Your number is 2027488001. Ask and if you think the Trump Administration has had no impact on nato, we want to hear from you at 2027488002. You can always text us your response on twitter. Com cspanwj and at facebook. Com cspan. Host here is President Trumps talking about the nato conference. President trump the relationship i have with other countries is really good. Yeah, they cant totally love me when i say you are not putting up your money. Youre not spending the kind of money that you are supposed to be spending because were giving you protection. Youre getting the protection of the u. S. And the greatest military force in the world and youre not paying youre delinquent. So i tell some people theyre delinquent. Theyre not going to love that. Otherwise, theyre going to be the way they are in the last 15 years, not paying and not pay up to the 2 level which frankly isnt that high. 2 isnt that high but i had a lunch yesterday that was great. I call the 2 ers the people that were at that level. Theres a total of Nine Countries and we had that lunch and a lot of countries are close and getting closer and some are really not close and we may do things strong do with trade. Its not fair. That they get u. S. Texas and theyre not putting up their money and theyre really, i call them, i use that term delinquent. Thats what they are. We had tremendous success in london and nato this very, very good shape and the relationships with other countries are extraordinary. Host now heres how the New York Times summarizes the trip to the nato conference. President trump arrived on monday evening playing the tout of Foreign Policy accomplishment. Successfully pressuring allies to pay more towards the cost of running nato. Lest less than 48 hours later after he was put on the defensive in front of the cameras and then was the subject of gossip at a private reception of World Leaders, a moment caught in a viral video mr. Trump counciled a planned News Conference before heading back to washington earlier than planned. The timing was not perfect. Mr. Trump had hoped the 70th anniversary of nato might provide a flattering stage even as democrats trotted out sober legal scholars to testify as the House Judiciary Committees first impeachment hearings. But instead of creating a split screen, mr. Trump failed to rate host now mr. Trump reacted wednesday when asked about the caught on camera moment involving canadian Prime Minister justin true dome. Heres what mr. Trump had to say about that. I was with ump and him and he was a very nice guy. Hes not paying 2 . And i guess hes not happy about it. Hes not paying 2 and he should be paying 2 . Its canada. They have money. And they should be paying 2 . So i called him out on that and im sure he wasnt happy about that. Ook, im representing the u. S. And he understands that. He should be more than hes paying. I can imagine hes not happy but thats the way it is. Host now, democrats have been quick to take advantage of what they see has a Foreign Policy slight for the United States and President Trump with democratic president ial candidate intending to run against President Trump and searching for the democratic nomination. Joe biden putting up a campaign a. D. That ad that points out to that nato conference. World leaders caught on camera laughing about President Trump. Several World Leaders mocking President Trump. Theyre laughing at him. My administration has accomplished more than any administration in the history of our country. Didnt expect that reaction but thats ok. World leaders mocking and ridiculing him for being completely off balance. Allies are deeply worried and they say hes becoming increasingly isolated. The world sees trump for what it is. Ninseer and corrupt. Incompetent. If we give donald trump four more years, we will have difficulty in recovering americas stance in the world to ring nations together. What are has been President Trumps impact on nato . Lets go to the phones and talk to leslie who is calling from jackson heights, new york. Leslie, good morning. Caller yes, good morning. I would say that President Trump has made nato at least at this point much weaker although ive come to understand that with this president , they have to stand on their own because they cant depend on the good faith of the of america anymore because this man lies and he cheats. And hes a laughingstock. Host now, leslie, one of the things that President Trump has been pushing is for the nato allies to contribute more to the nato military alliance. One of the things that weve soon is weve seen some of those alt lice start putting a little more money towards nato. Does that mean that hes been successful . Caller i dont think so. I dont think so. These alliances have been strong and in place since after world war ii. Weve stood against russia and now were pandering to russia because i dont know what hes beholden to putin for, exactly, parrotting putins talking points and really betraying this country. Host lets go to david whos calling from barb, massachusetts. David, good morning. Caller good morning. Hey, i believe that trump has done just a marvelous job. We have been sucked so many millions of dollars from all these other countries and theyre not paying their fair share. Theyre not paying a penny for it. You know, as about time someone get into that office that did something and straighten this out. We cant even watch tv anymore. Abc, nbc, all of them. I cant even watch cnn. The only channel i watch is fox. Its the only place where you can get the square truth. More power to trump and hes got four more years. 2020. Thank you. Host lets go to glen who is calling from connecticut. Glen, good morning. Caller good morning. Yeah, so this definitely making nato stronger. I mean, you got to put them into place. If they dont understand, i mean, you go over there and youre nice with them and you dont tell them how its really going to be, you know, youre just catering to what they want. Of course theyre going to act like youre ally and when you tell them what they need to do, so, you know, essentially make their country safer and they need to pay for that. You know, its like were working. Were paying our tax dollars. 1. 3 trillion trumps putting into the military. So why shouldnt they pay . Their taxpayers pay. Host now, glen, what did you think about the reaction that we saw from the videos of the World Leaders talking about President Trump . Did you see that as a positive or a negative thing or do you see that as a reaction to President Trump trying to get them basically upset the applecart by talking about finances and trying to get them to pay more money . Caller oh of course theyre going to be upset. They dont want to pay more money. Theyve had it easy for how long . You know, they havent had to pay their share and still have the security of the u. S. Military. And of course theyre going to be upset. They dont want to pay more money. They rather put more money into whatever else they want, you know . While our economy is booming and our deficit is getting higher, we need to crush that deficit by taking more from nato instead of just spending more on military. He needs to get the money from nato to offset our spending. Host glen, one of the reasons nato exists was the encroachment of the soviet union. Do you see that now that the soviet union has collapsed and we deal with russia, do you see that nato is less useful than it was in the past . Caller no, because if they do end up being, you know, were not friends with russia. Were far from friends with russia. And if they act in a bad way towards one of our nato allies, were going to have step up and defend that country. And they have to pay their share and if our military is depleted like under obama, i mean, he was getting rid of nukes, he was getting rid of missile defenses and, you know, trump had to put all that back in place, you know . I mean, so he had to double up the spending on it. So hes only asking for what they need to pay. So if russia does become aggressive again, we do have to defend ourselves against russia. Lets go to mariel who is calling from sarasota, florida. Good morning. Caller good morning. I feel that President Trump is making nato stronger. Right now, its an antiquated alliance and its based on the soft ioan soviet union which s no more. Making fun of americans is casual sport for the europeans. Ive lived there under bush and ive lived there under clinton and they made jokes about us no matter whos president. Thats what they like to do. Host now, mary ellen, where in europe did you live . Caller i lived in ireland but i also spent time in france and in italy and its just their way, you know . They love to make fun of it but they all shelter under the umbrella of nato, which we pay for and its been a disproportionate share for too many years. Russias not our biggest threat. But there are real threats from the middle east and from china and we do need an alliance of allies to address the modern hreat, not the host soviet union. Host lets go to patricia from minneapolis, minnesota. Good morning. Caller good morning. I love what President Trump is doing in regards to nato. Im sick of america being considered a chump and made fun of. They need to pony up the welfare queen europe and canada. Also i wish you would stop using the so biased, so unfair New York Times and all those articles you read. Its 90 negative on President Trump. Its ridiculous. The economy is booming. We need a lot of shows about the economy, whats actually happening and you folks are just nonstop attacking our. Its ridiculous you never did this with obama. Never. Host did you see the video coming out of the nato conference of the World Leaders talking about President Trump . You think that should have any effect on the u. S. s nato allies . Caller you know, look at i dont respect those leaders. Trudeau, he likes to dress up in black face. Hes always got costumes on. Who the heck is he . His economy is in the tank. I dont respect them. Theyre chumps. Theyre the chumps. Host lets go to sharon whos calling from beaverton, oregon. Sharon, good morning. Caller hello. Hello . Host go ahead, sharon. Youre on the air. Caller ok. Thank you. I kind of have just two points. One has to do with, you know, our relationship with nato. My husband and i years ago planned a trip to britain. First trip, you know, towards europe. It happened to be the year that america bombed gaddafi. Some of your viewers may not know but we used Margaret Thatcher supported it and let us fly out of heathrow, a nato ally. When we flew over there, we flew in one of those airplanes with fie rows in the center, etc. There were approximately 20 people on the plane. The whole time we were in britain, no tourists. Because gaddafi said he was going to bomb heathrow and he was going to terrorize england because they allowed us to fly out of there. That nato ally paid dearly that year with their economy. Reagans ing us and idea to bomb gaddafi. The only time natos kicked in has been when we were attacked with the twin towers without a sneeze. Many nato countries went in to afghanistan and later iraq. Never questioned it. They had no they had no dog in that fight. They were part of nato. They did it because they were part of nato. Thats a strength of nato. So thats what we are jeopardizing, you know. Just money. An its being there when they need you. Also, weve got bases in those countries. Took off o was they land and we have bases and we wanted those bases because we wanted to be closer and have spots where our military to take off and get closer to the fight. Weve got bases in germany. Weve got bases all over. They gave up that land. You know . You dont see german bases in america, you know . We wont give up that land. So theres more to this than just, you know, an youll dollar bill amount. And thats where i think people miss. And the second thing and then ill move on. Is for years, i was a teacher. Ou dont get anything by being sarcastic and rude. You really dont. You know, with an equal, if i wanted cooperation on something that at trial, i didnt humiliate their parents when they came in. That didnt get them on my side and have us working together for their child. It doesnt work with a kid, even if you have a power you assume you have a power as a teacher over your class. You dont get more cooperation by humiliating the kid in your classroom and acting like a jerk. You get cooperation by being respectful and that host lets try fort plain, new york. Good morning. Caller good morning. How are you doing this morning . Host just fine. Go ahead. Caller ok, yes. I feel like the president of the United States has no impact whatsoever and the reason i really believe that because what had just seen and the prior things that ive seen about our president , hes a laughingstock and i feel like the people that surround him is not help, him. They are just allowing the president to do and say whatever. But one thing i will say is he has a small point that they needed to pay a little more. But still, donald trump is not really a good president and a lot of people just being blinded because they want to be blinded and theyre just allowing this guy to do whatever he wanted to do. And its sickening. You know what im saying . Our fore parents, fathers would have seen this. Theyll turn over in their grave. Host lets look at a chart here from cnbc that looks like at the defense expenditure of share of g. D. P. One of the things that President Trump is pushing is for countries to spend 2 of their 2 as a defensive expenditure of the g. D. P. And here is the chart from cnbc where we see the United States is actually going back down but other countries like bulgaria, greece, romania, lithuania, latvia, poland are going up, moving up. Theyre spending more money, with more of their defenses increasing their defense spending for the nato guideline of 2 . So we see some countries going up. The United States, u. K. , croatia, albania, belgium, spain going down. But other countries like greece, estonia, poland, turkey, havent quite made that 2 but we see their defense expenditures are going up. Now President Trump made remarks at a luncheon for with leaders of the countries whose defense expenditures are going up and theyre meeting natos goal of 2 . Heres what President Trump had to aat that luncheon. President trump these are countries that have met the goal of 2 . We have unfortunately large number that havent met the goal. Some are very close and they will be. Received an additional 130 billion a year and i guess if you go back three years, its perhaps even more than that but ive been doing this for three years and the secretary general will tell you in a few seconds. Hes going to say a little bit about it but when i first came, it was like a roller coaster down, not up. Down. It was all the way down at the lowest point ever. And since then, weve gone up massively. We will be by far the highest point ever. Its a Great Organization and we owe a lot to the secretary general. Hes been fantastic. Hes been doing a fantastic job. We think what will be up within three years, it will be up to 400 billion more. But in the meantime, these are the countries i said i want to take the 2 ers for lunch. We call them fedex natalie the 2 ers. So this is a lunch its on me. Host we want to talk about other news this morning. We have a tweet coming out from the state department where we see theres been a relief. Heres a tweet from secretary mike pompeo that says another american is coming home. Wanging who has been held in false charges in iran for over three years has been released and on his way back to the United States. Mr. Wang will soon be reunited with liz wife and son who have missed him dearly. We will not rest until we bring every american detained in iran and around the world back home to their loved one. We thank the swiss government for facilitating the return of mr. Wang and pleased the iranian government have been constructive in this matter. Once again, we have other news that were going to keep bringing you through the show but what were talking about for this hour is President Trumps impact on nato. And lets go, see what some of media followers think about our conversation this morning. Heres one tweet from our social media followers that say other countries should pay their fair share. The u. S. Taxpayers shouldnt have to foot the bill for canada or anyone else. From maggie from michigan. Trump doesnt have the slew about how nato works. Bet he doesnt know host heres another caller who text in. Trumps dismantled nato as far as turkey goes. Host one more caller tweet. Once again, were talking this morning about President Trumps impact on nato. If you think President Trump has made nato stronger, we want to hear from you at 2027488000. If you think President Trumps made nato weaker, went to hear from you at 2027488001. If you think President Trump has had no impact on nato, we want to hear from you at 2027488002. Keep in mind you could always text us at 2027488003 and were always reading on social media, on twitter at twitter. Com