Liberty. Thert wiseman looks at procedures percent impeachment trial. Impeachment trial. We will take your calls and tweets come alive on washington journal. Done to prevent them. Heres how to take part in the conversation. Republicans, 202 7488001, democrats, 202 7488000. Ndependents, 202 7488002 you can certainly weigh in by social media and also by text. Send us a text at 202 7488003. Leave your name and where you are texting from also social media, cspan wj is our twitter handle and you could post at facebook. Com cspan. The front page of the wall street journal, attacks target churchhome and a texas says the headline. In this picture, the caption says sacred space. They show the rabbi here, the second from the top, standing with supporters on sunday, the day after the stabbing attack during a hanukkah celebration. Five people injured. Also in a settlement texas. A gunman opened fire during Church Services killing two people before being shot and killed. That is the wall street journal. Usa today says the knife attack was an act of hatred. They write that a man was ordered held on 5 million bail sunday after a knifewielding attacker stabbed five people during a hanukkah celebration in a rabbis home. The latest in a string of assaults apparently targeting jews in the region. The suspect is 37 years old, pleaded not guilty to five counts of attempted murder and one count of attempted burglary in the attack. Governor cuomo directed this date Police Hate Crimes task force to investigate. He says the attack was at least the 13th incident of antisemitism in the state in the past few weeks. A quote from the governor here, this is intolerance needs ignorance meets illegality. It is an american cancer on the body politic. Governor cuomo in usa today this morning. President trump sent this tweet during the day yesterday. The antisemitic attack in monsey, new york milani and i wish the victims of recovery. The Washington Post headline this morning says as antisemitic attacks rise authorities are wondering how to respond. A short blurb from the Police Commissioners News Conference in new york. Dermot shea said he could not believe he was addressing the public about antisemitic violence less than a month after the attack in jersey city, new jersey. , it is truly surreal to be having the same conversation about hate, conversation about intolerance, he said in oklyn on sunday before this affects us all, says the police chief. That is in the Washington Post this morning. Reaction from official minorityn the gop whip Steve Scalise commented on the new york hanukkah stabbings. Talked about government response. Heres a look. [video clip] its alarming and we are seeing growing antisemitism. Something we need to speak against, people of all faiths. Whether it is a synagogue in pittsburgh, the home of an orthodox rabbi, we need to stand up and say its wrong to attack people based on their faith, and to see this antisemitism growing throughout our country, it is something we need to not only be alarmed about but also stand up against. Is there some kind of government response that is logical to this to a wave of antisemitism we have seen in new york . I think the reaction needs to be quick and direct that antisemitism is wrong. That attacks on people of faith are wrong and regardless of whose attacked, we will stand against it, not try to figure out who did it. That is Law Enforcements job. Law enforcement is doing a great job of making sure they are getting suspects. Too often washington you see people trying to figure out someones motives instead of just saying it is wrong, call it out for what it is, antisemitism is wrong. We need to stand against it and it is unfortunately starting to pop up around the country more, so we need to stand up and be vocal and united against it. Host that was the House Minority whip, commenting on the hanukkah shootings north of new york. Back to texas. The dallas morning news, republicans praising laws. They say for did the Church Shooter on sunday. Democrats call for gun control. New york times has this headline about the Texas Church Shooting. This would have been a massacre if not for church security. A little detail from West Settlement texas. A gunman opened fire on sunday morning in a Church Killing two people with a shotgun before a member of the church and volunteer Security Team fatally shot him. There were 250 worshipers in the west Freeway Church, where the government began shooting just before communion, said jack cummings, a minister at the church. Mr. Cummings says the gunman was acting suspicious and drew the attention of the church Security Team. This team has existed for at least 10 years and has and is made up of the congregation members who are licensed, to carry firearms and practice shooting regularly. Time for your reaction on these violent acts over the weekend. Nick, you are up from gaithersburg, maryland. Independent line just outside d. C. Caller i would just like to say , the majority of the blame really falls on the media, number one. Number two, the amount of antisemitism that is encouraged and spread in the universities. It being lot of reported on by independent, amateur, i guess you call it news outlets and stuff. You can check out any of these videos on youtube or any other social media, where students are openly antisemitic. It seems to be encouraged. Host to your point, you mention campuses but you also mentioned the media. What is media doing, what are media doing to encourage this . Caller every day. Minutes without one celebrity, one news outlet, constantly disparaging christians, calling christians everything from slaveowners to this to that. Its just constant. If you think im being hyperbolic about it, you really arent taking a good look at whats really going on around you. Or you live in a bubble. Host that was nick calling from gaithersburg. Lets hear from joyce. Welcome to the program. What is your reaction to all this . Because im horrified am ethnically jewish through my mother, who never told anybody in her whole life except my father that she was ethnically jewish. She had to keep it hidden because of fear. Because it does not come from the media. Where it really comes from is in peoples homes, what the adults say to each other in front of their children, against jewish people and other ethnicities. I remember when i was a little girl i went to a friends house and we were listening to her parents talking, and the father said he hated dirty jews and i did not even understand that. It comes from in the homes. Theres people that talk like that in front of their children and children are impressionable. They remember. Host what should be done about this, joyce . Should more be done in the legal area . Whether it is local or state or federal government, is enough being done . What else could be done to prevent these incidents . Caller when i was a girl i grew up on air force bases because dad was in the military and we had a class called citizenship. I was already a u. S. Citizen, but we still had a class called citizenship. It was like 20 or 30 minutes where the teacher or somebody talk to us about how we treated each other. They dont have citizenship classes anymore. They called it portman ship. They dont have classes that teach moral values in schools and i think that is important. Sometimes they are not getting the right values at home. Thank you for calling. Jim is on the line from grand forks, north dakota. Republican. Your reaction this morning. Me . Er are you reading host you are on the air. Coming out of a blizzard here. Hoping i can get my car out for work. I did not hear about the church one. Attacks on citi jews, it is always fascinating not one mention of the perpetrators being young black men. We have a hard time saying that. We have a hard time talking the truth. A threat of antisemitism throughout you hear it all the time on cspan. Going back to sharpton, farrakhan, i dont know. Why not say who it is . Nazis, a bunch of white go ahead and say it. I dont know what the problem is, what they are learning in their hones. In their homes. Minnesota and north dakota, we s. Ve a lot of somali refugee just like lewiston, maine. They always put them in white enclaves. All white towns or places where there is abundance of cash a bunch of norwegians. They dont put them in black neighborhoods. They tried that one time. That fascinated me in the philadelphia area i remember as far as 20 years ago, the west west african gee they hate them. They dont have any tolerance for them. Lax dont get along with california, the riots, they shut down entire schools. This is the reality. You turn around and blame white guys who grew up in the lutheran church. Middle america evangelical whites are the greatest supporters of jewish people in israel. Host thank you for calling. We want to get some other viewpoints. Heres the Washington Times. Heres a picture of the suspect, 37name is Grafton E Thomas years old. Blood all over his clothing, smelled of bleach, this is when they pulled him over in his car. To the right of that story is a photo where some folks are gathering to protest against hate. You can see them holding up placards and posters and that type of thing. More official reaction from new york. Chuck schumer, democrat from new york, says no american and no new yorker should be subject to the kind of terror and pain the new York Jewish Community now bears. Im demanding of thorough of thisation by the fbi specific attack and other antisemitic attacks in recent days. The cascade in antisemitic attacks is outrageous throughout metropolitan new york and america and must not be tolerated. A couple of tweets from china from senator Chuck Schumer. ,eres more from Governor Cuomo now yesterday on cspan discussing the stabbings. [video clip] its important for me to express to the rabbi and to all the people of the state of new is intolerance needs ignorance meets illegality. This is an intolerant time in this country. Hatred. Nger, we see it is an american cancer in the body politic. It turns one cell in the body against others. We have seen it in the state of new york. This is about the 13th incident of antisemitism in the past few weeks. It comes during a period of high holidays for the jewish people. It is intolerant but it is also illegal. At the end of the day, its not just about words. Its about action and we have seen enough in new york. This is violence, spurred by hate. It is mass violence, and i consider this an act of domestic terrorism. Lets call it what it is. These people are domestic terrorists. The law should reflect that and they should be punished as if it was an act of terrorism. We are going to take the lead here in the state of new york and do just that and im going to propose that in the beginning of january when i lay out my state of the state address. In solidarity with all members of the Jewish Community, very important part of this state, a very important part of this country, and we are going to enforce the laws and make sure act like this did not happen. And if they happen, they are punished to the full extent of the law. Host Governor Cuomo yesterday in new york. We are getting your reaction to violent acts we are calling domestic terrorism. We are getting your reaction to all of this this morning. One in monsey, new york. The stabbing inside the home of a rabbi, and a Texas Church Shooting inside the church, where the gunman was killed later by a Security Team inside the church. Part of the congregation. We also note this headline at nbc news. It happened before all of this, u. S. Mass shootings hit a new high in 2019. Mass killings hit a new high in 2019. Most of them, they point out, were mass shootings. 41 mass killings, of those, 33 were mass shootings. More than 210 people were killed. Nbc news. Com. Stephen come on the line from chatham, massachusetts. Thank you for waiting. Caller the murders and shootings that happened in the country this week are unjust and disgusting. He should not have destroyed people in general. Host what can be done about this to prevent it . What do you think . Caller less guns and more justice, by talking to people properly. Host thank you, stephen. James on facebook writes, we can conceal carry in texas. Would have been a different story in new york if they had their Second Amendment rights. Burke, mr. On to milo scullys, just think if he had s, of your beloved ar15 scores of jews would be dead. Thes her district that monsey stabbing incident happened, congresswoman lowy writes, as we wait for more information i stand united with the Jewish Community in new york has endured and on except the bowstring of antisemitic violence. We must not rest until all individuals of all faiths are safe to walk the streets in worship without fear. We have richard in stephenville, texas, republican. Good morning. Caller good morning to you. Host what is your reaction . Caller my reaction is very sad. I pray for the people that are dead in both new york and texas. Able to takeing the guns inside the church the texas one was thwarted quickly. I have a problem with the congressman, i believe it was schumer no it was cuomo, the one that talks about how bad that was. He does not talk about how that shooting in texas was, even though it was perpetrated against a bunch of white people. I dont want to bring race into it because race does not have any to do with it when people the gun has no problem with the people, the man is the one with the problem with the people evil. He good morning, christopher. Minus reaction is sadness, fear my initial reaction is sadness, fear. I wish piece for the families peace peace for the families affected. Talk, there was a lot of all these different cultures clashing. What i want to talk about is the Mental Health care in this country. I think a lot of these acts are acts of desperation. If youve ever had any dealings with Mental Health care as far as Like Community Mental Health of care thatlevel people in impoverished communities have, minorities, people who dont have access to brand named insurance, private insurance, usually their answer is to put them in the county help andthey go to get they let a doctor know their feelings, so they go down and they say they cant take it anymore and they need some help and they tell it was stepping up patrols in jewish neighborhoods after a series of antisemitic incidents last week. Thats in the New York Times this morning. Sarahs on the line from fort lauderdale, florida. Good morning. Caller hello. Good morning. Am a registered republican. Im not a trump supporter. I did not vote for trump. I think that trump possum response incident trumps reso races incidents during his poor. Stration has been said what has he specifically, before you go on . Caller specifically, what