transition of power. go to c-span.org/election. coming up on c-span on this veterans day, president donald eath at thelay a wr tomb of the unknown soldier live at 11:00 a.m. eastern. senator bob casey will discuss the 2020 election results and legal challenges with washington post reporters. live coverage starts at 1:00 p.m. eastern on c-span, online at c-span.org or listen with the free c-span app. host: it is veterans day. we are joined by a deputy of the military times to talk about veterans issues, to talk about current issues at the pentagon in the military. good morning, how are you? guest: good morning. host: let's start with the defense secretary and the termination of the defense secretary earlier this week by

tweet from president trump. why did that happen? been a lot ofas friction between secretary esper and the president. there were some concerns from the white house that he was not loyal enough, was not telling the president what he wanted to hear and was not helping him. one of the friction points was the issue of the lafayette square, the infamous press appearance where the president walked out of the white house after protesters had been cleared out imposed at the church across the street. there was a lot of conversation about the military taken on a more active role in responding to those racial equity protests and finding some way for active duty military to be involved in secretary esper pushed back on that. he says it was not appropriate. apparently that started to

burrow into some problems the president had with his performance and his attitude. i colleague megan meyers and got a chance to sit down with secretary asbury before he left, in his final days when it looked like he was heading out the door -- secretary esper. what everybody thinks about too much ofm being them to yes-man, it seemed he pushed back on a lot of things. one of his concerns as he walked out the door is that someone else will come in and not ever say no to the president. was then mark esper third secretary of defense in the trump administration? fourthwe are now on our acting secretary. chris miller would not be confirmed because there is not a lot of time left in this administration unless there is a change with the election results which does not look likely. officetrump came into

and the whole history of the department of defense -- in the whole history of the department of defense, there had only been two acting secretaries. the president liked to have a lot of stability and continuity. before the next secretary of defense steps in, they will make sure he is confirmed and the outgoing one will stay on. under president trump, he has done this four times so it is a very front approach, much more uncertainty and chaos over at the pentagon. host: the headline at the washington times, the pentagon policy officials fall esper out the door. the chief is resigned -- resigned on tuesday as the mentorship shakes up the highest ranks following the unsettled presidential election. the acting undersecretary submitted his resignation letter on tuesday, less than 24 hour's after president trump unceremoniously dispatched mr. esper following clashes over

policy. in general, what is the mood inside the building? after that move, the undersecretary was replaced by another trump list. there is a lot of uncertainty right now. there is a lot of feeling that there is years of experience, there is knowledge being lost. thesencertainty over what moves mean in the short term. is the president going to install these folks so that he can withdraw troops from afghanistan quicker, to move troops out of germany quicker. these are things he has talked about in recent months and gotten pushback from congress. is he looking -- who knows what his priorities are going to be for the next few months regarding the military? we know regardless of what happens president trump is commander-in-chief for the next 70 days.

there is plenty of time for him to really make some large-scale changes at the pentagon. right now it is budget time among the top folks of the department of defense. they are putting together their budget request for fiscal 2022. that work is being done now with the interim secretary and interim policy head an interim intelligence head. a lot of turmoil at a time where those folks are usually guiding the process and focusing other folks on with the priorities will be. host: it is veterans day. we will set a line for veterans to call in. our guest is leo shane. veterans use (202) 748-8000. active military, (202) 748-8001. for all others, (202) 748-8002. interviewed the veterans wilkie.y, secretary

what did you learn from the secretary in that interview? guest: it's interesting. the ongoing pandemic has been the focus of the department of veterans affairs. he has been in the past pretty rosy about the department's response. he still feels pretty confident in how the various medical centers across the country have reacted and treated in the emergency protocols put in place. he was honest we are the middle of another way and things are going -- another wave and things are going to get worse before they get better. we can see the facilities rollback on their reopenings. we may see restrictions as numbers go up. i have been tracking the numbers and they have been going up. around 6000 active coronavirus cases spread out throughout the country they were tracking.

