Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 06102020 20240712

Philip all rosensweig National Security fellow Paul Rosenzweig. Host the washington journal for june 10. At 10 00 a. M. Today the house to share years of george floyd the brother of george floyd and others. You can listen to it on a free cspan radio app. Several states have seen increases in covid19 cases since memorial day. Dr. Fauci still calls coronaviruss Worst Nightmare in new jersey joined the list of states at stayathome orders with that as a backdrop in our next hour, we will ask you to tell us about your current level of concern over coronavirus. You can call us, 2027488000 for the eastern and central time zones. For mountain and pacifica, 2027488001. If you are a medical professional, call 2027488002. 3. U can text us at 202748800 post on twitter at cspan wj and our Facebook Page is available to you. Facebook. Com cspan. Richard rogers posting this morning a question concerning those states saying is it true that covid19 cases are on the rise . Pointed to a story on the Washington Post about new cases since memorial day. A number of new cases continue to increase worldwide, more than a dozen states and puerto rico reporting their highest averages of new cases since the pandemic began. In texas, north and South Carolina, california, oregon, arkansas, utah and arizona there are an increasing number of patients under supervised care since the Holiday Weekend because of infections. They spikes began in the past couple of weeks, most states are trending higher. States are reporting some of the highest averages of cases is disproving the notion of the country seeing a spike solely because of the continued increased in testing. Thats akin to data being tracked by the Washington Post. You can read more on the website. If you go to the marketwatch website, in an interview conducted with dr. Anthony fauci. Asked about his current concerns over coronavirus, he said this. He called it his worst warnedre, adding that he hes confident the vaccine will be developed, the outbreak is far from over. It was an interview at a Virtual Conference that he told that he is been surprised by how rapidly it took over the planet. Calling it one of the worst in World History noting that while many easily transmittal disease take six month or year to span the globe, covid19 took a month. The unique respiratory illness with such transmit ability and lethality turned out to be my Worst Nightmare. Bill king off of twitter as his thoughts. Saying im still concerned over covid19 here in new jersey. The governor lifted the stayathome order, that does not mean return to normal activity as if the threat no longer exists, adding precautions must be observed. Talking about new jerseys experience adding that the garden state has the secondmost covid19 deaths, the case among american states continued progress. As the reason to let this unprecedented restriction, issue that stayathome order on march 21 is the outbreak grew. More and more businesses reopening we are no longer requiring you to stay home, we are asking you to continue to be responsible. When you to go out please continue to wear face coverings. Those are some of the experiences there when it comes to covid19 and again for the hour will ask you to share your concerns about covid19 as they currently stand. For the eastern and central time zones, 2027488000, if you live in the mountain and pacific time zone its 2027488001. If you are a medical professional, you can call us and give your input at 2027488002. Speaking of new jersey, the Governor Phil Murphy was interviewed by politico and talks about the issues concerning his state. One of the things he talked about was money. The federal money his state might need or Congress Allocates the funding to the states to help with the aftermath. It is smart at every level including smart politics on both sides of the aisle. The last thing we need right now is for unemployment to go any higher and you pointed out weve been crushed in new jersey, we are not alone. What would happen if we did not get this, we would have the extraordinarily unfortunate step to take to lay off people like firefighters and police and ems and Health Care Workers and educators and at the moment when we need the most the Biggest Health care crisis and biggest economic crisis in our States History in our countrys history. The numbers are large. Physical testr fiscal year to give you an extent of the numbers here. We extended our fiscal year by three months and we did it with a month in advance. We had a four month window. Of 5. 2 billion of extended chairs. Thats four months multiply that by three and youre up to 15. 6 billion for new jersey alone just to get us back to par. I think that understates the case. At one pointnors not we need 150 billion into our region alone. , its noters are big blue versus red. Its not managing legacy issues. Those are talking points. This is a way i personally think if the number one number we could pull as a country to stabilize our economy and get as close to that recovery as possible. Some creative accounting to do this as long as possible. Theres not a whole lot of creative accounting. Its actual cuts. These layoffs are happening as we speak. This is not theoretical. We need it now. Certainly by july. As i said this is not a theoretical exercise. People at the municipal level are already getting pink slips as we speak. Jerseys rom new we will hear from kentucky, europe first about your level of concerns over coronavirus. Go ahead. Concerned. Extremely i was hospitalized a few years ago placed in a medicated coma for 33 days. Eventually that affected my spleen i had removed in march, which puts me at a high risk of infection. Im extremely concerned and im still isolating in place. Is that the kind of personal policy or holding to . Caller exactly. Im disabled because of this illness so that helps, but i dont leave the house for much. Host would you say that the same with Family Members or Close Friends of yours . Have other people decided to venture out and resume life . A lot ofeah ive got friends that doesnt want any contact with anybody until this starts to wane. Even when they lifted , im stills isolating in place. Still maintaining that six foot space, wearing face masks. Workerormer health care so a lot of handwashing and hand face. Zer, not touching my occasionally having to wear gloves because i cant trust the supermarkets cleaning the keypads or anything like that. Host we will hear from millie in new haven, connecticut. Good morning. Caller good morning. I obtained the virus through one of her colleagues and we were all tested. Tested to get tested on on sunday for cvs. Remember that the tested and unavailable to us until that weeks later so now yale, itsikes cvs, easier for us to get tested. So thats why in my opinion the numbers are higher. Host did you show symptoms . Caller yes. I was Walking Around and i thought i was getting allergies. Tested on sunday on the sunday through the drivethrough and i tested positive i was shocked. Was negativey home minus my grandson that i watch in the afternoon. He tested positive. Everyoneone, i told that got testing came back negative minus the grandson. We were very frightened. We were quarantined and its past the two weeks and my doctor told me that i am not to go anywhere or go back to work for eight weeks. Done for yous that financially, economically if you dont mind sharing . Caller could you repeat that again. Host what did that do for you financially or economically, not being able to go back to work. Caller its working remotely. We sleep so much, for 15 hours a day off and on and your appetite goes, i think it affects everybody differently. After the two weeks started feeling better and thankfully i was able to work from home. Leader and he told us to take our time. So ive been working, just from home. When covid started i was coming in a couple days and staying home. Host thats millie giving her experience personally with contracting covid. If you go to the Johns Hopkins website, almost 2 million confirmed cases in the United States with 112,000 deaths. Johns hopkins for that information. Millie talked about workers. A poll for workers and their concerns about going back to work in the pandemic. Saying state economies are gradually reopening him workers are slowly returning to work places. The majority of workers whose workplaces report their employers are taking precaution to keep people from catching or spreading the coronavirus. These include more frequent cleaning procedures. 69 of workers reporting the cautions they are taking. An additional 58 say they provide masks, gloves or face shields and 54 of employers say they are enforcing six foot distance between employees and customers. Fewer than 41 41 say their employees are screening for a fever. Marjorie and washington, d. C. Caller thank you. Belief that the tests that people are given for this virus is what happened to make people sick and also when they go to the hospital, it keeps them sick. If people were being tested you wouldnt have that many folks getting sick. Wire . But what causes you to believe that . Host caller because after the results then folks are told they are positive. Theyey dont take the test will probably go along and just get well. They need to eat the proper foods, they would get well. , if they tell you to take this message and if you take all those medicines then you will be sick. Host lets go to ed in anaheim, california. Caller im saying enough is enough. Not countingeople the thirtysomething illegal. How may people have been tested, how may people have died. Listen,cally statistically you have a better chance of being kidnapped by space aliens then dying from this flu. I believe that doing this to get their hands on federal money. Enough is enough. Host lets go to another californian in redding, california, we will hear from earl. Morning cspan. Im not too worried anymore and let me tell you why. Health are cooking the books on the people who died of the virus. They attach the virus to anybody dies in the hospital. Its a question of trust. Now they test and find out a lot of people test positive and they have other bacterias and they just positive. We have a lady in our town forced to wear a mask at work eight hours a day, she got a long infection from breathing her own exhaust. As a vietnam veteran and , for 50 years ive lived right in the guy would. Host so you resume normal activity and things like that . Caller i started, im getting ready to take a trip, meditate my motorhome down there. I may never come back. Host he mentioned the World Health Organization. Reporting this morning about , saying thements World Health Organization walked back comments that were made on monday when one of its top scientists in transmission said the transmission of coronavirus by people who never developed whichms is very rare drew skepticism from physicians and others on social media. Much of which is the admission sent shockwaves throughout the world. Of the emerging diseases and so is unos his unit said a cinematic spread his accomplice question and much is still unknown. We dont have the answer yet. A question money to of. I use the phrase very rare and i think that is very misunderstanding to state that a symptom that address mission globally is very rare. I was referring to a small subset of studies. Donna in vero beach, florida, go ahead. Caller thank you for taking my call. Concerned about the covid19. Our president said that there were going to be kits that could be used in the home and what happened to them . You dont hear anything about them anymore. If they were sent out to everyone of the 50 states in random, maybe they would get a thisas to how severe covid19 is. As far as your personal level of concern, what would you rate that as . Caller thats high on my priority because a lot of people will not go get tested. Maybe they live in areas where they cannot get testing. Us a broadgive selection of the country as we see its rising again. Are they gonna put us back and locked down . I just dont get it. Host a text this morning saying he is still concerned, adding we have to get back to living. The experts are figuring this out as we go along. Be careful. It is the World Health Organization story in the Washington Times this morning when talking about cloth masks, they recommend three liars if youre going to go out and about. The filtration of cloth fabric and mast varies greatly from 0. 7 to 60 . In the better filtration the more protective protection the mask offers. When folding into two layered committee was singlelayer. When full into four liars, filtration increases. A mask made with only cotton handkerchiefs with four liars while mask me with very porous materials only filtered out 3 of particles with multiple liars. Rick is in tennessee. Overhearing irwin, theres not very many people here and we have one or two and then in the past couple of days it jumped up to 53 with farmworkers and Strawberry Fields and tomato fields. Im not trying to suggest people should be afraid of farmworkers, they should be afraid of everybody. Personal lifestyle. Caller she had been sick for like five or six years so i havent really been doing anything anyway, just staying at home and taking care of her and just going out for a couple few months. Im not going to sweat that. The main thing im sweating is they keep talking about defunding the police and stuff like that and the republicans dont want to pass this bill that the democrats put that would give state and municipality moneys to get going. Host thanks for the comments. W a te in nashville same confirmed cases coronavirus and thatsee were up 631, 2. 3 on tuesday according to the department of health. 435, ane also up from increase of 3. 3 of their for 18,000 recoveries from the virus. If you want to read more of that, you can check out that. Lester, hello. Ler calla bongo fact that pure oxygen in a Hyperbaric Chamber kills all viruses. You know the problem is . Much and youst too dont have to give your liberty. Its all about the money anyway. This is the strategy you adopted . Will my strategies to words, and defiance. Host the Houston Chronicle reporting if you want to get a sense of where texas is sanctions memorial day theyve seen a 6 increase in hospitalizations due to covid19 and information released tuesday, they reported 2056 hospitalizations, the highest number since the pandemic first reached texas in march. Greg abbott told viewers he is watching carefully without much the state can reopen businesses. John in anderson, South Carolina. Caller hi, its joni. Host my apologies. Caller thats ok. My concern is with the Nursing Homes. My 90to pull somethingyearold mother out of their because they are still not letting people see their loved ones. I dont think thats right. You talk about peoples rights, their civil rights, that is not right. These Nursing Homes that take in billions of dollars every year could let one Family Member suit up. And then at least come in and visit their parent before they die. I have a friend who tried to get in because her mother and they threatened to arrest her. You can go out and tear down cities and burn them. Your own elderly mother or father and its a shame. Thank you. Host thats joni giving her experience. I will say the headline. It appeared on june the first but talked about the Trucking Industry when it comes to its impact on covid19. Saying the industry as a whole has been in a recession since late 2018 and the coronavirus is the latest lamb on some of americas most vulnerable vulnerable workers. Website, youour can check out the topics. One of the things that came up was the impact on transportation and it was pennsylvanias republican representative asking about that impact on truck drivers. [video clip] disrupt shipment of vital goods and what are the operational challenges if any due to the response of the virus , those policies did any of your drivers or Companies Face . Yes. I do not know if a specific shipment, i do know it disrupted the general flow through the state of pennsylvania. We had drivers extremely concerned about traversing knowing there was no facilities to stop and use the Restroom Facilities and facilities to rest. It was extremely concerning. Associationour along with its pennsylvania affiliate work with the state of pennsylvania to get those back open again. That full hearing available on cspan. Asking about your level of concern about covid19. 