greg sargent is the author with us. if you want to join the conversation -- define the term democratic backsliding? it can mean different things for political scientists. there are overt and dramatic versions of it like coups and military takeovers. the type i'm referring to is more incremental and subtle. for political scientists, when there iscurs a level of partisan capture of the rules of political alarmingon that seem and undemocratic. these are subtle things and they are hard to measure. for instance, the advent of partisan gerrymandering during the last decade, where voter suppression. those represent democratic backsliding because the rules were captured for the purposes -- they were manipulated for the purpose of entrenching the power of politicians. how about the backsliding since president trump took office? guest: a lot of what you see with his attacks on our institutions come one could argue it is a slightly more overt version of democratic backsliding than the stuff we were saying before hand. the constant

are you greg sargent? host: you are on with greg sargent, what is your question.aller: you are an author, that's excellent. one time i wrote a story in grade school and the teacher said i was a good writer. i don't know if i'm a democrat or republican. i'm a disabled veteran. 70707 as i watched the officeise take the overseas. i signed on for six months so that i could do the six-month cruise, because everybody said, why did you go to duty for two years and then a shipyard? nobody is democrat and nobody is republican. we are just human beings and we have to stop labeling it. i'm a mule or an elephant. are if i'm happy or you sad, because we do have a problem and it's called immigration. youave a president that, know what, he might be a little bit unfair, but he speaks his mouth and when he came into this -- i will go off the teleprompter. i hate that word. they got rock's. and they can't wait to throw them at this poor man. host: sergeant? guest: there are all kinds of problems with immigration in this country, i think i understand the argument you're making. my a

host: just about five minutes left with greg sargent. the book, and uncivil war, taking back our democracy. morning,ur calls this cindy has been waiting in connecticut, a republican. caller: hi. thanks for taking my call. ason't like labeling myself a republican and i was a democrat, independent. i'm an american first and i don't even know where to begin with you. newsn, you could blame fox like republicans aren't supposed to have an outlet, only democrats are supposed to have an outlet. and i used to be an big fan of morning joe and now i can't even watch it. we throw around words that i don't hear on fox news quite frankly. but i think you don't give american people enough credit. get my news from all different sources, not just fox news, but msnbc, i read different newspapers, liberal. i think we are intelligent enough to make informed decisions, despite trump's rhetoric. we can discern and decipher. we are intelligent people. you don't give us enough credit. a country, misogynists, those are all words i hear on liberal media, nonstop

and washington post opinion letter greg sargent, joins us to discuss his book, on the civil war.nd come my discussion on the upcoming lame-duck professional session and this week's gop leadership elections. be sure to watch live a 11:00 a.m. eastern tuesday morning. joined the discussion. >> here is some of our live coverage tuesday. the confirmation hearing for five of president trump's judicial nominees including third circuit court of appeals nominee, paul nati, who is opposed by his home state coryors, bob menendez and booker. members this week consider a bill to remove the gray wolf from the endangered issues list. and come out members elected to fill seats to the rest of the year will before and and. in.ill be sworn later the senate returns to continue debate on renewing coast guard funding programs. , ae on c-span three discussion on advances in cancer detection and treatment at 8:30 a.m., and the senate judiciary committee holds a hearing on bank bankruptcy at 2 p.m. next, the supreme court oral arguments in the case deciding whether the federal government can applies sex

joining me now by phone is "washington post" opinion writer greg sargent, the one who spoke to schiff about all of this and also the author of an uncivil war, taking back our democracy in a age of trumpian disinformation and thunder dome politics. thanks for joining the show, greg. first off, what exactly will this investigation entail, and who does schiff want to talk to? what documents does he want to see see? tell us about it. >> thanks for having me on. representative schiff was appropriately circumspect about the details of what they're planning to look at, but in general terms, he told me that they want to examine amongst many other things about the saudi relationship with the united states, what the intelligence community did in fact conclude about the murder. to be clear, he absolutely did not characterize what the intelligence has found. he refrained from doing that. but the reason that i think it's important to look at what the intelligence found or important for the democrats to do that, is that we will then be able to better judge trump's representation of whether this is

post opinionon writer greg sargent talks about midterm election results in his book, "an uncivil war." and mike sabonis on the upcoming session and this week's house gop leadership election. be sure to watch c-span's washington journal live at 7:00 eastern tuesday morning. join the discussion. >> here is some of our live coverage tuesday. on c-span, the confirmation hearing for president trump's judicial nominees, including third court circuit appeals nominee, confirmed by robert menendez and cory booker. it returns at 2:00 p.m. after the midterm elections. members consider a bill to remove an animal from the endangered species list -- list. at 9:00 a.m. on c-span to the national action network's conference hears from potential democratic house speaker's about the legislative agendas and possible 2020 candidates. ther, the senate continues debate on renewing coast guard anding andlive on c-span3 come discussion on advances in cancer detection and treatment. that is at 8:30 a.m. the senate judiciary committee holds a hearing on bank bankruptcy 10 years after the fall of lehman brothers

then washington post writer greg sargent joins us to talk about the midterm election results and his book, "an uncivil war." the upcoming lame-duck congressional session, and gop house leadership elections. watch "washington journal," live at 7:00 eastern this morning. join the discussion. spearday on "q&a" jackie talks about her memoir, "undaunted." remote airstrip in guyana. and we were ambushed on an airstrip. ryan was shot 45 times and died on the airstrip. one defector of the people's temple died. i was shot five times on the right side of my body. i had a bone jutting out of my right arm, a wound in my leg the size of a football. i am 28 yearsgod, old, this is it. q&a".nday night on " ruledpreme court unanimously prohibited age disco nation applies to state and local governments. the case centered on firefighters outside of tucson, arizona. the firefighters were laid off at 46 and 54 years old, and filed a complaint, which made its way to the high court. justice ginsburg offered the opinion. this is a little less than an hour. next, the mount lemmon fire district. ms. guido and

>> this is the question that greg sargent from "the washington post" has said, what did the intelligence community conclude and is trump deliberately downplaying it, which would constitute active participation in covering up the truth on the crowned prince's behalf. adam schiff talks about a full debrief on what happened. if you could get that from the intelligence committee, he could take action. what could the intelligence committee do with adam schiff as chair? >> they could force in evidence into light which the cia has, which president trump is apparently rejecting or questioning. that is something within his jurisdiction to do. the only problem i had with that interview he did, and he certainly lays out a very good case for wanting to make this a priority when he comes in and takes over the intelligence committee in january. however, all of these investigations that democrats are hoping to enact against president trump really have to be done pretty strategically at this point. it's really important to remember that these democrats who came in to take the majority from republicans i