Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 10092019 20240713

Kelly as the cspan bus continues our 2020 battleground states tour. As always, we take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter as well. Washington journal is next. Host here are some of the latest headlines coming from that back and forth between the National Basketball association and china. The senators call on the nba to cancel games in china amid controversy. Spat thatchina nba underscores how far negotiations have deteriorated and this from a roll call, republicans accusing the nba of cowardice in the flareup with china. In our first hour, we want to get your thoughts on this backandforth between the National Basketball association and china about that tweet concerning hong kong. Did the nba kowtow to china . You can let us know your thoughts in this hour. 2027488000 if you live in the eastern and central time zones. And if you live in the mountain then pacific time zones, it is 2027488001. Ou can text us at 2027488003 att on our twitter feed cspanwj. You can post on our Facebook Page, too, at facebook. Com cspan. A piece calling on the nba to business never forget on 9 11, the d ckets owner distance comments, stopping short of fully condemning morey. Tuesday morning, adam silver offereda press release more coherent thoughts. Here is a bit of that with adam silver. [video clip] i issued a statement shortly before this press conference because i felt there was a lot of misunderstanding about our position. I thought we had been somewhat straightforward, but i can understand given translations the headtations ues of the nba are two what i try to suggest is i understand there are consequences from that exercise of, in essence, his freedom of to livend we will have with those consequences. It is my hope for our chinese fans and our partners in china, they will see those remarks in the context of now a three decade, if not longer, relationship and that we have done in partnership with the chinese Basketball Association and department of education and many different businesses in china, i feel, enormous amount to build the sport to work in communities. Hat is where we find ourselves as a league, we are not willing to compromise those values and again, i am sympathetic to our interest here and our partners who are upset and i dont think it is inconsistent, on one hand, atbe sympathetic to them and the same time, stand by our principles. Host this entered the realm of politics between ted cruz, marco rubio, and josh hawley were condemned condemned the league and the rockets for silencing the team manager in response to ongoing protests for deleting the message. The missouri senator said he was disgusted by the league upon actions. More from josh hawley saying doing business with china is one thing. You know better and the people of this country deserve better. Going on to say the league said yesterday the comments deeply offended many of our friends and fans in china, which is regrettable. Suppression and Political Violence carried out by the chinese the good people of hong kong. That is some of the reactions. We want to get your reaction in this first hour. In the central time zones, 2027488000. Mountain at pacific time zones, 2027488001. You can text us and post on our twitter feed and Facebook Pages as well. We start in california and we will hear from todd. What do you think about this back and forth between the nba . Nd china pc as thee nba is as nfl and it will hurt that league. Aroundnded people all should support hong kong, but not the nba. Dream on green and steph curry suggesting owners are like slaveholders, another whacked out take on slave relations. Not chairman xi. It is really very offensive. Its all on tv for all of us to see. Host do you think this will result in boycotts and the like we saw against the nfl during the opening ceremonies and the American Flag and things like that . Questionas your suggests, i think it is certainly going to hurt the nfl nfl, excuse me. Host that is todd. We will hear from rich in illinois. You are next up. Caller thanks for taking my call. The nba is a business and they are trying to sell something to somebody and you cannot sell something to somebody if they dont want it and they if they dont want it and you are trying to sell it, you have to negotiate some kind of deal that you can make money and they can get something they want. That is business as usual. In the past, when you had to deal with these Companies Like china that did not want stuff, you had to go the extra mile to get them to even be on board trying to buy your product and this is why we talk about past experiences like china. Yeah, you had to give them a better deal to get them on board with any kind of a deal at all. If you want to sell something to somebody, make it worth their while. Host eric from providence, rhode island. Good morning. Caller good morning to you. My wife is from taiwan, second wife and she is completely i. Osed to this and so am furthermore, absolutely amazing. China will be the number one power in the world within 20 years, you cannot stop it, the people are very aspirational, very bright, very disciplined. It is going to happen. I am going to be dead by then. Thepoint i want to make is United States creates a lot of these problems. They created communist china in 1949 because they did not really back and that ultimately created before that, north korea. One final point. We were allied with stalin in. Orld war 2 he was uncle joe, the worst mass murder of all time. The most brutal was stalin. He made hitlers look like a little tyker. Host specify what you are opposed to, the actions of the nba, the actions of china, what specifically were you opposed to . Caller the actions of the nba. They kowtowed to china because everything in this world bought and blind is money. Host that is eric in providence. If you go to cnbc, there is a piece taking a look at reaction from china saying when it comes to the nba, it is the wakeup call the world needed saying chinas increasing Economic Engagement with three countries of the west were supposed to open the country to more moxie and freedom. The government has used growing wealth and economic influence to suppress the population more, build up its military, and increase influence abroad with programs. Ture many fans who may have been excited or indifferent about increasing business connections with china are asking weather promoting the game is worth the concession. Fans of the Brooklyn Nets are asking that and scrutinizing the new owner over that. Pittsburgh, you are next up, go ahead. Caller i am opposed. It shows a lot of hypocrisy. Nobody is talking about these black players going over and apologizing. Lebron james hates this president. They are all right with what the chinese are doing to hong kong. Shooting them, beating them with clubs. The hong kong people, i have seen American Flags there. Something these basketball players never carry. It is amazing the way they are acting. Lebron james got a billiondollar deal with nike. Its all about money. Lets cry about black people getting beat up all the time by cops. Host conrad in North Carolina, good morning. Caller it is statements like i just heard makes americans hypocrites. The thing is, we can see everybody elses fault, but not our own. If we are so patriotic that we want to support hong kong and stop the nba from playing in china, why dont we ball boycott walmart . All the companies importing chinese goods we use every day. If we are going to be a patriot, lets be patriotic in every phase of american life. Lets stop buying at walmart, stop buying cars that have chinese goods and lets make america stand for the ideas it was founded on. This is my statement to all these hypocrites calling in this morning. Host that is some of the reaction from this backandforth going on between the nba and china. You can call us on phone lines. If you want to tweet us, you can do so at 2027488003. All we ask is you put your name and city and state you are from and if you want to post on social media, twitter is cspanwj. Our Facebook Page is at facebook. Com cspan. Several responses on facebook. Mccarver saying People Better start paying attention, the chinese have many institutions paid off including government officials, hollywood, and large corporations. Their censorship is being imported here. Sean williams saying i understand how these republican senators feel about the nba kowtowing to a brutal foreign regime. Says they shorted, cannot have freedom of speech in greedthe nba supersedes our rights again. As all of our institutions remember when they used to care about tibet. That is some of the responses from our Facebook Page. One of the responses came from james harden, spoke about this the idea of what was going onto chinese fans and team management. Here are some of his comments. [video clip] we love china. We love playing there. We go there once or twice a year. They show us support and love. We appreciate them as a fan base and we love everything they are about and we appreciate the support they give us individually and as an organization. From the editorial of the New York Times this morning under the headline when it comes to china, silence is golden saying it should be perfectly clear paying playing basketball in china is perfectly political. The nba has weighed chinas human rights abuses against chinas potential as a source of revenue and decided it can live with state policies like the detention of hundreds of thousands of chinese muslims and that is just some of the comments from the editors of the New York Times. This is from jacksonville, florida. Good morning, go ahead. Caller excellent. I am for the United States and the people of china to have freedom. I say freedom, excuse my bad english. I wish for people to have freedom to do what they do and play what they want without harming anybody. It doesnt matter the state, the community or whatsoever, this is all i have to say and i thank you so much for that. Host what about these initial statements that led to this story . What do you think about how the nba handled this . Caller i am not sure, to be honest with you, but they do handle it. I bet you they would handle it in a way that china does not want freedom to go against their government. T should the nba do shot do business with china . Caller force it. This is not violence. Means intellectuality. Force it on the people, not doing it by violence or anything like that. Host lets hear from robert in massachusetts, you are next up. Caller hello . Host you are on, go ahead. Caller i am appalled by the hypocrisy of all these people calling in disparaging the nba for what they did when the president of the United States, President Trump, has said nothing about hong kong, not one word. I have read and all the impeachment inquiries and test messages that President Trump promised president xi he would stay silent on hong kong. He has not said one word. Everybody is worried about what lebron james said. Lebron james and the players in the nba have no power. Host the nba management has power, what do you think about how they are handling it . Caller as far as how they are handling it, i thought it was wrong they apologized for what the coach said, but by the same ght and the power of the leader of the free world is what counts, weather the nba is doing business there, i think that opens things up when the people of china are aware and get to meet actual americans who are free, i think that is a good, positive thing despite what the government is doing. Host you wouldnt call for a boycott of the nba over the situation . Caller no, i wouldnt. I would not call for a boycott of the nba over this. Host why not . Caller i just think we do so much business over there, like one of the callers said. How Many Americans stopped buying products from walmart and target and all these places that sell chinese goods and the president is saying nothing about you would think any other president would have been on the side of the people of hong kong and the president hasnt even done anything, he is kowtowing to china. We will jump on the nba, why . Because the leak is full of black players. I am appalled. The president needs to stand up and say the people of hong kong autonomyr freedom and from china. Host samuel, you are next. Caller i think this is a perfect example of why we need andrew yangs addition of new measurements to our gdp. This has been an abusive authoritarian power for months now. We have not seen it break headlines the way it has with this nba thing and that shows it has not become an issue until it is economic and it is in the dollar of the section of the economy that the lay person interacts with. If we added measurements to the gdp, we would be able to see these things on a media scale in a much more tangible, numerical, and empirical way faster than we can with this kind of news cycle. Host when it comes to the nbas actions, you are saying this is a purely economical move . Caller it is more complicated than that, but i think the economic factor of it broke the news faster than the human rights factor has. Host when you say it is more complicated, how do you mean . Caller honestly, i havent followed headlines that closely. This is an issue that annoyed me. My understanding is they are continuing to do business with china through the Human Rights Violations and that is peoples disagreements with them. If that is the case, there are tons of companies doing that already and i dont understand why they would be such a target of hate. In maryland. Hello. Caller good morning. Thanks for taking my call. I absolutely oppose the nba supporting chinas actions because they are telling everyone they are supporting the Chinese Governments brutality against the hong kong people. Me to see the chinese actions is unacceptable and i am trumpbed our president has not done anything. The leadership we are in, that we are not speaking up to protect countries to the freedoms they have agreed to before they sign the contract before they took it back from taipei. Host what do you think is the best course of action for the nba . What should they do in this matter . Caller i dont think they theye focusing on really should focus on human rights because right now, the hong kong people are just suffering. Seen my family host finish your thought. Caller i have seen my family in hong kong and they are innocent people. These people are just going from work or from home and vice versa, they are getting beat up on the train station and in the street. These people are innocent and they are my family. And marilyns jay giving thoughts on this back and forth between the nba and china. Asking if the nba kowtowed to china. Josh hawley made reference to that. You can add your thoughts to the mix as well. Opedll street journals pages talks about this issue in a place piece called the nba can beat china. Notice chinas hysterical response has been a tad overblown for a solitary tweet from a single behindthescenes functionary of a single team. Plenty of chinese rather than wanting to take away hong kongs rule of law want to see it replicated on the mainland. Fans arely chinese nba disproportionately represented among the country possible even if they are not prudently speaking up right now. The nba may want to keep this in mind before it gravels any further. Here is more from the press nbaerence from the commissioner, adam silver. [video clip] cctvis afternoon, announced because of my remarks freedomng daryl moreys of expression, not the substance, but his freedom of expression, they were no longer going to air the akersnets preseason games scheduled for later this week. Again, it is not something we expected to happen. Butink it is unfortunate, if that works for the consequences of us adhering to our values, it is important we adhere to those values. My plan all along has been to travel to shanghai tomorrow and i plan to attend the lakersnets game thursday night. It is my hope when i am in shanghai, i can meet with the appropriate officials and discuss where we stand and again, put those remarks from daryl morey and my remarks in an appropriate context of a manydecades long relationship and see if we can find Mutual Respect for each others political systems and beliefs. I am a realist as well and i recognize that this this issue may not die down so quickly. Morey putting out a couple of tweets in response to what was ongoing saying this, i did not intend my tweets would cause any offense to the rockets fans or friends of mine in china, i was merely voicing one thought based on one interpretation of one