talk show host dennis prager discusses his efforts to promote speech. as always, we will take your calls, and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter as well. "the war for america's soul -- "washington journal" is next. ♪ host: good morning, it has been wee a week of closed-door testimony and public hearings. week two of testimony begins next week. welcome to "washington journal." resuming onerage the c-span network beginning tuesday morning, 9:00 a.m. eastern time. for the first hour of our program, has anything you have seen or heard swayed your opinion about these hearings? is there a moment that stands out? swaysat, if anything,

your opinion. (202) 748-8000, that is our line for democrats. (202) 748-8001 for republicans, and we have a line for independents, (202) 748-8002. send us a text message at (202) 748-8003. be sure to tell us your first name and where you are texting from, or join us on facebook at facebook.com/cspan, or send us a tweet at @cspanwj. on "newsmakers," we will have representative joh john yarmouth of iowa. this headline first from foxnews.com, the president capturing the vote as an impeachment referendum.

from the "timesfrom the "times " governor john bel edwards winning in a heavily republican area. area. results from louisiana. your reaction. caller: well, it is just sort of another -- what has been a pretty terrible week here for the president. has had a longtime confidant convicted of all seven counts of lying on friday. he has had a series of people

coming forward to the impeachment inquiry, testifying anut what they consider improper pressure campaign to get ukraine to investigate the have somed now you political deceit here -- defeat here in a state that trump won by 20 points. the democrats are pulling and upset here, doing better than they did in the primary. that is going to be something other republicans start paying attention to, to see if the issident's political pull not as strong as they hoped, and, you know, they have got a lot of senate republicans up next year, and they have a lot of house republicans who are starting to look at the political landscape and have decided to retire as well, so it is not great for the president. host: let's turn to the recording both the of you and your colleague at a bloomberg

news and some testimony behind closed doors yesterday. one of the headlines is "career diplomats building a narrative of ukraine's pressure campaign by the president." what have you learned? >caller: so we have even more, i guesscaller: career, and in some cases white house officials, coming forward to the committee -- saying that they providing sort of more confirmation of details about what was going on behind the scenes and also how they viewed this phone call with the ukraine president zelensky on july 25. mike pence's aide, jennifer appeared said trump more focused on his personal political agenda rather than some one policy objective with the united states on that call. that is not great for the president. tim morrison, a former cia director of the national did testifyncil,

that he did not hear anything a legal on that call, but he provided more confirmation that gordon sondland, the ambassador , was talking about a pressure campaign to get ukraine's president to announce investigations. a number ofes after other diplomats have come forward and recent days to say that they also heard, either overheard conversations that happened friday night with david ukraine -- one of our diplomats in ukraine overheard a conversation between trump and sond land. these are things that will be rolling out in the next few weeks of testimony. to roger me turn stone, because of the late 1980's, he has been a close friend and confidence of donald,

what his closest and most public supporters, found guilty on friday of witness tampering, lying to congress, faces a potential of 50 years in jail. he is now in his mid-60's. there is some indication, at least based on the president's tweet, that he may be up for a pardon. caller: yeah, i mean, he clearly and thepardon, president has the power to give him a pardon, and the president has some tweets about roger stone, which seem sympathetic to stone. i think that almost certainly resulted in another article of impeachment, however, for abuse of power from democrats. the key here is that prosecutors in trump's department of justice -- the reasonne why he was lying was to protect the president, and so you could have a situation where the president is pardoning people

for lying to congress for him. that could be, you know, that would be a pretty dangerous precedent, potentially, if anybody who ever lies to congress does not have to pay a penalty. the think that is, uh, president may want to pardon him, but i think the consequences for that could be politically not so great for him somethingnly would be that would be another thing that democrats would take a hard look at. host:. we are talking to steven dennis he covers the capitol hill and most notably the senate for bloomberg news. whether or notut you are sensing any division among republicans, either support or lack thereof, of republicans, because ultimately, they will be the jurors if this comes to a senate trial. guest: the president is working them hard. he is having senate republicans , 5, 10 atwhite house

a time on different subjects. impeachment has been coming up. senate way i view republicans, as i talk to as many of them as regularly as i can come almost every other day, they sort of our in three buckets. is a bucket of five or 10 senators -- actually, less than that, usually, who are robustly defending the president all the time, and then you have got a much bigger bucket of senate republicans who do not want to talk about it at all, and if they do, they will sort say a big talking point about or haven't seen anything yet, or they will wait until they see it when it gets over here, and then you have a may be much smaller group must 2, 3, or senate republicans who have said very critical things

about the president's phone call -- mitt romney, susan collins -- who are not saying much after that, but have made clear that they are not happy. and then you have got a few people, like pat toomey of pennsylvania, who, at last believehis past week, that the call was inappropriate but not impeachable. and so that seems to be a bucket that could get a lot bigger, that a lot of senate republicans could ultimately not vote to convict but have some harsh words for the president's conduct here. that is something that happened in the bill clinton and treatment. if you remember, joe lieberman gave sort of a scathing speech about clinton's conduct, but ultimately the democrats lined up to protect him from removal. and that could be where things are going. it is really hard to tell at

this point. one thing that i don't think is likely is an actual removal, barring a collapse in the president's support amongst public and primary voters, because then come as a senate republican, you are essentially voting for the end of your career, because somebody is going to run against you and probably beat you if you actually remove a president that they like. host: a lot as the week unfolds with public hearings resuming on wednesday morning. dennis, tracking it all, his work available at bloomberg.com. thank you. we appreciate it. guest: thank you. host: let me turn to the "new its times," fedex slashing tax bill to zero dollars. fedex over more than $1.5 billion in taxes. the next year, it owed nothing. the changed witas

trumpet administration's tax cut, for which fedex had lobbied hard. next, inside china's mass detentions. how they are rounding up muslim minorities across the country. finally, this from the "new york thes," the aide disclose bolton meeting from ukraine. the reporting of sheryl sandberg, "john bolton, president trump's national security advisor, met tovately as part of a bit persuade the president to release $391 million and security assistance to ukraine, that according to what was told to house impeachment investigators last month. mr. trump's cabinet secretary as well as top national security advisers to convince the president that it was in the best interest of the united totes to unfreeze the funds help ukraine defend itself

against russia, but mr. bolton emerged with mr. trum unmoved, interviews as perhaps the most single important witness to have evaded house democrats of the building case against the president and allegations of abuse of power of the presidency by withholding vital military assistance in a couple of white house meeting agree toine until they the investigations that he wanted, significant of his potential testimony." again, this morning, from page of the "new york times." let's get to your phone calls and your tweets, including this from steve who says, "last week was a good week for america's patriots, a bad week for trump. his regime in the coming weeks should be the same." storm, "senators

up for reelection who fail to vote to convict him once he is impeached will get a rude awakening next november. finally, from david say in both putin and trump storm, "senators up for reelection who fail to vote to convict him once both cy voting for another quid pro quo, helping make russia great again. gary is first up. good morning. welcome to the conversation. gary, are you with us? we will go on to glenn in lakeland, florida on the democrats line. good morning, glenn. caller: how are you? host: i am fine. what thing i noticed is the former ambassador was giving her testimony, and that sort of has the whole story about what went on, because the thing that you couldis that define a foreign service officer, these are people that time,een there for a long 35 plus years, 25 plus years, they know exactly what they are doing.

when things happen in ukraine, they are the first ones that no, and they have to be involved in what happens. and people talk about the $400 million in military aid. that is either going to be here in the states or with ukraine and that does, not happen. host: glenn, thank you for the call. i just want to mention from this "usa today -- from this "new york times" story, the fedex tax cuts. both available online pointing out that most corporations got big savings under the 2017 tax law, but they have reinvested relatively little of that money and capital spending. you can see the effect of the tax cut on these industries and then the investments, most of the investments came in the energy sector, 71%, but the majority were in the low to mid single digits. on the republican line, noelle

is next year and washington, d.c. good morning. caller: uh, hello. i am a republican, and i voted for trump, but i was somewhat reluctant. he was not my first choice, but i did think he was better than hillary clinton. i have to admit i am regretting that vote now. what changed it for me was two things. one, finding out about that the man waswhen speaking, and then with the woman was giving her testimony, that trump actually threatened her on a tweet while she was speaking, and you put those together, and i don't think our country needs that kind of a president. host: thank you. also on the republican line, mark is next in charlotte, north carolina. good morning, mark. caller: good morning. i would like to respond a big key point for me from the investigation was that all three of the public witnesses, even

your bloomberg reporter that you had on a little earlier, none of those three public witnesses saw or experienced any crime, and so that is really the headline of what happened. great concern that the deposition from earlier private witnesses have not been released to the republicans by the democrats, which could shape their -- not only the public statements, but the way they question the witnesses in public. i am very concerned that this is more of a show trial and a public relations activity rather than searching for truth and searching for crimes. all three of the witnesses said there were no crimes that they saw, and they were not part of the things there. i would love to be able to trust the public service officers and those who are in foreign service, but as i encourage your listeners to see what was happening in the glenn beck investigation into the state

department, and i have great concern about corruption and personal vendettas that are happening among many people that are working for us in embassies all across the world. host: mark, let me ask you to questions. first of all, the testimony of yovanovitch, did lot o you find her credible or not? guest: she seemed credible, but when they asked her, did you sheess any time crimes, said no. her in may,ey fired and the call was in july. caller: why was she testifying about something that happened in july? it seems very much skewed to the democratic position, also using their political power for personal political gain. host: let me jump in on one

other point. we're going to hear from a colonel, who was on the call, and we will also hear from ambassador sondland. caller: i wish they had been up front and center instead of these other folks who were not witnesses to what the congress as they are investigating. mark, thanks for the call. we go to mel, on the democrats line. good morning, mel. caller: a few comments to what your earlier guest said about the senators. it seems like some of the things that trump said may come back to haunt him one of these days, like "little marco rubio," talking about ted cruz's wife be an ugly and how his dad was in on the kennedy assassination. this did come close in the senate, and you have romney and senators going against trump.

do you suppose there is a chance that those two guys might have their honor start to bother them a little bit? i know if trump talked about my wife like that, i would be ready to punch his lights out. and i'm just wondering if cruise or some of those guys might look at the facts a little bit closer than some of the republican senators do. i really enjoy your show. i'm a little nervous -- this is my first time. host: oh, no. how would you answer your own question, mel? what do you think? caller: i might be a little more lane you when i'm looking at facts if trump had insulted my family life, he had his, i guess is what i am trying to say. for pence too vote become the president in this administration. host: mel, thanks for the call.

don't be a stranger. no need to be nervous. we are glad to hear from you. michael, pennsylvania, republican line. week two of the impeachment hearings. what have you heard so far, and what are you expecting this week? caller: i think this whole thing has been a farce. .t has been a show trial they do not seem to be following any kind of real rules of decorum and fairness, and they are not allowing republicans to bring their own witnesses or even sometimes defend their own position. trump may bek that guilty of some things. every president is. but nothing that is worthy of impeachment. even an't seem to find

to, uh,to -- to -- center on. host: michael, thank you for the call. the testimony of this individual, jennifer williams, is getting a lot of attention as she met with investigators in early november. efforts to pressure ukraine were, in her words, inappropriate. "a top national security aide to vice president mike pence said that president trump's efforts to pressure ukraine and has political opponents were "unusual and inappropriate," and those were her words, and to shed some light on the president's order to freeze for allies. telling investigators in early november that she took notes while she listened in on the 25th with to life ukrainian president zelensky -- july 25 with ukrainian president

zelensky in the room. she said they were politically motivated. "i found the specific references to be more specific to the president as opposed to a broader for policy objective of the united states," and according to jennifer williams in a transcript of her closed-door deposition yesterday, and she put a hard copy of the call transcript in the vice president's briefing book but did not know whether he had read it. -- another piece of the impeachment probe has centered on vice president pence, and whether or when he rudy giuliani was seeking an investigation into the bite is cured again, the story available online at politico.com. our next call on the democrats line, california, good morning. america,ood morning,

and thank you, c-span, for giving me this opportunity to speak. n, in the i see reporting done earlier, regarding the national security director, everybody had spoken to him, and either they just order that he went to the president and had a conversation about this issue. i believe that he was required to inform congress regarding this issue. therefore even all the republican senators understand who the whistleblower is. it was john bolton. and they were required to start the impeachment hearing -- when the national security director comes and tells you "the president is breaking the law, this is what happened, everybody," unfortunately, he has taken the right position, using the law to do this work. he was fired, therefore he could not. the only thing he could do was respond this way. thank you, john bolton, and keep up the good work, congress.

