"washington journal" author doug weet talks about his new book. then the case for impeachment. . ♪ host: good morning. it is friday, november 29th, 2019. black friday for shoppers and businesses across the country and with more than 160 5 million americans expected ahead to stores or shop online's, we will get your assessment of the state of the u.s. economy. are you optimistic? if you are, give us a call at 202-748-8000. if you are not optimistic about the u.s. economy, 202-748-8001. you can also catch up with us via text. that number, 202-748-8003. if you send a text, please include your name and where you are from.

on social media, on twitter, @cspanwj. on facebook it is facebook.com/cspan. a very good friday morning, you can start calling now with your view of the state of the u.s. economy. it was one of the topics president trump chose to talk about yesterday during a surprise visit with u.s. troops in afghanistan. [video clip] miles to be here tonight for one simple reason, to tell you in person that this thanksgiving is a special thanksgiving. we are doing so well. our country is the strongest economically it has ever been. we have the greatest economy anywhere in the world, so it is nice to know you are fighting for something doing well as opposed to something that was not doing well a number of years ago. stockmarkets reached the highest level ever in the history of the

exchanges, all 3. if you look, all 3. it is incredible, it is incredible what is happening. days.k it is close to 130 to me, that doesn't mean all-time record, it means jobs. it means 401ks. people come up to me with their 401(k)s and say you made me look like a genius, thank you very much. host: that was president trump in afghanistan. here is some of the numbers about the latest polling on the state of the u.s. economy. 55% rate economic conditions as excellent or good while only 9% say they are poor. it is not since immediately after the september 11, 2001 terror attacks ratings have been

-- 41% say it is getting worse. in september and october, americans were divided on the economy's direction. behind those numbers from that pole you saw, some numbers showing there is a stark partisan divide in state of the u.s. economy. you can see that in this surveymonkey poll. 66% of republicans say they are better off financially while 27% of democrats say they are better 2016inancially compared to . 41 percent of democrats described their financial situation as about the same as in 2016. two tweets to show the stark partisan difference when it comes to rating the economy. this is pete olson this week sending a link to a houston chronicle story about the economy saying out of touch speaker pelosi and liberal democrats, the american people

can and will vote for four more years of a booming trump economy and going on to send a link to the article. the other tweet from hakeem jeffries, the democratic caucus chairman, his tweet, everyday americans continue to struggle in today's economy, but the tax scam gave 83% of the benefits to the wealthiest 1%. these modern-day robber barons have no positive house agenda. that is how they read the economy. we want to know how you read the economy. are you optimistic about it? 202-748-8000 if you are. are not8001 if you optimistic about the economy. several of you already weighing in on facebook where we have a poll up asking your thoughts. this is andy saying let's not be selfish, the economy and stock market may be working for some upper-middle-class families and individuals, there are many who

don't own stocks, struggling since mom's and college grads are with outrageous student debt. in the economy is fantastic, i am so thankful trump did not gave up the economy obama him. an economy based on the false premise we have impotent amount of natural resources does not give me any confidence at all. lance saying you would have to be an economic illiterate or democrat sheep to not be optimistic about this economy. a discussion about the economy on this black friday. you think the economy is looking good right now, why? ofler: we have got a lot jobs being created. we have more jobs than employees. .he economy is booming

i am a supporter of what they call national capitalism. capitalism creates wealth. president trump is doing a .antastic job people should support our president and larry kudlow did a great job and i think people should realize how great our country is becoming. thank you, you are a great program. host: why do you think there is such a partisan divide when it comes to reading the economic numbers? not an economist, but i am a social scientist and i think it is political and democrats are angry about losing the election in 2015. it is very political and we get a lot of propaganda through the news media and we have to research all sources of information. in reality, the economy is booming and we have a great

michigan. west thanve more jobs employees. if you look at history, the .conomy is booming trump and his economic advisor, they are doing a great job. is a column from today's washington times. he writes nearly 90% of republicans are happy with the economy as it is now performing, but fewer than 40% of democrats do. the presidential approval ratings have little correlation with -- hardlyumn noting this is

surprising, few voters have time to understand the machinations of economics and government policy and rely on leaders who share their values to be their guide on this. if you want to read more, how party loyalty corrupts democracy is the title in today possible washington type -- in today's washington times. chris is not optimistic, why is that? caller: the united states growth can only be sustained because it is the u.s. reserve currency. the united states loses dollar as the global reserve venezuela,e become zimbabwe. trump is recognizing the dollar, there are several countries trying to make ultimate arrangements. when that happens, the dollar

becomes confetti. host: how far away from the doomsday scenario you describe are we? foreign newsu read reports such as al jazeera or russia today or even france 24, you find out like -- these countries like iran, russia, china are looking to change the reserve currency to their advantage and when that happens, it is lights out. thanks, have a nice day. host: tom out of and sylvania. he is optimistic about the economy. why is that? caller: i am optimistic about the economy because in the past, i look at what the democrats have done and it does not seem aboutg true how they feel our u.s. economy. ofy seem pessimistic instead

optimistic and the u.s. economy is fluid. it is going to change depending on the variable factors that affect it. are we talking u.s. economy? are we talking state a? what are we talking? host: tell me about the economy in bethlehem, pennsylvania. what kind of work are you in? caller: i am retired. i worked for the irs. i worked for the u.s. postal service. host: how are folks doing in bethlehem from your view? caller: they are doing very well. bethlehem steel company. we now have steel stacks and it draws in a lot of people to the area for the concerts and the venues. middleton out of west virginia, not optimistic about the economy. why is that? caller: hello, john. host: good morning, sir.

caller: the reason i am not -- these people are calling in saying how great the economy is, this is only talking points they hear on tv. why don't they go to the grocery store and buy stuff and see the price has almost double on a lot of things you need like bacon, milk, that kind of products. it is ridiculous they call in and talk about this stuff when actually they see it is not what they are saying how great it is. host: when was the last time the economy was getting better in your view? caller: it was slowly getting better. under obama, it could not do nothing else because it had to come up. things just don't pick up instantly. in 2006 in a steel mill

and we cannot buy any steel because the chinese was buying it all up. --had to pay that was during bush's time. host: what happened to that mill? caller: i am retired. i have been retired for 13 years now. host: what happened to the mill you worked at? isler: our mail is -- mill still working. it has been there since 1907 and it is owned by steel dynamics, which was started by mitt romney and it is the only union shop in that whole company. i am proud of that company and i worked for it for 36 years. we went through thick and thin, but we always managed to sell

stuff people want. host: do you think the union aspect was one of the strengths of that mill and why it is still around? caller: the company wants to get rid of it. they cannot get rid of the union yet. that is the purpose of these companies. if it wasn't for the union would nothese guys have the good jobs they have got. they would not be able to pay the money to buy the expensive stuff in the supermarkets. you can buy these cheap tv's like yesterday's pre-friday sale. people in there, you would think they have so much money, but they are putting it on a credit card. they are not paying cash, they don't have any money. host: you mentioned credit card debt.

the current credit card debt in this country, just about $1 trillion. let me show you how that compares. mortgages, $9.5 trillion in held mortgage debt. $1.6 trillion in student loan debt. $1.2 trillion in auto loan debt. we are asking your view of the state of the economy. are you optimistic about it? 202-748-8000 is the number. if you are not optimistic, 202-748-8001. also want to show you some of the recent comments about the state of the economy including your own powell before the joint -- jerome powell before the joint economic forum. [video clip] >> the u.s. economy is in the expansion.f this in gdp increased at an annual pace of 1.9% in the third quarter after rising around 2.5%

last year and the first half of this year. the moderate third-quarter reading is partly due to the transitory effect of the uaw strike at general motors. it reflects weakness in business investment being restrained by sluggish growth abroad and trade developments. these factors have weighed on exports and manufacturing. in contrast, household consumption continued to rise solidly supported by job market, rising incomes, and favorable levels of consumer confidence and reflecting the decline in 2018,ge rates since residential investment turned up in the third quarter following an extended period of weakness. the on a plummet rate was 3.6% in october, near a half-century -- unemployment rate was 3.6% in october, near a half-century low. it is aame time,

patient in the labor force by people in their prime working years has been increasing. ample job opportunities appear to have encouraged many people to join the workforce and others to remain in it. this is a welcome development. host: jerome powell on capitol hill earlier this month. here is a text this morning from joe in kentucky. it is all about jobs. if you have three jobs, you might be able to live. tax breaks. got prices on my groceries and everything else more than doubled. fred is optimistic because president trump is cutting the bureaucracy and allowing economic freedom. i remain hopeful for a continuing booming economy no matter who is the president and

this text from richard in florida saying trump's economy and great stock market are driven by deficit spending our grandchildren are stuck with and 1% interest being paid on savings. phone lines for those who are optimistic and those who are not. james is optimistic out of louisiana. good morning. caller: good morning, john. thank you for taking my call. host: appreciate you calling in this black friday. caller: i am optimistic about the economy. i think most americans across this country are optimistic because things are getting better and i have a question for you if you can answer it without trying to change the subject on me. you are all the time quoting the washington journal and the new york times, those liberal

newspapers. how come you don't quote nothing --only on liberal newspapers? how come you don't quote nothing blacke x22 reports or the patriot or something conservative? host: do you read the washington times? caller: no, i don't read .ocialist propaganda i just don't do it. host: i think you would be hard pressed to find folks who say than washington times -- though washing -- who say the washington times are socialist papers. the wall street journal i have on our paste, you mention the washington post and new york times. those major national newspapers are the ones that members of congress are getting delivered to their offices, those are the national papers that are being read by those members of congress every day trying to

share information from across the spectrum. we also go to websites, often go to breitbart.com, huffington post and try to mix our news sources as much as possible area i will try to do it even more if that works for you. i hope you keep watching and see we try to go across the spectrum. does that work for you? caller: just keep pushing that liberal view and you will see what will take place in november. good luck to you. host: that is james in louisiana. this is georgia out of louisiana. you are not optimistic about the state of the economy? caller: good morning, john. how are you doing? host: i am doing well. caller: my question to everyone who can read, write, or whoever. host: can you -- caller: can you hear me? host: yes. what is your question?

caller: when the federal reserve is pumping 120 billion per day since september into the economy, what do you think about that and why has the interest rate been going down if the economy is very good? readave to go to cnbc and their point on the stock market , these of the yuan chinese, what they are trying to do to the dollar. pay attention to what is going around got -- going on around you with the chinese. host: are you seeing the effects of that -- the manipulation you are worried about in louisiana? caller: the dollar going up in the stock, they try to reach 30 , but at- 30,000 points the same time, people are not making money on the bottom side,

which has more people on the bottom than the top. host: this is sandra out of l.a.. thanks for getting up early with us on the west coast. you are optimistic. why is that? caller: i think the economy is booming. if you enter the market over thanksgiving and seen how many people were shopping and did not isw where to park, it booming. on sunday, look how far the traffic is. everybody is out and about and everything. trump is doing a good job, i think so. host: let me throw some numbers that you. jennifer harper in the washington times today quotes these numbers saying during this week ends shopping period after thanksgiving, the expectation is $737 billion will be spent.