happened in charlottesville, everyone knows what happened in charlottesville with not being willing to just call people out specifically until there is so much pressure and things like that. I did not want to call about that. The reason im calling is because, id like to talk about some other things that have been in the New York Times and wall street journal recently. All of the, what i consider him and a lot of jewish people consider, antisemitic pictures about vaccines. The reason im calling is because i think Everybody Needs to check themselves. And notice that antisemitism is not only coming from one particular party, but that the newspapers and the way theyve been portraying the vaccine crisis in new york has been incredibly antisemitic and has voted antisemitism. Has promoted antisemitism. Host dave is calling from michigan david is calling from michigan. Caller thank you very much for taking my call. My heart goes out to all those involved. I really think its the racist republicans out there. All blame trump because these mass shootings, look at the manifesto. Supporters are trump. He spews hatred, he has greenlighted all these hate groups to come out of the trump. K, so i blame i blame the Republican Party 100 . Fact check me, 90 are all Trump Supporters and most of them are republicans. We need a little bit of love in america. Host nancy pelosi the House Speaker says heartbroken and deeply disturbed by the stabbing in monsey and the recent antisemitic attacks in the new york city metro area especially during this Holiday Season really must condemn and confront all forms of bigotry and hate wherever we see them. Heres Mitch Mcconnell, majority leader in the United States senate. Another horrifying antisemitic attack, a terrible reminder that the fight against hate and bigotry especially antisemitism is far from finished, even right here at home. Condolences go out to the victims of last nights attack in monsey. Jamie is calling from chicago. Independent caller. Caller how are you . Im pretty good. Disturbed by one of the callers a few callers back who seemed like he was targeting aboutmericans to be this attack and i do know i am an africanamerican, my family has been here since 1791. I have a dear friend who is jewish. I think that what happened is appalling that i cant stand violence against one another on any level, but i think the guy who called before, i have a friend who is an attorney here in people out there. Why they are angry, maybe theres a connection between when you see injustice in the world are you supposed to just stand by and do nothing . So arrogant and violent. Who spews more hatred than the israelis against the muslims . Every day they are accusing a rand and iraq iran and iraq and castigating the region over there. Hitlers wanted to create an ethnically pure nation. To the arian race to be prime. I dont understand how people dont understand that israel has created that exact state. Pure. Israel is ethnically it is systematically taking more and more land from the palestinians. The israelis today have the host we are going to get some other calls. 7 30 in washington. We will do this for just under another half hour. Getting a reaction to the new york stabbings. The hanukkah stabbings. In monsey new york where several people were injured. And the Church Shooting outside Fort Worth Texas where two people were killed. And a third, the gunman, was shot and killed by some of the congregants inside the church who are part of a Security Team. Weve been going through headlines and some of the details and reaction from these attacks. Other news, conquers men john lewis congressman john is battling stage four pancreatic cancer. Heres the headline from politico. Doctors discovered georgia democrats condition in a routine medical visit in december. He explained this on sunday that he is suffering from stage iv pancreatic cancer, will undergo treatment. He plans to keep serving in his district. The diagnosis was reconfirmed recently. I have been in some kind of fight for freedom, equality, basic human rights, for nearly. Entire life he said he is clear eyed about the prognosis but that is doctors believe recent medical advances have made this type of cancer treatable. Lewis says he has a fighting chance and will return to congress in the coming days to get back to work. That story in politico. The georgia democrats said he might miss a few votes coming up. Congress comes back into session next week, first full week of the second session of this congress. We are waiting for more word about the next steps on impeachment. The new trade agreement that is in the senate and the state of the union on february 4. President trump has accepted speaker pelosis invitation, tuesday the fourth of february, for that event. One night after the iowa caucuses. Janice is on the line from independence, missouri. Republican. Caller good morning. Is there a full moon out . Host why do you say . Caller the crazy people you had calling in this morning. My reaction is this. I got up shortly and i went to my newsfeed, and the first article i pulled up was talking about an interview with ed henry, enter viewing de blasio yesterday. One of the quotes says henry pressed de blasio forgiving de blasio forgiving alleged criminals who are released on bail metro cards to ride around on the subway. Out. So then she went out and attacked somebody else. I think it is a pretty bad state and as far as the thing in taxes, nobody wants to talk about that one so much because they were protected by their own members because thank god they are allowed to have concealed carry. I do wonder sometimes because we ally have a couple of our a couple of our men anyway, Walking Around and i wonder if some of them arent armed, not that we have ever had any trouble or anything but just because theyre so much going on. Host is there anyway way to prevent this . Caller i dont think so. Im big in favor of the Second Amendment and bake in favor of concealed carry. They were able to take that man down and i dont know what happened to the people he shot. The news does not follow up on werebut im very glad they im sure it was traumatic for everyone there, but im glad they were allowed to carry their guns and protect themselves. Host newman is calling from san antonio, texas. Caller good morning. I would like to say my heart goes out to both incidents that happened over the weekend. Be some of those angry callers but i started sitting back and using my mind and i noticed a pattern. When youre republican they are calling in blaming the democrats, the democrats call in blaming the republicans. Weve got to stop this. We are putting ourselves in boxes and now we are blaming, every time something comes up, whenever they go he was a democrat, he was a republican. We need to stop putting ourselves in boxes, letting people label us. Person,l one black talking about the blacks. Now people will be hollering all blacks are murderers. We do it with all ethnic groups in this country. Weve come to a society now everywhere every morning i wake up depressed because i go out into the world. We cant label all people violent people, every race of people. In society. We need to come to understand that. They are going to pick up on things and their mind is telling them to react. We cant do anything about that. I wish i could get into some of these peoples minds and try to figure out what were you thinking to go do Something Like this. What did you achieve . Ated a whole lot of blaming each other. Another incident. We wont solve this here. Host thanks for your participation in the program. More of your calls in a moment. More reaction from the folks in washington. Maryland democratic senator ben news sunday. Fox [video clip] this is extremely tragic. M the representative security and cooperation in i serve on the u. S. Holocaust memorial museum. We see a rise in antisemitism globally. The leaders must stand up and anyemn any marginal action against marginal groups. Its not only words, its actions to make it clear that those responsible will be held fully accountable and that we Work Together to keep our communities safe. Its our language, our actions, this is the rise in the United States, something that should be of concern to every person in this country. Governor andrew cuomo is on the scene in new york, calling it an act of domestic terrorism. Do you agree with that assessment . I do. I think these individuals are acting not just out of a hatred to one person but a hatred to anyone who is different. I agree with Governor Cuomo. Clarence, from independent caller from kentucky. Aller hello that is terrible. We had another one. I want to comment, i think it was the church in texas that had people injured but nobody got killed because they had firearms. Every time you hear a shooting or they go in where guns arent allowed, theyve usually got several dozens of people die. They areratics, complaining about that one. If we would enforce our gun laws , perhaps i would agree people carry guns, they should be trained how to use them because guns are dangerous if you dont know what youre doing. Host clarence, thanks for calling. Independent caller from capitol heights, maryland. , your i would like to say use the Mainstream Media adjectives to describe the truth. Instead of saying a crime was committed by a human being from another human being, they give you all these adjectives to disguise the truth. Youre trying to say these people i look at it as a crime on one human being committed on another human being. When you add these adjectives like you say the guys were antisemitic. Just because you practice the jewish religion does not make you semitic. One time, africa was called kemet. The people in kemte you had certain people that migratedet, tites. Ere semikeme of semitic people. A lot of people dont know who semitic people are in the first place. Some people have weaponized the accusation and cloak themselves to declare some type of superiority over anybody else. If a crime is committed against one human being to another human being that should be where the line is drawn at instead of using all these adjectives. Aboriginal north american. Is completely hidden and smothered. I had to go through hoops to find out the truth, what the real deal was compared to how my people have been socially engineered, religiously, to look groes,mselves as ne colored. We are copper colored people. The rest of us were already here. Lying to us in history books, lying to us everywhere. They dont tell us about the indian removal act, all the wars that were fought. They smother all the history. Not you come with these people who try to declare some superiority over everybody else by disguising themselves as semitic people. We are going into 2020. Host thank you for calling. We have about 15 minutes or so. More reaction from texas. Senator john cornyn, republican. Very sad. Fortunately there were citizens present prepared to prevent further loss of life. That is from senator cornyn. Representative Veronica Escobar from texas, another tragic deadly shooting in texas, in a dhurch where congregants ha guns. My prayers go out to White Settlement commune he members who have to endure this awful pain. Michael mccaul of texas, monitoring the shooting that took place at west Freeway Church in fort worth. Devastated that a place of worship witnessed such violence. Saddenedorourke, so to hear about another Church Shooting in texas. Clearly what we are doing in texas, what we are doing in this country when it comes to guns, is not working. That is from beto orourke. Heres a facebook posting by dj walker. Texas is an example of why good people with guns should be allowed to exercise their constitutional right to carry a firearm. New york is an example of what happens when you dont. Morning. Ood deeply disturbing at the people thats going on in this country now. Thisde between all group, that group. Always being divided when youve got people who want this, people that want that, there will always be a divide. There has to be Common Ground somewhere. I want to disagree with the guy from michigan who said its allfault and all republicans arent racist. All republicans want is this country to be great. What trump is the economy, the jobs and all these trade deals we were going to be getting. My heart goes out to those people involved. Host heres a statement from the u. S. House Bipartisan Task force for combating antisemitism. The house Bipartisan Task force for combating antisemitism strongly contends last night antisemitic attack in rabbis home in muncy new york. This comes on the heels of numerous attacks against jews in brooklyn and manhattan. We are keeping the victims of last nights attack and their families in our prayers as the Jewish Community concludes the holiday of hanukkah this week it is more important than ever that jews are able to safely celebrate their faith. They go on to say the trend of increasing antisemitic violence in recent years cannot continue. This task force will reach out to Law Enforcement officials, community organizations, and experts in combating hate crime to seek answers for ways to fight the scourge. United withtands the Jewish Community. That is from the u. S. House Bipartisan Task force for combating antisemitism. Rita has been weeding in sondland, california. Waiting in sondland, california. Caller the jews have got to get armed. Israeluld be armed in because of the palestinian threat. Theyve got to look to threats happening here right in the eye and do something about it. Im wondering if these people that are attacking the jews are black muslims. But really, Mental Health and counseling is not going to help these killers. They need to be executed. Host stephen is in louisville, kentucky. Caller hello. Im listening to this looney tunes fast this morning. The caller just a moment ago. Shes outrageous. I keep hearing all of these compliments on people. Im saddened to hear about these incidents but when i hear people sit there and say new york was wrong, texas was right, i think you people missed the boat on this. The fact is we should not be put in a position where we have to defend ourselves in a church, in a school, in a movie theater. Arming people, this is not a wild west side show, this is real life. You want to talk about Mental Health for a moment . What about the Mental Health of all those people that witnessed the shootings . These children possibly, i dont know if there were children there or not. We have something called posttraumatic stress disorder nowadays. Maybe you should look something up about that. And as far as mr. Trump is concerned, i disagree with that guy that was saying its not trumps fault, excuse me. A president sets the tone and tenor of the country in the office, in