Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 07232019 20240714

Reporting on the life and career of Robert Mueller. Washington journal is next. Host the flag halfstaff today in honor of john paul stevens. Democrats and the white house reached a budget deal allowing the government to borrow beyond current limits, green lighting additional spending in the coming years. As we take you through what that means for the fiscal house, we spend the first hour hearing about your personal fiscal house. Give us a call and tell us how much debt you carry and how concerned you are about it. Phone numbers different this morning. If you carry no debt, 202 748 8000. If you carry below 50,000 in debt, 202 7488001. Andou carry between 50,000 100,000 in debt, 202 7488002 , and if you are over 100,000 in debt, 202 7488003. Catch up with us on social media, on twitter cspanwj and on facebook at facebook. Com cspa n. Good Tuesday Morning to you. Start calling in. Let us know how much debt you have. We will give you a sense of the overall personal debt facing american families. These numbers according to experian, the credit reporting totaled 2018, americans 9. 4 trillion in mortgage debt, the total combined Student Loan Debt in america last year, 1. 3 trillion. 1. 2 trillion in auto loans. 834 billion in total Credit Card Debt. 291 billion in personal loan debt. Not all americans carry all those different kinds of debt. This from lending tree, their report from last year, for those americans who carry mortgage 213,700,average is for those carrying Student Loan Debt, the average was 36,500. 10,100, the average auto loan debt. The average Credit Card Debt per consumer, 5,800. The average personal loan debt, 7,200. Those numbers from mortgage lending tree. Personal debt numbers from 2018 from northwest mutual, the Financial Services company, the average debt total in this country, 38,000. 50 to10 americans spent 100 of monthly income on debt repayment. More numbers for you in this segment of the washington journal about american loan debt. We want to hear from you about how much you carry in your family, the phone numbers, 202 7488000 if you carry no debt. Carry7488001 if you below 50,000 in debt. 202 7488002 if you carry between 50,000 and 100,000 in debt. 3, four over0 100,000 in debt. William, out of west babylon, new york, under 50,000 in debt. Go ahead. Caller thank you. From my daughters student loan. 4000. I am trying to help her out. I was a 9 11 first responder. I hope they send the boat my way. I am struggling. Im in good shape financially but a lot of the other guys are not doing so good. They need this vote to go. Thank you for your patience and taking my call. Host on that 9 11 First Responders bill getting voted on in the senate today, and we will talk about that later in the program, are you one of those folks who have contacted members of congress about it . We have seen a big lobby on capitol hill. Caller i have. I am not like jon stewart but have underlying issues. Copd, sleep apnea. Ptsd. Not a day goes by i dont think about it. Host what would that bill mean for you, william . Caller what is that . Host what would that mean for you personally . Caller a little more money for me but the government took good care of me, Social Security, disability, workmens comp. , i was on the first lawsuit against port authority. I am looking out more for the other guys who really need it, the guys who did not get onto the volunteer fund. I am good for life, put it that way. I am looking more for the other guys. That is my advocate. I dont need anything. I would rather them take it. Host thank you for the call. That bill in the senate today, more about that. Jeremy up next from philly on the line for those who carry over 100,000 in debt, tell us about your situation. Caller good morning. Debt of combined 150,000. 130,000 of that is Student Loans. 30,000 of that is Credit Card Debt. I had to go into debt to go to school. I did not go to an expensive school, however, i did have to withdraw at one point, so in order to graduate, i had to take additional semester of school which contributed to that and then two years after graduation i became unemployed. The only way i could sustain my life was by going into Credit Card Debt and ruining my score. It is unfair that things like your health and your economic status can put you into debt when you may not necessarily want to go into that debt. Host what is your monthly student loan payment like . Caller of course. Aret now, my private loans 720 per month. It isy federal loans, 300 per month, however, they adjust that according to my gross income. When i try to explain to them that is not how much i am taking home, they say, this is how much you get paid before taxes and base my income driven repayments on that and not how much i take home at the end of the month . Host what kind of school did you go to and what did you study . Caller temple university, a Public School in philadelphia. I studied political science. Host thanks. Some numbers on Student Loan Debt in this country. Typical Monthly Payments for month,round 200 300 a 1 5 of borrowers who attended a private, for profit schools are behind on payments. Those who attended public, 8 behind on payments and those who attended private, notforprofit schools, 5 behind on payments, from the Federal Reserve. A couple of callers bringing up Student Loans as the major issue. Maryland on the line for no debt, go ahead. Iller i wanted to share, recently paid off my mortgage, quite excited about that. It is possible to have no debt. Host how is it possible for you . How did you make it possible . Spend below my means and not beyond my seems. And delay gratification. You know. Your mortgage debt was your biggest debt. Do you carry credit card it or did you Credit Card Debt . Caller i use my credit card like cash. Lock on ant, i had a line of credit and decided not to carry that anymore after taking care of some things in my own and i have a credit card balance, not a balance, but a high limit, i could use if needed, but i would use it like cash. Host thanks. Laurel, maryland. Keep calling in. Phone line split up by how much debt you have. We want to hear from you in this first hour of the washington journal. We are having this conversation a day after a key deal reached between congressional leaders and the white house when it comes to budget and spending in the future. For more on that we turn to jennifer of cq roll call, appropriations and budget reporter. Thank you for joining us this morning. Ceiling andthe debt budget caps are being tied together here in this key deal . Guest tying together spending caps and the debt limit extension is something pretty common for congress throughout the past couple decades. It is something that helps to move both vehicles in terms of the vote count and gives each side, to a certain degree, leverage in negotiations. Host what was the deal that came together yesterday and what is the status Going Forward . Guest the debt limit, technically expired march 1, the Treasury Department has been using astern ore measures to continue paying the government bills, the government will be 2021 andthrough july, there will be increases for defense spending as well as nondefense spending in fiscal years 2020 21. The important thing to remember is without this deal, 2011 deficit reduction act would have required congress to cut billion by 125 upcoming fiscal year, which members of both parties did not want to happen. This deal is bipartisan. Host how much more are they going to be spending . Guest total defense spending including overseas operations, sometimes referred to as war funds, 716 billion current fiscal year 2019, that will increase to 738 billion fiscal 2020 and 740. 5 billion in fiscal 2021. Nondefense discretionary nexting, including oco fiscal year for census, that will sorry, i just lost my numbers. Host that is totally fine. As we talked about in recent weeks, we also talked about the idea of possible offset of additional spending. Did any of those happen in this deal . Guest yes. Sorry about that. Nondefense spending total from 605 billion Current School 2020, 632 billion fiscal 634. 5 billion, fiscal 2101. Congress three times prior has reached two years spending cap agreements to avoid sequestration cuts, 2011 reduction act, offsets have always been a part of this. Sounds like the debate was more tense during negotiations than it has in past. The administration wanted to get 150 billion in offsets and landed 77 billion. Those seem to be bipartisan. We are not concerned about that. Host is this a done deal . What is the schedule Going Forward to make sure this passes the house and senate and makes it to the president . Guest the house reprised the text before midnight last night and has a 72 hour rule. Democrats put that in place when they came into power in the house in january. Chambers should have at least 72 hours to review voets. The house the house is expected to be friday for the august recess. When the senate takes up the legislation, it is more up in the air. That will depend on the timing of the house. The senates index week before leaving for the august recess. They have plenty of time to vote. Host before you go, what is the snagp plan if this hits a in the short timeframe we have before the house and senate leave town . Guest i dont think there is a backup. The president came out on twitter yesterday and seemed supportive. It seems like it has enough votes in the house and senate to pass. D has publicly said he would sign. He has publicly said he would sign. It seems to go smoothly. Levels areending financial law, Appropriations Committees will get to begin texton final legislative for 12 appropriations bills. Another important thing to note, this agreement is just setting spending levels. Now the Appropriations Committee, and congressional leaders, need to work out all 12 of the bills and the somewhat contentious issues in that legislation, because of course, if they are not passed on time, or if there is not the stopgap spending bill, there would be a partial government stepped do government shutdown. Host not over yet. You can see jennifers reporting at roll call. Com. We will check in down the road. Guest thank you for having me. Host mentioning the president s tweets about the deal coming together yesterday. Here they are. I am pleased to announce a deal has been struck with the Senate Majority leader and Senate Minority leader, speaker of the house, House Minority leader with no poison pills. This was a real compromise in order to give a big victory to our military and our vets. Nancy pelosi calling it a bipartisan agreement that will enhance National Security and invest in middleclass priorities that help wellbeing of the American People. In that statement she says democrats are pleased to secure robust funding for critical priorities in this agreement. Democrats have always increased in parity between defense and nondefense and we are pleased that this exceeds by 10 billion over the next two years, meaning democrat secured an increase for domestic priorities since President Trump took office. Nancy pelosi with her statement yesterday. Federall coming amid a debt picture that looks like this. This is from u. S. Debt clock. 22current National Debt, trillion. And counting. The debt per u. S. Citizen comes taxpayer,000 per 183,000, the federal fiscal picture. In this first hour of the washington journal, we are asking about your personal fiscal picture. We want to know how much debt you have. We have split up our phone lines by amount of debt. If you carry no debt, 202 748 8000. Below 50,000 in debt, 202 7488001. 100,000 in000 and debt, 202 7488002. Over 100,000 in debt, 202 7488003. We want to know what the debt picture looks like, how concerned you are about it. Marvin is waiting in pueblo, colorado on the line for those over 100,000 in debt. Thank you for waiting. Caller youre welcome. Thanks for cspan. Host what is the debt mostly from . Caller mortgages. Three mortgages. I would like to pull off a corporate operation with one payment. Wouldnt that be nice . That dont happen. Host how long have you carry the mortgages . Caller they are material mortgages. 10 years, 15 years. They were all 30 year mortgages. They are all 15 years old. Im beginning to pay off some of the principal, thank god. If i could bundle them, i could get a better rate and have one payment, wouldnt that be nice . Host do you consider these your investments . Caller of course. My house that i live in is one primary investment. It appraises, 150,000. I o 45,000 on. Of apartments i own, four them are paid for but the other four i o mortgages on and that as 70,000 left on it. Three bedroom house, small mortgage on it, 45,000, and it is a rental property. Host as someone who carries three mortgages, what are your thoughts on the federal government carrying 22 trillion in National Debt and counting . Caller absolutely outrageous, never before in my life have i seen a president giveaway 1 million, i mean, 1 trillion, lets be real, during a good recovery. My god. President barack obama inherited a catastrophe. Wall street was going down. We were losing 800,000 jobs a month when obama took office. This guy inherited a long recovery. Everything was rolling good. He cannot take credit for this economy. That is that. Plain and simple for average folks like me that have common sense. All you have to do is have common horse sense to figure out the things being said and done in america today. We are all americans. Not democrats, not republicans, not independents. We are all americans. Host marvin in pueblo. This is gabrielle in clayton, North Carolina. Caller good morning. Have a considerable amount of debt. The amount is not through credit cards or a mortgage, which i wish was the case, it is through Student Loans as well. I am a millenial. I want to quantify that. I am a military millenial. There is a difference. Tendency, for us in the Younger Generation, there is a lot of explaining happening in the millenial generation. Military millennials dont have that same concept. We have been at war longer than anyone else. My debt is all related to school. It is hard. I hear people like marvin, god bless him, but, his generation had a lot different. Those people were given opportunities that i dont think we have as young people anymore. It is sad to say that. It is really the truth. A lot of it comes down to the laws in place that disenfranchise and make it much harder for people to get ahead. Schools used to not cost that much when the Carter Administration had made a focus on making school debt not an issue. That used to cost 500 a semester to go to college. Year00 to go for an entire at most universities. At my university it is 56,000 a year. Host do you mind saying which university . Caller Duke University school of medicine. Host you are a military millenial. How long did you serve . Caller eight years. Host does the g. I. Bill help you . But it paid for my undergrad, which was helpful then middle scho with medical school, dont get me wrong, it was great, but i had to go in the military for eight years to get that. Post 9 11, 36 months. Effectively, after three years, utility, it is gone. It is the only reason, i am not the first person in my family to go to college but it is the only thing that has allowed me to get to the point i met. Host how long will you be paying off your medical school bills caller jeez. That depends on what type of doctor i become. Great question. Family my colleagues, which is primary care, the tremendous need in this country, most of them are saddled with 16 years of debt. Able them are not able to get a mortgage, because it is so difficult, so hard to get ahead. I worked my tail off every day. I dont know. It is just different. Host what kind of doctor do you want to be . Caller a cardiologist. I like the heart. Host good luck to you, gabriel. Thank you for the call. York on glen oaks, new the line for those with no debt. However you managed . Caller i am 60 years old. 1987, i had two mortgages amounting to 320,000. Could,id everything as i as i went along and increased that. No vacations. No new car, as opposed to other people. Lived below our means. 