2027488000 for the eastern and central time zones. 2027488001 for the mountain and pacific time zones. Medical professionals, you can call 2027488002. Social media sites available to you. Diane off of Facebook Says concerned, i will still wear a mask and socially distance. In my paralyzed with fear . I just think its the respect thing to do to help limit the spread. We are all in this together. Michael texas from portland, oregon saying highly concerned as the state has experience a surge. Why the surge . The more testing we recently done of more virus we find. Pager off of her Facebook Says lets see all the experts saying we are still not pass the pandemic but if you guys on facebook so im really torn. A thousand people post on her Facebook Page for the start of this program. You connect add your full thoughts there you can add your thoughts there. Bill in pennsylvania, hello. Caller good morning. What i have to say is i cant say that i was ever concerned very much. Out, iics tend to come saw the average age of the person who has been fatally affected by this is over 80 years old is the average age. So my aunt in a nursing home i was very concerned just like im concerned with the flow. But if were shutting everything down, i really think the overreach is the fault of the governors and government agencies, its nice to say we have rights in this country but if every time they want to say you have rights except for in this case because we have a pandemic or rights to freely associate except in this case when there is unrest or whatever. Pretty soon you have to say do we really have the rights. I think that the womans point also about the Police Action of getting people to go into Nursing Homes to see relatives even if they were very sick compared to the Police Response which is nonexistent to people looting. You really have to start to wonder if there is some type of agenda. Ifould remind the viewers you want to find out about these you can take a look at Something Like the protocols of the elders. Pennsylvania, of pa post reporting pennsylvanias republican controlled General Assembly passed a resolution to say tom wolf issued in march and extend earlier in june that is provided the legal basis for much of the response. After a four hour debate in which 30 of the 50 sender spoke, they passed a resolution with two democrats joining republicans before 8 00 in the evening and then almost immediately the house took up the resolution and past 12181. It sets up a potential legal battle over the next steps and weeks. Legislative republicans are maintained because title 35 says the governor shall find a concurrent resolution, he has no choice in the matter since its been passed and effectively ends a declared emergency. In new orleans, jean is next. Caller good morning. Much, you guys do a great job read job. What i wanted to say is my concern is it seems like weve accepted covid19 come with the common cold, we dont have a cure for it. It is just too drastic to accept. We go back to things. We are going to live or die with covid19. Myself, i am 72 years old. I have cancer. As long ase to live i can. I wear my mask. I dont go to places. I keep social distancing. That is me. I see people that dont do that. I am not comfortable. The other day i went to the winndixie. Nobody had amassed on. A mask on. I could not believe my eyes. Has allowedity, businesses to reopen in new orleans proper . Are they protecting themselves if they go out . Caller now everybody has a mask. They have the glass partitions in the stores. The staff all have masks. Go intohe store i the store. In new orleans is mandatory to wear a mask in public. For the most part i see masks everywhere. Hi feel more comfortable with feel more comfortable with that. Host brian in new york. Caller i would like to make a couple of remarks before i get into this virus thing. I think there is a more troubling aspect in america that is going to destroy this country and do more harm than this virus could ever do. That is the movement of leftwing fascism, which has now taken over every single news network, including cspan, with the exception of fox news. About 50 of fox news is conservative. Other than that i have members of my family it breaks my heart. They are completely brainwashed. Covid19,he topic of what do you think about your level of concern . Age but im up in not all that concerned about it, anymore than i concerned about getting hit by a truck. God we have this great President Trump. He is doing a fantastic job on this. If we did not have him, the whole country would be broke by now because of the radicals out there. Host what do you think about governor cuomos management in new york . Caller he is the worst governor i have ever seen. The guy does not know what the hell he is doing. Host why would you say that . Give me an example. Caller what is he doing . What is he doing to stop this virus . Information from who. Which is the leftwings place to go for information. That is controlled by china. That organization is controlled by china. He is being is informed. Then he kicked misinformed. Then he carries on with this misinformation. Host sarah says im concerned the u. S. Does not have enough foresight about how this will affect people across the world. The world bank is predicting that global poverty rates are forecast to rise. Why are we not talking about this more . Airborne ranger saying im concerned about radical state governors shutting down the state economies. Material forroper Health Workers in those states. Dave is next. Caller top of the morning to you, pedro. Here is an inconvenient fact. Down in new orleans, the rubbish collectors basically went on strike. They did not have any protective equipment. Hour,orked for 10. 25 an which is worse pay. They were fired. Metro disposal, this private company that services new orleans, hired slave labor, which i am saying is prisoners out of the prison that is close to new orleans. This is wrong. Host tell me where you got that information. Caller from cnn. Host ok. Go ahead. Caller the thing is we are concerned about coronavirus. It sounds to me like the coronavirus data new orleans, they could care less. They will not give these people protective gear. They are handling toxic waste every day. They work from 4 00 a. M. To 4 00 p. M. This is wrong. We are worried about coronavirus . Host that is dave in ohio. The statements about the sanitation workers, that is reflected in a story you can find at nola. Com about a month ago. South dakota, james . Caller how are you doing, pedro . Host fine, thank you. Go ahead. Caller did i get the name right . Host you got it right. Caller there are a lot of complex things going on in the world. I do believe there are a lot of things going on, obviously. I dont believe in abolishing the police. That is stupidity. I support the police, 100 . Cant go by one thing. Host covid19. Your current level of concern . Caller i work everyday. I am a merchandiser. I have no effects from it. I talked to people all the time, everyday, at all the stores and i am fine. I think it is out of hand. I think people are overreacting on a lot of it. I do believe it is real. Im not dumb. I believe it is real. I think there is a little overreaction. People are in so much fear and fear kills you. If you will let me comment on this, the one thing i wanted to point out is jesus christ is king of kings and lord of lords. Host that is james and south dakota. Hearing one ofe those topics was chinas role in the manufacturing of fraudulent products, including pharmaceutical. It was a question that tom tellis was asked about, for asked about those kind of topics. Heres what two witnesses had to say in response. [video] we are working closely with the fda. They have taken a more flexible regulatory approach to help spur innovation in the medical device and pharmaceutical space. The types of crimes in that area we are focusing on are the obvious scams, clearly fraudulent products, medications. We are trying to disrupt those quickly and largely by bringing an injunction while a criminal investigation is still ongoing. Some cases have stopped scams selling ozone gas as a treatment. Unregistered pesticides. Coloidal Silver Silver and other treatments marketed as either cures for or effective prevention measures for cover 19. Covid19. s is a china problem are doing have other jurisdictions with a similar threat . The cases i was referring to our domestic cases. I will defer on the pp. Ppe. Wewhat we see trend wise is have numerous investigations and we have seen trends there is importation of materials that are either counterfeit, misbranded, or completely fraudulent. Primarily from china . We have one publicly available prosecution i can talk about where we have filed a criminal case in the Eastern District of new york against the Chinese Company we believe intentionally sent fraudulent materials. Is a governmentowned enterprise . I believe that is the case in china, sir. Host a lot of hearings yesterday on the topics related to covid19. The best way to get a sense of what was said is go to our website at cspan. Org. The heads of the Cleveland Clinic in the mayo clinic wrote an oped in the New York Times about one of the results of the current concerns over covid19. Dont avoid your doctor any longer. There have been sizable decreases in cancer diagnoses. Reports of heart attacks and strokes 30 . Visits to Emergency Rooms are down 40 . These authors good to continue to write these statistics demonstrate people with cancer are missing necessary screenings. Those with heart attack or stroke symptoms are staying home during the precious window of time when the damage is reversible. A recent poll by the American College of Emergency Physicians said 80 of americans say they worry about contracting coronavirus in an emergency room. Oped in thehat New York Times this morning. Mark in oregon. Hello. Caller we have a problem here. We had an outbreak in our little county. We are so vulnerable. We have a lot of tourist and not much medical facilities. Im an older guy. Im waiting for a surgery. They got stopped when this whole thing happened. I am really worried i will not be able to get in again because it will stop everything. They assured me i will get the virus by going to the hospital. They are thorough and all of their precautions. Down here at the beach people. People can be pretty cavalier. Not enough social distancing. My wife and i are careful but i had cancer and i would die. Ive been sick for a long time. I learned my lesson and i dont have to go through being very sick, much less worrying about dying. I listen to medical professors. I think our government is doing a good job but it is frustrating because it is a slippery cat out there. Host how long have you been waiting due to covid19 total . Caller about a sixweek delay so far. A shoulder replacement. I have a really bad arthritic shoulder. It is like being in a third world country. I have medical insurance but i cant go to the doctors because every thing is shut down because of the covid. We never had the hospitals get full, but now oregon is getting caught up with the rest of the country. The fish plant thing was from workers that were from all over the place. They have hundreds of people in newport running run asymptomatic. The restaurants were open for one week. The owners are voluntarily shutting them all back down again. It is a big deal. Host mark in oregon sharing his experience. Eunice in los angeles, good morning. Caller yes. I take it very seriously. I am isolating. Have been since march. People thatut the were running crazy during all that looting. What about the coronavirus with them . Host when it comes to the personal reasons why you were keeping in place, what are those . Caller i dont want to get it. And i am one old of the people find the list for getting it. I dont want to get high on the list for getting it. I dont want to get it. I wear my mask and stay at home. One isat i saw on tv, no worried about the coronavirus. It disappeared for some reason. Callers point, there is a photo by John Mcdonald of the Washington Post. With anya protest people close to each other. Some expressing concerns over the transmission of covid19 as part of these rallies. One comment about these rallies and covid19 came from the Senate Majority leader. [video] a month ago, demonstrations were widely condemned as reckless and selfish. Massive rallies that fill entire cities are not just praised, but in fact called especially brave because of the exact same health risks that brought condemnation when the cause was different. People to spend the spring watching their Small Businesses dissolve or canceling weddings, for missing religious observances for the longest spells in their lives. For missing the last days of a loved ones life and in missing the funeral. Never where the record people told about any exemption for things they felt strongly about. I have no criticism for the millions of americans who peacefully demonstrated in recent days. Their cause is beyond righteous. It is the inconsistency from leaders that has been baffling. The same governor of michigan he argued letting people carefully shop for Vegetable Seeds would be too dangerous during the pandemic now poses for photographs with groups of protesters. Here the district of columbia, the mayor celebrates massive street protests. She actually joins them herself. But on her command, churches and houses of worship remain shut. I believe even the Largest Church building in the district is still subject to the 10person limit the mayor deems an essential. The rest of free speech, assembly, an exercise of religion our First Amendment rights. They have the same constitutional pedigree. But apparently while protests are not permissible, prior is prayer is still too dangerous. Timesthe washington with a highlight of the president returning to the campaign trail. Holding regular rallies as part of