chairman graham: senator whitehouse. senator whitehouse: thank you, chairman. to the panel for being here. cars are very dangerous things and they kill lots and lots of people. but there are superhigh utility pieces of equipment so we put airbags and seat belts in them and use them. bazookas don't have the same dangerer the utility so we forbid those. so question one is, is chinese 5-g more like a car or more like a bazooka? can you can safety around it or do you need to -- can you safety around it or do you need to try to prevent it? >> i'll go first, senator. in talking to some of our nato allies, they would tell you that 5-g does expand the possibility of chinese espionage, which is already rampant in their countries. they also -- senator whitehouse: car or bazooka? is it something you can add safety features? >> no. dr. clancy: i would go with bazooka in that the effects of a cyber attack are nonlinear. with cars the safety issues are linear. they affect individual vehicles and passengers of those vehicles who are making informed risk decisions in theory ab

senator whitehouse: yes. in the entirety of your previous career in the detcht justice, including as attorney general, have you ever referred to authorized department investigative activities officially or publicly as spying? not asking for private conversations. atty. gen. barr: i'm not going to abcure the use of the word spying. my first job was in c.i.a. don't think the word spying has any pejorative connotation at all. the question is always whether or not it's authorized and adequately predicated spying. i think spying is a good english word that doesn't have synonyms because it is the broadest incorporating all forms of covert intelligence vex. i'm not going to back off the word spying. i will say -- i use it frequently. senator white did the house: when did you decide to do it? was it off the cuff or did you go into that hearing -- blood pressure it was off the cuff to tell you the truth. en senator -- the senator -- the congressman from hawaii. senator whitehouse: go ahead. atty. gen. barr: when he ch

whitehouse: you are not mic 'd up. i just want an answer. : i think it's a bazooka, but for most foreign governments looking at this, it is a car. that's a fundamental issue we have to grapple with. sen. whitehouse: let me ask each of you, and just because your name is clancy, let me start with you. each of you, what is a plausible worst case scenario that we would face from the 5g huawei risk? dr. clancy: i think the worst case scenario is part of a global conflict. china is able to completely control the internet and fundamentally cripple our ability to do command and control in a major combat operations. senator whitehouse: dr. lewis. dr. lewis: the worst case can be huaweiould dominance, which would damage our ability to be innovative and chinese control of the telecom networks that would allow them to disrupt critical services. senator whitehouse: they could start writing programs and code and conduct their business in such a way american companies were effectively frozen out or -- disadvantaged? dr. lewis: the 4g

chairman: senator whitehouse. senator whitehouse a couple of : timing questions. you said that on march 5, mr. mueller came to you and said that he was going to not make a decision on obstruction, leave that to you. atty. gen. barr: he didn't say he was leaving it to me. senator whitehouse: but he was not going to make an obstruction. on march 24, you set up a letter describing your decision. somewhere between march 5 and march 24 you made that decision. when was that? atty. gen. barr: we started talking about it on march 5. and there had already been a lot of discussions prior to march 5 involving the deputy, the principal associate deputy and the office of legal counsel that had dealings with the special's counsel's office. they had knowledge of a number of the episodes and some of the thinking of the special counsel's office. so, right after march 5, we started discussing what the implications of this were and how we would proceed. senator whitehouse: you made the decision when? atty. gen. barr: probably on sunday the 24th. senator whitehouse: that is the day t

immigration system if they were involved in interfering in an american election, working with senator whitehouse and blumenthal to make sure if you hack into a state election system even though it's not tied to the internet that's a crime. i would like to do more to harden our infrastructure because the russians did it, some 400-pound guy sitting on a bed somewhere, they was russians. and they're still doing it. it could be the chinese. it could be somebody next, my takeaway from this report is that we've got a lot of work to do to defend democracy against the russians and other bad actors, and i promise the committee will get on with that work hopefully in a bipartisan fashion. the other campaign. the other campaign was nvestigated not by mr. mueller but by people within the department of justice. the accusation against the clinton -- secretary clinton is she set a private server up somewhere in her house and classified information was on it. to avoid the disclosure requirements and the transparency requirements required of being secretary of state. so that was investigated. what do we know? we

