>> absolutely. >> steny hoyer is the house democratic leader from maryland. he's joining us on the phone and we thank you for being with us on c-span. >> thank you very much. it's been a pleasure. ♪ >> c-span has unfiltered coverage of the white house, congress, the supreme court and watch all of c-span's public affairs programming on television, on-line, or listen on your free radio app and be part of the conversation through the washington journal program or through our social media feeds. c-span, created by america's cable television companies as a public service and brought to you today by your television provider. provider. >> next a hearing on the impact on covid-19 on nursing homes, held by the house select committee. testing capacity, needs, and personal protectiv

i would like to thank nancy pelosi majority leader steny hoyer, majority whip james clyburn, carin maloney -- carolyn maloney, and the late elijah elijah cummings. for bringing us to this historic day. i urge all of my colleagues to vote on h.r. 51 and, mr. speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman reserves. the gentleman from georgia is recognized. >> mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. >> thank you. i rise in opposition to h.r. 51, the washington, d.c. admission act. there is a lot more to statehood than a vibrant city. our nation's fathers thought it was not a state. they thought about it, debated it, rejected it. in fact, in those early days alexander hamilton himself proposed an amendment to allow a voting member in the house and that proposal bass rejecteds. -- was rejected. if the majority wants to go against the founders that's their prerogative. they could not ignore the intention behind d.c.'s current status. the constitution simply does not allow city governments t

but as of our briefing, he made it clear he hadn't heard back from steny hoyer.somebody wants to use this as a political thing, it is fine. everything is political nowadays. where i'm at is we need to -- >> but, congressman -- >> we need to get to an anser. >> you say everything is political nowadays. there is nothing political about the russians putting bounties on the heads of u.s. forces in afghanistan. isn't this the type of situation where it shouldn't be red state versus blue state. >> i totally agree. >> the democrats should have been brought to the white house and briefed on this. >> we were brought up, that is a question for him, not for me. what i understand too, they have now decided to do it tomorrow morning. so hopefully they see the same thing we did. and, you know, we'll all come out and look at this and say we're united against any russian threat to the united states of america. >> you feel the president is in that category as well? >> certainly hope so. >> all right, congressman adam kinzinger, we hope so too, thank you very much for joining us.

steny hoyer saying that he will introduce a statehood bill put to vote on june 26th.our reaction to that. is it time for d.c. to become a state in this country? would you support that measure? >> yes. and the fact that the president imposed his federal will on d.c. law enforcement two weeks ago, usurping the power of the mayor, that's beyond wrong to the citizens of washington, d.c. which is where i'm from, by the way. i was raised in washington, d.c. if i still lived there, i would not have a vote in congress. we have delegate eleanor holmes norton who has fought admirably to bring about equal rights for the people of washington, d.c. and it is time for statehood to come to washington, d.c. and i'll be supporting steny hoyer's bill. >> that is set for june 26th, according to his interview with "the washington post." before i let you go, i want to ask about a very important and symbolic conversation taking place in this country. that is about a petition to rename edmund pettus bridge in sell selma, alabama, after congressman john lewis. it is getting a lot of traction

steny. mr. hoyer: thank you. thank you, mr. engel. also want to say specifically, as i think all of you know, ms. spanberger and ms. slotkin have had direct involvement in the intelligence community. ms. slotkin worked in the white house for a number of years. ms. spanberger served overseas for the central intelligence agency. obviously also spent time at the agency and both very knowledgeable. i want to thank you for bringing your national security perspective to the meeting. the bottom line is this did not substitute for a larger briefing of all the members. after all, as has been pointed out the central issue in this case was whether or not russia is paying bounties to the taliban for the purposes of killing american armed services personnel, or civilians. we have nolele higher duty than to protect our men and women we send -- we have no higher duty than to protect the men and women we send into harm's way. this is a red flag. it either was not waved or the president ignored the wave. president truman said the buck stops here. pres

