Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 10092017 20171009

Travel cost is widening. The price tag for their travel could amount to millions of dollars. And this from the New York Times, an extraordinary 20minute interview with senator bob corker as he unloads on the president , claiming he could set the nation on the path to World War Three and warning President Trump is not treating the office he is treating the office like a reality show. Were going to get to all of this in the course of the next three hours, and we want to begin with the president and senator corker and this feud that really unraveled over the weekend, your reaction to what senator corker has said and what the president has said. 2027488001, our line for republicans. 2027488000 for democrats. We have a line for independents at 2027488002. Join us on social media, send cspanwj. T at good monday morning to you. Heres how the story playing out in senator corkers head state. One headline, trump may trigger World War Three. What may have started this, comments this past wednesday by senator corker am hes now in his second term. He announced he will not seek a third term. He is the chair of the Senate Foreign relations committee, which oversees not only the state department, but key policy matters for president s, and he said this last wednesday on capitol hill. Senator corker i think secretary tillerson, secretary mattis, and chief of staff kelly are those people that help separate our country from chaos. I support him very much, and i dont know what he may have said after the briefing. I watched from i mean, look, i see whats happening here. I deal with people throughout the administration. From my perspective, hes in an incredibly frustrating place where, as i watch, ok, and i can watch very closely on many occasions, i mean, he ends up being being support knife way that i would hope the secretary of state would be supported. Thats just from my vantage point. But ive never, you know, i have no knowledge of the comments or anything else. I think hes in a very trying situation, trying to solve many of the worlds problems a lot of times without the kind of support and help that id like to see him have. Host the comments of senator corker, who was an ally and friend of secretary of state Rex Tillerson. This morning, front page of the Washington Post, this is feud dline, a new imperils of president agenda, it reads as follows h host thats this morning from the Washington Post. The column cyst joining us live on the phone. Thanks very much for being with us. Guest good morning. Host and i guess i just have to say, wow. Where do you begin with Something Like this . This is an early supporter of donald trump and a key ally on capitol hill that the president is going to need for the next year and a half. Guest thats right. Its a pretty extraordinary development. You know, it started with trump picking this fight with corker on twitter yesterday morning. And really attacking corker. And it just it unleashed a lot of comments that i suspect the senator had been holding on to for some time, waiting for the right moment to go public with. Noip case our audience missed what the president tweeted yesterday morning, let me share with all of you, and there are three of them from the president host phil rucker, your response. Guest yeah, you know, thats quite a charge from a president , and its worth noting that senator corkers chief of staff has gone on the record to state that the president was mischaracterizing those conversations, that actually the president had offered his support to senator corker should he run for reelection, that he wanted him to run for reelection, and that as recently as last monday of last week, the president called corker to ask him to reconsider his decision to retire and encouraged him to run for reelection and said he would have the president s support. Host and let me follow up on the comments by the New York Times in a story this morning indicating that with senator corker is what the New York Times is claiming many republicans have been saying privately for weeks or months. Guest thats right. And weve heard this, too. Theres been a lot of concern on capitol hill about the president s fitness for office and his Decision Making and what many of his allies even see as reckless behavior. But nobody has been willing to go on the record with those concerns. And to make them known publicly, and corker really becomes the first Senior Office holder to rebuke the president in such a fashion, i think it will be interesting to see whether any other republicans on capitol hill are going to join corker in his criticisms over the next few days, or if theyre all going to be, you know, remain timid and just keep those thoughts to themselves privately. Host the house is in. The senate is out for the columbus day break. And this is the response by senator bob corker in his tweet yesterday, which also was getting an awful lot of attention, its a shame the white house has become an Adult Daycare Center, someone obviously missed their shift this morning. Guest yeah. You know, that tweet was sort of went viral almost immediately online. It got many more retweets than any of the attacks that originated from President Trump. But it also fits this theme that corker has been pressing, including with his comments about tillerson, mattis, and kelly last week, where he said they protect the country from chaos. His point is that the president , when he makes decisions on his own, can be reckless and dangerous. And that its important that these figures are there to help protect from bad and reckless decisions. Host of course, phil rucker, this follows the News Conference late last week by the secretary of state, Rex Tillerson, basically denying that he called the president a moron, also saying that he serves at the pleasure of the president , and President Trump saying that he has a Good Relationship with his secretary of state, although he would prefer him to be a little bit tougher. So does that allow Rex Tillerson to bargain from a position of strength as the secretary of state when he meets with World Leaders . Guest not at all, in part because our reporting and the reporting of many other news organizations shows the opposite, that the relationship between trump and tillerson is incredibly strained right now, and, you know, irrepairable. I talked to a number of white house officials last week who said that these two men simply do not get along. Theres a breach of trust. They dont have personal chemistry. And that they do not expect tillerson will be around for very long. So when tillerson travels the world, hes something of a lame duck, and World Leaders are going to say why should i negotiate with you and take your word when the president may pop up on twitter in a few minutes here completely contradicting what youre saying . And thats the problem with this relationship. Its what we saw on north korea , the previous weekend, you know, eight or nine days ago, and its what i think were going to continue to see. Host so where does this put the president . Because clearly he has been trying to run against the establishment, and yet you have what many would call a very establishment republican, bob corker, going after him. Does this only energize his base . Guest you know, it could potential, but i think the problem is that corker is fairly respected around the world and in washington, and when he makes a comment like this, its not the same as any average senator speaking up. Its just the chairman of the Foreign Relations committee, somebody who is seen as a bipartisan straight shooter, and somebody whos known trump for some time and has a personal relationship with him. If hes offering this sort of assessment in public, i think the alarm bells go off. Host the president just a moment ago tweeting on north korea, let me just share it with you exactly what he said, along of lines of what hes been tweeting earlier, our country has been unsuccessfully dealing with north korea for 25 years, giving billions of dollars and getting nothing. Policy didnt work. By all accounts, including what he said late last week, its the calm before the storm, he is at least signaling the possibility of a military strike towards north korea. Is that a Fair Assessment . Guest i think this is a Fair Assessment, and this is something hes been signaling for some time, this point the feeling that the diplomatic policy has not been working with north korea for 25 years is a talking point that hes been hitting on repeatedly, including just on saturday. And so i think, you know, were going to continue to hear this drum beat from the president. The question i have is whether theres actual action, whether there are preparations underway behind all of the rhetoric for military action. We simply dont know. Theres no indication of that at this point other than, of course, the military being prepared and ready for something, you know, should the commander in chief choose. But i just dont know that theres anything more serious than that happening behind the scenes. Host let me also get your reaction from this headline from the Washington Post. The story points out the Trump Administration, one of the wealthiest in modern u. S. History, facing widening criticism over travel expenditures among some of the billionaires, budget hawks, and Business Executives who head federal agencies, and the reporting in the Washington Post that this could add up to millions of dollars in private charter air service for members of the cabinet just in the first eight, nine months of the Trump Administration. Guest yeah, its pretty extraordinary. The report actually found five separate inspectors general investigations underway into the travel practices of these cabinet members. You know, we sometimes think that tom price, the health secretary, was the only one abusing this system, and he was fired a week or two ago. But there are many other cabinet secretaries who have been flying around on private jets and taking these private flights when there are clearly affordable commercial options available to them. And i think its going to be very interesting to see where these investigations go and whether the president has tolerance for this, whether these other figures are going to get the boot the way price did. Host were talking with Philip Rucker from the Washington Post. His story is front page this morning, also Available Online at washingtonpost. Com. Let me bring it back to the story that many people will be talking about, your piece, and from the New York Times, senator corkers comments, and our colleague who manages our capitol hill coverage for cspan just a short while ago tweeting the following from 2016 to give you a sense of where the relationship once was between senator corker and President Trump, then candid trump, a great friend of mine, somebody respected by everybody, from raleigh, north carolina, in july 2016. So clearly, a relationship that was strong a year ago is now weakened. Guest thats right. And, you know, corker was one of the very first senator republican officials to actually embrace donald trump. He praised Foreign Policy speech that trump gave way back in april of 2016. This was in the heat of the primaries, when a lot of republican gray beard figures like corker were not willing to lend their gravitas to candidate trump, but corker was there. He praised him. He helped tutor trump. He helped kind of show trump about Foreign Affairs and help prepare him to be president and was considered a potential vicepresident ial running mate and also a potential secretary of state. So this is a real rupture in one of the few personal relationship that trump has had in washington, and it could be damaging for his legislative agenda, you know, corker sits as chairman of the Foreign Relations committee. So, you know, should the president punt this iran decision up to congress, which is what we expect to happen this week, its going to be corker helping oversee that process. Another key point, you know, should trump get rid of Rex Tillerson and have a new secretary of state, those confirmation hearings are going to occur in corkers committee, with corker presiding. So this is a very influential senator whos going to have a lot to determine the future of this administration. Host as always, Philip Rucker, we appreciate your insight. Your piece this morning is front page of the newspaper. Thank you very much for being with us. Guest thank you, steve. Host it was 20 years ago this morning that cspan radio first went on the air. We purchased a Radio Station from the university of district of columbia, which was at that point an alljazz format, and now Public Affairs 24 7. Cspan purchased it for 13 million, thanks to our board of directors and the cable industry. Were heard in the washington, d. C. , area, and the surrounding area, about 100 miles away, including as far south as richmond and north up to baltimore. Cspan radio is completely advertising free, funded entirely by the cable and satellite industry. Be sure to check out our free cspan radio app. Well be down in the radio studio for the second half of the program. Right now, we want to get your reaction to this now very public feud between the president and the chair of the Senate Foreign relations committee, republican senator bob corker. Phone lines are open. Well begin with emma, joining us from stockton, california, on our line for democrats. Good morning. Caller good morning. Congratulations on your 20th year. Host thank you. Caller i agree with senator corker, because i thought host its senator corker, just so were clear at the outset, senator bob corker. Caller right, i apologize for that. I wouldnt try to say his name again. But i thought everybody up there had surrendered their moral integrity, just letting this man get away the president get away with too much. And you feel helpless, because you know right from wrong, and everybody is experiencing this, and he keeps messing with north korea when he should be worried about russia building up their military presence up there by alaska. And i think were going to have some issues about some new oil or whatever they find up there. But the point is, its like hes in a pilot in the airplane and were all on the plane, and he doesnt know how to fly the plane. And whatever he says, he doesnt understand what hes saying, because what he says has consequences. And i just dont want to be, you know, ive been struggling hard to live, and this man wants to commit suicide by being arrogant and he has no character and no honor, and i really hope that they impeach him. Thats all i have to say. Host emma from stockton, california. Phone lines are open at 2027488001 for republicans. 