consumers expected to spend $1037 each, an increase of 4% year.-- this time last surprised by those numbers? caller: i am surprised, but it is good. host: are you planning on spending more this holiday season? caller: yes, i have money in my pocket. toave extra money to be able shop. the economy is blooming. job. is doing a good i am going to keep it real with you. host: we will stay in california. this is ron. your view of the economy. host: how are you do -- caller: how are you doing? i hope you had a good thanksgiving. host: i did. thank you. caller: thank you for reading

peter murray see. i like him when he is on your show. interestingly enough, he has a few trepidations about our economy, as i do. the extreme debt we have -- when it was $21 trillion in debt, republicans, which i am a member, considered that to be outrageous when the obama administration hit that number and now we are going soon to $24 $1.5 trillionout every year in debt further. all theup sucking away money we can spend on any kind of programs including our military. long story short is we have a global seachange coming and if thesetice, we have

outrageous riots and upheaval throughout the middle east and europe and asia and all over the place. the reason for it, of course, is because there is too much money chasing too few goods and that causes global inflation. we are not going to be exempt from that and the chinese, as the prior caller mentioned, are a lot smarter than most people want to give them credit for. we are looking at a long-term situation in the next couple of years that we better pay strict attention to. some of the countries in south america are going away from the u.s. dollar. that is disturbing because that -- we are in charge of the suppose it north and south america and when they go away from our dollar and go to

yuan as a reserve currency, that is a problem. i won't spend any more time with negativity other than to say we are all going in debt, the price of real estate is going up, food, water, all the infrastructure is going up, so you better save your money. ust: i will show viewers debtclock.org. just below that and to the right, the federal budget deficit this year now over $1 trillion and you pointed out you enjoy seeing peter murray see -- peter on this program. he has been on c-span 28 times. likely we will have him on sometime soon, so hope you keep

watching. jim out of new york is not optimistic. why is that? caller: the economy looks good on the outside, but let me say for a second people throw that trillion word around. a trillion seconds is over 30 throughout -- 30,000 years, so it is a pretty big numbers. you you have the wall street journal on your desk? host: i do. what are you looking for? caller: open the business section and look at the yield curve. it is very flat. .here is very little spread you have a lot of people calling in who know what is going on. the fed is spending a lot of money. the lady talked about they are

printing a lot of money, they are doing something with the repo market, the banks. i don't really understand, but the banks and the overnight loans, that is out of my territory. i think the economy looks good, but there is a lot of money chasing. people are chasing yield. up, but therket is yield curve is way down, that is suspicious. host: that is jim in new york. another factor some economists are pointing to as perhaps suspicious or warning sign is the growth in personal loans in this country. this from the washington post, personal loans up more than 10% from a year ago according to data from equifax and the major credit consumer agencies note double-digit growth in that market in recent months.

experts are surprised to see millions of americans taking on so much personal and loan debt at the time when the economy looks healthy and paychecks are growing, raising questions about why so many people are seeking that extra infusion of cash. personal loans are unsecured debt, meaning there is no underlying asset. the average personal loan $16,259, a level similar to credit card debt. personal loan balances over $30,000 jumped 15% in five years. heather long has the story in today's washington post. i want to hear your thoughts, whether you are optimistic. we have a poll on facebook on this issue and some 3.5 -- --000

we will check on that at the end of the segment. you can keep voting in that poll . 202-748-8000 if you are optimistic. 202-748-8001 if you are not optimistic. larry is not out of tennessee. why is that? cnbc and he said the tax cut that trump gave , it won't last one year and the deficit is bow big -- booming and he said the country is actually broke. host: how did the tax cut impact you? we lost larry. rocky in florida, thanks the economy is looking good. caller: i think the economy is doing good.

take a loanbt can out on their house because loan prices went up real high. people are going after him for --ry little thing and economy may be good for people at the top, but it is not helping the people at the bottom, the vast majority of people on the bottom. what do you say to those callers? caller: i say go out and look for better jobs. hang around with smarter people. start putting good things happening down because you don't like somebody or like a guy making president -- being president.

if you wear a trump hat, people are going after him because he is trying to make america great again. a lot of things trump says i don't like, but he is doing a .ood job they are going after him because they are afraid of him. you have a good after thanksgiving and it is nice talking to people. host: going after the president and some of his proposals and what he has done for americans when it comes to the economy. elizabeth warren one of those as well and as part of her campaign, has proposed a wealth tax to fund a number of social programs she has discussed on the campaign trail. here is a look at elizabeth warren talking about the idea of a wealth tax. [video clip] cent have proposed a two

wealth tax. your first $50 billion is free and clear, but your 50 billions and first dollar, you have to pitch in your first dollar. it a wealth tax is not about punishing anyone, it is about saying you built something great, good for you. you did it using workers all of us helped paid -- pay educate and using roads and bridges all of us paid for and protected by police and firefighters all of us pay the salaries for. when you make the top 1/10 of 1% big, pitch in two cents so everybody else gets a chance to make it and add is something democrats care about and republicans care about. regardless of party affiliation, people understand across this country, our government is working better and better for the rich and well-connected and

worse and worse for everyone else. senator elizabeth warren at the debate last week and we are asking you whether you are optimistic about the u.s. economy showing you tweets from members of congress on the topic. unclear if dash is watching the program, but tweeted about the state of the economy. linking to an article from the atlanta journal constitution on that front. one to hear your thoughts if you are optimistic. 202-748-8000. if you are not, 202-748-8001. having this conversation in this first hour of black friday. joe in maryland is optimistic, good morning.

the economy is going great, i kind of don't understand if we are -- asking if we are optimistic. if we are not optimistic now, i don't know when we would ever be. i have a question. when the president visited the troops yesterday, did you cover that? host: in terms of covering it, we found out about it after he visited and we have aired it several times. we plan on showing you more of it in 25 minutes when we end this segment. caller: that is good because i don't have a computer, so i can't go online, so you will show the whole visit in 25 minutes? host: we will show you a section of it, but we have shown the whole visit or the -- what the coverage sent out -- i believe the entire video sent out was about 14 minutes long showing the president serving the troops

and addressing the troops. we will show you 4 minutes of the address when we finish with this segment. stick around for that. caller: i love c-span. i would really recommend that is a big deal and i think you should run the whole thing so people like me should see it. host: we aired it this morning at 4:30 and overnight as well and i believe it is on the schedule to air again in its entirety. thanks for bringing it up and we do air things in their entirety without commentary so you can see it. enjoy thinks the economy is not doing well. why is that? caller: i don't understand these people. most of the people that are optimistic don't use any evidence-based theories. they just say it is great. mine is good. myself.e, i am in the grocery store and

things are constantly going up. i am in occupational therapist, let me make that clear and there are thousands of therapists who have been laid off because of changes to medicare. my husband is a trucker and he was laid off. i am working three jobs just to make ends meet. january 1, they will do another huge layoff. i don't understand why these people are calling and sound really selfish and they are not really looking at the evidence. the evidence is clear, things are more expensive in the stores, people are going in debt and taking loans out because they want to make it seem like -- the illusion is they want to appear to be doing well, but they are not. i think we are living in a house of straw and we need to take a look at the actuality and the evidence. god bless everyone. happy thanksgiving.

alabama.emiah out of go ahead. caller: merry christmas. i am very optimistic about the economy. . see it as being good trump is a very unorthodox type of person. i don't like a lot of things he says, i did not vote for him. right now, if i had to vote they, it would not be for leading candidates of the democratic party. i don't believe in their socialism. i believe in capitalism. i look at what trump is doing as far as what he has done for prison reform, what he has done for the veterans. i do not like what he did with that navy seal. ofhink he -- the authority

the secretary of the navy when he did that. i am a disabled veteran so i have been there and understand that. overall, our economy is looking good. we don't have enough workers, black unemployment is low. is black people have to do try for the american jobs -- the poor people in general and you can make a decent living in this economy. i am looking forward to the next has and tax cuts he what he is doing to get rid of state -- estate tax to allow people to take their 401(k) out without tax penalty and open their savings account without tax penalty. host: when do you think the next round of tax cuts would come? do you think that is something that would have to happen in a second trump term? caller: donald trump surprises

you with these things, you never know. before the end of the year or very early in january, there will be -- it will be announced. i am still undecided who i am going to vote for at this point, but i am leaning toward donald trump and the way is doing things, but i do believe he is a crook. things are booming at least on my end and i am not a selfish person, i look at all the people. to each his own. have a merry christmas, god bless. is notrant in tennessee optimistic about the economy. why is that? caller: good morning, c-span. i feel the middle-class is

shrinking and the lower middle class is increasing and there is not enough money after left over. i feel need retooling our agriculture and health care. according to what has been reported on c-span, more money has been given as a bailout to agriculture, just like the bailout for the auto companies except the auto companies paid us back. this trade war with china, i don't think trump knows what is going on and we need to retool the agriculture system and lower the entrance age for medicare. you don't have to take other people's insurance away, just continue to lower it down to 60, 55 where i am and try and give the middle-class and the lower middle class a little bit extra in their pocket.

host: this is one of the headlines from cnbc about the issues you bring up. trade wars, climate change plunge the family farm into crisis. is it an endangered american institution? what line of work are you in? caller: i am in personal health. i have a massage license and i health care system is two tiered, the have and the have-nots and if you have it, you get the best and if you don't, try and make it as painless as possible. i witnessed it personally, a sister who passed with no insurance in massachusetts. agriculture -- i don't know what percentage it is of the gdp, but we need to grow stuff we eat here and stop

importing. i have called before, we need to socialize agriculture. the industrial jobs are not coming back. we can automate a little bit agriculture, but we need to socialize it. we need to get people who are americans, not immigrants to work in the agricultural market. from some of the numbers that tom connor story from november 2 of this year, talking about trade wars and how it is impacting family farms, farm bankruptcies through september surged 24% versus the prior year to 580 amid the storm created by donald trump's trade war with china and europe. bankruptcy filings were there highest in wisconsin with 48 followed by 37 in georgia, nebraska, and kansas. president trump already earmarked $28 billion in financial assistance for farmers whose sales to china have been

crippled or blocked. that is from cnbc. this is harold out of washington, you are next. good morning. caller: good morning. i think the economy is doing great right now. i have been around a long time. . am a retired firefighter i have seen ups and downs. in 2006, it was looking pretty bad. theeconomy was down and obama administration pulled off a miracle and the economy has been growing ever since, including right up to today. host: how much credit do you give president trump for what has happened over the past three

years? going. he has kept it years it has been doing good. the puzzles me is does national debt at $23 trillion really make any difference to anyone? me nobodyems to really talks about it. --somebody wanted to attack to get on a program to do would be with it -- it a burden on that administration, just goes on and on and i don't know how long our economy is going to last with the national debt going up and up and up forever.

that is my biggest concern. have to go. long we somebody needs to do something with it. i have no answer for it. usdebthe numbers from tclock.org. $69,921 per to taxpayer. 100 $86,948 per taxpayer. sander is next on the line for those not optimistic about the economy, go ahead. caller: i am afraid trade wars are going to cause a recession. the thing that worries and upsets me more than anything is people like sean hannity on fox mainstreample that

media does not tell the truth when they do. donald trump has done so many hurtful things to us. two years ago he should have been impeached when he ran a fake university for five years, he cheated people out of $75 million, $75 million. he paid a $25 million fine for it. he has done so many things that so many people who support him, they don't even know about it because people like sean hannity are not reporting it. those who support the president, one of the big things they point to is the tax cuts and jobs act. how did that impact you? caller: everything is so expensive. it didn't help me at all. i did not get a tax cut.

