Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 01132020 20240713

To register. As always, we will take your calls and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. Washington journal is next. Is next. On thisod morning monday, january 13, the beginning of the legislative week in washington. Senators are preparing for votes on curbing the president s use of force against iran and starting an impeachment trial. Iran. St, your thoughts on what steps do you want lawmakers to take to limit the military did lasts the house week or support the administrations strategy. . Democrats, 2027488000. Republicans, 2027488001. Independents, 2027488002. Active and retired military, we want to hear from you, 2027488003 is your number. You can text us on that line with your first, city, and state. We will get to your thoughts in a minute. Lets begin with the hill newspaper. Democrats scramble to reign in trumps iran war powers. Democrats are racing against the clock to shore up as the fight shifts to the senate. A lawmakers looking to limit trump possibility to take military action face a tight timeframe with little room for error after the speaker said she would send over articles of impeachment. A resolution from tim kaine can come to the senate floor as early as tomorrow morning and he has been trying to win over the 4 gop votes needed to bring it to the floor in addition to every democratic senator to get 51 votes. Here is what senator tim kaine had to say yesterday on face the nation. [video clip] are tryinglee and i to restore this. We had a resolution that would say no war against iran unless Congress Votes to authorize it. The president can defend the nation against an imminent threat and that is existing law, that the constitutional framers understood that. We are skeptical of the evidence this president has put on the table and that is why we are challenging the briefers and the president. At the end of the day, this is less about the president than it is about congress. Both parties have hidden under their desks rather than have votes about war. I have cast two of them in the Foreign Relations committee. Fundamentally different than any other vote and so many members of congress, they want to hide under their desk, let the president do whatever the president wants and they think they can escape accountability. It is time to go back to what the framers envisioned. We should not send our best and brightest in harms way if congress does not have the guts to have a debate and a vote. Host do you agree with senator tim kaine . Should lawmakers take these votes to limit the president s use of force . What do you think or should they be supporting the president . Newspaper, they report 4 republican senators the Senate Previously voted 5040 on an amendment from tom udall to an annual policy bill that presented prevented the president using funding for military action against iran. The measure fell short of the votes needed for adoption. 4 republican senators voted for time. Oposal at the senator Christopher Kunz missed the jet the vote, but supported the measure. This gives cain a pathway to 51 votes. Senators lee and paul said they would support the war powers resolution after they left a closeddoor briefing on the airstrike that killed the iranian general. Utah, republican, was on face the nation as well. He was asked if he has been given any private assurances that congress would be consulted if the president plans to take future military action and here is what he had to say. [video clip] yes, and it is always implicit we will be consulted. Or that there is some indication that the strike in question is necessary in order to repel an imminent or actual attack on the United States. That is always the questions and one of the reasons i am cosponsoring tim kaines resolution. Ofthere are things short war, there is hostile activity, andrgeted strike like this what you are supporting, this resolution, there is a carveout for an imminent threat, so how would that stop the administration from doing what it just did . Any time we have Something Like this and we signaled in advance it is not covered, we are relying on the good faith use of the commanderinchief power by the president. It is not contingent on or rooted in this president ial administration. This goes back to 1791 when George Washington pointed out it is ok for the president to act to repel an attack without authorization from congress, but he noted it is important any sustained military effort does have to be authorized. Thoughts. Do you agree with these lawmakers that Congress Needs to act when it comes to use of force . From the time magazine, this is the headline in several papers and publications, iran continues to bomb u. S. Bases. 4 Iraqi Service members wounded by attacks on an air base american trainers yesterday. There is also the option from senator Bernie Sanders, a proposal he has put forth to freeze funding for any action against iran. Here is a tweet he sent out on saturday. I am proud to partner with mike no warss our noel against iran act. We will build bipartisan might majorities in congress. In their joint statement, these senators, Bernie Sanders and mike lee say we often disagree on many issues, but staying up for the constitution standing up for the constitution is not about partisanship. Would beial warmaking harmful for our democracy. We turn to all of you. George in tennessee, democratic caller, what role do lawmakers have in tensions between u. S. And iran . Caller i think congress should be informed each and every time. Hat happens donald trump is one of the this was tople divert from impeachment and anybody should know what is. Oing on you think senator should move after the house voted 224194 last week, you think the senate should move to limit the iran . Ent on it is little late in the game for that. Host they should take what should they do . Caller they should take an assessment of what really happened. There isnt much they can do, it is already done now. Host richard, what do you think . Conservative, not a republican, but a conservative and i think lawmakers should have a voice. What scares me about our they let things leak out. You cannot afford to let anything leak out. There needs to be a group of people in there, but not all of congress. My problem with it is we have such division in this country. Everybody is saying they loved donald trump when he was a democrat and a businessman. He has helped everyone out as far as donations. To doing something for the American People. I am not talking about people who came here on green cards. I am talking about born and bred americans who paid by the rules. Theireir taxes, raised children, and now they have to pay for other people around the country. The biggest problem we have in this country today is we dont need a full force military. Not unless we go after china or russia. We need to get our house in order. Like trump says, we have bigger stuff. If you want to play the game, lets play it. A lot of allies do not want to play the game anymore. If it wasnt for the United States after pearl harbor and world war ii, most of these people would be enslaved to some sort of dictatorship around the world. Liberal americans better wake up. You better hope you have a strong person in office. Praise god and praise america and lets go win whatever we have to win because we are going downhill fast. City, northeth carolina, republican and active military. What do you think . Caller thanks for taking my call. In the 1980s during the and you had innocent americans held hostage by a. Ostile country , but they have to. Ealize host you are breaking up. Difficult to hear you. We will go to joe in florida, independent. Caller good morning, greta. Constitution,the the president of the United States is not a dictator. We have to look at history. It only took one assassination and we had world war i. With a tinydman mustache and we have world war ii. We dont need the iraq war. How many thousands of americans died . Themany trillions we spent, American People and think about people are dying here, we do not have health care, but somehow we can afford trillions of money for a war like the iraq war . It is common sense. It doesnt make no sense. Quick. Inish up real pentagon gave choices to trump. He chose the most extreme, to kill the second in command in iraq. I am glad the pentagon did not give the red button to trump. This is no joke. This is the only planet we live. We dont have a second planet. Think about what happened in japan, the bombs, what the damage can do. Host the house late last week to 194a resolution 224 that would limit the president s use of force. He would still be able to act if the United States faced a threat. There have been members of when it comessay to military action, any president cannot keep acting making decisions based on the authorization of military force from 2002. Look at the wikipedia page. It was called the Iraq Resolution and the language ,eals with the threat of iraq of al qaedamembers are known to be iraq. The effort by congress and the president to fight terrorists themhose who aid or harbor. Authorization by the constitution and congress for the president to fight antiUnited States terrorism. Has beened barbara lee pushing for a new authorization and she was on the washington journal last week. [video clip] justify the use of force not only recently, but over 41 times a 19 countries, there was declassified report. We need to debate the cost and consequences of the use of force anywhere in the world, especially now. I taking this off the books, that gives the public a chance to weigh in three members of congress to determine whether we should move forward with our responsibility. Host we are asking all of you to weigh in on this debate. What role, if any, do you think lawmakers should have . Do you agree with the congresswoman that Congress Needs to pass a new authorization of military force . Charlotte in North Carolina, republican. Go ahead. Am prior military and my commanderinchief of course was bush at the time. It is President Trump and he has because he isrity our commanderinchief. Our military will follow him. The pentagon as well and , thement of Defense Division in this country is hatred against our president. The military stance together with our president. I see you all standing against him all the time. How can we believe congress would do the right thing by the imminent threat . What about sustained military action . The Congress Shall have power to provide for the common defense and general welfare of the United States. In congresslieve getting involved if we have the very long, sustained, kinds of war like with iraq. I want my brothers and sisters to come home. That is a big thing for me and trump did promise to bring them home. When i heard this about the attack, i was like, man. I was afraid it was going to go into an allout war. We dont want that. Us military do not want to do that. We have lost so many of our troops and it is so sad. Being a longterm thing and all of a sudden it wasnt. It was kind of over. I am glad the guy is gone, he is a threat to the entire world and this country should be happy we dont have to deal with that, him lurking in corners behind this and making decisions. I think we need to stand together, all of us. Democrat, republican, independent, it is our country, we need to defend it and i think donald trump is the greatest will vote for i him in 2020. Host you believe this the president that this general did pose an imminent threat . Absolutely. Caller absolutely. If not the time he took them out, a later date. He will be planning and strategizing to attack not only americans, his own people. Maybe even england or germany or it could go very wide with this guy. I am glad he is gone. President donald trump did the right thing and i wish everybody would see that. For a long time, congress should have the power to do that, yeah, absolutely. Host charlotte, retired military. Nancy pelosi was on abc and she was asked if she thinks the administration was straight with congress when they briefed them on the decision to kill the iranian general and here is what she had to say. [video clip] i dont think the administration has been straight with congress. When i was informed the United States had taken out soleimani, he was a terrible person. And the motivations of iran are bad, so there is no question about that. With my intelligence background, i am fully aware of the danger of soleimani. However, what we want to do is not escalate a war. Me, they called and told the secretary of defense and the chairman of the joint chiefs confirmed we were involved in this action, i said you should have informed the gang of eight in advance of this, the leadership and members of the intelligence committee, house, and senate. We had to keep it close. We had to keep it close because we did not want to get out. What you are saying is you dont trust the congress of the United States . The sources and methods and timing . We had to keep it close. That is wrong. As you have seen, even republicans have complained of their nature presentation at the classified briefing. Congress has the power to declare war. We passed legislation further defining this week. I dont want to say forget donald trump, this is about all president s and all congresses. Host that was the speaker of the house on abcs this week. On face thes nation defending the president s decision and here is what he had to say. [video clip] there was a reference in this intelligence to an attack on an embassy in baghdad. That information was shared with the gang of eight, not the broader membership of the congress. A specific threat against the u. S. Embassy in baghdad was shared with the gang of eight . I was not in that specific meeting. Was the briefer said to me most if not all the members thought the intelligence was persuasive and the gang of eight did not think it should be released to the broader members of congress. Informationpecific president shared with fox