2027488000 for desms also getting your tweets, here are a couple, including this one who says trump seems to be the only one who can be politically incorrect. When corker is, trump calls for his head on a plate. What a moron. And theres this from richard rogers, secretary tillerson says President Donald Trump is a moron, senator corker says the white house is a daycare without an adult, thats g. O. P. Talking . Jeez. On the republican line from maine, leslie, youre next, good morning. Caller yes, i believe trump knows exactly what hes doing. These people are dysfunctional. Trump knows exactly what he has to do. Chamberlain didnt take care of hitler, and now were dealing with north korea. North korea has got a mad man in charge of everything, and sooner or later were going to have to deal with it. We cant just sit and wait for north korea to nail us first. Host leslie, thanks for the call. Ben from new york, republican line. Good morning. Caller yes, well, im ashamed of you, because you let this fellow from the Washington Post come on there and go on and on and on. And hes representing a fake news newspaper. Host why do you say that . Caller excuse me . Host why do you say its fake news . Caller well, you know, he just said about 25 or 30 things during your interview. You never challenged him on anything. Host so what should i have challenged him on . Caller well, the fact that corker is part of the swamp to begin with. This guy corker, what way is this for a senator to start making remarks about the president behind his back . Come on. Host well, i mean, he did not make it behind his back. He told it to the New York Times, the front page story this morning. Caller yeah, but the times and the post both have agendas. You know that. Host keep in mind, he was one of the earliest supporters of donald trump back in the spring of last year. Caller well, you know, youre making these short he was he is trying to survive this guy, corker. What do you know about him . Do you know anything about him . Host i do, in fact, we did a profile interview. Its available on our website at cspan span. Org. Hes been in the senate, now in his second term. He announced hes not going to seek a third term. Hes the chair of the Senate Foreign relations committee. He was an early trump supporter. Dont you think his comments merit again, were just asking your reaction and youre providing that reaction, so we appreciate that. Caller well, i have providing it, and i think that you have taken and you have an agenda, and its obvious watching your face as i talk to you. Host well, what is the agenda . I just want to know what our agenda is. Caller to hurt the president of the United States. You dont think he belongs there. And you take the first thing in the morning with rucker. Rucker comes out with 25 pieces of dirt, and you just, well, what whats next . You just cant kiss his ass enough. Host ok, well stop at that point. We have no agenda, and i can guarantee you, we had the same criticism when president obama and bush and clinton and reagan were in the white house as well. But ben, were looking for your reaction, and you provided that. You asked about senator corker. This is just part of an indepth profile interview available on our website at cspan. Org. He talked about the senate. He also talked about what he described as profiles in courage. Coming here really attempting to be great United States senators versus potentially using the United States senate as an operation to do Something Else that has nothing to do with being a great United States senator. And when i say being a great United States senator, that is, takes the problems that we have, the issues that we have, and take them head on and to try to stretch. You know, i find so many, you know, and it happens at the white house, too, i mean, up fuped folks being afraid i find folks being afraid of trying to stretch their base. And trying to get to a place where you actually solve the problem. And to me, i mean, having Political Support is all about trying to explain how, if we could stretch some, we can get to a place that makes our country stronger and still live the the principles that folks ran on. But there seems to be more of recently, it really hasnt been about that. Host our full interview with senator bob corker from 2013 is available on our website at cspan. Org. To ben, the earlier caller who wanted to know more about senator corker, we hope you can check it out as part of the cspan video library, celebrating 30 years. 20 years for cspan radio. It began on october 9, 1997. Brian lamb, cspans executive chairman and founder, launching the start of the Radio Station, and well be down in the studio in the second half. You also can tune in to washington today 5 00 to 7 00 p. M. Eastern time. Check out our podcast, if you want to learn more about cspan radio. We sat down with brian lamb. The sidebar is available on our website at cspan. Org, also tune in everywhere you get your podcasts. Senator corker, President Trump, this very open feud, your reaction. Mike from north carolina. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I just want to second that last caller. I called in several times, i dont call every time. I call space them out. And ive noticed cspan hiding behind the facade, hiding behind the facade of being combarblee. I think youre carrying the progressive democrats water, and i dont say that lightly either. Because i mean, you just praised the New York Times like thats honest. They hate trump with a passion. And youre bragging youre bragging that the front page thats all they do is bash trurp. They hate trump, because they know full well they might cover some of corkers establishment. He might be a little bit and i havent had a chance to address this because its been a long time since i talked. It was a caucus, way back, i dont know if it was iowa caucus or not, you were trading for the politico reporter. Im sorry, i probably shouldnt have brought it up, because i cant remember who it was. But i just noticed, i dont think that cspan is as theyve reached i dont think theyre as impartial you just hide behind that. But i try to do a fair amount ive been kind of looking over the whole i just like chief justices. You want to be a part of the coffee cocktail set, and youre really toting the water of the progressive liberal. Host michael, let me jump in, and then ill give you a chance to respond. Because what weve done on this Program Since we first went on the air back in 19 up 1979 is to do a couple of things. First and foremost, put the information out there. Heres the New York Times is reporting. Heres what the Weekly Standard is reporting. Heres what Time Magazine is saying. To give you a sense of the political dialogue in the country, and then to solicit your response. Were not putting an opinion out there by any stretch of the imagination. And i can tell you that during the obama white house, democrats would call up and say the exact same thing, that we were being too harsh on president obama. Now republicans are saying that were being too harsh on the president. You have the chair of the Senate Foreign relations committee, an early supporter of donald trump, a republican, a lifelong republican, very critical of the president of the United States. Is that not news . Caller well hes going out host but mike, is that not news . Caller and i tell you what. What is so great about the New York Times . Theres this fake news about, what was it, the secretary of state. Its just fake news. They hate trump like they hate america. And you just praise it up. You praise it more than you do the conservative or fair news, fox news. You praise all that garbage, the New York Times and Washington Post, and you praise that out a lot. Whats so good about being on the front page . Thats no surprise. Host mike, lets go to foxnews. Com right now. If you go to their website, and our producer can pull it up right now. The headline at foxnews. Com is the same story that were talking about this morning, dealing with the president and the chair of the Senate Foreign relations committee. Its a story thats out there. There you see there, trump slams corker who calls the white house an Adult Daycare Center. Caller well, the murdoches have taken younger theyll probably be dipping the nants pot too. Everybody will. Except people that have common sense and decency. And somebody with some moral. And i dont understand why host well, mike, the great thing about this program is you get a chance to tell us what you think, and we appreciate that. So thanks for calling from wilmington, north carolina. Call back again now. Pardon me . We appreciate your time. Let me go to the New York Times and the story that is the front page, bob corker said trumps recklessness threatened world war iii host in an extraordinary rebuke, mr. Corker said he was alarmed about the president who acts like hes doing the apprentice or something. He concerns me, senator corker added, he would have to concern anyone who cares about our nation. Mr. Corkers comments capping a remarkable day of insults between the president and the tennessee senator, a powerful, if lame duke lawmaker, whose support will be critical to the president on tax reform and the fate of the iran nuclear deal. Lets go to wayne on the democrats line. Good morning. Youre next. Caller hello. How you doing . Host im fine. Caller did you a good job. Let me explain something. Without using any cuss words. That individual you just talked to is a fruitcake. All right . Hes going to argue with you. Hes all set for this clown we got for president. And im worried about im worried about the hit on the west coast, you know, a head of lettuce is going to cost a hundred dollars. I mean, it dont get us all. This guy belongs locked up. Im sorry. Just my opinion. Ike that other fellow has an opinion. I hope they find a way of impeaching him. This is perilous times, it says it in the bible. We do have a way of governing, and these people that want him, you know, trump, think about the kids and things, whats going to come around. And thats about all i have to say, and thank you. Keep up doing what youre doing. You dont comment on nobody. And you just doing a good job, all of yall just do a good job like you doing, and the heck with that guy. Let him watch fox. I know you about ready to say it. Host no, look, wayne, we appreciate all the points of view. I just want to make sure people dont know we dont have an agenda. Were just conveying the news, and clearly this is a story that people are talking about, which is why were focusing on it this morning. We appreciate your call this morning, wayne. Caller god bless you. Thank you. Im with you 100 . And bob corker is 100 right. Host wayne, thanks for the call. This is the headline at politico. Com, senator bob corker mocking trump in an escalating twitter feud. Mary, republican line, maryland, good morning. Caller hello. Yes, im calling to say that bob corker is 100 right. Hes very brave. And hes opening our eyes to what is really happening in this country. I have many, many friends who are now becoming independent because they think that our selfesteem, americas esteem around the world is waning by the day because there is a crack pot in the white house. And the person who like the guy who called, i really think that he is a fruitcake, because here is no reason for anyone to protect trump, because he seems to be fighting with our friends. He can live without a friend, but he cannot live without an enemy. Hes constantly, constantly and he ways of fighting has a flair for theatrics, and this wonderful country is going down the tubes. Host thanks for the call. A couple of comments why dont these callers who think washington journal is biased watch fox friends . We wont miss them. This from another tweet, the Washington Post is the king of fakenews. Lets go back to the story from the New York Times, and the quote , bob corkers that trump poses a risk. Senior officials must protect him from his own instincts. Host joseph next, independent line. Welcome to the program. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. From a small town here in west central louisiana. I think mr. Corker hello. Can you hear me . Host sure, go ahead. Caller i think mr. Corker actually sounds with common sense. But the thing is, you know, it seems like were all running into this manic type of situation. I was watching Joe Scarborough earlier this morning, and everybody was coming down on trump, and trump does his tweets and comes out on other people. And i think we all should just relax. I mean, i understand, we thought about the quip that mr. Corker had about nobodys doing their shift during the daycare or whatever. I thought that was kind of humorous. But, you know, i dont know how much that advances anything. I think we all should slow down. Seems like everything is racing right now, you know . Im even agitated, you know . I think once maybe Trump Administration passes this tax reform, bringing a Corporate Tax rate down, and we get some kind of g. D. P. Growth in the country, and other things, maybe he should very lacks on the north korean policy. But then again, that north korean policy has been going on for years and nothing has done anything about it. Weve tried and tried and i dont know what to do. Host thanks for the call. A couple of other headlines from the report in the New York Times, nbc news also has the story at nbcnews. Com, the president lashing out at a senator who calls the white house an Adult Daycare Center. Front page of the wall street journal, the Vice President taking a stand against players. He was in indianapolis for the colts game, and after the national anthem, he departed indianapolis. Hes on the west coast today, a series of fundraisers for the Republican Party, and the trump pence 2020 campaign effort. This headline from usa today its been one week, and the headline, 58 lives, 58 stories. Also Available Online at satoday. Com. Mary is next from mississippi, independent line. Caller yes, im calling just to say that i agree with enator corker. The white house is run like a daycare. They brought in so many different people trying to control donald trump, and it has not worked. Thats my comment. Host thank you. James has this tweet, senator corker gave us the iran deal, any questions . The story is also front page of the Washington Times and Available Online at washingtontimes. Com. Next stop is brenda. Well go to brenda next in carolina. Good morning, democrats line. Caller yes, i agree with senator corker. Im democrat, but its not about democrat, republican, or independent. Its about the American People. And im afraid that people are not realizing that senator corker was in the senate for years. The president has just got on the ship. And hes concerned about the American People. We do not need a nuclear war. We dont need that. It would be enormous, the casualties. Thats my biggest concern right now. Everybody is talking about cspan and the president and democrat and independent. Its not about that. Its about the American People and whats best for the American People. And donald trump is in the white house. Hes acting like he is on a reality show or something. He dont understand the consequences of his words that he speaks. And someone needs to get on the controls, and thank you. Host brenda, thanks for the call. The headline from the l. A. Times, the president and senator corker and this is from the washington examiner, the two trumps, is he still the same guy who won in november . Hes wavered on the wall, immigration, and on military force, but his tried and true supporters may not care. Thats from the washington examiner, and heres the l. A. Times, as we listen to this person from indiana, republican line. Good morning. Caller good morning, america. I am a citizen of the United States for many years. I lived in america 42 years. And i do give consultations to lots of people and made lot of people very successful. America is a great nation. G. O. P. Missed the boat and unnecessarily supported trump. Trump himself proved everybody liar, and he is the worst liar in the world. That guy has to be scolded like a naughty kid. America, wake up. You cannot have this kind of people get elected in the office. You have to listen to people with good care, and the republican senator should never, ever support a jerk in the office. God bless america. This is the best country on the face of the world. We should not waste time and keep america safe. We do not need wars. Thank you very much. God bless america. Host that was from westfield, indiana. The cover story of the Weekly Standard, the marky future of the iran deal. Something that the president has said he wants to decertify. And theres this tweet from steve. Where is john kelly . He is supposed to be putting a leash on the clown in the white house. The headline from the slat slate. Com, senator corker calls the white house an Adult Daycare Center after trump attacks him. On the republican line, joe is flex tennessee. Your senator making the news this morning. Joe, what do you think . Caller yes, can you hear me ok . Host we sure can. Caller ok, good. Im actually at daytona. Im listening to you on the app. Host thats ok. The app is where its at, as we say here at cspan. About as funny as it gets here, so sorry about that. Go ahead, joe. Caller i wanted to ask this. Is there a line for tennessee today . Because often you guys do that kind of thing. Host we did not. We probably should have. Thats a good idea. We didnt think of that. But youre on the line now. You are from tennessee, so tell us what you think. Caller ok, so when he came in, i think hes going to be 12 years at his next reelection next year. Host right, and hes not seeking a third term. Caller oh, i know that. And the reason why is because probably just a little less than a month ago, he really stepped in it when he went out and said what he did about President Trump. And he knew right after that. He heard from everybody here. And thats why i dont know, two weeks ago, maybe less, he decided he will not run again. And since then, he also made a statement that he was going to the first two years of some president s term is when they sent him and congress to get the most done, and he pretty much stated that it would be more effective now. So i get a feeling, you know, this is just some bad grapes. I dont know if it comes from back when he was considered as possible Vice President or some other cabinet post. And hes just that much against President Trump. It shouldnt be saying that. I just bring up thats not right. Host ok, your final point. Caller im sorry. Host no, were listening. Caller ok, well, i just want to finish up with saying, i mean, i think that the President Trump has our best interest at heart. I really do. And so goodbye, bob. He had his chance to vote like he said he would with the healthcare thing, and he was one of five others who did not, which i thought was pretty good bill. I believe the one from kentucky, i dont remember which one, the five of them went against, but he was one of those. I know hes the chairman of the committee. Host well, thank you for the call and thanks for listening on the cspan app. Promote that on our 20th anniversary. This headline from the Chattanooga Times free press, corker saying that trump may trigger world war iii. Live look at our cspan radio studios. 