Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 01172020 20240713

And her Groups Campaign to train women for Civic Engagement. You can join the conversation on facebook and twitter. Washington journal is next. Do you solemnly swear, that in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of Donald John Trump, president of the United States, now pending, people do impartial justice according to the constitution and laws . Justice john roberts, mr. Chief justice to the senators during the impeachment trial of President Trump. He is providing with presiding with the officer yesterday, a seat that he will be taking in the coming weeks. The coming weeks of the senate trial. We will we begin we will begin with your competence level proceeding in the upper chamber. Democrats, 2027488000. Epublicans, 2027488001 independents, dial in at 2027488002. You can also text that 2027488003. You can text at 2027488003. Or join us on social media at cspanwj or facebook. Com cspan. We will begins presentation of the articles of impeachment led. Y adam schiff here he is in the well of the Senate Chamber making the argument for impeaching President Trump. [video clip] in the history of the republic, no president has ever the complete impeachment the house of a senate ofs to investigate high crimes and misdemeanors, this serve to cover up the president s repeated misconduct and sees and androl the power seize control the power of impeachment. In all of this, President Trump acted in a manner contrary to his trust as president and subversive of Constitutional Government to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice. And manifest injury to the. Eople of the United States President Trump has demonstrated he will remain a threat if. Llowed to remain in office President Trump warrants impeachment and trial, removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust, and profit under the United States. Host yesterday, the beginning of the senate trial with house andgers being introduced presenting the articles of impeachment against President Trump. Here is Mitch Mcconnell, republican of kentucky on the floor yesterday. [video clip] weeks, 4 weeks. The democratic majority in the house of representatives is finally ready to defend their impeachment of the president of the United States. , the weeks of delay speaker of the house decided yesterday a trial could finally go forward. She signed the impeachment papers. That took place, madam president , at a table with a ititical slogan stuck onto and they posed afterwards for smiling photos and the speaker ns to hered souvenir pe own colleagues emblazoned with her golden signature that literally came in on silver platters. The pens literally came in on silver platters. Olden pens on silver platters a souvenir to celebrate the moment. Remember democrats falling over themselves to say they did not see impeachment as win. Gsought political House Democrats said over and over they recognize the gravity and seriousness of this action and of course they had only come to it reluctantly. Seriousness and sobriety like handing out souvenirs as though this were a happy bill signing instead of the gravest process in our constitution. This final display nearly distilled the whole process into one perfect visual. It was transparently partisan for performance from beginning to end. That is why they sped through a increase an inquiry when previous impeachment came after months, if not years of investigations and hearings. Host your confidence level in the Senate Impeachment trial, that is the question for all of tweeted out ient got impeached for making a perfect phone call. Janice in the louisiana, democratic caller. Go ahead. Caller i have every confidence in nancy pelosi and the proceedings hereto for with schumer and adam, etc. I have every confidence in the senate to impeach and remove this president. I also would like to make a short comment. I just finished listen to Vladimir Putin addressing the Russian Assembly and i was very impressed with him. Host mark in connecticut. Caller i think the senate will have a fair trial. I agree with the caller before you, what happened in russia is history and it is coming here. If you want to find out about it, go on youtube. Host what does that have to do with impeachment . Caller i am telling you. Go on youtube. X22 report, dont listen to the mainstream media. It is amazing what is happening in this country and people need to wake up and look at it. Host what does this have to do with impeachment . Caller this impeachment is a sham. They dont even have a criminal charge, that is the first thing you need for impeachment, a criminal charge. Lets read the charges against the president. Article 1, abuse of power. Using the powers of his high office, President Trump solicited the interference of ukraine in the 2020 election, he scheme. Hrough a article 2, obstruction of congress. Without lawful cause or excuse, President Trump directed executive aunt Branch Agencies to not to comply with subpoenas. He assumed to himself functions on judgments necessary to the exercise of the sole power of impeachment. Paul in oklahoma, a republican. Confidence level in the Senate Impeachment trial. Paul in oklahoma, let me try one more time. Aller yeah i think President Trump will get a fair trial in the senate and he will be acquitted. Rally this week . Look at the thousands of people who attended. I bet thousands of people will attend the rally on monday right before the impeachment trial. We have the best economy ever. People are going back to work, people are not hungry anymore. It is amazing what this man has accomplished. A fair trialthink includes witnesses . Caller i think that would be a big mistake. Their time toad call witnesses and they did not want to wait. Host no National Security advisor john bolton or Mick Mulvaney or lev parnas . Caller lev parnas, i tell you what, he is being squeezed like a pimple right now. You cannot trust anybody under indictment to tell the truth. He is looking for a better deal right now. That is his story. I dont think Vice President mike pence has anything to do with lev parnas. He wants his 15 minutes of fame and that will be the end of lev parnas, just like all the others. Host ken in illinois, your turn. Caller how are you . Host morning. Caller i enjoy listening to your show, washington journal. I am a moderate democrat and i love hearing all the republicans. Host we are listening. What do you think about the trial . Politicalthink our system is totally and completely broken because of the partisanship that has overtaken america. I am 75 years old, been around a long time. I am a retired teacher, i used teach political for log philosophy. I think what a lot of people most powerful part of our government is the legislature. That is why it is article 1. You say the president is more powerful than the legislature. No, who can fire who . Courtsture can file the or anybody in the administration. That was put together to make us a democracy. I dont see us being much of a democracy anymore. I guess on certain things, the parties come together and figure out some kind of middle ground, but we are so divided on so many things. The reason there are hundreds of bills sitting on mcconnells desk because he does not want his people to vote no on them and go public on that. I think when we have divided government, everything comes to a complete stop. I am also amazed i will be setting article 1 aside, if the senate sends out a subpoena for documents and testimony from people in the white house, i wonder how the senators are going to feel about that. They might be quite upset about their subpoena being ignored. Ken. Finish your thought, meler it would seem to senators even republican senators would be a little more upset about that and it would be even harder for them to get around that. Whatt, it makes you wonder republicans in the house and the senate i know they are under tremendous pressure to get rankandfilethe Republican Voters are completely. Ined up with trumpism i wonder. Sometimes i guess they are hoping he leaves his he loses in 2020 so things can get back to normal. Host yesterday, before the senate trial kicked off with the pageantry you saw with house managers being introduced and the swearing in of the chief justice and the senators, the gao released their ruling on President Trumps decision to freeze the ukraine aid, that military aid. From the report, this is their decision. Faithful execution of the law does not permit the president to substitute his own policy priorities for those congress has enacted into law. Omb withheld for policy reasons, which is permitted the withholding was not a delay, therefore we conclude omb the act. The New York Times notes the law in 1974 was enacted over the veto of richard nixon. Requiring approval from the legislative branch to do so. It also says the gao report on its own does not result in any action or specific penalty against the white house of mr. Trump. This is not the first time the Accountability Office ruled of the Trump Administration violated the act. 2018d so in 2017 and related to the department of Homeland Security funding. The Accountability Office is led by jean to dora nominated by president barack obama and confirmed by the senate. Directors of the Agency Served 15 year terms in an effort to remove the influence of politics from their decision. Yesterday we got reaction from senators to this ruling. Here is dick durbin of illinois, democrat talking about the decision. [video clip] we have received the statement from the Accounting Office and they uphold it violated federal law. The government account Ability Office has a reputation as a partisan watchdog. The legal opinion today concludes President Trump and his administration violated the law by putting a hold on military aid to ukraine while country was trying to this is an important ruling that deserves a thorough hearing in the impeachment trial. It should be part of the evidence of wrongdoing by the president , especially as it alleged charges of abuse of power. I also hope this ruling will convince the administration to ofed the additional delivery military aid which congress sent to ukraine. In thehe minority whip senate, dick durbin, on the floor reacting to the news by the government Accountability Office. Here is Kevin Mccarthy with his take on the ruling. [video clip] a the gao came out with report saying the white house did break laws. You maintain omb is responsible, but they disagreed with the opinion. These are taxpayer dollars going to another country people believe there was corruption with the new administration. I think it was the rightful thing to do. Host john in North Carolina, republican. What is your confidence level in the Senate Impeachment trial . New report, this should it be included in a trial . Caller most trials, when the defense rests and the prosecution rests and they dismissed the jury to a jury room, they usually do not get a chance to open the door and say by the way, we have a little you. Evidence for just like Kevin Mccarthy said, there is a disagreement and also in the phone call transcripts, notp says to the guy, i am sure you are surrounding yourself with the best people. Hat was apprehension the lady that likes putin so much that you had on first, she can go to russia if she wants. Big paradeng to be a stallemocrats trying to anything. There is nobody no way anybody can argue with what President Trump has given the United States and we hear deep state left who support barack obama. The state of virginia declared an emergency because rightful gun owners want to exercise their First Amendment and Second Amendment rights. Host i am going to stick to the topic this morning. Vicki, democratic caller. Caller i have no confidence because the senate, they are thugs. Donald trump is a thug and we are getting what we asked for. Trump who likes donald and condones what he does and says, that shows the character of that person. They are just like donald trump, they are thugs, they are greedy, they are delusional. People are living on the streets. Nowhere too food, stay and they are talking about this is the greatest economy ever . Money is not everything. Host what about impeachment . Caller of course he should be impeached, he should be removed right away. He should be impeached when he. Id not show his taxes it all goes back to that. That is the beginning. If he cannot show his taxes, he is getting money from some illegal source. E is pimping the presidency that is all i have to say because i am so upset with this country. We are coming to an end. Host democratic caller. Caller good morning, greta. I agree along with this young lady right here. The United States of america, we believe in democracy for all americans to follow and the constitution and etc. Here you have donald trump right now, i dont have confidence in that man. Mitch mcconnell needs to recuse himself because his wife worked for the administration. Donald Trump Reminds me of the president of the white south. The Republican Party is the white Republican Party. I dont care what you say. Americans. white this man he has 4 people saying he violated the law. You have women who came back and said he did sexual stuff. Got convictedwho on conspiracy of drug laws, you have people coming together and saying this man did this stuff and you do not have nothing. He is an embarrassment. I dont care what we say, he is not fit for this country. They want our boys to emulate this behavior that he can grab the genitals of women and stuff like that. Taught caught him in a lie. Like the woman said, going all the way to the Supreme Court and they will not have that hearing until june. Host the chief justice will be leading the proceedings in the senate every day. Doesnt the Supreme Court need its leader . John roberts, who presides over the senate trial will have a. Ight, but manageable schedule no more are set until late. Ebruary although this spring court is across the street from the capital, he will go by car escorted by security detail. Here is the moment yesterday john robertsstice the moment he became the presiding officers. [video clip] i attend the senate in conformity for your notice with the purpose of joining with you the trial of the president of the United States. I am now prepared to take the oath. Will you place your left hand on the bible and raise your right hand. Do you