87 crash, houses were worth less than what we had the mortgage for. We promised ourselves we would get out of debt. We are glad we have done that. Basically, if you can pay off your debt for the Halfway Point of the time of the debt, youre going to save money. If you dont do it for the Halfway Point, youre going to pay pretty much the full book for full term of interest and principal. Host do you think younger americans are willing to do what you did, live below our means, not go on vacations, to get to the position you are in with no debt . Caller i dont think people from what i see today, i dont think people are willing to do that sacrifice and be disciplined. You have to be disciplined. Host does it take some sort of crash or crisis to make people disciplined . Caller i grew up in a family. My wife also, we really didnt have anything. Whatever we worked for, we realized the value. Kids,hat i see today with the way people spend money, these cars and things like that, we have no Credit Card Debt. We pay everything off by the month. Wasbig thing that helped us we did a two jobs and lot of things ourselves. We did not have money to pay people to do things for us. Host timothee, harpers bill, new york, no debt. Debt. yes, i am not in the reason is i had to go bankrupt. Uh. Host what happened with the bankruptcy . Bankrupt. St had to go , i lost everything um, im currently living in my mothers old house. I have to take care of my mother. She passed away. The house came to me. Now i am living in the house. Having a hard time getting by myself now because i um,on disability and uh, there is no reason disability or anything else like that no raise in disability or anything else like that. It is kind of ridiculous. Host how much debt we are carrying when you declared . Caller 35,000. Host what does that do for you Going Forward in terms of credit cards and loans and that sort of thing, having that bankruptcy on your record . Caller i still get the calls from people, credit cards and get meike that, try to onto another credit card and stuff like that. I prefer not to use a credit affordcause i cant even to pay a credit card off, you know . Every month. I am so close to being homeless that it is ridiculous. I feel that the democrats are not doing anything about it. Feel that the government doesnt care about people who are homeless and stuff like that. Democratsdo you blame more than republicans on this issue . Caller well look at california. Are saying about the illegal aliens, take care of them and stuff like that. Democrats from california are not taking care of the american york. And and and in new host that is timothy in new york this morning. 7 30 a. M. On the east coast. We are having this conversation about your personal financial picture. The morning after a deal came together between democrats in congress and the white house and republicans in congress as well. Raising the federal debt ceiling to allow for billions of dollars in additional spending in the coming two years. That dealmaking the front pages of several papers. Washington post, President Trump lauding the bill, saying it will be a two week rush to get that through the house, which leaves after the end of this week and the senate going on august recess next week to get it to the president s desk for a signature. Reaction on capitol hill to the big deal coming together. Craig kaplan, cspans capitol hill producer quoting the chairwoman on the Appropriations Committee saying democrats have insisted on raising unworkable budget caps to make sure congress can responsibly fund the government and uphold the commitment to american families. That is what this agreement does. More reaction, craig kaplan quoting the House Minority leader, mccarthy, saying that the deal is not perfect but compromises a divided government. Nancy pelosi should put this on the floor. More reaction from capitol hill. Mark walker, republican, North Carolina, saying the budget deal, showing a picture of the joker from the batman series burning a pile of money. Other twitter. The newest independent on capitol hill, former republican saying, more spending, more debt, more failure of representation. A few leaders dictate terms to everyone else, they dont care how bad the deal is for america as long as they maintain power. They then bribe and punish others to get it done. More reaction from congress. Mike johnson saying, i encourage President Trump yesterday to hold the line in budget negotiations. Speaker pelosis agenda will drive our nation into bankruptcy unless conservatives demand more physical response ability. Democratic congressman from california saying it is good the deal lifts the ceiling and moves us past the austerity of the budget control act but i remain concerned defense spending has increased 100 billion since President Trump took office and represent 60 of the discretionary federal spending. One more from warren davidson, do,ng, what the bill would that 320 billion in additional spending over the next two years and raising the debt ceiling. Dont bankrupt america. Some of the reaction from capitol hill. On the federal fiscal picture. We are talking about your personal fiscal picture. We want to know how much debt you have. Up bylines for debt split how much you carry. No debt, 202 7488000. Less than 50,000 in debt, 202 7488001. 50,000 to 100,000 in debt, 202 7488002. If you carry over 100,000 in debt, 202 7488003. Let us know how concerned you are about it. Your experience, with debt in this country. Carolina,ston, north below 50,000 in debt. Caller good morning. Host good morning. Caller i wish a lot of luck to gabriel from North Carolina going to duke medical school. I am older than everone else. 74, vietnam veteran. I have worked through all my debt. The only debt i have, i just bought a new truck and i o 30,000, i paid half down on my traded and that is the only debt i have. If i wanted to i could have hated off. Paid it off. A little story. I helped our local credit union programay doing a work in our local high school for seniors going to college. They have 20 stations set up where children, not children but, young adults getting ready to go to college, had to handle financial problems. The one i had was Credit Card Debt. It was amazing. I saw 60 students and everyone got the question wrong. How long would it take to pay off their Credit Card Debt that they rolled up in college just by paying the minimum monthly . It was like 12 years before they could pay it off, was the correct answer. All of them said they could pay it off in three years by paying the minimum amount with finance charges. This is a great school with a private school, the children are more than better off than the average kid going through todays educational system. The curriculum is very good at the school. They had no idea what Credit Card Debt would do to them and how long it would hold them down. Host do you think that is a failure of the school they go to teaching that and having a class on that . Is that a failure of parenting and trying to explain the lessons of debt and the dangers of Credit Card Debt . Caller i would think it is more parent than school. The school is great. I talked to the manager of the credit union. She ran the same thing through other schools in the area. It is a function of parenting, not showing kids exactly how to go through life and pay your watch theird kids parents borrow, borrow, borrow. They think it is the thing to do. I would love to hear on your program, based on today, what an mmter would think of a new budget deal. Host should there be a personalfinance class in college or in high school . Caller in high school. High school. They should have Something Like that going on. Us older baby boomers had to learn the hard, tough way. That is something that should be taught in high school. Youre right. Host thanks for the story. Mike, columbia heights, minnesota, over 100,000 in debt. What kind . Caller ok. Everyone looks at debt differently. Most ofe the home debt, it is home. Soont look at it as, everybody should take a class, because it is how you look at it. You should not have to live below your means your entire life just so you can stay out of debt. That is, i mean, if you want to do that great, it is a free country but you should not have to do that, to me, but i look at my debt as i am never going to own my home but i will have a nice home from getting the quality of life. I dont really have a lot of debt. I have debt within my means so i can pay my debt off, see what im saying . That is how i look at it. Support, thatof it should be a bipartisan deal. I hope they get the bill passed. They should look at another avenue when it comes to debt for the country, with the Social Security system. With the polarization nowadays, a lot of people feel like Social Security is forced and it is not that grander when you finally get your payment. Maybe on both sides of that, they should sit down and seriously look at the way they are doing Social Security, which could benefit the system and benefit how they are doing it because people feel like the forced payments taken out of them which they may or may not get when they get there. Clipped so itd be feels like it is my private ira account which i get to use or transfer and do not necessarily have to be forced to take payments, change some banking laws, i mean, im just trying to be creative. Something systemwide for everybody feeling like they are a part of that system and that they are getting something, encouraging them to want to work, because the more you put in, the more you will get back for yourself. Maybe you will get higher payments based on you putting more in. I dont fully understand the entire Social Security system, so i am not trying to say i do, you know, but i am just giving an ideal out there i feel could increase money within the system. I kind of agree with trump. You have to have key things in place. The debt, yes, it is important. Also, if you dont have boundaries, rules, laws, youre not going to have anything. Anyways. Host thanks. A few callers calling in to talk about Student Loan Debt. Comments on twitter about that topic. Mark writing in, i wonder how many would trade degrees for forgiveness of loans. Steve saying my tuition at today theersity tuition has quadrupled. The other fees add up. The facilities are better than they used to be. Many haveing, too taken degrees they cannot use anyway. We were just talking about the idea of preaching personalfinance in high school. This story from Business Insider about that same topic, according to the council for economic education, annual, survey of states 17 states in u. S. Require students at public high schools take a personalfinance class before they graduate. Economics or civics courses cover personalfinance count for that. Less than 20 years ago, personalfinance education was only mandatory in illinois. Business insider with the story. , lewis, out of Houston Texas on the line for those who carry no debt. How did you manage that . Caller yes. Good morning. What i want to talk about is, we vote every year. Congress, to go up to washington. In the senate. Yet, they dont come up with a balanced budget. What they do is come up with a billion and a half dollars added onto the debt, borrowing money. Why should we borrow money . All of the rich people in the United States. Congress needs to get together and vote to make the rich pay their share of the taxes and businesses pay their share of the taxes. Then we would not have to borrow no money. Host do you feel you pay your fair share of taxes . Caller yes. Everybody pays their fair share of taxes but they cannot balance the budget on the backs of the middle class. They need to balance the budget on the backs of the rich. Then we would not, we would not create no debt. Host is that where you fall, the middle class . Caller yes. That is why i am mad. Rich. X cut for the then they have to borrow money to pay that 15 tax. Host more on that deal yesterday. It will be voted on in the days ahead in the house and senate. This from the Washington Post story, front page, jumping to listing conservatives who have spread outrage about the deal to raise the debt limit and increased federal spending by hundreds of billions of dollars over the next two years. President of the committee for responsible federal budget saying, as we understand it this is an abdication of fiscal responsibility by congress and the president. It may be the worst budget agreement in our nations history. 320 billion in additional spending the white house and nancy pelosi agreed to. We will talk more about that as we go on as we continue to hear from you about your personal fiscal house. We want to know how much debt you carry. Charles, west virginia. Caller good morning. How are you . What a topic. The day after the federal government passes this. It has always been a subject near and dear to me. I will be 68. Just listened to all the callers. A lot of the stuff they say is true. The Younger Generation does not have the same opportunities we did to work for a living. Lifee done my best all my to limit debt. I built two houses myself. I wouldnt get a mortgage at first. [no audio] caller i believe in a credit card. I use it every month and pay it off every month. Why would you not use something people give you money for using . But you have to limit yourself. Said, if you to their bankruptcy, you will get offers. What . 25 to rebuild your credit . I use it every month. I use it for everything i can possibly use it for. Host charles, this from the Federal Reserve, when it comes to unexpected expenses, 2018. Adults surprised 61 of could only cover up to 400 in unexpected expenses . 17 could not pay their monthly bills in full in 2018. One fourth of adults skipped medical care because of the cost. Well, this all comes into one big cycle. Trade and nafta and all that stuff. From what i have seen, in this valley. The Steel Industry is decimated. Into thee back opportunities. You have to be disciplined. This is like the Younger Generation eating out. It is not about food anymore. It is entertainment. They spend all this money. You could spend so much money eating out. It is crazy. You can get better food and eat in but you have to find Something Else to do with your time. Host 15 minutes left in this segment. We want to hear about your personal debt. We have lines split up by the amount of debt you carry. 50,000,below 50,000 100,000 or over 100,000. Keep calling on those lines as we take you across the pond for the moment. Boris johnson succeeded theresa may as the new Prime Minister. The incoming leader faces a bumpy ride amid pressure to get the nations stalled exit from the European Union over the line. Minister will have to deal with the escalating crisis with iran. Johnson, who enjoys a Good Relationship with trump, becomes the 14th Prime Minister to serve under the reign of Queen Elizabeth ii. He will be the third leader who referendum,016 charged with making sure brexit takes place. That news this morning out of london. Back to your calls. This from President Trump on boris johnson, congratulating him on becoming the new Prime Minister. He will be great. Pack your calls, about how much debt you have. Ed, winchester, virginia. Caller thank you. Interesting topic. Bankruptcy in 2012 because of the housing market. I lost my house. I lost everything. Up until that point, i followed all the rules. We paid our mortgage, we paid everything on time. I got sucked into a bad mortgage under the housing bubble and file bankruptcy. 