Policies. At 9 00, a discussion on the 75th anniversary of the battle with edward and i and owen connor. National museum of the marine corps senior curator. Host good morning. A three hour washington journal is ahead and we will talk about the state of u. S. Manufacturing and take you to the National Museum of the marine corps for the second stop of our museum tour. We begin the question about who should get credit for the state of the u. S. Economy. The current and previous occupants of the oval office claimed credit for the robust u. S. Economy. This morning, we put the question to you. Republicans, the phone number is 2027488001. Democrats, 2027488000. Independents, 2027488002. On can also catch up with us text message. That number, 2027488003. If you send a text, please include your name and where you are from. Otherwise on twitter it is cspanwj and on facebook it is facebook. Com cspan. A very good tuesday morning. You can start calling in now. We take you to the headline in usa today. President s day scrape, trump trump are over who gets credit for the u. S. Economy. It began at 10 45 in the morning when former president obama sent out this tweet noting the 11th anniversary of the signing of the american reinvestment and recovery act. 11 years ago today near the bottom of the worst recession in generations, i paved the way for more than a decade of economic ofwth and the longest streak job creation in American History. President trimble weighed in in a series of tweets and here is how he responded. It did you hear the latest con job, president obama is trying to take credit for the economic boom taking place on of the Trump Administration. He had the weakest recovery. Now best job numbers ever, had to rebuild our military, which was totally depleted. If democrats won in 2016, the usa would be in a big economic depression . In military trouble right now. The best is yet to come, keep America Great. That was President Trump responding about 6 30 yesterday afternoon and plenty more response throughout the day. Democrats the day, responded by praising obama tweet, arguing trump is reaping the benefits of the work his predecessor did. Republicans accuse obama of seeking credit. Sense of the flavor of the response at least on capitol hill yesterday, here is a series withose responses starting congressman steve scalise, the minority whip in the house saying with an economy this good, it is no wonder barack obama is trying to take credit. I believe the saying is you did not build that, somebody else made that. Your president s day reminder that democrats know how to build a strong, sustainable economy that works for all americans and showing the tweet president obama put out. We are getting your response asking who should get credit for the u. S. Economy. Republicans, it is 2027488001. Democrats, 2027488000. Independents, 2027488002. Ronald is first out of oklahoma, a democrat. Good morning. Caller good morning. Host go ahead, ronald. Who should get credit . Caller barack obama. It definitely barack obama should get credit. Give me a break. Donald trump, all he did was. Ass a tax code host what did barack obama do that should apply more than three years after he left office . Caller you remember when the economy faltered in 2008 . From there, when barack obama upped the economy. Hello . Host go ahead, ronald. Caller i was saying in 2008 when the economy took the dive and then when barack obama came in, he had to do a lot of things not only to get the economy going, but unemployment going and he kept the Unemployment Rate down from i dont know what it was, but it was pretty high. I will let other callers get in. Host that is ronald in oklahoma. This is dave out of daytona beach, florida. Go ahead. Caller the credit is going to have to be due to this administration. Like the last caller said, he made a reference to the tax act. That did help, but what they forget is the complaints people had with trump killing every obama regulation he had and he undid every regulation relating to jobs, industry, and so forth that obama did and that is one of the main things. I cannot see how he would take credit. I understand it was at an alltime low when he took the hadce, obama, and it nowhere to go but up. Host ron out of bethlehem, pennsylvania, your thoughts this morning. Caller thank you so much. I am happy you guys are finally bringing this up because you have got to remember when obama was running for president in 2008, the economy was in such bad shape, there was an emergency meeting called and john mccain to cancel the debate because of the seriousness of how the economy was headed toward the depression and obama said we have to learn how to walk and chew gum at the same time and he said we will go forward with the debate. He met with the finance people and republicans fought him tooth and nail. I think you guys need to show the names of the republicans that voted against the stimulus package. I think republicans have a lot of gall trying to take credit for this recovery they had nothing to do with. Our inspector, if it wasnt for him switching over from her rep from republican to senate, it would not have gotten in the senate. Say they hadair to nothing to do with it three years into the Trump Administration . Caller they had nothing to do with it. The only thing the Trump Administration did was the previous caller talked about deregulation. Put on theions obama stock market and stuff helped restrain bernie made off and all those crazy people using the stock market as a casino. Dodd frank and those bills help stabilize that and trump came in and took those regulations offer no reason. Host one other thing President Trump points to is the tax cuts and jobs act. Caller what corporations did, they put that money back in their pockets with buybacks. They did not have to have those cuts. All that is going to do is increase the deficit. The deficit under obama was coming down. Those tax cuts have increased the deficit. You would do a good service if you would explain it more what those tax cuts did. That was put more money into the wealthys pockets, which they did not need. This andos looking at the big picture going back to reagan. Under President Trump during his first three years in office, the annualized gdp growth, 2. 5 . That outpaces the 2. 3 during president obamas second term. Why it matters, axios gets into gdp is the most comprehensive economic scorecard, something especially President Trump used as an example of success. It is relevant since trump is running for reelection on his economic record. Economists dispute how much credit president s can take. There are factors that boost or reduce Growth Without their policies. Unlike other president s, President Trump inherited a steady economy that entered the longest stretch in history. Now the pace has moderated and we are asking this morning after this Tweet Exchange yesterday between the current and previous occupants of the oval office who should get credit for the u. S. Economy. John in bridgewater, florida, a republican. You are next. Caller both parties should get credit. Obama did the right thing with the stimulus on the bailouts. Trump came in, goosed the economy quite a bit with the tax cut, which was revolutionary in a sense because no one would touch the Corporate Tax rate all these years and the point was to stimulate the economy and they both should get credit. The divide is obscuring everything right now. Host how likely do you think shared credit is in this day and age . Caller it is passe. It is oldfashioned. It is true, this country does more good things together, which we dont see because of the tv exposure and the need to differentiate for politics. We get things done. That is why we are the biggest economy in the world and the biggest military. Everyone should look up and say we are doing great, lets congratulate each other for a change. Host tony in baltimore, maryland, a democrat. Who deserves credit for the robust economy right now . Caller let me give you a short history. When clinton left office, there was blue ink as far as the eye could see. When bush left office, there was 850,000 people unemployed each month for three months, that is what obama took over. Economy,given a great obama was given an economy going over a cliff. He saved the car industry, republicans did not want to do that. His stimulus package, he wanted the billion dollars and they gave him 700 million and brought back the economy. Trump when he was running for office said the Unemployment Rate under obama may be as high as 40 . The day he took office, he got. T down for three and a quarter viewersam going to show tucked chuck jones argued president obama should deserve credit for the state of the economy. Excludes government workers and farmers over the shows ins, it millionere were 1. 92 7 privatesector sector jobs, the fewest since 2010 as the economy was recovering from the Great Recession. You can see the downward trend and the continual uptake extending into the three years of the Trump Administration. Caller i think even trump could read that graph. Everyone is saying trump created this miracle. One more charges so viewers show viewers this chart of jobs added or lost by year. You can see the beginning of the Obama Administration and towards the final 6 years, the job growth during the Trump Administration, 2. 1, 2. 3, and 2. 1 million jobs added per individual year. He notes, this is the same writer we were talking about, trumps best year of job growth does not beat any of obamas last three years of job growth by year. We continue with this conversation about who should get credit for the u. S. Economy. Romney in texas, good morning. Tend to agree with the caller from new jersey. I think both of them should get credit. Obama started it. I have to give give trump a little bit of credit for keeping it going. The problem i have is trump cannot seem to give obama credit for anything. How many times has he mentioned obama in a negative way. That is what leads us to the divide we have today and that is why we are where we are. Considering what obama inherited, he should give most of the credit. I give trump a little bit of credit for keeping it going. Host how willing to using former president obama and democrats would be to give President Trump credit . I think democrats and myself, most democrats would give President Trump credit for more stuff if he was not the type of person he is, the type of president he is. He has to take credit for everything and he is not willing to work with democrats on anything. He blames democrats for not wanting to get anything done yet he and the republicans make it impossible for democrats to get anything done. Look at all the things on mcconnells desk. Whereis the reason we are we are. He is actually lucky the economy atstaying where it is considering he almost got us into a war with iran. I give both of them credit on the economy. I give trump zero credit for anything else. He is not a good president. He is the great divider. We need somebody new. Host here is one other democratic member of congress, congressman don beyer. His District Across the potomac river, his tweet yesterday in response to the president s tweets saying the president is lying about the economy again. Gdp growth at 2 to 3 in trumps three years, the same as the last three years of the Obama Administration. And taxr jobs created cuts were mostly to the rich from the democratic congressman from virginia. We are asking for your thoughts. Who should get credit for the u. S. Economy . This is what the president calls the bluecollar boom in america. [video clip] years, over 300,000 working age people dropped out of the workforce. 3. 5 million people, working age people have joined the workforce. Since my election, the network of the bottom half of wage by 47s has increased percent, three times faster than the increase for the top 1 . [applause] of flat ands falling incomes, wages are rising fast and they are rising fastest for low income workers increaseseen a 16 pay since my election. His is a bluecollar boom real Median Household Income is now at the highest level ever recorded. His President Trump during state of the Union Earlier this month. We are asking in this first hour who should get credit for the u. S. Economy. Christian in phoenix, arizona, republican. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for taking my call. It is so interesting to me to as barackconversation obama, who had the opposite policy of donald j. Trump, barack obama, who would not approve the keystone xl pipeline, who would not approve pipeline, whoess did not get the china trade deal done, who did not get usmca done, who doesnt have small optimism does not have business investment, billions of dollars, who did not indexrchasing managers confidence at a record or barack obama who did not get new Business Applications surging for new employment identification numbers. Host let me jump in and get you to respond to this, a tweet from one of our viewers who has a different opinion. Tweeting in this morning it is a nobrainer, obama bailed us out from the horrid gop economic pillage of bush. 11 years of study growth. His policies all trumps growth went to the top, not so under obama. Caller no it didnt and black income is up 4000. A black low income communities got a 100 billion tax cut for opportunity zones and those. Enefit black owners thethis nonsense about how tax scam only benefited the most powerful and wealthy is an absolute lie from the pit of hell and the last thing i will say is the signature achievement of his Economic Policy is foriding a 10,000 tax cut School Choice for parents who ave kids in grades k12 get tax cut to send their child to the best possible school in america. Christianother stat did not mention, but President Trump mentions is the state of the stock market and fox news in their wrapup of this brouhaha over these tweets from the current and immediate past president yesterday had this note about the stock market, it surged under trump, the stock the 807rew 31 in trading days before trumps thetion, but grew by 56 in 807 trading days after his election up through the third anniversary of trumps election. We have often heard President Trump talk about the stock market. Mary, a republican in louisiana, what do you think. Caller i call you john the handsome one. It is a shame. Shame. Democrats have no they are trying to take the success of donald trump and give it to barack obama. Arack obama never even ran lemonade stand. He has no idea how to grow the economy. You have a clip of barack obama poking fun at donald trump because donald trump said he was going to bring jobs back to america from these Foreign Countries and barack obama had a laugh. He has no idea how to do it. Not only that, donald trump got all of those what you call those things they put on companies . Host are you talking about regulations . Caller yeah. Foot offarack obamas corporations. Ese the Companies Get tax breaks so they can do more hiring. I make 19,000 a year, but i draw Social Security. Listen at me. This year the first time i got a raise on my job in years and i also got a raise on my Social Security. Listen