news shared with congress . There president believe could be attacks against additional embassies. I share that view. I know other members share that view, so i deployed paratroopers to the middle east to reinforce our embassies throughout the region. That seems more like an assessment than a specific tangible threat with a decisive piece of intelligence. The president did not cite a specific piece of evidence. Are you saying there was not one . I did not see one. I share the president possibly you my expectation was they were embassies. After our defense secretary on the sunday shows defending the president. What should be the role of congress in this escalating tension between u. S. And iran . On sunday, iran continuing to andke u. S. Bases in iraq according to time magazine, one of the headlines, no u. S. Casualties, but 4 Iraqi Servicemen killed. We are getting your thoughts on this. Darrell in new jersey, what do you think . Think congress has article 1 authority on declaring war and i can understand the need for president ial action when it comes to nonstate actors. Ike al qaeda this is different. Iran is a sovereign nation and there is no way we can allow a especially one given to stretching the truth, 15,000 lies or whatever he has told and he does not provide congress with any specific intelligence. Even his defense secretary in trying to defend his action gave no evidence whatsoever. He is talking about a gut feeling based on nothing and we cannot just allow the president to become a constitutional dictator because Congress Wants to advocate his authority. If they do not want to exercise Congressional Authority given to them under article 1, they have no business being in congress. Host edward, greenbelt, maryland. What do you think . Caller good morning. Scientist and i believe congress has the power of the purse and the article 1 empoweringr and the act invoked vote against this president is proper. It forget, 17 intelligence haveies found the russians interfered with our election. This president has violated these laws. I reported to two president s in my lifetime and i wanted to say very clearly to our listeners to be advised this president was not elected by the popular vote, he was elected by the electoral. Only a few swing states were able to elect this man. I want to say again, the thing for his own personal gains rather than thinking about the United States of america. We dont know what happened between him and mr. Vladimir putin and kim jongun. He refused to release the witnesses to the senate when they go to trial. This man is under trial, he has no right to decide what the trial is going to be. One more thing, i feel ashamed to see this man climb up on air force one. Air force one is a prized vehicle in the United States of america. Congress has the power of the purse and nancy pelosi has a right to take air force one away. Host the president on air ran tweeting yesterday to the leaders of iran, do not kill your protesters. Many iranians protesting over the downing of the aircraft. Thousands have been killed or imprisoned by you and the world is watching. Usa is watching. Turn your internet back on and let reporters roam free. He tweeted National Security advisors suggested sanctions iran choked have off and will force them to negotiate. I could not care less if they negotiate. No Nuclear Weapons and dont kill your protesters. Georgia, independent, what role does congress have . Caller congress has an Important Role to play in war. Going back in history, the usa, in 243 been in 75 wars rs, been at war two years my point of it is i have been in the military and every american should go to a veteran hospital. Home, i came back on plane and itevac is unbelievable what war does to human beings. When people Start Talking about war, they have to understand what was said. Wrote a book called war is a racket. 2 out of 3 years we have been at war. Host rick in ohio, active military. Is that correct . Out 30 years got ago. School, got my house, business, the military is a wonderful thing. The subject here is one million to 15 million. Bush and cheney before they got wasted, the oil industry collapsing, the world was going to alternative energy and reproduced one billion barrels of oil a day. Exxon was 10 a share, halliburton was going bankrupt. Elected andney get we create 15 Million Barrels of oil a day, the largest producer in the world. Halliburton stock went to 150 million. 15 trilliont building the infrastructure for the oil industry in this country. What happens now is we have to take out oil around the world. Who is we . The state of texas with their Oil Companies and military bases, georgia, south carolina, virginia to the south. What they had to do, they had to take out the president of venezuela, so they assassinate the president and take his oil and now they have to go into iraq or iran, take their oil off the market so the oil industry does not completely collapse. I am 62 years old and i have had three books published. I have had my own radio show and spoken at universities. What i am telling you lead to me having the ability to have a fair trial taken away dealing with elderly abuse of my mother and i was disabled. When i come on in the state of israel host william in kentucky, independent. Caller good morning. I just happen to get up early and turn the tv on and found your program quite interesting. Host what are your thoughts . What role does congress have . Force i was in the air 60 years ago. Was a jet engine mechanic senior aircraft and engine mechanic. When i was growing up, i was taught three things. You are not supposed to, in any way, transgress on the 10 commandments. Trump has broken one commandment i dont know how many different ways, that is not bear false witness. Host tie this to iran. Caller say again . Host tie that to iran. Caller ok. Reason, there is no reason to kill anybody. That is for god to do. Host what do you Want Congress to do . This week, the house last week passed a resolution that would not a law, that would limit the president s use of force. It could come up in the senate or they could take up something similar, the resolution senator mike lee has supported, they could bring that up in the senate this week before they start impeachment trials. Do you want to see them do that . What you are talking about is much like a broom. Of broom has a lot of straws in it, but only one handle. Trump is the handle doing whatever causing the straws to go. This is something i required of my employees, come to work. While you are here, do your work and above all, dont lie to me. Rationality you might propose is not applicable to trump because he is a liar. The president does face impeachment trial in the senate after the speaker decided she would send over articles of impeachment. She did say yesterday she is going to wait to do that until after Tuesday Morning when her and her democratic colleagues meet behind closed doors to discuss the next steps. That means an impeachment trial could start as early as wednesday over on the senate side. Here is the speaker of the house yesterday. [video clip] i will be consulting with my members this week on Tuesday Morning at our regular caucus meeting that we would vote to send them over and determine in our meeting when we send them over. I have always said i would send them over, so there should not be any mystery to that. What we did want and we think we accomplished in the past few weeks is we want the public to ,ee the need for witnesses witnesses with firsthand knowledge of what happened. Documentation, which the president has presented prevented from coming to congress. Leader mcconnell did not budge on witnesses. I think he will be accountable to the American People for that, over 70 of the American People think the president should have those witnesses testify. A fair trial. They take an of to have a fair trial and we think that would be with witnesses and documentation. That dynamic now the ball is in their court to do that. Senatorf the points mcconnell has made his they will follow the clinton model. You have presentations and then a vote by witnesses. Why isnt it fair now . It is in the same thing. There are at least 6 reasons. The biggest one is in the witnesses were all deposed. The wind the witnesses that eventually came were all deposed. The president has not allowed witnesses to be deposed for the house or the senate yet. Wasevidence was there, it just a question of bringing it to the forefront. That is a very major difference. You can deposed a witness or you cannot. One of the things i think is really important and what i think people should be very aware of, very unusual, the leader of the senate, Mitch Mcconnell has signed on to a resolution to dismiss the case, to dismiss the case. That, in his view. He admitted to having the presentations first. I am telling you he signed thursday a resolution to dismiss the case. Dismissing is a coverup. If they want to go that route again, senators who are thinking now about voting for witnesses or not, they will have to be accountable for not having a fair trial. Speaker of the house yesterday talking about articles of impeachment. The senate trial could begin this week as early as wednesday if, when the speaker meets behind closed doors with democratic colleagues, tomorrow morning she decides to send them over. Many believed by the senate giving credence to a trial based on no evidence, no crime, read the transcripts, no pressure rather than an outright dismissal, it gives the witchhunt credibility that it otherwise does not have. I agree. The Washington Times reporting the speaker of the house said should just at house could subpoena john bolton to testify if Senate Republicans do not have him come forward during their trial. But with the trial look like . Trumps Impeachment Team takes place as trial looms. Here are the people you could. Ee inside the Senate Chamber the New York Times notes the two constants will be pats up alone and President Trump personal lawyers and Patrick Philbin on michael, twond people who are the top deputies. Others may have roles with the Team Including the famed lawyer alan dershowitz. Those are some of the people you could see in the Senate Chamber when they take up the trial. It also says it remains undetermined whether three of , jimrumps closest allies jordan, seth collins, John Ratcliffe of texas will play a role. Possibly they could be playing a role defending the president during a senate trial. Politico has this piece this morning, meet john roberts. He will be presiding over a senate trial and this article says meet john roberts, Senate Impeachment whisperer and who they are referring to is the Senate Parliamentarian elizabeth mcdonough. She is the person who will be standing off to the side of the telling him what procedurally comes next and this piece by Darren Samuelson says in a small Capitol Hill Office after President Trump had been impeached in the house and. Fficial washington bolted town a team gathered to dig through law books congressional records. Elizabeth mcdonough and her aides were scrambling to prepare for an event with little precedent in american history, the impeachment trial of a u. S. President. They would have to advise john roberts on how to run the trial questionss procedural few, if any, had ever been asked. That is what the impeachment trial could look like. Before that starts, as we said, could come as early as wednesday, some in the senate, senator kaine and senator lee are hoping to bring to the floor a resolution, a proposal that would limit the use of force against iran. What role do you think congress has with u. S. A ran tensions. Republican, you are next in this conversation, go ahead. Caller good morning. How are you . Host good morning. I amr it is unfair to say a black american and i am a republican, but not fair to say that is my background. I went to one of the best schools in florida. I started in nuclear engineering. A lot of people who think iranians have the ability to develop Nuclear Weapons, i know a pretty smart professor that is an iranian that i was caught by. I then went over to political science, i abandoned nuclear engineering, eventually became an attorney and now i am an attorney. Looking at this from an objective point of view, i think there is Nothing Congress can do and the reason is because soleimani was caught in a war zone because you have an enemy of the United States meeting with declared terrorists and he has is killed in a war zone, that for my understanding, makes it legal. I dont understand why nobody is saying that. Can countries meet with people who are terrorists . Yes, but they usually announce that. That is why when we meet with people, we announce we are meeting with other countries. Had this been done in a neutral country or a country not in a war zone, it probably would be illegal. Host there are people making that argument. I want to show you and others. Robert, who writes columns for the Arizona Republic wrote in his piece featured in usa today soleimani was engaged in the where thed in iraq mission has been authorized by congress. It was a tactical battlefield decision. Soleimani was a combatant against the United States. Taking him out was a legitimate action. He does go on to write this, if congress were serious about regaining its constitutional role of deciding when the United States engages in military conflict, it would massively overhaul the war powers act. The law gives the president unilateral authority to engage in military conflict anywhere for any reason up to 90 days. After that, he is supposed to stop if congress does not pass an authorization to continue or stop a military operation. Such resolution is subject to a president ial veto. Under the act, rather than requiring a majority of congress to initiate the use of force, it takes a two thirds vote to stop it. Joe in florida, republican. Good morning. Caller good morning. How are you . I thinkirst say President Trump is doing an excellent job. In regards to all this