susan crabtree is also a guest this morning. i will give you mike in laguna woods, california, an independent. caller: good morning and happy new year, folks. my observation has to do with senator sessions' views on civil asset fo forfeiture. most viewers may not know that, but civil asset fo forfeiture is a malignant outgrowth of the drug war. senator sessions is a zealot with respect to the drug war. with civil asset forfeiture, the government effectively steals assets on suspicion that they are involved with crime. as a result, there is no burden of proof. there is no judicial process. the burden of proof is actually reversed. the victim of the government that is required to prove those assets did not come about because of drug proceeds. host: is your question how much this is going to come up in the confirmation hearing? caller: it is. one more final point -- one example of terrible abuse, 53 thousand dollars was stolen from a christian band and orphanage and church because of civil asset forfeiture simply because cashgroup

i was also think thank susan crabtree of "the washington examiner," a senior congressional reporter. host: thank you. guest: it was an honor to be with susan. she is very well respected . host: we will continue our conversation in the next panel of "washington . we will be talking with president of the lords -- committee william smith. first we take you back 20 years to january 1997 and senator jeff sessions first reach on the floor of the senate. he discussed his concern regarding absentee ballots for military. >> senator from alabama. i agree with the senator from texas. and u.s.15 years department of justice and i certainly army reserve as a judge advocate. -- where toilities protect the right of servicemen and all their responsibilities. and forcing the soldiers and sailors so that those service people can maintain their rights in their communities and not be abused while they were serving their country on active duty. to me, this is a very unhealthy it outrages me for three reasons. taxpayer money was used for it. , going into the court and the seeking to deny soldiers as sailors

roundtables today on the nomination of jeff sessions for attorney general, we are joined in studio by susan crabtree, senior congressional reporter for "the washington examiner," and steve flowers. i want to begin with you. in your columns since jeff sessions was nominated, you're confident he will be nominated for the post of attorney general. why are you so confident? guest: generally speaking, i think that confirmations for cabinet members are not as stringent as maybe supreme court judges or federal judges. alsog said that, he has been on thna

we will be joined by susan crabtree who has been following clark,this and kristin the director of the reuters committee for civil rights under law and william smith. morning atorrow seven and eastern time. a full day of programming on c-span2 book tv and c-span3 american history tv. i hope you enjoy the rest of your weekend. newsmakers is next. have a great weekend. >> here on c-span, "newsmakers" is next with republican congressman mark walker of north carolina. then, the national intelligence director and the n.s.a. director testified before congress about russian efforts to influence the 2016 presidential election. later, senator sheldon whitehouse and representative michael mccaul discuss consolidation of cybersecurity operations and other recommendations for combating cyberthreats. guest thissmakers" week is congressman mark walker of colorado. he will be seeing lots of him this year. the 47-yearld

susan crabtree and one of alabama's most respected political communis columnists, e flowers.a panel discussion. kristin clark will join us. she is president of the lawyers committee for civil rights under law. , the senatesmith committee former chief counsel. that is all coming up this morning on "washington journal." ♪ >> the c-span video library is an easy way to search and view c-span programs. to help through its use is dr. robert browning, executive director of the c-span archives. >> go to c-span.org, which is the main site, and look on the front page. on the left side are all the hearings and the presidential of events of that day, the political campaign events. right underneath that on the left side is a link that says recent events. they appear in the order they were on the network. you can search for a person's name. every person, 117,000 people, have pages that contain all their video. on that page is a link, a search box, and you put in a word. find as say you want to link. let's say they talked about climate change. >> members of the congressional black caucus to

roundtables today on the nomination of jeff sessions for attorney general, we are joined in studio by susan crabtree, senior congressional reporter for "the washington examiner," and steve flowers. i want to begin with you. in your columns since jeff sessions was nominated, you're confident he will be nominated for the post of attorney general. why are you so confident? guest: generally speaking, i think that confirmations for cabinet members are not as stringent as maybe supreme court judges or federal judges. having said

