Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 12082017 20171208

Congress passed a twoweek funding bill ahead of the deadline. Later, we talked to a reporter about al frankens host good morning, it is friday december 8 are the headline, congress reels from resignations. Said on the floor yesterday that he would resign from his seat here it the house side, republican franks of arizona will also step down over allegations that he asked female subordinates to bear his child. ,epublican line guest 202 7481 ,emocrats line 202 7488000 and independents 202 7488002. Arizona line today for residents. 202 7488003 host many of you just listend to al franken on the floor yesterday. This is what he had to say that he came to noon eastern time. [video clip] statesing in the United Senate has been the great honor of my life. I know in my heart that nothing i have done as a senator, nothing has brought this honor on this institution. I am confident that the Ethics Committee would agree. Nevertheless, today i am announcing that in the coming weeks, i will be resigning as member of the United States. I of all people am aware that there is some irony in the fact a man am leaving, while who has bragged on tape about his history of Sexual Assaults sits in the oval office. A man who has repeatedly preyed on young girls campaigns for the senate with the full support of his party. But this decision is not about me. It is about the people of minnesota. It has become clear that i cannot both pursue the Ethics Committee process and at the same time remain an effective senator for them. Et me be clear i may be resigning my seat but i am not giving up my voice. I will continue to stand up for things i believe in as a citizen and as an activist. Minnesotans deserve a senator who can focused with all her energy on addressing the challenges they face every day. Host with picture of the minnesota senator on the run page of his paper today. Congress reels of allegations, forcing lawmakers out. Is house Ethics Committee investigating a republican of texas over his use of taxpayer dollars to pay and 84,000 Sexual Harassment to an aide. Bill, europe first. Caller can you hear me question good morning, how are you doing . Cspan. I love i have two points, but let me finish them. Think the Ethics Committee should have jumped in on this. They should have said listened we will handle what we need to handle in the political realm. Thats what they are therefore. They didnt step up, or say they were going to do anything. They just let the court of Public Opinion be the judge, jury, and executioner for all of these individuals. Now grant you, i have four daughters. I talk to them about this. They are older now. They said daddy, we cant be harassed, but if Something Like that happened we are going to bring it up right then. Especially with al franken, they dont understand the woman he groped in that picture, he apologized to her. She accepted the apology, but no one is talking about that. She said she didnt want him to be fired. My question is this to her, if she is listening. You accepted his apology, why dont you just accept it and move on and hope he doesnt do it again . If he does it again, then you accepted his apology and i told him not to do it again wasnt enough. Host what about multiple women coming forward . Caller i would tell you this. The first woman opens a pandoras box. Hadfirst woman then you these other women come. Why didnt these other women come first . Host im listening to you, bill. Are you think about you saying these women should come forward at all . Caller no i am not. The arbitration i used to be in the government. Sexual harassment in the government you go through a process. It is called arbitration. And you go through arbitration, they asked the woman, what do you want what you feel you need to happen to make you feel whole again . These things are being said in the public and im just saying that that if the woman said she dnt want him to be fired host theyve done to hearings. One was about the process for making claims of Sexual Misconduct. It doesnt work the way it works in other places. Yesterday the office of compliance direct under was testifying. They have jurisdiction over this issue. This is where staffers or other people have to go when they want to make a claim of Sexual Harassment. Listen to what she had to say. [video clip] let me know. Have portrayed us as shrouded in secrecy. While we understand these ourents are directed at process and not to us as individuals, these con these comments sully the reputations of the men and women who report to our Office Every Day for work or it including, or Occupational Health and safety inspectors who examine the grounds. Including our deputy executive director who trained 500 people in person over the last x weeks and not all at once. But in ones, twos, and tends. Our onlyding alternative dispute resolution counselor who meets with the employees at the beginning of the process to hear their stories, to advise them of their rights, and to comfort them in their distress. The congressrocess designed in 1995. A process that not only demands confidentiality, but strict confidentiality under the law. A system we have been tasked to administer. A process that congress is seeking to change one that we welcome. Many call this a moment of reckoning. We call it a moment of clarity. A clarity with respect to not what we do, that what we do under the correct come under the congressional account ability act. Whereas that you bear in mind that this is a new day. Not just for congress, but throughout the legislative community. Host we covered yesterdays the committee. Several people testifying about what needs to be done on capitol governr the rules that how claims of Sexual Misconduct are made up there. There is legislation pending. They get claims made against them when they want to settle they have to pay out of their own pocket. That is the legislation that is pending before over on the house side. The star tribune out of. Innesota, as al franken from bloomington minnesota, tom. The credit. What do you think about his colleagues saying it was time for him to go and the leadership putting out a statement saying he needed to resign . Caller 202 7488000 thank you for having me. Last time i voted republican it was for reagan. Ive never voted republican again. I think editor franklin senator franken pushed over the line, acted like an idiot, he was a comedy writer after all. So taking stupid sophomore photos goes right with it. But his crimes against these women are his misdemeanors are certainly of no consequence. He should have been allowed to defend himself. That the senator from new york i think she led a witchhunt against him. I know it is a political thing. I realize they had to do it but they have led us to defeat and let us to Hillary Clinton, sadly, who lost to a man named trump. National party doesnt always do what is in the best interest of itself for america. Man deservesery the right to defend himself against allegations of Sexual Misconduct. And i think senator franken should have had the ability to defend himself. It is really a sad day for senator franken and for minnesota. Host what about his argument that he could no longer be effective senator . Heler honestly, i think thought of something to say that was reasonable and perhaps thats true but i really dont think thats true. I think he probably could have had some representation there and manage to come up with some answers about these allegations. Maybe he should have been censured or whatever the kind of punishment is that that is called. To to lose his office, and deny minnesotans to the right to a fine senator. We have two good senators from our state. A woman and a man. Amy klobuchar and senator franken. Now we have to have this nonsense about interims. That is understandable. But it would be much better if we wouldve allowed him to go through it proper due process. Host what you make of the Lieutenant Governor, talks of mark dayton the democratic governor would replace franken with him. Caller thats fine. In our state, the Lieutenant Governor is a figurehead. I dont mean that in a negative way. Its sort of like a press sort of like a Vice President ial Office Without less power and less notoriety. They will put someone in who will vote democratic and moderately. It would be interesting if franken ran again. Host would you vote for him . Caller i would consider yes i would. I would have to look at the allegations. I feel like the Democratic National party is getting involved in minnesota politics. Their judgment has not always been good. Host im going to leave it there. Means they speaking, governor, a democrat, will appoint a successor. A special election will take place in november 2018. The regular election will be in 2020. Smith, his 59yearold governor may be chosen. Although dayton himself said that he has not made a decision. Yesterday, on the senate floor, in a speech by franken, he alluded to his replacement being a female. Aferencing that person as her. Speaking of that talk on the senate floor thats on your screen right now, it is difficult because the senate controls the camera. You cannot see who was on the floor at the time that the senator gave this speech. The Washington Post says it was an emotional scene on the senate floor. More than 20 members of the Democratic Caucus watch temps speak. Senator thurmond castle, missouri removes her glasses twice. In the visitors galley, franklins wife. Husbandg klobuchar, her , and frankens top eight. Held up tissues, others their hands. Franken turned to the 26 aids seated behind him, shaking each of their hands and giving hugs. The final eight he greeted, a woman laughed and cried as they spoke. The minutesear as passed, that no senator would speak in tribute to franken. Only one republican senator came to the floor and that was senator jeff blake. Natalie, a republican. What do you think of these allegations and resignations on capitol hill . Caller thank you for having me. Allegations. There should have been due process. I am a republican, obviously i would not have voted for out franklin out franken. It is scary territory we are going in right now where you can just say an allegation. I am afraid for all the men in this country that they can just be accused and their career is over. No matter what their career is. Its kind of scary. Obviously this is great for women it is not great for women because it will not have men ever want to be alone in a room with a woman. They will be terrified. It will cause a lot of problems. I think the democrats said his sacrificed al franken. I dont know what their plan is, but it will hurt men. Political say the calculation is they can draw a moral line now. They can say that they cleaned house but they cleaned men to. Host theyre saying weve done this and republicans are standing by for more. Caller yes, women should not be raped, but you cannot equate it to an allegation and ruin someones career. Thats where we are right now. His voters should decide not people pressuring him and saying you must go. He looks like a lamb slaughtered giving this speech about trump it is getting out of control. That is my personal belief your i dont know how men feel. I am afraid for men. This is starting to be i have itrd people say if you look is a rape. There are people that believe that. Where will this end . Personally i dont think he should have resigned. Host sandra, democrat. Good morning. Caller good morning. I agree with the former caller. Even though i am a member of the Democratic Party. Al franken has always been a senator that i have been able to believe in and communicate with. Living in south dakota, i lost representation years ago when senator daschle was condemned for failing to declare a car and driver on his asset form. Host that was actually when caller i havent had representation since his he was succeeded in position. Caller nevertheless, i felt it was a minor infraction. Franken, he has been a senator ive been able to speak to an email on Many Political ideas that i have had. Now, i dont have a voice. So, i take this personally. I believe that a man should have had duee should have process. He should have gone before the Ethics Committee and been given a chance to have his circumstance declared there. I will greatly miss him. I am considering not voting anymore because of this. I am very disheartened. Taking the moral high ground when you go up against immoral people, they dont care. Host so what do you think about roy moore the alabama candidate . Caller i think he is totally scary. Host should he step down from running . Caller he should not be in the senate. I think he is a very scary guy. Ive known people like that. Ive lived in arkansas. They are very scary. They intimidate young girls. Hes a pedophile. He should not be in the senate. Host and cory gardner who heads up the National Republican Senate Committee says they will never endorse roy moore. Even as donald trump and rnc move to support him. Sc. Group the nrs [video clip] last month you called on roy moore to drop out of the race and alabama. Given that he hasnt, are you comfortable leaving that to the alabama people. Know my position has not changed. I think he should drop out. Just because the polling has changed doesnt change my opinion on the matter. I stand by what i say before. Host speaker of the house there. By the way the president traveling to pensacola. Which is right near the border of alabama. Theirl be holding a rally and you can watch it this evening at 8 00 p. M. Eastern time. You can get that downloaded to your phone and listened and there. Issue1. Org puts the cost of the race to exceed 30 million. 40 million is the combined amount that all the candidates have invested in this special election. Orgeone 5. 