News and opinion website. As always, we will take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter as well. Washington is next. Ist good morning, it monday, september 23, 2019. Scrutiny over President Trumps reactions to ukraine have led for renewed calls for impeachment. Also acknowledged yesterday that joe biden came up in that july call. This morning on the washington journal, we are getting your reaction to this story as phone lines are split as usual by political party. Is thets, 2027488000 number. Republicans, 2027488001. Independents, 2027488002. You can also text us and if you do, please include your name and where you are from. That number, 2027488003. You can also catch up with us on social media. On twitter it is cspanwj. On facebook it is facebook. Com cspan. A very good monday morning, you can start calling in now. It was the washington journal over the weekend that led the that julyorting about phone call with President Trump. The wall street journal wrote the president repeatedly pressured while hunter biden was also working there. In the wake of that reporting, here is congressman adam schiff, the chairman of the Intelligence Committee on cnn yesterday. [video clip] i have been reluctant to go down the path of impeachment for the reason i think the founders contemplated a country that has elections every four years, that this would be an extraordinary remedy, extremity remedy of last resort. At the same time he is trying to browbeat a foreign leader into doing something illicit that is providing dirt on his opponent during a president ial campaign, that may be the only remedy that is coequal to the people that conduct represents. We are going to hear from the director of National Intelligence on thursday. He is the first director ever to withhold a whistleblower complaint and we will make sure we get that complaint. We will make sure we find out weather the president is engaged in this improper conduct. It may be that we have to move forward with that extraordinary remedy if, indeed, the president is, at the same time withholding vital military assistance, he is trying to leverage that to obtain permissible help in his campaign. Host adam schiff yesterday on cnn. Adam schiff a close ally of speaker nancy pelosi, one of her top investigators in the house. Alexandria ocasiocortez willing to go even farther over the weekend, this was her late on saturday night twitter saying the bigger National Scandal is not the president s lawbreaking behavior, it is the democratic partys refusal to impeach him for it. It is one thing for a sitting president to break the law, it is another to let him. The gop silence and refusal to act should not be a surprise. Ours is. Alexandria ocasiocortez over the weekend. This was President Trump yesterday morning as he was leaving the white house headed to texas on questions about his phone call with ukraine. [video clip] conversation. Eat the conversation i had was largely congratulatory. Largely corrupt largely the fact we dont want our people like Vice President biden and his son contributing to corruption already in ukraine and ukraine has a lot of problems. The new president is saying he is going to be able to rid the country of corruption and i said that would be a great thing. We had a great conversation. We had a conversation on many things. I believe ukraine put out a statement saying we covered many different topics. It was a warm and friendly conversation. Ive act ukraine from the beginning. Host that was President Trump yesterday. Those comments are the subject of many of the headlines about this story, including this one from the Washington Times. Trump confirms he spoke of biden in that u. K. Call in july. We are getting your thoughts. We want to know what you are thinking this morning, especially these new calls for impeachment proceedings to begin. 2027488000 is the number. Republicans, 2027488001. Independents, 2027488002. Mary up first out of detroit, a democrat. Good morning. Caller good morning. Host go ahead, mary. Caller good morning. Yes . Host what are your thoughts on this story . Caller i think the president should be impeached. He has lied to the american people. He has lied to us consistently admitted now, he has ukrainealk to the president about joe biden. This is a Smear Campaign and i think he should be impeached for it. Think before taking that step, the whistleblower complaint itself should be seen by congress . There is currently that effort to get congressional access to that complaint. We are expecting to perhaps hear more about that. Mary. K we lost same question to you, vivian, also a democrat. What do you think . Caller thank you for taking my call. He should be impeached. What is it going to take for the media to stop . Every time this mans mouth is open, he lies. Clinton lost his law license for lying. His administration lies, the nepotism, and they still where is all the money . All the jobs, all the programs government all the he has decreased down to about one third, where is the money from that . It seems he cannot do nothing wrong. He makes nixon look like a little girl. His cult, they dont see his call, they dont see nothing wrong with that . Host is it important to see the complaint first before proceeding to impeachment proceedings . Caller you know that is not going to happen. If it does, it is going to be doctored. You know he is not going to let that come out, just like barr covers up everything this man does, like the redaction on the Mueller Report. Everybody knows what he had done. Let it come out, but please dont let it be redacted. Are is one reason they occult. Probably when he left, he told the whistleblower to tell because they knew what he was doing. Of usahe Editorial Board today calling on congress to get to the bottom of trumps pressure on ukraine saying it is important for the system of checks and balances in this country. One more lead editorial to show you from the Editorial Board of the wall street journal. Here is how they think this will likely play out. Here is where they end that editorial. All of this will play out in trump era fashion with adam schiff making claims that turn out to be exaggerated. Media resistance hyping impeachment and mr. Trump fighting back. Call the whole thing a hoax without evidence of worse behavior. Nothing else is likely to come of it. Americans will have to add all of this in their judgment about weather mr. Trump or his fanatical opponent are the biggest risk to american wellbeing. Editorial board of the wall street journal. Aligns as usual, democrats, republicans, and independents. We will look for your twitter messages as well and twitter posts. Jerry is an independent. Good morning. Think this is mostly just about nothing. And his son, you know, if it is any kind of thing, it is illegal. Ukraine sure on that prosecutor investigating his sun. I dont think donald trump has done anything on that line. Host why is that, jerry . The only thing he was undoubtedly biden from theinvestigation doj. For trump, james comey, some of them end up going to prison after this thing is over. Host that is jerry in mississippi this morning. Plenty of discussion about this on the sunday shows. The caller talking about an investigation. It was Lindsey Graham on fox sunday morning futures who department ofew justice investigation into what the bidens were doing in ukraine. Here is Lindsey Graham. [video clip] i want the department of justice to appoint somebody to look at the role ukraine played. There are a lot of allegations out there how ukraine fed information to democrats a bunch against Trump Campaign managers and others. I think it is fair somebody look bidens. Onnection of the the biden connection to the ukraine through his son. You cannot have it one way, you cannot look at one family and not the other. I dont trust the media to do this. I am hoping someone will appoint an investigator to look at all things are ukraine like we looked at all things. Host senator Lindsey Graham yesterday and here is more senators with their reaction to this story, including ed markey out of massachusetts writing on twitter yesterday, donald trump welcomed Russian Election interference and now it appears he begged ukraine to do the same. We need to bring the president to justice or he will continue to abuse his power. Donald trump needs to be impeached immediately. This tweet from mitt romney. If the president asked or persuaded the ukraine government to investigate his rival, it would be troubling for the fax to come out. Another republican on the sunday shows was pat toomey out of pennsylvania, went on to discuss guncontrol legislation, but also asked about this evolving ukraine story, this was his reaction to questions about that story. [video clip] i dont know the context, i dont know what was said. It is not appropriate for any candidate for federal office certainly including a sitting president to ask for assistance from a foreign country, that is not appropriate, but i dont know that is what happened. Do you think congress should get its hands on this whistleblower complaint . As you know, this is a recent example of cases that have gone back from the beginning of the republic of the tension between the executive over private conversations versus congresss obligations and responsible it is for oversight. I think what happened here is what happens typically in these es, you get some kind of doesnt need to be protected for National Security purposes, it satisfies members of the Intelligence Committees and allows us to determine weather this is something that really requires further investigation or not. At this point, we dont know anything, we are getting a bunch of leaked rumors and that is all we have. Host getting your phone calls this morning on the washington journal, getting your reaction to this story, also looking for tweets and texts as well. Democrats, if they dont impeach trump are complicit with his corruption. Illegal and unconstitutional behavior and history will be unkind. One more text message as well from california. So many past investigations and no one has found anything that will impeach the president yet. If they spend half their time and resources on helping the homeless crisis or all the repairs needed to the roads or clean water in flint, wouldnt that be nice . Getting your phone calls, your text, your tweets, facebook posts as well. Mitchell, thanks for waiting in new jersey, a democrat. Go ahead. Caller good morning. It is pretty obvious what is going on over here. The president dispatched his personal attorney who coordinated with the state department to try to dig up dirt on joe biden. They had this plan all along. Did anythingiden improper, it is a matter that should be left to the intelligence apparatus, the Justice Department and through proper investigative channels. They should not be for the president to prosecute himself. The fact that they have admitted not so far and they are allowing the missile blower complaint to be aired in the shows you exactly what is going on. They are involved with trying to blackmail another country and the president is directly getting involved, but trying to smear his political opponent. Like i said, it is not that there should not be any kind of investigation or look into weather there had been improprieties with Vice President biden. That is not really the issue. The issue is it is totally improper for the president to proceed in this manner. Host we will be hearing more this week over that dispute about the whistleblower complaint. Joseph maguire expected to be on capitol hill on thursday. It was the disagreement between the acting director of National Intelligence andy Inspector General for the dni over this whistleblower complaint that sparked this story last week and it was the Inspector General who appeared behind closed doors with the house Intelligence Committee late last week and here we are this week expecting to hear more about trying to get access to that whistleblower complaint. Out of alabama, good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. First of all, i would like to say it is easy to point fingers. When you point a finger at somebody, you have four pointing back at you. It is easy to call someone a liar. It is good to stand in judgment of somebody. I think people are spewing out too much hate and that is what it is on both sides, too much hate. Why dont we get back to the way we used to be . Why dont we keep our mouth shut until the truth surfaces . I have not seen any proof. America. Ncern is our it is getting so messed up because they can take one word and use it to be little somebody belittle somebody. I want donald trump to continue what he is doing, to help us their seat. Stay on i can tell you stories that would curl your hair about people born and raised here going through worse ordeals than these other people. Elderly that are in bad situations. Tot you say we should wait see proof. What proof would you need to see to move forward with that with this idea of impeachment proceedings . Is there truth that would convince you . Caller show me on paper, not what somebody else says. Thes very evident that majority most of the democrats want donald trump out of office because he is trying to help us. It is different when the shoe is on the other foot, so to speak. When the tables are turned on a democrat, it is terrible, but look. What have the news media and the democrats done to donald trump . Now that it is happening to somebody else, that is terrible. I dont get it. I just dont get it. Host mickey in milwaukee, wisconsin. A democrat, good morning. Caller good morning and thank you for taking my call. I have a few comments. One is i believe this alleged phone call between President Trump and the president of ukraine took place july 25. Dan coats either resigned or was fired, there is always ambiguity about that with the Trump Administration officials. Trump says i fired them, they say we resigned. Dan coats resigned on august 19. What happened in between these 25 days that dan coats was still director of National Intelligence . When did this whistleblower come forward . If the director of National Intelligence has the right to withhold whistleblowers complaint when the Inspector General has investigated it, then the way the raw law is written is wrong as well. It doesnt matter if the Inspector General finds this a matter of National Security i am not going to allow it to go out. Where is dan coats on all of this . Thee is the senator who is chairman of the Intelligence Committee of the senate in all of this and with impeachment, we will need two thirds of the senate to impeach the president. Where do we have 19 republican senators . The lady before from alabama said we need proof. The white house, department of justice, and dni are not releasing the transcripts of the phone call. The European Union commission he washis guy is corrupt aiding ukraine for his own personal bank account. It doesnt matter what biden did. Did isr biden irrelevant. Host a second ago you said you were going over the numbers you would need for impeachment in the senate, even if the house proceeds with impeachment. Do you think it is worth going through that exercise if you dont think the numbers are there . Caller absolutely not, it is a waste of time and it will only embolden trump supporters. No proof, on what basis do democrats want to move forward with impeachment . How are we going to get 19 republican senators to vote for has come out with this whole thing owned by the Murdoch Family who owns trump news, trump supporters. We dont have the proof. Down grading america. Host a lot of focus on weather or not to move forward here is a story about that pressure right now in the Democratic Caucus in the house. Focusing again on the tweets we showed you from alexandria ocasiocortez and comments by others trying to get democrats to move ahead with impeachment proceedings. At that story noting a rare sunday afternoon Dear Colleague letter Nancy Pelosis sent to ocrats and republicans turn over that whistleblower complaint. Here is what nancy pelosi wrote in the letter. If the administration persists blocking this whistleblower disclosing congress, a serious breach of constitutional duties, they will be entering a grave new chapter of lawlessness which will take us into a whole new investigation. One text from one of our viewers republicans will reveal her own corruption, that is alicia out of oregon. Before we leave that last call from milwaukee, wisconsin, bus is ine the cspan milwaukee, is constant as part of our battleground states tour and in the second half of our program, we will be focusing on the state of wisconsin, that key battleground state. We will have viewers on the easternus starting 8 30. Getting your calls in this first segment on the impeachment proceedings. In washington, utah, democrat. Good morning. Caller good morning. You know when trump ran for president i said, i would vote for him because if he is using his own money to help the country, i thought he would be a good guy. Everything that comes out of his mouth is sideways. Liar. A crook, he is a why doesnt he just bow out and not do another four years . We wont survive it. He has done a lot of good things, yes. The things that come out of his mouth. No, he did not say that. He has good points and bad points. Politicians, it is the gift of gab and nobody is perfect. Nowadays you cannot get away with anything because nothing stays a secret. Host did you say you did vote for President Trump in 2016 . Caller no, i did not. I said i would vote for him if he used his own money. I voted for the other person, of course, because i am democrat. That little voice in the back of my head said he wont use any of his money to help the country. All of his businesses have gone bankrupt. His student loans, he would not pay it back. He is a thief and a liar. I said a long time ago, i look hitler,nd i see mussolini, and lenin reincarnated at once. Think the impeachment should take place. Just because you impeach him does not mean you have to send the vote to the senate for removal. You can just say he is impeached. Host what would that accomplish, karen . Caller that would mean his crimes are actually, in reality, they are worse than whatever bill clinton did. Congress has to hold him accountable and he will go down in history as being impeached. Host how do you think that will play in 2020 if that happens in the next 14 months . Caller we are going to have a democratic president , there is no doubt about it. Nobody likes this guy. 69 of the nation dislikes him. He pulls yet, karen, very strongly, above 90 when it comes to republicans. Caller yes, but the Republican Party is very small, it is not the republican remember growing up in my long life, i have never seen the republican act this way. Anna out of new castle, delaware. Good morning. Caller i am calling about joe biden. He went to china and dealt with the oligarchs. They took their son, hunter to china andt dealt with them to get a business going with their sons and even had their daughter with him and they had valerie obamat, joe biden, barack and john kerry and they were all there and signed a multibilliondollar business for the two sons. The radio stations , tv stations, and nobody wants to believe this about joe biden. Joe biden is a pompous jackass. Host all right, that is anna. The president about this scrutiny amid this phone call has gotten news organizations to go back and look at joe bidens sons joe bidens business dealings. Ere is the Washington Times wrap up about the history of hunter biden and ukraine. Hunter bidens plump job in ukraine raised eyes as soon as he landed it in 2014. His work on the board of an Energy Company was in 2014 during the height of tensions against the russian annexation of crimea. The appointment of the Vice President s son to a ukrainian at board looks nepotistic best and nefarious at worst. Adam taylor wrote that at the time. The appearance of impropriety worsened in 2018 when the Vice President visited tf and threatened to hold visited kiev and threatened to withhold the prosecutor happened to be investigating the Ukrainian Gas Company where hunter biden sat on the board and ran the companys legal unit. That is the story in todays Washington Times. Lisa out of idaho, independent. You are next. Caller good morning, cspan. All of this is going around in circles. You have trump lying about Something Else and Rudy Giuliani, who pops up every three months or so and says what he has been doing or not doing and what irritates me most is that none of these republicans are standing up to this man because they all sound like they are talking from the same script and they are afraid to do anything because they will be voted out in 2020 just like what happened in 2018, the same thing. Lasttime we had the shooting, they said they were. Oing to talk about gun control everybody who is on trump in his administration, nobody has a job, they are all acting. King. Acting like a i dont understand why these republicans i did vote for trump and i am sorry for that because i thought he would be better than hillary. Maybe not. Then he invites the taliban. What is that . Host when you talk about your concerns about republicans, you are out west. Mitt romney also out west saying if the president asked or pressed the u. K. President to investigate his political rival, it would be troubling in the extreme. Critical for the fax to come out. What do you make of that tweet yesterday from mitt romney . Caller i think it is very guys thatbecause our are from here in idaho, they seem to do a lot of okay things for idaho and they are republicans, but then they go to washington and they forget what they are doing. I dont understand it. Host do you think mitt romney has done that . Caller i think everybody should be focusing on it. Republicans and everybody else. I dont know how much he can get away with and nobody stands up and says what is wrong with you, why are you doing these things . Host talking about republicans in washington, several of the president s cabinet members and his personal attorneys went on the sunday shows and were asked about this. Rudy giuliani was on fox news. Steve mnuchin was on meet the press and mike pompeo was on abc newss this week. This is what mike pompeo had to say. [video clip] i do think if Vice President behaved i think we need to get to the bottom of that and i hope we will. I hope if Vice President biden engaged in behavior that was inappropriate, not have our elections interfered with. America cannot have our elections interfered with. If there was that kind of activity engaged in by Vice President biden, we need to know. The conversation was perfectly fine, why not release the transcript or a portion to the public . Tothe white house will have those are private conversations between World Leaders. There is no evidence there would that would be appropriate at this point. Host this week, much of the secretary of states attention is expected to take place in new york. This is a story from todays wall street journal and the focus on his efforts when it comes to responding to iran and concerns about attacks at the key saudi oil facility. We will talk more about the attacks, fallout. We will be joined by Michael Singh coming up in about 25 coasts here on the east about 8 00 a. M. Eastern. President trump will be in new york city as well. He is speaking at a United Nations religious freedom event and we will be showing that lives 11 30 you span and you can watch it at cspan. Org or on the free cspan radio app. And to your phone calls your calls for impeachment proceedings to begin. Mike in maryland, republican, you are next. I am sure you have the clip where biden admits to threatening the ukrainian president that he was going to withhold 1 million if they did not fire the special prosecutor. If you think trump is not playing this for all it is worth, i bet Stephen Miller linked this info. They think they have something, they never do. Play the clip where biden admits he was going to withhold 1 million, i bet you wont. Host i believe that is the clip the president tweeted out last week. I dont have it right in front of me, but i know what you are referring to. Did the president tweeted . Caller yes, immediately. It was just like the Elijah Cummings video. Do you think Elizabeth Warren is going to be president . No. He is going to bury biden in this ukrainian scandal. He old man admitted to it host who do you think is the biggest threat to the president in 2020 when it comes to the democratic field . Should he be scared of anyone of those folks . Caller not at all. Warren will get the nomination and she will choose bernie or someone a little more liberal, warren who got into harvard on a minority scholarship, she was harvards first minority student and entered the texas bar as an american you think that is who scares trump . No, it was biden. You wait until this ukrainian thing unfolds. If you think trump does anything other than he has a purpose for this. Host why do you think biden did scare President Trump . Caller he was the most electable. They are going to continue to put old white men out of there to fight against President Trump. Look at beto orourke. The guys name is Robert Francis and he is going by the name beto. Cory booker, the corruption in new jersey. You think be these people have a chance . That is mike in maryland. Independent. An caller to clarify, looking at the screen, is a todays topic an adam schiff quotation . Host adam schiff saying impeachment, adam schiff saying it may be the only remedy when it comes to this ukraine story. A wall if you built between adam schiff and the camera, the wall would not stand a chance. You are covering a topic of which there is so little information, there should not even be a topic. Anu have gone to be msnbcsp and you look like you are trying to act and look like chuck todd. Host what about the whistleblower complaint . You say there is so little information, do you think this should come out and be able to be seen by congress to find information about it . We lost mike. In virginia, good morning. Caller good morning. It looks as if we are going to they say the president is lied 12,000 times, this new impeachment probe. I am saying whenever you shut Donald Trumps twitter down, he cannot communicate to the people and that is what they have been. Ushing sheep, they say it would be great it would not be great, it would be worse and now they are saying lets keep them from talking to other World Leaders because every time he talks to another worlds president , then they demand to see the transcripts, we wanted to know what he says and they are trying to shut them off from the world. To try tore going byt them off from the world going after the conversation by female leaders. Cspan winlip on biden, during a campaign rally, was actually talking about how tough he is. He was saying how tough is he . Biden is a bully and he is a fabricator. Donald trump, keep on keeping on. Host bill is next out of georgia, democrat, good morning. Good morning. I find this fascinating, this president has been consistent trying to get foreign powers to interfere with our elections. I think that he wont release the transcripts. He says even if i did, who cares. I am very interested in the information. Of course, trump has suited them to keep them from releasing their information and that will tofascinating as it begins come around. I dont think this president will be reelected. I think when people when folks go to the polls, they will keep to themselves. When they walk in, they are just going to stop this flyer. Host what do you think about Nancy Pelosis efforts to conduct of these various oversight probes . We now have efforts by the Intelligence Committee to try to get access to this whistleblower complaint. How do you view her as the person who has been leading these efforts . Caller i think that she forrstands the need investigation. I believe that, eventually, they are going to begin impeachment. Roceedings i think nancy pelosi understands how things work a lot better than a whole lot of folks and i would be interested to see and fascinated to see what happened. Host you are comfortable with the pace at which this has proceeded so far . Other democrats have called not comfortable that it is not farther along down the impeachment track in the house. Caller it is ok with me. As more andith me ite information comes out, is going to affect the election. I understand her reasons for not wanting to begin impeachment proceedings. Watch. Be fun to my favorite saying is you cant fix stupid. Host that is bill in order. Nda in new jersey, also caller good morning, america, my beautiful country that i love. This whole thing to me is so have ang that we administration that is so corrupt and claiming executive courtsge over all the where we can see the evidence. This is what this president is doing. I think he should be impeached and i think Mitch Mcconnell should be impeached right alongside him. ,is wife should be impeached the transportation secretary, they are robbing us blind. Guys, i am sorry. You trump supporters, he is going to break your heart. This guy is a crook and i for putin is an agent. He is going to be found guilty of treason. Watch what i am telling you. Host a few collars back we talked about the video President Trump put out calling it the real and only story when it comes to the issue of joe biden and hunter biden. This is that video the president 8 53ed out saturday at alsolking about showing clips of joe bidens comments at the Foreign Council of the about the ukraine. You can see that video. Larry, taylorville, illinois. You are next. Caller yes, i would just like to ask all of your viewers if hunter biden is not guilty of thehing, why did he resign gas Company Board of directors make a million dollars. Why did his dad announce he was going to run for president . I would like to tell your last callers, i am proud to be a republican and i will be voting for donald trump in the next election. Host linda, california. Good morning. Caller i would like to Say Something about impeachment. I think they should have started it back in march or april because of all the things he has done, you go back to that first meeting with putin, that was no mistake he said he denied he he scares me. I dont know how anybody could believe him. E lies so much i dont care if you dont have a High School Education or. Nything like that host what about waiting for these whistleblower complaints to come out . Do you think gathering more evidence is more important or Getting Started with impeachment proceedings . Caller i think they should start the proceedings and let this go the way it is going to go. He is not going to let that out. He is not going to let a