20 years ago, we went on the air today. Eric in california, good morning. Caller i know this is going to seem unconventional, but i think this could be brilliant. I think this could be showing the chinese are on the phone to korea going, listen, i know you dont want to be Saddam Hussein or qaddafi, but becoming another hiroshima aint going to help, so make a deal. This could be just a very, very good negotiating strategy. Thats all i got to say. Host thank you, eric. Next to john, joining us from akron, ohio, democrats line. Good morning. Caller good morning and thanks for taking my call this morning. Im so happy we have the First Amendment. Thats the right to free speech, not the right of correct speech. With that being said, listening the other day and people were calling in and talking about how bad their politicians were in washington and how they had no concern for the people of this country. And that was one of the reasons trump got elected. We wanted to put a person in the white house who was not a politician. Trump is not a politician. Hes not working or looking or acting like a politician. And the people that are so used to the politicians and the way they act and what they do cannot understand what this man is doing. But the best thing about it all is that we have a president in there whos not a politician for the first time probably since the First Continental Congress that this is taking place. And the country is undergoing a new birth. When this is all over, we will not be the same country we were yesterday. Thanks for taking my call. Host we thank you, john, from the cover story of g. Q. Weekly, how trump is unraveling obamas legacy. Jacqueline smith has this tweet, its funny how all of their life Republican Voters have never used the term fake news until trump told them to say that. Jack is up early from los angeles, our line for independents. Good morning your reaction to what senator corker has said and the response by the president. Caller hi, im just calling about the general tone of the show and the callers that were responding to the segment previous. The senator corker thing, hes just being childish back. But, you know, i havent read the wil hylton piece, and i dont think either the republican or democrat callers have read the piece. Im excited to check that out after speaking to you. Its called down the breitbart bowl. But besides looking like james carville, the guy was really nice and, you know, talked about diversity at breitbart and said, you know, i love their hollywood section. Its not very political. But i dont know. I dont know why you got to call someone names back and why you would call in to television to do that. Its just sad our country is at this point, and i guess thats it. Thanks for letting me call in. Host we appreciate it. Well go to potomac, maryland. Independent line. Caller good morning. I wanted to make a comment. Save this beautiful country. America is the greatest ever, and it should remain like that. Senator corkers remarks are to be taken very seriously. The president can start a third world war. Hes a very respected senator. And hes the chairman of the Foreign Relations, america should take a warning from there and the congress, should ct on that as soon as possible. Because its basically unbelievable. That does my remarks. This president is learning on job. And if he made a comment that it is an adult daycare, i think hes very right. This person needs help, and he should have other senators help him, and hes not asking for one. Thank you. Host thank you for the call. We have this from jim. Republicans have been complaining about biased news for generations. Send us a tweet. Lizzie smith, washington journal is trying to destroy my president , calling it unacceptable. Well share your comments. Lets go to linda next in kentucky. Good monday morning. Thanks for joining us. Caller yes, good morning. I just want to comment about the people that are so set on trump as one trying to cause war with north korea. Its so ridiculous to think that trump had anything to do with whats going on over there, that they have been doing that now for how long, and how long has the United States been just paying pribes to keep them off our back. And north korea doesnt stop. They just gets worse and worse and worse. And about these people that are kind of newcomers to our country and they call in. And they seem to know exactly how to go about taking care of a country, when what are they doing over here . What was wrong with their country . It must have been some really rat hole for them to be coming over here and trying to tell how bad or whos doing something bad in our country. We know they cant ran a country, or they wouldnt be over here in ours. And that is just the end of my comment, and thank you. Host linda, thank you, from kentucky. Thehill. Com, trump is setting up the country for world war iii. Again, were sharing some of the headlines from newspapers both here in the u. S. And also headline from the daily mail in great britain, which well show to you in just a moment. But again, a reminder were carrying this program live on cspan radio, as weve been doing the last 20 years. And theres Bobby Jackson and our cspan radio studios, one of the veterans, one of the seven fulltime employees who help bring programming, including the l. B. J. Tapes every saturday afternoon. Dog a phenomenal job for cspan radio. By the way, you can listen to amazon echo and google home, listen to radio by simply saying cspan radio. Also, the free cspan radio app, streamed on the web at cspan. Org. How did it all come about . Heres cspans brian lamb. Brian right out of the box, and i have to be careful because theres no written proof in front of me, but People Associated with National Public radio didnt like the dea that these nonprofit allocated channels on radio were going to be used for politics. Instead of for public Radio Stations. Sniffing they began around capitol hill, salem decided, why do we want to go through this . Theyre not controversial. Theernt a lightning rod. And so they came to us and said, if youll buy this Radio Station for what we paid for it, which, by the way, was a huge swallow when i heard what they had to pay for it, you can have it. And it was 13 million. So we took it back to the board of directors. And not much to my surprise, but i guess it really was a surprise, they voted lets go for it. Host radio brought to you by the cable and satellite industry. It is completely commercialfree, 24 7. Cspan Public Affairs programming, and also cspans washington today from 5 00 to 7 00 p. M. Eastern time. And the sunday shows, which air ever sunday afternoon beginning at noon eastern time with nbcs meet the press, a partnership with the five networks. Well have more on that later in the program. But back to your phone calls on the president , senator corker, and this now very public feud. Were getting your reaction. Memphis, tennessee, democrats line. Good morning. Caller good morning. How are you . Host fine, thank you. Caller i thank you for having this dialogue today. Im a democrat, as you said. I did not vote for senator corker. But i want him and all other senators of the United States to understand how brave he is, because he is doing what other congressmen should be doing. President trump was elected to be the president , not the ruler. He has an agenda, what is it . Because i wish hed get to it. Were now in october. And what have we accomplished since he was inaugurated in january . Im an educator and historian. And at this time, the senate and house of representatives need to step in and do their responsibilities. Because President Trump doesnt have a clue of what is needed to run this country. Everything cannot be a deal. The deal that he made for hotels will not work for the United States of america. And the world. And im a historian. I can appreciate any congressman, any citizen who will come out and speak the truth, and they must, they must start doing their responsibilities to control mr. Trump. Mr. Trump doesnt know what hes doing. This cant be the deal. Everything cant be a deal. And many of these deals, if we paid attention from the time he says hell run, a lot of his deals have not worked. And a lot of things he told us was not true. He has had bankruptcies. He has had failures. Hes come out on his own, but left other people to deal with it. Host thanks very much for the call from memphis, tennessee, from the daily mile in great britain, this is the headline, senator corker making news based on his comments last week, praising secretary of state Rex Tillerson, saying that he is preventing us from chaos in the white house, and senator corker in the New York Times story by Jonathan Martin , g. O. P. Senator rebukes trump over reality show behavior. Were getting your calls and comments. Katherine is next, miami, florida, republican line. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. Let me start by saying that our president does have a thin skin, unfortunately, and he uses his ipad too much. However, there can be no doubt that he is a patriot. He supports our country. And what id like to know is, why is the senator from tennessee resigning . Usually they resign because they have some reason, cant raise money, wont be reelected, no one is asked why this man is resigning. And lastly host let me jump in. Hes not resigning. Hes simply going to leave after his second term, so hell fill out his term through the end of 2018. He did say to reporters in tennessee that when he first ran, he vowed to serve only two terms, and he wanted to fulfill that pledge. Caller well, thank you for the correction. But if he feels that he can help the United States, he should stay in office. And hes given no particular reason why he wont stay in office other than to say two terms, well, cant he get reelected . Why is he resigning . I beg your pardon, not resigning, but why isnt he staying in office . And again, theres no doubt in my mind that the president is patriotic. He has our countrys best interests at heart. And my last comment is, what really bugs me is if you say you support the president. People think youre a nut. They think youre a fascist or a racist or antisemitic. Its not true. And it really bugs me. Republicans should hang in there together instead of attacking one another. The democrats dont, and thats why theyre staying together and staying in power, if you will. Host thanks very much for the call. Let me go back to Jonathan Martins reporting from the New York Times. Mr. Trump poses such an acute risk. Administration officials must protect him from his own instincts, a quote from snork corker, i know for a fact that every single day is a situation of trying to contain him, the deeply personal back and forth will almost certainly rupture what had been a friendship, one of the few genuine relationships mr. Trump had developed on capitol hill. Still, even as he leveled his stinging accusations, mr. Corker repeatedly said on sunday that he liked mr. Trump until now, an occasional golf partner, and wished him no harm. This morning, again, from the New York Times. Newark, new jersey, james, youre next, good morning. Caller yes, good morning. Happy anniversary, cspan. Host well, cspan radio. Thank you so much. Caller ok, cool. Bout mr. Corker and trump. Theres a book written about 127 different psychiatrists. And the forward of the book is written guy the guy who wrote the ultimate deal. A lot of them come to the conclusion about donald j. Trump. I dont know the name of the book. But 127 different psychiatrists, and the guy that wrote the book the art of the eal for mr. Trump, thats kind of a shame. Im on corkers side. Im a moderate as it is. Ive been a moderate since anuary 2002. And yeah, somethings wrong. I cannot understand trump. Host thanks for the call. This is the headline from the Washington Times, President Trump offering to rewrite the immigration law. Its a proposal that was unveiled late yesterday with reaction from democrats on capitol hill, a 70point plan that includes tougher enforcement and funding for a wall. Democrats immediately saying no to many of the plans put forth by the president. Read the full story at washingtontimes. Com. Tom, republican line from ohio. Good morning. Caller good morning, america. Hey, the lady that called in that said the president hasnt done anything. Well, theres been 50 bills passed. Theres 200some bills passed in the house that went before the senate. Where is senator corker on getting those bills passed . Just laying there, laying there, nobody is getting anything done. Thats what aggravated a lot of americans. Nothing is getting done because they cant get it through the senate, cant get through the house. People are playing politics. Those who want to keep their job are getting paid by who knows who. Cant go in there and become a multimillionaire in just a few years. Theres just too much corruption, and the president is really aggravated that the people in his party and even the democrats, they cant come to any kind of agreement on anything. Theres nothing getting done for the people. Its all for themselves. Host thank you, tom, appreciate the call from hat part of ohio are you in . Caller southeastern ohio. Host thanks for the call. Our last call, also republican line, linda from mount holly, north carolina. Good morning. Caller yes, good morning. Host good morning, linda. Caller i just wanted to comment that i watch cspan ever morning. Every morning. And i watch it every morning. I dont like it most mornings, one of you ek, each hosts, you call the President Trump just like youre letting these people get away. All morning, you have said. Nator corker and the paper they never print the word president. Host we are. Look at the screen, its President Trump and senator corker feud. Caller but you do not thats the first time youve said president this morning. Host no, thats linda, linda, no. Thats not true. That is not true. Ive said it throughout the full hour. I mean, come on. Lets be honest here. Caller and the paper says trump. No wonder we dont respect him as president. I dont think the things hes doing is good. I wish he had never found twitter. But you people are professionals. And you should correct them when they just say trump. When you have politico on, the representatives from politico, they emphasize they emphasize the word trump. Look at headlines of newspapers, let me just pull up the Washington Post, it says trump halts the daca deal. That is the course of history, if you go back to early printing serif refer to president washington as washington and jefferson and lincoln. Caller he is not president has, trump slams corker. Is that acceptable . Caller it is not right. He is president. He was elected. All of you,you and thanks for your calls and comments. What makes this program work is the crosssection of your points of view and that is what it is all about. Yournt to find out what thinking and have a balance and interesting conversations. We will keep it up in the next few hours p coming up, the former white house responders association. Oconnor, a radio talk show on wma all here in the washington dc area. Are listening and watching cspans washington journal as we mark 20 years on the air today. A short break and we are back in a moment. All this week, booktv is in prime time on cspan two. Tonight at 8 30 eastern, finalist for the National Accord with frances fitzgerald, author of the evangelicals. Tuesday night at 8 00 eastern, cyber warfare and security with , andkaplan, bill gertz john you and jeremy rapkin. 8 00, a lookht at at the 2016 election with Hillary Clinton and her book what happened. 