the oval office. This president claims to be proisrael, just to get American Jewish votes. I think thats what he does that. At the same time, look at the antisemites that have worked for him. Stephen bannon, Stephen Miller is another one, Jefferson Sessions was antisemitic as well. We are going backandforth with this whole thing. We dont have any consistency. You want a remedy for this . Make it a federal law that states that it is a federal crime to commit domestic terrorism in this country. Im sorry, this president and his administration do not understand that you cannot determine whether a person is a terrorist based on their special difference. It is their actions that make them a terrorist. Ill intentions make them a terrorist not their skin color or ethnicity. I keep hearing these people earlier talking about how africanamericans are killing jewish people. Andonly there are good bad in every category. You have some africanamericans, some caucasians that of committed acts of terrorism as well. Some jewish people that of committed acts of terrorism treat what difference does that make right now . What it really means is that we have to understand that its time for us to have some sort of dramatic transformation in the society. I think what that means is voting these republicans out of office, the ones that want to arm everybody. Id like to say this if i could, what i find fascinating is all these pronra people that are so opposed to common sense guncontrol laws, im sorry, person who is certifiable should not have access to these weapons to begin with. I find it interesting that mr. These the nra, some of congress and senators like Mitch Mcconnell for instance, are so progun, but what about how they themselves are violating the Second Amendment rights of these people to carry guns into the white house, into the halls of congress, and the senate. If they believe in this so much according to their logic, where they not allowing it in those places . Im just curious. Host reaction from the president ial candidates. Knife attack in muncy Bernie Sanders, i am outraged. We must confront this surge of antisemitic violence. Bringing people together instead of dividing people up. Bernie sanders writing in the democratic primaries. Last night we must combat hate crimes in every form and every turn. They do not belong in america and must stop. We also have joe biden, former senator and Vice President. The horrifying rise of antisemitism is tearing apart the fabric of our communities and the soul of our nation. We have to stand together and fight these flames of hatred. More political news, this from the Washington Times this morning. Andrew yang, the businessman, said democrats must stop focusing on a trump. He said on sunday he warned party needs to stop focusing on trump and more on the issues that got him elected. During this interview on abc, he saidnot how to sway over the iners the president won 2016, victory rooted in jobs and the economy. The democratic that she said the Democratic Party unfortunately is acting like donald trump is the cause of our problems. He is a symptom. He argued that the rise of automation is threatening not just bluecollar jobs and midwestern swing states but also middleclass jobs across the country and retail and other service industries. Thats from andrew yang. We will have andrew yang live on the air today from nashua, new hampshire, live on cspan at 2 00 p. M. Eastern at a campaign event. You can watch that live. Tomorrow, Elizabeth Warren will be live in boston tomorrow at 11 00 a. M. Eastern time. More Live Campaign 2020 programming. We have sergio on the line from florida. Caller good morning. How are you . Host doing fine. Caller good morning. Because oftraged someone that can attack a place of worship, where people can come together and know their god. Where someone is crazy and antisemitic and hateful, why would someone to mess with the jewish people. We are supposed to respect and honor the jewish people because they are gods children. We are all gods children. We should love each other instead of hating one another. Our president , trump, and mitch care aboutthey dont any of us. They just care about their own. Olitical views we should come together and stop this hate and love one another. Host thank you for calling. We found these observations in a from ahe atlantic. Com professor of holocaust history a and at emory university. Writing here that in a month of terrible antisemitic attacks including the stabbing in muncy, the news that most depressed me did not involve violence. It was not summing done to jews but something jews did. A synagogue in the netherlands is no longer publicly posting the times of prayer services. You have to know someone who is a member of the community. Me, i wasunderstand and am in fury over these multiple assaults culminating in monsey. She writes jews have been assaulted on the street. Tombstones in slovakia. In london, antisemitic viti was painted on synagogues and jewish owned homes. Poland why is the vivid proof that antisemitism is driving jews underground in the west. You can read more about that in the atlantic. The author goes on to talk about whats happening on College Campuses in the u. S. As well, where some jewish students may not be identifying themselves as such due to concerns about persecution. Peter calling from valley cottage, new york. Good morning. Caller good morning. Heto call in because was talking about a lot of these attacks. We have to differentiate between secular jewish people and the ultraorthodox. Most of these attacks have been done, and his words, by the Africanamerican Community by. He against the orthodox i live in Rockland County and there has been a lot over the years conflict between the Africanamerican Community and the ultraorthodox. Recently in Rockland County there was a big controversy regarding School Funding because what the Hasidic Community has been doing, theyve been putting their people on the School Boards because they vote in the block and theres a lot of them so they have a lot of political clout, and they have been diverting funds away from the Public School system to their private schools. There was a lot of anger about that in the Africanamerican Community. Also, we had a big controversy have e because we they wanted to expand. People in the neighborhood were upset about it. They had a whole bunch of meetings at town hall regarding this expansion. A lot of taxpayers were also angry because a large number of idic community is on medicaid. This conflict seems to be between the black community and the Orthodox Community resources. Whos getting these resources and how its being funded. So nobody is really talking about the reasons why there is this anger between these communities. They should do more on that and not so much on these attacks. What is the reasoning behind all . Hese attacks theres always a reason behind it. Host peter, from Rockland County, new york. Christine from rockford, illinois. Good morning. Caller that last man just shed some light on this. Ive been trying to figure out the difference between the orthodox and unorthodox and the ultraorthodox. Now he shed some light, although i think what ultraorthodox, ultrareligious means in american poor, ultrarich, versus black people. Now i get it. In line with the rest of it here would be that, i think our problem is basically lack of education in this country. You can tell that many of our andlation are dumbed down we are being led by a dictator. Wannabe dictator so we have lots of people who are less educated, who are joining with the republicans who represente to diversity. Look at the senate, look at the republicans. They are all bald, white, old man. Do you think they care about native americans, young women being raped . Do you think they care about anyone who has skin darker than them . They get cut up by a razor when they shave in the morning. They dont care about our rights. Every single thing that the congress has tried to do with regards to guns rights, do we need guns in this country . The nra is now the Fourth Branch of government. We have the house, the senate, the president , we have the nra. Take a look at where the money goes comes from that goes to the nra. Nothing goes by the nra. Do we need guns in our country before . Is our country better because we have more guns . Lobbyists run the whole country. The guns run this country. Is that helping us . Host it is not helping us. Caller it is not helping us. Host thanks to everyone who has called in for the conversation. Coming up in a moment we will be joined by National Reviews richard burr kaiser from up in birchiser richard the Senate Impeachment trial when it comes up perhaps in january or soon after. More of your calls. We will be right back. Cspans Live Campaign 2020 coverage continues today at 2 00 p. M. Eastern entrepreneur andrew yang, in nashua, new hampshire. 11 00 a. M. Eastern, Elizabeth Warren in boston. Watch the president of candidates live on cspan come online at cspan. Org, or listen live on the cspan radio app. This holiday week, American History tv is on cspan 3 with prime time features. Tonight, a discussion on aviation with aviation writer and filmmaker paul granger on the first u. S. Military airplane. 1969, withe year woodstock, free speech, and the gayrights movement. New years day, the 30th anniversary of the fall of the berlin wall. Thursday, the forgotten battles of the civil war. Friday, the 75th anniversary of the battle of the bulge were a counterer launched offensive against allied forces. Watch American History tv all this week and every weekend on cspan 3. This holiday way, booktv is on cspan2 every day starting tonight at 8 00 p. M. Eastern. Starting tonight, Charles Schwab and his book, invested. Tuesday, Steve Scalise with his book, back in the game. Wednesday date 00 p. M. Eastern, emily bernard, danny shapiro, talk about their perspective respective memoirs. Cigarette. He friday, donald trump, jr. And his book triggered. Watch this special airing this Holiday Weekend every weekend on cspan 2. Washington journal continues. Host joining us this morning, Richard Brookhiser, Senior Editor of National Review and author of this book give me liberty a history of americas exceptional idea. You are to ask why writing about liberty at this point but i want to get to a short piece of the book. You write the need for telling the story now is what i see around me this is the most confused historical time i have lived in with a haggard establishment, and Americas National ebola what else are you saying here . Guest i am just trying to direct our attention away, for a moment, from the political mania 363 has surrounded us for days this year so far and counting. We have two more to go. Wednesday we start all over again. I want to dig a break from that id have us look at 400 flash want to take a break from that and have us look at 400 years with the engagement of the idea of liberty. My argument is that is the essence of america, our nationalism. It is the exceptional american ideal. It is something americans have been talking about, writing about, fighting for 44 centuries. For book takes fighting four four centuries. All lay down principles that affect us and liberate us today, and i want us to be proud of that. I want us to think about it. I want us to be inspired by and so that we continue to maintain it. Richard brookhiser will be with us for 55 more minutes. He is in new york and will take calls in just a few minutes. Republicans can call host you mentioned the 13 documents you review to tell this story about liberty. We will show those documents, but wanted you to pick a few of them to talk about those documents, those episodes in our history and why you decided to choose them. You begin with the jamestown papers. Talk about these documents if you can. The 13let me go through the first is the minutes of the first meeting of the General Assembly of jamestown in 1619. That establishes the principle of selfrule in british north america. The second is the flushing remonstrance, 1647. Villagers in the town of flushing rebuking director general peter stuyvesant, the governor of New Amsterdam. Forbade quakers. Not obey you. Ill we want to do under all men as we would have men do want to us. 17 30 5 1735 the minutes of the trial of john peters anger in new york, a journalist tried for the crime of seditious libel. His lawyer got the jury to acquit him even though it was jerry nullification jury nullification. This established freedom of the press in britains American College colonies. The decoration of independence, the National Birth certificate. 1785, the minutes of the new york ammunition society. , aroup found in new york slave state in order to put the state on the road to abolition. This was to close one of the gaps in americas pursuit of liberty the most serious 1 the existence of channel slavery. It would take a civil war to end it. Some of the steps begin in new york in 1785. 1787 the constitution, written in that year ratified the following year. 1823, the monroe doctrine. This is a Foreign Policy document. It also has a political and ideological component. We were not only telling european powers they could not colonize further in the new world we were telling them they couldnt establish their political systems in the new world. No more kings in the western hemisphere. That is what president james monroe with telling congress and the world. The declaration of sentiments of the seneca falls womens rights convention. This was a call for womens rights, including the right to vote, which would not become a constitutional amendment for another three quarters of a century, but the call for it begins in 1848. 3, the gettysburg address abraham lincolns great summation of america struggles for liberty so far and he specifically links the end of the war to end slavery to the declaration of independence in the preamble of the constitution. 1883, the new colossus written to raise money for the statue of liberty. 