georgia politics in this election season. we'll take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. "washington journal" is next. ♪ host: good morning. a life of view of the u.s. capitol on this sunday morning, june 14. the house only in session for two brief pro forma sessions, however, there are a number of key hearings, including the president's trade representative, testifying before the house ways and means committee. a hearing on covid-19, alexion security, and social media. will be a before the senate banking committee, live coverage on the c-span network. and one day after the president's speech to the at west point,s

we want your comments on the president's relationship with the military. our phone lines are open, (202) 748-8000 if you are active or retired military. for those in the eastern or central time zones, (202) 748-8001. matt lauer pacific, -- mountain or pacific, (202) 748-8002. us a text atgive comment on003, or facebook and twitter. a shooting took place outside of a wendy's in atlanta, a white police officer to a black man. some of the photos are posted on the atlanta journal's website, and this is the front page of the atlanta journal-constitution as the situation continues to unfold, and a statement from the

mayor of atlanta. erika shields has been a solid member of the police department for two decades and have the deep and abiding love for the people of atlanta. toef shields has offered immediately step aside as police chief so that the city may move inward with urgency rebuilding the trust so desperately needed throughout our community. that from the mayor of atlanta, as the demonstrations continue to unfold yesterday afternoon, into the evening, at some point turning violent with the wendy's set on fire. here are some of the scenes overnight. [video clip] [horns honking] >> [inaudible] >> we can't bring our brother

back. his life is worth more than a restaurant. >> we are worth more than these corporations, because our lives matter. situation has unfolded over night in atlanta, and that video courtesy of the atlanta journal-constitution. we want to turn our attention to the president's speech yesterday at west point, the class of 2020. front page of the new york times, pomp and unusual as the graduates, wereng safely apart, told by the president that they won't serve and what he called "endless wars." i'm first caller from spoken, washington. good morning. caller: hi.

something crossed my mind this week with the issues that went down, and a solution of the governor washington can use to mediate the capitol hill protesters. the indigenous tribes of seattle should be invited to the conversation. were the original people who lived in the capitol hill area, and it would be wrong for them not to be invited to leave the conversation to go forward with this. need to be institutionalized to go forward. what has happened with george -- changes have to happen. the only way change has to happen is people have to think outside of the box. the entire capitol hill area, i suggest to the governor via contact through washington state on friday, they should cede that territory to the indigenous tribes of seattle. host: our focus in the first

president's relationship with the military. the joint chiefs of staff apologize for his role in that photo in lafayette square. yesterday, the president addressing the west point class of 2020. [video clip] best ensure you have the equipment and technology available, my administration has embarked on a colossal rebuilding of the american armed forces, a record like no other. after years of devastating budget cuts and a military that was totally depleted from these endless wars, we have invested over $2 trillion -- trillion, in the most powerful fighting force by far on the planet earth.

we are building new ships, bombers, jet fighters and helicopters by the hundreds. military satellites, rockets and missiles. thata hypersonic missile goes 17 times faster than the fastest missile currently available in the world and can hit a target 1000 miles away within 14 inches from centerpoint. in 70 years, time we established a new branch of the united states military, the space force. deal. big in recent years, america's warriors have made clear to all the high cost of threatening the american people. the savage isis caliphate has

been 100% destroyed under the trump administration. leader -- itsric barbaric leader, al-baghdadi, is gone, killed. it is over. solemani is likewise dead. nevermander-in-chief, i forget for one instant the immense sacrifices we ask of those who wear this nation's uniform. host: that from the president yesterday, and we want to hear from retired or active duty military. that phone number is (202) 748-8000. our question on the president's relationship with the military. there was this letter in advance of the presidents each from those who had preceded the class point, "we, at

group of west point graduates, are concerned. we are concerned they are failing to uphold their oath of office and commitment to duty, honor and country. their actions threaten the credibility of an apolitical military. we ask you join us in working to right the wrongs and working to hold each other accountable to the ideals and stilled by our alma mater and affirmed by each of us at our graduation." is our guest, who covers the white house for the associated press. good sunday morning and thank you for being with us. guest: you're welcome. good morning. host: let's begin with the president's speech yesterday at west point. why the controversy? guest: the controversy stems from the events of the past couple of weeks, and the way the white house responded to the killing of george floyd in minneapolis. after protests broke out in numerous cities across the country, the president wanted a very muscular response to that,

tough law and order. he wanted to bring in the national guard, which he did in some cities, and also wanted to bring in active duty military to quell the violence. theve-duty military on streets, policing the streets of american cities, is not something we are accustomed to in this country. is supposed tory remain outside of politics, domestic politics, not have any role in that. the president one, kind of insisting that he would invoke the insurrection act, which is a law that could allow him to do this under circumstances is -- under certain circumstances, and the walk to st. john's church, which had been fire damaged in one of the protest cindy c. when he walked over to that church, he was accompanied by defense secretary mark esper, and joint chiefs of staff chairman mark milley.

gave the impression that the military was getting involved in the white house and the political response to this protest. as i said before, that is not something we see in the united that upsetmerica and a lot of people, military people, nonmilitary people, active-duty military as well as retired military. host: let me go back to the of those who have preceded the long gray line. president'sf the speech which we carried yesterday live, they write the following "the aboard murder of george floyd has inspired many to protest police brutality and demand an end to racism. sadly, the president has decided to use the army in which you serve as a weapon against fellow americans engaging in these legitimate protests. worse, military leaders to take

the views you have the day -- have today have participated in politically charged events. does not imply blind obedience. politicization of the armed forces puts at risk the bond of the american military and american society. should this trust be ruptured, the damage to the nation would be incalculable. america needs your leadership." darlene, your reaction? guest: it was a very strong letter, and the depth of concern comes across in the number of people, alumni, graduates, spanning six decades, who signed the letter. at last count, it was more than 500 west point graduates had signed this letter to the graduating class, saying look --

these are serious times. these events that are happening in the past couple of weeks are very serious and you need to stay true to the oath that you have taken as you joined the army. there was really, really strong concern out there in the military about this kind of mixing of the military with politics. host: and this comes in a week and the chairman of the joint chiefs, he spoke to the graduates of the national defense university -- a rare apology by the member of the military. told the class. we will listen and come back and get your reaction. [video clip] maintain a keen sense of situational awareness. as senior leaders, everything you do will be closely watched. result of you saw, the of the photograph of me at lafayette square, it sparked a national debate about the role of the military and civil society. i should not have been there. my presence in that moment and

that environment created a perception of the military involved in the domestic politics. it was a mistake that i have learnt from, and i sincerely hope we all can learn from it. we who where the cloth of our the cloth of wear our nation must hold dear the principles of an apolitical military that is so deeply rooted in the very essence of our republic. this is not easy. it takes time, work and effort, but it may be the most important thing each and every one of us does every single day. that from general milley, the chair of the joint chiefs of staff. darlene, you were going to say? guest: an extraordinary expression of regret from the joint chiefs chairman, to hear him, out after days of criticism and public pressure -- there have been many calls for him and resign over this

appearance they made with the president, walking over to the church. one thing i did not note in rarely or comments, general milley walked over in his combat fatigue uniform, so that lent an air to hisserious appearance with the president there. there was a photo with the president, a much criticized of st.f him in front john's church holding up a bible. he called over some senior advisers who walked over with him. mark esper, the defense secretary, was one of those who ended up posing in the picture, and i have a feeling that if the president had looked around and seen general milley, he might have motioned for him to come too. somehow the general managed to avoid that. but going back to the apology, it was very extraordinary. both know that president trump is not someone who likes to be publicly contradicted by the people who serve him, so it was

extraordinary, as i said, to listen to general milley make this apology. there are some instances and sometimes when people just try to ride out controversies like tos, but the pressure seems be too much. the criticism seemed to be too much and the blowback seems to too much against general milley, and he felt he needed to come out and set the record straight and apologize. host: in talking about a rare reversal, the president had been tulsa,ed to be in oklahoma this friday, juneteenth, for the first make america great again rally in a while. but it has been rescheduled for the next day. what is this back story? guest: the president does not given quite easily, but he did on this issue. juneteenth is the anniversary of the end of slavery in the united states of america, and in tulsa, oklahoma, in 1921, there was a very serious, deadly race riot

that happened. hundreds of white people attacking black people. the president had scheduled this rally, the first in many months, since march, since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, for june 19. there was a lot of outcry, understandably, perhaps, from many in the black community, who did not like the idea of the president going to tulsa, oklahoma, restarting his campaign rallies on this day that is so important to a lot of black americans and other americans. it is one of those situations where there is a lot of outcry over this. laid on friday night, the --sident tweeted that he had late on friday night, the president tweeted that he had listened to some nameless people -- he did not name anyone -- but had decided to reschedule the rally for the next day, june 20 host:. darlene -- june 20. lle,: darlene supervi

covered the white house for a b associated press. thank you for being with us this sunday. this is the headline from fox news as the president tells west americansuates that endure against passions and prejudices of the moment, but these words come during tensions between the president and the military. meanwhile, general mark milley, the chair of the joint chiefs, saying it was a mistake to accompany the president on a trip to st. john's church on june 1. fox news critics say the -- fox news, critics had put the debts at risk of coronavirus for the purposes of a photo opportunity. a group held a protest outside

west point's main gate against what it called trump's dangerous narcissistic photo op stunt at the west point graduation. host: our next caller, you are on the air. go ahead. we and us,behalf of the people of the nation who are actually for peace and justice, we do not call for mark -- general esper to sit here and apologize for walking across the lawn in his uniform in honor of standing with our leader of the , to stop people who are apparently deciding to burn down churches, which our nation should represent. freedom of any belief, which honestly, i did not see it as a general walking behind our president and going and attacking the people -- no, i seen it as our president and our as one, showing our

regular bad people out there on , we do not go and destroy public property and do what we want to to anybody else just because we are angry. that is not the way we protest, that is not the way we communicate. if you are military, active duty or retired, our phone lines are open for you as well, (202) 748-8000. howard is joining us in carmel, indiana. good morning. caller: good morning. trump's relationship with all things, but in this case we are talking about the military, is highly appropriate. he is dysfunctional as a human being and highly incompetent. his engagement of using the military for domestic protest should alarm everyone. imagine the surprise at the callers who are poorly

informed about how we structure our government and policing is anservice of our civility, army that is targeted against citizens. the prior color talked about some prideful stance -- prior caller talked about some prideful stance in front of that church. citizens, it is our right to protest. that should be celebrated. that makes our country great, because it allows for ideas to break through. when you give voice to a great number of people, so i am really that those who follow trump now, after all that has happened, all the statements he has made, should really reevaluate the patriotism. host: howard from indiana, thanks for the call. a viewer on twitter says