cspanwj and on facebook at facebook. Com cspan. Lets go back to our phone lines and talk to gary whos calling from humboldt, tennessee. Gary, good morning. Caller good morning, sir. How are you today . Host just fine. Go ahead. Caller yeah, i think trump is doing a fantastic job. I think video thats being shown by the media of the nato people aving a good time and they are turning to donald trump saying theyre laughing at him. I think all is wrong. Hes the president of the United States. People need to start backing him. And the second thing is the biden thing that was put out. You know, biden didnt do nothing in eight years. So hes got nothing to say about whats going on over in the nato. And thats my comment. Host lets go to margaret whos calling from kerrville, texas. Margaret, good morning. Caller good morning to you too. First of all, i certainly agree the woman who called in from oregon. She made some very good points and some of the other people also i have hear. Lets put it a little bit into perspective as far as money spent by countries. All of these other countries, western countries spend much, much more in humanitarian aids than the u. S. Does. So that shows you where priorities lie. As i said, i agree with the woman from oregon. Wentcame right after 9 11, to afghanistan without question and i cannot believe that this man that we have who leads our country is so lacking in diplomacy. When he talked about the deal, all he knows is to bully, bully, bully, to try and get his way. And diplomacy does not work that way. I would also like to me to do their untries assist g. D. P. The same way the United States does. Because there are many economists who say that we are way off base and it really needs to be redone all over again in a different way that it doesnt really reflect the what we call the g. D. P. Of the country. Thats about all that i have to say is that i believe hes made us weaker. We need allies around the world. And this idea of just go at it alone, go at it alone does not work. Host lets go to joyce whos calling from cambria, california. Joyce, good morning. Caller good morning. Agree with the lady who just spoke. I feel like President Trump is extremely decisive dwive. Hes trying to divide countries. Hes dividing people of our nations. Hes insulting. He has no skills on how to deal with people. I think the only way things can is to talk to people without putting people down. He has no affect on anything that has been good. I really feel that he knows nothing about diplomacy. Host lets go to casey who is calling from berlin, connecticut. Casey, good morning. Caller good morning. Host go ahead, casey. Caller yeah, i just want to make a few points really quickly. I 100 agree hes making it stronger. My first point is that hes over there dealing with this while his own country is back at home trying to impeach him. So the fact that he is able to go over there and deal with it the way that he did at all makes me happy. Second of all, just want to speak what they said about him. He is the president of the United States. So if hes 40 minutes late because of a press conference, then you wait for him. Thats the way it goes. We are the, you know, the number one over there basically. And the last point im going to make is that by then, these leaders speaking about him in this little, you know, remarks that they made and makes them look like Little School girls talking about him behind his back. You know how he feels. We know how he feels and what hes thinking at all times good or bad. Host heres video of natos secretary general on tuesday talking about the political conferences between nato allies. Heres what he had to say. Yes, there are differences. Dating back to the crisis in the raq war. But again, the strength of nato is despite these differences, we have proven again and again able to to protect and defend the shelter and that is what theyre doing now. We are doing more together in north america and europe than or more decades. So we are able to agree on it. Host there is nothing new about elitist president who is dont acting and think what they do. The small ball about trumps leadership is it looks like thats all they have to work with. It is hard to go after him for his leadership in nato after the secretary general for praises on him and pay more attention to Common Concerns about china and they can no longer credibly the ize him for syria Baltimore Sun had a bit of a different take on trumps trip to the nato conference. Heres what the Baltimore Sun had to say about their editorial board. A president who goes through National Security advisor is unlikely to inspire a lot of confidence in the world stage. Trump supporters seem to love the president s disrespect of allies host lets go back to our phone lines and see what ircallers think. Lets go to vivian whos calling from fredericksburg, virginia. Vivian, good morning. Caller good morning and thank you for taking my call. Well, the 2 , i wish he wouldnt tell the people, especially trump supporters. The 2 is supposed to be spent on the their military, not ours. And they say that hes doing a good job, the economy is doing so well. None of them. You look at those people at the rallies, none of them got a 40 1 k. If you are doing three jobs, you are on disability or youre getting something out of our dime. People that are working or retired and paying taxes. The economy is not doing good at all. Ive talked to so many people thats working two or three jobs that they never had to do before. So those people that think hes doing good, theyre getting free stuff. And the media needs to investigate them. If they can stay in line for two days straight in a raleigh, they can work. They should not be in disability nd this needs to stop now. Host lets go to deborah from jamaica, new york. Caller good morning. I just wanted to reiterate what she said. I believe these people are thinking that the countries have to pay dues like what they paid to go to maralago, the company the countries have to spend 2 of their g. D. P. On to pump up their military and what trump wants, he wants those countries to buy arms from the United States. So once again its all about the money. Hats what he wants. These countries really benefit us because theyre the ones that are in europe. Yes. And they are the closest to russia. Eople that say he share putin. Isnt putin still took over a part of ukraine . Have they moved so now have they withdrawn . No. So once again, all roads lead to putin. Thank you very much. Host lets go to lou whos calling from pennsylvania. , pronounce the name of your town for me. Caller you pronounced it perfectly. Host oh, i did . Caller yes, you did. I was going to say that and my phone made a beep. Host oh, ok. Go ahead, lou. Caller i think that nato like most americans today have more money in their accounts because of President Trump and therefore you have to be stronger. The more money you have, the stronger you are. Its just how you use that money. And i did notice the chart that you showed. It looked like the United States had been given 3. A and was going down to 3 to nato and some countries are going from 1 to 2 and i think thats a good thing. Host all right. Lets go to larry from roanoke, irginia. Caller i believe trip has made our country stronger and he is not a politician and he just tells people what they say. He comes from the host he comes from where . What do you mean he comes from there . Caller he comes from the old school, you know . He doesnt he basically i believe in a red line and a black line. Hes a businessman. And if hes not making a profit, he doesnt agree with everything that we might agree with, but i think hes doing a great job. Host lets talk to christopher whos calling from indianapolis, indiana. Christopher, good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. I will make this quick. Ok. I dont believe trump has done anything good for nato. Nato has been in line around longer than nato. Trump got lucky with talking about nato not spending money. That was true. And china taking intellectual property. Thats true. But everything else, he just lies. He lies. I dont understand why people dont understand that hes a bad guy. And people just only they need to stop watching only fox news. Host we want to bring you some other news thats going on around the nation this morning. In florida, there was a shooting at a Naval Air Base and we want to read a little bit from you from the New York Times about what actually happened. This comes from pensacola, florida. A member of the Saudi Air Force arm wad handgun fatally shot three people and injured eight others on friday morning during a bloody rampage in a classroom building at the procedures navy air station in pensacola, florida, where he was training to become a pilot the authorities led by the f. B. I. Were investigating to determine the gunmans motive and whether the shooting was an act of terrorism. A United States military official identifies the subject who was killed by a sheriffs deputy during the attack as Second Lieutenant he was one of the hundreds of military trainees at the base which is considered the home of naval aviation. Host Florida Governor came out and heres what he had to say. I think theres obviously going to be a lot of questions about this individual being a Foreign National, being a part of the Saudi Affairs air force and to be here training on our soil to do this and the f. B. I. Is working with d. O. D. , theyre working with the county sheriff to answer those questions. One of the things that i talked to the president about is given that this was a Foreign National in the employee of a Foreign Service is and there will be time to do this but the oobviously the government of saudi arabia needs to make things better for these victims. And i think that theyre going to owe a debt here given this is one of their individual. Host were going to go back to our question of the hour which is President Trumps impact on nato. Lets go to john whos calling from glen fall, new york. John, good morning. Caller i just have a few comments that people avoid blatant facts. They see him as a successful businessman. Hes had a failed airline. His university has failed and its been sued. He bankrupt a casino. A failed clothing line. A failed so all these these are his personal failures that he labels and then people say hes a successful businessman along with his bankruptcies. So they blindly follow his advice. They say the daniel jones average is 30 stocks and dow jones average is 30 stocks. If you work at mcdonalds and walgreens, that makes you eligible for more public assistance and the second thing about us being strong is if you look at every country in the world thats ever been dominant, the british empire, the spanish armada, hitler, caesar, theyve all lost one common thread. Fighting too many wars on too many fronts. If you think were the most powerful nation in the world, we didnt fare well in vietnam. Weve been in almost a 20year war with afghanistan. We cant do it the way hes leading us. Its impossible. They just avoid facts and just love this guy for these failures and just encourage him. Host lets go to tim whos calling from curationville, West Virginia. Tim, good morning. Caller good morning, sir. Thank you for my call. You know, i disagree with your last caller. Number one, he might have failed in some things but all businessmen do. Hes a great businessman. Do i think hes a the best diplomatic . No. Because hes an outsider from d. C. The thing about nato, it is the United States that made nato what it is. United states is giving billions upon billions and billions of dollars to nato for the last 30, 40 years. You know . And so with that said, i remember, i think when bill saying was our president this needs to be paid up. That was back then they owed billions of dollars that was never paid but heres the deal. We have to deal with the United States. Im glad hes going. 2 aint nothing. You know what i mean . And having these other countries that has had the wealth and make fun of the president he was impeached before he even got in office. Thats just a hatred they have for him because he is a rich man. Hes worth over 500 billion, i believe. And he can throw his weight around a little bit. Its time for these other countries to pay up because theres a lot of waffle around the world for all these big manufacturers and everything else. Garland, go to texas. Caller good morning. Host go ahead. An 81yearold cancer survivor with Macular Degeneration and glaucoma and i only say that to talk about the conditions and the things that have been done on nato. In my opinion and even though ive had this for 15 years and doctors dont know whoo why im blind. Theres nobody blinder than those that dont see and right now, were not looking at the damage that he is doing. Were looking at his followers or no. And you cannot do some of the things he does and not make us weak and the one person that we do know and i understand that its definitely against nato is putin. Its a is america tone deaf, blind and cannot hear . All you got to do is listen to facts and stuff. I listened to kushner when he said years ago that they got their money munn from russia. I listened to kushner when he said he had stuff to keep him from signing stuff and im talking about trump. Im not against him. I want god to help him and help our country. Hes carrying our support. Host lets look at some of our social media comments on this topic this morning. Comments coming from both tweeters and texters. Trump promised to pull us out of nato if members dont pay their fair share. Theyre still not paying their fair share and trump hasnt pulled us out. Promises made, promises broken. One says rocking the nato boat publicly makes no sense. The alliance has been a key factor in the global u. S. Since its inception. Worth every penny. One more that says i think natos probably stronger or will be stronger because of President Trumps efforts to get them to pay more. However, its ironic that he is you tauing to russia at the same ime. Kowtowing russia at the same time. Represent Duncan Hunter announces his resignation from congress on friday, three days after pleading guilty to misusing Campaign Funds. His exit comes a day after the House Ethics Committee instructed him to stop voting in light of his guilty plea. Hunters plea agreement says that he and his wife spent over 150,000 of Campaign Funds on personal expenses including meals and Luxury Vacations per cbs news. Heres a statement that Duncan Hunter put out on friday. Shortly after holidays, i will resign from congress. It has been an honor to serve the people of californias 50th district and i greatly appreciate the trust they have put in me over these last 11 years. All that was coming from ox owes oxoios this morning. Lets start with john who is calling from seattle, washington. John, good morning. Caller good morning. Thanks for taking my call. I think hes having a huge i dont think hes having a huge impact yet. Because i want to point out to a lot of your previous callers who have been saying that hes secured a lot of additional funding for nato, but a lot of the increase in funding that wife seen over the past few years is due to agreements negotiated during the obama administration. So i dont think hes actually gotten a lot yet. Im not familiar with him negotiating any agreement with larger nato partners for more contributions. But i definitely think hes playing with fire. His comments that hes made during the campaign where he said that countries below the 2 athletic hold couldnt count on america do more to disrupt nato than anything putin or russia have done in the past decade. I dont think hes had a huge impact yet but hes fallen into a lot of skepticism that could turn out to really cause a lot of problems in the long run. Host lets go to dave whos calling from virginia. Dave, good morning. Caller yes. I think trump has been a much stronger president than president obama when president obama was in office. He had the defense missiles removed from poland and czechoslovakia and did nothing in return when the russians invaded, he didnt give them anything while trump is giving them javelins to fight tanks. Last time i checked the map, crimea and ukraine are not next to the United States. Theyre next to europe. And his trying to get them to contribute more money, you know, i mean, we cant go on indefinitely defending the entire world. We have a 22 trillion National Debt as it is. And its about high time these other countries that were defending and paying lions share of the money to defend them start paying their share because its not going to help europe one but if the United States becomes bankrupt and starts to default on paying the interest servicing our debt. Host lets talk to niagara falls, new york. Good morning. Caller how are you doing . Host just fine. Go ahead. Caller i think donald trump is weaker for the whole country. Donald j. Trump only thinks about him and maybe his family and about getting money for putin and the saudi prince that he owes for his