thank you, america, for allowing us to see the dirtiness and correctness of the president. host: eric from compton, california. again, that from a story in which john bolton had met with the president in august, according to the "new york times ," pleading with him to release the money to ukraine to fend off russia. john bolton was then fired in september. republican line, marietta georgia, good morning. . kevin, are you with us? i will try one more time for kevin in marietta, georgia. caller: yes, sir. host: good morning. caller: i am an african american man in marietta, georgia. i am 25 years old. book by caldwell called "conservatism," and he talked about conservative policies through the african-american community.

i mention that, because trump has diverted millions of dollars to the education of the african-american community. looking at this entire impeachment situation, everyone says that they have not seen any type of crime, even yovanovitch, she was not there, she testified it was something she was not therefore. now, trump is an unorthodox president, true enough, but in the situation, he had the authority to view and pick on any type of political business is a national threat, and he was feeling that joe biden went overseas to see about his sons and get his son on the board of the ukraine, u , -- host: you are next, internet

line. caller: i am next? host: yes, you are next. good morning. you're first of all, if who i think you are, the young man -- is that you? host: i am not sure what you are referring to. well, i just wanted to let you know that from the very beginning when trump started to announce that he was going to run for president, uh, he had to start right then and there, he started to fight back, because they were already attacking him verbally, way before he even, um, made the actual move. host: pam, you are next, north carolina. go ahead, please. caller: hi. good morning. host: good morning. caller: i just had three quick points to make. first of all, the ambassador who

testified the other day, yeah, he could have removed her for any reason, however, smearing her i don't think was appropriate, and i just think it was disgusting. also, one of the republican house members had asked her about taylor taking her place. so there was a month in between that, and they knew they would have time between the time she left and the time taylor would come. so that is when, as far as the call is concerned, that is when he started making his moves. host: pam, thanks for the call. on the republican line, ken in augusta, georgia, good morning to you. caller: just a couple of comments this morning. i am a retiree, by the way. one comment, i wonder why nobody is questioning why hunter biden

now, but v.a. benefits he has been thrown out of the military. the second question is this -- how is it that we are paying a private person to teach at georgetown university, which i thought students went to and way, but why is american people on the ticket now with tax money to pay this lady to start teaching at georgetown? that is atrocious. she is a state department employee, and she was required to leave her position earlier than expected, and so she is now an adjunct faculty member at georgetown, but she is also still a state department employee and potentially could face another posting as a career foreign service officer. caller: why? host: so you disagree with that, obviously. caller: well, absolutely, that is a civilian term.

host: typically what the state department has done in the past loud career diplomat strategic colleges and universities around the country. caller: what benefits does she get teaching there? is it still retirement, you know, the limousine services, private aides and stuff? host: well, she is paid by the state department. she is not paid by georgetown university. let's go to michael next in stamford, connecticut, independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. i find it really hard that trump ukraine to to investigate the bidens, and he is going to go with their investigation more than the american investigators? beforeeves russia he believes his own government. when was the last time we had one of those migrations come up with all the people coming up from mexico? we are still paying $700 a day for each person down there.

that is $36 million a day. that is a lot of money to be spending on all the people coming up. now, trump, his backers, there's less and less of them across the country, but they are just getting louder, and they are getting louder and louder, and that is why it seems like he is keeping things going. "he's the best this, the best that," he is the worst of the worst. he is the worst president there possibly could be. he is not going to get reelected. he is going to end up in jail! hopefully next to one of those people he was in there with, host: thank you for the call. this tweet came in 10:01 friday morning as marie yovanovitch was about to take questions from the house intelligence committee. the president wrote, everywhere marie yovanovitch turned bad. she started off in somalia, how

did that go? fast-forward ukraine where the ukrainian president spoke badly about her. absolute president's right to appoint ambassadors. the president was asked about that tweet and whether it was witness tampering. [video] >> democrats say you were witness tampering when you made that tweet. >> i am talking about transparency. i am the most transparent president in history. i will tell you about what tampering is. tampering is when a guy like schiff does -- adam not let us have witnesses. startedfirst time, i watching and it is said when people are not allowed to ask questions. nobody is ever had such horrible due process. there was no due process. i think it is considered a joke all over washington and the world.

the republicans are given no due process whatsoever. we are not allowed to do anything. it is a disgrace what is happening. the american public understands that that is why the poll numbers are so good. process, it isal not a legal process. if i have someone saying -- i am allowed to speak up. if someone says about me we are not allowed to have representation or almost anything. nobody has seen anything like it in the history of our country. there has never been a disgrace like what is going on right now. i have the right to speak, i have freedom of speech like other people do. they have taken away the republican's rights. i watched today while talented people of want to ask questions were not allowed to ask questions -- publicans, they were not asked -- not allowed to ask questions. host: this text message from jim in massachusetts.

people are expressing their personal opinions. president trump should not be impeached on hearsay or emotional feelings. millionfrom steve, $400 is not a big enough bribe to be impeachable, how many millions does the president have to withhold before it is considered a crime? new york, good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. democrats are taking a big risk by doing this impeachment. this is not political in the sense -- they may well lose that with this. seen with the clinton impeachment when the republicans lost. i applaud them. i want to say about all of the people calling in who claim we should be -- the house should be

doing the work of the people. they have been doing nothing but the work of the people from january until this started and mitch mcconnell refuses to bring to the senate any of the bills that the house has passed and have passed a lot of them. don't use that as an excuse anymore, republicans, that we are wasting time with impeachment when there is work to be done. the work has been done, the senate refuses to address it. that thethe claim is transfer of, the arms went through. nothing was withheld. that is like saying attempted murder is not a crime. if you attempt to do this, it is a crime. thank you, steve. host: republican line, dumfries,

virginia, good morning. caller: good morning. it is amazing to me that just because joe biden is disingenuous, because is running for president the president is trying to attack his political opponent when all of us know joe biden is not a political threat to the president. you know he is trying to find out what happened in the 2016 election. i don't think if there are any of us if we were constantly accused of something we didn't do that we would not try to get to the bottom of it. to say joe biden is running for president that he is above being investigated for something that happened in the past, that is ridiculous. just because the president tweeted facts about the witness, now the media leads everyone around by the nose saying it was a threat. arealthough the callers

saying he threatened her. no, he stated facts about her tenure and i don't think there is anything wrong about that. needs to be known who that woman is. you all are very disingenuous. a lot of the democrats know that since the president -- even before he was sworn in they have been after him. all of a sudden, this whole impeachment thing is credible? whenever all of the things happen before him that fell to the ground, now they have something new to attack him about? the democrats still think this is credible? it is incredible to me that some the people are so blinded and misled, and you know what? the president will be reelected. the one thing they know is they cannot beat him at the ballot box so that is what this charade is about. host: thank you from the call. photographland a that took in ukraine.

we will show you that share with you some details. a former white house national security advisor telling investigators that gordon sondland as the ambassador to the european union was acting on behalf of president trump and spoke to a top ukrainian official about exchanging military aid for apical investigation, two elements at the heart of the impeachment inquiry. suddenly discussing sensitive mentors, was the president on the phone call -- those who overheard the phone call also testifying before the house intelligence committee. the story is available at washington post.com. william taylor with his testimony included this from his opening statement. [video] told meber of my staff of events that occurred on july 26. while we visited the front, a member of my staff and the

bassett or sunderland -- following the meeting in the presence of the staff in a restaurant, he called president trump and told him of his beatings thank you have. tellber of my staff could president trump asking abbasid or sondland about the investigations. following the call with president trump, a member of my staff asked him what president trump thought about ukraine. he responded that president trump cares more about the investigations of biden, which giuliani was pressing for. i give my deposition and i was not aware of this information. i am including it here for completeness. as the company knows -- as the committee knows, i reported this information.

is my understanding that the committee is following up. the hearings resumed this week on tuesday, wednesday and thursday. we have live coverage on c-span3. the house and senate are in session this week which is why the house will be carried on c-span1. this headline from the new york times. two impeachments for two nations. a side-by-side comparison of rachel maddow on msnbc and sean hannity on the fox news channel. the story inside the new york times is also available online. on the is joining us democrats line from new york. good morning. caller: good morning. i am watching the show i do every sunday. you bring on some very good factoids to the public.

i appreciate that. my take on how it is all going down, i watch the impeachment hearings, the inquiry going on and going forward and i'm watching counsel on both sides of the aisle. it seems to me that every time the democrats tried to bring up facts, republicans will beat it down with other arguments on the issue. their arguments fall short on proving what is actually in front of us, which is proof. figureheads like ms. yovanovitch, she just brought out facts about the case. mr. trump has done nothing but obstruct. why is he doing knee-jerk reactions with tweets? sees the facts coming out. i think they are starting to really worry and the republicans are backpedaling.

the ones that are really behind donald trump, his cronies. the democrats are coming out with all the facts. mr. schiff is professional. the attorneys they are using on the democrats' side, i applaud him. he is right to the point and for the facts and moves on. he does not lead you in a different direction like the other attorney on the republican side. it seems like ms. yovanovitch was being led into other areas of her job. host: thank you for the call from tyrone, new york. this tweet from a viewer responding to the caller from dumfries. thank you mitch mcconnell for saving america from socialism. communist bills with a prison pill and the democratic deep state, bless you mitch mcconnell. democrat line from florida, good

morning. caller: good morning. i would like to say i find it ridiculous that they are doing america. in front of we have the exact translation of the phone call. they are idea why listening to hearsay. clear, it is be not a transcript. it is a memo of the phone call. we do not have the verbatim transcript. that is one of the points between democrats and republicans in this investigation. caller: the one guy even said it is an accurate transcript. host: this is from joe in kentucky. lookingsident pence is better than republicans in the senate every day.

ohio, independent line, good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. caller: i would like to make a comment. i am a marine veteran heard it is amazing that 55 days went by -- the ukrainian army russians like to believe that it is the rebels on the eastern side of ukraine that are rising up against the country, it is actually russia and putin trying to gain control of the country. they took crimea, which is ukraine. what i'm concerned about is how many ukraine soldiers died in that 55 days that trump refused to give them money over a putincal agenda and why and erdogan are carving up syria. host: read the constitution.