last night it was over 9300. we are seeing dramatic increases. those numbers are not really reflective of necessarily v.a. care or how they are responding. as we see these massive increases throughout the country we will see them at the v.a. hows another marker to show problematic the pandemic and coronavirus continues to be. host: the pandemic even affecting robert wilkie's plans to attend the ceremony today at arlington national, correct? guest: i'm not sure if he will be there. he has close contact with ben carson, the hud secretary. diagnosedmonday was positive for coronavirus. secretary wilkie yesterday out of an abundance of caution cancel date speech -- canceled a speech to talk about acknowledgments and ideas for

the next year. one oppressed officials that he will skip today's events at arlington with the president and other officials, they said he will follow the science and is trying to work as best he can. we will see in a few hours if he decides to go or if he is clear. he said negative tests as recently as two days ago. i don't know if he had one this morning. as we have seen with the white house, these things can spread quickly. the interaction raises concern. host: it is likely to be a rainy morning at arlington national put the ceremony will go on. that's coming up at 11:00 eastern. the president, first lady, mike pence, and the second lady expected to attend. we will have it on c-span, c-span.org, and the c-span radio app. leo shane, president trump ran

veterans,ord with the talking about veterans choice and other issues. veteran -- is veterans affairs a successful part of the administration? guest: there are a lot of items the president can point to and say he had done reforms he promised. of then to think some things the president highlighted are not necessarily the biggest improvements. he talked about the v.a. choice act. i conflated that with the 2014 act passed under obama. mission acte v.a. that expanded these programs. the distinction that gets to -- he promised to expand the amount of community programs, community clinics veterans can go to. congress gave him the authority for that.

legislationinto law that is supposed to report more accountability at the v.a. one of the things he has not talked about in recent months but is a pretty revolutionary move over there, and i talked to secretary wilkie about this, the overhaul of the department's electronic medical records. for years they have been in a separate system from dod. so when service members come back on active duty, they have to switch over all the medical records. if you have an operation in service, the v.a. doctors cannot necessarily see that. we are in the middle of a massive $10 billion plus project. that will be a lasting legacy if it comes together successfully. it is something the president does not often mention. the president on numerous occasions has said he has completely reformed v.a. and

there are no problems. that is certainly not true. we have seen quite a few issues still at v.a. a lot of frustration over access, over -- wait times have improved. there are concerns over the politicization of the department like we have seen with the military. our decisions being made to force more dollars outside the v.a. rather than hiring folks who work at v.a.? compared to some other issues, i think the v.a. was something he could run on. the president's message was sometimes jumbled between what he thought he did and what he actually did. host: how many veterans are there in the u.s.? guest: right around 20 million now and around 9.5 million are registered with v.a. for healthcare services. hasof the big issues v.a. dealt with is the issues of veteran suicide.

one of the struggles is they have seen a fair amount of success reaching out to veterans in mental distress or emotional need who are connected to the v.a. system. it is fewer than half of the entire veterans population. the key has been how to get those last 11 million, 10 million folks into v.a. when they need to be. them sohey connect with if they do need help they know where to go and how to use those services. one of those from louisville kentucky. this is winnifred. you are on the air. go ahead. .aller: i am a vietnam veteran i am calling concerning the actions of president trump. he said he was one of the greatest presidents since

abraham lincoln. can you hear me? host: yes, go ahead with your comments. respect, i think he is in that he has created so much negativity and attempted to pull down our statue of liberty. he has called our military suckers and losers and i think he wed be satisfied if he could create through his negativity -- he would be satisfied if he could create through his negativity total warfare. host: in their reaction, leo shane -- any reaction, leo shane ? guest: i did not catch the beginning of his comments. there are some things the president can run on and be proud of but it has been a controversial four years, and a lot of the claims he has made on veterans have not been true.

he has expanded care but on the campaign trail he said he came up with the idea of veterans choice. at that is not true. there are decades of experience of veterans going to private sector care for their health care. they have been trying to pass years,r 40 years, 50 those numbers seem to be nonsense. they seem to be numbers he is pulling out of the air. there have been folks within the administration and within veterans affairs who have tried to justify the timelines he puts on these things but it is difficult to figure out if there is any real figure behind there. host: next is galena park, texas. go ahead. caller: thank you for having me on. mr. shane, i wanted to say a comment and decor -- a question.

