Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20240622

It is the largest republican field of candidates to take the stage. Fox news is calling it a high stakes showdown. We want to begin with your comments on the Voting Rights. Is it still needed . Republicans, 202 7488001. Democrats, 202 7488000. Independents, 202 7488002. Send us a tweet, join us on facebook. Thank you for being with us. There are two forums. The main event at 9 00 eastern time. We want to get your comments on what questions you would ask the candidates. It seems the republicans like to violate Voting Rights act every chance they get. How does it showing your id heres the piece who says the federal Appeals Panel rule yesterday that a strict voter identification law in texas discriminated against blacks and hispanics and violated the rights act of 1965. A decision that defines the reach of the law. The case is one of a few across the country that are being closely watched. This after a 2013 Supreme Court decision that blocked the most enforcement tool, federal oversight of election law with history of Racial Discrimination. We want to get to your phone calls but first lets take a step back on this date 50 years ago. Heres how Lyndon Johnson had to sign it into law and a portion of what he had to say. This act flows from a clear and simple wrong. Its only purpose is to right that wrong. Millions of americas are denied the right to vote because of their color. This law will insure them the right to vote. No american true to our principals can deny. 50 years ago and by the weekend American History tv well look at the legislation and the signing ceremony by president johnson. You can check out all the scheduled information at cspan. Org. They have a piece this morning inside the New York Times titled is the vote is rights act history. Let me share a portion of what he says this morning also reporting on the Voting Rights act 50 years later. Thank you for being with us. Thank you for having me, steve. Lets take a step back to the 2013 Supreme Court ruling which did send shockwaves to those who were critical on the changes to the law. Can you elaborate that. In that decision the Supreme Court really gutted the core of the law which was language forcing about nine Southern States with a history of Racial Discrimination to seek approval before changing the voting laws. That was the key enforcement mechanism that the federal government used to make sure the Voting Rights act was being followed by the states. Now after that law we saw states like North Carolina and weeks after the decision passed a sweeping voter id law. Texas passed another one too although that was struck by a federal Appeals Court yesterday. A bunch of states jumped into the game soon after the Supreme Court case took place. All eyes on the impact that this could have on Hillary Clinton gave a speech on this and she was critical of the Supreme Court ruling. But a number of states including ohio where john kasich signed into law that basically says the following. That you need to show a passport, drivers license military id or state id card. What is it difficult about having voters show those ids . With democrats what they argue is there is very little evidence of inside voter fraud. These laws are intended to suppress the votes and present a lot of minorities and blacks and hispanics live in areas where sometimes its difficult to get to a dmv if you dont have a car. What other states could this impact . Another big one is wisconsin which passed a voter id law and where Governor Scott walker is from and another president ial candidate that is in the top three. Im sure hell have the crosshairs on his back for democrats host the other story is the debate. This is the headline. Could this go to the u. S. Supreme court before 2016 . Theyre going to need to act fast. Theyll need to get certain from the Supreme Court and ask they will to take it up fairly soon. Supreme court will decide what cases to take up for next year very soon and this is going to be a very contentious case. So usually that means that the Supreme Court will rule on it at the end of its term which is june 2016. That could come down to the midst of the campaign season. If the Supreme Court does strike it down will texas be able to host thank you very much for being with us. Thank you. Host you can read his work online any time at thehill. Com. Lets hear from you on the Voting Rights act. Is it still needed . Jen has that tweet she says the following larry joining us from mississippi. Good morning to you. Democrats line. Larry, good morning. Caller yes. The Voting Rights act is needed today. When you can vote in texas and cannot view the id that tells you what theyre up to, what the republicans are up to. And theyre taking away early voting. Theyre taking it away from blacks. When they go to the poll on sunday they know exactly what theyre doing and you have a nice day. Host 20274880001. And 2,024,288,002 for democrats. As the act as 50 facing new challenges. Caller i have so much to say i dont know if i can keep it short. But of first of all im a white guy and i live in a black neighborhood. Every person thats three besides me has voter id. Ive asked people about it and they say, why cant people get voter id, and im talking about my fellow voters who happen to be black. I said just go make up your mind to get an id and youll get an id. But as far as disenfranchising the purpose of the Democrat Party is to end it it and Illegal Immigrants and people who are not citizens to be able to vote. Comes down to that, there is no way anymore to assure a Fair Election unless we know that people are only voting once. Ill try to keep this short. I have a very good friend of mine who was working in florida during the 2000 election. He decided to leave the Democratic Party after watching the same van load of black voters come to the same polling place three times and vote under three different names each time excuse me, one different name but they voted three times. This occurred in dade county in the 2000 election. He wound up getting harassed by a bunch of guy at his home threatening him if he opened his mouth. Dont be telling us republicans and conservatives that this is not about cheating. The same thing is also true with early voting in it all the other alternative methods of voting. What that does is open the door to multiple votes. Thats what it does. And frankly the Founding Fathers had it right when it comes to voting we all vote together in the same place on the same day and theres really no other way to assure a free and Fair Election. I mean, i wish that it it made sense to have a lot of different ways to vote. It doesnt. Host thank you for the call from richmond, virginia. Let me go back to the story. They called a breech of the Voting Rights act. Texas id law is one of the strictest and requires voters to bring a government issued photo id to the polls and accepted forms include the drivers license and passport concealed handgun license and election id certificate issued by the state department of Public Safety. They ruled yesterday that the voter id law in texas does discriminate against blacks and hispanics and violates the 1965 Voting Rights act signed by president Lyndon Johnson. A viewer is weighing. A viewer said, yes and voter id also with one other point. Citizens only and no exceptions. Next call is bridgette joining us on the democrats line. Good morning. Good morning. What i have to say is the question that should be asked is, is racism still alive and well in america especially in texas . Yes, it is. Its necessary to have the act in place. There are stumbling blocks that have been placed to prevent blacks and hispanics from voting. Host let me stop you. You said stumbling blocks. Be specific. Caller well, in the sense of that there is a delay in the time theyll have to come back. They probably dont have the right documents and every stumbling block is in place to prevent them. Host have you ever experienced that . No, i have not but ive spoken to people who have experienced that. So i do believe that the Voting Rights act needs to stay in place because there are elements in america who have been trying to chip away at that for so many years because they want to disenfranchised blacks and minorities in america. And thats all i have to say. Host thank you for the call. If youre just tuning in if youre listening on cspan radio this program live on xm channel 120. President johnson signed it into law on this date and were asking you whether its still needed. The story of the first page in a number of newspapers including the tallahassee democrat in florida. Good morning, your thoughts on this issue. Caller good morning. Im from florida and last year we had an election. Ive been encouraging the kids to vote now that a couple of years now and they implemented a rule they couldnt use their voter id. Not the voter id but the student id and they also had to go home and vote in her own precinct and they have to go up to tampa two hours away and knocked all the kids out of voting. I also had the wrong address on my license and even though both streets were in the same precinct my drivers license was prevented and wouldnt let me vote. This is a lot of funny business going on with that and i think it should be the rules should be relaxed as long as you have a picture id i dont think they should be able to kick the kids out of voting or anybody that has a picture id. Lyndon johnson called it a triumph for freedom. And marked the end of poll taxes and literacy tests. They be voting and everything else. If you dont stop them and i think you ought to be paying Social Security to be a citizen. If you are getting jobs on the side and not paying in Social Security i dont think you ought to be able to vote. Thats my opinion. Host thank you very much for the call. Another viewer saying, what i did see was organized groups trying to stop people from voting by challenging their status. We covered one of them as a processor from Indiana University said he weighed in on the issue. Part of cspans Video Library. Here are his thoughts. There are surveys of non voters that have been done. The problem is finding causation between lack of a photo id and not going to cast the ballot of the because people will say, well, i didnt vote because i didnt have an id but i also wasnt registered. Is that a person who is not voting because they werent registered or not voting because they dont have an id. Even if you give them the menu like the weather was bad and didnt like the candidates. Only about i dont know 7 of non voters lack of id at least in indiana this was the case in 2008, only 7 of voters say that was one of many possible issues that they had. So i suspect there arent that many folks who are out there at least in indiana who are detoured. Host Michael Pitts who is professor weighing in on the id issues that are the centerpiece of legal challenges to the Voting Rights agent. Next is william joining us from holland, ohio. Welcome to the conversation. Your thoughts on this. Caller good morning. I like to say first of all that the Charlotte Observer was absolutely right on what they were saying and secondly i like to say that i just love Lyndon Johnson because of what he did and the courage it took in that hostile america to sign the Voting Rights act and put it into progress. And yes, they are trying to tear it down. I never vote conservative. I never voted for conservative. I told all my friends within those last few elections that gay rights is not going to taken away. The right of a woman to chooses wont be taken away. What is going to be taken away is the same thing that they battled these wars over, the civil war and all these black people got killed for. They were going to take away our right to vote and make it so hard to vote that a vote wont count. And thats what these laws are doing right now, theyre making it so that is harder for our vote to count and making it harder for the people who support our rights making it harder for those. Theyre being disenfranchised because they stand with us. Host Governor John Kasich made this point. They want to make sure its an honest system and id is a simple and easy way to make sure those who are registered to vote and citizens actually do vote. Caller yes i know what he said but i dont know who he is. He may be a decent man, but the people who support john kasich are completely against our rights to vote in mass numbers. They dont like the cleveland area and so forth pause we help win these elections in cleveland. If you could make it harder for us and the people who stand with us to vote, just disenfranchised them and turn them away at the polls you can win these elections and run the country and destroy all our rights. President s appoint Supreme Court justices and Voting Rights was gutted by the Supreme Court not the legislatures, but the Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights act. Host william thank you for the call. Today we need a new law to make sure that the votes of legal voters are not cancelled out by those who are not eligible to vote. Some other news on this thursday morning inside the washington times, a former ron paul staffer has been indicted connected to the 2012 campaign. Three of the staffers, one of whom also worked for Senate Leader Mitch Mcconnell charged in an indictment that accuses them of paying off an iowa state senator to switch allegiance in the last race. Theyre claiming they gave 73,000 in payments to then senator kent leroy sorenson. According he heads the Action Committee and super pact that is supporting rand pauls president ial bid. This story Available Online at washington. Caller lets forget about the voter id and lets look at the ballot machine itself. It goes off with no paper receipt. So when a country of checks and balances we have checks and balances on our vote. We donting and what that is. You get to the people who count the votes. Thats where its at. There is no checks and balance on the vote. Have a good day. Host thank you from upstate new york. From the Charleston South Carolina post an opinion piece from adam parker. He says gwen the joining us from birmingham, alabama. Good morning. Caller good morning. How are you . Host fine, thank you. Caller im hoarse this morning. As a person from birmingham alabama, im very offended that this is even open for debate. We should not be having this discussion in 2015. It pains me. I just went selma with my family for my reunion and we went to the Civil Rights Museum and when i went into that Civil Rights Museum and saw what black people had to endure to be able to vote and count jelly beans in a