at me. Then my 401 k is making more. Democrats are talking about, that is not true. Host thanks for the call from the louisiana. One of the people running against President Trump in the democratic primary field is former president obamas Vice President joe biden. In october he talked about the trump economy and why he sees it not working for most americans. [video clip] under the republican and plan, donald trump inherited a strong economy. Like Everything Else he inherited, he is in the midst of squandering it. Joe biden whot has been spending this week like most of the other candidates in nevada. The action moves to South Carolina for the primary next saturday and we move on to super tuesday. We will have more to talk about the president ial primary later this morning in the washington journal. Continuing with this conversation with the question who should get credit for the u. S. Economy . Mary in iowa, a democrat, good. Orning i am 92 years old. I have listened to you since the 1990s and i have never had nerve enough to call in before. This talk about economy bothers me because i am on a fixed income for my age and trumps. Conomy has not helped me a bit bread went up one dollar a loaf. Gasoline has gone up over a dollar. I live in a rural area and you cannot go anywhere without an automobile, which i dont have any more. Me payingn is helping my taxes and my homeowners and i just dont think regulations so many is really following our world. The obama economy help you . Caller yeah, it did. I cannot buy the things i used under the republican i just thinkn president. Bad he runs a good mouth and talks a good show but there is some of us out here that can see the light and know what is going on. I suppose maybe people have jobs. My grandchildren are going to college. They have jobs that pay eight hour. S to 11 an we live near a small town and the jobs here dont pay. Host i know you are from iowa, did you go to the Iowa Caucuses . Caller i started. From ours is 12 miles home and i had a spell with my heart on the way and i had to ask my grandson to turn around and come back. I have attended all the caucuses over the years. Host who would you have caucused for if you had made it there . Caller i was going to caucused for Elizabeth Warren. Any of thee with candidates running. I think they do they all would do a better job. Host why is Elizabeth Warren your topic out of them . Caller i think she is progressive. I loved her enthusiasm. When i first started working her, she had so much passion and i thought we needed that in a candidate. I still think she has more passion than the others. I would be satisfied with any of if they get the nomination. Waited 30 years for your first call, you only have to wait 30 days so i hope you call again. Tony is next out of michigan, good morning. Caller good morning. That last caller, mary, was a air compared to the previous callers before. I will keep my comments short and sweet, here is the truth. 9 11 happened. Bush junior started the afghanistan war, he gave a tax break to the wealthy and he started the iraq war and he gave another tax break to the wealthy, which in turn with the housing crisis caused the outside ofwn spiral the Great Depression of 1929. Barack obama came in, got Timothy Geithner are and started pumping money back into the economy. You had a caller previously who that which was true, republicans actually did not even want to give that stimulus. They only gave 700 billion and he wanted 1 trillion. From there, the economy started ten itself. Righ when you have republicans in office, they are for the wealthy. The dont really care about 80 of0 70 to america that is the working class. What is happening is they give themselves tax breaks and it used to be a thing and Ronald Reagans day where trickledown economics was the thing. That is not happening anymore. Now the rich are keeping their money and they are spoon feeding the corporations and the workers wages are not like they used to be. Some stats on the american reinvestment and recovery act, it was the 11th anniversary rest anniversary yesterday. A 787 billion when all was said and done, it was revised upward. Things like 40 billion for energy investments, 47 billion for unemployment benefits, 46 billion for transportation projects and Health Care Benefits extended all included in that nearly 800 billion package. A few of the comments from twitter and text as we have been having this conversation, obama started the Economic Growth donald trump received in 2016. Fred on twitter saying President Trump if we had a bad economy right now would be getting blamed for it. We have a good economy, the best in 50 years, he gets credit. Mark saying obama and trump improved the economy, obama set trump up for success, but the economy can change in an hour. Neither should get credit is this text message as both finance the recovery. Obama had no choice and one more from lone patriot in florida, it is unquestionably trump. Tax and regulation cups, if obama were effective, this surge would have happened during his second term, not 2 to three years after leaving. The text, that number, 2027488003. On twitter, it is cspanwj. It just after 7 30 this morning on the east coast. We are with you until 10 00 a. M. Eastern, especially want you to stick around. In our 9 00 hour, we will be having our second stop in our weeklong journey through d. C. Area museums and highlighting collections that explore the american story. On the eve of the 75th anniversary of the battle of iwo nationalare at the museum of the marine corps. We will be joined by Edward Nevgloski and a Museum Curator, owen karen owen,. Owen connor. We will have another halfhour of this discussion asking who should get credit for the u. S. Economy and we are having this conversation in the wake of a Tweet Exchange between the current and immediate previous occupant of the oval office. It started yesterday at 10 45 in the morning. This was Barack Obamas tweet. 11 years ago today, i signed a recovery act paving the way for more than a decade of Economic Growth and the longest streak of job creation in American History. That touched a nerve with President Trump, here is his response at 6 40 p. M. Last night. President obama is trying to take credit for the economic boom taking place under the Trump Administration. He had the weakest recovery despite massive quantitative easing and the best job numbers ever. Had to rebuild our military, which was depleted. Taxes and regulations weighed down. Thecrats won, the u. S. Would be in military trouble. The best is yet to come, keep America Great. Who do you think should get credit for the American Economy . Audience is not going to like my answer. I am in independent and i am theeartened by how politicized. In 2007 and 2008, we had mortgages that were packaged they wereings not even close. Lehman brothers was the biggest investor in mortgages, they went bankrupt. As soon as they went bankrupt, they were scared there might be other boots to fall. , paul walkerin ended inflation in the 1970s. Lets put and said the federal funds discount window at zero. Immediately, all the banks new they were knew they were protected. In thetely they know worstcase scenario, they can get the federal funds at general rates they needed. That is why the economy changed. Barack obama and by the way, Interest Rates are still at historical lows. Obama and trump both are riding on the coattails of what the fed did and continued to do for the last 11 years. Neither one has that much of a by fiscalact except spending, which is a deficit. That is the truth behind the story and thank you very much. Host tom in pennsylvania, who should get credit for the economy . Host hello and thank you for your insightful perspective. I believe it should be Neither Party but the american taxpayer because every time the economy gets in trouble, it is bailed out by our tax money and it is the people who pay their taxes, not the ones who have exemptions who pay no taxes like everyone in politics, practically. I believe it should be the american taxpayer. That is my comment. Host you say every time the economy gets in trouble the american taxpayer bails it out, so who should get the blame for getting the u. S. Economy into trouble . Say it isu have to the people who get all the money in this country. My question was to run for president , how much wealth do you have to have . It is proven today. , he is ar pete millionaire if you count his household assets. I dont think it was the intention of the Founding Fathers to establish a democratic republic where only people from the richest class are able to run for president. Ordinary people have no opportunity. Question is where are the electors and candidates drawn from . Storythe Business Insider estimate,ned their this from the story they put out at the end of december, mayor pete estimated to be worth 100,000 gave up a comfortable consulting job at mckinsey for life in Public Service and he and his husband has been open about being in the ranks of millenials paying off student loan debt. Other stories have looked into. He worth of their household the wall street journal a week or 2 ago compared various homes and if i recall that story correctly, mayor pete and his home worth less than 250,000. Jim is next out of pennsylvania, republican. Sir. R good morning, i think my comment would be democrats and republicans are supposed to help the working people, all the people in this country. I noticed democrats do something good like health care. They have done something good for the people that benefited the Insurance Companies greatly made criminals of people who could not afford to pay their health insurance, so they got penalized when they had done their taxes. Another thing, mr. Obama, i 40 years and mr. Obama, the government took over our pension. My obama wanted to take from pension to boost the economy. I dont think that is right one bit. Mr. Trump is doing a pretty good job. Everybody is getting a little bit more money. He took the penalty away from people that cannot afford health insurance. I tell you what i would like to see every american do, i would like to see every American Call their representative and demand that cap be taken off Social Security because Social Security i dont believe is tax deductible like all the other taxes the millionaires and billionaires pay. I think it is time for millionaires and billionaires to help us with Social Security, take the cap off pay. I pay Social Security on every dollar and i dont think it is fair millionaires and billionaires do not pay on every dollar. Every american, call your representative. Worthto follow up on the of the Real Estate Holdings of the top president ial candidates, the democratic president ial candidates, this is the wall street journal story, Michael Bloombergs estimated value of his real estate earnings, over 100 million. Elizabeth warrens Real Estate Holdings, 5 Million Dollars and joe biden expected to be 5 million. Mayor petesue of. Eal estate holdings, 230,000 primary homes where the five Democratic Front runners head after the campaign trail. Rich in ohio, republican. Really good comment of the credit. Caller willten a call into give credit to the Federal Reserve. Caller i meant they have an invisible hand. Good credit or bad credit, whichever they deserve. Host who do you think reserve deserves credit . Caller i think the Federal Reserve opened up the gates to demand money at the end of bush, they set up the programs for that to jumpstart the engine was a big help. If you count like a Football Game who really helped out and who did not, one player is running the wrong way and you say we all won. If you are running the wrong way, you sure should not get credit. I think president s have reduced taxes on people, kennedy did it and got good results. Reagan got good results. Bush tried to do it and they would not let him raise pass anything until he raised taxes. With like kryptonite superman. They will do anything and right now we have all the candidates looking which way to spend money and we have venezuela to look at where we can go to for make America Great again and see how they tore up their country. We doare big issues and not want to feed the golden goose, we want to kill the golden goose. At 1 rowing the economy is not going to keep our citizens graduating jobs and when obama said to the current president 1 , you are never going to do that again and he did it. You have to give credit there, he was not even helping, he was throwing water on the flames. The other thing is how much they , 11 to get the jobs trillion. All the president s up to obama, he spent all the money they spend in one presidency and you have to count how many jobs you create with 11 trillion. Host here is another look at the chart, the average annualized gdp growth by president ial term going back to reagans First Administration at 3. 1 . His second term, 3. 1 . George h. W. Bush at 2 . Clintons second term, 4 annualized gdp growth. Term,. 5 . President obamas first term, 2 and over the first three years of the trump presidency, annualized gdp growth of 2. 5 . Whoin kansas, you are next, gets credit . This is not heaven and politicians are not going to make it that way. There is that magic bond obama waved that got it all started. Generalorget motors through the unions. It had to be obama who did it. People think this is going to be heaven, it is not going to be. We have too many cricket politicians in high places. To me, there is no doubt about it our president is the one who has done the most. Of course that is all tongueincheek. Extent of know the all the stuff they have been going against trump. How much better we would have been if democrats had been working with him and i dont think we will find out because they are too deep in the mud. I think trump is the one that done it, no doubt in my mind. Host jason out of san diego, democrat, good morning. Caller good morning, cspan. Trump can only get credit for the day he stepped in office. I will give him like a year he got in office. He gets credit for the time he was here and i gave him about three years of credit. 