n -- gave a speech at west point, republicans had a cow. said he was a draft dodger. yesterday, a fine time draft dodger gave the commencement speech at west point and i see no republican cows. firstent trump is in the -- is not the first member to use the military as props, but he is brazen in doing so. over 1002 that's were called back to the u.s. military academy at west point so the president could deliver a commencement address. steve is joining us from webster, massachusetts. good morning. caller: yeah. i am not quite clear on the circumstances, when federal troops were sent into little rock, arkansas during the problems there with

schools.tion in the i believe that was under a democratic presidents, and i do not know if they were subjected to the same criticism that president trump is receiving today. host: it was under president dwight eisenhower, just fyi. caller: what year was that? host: 1957. caller: what was the reaction? i do not know, that is why i am asking. it is not unprecedented. our streets was unprecedented. mr. floyd's murder was horrific, the president is between a rock and a hard place here. he wants to support law and order. americans want this to happen. about theconfused whole situation. we have to stop the blowback. the media is criticizing him -- i mean, presidents are open for criticism, but it is not

bringing us together. they did burn a church, for god sakes. i have no objection with him holding the bible. host: the church that was burned was in birmingham, alabama. caller: no, i am not confusing that event. host: you are talking about st. john's church. caller: exactly. i had no trouble with that. i just would like to discuss it. i don't know which way to go on this. it was horrendous. host: all right. it was september, 1957 when president dwight eisenhower ordered the national guard to basically desegregate little rock high school. ronald is joining us, he is next from monroe township, new jersey. good morning. caller: hello, how are you doing? host: i'm fine, how are you? caller: ok. since world war ii, we really haven't won a major conflict,

and we are spending $1 trillion each year on the military. now, the president did address endless wars, but we are not addressing the accountability of the enormous amount of the budget, citizen's which is over a half of the federal taxes collected. to a peace organization, we are trying to lessen those things, but he should be calling for some kind of accountability. host: thank you for the call. karen is next from alabama. good morning. welcome to the conversation. caller: good morning. how are you doing today? host: i'm well, how are you? caller: i'm good, thank you so much. i wanted to call in originally to correct what the ap reporter

said. she said trump wanted to provide a muscled response to the protests, but it wasn't the protesters, the ones who were peacefully protesting, it was to the people who were burning down buildings and looting. that is why he wanted to call the national guard. he did not call the national guard, the states did. i just wanted to correct that. karen, let me jump in, he did call the national guard for washington, d.c. under the d.c. charter, the president has the authority to do so. in the state, it is up to the governor. caller: but the national guard in the states was -- he inferred that he called the national guard all over the country. i just wanted some closure on that. that's one. speech at like the west point. i did not like the fact that he talked about trump accomplishments. i know he wasn't speaking to the cadets, but it was not the right

time or the right audience, he was speaking to the media. we know that the compliments accomplishments already. the show with why is there a controversy? it is because it is trump. everything he does is a controversy. everything, whether it is right or wrong. people have not really talked much about biden and his performance with the military. he deferred because of asthma, and he is potentially the next president of the united states. nobody ever talks about that. host: karen from alabama, thank you for the call. julian border from the guardian has the following -- west point butch went smoothly, a harsh light is focused on president trump's use of the military. when all else fails, the president has embraced the flag

and hug the military, but this military that is not hugging back. it stands to attention as duty demands, but as an early as old glory, the banner which trump has taken to public events. saturday ceremony at west point was the embodiment of the president's approach. more than 1000 cadets from the class of 2020 were called back from their homes to the campus, 50 miles north of new york city, despite the coronavirus pandemic , so the president could give a televised speech. 15 cadets tested positive. the rest had to quarantine for two weeks. from cleveland, ohio. good morning. caller: morning. my on? host: you're on the air, go ahead. yesterday, they said we are spending $2 trillion for bombers, fighters, ships and tanks.

we need to spend that kind of money to make sure that all of our children have access to the internet when the next pandemic hits. i'm 20 years -- 20 years on me, and this was the same kind of reaction we had after 9/11. host: larry, thank you. we will go to there on in eastpointe, michigan. good morning. caller: [inaudible] host: how are you today? caller: i am fine. part of his speech that bothered me was about the merely -- military equipment, which concerns me. [inaudible] that is a very dangerous new piece of tech. if you divide 13 minutes by 17 minutes, our enemies [inaudible]

decideve two minutes to if they should counterattack or not. this is a very dangerous missile. it puts the united states [inaudible] mutually assured destruction we have had for years, which has kept the peace. i want people to think about this concern, because it is a political. it has nothing to do with trump or the democrats. it is a very dangerous strategic move that we are heading towards. thank you very much. next,we go to larry out in twentynine palms, california. spent 10 years in the united states marine corps and another 10 years teaching. this guy is a photo op president. he stole the alledge --

election. was in the virus place he makes his ties, and he stood there and let us all get sick. then he brings these west point military people back just for a photo op? this guy -- he is nothing to me. you got us going to the moon? we went in 1969. use the money to help people here in america. he should have given us $1200 in a month for four months in a row and kept everybody at home. but people want to go out with their guns or something -- i don't know, like the man said, we need internet. our kids need internet because we are going to be having these viruses quite a bit, and i think he is doing a terrible job. i do not respect the man and i do not like when he bowed down to putin. our military is good and we do not need a person like that. host: more from the president's

speech yesterday at west point. [video clip] >> i want to take this opportunity to thank all america's the members -- all members of america's armed forces who stepped forward to help us battle be invisible that came new virus to our shores from a distant land called china. virus. vanquish the we will extinguish this plague. i also want to thank the men and women of our national guard, who respond with precision to so fromrecent challenges, hurricanes and natural disasters to ensuring peace, safety and the constitutional rule of law on our streets. we thank every citizen who wears a uniform in selfless service to our nation. the president.om

his full speech available on our website at c-span.org. we covered is full remarks and the commissioning ceremony yesterday at west point. a lot of your tweets coming in on @cspanwj. every military general that has worked closely with trump has chosen to issue an expression of regret or outright apology for doing so. has that ever happened? the president went to west point yesterday for a photo op and a commercial for his campaign. that's all, folks. from southfork ranch -- he is the commander of chief in the u.s. armed forces, technically they are his to command. you are petty, little un-american whiners. from richard rodgers, cadet bons burrs goes to west point for another freaking photo opportunity? disgusting. let's go to our next caller, from patrick, south carolina. good morning. caller: good morning.

i think you got some of your facts wrong. didn't they burn that church? those peaceful protesters, didn't they burn the -- they tried to destroy several heard theylike i tried to destroy the, trying to destroy the world war ii monument and several other monuments. those weren't peaceful protesters. had not moved them away, they would have finished burning that church down. you referenced it in 1957. you need to get your facts together, man. was: the caller said it under a democratic president when the national guard was called into the segregate little rock high schools. it was 1957, correcting the caller, under dwight eisenhower. the church fire was in the

basement on saturday at st. john's church, adjacent to lafayette park. the president walking across the street on monday, june 1. caller: ok. well i don't know if i am watching cnn or msnbc anymore. love watching c-span, but i really get confused. i might have hit the wrong button. thank you. to kevinwant to go next. we want to make sure we get the facts correct here, as we always do. we will go to kevin in indiana. good morning. caller: good morning. remember, facts are all in the story, right? justary spending has been crazy compared to body cams. i knew that was a big deal, but i remember when they first started talking about body cams. they couldn't afford them.

why theye find out don't want to wear them. i think trump signed in a national list of police that are practices,ad police i think that is a big, big thing everybody should be able to understand and know about. if a cop has killed or done something bad. kevin, thank you. let's go to robert, joining us from augustine, georgia -- augusta, georgia. you are on the air, go ahead. -- includescurrent the president's title, commander in chief. he did make a venture into the dmz in korea that made a

decisive and particular adventure that allowed our occupying force in south korea to -- an additional level of peace. it is ongoing, the full obligation, other than the attitude that the military should not be participating in the political affairs to see how it turns out in the election that's coming up. host: robert, thank you. jan has this tweet. faxed still matter. to trump apologists, they listen to fox, rush limbaugh, one american news and trump. another tweet, the man with no facts tell us we have to get our facts straight.

this headline inside the a section, trump avoids mentioning a clash with military leaders. this came at a fraught moment in the history of civilian military relations in the united date. defense secretary asked her and general mark milley, both appointed to their positions by president trump, resisted the president's demands to send active-duty troops into the streets, first in a oval office meeting that turned into a heated argument and later in their public comments. show is focusing on the president and his relationship with the military. john is on the phone from vermont. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. host: sure, thank you. trump, one thing about he is an inflammatory man, but i do not think anyone, living or dead, can do any better than he is doing now. truthfully, draft dodger this and that, that's all nothing.

nothing really means that much. we all have in our world that things may be we would like to but i think trump is doing as good a job as anyone could, living or dead. i thank you so much for taking my call. you have a nice day now. host: we will go to westwood, new jersey. matthew, thanks for waiting. thank you, thank you very much. these bitter and angry generals, some of them like mr. john bolton and the general who made ," theyology -- "apology are angry and part because mr. trump, like the american people, many did not support the illegal, immoral $3 trillion war in iraq. along with many

democrats and some republicans, were cheerleaders for that disaster. media, theyke news choose their outrage. audience,k you in the where is the outrage when mr. andrew cuomo deliberately said coronavirus patients into nursing homes and over 5000 people in new york alone were killed, more than were killed on 9/11? just as the democrat governor, themurphy, in my state did same thing. and democrat governor mr. wolf in pennsylvania also send virus patients into nursing homes. this is beyond the scandal. before mr. wolf did that, directed his health commissioner her ownat, she pulled mother out of the nursing home before sending virus patients in. same thing in michigan with governor whitmer.

this is -- it is a shame. the media focused chooses to do liberally ignore those stories, like they ignore the deaths or theers -- i'm sorry -- of two black police officers, mr. david doran and mr. pat underwood, federal police officers murdered in the oakland, california riots, and the murder of natalia kelly. her sister was shot to death in the riot in st. louis. she is on youtube blaming the protesters, correctly, who shot and murdered her sister. selective,a is very steve, when it comes to their outrage. and to the people who hate, who are filled with anger against mr. trump, you know what? i'm sorry that president trump can't be a perfect human being like them or me or you, steve.

