Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 09202019 20240714

Natural resources committee. At 8 30 a. M. , we talk to virginia congressman Gerald Connolly, member of the oversight and Reform Committee and the Foreign Affairs committee. President morning trump at the center of the latest clash between congress and the white house. Tensions escalated over congressional access to the complaint, which involves an unspecified promise made to a foreign head of state. We begin the washington journal this morning getting your thoughts on the latest controversy and what it means for relations between executives and legislative branches of governments. Give us a call, we want to hear from you. Democrats, 2027488000. Republicans, 2027488001. Independents, 2027488002. You can also text us this morning. If you do, please include your name and where you are from. That number, 2027488003. You can catch up with us on social media. On twitter it is cspanwj. On facebook it is facebook. Com cspan. A very good morning to you this friday morning, you can start calling now. One of the papers that put the story above the fold is the Washington Times and here is the headline they went with. Democrats chase after complaints on trump. There is a picture of adam theff, the one leading chasing for those documents and he is the one who held a. Loseddoor hearing here is what the president had to say, another fake news story, it never ends. Virtually any time i speak on the phone to a foreign leader, i understand there may be may many people listening. Knowing all of this, is anyone dumb enough to believe i would Say Something inappropriate with a foreign leader while on such a potentially heavily populated call . I would only do what is right anyway and only do good for the United States. The president tweeting later, president ial harassment. The Washington Post, another one of the papers that put this on the front page, delving into what they are trying to find out about the details of the complaint, noting that the complaint made by the intelligence officials centers on the ukraine according to two people familiar with that matter. The New York Times delving into ukrainian acts backed of aspect of the complaint. Stions have emerged investigating corruption according to a Ukrainian Government summary of the phone call. Some close allies were urging the Ukrainian Government to investigate matters that could hurt the president s political biden including joseph and his family. That story on the front page of the New York Times. We are expecting to hear more today when the house comes in at 9 00. We are with you until then and we wanted to hear from you. Phone lines, democrats it is 2027488000. Republicans, 2027488001. Independents, 2027488002. Getting your thoughts about this whistleblower complaint story in this first halfhour of the washington journal today. Heads up out of lawrenceville, georgia, republican. Ed, go ahead. Caller first of all, i would i dont believe President Trump promised anybody anything. He knows the phones are listened to. To all the democrats worried about losing your democracy, i would like to ask how many times in the constitution is the word democracy mentioned . I dont think so. Host you said you usually trust whistleblowers. What is it about the reporting of this and there is a lot more to learn including the contents of the debate, but what is suspicious to you . Caller like i said, what President Trump tweeted. All the phone calls are listened to constantly. For him to promise somebody something and we dont even know what country it is, it is weird we are getting like half a report. There is not enough there to be anything there so far. Host that is ed in georgia. This is scott, annapolis, maryland. Also republican, good morning. Caller i agree with your first caller. This is another example of democrats trying to deny the fact our constitutional system of voting where we have the Electoral College that it works and they are breathlessly running with no facts, no facts at all and trying to speculate maybe we are going to finally take the president down. Are thisost like they entity that they are just so frantic to deny the reality of what has happened with the United States citizens picking somebody like donald trump. Toy want to find any excuse eliminate this president , that is just blatant. Relax, allowould our process to work. When obama was elected, i was really not happy about it. I a sect i accepted the fact he was duly elected and is now my president i wish they would do the same. Host larry out of tennessee, good morning. Caller republicans need to remember what this president said, do not believe what you see or hear, believe what i tell you. This man is a crook, he needs to be locked up and the key thrown away. Have a nice day. Host the phone lines, 2027488000 for democrats. Republicans, 2027488001. Independents, 2027488002. The walline from street journal today, the standoff over the whistleblower escalates, the story noting the House Intelligence Committee gripped in a legal battle with the acting director of National Intelligence, Joseph Mcguire and he is at the center of this complaint. We mentioned the hearing yesterday held behind closed doors. A little bit more about it. The Inspector General from the National Intelligence agencies testified at that hearing before members of the House Intelligence Committee. Adam schiff is the chairman. Over the course of three hours, the Washington Post notes discuss then content of the complaint saying he was not authorized to do so. He talked more about the process of releasing that complaint to members of congress. This is adam schiff after that closeddoor hearing. [video clip] the director of National Security has made the decision not to share that with congress. We were informed after the fact in which the director has to review and submit to congress. No complaint was provided and Inspector General felt it necessary to inform congress that the complaint was being withheld. In the absence of the actions and i want to thank the Inspector General, we might not have known there was a whistleblower complaint urging alleged concern. We will be releasing the Inspector Generals letters, but i want to read one sentence from them. Mr. Adkinson wrote i set forth the reasons for my concluding the subject matter not only jurisdiction,he but relates to one of the this is what is being held from congress right now. Host this controversy expected to continue into next week as well. The acting director of National Intelligence, Joseph Mcguire is his name scheduled to testify before the committee next week. Want to show you the New York Times lead editorial, urging concern about the president is the headline on the lead editorial. Maybe there is not much to the complaint, what we do know is there is an important principle at stake that congress is supposed to have oversight through confidential hearings of complaints. There is a solid case to be made that mr. Maguire, who has not invoked executive privilege as a reason for withholding the complaint, is ignoring plain language of the law. That is the New York Times editorial board. We want to hear from you, nelson in ohio, this morning. A republican, good morning. Caller good morning. Outrageous. The president of the United States can talk to any foreign leader he wants. Job two spy on the president. That is what he was talking about during the campaign. And tattled tom congress. It is ridiculous. This is the type of stuff that is going to get trump reelected. Host i want you to listen to this. I want to give you a chance to comment. This is jacks Jack Goldsmith quoted in todays Washington Times and he said the president s power to act in confidence is at the absolute height when he has a classified conversation with a foreign leader. The president cannot conduct Foreign Policy if his or her controversial secret Foreign Policy negotiations can be disclosed at the determination of an intelligence employee. Article 2 gives the president the authority to say and pledge awful things in secret. That is dangerous discretion to be sure, but has long been thought worth it in the balance. What do you think, nelson . Caller exactly. Exactly. Saypresident can do or anything he wants. That is why we have elections. We put our trust the American People put their trust when they voted that President Trump is going to have our back. Him. Up to us to fire these witchhunts congress is doing, it is outrageous. Host here is some of the reaction from capitol hill via tweet, this is lacy clay, the director of National Intelligence and everyone conspiring to obstruct oversight not to defend one man. , we is Brandon Boyle obviously need further details, but this news report is troubling, perhaps more troubling than any trump transgression. Get the full details from this whistleblower and steve saying whistleblower as we are seeing from the reporting, they say it is likely about a phone call with the president of ukraine. Helsinki and every meeting between President Trump and putin, it is clear who owns who, believe putin, not our intelligence. Mueller report, russia interfered in the election. That is steve cohen yesterday, late morning on twitter. Herbert is next out of georgia, democrat, good morning. Caller good morning, john. This isnt the first time this ever happened. Remember one of those same oligarchs in helsinki. I want to say this. I have been listening to cspan for 20 years. Most of these men calling the republican line are white americans. Host we dont ask the race of people when they call in. We dont know. Lets not make that generalization. Theer what i am saying is constitution laws written by the subpoenae laws have been disrespected. They have been disrespected by this president. How long are we going to keep on allowing this man to violate laws that have been set for everybody of every nationality to emulate . You cannot let one man violate these laws. I dont care who he is. You all have control of the media. Why would you let him call you fake news and all kind of stuff for the best interest of him . We cannot let one man come up here with this insane mentality that they can control america. Host that is herbert out of georgia. This is pia ou. Caller good morning. Thanks for taking my call. Multiplenly a smokescreen to hide the democrats bad doing. Up re trying to cover it is all baloney. We know the examples in baltimore. They have