solemnly swear in all things appertaining to the trial of the impeachment of Donald John Trump, president of the United States, now pending, you will do impartial justice according to the constitution and the laws so help you god . I do. God bless you. Thank you very much. Host Supreme Court chief justice john roberts. He then swore in all 100 members to impartiality. The Washington Post notes john roberts was a clerk for william rehnquist. The 1999ed over clinton impeachment trial. They also note in the papers he recalled at the conclusion of the five week proceedings, senators were so appreciative of his lowprofile performance they rose to give him a standing ovation, presented him with a golden gavel awarded by Senate Tradition to those who presided over the body for 100 hours. I am not sure it quite reached 100 hours, but it is close enough. He responded, it seemed like it. Pages thishe history morning, this from the Washington Post. They feature this picture. A depiction of the impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson with trial. Chase the talk about violating tenure of office act in 1867, which said the president could not fire important government officials unless he got the goahead from the senate. The Vice President of the United States is writing in the papers the opinion pages of the wall street journal this morning about that time, that impeachment trial. Mike pence writing a partisan impeachment, a profile encouraged, and he is talking about senator edmund ross, republican of kansas at the time. This is what the Vice President writes about senator ross, the pressure was almost unbearable as ross later described it i almost literally looked down into my open grave, friendship, position, fortune, everything that makes life desirable were about to be swept away perhaps forever. At the close of the trial, he stayed true to his convictions, opposed the passions of his own party and voted to acquit johnson. He faced physical assault, but he knew what was right to give congress such power over president ial appointments would have revolutionized our political fabric. He was vindicated in 1887 when congress appealed the tenure of office act, which the Supreme Court later declared unconstitutional. Vice president mike pence saying senator edmund ross, republican of kansas showed the profile encouraged. Tommy, democratic caller. Caller hello. I would like to tell you in lettery mother wrote a to president clinton because he was going to be impeached for the Monica Lewinsky trial. Host i am going to stop you right there, please turn down that television. Caller okay. Because i was a college major, i had a fresh perspective on english and i was a junior at that time. She asked me to critique her letter like if you go into a writing lab. I only changed the last three lines of her letter and i told her it is grammatically correct and everything, it is sound, it is coherent and she mailed it by u. S. Mail in california, not from tennessee, we mailed it in another place where her sister lives in pasadena. It got to him and he wrote my mother back and thanked my mother for sending that letter the 42ndd we found out presidency was not hampered. He was able to finish 2 terms in 8 years and the government lasted. This is a different time period. We live in the 21st century, but i wanted to say i see this thing creeping up again, but i am not going to have any dealings with somebody that does not want to have any dealings with poor people. Host if you want to follow along with the senate trial every day, senator chris murphy is promising to give you a behindthescenes look on his twitter feed. Every day of the trial, i will write a twitter thread and Facebook Post giving my read and some behindthescenes vignettes to make sure the trial is as transparent as possible. He writes in his next one, that asked posting if we can get that on the screen, we will try to get that for you. Landon in virginia, republican. Caller how are you doing, good morning . When you look at what is but oneg, it is not thing that matters in this situation and that is the law. People dont seem to understand we have laws in this country and the economy is good, it is great theyhings are doing have their opinions, one person doesnt like the president and somebody else dislikes the president. We are a country of laws and if we dont respect the law, what else do we have . Everything is nice, okay. Look at that entirely. Clinton was he did not tell the truth. Truth. S not telling the that is somebodys opinion. We listen and when you go to court, you have to remember this, it is all about witnesses ihat mcconnell wanted am surprised any black person point. Rgue against this you have to have discovery. That means they have to find out what the charges are and who the witnesses are. The president decides i dont want this guy as a witness because he is prejudiced against me. The president has authority. Words the real deal when theyesterday said the law was broken. That means trump will probably be impeached on that charge. The other charges are you dont have witnesses, you dont have evidence, which is the law, but he will be impeached on one charge. He will stay president. Host i want to get some other voices, including tweets from our Text Messages. I have more confidence now in the last few days because new evidence and republican senators are under the microscope and you also have another tweet from sean this is a tweet saying i am confident the senate will fulfill its duty and i am confident our media will side with democrats and claim otherwise. Evidence, the Washington Post this morning, this reporting from ashley parker. Among the consequences that mr. Parnas threatened, vice expected pences attendance when ukrainians were unresponsive, he said he relayed the bad news to giuliani and see. Ani responded theyll the Washington Post notes shortly after that, the president directed the Vice President not to attend that inauguration. Parnas in his interview with Anderson Cooper according to the headline on their website says he watched the president tell an aide to fire the u. S. Ambassador to ukraine. Some of the other revelations coming from this interview. [video clip] because she was supposed to soros left, supporter from the obama era, she is not a trumper. To my knowledge, the president fired here maybe even 4 times. He fired her in front of you . Correct. What happened . That was the first interaction about her. It was a private dinner for a inpac and in washy washington, d. C. At the trump hotel. The subject of ukraine was brought up and i told the our opinion that she said he was going to be impeached. You said that at the table . Correct. He looked at me like he got very angry and basically turned around and said fire her, get rid of her. T that was lezz Parnas Lev Parnas in his interview with Anderson Cooper. Yesterday, Chuck Schumer held a News Conference and here is his reaction to lev parnas interviews as well as the new gao report. [video clip] lev parnas, an associate of Rudy Giuliani, gave an astonishing interview on washington tell on television that implicated the president in a plot to remove the u. S. Ambassador and pressure ukrainian president zelenskiy into announcing investigations into one of the president s leading rivals and today, through the good work of chris van hollen, the gao found it was , illegal for President Trump to withhold military assistance from ukraine to pressure them to interfere in the 2020 elections. Both the revelations about mr. Parnas and the gao opinion strengthen our push for witnesses and documents in the trial. The gao opinion especially makes requesteddocuments we in our letter to leader mcconnell are even more needed now than when we requested it last month because President Trump simply put, broke the law. Every senator will get a chance to vote to obtain these documents next week. Host here is President Trump question reacting to a of whether or not he knew lev parnas. [video clip] what is your response to lev parnas who said your efforts in ukraine were all about 2020 . I dont know him. Other than i guess i have pictures taken, which i do with thousands of people. I dont know him at all, dont know what he is about, know nothing about him. This thing is a big hoax. This is the current hoax. We have gone through the russian witchhunt, we have gone through a lot of them from probably before i came down the escalator, but certainly since i came down the escalator, take a look at what has happened. It doesnt matter what he says, he is probably trying to make a deal. I dont even know who this man is other than i guess he attended fundraisers, so i take a question a picture with him. I take thousands and thousands of pictures with people all the time, thousands during the course of the year and often times i will be taking a picture with somebody and think i wonder what newspaper that will appear in. I dont know him, perhaps he is a fine man, perhaps he is not. I dont know him, i dont believe i have ever spoken to him. I meet thousands of people. Thousands and thousands of people as president. I take thousands of pictures and ifo it openly and gladly and i have a picture where i am standing with somebody at a fundraiser like i believe i saw a picture with this man i dont know him, i never had a conversation i remember with him. You just have to take a look at the polls. Quiet. You have to take a look at the pictures, take a look at the polls. I dont need anybodys help. The economy is the best it has ever been, we have never had an economy like this. Host the lawyer for lev parnas responded with a tweet and here is the i dont know him at all, dont know what he is about, know nothing about him guy and they release a video showing lev parnas standing next to the president at an event in december 2016 at maralago. That is from lev parnas attorney. Linda, you are next, independent caller. I am confident the senators will not impeach and lastgao thing, the president was charged seven times. All these people calling in no. Ing about trump in text, bill clinton in the white house was having sex, though. All these democrat politicians are nothing but hypocrites. What independent caller, do you think . Caller good morning, greta. Host morning. Caller i hope things are going well. Lets try to get back to the impeachment process. We have a familiar truth we can depend on with what is going on and that is that we are seeing the democrats as in the kavanaugh hearings are rushing in these people at the last minute with the help of the new msnbc and, cnn, and they are presenting all these parnas coming in and telling their story just like they presented the abba tti girls and all this lastminute testimony, if you would like to call it that. Getting back to the impeachment, we have two articles. The first is pure conjecture by adam schiff saying trump was trying to feather his bed for the 2020 election when, indeed, the memorandum of the conversation is very specific helphe was asking for discovering more about what was going on during the 2016 election. He was asking for an investigation of the bidens because of the corruption and because of people that were being brought around the new president that were not least,rily visibly, at contrary to the corruption going on. Is a of all, article 1 false accusation because he is in there to be tried for trying to feather his bed when he was only talking about the 2016 election. Even if it was for 2020, it does not reach the level for impeachment. Article 2 so he is not guilty there because they are charging him with the 2020 issue instead of the 2016. Article 2 is, of course, that he has his president ial authority a constitutional crisis between the presidency and the legislature. Of these people that are being talked about as witnesses schiff hadple that his opportunity to bring them in and he and pelosi decided not to go after the Supreme Court to get them to come in and settle the constitutional crisis between the two legislative bodies. Host pond burgess everett, a reporter on capitol hill tweeted yesterday Senate Minority leader Chuck Schumer says majority leader mcconnell has not shown anyone his organizing resolution. This is how the proceedings would occur. At this moment, we have not seen it, but a handful of republicans have and he says he expects him to force the witness votes on tuesday. Forcing votes on witnesses, that could occur on tuesday, when the proceedings begin at 1 00 p. M. Eastern time. Our coverage on cspan 2, gaveltogavel uninterrupted. Schumer wants to see the text first before specifying their next move. Cited the 19ll has 99 clinton impeachment rules as a precedent he would like to follow. What happened then was the impeachment managers and the clinton defense lawyers had 24 hours to make their case. Following that, the senators were allowed to ask questions for 16 hours. They had to do that through the chief justice and then there was a vote to dismiss. It was not dismissed, so then they voted to subpoena witnesses. Senators deliberated behind closed doors and took a final vote. Then there was 4 articles of impeachment. 2. S time around, there are we will see how it unfolds on tuesday, cspan 2. Host lets go to sharon in youngstown, ohio. Democratic caller. 