jar, i stood there in that Rights Museum and i balled. Its very limited. Ive been voting since i was 18 years ago and im 67 years old. To see my people then denied to vote because of some type of voter id. Its the republicans doing this and only the republicans. Where im from thats where they did their gutting of some of the voter rights. Host can you stay on the line for a minute . Caller yes, i can. I want to you react to what congressman john lewis who as you pointed out your own visit to selma alabama was wrong those in the civil rights march in 1965. He was beaten as he crossed the bridge and spoke and ferguson, missouri and the shooting that had been taken place there towards black men. I want to play this. Lets watch. Congressman lewis, there is clearly an impact that that recent legislation in particular and Supreme Court cases have had on Voting Rights and Voting Rights for africanamericans. What have the last two years in particular done to the after can american elect rat. If there is one thing that awful us need to be doing move into november, what is that one thing . More than anything else the decision of the United States Supreme Court and local states and not just the Southern States have made a deliberate effort to take us back to another period. We must stand up and fight and push by going to the polls and vote like we never voted before. The vote is almost sacred and controls everything that we do, everything. And as the minority whether it be black native america with must understand that 50 years ago this year three young men that i knew, they gave their lives trying to make it possible for all of our citizens to become participants. If we want to respond to ferguson, we got to vote. Its powerful and we must do it. Gwen, you heard what he had to say. Gwen is joining us from birmingham alabama. Caller i agree with them, steve. I want to end on this point. Every day if im on facebook, i tell all young people, please, please register to vote its very, very important you and have to have your id in gods name. Get it. If you only knew the struggle that black people had to go through for the right to vote, please young people register to vote. Do not take this for granted. It is one of the greatest tools of our country. Have your id in place. If it takes that, do that. Please be a registered voter. Thank you, steve. I hope you feel better by the way. Caller thank you. Host of course we need the Voting Rights act. The Republican Tea Party wants to gut it more. Another story with all eyes on the debate taking place tonight in cleveland, ohio, reporting that donald trump talked politics with bill clinton before he entered the president ial bid. He had a private telephone conversations with donald trump. Four trump allies and one clinton associate said that clinton encouraged trumps efforts to play a bigger role and the tone of the call was informal and clinton never urged trump to run but said clinton sounded curious about trumps moves toward a president ial bid. Caller i know we need the id to vote. Theres no way in this particular era were going through when there are how many millions of believe that came across the border illegally. I dont care what you want to call them. It is the most important thing for everyone when they are going to vote to be registered. If youre registered how the hell is that so hard . Where are we holding all these people back . Were not holding anyone back. Theyre holding themselves back. They are the ones that are not registering. They are not even interested and they are they dont even know who is running. Yet we find out there is a voter fraud constantly. We have so many people now that are here and being fed and given hospitalization and given everything they want, but when it comes to the stupid little thing like voting either you register, you vote or you dont. Host were asking the question because today 50 years ago Lyndon Johnson signed the Voting Rights into law. Caller one stheupbg i want to jump back to i would like the people out there, why dont they make it sure that you can get an id free. They dont want to get a job. Number one it needs fixing. The president wanted to fix the road. They just wanted to criticize the president. He just wish people would Pay Attention to politicians that are talking. Bill hunter has this have not heard one caller who has been kept from voting. We have a couple minutes left with your comments. Is it still needed. I want to share with you a conversation that took place before he signed into law 50 years ago. This is for january 1965 as the debate was about to begin in earnest. A conversation between then president johnson and civil rights leader Martin Luther king. This is part of the American History tv. The only state that you didnt carry have left 40 of the negros registered to vote. A recent article American History tv. The only state brought this out very clearly to demonstrate that its so important to get negros registered to vote in large numbers and it would be this coalition of the negro vote and the modern white vote that makes the south. I think thats exactly right. I think its very important that we take the position in an every person born in this country when they reach a certain age that he have a right to vote just like he has a right to fight. And number two i think that we got equality for all and we can stand on that brought this outprincipal. Host the cspan radio lets you listen in on many of those conversations saturday. Your thoughts on this. Good morning, michelle. Caller yes. People need to understand what is a right and what is not. You keep hearing about my rights my rights, my rights, and i mean, things like the healthcare its not a right. As far as voting goes we dont want to prevent anyone from voting but its not the governments responsibility to make it easy for you to vote. Its not that difficult to get an id and doesnt cost that much. You cant wait until phi days before election day and suddenly say, oh, well, i need an id. Youve got to take responsibility for that. Host thank you very much for the call. End of an an era as john stewart hangs it up. A couple of stories this morning from usa today. Hes ending his daily routine and from the style session of the Washington Post who won the 2000 vote . John stewart as his program got underway under Comedy Central and has become political fader. John stewart stepping down his program. His final show tonight on Comedy Central. Next call is from North Carolina, democrats line. Good morning. Caller host well move on to bill in fanning springs, florida. Go ahead. Caller good morning. Host youre on the republican line. Caller yes, i am. I have several comments. Niche shell stole a little bit of my 31ed ear minute ago concerning registration. You have all year to register but everybody waits until the last month or the last two weeks to get out and vote. But that aside i dont have any real problem with the Voting Rights act but i would question the literacy test because i feel any voter should be educated and i dont see where it should have been a problem in 65 and certainly not today. Thats the whole other point. One main point i wanted to make i helped to raise six kids between my own and step kids and adopted, and i have not met a teenager yet who not did not get a drivers license at the earliest possibility. Besides that there are other various forms of id that are also accepted. I wanted to address an earlier caller talking about college staud epbts not being able to vote. That should not be the case in a general election. But in local elections the districts are set up based on population and if you have a large student population it could change the outcome. Host you talked about the literacy test and that was one of the barriers that president johnson signed the voters act. Are you saying that we should maybe reconsider having a literacy test or what did you mean . Caller well, im not saying we should have one now. Literacy in todays world should not be a problem. But i do believe that any voter should at least be able to read and write. Host few more minutes with your calls and comments. Gutierrez is joining us from selma, North Carolina. Caller how you doing this morning . Host good morning. Caller yeah, we need the voter rights act. You have the Supreme Court gotted the Voting Rights act based on that case down in alabama and all these reds from texas all the way to wisconsin have come up with Voting Rights voting id laws as well as what you call it requiring bay Voting Rights voting id laws as well as id laws requiring people to be able to show photos or passports ors eliminating early voting and things like that keeping people unable to being able to cast votes and then they throw in this immigration or illegal immigration as a distraction. To make people think that the hispanic people are going to be the ones voting twice, you know what im saying . And then you have Supreme Court has their legislating from the bench. Any time a case comes up that favors conservativism or whatever they go and vote 54 against whatever the liberals or the people on the left and they always vote 54 against the things that support the conservatives agenda. But like if it comes up for like gays or things of that nature theyll vote 54 for that because you have a lot of people that persuasion that influence and money that will throw money that way so theyll vote 54 against whatever on that. But they need the voter rights act though. Host thank you for your comment and thats the purpose of this again of the lets look again at the Voting Rights act that was sign into law 1965 and section five says also the 2009 Supreme Court allowing more bailout applications and another comment from the twitter page. Its not the governments possibility to make it easy for people to vote . That is a good one. Many are weighing in on the facebook page. Again, on the anniversary of the voting act at 50 is it still needed . Good morning, democrats line. Caller good morning and thank you for taking my call. Host certainly. Caller in in 2012 i requested an absentee ballot. I actually im a democrat, i received three full ballots. They sent the second one saying they believe some people didnt receive page two of the ballot and sent me a third ballot. Last year at the election the department of Motor Vehicles when anybody left signed out of Motor Vehicle administration, they were registered to vote not only that if they had registered, their Party Affiliation was changed and the board ofs election knew this before the primary and decided they would wait until after the general election to even address it. I would imagine being in mere land which is predominantly Democratic People werent being changed to republicans. I used to work at a college and there were a lot of foreign students who were here on student visas. They actually were going to vote. So i believe back in 65 it was important to have the voter rights act. I think so. And i think it would be wrong to ask people stupid questions to try to stump them so they couldnt vote. I think that would be wrong but i believe every person needs to show id. We need id for everything else. Youre an xray grant if youre Walking Around without id. It has nothing do with color or nationality but whether or not youre eligible to vote in ans election. If people are voting who are not eligible, theyre cancelling out our votes. The other part of the debate is the registration process and whether some states are restricting the time period and discriminates who dont have the time periods that other states have to sign up to vote. Host and that may be true and also students need to either get an absentee ballot to so theyre voting or need to change their place of residence. Host coming up in just a couple of minutes well turn our attention to what Police Officers are facing a spike in crime and also the issue of some mass killings, just whats going on and impact of drugs as well. Tom main skwrer and later an update on got tan mow bay. This is headline from the Washington Post. President obama because more sanctions wont produce what the critics want, we have to be honest, congressional rejection of this deal leaves any u. S. Administration that is absolutely committed to preventing iran from getting a northboundingler weapon with one option, another war in the middle uclear weapon with one option, another war in the middle east. Without this deal iran will be in a position, however tough our rhetoric will be to suddenly advance its capabilities. Its breakout time which is already fairly small, could salt lake shrink to near zero. Does anyone doubt that the same forces raised against this deal will be demanding that whoever is president bomb those Nuclear Facilities . And if someone who does firmly believe that iran should not get a Nuclear Weapon and wrestled with this issue since the beginning of my presidency, i can tell you alternatives to military action will be exhausted once rerejectject the solution that the world supports. So lets not mince words. The choice we face is between diplomacy and some form of war, maybe not tomorrow or three months from now. But soon. Washington journal continues. Host welcome to the table tom main engineer. Hes the president of the major cities chiefs nger. Hes the president of the major cities chiefs association. Want to talk about a spike of crimes around the country in big cities. A lot of variables involved such as . When we started talking amongst ourselves that the chiefs of the large cities around the country, we all were noticing this spike in homicides and shootings so we decided to get together. We got together just a few days ago on monday. And what we found was that not only were we all seeing the spike in Violent Crime but commonalities among that and the impact of synthetic drugs and shooting scenes just tremendously larger number of shell casings, wasnt just 1 or 2 shots being fired and now its dozens of shots fired in some of these thing. We saw the perpetrators of these homicides all had all seemed have to lengthy criminal records. Were you asking yourself why was this person out in the first place. Why werent they still in jail . We were seeing commonalities among the suspects in these cases, so many of them didnt finish high school. So many of them had no job skills. So many of them again were violent offenders that had served jail time but now back out on the street. So the good news i guess for us or something we could use with this meeting was when you look at all these commonalities it gave us some direction about how we can start trying to address some of these issues. Montgomery county just outside of