-- this is a battle to take away the power of the presidency. news, theine from abc president making a nest visit to walter reed medical center. the white house called it a quick exam and labs. he was there for two hours. it was not on the president's schedule. president'sthe press secretary appeared on fox news with this. [video] ahead, as a busy year you can imagine. the president decided to go to walter reed and get a head start with some routine checkups as part of his annual exam. that's all it was. us what it was? >> absolutely. we have a busy year ahead as you can imagine.

the president decided to go to walter reed and get a head start with some routine checkups as part of his annual exam. that is all it was. it was very routine, we had a down day today so he made the decision to head there. >> there is no truth to the rumors that it was something else? the rumors are flying. >> the rumors are always flying. absolutely not. he is healthy se can be. i put a statement out. he has more energy than anyone in the white house. that man works from 6:00 a.m. until very late at night. he is doing just fine. >> he is almost superhuman. i don't know how anyone could deal with what he is dealing with. i get frustrated with what is going on in washington, i want to throw things at the president. so good to have you want tonight. thank you for being with us. host: that from fox news last night. hubert in florida, democrat

line, good morning. caller: good morning. me that the dixiecrats that call themselves republicans -- donald trump has been corrupt since the 1970's and probably before that. on top of all that, they keep disparaging this people. sad that this country has come to this. calling your callers about socialism. they want to call -- they want to call people who want to help the poor communists.

it is wrong. he should be impeached and removed. host: from the outlook section of the washington post, watergate led to sweeping reform. this historian on what will need to be done after president trump leaves office. inside the washington post, and impeachment diary on marie yovanovitch, calling it the greatest service yet. that from the opinion pages of the washington post. jacob from new mexico on our line for independents, good morning. caller: hello? host: are you with us? caller: we talk about whether he -- it is also to defend lifety

liberty and property. besides the fact, as strong economy according to adam to smh is based upon diverse production and a diverse production is based on free movement of labor. new jersey, democrats line, good morning. caller: good morning. i have a couple of statements. kkkt of all, as far as the the gentleman talked about, they were democrats at one time. today remember robert byrd? he was part of the democrats. he was a kk leader and how hillary and the rest of the democrats praised him when he died. don't give me that about trump being part of the kkk. next, about mitch mcconnell holding up these policies that the democrats are putting out,

did you forget about harry reid or the policies he held out back from the republicans? you are a bunch of hypocrites. ambassador that was just on. she is lucky she walked away alive and still has a job. what about the ambassador at benghazi who obama and hillary left there to die? thank god for the men who were close by who went out there to go get others but were unable to save them. don't tell me how wonderful obama is or anything. next, i want to tell you about -- let's go back to biden and his son. authorityma who gave to biden to have that man fired -- the investigator fired investigating.

why? this guy was investigating corruption. why would he want them to hold back? obama should be the one on trial. not trump. hungry --seem very you seem very angry for early on a sunday morning. why? caller: because i hear the hypocrisy from the democrats. host: thank you for the call from new jersey. we go back to this tweet from the president at 10:01 friday morning, everywhere marie yovanovitch went turned bad. she started off in somalia, how did echo? during the testimony, adam schiff asked this question to the ambassador. [video] >> which like to respond to the president's attack that everywhere you went turned bad?

i don't think i have such powers. not in somalia or other places. i think where i served over the have, i and others demonstrably made things better for the u.s. and for the countries i have served in. ukraine, for example, for there are huge challenges, including on the issue we are discussing today, of corruption. huge challenges. but they have made a lot of progress since 2014, including the years i was there. in part, ukraine people get the most credit for that. it part of that credit goes to the work of the united states and to me as the ambassador in ukraine. you have shown the courage to come forward today and testify.

notwithstanding the fact you were urged by the white house or state department not to, notwithstanding the fact that as you testified earlier, the president implicitly threatened you in that call record. and now the president in real-time is attacking you. what effect do you feel that has willingnessnesses' to come forward and expose wrongdoing? >> it is very intimidating. intimidate,igned to is it not? can't speak to what the president is trying to do but i think the effect is to be intimidating. know thatto let you some of us here take witness intimidating very seriously. host: that from congressman adam schiff and ambassador marie

yovanovitch. the ratings for the hearing, and estimated 13 million viewers across all of the broadcast cable networks. c-span is a primary source of the coverage inside the hearing room. what you are seeing on fox, nbc, abc and the other networks, that is all coming from c-span cameras. 13 million viewers in the first week. the kavanaugh hearings generating about 20 million viewers. illinois,om robert in saying the impeachment inquiry hearings have been riveting, dramatic and informative. in the search for truth, no matter our political parties, the rule of law should prevail. no one person is above the law. tennessee, republican line, good morning. caller: good morning.

[indiscernible] having trouble hearing you. can you speak clear into the phone? caller: i will try. then you went from the new york times, a page supporting democrats, then you read text messages from democrats and finally, maybe you got to some republicans. that doesn't seem quite right. say, has it ever mentioned that president obama, before he even took office, said ambassadorlitical should turn in their resignation.

ukraine wasor to making around $600,000 a year. host: the first headline i read was from fox news. go back to the start of the program, it was a fox news headline with regard to louisiana. these are just the facts. the president firing political appointees and marie yovanovitch was a career civil servant in the state department, those tend to work for democrats and republicans. she was not a political appointee. caller: she did not like to be removed. wrong, is it i'm georgetown or george washington, whichever it is, she will be making the same payment

of around $600,000 a year? make $600,000n't a year as a diplomat. where did you get that figure? i asked what she makes and it turned out $50,000 per month. host: the president earns the most at $400,000 per year. congress members make around $175,000 per year. her salary is certainly not $600,000 per year. warren tries to sell her plan. of former vice president joe biden. we mention that because a new paul from the des moines register has put buttigieg rocketing to the top of the 2020 field as the clear frontrunner.

here are some details courtesy of the des moines register. pete poll showing buttigieg is ahead of the 2020 democratic candidates. he has risen 16 percentage points. 25% saying he is their first choice for president. is besting his rivals joe biden, bernie sanders and elizabeth warren, who are now clustered in competition for second place. elizabeth warren it leading the said she was 22% their first choice but she is now at 16%. joe biden has continued to slide, now falling to 15%. senator sanders also garnering

rise for thea 4% vermont senator. more details are available at the des moines register website. good morning, democrats line. caller: good morning. that aboutroject see pete buttigieg. is theson i'm calling question before america is do you want to have a fair election again in the united states? this reminds me of the nixon administration and the committee to reelect the president. this president does not only hire goons outside of the government, but he has an attorney general, a chief of staff, secretary of state, secretary of energy, he is working the government that we are paying for to work on his election.

we need to be able to assure we have a fair election. that is why the question before us is, can we leave this man in office and expect to have a fair election unencumbered by interference? host: thank you for the call. this text message from phoenix saying mr. biden is no political threat to the potus? he is doing his job. if he did not investigate, he would have consequences. thank you. you can text us at (202) 748-8003. we will take your text messages through the program. i sure you are not texting and driving. leah greenberg will be joining us. he is will -- she is with the invisible project. -- the indivisible project, i

should say. later, dennis prager will be joining us. our c-span cities tour continues as we explore the history of communities, including charleston, west virginia. charleston to to look at the story of catherine johnson, who was a research mathematician playing a pivotal role in our space efforts. [video] >> what is the status on the computer? >> it is right behind you, mr. harrison. >> there are people right here in west virginia that have no idea of what catherine johnson did for nasa and united states of america. when the movie hidden figures came out, it showed everyone who catherine johnson was, what she did and how profound she was in the pages of american history. she was hired is what they

called than a computer. sheik simply kicked -- she simply came in and did mathematic equations. she was more than just a computer. she was a mathematical genius. that is what catherine johnson was. 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, 0. glenn, who said this catherine,ing, not this actual computer that bill calculated his projection into space and he wanted that verified from catherine johnson. he did not ask the mathematicians from m.i.t., he did not ask the mathematicians from stanford or harvard, he asked the brilliant mathematician from west virginia state university to calculate my trajectory admixture i can home safe.

that says a lot about what she meant to nasa and individuals she worked with. they relied on her. they put their lives in her hands. host: we travel to charleston, west virginia this weekend on c-span3'sbook tv and american history tv. welcome leah greenberg. she is the cofounder of the indivisible project. blueprint for democracy after trump. thank you for being with us. the following, we don't have time to waste. the country faces permanent concerta control of the senate if we felt accident. the planet facing consequences if america fails to overcome its dysfunction and tackle climate change fast. if we fail to retake power in

2020, we may not have another shot. guest: that is right. that is because we are seeing something that has been going on for a long time of which trump is only the latest symptom of a much deeper problem. that has been a full-fledged apart by the republican party on democracy at the state and federal level that has been going on for long time. it is designed to reduce the power of the people in elected office. it is designed to reduce our voices and so we cannot address the massive challenges we are facing, like climate change and gun violence. host: if you look at history, is this election any different than the reelection campaign of ronald reagan, george w. bush or george w. bush? election of a republican president would push this further out of control fervently. that means they have a veto power on any legislation

democrats pass in the future and we don't think they will hesitate to use it. we are looking at a situation where that senate is slipping out of democratic control firmly. the demographic shifts are favoring white people, rural voters, conservative voters. host: what is the individual project? guest: indivisible is a grassroot network of activists that sprung up after the election of donald trump. my husband and i put a google document on the internet called the indivisible guide. it was to help people stay organized and pressure their elected officials to reject trump's agenda. in 2016hat guide online at thousands of people started organizing all over the country and started bringing together indivisible groups. groupse hyper local

dedicated to demanding officials represent them. host: you also write in the book about the media, a big reason america has such a crumbling bead infrastructure is because we don't pay for it. imagine an alternative. media environment that produces an informed electorate. guest: right now we have to acknowledge there has been a collapse in the business models that have for a long time informed electorate. with the end of classifieds, local news has taken and norma's heads. enormous hits. this is the same thing that schools and health care are. host: if you look at the business model of the media, there is a lot of free media on broadcast networks, fox, nbc,

you have to pay for cable. guest: what we have lost is the local paper that is actually tracking your elected representatives, bringing that news from washington home to your state. ist we hear from activists fox news, these folks are not interested in reporting on and holding public officials accountable. they are interested in mainlining propaganda. host: what about the internet? guest: it has been a source of fake news. there are social media companies acting like news platforms but don't actually take into account they have a responsibility. you have facebook, which is allowing the spread of false news unchecked in ways that are and normal sleep to the electorate. host: this is an advertisement from an organization that is conservative, especially when it comes to the deficit.

let's watch. [video] >> abigail spanberger got elected promising results. it was just talk. these days it is all about impeachment all the time. one party pushing for power by any means necessary. cancel the next one. >> if we don't impeach this president, he will get reelected. >> a partisan power grab overturning the will of voters. nothing gets done to solve real problems. impeachment, start solving problems. host: as you look at that advertisement from a conservative republican organization, how do you respond? guest: i see a lot of conservatives running scared. they have seen the election results in virginia, kentucky and louisiana over the last couple of weeks. they know this is not an argument that is working because it is ridiculous. there's been total gridlock in

washington since donald trump was elected. impeachment process is holding him accountable. for the open bribery, for the extortion we all know that has taken place. this argument is not working or playing in the polls. frankly, i think they will find that out and move on to a different one soon. host: i want to get your reaction to elizabeth warren and her plan. she amended her plan by saying medicare for all who wanted. shiftrogressive, a clear in transforming our health care system as she keeps an eye on the general election. your reaction to that? guest: we talked to progressive voters around the country and what we hear is they want candidates with bold ideas and a clear sense of how they will get things done. this plan sounds like it is an effort to spread the gap, to say this is how i think i will get it done. host: she is shifting her view,

does that bother you? guest: she is creating a step within the program. host: your reaction to what speaker nancy pelosi told bloomberg news about medicare for all. [video] >> i am not a big fan of medicare for all. i welcome the debate. i think we should have have health care for all. i think the affordable care benefit is better than the medicare benefit. we have invited people to testify before congress. being respectful of the point of view. it is expensive. who pays is very important. what are the benefits? i would think that hopefully, as we go into the election year, the mantra will be more health care for all americans because there is a comfort level that some people have with their

current private insurance of the have. if that is to be phased out, let's talk about that but let's not just have one bill that would do that. remember november. this is the time we have to win the electoral college. otherwise, we will be faced with a president again who doesn't really care about increasing health benefits. >> are you worried about that? i understand your policy position is you don't think that is the best way to go, but what is the political matter? >> that is not what we need to do to win the electoral college. i think as we come out of the primary season and people see what challenges are that are out there, what people on the campaign trail -- they are listening to people. that is the beauty of campaigns.