been running this the ground. To is trying to see us, strange america. Give him space, stop this nonsense. We are spending money for their own vindication. Host this is eugene in new jersey, democrat. Good morning, new eugene. Caller i am delighted how many republicans believe everything the republican propaganda feeds us. Trump already admitted he would accept help from a foreign government. Ukraine and the promise 250 million if they bring up dirt on bidens son, this is extortion. It we recognize crime when we see it . Trump wants to do exactly what he said, shoot someone on fifth avenue and get away scott free. He has denied every subpoena request and he wants to continue to do so. That is dictatorship. Republicans want a dictator, they have got one. Host we dont know the exact contents of this whistleblower complaint, that is what the House Intelligence Committee, democrats are trying to obtain. The Washington Post is the one noting sources saying this complaint has to do with a phone call with the new ukrainian president , some background on that from the New York Times article about it today, questions about mr. Trumps discussions with ukrainians involve his allies, including his personal lawyer, Rudolph Giuliani who hope to persuade to investigate matters. Mr. Giulianis efforts created the impression that the Trump Administrations willingness to back the ukrainian president was linked to his governments readiness to intern pursue investigations saw it by mr. Trumps sought by President Trumps allies. Rudy giuliani was on several cable news programs last night. This is what he wrote on twitter, the democratic owned media is going crazy over the ukraine, but first let them report how Vice President biden bribed the president of ukraine to fire the investigator investigating hillary. Tweet aliani goes on to president telling a president elect of a wellknown corrupt country, he better investigate corruption that affects the United States is doing his job. Maybe if obama did that, the biden family would not have built millions from ukraine and billions from china. Rudy giuliani on twitter last night. Crystal in fargo, north dakota, you are next. Good morning. So much fork you allowing all sides to speak and thank you for that. Regarding this Foreign Policy, i dont think the president has violated the laws like herbert said. Most of us do trust President Trump and i am continuously dismayed at all the attacks that are against President Trump, his Supreme Court justice nominee, but based on what . There is no evidence. There is all kinds of accusations. What is this now . 42 million of taxpayer money with this Mueller Report and nothing there and now they are going after trying to impeach Brett Kavanaugh again and this Foreign Policy whistleblower. Can you imagine being president of our country . Regardless of your party and knowing there is people listening in on your conversation and stabbing you in the back trying to undermine your agenda when you are trying to run this country. You are trying to do Foreign Policy speaking directly to the leaders. Ims sounded. I am absolutely astounded at the baloney being tossed from the democrats. This morning, every one of them from tennessee all over the place. I cannot believe it. Host roger is next out of michigan, republican. Good morning. Caller i agree with the lady from north dakota very much. I absolutely agree with her 1000 . Trump hasnt did anything. Agenda democrats are trying to slander him with, it is something else. And he was president , they said he would surround himself with the best of the best, he has done that. Trump is an honest man, people need to get over it. The democratic deeps tape deep state has got to stop. All of us, even my 92yearold mother, it affects her as well. This constant versing about donald trump and the whistleblower controversy about donald trump and the whistleblower, he is our president and he can do just about what he needs to do. That is why we voted for donald trump. Host before you go, do i want to know how this is affecting your 92yearold mother . Caller yes, my mother doesnt need to continue to listen to this drama from the Democratic Party. My mother is republican. She is still coherent, so she needs to be able to understand. When she sees she voted for a president and the people on the others of the street one to take a great man down for what he has done for us, unreal. It is unreal. President trump is probably one of the best president s. I am 62 years old. I would vote for donald trump even if i was dead. Host roger in michigan. A lot of folks trying to understand the federal was a blower process and the process specifically for Intelligence Community whistleblowers and what that relationship is supposed to be with the oversight bodies and the members of congress. An extended exchange on that took place on wednesday. It was in the House Oversight Reform Committee. It was an exchange from between ro khanna and michael horowitz. I want to give viewers a chance to listen to this and then we will talk about it after this extended discussion. [video clip] as you know, the whistleblower protection act does not cover whistleblowers in the Intelligence Community. There is a separate law, the Intelligence Community whistleblower protection act that allows whistleblowers to reveal information to the Inspector General for the Intelligence Community. Is that correct . Yes. And this is critical because it provides a protected channel for whistleblowers in the Intelligence Community to expose unlawful behavior, fraud, or abuse even if it includes classified information. Is that is correct . That is correct. In the past, administrations have always complied with sending this information of the complaint over to congress. Some of them have not made a determination to send over classified information, but is it correct in the past, every administration has transferred the complaint itself to congress . I could not speak to every single instance. We have had one and in that instance, it went forward per the statutory requirements. Is it true you could forward the complaint to Congress Without disclosing classified information per the statute . Depending on the facts, you could. You certainly could redact anything that was classified. In theory, yes. Is it your understanding the law requires the director of National Intelligence to forward this information to congress within seven days . It is my understanding the leader that gets the report, in my case it would be the attorney general, is required to send it in send it. In the dni circumstance, it would be the dni. Do you interpret shall meaning must . As a general rule, i understand that to be must. Why is it important Inspector Generals have the ability to make independent decisions about whistleblower complaints and have that authority . There are a slew of reasons, but that is one of the reasons we have created this website for some blowers. They provide us with four whistleblowers. This website for whistleblowers. In the intelligence world, they have to go through proper channels. Why is it important in the Intelligence Community that they have a protected process to disclose information to the Inspector General and congress . Precisely because it is classified information and my understanding of this statute is it was created in response to other disclosures that did not occur in the orderly way and Congress Passed the law to make blowers hade a way they could provide information to congress about matters they thought were improper. Whistleblower a who sent something to the Inspector General and the Inspector General sent it to the director of National Intelligence saying it should be transmitted to congress, do you see any reason for the director of National Intelligence not to transmit the complete itself complaint itself to congress . I will speak to it in my interest because i have not my understanding since i have not dealt with the director of National Intelligence. We would expect the Inspector General to follow through in a similar manner that we would provide to him in this case had it been him and to follow through on the statute. What would you say if the attorney general said i dont believe we need to follow the law and i will not transmit this to congress . What would you tell the attorney general . In that situation, i would probably figure out a way pursuant to the Inspector General act following the law host michael horowitz, the Inspector General at the Justice Department having that discussion at the House Oversight and Reform Committee hearing that took place wednesday. A lot of discussion about whistleblowers via social media and text as well. Want to run through a few of them. Sandy writing whistleblowers come forward, it is the patriotic thing to do, finish the job. Bob saying it is an unspecified message, it is a nonstory that will go away. Democrats should work with the president. An authentic constitutional crisis, the president cannot govern in secret. This is bobbo. Inspector general who approved the whistleblower is a republican appointed by trump, so drop the deep state malarkey referring back to the dni Inspector General also at the center of this controversy. Andy out of indiana, the law is clear, the whistleblower complaint must be turned over to congress for oversight. Bill king on twitter saying whistleblowers public or private our heroes and should be treated as such. Just a couple minutes left in this segment. We will have more time for phones later and we will be talking to a couple members from congress. We want to get as many calls as we can. Alexander, burke, virginia. Caller good morning and thank you for cspan and all that you guys do. I guess my comment is i am not exactly sure as to why the republicans calling in our mystified as to why people are upset with how the president is conducting himself. To my fellow americans who are not living in this modern day brainwashed culture of the gop, just remember the gop and donald trump are not the majority of this country. They are just a very vocal minority and this whistleblower complaint at the heart of it, it is pretty terrifying and sinister to have an allegation like that levied against a sitting president. Congress needs to do its job and mitch mcconnell, he needs to do his job as well. If he is not going to do it, it is time to vote him out or hold him accountable for obstructing justice that every single opportunity and moment. That is all. Host that is alexander in burke , virginia. One more note on the whistleblower. The Washington Times reporting the whistleblower is being ciaesented by a former officer and a managing partner at the compass rose legal group, a National Security law firm. We know who the whistleblowers lawyer is. Dennis in texas, you are next. Caller yes, thank you. Assuming the latest reports out related to this from the New York Times i believe it was, talking about discussions about biden, i believe this is probably where this is coming from. They are trying to free disaster the lack of the media doing its job on talking about what has been known about bidens interference with ukraine and estigation of a company several months ago when he was part of the administration. There was video all over the place of biden. He is actually bragging about how he gave the ukrainians, i fire thewas 6 hours to prosecutor and stop the investigation of the oil company that his son was on the board for and he bragged about how he was going to withhold 1. 