1896, cross of gold speech that very important principle about the equality of men and women in the workplace and the economy. , Franklin Roosevelt text firesidet chat. Firesiden roosevelts chat. This is 1948 year before we enter world war ii. Last one, 10 my down the wall speech in berlin says a commitment to liberty there he says a commitment to liberty requires us to tell the soviet union it cannot be a permanent landmark, scar on the face of central europe, that berlin and all of central and Eastern Europe will ultimately have to be free. Those are the 13 documents. There could be another set. The gettysburg address and the constitution to be in anyones list of 13 american liberty documents, but you can have other ones also. Cu could be a b team or a team i am not saying they are junior varsity, less important. These are the 13 i picked to tell the story of liberty in American History for 400 years. Those 400 years, when you look at those documents and as we enter the year 2020, what do those documents say to this country right now its citizens, elected officials, about how to conduct ourselves, our business . Guest two it says two things. It says look at our past, the men and women over 400 years some of them famous, some of them quite ordinary. Some of them, all we know is they were there at the time when we signed or ignore step endorsed those documents. Americans have stood up for the principle of liberty and have made it real in our national life. Thisecond thing it says is is great but we have to keep doing it. It is not something that automatically replicates itself. It is not a perpetual motion machine. It is in our natural character. It is good that it is. It is certainly can be proud of and something that can encourage us. In every generation who have to be aware of it and we have to continue to work for it. That is the method i hope people would take from this book. Host we do have calls coming in. Florida,rt st. Lucie, independent color. You are on the air with mr. Brookhiser, author of give me liberty. Caller good morning. I think the average american citizen has no idea of the power and wealth that is possessed by the aesthetic community. Hasidic community, your previous caller spoke about the schools was 100 percent correct. Whichewood, new jersey, is home to the largest, i believe, in the world, they decimated the Public School system. If you want to see real power you have to look to the pardoning by president clinton of muggeridge and pincus green. The average person cannot have any idea. Do i believe in just murdering these people . Absolutely not. Been ahat might have caller hanging on from a last segment. It sounded like it, and not a very intelligent one either. Host anything you want to say about what he had to say . Guest well, he could read chapter two of the book, the flushing remonstrance, 1657, almost 400 years ago. There were 30 men in flushing, a Little Village outside of what was then New Amsterdam, and they were told by their governor, who they had no power over, there was nothing elected about him or around them around him. They were told no quakers in my colony. Anyone who host them in my home, that is a crime. They sent him a remonstrance an official town protest saying we cannot obey this directive because all religion teaches us not to. They were not quakers sticking up for themselves. Who pute ordinary men their names to a document that said our faith would have us do on two all men as we would have. Hem do unto us it is a milestone in americas religious history. I would want the last caller, everyone listening to this comment to be aware of this document and the moment. Six of them could not sign their own names. They made their marks on the letter to the director general, but they lay down a marker. Going to we are not obey you on this because our faith tells us not to. That is the beginning of a principle we continue to enjoy and we ought to remember these brave men, honor them for that for it. Host j. Independent caller for Richard Brookhiser. Caller two are for taking my call. You do, of course, recognize that all those documents do revert to connecting the human belief that ishe in an environment of domestic intouility that we advance the infinite capacity of Natural Science knowledge, but while Ronald Reagan was making that hadch in germany, he already initiated an Economic System in this country that was social darwinian in nature, and we are now at a point where the levels of animalistic competition in our society are so extreme that they almost reached a level of a flood of greed, jealousy, fear and anger, and i am not sure that can be stopped with all do i am just so distressed about it. Thank you. Mr. Brookhiser . 11, theook at chapter cross of gold speech. Given to winpeech the democratic president ial nomination in 1896. He was hoping to stampede the convention in his favor. He succeeded. This was a 20minute speech followed by a 30minute ovation. People who were in the hall after he finished they said the applause, they compared the noise to artillery or niagara falls. It is known as the cross of gold speech because his final line is you will not press down on the labor, this crown of thorns, crucify america on the cross of gold. The big issue is whether america should be on a Gold Standard or a free coinage of silver standard. He was sticking up for the letter, but he said the best paragraph in the speech was not the closer, the line that gives the speech its name, which he had used in speeches before, but he said the best paragraph was when he had written the night before specially for the occasion. The reason i put the speech in the book it is the opening sentence of that graph and it gets your attention. He is speaking to his rivals, enemies. He says you have defined businessman to narrowly. The man who works for wages who is as much a businessman as the man who pays him his wages. That is a principle and a point we always have to keep in mind. In our Economic System there are people who win a lot, people who win a very little, people who walked out. There are people who are born with advantages, people who are not. There are people who havent made, people that have to make it all. Have it made, people that have to make it all. They are all equal participants. This because bill gates, Saoirse Ronan are multimillionaires, sergei brin are multimillionaires, it does not make them more worthy of honor than the people who work for them with the people who temporarily are not working at all. The man who earns wages is as much a businessman as the man who pays him his wages William Jennings bryan, 1896. Host , mr. Brookhiser economic equality, that has been a topic in the democratic president ial debate to a certain extent. It makes me want to ask you about this years cycle. What your observations and the way we are doing politics in 20192020 . Guest i gave up predicting. We hadot see the result four years ago, three years ago 2016. I am not going to give you any predictions now. Interesting times. I will say people are wringing their hands and saying politics itself, which it is. I hear people saying we are in a cold civil war. About. That term bandied that distresses me because we had a real civil war in this country and 750,000 men were killed. We used to think it was 620,000, but the figure was up a few years ago. I met the historian who raised it. He is a demographic historian, and he did it by looking at census returns. He said we are missing 130,000 men. He realized that 130,000 more men had been killed in the real civil and we previously thought. When people say we are in a civil war now it shows a lack interest in history, knowledge of history. I am old enough to remember 1968. That was much worse than now. You had Martin Luther king jr. Assassinated, Robert Kennedy assassinated, riots in american cities. He had a terrible war that seemed to be going nowhere. You had a ride in the a right at the democratic convention. That was much shakier than anything we are having now. I wish people would get off their social devices, maybe even turn off cspan sorry, paul, for recommending this. Down, chill out not chill out. That back. I am not trying to turn you into californians. Dont be so frantic, despairing, so unreasonably excited by all the excitement and madness you, because it has been worse in American History, in my lifetime. , authorchard brookhiser of the book give me liberty a history of americas exceptional idea. Walk through the book and other issues. John. Independent caller. Guest national and caller you forgot the preamble to the bill of rights. Guest it is in there. The declaration of independence. The preamble to the declaration of independence. Chapter four. Caller my question is the Federal Reserve determines how and wealth i have and they are not even elected. They have so much power to determine the quality of life that i have and it is wrong. Advisory, not dictate how much money i have in my pocket. Host thank you for calling. Lets hear from brian. Somerville, pennsylvania. Republican. Good morning. Caller good morning, gentlemen. I have a copy of the patriot act in my library. I have not looked at it for several years. I seem to remember when i got the copy of it most of it was redacted. I am wondering what your guest thinks about the patriot act, how in my opinion it opened in a row of unsurpassed surveillance ip ofthe private citizensh our country nsa, monitoring phone calls. You mentioned about the civil war and comparing it with modernday stuff, and you mentioned 1968. I would like your opinion on the attacks nonreligious in this country on religious in this country. It seems to be on the uptake. I will hang up, thinking, and listen to your response. Host the people being attacked i caught the guest the people being attacked lastcaught the end of the muncie, sydni was before that, and of course this is terrible, awful. 1968 was worse, im not trying to say bad things that happen now are not bad. Goes, as the patriot act in wartime in times of war, rights get clipped. Passed. Laws get is rate of habeas corpus suspended. Yes, that is in the american record. That is something that always has to be washed. Watched. Lincoln himself compared it to a man taking medics during the disease. When the disease is over when the man continued to take them because he likes them . Of course not. We will stop it once the disease , but it is something that always has to be watched. The comparison is a very good one. It is ludicrous, painful. It is something we dont like. Happenedhor for what is very on point. Yes, this is something that has happened and something we have to be mindful of. Host we have a little bit more than a half hour left with Richard Brookhiser who is in new york. Dont talk about the connection between liberty and nationalism. I will read again from the book. Nationalism is a given in human society. It bonds us to our neighbors host tell us why you write about nationalism . All theationalism is rage. Everyone is talking about it sometimes in worried tones, sometimes in excellent reason. The Trump Presidency is thought up anderms of an nationalism. There are maligned examples of it all around the world. Im not going to spin the globe, but just think about it well, let me take one example burma, myanmar and the expulsion of the rohingya by a nobel prize she turns out to be a genocidal monster. Nationalism is out there and can take bad forms. My argument in this book is that the essence of Americas Nationalism, what makes it distinct from other nationalism, our neighbors nationalism, is our concern with liberty. This is something we have had before we were a country. Three of the four instances that i cover were before american independence. Let me just tell a story that. Nds the book this involves a meeting that Ulysses Grant had after he was president. He left office after two terms in 1877. Then he took a tour of the world. Reporter of the New York Herald accompanied him and wrote up the things he saw, said, and did. He met the chance to the chancellor. He had Ulysses Grant, who crushed a rebellion in the Worlds Largest republic, and bismarck, who had created a new empire in the heart of central europe, a new german nation. Chat. Ave a little grant calls on bismarck. Bismarck knows english so they can speak in grants language. They do not have a lot to say because they never met before. They talk about current events, people they know in common. They is a terrible thing is you were fighting your own people. Grant said yes, but it had to be done. Bismarck said of course, to save the union. To save the union and to end slavery. Course savingof the union was the main thing. Reply we thought so at first, but as soon as the flag was fired upon, we realized the union could not be saved without ending slavery. That men and women could no longer be bought and sold like cattle. Then bismarck says it was a great victory and im sure it will be a great piece. Here we have these two figures. It is a most like a railyard where you have two train tracks going along together. They are starting to split. Bismarck is saying what nationalism means is unity. What a is telling him his american nationalism means unity, but it also had to mean ending slavery, because it also means liberty. We finally realized it. Right,to make this rectify this. It cost 750,000 lives, but it had to be done. That is an important moment, one i chose to end the book on. I think it is food for thought. Ed innext call, clarksburg, west virginia, independent color. Thank you for waiting caller. Guest i would like to ask mr. Many,iser according to history is according to the man who writes it. Is that true . Host interesting question. Isst well, the short answer yes, but you know, if you write something that is so offthewall that no one will believe it, then the answer is no. Whataccount has to match your readers know, what your readers may know to be true. Of course, that leaves a lot of wiggle room. People know a lot of it is not confirm thems can in their mistaken notions, but over time, you have to stick to the record because also you are not the only one writing. There will be other people coming along. They will be looking at your judgments, correcting your judgments. History is always being modified. We hope it is always being made more clear, better understood. It is a process. Dead people,ut they are not going to do anything new anymore, but in a way they do because we understand them better later. We learn more things about them. We discover more about their motives, their blind spots. What im talking about. O, what my books are about restless one. S a host host we try to do the best we can. Was there a person or episode that led you to ask that question. Guest yes, caller yes, he was talking about New Amsterdam and the people who did not want to let quakers in in my little bit allowedry, the pilgrims no other religion but their religion into this country. Am i correct or incorrect on that . Host thanks, ed. Mr. Brookhiser . Nott well, the puritans the pilgrims, the pilgrims come in 16 25th the great migration is 10 years later. It is the pilgrims and the setting the tone of the Massachusetts Bay colony. They can be very harsh of people that were not. In schema particularly quakers. If you were a quicker, they expelled you come quaker, they expelled you. If you came back, they would hang you. Four men and women in the 17th century. There is that on their behalf. I am trying to focus on the positive story of people being aware of liberty and trying to achieve it. Peter stuyvesant, the manning said no more quakers in new netherland the man who said no more quakers in New Amsterdam, it was not just quakers. He tried to crack down on lutherans and jews. Thatrked for something literally owned the netherland and New Amsterdam, and they had directors and investors that were jews and lutherans, so when stuyvesant is leading on those two religions he gets no word back from his bosses in holland, cut it out. He probably thought he could get away with this when the victims were quakers because they were a new religion, a countercultural religion. They did things like they would not take hats off in the presence of social superiors because they did not recognize social superiors. They let women preach as well as mine. That seems very shocking as well as men. That seems very shocking in the 17th century. Quakers were out there. Stuyvesants dislike of them was not peculiar to himself. He had, ultimately, thanks to the resistance of the people of the men of flashing, ultimately had to back off of quakers ,too. Outside of washington, d. C. , you are on with Richard Brookhiser. Guest caller good morning. The title of your book give me liberty a history of americas exceptional idea. Politicalf todays climate, particular im talking about the munro doctrine the fact that in america we did not want the foreigners way of into the to infiltrate new america. About ourrned democracy and our republic with the person we have in the white house. It seems that we are having heading for an out talker andrior may i have autocracy. May i have your response . Host in general, what you think of President Trump and the way he is running his office . Guest i am going i am not going to answer that question and i will tell you why. Question,elation to a what document would you pick after 1987, Ronald Reagans tear down this wall speech. 