chair, senator whitehouse, as little as possible. in fact, we've made it even easier for small employers. initially our design had the employer providing notice to employees and asking them whether they want to opt out. we've changed that. and in fact, our record keeper, a census, now does that. essentially, all the employer has to do is provide the employee information to a census and then facilitate, as they do, with any other withholdings over time. >> once they've set up the withholding and they know what their employee wants, it gets disclosed to them, they're done. >> that's right. and mr. chair, senator whitehouse -- >> what's the response been from the small business community? >> generally positive. in fact, i was thinking of that when senator danes was asking his question. there are a lot of small employers who very much like this and are focused on running their business. there's one in my mind who runs an iconic sandwich shop who says i don't have an hr department, i got sand chiwiches to make. they view it as a very posi

in addition to that, i will tell you that sheldon whitehouse and i are working on a bill to actuallylaw a requirement that there be transparency in terms of communications between the white house and the attorney general when it comes to specific cases or investigations because clearly we are not aware that we cannot count on an attorney general of the the united states to follow the protocols and practice that has been traditional around transparency. we need to put something into law. >> how would that work? if you could bget it past the republican majority. how would you work? >> what we would require -- it's about transparency. what we require is the white house and the attorney general log the communications that they have as it relates to spervegci investigations or cases. they would keep a log maintained around what was the subject and the purpose of the conversation and then that information and that log every six months would have to be submitted to the office of inspector general and office of professional responsibility at the united states department of justice and also t

. >> kamala harris, amy klobuchar, senator whitehouse. they elicited some of the most damning answers from barr. his revelation he hadn't read the underlying evidence of the report before deciding trump didn't obstruct justice. his refusal to outright answer the question whether he had been asked to open investigations into anyone. then, of course, the trump-mcgahn interactions. >> thank you guys both. >>> the white house is rejecting a request from house democrats for documents related to the background check and security clearance process. they are looking into allegations they granted security clearances to some like president trump's son-in-law jared kushner. elijah cummings called the move the latest example of the president's widespreading growing obstruction of congress. white house counsel added fuel to the fire yesterday writing to elijah cummings that his committee appears to be putting public servants at riching as it seeks information on the way in which white house granted security clearances to jared kushner and others. elij

senator whitehouse. >> thank you mr. chairman and thank you to the panel for being herement we obviously see the problem of small and medium sized businesses trying to figure out how to manage a retirement savings plan and the difficult of that difficulty that 90% don't. which means that small business states like rhode island are often left with very little retirement savings. we also have the lesson, i believe, from the 401(k) plans to opt in versus opt out as a simple default switch can make a very, very big difference and help people out for the record, i see the heads all nodding just to be clear about that. i wanted to ask miss ross first, you mentioned my ira bill in your bill and i appreciate that. describe what you like in context of doing something, what are the key features you want to see in any bill that the committee would support for aarp to support that measure. >> the federal auto ira. it's very important that people have the ability easily to enter into the ira. that their investments are, have fiduciar

senator whitehouse? >> thank you, chairman. attorney general, you had a conversation with chairman graham earlier this morning, which you described the importance of to use chairman graham's words, hardening our ele electoral infrastructure against foreign election interference. i ask you, is anonymous election funding an avenue for possible foreign election influence and interference? >> yes. >> let's turn to the march 27th letter, which you received and read march 28th, the mueller letter. >> uh-huh. >> correct? >> yes. >> when did you have the conversation with bob mueller you referenced? >> on the 28th i think. >> the same day you read it? when did you first learn of "the new york times" and "washington post" stories that would make the existence of this letter public, the ones that came out last night? >> i think it could have been yesterday but i'm not sure. >> when they contacted you to ask for any comment? >> they didn't contact me. >> contacted doj to ask for comment? >> i can't remember how it came up but someone ment

i just want to get in a few more questions like senator whitehouse did. at your confirmation hearing you testified that in the absence of a violation of a statute the president would be accountable politically for abusing the pardon power. how do you reconcile that political accountability is available when the administration is refusing to comply with subpoenas and exerting executive privilege to stand in the way of that very accountability? >> as to a pardon? >> no. this was about in your confirmation hearing, you said in the absence of a violation of a statute, the president would be, quote, accountable politically, end quote, for abusing the pardon power if he did. >> but your question is abusing any power, not just the pardon power, is that what you're saying? >> mm-hmm. >> well, president -- >> it is hard to evaluate that -- >> the president has been held accountable before and as have other office holders. >> last question, are the president's actions detailed in this report consistent with his oath of office and the requirement in the constitution