5000 jobsas creating a month when he sat down in the chair and now he is creating 2000, he is getting credit for what he created. Tax bill, hed the went down to florida and sitting around his cherry wood mahogany of thed he says to all people in his cabinet, how about those tax cuts. I just made you all a bunch of rich people. He cannot get everything, that is how it is, it is impossible for him to take credit for how many jobs were being created when he sat down in the chair. Host calvin brown asking what economy . Homelessness is the highest ever, wages have not increased since the 1970s. Whoever wants credit for this depressing economy, they can have it. This is karen on twitter. Obama saved us from economic disaster. Economy was handed off to donald john trump. Mitchell saying trump undid all of obamas failed policies, so it is impossible for obama to take credit for this economy. Joseph in florida, what do you think . Caller good morning. Host speak through your phone, not your television. Caller Economic Growth is carried by the parties because they are the ones that spent. They are expanding, replacing our oil pipes. They are involving the Climate Change. Host take us to the question of who gets credit. Government. Local host this is kathy in pennsylvania, go ahead. Caller the only thing i wanted to say is here we go again, america. More division in play. I agree with the previous caller who said both should get credit and i am going to stick with the american way. Together we stand, divided we fall. Lets all grow up and work together. Stop the tantrums. Think before you tweet and support a duly elected president. Thank you. Host this all got started former president barack obama tweeted out about the 11th anniversary of the tax cuts and jobs act. The president saying in that thehe tax cut american recovery act, the 11th anniversary of the recovery act paved the way for more than a decade of Economic Growth and the longest streak of job creation in American History. The recovery act is something that has come up before on the campaign trail. Joe biden brought it up in speeches talking about his efforts with former president obama during their administration to bring jobs back to the country. Joe biden bringing it up in his kickoff speech in philadelphia adt spring and this is the put out after that kickoff speech in which he mentions the recovery act. [video clip] look at the recovery act, the reason we have had 10 years of Economic Growth. It was my job to find recovery to get it passed. Persuade them. I did, they did, and the country did better than it has before. He could get us back on the right track. I will do whatever it takes to make progress on civil liberties, voting rights, a womans right to choose, health care. We need a clean energy revolution. We have to start now. We are the United States of america. There is not a single thing we together. If we do it host that was one of the earliest ads from the Biden Campaign in may of last year. A few more minutes in this segment asking who should get credit for the u. S. Economy. Jerry in new jersey, a republican. What do you think . Caller good morning. How are you . Host doing well. Caller at the end of clintons second term in the 1990s, he signed a bit of legislation that his the threshold under administration, they did well. Under george w. Bushs administration, they did quite a mixing mortgages mixing bad with good. Obama got dealt a bad hand. Printed money and throwing money out to these companies. It wasnt costing nothing, it was our money. It was not planned with real money. He did his best and i give him credit where credit is due. Saying saying, 47,000, theyer stuck your foot out of the back of your neck. You had to make up for the previous it was not worth making over 47,000. I worked construction in new york city for 48 years and as far as i am concerned, we are playing with real money now. We do have Interest Rates, so i have to give credit where credit is due. Are playing with real money, so we will see how we do, but i think trump is doing a good job. Host charles, independent, good morning. Caller good morning, steve. I would like to make a correction for one gentleman who stated Ronald Reagan stimulated the economy and cut taxes more than every print any president. He had to raise and get rid of the effective tax rate, which is a tax increase and historically, Ronald Reagan raised taxes more than any other nonwar president in u. S. History. Also, what i am seeing is supplyside does not work. We tried it with reagan. Alan lautner is wrong. We tried it with the last tax cut and we are seeing a great economy in job numbers. What kind of jobs and sectors are those in . Those are not in the high paying sectors, those are in the Service Industry and medical industry in the lowest paying sector. Not doctors, lowest paying sectors. Host you should stick around for our next segment, our 8 00 segment, we will be joined by scott paul to look at the Manufacturing Sector and jobs and what is happening there. A note to you and others, just a few minutes away. Caller to conclude here, when livef americans paychecktopaycheck, 47 percent of americans have less than 400 in their bank account. Only 15 of americans are in the stock market. Until we raise the minimum wage 1, we will never see changes. It will be the same old same old and people can believe it is trump or obama or whatever. When these giant corporations debtaying no taxes and our is going through the ceiling, good luck, america. Host we end with tom, who gets credit for the economy . Retired federal employee. Therked at the v. A. For last seven years. Host what about the last seven years . Byler i had my pay cut obama and biden and the democrats and for the rest of my life, i will have less money because i am disabled and cannot work, so i will vote for a democrat i will never vote for a democrat the rest of my life. Caller the economy right now is great. If donald trump shot a democrat on 5th avenue, i would vote for him twice. Alliance for American Manufacturing president scott paul will be here and we will talk about the state of the later, the second stop of washington journalAmerican History tv series focusing on d. C. Area museums. Of then the eve anniversary of the battle of iwo jima, we had to the National Museum of the marine corps where we are joined by marine corps chief of history Edward Nevgloski and Museum Curator owen connor. We will be right back. During this election season, the candidates beyond the talking points are only revealed over time. Since you cant be everywhere, there is cspan. Our campaign 2020 programming differs from all other coverage for one simple reason it is cspan. We brought you your unfiltered view of government every since 1979. This year we are bringing you the people seeking the steer the government this november. In other words, the future. , direct andn season unfiltered. See the Bigger Picture for yourself and make up your mind. 2020. Span Campaign Students told us the most important issues for the president ial candidates to address our Climate Change, gun violence, team vapi teen vaping, college affordability, Mental Health and immigration. We are awarded 100,000. The winners for this years studentcam competition will be announced on march 11. Washington journal continues. Host scott paul is back at the desk, president of alliance for American Manufacturing. Coming out the most recent child support, how many manufacturing jobs are there in the u. S. In which we are they trending . Way are they trending . Guest they are just shy of 13 Million Manufacturing jobs in the u. S. The trend since the end of the Great Recession, dating back to the early days of the Obama Administration, has been incredibly positive. Slow but steady. The trend over the last year has been a little less rosy. We have added only about 26,000 manufacturing jobs over the last 12 months. This is in a private sector economy that added about 2 million jobs in the same period. Manufacturing has lagged far behind the rest of the economy. Duringas a 1. 5 year boom the Trump Administration, but that has dissipated. We have been losing manufacturing jobs. Host what do you. 2 for that for that lag . To guest there has been some uncertainty. It has come around as a result of the trade policy. I think it has had some benefits but it is also adding uncertainty to some businesses. They are reluctant to invest and other things are not getting purchased. That has a spiral effect in manufacturing. Gas,ave seen in oil and ironically when the prices go down a little bit, that means there is probably reduced employment in the refining and other sectors with reduced opportunity. What has happened with respect max hasg and the 737 had some impact in the aerospace supply chain. Factors,combine those it contributed to a bit of weakness. You have overarching factors like the continued strength of the dollar. What does that have to do with manufacturing at all . If the dollar is overvalued, its a lot harder for us to sell our exports to other markets. They are artificially expensive. It makes imports coming into the market cheaper. It displaces Domestic Production as well. That has been a continued trend in manufacturing. There has been a drag on the ability to create manufacturing jobs. Host let me give up the phone numbers for questions for scott paul. 202 7488000 if you work in manufacturing. All others, 202 7488001. Youolks are calling in mentioned 13 Million Manufacturing jobs. Subsectors, the biggest subsectors in this broad category of manufacturing . Guest manufacturing is many things. A lot of people would have an image of a large auto factory. There are some of those. When you couple automobiles and auto parts together, that accounts for about one in every nine manufacturing jobs. Very extensive supply chain. Manufacturing is things like the folks making craft beers. That is manufacturing. It is a small percentage of manufacturing employment but you will have shops like that all around the country doing that. The primary manufacturing categories are durable kids versus nondurable goods. Durable goods are things like automobiles, airplanes, washing machines. Someone will hang onto it for a long time. Nondurable goods or things like processed foods. Food that has some value added to it, thats a manufacturing process. That is considered a nondurable good. Are subjectoods to this Business Uncertainty because people have to eat. People have to buy a lot of these consumer staples. That appointment tends to be a little bit more steady. The durable goods is where it goes up and down and where it is wet blessed by International Trade and Exchange Rates and a lot of things happening around the world. Public health crisis, the coronavirus, that will have an impact. He see the durable goods sector probably more subject to any headwinds you will see in the global economy. Host you have been on the washington journal before. What do you do . Guest the alliance for American Manufacturing has been around since 2007. We are a partnership between the end Steelworkers Union united Steelworkers Union, representing every thing from steel to making sponges and chemicals and paper and tires, and some of the steelworkers employers. We have Business Partners in steel and other sectors. People probably say, labor and business fight with each other all the time, about contracts and issues. There are disagreements at the table but we have found among the steelworkers and the Business Partners there is a lot of commonality on issues like the need to invest in infrastructure, to invest in skills and training. They need to have a trade policy looking out for our domestic concerns. The value of manufacturing overall to the economy and explaining that to people. We have been proud to do that work for 13 years. Americanmanufacturing. Org. Keep it made in usa. The best part is when you come on you can chat with folks in the industries. Michigan. F jackson, go ahead. Caller yes, sir. This economy was going to go from manufacturing to Service Economy. This started in the 1950s under eisenhower. The 1960s they told us we are getting rid of the dirty and the repetitive jobs and going to a Service Economy and we would have more leisure time and more money. All we got was more leisure time. Jump i will let scott paul in. What is your job . Caller im retired from the steel mill and worked there for 25 years. Host thank you for calling in. Scott paul . Guest i think gene raises an important point. A lot of people look back on manufacturing at think the best days are behind it. 1950sly in the manufacturing accounted for half of our economy. It was an extraordinary amount of employment and economic output. Manufacturing did produce some middleclass jobs, which allowed people to have disposable income and they bought things like services. They went to the movies. They took vacations and that strengthened the Service Economy. I thinko seen that is all good. Thats a good evolution for the American Economy. What has not been so good has been the fact that we have seen manufacturing get eroded in part by global competition where we have seen other countries that have tried to mimic the United States manufacturing success, but they did that with a heavy hand. That has a road it our Global Market share of manufacturing eroded our Global Market share of manufacturing. That is part of manufacturings decline as a percentage of our economy that has me troubled. 2019, last quarter of manufacturing as a percentage of our gdp was 11 . That is the lowest it has been since early in the 1930s. It has never been lower than that. Host john, good morning. Caller thank you for your service. Americas single greatest threat is chinas rise to power where u. S. Leadership in business basically facilitated by the Democratic Party, initially the republicans, but now the centrist democrats are for off shoring jobs. Chinasnton started rise to power in 1999 with the w to. Wto. We have trillions of dollars of infrastructure, plus trillions of dollars of money that will be in the federal government coffers, plus trillions of dollars of money that will be in the middle classs pocket that is now in china. Host how did you feel about the trade deal that President Trump signed with china . Caller it is 180 degrees change from the last three president s we had. Bush andton, w. Obama. The centrist democrats are the same as the prereform republicans. They are in the pocket of big business. The trade deal is a step in the right direction. It is the best the president could do considering the corruption that has been and our political infrastructure since bill clinton took office. Host what do you specifically like about it . Caller he is trying to attempt to of reverse the attempt to reverse the trade deficit. He decided patriotically to run for president as opposed to the countable life he would have had before because he saw the great need because of the massive trade deficit which was his number one motivation for running for president. That is the biggest single threat to america, chinas rise to power. I will say i agree with john on chinas threat to our economy and to our security. I think it has been underestimated for far too long. I am a bit less partisan about assigning blame. Steps backke many and look at Richard Nixon with the first steps to open with china, i think in the aftermath of the Tiananmen Square massacre, George Herbert walker bush did not do enough to push back on china. I do agree with john on his assessment of clinton, of george w. Bush and obama on china. I think they counted on dialogue and trying to bring china into the community of nations as a way to respond to that threat. I think it is abundantly clear that did not work. China was going to do what china was going to do. While we are a country that tradees in rulesbased and other mechanisms, it is not necessarily that way in china. We got it wrong for a long time. Host how involved with your group in the creation or negotiations, discussions the white house had leading up to this china trade deal . Guest from the early stages and during the campaigns we told all the candidates back in 2016, here is the challenges with china. Here are possible ways to respond. We did find President Trump and his team were very agreeable in terms of being aggressive to take action. We have seen that in a number of respects. The mechanisms they are using right now, the tariffs in the phase one china deal are a step in that process. I think our advantages to that. In some ways this phase when deal falls really short because less trickyh a few issues designed to help businesses american businesses in china. It will help them. Exportss some sales of if it is fully implement did. We have not seen any implementation so far. It should boost exports of agricultural products, energy products, maybe manufacturing products. That alone will undo some of the damage that was done because of chinas retaliation against our initial tariffs against china. We are getting ourselves up to a point but what is not being addressed, and this is where i think the deal falls short, there is massive intervention by the Chinese Government in the economy. Its businesses receive hundreds of billions and subsidies. 