foreign power stuff, there is a clause in the president s oath of office that says he would do everything in his power to protect from all enemies, foreign and domestic. It doesnt need Congress Approval for him to do that. It y i see apologize, we lost you. Gary in georgia, democratic caller. Caller good morning. I served in vietnam and i was a combat medic. I have seen war firsthand. Congress does have a right to regulate war. Everybody knows exactly what donald trump is going to do. He is going to start a war with iran. Replace the president during war. He will do anything to stay in office. Your sons, your daughters, your nieces and nephews off to war. You are not going to get help from foreign countries. You are not going to get help from britain, japan, germany, and all of them because they are all going to say we had a treaty with this country and it will take 600,000, 700,000 americans to occupy the country. Getnows if he does not reelected, he is going to prison. He is going to do everything he can. Thanks for letting me share that. Host house lawmakers will hear from the administration on the situation with iran, next steps, and what led to the decision to kill the general when they hear from mike pompeo. He will be testifying before the House Foreign Affairs committee tomorrow morning, 10 00 a. M. Eastern time and you can watch our coverage on cspan 3, cspan. Org, or if you download the radio app. Here is what some of our viewers are saying. This from jim in buffalo, new york. I think President Trump did what he had to do. Pelosis hatred has become unhinged. Harry, a vietnam there era veteran. Move warmaking back to congress. Pull all troops back from hostile nations. Pull our embassies from nations who wont or cant protect them. Carol in florida, absolutely trump thinks he is the king of all he surveys and needs no clearance from anyone about anything. He is a threat to National Security. Trump committed a war crime. Sac in ohio, what do you think . Zach in ohio, what do you think . Caller what congress can do is every time they are in front of are like they hollywood actors, bring up the protests. Outg up the plight to get. Rom under the theocracy many of their citizens have been killed or murdered by that administration. Essentially a week, civilian government because of the theocracy. Do not let it fall from the American Peoples consciousness. That is the best way they can represent us. What allamericans want is freedom and justice from everybody around the world. Do not let it fall from our collective consciousness. Host michael in illinois. What do you think . , cspan,ood morning and thank you for taking my call. How did we detect the Iranian Missile hitting the airplane . Host hard to hear you, i am going to go on to chris in texas, republican. Caller good morning, greta. Host good morning. Vietnam 1970, 1971. For his army, i was number 3 on. He draft disappointed and probably will never forgive obama for allowing benghazi to happen and allowing the iranian idiots to board our boat and holdace our navy men and them hostage for a few hours. Broke my heart. I will never forgive him. I would have denied his order. Up. Uld have lit them on the impeachment thing host we are talking about air and right now. Caller i know, but there is nothing that can be done about it. Host you dont think congress has a role . Caller not on something that is happening right now with soleimani strutting around like a rooster leading these people carrying tearing up our embassy. We had to let him go. Host rick in west virginia. Republican. Caller how are you today, maam . Host good morning. Caller i think the president acted restrained. They attacked Saudi Oil Fields and our ships and he did not do anything. She is much more constrained than any other president i know of. The keyt idea is to the whole thing is this is where the president is acting shrewdly. All these protests. By the people and the United States will not have to do anything, not send any troops over there. They are building up resentment as a result of the policies which the administration is posturing is the key thing and this is where the president is acting in a shrewd manner. He is not going to get us involved in any war over there. Host do you think he should interfere with these or try to protect uranian citizens protesting against our government . Should the United States get involved with what we are seeing right now . Caller i dont think he has to do that. Basically with his tweets and comments to the uranian people are fostering an idea that President Trump is supporting their antigovernment policies and that he wants democracy to occur in that country and he is doing it in a lowkey manner. I think he is a shrewd politician and he realizes we are not going to get involved anymore and he knows that. What he wants to do is foster a feeling in the people that he is thisrting them and if action by the government shooting their own people in the streets, my god, those people are going to get tired of this and there will be a coup by the people and they will put a stop to this. Goingshould congress forward, putting aside with the president did, but going forward, should congress say if military action is needed in iran, we need to give you approval first . Should they redraft a new approval of authorization of military force . Caller that is up to congress and what congress should do is work with the administration to develop guidelines as to what should be done. I dont think the president would be against it. We dont want to tie his hands if there is a major attack against our people. He has a right to protect our people. If congress feels so strongly, what i think they should do is work with the president to develop a set of guidelines that both sides can work with and would be appropriate for whatever situation is occurring in that area. Host boca raton, florida. A democratic collar. Cspan. Thank you for this president reminds me of an exgirlfriend i used to have that used to lie to me all the time and left my stomach in knots. I remember an employer i had that was a complete chronic liar things significant and insignificant. Rely on the value of what they say because it has no value. Host how does this relate to iran . Caller when i saw that News Conference the other day when standingenerals were behind this president that had that nervous breathing whenever he gives a speech where he is so nervous, he does not breathe like, it is all insecurity he knows he does not believe in what he is saying. He is in so far over his head that he does not belong where he is. The body language, the nervousness, the way he is breathing and talking, his diplomacy by text, the man does not know where he stands on issues. It is all about politics and as someone said in the past, getting reelected. He is the least shrewd politician ever. He is so uncouth and so unfit for what he is doing. When i saw that nervous breathing he blamed on a nasal problem and then he blamed on bone spurs. It is absurd the number of significant and insignificant ruths we are getting from this president. It is beyond me honest people give this man the benefit of the doubt and do not get it is all distortions, confusions, clouds, analyze, and we are not getting and lies, and we are not getting to any of the truths. What is happening with our military . Our environment . Climate change . Everybody needs to talk the truth and not talk distortions analyze and lies. Host santa clarita, california, republican. Caller trump will do what he in to, whether the enemy is uniform or not. If he has to kill them, he will kill them. Congress takes way too long. There is Something Else that should be understood. If they ever got the abomb, ever became operational like they were thinking about in cuba, we would have to drop one on them. More likely, israel would do it. That is why they said they would never get the abomb. If they did, our side would have to drop one and that is it. I dont believe congress will ever do anything. I dont believe they can ever keep a secret. They will tell somebody and destroy any opportunity to kill those who would try to kill host we will leave the conversation there for now. When we come back we will turn our attention to this week in washington. We will talk with anita kumar and Los Angeles Times reporter, sarah wire. Halff, a antoine scholar at the Columbia University center on Global Energy policy will be here to discuss u. S. Iran tensions and oil prices. We will be right back. Announcer campaign 2020. Watch the president ial candidates on the trail and make up your own mind. The voting begins next month, watch live coverage on monday. Unfiltered0, your view of politics. Announcer the impeachment of President Trump. This week they will vote on impeachment managers. Sending articles to the senate, follow it live on cspan, on demand at cspan. Org impeachment, and listen on the free radio app. Announcer tonight on the purdy, onors, andy the Company Lawsuit against the fcc over a recent vote to ban u. S. Companies from using federal funds to buy huawei equipment. To say to fcc that what they had done was beyond the pale. It conflict with due process, the statute on with it is based. It conflicts with your own precedent. That is wrong. Announcer tonight at 8 00 eastern on cspan2. The house will be in order. Announcer for 40 years, cspan has provided view of congress, the white house, the supreme court, and Public Policy from washington dc and around the world. So you can make up your own mind. Created by cable in 1979. Cspan is brought to you by your local satellite or cable provider. Your unfiltered view of government. Washington journal continues. Host at our table this morning, anita kumar, who is the White House Correspondent with politico and sarah wire with the Los Angeles Times to talk about the week ahead. Sarah, let me start with you. Walk us through what happens with articles of impeachment. What do we know so far . Said sheeaker pelosi is going to speak with the Democratic Caucus on tuesday about the next steps. That means we are likely going to seek the full vote in the house to select the house manager. Send the articles to the senate. Wednesdayuesday or that trial could start as soon as thursday. Host what will it look like when the house managers bring over the articles of impeachment . Guest there is going to be pomp and circumstance. The articles are printed out and laid in a cherry box and carried over in a procession. They have to be formally received in the senate. Begins,en that trial who will be in the chamber of note . Guest we are going to have the chief justice, don roberts presides over that. All 100 senators are required to be present. They are also required to be silent. That is very difficult. [no audio] [laughter] they will have to pose questions to the house manager. Host do all 100 senators have to be there . Could the senate rules be different . Guest they could be. Situation, the only person who would benefit would be democrats. I cant imagine the republican the majority would make it easier for the democrats who are on the campaign trail to not be in the chamber. Host i need to, who will represent the president anita , who will represent the president . An outside attorney will also be there. The white House Counsel offices beauties, two out of three, will be there. Will Rudy Giuliani be there . The president has pushed for house members. Republicans to be on his legal team. There has been a back and forth about this. We are hearing Senate Republicans and majority leader, mcconnell, has said that is not a good idea. We should not have them here. What the president really wants is for them to defend him. They could be on tv instead of being on his official legal team. We will probably see a lot of that. We do not know if there will be other people. There has been talk about other people outside and inside the white house. Wese four will be the ones will see their faces. Host any current or former Administration Officials testifying . Guest that is the parlor game. Mcconnell once the house to present the case first then they will decide on witnesses. They said they should have witnesses. Susanomney has said that, collins. Whether they get that when they vote they may convince someone. Host sarah, who could the house managers be that would be prosecuting the president . Faces from thear impeachment investigation. Schiff, jackie speier, jerry nadler and a few others. Likely lawyers, not just from new york and california. A lot of talk on capitol hill that they want a crosssection. Speculation that justin amash who voted for impeachment would be house manager. Guest they were pushing for this. They wanted to seem that impeachment was bipartisan. I am not sure that will happen. I cannot read Nancy Pelosis mind. Joe in maine. To what is your question or comment . Caller my question is how republicans can take and ignore this and call it democrats partisan. Mitch mcconnell is deciding what he wants to do and he will pay the price at the vote. He is down 30 . Senator ingo some maine, susan collins, another was one of the most popular. Now they are both at 30 . Im not a politician but she is not going to win up here. She has lied consistently. Never had a town hall meeting in 20 years. Can you imagine that . Is, these question republicans start getting put under pressure if it does get to a senate vote. If the senators decide to abstain from the vote, six senators have had with trump, he thinks i am weak, a weak candidate, i am going to abstain from voting. Have onect would that the 67 . I believe the vote says it is 60 of voters. Senators thirds so 67 have to convict. , sarah, do you have any thoughts . Guest Democratic Leaders hope he is right. If they dont support witnesses and stuff like that, we will see what happens. The senators do have to take an oath they will provide impartial justice and it will be interesting to see what the responses at the ballot box. Host the president treating tweeting, by the senate giving credence