transcript out. The one thing i saw on tv, he said it was none of your business to the reporter and all his fake news, he is fake news. Everything he does he says i am the only one who has done that. The Trump Administration does everything right. There is a lot of promises he made like the drug prices and stuff, he has done nothing about that either. Mitch mcconnell and Lindsey Graham, especially lindsey. Raham, i dont understand him i just dont understand how any of the republicans are doing what they are doing. They have got to see what he is doing and the way he goes after like that Korean Leader and stuff, all of that is for show. He is putting them on the stage they want. The guy in korea, he is doing nothing but lighting up missiles and does nothing about it. Host that is linda in california. We are talking about what the president said about releasing transcripts or the information that july phone call. President trump was asked about that several times yesterday throughout a day long trip to texas. Here is some of the president s comments from one of those press conferences. [video clip] i wont be mentioning much. Vice President Biden did a terrible thing, the way he put it. I am not looking to hold him to anything or hurt him with respect to his son. Joe has got enough problems without that. What he said was a terrible thing and he really made it was an offer. Beyond an offer, it was something where he said i am not going to give billions of dollars to ukraine unless they remove this prosecutor and they removed the prosecutor supposedly in one hour and the prosecutor was prosecuting the property of the son. You talk about something that should not have been said he should not have said that. My conversation was perfect. It was a perfect conversation. It could not have been any better. We will make a determination about how to release it, saying what we said, it was an absolutely perfect conversation. When you speak to foreign leaders, you dont want foreign leaders to feel they should not be speaking openly and good, you have to be talking to people and the same thing for an american president. You want them to be able to express themselves without knowing every single word is going to be going out all over the world. When i make calls, i know there are a lot of people listening, intelligence people, with my approval. When you make it a call and you are talking to the leader of a foreign country, it is very easy to assume that you have many, many people listening in addition to people listening on the other side. It. Going to talk about i love it. I would love to do whatever i love to do. You have to be a little bit shy about doing that. Everything we said on that call was perfect. Host the president yesterday in texas. Getting your phone calls as talk among democrats to begin impeachment investigations in the house ramped up yesterday in the wake of reporting about this ukrainian phone call in july. Here are some of the comments from viewers comments from facebook and twitter and texting. Dylan writes stop wasting time and money on wild goose chases or start making them or democrats pay for it out of private pocket, not tax money. I honestly cannot believe it is ok with republicans for trump to ask for and help again to win an election. One more facebook post, the left is trying every angle to get rid of him. It is pathetic they cannot and wont accept they lost the election. Without transcripts or recordings, the republicans wont support it. They are terrified of him. Dan in california, waiting on our lines for independents. Good morning. Caller top of the morning, it is so good to have this opportunity to speak with cspan. Thank god for cspan. Just had a couple topics to speak to with regards to the impeachment. I am absolutely are you there . Host yes, sir. What about in regards to impeachment . Caller i am absolutely for the impeachment process. You mentioned to one of the previous callers what would be accomplished by pursuing the impeachment process. I dont know if this has anything to do with in my humble opinion, it should not really matter. All the congressmen took an of to withhold United States constitution. Both speakers on both sides of the aisle are complicit holding up this process. Made it clearonth congress had the necessary tools to proceed with impeachment. I think a good percent of the United States citizens are for impeachment read weather or not the senate will pursue it is irrelevant. The senators on the house side as well as the senator side, they have to uphold the united constitution United States constitution. A gentleman previously indicated the president is playing these people. My opinion, i honestly believe thet putin as well as president of korea, they are playing the United States president and finally, the last point i would like to make that yesterday, on one of the talk mattis,ot bless general who i have the utmost respect for. The question was raised, what does it take to be a leader . He simply said, learn, listen, and read. Unfortunately, we dont have a president that knows how to lead. If this is what it means to be a president , withholding all the information whereby not allowing congress to do their job, the state of the union is in bad shape and i thank you for accepting my call. Host renee is next out of mississippi, independent. Good morning. Caller hello. You should play the entire video hejoe biden admitting that pressured the regime that the Obama Administration put in place. He pressured that government to fire the prosecutor by laws. Lding imf i found it on youtube last night. Please play it right. You have never done a segment on the dnc lawsuit. This lawyer admitted even though they have impartiality in their rules. Week ago enough time a to read the smear the New York Times date on kavanaugh, so why dont you have the time to play the entire video of joe biden admitting to his crime . Thank you very much. Host renee, your point about the dnc, we talked about the dnc quite a bit on this program and all of our segments Available Online at cspan. Org for folks to go back and watch and easily searchable. Appreciate your call. Gary out of connecticut, good morning. Caller good morning. I would just like to say when the Mueller Report came out, i read the entire report and then called my congressman, jay hannah haze and then told her i did not wish her to move toward impeachment for the practical reasons that the senate would never convict. Since that time, however, i have changed my mind. I believe we have a constitutional imperative to a goes the president and beyond being republican or democrat, but to the fact that egregiously has violated the constitution. Host what changed your mind, gary . Caller the latest things that came out and some of the relative to the ukraine and some of the other actions the president has taken and words he has spoken in the meantime, which clearly abused power. He was a man who said he could shoot someone on fifth avenue avenue and get away with it. I have another point. We really have to take a hard look at our representatives in the senate. People who are defending the president under the most egregious circumstances have to be called to task with the next election. Host that is gary in connecticut. We wanted to note we obviously still dont know who the from lastwer is, but week, we found out who is on the whistleblowers legal team and upt legal team was beefed over the weekend. Zaid hasid mark joined the legal team representing the Intelligence Community whistleblower. He joined the whistleblowers. Xisting Legal Counsel that story about the legal team on the front page of todays Washington Times. Jack, atlanta georgia, republican. Good morning. Caller good morning. I hope everyone is having a. Onderful morning they said the impeachment process should start beginning. It has begun since before trump was even elected. He has ridiculed, people have gone after him for many reasons and yet he is still here fighting for americans every and half ofry day the americans criticize him for things they cant prove and he is still fighting for americans every day. Host that is jack. Did you want to finish your comment . 15 seconds. T caller nobody on the democrat side has a chance against trump. Makesactually goes in and deals and gets them done. All of this impeachment criticism we would actually have a lot more done. Host our last caller in the last site in our first segment of washington journal. We will be joined by Michael Singh of the Washington Institute and bill glauber from the milwaukee journal along with Charles Sykes from the bulwark with a look at milwaukee as a battleground state wisconsin is a battleground state. We will be right back. Here is a look at some books being published this week. The former dean of Harvard Law School questions whether forgiveness and amnesty can strengthen the american Justice System in win should law forgive . Revolution, at a journalist explores the rise in Political Engagement amongst millenials. Bill oreilly looks at the life and career of President Trump in United States of trump. Power, a profile of Vice President mike pence. Also published this week, jack goldsmith, former assistant journal former attorney general of george w. Bush talks about jimmy hoffa in his book, in hoffas shadow. Argues if the Mueller Investigation was a failed attempt to end the president to end the trump presidency. A former u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new york provides an analysis of Donald Trumps legal history in plaintiff in chief. Watch for many of the authors in the near future on book tv on cspan2. Communicators,he one of the nations top telemarketer analysts on the future of television, video, media and internet industries. Onlye live tv model survives for sports and news and that almost Everything Else will move toward ondemand models and the purveyors of content, Live Entertainment content or streamed realtime entertainment is to young people is kind of an oxymoron, the idea that there is a time of day for a particular show. It is an odd concept for anything other than a sporting event. Tonight at 8 00 p. M. On cspan2. Washington journal continues. Host Michael Singh joins us now. He is a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for middle east policy. That attack on the Saudi Oil Facilities remains in this bottle remains in the spotlight. Secretary of state mike pompeo has been quick to point the finger to iran. Is it clear to you that the evidence points to iran . Guest so far you have both american and british officials. The british feminist or said that they attributed to the attributive the attacks to iran. Officials lining up saying they think iran is responsible in some way and they ruled out the attacks coming from yemen which was the original thought. I think the other sort of salient point is they are very few other actors in the region that would have the capability and motivation to mount this kind of attack on an oil facility in saudi arabia. That isthe evidence mounting as well as just process of illumination, iran is the candidate that stands out the most. Host what is the strategy here from the iranian per irani in perspective . Irani and perspective iranian perspective . Have been a lot of tensions between the United States and iran the last couple of years. The u. S. Has embarked on what President Trump calls a maximum Pressure Campaign against iran. Since the decision that the Trump Administration took to reduce irans oil exports to zero through sanctions, but we have seen is iran escalate its activities both within the region, so attacks on tankers and pipelines and things like that, as well as this attack and escalated Nuclear Activities by incrementally violating the 2015 nuclear record. This seems to be an effort to push back on u. S. Policy and may be convinced the United States to change that policy. Host what is the significance of these particular attacks and this specific site . Guest this is one of the major Oil Processing sites in the middle east. If you had to point to one facility which is the most critical in terms of the Regions Energy production, you would point to this facility, both the oilfield as well as the processing facility. It was a message from the iranians to the saudis, that if we are going to suffer, you were going to suffer as well as those like the United States and there will be a cost for the pressure being placed on iran. Host should it be the United States job to take the lead . The first question that the United States has to ask is our our interests at stake here are our interests at stake here . This motivated the Carter Doctrine in 1980 that says the persian gulf is of vital interest to the United States and it will act, even militarily if necessary to defend its sacrosanct nature. That is still the case. Even though we are more Energy Independent now, we are still impacted by the increase in oil prices. Our allies in places like asia are affected by the supply. Clearly we have something at stake. The question is what do we do about it . Host President Trump was making overtures of possibly meeting with the iranian officials at the human General Assembly at the u. N. General assembly. [video clip] nothing is ever off the table completely but i have no intention of meeting with iran. That doesnt mean it wont happen. I am a very flexible person. We have no intention, it is not set up. We are meeting with a lot of leaders. About 15 meeting set up but iran is not one of them. Host what do you think happens at the u. N. General assembly . Guest the meeting between President Trump and president rouhani was never likely. Saidranian president has that he would not meet with President Trump absent sanctions relief upfront. I dont think President Trump has any intention of giving the iranians sanctions relief in exchange for such a meeting. In the wake of this attack, the u. S. Focus will be to mount diplomatic pressure on iran. That will also be challenging but it seems to preclude a meeting between trump and rouhani. The key players to get that diplomatic pressure . Guest the United States is trying to seek as wide as support as possible. This impacts an interest which is not just a u. S. Interest but a global interest. It is an interest for china which gets most of its imported energy from the persian gulf. It is an interest for our asian allies and for europe. The Trump Administration is hoping this is something that will allow them to rally pressure in a way they have struggled to do. Host struggled to do, why . Is there a lack of credibility stemming from historic u. S. Involvement in the middle east . Ofst it is less a lack credibility and more a disagreement over the 2015 Nuclear Agreement. That015 agreement president obama negotiated with the iranians is widely supported around the world, even by the tried toho while they be supportive of the Trump Administration, they made clear they support that agreement. The United States has been on its own on the question of the Nuclear Agreement. ,ther country so far have said dont take seriously these attacks on the oil fields. They see the United States getting back to the Nuclear Agreement as the first step. Host Michael Singh joining with us until the bottom of the hour. If you would like to call in, democrats, 202 7488000. Republicans, 202 7488001. Independents, 202 7488002. Issue, iredibility read that you wrote