3 of chinese gdp goes into subsidizing its businesses that are owned by the Chinese Government. They dont have the private sector equivalent of a boeing or it is all owned by the Chinese Government. The problem is as skilled as our workers may be, as ingenious as our entrepreneurs, deficient as Business Managers may be, if you can as efficient as Business Managers maybe, its incredibly difficult to do that. That is what a lot of manufacturers have found. Host from alabama, this is michael. Good morning. Are you with us . I can hear you by your phone. One more time. Caller yes. Host go ahead. Ler in response to the hello . In response to the other fellow on before, George Herbert walker bush try to push the nafta but could get it through a democratic congress. Campaignlackluster guaranteeing clinton would win. From what i understand, this is where it worked out. His Campaign Manager had gone to arkansas and told bill clinton he would be the fairhaired golden boy provided he did not screw up. First thing clinton did was he pushed through the same bill George Herbert walker bush could not get through. He pushed through nafta. Host lets go to nafta and the now the usmca. Guest i think for a long time both the establishment, i will call it i did think it was bipartisan. The establishment got it wrong. That included both democrats and republicans. Nafta was hatched in the reagan administration. George Herbert Walker bush largely negotiated. Bill clinton added a few bells and whistles, and and submitted it for implementation to the congress. In 1983 andd enacted in 1994. We saw a massive amount of movement, particularly in the auto parts sector of production from the United States to mexico. What we did not see was nafta building up a mexican middleclass, which was the idea. Like if we have more trade, their workers will get wealthy and will buy more of our products. It turned out to be a completely inadequate way to do that. I think donald trump was right to renegotiate the nafta and usmca, which is not entered into force. The United States but needs to be passed in canada to take effect. It will not solve all the problems. It will, i think, make some progress. We were talking about rules with china. A lot of it depends on how the countries played by the rules laid out. My hope is at the end of the day it will stop the flood of jobs from leaving the United States to mexico based on low wages and it will level the Playing Field a little bit. I have heard the Trump Administration folks talk about this over the last few days. I dont think this will be a massive boost for gdp in the United States. It might have a modest positive effect but i dont think it will be any sort of a massive gdp boost. It makes modest improvements to the rules. I think it was worth passing. We supported it. Call aothing i would permanent transformational fix in trade policy. Host another one of the folks who worked in the Manufacturing Sector is yolanda out of newport news, virginia. Caller how are you doing today . Can you hear me . Host go ahead. Caller i work in newport news for continental. We found out today our warehouse is shutting down, giving us three years and shipping to china. They will shut down the warehouse in South Carolina. We are using a lot of jobs here. They are moving our buildings over to china. Us in newport news. Imagine me starting over again, trying to find another job. We have to do something to keep the jobs here. Host thank you for that call and sharing your story. Guest first of all, im very sorry. Having a plant closure like that is a devastating blow. There is no sugarcoating it. My hope is that the local officials will be doing Everything Possible to help with the adjustment. I will acknowledge it is incredibly difficult to do that successfully. What we have seen in manufacturing as the plants ofsed is that instead workers, particularly Older Workers in their 40s or 50s, and set of them getting that her jobs would often happen them Getting Better jobs would often have fewer benefits, for a many cases they are not employed ever again. There has been really good evidence emerging over the last few years that these kind of plant closures have ripple effects that affect everybody in the community. They affect the Public Services. They have even affected the divorce rates unfortunately. Fhey have led to a whole lot o really dire social consequences. That is why when i am talking to our policymakers in washington i always say, we want to avert these plant closures in any way possible. We should probably raise the costs of what it takes for a company to close a plant. There are a lot of costs that company does not have to bear that the rest of us do. Trade policy does get a little bit of it by helping to level the Playing Field. We also have to impact corporate behavior the way in which we respond to these types of plant also the layoffs, and types of skills, training opportunities we have in place for workers. Economy but we have exceptionally low unemployment, that doesnt mean the Jobs Available are good ones are ones that will be the right fit for everybody. We need to do a much better job at issues like that. Host to give more context to yolandas story, this was the story on continentals closings and job losses announced back in september. Year up to 20,000 jobs would be affected over the next decade by a restructuring jobs at including 740 the newport news facility. The company said as many as 20,000 to over 24,000 jobs will be affected by the end of 2023. Down on bland boulevard in newport news. I believe that is what yolanda was referring to. Sheila in virginia, good morning. Caller good morning. I normally purchase everything americanmade. Recently my dryer broke. I go to the Appliance Store to buy an americanmade product. This election is nothing. One product made in america. Hello . Every time we set our manufacturing to another country, that gives us our of lessmade choice products to purchase. I grew up in new england where the Industrial Revolution started. I watched during the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s the textile manufacturing leave. The Shoe Companies leave. We have all those factories now in massachusetts. There museums they are museums where we could have people working and they turn them into museums. Send the products to another country, we end up paying more. I dont shop at walmart because 90 of the stuff is not americanmade. Where are the americanmade choices . Sheila has raised a number of important points. I do think sheila is not alone. There are a lot of americans who will want to buy an american product. It is true they are incredibly hardtofind sometimes. She referenced walmart. Hes,oure shopping for clote good luck. It will be incredible difficult. Well over 90 of our clothing and apparel is imported. You have to search the internet. You have to go all over the place to try to find americanmade products. They are scarce for a couple of reasons. There wereously that trade deals that made it possible to bring imports and dutyfree. Number two, corporate behavior here. The corporations figured out they can sell the product for price but make it cheaper overseas and are no consequences for it. They did it. Unless you incentivize corporations or punish them for doing the right thing, you will see that. Thething that theoretically trade opening did his Lower Consumer prices for the reckon people. Is lower prices for the American People. You have a lot of options to buy tshirts. When you look at things like footwear and what have you, most of the cost of that is not the production. It is the branding. It is the value of nikes brand or any other iconic brands brand name. You are not paying for the physical product all that much. Pack is a lot to on but there is not unpack but there is not an easy solution. We are not even talking about electronics. The phones, no one has an americanmade smartphone because they dont exist. Host we spent an hour talking to the viewers about the tweet dispute between former president obama and President Trump about who should get credit for the economy right now. In his response, one of the things President Trump pointed to as reasons why he should get credit is that regulations are way down. How have regulations and deregulation impacted the Manufacturing Sector . Guest thats a very good question. The answer is not every regulation is bad. Not every deregulation is necessarily good. Sometimes regulation provides certainty and built up a market for something. Evidence,ook at the what the Trump Administration haveone is certainly slowed the flow of new regulation. That is something they have done. Have they undone a lot of regulations . They havent. Ity have undone some, but has not been anything as breathtaking as what the president would want you to believe. When you look at regulatory costs overall as a factor of manufacturing production, in some industries it is far more significant than others. I will go back to the earlier conversation we had. The much bigger impact you see in manufacturing our exchange are the level Playing Field where we have the same opportunities the self product abroad as folks to coming into this country, the skills of the workforce, how efficient we are, what kind of incentives there are to invest in the modernization of the plants. When you add all of that and also energy costs. Our energy costs are pretty low the United States compared to competitors overseas. Some things on the Balance Sheet favor manufacturing. A few others that dont. Regulations sometimes can tip the scale one way or another. We dont want to go to an extreme getaway. I do think to go to an extreme either way. I dont think it is accurate for the president to say there has been an unleashing for American Manufacturing. Host do you want to weigh in on you should take credit . Guest political economics are dangerous because they dont account for other stuff going on. This is a little bit troubling to me. Assign really going to obama blame for the Great Recession he inherited . If you do, that means manufacturing performance under obama was not great and they lost jobs. But if you look at it from their response to it and how manufacturing was after that, it paints a much different picture. You look at the longest expansion of manufacturing jobs for probably three or four decades that occurred in the Obama Administration. Trump had the good fortune to inherit that. Did someoth president s positive things to help manufacturing. I look back at the Obama Administration and the amount of emphasis they put on innovation and investing in advancement of fracturing and starting the conversation about trading and apprenticeships. That made anna normas difference, a lot an enormous difference, along with rescuing the auto industry. Some plans closed but they helped it rebound some plants closed and they held it rebound. It looked like it was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy. The Trump Administration has also done some positive things for manufacturing and leveled the Playing Field with china leveling the Playing Field with china is a good thing if they follow through. You cant account for Public Health emergencies and other things going on in the world. It is difficult to do that. Both president s deserve some credit for the performance of manufacturing. There are some things that could have been done better. Host does the alliance endorse during the president ial elections . Caller we do not guest we are scrupulously nonpartisan and participated with both white houses and both parties in congress and helping to develop manufacturing jobs. Host dave from ohio. Good morning. You are on with scott paul. Caller top of the morning to you. I have a few inconvenient facts. Corporate debt has increased by 50 since 2008 to 10 trillion. They record 47 of our gdp. Debt is at 14 trillion, a record amount. The average american owes 6,194, at 16. 88 interest rate. The National Debt weve had for this year, 2019, is 1 trillion. It is projected for 2020 to be over 1 trillion. The other things that basically come up is the Industrial Production dropping for the Third Straight month. In my industry the projection is 7. 4 will be that decreased on aerospace and transportation. Theng has suspended manufacturing of the 737. I do not see a rosy picture for American Manufacturing. Host is that your industry, aerospace . Caller yes. I am a purchasing manager for landing gears made for boeing, lockheed, thats my job. Outt i think dave points some data that would be a concern to any economist or person watching the economy. The accumulation of debt. Notenk its important to that our debt load has been transformed somewhat. It used to be a lot of housing debt. That was very evident in the buildup to the Great Recession. It is structured a little differently now. I think that ought to be a concern clearly. Manufacturingbout and the forecast is an important one. If you look at some other data i have a mixed view going forward. I think there are some things we can feel good about. Inventory buildup in manufacturing has started to wane a little bit, which is a good thing. That means folks will have to be making more purchases. Impactncerned about the that the Public Health emergency in china is going to have, both on supply and demand. It will point out a lot of vulnerabilities we have in our supply chain, like with medicine which i think will be very shocking to the American People. There is some mixed signals there. It will depend on which direction the fed thinks things are moving. I am not a fed watcher. I will not be making a production on that. Particularly in aerospace, yes. Boeing plays an outsized role in that. If there is not a solution thatg forward on the max, will have an impact in the aerospace industry. Host the caller gave us a chance to bring up the u. S. Debt clock. 23current National Debt, trillion and counting. 