complicated event. I have had a lot of opportunity to hear and consider other perspectives. I have always appreciated the significance support our chinese fans and sponsors provided and i would hope those upset with understand offending or misunderstanding them was not my intention. My tweets are my own and in no way represent the rockets or the nba. This is from sun city, california. Roy, you are next up. Caller thank you for taking my call. I am going to express the same thing some of your other callers have expressed. Unless the president himself who has said i hope they work it out if he takes that attitude, why are we picking on the nba . Walmart, all these other entities that do business with price. They should pay a as one caller mentioned, the only reason some of these people are calling in today want to pick on the nba i heard one guy bring up lebron james he is just a player. A basketball player. Host you are saying the nba should pay a price in this . Caller no. I dont think they should. Everybody else, if the nba is going to pay a price, so should walmart. So should trump and his goods. Everybody. If we are going to take a national stance, it should come from the top. Host aside from other corporations, what did you think of the nbas handling of this . Caller basically, i think they are doing the right thing. They are in business. We are going to do it as a country, as a nation altogether, meaning all the businesses, all the business out s in china pull host because you said they are doing the right thing you are saying for their actions, this is purely economics for what they are doing as far as the right thing . Caller yes. The president feels it is economic. He is trying to make a deal with china. What is the difference . Int lets hear from eric compton, california. Go ahead, you are next. Caller thank you, america. I like to think about it in this way. If they are willing to do the nba like this over business this is a communist country. Everything in china is owned by the government. Think they are doing the president the same way . Host what do you mean by that . Caller the president and his family have business in china. If they are willing to come after the nba for saying certain things, why wouldnt they do the president the same way . The same thing is going on in turkey. The president has business in turkey. If the president told them we are going to disrupt your business and stop your business the president already said with saudi arabia, we are doing it for money. Host to focus on the nba, you think the nba should stop associations with china . Caller i want to the nba and all sports fans to recognize what we are dealing with in the United States. We are being manipulated, economically, socially, and politically by using sports and money. If the nba can walk away, it would not make a difference tomorrow to china. Host why is that . Caller that is just basketball. We would have the nba championship, all they would lose is a little bit of money, that is all. One man said something and they respond like this just imagine what the president is saying and how they are responding. Host we will go to brian in phoenix, arizona. You are next up. Caller good morning. I want to call and say i think people are losing context here. It is about free speech. The nba is the reason it is isng talked but it more about the ideology, and ive even see places in america where people are worried about free speech, and i think that is more alarming. Host when you say it is free speech, talk about the nbas handling of this, in light of that. Caller um, well, i think the commissioners his comments are very strong. Were going to lose money were worried about it more so than anybody else. Host do you think the general managers free speech was trampled on . Caller im sorry . Host do you think the initial tweet by the general manager was trampled on . Caller yes, i do. Host lets go to bob. Bob, in michigan. Bob, good morning. You are next up. Hi, you are on. Caller once again, we have liberal hypocrisy. Remember that the owner of the la clippers was forced to based on a phone call. Host how does that apply in this matter . Caller freedom of this expressin. Why couldnt the owner have freedom of expression on a phone call that was made public . And then he was made to sell his team. Host so how does that apply specifically to this tweet . I, i just dont understand, then. Host i am just saying, you associated this past phone call, bring it up to the present day, this situation, how do you see free speech being trampled on, and what should be done about it by the nba . Caller well, the nba should stay out of social issues. People do not turn on the nba to watch social issues or listen to these peoples thoughts on social issues. Host you do not think there is a social or political elements all of this, particularly when it comes to International Sports . Caller no. Sports needs to get out of college. They have ruined college. Forget Felicity Huffman and lori um, you know, we have that thousands of people at colleges that should not be in college, but they play sports. Host ok. That is bob in michigan. Hour, we have an been getting your thoughts about this back and forth between the nba and china. If you want to make your thoughts known in our second half hour, for those of you in the eastern and central time zones, it is 202 7488000. 202 7488001 fr mountain and for mountain and pacific time zones. Andcan tweet us at cspanwj on our Facebook Page, at facebook. Com cspan. At hong kong, particularly with the prodemocracy efforts, the Washington Post highlights what is going on there with individual businesses. G kong host from jerry in new jersey, hello. Caller good morning. Would like to straighten some people out, when i hear them calling. Hey keep blaming trump everything keeps going back to trump, which i absolutely love, but you have got to remember now, nobody has been harder on china than trump. With all these tariffs, with everything, he has been trying to get these companies out of china. What do you think he has been doing this whole time . Host were focusing on the nba. What do you think is going on with that . Caller i think the nba, im sorry, but that guy had every right to say how he felt. I do not think he should be silenced or his opinion is his opinion. The nba should not be backing down, that is number one. Number two, when you look at hong kong, it is a shame, because when hong kong started, they had a grievance with the fact that anybody who got arrested was going to be charged in china, and they won that argument. They won that argument. But then they got cocky, like a lot of people, and they going to. He extreme, like a lo they are actually destroying their country. And another thing, we have got to stay out of it. We have got to stay out of everybodys business. Let them take care of their business, and we have got to stay out of it. Let us handle what we can handle. On chinatting tariffs to try to get them to be fair. Nobody is working harder than trump to try to get china to be fair, and this is just getting too convoluted. It is a separate, separate issue. The man has host all right, here is the tweet that started it all from daryl morey, the fight for freedom staying with hong kong. Thats we would eventually come down. And then the back and forth chinesethe nba and officials are we are getting your reaction as well. John saying the nba boycotted North Carolina because of bathroom facilities, but it is fine with china and cumin oppression. And human oppression. Another good, apple, all corporations to do business in china. Lakeland, florida is next. Go ahead. Caller i want to Say Something that i heard from the great john henry clarke. At the time, i thought it was crazy, but he said asians are the only race of people on the planet that know how to deal with the white man, and i thought that was kind of crazy, but i look at this is just like the intellectual robbery. You have no reason to be in china. You are in china, because you make money, so you gave up your rights they told you that they are a communist nation, and if you do not like how they do things, do not go over there. So the nba decided to go over there, and then they do not like how they are doing things. , well that is not your place. If you did not like it, you should not have went there. Just like these people with the intellectual property. They did not put a gun to your head and say give me your rights. No you went over there and sign them away because you wanted their business to it i heard are 300 dude say they something million nba fans in china. There are only that many people in the whole United States, so they have more nba fans in china than they have people in the u. S. , and that is the reason they are over there. This is all about money are. Host so you would advocate for the nba cutting ties with china. Caller it is not just the nba. The nba is one business. It is not just cutting ties with somebody come if you go to deal with somebody, you deal with if you go to somebodys house, and they tell you, look, man, you have got to take off your shoes when you come to my house, you cannot just two weeks later walk in with your shoes on. You are disrespected them. Host so you are saying the nba should just accept what is going on . Caller if you want to deal with them. If you do not want it, do not deal with them. And it is not just nba, it is every company over there, just like the guy that tweeted before i came on. Dealingsho has any with china, and there are so many people over there, and there is so much economic so much of an economic influence in the world has to go over there, that is why trumpism the situation he is in now. You want to tell them how they are going to do their thing. No, china does if you want to deal with the United States, how would china how would the china came over here and told American People they do not like how our stuff is going . What if china came over here and said, i dont like how you are treating the Homeless People over here . Host ok, got your point. Christine, rockford, illinois. Go ahead. You are next. Caller hello. I agree with the man who just spoke. You have to be diplomatic. You cannot walk into a place and tell them how they are going to do their business. , i darer thing is everyone to walk through their house, pick up an object, and tell me if every other object does not say already made in china cong, ok . The big problem is we should be focusing on what is happening here, and we have not heard our president say one thing about this being the biggest chance in the world to open up china for democracy. Hong kong is desperately over there, trying to make a huge, huge statement on the national and have wemocracy, heard one word come from our president s mouth about that . I mean, i dont want us to get into another war, because obviously President Trump is doing a very good job of doing that, and in the meanwhile, he is trying to change the whole Global Change circuit and trying to put us into a communist regime. He is trying to align us with all of our communist enemies, and the trade that has been going on for china, in spite of it being off balanced the past year, he walks in there and demands changes, which is not going to happen with china, just as the other man said, and in the meantime, he does not say one word about, lets help hong kong, nor do we host ok, we will move on to beverly in corona, california. Go ahead. You are next. Caller yes, good morning. Thanks for taking my call. I just see a lot of hypocrisy here. The nba are split. They are going to make a statement in support of selfexpression, but when Colin Kaepernick took the stage and wanted to make gains stand for all of the brutality and everything for the african americans, there was no one saying, oh, this is free expression. He was considered unpatriotic and all of this nonsense that was going on. So when economics are involved, it is funny our policies and our issues and our support change. Those 3 million friends 300 million fans, that is a lot of revenue, so right away the nba wanted to come in and try to make a statement about being able to express your rights. And i just think that is more about hypocrisy. Host this is from Washington Examiner from yesterday about President Trump making comments for hong kong, saying that the president praised hong kong protesters for their signs and make hong kong great again banners. Host if you want to find more of that, you can do so at the Washington Examiners website. Brent is from wisconsin tiered hello. Caller hi. How are you . Host fine, thank you. Caller thanks for taking my call. Host go ahead. Caller i think the issue is a little bit more pragmatic. If you are representing a company, and you are making comments, you are culpable for that, you know, theres a difference between the employees in an executive position and making comments on representing a corporate interest against personal comments. And i think this is just simple commentsou want vetted that come from a company, you should have set down with the board of directors i got everybody together to make a decision about what your thision was going to be on. You cannot make offhand comments when you are putting out a tweet that represent the company you are working for. I think this is a little clouded about what the commas represented politically. There are different stages where these things need to take place. This could have been much more powerful if the nba would have come out on a position regarding a social issue. I think there is a line you step over for that. And as a personal as a person in the United States and having opinion is different than having an opinion when you are representing a corporation. This how do you think plays out, though, in the realm of sports versus the realm of politics . And i understand there is a mix of the two in this conversation. Caller the reason the conversation is interesting is because there is a question about that. Financial interests vs. Political interests. I think the corporations, in are manner, shape, or form, not really in the business of politics, so i think that, you know, for me personally, i think it leans a little bit toward stay in your own lane. When the president is making comments, that is different. That is clearly making a, you the democraticg process. A corporate standpoint, if the nba would have taken this position it cannot formally and said this is what we believe, that we are some ring the protesters, it would have been much more powerful than an offhand, by somebody within the organization and then get chastised for it. From a democratic perspective, and i believe and i personally support the chinese protesters, the idea is that it took the wind out of the sails for what this could have meant. It brought the conversation forward. I do not think the tweet helped the position of the protesters. So if you look at it from an outcome perspective, what do you come away with . Host thanks for the call. A couple of events to tell you about, as we are talking about this issue, of course, campaign 2020 continues to go on. An event that you can feel cspan regarding that. We had a chance to recently sit down for conversations with a pair of candidates, democratic candidates. At 10 00 today, we will show you interviews with former maryland congressman john delaney and billionaire tom steyer. You can watch those conversations at 10 00 this morning i cspan. See them on cspan. Org, listen to them on the radio app as wel. Also, former Vice President joe biden will hold a town hall in new hampshire. You can see that at 12 45 p. M. Today. Also available on cspan. Org and the radio app. And a discussion to talk about current relations between the United States and ukraine and the role of the west. Jon will be hosted by Hopkins School of advanced international studies. You can also see that at 12 45 p. M. On cspan2. If you want more information, we invite you to go to our website at cspan. Org. George is next in fort worth, texas. Hello. You are on. Caller yes, i would like to make a comment. Inm 78 years old, and i live fort worth, texas. I have been working on a project to create jobs in america. Guess what . The United States should talk about nobody in this country, about nobody having problems being racist, this is the most racist country in the world. Wiped out the indians, you done made the black men slaves host what about with the nba . Caller the nba had one owner down there, and it is mark cuban right here in texas. When you take the nba itself, it aint no angel. May give all of the money in america to the