washington, d. C. There with you a real up tick in crimes in the greater Baltimore Areas as well and they attribute that directly to the use of they drugs that were stolen from the drug stores. Youre exactly right. I have spoken a number of times with the commissioner kevin davis, baltimore commissioner, and he said that youve got all these drug stores that were looted and there are 10s of thousands of doses of narcotics that are on the street. Its almost like there is a drug war going on in the city where rival gangs, rival drug distributeers illegal drug distributors are fighting each other to get their share of the market and this resulted in the city in that up tick of homicides since the unrest over freddie gray. Host what about synthetic drugs . First of all, what are they and what are they a problem . I think that im not the expert on synthetic drugs, but what we know these are drugs that are manufactured that are having a real dangerous impact on people who take them. What were finding, the old days when folks would take pcp and youd confront somebody who was on pcp they had this super human strength, were seeing the same kind of things with people who are taking these drugs. They are have psychotic reactions and violent. We had a few cases of people dying in Police Custody as a direct result of their use of these drugs. One of the issues that were dealing with is that the legislatures are playing catch up to tray to make sure that all these ingredients that are being used for the synthetic drugs are actually illegal. Because these synthetic marijuana that people are manufacturing, once they make a certain recipe illegal, then theyll change one ingredient so that all of a sudden we have a more difficult time in Law Enforcement charging someone because theyve changed an ingredient that hasnt been made illegal. Labelling later around the country are trying to play catchup. Host if you are a Police Officer or part of the police brass, you can give us a call 2027482003. I want to talk ou about Race Relations which is an element in this. Ferguson, cleveland, baltimore. How are police race chiefs dealing with this. It had a tremendous impact and the anniversary of Michael Browns shooting is a day or two away. So weve been dealing with this really the impact the ferguson impact for a year now. It started a number of national conversations. It started conversations about police use of force and deadly force and conversations about the militarization of police and does the diversity of the Police Department reflect the diversity of the community were serving and whats the relationship between the Police Department and the community. One of the things that many chiefs realized was that we had seen dramatic reductions in crime over the last ten years or so. And everybodys happy about the fact that theres less crime today than there was 10, 20, 30 years ago. But what were the Police Strategies and tactics that were used to achieve some of the reductions in crime. And what impact did it have on the community. I think chief are looking at this now and saying, wend that we were successful. Believe this and saying ok, we understand that we were successful. It was not just police, Law Enforcement and police have some role. You do not take credit for all Crime Reduction because then you have to take all the blame when crime comes back up. You need to look at what tac tics has a negative impact on our relationship with the community. Especially when you look at the areas this is the same for every police chief across the country. We can tell you where crime occurs in our jurisdiction. Invariably, it is places where there are higher levels of poverty. You look at the Graduation Rates and where that is lowest, that is where you see more crime. Where you see more young kids who do not have good, healthy parental adult influence in their life. If you track those kinds of things educational poverty levels, job skills, you can predict where crimes are going to occur in a jurisdiction. Host i want to bring in our viewers and listeners. When you speak to officers on the beat on this issue, what do you tell them . Guest i tell them it is our responsibility to ensure we have a Good Relationship with the public. We have to earn their trust and keep interest. We are only as good as our last contact with the public. You can go months without having any controversial incidents. Then you have one that incident one bad incident that goes viral and is being shown on the news and all of a sudden the Police Department is on the defensive. The problem is that folks seem to paint the police with a broad brush. There have been some absolutely criminal acts by Police Officers that have occurred in the past year that have been on video and shown over and over. Every single Police Officer every single Police Department has been impacted by that particular incident. It represents such a small percentage, such a minute percentage of contacts the police have with the public everyday. In Montgomery County we have one million people. We can document through traffic stops, 911 calls and a host of other things, we can document. 5 million contacts between the police and the public every year. 99. 9 of them go exactly as you would want them to go. Even the minute percentage can overshadow all the good work that is being done. I tell my cops youve got to work at this every day. Host tom manger began his career in Fairfax County virginia. Moved up to chief of police in Fairfax County. Now has the title in Montgomery County. Hes the head of the major cities association. Hes heading to chicago for another conference. Jeff in hawaii, good morning. Caller i want to thank both of you. Is there Something Else parents can do to help the police in their efforts to save the young minds and the future of this country . Perhaps respecting the feelings with the children. Before creating trouble teens which experiment with drugs . Guest there is nothing more influential in a Young Persons life than parents. As a father of two oftentimes i think my kids are not listening to a word i say. They are. Young adults will tell you the biggest influence in their life was their parents. Having to work at teaching the kid good values, teaching the value of education. All those things are important in a Young Persons life. One of the best things we have done is put officers in high schools. We have a School Resource officer in every high school in Montgomery County. It is not because the schools are dangerous, we want to make sure we have a Safe Learning environment. The relationships the sros are building with young people is tremendous. The Police Department has a responsibility to reach out to young people. I think kids, the biggest influence and her life is their parents. Parents have to take that seriously. Talk about drugs. The biggest risk and any kids life is when they get behind the wheel of a car. Having the conversations about not driving with your friends. Making the tough decisions that your kid has to abide by, that is what is going to keep your kids safe. They are going to realize and they will realize that was for their own good. Host what is the size of your department and your budget . Guest our budget is around 280 million a year, between 1800 employees and 1900 employees. Host from indiana, a Police Officer. Tell us about yourself and continued with your question for tom manger. Caller i spent 35 years on the four spirit i was born and raised on the southside of chicago. Over the last 35 years, theres been a profound disrespect in the black community for authority, for women and for life itself. Ive done all the Community Activist stuff. Ive been a coach, ive worked in the schools. Ive done all those things, i said the homeless. It is just not working. These kids are being taught to disrespect police. They disrespect authority altogether. I retired last year. What made me retire i was cutting my grass on the southside of chicago. Everybody on my block knows im a policeman. A kid came up while im cutting my grass, put a gun to my head, and stole my lawnmower. Can you believe this . They know im a policeman. I am so disgusted. I give up. Ive moved out of chicago. Im done with it, the disrespect is profound. Thats all i have to say. Guest i certainly understand your frustration with what occurred. Ive got to tell you, ive been a cop for 38 years. Things are different today than they were when i started in the mid1970s. But i will tell you that we cannot give up. The police has a tremendously Important Role in the community. You can talk about Community Policing all day long, it means 100 Different Things to 100 different people. It is about the Community Understanding the role the police have. The community does need to understand what we do and why we do these things. The police also have to understand that when you are policing a community that has a very high crime rate there are still good people that live in that community. It is important for us to do our job, do our job lawfully do our job effectively but understand that there are good people. In fact, one of the biggest things i think some big cities are grappling with is the lack of cooperation that we get from some neighborhoods where they really need us the most. Where you have the highest number of homicides. Youve got investigators who go there and people who have information will not come forward because they do not trust the police or do not like the police. All that does is result in a low clearance rate for those homicides and more violence. We do not have good cooperation. The caller talked about the fact that he gave up, it is probably good that he retired if he has given up. Ive got almost 1300 cops that have not given up. They understand that they have to continue to do their job. There are hundreds of thousands of cops like that all over the country. Host have you seen the Netflix Series orange is the new black . Guest i have not. I dont get a chance to watch much tv. Host paper requiremen piper korman who spent time in jail, she testified on capitol hill. [video clip] when i reflect on the punishment for my crime, i cannot protest when i think about the harshness with which poor people and disproportionately poor people of covered art for people of color are treated in this country. Its hard to believe there was social benefit drawn from my incarceration. It prevented no new crimes. When we consider the punishments for drug offenses, we have to reflect on the mandatory minimum laws from the mid1980s. At that time, those laws were intended to curb Substance Abuse and addiction. And some crimes that grow out of Substance Abuse and addiction. Today, many decades after we passed those laws, we have put millions of americans in prison and saddled them with felony convictions. Illegal narcotics are cheaper, more potent and more easily available then when we put mandatory minimum laws on the book and incarcerated those people. We can only draw the conclusion that in terms of curbing Substance Abuse and addiction that those laws are a failure. Locking people up for drug offenses, particularly lowlevel nonviolent offenses, is a waste of time and money. Host piper kerman author of the book orange is the new black, which became a Netflix Series. You heard what she had to say before a senate panel. Let me focus on present reform. What needs to be done . The president has talked about this. Democrats and republicans say no more three strikes and youre out. Guest when we talk about smart policing, we need smart sentencing reforms as well. I do not think you will find a police chief in this country that would say that locking up a person for possession of marijuana or some low level drug offense needs to have any incarceration, perhaps any at all. Diverting folks to Substance Abuse programs, weve been doing that for years. The notion that there are millions of people in jail for lowlevel offenses is not accurate. Yes, in the 1980s, the sentencing guidelines were changed because of the crack wars. I disagree with one thing, she said it was done to curb Substance Abuse and addiction. It was done to curb the Violence Associated with drugs being sold and gangs because of how much money they could make in the drug business. It was to curb the violence. I think what we have all learned now is that, that someone who has a Substance Abuse needs treatment, not jail. Just because someone was convicted of a drug offense making them a nonviolent offender. We had a homicide a couple days ago in Montgomery County by an individual convicted of two major narcotics distribution offenses in 2012. He was sentenced to eight years. Less than three years later, hes out. Hes been arrested twice in the last several months. Once with a gun, with drugs and the gun. And he killed his wife the other day and then shot himself. The Parole Commission said how could we have predicted this . He was a nonviolent offender. Hes had nonviolent he has had violent offense convictions since 1992. When we talk about sentencing reform, you will not get any argument. We understand there are sometimes better ways to handle folks that break the law whether it is Substance Abuse, Mental Illness. Sending folks to jail is not the answer treatment is the answer for those folks. There are individuals that do community is safer when they are behind bars. The individual who committed the homicide in Montgomery County the other day should have been behind bars. Host tom manger is the chief of police in Montgomery County maryland. Hes the president of major cities chiefs association. From maryland, good morning. Caller good morning. He knows that i am a member of his county. I want to disagree on something really quick and then go on to another quick point. When he says that the drugs sentencing laws were for violence, we already had books that we already had laws on the books that address the violence. I disagree. These were political decisions and we know that. When it comes to Montgomery County and Police Action here, i see more policemen riding around in cars wasting taxpayer gas money. When they do stops, it is like four or five police cars like they want to put on a display. You do not see policemen walking in the street. Montgomery county is an affluent neighborhood. There should be no fear of policemen getting out of their cars and walking and talking. I see an abundance of areas being targeted that are being minority areas with aggressive policing. I see other neighborhoods such as potomac bethesda where you do not see that type of action. These people commit crimes just as much as anybody else. If you go through the books and look at police stops if you have a way of tracking race, i guarantee in Montgomery County you will see more black citizens stopped than whites. Caller host we will give the chief at chance to respond. Thank you for the call. Guest im in the community all the time, i know there are folks that would agree with the caller on a lot of points. We do not have a one size fits all in terms of police service. We have very urban areas, we do have folks i have cops on foot on bikes. We also do understand that youve got to put Police Officers where the crime is occurring. If theres an area with high calls for service, has a higher crime rate, we have more Police Officers there. It is just simple. Putting cops on the dots where they need to be. Host do your officers used body cameras . Guest we just began a Pilot Program. Ive been wearing one for the last six weeks or so. I have to tell you that i think they are great value. They are not the panacea everybody thinks they are going to be. They have limitations as well. In the state of maryland, it requires that i notify somebody they are being video and audio recorded when i have my camera running. It is a real conversation stopper sometimes. Tough to have a normal interaction with someone after you tell them they are being recorded. I understand the value of it. Part of when we talk about some of the impacts of ferguson people want Police Officers to be accountable. They want transparency. They want to know cops are doing what they are supposed to do. 99. 