let's get back to senator langford of oklahoma. i want to talk about russia, north korea. north korea first. how close is north korea to actually deploying a nuclear weapon? >> north crkorea has been testi over and over again for several years, and the focus has been to launch an intercontinental ballistic missile. obviously to get to south korea, japan, and broaden their range on there. there's been no secret on that and they've made that very clear. >> i heard from some experts who are deeply worried about north korea, within a few years, they could have 50 or 100 nuclear bombs. what are you hearing? >> they have continued to push their proliferation. there's no secret to this. they're also advancing how they're gathering nuclear material. so for north korea, what they have now and their testing capability, we can tell what they're able to do. but we don't know what they're able to do next, because that will be the next test coming out. >> south korea right now, a key u.s. ally, i understand they're extremely nervous about this potential threat from north korea, and they

democrats so much as, you know, the old faithful, lindsey graham, john mccain, new senator james langford joining in on that. how much trouble do you think they will be and what can you do about it? >> rex tillerson is an inspired and amazing pick. much like the boss he will be working for, president trump he is unconventional. don't you want somebody who already has these relationships, who has been in these countries, 50 countries, russia, china, yemen, the middle east, developing nations. don't you want somebody, lou, who already has been out there fighting for u.s. interests? and frankly, as secretary of state, we have a great relationship, the faith and the confidence of the president of the united states, which is important. lou, can you think of anywhere that is more swamp like than foggy bottom where the state department is? long before hillary clinton got there and used the state department as a concierge or foreign governments to bring their money for her foundation it has been swamp like. it is arrive with bureaucracy and murkiness and too many crocodiles in the water. >> they

you have senator mccain and graham and langford voicing concerns. that's a big deal when an incoming president has put a name out there. i think that's a bipartisan concern. you can see a number of us have been calling for a thorough investigation of the potential here after our cia assessment that russia has been involved in hacking at the heart of our very democracy, and all of that is going on at the same time that tillerson, who i would tell you, i'm sure he has excellent business credential, but donald trump has chosen to put someone in as a nominee who does not have foreign policy or diplomatic experience and has these ties to russia. i think that's the conflagration you see occurring right now. >> so, look, even some people who were not big supporters of donald trump at all during the election, like condolezza rice came out with a statement calling tillerson an excellent choice. it's not just her, it's bob gates, former defense secretary, it's james baker who has served in that post. why do you think they're all wrong? >> well, i think first

they see it as they're upset about russia, you just heard senator langford saying that. what are you hearing from establishment republicans? he has to get them on board here. >> absolutely. as david said, there's a disconnect here. i cannot imagine that bob gates or condi rice would be promoting a candidate that they thought was in the tank for vladimir putin or russia. i'm not -- you know, there's the expression, "keep your friends close and your enemies closer," i'm not saying putin is an enemy this is someone they know. >> gates said putin is a cold-blooded killer, that's his description. >> i spoke to a very senior former white house official who's very respected, who knows tillerson very well and he said to me today, i think he will be a great secretary of state and that he understands the difference between being the ceo of exxon and representing the united states of america. >> jeffrey, i interviewed rex tillerson before and actually was -- it was a broad-ranging interview on exxonmobil but also about some of the issues pof what the company at the time was doing o

mccabe. >> thank you, chairman langford, ranking member heitcab. i also appreciate to be here to testify on the epa final rule setting the annual bio standard for 2017 and the diesel for 2018. the rfs program began in 2006 under the energy policy act of 2005 and was sub quently modified by the energy independence of 2007. that law's stated goal includes moving the united states through greater independence and security and int creasing productions of clean, renewable fuels. in increases every year to reach a total of 36 billion gallons by 2022, including 21 billion gallons of advanced biofuels and tools known as waiver provisions to adjust the statutory targets in specified circumstances, including where they could not be met. it requires annual standard. total advanced, biomass-based diesel and celulosic. these advance what must be blended into transportation fuel. epa is committed to successful implementation of the rfs program and in the past year has bp an active and productive one for the program. one of our chief priorities has been timely is

democrats so much as, youknow, the old faithful, lindsey graham, john mccain, new senator james langford joining in on that. how much trouble do you think they will be and what can you do about it? >> rex tillerson is an inspired and amazing pick. much like the boss he will be working for, president trump he is unconventional. don't you want somebody who already has these relationships, who has been in these countries, 50 countries, russia, china, yemen, the middle east, developing nations. don't you want somebody, lou, who already has been out there fighting for u.s. interests? and frankly, as secretary of state, we have a great relationship, the faith and the confidence of the president of the united states, which is important. lou, can you think of anywhere that is more swamp like than foggy bottom where the state department is? long before hillary clinton got there and used the state department as a concierge or foreign governments to bring their money for her foundation it has been swamp like. it is arrive with bureaucracy and murkiness and too many crocodiles in the water. >> they