basketball the chinese have a right to run their own government hong kong, hong kong belongs to china. If you go back to ho chi minh and the days of ho chi minh and vietnam, all of that territory belongs to china. Host so you did did you support the initial treat from the Houston Rockets manager . Caller no, he was wrong, because, you know what . You should take a look at america. America has got the most racist country in the world. You should not talk about nobody treating somebody wrong. Look of a treat the indians, the mexicans, the black folks, and the poor folks in the country. Host hi, you are on. Caller i just want to say that the people that keep calling it have got to understand, this did not start with china yesterday with a tweet. The tweet was totally irrelevant. This started over 30 years ago with china. By lives were sold politicians to china, for the everybodyuck, and now in this country will suffer for the remainder of their lives with china badgering, bullying, just like they do in their country we are already seeing it you cannot speak to anybody without cowering down to china host so youre saying that china is bullying the nba . Caller china is bullying the nba. They are bullying america. They have been bullying we give china a chance to grow 40 years ago, and instead of slowing it down when it got theyhy, we let it go, and while china is building a Million Man Army . Host all right, that is stan in washington state. This is anthony in boston sending us a text this morning. Youre welcome to do so at 202 7488003. Says what they should do is what any product american do, anderican would publicly slept china backed by walking out of china. Let the communists explain that to their people. China has these extreme reactions to petty words because actions,its politics, and human rights behaviors are completely atrocious. A really bizarre international story, and we do not know what to make about it, so it is something i am reading about, like anyone else. I have nothing else to say about that. I found it makes most sense my comments to those things, so it is not difficult, it is more i am just trying to learn. Again, see that at the website at sfgate. Com. From mobile, alabama, hello. Caller hello. I have been following the nba for many years, and the nba has morphed into a large business. That guy, morey, should have been fired. He should have been fired, because you dont just go out the nba is it is a huge financial organization. They are trying to expand their then china, i am not sure if it is china or india, but they have the largest population in the world, and begin ba sells a lot of tickets to the people in china. They play games over there. China sponsors a lot of teams and games over here. Host why do you think morey should have been fired . As ar because he went out rogue person, and he did not check in with the owner. He is not the owner. He is just the general manager. Guy, the top guy came out, and he is trying to color it over and say he has freedom of speech, but you do not do that when you are part of a huge conglomerate. They sellmany so many shoes in china and jerseys and everything. I know people say that is money, money, yeah, but the nba is a huge business. Haveguy, morey, should been fired. Plus, i dont like him anyway. He should have been fired, point blank, period. Host all right. We will hear next from philip in virginia. Hello. Caller hey, you know, i want to Say Something about the man from washington state. He called earlier talking about chinas pocket. I think it would be a good idea if he tried it with supersonic. I have got to tell you for the first time, long time, it has been hard to listen to all this talk about china, china, china. Host what do you think about the situation, though . Caller i tell you, we have got to put pressure on china. That is the only way. Host when you say we, deal me in the nba . Everyone, the nba, w nba, this ubs, nbc, fox, we have all got to put pressure on china. Host what do you think they should put on the organization . Tell them weould mean freedom, with three es, freeedom. Right, roger is next, mckenzie, alabama. Caller hi. Fan third i amts an old man, but i do not want to get into that. This guy did right. He has free speech, and now he is trying to smooth it out and take care of business, but the brother that just called and was talking about shoes and everything, he has got to remember where those shoes are coming from. They are coming from sweatshops, littletonyearold kids, those are the shoes he is wearing and concentration camps in china. And he is talking about brother, they will not even let you in the country. I appreciate it. Host before you go, you are saying then that do you support the nbas stands as far as trying to resolve this issue . Caller yeah, i thought he did good. He said, yeah, we support free speech. They have got contracts, they have got things to do, i understand that, but you have got to understand chin. The shoes he was talking about, you know where they come from. Ost so the nba should continue business, considering the wa you spoke about not only the shoes but how they are produced . Caller more really morally no. Theres not a lot of morals left, are there . Personally, i do not think anybody ought to be over there. If we leave there, they are talking about going to vietnam. Good god, they are worse. They are talking about going to bangladesh, they are 10 times worse. At your companies in our country, make the stuff here, and we will buy it. No matter what it costs, we will buy it host in a related story, businessinsider. Com, the market story host you can see more at the Business Insider website. Lets hear from dave. Dave is in kentucky, hello. Caller yeah, i support the owners comments regarding the china issue or hong kong, i guess, specifically. States,ink the united we have sold out, well, the people havent well, i guess insomuch they have, as they buy the products. We have to realize we are dealing with a communist country. Would we do the same for russia . We haveess the reason not bought so many russian products is because they dont into likearket to get china does. If the American People do not like what is going on, then we have to voice our opinion at the retail. Host this is a viewer off of twitter who says, as an attorney, employees of corporations in the u. S. Do not give up First Amendment rights and serve the corporations are owed a duty to their shareholders. The nfls free speech by banning taking a knee. Many of you posting and continue to do so at facebook. Com cspan. You can also text us, 202 7488003. Cityput the name and the and state that you are texting from. Theodore in arkansas, hello. Caller hello. I also wanted to make a comment concerning the nba. America why . Because all of our industry basically, if they receive an automobile, we are getting sweat labor from them, computers, we and chemicals,d etc. , from india, so we are in a situation where we are trying to and we areabor, killing our people in the United States. So at this time, at this time that i see that it is not just we should not put business with our finances right now. If we were over there as we will, we should go there as we will. We come back, we can talk all we want to, but right now, we are putting our necks on the line. Host let me clarify when you thenoodwill vs. Business, what is the nba over there . Is a goodwill or business . Caller it is both, but in the sense that we went over there primarily to promote american basketball, our sports. Did we not do that . Now, if we went over there to promote american business, and american business, do business. But right now, we are in a situation where our whole economic and political situation is based upon the trump russia situation. . Hy trump russia because trump is trying to pull the troops out of syria, messing with our u. S. Economy, and we are in a fix. In two or three years when trump leaves if he ever leaves he may put his children in power we will be in a bigger mess. Host lets go to maurice in georgia, hello. Caller hello, pedro. Good morning. How are you . Host i am fine. Caller this is another example of right wing aggressive hypocrisy, and it is a rightwing attack. This is a Houston Rockets issue, not an nba issue. Issue. The commissioner of the mba said he is behind the general manager of the Houston Rockets in the ability to express himself like he did. What this is about is trying to criticize the black players of the nba for their stances on racial issues in this country by trying to paint them as hypocrites were not saying anything about these issues regarding democracy in china. They dont have a dog in the fight. The nba doesnt have a dog itself in the fight. Host when you heard the commissioner make those statements, didnt they put themselves in the fight . Caller no, they didnt. Lebron james hasnt said anything about this. James harden has said he values the people of china because he goes there twice a year. Statementsmade any previous to that about the issues going on in hong kong. Is, let mecontext ask the question, why isnt on wallalling in or street journals editorial page or any of these republican, the rightwing, the republican is the rightwing party, why are they asking questions about the current president and his business dealings with china when he said he talked to premier xi and said he would not say anything about the situation going on in hong kong . He told him he would keep his mouth shut. He has business dealings personally in china right now. Host we just read a statement from the president talking about events in hong kong from the Washington Examiner. Youre welcome to go to that paper. One more call on this. Kevin in upper marlboro, maryland. Caller what i want to say is this issue is complex. People have forgotten the dimensions of why the nba is in china. One, they want to make money. That is true. They are also in china on a diplomatic outreach type of mission as well, ok, the more than americas organizations and companies engage with china, the idea is that some of our Democratic Values will start to influence the Chinese Government. That is what the chinese are afraid of. They like american basketball. They dont want American Values to interrupt with whatever the communist regime is trying to do. But he made his statement, he was doing was actually threatening the Chinese Government in the way they do things. Party isommunist always party they will be toppled by the people if their people get a hold of the wrong type of info. Executive, he has access to the Chinese People that other people do not necessarily have. When he says something about hong kong, that directs Chinese People also to what is going on in hong kong and the repressive things happening over there. Those things also could take effect in china. This is why it was such a threat for china. What americans need to do is realize we should never accept the Chinese Government or any downnment trying to tamp on americans right to freedom of speech. Host we are out of time for this segment. Appreciate all of you who called in during this first hour. We will take a look at several cases heard at the Supreme Court yesterday on lgbtq employment discrimination. We will take up the conversation with Gregory Nevins of lambda legal, we will look at pennsylvanias role in the 2020 both conversations coming up on washington journal. Campaign 2020 coverage continues as President Trump whole day keep america a keep America Great rally. Listen free wherever you are using the free cspan radio app ap. Sunday night on q a, jeff quinn discusses his book, the vagabonds, about the summer road trips taken by henry ford and Thomas Edison between 1914 and 1925. The idea was they wanted to have fun and demonstrate, you can get in your car and do these things too. They were going to eat cold beans out of cans, they werent just going to put a blanket on the ground. They had all these different amenities. They had a refrigerated car powered by edison batteries so they could have fresh dairy. They had chefs who would prepare gourmet meals at night. In the morning, they would dress in freshly ironed clothes. They were so famous in america was so grateful to them, it didnt matter. The point was, hey, we are out in cars traveling and seeing these things. You can do it too. Sunday night at 8 p. M. Eastern on cspans q a. Washington journal continues. Nevins withs greg lambda legal, senior counsel and employment fairness counsel director talking about cases at the Supreme Court heard yesterday. Guest good morning. We are the nations oldest and largest lgbtq Legal Organization dedicated to pursuing the rights of lgbtq people and People Living with hiv. We do things mainly in the course of litigation but we also do publicpolicy work to advance their treatment. Host those issues discussed yesterday, can you describe the cases heard . Broadbased description of issues. Guest these cases were brought under title 7 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. In 1964, one of the most famous Things Congress ever did was enact legislation that said, in many spheres of public life, title 7, employment, you cannot fire somebody or refuse to hire somebody because of their race, color, religion, sex or national origin. That was the law back then. For years, for many years, it was thought that did not cover people because they were lgbt. Peoples ago, transgender started to win cases under federal nondiscrimination laws that prohibited sex discrimination. Only recently in the past three years, the courts have also thought gay, lesbian and bisexual also have protections under title 7. Yesterday was the day Supreme Court heard the case about whether that would be the law, nationwide. Basically, is it sexist permission if you fire don but not donna when they both date men . Or if you are thrilled with the performance andrew was doing at work but as soon as they say they are coming to work as amy, they get fired . That is sex discrimination. That is the argument. Host one of the questions asked when congressto, was asked to address this question 19 64, congress has declined or failed to act in difficult takes this up, to prohibit discrimination based on Sexual Orientation, we will be acting like a legislator. What about that argument . Guest you might have heard Justice Scalia spinning in his grave. The arguments are pure textual. Admission onndid employees part that congress in 1964 when they passed the law was not setting out to protect lgbt people from this commission. The argument is, the text of the statute does that. It may not have been what they were intending exactly. They probably would have said Something Like, this will protect lesbians the day a woman can marry a woman. Legally,ll landscape, has changed. The social landscape has changed. May not have been clear what may not have been clear back then is now. School, the textual really, it is is the courts way of approaching things from Justice Kagan to justice gorsuch. We are here to interpret, the only thing we know they voted on where the words of the statute. That is what we will apply. There may be applications to that that would cause people in 1964 to say, we voted for that . Maybe not. If you ask someone in 19 624, they would ask, we are not doing lgbtq people but what about a day in the future where people can get married . Well. That would the only thing guy, two, ifween a mary and mark are both married to a guy named steve, the only difference, why you fire one and not the other, is because of their sex . Host if you want to ask greg questions, eastern and central time zones, 202 7488000. Mountain and pacific time zones, 202 7488001. If you are lgbtq viewer and want to give your input, 202 748 8003. Justicecorsets said sh, this may be more appropriate coming from congress. Guest that was only one thing he said. What was interesting about that was what he was referencing was a dissent judge lynch issued. If you go back to transcript, these arguments were back to back, he mentioned this in the gender identity case, the transgender neutral but not in the case of course, that was a Sexual Orientation case he didnt bring it up then, and the reason why, he talked about a closed case and a not close case, in the second circuit, he was like, surely, congress did not intend to prohibit all distinctions based on sex . Every single time you treat a man and woman different, that is not a violation of title 7. It is especially silly when it comes to Sexual Orientation. The one thing we now know we dont have to decide whether every single distinction between a man and woman violates title 7. We are distinguishing based on intimate relations of marriage. Certainty isknow that is a bad reason to distinguish between men and women. The fact that he brought this up in the context of the gender identity case shows he himself recognizes in a Sexual Orientation context, that is a terrible rationalization. I dont care so much, doesnt mean bad news for us, generate cases, i thought the aclu lawyer set, we have been winning these cases for 20 years for transgender people and nothing horrible has happened. 