that. Website. The Republican National committee tentatively selected jacksonville, florida as the side of the celebratory portion of the august 2020 convention. They cite three republican officials briefed on the plan as the source of the information on that web article. Jim in toms river, new jersey. Caller thank you for taking my call. You had him on it the beginning of your broadcast. Said based ondly science. People thatll these were infected into Nursing Homes. That is like 40 of the people that died. Just wipes his hands and says, hey, this is great. He shut down businesses. They will never open again has madeasically them go bankrupt. People are in trouble here. How governor does not care. Our governor does not care. Host what is the situation for you . Caller it does not affect me. Im retired. I am fairly well set in my retirement. Host you not worried about contracting the disease . Caller no. I have cancer and stuff and i worry about it, but i cant go to see my doctor. Up aftersed to follow chemo. I cant go see my doctor. Because all stuff done factor he puts in everybody and he does not do what he says. Host tom and quincy, maryland. In clinton, maryland. Caller i have to say i am appalled, surprised. I am 80 something years old. I never thought americans were this prejudiced and ignorant. It destroys me. I cant come to terms with it in my mind. I cant believe americans would sacrifice throughout the years to help other people and try to bring this country to where it is today. Host how does that relate to covid19 . Problem is we have an election coming up. This man is primed right now to try to steal the election. We there is nothing we can do about it. The house cant do anything about stopping him. I dont know how we will stop them from stealing the election. Are in a situation where what are we going to do if we cant get him out of office . Host gordon in ohio. Caller thank you for taking my call. Im concerned about covid19 big time. I dont understand people thinking it is over with. They act like there is no covid19. Im having a triple fusion on my back in two weeks. It kind of freaks me out. You go to walmart i dont go to anywhere anymore. Im getting ready for surgery. Breaks. Thing about tax host how long have you been waiting for the surgery . Caller i had surgery in january. I had a cleanup in january on my back. Now i have to have a triple fusion to be from them. This is my fifth back surgery. Im disabled. Host you had to wait for this additional one because of covid . Caller no. My first surgery was before they shut down everything. Since they opened everything back up, i will be good. I hope. Host greg in delaware, ohio. Caller hi. I want to talk about covid19 and how it is affecting the rest of the world in the global economy. The u. S. , we need to take the lead. We need to take the role of being a leader and stopping the spread of the virus. Not only here but across the globe. Global poverty and everything. Toot of nations are not able really combat the way we are but it is like a time bomb for the future. I dont know if the u. S. Can recover economically or politically on the global stage. Host trenton, new jersey. Steve is next. Hello. Caller good morning. I am very,stion, very concerned about this and have been for several months. It is actually a reallife horror movie we are all living in. Not just in new jersey but across the entire globe. The tape you played earlier of the gentleman discussing these products that were coming into our country was very disturbing. I think it gives fodder for people who have conspiracy theories. Wasnt itmp china that made it illegal to have more than one child . Is there any truth to that . Host there has been a one child policy in china. I dont know where it currently stands right now. I am not a china expert. Caller i would say in the world it is obvious we have too many people in the world and there has been no way to really stop having so many people. It is almost like a thinning of the herd that seems to be going on through this virus. I wear a mask. I wear gloves. I have to go out and shop. I wear the mask. I think i actually look about 10 years younger when i wear the mask. I keep six feet away from people. As a matter of fact, my wife and i have an argument about maybe 50 feet. I dont know where it is going to end but i think our country is doing the best we possibly can but we have to be wary about the forces how their possibly from other countries that are seeking out there possibly from other countries that are seeking to take us down, but they dont how strong we are. Host a couple of stories unrelated to covid19. When it comes to primary elections, georgia became the focus over concerns about the process of voting. Problems have been building for weeks as precincts closed, poll workers quit, and the primary was postponed because a coronavirus. Some voters waited eight hours to vote on the last day of early voting on friday. The election went worse than expected on tuesday, especially in Metro Atlanta when poll workers cannot get georgias 100 billi 104 million Voting System running. The New York Times saying when it comes to the senate primary, the democratic primary who will take on the republican david perdue, he won by a wide margin as far as the result. 93 reporting there. When it comes to Police Practices, a hearing today. Many will testify, including the brother of george floyd. The topic of racial profiling and Police Brutality is the topic of the hearing of the House Judiciary Committee. You can see that after this program on cspan. Follow along at cspan. Org. Listen to it on the free cspan radio app. Nick from new york, you are next. Good morning. Caller i could not agree more with the gentleman from ohio who spoke earlier. Theu. S. Really should take forefront in this fight. I am very worried about the economic fallout from covid. Not just in the u. S. But across the world. I hope we not only allow the funds to help our own people but people in other countries and help get the world back to where it needs to be. Sean williams of the bronx, new york. Im concerned the second wave in the fall will be more intense due to restrictions being lifted. In the protest, all necessary, are still taking place. Frank from dallas says, i am so over covid19. Not worried about it all. Enjoying dining restaurants that are finally open again. Roger and hurley, virginia. Good morning in hurley, virginia. Morning. Go ahead. Caller im concerned. Im 62 years old. Pardon me. Im a little bit nervous. Host go right ahead. Caller it seems to me like aint nobody concerned about it. I went to the eye doctor yesterday. They were not Wearing Masks. So, host they were not Wearing Masks your gear i examination . During your Eye Examination . Caller i had a mask and gloves. I try to be respectful of other people. Dr. Fauci sayeard pretend like you have it, i dont want to kill nobody. I have respect for people and i wear the mask. I do the best i can. I have not heard nobody talk about how the horrible President Donald Trump has become. It is unreal to me. Virginia. Is roger in the wall street journal highlights a discussion that took place in one of those hearings. You can see it on cspan. The labor secretary of Eugene Scalia says he opposes the extension of the 600 a week on Employment Benefit bump workers received as a result of the pandemic unEmployment Benefit bump. Mr. Scalia said the enhanced payment, including a federal stimulus package in march served their usefulness by the time the Program Expires at the end of july. One person testifying is michelle ever more michelle evermore, and talked about the Financial Support that came from the passage of the cares act. [video] the cares act is having a dramatic and positive effect on millions of people out of work. Particularly workers that paid low wages. This is saving lives. Compounding centuries of structural resources, it is affecting communities of color must have medically. A poll showed 16 of black workers reported being laid off. 20 of latino workers. 11 of white workers in 12 of workers from other racial groups reported being laid off. Unemployment assistance is helping the middle class, selfemployed workers, and lower paid workers often misclassified as independent contractors to weather a storm leaving them stranded in a largely shut down economy. Pandemic on employment composition is an essential benefit, particularly because many states have low or their Unemployment Insurance benefit levels. Please infer to my written testimony for many examples of how this benefit is making a huge difference to workers. It does not create a disincentive to work. We should not overlook how critical it is for workers to maintain a connection to work right now. For so many people think is more to a job than a paycheck. Workers one stability. Their jobs may be the source of Health Care Benefits and retirement security. Bonuses are not the answer. And Employers Benefit from an unemployment system that gets workers back to their right jobs, not just any job. Bolsteredory saying by the on excitedly good job report, republicans are signaling they will not pass another coronavirus bill before late july. They flatly rejected the 3 trillion price tag of the bill passed last month by house democrats. Tuesday they on dont anticipate the chamber will take up another relief package before leaving before the july for recess july 4 recess. Keith in florida. How areas calling you . Host go ahead. Ar hi jen, called gentleman called to new york. He was praising President Trumps handling of the coronavirus. I dont know if chinese are not travelers coming to the country after the ban. Going to new york where most of the cases originated from. Policeman, doctors, emts have died from that. Im not necessarily blaming trump for that. I just want to say people need to know the facts first. The facts are new york was bombarded with that. Think the handling was much better than President Trumps. Im very passionate about it. All he does is continue to spin and point fingers at everyone else [indiscernible] host let me leave it there because you are breaking up. Thank you for calling. Thank you for your participation. Will spendgram we several segments taking a look at the prosecution efforts against general Michael Flynn. We will be joined by two guests in the program, joseph digenova, a District Attorney for the district of columbia, and Paul Rosenzweig. Here to set up the parameters and inform me about this case is Jerry Dunleavy with the washington examiner. He covers the Justice Department. Guest thank you for having me. Host why the focus on Michael Flynn these days . Guest great question. Lets do flynn 101. Mike flynn pleaded guilty in 2017 to making misstatements to the fbi during an fbi interview in january 2017 about conversations he had with the Russian Ambassador that were intercepted in december of 2016. If you fastforward to last summer, mike flynn got a new legal team. There was a new legal strategy. He said he no longer believes he lied to the fbi. Argues essentially the fbi targeted him unfairly, set him up and he wanted to withdraw his guilty plea. Early this year, attorney general william barr picked a u. S. Attorney named Jeffrey Jensen to look into whether there was anything to those allegations. Thatfound new evidence flynns attorneys would argue was a skull with tori was not made public exculpatory. They found no derogatory information on flynn. Information from emails from hadr strzok showing he sought to keep the investigation open on orders from the fbis seventh floor, likely james comey and andrew mccabe. Ahandwritten note from handwritten note from an official wondering what the purpose of the fbis interview with flynn was supposed to be. Where they trying to get him to tell the truth or if a was an effort to catch him in a lie and get prosecuted or fired. That if the decision mike flynn had lied, the allies were not material lies. They argue now that the investigation should have stopped by then. They have sought to dismiss the case against flynn. The presiding judge in the case, judge Emmett Sullivan, has not dismissed that case. Instead he selected an outside amicus, a former new york judge, john gleason, to essentially argue the case that the charges should not be dropped and look into whether mike flynn should now be looked into for perjury, for perjuring himself allegedly by pleading guilty and now saying he is not guilty. That is the flynn 101. Foundif general flynn is guilty or not guilty, what are the ramifications of both . Moment doj isthe looking to dismiss the case. Mike flynns attorneys have appealed to the u. S. Court of appeals asking for a writ of mandate, essentially asking the u. S. Court of appeals to instruct the lower court, judge Emmett Sullivan, to drop the charges against flynn. We have a dual track going. We have judge Emmett Sullivan pursuing an outside amicus process. We have got the u. S. Court of appeals potentially weighing in on this as well. Doj is a course right in the mix. All of this is happening right in the midst of a contentious president ial campaign as well. It remains to be seen what the u. S. Court of appeals will decide, what judge Emmett Sullivan will decide, and whether these charges really will be successfully dropped against flynn. At this point it does not look like a pardon from President Trump is going to be necessary just because ultimately the Justice Department really in nearly every case is the ultimate decider who gets prosecuted and who doesnt. That is the likely result. The Justice Department is going to get what it wants here. Host if that is the case that the Justice Department is making, they can drop the, charges if they wish why the efforts of judge sullivan . What is his argument . Guest great question. He is not ag that rubberstamp for the Justice Department. The Justice Department and flynn point to the fact that james comey basically sent these fbi agents into talk to flynn in an unusual manner. Not alerting the white house counsel. Not even alerting then Deputy Attorney general sally gates. 