70,719 per citizen of the u. S. That will do it with scott paul. We always appreciate your time. Please come back and join us. Up next, we will ask you what your top Campaign Issue is for 2020. Splitting up the phone lines as usual. Republicans and democrats and independents. The phone lines are on your screen. You should stick around. Coming up at 9 00 this morning eastern, the second stop of our joint washington journala mac and history tv series focusing on American History tv series focusing on d. C. We are on the eve of the 75th in nursery of the start of the battle of the what yuma. We will head to the National Museum of the marine corps. Thats coming up at 9 00 a. M. Eastern. Our cspan campaign 2020 bus team is traveling across the country asking voters what issues should president ial candidates address. The mostlection, important issue is still a rights and civil liberties. Voting rights, reproductive rights, criminal Justice Reform and reproductive freedom. These rights are more important now than ever because we are seeing the being violated left and right. They are just as important as every other issue. The issue most important to me right now is the fact that our veterans do not have housing. I feel as though new hampshire, since it is one of our 50 states, she did more for its veterans. Right now veterans have to either leave and go to vermont or go to massachusetts in order to get the services they need. I dont think that is appropriate. These people make a sacrifice for our country and they should be able to have the services when they come home. Im interested in having the candidates focus on environment of policy. Rejoining the paris accords. What they will do with Carbon Emissions and incentivizing renewables. The most important thing to me is the truth. We need to work on gun violence, health care, college education. We have a lot of things to work on but when the senate votes openly and against the truth in a partisan manner, it is time for us to return to our roots, face facts, listen to witnesses. It is just time to face the truth and move forward and we cant do that if we dont open our eyes and pay attention. One of the most important issues to me is education, including the current cost of education for postgraduate and graduate work. And also the concerning from theon coming out trumpet administration with regards to k12. Betsy devos has not done a lot for teachers. I have seen it and for me education is number one and that is why i am voting. Voices from the road on cspan. Washington journal continues. Host about 20 minutes here on washington journal for more of your phone calls or questions in this segment. What is your top issue for campaign 2020 . Phone lines as usual split by political party. Republicans, 202 7488001. Democrats, 202 7488000. Independents, 202 7488002. Start calling and now as we show you some of the headlines from todays papers. This is from the wall street journal ahead of the nevada caucus. Candidates storm nevada. A picture there of joe biden and tom steyer meeting at one of those Campaign Forums in las vegas ahead of the caucuses in nevada. Speaking of joe biden, he is the subject of a story from the New York Times. Biden looks to nevada for a comeback, noting his campaign has deployed staff from super tuesday states to lend extra manpower in nevada. They have 130 staff numbers on the ground. He is leading on a roster of highprofile endorsers, campaigning here day after day and putting focus on outreach to voters of color. He has been airing Television Ads in nevada focusing on gun violence and health care, but significant he outspent by senator Bernie Sanders of vermont whose fundraising has far outpaced the former Vice President. He also faces competition from billionaire tom steyer, who has outspent any other candidate. After nevada the attention focuses and shift quickly to South Carolina and the primary there taking place a week from the nevada caucuses. Then the sprint is on to the following super tuesday. Taking your phone calls amid campaign 2020, what is your top issue . Mary from potomac, maryland, democrat . Caller my top issue is medicare, medicaid. Making sure that is there for the next generation. Also the cost of prescription drugs. Trying to get a Health Care System that encompasses all the things. The other thing i wanted to mention is i would hope they would change the primary system so that it is a oneday event instead of something that spans byths because of the fact the time you when your candidate to get there, they may have dropped out of the race. Host a1day primary in every state. Do away with caucuses and the schedule . Caller absolutely. Host should be a federal holiday . Caller absolutely so people could get to the polls and have pulls where a can get to. Host thank you for the call. Patrick out of coffee springs, alabama. Republican. Caller good morning. Aint these the greatest days of our lives . I love america and donald trump. God bless the u. S. Idea, being in alabama we will vote out doug jones and mealy. Immediately. That will give us a victory in the senate. I wish we would pick up more senatorial seat so we dont have someone like mitt romney or jeff flake. I dont know why he always goes his own way. Up the house of representatives because america then the the idiocy idiocy of nancy pelosi and adam schiff and the impeachment thing. Talk about a partisan operation. That her little hissy fit thenng up the speech t her little hissy fit. Host will the house be in caller paul ryan announced he will retire. He did not help donald trump one bit sp grove the house. 200 democrats, 234 to majority in the house. One independent. Republicans need 18 seats to take back the majority in the house. Caller that would be great because you have 40 retiring. Trumpwonhem are in districts. I believe the house is definitely in play and donald trump can really get this going. Host that is patrick in alabama. Some news from the campaign trail. Michael bloomberg has qualified for wednesdays democratic president ial debate in las vegas, paving the way for the former new york mayors first appearance on stage with his rivals. That is the story on your screen. Bloomberg met the National Committee mandated polling threshold today with a survey finding the former new york mayor at 19 nationally. Fourth poll had over 10 nationally. Bloombergs second in the pole behind Bernie Sanders, who was well ahead of the rest of the field with 31 support. William from rochester, new york, independent. That wemy top issue is have to expose the democrats and now with globalist puppet bloomberg jumping in, they are a front for the globalist. This is their last hole to keep this country into a one world system and trump is a wrench in the machine. I want my fellow americans to understand the Democratic Party is a front for a socialist world government. They are desperate. Now with bloomberg getting tossed into the raised, he will be the leading darling in the next few days. He will be the leading Mainstream Media darling because he has got to be. The thing i would like to be trump do im not a republican or democrat. Im an american. I love trump. I have no problem with this guy. I would like to see them get the u. S. Out of the u. N. I would like to see him destroy the epa. They do nothing to county level cant handle. Osha is useless. Take the irs into a National Sales tax. Host dan out of alexandria, virginia. Caller that last guy sounded like an anarchist. My top issue in 2020 like most democrats would be to make sure we get trump out. Ok. A few things on my mind. Completeomplete the ignoring Climate Change is not a good strategy for, i dont know, surviving as a species. Two, everybody talks with how strong the economy is. It is not strong for everybody. Second of all, if you talk about job numbers, obama created more jobs in the last three years of his president then trump did in the first three years of his presidency. That is a new statistic out and it is accurate and true. Everybody talks about trump like he has some savior or something on the economic front. Is it worth it . Is it worth it if he is destroying Everything Else about what makes this country what it used to be . Host that is dan in alexandria, virginia. Michael bloomberg rising in the polls. With the new poll today he will likely be even more the target of the focus from his fellow democrats. It has already happened. It happened over the weekend at the nevada clark county Democratic Party kickoff caucus gala in las vegas. Bernie sanders took aim at former new york mayor michael bloomberg. This is what he had to say. [video] let me also say a word about the current campaign, and say that regardless of how much money a multibillionaire candidate is willing to spend on his election, we will not create the energy and excitement we ifd to defeat donald trump that candidate pursued, advocated for and enacted racist policies like stop and frisk. [applause] it forced communities of color in his city to live in fear. We will not defeat donald trump of the candidate who in 2015, stated, and i quote, i am not in favor of raising the minimum wage. We will not defeat donald trump with a candidate who opposed modest proposals during Barack Obamas presidency to raise taxes on the wealthy while advocating for cuts to medicare and Social Security. We will not defeat donald trump with a candidate who instead of holding the croak on wall street accountable, blamed the end of racist policies such as redlining for the financial crisis. The simple truth is that mayor bloomberg, with all his money, will not create the kind of excitement and energy we need to have the voter turnout we must have to defeat donald trump. Host Bernie Sanders in nevada from this past weekend. He is the front page of todays New York Times looking at other candidates taking aim at bloomberg. Rivals take aim at bloomberg armed with his past remarks. That story by jeremy peters. Within 24 hours there has been comments and attacks about redlining and a second tape from 2015 in which bloomberg unapologetically defends stop policing in new york. He apologized for the practices in november, a week before he entered the race. His team seems to be prepared for some of these attacks. If you want to read more, its a front page story in the New York Times. This is Michael Bloombergs latest ad going after Bernie Sanders supporters. [video] [bell tolling] it is vitally important for those of us who hold different views to be able to engage in a civil discourse. That ad from the bloomberg campaign. We are asking what your top issue is for campaign 2020. Linda from columbia, maryland, republican. Caller good morning. My question is how are you going to pay for it . That is what sums it up for me. Bill that didus not do anything to stimulate growth. Most of the cities and states that got that many just use it to pay off their bills and Everybody Knows that. They want to give out free tuition, free health care, Free Education and have wideopen borders. They have lost their mind. Although i used to be a democrat, todays party will destroy america. Host when did you change from being a democrat to a republican . Caller i was slowly going that way. I voted for hillary in the primary between her and barack obama. Since then, i went independent. Now i am definitely a republican. Host when did you last vote for a democrat in the general election . 2008 . Caller i did not vote in the general election. I was concerned about obama. Host that is linda in maryland. Kelly out of bluefield, west virginia. Independent. Caller i think it will be Social Security and medicare for me. I think the politicians really speak out of both sides of their mouths. They will talk about cutting Social Security and medicare and then turn around and say we will get 50 billion to the palestinians, 100 billion to ukraine and many more billions of dollars to all these other countries. How can you do that and let your own people go down the drain . As baby boomers, more than start retiring, i think they will be a big voting block. I think the politicians better start paying attention because they will come to the front. Thank you. Jersey at if new out of new jersey. Caller my think is to get this man out of the white house. Every time the republicans have a second party, the economy seems to be affected seriously. My concern is about womens reproduction. Im also concerned about the health care. He said when he became president , day one, we would have a plan. We still dont have a plan. America, we need to wake up and get this man out of the white house. Thank you thank you. Host front page of the washington times. President trump heading to california, home of his fiercest opponents. Republicans get a target painted on your back is the sub headline. California has honed of President Trumps least favorite democratic lawmakers. They name adam schiff, nancy pelosi, Maxine Waters when it comes to specifically what President Trump is doing in california. Two days in southern california. The president will receive an update on the summer olympics in los angeles, meet with farmers about water access, hold Campaign Fundraisers in Beverly Hills and at the moran show mirage home of building or software cofounder larry ellison. It is part of a western swing that will take President Trump to arizona, nevada, colorado where he will continue his pattern of grabbing some of the media spotlight away from the democrats running of the democratic president ial primary. Oregon. Om lakeview, caller thank you for taking my call. I was going to comment it was carter and later bill clinton who lowered the Bank Lending Standards that led to the housing crash. They lent money to people they never should have. When the jobs were leaving that pay high taxes, the government lost the tax revenue, they created this false Housing Market to make up for the taxes they lost. I will end this by telling you the tarp loan money, the whole reason why we did that was to keep from having a severe n to bailout the parties. The American People would have been livid. I hope we will have this talk on cspan and cover a little bit. Thank you for taking my comment today. Host kathleen from cincinnati, ohio. Independent. Caller good morning to you. Calling from cincinnati, ohio. Im very much in a republican area. Some democrats of course. My Biggest Issue is im a global traveler. When im over in europe and people find out im from the United States, it always ends up in a conversation. As the world is looking at the United States they think we have gone crazy. They dont understand how we could allow a man who they view as a bully and a great fool to be governing ignorant fool to be covering our country. Perspectivependent i understand my republican side of the house and why they are so focused. They view the president as a bully being a victim. That he is being bullied. I personally think the man needs to go and i am 100 going for bloomberg. I think bloomberg is a successful businessman. I think he can help to unite both sides of the house, republican and democrat and bring us together towards a common goal and restore some decency to the office of the presidency. Thank you for taking me. Host kathleen and ohio. The question we have been asking, your top issue for campaign 2020 . David in manchester answers via text. Eating trump. Beating trump. Caller thank you for taking my call. Isissue