Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 07132020 20240712

Chair discusses the coronavirus. Join the conversation on facebook and twitter. Washington host good morning. It is monday, july 13, 2020. A threehour washington journal ahead and we begin the day the race from the for the white house and we are three weeks away from Vice President joe biden announcing his running mate. We want to hear from democrats who do you think joe biden should pick to be on the 2020 ticket . Democrats in the eastern or central time zones can call in o 274 88000. You can also send us a text. Please include your name and where you are from. A good monday morning. As a reminder, joe biden has said he would pick a woman to be his running mate in 2020, so that helps narrow down the list, but were asking democrats who runninge joe bidens mate. This piece takes up the 11 most logical picks. The top three, congresswoman val demings of florida, senator Elizabeth Warren of massachusetts, and the number one pick, senator, harris of california. Aaron blake writes she has been favored from the start and there is no changing that in light of any color chart and others came urgent biting to pick a minority. Reservations exist, she has shown she secure more messenger. On the senates floor recently speaking about police in this country and Law Enforcement and efforts to rein in Law Enforcement in this country. She also did an event for the Joe Biden Campaign last week it was called the get up, stand up event, and she talked about joe biden as president and what he would do in this country. Senator harris joe talks about the future of the country, knowing that we have to be committed to the wellbeing of our children, the strength of our society. He just outlined what he is going to do around the economy in a threepart plan. He talks about working people, the need for collective bargaining, the need for 15 understanding that we want to be in the business of exporting problem products, not jobs. Service. Just give lip he does what he talks about doing. Here in d. C. And i have been watching firsthand what donald trump has been doing to destroy our country. He has been selling hate and division. A new president , and we need a new president who will bring dignity to the office, and bring compassion. Dost Kamala Harris last weeken talking about joe bidens 700 billion Investment Plan that he ruled out. We are expecting more plans on climate and clean Energy Something to watch for on the campaign trail. What to watch for in this first hour of washington journal, we want to get from democrats only who should be joe bidens pick as a running mate . Fred is up first out of camp hill, pennsylvania. Good morning. Yes. R the first the person i would like to see Vice President. Riting pick is susan rice she is extremely intelligent, has a good Foreign Policy foundation, and i think she would be a good person to help lead the country. She is a woman of color, and this is what mr. Biden said he wanted to pick, and i think she is an allaround good person and would be a good candidate. What you think about the two names that get mentioned at the top and come up in polling as the top likely picks among democratic voters, Elizabeth Warren and senator, harris. Caller senator Kamala Harris . I dont like Kamala Harris because she was against mr. Biden during the primaries, and so was Elizabeth Warren. They were trying to put him down. I dont want someone to build him up. I dont trust Kamala Harris. I really dont. I do trust susan rice. Host we mentioned the polling. A brief rundown of recent polls when it comes to joe bidens vp pick. The cap the takeaways, Elizabeth Warrens and Kamala Harriss profiles dwarf the others that have been floated. He either is that neither lawmaker is a runaway favorite. Poll, neither secured a majority of support. Warren has ranked highly in several polls, particularly among younger voters. She was up six points with 30 support compared with harriss 24 followed by abrams, Amy Klobuchar and others. Has withdrawn her name clover chart has withdrawn Amy Klobuchar has withdrawn her name from consideration. Omaha. Montross, virginia. Caller we go through this. Host im a resident of virginia. I will try to do better on that. Caller thank you very much. Dont waste too much time on it. There is a Vice President ial candidate i would be interested in him picking and it is not on this list. The name is Tulsi Gabbard. I choose her. She is a person of color, a woman of color, and also she is active duty. Im a veteran. We are both antiwar. That is the one i would want to see. That would give me a reason to vote for the guy in the first place. Other than that, considering the two major party candidates, i will probably vote for Howie Hawkins in the green party. Host before you go, you mentioned Tulsi Gabbard i assume you supported her in the primaries. Caller yes, i did. Host when did you start supporting Tulsi Gabbard . In in theat came debates. Eviscerate some other candidates, some of the warmonger candidates, the corporate candidates, and said that is the one. I want her. Host that is larry in virginia. This is tim out of wisconsin. Only democrats for the first hour. Go ahead. Cspan,good morning, good morning america. I completely agree with your first caller. Susan rice has everything. Articulate, as experience, is a woman of color, and i implore all democrats take a look at her. When she speaks, she speaks clear. She is not divisive. She is the best candidate. Joe, if you are listening, i hope you pick susan. Host kathleen parker, columnist with the Washington Post, recently brought up susan rice as a potential name that has not been spoken about as much but should be. Kathleen parker writing to other susan rice and former obama Senior Advisor Valerie Jarrett. They are both qualified on both international and domestic front. Neither has expands running for high office, but there are more important things. Should the wolf worst come to pass, either woman could skip initiation. Nationaled as obamas security advisor. She is on friendly freighted with political baggage more so than it. Recall 2012 when rice stepped in for secretary of state Hillary Clinton, reporting on five sunday news shows that day. If you want to read Kathleen Parkers column in the Washington Post. Helen is next here in d. C. Who should joe biden pick . Caller how are you today . Host i am doing well. Caller i believe joe biden should just wait until he puts out who he wants to be his Vice President. Dont try to rush him because i dont like the fact everyone is going online trying to figure out who he wants to pick as Vice President. It doesnt make sense. Host he has said he expects to announce sometime around august 1. That is why theres a lot of discussion right now. Caller this is not august. It is still july. Why are you all talking about this . This is how trump gets into his playing games with people. He is playing cnn. Like i said, he should be able to pick his Vice President when it is time, and dont rush it. Saying you are comfortable, you would be comfortable with whoever he picks . Caller i think i know who