bills. He didnt get people helped him get into office. And you tell so many lies, more lies than satan could even think about. And the followers should be ashamed of themselves that go to church and pray to the lord and that they love the lord jesus because they dont. They listened to people that come here in the people of color. That tells the type of character he got following him. And i wish they would impeach him. He wouldnt have got in here if he hadnt had help. Thats all i got to say. Host lets go to leo whos calling from franklin, new hampshire. Leo, good morning. Caller good morning, america. I dont think hes going to have any affect on it because the military Industrial Complex will not allow it to happen. Almost an empire at this time. And the president is just a helm of the trip and the engine is the military Industrial Complex and they aint letting us go anywhere or do anything different than weve already done because the powers that have been have already seen fit. Host lets go to joe who is calling from fayetteville, North Carolina. Joe, good morning. Caller yeah. Hey, good morning. I just disagree with the headline this morning. Ld be trump created 266 266,000 jobs for the month of november. Thats what we should be talking about. And yet the irony is trudeau of canada lost 66,000 jobs on november and trump creates 266,000 jobs in november. That should be the headline but that doesnt fit your narrative. What do you think . What do you think . Host lets go to walt who calls from arizona. Good morning. Caller good morning, jesse. Host go ahead, walt. Caller i have a few comments to make. Host were wrapping up quickly. So make it fast. Caller ok. First of all, to say that trump is a buffoon would be an upgrade. And secondly, if trump cant lose any of his face because theyll never admit theyre wrong. Host lets go to valerie whos calling from millers burg, ohio. Valerie, good morning. Caller yes. I absolutely would admit i was wrong if i was. Donald trump had the help of the American People who elected him into the presidency. And nato was created for them people to defend themselves. They cant pay to defend themselves or use their own blood of their own children to defend themselves. Does anybody believe were going to go to nuclear war to russia to protect countries that cant protect themselves . Its not about money all the time, america. Its not about jobs. This is about going to war for countries that wont defend themselves. Nato was created for them to defend themselves, to keep help them and we have. But we cant doing it for 70 years. These countries are rich. They can spill their own blood of their own children. Host lets remind you that tomorrow on monday, the House Judiciary Committee will meet to hear evidence in the ongoing impeachment inquiry against President Trump. The chair Jerrold Nadler, and other Committee Members will hear from democratic and republican counsel on the findings from the inquiry. Our live coverage starts at 9 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan, online at cspan. Org or listen live on the free cspan radio app. Lets see if we can get a couple more callers on President Trumps impact on nato. Lets start with maxine whos calling from new baltimore, michigan. Maxine, good morning. Caller good morning, cspan audience and america. I think he has made us stronger. And im reminded of a nursery rhyme regarding the queen of england. At one time, the sun never sat on the british empire. All of these World Leaders came to london to see the queen. They didnt learn anything from her. All they saw was a mouse that ran under her chair. Europes leaders of socalled leaders, got into a little circle and all they could do is snicker because President Trump took a 40minute News Conference. That shows you the little the elitists that are running europe and i dont think america should be footing the bill for these elitests that cant even see that they just met the greatest president the United States has ever had. Host lets talk to don who is calling from las cruces, new mexico. Don, good morning. Don, did i pronounce the name of your town correctly . Caller yes. Host all right. Go ahead, don. Caller i just really wonder people who are calling in have any idea of nato and its history. Its goal was to deter war in europe. And the second thing that people have alluded to is article 5. The cornerstone of the alliance is that attack on one is an attack on all. It is the goal of putin to destroy the western alliance. If we elected putin instead of trump, putin would have done the same things that trump is doing right now. And for those of you who think hat european states dont do anything for us, i think you should look up on icasualties. It is a list of countries and the number of men who died in the iraq war and a if you look at those numbers, europe has supplied military for our benefit. So i think being very shortsighted is what some of the callers are today. And maybe instead of calling in on the republican line, you should call in in the russian stooge line. Host lets go to joseph who is calling from new rochelle, new york. Joseph, good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. Its really hard to figure out get going on because we the news from what we see on tv, depends on what station you watch. One says left. One says right. One says yellow and one says blue and theyre looking at the same picture. So it depends on the news the news has become propaganda. Its no longer news. Its an opinion. So how do you know whats going on . If you made a deal with somebody, youre supposed to play 2 of that deal, pay it 2 . Dont pay 1 and have somebody else to pay more. Thats my feeling. Its very difficult to figure out what in the heck is going on and this question, it gets more confusing because at last million different people with two million different opinions. Host thanks for all of our callers. Coming up, a look at where the United Statesmexicocanada agreement trade with Megan Cassella of politico. And then later, were going to talk about the safety of drink water with author of troubled water seth siegel. Stay with us. We will be right back. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] this weekend, book tv features three new nonfiction books. Tonight, at 8 45 p. M. Eastern, scott adams creator of the comic strip dill bert and author of loseerthink. Were all elevated in our opinions because the news model is forcing us toward more provocative stuff. So before they would have said heres the news and thats my news. Now, its replaced entertainment. And at 11 05, former nato supreme allied commander discusses his book. How were going to combat in afghanistan all tricked out with my bulletproof everything and my helmet. Guys on my right and left with big guns. I was actually pretty safe. Next to me would be someone like Richard Engle from nbc news whos standing there in an ill fitting bulletproof vest that i assure you wouldnt stop a bullet hes got a little tin pot helmet on. Hes risking his life to tell us whats happening. You think hes serving us . I do. Then sunday at 9 00 p. M. Eastern on afterwords, New York Times opinion writer lindy west talks about the me too movement and her book the riches are coming. Shes interviewed by new York Magazine writer and author rebecca tracer. People are always asking me like whats the path to redemption . We have to have something. And ive been trying to come . What do we do, because there has to be something . It is not for me to figure out, how about you workshop it, you troubleshoot, keep trying stuff until people forgive you. I dont know, how about you figure it out . Watchable tv every weekend on cspan2. Washington journal continues. Host were back with a little trade reporter Megan Cassella, and we will be talking about the usmca trade agreement. Megan, good morning. Guest good morning. Thank you for having me. Host from our viewing audience exactly what the usmca is and what the initials stand for. Guest it stands for the u. S. Mexicocanada agreement, and it is an update of nafta, the north america free trade agreement. It is to emphasize differences between the two pacts. President trump embarked on doing so on october 2017, is trade representatives negotiated with his two partners for little over a year before they first signed a deal, and now they are trying to get various parties to support the pact. It allows for easy trade across all three borders and makes sure that they are all connected, easy to pass materials back and forth without paying duties. Host so what are the differences or are there any differences between what nafta did for the three countries and what the usmca does . Guest there are differences. How many there are depends on where you stand. The Trump Administration says massa was the worst deal ever, and this is the best deal ever. Others on the left will say there is little difference. The largest focus is probably on the automotive sector. New rules are meant to increase the amount of north American Continent that is in these cars, meant to make sure that jobs and factories are in north america rather than in other countries, and that sort of thing. There is also a little bit more market access, American Dairy farmers in canada come other rules surrounding. They implemented the review, wherewith they will review the pact six years after it takes effect. So if it say if we signed a deal that was not very good, we want to make sure that we all review it again. Host by that, it makes it sound like the usmca has not been signed by the three countries. Is the usmca in effect right now, or is it still being negotiated . Guest it is not in effect right now. One version was signed last november, almost a year ago, but then House Democrats have started to say, we do not want to pass this through congress, because they want to see a few more changes. They are still negotiating to try to make a few more cases to make it more interesting and make more democrats support it. Host what is the actual process the agreement has to take in the United States . Does it still need to be passed by the house and the senate to go into effect . And what is the situation for the agreement in both mexico and canada . Have they both ratified it . Are we just waiting on the u. S. Congress here . Many ways,re come in waiting on the u. S. Congress. Mexico passed it through the senate. That happened several months ago. To do says they are ready it. They are just waiting on the u. S. Mostly focused on labor standards and that sort of thing. Those are ongoing. Now, it is a little tricky, because canada and ne mexico have to finalize any changes. Throughas to repass it its legislature, canada will have to pass it before it can pass through, as you said, first the house, then the senate, then the president will sign it. Host is there a duration date is there an Expiration Date on this happening, or is this something that can just roll on until congress decides to do it or not to do it . Guest therat is an interesting question. Technically, no. We want to get this done before the end of 2019, because there is a lot of concern that if it starts to get wrapped up in 2020, president ial politics, there will be a lot going on kid everybody involved says lets get it done and 2019. Of taking, asort they do underneath that goal. Host lets let some of our viewers get involved in this conversation. We will open up our regular lines this morning. That means republicans, your line is going to be 202 7488001. Democrats, your line is going to be 202 7488000. Independents, you can call in at 202 7488002. And remember, you can always text us at 202 7488003. And you can also send in questions on twitter, cspanwj, and on facebook at facebook. Com cspan. The what are some of sticking points that we are seeing in the negotiations between the United States and mexico and canada, and what are some of the sticking points politically between the democrats and the republicans on the usmca . Guest i would say one of the biggestguest sticking points is this idea about labor enforcement, for democrats say, thank you, President Trump and the Trump Administration, for improving the standards in the text, whether in nafta, they were in a slight agreements, but they are note enforceable, it is just wallpaper, it is just window dressing if we cannot enforce it. So democrats want to be able to send binational inspectors, meaning it could be a group of both american and mexican inspectors that go into a mexican factory to see if there are labor violations, and if there are repeated violations, maybe a loss for that particular factory or company. This is an infringement of our national sovereignty, so that is one of the biggest issues going back and forth right now, because democrats say we need this enforcement before we can move forward. Host this week, you wrote that mexicos undersecretary for north america returned to washington. What does that signify about the status of the deal from mexicos viewpoint . Guest it says that they are pretty close. He is making the effort. He is coming to fit down with the trade representative, robert lighthizer. He is still in town today. It shows that ambassador lighthizer has been working with members of congress for months now to reach a deal that those two parties cant support, he still has to they get mexico to sign on. It shows they are nearing the end. The hard part is mexico is not just saying ok, we will support anything you want. They are pushing back. Some are saying they will even walk away and live with the original nafta, because right now, it seems better. Host what are some things mexico once that the United States is not immediately agreeing to . What they are happy with they signed a year ago. They are not happy with the changes the democrats want to the biggest ways the labor inspection, as i mentioned. How muchbor deal with steel and aluminum u. S. Automakers need to buy. The mexican industry said we will not be able to supply any of the steel and aluminum if we agree to these new rules. It is really going to gut our industry. Host where does canada stand . We see the mexican undersecretary is in washington today. Where does canada stand in the conversation . Guest they have been really involved. The deputy Prime Minister came down before thanksgiving for a very brief trip to washington, but came down salt three leaders could meet in person. The mexican undersecretary came down, and since income of a have not been in town, but her office as they have been in frequent contact over the phone, they have been talking regularly. Host lets let our viewers join this conversation, and lets start with rob, who is calling from eastern North Carolina on the democratic line. Rob, good morning. Caller good morning, cspan. Thank you for taking my call. It looks like you have a beautiful, clear morning and washington, d. C. I have a background in automotive. My father was a fordlincoln mercury dealer, and he was on the ford advertising committee. In it for three years after he died, and i sold out to my brother. I worked with before motor company, helping divine and werus company, actually went to yamaha and help them design the motor, which is akin to what is running in formula one right now. I have a lot of advertisement and automotive experience in my life, since i was two or three. Cars are part of the usmca, is anna right now has automotive, scooter, and truck business that they can manufacture with lower cost steel and lowercost labor, and a good flutter market with labor, which that has a lot to do with our trade imbalance with foreign countries. We have been at a disadvantage for years because, for instance, we likes to have let toyota, datsun, what is now called nisan, and other companies in europe,tty much, and ship cars since our market for very low or nontariff rates. Host give us a quick question. Caller sure. Ok. Is not a free, fair, and equitable trade some of the difference between nafta, it was a good concept, actually started by reagan, and it was the implementation after was bad. Labor is probably the cheapest in the world. To create an going economic block of Manufacturing Software in heavy equipment and cars of u. S. Mexicocanada, outh reagan rightly pointed back then, they are our neighbors, and we should cooperate third it will be bigger than the eu and will give position,trading because asia is going to produce cheap limit cars, and if we let them have assess like we have and toyota, we will have horrible trait differences, and they will wreck ford, gm, and chrysler. Host go ahead and respond. How will the Auto Industry deal with the usmca . Guest like i said earlier, it will face the most changes of the industry. They are going to have to start using more north American Continent in their cars in order to qualify for some of the tariff benefits under the usmca. They will also have to use more north American Steel and aluminum. Question is whether it can be what originally comes from china and is finished in north america, or does it have to be melted and poured in north america . That is still up