2ller there really are americas. Trump is able to break the law over and over again, sell our country to russia and prevent witnesses from testifying. He has the attorney general in his pocket. I worked as a secretary for a district judge, poor section of the town in a cold state where my dad had been a Police Officer for 30 years. Witnesses who receive subpoenas are required to testify in the real world. Some witnesses would call our office, beg not to testify because their work they were fearful of retaliation. I was forced to tell these witnesses if they did not appear, a constable would pick these witnesses up and arrest them. Trump is able to ignore his subpoena, not provide any documents and shut the investigation down. I finally see the criminal Justice System for real people is a perpetuation of violence against the poor bank. I could not even understand how these poor people survived. Some would commit minor crimes and they would get warrants for not being able to pay, they could get thrown in jail, separated from their families. Carolina,olm in north democratic caller. Caller good morning. I have a quick comment. Trump is innocent as he claims to be, basically republican senators should not have a problem with the inclusion of witnesses and other materials. We live in a very interesting time. The president feels he is above is hypocrisy for a trial to be held and to not have witnesses. It makes no sense. That is my comment. Thank you. You back tobring yesterday after the house managers entered the Senate Chamber, the sergeant at arms came to the podium and had this to say. [video clip] all persons are commanded to keep silent on pain of imprisonment while the house of representatives is exhibiting articles of impeachment against Donald John Trump among president of the United States. Host do chatty senators really duringtime touring impeachment . That is the question roll call asks. That moment where you heard the sergeant at arms saying all any rowdy conduct will not send any senator to the clinker. Raucous behavior would be met by gaveling down by the presiding officer. If the senator objected, the officer would make a ruling the sergeant at arms would carry out if necessary. Decorum guidelines outline in rule 19 and allow the senator to make an appeal of the ruling. On paper, the rules appear straightforward, but no senate has been forced to imprison one of its members and they note there is no senate jail. Sheila in georgia, republican. Caller i wanted to ask, is there anyone on the democrat side since our president has any put in that gives him credit for anything they have been calling impeachment firm 8 thisthis gang of man is innocent. Some other rules for senators, no talking, no phones or any other electronic device. They must address john roberts as mr. Chief justice and when they vote, they must stand. They must also stand when he enters and exits the Senate Chamber. Rick in missouri. Caller how are you doing . Host morning. Caller i think he will get a fair trial, but i have a few questions. Withhold money from ukraine and brag about how he had an ambassador fired while he was Vice President . Issue. Another isnt the Democratic Party the one that founded the kkk . A few of the people were talking earlier about donald trump being racist. There are a lot of things they bring up that dont go back historically. Chris in springfield, democratic caller. I love your show, i love perspective, we have to have a trial in the most. Obust way we can i have been topsecret cleared for decades, the classification of things going on is very expressly not allowed to be wrongdoingscover up. The people of the American Country need to know enough detail to understand with clarity without disclosing sources and methods, that is all it comes down to. Cant he does have successes. There is going to be things he has done very well and things he has done not well. Ran over a pedestrian iran away, he still had a violation pedestrian ad ran away, he still had violation. All of that has to be clear and upfront. It seems evident the president makes a lot of quick gut decisions which a businessman would do. I just dont think he is very capable of understanding the laws that should be guiding his decisions. I see as a businessman where he would never want his tax returns out because even if there was nothing nefarious host lets stick to impeachment. You have seen the House Management managers, that is the Prosecution Team that will make arguments against President Trump. Who will defend him . According to the New York Times, pets up alone, the white house lawyer along with a private lawyer for the president and deputies. Michael perp aura michael as well as there is speculation the president could include or get advice from Alan Dershowitz on the defense team as well. There are some gop senators who have said they are open to voting for witnesses. They include lisa murkowski, susaney, and sulit collins of maine. Picture ind one more their fullscreen of gop senators and that was the senator of wyoming apparently open to witnesses. He is part of the Leadership Team with mr. Mcconnell. Ronald in North Carolina, good morning to you. Caller good morning. This anden watching the best i can take, the democrats are like they said, witchhunt, and messing with peoples heads trying to make them believe it. As a jury i sit and watch and i is as innocent as can be. Patricia in georgia, democratic caller. Impeached needs to be. These republicans talking all this stuff, they are not paying real good attention. If they want to live in a country of russia, move to russia because that is what is going to happen in the United States. Host what is your confidence level in the impeachment trial . Caller it is very low. Host why . Caller because the republicans are trump men. They are just as crooked as. Rump votersoing to take the to get him out. Host kevin in california, republican. Your turn. Caller good morning, greta. I am 100 confident in the senate and their ability to have a fair trial. Biastakes precedence over or anything like that. As far as witnesses are concerned, the reason i like the idea about witnesses is i dont think the American People should soconvinced it should be open and closed, both sides of the aisle do not have a question. If the witnesses give their decision about what the president might have meant, that not i worry about Michael Bloomberg and what he is capable of, but i dont think it will have an impact on the president and what he is capable of. Host we will go to kevin in california let me go to larry. Larry in georgia, democratic caller. Caller yes, greta. I am wanting to say a lot of people do not understand what it. Eans to be an american citizen a lot of people host larry, turn down the television. Caller yes. Through ahead and talk the phone, one last try. Caller i was saying the American People do not know what it means to be american citizens, they dont know what that power means. Host we will leave it there. A reminder to all of our viewers, when you call in, you have to turn down the television. Listen and talk through your phone. When we come back, henry olson discusses President Trumps Senate Impeachment trial and the potential impact on campaign 2020 and later on, all in together, lauren later discusses training womencs across the country for Civic Engagement. Q over the next two weeks on a, we are focusing on the New Hampshire primary and Iowa Caucuses. Mcquaidight, joseph talks about his states president ial primary history and the current state of politics in New Hampshire. New hampshire is always different. It appreciates being first and people turn out, it is one of the highest turnout states in primaries in the country. White and not representative of the country, with the exception of bloomberg, who has not cited that as a reason, why are all these other candidates coming to New Hampshire . Watched sunday night at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on cspans q a. Campaign 2020. Watch 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. For the third time in history, a president is on trial in the u. S. Senate. Watch live on tuesday at 1 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan two as the Senate Begins the trial with a bow on rules. The city impeachment trial of President Trump, live, unfiltered coverage on cspan two, on demand at cspan. Org impeachment and listen with the three cspan radio app. Washington journal continues. Is at oury olsen table. Lets begin with the new evidence revealed in the last week here, as well as the interviews and details that he is giving about his claim that the president , Vice President , attorney general and others knew about the directive from Rudy Giuliani to the ukrainian government. Guest i think that only makes him a witness of interest if the senate is going to call witnesses. I also think what we will have to do is rely on documents he provides, rather than what he says himself. As a person who is under indictment, he has a reason to find evidence that can implicate people higher up than him. Ultimately, it will be contemporaneous documents that assess whether or not he is telling the truth and to what degree he is telling the truth. Host what is your reaction to the evidence so far . The documents that have been released, and the remarks he has made in these interviews. Guest i think the real question is going to be, with respect to pens, attorney general barr, there are no impeachment proceedings against them. If the house chooses, they can launch impeachment proceedings against them as well. I doubt what he has added has added significant weight to what we know. Askedw the president ukraine to launch political investigations into his opponent. He is providing, at best, some weak collaboration from what we already know. Host do you believe the president was asking for an investigation into a political rebel for his own political gain . Do you think that rises to the level of impeachment . Guest i think it is clear he was doing that. I think it is an impeachable offense. The question is whether it is in the interest of the public to remove him in light of the political controversy we have had over the trump presidency. The question of what is good for the country as opposed to the trump,question of th personally. If the senate were to remove him, you would effectively enrage half of the country. That would cause irreparable damage to our democracy. Host if you dont remove him, what happens with the other half of the country. Guest the other half of the country, many of them have wanted to impeach him since before he was inaugurated, if you look at polls. 60 of democrats said they wanted to impeach him within two weeks of his inauguration. Havee he could of could committed an impeachable offense. We have a debate over whether he is fit for the job. That should be a political question the people should decide in november. Host do you think they should allow witnesses . Guest i think they should be evenhanded. It should not be a oneway trip. There should not be witnesses for the prosecution and no witnesses for the defense. It is not a criminal trial. This is ultimately a question of senators deciding what is good for the United States of america. That means that if the senate wants to, they should definitely and havee questions joe biden and hunter biden on what they weree doing. Have them on the same. Once the president in fact uncovering a case of public mistrust, misuse of public trust . That would be an appropriate use of president ial power or executive power. If the senate wants to investigate that, it is completely relevant to the charge and they should do so. Host what would hunter biden testify to . Guest we dont know. The question is, the reason that the president was asking, aside from personal and political reasons is if what was going on was a case of, as Vice President biden said, his sole surviving son, who we know as a troubled person, the Vice President of the United States, who is in charge of the policy of ukraine, was having conversations with his son about american policy, that is something that is relevant. The potential is not for actual public misuse of public trust, or a strong perception of that, that is something that needs to come out. That is relevant. Host lets get to the cause. Megan in glassboro, new jersey, republican. Caller how are you doing . Host good morning. Theer i just think that divide in this country is at an alltime high right now. The media is reaching for this one. There are so many red flags as far as the bidens. Hunter biden plus cousin, Phil Mccracken Hunter Bidens cousin, Phil Mccracken, is slicing baloney. Host all right. What do you think about the media role in all of this . Guest i think that the media has been trying to remove President Trump from office, almost since day one. There has been a large amount of animus and story selection and suspension of credibility or suspension of belief over allegations that would hurt the in trying to find out evidence that would support the president. That is one of the reasons you dont find a lot of these. Tories they dont believe the messenger, having seen the intentions of the messengers, straight up. Brad,in santa ana, texas, a republican. You are on air with henry olsen. Caller thank you for taking my call. On this impeachment, i think he will be acquitted really fast. Democrats are so delusional, i was listening to a lady from california. She was talking about, you know, the homeless in california. He drug epidemic in california and, you know, its her governor. It is the governor of california. Pelosi, going back to the impeachment. It all ties in. People whoe seven are going to be whatever. All from either new york, california, you know, all of these liberal states. They never liked the man. They come down the escalator. They were already starting to impeach him. Host bread, they are also from are alsobrad, they from texas, colorado and florida. Go ahead on your thoughts. Guest i think it is clear that there is a strong partisan animus to both the house vote and to a number of the comments by Democratic Senators. They have convicted trump since before anything came out. In that sense, i cannot blame them. 80 or more percent of their voters want the man out. To say there is not partisan animus is to deny. Host on both sides. Guest of course but it is not the republicans who are leading the prosecution. The prosecution is claiming disinterest when what we are really doing is seeing an extension of a fouryear political battle. Why i dont think he should be removed from office. It should be decided by the American People through elections in the absence of such oughtmisconduct that you not to ignore. This is a case where the president did something that is arguably impeachable but is not so gross that we should take the decisions out of the hands of the American People. Host with republicans controlling the senate, how should the majority leader, Mitch Mcconnell call, and the other republicans conduct themselves during these proceedings to preserve their legacy . Guest i think their legacy is going to be written by the people who win the ultimate popular decision. Which is to say, their legacy they should not be worried about legacy as it will be written by liberal historians who have decided what they want them to do, which is capitulate to what the democrats want. Jobink they are doing their by representing their voters and presenting their case. As far as preserving the legacy of concern, i think