. >> senator whitehouse. >> mr. barr, a couple of timing questions. you said that on march 5th, mr. mueller came to you and said that he was going to not make a decision on obstruction and leave that to you. >> he didn't say he was leaving it to me. >> he was not going to make an obstruct on march 24th, you sen the letter describing your decision. somewhere between march 5th and 24th, you made that decision. when was that? >> we started talking about it on march 5th and there had already been a lot of discussions prior to march 5th involving the deputy, the principal associate deputy and the office of legal counsel that had dealings with the special counsel's office. they had knowledge of a number of the episodes and some of the thinking of the special counsel's office. right after march 5th, we started discussing what the implications of this were and how we would view. >> you made the decision when? >> probably on sunday, the 24th. >> that was the day the letter came out. >> yes. >> you didn't make the decision until the letter came out. you must have told somebody how the write t

. >> senator whitehouse. >> mr. barr, a couple timing questions. you said that on march 5th mr. mueller came to you and said that he was going to not make a decision on obstruction and leave that to you. >> he didn't say he was leaving it to me. >> that he was not going to make an -- >> -- right. >> on march 24th, he sent out a letter describing your decision. somewhere between march 5th and march 24th, you made that decision. when was that? >> we started talking about it on march 5th. and there had already been a lot of discussions prior to march 5th involving the deputy, the principle associate deputy and the office of legal counsel that had dealings with the special counsel's office. so they had knowledge of a number of the episodes and some of the thinking of the special counsel's office. so, right after march 5th, we started discussing what the implications of this were and how we -- >> and you made the decision when? >> probably on sunday the 24th. >> that's the day the letter came out? >> yes. >> you didn't make the decision until the letter came out? >> no. >> you told s

that is unconstitutional. 0ur north america editorjon sopel is at the whitehouse.r has had to say. what's your assessment of his parting shot before he bows out of public life? this was a dramatic moment, he's not spokenin this was a dramatic moment, he's not spoken in public for two years so it was keenly awaited, what he would say. in essence he said look, donald trump goes free on a technicality, the department ofjustice says we cannot prosecute him. if we thought he was innocent we would have said so he was innocent we would have said so but we don't think that. this is a tape that will be played and replayed by democrats who want to damage the president because i think what this shows is there is still a huge question, donald trump has tried to characterise the report in full words like a perfect bumper sticker, no collusion, no obstruction. today that was flatly contradicted. donald trump has come up contradicted. donald trump has come up with a different interpretation as you might imagine. he says there was insufficient evidence and therefore in our country

from asian designed to engineer voter behavior by the time the us realized what had happened the whitehouse. have a new resident of fast forward to 2019 has europe done enough to avoid a similar fate well we'll find out next week 28 european union countries with 400000000 voters will decide who will represent them the next 5 years at the european parliament with so little time before the vote europe is understandably on guard the 3 year break sit or deal all along with growing euro skepticism means conditions are good for political intentions that are bad case in point online dissin from asian campaigns trying to influence voters the last year the e.u. commission set up a task force to deal with this threat a task force critics say its efforts may be too little too late teri schultz has this report. whoever you are wherever you are you can get involved european union institutions have poured enormous resources in to get out the vote campaign but have they invested enough in stay out of the vote efforts in ways to prevent malicious meddling it's not like there was no warning 5 years ago the