2 thend the doj minal classified week point to the criminal classified leak that ended up helping spur, yetting fired spur come getting fired. The judge indicates he is not just going to take dojs word for it. He wants to explore the circumstances for himself. It is quite an unusual move by him, although it also is unusual the Justice Department would drop the case like this. Has hiredg he an outside attorney, judge sullivan has, and he picked it outside amicus to argue the position the government may have been arguing in a normal instance to basically argue why flynn should still be prosecuted. Host what did general flynn admit lying to . Why did he admit lying to it . Guest great question. Lying abouted to conversations with the Russian Ambassador in december of 2016. The topics he allegedly lied about work connected to a human resolution u. N. Condemning israeli settlements, as well as allegedly lying about king to the ambassador allegedly denying talking to the investor about aspects of the u. S. Response to russian meddling. The u. S. Responded to russian meddling in december of 2016 and a couple of different ways. By expelling russian diplomat and by slapping some sanctions on russia as well. Those are sort of the two topics he allegedly lied about. Thoseanscripts of conversations, of those intercepted calls have actually been largely declassified and made public. People are now able to argue about what flynn specifically said and whether that matches up with his plea and if that matches up with lying. Say isynns lawyers will the original fbi 302 the original fbi notes about the conversation that flynn had with the fbi, flynns lawyers say the original 302 is still missing. Thatwhat exists now what exists now has been edited. We dont have exact transcript of what flynn told the fbi in january of 2017, although we know what he talked about with the ambassador the month before. Host one statement from the Justice Department on whether general flynn and his statements were material. Can you explain that further . The fbiart of a lie to or federal agents, part of that lighting criminal, is whether it is a material line. In the sense material lie. Has impact on the investigation. Sort of a relevant lie. What the Justice Department is now arguing as of earlier this year is that flynn if flynn lied, they were not material because the Justice Department late januaryat by of 2017 when the fbi interview occurred, the Justice Department is arguing flynn should not have been under investigation anymore. Keep in mind he had been a target of the fbis crossfire hurricane investigation since the summer of 2016. 2017, afterf investigating him quite included the fbi concluded there was no derogatory information on him. Then came the conversation with the Russian Ambassador and people like peter strzok and other members of the fbis leadership sought to give the investigation into flynn open, even considering using the logan act against him which has never been successfully prosecuted. Thread on the aspect of the flynn case. Host did president obama or his advisors know about this action . Guest thats a great question. We know now that Vice President on biden was a recipient ingking information unmask information. That is when their name is concealed, blacked out, or otherwise in an Intelligence Report or intercept. Unmaskuest is made to that persons name. Vice President Biden received that information on flynn but we dont know much beyond that. We know in early january 2017 meeting in the oval office about russian interference there was a second, smaller meeting where president obama, sally gates, susan rice, and Vice President biden were present. Where we know that president obama already knew about some aspects of what the fbi was looking into on flynn. Already knew about the fbi intercepts between flynn and the Russian Ambassador. We do know that he did have some knowledge. Vice President Joe Biden did have some knowledge. We still dont know exactly what the full extent of that would have been. Host what next steps should the people interested in this case be watching for . Guest the next steps in the case. We have the District Court track. Sullivan emmett appointing amicus judge gleason to step in for where the Justice Department would have been in shouldhe side that flynn prosecuted and potentially even charged with perjury now. Whereas the Justice Department and flynns lawyers will argue the case should be dropped and dismissed. Everything from hiding exculpatory evidence and targeting flynn. That is set for mid july. There is the Appeals Court track where a panel of three Appeals Court judges, two appointed by republicans, one appointed by democratic president , that Appeals Court is deciding whether to grant a writ of mandemus and tell judge Emmett Sullivan to stop what he is doing and dismissed this case. That decision could happen in the next few days or weeks as well. There are two different tracks going on in the courts with a lot of implications for the flynn case and what will happen to the retired lieutenant general. Host the name john durham comes up in the conversation. It was he in what is his role . Guest john durham was appointed by attorney general william barr last year to look into the origins of the trumprush investigation, as well as to look into trumprussia investigation, as well as looking into the conduct of Law Enforcement officials were while looking at the President Trump, his campaign, his associates. The investigation spans a timeframe from before the election, as well as after the election, including potentially looking into the appointment of mueller and beyond. He is looking to aspects of this into aspects of this. Jeffrey jensen looked into aspects of this. John durham is looking into aspects of this. The Justice Department picked lookingh into unmasking saga. Whether that investigation should have happened to begin with and it was conducted properly. Host Jerry Dunleavy covers the Justice Department for the washington examiner. He has written several stories on this case. You can find those that washingtonexaminer. Com. Thank you for setting this up for us. We will continue on our conversation, the flynn investigation. Ing guess will be join us this morning. Joseph digenova, and then later on Paul Rosenzweig. If you want to ask questions for either guest, start doing so. We will take those calls. 202 7488001 for republicans. Democrats, 202 7488000. Independents, 202 7488002. Those conversations are coming up on washington journal. Andhis week, the house senate will hold hearings on the federal response to the coronavirus and Law Enforcement accountability. Today at 10 00 a. M. Eastern live on cspan, the House Judiciary Committee hearing on Law Enforcement accountability. Today at 10 00 a. M. On cspan3, secretary Steven Mnuchin testifies before the Senate Small Business committee on the implementation of title i of the cares act. Today ons week, live cspan and cspan3, online at cspan. Org, or listen free on the cspan radio app. Binge watch tv. Saturday, pulitzer prizewinning whileian doris goodwin, none of her work and american president s. Especially team of rivals. next saturday, New York Times best selling author david maranis. Avid cspan has unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the Supreme Court, and Public Policy events. Watch all of cspans Public Affairs programming on television, online, or listen to the free radio app. Be part of the conversation on washington journal, or on our media feed. Cspan, created by americas Television Companies and brought your cableay television provider. Washington journal continues. Host our first guest is joseph digenova. Good morning. We will start with the actions of judge sullivan. You are a former District Attorney for the district of columbia. Talk about his actions about whether the Justice Department should be able to drop charges. Guest judge sullivan has put himself in an unusual position. Be decided he has not decided whether or not he will grant the filed to dismiss the case against general flynn. Motion is devastating in his contact, the fbi and Justice Department, but by his own attorneys who did not adequately represent him. What judge sullivan has done is said he has not decided to dismiss it yet. He wanted comments from friends of the court. Highly unusual. His discretion under rule 48, which the motion is filed under, 48a, the motion to dismiss can file with the leave of court. What that means is that the judge has limited extremely limited discretion in this area. There is a reason a trial judge has any discretion at all about whether or not to dismiss a case is to prevent harassment of the defendant from being lets say the government submitted their case. Later, they bring the same case again. That is not what is occurring. The government and the defendant agreed the case should be dismissed. The government is moving to dismiss the case with prejudice, never ns it can [indiscernible] the court of appeals will remove him. Host as far as the justifications the Justice Department has in dropping the charges, what is that based off of . Is that a right approach . Guest the Justice Department under bill barr he assigned it to Jeffrey Jensen. It would not be done by anyone in the Justice Department. Mr. Jensen analyzed this case for a number of months and concluded after his investigation the fbi and the doj during the Obama Administration violated the Constitutional Rights of general flynn, hidden exculpatory evidence from him in the court, lied to their superiors about what they were doing, and obstructed the investigation and allowed it to continue when there was no basis for it. The most important conclusion is jensen concluded [indiscernible] whatsoever for any investigation of general flynn. Whatever he told the fbi during the january interview at the white house could not possibly be material because there was no crime to investigate. If the fbi shows up at your house one day and says we want to know what you had for breakfast, can you say i had toast when you had pancakes, thats a lie. But you have the right to tell them that because they have no right to be there. That is exactly what the Justice Department concluded in the case of general flynn. The fbi had no right to be interviewing general flynn. Isfact, what is fascinating general flynns original lawyers never saw the original 302 of the interview with general flynn. Worse than that, they never saw the transcript of the phone call between flynn and kislyak. How you can allow your man to plead guilty when two of the most important pieces of evidence were never seen by you or your client is beyond me. That is one of the reasons for the case now. Hiding the transcript, and fbi intercept transcript, hiding that transcript was not only unethical and improper. It was a crime. I predict some of john durhams dealings will lead to charges concerning the way the information was handled. The fbi has never produced the flynn interview. That will be the subject of one of durhams report or criminal charges. Host i suppose dropping the charges without prejudice would be a victory. If that happens, what are the larger issues at play . What does it conclude . Guest the larger issues deal with what we have been dealing with in this country, the rule of law. Can you hear me . Host go ahead. The rule of law is the issue here. Is thetice Department Authority on who prosecutes whom. Under article two, all executive powers rest with the president. Prosecutions with the Justice Department. Article three is judges. They are neutral arbiters. They are umpires. They make rulings. They dont bring prosecutions. One of the most important things will be a statement by the United States court of appeals that the article to an article three function in the constitution are important. They are essential and vital. A judge cannot [indiscernible] decide one to he does not like the result of the case. In this case a dismissal for gross government misconduct, and then decide he is going to continue the prosecution on his own for contempt or perjury. John sullivan had no power to do any of those things. I expect quite soon the oral argument in the flynn case is on friday. I expect a return to the rule of law, separation of powers, and understanding the rules of our branches of government under the constitution. Host we will continue with our conversation. We will try to reach you by phone because of the connection of your video signal. We want to keep the conversation going. We will contact you by phone. If you want to ask questions concerning the flynn case, you can call and ask questions fromtly at 202 7488001 republicans. 202 7488000 free democrats. For democrats. Independents, 202 7488002. You can post online and at twitter. If you wish to text us and give us comments, do so at 202 7488002 202 7488003. Give us your name, your city and your state. We will continue with calls as we reconnect with joseph digenova. Rent in michigan brent in michigan. Go ahead with your question or comment. Caller my question was for your reporter. Digenova is a mouthpiece for donald trump. Donald trump lies everyday. Why should we care about lying anymore . Host the question about the flynn case . Caller you can dance around it but is Michael Flynn a fool . Does Michael Flynn not know whether or not he lied . When is a lie not a lie . You can dance around the fax all all you wantacts and split hairs. It comes down to that. You caughtt know if all of that, but how would you respond . Guest the answer is quite simple. It is not a question of what i think. It is with the Justice Department things and the u. S. Attorney in st. Louis who has the power to analyze this case. He determined the fbi and the doj under president obama violated mr. Flynns Constitutional Rights, lied to him, coerced him. Muellers people threatened to indict his son for nothing. He also did not affect did not lie about anything that was material. Under the circumstances, it is very clear given the language and the governments motion to dismiss that the government cannot proceed in good faith with sentencing and that the case has to be dismissed. I certainly understand the caller and the viewers opinion flynneral plan general n. The court of appeals will have a chance to rule on this and hopefully the caller will accept the decision of a group of neutral judges from the federal circuit if they decided has to be thrown out for the reasons that the Justice Department gave. Host elaine is next from olympia, washington. Go ahead. Good morning. Caller i dont think general the first person in the history of our country to plead on something that never happened. In any event, the reason i was calling was because of the actions of judge sullivan. It seems to me by questioning or proposing that he be prosecuted for perjury because he pled guilty when he was indeed not guilty, that is a prosecutorial action and i cannot imagine any on thatywhere taking kind of action. It is beyond me. . Ost mr. Digenova guest i think the caller is correct. He does not have the power to prosecute general flynn for perjury. That is a judgment that has to be made by the Justice Department under article two of the constitution. They have already concluded that general flynn did not lie and indeed could not live because there was no basis for investigating him. They have also concluded that you cannot commit perjury under circumstances like this where you have been coerced unconstitutionally into pleading guilty under the illegal threats to yourself and your family. So the caller is correct. Isortunately our history replete with people pleading guilty to think they did not do to protect themselves, their families, and whole bunch of other interests. In this case, the Justice Department owned up to a terrible mistake by the Mueller Prosecution Team and they are trying to make it right which is their duty. They have done exactly the right thing. As i said mindy United States said,of appeals as i when the United States court of willls, hopefully people accept the judgment and understand that what matters here is not political concerns or interest, the rule of law. Whether or not you like euro ornn general flynn President Trump is not the issue. You cannot abuse the constitutional process by making an unlawful prosecution and trying to pretty