james langford joining in on that.ow much trouble do you think they will be and what can you do about it? >> rex tillerson is an inspired and amazing pick and much like the boss he will be working for, he's unconventional in terms of secretary of state. don't you want somebody who already has a relationship, who has already been in these countries, over 50 of these countries, russia, china, yemen and the middle east, the developing nations? don't you want somebody who already has been out there fighting for u.s. interests? and frankly as secretary of state we have a great relationship and faith and confidence of the president of the united states which is important. can you think of anywhere that's more swamp like than foggy bottom where the state department is? long before hillary clinton got there and used the state department as a concerning for foreign nations to bring their money, it' it's full of controv. people are going the push back. they are trying to conflate many different things. but this is a strong inspi

democrats so much as, you know, the old faithful, lindsey graham, john mccain, new senator james langfording in on that. how much trouble do you think they will be and what can you do about it? >> rex tillerson is an inspired and amazing pick. much like the boss he will be working for, president trump he is unconventional. don't you want somebody who already has these relationships, who has been in these countries, 50 countries, russia, china, yemen, the middle east, developing nations. don't you want somebody, lou, who already has been out there fighting for u.s. interests? and frankly, as secretary of state, we have a great relationship, the faith and the confidence of the president of the united states, which is important. lou, can you think of anywhere that is more swamp like than foggy bottom where the state department is? long before hillary clinton got there and used the state department as a concierge or foreign governments to bring their money for her foundation it has been swamp like. it is arrive with bureaucracy and murkiness and too many crocodiles in the water. >> they are l

. >> reporter: this is george's defense attorney, robert langford. >> there is absolute reasonable doubttiaffay's involvement in this case. >> reporter: those surveillance videos, for example, that the prosecution found so damning? none of the hammers they bought was the actual murder weapon. and besides, most of what they bought together was simple --and innocent camping gear. george helping a man in need, as usual. >> he thought he was helping out noel stevens to live out where noel wanted to live, which was outside of town. >> reporter: as for the 87 phone calls the prosecution said proved george and greyhound had conspired to kill shauna, there was nothing sinister there, said the defense, just a man trying to contact his charity case handyman. >> i live out in that area. and cell service is notoriously bad. on top of -- have you ever tried to call a handyman in this town? it is ridiculously difficult to get hold of those kinds of workers to come do work. >> reporter: in fact, said the defense, the only thing the state had tying george to the murder was noel stevens's word. >> withou

lou: now the noise being created is coming from senators mccain and graham and langford. and some others in washington. and within your own party. saying they are just not too sure about rex tillerson and seemingly the president-elect himself. what is it going to take to make paul ryan and mitch mcconnell understand that they now have a partner who is the president-elect. >> perhaps it's been so long since we have had a strong conservative republican president for speaker ryan, for the speaker of the house to work with for senator mcconnell to work with. i think we'll see real change in washington, d.c. come january 20. we just heard speaker ryan talk about the positive sort of change. we'll see how the last 8 years have been so difficult for americans across the country. hopefully they will see how amazing it is that they can get things through, the bill they passed will be signed by the president of the united states. lou: your thoughts on a couple of the nominations for cabinet posts. ryan zinke for interior, governor rick perry for energy. these are. your reaction? >>

. >> senator langford. >> thank you both again for the ongoing service you've had for a long time and what you continue to have. i have a whole series of questions and i'll try to get through as many as i can. chief, you've been there for a whopping six months now and made a lot of progress and dug in a lot in looking a lot of things at this point, and we appreciate that very much. before you came in about five months before, in january of this year, the inspector general put out a report on the special operations group program, it is a program that was budgeted $8 million and came in at $33 million, in the inspector general came back and said there are no metrics attached or oversight. are you familiar with that report that predated your leadership there? are you familiar with the report? if you are, can you comment? if not, can you follow-up and what progress is being made there? >> i'm not, and i will follow-up. >> okay, fair enough on that. okay, in your statement that you put in, you made a comment, it was kind after an off-hand comment, but interesting. you mentioned voluntary r