senator whitehouse told have to those began eleven forty five will do senator whitehouse and why don't we just come back. an hour later will break break for an hour and do those and have lunch so a white house thank you chairman attorney general you had a conversation with chairman graham earlier this morning which you describe the importance of to use chairman graham's words hardening our electoral infrastructure against foreign election interference i ask you is anonymous election funding an avenue for possible for an election influence and interference yes. let's turn to the march twenty seventh letter which you received and read march twenty eighth the mahler letter. correct yes. when did you have the conversation with bob mueller about that letter that you've referenced i think was on the twenty eighth same day that you read it. when did you first learn of the new york times and washington post stories that would make the existence of this letter public the ones that came out last night i think it could have been yesterday but i'm not sure when they contacted you to ask for any co

clockwork orange did cause a problem because there were these campaigners you know lord longford mary whitehouse who were trying to blame the various ills of society on a couple of films that they disagreed with straw dogs is another one they cited and what happened was that the tabloid press were writing really horrible stories and then there were some copycat crimes. and it became very difficult for us and he was being sent very nasty letters and people were threatening him so stanley said to the studio please please can i take the film off the screens in the u.k. because i can't live here otherwise and i think it is a testament to the great love and esteem in which he was held by the studios that they allowed him to do that it wasn't taken off the screen anywhere else there as a kid you realise the censorship was a continuous issue with your for the lead infamously am i think probably would lolita i wasn't so where a clockwork orange i was i was older than i was 1617. and it never made any sense to me because that film was so much part of my life you know malcolm was always around the house a

reporter: well, i asked the president about those comments as soon as he got back here this afternn whitehouse. no response. but just minutes ago, david, he was back on twitter, again insulting joe biden, making no apologies for what he said in japan, in fact, repeating almost word for word what he said about biden back there. >> the 2020 race is here. jon karl, thank you. >>> there are new developments tonight in the widening debate over abortion in this country. missouri's only clinic could close on friday. planned parenthood, which operates the clinic, reports the state says it is investigating, quote, a large number of possible deficiencies. it comes dames after missouri's governor signed a new law that bans abortions after eight weeks with no exceptions. and tonight, the supreme court has issued a two-part ruling on indiana's anti-abortion law, upholding its requirement that fetal remains be buried or cremated but keeping in place a lower court ruling that blocked the law's ban on abortion motivated by race, sex or disability of the fetus. >>> next tonight here, to the alarming scene, a l

. >> whitehouse gene schumaker, the moon landing as we know it wouldn't have existed. >> reporter: aretty big claim. but that's the way geologists remember it. in fact, they say their boss, a top gun at the u.s. geological survey, made a lot of stuff happen on that historic mission. >> originally they didn't want him to pick up any. >> didn't want any television. >> nothing. >> are you kidding me? >> not kidding. we worked the very hard here to use television in our field exercises and show them how valuable it was. can you imagine no television, the famous steps down the -- >> as bad as they were. >> as bad as they were, that is absolutely iconic. >> ready for me to come up? >> reporter: as the story goes, schumaker had a lot of convincing to do. >> he had to convince nasa because originally it was just a rah-rah plant the flag there. >> it seems so elementary to us. >> they didn't want to take a rock hammer, anything to hurt their suit and poke a hole in their suit. they didn't even want us to photograph the rocks. >> gene would talk to people there about the fact that there is no

we'll go senator whitehouse and why don't we come back an hour later? break for an hour, do the votes and have lunch. senator white house. >> you this, chairman. attorney general, you had a conversation with chairman graham earlier this morning in which you described the importance of, to use chairman graham's words, hardening our electoral structure against foreign interference. i ask you, is anonymous election funding an avenue for possible foreign election influence and interference? >> yes. >> let's turn to the march 27th letter, which you received and read march 28th, the mueller letter. >> mm-hmm. >> correct? >> yes. >> when did you have a conversation with bob mueller about that letter that you referenced? >> i think it was on the 28th. >> same day that you read it? when did you first learn of the "new york times" and "washington post" stories that would make the existence of this letter public, the ones that came out last night? >> i think it could have been yesterday, but i'm not sure. >> when they contacted you to ask for any comment? >> they