based on no evidence, crime, no pressure, rather than an outright dismissal gives the witchhunt credibility that otherwise does not. I agree. Is that they chain . Guest people are scratching their heads. Earlier that day he said Something Else. He talked about the trial and how there should be witnesses. He said two Different Things. He spent months preparing for the trial. We have not heard him say, it should be dismissed. He is mostly preparing with his attorneys. He has been talking about how he wants witnesses. That is something he wanted. That would be beneficial to him. Mitch mcconnell has said he think is better if nobody testifies. Host sarah, there is a Senate Resolution drafted by republicans. Tell our viewers what it says and what it would do . Guest i dont know what it says exactly. The resolution with set the parameters for the trap it how long it might last, what days of the week they meet and where when the discussion of witnesses would start. It starts at noon for six days a week. It has to be the highest priority at any time. Changes, it takes 51 votes to change, so it is unclear whether that will happen. These rules have been in effect since andrew johnson. There might be tweaks to the rules but not outright change. The biggest change is when witnesses can be called. Democrats wanted witnesses to be called or named before the trial began. Arenay would know the they would be operating with. They want to hear from mick bolton, and a few other people. Repeatedly he does not want witnesses. He wants to leave that open. Let senators decide later. They dont want the clinton impeachment where both the managers and lawyers presented their cases, the senate voted to hear from a handful of witnesses. Question that will be for the chief justice. He has the ability to make that decision and democrats hope they can sway people. What about republicans to dismiss the article . Will they continue to try and do that . Guest it is possible. The senate has decided to not hold a trial and other impeachments. Impeachment is more than just president it is judges, constitutional officers. It is possible. See whether they could get a majority of senators on board with that. Not been pushed by josh hawley appeared. Host david in kentucky. Independent color. Caller. Caller statement or question . Host i am asking you for a question or comment. Wish all of this would settle down and everybody would do what we pay them to do. Republican but i am disappointed in both republicans and democrats. We just need to be americans and protect our borders, our country, and if we have to bomb somebody, we do. Let us not just lob bombs over there. Host jim in pennsylvania. Republican line. Thank you for taking my call. My concern is the honesty and credibility of all of the politicians. Junior was w. Bush in office, he made the accusation that iraq had weapons of mass destruction. Including congress, nancy pelosi, agreed with that assumption. They led us to work, it was proven there were no weapons. I think all of those people that were involved in the war with iraq should be held accountable. They should be charged with war crimes. Host jim brings up the iran question we were asking. What role lawmakers have ended their effort in the senate to respond like the house did last week and limit the president s use of force . Sarah, who is behind it and could they bring it up before impeachment trial begins . Guest tim kaine from virginia is behind it. It is a measure that has to have a vote. Ast could be as soon tuesday. Everything will depend on timing. If the house move slowly on the articles, the senate could vote on the war powers resolution. Host the White House Position on this . Guest they are pushing against this. They do not think it is necessary. Here ise been saying the information we had and here is why we acted the way we did. We have seen a lot of conflicting information. Not very specific information from the white house and pentagon. Use of the pentagon, defense secretary saying he was not aware of the specifics of the president. The president has been saying Different Things recently. That four embassies were going to be attacked. The defense secretary he was not aware of that. A lot of people pushing back. There are a lot of centers and house members from both parties, particularly democrat, that want to know what the information was the president and what has had. Host the secretary of state, mike pompeo, will testify before the Foreign Affairs committee tomorrow at 10 a. M. Eastern time on cspan3. You can also download the free radio app to listen along. What do you expect there, anita . Guest they are going to be trying to pin down on what exactly they knew. The president said this was imminent. Was it . Days, weeks, months . I think that is the question. Everyone knows this person was a bad person. Responsible for a lot of death. Was there credible threat and was imminent . Host i went to show our viewers, pompeo had a briefing friday. He was asked his definition of imminent. This was going to happen. American lives were at risk. We would have been negligent as the chairman had we not recommended that he take this action. He made the right call. America is safer as a result. If asked about that tomorrow, will he be asked . Guest yes. Particularly the to statement about the four embassies. He is asked to respond to the conflicting statements. He is going to be asked what he did not come to capitol hill and brief numbers of congress before hand. Why they did not to leadership. The president said he did not have time to call nancy pelosi. Well, why did he not have time . Host sarah . Guest we are very upset with the level of information we are getting from the white house. I can imagine they will peg down the secretary of state to get answers they were not able to. Washingabama, joseph is and is a democratic color. Caller. Caller why is it good to take four votes to swing the senate when it should only take three . Host what are you talking about . Caller the trial. Everybody says you have to have for senators flipflop but we really only need three, correct . It would be 5050 since the chief justice gets to decide. Host what about putting it in his lab . Guest that is what we have been tracking. It does appear he could defer the decision to the senate. Then it would take 51 votes not just 50 with him as a tiebreaker. Host john in maryland, independent. A couple of things, first about the impeachment what a waste of time. Imagine that the democrats were honoring the america elected donald trump and worked with him. How productive would it have been these four years . , kratz have been doing a lot of shady things. They should chill out. God ands a drone strike trump did something to save and embassy from a terrorist not really a general but whatever trump does, they just want to attack it. Trump is doing a pretty good job. Especially considering the onslaught of resistance. The country should come together, respect the people who voted somebody end, and i do not trust the democrats. What a waste of time they did. I will not be voting for them. Definitely will support this president. Sarah, when will nancy pelosi meet with her democratic colleagues to discuss the process of sending over the article . Guest Tuesday Morning before work get started on capitol hill. A vote could be as early as tuesday afternoon. Likely wednesday morning. Host we will go to michigan, bill, independent. Caller i am going to stand behind President Trump. I do not understand how the factrats can argue the that the rent the Republican Senate is standing behind the president of the United States when all of the democrats fell right in line with Nancy Pelosis agenda. A wash. E same thing, they claimed they already made up their mind in the senate. Evidence onll their national and International Tv and those senators that may have not been in the room were watching. They have made up their mind just like the American People. What is the problem . Lets get on with running our world. Time you haveame this in impeachment trial and the senate brings up a resolution to limit the president s actions on iran. You have a stage of the u. S. China trade deal in the works. On the deck, what is the plan anita, what is the plan to announce the first step . Guest on wednesday the president will sign the first phase of the china trade deal. This is something he has been working on in 2016. Notas been a lot of false starts but negotiations and they fell apart. In 2019, there were a lot of people who wondered if this would happen before the first term ended. The president said a number of times he wanted a big deal. This is not a big deal. A lot of people are saying they are making it a bigger deal than it is. They want to make sure there is a face they dont want the many deal to come together and then not continue on the negotiation. There are still tariffs in place. A lot of people in america want those gone. Soy want him to work on this that republicans they want him to say he could do something. They want him to work on it so the tariffs go away in the negotiations and trade can resume. Host is he signing something wednesday echo guest he is having a ceremony. We do not often see that. Sometimes we see it when there is Something Big he wants to do. He will actually have a ceremony. He is not expecting the president of china or anything. He is expecting a leading member of the Chinese Government to be there at the white house. He will have reporters allowed in and get remarks. Host sarah, does congress have a say in the first stage trade agreement . Guest i dont believe so but there are watching closely. They are currently considering a revision of the nafta deal. That is something that will be put on hold if the impeachment trial begins. There are some senators who are grumbling this is happening at the same time. Host why not bring that to the floor before the senate trial . Where is usmca in the senate . The house passed it has a come through committee . Guest there has been any initial hearing. That happened this day the senate got back. There will be talk behind the scenes, a markup, and it will need a full vote. It is unlikely to happen before the impeachment trial. There is a chance they could be doing their normal business in the morning and the impeachment in the afternoon. That is one of the pieces of information we are waiting to see. Arkansas,y in republican. Caller i am from a pretty large family. Senators and we want this impeachment voted down as soon as possible. We dont believe trump did anything wrong. Host are there any republican senators right now who have said they could possibly vote for impeachment . Guest no one has been that direct. Everyone has been in line. There have been talks about witnesses into the interest in hearing from them. The interesting part is that when a vote is called, it will sorry. Ed there is no time to convince senators to vote differently. We will see if people vote differently. House, thee president was happy every republican was in line. He got one democrat to switch on the vote. The white house has been working on senators for weeks now. To say the president did nothing wrong. I dont know we will see anything publicly for a while. They have been hitting the hard tuesday. Sheila in bristol, connecticut. Caller they said imminent danger, that we are in imminent danger of attack. Imminent danger does not describe what i see. What was imminent danger to me was when they got the early the airport and the missiles. They were in motion. Fs on that served in iraq and one that served in somalia. To put our troops in danger because he is having a tantrum over the impeachment is wrong. That is how i see it. Danger clear and present to our country. Obviously, he has to go. Anita, what question do you think the white house faces on using that language . Imminent threat. Guest the caller made reference to one thing. There are a lot of democrats and critics that feel he only did this at this time because of impeachment. He was trying to distract from impeachment. There are a lot of people questioning the timing. I think that will go to why did it have to happen now . This imminent threat, was that something we had to do now . Was that something that could have been done previously or in the future . That is the question. Host larry in georgia, republican. Caller good morning. i agree with the president s action. Could you imagine if he called nancy pelosi and said we have proof of an imminent threat to our troops . The democrats would have done everything to make this president look bad. Ever since he was in office, they have fought him. They accused him of collusion with russia, which turned out to be a hoax. This impeachment should never have been started. Host carl in chicago, democratic caller. Caller i have a couple of questions. What is the role of Justice Roberts in the trial . Jurors,enators are the and two of them said they cannot be impartial, then how can they be jurors . You have to stay to oath. If you cannot be impartial, you cannot be on the jury. Anita, do you want to start with chief Justice Roberts . Guest we dont fully know what his role be. This does not happen many times in history. Some people call it a ceremonial role which i think is probably a little understated. He is presiding over the trial. The question will be if he lets the senate come up with all of the rules in the senators vote, what is that role . I think of law a lot of people think he can get get involved, push it one way, and i dont think we will not. Justice roberts has not done this before. We have not done it before. This is the third time. It is very interesting to watch. Has ayour publication piece this morning about chief Justice Roberts and who will be whispering in his ear. And her teamough have been working for weeks now on what are the rules of the road and how does he to conduct the trial . Guest conduct is the operative word. He wants to be seen as presiding, making sure everything is moving smoothly, but