that is code word for capitulation and what they should be doing is what they are doing, which is representing, using their power to represent their side of the american popular debate and doing it in a way that is transparent for the American People to decide. Host terry, independent. Caller yes, i believe that this coming from the fear and desperation of the Democratic Party knowing that trump will be elected again. Ont think that is all this is about. Voting,o avoid the next which will be in his favor. I want you to know that the media has never even mentioned the great trade deal he made with china. That is disgraceful. That is important to the American People and they should know it. That is how the democrats do. Host we talked about it a couple of times this week with members of congress who signed that deal and the senate, yesterday approving the u. S. Mexicocanada trade deal as well. This, youu make of can respond to her but also this legislation that is happening while they are doing impeachments. Guest three points. One is that cspan has done a fabulous job of providing information to the American People. Lumps cspananyone lumping cspan with the media is doing a disservice. Written how money policy successes the president has had and how little they are talked about. It is not that they are not mentioned. They are mentioned below the fold or in passing. Think that is a real problem i think that people are beginning to notice that. Hey, there is actual things that are going on that affect my life. Instead, we are basically engaged in the political version of a so proper. The third question is, i am supportive of the usmca. I think that is a wonderful tong the president has done update a 25yearold trade agreement. I think the china deal is a truce in an ongoing trade war. It is not in americas interest to have a return to the pretrump chinese relationship that was providing american money and intellectual property to a techno italian state that is building a military to influence its democratic neighbors and challenge our preeminence. We need to disengage from china. If this truce leads to a capitulation from the next president , i think my children will rue the day that decision was made. Burke, virginia, alexander. Good morning. Caller thank you for cspan for taking my call. Couple of things i would like to say. Firstly, i am disappointed in cspan for having such an intellectually dishonest guest on. He has misrepresented Donald Trumps support, left and right on this show this morning. He did not even want trump until i will explain. Untilp did not want trump it was too late in the primaries and they had burned through all of their candidates. They had 15 or 16 candidates if i remember correctly. Most people dont vote in america trade out of those who voted, you know, less people voted for donald trump than for Hillary Clinton. Anda very small minority vocal minority have hijacked our government. That is why we saw democrats win in 2018. That is why we will see them win in 2020. Onto the impeachment trial, i hope everyone has taken a look at the documents that were released to the house intelligence committee, regarding the surveillance fund of jovanovich. It is something out of a dystopian monster movie. That people in government think that it is fine to be communicating with lev parnas. Of every major gop player, including Kevin Mccarthy, who is very adamant about not knowing who lev parnas is. Interested in seeing him come before the senate and lay out all of his goods that he has. In one of the pictures with Kevin Mccarthy, you can see that lev parnas is wearing a microphone and a wire up his sleeve. What he has to see for us. Host got it. Olsen, i will have your response. Guest pictures dont prove people know people. I met Prime Minister johnson. I have a picture with Prime Minister johnson. He doesnt remember that he took a picture with me at a private party for over 30 seconds. Anyone who is in politics knows what that means. Secondly, donald trump is supported by 80 to 90 of Republican Voters. His job Approval Rating is 45 . He has millions of people who support him. The claim that that is not the case is simply not true. Even in the primaries, he won a clear plurality of votes. When it was oneonone, he was winning majorities of votes. Republicans who picked other candidates decided they would support donald trump. He may well lose the reelection. You say the odds are with the democratic challenger. It is simply denying reality to say that there are not about 50 to 80 Million People in the United States who strongly support the president. Virginia, karen, democratic call i. Caller listen host democratic caller. Caller if you dont believe pictures, you dont believe tax. And bred out of donald trump and his behavior when he came into office and where he is now. At the end of the day, i dont care how much you want to spin it, there is dysfunction in the white house. There is turnover like we have never seen in american history. Not to mention, his refusal, or to obstruction for witnesses appear. If you think that is a model of standard for someone that i want to see represent my country, you have another think coming. One last thing about joe bidens son. At the end of the day, i cant stand it when people talk about talks son when they dont about ivanka trump and jared kushner, representing American Companies with no experience. I can appreciate your support for trump. Dont be twosided or twofaced. Call it like it is. If thats your boy, thats your boy. Dont misunderstand that there is a tremendous amount of people could have supported donald trump. All of this nonsense with iran, this nonsense with syria, im running out of phrases. Host i will have mr. Olson respond. Guest i do call it like i see it. I am one of the few who praises and criticizes trump. My hate mail alternates between republicans and mccright to think i am a blooming idiots. The debate has been going on for four years. Who think i ams a blooming idiot. The debate has been going on for four years. Under the Electoral College yet the majority of votes in the Electoral College. That is a debate for the American People to have. That is why i dont support removing him even though there have been legitimate concerns and indictments. I think he did do something very wrong with the call to the president of ukraine. With what we have seen with respect to the callers, i think the American People should make that decision, not senators who are under pressure from the intellectual lead from the capital. Colorado springsd come republican. , thank you olsen for what you do. I know youre taking criticism. Lady, if they will look at one american news. Com, it will explain everything about hunter biden and other things that went back to 2014. It is a threepart investigation and it had been turned over to william barr and the department of justice. They are looking into it. It explains what popped up lately and the other things that were going on with hunter biden. It is document it with witnesses , and paperwork. It is legit. Exactly whatlain trump was talking about to the leader of ukraine. The treaty that bill clinton signed gives lots of leeway to the ukrainian leader and President Trump when they cooperate with each other to flush out crime and crimes that are going on and other incidents, whether it is this year or back to 2014, during the previous administration. Lastly, if she wants to look that up, she will get a lot of answers that she criticized you for. Pictures, documents, whatever she wants. Thanks again for cspan. I am sorry you had to deal with that caller from ohio who was rude to the congressman to nebraska. Have a great day. I think that, with respect to the bidens, there has not been a clear legal investigation of what is going on. We will find out whether or not the attorney general or the prosecutors believed that there was enough evidence to levy an indictment. I think it is a political matter. There is no question about what went on that if the senate wants to hear from witnesses like lev parnas, they should want to hear from witnesses that would assess whether or not, under oath, the bidens or some of their associates will explain what conversations took place between them that may or may not have influenced the Vice President s decision with respect to the United States policy in ukraine. It is as valid of a line of inquiry as any other line of inquiry that is being advanced by the senate democrats. Host what would that prove . How would that prove the president s argument that he was only concerned about corruption . Guest the essential question that the democrats are saying is was the president s motive impure. And that, he was coming in to try and manufacture or unveil dirt against a political opponent. He was using a Public Office for private gain. If in fact there was a public wrong being done in a previous administration, that would demonstrate that there was a of violating the law or a misuse of public policy. There would be a Public Interest in uncovering it. So, i think that it is worth finding out what was actually done and actually said. We all know that stories can change when there are legal penalties attached to it. Right now, anyone associated with the bidens can save what they want to the media. No legal consequence to misleading the media. There is a legal consequence to misleading congress. Host the New York Times Editorial Board defends the speakers decision to speakers decision to hold on to the articles of impeachment. The United States and bester was surveilled and possibly targeted or harmed by people directly connected to trump aids. The ukrainian gas company, central, President Trump personally directed a scheme to collect dirt on joe biden. The president ordered it, even though it broke the law by withholding the aid. At least one trump aid is willing to testify. Her say that legitimizes reason to hold on to the articles of impeachment. Guest i said that from a political standpoint, she was wise to do that. It managed interparty tensions. Most of the claims are facts. Wrote in a report that says they believe the law was broken. That does not prove the law was broken. It is the opinion of the authors. Lawe want to claim that the is broken, lets go before a trial and actually assess whether or not a law was broken. By that logic, she should continue to hold on to the articles forever and other evidence that goes unchallenged before any other body comes out theprovide no republican ability to argue to the contrary. Susan collins is right. The house retched to judgment. Rushed to judgment. Whatold enough to remember took place over months of painstaking hearing as opposed the house put together to get an indictment pushed out the door. I think that they would be standing on much stronger ground if they had followed the longgate example and had a , thorough investigation as opposed to what we saw on the house floor in october and november. Host arthur in san diego, democratic caller. Caller it is early here so please excuse me. I did not catch the first of the program. I may be wrong. Did cspan mention the policy and Ethics Center or ethics and like acenter is religious organization . If they did, Saint Augustine itht say what is the base of . One can almost see im sorry. I forgot his name. Host henry olsen. s approach would be conservative and supportive of the president and not really unbiased and fair. I know it says ethics and policy. It might be more opinion than policy. Host we will have him explain. Guest it is a think tank like hundreds of others. It supports the application of Judeo Christian policies. Host is a conservative . Guest yes. It is more conservative. Most of our scholars are vociferously opposed to President Trump. Pete has written countless columns and books criticizing President Trump. Consequently, to say we are conservative, therefore we have a party line and are opposed or ,upportive of President Trump people disagree. More of our scholars disagree intensely. I am on the fence. I say things good or bad. Try and shoehorn , all you have to do is read what i write. Host who gathered you together and who funds the effort . By ed we are hired whelan, the president. We have a complete free reign. Nobody asks us to write anything. None of us clears anything we write with anybody beforehand. We are funded by contributions just like every other c3 in town is funded by contributions from foundations. Quincy,om massachusetts, joe, democratic caller. Caller good morning greta, good morning mr. Olsen. When he says am successful impeachment is probably going to split this country. Host joe, can you say that last part over . You broke up. Caller ok. I believe that if the impeachment is successful, it will split this country in ways that probably is not imaginable, given the way things are already. I also believe that President Trump is doing a pretty good job with the economy. He has negotiated a lot of great deals. I got to know a lot of republicans from watching the hearings and there were a lot of incredibly intelligent and dedicated republicans that i would vote for them in a heartbeat if they were to run for office. I dont think this impeachment is an impeachment on the Republican Party. I dont see trump as a true republican. He is doing his own thing. He was a democrat, historically and he moved to republican. Not supportive of republicans when he was running. Now, he is being supported by republicans because if they say anything against them, he holds a rally in their state and makes sure they will not get reelected into the congress. It is like he is holding his party ransom. He is doing some good things. What i would like to see is, lets bring forth all of the witnesses into this congressional investigation. I think, even the bidens if they need to come in. Bring in everybody and lets let america look at all of the facts and have congress on both sides decide based on real evidence and real documents. Host ok. Guest that may very well be something that we see. A number of republican senators are open to witnesses being called. There have to be witnesses from both sides. There will be reciprocity. Democrats want to call certain witnesses, the president s lawyers get to call certain witnesses of their choosing. That would be fair and let the American People decide on the basis of facts. The thing is, we dont know what witnesses might