this is ridiculous. their outrage -- this is russian collusion part four. they are going all out. the never trumpeters, -- never the warmongers like john bolton and the other military, they hate trump. american, but the people, by the way, also do not want the police to lose funding, which is going to cause 911 calls, as the black policewoman in seattle said, to take three times longer to go through. host: matthew from new jersey, thanks for the call. president's staunch defenders, senator lindsey graham of south carolina, the act 2015 had these remarks about , and now theyp are being turned into an ad by a group of republicans who\

oppose his reelectio. [video clip] >> what has donald trump campaigned about? he is a race baiting, xenophobic, religious bigot. do you do how you make america great again? tell donald trump to go to hell. do yourself and evaluation. what's not to like? he is as good a man as god ever created. he has done some incredibly heartfelt things that anyone -- anyonene could ever say to me. in the a defining moment future of the republican party. we have to project this -- reject this, and if we do not reject donald trump, we have lost moral authority in our great nation. from republicans

against trump, from our 2020 campaign coverage. we will have live coverage of the president's speech in tulsa, oklahoma, scheduled for this saturday, june 20. --herine is on the phone -- is on the phone from overland park, michigan. why did you play that? host: it just came out. caller: but it is an anti-trump ad. when i was in vietnam, we were all proud of serving in the army. i was in myself. i am 74. when the democrats were in power and the military was being defunded -- excuse me -- trump came in and rebuilt the military over the reactions of the democrats, now we have senior military leaders -- i called --m the political generals

you are criticizing mr. trump. i don't get it. mr. trump has personality issues. he acts like he is still running his company in new york the way he hires and fires people, and let's say he has human issues he needs to work on in his tweets. if you look at what the man has as rebuilding the military and taking care of veterans and improving the va s, i think it is pretty unjust to criticize him. his political generals and political officers, like this lieutenant colonel he let work in his national security white house, those and testifies against his commander in chief -- goes and testifies against his commander-in-chief for the democrats at the impeachment hearing. windows that happen?

whennd does that happen -- does that happen? my last comment, when brian came on and covered the 1992 campaign and subsequent campaigns, you could not tell of you as a republican or democrat. he just put out the facts. you watch c-span now, it is like watching cnn or msnbc. aree shows you put on, they all anti-trump. they are these think tanks. just now you read from the new york times. host: i have to stop you there. we aired the speech in its entirety, we should you two excerpts of the president beach, we began the program with a fox news's story, so where is the bias? other 23 hours, steve. when the president goes on a live event, whether it is a stage at west point or a rally, you broadcast it live, but you broadcast the democrats life -- live too.

c-span gives congress its own channel, the senate its own channel -- they are bugging the supreme court -- i was a lawyer -- to give them a channel. where's the outlet for the president? he is shut out? you are so far off base. we cover every single event with the president. we are the only network to cover the commissioning ceremony yesterday in its entirety. we just replayed it for the audience this morning. we cover every briefing, every event at the white house. it is all on our website. i have to strongly disagree with you. you cover the live events. i totally agree with you. here is my challenge to you, last comment. week, next 24 hours, our we could be better. the -- not the live programs from the president, but from theseprograms

institutions and gmo's -- how many of them are against the president and how many of them are for the president? it is overwhelmingly against the president. i appreciate your comment. we cover events from the heritage foundation to brookings, and we cover the president and his administration in their entirety, but we respect your point of view. we thank you for watching c-span. that is what makes this program work, because we hear different points of view and we want to be challenged. we want to get it right. we also want to make sure we present the facts. the ad that we showed you is getting a lot of attention, like the president speech is getting a lot of attention, so we want to be fair and covering that -- fair in covering that. let's go to doc in louisiana. caller: [inaudible] rioters? host: there was a fire in the

basement on saturday that was quickly put out, but yes, there was a fire saturday evening. caller: put out by whom, first responders? host: the d.c. fire department. onler: the rioters set it fire. what about st. mary's in minneapolis. was that set on fire? host: i'm not familiar with that. caller: well it was. what about saint pats in new york? host: it was damaged with graffiti. caller: how many mosques were set on fire? host: and your point is? caller: maybe it was anti-christian -- not only anti-american rioters, anti-christian. do you think that could be a possibility? host: if that is your point of view, we believe leave it there. thank you for the call. the president of the speech at

west point amid tensions with military leaders -- president's speech at west point amid tensions with military leaders of protesters gathered outside of west point on saturday, holding signs like "cadets are props" and "welcome cadet bone spurs."\ others showed support for the black lives matter movement. roger waiting to debts who had been isolated for 14 days in advance of the event marched onto the field in their dress grand white uniforms, as well as face masks. they sat in white folding chairs, space six feet apart, at which point they were allowed to take their masks off. plexiglassayed with shields to protect against the virus. let's go to james in alaska. good morning, james. caller: hello? host: you are on the air.

good morning. caller: i would like to recommend you get the joseph goebbels award. i would further like to state that the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff should read a 10-29-2018 from the investors business daily. it is his office military -- obama's military coup purges 107 officers. nothe real military, [inaudible] based on their political views of defending america. he replaced them with people like milley. god bless president trump and god bless america. host: up next is peggy, joining us from jackson, tennessee. good morning. caller: well hello, how are you?

host: how are you, peggy? caller: i am 78 years old and i am just doing fine. host: well, stay healthy and well. caller: caller: i thought the president said yesterday caller: -- caller: i thought the president said yesterday is his birthday, correct? host: it might be tomorrow. wait -- it might be today. i will have to double check, but i think it is today. i have a christian. i believe in god. i have are 78 years. my mama taught me. my dad died and we were poor as poor could be, but we have love. we did not have a daddy growing up and none of us children -- there were six of us -- we never did get into drugs. we didn't drink, we didn't smoke, we grew up to be good kids, and these people hollering -- i didn't have a daddy -- that is your choice.

to do notur choice what you are supposed to do. i grew up without a daddy. i was 10 years old when my daddy died of cancer, and i hate to hear that. it just breaks my heart. i wish everybody would settle down, be good to one another, and love one another. be good. we got the best country in the world. the best country in the world. thank you for the call. today is the president's birthday, so if he was watching, he heard your birthday wishes. from cnn, barbara starr saying military leaders take a if trump remains silent on racial inequality. a town hall was held with black service members on the subject of race and it was broadcast on facebook to thousands. general abrams made the point to have everyone attending the event to wear civilian clothes,

to lessen the signs of military rank as he had a conversation about the role of race relations within thenities u.s. military. also, the trump campaign releasing this new ad in advance of the general election. he will be in tulsa, oklahoma on saturday. here is that spot. [video clip] comeb great american ack has begun. a record 2.5 million new jobs in may, and we are just getting started. throughout the pandemic, president trump made our economy the envy of the world. now he is doing it again -- working to build factories here, instead of china. relief toect cash families, renewing, restoring, rebuilding. together, we will make america great again. host: from the trump campaign. the president's relationship with the military getting a lot of attention this past week, including comments by chairman of to joint chiefs -- of the

joint chiefs, chairman mark and mark esper said he was not use the military for any interventions at this point. our next caller from troy, michigan. good morning. good morning. this is the same person talking -- it seems to me, everyone who has been let out of the home. first of all, c-span, you are great. you are a wonderful source of information for the general public. we have an opportunity to see how our government functions without any commercials. now, i am calling primarily to that our the example president sets for us. say,f the medical people please wear a mask. it stops the spread of this horrible virus.

the president totally reject s that, purposely sticks his face in the public eye and says, i am not going to wear it. he makes the people around him feel kind of queasy, because should i wear it? shouldn't i wear it? , in my plus years old whole lifetime i have not seen just terribleand things happening in our country that shouldn't happen, simply because there is a person who is supposed to be in charge that is not acting in charge. we need direction. our country needs direction. you don't know if you are going to get fired if you do not toe the president's line? every time he goes someplace he always has to tell all the

things that are happening, the wonderful things -- 2.5 million jobs were created last month, however, there are still 40 million people that are not working? obscure theasy to difference -- different facts. c-span, i could go on correcting mistakes. we have a wonderful governor in michigan, i have to say that. c-span, keep on doing what you are doing. i love your programs. thank you very much. host: laura, thank you. another viewer saying to the caller in los angeles, good try l.a. caller, but if there were a 100-year-old monk on 5th avenue across from saks with the same name as a parade holiday, maybe it would have gotten graffitied as well. there are other churches near the ones you listed untouched. why didn't he mention the fire that killed four girls,

backring to what happened in birmingham, alabama in the 1960's. our next caller, good morning. good morning. i wanted to voice a couple points. one is, the woman who just, the 80-year-old? i applaud everything she says. the issue with this president is he uses military might as part on which heation stands on. tohas never asked god forgive him. he has never gone on his knees and said lord, forgive me. to me as a christian, that is the ultimate thing we have to do every day, and he has never done that. and yet he calls himself a christian. he holds up the bible, upside down -- i think he is a mockery

of christianity, but i do like what the woman said before me. thank you. thank you, catherine. we go next to david, joining us from liverpool, new york. good morning. caller: good morning. you have had a tough day. host: [inaudible] caller: hang in there. host: we are good. caller: c-span is very down the middle. i know i have had my problems. i'm independent and c-span usually is, usually gives unbiased news. andar as trump is concerned the military, when obama was in the administration, it was the republicans who did not want to fund the military because of budget issues. budget issuesys when democrats are in the white house. good to have nothing say about trump, because he is a poor leader and incompetent man.

i really was amazed that esper y came out and basically said that. they were against what he wanted. i was very happy with that. that is what makes our country great. our military is a political. it is not like france in the 1800s when napoleon took over france, this is what makes washington grea, when he walked away from the military commandt. respect the constitution and have a good day. you're calling from liverpool. are you still on the line? >> i know we have been doing pretty good, a lot of the -- it is starting to open up.

it has basically been a while. everybody is kind of hunker down. if you've ever been upstate new york, when it is nice, everybody wants to go out. host: that is a great part of the state. thank you for the call. we appreciate it. we will turn our attention to covid-19 and another conversation with dr. william schaffner from vanderbilt, an expert in infectious diseases. later a new book looking at u.s. and china relations, superpower showdown, and the co-author will be joining us. you are watching and listening to washington journal on this sunday morning, the 14th of june. we will be back in a moment. federal communications commission or michael o'rielly. is facing everyone

the difficult circumstances. the communing vacation -- the communication network is holding together as a whole. i am pretty impressed with how things are holding up now. in terms of some of the connectivity issues, certainly conference is being done through this medium is more likely to increase over time. i would not say it is the new normal, but it is a lot more this way than returning fully to the old-style. >> monday night on c-span2 on the communicators. host: john charles prima brought the pacific coast into the united states. the united states did not have a pacific coast at the beginning of the story.