8 00, a look on thursday night at 8 00 eastern, books made into movies featuring marko shetterly, author of hidden figures. On friday night, highlights from book fairs and festivals at the. Ational book festival political activist and author james okeefe at freedom fest. This week, watch booktv on prime time on cspan two. Cspan, where history unfolds daily. 1970 nine, cspan was created as a Public Service for americas cabletelevision companies and is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. Washington journal continues. Host we want to welcome back jeff mason with reuters. Senator bob corker on twitter yesterday and in that New York Times article. What he said and how the president responded. Guest it is unusual for a senator like corker to push back so much against the twitter tirade that President Trump let out on him. Sayingmself on twitter it is an Adult Day Care Center at the white house and someone must have missed a shift, that is pretty aggressive. In the New York Times last last night, he said the president was pushing this country potentially into world war iii. Commentan aggressive from a senator who is a member of the president s to end an influential member of capitol hill in the Foreign Relations committee. Im waiting to see what President Trump will do now in terms of twitter reaction to the New York Times interview which popped up late last night. The question is why he did this. We know senator corker said is trying to prevent chaos from the white house, i am paraphrasing, but why was he so vocal over the weekend . What do you think sparked the president to say what he said and senator corker to respond the way he did . Guest it is hard to answer. The president has shown himself not to be someone who loves to hear criticism. Certainly if it is personal criticism, i think he probably interpreted the comments from senator corker to be just that. Why senator corker felt he could respond just like that was really only something the senator could answer. It is something where he is said setting down in a couple years. It is next year. That said, it is important to note that senator corker is willing to speak his mind for some time. I think it was in the last couple of months, President Trump had not been demonstrating the competence that is necessary for president , he said. Remember, he said he would not be running for reelection. I do not think this is just about showing a confidence you get from not needing to be reelected or not eating the president support. President r news, the this morning tweeting on north korea and indicating something will happen, though he is not telegraphing specifically what that is. Guest and i was in the room last week when the press pool was called upstairs to the state dining room and he was taking a photograph. You heard my voice. There withding military leaders and said this may be the calm before the storm. Some others asked what storm, mr. President , and he declined to answer. It is clearly a sign that military action is on his mind and you only need to look at four, mostd he recently, in front of the United Nations General Assembly where he said the United States United States would destroy north korea if necessary. It is something he is thinking about seriously even if he does not necessarily spell that out in more cryptic comments. Host this is a tweet from the president earlier this morning. He said then you have a tweet last week, saying, dont worry about negotiations, we will take care of this. Guest the president has made it clear he is not a fan of direct talks with north korea. Has done it before but it was particularly interesting when he context of rexe tillersons comments when Rex Tillerson had indicated these lines of communication were open. Many people interpreted that as undermining the secretary of state and closing the door on a potential diplomatic solution to the growing crisis. Host the president seeking that border wall and also a crackdown on some of the jamerson. They could potentially, as you report, unravel an agreement between senate democrats, the House Speaker, the former House Speaker nancy pelosi, and the president. To put that in context, the president had a meeting with nancy, the duond at the white house not long ago where they discussed the trimmers issue, the two of them walked away saying they felt they had an agreement with the president to move forward, which did not include funding a walk. The white house and its principles on Immigration Reform would say, look, in exchange for my support for a bill to replace the executive Order Program that allowed the men and women that came to the United States as children illegally to stay, i want funding for the wall, i want to crackdown on undocumented and unaccompanied minors who have been coming up to the United States, and i want a lot more money to pay for 10,000 new agents to patrol the border and do immigration enforcement. Let me get your reaction to something that happened yesterday. The blurring of the lines between politics and sports, the Vice President back in his home state of indiana, he goes to an theanapolis colts game, pledge of allegiance is administered, and then he leaves because there were players who sat on their knee. Stunt ora political impromptu . Who yout depends on ask. The Vice President ss office said the game was preplanned. It is also not a surprise that the Football Players decided to do the kneeling during the national anthem. It is something that has been happening for some time now. It did look like he was ready to react to that by leaving right away. President trump came out on praised him for doing that and the Vice President ss Office Released a statement quickly praised him fr doing that and. In that statement, he put out a picture of him and his wife standing with their hands over their hearts during the pledge of allegiance. Choreography on the white houseside whether it was preplanned or not. Host the ranking democrat on the House Intelligence Committee from california wrote the following referring to the Vice President flying from washington to indianapolis. He is on the west coast today. Guest i dont know that he started in washington. He had been in las vegas and was on a west coast trip. I know that some of my colleagues did some calculations and it was a very expensive trip just to go to indianapolis for the game and back. Host were talking with jeff mason. Thank you for celebrate 20 years of cspan radio. Today 5 00 to 7 00. Cspan radio launched on october 9, 1997. Jim is joining us from florida, independent line, good morning. Caller good morning to i have a couple of comments here and maybe you want to respond. There was already a parade going on and trump got pushed to the front. There are two groups. On the left, globalists and socialists, gold global democracy. On the other side, the national capitalist republic. There is no gap. The deephappened is state, entrenched bureaucracy, whatever, they are only giving trump a starting coalition to work with. Corker is on that side of the ledger. This started with the barcelona agreement and nafta. It was supposed to be a trade pact. The left took this and made this a big immigration. Everything up there is a mesh a mess. The trump bashing, especially with cspan. You present yourself to be a purple channel but there is no doubt you are shaves shades of blue and this got this gentleman is as blue as you get. Host thanks for the call. Guest just to go over what he said, he was talking about the election last year in 2016 and talking about a parade, i guess. The way you win president ial elections in the United States is to win the Electoral College. That is exactly what President Trump did. There are consequences to elections. To come in and put forth policies you campaigned on and the president has done that, starting particularly with getting neil gorsuch on the supreme court. He struggled with other legislative goals but the one last night on immigration, or pretty front and center on the campaign. It will be interesting to see what the reaction is on capitol hill and from immigration groups and from voters Going Forward. Host have you sensed a change in the tone and tenor of sean spicer and the current Sarah Huckabee sanders . Worked for theh same white house. They both espouse the same ideas from the podium because it is their job to get up and speak in front of the press corps about what the president wants to achieve and what the administration wants to achieve. Ony have different styles the podium and behind the scenes. There is a difference there but that is true of any press secretary. Host let me go back to the reporting, they wrote the following guest yes. I mean, again, very significant and aggressive language from senator corker. Host this is the first we have seen from a senior republican who endorsed donald trump and has a keep it key position on capitol hill. Guest what you just said is important. It is not just a random critic of the president. Any president has random critics. Very direct type of criticism from a senior senator of your own party, a key player in Foreign Policy, who will also be an important voice on tax reform, which President Trump has made his top domestic policy priority in the coming months, it is significant. Host the tweet from senator corker yesterday, on the front page of the free press, guest yes, that is not really a tweet about policy. Host too personal . Guest i cannot answer that. It is up to the senator to decide and see what the reaction is. It is clear he has gotten personal but so has President Trump. I think senator corker made a calculation that he would respond in kind to the criticism given from the president and also push back against what he said were simply untruths that the president said. The president said in a tweet he told senator corker he would not endorse him and that is one reason the senator decided not to run for election. Senator corker said that is simply not the case. Paul is junius us from the republican line from georgia. Jeff mason from reuters. Good morning, paula. Caller for the first time in American History, we have a president who held of the bible, he was asked a question, your book, the art of the deal, the greatest book ive ever read, and he said excuse me, this book , gods word, the bible, the book i read every day, the book that gives me wisdom, is the reason i am president of the United States. The pipsqueak brings out the. Pposite that is the opposition to our president and the opposition to his lord and savior, jesus christ. That is why we have dissension. We have chaos in the streets of chattanooga. We have them in chicago. Carewe have an adult day here at president is the adult and those that dont follow gods word are the ones that need the day care. Thank you very much. I am not sure that i need to interpret anything more than what the caller said. It sounds like the caller supports the president and is a member of the Christian Conservative voter population. That was a big chunk of the president s supporters. Story in the past he hasks about how often used religious language in public speaking. That is something this caller and others from that type of group want and appreciate hearing. Host clearly all of us want more from Public Officials in terms of access. Are you satisfied with what we get from the white house . Guest we are never satisfied but like i said, when i was president of the correspondents association, at the white house, it has actually been quite good. The does not mean relationship has always been strong between the press and the white house, and the rhetoric the president has used against the press and against journalism is something we objected to when i was leading the correspondents association. I believe people generally continue to object. Access itself has not been bad. The president has taken recently to answering questions every day. When he is going somewhere on a the boarding, he talks to press pool and other journalists outside. Terrific. It is an opportunity to get his response. From my point of view as a journalist who covers the white house and as the former head of the correspondents association, it is something to be praised. Host senator corker said he is running the office like a reality show. Do you think that plays into the perception by some people . President trump is who he is. He came from a background of being a reality show host. They have seen aspects of that in the way he runs his government. From talking about firing cabinet members to firing cabinet members, from saying like he did last week in the east room or in the state dining room that this is the calm before the storm, it is not a style we have seen with previous president s and the way we are seeing it with President Trump, if people want to draw the conclusion that is because of his background or he is running the white house like a reality to thinkre are reasons that. Streamed on the web at cspan. Org, and always check out our free cspan radio app. We are talking with jeff mason who covers the white house from reuters. Democrats line, go ahead, steve. Caller good morning. Is goingresident trump down a dangerous path. I think he is trying to restrict peoples right to protest and therefore will soon stop the right to dissent at all. That is a recipe for dictatorship. Jeff and alsor the moderator, though i know the i oftenr can answer it, hear the president ss call in and they will accuse the monitor of calling him trump instead of President Trump and the moderator says that is not true. With the factl that every time someone says something they dont agree with, they call it fake news . How can we, the general public, discern the fats from what is going on . Facts from what is going on question mark on . Host a headline at reuters, president often say trump were president obama or president bush . Guest that is a great question. This is a style choice in a newspaper or a wire service or a print publication. Style is to use President Donald Trump or president barack obama, president george w. Bush on first reference, and then after that in the story, to use just the last name. Would also just use the last name in a headline because of space. That is a style, not a sign of disrespect. It is a usage of space when youre writing your piece. Ask the president a question, what is your reference . Guest mr. President , if i am speaking to him directly. President trump. President obama. President bush, whoever. Ask a little did about fake news and how to deal with that and i cannot remember what else he asked in the thation, but it was about particular issue. I would say i think it is important for consumers of news to be very aware of where theyre getting the news and i think politicians, including this president , and in particular this president , have used the term fake news to lambaste any kind of coverage they dont like, whether it is chu or false. Fake news exists. We saw that in a 2016 election with actors like russia trying to create news that was not true peoplessaffect decisions. Using the term fake news to describe a story or aps on television that you dont like accurate,view, not and it has become the term that people throw around in a way that is not helpful. See thed you happen to interviews the president did with Mike Huckabee . They talked about fake news. How do you think he got that interview . Huckabee isnor sarah sandersss father and a big supporter of President Trump. So people can probably draw their own conclusions. Host but his reference to fake news . Guest this is something President Trump has used repeatedly. Some people of view that as one way he connects with his base, because criticizing the media and lambasting journalists is something his Political Base often finds appealing. But i would again contrasts that with, that is rhetoric the predator the president employees. It is rhetoric that white house reporters reject. But the action that President Trump takes in terms of doing with the press is actually completely different. He takes our questions repeatedly and gives interviews and that is something we value. Host if you want to watch jeff masons speech, it is on cspan. Org. This is from carol. Next is joe from missouri, good morning, republican line. Caller good morning. I want to reiterate, your first caller, he nailed it. , especiallyblue when he is on charlie rose and all of them. He loves Bashing Trump and republicans. I cannot stand this guy. Ok. My second thing is i hope, espey when trump runs candidates that gets rid of susan, john mccain, all these rhinos who did not pass the health care bill. These people are not