201 my credit score is up unbelievably. I was figuring it out. In debt. 5,000 it is manageable. It is a combination of things. I have a mortgage, on a condo. I have a couple personal loans, Credit Card Debt. Automobile loans. It is a mixture of debt. That is what the credit card companies, the Credit Bureau wants to see. My thing that i see with the problem with that is people dont understand their debt. Downle bankruptcy, i sat and read what exactly the Credit Bureaus look at when they are reading credit. Credit cards are the best thing you can have as long as you dont abuse them. People dont understand their debt. We are set up by the banks to go into debt. Every bank once you to borrow wants you to borrow money from them. An example, lets say, a big Furniture Company has a sale this weekend and you go to buy furniture and your credit is not good enough, we cannot sell you that furniture. They made that decision. You can go around the corner to one of the rental stores that rent to own and that same bank props up that rental company and now rents you that furniture, rent to own at an exorbitant rate and we will take it. America will take that. Our banks are doing that. Host two things. You followed all the rules and yet you had to declare bankruptcy. We get set up by the banks in the system. One of the criticisms about the Financial Sector in the u. S. States that it is rigged. Would you agree . Caller it is very rigged. , everything, do isy, everything banks do what organized crime used to do. Have, drive through parts of any area and you will find companies that will make you a loan for your car title. They will give you 1000 on a car title. People that go in do not have cars worth a lot of value but cars with 2000 3000 a clean title and they will make you along where you will pay 150 interest on that loan. Host thanks. John, boston, massachusetts. Caller john. I would like to start off, i agree with the vietnam veteran from minnesota, i think it was, talking about responsibility. I was pretty well off. Unfortunately, went through a couple left hooks here and there. Bet people have to really responsible as to what their debt is. Do not blame anyone else but yourself i remember in high , the first year in high school my math teacher taught us how to make out 1040 forms for taxes she taught us the responsibility of taking a piece of paper and putting your expenses on one side and your income on the other and you try to balance that stuff. Always be responsible for what you have. I taught my kids that. Hopefully they will stick with it. It is so much easier to get money now than back then. 1950s, really tempted to get themselves into more debt. Everything is so easy to get. Far as bankruptcy host do you think the government should make it harder to get . Is it easier to get because of technology . Caller when youre talking about the government, if the government did do a little more as far as trying but when you look at the government, the debt we are in and how money is spent, i think that could be a lot more responsible, then they have been in the past. That is how you get into the problem. Bankruptcy, being my age, when this all happened, and it was a couple things, a divorce, things i could say, yeah, that was my fault we got into that and that is how i started losing a lot of the money i had, i did have a lot. I also had property. Thet now, even my kids, first thing they said to me was, file bankruptcy, dad. I just wouldnt do it. The secret, if i could just go on a couple minutes was, the first thing you have to do is you have to look in the mirror and say, i have to, this is my responsibility, i have to change this. I went to my credit union. I went to the deabtors. It was mostly charge cards. Once i got into the divorce, everything started going south. Along with the stock market, i lost a lot of money. Them,to sit down and tell before i ever filed bankruptcy, i will go to every debtor, the first thing i will let them know is, i am embarrassed i am in this position but it is my responsibility and i will handle it. Including the federal government and my state government, i owed them money, i sat down with them, talking to people, whether it was i to i or on the phone, i had toeye to eye, but i go through that process. I discussed it with them. Through areements little bit of negotiating. Here is my debt. This is what i can do. I am not a deadbeat. If i have to send you 100 a month, whatever, i will get myself out of that debt. Host thanks. Mike out of new york on the line for those who carry over 100,000 in debt. What kind of debt is it . And a carmortgage payment. The real issue is spending. Not debt. Federal spending is entitlement spending. Neither party wants to touch it. That is the real issue. All these college kids calling up about college loans, you can go into the army and for every year of enlistment you give them, they pay off 1 3 of the total college loans. Host what would you say to the caller from North Carolina who used the g. I. Bill for undergrad, now in medical school, i believe he was also in the over 100,000 debt area . Caller if you are in medical school, for every four years to give the u. S. Army, they pay year per year off. Direct commission medical officer. Host steve is on the line for those with no debt out of North Carolina. Caller good morning. I have been debt free for a while. Years,t school for 31 started in 1974. I always taught my kids, my students, plan to work and work to plan. That is what i did. I bought my first home in 1980. I bought my second home in 1994, paid cash for it. I have since sold that since i retired, bought another home, put a considerable amount of money in the bank and i have my retirement and Social Security. It was all because i have a plan. If you come up with a plan, you can do it. Thanks. Host charlie is in perrys bill, indiana, for those who have between 50,000 and 100,000 in debt. Caller we have an economy based on 70 , consumerism. People many [indiscernible] breakdown and they lost everything. How much money did the American Government make off of the penalty they charge people when they had to [indiscernible] 401 k plan . Have you ever heard of that . Host i dont know the number off the top of my head. You think it should have been forgiven in a bad economy . Caller the thing is they could do more to help people. Withave people coming up housing plans where they can get cheap houses for people to get into. As long as they can keep us in a consumer attitude, keep buying, just like the guy said earlier, it was rigged. When you have a system based on money and they are making money at the top, any time you spend money at the bank or anywhere, they are making more money. Every time you spend one dollar, they are making a percentage off that money and as long as you have that tilted to their favor, it is never going to change. The American People have the ability to take and by boycotting you know, you go to the gas station, it is . 20 cheaper five miles down the road. That should not be. People should get together, the American People and control this. Spending habits. As long as they play the game and the government is making money when they charge people for misfortunes, they create it. Host eugene, coventry, connecticut, no debt, good morning. Caller hello. My name is eugene. And um i dont have any debt. I buy cars for 1000. Car but we a better paid off our mortgage, early. I want to talk about how debt is created for everyone. It has to do with the u. S. Banking system. Private bankers that come out of wall Street Control the fed. Is Federal Reserve system not publiclyit is controlled bye bankers. When the u. S. Floats its debt. Ands always with interest rates. President lincoln, during an emergency situation, he changed out of desperation, and he floated greenbacks. There was no interest with the greenbacks. The federal government paid for things that they needed on more if you look at the u. S. Green party its platform, you will see a plan to get us out of debt and change the control by the banking system. Which, is a ripoff and is not constitutional. Host that is eugene and connecticut. Our last color in the first segment of the washington journal today journal today. The next hour and a half, we will focus on those highprofile hearings tomorrow in the house, featuring Robert Mueller. We will talk with Andrew Desiderio of politico, and Morgan Chalfant first. Later, we will be joined by Mattathias Schwartz a contributing writer for gq and the New York Times magazine, on the life and career of mr. Mueller. We will be right back. Robert mueller testifies to conker congress on possible obstruction of justice and abuse of power by President Trump, and russian interference in the 2016 president ial election. Live coverage starts at 8 30 a. M. On cspan3, online at cspan. Org, or listen wherever you are with the free cspan radio app. For the hearing, listen to the entire Mueller Report at cspan. Org on your laptop or mobile device. Type muller report audio at the type of the page Mueller Report audio at the top of the page. 50 years ago, on july 24, 19 59, apollo 1969, the 11 module was recovered in the pacific ocean. Cspan. Org and type apollo 11 in the search bar for our apollo 11 anniversary coverage. Watch our live coverage as the nations governors meet in alect city, friday, starting 9 15 eastern, recognizing americas space program. At 9 30, a conversation about safer and smarter roads. After 1 00 p. M. Eastern, improving infrastructure with larry hogan, the National Live ons association cspan two and cspan. Org, or listen with the free cspan radio app. Announcer an cspan3 president ial leadership surveys, taken between 2000 and 2017, Grover Cleveland drops from 17th to 20 third place. Ulysses s grant makes the most dramatic rise of all of the president s, going from the 33rd two the 22nd spot. What is your favorite president rank . Learn about the leadership skills and lives of the chief executives in cspans the president. Available wherever books are sold or at cspan. Org thepre sidents. Announcer washington journal continues. Host and now, a roundtable discussion on the Robert Mueller hearings taking center stage on capitol hill tomorrow. Joining us for this discussion this morning is Morgan Chalfant on national our National Security for the held news paper, Andrew Desiderio from politico. This gets underway at 8 30 a. M. Tomorrow and the House Judiciary Committee explain what they will be covering. Guest they will focus on volume two of the report, exclusively on the idea the president was seeking to obstruct the mother investigation. A lot of democrats, even the chairman of the committee, jerry nadler, said the evidence is clear the president at least sought to obstruct the investigation. The decision was made not to charge the president with a crime in part because of the office of Legal Counsel opinion that we have been talking about that states you cannot indict a sitting president. The only way to hold a sitting president accountable would be outside of the criminal justice system. Those are the Judiciary Committee issues. The big issue that will be on everyones mind is impeachment and whether the House Judiciary Committee will move toward that immediately after the hearing. That remains to be he seen. Host take us through the formats of the hearing. Guest it will be three hours, which is a little shorter than usual. The hearing was supposed to be last week and even shorter than that. It was supposed to be two hours, but the committee was able to negotiate with special counsel mueller for more time, an extra hour, allowing, they believe, all Committee Members to ask questions. If it was two hours, the bottom rung of the committee would not be able to question mueller. Tomorrow, it will be a regular hearing, mueller will make Opening Statements, and the doj will not see the Opening Statement in advance. We dont know when he will submit the statement, but those are things we will watch for. Host explain the order of questions here and who sits on the top wrong versus the bottom rung. Guest the top wrong is the most senior members of the committee, folks who have served in committee for the longest. The bottom is mostly the freshman members and those who were just place on the committee of this congress. They were concerned they might not be able to ask questions, which is why we are having the hearing tomorrow instead of last wednesday. Essentially, it will be a regular hearing in a sense that they hope all members will be able to ask questions. As a general rule that each member gets to ask questions for five minutes. It depends of republicans or even democrats might try to filibuster that and sort of push the time back and prevent more junior members from asking questions. As currently scheduled, they should get five minutes. Host will the public be allowed in and what are the rules for the media . Guest the public will be allowed in, but it is a small room. It will be a little difficult in that sense, and the media will be allowed in. I believe they are allowing one person per outlets. It will be a really small room. The media will come in, the public will come in, i remember the last time we had a hearing like this. I think morgan and i were sitting next to each other. It was the Michael Cohen hearing. That one was such a small room, you could feel the tension in the room because everybody was on pins and needles listening to every word Michael Cohen said. I thing that feeling and since we got during that hearing will be exponentially greater when Robert Mueller enters the room. Host that is the Judiciary Committee starting at 8 30 a. M. Tomorrow. We will aerate live here on cspan and on cspan air its live here on cspan3 and on cspans radio app. New, the action turns to the house Intelligence Committee. Explain what they will be looking at and why. Guest there will be a short break and the Intel Committee will convene in the same room. They will be focused on volume one of the report, which analyzes russian attempts to interfere in the election and Trump Campaign parts contact figures,ia, primary and i expect lawmakers to drill on those contacts, and democrats , why they believe them to raise National Security risks or implications, and why they see the contacts as nefarious. Mueller did not charge anyone associated with the campaign with conspiring with russia to interfere in the election, but the democrats say many of those contacts or troubling. The Trump Campaign sought russia they welcomed the wikileaks releases of Hillary Clintons emails, so i expect them to drill down on that. Host why will they be in the same room, and does that change the format for the smaller Intelligence Committees and larger Judiciary Committee . Guest that was part of the agreement they struck when they came to Robert Mueller. As andrew mentioned, they pushed back the hearing under a new agreement, which allow the Judiciary Committee more time. The Intel Committee will get two hours, the original agreement. That will give every member to ask a chance to ask questions. Everyone will have fiveminute rounds. The Intel Committee is much smaller than judiciary, 22 members. Host the chairman of the Intel Committee, how do you think his style is different than the chairman of the Judiciary Committee. Guest one thing interesting about the Intelligence Committee is that most or much of its work is conducted behind closed doors and classified sessions. Do chairman has tried to more public hearings. I think we have had a couple, including a few, focused on the mother investigation and russian interference mother investigation and russian erterference muell investigation and russian interference. It is proceeding second. I think we will get a lot of tower from the first hearing. Even in that switchover, though it is in the same room, will they change out the members of the public allowed in and what does that mean for Media Coverage . Guest im not sure about the public. The Media Coverage will stay the same. I believe the public will get their seats clutched to them as the hearing proceeds. The media, as andrew said, one chair per outlet. I think it was first come first serve, so some outlets might have been left short if they did not rsvp. Host some information on the two committees where these hearings will be taking place tomorrow morning, starting with the House Judiciary Committee. 41 members, 21 democrats, 17 republicans. 33 members hold law degrees. 