21 states have protections based on gender identity. Textualis is also not a i think, you know, i think, are free tostices engage in rhetorical questions. They can tease out. They probably want fodder for their opinions to justify doing but justice, as soon as someone talk about the consequences of interpreting the statute as it would, he would put up his hand ago, that is for across the street. If Congress Went too far, they passed a law that will lead to things they didnt want to, they know what to do about that. We are here to interpret the law as written. Host if the justices weigh in on your side of the appended, what changes specifically for Employment Law . Guest lemon law, great question, Employment Law, it would mean, from coasttocoast, everyone could vote title 7, federal law in federal court, to, uh,t go to the eoc, commission, they usually give you federal court. That would be available to all lgbt q people coasttocoast. Eoc agrees with the employees position. Theyre still processing claims Going Forward and that will not stop unless and until the Supreme Court says they are not covered. Lgbt people are not covered. That would happen, right now, the situation is, there are 29 states where they dont have specific statutory protections. If there are protections and if so the court rules across the board, people would have to toort to, immediately, have resort to state law protections, in the 21 states that have them. Wisconsin has them for Sexual Orientation but not gender identity, or local law protections and then of course, one thing that has to be done regardless of how a justice rules, is how it impacts the equality act. It goes way beyond employment. Housing, acredit, variety of things, and public accommodations. Federal civil rights law, federal Civil Rights Act of 1964 did not include this. The equality act, if nothing else, the variability of transgender people to exist in public spaces, needs to be passed. Example ofuld be an the Lgbt Community doing something for all people, quality act broadens the currently embarrassingly small list of what constitute public accommodation. Retail stores, macys, not covered at all, they can actually put a sign in the window that says, no blacks, no catholics, no canadians can chop your. Hopefully that would never happen shop here. Hopefully that would never happen. If they were violating laws, they would be violating the Civil Rights Act. What constitutes public accommodation, we want the Civil Rights Act of 1964 two up like that. That. Reflect host go ahead please. Caller thank you for taking my call. I have a question, if you would please provide clarity on yesterdays case. One, i heard it was dismissed in lower court. If it is dismissed in lower court, why . How did it end up in the Supreme Court . If you would put some clarity if you can on what was the reason mr. Bostic was given for his termination . I understand he believes it was because he was a gay man but what was the reason they gave him . Host clarify. Guest i didnt dissect the three cases before the court. The caller is referring, one of the pieces was from georgia, Clayton County is one of the five metropolitan counties i live in atlanta, i will be back there later today Clayton County is one of the five counties in metropolitan atlanta. One of the lawsuits was gerald bostic, he is a social care worker in Clayton County and had worked for the county for some time. Is he was doing fine in his job, was well regarded and when they found out he was a member of a gay softball league, they ratcheted up scrutiny of his performance, they did audits, the kind of which they never did before. Said, the audit turned up something and we are firing you. Pretext and ias a was subjected to discrimination when they found out i was in a gay softball. Softball league. Casesher cases were both where the plaintiff employees won below and the employers asked Supreme Court to review. The Supreme Court said yes. The bostic is a reverse. The court in atlantic, what is interesting about it, i took a case before that which led to them doing this one, dismissing when we started out to do this work many years ago, to get Sexual Orientation discrimination covered by title 7, every court that had waited, every Appellate Court that had waited in, said something bad against our position in the old fifth circuit, which used to cover atlanta was one of those courts, but they did so at the tail end of the 1979 decision, really had an address the issue mr. Zarta won his case before the new york appeals court, and earlier when my client won her case against the chicago seventh circuit, those courts were asked to look at all precedent. They can only do that by convening the whole court. You have to go through hurdles to do that. They looked at the case and said you are right, whatever we said back then, we werent thinking about the most thoughtful arguments. We werent considering this the way we should. We will take another look. 11th circuit said, we cannot be bothered. We are too busy. Or more likely what they really said is, you know, if the seventh circuit has done this, we dont need every other circuit to do this. We are not going to do this. Lets see if Supreme Court will give us a national answer. This is conjecture about what motivated them but it was strange for them not to at least give it a more thoughtful review. That could be explained by the thought, they thought this is silly for every circuit to have to go through this. Why doesnt the Supreme Court just give us national answer . Yesterday was all about doing that. We will see what happens Going Forward. Of theloyer lost two three cases lower down and appealed. In the georgia case, the employee lost and got the Supreme Court to take the case. Host javier, hello. Caller hello. The way i see it, this is something going on for a long time. Designed been denied in certain states. 2004, gayrts, marriage was approved in massachusetts and later on when Supreme Court made the decision that became a combat for the state courts and lower courts to eventually whittle away at every other right. But i think is going to happen is the conservative courts will fight this out until they get the decision they want. A lot of gay people rest on their laurels and say, it is not going to affect us. We will see, if they make a decision, it will be negative for many people in many parts of the country. That is how i see it. Host thank you. Guest i appreciate the caller. A great point. Especially coming from massachusetts. Communityt, most lgbt had equal stake in the Supreme Court was doing, certainly in the marriage case. Cases, even ifaw your state had prohibited it, the fact of the matter is they were not being regularly used against gay people except as a matter of principle in custody cases. They were not so much criminal prosecutions. It was the symbolic nature. Cases may not have significant effect on people in massachusetts, for instance, because they have statutory protections that protect transgender people, protect lesbians, gay men and bisexuals. States do notf have those protections explicitly in state law. Swaths of thevast country that do not have statutory protections include her including the entire southeast of the u. S. If you are from florida trying to get to a jurisdiction that has protections, if you are going north, you have to go to washington dc or maryland. In the northwest, you have to go to illinois. If you are going to west, you have to go to new mexico. There are broad swaths of the country that do not have a fallback, title 7 does not cover it. Number,hically, a large it affects people of color disproportionally, especially africanamericans in the southeast. A lot of states like vermont and iowa and other states have protections but states like alabama, florida, georgia, mississippi, South Carolina do not. I appreciate the take. It is important to a lot of people who the most disadvantaged members of our community, the most marginalized. It is a very important case for that reason. Host jim from leesburg, virginia. Caller i am a simple bluecollar guy. Level, then, as soon as they limit womens golf, womens bowling, womens Everything Else and let the guys colleges whenin it gets down to this, polygamy and polyamorous him is all equal and i will go back and im throwing a lot of stuff out but you i was in the navy, hey, guys cannot even wrap your mind around host we will leave it there. This idea that, does this extend to title 9 . Point. That was a good Justice Breyer was amazing on that yesterday. The employers were directly making the case. They said things like, well, the lower court in ruling, they not only ruled for these employees but they steamrolled right over those distinctions. He is going, i am not the lower court. That is not what im doing. I am focused on the question of whether these people were fired because of their sex . That is what i will decide. Dont tell me my decision on that is necessarily the decision. Off, remember someone starts talking about the case not before the court, chances are they do not have a lot to say about the case before the court. Timest know how many he used that phrase. The court should be here. This is a fundamental conservative principal overstreet. We are here of restraint. Dont come here with your scary scare stories. That is not what im here to do. I am here to decide whether Aimee Stephens was fired because of her sex. Host what if the justice comes down in your favor, what does it do for owners of religious businesses or Business Owners with religious conviction . Guest there are many distinctions. Specifically about what type of employer, actual religious employer, religiously motivated employer, i want to tell people, that debate were in the opening stands of that. That will be a big issue Going Forward this term in further terms. People should pay close attention to what people mean when they talk about exactly what is at stake. First off, it is absolutely the case, you know, when the archbishop gregory was designated, there was never going to be a race discrimination lawsuit by a white politician who thought he could get that job. Allows,sterial section when you are choosing ministers of your faith, you have the decision. There is no discrimination. To could be no race discrimination, disability, whatever you want. The courts will not get involved in that as far as the First Amendment. People talk about, in my religious ministry, i should get to make religiousbased decisions. People talk about religious ministry as being, operating a card shop or a bakery. I am not trying to say that is not a religious ministry in their faith but people need to understand sometimes that is what people are talking about. You need to understand their language and how they are using terms before you say, you are operating a religious ministry, you get to do that because you may not be understanding the terms. You may agree with the position but you need to understand what they are saying. Roberts, whostice brought up the point said, well, congress obviously didnt think lgbt people were covered because they would have brought a religious conceptions. No. First off, that is not a textual argument. It is one of those arguments that should make Justice Scalia spin in his grave. Congress can do, if the court rules, yes, lgbt people are covered in congress things, while, i was not aware that was what title 7 encompass but now we need to go back and pass a broader religious exemption, that is the way that should play out. The existing religious exemptions, there are a bunch of religious organizations that file, some of them took a fairly responsible position, which is, hey, there are existing exemptions and we will be back here to make sure you enforce those if you rule in favor of the employees. Some of them were like, you need to interpret the law so as not to, in a way that doesnt make us upset . That is not the way this works. You interpret the law the way it works in the statute. If it turns out that upsets them and congress agrees, that is when that should come into play. Host linda, connecticut. Caller good morning. Thank you very much for this discussion. Im going to play devils advocate. The conservatives play the long game. Stand, was allowed to they would use it to chip away other rights, not just for gays. Basically, anything they dont agree with, which is a southern Christian Baptist way to run our country. I think the people should pay close attention to this. Once they get the erosion of one right, they want to extended to others and broaden that to encompass more. I would like your opinion on that, sir. Guest i have to admit, i dont understand the question. You are talking about giving someone a right . I am not sure i understand. Are you saying if they rule in favor of the Lgbt Community, there will be a political, oh my gosh, look what the court did . The caller is gone. Think, i would just say, if, and i am making no predictions, after the oral argument, i do not assume anything about who will love how based on yesterday but who will vote now based on yesterday but if it turns out justice gorsuch, maybe votes in favor of the employees, the opinion will differentch, very from the past prolgbt decisions of the Supreme Court look like, which talked about, really equalitythe idea of and equal dignity. Wordty probably the will probably not be in his opinion. Interpreting a statute, you are not asking me to say discrimination against the community is wrong, people, something that has no place. Youre asking me whether it is sex discrimination. Broaderant a declaration that specifically, if you want to call it by name and you want a National Statement that it is bad, go to congress and pass that act. That will be your National Statement. Lgbt discrimination is wrong and evil. I am only here to say if this is sexist rumination. Hopefully, he will say it is. Sex discrimination. Hopefully he will say it is. Caller the Supreme Court decision coming up on this is no different than roe v. Wade, which i think was wrong. I think it ought to be up to each state. The court should decide. The shelby case was correctly decided. The court shouldnt decide this on a national basis. It is not a national issue. It should be a state issue. I am personally pro choice. I think it is an individual decision. State ought tohe whatsoevery in it yet the court took jurisdiction and proclaimed a law. Laws are made by legislatures. Whatever the legislature goes with is fine. One state likes it, one state doesnt. That is called selfgovernment. Host thank you. Guest i have to fundamentally disagree. Irrespective of the position of exactly whether Shelby County was right roe, we are talking about, what does title 7 of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 mean . That was a federal law passed by congress with nationwide implications. Who else will say when a federal law means other than the Supreme Court . That is their job. I understand what the caller butng about roe v. Wade that is something totally, that is weighing in on a constitutional basis as to whether state regulations of abortion are permissible. Here we are asking, about the interpretation of federal law, obviously the province of the Supreme Court, whether they rule against me or for me it is not judicial overreach for them to engage in that activity of interpreting what congress meant. That is what they are therefore. Of lambdaory nevins, legal, talking about the Supreme Court cases yesterday, thank you for your time. Guest it has been a pleasure. Host President Trump has sent a letter to nancy and other members of Congress Regarding impeachment. You seek to overturn the results of the 2006 election. Democrats now apparently view impeachment as a strategy to influence the next election. Your unconstitutional effort threatens grave damage to our Democratic Institutions and to the American People. Part of that letter saying, from the on out administration will refuse to cooperate with the inquiry. 