. i am a senior citizen anna fixed .ncome i have daughters working and one is working two different jobs. the tax cut only help the wealthiest people, not the average person at all. host: this is steve, is optimistic. good morning. caller: how are you doing today? host: doing well. caller: i am optimistic and we are doing well. i want to apologize. can i get off topic a minute and say something worthwhile? host: if you bring us back to it eventually. caller: 10 seconds. a coach passed away and he is the winningest football coach in the history of football, college, pro, high school combined -- he is a local legend.

we are doing well and i do recognize that nationally, we are doing well as an economy, but there are regions who aren't doing as well as other regions and that is because of the stubbornness of state officials and county and local officials not willing to give corporations and companies a break to relocate. we had boeing, the biggest bmw plan in a world. we had a michelin plant, a brand-new volvo plant, people are flocking here. other states are stubborn and cannot stand the idea of people providing jobs getting a break and having incentives. all those incentives come back to the state via employee's paychecks and the amount of money they spend locally. people spending stimulates the economy, that is a no-brainer. account andanguard i don't have this exchange rate

funding anymore, but the consumer discretionary spending is up 25% this year. that is discretionary, that means people have money to burn, not buying -- they are buying stuff they do not have to have. it is a reflection of how much money people have, they have spendable income. trump has created a job creation atmosphere. he has given companies and corporations reasons to stay in the united states and not relocate to the united kingdom where the tax rate is lower for corporations or canada. companies are providing jobs, creating jobs. we have a lot of influx people coming down from up north and that is wonderful, we love our northern neighbors. i have a neighbor who has a rental property and he sold a house to a guy from new york and we love our new yorkers.

you all are getting taxed to death. we had a guy get his first real estate tax and said is this for a month or a year? that is for a month. you have to create an atmosphere corporations will relocate and provide jobs and if you are suffering in your area, it may be the fault of your state and local officials not creating incentives for companies to relocate. host: one of the headlines from today's papers, economic data brings cheer for the holidays. gross domestic product in this of 2.1% in these third quarter. that was up from the previous estimate of 1.9% pace of growth mainly due to strong inventory investment. u.s.e caller pointed out, shoppers have been the driving force over two quarters as

business investment has declined recently. the outlook is mixed on the extent to which they can keep fueling the economy through the holiday season into next year although we will see in the coming 4 weeks. janice next, not optimistic about the economy. good morning.r: i would like to talk about the u.s. economy as it relates to health care. my husband and i make over $100,000 and we were making this before president trump got into office. i have the open enrollment plan right now and i was looking at the different insurance companies because i was thinking of changing my insurance and i noticed there are much higher isuctibles and coinsurance insane. i am talking upwards to 35% for various things -- something as

simple as an x-ray, c-sections required -- a lot of the plans require 35% you have to pay out of your pocket. thank god i am done having kids. what difference does it make if i make a lot of money and my husband makes a lot of money but we have to spend an enormous amount on health care? -- thisd this change increase as trump has been in office. even the hmos require coinsurance -- a high percentage and a high deductible. either of your jobs you are in offer health care? have you found as you are shopping around the differences between that and the exchanges you are talking about? caller: they offer health care and that is why there is open enrollment. i was thinking of switching our policy.

i was thinking of going to a better insurance company, but i don't even know if i can. it is insane how much money you have to pay out for simple things. it is ridiculous. like i said, it doesn't matter that i make 6 figures and my husband makes six figures and we have to pay thousand -- thousands and thousands for a simple thing pretty host: just a few minutes left for this segment, we want to get as many of your calls as possible. david has been waiting, not optimistic about the economy, go ahead. same.: it is just the it is all the same since obama, bush. any raise i get gets enough by the increase in health care and co-pays and the price of food, it is ridiculous. i don't see what your people are talking about.

that lady who would like to see trump in afghanistan, by a smartphone. it is not that hard. host: what kind of work are you in? caller: i am an electrician. host: it doesn't change from president to president, administration to administration in your mind? caller: it is all the same. i had extra money a few years back, but it is getting under -- out of control. host: what did the tax cuts bill do for you? caller: it was basically an even split. with health care going up, if anything, my bottom line is negative. if elizabeth warren can top -- tax the top 10% and raise millions, that is how screwed up things are. you do a show about people hoarding money? that money has to come from somewhere. it comes from us working.

ist: john out of louisiana, optimistic about the economy. go ahead. caller: i am retired. been retired since 2003 and the keephing you mentioned, i track of how much i pay in my income taxes because i pay income taxes because i have ira and get taxed on a portion of my social security and pension. my taxes went down because the new tax rates made some lower things -- i think it was a 25% and it went down and i ended up only paying 8% of what i take in to spend on federal income taxes and that was like 8% lower than i had ever had it. that is one thing that helps me have money to put in the

economy. kind of a funny thing, i travel all over for motor racing events . nascar, indycar, that kind of stuff and that is discretionary spending and as i look around the campgrounds, which i have a motorhome, i drive there and a lot of other people do, too. the grandstands, there is more people going to those types of things. it is a real example of what discretionary spending is all about. if there was ever a thing -- in the past 8 years before that, attendance was way down, the people were not there. it is something that does show i think the economy is great and i am looking forward to more of it. i am on a fixed income, so when the cost of things goes up, i don't have -- okay, you will get a pay raise. i don't get that. host: out of curiosity on the

fixed income, how much do you spend to travel to nascar races? caller: my largest single expense is diesel fuel for my motorhome. $10,000, anden $12,000 on tickets, camping, and the fuel driving around. host: and you think you might be spending more or going to a few more races? caller: my race schedule is based on how much i can afford to go and i am getting toward -- end of my career because i have been to all the tracks -- host: who is your driver? caller: chase elliott in nascar, john force because he is a 67-year-old drag racer on social security and medicare like me and winning races all the time is a youngnew garden

driver in the indycar series that is my one and formula one, i like ricardo. host: you have them all covered in louisiana. a couple minutes left in this segment of the "washington journal." we said we would come back to the polkl on facebook -- to the poll on facebook. 52% saying you are optimistic. 48% saying not optimistic. mark falls into the not optimistic column. you are next . caller: good morning. i fall into the non-optimistic column. we are doing the same circle we did in the early 80's with reaganomics and trickle-down economics. did you know trickle-down

economics used to be called horse and squirrel economics? host: i did not. why is that? caller: because the thing was you feed the horse enough grain, there will be a left -- enough left coming out on the other end for squirrels. host: high did not know that, thanks for informing me. david out of north carolina, he is optimistic. go ahead. caller: i am not really optimistic. i have quite a few friends who have to work two jobs just to be that way.it used to not be one job used to get people by. now with the refusal to raise the minimum wage, you have to work two jobs. that trumpody saying

has made the economy great, you have to remember that obama inherited a 10 plus unemployment rate and got it down to four something. trump has only taken it down to three. who is doing a better job? all thising claim for work, but obama really did it, and nobody. is giving him credit for it optimistic,lly that even though the stock market is doing well. there are more farmers in bankruptcy. said,is more -- like i people having to work two jobs to get by. and housing prices and apartment prices are going up still, and the wages just aren't there for them. carolina.d in north

we mentioned the facebook poll. we also are running a poll on our twitter page. less pessimistic with less voters. 65% saying they are not optimistic. you can continue to vote on the twitter and facebook poll, but that will do it for this first segment of the "washington journal." . we will be joined by doug wead to talk about his book "inside trump's white house: the real story of his presidency". and later history professor allan lichtman who wrote the 2017 book "the case for impeachment" will be here to talk about the ukraine investigation and impeachment inquiry. surprise trip to afghanistan. here are more of his remarks. [video clip] president trump: we thank god for your health and all the

things you have done. you are very special people, and you don't even know how much of the people of our country love and respect you, and they do. i am here bringing the message. they are leading the fight to vanquish america's enemies and deplete forces of radical islamic terrorism. i would say it so often during the campaign, that's what we do. together we are making tremendous progress. a few weeks ago, as you know, specialu.s. forces brought the number one most wanted terrorist justice when the president said more important than osama bin laden. i would say that, look, difference was that he was an organizer, al-baghdadi was an organizer. he was the founder of isis, the father, if you want to call him that, of isis. i don't think he was that happy

three weeks ago when he saw the men come pouring down onto where he was staying, and that didn't work out too good. we have a new national hero. you know who it is, right? conan. conan is our new great hero. conan was at the white house yesterday, you might have seen it. it was something. but the animal known as al-baghdadi, the founder, the leader of isis, and the man who was trying to reinstitute isis, because we defeated -- we have 100 percent of the isis caliphate in syria is now ours. he is dead. his second is dead. his third, we have sites on the third. the third, i don't think he wants the job. the third said, maybe i will go work in a store or something. savage and was a

soulless monster who raped, tortured, and slaughtered the innocent, including many, many americans. when you saw those folks, those great people in the orange jumpsuits, often times standing at a beach with a thug behind them and a big knife, that was all al-baghdadi, but he is gone. the american warriors hunted him down, they executed him masterfully, and they punched his ticket to hell. that's what happened. cheering] shortly after we got baghdadi we focused on other elements in the area and we started leaving the area, because it is secure, but we didn't leave it totally. we kept the oil. makes sense, right? i have been saying for a long time, keep the oil.

i used to say it with a place called iraq, too. keep the oil. they didn't listen. i was a civilian. now they have to listen. we kept the oil. we can help the kurds, we can help our partners, where they got their wealth, where they got their money, we kept it. we will go back in when we have to as it arises, but 100% they have thousands of prisoners. we would like europe to take those prisoners. they have not stepped up to the plate at all. many come from france, from germany, and different countries in europe. they have not stepped up to the plate. that's not good. we should talk to them. they have been taking the people back and trying them. if we didn't do it they would go back to france, they would go back to germany, they would go back to u.k., they would go back to the places they came, that's where they want to go back, and

they should take them. weeks ago we also announced that the forces are coming back home. we are reducing over here. because of technology and all of the things that we have, we are able to reduce and afghanistan very substantially, actually, and do even more devastating attacks on the enemy. so that is part of the 2.5 trillion we have coming, finest equipment in the world/ . announcer: "washington journal" continues. host: doug wead joins us on his book "inside trump's white house: the real story of his presidency". you have been described as the only authorized biographer of president trump.what is it mean to be an authorized biographer? isst: i don't think that accurate. i hear it but it is not the authorized history. a biography would tell about his

birth, and it doesn't do that. it is just the white house and his election campaign and the history of his first year in the white house. host: what does it mean to be authorized? and thehat they say ok, president says who do you want to talk to? initially sitting with sarah huckabee sanders and bill shine when the book started, and the president, i said i want everybody. everybody in the cabinet. everyone said good, you can have them all. interviewing the family members i couldn't get out of the family. it was too rich and too interesting. host: how did you get into that room in the first place? guest: it was a year of debate. i had a meeting with the ivanka trump, and i said into hundred years when you are gone and all your children are gone, they will still be writing books about the trump family and

theatrical performances. whether your family is viewed with hatred like that med like thecelebrated kennedys or the rockefellers is sources. it is what you say and your father says that history will be written, and i would like to write that book. they debated it for a year. i am the guy who tape-recorded george bush. general kelly is saying no, you can't let that guy in here. host: why did they decide to trust you? guest: it is the president. i have seen it over and over. if someone really enjoys doing something he feels they will rise to the task. building ait is skyscraper, or putting his daughter in georgia north carolina in the middle of the campaign. she had zero experience.

michael -- loft came to mayor log go after i won the election and he stayed for a week. now he is on tv attacking me, but i feel chemistry with you. authorized,t is does the president get to read what you write before it is published? guest: he probably didn't have time to read it. but the protocols, they can't dictate anything i write or say, but they can say this was off the record this was on the record. they can also say this is a national security issue. they do have that option. i wanted to be accurate. that was the point of the book. i want to write something that is really what they said. tiffany,uraged don jr, eric, jared, to look at the manuscript. they would find mistakes, things i misunderstood.

but i wrote what i wrote. the: when were you in white house, when were you with the family? guest: it was over the period of years. it was in and out. at three meetings with the president in the beginning of 2016 and lots of questions with the kids and the staff. office forer interviews multiple times. i met jarred right between the chief of staff and the oval office. i went to a longer and --to jared's georgetown home to interview them around a roaring fire, which was fun. i talked on the phone with the family multiple times, and i got the only interview with tiffany. the only one she has given since her father was elected president. host: who defied your

expectations? guest: i was surprised by a lot of things. one thing that surprised me is in most families there is a smart one, a dumb one, a rich one, a poor one, a lazy one, and industrious one. every one of the trumps are dynamic. they all have a positive streak in them. ivanka would say i refuse to be bitter. i choose to be happy. she said i can't function if i'm not happy, so i choose to be happy. each of them was like that. i would bring up russian collusion and they would bring out a silver lining, including the president. host: "inside trump's white house: the real story of his presidency" is the topic of our discussion the next 50 minutes this morning on "washington journal." democrats can call in (202) 748-8000.

republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents (202) 748-8000 2.02) 748-8000 jared kushner came up several times. know: i wanted to everything. what do you watch on netflix, how do you sleep on international voyages that you take? i did spend a lot of time getting the stuff i felt from jared kushner. he is a very inning medic mysterious guy. host: at first he right jared kushner would not let me record our interviews, forcing me to rely on notes, but his stories were the biggest of all pulled from his georgetown home or pulled from his office squeezed between the oval office and the chief of staff suite in the rarefied west hallway. every story was patiently

waiting. my young team was impressed. we are now actually interviewing spider-man. what was most worth waiting for? guest: there are so many. he said to me, i told my father-in-law russian collusion is the perfect scandal for you, because it is so far-fetched and you are so provably innocent. if they had created some scandal over casinos in atlantic city or building in new york city with building permits the public could have been confused and it could have worked, but they chose russian collusion. perfect. he also said russian collusion was a great diversion because he felt they could not have turned around the economy if the media was focused on the deregulation. would make stories out of the deregulation they could not turn around the

economy. host: the unexpected advantages of the russia witchhunt and how it plays into what is happening now with ukraine. explain. aest: by saying that he is russian agent, stop and think about that. the russians have run him for president and elected him against all odds to be the president of the united states and he is a russian spy. that is like landing a man on the moon, the assassination of julius caesar, christopher columbus, one of the greatest events of world history if they were able to achieve that. when it turns out to be untrue, or they can't prove it, it is pretty far-fetched. i can tell you a story about that, but in any case they say no, no, no russian collusion wasn't it but this is really it. it inoculates the president and a lot of people's mind. at least apologize over russian

collusion and then i will listen to what you have to say will stop you can't keep this up. in that sense a kind of worked to his advantage. here tothor doug wead talk about many of the stories he learned during his time in the white house with the trump family. emma kratz, (202) 748-8000 --democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. .ndependents, (202) 748-8001 democrat and i believe in the united states of america and i worked at the space department at one time. i was under george h w bush and ronald reagan. i believe that we must be bent on the fact naand not fake news. country isalf of our

not familiar with the facts. the molar investigation is for real. the climate change is for real also. look at what is happening all around the world, california, the drought situation, that is very real. our nation, most of the people are very young. our children our grandchildren, this is the united states of america, not north korea, russia, or china. on air force one. air force one is the pride of the united states of america, the flying lighthouse. i don't think he should be allowed to do that. should takeress this air force one and park it at vandenberg air force base and not let this man get on it and go abroad. host: what do you think? guest: i agree with everything

you had to say except limiting the president for air force one. i worked for ronald reagan and wrote his campaign flag or fee and for george h w bush served think youi don't should deny that person free speech or can't use air force one or can't represent us. that is what elections are all about, we have the right to vote for who we want to vote for. host: how many presidents have you interviewed? guest: six american presidents. host: what defines a legacy? guest: historians look at 120 different things, but primarily the economy and the handling of war and peace. the economy dominates. they want to know a president's intelligence. jimmy carter may be the most intelligent, but he is ranked poorly because of the economy. george h w bush is ranked as a

great warrior president, but ranked lately as a very poor president because of the economy. he left with 25% approval rating. the economy dominates. that is what works in donald trump's favor. host: with the house impeachment vote appearing likely at this point, what will that mean for this president's legacy? guest: most impeachment should be bad, but the russian collusion thing is haunting. the democrats would have been smarter if after the election they said let's unite and then went after ways to get rid of him rather than immediately saying he won let's impeach him. jared kushner told me that the kids, the trump kids, they travel all over the world. from time to time, right from the beginning in 2017, they

would be pulled aside by head of state and they would say please tell your father how sorry we are he is going through this russian collusion nonsense. when i heard that story it was like a light switch going off. i wrote the book all the president's children, when you study through the eyes of the president's children the perspective changes. i am seeing the russian collusion through the eyes of the kids. of course, if you are the president of france or the prime minister of the u.k. you aren't going to wait for two years for the mueller investigation. you are going to say what did i just read in the new york times? i want an answer by 6:00 p.m. tonight. there are 120 intelligence .gencies those countries had to know. host: they all did their own

investigation? guest: they had to know. the security and economy of their country is at stake. i'm dealing with a russian spy? they knew the answer while we in america waited. host: this is pierre and washington, d.c. independent. caller: first i want to correct you on one point. ivanka live in calla ram a and not georgetown. next, nepotism. the problem for the trump family, they talk about the bidnes, but how they justified their own nepotism and profiting off the presidency. i will let you answer the question. guest: thank you. you can call it nepotism, but from the beginning republican presidents have often picked

their children to serve in government. the first president to have biological children was adams. no less than george washington don'tadams and said withhold appointment of john quincy just because he is your son. when i sat down with ivanka t rump, she was the 19th son or daughter of an american president to be appointed to work in the white house with the father. there is a scene in one of my books where her mother, eleanor roosevelt, comes to her daughter and begs to be put on the manifest. her daughter says sorry, can't do. this has been going on for a long time. nepotism, but if

you become the president of the united states you will want people that you can trust who are loyal to you, and you will have a tendency to pick people closest to you, and often that will be your own family. this has happened all through history, even modern history. they change the laws but the president will put them on the d&c payroll like jimmy carter did his son or the rnc payroll .ik there are two things that the child will do helping the president. is offer loyal and two continuity. if your boss is reince priebus and you have all of these great projects, all of your projects collapse. now it is general kelly. then general kelly is gone. now it is mick mulvaney. the children remain. they will always be at the dinner table at thanksgiving. what you say to one of the children or relatives will endure. that continuity is important. republican,ticut, a

good morning. caller: i wanted to ask how the trump family deals with two of the nastier falsehoods. i never really see the tellers suffere falsehoods ever any consequences. the first is this notion that donald trump is a racist. president trump goes around saying things like the unemployment rate among like people is at an all-time low and takes credit for it, but he is clearly celebrating an increase in prosperity among african-americans. maxine waters and others, donald trump is racist, racist, racist. there is never 81 in the media that says how do you say that and hold that falsehood teller accountable? the other is the russian hoax. you would say we have moved past that, but we haven't because adam schiff and senator blumenthal keep saying publicly and repeatedly they personally

have evidence of this crime occurring. although they never tell or appoint the evidence out. they are never pressed on it and they appear in public. i just wanted to ask how does the trump family deal with these two nasty allegations? guest: very interesting. whole chapter about the women on the bus, the trump women. they campaigned all over the south. i detail these great stories. eric trump's close personal assistant for almost all of his life and all the other women on the bus. when i finish i wanted to get a picture of the trump women on the bus. six women on the bus, five of them are african-american. the only white person is laura trump. you never heard about it, it was never in the news. the only one that got any fame switched.a, who

they recognize it, they see it. the president has great pride in those numbers because he feels he has been able to accomplish what humphrey wanted to do, what lbj wanted to do. 6 million people have gone off of food stamps. lbj gave them food stamps and subsidized housing. the police would go around and look to see if there is a man in apartment.if there was they could lose welfare because they were claiming to be a single mom. the father had to be chased out, someone from the welfare department will be here today. you have a whole generation of young people raised without a dad. you have an increase in crime, which was natural. trump is very proud of what happened, and it doesn't matter to him if he doesn't get credit for. at least he says that. one night jared kushner came --e with his daughter

came home and his daughter greeted him at the door. she said, she spoke into her how many people has jared kushner gotten out of prison today? siri didn't know. she said i will tell you what. 20,000. today he got out two, after today 20,000. not bad, dad. most happened to be african-american, nonviolent drug offenses. the trump family takes great pride in that, whatever people want to think. host: doug wead is our guest. the book "inside trump's white house: the real story of his presidency." we are talking about it this morning taking your phone calls. i want to show the president from tuesday and the rose garden

before the pardoning of the turkey. president trump talking about what he is thankful for this year and about living in the white house. [video clip] president trump: this thanksgiving we bow our heads for the new found prosperity in spirit taking place all across america. the country has never been more successful. rebuilt.ary has been we have captured the number one terrorist in the world, killed the number one terrorist in the world, al-baghdadi. i want to thank our military, because there is nothing like our military. fornt to thank almighty god the shedding his grace on our nation. our nation is special, and we especially send our love to members of the united states armed forces serving all over the world. we are forever thankful for those who wear our nation's

uniform and the families who support them. important.s are so you can never be the same without those great families. because of their service millions of americans are celebrating another thanksgiving in safety and peace. it is a very special country, a very special place. the rose garden at the white house. if you're looking back here, that is the oval office some of before.n't been here every time we walked onto the grounds of the white house, we realize how special it is. host: the president living in the white house, and his feelings about that. this president owns a lot of property around the country. guest: that is very funny. in christmas 2018 he stayed in the white house rather than going to mar-a-lago. he was playing the martyr saying i will stay here and work for the country. mar-a-lagol go to

and have traditions for christmas they love. dad, aren't you going to join us? he said i have all this business, i have to work for the country, i have to stay here. finally eric and laura say we are coming back to the white house. we aren't going to let you be alone on christmas. there. staty jared and ivanka call and say dad, you can't be alone for christmas. he opens up to jared. he says i own all of these homes. i'm goings a rental, to enjoy this for a while. he called the white house a rental. he was also setting up a private moment was that he and the first lady were planning to fool the

family and go to iraq caller: good morning. just almost made me throw up this morning. threw up every time they mentioned. trump at 63 million votes. people in this country voted for this clown disgracing the white house every day. who has spenty 24% of the time on the golf course. have a nice day. thank you. host: the president and golfing? nixon i remember richard after he lost to john kennedy. he held a press conference and said i will never criticize anyone for going to florida,

hyannis port, or taking time off . is not a 9-to-5 job where you come into an office. it is decision-making. ute noecisions bear on matter where you are or where you go. wherever the president goes, the twitter handle is not far from him. what are your thoughts on the president's twitter habits? guest: my thoughts don't matter. if i was advising him, he never would have been elected president, so what do i know? i think his communication is transformational. i think he has gone somewhere you can't come back from. that will always be a tool for future presidents, pretty amazing, direct communication with the people. while it is crude and has rough

edges, it is comforting and awake. i worked for multiple presidents. i knew many of the presidents. they are very careful about what they say. george w. bush was fascinating, great sense of humor and a wonderful guy, but you would ask him a question or i would do this and do that, he would grunt, mont, rolled his eyes from the nod. you had to figure out what to do. if you are wrong, you are in trouble if you are right, you make it rewarded. nothing he ever said could be brought before an impeachment inquiry, because he could say i just didn't say that. i just smiled. going to impeach me for smiling? it is refreshing. it is scary. i like the fact he is not a politician. he has rough edges and he is telling us what he thinks. host: this is dominic out of new york. caller: good morning. i would like to know your guests opinion on the economy.

i have a 93-year-old man who says that in that will never forget his trump crossing over the dmz into north korea, powerful. group, now that the mias are coming home, he stopped that guy from bombing. he goes were no one else would go. i think the economy is doing great. i would like to hear your opinion. have a great day in happy thanksgiving. happy thanksgiving. the numbers don't lie. it is miraculous what has happened. jobs.e 7 million unfilled that is the population of the state of indiana. it is pretty amazing. when i hear comedian say i wish we had a recession, you know we get use to peace and prosperity. we get used to it.

when you don't have peace and you don't have prosperity, herbert hoover, i think the american media would love herbert hoover. he was brilliant, courtly, very careful with what he said from very presidential. he was an engineer. scientists, were engineers. he fed europe after world war i when they were starving. he led us through this great depression. up new thes spring major cities of america on the garbage dumps, people who could not keep their houses, so they went to the garbage dumps come up where they looked for scraps to build their own homes, where they look for food for the children. there was no sewage or running water. there were thousands of these hoovervilles across the country. that is how people suffer when the economy goes bad. it is fun when you are famous the rich, and it comedian to say

we need a recession, because you want your team to win the white house. actually prosperity is a wonderful thing. 6 million people have gone off food stamps. that is a good thing. that is not a bad thing. host: did you have to sign a nondisclosure agreement in writing this book? guest: no, i didn't. that is why they debated it for a year. there were people in the white house opposed to the idea. when it finally broke, i said come on in. you can have whatever you want. host: no ground rules? guest: no ground rules except they say off the record or on the record, but hardly anything was off the record. i went with it. they are going to open the door. i'm going through it. host: the book is "inside trump's white house: the real story of his presidency." doug wead for the next 25 minutes. a republican, good morning. caller: thank you for making

your appearance on the show. i think you're levelheaded and fair in her opinions. two quick statements and i would like your reaction. with the de's that president trump turned this economy around , it appears to me that the answers in how to do it were all along for everybody, republican and democrat, to see for many years. however, the democrats chose not to do it. the democrats it appears measure their success with the amount of people they could put on welfare and government assistance while the republicans measure their success with the amount of people they can put to work. the last thing i want to say is this is also applicable to our school system. it is not in the best interest of the democrats to educate our children to where they can all get great jobs as doctors,

lawyers engineers, fire science, police officers, because if they can get good jobs, they will not need the assistance that the government has to offer to buy their votes. what is your opinion on my statement? steve, i agree with your statement, and more. i spent 40 years in the republican establishment and came to the conclusion the democratic and republican establishments are both owned by great multinational companies with links to china in more recent years. money.t it is all about for example, when i worked in the white house, almost all regulation drives out the competition.