fired mark esper primarily because of disagreements. question is can you describe president trump's strategy in approaching north korea because he did not give into kim jong-un's request that he was able to reduce tension without starting a war. caller: -- it is on the esper issue, a variety of things for me. the washington post reported that esper had an appearance a few months ago that -- where he was asked what it was like working under president trump and the president did not feel that trump -- that esper praised him enough. -- renaming bases

named after confederate generals , that is something esper worked with people on the hill on. we appear to be in the final days of this administration and to jettison yet another defense secretary injects a lot of instability into an area where both democrats and republicans do not want to see national security be an unstable place, do not want the pentagon to be in turmoil. korea,subject of north very complex foreign policy promised to has handle this differently. of thes to be the eye beholder. we have seen north korea take wee aggressive actions, but have also seen the relationship between the north korean president and the united states trumpent, president

working together, talking at least, having some sort of rapport with each other. if you want to be generous about that, you can say that his progress, that is moving forward in some way. on the insurrection act and the firing of mark esper, was there a sign of heightened readiness for the national guard for the anticipated disruptions after the election? quite a few were national guard units who were put on notice. some were partially activated to get ready. .t is hard to say some will look at that and say that is a major concern because oh my god we are going to have the military on the streets after an election. throughassive protests

the summer. we have seen uncertainty with the ongoing pandemic. guarde sense to have the ready in case there was a something. we did not end up seeing much of anything in terms of violence. we saw quite a few people take to the streets in major cities bidensresident elect results were announced. i do not -- i am not sure it amounts to anything other than responsible planning. huntington, pennsylvania, next is tina. caller: i would like to thank every veteran. my dad was one. i think you from the bottom of my heart. i would like to -- i thank you from the bottom of my heart.

i would like to say one thing. when people take the oath they vowed to protect the united states from all enemies foreign and domestic. we have more domestic enemies than we ever have had. all of the violence over the summer? that is domestic terrorism. you are pulling down statues of people you do not agree with. that is terrorism. they are veterans. general lee is a vet whether they like it or not. it is sickening what is happening in this country and i ill not call him, though voted for him, i will not call until he ist-elect a verified president, but i have a feeling once that happens we are going to see more of the same. you are going to see more of the

disrespect and it is sad. it is time for these parents to step in, do their job, teach their children. this is not about white and black and police brutality. they are taking us back. in minnesota the national guard was used. how widely was the guard used? caller: i am -- trying to remember the numbers. were related to pandemic response. somewhere related to unrest. it was a mix of different -- to unrest.elated it was a mix of different missions. is, you know -- the guard has

a different role than active duty military. about active duty military deploying on american soil, that is a major line, that is something presidents in the past have not wanted to cross. it would have to be a clear national emergency for that to happen. it happened after 9/11. the guard is seen as a nether emergency tool -- another emergency tool for state governors. ring them in the wake of a hurricane, bring them in the -- bring them in the wake of a hurricane, bring them in the wake of unrest. was definitely out there, assisting. folks on ase different level.

these are not folks who are trained in conflict de-escalation, who are trained lawocal -- local enforcement priorities or techniques. if you signed up to help in the case of an emergency, thought you would be doing hurricane support, and you are told someone is taking down a statue of a confederate general, we were left in a position of going "what am i supposed to do? is this something i am even supposed to deal with?" place and it is a place where real leadership is important to give these folks clear ideas of what is expected of them. one of thetedly issues of disagreement between president trump and the former secretary of defense mark esper is secretary esper had been in

favor of congressional language that would allow the renaming of u.s. military bases named after confederate generals and soldiers. where does that stand in the proposed defense bill, the 2021 defense bill? guest: i believe my colleague has a story going up right about now about this. there are quite a few lawmakers pushing today to emphasize the in there.hould stay the president and the defense department should not try to water it down. there are two different versions of that massive defense policy bill, one from the house and one from the senate. both include language to conduct a study and change the names of these at least 10 bases honoring confederate generals, a review

of other buildings named for confederates. there seems to be some consensus at least. there are a few republicans pushing against a this still but there are enough people from both parties to pass this in separate drafts of the bills. we are seeing a push to include it in the final version and isn't watered down too much. secretary esper before he left was closing -- was working closely to find some middle ground for this the dod could be comfortable with. president trump has said this will not be in the bill and if it is he will not sign it, even if that means vetoing language that authorizes bonuses. from a veteranr in rochester, new hampshire. thank you for taking my call. i want to comment on the old

draft dodger trump. i think he got five deferments to keep him out of the military and i think he should keep his hands off the military and let the military, who seems to know what they are doing a lot better than he does, and that is basically my comment so thank you very much. from we had a comment michael in portland on twitter vet, obama,not a not a vet, trump, not a vet, biden, not a vet. trump's explicit militarize asian -- was trump's explicit ation of space a bad move? up.t: this has come

there needs to be an appreciation of the military but the military is under civilian control in america. while there is experience, a breath of knowledge that comes from serving, it is not a disqualifier. as we see a smaller and smaller percentage of the country with military service, this is inevitable. that biden isoted a military father. his son served overseas in iraq while he was vice president. he shares some experience of military families who have seen a loved one deployed overseas. this hasace force, been the hot potato. i wonder often if the space force would be as controversial or viewed the same way if a trump or not president.