when they hear what people say, i think something will emerge. interview with bloomberg news, house speaker nancy pelosi. you have the speaker of the house, a democrat, that said she does not support medicare for all. hypothetically, if elizabeth warren is president, you have a house leader since she does not like the idea. how'd you get there? guest: fundamentally, this is a debate you need to have. voters need to hear the different ideas that they are coming up with the democratic party and decide whose policies they want to go with. fundamentally, that is the point of the democratic primary. in 2008, when there was a huge debate around which kind of health care policy are going to go with? john edwards plan? barack obama's plan? that was a conversation we need to have.

i don't know what will come out of this but this is the conversation the democratic party should be having and we will see which plan the voters prefer. host: a new pull from the des moines register shows the mayor of south bend, indiana, pete buttigieg rocketing to the top at 25%, with elizabeth warren, bernie sanders and joe biden in the mid teens. they are about 10 points behind pete buttigieg right now. this is a huge shift and i will pulling. -- thist is still host: is a huge shift in the iowa polling. it is something we talk about it pete buttigieg is one of the candidates recognizing the current system is producing gridlock. if we want better results, we

have to change the rules. host: we spent a day with pete buttigieg. he was in new hampshire. a close look for what it is like on the campaign trail. greenberg, you earned your masters at tufts university. guest: the indivisible network is a network of activists around the country that bring together groups of people dedicated to resisting trump and enacting a progressive agenda. that can look like advocating to your elected officials, campaigning for progressive candidates, running for office yourself. afterung up organically the 2016 election. we were brought together by our trump, wedonald recognize he is a symptom of the problem. if we had a healthy democratic society, it would have rejected donald trump with a healthy body rejects a virus.

rulesabout changing the so we actually have a healthy, functional democracy that reflects us all. ohio,republican line, good sunday morning. caller: how are you? guest: great. caller: how are you today? guest: good, how are you? caller: i am fine. i would like to know if you could live with harassment all the time? host: are you referring to the president? caller: yes. that is what he has to live with. i like to know if this little girl could live with that. guest: i think you are expected to be an adult when you are the president of the ad states and that involves having criticism directed at you. that is a normal part of the democratic process. i don't know what you're referring to. if you are saying hearing criticism is somehow harassment, i think we have a different

understanding of what democracy looks like. host: texas on the democrats line, good morning. caller: good morning. guest: good morning. caller: that is kind of interesting given how much harassment obama was subjected to. the worst thing he was truly guilty of doing was wearing tan suits. i think the issue is we are so silent in the media that we absorb. there are so many people who -- this poor man is being subjected to unfair criticism. he is guilty of some anymore abuses of power than any other president we have seen before. the things he has done, the list is so long, it would have crushed on other prior to his

time as far as media coverage. he gets away with it because he has fox news behind him. are not listening to anything else. guest: that is absently right. this is not about trump anymore. this is about the system that enables and supports them. if it was just one malignant office, hise oval own party in congress would have stepped in. those things have not happened. linelicans have fallen in or they have fallen away from the republican party. -- the right-wing media has done everything it can to protect and enable him. we have to go to the root of the stopem if we are going to the next trump. answer your earlier

question, the pay raise for a senior officer like a career ambassador begins at over $127,000 and is capped at a little over $192,000. a caller indicated marie yovanovitch was learning -- earning $600,000. that is not the case. one of the phenomenons we have to think about critically in this election is we talk about electability, we talk about does a candidate look like the candidates who have come before? given our history, when we are talking about electability, we are asking is this a white man with good hair? that is not a good way to assess candidates and if they will appeal to a multiracial american majority.

the challenge is always, don't make your decision based on what you think a mythical voter and estate you have never been to would prefer in a general election. make your decisions based on who is inspiring you. host: donald trump is the creation of billions spent by right wing think tanks. this tweet says donald trump is a symptom of the problem his supporters represent every day. send us a tweet or a text message. texas, independent line, good morning. caller: good morning. everyone in washington is hiding something. under the dirt, everyone in congress, the republicans aren't strong enough to step up to the plate, the democrats are too busy with their fingers up there butts, worrying

about donald trump. why are they attacking the president using every means to destroy this but country? they are saying things to break down this united states with all of this crap that is on television. you don't do anything about hollywood and everything they do. trump is a good man. you want to get down to the facts? a 60-year-old, i am disabled, i can't hardly walk. i barely get $600. my twin sister gets a letter that hillary clinton says on national television that she was going to cut social security and make them share with others.

we thought they were full of crap but they were not. i had to call the white house and fbi to find out why they are doing this to my twin sister. host: thank you for the call. think one of the classic tricks that republicans play on us is they say we need to be afraid of what is lurking in the system for us. otherd to be afraid of people rather than believing there is enough for all of us. i'm not sure what is going on with your sister and her benefits. you should have your disability benefits. it is not hillary clinton stopping you from getting that, it is the people who are currently in power. it is donald trump who tried to cut medicare and attacked the affordable care act. the republicans were behind him every step of the way. more from the book, a

blueprint from democracy. following, we believe the next three years will determine if we have a truly inclusive democratic america or something else. we will win this fight if people all over the country understand there is a threat to the democracy and how they can be a part of saving it what is the number one threat? guest: a wholesale republican assault on the principles, norms and rules of our democracy. that shows up everywhere when you start looking at it. to riguppression, trying the senses, gerrymandering to keep their own people in power. this is a wholesale assault on the rules and norms of our democracy. they cannotcided win if they play fair so they are going to rig the rules. we have to take that on if we

are going to fix the country. host: they cannot win if they play he famously sas have consequences, referring to how the democrats responded to their election victories in 2008 and 2009. guest: what we need to do is build something that can defeat donald trump and build something better after he is gone. line,arizona, democrats good morning. caller: good morning. you, you go girl, keep going. employee of as news market and a teacher class on propaganda at a local college. what i can say is news has been replaced by commentary opinion. this is done because it is cheap and you cannot dispute an opinion because therefore it is not a lie. what we are being fed -- fox

news in particular -- it is belligerent, it is meant to bypass logic and make people agitated and angry. i am no msnbc apologist but back in the day, dan rather, peter jennings would not be commenting on the news. i hope that can help. you go girl. i am proud of you. host: thank you for the call. guest: thank you. i think that is a crucial part of this. we have moved from a situation where a lot of the media is reporting the facts to a lot of the media being commentary. if you look at the democratic primary, the vast majority of the coverage is about who is winning, who is doing well and to the voters prefer, not about the policies that are at stake. host: democrats line in virginia, good morning, you are on with leah greenberg. caller: good morning.

thank you for taking my call. one of the things we need to research as to all of the ,ropaganda from the last caller why the stock market is going andugh the roof right now why at every rally, unemployment has been touted. the potus was given a wonderful and he at the beginning is trying to make businesses absolutely free of any protection as far as

for the consumer. businesses are free to spend everything on themselves. about polluting the rivers and streams and air. the economy is going to go up. your comments on that? host: thank you. guest: it is absolutely the case that president trump inherited an economy that was going strong in many ways from president obama and he has proceeded to use debt economy to pass a giant tax cut for billionaires and millionaires. it is not healthy. what we have seen is all of the republican promises about how this would help the economy and benefit everyday people have been proven to be false. we are on the verge of another recession. a lot of indicators suggest it

is coming soon. fundamentally, this is because it is an unhealthy way to manage the economy. host: republican line from minnesota, thank you for waiting. good morning. caller: good morning. the last comment, she has no idea. everything has its ups and downs. happen,ion, sure it can because that is part of the nature of the whole system. personstening to this that i'm thinking to myself, this is what is really wrong with america. we have people like her wanting to elect the least capable people and she is one of them. she is a type of person trying to figure out in life to find the easiest path to get the biggest reward. what she really does not understand is that there are --

there are more people leaving the democratic party than joining it today. media iss that the this great device for them, they run the democratic party. they have no chance coming to beat trump. mindrobably truly in her think stable win. i will tell her straight up, listen, kid, you are way over your head. you are wrong. it is not going to happen. host: i'm going to give her a chance to respond. guest: you are a minnesota, which is a state that currently has a democratic trifecta, it currently has two democratic senators and work democrats made major gains in the last election we are prepared to do it again and 2020. what we have seen in the last couple of weeks has been repeated democratic gains. we are seeing democrats continue to sustain high levels of

grassroots energy in the face of the trump administration's relentless attacks on our rights and democracy. we are expecting that to continue into 2020 and we are expecting to win. i am not an economist that was on capitol hill during our last recession and i saw how are system failed people who needed help. i saw how we did not manage to scope --ith the full to the full challenge were facing and i saw how people suffered. we are here and we have the chance to elect democrats who generally make a difference and to can prevent that from happening again. news, the fox president casting the louisiana vote as an impeachment referendum. yesterday morning, he said good morning, louisiana, polls open at 7:00 a.m.

he will get your taxes and auto insurance way down. he loves our military and will protect you. place below.ling the democrat, john bel edwards, winning by 40,000 votes. john bel edwards defeated his republican challenger despite the president's campaigning. the president won the state by 20 percentage points. it is considered to be a ruby red republican state. what happened? guest: they are selling the same thing and it did not work this time. he took out a full-page advertisement attacking people. he ran on backlash to impeachment. what he found was none of it work. he was not able to pull it out. john bel edwards has been elected. it is part of a trend. it is not just louisiana.

it is also virginia and kentucky. people are rejecting these stale attacks by republicans because they have not delivered. host: our guest is leah greenberg. she will be with us for another 30 minutes. another half-hour. dennis prager is joining us at the top of the hour, 9:00 eastern time, joining us from los angeles. jay in virginia, independent line. myler: thanks for taking call. since i separated from the service, i became an amateur investigator and -- in anthropology. i recognize, for a long time, we have been going through the same things that civilizations have been going through since mesopotamia. when the dominant males step outside their duty of protecting and defending against chaos, protecting, maintaining domestic tranquility, the creational

impulse leaves the land and civilization ends. host: ok, we will get a response. thank you. guest: i do not think we agree on that. what we have seen is -- well, i am not quite sure how to respond to that. host: respond to this from linda , sending a text message from new york. she says i raised five children and taught them to work hard and not ask for anything. i do not know why these left-wingers think the government should take care of them. it is the taxpayers money. your: i am a taxpayer and children are probably taxpayers, and your children are probably experiencing what most millennials are experiencing is that we are facing an economy that is not working, a climate crisis steadily getting worse, and we need government to step in and make sure we are addressing the current problems we have, like climate change,

gun problems, and the fact that people are dying in the richest country in the world. host: eight $1 trillion deficit this year alone, approaching $23 trillion. it did not begin with donald trump, but it is moving at a higher pace. do you think that would change in anyway if the democrats were in the white house? guest: we have to look at the pattern. under the obama presidency, democrats worked hard to reduce the deficit. they attempted to get to bipartisan compromises to reduce the deficit and bring down spending. president obama left office with a significantly reduced deficit. republicans took all those gains and immediately trashed them with a massive tax cut to the rich. all of the deficit concerns we heard from republicans during the obama administration were restrain-- trying to funding and stopping the government from using that funding to support people.