i will have a bit of a disagreement with my colleague, senator whitehouse, on this issue. i think he pharmacy benefit managers are big players in this debate. their business practices need to be part of the debate. if we are going to look at drug pricing. pbm's negotiate the price on behalf of the health insurance ,lans and they strike deals determining the availability of prices of prescription drugs for more than 266 million americans. i have got a lot of questions about how many patients benefit from what they are doing. the different pbm practices that are there tanned, and my opinion, to lead to higher prices for consumers, rather than cutting the price to the consumer. i would love to hear your comment on that. >> i think it is important to remember that the only people who set those prices are the pharmaceutical companies. practicesat pbm abusing secret rebates, for which there is a safe harbor under law because they are kickbacks, is a bad practice. i do not think it works on behalf of patients. we should remember that pharmacy -- pharmaceutical companies set the l

. >> tucker: during yesterday's hearings, senator sheldon whitehouse said he was outraged that the attorneyeneral would call fbi monitoring of the trump campaign spying. >> you use the word spying about authorized doj investigative activities. >> i think spying is a good english word that in fact doesn't have synonyms because it is the broadest word, incorporating all forms of covert intelligence collections. i will not back off the wordil spying and up until all of the faux outrage a couple of weeks ago, it is commonly used to refer to authorized activities such a as -- >> it is not commonly used by the department. >> it is commonly used by me. >> tucker: barr, of course, was right, almost always the guy who speaks in plain and clear english is right. that is why he is speaking plainly because he is not trying to hide anything. a new "new york times" story reveals the previously unknown informant was used to spy on the trump campaign. a woman who went by an alias was set to meet with george papadopoulos and try to extract information from him. george papadopoulos has a new book out called

whitehouse. >> and the biggest tragedy is that we are now hopelessly divided onhe last thing that usedhich is our judicial system. now there's nothing that pulls us together. nothing. >> narrator: kavanaugh, gorsuch, thomas, alo, roberts-- the federalist society and mitch mcconnell now dominate the supreme court. >> you talk about the warren orcourt or the burger courhe roberts court, we're living in the era of the mcconnell court now because he did what heid. and it very well could be the decades to come.for several >> clarence thomas doesn't want to serve on the high court anymore. >> clarence thomas comfortable retiring now, and there's aot couple ors... >> surgeons today removed two malignant nodules from supreme court justice ruth bader ginsburg's left lung.he >>5 year old is said to have fractured three ribs... >> rbg's health has become the subject of much attention in recent years... >> go pbs.org/frontline for frontline's latest transparency oject, and explore the dozens of interviews in "supreme revenge." >> imean walked up to capitol hill... (makes explosion sound) >> it was

. >> senator whiteple house -- we'll do senator whitehouse and why don't we just come back an hour later. we'll break for an hour and do the votes and have lunch. >> thank you, chairman. attorney general, you had a conversation with chairman graham earlier this morning which you described the importance of hardening our electoral infrastructure against foreign election interference. i ask you, is anonymous election funding an avenue for possible foreign election influence. and interference. >> yes. >> let's turn to the march 27th letter which you received and read march 28th, the mueller letter. >> uh-huh. >> correct? >> yes. >> when did you have the conversation with bob mueller about that letter that you've referenced? >> i think it was on the 28th. >> same day you read it? when did you first learn of the "new york times" and washington post stories that would make the existence of this letter public, the ones that came out last night? >> i think it could have been yesterday, but i'm not sure. >> when they contacted you to ask for any comment? >> they didn't contact me. >> contacted do

what did the camp in the whitehouse th in, what do you want?d ctually a change of the top leaders in the chinese communist party. >> sullivan: how on earth... >> i think the goal into china is quite simple, is to bring them... is to break the ck of this totalitarian mercantilist economic socie... >> sullivan: you're talking about regime change. >> well, first o, nobody in the white house is talking about that, okay? and e president would never even consider that. they're talking about a trade deal and some fundamental economic change. i'm saying, one of these two are going to... this, either, this, this mercantilist, totalitarian system that has a network effect, or the kind of, you know, liberal, democratic west. one of those two systems is going to be the system at the end of the day. s (making chinese) >> trade wars can get out of control pretty fast. >> the arrest of a top executive >> this is really the united states ramping things up against huawei. na tensions in the south c sea escalate. >> taiwan has become a hot-button issue. ul>> our