the small companies, if you're wanting to start your own business, you can't do it because of the mountain of regulation. pass,hose regulations they get the monopoly and then there is a recession, so democrat republican, they pass a .timulus bill nobody evers is read this to ms. bill. they read their 12 pages, 15 senator, this the will help. the idea of this to ms. bill is to help during a recession in the economy is down, but what they do is get the regulations. so get the regulations passed from you have to keep and you can't start a business because there is so many of them, then when there is a recession, they don't have to keep them either

in order to create jobs. the name of the game is money. in the last few years, we have seen the largest transfer of wealth in world history outside the middle east from the united states middle-class china, and donald trump is taking that on. people, outrage to many many multinational companies don't like it. they own the companies that advertise on media, pay the bills on media, on the companies that provide the money for the think tanks, the pendants they go on the shows from the like me, right now. they get paid from a think tank that gets donations from these very companies, and donald trump is come in and turned over the tables. he is shattering the class. he hase outraged, but turned around the american economy. host: joe on twitter, but is your view on why the president won't reveal his taxes. joe says i think it is only fair

we can see him. guest: i have no idea why. i remember in the campaign come the 1988 campaign -- i have to be careful because there were a lot of dirty tricks in the 1988 campaign, but there was a big push to get the medical records of kitty dukakis, governor dukakis caucus his wife's medical records, so the gop spread horrible rumors, and they were defenseless because they couldn't for whatever reasons release these medical records. so there is probably a story behind the story, and my guess is we will eventually find out. it could also be a red herring knowing the president, something he is hiding and keeping close to the chest and when it comes out you will be disappointed. host: this is barney, democrat. good morning. , you lie just as much. as trump just as much

two. you tell me about the blacks on the bus. bus,e blacks was on the why don't you see them in the public? you understand what i am saying, men? -- man? you kind of make me want to throw up, man. host: another question about his relationship with the african-americans. guest: i don't know what to tell you. they didn't hide who was on the bus. they went all over the country, but they weren't given any attention for what they were saying or doing, and all i can tell you is the numbers as small as they may be are actually up among african-american supporting the president, so there are some who support him, and have increased their support of him. all i can say is he is very proud of the fact that unemployment is down, record lows for african-americans. he is happy about that. he likes it. he is thrilled about it.

he is thrilled by the young men who were allowed out of prison, nonviolent crimes, being held in prison, and he is happy about that. that is all i can say. host: you have written a book about presidents children, and you have a chapter on each one of the presidents children. talk about the two that are in the public eye as much. went into thed white house 10 years old, and he will come out a grown man. the stories in the book about cute. a really the second night after the inauguration, they are in the state dining room and these adults are having the quiet time together, the nightmare is over, they think, everything is done. meanwhile, the eight grandkids ,re bracing -- bracing through screaming, laughing, playing hiding go seek.

barron is supervising. he tries to find them. in the state dining room, there is a big conversation among the adults. inron comes running commencing what, what, what? they say, laura has just told us she is pregnant good he says, oh, ok, and races off. he has things to do, find kids hiding in the east room now. it is cute to hear his story. now he has grown into a man. tiffany goes to the white house every week. she loves to see him play soccer. now they are really close buddies. it is interesting to see them as children. they have to survive all of this. host: what does tiffany do now? guest: she is going to georgetown law. all of this has changed her life completely.

she grew up in california to georgia. she was one of the most interesting to interview because of that. she had not lived in new york. she has a perspective of the newark trumps. after she gave a speech at the rnc, she was instantly a celebrity. before that she would walk all over the streets of new york. she could no longer do that. everything ended after she gave her speech at the rnc. now she spends those weekends at the white house, but she has great stories. for example, the night they all went to buckingham palace. there was no carriage with six white horses. there was no motorcade to take him to buckingham palace. they had to make it there themselves. here is the trump family with their gowns and tuxedos, they rent a van bus that would take you to your rental car at the airport, and they piled in with all their dresses and gowns and tuxedos and said, take us to buckingham palace. some great stories to tell. host: michelle is next out of

schenectady, new york. good morning. caller: good morning. u and you're you not hiring and training people, that is not real job growth. it is temporary. republic to build a fake bubble economy. it is like 2006, 2007 all over again. you and history will show that the only reason why this presidency is doing better than the obama presidency is because republicans stymied obama with sequestration in 2010, causing the economy to suffer. the on the miss bill which was bipartisan -- omnibus bill had a lot of energy and renewable points to it that actually build up the economy, and it is still

doing it today. even governor norquest stated that they need to focus on the deficit and fight sequestration. host: more on the economy. caller: very -- guest: very good points. it is sometimes complex. sometimes these arguments cancel each other out. some say there is no economic recovery and it is an illusion. isers say there is, but it barack obama who caused the economic recovery. sometimes they say both things in the same sentence. we are still tribal. we have our favorites. i see it after years in government as a racket. one company gets interest free money from the federal reserve, doesn't even go through a bank. it goes from the federal reserve to that company. one company gets federal money and is subsidized by federal money.

one has to keep the environmental regulations. another is exempted from that. it is very unfair and arbitrary and is based on lobbying. joined donald trump because he is missing all that up. credit all these jobs to barack obama. for example, he didn't improve the pipeline, so there is 160,000 jobs. there are differences between obama and trump, but there are good things to say about both of them. host: stephanie in michigan wants to know what your experience was compared to other folks about what's happening in the white house commencing at like to know if you saw the chaos described in bob woodward's book in michael wolff's book. guest: the answer is yes. i saw the chaos. i have a different take on it. i expect a lot of this chaos was calculated. i did that because i worked in

the white house for george h w bush. so much what we did was calculated. some of my best friends who were journalists could not believe some of the things we did were actually calculated, but they were. it was spy versus spy versus spy versus spy. when you think you got the story straight, there is a politician manipulating it. i was in the white house not expecting it to be the way -- that way. i came out thinking everything was cockaded. son sue said out of cast comes opportunity. nato, donald trump blew up nato. isa is our oldest treaty -- this is our oldest treaty. look what he's doing to this treaty. they were talking to the media trump. mouthing donald

donald trump came in and he impersonated the generals. they would say sir, these are our friends. they are our friends, sir. trump would say if they are our friends, why are they not keeping their word? why did they sign a document and say this percent of gdp will go to defense, and our middle-class has to pay for it? why should i middle-class build high-speed railways in germany? why should they pay for new airports across europe when they are descending into poverty. that is not a friend. yes, they are our friends, sir. he blew up nato and nato got back to business and agreed once again they would meet their obligations. they raised $100 billion from nato. remember his wall with mexico would cost $1.6 billion. he raised 100 billion dollars from nato. it is stronger than it has ever been. the head of nato loves trump. that is the end result of this

chaos. you blow it up, and you rebuild it. i can say the same thing about nafta. ofre is a reason behind some the outlandish things that seem to be happening. michigan,ing in teresa, republican. good morning. caller: morning. i'm wondering what you think about all the corruption in the white house. i am hearing somebody calling about the russian hoax. it is not a hoax. william barr has been implicated. mike pompeo has been implicated. the reason donald trump doesn't want to turn over his taxes is because he has been getting russian money over the last decade and doesn't want the american people to know that he is working with russia, and everything he does has been helping russia. guest: center calling in, republican line, did you vote for donald trump in 2016? did vote for him, and

i'm terribly sorry, america that i did vote for him, because this is the most corrupt -- i mean, there are so many things people have said and you don't correct them. you let them keep on going and spewing out lies. this is not a russian hoax. donald trump is the most corrupt president we have ever had. host: got your point. guest: you think donald trump is a russian spy, ok, but more power to you. bernie sanders has defended venezuela, the socialist government. venezuela has russian troops on the ground in their country, defending and protecting. they have cuban bodyguards protecting maduro. 95's based in caracas, capable of delivering nuclear weapons to the united states. if you're going to talk about russian collusion, i mean, you

had the clinton foundation of receiving $145 million from allian oligarchs, so through american history there have been these accusations. they said thomas jefferson was a french spy that the french own. they said john adams was a british spy that the british own. i don't see it. i'm sorry. happened, if it donald trump is a russian spy, it will be one of the most incredible events and all of world history, greater than columbus crossing the atlantic. it will be really something, but i doubt it. theory will blow away all anonymous and look for primary sources and with the president said, and they will look for evidence. he is a russian spy, who will prove it? when did they recruit him? did they have him increasing the military defense budget?

anddid they have him fight stop the socialist takeover in venezuela? why is he doing all these things? why did he increase the number of oligarchs to receive sanctions in russia? if he is a russian spy, they are doing a bad job of running him. host: doug wead, the book is "inside trump's white house: the real story of his presidency" is out. we will try to get to your calls and the time we have left. monroe, louisiana, good morning. drink: i-8 too much and too much, so i'm sorry. too much and drink too much, so i'm sorry. you have had 40 years close to washington and to the conservative movement. i am very interested in the christian side of all of this, -- you mentioned

a minute ago, i think they both said to the effect that the greatest generals know how they will win their war before the first soldier puts his foot on the ground. , with youring experience with the christian maturity all of the that has come to the christian political thinkers the last 40 years, do you see as being a much more powerful, do you see a tipping point coming around the world where you have the possibility of a mature christian church around the world they could begin to take the lead in developing something i've begun to call a new new world order, based on christian biblical ethics. host: i got the question. guest: i don't know if i'm capable or qualified to answer that. i know the president had a spiritual side to him that shocked me.

he sent me a list of names from the white house interview, one was his friend, a pastor in florida. i did learn the story that his father loved norman vincent peel , the preacher in manhattan. as a little boy, he would take donald trump to that church, so he grew up loving norman vincent peel. he was upset when he died. he got a lot of inspiration from him. jersey, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning, joan. trump, hisl, donald first 100 judges appointed ,ommittee appointed 98% white one hispanic, one african-american. secondly, you speak about his children in the white house, it is illegal for his daughter and son-in-law to be in the white house in the first place. they couldn't even get security

clearance. he pushed it through. thirdly, you speak about the republican party, to trillion dollar tax giveaway to the top 1%, and your bragging that they took 6 million people off of unemployment. in early of the statement you , that they gave blacks food stamps, that is a racist statement in itself. the problem with the republican party is, and even with in the last 50 years, black home ownership is at the lowest in over 50 years come and you know who had a big part in that? steve mnuchin. steve mnuchin is in his cabinet. you talk about black people being on the bus? what about in his cabinet? his cabinet is the wealthiest, whitest cabinet in america. the key to it is when i talk

about 98 of those judges were quite in one african-american and one hispanic, and you are telling me, he got, we got this host: got your point. guest: that is food for thought. i will have to research that and see how right you are on that. i can say this, you can google billionaires and their support. you will see in the last election the billionaires supported the democratic party 20-1, every former president voted for the democratic party. the establishment was overwhelmingly democrat. 419 newspaper endorsements from 19 for george w. bush. all of hollywood totally supported. when donald trump became president and announced a gdp of 3%, he was scorned by every major economist in the world. 100%. there wasn't one who broke and said i think he can do it. 100% against it.