does not want to be the decisionmaker. The founders left that to the senate. The put the chief justice in place so the Vice President does not make the decisions that could affect whether he could become president. He is really there not as a figurehead necessarily but to mature everything goes smoothly. Portray impartiality . Guest as much as possible. I trial that is inherently partisan. It does not meet the same standards as a normal child. A normal trial. Host benjamin in washington, independent. Caller i am mostly a neverarian and i would vote for trump. It is very upsetting to see democrats treating him the way they have the. It makes sense he would not go to them to try and get things done. What is more upsetting about democrats and the reason i cannot vote for them is they could be getting things done with him. People would like to see that. Things like working together with him for things like expanding health care, giving People Health care, ending the drug war. Trumpsrested because tweet today and he could show a more intelligent side on the trial. Democrats are not looking good. Not doing things the American People want when trump is doing this hyperbolic cheerleader that is getting them in trouble. They could learn to communicate with him that would get something accomplished. Medicalts talk about drug prices, medical bills. This is something the white house has talked about doing. That Congress Talks about wanting to do. Where are they getting or agreeing to get something done . Guest the devil is in the details. Everyone says they wanted done, it has been a priority of nancy pelosi and the president , since he was elected. The details are with the cannot agree on. Will pay for . How farreaching it will be . Who it will affect. The house voted on things that go to the senate and Mitch Mcconnell knows the president will not senate so he does not take it up. Is it priority for both sides. No one is willing to compromise. Guest the president said that if you go ahead with impeachment, they are not working together. Not this exact words. He pushed a trade agreement with sukkot and canada. And canada. Even before impeachment the relationship between the president and democrats was not good. Someone would always storm out of the meeting. There are a lot of people like that last caller. A lot of the call was we had this hour saying why dont they just stop this on both sides . Just get to work on the things most people are talking about. Sayingaround the country the same thing. They are upset about parties. It is not a republican but democratic think. Why can they not get together and solve the problem . Jerry,his is become a mississippi, jerry, independent. Question is cspan going to cover the trial . Host of course. Caller i hope you all get your cameras set up. Trial is not going to last long. The ladies there talking about ,ere republicans might change mr. Sanchez montes wants his job back. Host we would like our cameras in the Senate Chamber. We were denied for the house. Sarah, what you think about what he had to say about senators and what comes next . Best politics is going to over this entire thing. Senators are hoping they can put republican colleagues in a tough position. Discuss maybe discuss and take control of the senate. Republicans are hoping they can hold democrats in the Senate Chamber and keep them from being out campaigning in iowa and New Hampshire a couple of weeks before the iowa primary. Host 21 days away. Tomorrow night there is the last andte where senator warren senator sanders are good to be in iowa debating while this is happening. Lets go to carry in alabama, independent. Caller i dont understand how everyone keeps saying there was imminent threat. We had proof they were attacking our embassy and trump had no choice. What do you do . Time that pick the the terrorists decided to strike the embassy . We can have not have another benghazi. But i dont think the democrats realize is that when this election happens in 2020 they are going to get killed. In the house and in the senate. The people are tired of this mess. They are tired of the democrats behaving the way they have been behaving. ,hey have seen their slimy backdoor politics in trying to bring these people forward that had no knowledge of what went on. Just their thoughts. The American People it is not try they job to were supposed to do it in the house. Thank you so much. Host we will go to ohio, debbie, independent. Caller it was reported Vice President mike pence contacted nancy pelosi, tried to talk to with thisthe raid terrorist they took out. She would not take his call. She went to a big party trying evil people work work. Son andand joe bidens john carries son are all involved in instilling a to the country. Host we will take the first part of that. Sarah, will reporting have you done on the call . Guest would you clarify a little. Pelosi got a call about the missiles being launched against u. S. Forces in iraq. That was several days after the drone strike on the iranian general. Those things are connected but they are not the same thing. Yes, she was having a meeting and said she would call back. They spoke several minutes later. There was a photo of her at a restaurant opening later that evening. She stayed for a few moments but i do not have more information that that. Jean,we will go to virginia. The senators are the jurors and they should not be able to they should vote guilty or not guilty. Earliera caller asked about them being able to explain abstain from not voting. They should go on record one way or the other. My question is on soleimani. A missile drone annihilated that car. There were people in that car. Soleimani and he was a bad person. He was doing things that were detrimental to our interests. At the same time you have to understand, they think we are at war with them. Back to the car. We annihilated a car with more than one person. There may have been a hezbollah leader. But there was a driver in that car. I am sure soleimani was not driving himself. We are so cavalier about the way we do this. There is only one question or one thing you should be focused on. Anita . Guest i think that is the issue going on. We are focused on this threat of the general and all of the things americans did because the president did not go to congress and ask permission. That is with the legal biggest that is the debate. Did he have the right to go ahead and order the strike . It killed the general but impacted other people. Or did he have to go to Congress First . That is why you saw in the statement the pentagon put out that they pushed there was a threat. Them at the president did not have to go to congress. That is why we are debating if there was imminent threat. Host sarah, you touched on this earlier, the impartiality of senators. Y are supposed to teacher supposed to be jurors. Guest that does not necessarily mean they will be impartial. Taking they will be it is likely going to be interesting. There was a senator who have tempted to abstain during the clinton trial. He counted the vote as nonguilty. Rick,we will go to texas, independent. I think trump is doing a fantastic job. Everything is great. This guy should have been taken out a long time ago. They had an opportunity. My call is about congress. Why dont anyone ever bring up term let limits . Just like the house should have term limits. Then we would not have people staying forever. Bernie sanders is 14 years in the house accomplishing nothing except for voting. He gots in the senate, one was topassed dump on a little town in texas. Nobody ever talks about term limits. Had to be go about getting it done . It is obvious the one good thing about trumps that he put a magnifying glass on washington dc. These people dont get anything done. Int we will go to mark lincoln, nebraska. One last call. Caller everybody is talking nebraska wherent i am from has a criminal law oppressionled the color of office. This can be used to go after that have their own people vote them out. You could go after that but this law. Nebraskas ownke recall act. And with both of and withg let us the impeachment trial. Anita . Guest just to see how they will act. We will hear from the president all week. He has a rally on tuesday at the same time as the democratic debate. I am sure we will get a little bit of the preview of what he will say on impeachment. I will be looking to that. Host anita kumar with politico. Sarah wire . Guest i will see who pelosi chooses as house manager. Speculation. Of moving thecess articles across the building. Host sarah wire reports to the Los Angeles Times. If you could to l. A. Times. Com you can follow her. I appreciate it. We will take a break. When we come back we will talk with Antoine Halff from the cove lumbee a University Center Columbia University center. We would talk oil prices and later on Selective Service director, don benton, will be here to discuss Selective Service system including who is required to register and how a military draft works. We will be right back. Announcer tonight on the communicators, andy purdy, u. S. Chief Security Officer for huawei on the Company Lawsuit against the fcc over a recent vote to ban u. S. Companies from using federal funds to buy huawei equipment. Fcc what yousay have done is beyond the pale. It conflict with a constitutional requirement to do process, the statue and with each your authority is based, the administrative procedures act would you follow in your own president. That is wrong. Announcer tonight at 8 00 eastern on cspan2. Announcer the impeachment of President Trump. They will vote on impeachment managers, sending the articles to the senate. Follow live on cspan, on demand at cspan. Org impeachment, and listen on the free cspan radio app. Announcer camping 2020. Watch our continuing coverage of the president ial candidates on the campaign trail and to up your on mind. The voting begins next month, watch live coverage of the Iowa Caucuses on monday, february 3. Your unfiltered view of government. Announcer washington journal continues. Host joining us from new york, Antoine Halff. Senior Research Scholar at Columbia University center on Global Energy policy. Prices. Talk about oil while we are expansive tensions with iran. Let us begin with the history of the United States getting oil from the middle east. Tell us about that . The volumes have increased dramatically with increased election. The middle east has never accounted for dramatic shares of u. S. Import. From saudia time arabia. U. S. Has keeping the shipping line save is not import into its own country but the stability of the market. Handling is the market u. S. And iran tension . Guest it is quite remarkable. There has not been much of a reaction. There was a kneejerk reaction after the assassination of soleimani and another spike after the retaliation by iran. The kneejerk reaction at the market come down. This is the second time we saw this happen. Back in september of last year, saudis facility was targeted by iran. This was the largest facility. Saudi a major hit to supply. The market took it in stride the second time. Seismic events in the middle east, things that in the past would have caused prices to jump and created a shock, today, not much of a reaction. Host you said the u. S. Is concerned about the stability of the oil market and that is why the u. S. Gets involved with keeping the shipping lanes open out of the middle east. Guest historically, yes. What we are hearing from washington is very different soundbites. Maybe we dont need to worry u. S. Oil in the other producers in the region are getting concerned the u. S. Does not have their back in the event of a confrontation. Host lets show our viewers what area you are talking about. And saudi of hormuz arabia, uae, qatar. Look where they are located as they tried to export supply. According to foxbusiness, 21 of Global Supply pastor the straits each day. Talk about that. Guest this is a major for anynt, pathway supply. There is also gas the goes through the straight. It is a very significant source of energy for the world. U. S. Meaningful for the but significant for asian markets. Backyard. Asia is the the region gets its energy from the gulf. Korea, thechina, strait of hormuz are vital areas. Remarkable thee markets were so quiet. I think that is clearly complacently. Expectation that we have seen most of the escalation and the competition is deescalating. There is a sense of comfort. They also sense the u. S. Has enabled the market to absorb any disruption in the world. Both expectations could be wrong. Host you mentioned the countries getting their oil and gas from the middle east, which countries are they getting it from . The number one exporter is saudi arabia. Then you have experts from almost entirely to northeast asia. They were hit by sanctions twice under the Obama Administration until the negotiation agreement of the jcpoa. Then by the Trump Administration taking effect november of two years ago. With an escalation in may when washington removed the sanction waivers that allowed countries to keep importing at low levels. Arounday, experts from from iran have been a trickle. Host he said saudi arabia is the largest producer. 12 Million Barrels a day compared to 4. 7 million or iran. The ua around 4 million. Kuwait around 3 million. Qatar around 2 million. 2. 