recently that a good thing the United States could do is increase surveillance in the region and the area. If something does happen, a smoking gun, that we dont have this week of questions of whether it was iran or not. Is the administration doing that . Guest it is hard to say. They are moving around intelligence and surveillance assets but i think the point is, the easiest way to prevent these kinds of attacks, the easiest way to deal with these types of attacks is to prevent them from happening in the first place. You want to set up as many obstacles as you can to iran attacking these types of facilities. One thing is Missile Defense, pardoning the facilities. Another way is by making sure the iranians know they will be caught if they do this thing. That requires intelligence collection and sharing and then you have to be willing to come forward with that evidence in the wake of this kind of attack. Host what do we know about the military personnel and assets that have been deployed within the last week . Guest we dont have all the details but it seems we have moved into place a small number of troops and maybe some Missile Defense assets. It looks like the appointment helped deployment aimed at helping this facility or multiple facilities in the region. I view it as a good thing, meant to increase defense. That is a good way to deter a run. Deter iran. Ultimately, a big deployment wont really address the type of threat we face from iran. Host plenty of calls for you. Bill is up first out of virginia beach, a republican. Caller thank you for taking my call. I think you are right on the money, your guest with everything you have said so far. That whatl belief is was hit was oil fields or on saudis was actually Arabian Real Estate and for that reason from what i understand, it is a position of the saudis to maybe make the first move militarily against iran. Assuming that is the case, im u. S. Shouldnte go ahead and sell armaments, whatever they need to help them against iran to keep them at bay. Defend themselves and let them know they will retaliate if iran fits them directly or indirectly again. Guest i understand the premise of the question. It was the saudis who were attacked so why shouldnt they be the one to respond . With thatroblem argument is that ultimately there was a u. S. Interest that was challenged here and it was frankly challenged with a message more to us then to the saudis. To the saudis. If we push the saudis to respond, you have a risk of a regional conflict. We have a wider range of military capabilities and other kinds of capabilities in order to impose a cost on the iranians without less with less cost of escalation. Having to get in the mind of some of those allies, if you are the saudis, do you want the United States to go first . Guest the saudis as well as our other regional allies have been pretty hesitant on this question. They are not any more eager than we are to have a conflict with iran. They would they dont want to see the United States do anything that would expose them to more risk and danger. Im sure they would like to see some kind of cost imposed on the iranians that does not result in a broader war. Host heading to minnesota, john is an independent. Caller could you explain to me about what is aramco . What is the association with the saudi government and whether or not the recent information that , whatde public significance could it have . Guest thanks for the question. Aramco is the Saudi National oil company. It started as a saudi american venture but at this point it is part of the saudi government. It is scheduled to hold an ipo and go public much in the way of hanging overions it regarding transparency. Stage howear at this that attack will impact the aramco deal. Host mary out of virginia, democrat. Caller good morning. I read a lot and a lot of things just pop in my mind and i put them together. Huge we made a reselling billions of dollars of itary stuff saudi arabia military stuff to saudi arabia. Isnt there an incentive for us to help saudi arabia because we want this deal to go through, and also, i read that 20 of our congress or the people in congress have dual citizenship to israel and is in israel they have been fighting they hate each other, iran and israel. I am putting all of this together, money and im sure it is much more complex. What im trying to do is figure out what is really going ishere, below all the iran terrible and we have to help saudi arabia, what is really motivating because usually, as time goes on, you realize that a whole lot of stuff that goes on that really is the kabbalistic starts all this. Really is the catalyst that starts all of this. A totally valid question. My organization is the Washington Institute. We are a think tank, a nonprofit and nonpartisan. We get all of our money from american citizens. It is an important question to ask. I understand where this question is coming from. A question of the Defense Industrial conflicts complex. 20 when it comes down to it, we have sold a lot of weapons to saudi arabia and those weapons are one part of a broader Security System relationship. There is no doubt that if saudi arabia found itself in a conflict, we would be there assisting them in some way, as we have in yemen. I do think that this type of incident as well as the yemen conflict raises a question about the effectiveness of our Security Assistance in the region and one question we need to look at, separate from the question of how do we respond, is how can we build up capabilities in the region so that our allies can more effectively not just respond to these types of attacks but defend against and prevent these types of attacks. Despite those billions of dollars we are not there yet. Host are they not focused in the right places . Was this oil facility off the map in terms of what we are trying to protect . Guest it is probably a number of factors. We are facing a new type of threat. Cruise missiles in the hands of countries like iran. Cruise whip cruise missiles have more than weapons of the more advanced countries in the world. As well as the threat from drones which are tougher to detect and defend against. These are emerging threats and we need more solutions. Part of it i think is you can sell all the weapons you want but ultimately what makes those weapons effective is having the sort of apparatus and competencies in place to deploy them and also having the strategies in place because the weapons themselves are just haps thereneed is a wider problem that we need to focus on. Ron, out to california, republican. Caller thank you for taking the phone call. Lets get down to some serious business. Is about 70 iran Million People, almost the size of germany. It has a sizable intelligence base of operations with the people that live there. It gets to be really tiring when thestart thinking about whole oil cabal. Let me ask you this. Aramco has been in business for how many years . All part of the cia nsa background block of information. How many attacks have happened to saudi arabia in all those years, on their refineries . None. Some guy buys a drone at radioshack and sets off one of the refineries . Im sure you have seen the photos of the fire that happened. We have bigger fires in wilmington, california and in galveston, also set off by the oil complex. It is all setting up for the money and setting up for the oil that is not going to be there anymore because we will end up going to electrical vehicles. This is a very shortterm look at trying to make money by popping the price of oil. To may be correct or challenge some of the premises in those questions, there have been passed attacks on saudi arabias Oil Infrastructure as well as Oil Infrastructure across the gulf because in any type of conflict situation, these are seen as attractive targets by the belligerents in the region. Protecting the regions Critical Energy infrastructure is of great interest to the world because so much of the world depends on energy coming from this region. It has always been a priority for the u. S. Government. The attacks themselves do bear the hallmark of a pretty sophisticated attacker. These are large sprawling facilities and these attacks were extremely precise and looked like they could have put these facilities out of commission for weeks or months. That is not something that would be easy to do without strong capabilities. It does not seem to have had a major upside impact on oil prices. That tells you about how the Energy Landscape in the world has changed. The United States is no i major producer. If this had happened 20 years ago, you would expect to see a huge spike in oil prices. Now it barely puts a dent in oil prices. Host less than 10 minutes left with Michael Singh. You are with us on the washington journal tomorrow afternoon. You are testifying before the Senate Foreign relations committee. What is the serious study group . Syria study group . Guest it has six democrats and six republicans all appointed by congressional leadership. It is charged with providing congress and the executive branch with an independent assessment of the situation in syria as well as recommendations for u. S. Policy, analogous to the Iraq Study Group in the mid to thousands. Midid to thousands 2000s. We will look at syria and tried to give some advice and a bipartisan roadmap on how to proceed. The key thing to take away from it is that what is happening in syria while it seems very far away, is of great interest to the United States. National security interests are at stake. We do have leverage and tools to influence the outcome in syria in a way that advances or at least protects our interests. Host is there a chance for isis or another group like it to reform . Guest we are already seeing the reemergence of isis in syria as an insured as an insurgency. Theyre able to use the prison camps in syria as a way to collect and regroup. There is a danger that they could break out of those camps and you would have another situation like we faced a few years ago where you have this very rapidly mounting advanced by that sort of group. What is key to stop that from happening is that we maintain the sort of counterterrorism pressure not just on isis but on the various terrorist groups which have taken root amid syria conflict and we help those ,yrian groups that opposed isis to establish some form of stability and governance. So far we have been able to do this with a relatively small military footprint. That is a model that is sustainable and we should be sort of happy to see work. Host sustainable for how long . Guest a military mission of that size as well as an investment which is being shared around the world, is something we should be willing to sustain if it is advancing our interests and safeguarding the United States, indefinitely. Host for much more on syria and 2 30 ina study group, the Senate Foreign relations committee. Michael singh, talking iran with you this morning. Marsha in ohio, republican democrat. Trump helpsink that all of his donors like he does with private prisons and Oil Companies and everything, and stayed his hotels, they are great friends with the rest of the family. They donated to ivankas foundation. Dont you think trump is doing all of this just to help saudi arabia . Guest so far the United States has not done much to respond to these attacks. That President Trump is eager to get us into military conflict. He has said pretty clearly that he does not want a war. All we have seen in the way of reaction would be some new sanctions and this diplomatic effort we will see in new york. If anything, the saudis have been more reticent in terms of pinning the blame on iran. The United States and saudi arabia treading carefully. I would say too carefully because the risk is iran has mounted this very serious attack without any kind of cost as a result. Host what about the tone that secretary of state mike pompeo has taken . Guest secretary of state pompeo has officials are confident of their that there was a strong iranian role in this attack. The same approach as the president when it comes to the response which is the should be first a diplomatic response which he intends to try to sort of gather together in new york this week. Host grant in washington, d. C. , independent. Caller previous callers have asked about the israel connection and since you did not answer the question i have to strongly recommend david makovsky, Washington Institute people. They wrote a book called be strong and have good courage. How book they explain visited the United States in 1940 to rally American Jewish organizations, churches and all sorts of other groups to become a lobby for israel. I would like to suggest also articles byread the the crisis think tank because that is basically what the Washington Institute for near east policy is. Protectreated to socalled serious arguments and essentially enact israeli policy in the region and i think George Washington was against passionate attachments in his farewell speech. It would be more honest to call you guys the institute because you are all about israel. Guest i appreciate the plug for the book. It just came out and it is a great book. I will go back to what i said before, my organization is nonprofit and nonpartisan. We take no for an government funding. We are trying to advance americas interests. Sometimes those correspond with the interest of allies. We believe in strong alliances in the region wouldve it is with israel or jordan or the uae. Ultimately we are talking about the u. S. Interest and how to best serve it. Host our next caller in philly, independent. Caller good morning. What is the possibility that andel and saudi arabia trump set this whole thing up . You could always make iran the bad guy. Israel fire door fired on liberty back in the day and try to create a war scenario. This is a perfect scenario to have these three guys get together and do some crazy stuff to make iran the bad guy. U. S. Officials, british officials and others have pointed to in a rainy enroll in this attack. Ian role into an iran this attack. The saudis have been a little hesitant and confused so far. There is no sort of grand plan behind these attacks other than iran. When this sort of thing happens, the u. S. Has struggled to figure out how best to respond because youre caught between the desire to deter and impose costs on a country like iran for doing this kind of thing but also to avoid escalation and war. That is where you see the United States right now. Iran in taking this kind of attack, if in fact they did it, they know it creates a dilemma for the United States, and saudi arabia and that is why you see these things happening. We at thisar are point from a shooting war and what are the best off ramps . Guest we are pretty far from a war. While i understand the concerns, nobody has the stomach for another war in the middle east. Neither iran nor the United States or saudi arabia are looking for any kind of conflict. You see iran denying it took these attacks which gives the United States and saudi arabia room to choose the timing and manner in the way they might respond and so far they have chosen diplomacy. The upside of this is hopefully we avoid a war. The downside is, iran could escape without seeing any costs for what amounts to the most serious attack on the Regions Energy infrastructure since Saddam Hussein invaded kuwait. Host Michael Singh is