first, we will hear from susan crabtree.tatehouse, we will discuss senator session's latest political history in his years in both state and federal government. and then the committee for civil clark, ther kristin former senate judiciary committee will talk about the arguments that have been offered by those who support and oppose senator sessions. the washington journal is live at 7:00 eastern on monday morning. .oin the discussion michelle obama gives her final speech as first lady. conversation with sean spicer. and at 11 p.m., in other chance to see q&a with author rosemary stevens. last official remarks as first lady, show obama talked about the educational initiatives. twocalled on the nation's empower themselves with the good education. this is 30 minutes. obama: -- >> thank you to mrs. obaor

roundtables today on the nomination of jeff sessions for attorney general, we are joined in studio by susan crabtreeor congressional reporter for "the washington examiner," and steve flowers. i want to begin with you.

washington and chairma examiner reporter susan crabtree and steve flowers review the history of alabama and on capitol hill. and william smith look at the argument supporting and opposing the nomination. as always we take your calls and you can join the conversation at facebook and twitter. washington journal is next. host: good morning, it's monday, january 9, 2017. the house convenes at noon while the senate begins at noon. there are nine different come from asian hearing. also this week, donald trump's wednesday press conference in president obama's farewell address. that farewell address is where we begin, as president obama prepares to make his last major speech. a columnist criticize the president last week for talking much but saying little. he called it president obama's empt i

. >> thanks, susan crabtree. how much can you get done when the secretary is not there? we'll see.uch can you get done when there's a major ice storm in a good chunk of the country will ask that very question. so beautiful. what shall we call you? tom! name it tom! studies show that toms have the highest average earning potential over their professional lifetime. see? uh, it's a girl. congratulations! two of my girls are toms. i work for ally, finances are my thing. you know, i'm gonna go give birth real quick and then we'll talk, ok? nice baby. let's go. here comes tom #5! nothing, stops us from doing right by our customers. ally. do it right. whoo! look out. >> neil: all right. we have more nasty weather coming for a good chunk of the country. a lot of snow and ice and nastiness. we go to rick on what can be expected. >> one of the biggest ice that we've seen in a long time across the central plains. a long duration event going to monday. by the time it's done, we'll see a lot of people without power. you can see the cold air here. a big contrast between the cold air in place and

the congressional editor for the "wall street journal," susan crabtree, welcome to you both.et me share with you, aaron, is this the fox now guarding the hen house, on an independent office of congressional ethics used to, or could now throw members of conference, make findings, make them public, can we now trust to really we now trust to really complaint against themselves? >> well this is a reverse, if it goes through, and we are still getting details about what the new settable b. it'll be a reversion to before 2008. you might remember before donald trump adopted the phrase "drained drain the swamp," the democrats picked it up and they were trying to defeat george's bush. you might river names like check every month, duke cunningham, bob, these are all the schedules of about ten years ago, and as a result in about 2008, the democrats created this new independent entity to augment the work of the house ethics committee, but unlike the house ethics committee, it would be separate from lawmakers, run by an independent board, have its own investigators that could investigate w

i was also think thank susan crabtree of "the washington examiner," a senior congressional reporter. host: thank you. guest: it and a live look now at the lobby of thrump tower where we have seen -- trump tower where we have seen several people meeting with president-elect trump as they head up the golden elevators there. earlier senate majority leader mitch mcconnell was in talks with mr. trump. he spoke with reporters briefly after the meeting. senator mcconnell: well, the president-elect and i had a good meeting about the senate agenda which means confirming the cabinet appointments, getting further down the road toward repealing and replacing obamacare. we simply talked about the senate agenda and ready to get going once he gets down there. reporter: did you go through the vetting of financial records? mr. mcconnell: yeah, everybody will be probably vetted as they have been in the past. hopefully we'll get six or seven, particularly the national security team, on day one. inaudible] >> and that was earlier today. at 2:00 p.m. eastern, the u.s. house will debate legislation settin

roundtables today on the nomination of jeff sessions for attorney general, we are joined in studio by susan crabtree, senior congressional reporter for "the washington examiner," and steve flowers. i want to begin with you. in your columns since jeff sessions was nominated, you're confident he will be nominated for the post of attorney general. why are you so confident? guest: generally speaking, i think