9 of the time, my cops are doing exactly what they are supposed to do. The cameras are going to confirm that for the public and anybody else who is interested. Host do they go on automatically . How do they work . Guest you have to turn them on. We are in a Pilot Program now. Weve just gone. Ive got about 80 to 100 officers wearing the cameras right now. The officers are allowed to turn them off under certain circumstances. If they are going in to the locker room, going to the bathroom. If you and i are Police Officers and we are in the back of the station just talking about our kids and baseball and all that, you do not have to have your camera on. But if you have any interaction with the public or are doing Law Enforcement activity, the camera should be on. Host david joining us, los angeles. Good morning. Caller good morning. When i listen to the police chief, it reminds me of every hammer needs a nail. Despite the fact that what we have is complete system failure in the judicial system, from the police to the mass incarceration. Its amazing to me that when you engage in this degree of denial of a failed system that constantly justifies itself by perpetuating fear. As opposed to saying when you asked him the question about his budget you have all of these maledominated professions like police and military. They garnish most of our economics here as far as tax dollars are concerned. Theres no funding, minimum our little funding for schools and social programs. Educational programs. All the boys get their toys. Host your response . Guest listen, in most jurisdictions and certainly in mind, education is our number one priority in terms of funding. I have a budget of about 280 million. The Largest Agency within the county government. The School Systems budget is in the billions. Believe me, the emphasis is on education, as it should be. The notion that the entire criminal Justice System is failing, i dont agree with that. What i do agree with is the entire criminal Justice System needs a real study to see where it can be improved. The last time we had a commission that looked into criminal Justice System, a national commission, was 1965. It is long overdue to have another Crime Commission to look at the criminal Justice System to look at the issues this caller talks about it lets see where the system is failing. Lets see where the system needs to be improved. Since ferguson and with the other incidents around the country, everybody is focused on the police. Everybody is criticizing the police. Every time something happens oh, my god, the police are out of control. Police need to be looked at, there needs to be accountability. We need to look at who is investigating Police Involved shootings. Are police being held accountable . Those are important issues. Good things are happening on those fronts. I do agree that the entire criminal Justice System needs to be studied in a comprehensive manner to see where we can improve things. Host why did you become a cop . Guest i grew up in baltimore city. I saw a lot of what i believed were injustices in the world. I actually started off wanting to be a journalist. I quickly found out that was not for me. I decided i wanted to be a social worker. Then i started taking some criminology classes and realized that i thought being a Police Officer would be where i could help the community the best. The one thing i can say is i picked the right profession. I love what i do. It is challenging but after 38 years i still enjoy coming to work. And am invigorated by the challenges that face police today. Host tom manger is the president of a major cities chiefs association. Chief of police for Montgomery County maryland. We go to west virginia. Michael is next. Good thursday morning. Caller good morning. I would like to ask the question why. Why are the majority of the major cities, there is a disparity in crime rates. They are all democratically held by democrats. How, like gun laws are affecting crime in those cities and states that are all held by democrats. They are taking guns out of lawabiding citizens and criminals have all the guns. Guest well, im not sure that every major city is run by democrats. Frankly the one thing i do think that oftentimes transcends some of the partisan politics is the safety of our communities. I do not know of one elected official that would not tell you the safety of communities is our priority. Ive worked for a fair number of executives and chief elected officials. To a person, they have made Public Safety a priority. And not tried to interfere politically with how lawenforcement is done. Not every police chief can say that but i have had that good fortune. So the notion that guns are being taken out of lawabiding citizens hands, im not sure where that is happening. Frankly, common sense gun laws, there are some commonsense initiatives that could be taken that would make our communities safer that cannot make it through congress or make it through any you look at and i talked about earlier the shooting scenes where we are finding dozens of shell cases. There was a case in washington d. C. Where you had a drum of a new mission a drum of ammunition, dozens of rounds fired out of a semiautomatic handgun. What mitt makes sense to enhance a penalty or make a specific law to give an enhanced penalty for someone who uses a high capacity magazine in the commission of crime . This has no impact on lawabiding citizens. Shouldnt they face a stiffer penalty . I think it is common sense. We cannot seem to get any of that kind of legislation through. Universal background checks. People can circumvent a background check so easily in this country. That is how guns get into the hands of people that should not have guns. Whether they have Mental Illness or criminal records. Some of these commonsense things we cannot seem to get any of those past congress or at the local level. Host joining us from montgomery, alabama. Democrats line. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I would like to say to the sheriff, the chief 2027488001 [inaudible] caller i want to ask how many black officers does he have on his force . Guest i dont know the exact number. Were about is certainly over 100. Maybe 150 or so on my department. Could be more than that. Ive been police chief there for 11 years. We have a large latino population. When i got there, we only had about 3 of officers that were looking a. I have of officers that were latino. Ive doubled the number that are latino. Were 15 aisan we are 15 asian. I am lucky if i have 2 . Host why is it difficult to recruit . Guest there are some cultural issues. Certainly with the asian communities, Law Enforcement a career that parents do not encourage their kids to go into. We have strict requirements. Two years of college and a rigorous background check. We work very hard. In the time ive been chief, weve been increasing the diversity of our department. Host time for two more calls. Judy in bowie maryland. Caller communities where all through the night, they hear gunfire. How can that be dealt with . These people have to sleep on the floor. Is there anything that can be done to address that . Guest great question. This goes back to neighborhoods where you have got this kind of violence that is going on almost on a daily basis. You have certain strategies and the police in the police employ, whether it is plain clothes officers, a high presence. Officers have gone to a shot spotter technology, you do not have to wait for a 911 call. A shot goes off and they can detect gunshots with listening devices. It comes down to is the Police Department working with those neighborhoods effectively . Are people coming forward and saying we do not want to live in an unsafe neighborhood. Are they working handinhand with the police . Oftentimes, the answer is no, for a host of reasons. That is where the police have a responsibility to develop the trust. Make folks understand that they are there to keep them safe. They are not there as an occupying force. They are there to keep every resident safe. The community has to realize that they have a responsibility for the safety of their neighborhoods as well. If you think police can handle it by themselves, they cannot. Not any jurisdiction. Whether it is a high crime area or a quiet area, you have to have cooperation. Host when the citizens pull out their smartphones and record incidents that happened whether it is in baltimore or elsewhere, what impact does that have . Guest it has been having a dramatic impact. I can tell you that i have talked to lots of cops about the best example, the shooting in north charleston. People were rebels to buy that people were revulsed by that. People shook their heads and said were going to get tarnished by the actions of that officer. Some people have the perception that all cops are like that. Cops have not been held accountable and we will lie for each other. That is not true. Has it happened in the past . Yes. Police understand that we have to be transparent, we have to be held accountable. I think that even young cops listen, when i started. 1 years old when i started 21 years o ld on the street, i wanted to save the world. I did not think about all the things i think about as a police chief. My cops understand it makes their life harder. I have cops that are targeted by groups of individuals. They will say hands up, dont shoot. The officer is just walking by and has not done anything. That is why you got to remind them every day that they are there to build the trust. As i said a couple times, im proud of the men and women in my department. As tough a job as they have, they are doing it everyday. Host data from georgia. A quick question, please. Caller first, a question and a comment. Thank you for cspan. Montgomery county, where is that . Guest adjacent to washington, d. C. Caller closer to the Baltimore Area ok. I have been listening and trying to figure out if your hands are tied by what you can say and what you cannot say or if you have the same liberaltype mind prevalent in your area. I commend you for what you are doing. Im a Public Servant and a legislator in my community. I commend what you do. Seems to me that in areas especially with the political mindset in your area, the best thing to do is just back off. What has happened, parents are not raising the children right. You cannot force that. What you have to do, the police force has to back off and let happen what happens. The Community Gets together and says this has got to stop. Host thank you for the call. Your thoughts . Guest i do not think it is a good idea for any Police Department to back off. Let the community see how bad things can be. The fact is, youve got to work together. If you get to a point where he says are my hands tied, ive never felt my hands were tied. Not one elected official i have worked for knows my politics. What they know is my priority is Public Safety. And ive had indepth discussions with very liberal politicians and conservative politicians. My point of view is the same. What i am focused on his Public Safety, what makes sense to best serve the public. Frankly, i think that some of the more political discussions another time we can talk about immigration and gun violence and all those things. The fact that there are things that make our Community Safer and that is what im focused on. Host chief tom manger from Montgomery County, maryland and president of the major cities chiefs association. We will have you back to talk more. Guest thanks. Host there are currently 116 detainees at Guantanamo Bay cuba. The white house was to turn that name in 20. Joining us, Carol Rosenberg from the miami herald to get the latest in the situation at Guantanamo Bay, cuba. Later, fox news hosting the president ial debate. What questions would you ask the candidates. You are watching and listening to cspans washington journal on thursday, august 6. Back in a minute. Announcer cspan radio takes you to the movies. Here the oral argument from four cases that played a part in popular movies. From women in gold to the people versus larry flynt. The watergate case from all the president s men. And the story about the landmark civil rights case on interracial marriage. Saturdays and artists at six cut p. M. Eastern on cspan radio. Listen at 90. 