just this mornings house majority leader steny hoyer, he said republican members who walk around the capitol walk around without a mask showing his word, disdain, disdain for the colleagues and the rules. neil? neil: chad, was there much support, nancy pelosi raised this, steny hoyer had as well, making a federal edict, you will wear a mask, no matter story, vagueries of states that will become federal government policy, what did that? >> that is something dan kill dea democratic congressman from michigan added yesterday. extends around the capitol, around the country, dianne feinstein, democrat from california she wrote to the faa yesterday and also to the federal transportation agency asking that there be federal policy at least everybody would know what the guidelines would be, whether you're on an airplane, at the airport, in a metro station, on a bus. none of that exists right now. if these cases continue to uptick, chances are those calls for a nationwide standard will definitely increase, neil. neil: yeah. i bet you're right. chad, great job as always, my friend. much apprecia

just now congress majority leader steny hoyer was talking on the phone with reporters and he emphasizedow much he wants to work with republicans, how he hopes republicans offer their own feedback. this bill was introduced yesterday. they still need to go through a hearing process as well as a markup process. it is going to be a while, not until the end of this month until we see the bill being voted on. there is still opportunity for it to change and for republicans to start to support it. kevin: when i spoke with a couple of republicans in the past couple of weeks, including two members of congress, they said that on the issue of defunding the police, nonstarter. even joe biden said nonstarter. on the issue of looking into cops who have a record of racism, that is something they would be able to get on board with. is there any appetite to just look at that specific piece of this puzzle, at least to get some type of bipartisanship through? emily: it is always interesting when bills get negotiated in congress because sometimes there is concern, and it comes from both sides of the aisle,

we also said today, and steny hoyer repeated this several times during the meeting, this does not make up for a full briefing of congress. this was simply the first step. >> what do you want to see the president do? >> i said to see the president, first and foremost today, come out today and commit to our troops and the families of our troops, he will do everything in his power to get to the bottom of the reporting, that there were bounties. i also critical want him to commit, if he finds this intelligence credible, there will be repercussions for russia. what i think unnerved so many of us is the fact this reporting was out there, and the president has spoken to putin reportedly five times since march. so he is claiming he had not heard any of this. if that is the case, he should be very concerned about the intelligence operation, that he was not briefed on this, even if they're disputed claims, that he had not heard this before being on the phone five times with president putin. >> let's talk about that. disputed claims. intelligence is murky. intelligence is never unanimous, or very

house majority leader steny hoyer talked about the latest effort. >> this will be the first time that the house will have passed, and we're going to pass, a d.c. statehood bill. this is an issue that goes back to frankly 1788 when maryland was the first state to be asked, and to portion, a portion of it state to

beneficiaries of police money in the house are democrats, democrats bill pascrell and house majority leader steny hoyerw about that? who knew that democrats, democrats would be the beneficiaries of law enforcement associations and lobbying groups. some of the democratic party's most radical elements, however, like freshman congresswoman alexandria ocasio-cortez are far more outspoken in their push to rid this country altogether of police and law enforcement. aoc seem to be even a little too radical for george stephanopoulos. this, their exchange this morning. >> why is it necessary to take the money from the police? i understand your argument, the argument you're making about expanding social services, investing in social services, but the research does show that more police on the street means less crime. >> well, i think there's one question that is interesting here is that when it comes to funds, it's not always just about the number of officers in the street, it's about the police precincts that have tanks, that have military weaponry and, frankly, have a degree of, have a degree of material resour

on how site is steny hoyer of maryland and bill pascale junior. >> mike tobin in minneapolis, thank you very much. a fox news alert. california sheriff deputy is in critical condition with a bullet lodged in his head. the sheriff's office says he was ambushed coming out of the police station. another deputy was able to drag him to cover while engaging the suspect with gunfire, the shooter still on the loose but they released a picture. authority for asking the public to call 9 one one if they spot this person or know who he is. in this hour in dallas the president will meet with faith leaders, law enforcement officials and small business owners and is expected to announce his administration's plan for revitalization and recovery. kevin cork is tracking efforts to find bipartisan agreement on police reform. can it be done? >> reporter: this is the guidance so far as to when the president is expected to issue an executive order to implement police reform. soon. that is all happening while lawmakers on capitol hill continue to work on it legislatively. to two front battle with a single goa