fundamentally, i do not think we should be talking about should we raise or lower the deficit, we should be talking about what is the role of government and what should we spend to support people? what are the actual needs we need to meet on public education, on health care, on environmental protections? this is the debates we should have. host: as a millennial, the impact for you, your generation, and your children? guest: as a millennial, i am mostly concerned that the climate crisis will radically alter the life -- my life and the life of my children. we will have to worry about that much more than we will have to worry about the deficit. host: you mentioned the tax cut that's the front page of "the new york times co. -- times." a team of reporters from "the new york times" that they heard the pledges of saving from the

tax cut were not -- $1.5 owed more than billion in taxes. the next year, it owed nothing. what changed was the trump administration's tax cut, for which the company had lobbied hard. the public face of its lobbying effort was the fedex founder and chief executive, who repeatedly took to the airwaves to champion the power of the tax cuts. guest: i think this -- it should not be a surprise to any of us. we have an economy for one set of rules for the rich and corporations on one set of rules for regular people. what we saw with the trump tax cuts are they moved forward on a tax cut with a whole set of lofty promises about how it was going to and if it people, how it was going to trickle down, and we all know how it works out. the rich keep the gains. host: what to go from $1.5 billion in taxes one year to zero the next year? guest: it is absolutely

outrageous. it is a demonstration of the bigger problem, which is we have designed a tax system that where enormous loopholes corporations can pay big bills the lobbyist get out of supporting our public services and our government. democratya next on the line. thank you for waiting. caller: good morning. can you hear me? host: sure can. caller: i am so thankful you have that young lady there. young ladies. i am 65 now. i did the grassroots, going door-to-door and all, but my concern is more about our democracy. seeingublicans are not that we have a big problem in this country. we are about to lose our democracy. they got to remember our

president is not -- he is an american, but look at his background. disinformationh going on on new channels, on the internet, that people are listening to. we do not want to lose our democracy. that is what is at hand. also, everything that president trump is, president trying to undo everything he has done. and coulter was on the other day, and she talked about the wallet that is not being built, and i am so grateful she said that, because we all knew that. he is preparing a wall. he is still not keeping a promise but is dealing money from our country. guest: i think we can agree that what we have got is a problem deeper than donald trump.

it really is about democracy. if we had a functional democracy, the early reports of russian interference in the 2016 election would have been met with bipartisan horror and demands for accountability. that did not happen. instead, republicans did everything they could to block, delay, undermine, to discredit the meal investigation when it came out. if we had a functional democracy, we would all be reacting with the same horror to the news that donald trump has attempted to bribe and extort and threaten a foreign ally into doing his bidding for domestic political purposes, fundamentally. that has not happened. we have seen democrats turn this into a political sideshow. that is a reflation of the fact that they have decided to put their priority over their country. that is dangerous, especially when you have russia looking for how they can interfere in the next election. host: your comment on the debt and deficit getting a lot of

attention on our social media pages. one says republicans blew holes in the deficit, giving massive tax cuts to the rich to raise fake numbers. also this -- so much for the gop and the myth of fiscal conservatism. guest: that is right did i think the gop has lost a ton of part ability on this front. in 2010, it was all about the deficit, all about how are we going to restrain spending? as soon as they get into power, they forget about all of that. suddenly, you do not hear about the fsa. if you look at mark sanford, who left congress, who ran for president on a message of fiscal aboutresponsibility, he droppet of the republican primary, because he admitted there was no interest in a conversation about the deficit. that is because the deficit has always been a stalking horse for other goals. --r minds me of a quote

they are trying to cut the budget so they can get rid of the things they do not like. that formerporting new york city mayor michael bloomberg is a couple days away from formally entering the race. patrickes after deval and think he is entering the race. guest: people just keep getting in, as if the field was not big enough. fundamentally, this is a healthy thing. primaries are a healthy part of the democratic process. having people to make more cases to the voters is a good ring. it is late in the process. when i talked to grassroots activists, they will want to hear what people have to say. people feel like there are a lot of really strong candidates in this race. host: do you have a favorite? guest: i represent a grasp route network of folks. we are having a conversation within the network about who we

support and how do we engage with the candidates. right now, we are pushing all candidates to be clear on their policies and their vision, and especially to be clear on their vision for structural democracy reform. we think we have this fundamental challenge, which is that republicans have been rigging the rules of the game. we have two take that on if any of the policies we want will pass. host: is a candidate you will not support? guest: we are absolutely in to support whoever wins the democratic riemer. we launch this individual pledge to engage in a healthy primary, to support the ultimate winner of that primary, because there is no taking your ball and going home if you lose, and it is a commitment to do anything you can to make that person president. , as soonour heart out as the dnc happens, although her through the election, to make sure that person is president. host: will you endorse somebody

before a nominee is set? guest: that is a conversation for our network, because we believe it is a network of grassroots activists across the country. host: we go to florida, republican line. caller: good morning. i wanted leah's thoughts on the following. -- in favornt biden cardp, voted for credit companies over the consumer, voted for reagan tax cuts. our possessives prepared to capitulate and throw their convictions out the window, and i think she answered that by saying that they will support whoever is the nominee. but, in my opinion, vice president joe biden is certainly not a progressive or bold. thank you. host: thank you for the call. guest: the primaries are the place to have those debates. there are big differences between the candidates. we want to see a bold vision for

progressive change from the ultimate democratic presidential nominee. we are also clear that no matter who wins that nomination, they are abraham lincoln compared trump, and we will do everything we can to make them president. host: you wrote if we had a society that value the lives and dignity of its people, trump's campaign would have been trump,o everything we over his first day when he attacked immigrants as rapists or murderers or when 14 women accused him of sexual assault. that did not happen, you write. his support did not collapse. if we had a healthy republican party, trump would have never won the nomination. in short, a healthy democracy would have fought off trump the same way a healthy body fights off a virus. guest: that is why we are here today, why we are focusing on structural reforms to fix our democracy. this is not the problem of one signal -- single particularly awful human. entire the problem of an

political apparatus designed to support and enable him as he wreaks havoc on our government and on our society. these are the kinds of things that cannot be checked by one person. you have to take on the system. host: but his report remains solid among republicans, in the high 80's to 90's. what you tell his supporters? guest: right now, we are focused on all the people appalled what he is doing, and that is the majority of people. what we see over and over again in elect torah results, and stay election in 2016, is there are more people not want the agenda donald trump is pushing than people who do. we have seen people turn away from the republican party because they are appalled by the cruelty to immigrants he is showing, appalled by casual sexism, appalled by the general gridlock and chaos he has introduced into washington. now they are shocked by the way he has subverted the foreign policy apparatus for his own gain. in texas,o to steve

our line for independents. caller: good morning. you talk about threats to our democracy. one threat, and i think it is a big threat, is our unsustainable $23 trillion and a budget deficit. there is enough blame to go around both sides. the only two presidents that have actually balanced the budget were nixon and clinton. and that is long ago. you, as a progressive, i want to ask you, what is your plan to balance the budget and start paying down the national debt? i know my granddaughter will appreciate it. host: thank you for the call. guest: the conversation we need to have is what do we believe government should be doing and then how do we pay for it? what we are seeing is people are talking about what is the role of government, what is the vision we have for our society?

do we believe everyone should have access to health care? do we believe everyone has the right to access to good education? if so, we need to pay for those things. host: there are some figures -- it could be upwards of $50 trillion for the green new deal. do you by that number? -- buy that number? guest: i am not familiar with the specifics, but fundamentally, we are in the middle of a climate crisis. we have to do a full-scale push to address it. that will mean we have to take on the polluters who have gotten us to this place. we will have to create good new green jobs that allow people to make a transition. that is not money down the drain for that is investment in the kind of society and jobs and future where we are actually healthy and sustainable and safe. host: i want to pull up this picture, if i can find it -- it is st. mark's square in venice. you can see the flooding. what does this tell you about climate change? guest: this tells me this is not

some looming threat in the future. it is happening today. we have seen that in our own country. we have seen that with escalating hurricanes every year, with the force files in california, which are apocalyptic visions of a future we are facing. this is not some looming, in 20 years we will be in trouble situation -- this is happening now. that is why you're seeing waves activistsed climate taking to the streets. this is a challenge upon us, and it is already, in some ways, too late, and we have to adapt as fast as possible. the: these are some of photographs, again, from the center of venice. we will show you that as we listen to david in akron, ohio. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. i was once a democrat and am now a strong independent progressive. i support bernie sanders.

that is because he recognizes the united states is suffering from the corrupting influence of money. this is not a uniquely american problem. this is a human problem. so what we need to do is try to get corporate money out of campaigns, because what we have got is tweedledee and tweedledum, republican and republican-lite. i will no longer go for corporate funded dems. they refused to have a debate on climate change, and they are fighting medicare for all. enact does have a plan to medicare for all, to start by lowering the age incrementally so he does it in steps, not one fell swoop. he will at least at that as a goal. he does not promise it will happen right away, but he has promised he will go for that goal. and a couple of other things -- the four things that bother me about trump the most -- first of

all, he will not release his tax returns, and there could be a violation of the emoluments clause. the reason why he does not want to return them is he things he bad to the voters, and he knows that. he is also a science denier. he stifles science, so therefore we are not even able to begin to admit there is a problem, with his people, about climate change. i care about my grandson -- i fight for him and the millions of other children on this planet. also, trump gave tax breaks to millionaires, and they are already doing well. he talked about draining the swamp -- he employed bigger swamp monsters in cabinet deed he had -- in cabinet. he had coal lobbyists heading the epa. i do not know how people can look at this objectively and say that is ok, it is a democracy. and one final thing. good things government has done

-- call it democratic socialism if you want. medicare. social security. police and fire. brick schools. national parks. federal disaster relief -- these are all democratic-socialist programs. the underlying keyword is democratic. it means we pool our money. host: that is a lot on the table. we will get a response. guest: i agree money in politics is a huge problem and is the root of so many of our problems. we have to admit that these things are tightly connected. the reason we have had this unchecked flow of corporate money into politics is because of citizens united -- currently, the supreme court is in the hands of the federalist society, radical conservative group that is really dedicated to blocking any kind of progressive policy. that is why we have this kind of wholesale purchasing of our politics by corporate actors. if we do not take on the supreme

court and address the fact that it is fundamentally stacked in order to favor conservative policies, we will not be able to make progress. host: on the republican line, jane. good morning. caller: thank you for taking my call. i appreciate the fact that you allow multiple voices from all sides to speak. thank you. the bottom line is we do not talk to each other. we are such a polarized society that we do not have these conversations. i am a conservative from bethesda, maryland, and i will tell you i have no voice or no power because of gerrymandering and assistant. -- the system. red states and blue states, we gerrymander people's opinions, so they lose the power to vote in terms of fixing the system. i think being able to talk to each other and being able to have systems where people's votes actually count and they -- not gerrymandering out

host: thank you. guest: i appreciate that. fundamentally, what we are talking about, when we talk about structural reforms for democracy, is not democratic or republican policies. we are talking about what are the set of reforms we could make to absolutely -- actually ensure are effective.' that is things like ending voter suppression. also things like rent choice -- ranked choice voting. it is part of breaking the boundaries of polarization we have had and have so damaged our politics. host: democratic commerce meant matt cartwright represents pennsylvania's eighth congressional district, district that donald trump won in 2016, and it is a target now among republicans. this from the congressional

leadership fund, associated with the gop, taking aim at the congressman on his vote on impeachment -- i will show that to you and get your reaction. [video clip] >> seasoned democrats are marching towards impeachment. >> i support impeaching the president. >> the impeachment inquiry has to work as quickly as possible. >> matt cartwright is right there with them. instead of working across the aisle to fix washington, he is now pushing a radical scheme to impeach president trump. dividing the country, tearing us apart because he does not like the president. wrong on impeachment, wrong for us. host: that is one ad i suspect we will see a lot more of in the coming months into the year ahead. guest: i am sure we will. i also think that what we will see is that this approach is not going to work for them. fundamentally, this is a clear story. the president attempted to bribe

and extort a foreign power to advance his own clinical interest. republicans are arguing about the process because they cannot actually argue with the facts. fundamentally, what we are seeing and pulling is that impeachment has become more popular since democrats have moved forward on it. that is because the american people are actually seeing what this administration has done and they support having president trump held accountable. host: to convict, you need 20 republican senators, which appears unlikely. guest: it appears unlikely but that does not mean it is impossible. fundamentally, it is important for this process to move forward. if we do not move forward in such clear evidence, we are setting the bar for the next administration where they will know they can get away with basically anything. jersey,thony in new democrats line. good morning. caller: thanks for taking my call. i have some questions for the guest. first -- how much did -- is it