i think is important to address marijuana. In a threepronged manner. Number one, remove it from schedule one classification. Number two, expunge all possession charges across the country. Number three, offer up deke was asian or legalization decriminalization or legalization. It would get people in questionable states out to vote. If the republicans control the gun issue, i guess we can control this. It may provide the margin that would get us a win. We have to pull out all the stops. If we dont do that, we will be disappointed. Host mike in virginia, republican. Caller good morning. My issue is health care. What amazes me is there is a lot of republicans that continue to call up and act like they dont need health care knowing that and man will cut it out they will just sit there and i like that is not going to happen. The debt exploding. Every time a here a republican call on this network i just say liar, liar. It is crazy when you stick your head in the sand and they complain it is dark. Republicans, wake up. You suppose a christians, wake up. You were not christians. You are just people who say you are. Host rover from virginia, democrat line. Virginia. From caller the only country that would loan any money to trump is russia. Deer park, illinois. We better wake up because trunk insigh trump cant say anything bad about puntin because to send putin because eos him so much money. Up next, the second stop in a weeklong American History tv series focusing on d. C. Area museums, highlighting collections that explore the american story today on the stoe of the 75th anniversary of the start of the battle of iwo jima, we will head to the National Museum of the marine corps. First, a 2006 interview with woody williams, honored for actions on iwo jima. In this clip, he talks about the moment the American Flag was raised during the battle. Up, we had flag went no idea what was going on. We had no idea what was going on. To pay too busy attention to what anybody else was doing. I didnt know what was going on. I guess i had my back to mount sarah bocce. Raised up, around me jumped up, and started firing their weapons into the air, screaming and yelling and that kind of stuff. And i really thought everybody had lost their minds for a second. I could not figure out what was going on. And then i caught on what was going on because they were on the mountain and i looked, and there is old glory on top. I jumped up and started doing the same dumb thing they were doing, firing my weapon in the air and jumping and screaming. A weapon. Ying i jumped up and started firing in the air and yelling and screaming like everybody else. How many marinesthe we lost at that particular moment. But it changed the whole attitude about the whole thing. From the exhibit space inside the National Museum of the marine corps in quantico, virginia, we are joined by marine corps history chief Edward Nevgloski, and owen connor. On this eve of the 75th anniversary of the battle of iwo jima, explain why there are two historic flags in that hallway that you are sitting in right now. We wanted to take the opportunity to make sure that coul the mountain. Since it is the anniversary, and we wanted to make the effort to give people this opportunity to see them, as we talk at the museum, both flags are important to the marine corps. Talk about the first flag being the most important flag. That is the veterans that were at the battle that so it lifted. The second that the second flag is the First American major media event. It is iconic. The flags wentow up, when the change happened, and how far into the battle of iwo jima this to face. It was shortly after the , aines had landed threepronged attack. They wanted to isolate the mountain. When it was isolated, they sent a control a patrol to the top , not knowing what they would find, but when they reach the summit, they wanted to let everyone know they cleared the peak and they planted the first flag on the island. This flag was a smaller flag. It was not large enough to be seen, so it was immediately decided to put a larger flag on Mount Suribachi. We have heard numerous veterans telling us the moment they saw theflag go up, you heard ships surrounding the island honking their horns, you saw marines cheering. Humorously, a lot of veterans we have spoken to pointed out that they were busy trying not to be killed during the battle and kept their heads down, so you hear a lot of Great Stories from when the flag first went up. Host we heard one of those first stories from woody williams. You are sitting next to Edward Nevgloski, the marine corps history chief. How much longer did the battle go on after the flag was raised over Mount Suribachi, and why did this moment become the moment that symbolizes the marine corps so much so that the moment that is represented in the marine corps statue in arlington, virginia . The battle will go on, would rage on for another month. The battle entailed hundreds of thousands of casualties. Raisingknow, the flag at the outset of the battle, it was at a time when the marine corps is taking a significant number of casualties. Whatattle on par with estimates had dictated. But there was also a sense of press,and continuing to and the flag raising represents that. For the marines that did see the flag raised, the sailors that were out at sea, it was symbolic in that the fight has just begun, it is going to continue together as a team come as a nation. This island can be seized. Iteremoniously in some became a calling charge, if you will. It was something that motivated the marines and continued to resignation to resonate in their minds as they pushed on for another month. Host tomorrow is the 75th anniversary of the start of the battle of iwo jima, the landings beginning february 19 of 1945, 26,000 american casualties, including nearly 7000 dead. Of the 20,000 japanese defenders, only 1100 survived the battle. Medals of honor awarded during for actions during the battle. The topic as we focus on the National Museum of the marine corps this money. As we focus on the battle of iwo jima, asking viewers to call in as well come on special phone lines split up regionally. If you are in the eastern or 748,al time zones, 202, 8000. A special line marines and marine family members, 202748 8002. Go ahead and start calling and now as we show you some of the scenery of the museum. Owen connor is one of the gallery curators at that museum. Can you explain how the raising of the flag over Mount Suribachi is incorporated into the dna of the museum that you are sitting in . Second flag when rosenthal snapped the image, i often emphasize it is really this iconic media moment. Early in the war we would send correspondence to the pacific and it could take weeks, months for things to get back. But when it comes to the flag being taken, it is literally from the battlefield, the front pages of america. Within about two days, International Dateline times. It is almost a viral moment. It is ingrained in the museum, from the architecture that you see and from the way it has traveled through time. I always say it takes on bigger meaning within the marine corps. It symbolizes victory in world war ii, it came at the right time. Patents tanks were rolling across germany, the allies were winning in europe, and then s tanks this patton were rolling across germany, the allies were winning in europe. It is really ingrained in everything the marine corps does, because that moment captures the spirit of our country, captures the marine corps mentality. It is such a beautiful artistic image that rises above the moment. Nevgloski, there were 700,000 that participated in the war of the battle of iwo jima. How much were marines . 70,000, 80,000 that is the initial landing, and then post landings and later. Marines74,000 to 75,000 will touch the ground, and that includes the navy core men are with them. In addition, the u. S. Army soldiers that were supporting. Host what was the strategic importance of the battle . Considering the losses we talked about already, could the island have been bypassed in the larger war effort . Guest it is a good question. Is,importance of iwo jima you have to understand the larger picture. When you think of the campaign of the pacific with the marines and the navy, and of course the United States, the allies, it is all about logistics. It is about getting enough combat power and what i mean about combat power is your forces, your equipment, your firepower, your bullets and bandaids, if you will. The pacific is a very large theater. You have to build up enough power, combat power, for the ultimate objective, which is mainly japan, the complete capitulation of the Japanese Forces. In order to do that, the allies are going to have to make a slow, methodical approach, seizing key strategic islands along the way. And of course as that is occurring, we have to pick and choose these islands based on what those islands present to us. Shipsy have ports where can anchor and offload . Preconstructed that the marines can move in and take over . Airfields, for example. As we get closer to mainland japan, iwo jima is that fortress in the middle of the pacific that is going to stop our tocraft from delivering mainly japan. If we can cz iwo jima, we if we can cz iwo jima, we can save hundreds of thousands of lives and hundreds of aircraft. Itthe key is to think of logistically, and then what iwo jima resents for our ability to seize the mainland. Host the force brought by americans when they landed there, what was the japanese goal . Did they think they could win the fight . The Japanese Forces believed early on when they started to develop defenses on iwo jima that there was a chance that they could delay us and potentially defeat us. As the war lingers on, the belief is that the japanese probably will not have the industrial power, the industrial might to hold us off. So it goes from a defense and delay to an attrition style defense. , the defenses there are built 28 years earlier, and they continue to be improved with each passing year. By the time the leader of the jima,se force gets to iwo he essentially knows that this is the last stand. Japan is not going to be able to hold out, so the idea is to kill as Many Americans as you can with the potential to delay, but knowing that in the end, that is going to be his final resting place. Host live from the National Museum of the marine corps, we are joined by Edward Nevgloski, marine corps history chief, owen connor, world war gallery world war ii gallery curator. We have the special lines for marines and family members 2027488002. Jessica, good morning. Caller thanks for taking my call. I wanted to say i so much appreciate the work of the marine corps in trying to educate the public about the war in the pacific. I dont think the public is aware of the war in the pacific thatch as the other areas saw battle throughout the world. So i am very appreciative of that. Thei will be thinking about people who sacrificed their while the week nowledgment of image ima of iwo jima is being recognized. I debt was in the civic as a marine scout. He survived, but all that said, thank you so much and good luck. Host we noted the 75th anniversary of the beginnings of the landings at iwo jima begin tomorrow. Mr. Connor, what is going to be happening at the museum there throughout these days, the 75th anniversary . Guest we are really excited. The 22nd, 23rd, we will be showing large numbers of artifacts from the battle, highlighting what we really have collected since we opened in 2006 it from my own personal collection, the collection i curate here, we are highlighting particularly the Valley Metals and the sacrifice, the personal stories of the marines involved. One of the things i noticed since we have collected here, we tried to document the stories of each individual as much as the battle itself. There is a trend that involves in world war ii with the marine corps, particularly by wars and end, realizing that we are running out of men to fight these battles, and the number of metals that you have, to see trends where they are 17yearold enlistees, or they are later marines who are drafted, who are family men in their 30s. So by far the number of casualties you see reflected in these metals that will be displaying is reflected in the human toll. That the generation of world war ii, we are so focused on American Pride and what we accomplished, but we also have to understand that these are real people and they are marines that all gave up something that really there is a human toll to it, and we had our limits as a country, and this is something that we want to highlight those individual stories and faces this weekend. Individuals are viewers just saw from the cases in your exhibit space was the navy cross of john as alone silone. Basilone, any gunner knows about john. He will receive the medal of honor as a machine gun squad leader during the battle for guadalcanal. Andill depart the theater go back as part of the bond drive, and then later on while he is an instructor at Camp Pendleton teaching future marine machine gunners, he will return to the site, return to the pacific theater, and he will land on iwo jima, and he will be killed in the war, and get the navy cross. Wereter the marines that trained in Camp Pendleton, california, becoming back to the pacific and landed on iwo jima, where the marines he was killed with months later. Host we mentioned before, some 27 medals of honor were given out for actions on iwo jima at how many of the individuals who received those 27 medals made it off the island the life . Doing the math, the 27ans math of deaths, 13 or 14 were posthumous awards to marines. 