202 7488000 for democrats, 202 7488001 for republicans, 202 7488002 for independents. We would love to get your input. The white house refusing to cooperate with the impeachment inquiry, your thoughts, coming up on washington journal. Thinking about participating in the student cam 2020 competition but you have never made a documentary film before . No problem. We have resources on our website to help you get started. Studentcam. Org. Producing information and footage in the cspan library, and teachers will find materials on the teachers materials page. Anyone who wants to compete this year to find topics you are passionate about and pursue it as much as you can. We are asking Middleton High School students to create a Short Documentary middle and High School Students to create a Short Documentary on issues that you would like candidates in the 2020 election to adjust. Go get a camera and microphone and start filming and produce the best video you can possibly produce. Visit studentcam. Org for more info today. Washington journal continues. Host more that letter from the white house. President trump and his administration reject your baseless effort to overturn the democratic process. Your unprecedented actions have left the president with no choice to fulfill his duties to the American People, the executive branch and all future occupants, President Trump and his administration cannot partisan andn your unconstitutional effort in the circumstances. The latest on the impeachment inquiry. Make your thoughts known, text 3, you can 748800 post on twitter and facebook. What do you think about this . Caller i think it is totally ridiculous. I mean, you have to have a president that follows the rule of law. You cannot have a president that is going to tell people not to testify. To be, that shows his guilt. He is guilty. Matteroffact, i seen him say a statement once that anyone who takes the fifth, which is basically what he is doing, is guilty. This is a guy you just cant have. He is ignoring everything. How could you possibly, how could the rest of the Republican Party actually close their eyes to this . Host vanessa, washington, democrats. Caller good morning. Absolutely ridiculous. How are you going to tell the governing body who has the constitutional right for oversight . You cannot just say, i am not going to do it. I believe they need to take the boat. I think he should be impeached. Take the vote. I do not think the republicans will do anything in the senate. This is a sad state for this country. Host the president adding to the letter sent from his white house lawyer in a tweet this morning. Calling the democrats a con artist. Is, we the good news will win. Johnny is in arizona, republican line. Caller good morning. I am so confused. I dont remember the names, im sorry, of the people they sent to jail because they knew trump. The one guy, he lied to bank and he got five years. The rich people cheat and fraud to get their children into school, they get 14 days. Host the president sent a letter, the president s lawyer, what did you think about that action . Schiff startsdam lying, his whole face turns red. Why is it they can get away with lying . Thems it nobody charges but if you lie to a bank about a bank loan, you get five years in jail . None of it makes sense. It is just, go trump, he is my president , four more years. Host tom, clinton, maryland, democrats line. Caller i think it is ridiculous. A waste of our time and money fooling with this man. He needs to be taken out of office as soon as possible. It is absolutely ridiculous we spend this time and money fooling with somebody like donald trump. I cannot believe the American People allow themselves to be taken by somebody host you support the impeachment inquiry . Caller absolutely. Host why . Caller [indiscernible] is the most lying men i have ever seen in my life. I cannot believe the American People allow themselves to be taken by somebody host why do you support impeachment . Caller he has lied so many times about so many things, i cannot even go through them. The latest thing is this thing in ukraine. Thousands of lives. The American People still dont get it. What is happening, we have a conservative group of people in this country who dont care what he does, as long as he screws up this country and makes things difficult for minorities. They dont care what he does. Host rusty is in silver springs, republican line. Caller hi. Host what do you think about this letter . Caller this is the old saying, the boy who cried wolf. The democrats are the boy. Wolf for the last 3, 4 years. They simply should not be given a voice whatsoever. This is the outcome or consequence for crying wolf. The little boy who does cry wolf simply deserves to be eaten. Matteroffact way, he wants attention, just like the democrats want attention, they issues pursue those instead of protecting American Values. Host i am slightly confused. Do you support the democrats or the president . Caller the democrats are the boy who cries wolf. The boy who cries wolf is the one who is fictitiously bringing attention to himself and just like they have in the past host you support the president not cooperating with them . Caller i support the president and i think the democrats would oppose the president even if he did wonders. Host ok, that is rusty. The latest from the wall street 55 nal and nbc news, some of participants said congress should take up the ukraine matter with 31 supporting the impeachment inquiry that Speaker Pelosi launched last month an additional 24 saying enough evidence exists for lawmakers to remove mr. Trump from office. 39 said congress should not hold this inquiry and should allow mr. Trump to finish his term as president. Another from the Washington Post and George Mason University here in virginia saying, asking the question, do you think congress should or should not have begun impeachment inquiries of the president . Do you think the house representative should vote to remove trump from office . For those supporting the inquiry, 58 . 49 of those supporting. 6 opposing the removal of the president. Those opposing the inquiry, 38 . More of that from the Washington Post. From robert, brooklyn, new york, independent line. Caller it is one thing to say if they have inquiry, if you want to challenge the result, they might be able to make a case for it. Saying Trumps Administration should not be questioned or challenged is clearly a legitimate. Illegitimate. Host jane, North Carolina, democrats line. Caller good morning. Incident, i really you know feel like it is a planned story. The democrats cannot be this inept. A cornucopia of reasons to impeach him. If you look at recent events, it looks like they want for him to be impeached. Keep is based and garner sympathy, a. K. A. Bill clinton, i think that is what is going on here. Donald trump is reprehensible, i think, if you look at his mental stability, anyone with 2020 vision that watches him, the impromptu news conferences he gives him on the south lawn of the white house, he is mentally unbalanced. Host that is james. Reggie, illinois, republican line. Caller yes, pedro, good morning. It has been two years since i got through to you guys. I watch daily. It has been a while since i wanted to speak. Mitt romney would be the most prescient person when the smoke at 1600rom the debacle pennsylvania avenue. My party is in tatters. I am an africanamerican, eisenhower republican. Personal responsibility was the mantra i have been raised with. There is no personal responsibility regarding this president and his actions yet my him the mantle as king, king. The Republican Party has virtually nominated and pushed of a king with the demeanor a gangster and a pimp. Host you support the impeachment inquiry . Caller wholeheartedly. Based on facts. Not on emotions. Not on, they are picking on me. Personal responsibility. He goes after Hillary Clinton. He stands up in front of the American People and says china should investigate the former Vice President. He squeezes this little weird president former comedian in ukraine to do his bidding. All you while, you have my point pao, a west point graduate for christ sakes mike pompeo, a west point graduate for christ sakes, right next to Scott Air Force base, there are gentlemen and women who risk their lives with the oath to their country, and you have mike pompeo in the middle of this. You know who should come forward . There. Ho were host democrats line, South Carolina. Caller i define myself as a moderate democrat. Everything im watching, i seem to not be in line with most people. I am against the inquiry because it looks like a political high wire act to me. I will be the first one, i am totally opposed to trump and everything he stands for and what he is doing is not good for our country but for me, this is a call to vote. The democrats need to turn it down a notch. They need to push voting. They need to point out how off balance our primary Voting System is. Im watching the democratic debate, seeing who we will put up against trump. That kind of makes me cringe. They just preach to the far left. That makes me worried. Whyhy pursue voting not pursue impeachment specifically . Caller i think it takes the eye off the ball of the issues that need to be addressed. They need to govern. This is sucking the oxygen out of the capitol. There are so many things america is ready to take on, and it is not happening. What is going to happen Going Forward, look at the margin by which the last couple president s have been elected. Go back to the al gore vote, florida Supreme Court got involved. We are operating on such tight margins, this chaos is just going to continue with the electoral process. Host that is harrison in South Carolina giving thoughts on this latest letter from the president s lawyer, refusing cooperation with Congressional Democrats on the impeachment inquiry. Your thoughts at 202 7488000 for democrats, 202 7488001 for republicans, 202 7488002 for independents. This, as a senate panel, the republican held senate side released a report on russian interference during 2016 expressing concerns for 2020 saying the Intelligence Committee has been investigating foreign electoral interference for 2. 5 years and that the russians worked to damage Hillary Clinton, made clear that fresh rounds of interference are likely ahead of the 2000 when he vote. 2020 vote. The president has question findings by u. S. Intelligence officials. The president sometimes embraces conspiracy theories as the Russian Investigation detailed efforts. If you want to read the story in the Washington Post this morning, it goes from there. Charles, independent line. Caller i agree with the previous caller about the election. The election will be soon. Ie up the government with all this stuff . Let the people vote. Host so the president s refusal to work with Congressional Democrats, what do you think of that move . Caller i think he is doing the same thing as them they are doing to him. He is just defending himself. Host go. Caller they are out to get him. They want him not to win the election. That is why this is going on. Host you think it is appropriate . Caller i dont think theyre leaving him any other alternative. But to defend himself. Host annie, california, republican line. Caller good morning. I am a moderate republican, like harrison was saying he is a moderate democrat. The reason i want to vote republican is largely because of the abortion issue. I think trump has the only hope of getting that kind of turned around maybe in a way and i also agree with harrison and a previous caller about the democrats, kind of sucking the air out of their chances in 2020 by doing this. I would like them to lay off the guy. It is like, come on, ridiculous. York,bill up next in new independent line. Good morning. , they have argument been investigating trump for 2. 5 years and they shouldnt keep doing it, they havent found anything, a lot of organizations, if that was true there would be a lot less prosecutions of wrongdoing. You can always argue, they havent found anything in 2. 5 years so just keep on, i dont have to look at me anymore and i get a free pass. That is illogical. A lot of investigations go a lot longer than 2. 5 years before they lead to indictment. Host a couple of followup stories from the recent decision on syria. The wall street journal. Tied to a was Campaign Pledge from the president saying getting the u. S. Out of extended military entitlements has been a longheld policy or priority of mr. Trump. The push underscores his commitment to check it on his , the story adding, the white house talking points, what you need to know, President Trump is fulfilling his promise to end endless wars. They not leaving syria but being redeployed to other bases or facilities within the region. The front page of the wall street journal, i am sorry, the Washington Post, this looking at what prison facilities currently holding those associated with isis. Guardsh officials said would still be in place after more than 20 prisons under control, were prepared to move, raising the possibility that 11,000 militants and their families could escape. U. S. Officials speaking on anonymity, providing that the pentagon did not have enough forces to oversee the prisons if those facilities were left unguarded, nor were mandated to do so. Lewis, North Carolina, democrats line. Caller good morning. Host i pushed the wrong line. Caller that is ok. Top of the morning. This gentleman should be impeached. They should take it to the senate. Im sure the senate will take about. Out, he always crying wants the democrats to take a boat. Vote. We are not going to take a vote until we have the information we need. When he cries out, take a boat, for what . A vote, for what . Is going to try to strongarm the president over there in ukraine or calling out for china for help. Host the vote he was calling for was to start the process. He is calling for the vote for you to vote. We already voted. 230 people saying lets impeach him. That theye wants is want to do article of impeachment. The article of impeachment is for when you find the charge youre going to charge him with. It might be several of them. That is why there is no vote. It would be irrelevant or premature. For the republicans, they think we are still mad about Hillary Clinton and all that crab, they need to get over that. That was 2016. We are talking about a man who is destroying our country and our constitution and they act like they dont see it. They dont see no wrong. Ken, in crystal river, florida, republican line. Caller your last caller dont understand the vote he once he call, when he gets subpoena power, all the people he can call up, he can call anyone he asks. , evend like to see hillary and obama answer some questions on what they did during the 2016 elections. Reporting the president has asked trey gowdy to assist him with legal advice from outside the white house. He has agreed. Details yet to be finalized, according to people familiar. Going on to say, as he faces impeachment inquiry, he can offer him on where political theory meets reality. His benghazi experience is seen as an asset. He is expected to advise the white house behind the scenes and appear on tv to advocate on behalf of the president. Dave, irvine, california, independent line. Caller he should be impeached. He should be put in prison along with cohen. He is immoral, lalas, he should not be running this country. All those republican should be put out of office. This is the worst president. He is going against our democracy. This is the worst president this country has ever had. That lady that called about abortion, they are putting kids in cages at the border. He hates mexicans, he hates blacks, he hates everybody. Host that is dave in irvine, california. One more call, this is from kathy in area, indiana gary, indiana. Brought this on himself when he came down that escalator. Hes just a bad person. A fool [inaudible] he dont listen to nobody around him. He dont take anybody elses advice but his own. Host ok. That is kathy in gary, indiana. The last call on this topic. For our last hour, as we take a around the 2020 election, the cspan bus has been traveling to battleground people there,g to not only voters, but we will talk with experts from those states to see why they are battleground. We will first talk up with Joseph Morris from receivers university, a recent poll up there and what that might mean for it or pennsylvania, where the bus is based today. Later, republican representative mike kelly joining us on the program. M. All that and more as washington journal continues. The house will be in order. For 40 years, cspan has been providing america unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, Supreme