3 million is the amount raised by roy moore. He has raised 2 million since october 1. Also, this is a story in the l. A. Times that went viral yesterday by a formal a former obama staffer. In alabama, many think hes backing the wrong candidate. The story that went viral is about comments that he made at a rally that he had recently leading up to the election on december 12. One of the only africanamericans asked a question. More roy moore said he thought that the country was great even during the time of slavery. Made racial comments. Gloria, a democrat. Caller good morning. Thank you for cspan. We get so much i think the press has done a worthy job let me just say that. Continuing to do what we depend on you to do. In spite of pressure from above. I think you report everybody evenly. This blind lady appreciates that. I called in to express my pride in my fellow democrats because talleroint do they stand when they are willing to admit their faults and take responsibility. Comparede as a light to the republicans who deserve a front row seat in the hall of shame. First of all, for enabling us to have someone in the white house who is unfit when they could have prevented the problems they didnt. Now they are running full throated after someone the shame that is going on in alabama. I dont think its going to end here. We need a new system. We need to drain the cesspool and reconstruct something that really works for the people. Even though this is difficult, i hunt every democrat who could take the responsibility. God bless you, if you get the help you need and move on and a better fashion. You are certainly better than a republican who will support a president and and alabama candidate who are pedophiles. Willy in virginia, republican. Caller good morning. Look. Let me just say this. Im 91, will be 92 months. By will be 92 years old. This is a mess. This is mass punishment. What happened to our laws . I lived through some stuff in my day and i will so you this. I want to talk only about al franken. Im a republican. I think those democrats sacrificed him. Nancy pelosi first of all she should have stayed in the background. She should have just let this happen and didnt say anything with connors. Then al franken came along and i will tell you, there is a stark difference between somebody touching you or Something Like this, and youve got this child molester down there that has been known to do this. This is my point. I wont say long. I know on kind of slow. Work with me. Look. Come up for someone to and say all right this happen to me. Ive got relatives that have come back for 40 or 50 years and say how they have been raped or abused. What are they supposed to do now . Come up and tell them that they did this . Those individuals that knew that this woman 30 years ago there were 30 people that said they could attest to this. Why did they Say Something 30 years ago . You let this woman go on knowing that this happened in our society. I just want to tell you. Weve got to have due process. Host willys thoughts there in virginia. A quick rundown of the other headlines from capitol hill yesterday. Shutdown is afforded for now. The fight is not over. Party leaders including democrats sat down with president yesterday. They agreed to a shortterm measure to keep the government running until the end of this month. 35 ssed to a longerterm deal needs to be worked out. Talk about that coming up on the washington journal. Yesterday on the capitol hill, Christopher Wray testified. Fbi director rebuffed questions here hee Clinton Probe also responded to a president ial tweet. We covered that hearing, if you missed it go to cspan. Org. You can find it there. It burns and it keeps burning in the california hills. 200,000 people flee as new fires breakout, closing highways. Fires in sank new diego county. 200,000 people were forced to evacuate. Freeway had closures. Also several secondary highways. On wednesday, it had been portions of the 405. It sent long lines of traffic onto surface streets. You can see video there of the fires earning in california. Also, this from the front page of the wall street journal. Remembering pearl harbor. 76 years after the japanese attack, a somber ceremony took place around the country. Including at the white house where the president had some veterans of world war ii there. You can go to our website and watch the event from the white house yesterday. Lets go to stuart, in virginia. Independent. Usa do you think about todays headline . Caller good morning. I just wanted to say this. I think this is a slippery slope. Let me qualify that. For franken orct the gentleman in alabama, but thats not the point. A dual it ought to be standard. Anyone that is currently serving an office and commits a crime like this, yes they should be brought up in front of the committee and forced to resign. Anyone that did these things prior to then its up to the people of their state do they really want someone like that representing them . If they get in office and they run a clean ship and do nothing unless youre in office, i dont think you should resign . I dont think franken should have resign. I dont respect the man, but if he did these things prior to, then that is something different. Thats up to the people of minnesota. Host but if you dont respect him, how is he supposed to be an effective senator if his colleagues didnt respect him . Caller his vote. He is just a much of a vote as anybody else. You follow what i mean . He is one vote. The thing of it is, it is much like two wolves and a lamb having a vote to see what theyre going for dinner. It seems like they will turn on each other in a second if they see a political gain in the end. I agree with what you said earlier. Theyre going to say we cleaned our house and now its time for you to do the same thing. Host that is the argument youre making. Speaking of the alabama special election takes place on december 12. What would it take for a democrat to win alabama . Underperformed as a statewide candidate. Below that, the democrat would have to turn out voters in droves from predominantly black voters. Also Trump Supporters would have to stay home. Reports somen post trump voters may even crossover to vote democrat. More andembarrassed by they will vote for doug jones if they vote at all. That, from the Washington Post this morning. Brad, west virginia, democrat. Caller good morning. Host go ahead sir, what are your thoughts on whats happening in capitol hill . Caller i feel franken should not have resigned. I think it was all political. I think schumer just jumped on boat. And al roy moore franken, that is not even the same all game. One is a predator, the other is a comedian. Politicians take these pictures with people and they hug up and Everything Else. Franken, everything he has done was harmless. He wasnt sneaking around in the middle of the night chasen after people chasing after people. You cant play this the same way. Ive been a professional and i have worked with people. Ive worked in situations where there was no fraternizing and you werent supposed to and ive worked in other situations were people dated each other that worked at the same place. Ive seen it all. If im a man and i have advances toward a woman and she tells me know, then i stop. But theres a lot of times when you have advances and they want you to do that. They come, they look pretty, they want attention. Ive had just as many women where i didnt give them attention and they got upset at that. Host all right, brad there and west virginia. Were going to take a short break and turn our attention to lawmakers averting a Government Shutdown. We will talk with a with politicals sarah faris. Ae deal that was made to pass shortterm spending bill. We will be right back. Sunday night on afterward. Khan. Ar father he is interviewed by california congressman jimmy panetta. [video clip] this is a common trait. The audience can draw the conclusion. One is they dont like free press. Free press in assizes them. The second thing is rule of law. They do not like judges, they do not like rule of law. Such at had given me perspective of not having any Civil Liberties to having all of these dignities. As we speak further, all caps tell you what i will tell you what a moment it was when i went to take the oath of citizenship. It means so very much. The hopefulness and dignities that are enshrined in our constitution and our bill of rights. Watch afterward sunday night. Tonight on cspan, at 8 00 eastern, this weeks supreme Masterpiece Cake shop. Then at 9 30 p. M. , an interview with counselor to the president Kellyanne Conway. You have to the greater good. Im not here to read about myself, or think about myself. Im here for something so much bigger than me. That is a lesson a lot of folks dont understand. Saidalsos ive often there were only two people who work here who were elected to anything. Andr names are donald trump michael pence. If youre not on the list, you are to get with the program or get out. Watch tonight. Washington journal continues. Host at our table is sarah faris. Senatese passed it, the followed suit. What exactly is in this measure . This is a minimal, clean spending bill. Theres a small, technical fix for chip. Justy much, this is kicking the can down the road until december 22. Host and then what, why . Guest they dont have a spending agreement yet. They have not agreed on how much to actually spend. Big,ey cannot write the catchall year and spending bill until we get those numbers. This gives two additional weeks so that we can try and iron out negotiations on the hill. We can try and come up with that spending. Host lets focus on the house. On the house side, republicans all on board for this measure yesterday. Democrats, all opposed it. What are republicans what are the different factions they support of yesterday but will they support a longer deal . Guest this is the first time we will this is the only time we will see republicans although for the same bill. It was overlooked by the same overlooked by the fact that the shutdown was averted. Republicans have not been able to pass the spending bills without help from the democrats. Here we had a full week of wrangling with paul ryan and his deputies trying to get republicans on board with this spending bill so they wouldnt have to go to Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to try to come up with a deal. We did see all the conservatives in the house, and the fiscal conservatives, and even some immigration hardliners who said we cannot support something for the dreamers. We had all these different demands and somehow, paul ryan able to get everyone on the same board. They did not have to go to nancy pelosi on this. Host longerterm, what are republicans what do they want . You have those that want to see an increase in military spending , but those worried about the deficit. Guest there are a lot of dueling demands here. Some of the conservatives are on board with an increase in the military. Even the Freedom Caucus has said they would support a major increase. This is not something they done in the past. The big difference, President Trump. They are infrequent trump they are in frequent, contact with trump. Something that will be a major issue going ahead of the 22nd. Theyre nervous about punting major spending decisions into january because they say that undermines certainty for the panel con. 22nd, it would put a wrinkle in negotiations. It would punt all the decisions on domestic spending until january, but defense would be settled this month. Its not going to happen. Theres no way the senate would consider this. It is something the defense hawks have been pushing for. Host we will hear from the chairman of the Freedom Caucus. Mark meadows will be talking here in washington dc at 12 00 eastern time. You can tune into that at cspan2. Or download this free radio app. Perhaps, if hes asked or delivers remarks about these negotiations. Is it is it the Freedom Caucus folks who will not agree to military spending without touching domestics ending . Guest thats right. House conservatives are feeling empowered after they just took the boat yesterday were they didnt need to rely on any democrats. They feel they have the majority in congress, a Republican Congress a republican president. They want their demands. Every day they have a new goal post. Everyday there asking for something new. Theyre putting speaker ryan in a tough spot. This will be one of his big tests. Every time theres a major leader ship decision. President e first time trump is influencing a spending bill. This is going to be a highstakes moment for the house lookedough we have just down the road and no the Senate Democrats are going to have more leverage in this then they will need democrats to pass this in the senate. We will see the house conservatives get rolled on this. Speaker of the house needs to go to the democrats, right . What do they want in return . Guest they have a long list of demands. Now isgest demands right immigration protection for the socalled dreamers. They want resolution for deferred action for childhood arrivals program. Republicans also one in agreement on this. There is bipartisan conversations happening behind the scenes. Holdingt want to be the spending bill hostage on immigration. They know it is a tricky issue. Theyre trying to keep it separate. Democrats are also looking for what is parity between defense and domestic spending. They want to say if the pentagon is going to get a major increase in spending, they want to make sure domestic programs are getting in equal increase. That is controversial on the hill. Willing to go that far for domestic spending. The pentagon they say needs to have a much larger increase in domestic programs. Host we will have to see what happens in the house. The question is what can pass in the senate . Where does it send where does it stand then . Guest we will see them likely oppose whatever comes out of these big for negotiations. The five of them met yesterday in the white house and they all walked out of it saying it was a good meeting, but that no deal had been reached. A couple numbers were talked around that the democrats didnt like. Still tryingns are to propose levels for higher defense spending. Democrats are still drawing a line saying we want parity. We want equal increases. We will have to see where democrats are willing to compromise on that issue. It does seem difficult to think they will get precise parity. Were probably going to see bigger increases in the next week or so when we see these negotiations unfold. Host sarah faris here to take your questions about spending negotiations. Jane, independent. Europe first. Caller good morning. As a taxpayer, i am concerned about the earmarks going into this legislation, both with democrats and republicans. Our country is at war and we have men and women serving around the globe. They should be priority one. I understand, why is it at the end of the year when everyone is ready to head out for christmas, the country is held hostage . Thank you for taking my call. Of havings scenario these lastminute deals right before christmas is exactly why conservatives who were opposed to the spending bill it only goes to december 22. This is a deadline that was picked strategically. The leadership in the house and senate know that putting a deadline thats very hard to miss is going to be a big way to get actually these negotiations finished up on time. No one wants to be no one in the house wants to be the member holding up christmas for the hundreds of other members in congress. This is something conservative said we want to put these into january, give ourselves extra leeway, we dont want to see these kind of tricky negotiations on hundreds of policy issues that are going to be decided in the next couple of weeks, that we will not fully grasp into the coming weeks and months. We havent seen these Appropriations Bills other than what the house has written here and these partisan documents. The bipartisan decisions coming out are going to beat we will be poring over them for weeks. Host in nebraska, republican. Hope they doe something with the military and if they dont, if they shut the government down because they get get the money that they need after all these aircraft are the pilots are refusing to fly. We know we have problems with the osprey party. We are problems with training. We have people playing games with money. I know that this lady here is happier than a pig in poop because the democrats might win and then not get the money for the military. Take your rear end out there and go in the military and see how you like it. Sarah faris is a reporter for politico here and i dont think she has expressed any inpiness toward democrats their negotiations. But if the military does not see an increase, what will their funding level be at . Guest fiscal 2018 is the first year that sequestration would go into effect. If they cant reach an agreement, it would be a cut to defense. Several