and it worked. and he did it. so the growth of the economy is good for all of us, regardless of our race, and the supreme court nominees, it is not an easy task. a lot of people feel he has done good. in the past, the republicans would get one, the democrats would get one from sometimes republicans would give the democrats another one. my president appointed a liberal of liberalot a lot ideas were winning and they need help in the judiciary. this president was elected by conservatives, so he's appointing them to the supreme court. call,one more phone jacksonville, florida, independent. good morning. caller: good morning. i want to make a couple of comments under question. the gentleman here seems like a nice guy. i don't know him, but then i don't know most historians.

this is the thing though, i think one of the overriding things that the trump presidency will be known for among other things is just the constant overwhelming amount of lies, lies about things egg, buys about things small, lies about things in between. obvious lies, tons and tons of them, starting before his presidency began, continuing to this day, even picking up according to experts to this day. and, you know, i know the first thing the trump apologists will say, obama lied. bush lied. lincoln lied. george washington lied. they all live. it is all the same thing. it is all about even. know, oforians will course, that mathematically speaking, not just opinion, but

mathematically speaking, the volume of lies this president superiorhis far, far than any other ones in my lifetime, for one in my lifetime, for sure. probably in the history of the whole country. this gentleman is a historian who knows facts or whatever from history, and should have some knowledge of the monumental amount of lies the president has told. does he realize the president is on a pace that far, far outstrips any other one that i can think of? host: i want to give doug the final minute or two. y.est: thanks, ja answers,ave all the but you mentioned past lies that presidents have told, and you can go all the way back to eisenhower, but you could not mention one. you said there are hundreds, thousands of lies that president

trump has told but you cannot mention one. i can remember lies told about him -- that he is a russian recruited byample, putin himself. i saw a report from one of the largest papers in the world that said that his wife was a prostitute, his son was autistic. i saw a comedian promoting the #incest regarding this president. i hope we have on thanksgiving peace and prosperity, however it happen. thank god we've got peace and thank god we've got prosperity. host: we appreciate your time this morning. , his book is out now. come back again. up next on the washington journal, we will be joined by history professor alan lichtman,

who wrote "the case for impeachment." we will talk about the russia investigation and the house impeachment inquiry. but first on newsweek we interviewed someone from the giffords group institute on the new push to pass gun-control laws. presidentate and the are sitting on their hands, caching and ri checks while -- checks.nra i do not think this is a distraction to keep their constituents safe, no. question andy a priority. what we are finding is that the house of representatives, the majority ran saying they would pass legislation keeping kids and communities safe from gun violence. they have followed through on

their commitment and passed legislation. the senate and the president have failed to follow suit, and we will keep the pressure on, right? each and every day, we have hundreds of staff advocates, volunteers, thousands of volunteers and supporters across the country who are pushing trump, pushing their senators to take action. but i want to be clear, i am not hopeless at all. of a marathon, or maybe at this point, an intermediate distance race, not a sprint. we have come a long way. it has been nearly seven years since we launched giffords, since the sandy hook shooting. i think we are innocent area where if voters continue to elevate gun safety as a voting issue, as we vote out the people who have blocked progress, a year and a half from now we could have gabby efforts standing in the rose garden with

whoever the next president of the united states is, signing significant gun safety reforms into law. >> our c-span 2020 bus is traveling across the country, asking voters, what issues should presidential candidates address? >> one of the most unaddressed issues is reforming the [inaudible] detention ice facilities, which have a staggering death rate of prisoners. tohink it is too important address of the federal government has the power to do so. toi want the candidates focus on constituents who never get their voices heard, and these constituents are nonhuman animals. as an investigator that has blown the whistle on multiple factory farms where animals are being criminally abused, for doing that i am facing felony charges. i want the candidates to focus on how the public has a right to know what is going on behind

these closed doors, inside of paid and chicken farms, inside cken farms, inside of where animals are being abused, but that also ordinary individuals, you and me, are allowed to rescue these animals. >> i want to see more on all sides about gun control and gun safety, how we can keep guns out of the hands of those who should not have them. more importantly, our society, our environment in the interest of peace and common ground, we do not even really need handguns and assault rifles, not in our public spaces. they should definitely be removed. think about that. >> i would like to see the candidates focus on trying to reinstate the voting rights act and bringing fairness back into elections. andot only need to control make sure the elections are secure, but we need to make sure that everyone who is a citizen is able to vote without having

finds they can --fines they can never get out of. >> voices of the road, on c-span. >> washington journal continues. host: we welcome professor alan lichtman back to our desk, a history professor at american printed in 20 16 that donald trump would win the 2016 election and eventually be impeached. take us back to those 2016 predictions. what were they based on? guest: first off, i managed to get everybody mad at me, both trump supporters and anti-trump forces, but my prediction of a trump win was based upon my the keys to the white house, that i developed in 1981 and that has forecast all-american presidential

elections since 1984. the thesis is simple. forget the pundits, the polls, who is up day-to-day, look at the big picture. the strength and performance of the party holding the white house and determine whether or not an election is a change election. thetermined, regardless of republican nominee, that 2016 was going to be a change election, and any generic republican was going to win, and i was right. and then i got this little note on my washington post interview that said congrats, professor. good call, a big sharpie, donald j. trump. think he got far enough to get to my second the second big -- prediction, that he would be impeached. that was my study of his entire career and his campaign.

i found that this was someone who, starting back in the early 1970's, when he was sued by the department of justice for discriminating against estateies in his real company, this was someone who had no regard for the law. this was someone who had no regard for the truth. reality was whatever served him at the moment. this is someone who had spent his entire career enriching himself and promoting his brand with no empathy for anyone else. those are characteristics that i thought would lead him smack into an impeachment process. host: and you wrote a book in 2017, "the case for impeachment." what was your argument then? how doesthe case and it align right now with what is happening in the impeachment inquiry? guest: it aligns allows perfect way. i had a chapter on flouting the law, a chapter on the russia connection, how the russia connection is not recent but goes back quite a long time with his attempt to do various

business deals in russia. host: but it is not like you predicted a ukraine phone call. guest: no, of course not. but exactly what i wrote about in the book, the fact that this was someone who had concern only for himself, who didn't care about the truth, who didn't care about the law, who is totally was aerving, and that manifestation in his attempts to shake down a vulnerable foreign nation for help in the 2020 election. exact kind of individual i talked about in "the case for impeachment." host: what was the reaction when you put this book out in 2017? guest: people said, you are nuts. how can you be talking about impeachment? he has only been in office a few months. that was the same reaction i got predicted -- when i

that trump was going to win -- all the pollsters and pundits have a different way of looking at it. i have tried to get away from the conventional wisdom and use my knowledge of history and training as a historian to get at the deeper truth, and that is what the book reflects. host: washington journal with professor alan lichtman, we would love to take your calls. .emocrats, (202) 748-8000 republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. your take away from the impeachment hearings? guest: it is open and shut. it is in his own words that he was extorting and bribing president zelinski of ukraine, who is totally dependent on the united states. the very survival of his nation depends upon the united states and. built the case,

not only when you ask someone that vulnerable or dependent for a favor, it is not a request. you can hear the voice of the godfather -- i have been very, very good to you, but you haven't returned much, so i have a little favor i want to ask you. it is a favor you can't refuse. hes, it was quite clear that withheld the aid and withheld the meeting to pressure the ukrainians to help him cheat in the election by investigating his political rival, joe biden, on a transgression that has been totally disproven and pushing, astoundingly, the russian propaganda line, the line pushed by vladimir putin and the russian intelligence services that it really wasn't russia intervened in the 2016 election, it was a hoax concocted by the democrats and the ukrainians, as if it would be in the interest of the democrats to hack their own

server and release all this detrimental emails about the and hillary clinton. it makes absolutely no sense, but here is the president of the this ideates pushing and continuing to push it in recent interviews. host: since you are known for your predictions, will president trump be impeached in the house and convicted in the senate? guest: i am totally convinced he will be impeached in the house. i think it is unlikely he will be convicted in the senate, except for one possibility. one of the lichtman rules of politics is that for officeholders like republican senators, they have one priority -- political survival. if it looks like trump is going to bring them down, they could turn against him. said,uth, as one insider if they could vote in secret they would boot him out, because they would rather see mike pence, a dependable, down the pike christian conservative as president than the loose cannon

donald trump. host: our first caller, an independent. good morning. caller: good morning. we keep seeing things -- saying things in ukraine and russia have been unproven, debunked by our so-called intelligence agency. the intelligence agency you are now.ng on is -- right guest: crowd strike is a private company. caller: shawn henry, crowd mcafee.used to work for groupou bring in this instead of the fbi and the fbi goes to shawn henry, who used to work for robert mueller, we've got some serious, serious problems here. william barr says he is going to get his arms around this.

the atlantic council, this goes to the state department under hillary, where we did not have a confirmed inspector general -- this is far deeper than what you are talking about. nothing has been debunked. guest: everything has been debunked. it is not crowd strike. kraut strike is a private company that in fact has just been hired by the republican congressional campaign committee to work for them. a perfectly respectable company. it was the one that first uncovered the fact that the russians were hacking democratic sources and disseminating this detrimental information. who has confirmed it? 17 intelligence agencies. the mueller investigation. the bipartisan report of republicans and democrats in the united states senate have all confirmed it was russia, not the

democrats or the ukrainians. as i have explained, it makes absolutely no sense for the democrats to be hacking their and releasing detrimental information to help donald trump. it is a theory that nobody seems to believe but donald trump right now. host: this is mary in las vegas, a democrat. caller: good morning, mr. lichtman. i agree with you in your entirety, everything you are saying. if i may say a few things before i go on, william barr is as much a threat as donald trump. he is the cover-up attorney general. december 1991, 1992, how he covered up the iran contra scandal. ,nd he's got mitch mcconnell getting millions of dollars from his wife's family in china. he overturned sanctions and paska, who is into organized

crime and connected to russia, trump only supports dictators it seems, even in photo ops. helsinki was an embarrassment. host: ok, what is your question? caller: my question is, why are people watching some of these hearings -- why are they reading the mueller report? the man was found to obstruct justice at least 10 times. host: alan lichtman on the mueller report. respect had a lot of for mueller, i was crossing we disappointed by his report. not so much the substance of it, but the way it was presented. presented.ense legal

se, and thenale anlet william barr, appointee of donald trump, spin the report in a way that it seems to exonerate trump when the report in fact did not. history called bob mueller, but the call went to voicemail. what a waste, that investigation. host: we will see what the judiciary committee comes up with. you you predict -- do you predict that it will be a narrow articles of impeachment focus on ukraine and the phone call, or could it be included to expand issues of obstruction raised by robert mueller? guest: one, i hope it will be thended and two, i think democrats are making a huge mistake in rushing to impeach. the nixon example shows you cannot put a time limit on impeachment. that investigation went on for almost a year and a half and started up with looking at the

watergate or glory -- watergate burglary. what did they find? illegal campaign contributions, illegal wiretaps, a legal attempts toillegal rig elections. alle have a real hearing, the transgressions we may find of donald trump. i hope neither the investigation or the articles will be narrow, because i think if you actually read the mueller report, it is pretty damning. committeejudiciary holding its hearing, beginning its part of this process. what will we see from jerrold nadler in the judiciary committee? see morehope we hearings, not just a rush to judgment and a rubberstamping of a report. i think it does a disservice to the nation to believe that the transgressions of donald trump are limited to the ukraine scandal. they are much deeper than that. host: professor allan lichtman

of american university with us for our last 40 minutes left in this program, taking your phone calls. i will remind you of his 2017 book, "the case for impeachment ," and a picture of donald trump on the cover of that book. jerry in mississippi, good morning. caller: good morning. happy after thanksgiving day. host: same to you. heler: the professor there, must be kind of psychic, you know? he told people, people said he ts, and guess what, professor? and ik you are psychic, think i am psychic too. i believe everything you said. i think president trump will be impeached, he will be acquitted in the senate, and elected for

four more years. have a good day. on that --quick note no president who has been impeached, including the tube acquitted by the senate and adding richard nixon, who resigned to avoid impeachment, in none of those cases that their party win the next election for president. johnson, a democrat, was impeached in 1868. his party lost that election year. richard nixon's republicans lost and bill clinton's democrats lost in 2000 in an election that they easily should of peace,t a time prosperity, foreign and domestic tranquility, and with a president whose popularity was close to 70%. it was the cloud of scandal that defeated them. i think republicans ought to be pretty wary of the idea that if trump gets acquitted by the senate, he's going to have an easy time getting reelected. host: the caller began his

saying he was impressed by your predictions. do you want to let folks know your track record? guest: yes. i developed my system, keys to the white house, in 1981, in collaboration with the world's leading earthquake predictor. model, 13 keysis which gauge the strength and performance of the party holding the white house. the idea is that presidential elections are essentially votes up or down on the party holding the white house, and these projections have been correct for over 30 years. nine consecutive presidential elections, 1984 to 2016, and you democratic, 90% washington, d.c., i took a lot of heat when i predicted trump would win in 2016. host: when are you going to put

out your 2020 prediction? guest: i don't know yet. sometimes the keys fall in place early. i called a heart to call 2012 -- i called a heart to call --hard 2012 election in 2010. things change overnight, so i'm not ready to make a prediction yet. host: what is a key that seems like it might be in place at this point. 13 different ones, but what is one aspect? guest: the economy, to economic economic keys and it looks like trump may hold both of them, but we do not know if in thenomy will hold election year, so he could lose the short-term economy key. host: harold out of washington, republican. good morning to you. , 101st i am a veteran infantry division. guest: god bless you.