Court, and Public Policy events from washington, d. C. And around the country so you can make up your own mind. 1979, cspanble in is brought to you by your local cable or satellite provider. Cspan, your unfiltered view of government. Host the cspan bus in erie, pennsylvania today, part of a 10 stator we have kicked off in Early September 10 state earlye have kicked off in september. Pennsylvania is our stop today in erie, pennsylvania, and joining us onboard the cspan bus to talk about politics and the 2020 election there is Joseph Morris of mercy hearst university, with the center for applied politics. Director, astheir well as the Political Science chair. Good morning to you. Guest good morning. Host can you give us a snapshot of what youre he, pennsylvania looked like in 2016, in particular, how it voted for President Trump . Yeah, that is an incredibly difficult question to answer, even with good Public Opinion polling. The county has been historically, overwhelmingly voterat in terms of registration. In 2016, i think we saw a perfect storm for democrats. Economy has been suffering for a number of years and we had a candidate in Hillary Clinton that Many Democrats in erie county had concerns about. That combined with the promises of renaissance manufacturing that donald trump made, i think it led to a narrow but, in the end, ultimately a victory. Host what has changed in the years since then . Are there any significant changes that could mean Different Things in 2020 . Guest yeah. Again, these are very challenging questions. We are still a year out from the president ial election, so anything can happen. However, what we have seen in the past three years is erie voters in erie county, their perception of the economy has changed dramatically. The number of people in erie county that are reporting very positive things about the economy has increased since february 2017. For example, voters in erie county are likely to say that the state of their economy is good, a larger percentage of them than at any time since 2017. A larger percentage of voters are likely to say that jobs in their communities are easy to find and their personal financial situation is good. For a county that has struggled for so many decades, this is, i think, a really good sign for erie county and i think it also gives us some indication of what we are looking at in 2020. Host a recent poll of yours took a look at these types of issues, economics being one of them. If what you say is true, does that mean potentially voters could support the president again, or does your poll show other factors that could change or sway that . Yeah, i think that if i had to guess what was going to happen, make my best prediction of what was going to happen in 2020, i would say if the election was held today, we would have an incredibly close election. Though our poll shows that at least one democrat has a substantial lead, lead that is outside the margin of error of our poll that is joe biden i think when it comes down to the people who actually turn out to vote, we are likely to see a number of people that are really just looking at the economy and saying, im going to stick with donald trump. Variableshere are that are pushing people in the opposite direction. Namely, how he has handled a variety of other issues, and i think the way he has interacted with World Leaders and the american public. I think if the election was held today, the despite the fact that we have a relatively strong pull for democrats, it would be a relatively close election. Host you highlight some of the matchups between the president and various candidates. You cite joe biden on that list, followed by Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders. What is it about those three that makes those in erie, pennsylvania more likely to go to one of those three . I am always very careful to Pay Attention to margins of error, particularly after 2016. We did some polling in september 20 that was actually a statewide poll where we looked at a matchup between Hillary Clinton and donald trump, and we had a margin of error, we actually had Hillary Clinton up by a point, which was well within the margin of error. At matchups in erie county, i am always very conscious of that. Only joe biden is leading outside of that margin of error. I think that is telling about we in erie county tends to prefer relatively moderate candidates. For example, in 2016 during the republican primary, we matched up all the republican candidates with Bernie Sanders and Hillary Clinton, and the only candidate that came out ahead in those matchups with regard to both Bernie Sanders and hillary who waswas john kasich, arguably the most moderate of those republican candidates. So the fact that joe biden is ahead, outside of the margin of error today among registered voters is not at all surprising to me. He is the most moderate all democratic candidates. Host this is Joseph Morris, by the way, with Mercyhurst University to talk about the battleground state of pennsylvania. You heard him focus on erie, pennsylvania, but will talk about the state in a larger sense too. If you want to ask him questions about 2020 and the potential for pennsylvania as a battleground state, 202 7488001 for republicans. Emma kratz, democrats, 202 7488000. 202 7488002. And if you are a pennsylvania resident, give us a call at 202 7488003. What could this mean for not as President Trump, but the challengers that you list . Guest well, recent polling suggests recent polling of pennsylvania as a whole suggests that democrats should be very optimistic about 2020. While the lead that democrats enjoy in pennsylvania as a whole is not as large as the lead that , say, joe biden is experiencing here in erie, it is nonetheless substantial. If i am a democrat looking at pennsylvania in 2020, i am feeling really good about it. I do not know if there is a way for donald trump to get to the white house again without going today, pennsylvania, so democrats should feel really good about this. Host if economics are good and continue to be, continue to at least perform strongly, what other factors goes into whether someone votes for President Trump or votes for a democrat . Guest one of the most interesting findings of our poll, and this is something we found in every iteration of this is that two017, really important indicators from donald trump performance are going in opposite directions. We find that voters in erie county tends to be very supportive, very appreciative, very much approving of the job he has done in managing the economy. Other hand, when they are asked about his performance as president , the numbers go in the opposite direction. Arguably two of the most important predictors of the outcome of residential elections, and they are moving in opposite directions. I think the important question case . Is, why is that the his job approval is so low, despite the fact the economy is doing so well. Our polling provides a number of answers to that, i think. We asked voters a battery of 14 questions, all related to issues that donald trump is attempting to handle. The exception of three of those issues, voters disapprove of the way he is handling the remaining issues. These are issues that are really important to him, issues like immigration, like gun control, like the environment. Even taxes and really important for the county of erie, infrastructure. Host our first call for you comes from uri, pennsylvania. The line for democrats. This is bill with our guest, Joseph Morris. Bill, go ahead. Caller yeah, i wanted to ask joe by the way, i am glad to see that mercyhurst is getting some air time. It is a great university. I wanted to ask joe, when the Mueller Report came out up there up here in erie and to,sburgh, what did that do you know, when they came out and for two yearseard was Mueller Report, wait until it comes out. The Mueller Report came out and it was a big dud, and always heard was, wait till bob mueller comes up and testifies. With everybody tuned into that, joe . What did that do for morale on our side . Im thinking, a lot of people that were kind of on top of things during those two years have kind of dropped by the wayside, and the other question i wanted to ask is, do you have any friends down in pittsburgh that you are getting any input as far as, you know, here in pennsylvania it is always pittsburgh and philadelphia, maybe allentown and erie that will put a president ial candidate over the top. I have wondering, have you heard anything from down in pittsburgh . Everyone down in pittsburgh thinks that the economy is my idea is when everybody is happy, they dont really pay much attention to the news. Thanks, bill. We appreciate it. We will let our guest respond. Of the Mueller Report, unfortunately, we do not have any polling on that. The numbersay is have been fairly consistent since 2017. Hise have been a steady disapproval have been on a fairly steady trajectory upward. People whoof disapprove of his performance in office has steadily increased since 2017. Thehe Mueller Report and investigation regarding russian collusion i think is just one of many variables that have acted into peoples assessments of this president s job performance. Voter perception across pennsylvania, we have actually only focused on erie county polling, and i have to pollingally on other organizations for assessments of Public Opinion across the state, but i will say that i dont see that much difference between what is going on here in erie, pennsylvania and what is going on in pennsylvania as a whole. Donald trumps numbers tends to be trending in the same direction, whether you are in a recount he or out there in pittsburgh, allentown, or philadelphia. Host from edward in battle creek, michigan, independent line. Go ahead. Guest yes, i had a question regarding the economy. The fact that we are running enormous deficits now i mean, what i read was that this years deficit is going to be almost 1 trillion, maybe 950 billion. Economy, goodod economy, we are having an enormous deficit. These deficits are projected to go on for the next five years, and that would mean that the National Debt then is once again exploding. 22 trillion. I do not know what is the status of the solvency of medicare and Social Security is, i would wonder that as well, but why are these fiscal huge problems. How is it that you cant even get near a balanced budget in a good economy . Anyone else bothered that we are having trillion dollar deficits in a good economy . You know . Host mr. Morris, go ahead. Reallyyeah, that is a good question. I do not know i can answer the first, why are we doing this. Why are we making decisions that are constantly increasing that size of our National Budget . I am not sure i can answer that. I can tell you in terms of Public Perception of those is ants, erie county increasingly diverse place. I am originally from los angeles, california, was raised andwest, educated out west, did not come out to this part of the country until i was 30. If you would have asked me then back in 2000 what erie county looked like, i would have said it was filled with a bunch of bluecollar workers, and i probably would have been right. Over the past 20 or 30 years, the population has diversified and the views have diverse of five. We have all different people in this county, and a lot of them are very traditional republicans that i am white confident voted for donald trump quite confident voted for donald trump with some reservations in 2016. The interesting question in 2020 will be in what direction those folks go. Are more conservative than the average person in erie county, but they also tend to be rather fiscally conservative. Something that this president may be paid lip service to but never really executed during his time in office, at least not yet. I think that issue may become important, and i will be interested to see which direction that goes, just as you will be, i am sure. Host we will hear from a republican in annville, pennsylvania. This is susan. Go ahead. Caller hi, i was just calling to kind of debunks the last couple of callers. First, the gentleman from yuri, it is true and, it is sad that pennsylvania, you know, is based on what its berke and philly and pittsburgh and philly and erie does, because pennsylvania is a much more vibrant and diversified state other than being determined by a few cities, and i live in the republican t of the state. I have my whole life. One of those folks said, i hear one of the democrats talking woman, i am a white educated, soccer mom type of person. Although i did vote for President Trump in the primary, did not vote for President Trump in the primary, i went to john kasich because he is from pennsylvania, i supported President Trump in the general election and i will do that again, and mainly it is because of the attacks that the democrats are doing. As far as the deficit goes, i dont like deficits being added either, but president obama added 9 trillion plus to the democrats seemed to forget that and they just hammer on this 1 trillion amount for President Trump. Honestly, i benefited from that like i said, so i, will support him again in 2020. Without hesitation. Host we will let our guest respond to that. Guest yeah, i can speak about erie county. I think our polling shows something that is at least relevant there. Not the most important piece of legislation of the trump inistration has had passed the most important the legislation the Trump Administration has had passed is his tax reform. We have seen in erie county, support for his tax reform was the population was evenly divided in erie county when he was talking about it generally in 2017. About itan to talk more seriously later on that year, public support tends to dissipate. We have more people disapproving than approving. As we progressed towards today, the number of people who disapprove of Donald Trumps tax reform is at an alltime high here in erie county. The caller, i think it is wonderful that she benefited from this, but i am not sure that people in those key places like erie feel the same way. In fact, many of them, i think, feel that it did maybe even harmed them a little. With donald trump looking at 2020 and thinking about the things he wants to make sure everyone is aware of, tax reform may work in some places, but in key places like erie, i am not sure that they will. Host she mentioned the republican t. Can you give some insight to that . Guest pennsylvania is an incredibly diverse place. Once famously said that there is pittsburgh and philadelphia and alabama in the middle. This is referring to the center part of pennsylvania. We have an incredibly large inublican population, large terms of geography that occupies the center of our state. However, the western half of the state and the philadelphia area tends to be more democratic. We tend to find a large percentage of public in support coming from republican support coming from pennsylvania in that region. Host this is Joseph Morris, joining us from Mercyhurst University to take a look at battleground states. We will hear from bob in tennessee, hi. Caller good morning, gentlemen. The 2016 election, you were not even close. You had Hillary Clinton running away with this thing. Thepiece that you put on screen showed that donald trump won pennsylvania. So you can skew the poll anyway you like. Maybe we should ask the question of [inaudible] how do you feel about the Democrat Party deliberately lawfullying a duly, elected president of the United States . Running a [inaudible] host are you there . Caller for three years he you have been running this coup detat, but the democrats have allowed the country to be invaded on the southern border, coming in at taking American Workers jobs. You do not have any problem with that. The evidence of your polling has always been an accurate and you just lie to the American People all day and donald trump will host we will let our guest respond. Guest sure. Yeah, polling has definitely received a lot of criticism after 2016, and in some cases, that is for really good reasons. However, the polling i did prize to the 2016 election was about as accurate as it possibly could be. 2016, we had of Hillary Clinton up by only a single point, well within our margin of error. For all intents and purposes, Hillary Clinton and donald trump were locked in a dead heat for pennsylvania and it could break either way. A lot can happen in a month in politics. You think of all that happened in 2016 that some people think adversely affected Hillary Clintons chances of winning in november, in the end, i think our polling was actually quite good. Theother