just watch anytime on c-span whenever there's a major bill, nancy pelosi, steny hoyer, whenever theyoduce a bill the democrats will say two hours from the day, the first thing they do is say i give half my retirement to the republican. new york times journalist, that was just beyond the pale, they wouldn't even think of giving any time to someone like tom cotton. so i would argue the new york times journalist, although maybe when i wrote my book they acted not quite as left as the average democrats in congress. now they're acting even more left than the average democrats in congress. >> but doesn't that demonstratunderscore one of the points in your book edits eating worse and worse, less in terms of diversity and tolerance and more ideological? >> yes, i agree so people are getting their information from the mainstream media but they have no idea what's going on on the other side. >> one little anecdote on this, there's a scholar named john who is a professor at columbia university, i would call him something of a right-leaning moderate. he's an afghan american man and he wrote abou

steny hoyer, the democrat for -- from maryland, he will take folks to the white house and see if we can bottom of it but obviously the president wasn't briefed and that is bearing out today. >> dan: emily, your thoughts. >> emily: ic two issues. one is whether the president was briefed or not and the credibility of single source reporting. there's a difference between full and intelligence products and singular operational intelligence and single force reporting and if something is put in front of the president or the nsa, it's a finished intelligence product. that means there were thousands of analytical manpower and exhaustive horsepower put into that thing before it rose to that level. singular operational or single source reports always raise verification and credibility questions, including what tina points out, who or what might benefit from agitation. to capris point, i think we have to acknowledge as americans that trump does have a bit of sensitivity with especially russian intelligence on the intelligence community. perhaps he wasn't briefed if they thought he won't believe us

a conclusion that house majority leader steny hoyer today seemed to agree with. >> i also agree withohn bolton who said it was inconceivable, from his perspective, that there is not a cause for briefing on this matter of such importance. apparently, that did not happen. i left the white house with the impression -- and the president has said he was not briefed. leave it at that. lou: and leave it at that. the democratic party may do that, but that's not its typical course, is it? the democrat party has managed to destroy its alreadity min you shoulded credibility -- already diminished credibility. they look inept and clownish in their efforts to still attack president trump. listen to them today as they struggled to i withdraw from their assertions that president trump had sat on information about russian bounties. >> nothing in the briefing that we have just received led me to believe it is a hoax. there may be different judgments as to the level of credibility. as we look at these, and i'm going to call them allegations because i can't confirm or deny any underlying intelligence --

the house majority leader steny hoyer called it an action worthy of censure. listen to what richard blumenthal just said. >> the president's abhorrent abuse of the military is what you'd expect from a two-bit dictator. from the president of the united states, it's repulsive and frightening. that's why we'll have a hearing in the judiciary committee to stop the militarization of our nation that is a threat to not only peaceful protests but all of our liberties. >> all of the white house officials's talked to today said they're proud of what president trump did and they think it was the right thing to do and pushing back on criticism by democrats saying hey, law enforcement was expanding the perimeter to help enforce the 7:00 p.m. curfew. the protesters were warned three times to move back. to use the president's words, this is what dominating the street looks like. he tweeted d.c. had no problems last night. many arrests, great job done by all. overwhelming force, domination. like-wise, minneapolis was great. thanks, president trump. he wants mayors to follow s