1 fm in washington d. C. An online at cspan. Org. Or download our cspan radio app. Announcer sunday night on q a, former emergency manager of detroit kevyn orr talks about his job overseeing the largest municipal bankruptcy in u. S. History. Mr. Orr if detroit had taken that money into thousand five or 2006 and invested in an index fund the stock market is now trading at 18,000, almost three times what it was. Not only would they have tripled their money, they could have paid the pensions and gotten back in the business of declaring a 13th check your giving pensioners a 13th check at the end of the year in addition to the 12 they are due. It could have fixed itself if there had been sober management. Just like any organization. If you have strong leadership and focused leadership, you can resolve problems. But it takes a lot of effort. Announcer sunday night on cspans q a. Announcer washington journal continues. Host we want to turn our attention to Guantanamo Bay cuba. Joining us from miami is Carol Rosenberg, a correspondent for the miami herald. Youve been covering this for many years. Guantanamo by the numbers and details Available Online at miamiherald. Com. 116 detainees from 17 countries. The youngest is putting nine or 30, the oldest is 67. The president would like to see that number at zero. How likely is that . Guest right now it does not feel like it is possible. The plan would be to remove 52 who are cleared for transfer and send them to other countries. That would mean a detainee would have to leave once every 10 days until the president goes. Then the rest would be moved to the u. S. At this point, legislation forbids it. Derail question is is there some sort of grand bargain going on behindthescenes between the white house and john mccain to make that possible . It would require moving people from gitmo moving them to the u. S. That would require changes in legislation. At this stage, it does not look like the pieces are in place for him to empty it by the time he leaves office. Guest how much does host how much does it cost the federal government per inmate per year to house them at gitmo. Guest thats the controversial question. The administration would say 3. 4 Million Dollars per day teeny per detainee. If you talk to general kelly, responsible for the prison, he thinks that is inflated for political reasons. He thinks it is closer to 800,000 or 900,000 per detainee to maintain them. Which is still 30 times larger than to maintain someone at a super max doesnt. A super max prison. Host talking about the use of gitmo after 9 11. In its peak in 20032004, how many people were there . Guest across the span, 700 or 800 detainees. At the height, 640 at one time. The Obama Administration has never brought a detainee to guantanamo, but the Bush Administration brought them weekly or more than once a week back in 2002 when they were under pressure in afghanistan to get prisoners out of winter in kandahar. Across the span of it 780 detainees. We know this in part because the Senate Torture report has told us there were people held there on a cia black site the pentagon has never a knowledge. Host last month at the aspen security forum, the issue was addressed. Heres a portion it i will get your reaction. [video clip] my hope is that those who in congress, including senator mccain who has been thoughtful on this and who is a supporter of closing guantanamo, as is the president , in a responsible way. My hope is that we can work with him and his colleagues to get this done. This is not something the president wants to turn over to his successor. The plan, maybe it is worth demystifying is consistent with what the president has said all along. We are going to transfer everyone here everyone who has unanimously been deemed eligible for transfer, that is 52 people at current count. Subject to security arrangements with the receiving country. That does not just mean unlocking the door and having somebody go willynilly to another country. It means a painstaking establishment of security protocol that would govern the transfer of that individual. We are going to transfer everyone who has been deemed eligible for transfer consistent with security. We are going to prosecute those who can be prosecuted. One of the roadblocks, weve got 10 people subject to the military commission. There is another number who could be prosecuted in federal court and sent to a super max prison. Right now, were barred by statute from bringing anybody hear from guantanamo even to put them in a super max prison. Host comments of lisa monaco, the president s advisor on counterterrorism and homeland security. That event last month at the aspen institute. Guest what was interesting about what she had to say, it is not very different then what the Obama Administration has been saying all along. The plan has not changed. Get rid of the people we can get rid of safely to other countries to resettle or repatriate them. Move the rest to the United States put those people on trial who can be put on trial. It has not changed. Part of what senator mccain has said he wanted was language that makes it clear that if they moved to the United States, they do not assume, as he said, Civil Liberties protections or rights they do not have at guantanamo. What we have not heard from the white house is any sort of language being proposed to bring them to the United States that would not change their status. This is truly a test of this doctrine, which is can you keep people indefinitely, forever, in an endless war for which there is no leader of the enemy to surrender and hold these people as indefinite, basically were prisoners. The issue becomes a their status change in the u. S. . There are people and congress who believe that they will get new rights and they fear that it will become somehow more empowered if they are brought to the states. The administration and actually the Bush Administration said this is a new kind of prisoner who does not get rights. What i think the white house has not done is articulated what they are going to do to bring them to the states differently than they would have done in 2010, when Congress Absolutely rebelled against this idea. Host Carol Rosenberg, shes been with the miami herald since 1990 and spent much of her career covering Guantanamo Bay. Shes middle east and washington correspondent for the heraled d. 2027488001 for republicans. 2027488000 if you are a democrat. A life for independents, 2027488002. Let me ask you straight out, why is this so difficult . Guest congress, to a degree likes guantanamo. It is congress prison. They find it, they control the president s ability to close it. There are people in congress who like the messaging of guantanamo. The messaging of guantanamo is to the world, if you mess with us, you end up in a cage at Guantanamo Bay. That has not happened since the Bush Administration. The Obama Administration argues that that is not useful messaging and that our allies do not like guantanamo and want us to get out of the guantanamo business. In a way, you have a continuation of other political debates about Foreign Policy and the trustworthiness of this administration. Again, in a way, this is congress prison. They find it, they require these notices in advance on transfers. Host to illustrate that point let me remind our audience of the comments of senator tom cotton, freshman from arkansas. Heres what he had to say. [video clip] sen. Cotton lets look at the propaganda value. How many detainees were at guantanamo ion september 11, 2001 . Zero. The facility was not open before 2002. Sen. Cotton 1979, when iran took over our embassy . 1983 when hezbollah bombed our barracks in lebanon. The answer is zero. Islamic terrorists do not need an excuse to attack the u. S. They attack us for who they are. It is a political decision based on promises the president made on his campaign to to say it is a security decision is a pretext to justify a political decision. The only problem with Guantanamo Bay is there are too many empty beds and cells there now. We should be sending more terrorists there. Every last one of them can rot in hell. As long as they do not do that they can rot in Guantanamo Bay. Host from february of this year. Carol rosenberg, you covered the story. Your thoughts . Guest of the 116 men at guantanamo now52 are cleared for release. The intelligence services, the justice department, the dia, the joint chiefs of staff, in this dispassionate look at the detainees, have said we do not need 52 there. Some of them, they were told as long ago as the Bush Administration they could leave. To suggest that all of them need to be there rotting at Guantanamo Bay is to ignore the numbers, people want to find mechanisms to get at least 52 of the 116 out of u. S. Military detentions with stable repatriation agreements that suggest they do not want them in gitmo. The government, im not just talking about politicians, an intelligence analysis says that these men should be gone. And they should have been gone long ago. You have not asked, but i will jump forward, they are yemeni. Neither the Obama Administration nor the Bush Administration trusts the instability of yemen to be a location to send these men. You have the state department trying to find countries on a casebycase basis it is almost like social work. Here is somebody they want out of gitmo they want to send to some situation that will be as close to guaranteeing his success in his next phase of his life. The state department is out shopping for countries that will resettle these people. Theres a piece of legislation coming that could really mess this up. As the house has adopted proposals to restrict transfers prevent transfers to what they call combat zone countries. And in combat zone countries, it is defined by the Internal Revenue service. That would eliminate a whole swath of planet earth where the u. S. Would like to send these men for new lives, find them jobs, find instability. Maybe reunite them with their families and get them onto the next thing. What you have right now is the tension between the plan that wants to get been out to either a new life or secure lockups in the u. S. And legislation in congress that wants to keep them there. Rotting at Guantanamo Bay. Host Carol Rosenberg is joining us from miami. Her work is available at miamiherald. Com. Focusing on Guantanamo Bay, cuba. Joining us from atlanta. Welcome to the conversation. Caller good morning. Mrs. Rosenberg, if you say things, president obama would like to turn over the castro family [indiscernible] guest can you help me . Host i could not really decipher the question, can you rephrase it . Caller president obama, do you think that president obama would like to turn over the base to the castro family . Host thank you. We understand. Guest i think the question is whether i believe or theres a belief that the Obama Administration would withdraw from Guantanamo Bay as a base. I think that is the question. We need to create the distinction, when obama talks about closing guantanamo, he is not talking about the 45 squaremile database in navy base in cuba that has a seaport and an airport and a school and restaurants for families. He is talking about getting out of the Detention Center. Closing the prison which occupies a significant piece of that base. Closing guantanamo has become shorthand for closing the Detention Center. Theres been some open questions and suspicion about the fact that now that they have renewed diplomatic relations with havana, are they interested in actually returning it. The answer i get is absolutely not. They want that port. They consider that maybe base a that navy base a Strategic Asset to the pentagon, with or without the Detention Center. Whether or not they will renegotiate the lease now that diplomatic relations have been restored is an open question. Roberta jacobson at the state apartments as it is not up for discussion. The u. S. Pays 4,085 a year for this piece of cuba. The Castro Administration has returned to the checks. They say we dont want the checks. If you have normalized relations, do you have a renegotiation over the status of the base . Its an open question. If the question is does obama want to leave Guantanamo Bay the answer the state department and the Defense Department gave you is, no. He wants to keep the base, not the present. Host from louisiana, homer is next. Democrats line. Caller good morning. Our biggest problem, weve got a big stick. Were going around the world and saying why are people mad at us. What gives us the right to hold those people down there . Guest homer is representing the argument that has long said try them or let them go. We should not be Holding People indefinitely without charging them with crimes. And this has created a great deal of resentment internationally. Its an old argument. You heard tom cottons response to it. I think the president came into office believing they could try people or let them go. I think what he discovered and what the country is now stuck with is the notion that you can hold theres legitimacy to holding forever war prisoners in a forever war that was started by people no longer around to surrender. One by one, you will reevaluate their status and possibly let them go. To the point that all you may one day have are the war criminals, people convicted at the courts. The problem with that, the courts have not been working very well. The military commissions are losing through appeals the few convictions they have gotten. The cases of the men awaiting trial in the Death Penalty cases are just frozen through structural problems, historical problems, and not making progress. I think homers frustration is representative of a wide swath of people who look at guantanamo and say how can we still be in the guantanamo business this many years later. Host from tennessee on the republican line. Your question for Carol Rosenberg of the miami herald. Caller good morning. How are you . Guest thank you, kevin. Caller i had a question and a comment. I will get to the question next. The comment i would like to start out in saying is a sickly we is basically we all know how this country started. We all know its origins. We know a political and religious beliefs that started this country. Anybody that does not know that needs to take a history lesson. Anybody that does not like it can leave. In saying that, it is plainly obvious and it should be to the rest of the country and the americans in this country that this administration is trying to undo what we have done from the beginning of time that our forefathers have started in hopes that we would finish. Host Carol Rosenberg, your reaction . Guest im not sure whether this is concern over the concept of indefinite detention without trial and whether or not habeas corpus is working or whether this is an argument that we need to go out and be aggressive in our projection of International Power to secure the country. I think that both of those arguments apply to gitmo depending on who you are speaking to. Host next is june from delaware, good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you, cspan, for being there for the citizens of the United States. Good morning, ms. Rosenberg. I have a question. I am interested in finding out what countries the guantanamo prisoners are being sent to. And will the United States be maintaining them in these countries . And two, in contrast, either u. S. Citizens being held in other countries the same way that the United States is Holding People in guantanamo. Thank you. Guest last question first, yes. There are american citizens held