for debate. Host lets go to chuck, who is calling from las cruces, new mexico. Chuck, good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. My congressman, i looked it up, and i saw, i think the young lady mentioned about labor, and the labor, from what i read, utilization of the industries in mexico. And i just thought, to me, that one is for the special interests here big labor here in our country, not all of america, but for special interests, and why are we why arent the democrats doing that . It doesnt just kill the deal, it is going to the sovereignty of another country, it is a nonstarter to me, and it is going to kill the deal, and i do not know why they are doing this. Host lets talk about some of the usmcas labor provisions. We have a little chart here from the u. S. Trade representatives that talks about the usmcas labor divisions, including mexico would commit to specific actions to provide for recognitions of right for collective bargaining. That is what the caller was talking about. Is that a deal killer . Guest that is already written into the deal, something democrats really applaud. I mentioned this briefly earlier, but the labor and environmental provisions, ainton added those later as sweetener for democrats, but because they were written later, they were calleds ideals, not for the cortex. So what President Trump did was write it into the usmca. There are other provisions going into mexico. Views it as americans marching in and doing whether or not we are meeting the requirements, but americans say that is a miss carries asian, and it a mischaracterization, and there is a lot of debate going back and forth. Host earlier, we heard from republican don bacon about the passage of the usmca in the house. Here is what he had to say. [video clip] bacon we have over 250 members who are just or the usmca, the u. S. Mexicocanada trade deal. Normally, we would need 218 votes, so this bill would pass easily if Speaker Pelosi what bring it to the floor. At she does not want to come it gives the president a victory, and i think even more so, she wants to use it as leverage to do things that are not defenserelated, a more liberal agenda, and to force the president to accept that with the trade deal, so she is holding it hostage for other issues. Host before we go to morgan, i want you to react to that. What is the support for the usmca in the house, between republicans and democrats . Is everybody on board . Guest not everybody is on board. It is hard to find a republican who does not support this deal. Something i have not mentioned is internet trade provisions, none of that was enacted, because it was not around so long ago, the internet was not really around. The biggest thing you hear so often is this is about trade certainty. President trump has started to read to withdraw from the original nafta if we do not pass businesses, so farmers are saying we just want to know that these three countries remain linked, the way they had been, and if we do not get that, that will be much more damaging than how high the labor standards are going to go. Host what happens if congress does not pass they usmca . Do we go back to nafta . Is there no trade deal at all what happens if congress does n . Get this done . Baseline as we go back to nafta. The wildcard is President Trump has repeatedly threatened to withdraw from the original nafta , in many respects come as a way to get lawmakers to move more quickly and to approve his deal, but it is a real threat, any part of him with drawl any partner can withdraw at any time, as long as they give a notice of six months. That is where congress and others come in and say that would be the most dangerous economies, because the economies are so linked, it would be damaging to have no trade agreement linking the three countries. Host that was going maybe my next going to be my next question what happens if nothing happens and the united nafta . Withdraws from what happens if the United States, canada, and mexico are not united through canada . Guest it is sort of unknown. We do not know what it will look like. And for companies, you know, they have been come up for 25 years now, sending goods back and forth across the border. The number of cars it crosses the border is much higher than you would think, sometimes 10, 12 times, materials will cross the border. If you are suddenly having to pay a steep duty every time it crosses the border, whereas for the last 25 years, you have paid nothing at all, it is really damaging for a lot of these companies. They will have to rework supply chains, and it will hurt their bottom line. Host now lets go to morgan, who is calling from send marcos, california. Thanks for being patient, morgan. What is your question . Caller my question is, do we consider the chinese influence in california, mexico, and canada . Host what do you mean by chinese influence . Can you give us a little more history about your question . Caller well, they brought up toyota, and toyota is assembled in mexico, ok, and it is a japanese product. ,hey are our ally in the region and we need to look beyond certain aspects of trade and play a bigonomics part in everything that is going on. Host how does china affect the usmca negotiations . Are they a player in this anywhere . Guest not entirely, but what is the do is further united three north american countries and bolster their partnership as a counterweight to china. Other thing we hear is this would show china we have a powerful economic partnership, that we can get things done in the United States, and that it is time to move forward. Some of these trade agreements has to are laws on the books, so it is a signal to china that, you know, look out, the Trump Administration really doing what they said they were going to do. Host here is a question from one of our social media followers who wants to know, what are the differences between nafta and the usmca in regards to issues run involving the pharmaceutical industry . Is the pharmaceutical industry discussed . And that isinly, one of the aspects the House Democrats have been focusing on in terms of wanting to see changes. The usmca has a certain number of years of protection for new class ofs, and drugs that are expensive to make and written into the deal, theres 10 years of protection for those drugs. The u. S. Is currently 12 years, but in mexico, it is five, and in canada, it is eight years. House democrats are wanting to lower Prescription Drug prices. They think if we write that into the law, it will be harder to lower later. So they want to see that level come down a little bit further down. Canada and mexico are ok with it coming down, but the question is whether the Trump Administration will be ok with that and whether the u. S. Pharmaceutical industry will be ok with that. Host when know everything in washington is revolving around the impeachment inquiry and hearings going on inside the u. S. Capital. How is the impeachment involving the unite negotiations and talks of the usmca . Guest it is a good question. There is only so much time in the day, only so many calendar days left in the year. But on the flip side, it has also been a real motivator for a especiallyakers to, moderate democrats, the socalled front liners in the house, they really worry they will go back to their district over christmas and have nothing concrete to show, having to concrete legislation show beyond the impeachment finally. Even more, they wanted to seal a path, but now they are ceiling with real energy to get this up across the finish line. Host lets go to willie on the democratic line. Good morning. Willygood morning. Willie, good morning. Caller the trumpet administration is having to give the farmers 20 million to bail them out, but now they want to take away food stamps, but you are going to put the farmers on food stamps. Host what is the effect of the agriculture industry can see from the usmca, as opposed to what they saw from nafta . Guest as opposed to it, i mean, it is largely the same. There were already very few duties between canada, mexico, and the u. S. In nafta, and that remains true in the usmca mild changes in terms of interest dairy access for the market. They might be holding back on Capital Investments or equipment investments if they want to make sure that we really do have a solid trade deal before the move forward with those decisions. Host there were reports that Speaker Nancy Pelosi wanted to strip out protections for online content. Can you explain what that was about . Can you tell us what that whole conversation is around . Guest yes, there is language of the usmca that mirrors what is known as section 230 of the Communications Decency act. Ball,a pretty wonky old but it has become more congress, somen are worried we might want to change that, and the concern is if we keep that legal liability will,in the usmca, it again, make it harder to change u. S. Laws. That is how we hold Tech Companies available for usergenerated content. If somebody writes something on facebook, and it is controversial, should facebook and we held accountable, or should the user be held accountable . Digital company or internet company. Should we keep that language or take it out entirely . Host lets see if we can get a couple more questions from our callers. Lets go to elaine, calling from olympia, washington. Elaine, good morning. Caller yes, i heard pelosi wants some sort of deal with mexico regarding labor, and they have to do a particular thing before she will approve this deal. Well, isnt that a quid pro quo . I mean, they get a treaty if they do something, and that is not much different than what trump was doing with the ukraine, and yet that is supposed to be a bad thing. Host do you want to respond to that . Guest i think the difference is mexico agreed with part of the usmca to overhaul its labor reform, and they did but will they allocate enough money, though, and will they be able to do it on their own . Will canada and the u. S. Supply any money to implement the labor reform . That is actually part of the usmca, that they agreed they would do that. Host lets go to charlie, who was calling from why simon, washington on independent line. Charlie, good morning. Caller hey, first off, i was impressed by the level of knowledge that megan has. It is nice to see it. We should see it in the regular media. Beyond that, i guess my question would be whether or not all of these objections we are seeing from the democrats, putting them all together, do they have genuine substance, or is this just a matter of democrats wanting to deny trump any kind , sibleyplishment because they hate him, and they simply because they hate him, and they are willing to put this aside so they can impeach him . Host how much to the democrats want the usmca . Do they wanted as much as the republicans, or is this a political negotiating . Guest they really wanted. We hear it from house ways and neal. A mans chairman richard we obviously have waited more than 25 years to negotiate it once. How long will it be until we get something generated again. You hear the term once in a generation opportunity, so the well, as long as we are doing it, we want to make sure it is as strong as it can be. Host lets go to peter, who is calling from massachusetts. Peter, good morning. Caller yes, hi, good morning. Longtime viewer. Brief. Se i will be very my question was how you felt in general that the Renewable Energy aspect correlated with the agreements. That is it. Thank you for my calls. Guest it is one of the issues that democrats are still discussing now, the environmental aspect of this agreement. Some of them were extreme asks, only extreme in the way that it was not likely to get through in a bipartisan way. Some democrats were demanding language on Climate Change in the agreement, using that exact term. A lothe phrase we hear about isa lot of export pollution in mexico. Host give us your best guess for a timeline in congress to approve or disapprove the usmca. Do you expect that to come in the last few weeks of 2020, or do you expect it before the president ial debate, the you expect it after the election . When do you expect an actual vote on this up or down from congress . Guest i would say up until the last couple of weeks, i thought they could still get it done this year, but just looking at the calendar, theres a lot of outstanding issues. Mexico is pushing back on some of the demand. Democrats are not fully on board. Theres a legislative days on the calendar. So i do not see it quite happening this year, just a production. But i also do not see why it could pass early next year, despite the deadline people have been pushing for ever in 2019, they could still get it done in 2020 before the election gets fully underway. Host lets take one last call from linda, who was calling from connecticut on the democratic line. Linda, can you get a quick question in for us . Caller yes, i would like to know how can we possibly trust donald trump on anything . 300 bills have passed the house since january alone, and mcconnell brags about the fact that that is where bills go to die, whether it is health care, pharmaceuticals, trade agreements, or anything else. And with the 25 million fine for his Fraudulent University and his 2 Million Charity fine, how can we trust him to do anything . It seems to me that everything he touches dies, and with nato laughing at him, for the third year in a row, because of him at himself,ght and bragging, not remembering any name, how can we trust him when his own businesses have failed in all he does is ruin anything. Host go ahead and respond. How is the administration pushing it . Guest this is something they really want. This is one of Donald Trumps top legislative priorities. He wants to be able to campaign and say look, i conveyed in 2016, saying i was going to do this, and i did it. He really wants it or it if it passes the house, it is certain to be signed by the president. Host we want to thank Megan Cassella, politico trade reporter, for being here. Talking about the usmca. Megan, thank you so much. Guest thank you for having me. Host coming up, we will open up the phone lines. We will talk about the white houses decision not to participate in the house impeachment hearings. We will do our regular lines, republicans, 202 7488001. Democrats, 202 7488000. Independents, your line is 202 7488002. Stay with us, and we will be right back. American history tv on cspan3 looks at the impeachments of president s nixon and clinton. Sunday, starting at 6 00 p. M. On trent lott and, Elizabeth Holtzman reflect on their experiences during the impeachment inquiry of richard nixon. here is a guy who had an influence on my decision to run for office, and was helpful guy iwninning, and a looked up to as the president , and i wound up having to sit in judgment for him, eventually say i would vote on an article of impeachment. Theater, we look at impeachment of president bill clinton with the 1998 House Judiciary Committee debate. I thank you denigrate the role of the senate, which has an important adjudicatory role to weigh the evidence, to study what it wants and agree and disagree, and then our Founding Fathers made it extra in a really difficult to eliminate a president from office by vote, and a twothirds that is why i have always said, unless this is done bipartisan way, and tragically, there is no bipartisanship here, but i am hopeful, and if it gets to the senate, there would be bipartisanship, but after that, there would be no god help other the gentleman yields. Past,erience our nations American History tv, the impeachments of president s nixon and bill clinton. Washington journal continues. Are we are back, and we going to open up our phone lines so we can have a discussion about the white houses decision not to participate in the house impeachment hearings. Open up ourwe will regular phone lines, republicans, 202 7488001. Democrats, your line 202 7488000. Independents, you can call 202 7488002. Remember, you can always text us at 202 7488003. And we are always reading on social media, on twitter cspanwj, and on facebook at facebook. Com cspan. Pplioni,iel the white house counsel, sent a here is what that letter said. House democrats have wasted enough time with this charade. You should end this inquiry now and not waste additional time to adopting articles of impeachment would be a reckless abuse of power by House Democrats and the most unjust impeachment and our nations history. Astever course you choose, the president has recently stated, if you are going to impeach me, do it now, fast, so we can have a fair trial in the senate, so that our country can get back to business. So that means that the white house will not be participating in the house impeachment proceedings. The House Judiciary Committee meets monday to hear evidence in the ongoing impeachment inquiry against President Trump. Nadler, ranking republicans and others will hear from the council on finding the inquiry. We will start live coverage right here on cspan at 9 00 a. M. Eastern. You can also watch the hearings