Million Dollars below what is right now. That is almost certainly not going to happen. Increase ine an defense funding going forward. Everyone on the hill, even some deficit hawks had said this is a priority. President trump has made this a priority. There is no question that there will not be an increase. The question of course is what exactly will democrats agree to when it agrees to lifting those domestic levels as well. Guest we want host we want to get your questions and comments. Republicans, guest 202 748801 democrats, 202 7488000 independence, 202 7488002 caller i just want to talk about al franken. I think it was a great thing to do. Leave thatoing to there because weve got onto spending and the budget process of on capitol hill. We will return to this week in congress so you will are you are welcome to share your thoughts about that coming up here. We will spend from 8 00 to 10 00 talking about that. Dennis, democrat. Caller hello good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I would just like to comment about some of these republicans that and make comments like the fellow that just called and said you should get your but out and military. Join the these people are simply over the top. I dont think they understand that paul ryan has already announced that they panned to andck Social Security medicare and medicaid next year. , thatpeople that call in was an older fellow. I am retired. The that was an older fellow. These republicans hate Social Security, medicare, the Affordable Care act, and if they were to get their way, they would destroy those programs. Host i will leave it there. Few is a call we got from a viewers last week. The were saying republicans are doing this so that they can then turn and make cuts to the Social Security and medicare. Guest politically, it does look really bad for republicans as they finish up their tax push. There are several tax several Top Republicans eyeing welfare reform. They have been looking to cut her they want to cut with, cut wic, maybe adding work requirements to some of these programs. This is a priority they have had for a long time. This is not something they plan to use to pay for their tax plan. Politically, having these two orities one after another welfare reform will be a big part of what we hear about in 2018. This is going to be really having this at the central focus through 2018. Politicallyo look really bad for republicans right ahead of the 2018 election year. In, whyis fewer tweets did the democrats go along on stopping the shutdown. Democrats have been for many years the party of averting a shutdown. Democrats say they are never the ones who want to hold negotiations hostage. They have said this for a long time. For the last week we have seen a delicate dance of democrat leaders try and say these are our priorities, we want to fix for daca, but at the same time they have set will not shut the government down. Yesterday in the house, 14 democrats did support this bill in the house even though nancy pelosi and her leadership had been whipping against this. They wanted to watch republicans squirm on the floor. The senate, we only had there was only about a dozen democrats who did not vote for this. By and large Senate Democrats that we have no reason to vote against this. There is nothing in this clean cr that we dont like. It was an interesting dynamic to watch so Many Democrats in the house not vote for it because they said they werent part of negotiations. In the senate, the democrats are feeling good about where negotiations are going. They will have a lot of leverage going into december 22. Democrats vote for this because they said they have no reason not to. Nancylets listen to pelosi. This is before she went to the white house. Before the house passed the shortterm bill. Talking about the longerterm negotiations and what democrats want. [video clip] are you backing off your stance last month where you set we will not leave here in december without a daca fix . No. I stand by that statement. We will not leave here without a doctor fix. To questions. Back on daca. Have you changed your mind at all about being willing tos except border wall funding . When you say have you changed your mind we said to the president when he he agreed to the daca legislation that we understood we have a responsibility to protect our border. There are many things we can do working together to do that. Members have been working in a bipartisan way to address that. So, we are not backing off anything. Including meeting the needs of protecting our border. We are not going to turn this country into a reign of terror and haveic enforcement the dreamers pay that price. Host what did you make of her comments there . Guest if you listen to the full press conference, she is saying daca is going to be a priority. She does not want to leave before the end of the year without a commitment on this. Interesting she did not say it needed to be in the spending bill. She was asked later, will you be demand thing a fix in the spending bill . She did not say i will start a shutdown over this. Say we do nots want to be the shutdown party. They blame democrats for any talk about a shutdown. What we are seeing here she is agreeing with republicans that there could be a separate text outside of the appropriations process. This is something conservative republican said has to happen. She is trying to stand strong on this while acknowledging that there is no ince probably no place the next than a bill process. Host david in maryland, a democrat. Caller hi. My question is, with all the problems going on in our country with north korea, the embassy being moved, the government thatown, it seems to me democrats and republicans are at war with each other when we should be worried about Everything Else that is going on in the world. That is my question. Why are the democrats and the republicans at least fighting with each other, when they should be working together . Host that question would take a long time to answer. I dont think theres anything that has changed that much in the last couple of years. I dont know that we expected them to suddenly have a kumbaya moment. At the end of the day, these negotiations are going to get finalized. They will avert a Government Shutdown. Each party is going to walk away with some wins on this. Good morning. Thank you cspan for taking my call. I wanted to say the government watching ve been i guess ill just be watching washington journal on the 22nd. Host we will be here. Caller other than that. I love watching cspan and washington journal is a excellent show. I love hearing the regional accents and tones. There are so many different opinions and emotions. Everybody, just please try to stay calm and get along. To radical idea, im going estimate that 300 golf courses in the u. S. , maybe we should turn some into farms, academies, and december 22, do you expect lawmakers will still be here . Guest they are trying to get out a little bit early. You talk to reporters on the hill, and staffers. They have flights on the 20th, the 21st, the 22nd. There will be a lot of pressure to try to get done earlier. Members are usually home with their families by this time. Having a 22nd deadline, there were groans on the floor when they announced the schedule change yesterday. The question is, how soon can they get their tax push done . Republicans are hoping to initiate this conference committee. Done byt to get those the 17th or 18th, that leaves just a couple of days to get negotiations done. Theiraid, members said leadership can walk and chew gum at the same time. See if the tax push takes longer than it expected. If earlier than expected we could see a deal before the 22nd. Host those are two big items. Anything else on the must do list . Guest there is a very long list of programs that expire in december or before that. The Childrens Health insurance program, that is going to run out of funding very soon. There are already states who are warning their beneficiaries to that there might have a funding this is a serious issue. We have some surveillance powers, fisa, that will be tacked on to negotiations. Theres a whole list of issues that congress has been punting, including flood insurance. That has come up into a larger focus with the many hurricanes. There are a lot of issues where congress is going to want to extend these deadlines again. We will see an omnibus in january. There is no way to finish writing a whole spending bill by the 22nd. On that day, we will see another continuing resolution. There punting again to january. On the 22nd, a couple of these must pass bills will be attached. They will not want to leave chip not funded. Host caller Merry Christmas to you and to your guest. Lets picture for a moment a government in the senate and the house that has nothing but centrists running it instead of people that are too hung up on satisfying their base. I think its amazing what the end result might turn out to be in that regard. You would have people saying lets look at everything in a fair manner and do whats best for everybody. Wouldnt that be wonderful question mark this is a pie in the sky dream. Lets get as close to that as we can, thank you and Merry Christmas. There are a few centrists in the house and senate. They are the ones who are the last votes to be gotten during these negotiations. There is a mix of factions within the democratic and republican parties and the leadership is under pressure to really at least be taking into account their demands from all corners of the party. Host to keep following this debate, you can follow sarah ferris on politico. Com. Thank you for your time. Short break and when we come back, we will spend the next two hours of todays program getting your thoughts on congress this week. Of course, the allegations of Sexual Misconduct are on the table. There is the debate over tax reform and spending as well as other issues that are being debated. We will get to your thoughts on that coming up. There are the phone lines on your screen. We will be right back. Sunday at 7 p. M. Eastern on book tv on cspan2, former Senior Adviser to secretary of state Rex Tillerson discusses his book. Content is king, distribution is queen and she wears the pants in the family. If you think about that, the way i like to think about isis and others is we are in a content wharf. At 8 00, former and this mer and this former and former msnbc anchor. Everybody can get together and ever but he can join together and do incredible things. There are stories in the book about what others have done that social media. Social media is not really new. All thats new is these delivery platforms. Think about it, Smoke Signals was social media. Line, the telephone line, thats social media. Everybody in the block will get on the phone. Whats different is that rything is apple five and is amplified in terms of how far you region the speed of the comedic asian. For the full schedule, go to book tv. Org. By the time i came back to the district or shortly thereafter, both of my uncles were sent to prison. They were convicted, one of them was convicted of Sexual Assault on the other on robbery. For the part of my childhood i can remember, it was my mother, her two sisters, my grandmother and my cousins. In the house on 13th street. A, theday night on q associate talks about growing up in washington, d. C. At her time as a clerk for Supreme Court Justice Sonia sotomayor. Its really strong if youre a final candidate come you into a great school, you had some pretty impressive people willing to speak up you in the form of recommendation letters. One of the judges routinely feeds applicants to the court. If you can get into the pool, there are so many obstacles. Becomes a real problem. I think it hurts because the perception of a diverse law clerk is important. I sawys felt like something but because of my life experience, someone else will get it. Sunday night at 8 00 eastern on cspan. Washington journal continues. Host we want to know your thoughts on all the news out of capitol hill this week so start dialing in with your thoughts. We will begin with yesterday when the current fbi director was testifying before the House Judiciary Committee. The headline in the Washington Post, this is what mr. Ray had to say when he was asked about the president s most recent tweet saying the fbi reputation is in tatters. Question is, the president s tirade ended with one final tweet where he says europe you tatian is in tatters. Its up there. We have heard other veterans of the fbi and the Department Just as push back against this attack on the reputation of the fbi. With we havent heard from you but with the time i have left, would you respond to this tweet by the president . Is the fbi reputation in tatters . May i have time to answer this question because it matters. Congressman, there is no shortage of opinions out there. I can tell you that the fbi that ofee is tens of thousands agents and analysts and staff working their tails off to keep americans safe from the next terrorist attack, gang violence, child predators, spies from russia, china, north area and iran. The fbi that i see is tens of thousands of brave men and women who are working at heart is as hard as they can to keep people they will never know say from harm and the fbi that i see is reflected in folks like the new class of agents i swore in at quantico two days ago, hardcharging, High Integrity people. People like the Hostage Rescue Team and swat teams we send out into all sorts of danger with almost no notice. The fbi that i see is people, decent people, committed to the highest principles of integrity and professionalism and respect. Is respectedi see and appreciated by our partners in federal, state, and local Law Enforcement, in the intelligence community, by our foreign counterparts, both Law Enforcement and National Security in Something Like 200 countries around the globe. That is the fbi that i see. Do we make mistakes . Maket you bet we mistakes like every human and when we make mistakes, there are like thatt processes of the outside independent Inspector General that will drive deep into the facts surrounding those mistakes and when that independent factfinding is complete, we will hold our folks accountable if thats appropriate. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2017] you can watch host you can watch the hearing if you go to www. Cspan. Org and we will show you more of that on this program this morning and talk about what happened on capitol hill this week. Pages of theront newspapers around the country courtesy of the newseum in washington. Franken resigns, an outcast in d. C. He says its been worth it, defending his record with no apologies. Congressman franks says he will be stepping down on january 31 due to a conversation about cirque is a. He met with paul ryan with his conversation about surrogacy. And theith paul ryan speaker said he would have the Ethics Committee look into the allegations. Franks has decided that instead of having that investigation looming and the media attention, that he would be stepping down. You also have the arkansas democrat with the headline that we were just discussing, shut down off as Congress Oks Stopgap measures. Maryland,umbia, democrat, what do you think . Concerned withy all the fires going on literally and politically. There are so many things we are not discussing and one thing i am concerned about for the thate of america is a bill virginia foxx, the republican in North Carolina is proposing which calls which is called the provision act which would eliminate the Student Forgiveness Loan Program which was started in 2007 under president bush to encourage Public Service. This would eliminate the ability for these kids who have been paying off their loans for 10 ands, doing Public Service are not getting the money they could be getting and that would be forgiven after 10 years their loans. And she wants to eliminate that. That would put kids were thinking about going into college or thinking of going into grad school and giving them a second look. Person hope that every would be calling their representative and fighting for this issue. Host are you involved in Higher Education . Caller my son is one of those kids who worked hard and went to grad school and became a lawyer and is working in Public Service. Hass a smart kid who planned out his life, waiting for the 10 years and paying off those loans and expecting to have that elimination. So are many of his friends and kids went and kids he went to school with. Host will go to linda in williamsburg, virginia, independent. Caller yes, i am calling about the budget for the military. What i understand is the marine corps, the aviators, have to borrow, go to the cemetery of older planes and take different out off needed things these old plans for their planes to fly. We see time and time again avoided. Hat could be i cannot see us cutting the military budget at this time especially when the navy has had so many problems, seemingly training problems so that our ships are safer. Host a reminder to you and others, turned on your television, just listen through your phone. A couple of tweets on the budget negotiations carol in boulder, colorado, a democrat. Caller how are you . I am really upset with the democrats right now. I am a lifelong democrat. I think Kirsten Gillibrand and some of the women senators have been reacting shrill and emotional and they are not doing our party any favors. And goould chill out through the ethics process. Im just really upset. Host why do you think that . Began,rsten gillibrand when she opened up the floodgates, some say, she says enough is enough when the eighth one came out and said senator had sexually harassed her, she said enough is enough and she tweeted it and you had other female senators follow her in their own tweets saying he needed to resign. People have said that we need to come up with some type of protocols. This is a far cry from what roy moore is supposed to have done in alabama and what our own president has admitted to on to a. On tape. There needs to be a level of appropriateness. Host lets read a little bit from the bruce marcus column in the washington nick in sarasota florida, whats on your mind about congress question mark caller a couple of things. On the franken resignation, i dont really care about the democrat or republican as an independent. I am for trump and always will be because hes more of an outsider. Going on ifot be franken was the 51st senator in power. Fbi, ray looks like he needs to be fired, too. Of hisour coverage hearing yesterday. This stuff has got to be cleaned up. Youve got people at the top, the fbi rank and file im sure are great people and doing their job, but people have to remember, this is not an ideological struggle between republicans and democrats. This is the establishment against the American People and they are trying to railroad the president with obama holdovers. This has to stop. I will wait and see what the doj report recommends and it better be something strong. Igt you mean what the recommends about how the former fbi director james comey conducted himself . Caller well all of them, him, thisto lynch, eric holder, bruce or, all of these people. To theick referred former fbi agent who was on the Mueller Investigation. He was reassigned because of antitrump tweets. This is the headline in the washington listen to fbi director ray when he was asked about peter stroke. [video clip] director, im sure youre aware of the recent media mentioning peter stroke was a special fbi agent changed the words grossly negligent to extremely careless in former director james comeys statement closing the clinton investigation. Are you aware of that . I have heard some of the information you have. Know, by chance, what the criminal intent standard is under the espionage act . 18usc 1875 f. I havent studied it but i believe its gross negligence. Thats right, would be accurate to say that a senior fbi official changed the wording of the directors statement to ensure that secretary clinton was not liable under the espionage act . Mr. Chairman, as you may know, the handling of the investigation into secretary clinton is currently the subject of an outside, independent investigation by the Inspector General and i figured would not be appropriate for me to speculate about what the Inspector General will or will not find. That is probably appropriate its not an appropriate to ask you to try a legal conclusion about a standard in the law. That was changed in a statement that your predecessor put out as a justification for closing the investigation of the former secretary of state. I said, i believe the standard is gross negligence. To others to conclude whether extremely careless and gross negligence are the same thing. The particulars of the investigation and the decisions that were made as to whether or not it was handled appropriately is, as i think it should be, the subject of an outside, independent investigation by the Inspector General. I look forward to his findings as im sure the committee does as well. Host that was fbi director Christopher Wray on capitol hill yesterday and we cover that hearings ago two www. Cspan. Org where you can watch that hearing. It lasted a little over five hours where the members of the House Judiciary Committee peppered the fbi director with questions about the Mueller Investigation as well as the investigation into Hillary Clintons emails. The president tweeted this morning, big crowd expected today in pensacola, florida or a make America Great again speech. We have done so much in so short a. Of time but are planning to do so much more. The president will be there at 8 00 p. M. This evening eastern time. You can watch it on cspan two ifwww. Cspan. Org and listen youre not near a screen free on the cspan radio app. Pensacola is right outside of alabama. Yemen is nbc website has this headline pensacola shares a media market with voters in alabamas about taking place this evening at 8 00 p. M. Eastern time. Charlotte, North Carolina, republican, hi there. Caller good morning. I have a couple of comments. Its amazing how far we have ,ome with reporters reporting we went through gary hart and then john edwards were the National Enquirer had to break the story. These allegations were fairly well in ignore it in their campaigns and here we are today, its amazing to me. The other interesting thing about this is it has filtered down to the state houses. Boston, it has taken up the boston globe for a number of days but the president of the senate, rosenberg who i think is in his late 60s is married to a young man in his 30s. The young man has been accused of brokering deals on behalf of his husband and sexually harassing a number of people. He has temporarily been suspended from being president of the senate. I think thats another sort of shockwave at the statehouses across the country. Host thats charles in North Carolina looking at the front pages of the boston globe. Former state senator brian joyce indicted on federal charges. In Foreign Policy news, the Washington Post, palestinian israeli troops clash over u. S. Stance. The region braces for more violence after President Trumps decision under islam. Its the reverse of a decadesold u. S. Policy naming the status of jerusalem as the official capital, recognizing it as the official capital of israel is a deeply charged issue. There is a protester engulfed in flames. This headline is from the arkansas democrat gazette. You have this please also in the wall street journal, christians pushed the israeli shift. Evanston, illinois, democrat, thanks for waiting, what you think of whats happening in congress this week . I can chime in on trumps Foreign Policy issues. All, im a member of movement after suffering Sexual Harassment at my workplace in the 90s. Its a real shame that al franken was supposed to resign. I think he was doing for women, just doing a terrific job. Just his interview with neil gorsuch as he was being interviewed for the Supreme Court, it was stunning. He has a very sharp mind. After what i have read, i tend to feel he may have been set up or at the very least, used as an example. Trump whoresident apparently is teflon and roy myself, why not go after these guys first . Apparently because while the republicans are in power, they are untouchable. This is what my husband tells me. I just dont get it. Al franken was willing to go through a full ethics review. Resign, he was pushed to. He fell on his sword. Nobody says anything about an ethics review for President Trump who has admitted on tape. Thats what i wanted to say about that. Host raymond in clinton, pennsylvania, independent. Caller good morning, a quick comment about Christopher Wray testifying about how good the fbi was. If you recall and i think you had a program on this, when the boston bombers killed a bunch of people, the russian government told the government, obamas government at the time and i believe james comey was the fbi director and said you better keep an eye on the older brother. He was training in chechnya and he let off those bombs. I dont know whether they let it but they were already told to watch this guy. They could have been on him. If the fbi to such a great job, why were those People Killed up there . This leads into the thing about hillebrand. She is the last person to open her mouth about Sexual Harassment. She endorsed the clintons. Bill clinton is the king, the absolute king but the democrats dont like it brought up anymore because he was a past president. He was the king of going after these women and was caught lying by a grand jury. She is the last one pointing fingers and she should be going after the clintons first. He was in peach and democrats should have gone along with republicans to impeach him because he lied. This is the problem in her government today. I dont like either side but i hate hypocrites. Hypocrites talk out of both sides of their mouth. Like this last caller. Heard Kirsten Gillibrand say in recent weeks that she said that bill clinton should have resigned when that happened . Has her seat,she after she has her seat and she wants to get on the democratic nomination for president , yes, she is now saying that. She did not say a fan. That makes her a hypocrite. If it was wrong then if its wrong now, it was wrong then. She should have been coming out at the time and not taking their endorsements just to make the senate. Thats what she was after. Then she that makes her a hypocrite if she should be the last one who should come out host got your point. You might be interested in the careico profile piece on scintilla brand. Cspan watchers will know that she sits on the Armed Services committee and has talked a lot about and put of a lot of attention on Sexual Assault in the military and in this piece, that thet they note clintons endorsed her when she ran for Hillary Clintons senate speech. She replaced her there. And bill clinton campaigned with her as well. They note that in this piece if you want to go to politico. Com. Lets go to terry in canton, North Carolina, republican. Caller good morning, cspan, thanks for taking my call. Seen that the doj has reopened an investigation into planned parenthood for their sale of fetal maternal materials, baby parts. Democrats, save me your false morality. Ive got a question for you. Think we woman, do you should take the words of all women as being true . Let me give you two examples. Arris. Nthony and jodie is an think Casey Anthony ascent from not murdering her daughter on her word . Host why do you ask . What you think as a woman, why would you ask a woman whether or not we believe all women question caller because this is the democrat drumming point that all women should be believed. Roy moore had accusations from 40 years ago from women that we dont know whether they are chore not. We dont know whether it should come out or not come out. Im saying that women lie also. Alabama, alabama is in the bible belt. It was said perfectly on your show the other day that roy moore has been a Kitchen Table ol in alabama households for over 20 years. Host and evangelicals. Sorry, 40 years ago, if there was a guy running for District Attorney that was after little girls . Every woman in every church would have had him sent out of the state. This stuff comes up one month right before an election. Just like the excess Hollywood Tape popped up right before the election. They did the same thing to herman cain. Host do you believe the accuses of al franken question . Caller i take that to be due process. The only one i believe is the girl with the picture. Franken should be given due process, i believe. I think an investigation. I dont think he should be drummed out of office because somebody wants to take a political advantage in washington and say that im all for women and the other guys, not only do they hate women but they hate blacks, they hate the poor, they hate everybody unless they are white people. Host take a look at the breakdown of adult voters in alabama. This is according to pew research. Evangelical protestants make up 49 of alabama voters. Mainline protestants, 13, historically black protestants 60 and catholics 7 . Voters in the state of alabama. Charles and arthur deal, west virginia, democrat. Caller hello . Good morning, im glad to be on. Want to talk about congress. Isfeelings about congress the republicans have never one on an election because of the electoral college. They dont win the popular vote. Sarah Huckabee Sanders gone tv this morning and said trump won the election and the American People have spoken. That is true. She is right. There were over 3 Million People voted against trump. Trump and the administration cannot use that as the American People wanted him to be president. Just like the person before who was on the phone, he said women lie the same as men do. Had many that i have occasions where a woman has hit me on the but and i have never said anything. It did not matter to me. Stuff like that that some of these women are coming up with is wrong. I believe some of the women and i dont believe some of them but i believe that if a person like the oned roy moore and from texas, they should resign, too. The republicans have never worked with the democrats ever made president. They were against him all the way through. All you have to do is listen to mitch mcconnell. Other thingsmany going on the people dont know about. And clinton, michigan, a republican, whats on your mind . Caller good morning. So many things in a few minutes. Listen tolls back, i you almost every day but its getting sickening because when the democrats call in, they are like parrots and repeat everything they hear from the other networks. Hypocrites like a couple of other people mentioned. What really