without charges. I think the people who argue foreclosure say we have lost the moral authority to say that those people should be released or get fair trials. In terms of where have the men gone i will put in a pitch for my webpage at miamiherald. Co m guantanamo. The countries range from palau in the pacific to oman, kazakhstan, saudi arabia. The resettlement and Repatriation Program for guantanamo looks at trying to get people back to their home countries if they cnan be safely resettled, safely repatriated. It is more and looking at resettlement. Many men who are approved for release are yemenis who got to guantanamo in their young 20s and are now men in their 40s. They want to get on with their lives. The administration is not willing to send them to yemen right now, and neither was the previous administration. They are looking at europe. Some men went to uruguay recently. There is interest in getting some of them to south america. What the United States gives these countries to take them ranges from cash settlement to help put them up and get them health care. To in some instances they get the gratitude of the United States and the gratitude of the president for helping them out of this bind. The issue really is finding countries that match individual detainees circumstances. Uruguay worked out in part because these men could not go back to tunisia and syria. And there was a president there jose one by one they are trying to find places for these 52 men. Europe has sort of lost interest in helping on this. We learned that europe said if the United States is unwilling to take them to your country why should we take them two hours . I believe to ours . There are some countries that is said they will take a detainee in. Help with language, job, maybe espouse and give them a chance to move on. We heard lisa monaco say there are countries that one is out of the guantanamo business for Foreign Policy reasons. The state department is trying to collect on that chit. Host to make the point that many want to move on with their lives. Is there a way we can make certain that they are either not involve any future terrorist activities or trained potential future terrorists or are involved directly or indirectly with terrorism threats against u. S. . Guest the answer i think is no. Its part of the tension between congress and the Defense Department and the white house. There are people who say they are going to make the best arrangements possible. They are getting security guarantees. But that you cannot look into the minds and hearts of these men even though we kept them in detention for all these years. They may be leaving guantanamo angry at the americans and holding resentment. The results of the counterargument that says they arrived as angry young men jihadists in the 20s, and their leaving in their 40s and 50s and they have done their duty to their movement and now they want to have the rest of their lives. If you talk to the american lawyers who volunteer for these people and defend them and go down and see them, the lawyers will argue that their clients have decided that whatever their ideology was they want families. They want to see their families that they left behind and they want to have new families. It is the job of the intelligence agencies to weigh the decision to release against the proposal to resettle. To try to figure out whether they can improve the odds of them having safe release. At the end of the day i think Congress Wants greater guarantees that perhaps the pentagon can give. That may be part of the reason why at this point there have not been very many releases. We had six men in june go to oman. That was a leftover deal from last year. There has really been no movement the summer. I hear there may be one more release but that is problematic. It feels like right now your questions, the question that troubles people at the pentagon, and that may be white there has been very Little Movement the summer. Host white house efforts to close the detention facility in move the prisoners outside the base in cuba. Frank, from new york. Thanks for your question. Caller our country is a good country. We have the freedom. The way i look at it is what we need to do is think this out. These guys had no education and they got going. They still have no education. They are going to get back out there and where are you can put all the bad guys in the world . Host the ghost year earlier point. Guest i think it is true that some of the younger men came with very little education. There are people at guantanamo with advanced degrees. They have been educated in the west. This is part of leaning meeting to look into each individual file and figure out what is the best way to resettle or repatriate them. If you are interested in that, another pitch for our webpage at miamiherald. Com has a look at each of the detainees and there is a range of people from highly educated to illiterate. The question is a good one. How do you get out of the guantanamo business if you want to get out and develop a policy that allows you to take prisoners of war in a war that does not seem to be bound by geography or necessarily a leader to surrender . The other question is, and i dont know the answer to this. It is a whole debate. Does the fact that quantum of create more animosity towards the United States or less . Tom cotton says no and the Obama Administration says yes. The American People seem to be pretty passive on the question of guantanamo. There is not a lot of interest in the subject and im not sure there is a strong feelings one way or another if it is a good thing or bad thing. Go abroad and people are very animated. They dont like guantanamo. In the states it is not a particularly controversial subject. Host the first detainees came in early 2002. So far nine have died while held in captivity. This information from Carol Rosenberg, correspondent from miami. Don from virginia. Democrats line. Caller good morning, it is my birthday. You were talking about cuba. I found Fidel Castros attorney when i was in san diego. He trains between 2000 terrorist world wide. These are leaders of the terrorist groups and in my be back by fido fidel castro. Guest i dont think there is any evidence that there is a link between the castro and al qaeda. I dont think theres any evidence that links the cuban government to the taliban. I have not seen it. If you find some send it to me at the miami herald and we will look at it. I would like to correct one aspect of what was said which is of these 116 men very few of them would meet any definition of leader. That is not to say there are not some. The people being put on trial through military commissions are accused of being senior members of al qaeda. But many of these 116 men there are were footsoldiers. People who went to afghanistan just months before the capture who had not been there very long and certainly, if they were al qaeda, in some instances it was mere association or previous association. In some they were taliban or associated with the taliban. But the idea that all 116 our leaders is a misunderstanding. A lot of these people were the equivalent of privates in a disorganized military. Of the 116 only 10 of them are accused of war crimes. Only 10 could be tried under suspicion that they were criminals. The rest of them, while may be unlawful combatants, did not behave in a criminal matter which is a legal distinction under the Geneva Convention of consequence. I do not believe these men are leaders in i do not know i have seen a connection between al qaeda and the taliban to the castros or the cuban government. Guest sean from new york city. Caller i want to point out the hypocrisy of our european allies, particularly the british who have made such a huge stink over shake during the troubles. Holding irish prisoners without trial. They engage in torture. They have never apologized for any of this noted they compensate any these prisoners. I just think this these we pointed out in light of their shrill comments about guantanamo. Guest fair enough. The other analogy people sometimes bring his with a Hunger Strike in the forcefeeding going on at one time of. There is at guantanamo. I think there was a wide ranging Hunger Strike for mid to be forcibly to said it did not voluntarily drink their Nutritional Supplement or eat. People pointed out that the british debt with their own Hunger Strike at times extremely harshly. There are other analogies to be made. The case of shakur armor, he is been clear for number of years. He is a british resident who was born in saudi arabia who i understand has disavowed his saudi citizenship. The only place he could go, unless he were to voluntarily agree to go back to saudi, which he has not, would be the u. K. They have asked for him back but there is something going on behind the scenes in that case. Even though he has been cleared in the public has requested his release, the Obama Administration has not made the deal. I think which we could know more about that story because on paper even think the administration would have returned him to the u. K. As the u. K. Government generally once the return. Host the facility is in a remote part of cuba. Do the inmates have any interaction between themselves and or with Family Members . Guest the vast majority of them in the Detention Center for ramadan and the vast majority were categorized as compliant captives which means they follow the rules and david the guards told them. They lived in communal detention which means they live in groups. The each other on individual cell but they can pray together, eat together, do sports together, watch tv that is provided by the u. S. Military. They get books. The overwhelming majority probably can live in the company about the detainees as long as they obey the rules. When i was there for ramadan it was extreme the peaceful. There is a huge guard force down there. More than 2000 soldiers and contractors who work at that prison which accounts for why it is so extensive. In terms of the other half of the question, families . Since about 2006 they have been getting phone calls to the red cross. That has been arranged at times based on your compliance. The right client cross through the cooperation and monitoring of u. S. Military talks of their families back home. Since the start they have gotten red cross letters that are censored and reviewed by the american military. They read every one of them and the red cross agrees to that. Some of them are entitled what would call skype. They had videoconferencing. Some ekholm live in remote areas of yemen and do not have it is not in the home and they have to travel to a red cross site in order to establish these phone calls. It is been more or less accepted depending on which country the detainees come from. They do have contact with their families. With the understanding that the military is reading them all. If there is a Family Member with United States perceives to be a threat or an enemy, with the knowledge they are talking to the relatives through a u. S. Monitored conversation. Host some praise on our twitter feed. Steve says kudos for pushing this issue. Carol rosenberg in the miami herald, adding it is a remaining obama goal i would like to see satisfied. Guest the miami herald has covered this from the beginning because they decided to put this in our backyard. I had an editor who basically said they were good to put a prison and a court out of reach of the mecca people, we as american journalists should everything we can to bring it closer. I agree with the writer. My paper has had an extraordinary commitment to covering the story between unpopular times in times of this interest. Thank you for the competent. My paper has really gone the extra mile to keep this story and make it possible for the americans to follow what is going on at guantanamo. Host marlon from pennsylvania. Caller yes. My comment is i think that the senator has a right. They should all wrought down there rot down there. Al qaeda still exists. The army, if you are found be out of uniform you were a spy and shot on the sp that is what needs to happenot. Guest i dont think there was interest in shooting them on the spot when they were captured because when you look back at the beginning of guantanamo there were some desires to use it as an Intelligence Unit in an interrogation lab and get information. One guantanamo was set up in early 2002, Osama Bin Laden was not only alive but they at large. One of the goals was to capture these foreign fighters and to see if they could provide information to lead them back to the leadership of al qaeda. The other thing is because they were using foreign fighters in young people, remember how raw Public Opinion was after the september 11 attacks. If there was any point in our history for people might be inclined to shoot people on the spot it couldve possibly been back then but it was just the opposite. They were desperately trying to figure out how to interrogate these people. To distinction between fact, fiction real combatant, think about and someone who just happened to be at the wrong place at the wrong time. To find out if there were other sleeper cells and other al qaeda plots. I dont think the shoot them on the spot strategy was ever really seriously considered in the post9 11 cover. Host jim for in virginia is next. Caller thank you for having me on. I am all for closing. The prisoners should of never been put there. They were put there to torture people. We should be putting the people in prison one week made a commitment we would not torture people that we put them down there and torture them. We were over there innovating their land, they were not over here. We need to consider that. Everybody says not everybody but was republican say they want to balance the budget. This would be a good way to start. They can close that down. They have people that need to be in jail and they can send them over here. We can keep them in our solitary confinement seven here a lot cheaper the mechanic cuba. Then we can in cuba. Guest the problem with putting them in our bureau of prison systems is they are not convicted of any crimes. All but 10 of them are not even in pretrial confinement. There isnt really a domestic corrections setting to put someone who you do not intend to charge of the crime and you have not convicted of a crime. Moving on to the issue of convicting them, the problem with obtaining convictions we learned over time in these 10 cases, or the nine cases right now they are trying is in six of these cases are Death Penalty cases. Many of these people were not brought straight to the United States after capture, not put