caller: for thanksgiving, we put a slogan on -- forgiveness is the solution. i would like the president to go to the nadler committee and forgive them what they are doing, for the motion of what they are doing. it is based on hate, and hate is the opposite of love. we should love our constitution. we should be thanksgiving -- very, very thankful that we have the founding fathers who brilliantly put together the only and the best formula for success of people to live in freedom, not like in hong kong, not like in any other -- venezuela, any other place. guest: how about russia or china? caller: [laughter] was with the russians in world war ii, a little town about 40 miles from

berlin. they had a gigantic cathedral, i understand. the russians came to watch us play baseball. their trucks were so dilapidated, they had note doors -- no doors on their trucks, they were fighting with nothing. unfortunately, roosevelt was a sick man and gave them austria and so on. the miracle of many of them, austria, the german army, the russian army that occupied austria peacefully left. host: harold, thanks for sharing your story. about i agree with harold the constitution. let's not forget, it is the framers who put impeachment into the constitution, quite advisable he, as a legal, orderly, and in peaceful means for dealing with a rogue president, as opposed to the mechanisms of their time, which was assassination or revolution.

so jerry nadler, who by the way was my high school debate istner in the 1960's, doing the house's constitutional duty. the house has the sole responsibility for impeachment. i agree -- i would love to see donald trump sit-down for the house judiciary committee and tell his side of the story. he was invited. he was invited by mueller to tell his side of the story. not only has he not told his side of the story, he has blocked every one of his former aides from testifying and they have not given the house a single document they have requested. this is beyond the stonewalling of richard nixon, for which he was impeached. shy aboutas not been talking about impeachment, tweeting about impeachment, tweeting about witnesses during open impeachment hearings. do you think we will be seeing more of that from the president, and is that a good idea? idea. it is a terrible

even richard nixon didn't do that. he stayed out of the impeachment process. all it does is demean the president. it wasn't bad enough, and instead of just firing ambassador marie yovanovitch in the ukraine, which the president could have done in five minutes, they had to orchestrate a malicious, false smear campaign to destroy this anticorruption ambassador so they could deal with the corrupt elements in the ukraine. that wasn't enough. the president has to continue attacking and this merging marie search --h --the marie yovanovitch. he is the only president i have seen to use the bully pulpit to attack individuals. host: and what about jerry

nadler as a debate partner? guest: he was fantastic. we were in high school in new york city and helped establish competitive debate in the city of new york. host: taking your phone calls this morning with professor allan lichtman. kelly in garden grove. you're next. morning, happy after thanks giving everyone, and i just wanted to thank the gentleman for coming out with this book. this is just 2.0, you know? all roads lead to putin with trump. he has a long history with them. deutsche bank and all of his appointments -- i will not say of his appointees have their fingers in the pie. mitch mcconnell has strong ties to kentucky coming in and having funding for a lot of their -- i guess it is an aluminum oligarch that has invested quite a lot of lindsay haseningrad

jumped into that pool as well. i think they have aligned with him and they have their agendas that they want to push through, like their evangelical and holding women's economy from -- autonomy from there -- sorry -- from their reproductive rights. i want to say to the last guest who was on, hearing some of the colors on the other side of the aisle, i appreciate that they are actually listening now and somewhat coming around. it is encouraging. the striking things about the polling on impeachment, which found about half of the american people favor not just impeachment, but impeachment and removal, is the enormous gender gap. 61% of american women, 20 points higher than american men, favor

impeachment and removal. the other point i would follow up on is remember the watergate mantra? follow the money. follow the money here. i think if the house ever gets their hands on trump's taxes and financial records, there will be a lot of corruption for them to follow. questions from our texting service, from frances in texas, why do you think trump's approval numbers are up after the hearings? guest: they are not up. they are about the same as it has always been. trump approval numbers has been frozen in time. i have never seen anything like this with the president. they have about 41% to 42%, unmoving. that chart, if the viewers cannot see, back to january 20 17 -- you can see those numbers do not move very much. guest: no they don't, because

people seem fixed in their positions, which is another reason why i have been preaching to the democrats, don't rush in peach med. one of the reasons numbers haven't moved, no one has heard of any of these people who has testified, so it does tend to blur. but if you get some people to testify like john bolton, mick mulvaney, mike pompeo, and the man who has the biggest audience, rudy giuliani. you cannot get the president, but you could get all those others. plus, there could be real bombshells in the president's financial records. they have not made the case strongly enough yet. they need to get 55% to 60%. they have to move a lot of people. 5% to 10%, but we need more if you are a democrat. host: out in california, our

caller, independent. good morning. caller: good morning to you. this is a waste of our time. trump is doing a hell of a good credit, andm that we need to stop looking at the impeachment inquiry. we are basically spinning our wheels. have a president doing a hell of a good job, we have to stop recognizing 1950, 1960, because the road that we drive on has been crooked ever since. now that the road is out, trump needs to find more people and get rid of these people, because the road has been crooked. if the american people cannot realize that -- host: who would you like to see president trump fire? caller: half the crew. half the crew trying to impeach him for the longest. guest: i don't think he can fire members of congress. caller: do you think congress is going to tell you actually the truth? [inaudible]

that has a problem saying the accuser -- i cannot even subpoena the accuser, i wants to see my accuser accusing me. host: professor lichtman? guest: look, on one hand, president trump makes threats to the whistleblower, suggesting that we should deal with him in the old-fashioned way, which is execution. on the other hand, he is pushing to violate the protections traditionally given to whistleblowers. the whistleblower is irrelevant, because all of these other witnesses have dealt with the accusations made by the whistleblower. i was pretty shocked by the caller saying trump should fire members of congress. as much as trump wants to be and rat across and -- be an autoc and disregard the system of checks and balances, we have checks and balances and it is to exerciseb

oversight over the president. if trump has nothing to hide, why is he blocking all of his aides and former aides from testifying and why is he not giving any documents? far beyond the stonewalling of richard nixon, which led to one of the articles of impeachment that the house judiciary committee voted was an him, and that article of contempt of congress for ignoring lawful subpoenas. host: nathan out of florida, a republican call. good morning. caller: good morning. everybodyke to wish happy late thanksgiving, and i just have a couple key points that i want to address. one, i was a republican who voted for trump that deeply regrets my decision for a couple reasons. one, i was under the impression it would be a better nation. come to find out i voted for a dictator who supports white supremacist groups, who supports

military personnel posing with decapitated heads -- since when does america support that? a couple more indicators he is a dictator, he had a meeting with putin versus a ukrainian president. when do we support dictators? he is closing our borders like we are china, secluded enough off from the rest of the world. nation is united, not divided. my independence decision was based on the next four years that i am facing. for the voted in again next four years, america, be aware that he is not leaving after those four years. he is going to change our democracy so we cannot vote him out or make a decision on what he is doing. host: professor lichtman? guest: i think the caller makes some good points. i think trump has posed the greatest threat to our checks and balances, as i have explained, of any president in

the history of the country. ofsees himself as the ceo america and does not want to be bothered by a pesky congress or a contrary court. and what i'm worried about is not so much that if trump gets elected, he will stay on forever , i am more worried, what if he narrowly loses and then claims that the election was rigged and was the result of fraud? this is a guy who claimed that the reason he lost the popular vote in 2016 is that somehow million 5 million -- 3 to 5 million illegal voters materialized out of nowhere on election day, voted for hillary clinton, and disappeared just as quickly. thoseis going to monger crazy conspiracy theories, he may well claim the election was rigged and he was really the winter and it was voter fraud that defeated him. that is my worry. host: the caller said he changed

his mind. in terms of the 2020 election, how big is the swing voter block out there? how big is the amount of people whose minds can be changed, will go to their polar opposites in individual parties? guest: most people will vote their parties, but you have 25% in the middle who are swale. -- swayable. host: you think it is that many? guest: yes. president trump three critical states, pennsylvania, michigan, and wisconsin. it would not take much to swing the election the other way. host: maryland, jeffrey, democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. i saw the report, professor lichtman, to [inaudible] reasony there is a president makes outlandish and [inaudible]

the president of the united --tes releasing his tax professor lichtman, the is making a claim that the democrats spied on the 2016 election, campaign or whatever, and there is something criminal done by the doj that [inaudible] is there something he can do that will warrant this barring him?- disbarring it seems like he is lying as much as the president is doing.

guest: the washington post has documented over 1300 lies and misleading statements, and some of them are very big lies. for example, he lied about knowing about the illegal payments to the poor and star and -- porn star and former playboy model to shut them up. we have recordings, signed checks, he knew and he directed it, and by the way, his former attorney, for 10 years, michael notn, who he says he does know, is now in jail for those payments. he, of course, lied about illegal voters in 2016, lied about the president wiretapping his phones, the lies can be very, very big as well as small. friendy, doug wead is a of mine. but when asked about donald

trump's financial records and his taxes, to reflect to kitty records?medical those were the most incredible deflections worthy of donald trump. they have nothing to do with one another. every modern president has released their tax returns. it is not the wife of a presidential candidate. trump stands alone. in fact, he claimed he would release his taxes once they are out from audit, and he has many, many years of taxes that could not possibly be under audit anymore. so this is a very serious issue. the vast majority of the american people want to see trump's taxes. there have already been investigations which showed that he may have committed crimes with his taxes, deflating the value of properties on a claim to taxes, inflated the value when it came to getting loans. thosed to see

taxes. absolutely no reason why trump should be the one exception among all presidents in modern times that has not released his taxes. even richard nixon released his taxes when they were under audit. you mention the false claims by the president and the washington post, the fact checker column keeping track. i saidi missed that, 1300. it is 13,000. host: gary from fletcher, indiana. good morning. caller: a couple things really quick. i am impressed by all the research that you do. guest: thank you. caller: even though you are a predictor, you seem a little bit biased -- guest: let me stop you right there. i have predicted more republican victories than i have predicted democratic victories. like any other human being, i do have my own views, but they do not affect my predictions one iota.