a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for near east policy. We appreciate your time. On axt, the cspan bus is tour of key campaign 2020 battleground states this morning. We are in milwaukee, wisconsin. We will have guests join us on the bus including bill glauber of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel and Charlie Sykes of the bulwark. Well be right back. Here is a look at some books being published this week. Former dean of Harvard Law School questions whether forgiveness and embassy can strengthen the american Justice System in win should law forgive . And how to start a revolution, a journalist explores the rise of Political Engagement amongst miller meals. Bill oreilly looks at the life and career of President Trump in the United States of trump. Power, annd Associated Press reporter profiles Vice President mike pence. Week,eing published this jack goldsmith, former assistant attorney general to george w. Bush recalls the life of his stepfather and associate of teams of teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffman jimmy hoffa. Argues that the Mueller Investigation was a failed attempt to end the trump presidency. Attorneyassistant u. S. For the Southern District of new york provides an analysis of Donald Trumps legal history in plaintiff and chief. Look for these titles in bookstores this coming week and watch for many of the authors in the future on cspan2. Campaign 2020. Watch our live coverage of the president ial candidates on the campaign trail and make up your own mind. Cspans campaign 2020, your unfiltered view of politics. Tonight on the communicators, one of the nations top Telecom Market analysts on the future of television, media and internet industries. You will see the live tv model only survive for sports and news. Almost Everything Else will move toward ondemand models. The purveyors of content, Live Entertainment content or streamed realtime entertainment is to young people a kind of an oxymoron, the idea that there is a time of day for a particular show is sort of an odd concept for anything other than a sporting event. Tonight at 8 00 on cspan2. Washington journal continues. Host the cspan bus is currently on a tour of the campaign 2020 battleground states. It kicked off in Early September in iowa and today we are in downtown milwaukee where the cspan bus is parked in front of spectrums offices. We are joined by bill glauber of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The polls were all wrong about 2016 whenin campaign the state went republican for the First Time Since 1984. There was a poll out earlier this month that had former Vice President joe biden up by nine points any potential showdown in 2020 with the president. Do you believe the pulling right now . The pulling right now the polling right now . Guest it does not mean it is a prediction. It just means this is what people feel at this time among those polls. Fighting with a strong lead over the president. Bernie sanders with a lead just outside the margin of error. Elizabeth warren and Kamala Harris deadlocked with the president. It sounds about right i think but it is not a prediction, it is just a moment in time. Host 14 months away and a lot of campaigning to do. If the president is going to hold wisconsin in 2020, where does he want to take this fight in the state . What issues and where, regionally is he strongest . Economy,e issue is the the economy, the economy. Looking good in wisconsin right now. That pole you referenced showed on the economy, he is just one point underwater with the public in terms of job approval but an interesting part of that showed that people were negative about what the economy might look like a year from now, so that would be concerning. As far as where you go in wisconsin, you go everywhere. Bits and pieces of the electorate can do large things here. We have had a lot of close elections, people going back 20 years, obviously the obama becauses were outriders basically this was a purple state and one or two points can decide the race. The president will attempt to reconnect with his voters in the rural parts of the state, outside wausau or down towards green bay. Wauthen obviously the counties, you will hear a lot about that. The democrats have to obviously do well in milwaukee and madison and they have to do better in the rural areas. Host we are talking about wisconsin Politics Today in cspans battleground tour. The phone lines are open if you want to join the conversation. We are talking with bill glauber of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. Democrats, 202 7488000. Republicans, 202 7488001. Independents, 202 7488003. A special line for wisconsin esidents, independents, 202 7488002. A special line for wisconsin residents, 202 7488003. Democrats are certainly going to wisconsin and milwaukee taking the National Convention there next summer. Talk about why they made that pick and how they are going to attempt to bring wisconsin into what was the blue wall in the democratic guest it fell apart in 2016. Tom perez wanted to bring the convention here. He kind of felt it in his heart, especially with what happened in 2016. Famously, Hillary Clinton did not campaign here during the general election. Democrats did not do enough out speak during the general election. They need to reconnect with the state in order to win it, seemingly. Thats why they are here, why they are coming here. They talk about it being a bluecollar town, a uniontown. Bill walkie, wisconsin with many of the problems and possibilities of other states. Thats why they are coming here. It is a midsized city, one of the smaller cities. It is going to be a logistical challenge but an interesting place to be. Also who wouldnt want to be in wisconsin in the summer as opposed to houston and miami . Host which of the democratic president ial candidates so far have been coming to wisconsin the most . I would have to say you were looking at cory booker, Amy Klobuchar and Bernie Sanders. Joe biden has not yet been here. There have been about 20 visits. ,here was a latino Conference Many of the candidates showed up. Elizabeth warren has not yet been here. But a lot ofhere the contenders came here in 2018 to campaign on behalf of tammy baldwin. They are familiar with the territory. Joe biden, even though he has not been here during this campaign, he is very familiar with wisconsin. The primary falls in an interesting spot on the calendar. Can imagine somebody making a last stand in wisconsin in april before going on in the later primaries. Host do we know if any candidates are coming to wisconsin this week . Guest i dont believe any are coming this week. Amy klobuchar was here last week. That was her third visit to the state. She was the first one in the state. I covered her event in february. It was after she announced her candidacy. She wanted to tell people she was willing to campaign anywhere and everywhere and that is why she came to wisconsin. She was the earliest arrival in the state. Made has also been here multiple times. Host we are talking wisconsin politics. Bill glauber is our guest joining us from on board the cspan bus. We are in milwaukee this morning. The special phone line for wisconsin residents to call in, 202 7488003. Otherwise, phone numbers as usual, democrats, 202 7488000. Republicans, 202 7488001. Independents, 202 7488002. Bill glauber as folks are calling you now, we want to ask you about the state being such a battleground in the president ial race. Lara why arent there more congressional competitive seats on the congressional side. A look at the Cook Political Report says only two seats in play and one is a likely seatrats eat democrat and the other is a likely republican seat. Guest gerrymandering or how they split the congressional districts has been in some dispute in the state. Egislature, but it is also milwaukee and madison lean heavily democrat. Other areas heavily republican. Two seats that used to be swing outside of green bay no longer really a swing district for mike gallagher. He seems to have it under control. In wausau, we used to be and we turn republican with sean duffy. Host and that seat is the one that is listed as likely republican in the wake of the resignation of sean duffy. There is maybe a primary among the republicans. Democrats dont yet have a challenger. Tom tiffany is the first in the race for the republicans to succeed duffy. There may be other candidates coming in. Get it to within single digits, they will have done well. ,t is an important seat important for the Republican Base to turn out. Important for President Donald Trump as well. During 2018 he campaigned in wausau. Host we will let you chat with a few callers. Mark is up first out of new hampshire, republican. Isler my question to you with wisconsin being a purple state and up for grabs, do you think republican challengers like governor bill weld or mark sanford or joe walsh would have a chance to beat President Trump in wisconsin next year and the primary for the Republican Party in the primary for the Republican Party . Guest that is a great question especially since back in 2016 you may recall this was the last stop for the antitrump faction. Ted cruz did very well here. He beat donald trump in the primary. Since then, republicans are on board with donald trump in the state. It would be a heavy lift to beat him in a primary here. That might be a question better asked for Charlie Sykes who you will have on later who is familiar with that part of the republican fracture and coming together in wisconsin. Host we appreciate that preview, Charlie Sykes coming on in about 15 minutes. Can you talk about the demographic trend in the state . What should viewers know about between 2016 and 2020 . Guest like a lot of states in the upper midwest, it is an aging state. That is no surprise. Politics,f the republicans have done well here since 2010 and finally broke the dam in 2016 but the state remains pretty stable. Growth, not a lot of not a lot of there is a large africanamerican population here in milwaukee, smaller in medicine smaller in madison. The state kind of remains the same from 2016. Host 202 7488003 is that number we are setting aside for wisconsin residents if you want to talk wisconsin politics. Bill glauber is our guest joining us on the cspan bus. There is a story in the journal sentinel on a tale of two governors. Tony evers and scott walker. What we learned about the governor in his first two months in office. Things have turned sort of a normalcy here following the Scott Walker Scott walker was a very polarizing figure. He was loved as well as loathed. Him, he you think about was governor here for eight years. We are now back into an area where tony evers, people feel pretty good about him and if they dont feel good about him they feel pretty bad about him. Like not the extremes walker in terms of reaction. Tony people errors remains a pop tony eversrors remains a popular person. Most people, state government, they see a governor, they say he is ok or not ok but not with the passion you had during the walker years. We will see how long that lasts. Evers is not as wellknown as walker was. Everybody had an opinion about scott walker. Not everybody has an opinion about tony evers. Host do you think they will have more of an opinion when the democratic National Convention comes into town . Is that the time for him to toy for him to take a National Spotlight . Guest i dont know if he is going to be taking a National Spotlight. He is a pretty lowkey guy. He will be making the rounds but he is governing in that model. He is basically a guy who wants to do policy and isnt necessarily as political as other governors have been. Host on the democratic National Convention, you talked a minute ago about the logistical challenge ahead. What will be the biggest challenge, is the city going to be ready . Guest i think the city will be ready. The biggest logistical challenge is going to be security but that is out of the cities hands. That is the cities tour hands. Hands. Citys rosemont airport is about an hour and a half away and you will have to move thousands of people on a bus system they will be making up just for the event. That is obviously going to be the biggest challenge. I think the city is big enough. It is a compact area where we will be having conventions, a sort of political midway. Beautiful buildings to hold the convention in. It is going to be an interesting place during those four days of summer. Host our conversation this morning taking texts and tweets as well. One fromona arizona asking why everyone is calling Vice President biden trumps opponent . We were showing headtohead matchups, that poll earlier this month. Can you talk through the rest of the pole the rest of the poll . Biden, sanders, warren and harris in the top of that poll. In 2016, Bernie Sanders did very well here in the primary. He thrashed Hillary Clinton in that primary. There is room for somebody to the left of biden to do very well here in the primary. As it appears now, Elizabeth Warren has some socalled momentum nationally. It has not yet translated into polling in wisconsin. We may follow this every day, but most people in wisconsin on this monday are probably talking about the Green Bay Packers winning, the university of wisconsin beating michigan and the Milwaukee Brewers making a stretch run to the playoffs. That is what is on peoples minds right now. Host on that topic, what is making the headlines here in washington in the National Phone call back in july between President Trump and the new ukrainian president. That is purported to be the topic of that whistleblower complaint. The president took questions on that topic. It was the focus of sunday shows. How is that playing out in a battleground state like wisconsin . Guest i dont think it is playing out. We will see how it plays out this coming week. These stories take time to percolate. Beltwayvital inside the does not always translate outside the beltway. I think with some of the stories, unless you can say it in a sentence or two, it may not resonate that far. Thats not to say this wont resonate but it is still early days on that story. Host what about that strike taking place by autoworkers, uaw workers, mostly affecting michigan but also some strikes happening in the state of wisconsin. Is that more than important isas we look ahead that more of an important story as we look ahead . Guest that would have been a far more important story a decade ago when there was a plant but that plant famously close down closed down and that was a sign of tough times hitting the state and the nation. Industry is not as vital to wisconsin although there are supply chains through here. Have not what it would been a decade ago. Still an incredibly important story to the upper midwest and the fortunes of a lot of the states. Host the headline in todays washington post, seeing major issue for 2020, Democratic Candidates visit the uaw picket line. Those lines have been going on for about a week now. Can you talk about unions in general, the strength of unions in wisconsin and what we have learned about that strength and some of the biggest stories in state politics . Obviously the unions have been hurt in wisconsin via act 10, the bill that the Republican Legislature with Governor Scott walker passed early in his administration in 2011 that effectively ended or curtailed