sheldon whitehouse earlier in his career.tographers have been allowed, as you can see, to swarm around and fill the area in the hearing room in front of the witness chair to get in their positions. there will be one single solitaire chair and barr will be sworn in. we will finally get the answers to these questions but everyone should remember the attorney general has a rather lengthy opening statement. this will take some time. and then we'll hear from lindsey graham and so on. >> there is no group of mostly men in congress more dedicated to sort of serving as human shields for donald trump politically and legally than this group of senators. lindsey graham, who is a one-time ally of john mccain has taken an almost indescribable turn to looking the other way for all of donald trump's inexplicable contacts and niceties towards vladimir putin to serve as that human shield. you want to talk collusion. what will happen in a few minutes between lindsey graham and william barr. >> don't forget ben sasse who is the mitt romney of n

all the above, we have been working for four years in a bipartisan way, senator kaine, senator whitehouse, any of this committee have had 12 republicans in a very informal way in the last three or four years, is in candy that is easy to text governors into that debate. that magic, to exporters on the site try to get it because by law senator kaine had to provide a balanced budget and had to live with her. forty for state has a law by the way and by the way, i would to go -- we can argue about this and i agree, but the piece of this. we don't produce -- the budget is not a law, the majority transit down to the minority because of a put totally political thing, the reconciliation, the conrad rule, all of this on top of a 1970 19w that will never work, a disaster and has taken 45 years for us to be here to try to get this fixed, we need your help. you are not running for office, you could tell us what you will do, we need to act. it was never a law, is only dealing with discretionary, 25% of what we spent. in state government cooperative or states, if you do not pass a budget, you do not go

. >> senator whitehouse. >> mr. barr, a couple of timing questions. you said that on march 5th, mr. mueller came to you and said that he was going to not make a decision on obstruction and leave that to you. >> he didn't say he was leaving it to me. >> he was not going to make an obstruct on march 24th, you sen the letter describing your decision. somewhere between march 5th and 24th, you made that decision. when was that? >> we started talking about it on march 5th and there had already been a lot of discussions prior to march 5th involving the

iran's foreign minister links what he calls extremists in the whitehouse twice attacks on ships off the u.a.e. coast. sri lanka orders a nationwide curfew for a 2nd night as it tries to contain religious tensions. software developed at israel blamed for the hacking for whatsapp messaging service intentionally affecting 1000000000 users. in sports since returning to action for the 1st time since his win at the masters woods targeting a 2nd major win in the year at the p.g.a. championship. protesters in sudan say shots being fired near the city an outside the military headquarters in the capital khartoum demonstrators are reinforcing barricades on the roads despite a warning from the military council lot to do so the military is denying it security forces used live fire against demonstrators in the city at least 5 protesters and a soldier were killed during the violence on monday night the military blames what it calls infiltrators but the protesters reject that hit morgan has the latest from car too. all right let's go instead to mohammed and he joins us live from the capital khartoum so

. >> senator whitehouse. >> mr. barr, a couple timing questions. you said that on march 5th mr. mueller came to you and said that he was going to not make a decision on obstruction and leave that to you. >> he didn't say he was leaving it to me. >> that he was not going to make an -- >> -- right. >> on march 24th, he sent out a letter describing your decision. somewhere between march 5th and march 24th, you made that decision. when was that? >> we started talking about it on march 5th. and there had already been a lot of discussions prior to march 5th involving the deputy, the principle associate deputy and the office of legal counsel that