18 democrats do and 15 republicans do. Three members of the committee sit on the Intelligence Committee. John radcliffe is a republican. There are 11 freshmen, seven democrats and four republicans. The oldest member is 76 years old, republican from wisconsin. Er is 35 years youngest member is 35 years old. Member, and the oldest member on that committee is peter welch. A democrat fro vermont. The youngest member is 35 years old. We are previewing those hearings in this hour of the washington journal and we want to hear your questions and comments to the reporters covering the ins and outs of the mother of or Mueller Report. ,epublicans are 202 7488000 democrats are 202 7488001, independents are 202 7488002. Take us through the story that you are part of, andrew. The Justice Department telling mueller to limit his report. Guest we knew even before yesterday Robert Mueller was not comfortable testifying beyond the four corners of his report. He stated that publicly on may 29. He even resisted the idea of testifying in the first place, which is why he had to be subpoenaed. The doj has communicated to mueller that when you testify on wednesday, your testimony must remain within the bounds of your report. You cant talk about the deliberative process, why you reached certain legal conclusions, the evidence you gather, how you gathered it. A lot of that is classified, and would have been shield in any way, but democrats are trying to get at specific questions for special counsel mueller, including the main overarching question which is this idea of whether mueller would have charged the president with obstruction of justice if donald trump was not sitting in the oval office. That goes to what i mentioned, the office of Legal Counsel opinion, things you cannot indict a sitting president. This is a directive from the doj to Robert Mueller that reaffirms his personal, previous bowel which says i would not vow which says i would not go beyond the previous report. Host isnt rubber mold of the isnt Robert Mueller the former special counter . Guest mueller is a private citizen now, so he doesnt have to abide by the doj. This is in line with what he has already said, he said his report is his testimony. He will not engage in hypotheticals about the president , so that is why you dont expect them to answer any version of that question, would trump have been indicted if you want president. Its consistent with what mueller has said, but im sure democrats will be angry at the doj because the doj is seen as trying to limit muellers testimony, even if he wants to go outside of the confines of the report. , if hendrew desiderio does do that, is there a way the department of justice can enforce the objective. Guest they are relying on mueller to self police. It is a public hearing, so there is nothing stopping a member of the department of justice, a lawyer from the doj, from going into the hearing and being there, but this individual will not be sitting at the table with mueller, lodging objections to certain questions. We have seen the administration do that with other witnesses testifying before the Judiciary Committee as part of the obstruction investigation. They will, as far as we know, not have recourse or means to prevent mueller from answering questions. It looks like they will rely on him to self police remarks. Host you both mentioned about what Robert Mueller said he what said what he would and would not do. That is the moment from the may press conference in which he talked about this. I expect this to be the only time i will speak to you in this manner. Myselfking that decision , no one has told me whether i can or should testify cant or should testify or speak further about this matter. There has been discussion about an appearance before congress. Any testimony from this office would not go beyond our report. Findings andur analysis, and the reasons for the decisions. We chose those words carefully, and the work speaks for itself. The report is my testimony. I would not provide information beyond that which is already public in any appearance before congress. In addition, access to the underlying work product is being decided in a process that does not involve our office. Beyond what ive said here today, and what is contained in our written work, i do not believe it is appropriate for me to speak further about the investigation, or to comment on the actions of the Justice Department or congress. For that reason, i will not be taking questions today as well. Host thats Robert Mueller taking questions tomorrow starting at 8 30 in the House Judiciary Committee. You can watch it on cspan3 and here on cspan live coverage starting at 8 30 in the morning tomorrow. This morning, we are chatting about that hearing, previewing it here and taking your phone calls. We are chatting with Morgan Chalfant with the hill newspaper and Andrew Desiderio from politico. This is jeffrey out of auburn, new york. A democrat. Jeffrey, go ahead. Jeffrey, are you with us this morning . Caller yes i am. I have two comments. The first is a comment on the profitability of the Mueller Investigation. I believe there is about a 10 return on what we spend on this investigation, which was in the neighborhood of 180 million. I believe the last stat i heard was forfeitures and fines equal 210 million, which is a 10 return on investment, a pretty good return if you ask me. The second comment is, a joke, and i believe it is totally clean. What is the difference between arguing a point with a republican and banging your head against a brick wall . Host dont make me regret it. What is your answer . Caller at least, when you quit banging your head against a brick wall, one mind was changed. Host that is a democrat in new york. Andrew desiderio on the cost of the molar investigation. Guest i think he is referring of hispresident , one criticisms is a waste of taxpayer funds. If you look at what was seized as part of the investigation, the prosecution, Paul Manafort and the fines levied against individuals, it has made money for the u. S. That cuts across the president s main criticism. I think it was Paul Manaforts trump tower apartment which the government now owns. He had suits that costed thousands and thousands of dollars. Not sure who is going to get them, but that is another example of how this investigation has made money. Host to make sure we have the numbers right, i think the viewer was talking about hundreds of millions of dollars, and i think the cost is more in the tens of millions of dollars. In september of last year, the number that sticks out is 25 million. Guest and of course that was last september. The investigation stretched into march. I expected was more than that, 25 somewhere in the range of million to 35 million. Host walter is a republican. Good morning. Caller thank you for taking my call and i appreciate the guests they guest and the information they will provide. I heard that three years, after the mother report is out ler reportrt muel is out, trump would get impeached. You had the wolves against trump. Person, every single this evidence, wait until you see it. The day comes and they are ready to go with collusion, collusion, and then you heard a big poof. Everything was quiet, they looked around at each other like, wait a minute, what did they say . They were jumping up and down, and now we are doing these rounds again. To me, the only collusion, the way i seen it, was when hillary delsea paid for a fake fake dossier. And the pfizer court never said it was a dossier eight up by foreign intelligence agents, and hillary used it. It is comical and will be a dog and pony show. They will say we got him again been nobody has again, lets nobody has n i wish these knuckleheads on the democrats side would get together and work with the president for the good of the country. Host i got your point, walter. This is volume one of the molar report Mueller Report about conspiracy. The investigation establish multiple links between the Trump Campaign officials and individuals tied to the russian government. Those legs included russian offers of assistance to the campaign in some instances. The campaign was receptive to the offer, and in other instances, the campaign shied away. They did not establish the campaign coordinated or conspired with the russian government in its election interference activities. Guest i will say the term collusion, muellers report said evaluateot did not conclusion. He evaluated conspiracy. Theefines coordination, and investigation did not charge anyone associated with the Trump Campaign with conspiring with russia to interfere in the elections. Mueller notes that members of the Campaign Welcomed wikileaks ils, your mail releases email releases, and sought more information about them. It is more than a blackandwhite issue of whether the campaigns compared come or colludedd with russia. What he found in terms of the contacts and how congress is focused on how you make it so this sort of thing doesnt happen again, in terms of a Foreign Government interfering in the election, and how we bolster our laws so people report any efforts that could be part of that foreign interference. Host this was President Trump from the oval office yesterday, asked about his thoughts about tomorrows molar hearings mueller hearings. Pres. Trump , no i wont be watching. I wont be watching mueller, because you cant take all of those bites out of the apple. We had no collusion, no obstruction, no nothing. We had a total no collusion finding. The democrats were devastated by it. They went crazy and got off of the deep end. They are not doing health care or anything, not doing infrastructure, not lowering drug prices. Im lowering drug prices. The first time in 53 years at drug prices went down last year. 53 years, and im doing it without the help of congress, which makes it tougher to do, because if they worked with us, i could get drug prices down to half, but the democrats dont care about drug prices. All they care about is a phony investigation where the report was written. Its a no collusion. The report was written, and the attorney general, based on the report, was able to find there was no obstruction. There was no nothing. They are wasting their time. Robert mueller, i know he is conflicted. Hes got a lot of conflicts, including the fact that his best friend is comey, but he has big conflict with me. As you know, he wanted the job of the fbi director and did not get it. We had a business relationship where i said no, and i would say he was not happy. All of a sudden, he gets this position. You know what, he still rules and i respect him for it. He still ruled no collusion, no obstruction, and this thing should have ended a long time ago. This has been going on for 2. 5 years. We will never allow this to happen to another president again. Host that was President Trump yesterday in the oval office. Andrew desiderio, a lot there. Guest no collusion, no obstruction. That is what the president has set ever since the report came out. Mueller said neither of those things. The first point, collusion was never evaluated. Collusion is not a legal term or anything part of the deliberative process when you are racing a prosecutorial decision. What mueller did say is that there was not enough evidence to charge a vast conspiracy with the russians interfering in the american election. That is the first part. The second part, mueller said no obstruction. He said this report does not exonerate the president , and if we had confidence the president did not commit a crime, we would have so stated. Host the exact wording from all you too, if we had confidence after a thorough investigation of the facts of the president clearly did not commit obstruction of justice, we would so state, based on the facts and applicable standards, we were unable to reach that judgment accordingly. While this does not conclude that the president committed the crime, it does not also exonerate him. Guest mueller laid out one dozen potential instances of obstruction of justice. At least five of which met three elements required for an obstruction of justice charge. Mueller was saying donald trump, in these instances, again, this is an allegation essentially, he met all three elements that would be required in order to charge someone with obstruction of justice. In the next section, he went his legal theories and mentioned the office of Legal Counsel opinion, which states you cannot indict a sitting president. That is what the report said. It is easy for the president and his political allies to dismiss it all as no collusion and no obstruction, which is an over simplification and mostly false. Host one thing from the president s statement, the business relationship with Robert Mueller, what is he referring to . Guest i think it is something to do with mueller and his golf club and a membership of some sort. Host the Trump Golf Club . Guest i think. Im not entirely sure. I know it is something to do with a golf club. He said mueller was angry because he didnt get the fbi job. Remember, Christopher Wray had said and spoken highly about Robert Mueller. Folks across the aisle speak highly about Robert Mueller, so when people say he is highly conflicted or has members on his Campaign Investigation that have donated to democrats, there is no evidence that motivated them in a biased way. And he is a registered republican. Host Christopher Wray will be on capitol hill today before the senate Judiciary Committee, one of the oversight hearings on the fbi. We are airing that live on 10 00 a. M. On cspan3 and cspan radio. You can watch it on cspan. Org. There is speculation that that might be a preview for lines of questioning for tomorrow, for Robert Mueller. Our next caller is out of arkansas, democrat. Good morning. Caller hello. I guess i would like [indiscernible] i dont think they will get much out of mr. Mueller. Refused to come up and testify, barr, and they wouldnt have gotten anything out of them anyway. Talk guys know how to around questions and use the time up. I think the man they need to subpoena and get up there is alan weiss oberg. He was mentioned by Michael Cohen when he testified before the Judiciary Committee. He is a moneyman in the trump organization. Michael mentioned him several times cohen mentioned him several times. I dont know why they havent called him up there. It has been three months since cohen was there and they havent burg yet. Isl these professionals like mueller, that is a waste of time. Youll be watching anyway guys know what happened with the Deutsche Bank subpoenas that they were supposed to get trump s income tax records from them. I lost track of that. Host Andrew Desiderio, you are shaking your head there. Guest thats right. The House Oversight ashley house Intelligence Committee and the house Financial Services Committee House Intelligence Committee and the house initial Services Committee one that case, but it is going through the appeals process. We should get a ruling in the next couple of months. It is unlikely the challenge would go to the supreme court, but as of now, the president will lose that case. There is a separate one for maize are partial usa maizar s usa. They also won that case and it is going through the appeals process. It looks like House Democrats are on solid legal ground in requesting this information, but right now, we are waiting for it to go through the court system. Host the caller talked about who he hopes will testify before the house judiciary and Intelligence Committee. Here is a running list of who has testified on the russia investigation. On the Judiciary Committee, since 20, we have heard from ,eff sessions, Rod Rosenstein Christopher Wray and Rod Rosenstein testified together, Matt Whitaker testified in february of 2019. Hope picks testified behind closed doors. For the Judiciary Committee, people they havent heard from mcgahn,iam barr and don the White House Former white house attorney. Explain why we havent heard from them. Barr, the Judiciary Committee wanted staff to question him. Barr agreed to testify, as he did with the Judiciary Committee following the conclusion of muellers investigation, but he did not that she objected to the fact that the committee wanted Committee Staff to question him, so he invaded the appearance. They havent revisited that. With mcgann, they subpoenaed him in may and he did not show up on obstruction from trump, which, waving a Legal Counsel opinion, mcgahn was immune from testimony. They are preparing to go to court to enforce the subpoena, but we have not seen a lawsuit yet, probably because the houses overwhelmed with