into the judicial system, and not charged with crimes and put on trial. As i think we now know, they were taken offer three or for years. Many of the people on trial down there they were taken for three or four years to cia black sites. They were kept off the books of the red cross and in some instances tortured and used for their intelligence value in the pursuit of others. The cia did this. Now we are dealing with trying to put those people on trial. The argument is that if this was due process derailed, it was due process the late. They are trying to figure out how to deal with the three or four years for the men that were denied attorneys. And how you bring evidence into a trial at guantanamo under a military tribunal this justice disrupted period. It should be brought to the u. S. And put on trial or put in jail. I think that what happened is they lost the opportunity to do that when they took them off for interrogation. The argument will be whether they should of been tried i right away. Lawyers will say that is justice denied and it is unacceptable to put them on trial. The courts down there a trend to figure out and get the trial. In six of these cases they are Death Penalty cases. Nobody asks but one of the open questions is why not bring them to the United States for trial now . Military commissions at guantanamo dont have to be held on an abandoned airstrip. The law that congress created for the military commissions would allow them to be tried in the United States as well. But the open question is what other rights would be attached . John mccain has asked the question. The white house has yet to articulate how if any way status would change if they were brought to the United States. The answer privately is they do not believe so. The doctrine of war prisoners does not change my dear by geography. That is one thing john mccain says he wants included in the plan from the white house. Host james from fort worth republican line. Caller what u. S. Carol why dont u. S. Carol i thought the president said yemen was a success and she was a sin these prisoners to yemen . Why dont we give them a humvee and an ak47 and tell them it is open season on americans . Guest sir, i do not remember the president calling given a success but there is pretty much a policy they cannot go to yemen. The obama and bush ministries and concluded it is just too unstable, especially for men that have their lives from 14 years to drop them into that country with possibly no prospects of a successful future. There was no plan to send the yemeni back to yemen. The overwhelming majority of detainees to been cleared for release at guantanamo are yemeni. That is why theyre looking for other countries to take them in. Host thank you forhost explain the situation at canton of a bay, cuba. Guantanamo bay cuba. We appreciate your time today. This is a headline from of the ohio newspapers, all eyes on cleveland tonight. The first Republican Debate will be airing on the Fox News Channel. The first debate at 5 00 eastern time in the main event in primetime at 9 00 eastern time. Just play cool. All eyes on donald trump and governor casey does not need to start up. 10 candidates debating and in just a few minutes we want to hear from you. What question would you ask the candidates if you are one of the moderators for the foxnews debate . Republicans 202 7488001. For democrats 202 7488002. We also have a life for the independents outside the u. S. You are watching and listening to washington journal. We will be back in a moment. When the senate takes its august break we will future book tv programming on weeknights in primetime on cspan2. At the end of the summer look for to book tv special programs. On saturday september 5, live from our Nations Capital for the 15th annual National Book festival. Followed on sunday with our live indepth coverage of former second lady and senior fellow at the American Enterprise institute, lynn cheney. Television for serious readers. Theodore roosevelt becomes president at the the assassination of william mckinley. To accommodate her family, Edith Roosevelt renovates the entire second floor the executive mansion. Thus the creation of a west wing to house the staff offices. By adding a social secretary to the payroll she creates the office of the first lady and changes the name from the executive mansion to the white house. Edith roosevelt this sunday night at eight eastern it about eastern on cspans original series first l adies. Their influence on the presidency from Martha Washington to michelle obama. Sundays at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on American History tv on cspan3. Washington journal continues. Host the first debate taking place tonight. Cspan was one of the partners for a forum with a number of the candidates in New Hampshire but this ability debate will include donald trump. 5 00 eastern time for those that did not hold the top 10 and of the primetime event at 9 00 eastern time. We will use the next 35 minutes or so to hear from you on what questions you would ask the candidates. This is front page of the cleveland plain dealer. They call it the q. Tonight it is the site of the fox news debate. The largest republican field ever to take stage at the q. An anticipated highstakes showdown. Fox news is putting on on with partnership with facebook and the candidates on facebook with their questions including this from donald trump. [video clip] trump i would like to ask all the nonnegotiators how are you going to make America Great again . Host that is from facebook. We will hear more from the candidates tonight. Monica crowley has written a book on her relationship with Richard Nixon during the 1990s. And she is a contributor to the Fox News Channel. Big questions for tonights big debate. She make the following point. The fox news moderators will have a challenging job given the number of contenders competing for camera time in the unpredictable presence of the current frontrunner, donald trump. We can expect incisive questions about the most pressing issues from obamacare immigration, and tax and title reforms. This is a chance to go be on the obvious issues to probe deeper ask the less obvious questions that do not lend themselves to these soundbites. These of the questions that have the power to offer voters clarity into the candidates thinking into the most profound issues of our time. From bellevue, florida independent line. . Caller caller what questions would you ask i would like to ask how many of the candidates have signed Grover Norquists no new tax pledge. Debited my question. Host thank you for the callhost . Fred barnes is this from the wall street journal. What to look for on debate night. Fred barnes is also the editor for the Weekly Standard. He said donald trump it better be prepared. He has been writing high. So high he was granted the rare opportunity on sunday to be interviewed on meet the press and face the nation by telephone. Candidate to lack his celebrity, which means all the others, are afforded not afforded that privilege. Now he faces his first big test. Donald trump is the star but he will not necessarily be the winner and. A bad debate can kill a candidacy. Caller yes, i would like to ask these stupid clowns in the Republican Party about what they plan on doing about ted cruz since they were so hung up on obama . And they are so stupid. I would not move for none of them. Host honey from georgia. This debate is being sponsored by fox news and facebook. We will hear more from the candidates and their questions including former arkansas governor Mike Huckabee. [video clip] do you believe that the recent ruling on samesex marriage is the law of the land . Host willie is next from South Carolina. Independent line. Caller good morning. Host what questions would you ask the candidates . Caller when will they stop trying to manipulate the mind of the human being and run the United States in the manner it should be run . Host the Washington Post has this editorial this morning. Will the republican candidates focus on the issues in this first debate . The republican race has so far focused more on personality and bombast than policy. With the first debate thursday night we hope it will begin to change. At least some of the candidates evidence serious proposals on a ridge of issues, so we dont necessarily agree with them that substance should not be lost in the circuslike atmosphere surrounding this debate. Joe is next from indiana. Your thoughts on the debate . Caller i would like to Ask Donald Trump how he would handle taxes on real estate. This is especially relevant to anybody who advocates any kind of tax that is the word fair in it because fair to my understanding means a National Sales tax of some description. They all handle real estate very differently. They say the r can be made as low itaet as the teens in the sales tax or places the income tax but that is only if 100 of real estate is taxed like every other the same rate as any other sales tax. When you add 13 onto a real estate transaction and you are talking about an enormous industry changing amount of money that im sure trump i can imagine trumpet before that. If you exclude all real estate at various levels of real estate but you exclude all real estate, than the sales tax rate goes up to about 33 higher. Host thanks for that call. The New York Times calls of the next phase of the gop race. It starts now with the debate this evening. Jerry in arlington, massachusetts. Caller good morning. A twopart question. Whoever gets nominated would reinstate glasssteagall . Im sure a lot of them wont. Hillary said she would not already. I know Martin Omalley from maryland said he would. So is senator warren for massachusetts and various others. There are bills in the house and senate to get glasssteagall read reinstated. Wall street keeps getting bailed out. If glasssteagall was reinstated they would not be mailed out for trillions of dollars that is just taxpayers bailing them out. Second, i would ask any republicans if they would challenge Hillary Clinton to tell the truth about benghazi. They know the attack was not a protest in 2012. There was a violent attack by al qaeda that president obama was trying to get reelected so he lied about it. They had uptotheminute reports and do exactly what was going on while they were changing taking arms at olivia and putting them into syria. Totally insane. If we keep pushing more, we are going to get exactly what we are pushing against russia and china. Waging war with them. I would as the republicans to challenge hillary and obama to tell the truth about benghazi. Host thank you for your callhost . Jody has this. Is anyone forgetting that donald trump claim vacancy for time so far . Some leader claimed bankruptcy so far . Apiece for politico. What if trump wins . He says every political analyst and observer and politician is absolutely sure that donald trump is not going to be the republican nominee for president. And we are all absolutely sure he will not be sworn in as president. Could be all the wrong . So far every poll needs seems to be getting a more strength. Who wouldve thought a month ago he would be the center of the first european debate in cleveland . Gop debate in cleveland . What question would you asked the candidates tonight, darrell . Caller i would ask the candidates when will the American People have the say so again . You of situations. I am in california and we have millions of people say no to the same sex marriage noise. It was obliterated by one or two judges who probably who knows what their Sexual Orientation was. I want to know why we dont have a boat anymore vote anymore. Is a country run by judges and lawyers. I dont know if any candidates would even be able to say nothing about it because it seems like they are all part of a giant cronus isism or clicks are what everyone called him. Host the piece is called our political entertainment. Tonights debate might be the most feverishly anticipated political event since the one that took place one under 57 years ago in ottawa illinois. That debate between Abraham Lincoln and Stephen Douglas remembered today for the seriousness of that subject slavery, and the forensic skill in which the two candidates for u. S. Is illinoissenate seat debated it. That is what the political environment is beginning to look like. We cover the recreation of the Lincoln Douglas debate several years ago. You can check it out on our Video Library. Mike is joining us from missouri. Good morning. Caller good morning. I would like to ask all the candidates why general betray us was prosecuted for withholding classified information and Hillary Clinton has not been prosecuted or still even has a server in a residence . That is what i would like to ask. Host thank you. From a viewer. Trump is winning and the rest of you can go home. Claudia from flint michigan. Caller i would like to know what none of them have mentioned the black agenda the black women here. There are over 64,000 missing black women in america that have not been accounted for. They dont even make mention of. Not only that, i want them to mention about School Systems that is destroying our black boys. They have a pipeline going from there to prison before they are in the 12 th grade. They dont mention Police Brutality on blacks or prosecute the Police Officers that are killing our black men and getting away walking scotfree, going to mcdonalds and back home to their families but every time there is a police that is shot the media runs it like wow it is wrong for them to get treat the blackmail male why havent they legalize it for Police Officers to come all over the United States and give the badges just to shoot Black Brothers down in the street and let them go free . White of a mission stuff like that . Host how would you answer your own question . Caller i think that someone has legalized somebody, the white male, to kill the black man. It had to come from the top. Host claudia from flint, michigan. For things to watch for. Donald trump the Center Position in tonights a bait. That is being cared tonights debate. The next debate will happen in midseptember in california and is sponsored by cnn. Laura from yeary, pennsylvania. Caller good morning. My question in light of what planned parenthood has been selling baby parts. When to be get to appoint the issue. When do we say abortion is immoral . I want to ask them if they would join our charity. We have saved 70 babies and more black and mixedrace babies and white. We are definitely not racist but we offer the people were thinking about aborting because of financial struggles a sum of 3000. We have contracted with over 