1987 is a while ago. What would you pick after that . I would say i deliberately stopped it at 1987. I dont want anyone to not read this book, to not think about this issue because of the current political controversy that i might inadvertently offended them. These offend them. These are principles that all americans, republican callers, democratic callers, independent callers all americans should be mindful of these episodes and these documents in these instances in our past, and the importance of liberty to the history of this country, and i want to direct their attention to that. The 24 7o back to politics that we have had for 363 days this year, and take it up again after the segment ends in a few minutes. I want to get peoples attention in a few moments and directed to something negative and more something bigger and more important. Host what about what the caller had to say about the munro doctrine. Guest yes, and the fear of autocracy now. Fortunately, we can vote. We can vote in meaningful elections. It is not like russia, right . Meaningful had a election, actually. It was kind of surprising. The wouldbe dictator there got rebuked. To thety lost the race mayor of an stumble. That is the problem for dictators if they let elections keep going, sometimes they will lose them. China is seeing this in also, recently. Recently. Kong, just our problems. You can do something about it you can primary, donate, vote for candidates in primaries and elections. We have an opportunity. One for us by americans going back centuries. Host just under 20 minutes left with our guest. Jeff is calling from logan, utah. Independent color. Caller i appreciate your caller. Caller i appreciate your time. I have a quote from mr. Brookhiser liberty is not a perpetual motion machine, it has to be maintained,in order to be upheld the more i have been listening the more curious i have become. He has been answering my questions as i have been listening. My only question now is come because you have both done such a good job if he would expound upon, he mentioned some things people could do. He said it stopped after reagan. What can we do to maintain liberty and uphold it . Host thank you, jeff. Guest think about it first. Think about it, understand it. Understand what we have, how we got it. Understand why we have it. Let me take up one point. Liberty is not something we create. That is part of the american understanding of it. Something Thomas Jefferson dreamed up and flipped into the declaration of independence. It is not something that the Continental Congress voted on in the majority of them liked it and therefore we had it. Our understanding of liberty is that it is something that people have because we are people because we are men and women, therefore we have it. We are entitled to it. The source of liberty is extra human. It goes beyond people. It goes beyond the decisions of people. Words, the laws of nature of his god. That is a broad definition of the source. You can be an atheist and sign off on that. Jefferson was not an atheist. Is libertythe point is ours because it is our nature. That ist something peopleo us by some other or even by our own choice. It is something we are entitled to because of who we are, because we are men and women. That is why it is worth fighting trying tot is worth achieve and maintain. Anyone who comes along and says because of the course of history or the decisions of popular will, because im smarter than you and i figured things out better than you have, that person is telling you a lie. Dont listen to that person. Entitled to that person because you are you, because of who you are. Is inRichard Brookhiser new york city. He is currently Senior Editor at. Ational review he wrote a column for the new York Observer and is freelanced yorker,new , and vanity fair. They see list of documents. Is there one document that you want to point to that is not in this book we can turn our attention to . Guest let me go through a few of them the mayflower compact , 1620. A year after jamestown. The pilgrims were trying to get to virginia, by the way. That was their destination. They ended up in what we now call massachusetts. They were originally part of the same project. The federalist papers, George Washingtons letter to the hebrew congregation at newport. Washington made a trip to rhode in newport and among other places he was greeted by a Jewish Synagogue that existed there. They sent him a letter congratulating him on being president and thanking him for religious toleration thanking him and america for religious toleration. He wrote them back and responded graciously to their letter. He said we dont have toleration in this country because toleration implies one who tolerates. It is not toleration that we have. We have a recognition of the exercise of mens rights. That was the point i was making earlier. It is not something one person gets to another it is something people have by definition come by virtue. Of who they are. That is an important by virtue of who they are. That is an important one. What isk douglass fourth of july to a slave, Martin Luther kings i have a dream speech there are other ones we could pick. Maybe i will let another book, maybe someone else can do it. Host there we go. We have run on the line. California. Republican. Caller thank you. , first of all i will qualify my statement by saying i am ignorant of your like to geti would a copy of your book, but i have a few comments here if you dont mind regarding your next book, and what im thinking you might consider if you have not considered this already in your current book is the trail of came that Andrew Jackson up with an changed americas life forever, and the mexican war, the spanishamerican war, the wars of attrition, manifest destiny for the United States all of these things took away someones rights and gave rights to someone else. Then there were the robber 1900s, and during the spanish american war with colonialist. There were so many things related to liberty and taking of other peoples property that we have done in this country that i would hope you would broach those in your next book. Thank you for what you do. Sir . What do you think, guest well, i do address this point in give me liberty. Of course, we are human. The heart of man is desperately wicked. There have been shortfalls, contradictions. The worst is channel slavery in this country. Although the treatment of indians native americans i would say is a close second. Some of the callers examples, i would have to take issue with. The spanishamerican war, the primary cause of it was treatmentof spains of its colony, cuba. The cubans were fighting for their own liberty against spain. They had been engaged in a rebellion. An american battleship blew up in havana harbor. We thought the spaniards had done it. Apparently it was an accidental explosion on the ship itself, but plunged us into work, and we did not end up acquiring cuba. There was the platt amendment where congress forbade america from acquiring cuba after the war. We didnt quite philippines, but we freed the philippines after world war ii. Cap would not hold up the spanishamerican war is an example of restricting liberties. I would not hold up the mexican war an as an example of it either. Ultimately the territories that we took from mexico as a result of that war ended up being more free than they were before. Obviously it was complicated history. Mexico had gotten rid of slavery before we had. There was a step back. In arizona, new mexico, and california, are better off than their neighbors south of the border. I would just quibble with some of the callers instances there. Ost jim cuyahoga falls, ohio. Republican caller. Jim, you are on the air. Caller thank you so much. Mr. Brookhisermr. Brookhiser, thank you so much for writing this book. I have seen you on cspan before talking about it and i read a review in wall street journal. Yesterday i was going to go out and buy this book. I was not able to. Guest please do. Caller i do have a question for you one of the things about the declaration of independence about the fact that in most coverage of that they never mention the fact that in jeffersons first draft, of course he had blamed george the third about slavery. He did speak about the evil of slavery. Do you mention that in your book . Guest yes. Right. This was a well known fact about declaration,of the that jefferson had a long passage where that this is part of his indictment of britain and george the third and he says the king has prostituted his negative by refusing to ban the slave trade. That is a complicated sentence, but what he is saying, correctly, is that virginia had asked as a colony that the slave hade be ended and britain refused to do that. Now, this got struck out of the someration partly because of the colonies, georgia, south carolina, were still engaged in the slave trade. There also may have been a feeling that this is getting a and was named the slave trade, but we were willing buyers. Are we risking the charge of hypocrisy by highlighting this. Enemies who had this may discharge. Samuel johnson said how is it that the largest yelps for liberty i heard from the drivers of knee grows, meaning rebellious america, and thats done. It should have stung. It took us a long time to rectify that. Yes, jefferson had intended to attack the slave trade. His colleagues from the Continental Congress took that out. Host we have time for couple more colors. , callers. Hiser we have a in what way are they impinging on the liberty of gay americans. That is the question that has to be answered there. Host jeremy. Independent color. Caller. Caller thank you for cspan. About 8 35 a. M. Eastern standard time you took a question and i appreciated your answer as well. , we take, when we read in our own significance. When we hear legalistic sounds we take and learn significance. Your attempt to deal with american documents, american writings looking at your title, and thinking about what you are trying to say why not jazz it up a bit and talk about ornette coleman. Im so sorry but your title and construct here i appreciate your time. Host anything you want to say . It is a good point. Why cant this be approached artistically . I am looking at documents that are which are all political. There,s a problem hasally, the new colossus been attached to the pedestal of the statue of liberty. So, that is an art piece. Yes, could americas commitment to liberty be will looked at through the work of american artists . Yes, it certainly could. That would be another way to slight slice it. Host john in illinois. Good morning. Caller good morning to you good morning, fellas. Rich, you mentioned tolerance and i am all for National Service. I learned tolerance. Years old. 70 im still learning tolerance for the next guy. I am a believer in National Service. Once your opinion on national invice, and everybody america, everyone in the galaxy, have a happy new year. Host thank you. Mr. Brookhiser. I endorse the wish for a happy new year. National service this gets us into a pragmatic question, and it is also an issue of liberty, frankly. I tend to be skeptical of it. We can have a draft during the war time because that is a special occasion, but do we want to have National Service or wars on poverty, ignorance, whatever . Crossing a line we probably do not want to cross. Host one last call for you. One last call for our guest. William. Independent caller. Good morning. Caller first, on the civil war, i know you say look back at history, where we come from. I would say if you look at where coldand now, we are in a civil war. Coldnot think it is a civil war. History will tell us that when we have veterans committing suicide, children committing suicide. My friend does steal jump lessons. He painted them red and blue, and he had seven and eightyearold kids saying i am not sitting next to a republican claim this drum. We are fully on in some sort of war. Whether you call it civil or not. It seems to be social. The second comment is on the patriot act. You seem to have written quite a bit on liberty documents. If there is anything that takes away our liberty it is the patriot act. Were approvedbeds directly after the patriot act a rise inn instituted the prison industrial complex. While we do have a lot of great liberty documents, i think we have some things to look at in our own government, and i would urge the left and right and i am calling the independent line i would urge the left and right not to get embroiled and , social this virtual work. Take a look at the other side and their point because gun rights are something both sides have wrong. When the government created a machine that could microwave human beings to miles away, we havent Terry Nichols we have a terrier go government. And weto be on the left should look at what both sides say, embrace