online at cspan. Org or you can listen to it live, on the free cspan radio app. Now, we want to know what you think about the white house decision to not participate in the house impeachment hearings. Lets go to the phone lines and go to diana, who was calling from livingston, new jersey, on the independent line. Diana, good morning. Caller hi, good morning. To histhis puts an end whining that it is not fair, not participation. He is the one who keeps moving the goalposts, and the republicans as well. First, they wanted a floor vote, we gave them a floor vote. Then they complained it was behind closed doors, even though it was an investigative part behind the impeachment inquiry, because the doj refused to investigate, for that is how it ended up in schiffs lap. And the House Intelligence Committee carried out the investigation. Then they wanted to know, why is it behind closed doors . We put it in public, and they complained about that. O now it is not a fair process, h, we dont have a chance to defend ourselves. First of all, they were the ones who were not comply with the subpoenas. , theyy had information would come forward, he would put them through as quick as jack flaps. Meanwhile, they do not understand the gravity of the situation, obviously with giuliani back in ukraine, trying to make a rightwing documentary on the clinton sort of cash style. These people, they make a lot of money, right, that they are told , the senate finance, the Senate Foreign relations, the senate intel committee, these are republicancontrolled, yet they issued reports that say ukraine did not meddle. Newspaper, ukrainian most people had not heard of halupa, and all she did was write an oped. Being so negative about President Trump, all he did was saying it was a crime to invade crimea. Host lets go to richard, on the republican line. Richard, good morning. Caller good morning. Big i think it is kind of a charade what is going on with the democrats in the impeachment inquiries. I think it is worthless for the republicans to even try to defend it anymore. It is just babbling on everyday. When it gets into the senate, the whole the main issue is biden and his son, and when all the facts come out relevant to what is happening there, then the real issue will be out there for the americans to see, and i are diggingmocrats a deep hole for themselves in the next reelection. I do not feel there is any possibility that they are going to go, get back in office, and maintain the congress, and especially the presidency, i think trump is a shooin for a win now, with the way it is going. I am just happy to get this all over, because it is just a waste of time, and get back to governing the country. The way most of the voters feel, and it is a big waste of time, what the democrats are doing. Host here is the reaction from congressman Jerrold Nadler on the white houses refusal to participate in the impeachment great. The American People deserve answers from President Trump. The white house invited him the president ordered them not to show a continued to block key evidence from congress. We are disappointed that the president has once again failed to provide those answers here. We gave President Trump a fair opportunity to question witnesses and to present his own to address the overwhelming evidence for us. After listening to have complained about the impeachment process, we had hoped he might accept our invitation. If the president has no good response to the allegation, that he would not want to appear before the committee. Having declined the opportunity, he cannot claim the process is unfair. The president s failure will not prevent us from carrying out our solemn constitutional duty. Lets go to caroline, who was calling from virginia on the independent line. Caroline, good morning. Caller yes, sir, thank you. Good morning to you and everybody. It is time for the republicans to pull up they pants, instead of wobbling around, because theld trump is escorting Republican Party destroying the Republican Party. One man one man destroyed, an evil man, not god, and even a man, satan. You know what . Guilty as sin. They is guilty. And that is why donald trump got the republicans doing what they doing, not attending nothing, nothing, bringing up joe biden, everybody else, and his son, and theng everybody, republicans do not want to admit that they is wrong, donald trump the republicans made donald trump what he is, because they got away with all of that stuff. The republican field, you can keep it. Thank you, byebye. Amika, who is to calling from West Virginia on the republican line. In my pronunciation name correctly . Caller amika. Host go ahead. Caller i think they are right to not participate in this sham. The democrats have been trying to impeach this man since he got elected. It was one thing or another. First it was the russians, then adam schiff said he had the evidence, and nobody has held him accountable in all of these lies. Now, even with metlife, you can listeners, the impeachment, so we can contrast with where he is today. You know that these people are trying to drag this man down. They have it has always been one thing or another. Way theylook at the are doing it, they made the right decision not to participate. If there was no crime, why would you want them to drag you into something you did not do and ask you to defend yourself . That is on American Theater think americans need to be awake to what the democrats are trying to do to this country, to this country. , voted for trump, people stand with him. I think he is the best thing that has happened to this country, ok . He is opposing the deep state. He has been going for a long, long time. I know that is why everyone is fighting against him, and we need to stand up and take it back. Host lets go to sheila, who is calling from carrollton, georgia on the democratic line. Sheila, good morning. Caller good morning. I hope you are doing ok today, keeping warm. Ejesuscolder than thb out here. Think i am a thisrat, but i think impeachment thing, yes, donald trump lies, every time he nancyaround, and but pelosi i think is, this impeachment thing is a waste of time. It is not going to go anywhere in the senate. And i wish we would just all come together. May i make another comments, please . And dont cut me off at i have something else. Host real quickly, sheila. Caller you had a segment on sunday morning, i think it was at 8 00, on the pharmaceuticals. Yeah. I wish you would have that lady back on again. I called my pharmacy. Out mine comes from california. I guess it is the only pharmaceutical we have got left. Canada,pills come from drops i have eye dropscts in my come from germany. Lets go to jeff, who is calling from hartford, connecticut, on the independent line. Jeff, good morning. Caller good morning. I would like to say if trump impeached on this ukraine thing, he can always my name isn, jeffrey, im from connecticut, and i am a in o staying at the chelsea center. Didgovernment literally cripple me. I am in a wheelchair can i cannot believe the things that have been going on. Is no one tomp he hasound with, because been lying so much to everybody, me,ony, and about and to his impeachment and everything, he is like totally misunderstood. Thank you. Host we want to acknowledge that today is National Pearl harbor remembrance day, a day in which we come together to honor servicember the 2403 members and civilians who died and were killed during the japanese attack on pearl harbor on december 7, 1941. We want to take a second to remember those and to acknowledge the fact that this attack happened today and to honor those who served this country. Lets go back to our phone lines and talk again about the white houses decision not to participate in the houses impeachment hearing. Lets talk to is calling from lake city, South Carolina on the democratic line. Sal, good morning. Caller good morning. Yes, good morning. I used to be a republican, but now i am a democratic. Trump is one of the worst things that ever came into the white house, because he is dividing the people, he is a liar, he is a con man, and he is no good for the country. He is the one that is dividing the people, and the people like but he is a no good person, and i wish they would make a change, and i wish they would impeach hi. Thank you very much. Host lets look at some of our social media reactions, on the white house deciding not to participate in the house impeachment hearings. Lets look at some of the texts and tweets that have come in. I stand with President Trump in not participating in this joke that they call in treatment. It is more like the democrats are interfering with the 2020 election. Here is another text that says, i support the white house decision not to produce in this nonsense. Academics were right out of central casting. This entire team is despicable. A last text that says simple maxim an honest person has nothing to hide. Why wont trump take advantage to the offer disperse participate in the hearings to offer his perspective . Lets get some phone calls before we end the top of the hour. Lets talk to barbara apache on the independent line. Barbara, good morning. Caller good morning. I have always voted for the man, not the party. I did not vote for donald trump, because the man has been a sleazebag his entire life. He has cheated and stolen from people who were his employees when he built his buildings. He has never, ever told the truth about anything. But is things his way, way is not the american way, his way is the trump way. The man needs to go to congress and stand up for himself, if he has a defense. If he does not have a defense, then he needs to quit the white house. Host lets move to darlene, who is calling from washington on the republican line. Darlene, i probably mangled the name of your town. Pronounce it for me. By boeing andmichae everett, washington. I do not think the white house should participate in the impeachment hearing process. I think our republicans and its judiciary should fight for our president , but my one comment i have to make as i was one of those are since that have closed before our government, trump made the announcement on the escalator, and then we started following it. What i have to say is there is so much dysfunction in incredible it is that we are supposed to look up to any of these people, whoever, republicans, democrats, the leaks, it is so discussion appeared how can we, as an american body, look up and say, oh, these are the people that are governing us. Lets get some more dysfunction in. Is it any wonder people are going crazy and going around shooting each other. Come on, government, how about some hr classes on how to get along with people and how to do arguments well together to come up with a solution . Thank you, cspan, love you. Mary, Merry Christmas. Host lets go to richard, who is going from lake geneva, wisconsin, on the independent line. Richard, good morning. Caller good morning. I am an air force veteran, and on this day, december 7, i cannot believe the divisiveness i hear throughout this show itself. He is President Trump was elected by the people. Regardless of how we feel about him, he is the president. The longer that the democrats carry on with this charade, the worse it is getting for our country, for our next generation. Senate,gets to the hopefully all of the facts will come out, and then we can get this behind us, continue the rest of this year, 2020 coming up also, and then elect someone or donald trump again and move on. This is supposed to be the United States of america. All people count, but at the same time, respect, in my opinion i am an older man now respect seems to have gone out the window. Thank you. Host lets talk to rhonda, who is calling from new jersey on the democratic line. Rhonda, good morning. Caller good morning. , america, and i would like to wish the entire country a happy hanukkah and a Merry Christmas this year. M, as far as the impeachment is going, i think the congress should really take their time. I would love to see trumps taxes, and i think that is the nail that will put the hammer down on trump, and he will resign. Vicelly wish that president pence would pull up his big pants and take over the country. Guys, whether we like it or not, donald trump has a problem, and we all love our country, and we all want to live in a democracy, not in a dictatorship, and if year,an gets back in next we will no longer be a democracy. That is the sin of all of this. The economy is doing great. Trump always knew how to make money, and i am not telling you i dont love him, because i do it i am an old woman. I admired trump back in the 1960s when he first got married. We love trump, but he is not a president , he is an entertainer and a businessman, and he is shady. He makes deals. He is telling you the truth, but he is not a president , and he is not president ial, and we all have to agree on that. God bless you guys. Host lets go to matt, who is calling from wading river, new york on the republican line. Matt, good morning. Matt, are you there . Caller yes, i am. Host go ahead. Caller good morning, cspan here thanks for taking my call. The media, in conjunction with the left, they are synonymous, for the most part, they build a narrative, and then they bring life into it. I listen to a lot of cspan, and i hear a lot of callers chastising trump supporters, when they forget that this is a free and open society, and people are entitled to their opinions. I support the president , and i think one of the reasons that lot is hes like him a refuses to accept the narrative. He does not confirm legitimacy on this proceeding, because it is not legitimate. People are talking about the fact that he is not letting administration officials, uh, respond to subpoenas, and he is seeking redress in the court, they forget to mention that part an awful lot. He does not have to send people there by subpoenas, he could take it to the courts. Nancy pelosi is the one who came out and said she does not want to wait for the courts, that she sees that as a delay tactic, when that is unavailable redress for the president in this instance. They took this to the justice department, and barr looked it over, and they applied the Intelligence Community whistleblower protection act, and he did not meet the standards of that. They issued an 11page report, and they said this thing does not have it does not have it is not legitimate. He is not a whistleblower, according to the act, and so they did not do it, and so schiff decided to pick it up. So he does not get the witnesses he wants, so he brings in a bunch of witnesses that have hearsay, secondhand, fourh rthhand knowledge. They bring in college professors, and it was extorted merrily stupid extraordinarily stupid for nadler to bring them in, you can look up online, they are a bunch of trump haters. They broughrepublicans brought n an, and he did not vote for trump, and he was the only one who said anything sane during the whole hearing. You cannot say this is congressional legitimate congressional oversight. Host lets go to late breaking news that came from the impeachment hearing, and this come from carl cheney, a National Reporter for political or to mike pence submitted additional classified evidenc about a phone call between parents and ukraines president. Chairman adamtee schiff revealed in a letter friday. Supplemental testimony from the eight, jennifer williams, about pences september 18 phone call with fred as it does president volodymyr zelensky, arguing there is no basis to keep it secret. It cannot be justified on National Security or any other legitimate grounds we can discern, schiff wrote to pence. Relevant information about pences phone call after a closeddoor testimony. She wished to convey it to impeachment evidence. Meant to the impeachment inquiry. We will probably hear more about this netsuite, Vice President next week Vice President s call with ukraine. Oregon, ohioue in on the independent line. Sue, good morning. Caller good morning, jesse. Host go ahead. Caller i just want to say that i agree with the white house not participating, because it is too onesided. It is all democrats. Last hearing, they had three democrats against one, so i agree with the white house. I think that they made a good decision, not participating, because it is too onesided. Host lets go to david, who was calling from tyler, texas on the republican line. David, good morning. Caller good morning. How are you doing . Host just fine. Go ahead. Caller yes, as far as no white house for dissipation in the hearing, theyent have a right to do that. And also host i think we lost david. Who iso to denny, calling from detroit, michigan on the democratic line. Good morning. Caller thank you, jesse. I have knowledge i want to share with you im driving down, late for an appointment, doing like 83 in a 70. I look over to the bluff, i see a state trooper. I slow my car down. I know, i see the operating lights in my rearview mirror. He pulls me over. The point is, i was doing over the speed limit, and i thought that