fighting other legal battles. Host for the Intelligence Committee since 2017, viewers will remember that former chairman, the republican chairman of the committee at the time, devin nunes, launched his russia investigation in 2017. A lot of testimony behind closed doors. George kushner, michael stone, devin nunes released his report on the russian report in 2018. Since the new chairman has taken over, a new investigation, Michael Cohen has testified behind closed doors. Guest felix seiter is a russian born businessman who was the main negotiator of the trump tower moscow project. With the Michael Cohen situation, one of the reasons he was behind bars was that he lied to the house Intelligence Committee about the timing of the negotiation surrounding the moscow project. Felix seiter came in last month and he overslept his first appearance area he claims he overslept, but he came under subpoena, the committee claims he has not provided the documents required under that subpoena, but he is a key player in this whole issue of how the donaldrganization and trump being involved in the campaign trying to create this brandnew vast real estate project in moscow. Host robert is in pennsylvania, a republican. Good morning. Caller good morning and thank you for taking my call. I have this to say. I would like to know how much more money of the taxpayers of the democrats are going to spend beating a dead horse. The Mueller Investigation was done, it is over with. Move on. They are only trying to keep this fresh because they think that that will let people vote for the democrats instead of President Trump, and they are wrong. Host that is robert from pennsylvania. Morgan chalfant, we talked about the cost of the Mueller Investigation. Do we know about the cost of Committee Probes on russia . Guest im not sure of the cost, but i will say that one thing democrats have hammered across is that they want to have these hearings, particularly with mueller, so the public knows what it in the report. We know not a lot of people are reading the report. It is 448 pages of legal jargon, and i think they want to bring aspects of muellers report to light so that the public is more informed. That is why they see an important in this, and really forward on investigation on the president s conduct, particularly because mueller said he did not even answer the question or approach the question of whether trump engaged in criminal wrongdoing because of the Justice Department legal opinion. Host staying in pennsylvania, sandy, independent, good morning. Caller thank you for taking my call. I have been listening, and i read the report. Im one of the 3 of american citizens who read the report. That reports can be interpretative so many different ways, just like the bible is. My point is, when you hear everybody saying, but there was obstruction, the obstruction, in my opinion, if they dig into the obstruction, they will find that there is dirty hands on the democrats side. Im tired of this. I am an independent and will not tell you who i voted for, or who im planning to vote for, but this will turn into a circus yet again tomorrow, maybe not in the morning, but the minute the afternoon session starts, it will be bashing trump. Just like they did with cavanaugh kavanaugh. Host why do you think its more likely in the house Intelligence Committee rather than the house judiciary . Guest because they seem to be caller because they seem to be more vocal in trump eight and their supporters. Didid any that your opinion change from before you read it to after you read it . Caller before i read it, i was on the democratic side. After i read it, i am now fully in support of President Trump. Host that is sandy in pennsylvania. Andrew desiderio, what do you want to take from it. Guest first off, i have not heard someone acknowledge like that that they have read the Mueller Report, at least a member of the general public. Even members of congress have not they have admitted on the record that they have not fully read the report. What i will say is that it is 448 pages, difficult to get through, reporters like us have read through it and picked it apart because it is necessary for our jobs and the investigations going on on capitol hill, but i think one thing the democrats are worried about is the criticism we just heard, this idea you are trying to relitigate the 2016 election, the idea democrats are essentially trying to do this to impeach the president. Democrats feel like even if they dont impeach the president , they can do a public airing of these allegations so the American Public can be more informed about the president s alleged actions and the democrats can help in the 2020 election. That is Nancy Pelosis approach. You can wound donald trump enough politically. One of the criticisms is that it might go too far. Host in terms of seeing it and hearing it, as opposed of reading it. He are two editorials in todays national papers. Usa today editorial board, get ready for the audio version of the molar report is the title Mueller Report is the title of their editorial. I want to hear your thoughts on phone lines for democrats, republicans, and independents. Segment,s left in this but we will continue talking about the Mueller Report. Florida, an democrat. Good morning. Caller greetings. , and a koreanold war veteran. I dont want to grow under the grass until trump is no longer a factor. Quotes i wishief to put on the table for comment. The first two are from john adams the second adams, the second president of the United States. Host why dont we just go with those two. Go ahead. Caller the first one, our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. The second quote, remember, democracy never lasts long. Exhausts, and, murders itself. Yete never was a democracy that did not commit suicide. Host that is worn in florida. Asking viewers to respond to that as well, as we ask viewers to call in with your questions and comments about tomorrows highprofile Robert Mueller hearings at 8 30. You can watch it here on cspan, on cspan3 as well, and cspan. Org, listen to it on the free cspan radio app. Kathy in cuyahoga falls, ohio. An independent. Good morning. Caller thank you. Im so glad i got through. I wanted to say, to me, it is a nobrainer to do an impeachment investigation. I think what really bothers me is that these things they are saying that trump and his people dead were in pursuit of becoming president , so the limitation of not being able to indict a appealnt, i think we can to not have to abide by that, because of the things he did were in pursuit of becoming president , so for him to hide behind the presidency and not be indicted seems wrong to me, and i would love to hear your comment on that. Host thats morgan on the limitation host Andrew Desiderio host Morgan Chalfant on that. Guest that is what mueller has said, preventing him from answering the question on whether or not trump engaged in criminal wrongdoing. He said because of the longstanding olc opinion the a sitting president that a that the olc opinion sitting president cant be indicted. Host what is that . Guest it is the office of Legal Counsel at the department. So not reaching a conclusion, one way or another on that, as andrew mentioned, the report specifically states it does not exonerate trump, but mueller has not said explicitly if it indict meant an indictment. Whats a lot of people have on their mind, and i dont expect euler to report it. Host our next caller is a democrat. Good morning. Caller thank you for taking my call. One question i would like mueller to be asked is, why did he take this job if he is so shy or timid about talking about his work . Thank you, and i will listen to your comments about that, please. Host Andrew Desiderio on the personality of Robert Mueller. Guest weve heard from lawmakers who have grilled mueller in the past as he served as fbi director for 12 years. He knows what he is doing on capitol hill. He mastered the art of the dodge, as i have written before, and he has been described as someone who is a creature of the department. He is someone who believes it is not his job to satisfy the partisan wishes of either party. It is his job to put out the facts and let everyone else decide for themselves. That is part of his philosophy. Or, what is governing his philosophy at least, initially not wanting to testify before congress. It had to come to a subpoena for him. He had to be subpoenaed for him to come before congress. He would not want to defy a subpoena, so he complied, and entered into a negotiation. Known as a rule what the adhering to Justice Department wants and what he believes is the overarching philosophy of the Justice Department, an independent agency and that officials should not try to satisfy the partisan wishes of either party. Host Robert Mueller has 152 videos in the cspan archive if you want to check out those and see what it is like for Robert Mueller to testify on capitol hill. Heres one example of that, before the house to gia sherry House Judiciary Committee. This will be an 2012, in exchange of bobby scott bobby using torture. The United States participated in waterboarding, a practice which has an International Consensus constituting torture. What was the fbi participation in that practice . None. And why was the fbi not participating . Is that because our guidelines, the guidelines we adopted some years ago preclude our participation. And did you issue an order for them not to participate in what is generally perceived to be torture . The guidance was make certain that we follow our guidelines when it comes to interrogation persons in our custody or the custody of others. Preventedr conscience the fbi from participating in torture, is that right . I dont want to characterize. Our guidelines precluded it and our guidance was follow guidelines. Host Andrew Desiderio host Morgan Chalfant, what should we take from that exchange . Guest it is classic Robert Mueller from one members of congress and people who know him and worked with him say about him. He is very by the book. You can tell his language, he is very good at dodging questions, it is very formal, talking about the guidance and not talking about his conscience or opinions. That is what i expect tomorrow. It remind me of his press conference on may 29 and reminds me of statements from his report. I think tomorrow will be a heated hearing, emotional, we will have lawmakers trying to get him off of his feet at times probably. I dont think he will respond to that or engage in it. This is something that has somebody that has had so much practice and preparation ahead of this hearing. Former fbi chief, the professional he always has been, and really try to preserve the nonpolitical, just the facts persona. Host more coming up in about 15 minutes on the personality and life of rubber mueller. We will be joined by Robert Mueller. We will be joined by Mattathias Schwartz, who has written a profile on Robert Mueller and interviewed many of the people who have worked with him over the years. Stick around for that discussion at the top of the hour at 9 00 a. M. Eastern. Isaac is in baltimore, maryland. An independent. Good morning. Caller i have a comment and a question. Has an independent that read the Mueller Report as well. Two things, i hear a lot of your colors talking about the whole colors talking about the whole no collusion callers talking about no collusion. The first thing you will learn, rubber mueller, was never trying to Robert Mueller, was never trying to investigate collusion. Mueller, during the report, was trying to figure out how russian interfered with our election, and to see if there were any u. S. Citizens that conspired, from the legal term, with russia. If that did not happen, what we did find out was that there was ethical problems that were rehashed on people arrested, but the one thing i saw was that, before donald trump became president , and after he became president , there was a serious ethical lapse of judgment from the entire Trump Campaign from the top down. Because of that ethical lapse of judgment, it warrants at least an impeachment inquiry. Heres my question. My question is that, what do american citizens do if we are being shown, factually, that a culture can have a certain level of courage, do whatever they want to do, and get away with it. How are we, as american citizens, supposed to continue to be correct citizens and abide by the law, if we are being shown that not only can a person possibly commit a crime, but then when they commit a crime, obstruction of justice or didnt find solution but we see obstruction of justice host do you think impeachment should be on the table right now . Caller i believe impeachment an impeachment inquiry should be on the table. After reading the report, i saw what i would think as obstruction of justice before and after he became president. Host Andrew Desiderio on impeachment coming up at tomorrows earrings. Guest the chairman of the committee, jerry nadler, argued in private to speak and speaker nancy pelosi, that he believes an impeachment inquiry is warranted right now. He has not said that publicly, because he wants to stay in the good graces of the speaker and they dont want to bounce off of each other in that respect. One thing nadler has been mentioning is the idea that the office of Legal Counsel opinion about not indicting a sitting president essentially means youre putting the president above the law because you say the president could commit crimes, not to be indicted or charged with a criminal or a crime rather, but when Congress Tries to investigate, you are not allowing congress to do its work to hold the president accountable outside of the criminal justice system. The one way to hold him accountable outside of the system is impeachment. That is the argument nadler has been making publicly, but in private, he is gone further to Speaker Pelosi saying he things its time to start an inquiry. After tomorrow, we will know more about what the dynamics are on impeachment. I have a feeling more democrats will come out in favor of impeachment. It is below 50 . If it goes above 50 , that doesnt necessarily put any pressure on Speaker Pelosi. She believes not only is impeachment bad for the country and to divisive, but she believes it could hand the president a political gift ahead of his reelection. We already see him touting the results of last weeks impeachment voting, where only 95 members of the house, all democrats, voted against tabling al greens impeachment resolution. He is already trying to say they are exonerating and quitting me acquitting me. That is what Speaker Pelosi is worried about. Host bob out of daisy town, pennsylvania. Republican. Morning. Caller thank you for taking my call. My comment is, im sitting through the news channel and jerry nadler gave an interview. His questions were basically the three things they are looking one isimpeach president , having to have inclusion, and the third one that was interesting was they are stating a mock trial today and are going r questions and will have reading from the script. He wants to influence the American People. He said hes not looking for information, but rather to influence the American People, so if there is an impeachment, that there is in america. Could either of you clarify on the three things that congress is looking for to make this accessible on their part . Host im pretty sure we havent seen that interview, because we have been here at the top of the hour at 8 00 a. M. Morgan chalfant, perhaps you can talk to that . Guest we heard last week republicans were staging a mock hearing to go through their questions. Democrats are doing that today to prepare. I think one thing Many Democrats have said is that they dont necessarily expect the hearing tomorrow to yield new information. But, they say it could be productive because it will eliminate pieces of the report that the public doesnt know because it is such a large report and was released all at once. And, a lot of americans have not read it. I think that is where you get nadler and others saying we might not yield new information from mueller because he said he will stay within the confines of the report, but we will