point, about impeachment effort i assume that is what we were talking the impeachment effort that is underway right now, or the inquiry that is underway, is one that has Great Potential for democrats and republicans in terms of the 2020 election. If this works out well for the contexts, then we see a between contest between one of the democrats in the field right now and an unknown republican, because donald trump is removed from office. However, if we look back to the 1990s, the most recent impeachment process that we have at our disposal, we saw things working out in exactly the opposite direction. What happened was that by the time we got to a trial in the senate, where the senate was considering whether or not to remove bill clinton from office, bill clinton was enjoying his highest public, president ial job Approval Ratings in history of the entire administration. This in peterman investigation does in fact hold real promise and peril for the Democratic Party. So we will have to see how that works out. Host democrat line from fairview, pennsylvania. Frank, hello. Caller hello. Host you are on, go ahead. Caller i want to know the guests opinion of the Electoral College. It seems to me that the Electoral College is an antique, its time has passed and we are cheating the individual voter. What do you think . Well, the Electoral College is an institution that was created for, i think, some really good reasons. Whether or not those reasons are still really good today is a matter of debate. Having said that, we have seen throughout our history, every time the Electoral College has a up, makes a hicc a mistake, does not necessarily reflect the popular vote, every time we have seen an anomaly in the Electoral College, there have been numerous efforts to reform it. This time around is really no different. Across the nation, we are seeing people, some concerted efforts, some just conversation, but maybe it is time to abolish that institution that the framers thought was so wonderful and was considered to be an incredibly wonderful innovation at the time of the framing. In terms of my opinion on that, i think if democracy is what we are after, if the popular vote is somehow more important to us today or somehow more important to us today then in competition that occurs 50 individual states, we have to seriously consider some alternative to the Electoral College. Does it have to be abolishing it entirely . I think it cano, be a modification in one way or another. But, you know, this is a conversation the nation has to have a whole. It is not something we should do really without much thought, it is something we need to sit down and consider and have probably a multiyear dialogue about, because it is a serious step in making a change to the constitution like that. Morris, you talked about economics. When you see Bernie Sanders or Elizabeth Warren talking about medicaid for all, is this something voters in erie are buying into . Erie voters have regularly disapproved with Donald Trumps handling of health care. I think this is because voters very high expectation when donald trump was elected. You will recall that he regularly said that once he was elected, he was going to have, we were going to have a Great Health Care system, the best health care system. That never manifested. Voters here in erie county are becoming increasingly concerned about health care once again. If this becomes a major issue in 2020, it would not surprise me at all. From bangor, pennsylvania, republican line. Lisa, hi. Caller hi, good morning. I was just listening to your show and i just i get so frustrated when you guys talk about polling, because i really dont understand how polling works. Ive never taken a poll. No one i know has ever taken a poll. Becauseof, like, funny when donald trump got elected it was like, this big old surprise , where ias so obvious live, that he was going to win. I mean, he had so much support in my section of pennsylvania. Even when i traveled through pennsylvania all the way down to virginia, it was all trump signs. Husband and was like, oh my gosh, you know . Everywhere. Everywhere i looked was trump signs. And the thing was, because hes not a politician and so hes you know, he was a millionaire, whatever, but you know, you cant be jealous of him for that, just because somebody has money and you dont. The democrats all of a sudden, its like everybody should, like, quit their jobs and sell their businesses because you are going to get free everything. Why even bother working . U, lisa. T yo about your poll, mr. Morris, how many people did you survey . Were they likely voters, registered voters, and what is the breakdown between republicans and democrats . Comprised ofll was randomly selected registered voters in pennsylvania. We only polled about 407, which gave us a margin of error of minusplus or five points. This is a small poll, but it is one that i think is perfectly adequate for what we are doing. But the question about likely voters is an important one. Right now, we are polling only registered voters. I am one of those people that believes it is way too early to identify likely voters, and we are not doing our community much service by providing information on people that we think might turn out to vote in a year from now. Voters,only registered which is why i say in all likelihood come 2020, we are going to have a much closer election in our poll results suggest. Enjoying any be advantage right now, but when it comes time to vote, i think we are going to see a much closer race. You know, back in 2016, we also managed to document in the state of pennsylvania and Enthusiasm Gap between democrats and republicans. This is something that was talked a lot about by political commentators, political scientists who are doing this work and trying to understand who is going to turn out to vote. TheEnthusiasm Gap favored republicans. Republicans were far more enthusiastic to vote for donald trump the democrats were to vote for Hillary Clinton. All surprise me that if what this election in 2020 comes down to is enthusiasm for a candidate. I think this is why it is so important that the democrats choose wisely if they want a chance to win back erie county. Voters are enthusiastic about this candidate, we are likely to see the democrats and out the republicans in the county and if we dont have a candidate that people can get behind, get excited about, we are likely to see a close race or another win for trump. I think the candidates election here is incredibly important candidate selection here is incredibly important. Joseph morris from Mercyhurst University. Thank you for your time today. Guest my pleasure, thank you. Host we will continue on, looking at erie, pennsylvania and pennsylvania as a battleground state with representative mike kelly, who serves the 16th district, including erie, pennsylvania. That conversation coming up on washington journal. \ cspans campaign 2020 coverage continues as President Trump host a keep America Great rally in minneapolis, minnesota. Live thursday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan. Cspan. Organytime on and listen free wherever you are using the free cspan radio app. Thinking about participating cspans studentcam 2020 competition, but youve never made a documentary film before . No problem. We have resources on our website to help you get started. Check out our Getting Started and downloads pages for more and access to put it in the cspan video library. Teachers will find resources on the teachers materials page. Truly passionate about and pursue it as much as you can. This year, we are asking middle and High School Students to create a Short Documentary on an issue that you like president ial candidates to address during the 2020 campaign. Award 100,000 in total cash prizes, plus a 5,000 grand prize. Go get a camera, go get a microphone, and go start filming. Produce the best film you can possibly produce. Host visit visit studentcam. Org for more information today. Sunday night on q a, historian jeff wynn discusses the book the vagabonds, about the road trips taken between 1914 to 1925. The idea was they wanted to go out and have fun. Were not going to have to try to light their own campfires, they will not eat beans out of cans, they were not just going to put a blanket on the ground. They have all these different amenities that they had a refrigerated car, powered by edison batteries, so they could have fresh derry, chefs who would repair gourmet meal that night. In the morning, they would dress in freshly ironed clothes, but they were so famous and america was so grateful to them that this didnt matter. The point was, hey, we are out in cars, traveling and seeing these things. You can do it too. Host sunday night sunday night at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspans q a. Journal months are available at cspans new online store. Org, check outore. The washington journal mugs and seal the cspan products. Washington journal continues. Again, our cspan bus in erie, pennsylvania as we consider and continue a tour of the battleground states. Joining us onboard the bus, representative mike kelly, republican of pennsylvania. Represents portions of erie county, including newcastle and sandy lake. Guest thank you for having me on. On a congress has been break. What topics are you here in from constituents about things in washington, d. C. , and how do you think that plays out as 2020 continues to progress . Guest what i am getting right now, the president is very strong in the district i am in. Thatoncern is right now impeachment keeps going on and on and on, and we would really like things to be moving forward. Lets talk about good policy for the entire country as opposed to this impeachment idea, and it is like the caused is your cause du jour. It goes from the russia thing to the whistleblower to this obstruction of justice thing Speaker Pelosi said, we have a whole list of things we can work on. See,people here want to where do we work on the policy . Things have gotten so good in this part of pennsylvania, the economy is the best it has been in over 50 years. They like what is happening, they like this president and they cannot understand why the democrats cannot accept that President Trump when other the election in 2016. Let him do the work that they elected him to do. That is the main problem i have. Usmca, theions about trade agreement, other ideas for people talking about what they think we could do in infrastructure and what is important to them, health care, pharmaceuticals, things of that nature. Host you brought up the impeachment efforts. What did you think about the president s reaction from the white house lawyer, considering stopping working with democrats on their congressional inquiry or impeachment for a . Impeachment inquiry . Guest yeah. When i first got elected, president obama was in office. Did not agree with him on a lot of his policies and we made that statement, but i never expected it to get to where it is today. When it comes to the impeachment park, i think the president is right to say hey, call for a vote. If that is what congress wants, i want to see a vote on this as opposed to this lingering effect where we want to look into it but we do not want to take a vote on it, do this but not to that. I think the president is right on that. I think he has the powers from his executive branch to say hey, you are running this kangaroo court. We are busy with other things that make sense to the American People. Come up with something that is actually serious and falls in the range of what we are looking for, we will be glad to participate, but we will not come into just have a conversation with people who have run this off the charts. Im not so sure that a parity you start one hearing with is really factual and you are making statements without having anything to corroborate them, second and third hand information from a supposedly the lower people are suppose it whistleblower supposed whistleblower. People are saying, this stuff is greedy. It does not do anything good for the country. I believe it harms the country in many, many ways and the erosion of trust the American People have to have with the people they sent to represent them is really getting to the point where people are questioning, what is it that you all went to washington to do . Why did we send you if it is you just to delegitimize a duly elected president , and you have been trying for three years . We sent you to get policy done. Host representative mike kelly joining us for the final segment, taking a look at erie, pennsylvania, a battleground state. If you want to ask him questions, 202 7488001 for republicans. 202 7488002 for democrats. Independents, 202 7488002. If you are a pennsylvania resident, you can call us at 202 7488003. Our previous guest talked about even with the state of the economy, it could still be close for the president this time around in 2020 in pennsylvania. Do you share that sentiment . Guest you know what . I think pennsylvania is one of those states that will be very close. Take philadelphia out east, there is a real democrat stronghold. Where i am sitting today in erie, pennsylvania is pretty strong. It is one of those areas that is generationally democrats. Pittsburgh is the same way. If you connect the dots, it hard challenge, although i think the president the numbers we are seeing, we just did some polling the president s numbers in this area are phenomenal. He has a 58 Approval Rating right here. Going to win pennsylvania, it is important that he wins pennsylvania, but more importantly, i think he has won over a lot more people that are not politically charged, they voted in the last president ial election because they decided, i am tired of politicians making promises, getting elected, then going to the white house and forgetting what the promises were. Hey, you really cant do what i said i was going to do this is the president who has kept everything will promise, and he can do it because he is not a politician. He is beholden to nobody but the people who elected him. That is refreshing. Host lets take some calls. This is from newtown, pennsylvania, democrat line. Go ahead. Caller hey, representative. Im from the philadelphia area guest good morning. Caller good morning, ok. People are talking about the trends of pennsylvania and i went to Temple University and studied Political Science. Right now, i am at American University for Public Policy. From the philadelphia area, bucks county specifically, something i noticed because i am interested in this, my precinct in 2008 voted six votes for obama over mccain. In 2012, it voted for romney, 52 to 46 , Something Like that. In 2016, it voted for Hillary Clinton 55 to 43 . It is kind of a reverse of the situation you see in western pennsylvania. I just find that interesting. Even though i am in washington, still an eagles fan cowboys are horrible i will defend it like that. [laughter] guest yeah. Host representative kelly, you can respond to any of that. Guest well, i am a steelers fan and i think we are, like, 10 points away from being 31 instead of 13. I like the eagles to. If the steelers cannot win it, i want the eagles to win it because i am a pennsylvania guy. When it comes to the change i am a representative so i do not know your district as well. Brian fitzpatrick, his older brother, mike, who i served with, they know the area much, much better than i do. I cannot really tell you, tell you what happened in the last election. Day,e out there every except for the time in washington. This is a very strong trump area. I think they are socially conservative, fiscally conservative, and i think they have watched what has happened over the years and they are keepg to figure out how we this balance going. How do we sustain who we are as america with some of the programs that have been instituted . Ising said that, it generational in a lot of these places, but i cannot explain what happened in bucks. You would have a better understanding of it than i would, but he is running very strong in this area, mainly because he made promises and he is keeping those promises. The other thing is, he is not viewed as a republican. He is viewed a little bit differently, kind of as this new type of politician or person serving that has really come from the private sector, spent all his time in the private the public got into sector using private sector know how to get the country back on track. I would hope people take a look at the last three years in spite this is a president who has done very, very well at keeping his promise, and we are looking