it, understand it, and find a way back to the middle because where we sit now as this are thinning and i have three kids. Host mr. Brookhiser, time for a final thought either on that color, the book in general, or both . Guest well, i agree that we need to listen to the other side, understand what the other side is saying, and not demonize the other side. We are all americans here. I hope this book can encourage us all of us, to look back on our history, to look back on the better chapters in it, and to try to replicate it those chapters today and tomorrow. Is theichard brookhiser author of this book, give me liberty a history of americas exceptional idea. He is also Senior Editor at National Reviewyou can read sos at National Review. Us andou for joining taking comments and questions from our viewers. Thank you. Guest thank you. Host we will take another short timeout. When we come back, we will talk about impeachment. Of the groupan Public Citizen will join us to talk about this impeachment trial and their recommendations on how things should move forward from here. We will be back with more of your calls. In dubai, you compare it to being on the jetsons. It is not there yet, but that is the vision. The vision is to have flying airships early in this coming decade, and not just a few of them carrying around rich people at the golf courses in luxury hotels. They want to. All kinds of people, and they want to have a flying network, a metro system with little stops all over dubai with flying machines carrying people. Looking at how technology is transportation, whats the communicators on cspan2. Our cspan campaign 2020 busting is traveling across the country asking which issues voters think candidates should address . Environmental issues good i would like to see more protection for our beaches, the everglades, the keys. I want to see action on it. I hope this comes in the upcoming election. One issue i would like to see the upcoming president ial address is the current injustices that are going on in our country, whether it is video on instagram or in the white house were by people in the current office. I feel like those issues need to be addressed. Issue that is important to me is Climate Change because i want to build to visit coral reefs in my lifetime and not have them be bleached. Something i want candidates to think about is the lack of flooding being an actual inding being an actual issue our government and how we are just as important. Right now is health care and Campaign Finance and ethics in government. Health care, i think we should move more towards improving the reforms that were made a decade ago, but we are not fully seeing division of universal health care making it more affordable to i would like to see it xpanded to a singlepayer system. Voices from the road on cspan. Washington journal continues. Host now at the table is robert weissman, president of the group known as Public Citizen. Guest good morning. Host remind us of what Public Citizen is and your mission. Guest we are a Nonprofit Organization in washington, d. C. We have been around for almost 50 years, focusing on advancing the health and safety and justice issues in the u. S. Host we are here to talk about your report, Senate Impeachment trial procedure, and there is a look at the cover of it. You put this together with citizens for responsibility and ethics in washington. Why did you decide to put out this recommendation . Guest the idea is we wrote this in advance of the house Impeachment Vote, but we could see where things were going. There is not a lot of precedent in American History for having Impeachment Votes or conducting impeachment trials. The rules are up for grabs. We wanted to look at what should be done and what should be done Going Forward to ensure the impeachment trial in the senate would take place under fair and impartial rules. Host we will walk through the recommendations you are proposing. Numbers 202 7488001, thats the line for republicans. Democrats 202 7488000. Independents 202 7488002. Let me show you this headline in the Washington Times today. Senate gridlock by impeachment proceedings, republicans scoff, democrats line up behind speaker. When you see the words gridlock in this area, what goes through your mind . Guest i think the thing is that this is a partisan process. , but a political process, we need the senate to step back from the politicization of it and think through what are the fare rules . What would the rules be like if the shoe was on the other foot . It is not that hard to figure out what the rules should be. We have recent precedent from the clinton impeachment trial. Host you talk about four principles for conducting a full , transparent, and fair impeachment trial. Number one should be the trial procedures should be established before the trial commences. Seems simple and straightforward enough. We are not there yet. Guest we dont have any idea what the process is going to be like. The trial is similar to but different than a judicial trial. There are not formal rules in place. You go to a court, and the rules are already there. The judge is not making it up as you go along. The senate has to decide for itself with the rules are going to be. The only sensible way to handle that situation is for the senate to establish those rules before the process gets underway. Host let me jump in. Mitch mcconnell was on fox, he commented on his discussions with Chuck Schumer on how to proceed. [video clip] schumer had harsh words for you this weekend. Let me play this and get your reaction. So far, senator mcconnell and President Trump have come up with no good reason why there should not be witnesses, why there should not be documents. We dont know what the witnesses will say. We dont know how the documents will read. They might exonerate President Trump, or they might further incriminate him. Mitch mcconnell has said he is proud to be a partial juror. Every senator has to uphold and of to render an oath to render impartial justice, and he says he is proud to be partial. That says it all. Your reaction and what was the last conversation you had senator schumer . Do you think Chuck Schumer is partial, Elizabeth Warren, Bernie Sanders . Lets put the charade. This is a political exercise. All i am asking of schumer is that we treat trump the same way we treated clinton. We had a procedure that was approved 1000 to go through the opening arguments, have a written question period, and then decide which witnesses to call. We have not ruled out witnesses. Lets handle this case just like we did with president clinton. Fair is fair. Have you spoken recently with him . Before we left town. We are at an impasse. We cannot to anything until the speaker says the papers over. Enjoy the holidays. Host you mentioned this is a political process. Mitch mcconnell mentioned this is a political process. How do the two sides come together to create a structure, system, set of rules for the trial in this environment . Guest the answer is we are going to find out. If there is a goodfaith conversation about this, it is not that hard to work out what fair rules should be. There is a difference between ng impartial and being which is the obligation of the senators and being oblivious evidence says. Senators are not presupposed to have no knowledge about what happened or have an opinion about what happened, but they are supposed to look at the evidence fairly. It is worrisome when senator mcconnell says i do not intend to be impartial. Renders not going to impartial justice, this is not going to be a good system. Host what about his point about Chuck Schumer and the other Democratic Senators . Are they partial . Guest they have not proclaimed being partial. It is one thing to say i am aware of what the evidence has been, and i have views on that evidence, and saying i will not be impartial. When you say, i am not impartial, you say you are going to get to a predetermined outcome whatever the evidence is. It is a different thing to look at the evidence and say i think i know where it is going to go, maybe i will change my mind. It is the possibility of having an open mind. Mcconnell has not said what i just said, but that is the application of what he is saying when he says i am not impartial. Witnesses, who will be allowed to be called, what do you want to see happen . Host there is a way guest there is a way in which this is different than the clinton trial. Ken starr report upon which the house voted and the senate could use as a basis for what they were going to do. In this case, the Trump Administration has refused to turn over documents to the house and refused to allow the most senior officials who were involved in the direct and most important conversations with the president to testify in the house. If the senate can actually get those documents and hear from those witnesses, it could do a better job of rendering impartial justice. There will be at least some witnesses permitted and a requirement that the white house turn over documents about what went on. Host we should get calls going in another minute or two. Lets get to some of your trial recommendations. The senate should hear the full case before voting. Tell us more about that recommendation to guest the senate is making up the rules. It does not have to go by any predetermined set of standards. It might be hypothetically possible for the case to launch, a senator to say i think we should dismiss the case immediately without hearing any evidence or arguments and able to take place. That is hypothetically possible and was a real worry a month ago. , senatoroint, i think mcconnell has made it clear he does not intend to do that, and it would be shocking if he did and a travesty. Host how long of a trial do you expect . Guest i dont know anything more than what the conventional wisdom is. I think a short trial without any witnesses or new documents is probably two to three weeks. A longer trial with witnesses probably adds a week or so. Host in terms of the senators, they have been referred to as the jurors in this case. Do they have to say and the chamber the entire time during all testimony . Guest yes, they need to be there. Host were going through another point of the senate trial recommendation here. The trial should be open to the public. Sounds simple enough. You can watch it on cspan2 and elsewhere. People will be able to go into the Senate Gallery where the public can go. Walk us through that. Why is that so important . Case studyan is the of why it is so important. People watch cspan to understand what their government officials are doing. Theres nothing more important government officials are going to be doing then deciding this impeachment trial. The basis on what goes into their thinking and evidence that is presented should be viewable by the public in realtime. Host what else are you looking for as they begin the process of putting a trial together . Guest those are mostly the key things. Really to take seriously the obligations for the doing of impartial justice. That is all we can ask for, and then senators will as arrive at the conclusions they do. We have sent it to the senate. Host have you heard back from anybody . Guest we are in conversation with a lot of senators. In newets go to anne york as we talk about the impending Senate Impeachment trial. Youre on the air. Caller good morning. How are you . Host we are fine. Caller i want to make a quick comment if you dont mind. Two things i find quite interesting, i feel that nancy pelosi should hand over the articles of impeachment right away. I think they should go by other historical precedence that were precedents that were set. I was reading a book about Franklin Roosevelt during his tenure, and i think the president is allowed to have private counsel. There is a difference between the three executive offices. Ave to say that i do feel i dont disable left, hardcore say left,nt to hardcore left, but many of the people that were involved in the congressional hearings were not being, honest as far as fair in their observations. Inquiry. O the i think it is a great thing that we should have an inquiry of all of our elected officials, but i was disheartened by the fact that adam schiff was able to make up his own script. I like allender show its. I think he is the only one who made sense out of this mess. He said they should have a board like they did with the 9 11, people that have no vested other than thes country, and they should have a panel, and they should have gone through all of the findings together before they decided which way to go. I think the people running for the president ial office that they should recuse themselves because they have a vested interest in having President Trump guilty because they want to take his job just like Jeff Sessions recused himself, i think the people running for office should recuse themselves because you know which way they are going to vote. And judge charlie, if boardd an independent that did not have a political interest and only the truth, then i would say it would have more weight. I find it ironic that people are getting on Mitch Mcconnells case when you know that the democrats were working with democratic interests against trump. Host thank you for calling. I want to get other viewpoints in. She lay out a lot of what she was thinking. The first thing she laid out was her interpretation that nancy pelosi was withholding the sending of articles of impeachment. Here is the headline from fox news, mcconnell calls this impeachment delay absurd, predicts she will back down sooner or later. What do you make of the fact that the articles of impeachment have not been sent over to the senate . Guest i think it is clear she is going to send them over. She said she is going to send them over. This is the normal jockeying that goes on. I dont think it is that consequential. I think there are arguments on both sides of this one. I think Nancy Pelosis argument that she cannot be sure who she wants to nominate to make the case in the senate until she knows what the process is is not without merit. She is trying to get some leverage to make sure there is a fair process established in advance before she sends the impeachment articles over. Host that last comment about the people running for election should recuse themselves, do you agree . People whothe imagine themselves running against President Trump should recuse themselves. The last place they want to be is in the senate listening to the impeachment trial. They want to be in iowa campaigning. They want to remove trump through electoral means, i dont think that means they will be unable to serve as impartial adjudicative. Host good morning. Caller good morning. Happy new year. Articulateddy, she my thoughts. She did a superb