republicans. A republican president , a republican house, a republican senate, and then force those hopepeople, michalski, i trumps finds people to run against them and get them out. Thank you. You can sense the passion this morning. Guest if the caller is referring to me, ive never been on charlie rose. I was not sure if he was referring to senator corker. Host i think he was referring to you. But what about the rhinos. One of the questions we were talking about over the weekend is whether or not there is room for compromise in the country where you have republicans, conservatives, and democratic come to unwilling to the center in a couple of key issues. I think of voters want compromise. I think they also want candidates that they vote for to stand up for the principles they espouse on the campaign. Certainly, President Trumps voters want him to come to washington and deliver on the promises he made. They want him to deliver on repealing and replacing obamacare. They want him to build the wall. Those are things the president promised to do when candidate. Whether voters are republicans or democrats, voters would like to seek see government work. The best way for the government to work is for them to find some kind of middle ground. That is not to say there arent troops on both of the left folks on the left and the right who are not interested in finding compromise, be it on Immigration Reform or tax reform, or any of these issues. In general, there is a lot of appetite in the country for lawmakers from the both sides of the political out stewart together. Host a White House Correspondent from reuters, a graduate and fulbright scholar. Joining us from Salt Lake City utah, democrats line with jeff mason. Caller are you talking about me . Ok. I have an unusual name. I have been watching cspan from the beginning when it was in black and white. Im extremely grateful for cspan. Democracy,terms of cspan is the best thing that has ever happened to this nation. At least four of my family thought in the revolutionary war that i know about. This. Dont how to say i have spent decades trying to figure out whether cspan slanted republican and democrat and the only thing i have been , we to come up with is that subscribe to Cable Television and recently, until google came to town, our bill was about 200 per month. Thought the Cable Companies at least sponsored cspan. Probusiness and slantedness seems to be toward republicans. But really, it is extremely difficult to tell. I do not know how all of these hosts from all these callin shows for all these decades have been able to keep their personal political views from the viewers. I think they have done an excellent job, regardless of how they vote on election day. Im extremely proud of cspan. Nd extremely grateful to them i think i wanted to say Something Else, but i have forgotten what it is. So i am hanging up. Thank you very much for the call. The cable industry still funds the network. You made a point i want to make sure we are clear about. Yes, we are funded by the private cable industry. We dont get a nickel from the federal government. The cable industry has never once asked us to cover an event or influence our editorial policies. There is a clear wall between what we do and how we are funded, which makes us unique really in the cable universe. No other network anywhere has the type of operation we have here, which is completely neutral and balanced down the middle with no influence from outside Interest Groups or the people who fund the network. You fund it because you pay the cable bill and we appreciate that. From henderson, north carolina, republican line. Good morning. From the last caller who called, she was like, we should respect him, he is the president. This guy has no respect for any woman, or any president who has been in the white house. He has no respect for himself. He is not our president. [indiscernible] thank you. Host thank you for the call. He wrote a story a couple of days ago 30 talked about weinstein and said he is not surprised about charges of sexual harassment. Explain that story. Story is based on terrific reporting from the near times that reveals that Harvey Weinstein, a big hollywood producer, had settled several cases over thent years. President trump was asked about Harvey Weinstein in one of the instances i was referring to earlier where he was walking out of the white house on his way to get on the president ial helicopter and President Trumpss response to the question was, ive known Harvey Weinstein a long time and i am not surprised. He was suggesting he was not surprised about the allegations against weinstein. He was also asked to buy a reporter about the tape from access hollywood released almost exactly a year ago, which really anded the 2016 campaign which then candidate trump, or he would not have been a candidate in 2005 but donald trump at the time spoke in very voelker terms about groping women. That anddent dismissed said that is locker room talk, reference a reference to him dismissing it a year ago as locker room talk. Host we are hearing House Republicans want to get this done this year. We talked with congressman andy harris on the cspan radio republicans said have to get it done. Tim kaine saying tax reform will happen but maybe not this year. So where do things stand and how much pressure is the white house under and guest Senate Republicans . T a great question and Senate Republicans . Guest great question. Gary cohen, someone who has had tension with the president since entering office, in particular after the president s comments in charlottesville, he is sticking around because he wants to shepherd tax reform through this legislature. Kind of an uphill battle. He has got people like senator noter saying this is deficit neutral, it will not get my vote. In terms of pressure, the president needs a legislative win. Able toe not been repeal and replace obamacare. Getting tax reform passed would be a huge legislative victory he would be able to point to as a something he had achieved and republican lawmakers would be able to 2. 2 next year. Does this mean a tax cut for middleclass americans, and the white house had to walk back some statements from gary . Wast i think kerry suggesting it was primarily focused on middleclass americans. In thate are elements tax package, but there are also aspects of it that would benefit the very rich. It is not something gary or the president want to focus on. What is happening on mail in terms of k street . Each of these tax breaks, charitable to ductions or the competition at tax code, helping companies, corporations, nonprofits. What type of lobbying effort are we seeing now . I do not cover the lobbying industry closely but i am confident others are getting lobbying from a lot of other groups. Certainly the mortgage Interest Deduction is something Many Americans who own their homes or apartments value in the Real Estate Industry sees it as to its survival and success. Gary has come out and said that is not something we are targeting in this tax reform but there are a lot of other loopholes that they are trying it and the tax code is complicated and this administration is trying to simplify that a bit but there are pros and cons for various industries affected by it and also to the potential revenue the government would get from taxes, if a massive tax cut happens and the economy does grow on the level the administration is counting on to be paid for. Have any sense of when the president will decide on the fed chair, whether janet yellen will stay, gary cohens name has mentioned been mentioned. Is in february. Quite it is a big decision the president has coming up. He said recently the decision would be in the next couple weeks but that is a formulation he uses frequently for big decisions. Thes hard to say if timeline is actually the one they will follow or not. Housesomething the white is absolutely looking at closely and it is one that reuters are looking at closely. Host alabama, independent line. Good morning. Morning. Ood as long as there is a national debt, i do not see why taxpayers should be paying for vacations and trips to ball games to start with. One question i have got it how does someone become a couplesperson making a hundred thousand dollars a year, and then end up in four years being multimillionaires . Thank you. Guest the question about congressmen and women become a multimillionaires, i think he is probably referring to corker, who came in to congress with a construction background having made a lot of money in the private sector. A lot of lawmakers in congress who have a lot of money, i think in many cases a lot of it came from their work before coming into office. It is not to say they dont make money from writing books and that i suspect is question is about corker. Host how about congressmen tom price for getting a lot of attention, alec ands allegations of Insider Trading . Guest in these to be looked at. The other question about flying around and government planes, it is important context to say the president and Vice President have to travel in air force one or two for security reasons. It is expensive. The question is whether or not to thathe choice to fly game was a choice that people support. Not an option for the Vice President , for example, to take a commercial flight for Something Like that. The front page of the Washington Post and Available Online. Travel costs are under scrutiny. Adding to millions of dollars. Lets go to bob iger running us from licking county, west virginia, democrats line, good morning. Caller good morning. I watch cspan all the time. If the president , trump, sanctions for supplies to north korea, would that cause a war between the United States and north korea . Host we will get a response. Guest the president has put a lot of pressure on china because china is the biggest trading partner with north korea and President Trump has specifically asked the president of china to work a lot harder on putting pressure on the north korean nuclearnt to stop its Ballistic Missile program. It is a good question. Whether or not it leads to war is not something im qualified to answer but it is a part of the diplomatic path that the administration has chosen while very clearly and obviously talking about military options and that is on the diplomatic side to really put economic pressure on north korea by using its trading partners. Byron is joining us from cleveland, tennessee. Republican line. Good morning. Is doingresident trump exactly what you said he would do. He is trying to drain the swamp. Global Business Partners in the chamber of commerce let the American People down. They have shipped jobs overseas and President Trump is trying to bring those jobs back to the u. S. They have forgotten who their customers are in the u. S. I think President Trump is doing a good job and i support him fully there. Corker, he was kind of wishywashy. Thes probably part of swamp. If you are a supporter of President Trump and previous administrations, you want them to go to the office and do it they said they would do. That is what this caller was saying. Happy to come through with some Campaign Promises he made in 2015. Is trump the same man we elected . The president has changed his stance on several policy areas but reporters are not focused on the details. Guest i have not read that story but i think that is a remarkable aspect of the president s presidency so far. He has come pushed for a lot of the things he said he would, but willingnessshown a to change positions and shift some of his rhetoric. One of the issues that came up in the mike willingness huckabew is whether or not the United States would be moving its embassy in israel from tel aviv to jerusalem. It was a big promise President Trump made. He decided to put it off. Based on the advice and counsel of a lot of people, it was something he promised and so far has not decided to do their the white house said it is not a question of if, it is a question of when. But there are other issues as well where the president has shown a willingness to change positions. Immigration is one of them, when he had that meeting with Chuck Schumer and nancy pelosi, and indicated a willingness to work on the dreamer issue. Alabama, democrats line. Good morning. Caller it has been a long time. How have you been . Host why have you been such a stranger . There are Different Things going on with my family. Host i am sorry about that. Pearce thank you, steve i wanted to say this. I dont Pay Attention when anyone downplays journalism. Female,ople, male and they are all over the world to bring us news and what is happening. We would not know about a lot of things that go on in the world if it female, wasnt former perk reporters and journalism. That means a lot. I do not Pay Attention to fake news. I do not get on that. You have to know these guys and females report the news accurate and fair. If they find out that what happened some years ago to a young black reporter, i think he works for the New York Times, i stand to be corrected, that was found out and he was fine, journalism is fair and is reported fair. I know that people do not want to believe that but we have got to. On what theto rely reporters tell us. I have no respect, and i am, for President Trump. Of all, laura bush, george w. Bush, george h. W. Bush, mrs. Barbara bush, president obama , we dohelle obama both not have any dignity going on right now. Onm ashamed of what is going in our country now. Have a blessed day. Host from birmingham, alabama, our last call. Guest a comment about journalism, no surprise i would agree with that. I did speak about that at the correspondent dinner. It is important people remember a right to a free pass free press and robust journalism is protected by the First Amendment of the constitution. It is a principle i believe in strongly. Not you support one Political Party or another, i hope people can support the right and freedom of the press protected by the constitution. Reporters are working very hard to get to the truth, be it in the country or were zones around the world. Is in my view an important profession and important work. A federaly is holiday. Houses in and the senate is out. We talked about tax reform. He will talk about tax reform this week for sure. Iting some meetings today, is a little light on the schedule. It is a government holiday. Know at least the issue of taxes will come up again and some issues we have talked about over the weekend, north korea, are no doubt going to come up as well. Host host and likely more twees from the president. Guest we can count on that. Host jeff mason. Guest good to be with you. Host we will take a short break. In just a moment, brian lamb sharing the story of how the sunday shows came about on cspan radio. Up next, our conversation with larry oconnor, already in the studio. W mal. We will be with you in a moment. Bill press later. We celebrate 20 years of cspan radio. Wmal. To compete with first, the story behind the sunday shows beginning with meet the press, allowing us to carry all five sunday shows beginning at noon eastern time every sunday. Part of the conversation with brian lamb and cspans the sidebar podcast. Sunday shows appeal to most people who are deeply interested in information about politics. Audiences are not enormous. 