70. If this went nationwide we could save many more those babies so they would not have to be torn apart in abortion. Saveunbornlife. Org. If every person says i will say one and let this be a priority for the nation to say we can do this. According to planned parenthood, 70 are killing babies because they cannot afford them. We can save many more these little ones by just putting our money as a priority. Again, we invite all prolife and especially the Republican Leaders together to saveunb ornlife. Org. Thank you. Host gary has this tweet. Would they be willing to close all foreign bases and secure our borders . What to look for the 10 candidates tonight. She summarizes the following items. Let the donald b the donald. Marco rubio needs to get back into the game. Jeb bush needs to be his own man. Scott walker needs to be compared to as the commanderinchief. Rand paul these to be viewed as an alternative, showcasing his alternative view of the world. Chris christie, you want combative . My conga beat Mike Huckabee r remember me . You can also read this online at usa today. Com. Another person in the afternoon preview that takes place at 5 00 eastern time is probably fear rina. This is my one question to all the candidates. In early february of this year i challenged mrs. Clinton to name and a compliment. She has not been able to name one yet. How each of you challenge mrs. Clinton . Host next is Charles Rangel arkansas. Charles in arkansas. Caller i was the candidates to note what they think of the way fox news the way the top 10 choose this because it is unfair considering we hear about Bobby Jindals economic reform in Lindsey Grahams ability to reach across senate lines and party lines. I would like to see host stewart in charleston. Caller good morning. I have one question which is basically with all the talk of of the Republican Party of putting more boots on the ground in the middle east, are they in favor or when with the institute the draft with no exceptions so that they and their own children will be drafted and sent to war if that war is such an important thing for them . Host we are asking what questions you ask the candidates. A question from eddy he says reducing the debt requires more coming in the going out. Would you reduce the debt like cutting expenses or increasing receipts . No scheduled debates for the democrats. The Weekly Standard is writing about it. Is blasting the candidates for limiting the debate. There are only six plan for the entire primary. You can read the story online. Chuck is next from new mexico. Caller i had a question about some of the regulations that are being imposed on the people by unelected officials. Epa regulations on our country. Thereby, partisan appointees. I would like to ask the candidates if they agree with the way the regulations are being imposed on the United States . If not, what with a getting it for them . Get rid of them . The president wanted to put in an epa regulation to cut coal. In new mexico, 70 of our energy comes from electrical coalpowered electricity. If they take that away from us, we are not a very rich state and i dont know what we would do. I would rather have those decisions made by the people then by elected officials. That is what i want to ask them. What would they do about that . Host roger green, wed ask each candidate should be taken to repair the Racial Division of the last six years. Republican strategist karl rove, who also writes a column from the wall street journal. Which donald trump will debate . He calls the other candidates clowns and responds with schoolyard insults. Then there is the donald trump the tweeted out with the coming debate its early my intention to be very nice and highly respectful of the other candidates. Mr. Trump seems to have recognized that as a candidate atop the republican heat he will not be held to a higher standard than he was one he was a celerity polling in the low signal digits. He has been on so many sides of 70 issues that the test of tonight debate is including his flip flop on the issue of abortion. Trump in 2 thousand rd he 2000 said he supported a waiting. For those karl rove this morning. Peter from butler, pennsylvania. What question would you asked the candidates . Caller i would like to know if any of the candidates have ever had words with mr. Warren buffett . In january of two dozen 12 2012, time had a headline about the optimist. Y Warren Buffett is bullish on america. He has lived the American Dream and has a great attitude and i think you could help many of the other candidates get grounded. Host thank you for that call. Caller lewis from missouri. What questions would you ask . Caller my question would be benghazi, why we so fixated on benghazi 14 people got killed when the war in iraq, 500 troops were killed and there is no nothing. No investigation. Host thank you for your call. This is from marie. Why your democrats trying to cut a deal with iran . For the sanctions working . Yes, they were. Fox news is showcasing this debate on its website. This is the headline. With trumpet centerstage, gop candidates ready to rumble in the first debate. Caller thank you. My first time calling. Host we are glad to hear for you. Caller in lakeland there was a letter to the editor said they should all hold up five fingers and was the most Serious Problems facing the u. S. In the next president. And then hold up the next hand and a priority order with one of the most Serious Problems. We need to see the perception of their minds. There are two groups of these candidates. The one of the unprovens one ofwannabes and then the governors. Host are you going to watch the debate . Caller yes. Host they are expecting between 12 million and 15 million people. Foxnews moderators looking for ways to keep the 10 candidates on their toes. The team has been decided to limited Opening Statements in the field to save time. Had 90 clock p. M. Sharp questions will begin. To keep the debate on schedule, the fox team was also discussing a possible alternative to the usual din dent gent dingle ding sound. You can make it about synergy in that arena. Is the very same buzzer that lebron james hears in the court when the shot clock runs out. He said he came up with the idea tuesday evening over dinner. He said i was inspired by a beer. Next is josephine from livingston, new jersey. Caller good morning. The person there are four people i would be asking questions of. Dr. Ben carson. He has had stage for Prostate Cancer and was operated on. Are due in remission and how long . Carly, ceo of hewlettpackard. I would like to know why she was fired. Walker the high school graduate. Name one president in the 20th century he was president of United States with a high school diploma. Chris christie, if he wants to be president you have a 2 billion debt in the state of new jersey under your watch. How do you think you would handle the budget in this country . Host you have done your homework. Caller you Better Believe it. It was the one president . Caller it was truman. Host even the trivia question. Where did the candidates stand of the iran deal in the war in general in the middle east and what will they do to prevent more war . Next is vincent from alabama. Caller good morning. I would like to know what the gop candidates are going to do to help the veterans who are waiting to be seen and taken care of . And the ones coming home from the iraq and afghanistan wars . Host thank you for your call. This is a picture from inside the New York Times of what the stage will look like tonight. The location is the quicken loans arena where the Cleveland Cavaliers play. They call it the q. Next ally they will be meeting in cleveland, ohio and the democrats will be meeting in philadelphia. The only network to show the speeches in the entire convention. You can watch them uninterrupted on cspan. Tom says his question what is your definition of the government . Senator Lindsey Graham also joining in on questions to the other candidates. Part of the Foxnews Facebook debate. I believe it is impossible in iraq and syria without an american ground force. [indiscernible] do you think im wrong . How would you score it . Host republican of South Carolina and part of the early debates taking place at 5 00 eastern time. Another viewer with this. Do you think that fetal organs are going to medical research to preserve and save lives . You can join in the conversation at www. Cspan. Org. Larry . Caller yes, i would like to ask each candidate in the debate who their selection would be if they were elected president for secretary of state defense, and attorney general . Host why is that in important question . Caller i think those people have more to do with running the country than the president does. I think those are the three most important positions in my opinion in the cabinet. Host thank you for your callhost . Judy is next from hawaii. Caller yes. Questions. I have three questions. One is the nsa spying. Do they plan to do something about it and do away with it . And the indefinite detention which is the loss of due process. Part of our constitution. Why isnt anything being done about that . Where you can hold an american indefinitely without even being charged for a trial without being charged for crime. In my last my last question would be why has there been any response in washington with what is going on at planned parenthood . It is the most horrible heart wrenching thing ive ever heard of in my life. Host thank you very much for the call. Shreveport louisiana . Caller i would like to ask of the gop candidates think about black lives matter. Also Hillary Clinton and if they have ever used the n word. Host what permits the u. S. To hold people without a trial . We have about seven or eight minutes left and we will get back to more of your questions you asked the candidates for tonights first debate by the Fox News Channel and facebook. Doug henning of cspan is on hand for an event we been covering. It is taking place with the National Council state Legislature Summit this week in seattle. It is the premier gathering of the nations State Government leaders. Over 5000 legislators and staff attending this event in seattle. Season represented its highlighting the extensive use of the cspan Video Library and our video archives. You can go to our website at www. Cspan. Org to learn more. We want to thank the people of seattle for welcoming us. All the material since the late 1980s is available with free access to you. If you are a teacher it is a Great Research and educational tool. We encourage you to check it out at www. Cspan. Org. Mary lou in new jersey. What question would you ask the candidates . Caller good morning and thank you for cspan. My question to each one would be what would you specifically do about the 30 million illegal aliens that are in this country . Donald trump answered this partially. He said he believes in the rule of law and these people would have to leave. And then either come back the right way or not at all. However, rick perry on the night of the New Hampshire forum was asked this and he skirted the issue and moved on to border security. I want to know what each one intends to do because when these polls come out and is that the American People are all right with these illegal aliens living in the u. S. , a lot depends on the way the question is posed. Host thank you. Another viewierer asks if you would support term limits. Caller with jeb bush in the mix in his controversial statements i was wondering if maybe some of the like trump could run on the platform of maybe trying to say we are going to take a fresh look at 911 and we are to talk about the war crimes and maybe bring bush to account for that. Governor quinn be that would have any grip because obama ran on that premise and then when he got elected he basically said we cant look back. Host the gop debateors seek to break out of the pack. Dennis from south dakota is next. Caller i would ask what specifically would you do to bring manufacturing jobs back to the United States . Host how would you answer that question . What is your solution . Caller i would stop about 90 of the imports. Host ok. Little good next to born from north. Caller they blessed sunrise and how are you . Host username really born . Caller yes, it is. I legally changed my name in the year 2000 four religious prerequisites. I embrace is lam as a natural way of life and it is in my culture for over 21 years. Being that you asked the question, the two things i would like to ask in a nature would be were looking at this perpetual war that is going on in the east. I would like to ask other gop candidates over they do to actually convert from making this incident where he had terrorists and misguided individuals that use islam as a guise to carry out their demented undertakings and showing that is not his isla by criminals that want to use it as a shieldm to carry out these atrocious acts they been doing . That do relate to terrorism. What can they do to stop labeling these acts as islam or labeling them as islamic constitutions did your people that are embracing islam as their life really dont find congruent with koranic teachings . Host thank you for your call. Tom from minnesota . Load u. S. The candidates what would u. S. The candidates . Caller i dont hear anything about cutting other people down. I basically want them to describe their principles and how they differ with the the democrats. Host another tweet. The color from north dakota asking but manufacturing jobs in the u. S. He had the right idea greatly in reducing imports. Another story online. How jeb in the gop got trump. He says the establishment wanted a sweet 16, not a 17 candidate pile up. Politico breaks down jeb bush. The primetime one getting underway at nine clock eastern time. Roberto from new york city. But would you ask . Caller i have a question. My question is they always talk about the American Dream. I would ask them how much the American Dream costs . In my estimate, theyll is talk about taking the dream possible for everybody, and my estimate the American Dream costs 2000 net paper week. Not 15 an hour like they say. How with an to make that so that everybody gets that per week because that summit how much he needed half one month mortgage for a host ok. Roberto from new york city. Again the headline, gop did they debate share time. Showtime. Thats located in Northern Ohio right on lake erie. From anderson South Carolina good morning. Caller we are good. Thank you. I wanted to know when they will end too big to fail for the banks and if anyone will support a tax on wall street to lower the national debt. Host thank you and think a