i could have at least office skated by slowing down, done his job, what would that say about the system . When he gave me a 200 ticket, he was right for doing his job. I think i got away with it by slowing down. Not the democrats but the houston of representatives, they are doing their job, they are giving him a ticket here they caught him going over the speed limit. Even though he stopped, he still was guilty of the crime. Lets talk to grade, who is calling from corning, ohio on independent line. Morning. Od caller yeah, good morning. I do not think they should participate at all. Demoncrats are crazy. And this country is going to hell. Host we would like to thank all of our colleagues. Coming up next, troubled water author seth siegel will join us to talk about Drinking Water in the United States. Coming up, we will have a discussion about dna testing of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. But first, this week on a newsmakers, newsmakers interviews the Top Republican on a Key Committee writing a bill to reduce the price of drugs, congressman greg walden. He talked to reporters about the drug first legislation that prisoner best drug price legislation the drug price legislation that Speaker Pelosi is introducing on monday. Whats this on newsmakers coming up at 6 p. M. Eastern. Every american wants us to do something on the high cost of drugs, to bring them down, but most americans say, dont do it if it is at the expense of new cures. Cures matter, price matters, to our legislation will address both. Tragically, right now, the Democrat Bill would be the equivalent of wiping out what we fund at the National Institutes of health for three decades. They would take so much money r d,f our best out of research and development, and venture capital, everything that needs to the great cures. Our position is they would wipe out the equivalent of three decades of what we put into that and ih we put into the nih. We are working on modernizing Medicare Part d, which republicans let on back in 2003. We put that in place. It needs modernization. We were doing great until the Speakers Office dropped h. R. Three, their drug bill, and all negotiations stopped. Is it about the democratic legislation coming up next week that you think would limit research and development . There are a couple of things. There is the announcement by the congressional budget office, which is independent, as you know, which says, because their plan would take if it takes upwards of 500 billion to 1 trillion out of the health care, medicine world, you could see 815 new drugs never come out of the pipeline. I dont know if one of those would have cured alzheimers, or parkinsons or arthritis, they dont know either, what we do know is 815 drugs, the cbo tells us. The council of economic advisers took a look and said, industrywide, it could be upwards of 100 new drugs would pipeline, through the because you have this reduction in r d. Washington journal continues. Host we are back with seth siegel the senior fellow at the university of Wisconsins Center for water policy and author of the book troubled water what is wrong with what we drink. Good morning. Guest good morning. Great to be on your show and not just watching on our couch. Host how serious is the Drinking Water problem in the United States . Guest the biggest part of the problem is we actually dont know. One of the arguments i make is that Drinking Water may be the largest and most accident Public Health crisis of our time, but we dont know for sure because we dont simply have enough research and enough oversight by the e. P. A. , which is charged to look into this. The reason i wrote this book is because, the more i learned, the more i learned i was by what i found. What we find is that, almost everywhere in america, certainly not just in michigan, there are contaminants in our Drinking Water. What we dont know is how serious or severe the problem is. I will say one last word, is there are hundreds of thousands of chemicals in the United States and a mere 70 of them are regulated at the e. P. A. We know that many, many others are getting into our Drinking Water. We also know that the last time the e. P. A. Regulated in a chemical, or any contaminants for Drinking Water, is 23 years ago. This is something that clearly is broken. Host i know that we normally talk about Drinking Water in relation to flint, michigan or other cities. Y an urbans a solel problem or are we seeing it in rural areas as well . Guest so i write in my book troubled water, i break it down into a variety of areas. I break it into homes and businesses that get their water piped to them by public utilities, some 40 million americans who get their water from private Drinking Water wells. These are two different phenomena. For private Drinking Water wells, it is even worse, because the e. P. A. Has taken the position that they have no relationship whatsoever and no oversight whatsoever to private homes or people or offices will get their water from private Drinking Water wells. This is a separate water crisis. The extent that it is researched at all, and it is vastly underresearched, somewhere 30 to 45 of all private water drinking wells are contaminated. Public utilities are also subject to the same problem, a vast number of different contaminants with unknown Health Effects in our Drinking Water. Host so, whats the main problem here, is it the infrastructure, is it Prescription Drugs overuse, is it chemical being dumped in water by manufacturers . What would you say is the biggest problem that water faces in the United States right now . Guest jesse, thank you. To some extent, as you were making that list, i was thinking , yes, yes, yes, kind of all the above. If i could frame this for your viewers, i think the best way of looking at it is, the world changed, america changed from the time when we first created a Water Infrastructure. Our Water Infrastructure, whether it is wastewater or Drinking Water, is still basically a relic of what we were doing about 100 years ago. We came up with some very good systems for getting water much rer,ner, healthier, pu and people are not dying anymore from cholera, dysentery or fever, that is a victory. 1950,mewhere around america became a much more society. Lized chemicals became a part of everyday life to a degree that it had never been before. Simultaneously, americans started taking pharmaceutical products to a degree never before. So we have now lots of chemicals of different kinds, whether they are drugs, industrial chemicals, solvents or otherwise, that are getting into our water supplies, and we are not treating that in commensurate with the change in society. My argument in my book by the way, i am not antibusiness, antipharmaceutical or even antichemical company they bring, rates benefits to ricans best they bring they bring great benefits to americans. But we cannot be constant and also not have a change in the way that we treat our water, that is my argument, that we have to certainly have more research, we certainly have to have more use of technology, we have to change the way we charge for water and the way we price water, and we have to rethink the way utilities are configured, because it is very counterproductive to the health and wellbeing of americans. We have far, far too many utilities, and too many of them broke,her poor or unable to fix broken infrastructure. Host set who is actually responsible for testing water is that a city or state responsibility of federal responsibility or is it a private responsibility . Where does the buck stop when it comes to testing water to see if it is contaminated . Guest the structure that was created by the safety and can water act in 1974, creates a threepronged approach. You have federal responsibility, a state responsibility, except for wyoming, and you have a local responsibility. Not thelity is city, but to the utility. Some cities have more than one. When i talk about there being way too many utilities, for example, Los Angeles County has 200 separate Drinking Water utilities. The state of california has 7500 Drinking Water utilities. So it is not individual cities that is responsible. The way it works is the federal government, through the e. P. A. , has a list of what they call regulated contaminants, a total of 91 altogether. Nonchemical are like a biological or radiological contaminants. They give responsibility to each of the utilities to test for those 91 contaminants, and to see whether those contaminants are in peoples Drinking Water before it is distributed through the Drinking Water system. If the utility discovers that the level is too high, in theory, and it is important that i say, in theory, the utilities obliged to bring the level down, not necessarily to zero, just to what the e. P. A. Has determined is the healthy level. The problem of that is several things. First of all, it is largely is Self Reporting system, an honor volume ord also, the the concentration which is a healthy number, has changed several times. What may be healthy yesterday will not be healthy tomorrow, and that is of concern. What is also a problem is, if you live in a small community, and we have tens of thousands of utilities in what are called small communities that cover many millions of americans, they are exempt from any additional testing, what is called unregulated contaminant testing. That is limited only to big cities. It is kind of a mishmash, and it sounds confusing to the viewers, it is easy to understand, or is it to explain how we have got ourselves into nickel, that we have developed a system that is counterproductive to Public Health. Host lets let the viewers join in. We will open up regional lines for our conversation about water safety. That means if you are in the eastern or central time zones, we want you to call in at 2027488000. If you are in the mountain or pacific time zone, we want to 2027488001. At remember, you can always text at 2027488003. And we are always reading on socialmedia on twitter, cspanwj, and facebook. Com cspan. Seth, i want to ask you a question from one of our socialmedia followers. They want to know. , if Drinking Water is generally safe on American Indian reservations. Do they have adequate Water Infrastructure there . We usually talk about urban and rural, but a lot of times, we dont talk enough about our American Indian reservations. Do you have any information on that . Guest i dont know if you saw the way my nostrils flared when i heard that question asked i am not a highly emotional guy but ill tell you i did many interviews. Cited hundreds of interviews for the book i did hundreds of interviews for this book, and i read about native American Reservations in my book in troubled water,. Afterly time i ever cried i finished an interview was after i finished a next ordinary interview with the person in charge of Drinking Water at the crow nation reservation. It is a severe problem. To the extent that we all have our health at risk because of contaminants in our Drinking Water, the native American Reservations are even worse. They very much rely on Drinking Water welds as well as reverse that run through their territory. They are largely underfunded. They are understaffed. Are at people there significant risk from a whole range of contaminants. I tell the very sad and painful story about sewage that was leaking into water and into the reservation, and how it took an uncommonly long amount of time, more than 10 years, before the federal government took some responsibility and fixed the problem. Sue who is go to calling from gynn oak, maryland. Caller thank you for taking my call. The comment you were just making about noon americans, i have a Family Experience making about native americans, i have relatives who were coal miners in West Virginia, a poor part of West Virginia. And the water has always been bad,y, smelled bad, tasted a lot of relatives have unusual diseases, a lot of early deaths. Recently on cspan, there was a guest talking about mortality rates of americans in general age 25 to 64 going up. I think the major problem in this country is that businesses have been treated almost like gods. And wealthy entities are worshiped to the degree that they do not have to take responsibility for the externalization that literally killed people. In West Virginia, for example, it is basically domestic colonialism. These people have just been left to die. Coming from a really ugly history of Mining Companies actually owning the towns in a type of servitude. Nowhis legacy of it is passing along with the plastics. Even with big Tech Companies that are making devices that are designed to be thrown out every year iphones, it is ridiculous. Entitiesedibly wealthy that take no responsibility. I really believe that until americans wake up and recognize 99 of this is coming from the 1 . Host go ahead and respond there, seth. Guest thank you very much for the question, sue. I share many of the views you have, if not all of them. Obviously, that is a Grave National problem. I dont take the position of antagonism to corporations. I believe the only way we will solve this problem, and it is a vast problem, the only way we can solve this problem is to have, an all hands on deck republican and democrat approach cooperation between nonprofits, academia and civil society, all engaged together. The biggest problem is people dont really know enough about what is going on with their Drinking Water. I have written this book, troubled water, because it wants to raise awareness on a topic that is underreported on and we need to know about. As we know more, we will do more. But the key thing about your comments that are important to note is, that it is absolutely true that there are severe problems throughout all of america with Drinking Water, severe problems. Part of that is because of the fact that existing regulations are not adequately enforced. You,xample, i want to tell last year or the year before, there were 80,000 separate violations of the safe Drinking Water act that were selfreported to the ep only to the e. P. A. By the local utility. If that was selfreported, who knows what the real number was. Of that number, we have many places in america, many, where the violation includes the distribution of water with known carcinogens and other health hazards, endocrine disruptors that affect Public Health, public children the health of children and fetuses, and yet, the e. P. A. , year after year, winks at these violations. Does not do anything to fine the utility, nor does it compel an action plan to make it better. The point of my book is to say that what we need to do is we need to rethink almost every component of our Drinking Water system. From consolidation of all utilities we have far too many of them to rethinking whether even the ep a is the right home for Drinking Water regulation. I make the argument in my book that it might make sense to transfer responsibility from the e. P. A. To health and Human Services so we make it unambiguous that our concern is Public Health, and not for, as you put it, costcontainment and profiteering. Host i want to read a little bit from your book here and ask you a question. I am seeing over and over on socialmedia here. This paragraph from your book the Drinking Water we have today is the result of a failure of vision and a lack of technology, but also of institutions that in their lethargy and their appearance to the status quo, and their elevation of Cost Containment over Public Health, and their bias toward keeping chemicals and commerce as much have failed the public they are in place to serve. Thats what you wrote. I am seeing this question coming up in different forms on socialmedia, lot of people saying, no one drinks tap water anyway, everyone to bottled water. So why is this a problem . Can you address this for us . Do americans dont drink tap water anyway, are we all drinking bottled water . Whats going on here . Guest i actually have a whole chapter on my book on that question about that very topic. First of all, i will give you some statistics. I regard the birth of bottled water in america, which it has been around a long time but it started in a mass way around 1980. I regard the mass introduction and mass usage of bottled water in the United States as an indictment of Peoples Trust. In their government Peoples Trust in their government. I will not go into the larger issues that animate the day, but obviously, there is a lot of concerns by citizens about the proper functioning of their government, possibly at all levels, but currently, largely at the federal level. Drinking water is a local responsibility, and i believe that the statement april are making every day by buying bottled water Statement People are making every day by buying bottled water is a quiet indictment, is sense of exasperation with local government. What we need to do is we need to fix our tap water system so that people first of all can have safe, Drinking Water for all, but also, that people can understand that government is there for them and caring for them. The specifics on bottled water, the statistics are that one third of americans no longer drink tap water at all. Another approximately 30 , a bit under will primarily drink bottled water, but not exclusively. So you have somewhere in the vicinity of 60 of americans generating and i will share a number with you that will blow your socks off they generate 7 70 billion separate Drinking Water containers a year from that usage. 