3 million for each of the program. Now. Repeat them those are relatively small audiences. If you are plugged into politics, you are watching those shows. I picked up the late the phone and called tim and said, is there any way we could get meet the press to repeat after the program runs sunday morning and our afternoon time on cspan radio . Tim was, as you know, a lot of people room admired him. Very successful. He called me back in about two weeks and said done deal. Done deal. Phone and called i think tony snow. Wolf blitzer did the sunday show at that point. Ver at cbs, my mind is blank bob schieffer. It probably was. I said tim has agreed to let us have those shows. How about you . Everyone of them said done immediately. Five shows every sunday starting at noon ending at 5 00 in the afternoon. Fox, abc, nbc, and cbs. All this week, booktv is prime time cspan2. The National Book award with frances fitzgerald, author of the evangelicals. Tuesday night at 8 00 eastern, cyber warfare and security. Wednesday night at 8 00, a look at the 2016 election with Hillary Clinton and her book what happened. On thursday night at 8 00 eastern, books made into movies featuring marko shetterly, author of hidden figures. On friday night, highlights from book fairs and festivals at the National Book festival. Librarian of congress and mississippi congressman at the mississippi book festival, and political activist and author james okeefe at freedom fest. This week, watch booktv on prime time on cspan two. Tonight, on the communicators, from the black hat conference in las vegas, a discussion with Cyber Security professionals, foreign adversaries, and terrorists. Security researcher. The amount of drugs patients are getting when laying in the hospital bed, literally no password. You can connect to it however you want it. Rate rates of drugs. We are able to demonstrate that in there looking at these as well. Ally and the car hacking village. As long as the systems use proper encryption, they can secure it correctly. So we are working with manufacturers to help them make the systems a little more secure. Fbi special agent in charge division. Vegas we want to make sure the fbi is seen as a partner with protecting people are at we want to understand what is important to them and see how we can plug and play. Division. We want to make watch toni0 eastern on cspan two. It is a Radio Station in the nationss capital. We cover 6 million people. It is an automobile commute city. It will extend our brand and give people who are involved in the process a chance to listen to it. It is that simple. Cspan radio market 20 years of republican Affairs Programming from the nations capital. Listening listen to the washington journal live every morning. And get the latest from congress, the administration, and important events from across the nation. Cspan radio is available from washington at 91 90. 1 fm. On our website, or by downloading the free cspan radio app. Years, where you hear history unfold daily. Washington journal continues. Host we want to welcome larry oconnor. Is this your first time on cspan radio . Guest yes. You came down and broadcast my show simulcast. It host you were going after the Nobel Peace Prize significantly. Guest i was at i think it. Umped the shark he shook hands with an israeli without actually he did not actually stop the killing. The International Campaign to abolish Nuclear Weapons, there were Nuclear Weapons in one of the biggest threats we have is north korea around developing Nuclear Weapons. The development of nuclear ,eapons in the hands of people it is actually been a cause for peace in the world. I know that is counterintuitive. Yes, there is the nuclear threat, but look at the lives that were lost in the 20th century before the nuclear bomb. Never saw that kind of conflict after that. Of they this because nuclear bomb but just an interesting observation and my listeners enjoy it as well. Host we have heard from our viewers and listeners this morning from senator bob corker. Comments on his New York Times interview. Host he said the president could us to world war iii. He talked about adult day care. Someone was off duty yesterday, i am paraphrasing. Where do you put this story . Like so many other things, it was a great story for beltway journalists. A major segment on cable news goes by that your typical average american is watching, they look at and listen to it and decide what has this got do with my life . Decided he would not run for reelection and i said on the air, get ready, this is what will be. E rest you can never get in trouble in washington dc by being a republican who criticizes donald trump. Theyre the most prized possession for cable news and journalists. If you are a republican, you hold elected office and you go an of your way to be outspoken critic of donald trump, you get invited to parties. I am not saying he is taking his positions based on the desire for attention. This could very well be where he sits an outspoken and his grounded valud principles guide him. But lets not forget this man wanted to be the secretary of state to the same man. Is he very different than who we saw a running for president . I am not sure. Runs through the whole process and supported the president in the campaign. Inside theooks like beltway politics. Looks like a man auditioning for some spot on cable news after his time in the senate, or as a high valued lobbyist in washington dc where he can triangulate and is willing to criticize republican president. Host we are coming to you from the cspan studio and or were celebrating 20 years. Guest congratulations. That is fantastic. Host brian lam began his career on the radio and always wanted to own a Radio Station and now we are coast to coast and streaming on the web. We will get to your calls in a moment. Guest your studio is nicer than mine. Commercial radio, we broadcast from basically no commercial breaks on cspan or cspan radio app how do you approach your program . Guest we look at what america and our community are talking about. Butow it may seem strange people in washington are not always focused on what is going on in the white house and what is going on in capitol hill. Like anyone else in the country, they have a mortgage and kids going to school. A lot of things are going on in our community in washington that rises to the level of having a significant interviewer conversation with listeners on the program and we try to look at the entire swath of topics people are talking about. When people start lining up guests for the show, we are looking at the new cycle and we will say, lets try to get this person or that person to talk about that topic. By the time we get to 1 00, the whole news cycle has because of a news event or a tweet or what have you. We sometimes make changes during the program. I am on from 3 00 to 6 00. These days between 5 00 and 6 00, a tweet and an announcement at a firing changes everything. Oftenwe know that all too p or we are competing a little bit with you but we hope you tune in as well. We are glad to have larry. connor i have to ask about your background. How did you go from the theater on broadway to breitbart to being a radio talk show host . Guest a typical progression. Isnt that similar to your background . No. I always love theater, in high school, it was always my passion. I went to new york, worked for the schumer organization, the largest real estate and producing company in that city. I worked behind the scenes and management production. General being the manager in los angeles. Through my career, i was always right of center. Setse theater business, it you apart. Most of my friends would speak openly about politics and talk about them through the 1990s. I think i gained the ability to talk about politics and hold my own was still remain friends with people. I think that age as me and talk radio. I often have people on my show who disagree with me. Just be conservative conservative conservative. Becausesition happened breitbart started a website called big hollywood where he focused on, this was the beginning of what we now know as breitbart news, but at the beginning, he started various theites, big hollywood was first. He wanted people in the entertainment business who were to the right of center to write for him p or i reached out and told him i was in theater and he immediately responded to me and asked me to start writing for him p or within a year, i was an editor for him. I focused on breitbart tv, the video site. After his said f, i said stayed with the country the company and ended up going my own way, and leaving the company and starting a radio career here in washington. To radio through breitbart, i started streaming a nightly Radio Program on the internet. Miracle for anyones career. Our guest is Larry Oconner from wmal. E are approaching the top of the hour. We are wcfpm. Are streamed on the web. Check out our free cspan radio ap p. App . U have the guest i dont, but ill have download it for me. Keith, democrats line from chicago. Good morning. Caller oh, Larry Oconner keith. Hi, caller from breitbart and mediaite. Congratulations on making it to cspan. For sunlight. L legitimize ed to breitbart. It is not a news organization. T is not legitimate larry, please comment on the buzz feed story that broke last week, it was momentous and i to get your take. Mainstream i nationalism white superiority. Host superiority. Host thanks, keith. Guest thanks, keith, thanks for watching and listening. I work for mediaite, right now, contributing editor there. Story, all the events and emails, exchanges bannon, that happened after my tenure there. To say most fair of us who started with andrew breitbart, we wish that website we know that se andrew had a vision of making a and i nce in had country think that site has done that. I certainly cant speak to something that happened there had already left. Host keith again from florida, morning. Caller yes, id like to ask a that on, what was it obama, president obama did when the nobel prize when he received it . Hardly t been in office any time at all, could you he do to me what did obtain that award . Ost keith, were you listening on friday . We were talking about that. Guest part of my point, as well. Nobel prize transitioned to this award for having great and for holding all virtues people in europe think are fantastic. What barack obama achieved. Afterhe became president , it was headline, but more innocent civilians were killed via remote control, drone ark tack, under president obama than any other before him, whether was peaceful act or not, it is up for the nobel prize to reassess. Goes along the lines of, lets give award to somebody for promoting peace because they gave good speeches or have good intentions. You want to award somebody for promoting peace, where are peace prizes for american generals and american leaders over the last 12 years who have and thee to bring peace incredible opportunities for the women of afghanistan . Ook how the women of afghanistan were treated under american n before the troops and ally necessary that area liberated them. That brought more peace to region and more opportunities for the women of afghanistan icam did for removing Nuclear Weapons from our world. Fulltime ave seven employees, two parttime and a number of great interns that all of this together. Cspan radio Public Affairs and at n, on our website cspan. Org. That is the next caller from decatur, georgia, on the line for democrats. Caller how you doing . Good morning. I watch cspan, i have a question. Out of school and teaching kids about the political ideas and also ethics religion because how can ou put somebody ethically in the white house who females nd same time turn around and hold a bible up. There are a lot of questions because im an xvietnam vet, i lived in segregation 21 years, why cant discussion ace started in america host thank you, well get a response. Larry oconner. Guest big issue. At conservatives recognize this point days of having virtuous individuals like george in the oval tting office, even though he never sat white house ffice, wasnt built yet, has gone by side. Ste supporters of bill clinton able to s years were compartmentalize its behavior church after the lewisnky situation. Behave one way and we care about policies they put forth and sadly, i think that was learned. Do i wish the president of the United States was more of a upstanding individual that my children can look up to after . Del their lives absolutely. That ship has saild and we have to deal with the real world and and we werevote for taught and frankly i think weve learned that is not what people anymore. Host i will ask a generational question. Humor of johnny carson, is it different with fallon and guest very different. Comedy is. Where the ive been lectured to by those uys so much lately, jimmy fallon a little less. You saw the cry fest over the stafferson and with miley cyrus signing thank not otes to her, its entertaining from my perspective, maybe it is a thing. Ional i think johnny carson, i couldnt tell you where he stood politically, he made jokes, but didnt use plat torm to lecture to the American People what we thinking or how we should be voting. I dont think it is because he political. He had Great Respect for the job viewers. D some are republicans and some are democrats, some like reagan, mondale. E i have an idea, im here to tell your roughet you end day here in america with the things going on with a laugh and make up ment and you your minds because i respect you so much, i think you can ctually make the decision for yourself. Jimmy kimmel doesnt have that espect for his audience, that is not what i pick up. If you vote the wrong way, because i vote the wrong way, kimmel wouldnt watch me. Why would i tune in and watch that. Host Stephen Colbert is number vantly use he is fer antitrump. Guest that might be a reason. I think they split up the with so many late hows, Stephen Colbert had a real niche opportunity to be able to capitalize on the audience, i suppose. Listen fthey can do it in a funny way, people will tune in laugh. I think for a lot of viewers and people who feel like hollywood entertainment outlets are out of touch with believe, what frustrates them and me, no one person sitting in the writers are about toat you say will be offensive to a lot of people. Lot of people arent bad people and believe this and think this, why do we want to offend those people . Answer is, they dont care. Ost is alec baldwin funny impersonating donald trump . Guest he was funny on 30 rock, portrayed this meglomeniachal ndustry, they meant that character to be the show and he nded up being incredibly likely. Bunker phenomena. Host we are talking to larry conner, we are coming to you from the cspan radio studio, elebrating 20 years on the air today. Studio. Paalatial cspan eautiful multi Million Dollar espresso machine. Im kiding that is npr, they get government funding. To shirl e going nedayton, ohio. I cant respond to that. Hi, shirley. Host go ahead, shirley. Like to es, i would make a comment. I am thankful i have cspan. But i get c cable, cspan. I appreciate your listening to sides, but it doesnt matter to me, who is on, republican or democrat, says, what we s need is better schools, what we need is lower taxes, what we is a better government, what we need is a better resident, the thing is, i was taught in school and i am 78 years old, what i was taught in not what you, its know that does you the good, its what you do with what you know. All those politicians know the right thing to do, but how many standing up and doing it . What they promise, i know what you need, i know what you need, but what have they done about it . Listen to cspan, i and hearings and hear what they say on there and they dont each vote for what they believe in. Host shirley, well get a response. Thank you. Shirley is voicing is very much an example of why donald trump struck a cord last and why so many journalists in washington, d. C. Still kind it. Dont get you heard a lot of pundits to said donald trump doesnt have a iowa or New Hampshire, but doesnt get a chance to win the republican omination and certainly wont win the white house. After the election, they said, i guess we got that one wrong. Know what they got wrong. They think they got the interpretation of the polls understanding ot of the ground game for the two campaigns wrong. Really got wrong is that for years now, for years, perot, ars, back to ross i would argue, there is a large segment of the american populous who feel like washington, d. C. Is oblivious to what they want about and ey care feel like there has been a lot of money spent on politics and not a lot to show for it. I think that was manifest in the vote. D trump host from georgia, carolyn is next with Larry Oconner of wmal. Good morning. I tend to not and vote either party. In ing based on what i see characteristics of the president. Vote in local because i move around quite a bit. I think to say that youre not being very fair about the dent obamas getting peace prize. I think he is virtuous and hes be. Wn himself to hes shown himself to have moral character, i think that is incredible that you would lessen that award for him because during the eight years he was president , we didnt have ll these situations popping up in the news. We didnt have children showing fraud. Mitting we didnt have his kids in the a cabinete serving in position, although they were too peopleand we didnt have quitting, resigning, being fired either. I think that we are seeing a presidency that was stolen and ll the literature and all coverage that rachel maddox, and msnbc, and apan and number of shows and the his number. L have host thank you, carolyn. Guest thank you, carolyn, and you for your service. Arolyn may be conflating two different subjects we were discussing. We were discuss thanksgiving and who we have in the oval office now, comparing to the Clinton Presidency. I wasnt suggesting barack obama or upstanding s man, i dont have enough information, i havent seen otherwise. Whether he was worthy of winning a nobel peace based on winning speeches and the election. After he won ed the election, he hadnt done anything as president of the yet, that got conflated there. Host roy moore is ahead in the a prerepublican state. If he wins the senate seat you think2, what does that represents to the Republican Party . Trumpism transcends President Trump. President trump, for whatever reason, may be a decision with Mitch Mcconnell at the time, at the senator strange time, who was running against roy moore in the primary. Candidates, moore and strange, were trying to run to much as ide, as possible in the campaign. The trump t get nomination, ended up winning based on running a trump agenda. Sent for e message many regions and states in this country, you dont necessarily donald trump to energize trump voters and for establishment, that is something have to deal with. Host Larry Oconner, on cspan guest on the radio studio. Ohio, democrats line. Guest hi, tom. Caller hi. It be known in 970, i was a conservative republican. Carter democrat. 