going to cost, over 10 years, for the tax cuts on the deficit? how much is that estimated? do we have that info? that: i do not have intermission on me, but i can tell you it is too much and it is going to the wrong people. host: go ahead. caller: i listen to all the stations, and when they were trying to pass the tax cut, you heard every day, 24 hours a day, that they would have a $10 trillion tax cut. that was the narrative. second question -- how much has the affordable health care act cost in tax subsidies to the united states government and towards our deficit? do we know that information? guest: so i am afraid i did not come with an entire set of statistics on the deficit, but if you have any information to share, i would appreciate it. host: let me go back to the tax

cut and the head lines from the to york times -- according "facts said," looking at big savings and small investments, because we heard from the administration that these tax cuts would create jobs, but looks at the effective tax rate cut, anywhere from 1% to 15%. and out of that, how much was put into capital growth or spending -- the highest percent lastn energy, 71%, but the majority in the low to mid single digits to the low teens. in washington,mo d.c. caller: thanks for taking my call. a large group of americans in which marcus is the key issue in this election. fornow the key is that republicans is wrecking the

rules in their favor. it really shows that in personally affecting people of color and low income people with voter laws and packing money into elections. this means our democracy really is not working for everyone. the houses have some progress in trying to stop these issues, like structural barriers, but the senate, as you mentioned earlier, is sort of lagging behind. there are some clear democratic reforms that need to happen. what would you say to 2020 candidates about what they should be talking about on democracy and democracy reform? guest: great question. fundamentally, they have to bring a bold vision, explain to folks why democracy has not been working, why government has not been working to deliver for them. they have two explain these reforms in order to make it

function, which is everything from voting voter suppression to gerrymandering to reforming the supreme court. it is unexcelled double that republicans have come in many ways, blocked the normal process of appointments to the supreme court and now it is controlled by the federal society -- host: from your standpoint, how damaging was the whole mayor garland episode? guest: it is an normatively -- how damaging was the whole american garland -- merrick garland episode? guest: it was enormously damaging. thats not just some idea it was late in the term -- it was a republican commitment to not allow democrats to appoint new essences during a period of time where it appeared hillary clinton would be elected -- republicans were hinting that if

hillary clinton were elected, appoint anyone under her either. host: do you think senator mcconnell would not -- abide by his own rule? guest: appoint anyone under her either. absently not. senator mcconnell is good at doing what he needs to do to advance his own political objectives. he has demonstrated that over and over, ever since he announced he would try and make pre-about a one term president by blocking his entire agenda. host: we go to diane on the republican line. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. 2008, 2009, and 2010, i watched the democrats lead the house, the senate, and the presidency and spent us to a huge amount of deficit. went.een where that money it remodeled offices. they put windows in till things that were not used -- because i worked for the state of

arkansas. every sign they put up that said --y were make $35,000 a year. blue-collar people of this tired ofre sick and stealing ourians money. a capitalist society. our money is in for a 1 -- we want companies to have tax breaks, because we want them to come back to this country and give us jobs. host: your response? guest: i would say a classic thing the republican elites have done is told is that the reason we cannot have nice things, the reason we cannot have good jobs, the reason we cannot have environmental protections or health care or good education, is because of government rather than because they have been

trying to starve and damage and weaken government for a long time. fundamentally, we have to actually acknowledge that that is not the challenge here. the challenge we are facing is we have a system that has not been delivering for people for a long time. i was in congress during the early obama years. i saw how we attempted to deal with the recession -- what we needed was more support for people struggling. i was working for a district where there was 20% unemployment. we need to make sure that people had the unemployment benefits they needed to make sure that they did not lose their houses, made sure that they had a mortgage support -- those are the kinds of things that government should have been doing in that moment. fundamentally, we need to be prepared to do that in the future. host: leah greenberg, cofounder of the indivisible project and the co-author of "we are indivisible: a blueprint for democracy after trump." if people want to follow you on social media, how can they do

so? @leahgrenb on twitter. and you can sign up on our website for weekly actions you can take to make your voice heard. host: congressman john yarmuth is our guest on c-span's "newsma kers" program, the chair of the house budget committee. first, dennis prager, from los angeles, to talk about his new project, including the "no safe spaces," what the film is about and what he says are threats to america. you are watching and listening to "washington journal" this sunday, the 17th of november. ♪ week, the house intelligence committee and chair adam schiff continue public impeachment inquiry hearings, at -- on c-span 3.

at 2:30, ambassador kirk kroeger, the former u.s. special envoy to ukraine and tim morrison. wednesday at 9:00 a.m. eastern, testimony continues with the u.s. ambassador to the yearly vn -- to the european union. then the deputy assistant secretary of defense for russian, ukrainian affairs. and david hale, under secretary of state for political affairs. thursday at 9:00 a.m. eastern, the committee will hear testimony from fiona hill. publiche first two hearings in their entirety on our website, c-span.org/impeachm ent. there you will also find transoms of witness testimony and procedures for the hearings. plus, points of interest feature

int indicates key moments the hearing, indicated by a star in the timeline. watch on c-span 3, c-span.org, or listen live with the free c-span radio app. ♪ campaign 2020. watch our live coverage of the presidential candidates on the campaign trail and make up your own mind. c-span's campaign 2020, your unfiltered view of politics. host: joining us from los angeles is radio talk show host dennis prager. thanks for being with us on this sunday morning. we appreciate it. guest: i appreciate your having me. host: your newest project, called no safe spaces. this is the trailer. let's watch and listen. [video clip] >> you have the right to remain

silent. anything you say will be used against you. >> you are not listening. i want your jobs to be taken from you. >> a protest has turned violent at california berkeley. >> this is why we are fighting for the soul of america -- this is why we are fighting -- for the soul of america. >> you should be able to share your ideas without fear of being fired from your job or being shouted down. >> you are not to be heard. this is one of the few things we could say we have no precedent for in the united states. >> you have the right to remain silent. >> the only way we separate good ideas from bad ideas is to be free to say whatever we want about them. >> anything you say will be used against you. >> there is no free speech for fascists. >> your post on facebook, twitter, and social media will be used to shame you. >> kevin hart has stepped down from hosting this year's oscars. >> anything you say that we do not like will be used to shut

you up. >> you cannot be friends. >> creating an atmosphere of fear and repression. it is going to best. -- bust. >> you cannot think differently. >> it makes it difficult to learn from other people. >> isn't it spooky we are having this discussion? >> you cannot challenge us. >> kids grew up playing soccer games where they never kept score. >> we reserve the right to be offended by everything. >> no university should ever create a safe space -- you are not going to protect people. the best thing you can do is make them strong. ♪ >> it bothers me for the young people being deprived of anything that could open their minds. >> you have the right to remain silent. ♪

an excerpt of that documentary, called "no safe spaces." you are calling this a wake-up call for america. why? guest: it is a wake-up call -- i will answer you exactly as he posed the question. it is a wake-up call because, to my amazement, a lot of americans do not know that, for the first time, literally the first time in american history, free speech is threatened. according to pew and other po millennialsalf of -- and other americans -- do not believe in free speech for "hate speech." but that is an absurdity of the whole point of free speech is it is free speech for what you consider hate speech. when i was a kid, real nazis, actual horrible, evil, vile nazis, wanted to march in skokie, illinois, because that

suburb of chicago had a particularly large number of holocaust survivors living there. these people, who specialize in sadism, wished to rekindle the horrors, the memories of the holocaust in these people's minds. jewish organizations, liberal organizations, defended the nazi despicable such a thing. because, in america, there is free speech. but now, forget real nazis. it almost any conservative shows up at a campus, there is a movement, sometimes successful, to shut them down. the campus is the least free space in the united states. that is a dangerous thing, and it is spreading elsewhere. people know and businesses to keep their mouth shut, if they have any conservative views. people come to me at airport and will look around -- i am laughing, but i can cry -- they look around and say, you know, i voted for donald trump.

it is the first time in american history that people feel they cannot express who they voted for. i do not care if you hate donald trump. that is besides the point. the fact is that a vast number of americans did vote for the man. they are not bad people. i know many people think that definitionally, they are, but that is another subject. anyway, it is a wake-up call. it is the first time in american history that free speech is threatened. host: i want to jump in because jack dorsey, the cofounder and head of twitter announced earlier this month that his social media site will not 2020 --ytic lads in political ads in 2020. is that also a reflection -- restriction on free speech? of course it is. but if he does not accept any political ads, left or right, at least it is not a suppression of just conservative speech. that anyway, how do you know exactly what is a political ad?

does that mean on any position whatsoever? it is hard for me to imagine how they will do it. zuckerberg tried to say to the senate or the house or both -- i have to say, i commended him. he said who are we to decide what is right or what is wrong, what is true and what is not true? the people who say only truth should be in the media, they do not really mean that. they mean only what they agree with should be in the media. so this is a scary. i have to state again -- this is unprecedented in american history. if there is one thing left and right agreed on, maybe the only thing was that old saying -- i may not agree for what you say, but i will fight for the right for you to say it -- that is no longer a motto in america. att: to that point, you were capitol hill in july for a senate hearing. texas republican senator ted

cruz and this line of questioning to a senior google executive. [video clip] produced 300 25 minute videos and said youtube has censored roughly 20% of them. among those censored include a video on the 10 commandments. another one censored include a video on the history of the nation of israel. the restrictions are purportedly for blocking things like pornography, but apparently, in world, talking about the 10 commitments and a nation of israel is comparable and should be blocked? >> respectfully, senator, that is not right. what i am trying to explain is aree -- those videos available 1098% of youtube viewers. 1.5% of our viewers have activated -- again, this is restricted mode. schools, mayches,

libraries, who do not want to have their viewers exposed to more mature content. the 10 commitments video, i believe, contains references to ,urder and will were to, nazism something along those lines -- in that number you referenced, it may have made reference to rape. that is a reason. they are not censored. they are available to everyone using normal youtube. they are not available to the small subset have chosen to activate restricted mode. host: that exchange from a senate hearing this past july. a lot of references to you and your work. your response? heard that, i felt that i had entered a monty python production. they have placed, specific to

this particular moment, when ted cruz asked the question -- they had placed a video that i made -- i only make about 10% of prageru videos. i gave, each of the commitments, a five-minute video. all of our videos are five minutes. one of the commandments is thou shalt not murder. they -- forg that every family that does not allow pornography and violence because they have filtered it out, they will not allow their child to hear "thou shalt not murder" because it mentions the word "murder." that is what i mean when i entered a bizarre world when he said that. i ask he said to senator cruz versionwill issue a new called "the nine commitments." -- commandments." since then, they have added four

more of the commandments videos. he noted churches are --omatically on the list by the way, youtube is owned by google. google has never explained why a single one of our videos has been placed on the restricted list. host: we want to get your reaction to reason magazine -- this was from symptom or fourth. argument thats that causes duchenne guarantees youtubet to post on based on the company's vague notion of priority -- --rantees conservatives may be tempted to argument, but's

they should reflect on the long-term costs of forsaking their constitutional principle. guest: it is such a series of non sequiturs. i read that when it came out. it is -- it should embarrass the author. is. not know who the author i do not want to embarrass him. we do not contend the constitution says private companies have to allow anything they want to be said. of course not. we are not suing "the new york times," because "the new york times" is a publication, so therefore it is governed by laws of libel and can publish anything it wants or doesn't want. but right now, google wants it both ways. they want to be protected from andl but be an open forum have no possibility of liability. they cannot have it both ways. the issue is not a constitutional issue. the issue is a free speech issue

having nothing to do with the government. we know that. but you cannot be the conduit of 90% of the world's information and then pick and choose what you will allow to be said. that is what the danger is, with regard to something as powerful as google. we are not suing "the new york times." host: so what, if anything, do you want from the federal government? guest: we have not asked the federal government for anything. we have asked the courts to adjudicate if this is a publication or an open forum? let's get this straight. if you claim to be an open forum and you are not, you are lying. now, at some point, unfortunately -- truly unfortunately, because i want as little government interference in our lives in any arena as possible -- i do not know how the government will not get involved. that is what should keep google officials up at night you guys

are abusing your rights to control almost all information on the internet on planet earth, outside of china. host: how and when can people hear you on radio? the same radio network all over the country on hundreds of stations. they can go to prageru. if there city does not have a station that carries my show, hundreds of stations do. there is a prager app, a pragertopia -- it's hard to avoid me. one billion views a year. it is ubiquitous all over the world. host: harvey joins us from portsmouth, virginia, independent line. go ahead. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i love c-span. legend that alleging that conservatives do not have the right free speech? guest: i am sorry, who does not

have the right to free speech? caller: are you alleging that conservatives do not have freedom of speech? guest: i am sorry, that is the one word that keeps -- host: he is saying conservatives. yes -- it depends where. on campuses, no question about it paid by the way, not only conservatives, but liberals. one of the themes of my life is greaterre is a much vibe between liberalism and leftism then between liberalism and conservatism. liberals and conservatives agree on free speech, agree on racial integration, agree on capitalism, agree on israel. the left is agrees with liberals on all of those and free speech. one of the biggest stories in the movie is about a very evergreenofessor at state college in the state of washington, a lifelong liberal,

a professor of biology, who was told all whites must leave the campus on a certain day, and he said this is ridiculous -- i do not believe in race-based things like that. and the man was screamed and himed at and mobs attacked and the police told him that we cannot guarantee your safety -- he ultimately left the college. a lifelong liberal. host: this is from bobby who says you have freedom to speak, you do not have freedom to force others to listen. another tweet says sounds to me that dennis prager is an advocate of selective regulation. your response to that? guest: i have no idea what either of them are talking about. we are forcing people to hear us by coming to a campus? we are forcing you to attend? persont know what that is talking about. what was the other tweet?