steny hoyer the house majority leader has indicated they are going to vote on this bill on the 25th of june. democrats in the house are very concerned about this executive order by president trump. they say it's insufficient. here is the main architect of the bill in the house of representatives, karen bass, she is the chair of the congressional black caucus. >> we have to do something significant. we can't do anything symbolic. we can't say what we're going to do now is study chokeholds and study this and study that we need to take action. >> mitch mcconnell says that the house bill is going nowhere. he believes this is kind of a federal overreach by house democrats. keep in mind, bill, that most police policy is decided at the local level and not in washington, d.c. and really what mitch mcconnell is trying to do here is get the jump on house democrats by potentially putting that bill on the senate floor tomorrow. but he will also dare democrats to filibuster starting it if they don't like what senator scott is putting forth. bill? >> bill: thank you, chad pergram on the hill. differ

now an aide to the number two house democrat steny hoyer says they reached that agreement, and a handfuldemocrats will get a briefing tomorrow at 8:00 a.m. from white house officials. they're saying, jim, this is not a substitute for the all house members briefing that democrats are demanding. amid all of this, jim, there's still a coronavirus pandemic that's escalating as you know, and the president is thinking anything but that. with coronavirus surging to record levels in the united states, president trump is talking about anything but the pandemic, instead in flaming racial tensions between americans, attacking democrats, knocking down the plot to kill american troops. with cases climbing, the president is referencing the coronavirus in two out of more than 100 tweets. >> this is a very serious situation and the window is closing to take action and get this under control. >> vice president pence making a rare plea for americans to do the same. >> wear a mask in effected areas. it is a good idea. >> reporter: the comments a notable shift after they had massive amounts of people indoor

we know steny hoyer, adam schiff and those are among those democrats are receiving a briefing and then we will hear a statement from that. what do you expect we will learn this morning? >> i'm not really sure what we will learn because sadly everybody denies. the taliban denies, russia denies and even the president denies. what i want to hear and what democrats need to hear is that the president and the problem here is the trump administration has been variably ambiguous when it comes to russia. we certainly know that russia is leery as fundamentalism is rising, but again on the other hand if they accept these denials. and i'm fearful that the democrats won't be fearful with what the president say because i don't think the president will call out russia. >> we cannot assume a thing until we hear from them and get their side from what they learned at the white house this morning. meanwhile, matt, the question is from the white house, who knew what and when. nancy pelosi was asked that question and here's how she responded. >> it seems clear that the intelligence is real. the question is

you know, steny hoyer was saying that, you know, he wanted -- he was concerned that the president wasn't briefed on this. that's something we heard from other people, other lawmakers. adam schiff said the same thing. this is something clearly in their view would have risen to the level that the president should have been aware, but apparently according to the democrats they were told today by the white house officials that that didn't happen. which has been the white house's line since this story first broke. but broadly speaking, this is just the beginning, and that was -- democrats made that clear. we know the president or the white house is going to brief some other senate republicans about this. but there is more, questions continue to pile up and the white house is according to these democrats coming out of this briefing, you know, not supplying the kind of answers and the document and information they're demanding and so this is just going to continue, ayman. >> one of the points that congressman schiff brought up was his -- what appeared to be a criticism of the president's respon

that was house majority leader steny hoyer following the briefing he and a handful of democrats receiveday about the reports russians offered the taliban money to kill u.s. soldiers in afghanistan. democrats want to know what the president knew about the intelligence and when he knew it. they are concerned that the intelligence either did not get in front of the president for political reasons or that president trump saw the intelligence and ignored it because of his relationship with vladimir putin. but republicans who were briefed separately from democrats say the intelligence was not strong enough to make it to president trump. >> after a very long briefing, i'm confident that president trump didn't know about the reporting. there's some confusion in terms of our own intelligence and it just didn't rise to the level of the president at that time. >> joining me now is one of those democrats who was at the white house briefing this morning. michigan congresswoman serves on the armed services committee and prior to taking office, she served in defense and intelligence positions under pre