. >> senator whitehouse. >> mr. barr, a couple of timing questions. you said that on march 5th mr. mueller came to you and said that he was going to not make a decision on obstruction and leave that to you. >> he didn't say he was leaving it to me. >> that he was not going to make an obstruction -- >> right. >> on march 24th you sent out the letter describing your decision. somewhere between march 5th and march 24th you made that decision. when was that? >> we started talking about it on march 5th and there had already been a lot of discussions prior to march 5th involving the deputy, the

i just want to get in just a few more questions like senator whitehouse did. at your confirmation hearing, you testified that in the absence of a viaolation of a statute, the president would be accountable politically for abusing the pardon power. how do you reconcile your suggestion that political accountability is available when the administration is refusing to comply with subpoenas and asserting executive privilege to stand in the way of that very accountability? >> as to a pardon? >> no. this was about in your confirmation hearing, you said, "in the absence of a violation of a statute, the president would be, quote, accountable politically, end quote, for abusing the pardon power if he did." >> but your question really is abusing p abusing not just the pardon power, is that what you're saying? >> it's hard to evaluate. >> presidents have been held accountable before as have other other office holders. >> are the details consistent with his oath of office and the requirement in the constitution that he take care that the laws be faithful executed? >> is wh

sheldon whitehouse from the university of virginia.my klobuchar got her degree from the university of chicago law school and kamala harris from uc hastings college of law in california. host: mike in spring hill, florida. independent. hi, mike. excuse me, do i need to go to bill in delaware. democrat? caller: yes. host: it is your turn. caller: i wish you would get off of this. you people. every day, every day. when are they going to investigate joe biden, chris coons? host: investigate for what? tell people why you think they should be investigated. caller: because they are a bunch of idiots. $50,000 -- 50,000 jobs. joe biden is the most corrupt, no good person in the country. host: okay. all right. we will go to mike in spring hill, florida, independent. caller: hello. good morning. thinkd just like to say i when that report came out, attorney general barr knew more than what he was letting on and he summarized it in a way that was kind of misleading. he should have just put the report out the way mueller concluded the report and he

president, i want to thank representative l uan for partnering with me and i want to thank senators whitehouse, kaine, and schatz. and i want to thank jeff bingaman of new mexico who first worked in a bipartisan way on a clean energy standard bill that was a template for our effort today. and i want to thank the scientists and economists who provided thoughtful analysis as we developed this bill, most prominently resources for the future and president obama, secretary of energy ernie monize. i am eager to get our policies moved forward. thank you, mr. president. i yield the floor. mr. cornyn: mr. president. the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: mr. president, yesterday the senate judiciary committee held a very important hearing on how we can bring down prescription drug prices for american families without sacrificing the innovation that has made our country a world leader in new drug development. that's quite a challenging balance to strike. as i traveled my state, i've heard from my constituents about their increasing inability to get their hands on the medications they

we have been working 4 years in a bipartisan way, senator kaine , senator whitehouse , senator kaine , probably 12 republicans in a very informal way in the last 3-4 years. it is uncanny it is easy to attract asked governors into that debate. attract asked governors. they are 2 asked governors. by law, senator kaine had to provide a balanced budget and had to live with it's. 44 states have that law , i the way. i want to go to a question. my first question is this. we can argue about semantics. both of you said this. the budget is not a law. therefore , the majority crams it down the throat of the minority. it is a political coin. we talk about reconciliation , the conrad rule , all of this is a band-aid on eight 1974 budget lot that is the worst piece of writing i have seen in my life. it was never going to work. it is a disaster. it has taken 45 years for us to be here to try to get this fixed. we need your help. you're not running for office. you can tell us what you would do. it was never a law. it was only dealing with discretionary , 25% of what we spent. no consequence. in sta

senator kaine, king, senator whitehouse have been part of it. and about 12 republicans. in a very informal way in the last three or four years. it's uncanny that it's easy to attract ex governors into that debate, right? and that mention right there, two ex governors on their side kind of get it, because by law, senator kaine had to provide a balanced budget and had to live with it. you know, 44 states have that law, by the way. and oh, by the way, i want to go to the question of -- my first question is this. we could argue about the semantics. but both said this. the budget is not a law. therefore, the majority crams it down the throat of the minority, becomes a totally political thing and all we talk about, reconciliation, the conrad rule, all of this, are band-aids on top of a 1974 budget law that is the worst piece of writing i've seen in my life. it was never going to work. it is a disaster and how it's taken 45 years for us to be here to try to get this fixed. we need your help. you're not running for office. you can tell us what you would do. we need to act on tha