. >> senator langford. >> thank you, both again for all the ongoing service you've had for a long time and what you continue to do. i have a whole series of questions on a multitude of different issues and i'll troo to get through as many as i can. chief, you've been there six months, and obviously you've made progress and dug in a lot in looking at a lot of things at this point, and we appreciate that very much. before you came in about five months before in january of this year, the inspector general put out a report on the special operations group program, program budgeted $8 million, and it came in at $33 million in the inspector general came back and said there is no metrics attached to it for the special operations group. are you familiar with that report? predated your leadership there, are you familiar? if you are, can you comments and to not, follow up and what progress. >> i'm not and i'll follow-up. >> fair enough. in your statement that you put in, you made a comment it, was kind of an off-hand comment, but interesting. you mentioned voluntary return, and then you put a com

lou: now the noise being created is coming from senators mccain and graham and langford. and some others in washington. and within your own party. saying they are just not too sure about rex tillerson and seemingly the president-elect himself. what is it going to take to make paul ryan and mitch mcconnell understand that they now have a partner who is the president-elect. >> perhaps it's been so long since we have had a strong conservative republican president for speaker ryan, for the speaker of the house to work with for senator mcconnell to work with. i think we'll see real change in washington, d.c. come january 20. we just heard speaker ryan talk about the positive sort of change. we'll see how the last 8 years have been so difficult for americans across the country. hopefully they will see how amazing it is that they can get things through, the bill they passed will be signed by the president of the united states. lou: your thoughts on a couple of the nominations for cabinet posts. ryan zinke for interior, governor rick perry for energy. these are. your reaction? >>

is a brand-new senator i came here and was sworn in with john glenn >> now oklahoma senator james langford talks about a recent report on government spending from today's "washington journal" this is about 35 minutes. >> sumac we are back at this smyrna here to talk about wasteful spending in washington the federal deficit by the way for 2016, 587,000,000,000, 587 billion, the federal debtebo more than 19 trillion. that equals about $165,000 perto america household according to the report, 247,000,000,000 in wasteful spending as inefficient regulations. joining us from capitol hill is joining us fromm capitol hill is the author offo: that report, the federal fumble, senator langford of oklahoma, republican., republican. thank you for being here. let's talk about, is the wasteful spending this year that you outline, any worse than other years, is it getting worse or better? spee-02 i don't think it's getting worse or better think were trying to identify ways to eliminate debt but it's kind of whack a mole when youin have this much of federal spending. what we try to identifies 100 examples,

. >> senator langford. >> thank you both again for the ongoing service for a very long time. i have a whole series of questions on multitude of issues. chief, you've been there a whopping six months and obviously made a lot of progress and dug in a lot rand looking at a lot of things and we appreciate that very much. before you came in about five months before in january of this year the inspector general put out report on the special operations group budgeted at $8 million and came in $33 million and the inspector general said there's no metrics attached to it or over sights measures for the special operations report are you familiar with that report, if you are, can you comment on it if not can you follow up on the progress being made. >> i'm not and will follow up. >> fair enough. in your statement that you put in, you made a comment, it was kind of on offhand comment quite frankly but you mentioned voluntary return and put a comma the least efficient and effective consequence. can you give additional detail about that. >> so voluntary return if you look back in time, basi

it was not a large lecture, but it would be in front of people like nelson langford and francis pollard, people who knew virginia history. i think they would be able to just smell if i had anything to say about southampton they did not already know. i had not given a lecture quite like this before. the library at the historical society opens at 10:00. i was there no later then 10:05. when i walked in the looked at me funny. were you supposed to give a research talk to our staff? no, i was told. the talks had taken place. they happened at 9:00. [laughter] although i was sure i made the mistake, and you can ask my kids, it is totally on me, i never got to give the talk. so, when the invite came to get the lecture, i will tell you -- get that old paper out and ready to go. we will see if i can tell you something today about america's most famous and most important slave rebellion. today i want to talk about something different, about what historians can bring to the topic. making arguments from the documents like the one i just referred to by found in the virginia historical society. nat t

senator langford has an article he wrote with senator scott finding our way towards each other across racial divide that is worth reading and it reflects how thoughtful he is. senator klobuchar was recognized by the school of journalism for being the leading senator in taking bipartisan bills and getting them signed into law. we have two great examples here of the folks who make a difference. if i could offer some closing advice, be willing to be engaged, learn from people who are different than you. live your faith and make a difference in the world because then you will find things that matter to you. we have to have an engaged, passionate electorate or democracy is not going to work. this will be a rough couple of years for us as we try to find a new accommodation with the new president. it is still america. the lights are still on. it still works as a democracy. elections, our governance and the sense of community depend on you. thank you for investing the time this evening and i hope we have offered some encouragement. >> i don't want to follow that. [applause] >> i want to and w