make sure the public is aware of x, y, and c in the report z in the report with respect to Michael Cohen, Paul Manafort, and i think you will see mueller being asked to restate portions of his report and go through analyst asians. Host the color brings of jerrold nadler, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, served 15 terms in congress and represents new yorks 10th district. He took over from a former congressman in november of 2017. He served 16 years in the new York State Assembly before congress. He has a law degree from fordham law. Hes the Ranking Member on the House Judiciary Committee. Georgesins represents ninth district republican, served three terms in the Georgia House of representatives, a former baptist pastor and practicing u. S. Air force reserve chaplain. His law degree comes from atlantas John Marshall law school. We will be hearing from them starting at 8 30 tomorrow and we will be there for it on cspan and cspan3. , asrage begins at 8 30 a. M. Well as cspan. Org. You can listen to it on the cspan radio app. Well is in cincinnati, ohio. A line for democrats. Go ahead, will. Caller i want to thank cspan. I dont know where i would be without cspan, but what i the report,y was the Mueller Report, first of all, i think mueller, when he wrote the letter to william barr , he expressed a lot of angst did inhat barr characterizing his report. He didntr know that cover the important points about the report, and i think that allows democrats to have an advantage going into the hearing. I think they will know what they already know, mueller has been disappointed on how barr has characterized his report. At two muellers credit, he requested to muellers credit, he requested the doj give him guidelines before the he goes into the hearing, which i thought was surprising, but to his credit, he did that. I think that bodes well for democrats. Host thanks for bringing that up. Andrew desiderio, rewind the tape on the interactions between mueller and barr at the end of his investigation. Guest what the caller was getting at was this idea that democrats will probably try to pit are against mueller pit barr against mueller. Dontd mueller said i feel like your summary after the full scope of our investigation and it wasnt until a month later, or a few weeks later after that that the full redacted version of the report came out. We know there is tension between mueller onbarr and the legal conclusions mueller led to. Barr stated a lot of that publicly. He said i didnt agree with a lot of the conclusions and mueller has not on so publicly. Democrats will try to make william barr the bogeyman, serving as the president s defense lawyer. They said he was trying to put up propaganda when he put out the four page summary which, in their view, didnt capture the full nature of the investigation. I dont think mueller will engage on that, because if we are saying as we are saying before, the clip we saw with bobby scott and rubber mueller, euler Robert Mueller, mueller refers to what the Justice Department guidelines are and what the Legal Framework is on this. He will say, look, nobody cares what i think. I know that is not true, but he will say it doesnt matter what i think, here is what is in the report. Democrats will try every which way to goad him into staying that stating that. Im doubtful Robert Mueller will engage in any meaningful, substance of way substantive way. Host im color, good morning. Caller caller, good morning. Caller the Mueller Report said there was no conclusion, and then the attorney general turned it over about the obstruction. Barr and rosenstein both read the report and came to the conclusion that there was no underlying obstruction. It should have ended it there, but the democrats will not let it go. I heard you mention the president s tax returns. Forirs is responsible everybodys tax returns, so why does a lot of the democrats and everybody want the president s tax returns . If there was anything in his tax returns that was a problem, the irs would have brought it up. Host that is kelly in west virginia. Morgan chalfant, focus on the word collusion and how Robert Mueller we define the term collusion, and how the public and media have used the term collusion. Guest i believe mueller would define it as a nebulous term that has no legal definition. He didnt evaluate collusion in his report. He focused on conspiracy, whether or not members or associates of the trunk campaign conspired with russia to interfere in the election. He didnt finds us find efficient sufficient evidence. The media has used collusion and so have members of congress. It is difficult because it muddies the water. There is a gap between what is collusion and what is conspiracy. Tomorrow, you will see mueller say conspiracy repeatedly and he will probably be asked if he evaluated collusion. He will say he didnt. The other thing i want to note, as i caller mentioned, he said mueller turned over the obstruction decision to bar. Barr, youdnt say, need to decide on obstruction because i couldnt. He left it out as an unanswered question. There was no direction from mueller to barr and the Justice Department to reach a conclusion on obstruction. Host the last call is mike, from wisconsin. Go ahead. Caller i would like to know more about hillary and her obstruction by destroying government property. A previous caller talked about that, but you guys never address that. Host Andrew Desiderio, how much will Hillary Clinton come up tomorrow. Guest i think the republican side of the committee will focus on a lot of issues. They will try to crossexamine Robert Mueller and get what the Ranking Member of the committee calls the other side of the report, the idea of how the phis applications came apart, which were used to get search warrants on the former campaign official. The second thing i think will be the way that rubber mueller team rubber muellers team was comprised. The president called them the 13 angry democrats. That is a reference to the fact that a lot of these prosecutors who were on rubber muellers team were people that had donated to democrats in the past. One of whom was at Hillary Clinton clintons Election Night party in 2016. Republicans are going to get at those issues to try to make the argument that millers team team there is an Ongoing Investigation into those very issues. I dont know when we are going to see the results of that. That is something that is already under investigation. A lot of republicans have said they want to learn more about that. We will learn more about it in the coming months but it is separate from the mother investigation. Morgan chalfant. Barr has initiated his own investigation into whether surveillance on the Trump Campaign was adequately predicated. Extra newgiven him authorities to conduct that investigation. That has just gotten underway. He has tapped the connecticut ag to undertake that. We will probably hear more about that in the coming months. Host Morgan Chalfant is National Security reported with the hill newspaper. Andrew desiderio a political reporter with politico. On the mother hearings tomorrow. We will be joined by Mattathias Schwartz, and contribute in writer for gq and New York Times magazine for a discussion on the life and career of the former special counsel. Stick around for that. We will be right back. Robert mueller testifies to congress on wednesday about possible obstruction of justice and abuse of power i President Trump and russian interference in the 2016 president ial election. Our live coverage starts at 8 30 a. M. Eastern on cspan three, online at cspan. Org, or listen wherever you are with the free cspan radio app. And before the hearing listen to the complete Mueller Report at cspan. Org on your laptop or mobile device. The audio is courtesy of timber lane media. In 1979 a Small Network with an unusual name rolled out a big idea. Let viewers make up their own minds. Cspan opened the doors to washington policy for all to see. Ringing you unfiltered content from congress and beyond. A lot has changed in 40 years. Today that big idea is more relevant than ever. Cspanvision and online, is your unfiltered view of government so you can make up your own mind. Brought to you as a Public Service by your cable or satellite provider. Watch our live coverage as the nations governors meet in Salt Lake City friday. Recognizing americas space program. Then a conversation about safer and smarter roads. And improving infrastructure with Maryland Governor larry hogan. The National Governors Association Summer meeting. Live friday on cspan2 and cspan. Org or listen with the free cspan radio app. In cspan3 president ial leadership surveys taken between 2000 and 2017, Grover Cleveland drops from 17th to 20 third place. Ulysses s grant makes the most dramatic rise of all the president s. Going from the 33rd to the 22nd spot. Where does your favorite president rank . Learn that and more about the lives and leadership skills of 44 chief executives in cspans president s. Its great vacation reading. Available wherever books are sold or at cspan. Org the president s. Washington journal continues. Schwartz joinss us now. He has written for the new yorker and New York Times magazine. Last year you worked on a profile of Robert Mueller for gq. When he breaks his silence again tomorrow and testifies before the House Judiciary Committee and then the house Intel Committee what are you expecting from him . From what weve seen it sounds like its going to be a lot of reiterating of what we have already written the report. One thing thats very interesting to me is there is so much ambiguity and legal hairsplitting in the language of the report he may inadvertently have to deviate from it a little bit just to put it in plain english and a way that people can understand particularly about the decisions about whether to prosecute and whether to charge. Its all very technical when you read it in text. A backandforth exchange he might have to put a finer point on things. I think we will see him avoiding strenuously having to do that and go beyond the four corners of the document. Host the gq profile that you wrote before the Mueller Report came out. Have brought the report here on the desk with us. In the story you write that the quiet of Robert Mueller is part of the uniform. What do you mean by that . Yes. I was kind of writing about mueller the man. Its very hard to get close to him. He had an inner circle of people and none of them would talk to me either. The spokesperson for his office wouldnt talk to me. I had to go a few rings out to people that had kind of glancing encounters with him. I think as everyone anxiously awaited the release of the report there was a kind of mystique that formed around him that he personally embodied the truth about this great controversy over what happened in the last election and that he personally was going to be capable of getting to the bottom of it and with President Trump noisily remarking on every development and then mueller doing exactly the opposite i think it kind of a kind of fascination formed around this vacuum. Host do you think that mystique was broken with the release of the report or the less than 10 minute News Conference he had after the report came out . No. I think the people who are waiting, who think that he holds the answers have sort of kept pushing the delivery of those answers forward. First it was a textual report and now its the hearing tomorrow. I think there is a gap between Robert Mueller the pop cultural figure, the fbi guy whos going to solve this for us finally and Robert Mueller the man and tomorrow i think we will see those entities converge and walk away with a more realistic isture of who this person which should help us read the report with clear eyes. Startingwill find out at 8 30 a. M. Eastern and you can watch it here on cspan3. Cspan. Org is a place you can go to watch it. You can listen to it on the free cspan radio app. If you were to talk about Robert Mueller, his life and qualities as a prosecutor, as fbi director and as special counsel, give us a call in this segment of the washington journal. Robert mueller served in the u. S. Marines and various roles in the Justice Department. Former fbi director of course. Went back into the private sector before he came back to serve as special counsel. We are talking with Mattathias Schwartz about that. You were just talking a minute ago about breaking the mystique about Robert Mueller. Learning more about his personality. Heres Robert Mueller from 2013. He was speaking at the commencement address at the college of william and mary. Say to what he had to the graduating seniors that day. With integrity because it is so essential to who and what you ultimately will become. Career pathhave a and mine. Many of you have no idea where you will end up. A few of you may be surprised by where life takes you. I certainly was. And in the end it is not only what we do but how we do it. Careeress of your chosen you are only as good as your word. You can be smart, aggressive, articulate and indeed persuasive. But if you are not honest your reputation will suffer and once can, a good reputation never be regained. Saying goes, if you have integrity, nothing else matters. And if you dont have integrity, nothing else matters. You take from that commencement address . Ityou can tell that he means and i think integrity is an inreasingly rare quality american society. I think this is why rod chose Robert Mueller to be special counsel because he is perceived by both parties to be above the fray of partisan politics. Someone who doesnt carry water for anybody. Someone who is strictly by the book as your previous guests were saying. So its hard to think of anyone such a heavye on task and would have so much credibility no matter what came out on the light on the backend. Host romney is out of irving, texas. A democrat. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thanks for taking my call. From everything ive seen Robert Mueller is a very honorable man. He has served his country well. Like everything else, tomorrow when he testifies the republicans will try to tear him down because he didnt carry the water for trump. Like his spineless little zombies do. And ultimately its going to be up to the voters to disinfect the white house and believe me, it will take eight years to get the stink out of there. Thank you. If the questioning does get tough at tomorrows hearing, how do you expect mueller to respond to tough questions . Theres been some great reporting by the times and other places looking at him in previous hearings. Hes very adept and has a lot of experience at only answering those parts of questions that he wants to answer. I think it is safe to say that he will be able to slip a lot of punches. I think wen that will almost certainly here is did you find that trump committed a crime. He said that thats something that he for a number of reasons wasnt willing to answer, fairness being one of them. Barr saidrney general he could have answered that question and we will probably see members of congress use that as a foundation. That being outside the report he may just say im only going through what ive written which is why expectations for tomorrow in some ways are so low and this is just being presented as a reading of a document we already have in hand. Schwartz, his profile of Robert Mueller, master of silence is the headline. You talk about going back to his time in vietnam and his service in the marine corps and how that shaped him. Can you speak to that . He had an incredibly distinguished military career. He served as an officer in the marines. He was very much in the thick of it. Somett graff has done great reporting on it. He also wrote a biography of mueller. He was in a very serious battle in which half of his unit suffered casualties. Was awarded the bronze star for valor and then later a purple heart. He has never personally given an account of his time in vietnam. The reporting that has been done reconstruct ito from his comrades. It is something he has never talked about. Barton gelman of the Washington Post did a very good profile a few years back. Mueller still wears his watch on the inside of his wrist. Gelman says that that is a military thing so the enemy cant see the flash of the glass. So he still carries elements of that time with him. Its hard to imagine going through such a thing and not. Host an interesting thing to look for in tomorrows hearing. Bill is waiting in boston, massachusetts. Independent. Good morning. Caller good morning and thank you to cspan. I was just wondering if your muellers looked into years in boston. A lot of people are saying he is thought of as an honorable man, but to many here in boston who look at him as a guy who let poor innocent men sit in prison. Or 30 years host it was 1982 to 1988 that he served as District Attorney for massachusetts. Them afraid i dont know case to which the caller is referring. Most of my article was focused on the present. Is thatresting detail mueller was a member of Trump National golf club near washington, d. C. For many years and then President Trump claimed that was a conflict for some reason. There was a dispute over billing. But then mueller sort of dispelled that allegation in the report. I wish i knew more about the case that your caller referred to. It sounds like theyve got some facts in hand. I just dont. Host what did Robert Mueller say about the trump call a golf course . He brought it up again in the oval office . What did he say in the oval office . Host he brought up that they had a business dealing. Mueller said that he was a member for a while and he wasnt using the club and he sent a letter and resigned and it was pretty normal. The interesting thing to me about that detail is that a lot of people present mueller and trump from completely different worlds. That trump is this guy from queens and hes more of a roughandtumble character and mueller is this born and bred american aristocrat who went to st. Pauls with john kerry and its interesting just in terms of how the world works that trumps golf clubs were fined by mueller at least for a time apparently. Host jonesboro, georgia. Caller good morning. I have a question. During the mill or investigation, why was not one democrat questioned . The o, why were all everybody on mothers Team Including wiseman, why was he on muellers team. And i would like to ask Robert Mueller personally did he write this report or did wiseman write it. There are several questions that i have about Robert Mueller. Noter one i would like to when he was in charge of the Boston Field Office for the department of justice, why wasnt Whitey Bulger ever found under his watch. He needs to answer a lot of questions. Host do you think Robert Mueller is trustworthy . Caller no. I do not. I think hes twofaced. I think hes doing what the democrats wanted him to do. And i would love for the republicans to get on him tomorrow. Why didnt you question one democrat . Host what do you take from that . I dont know the party officially ancient Party Affiliations of everyone questioned. Agreement was to look at connections and possible election interference and in the wordsusion of the letter from rosenstein. Between the russians and the Trump Campaign peered given that it was a Republican Campaign one would expect that he would be talking to a lot of republicans. Waynestly cant say either whether he interviewed any democrats or not. But i know that he did talk to plenty of people outside the campaign as well. Host 152 videos in the cspan Video Library featuring Robert Mueller. Ourcan watch them all at website, cspan. Org. Heres one of those events. This is Robert Muellers retirement from the fbi august 2013. First former cia director george tenant speaking about Robert Mueller and his experience testifying with mother in front of congress and then Robert Muellers response after that. Now bob, i am going to tell the story about how much bob and i love testifying together. I know you love testifying. [laughter] but bob had a very unique way of doing this and the first time i testified with him he sat there like a choir boy and got removed. I said, you have to learn how to emote a little bit. He said i cant emote, we are trained not to show emotion. I figured ive got to change this. So we sit next to each other and you know how before you start testifying witnesses usually cup their hands and everybody thinks we are saying something profound to each other. Bob and i would be in the middle of a testimony and i would cup my hands and Say Something to mueller like bob, isnt that the dumbest question youve ever heard in your life . Shut up. Here it comes, bob. Swim, bobby, swim. Shut up. They would always be bob, are you really going to take that from this guy . Yes, senator. Im not worthy. I was appreciative of your comments about testifying. That i will tell you that george has a selective memory. Wereworked testifying it was true that he would complain bitterly about the tenor of some of the questions and would try to get me to smile. Whereupon i would point out to george that he had been the architect of similar questions. One of those carrying the bayonets when he was staff director of the Senate Select committee on intelligence and we had to appear before that committee. Host what do you think about that story . Thats quite a story. Hes very tough. It reminded me of a story from the gq piece. John millar who worked with Robert Mueller at the fbi showed up to fbi headquarters and he was wearing cufflinks and a shirt that was a different color from the cuffs and fancy shoes and Robert Mueller said to him, john, what are you doing. We dressed like lawyers here. And john said, i am dressed like a lawyer. Not a drug lawyer. This is millars account of it. I didnt get that from mueller himself. He was just teasing him about its the same kind of story about how strict mueller thinks Government Service is and how you need to be that its not a vitamin not even ok to make a joke in a hearing. Host joe out of maine, good morning. Thank youod morning p for taking my call. I just had a few comments about this conversation. President trump has refused to answer subpoenas. Refused tos staff answer subpoenas. Why would you do that . He has lied continuously and people who call, what are you looking at . You are seeing a completely different world than myself. Topic we are talking about on the hearings tomorrow, what do you expect to hear from Robert Mueller . I expect him to stay within because he is a company man. He is going to go by the policies of what hes told. But what hasnt been set enough is he could not subpoena or bring anyone in to testify who would claim the fifth. Thehey took the fifth to fbi guidelines that are stopping us from charging the president who is an unindicted coconspirator, they have the same laws apply that if you know the defendant is going to claim the fifth like trumps son toald junior, if hes going plead the fifth they cant ask him to testify. Host do you think Robert Mueller should have pushed harder for a sit down with the president himself versus the written questions that were exchanged . Caller thats exactly what im saying. He couldnt push the president any harder because the guidelines say if you know hes going to take the fifth you cant push him any harder. Host met shorts, your take. Question wenitely a can expect tomorrow. How hard did you fight for a sit down with the president. Eventually relent on that point and allow him to answer questions in writing. Of the report that i found pretty frustrating, there is a page where he talks about, it says very explicitly facts might come out later that could overturn the conclusions that weve reached in this report and it talks about all the information that they werent apps thattain from delete communications, from sources that were overseas. Again i dont think we will get answers to those questions tomorrow because it sounds like mueller is not going any further than the report. This report was sold as being the definitive account of what happened in the 2016 election. It was supposed to settle the question for the country of whether the election itself was legitimate. There is a very loud voices on either side of that question. It was frustrating to me that there were parts of the report saying these are the best answers we have but they are not final answers because if we cant get those answers from mueller, when are we going to get them . Host republican in maryland is next. Pretty Bobby Mueller much created his own investigative paradigm p d didnt go where the facts lead. Scope when it pertained to russian interference and he knew where that was going to go and it went right to that steele dossier. Theent to the russians for clintons and its a fact. Hes got some explain them to do tomorrow. Bob mueller is an embarrassment because of that. Hes not going to be the savior for the democrats. Hes going to be the best or child come tomorrow because hes not going to be able to tell anything that puts trump and a jackpot and thats the facts. Host how do you think he will be treated by members of Congress Tomorrow . Will numbers of congress treat him . I think they have to respect him for the amount of work that hes put in. They have to meet him on his own ground of nonpartisanship which doesnt come naturally to members of congress. At least not all of them. So theres going to be a lot of trying to kind of pull him off of the sort of very careful centered discriminating that hes established in the decisions in the report. So the report just to speak to what the caller was asking about, the report does talk about the origins of the investigation of the Trump Campaign started in the middle of 2016. It is a little bit vague how they started then but it does lay out a chronology that does hold up. Particularly the contacts and georgeeph misfit papadopoulos. U. S. Intelligence did receive indications that the russians had designs on interfering in the election and started to look at them. Host herndon, virginia is next. Caller Robert Mueller, we pay him to do it work. To find out exactly what happened. Theres three things we should know. If the russians involved our elections. Did the president do any crime. Those questions need to be answered. Trying Robert Mueller is to satisfy both sides. It doesnt work like that. Happenedxactly what and clearcut. If this president commits any crimes, he is not above the law. If you didnt do anything wrong, we need to leave him alone. At the same time, i dont care about Robert Mueller how nice he is. Crime andvery serious i think hes ready for the democrat and a republican, we have a very dirty congress, people. And i can tell you tomorrow we are going to watch a dirty game that democrats are going to play and the republicans will play a dirty game, too. You have a chance to read the Mueller Report . Im not a lawyer. American people, we are not a lawyer. When someone lies we need to tell the American People thats. Hat those people did i think john made a lot of good points as a reader of the report that i would agree with. Its hard to know what mueller thought this all added up to. There are a lot of fascinating, surprising and disturbing facts in there. Conclusions are highly legalistic and ambiguous. And then theres these passages that talk about all the things that we dont know. And it doesnt sound like we are going to get mueller to go any further on the conclusions tomorrow. So i do share some of the callers frustrations. Some have said that his intent thishat congress address through deciding whether or not to impeach. I didnt see that in the report although maybe im forgetting what i read. Thats like an interpretation. That this questions report was going to answer beforehand that it punted on. Host in texas, republican. Good morning. Caller good morning. That jerry point out nadler who is spearheading the has at investigation and longterm fight with donald trump spanning over decades. One of those issues you can find him right on google. Theres episodes of the film that you can find out where nadler is all upset because of donald trump purchasing Railroad Properties in his district. So this has been an ongoing fight and therefore since jerry nadler is an attorney, he should bye recused himself spearheading this investigation to start with because any court in the land, a judge will ask possible jurors to be picked. Do they have or have knowledge for or against any person that is going to be a defendant. Host is there a democrat you would trust to lead this effort . If you dont trust jerrold nadler, is there one you would trust . Caller no. Because first of all, they are prejudged on the basis of what nadler has brought forth with his grades against trump with of trumpnonymitys questions. Therefore you cannot have another democrat for example him you said replace because theyve already been. Rejudged on their merits host any thoughts . Think thomas has pinned down one of the big problems for tomorrow. I think given the climate in willngton it inevitably just to balance out what he said. There have been concerns raised about Rod Rosenstein. The Deputy Attorney general who was for a time mothers boss. But was also involved in the firing of james comey which is one of the items under investigation in the Mueller Report. And he so far as we know didnt recuse himself from those elements of supervising mothers investigation. Has a longnald trump history in new york and elsewhere. Its to be expected that hes going to cross paths with a lot of people. The problem of can the democrats maintain this appearance of nonpartisanship which mueller certainly delivered in substance in the report, that will be a real challenge for that party. Been waiting in alabama. Independent. Good morning. Caller good morning. I have been paying attention to whats going on. Issued overdler has 80 subpoenas. And they all said they are not going to acknowledge any of the subpoenas that nadler issued. So he has mueller. Mueller has made his report. And he has turned it over to congress and its up to congress to act. It, nadler, ifee you issue a subpoena and they dont come in, then you can find. If you find them and they dont pay the fine, you could have them, what do you call it, put theail for not honoring fine on the subpoena. Nadler hasnt than anything. He called hope picks in. Didnt swear her in to testify. What has nadler done . The last point i want to make is when this is over with wednesday, they are going to want nancy pelosi to go along with the impeachment. How can you go along with any kind of impeachment on donald trump when you have no witnesses, nadler hasnt called anybody in to testify anything. And thats where its going to wind up at. Thank you for listening to my call. Host thats tim in alabama. Those are interesting points. Impeachment itself while it was in the house would itself be an investigation. There would be witnesses. There would be evidence. Its not like a binary decision. It would just be a more intensive inquiry. I think theres a lot of frustration. When i wrote this profile of Robert Mueller everyone was focusing their attention on the report. A lot of people were promising that it was going to deliver some definitive answers and i think there was a lot of fascinating new material in the report. A lot of surprising elements about the president s personal conduct after he took office. A clear ands not definitive answer on did the president commit a crime and did the Trump Campaign collude with the russians to swing the election. And weve seen both of those points argued both ways by the parties. One reason they have been able to do so is there are some any parts of the report that really in terms of the conclusions try theplit the baby despite huge volume of interesting facts. Who isot Robert Mueller going to step up and say what is it that we have here. Ultimately thats going to have to be congress because mother has made it clear hes not going to do it. Host the gq piece from last year, Robert Mueller the master of silence. Author Mattathias Schwartz. Your timemuch for this morning. We appreciate it. Up next, about 25 minutes left in our program today and we will spend that time hearing from you about the stories you are most interested in today in washington. Democrats, for republicans and independents are on your screen. You can start calling in now and we will be