there was california, which longs to mexico rated fremont encouraged the settlement of oregon and took part in the conquest of california just in time for the gold rush. he did play a real role in changing the map of the united states. the book imperfect union, how jesse and john fremont mapped the west and helped caused the civil war, tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span's q and a. "washington journal" continues. --t: join in s joining us is dr. william schaffner. with the numbers courtesy of johns hopkins, 7.8 million confirmed cases

worldwide, 400,030 deaths here in the u.s.. news over the last 24 hours from dr. anthony fauci saying there is a possibility that we could avoid a second wave if we do things right. can you eliminate that? guest: i think what he is talking about is the second wave consequence of opening up right now. that is very important. we are seeing all over the country increases in cases as well as increases in hospitalization. , but note going out being attentive to social distancing wearing masks. here are two examples. something that happened to me yesterday, shortly after 7:00, i went to the supermarket most of older and there were over 90% of them were moving --

were wearing masks. however, later i went to a coffee shop located right across the university. most of the people there where in their 20's and 30's, and 90% of them were not wearing masks. they were observing social distancing, but they were not wearing masks. , asked one of the employees why don't you oblige everyone to wear masks when they come into the store? she said i wish we could tell the boss. i join that wish. i think every business in the united states should put a sign on the door, you are welcome to enter if you are wearing a mask. normalize mask wearing and would emphasize the importance of social distancing.

those things are very important to dampen the next wave or avoid it. host: we are seeing it in some parts of the country. here you are not allowed to enter a drugstore, a restaurant, a department store, a home depot without a mask. guest: i would like to see more of that throughout the country. i urge all of the mayors watching to please institute that in your community. you need to train people that wearing the mask is now the new normal which will continue for quite some time because there might well be a third wave which we anticipate, if you will, during the fall and winter , when we could have a concrete increase in the coronavirus again. towill have a double reason

wear masks. host: a look at coronavirus across the country, the darker the area, the more intense the cases of covid-19. fall italk about this how do experts try to figure out whether it is covid-19 or whether it is their traditional flu in terms of treatment and vaccinations? you can test for flu any contest for covid, and i think we will be using a lot of testing. , buttest has limitations we are used to that in the sense of interpreting tests, but we will try to track the people for flu and we can treat those. can now beth covid treated with hospitals and we will try to sort that out. all the more important for us

now, is getting vaccinated against influenza starting in september and october could we can partially protect ourselves against that virus and relieve some of the impact that these viruses will have on hospitals and emergency rooms. host: one of the last times we talked to you we spoke about remdesivir, the breakthrough drug they use for covid-19. how is that working out as we speak to you now? guest: pretty well. it has been distributed throughout the hospital. in most hospitals there is criteria indicating which patient should receive the drug. anticipate that during the course of the summer we will get the results of other clinical trials around the world looking at other treatments and of them-- hope some

will work. host: outdoor summer camps and concerts have been scrubbed throughout the country. what will the next three months look like? guest: that remains to be seen. we have some new things happening. all of these demonstrations have brought so many people together, many of them wearing masks. , understand they are outdoors but nonetheless, in some of those demonstrations i'm sure covid participated, and there were some transmissions to participants. that probably will be an accelerator across the country. we will just have to see. if we are all careful rather than carefree, then i think we can dampen the impact of covid. covid has not taken the summer holiday. host: we saw demonstrations here

and around the country. here are some of the scenes. the incubation period is 14 days. this week in particular what will you be looking for those who might have participated in these marches? guest: around the country it is right at the time where if there are going to be increases, they will become evident. they may be hard to distinguish from increases consequent to opening up. the other thing, we are entering the big presidential political season. i have heard about all of the rallies that are anticipated. i wish that everyone who attends , good for you, exercise your political inclination, but please wear a mask. host: the president will not wear a mask.

does that send mixed signals? guest: communication generally from the highest leadership has been uneven regarding simple public health measures. i wish there were better examples of the national level. i keep urging people to pay attentional to dr. anthony fauci other medical leaders. host: give us an update on what you are hearing in terms of a vaccine for coronavirus. guest: there are over 100 groups around the group -- around the world working on vaccines. they are moving ahead intensely and carefully, not cutting corners, but there is a lot of work. we are doing a lot of research simultaneously that we used to do in sequence. that allows us to move ahead

very briskly. there are a number of candidates going into the arms of volunteers, and the results of equally beingre anticipated. host: best case scenario, when would see it? under promiseto and over deliver. there are people who have said we could have a vaccine sometime very early in 2021. vaccine, eventhe in large amounts, we will have to develop the system for equitable fashion across the country and further throughout the world. host: dr. william schaffner is joining us from tennessee. board ofthe executive

the infectious disease society of america, currently teaches at vanderbilt university. from nevada.ler good morning. caller: good morning. i've been fighting non-hodgkin's foam a and heart and lung , nerve, vascular disease 2.age and diabetes my oncologist cannot see me because the governor in this state will not allow that to happen because it is elective beenry, and i have three-month without treatment. i am at the point where there is no more left in me.

i cannot get up and walk. i would like to know, can you actually tell me american people covid-19,ses and how i was tested, and i was negative, but i still cannot get my treatment. host: hang in there. and dr.u for your call, schaffner will have a chance to respond. there, you have my empathy. i'm sure you are doing telemedicine with your doctors, i know that is happening, and we are opening up medical care increasingly again so we can take better care of you and you can get your treatment. out.reful, do not go where your mask because we certainly do not want you to

contact coronavirus. host: did you want to follow up? are you still on the line? caller: yes. i have been home for three , i wear a mask, i wear gloves, i take wipes with me wherever i go. the problem is i am not getting treatment for my cancer. if i wanted an abortion, i could get that tomorrow, but -- explained to me, how can i do anything that is , not contaminating anybody because i've been in my house. host: for the color and others

in his situation, your vices? guest: first of all, god bless you. hang in there. i think states around the country are now opening up and permitting doctors to take direct care of patients again to give them the therapy for their cancers and start doing elective surgery for -- surgery. that is what is happening here in tennessee. you might contact your provider and ask the doctor when is it that we can get started with my chemotherapy again for that is what i would suggest. from florida, you are next. good morning. now in i am right gainesville, florida, the home of the university of florida. in regards to the comment about all of the mayors in the country should have the mask policy,

alachua county where gainesville is located has had a mask where you have to go if you go to any store, they have that policy. $125nk the first fine is and the second one is like 250. the problem is nobody is enforcing that. when you walk into any of the retailers, and some of the locals, i went to a target last weekend, a home depot, and i'm like the only person wearing a mask. i say to the clerk, are not you invoicing the sign on your front door that you have to wear a mask? no, not really, is what i get back. there is a problem here these ignorant rednecks that live around this country that come in here. those are the people not wearing masks. the college kids, the educated professionals, those people are

wearing masks. it is the ignorant people that come from the other counties that are not, and that is my comment. us ought to wear masks. i wear a mask in order to protect you, and you are one to protect me, and it is really important that we all participate together. i grant you that wearing masks has become somewhat politicized. i regret that. the virus knows no political affiliation. the covid virus wants to infect anyone. in findingerested people. it is up to us. the business owners can provide guidance and encourage people to wear a mask. they can even provide them at the door for people who do not have them and as people

seriously, we really, in order for you to respect the people who work here, we would like you to wear a mask. please do so while you are in the store. i think that would help enormously. if the communities then reinforce that, that is important. local leadership is very important. host: for the strength to plan either summer barbecues, parties, family reunions or even weddings, what is your advice? guest: i think we ought to think carefully how large is the group , are we going to spread people out, can we have a phone conversation before we get together so we all understand we are on the same page. let's make sure everyone who comes is not sick, doesn't have a sore throat, a fever.

if we all, and then we are close together, indoors particular, wear a mask. you could have a great wedding if you spread out people in the chairs, but everyone wearing a mask, that is a reasonable thing to do in the environment. if we think about it in advance and we are all on the same page, the people who come will not be surprised and they can all have a good time. host: but about giving a hug to a loved one? guest: again, have we all been behaving appropriately? a grandchild can finally see her grandmother, after three months, perhaps a hug around the waist, but not kiss her. but when we are in close together, we will wear a mask and spread ourselves out a lesse bit, so a little

physical contact, but we have to be careful to protect grandmother. if you had that conversation with the children before you go, so everybody knows how to behave, the children will want to protect grandmother also. indiana.s is mike from good morning. caller: good morning. questions. there has been a study, i cannot remove the college that did it, but they found out that 29% of this virus is identical to rubella. is there some correlation between the mmr vaccines to young people that may be offering them protection that becauselks did not get

obviously the vaccine, out in the early 1960's? the second question is they say like 30s has mediated times. what effect will that have? itl they be re-categorizing like they do the flu virus? will this mutate and then they will have to be more specific in treatment? thank you. first, i do not wear this information about the rubella has come from, but let me say that is not the case. covid and the other corona viruses are very distinct from rubella and measles and mumps, those viruses that are representative in your comment. there are some theories that

vaccines, particularly these vaccines such as mmr, that are given to children, not only protect them against those free nonspecifict remain , stimulate our immune system. could that actually protect us from covid? that is interesting. some people are investigating that the results are uncertain. mutation of the covid virus itself, actually it is very stable. take a little bit, we can talk about it on the margin, we can actually track how the viruses travel, whether it is coming from europe or china. the basic virus has remained

remarkably stable, which is a as we are nowause developing vaccines, it is likely that those vaccines would be on target and are likely to work. that is something we all hope for. is eberly from ohio. caller: i have three points i want to make. one, covid-19, what does 19 stand for? caller: it was first discovered last year in 2019, so it is covid-19. think ithy do they came from china at this year if it was discovered last year? discoveredas first

this year but they anticipate that it has been circulating somewhat in china earlier than that, so they named it covid-19. dr. fauci, dr. acton in ohio, and you specialize in infection, right? guest: yes. caller: the only infection i am for me with is ear infection because kids get that regularly, right? guest: children to get ear infections, that is called otitis media. that is a problem with young children. host: kathleen joins us from oregon. you are on the air. caller: i would like to know how many months more we are going to have to stay in quarantine? my husband went to our local

city about 10 miles away and saw a lot of people without masks, and it really scared him because he is one of those high-risk people. now he is like i am not going anywhere. i just want to know how long it will be. kathleen, i think you and i are going to be concerned together along with your husband , doing social distancing wearing masks for the foreseeable future. covid is here and it will continue to circulate. it will be here this fall and into the winter, and i think until we get a vaccine that is widely distributed so that most people in the united states get it, we are all going to have to be very careful, and people such as your husband who are at greater risk, are going to have to continue to be restrictive

and not go out so much. it is a big change, but we do not want you or your husband to get sick. host: we are talking with dr. william schaffner, a professor at vanderbilt university. i frame this question in terms of lessons learned from covid-19 in how to apply it when we have the next pandemic. what could we have done differently, what should we have done differently? is a long list, but i would say first, we need to appreciate how rapidly these kinds of contagious viruses can spread around the world. dr. kouachi said -- dr. fauci said he was surprised at how quickly it happened.