. >> thank you, chairman langford and other members of the subcommittee, i also appreciate the opportunity to be here and testify on the renewable fuel standard program and on epa's recent final rule setting the volume for 2016 or bio mask based for 2018. they began under the energy policy act of 2005 and would modify by the security act of 2007. that law stated goals included moving the united states through greater independence and security and replacing clean renewable fuel. they established targets for renewable fuel that increase every year to reach a total of $36 billion by 2022, including 21 billion gallons of advanced auto fuel. it included fuels for known as waiver provisions and specified circumstances, including where the volumes could not be met. the cleaner act for four different categories of renewable fuel, total, advanced, bio mass grade diesel. they produces an important of gasoline must blend into transportation fuel and must be issued by november 30th of each year for the following year and 14 months in advance for the category. epa is committed to successful implementat

senator langford and i held a hearing where we talked about employment regarding recruitment of millennial's and your personnel officer from the dhs team, it was a new burst of energy and so we are looking forward to hearing her report with some really creative ideas. i will enchant you want to point out the northern part. the bill that will get signed into law by the president, hopefully in the next couple weeks will put demands on you. that will inform the public and inform this committee and congress about what those threats are and what it takes in terms of personnel and equipment and technology to basically meet those threats. i just want to, once again, encourage you to not only meet the deadline but maybe bring it in a little early because as you can see, there there is a great deal of concern. there's also a great deal of publicity about what is happening on the northern border. with that said, i want to talk about canada. we had a great conversation yesterday. i think for the record here, if you you could reiterate the kind of things that you are doing with your counterparts that ca

. >>> my question for senator langford. senator mccain, in discussion with reporters this morning, kind of exasperated, said i don't want any more questions about president-elect. that's my write as a senator. first part is, do you think that is your right as a senator? second of all, what's your advice to your republican congressional colleagues and fielding questions? >> are you a student here? >> i am. >> don't we have the best students? >> that's a great question. >> that is. let me clarify my question on t on the senate republican side, what we affectionately call the gauntlet that we walk through. we've renamed it the trump gauntlet. there's a line of reporters that line at the hallway and try to stop us and catch us and ask us a question about something trump said ten minutes ago that they want to be the first one to ask us, when we haven't heard the whole context of it and say trump just said this. what do you think? i respond to reporters, i'm not trump's spokesman. i'm just not. i'm not trying to negate that. if y

. >> it's john mccain, it's -- langford. >> [ overlapping talking ]. >> one at a time. >> willing tout their country first. and instead of donald trump and i guess as well as my colleague here instead of putting our country first, going into the trump talking points and living in delusions and denying real y reality -- >> russia had to work -- >> take place in our electoral process, period. it's not going to change the election. but we need to investigate this. there are smart republicans saying the same thing. >> i think the senate will look into it. that's their their job. thank you very much for joining us live early on this monday morning. >> thank you, steve. >> you bet. if you are easily offended, you better plug your ears right now. ♪ have a holly jolly christmas. apparently the song you are listening to is offensive. a customer left this note at a florida diner creating a christmas controversy. they consider this christmas music offensive. ♪ say hello to friends you know and everyone you meet ♪ ♪ho,ho, the mistle toe ♪ . . . . >> a florida restaurant is serving up some holida

coming up thursday morning, oklahoma republican senator, james langford will join us to discuss unnecessary or excessive federal spending. california democratic mark desonia, examining president-elect trump financial interests. and house democrats agenda in the next congress. be sure to watch c-span "washington journal" beginning thursday morning. join the discussion. >>> all day saturday, american history tv on c-span three is features programs about this week's 75th anniversary pearl harbor. national archives, christopher carter, reads from deck logs, describing events on ships under attack in pearl harbor, followed by the casualty burial at the arlington scemetery. his remains were recently identified 75 years after the attack. then at 9:00, tour pearl harbor attack sites on the eye land of awahaa. december 8, 1941 speech to congress, asking for a declaration of war. followed by the pearl harbor 75th anniversary ceremony. co-hosted by the national park service and the u.s. navy. from 11:00 to 1:00, we're taking your calls and tweets. war at sea in the pacific, 1941-42, discussing the pac