collective bargaining for most publicsector workers. Union membership has declined since then. It has a bit of a tick up but the unions are still a force but not the force that they once were. They are rebuilding and they are looking very closely at wisconsin. The seiu was here. They are trying to rebuild the state but it is a rollback for union since 2010 since act 10. Host has the state of wisconsin taken action to secure their Voting Machines . Guest that is a good question. Voter security is very important in wisconsin. It is a secure system. They are taking a look at things. A lot of people vote here. We will have 80 turnout or more. That is a usual thing in a president ial race. We are taking voter security very seriously. Host out of massachusetts, this is jay, independent. Caller how do you feel about the surge in Republican Voters and the farm trade subsidies . There are subsidies for farmers. Farmers are feeling it here, especially in the dairy industry. Series the whole year focusing on the loss of dairy farms. The problems are important here, the Agricultural Sector is important here. Just shy of a half million workers in the manufacturing sector. As the tariffs play out, it will be interesting to watch and we will see how this plays out. So far, some businesses have been hurt. There are some subsidies available. It is a longerterm trend to see how it plays out. Host the president looking to get his u. S. Mexicocanada treatment treaty through congress. How important is that in the state and how important and how is it impacting the folks who work there . Guest there has not been a lot of chatter about it. Republicans made a big to have this thing past about two weeks ago. It was a concerted push among republicans here but it has not gotten through the noise of everyday life. Host appleton, wisconsin is next. Gene is a democrat. Caller good morning. I am wondering why bill glauber in not mentioned the crisis the former situation in wisconsin and why in the farmer situation in wisconsin and why small dairy farms are closing at a rate of two a day in the last this to stick last statistic i read. Behind donald be trump in the rural areas . Host did you happen to read that in the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel . Get a subsidiary of the journal. We have our own paper. Thank you for bringing that up. As i said previously and i will reiterate, we have been leaving a series on the dairyland distress. Iryland in there have been closures of dairy farms, hundreds of them. More than a thousand in the last 19 months. There is a crisis in the dairy industry. We are covering it. We dont know how that is going to affect politics here, how it will affect rural voters but donald trump does remain strong in rural areas of the state. Host loretta in ohio, democrat. Caller good morning. My question is, specifically about wisconsin but battleground states across the country. Whybody needs to explain republicans have agreed to cancel their own primary. They need to talk about how to takeans have decided away the votes of their own then even on impeachment, i think that democrats should go along with whond the republicans disagree with what the party has done for them should join democrats, especially when it comes to russia and ukraine. My question is, they keep talking about no collusion, but i want to know who changed the platform of the Republican Party if nobody in the Republican Party knew the platform was being changed . Guest i cant talk about the no collusion, that is above my pay grade. But i will say that on the primary issue, which is the primary, republicans will be holding a primary here in wisconsin in april. Itll be interesting to see how that works out. There is also going to be a race for a Supreme Court judicial race. One thing you should know is that there is a lot of activity done by outside groups, whether it is doorknocking by americans for prosperity on the priorities, side or american bridge. We are going to be polled, mailed, there is going to be radio, tv, digital. Already, and yes there will be a primary here in april for the republicans. Host el paso, texas, this is steve, a republican. Caller good morning. I was wondering if i got the right city. I think i saw something on National News about somali man innts beating a wisconsin. I wonder if that is going to affect the race and how that works. Guest i dont believe that occurred here. You know, milwaukee is a city that has difficulties, has opportunities, and is having a very good moment right now. Obviously, people will report on some negative things, they will also report on the positive things. That is what is to be expected, that is what the mayor expects in milwaukee. Do you want to talk about the immigration issue in general and how it is playing in wisconsin . Guest you know, the immigration issue is actually very important for farmers, you know, in terms of their workforce. So itare dreamers here, is important to them. And it is important to the public at large. It is galvanizing for republicans, also for democrats. So i think it plays out here just like it will play out in the rest of the country, there is nothing special about milwaukee and wisconsin in that it will reflect the country. Host a reporter from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. You can go online to see his work. He is joining us from on board the bus this morning. We appreciate your time. Guest this bus is fantastic, one of the best things to come out of washington. Host that is kind of you. We want to say thank you to spectrum, we are parked outside of their office today. If you want to learn more about the bus, visit cspan. Org community and follow its travels also on twitter cspan bus. We will be back to continue our by charlie joined sykes of the bulwark. Announcer here is a look at books being published this week. The former dean of Harvard Law School questions whether forgiveness and amnesty can strengthen the american Justice System in when showed law forgive . And explain the rise and Political Engagement amongst millennials, bill oreilly looks at the life and career of President Trump. Reporter from the Associated Press profiles mike pence. Also published this week, jack goldsmith, the former assistant attorney general recalled the life of his stepfather, a in in hoffas, shadow. And a former assistant u. S. Attorney for the Southern District of new york provides an analysis of Donald Trumps legal history in plaintiff in. Chief. Look for these titles and watch for the authors on book tv on cspan 2. On ther tonight, onmunicators, a top analyst the future of television, video, media and internet industries. You will see the live tv model only survive for sports and news, and almost Everything Else will move toward ondemand models. Content,entertainment or streamed entertainment, is to young people an oxymoron to begin with, the time that there is a time of day for a particular show is an odd concept for anything other than a sporting event. Announcer tonight on cspan 2 at 8 00 p. M. Announcer campaign 2020. Watch coverage of the president ial candidates on the campaign trail and make up your own mind. Cspan campaign 2020, your unfiltered view of politics. Announcer washington journal continues. Host we are back on the bus in milwaukee, and we welcome back Charlie Sykes. Last time you are on the program you are at the weekly standard, now founder and editoratlarge for the bulwark what is it . Guest it is an online publication, and basically kind of a quasisuccessor of the weekly standard. Staff. The core they moved over to the the podcast and we have a with three daily newsletters. People should check it out. Host where is it based out of . Do you do most work out of wisconsin . Guest it is based out of washington, and i spend my time between d. C. And milwaukee. Host we can talk about wisconsin politics, but your story this morning is about a National Story in many of the papers today. Jump ukraine the story is a stress test, talking about systems that are not ready. What are those systems . Guest we have not seen the whistleblower report, we have not seen the transcript of the conversation between the president and the ukrainian president , but this will putting a lot of pressure on our institutions. And i break them down into five. The rule of law, republicans, congress, pressure on joe biden himself, and the president ial and the way the media will handle it. One problem is we have the hysteria dial turned up to 11 over the last few years, so if this turns out to be the real thing, do we know how to calibrate our responses and will will be able to actually grasp what is the challenge here. Will congress be able to rise to this challenge, will the media understand how to deal with this, and what do we do with a president who seems emboldened to defy the law. Saying,ow basically look, i am invincible. Norms of the systems and that we count on will be under tremendous pressure, if in fact this story turns out to be, as it has been reported so far. Host nancy pelosi already under pressure. We saw comments from alexandria ocasiocortez tweeting and calling for impeachment hearings to begin now. Thisschiff saying that could perhaps be the crossing of the rubicon when it comes to impeachment. Talk about her role in the systems here. Obviously, one of the institutions is going to be congress, because in action is not an option. Again, we do not have all of the information yet, but if it turns out to be as it has been reported, then Congress Must act, otherwise it becomes a constitutional malady. And in a lot of ways, if congress does not do anything at all, it will do as much damage to the separation of powers as Donald Trumps conduct. Nancy pelosi put out a statement yesterday and has made it clear she does not want to move ahead with impeachment. And perhaps that is still somewhat premature, but my colleague also has a piece where he recommends an alternative, that congress could establish a Small Committee with a specific remiss to investigate this ukrainian story. Not the other issues, but specifically this, look at the whistleblower complaint, look at communications, then report to congress. So that could be a middle ground approach to this issue. Host phone numbers if you want to call in. Emocrats, 2027488000 2027488001, republicans. Ndependents, 2027488002 wisconsinites. R here is an article from the wall street journal, saying it might play out this is likely to play out in familiar trump era fashion, with adam schiff making claims that turn out to be exaggerated. And mr. Trump fighting back, saying the whole thing is a hoax. Muchut evidence, nothing is likely to come of it. What do you think . Guest i think that is probably accurate to a certain extent, however, look the president has already acknowledged that he did raise the issue of joe biden with the president elect of ukraine. What are the known facts . At the president of the united influence orto bully, we do not know whether he tried to extort the head of state of another country to dig up dirt on his political opponent. If that is true, if any element of that is true, then we are in a red zone area. And part of the editorial from the wall street journal is we have become kind of numb, but i think that this if this is not impeachable if it is true, if it is not impeachable, what would be . Issue ofdent taking an National Security and using his office to try to pressure another country to help his personal, political campaign. Remember, he was not encouraging the president to do something with the government of the u. S. , he was talking about coming should work with my personal attorney, Rudy Giuliani. Donald trump is going to do a lot of flipping the script to try to make it all about joe biden, that there are known facts in this case. But so far, there is no such gesture that there has been misconduct by joe biden or his family. We can clear this up by saying seeing what was the whistleblower complaint, why did the Inspector General regard it as valid, and if the president did not say anything inappropriate, then they can release a transcript of that phone call. Then we would have the facts on the table. Host plenty of callers and we have not even gotten to our wisconsin discussion. Joe out of boston, a republican. Caller thank you. I want to say that i am amazed, i am assuming he is one of those never trumpers. You guys should be so embarrassed, you and bill kristol. Ever since he was elected, you are putting things in front of him. So you guys are just unbelievable, and to me you are not asking the right questions. You should be asking joe biden those questions. Withim what he meant withholding billions of dollars from ukrainians unless they fire the sky. Why dont you follow that up . Host we will give you a chance to respond. Guest it is always interesting hearing a trump supporter using the term unbelievable since the president uses that term on a regular basis. This is where you get the dust thrown up. There is a clip of joe biden ukrainians in fact should fire their prosecutor, but if you go back and look at what happened, virtually the entire free world was putting pressure, the imf, the entire western alliance was putting pressure on the ukraine to say, you have to do something about your corruption. You need to do something about this. This is not joe biden doing something that was freelancing this had nothing to do with the investigation into his own operations. So again, this is the alternative reality, unfortunately, that we are living in. This is why i think it is incumbent on congress to do something, to create maybe this select committee, because you cannot wait for the special prosecutor. The department of justice will not lift a finger. This is up to congress. And congress has to decide what is its constitutional responsibility. Is the president above the law . Will he ever be held accountable for his conduct . Because if you have a president of the United States who is in effect betraying the National Interest of this country, colluding with a former foreign country to dig up dirt on his opponent, that is a big deal. Republicans should recognize that as well as democrats. Host that clip the caller was referring to. Some have asked us to play that clip. Here is joe biden from 2018 at the council on foreign relations. I remember going over to our team and with others, saying we should be providing for loan guarantees. I went over maybe the 13th time to kiev and i was supposed to announce there was another billion dollar loan guarantee. And i had gotten a commitment would takehat they action against the state prosecutor and they didnt. We are not going to give you the billion dollars. They said, you do not have authority, the president does. I said, call him. You are not getting it. I will be leaving here. Im leaving in six hours. If the prosecutor is not fired, you are not getting the money. Well, son of a bitch. He got fired. And they put in somebody who was solid at the time. Host on those comments and what this whole story means for joe biden and his family. Guest yes, this was not about joe biden and his family, again, this was the Foreign Policy of the u. S. , the position that virtually the whole western alliance was taking, with the imf saying, if you want to get more loans you will need to deal with your chronic problem of corruption. If you look at the timeline, this has nothing to do