minute from maryland, my good neighbor and good friend, the majority leader of representatives, steny hoyer. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman maryland. mr. hoyer: i'm going to leave my on. not because it's not safe for me but for you. it represents e the best of america. from maryland. aryland was a slave-holding state. i represent the district that probably had the most slaves, from the my friend first congressional district. were many ere sympathizers for the southern had that would have maryland join the confederacy. were, of course, wrong. but i want to tell my friends states who withdrew to whose states tried destroy the union that they to remember that this without ok them back condition, with full citizenship to vote.ight the same for do fellow citizens. mr. speaker, i rise in strong of this bill and i thank delegate eleanor holmes norton her extraordinary quest, the prize to e on ake sure that the citizens she represents have full citizenship. . i'm proud to stand with her in supporting statehood for the people of the district of columbia. on this mask the

>> peter, this is a delegation led by steny hoyer.udes the chair people of the relevant committees. adam schiff from intel, chairman of foreign relations, armed services and a handful of members with specialties in this area. we expect leader hoyer to brief reporters around 9:30 when they get back from the white house today. i think it's a fair assumption that the response from the democratic lawmakers will not be quite as in line with the white house's talking points as was the response from republican house members who went to the white house yesterday. now some senators, republican senators we believe, are also getting briefed later today. we were told last night by senator romney that there is intelligence related to this that's available for senators to read right here in the capitol in secure rooms if they choose to do so. among lawmakers the concern at this point is less about who knew what, when, although that's part of this. and more about what, if anything, can congress do about this. this has been a three-year problem for t

i think majority leader steny hoyer said would make the lead and this piece of legislation, is it going to be sort of piece-by-piece, about right at police -- you know, sort of the police brutality issue first, choke-hold, things like that, or do you try to do something big and broad early? >> well, i think we really need to do a combination of both. i mean, frankly, if we go straight to the police issues, there's so many of them that are there in terms of police accountability and communities being able to hold police accountable. let me just throw out one, for example. there needs to be a national database. it shouldn't work that you could be a police officer like the one that killed george floyd, get fired, and then drive five or ten miles east or west and get another job. there needs to be a national database. we need to be able to prosecute police officers for a police officer to say, well, i was in fear of my life and why i killed the person even though i shot them in the back while they were running away from me, that is really not acceptable. i think first and foremost, is deal

that's the schedule according to the majority leader, steny hoyer. the house in at 9:00 a.m.iday morning. also we'll be in at 9:00 a.m. eastern tomorrow as well. a couple tweets and comments via social media about d.c. statehood. this is marie saying that house democrats are trying to make the district of columbia another democrat state. that would mean another democrat mayor. as well as all -- we know how disastrous that would be is what marie writes. jody saying, make d.c. a statement divide california into three states. california southern. northern california. and that would add eight new senators and represent one state whose citizens have been underrepresented and one state ho has never had state rights. this saying the proposed bill to make d.c. the 351st state is nothing more than political posturing. knowing it has zero chance to pass a right-wing controlled senate. this effort should be deferred until 2021 instead so that it could pass unanimously. matthew -- john is next out of west palm beach, florida. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you, sir? host: do

the house majority leader steny hoyer says they could put this bill on the floor, his word, soon, but given us a timetable yet. the speaker of the house, nancy pelosi, calls this a transformative moment in american politics. >> the martyrdom of george fl d floyd, gave a moment of national anguish as we grieve for the black americans killed by police brutality. reporter: let's run through the specifics of the legislation. it would lift part of the shield off called qualified immunity which protects officers from civil and criminal action. there would also be a registry to better track officers who could be problems if they skip from one department to another. democratic california senator kamala harris, whose stock as a potential vp candidate has gone up in recent days, says there needs to be a national standard for use of force by police. republicans are skeptical, many republicans would take their cues from president trump. expect republicans like freedom caucus chairman andy biggs of arizona to highlight the call to defund police as being out of the mainstream. >> if that becomes th