say. Democrats assume john bolton will be a witness for the prosecution. As we learn from robert mueller, expectations sometimes dont come out. He demonstrated himself unfamiliar with the contents of his own report. Be careful what you wish for. It may not be what you wish for. Host in florida, sean, independent. Caller good morning. I have two things. First, these republicans and , it is the constitution that war. Bleeds in that war. Republicans who are notoriously simple about history, as you actuallyonald trump, i understand what President Trump is doing. Ego, number one. That trumps Everything Else. Racist, iave been a dont know. Probably. Bigot,e be a sexist or a i dont know. Probably. The thing is that his ego trumps that. Once he became president , i think he just ran to make money. Once he became president , his ego got to where he is like im going to try to be the best president i can be. Thates things in a way will try to get that done. The problem is you have to look at his history. Trump was known as the kickback king. Knowne who could be as the kickback king and has been sued for misrepresentation, someone who has filed bankruptcy all of those times, he has a way about how he does things. Now he becomes president , he tells you, the phone call was perfect. Who talks like that . For you to say the phone call was perfect, you had to in your mind make it perfect. Guest i think that president self has a strong personal regard and it has been on for 40 for the people years. That is why he has polarizing views. You either love that or you hate him. There are few people who are ambivalent. Kansas,ane in republican, what do you think . Caller i have a question and a couple of comments. Releases opinion that the white house violated the impoundment control act by withholding the congressionally appropriated aid. Fistful that the fiscal year ends in october for the government. Is there a time that President Trump had to appropriate this money . Released before the end of the fiscal year. That is one point. The second point is, i am reading in a couple of paces places, none of them are in the m media, that the same gao found the obama violated then law seven different times. Is there some sort of action that was ever taken in regard to any of those violations . Host let me jump in. Notedng, there wa it was that there is no penalty with the gao ruling. I think that is what you are getting at. They dont have any way to prosecute. Guest they dont. They are not a legal authority. They are an oversight accounting board that is within the United States government to try and ensure things are done efficiently. Host george in hudson, florida, republican. Caller how are you doing, greta . Host good morning. Caller it is a wonderful thing to see some good things come out of that mans mouth. You know what . I have been sitting and i have been trying to tread water in the sea of stupidity. I cant believe what some of these people are saying. These democrats are just losing their minds against trump. He has been the greatest , i dont know, probably the greatest president ever. He has done so much more for this country than obama, clinton, either one of the bushes and we have to impeach him. . It does not make any sense to me. The foreign minister of ukraine of asked Prime Minister ukraine was asked a question. T was on a cnn exclusive question about havearnas and he said, i not spoken with lev parnas. Again, frankly, i dont trust any word he is saying. What is going on with lev parnas . Can he be called . If he can, why dont they send these impeachment papers back to and have back to nancy them finish up their impeachment proceedings . They have got nothing to go on. Host ok. Guest certainly mr. Parnas could be someone who could be subpoenaed if that is something that a majority of the senators vote on. House, iect to the said earlier, i think they should have been more deliberate as opposed to the rush for judgment that we saw. Thee is nothing that stops house from restarting an impeachment investigation if the senate vote know on these articles. This is not a criminal trial. Double jeopardy does not apply. The house can investigate over and over and over again and send articles to the senate, no matter how may times the senate chooses not to do it. They have it within their power to restart an investigation. Who knows . Maybe they will. Host henry olsen, senior fellow and opinion columnist for the Washington Post. Thank you for your time. Guest thank you. Host we will take a break. When we come back, we return to the question we asked earlier, your confidence in the Senate Impeachment trial. All in together, lauren leader will discuss women in politics traingroups effort to across the country for Civic Engagement. We are asking students to tell us the issues they want the president ial candidates to address in the 2020 campaign. Fo the january 20 deadline approaching, students are putting the final touches on the entries. We are awarding 100,000 in total cash prizes and a 5,000 grand prize. For more information, go to studentcam. Org. The house will be in order. Has been years, cspan providing america unfiltered congress, the white house, the Supreme Court and policy from washington, d. C. And the country so you can make up your own mind. Created by cable in 1979, cspan is brought to you by your local cable or satellite provider. Cspan, your unfiltered view of government. Washington journal continues. Host your confidence level in the Senate Impeachment trials. Yesterday, we saw the beginning of this proceeding with the chief justice, john roberts making his way from the Supreme Court into the Senate Chamber to be sworn in after house impeachment managers laid out the articles of impeachment against President Trump and the chief justice promptly swore in all 100 senators. Tuesday is when the proceedings get underway in earnest after majority leader him, has said that at 1 00 p. M. Eastern time, they will vote on the rules that will guide the Senate Proceedings over the coming weeks. The trials will start every day at 1 00 p. M. Eastern time. We are learning in the papers this morning, lets begin the conversation with adam schiff, the leader of the house manager and Prosecution Team. He laid out the argument against President Trump. [video clip] in the history of the republic, no president has ever ordered the complete defiance of an impeachment inquiry or sought to obstruct and impede so comprehensively the ability of the house of representatives to investigate high crimes and misdemeanors. This abuse of office serve to cover up the president s own repeated misconduct and control the power of impeachment. And thus to nullify a constitutional safeguard, rested solely in the house of representatives. In all of this, President Trump acted in a manner contrary to his trust as president and subversive of Constitutional Government to the great prejudice of the cause of law and justice and to the manifest injury of the people of the United States. Trump, by preston such conduct, has demonstrated that he will remain a threat President Trump has demonstrated he will remain a threat to the constitution if he remains in office. President trump thus warrants impeachment and trial, removal from office, and disqualification to hold and enjoy any office of honor, trust or profit under the United States. Host it is your turn to weigh in on this. What do you think . What is your confidence level in the senate trial, tam in wisconsin, tim in democratic line. Caller i have confidence. Each one of these senators took an oath to the constitution. If they believe in the constitution and believe they are impartial jurors, and when they listen to evidence that is presented, there will be enough of them that will have to do what is right. As far as the information, what they get to choose on, the documents that the president is hiding, the documents plus the people with firsthand knowledge. Remember in the clinton impeachment, he did not get impeached for what he did, he got impeached for the law and the cover lie and the coverup. The people in the clinton trial with firsthand knowledge had spoken before the impeachment hearings went on. The reason the democrats did not do that was because they were just going to go into a long litigation that could have taken years. While this president would still reelected. To get i think there will be some Democratic Senators that get on just like a real trial, it is a real trial. Host do you mean republican senators . Caller yes, the republican senators. They are beginning to. Trumps boat is on fire. Sooner or later, when a boat is on fire, people start jumping ship. I think that time is coming. Host we have shown you over the past couple of days, there are four gop senators who have expressed a willingness to call witnesses. Ofy include mr. Mccluskey alaska. Lamar alexander of tennessee. Mitt romney of utah and Susan Collins of maine. Cnn added another senator to that list. John barrasso of wyoming, who is part of the republican Leadership Team. Senate majority leader Mitch Mcconnell has signed on to a resolution to dismiss this trial , these charges against the president. If they follow the 1999 clinton impeachment rules, a vote to dismiss could come after opening arguments and questions from senators. In 1999, when they did not dismiss after that vote, then they voted on the subpoena and witnesses. They were able to see evidence. And then they voted. We are hearing that senate democrats, when the rules are ,oted on on tuesday afternoon could force votes on witnesses as early as tuesday afternoon. Our coverage of all that on cspan two, starting at 1 00 p. M. Eastern time on tuesday. Olivia in virginia, republican caller, you are next. Caller thank you for taking my call. I want to say that i dont have confidence that the trial will be fair. I think that from the very beginning, the demonization of this president has been breathtaking. The republicans have never been on this prestons side. President s side, that is why 40 congresspeople retired so that the democrats could take the house. They knew the democrats promised that they would impeach him. They are all in on this because there is a lot of crime going on in with our government. Donald trump is uncovering this. I want to say that people keep talking about he did not win the popular vote. Donald trump 130 states. Hillary clinton 120 states. 30 way the electoral won states. Hillary clinton won 20 states. That is the way the Electoral College works. It is sorry to see that nancy pelosi, after all of her years of good work, it is going down the drain because she has become cricket and is going along with it. It but a lotntee of congresspeople, have ,ad their children boyfriends, husbands and wives taken advantage of. They are using foreign aid to take care of their kids and husbands and wives and girlfriends and boyfriends. Donald trump is uncovering that. That was what was happening in ukraine. Next inwill go to sarah california and an independent. Caller thank you for taking my call. I am inhts are, optimistic realists. Host ok. Caller i would say it is lower facti like, based on the of what i have seen in recent , there is a continuing shift in the Republican Party over the last three years that i have seen. Threats from the executive , thatstration to senators you either are with me or against me. That has been increasingly divisive. It puts senators in a spot where they have to choose this person over principles. This is a political process. Just like in the case of clinton , a party is looking for any reason to impeach their opponent. Questionsk to the two , the impeachable question, the first one is did he do something wrong . With ukraine . , whyu did, or if he didnt would he have anything to high . He would say i dont have anything to hide, put me on trial, no big deal. When you are defending yourself or trying to defend yourself against something you did not do suspicion. Causes i think the obstruction of congress is what we need to look at. Host ok. , saidmcconnell, yesterday on the floor and made the argument that this is political, led by the speaker of the house. [video clip] it took four weeks but the Democratic House of representatives is finally ready to defend their impeachment of the president of the United States. After weeks of delay. The speaker of the house decided yesterday that a trial could finally go forward. She signed the impeachment papers. Table withlace, at a a political slogan stuck onto it. They posed afterwards for smiling photos and the speaker distributed souvenir pens. Souvenir pens. Emblazonedcolleagues with her golden signature, that literally came in on silver platters. The pens literally came in on silver platters. Golden pens on solar platters. Silver platters. A souvenir to celebrate the moment. Now, i seem to remember democrats falling over themselves to say they did not see impeachment as a longsought political win. House democrats said over and over that they recognize the gravity and the seriousness of this action. Tocourse, they had only come it, reluctantly. Nothing says seriousness and sobriety like handing out souvenirs. As though this were a happy bill signing, instead of the greatest our constitution. Neatly putsisplay this partisan process into one perfect visual. It was transparently partisan performance from beginning to end. Throughwhy they sped this inquiry in 12 weeks, when previous president ial impeachments came after months, if not years of investigations and hearings. Host the Senate Majority leader on the floor. We are gauging your competence level in the senate trial, which gets underway on tuesday at 1 00 p. M. Eastern time with a vote on the rules for the proceedings as well as opening arguments is what we understand. Senator chris murphy has decided to keep a diary on twitter, every day. Yesterday, he tweeted out that every day is a trial. I am going to put a threat and Facebook Post giving a read on the days events and some behind the scene vignettes to make sure the trial is as transparent as possible. He writes the bible in the senate was fundamentally different than any other day. You could hear a pin drop when they walked into the chamber. I sat next to senator warren. We agreed that the overwhelming emotion was sadness. He goes on to write after adam huddled,ad, democrats noting how lucky they are to hiff shift reading sc leading the trial. , as a surprise, we were requested to sign our names. One of my colleagues showed me he is notes his notes where he kept track of how many senators are lefthanded. There was less conversation between republican and democrat senators. You need four votes to assure a fair trial. That can only happen if we are talking to each other. Starting the trial on the day where major news continues to break, this is an unfolding scandal. All of the evidence tells one story. The president committed an intolerable act of corruption, one that cannot stand in a democracy. Connecticut, senator chris murphy with his thoughts. We are getting yours this morning. In trenton new jersey, a democratic caller. Morning. Caller good morning. Call. You for taking my good morning, america. I have very little confidence that Mitch Mcconnell will conduct a fair trial. He has made it clear he is in the tank for the president. He is going to take every opportunity to dismiss this case as soon as possible. He realizes that the president is guilty. It this trial is handled like a trial, with witnesses under oath, it looks bad for the president. I am listening to republican callers, talking about the house that has had witnesses, totally ignoring the fact that the president himself obstructed congress and would not allow them to testify in the house. The other thing that i hear that is astonishing to me, almost universally, i hear republicans talk about all of the great things this president has done. All i can see is what he has destroyed. Credit for the economy. Remember, the economy was losing 650,000 jobs a month under the republicans and when barack obama took office, he rescued this economy. He save the jobs and the banking industry. Housing markets and stabilized the economy. Brought the unemployment down to 4 . Under donald trump, it moved down 1 and he thinks he has created a miracle. This man was born on third base and thinks he hit a triple. These great trade deals he has, i dont see it. It is nasa nafta 2. 