with his son, this has nothing to do with an investigation into his son or members of his family. But you can take that out of context. It can be made to look like undue influence. Everybody needs to step back for a moment and remember that used to bep campaign headed by Paul Manafort, who is up to his knees in ukrainian corruption. Irony is dead in the trump era, but for him to be concerned about ukrainian corruption is highly ironic. All of this is an attempt to turn attention away from, wait, the sitting president of the United States had a phone conversation that according to the wall street journal included timestempt eight separate to pressure the ukrainian president into digging up dirt on his political opponent, and to work with his private attorney. I mean, this is where i think that we need to focus, this is what Congress Needs to focus on. This is where i think the public needs to focus. Because i think you have a president who has become absolutely emboldened. He believes he can push any narrative. He believes he will never be held accountable. He knows the democrats have never held him accountable. The republicans will never break with him. He understands it is easy to manipulate the media. But this actually does matter, and i think that there is a lot of things at stake here and very dangerous precedents for our constitutional if we do not take this seriously. Host connie, a democrat. Good morning. Are you with us . Stay by your phone. This is thomas and waukesha, wisconsin, a republican. Caller good morning, gentlemen. Wesoutheastern wisconsin, knew that Charlie Sykes was a never trumper from the beginning, and most of us were too. We were supporting scott walker for president , then we went to marco rubio, and eventually to ted cruz, who won the nomination here. Once President Trump started doing the things we wanted him to do, we saw he was the right choice. And continues to do what needs to be done. Charlie sykes is part of the resistance. The resistance strategy is that through enough against the wall. He has lost credibility. Host do think donald trump will win again in wisconsin . Caller standard. Host same question to you, do you think President Trump wins wisconsin again in 2020 . Guest thomas is probably not a fan of mine anymore, but can i point out that i was on the air here in wisconsin for more than 20 years and i did support scott walker and i wouldve supported marco rubio. I helped ted cruz when the primary. That some point you have to have some principles and standards, and i have been unwilling to surrender all of those to support donald trump. So will he win in wisconsin . The caveat was i did not think he would win in 2016, but i that wisconsin will be the battleground state. I think it is a microcosm of the rest of the country. And the vote is divided into urban, rural, and a suburban. There are democratic strongholds, hardcore republican strongholds. Donald trump won in wisconsin because he flipped the northern rural parts of the state. Many counties that voted for barack obama twice voted for donald trump. The question is, will democrats turn out in big numbers in milwaukee, in places like dane county. In the midterms, they did. But it is a different ballgame with the general election. So if i knew who the democratic nominee was, i could give it a stronger prediction. So far, most of the democrats are leading donald trump, but i think the candidates actually matter. And i do think that wisconsin will be very much in play right until the end. Host which candidates definitely win and which definitely lose wisconsin . Guest there is no such thing as definitely stays, i think we have learned these days. I think we have learned that. I think joe biden is in the best position at the moment to win wisconsin, but then again we are having this conversation in september of 2019, not september of 2020. So i think that if the democrats move too far to the left, they run the risk of squandering some of the advantages they have here. I think there are a lot of suburban voters in wisconsin, as there are in michigan, pennsylvania and of the other swing states, who are open to the idea of voting for a democrat. Who were disgusted by Donald Trumps conduct, character and maybe some of his policies. But if they think the democrats pose more of a threat, they may not vote for them. They might sit out the election. They might hold their nose and vote again for donald trump. I am talking about, for example, taking away private health massivee, or increasing middleclass taxes, or open borders, the prevention of Free Health Care to undocumented immigrants. There are positions that the democrats and we are not much different from the rest of the country a lot of these are winners for the democrats, but they could also turn into losers as well. Host we have an independent on the line. Good morning. Caller i agree with this ingestion that bill kristol made with the suggestion that bill kristol made with a special meeting. That way to mccants and republicans would be on that committee. And they could go even further and investigate joe biden, even though this is not about joe biden, but lets make it all clear. That is what i think should be done. Host ok, Charlie Sykes . Obvious,at is the most logical and low Risk Strategy for democrats in congress. This committee should be bipartisan. Nancy pelosi should invite Mitch Mcconnell to participate. Lets get the facts on the table before we take any other steps. This should not be complicated, because number one, we once we see what the ig saw with the whistleblower report, if we get a transcript, it will be clear what happened. And then put it on Public Record what we know about what happened in ukraine with joe biden, which i think will turn out to be the fact that there is nothing there. But again, this can be done in a relatively short time. I am not naive enough to think it will not be caught up in the partisan back and forth, but this is up to congress. The bulk is in their court and nobody else will pick this up. A committee is expected to meet with the director of National Intelligence, that will be on thursday. And also this week, president andp is expected to see meet the president of ukraine and 16 other World Leaders as he attends the u. N. General Assembly Meeting in new york. The white house confirming that the president is expected to meet with ukrainian president on wednesday. Just some markers to look to this week. Shelby in bluff city, tennessee. Good morning. Caller thank you. I would like to send see nancyto pelosi really push impeachment. We have lost so much with mr. Trump. He is not reliable. He is not competent. He is a liar. And everybody that believes in him, they better take their blinders off, because i think major misfirese or screws loose. Host that was shelby. Charlie, go ahead. Guest well, there are two ways of looking at impeachment. One is the political dynamic, the second is constitutional. The political dynamic is what i think nancy pelosi is focused on, which is this could backfire on democrats. She is concerned about members of her caucus, those in the swing states. She knows it will not result in his removal from office, because whatever the house does the senate will not convict or remove him because we know how republicans are reluctant to break with donald trump at all. But then there is the question of, is the president above the law . When the robert Mueller Report came out, it was clear the position was the department of justice said a sitting president cannot be indicted. So what is if congress will not investigate potential, illegal actions by the president , then literally the man in the oval office is above the law. I do not think that that is consistent with our constitutional understanding. So whether you are talking about the corruption, the obstruction of justice, or whether you are talking about all of this, it has to be on the table, because as i said earlier, if congress does absolutely nothing then it will render itself with constitutional nullity. I think that will have negative consequences. Host bill, a republican. Caller good morning. Charles, i do not know who you are trying to kid. Im wondering who you will vote for in the election. I am sure it will be joe biden, if he gets the nomination. But he is not. Elizabeth warren will be up against trump. Y is story is the stor the democrats are trying to get ahead of joe bidens messy family affairs, including biden on a major drug sting that included him getting hooked up his exwife, and running around china and the ukraine, posing as an Energy Expert and making millions of dollars on the biden name. And the democrats are trying to get ahead of this story because it could be very damaging for joe biden. The whole idea that donald trump needs to be investigated for some type of crime listen, we do not believe you or bill kristol anymore. Host that was built in pennsylvania bill in pennsylvania. Here is one of the papers focusing on Hunter Bidens dealings. The Washington Times saying that there was dealings are helping his fathers rivals in this campaign. Charlie sykes . The caller, i mean, throughout a threw up a lot of things. I do not know who i will vote for. I find it amazing that anybody who supports donald trump, anybody concerned about corruption, this notion that we are concerned about joe biden because of these possible conflict of interest, could you look in the mirror and look at what is going on with the president . Again, i think that these issues have been well reported. By people who have talked to prosecutors, who have talked to officials in ukraine, and they say there was no crime committed in the ukraine. There was nothing improper that was done. Now, hunter biden was paid money to be on the board of directors of this company. Did he pay all his taxes in the United States . That is an American Issue and legitimate to look into. It is interesting we have a projection where we have this, nature ofibly swampy the Trump Administration, and yet somehow we are supposed to be focused on all of this. Look, i would feel better if we had a consistent standard. Corruption and the lying and you applied it to donald trump and joe biden equally, but we are seeing this as tribal. We will swallow everything donald trump does. We are going to swallow the instruction, the contempt for the rule of law, the selfdealing all of the lies. We will swallow that and then contend pretend to be indignant about somebody else. At some point we will recognize that if you have ethical standards, they should apply across the board. But that is not the case in american politics right now. Host a democrat in pennsylvania, good morning. Caller good morning. Joe biden isnt the thing with ukraine. That is a divergent. Diversion they need to look at Paul Manafort and what they did. That is a blueprint for the election. Host anything else . Caller all that lobbying he was doing over there. Read the indictment of Paul Manafort and all of the lobbyists talking to all the congresspeople. Who were they . Maybe some of them were republicans and they all know that donald is illegitimate and if they admit that, they lose all their judges and they worked so hard to get. Host what about Paul Manafort . Guest this is the irony, right . Donald trump, who once had Paul Manafort as the chairman of his campaign, is now trying to make an issue of ukrainian corruption. Paul manafort was one of the most corrupt political operators deep in the and worst aspects of american and ukrainian politics. So there is that irony. But to the point about legitimacy and everything, this is where i think that Everybody Needs to take a deep breath and step back. Right now thes president of the United States, he won that election. You may not be happy about it, but there will not be a scenario in which he is declared a and judges are removed from their positions. That will never happen. I realize that was the suggestion. But i think we need to focus on what are the facts, what do we know, and what can be done about this . Again, folks, if the story turns burger,e a nothing burger, lets find out about it. Lets look at the report, lets see what was the transcript. Donald trump said yesterday, yea h, i did talk to the president of ukraine about going after one of my political opponents. At the end, there seems to be a notion that if you admit something in public that makes it ok, but it is still a breathtaking statement. If there is nothing wrong, lets lay out everything on the table and then lets make a judgment. But i think we are at the point now where many republicans have simply given the president an absolute blank check and he is abusing at. I think that there is always something dangerous about taking somebody in power and saying, there will be no consequences, do whatever you like, we will not hold you accountable no matter how egregious your misconduct is, we will find a way to rationalize it, enable it and make it about the other guy. There something dangerous about that. Host just a few minutes left with Charlie Sykes this morning. He is on the bus in milwaukee, part of our battleground tour of the cspan bus. In the time we have left, lets talk with some wisconsin callers, including tim out of green bay. Go ahead. Caller good morning. Thank you for your time. I wanted to go back to the topic of wisconsin and being a battleground state. I agree with Charlie Sykes. Sykes. At the that wisconsin will be about a ground state, if not the battleground state. And Charlie Sykes has been identified as a never trumper, but i believe that of the six of the 10 members of congress from wisconsin, a few of the republican members have distanced themselves from donald trump during their time in this congress. And i think that will hurt the Republican Base in wisconsin over time. And i wanted to get his thought on that. Thank you. Guest i guess i would disagree. I think that longterm, having republicans who are willing to show that they are independent and that they are not simply toadies, is in the interest of the revoking party to say, look the Republican Party to say, look, there will be a close trump era. And of those that kept their heads and maintained a sense of integrity, i think, will be better off. Wisconsin has a strong delegation. Most of them have been, i would say, supportive of the government, of conservative policies, but they have criticized the president on occasion. I do not think there is anything wrong with that. Host what do you think about that term, never trumper . I do not have a problem with it. I think i probably called myself that at a certain point. The reality is i am never going to vote for donald trump. I will never think he is fit to be president of the United States. I may support some things that he does in terms of his policies, but i do think that and country is greater oetter and more decent than t deserve him as the president of the United States. Host this is calvin, a republican. Caller good morning. I was wondering, if a crime was committed there, wouldnt it be right to investigate it, or for donald trump to inquire about it, would that be wrong . And the problem is they do not think that they can beat donald trump, so they want to find a way to take him down without having to beat him in the polls. Paul manafort, he keeps backing him up, but he says he supported what does donald trump differ on compared to ted cruz . It