2 billion in usa unless they fired this guy within 6 hours. It is on video all over the place. Also, i dont recall the timeframe exactly, i think it was relatively close to that when biden negotiated with the chinese and took his son with him. He left his son there and a week and a half later, his son gets 1. 5 billion for his hedge fund, the hedge fund also partnered. Ith john kerrys son it is just amazing what is out there and not being discussed. Host it is being discussed by at least Rudy Giuliani putting those same points you are talking about, bidens family interactions with ukraine and china, tweeting about them last night, talking about them on cable news shows. Time for one more call, john in california, democrat. Caller good morning. Trump,eople that defend withedia is saturated republican talking points that are so dang shallow. Elizabeth warren was in Washington Square park and she was talking about corruption plain and simple and she broke down the different agencies that are subject by corrupt subject to corruption by outside lobbyists. I dont know what the nature of this whistleblower is, but if it rose to the level of treason, i am not saying this is treason, but wouldnt we need a system in place that would allow the treason to be called out . And if there was a system in place that was corrupted by defenders of the president , and if the president himself new it rose to the level of treason, how far does that extend out . Thatuch more treason is it he has these people that are blocking our only method of uncovering the treason . Host that is john in california, our last caller in this segment. A short show today, but plenty more to come. We will be joined by two Senior Members of the House Oversight and Reform Committee. Up first is Arizona Republican paul gosar and later this morning, we will be joined by virginia democrat Gerald Connolly. We will be right back. Car manufacturing in the city is very important to us. To that industry is one of the backbones of lansing. We have Michigan State university, we have the state capital, and we have automobile manufacturing. Those three components have kept lansing a very successful town. Cspans cities tour is on the road. This weekend we take you to lansing, michigan, with the help of our Comcast Cable partners. A known for automotive history, lansing has been michigans capital city since 1847. Lansing was picked as the capital city because no one really wanted to pick lansing. It was offered up as a compromise location. We will learn about ransom e olds, an auto Company Founded in lansing. Auto company merged here in 18 o4 and stayed close to this location in a variety of different formats through 1975. Watch cspans cities tour of lansing, michigan, as we take in its history and literary scene. This saturday at noon on book tv and this sunday at 2 00 p. M. On American History tv on cspan 3 working with cable affiliates as we explore the american story. Washington journal continues. Host Arizona Republican paul gosar, Senior Member of the House Oversight committee at our desk. Your committee deep into several investigations of the Trump Administration and this new standoff between congress and the white house over this whistleblower complaint. What do you know about that complaint . Guest basically what is being reported. Still superficial. I havent participated in any of the meetings so far just because i have sent i have been so busy. Very tough to get caught up. Host on the whistleblower complaint, where do you think this goes . Congress only in for another week or so and then a two week recess. Does this story have legs . Guest that i dont know, but i can see both perspectives. I can see where the white house is coming from because of all the notorious allegations that have not come to fruition. I can see Congress Oversight and the application with regards to National Intelligence and the tenderness in which you have to look at that application. Host you have been in congress five years. How would you rate the relationship between the executive and legislative branch right now . Guest particularly in the house, it is very poor. The majority in the house is very upset, they still cant get over the 2016 election. Havent is they they have done a hard left t urn into socialism. We have seen over and over again where we duplicate investigations that already have professional people that have come out saying there is no collusion, no foundation for your allocations allegations and they constantly see the new drama of constant attacks on this president , duly elected by the people of this country. Host you were here for the divided government years of the Obama Administration. Is the relationship between congress and the white house worse than what it was then . That. I dont know about i think even though there were many things we had investigations on with the Obama Administration, fast and furious, irs, and ghazi, the attack on the press, the unmasking, i still think there was a cordial nice cordialness in regard to asking formalityons and the i dont know how to explain it. Host our people not cordial anymore . Guest they are not. Making allegations that are fundamentally untrue. The current example on kavanaugh, absolutely unfounded allegations where you are saying you are guilty without having the right to defend yourself, that is atrocious. I believe justice thomas, we need to go back and look at the slanderous applications, particularly people that they are frankly unwanted and not supported at all by facts. Host you say you Wish Congress was shining lights on beacons of success. What in particular . Host successful guest successful people. Look at the unemployment rate, people are part of the solution and the American Dream, having a chance to better themselves and a choice of jobs, seeing rising employment numbers, rising wages and benefits. Those are the things america stood for, not becoming victims of being dependent upon the government. Framers wanted to have that public charge in regards to hand up instead of a continual handout. Host paul gosar with us until the top of the hour. Phone lines are open for you to call in. Democrats, it is 2027488000. Republicans, 2027488001. Independents, 2027488002. A minute ago you mentioned your work with the congressional western congress. Where what are your priorities and what is that Congress Caucus focused on . Guest there are more votes east of the mississippi then west of the mississippi. I am a believer is if you walk around and someones moccasins and see it, you understand much better. We are a caucus that has become empowered to show people what is the energy aspect, what are our problems with our forest process . Success stories in regards to how you apply those. We will come up with, on next tuesday, a rollout of endangered species reforms. These are commonsense reforms. We want all species to have success. What we are seeing right now frankly is not success. If i put 100 patients into a hospital and only three survive, that would be great for the three that survive, but what about the 97 . That success rate is not great, that is what we see with endangered species. Even a couple years back, the federal court system actually took away the oversight of the mexican gray wolf from the federal government and gave it back to the states of new mexico and arizona because the outcomes were so pathetic. We want to see success and from the science aspect, you want to type ofon replicable extremity bases, where if i come up with a series of processes, i should be able to turn it over to you and you get the same results. We want success within that, we want a vibrant aspect of all different species succeeding, but we want to see that successful format come forward and we are not seeing that. Changes to the endangered species act, we expect that next week . Guest yes, we are. Host you have democrats joining in . We expect this to get floor time . Guest our aspect is to put them forward. They will be bipartisan. They were last congress when we put them forward. They are commonsense, like working with all entities, working with tribes, counties, cities, states, those are the people that see it on a day to day basis. It makes perfect sense to most everybody. People want to see success. This is the nature we are surrounded by, we want to see it continue, but we want to see it thrive. Host if you have questions, he is with us to answer your calls. A lot of calls already. Bob in missouri, independent. Good morning. Caller good morning. I would like to stay if the republicans would do their job and make donald trump tell the of garnering pass testimonies and let people testify and quit this nonsense of it is privilege, then we would find out the truth about trump instead of the republicans covering his back thei would like to say Republican Party has fallen a long ways and i would be ashamed to be a republican if i was a republican these days. Host i am sorry, bob. When you look back at the last administration, where is the justice and furious . We still dont have those documents. The only documents we have are those from judicial watch. What about benghazi . What about the irs . What about attacks on the press . If you look at donald trump, it is not the outcomes you want. You may not like them ends a demeanor, but you have to like the outcomes and you start to look back at the people