we are for selective regulation? have i said i am for any regulation whatsoever? i merely said we have to deal with a very serious issue. there are many liberals who feel this way as well. that is why alan dershowitz is on the film -- that something is happening on campuses that is unique in american history. folks left ofh of center -- we have president obama, twice, in the film telling students, hello -- you cannot shut down a speech you do not agree with. if this does not unite liberals and conservatives, nothing will. that is what i believe is happening. liberals are awakening -- i do not expect the left to awaken, because the left has never, since lenin, ever supported free speech. host: regina joining us from kentucky, independent line. caller: hi, good morning.

how are you? guest: well, thank you. caller: great. it is good to be able to talk with you. i happen to be someone who works at one of the campuses, and i agree, totally -- being a conservative, there is no way in the world we can even say anything. there is an automatic assumption that everyone agrees that we are all liberals, so therefore, automatically, your freedom of speech is shut down right there. but one of the things that is concerning to me -- i hear turning point usa and a lot of different conservative groups of young people, and it is horrible, what is happening to them -- when they go out just to get people to register to vote or they have their booth set up, and how these other students are just attacking them, pouring things on them, turning over their tables, jumping on them.

i do not understand why this is not being reported by the mainstream media, all the violence that is happening -- guest: well, they mainstream media has no interest in reporting this. this is another tragedy in america. we do not deal with in the film. it is just a tragedy. the jaundiced news the main -- you get from the mainstream media. these things that happen on campuses is minimally reported. you are right. it is a tragedy. that is why a person who is intellectually honest has to be to beof talk radio, has aware of fox news as well as the has to be aware of what -- of the ""wall street journal" editorial page and the many wonderful websites. i subscribe to "the new york times," i read "the washington -- i want to know what the

other side says -- although it is not difficult, because i went to school. nevertheless, i really do want to know what they had to say. you who are on the left, you need to know what we have to say. we have a lot of truths like this that you are not aware of. ow as on bill maher's sh couple weeks ago and mentioned that now the left has announced menstruate. bill maher and the entire audience, hundreds of people, laughed at me as if i had made it up. but if you go to huffington post, huffpost, as it is now known -- if you go to procter & gamble -- it is ubiquitous, the statement that men menstruate. it is all over the internet here that is what little kids are now taught. men menstruate. leftverage person on the does not yet know about this

unbelievable statement. but they will, and as soon as they learn about it, they will .ay men menstruate host: let me turn to "the new york times," the front page -- this is what it looks like. i want to share with you their reporting. john bolton, the national security advisor, met privately with the president back in august as part of his bid to persuade the president to release three hundred $91 million in security systems -- assistance to ukraine -- release in security assistance to ukraine. the meeting came as mr. bolton sought to marshal the cabinet and top security advisors to convince president trump it was in the best interest of the u.s. defend the funds to help

the ukraine against russia. mr. bolton, who left the white house in september, has emerged, over weeks of interviews, as the single most important witness who has evaded house democrats as they build a case against the president and the abusive powers of the presidency by withholding untilmilitary assistance delivered investigations that the president wanted, the new disclosure only making clear the significance of john bolton's potential testimony. your reaction? guest: two things that i would like to note. one is -- and i do not know why this is not dispositive -- the president of ukraine and ambassador taylor, in the three meetings with the president of ukraine, testified that this is true. never mentioned it. never knew that he was being squeezed.

if you are unaware that you are being squeezed, then i think also the time one would say one is not being squeezed. the president may have intended -- that the president may have intended that is of no great interest to me and is not impeachable. people's intentions are not the same thing is people's behavior. i think there was a four month holding up of ukrainian aid. i might add another thing that ofress does not deem worthy noting -- this president, president trump, gave far more ukrainiansons to the then the obama administration did, which basically gave them the food and the like. if the president intended to use this as a weapon, to get what he wanted, i cannot read his mind -- he may well have -- but in fact, nobody knew about it. cheatinguy intends on

on his wife but he does not cheat on his wife, then we really do not judge him on his intention. maybe god does, but we don't. host: the president with a tweet a short time ago praising at least a phonic, representative k, elise stefani representative from upstate new york, calling her a new start. there is also a link to the c-span video. cartersville,from indiana. caller: good morning. i want to point out two quick things, if i may. it is freedomyes, of speech we have here, but it is one thing to have freedom of speech, but it is a whole other thing as to whether or not you not certainether or things have consequences, and

damned if they don't. like there was this restaurant we had in town, and the manager was lambasting her employees and calling them retarded idiots and things like that, and she kept from getting fired. that is just one example of that. --n you have my second point. to give mee for you a response to both of this -- what about this rubbish, this mo ney speech -- i fail to see where that works. money is not speech. money is just a means of exchange and that is it that is an excuse conservatives used to further their own ends. host: we will get a response. , i am on the latter issue sure he is referring to the

supreme court decision, which gave corporations free speech in allowing them to use money, but it also allowed labor unions to do that. if this gentleman thinks labor unions should not be allowed to contribute money to political campaigns, he should know that is his position, and he should state it publicly. they gave a great deal of money. not believe money decides elections as much as others do. of the reforms that were enacted, like mccain-feingold, all they did was ensure that multimillionaires and billionaires run for office. because they could spend all the money they want. bloomberg is now in. tom steyer is in. the president is a billionaire. that is all it did. all these reforms -- the left is always making reforms and always

believing that get another law, and we will get closer to utopia. in fact, all these laws have made it worse for that are far more millionaires in office today proportionately than ever before in american history. thanks, largely, to people like the caller, who believe in all of these reforms. host: this is a tweet praising you -- please stop saying men menstruate, and i say this after wiping up the coffee i just spit out. keep up the great work otherwise. periodsen have according to procter & gamble's product always, which are pads for women during their period. theter & gamble has removed symbol of the female sex so that it be a non-gender-based product , there pads. host: this text message says you

are promoting hate speech, not free speech. your president does not like any speech unless it benefits him. what thehave no idea woman is talking about. i have no idea. i have written 1000 columns. i have written nine books. i have broadcast for 37 years. we have a billion downloads a year at prageru. i would like her to find one sentence that can be construed as hate. that is all they do is label conservatives -- that is one of the vilest taunts of the laughter they have cheapened every people term. when i spoke at the university of wyoming, there was the usual attack on being in the university paper and local paper. i think it was a professor who i am sexist,al intolerant, homophobic, racist, bigoted.

anti-semite. an not only am i a jew, but i am a founder of a synagogue, written four books in judaism, todd pugh dish -- taught jewish history. host: this is a text message from susan in tucson. trueays dennis's movie is as we conservatives are kept quiet as our work life is threatened as liberals feel they have the right to say and do anything to conservatives with impunity. i will see this movie again and everyone should. guest: is a phenomenal movie and i have no problem saying it. "start" in it -- "star" in it along with this magnificent comedian. directors and producers, they are the ones who get credit for a great movie. it is not just a documentary. it follows our lives.

it is fascinating. people should see it. especially liberals should see it. ideally leftists would too but they do not see or read anything they do not agree with. liberals would agree with this and there are a lot of liberals in the film. i keep emphasizing. aease understand this is bigger issue than whether the president held up ukrainian aid. it is infinitely bigger. this is what should be on the front page of the new york times every day, another story from right -- from another university of another shutdown of alternate ideas. host: independent line, good morning. caller: i cannot agree with him more on how important free speech is, but my question is why do we have a president and some congressman that tear people down and attack them verbally and get away with it?

aren't there laws against that? laws againstare it. there are elect -- there are not laws against it. there are elections against it. if you do not like with the president does, you can vote for his opponent. havee donald trump may ever thought about being president or running for president, the left has been smearing everyone that differs. to when stalin called trotsky a fascist. i have studied leftism. i was at the russian institute at columbia university. i studied under the national security advisor president carter. i studied russia. i know the left. the left does not have truth as a value. conservatives and liberals do, but the left never does. it never did. they smear everyone they differ with. that is why this woman could write that i am an anti-semite. we have project -- project

veritas has a picture of an email in google describing ben shapiro and prageru as nazis. ben shapiro is a jew. jordan peterson is as fine a human being as i have ever had the honor of being with. by me and others and i made you. -- i am a jew and a very committed jew at that. that is what they do. that is why the word nazi does it mean anything anymore. they have raped all of these terms. i am sorry to use that term. i do not know of a better term. leftnow means whoever the does not agree with. racist -- the same thing with racist. all whites are racist -- that is what they say.

it is a grandiose lie. i know a lot of whites. -- racist. one where maybe they hide it from me. carl inis is from michigan, saying free speech, the right to speak. the speaker has the right to speak and listeners have the right to speak against them. continue to send us a text message at (202) 748-8003. tell us your first name and where you are texting us from. victoria joining us from oregon, democrats line. >> i am a -- caller: i am a 75-year-old registered nurse. i am a christian. i really believe the 10 commandments are underrated. we should be seeing them on billboards and on the sides of moving vans and all around the country. i think we should live by them. i think our president has broken at least four of them so that really discourages me as a christian.