0. They have added a couple of other provisions but it is basically the same thing. Host we heard your point. Daniel in philadelphia, independent. Caller i have been listening to callers call in for the past few days, stating that he is guilty, he is guilty, he is guilty. When you examine the facts of what the democrats have charged and what the witnesses have stated, it is all opinion. Lets examine the actual two charges. Host i dont know what happened to you. Apologies. Hopefully you can call back in again. Gloria, rock island, illinois, democratic caller. Caller hi, can you hear me . Host yes, we can. Listeningjust started this morning. I am a citizen of the United States. I am a democrat. That when they speak on the white house senators as far as being republican and democrat, when they do their votes, they stick to each other. President trump, he is my president. I am a democrat. But, it is sad when i listen to him and he states that republicans he always says the democrats are not this or not that. I am a citizen of the United States and he is my president. I hope he gets a fair trial. I dont know if he is guilty or not guilty. I am a democrat and i am hoping that the president of the United States will be a president of the democrats too. Host ok. Presiding over the senate trial will be the chief justice. Senators are required to refer to him as mr. Chief justice. They are required to stand when he enters and exits the chamber, according to papers this morning. , doesnt the says Supreme Court need its leader . John roberts will have a tight but manageable schedule. The trial will not start until 1 00 p. M. , daily. The Supreme Court is across the street from the capital. Here is the moment, yesterday, when he was sworn in by senator Chuck Presley Chuck Grassley. Senators, i attend the senate in conformity with your notice. I am now prepared to take the oath. Will you place your left hand on the bible and raise your right hand . Do you solemnly swear that in all things pertaining to the impeachment and trial of Donald John Trump, president of the unite states now pending, you will do impartial justice according to the constitutions and the loss, so help you god . I do. Thank you very much. Host senator Chuck Grassley saying god bless you to the Supreme Court justice as he takes over in the senate trial. He will be back, tuesday afternoon, 1 00 p. M. Eastern time, when the trial begins. We will have coverage on cspan2 or cspan. Org. You can listen if youre out and about on the free cspan radio app. You have to download it on your mobile device. The Washington Post this morning notes that chief justice john rehnquistrved as a law clerk to back in the 1980s. William rehnquist was the chief justice during the 1999 clinton impeachment. At the conclusion of the fiveweek proceedings, senators were so appreciative of his low profile performance that he was presented with a golden gavel, awarded by Senate Tradition for those who have presided over the body for 100 hours. The Vice President is writing in the opinion pages of the wall street journal about former senator edmund rose from kansas during Andrew Johnsons impeachment trial. He writes that edmund rose showed a profile in courage written by former president kennedy. He was featured in kennedys book. He writes, the Vice President , time on pressure at the senator ross was almost unbearable. Must later described it, i look down into my almost looked down into my open grave. Fortune,ps, position, almost everything swept away by the breath of my mouth, perhaps forever. He voted to acquit johnson. He faced physical assault. Still, he knew he was right. This was from the Vice President. To give congress such power over president ial appointments would have revolutionized our fabric into a partisan congressional autocracy. He was vindicated in 1887 when congress repealed the tenure of office act. Island. Rom rock hello. Your confidence level in this senate trial . Caller i am without words right now. We are facing some really sad to gofor our president through an impeachment. Host you have got to turn down that television. That is what is causing confusion. Priscilla in california, republican. Caller thank you, greta. It is good to hear from all americans and how they feel. I want to shout out to olivia because she had some good things to say. , my i watched yesterday stomach just fell, just a bad feeling in my stomach. My heart hurt just to see whats going on. I have been called to jury duty before. If i went on the case, and i have already warmed an opinion, formed an opinion, i would tell them i could not be partial, and it is the truth. I know that a lot of these senators even though they say they can be impartial, they cannot. The thing that is bothering me that is hurting our country is i believe a lot has been uncovered , the corruption that is going on in our country, and i believe President Trump has opened that upfor us to see that for us to see. We should know when we are giving our taxpayer dollars to a foreign country that is known to be corrupt that the people get the money. It could be helping our homeless. We have thousands of people that are homeless here in america. It is good that he wanted to make sure everything is ok. I dont believe that he was trying to help himself and get dirt on joe biden. He just wanted to get to the corruption. Bresnahan, who is a capitol hill reporter, yesterday talked to senator sanders, who will be one of the jurors, on whether he is concerned the impeachment trial will hurt his campaign. Yes, i am, i would rather be in but, New Hampshire, nevada, i swore a constitutional oath as a u. S. Senator to do my job. Joe biden, pete buttigieg, senator amy klobuchar, elizabeth ward at the iowa educators conference on our website. You can watch with the free cspan radio app. Happening this weekend on sunday, a money and Politics Forum will be taking place with mayor pete buttigieg, deval patrick, amy klobuchar, and Elizabeth Warren. We will have live coverage of that on cspan and cspan. Org. Bob from indiana, independent. Caller hi, thank you. I would like to ask a simple question. What is treason . They are talking about treason, bribery, high crimes, and misdemeanors. ,fter swearing to be impartial i saw a conference where the Democratic Party is asking for certain parts of the trial to be already dictated. They are asking for witnesses. I have never heard of a jury asking for that first. Everything that will finally be exposed in this trial, which could not have been done earlier , Everything Else has been redacted. This will be open. Everybody will be able to see it. Beont think you can impartial if you are already asking for how the trial will be run when nothing has been presented to you. Jurors never ask, can we bring this in. I dont see how you can be impartial with the jury starting off doing that. It has been very partisan in the house to get here and already asking for how things are going to run without it even having started. Host we are going to learn how things are going to run on tuesday when the Senate Majority leader, Mitch Mcconnell, will put forth the rules for governing the senate procedure. That is taking place around 1 00 p. M. Eastern on cspan2. Betty from kansas, democratic caller, you are next. Caller i have no confidence in this trial. Host because . Caller i have no confidence. Host why . Caller because i just heard Mitch Mcconnell. Host and . Caller that proves it. Host how . Caller because of what he said about nancy pelosi. Host ok. This weekend, our cspan cities tour explores the literary and hill,y life of chapel North Carolina. Here is the mayor discussing chapel hills relationship with unc. [video clip] we are the third point of the Research Triangle area. We are known for being a progressive town. We used to be called the blue bubble in the big red sea. Youre seeing her other universities and bigger towns becoming more progressive. Chapel hill is known as the home of the university of North Carolina. Biggestg that is the that we are doing right now is around entrepreneurship and start up energy. There has been over 600 spinoff of these coming from the university that we want to capture and nurture and grow. We have formed a partnership between the county, the town, and the university where we have an Incubator Program to help those Companies Find a path forward and become successful. We work with them as they grow. We want them to find places to be and resources to connect them and help them be successful. Host make sure to tune in this weekend as we travel to chapel hill, North Carolina and watch video from chapel hill and other cities we have visited on our cspan cities tour. We are back with our conversation with you about confidence in the senate trial. Tom from florida, democratic caller. Caller hi. Good morning. Thank you for taking my call. Veryrevious caller was short and saying no confidence, mcconnell, because mcconnell is acting like a politician. When you cannot Say Something good about yourself, you have to Say Something bad about the opposite party. Has nothing to do with the impeachment. The impeachment has to do with how this president behaved. Senate with in the impartial witnesses from the ,epublican party, ambassadors and to say that there was no proof, no. Im afraid that is the recent i have no confidence reason i have no confidence. The previous guest of the washington journal, who was supposed to be somebody of some sort of a nonprofit organization, i dont see anything ethical about him because he never found one thing wrong with President Trump. Even three senators previous to called this president and moral. Immoral. Now he is their hero. John, texas, republican. Your confidence level . Caller it is pretty high. Thank you for taking my call. It is pretty high. I am retired. I got to watch a bunch of that charade over in the house, one side deal. Im glad i was not on trial. Here in the senate we are going trial,a relatively good and i hope the outcome is that trump is vindicated. That pretty close in the future we will have another impeachment and another impeachment. I can see that. I can see that until i am 80. Host joey, independent. Caller good morning, greta. Thank you so much for taking my call. I appreciate this. I have high confidence. As an independent, i base that thatdence on something transcends what has been discussed previously. Becauseigh confidence of the First Amendment, that we have a right communicate. It is a privilege to speak to you. I want to speak to a couple of things, to sister betty in texas, who has no confidence. I want to say that we have to base our confidence on something other than what we see before us. Because ourdence exquisite sister leader of the house, which is the house of the people, is peripheral. She is praying. We can look at leaders and assess them based on one of the brothers from lord of who called earlier, speaking to the egotism issus humility, and the ego the impetus we have before us. Egotism, you style are not going to be serving the people. You are looking out for yourself to the issue of love and hate, this is all written in the new testament in chapter five. Jesus spoke about an eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth your if you subscribe for that primitive way of thinking, that teaching ofhe jesus. Jesus said to love your enemies, to bless those who curse you and to do good to those who hate you and pray for those who spitefully use you. Summarize, what we learn also from the scriptures is not rejoice in iniquity but rejoice in truth. Host next week when the senate trial gets underway on tuesday, our coverage on cspan two, the senators will have to remain silent. They were reminded of that at the beginning of yesterdays proceedings by the sergeant at arms. [video clip] all persons are commanded to keep silent on pain of imprisonment while the house of representatives is exhibiting to the senate of the United States articles of impeachment against Donald John Trump, president of the United States. Host rollcall asked this morning, do charity senators really face jail time during impeachment . Armsthe sergeant at said that all persons are on paind to keep silent of imprisonment, it might have been overblown. Rocks behavior would be first met by gaveling down by the presiding officer, chief justice john roberts, and then he will ask the senator to take a seat, theif the