27 for one battle alone sort of speaks to the volume. Just the savagery of the conflict of 24 battalion commanders, 14 were wounded or killed in a. The uncommon valor, the common virtue, it is certainly not hollow words. It is absolutely true. Those and one of battalion commanders, Lieutenant Colonel chambers received to the medal of honor, one of the more popular stories. The medal of honor at iwo jima consumes 80 of the medals of honor that will be received by the marine corps during the war. So when you consider those staggering numbers, aside from the casualties, it is amazing the ferocity of the fight, and just the absolute heroism. These are the stories that we know about. The stories that we dont know, the things that happened that remain between those marines, the eyewitnesses, there are probably 27 more medals of honor that we just dont know about. Marines the line for and family members, this is john out of kitty hawk, north carolina. Good morning, john. Caller would morning. Thank you for having them on today. This is very special for my family. We were a fivestar family in world war ii. Marines at iwo jima. My grandfather, thomas hines, was wounded by a sniper, and luckily survived. Youst want to say thank from multiple generation marines, we really appreciate it. Host john, thank you for the call. Mr. Nevglosk, what does a fivestar family mean . Guest you have five family members there. The goldstar is if one of those family members is killed. To see a flag in the window, which is what most americans did at the time, a small flag that would be displayed in the window of their house, and for each service member, deployed in theater for being in the war, there was a star. So that is the significant contribution from that family. Host john is on the line for marines and family members from illinois. Good morning. Hi, this is john. My dad was on iwo jima, i was a marine in vietnam. Going through Old Newspaper articles that my mom saved, my dad has been dead for 40 years. I am going through newspaper articles, and here is an article that my mom saved from 1944, 45. I guess it is 1945. It is an article that says my dad got the purple heart on iwo jima. Within that article, it also mentions another neighborhood of chicago, the neighborhood, a fellow named maccarthy. Im almost certain it is mccarthy. He got the medal of honor. An old yellow piece of newspaper article. Giving aecall a fellow metal to a medal to a marine . It is such a gorgeous place. All of you jar heads have got to go see it. God bless america. Who ha for jar heads. Edward nevgloski, for you, sir. I do not know if it is this particular one, but i will certainly look into it. I really appreciate the fact that the gentleman calls me steeper that is such a marine corps thing. Calls me me ski ski. If you are a marine and your last name ends with s k. I. A. , you will certainly be known as ski. Host owen connor is the world war ii gallery coordinator at the National Museum of the marine corps, joining us this morning into special edition of the washington journal, brought to you by the washington journal American History tv. As we explored d. C. Area museums and the american story. Esther connor, coming back to the mr. Connor, my back to the exhibit, related to iwo jima, i want to talk about a picture of some glasses, pens and a brush that are in a case there. Can you tell the story specifically of those glasses . As a curator, we are always collecting personal stories, and their option their object that meant something to marines in the battle. It also gives them an opportunity to talk about the marines themselves and the characters. Williamhe characters, odom he was better known to his friends as wild bill from bougainville, and he was a young marine who enlisted in 19. He had been previously wounded in the battle of saipan. When he fought in iwo jima, he had gathered artifacts that meant something to him, and some of these were captured japanese personal effects. He wanted to tell the story about how even at the worst and darkest of times, marines could find dark humor in the events. He would tell me the story about , they labeled them tojos glasses, and when the marines were pinned down in the action that day, he and his friends entertained themselves, waving the glasses over the berm at the japanese snipers that were taking fire at them. As they related the story, humorously, by the end of the day, they had spent most of the day pinned down, and a young southern had crawled up to their position and was looking for some heroism, and he decided he could take out the japanese sniper. Bill and his friends pummeled the young marine quickly and told him not to fire, which caused the marines confusion. He said that if they shut the replacethey would just him with somebody who might be able to hit something. They were happy that they had tojos glasses that we keep them alive a little bit longer. I thought it was a wonderful story. Host how much of your collection comes from donated items, and is it something that continues to grow, especially now, as we are getting to a time where we are losing so many world war ii veterans . Absolutely, and that is what means so much to me. People see this Wonderful Museum and they expect that the marine corps has always been collecting these things. It really we opened in 2006, and this has made such a wonderful it has given us such a wonderful opportunity to add to our collection. These stories that individuals can relate, just bring in naturally through our doors, the vast majority of our donations come directly from the families. Sadly, until recently the veterans themselves would bring the object in. That is the thing that is so powerful, to be able to speak to that marine and their families, for them to share the photos of him, his accomplishments in the war, the war stories, i talk to people when they donate and it is an opportunity to build a time capsule to their loved ones, there marines. So that the marine history is not lost. Our museum sort of serves that purpose in allowing that to be documented and saved for future generations. The flags behind you . Were they in a private collection or private hands . The mostankfully, important artifacts are the iwo jima flex. The are flags. Despite intels claiming that their relative may have obtained the real one or something humorous along those lines, we know for a fact that the marine corps has possession of these on some of the earliest correspondence from headquarters from the marine corps showed these marine flags were sent to quantico at an early marine corps museum, as early as april of 1945, so it was quickly recognized that these flags were of vital importance. In fact, they sent three flags back to headquarters at marine corps, Quantico Marine corps base, and basically the first flag, the second fly, and the third flag were over a Division Cemetery at the time. Very important artifacts to us. Taking your phone calls as we come up on 9 30 on the east coast with special phone lines. Marines and family members, 2027488002. Otherwise, split up by time zone. Dakota,rdeen, south this is jim. Caller how you doing, guys . Host doing well, jim. Good morning. Caller i just want to say you guys are studs. I really love you. Have had a number of uncles who fought in a number of wars the korean war, what were two. A number of things. I dont have a whole lot to say because i am kind of emotional. I just respect this country so i think it is just the best country in the world, in history. God, i love you guys. The thing is that i wanted to uncles, i just lost my last week. He thought, you know. I never had the chance to fight, but i would fight for this country. I would fight for this country. Sharing yourou for story, and very sorry for your loss. Mr. Connor, talking about people getting emotional, i wonder what the scene is there, especially flags. T of the iwo jima is that something that happens, as you watch people go through that exhibit . Guest absolutely. Our museum is entertaining. There are a lot of things in the museum designed to sort of captivate peoples minds and imagination. It always inspires me when people come to the world war ii gallery. Suddenly there is a somber reverence when you realize what you are looking at. Callers phone call comments about being an american, i think that unifying aspect between the rosenthal photo and seeing the authenticity of the flag, it hits people hard. Another aspect of the gallery over your shoulder, if you are looking at the flag, we have an exhibit that basically has an insignia for each corpsman and marine that was killed in the battle, and it is a real tangible sort of evidence of the severity of the conflict and the savagery of the fighting when you can put your hands on each one of these ornaments and you realize it is a life that was lost in the battle, it is sort of unifying to us all as americans as a really important thing. I am glad that people have that reverence for the flag and that they can see that. The image really is symbolic of us all as americans, and in almost the same sense, the marines forward. Line this is sandy, on the for marines and family members. Caller concerned about the marines, my father went out in 1942 to the south pacific. Know, and where there many all over in iwo jima . Accounted for . Guest absolutely. Host Edward Nevgloski, go ahead. Guest absolutely. ,ur africanamerican marines munford point means, definitely were represented on iwo jima. They provided logistical support, helped to bring casualties back, brought water and food to the front lines. But over time, even the africanamerican marines would find themselves rushed to the front and fighting right alongside their white and hispanic others. The munford point marines were represented and represented well during the 36day battle. Guest they are a very important part of the museum story, world war ii gallery. We recently enhanced aspects to tell the story. Iwo jima is sort of the culmination of their history, where they were assigned to defense battalions, combat roles, and were not given the full support necessarily of our country. But as the war progressed, there were signs of these ammunition and depot companies, and they were not intended to be frontline troops, but they go these they go to these secondary positions and they went to the front. It is a story that we do document throughout the gallery, and their journey through world war ii, becoming accepted as full marines in america. It is a really important story. That i will add to that the marine is going to tell you, especially the marine under fire , that there are no politics. There is no social agenda. There is none of that when the shooting starts. It does not matter who the person is to your left and right and what their skin color is. That will be ingrained in a lot of marines minds from that point forward. Iwo jima is kind of like that steppingstone. From there, the integration of africanamerican marines into allwhite units it will take its roots there at iwo jima. And i think that is a significant part of the american story, the american experience. Host delmonte, california. This is david on that line for marines and family members. Good morning. Caller good morning. Semper fi. I served with the army and marines. My wife served for one week at Camp Pendleton. Withd the honor of serving a congressional medal of honor winner. He is in his 80s and he was a young guy. My grandmothers stepbrother served at bella wood and in world war i. We ended up being stationed in germany. Willie williams is a great american. God bless him and god bless the marine corps. Semper fi. Host do you happen to remember any of the poem that your wife wrote about Willie Williams . , no, but she now starts off as saying he is a young guy. She says he served his country and never asked why. That is what everybody is supposed to do it he was a young guy when he went over there. My god we were sitting there and he had the congressional medal of honor with him. He shared it with us. He was the guest of honor and we did not even know that. When they called him over, he said i am not leaving this table yet. Im not ready. By the way, i served in iwo jima and i have the right to do what i want to do. God bless him. Thank you. Host thank you for your phone call. , we showed aski at the start of the segment a video clip of Willie Williams. Can you tell the rest of the story . Guest as far as the citation, his medal of honor . Host please. Guest he is in a position as an nco, a corporal at iwo jima, where the last thing you want to do is get held up in a position under enemy fire peered once the enemy pins you down, you have to be able to break the enemys momentum there and sometimes it takes the actions of one individual marine. Being his position and stature as a small unit leader, he knows that that pressure is on him. He has got to pick up and move forward, getting his marines out from underneath the enemy fire. What he will do is make several very daring decisions and charges at enemy positions. Machine gun positions. Positionsn that are encased in concrete and he will do that with small arms, flora rifle, with a flame with a flamethrower. At one point he is able to reach a pull box and stick his weapon inside the pillbox while the machine gun is still firing at him. He also has machine guns at different angles, different positions that can support the one pillbox he is trying to destroy. His marines see that, and they immediately think, we cannot allow woody to go out there by himself, and on top of that, he is our leader and he is setting the example. The follow me kind of idea that marine corps ncos represent. His charge is there, across fire also targeted by artillery and mortar fire. And of course, he doesnt have the ability to see 360 he cannot see everything that is going on to his left and right, but he certainly can feel the enemy fire targeted on him. Amazing, daring act, that if there was anything greater than the medal of honor, he certainly should be considered for it. Host back to phone calls per this is dan out of falling waters, west virginia. Good morning. Caller good morning. I would just like to also say that it is a Wonderful Museum. It is close to Quantico Marine base, and i have been to quantico. Hall, therelejeune is a plaque dedicated to general lejeune, and in the writings of it, congress wanted to disband the marine corps after world war isand general lejeune credited with saving the marine corps so they could fight greater fights later. Thank you. That is just a comment. Nevgloski, seems like a perfect time to jump in here. Guest there are probably at least a dozen times where the marine corps as a Services Organization is looked at as redundant on the american taxpayer. For example, the marines are a small force. We are restricted primarily to ships and naval stations throughout the 1700s and 1800s. We will assist the army in expanded land campaigns, we will seize islands, we will do very. Mall armylike tasks as we enter world war i, the marine corps is in the process of transitioning from being more or less an augment to the army and the navy to be incompletely maritime and conducting advanced operations that we will conduct in world war ii. Then what where one happens, and the marine corps finds itself a short thousands of marines fighting almost as if it was a second land army. That will happen throughout our history. From the result is that politicians will question do we need a second lane army . Is there another mission . Even before the marines landed at okinawa, there is a determination on monday army and the navy that the marine corps will go away. It will be absorbed by the other branches. And we will have a collection of very senior decorated marines that will go before the halls of congress, known as the chowder society, that basically put the marine corps story out there for the sake of our survival. We will survive, public law will be written and the marine corps will stay a separate branch and have its own mission. That is what we execute to this day. But the caller is correct, there are a number of times where the marine corps is almost absorbed by the other branches. Host this morning on the washington journal, focusing on the mission of iwo jima come on the eve of the 75th anniversary of the beginning of the landing. Mr. Connor, we have been highlighting some of the exhibits you have on display down there at the National Marine corps museum. One of them is a helmet with a pretty incredible amount of damage to it. Can you tell us about that helmet . Sorter ae helmets stark testimony the helmet is the of a stark testimony of savagery of the battle. A