that have investigated. The department of justice has gone over and over this and we have seen committees go over and over this and once again, nothing stands up. It is not the law you want, but it is the law that has been followed. I am a proud republican, i have libertarian tendencies, as my justin amash says helps keep my republican aspects loyal. From that standpoint, we need to follow the letter of the law. When you look at what has transpired, this is the first time we have seen in this country a coup attempt on the presidency. It is not what people wanted, but it is what the American People gave us. That is something we need to start working with. I am sorry you feel that way and straddle the fence as an independent. Host you mentioned justin amash running as independent, are you supporting him as in reelection as an independent . Host i dont. Justin is my friend and that is one of the blessings of the American Dream, you may be friends but you may have one take and i have one take. That has been my beef with family members. There are several liberal members of the family, they are entitled to their ideas and beliefs, but where is it that i am not entitled to mine . That is the problem. Host north las vegas, thomas republican, good morning. Caller good morning, how are you doing . Host doing well. Is the my point whistleblower, this is being used as a method of leaking because his position is in the Intelligence Community, he has heard certain things the president has communicated with a foreign leader, that is in his purview to decide what the president can say or not say to somebody. This is a roundabout to try to leak material to make it look bad on the president and that is why they are not turning the information over. Host how do you feel about whistleblowing in general in the federal government . Caller it is a good idea. In iraq where the i. E. D. s were killing soldiers under the vehicles, somebody called it an easy fix and a whistleblower told them that. Host in this case involving the president , this is above pay grade for a whistleblower to step in . Caller this is an about whistleblowing because he doesnt have any authority to decide weather the president has. One anything wrong or not the president can negotiate with a foreign leader any method he wants. Guest the whistleblower application is perfectly acceptable. It is a noted want. You want some checks and balances, but you health also have to make sure you have a congress that is applicable as well. Of the majority has overstepped themselves horribly in regards to this president and administration, and yet they still get stuff done. How many more times do we have to adjudicate the russia probe and look at kavanaugh in regards to impeachment process . It is problematic and one of the things i look at is there has got to be consequences to an action, particularly if it is unsolicited or unfounded. We have to be careful in that regard because we have seen allegations coming right and left because we dont like the president in the white house. I did not care for the previous occupant, but we worked with him and we actually got a lot of things done with regards to the west and the environment. There are areas to work on. I think we lost balance, that is the key, balance. Host steve is next, indiana. Good morning. , your congressman talking points are the same ones that are lame and tired. You keep talking about benghazi. It is the same old stuff with you guys and you are comparing trump with the Previous Administration, there is no comparison. You are defending a guy that is corrupt. This whistleblower, everything is covered up. Coverup after coverup. This is the most corrupt administration there ever was and for you to defend it in 2018, you lost all the seats in the house, you are going to lose a lot more in 2020. He is going to be gone and the American People will stand up. His base is in the minority. Guest steve host stephen indiana. Guest i am sorry he feels that way. The way i look at it, there is a president sitting in the white house because of the American People seeing through the debacle of the last 8 years before that. The talking points are dynamic talking points. For example, the kavanaugh aspect there it here is a guy that over and over again, people came forward with no justification whatsoever. You see the leaking at the New York Times on salacious information coming forward that has no verification whatsoever. You can call names and do whatever you want to, but there has to be accountability. You may not like the gentleman or the way he talks, but you have to respect he has gone stuff done. The American Economy is purring. Host one of the things the president is reportedly trying to get done is new proposals on expanding background checks. We are waiting on what the white house will propose when it comes to gun legislation, but we have seen the Justice Department circulating a potential legislation looking at expanding background checks. How would you feel about that . Guest first of all, we have a problem. We are not enforcing the law trade Robert Reagan Ronald Reagan set a good, win a crime is committed, we need to hold the lawbreaker accountable. What about all the background checks failed . Why arent we giving due process to make sure we are following up . Why are there thousands of background checks failed and yet we have only prosecuted 10 50 in any given year . That is a problem. That perjury aspect i forgot, we can lie to everybody weather we are from the fbi, department of justice, intelligence services, but when somebody is put in entrapment like general fain general flynn, we will follow through that one. Host if President Trump were to put out a bill on expanded background checks and look to get it moved on capitol hill, would you support that . Guest no, i wouldnt. I want to see the justification for that. I made mention of the endangered species, about 3 versus the 100 out of that. What about the 800,002. 4 who haver 2. 4 million a gun . These are those that balance out the bully. These are senior citizens, woman and children, those are success stories. Do we have a problem here . Yes, we do. We have to start enforcing the law instead of giving people ideas saying this is my excuse, that is how it is. We have to have remedies by having people held accountable. Host less than 10 minutes left. Republican out of florida, a republican. Caller good morning. Praise be for cspan and what opportunity it gives to citizens. On a previous call, i mentioned my letters to the editor under s agenda was not on google and after i mentioned it, it was on google. They want to join the democrats and retire donald trump because of the quality of his mind. He cannot accept favorable information. This is going to lead to groupthink. We republicans must abandon him and retire him and join with democrats under the moose herders agenda. Host are you supporting any of the three republicans who have declared to run in a primary against President Trump headed into 2020 . Caller we must get behind william weld, he is a decent grandfather figure. He will be a nurturing leader, not one that puts people down and demonizes people. That is the kind of leader we need and must join republicans with democrats. One idea. Host do you think bill weld wins the general election next fall . Caller excuse me . Host do you think bill weld wins the general election next fall . Caller he can. He is a decent grand collar grandfather figure. There are two types of leaders, selfproclaimed geniuses that put people down and people those that bring people up, genius makers. Guest that is a great name, moose herders. I come from western my owning and we get a lot of moose. Here is the point, we have seen time and time again people come to this city, washington, d. C. , and all of a sudden we see them with great ideals and no change. Nosee escalating debt, challenging of the democracy. What we dont like about donald trump is he is challenging and challenging for a reason. He came here to change the dynamics of washington, d. C. , the bureaucracy, doing the same thing over and over again expecting a different result and that is not happening. I came in 2010. I havent seen those changes required. What are we inheriting . What are we giving to our children . 23 trillion in debt and still growing . A twotieredity of Justice System . That is unacceptable. Maybe we dont like the way he talks, but you have to like the look of the accountability he demands. Look at mr. Cummings in maryland. Look at what is happening in california. Here we have a state that the pollution is rampant. Do you realize they actually have red flags on the beaches . Being pumpedsewage out of the state as well as mexico into our wonderful Pacific Ocean you cannot go into the ocean at times . Unbelievable. When you see this, it is hypocritical to talk out of both sides of our mouth. What i would ask you to do is step back, look at what is being accomplished, get through the rhetoric because that is the problem. Look at what are some of the problems and how do you get to those successes . It means dialogue. You cannot get through the dialogue through this rhetoric on both sides. Host this is ed out of anaheim. Independent. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for cspan. I am neither an independent, i perotian. F a ross i believe in truth, facts, and results predie judged by results. You have to realize there are people out there that echo what you say, like the guy that called in and said President Trump is corrupt. Way back in the day when i heard nixon i hear republicans echo about socialism and i asked the question, what is socialism and they cannot answer me. In socialism,eve dont use my socialized police, fire, paramedics, free public school, and freeways. On the other of the coin when i go to union meetings, they jump they start echoing what they heard on cnn host we are close to the top of the hour, do you have a question for the congressman . Caller about the echo chamber that people should stop and think about what they say, not just repeat what they heard. Guest i actually agree with you. Our framers wanted a well educated electorate. Too much we see one side or the other, their talking points. That is how communications have gone. That is why it is so important for the American People to start looking for those answers and didactically digging down to find out what the facts are. How do you get your information . Where do you go . When i talked to my constituents and roundtables weather business, energy, public lands, forestry, we try to get the information out to them with regards to what is there, here is the problem, here is the outcomes, how do we put it together . If it makes sense common sensewise, it is probably true. If you see a repeating pattern, there is probably truth that there is a bias to that. You are right, we all want to hear the facts that make our story the best or that we are comfortable with, but that is why donald trump is a disruptor,. It is uncomfortable for both sides. You have to be challenging in this city to get some change and if you dont get that change, where are we . Mill, back to the same doing the same thing over and over again and getting no results. That is wrong, that is not what this country was founded on. Call from sheboygan, wisconsin. Republican, good morning. Caller good morning. Thanks for taking my call. I was listening to the previous collars and certain individuals are allowed to call in and spew everything they hear off of the antitrump news channels about him being corrupt and a cheat and a liar and stuff like that. Man isonnaise 72 the 72, 73 years old, been in business around the world, you think it is only the Democratic Party that is going to find out he is a corrupt individual . I dont know how people are allowed to spew these things without any truth or facts for any specifics. Nobody gives him credit for the job he does. He is a fighter and Everybody Knows if you hit knows if you hit him he will come back at you. We may have come up we may not like what the country has become. We have failed to give the people true governance. When you see the changes over the last eight years, that is why iran. They wanted people from the dental profession. They wanted mothers, fathers, bankers. They also have blind spots. When you start to look at that, the only way you can change is as challenging. That is donald trump. That is what the American People wanted. They have been lied to over and over again. Administrations not looking for the needs of the people. Empowered to live the American Dream and make themselves better, to have accountability. To have some influence around their surroundings, to raise their children in prosperity. I am proud to support the president because what i have seen is what has been working in the past is not working. That is why we are 23 trillion in debt and why we are in a constant war in the middle east and have no accountability for people violate the law. That is wrong. To get there you need to disrupt or. I am a disrupter. I am happy to see how the president has held his ground and how he is not faltered. Always appreciate you stopping by the washington journal. Later this morning, we will be joined by a democratic member of the House Oversight committee, Gerald Connolly. ,ore time for your phone calls phone lines for democrats, republicans and independents are on your screen. You can start calling in now and we will be right back. President and First Lady Melania Trump will host the second state dinner of his administration as he welcomes australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison and his wife. Watch guest arrivals and dinner toasts. Live coverage begins today at 6 30 p. M. Eastern on cspan, online at cspan. Org or listen for free on the cspan radio app. Eitel Bernie Sanders voters saythe time, i defy you to you care more about poor people than i do because you dont. I defy you to say you care more about Health Care Access denied due because you dont. Morey you to say you care about educating poor people than i do because you dont. We have very Different Solutions about how to get there. About her life, career in politics and work as president of the Heritage Foundation think tank, sunday night at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspans q a. Washington journal logs are available on cspans new online store. Check out the washington journal mugs and see all of the cspan products. Washington journal continues. To getbout 30 minutes your top Public Policy issues, we want to hear from you, turning the conversation over to you. Phone line for democrats, 202 7488000, republicans can call 202 7488001, independents can call 202 7488002 and you can text us at 202 7488003. Here are a few stories we have been following. Democrats chasing after the whistleblower complaint against President Trump, there is the headline on the front page of the Washington Times. Democrats running into a wall of executive privilege. Adam schiff accusing the administration of stonewalling that probe into a National Security whistleblower complaint against the president. Not a lot of details about the complaint, some saying it involves a specific promise to a foreign leader. The Washington Post saying their sources point toward a phone call the president made over the summer to the new president of ukraine but no specific details about the whistleblower complaint. Yesterday, the house of representatives passed a shortterm spending bill, taking the first step toward avoiding a Government Shutdown at the end of the month. The measure will now move to the senate. The stopgap funding resolution will keep the government open until november 21. Extendsslation also several Health Care Provisions and programs and other expiring measures, including the National Flood program. The extension expected to give lawmakers to hash out the details of their annual spending legislator. Placeimate rally taking today, tens of thousands of High School Students nationwide plan to skip classes to attend a Global Climate strike. Those are marches calling for immediate action to end Climate Change. Students in more than 800 locations around the u. S. Plan to go on strike from school for the day to attend protests. The phone lines are yours to talk about it. I mentioned the climate protest, we are covering the d. C. Youth climate activists rally today at 12 30 eastern live on cspan2. You can also watch it on cspan. Org or listen to it on the free cspan radio app. Houston, texas, a democrat, good morning. Caller good morning. I wanted to talk to the other gentleman but it is too late. I will make some comments about what he was speaking about. There are a lot of things he was speaking that was wrong. Trump is getting away with everything. If it had been any other been,ent, they would have he is mistreating women and everything. With the whistleblower, there have been so many people that have been fired under him and they have been investigated, they are in jail and everything but he is still getting away with that. He did not win the popular vote. Hillary won the popular vote. There is a way he talks to everyone and women and everything and he is against the law. This is not right. Dictator. A these foreign countries, they are in charge and the republicans are doing everything they want him to do. Mitch mcconnell, paul ryan and them, they got tired of him dictating to them, do what i say. We will stay in the lone star state, bob is in texas, a republican. Good morning. Caller good morning, how are you today . Host doing well. Caller i want to comment on the homeless situation in the major cities on both coasts. Tax dollarsingle going toward bailing any of these people out. When i look at a guy like kevin newsom, i think you put your state in such a hole and you expect us to bail you out . No thanks. As far as trump goes, the Mainstream Media has said their way with politicians, both republicans and democrats, for years. I am glad he challenge them. We have seen exactly what the media is all about. It is nothing but one big dumpster fire. President is up and tweeting this morning, tweeting about the news of new york city mayor bill de blasio dropping his 2020 president ial bid, announcing that this morning. The president quickly taking to twitter, saying big political news, perhaps the biggest story in years. Parttime mayor of new york city bill de blasio has shockingly dropped out of the president ial race. New york city is devastated he is coming home. Democrat, youork, are next. Caller thank you, cspan, for the outstanding programming q provide. Programming you provide. I do also miss brian lamb on fridays and susan. I wish they would come on and spend the morning with us. Host i will pass along your regards. Caller thank yous a very much. My Public Policy issue is Nuclear Waste, nuclear power. It seems as if they get a free pass. The waste that is being put into the environment, it cant be seen, tasted or felt. Other than the cancers you are seeing. Minutes did a program one week or two ago showing all the plastic in the ocean. The plastic reveals itself and it is everywhere. The same thing with Nuclear Waste and nuclear power. It will get into the environment eventually. Backllenge cspan to bring the student winners of 2010. They touted the safety of nuclear power. They said they could never be a meltdown and it was only 11 months later we had a disaster in fukushima, which is to this very day spewing byproducts into the ocean. It will eventually rear its ugly head in decimation of this planet. All these Nuclear Reactors throughout the u. S. Were licensed under the guise that is the only way they permitted anyone of them and they were all to be mothballed in 30 years. That is the Life Expectancy of any powerplant and all they are doing is extending the licensing to run these reactors. About metals,and they fatigued and breakdown. They should not they dont work like they should over time. It is like a rusty car, nothing last forever and there is no way we can contain the waste over the Life Expectancy of the waste. It is our undoing. It will be at lifes undoing, it is pandoras box and i dont think they are being called out. Thank you, cspan. Host this is philip out of florida, independent. What is your top Public Policy issue . I have to go with the one that unites everybody because we are all dependent on the planet. I hope somebody goes out and buys the shoes. This environment and infrastructure and the Current Issues we are having with Climate Change, you have to look at it like this it is not built for the intense storms we are getting. Bahamas, it was the this week it is texas. The infrastructure that was built was not built to handle a massive and destructive elements we are currently under. It is just that simple. Host are you a parent . Caller i am a