senator objected, presiding officer would make a ruling that the sergeant at arms would carry out. There is no senate jail. Jim. Caller thank you. That last caller talked about jesus. This is not religion. This is government. Jesus said turned the other cheek. Lets talk about government. The way to fight your opponent, the way Congress Writes an opposing president is to block his legislation, not to use the littleknown statute that lets avoid basic fairness and decency. This is a sham. Meanwhile while they are doing , donald trump is taking care of business. I did not vote for donald trump, but he has gotten more done than any democrat. I cannot think of anything the democrats have gotten done in three years. I did not vote for him. On going to change my affiliation, and i will vote for trump this time. Says robert from michigan in a text message, i will be confident in this impeachment process if they call witnesses. I would like it spread out in front of the American Public as much as possible. We will take your Text Messages if you text us at 202 7488003 with your first name, city, and state. Florida, republican. Caller good morning, greta. Host good morning. Caller you asked if i have any confidence in the trial coming up. I did have much confidence last watching themr taking the oath, it was very somber. Them, andt it reaches they do what is right. Thing that there is one that if republicans want to go against Mitch Mcconnell, the one really good part is that ,hatever they vote at the end they will not have to put up with Donald Trumps harassment afterwards in which anybody who speaks against donald trump will have to do. You have the Congress People in, and you hear them ad nauseam. Earlier today, someone talked foundthe gao, how they what the president did was illegal. Someone mentioned that when you bring it to trial now, and it has gone to the jury, there is no way you can add that evidence. Realize,le need to hopefully this will make it easier to understand. I feel like what we went through already in the congress is like a grand jury. We get the information. They put it together enough to indicate. The indictment in this case was impeachment. He has been impeached. There is not taking them back. Now it is going to trial. Gao is new evidence. Discovery should always be open during the trial. Even if new evidence comes at. He end, it is usually allowed seeing that this came from a governmental office, i dont see why it would not be. In case of the whistleblower, i heard somebody will say we will have the whistleblower called in. I look at that in a different way. Like there is a lot of crime out there in the world. Crimefighters trying to find evidence on cases that are open. Im sure that a lot of people out there listening are probably crime victims. If it came from an anonymous source but took them to an answer that was able to give them the closure that they needed, i bet that they would not care who the person was that gave the information as long as the information was checked and correct. Host i have to leave it there so i can get to linda in utah, independent. Caller good morning. My confidence level in this impeachment trial is very low. Said. What Mitch Mcconnell im sorry for the people that think this president has not done so much damage and is dangerous with iran and Everything Else going on. I hope the senators take a look. Im not holding my breath that they will. I dont know where we go from exonerated from this because he has been impeached, and the more evidence that comes in. I feel it is dangerous in our country right now. From westat militias virginia were out yesterday and ready to storm the white house for this impeachment trial. It gets scary. Even in my own neighborhood it is scary. Host the proceedings will get underway at 1 00 p. M. Eastern time on cspan2. Our coverage of the house will continue next week when they are in session. Is where we give you gavel to gavel coverage of the senate. You can watch at 1 00 p. M. Eastern time on tuesday. We have been to turn our attention to the back and forth between senator warren and senator sanders earlier this week over whether or not a woman can be president. We will talk about women in politics with lauren leader, the ceo of all in together. The impeachment of President Trump. Watch unfiltered coverage on cspan two. Follow the process on demand at cspan. Org and listen on the go using the free cspan radio app. Over the next two weeks on q a, we are focusing on the New Hampshire president ial primary and the Iowa Caucuses. Time newght, long Hampshire Union leader publisher talks about his states residential primary history and the current state of politics in New Hampshire. New hampshire is always different. Beingk it appreciates first, and people turn out. Turnoute of the highest states, at least in primaries, in the country. If it was too white and not representative of the country, then with the exception of bloomberg, why are all these other candidates coming to New Hampshire . Watched sunday night on cspans q a. Continues. Journal host on your screen from new york city this morning is lauren leader, cofounder and ceo of all in together. What is your organization . Guest all in together is a nonpartisan womens Civic Engagement organization. We have been working to train women across america on the core tenets of how our democracy works and to get women off the sidelines and to become Community Leaders on issues that matter to them. Host are you training them to run for office . Guest not expressly. A lot of the women we were with have never been involved politically. Part of what we think that is important is that women no matter who they are, what their circumstances are, they are indicating their perspective and interest and issues to their elected officials. Women have not done that as effectively as men over the years. They are less likely to write to their members of congress and become citizen activists. That is what we want them to do. We have had women go on to run for office. We encourage that. Mobilize lotsto of women, whether they are ready to run for office or not, to have a voice in our political process. Host i want to get to your thoughts and show our viewers what happened at the debate, before the debate, and after the debate. Senator Elizabeth Warren is asked about her meeting with senator Bernie Sanders where he allegedly, she claims, said a woman cannot win in 2020. [video clip] senator warren, what did you think when senator sanders said a woman could not win the election . [laughter] i disagree. Bernie is my friend. Im not here to try and fight with bernie. This question about whether or not a woman can be president has been raised, and it is time for us to attack it had on. I think the best way to talk about who can win is by looking at peoples winning record. Can a woman beat donald trump . Look at the man on this stage. Collectively, they have lost 10 elections. On this stagee who have won every single election they have been in are the women, amy and me. [cheers and applause] the only person on this stage who has beaten an incumbent republican any time in the last 30 years is me. , the realat i know danger we face as democrats is picking a candidate who cannot pull our Party Together or someone who takes for granted big parts of the democratic insurgency. A candidate who will excite all parts of the Democratic Party, bring everyone in, and give everyone a democrat to believe in. That is my plan, and that is why i am going to win. Host what was your reaction when this question was raised in this debate was taking place . Was smarthink warren in a bunch of ways in this exchange. I think she won the soundbite war with this combat. Comment. Huge16, gender was a unspoken factor. Hillary was willing to carry the mantle of the groundbreaking nature of her candidacy, but she was always somebody who was in some ways uncomfortable with facing gender politics headon. Ren realizes we are in a different time, in an environment where women are out voting men, following the 2018 election where women won in such huge numbers, gender and gender politics are redhot. Women are super passionate about this question. The other part of it that i thought was masterful is there have continued to be questions bernies commitment to gender equity, not just because of whether he said they woman can or cannot win, that because of the behavior of some of the men on his campaign, allegations that he has not taken seriously sexualharassment on his campaign. Right before this happened, bernie had his staffers with a letter saying the very thing this, he attacked in claimed that she cannot bring new people into the party, which is exactly what she takes on. The fact is gender politics will continue to be redhot all the way through election day on the democratic and republican side. By putting it out in the open, she surfaced issues that are in a lot of peoples minds. Host what about the hesitation of iowa voters who are about to vote in a couple of weeks, hesitant to vote for a woman because they are afraid of that person having to go up against President Trump . Guest what the data shows in the surveys that we did that looked at how men and women see this, both men and women, independents and democrats say they would vote for a woman. Concern is they think their neighbors would not. They think women face a bigger hurdle in mobilizing the electric. We sought similar electorate. Things whenar barack obama ran for president. I am comfortable voting for a black president , but im not sure my neighbors are. Warren will doth well in iowa. Gender is inextricable for any woman candidate. In this case, she is not the only one. There are two women in the field. I think klobuchar is going to do very well in iowa as well as New Hampshire. There is not a binary choice, which makes it possible for voters to look at this in a more nuanced way. I think fundamentally americans are ready to vote for a woman. They did it in 2016. Is it the right woman . Visit the woman they want . Is it the one they believe can win . Host we will go to maryland, independent. Caller good morning. How are you doing . Host good morning. Caller im a 76yearold vietnam veteran. War as my friends in my well as other wars died in the preservation of our belief in this country. A nation divided against itself cannot stand. We have done this once before, and it led to a civil war. We need to Start Talking to each other instead of entrenching one side or the other. This country is too precious to be decided and destroyed the way we are doing right now. It must come together like lincoln said, or we will perish together. God that this division will cease. Guest thank you so much. Thank you for your service and thank you for your devotion to the country. I agree with you. I spent a huge part of my life working to bring people together. Called a book in 2016 crossing the finish line, which talks about the importance of diversity to the country and the importance of americans finding a path to more meaningful mutual understanding. That is why even though i am personally a democrat, i run a nonpartisan organization. Everything we do, we do with democratic and republican women. That is important to me even in this polarized time. We all have a role to play, whether that is having a more civil discourse with our neighbors, opportunity to find Common Ground with people. I agree with you. Thank you for your heartfelt thoughts. Carolina,d in north democratic caller. Caller good morning. Guest good morning. Toler i am referring whether or not we have confidence in the senate trial or not. Host we have moved on from that. We will go to jerry in minnesota, republican. We talking about women in politics. Go ahead. Caller i find it hard to believe you can run a woman in politics seminar and not have politics be involved. Not myu talk about is myw as a democrat is this in view as a republican is that. Everything has to be put in a little category. Should all the legislators be women . Our black women more important to have than white women in office . Every time we put it down to one group, it always works out poorly because it becomes us against them. Guest i appreciate your perspective. Man, isay, as a appreciate that you feel it is too much identity politics. As a woman, i want to see in a democracy, representation in elected office of people who are representative of the nation, who understand my Life Experience, who bring that perspective. I think that is critically important. It is one of the fundamental bedrocks of our government. That is not dividing people into categories. That is saying it is important. I think Many Americans agree with that. The Democratic Party is incredibly diverse. Our nation is incredibly diverse. We will be a minority majority nation in our lifetime. In order for us to have a government where our representatives fully understand the Life Experience of all of our citizens, we need diversity in leadership. You cannot have that if you gloss over. Asare all human and united americans, but we have different es we bring to the table experiences we bring to the table based on who we are. Host how is a female candidate perceived while she is running for office, and how does that change once she is elected . Candidates faced an array of complicated issues that men do not face. There is the funding issue. Women candidates struggle to raise the same amount of money. Are not as interested in supporting women candidates. They face a funding gap. You can look up the gender breakdown of the contributions to each of the candidates. The candidate who has the most male donors is andrew yang. Elizabeth warren and Bernie Sanders have much more diverse donor bases. It is the ongoing question that women face around their personality, around their looks, the way they speak goes on and on. It is well documented. I think we are at a turning point. What we saw in the 2018 midterm elections was a Record Number of women who ran and won. When it comes to women in the race, women are as likely as men to win when they run. Inhave had a real deficit the number of women candidates. We saw that in the 2018 election. When women run, they win at the same rates as men. It drove a surge of democratic women. Republican women are struggling right now. There are only 13 women left in the house of representatives, nine women in the senate, four of whom have been