at it right now in erie, pennsylvania. This is the best economy in over half a century. Taxopportunities under the cuts and jobs acts, we are seeing a revitalization in downtown erie, erie is doing a lot on its own. A good friend of mine, john persinger, has done a great job on the downtown revitalization. Job has done a tremendous of helping people they live and work with. I think it is a little bit different. I cant explain bucks to you, but you can maybe explain it to me. If you are down in georgetown, stop by the office sometime and see me. I go to mass at 7 00 in the morning, done by 7 30, so we can have a cup of coffee, go off to work, and maybe we can share some ideas. I cannot answer what is going on in bucks. Host this viewer in tennessee, billy for representative mike kelly. Go ahead. Caller hey, how are you doing . Host you are on with him, go ahead. Guest im good, im good. Caller everybody is talking about the impeachment of donald and he upset the Democratic Party back in 2016 with hillary. Everybody in tennessee did know that was going to happen. My question is, what happens to the impeachment of Hillary Clinton with the private server . They dont want to bring that democratscause the are trying to get that out of the way so no one can ask them questions about it anymore. They need to leave donald trump a loan and let him do it donald trump alone and let him do his job. Is not a politician, he is like abraham lincoln. No one thought he would win the primary election and he tore them apart in the primary. Leave him alone and let him do his job. Tennessee has been a lot better since that man has been president. We did notitary have a president that would back us up like we do now, and i wish i was in the military now because i would love to serve under him. Host ok. Billy, we will have to leave it there. Mr. Kelly, go ahead. Guest first of all, thank you for your service. I will say this i think what we are looking at today, i think from the morning after the last president ial election, i think november 8 or so back in 2016, the democrats at that time had decided that there is no way that donald trump should have ever won that election. Heck, most of republicans did not think he was going to be nominated, but he did. And im talking about republicans like me, because i was on board from the beginning. Having said that, we will find out as time goes on there is still an Ongoing Investigation of what happened with ms. Clinton and some of the things she has done and how it got kind of rushed over by comey when he was handling the fbi by the way, the fbi is a tremendous organization. I thought they had some terrible leadership at the top, which is why it went the way it did that story is not done yet. My friends ask me, you did not push this enough. Not in the majority, but this president still has the ability and the department of justice under attorney general barr is still doing the investigation. As this unwinds and we get more information, i think it will be factual, not first, second, third hand information, and we will find out about all the things that have happened in the last campaign and take a real deep dive into looking at what ms. Clinton had done. 30,000re not missing emails on her account, by the way, it was like 350,000 emails on her personal account. A lot of that will surface and i think it will come forward. Stay tuned, i think there is a lot more to come on that. Host just to clarify, representative, nothing about president s interaction with the president of ukraine concerns you, despite from the inquiry going on . Guest when he is talking to another leader that we send a lot of american taxpayer money to, the president has a right to talk about i think there are concerns about corruption what do you know about that and what should we be looking for . There is nothing in that. I looked at the text of the conversation. We put it online for people to look at and we also put the whistleblower complaint online. When you look at that, i look at that and you know what . I keep reading it and reading it and say, i am trying to find out is there something i am missing here . There is nothing here that would make me suspect the president did anything that was wrong. Jobink he is just doing his as our executive officer and saying hey, look, i want to look into this. This is american taxpayer money we are spending to help ukraine and something was wrong, and i think Vice President biden for a lot of the things that he did when he was in office and making statements about hey, you get this guy fired, my plane leaves in six hours. That, to me, should have set off bells and whistles all over the place but was kind of rushed over. Im concerned of firsthand knowledge of it. When i look at the tapes of the phone call between our president and the ukraine president , when i look at the whistleblower complaint, secondhand, thirdhand, forehand information, i am more concerned with, what is it we are trying to get to . Is it we are trying to teach our president or find out if corruption is taking place, and we are wasting american taxpayer money by supporting it . Host and another International Event to talk to you about, the Associated Press this morning reporting about saying a spokesperson for kurdish turkish airplanes have been attacking the region. What do you think about that . I want to talk to some of our military leaders. I have not been briefed on it, so i do not want to weigh in on something that i dont not have a depth of knowledge on do not have a depth of knowledge on. Military concerns for people i have heard voice, and for politicians on both sides of the aisle, have made some remarks about that. I do not know enough about it, so i am reluctant to weigh in. I know when we look at that part of the world, most of it is not territorial, it is tribal, and we are trying to figure out how we are going to change centurys worth of fighting with our presence there. My concern is, we have spent a lot of our wealth of their and lost a lot of our military people serving have lost their lives. More than the money, i worry about that cost. I think, what was it for . What was it for . President may have a different view of it, but i do not have enough depth of knowledge of that. I would worry about the concerns i have stated. Host pennsylvania, democrat line. This is bob for representative mike kelly. Caller yes, you said that guest good morning. Caller good morning. You said that he has kept all his promises that he made. Debates,em was in the he said, if elected, if he wins, he would release his taxes. Well, he won, the taxes have not been released, and why this is important to me is in the one debate, the mediator asked him something about this thing that he had not paid taxes, 10 years, federal income tax. Reply was, well, i guess that makes me pretty smart. Well, if that makes him pretty smart for not paying taxes, i have been paying them for over 50 years. What does that make the rest of us who did pay taxes . What is the opposite of smart . Guest well, i dont know if it is so much the opposite of smart, the tax code actually permits i would say this to you when you look at the taxes we all pay, especially if you are a Property Owner or operator business, it is not just my personal taxes i pay, i pay property taxes, wage taxes, i pay all type of taxes across the area i amh in working in, the local taxes, state taxes, and federal taxes. To be worried about his personal taxes, i understand the code which changed, by the way, under , iftax cuts and jobs a\ct you have losses, you can carry those losses forward in corporations into the years coming after that. I was not really that concerned with looking at his personal taxes. I am sure if you were to take a look at all the property taxes, wage taxes, all the other taxes he pays, the number of people he employs, i think that ledger probably looks pretty strong, because of the fact that he paid a lot of taxes across the board. Peoplethat is Something Like to pull that string, he never did that, he should have done that. I am not all caught up in that. If that bothers you, i understand that it bothers you, but i am not wrapped around the axle on it. I am satisfied with what the president has done. The cspan bus in erie, pennsylvania, part of a tour we are taking across battleground states, not only talking to experts about situations but taking a look at the 2020 election. Youre, pennsylvania is the stop for today. Representative mike kelly joining us for this discussion. Still the owner of kelly chevrolet and cadillac, sir . Guest yes you know what, pedro . I am allowed to own it, but not allowed to run it. By the way, that is a business might mother and father started in 1953 in corona, and then in 1957 we moved to butler. I have added hyundai and kia, my son added a toyota dealership, down in southwestern pennsylvania. But we have been truly blessed. We have had a lot of people over the years that we have worked together for mutual success and it is one of those things you are not, like, pounding your chest proud, but you are proud that you were able to accomplish something and there are so many people on our team that helped us stay in business, have some really good years, get through some tough years, but it is the story of america. A part figure before world war ii, went off to become a b17 pilot. Ran 8 my mother ran a switchboard at the chevrolet plant. Host is the Current Situation issues,na over trade has impacted your industry, particularly your dealership . Host guest it has guest guest it has impacted it somewhat. I think as time goes on, it will be, but if you are china and looking at what is going on in the United States quite frankly, i spent most of my life working across the table from somebody. If i was china and thought hey, there is an election coming up, maybe we can all and hold off by making any kind of deal with america because this might not be the one who is in the white house. We will see what happens Going Forward. I think for americans, take a look over the last 50 years. Half a century, we have given away so much market share. We have lost market share and been ok with it, and all of a sudden, donald trump is going to say, we are not going to take a bad deals anymore. I wish we had businessmen making our policies for the last half a century, we would not have we had, and jobs as with the shale and the natural gas we are turning a corner right now and becoming a very vibrant and wellestablished again, and we will be the number one exporter of energy in the world. The bad actors wont be able to control energy. Just think about that. We will not have to buy oil or moneyom anyone using the we are sending them to fight us later on. Use the assets you have to the best of your ability, and when you are in a strong position, you do not have to take a bad deal. Take a deal that works for the people you represent. I hope ms. Pelosi will put the usmca on the table. I know we have enough votes in the house of representatives right now to get that across the finish line. Lets get that finished and make sure we get that together, and we will work on the other trade deal that we see, coming up. Host lets hear from jill in newtown square, pennsylvania, independent line. Taking my, thanks for call. I am a Small Business owner for about 20 years. Im in delaware county, which is more or less a 50 50 split for republican and democrat. I have two questions i would love your commentary on this. One is on the mushrooming deficit that is going on. Im really concerned about that. When ifactor that in choose a candidate in the election for 2020. The other is fair wage versus minimum wage. I think we have a problem with underemployment. I think people are working, t, 3 working 2, 3 jobs to make it right now. I would love your comment on that. Guest you and i do the same thing, i am also a Small Businessman. I looked at the posted minimum wage and say, that is the posted minimum wage. The minimum wage fermis the area that i work in an operate my business in and the talent that i am going to bring in. I have never looked at it and said, look, the government says this is all i am going to pay you. We always judge it on the need and the talent of the people there. One thing i always loved about our country, jill, it is not about minimum wage, it is about maximum opportunity. There is no ceiling on what somebody can accomplish. Working with the gifts that god has given us and really, there is some providence that enters into it, right . To have the opportunity to rise, but there is so much in america we can look at across the board, so many wonderful stories of people who started with absolutely nothing and achieved greatness and helped other people to achieve greatness. I am not concerned with minimum wage as much as i am with maximum opportunity, better education, and getting ready for the jobs that are out there today. We have millions of jobs that are open right now and we cannot find the talent we need to find. Look at all those things and you wonder about it as far as the deficit, i have to tell you by the way, you and i are in the there is this nothing worse than deficit spending year after year after year that is adding to our total debt load. This total debt load is so we are the healthiest people in this sick world right now when it comes to debt and what we owe and the abilities to repay it. The rest of the world still wants to invest in america because they know we are good for it. They always say to me, hey, listen, how much do you need . This is why i did not vote on the continuing resolution [inaudible] turnaroundt have a plan, if you cant go to your lender and say, i am in a bind right now, i need some more capital or for you to lend it to me, you know what . You have not been running your business very well and you want to lend me more money, you have to prove to me that you will turn that business around, you will get on the upside of this and you are doing things that make sense. So i am looking for reforms in the spending we have right now. A lot of it by law, we have to 70 of your budget you , 30 you can make adjustments to, that is hard to do. By law, we have to spend a lot of this budget. We have to understand hey, i am not just spending my money, i am spending hardworking american taxpayer money. These are guys and gals that go out every day and they want to keep food on the an opportunity to exist out there so im on board with you we cant run longterm deficit s. Can i capture a market that i have before . So we didnt have that opportunity. If we print more its counterfeit. If the government does it, its necessity. This is representative mike kelly joining us on board bus. An he serves the 16th district of pennsylvania. Time today. Our get a chance to come up here its absolutely gorgeous. Owe a great lake right behind us that is really fine. The shores of lake erie are always welcome every single person. Number one visited National Park states. Nited thank you for your time sir. We also want to thank our in erie,tner spectrum pennsylvania, for hosting us today. If you want to learn more about pus, particularly as it goes state, go tond cspan. Org community. Today. It for our program another Edition Comes at 7 00 tomorrow. Well see you then. The house will be in order. Cspan has been providing coverage of the white house, the Supreme Court and fromc policy events washington, d. C. And around the country. So you can make up your own mind. In 1979, cspan is brought to you by your local cable or satellite provider. Cspan, your unfiltered view of government. House Speaker Pelosi sent out a statement late yesterday after said the House Administration will not comply with House Committee subpoenas that are part of the impeachment inquiry. Heres a portion of the speakers statement saying the white house should be warned hidecontinued efforts to the truth of the president s abuse of power from the American People will be regarded as evidence of obstruction. Mr. President , you are not above the law. Accountable. Eld that from Speaker Pelosi. And this headline from the hill, senator graham tells pelosi gop wont impeach trump over ukraine call. The South Carolina republican and judiciary chair said he is sending a letter to House Speaker nancy pelosi warning that Senate Republicans wont impeach President Trump over his ukraine. You can read more at the hill. Com. Coming up next on cspan, we interview democratic president ial candidates john delaney and tom steyer. This afternoon, joe biden in rochester, new hampshire. Well have that town hall live eastern. P. M. Later President Trump signs an ec