it up and make it look like it is a fair one when it is not. Host here are the responses from the attorney. She wrote on may 21 that the governments motion does not require sullivan to serve. It is all matter of question by factfinding and analysis. In this unusual case, one of those judges appointed enhanced the ability to perform those tasks in the future. Because our judicial system is premised on the notion that adversarial presentation leads to better decisions and because no decisions have been made, the court should allow the judge to evaluate the governments motion to dismiss. How would you respond to that . Guest that is a very interesting and almost cute argument. The truth is under the rule that judge sullivan is being asked to dismiss this case, he does not have that type of discretion. His discretion is only to ensure that the defendant is only is not going to be harassed by a series of prosecutions over time. That cannot happen in this case because the Justice Department is moving to dismiss the case with prejudice meaning it can never be brought again. Wilkinsons argument is circular. It is basically a strong man under these circumstances. Of course the federal judges have vast discretion in most situations. Evidentiary rulings, how to decide a case. In this case, there is no case. The Justice Department has determined that the case against general flynn was brought in bad faith in an unconstitutional way and it will have no part of that and it is telling the judge that it is moving to dismiss it because it is an unconstitutional prosecution. The judge has no discretion whatsoever not to dismiss that case. And i expect the Circuit Court to tell him just that. Host sterling, virginia. Andrew, go ahead. Caller judge sullivan is an american hero. The reason he does not drop this case is because he knows that flynn is a traitor to this country. As far as im concerned, your guest, mr. Digenova, and Rudy Giuliani are also traders to this country. They are nothing but trumprussian stooges. A comment directly for the guest, please. Caller not only did flynn live directly to the Government Lie to the fbi twice, he was also for an agent for another country which he did not want to reveal. Host mr. Digenova, go ahead. Guest Vice President pence believe Vice President pence has said he does not believe he was lied to. I will not address the outrageous comments by the democratic caller from kenya about who is a traitor and who is not. From virginia. Sullivanis that judge said that he believed that the general is a traitor and that he was disgusted with his actions. He said that during the first sentencing hearing in the morning. He came back in the afternoon and apologized to everyone for having said what he said. But judge sullivan appears to have been somewhat unhinged by this case in many ways. That particular statement where he was asked whether in the mueller case if they had considered prosecuting flynn for treason showed interest because nothing even approached treason and now we know from the Justice Department that he had done absolute nothing wrong. For the judge to make that type of accusation in court, which i will give him credit, he later apologized for it that day, it shows that this case has become so unusual that the otherwise fine reputation that judge sullivan has enjoyed has been sullied by his performance in this case. Host we have a viewer from twitter who asked had general flynn not participated, he would not have been unmasked. They say, you are known by whom you associate. Guest that comment assumes they were nefarious. We know from the transcripts of the phone calls that they were perfectly normal conversations about the medic relations. The person on one end was the Russian Ambassador. The person on the other end was general flynn who was on the Transition Team and a Government Employee at that point who was vested with the authority to have discussions and negotiations with foreign governments, ambassadors, and the heads of state. There was nothing nefarious in the call. The twitter person obviously has not read the transcripts of the call between general flynn and ambassador kislyak. The director of National Intelligence as per the release of those transcripts, everyone has read them, and they are nothing more than a standard if the medic discussions and nothing untoward in there whatsoever. Host to the topic of unmasking, someone tweets this morning, this is albert in chicago saying that if you could tell him and others how joe biden or anyone flynn when michael the sole purpose of unmasking is to learn a persons identity, how do they target him if they did not know it was him on the call until his identity was on maxed unmasked. Guest that is one of the things that john durham is looking at. The attorney general and mr. Durham have decided that the number of unmaskings and the targeting of general flynn raises serious questions about why that was done. It is untrue that to unmask someone legally inside the government so that you can better understand the nature of a conversation and the context, to unmask an american or u. S. Person is illegal. What is not legal is to leak that information to the press which is what was done in general flynns case. The content of the conversation by late by someone leaked someone. It is being investigated because it was a 10 year felony under the espionage act to do that. When it is all said and done, huge numbers of unmaskings about general flynn and other people are being investigated. These were going on from approximately 2014 on. That is also something being looked into. It was not just general flynn aksed,s on maxed unm but there were a large number of ked. Ons who were unmas is in washington state. Independent line. Caller i just want to share that plan was having conversations with highranking persons. Just remember, bill clinton was not impeached for what he did. He got impeached because he lied under oath. Thank you. Unlesse will go to scott you wanted to respond in any way. Are notirst of all, you under oath when you speak with the fbi, just for the record. Michigan, republican line. Scott, hello. Caller i would like to point out how that last caller is a great example of the problem that we have in our media today. Madef those statements she are the product of our media and how they portray things without factual basis. The idea that you pled guilty to lying so you must have lied is a common refrain from the other side as to why he must have lied. He said he lied. This program should be mandatory watching and listening for this country because this exactly shows how somebody would get in a position where it could be simply said, he lied, he must be guilty. Opinion ava is in my patriot for actually showing how that can be instead of just he must be guilty because he said he was guilty. Host since you are on, do you have a question . Sayer the only thing i can is how can you continue to fight like this to try and get a factual basis out there when it ,eems like at every turn probably 95 of the media is trying to undo what you are doing. Host mr. Digenova, go ahead. Guest it is actually pretty easy. I have been a member of the bar since 1970 in the district of columbia. I am in my 50th year of being a member of the bar. To go intoeasy public and engage in legitimate debate about how our system is supposed to work. Theof the reasons one of jobs lawyers have is to go out and discuss things in public and talk about it in public. I and my wife have been doing that for 30 years. It is an important function. In the case of general flynn, the facts and circumstances are obvious and have been so for so long that he was unconstitutionally treated and abused by the fbi and the department of justice under the Obama Administration and by Robert Muellers special counsel team. It is abundantly clear that there is a point of lawlessness during the Obama Administration including the Mueller Investigation that was simply something that a country cannot tolerate. And that is what mr. Durham is investigating along with the conduct of the u. S. Intelligence committee and senior officials there including comey and others. It is not hard to discuss these issues. Likeimes it is unpleasant one of the callers who came in a little while ago was extremely displeased with me and my wife, so be it. That is why this is a great country. People are allowed to say things even if they are foolish and stupid like that caller. Host can you clarify, you said it is not a crime to lie to the fbi. But isnt it a crime to lie to it federal official . Guest is a crime to lie to the fbi. What i was saying was one of the callers was saying he was under oath. He was not under oath. But if you lie in an legitimate investigation, of course it is a crime. ,t is called a false statement title 18. It is a crime to lie to federal official. In this case, general flynn did not lie to the federal officials according to the apartment of justice, the prosecuting authority. Host thank you for the clarification. We will go to michigan. Scott, you are next. Caller hello. Host i think we will go to robert in florida, democrats line. Caller how are you. Good morning. About theted to know 2016. Hey had in turkey in flynn wasw why the contractor take up this ottowa wanted him so bad that he contracted flynn to bring him back to turkey. Can you explain why he was not prosecuted for that . . Ost mr. Digenova guest the Justice Department to not prosecute him and neither did Robert Mueller. There was not any evidence to sustain the argument you are making. He was not prosecuted at all for that. Host mr. Digenova, the National Review yesterday posted it isg saying, unsustainable to say that Michael Flynn was not a part of any conspiracy, with members of the turkish government. Can you expand on that . Guest what filing is this . Host this was posted on june 8. The court filing took place on sunday by the Justice Department. Guest i am unaware of it. Host we will go to caleb in maryland, independent line. Caller how are you . My comment is that as the Obama Administration in 2016, as they were leaving and as they were putting the sanctions and everything on russia, general flynn, with all that was going on had no right i dont want to say no right but it was kind of inappropriate to talk to the russian and god knows what they said. Your guest said in the beginning when talking to fbi under oath, it is not a crime. Yes it is. I live in washington dc and i interact with a lot of people. Yes, that is a crime. The minute he was talking to him, god knows what he said and i think the fbi should release those recordings in order to reveal and be transparent of what he he said because right now we dont know what he said on those phone be upfrontn order to or exonerate him or bring more charges, i think we need to hear those phone calls. As i said, it is a crime orlie to an fbi agent federal investigation in a legitimate investigation. I did not say that it was a crime, it is a crime. Secondly, with regard to the conversations between general kislyak, ambassador general flynn was an employee of the u. S. Government acting in capacity as the incoming National Security advisor to a duly elected president. I know that the caller might not like the fact that he was duly elected, but he was. Acting under the authority of the transition act, general flynn had the authority to talk kislyak about whatever he wanted to. The transcript have been reviewed and the key one has been made public and there has been no objection raised to the releasing of any of the other transcript. There are only a few calls to my knowledge but all of them that have been reviewed have been found to be completely proper and nothing untoward was discussed. Thatct, it is fascinating general flynn was never given a chance to see the transcript of the phone call that everyone said was so bad. Now that we have seen it, no nothing was wrong with it. I understand the callers concern. The fact is general flynn had every right. He was getting a green check. He worked for the u. S. Government on the Transition Team. He had every right to be talking to ambassador kislyak. We know from the released records that nothing he said was improper. Host the former u. S. Attorney for the district of columbia. Mr. Digenova, thank you for your time. Guest thank you. Host we will get another perspective from Paul Rosenzweig of the R Street Institute serving as a senior fellow. He will get his perspective when washington journal continues. John Charles Fremont brought the Pacific Coast into the u. S. At the beginning, the u. S. Did not have a Pacific Coast. There was territory in oregon that was disputed with britain and there was california belonged to mexico. Fremont encouraged the american settlement of oregon and took part in the american conquest of california just in time for the gold rush. He did play a real role in changing the map of the United States. Announcer stephens gave on his book, imperva union. Night at 8 00 eastern on cspan q a. Washington journal continues. Host continuing in our conversation about the prosecution. Paul rosenzweig is with the R Street Institute. The morning to you. Guest good morning. Thanks for having me. Host when it comes to the topic of Michael Flynn, he wrote a recent piece and you title it an an attack on the fundamental principles of justice. Can you expand on that . Guest sure. Even aside the question of whether or not general flynn was properly charged, i think he was, but leaving that aside, what is really dangerous with what is happening now is that the attorney general is reaching down into the bowels of traditional career prosecution and exercising discretion. Not that he does not have authority to exercise discretion, but attorney general barr is exercising it on behalf of President Trumps personal confidant. We like the idea that prosecutors have discretion to choose which cases to bring and not to bring. If they had to bring every criminal case that came across their desk, we would all be criminals. Everybody does something illegal every day ranging from speeding to adultery to whatever. But we in view our justice our justicebue system that prosecutors should make discretionary justice discretionary judgments. But we agree with the idea that they should be based on the merit of the case and not on things like preference or clinical favor. What is really disturbing of all about what is happening in this case is that it is abundantly clear that general flynn is getting special treatment. Not because of the alleged errors in his execution. We can talk about those later. But precisely because he is President Trumps friend. And frankly that is the opposite of what the Justice System should look like. When bill clinton was under investigation, his attorney general took a complete hands off approach. They did nothing in terms of trying to manage the prosecutions. They tried not to interfere. They stood as far back on the line as they could precisely to avoid the appearance of political interference in what should be what all americans should want an essentially nonpolitical process that is evaluated on justice and merit. Problem withain the case. Host when it comes to the