job. The landing i would have to add is that witnesses should be called, but this time there will be witnesses that the conservatives want also. Starrlking about testified in front of the senate during clintons impeachment hearings. Is there adam schiff prosecutor here. He controlled everything in the house, reviews certain questions to be asked, refused witnesses, even refused the Republican Party for having a minority day for hearings, refused that. This is a joke. Nancy is going to hold this up as long as she can because as long as they can keep it in the news, it will hurt donald trump. That is what they are counting on. I think this is going to backfire in their face big time. Host any reaction . Than schiff is different starr, in that starr was an outside investigator, more like Robert Mueller was, who testified in front of the Judiciary Committee. California, good morning. Caller good morning. He just said why cant we do it like clintons impeachment was . Why cant we do it better than how it was done back then . There are new procedures nowadays on running an impeachment differently. Also, there should be witnesses. If trump did nothing wrong, why are they trying to hide . What are they trying to hide from . The evidence should be out there. I know they are trying to avoid making trump look bad. That is what it is coming down to. Hopefully we can be honest on what has happened, and there will not be this drama and everything that is happening. We need to be open about what trump has done or what he has not done and let the people decide when the vote comes next year. Thank you. Host thank you. The color brings up the clinton impeachment trial. Remind us what rules they came up with at that time in order to proceed with that trial . Guest we recommended in our report that the case should be heard before there is an someone to for move to dismiss it. That is pretty good president. There is one significant difference, which is all the material witnesses, including president clinton, had been heard from prior to the case moving to the senate. Starrh the very extensive investigation. In this instance, that is not the case. The Trump Administration stonewalled documents and refused to let top officials, mick mulvaney, john bolton, and others testify. If they can testify in the senate, we will have more evidence for the senate to make the best decision they can based on all the relevant evidence. If they do not have all the relevant evidence, by definition, they are going to reach a less good conclusion. Host a simple commitment to have some misses and documents is the fair and right thing to do, that on twitter. Caller i think the content impeachment process is basically right. Because the white house has refused to make key documents available to the house and let officials testify, i think it is important to have witnesses. Host maryland. Caller what do you think the chances are of the senate agreeing to allow the senators to have a secret vote . This has been suggested. That has been suggested that many of the senators would vote against trump if the ballot was secret . Do you think there is a chance they might agree to that . Host do you think that is a good idea . Caller i think that is an excellent idea. Host how come . Caller a lot of senators are afraid to vote how they really feel. Host any precedent for this at all . Guest the answer is no. I think what she is calling for in secret, you see everybody voting, so you know what the count was, but you would not know how any individual senator voted. There may well be republicans who would vote against trump in int case the will not vote public because of the retribution. A secret ballot what maybe allow them to cast their conscience in a way, but that said i cannot favor a secret ballot. The senators are public officials. They have to be held publicly accountable. This vote needs to be public and on the record. Host what is the role of the chief justice in an impeachment trial . Guest the managers are going to make the case for impeachment or to defend the president against conviction in the senate. Role is nottss the same as a judge and a trial. He will oversee the process and make sure everything is orderly. He will allocate time and so on. He will do it according to rules that are established by the senate, not by any external force and not by the chief justice himself. It is a different role, more of an overseer. Host just so we are clear, if the senate does not like something that the chief justice does during the trial, they can overrule him . Guest that is correct. The senate as a whole is the ultimate arbiter of the rules and any ruling made pursuant to the rules they established. Host that is a simple majority, 51 votes. 67 senators are needed to convict the president , which would force removal from office. How does the senate deliberate . When all of this is done, how do the senators get together and delivery . Is there deliberate . Is there any comparison to how a jury operates . Guest i dont think so. I think theres going to be a lot of deliberation in their own democratic and republican caucuses. Democrats who might vote against conviction for the president and any republicans who might vote for conviction against the president , how they are going to talk or not speak inside those caucus conversations, that would be interesting to hear, but we will never know. If they break away from the party line, they will be public about their rationale to do so. Just the way you dont see what happens with an actual jury, but it does happen. For any of us who have served on juries, not everybody starts out on the same page. You have a process of conversation, and you get to a resolution. When you are on a jury, that process does not involve any external political factors. In this case, it will. If someone votes against the party lines, they will be under heavy pressure from their leadership, and threats will be made about what will happen during their next election. Host will they vote on both articles, one after the other, or will they debate one and go . Guest that is to be decided. The case for impeachment, i assume, will be made all at once , whether it is a single vote or separate votes on the articles. Host lets get to kimberly from washington, pennsylvania, republican color. Caller i have a question and observation. Is it true that the senate does not need pelosi to deliver the impeachment papers . It is just a formality . Republican, i am getting a little fed up with the garbage. I can imagine with the Democratic Base is feeling. They are think promised everything and being screwed out of it every time. Host mr. Wiseman. Guest on the question, no, the senate does need the house to refer the articles before they can formally take them up. It is possible you have heard something to the contrary, and i am mistaken. My understanding is this process does not start in the senate until the referral is made. Host one of the witnesses at not technically truly impeached as we sit here right now until they physically go over to the senate. Any big point to that . Guest no. I think the original idea of having an Impeachment Vote in the house but not sending the articles over for consideration in the senate came from a harvard professor. Said that the house has the power not to send the articles over if it chooses come on the senate cannot act if the articles do not come over. I believe that is correct. I think there is virtually no santa that nancy pelosi is not sending these articles over, it is a matter of when it happens. Ont they are back next week the sixth of january or the seventh of january is when they start reorganizing. Ont is your guess on timing when these articles might go over . Once they go over a trial begins almost immediately, right . Guest i have zero insight into what is going to happen. As a total guess i would guess this is going to be resolved this week, but things dont work the way you normally expect them so who knows. Startial is supposed to right away, within 48 hours of receiving the articles of impeachment unless the senate agrees not to move immediately. Expecting to move and go over pretty quickly and for the trial to start immediately. Ifre are ways to work around Senate Majority leader mcconnell chooses to. Senate have to sit and vote to begin a trial . Guest i do not know the answer. My understanding is under the existing rule the trial is required to start within 48 hours. Host mary from las vegas, youre on the air. Caller if i can make a couple of requests. Cspan, could you have laurence ande on and joe weinbacks maybe the cofounders of fusion gps. Wants to worknell in concert with trump instead of being independent that is despicable. I wish that he would bring some of the 400 bills that are , 275 ofon his desk which are bipartisan, to the senate for a vote. Or trump i see a cover up and it started with william barr who irancontrahe special counsel investigation. Reportorted the mueller to the american public. He would not give the Judicial Committee the unredacted report or the evidence that goes with it. If anybody bothered to read the Mueller Report they might have a different opinion, you can read the executive summary. As for ukraine it is typical trump conduct of bullying and extorting. He does it to our own companies if he does not get his way. He goes on the bully pulpit even with power to get the fed to do what his ones what he wants. That he is fighting corruption is laughable. In concert with every dictator you can think of. I think he is coordinating our National Security with is gettinguse putin what he wants. I think we will fall into bad times with this man in office and we will lose our democratic republic. Please watch more than fox news. Watch all the different stations. Thank you. Host any thoughts . Guest a lot of comments there. We are a Progressive Organization and we are deeply concerned about what we perceive to be the threat that donald trump poses to the working of our democracy. That one reason this impeachment makes sense, i think trump has done a lot of impeachable things but we did not support impeachment until we reached the moment of the revelation about the ukraine scandal. What is different about this from many other violations of constitution the president has committed is that it involves the next election. It involves pressuring a foreign country to involve itself in our next election. You cannot rely on the known of democratic accountability in the election if the president is using his official office to corrupt that mechanism. That is why this impeachment is so crucial and i agree with the callers point, this is not a oneoff. This is a pattern of behavior by President Trump that is very worrisome for the character of this country. Host our guest is the president citizen. Blic they put out a report on how the senate trial should proceed. Be tuning in might about supplemental rules you are putting out there. Structure,bout trial appropriate evidentiary motions to dismiss and how to protect whistleblowers and classified info. Some of it is straightforward, set the rules before you start the trial. The whistleblower point is really important. Received enough attention and is becoming an increasingly severe one. The whistleblower who put together information that he had access to and transmitted to the blowing the whistle on what he saw as wrong doing and ,lerting the legislative branch there is something seriously wrong here you should look into it. He performed a service to the country. Followed appropriate channels internally in the administration and in referring the matter to the house intelligence committee. We need whistleblowers. We need them in the government and we need them in the corporate sector. That should not be a artisan issue and historically it has not been. There has been strong bipartisan support in the congress for protecting whistleblowers because congress understands that the people inside are the ones who can see what is happening and Color Congress when things go astray. Whistleblower for the whistleblower function to work whistleblowers have to know that they will be protected. Fats they face have to know they will not face threats of harm to themselves or their family. Members of congress and now the president himself had tried to unmask the whistleblower, denying him the anonymity which he deserves under the law and which he must have if whistleblowers are to be confident in their ability to be whistleblowers without threatening their jobs or lives. He has intimated that the whistleblower has engaged in treasonous type conduct which may incite people to do harm to this person. It is very serious, the person themselves has to live with this for months, years, or the rest of their lives. It affects whether or not we will see other was the blowers go forward. It is crucial that the whistleblowers identity be protected and that the whistleblower not suffer any additional threats implicit or explicit. Host the former Vice President senator joe biden said he would not comply with a Senate Subpoena in the impeachment trial. One of the stories do you agree with that . Guest know and neither does he because he reversed his stance because now he says he will comply which i think is the right position. I think he was correct to say i am not part of the story and there is no reason to call me as a witness, that is correct. If he is called as a witness he has to comply with the subpoena. Critical on what Hunter Bidens role was in ukraine. I think it was wrong that he had that job. Argumentnow what the can be about why he had the position with an Oil Gas Company in ukraine that was not related to his relationship with his father. Dont think some of the more extravagant claims about joe biden or hunter biden have any veracity. Host david in loves park, illinois. Republican caller. Caller good morning, thank you for taking my call. I am a republican and based on what i have seen in terms of the impeachment process up to this point i am against it based on the evidence and the evidence being the lack of evidence. My question Going Forward is, obviously john roberts will preside over the Senate Impeachment trial is self itself. Doanything the democrats can at this point which they refused to do during the process up to this point, that is to go to the , ists to compel witnesses that possibility still remaining for them . Thatt have a problem with but i think it gives everybody a clear view of what is going on. Question, ifis my the courts play any role prior to presiding over the senate during the trial that can be witnesses orl demand witnesses in the process . Think you are thinking about it exactly right. Thedirect answer is, no courts are not going to decide the courts are