a yearsly viruses took or two to travel around the world. this one went around the world within a matter of months on every continent i think except antarctica. that surprised me also. number two, we need to be better prepared. number three, i cannot say this enough, clear national communication to the populace is very important. i believe that most of those communications should come from leadership, the press conferences should be in atlanta at the cdc. shoulditical leadership be supporting in a consistent way the public health efforts. those are very important lessons. another thing, you need to look at the supply chain now

ouralized of all of essential material that we need to deal with these infections. the personal protective etc.ment, the ventilators, this needso realize to be integrated globally. --t: are carla mack next is gill. shutdownhe nationwide has affected small businesses, many have gone out of business and millions have lost their jobs. a couple of times on this interview you recommended that business owners implement the policy requiring that people wear masks in their stores. that would raise another barrier

to those businesses continuing androw and get more revenue drive people to online channels where businesses are struggling to stay open, and they are tied to families that have to pay mortgages and those kinds of things. a small business owner, i strongly disagree with requiring businesses anything more than they need to do or what to do on their own. issue, dr. fauci has gone back and forth on this issue. theys flip-flopped that are required, or that people should wear them, the ones that are older or are at higher risk for infections, and those that are healthy may not need to wear them. we get these confusing messages. and i do not support requiring them for the people who are not at risk. could you please respond? thank you.

guest: glad to. -- myk it is important dad was a small business person, so i am apathetic. i think we have to open up the society. there is no doubt about that. the economic impact has been really profound. you make a good point. could any barrier drive more people to purchasing things over the internet rather than patronizing local stores? i would be unhappy about that. i share that. if they make it less of a requirement, and more of an encouragement, that we are all in this together, and i think we can thrive. i do think that wearing a mask

is absolutely fundamental in interrupting the transmission of covid and reducing the likelihood that the virus spreads. i think we need to do that consistently. if i may, i think maybe you misinterpreted what dr. fauci has said. the recommendations have changed over time, as we have learned things. the reason we now urge everyone to wear a mask is that we know that at least one third of the infections are without symptoms or have mild symptoms. so right now even though i am feeling great, i could have the virus. if i go out, i really do need to wear a mask so i do not infect you, and you sound very healthy. if we were together, i would hope you would wear a mask to protect me.

if we normalize wearing a mask, then i think we can struggle through and cope with covid going forward. host: you can get more information on the issue of masks at artan.com. the research shows help masks can hop -- stop a second and third coronavirus wave. we did hear from the treasury secretary saying they cannot shutdown down the government again the way they did in march. what is the path moving forward if we do see an uptick in certain hotspots around the country with regard to businesses? i think the secretary is correct. i have thought for some time the initial shutdown was so profound in the economic effect that we

will not shut down again. have a, again, we interventions, things we can do to reduce the transmission of this virus and dampen the impact on the population and save lives. have all heard, wearing masks, social distancing, good hand hygiene, and avoiding large groups. i am afraid in north dakota this virus -- [indiscernible] care units,nsive going to emergency rooms, we will have to adapt these public health measures. stubborn and saying i want to go back to the old normal, that will not help us.

that will just result in even more people being sick. we have to adapt ourselves. flexibility is a survival characteristic. host: lori is next from ohio. caller: good morning. my question changed because of the other comments before me. this is going to have thing going on in tulsa and florida, having people signed so that they are not held responsible. if he goes, people do not wear he will do not expect be closer than six feet and i do not expect him to be shaking hands, but if it breaks out again, will the medical community stand up for once and politely say this president has been irresponsible and help to create a spread of the virus versus controlling and

containing the virus? you.: my heart is with i do not make clinical statements, but i would just hope leaders of all kinds, public and private, join to urge people if they go to demonstrations, political rallies, any large group, if you are worshiping this weekend, going to a house of worship, watch the social distancing, please wear masks. together tork reduce the transmission of this virus. we can do this. it is happened in the past, and we can do this going forward, but we have to remain consistent in doing that. we need to think i will wear a

mask, except under circa -- certain circumstances. are caller is now from maryland. caller: i noticed that you have not mentioned hydroxychloroquine one time. we know doctors have had rate success with this. the safety concerns have now been bonked. one study and another heaven retracted, and there is no increase mortality and harm and they were saying there was no benefit, etc., all proven untrue. what are your comments? let's be cautious about the valuation of medication. hydroxychloroquine has not been demonstrated to prevent exposure, it after is done not say.

will it prevent you from becoming sick? we have no good data on that. if you are sick, would help you? there is no good data to support that either. , i amvery sick people afraid there are hazards regarding hydroxychloroquine. we need to be careful about any agent. that said, we are hoping to get results of the clinical trials during the summer and into the fall. i hope that we have medication that can help us better treat this disease, that would reduce our anxiety and make us feel much better that we can do more for people who are sick and need treatment. host: we have this from peggy from twitter, she said i had

covid-19, and i love to go to stores, but since i have recovered, if i look in a store and people are close, i do not go in. i am still trying to get the courage to get on the train. that is what will make us unable to go back to pre-covid-19 days. richard is on the phone from tennessee. good morning. caller: good morning. you are right around the corner from where i live. if you look at the map that our may bear -- mayor puts up, i live in the how to in the area. i work in a grocery store, probably what i've seen you in. i can tell you that good people, bad people, rich people, poor people, it depends on their belief system. some come in, and they do not wear masks, but we are required

to wear them. it is been made a part of our uniform it if we do not wear one, we can be written up and subsequently fired from our position. lot, butt our parking we do not protect the customers coming in at each door into our establishment. if owners want to open back up, it seems to be that they would require a secured person to stand at each door and require people to wear masks. it does no good for someone to come down a place where a young man is stocking their groceries, and someone sneak up on them, and if they sneeze, you do not know if it is allergies. we all know about the tennessee allergies right now. you do not know if they are sick , no one knows.

if you want respect, you have to give it. it works both ways. you are exactly right that we are not going to be able to solve this overnight. ebola, the aids vaccine. there are studies out there, but would you tell the american people that us fighting with one another and arguing over whether this political thing is right, we need to all come together and fight this disease. i remember in school, and my dad graduated vanderbilt, so i know a lot about vanderbilt, so i'm very close to vanderbilt. my dad was a big part of bringing a lot of money to the children's hospital, the first leg of it. would you say that we need to be concerned, but as fighting and

arguing does not help us fight this pandemic? .ost: thank you guest: you and i are on the same page. i think we can educate each other and assist each other, remind each other, and i think if we do it in a diplomatic fashion with good leadership the above, the mayors, governors, and the national leadership, we can do this working together. businessesthe local would have masks available for people going into the store who happen to forget them or not inclined to wear them, and say it would you kindly wear this while you are in the store, if he would do that in a helpful way, i think that would assist enormously to understand that

we are all in this together. next from arizona, elizabeth, good morning. i understand your point about all of us wearing masks to protect each other. my question to you, with all due respect, white archie wearing your mask right now? -- wearing your mask right now? indoors, am at home not close to anyone, and i should've got my mass to at least show you that i have it ready. i do not walk out the door about putting it on, you can be assured. host: this is from michael on twitter, could you, on what the data shows on who is most

affected negatively by covid-19? guest: it is clear that people who are older, the older you get the more likely you are to get severe disease, and also, anyone with certain underlying chronic illnesses, any kind of heart disease or lung disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, all of those and some of them are very common conditions predispose you to more serious illness. young people, children and young adults who are healthy are much less affected by this disease, but they can be infected and still spread the virus. most people who get infected ill, do not get seriously but they can still spread the and that is end --

why we talk about wearing masks. host: we are seeing paper masks that people are wearing. how long can he wear one of those? could you use them for a couple of days? guest: if they are not damaged, you can continue to wear them. that is different than what we system,e health care but if the mask is not damaged, you can wear it for a short period of time. host: how often do you need to wash a cloth mask? guest: generally every week, but if they get very soiled, more often. floridaula is next from . good morning. in the high-risk group, and i am in a job that i cannot work from home. i am a hairstylist.

we required masks. i am grateful for it. anyone that comes into our store is required to wear one, but we will provide them one. my grandson is 18, soon to be, and wears a mask, because he lives with me. i think it is important for everyone. it is uncomfortable, and now we are in a 90 degree weather, but i really think it is important that we wear masks. hopefully we will get a vaccine soon. thank you. much forank you very your kind words. hairstylist, i am really in bad need of a haircut.

i will get one pretty soon. i think you are being very thoughtful for the people working with you, wearing a mask .s not very comfortable speaking of hair, putting it on and taking it off messes up your hair, which people are distressed about. we are not used to it in our culture. in the eastern countries, japan, china, places like that, wearing masks at least in the winter is much more normal. we are still adjusting to that and trying to get used to it. you can see these masks with all kinds of designs on them. i like that. it is trying to make it a more funal and sometimes even thing to do. thank you for your thoughtfulness. jennifer, colorado,

good morning. caller: good morning. , is it still the thinking that the virus has already admitted once -- mutated once because it was in the country before it became highly transmissible? is that still what we are thinking? been highlyirus has transmissible from day number one. it has not hardly changed since the beginning. it is pretty stable. as i said before, all viruses mutate ever so slightly, but that basic structure and how serious it is has been with us from the beginning. recognizel slow to how contagious this virus was. will this forever change

our country, do you think? caller: it has certainly changed our country in the near tone -- term. we all hope if we get the safe vaccine or vaccines and we apply them generously throughout the country, getting most people vaccinated, then we can get back to some semblance of normal. i think covid will probably be with us during our winter's, along with the flu viruses, but we can cope with those because we can vaccinate ourselves against them and mitigate the damage. host: we are talking with dr. william schaffner. he teaches at vanderbilt university. charles is on the phone from michigan. caller: there's is a new type of

irna that are s genesularly attack some in sequence. enough there's anything that is going after covid-19 or possibly the whole family of covid? guest: you can be sure that around the world that a whole series of clinical trials underway and are evaluating the whole spectrum of treatment, different drugs in different trials. these are ongoing in an intense weight and i hope that with the summer and the fall we will start to get some results from ,he trials so that we can treat if you get sick, we can treat you much better. excuse me.