appointed. They were not elected. There are serious challenges on the republican side for women running. That is a whole different segment. Host we will go to boulder, colorado, independent. Caller good morning. Im surprised we have not had a woman president in this country. Europe has done it over the years. Much better job taking care of beer. Earth. Ing the im hoping a woman takes out mcconnell in kentucky. Guest that is an interesting senate race. Systems are parliamentary byre the president is chosen parliament. Our system is much more complicated. It creates more hurdles for women to get elected as head of state. Interesting race in kentucky. A real uphill battle for amy mcgrath. She has captured a lot of National Interest and has raised huge amounts of money. There are a bunch of other places in the country where there are interesting dynamics there is a senate race in kansas with a woman running was formally a republican. She changed parties couple of years ago. She is a doctor. She would be the first woman state, in a mostly red although they just elected a woman governor there. Host linn, california, independent. Good morning. Caller good morning. Live in a town of less than 2016people, and i ran in for our county supervisor seat. Guest good for you. Caller the attacks against you from the opposing party just were it caught me off guard because i have lived here my whole life. I ran the business. I raise my kids. I sit on the school board. People know me. When you say women, we need to support each other, and i just itlly did not expect that was people who knew me for so long. I will not run again. I think that is where a lot of it is. People, theacks on lack of support. There are no women on that board. Im a business owner. It is all retired government employees. Guess im really disgusted about black, white, women, men, this group, that group. Everybody is divided. Whats the hispanic population, whats the black, whats the white, whats the women, instead of everybody is an american. Host i think there are a couple of things there. Im passionate about this issue. I just got elected to Public Office in my town. Im the only woman on my town board. Like you, it is a small town. There were no women, and i decided to run as i thought it was important. I was attacked relentlessly. I gave as good as i got. I hear you. I hope you will reconsider. We need women not to back down. Women face intense scrutiny, and politics can be really tough, but when you believe in something greater than yourself, and you believe in your own voice, i think that helps. I am passionate about that. I get attacked on a daily basis in my town because people disagree with me. I am there to represent all the people in my town. Im glad i did it. We all have a part to play in the discourse. There is no question that women face heightened attacks. A lot of women stay away from politics because of that. We can change it, but we have to be present in order to do that. Robert, virginia, republican color. Guest good morning. Caller good morning. I dont think women of any nationality have any problem being elected. Morenk what effects it than anything is their political philosophy. Im calling on the republican line. There are a lot of things that i firmly believe in, and i dont see that coming from the other side. Host lets say that point. Guest women are as diverse as the nation. We dont all agree. There are women of every political perspective, believe, background in our political process. We dont all agree with each other. Men dont all agree with each other. I think representation matters. Is something incredibly important about the perspective a woman brings to elected office in our political process that matters for all americans. Maryland,e, democratic caller. Good morning. Caller i think a woman should be elected because im thinking it took one woman to turn everything upside down and it takes another to turn everything right side up. Lauren leader, go ahead. Guest im not sure what to say about that. I appreciate your perspective. Host rick in new mexico. Good morning on our democratic line. Caller good morning. I just have something very short to say. Im a former military officer, ormer federal agent, former c. P. A. , retired. I can tell you in my 45 years of experience, my messed employees and managers were women. I dont see what all the fuss is about. I think women are very confident. Competent. They can do as well as men. Guest i agree. Im glad you feel that way. What all the fuss is about is when you look at statistics, statistics do not bear out your perspective. U. S. Right now is rated sorry . Host go ahead. Guest the u. S. Is ranked 86th in the world by the World Economic forum for the political parity for women. Women, even though we are the majority of the college degrees, are still vastly underrepresented in leadership in every discipline and industry. The wage gap continues to persist. On the one hand, we are doing exceptionally well, on the other hand, we are far behind other countries in the world. The vast majority of minimumwage workers and americans in poverty are women. We have some serious challenges. That is part of why women are so animated today. 43 of women say they have experienced discrimination at work. That is an enormous number. That speaks to the challenges we still have and the work that needs to be done to achieve parity. Host david, new york, republican. Caller i just have questions more than almost anything else. In terms of women as far as being president , i dont see where there is any issue at all. I think the last president ial election would make it clear that is not an issue. Coverage inut the terms of mayor pete to be honest. I was watching the debate, and there was all this discussion about whether a woman can be president , and i think it bigger issue for this election would be mayor pete and his sexual orientation. It strikes me as odd that the tops rose talk shows, they dont bring that up as an issue, kennedys 1960, catholicism was talked about, barack obama, you discussed whether it was time for a black 2016, aesident, in woman. It does not seem to be touched almost. It seems odd to me. Host go ahead. Guest sorry, there were some calls crossed. I think it is an interesting issue. It is not what youre going to say about mayor pete. I thought you were going to say he has so little experience relative to the women. The fact that he is gay, it has come up. He has raised it many times. It is interesting, when you look at the data on how americans feel about gay rights and gay americans, there has been a shift in Public Attitudes about this over the last 20 years. We know the vast majority of americans who believe gays and lesbians should have equal rights under the law, there is full support for gay marriage. To gay americans face discrimination . Absolutely. We have 30 states where it is still legal to fire someone for being gay. I think mayor pete benefits from shifting attitudes. Campaign,inues in his if he continues to do as well as he has, this will be an issue, and there are folks for whom it is a problem and an issue. I think it speaks to the comfort americans have with gays and lesbians on the whole that it has been less of an issue in this campaign than you might expect. Wonder, a california, republican. Welcome to the conversation. Asker i would like to warren if she would vote for a prolife candidate for president. Is it about issues or gender . I am not want to speak to my own personal political beliefs. Gender to me does not trump all other issues in the sense that i look at the totality of a candidate, not just their gender. I think most people do. These are not mutually exclusive concepts. The fairdvocate for and equal treatment of women when they run for office. I can encourage women to participate in our political process. I can believe strongly that it is critical we have the participation of women, but that does not mean i will vote for every woman that runs. We would never ask that question of a man. Because we have so few women candidates, this is the question we get asked. I appreciate your question. Thank you. Philadelphia,n republican. Caller i cannot help but notice that from the school board all week to the legislative branch we have thousands of women, and the Democratic Party, i really think they blew it this time with Marianne Williamson at tulsi gabbard. Jill stein. That is three. Question, in these nonselective election cycles, how is it that the level of corporate abuse and progress of the taxation regressive taxation, it seems to be this problem no matter what the Public Servant has. Thank you. Guest unfortunately, you are not correct. I understand that you think there are so many women in elected office. It is not correct. There is only one state in the nation where women are even 50 of the state legislator, legislature, and that is nevada. Almost nowhere else do they break 30 . That is true at the state level. The average nationally is about 25 . We are still not even 30 of congress. The reality is women are still underrepresented in elected office. It may not seem like it, but those are the numbers. Host what is the impact of virginia passing the people rights amendment equal rights amendment and virginia becoming the last state needed to ratify this amendment . Guest it was a symbolic victory. It has some legal implications. For activists, it was a sweet moment, not just because of the passage of e. R. A. But because it was made possible by the historic wins of women in the Virginia State legislature, including the first woman speaker. Women insentation of the legislature. I am skeptical, unfortunately, and i have advocated for e. R. A. My entire life, im skeptical of this is the moment e. R. A. Will progress. There are legal and constitutional hurdles on whether or not ratifying the willstate 20 years after hold up in court, but it is an important time to bring these issues to the forefront. Americans need to understand that women still lack Legal Protection and are not legally considered full and equal citizens under the u. S. Constitution. Passes legal muster through the courts and becomes part of the constitution, doesnt have legal ramifications does it have legal ramifications for who runs and represents america . Guest it has ramifications for everything from equal pay to family leave. There are a whole array of issues that get impacted. I dont believe it has any direct impact on the representation of women. We dont have quotas. There is no call for that in the u. S. I dont think it directly impacts that. California, democratic caller. Say, im in myto 30s. Kids in general early on are not encouraged to be smart by society. It is more encouraged to be cool. Those two conflict. I think as a society we should encourage being smart. We need to start emphasizing roles we all play in our future, such as government. Girls 20lk to young years ago in class has a bigger generational impact than it has an immediate impact. I think in being a president ial nominee would be big later on. Host go ahead. Guest thank you for that. I dont have a response to that. Thank you for the call. Host we will go to new jersey, democratic caller. Caller hello. I just wanted to make two points. Called, the gentleman and we talked about we have this president where Hillary Clinton lost. Had she won, we would not have been dealing with this nonsense. She has far more experience than trump. The president ial people that are running now in the Democratic Party, pete buttigieg, if he was a woman, she would not have gotten that far. Politicsore women in because women bring a great deal of intelligence fundamental intellect, a way of Intrinsic Value to our nation. We need to be done with this. The pool and is qualified, she should be able to run and win. Guest thank you. I appreciate that. I hope you will go out and volunteer for the campaign of a woman you believe in and go pledge your energy where your beliefs are. I think that is critical. This is one of the challenges in this country and a challenge with the current residential cycle. We had five women on the democratic side, and we have lost three of them. Two of them because of funding challenges because of the nature of the way the democratic structure was set up in this cycle. Both Kamala Harris and Kirsten Gillibrand had to drop out before a single vote was cast. That was in part because of the massive funding gap and the high hurdles set by the Democratic National committee for getting on the debate stage when there were so many of them that were impactful before we have had a single vote cast in iowa or anywhere else. I think it is problematic. I think we need more americans to do more than say i believe we need a woman to win. They have to work for it. It requires participation. I hope more men will step forward to support women candidates and all americans will look for a way they can make a difference. Host do you think the dnc should have tweaked their rules . Guest i think the hurdles for the debates were incredibly high in ways that empowered the wealthiest candidates to find a level of success and stay in the race longer than candidates who had experience and less money. The dnc has been saying no polled lower than 5 in the last 20 years has ever gone on to be the nominee. We have never had this many candidates on the democratic side. It is a different environment because of the money that is your wired. Required. It is a different scenario because we have a number of billionaires in the race that are able to skew the system. I think the dnc will look back and realize it was a mistake to set the hurdles so high. Americans are thoughtful. We are capable of having a debate of ideas. At this point the field has narrowed so much, and we have not even have the caucuses in iowa. I think it is an unfortunate outcome. I know certain candidates like cory booker do. He was harmed by this Current System as were many folks who are highly qualified who had something to say. I think there will be a reckoning on this down the road. There were other options that should have been deployed. Host lauren leader, founder and ceo of all in together. You can follow her on twitter. Thank you. Guest thanks for having me. Great show. Host that does it for todays washington journal. We are going to bring you live to the middle east policy council. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020]