fore were quite a few folks the airspace -- air force's space programs to be separated. not putught it did enough emphasis on space as a domain. not looking at deploying giant space lasers right now. it is an area where communication satellites for much of the country that much of the country is dependent on, the military already has missions, the separation into another space force is meant to better fund those missions in space. there are certainly those who want to militarize space, but i am not sure we are necessarily added to space -- place where we are looking at a massive shift to that attitude with the

military at large. host: we will hear next from dale in charlotte, north carolina. a coupleeo, i have statements and a couple questions. the first statement i want to make is robert ailey -- robert e. lee is one of my cousins. if you write a story on robert e. lee, i hope you will show or expose to people how many black people that robert e. lee has in his family. the reason i brought that up is because of the confederate statue and how these statues are being torn down. one thing that concerned me as i inc. in corporate america -- is , noink in corporate america one wants to tear down corporations. it with statues, it is a start

that may at least let people know that if we take down statues that symbolize oppression or hatred or ,isagreement based on principle maybe we can transfer that into the corporate struck -- corporate structure. my father was a veteran. he fought in world war i and world war ii. i brother was a veteran. brother was ay veteran. he fought in iraq. he served as military police. up.my brother cannot get he was affected by agent orange. it is horrific to see somebody who gives their -- gave their , memorythis country going bad, and you cannot

interact with them and let you know how much you love them because they have been damaged by defending this country. when people who fight for this country, i understand they get loans given out on the government to purchase housing, it is my opinion that if you fight two wars for this country when you come back, you should not have to apply for a loan to buy a house. the american government has enough money -- we are the richest country in america. we should be able to guarantee them a home when they come back if they have served our country in at least two or three wars. you callingeciate in there. leo shane, any thoughts for our color? -- for our caller? hast: obviously his family

served quite a bit. i hope as we look at the election results, that everyone can take a few months -- a few minutes and appreciate the military families who have had to live through the aftereffects . for a lot of veterans it is a great experience serving in the military. you make lifelong bonds. for many there are lifelong health issues that cannot be made up. it is veterans day. it is a day to honor these folks. i hope we can at least i'll take a moment to remember that. take a moment to remember that. issueerate statues ion not only for the military -- statues are an issue not only for the military but for the whole country. should every mention of it robert a. lee be wiped from the books?

no. that is not the same as having statues of him all over. loans, health care, this has been the struggle your after year, administration after administration. what does the country of veterans afterwards -- the owe veterans afterwards? tois easier for veterans transfer benefits to their families. v.a.aller mentioned the home loans program. a lot of people in concept would but the concept -- money behind that is the major thing. we have seen a gigantic growth in the v.a. budget over the last

20 years. the projected budget for fiscal billion dollars. that is larger than any of the military services. the entirety of the budget was dollars.illion he mentioned agent orange, concerned now with exposure, some of the brain cancers we have seen, what will be the next health issue the country will 450 years --with years and how do you balance that with other priorities? these are issues that as much as the v.a. gets pushed aside a lot of the time, and frankly ignored when we are talking about some larger federal issues because everyone likes veterans, there

is a real budget and financial issued the country has to grapple with in order to make sure we are keeping faith with those veterans. host: congress approved some additional spending last night, night reported that last congress passed veteran suicide prevention legislation. acts called the compact passed by the house by a voice presidentow heads to trump for his signature. let's hear from larry on our veterans line. welcome. caller: thank you for taking my call. there are a lot of lies that you have put out and i would give you -- like to give you an opportunity to clear those up. your individual talking from the veterans time talked about

bounties being put on americans in afghanistan. how much were those bounties? do you know the dollar amount? guest: i am guessing he is talking about the previous guest because we have not broached this issue. host: i do not think we have talked about this, larry. caller: i asked how much was the bounty? caller iselieve the referring to the reports that russia was paying bounties to taliban fighters, afghanistan insurgents to go out -- go after forces. this is from man intelligence are part that was floating intelligencem am report that was floating around ane white house -- from

intelligence report that was floating around the white house for months. it was an informal arrangement according to the intelligence. a lot of the controversy was not so much on whether or not the report was completely verified or whether or not russia was doing that but on how seriously the white house took that report. there did not seem to be a lot of response from administration officials on that or a lot of investigation into it. with a lot of these things, was this something formally from the russian government? was it from a splinter group of the russian government? was it someone posing as the russian government? we don't know because intelligence services did not release a lot of information and president trump dismissed it as a made up report made to hurt him. still a lot of questions, still a lot of worries on where that