1993, the first tax the tax rats voted in a ncrease during the Clinton Presidency that got three votes passed it. Democrats, including our former governor, Ted Strickland got defeated and republicans took over the congress the next year. The next six years with that xtra money democrats provided, they hauled off and balanced the budget with a democrat president. Since then, the president says swamps. S to drain the in the last 20 years, doing it numbers, 80, sxakt 80 and 45, republicans who tried to ins tax cuts and they did it 2001 and started the spiral the time house has been in control of the the lican conservatives, senate for 80 of the time has been in control of the epublicans conservatives and the presidency of the United States has been in control of conservatives 45 of the time. To know, your guess, do you think the ones who s are the need to have the swamps drained office and 53 of in with the social democrats who 50 years, in 1980, we were number one in ages, we were number one in Living Standards and 90 of the emocrats at that time, Walter Mondale called themselves like bernie at, sanders. Guest there are a lot of trump oters and donald trump who would agree, yeah, when the swamp gets drained, a lot of republicans should go down the with them. I think weve seen that play out. The way the debate over tax Going Forward is will be interesting because the caller is right, it seems like politicians in this town worried about the deficit are power. S out of the deficit is not that big of a deal. Principally, and where i think i get the sense from many callers is that when is blown up, based on a large Government Spending kind of r some government control of certain portion of our economy and that deficit, that doesnt grow the economy, that economy, you get cular spiral ofcu doom. We have a deficit and the grow y is not going to because weve got that deficit and spending. Tax cut, tax cuts historically, you can ask president kennedy back to his cut, when you cut taxes that grows the economy. Balloonle, yes, it will the deficit, the growth it will get in the economy will offset that. I agreepretty much what with. Host senator corker says if it not s the deficit, i will support it. Where does that put the tax plan . Uest puts corker with the democrats, which is instructive and important to recognize. Tax ure where it puts the cut. Interesting to see. Mcgaskill and by the way, tax reform package, not just a tax cut, simplification process for nd filing taxes, appealing to a lot of americans, if the president its right and has good people on the hill, might be to plug democrats to replace corkers of the world. Callers sound different . We are in the dc area. Guest they are talking about a issues, we have callers with long memories and they remember decades before now and i think that is something Everyone Needs to remember. Oldemember back in the good day when is senator john mccain anted to repeal obama care and build a wall on the texas border, arizona borders. Richard in oxnard, california. Steve and d morning, larry, im really having a lot of fun here with cspan this morning. Think this is more entertaining than saturday night live. Say that . Do you why r just, i dont know this morning ive been watching and its just been kind of funny to some of the callers. You know, i was just looking up notice that d i trump is at 37 right now. At 16 . Ress is just wondering which adult day care was cocker talking about, the congress or the im not sure . Host richard, thank you for the tuning in. Guest its a good point. Approval trumps ratings are and historically they arent great. He gotre pretty bad when elected president , too. They have always been bad, a lot accepting that even though people dont like high esident or give him approval rating, they like him compared to certain alternatives and the alternative our caller up are people in congress, by the way and people in the media. Well,pretty unpopular, as im not, im a talk radio show, people love us. Divide, democrat, republican, independent, do you do that . Guest we dont, we open eight lines to cover the Greater Washington metro area and app dy listening on the around the country. We have a call screener who lets know what people are going to say, if i see someone who will disagree, we mix that up, as well. We dont ask party affiliation. I understand why cspan does it and it is pretty cool. Host jacksonville, florida, willie, good morning. Caller good morning, gentlemen, you doing . Guest great. Caller you conservatives. Ya. L tell donald trump, ill just give it to you straight. Of thethe laughing stock free world. You make excuses for him. Never seen anything like this. Voted for, i havent since 1966. Im 61 years old. Seen such incompetence in the white house. Let me tell you Something Else, not im im going to get straight to the point, were going to take back year and get rid of this clown, okay. Everybody. Cares guest if someone doesnt i dont defend the president , god knows hes capable of defending himself, wee have seen that hrough the media and social media. Im not sure what i said was making excuses for the president. This president being incompetent and all those hings, listen, i think i recognize a lot of people will look at this presidency and say, anything like n this. As the caller said, you are right, of course we have never this nything like this, man is a Real Estate Developer ho ended up being a branded identity on National Television for reality show and ended up and programs ts and becoming president of the United States without holding lected Office Without running for office, of course we have never seen that before. I think what gets boring for me, how the media reacts to presidency is whenever the president does something unorthodox, says something unorthodox, tweets something, on fire s hair goes saying this is unprecedented. Eah, the whole thing is unprecedented. Topic at hand,he rather than weve never seen anything like this before. We will all tell our kids we were there and got to see this happen. Host next call, alexandria, virginia, ken is on the air. You listen to Larry Oconner on wmal . No. Er i cant say i have, guest try us out today. Caller i will see if i can. Ill give you but a shot. I appreciate your time. Guest thanks, man. Caller everybody is entitled to their opinion, wonderful thing about america. It is not impressive, it is things he , a lot of says are completely nonbinding putting together this country for what it is. Going back to the peace prize. For barack obama and the condone and conditi condition continued haven of violence, he brought a lot of just on hisher, not own behalf as far as leadership people to d, but for be together and actually work together. Think it is, i everybody, again, entitled to celebrity lot of apprentice, he is not treating people like constituents, but a fan base. A lot of times when you go to certain places, he caters to them, he is constantly on, like television, you are constantly seasoned break in between right now, i dont think he understands the gravity of dealing with. Hes i dont think hes very personable, i think if your son was vying for college or job application and behaviorsdown a lot of and his mannerisms, you probably college, get the job to everybody entitled to his opinion, im not particularly behavior. His host understood. Thank you. Guest God Bless America for that. Essentially, i hear this a lot about barack obama, he brought many people together, he brought unifying force, yet after eight years of the obama was so cy, our country divided that we ended up electing a president that so disapprove of or feel strongly about and yet, you know, the conditions were there to allow donald trump to become president , how unified were we . Divisive during the 2016 campaign than ive seen in the country. Did barack obama really unite us a divisive such country at the end of eight years . I didnt see us united. Ronald reagans eight years we were more united than Barack Obamas eight years. Recognize donald trump brings out passion in people and or le, you either love him hate him, you think hes great or horrible president. Knowing all of that, know the people say about him being incompetent and unintelligent,and not grasping what the presidency s and what hes doing and our country being in horrible shape, nowing that for so many people must be devastating to understand this is the man who beat Hillary Clinton. Thederstand the passion and depression, on so many people that so many people feel. That for a out minute, you really do have to put your brain around that and the fact that of all of the things you dont like about him and the people who voted for him, didnt approve of him. He had 45 approval rate presidency, on the they still disliked Hillary Clinton that much more. No traffic, no weather, no commercial break, how does it feel . I could get used to it. Host dale, arizona, go ahead, air. Re on the caller good morning, please be atient with me, i have a cold, talking southern ginias robert,med i would like to build my name up ike that guy building his name up is making a lot of money. Now your guest, this is my comment. A lot of people get very rich with stock market. Him make sure e that he makes an extended remark stock market. Percentage of taxes people pay and corporations that dont and make a comparison with hat it was when democrats were in there and they were paying the taxes, they were paying the taxes were very high and now the whole idea is that were 92 and 79 and now they want to put them down and they still dont want to pay the bills and they want grow the economy, i tell you, i get sick and tired of having grow the economy by inflating everything, make a the percentage of when x base that it was you make reference to the lower tax cuts. You never mentioned what the percentage was. Let me jump in and give Larry Oconner a chance to respond. Of t i didnt follow all that. Genius robert, im not a doctor, condition, i take wo shots of nyquil in the morning and two shots of dayquil and okay in two days, based on cold, not what he brought up. Wall street has become the enemy people eople, so many run against wall street every year and good politics, i suppose. There was aresting, time when wall street was just corporations orr monopoly men. How many of us have a 401 k now how many of us have a Retirement Plan or ira, roth ira to wall onnected street, when we run against wall street or get angry at people wall street and making money on wall street, when political leaders talk down about wall street and suggest that there is a problem there, retirement n our fund. When wall street does well, almost every american is doing well because of it. Just because it does well for the economy, we see result necessary our 401 k . Is a major deal. And i dont necessarily know if for always a great thing wall street to be the target of political rhetoric, lets not forget, balancing two choices in 2016, Hillary Clinton was more candidate of ump wall street bankers. Host last question, vice pence says what is your take . I dont understand the argument this was waste of taxpayer dollars f. He stayed the three hour football game, no one would complain, same whether he stayed for the game or not. The n. F. L. Has played this erribly from the beginning, they should have done something early last season when this theted with karp, he was on record saying he was protesting because he didnt want to honor country, everyone said this was protesting of police brutality, that is part of it. Be the why. The action was understood by kaeperknick, he is on the record saying this is meant because i dont want to honor flag or country. The n. F. L. Says he has a right to First Amendment right, you the job toa right on your First Amendment free speech. You are in the media, maybe media, you are in the you cant say everything you want to say when you are at work. He n. F. L. Should have said, yes, you have free speech outside confines of employment, do this. Ing for us, goodyear, next time you support your players Second Amendment start bringing firearms to the locker room, then stand on principle with bill of rights. Happened to tom brady fourth and fifth amendment right they pickdeflaetgate, and choose which rights to choose. This, it isas blown a major problem for football, i wish they would solve the roblem and the solution is, if you wear a uniform, you honor the men and women who wore the uniform and stand for the anthem. Host i can say this, larry wmal, thank you for stopping by, celebrating 20 radio. F cspan guest congratulations, come on 20 years. En it is guest Larry Oconner or, please. Host we will take a short from the ing to you cspan radio studio in washington, d. C. , coast to coast cspan. Org, e at free cspan radio app, bill press is up next as we continue this monday morning. This week 8 p. M. Eastern, tonight from the National Constitution center in philadelphia, discussions on cases, K Supreme Court versus unitedatsu states and brown versus 100th o bill cody on the anniversary of his death. Ednesday night, the sixth anniversary of Little Rock Central High School integration with former president bill clinton. Night, a discussion on the leadup and response of the desegregation of little rock high school. American history t. V. , oral history t. V. , journalists who documented major events throughout history. Watch American History t. V. This in prime time on cspan 3. Its a Radio Station in the nations capital, covering six million people. Is a heavily automobile commute city and it will just our brand and give people who are involved in the process here a chance to listen to it. It happened, it was that simple. Cspan radio, Public Affairs programming from the nations capital. Listen to washington journal live each morning beginning 7 a. M. Eastern. Hear recaps of political events weekdays 5 p. M. Eastern and get latest from congress, the administration and important events from across the nation. Cspan radio is available in ashington on 90. 1 fm, on our website cspan. Org, or by downloading the free cspan app. O cspan radio, 20 years, you hear daily. Unfold washington journal continues. Host and welcome to hour four of the bill press program. [laughter] host just finished three hours on the air, right . Hours. Two host thank you for being with us, we appreciate it. From talk about headlines the New York Times, the interview, extraordinary. Corker supported donald trump early in 2016, chair of the Senate Foreign relations committee, back and forth on twitter yesterday and this interview that senator did with New York Times and Jonathan Martin. Guest stunning. Dont think, we said so many times we have never seen anything like this in washington before, right . Member of the ng president s own party, one of he most respected members of the United States senate, respected around the world, head of the Foreign Affairs committee whohe United States senate, actual actually, he said things about lot of sident that a democrats havent even said, right . It started out when the attacked him and said that corker had begged him for his endorsement, the president said,d to give it, corker im going to quit and the president said that his manager enough guts to run for reelection. Corker says that is not what to ened, he decided just retire. The president tried to talk him out of changing his mind and no, im going to thank you for your offer of ndorsement, ive decided to retire. He totally called the president , basically a liar, then said, too bad the white house has turned Adult Day Care Center, where a man who is president of the United States who thinks he running a t. V. Reality show, not the presidency. He thinks he is still on the he accused him of making reckless threats against corker untries which says could lead us to world war iii. Never seen a war on words like this ever between any senator the united ident of states. Host critics this morning say rhino, not a republican. Guest i think if you look at corkers record, hes a republican. He is a genuine conservative represented o has tennessee with distinction and i a problem of ve winning reelection, if he run. De to im a democrat, im not the one republicans advice, but i think republicans had assist from and call anything republican who disagrees with donald trump on rhino. G a i mean, there are more republicans saying, im a donald trump t doesnt represent me or what is country. This host well get to your calls in a moment. 