is a pretense to give him credibility that he is a republican or conservative. You mentioned his conduct and character, what was wrong with his conduct and character since being in office . What did he do that this man, Charlie Sykes, that he disagrees with him or has a doubt about . Host ok. Guest well, where do you want to start . I wasonservative when on the radio i probably had paul ryan on my show 1000 times, maybe 100 times, the dark about the deficit and at the debt. I remember the tea party was concerned. Now we have a trillion dollar a year deficit. We will start with that. We used to believe in free trade , rather than trade wars. I remember when republicans did not kiss up to dictators or tried to appease Vladimir Putin or kim jongun. I remember when we said things like character mattered, when it was bill clinton as opposed to as donald trump, who lies frequently as most politicians even speak. I guess that is the objection. Look, you can say you like his but do not make the case that he is a man of good character, because you know that he is not. And i guess the question is, can we distinguish and to say that we support that policy, but we are going to draw the line here. We believe in fiscal prudence, so we objected the deficit . Where were the republicans on that . Where are they on character in free trade . Where are they on standing up against the worst dictators in the world, the authoritarians around the world . Those are all legitimate issues that i think that republicans ought to be able to say, no, we are not going along, we are not getting on that particular train. Host Charlie Sykes is the editoratlarge for the bulwark and you can find him at the bulwark. Com. Thank you for stopping by. Guest the buses awesome. Thank you very much. Host today, it is parked outside the offices of spectrum and we appreciate their help with todays program. A special thank you to Margaret Bailey steward for her help with a visit to the milwaukee area. To learn more about the bus and its schedule, visit cspan. Org community and follow his travels on twitter at cspan bus. 20 minutes left in our program. We will turn the phones over to you, asking about your top policy issues. Democrats, republicans and independents, you can see the numbers on your screen. Start calling now and we will be right back. For 40 years, cspan has been providing america unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the Supreme Court, and Public Policy events from washington and around the country, so you can make up your own mind. Cspan by cable in 1979, is brought to you by your local cable or satellite provider. Cspan, your unfiltered view of government. Tonight on the communicators, a top Telecom Analyst on the future of television, video, media and internet industries. Tvyou will see the live model only survive for sports and news and almost Everything Else will move toward ondemand models. Liveurveyors of content, entertainment content or streaming realtime entertainment, is to young people an oxymoron. The idea that there is a time of day for a particular show is an odd concept for anything other than a sporting event. Announcer tonight at 8 00 p. M. On cspan 2. Campaign 2020, watch our coverage of the president ial candidates on the campaign trail and make up your own mind. Cspans campaign 2020, your unfiltered view of politics. Announcer washington journal continues. A. M. ,we will end at 10 00 as usual. Until then we are asking you to call in about your top Public Policy issue. 2027488000, democrats. 2027488001, republicans. 2027488002 for independents. President trump has confirmed he spoke about joe biden in a call with ukrainian president in july, plenty of conversation about that. And the other story very much in the news today, iran and the u. N. General Assembly Meeting taking place this week. What will happen when it comes to iranian aggression and u. S. Efforts to bring World Leaders together against that. That story, or those two stories, on the front page of the Washington Times. President trump will be speaking at a religious freedom event at the United Nations in new york city. We will cover that today at 11 30 a. M. , you can watch it here on cspan live, listen to it on the free cspan radio app. Caller from nashville. What is your top Public Policy issue . Caller good morning. Two subjects that charlie left off of interest to republicans being is states rights trampled in this most recent automobile emissions thing. The other thing that is under the wire, the legalization of marijuana. That brings me to my topic, which is please consider the socialization of agriculture. It is a National Security crisis to have less than. 5 of the population in this workforce. I think that we need 6 of the population working in agriculture. And i want to see that pushed as a top policy issue. Host how would you go about doing that . How do you socialize agriculture . Caller that is a good question. Thene are looking at less a Million People right now serving our needs. And you have to get government involved. That has to be a government business. The democrats are not carrying the ball on national service. Im not saying go work in the fields for free, but we need to somehow use engineering and technology to make these jobs something that americans can do. I do not know if it involves automated, hydroponics, more industrial or urban agriculture, but we have a lot of people who will never get back to work again, why not give them something that connects them to the earth and improves their relationship with the earth . Host now to new york city. A democrat. Good morning. Caller just a few things to discuss. We see thatwhen this country was founded, it annoys me quite a bit because hello . Host why does it annoy you . Caller because this country was not founded. People were here when america was first, you know, people were here from mexico in the west area and the indians were here, so how can you founded something of people were already here . I get confused about that. People say it all the time, when this country was founded. I thought when something was founded it meant something was not here before. And a couple other things about illegal,hen we say maybe everybody is illegal because people are coming from all other places, and with slavery they brought them over in chains. He other thing i want to talk about briefly is joe biden is not the president. The president is supposed to be president ial. Actually, we are always comparing one person to the president , but the president is supposed to be above any missed doings. Misdoings. He is not supposed to be talking down to people. He is supposed to be having high standards. Host david out of new york, a republican. Caller good morning. My issue is local property taxes. I know it is not a national issue, but it is a personal issue, especially in new york. And it degrades the investment in a home. That is why homeownership is very low in new york. Sayif you go to the south, you go to alabama or a place like that, property taxes are 1 10. So maybe you guys will do a show one day on property tax and compare the states, the cities and localities. New york is tough. Host if you do not mind saying it, what are your taxes today compared to maybe 10 or 15 years ago . Caller it is a combined tax rate of 4 . In effect, it is a 4 sales tax on your house every year. That over 18ised years at a 4 investment, every 18 years you pay the entire value of your home back. So it is not conducive. Property ownership in your is in new york is probably just about 50 . 50 rental into 50 singlefamily ownership and 50 singlefamily ownership. That is why people are leaving new york. Host have you ever thought about leaving . Caller no, i am a retiree. I have been on it is too late for me. I am 73 and i have been paying taxes for 30 plus years. Host what kind of work were you in . Caller i was actually a government employee, so i was receiving the benefits of government taxes, but it does not make a difference fair is fair. Property taxes are too high and it is degrading homeownership. Everybody knows that is the backbone of a community. All rental is not a healthy thing. Host another david out of san francisco. Good morning. Caller greetings. Callerciate that earlier pushing agriculture. William Jennings Bryan won for president 100 years ago on the idea that america had lost 25 of the population from agriculture. And he had been pushing that issue for 25 years, when it was probably closer to 50 . The idea that america has now got less than 1 dealing with food, it is an amazing thing. It is bad enough the major corporations outsourced all of the shoes across the ocean, america does not create its own shoes anymore. All the way back to the caveman, people had a shoemaker a block away. It is amazing these corporations have basically tied up the entire world into parcels, so that if you cut off the shoes you can cut off a good deal of society. In a biggerterested Public Policy, like getting honest auditing. You look at the idea that donald obeys trying to outlaw science, basically, with getting rid of the epa. Thes trying to deny science ability to take part in Public Policy issues. So we need auditing of whether or not he has lied 12,000 times. Every lie has cost america billions, millions if not billions. So we need to actually budget out the value of each of those lies. Host do you have an idea of who you would trust to do that auditing . Caller we should have a ralph nader character for government. And they would bring in rolodexes and a swap out the corrupt for honest people. Greeklike in the ancient philosopher looking for an honest man, that is what america needs. We have a lot of positions of power. We have libraries, infrastructure and we need honest people there. I bet that those guys have a big enough rolodex that they could get a bunch of staffers in tehre there. Host reggie is in texas. Good morning. Myler yes, this morning mind is on documentation. Aliens, we need them. We do need them. The illegal alien is needed. Mine is on documentation. What do we do with these people when they get here . One thing we have done, we have not enforced the actual people people andring these putting them back in our mainstream society. The employers are the ones we have not gone after. We need to go after the employers who are putting these people to work, that are making fake Social Security cards. We do not track the money. We are not tracking the individuals who are actually putting these people in place. The problems are and it is bad a bad situation forg on in our unemployment people within our own borders. Host tom is in north hills, california, and independent. An independent. Caller my problem is with my government out here in california, as well as the u. S. , with medicare. Host what about the problem with medicare . You have to turn down the tv and talk through your phone. Caller i am sorry. Host we will let you work on that. We will get back to you. Patty in new jersey, a democrat. Caller good morning. Im from atlantic city. Donald trump with his casinos were here and he never contributed anything to the community, like the other casinos did. Trump plaza is in the middle of the city, abandoned and rotting. But i just want to say, about the republicans, because i am more of an independent thinker, that the lying going on in the senate right now is so disturbing. And where are the heroes . Where are the republicans who will come out and talk against this liar . What do they tell their children . I think the republicans are hypocrites. Host what specific lies are being told in the senate right now . Caller lets start with the one on ukraine. It is obvious that the tape d around doesda not have the full content in it. People know joe biden. Joe biden has a lot of tragedies in his life, especially with his family. I think it is the lowest of low to go after the children, even though these are adult children, but the families of the candidates. And besides the fact that it is just based on nothing. The newington post, york times debunked the whole thing, and Rudy Giuliani should really be sued for defamation of character. He is a horrible person. We call him count dracula. He is a horrible person. Host that was patty. The cspan bus is in milwaukee, that is where jonathan is as well. An independent, go ahead. Caller yes. Host you are on the year. On the air. Caller yes, reparations. Host why is that issue important to you . L, all of the Democratic Candidates are ducking and diving the issue. They keep coming up with policies toass solve the problem for our africanamericans and that will not be good enough. You know, other groups already have more and you give everybody the same thing, but it doesnt lift africanamericans from the bottom as a group. Host a lot of candidates in the anycratic field are of them speaking to this issue in terms you want to hear . Caller Marion Williams is the only one. But she is no longer, no longer allowed in the debates. Host that is jonathan in wisconsin. Catherine in new hampshire. We have a couple minutes left, go ahead. Think i called because i the government public priority policy issue should be the following back when the polio epidemic occurred, the Scientific Community mobilized quickly. Now with ecigarettes, the government is responding quickly. If the same has not been done autismr children and the epidemic, we need to find the cause, prevention and cure for autism. It does not get the same emergency effort, it does not apply to these children. Host why is that important to you . Caller because it is increasing, number one. Two, they people keep talking about the shots. But if they knew what the cause is notople would it enough to say it is not the shots. You have to tell us what causes it. If it is not the shots, that is fine. But as i say, if you find the cause, people would line up for their shots. They would not be questioning. Host catherine in new hampshire. Mick is in howard beach, new york. Caller look at the homelessness in not just california, but in new york. If you come in illegally you can get a home and get fed. But it does not help at all. What about the homeless . That is the sad part. It is a disgrace to everyone of us. Host that was our last caller today, but we will be back tomorrow morning at 7 00 a. M. Eastern. In the meantime, have a great monday. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] the house will be an order. Span provides america unfiltered coverage of congress and the white house and the Supreme Court and Public Policy events from washington, d. C. And around the country. Ins is created by cable 1979, and brought to you by your local cable or satellite provider. Cspan, your unfiltered view of government. Climate activists holding protest events around the world this monday. One tweet said shut down climate withe protista protest, a picture of some of the protesters. And we have this in the same area, d. C. Police using power tool in the middle of 16th and k street, shut down protests. Still coming up, the president talks about religious freedom at an event in new york city. The Vice President also expected to be there. Live coverage starting this morning here on cspan. You can also follow online at cspan. Org. This past weekend, candidates attended the polk county stake pray friday. Here is a look at that event
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