i don't think anyone would call steny hoyer a moderate, but he is the most establishment, old-schoolmocratic politicians like joe crowley. there.s upset potential what you have to remember is after aoc caught the world by surprise with her win over joe crowley, since that moment, all of these numbers have been on high alert for these kinds of challenges. general feeling is that crowley dropped the ball and none of these members nowadays are really going to make the kind of mistakes that he potentially made in 2018. host: last question about mail-in voting. some states have gone to all mail-in voting. biggest testke the so far for mail-in voting across the country. guest: i think it will be an interesting experiment. .here is no other way to put it this is an unprecedented level of mail-in voting. it will be a stress test for the election system and these various states, whether they can process and officially count all of these ballots. this means the result we see tonight may not be the final results. just to keep a little bit of caution when you are seeing the numbers come in, even

minute from maryland, my good neighbor and good friend, the majority leader of representatives, steny hoyer. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman maryland. mr. hoyer: i'm going to leave my on. not because it's not safe for me but for you. it represents e the best of america. from maryland. aryland was a slave-holding state. i represent the district that probably had the most slaves, from the my friend first congressional district. were many ere sympathizers for the southern had that would have maryland join the confederacy. were, of course, wrong. but i want to tell my friends states who withdrew to whose states tried destroy the union that they to remember that this without ok them back condition, with full citizenship to vote.ight the same for do fellow citizens. mr. speaker, i rise in strong of this bill and i thank delegate eleanor holmes norton her extraordinary quest, the prize to e on ake sure that the citizens she represents have full citizenship. . i'm proud to stand with her in supporting statehood for the people of the district of columbia. on this mask the

minute from maryland, my good neighbor and good friend, the majority leader of representatives, steny hoyer. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman maryland. mr. hoyer: i'm going to leave my on. not because it's not safe for me but for you. it represents e the best of america. from maryland. aryland was a slave-holding state. i represent the district that probably had the most slaves, from the my friend first congressional district. were many ere sympathizers for the southern had that would have maryland join the confederacy. were, of course, wrong. but i want to tell my friends states who withdrew to whose states tried destroy the union that they to remember that this without ok them back condition, with full citizenship to vote.ight the same for do fellow citizens. mr. speaker, i rise in strong of this bill and i thank delegate eleanor holmes norton her extraordinary quest, the prize to e on ake sure that the citizens she represents have full citizenship. . i'm proud to stand with her in supporting statehood for the people of the district of columbia. on this mask the

so i think the one that kind of fits in on that level is steny hoyer, who is the house majority leader from maryland's fifth district is facing a primary challenge from a woman named mckayla wilkes and it does kind of fit into that vain of a young progressive woman of color challenging a pretty entrenched establishment figure. i don't think anyone would really call steny hoyer a moderate, but he is most certainly kind of the most establishment, old-school of the democratic politicians like joe crawly. so there is upset potential there. what you have to remember is that after aoc kind of caught the whole world by surprise with her win over joe crawly. >> right. >> since that moment, all of these members have been on high alert for these kinds of challenges. the general feeling is that crawly really dropped the ball and none of these members nowadays are really going to make the kind of mistakes that he potentially made in 2018. >> last question for you about mail-in voting. a number of states, maryland being one of them, going to pretty much all mail-in voting because of covid-19. >> i

additionally house majority leader steny hoyer announced the chamber will hold a vote on the george floyd justice in policing act one week from today. and a number of activists have gathered outside and near the supreme court in anticipation of possible demonstrations following the court's ruling on daca. it has not been an easy week for the president. the supreme court just ruled against the administration on daca. it is the second defeat the court has handed the white house this week alone. former national security adviser john bolton's new book paints a damaging picture of the president's fitness for office. in one passage in particular, bolton describes an exchange he had with former chief of staff john kelly in which bolton writes that kelly said, quote, what if we have a real crisis like 9/11 with the way he makes decisions? add to that new coronavirus hot spots are flaring up across the country, even as the president is still claiming it will fade away. >> i will tell you, we're very close to a vaccine, and we're very close to therapeutics. really good therapeutics. and -- but even