gets to me is that roy moore, like this guy said 40 years ago, there is a venue on a video on youtube of the. Oman who accused him the stepson poured out his heart for about 20 minutes saying how he does not believe her and nobody in the family believe this woman. It goes on and on. Bill clinton was impeached or whatever happened there because of him lying. When obama was in office, he lied like 1820 times. If you like your insurance, you can keep it and he repeated it over and over. Takes theinton always fifth. They never answer any questions. They get away with murder, literally. I just dont understand what all the democrats dont actually take the time to hear the other view and they just continually repeat what they hear from morning joe or a bunch of pinheads, if u. S. Me. More of your corals are coming up. This week in congress, what are your thoughts about the Sexual Assault allegations, the resignations we have seen but also public policy, tax reform, the push to craft a longerterm deal on spending for fiscal year 2018. Lawmakers and the president were able to avoid a Government Shutdown and they approved the two week extension the bring them up to christmas but they still have to come up with a longerterm deal for spending levels. What are your thoughts on all about this morning . We will get to more of your phone calls coming up at first, i want to show you an interview that steve scully did with white house counselor Kellyanne Conway to talk about her position at the white house and her transition to the trump administration. [video clip] who is getting it right . Where do you go for information . What do you read if you want to get a sense of whats happening in this town . Its regrettable that so much of the country is curating information only to reinforce their on point of view. It seems to me that much of our programming is geared that way. Cspan is not geared that way but much of our programs have become curated to appease the audience that already exist. Ron can see that with the chy that exists and the screaming headlines. Its flatly false, its just not true. To the source, it will say somebody familiar with the white house or somebody close to the white house and i guess they mean the coffee shop across the street. I dont know. I think thats regrettable that people with more information sources, the less people become reliant on information sources. About this written for years. It did not happen overnight. Now that there is information overload, i think Many Americans now suffer from information under load on the primary issues of the day. The media will cover whether tax reform will pass before they will tell you whats actually in the bill. Its easier. Its a cheap and easy way to cover the story. They want to tell you whos up and news down in the white house rather than the stock park might the stock market or the Unemployment Rate which really affects their lives. Where people stand on the issues and this president has an awful lot to do with where they are sitting. and the belief they already brought there. Electionke the 2016 was a major Inflection Point and a major embarrassing episode for. Any people in the media none of them lost their jobs. There is this unspoken cover for each other that if everybody was wrong but nobody lost their job, they sort of skated through so they will keep covering this man as president like they covered him as candidate and us too bad because there are a few outlets and some really great white house reporters, particularly in print, who take the time to ask the questions and dont fall into what i refer to as the culture of sameness. There is a real shame in being the same. Everybody is running same story and everybody has the same headline and everyone is reading every single broadcast ad nausea. M. The same pundits with the same screaming headlines. Its incomplete coverage. You are missing so many Great Stories that could be told. I think the first and foremost responsibility of the media which i always augur for a free and fair media, weve got responsibilities with that role. Brings af the press great responsibility to get the full story, not just part of it. The first responsibility of the press is to connect america with information. You dont only have to be cynical. For every story thats been covered about individuals or palace intrigue, they are missing the opportunity to tell america what is happening and how it affects them. Kellyanne conway, counselor to the president on cspan this evening at 9 30 p. M. Eastern time. You can listen on www. Cspan. Org or listen to our interview on cspan radio. Calls about this week in congress, what are your thoughts about the work they are doing up there and the headlines coming out of capitol hill. Lets go to wayne in harrisburg, pennsylvania, a democrat. Caller how are you doing . Since the beginning of time, men in power always abuse women. Struggled and when you have power, there are certain things you think you can get away with. Saying comes to women that women lie, yes, they do lie. But i would rather give a woman a chance and government right now because the men are screwing up. Half of these women are telling the truth. Even on a lower level like poor ,eople, the people in power they take advantage of them. The whole thing about white men with power, they abuse their power all the way around. Its been going on. I am a carpenter. I worked around three or 400 men, all white guys. I used to be the only black on the job. When theys complained are getting a job and im wondering why they are complaining about their wife getting a job. It would make things much better so this is how they control women that can. Right, this is news this morning from the Washington Examiner thats this morning on news busters. Org or you can go to the Washington Examiner. We are talking about capitol hill news. Three lawmakers in three days resigned over Sexual Harassment allegations. You had congressman conyers earlier in the week, senator al franken yesterday on the floor and trent franks of arizona stepping down as well on january 31. A little bit more from senator franken on the floor yesterday. In that speech he gave, the Washington Post notes about 20 of his democratic colleagues were on the floor during that speech. It was an emotional moment they said where senator Claire Mccaskill white tear from her eyes and many of them came to the senator after to give him a hug. One republican senator was on the floor, senator jeff flake. A little more from senator al franken. [video clip] an important part of the conversation we have been having the last few months has been about how men abuse their power and privilege to hurt women. That during my time in the senate, i had used my power to be a champion of women. Reputation asa someone who respects the women i work alongside every day. I know there has been a very different picture of me painted over the last few weeks but i know who i really am. Host you can watch that speech on our website, www. Cspan. Org. Johnny us on the phone is patricia lopez, an editorial writer with the star tribune. What has been the reaction from minnesotans of this resignation . Guest i think its very divided. There are a number of minnesotans who were still strongly supportive of al franken. Part of that goes back to his 2008 election which was one of the closest in the country and in senate history, really. Democrats put everything on the line back then to put to get him elected so many feel bonded to him. Some feel but very could trade. Toy see him as the successor paul wall stone who died in a plane crash and he has always held him up as a mentor and role model so you have a lot of conflicted feelings. Its virtually the same time as they lost another person they considered in icon which is garrison kaylor. For minnesotans, this has been a very emotional time. The senators cited Paul Wellstone on his in his speech on the floor and also in the speech coming referred to the person who drew who would replace him as a her. Go ahead. Guest i dont know that thats a given but certainly, there is a lot of pressure, momentum to nominate a woman. There are a number of choices the governor could have. His Lieutenant Governor is tina smith and shes been put out as one of those choices. He says he is not made the decision yet and will not come for several days. There are number of women who could fill that spot, former elected officials, other prominent women leaders. I think that one has not yet been decided. Host how does it work . Himt the problem with appointing tina smith is that she is a Lieutenant Governor in minnesota. She is the president of the thethat would step president who would step forward to fill her spot would be a republican and we would have a divided government and the state is not set up for that. I think there are elements in the party that are quite resistant to that. Host so the governor, mark dayton guest he also has to decide whether its going to be someone who would function more as a caretaker and take the office and promised not to run in 2018 or appoint someone who will be a full on candidate and try to defend that seat next year. Host explain the process in minnesota. He would appoint somebody to take this seat until when and when would there be elections for this senate seat . Not to fill out the remainder of frankens term which would run until 2020. This would only be to fill until the next statewide election. That is november of 2018. Of 2018, itsber a busier year for minnesota politics. Who else is running . Our senior senator Amy Klobuchar is up for reelection and we will have an oh been governor election because the governor is not running again and a state house. Throw into senate seats and i think you would have a full on threering circus year. Host what do democrats in the state prefer that the governor do . Should they have a caretaker or someone ready to run permanently for this see . Guest as far as i can tell, they are divided on that, too. Number of democrats who think that its foolish to give up the advantage that even a short time incumbent could bring to that seat, someone who would have almost a year to be a voice in the senate, to start campaigning and to give all that andor a level Playing Field then have to defend that seat during a primary which is expensive and have republicans come at them, republicans are licking their chops at the idea of having an open seat because they know that Amy Klobuchar is popular and has been impossible to defeat. This one, they feel like they have a pretty good chance. On the other hand, i talked to minnesotans who think the fair thing is to put this completely to the voters. There are Many Democrats who would like to have a chance at the senate seat. The state is still kind of divided. There is a strong Bernie Sanders faction that once a certain kind of candidate and democrats one other kinds of candidates. I dont think they want the governor to put his hand on the scale and make that pic for them. Finally, we have been getting reaction from our abouts this morning senator al frankens decision to resign and some are saying that they felt like he was not given due process. Why not let the Ethics Committee do an investigation . The editorial for the star tribune says that he should step down. Why is that . Felt very strongly and we discussed this for weeks among ourselves, its not a decision we took lightly. The pattern was set. There were women coming forward, women from all walks of life who did not know one another, all telling similar stories about a. Imilar period of time almost all of the accusations have become have come from between 20062009. Investigation, its curious i think that people have settled on that. Im not sure what they think that is going to do. How would you investigate Something Like this question mark you would have to call these women up, question them. Its not like a crime scene where there is forensic evidence you can look at. This is someone who is accused of placing a hand were they shouldnt or making an advance they shouldnt. I think that would be potentially a grueling situation for these women and kind of speaks to why women dont come forward with these stories. They are just starting to now that when youtant can, that you believe them. We have not seen any reason from us of these women why they would lie. What is a former Democratic Congressional aide, what is a journalist, one is a veteran. See what is gained by putting these women through a harsh spotlight and intense questioning and then what . An outcome that would probably be the same. My guess is that what a number of these women senators were foreseeing. By the way, its not easy for these senators to do what they did in asking him to leave because a lot of them have longstanding relationships with him. Editorial writer with the star tribune, thanks for spending time with us this morning. Back to your calls. On can give us your thoughts the Sexual Harassment allegations and resignations by the senator and others were other news coming out of capitol hill. Tim in the harbors will, new york am independent, good morning. Feel this isi distracting from Everything Else going on in the world. And in the United States. Host in what way . Caller there are lots of things going on in the United States like jobs. Economy, the economy is not doing any better than it was before. News teams say that the stock market is doing great. Investors are investing now. Stuff like that and making a fortune of money. The poor are not getting any better. The we just got news of unemployment numbers, the jobs numbers for november. U. S. Employers added a robust 228,000 jobs in november. This is according to the associated press. It remains of 4. 