60 of all bottled water consumed is consumed in peoples homes, which means they are right next to a sink. All this says that people are morered to spend vastly money for what they perceive as safe Drinking Water through a bottle than they are to fix at a nominal cost, not a very large cost, to fix their top water system. I want to make one last point, and maybe some of your viewers on social media can come in and ask further questions there is a complete fallacy, however, thinking that bottled water is necessarily safer than your tap water. As i show in my book, and i did a lot of research on this, under federal law, 70 of all bottled states,ld in the united that means 70 of 70 billion containers, 70 of all bottled water sold in the United States is not subject to any federal regulation, and as long as it is bottled and sold in the same state doesnt need to be anything other than tap water that has just been put into a bottle and sealed. That tap water can be contaminated. It can have arsenic, e. Coli, and so forth. It is true that the Premium Brands have a Better Safety record. It is also true that the elastic of the bottle contains plastic of the bottle contains many, many chemicals, and if that bottle has been stored in a hot place, say a hot car on a summer day, and you drink it, you are putting yourself at risk of chemicals that have leeched into the water. Who needs tap water, we have bottled water i think we need to understand what the risks of bottled water are beyond the Plastic Waste that is created. Host another question from our callers. From aurora,ing colorado. Caller good morning and thank you for taking my call. And please come excuse my wandering, however, i think that water is not simply a national problem, it is a global problem. Water is a commodity that is needed by every organism on this planet, and we are messing it up in a fantastic way each and every one of us. And question about the atmosphere is not static, water is not static, the atmosphere is not static. I have one question about what is considered organic. Organic. However, organic has to be watered somehow. Isevery drop of water that on the surface evaporates up to the atmosphere, and it is dropped wherever, than every drop of water that may be infected by contaminants that are biological or medical um,aminants that we dont, there is no way to pull that out of the water, so who knows what we are getting from our exquisite medical contaminants, all of that is dropped back down organics aree not organic. Host go ahead and respond to her concerns. Guest you are actually right, but you are confusing two separate things. Crops that are rainfed, as it is called, irrigated by rain, are not subject to the exact concerns because water that is contaminated, when it is operates and becomes rain, it becomes clouds and becomes rain, in the evaporation process, the chemicals are left behind and it pure water you that becomes rain. However, a very large percentage of organic crops are not rainfed but irrigationfed. That is where the problem becomes. You are absolutely right, and scientific studies have proven this again and again, many, many different plans of different kinds take up into their structure a whole variety of chemicals. They dont shed the chemicals and just keep the pure water. So you may have organic chemicals that are being irrigated with water that has unregulated contaminants in it, or even regulated contaminants in it for that matter, and you are then selling organic material, organic fruits and vegetables that have been irrigated with less than pure water. Now, it is true also to put your mind to rest my goal is not to scare anybody, but to get everybody activated to demand better water and Water Systems, you have to eat a very large volume of any given fruit or vegetable irrigated with contaminated water to have any kind of a large presence of it in your body. The alternative concern is we just dont know what volume these contaminants again to monkey with your endocrine system, your organs, or if it could be a carcinogen. Thats why i call for much more research by the e. P. A. , the health and Human Services, or universities funded by the federal government. Host i am getting another version of this question from socialmedia. I will frame it in this way a lot of people want to know what can they do individually to stop the problem. The question specifically is, due overthecounter water filters can clean contaminants from the water supply . Youhe second part is, do have a listing on the best and worst municipal Water Systems . Guest those are two very different questions. So the final chapter of my book is actually about what you can do yourself. Because the first 10 chapters of the book are about our common system, which we all share, and what i believe are the fixes that are needed at affordable prices so that everybody can have safe, clean, healthy Drinking Water, and not in 100 years, but in 10 years, which i believe is totally doable. Which is why i have devoted my life to this work and why i do what i do. It would be irresponsible if anybody cannot guard their own health and the health of their children and their families, and that it is essential, therefore, for people to be mindful of what they are drinking in the kind of contaminants that are in their tap water, and to do everything they can possibly do to make things better. I go through that in some detail book, final chapter of my because i dont want to leave anybody without a sense of what they can do today and, in the final third of my book are solutions of all kinds, because i dont want to leave people without solutions to every one of the problems i posit in my book. The answer is, it is a mixed bag in the main. You have to be absolutely sure, first of all, that you are tearing up your filtration system, the right filters, with the right contaminants at hand. Just to buy one of these pitchers or tabletop or refrigerator systems, in and of itself, will not be enough unless you have done comprehensive testing. And the testing has to be more than just of the handful of contaminants like lead or pfoa. You need to know what is in your water so you compare it up with the proper filtration system. Number two, this is a big and Important Health thing, you must be mindful to be careful to change your filters on the schedule that it is prescribed by the company that offers it, because if the filter is not cleaned or replaced, you can find yourself in a situation with hyper toxic water which is even worse. I also talk in the book about, if you are very wealthy, and i dont think it is fair to ask americans to do this, but you can also spend many thousands of dollars putting in ultra highend, rollsroyce kind of treatments, something called reverse osmosis, you can put that into your home as well. The second question was, who are the best and who are the worst . I did not list that for two reasons. First of all, anyone who reads , will, troubled water realize very quickly that i am not a believer in fingerpointing. It doesnt necessarily get you far in life. It gets people to hunker down and fight back. I want to give a warm embrace to all parts of the equation and say, how do we make this better for all . So i chose not to identify the hundred worst or the 500 worst. The other reason i did not say who the five best are, although i do talk about one extraordinary system, in orange county, california, the reason i chose not to do that was because it is a very fluid situation. New contaminants are occurring all the time, so by the time the book would have gone to print and come up on shelves, it is possible that the community that had very good systems, that it suddenly had a contaminant that was a health risk. One final word i spent a whole chapter identifying what i believe is a very great model for everybody and that is i took about orange county, california. The reason is because they did something very daring. They decided to basically ignore the e. P. A. Guidelines and say, ok, we understand what they water. E want even purer they created a situation where taking all their sewage, they clean that sewage at such a ultrahigh pure level that it is purer than any what are you will get at a lake or a river, and more that any groundwater that you would be getting otherwise. There is a system that is possible. They do this at about six two cents a week per person there . 60 a week per person there, which is a lot less than we spend for bottled water, cable, cell phones and so forth. We can have very clean water today,nown technologies and we could avoid what could be a very serious Health Crisis for ourselves and our children. Host we would like to thank seth siegel, author of troubled water, for coming to us and talking to us about american Drinking Water systems. Guest thank you, jesse. Thank you so much. Host coming up we talked to Marc Rotenberg of the Electronic Privacy Information Center about the privacy concerns surrounding consume directtoconsumer dna g kits. We will be right back. Visit note announcer for campaign 2020 this weekend, we are live in iowa following the democratic president ial candidates. Sunday at 1 00 p. M. Eastern, senator Bernie Sanders speaks with supporters in indianola. Live campaign 2020 coverage from iowa this weekend on cspan. Watch anytime at cspan. Org, and listen on the go with the free cspan radio app. As House Democrats, along with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, begin drafting articles of impeachment on President Trump and ukraine, the House Judiciary Committee needs for a hearing on evidence, live monday at 9 00 a. M. Eastern, with democratic and republican counsel resenting findings on the inquiry. Watch live on cspan, online at cspan. Org, or listen with the free cspan radio app. Out andcans are coming getting engaged and politics is feeling a little bit less like a spectator sport for people on the left, but a lot of the same social issues that the book covers are still the ones that are relevant today. People in this book were outraged by issues like family separations, sexual assaults on women, the devaluation of black lives, etc. This period provides a really crucial precursor to our moment. Announcer university of massachusetts professor holly jackson, talks about her book american radicals pure comedy sunday night at 8 00 eastern on cspans q a. Washington journal continues. Are back with Marc Rotenberg, president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center. We are here to talk about these directtoconsumer private dna tests. Good morning. Tell us what the Electronic Privacy Information Center is, what you all do, and who funds you. Guest let me take the first question first. We are a Nonprofit Research organization based here in washington, d. C. We were established 25 years ago to focus public attention on emerging privacy issues. We do policy research, litigation advocacy, testify in congress, and try to keep the public wellinformed. You asked about our funding. We are a bit unique, we dont take money from private companies, and we dont stick government grants, we are supported by individual donations we dont take government grants, we are supported by individual donations. Host we have seen in the last few years the rise of private dna testing, the kids from 23 and me and ancestry. Com. Is there a concern with privacy with these companies . Guest first of all, the kits have become really popular particularly around christmas time, people are buying them for family members. Typically you take a swab, send it to the company and they send back information to you about family ties, origins, and so forth. It is a technology that is rapidly advancing and also a technology that is of great interest to Law Enforcement. Thats where the privacy concerns begin, because dna samples are also used when collected at crime scenes to determine who may have been the victim of a crime, to determine who may have perpetrated a crime. The f. B. I. Has built a very large dna database to track individuals for crime related investigations. Your so, when you submit dna to one of these companies, do they keep it, do they just test it and discard it, are all of these Companies Different . What is being done with all of this genetic material being sent in . Guest first of all, they will typically keep the information, they will code it and use the coded information in different ways. Sometimes it will be used for research. Some of these companies have relationships with drug firms are doing research. People do have the option with some of the large firms to have their samples deleted. That is a privacy measure that some users might want to take advantage of. The big debate right now concerns Law Enforcement access to the genetic databases, because, the people who are investigating these crimes have certainly figured out if they can get access to the data that is being gathered by 23 and me and ancestry. Com, they have a whole new way to solve crimes. Host so, do these companies voluntarily have to return this material over to Law Enforcement . Is it subpoenaed . Are there agreements already in existence that they agree to share with them . To you, as a person using these materials, sign a box somewhere in the agreement that allows them to do this . Best so, the policy i the policies the policies vary. Was onee cases there which is responsible for solving a big case in california are year ago. There are large firms like 23 and me and ancestry. Com who have policies. It is in their interest to be able to ensure their customers that the information will be protected. The problem you see is that these companies cant provide a privacy assurance is lawenforcement comes with, as you say, a subpoena or a warrant. Typically, theyll be required to comply. What was so interesting this past year, in fact, in the last couple of months in Law Enforcement agent in florida was able to get a warrant for data getmatch,ollected by even after a majority of people who had provided their samples had said exquisitely they did not want that information disclosed to third parties, including Law Enforcement. So you are going to see these situations where people who are expecting privacy, and companies that have promised privacy, will nonetheless find their personal data being obtained for a criminal investigation. Host i want to read a statement from 23 and me on their consumer data what they say is her policy we never share Customer Data with Law Enforcement unless we receive a legally valid request such as a shortag search warrana court order. Upon receipt, we use all practical legal measures to challenge such request in order to protect our customers privacy. So are we see Law Enforcement agencies around the country moving toward asking for the data more and more . Guest tense exactly what is happening. Companies like 23 and me are trying to reassure their customers that they will take whatever measures they can to protect the data they have collected. But a very important part of the story to understand is that, ultimately, they are likely to comply with the legal process, the subpoena or the warrant, which means the information will be disclosed. Has applications not only for the person whose dna sample has been provided, but also for the familiar relations, because part of what makes dna investigations so interesting is that when you have information about one person, is you also information about the persons relatives. That can be very useful in the context of an investigation. Host our companies doing this dna testing, are they telling the consumer about this in advance . Is there some warning we should be looking for, or are they just not . Guest partly because of the public discussion about this issue i think they have been forced to be more forthcoming. One of the things the Big Companies have done is they have began to publish what are called transparency reports. In these transparency reports they now provide on an annual basis the number of requests may have received from Law Enforcement for dna information. They also explain how many times they have disclosed the dna information that has been requested. This is aggregate data. They are not revealing information about particular investigations. But those transparency reports, i think we should watch closely, because i anticipate that over the next few years, we are going to see more requests from Law Enforcement for this information, and that should be reflected in the report the companies are providing. Host let us let our viewers join in the conversation. We will once again open up regional lines. That means if you are in the eastern or central time zones, we want