i am kind of keeping track and i wonder how many more key will be breaking during his term. -- he will be breaking during his term. guest: we certainly agree on the primacy of the 10 commandments. , as a religious , that i amase putting out a five volume commentary on the first five books of the bible called the rational bible. it has been the best-selling commentary on the bible in america. even costco sells it. this woman would love it. i could only say something i have said well before donald trump became president. business -- ity is none of my damn business whether or not a politician has been faithful to his wife or her husband. unfortunately, in real life,

that has zero bearing on whether a human being can be a good leader. since the woman is bible centered, she certainly remembers that god was very keen on king david, who not only committed adultery but had a husband killed so he could take the woman as his wife after committing adultery with her and that god shows a prostitute to lead the israelites into canaan. i think there are a lot of messages there. that is between a person and their spouse and god. it is none of our business. of ourarter, to the best knowledge, was totally faithful to his wife. i think he was a terrible president. there is zero connection between fidelity and ability to lead. i wish there were. then i would just have to know. ago and ia long time decided to recognize reality. exactly as i just

described it. there is no connection between fidelity and excellence in leadership. host: this is from linda. she lives in illinois. everyone is for free speech until they hear things they don't like, don't want to hear. i do not know anyone who smears others more than president trump , saying you do not want to hear people who disagree with his viewpoint. how do you respond to linda? guest: i don't want to hear people who disagree with president trump? did i hear that correctly? host: she is saying that the president smears people more than anyone else and that you do not want to hear people disagree with his viewpoint. guest: there are two separate issues. the president does not smear people more than anyone else. the left smears people exponentially more than the president does because the left is so much larger. the charging that all whites are at virtuallye

every university. the charge that anybody who believes that marriage should be between a man and a man is a ater -- a man and a woman is hater is made at every university. chick-fil-a did not open in san antonio airport. the government shutdown chick-fil-a's ability to exist at san antonio airport because the owner believes in the bible's view of marriage. gays.es no gay has ever suffered because of his view. he cannot even have that view. there is no comparison between the president's smears and the smears of the they are a million times greater. alice is joining us in lake charles, louisiana, our line for independents. i was fortunate to

experience a fairly robust exercise of the first amendment. i attended a private university for graduate school and it was obviously far more restrictive. while i think it is important to recognize a nonprofit organization's own first amendment right to a separate, private, distinct legal entity, do you think there is something -- of firstbout the amendment rights and private as welles of first -- as the number of tax exemptions they receive on the federal and state level? do not quite follow it as a question. i -- government aid to colleges is dependent on many things. initiated thea spectacularly un-american and

unfair idea that you are guilty until proven innocent with sex assault charges on campuses. theuses were told that government would withhold funds if they do not pursue more sexual assault charges at the campuses. obviously where there are federal funds they could be tied to anything. should they be tied, if that was one of the questions, to whether or not a school honors free speech? maybe so. theersonal view is separation between church and state their there ought to be a separation between church and education. the government's interference and education has had some benefits, like in cancer research. otherwise, it has not been healthy. public schools today teach kids from the age of five that there is no such thing as a boy and a girl. teachers all over the country,

from the age of five, in kindergarten, are told not to tell -- call their students boys and girls car these are not reported in the new york times or if they are they are on page 836. these are big deals. i find it hard to imagine that any non-left-wing person would be happy if they knew what their kids are being taught in kindergarten. from los're joining us angeles let me remind our listeners on c-span radio this program is also carried live on siriusxm channel 124 and on the bbc parliament channel in great britain. we welcome our viewers in the united kingdom. where is your home base? guest: my home base is los angeles. carried from noon until 3:00 eastern time, 9:00 in the

pacific time. it is easily found. liberals andte even leftists to listen for a week. at least have an idea of what we in college, years four years in high school, and now eight years in element you school, namely, the other side. tell me if you hear hate. i have had 70 conservative events as a lecturer -- so many conservative events as a lecturer. i wish people would view them. you do not hear hate. it is all a lie. this is a grandiose line. -- lie. it has come down to if you differ from the left, you are a hater. 90% of the country's hatred comes from the left. it is a phenomenon that people have to understand.

they are angrier. here is a very sad reality. woman, sheis a happy is more likely to be conservative than liberal. conservatives in every poll are happier. you know why? we are grateful. we are grateful to be american. i know ofot a leftist -- not liberals -- there is not a leftist who would say i am grateful to be an american. a black who says i'm grateful to be american blacks -- votes republican. a woman who says that votes republican. a jew who says that votes republican in the vast majority of cases. this is all tying into please listen to things like my show or read what we have to say. at the worst for us you will be a better debater. host: if they want to follow you on social media, how can they do so? guest: the best way to follow me

is through prageru.com. i do not tweet as much as my wife wants me to. that is the one great divide in my household. followerbig twitter and feels i am remiss. i admit it. i will begin as a result of this program. i will re-inaugurate that. they should go to prageru.com. we have a billion downloads -- a billion views a year from all over the world and 65% of the viewers are under 35 years of age. if you would walk with me in an airport, you would see if young people come over to me for a selfie. it is touching. rational, even they have never been subjected to this. this is all new. our videos are new. i mentioned to the university of wyoming.

my subject was why socialism makes you selfish. i think morally. the basis of all of my thinking is good and people, right and wrong. i am a deeply religious human being. i think god wants us to be good. that is the biggest belief of my life. that is why i am conservative. i want to conserve the values of the founders, who were great men. they had slaves, but that was normal in those days. you do not judge people by today. you just people by what they did in that time -- judge people by what they did in that time. that is how you judge it. capitalism is the only thing that has elevated billions of people from poverty. how can you love people and be anticapitalism? it is not possible. if you love people, you cannot love socialism. host: let me jump in on that point. says 70%-- a new poll

of millenials say they would vote for a socialist. 64% of gen z. the baby boomer generation -- only 36% would vote for a socialist candidate. why such a disparity among millenials? guest: because they have been indoctrinated rather than educated. that is what happens now from elementary school through college. they are indoctrinated. there is no rational, moral basis to vote for a socialist. it is a despicable idea. it sounds beautiful. capitalism sounds selfish, but how they sound is what -- is not what matters. you judge things by their results. capitalism lifts people from poverty. capitalism creates wealth. the human norm is poverty. notonly serious question is why are there poor people but why are there nonpoor people. that is the only morally serious question one can ever ask. the answer is because of capitalism.

people are free to create and buy and sell without the state telling them what to do. it is a tragedy what you just noted. it shows the effectiveness of the left-wing's takeover of education. we have lauren joining us from alexandria, virginia, republican line. leftisti am a scumbag politician the other day that called all of us trump supporters of scumbags and then they hollered about trump -- that will be all over the news if trump would say something like that and she got a rape -- away with it. i have not heard another word about it and i called -- heard it right in my own ears. she called us trump supporters scumbags. she accused president trump of smearing the ambassador to ukraine. himdemocrats have smeared

and his family since the day he got in office and they are still smearing him. what is the big deal? trump says one thing and they bash the hello out of him. maxine waters calls us scumbags. host: dennis prager? guest: i said exponentially the left is -- has hurled epithets more. there is no equivalent to what ,he left did to brett kavanaugh and utterly decent, one of the finest people you can imagine. family centered, community centered, decent man. his name was so dirtied by the left. they do that everybody. i do not like a lot of the president's tweets. i acknowledge that. is not, in this therd, representative, of

conservative approach to language pair the left-wing approach to language is universal. we will smear you until we destroy you. that is a modus operandi of the left. i wrote a column -- i write a column every week. in -- in a national review jewish world review and on my own website every week. about 10 years ago, i wrote a -- because i do not only talk about politics. i have written a book on happiness. i care about everything in life. if you a column saying love your husband and he is a good man please know how important sex is to most husbands. even on occasion if you are not in the mood, you might want to

consider having relations with your husband, even if you are not in the mood. hopefully he will get you in the mood and hopefully you will be happy you did. that is the gist of the article that is on the internet. people can read it. i am not the only one to say this. many psychologists and family therapists say the same thing. in general, i do not believe you should ever be guided just by mood. we should be guided by our mind and values. guy and huffington post said i advocated marital rape. prager maritalis rape, you will get to tens of thousands -- tens of thousands of hits. they do not deal with my column. they said i advocated marital rape. this is daily on the left. that is all they do. that is why whenever i have debated them i have won. they do not know what we think. we know what you think -- that they think. caller: thank you for taking my

call. i have a basic question to this guest. what is your definition of hate speech? what is your definition of free speech? those?have examples of what is your definition of liberal? what is your definition of leftist? host: thank you, pamela. guest: the last one was what is my definition of what? host: your definition of hate speech was the overriding issue. guest: sure. it is not a termite and to use because it is a completely subjective call -- term i tend to use because it is a completely subjective call. ite term -- hate speech is -- would add gratuitous. i hate nazis. is that hate speech? i hate communists. i hate rapists. is that hate speech? i used the word hate.

on the line, were i would love to know what she would say to that. the real, honest explanation of what people refer to as hate speech is immoral hate speech or gratuitous hate speech. where you get up and say -- if someone would say i hate all blacks or all jews or all whites. that is hate speech. should it be allowed? it should be allowed. that is why i gave the example of the nazis marching and the aclu supported their rights to do so and so did most jewish organizations. that is real hate and even that is allowed in america. how do you draw the line? what you consider hate -- if somebody says i am against affirmative action based on race or gender for colleges because it hurts those people, it does not really help them, it hurts

them, they are called haters. the left freezes speech. no student ever here's a cogent argument against race-based affirmative action. me ask you to explain this headline from your friend, who says i will run for office if no safe spaces costar dennis prager does all of the heavy .ifting guest: i do not know who came up with the idea. we both live in california. someone came up with the idea that run -- one of us run for governor in one of us runs for lieutenant governor. he said he will run for lieutenant governor if i do the heavy lifting is governor. i did flirt with running for office in the course of my career. i know my nature. i have no interest in having power over people. that is one of the reasons i am a conservative. i do not trust people with power. the left does.

the left once more and more power centralized in the state. i am against it. i want to influence people. that is my dream. i think i do. i have no desire to have power over anybody. host: we thank you for joining us on this sunday morning. if people want to follow you on the web, they can do so how? dennisprager.com, prageru.com, and at dennis -- @ dennisprager. none of it is hate. it is all predicated on my deepest believe in life -- god wants us to be good. host: please come back again. guest: thank you. host: we are back tomorrow morning with a live edition of c-span's washington journal, 4:00 for those of you on the west coast. we will be joined by scott wong

turley, a professor of law at george washington university to discuss the latest on the impeachment inquiry. newsmakers is up next with the house -- chair of the housing budget committee, john yarmuth of kentucky. i hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend. have a great weekend. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] >> coming up today, newsmakers is live with house budget committee chair john yarmuth. after that, president trump's speech in louisiana ahead of this weekend's runoff election for governor. ofnoon eastern, day two

public hearings in the impeachment inquiry as former ambassador to the ukraine marie yovanovitch testifies to the house intelligence committee. congress faces a deadline this thursday to pass a temporary spending bill in order to avoid a government shutdown. house majority leader steny hoyer and minority leaders steve scalise discuss the budget process on the house floor. disappointed by the senate's complete -- failure to complete their work to consider another continuing resolution. this is evidence of failure, not of success. it is essential that we pass the cr to keep our government operating. it is an indication that we have not gotten our business done as we should. i would remind house members that we passed 96% of the funding of government by june 26

or approximately before the end of the fiscal year. by the end of the fiscal year, the united states senate had passed not a single appropriations bill. i am disappointed by that. before the end of the fiscal year. i recognize that passing acr is -- a cr is essential. rather than kicking the can further down the road, we must use that time for an agreement on allocations which will allow us to move appropriation bills down the line with the bipartisan budget cap's agreement. as we have been hearing about the cr, i expressed similar disappointment that we have not been able to get the appropriations bill agreed upon by the house and senate as we work hard to get a two-year budget deal, a very bipartisan agreement. the objective of getting a two year budget deal and last year's

congress was to ensure we could agree on levels of funding for our troops, which we did, to make sure that instead of having a full were able to have year spending bill so we can get certainty to our troops. they are not getting the tools they need. we already agreed on the levels of funding, and yet they are still not an agreed negotiation. this is not a case where the house can sit back and wait for the senate to do something. there is a limited amount of time. i understand the cr will go through december 20. it is not a matter of waiting for the senate to come to an agreement between republicans and democrats. it is a matter of getting the house and senate to get an agreement. atit some point, somebody in the leadership of the house majority is going to have to sit down with somebody in the leadership of the senate majority. everybody has their different parties and ideas. they are going to have to stay in that room until they get an agreement. it has happened before.

it has not happened yet. i do not know if honest negotiations are going on between whoever in your house majority is going to be in the lead position to head to that negotiation and wherever it is on the senate side. there has to be a commitment that they are going to sit in a room until they figure out their differences. we have agreed on the number. we passed a two year budget deal for the purpose especially of making sure our military does not go in limbo and these other federal agencies that they can come to an agreement on. we know the cost. we are hearing the cross from our military generals. -- cost from our military generals. it is probably $1.5 billion a month that they lose. they are not able to buy the equipment our troops need when we are operating under cr.