bring it to the floor. we've got this select group hearing the so-called hearings. the rest of us we are doing business. the american public, working people, men and women ought to be outraged that this impeachment is taking that oxygen out of the room and not anything to get by.

it's unfortunate. host: a bill on carbon capture technology. my guys give me notes on this. and socialismdeal is not the answer. the bill would just allow, it would create some taxes and bonds to finance carbon capture products. there's other bills out there but they are paper and this actually does something. it incentivizes industrial and energy firms to capture carbon and use it for other processes and use it for other businesses. host: are you worried that picking winners and losers?

guest: you're going to pick winners and losers. we need to quit waiting on this impeachment and start doing some things that are going to help this country and we have an excellent opportunity. and is better than it's ever been. are working. minority populations are seeing a shot at the american dream and to me it's very frustrating that we've allowed everything else to be channeled towards impeachment . nothing else is getting done and that's very unfortunate. the other argument is it goes to the senate and doesn't go anywhere. because most of those bills have poison in them that are horribly -- and is written in my opinion to penalize republicans and conservative folks. they tack on all these amendments and things that have absolutely nothing to do with the bills they are trying to do.

but that's the washington two-step. host: we get in dottie from gatlinburg, tennessee. caller: it's a yes or no question. i would like to know, do you donald trump's withdrawal enthroned the kurds to the wolves? do you agree with that honestly? guest: tell me what anstitutional reason when american fighting woman what constitutional reason do we have to be over there. we have lost over 6200 american fighting men and women. he spent $7 trillion on this so-called war on terror.

and what has it gotten us. the president just stated we are going to be exporting oil soon next year if we are not already doing it. he said he is going to start bringing the troops home. people iy, the same remember i had my picture with vice president cheney. they call him a warmonger in the next sentence they are mad because the president is bringing our troops home from these wars. ally.an, there a nato we going to go to war with a nato ally? host: turkey you mean? guest: i meant turkey. what role to the united nations play in all of this?

it's all these world making aren't doing that the thing and we need to address that. we cannot be the world's peacekeeper. it's horrible what's going on. i will sign on anything they want to do to penalize turkey. i just don't see american boys and girls getting killed over there. we need to bring those folks home. dallas,rnie from oregon. line for republicans. go ahead. caller: i just want to comment on the president holding back all those people to testify. hear we thing we ever wouldn't hear what they actually had to say. shown how already everybody uses words like dirt.

we wouldn't hear what was truthfully being said anyways because it would only hear what they want us. guest: i should have let bernie answer that question. host: do you plan to keep going to the impeachment depositions? guest: yeah. that's all they are really pushing. that's the narrative you see in the press and frankly the american public has had it i think. i think it was a mistake to do it and then send us home. people are just tired of it. it doesn't matter if they think he's right or wrong. they are tighter fit. it will show at the ballot box. host: how many hours of it where you able to be there for?

several hours. it is just lawyer stuff. host: we will have to end there. tim burchett, republican from tennessee. now we will take you live to the house floor for gavel-to-g the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. speaker's room, ashington, d.c., october 23, 2019. i hereby appoint the honorable bobby l. rush to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. signed, nancy pelosi, speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the order of the house of january 3, 2019, the chair will now recognize members from listsmi