4t iran is now at million. Host because of what . The sanction . Guest correct. Host how does the United States oil and Gas Production factor into all of this . Where are we exporting to . Production has experienced the most romantic increase ever seen in history of the oil industry from a single country. The u. S. Is the number one producer of oil, gas, a love home. A of that stays at they pushed back imports. They are now heading to other markets. We have seen exports from the u. S. As well. Ranking in the millions of barrels a day. Months the u. S. Has net exports. Host net zero . Guest positive exports. More export than import. Host how dependent are we on foreign oil . Dependentremain because not all of the oil we produce domestically is registered for u. S. Refining capacity. U. S. Refineries process heavier grades. To optimize the refining system refiners have to has to export from u. S. Production and get a different quality. That makes the u. S. Independent on paper and that it is net positive. But it is very much connected to the global market. The other way in which the waistcoats connected is with prizes u. S. Is connected is with prices. What u. S. Consumers pay at the pump does not depend on the rise in production. It is set by the market in general. They its exposed are very much exposed to the risk. Host in which countries are we dependent on . Most imports come from canada. Canada is very close by. It is also an exporter of heavy oil which u. S. Refiners love. They have the deep conversion capacity to get value out of the barrels. Cheaper. Is typically u. S. Refiners have developed sophisticated capacities that allows them to take the barrels and turn them into highvalue light gasoline and diesel. That is where the imports are coming from. Then you have those from south america, mexico, used to take a lot from venezuela. That has dwindled in venezuela is also under sanctions. Then you have imports coming from the rest of the world. West africa, but those barrels have largely been displaced by domestic production. Host lets get viewers involved. If you have questions, comments about oil and Gas Production, Antoine Halff to take those questions. Democrats 202 7488000. Republicans 202 7488001. Independence 202 7488002. Brian is in michigan. Caller i served a lot of time in the gulf. What are the rules of engagement . You could not keep the straits open but you could turn it on its head and block oil from coming out. Leopold, i served with admiral nyquist and find it offensive we bring on the knew it wasen he the most hostile port on earth. Host tickets comments about bahrain. Guest one point that needs to be clarified the supply in the gulf is not so much about the closing of the straight but hypothetical vranian strike on facility iranian strikes on the region. The capacity to hit facilities in the region, the spike in saudi arabia nobody thought was possible. They demonstrated they were able to pierce a Saudi Air Defense and strike precisely the facility. It was not devastating to the capacity because it was superficial. They were able to restore capacity very rapidly and minimize the disruption to production. Iran to strike at the heart of the industry in the region and fist has been demonstrated. In sarasota,e florida. Democratic caller. Caller i have a question. I appreciate that President Trump is making our Country Energy selfsufficient. We have not built and expanded refineries in decades in the United States. We need to have more refineries so that we can process what we have. Also, what percentage of oil and gas does europe and asia rely upon the middle east for . It seems to me that they are the ones that need the energy from the middle east. Host we will take those questions. Guest you want me to answer that . Host yes, please. Guest ok, great. I think it is true that the u. S. Kept increasing under President Trump. I am not sure any president deserves credit for that. That started years ago. It is driven by the economy. By the private industry, more than political leadership. The increase is driven by industrial and economic processes more than political processes. Largest exporter in the world. Investments in refineries are very expensive. There have been a lot of investments to meet the standards of the organization which has set new benchmarks and new requirements. Refining industry is wellpositioned internationally to compete against refineries in other regions. There is not much room for additional investments. Go to benjamin in new jersey. Caller thank you for taking my call. Host good morning. Caller i think that here in lost track ofve what is behind this iranian issue. Issue oft is less the the conduct of iran then it is our conduct than it is our conduct in the last for years. Go back to when British Petroleum controlled oil. And were taking the oil iran received little revenue from it. Pleaded that we need more revenue from our own and oil. British petroleum went to to helpon and appealed them get rid of mohammed most mosad. It is amazing how imperialistic they were. They got rid of him. They armed him with everything they needed to the people under control. Some of it was brutal. What they did, they wanted to bring the shaw to america. That started the strife. , under reagan president reagan ended up doing what iran just did. They shot down an iranian airliner. The system had not been thoroughly developed. Where we are with his whole issue, and this is what our friends do not realize, that party, the Republican Party has been more so behind the collapse of this country. You start with reagan and look at the deficits we have built up. Ll of the money and then you jump from there to 2008. , we are involved in that particular period. One is a democrat, he balanced the budget. Iran has been the trigger. A has been the issue behind slow collapse of the economy in america. Host ok. Do you have any thoughts on that . Guest i am not sure about the creeping collapse. S interestingi is that you bring a Historical Perspective that is not front of mind in the u. S. But very much front of mind in iran. Of mohammed is something that is remembered and a source of continued grievance and iran. It is important to keep that in mind. In the last few days, they have tried to get rid of the memory of this event and erase the imagination of soli money soleimani. I dont think that has been sufficient. We have seen massive demonstrations against the. Egime, despite its effort host michael, republican. Caller thank you for having me. Host go ahead. Is ar i think that there bigger, underlying problem, noting the call of iran did just start. It started a long time ago in 1979. Israel is pushing americas buttons to start a war with iran. They also are pushing the buttons to get us fighting against israel. Our ally in the middle east has been forcing our Foreign Policy in the middle east to overthrow regimes. And fight with these countries in the middle east. We can get there oil. Their oil. We can control that oil like we control saudi arabias oil. Host do we need irans oil . Guest the market can use some ofof it. I think everybody would benefit if it was economically secure in a democratic regime. As israeli enticements on at u. S. , israel probably is greater risk after soleimanis assassination than it was before. Has a proxy force with which you can threaten israel. Iran has said they would not strike any u. S. Facilities in iraq. Chance for retaliation is significant. It is very much there. Host we will go to trent in alabama. Republican. Caller good morning. Host good morning. Caller i had a concern on synthetic oils. I was looking at cspan today at oil prices. Natural oil, we have synthetics. I was wondering what happens in the environment, which is over natural oil . Is there anything that goes on in the epa with the environment . Certain things that happen with synthetics comparator compared to burning natural oil. My dad burned synthetic in toyotas. They were talking about how they had been shipping oil to asia. If they are shipping oil to asia, why are they burning synthetics . Host all right. Antoine halff . Guest there have been has been research. Synthetic oil was popular in its time. That is not where most research is directed. There is more research in electric vehicles. Synthetic oil has taken a the u. S. N synthetics were attractive when we thought we were running out of oil. We probably have more oil than we can burn. , perhaps forogen transportation and shipping are the focus today. We will go to josh, who is in iowa. Independent caller. Caller good morning. I have a question about the production of oil in north dakota. Flightfect does the disruption that happened with chino thing we have going on with iran you know the thing we have going on with iran, what affect does that have with the production in North Carolina north coda. Dakota. . Have a secon i have a second question. Host go ahead. Price any kind of increase is good for u. S. Producers. In the aftermath of the attacks, both the soleimani assassination , there has been hedging. They have had future profits by buying into the futures market. Ist being said, north dakota not where most of the production is taking place. Base has beenfic in texas and new mexico. You arer thing is, if looking at the shortterm in north dakota, beginning through the winter beginning in the winter, it goes down seasonably because of the weather conditions. Host your second question, josh . Caller this one is easy. What price at what price per barrel of oil does the american production, i am most concerned with north dakota, at what price does the american production rampup . I think it is around 60 a barrel now. On theit depends individual producers. For some producers, it might be 60. For some, it might be 70. It may be 30 in some cases. Generally speaking, there has been a shift, a change in the u. S. Faculty industry as well as the markets. The industry was trying to increase production at any cost, even if it had to be in the red. That was the name of the game. Over the last 1. 5 years, wall street investors, the industry has changed. They are demanding that produces demonstrate profitability and cash flow. Increase their earnings and profits. Are seeing a shift in the nature of the industry. Private owners that were driving the production in the beginning are being pushed out of the market. Chevron and shell are increasing their footprint and our more conservative in their approach in some cases. Even if we see a price increase, we are likely to see slower reaction than we have seen in the past. The amount of time it would take for the price hike to translate into production increase will be significant. Production goes down, we cannot count on u. S. Production from texas or new mexico to ramp up production to make for supply loss. Host we will go to mike in crystal city, florida. Democratic caller. Caller i heard you say that china and japan and all of those countries are dependent on the saudi oil. Why arent they down there protecting that . Why do we have american soldiers in saudi arabia, protecting their oil . That is a question they are probably asking themselves as well. Iny have increasing interest raising their military profile in the persian gulf. There is a sense of discomfort with the idea that the u. S. Might not be as active or reliable in terms of maintaining security in the gulf as it was in the past. Some of the statements that President Trump has made have been a source of uneasiness. Increasingly, they have raised their profile in the goal. They are not making up for a drop in the u. S. The questions you are asking are some of the questions they are asking themselves as well. A senioroine halff is scholar at colombia university. You can follow their work on their website. Thank you for your time. Guest thank you for having me. Host when we come back, we will talk about the military draft. Joining us is don benton. Tonight on the communicators. Andy, u. S. Chief Security Officer for huawei on the companys lawsuit against the fcc over a recent vote to ban from buying their equipment. Youe had to say that what have done is beyond the pale. It conflicts with the constitutional requirement of due process. With your own precedents. That is wrong. Tonight at 8 00 eastern on cspan two. 2. The impeachment of President Trump. This week, the house will vote on impeachment managers, sending the articles of impeachment to the senate. Follow the process live on cspan, ondemand at cspan. Org impeachment. And for free on the cspan radio app. Campaign 2020. Watch our continuing coverage of the president ial candidates on the campaign trail and make up your own mind. As the voting begins next month, watch our live coverage of the Iowa Caucuses. On monday, february 3, cspans campaign 2020. Your unfiltered view of politics. Washington journal continues. Host at our table this morning, the director of Selective Services, don benton. Thank you for being here. Talking about the military draft, what is the Selective Service . Guest thank you for having me. It is nice to see you. Service wase brought about by jimmy carter in 1983. President carter wanted to send a strong signal around the world that said clearly, just because we have an all volunteer military, that does not mean that we are weak. He wanted the world to know that mene are 80 million backing up the army. Ever since 83, we have registered in an effort to be prepared for any emergency that may arrive. Host who needs to register, and when . Guest the law has been in place, since 1983. Even before that, for 100 years, we have had some form of Selective Service or inscription or draft. We do not have an active draft component. We just register. We are prepared. In order to have a draft, it would take congress and the president. There have been no discussions of that. There is not going to be a draft. At least, we dont think so, unless there is an emergency we have not foreseen. That is what it is for. The Selective Service is designed for unforeseen emergencies. Right now, what we are experiencing is foreseen. It was expected and understood. Concernsad a lot of about is there going to be a draft . There is not going to be one. Host congress and the president have to authorize a draft. Guest of course. Host then there is the lottery. What is that . Guest correct. If the United States and the president authorize a draft, which is highly unlikely, then we hold a lottery, like you see how the states have lotteries now. We use the same kind of lottery machines and we draw numbers and we pick birthdates and all 306 t6 birthdays, including 366 birthdays, including february 29 for leap year is covered. Everyone is assigned a date and it is done