reactions of judge sullivan, is it unusual to approach the judge is taking . Guest it is extremely unusual but so is the apartment of justices behavior. I have been a prosecutor since the mid1980s. I have never seen a case in which after a dependent defendant had let not once but twice and was on the brink of sentencing, i have never seen a case where at that point the department of justice chooses to withdraw charges. It is highly unusual. It is grounded in obviously a reevaluation of this case by attorney general barr himself and that by itself is a unique circumstance that i think prompted osullivan to react with what is conceivably judge sullivan. Host does it make the judge or prosecutor . Guest he is trying to avoid that. That is why he has appointed another judge to argue the case on the other side we evaluate for him whether or not governments motion to withdraw should be granted. Lets be clear, we are in april preliminary stage. The government has moved to withdraw the case as it is permitted to do under rule 48. Will 48 also says he can only do so with the court rule 48. Judge sullivan is determining whether or not he should exercise that discretion, give them the leave of court that they need to seek the case. Nobody neither the department of justice nor general flynn is arguing that he should not. He is asking an independent thirdparty person used to be a district judge in new york and is now retired to argue the other side and provide him with the legal argument about whether or not it should be granted and if it should not be, recommended to him other steps that might be taken. We are in the middle of a process, not at the end. Host the Justice Department department asking for dismissal of the case, which is the stronger argument as you see it, with prejudice or without . Think themy view, i Justice Departments request is not beyond its authority, but so procedurally unusual that i would like to hear more about how the department came to make that request and why it made filingsuest and why with the court do not mention some of the other potential charges against flynn like those relating to his involvement with turkey. There are questions that need to be answered and i think that is the right way to approach this. I dont think judge sullivan has made up his mind. I assume he has not because he has been around for 30 years judging cases so he knows better than to do that. On the facts right now as i understand them, i dont think the case warrants dismissal. But that is my personal opinion. With usul rosenzweig from the R Street Institute talking about the prosecution of Michael Flynn. If you want to ask questions, you can do so. Republicans guest 202 7488001. Virginia, on the republican line. Go ahead. Caller good morning. Ll. Name is lowe i want honest transparency and to have a clear view of how to conduct ourselves and how to act. It has been frustrating for our whole nation. Right is right. Wrong is wrong. Things are rarely what they do. Is necessary for everybody if they dont believe that clarity and transparency is the answer to all of this. We are living in a frustrating time. Our children are completely confused. We are all going to pay the if they guide us down the road that might not bear we want to go be where we want to go. After this call, i will definitely tell my two sons and tell them i love them. I appreciate the reminder. I think the callers point is a fundamental one. Right now the department of justices decision to dismiss the case is essentially a black box with little expectation of how the department explication of how the department came to that decision. Little explication of how they withdrew. I think that is pretty much a thumbnail summary of what judge sullivan is seeking at this point is clarity and transparency. Case,all, it is the again, without speaking fully to the merit, judge general flynn has twice before admitted to his guilt and waived his right to challenge the things they department of justice says are the basis for withdrawing the plea. There is something happening and whatever did whatever it is is worth exploring. Host from nicholas in dallas, democrats line. Let me push the button. I apologize. Go ahead and start. Caller thank you for taking my call. I wanted to comment on your previous guest of how he tried to muddy the water with the beingwith general flynn charged for lying under oath. Wasalso corrected that he lying to an agent which was the crime that general flynn committed. Also, general flynn made a plea bargain with his attorney. That is why he was charged. They discharged him for lying. The other thing that he did is ,e took money from turkey 500,000 for his corporation. And when he worked with Donald Trumps administration, on the application you have to reveal whether or not you work for a Foreign Agent she never revealed which was another lie which he never revealed. I think the callers point is correct. I did catch the end of the last piece in which your previous guest suggested that the allegations of lying about connections to turkey were not substantial because they had not been prosecuted either by mr. Mueller or the department of justice. And that i think is misleading as your guest suggests. It is very common in prosecutions for the prosecutor to dismiss two or three out of five charges in order to secure a guilty plea to two. It does not mean they think the other two charges cannot be proven. It simply means they have made the appropriate evaluation that the resources of the government are better spent accepting a guilty plea to the charges the person will admit to rather than going through a long and difficult trial. In addition, to be clear about the turkey allegations, the government filed a statement of offense when general flynn first pled guilty which included the fact that he had lied about his affiliation with turkey in the filings that the caller first to refers two. Admitted ton signing the agreement. As you point it out, the government continues to maintain its prosecution of the other side of that transaction. A turkish american who was charged in virginia with being on the others of general flynns transaction and whose case is now on appeal. In that case, the other general was charged with a conspiracy with mr. Flynn. The government is maintaining that he was guilty of that conspiracy with mr. Flan while at the same time mr. Flan mr. Flynn. Inconsistency that requires greater care to greater clarity. I assume those are the types of questions people ask. How can they swear those two pieces of argument. Host this is a viewer from texas tech thing us, your argument will be valid in normal in would it be valid cases. E valid in normal a great degree, that is irrelevant. You do not get to lie to the department of justice and the fbi whether or not their investigation is predicated. Which of no other case in the government has agreed to that argument. There are many cases, Martha Stewart would be a famous one, and which people have gone to jail for things that have proved not to be criminal assistance offenses. More to the point, that would be true only with respect to criminal investigations. The investigation in which general flynn was speaking was not only a criminal investigation but was also a counterintelligence investigation. That was an investigation into foreign influence on american politics. In this case, russian alleged interference in the 26 teen election. Had an obligation to speak truthfully to the fbi about his discussions and his conversations with ambassador kislyak. The turkish governor before that, whether or not he had committed any crime and whether or not he was the subject of a criminal investigation. To say otherwise is to give almost everybody in the country a free fire zone to lie and contend that no investigation was pending. These two court has rejected that very premise in a couple of cases. While it is true that some people think that the investigation of general flynn was motivated by political terms rather than criminal terms, besides not being truthful, that is not actually matter whether it is true or not. Host does this case expose problems with the fbis handling of this matter . Are there fundamental problems exposed by this . Guest there can be no doubt that the Inspector General in view of the broader crossfire , thecane Case Investigation revealed a host of errors in the fisa ross as process. Ocess fisa those procedural problems have been part of the process for 30 years. Nows strange that only people are taking them to heart neededing that reform is and that general flynn should be the beneficiary. Not anybody in the 20 years who went before i am a formal former republican, now independent. I had friends telling me about fisa for years and i mostly disregarded them. This has helped make clear that perhaps they were more right than i was in the past 20 years. Arelems in the process things that require fixing the process more than they require to let the guilty go free. Host we will hear from paul in arizona. Go ahead, please. Democrats line. Caller good morning. On this masking issue, from what i have read, general flynn was in theaxed masked first place so how can he be unmasked . Anst the masking issue is red herring because the discussions were part of an fbi probe which does not engage in masking. Masking is the process by which foreign intelligence agencies like the National Security , conceal the identity of u. S. Persons whose names are in conversations and that could be because they are part of a conversation or because their name is in the conversation. Two foreigners named me, my name masked and the unmasking process provides additional context. In the lastr 30,000ars, more than unmaskings have happened. In this call, putting much a red herring. Host independent line. Good morning. Caller lets get real. This was an abuse of power. This is a three star general would be the head of the National Security advisor for the president of the United States who was duly elected. They went after the sky. They have notes that talked about, we will get him fired. We will do this. We will try to get him to live. This was all a set up. Get him to lie. Understand that if you are a former republican, it does not matter. Emailpeople look at the who writes an email to themselves to me . We did everything right. We never spied on the Trump Campaign for two months before the election and how many months after the election . They knew all this information. They went after these people. They never thought that trump would win the election so we would never have known about these abuses. Please speak up for the people. Host we will let our guests respond. Guest respond. Guest it is unfortunate that in , that kind of counterfactual story can take hold. Ecause take lets start with the susan rice email. I was in government for 15 years. I wrote dozens of those emails. They are called number random and they are intended to record what you think is happening. Sometimes those can be selfserving and perhaps ambassador rices might be viewed in that way but they are intended as records for exactly what happened which is why don memorandum a host of of his conversations with President Trump and why one of the findings of the Mueller Investigation was that he asked him to stop taking such notes. It is because those notes are exactly how senior officials keep records of what is happening. As for the preinterview notes of the interview of general flynn, if you can read those and you think they were going to try and get him to lie, you are reading a different set of notes than i do. The idea was to get him to tell react if hed then refused to do so. Finally, he was a threestar general. He had a continuing security clearance. Among the many other obligations that general flynn defaulted on was his continuing obligation to report all contacts with foreign official. I held security clearance for much of my adult life and the obligation is to report every time i talked to a foreign official about anything. When i go to a party and i bump into a foreigner, im supposed to report it. General flynn did not do that either. Though he may have been a threestar general who did not understand his obligations to the National Security interests of the United States. Asks to that end, a viewer , isnt it true that general flynn and his son were not prosecuted for perjury on violations and lying to federal investigators in exchange for cooperation with Robert Mueller . Guest that is exactly right. The two charges to which he pled guilty, the statements with respect to his meeting with ambassador kislyak and his denial of remembering them which was another false statement when he said he did not recall having had those meetings, where just two of a number of false statements that could have been charges brought against general lying. Ncluding 86 which is the form that anyone who wants a security clearance has to fill out where they list everything from the day they were born to the day they fill it out mine 120e how to 20 pages pages. He lied in his forms with respect to his contract with turkey. There are multiple charges that could have been brought against him. The government chose to bring only two against him. Because it was a resource allocation and as the caller says, at least in part because they thought he would cooperate with them. The point. Haps to this day, general flynn has not spoken truthfully about whether or not his contact with the Russian Ambassador were at the direction of President Trump or not. If they had been, that would have been material and of great interest to the Mueller Investigation into the Trump Campaigns alleged coordination with russia and the fact that general flynn refused to speak to that issue and refused to testify to that issue is indicative of what is the real motivation behind much of this in my judgment. Host republican line. Miles, hello. Caller how are you doing . I have a question. It seems we are entitled to due process of the law. It was all found by the attorney. Especially in the times that we , especially the improper interview. Host specifically, what would you like our guests to address . s . St the missing 302 where are they . Host thank you. Guest i am not aware of any missing 302s. Typically they are not produced in guilty pleas. The main point that should be made here is that all of that was something that mr. Flynn was aware of. The caller is right, everyone is entitled to due process. He was placed under oath twice and twice given the opportunity to challenge the circumstances of his fbi interview. He waived that right. He said clearly that he would give up forever any right to challenge the interview. He said he knew at the time of his interview that lying to the fbi was a crime and that he was satisfied that he had been given all of the information he needed to make a knowing and voluntary determination to plead guilty. Asbe he was lying then opposed to lying to the fbi. Or maybe he is lying now when he claims that he would not have said all that before. Somewhere along the line, general flynn has gilded the lily. That is what the process is for. It is for judge sullivan to figure out when that was and whether or not that impacts