if they did, i would be useless as a predictor. more republican predictions than democratic. caller: it is not something i am accusing you of, i am saying you are a little biased. i have a hard time with the lies. some of the lies you are talking about our personal things in his life that do not affect politics too much with me. i know women have been chasing him down forever because he got a lot of money. guest: violating finance laws does not bother you? michael: is in jail -- michael cohen is in jail for that. caller: it might bother everybody else in the world, but it does not bother me. if he is cheating with money, i do not understand that life because he's got a lot of it. but i would be really surprised [inaudible] -- i have a hard time finding some of the lies. i get put on the spot all the time and i don't know -- if you

got some better ones. lying about barack obama committing a felony by wiretapping the trump tower building during the election is one? i am baffled. you can explain away everything. if you wants to defend trump and say these weren't really lies, fine. but to say these lies are insignificant, that hillary clinton rigged the election, tried to rig it with 3 million to 5 million votes, barack obama committed a felony by wiretapping his phones at trump tower, or lying about criminal violations of the campaign finance laws, lying about so many other things that absolutely have to do with running of the country and affairs of state. host: 15 minutes left with professor allan lichtman.

someone on twitter asking if you can come back in six months and see what has changed. guest: i would be happy to. host: we will look at. jacob in kansas, a democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. i wanted to touch on all the talk we have been doing about lies and stuff. i think sometimes it is interesting to see how things that are fact are presented as rhetoric, or how people on the other aisle and the other side do not believe the impeachment should be going on, oh, that is democratic rhetoric. i really appreciated the republican caller from florida, because he seems to be somebody who just looked at the facts and looked at what was going on, and took evidence at its worth instead of just saying, i automatically disagree with that. guest: great point. you know, i am a professor. i have spent my life on

research, analysis, data trying to find the truth. i teach my students that, and i think one of the most corrosive aspects of the trump presidency has been the war on truth. the president not only lies, it goes deeper than that. effect, hised, in own reality. reality is whatever serves trump's purpose at the moment, and that is really scary. it has without truth, democracy and freedom die. host: kathy in washington, good morning. caller: good morning. i got up early to listen to but ispan -- to c-span, would think anyone that is supporting trump or any candidate, for that matter, would do their research. trump, to me, is following in hitler's footsteps and mussolini. all you have to do is listen to

his speeches, how he riles up the audience. hitler's did the same thing, by making people think, poor me. thing is long ago, we never had fox news. hannity, jeanine , and tucker carlson and laura such hatredwing out and lies about the democrats. people do believe that. they want to be lied to. that is the only thing i can figure it out. in washington. we want to come back to the first part of her statement, the hill are comparisons to president trump. comparisons to president trump. hitleri avoid the comparisons. the enemy of

evil, and i think while trump has problems, you can criticize them without the hyperbolic and comparing him to hitler. but the caller makes a very important point. the american people are not fact checkers, and the lives come, as after the13,000, one other. sometimes five or 10 in a day and you cannot expect the american people to fact check them. i will give you a little plug, it is so important we have programs like c-span that do probed the lies and try to find the truth, on whichever side. host: your predictions, you said you started doing this in the late 1980's? guest: early 1980's, 1981. my first prediction was ronald reagan. anyone who thinks my productions are biased, forget it. your is there a key now in

system that has to do with how the news about the president plays out in the media? guest: the answer is no, because my system is a very robust system. we developed it by looking at every election -- this is from 1860 to 1980. the horse and buggy days, no computers, no airplanes, we were an agricultural society, african-americans and women did not vote, the new immigrants were not here yet. while things always change, the system is a very robust one that stands the test of time. have only made one change and it was not in the keys, it was the interpretation. i used to look only at the popular vote, because when i developed this there was no divergence between the popular vote and electoral college. now there is. two of the last four elections we have seen that kind of the divergence.

interpret the same way, the democrats are going to win the popular election because they get 5 million to 7 million extra votes in new york and california alone. there are no comparable red states host: to offset that. -- to offset that. host: kevin from north carolina, good morning. caller: good morning. i have appreciated all of your predictions by donald trump. i am a republican, but i am a never trumper. i have a couple things i want your opinion on. such a goodhas done job with this investigation, i am thinking he is going to be the next speaker of the house. two, my next prediction is if trump is reelected, he will be impeached again and maybe a third time.

i think his legacy is going to be, he is going to be the most impeached president of the history of this country. [laughter] those.i will comment on number one, i think you are right. i think there is a very good chance adam schiff could be the next speaker of the house, maybe a senator from california if he chooses to go in that direction, and maybe someday a presidential candidate. absolutely if democrats keep the house, which is quite lately and -- quite likely and trump gets reelected, some of these court cases might take a year or more, and in the next trump term, all kinds of new stuff will come out that could be impeachable. i am not predicting that, but you could not be far off. democrat.on, john, a good morning. caller: good morning. say that i appreciate

what you said about impeachment being a peaceful means of watchinga president, the inquiry hearings, i was getting the impression the republicans are turning to not view it in that manner. the other thing, if i feel donald trump is going to face three judgments. one, the impeachment. two, hopefully when he gets crimes against humanity and also his financial crimes. then, the final judgment. i do not have anything to do with. along with being a democrat -- guest: i don't either. [laughter] guest: i hear you, and i am glad that you brought up crimes against humanity, because i have a chapter in my book on that and it is the most controversial chapter in which i say, the most serious thing trump is doing is

committing a crime against humanity by putting us all in peril for our lives and well-being by forfeiting america's leadership on combating climate change and adopting policies here at home that throttle back the efforts on catastrophic climate change. the international criminal court has not have any jurisdiction over us, but has nevertheless said a crime against the environment is a crime against humanity, and donald trump knows better. there was a businessman's letter sent to barack obama saying it is inevitable, unless we take strong action against climate change, the consequences for humanity will be incredible. that? know who signed ivanka trump, donald trump, jr., eric trump, and donald trump senior.

the only thing that has changed is donald trump's cynical conclusion that by becoming a climate change denier, that is the way to succeed in the republican party. and he is helping us, pushing us along the path of destruction. no one seems to buy that argument because they said it was a policy difference -- i don't think so. i think it is putting humanity in peril. if you can prove that, that is impeachable. host: i will let you chat with as many colors as we can get in. john, jupiter, florida, independent. good morning. caller: yes. i would suggest not interviewing a person who is just another new york liberal professor. guest: i live in bethesda, maryland, not in new york. caller: you probably were indoctrinated in new york, because you are from there. was 16, soft when i it must have been a strange indoctrination. go ahead.

caller: i have been watching this show for the last hour and a half and it is so biased it is unbelievable. [laughter] caller: i would hope c-span would get somebody, the gatekeeper who allows these calls to come through, be an independent person. the bias is -- any fair-minded person can see that if they watch this show, it is so biased. host: did you think the previous guest was biased? caller: i believe the whole trend of this morning show is biased against trump. if any fair-minded person would play it back and listen to it. host: i invite you to watch doug wead's section from less than an hour and ago. his book "trump's white house" was part of an hour-long discussion, and now we are .alking to allan lichtman guest: and doug was a very

eloquent defender of the president. host: carol in michigan. caller: hi. first of all, donald trump, number one, loves his country more than anything. he is a patriot. guest: [inaudible] if you such a patriot, why didn't he serve? caller: immaterial. lots haven't. lots sitting in congress haven 't. been in his story has ballast, not all are lies. he likes to put some with cream on those stories, and i think you are forgetting that obama spied on james rosen, the journalist. don't forget that. nixon, when he was impeached, was led out by his republican brethren. ,hey told him, pack it up you've got to go. you'd never see that among democrats, never. and marie yovanovitch, she will

neckthis issue around her forever. where i worked for 35 years, the whistleblower had one thing -- they wouldn't lose their job, but everyone knew who they were. they simply had their job attacked it. host: carol in michigan -- their job protected. host: carol in michigan. what do you want to take from that? guest: i don't know what to take from that. it is astounding that this caller claims to represent truth and unbiased and blames marie u of a -- marie yovanovitch for the disaster in somalia? that occurred before she even arrived. it is a shame to see the malicious lies that have been spread about this woman, this ambassador who was a corruption fighter. somehow, the lies stick and the lies continue. like bullets through the air.

lies, particularly slanders directed against individuals like ambassador yaovanovitch, they are not harmless. they are evil, they are rude, and a needlessly destroyed her career. i would ask the caller to look a little more carefully into her career before the caller participates in the smearing of this very honorable person. host: back to las vegas, a democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. the problem is, no one sees what donald trump is really doing. donald trump has gone and made the state of israel the country of the middle east. the state of israel, run by his son-in-law, and he also will be kicked out of office for a second term by vice president pence, who will become president. that's nuclear war number three,

and we will get hurt in this country. we have not forgot what we did in vietnam. veteransmerican committed suicide. what they did to vietnamese women with chemical and destroyed their wombs -- host: our caller from nevada this morning. guest: i am not sure what the it is was driving at, but possible, as i said, if republicans in the senate think trump is going to bring him down, they could boot him out of i said,because like they would prefer mike pence if they could vote in secret. host: when will you be ready to make that prediction? you are predicting the impeachment will happen -- guest: i cannot say, because i am urging the democrats to slow down the process. absolutely no reason to rush it. i think maybe 20% of the

relevant evidence is out at this point, and i think the democrats are making a bad political calculation as well. they think it is going to hurt them to have an impeachment in the spring, in the middle of an election year, because a lot of their presidential candidates would have to sit as senators, jurors. but the real loser would be donald trump, who would have to defend himself in the senate while he is running for canident and the democrats appoint prosecutors who can make opening and closing statements, call witnesses, presents documents, cross examine any presidential witnesses. host: should democrats run on impeachment in 2020? shouldi do not think you run on impeachment, i think impeachment is a separate constitutional process. couldn't fit into the media atmosphere if that impeachment trial is taking place in the spring? guest: i don't think democrats need to run on impeachment. the trial will carry its own weight. host: one or two more calls.

valerie in florida, independent. good morning. caller: yes, that was a great segue into my question. greatchtman, if you are at predicting, which democratic candidate do you think will win this election? guest: that is a great question and i have no idea. i will tell you one thing -- no one can predict nominations because it is a dependent system. one primary affect another primary. at this point i think there are four contenders that could get biden,ders, buttigieg, and warren. here is my prediction -- i will go way out on a limb on this -- i think we are going to see the first brokered invention in over half a century, not one of these candidates will, to the convention with a commanding lead and we will see a broken

convention. even michelle obama could become the nominee. host: we promised we would get you back in about six months to talk about it then. always appreciate your time. thanks. that is going to do it for us this morning. we will be back here tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern. in the meantime, have a great black friday. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪ >> here are some featured programs on c-span this weekend. today, starting at 3:30 p.m. eastern, spend a day in the life with three of the 2020

democratic hopefuls. -- threeichael bennet of the 2020 democratic hopefuls. u.s.hen we will look at relations with iran and security in the gulf region with a panel of former u.s. ambassador's of the clinton, george w. bush, and obama administrations. saturday at 10:00 eastern, a house ways and means committee heaving on the difficulties in caring for aging americans, including the lack of long-term care for citizens and their caregivers. dansont eastern, ted testifies on the environmental impact of pollution at a house natural resources subcommittee hearing. sunday night at 9:00 p.m. eastern, for camping 2020, c-span speaks with two candidates. patrickovernor talked about his background, his aspirations if elected president, and his late entry

into the crowded democratic field of candidates. bennet, senator michael on why he decided to run for president, his leadership style, and his stance on various policy issues. watch c-span this weekend. our c-span campaign 2020 team is traveling across the country asking voters, what issues should presidential candidates address? >> i think one of the most unaddressed issues in this presidential campaign is reforming federal prisons. there is a more than staggering death rate. i think it is an important issue to address. then 2020, what i want candidates to focus on is constituents who never get their voices heard, that they are not human animals. as an investigator who has known the whistle at multiple factory farms where animals are being

criminally abused. one of the things i want the candidates to focus on is how the public has the right to know what is going on behind closed doors inside of chicken farms and these places where animals are being criminally abused. , ordinary individuals like you and me have the right to rescue these animals from that criminal abuse. >> i would love for the candidates on all sides to start talking more about gun safety, gun issues, how we can in some ways take a lot of the guns off the streets and out of the hands of those who should not have them. more importantly, our society, our environment, the systems of peace and common ground where we do not feel like we need handguns and assault rifles. they should definitely be doing that. think about that. >> i would like to see the can at its focusing on trying to reinstate the voting rights act