1 . That was released at 8 30 a. M. Eastern time. We will go to don in chesapeake, virginia, republican. Caller good morning. How are you . Host doing fine. The swamp isss getting drained, thats the way i look at it. Thate two points, one is women in the capital can go there and not feel threatened every day. They are going to have rights, moral rights and they need to. There are some women that probably lie and dont tell the whole truth. But then youve got people like joe biden. He did 10 times worse than what al franken has done. Al franken is a comedian. Joe bidens secret service men would have to secure him but al franken needs to go through due process. I dont know why they are trying to out the guy other than fill his seat. They want to get in fresh blood. They think they will do better. Al franken did thought did well, i thought as being a democrat. I dont know what kind of rights he stood up or for women. My other point is the fbi, i d just scarred the place with their diets and going after President Trump and not finding no there there. When they looked the other way, its starting to bounce back to the democrats and all the corruption we have had going on in government besides the irs. Our time to clean up capital. Our capital has just gone downhill the last eight years. You did not see is out there protesting. Make racesposed to go away and we thought that would happen with obama, it didnt, it got worse. Your thoughts are coming up on the news from congress this week. First, happening today in washington, Democratic National commission is gathering its unity reform members for its final meeting at the marriott for an washington, d. C. They disagree on how to change the Democratic Party. A number of democrats, the first Unity Commission. Nominated by Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and tom perez. Three more meetings and six months later the Unity Commission on friday set to vote on its official recommendations for reforming the Democratic Partys president ial primary process and electoral strategy. Superdelegates, all of those issues on the table this morning when they gather at 10 00 a. M. Eastern time here in washington. Listen in on cspan, cspan. Org or you can get the cspan radio app. Theyre expected to go through the day, voting incrementally on all the issues that were raised during the 2016 primary process. Again, cspan, cspan. Org or the cspan radio app. Chuck in alabama. Independent caller. Hi, chuck. Good morning to you. Caller yeah. Thank you for taking my call and allowing me to make some comments. If youll let me make about three points. About roy moore im originally from gagston and i live about 23 miles from the county. Oore was elected circuit judge in that county about 40 years ago and he was a popular judge but the liberals, they were after him from the first day because he put behind the bench a frame of the 10 commandments. And he kept them there. Every all through his lections as circuit judge. He was battered. They tried to get him out there but they couldnt because he as so popular. Now comes this 14yearold girl and her mother doubts her story. And its been said in the paper they were inundated by these reporters. Ey just kept coming in groves. Ll hours of the night and day. And just flooded and she doubts her own daughters story. And the other one about the album, she the said she never met roy moore again after that instance in that car where he locked her in using automatic locks which were not available in 1960. They were not available until the late 1980s, early 1990s. But another thing, she said she never met him. Well, she got a divorce through is court and he had an automated signature and his secretary i cant remember were me, but her initials host e. A. , right . Caller thank you. Im losing it a little. Let that refuse to analyze in that album and the people are host i dont think the lawyer as Gloria Allred has refuse d that. Have you caller according to host she sat down with the today shows show and megyn kelly. You can watch that. Ets go to fall river, massachusetts, democrat. Caller oh, she didnt let me finish. Host i dont know what happened. Do we have andrew from massachusetts . Youre on. Caller ok. What i want to say is as far as trump releasing his taxes is one of two reasons why he doesnt release them. A, er he has something, immoral or, b, illegal or if you dig deeper youll find out that he is probably the one that talked his brother into investing something and he ended up swindling his brother out of his inheritance and thats why his brother fell onto the bottle and he wont drink. And another thing on the embassy that i believe for the United States to prove that it s biased on israel and palestinian, i and the palestines, i dont know how close it is to the wall there, but they should build that embassy half in jerusalem, half in palestine, so where both sides have to work in the same building and finally talk to each other. Host ok, andrew. Well go to adam whos in dallas, texas, republican. Caller hey, good morning. Host good morning. Caller thank you so much for taking my call. Expressly watching washington journal. Host great. Caller i am getting frustrated with my male friends about this harassment stuff. I got to say, you got to make it personal. What if your wife or daughter is out in the workplace and being touched and groped and harassed, it would get very serious and personal then. Im happy senator franken is stepping down. I hope it continues to, quoteunquote, drain the swamp, like i just heard. Because really, we have to also think about, you know, the hourly workers, the common folks that maybe dont have as much of a platform, that maybe dont get called by journalists. This stuff goes on up and down. Its time for it to stop for you to make it clear. Host the New York Times also praising the decision for al franken to step down. In their editorial. In a different era, say three months, senator al franken could have denied accusations of Sexual Misconduct against him, relied on the notoriously plotting senate Ethics Committee to investigate him, and in the end probably kept his job. But we are in the middle of a stunning and welcomed cultural shift. Charges of groping and lewd behavior against mr. Franken prompted female democratic senators, a distinct minority in the chamber, to start a campaign that swiftly brought about the announcement on thursday that he would resign. New york times editorial goes on to say, the Democratic Party deserves credit to eject powerful men who think they can treat women however they want. They need to reject the mechanisms and mindset that keeps predators in power. The wall street journal editorial on frankens designation, the nonsecretary which tore, they say. The minnesota senator says hes innocent but resigns anyway. Lk about a political nonsequitor. The Ethics Committee would clear him but hes still resigning . The closest mr. Franken came to a plausible decision saying its about the people of minnesota. I cant both pursue the Ethics Committee process and at the same time remain an effective senator for them. Yet, plenty of members of congress have endured the Ethics Committee process. If mr. Franken didnt nothing wrong hes letting minnesota a disservice. By defending himself he would also be helping others in congress and out who are accused unfairly. The truth is that mr. Franken is being run out of town for by other democrats. They want him banished so they claim they cleaned their own stable so they can attack alabama candidate exkice me Alabama Senate candidate roy moore and donald trump. Mr. Franken is political ballast who had to go. We even have a little sympathy for him had he not chosen the disingenuous exit of claiming innocence beresigning anyway. That from capitol hill yesterday with the news senator franken would resign in the coming weeks. Trent franks stepping down when he asked female subordinates to bear his child. Speaker of the house said he would open an ethics investigation and the coongman decided to step down congressman decided to step down. Other news happening on capitol hill this week representative al green, democrat of texas, on wednesday presented to the house a vote to impeach donald trump. The final vote was 36458, an effort to debate articles of impeachment. Here is the congressman. [video clip] mr. Green an historic event took place right here in this house. Mr. Speaker, on yesterday, 58 rsons voted to impeach dronleddonled john trump, president of the United States Donald John Trump, president of the United States. Mr. Speaker, 57 more than a good many people anticipated. And, mr. Speaker, there are some who would have the event be nothing more than a footnote in history. Some would just have it be a nonevent, but, mr. Speaker, it wont happen. It will not be just a footnote. It wont be a nonevent. Mr. Speaker, this event will be looked upon by scholars as they look through the vist of time to understand what happened at this time. They will ponder and they will find that 58 persons were the first 58 to vote to impeach Donald John Trump, the first 58, not the last 58, mr. Speaker. Here will be another opportunity for us to remove Donald John Trump from the presidency. Host congressman al green on the floor talking about his effort to have debate or articles of impeachment. Thats also on the table this morning as we talk about this week in congress. In l go to hilda, next, michigan, independent. Caller gretta good morning. Host good morning. Caller i have sweaty palms from waiting. You know what, greta, the ason i called is we forgotten and i dont care if its people just talking between people or in any kind of media, what the word alleged meant and they put it out there right here this morning. Oh, the allegations against you know what, that started so many years ago. And just real quick. Host were listening. Caller late 1980s, early 1990s, i live up by cadillac, michigan, and they had on the one from showed school showed his picture, his name. He was alleged to whole story. Oh, hes alleged to have molested this and that, you know, these kids. And ill be you know, it all turned out it was nothing. It was back when there was a really ids and it happened, kids getting at parents. Oh, they did this and that, getting the parents into trouble. They dont give it a Second Thought about soandsos alleged to have this or that. They shouldnt i dont think they should be even allowed to name names or give personal information when its alleged because all i could call, especially today shoot, i could get a bunch of girlfriends together and call and alleged all kind of thoughts. Maybe there would be more people resigning. Its just i dont think its right. I taught my kids better than that. Host you might be interested in this piece by roll call. Ou want to know who has been alleged in congress . Good luck. The details of Sexual Harassment of complaints are secret and cannot be released to lawmakers. This according to the executive director of the office of compliance which oversees the response to Sexual Harassment complaints in congress. She told a hearing yesterday before the House Administrative Committee that if lawmakers want to know more, including the number of complaints filed and the names of the accused, they would have to change the law. We covered that hearing. You can listen if you watch on cspan. Org. That response is the latest of a series of frustrations met by lawmakers who are scrambling to respond to a National Focus on Sexual Harassment. Some of americas most powerful institutions. Representative conyers, senator franken have been named by accusers. But the overall response has been slower than in other industries. Stymied in part by a system of reporting and responding to Sexual Harassment complaints thats not been revised since 1995. Thursdays hearing was the second aim at addressing shortcomings in that process. John in hubbard, ohio, a democrat. Hi, john. Caller hello. Hi. How are you doing this morning . Host good morning. Go ahead. Caller im just curious about the Sexual Harassment because you cant even meet a girl anymore. You cant move like youre supposed to as a man towards a woman. Host john, i think in these instances that we heard about, were talking about not meeting woman, its force kissing or forcing yourself on a woman. Caller if you go out and have a couple drinks and you do kiss a woman and she finds it disrespectful, im sorry but, i mean, i thought the move was there. Why should we have to work so hard to find a woman nowadays . Host and if she says no . Caller i havent been with a woman in 14 years. I dont want one. I think yall are way off on this. Host ok. Nancy in georgia. Republican. Caller good morning. And thank you. I dont think that person will be running for congress anytime soon. Im calling about section 6, article 1 of the constitution, as it applies to this subject. That is the privileges and immunities caused and the people who work in congressional offices are not employees of the capitol per se. They are in employees of the congressperson. And if they dont like their treatment they can go home and tell their local paper. I think its a real shame that senator franken has left. Id like to see him become a republican myself. Even though what he did he extorted a recusal from senator sessions which was out of that dirty dossier. I think senator sessions should come back and be an attorney general fullfledged. Host given senator frankens ideology, i dont think hes becoming a republican anytime soon. Caller im a republican. I think the republicans are a whole lot more openminded anymore than the democrats. You dont follow their line i was a democrat up until four years ago. Host i am talking more of his stance on the environment and spending, etc. Caller well, i dont know. Thats minnesotas problem. My argument and why theres a reason that the janitors that work on the capitol dont have a section in the constitution written 241 years ago. They had in the continental congress, too. Merry christmas. Host ok. Norman in North Carolina. Republican. We are getting your thoughts on capitol hill, whats happening here in washington. What do you think . Caller well, i just curious. When did washington become so concerned with morality . I mean host ok. Caller im 70. 70 years old. I mean, all my life everything , in the movies, out of washington, out of hollywood, its all been about sex. I mean, listen to some of the music that these kids are listening to. How they violate a lot of women. I mean, its just mindboggling. Host yeah. Norman, there is there has been Ethics Committees, both in the house and senate, to Police Members of congress and how they conduct themselves. Heres a story in the wall street journal, the Ethics Committee cleared nunes. They cleared an investigation into California Republican devan nunes thursday saying they found no evidence he released classified information to the public earlier this year. They sought guidance from agencies to determine he didnt reveal any classified information to congress. House intelligence chairman were part of an effort to rotect president donald trump. You can go to the Ethics Committees website. You can see the reports they have done over the years, the different investigations they have done. You cant get their investigations are not made to the open to the public. They dont hold public hearings but you can find more information if you go to the house and senate Ethics Committees websites. More of your calls coming up here on this week in congress. Well get to those in just a ming min. First, joining us on the phone is Katie Bo Williams who is a National Security reporter with the hill to talk about the f. B. I. Director chris wrays testimony on capitol hill yesterday. Katie bo williams, what do you think is the headline from that fivehour hearing . Guest one of the things that really stood out to me watching that hearing was really how smoothly chris wray really sailed through this appearance. This was his first oversight hearing before the House Judiciary Committee which has jurisdiction over the f. B. I. And even though republicans were pushing him on what they say is what they see is a double standard within the f. B. I. , not charging Hillary Clinton in the investigation into her email server, but focusing instead on this f. B. I. Agent that we have since learned has been removed from special counsel, Robert Muellers investigation into russias interference in the election, even facing tough questions from republicans on that perceived double standard, nobody really went after wray specifically. He couldnt talk a lot about what they wanted to know. Theres an Ongoing Justice Department Inspector General investigation into how the f. B. I. Handled the clinton investigation, so he sort of deferred to that for most of his testimony. Didnt seem to didnt seem to spark any personal frustration amongst republicans. A very smooth appearance. Host members of congress were questioning him about the Inspector General report, the Mueller Investigation. Lets start with the Inspector General, whats the timeline for