the department of justices decision to withdraw the criminal charges. That ise 302, exculpatory information. There are claims that this is a missing report as part of the case being made. Guest i have not seen the s so i do not know if they are exculpatory information. As far as im aware, he was provided with the 302 of his interview which is the one that would be relevant to his guilty plea. Factual nuance a i dont know about. Again, that would be something for judge sullivan to talk about rather than for us to assume we know what we are talking about today. Host we will go to linda in florida. Republican line. Hi, how are you doing . Guest how are you, linda . Caller good, thanks. Are you concerned with what is going on. I believe that if judge sullivan was allowed to dismiss this case , it shows some very Dangerous Things that are happening in with the trump administration. I do not understand why we dont have more checks and balances. I believe it is getting close to a banana republic. The trumpe things administration have been able to get away with are very scary to me. Host thanks caller. Guest i share the callers concerns. But i want to step back and actually ask why it is that rule 48 requires leave of the court that is judge sullivans permission to dismiss the case . It was put into the rules of criminal procedure shortly after world war ii. When it was first proposed to the u. S. Supreme court as a rule, it was proposed without the idea that the judge had to approve it. It was proposed as the government may dismiss the case anytime it wants to. The Supreme Court said no and it required that the rule be amended to interpolate the idea that dismissal is only with weave of court. There are two reasons why it did that. The first was the fear that the government would dismiss a case and bring it again and dismiss a case to harm a defendant. In other words, it would strategically use the timing of a criminal case to advance its interest against the defendant. But the other reason was that the possibility of dismissal of a case and here is a quote from the notes, favored to much favoritism. That is the idea that the government would dismiss a case are on favor of people it liked, people who were on its side. There was research on this which exhumed all of the notes about this whole process. It was clear that one of the reasons the Supreme Court made the authority to dismiss the case conditional was because of the concerns i just expressed. The idea that the government might dismiss the case as a show of favoritism to the defendant. Indicative it is not just the trumpet administration. We had this idea of favoritism since the rule was written last century. It is an important idea that an independent judicial officer withstand as a gatekeeper would it stand as a gatekeeper and be in a position to decide on the governments motion. Host one more call from mary ellen in florida. Democrats line. Caller good morning. I was wondering if this gentleman has an opinion as to why they would not just wait until the court ruled. What is his opinion of that . Guest that is a fantastic question. Another part of it is why they dont just wait until the court rules and then appeal and set of the addition that will be argued this thursday in which the government is trying to shortcircuit judge sullivans discussions. I really do not know the answer to that question. Because somebody has made a determination that pardoning general flynn would be politically more damaging to President Trump than attorney general barr dismissing the case and they dont want to do that during election time. They could do it after the election, he for the next inauguration, whoever wins. That gives the president a window. I am not at all sure what it is that has motivated this change of heart. I dont have that kind of crystal ball. The caller is right. If President Trump is convinced that this is an offense against justice, he has the unlimited and uncheckable authority to pardon general flynn. The fact that he has not done so says something about his reluctance to do that. I am not exact sure what that is. Host this is our guest joining us, Paul Rosenzweig of we are Street Institute to talk about the Michael Flynn prosecution. We thank you for your time this morning. Guest thanks for having me. Host we are going to ask you to tell us your top Public Policy issues. Perhaps issues of Michael Flynn, coronavirus, what you have seen concerning george floyd. You can call and let us know. , 202 7488001. Democrats, 202 7488000. , 202 7488002. Announcer this week the house and senate will hold hearings on the federal response to the coronavirus and Law Enforcement accountability. Today at 10 00 eastern, live on cspan, the House Judiciary Committee hitting on Law Enforcement accountability. Cspan3,0 00 eastern, Steve Mnuchin testifies before the Senate Small Business committee on the implementation of title i of the cares act. Watch this week live today on cspan and cspan3 online at cspan. Org or listen on the free radio app. Announcer the president s from Public Affairs. Available now in paperback and ebook. Presents biographies of every president organized either ranking from noted historians from best to worst and features perspectives into the lives of our nations chief executives and leadership styles. Cspan. Org tsite hepresident s. Order your copy today wherever books and ebooks are sold. Washington journal continues. Host your top Public Policy issue for the remainder of our show. 202 7488001 republicans. 202 7488000 democrats. Independents, 202 7488002. Stores, a story about the first africanamerican air force chief of staff. He is general brown and hes the commander of the Pacific Air Force for the past two years. He will replace general goldfein who led the Service Since july 2016. Brown will lead to service as it prepares for the rise of china as an adversary and incorporate Artificial Intelligence knology Operation Technology operations and sheds its mission as its own service branch. That is from the Washington Post. There is a photo concerning george floyd, you can see that there. That 10 00 hearing that takes place featuring George Floyds brother and others talking about the issue of policing and technique and other related issues including racial profiling. That will be right after our program today. You can see it at 10 00 at cspan, cspan. Org, and cspan radio. George floyds brother arriving on capitol hill in preparation for that hearing. We will show you video of that. You can watch it on the network starting at 10 00. E in arkansas, democrats line. Good morning. Caller yes, sir. The morning. I would like to know what has happened to our Republican Party in washington. Is it all trump or what . Host why do you ask . The republicans are stopping everything. Host what leads you to that conclusion . Everything that congress is trying to get through with bills Mitch Mcconnell is letting , sittingin the senate them on his desk. What is this . Up, hello. Is next caller good morning. Two issues. The first is police accountability. We just dont do enough training. We need to triple the amount of training we do. It must be instilled into our police that they are custodians of the piece. They must be trained in deescalation and they need martial arts training as well. People who just dont have the temperament it is a very and peoplession getting into it need to know what they are getting into. Temperamentright people need to be removed immediately. Why you thinkk they need martial arts training . Caller because they need to know the power of certain grips and tactics of martial arts, the pros and cons of the seriousness of the holds and all that kind of thing. And to be able to rely less on the guns. They can handle a situation more easily without the gun if they are thoroughly trained in that area. Host robert is from st. Petersburg, florida on the republican line. Go ahead. Caller what ever happened to all the hubbub about Global Warming . I havent heard that in weeks. Werent we all supposed to die in the next 12 years . Host are you personally concerned about Global Warming . Caller no, i am 76 years old. I am not concerned about a whole lot other than my next beer. You could not turn on the tv or read a letter to the editor without Global Warming trying to do away with all of us. Now i havent heard anything, is it still a threat . Host carl from kansas city, missouri on the democrats line. Caller hello, and thank you for taking my call. There are a lot of things that people on both sides can negotiate. Which end of the egg should you open . And they had us set with tv before we could work. They have rules of general hygiene and things you cannot do. Under the circumstance, its a known fact that if people would the masks for months that spread of this thing would be dramatically reduced. The government has an obligation. ,e can talk about little issues there are ethical issues and moral issues. I am 76 years old. This stuff running around, it is going up, and it will kill people. It will kill old veterans like me. Il the government has to do, am making an appeal to the american people. I know freedom is important. Everybody would wear a mask for a month and it has to be everybody or nothing. It has to be like vaccination. If most people dont get vaccinated it will not do any good. Int lets hear from thomas pittsburgh, pennsylvania on the independent line. Global poverty, the u. S. Is spending trillions of dollars on Current Affairs [indiscernible] less than 1 going to global poverty in the proposed budget in 2021, has been 20 so far. [indiscernible] larry is in lafayette, indiana on the republican line. Caller thank you for taking my call. Everybody wants to derail the police. [indiscernible] a Police Officer came to the violence andof the the whole thing everybody wants to hear [indiscernible] they had a policewoman not make it to the door and nobody talks about that. You are going to have lots more problems [indiscernible] without no weapons [indiscernible] thats just crazy. Host thats larry in lafayette, indiana. For the 27 minutes we will be on the air, your top Public Policy issues. 202 or republicans 7488001. Democrats 202 7488000. It was the attorney general yesterday during an interview on fox news using the words very troubled by what he has seen so far. Here is he had to say. From what you have seen, crimes have been committed . I cant say. Can you paint a picture of what it looks like as far as the broad nature of it . I think before the election we were concerned about the mode of force behind the aggressive investigation that was launched into the Trump Campaign with a very slender read as a basis for it. It seemed that the bureau was springloaded at the end of july to drive in their and investigate a campaign. To dowas not much there that on and that became more evident, but they seem to have ignored evidence that was building up and continued to push it forward. The other area of concern is that after the election, even ,hough they were closing down for some reason they went back at it even at a time where the evidentiary area support or claim support like the dossier was floating apart and it is hard to understand why they continued to push and even make public in testimony that they had an investigation going. If you want to see the previous segments later on you can go to our website at cspan. Org. Two hearings on this took place themweek, all of available on cspan. Org. We will go to maine on the democrats line. Caller i think the main policy problem is the lack of universal health care because of the effect it has on so many parts of the electorate. Problemuld solve that and provide that to everyone i think everyone will be better off. There are policy issues that i am sure you are going to raise but that is the one we could solve, thank you very much. Health, a story in the Washington Post about federal aid given to Health Care Workers, saying the department of health and Human Services plans to devote 10 billion of a 25 billion amount to 750 hospitals that treat many patients on medicaid who are not insured. The other 15 billion will go to doctors, dentists, clinics, and other facilities that treat low income adults and children if they have not received assistance with federal aid. Notier batches of money did take into account hospitals Financial Condition and analysis by Health Policy specialists and journalists have found that a safety has gone net hospitals received comparatively little. Harryrgia, is next. Caller thank you cspan. Issuek the most important in front of us right now is the corruption of the Justice Department. You see what william barr has done, and order to try and reverse this decision on general that 90 of the one million prisoners held in various jails in this country have been coerced by prosecutors on behalf of the district to aneys to cop a plea lesser charge and say, you will get out in a year or two, otherwise we are going to prosecute you and if you make us go to court we will give you five or 10 years. 