this is todd from connecticut. researchindiscernible] on covid-19. a symptomatically transmission, the cdc website has not said there has been a confirmed case. there was an article last month in respiratory medicine for one 450,nt supposedly infected and they tested each one and found that none of them had covid-19. there's been a lot of bad science in this covid-19. [indiscernible] he admitted to fixing his computer model. i just wanted to get that out there. do you have a reference or a

study that i could read where au said that there is symptomatic transmission? i cannot specifically cite a specific citation, but every person who is exposed obviously does not become infected, and everyone that is infected does not have the equal contagiousot equally . [indiscernible] others showing much more substantial transmission. the general thought is now about one third of the patients, or individuals, who require -- acquired the infection remain without symptoms or have mild symptoms. we think those people probably

account for a substantial amount of transmission. comes in, wemation will change our minds. that is the way it is with new infections as we gather more information. in washington, good morning. i have been kind of dumbfounded by the discussion over the course of the months that there has been hardly any recommendations on personal diet, but in terms of one thing that has not been mentioned is any helpfulness of supplementation or vitamins that might be helpful. i think we are all individual that way. they will not be a one-size-fits-all for any of this, but i have a few things that i do, and i do not think

anybody will convince me that they are useless. why aren't the doctors and experts recommending courses of actions in terms of dietary --plementation that would could be helpful? could you address that, please? earliering back to your point, those with pre-existing conditions tend to be at a much higher risk. guest: that is right. i think he was talking about the things we can do to try to boost our immune systems, create a healthier environment that might help us vent off the covid virus. there is a lot of interest in .hat and a lot of theories i like to quip that in god we

trust, but others may have to provide data. if we had data to support that, you wouldn't see the recommendations being made. we need a solid database, not just good hope. host: what is the one question that has yet to be answered with regard to coronavirus, a question that you have that you are looking for the answer? butt: i have a list, obviously i'm looking for the answers to see whether any of these vaccine trials that are withway are coming back good results. i need treatments, drugs that we can use that will make people better faster, progress the evolution of the onus so we can keep people out of hospital and off ventilators. host: dr. william schaffner has

been one of our go to individuals with regard to covid-19 since the outbreak. he is joining us from nashville, tennessee. he is a professor at vanderbilt university. we will check in with you often. thank you. guest: always good to be with you. host: as part of our camping 2020 coverage, we want to introduce you to this 18-year-old. niles francis dishes on his primary. he is from georgia. he just graduated from high school, but he regards his pastime as a hobby. he joins us on the phone. thank you for being with us. when did this all began? a lot of the man in my family have been interested in politics for a long time. it's just a trait that i

inherited. host: you have a lot of followers on your twitter page. what is your handle? lesgapol.tni your if people go to website, what will people find? guest: it is basically a website that makes calls on election night. they have blog posts. i have not written anything for them yet, but posts on recent up-to-the-minute election information. host: this is a hobby for you, but how closely are you watching the national campaign and what has been happening in georgia and elsewhere in the south? caller: pretty closely. it is happening right in my backyard, so it is something i

have been watching for the last several years. host: a lot of questions about and happened last tuesday renewed questions about whether or not we will have mail in ballots in georgia. did you see last week in terms of going to the polls with stories that some had to wait three or four hours to cast their ballots? caller: the primary last week was chaotic to say the least. people were standing in line for hours, some did not have water. it was raining in several spots, so some people got caught in the rain. it was pretty chaotic. , i votedof absentee absentee in the primary. some did not get there ballots or weeks after requesting them. some did not even get there absentee ballots. they had to go to their polling place to vote. the whole thing was managed holy

-- poorly. ifhave to do better because november is anything like that, it will be disaster. host: let's talk about you. you just graduated from high school. what is next? guest: i plan to stay in the metro atlanta area. i apply to several colleges around this area. i am waiting to hear back from several. the pandemic has thrown all of my plans in the air. hopefully the pandemic will not be so bad by the fall so i can get my plans in order and figure it out. host: any plans to run for political office yourself? guest: i am not sure yet. i just do not know. there's a lot of options out there. forecasting and talking about elections.

i've seen some campaigns behind the scenes, and they are stressful, and i am not sure if that is something that i would want to do. happenswe will see what in a few years. host: when your friends and colleagues are interested in sports and entertainment, and you are following politics, what do they tell you? guest: not many people my age are interested in this. that is why i spend a lot of time on twitter because i get to interact with people who share this hobby, who are interested in this hobby and like talking about elections and politics. i cannot have that conversation with many people my age. that is why i spend a lot of time online. host: here's a picture of you that you posted on your page. who are guest: i guess i would say my

hero is people like john lewis, who spent years and almost lost their lives fighting for the right to vote. in making sure that all black people are treated equally than their white counterparts. almost lostwho their lives just so we could be treated equally. also hasr twitter page a photograph of george floyd. as you look back at the events of the last two and a half weeks, what are your general thoughts? guest: we have a long way to go. america, we have a long way to go. even in atlanta there was a police-involved shooting of a 27-year-old named shargh brooks. it led to the dismissing of the police chief and officer who killed brooks, but we have a long way to go. hopefully, go through this all

the time. and unarmed black man is killed. hashtag, and the cycle peter itself -- repeat itself. killingsh one of these of black man, i say to myself, maybe this will be the last time this happens. it is never the last time. hopefully this will be the moment things change because this happens far too often and it is all preventable. host: let me conclude on that note. we began the program at some video courtesy of the atlanta journal-constitution that showed the uprisings, especially as the sunset in atlanta. the wendy's where that shooting took place has since been burned down. what are your thoughts as you see what is happening in your

community in light of everything that is happened over the last couple of weeks? you know, i don't think burning down a wendy's is a great way to go about getting your message out. protesting peacefully, that is what dr. king did, that is what john lewis did, andrew young. it is what our civil rights hero stared. they protested peacefully and i don't think burning down the wendy's is a great way to go about it. i think having a conversation with your elected officials, adding to your police officers, your mayors, all of your local officials and talking with them about the strain relationship between a police community and the african-american community, i think that's a great way to go about getting your message out. violence, burning down buildings, restaurants, i don't think that is a great way to go about it. i think we need to have a

conversation about -- we have to have a conversation about ways we can improve the relationship between police officers and african-americans. that relationship is strained now more than ever. we really need to have a conversation about how we can mend that relationship so law enforcement officers can -- so law enforcement officers and police and african-americans can , we are not, you know, there is not a strained relationship between the groups. twitter it is niles francis, a contributor to decision desk. final point, do you think you are administrators from high school, what is the best advice they gave you? guest: my mother passed away a few years ago and they told me to keep going and keep my head up and keep going. to make myg hard

mother proud and make everyone around me proud. i think i've done that. on going and don't give up, even when you are hit with adversity and hardship. host: niles francis, we would love to check in with you from time to time. fromars old, a graduate high school heading onto his next venture. we wish you the very best. take you for joining us. thank you, steve, so much. have a good day. host: quite impressive at 18 years old, all he is dealing with. we are going to take a short break and when we come back, the latest on u.s.-china relations. lingling wei from the wall street journal, she along with bob davis as a -- how the battle between trump and president xi threatens a new cold war. washington journal continues on flag day. it is also president trump's birthday.

we are back in a moment. ♪ night on the communicators, federal communications commission or rep -- commissioner michael o'rielly. >> i think everyone is dealing with circumstances from the covid-19 pandemic. seems to be holding quite well. i don't like to promise anything or congratulate anybody too early. i am pretty impressed where things are now. in terms of some of the connectivity issues, some of the work from home issues, certainly conference is being done through this medium is more likely to increase over time. way andlot more this returning fully to the old-style. >> monday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern on the communicators, on c-span2.

john charles fremont bought the -- brought the pacific coast of the united states. the united states didn't have a pacific coast. there was territory in oregon that was disputed, and there was california, which belong to mexico. fremont encouraged the settlement of organ and part in the american conquest of california just in time for the gold rush. changingay a role in the map of the united states. >> npr morning edition host stevens keep on his book, how jesse and john fremont mapped the the west, invented celebrity, and helped cause the civil war. tonight at 8:00 eastern on c-span's q&a. "washington journal," continues. "st: the book is titled superpower showdown, lingling wei is joining us. have a battle between trump and

president xi threatens a new cold war. in the book he wrote the following, "china's rise is one of the world's greatest economic success stories. it is a complicated tale. in,a increased per capita -- income 25 fold and lifted the chinese out of poverty. china evolved from a nation filled with famine into the world's second-largest economy and america's greatest competitor for leadership. let me begin on that point. how did china reach this level? first of all, thank you for having me on this morning. china's rise over the past 40 inevitable, in a sense. mostly because of a combination of reasons. premier,licy under previous leader being shopping. he launched his reforms -- deng

xiaoping. he lost his reforms after political chaos during a cultural revolution. then you had a huge population that was so hard-working and .ungry for a better life another point i would like to was is, another big reason china's growing engagement with the rest of the world. the united states, in particular. you have all of these factors combined that contributed to this, as we call the book, greatest economic and the whole world. year later was a that richard nixon becoming the first u.s. president to travel to mainland china. he visited the great wall. this is what he told reporters. they hope is that in future, perhaps as a result of

the beginning that we have made in this journey that many americans, particularly young americans like to travel so much, will have an opportunity to come here as i have come here today with misses nixon and the others, that they will be able to see this wall, that they will think back as i think back to the history of this great people and that they will have an opportunity to know the chinese people and know them better. i think one of the results of our trip, we hope, may be that the walls that are erected, whether they are physical walls like this or whether they are other walls, ideology or philosophy, will not divide peoples in the world. that peoples, regardless of their differences and backgrounds and philosophies, will have an opportunity to communicate, know each other, and share with each other those

particular endeavors that will mean peaceful progress in the years ahead. host: that is from february 1972. lingling wei, it has been nearly 50 years. your book chronicles the highlights in that relationship. the walls are still there. in terms ofl walls entry and exits into china, and the trade walls. guest: yes. ever since president nixon chapter china, for quite a long period of time, the whole engagement had led to breaking down some of the walls. now you are right, we are seeing many of those issues coming to a head again. was, for a reason long time the american side has

naively thinks economic engagement with china could lead to greater political liberalization in china. in essence, china would become more like the united states someday. is,the fact of the matter the chinese party is very determined to carry on their own development model. i'm going to talk two major events that, the milestones in this trajectory of the relationship. 2008-2009 global financial crisis. back crisis almost brought the western financial system to its knees. but for china, it provided an opening to promote its own model. and make the chinese leadership more assured of itself.

we found the right model for china, just more heavily centered on control. the other milestone during the whole relationship was president xi jinping coming to power. hisade it very clear that central agenda is this china agenda, which means make china very strong nation, not just economically, but also militarily, technologically, and geopolitically. combined put china on a collision course with the united states. host: you grew up in southeast u.s., returno the to china, and then were expelled from china. what happened? guest: it has been a very long journey for myself. fortunate -- bob

davis, my co-author and i, when we were writing the book, one of the most amazing things was, we realized how our personal histories, in a way, mirrored the ups and downs of the u.s.-china relationship for me, i was early fortunate to have benefited from china's rise and china's engagement with the united states. i was lucky enough to come to the united states to pursue higher education in the late 1990's. i got to practice journalism with one of the best newspapers, the wall street journal. i always wanted to go back to china to basically be a journalist. early 2011, right after i became a naturalized american

thaten, i basically felt lifetime goal for myself is sort of like, a china dream. going back to china being an independent journalist. at that point in time i thought of myself as among the people who had benefited tremendously from a close relationship between the two world powers. years as the past few tensions mounted between the two know, certainly american journalists operating in china, we always were worried about getting kicked out because our critical reporting of the country and the government. we never expected something like this would happen. but it happened. inas ordered to leave china

march. i did it a little bit of extra time to handle my family business before i had to leave. china,hen i was leaving ithought all of a sudden looked at myself and was like, collateral damage from this fight. but in the end, i still consider myself very lucky, because i did have the choice of packing up and coming back to new york and continue to write about china. that, for me, is the most amazing part of being american an american journalists -- american journalist. host: you write, how did it come to this? u.s.-china relations have sunk as low as they have, think of it as a romance gone bad.