going to decide these questions but not before this moves to the senate. End up with these witnesses being required to testify in the house after the Senate Impeachment trial is over. Bythe senate controlled republicans says they want to hear from witnesses it will be almost impossible for the white house to refuse to let them testify. The power to hear from these witnesses and i agree from the caller, lets hear the evidence. If you hear the house evidence if you think the house evidence was inadequate but you know that key officials refused to testify and the white house turned over refused to turn over documents lets get those documents and let the witnesses testify. If you still think there is no evidence for Impeachment Vote for acquittal. Maybe you have a different point of view when you see all the evidence. Senators are saying are voting more appealing for certain witnesses . Say we aresenators permitting witnesses in the impeachment matter and they say they want to hear from john bolton. Theate says Republicancontrolled Senate agrees that john bolton should testify, i dont see how the white house could prevent that. Host lets go to susan in fort myers, florida. Independent caller. Caller good morning. I have a different point of view completely. I am sick and tired of the deifying of politicians. They are not deities and i dont think anything will come of this impeachment just because of the socalled rules. I am losing confidence in our constitution. I dont think that any president regardless of party should have unfettered executive privilege. That is a pseudodictatorship. Whether we like it or not thats what it is. The president doesnt have to share anything, everybody talks , whatthe American People American People are they talking about . Everybody is left out and everybody is at each others throats for what reason . Because everything is money and power. Anybody as treating a deity, that includes the founding fathers. Everyone seems to deify them. Different than people today or people from antiquity. I have lost confidence. I dont think anything will come of this. Problemsll do is cause among the American People because they are falling for the propaganda and there is a lot of propaganda, it is very discouraging. On the arrogance scale we need to go from a 10 to a five. It is not a good thing. Host thank you for your point. A couple different points there. Guest there is a lot of wisdom in her comments. Both of the concerns about how money and power are corrupting washington across parties, and the concern about too much concentration of power in the presidency. Bipartisant is a problem when it comes to Foreign Policy. Ony are willing to trample congressional prerogatives or ignore them altogether. Think President Trump is centralizing power and ignoring constitution. I think it is troubling but not unreasonable for susan to lose faith. Is to lean into the constitution and rely on its mechanisms of accountability. The number one thing is for the torts and for congress counterbalance the power of the executive. Not turning over documents from the white house i think is a danger to our democracy. Host one b were texting and from mount lebanon, pennsylvania. Should presumptions about a possible senate trial be banned speak about the media in general and how it is doing in terms of reporting on the playbyplay. Has it had an influence on the way things are shaping out . Guest no question. One problem with the media, not true for cspan, but true for most of the media is the focus on the sort of moment by moment, blowbyblow horserace jockeying. Too much focus on that, too much focus on who is up and down and what is the political consequence of this or that, too little focus on the underlying substantive issues. It has its own soap opera dynamic, people watch it and get easily engaged. There is a downside which there is great criticism and it distracts us from what we care about which is the underlying substantive issues. Think, as is not an original observation, many people rely on fox news as a sole source of information. Fox is a different Vantage Point and a different approach to how on how to report the news. It is fine to watch fox but if you only watch fox they are not seeing other ways of looking at things and it is limiting how they are thinking about stuff and increasing this fissure in society that people are upset about. Host larry from memphis, tennessee. Go ahead. Caller good morning. I am a veteran. This is what is bothering me. This man came on national tv three times and invited foreign governments to interfere in our election. Are we not to believe our eyes . Guest that is true. After the ukraine story broke on the spot press conference where he said i want ukraine involved and i want china involved and that china should investigate biden host hunter biden. Anothere did commit impeachable offense, he invited foreign governments to engage in an investigation for the purpose of influencing our election. He did so in plain sight. He did it in front of all of the cameras. It was not a private conversation. It was on the white house lawn. I think that is right. We need to know more but we already know enough. The partial transcript we have of the president s call with the president of ukraine made it clear what he was doing. He was pressuring the president of a foreign country to undertake an investigation for the purpose of influencing our election and that is wrong. Host lets hear from auburn, new york. It is spread. Fred. Has definitely proven watching him that he would impeach President Trump right now, everybody wants it done right now. They did not give the republicans a chance to bring witnesses, they questioned their own witnesses behind locked doors, republicans couldnt even question them before they went on a hearing. Its been a Kangaroo Court from the beginning. As the democrats would say there is no man that is above the law but they acted above the law themselves. You heard the conversation on the telephone. In what heo pro quo asked. He said he did not want one. All the investigations that should have been done on the dnc side have not been done, it is going on right now. And alling to come out of the socalled witnesses were under the six or eight witnesses, not one of them could say there was anything done that was illegal. This is continuing on a man that has brought this country out of a mess and if he can keep going and we can get this country back in a productive state instead of being taken advantage of. Especially china what he has tried to do to get our terrace and tarrifs and our trade war for he. He is going to be voted back in and democrats hate it. You are white faced right there showing exactly where you stand. You keep telling your same lies hoping to get a different view. Host lets get a response from our guest. Guest i am not telling any lies. For what its worth i agree with some of the concerns raised about china. I think there are some factually mistaken comments there. Republicans were able to question the witnesses in closeddoor depositions before the formal hearings took place. It is important to note that the president refused to be theesented by counsel at Judiciary Committee impeachment hearings which was available to him and offered to him but he declined. The president is refusing to make available the key witnesses who have information about the conversation that took place directly with him. The last thing i would say is i dont think it is true that witnesses did not show that anything illegal took place. The president engaged in horribly unconstitutional conduct, demanding that a foreign country involve itself in our elections which is about as bad as it can get. Because it means that our regular mechanism of accountability is threatened, the ability to hold a president accountable for good or worse through election, we cannot rely on that if the integrity of elections are under assault. One more question by text. After the Senate Hearing can democrats bring on new impeachment trials on other issues . Guest the answer is yes, there could be another impeachment on anything else that comes up, maybe even on the same relevant matters if new evidence or to emerge. Its not super likely. Its important that the house does not give up that possibility. It is not super likely for a friday of reasons. For a variety of reasons. Closer too getting the 2020 election and it becomes nonviable to do an impeachment process. Host how long have you been studying this process . Guest i cannot say i am an historian of impeachment. I havent interested in the idea of impeachment over the course of the last two or three decades. I have looked at it but do not claim to be a scholar of impeachment. Is there anything about the clinton episode or the clinton trial that you think we . Hould be thinking about back on theok clinton trial, at least many of us think that was a horrible , president clinton engaged in horrible personal conduct, i think it was a mistake for the house to them preach for the house to impeach. His popularity went up as he was being impeached. The process played out reasonably well. We can look back and see that. I hope we look back on the trump impeachment process and can say that process went reasonably well. Host dominic from new york, independent color. Go ahead please. Caller let me give you my opinion. We have all seen the interview with joe biden and those wall street tycoons and how he was talking about how he held hostage for ukraine 1. 3 billion. If the democrats staged that i give the democrats my compliments. That he held a a3 billion in aid because of prosecutor that was investigating his son, then joe biden i am sure hunter biden did not find that job in a want ad in the daily news. He got that job through the old man. Trump is not president ial. I remember watching the show when al green came on here. He doesnt read the federal papers, he reads the wall street journal and the daily news. Federalnot lead the papers he does not read the federal papers. What he is doing is unbelievable. I think if nancy pelosi is smart she will rip that all up and say there is not enough evidence, because i think he will make another mistake. I think it is a waste of time and a waste of money. I dont think President Trump thinks he did anything long. Joe biden is going around bragging that he held up 1. 3 billion i dont think that is too great. Said he did just this nationally. He is not hiding this. Have a good day and happy new year. Host thank you for calling. When biden made those comments he was saying he was trying to advance the u. S. National interest in reducing corruption in ukraine for better or worse i think it was a good thing he did. The money was not held up, it was threatened and they got the results that they were looking for which reflected what the National Security establishment thought was in the u. S. National interest. There is no evidence that the reason joe biden did that was to protect joe biden who was not under investigation by the prosecutor. I completely agree with the colors point, hunter biden had the job on the board of directors, paid 50,000 a month by an oil and gas company not because of his great expertise but because he was the son of the Vice President. Ill think the Vice President had anything to do with it, it would be foolish to think there was any other reason that he got the job. I dont want to defend what hunter biden did but i dont think what joe biden did is comparable to what donald trump did. Caller i am good. With what was just discussed, if you are going to get a job because your father is Vice President maybe we should think about ivanka and jarrett who have no expertise anyway. The American People are paying large salaries, i think the whole question of crowd strike and the bidens is not relevant to the articles of impeachment which is basically about the abuse of power another person to ,nvestigate and withholding aid i dont think it should be a political process, impeachment should be a Legal Process to displace the lack of legal resource when the president rakes the law, i think members of the senate stated that they are not impartial and will not able to listen to evidence this is not a real trial if you have jurors in the trial saying they will not listen to evidence , the president is breaking the law of right now by exposing the whistleblower and withholding the aid. The president does not have the power to withhold aid that was approved by congress. I think people should be able to see the and edited transcript of the ukraine phone call. A president with no accountability is a dictator. Thank you. Guest i agree with a lot of what she is saying. Including that President Trump without precedent has used the white house to enrich himself and his family. In many instances in violation of constitutional norms. This has become a mantra, what distinguishes our country and guarantees our rights and liberty is this core notion that nobody is above the law. Trump probably thinks he doesnt do anything wrong, he thinks as president it is impossible for him to do anything wrong. Whatever he does is legal and permissible and he cannot be held accountable. His lawyers have said if he murders someone he could be held accountable. That is not what the constitution says and it is not what the American Democratic tradition says. It is not what the rule of law means. As far as laws are to be upheld to be decent and fair it must be the case that nobody is above the law. Host another look at the report from Public Citizen if the impeachment trial should proceed. You can read that at citizen. Org. What else can i find . Lots of information about money in politics, corruption, health and safety and how the Justice System should work. Host thank you for your time. Guest great to be with you. Host Congress Comes back next week. Still on the rate for the christmas and new year period. We will look at the next steps for impeachment and rules to be drafted for a senate trial. Up the usmca,ake the new trade agreement with canada and mexico. Not sure if that will happen before or after the senate trial. The state of the union on february 4, that is a tuesday. We take you to the pro forma session of the house. They are doing a series of short sessions until they come back. The speaker pro tempore the order. Ill now be in the chair lays before the house a communication from the speaker. The clerk the speakers room, ashington, d. C. , december 30, 2019. I hereby appoint the honorable g. K. Butterfield to act as speaker pro tempore on this day. Signed, nancy pelosi, speaker of house of representatives. The speaker pro tempore the prayer will be offered by the chaplain, rabbi arnold e. Esnicoff, chaplain, u. S. Navy, retired, washington, d. C. E