at random. That is why it is important for young men to register. The closer we get to 100 of registration, the closer any potential future draft would be fair. More fair. The more who register and are closer to 100 , the close the total fairness in terms of the random selection. Host when are they supposed to register . Guest within 30 days of their 18th birthday. Host if you are seeking 100 , where are you at . Guest about 92 . Our compliance rate is very good. I am sure the irs would like to have our compliance rate. Young men in america are patriotic. We get almost all of them to register. Host after this lottery, all parts of Selective Service are activated. What does that mean . Guest im sorry. Host all parts of selected service are activated. Guest thats not true. They are not activated. Host ok. This is from the website. Maybe there is a mistake. There are a few differences. The situation is more of the service has changed. In the past, Selective Service would do deferrals for medical. Now, that is done by the military and the military doctors. We dont determine that. The primary job of the Selective Service is to have a mechanism designed, prepared to operate and notify young men that they at an induction center. If they do that, they show up and they are tested, trained and make sure that they are physically qualified and they go right through the normal process, just like you would if you were to sign up for the army or the navy or the air force. There is a normal process called the military entrance processing station. We dont even like to talk about that because it is not happening and we dont see any potential of that happening, not currently. Host it is highly unlikely that there will be a military draft. Why did you say that . Guest our military today is capable of handling nearly every threat you could imagine. The purpose of the Selective Service is to be prepared to ifp our volunteer military there is some occurrence of some unforeseen disaster or some unplanned emergency. Our Current Department of events is capable of handing handling any planned or foreseen emergency. Selective service is designed for that unforeseen circumstance that may arise. Knows to beout prepared for anything that might happen. That is what the Selective Service is. We are a preparation agency. We are prepared for any potential disaster or emergency. Host we will take our viewers phone calls as well. If you live in the central part of the country, your line is 202 7488000. Mountain pacific, 202 7488001. If you are a male between the ages of 18 and 25, your number. S 202 7488002 lets go to jeff in silver spring, maryland. Caller thanks for taking my call. Thanks for cspan. I have one comment, which is anybody who is on the fence about registering, i encourage them to do that. If you dont, then it prevents you from getting a job that will require a clearance in the future. My question is isnt it time for women to also have to register for the draft . I will take that answer offline. Thank you. Guest terrific. Thanks for your question. That question is being examined by the Congressional Commission as we speak. Years, thereree has been a congressional question looking into the issue or question of conscripting or registering women for the Selective Service. That report is due in march of this year, in two months. They will be making a full report to congress on their investigation. They have traveled around the country and collected a lot of testimony. They have a full report that they will be briefing me on, next month. They will issue a Credit Report out to congress. We are looking forward to what they say. Congress will have to take action on their recommendations, obviously. Woman that would like to serve can go down to the recruiting station and sign up. There are no restrictions on women serving in the military. The law of registering for the draft has not caught up with that. Again, it is up to congress to decide. Host what about not registering and impacting your future employment . Guest people ask why should i register and my first answer is because it is your duty as a citizen of this great country to be willing to step up and protected if it needs protecting. That is why. Over the years, congress has decided to use incentives rather prosecutionsnd because it is illegal to not register. You are breaking the law if you dont. Congress has decided over the rs ithey have tied federal employment to it. If you are not willing to register, why should you be allowed to work for the federal government, a government you are not willing to protect if need be. The same thing with Student Loans. Grants, jobs with federal contractors, especially after 9 11. Private employers that have government contracts like for mail service and things of that nature. You cannot work for the federal government if you dont have a service number. If you do not have one before you turn 26, you will never get one. There is that window between 18 26, three or 25th year that you can still register and avoid prosecution and qualify for the benefits. Penalties are the besides not getting a job . Is there penalties or jail time . Can you be prosecuted . There is to educate the thousand dollars in fines 250,000 in fines and prosecution if you do not register. Host has anyone been prosecuted . Guest before me. They have chosen not to prosecute during peacetime. I am sure that would change if the draft was activated and people have been avoiding it. There has been no prosecution. Congress prefers incentives. You want Student Loans . You want student grants, you want a federal job or a good job with a federal contractor . ,ou want worker training money all of these federal benefits are tied to Selective Service registration. Host lets go to michael in kansas city, machinery missouri. Caller good morning. Good morning. Caller i have a question i thed a few months ago on issue of gays and lesbians in the military. Are they going to be subject to fines or anything like that if they do not sign up . The law for the Selective Service only requires males to register. Registering is not signing up for the military. Those are completely Different Things. When you register, you are saying hey, i am putting my name on the list. If there is a crisis, you can call me and i will step up. Again, as we discussed, there is penalties for that. It, you are ino violation of federal law and you are guilty of omitting a pretty committing a pretty serious crime with heavy penalties. We encourage everyone to sign up. Not just because there are penalties. But because it is every americans duty to protect the government and way of life if need be. We encourage people to sign up for patriotic reasons. Also, to receive the benefits as well. Host how old are you kevin . How did you do it . My school, they had people come in from the Selective Service to ask that we do that. I dont want to waste too much of my time with that if i can. The phrase that the gentleman just used was every americans duty. Sitting next to females in my class and we pay the same taxes but for some reason or another, they are not held to the same standard as i am. A descriptive on this, only jewish people or only white people or black people, or people who stand on their heads, why is it that i am held to the standard and the person sitting next to me, only because they are a female, but we same the but we pay the same taxes, why am i held to the same standards . There are all kinds of benefits that i face because im a male. Guest great question. Its not really a question for me. I am not a policymaker. I implement policy. I do what Congress Tells me to do. That is the way it has always been. For a long time in america, only except fory served in medical roles. That has changed, obviously, over the years. Like i said earlier, any female can go to any recruiting station in america whether its army, navy, marines and sign up to serve in the military. However, the laws have not yet caught up to that standard in terms of Selective Service primarily, probably, because we have not really use the Selective Service for military Service Since vietnam. There has been a long time when people are not familiar with it and it has not been used and the law is written specifically for males. But congress is taking that issue up this next year with this report thats coming out in march. Its a pretty thorough report so expect so they spent 2. 5 years on it so it remains to be seen with the lawmakers will do with that report. I am anxious to see the final report in march. Im not going to speculate on what they will recommend but i think you will see some recommendations that will be considered modernizing toward the Selective Service. Host if there is a draft which you say is highly unlikely, and you have to start the lottery men who how are these have been registered notified that they have been picked . Mail. Either through u. S. Since my appointment 2. 5 years ago, we have been registering young men with email addresses. We will email them and if we do not have an active email for them, we would notify them through regular mail. I dont think it will be hard to notify folks because if that ever happened, im fairly certain that every news station would carry the news. Most foes would know about it. After we sawppened the tensions between the United States and iran escalate . It seems that iran has backed off a little bit. What was the reaction from young people and did you hear from young people and their parents about a possible draft . Guest the agency received about a 400 increase in activity emails, people writing to us, we are not sure where it started. My guess is Homeland Security will get to the bottom of it with their investigations. There have been some folks that have been putting out misinformation, bogus notices, people have been receiving texts that you have been drafted and show up here or there or whatever. Those kind of things obviously caused alarm. Misinformation. Its not accurate. Some people thought it was funny i suppose or were playing a joke. That is not a funny situation. Its pretty serious. Not only with us but there were also notices that went out to actual reservists, people who have served in the military and are in reserve. Those were fabricated as well. A lot of fabricated messages were generated and created a lot of fear, if you will, of the unknown. I am one of the reasons we are doing the show is to make sure American People know that all of those messages were fabricated, there is no effort, has been no effort and there will be no effort to activate the draft in america. Host mary in richland, washington, go ahead. Caller good morning. I have a question. I was talking to a younger person and she told me her boyfriend would not be taken because hes got diabetes. I thought if they ever call people that they call everybody. She said he has type one diabetes. The other thing i wanted to ask you about is i live in Washington State and i know this can use marijuana or whatever. I was wondering how that will play into it. I was curious about the diabetes question because there are so many people with diabetes. Thank you so much and have a good day. Guest thats a terrific question. You are from the tricities washington area. Washington is my home state so hello to my home staties. Medical issuesn, like diabetes or other disabilities that could cause someone from being able to serve in the armed forces, those conditions are determined at the time. You dont decide ahead of time that ive got diabetes so i will not register. No, everyone registers. Is anly if there activation do they then start determining who is medically qualified and who is not. Made byermination is the military. At the time. Notified, then if you have an objection, whether it be medical or Conscientious Objector or religious reasons, its at that point that you then make your needs known. I cannot serve because of this, i wont serve because of that. Boards and0 local president johnson did this with an executive order, the military does not decide. In yourent Citizens Community actually make that decision. We staff 3000 local Selective Service boards with volunteers from your community. Its folks that probably know you that will sit on that board and make that determination when the time actually comes for that to occur. There is no reason to do that prior to any activation. It would be a waste of effort so everyone registers and then, at such time that there is an activation, thats when they start determining whether you are eligible or not to serve. Does that answer your question . Host we will go to bill in new york. Think that the incentive to register for the draft is another name for gender discrimination. Maybe we need the e. R. A. Amendment to pass. My second question is when will the draft be replaced by a mandatory National Service that does community service, teaching in schools, or the inner city or working soup kitchens and the like . Thats all, thank you. Guest thanks for that question. In addition to the question on females serving or being registered, the other question that the commission is investigating is how we encourage or enhance National Service. One of the issues they have been do we haveut is required National Service or do we do something to encourage more volunteers . To increase the opportunities for National Service in all kinds of Government Service, not just the military. Thats one of the other issues that the commission will be reporting on in the report due in march. For many reasons, we are anxious to see this Congressional Commissions report on National Service. Munro, northnd carolina, how old are you . Caller im going to be 26 in february. Host are you registered . Caller yes. Host where did you register and how . Caller it was the town hall and i filled out a form. Host go ahead with your question. Caller i understand by listening to the gentle man about the idea of it being patriotic and doing your duty but ive heard a lot of discussion. Its been a longrunning discussion