teacher. Walkout fortudent climate activism, do you think your students, do you know if any of them will be walking out today to participate in the marches and rallies . I moved to florida from maryland and i am currently doing mentoring and tutoring and i can tell you none of the students i am working with will do nothing like that. They dont talk about those things. Host is teaching Climate Change part of the lesson in florida or you are . Caller no, not that i can tell. Host should it be mandatory in schools . Caller they are the next generation, they will inherit this mess. If i was a principal or superintendent, i would say lets look at the options we need to be looking at to deal with the massive intensity of ,ll of these windstorms, floods Energy Issues that we have, putting carbon in the atmosphere. I would be teaching all of it. They are the generation that will inherit it. Host we are covering the d. C. Area youth climate rally that is taking place at 12 30. Cspan2 is where you can watch it, along with cspan. Org and the free cspan radio app. Our coverage of the white house state dinner for the australian Prime Minister, Scott Morrison, will begin at 6 30 p. M. Eastern here on cspan. Arrivals, theest dinner toast offered by the president and Prime Minister. We will take an indepth look at the president s second state dinner. Thatpe you join us for this friday evening across the country. Speaking of that state dinner, plenty of stories about it. We are still looking for an actual guest list about who will be there. We will probably have one by today. Here is some of the reporting about the state dinner. Usa today asking what brings the Prime Minister to the u. S. . A statement said he is visiting ohiongton and chicago and and new york. The quote from his office, there is no deeper friendship from which exists between the u. S. And australia. We see the world through the same eyes and have a deep commitment for peace, liberty and prosperity. He said his trip is a valuable opportunity to strengthen security and economic partnership. In the Washington Post, reliable source writer with a sneak peek of the menu tonight. This is her reporting from late last night, saying the white house is going with a lighter fare in its second official dinner, and entree of a fish is taking the place of the expected redmeat centerpiece. The bounty of produce that will be served to guests in the rose pureedincludes roasted and encased in ravioli, bonus vegetables come in the form of baby kale, carrots atop the first course pasta dish. Be served with a hollandaise sauce. It is accompanied by a summer squash blossom. Also in the traditional category of desert, and apple pie made with lady apples from the pacific northwest. The tart is accompanied with a scoop of ice cream with apple brandy. Emily and the Washington Post. At 6 30rage beginning this evening. Paul is up next in washington, d. C. , a democrat, good morning. Caller good morning. , my Public Policy issue is managing our federal budget. I am a federal worker and these instances of furloughs and shutting down is unacceptable. The last one i work in Human Resources and the last furlough was is still impacting the government and we are still cleaning up from that. I think it is absolutely ridiculous that our leadership cannot come to agreement on budgets. It is the same as my functioning in my position and not being able to manage my resources. I would be fired. Ridiculous that our elected officials cannot manage properly, and we come to these types of decisions and instances each year. It is ridiculous. Host what is the stopgap funding measure . A six week funding measure. What did that mean for you and your office and you might sing what agency you work at . Caller i am not going to say my basicallyt it means kicking the can down the road. We are hopeful the thing that is frustrating to me and many other federal workers is that we each year with providing Congress Budgets and documents that support what we do as agencies. It is a tall order. We do that every year because it is mandated. It seems like it goes into some blackhole because nothing is ever decided because it becomes a political, in my opinion, a political issue versus a resources issue. To answer your question directly, we wait. It is kicking the can down the road. Resolution still needs to go to the senate. The Republicancontrolled Senate is expected to take up that resolution next week before lawmakers leave town for what will be a two week congressional recess in october. D. C. , ain washington, republican, good morning. Caller good morning. My main policy issue is money in politics. If you look at the influence in the three branches of government , even the impartial judiciary, which i think if you look at Citizens United and the fact that corporations. You can see the problem where you have multinational corporations that have interests the u. S. People might not have the citizens best interest at heart. What is this top them from trying to form one and dumping millions of dollars in it. The e. U. Has passed a large amount of tech privacy rights for citizens and we have not done that. We have things like the facebook isndals, money in politics the primary overarching issue that i am interested in for the next four to 10 years. Host open phones in this halfhour of washington journal. We are asking what your top Public Policy issue is. Phone lines for democrats, republicans and independents. We have about 10 minutes left in this segment. We have been asking viewers to text us. The newest way to get in touch with us is 202 7488003. Please include your name and where you are from. This is from lance out of fort lauderdale, florida. Seeop issue is waiting to the report that will finally reveal the vast misconduct of the head of the cia, fbi and others. It will be a game changer. Fraud andstop voter passed the voter fraud registration act to prevent voter fraud. Trump 2020 is how she answer text. Ends her text. Georgia,om frank in keeping the economy strong is the top Public Policy issue. The one viewer mentioned gun control control and gun policy, this is the story out of the Washington Times. The Trump Administration losing conservative house members in an effort to expand background checks with Freedom Caucus members rejecting the proposals floated by the attorney general. Had paul gosar on the program and he said he would not support a background check proposal. Hamilton, virginia, independent, you are next. Caller good morning. My issue does relate to gun control and also alcohol. I wish they would just enforce the laws on gun control. 3 and youfill out a 447 lie on it it is a federal crime but they dont prosecuted. A far bigger issue than gun violence is alcohol. Drivers,m, drunk spousal abuse, families destroyed, and i speak from experience. Was an alcoholic, my brother is not collect and i have had friends commit suicide because they were alcoholics. Nothing country does about alcoholism and its many abuses. They only want to talk about gun control. Alcohol kills and damages far more americans and causes our dollarstrillions of through the medical system. It is never talked about. I sent a letter to one of my state senators and i mentioned gun control and i also talked about alcoholism. His response only addressed guns. Host earlier this week it was National Constitution day. Our question for viewers that day was how would you amend the constitution . With your comments about alcohol control, how do you feel about prohibition . Would you bring it back . [laughter] caller no, it would not fly. Too many people want to have a glass of wine with dinner. I live in loudoun county. Loudoun county has 30 plus breweries. D 20 plus drunk driving in my area is going to become a gigantic issue. People are coming out from d. C. And Northern Virginia to sample all of this wind. Sample all of this wine. You dont just take a sip and move on. People are getting in their cars and driving somewhere else. It is a problem. Alcohol, if you look at the deaths in america because of all forms of alcohol, it is a gigantic problem and it will get worse. Host this is earl, nashville, georgia, democrat, good morning. Caller good morning, how are you doing . Host doing well. Caller i have a couple of problems i would like to talk about it. About gunant to talk control. Soldier and i am a i served in saudi arabia, in bosnia and cuba. They should do a background check. Course andd be a during this six week course, you get investigated and you go through counseling. A gun itself cannot hurt anybody, it is the person behind that weapon that post a trigger. I agree with him on that 100 . That, youre we leave are talking about licensing people to own a firearm . Trained in therained in military how to fire a weapon. , you goet your license through a course, a six week course and as you go through investigated being and you go through counseling. This is to see who is buying the weapon. You are going to cut out a lot of things. Also, people talk about weapons on the street. They should pay the price for. Host what should the price before selling a gun illegally . You get caught, the gun is stolen. They should charge you a fine for it. Host should there be jail time, as well . Caller jail time and charge them a fine for selling a weapon. The only way you should be able to sell a weapon is if you have a license to sell the weapon and take that person through the course, counseling and have them be investigated and the whole nine yards. Host this is douglas out of culpeper, virginia. Independent. Good morning. Warming orbal Climate Change, they keep changing it, i dont think they can make up their mind what the problem is. If they remember noahs ark, it was not powered by fossil fuel. Christians, we may trust in god but we dont read the bible. The bible said a nation that turns from god, god will destroy it and that is what happened at noahs time. 2019, what us up to is happening today . Caller god is still in control of the weather, the bible says he controls all things. People need to read the bible. When our nation turns from god, the bible said he will destroy. Minutes before the house comes in and in those 30 minutes we will be joined by virginia democrat, Senior Member of the House Oversight Reform Committee, Gerald Connolly. We will be right back. This weekend on the market tv , saturday on the civil war, the coauthor of targeted tracks talks about the importance