90 of the people that are in prison now are in the same instance, in the same circumstance that flynn is. Is william barr going to go back and look at all of those convictions . Host did you vote in yesterdays primary . Caller yes. And i voted by mail with an absentee ballot in georgia. Did notr 65, but they ask me for an excuse. I told them i was over 65. They know here in georgia that the absentee ballot voting by mail although we had all the problems with the election yesterday. Host many reports of people waiting in long lines and problems with the system. Caller they dont have enough of voting places in fulton the masshat is because populations of poor people live there and they dont want those people voting. Its the same thing that happened in 2018, 2016. They underequipped of the poor with Voting Machines and over equipped us who are not poor and who are white that live in the suburbs. I could have gone to vote and it would have taken me about 20 minutes right around the corner. They have done historically. Hairy in georgia giving us his perspective on the voting situation. Republican line, freeport illinois, hello. Some suggestions for school reform. Number one being the maximum clash eyes should be 15. They have no problem cramming 30 kids into the classroom. If you max it out at 15 there should be no problem with any scroll rate school reopening. Every school needs a principal, fulltime nurse, fulltime social worker and concentrating on reading, math, and writing. You have to get back to the basics of education. Reduce the classsize to 15 and teachers will be effective. Host if that were the case and that happened wouldnt you need more teachers . Caller thats the whole point, we need more teachers. We dont need top and administrators, we dont need more programs or initiatives. We need to contact time with the people that are closest to our students and those are the teachers. Host from chris who joins us from atlanta, georgia go ahead. Police, and ending systemic racism, i say they are looking in the wrong direction. If a law problem is, enforcement guy believes he can commit a crime, any kind of crime, and he will get covered chances are more likely he will commit a crime. We can all agree thats wrong, it does not who he commits it too if he thinks he has more of a chance at doing it. That also goes to the flynn thing. They described what they thought they could get away with it, its not just at the local level, its at the federal level. I am from georgia and i voted yesterday. They did not have a bunch of problem, ithad no was all organized and functioned correctly and i got it done in about 10 minutes. Host do you live in the city or the suburb, does that matter . Caller suburb, its how many people show up. In this case they could have had three people three times the amount of people showing up and it would have gone fine. I still got out in under 10 minutes. Host chris in georgia giving his report from the primary. In california, april on the democrats line. Morning, thank you for taking my call. To the last caller not everybody who can get away with the crime would commit one just because they can get away with it. I am calling because the coronavirus, we are acting like it is gone or we are not dealing with it. None of these policies are going to matter if we are all sick or dying. A lot of people think about it because they are not affected by it. New york has a whole different opinion and they take it more seriously than a lot of other places do. We dont have the cdc there anymore. We dont have dr. Fauci or anyone talking to us anymore. Its insane. Talk about your governors management of coronavirus in california, what do you think of his job . Goodr i think he is doing and i am happy to be in a state where they believe in shutting things down and easing back into things. Virus, i am not anxious to test a theory on anything, i think we should go slower on everything. Before you go, the mercury news says the state recorded 2000 new coronavirus cases for the 17th consecutive day and 98 deaths, new deaths announced since tuesday, your state is going on with reopening plans. Is crazy, i meant up until now. Because we are having this spike i think its insane, i know Everybody Needs he is anxious to get the economy back. Its not going to do us any good. Toshould open up the economy all professions that already use ppe. If we had testing and tracing in place, people who are healthier. Certain people may be, but to open it up bars and they send that, thats insane. We will regret it later. Host thank you for commenting. Robert in greenville, texas. Caller good morning. I would love to see the coronavirus addressed more, but i dont want to go with that today. That is something completely out of our control, that is a natural phenomenon. What we could do, and i think that this underlines the entire protest going on now, i have long felt that the Justice Department should be in the branch of the judiciary and not in the control of the administrative branch. Thehat were to occur Supreme Court, the justices on the Supreme Court should be the ones to decide who gets nominated to become the attorney general, they should be the ones controlling the judiciary, because lets face it the attorney general is supposed to represent the judicial dealings in this United States. It would take an amendment to the constitution to do this, to separate that branch of government and put it in the hands of the judiciary, but i believe that fundamentally that is where it should belong and i think if that was done you would take politics out of the governance of criminal activity in this country. The flynn case is a perfect example of a political stunt to try to quash a legitimate investigation into something that should be considered treason. Because he was a political appointee, they are doing everything in their power to quash it. Host we will leave it there. Oann in new york caller i disagree about flynn. I feel that when you wiretap people. Host go ahead. You are probably hearing a delay on the television, go ahead with your comments. Wiretapping is how they knew everything about flynn. Switchou can keep going, to the phone not the television. Our Justice System, as far as looking back at people who were wrongly charged attorney general barr is going back. There are a lot of people that had very long sentences for a crime that wasnt that bad. They got 30 years instead of three years. They are redoing, that was part of trumps prison reform. They are letting a lot of people out, looking back at the case they were poor, they told them to plead guilty. There does need to be reform. Goes, everything that was in the fisa, they never would have gotten the fisa warrant if they had put down the truth. And pfizer is only supposed to be used for terrorists. David in South Carolina on the democrats line. Caller good morning. I have a problem with the president and the senate being against mailin voting. I dont see what the problem is. If we have a free and fair democracy we should be able to vote by mail. Its our right. He votes by mail, he says. The congress and senators vote by mail, and during this pandemic everybody should have the right to vote, but President Trump said that the more people vote the less chance of a republican winning office. If they made their policies apply to everybody instead of conquering and dividing the ntry like he is doing host the president s general argument is concerns of fraud over voting by mail. Well you are going to have fraud in everything. But you still should not take away that right for people. If you dont want anybody else to vote by mail, maybe he should not do it either. Take it from everybody. Host would you rather vote by mail or in person, and would you feel secure about one versus the other . Caller personally i vote early. I am able to vote early, i dont mind voting by mail. Should not take away the right. That is the question, people should have the right to be able to vote by mail. That is david in South Carolina. On the front page of the wall street journal, a story about the defense secretary, mark esper, and concerns by some about his tenure at the post, under the headline that the president was close to firing him. Saystory says officials trump was furious with mr. Esper for not supporting his inclination to use activeduty troops to suppress protests following the killing of george floyd. The president consulted advisors to ask their opinion on removing fourthper, the defense secretary since trump took office. Advisors cautioned against his move and trump set aside plans to immediately fire mr. Esper. Be front policing will and center at 10 00 this morning right after this program. You can see the House Judiciary Committee as they take on the topic. Among those testifying, george and others. Her. Ou can catch it on cspan. Org stephanie is in long beach, california. Caller good morning. Nerdy, but i remembered a phrase. I remembered the phrase peace officers. Piece is aof the civil officer appointed to preserve the public peace like a sheriff or constable and its earliest use was 1705. I looked up policing which was first use in 1520 as a military term. It was a person that cleaned up the military days. I find its amazing that we have gone and strayed so far from what used to be a Police Officer. I find it is not a coincidence that once the police come back from these demonstrations, that all of the violence stopped. I think if there was policing to be done it can be done on the banks and wall street and corporations. I hope that we are at a Tipping Point towards more justice and more peace. Host caller i think the community can be helped by not just going evaluatingation but and bringing along people who can be helpful. Whether its a psychologist or social workers or somebody who needs to be taken to a medical ter, i think the Police Community policing they it should look at us as neighbors and not enemies. I think that is what they mean when they say defund the police. Host lets go to howl in florida on the republican line. Caller my main Public Policy issue is what happened to general flynn. I was a prosecutor for many years. I am horrified by all of this. I cant even imagine the things they sent the fbi and the things they did. Everybody is saying [indiscernible] i cant interpret it that way. Heres how i interpret it. The top layer to the federal government me, these are people layer after layer who believe in nutty things. Believed in the revolution when he was in college. I dont know anybody in college. Host how does that play out to the prosecution of general flynn . Obama flynn was fired by because he was the only one that basically told him the rational things about heres why you do this and dont do that. You cant get away with doing this with iran, it makes no number one with our allied to be a terrorist state. Here is what he said he would do. He said, im going to take letters of resignation from all the heads of the intelligence agency. He said im going to get them under trump and then im going to accept them. Accept theo resignation. Host that is florida. In st. Go to jim petersburg, florida on the democrats line. Caller a lot of concerns about my top one right now is the integrity of our elections, especially in the november elections coming up. What i was knew calling for which was the mailin voting, having read an article in the New York Times ande are doubts about that online voting under scrutiny. Having seen what happened in georgia i am very worried there is going to be Voter Suppression and our country is just a big mess. Us from st. Joining petersburg, florida. The headline we showed you earlier concerning florida, the fight the Rnc Convention later on this year, the Washington Post reporting that jacksonville, florida is tentatively one of those locations under consideration when it comes to the convention. Ricky is in kentucky on the republican line. Caller good morning, thank you for your time. I would like to say, how dare anyone i dont care what race you are suggest that you would defund the police. With theset is wrong people. The world would be terrible. , i have been a democrat for 10 years. Last year we voted for trump and we will again. This world is going to be in a bad way. Host from North Carolina on the democrats line. Caller i agree with the gentleman who called from florida. I am very concerned about the november elections. Especially with the mess that happened in georgia yesterday. I believe in the wisconsin primary where they made everybody come out during this pandemic and the fact that our president is putting up razor wire fences around the white house, it seems like he is building his own fortress. Host how do you connect that to the elections . And i i think that he, know this is probably silly, i am an 83yearold woman, but it seems like he wants to protect himself and i really believe that that he is going to do something in the election and ,ay that it was rigged he will stay put no matter what. From we will go to tina nashville, tennessee on the independent line. Caller how are you . Of all get to the bottom of this and we look at the base of the trump investigation, of the general flynn investigation, it is mindboggling to me that nobody is standing up and saying that regardless of whether you like these people or not their Constitutional Rights were trampled on and nobody is these casesg that and these investigations were absolute shams. They were obviously done to discredit this president , it was obviously backed by democrats, and it makes me crazy that people think this is some kind of homecoming king contest and they are voting for whoever they like the most. Biden has been in a basement. Shouldnt we be hearing what he thinks should be happening . Host that is tina in nashville, tennessee. To the last collar, if you go to the snopes website asking about the fence, they have a post about it. The fence was around the perimeter of the white house as protests continued across the country spurred by the in custody killing in minneapolis. Shortly after the fence was erected an image that showed barbed wire was on top of the fence was circular done social media. Some posts used the term razor wire which is used for security. They go on to say, this is not a genuine photograph of barbed wire on a security fence. The wire in this picture is a digital alteration. While it may appear this is genuine it is clear that this was drawing on the picture. You can check out the site for yourself. Dearborn, missouri on the republican line. Caller i am calling about the deal with the voting. If you are going to do a mailin ballot with the absentee type of , for our military members who cant get back, i can see that for older people who are may be disabled and cant get in there to vote, or stuff like that. We all dont seem to have a problem getting to places like walmart, banks, or anything else out there. We dont seem to have a problem presenting any kind of id which is what is required for about nine out of every 10 transactions that we do per day. Its one of the things out there , a pandemic is a pandemic. It has a 98 recovery rate but its one of those things out there where people are freaking out over something they should not be freaking out over. Host in just a few minutes we will take you to the hearing on racial profiling and Police Practices in front of the House Judiciary Committee. That room filling up an expectation of the start of this meeting. Norman in massachusetts on the independent line. Caller thank you for taking my call. My main political concern is the president ial race. I am a leftist in the green party. Trump is so far right he is terrible and biden is further right on many issues like war and marijuana. Unfortunately for the greens likely to nominate Holly Hopkins who is putting out these antisemitic dog whistling and forgainst soros making a coalition with the farright. Host who do you vote for if those three candidates are your options . I am going to have to go for the libertarian joe jorgensen. Viceas an anarchist as her president ial running mate and i think she is more approachable and further left than any of those other three. Host she was just nominated a few weeks ago if i remember correctly. Nominated, was hawkins has not been nominated yet but he is ahead in the polling. Host what is it about jorgensen that you like . And she isatched her a lot further left than most libertarians. Are generally for peace but she wants to get off of fossil. Uels completely he pushes these solar panels but actually solar panels require coal to make them and oil drilling. Funding, because they use a lot of nitric acid host one more call from ocala, florida. Gerald on the democrats line. If you could quickly make your comment. Caller i would like to comment on the phrase all lives matter. Whats the difference between george floyd, a black male killed by a white officer or an 18yearold White College killed byessa majors four black teenagers in new york city. Thats my statement. I am originally from delaware and i have had confrontation with joe biden in 1963 when we were both 20. He was a punk then and now. Host this hearing featuring racial profiling and policing just about to start. You can watch that on cspan. Org or listen along on the cspan radio app. Thats it for our program. Another program coming your way at 7 00 tomorrow