learning about this investigation and what the i. G. Finds out . Guest at this point we dont know, but i think i think you can expect that whatever Inspector General Michael Horowitz will be a pretty bombshell report. Its looking into everything from leaks out of unauthorized leaks or alleged unauthorized leaks out of various different f. B. I. Offices as well as thendirector james comey how he how he wrapped up the investigation back when he chose to come out and make a Public Statement calling clinton extremely careless while not charging her. All of that will be wrapped up into this pretty sprawling probe. Host what relationship or what role, if any, does chris wray have in the Mueller Investigation . Guest not much. The f. B. I. Does have some resources that are being put towards the Mueller Investigation. But he himself is not running this investigation. Thats in the hands of special counsel bob mueller and under the Deputy Attorney general rosen stein. Host what did we learn about this f. B. I. Investigator peter struck . Guest we didnt learn a whole lot which was new. Wray continually referred to the to the Inspector General investigation and kind of left that left that a little bit of a black box. He did say yeah, he did make the point that struck had been reassigned but that was not necessarily a disciplinary action. So he did sort of give a little cover to this f. B. I. Agent but that was about all we learned. Host the committee primarily focused on these investigations, but there is also pending for the f. B. I. For National Security folks, the reauthorization of section 702 of fisa. That deadline is approaching. Remind viewers what this is and when could a vote take place, could it place . Guest so section 702 of fisa is an element of surveillance law which allows the government to collect the emails and Text Messages and other communications of people overseas. However, if americans are caught newspaper that surveillance say the target of the surveillance is talking to an american in the United States, the government then has that data, what they call collected incidentally. This has been a real Sticking Point not for just democrats but some republicans in the Freedom Caucus. They say its a violation of americans Fourth Amendment ght against search and seizure. The f. B. I. s main goal coming down to the Judiciary Committee yesterday was really to advocate for a clean reauthorization of this legislation. They want they want they want in law to continue forever unchanged as it is. Now, that, according to chairman republican chairman of the Judiciary Committee bob goodlatte, doesnt have the votes to pass in the house. He sees this coalition of sort of privacyminded lawmakers who wants some sort of warrant requirement, he thinks that group is too big to get a clean reauthorization. Its clear what will happen before december 31. I think at this point what im hearing from quite a few people thats tracking this debate fairly closely is they expect maybe some small, modest tweaks but nothing significant that will probably get put into a mustpass legislation at the end of the year. Host all right. Katie bo williams, National Security reporter with the hill, thank you. Guest my pleasure. Host and back to your calls on this week in congress. Harry is in cannon, new york. Republican. Youre up. Good morning to you. What do you think about the news out of washington this week . Caller ray moore. Host roy moore . Caller its roy moore. Sorry. Host thats ok. Caller you watch cspan2 and you see all these kids that they got running around shuffling papers, what is that about . You have an accused pedophile in office with those kids . Is this crazy . Host are you talking about the pages, the u. S. Senate pages . Caller right, yeah. Now, whats that about . How can the parents of those kids send their kids in there and say, might be a pedophile or two, but dont worry about it because, you know, something happens, well get paid off, is that whats going on . Host harrys thoughts about cspan2, the senate, as you know, cspan2 carries the senate proceedings. The house and senate are out after approving a twoweek spending measure to keep the government running until the end of the month. So over on cspan2 this morning, we are covering the Fourth Circuit court of appeals in richmond. They are hearing the case of President Trumps third travel ban. This is the third version of the president s travel ban. We have live coverage of it over on cspan2. Lets listen in a little bit to todays oral arguments. Do we just ignore of legality to determine how to handle this case . If the reality if the reality is that is the purpose, but the legality allows it, does that make a difference . Yeah. Several points with that, your honor. So the first thing, we do think all those statements are legally irrelevant under mannedal and this is whats important what do you mean all those statements . Im talking about the statements that go directly to purpose and if the purpose if the allegation is that this is an effort to ban muslims from this country and every statement thats made by the individual the president making it goes to say that is done in a way, we did a worldwide review and now its legal . And what i was saying, your honor, the Supreme Court, since we were here last time in the santana case made Crystal Clear that the mandel standard is a rational basis standard. Under that subjected purpose is legally irrelevant. When you engage in rational basis review, you do not look to see what the what was behind the motives of if its not a rational basis review, as you say the Supreme Court has said it is, then do we then go back to reasonable and answer the question in that vain . Host Fourth Circuit court of appeals in richmond hearing the case of the president s third travel ban. The most recent revision where he added other countries beside the muslim countries that he originally banned, the Fourth Circuit hearing that oral argument today. They have to make that decision. The ninth circuit also earlier this week on wednesday hearing this case as well. So the ninth circuit in seattle will be making a decision. The Supreme Court earlier in the week said the president , this administration can go forward with this latest version of the travel ban until these lower courts make a decision. So more to watch there. If you missed any of it or if you want to listen now, live coverage over on cspan2. Guck to our website cspan. Org and find our you can go to our website cspan. Org and find that as well. Good morning. You are on the air. Caller i am not condoning what al franken did, but on the pictures of him with the girl with the army outfit on, the second picture that they show there, remember she said she was so repulsed by his kisses that there was like a kissing a fish, well, if you look at that picture which they dont really show a lot, shes hugging him like a really passionate kiss. If the woman doesnt want you to kiss her, she pushes you away. So that picture definitely makes a liar out of her. And another thing, too. The economy we have today is still obamas economy. Its not trump hasnt done anything. No bills have been passed or anything like that to help this economy. We are still in the obama economy with a 4. 1 unemployment. Thank you. Host all right. Angelique in big bear city. Independent. Caller hi. Thank you for taking my call. I was calling about the roy moore statement that the man made before about these pages being in the white house. Host on the senate floor. On the senate floor. Caller on the senate floor, yes. Well, the thing is there are a lot of young people who go into our government to learn, and the problem is that they are being targeted by the senators and the congressmen and these kids are afraid to say anything. Monica lewinsky, even though she may have been in her 20s, was a young girl. She was very young. And so her life was ruined because of what this older man had done to her, regardless of whether or not he was the president. She should have been safe in the white house. Now, weve come to a government to where our children are no longer safe in anywhere that we have these democrats are coming out of the wood works and these women are coming out of the wood works saying these things happened to them. And its on both sides. Its not on one side or the other, but it seems to be more on the democratic side than it is with roy moore whos one person as opposed to ok. Go ahead. Host well, i was going to say we learned that trent franks, who is republican of arizona, is going to resign because of misconduct and also that the ethics investigation is reopening their investigation into congressman farenthold. Caller they need to reopen. They need to reopen. Host a republican. Caller yeah. But its not just one party. Its both parties that are doing this. Its both parties that are behaving very, very badly. And we host all right. Angelique. Morgan in nashville, tennessee. Hi, morgan. Caller i am really upset over al franken resigning. Im curious what were teaching our children. The president lies and hes untouchable. But al franken, who is innocent , as he sees it, and is forced out. I wonder, has everyone whos commenting on this really looked at what these women have said . One is complaining he squeezed her waist while he was taking a photo. The other is he touched her butt for three seconds. And tweeting what a shameful hypocrite. A full outrage he created. This woman made her living exposing her breasts in playboy in nude photo graphs for masturbation purposes for men and shes offended by a full grope photo . Its all such hypocrites. Just hypocrisy of the highest order. And it teaches our children something horrible. That me, too, is better than never me. Because if you put yourself in a situation and you find yourself touched that you dont like and you dont say anything, youre the hero. No. Women who Say Something are the hero. Host ok. Morgans thoughts. Cathy in maryland, republican. Caller i am not a republican. Im an independent but i couldnt get through. But, anyway. I am shocked by the comments of the previous caller. I mean, shes horrified about us teaching you know, that women should just tolerate being groped. That was really, really sad, that comment. Anyway, i was a republican. I migrated recently to independent. My comments are, i really began to like al franken. I read his book. Im so disappointed with him that he went from expressing regret and apologies to just denying defiantly any of these womens concerns. Its very interesting. If anyone has read his book and i suggest the previous caller do that he believes hes an advocate for women and he took on the cause of forced arbitration. You know, a practice that Many Companies use that al franken feels, and i agreed with him, puts women who have been mistreated in the workplace, whether sexually or otherwise, forces them into a process where their voice really isnt heard and nothing is really done. So i agree with the newspaper writer from the star tribune or whatever, the investigation process or the Ethics Committee, that would just have been name only. Thats a meaningless process. Heres an institution by the way that has a slush fund from our taxpayers money to pay for settlements for these guys who are found to be guilty of Sexual Harassment. Thats ridiculous. So im disappointed in al franken but im disgusted with the republicans. I will never vote republican again. Host why . Caller i am so pissed at them. I cannot believe that al franken was absolutely right. We got a president sitting in there with the audacity to be commenting on the six or seven women with al franken who i believe while he had 12 or 16 or 17 or 18. Im disgusted with the roy moore situation. Lets not forget, was it Dennis Hastert a few years ago . I mean, come on. For them to go from, you know, disavowing or distancing themselves from roy moore to putting money into his campaign and nobody taking on the president who is the biggest sexual harasser, admitted one, joking about it. I am disgusted. I was moving away from them. As a female voter, im done. Host did you vote for President Trump . Caller no no. I wrote in john kasich. Host ok. Former republican, independent. Hugo in florida, independent. Name of your town . Caller dunee, florida. I have just one question. What American Business would disapprove of 90 of their employees and still keep them employees . Host referring to congress . Are you referring to Congress Approval rating . Caller yes. Ats how could we allow a 90 disapproval rating of congress . I just want to make everybody think of that. Its time to flush the toilet, i think. Have a great day. Host auburn, alabama. Larry, democrat. Hi, larry. Caller how are you doing this morning . I want to make kind of a statement. You know, being in alabama, you know, we are considered to be, you know, backwards and uneducated. I guess since the civil war we have been pigeon holed that way. You know, if we vote roy moore in, that will confirm everybodys thinking about us. Step back 50 years. We built the rocket ship that put the man on the moon. We build destroyers, cars, airplanes. We are old as moonshine, you might say. But im just saying, you know, roy moore has done some terrible things. I understand why the women didnt come out. He had power and he could have anything to them that if you dont have no power, then, you know, you are at an disadvantage. I am glad to see america is starting to empower our women and i thank you. Host ok. All right. Lets hear from john who is in rochester, minnesota, a republican. Excuse me. Let me go to john who is in rochester, minnesota. John, what do you think about senator al franken amid pressure from his colleagues, from the Party Leaders here in washington . Caller i say good riddance to al. Hes just a creep that got caught. If there wasnt for that picture, he would be fighting this tooth and nail. I mean, hes denying what he did. Its obvious that hes a creep, and the people that crawling in saying he should be here, i dont want him representing me. And i think a lot of the people in minnesota feel the same way that i do. And i think the democrats standing up against him, this is a calculated move. They are trying to throw something against the wall and see if it sticks. Host Senate Candidate roy moore, should he step down . Caller yes. Host he should not be running . Caller thats correct. And as far as trump, the accusations against him, whatever they can do to bring him to justice, i agree with that too. Me should get rid of all these creeps, anybody thats a sexual predator. I got two daughters and two granddaughters and if i just picture them in that picture with al franken, it just turns my stomach. Host johns thoughts there. A republican in rochester, minnesota. Arnold in tennessee. A democrat. Good morning, arnold. Caller good morning. How are you . Host doing well. Caller its pretty obvious, you know, folks have their mind made up when they call in about whos right, whos wrong, whos right, whos left. Paul simon has a line from one of his songs that says, a man sees what he wants to see and he disregards the rest. And i guess we basically all do that to some extent, but its good to try and look at the facts and not just let the facts be clouded by your own opinions. I forget who said it. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion but no one is entitled to their own facts. As now, the fact is if we individuals and as a nation and the world, if we do not turn to love, we have to return to loving one another. If we do not do that, then we are not love. In order to be loved you must do love. In order to do love, you must be loved. Love is the answer here. Ive called in several times over the years. And ive written a book where i have been approached by god. God is love. And this book is free and its online. s at love godislove. Org. Host i heard about your comments about your book. The president is traveling near the state of alabama, ahead of the special election. He will be in pensacola, florida, which is on the border, for a rally. You can tune in to cspan2, cspan g or listen in radio app. For black mississippiians, trump stirs anger. Hes coming to the poorest, blackest state opening a Civil Rights Museum and people in the eighborhood around its hostile now. More hostile in a long, long time, said pete, who employs three men at the auto repair shop. We got our man in the white house and this is the way the balls going to roll now. Three miles from the mississippi Civil Rights Museum over rutted roads, past littered lots, abandoned houses and shuttered plants and warehouses, mcelroy, 69, and other black residents of this struggling capital city say they have after nearly a year after of the trump presidency, they have a congressman john ewis, republican of georgia, said he would not be there for the opening of the Civil Rights Museum. Thats disappointing. Independent. Hi, how are you . Caller very good, thanks. I want to talk about the situation in israel and trumps policy visavis that country. Host ok. Caller not only has he talked about moving the embassy to jerusalem which would cause utter chaos in the east, but hes nominated the former kansas of governor of kansas, sam brownback, as International Ambassador for religious freedom. And brownback has supported the plan of one who is now dead to deport all the palestinians from the west bank. They are 90 of the population of the west bank, he wants to push them all into jordan which doesnt want to give them any land and its inconceivable to me. Now, brownbacks appointment has been held in the u. S. Senate, but theyre pushing now for brownbacks appointment to be confirmed. And this is the worst possible time, especially falling on the heels of the move of the embassy host and, frank, did you see the story in the wall street journal, that christians pushed the president for this israel shift . That evangelical leaders have been coming to the white house almost on a daily basis, pushing the president to make this shift like jews and muslims, christian prize jerusalem as a holy city as a place of christs death and awaited return and many evangelicals believe the land was given to the jews by god who promises in the bible to bless those who bless israel. And that designating jerusalem with the darity jewish people. What do you think of that, frank . Caller its not solidarity with the jewish people. Its what they believe in prophecy. Armageddon there will be a lake of fire and those who dont believe in christ will be thrown into it. But in order for that to happen, the jews have to reoccupy all of israel. Host ok. Franks thoughts there in oregon. Don in virginia. Democrat. Hi, don. Caller good morning, greta. Where do i begin . Bear with me in a moment. In references to roy moore, right, they say, well, the women are lying, what have you. Hello . Host yes. Im listening. The women are lying. Yes. Caller what about the mall . Hes been banned from the mall . Is the mall lying as well . So that has nothing do with with women accuse nothing do with women accusing him. Trump, all the women accusing him, said he would sue after he took office and and then he said he didnt make comments with billy bush back then but when he did he apologized. Now hes saying that its not authentic. This is a guy thats the biggest con man, the biggest liar of all and im originally, if i may, if im originally from harlem in new york, and he keeps talking about the inner city and black folks. I am a 72yearold black man, a vietnam veteran, and trump when he was in new york on the other side of central park, other side of harlem, never did anything for the inner city. This guy in fact, he discriminated against blacks with properties him and his father had. Hes a big liar, a joke. He will have a lot of People Killed with the veterans decisions. Hes making history because hes the worst president in history. Host mike in akron, ohio, independent. Mike, what do you think . Caller well, yes, im an independent. Although i dont deny i lean towards the left. I voted every election since 1972. Only one time have i voted for the winner. With that said, in 1992 and 1996, i did not vote for bill clinton for three reasons, paula jones, flowers and brownlee. I agreed with most of his policies. I knew those women would come to bite him in the butt sooner or later. When it comes to Monica Lewinsky. My heart goes out to monica in many ways. I do recall hearing stories when four diplomats went into the white house and even the rest of the diplomats, that Monica Lewinsky left an impression on most of their minds and that impression was that she was perhaps somebody who worked for the g. O. P. To trap clinton. Now, again, a young woman who was in love with him, i guess, in her own way. That does not excuse what clinton did in any way, shape or form. He should have been censored and everyone tell him off except for ted kennedy. That would look strange, to say the least. I do believe just i could not vote for ross perot in 1992 or 1996. I was attempted to. I voted for harry brown, a libertarian. Ross perot, although i appreciate him putting his hand in the ring, he was like part of the carnival host mike, sorry. You still there . One last thing. Caller what do the g. O. P. Hink about linda tripp and ken starr . Why arent they given adoration to tripp and starr . They are what gave us the whole controversy to begin with. Host mike in pennsylvania, republican. Michael, good morning to you. Caller good morning, cspan. Thank you, all, for cspan. I appreciate it very much taking my call. I have a couple things for you two ladies to comment on if you could. Earlier we had a tragedy, man passed away. Declared as a cultural icon. Mr. Hugh hefner. If you could comment on that. And one commented about the Music Industry and i believe some certain types of songs. Earlier, tipper gore made some comments oh, maybe about 20some years ago and do you have any comments on the Music Industrys contribution to the recent events . Host well, what do you think, michael . Caller oh, i not the type to listen to that music very often but its very difficult if you have cable or satellite and you happen to stop on some of these music stations. Its quite offensive to me as a human whats going on with the depiction of women in these many of these videos and how they are treated and the terminology that is used against these women. I dont think that helps our culture. Host lewis, North Carolina, democrat. Youre on the air. Caller good morning, cspan. How we doing tonight . Host doing well. Caller yes. Comment is concerning trump and franken and moore and others that, you know, now everybody wants to say they draining the swamp. But how can you drain a swamp when you plug it up with the mojo nt who is the head of the swamp . You know, he reminds me of a beast, a beast. He goes around and everything that he do and touch is turmoil. Just look at the beast. And i am so glad that i did not give that gentleman the mark of presidency or vote for that individual because that is the beast. The way he lives, 666, its the beast. They talk about peace in israel. Right around christmas and now look at what we having over in the middle east, i just dont understand why the white senators, republican, cannot see that this men is detrimental for the United States. Host ok. Opinion in North Carolina. Heres the headline on the hills website. Exbritbarts spokesman comes out over democrat over trumps support of moore. Former spokesman for g. O. P. Bbreitbart breitbart. For usa oped today that he can no longer support the Republican Party after President Trump and other leaders backed moore who is facing allegationses for inappropriate Sexual Conduct with young women. Caller thank you for taking my call. I want to talk about a little inside baseball real quick. Everyones been calling up saying that they believe they got rid of senator franken so the democrats can claim that they cleaned their house. Im starting to believe that the republicans, if judge moore gets elected, theyre going to boot him out whether its the Ethics Committee or the senate in general and theyll let the grange. Appoint rufus he was wondering what you thought and some of the viewers thought. Host if that scenario were to play out, what do you think . Caller well, its better than the judge. Theres too much of this Sexual Misconduct going on. And, you know, they are supposed to be adults, right . Host do you think they should be held to a higher standard . Caller yes, they should be held to a higher standard. I think we all should be. But specifically people that are running the greatest country in the world should be held to the highest standard, period. Host ok. Ray in raleigh, North Carolina, independent. Hi, ray. Caller how you doing . Host good morning. Caller ok. Heres my question, if you could help me with the daca question. If a woman brings a child across the border illegally and the children didnt come on their own, why would we give the right to have a baby when they get here to make that baby a citizen . Why cant the babies of the Illegal Immigrants that come over here be nationals of their country until the parents go through the process . Why do we have to take and finance the children born here and call them american citizens when their parents arent even legal . Host i think under daca its not that they were made legal citizens. They were guaranteed they caller thats not what i said. I said, when the parents come over here legally and the kids come with them, the daca children, why would we allow those illegal host oh, i see. Caller make that baby an american citizen. That baby should be a national of that country until their parents go through the process. Our schools, our Health Systems and everything, these children are having children at 15 and 16 years old. The parents are responsible for them until theyre 18. Theyre in gangs. Everything. This country should wake up. All these people that come around the country, all around the world coming to america, were bringing host ray, air saying all immigrants do this . Caller im saying most immigrants is, if you look at the most immigrants that come to this country, chinese, indian, whatever. They open grocery stores. They open Convenient Stores. They open everything but american citizens arent hired. Host ray, how do you know that . What evidence . Caller i go to the stores every day. I went to a new place called h market. Host its an observation . Caller yes. Thats whats going on. You go to a Convenient Store thats owned by a foreigner, do you see an american working in there . When you go to a mexican restaurant, do you see a black guy in there . This is what im saying. Host ok. Ray, we heard your point. Well go on to alex who is in marshfield, wisconsin, who is a democrat. Good morning. Caller good morning. I want to frame the Sexual Assault that the men who committed are under the influence of drugs. And its the most powerful drug in the world and that drug is testosterone and thats my comment. Thank you much. Ost ian, oceanside. Good morning. Caller i would like to say as r as due process and we have a Rolling Stone article, there are women who put all these accusations. And the 17 million, we need to know. I dont believe somebody should be bankrupt if they are wronged man if they are running for the senate or the house. We the people should pick up the expense if its a false accusation. If its proven for due process that they are guilty, like trent franks and im a republican. I dont care across the board, if did you this, you need to step down. Thats the guilt thats on you because you are guilty. If you dont want to go through due process and the proper way, then you step down. Youre admittinging your guilt. Host ian, in some of these cases, theres no due process. Somebody makes a claim and in order to avoid court, some of these lawmakers have settled. When they settle with the accuser, then taxpayers are paying the bill. In the case of blake farenthold, republican from texas, 83,000. Caller and thats unacceptable. Host 84,000. Caller if you are guilty you have to foot that bill and step down. Lets say you are anita hill with the false accusation or tawana, should that person be destroyed and lose all he worked for, losing having to defend himself . Thats a case we the people would say, well pick up the tab on those, but we have to know. We have to know who they are and what otherwise we cant make a decision. And then they all look guilty and thats just as bad because thats like a false accusation. Host ok. All right. Ian. William in logan, ohio, republican. Hi, william. Caller hi. How you doing . Host good morning. Caller good morning. I feel that i voted for trump. I still like trump. I think hes doing a wonderful job as most president s thats been in there, hes done more, and people need to quit saying bad things about him and say the good things, the positive, not negative. I will vote for him again. And also, they should also the government should be helping people on Social Security and stuff thats barely getting by. And i would vote for trump again if he runs again. People just have to chuck it up and, you know, see what else he can do for the country. Hes done more for the country than anyone ive seen. Host lee is from florida, an independent. Good morning, lee. Caller good morning, how are you . Host doing well. What do you think about the headlines out of washington this week . Caller i just want to make a comment that i think that every american right now should be very thankful that we have a First Amendment. If we didnt have a First Amendment wed be living in a dictatorship because our president wants to control what people think. And im very proud that we have a First Amendment. Host all right. Donna in minneapolis, a democrat. Donna, good morning to you. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I just have a few points that i want to make quickly. The first one is going back to about six callers ago where they were talking about a woman worked in hooters and or Something Like that and that she was the one that said that roy moore or somebody else touched her. Let me Say Something. S a woman i can choose to wear clothes from my tech to my toes neck to my toes. I can choose to wear hot pants. That is my choice. That does not give any man permission to touch me without my consent. Secondly, there was a man that called in about the third caller ago that said, i just want to Say Something regarding estosterone, my husband is a female to male transgender, he has three to four times the amount of testosterone any man has and he touch anyone. Host were going to leave that there. Were going to take you live now to the Democratic National committees unity reform commission. Its the final day of reforms they want to make to the primary process