20th anniversary on the air. Local an involved in politics, head of California Democratic party and appeared on cnn, for a number of years and now your own radio show. Yes, i was in the media long before i became active in politics. Arty i started in 1980 on television, in los angeles. Number one station in the state. There about a year when wally sherwood, who is kabc radio,ector for called me and said, hey, wed like to have you come over and guest appearances or on talk radio shows. I had never thought about doing talk radio. I did and liked it and soon got my own radio show. Probably the last 30 years or so, ive been doing and television at the same time. Sometimes the same show, but on day. Ame i love doing radio and t. V. Host how can people listen to the radio . Guest bill press show. Com. Ur show comes out of washington, d. C. , two hours every day 7 to 9 a. M. East coast time. You can listen live or go to the podcast and they can listen to show any time during the day or any part of the show and they can also watch it on directv, free speech t. V. Simull simulcast on speech t. V. Host go to indiana, you are up first with bill press, line for independents, good morning. Caller hello. Host hi. Yeah, no, im in michigan. Host go ahead, im sorry. Caller thats okay. Steve, you are one of my favorites and that new guy, two got, jeff guys you fella, john . R host john, yes. Caller i cant believe how on. Ck they caught greta, she was a little bumpy, but shes caught on. Ahead. O we all try to do our very best. We thank you. Question. U all do, no but anyhow, bill, how are you, brother . Guest good, good to talk to you. Whats up . Aller well, i just want to, i got to put a plug in. Cspan, you are the second best network, sorry. Free speech t. V. , theres no know, restriction, and im telling you, brother, times. In dark you know what i hope happens . Out whenre people turn refuse to call him president , he didnt get the popular vote. George w. Didnt get the popular vote, how does that work . Outst hope more people turn when hes taking the perp walk nd i hope the washington or Capital Police treat him the way police to treat everybody else when theyre car, i hope n the they smash his pumpkin head into the door and i hope more people to watch him take that perp walk than showed up for his inauguration. Host tim, ill stop you there. Thanks for the call from michigan. Well get a response. Guest um, i will refrain from donald trump o with personal insults, but i ill say tims first point, i in k it is troubling that this new century, weve had two president s take Office Without popular vote. And i think that should be a lesson to all americans to take at the Electoral College, hether it still fits our day and our time, i dont think it does. I think it is time to get rid of seems to me whether republican or democrat, the candidate that gets the most should win the election. Host would that not change most if you get the vote, win the election. Host one principle, bill press, forced to are campaign in states they wouldnt otherwise campaign in new or ohio theylaware would campaign in, texas, florida, you know, pennsylvania, york, california, where the votes are. Would well, i think that be getting rid of the Electoral College is not the only answer, number one answer, but also i support it, that ystem, i think the primary system today, totally out of whack, it is not representative at all. Should iowa and New Hampshire be the first two states . The united epresent states, either. The answer, right . Not more iowa the answer to e, that is regional, president ial shift, s that would maybe southeast primary, the first year and northwest the year and move it around that way. Electoral college, get rid of it. Willie in kent, washington, republican line. Go ahead, please. Good morning. Hi. Y comment is im a black man and i just taken aback by all going on in regard to excuse resident trump, me. He situation has the media in particular, the television, s, we cant govern the country through the television set, through the media. Never left ts have theeorge bush declare, when wall fell down and soviet union apart, the communists, that wasnt the end of still here they are and still coming here. You can tell by what is going on on television. Havent watched a prime Time Television show in 25 years, nothing on. E cant govern on 30minute programs, cnn is just one long show. From , i watched you guys the beginning, mr. Kenton, i he hasnt s name, been there, but host we got you, hes since watching, d probably he lives in kentucky. Caller i appreciate the way he business. Is you do a good job, steve, greta not complaini complaining. Even cspan, when Newt Gingrich of republicans took control congress, cspan story changed, at ped having two guests on the same time, different just, there is no play going back and forth. There is one guest, two guests i can recall, martin steel, he last two guests i can remember going back and forth. Cspan we still do it, we try to mix it up. Larry oconner first and bill press next. We have balance. We want to give you more chance in sometimes with two guests, it is more back and fire. Like cross guest like cross fire. Host you want to respond, though . First of all, i totally agree cspan does incredible job brian and all you the rest, brian lamb. Ut i disagree, i think there re many, are many, many fine choices in the media today. It depends what flavor ice cream you like. You can watch fox and get one the r, watch msnbc in evening, not necessarily all day long and you get another flavor, conservative flavor in the morning with a mix, id ay in the morning with morning joe. And cspan kind of right down the middle. Network to still watch abc and i think cbs, network news is good source of information. Newshour, i think there are a lot of very good choices out there in print media and Electronic Media today. Radio. Ere is talk vice i asked about president mike pence yesterday. Guest he cost 200,000 knowing ahead of time that this is the president mike pence 49ers, for gods sake, of course a ebody is going to take knee. He knew that, he went to the game, prepared to walk out. Press release written before he walked out, sure to were told, be watch, Pay Attention during the national anthem, something is happen, total political stunt. E flew from las vegas to indianapolis for five minutes and flew to los angeles, cost 200,000. Ost cheryl in los angeles, good morning. Caller good morning and mr. Bill press, im so glad you have however, i wanted to make three points and ill be very quick in trying to make them. One, i wanted to talk about the had on person that you before mr. Press and i didnt get to get in on that, i know has been spot on, like baskin ors, when like and robin have the different flavors because everyone doesnt ike the same flavor ice cream, you are going to get a variety. However, the person that was was african d he american, i also am african american. And also, i notice he didnt really Pay Attention and and ime when people get on they just want to talk about their political views, they really get the facts in what they are speaking about, you know. To say is about about the press puerto rico, what is his thoughts on that, i just so hurt that i feel that he president could just drop the things that the people need remote er in row places that is what i want his that. Hts on host thank you. Guest i think the president s to Hurricane Harvey in texas and federal Administration Response was spot on. They did an excellent job. I think the response in florida, irma, was right on. In puerto rico, they missed the ball. Not prepared, re this idea that oh, god, we it was an island in the middle of the ocean, a big ocean and they couldnt their trucks there, i mean, duh, where have they been, and instead of acknowledging the fact they were low to move, the president attacked the people of puerto rico, blamed them for not paying wall street and suggested if only they paid their bill to wall street, maybe been so mucht have hurricane damage. Think insensitive and i he should admit they blew it. Got there. Y and i think the resources maybe now, what they need, but it took almost two weeks for what was going on in puerto rico. Just one little fact. First weekend, right after the storm hit on thursday, rico, that following weekend, donald trump did 22 tweets about the n. F. L. , not one single tweet about the people suffering people in puerto rico, to shows you where was. Attention host we are talking with bill press on washington journal, listening on cspan radio, Morning Program can be show. Com. Bill press graduate of niagura university. You grow up . Guest delaware, little town alled delaware city, delaware, south of wilmington. High school in wilmington, delaware and studied priesthood for a few years and sent as seminary to go niagara ge at university, Public University, catholic Public University in niagara falls, new york. Host roy from st. Louis. Then sent to switzerland to the university and got degree degrees. Gy, two host roy, good morning, independent line, st. Louis. Good morning. Steve, great job, i love your show. Congratulate cspan for wonderful 20 years on the radio and i watch you pretty all the time. Anyway, bill press, you are a and i really i you. Guest thank you. Aller i have watched you for years, yes, i think you brighten up any panel you appear on. Kudos to cspan for bringing you on, especially after the last was very irritating. But anyway, i just want to tell ou that this is the first president in my lifetime and i voted every election since mcgovern and im a democrat, i have voted republican once or going to specify who. Ut anyway, that is why i call myself independent. But this is the first president here ive actually had nuclear nightmares, real nightmares at night, ive woken up and ive to calm myself down and ive had, you know, had to reassure yself that well, maybe we wont get into a war in north whoever d with china or nd im wondering if the new generation just doesnt have a fear of Nuclear War Like i do, baby boomers had . And what do you think is the reason . Remote . It was before i was born, but war, you been nuclear know, world war ii, that is how and i continuing is quite frightening and i wonder the pentagon would have controls or could someone like senator corker who there, could they, i just wondering what do you mechanisms ailsafe are like for this country . We never faced spouting off in the white house who will say and do what he does and says. Host roy, thanks for watching span and good wishes, we will give bill press a chance to respond. Appreciate it. Roy,t i think roy is on if you are afraid this president could be leading us to nuclear with north korea, boy, you are right. I think all americans should be of that. Look, we have seen in the last couple days, the president has last couple weeks, he has rex the secretary of state, tillerson, dont worry about, stop you are wasting your diplomacy, stop talking to north korea. Last thursday, he called reporters in when he had a group of military families for dinner state white house in the dining room and said look at this carefully, we call this the calm before the storm. Then saturday after he played a round of golf in virginia, came back to the white is onlyd he said, there one answer for north korea, we diplomacy is not the answer, what is he talking about . Ost he tweeted that this morning, as well. Guest tweeted again, constant taking military action against north korea. If you are in north korea and hear the president of united threatening you day after day, they could do some thing, donald trump what wants. Would agree with senator corker, republican senator from tennessee, the reckless threats are dangerous, they could lead world war iii and any military strike against north korea would be disastrous nator for the people of south korea, apan and people of the west coast of the United States. It is frightening and i think younger people dont realize because they have not lived the last time i cuban missile crisis, i was at nigara falls, a huge new power newt, im sorry, a dam, big dam just built there. That was one target listed they figured would be prime for soviet missile fire from cube ai remember we were scared, pet riified we would be target. Young people today havent had anything like that. I think they dont realize. Is a very dangerous time. And i think the problem is that two madmen at the head of each country, one at the head United States, one at the head of north korea and ometimes i think the one in north korea is the less mad or the more sane of the two. Note, go to michelle, washington, democrats line. Good morning. Thanks ford morning, taking my call. I have a couple of comments, my is, i believe that emocrat party needs to get republicans onboard with Electoral College. I think the first time it 1800s, d was in the late where republican president went Electoral College votes and not the popular vote. Since then, its happened six or seven times and the only party who has benefited the republicans. It has never benefited the emocrat who happened to be running at those times. So im a Firm Believer in happened for long time that the Electoral College should not exist, that able to dent should be win on the popular vote, not on college vote. Host were short on time, give chance to respond. Guest i said earlier, i would agree. Electoral the college. I thought it happened three time necessary our history, not sure, this century. Host one of the more famous ones she was referring to in the 1800s. Culpepper, virginia, independent line. Good morning. You for taking my call. Am independent and nondenom cal christian. What is going on today, i heard call in talking about we need to beat bushs head against sparring or, that is the problem with civilization and with the people today. Hate, we have of forgotten how to love one another that, is one of gods commandments, Love Thy Neighbor as thyself. God andturned away from gone the way of cane. And i watch the people who on programs, the no one mentioned god or jesus christ. Ashamed of hey are his name. The bible says the nation turns away from god shall be destroyed. I want that input today. This world needs to turn back to love one arn to another. Host thank you. Guest well, ill join the movement for love. Mean, yeah, there is too much hate in the world. I dont think it helps when president of the United States who spews hate daily on his twitter account, start there. T to host republican call from alabama, janice, thank you for morning. Good caller good morning. Es, i have a couple of comments. About taking the knee. Is people dont realize that most of us, when we see that, it is like burning the flag to us. Kills us. My heart hurts when i see someone disrespecting the flag 6789 my heart hurts to not see someone disrespecting the flag. I have flown at the flag, 10 flags since 911. I am a very patriotic person. To seecant stand anybody doing anything i think is disrespecting it. Host thank you. Larry oconnor said he should require them to stand. Guest that is baloney. Guest that is baloney. I respect the flag also. A real progressive candidate. If the Democratic Party puts that kind of candidate forward in 2020, i think they can take back the white house and in 2018 could take back the house and senate. Host why didnt Bernie Sanders not run. Guest because now he is back. I wish you would have stayed in the Democratic Party. He has been an independent old his life. It is really who he is. [no audio]