joining us from new jersey, good morning. caller: thank you very much for letting me speak and for the author for writing the book. i would like to say i had a personal experience with a woman from china. learned a lot. one thing, to say the chinese people are hard-working, but we need to expose the fact that the chinese government and the powers that be, they don't allow religious freedom, they are oppressive. that is the reason why i favor a lot of the reforms we went after them for. the premier over there, they don't like religious freedom. our country has been godly. we are a god-fearing country. china is not. that is fine, but there is always going to be a problem there because we believe in all religious freedom. that country does not. what bothers me is, talk about the people there are wonderful, every chinese person i met, they are wonderful people, but the

government over there is people. mao killed how may people? it is a slow process. don't have democracy. they don't have the rights we have. the declaration of independence, and that is a shame. because they don't have the weapons. that is the first thing, they do weaponize the people. they can't fight the government. please, i would just like to have the whole truth brought out. let's love and respect our chinese people, let's work together. by the same token there is an evil within that country. host: thank you. lingling wei? your response? obviously, this viewer raised a really good question about the chinese government. some of their oppressive techniques. price --oyed to

suppress the freedom of speech and religion are the chinese people. question, some of those techniques definitely existed. id from the u.s. perspective, guess it all comes down to, what kind of a relationship do you really want to have with china? so, if the u.s. has determined that we really don't want to deal with china any longer, and divorce,e a complete and i hope the policymakers in both countries could have thought through what the consequences of that decision is. time, there is also a fact that the u.s. has a lot of interest in china. american companies and individuals are still in china. that kind of calls for continued

, it is especially important to make chinese people realize that some of the issues raised by the american side and some of the reforms, etc., really are in china's interests. reallyot that americans -- of, we don't want to deal with you because you are so different. i think that is probably not the right approach. the more constructive approach is make sure people in china realize that what the u.s. is asking for is in the interest of the chinese people. host: your book went to the printers at the start of this pandemic, you frame part of your discussion in terms of that trade agreement that the u.s. and chinese government put together in january. you write the following. of thejing, the timing january truce was fortuitous.

within two weeks of the signing ceremony, china was in a panic over the spreading coronavirus. the spreading disease quickly soured any good feelings between beijing might have towards the trump administration over that trade deal. what has happened since then? have enteredns , daythis downward spiral in day out. he would see chinese state media basically calling out the united as trying to take advantage of china in the midst of the pandemic. while at the same time you see politicians saying in washington, accusing china of having created the virus and intentionally spread it to the rest of the world. things really got out of control

at times. the tit-for-tat expulsions of journalists is one example of that. were writinghen we about the book, obviously the trade war was where tensions really started to mount in the past couple of years. the trade is one of the very few areas the sides continue to talk with each other. one of therging as few things for continued engagement between the two countries now. host: with regard to that tension, you and your colleague on february 19 beijing had expelled 3 wall st journal reporters over an opinion piece calling for china as the real sick man of asia. the journalist had nothing to do

with this headline. a tit-for-tat fight ensued. " you are on the air with lingling wei. good morning. caller: good morning. guest: good morning. theer: i wanted to discuss country, thatthis we have now. rt sanchez did report with a student. a trillion. i guess you have the banks send that as well. recalled 100s alien dollars they have long to us. they wanted back. called $100 billion they loaned us. they wanted back.

-- want it back. thet: as tensions between two countries continue to worsen, one area that is now forging as another concern global markets and investors and businesses is the so-called financial decoupling. worries inthere are the u.s. about china potentially dumping its huge holding of u.s. treasuries. in china there are concerns about u.s. regulators basically requiring chinese companies listed here in america to get delisted. there is definitely worries on both sides. holdings, chinese holding of the big treasury pile, definitely on paper sounds like a big weapon china can use to hit back at the u.s. if

tensions keep getting bad. keep getting worse. ,owever, it is also a weapon one of the biggest weapons they cannot really use because doing so would inevitably hurt china as well. it could cause a huge causeation of -- it could confidence in the chinese economy, more money flowing out of china. it is a vicious cycle that could see no end. know thate time, i chinese policymakers are trying to convince their american counterparts not to really go down the route of financial decoupling, because for china there is a lot to lose there. u.s. markets have traditionally served as a great channel for

chinese companies to raise capital. know,pe from, as far as i from the chinese side is we maintain this dialogue through trade and through economic channels to hopefully keep tensions at bay there. host: thomas is next, joining us from chicago. good morning. thomas, are you with us? let me go back to the book. write the following, at the heart of the trade war is the fear that china will eclipse the u.s. technologically on its way to economic and military superiority. the u.s. leads in nearly every technology named in china's made in china 2025 report. china's -- made in china 2025 report. guest: china's report is industrial policy released in

2015. two years into xi jinping's rule of china. newstrial policy is nothing in china. what makes this particular report standout is the very clearly laid out targets for about 10dominate strategic industries, ranging , ai, toiconductor aviation. it is a clearly defined document, every ambitious. so why is that bad for american businesses or u.s. policymakers? what really concerns them is the , there is a bit concerned that there is no way china could really achieve those targets laid out in the plan unless china stepped up

subsidies to chinese companies, especially state-owned enterprises. further putld american businesses at a significant disadvantage. , another wayrn is china could possibly reach those step up foreign technology, including foreign technology -- u.s. technology. those combined make this report throughout the u.s. trade offensive against china. host: the book from harpercollins, how the battle between trump and president xi trends and new cold war. our guest is the co-author. she writes for the austria journal. lawrence is on the phone from montgomery, alabama. caller: good morning.

very much appreciate c-span. i am an east asian specialist. i've been to china numerous times. here is my concern right now. that involves the u.s. presidential election and the u.s. relations in the selection. i'm concerned that the president and his challenger, mr. biden, ,ill dumb down this issue looking for soundbites, accusing each other back and forth of being either naive or overly aggressive or overly soft on this very critical issue. which will be the most important foreign-policy challenge for the you will -- for the united states in this century. i am not at all confident that the propaganda that will roll

back and forth between trump and biden will in any sense fundamentally clarify u.s. interests and the criticality of this relationship. thank you. host: thank you for the question. lingling wei? guest: sure, lawrence, i share this concern with you. currently there concerningite a amount of rhetoric coming from both sides. thoseis a huge risk that rhetoric could take away the focus that should be on the issues. of exactly what kind relationship the u.s. wants to have with china going forward and same thing for beijing. leadership compound in beijing, there are also very intense discussions about this.

president xi jinping over and over again has said that there are 1000 reasons to have a good relationship with the u.s.. not one single reason to spoil it. but you don't really see that based on the propaganda that comes from beijing these days. exactly what they are debating over and what kind of strategy and agenda they would come out coexist terms of how to with united states going forward, as -- is certainly an issue we need to keep our focus on. same with the u.s.. really, we still want to keep engaging with china where we ,hare a lot of common interests ranging from economic, environmental, to antiterrorism?

all of these are really hard both capitals should try to answer, as opposed to heading at each other on a daily basis. on twitter or other forms. host: huntsville, alabama. good morning. caller: good morning to you. in china they are ahead of us in 5g technology. and ai. as that is viewed by us here a point of contention. president obama and also president trump are putting the screws to the chinese company

not be aheaddoes of us in the 5g technology. president obama as you would is robbing allies like england and germany -- browbeating allies like england and germany not to use huawei. host: thank you, ned. guest: that's a great question. book,described in this how the two sides are edging toward a new cold war, so, you know, what we are seeing right now i'm a what we are experiencing is obviously very different from the old cold war between the u.s. and the soviet union. a big difference is that this time around, this fight is not defined by nuclear weapons or missiles. it is defined by this

competition for global supremacy in the economic and technological arena. so you definitely have things a path.n for years china had doubled down on its state-led investments in key technological areas, including what you just described, ai and 5g. but there is something to be said about the u.s. system. democracy andis a it fosters competition. and competition is good for innovation. in some areas you laid out, just believe example ai, i u.s. is still taking a very strong lead. partly because all of those veryts in this country, a

inducible environment for innovation. 5g, a u.s. effort to block the use of huawei technologies, also trying to get allies to block the use of quality technology, that is -- huawei technology, that is the most contentious point in the fight between the two nations right now. from superpower showdown, you and your colleague write the following. u.s. tariffs hurt china more than its leader publicly acknowledged. retaliatory tariffs were hitting their mark as well, worthen president trump would say. american and chinese officials hope an end to their battle what help head off hard times. the u.s. was naively optimistic

and was -- with that background, here's what president trump said in washington. pattern of misconduct is well known. for decades they have ripped off the united states like no one has ever done before. hundreds of billions of dollars a year were lost dealing with china. specially over the years during the prior administration. china rated our factories, offshore lower jobs, gutted our industries, stole our intellectual property, and violated their commitments under the world trade organization. to make matters worse, they are considered a developing nation, getting all sorts of benefits that others, including the united states, are not entitled to. but i have never solely blame to china for this. they were able to get away with the theft like no one was able to get away with before because

of past politicians and, frankly, past presidents. but unlike those who came before, my administration negotiated and fought for what was right. it is called fair and reciprocal treatment. unlawfullylso claimed territory in the pacific ocean, threatening freedoms of navigation and international trade. and they broke their word to the world on ensuring the autonomy of hong kong. opennited states wants an and constructive relationship, but achieving that relationship requires us to vigorously defend our national interests. the chinese government has continually violated its promises to us and so many other nations. these facts cannot be overlooked or swept aside. ae world is now suffering as result of the malfeasance of the chinese government.