in america about the government wanting people to serve while at the same time, there are also millions of people that feel the same government does not protect their rights equally. Or well enough. They want them to join the military and these people feel that they are being treated rotten. How do you feel about that issue . There was aot sure question there. Host how do you feel about what issue . Caller about the moral discussion about how people feel that they are being asked to serve a country who they feel does not protect their rights well enough in their everyday life. Hes talking about everyday encounters with people who feel their rights are not being protected, why should they incentivized to serve. Guest our american way of life is under attack from all different arenas. Number of different ways you can serve and protect and participate in making america a great country. I dont think we really want to let our citizens pick and choose when and how they would stand up to a bully. We should all stand up to a bully. If you want laws of government rather than men, if you want equal protection under the law and if you are striving for those things, i think the American Government and american democracy is one of the worlds governments that provides those things or tries to. To all of its citizens. I think you will find people who have varying degrees of support. They help me or they dont help me enough but i dont think youll find anybody that says our government is not worth saving or isnt worth preserving because our constitution guarantees equal rights. Sometimes we dont get it right. I think in my lifetime and im 62 years old, most of the time, weve gotten it right and we look out for peoples rights and we take care of people with private Property Rights and so forth. Our constitutional protections have been pretty well honored in america. Region e a strong reason why someone shouldnt a free, democratically elected republic like america. If you dont want to support that kind of government, then you should probably choose a government you like better and support it. But most americans i think support the free democratically elected republic that our Founding Fathers gave us. And thats what our military is designed to protect. Host great neck, new york, roger. Caller good morning. Guest thank you for calling. Caller i love Selective Service. I registered many years ago. I became ai became a volunteer e Selective Service system. I am a district appeal board member for the state of new york a555 and5 and i am americans can become a board member. I go to the training and i go through training through the internet and i love the way Selective Service operates. Its a real pleasure and i love it very much. You for your thank service to your country and for serving on 555. Hes one of the local appeals Board Members that i talked to you about. We have 11,000 volunteers like roger across america that make our system work and help protect america. Thank you for what you are doing, roger, and thank your colleagues on the board for what they are doing. Without your work and there were, the Selective Services would not work. It works because of volunteers like you so thank you for your help. Host one of the young men who called and said he signed up when people came to his school. Who are the people who go to schools and how does that work . Guest we have local Board Members. They are not only on the board but they also volunteered to go out and give speeches at school assemblies. 150 reservet officers, military officers, that do their reserve duty with s two weeks per year every year. They are out making presentations. We have a Speakers Bureau with over 500 speakers that have volunteered to speak on behalf of the Selective Service and make presentations and we also do a significant amount of outreach with our Public Information bureau and department. We do outreach trips all over the country on a regular basis. Is 45e tell people seconds can save you 45 years of heartache stop go to our canite, sss. Gov and you sign up for Selective Service in about 45 seconds and its done. You never have to worry about it again. Host what is your budget . How many employees . Approximatelyate 2500 fulltime employees. We are able to get a little extra money last year for modernization. It was it modernization but generally the budget until last year has been stagnant for 40 years at about 24 million. Inexpensive as Government Agencies go. I dont know of another Government Agency with a budget that small. What we are able to provide in terms of a system, a network that can jump into place in an probably one of the cheapest insurance policies ive ever seen. I came from the Insurance Industry and i have experience there. When you can ensure an entire system like this for about 26 million, thats a pretty good investment. Its about half the cost of one qe helicopter. Helicopter. Ey caller good morning, i had a question about convicted felons being required to register. Remember, i did it at the post office. Guest so did i. 1985, i tried to join the military and they would not let me in because i was convicted of a felony when i was 15. Our convicted felons required to register . Guest yes, its much like the disability situation we talked about earlier. , all males areer required to register. Time that theuch service is activated that then there is a differentiation between those who can serve and those who cannot serve. Until then, everyone is just registered. Does that make sense . Host we will go to robert in in the apple us. In indianapolis. If you i wanted to know are required to register and whatever, andter, say your name is called your number comes up. The ones doing this process. Doctor and have him write you out a referral saying that youve got heel spurs and avoid the draft . Go ahead. In gods name, how i cant get a job at the post office by register but i can come but i can become president of the United States saying i have heel spurs. To avoid service. Guest there is a difference between serving and registering. Is not registering for the military. Everyone must register whether you have bone spurs or not. Everyone must register. Time thatat such registration crosses into activation and notification that medical doctors come into play and determine whether or not you can actually serve. Today, its military and medical doctors that make that determination. Medical doctors that make that determination. During the vietnam era, it was a combination military doctors and private medical doctors and private medical records. Today, you have to go down to the processing station and have a military doctor look at you to make that determination. Again, some changes since vietnam, but the question of registering is for everybody. To theand if you talk head of recruiting command, about 70 of High School Seniors today are not eligible to serve. There are a number of Different Reasons for that. A lot of it is weight issues and so on. Seniorsll high school are not eligible to serve for some either medical or other reason that they have been deferred. Its not uncommon. Thousands and thousands of young men in america have been deferred for Different Reasons over the years. Host long bank, pennsylvania, how old are you . Caller im 24. Host you did sign up . Caller yes, i signed up for the Selective Service. Twoparter question i work full time right now and im considering going back for a masters. How would continuing my , in then impact unlikely situation that the draft comes back, how would my continuing education affect that . And in the situation i would still be subjected to the same draft, it would impact my ability to apply for any sort of officer program or anything along that line . Guest the impact would be no different whether you continue in school or not. If such time there was an activation, you would have the opportunity, like i said in these other scenarios where you have diabetes or medical conditions, and your number actually was one of the ones called and you had an issue called and you had an. Either you wanted to continue to go to school to finish your degree or any number of medical issues, thats when those come up and thats when you make that known and thats when the determination would be made. Happen atwhat would that local board . Typically today, we allow students to finish that semester. That would typically be the decision. How it would affect your ability in terms of actually serving, thats not really our role. Thats the militarys determination. Degree,ave an advanced you are likely to be eligible for the officers candidate program. No guarantee of that, the military makes that decision, but likely, if you have an likely, if you have an advanced degree, thats one of the indicators that you would be eligible for some kind of officer program. But that is certainly up to the military, thats not my purview. Host he said he registered when he wanted to get a student loan. For those tuning in now, you may have missed it earlier when you explained, what are the consequences of not registering for Selective Service . Guest if you do not register and if you turn 26 and have not registered, you can never register. If you are still under 26, you can register now when i would advise you to do so. If you turn down the registry, you will never be for Eligible Service or any government entity. Its a federal law. You must have a Selective Service number to work for the federal government were to work for a private employer that has government contracts where those are required. Its very important. For noncitizens, i want to encourage them to register as well. All males must register, citizen or not. Youou do not register when apply for citizenship and they discover you did not register and you were in violation of the law but not registering, it can automatically delay your citizenship application for five years. Idea for anybody not to register whether you are a citizen or not and you are in america and you are 18 years old, youre required to register. Host do you find that younger males were getting ready to go to college realize that in order to get a student loan, i need to take this step . Guest we have a significant spike between age 19 and 20. We believe that that spike, spike, of because of awareness, most folks we have discovered that dont register do so because they didnt know they were required. Thats the number one reason most folks dont register. Our challenge is to keep the word out and keep letting people know and they have given many speeches and talks and we go on as many programs as we can like this so that people are aware that it is the law and you have to register. East gary next in brunswick, new jersey. Caller caller are you there . I am here. I am 82 years old. I registered for the draft when i was 18. I wasnt drafted because i had severe asthma. I want to bring out something that is very important. I think we should have a draft so we have equality and that the children of congresswomen and congressmen are considered for the draft. One of the things thats interesting thats never mentioned by the politicians, i dont know if the director is aware of this, the state of israel, i repeat the state of israel has a mandatory draft, mandatory, and is never requested United States troops to help them. I think its important for democracy like the United States i love this country, to have a draft so everybody is treated equally and you do not have a volunteer army of low income individuals. Host ok, gary. Things that ithe was very keen on doing is modernizing the service and turning it around so in case of an emergency, it could move more quickly than it has in the past. I think thats a very important thing in todays world. One of the things we did is we army in thefastest world and thats the Israeli Defense force. My staff studies how they do in israel. We have gotten some good ideas from them in terms of butrnization and techniques your absolute correct. Folks andne group of those are the bible scholars, the jewish scholars are folks et from Government Service in israel but everyone else serves. These are men and women. How long do they have to serve for . Ifst im trying to remember its two years active duty but they remain available for five so its a seven year window where the government can call on you to help. Jerry in huntington beach, california. I may posed to the Selective Service system. Through allought the aspects of it but my initial kneejerk reaction is its a form of indentured servants which is slavery when you force thate to join something they dont really want to participate in. There is enough people in this country willing to go off to iraq and praises in places like that and come back in a casket but we dont need everybody to be registering for the draft. The awesome the other reason why im against it, why do we prepare for such a low probability of it being implemented. You said its only 24 million but thats still a lot of money. Host we are running out of time. Your own home,wn you own Fire Insurance. I have Fire Insurance on my home and everybody i know does. Its expensive and nine out of 10 policies never pay out. Homes dont burn down very much anymore with great fire departments. Will you want to go without it on the off chance that your home might catch on fire . That is what the Selective Service is about. Its an insurance policy for the unforeseen. When you look at it that way, half the cost of a qe helicopter is a pretty darn cheap insurance hueyy a qe a helicopter is a pretty darn cheap insurance policy. Host don benton, thank you for the conversation. Guest i welcome the opportunity to get the word out. Host we will be back here tomorrow morningwe will be backw morning 7 00 a. M. Eastern time. Enjoy the rest of your day. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] the impeachment of President Trump. This week, the house will vote on impeachment managers, sending the articles of impeachment to the senate. Follow the process live on cspan, ondemand at