right back. Robert mueller testifies to congress on wednesday about possible obstruction of justice president of power by trump and russian interference in the 2016 president ial election. Our live coverage starts at 8 30 a. M. Eastern on cspan3. Online at cspan. Org or listen wherever you are with the free cspan radio app. And before the hearing, listen to the complete Mueller Report at cspan. Org on your laptop or mobile device. Type Mueller Report audio in the search box at the top of the page. The audio is courtesy of timber lane media. Watch our live coverage as the nations governors meet in salt. Ake city friday, recognizing americas space program. Then a conversation about safer and smarter roads and just after 1 00 p. M. Eastern, improving infrastructure with Maryland Governor larry hogan. On cspan2 and cspan. Org. Or listen with the free cspan radio app. In cspan3 president ial leadership surveys taken between 2000 and 2017, Grover Cleveland drops from 17th to 20 third place. Ulysses s grant makes the most dramatic rise of all the president s. Going from the 33rd to the 22nd spot. Does your favorite president rank . Learn more about the lives and leadership skills of 44 chief executives in cspans the president s. Readingat vacation available wherever books are sold. Cspan. Org the president s. Washington journal continues. Minutesr our final 20 this morning, hearing from you about the stories you are most interested in today in washington. Democrats 202 7488000. Republicans 202 7488001. Ts 202 7488002. The senate is set to hold a confirmation vote on mark esper. He passed a key procedural vote late yesterday and the final confirmation vote expected today on the senate floor. The senate also expected to hold a vote on the 9 11 Victims Compensation fund. Fbi director Christopher Wray is set to testify before the senate Judiciary Committee. Of their annual oversight hearings for their agency. Expected to be perhaps something of a preview for Robert Muellers testimony tomorrow. Of course thaty budget and debt ceiling deal come together. Thats one of the other stories we are tracking today in washington. Congress and the white house reached that deal to increase federal spending and raise the spending limit, securing a bipartisan compromise to push the next budget debate past the 2020 election. The deal would suspend the debt ceiling until the end of july 2021 and the agreement would spending cutsp initially sought by the administration providing 320 billion in additional spending over the next two years above those limits that were set back in 2011 by whats known as the sequester. Those are some of the stories we are tracking today in washington. The phone lines are yours. In virginia. Democrat. Good morning caller good morning. Number one, when trump was campaigning and saying he doesnt pay taxes, its stupid. We spent 102 million in playing golf and its ongoing. Mueller supposed to be investigating the case, we have paid him to do that. So thats my concerns. Is next. Id republican. What are you watching . Some ofwatching you and the feeds. The economy is doing great. The stock market is up. Mr. Esper should be confirmed as secretary of defense. Hes a good man. Hes qualified. There will be some no votes against him from the left. To take over the Democratic Party. Under donald trump the economy is great. Jobs are plentiful. There are more jobs than there are people looking for them. Record low unemployment since the 60s. Issue of the economy doing great, does it concern you that this deal yesterday would push off the allowimit for two years, somewhere in the area of 320 in additional spending over what congress was already expected to do this coming at a time when the u. S. National debt is 22 trillion and counting. Debt is managed properly, its not a bad thing. We are at an alltime record low. We are borrowing money but its still at an exceedingly low rate. The previously administration did that all the time. We are borrowing money for infrastructure purposes. Host this is grace in quincy, massachusetts. Good morning. My concerns are youre going to have Robert Mueller speak tomorrow before congress. Look athoping when i the analogy of what Daniel Ellsberg did to his detriment and what he went through to stand up and inform the American Public. And i hope there is somebody that will do that and clarify everything and let the chips fall where they may. The second point is if donald trump has allegedly committed crimes and he gets reelected, the statutes of limitations will run out. That bothers me. So those are just two of my concerns. When you talk about donald trump i the great president wouldnt even have to know about what hes allegedly done. Just the fact that hes put us into a more foreign detrimental way of life and we dont know is a that can go responsible semi and to know that we are back into killing children in yemen. We are backing them as well from saudi arabia so theres many factors on the foreign side. Host are you going to watch tomorrow . Caller yes i am. Host we hope you watch with us here on cspan. We are going to be airing the hearings in their entirety at cspan3. The action gets underway at 8 30 a. M. Eastern tomorrow morning. You can also watch at cspan. Org, listen on the free cspan radio app. We mentioned that christopher the is set to be before it Judiciary Committee today. Thats happening in about 15 minutes. We are going to be airing that website andon the the free cspan radio app. Some expectations that might serve as a bit of a preview for the questions that will be asked as well. Ithaca, new york. Democrat. Good morning. Caller good morning. Saying i lovet by cspan and always wish that you consider your good service to the public. Im foro say that impeachment and im going to be watching the mueller hearings and i am very very concerned about whats happening with what we are doing to iran. Same stuff with everything in the middle east. We are instigating them. We are trying to get into another war which you know is going to cost us and only lives but tons of money. But this president needs to be made accountable for so many reasons that we all know about. The lying. The instigation of violence and hatred. It is appalling that we have this and the fact that we are even talking about him running again. Understand what pelosi is thinking. I keep calling her office saying i dont know why she puts impeachment off the table. We definitely should be looking into impeachment inquiry. That the president said the other day, i was against his base saying send her back. Was egging his itwd on and also he also put on his tweets. This stuff thats happening in our country is out in the open. There is nothing hidden. There needs to be accountability. We dont have any president whether its democrat or republican acting this way, talking this way. We also need accountability for the emoluments clause. A previous caller talked about his golf club. That need many things to be investigated. Host this is marvin in georgia. Good morning. So angry with these democrats. They just let as many people as they can come across that border illegally. Its just too many people coming across and then you try to stop them, they say you are some kind of racist of some kind. And the fact that they just constantly try to impeach this man. By then was elected people and they just want to keep on with this impeach this man. And what they did to mr. Kavanaugh. That was awful. They tried to convict this man on the testimony of one person, a person who could not remember. A person who had no witnesses. Thisjust wanted to destroy man over the testimony of one person even though this man had a number of people who testified that he was a good man what they still wanted to say he was a bad man for something that happened when he was 16 years old. Host out of texas. Good morning. Saw a reportently about the crop failures due to the inclement weather. It hasnt been this bad since 1938. Meaning that food prices are going to double. More specifically corn. This is an issue we all need to be focusing on and looking at because you cant really pin this on trump or trumps policies of the democrats will try to use that saying its global warming. Its not. Its the grand solar minimum. Please seek out this sgt report and educate yourself on whats coming. Food prices will double. Please be prepared. God bless yall. Host cheryl in manassas, virginia. Caller i want to thank you for taking my call. Number two, i was never politically active until we elected well we didnt elect. Russia was influential on electing this president. Impeachment hearings need to happen. I dont know what anybody is waiting for. Weve got obstruction in plain sight. Weve got the republicans dashing a republican. Robert mueller is a marine is at veteran who decorated war hero and because the republican establishment does not agree with the results of his report they are going to bash him . They disrespected the memory of john. Im a democrat. Host how do you feel about democratic leadership and how nancy pelosi has tried to navigate this issue . Caller the nicest way i can say it is it sucks. The democratic leadership is failing its responsibility to uphold their oath to the constitution and now they are complicit. They are complicit in letting show continue. Rap host who should lead the Democratic Party in the house . It should be who was duly elected leader. Nancy pelosi. We are not fighting are not navigating politics from 1972. Or 1975. You are not going to win over Republican Voters that voted for donald trump. Efforts and the energy is being wasted on that is beyond comprehension. Host taking your call for another 10 minutes or so. Asking you what issues you are most interested in today in washington. We noted the senate today is set to vote on the 9 11 Victims Compensation fund. You can watch that vote live on the floor today. Gaveltogavel coverage of the senate. Remember that vote was temporarily delayed today. The legislation already passed the house 402 to 12 meaning that if it is expected it will pass the senate today. It would go to President Trumps desk afterwards for his signature. Covington, indiana. Independent. Good morning. Caller yes. Everybody is talking about how he is a great man, but im pretty sure he worked with all these people before he was put into this position. Statehis deep investigation they are looking into. Reality, alles a of this is moot. Its a joke. I think they are all crooked up there. Onlyhey voted trump in for one reason. Thats to get rid of these people. And if that investigation becomes fruitful about the deep tote, mueller is not going be a very good marine no more. Richmond, virginia. Good morning. Caller good morning. I am so disgusted about trump and his i cant imagine a president acting like that. I want to go back to president obama. If president obama did half the stuff that we see trump has done he would havears, been out of that office so fast. I dont understand why the see theans now and distrust that we are all seeing but cover it up and slip it under the rug like it doesnt happen. I can imagine trump allowing someone to mistreat his children like hes done with the people down at the border. And just to see and hear about fecesbabies laying in that have soiled diapers. Kamala harris has been down there and seen this mess but yet the republicans still sweep this under that like it doesnt exist. Host wendy, montana, republican. Go ahead. Caller good morning and thank you for taking my call. Ive been listening for several weeks and the comments that im hearing, its all about somebody disagrees with me and they are wrong. I dont think its a democratic democrat or republican issue anymore. I think it has come down to the fact that its generalization of somebody who disagrees with what i believe. And i think if this president has done something that is wrong, it needs to be investigated. He was elected as president. That does not make him america. And when i hear him say things thinkhey hate america, i its wrong. Nobody hates america. We are all americans and we all want whats best. Host do you think the mother investigation was fair . Caller i think that he did his job. , how anybody wishes to characterize any piece of that report is on them. Person cannk any one tell the entire country what has happened. I think it has to be a fair and legitimate discussion of differing sides and different parties. Not arguing. A discussion. Host thats wendy in montana. Time for a few more calls before we take you up to the senate ade of capitol hill for hearing on cannabis and banking in the United States. That hearing set to get underway around 10 00 a. M. Eastern. We will hear calls from you until then. Salisbury, North Carolina. Democrat. Good morning. Caller good morning. What does it profit a man to gain this world but to lose his soul . I see a lot of republicans right at this moment who voted for this man. They see that there are some souls being lost. Right now i want to talk to the republicans to give them a way out on this election. To vote ande comes you see the wrong. Its not a mistake to come off and say, now im going to vote democratically. I hope that they see what is happening to an america with this reprobate of man. This is my First Time Ever seeing a reprobate person and i believe the president fits that guideline. Senates we wait for the Banking Committee hearing to begin, cspan covered an event here in washington, d. C. Hosted by the muslim caucus on capitol hill. At that event was congresswoman elana omar, democrat of minnesota. The subject of plenty of President Trumps comments and tweets in the past two weeks. She talked about President Trump and the idea of racism in this country. Heres what she had to say this morning. For many people who will say that these phobias ,eed to be talked about understand the significance of being complacent in the process of not talking about them. Distracted dont be because racism distracts, racism destroys and racism can kill. And so we have to also confront that. People walk many around naive to the idea of how threatening this could be. And we see it creep into so many policies. Right now even when we are talking about the president , his remarks are racist and we will forget the inherent racism that has always been part of him. Destroy their existence and ability to access our justice system, even when we think back parke exonerated central five young boys. Going out of your way to ask for lynching for five innocent young to have the full support of society and the media ok, someone is just angry to be calling for the lynching of young people. It makes us recognize how we got here today. Earlier thisswoman morning at a meeting of Muslim Political leaders and academics at the muslim caucus meeting today in washington, d. C. If you want to watch that event in its entirety, you can do so at cspan. Org. Back to your phone calls, asking what you are watching today in washington. Munros in clinton, maryland, and independent. Hr 1756, i need everyone 1756. K up hr it is a clean, one paragraph bill. It does not matter if you are democrat, publican, or independent, it is about Automobile Insurance Companies using your Credit Rating to determine if you are a good driver or not, and it would make it illegal for Automobile Insurance Companies to use it because your Credit Rating has nothing to do with your ability to drive a car read this bill would make it illegal, it does not matter your political affiliation. Everyone should look up hr 1756 and getting contact with your local representatives and make them support this bill. Host that is munro in clinton , maryland. Our last caller. We will be here tomorrow morning starting at 7 00 a. M. Eastern, previewing the Robert Mueller hearings taking place in the house judiciary and Intelligence Committees. Those hearings get underway starting live at 8 30 a. M. Eastern. You can watch it on cspan3, on cspan, as well as cspan. Org and listen to it on the free cspan radiostarting at 7 00 a. , previewing the Robert Mueller hearings taking place in app. We take you to capitol hill now for a meeting of the senate Banking Committee. The hearing discusses the challenges for cannabis and banking