the wuhanver-up of virus allowed the disease to spread all over the world, instigating a global pandemic that has caused -- cost more than 100,000 american lives in over one million lives worldwide. host: that from the president last month. further illuminates what you are writing about in the book. guest: absolutely. the tensions keep escalating. book, whyribed the are we here now? how do we get here now? to blame for the situation we are in. at times both sides have overestimated their leverage over the other side. if you look at the opening chapter, we described in greater detail how the trade talks last

spring collapsed. basically sent global markets into a tailspin and potentially raised the economic cost of this trade war. u.s. side that they had a deal. finding --se to cutting a final deal, but they are persistent in terms of not removing tariffs. so the chinese side, they felt the whole agreement was so one-sided in the u.s. is -- u.s.'s favor. so they decided to push back harder and made a number of textes to the agreed-upon agreement. theiry overestimated

ability to push back, thinking that is part of a normal negotiation back and forth. war weoughout the trade see that kind of thing playing out over and over again. my co-author came up with this for the trade war. at times it did sound like schoolyard fight, right? antagonists circling each other, determined to take each other down. there was really nothing like that through the ups and downs of the trade negotiation. we hopedd, this book to provide some sort of deeper understanding for both sides and probably greater appreciation of

where each side is coming from. understandan we best the personal relationship between president trump and president xi jinping? the president was in beijing early in his administration. did the to get along? -- the two get along? guest: they did. it did seem like they had a personal chemistry between them. it is also very strategic for both sides. for president trump's perspective, he has this art of the deal guy, he is drawn to big personalities. wanting people to view him in that context. he can be buddies with all of the world's leaders out there. xi jinping almost never criticizes -- he almost never criticizes xi jinping by name, because he wants to use this personal relationship to

potentially absorb the blows escalating trade tensions or tensions from other areas as well. from china side it is the same. i remember in this book we had a of president xi historydiscussing the relationship with president trump, to the japanese prime minister. during that conversation president xi jinping made it clear that, i think i can make -- maintain a relationship with president trump. host: back to your phone call. kevin is joining us for maryland. we thank you for writing -- waiting.eriod -- if she i was wondering covered the topic of the china belt ambrose initiative and, my

aggressively is the unitedd states government doing anything to counter that? -- how iss china china finding such a massive investment and do they not care about the ecological damage being done by that? host: a lot there. thank you, we will get a response. guest: beltran road initiative jinping'snt xi signature initiative, aimed at globally.china's role it is centered on a huge amount spending allture the way from southeast asia to europe, africa. it is very ambitious project. you asked really great question

about whether or not china can afford it. definitely a lot of financial constraints there. china a few years ago, still has $3 trillion in reserves, and enormous pile of money. the chinese government could have used it for projects like this. chinese economy weakens further and china's external debt has also risen significantly, and what used to pile haspile for -- decreased also significantly. there is definitely a question, how do you realistically fund such a huge project? probably as importantly, if not backlashrtantly is the

some of the projects under this initiative have caused. we have seen stories about countries that received funding from china to build infrastructure and is not being able to pay back, and chinese went further to take ownership of these projects. there are a lot of debates over whether or not that is just went too far on the chinese part. about whatspicion they are wanting to accomplish with this project. trying to take over strategic infrastructure? in other parts of the world? is this your way of promoting benevolent world power?

raised a lotu have more questions overseas as well. host: brookings has a map showing this initiative, it means for china and the routes evolved. -- involved. we will go to michael in beaverton, oregon. good morning. caller: good morning. is thatquestion i have all of this industrialization in coal ande amount of hydrocarbons created by this industrialization has not been ofset by any sorts environmental controls. operated under the very basic things that america

70's, they would not have been this huge amount of co2 created. any comments? host: thank you for the call. this is just one example from the financial times. some of the pollution china has experienced. on the issue of coal, lingling wei, your response? guest: great question. environmental issues, for sure importante very policy issue for the chinese leadership as well. even within china, there have that theicisms government lacks a coherent strategy to tackle coal consumption and other environmental, industrial-related issues. is,n times what you see when pollution gets really bad,

the government would order businesses to shut down. a little better, especially if the economy weakens, they would loosen those restrictions. hoche strategy is more ad than coherent. don't really solve the underlying problems of worsening environment for the chinese people. and the world at large. that is really one key issue the leadership is facing right now. us inchris is join pittsburgh, pennsylvania. good morning. caller: good morning. i had a question on the general topic of technological espionage going on in the u.s. research institutions and universities. is this really going on and how does the chinese government put

pressure on these excellent chinese students to carry this in a masters, phd situation? host: thank you for the call. lingling wei, you speak from experience on this topic. guest: i definitely have read a lot of stories on this topic and my colleagues at the journal have done some brilliant reporting on this. my only experience, i would say china hasously benefited greatly from being able to send the students to the to study science and technology. some of them to go back to china and a lot of them actually stayed in the states. they now live here, they find jobs, maybe silicon valley. againstreally caution

looking at every chinese student as a spy of sorts working for the chinese government because that is not my experience. latee to the states in the 1990's, and a lot of my friends went to study science and technology. i really haven't encountered any one of them who actually intentionally stealing technology for the purpose of fitting people back in china. there arenying definitely concerns in this area and definitely bad actors in this area that should be held accountable. i just would caution against looking at every chinese student being mad. also, this steady flow of talent across the border into the

united states and into china have helped both countries, not just china or not just u.s.. there is a recent report -- i forgot by who -- there was a recent report that didn't analysis showing a big reason in the u.s. is leading -- firsti is because a solid teamhave of researchers focusing on that area. those big percentage of researchers working in that area either come from china or india or other nations. i would really -- yes, we need to confront this issue of espionage, but i would caution against going too far with that and thinking everyone coming from china is a spy. host: we welcome our listeners on c-span radio, which carries

this program every morning. we welcome you as well. our guest is lingling wei, she is the co-author of the book "superpower showdown. " good morning and thank you for c-span. wanted to say, what a pleasure it is to hear such wisdom from obviously an intellect. one comment is that particularly of covid-19, which i want to distinguish from the chinese party could have originated from any country in the world, ok? i think with that has highlighted for the american people is that critical infrastructure and the ability to make masks and all of this stuff that was absolutely essential during this time, we

simply could not do. we make hamburgers and cheeseburgers here, and what a shame. for that, and particularly rare earths? i am a proponent -- i'm not a xenophobic -- of putting that stuff under the cloak of the dod. one last comment. this whole notion of companies transferring intellectual property over to china. i just want to alert the american people and those listening, has much more to do with the greed of the corporate world and of americans, who have sold -- if there is any criticism it is, look, if you want to advocate for americans, ok, then you don't need to put 51% of your board as chinese. otherwise, it is simply greed and greed is and really that isg what it is all about. ross, those who want to criticize and say, china is taking our intellectual property

need to check their privilege, slow their role, and think about american corporate greed and how they are willing to do anything for money. i will take your response off-line. what a pleasure. guest: really appreciate it. covid-19 further complicated this bilateral relationship, no doubt. things really uncertain is, to this day we still do not have very clear and definitive explanations for where this virus really got started. where it came from. in the absence of that, you definitely are seeing a lot of finger-pointing, a lot of blame game going on in both countries about the origins of the virus. i just really hope that from

china's perspective, the leadership has always said china is a responsible stakeholder in the whole global order. this is really the chance to show that, to increase transparency and cooperation with other countries. taking to twitter or other forms, contributing to the current tit-for-tat rhetoric of sorts. i think that is a start. the tech transfer, you are absolutely right. as we detailed in the book, this issue has been front and center in the trade dialogue between the two countries. mentioned, many chinese officials have told us

they think it is unfair to ofticize china of being -- having forced u.s. companies to share technology and their argument is that nobody is forced. they want to get into china's market, and that is the price to pay, your technology. however, it does come down to the issue of fairness. many other countries, if you want to get access to their markets, you don't have to do this. invest. can go in and but in china, there is definitely a big price tag. one of the experts who testified before the u.s., you know, china dealed multinationals this they cannot possibly refuse. host: our last collar is from midlands, england. the program is carried on

bbc parliament channel on sundays. think this covid thes has ruined relationship between the u.s. and china forever? guest: i hope not. that coolerll hope heads can prevail at some point. there was a report over the past couple of days, i think by , it seems- anyway desireth sides have this to sit down and talk about the relationship in the context of shown somend have willingness to doubt back from the recent rhetoric. host: in the book he posed this question with regard to what is next in terms of our relationship. how could the united states proceed, whether in a second

trump term or a democrat in the white house? you say a step be to reap -- tpp.n the rpp. -- why? times the u.s. has many cap stepping up pressure on beijing to make changes that the u.s. had wanted. what has this accomplished so far? it reallyly speaking, hasn't done too much to change the chinese economic model. , all of theina structural issues the u.s. side set out to do are still there. the industrial policy, subsidies to state-owned firms, and all of those things. if anything, china has further

stepped up those measures. it is one way of approaching this thing hasn't worked. is natural to any policymaker to think up other ways to tackle one of the most important lateral relationships in the world. from talking to experts and people who are very experienced in the policymaking, that is one of the areas that the u.s. can to be drawing international organizations in. that is the first step to try to to getth its allies china to change. because some of the u.s. allies like japan and europe, they also share the same kind of concerns the u.s. has over china.

host: on a personal note, is your family still in china and do you feel comfortable returning to your home country? guest: absolutely. china to go back to keep my china dream, doing independent reporting in china as soon as possible. not aealize this is sprint. this is potentially a marathon. we feel very committed to covering china, everybody at the wall street journal. but at the same time, we realize the hurdles, because we have so fewer reporters on the ground in china doing the reporting. have to think more creatively in terms of how to approach our coverage. in terms of my family, it really broke my heart to have to leave

my parents. their 70's. are in especially my mother, she has always -- they are supportive. i keep going. do not give up. what i have signed up for, journalism. and what i believe in. i am here and i am not giving up. host: we wish you the best. we thank you for the book, titled superpower show down, along with her colleague from the wall street journal bob davis. thank you. guest: thank you. tomorroware back morning with another addition of the "washington journal. with thetalk about

developments in atlanta, the resignation of the police chief, demonstrators overnight as protests continue they're following the death of george floyd two and a half weeks ago. is all of our coverage available on our website. back is flag day, dating to 1885 when a wisconsin schoolteacher had the idea to commemorate the flag to celebrate the 50 states and what the flag represents. sureu have one at home, be to fly it proudly this sunday morning. hope you have a great, healthy, and a safe week ahead. ♪

>> john charles fremont brought the pacific coast into the united states. at the beginning of the story, the united states did not have a pacific coast. there was territory in oregon disputed with britain and california, which belonged to mexico. fremont encouraged the settlement of oregon and took part in the american conquest of california just in time for the gold rush, so he did play a real role in changing the map of the united states. >> steve in kids -- steve inskeep on his book in perfect union tonightfect at 8:00 eastern on c-span's q&a. >> on monday, the house intelligence committee holds their hearing on the impact of the coronavirus in sub-saharan africa

>> the impact of the coronavirus on, social and racial tensions the prospects for a vaccine, stay reopening's, and congressional efforts to reform law enforcement. steve: welcome to today's bob schieffer series, conversation on covid-19 societal instability, where are we heading. i want to offer special thanks to the foundation that supports this series, as well as the schieffer school of communications at tcu. several staff here at csis have worked hard to pull this together. emma, among the foremost of the staff, made this possible. we also have travis hopkins, clifford joh