you to call in at 2027488000. If you are in the mountain or pacific time zones, we want you to call in at 2027488001. You can always text us your question or comment at 2027488003. And we are always reading on socialmedia on twitter and on facebook. Before we take our first call, i ask, is our state legislatures and Congress Getting involved in trying to pass any type of legislation that will curtail or even opened this up further for Law Enforcement . Guest that is really the key question. Our hope is that the states and Congress Look mostly at this issue. The f. T. C. Said last year that they were involved in an investigation. The flood of them are has raised cap the f. D. A. Has raised concern about these test kits. What is interesting about this data is that it falls of side of the medical privacy rules, the hippa. It also falls outside the law that was established to protect Genetic Information in the employment context. So i think we need new legislation. Host how well we have been talking a lot about how Law Enforcement is using this. But we also saw when companies started collecting more personal information about people, we saw several data breaches. How well is his Genetic Information protected by the companies that are collecting it . Do we have to worry about that he hacked, about our dna somehow getting out to the public . Guest that is another key concern. Today as far as im aware, there has not a significant hack. But we have had significant hacks of government databases like the obm data breach back internetta breach back 15. Not only was it about 22 million records, but you had 5 million digitized fingerprints. When that information gets out there, you cant really change your fingerprint. It is very similar to the problem if you had a dna data breach. So i think that olson is to be watched mostly. Host lets go to the phone lines and take a call from clecve, calling from capitol heights, maryland. Caller the, people cannot trust the president , the company, the water supply or anybody that runs Todays Society because they are all in it to make the maximum money at the expense of human decency, human rights, and human lives. Deny people the right or restricted for the of cubanamericans to visit the island. Guest sorry, i did not hear the question. Ve was talking about the way that this is more proof that people cannot trust the corporations and the government to protect their data. Guest i think this is a real risk. The Companies Choose to collect certain kinds of information, and they make choices about how it is going to be used and who they should be disclosed to. One of the arguments my organization has made for many years, that these Companies Need to be regulated, there need to be some legal obligations associated with the collection and use of personal data. The big problem we have today in the United States, is that our privacy laws have not been up dated. You have new businesses and new technologies that the law for the most part is lagging behind. I think we need federal registration in this area. Host we have been talking a lot about government access to this information. I know there was concern when these tests first started about private access to this information, for example, from Insurance Companies looking for genetic defects in peoples family lines that would make them more expensive to insure. Is their access to this genetic accesstion is there to this Genetic Information for a private company collecting it, are they selling this information to Health Companies . Some of them are sharing it for research, you said. Is there sharing it for any other reason . Guest companies are very concerned about this issue, and they have insurance is that they are not disclosing the information to Insurance Companies precisely because if that information were made available to Health Insuranc wouldrs, health costs likely go up and some people would become uninsurable. But here is the problem. A lot of the research relies on identification. Companies collect very sensitive data, and they say, we have stripped out the identifying details. We will make it available to researchers, and maybe that goes to insurers, but people dont need to worry because it is no longer personally identifiable. The problem is there has never been an independent verification of those techniques ofdeidentification. We think it is important that the techniques of de identification actually be tested and verified so that peoples private data is not improperly used. Host lets talk to bill calling from new york i think that is not a talk, new york what is city . Me of your cities manatauck. Na talk my question is, are there people who will do the test on a purely anonymous basis, in other words, they will not take your name, just a sign a Reference Number so that there is no way they can iraq . That they give you your personal information but there is no way they connect that dna sample to you personally or to your name. Guest is a very good question. If you go online, you will find techniques for doing that. Your eveno spoof address, you will need a Payment System not tied to you, then he will need a Mailing Address to get the results that is also not tied to you. There are various ways to be would to do that, but it does take some work, and it is not guaranteed. Host lets talk to douglas calling from staten island, new york. Good morning. Caller good morning, jesse and good morning, mark. Thank you for what your organization does. I have been a good supporter of you guys for a long time. You kind of touched on things that i forgot to ask. As far as regulations go, unless there is actual loss specifically laws specifically, can we not expect ancestry and 23 and me as simply [indiscernible] because without having a binding contractual agreement to be upheld in court and to be upheld in law passed either locally or federally, federally would be much better, can we just say to ourselves that a corporation basically is going to do whatever it can get away with . Guest that is our concern, of course. They do make presentations to consumers regarding privacy protections. We have gone to the f. T. C. In the past and tried to enforce those presentations. Sometimes the federal trade commission will act, sometimes it wont, which is also a problem we have. We do think the laws need to be updated and we do think theyre new to be stronger protections put in place. One of the particular problems with these dna databases, is they provide a lot of information about a lot of people. Frankly, when Law Enforcement goes to a dna database, it doesnt know precisely what it is looking for, which means it can access a vast amount of information. Considering the scope of the data and the sensitivity of the data, it seems obvious to us that there should be very high privacy standards in place. Host lets talk to linda who is calling from mission, kansas. Good morning. Caller good morning, cspan. Thank you for being there. I thought i would tell you a story about what happened to me. I was contacted by the division of Family Services to see about adopting two third cousins that i was not aware were living. They said he used the industry to find relatives. They also contacted all of my siblings. So i would like to comment on that. Guest thats concerning. The services were established, a according to the company, for the benefit of the users. They gets more complicated when the government starts to use these dna databases to make family connections. I think thats a practice government should consider more carefully. Of course, the companies will also warn you to be aware that sometimes the information you receive as a result of dna testing is going to be a bit of a surprise. So all of these services i think need to be used with some sensitivity. Ast you actually appear in recent copy of the washingtonian, are giving for International Bureau of private. Tell us what that would look like. Guest i have been studying privacy law for many years. One of the things i realized, as have others, is that the u. S. Is the most unique, in that we dont have a federal Data Protection agency. We have lots of agencies in washington that we dont have an agency that focuses specifically on privacy. Thats a real problem, because when these new challenges, like the use of dna for commercial purposes or Law Enforcement purposes comes along, there is nobody out there defending the public. The question you asked is where would it be located . We would like it to be independent, and should not be within another agency or department, it should operate perhaps like the federal trade commission, or the f. C. C. , and it should have authority to advocate on behalf of the privacy and interest of the american public. It is really a high priority issue now. , callings talk to tim from baltic, ohio. Good morning. Caller good morning. I am kind of wondering, what is the difference between walking into a Convenience Store and having your picture taken as opposed to having dna testing done . I dont see the difference. If you dont do the crime, then you dont have to worry about who takes your picture or who has your dna. If you are doing crime, it is a good thing, we find out who the rapist is. Guest both photography and dna collection are forms of identification that raise privacy issues. You are assuming that the person taking the photo or gathering the dna sample is doing it for good reason. I dont always make that assumption. A lot of data breaches occur precisely because criminals and foreign adversaries are trying to get access to our personal data. One of the reasons we put laws in place is to ensure that personal information, what it is when itused for is collected, is used for private. That when it is collected, it is used for purposes that you and i agree are appropriate, but also prevents uses that probably are not right. Host so are you advising people efficiently not to do these tests people officially not to do these tests . Guest my view is i would not use these tests until there were stronger privacy protections in place. I think the benefits are clear, and people increasingly are using them, and i respect that. Think people should understand that even the privacy promises Companies Make would not be enforceable if lawenforcement agencies go to them with a warrant. That the problem today. If we can get Better Privacy safeguards in place, we can get the benefit of the service and we can also minimize the privacy risk. Host are there any states out there, or is Anyone Congress to get therds trying type of legislation that you would suggest is needed in this area . Guest we havent seen legislation yet around dna, certainly not in congress. There was a very good effort about a decade ago by a congresswoman slaughter, that is how we got the Genetic Information nondiscrimination act. I think that law needs to be up dated, as i said. There has been some interest in the fda and the f. T. C. , but not a lot of activity. Host and where should we be watching as we move toward the christmas season, where, you know, a bunch of these tests will be given to people as Christmas Gifts . I did that myself a few years ago. Where is the next front here, where should we be watching, what the thing that is going to happen next . Guest i think if you are thinking of giving this is a gift, or if you receive it as a gift, it would be very wise to take a close look at the privacy policies, what the privacy options are. For example, if you decide to submit a sample, you can ask for the sample to be deleted. Thats probably minimizing some of the risk. It doesnt eliminate it, but i would consider doing Something Like that. Host lets talk to william calling from jefferson township, pennsylvania. Good morning. Caller hello. How do you find out whos got what on you . Everybody has these cell phones and everything, how do you prevent people from getting too much information on you that you dont want them to have . Guest [laughing] that is a very important question, i wish i had a good answer for you. The reality is that Companies Collect an enormous amount of data about, far more information than we typically give to the company. Most of the Data Collection techniques occur through third advertisers, very detailed profiles are established. People really dont know what information about them is gathered. One of the reasons we have urged congress to update federal privacy law is that we would all have a better understanding of what information about us is collected and how it is used. Perhaps most critically, it would be able to criticize the amount of data that is gathered. Companies collect far more information than they should, in some of it creates a risk. Host does the government already collected dna information from people already convicted of a crime and who are jailed . Guest yes. So there is a long history in the department of justice, the system,s the codis centralized index of dna records across the states. Originally, this information was only to be collected from convicted sex offenders, because it was viewed as so sensitive. In that specific case, the argument was made that it was appropriate to gather that information. Over time, it has dramatically expanded, so now, dna is being collected at the time of arrest, or it can even be collected, pursuant to a stop, dna is being collected from immigrants. Host lets talk to any, calling from sugar grove, North Carolina. Good morning. Caller good morning, jesse. I love your bow ties. You are my favorite host of all. I miss you on saturdays when you are not around. [laughter] jesse go ahead with your question. Caller my question is more of a comment. A man called in, and he said something about cameras taking your pictures, that if you dont have anything to hide, dont worry about it, we will catch the rapist well, here in North Carolina there are tens of thousands of rick gates sitting in various rape kits sitting in various Police Department not being processed. That blows his comment out of the water. And it is in every state, i think charlotte had 10,000 rick rape kits. One last point, it takes somewhere between 810 hours to process a rape kit. Every square inch of a womans body is gone over, because it is a crime scene. So for that man to make that comment, do some research about rape kits. They are just sitting in Police Departments. Host do they collect dna from rape kit . Guest we do. And the caller makes a great comment, how do we allocate resources to lawenforcement to solve crimes when we have evidence in hand . Pe kits are evidence in hand, and they should used. Host next caller. You had a question . Caller yes. I did 23 and me myself, and i am not worried about that at all. Or anythingany risk like that, because that is out there, because i am not committing crimes. What is the risk to me to have my dna out there . Host you are not a criminal, what is the risk in your dna being in these databanks somewhere . Guest if there is information contained in the dna sample it could in some areas affect rates that a person may end up paying. In my view, we ought to have in place strong rules that protect everybodys rights, which means sometimes we have to be prepared to say, even though i know i havent committed a crime, i once to live in a country where i know our lawenforcement agencies are following legal procedures even for those affected of times. Host is there anything you can do if your dna has overdue been admitted into one of these systems . Guest it is possible you can ask to have it deleted. If you know which system, go to their website and ask to have it deleted. Host we would like to thank Marc Rotenberg, president of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, for being with us today and talking to us about these take at home the nhs. Guest nice speaking with you, take at home dna tests. Guest thank you, jesse. Host join us monday for the impeachment hearings. Chairman of nadler, member doug collins and other committee. Embers of our live coverage will start at 9 00 a. M. Here on cspan, online at cspan. Org, or listen live on the free cspan radio app. Thanks for being here, and everyone come have a great saturday. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2019] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] as House Democrats, along with Speaker Nancy Pelosi, given drafting articles of impeachment, the house judiciary live on monday. Watch live on cspan, online at cspan. Org, or listen with the free cspan radio app. Coming up this morning, next, the House Judiciary Committee holds a hearing with legal experts to discuss the constitutional framework for drawing up articles of impeachment against the president. After the hearing, members of the House Judiciary Committee shared their reaction to the hearing with the press. Then, we take you live to cedar rapids, iowa, where democratic president ial candidates speak at a forum on labor issues, hosted by the International Brotherhood of teamsters union. The House Judiciary Committee held a hearing with legal experts to discuss the constitutional framework