marine, 30 years old, a member of the battalion, struck by enemy fire on the first day of the battle thankfully, if you look at it, you would have concerns, but he survived. Severe lacerations to his head, but he was evacuated from the island shortly after his injuries, and he donated the helmet to us here and his family donated the helmet to us, and thankfully he lived to the ripe old age until 1969 when he passed away of natural causes. But within our collection, there are numerous helmets and artifacts like that. That are sort of a testimony to just how awful the invasion was those are those kinds of things, the mementos that you have. Fairly recently we took in a collection from a young marine, who was wounded in the battle, and still had his pocket contents in the uniform, the dungarees. You could still find his cigarettes and chocolate wrappers and things from the day he was wounded that were there. These other kinds of artifacts that we have here that sort of just capture those moments in time. Hopefully they will affect our viewers the way they affect us. Host back to our lines for family members of marines. Good morning. Yes, good morning. I am a descendent of navajo. My father was with the fifth marine division, third battalion, 27 rings at iwo jima. Their role was to secure the airfields and send out the code when the flag went up on mount ,uribachi with the 28 marines and the code went like this. [speaking native american language] that means Mount Suribachi. When they say over and out, it says the rabbit went home. So they came in on red beach, the second wave with radios. So i wanted to tell you that. You might have some information there at your museum, your anniversary. Thank you. Host stay on the line for a second pair it i will let edward lasky jump on nevgloski jump on. Guest they were our native american brothers that were able to come through their dialect, through their language, provide the ability for us to pass information that could not be deciphered by the japanese intelligence, and what an asset it proved to be. In addition to that, the native americans were some of the most fierce fighters. Whole in many ways, that native american philosophy of protecting your ground, standing your ground, fighting for the person to your left and right, meshed so well with being a u. S. Marine. Hats off to the code talkers and everything they brought to the fight. Host go ahead, mr. Connor. Debuting anuseum is enhancement in the next few months, focused on navajo code talkers. I think it is one of those under told stories. It has become a cliche to talk about their contributions in the sense that they did this word substitution. But what the exhibit is going to concentrate on is the code aspect of it, that it is not just something that was sort of a simple rudimentary thing, but it is a cryptologic story. I think that has been under told in the world war ii code talker narrative, and it is so wonderful to hear the caller actually speaking in navajo. And they are not literal translations of things, they are actually quite fascinating what they were doing from a cryptologic standpoint. We really owe them a lot. It is an amazing story. Ask before going to you go, do you remember what the codeword was for iwo jima, and could you speak it . I dont have the code right now, but i do have semper fi. Host how do you say that . Caller semper fi goes like this [speaking navajo language] suribachi semper fi. Host thank you so much for calling in this morning. We appreciate that. Kevin out of clearwater, florida. Good morning. Caller good morning. My father was with the navy underwater demolition, fraud men. He was in on the invasion of iwo jima. He said they were clearing away for the marines they were clearing a way for the marines. The marines were right on the spot. He said that after we did our job, we had to go in with them. We had to fight, this was an invasion, the mission, and he beginning, hehe said to the left and the right we were being slaughtered. He said i did not know if i was going to die, i just wondered when. He said it took so long to get to the top, so many days to the said when it, he was all over, he said for the most part it was such a bunch of young guys laying on the beach , my men many young guys and i walked to the beach. ,ne soldier spoke of heroics you know, and he said when he came back, you know, he said that is the reason why i would never go to the beach with the family, because when i would go to the beach, iwo jima would all come back to me. And i said like it is never really over . And he said sometimes. The battle of iwo jima, he described it as being in other battles, but for me iwo jima was the worst because it was so narrow and the enemy was right there, so close to us. Sheerd it was 46 days of terror for me. And he said at night, the japanese would sneak up, and it was so dark, and try to kill some of our soldiers. It is so interesting listening to your show because you are hearing different perspectives. Sameverybody went to the experience went through the same experience of iwo jima. In some ways it is so much worse. But anyway, thank you. It is very interesting. Host thank you, and thank you for sharing your story. Edward nevgloski, what do you take from that . It is interesting. One of the techniques the marines have as we come ashore at iwo jima is the estimation is that the marine corps is going to take casualties for 33 of the force. And we actually almost reached that the estimates were pretty good. 31 of the force is wounded or killed, destroyed, weekly destroyed. But as the initial waves go ashore and the casualties start to mount, each Landing Craft that comes in, the sailors and the marines would throw crates of ammunition into the sand, just scattered about. They are not putting them in any particular location, they are just throwing them out so the marines can, when they get a chance, come back, break the can open, get a resupply of ammunition, move back, and try to get an inch further, in addition to throwing out cans of ammunition, the marines and sailors start to throw out ponchos. The confusion is, when we need the ash what do we need these ponchos for initially, and it is to recognize that it is to cover the dead littering the beach. That is a somber thought. I can only imagine being a survivor of iwo jima, if i went back to see that beach, remembering what it looked like 75 years earlier, that would be amazing. But the gentleman, the caller talking about his relative doing the underwater demolitions clearing the way, make no bones about it, we have been bombing iwo jima from the air for 77 two february 19 19. Then the naval department, for three days prior to the landing. The element of surprise is gone. The japanese know we are coming, 77 days before it happens. The obstacles they put out under the water, there are very few, but there is enough to get the marines to believe that this is going to be a defendant beach. Really the obstacles are about 100 yards inland. Ash, thehe volcanic large hump that the marines have to go over. When they finally go over, after about an hour of being on the beach, they break a certain defense line in the jet and the japanese start to engage them. So the initial entry onto the beach is not bad at all. It is about an hour later when we hit the high ground of the firm, that is when we triggered the japanese defense. Host about 10 minutes later this morning, from the National Marine corps museum in quantico, virginia. I get in this morning, to washington, d. C. , at least every other year. But no matter how many times i go, one monument gives me the chills and a smile. It is the raising of the flag at iwo jima. It is magnificent, and it is the actions of our finest. Mr. Connor, can you talk about the history of that memorial in arlington, and how many survivors of iwo jima where there, do you know, when it was dedicated . Guest it sort of falls outside my scope of what we do, as we concentrate on the museum itself. The 12t i can say about in sculpture and the iconography of the actual flag raising, the flag has a journey story, whether it is the sculpture that we see in arlington or this displayed at the museum. Media moment, i talk about the journey to us and how it got to the museum. One of the most fascinating stories is it becomes a su symbol of the war bond tour of the war, the main visual image used the war bond tour raises more money for the cause than all the other war bond tours prior to it. I think that is amazing if you think about it, that as americans we are paying for a war as it occurs. Even by 1945, wages were increasing and folks were more worried about improvements after the war, the men are still fighting. But they are still conscious, and the flag image can inspire people to think so much more for their country. The flag continues its journey. After the war there is a freedom train that carries an original version of the constitution, the bill of rights, the iwo jima flag. It travels through the country to inspire americans, this renewed sense of patriotism, 1949, we are bringing back these members these memories, the iconography of the flag. It is an important visual symbol in arlington, one of the tangible forms of the power of the iwo jima flag raising and what it means to us as americans. Host jane is next out of illinois. Caller good morning. I was wondering how long after the invasion of iwo jima did they invade okinawa. My father i have an article from the paper. My father was one of the first and he wasokinawa, 28 years old. I wondered whether there were more casualties on iwo jima or more on okinawa. I know there was a lot of casualties. Backi remember my dad came , we were never told to get out of bed, we were always told to hit the deck. We were never called in for supper. We were always told chow down. There is a lot of different lingo from the marine corps. We got that as kids. And my brother also served, and he was on okinawa. Host thanks so much for the call. Gloski . E guest we have been focusing on okinawa as the next step. The Island Hopping campaign that the marines are executing. Okinawa will be much more complex. Of course, as an island, it is much larger than iwo jima. Iwo jima is only eight square miles. Okinawa is four to five times that. You are also definitely encroaching upon you are no longer in the japanese front yard at okinawa. You are in their living room. You are actually cracking into their living room. And we have to understand, okinawa is also going to be the pinnacle where we establish and bring all of our combat power remember i talked earlier about the logistics mindset of the pacific theater. All of that combat power is going to make its way from the different islands past iwo jima to okinawa. That is the steppingstone for mainland japan. Have 100,000 to plus troops land at okinawa. Youre going to have twice the number of casualties. You will have a lot of civilian casualties as well. All the islands previous to okinawa are going to be uninhabited. Other than japanese, the only people youre going to find our maybe korean laborers that were building the fortresses. You might find the island inhabitants are very small in numbers. Okinawa, you are going to have through japanese citizens there. The complexity of okinawa, once later, is extremely significant to understand what okinawa meant compared to what Iwo Jima Iwo Jima is yet another steppingstone to get to okinawa. Okinawa is the pinnacle to get to mainland japan. Host time for one or two more phone calls this morning. Our live show this morning from National Museum of the marine corps. This is jeff out of merrimack, new hampshire. Jeff, go ahead. Caller thank you for picking up the call today, cspan. Past, to thank all the present, and future service members. We have so much in this country because of you people. I am trying to look at the gentleman in the red tie. I cannot look you in the eye. But thank you, and thank you everybody else who gives us that. Second, this would go to the gentleman with the red tie. My motherinlaw passed away a number of years back at her last gagnon. She was second come third she was hasnt she was second cousins with Rennie Gagnon. Remembers him coming into the house when she was a kid. They make no big deal of it. Just amazing to me that my wifes side of the family, they make no big deal that they are related to that hero. That was about all i had to say. Thank you to all the veterans. Host can you fill us a little bit in on who he was . Thank you, and thank you for being an american citizen worth fighting for. Marine thatn is a is involved in the iwo jima operations. He is there for the first flag raising, and he will go he is identified as an early flag razor. He will go back to the United States as part of the seven bond drive. He will become a face and a name that is known for years, dealing with the flag raising. In as been highlighted couple of movies. Marine, and ither think that is what the caller is talking about. There are so many dedicated americans that will fight and survive, fight and die on iwo jima. One of them, to a man, are just are just your average, redblooded american boys that went overseas to stop fascism, to stop the evil that was occurring. You know, and a lot of them will come home and never tell their family members, not only what they experienced as an individual, but what they were part of. They went, they did their job, they came home, and they dedicated the rest of their lives to being the best person, the best american they could be. And they were living their lives for the guys who did not come home. And Rennie Gagnon is one of them. Not a big deal. He served on iwo jima, he would not want anyone to give him accolades. He just wanted to be known as someone along with several thousand more just like him that went into their job. That speaks a lot to his character. Host that seems like a good story to end on. Edward nevgloski, marine corps history chief, owen connor, world war ii gallery curator at the National Museum of the marine corps. We appreciate your time and for inviting us in this morning. Guest thank you. This if you missed any of Mornings Program from the National Museum of the marine corps or if you want to watch it again, we will play it tonight on our companion network, cspan 3. Eastern. At 8 00 p. M. At museum we care on the washington journal and American History tv continues tomorrow when we visit history. We will mark the centennial of the 19th amendment granting women the right to vote. Our guest will be the museums first female director since it opened in 1964. That is live tomorrow at 9 00 a. M. Eastern right here on cspan. A look now at some of our live Coverage Today on cspan network. Join us this afternoon when panelist at the council on Foreign Relations discuss the coronavirus and the threat to global health. Whats that starting at 12 30 p. M. Eastern here on cspan. A little later, the interamerican dialogue hosted discussion on political situations in venezuela. Live coverage starts at two of 5 p. M. Eastern. You can watch that 2 05 eastern. You can watch that on cspan. Former
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