of the Cumberland Valley railroad during the civil war. At 8 00 on lectures in history, a discussion on a playwright. The things that are motivating August Wilson are his desire to move black people from the margins to the center and say what is true about us, what matters to us, what is happening in our lives. Sunday at 4 00 p. M. Eastern the 1919 silent army film. At 8 00 on the presidency, Herbert Hoover and his world war i relief work. Ithoover and his team built into a remarkable organization. It had its own flag, it had its own fleet, it negotiated treaties with some of the european powers. Its leader, hoover, enjoyed diplomatic immunity and traveled freely through enemy lines. Probably the only american citizen permitted to do so during the entire war. Explore our nations passed on amerco history tv, every weekend on cspan3. Washington journal continues. Host we are glad to welcome back virginia democrat Gerald Connolly, Senior Member of the House Oversight committee. On this mysterious whistleblower complaint and the process of trying to get access to it, what you know about it at this point . Guest i only know what is and put out there in the media. That onseem to know is more than one occasion, the president has had conversations with a particular foreign leader in which explicit, either threats or promises were made, that this whistleblower was witness to and found sufficiently alarming that he felt he had to go to the Inspector General and report it. The words used were alarming and urgent. Words from the Inspector General. Guest from the Inspector General. Those are not words often used by an Inspector General. That has everyones attention. Other speculation is it involves ukraine. Was it a conversation with the new president of the ukraine . Was it a conversation with Vladimir Putin about the ukraine . We dont know that yet. What we do know is that during this time the president suspended over the actions of million of50 military aid needed by the Ukrainian Government. In the eastern part of ukraine, Russian Forces and russian agents are actively engaged in military activity, including casualties on the ukrainian side , on the russian side, as well. Russian continues illegally to occupy and illegally annexed crimea. It is not a trivial matter to suspend that military aid, which is now been resumed. Why did he do that and was the connected with whatever this conversation was . There has been additional speculation that goes back to donald trump and Rudy Giuliani, his personal attorney, trying to , whoirt on joe bidens son was engaged in Business Activities with certain ukrainians. Again, that would be for partisan, political reasons, which would be a Disturbing Development out of the presidency. ,ost with a story like this you mention speculation that is out there. We have not seen the official complaint. How do you separate the speculation from what you need to talk about and what you need to see . Urgent, comingd, from an Inspector General got my attention. This is not a monday and thing. Maybe it is important, maybe it is not. This is at the elevated stage of urgency, there is something deeply troubling about what this conversation was between the president and a foreign leader and i think all of us are entitled to know. If there is nothing there, reveal the contents of the conversation and we can conclude that. If you have something to hide because this is a truly disturbing activity on the part of the president and inappropriate, if not downright illegal, we need to know that, too. Host the acting director of National Intelligence scheduled to testify before the House Intelligence Committee next thursday, i know your Oversight Committee, but if you are on the committee, what question would you ask him . Guest tell us about the conversation, or those conversations. What did the president say and who was he talking to . I think the public is entitled to know that, especially after this intense speculation. Host the president talking to the American Public via twitter. Here are his tweets. The radical left democrats and their Fake News Media partners headed up by little adam schiff and batting zero for 21 against me are at it again. They think i might have had a dicey conversation with a certain foreign leader based on highly partisan whistleblowers. He said strange there are so many other people knowing of the find and respectful conversation that they would not have also come forward. Do you know the reason they did not . Because there was nothing said wrong. It was pitch perfect. Guest that is classic donald trump deflect and distract and try to diminish your opponent so that by the time the truth comes out it has already been diluted. I dont think he will get away with at this time. By the way, if he is so confident in the conversation, release the transcript of it. Host Gerald Connolly is with us until the house comes in at 9 00. Until then, the phones are open for your questions and comments. ,emocrats call 202 7488000 republicans call 202 7488001, independents call 202 7488002. When we advise you on without we were going to be talking about a different investigation. Several avenues of that investigation, we want to show them to our viewers. There was the military personnel thing at trumps turnberry resort in scotland. President trump suggesting his property in miami could be a possible site for the next g7 summit. Which of those things most concern you . Officials forn deliberately staying at a trump property. The appearance of that is all wrong and there are plenty of options people have. I think the perception of that, if not the actual doing of that, is wrong. I think they should not do it because it enriches the president and diminishes Public Confidence in their objectivity. The thing that bothers me the most ghost of foreign governments trying clearly to seek and favor with the president by staying at his properties. In washingtonhat at the trump hotel, where a number of foreign governments has had events there, or have booked lots of rooms there and have done it in such a prominent way that it was clearly designed to capture his attention. We have a clause in the constitution of the united clause,the emoluments the president cannot benefit from his office host we will show it to viewers. No Person Holding any office of profit or trust under them shall without the consent of congress office,f any present, title or any whatever it from any king, prince or foreign state. Guest i think this is a violation of that clause and president has made it worse as you alluded to by publicly saying i could host a g7 meeting next year. He didnt even want to go to that meeting. It was a meeting he said Vladimir Putin ought to be invited to again and ignore what is going on in Eastern Ukraine and the illegal annexation of crimea. And giveite them back them that status and lets do it in a trump property. Host how do you prove a emoluments clause violation and you think this is an Impeachable Offense . Guest it is in the constitution of the United States. Think instead of trying to take care that he does not violate that, he is blatantly violating it. We made our concerns known early on at the time of his inauguration that because of his conflicts of interest, he needed to divest himself of his property holdings, put them in a blind trust or whatever, he did not do that. He handed over management to his sons but he maintained control and that is inherent conflict of interest and a violation of the emoluments clause. Lets start with the emoluments clause and hold him to account. Host not unusual when you join us, plenty of cause. Color from North Carolina is a democrat, good morning. Caller from a North Carolina is a democrat, good morning. Caller how come nobody can do anything about this . People are going to jail for little to nothing down here in North Carolina. I dont understand what he can get away with anything and everything and nobody else can go to jail for just spitting on the street. Guest i think that is a fair question and i think we have to go back a little bit. Elected, we had a republican majority in congress. The republican majority that had been very zealous about oversight of the Obama Administration went to crickets when trump got inaugurated. The Oversight Committee of the congress, they did not hold a , zero, in terms of oversight of trump for the misdeeds he has been accused of. None zero. We requested over 60 subpoenas to have witnesses or documents come before the committee to examine them about allegations toward the president or his administration and not one of them was honored by the republican majority, even though they had issued more than 100 in the Previous Administration with president obama. One of the reasons democrats won the majority last november is because the public your job is to hold any president to account. And provide vigorous oversight. We have picked the pace up considerably and we have six major committees investigating the president s behavior. There is lots of litigation and the court going on with this. A judge reinstated the emoluments case so that i could go forward. There is lots of media scrutiny, as well. I think we are trying to pick up the pace and we will hold this president to account. The robert Mueller Report encourages us to do that and a possible prosecutor in the future. I dont think President Trump will get away with anything but anything but at the moment holding him to account is difficult given the lack of cooperation or any interest on the others of the aisle and looking at this president and his behavior. Host paul gosar was on our program earlier, he said the relationship between the branches is worse than it is now than it was at the height of the divided government. Would you agree . Guest i think President Trump himself is toxic. I feel he has defied the legislative branch of the american government. I believe his behavior is deeply erratic. Countedington post has 12,000 lies out of his mouth or his tweets since he is been president. I think that has created toxicity that is unprecedented and deeply disturbing on the part of the president of the United States. Kentucky,sville, independent, good morning. Caller good morning. I have a couple of questions so i would like short answers. I would like to respond to what he says. Host we will see what we can get through. Caller i would like to ask him if he thinks there is anything trump could do right, yes or no . Guest yes. Caller the other question is how long have you been in Political Office . Guest this is my 11th year in congress. Caller you havent been in there as long as some but you have been there long enough. That is the problem. The American People are sick of career politicians. We are sick they have been in office for so long and the American People wanted Something Different when they voted donald trump in. You might not like him and you might accuse him of lying because he is not a politician and every single day when all of this stuff comes out about him, something new every single day, you guys are putting the nail in your coffin. First of all, i would say who willect the people decide my future live in the 11th district of the future. 