stands. true, u.s. troops serving in afghanistan, that is a major scandal and something would have hoped the white house looked into. the: leo shane looks at biden administration, the v.a.. his team includes former v.a. leaders. it is early obviously but how is the biden administration shaping up in terms of its approach to the v.a.? guest: the issue of transition is caught up in the ongoing legal challenges. when i spoke to secretary wilkie this week he said they are not making any overtures to the biting campaign. they are a lot -- when they are -- to the biden campaign. intenten campaign seems

on making sure that does not set them behind. the v.a. transition team seems as you mentioned a lot of alumni that have worked at the v.a., folks known in the admiral -- the obama administration, a of peopleal group coming at it from a democratic policy standpoint. we will see what that means in coming weeks. we do not know what priorities will be there. we know the biden campaign are looking into expanded caregiver benefits, some kind of tax break for caregivers of veterans to help ease things. they are concerned about too much money floating out of the v.a. and going to private sector care. they want to accelerate hiring thata. staff, something frankly the trump administration has wavered on whether they want

to do that. it is a difficult thing. 50,000 mentaling health professionals is not something you can do overnight. we are waiting to see attentional v.a. secretary names for president-elect biden. it is not clear what direction he will go. i have seen a couple folks floated. .ete buttigieg, tammy duckworth they are probably not folks who will end up in the position. i think the v.a. is kind of a complicated mass for people who want to keep climbing the political ladder. duckworth was in the vp conversation and she has been an effective advocate for the v.a. in the senate. we will see. , aave heard jason cantor

couple folks have been talking about pat murphy, first a rack war vet elected to congress. war vet elected to congress. she is on the biden transition team for defense. once we see those folks we will get a clear vision of what policy things to expect, what policy changes to expect. host: a quick question for you from david in north carolina. " what is the current status of pentagon audits?" it is not a quick question! hast: the pentagon struggled with audits for years. been an ongoing fight with congress.

are you keeping track of all your money? are you accounting for every dollar being spent? i would expect regardless of the administration change here this will be an issue that continues into the future. there is a lot of money in the dod and there are many folks who want to make sure there are not literally billions of dollars being wasted on things people are not paying attention to. bill into leo, thank you for taking the phone call. andve two issues -- bill leo, inc. you for taking -- thank you for taking the phone call. we cannot forget our marine buddies, semper fi to all those guys. to move myying second armor cab out of germany and put it into poland.

since i served their back in the vietnam era, i have a problem with that. there back in the vietnam era. i have a problem with that. people forget the history of why people protest in the streets and it is usually because of a personality or policy, sometimes both. lbj had a problem with his personality and his policy. so did richard nixon. those are two guys right there. if you want to go all the way back to the turn-of-the-century, woodrow wilson had problems after the war, after guys came back from world war i. protestn the social issue, it will be interesting to see if biden can calm some of those, if people feel he is moving in the right direction

and is making decisions that can calm some of that racial strife. that will be another major issue when hyden comes into office. he has said he wants to reduce the number of troops -- when biden comes into office. he has said he wants to reduce the number of troops in germany. are a lot of folks who feel this is more of a swipe at germany because of president trump's personality issues with angela merkel. we will have to see if whether or not when biden's folks come in there is a strategic reason to relocate these troops to poland. germany is a major hub not just troops but ag major hub for moving troops to the middle east. nearly everyone who deploys ends up going through there at some

point. really pulling back could impact the ability to move folks worldwide. "does this actually hurt national security? shane, read more at announcer: coming up at the top of the hour, president trump all he ate wreath -- will lay wreath at the tomb of the unknown soldier. senator bob casey will discuss 2020 election results and legal challenges with washington post reporters. live coverage starts online at c-span at work or listen with the free c-span radio app. -- c-span.org. --ouncer: c-span' his cast podcast looks at the electoral

college with both still being counted, and challenges facing the electoral college and potential reforms. of guests are the manager election law reform at the heritage foundation and brooklyn law school assistant professor of law. find the weekly wherever you get your podcast. host: we will spend the last program hearing from veterans. (202) 748-8000 in the eastern time zones. our coverage beginning at 11:00 eastern. the annual ceremony getting underway with the laying of the wreath. president trump will be there with the first lady. so will vice president pence and the second lady pence. back to the election.