. >> i said senator whitehouse would be next.regular order. >> i think the indulgence. -- i beg the indulgence. oh, i am next anyway. all right. the chairman and ranking member and our panel of witnesses. thank you for coming. retirement security is a tremendously important topic and one example weather is a great deal of bipartisan support. reset passed in 2016 and i voted for it then and i said or did now. we have got to find a way to get this done. one proposal i believe will help is the promotion and expansion of private employees -- of the private employees more than 14 million of folks in the program. we would encourage the participation of the ownership plan of which we are both big believers. we would create an option at the treasury department to provide technical assistance. i have a question for mr. dudley i understand that you are a -- >> i'm sorry? >> a university of kansas jayhawk. >> i am not, i hail from alabama. but i could support the jayhawks. [laughter] >> but you majored in journalism at ku at the time my dau

working with senator whitehouse and blumenthal to make sure if you hack into a state election system,ven though it's not tied to their internet, that's a crime. i would like to do more to harden our infrastructure because the russians did it. it wasn't some 400-pound guy sitting on a bed somewhere. it was the russians. and they're still doing it. it would could be the chinese. it could be somebody next. my takeaway from this report is we've got a lot of work to do to defend democracy against the russians and other bad actors. i promise the committee we will get on with that work, hopefully in a bipartisan fashion. the other campaign, the other campaign was investigated not by mr. mueller, by people within the department of justice. the accusation against secretary clinton was that she set a private server up somewhere in her house, and classified information was on it to avoid the disclosure requirements and the transparency requirements required of being secretary of state. so that was investigated. what do we know? we know that the person in charge of investigating hated trump's gut

democratic senator sheldon whitehouse questioned william barr over himself use of the word spying inllance of the trump campaign in 2016. >> in the entirety of your previous career including as attorney general, have you ever referred to authorized department vinvestigative activities officially or publicly as spying? i'm not asking for private conversations. >> i'm not going to abdure the use of the word spying. my first job was in the cia and i don't think spying has any pejorative meaning at all. the question is whether it's authorized and predicated, spying. i think spying is a good english word that doesn't have synonyms because it is the broadest word incorporating all forms of covert intelligence collection. so i'm not going to back off the word spying. up until all the outrage a couple weeks ago, it's commonly used by the press to refer to authorized activity. >> it's not commonly used by the department. >> it's commonly used by me. >> against the conversation we had about a month ago is fisa court performance. >> the use of the word spying in the context here is totally inap

sheldon whitehouse, democratic senator tweeted out at least with democratic house we have a formal privilegessertion to deal with which can be tested in wouldknowing republicans never press, trump administration got away with bogus non-assertions of executive privilege for too long. richard blumenthal from connecticut, this unprecedented sweeping invocation of executive privilege is nothing more than a desperate and transparent attempt at depriving the american people of the truth. the speaker of the house tweeting is this what it looks like when you have nothing to hide? iowa, cedarin rapids, republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. host: you are on, go ahead. caller: yes. i stand behind the president's use of executive privilege in this case . investigations4 . this has been over two years and you have not come up with crime or collusion. it was stated in the mueller report that not one american citizen colluded with russia. the use of executive privilege in this case is warranted. enough is enough. shieldt is warranted to those documents because of the things you listed, then?

. >> senator whitehouse. >> a couple of timing questions. you said that on march 5, mr. mueller came to you and said that he was going to not make a decision on obstruction, leave that to you. atty. gen. barr: he didn't say he was leaving it to me. >> but he was not going to make an obstruction. on march 24, you set up a letter describing your decision. somewhere between march 5 and march 24 you made that decision. one was that? atty. gen. barr: we started talking about it on march 5. and there had already been a lot of discussions prior to march 5 involving the deputy, the principal associate deputy and the office of legal counsel that had dealings with the special's counsel's office. they had knowledge of a number of the episodes and some of the thinking of the special counsel's office. so, right after march 5, we started discussing what the implications of this were and how we would -- >> you made the decision when? atty. gen. barr: probably on sunday the 24th. >> that is the day the letter came out. atty. gen. barr: yes. youou made the decision -- did not make the de