11th district of virginia. I am accountable to them. They will decide if i have been here too long. Secondly, far from being a career politician, i spent 10 iars running nonprofits, spent 20 years in the private sector, i spent 10 years as a staff member, i am not a career politician but i do believe in Public Service and i am very proud of it. My voters will decide if they share that pride or they are happy with that performance. With respect to career politicians, that is up to the voters. If they want to reelect them, that is their prerogative. If they share your view that there is a time limit, just dont vote for them for reelection. Host a lot of those constituents in the 11th Congressional District in virginia are federal employees. What is this latest continuing resolution, this sixweek stopgap measure, what will that mean for them . Guest i think it means more stress, we are kicking the can down the road until december. The last shutdown, the longest in American History, 35 days, is very much with them. How do you have a sense of dignity about your work when you are told you dont need to come in or you need to come in but we cant pay you . Enough they are federal employees. It is twice as true for federal contract workers who work for companies that sort of federal government. Often they are embedded sidebyside. They do the same job as a federal employee in the same office except one gets reimbursed and what does not. It has a terrible demoralizing affect. God bless our federal employees and contract employees for sticking with it through these adverse circumstances. To runrowd that says we government like a business, i worked in the private sector at senior levels for several companies. I dont know of a business that would survive if its management shutdown for an indefinite. Of time and threat not to pay people or their bills. No Corporate Board worth its salt would allow a ceo to get away with that. Yet, for people who say we need to run it like the private sector, we are not doing it when we threaten to shut down the government. Host 10 minutes before the house of representatives gavels in for the day. We are taking your phone calls. Florida, republican, good morning. Caller good morning. Host go ahead, george. What is your question or comment . I think we lost george. Maryland, democrat, good morning. Caller good morning. I am a fourthgeneration democrat. My question for the representative from the 11th district of virginia is i should not say question, it is basically a statement. I am ashamed of the Democratic Party. A fourthgeneration democrat out of maryland and it seems that you want to say donald trump is a radical, he is undermining and he is a criminal. Who is dividing the nations the Democratic Party. It is people like you, sir, who bring shame to the party. With your ideology and your philosophies because you spent everything. Vote . Did you whens the last time you voted for a democrat in the president ial election . Caller you are not a lifelong politician, yes you are. That is all you have been doing. You take money out of our pockets and your district is one of the most expensive districts in virginia to live and i am ashamed of you. Guest i dont even know what to do without. Clearly you are not a democrat. Apology foring an the fact i am a proud democrat the am proud of my party. My party is stepping up, unlike your party, and holding this president accountable. That is our constitutional role. If you have a problem with that, maybe take a fresh look at the constitution. That is how our system of government works. I dont think we have ever had a president with this kind of behavior in office and he needs to be held accountable. It is not just partisan politics. What you conveniently ignored his we had something called the robert Mueller Report. Mueller is a lifelong republican. Made a report that is deeply troubling. It is 180 pages, it talks about the connections with the russian government that are unique and unprecedented and deeply disturbing. He could not prove a criminal conspiracy that does not mean there are not a lot of unusual and disturbing contacts between Trump Campaign officials and russian officials. That should bother every patriotic american, democratic or republican. The second part of this report, he delineates 10 occasions in which the president probably crossed a line and committed obstruction of justice. He goes further. He said i cant indict him because the department of justice wont let me. But you, congress, has constitutional remedies for impeachment. He said once trump is out of office he can still be prosecuted for these crimes because the department of justice opinion will no longer apply. But prosecutor does that if there is not serious grounds for concern . This is not something democrats have made up. This is something professionals, Justice Department professionals, have delineated for us and i commend the report. It is something that should be of concern to every patriotic american, irrespective of their political allegiance. Host about five minutes left before the house comes in. The live view of the capital. Let me show you the scene at the white house. The arrival ceremony getting ready to take place for Scott Morrison, the australian Prime Minister. That ceremony take place this morning ahead of the state dinner that is taking place at the white house. Our coverage of the state dinner begins at 6 30 p. M. We will show you the arrival ceremony. Join us tonight on your friday night for the event. We will be with you tonight and showing you that same seen life. Upper marlboro, maryland is next. Caller good morning. I wanted to say as an independent in maryland i cant vote in the primary. Am a registered republican i have been a longtime democrat. The Democratic Party left me. They went to liberal for me so i am strictly an independent moderate person. I am the mother of four millenials and i am so disappointed with the Democratic Party, with the way you are not fighting. Representative connelly, you just said the president should release a transcript of the conversations. That is something the Democratic Party should have said in a united voice to the press as soon as the story broke. Also, call his bluff. Push him to release the payments that have been made at his hotels by the military, intelligence communities, saudi arabia. The Democratic Party is not calling this president s bluff. Guest thank you for encouraging us to do more. That is in sharp contrast to the previous color. I think that is good advice. In contrast to the previous caller. The president needs to understand he is not above the law and it is our job to facilitate that. We will take your advice. Includees double down starting formal impeachment increase . Guest i dont know what formal means. That is what the Judiciary Committee is doing. Whether thatll see leads to a formal impeachment process or not. Host would you like to see nancy pelosi more outspoken about impeachment . Guest i respect roles and i think nancy pelosi has a role that is to make sure this is a ,ethodical factbased process dont rush into it. Dont judge first and look for facts later, some of my colleagues have done. It is a careful process. I think she is right to call all members of congress, especially democrats, to that standard. Nadler,aid that, jerry the chairman of the gg her committee the chairman of the Judiciary Committee as a different role. It is to hold the president to account and examine thoroughly whether there are grounds for impeding proceeding with impeachment. Host denver, colorado, democrat, good morning. Caller good morning. I wanted to thank you for taking my call. Representative Gerald Connolly and the Democratic Party, i am a registered democrat, they dont hit the mark quite right. Retiredlorado, i am national guard, when the president comes to a hotel, the cost for the american taxpayer outo enormous, they rent three to five floors, they have to replace all of the windows and make them bulletproof just for the visit then they go back to being normal windows once they leave. We have cap david. Why do all of these meetings have to be held in private hotels owned by trump when the cost nobody is talking about the actual dollar amount for one days visit when they have a dignitary go to a trump establishment or these people stopping off in ireland. Because theumbers taxpayers need to know. Guest i certainly would agree with you that any president ial entourage ought to be lean and mean. We dont want to compromise in any way the president s security but do we need all of the aides and hangers on who cost money for the taxpayer. Sometimes traveling with the president becomes a matter of prestige rather than purpose. I think your point about trying to look at the cost behind all of that in separate the extra special nice to do against the essential costs for security and operation, i think that would be a good exercise, almost an engineering exercise in terms of looking at a project and trying to get the cost down. I think that is good advice and we could use it. Investigations into the Trump Properties and spending, do we think they will be wrapped up before voters know to the polls again . Guest i think we will have facts and figures in front of us and we will curb the behavior. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] chaplain conroy let us pray. God of all creation, thank you for giving us another day. At the end of a very busy week, we ask your blessing upon the members of this peoples house. As they face a rare short weekend, may they be refreshed so as to return for a busy week to address the salient issues of these days. We ask your blessing today