he is going to pick personally and when i decide believe when you come on the television believe when you come on television, who you think he should pick caller host i got your point. Caller do you want to say who you think he will pick . Caller no, i dont. Host i want to endorse what the first caller fred in pennsylvania said susan rice is the perfect candidate and im not disparaging, saying there are not other viable candidates, but they have a rule already and they could find another role in the cabinet. He is comes bola susan rice. He has worked with her before. She is professional, experienced on matters of department of state. Virginia, to say to montrose, dont vote green party. That is how we got trump in the first place. Vote for joe biden. That is my comment. Rice from on susan the new york times, their latest wrapup of the vp search. The question on how serious susan rice is being that it, very seriously, they write. In theirw york times wrapup of who is the who is in the mix and who should be in the mix and the latest on those percent running mate. Diane. Obama. Caller good morning. Beolutely, positively, must susan rice. I have seen interviews with her. I love them. She is great, intelligent. She has knowledge of working for the white house. She has worked with biden before. It has to be susan rice. I can see anybody else. Host robert in bellingham, washington. Good morning. Democrats only. Lodi think bidens who do you think should be bidens vp pick . Caller i am another susan rice supporter. I think Valerie Jarrett be a good pick, too. Ricee watched his susan a number of time spent she is articulate, knowledgeable. I think she would be fantastic. Support joe biden from the beginning of the primary . Caller no. Im in Bernie Sanders of, but i definitely will support joe biden. No doubt about that. Host as a Bernie Sanders supporter, square some of your support for susan rice and what you see in her . Her belief in humanity. The fact that we are looking at a philosophy of helping people, all people, especially with the coronavirus. We need someone that is very intelligent, knowledgeable, and is going to be have things , and havee ppe systems at work like the unemployment extensions, and all of these things that are going on that we are seeing. It is really chaotic. I mean, i have been in my house for four months now. I need to see some kind of stability. The only way that i can see we stability isget get some intelligent people in there that are professionals. Susan rice is definitely a professional. So is Valerie Jarrett, for that matter. Biden,y supportive of and supportive of whoever he picks because we have to get trump out. Host robert in washington. Chalk Janet Carroll up as another susan rice supporter, but rights almost anyone would have more knowledge in the constitution, or geography than the president. Host again joe biden saying he will pick a woman and that he expects to have that picked by august 1. Talking aboutre it today, three weeks away from that date. We are asking democrats to win this money. , mississippi. Youre next. Beler my first pick would michelle obama, and my second pick would be Bernie Sanders. He is a man, but the reason i say Bernie Sanders is because he a win, andntee them so would michelle obama. She could raise a lot of money, and so could Bernie Sanders. He is going to need it. Host is it the money that guarantees the when . Caller no, but he is going to need money, and lots of it to counter against trump. Trump is already doing all of Campaign Messages out there , and most of it is lies, but people believe it, and they will have to fight back. They will have to have money to do it. Host ben in mississippi. Mel is a democrat in salt lake city, utah. Good morning. Who should joe biden pick . Caller good morning. It would be any of the eight women qualified. They are all highly qualified. I think he cannot make a mistake with these women that are at the top of their professions. I mean, they are the best. Lets go, joe biden. Host there are a lot of different lists. Food you put in your top it . Harris, cash, law harris. Kamala just about any of them. Look at their history. That they have done. I like the womens perspective. I think that needs to be out. I think women need to voice heard more often and louder now. With all the things that are happening, we need a woman in in human one of the top jobs the nation in one of the top jobs in the nation. Mel in utah. We mentioned the Washington Post list. Cnn used at large at to be at the Washington Post, used to be the head of the fixed column, and current rankings in the fix have Elizabeth Warren as second. Ranked war and is seventh. Here are the reasons. I know other vp rankings have the senator from massachusetts is far more likely to be bidens pick. I much more skeptical. She is loved by liberals, but her political style is at odds with biden and is significantly more liberal than he is in my does a one race is a huge issue, does a white man month to get white woman to be his running mate . School reopens, something the Trump Administration has been focused on, sending betsy devos to the sunday shows, this is Elizabeth Warren talking about it and what it would mean under a Joe Biden Administration and how it might work. [video clip] warren advocates deserve an advocate in the white Vice President dr. Biden and First Lady Jill Biden they would not get one, just to. You cannot just snap your fingers and reopens schools. Forcing schools to reopen without providing them with the resources they need to do so safely or the flexibility to be able to respond to outbreaks in their community is both dangerous and reckless. Reopening schools is going to and planning that puts the safety of teachers, children, staff first, and that is why it is critically important that teachers and school staff have to be at the table for these decisions. We need a secretary of education to helpk with teachers the states and districts develop reopening plans based on the best available Public Health information instead of spending her time sending buckets of emergency taxpayer money to private schools. We need real leadership in the white house starting with the president to significantly reduce the spread of this virus. We need a congress that will act fast to invest real money in stabilizing our state and local governments, our childcare, and instead ofhools blocking critical aid to schools and two states. There are a lot of ways to accomplish these goals, but time is of the essence. We know we face an uphill battle here, but this is the fight that we have been called to. The fight to build an america that provides educators with the support and respect that will that they need and deserve an america that builds a better tomorrow for every child from birth so that regardless of their zip code, their family income, race, or ability, they are safe and their opportunities look pretty much like everyone elses. And america, that can only be possible with joe and joe biden. Jill biden. Host senator Elizabeth Warren in a recents in conference she twitter page. A few comments. Joe writing in he would be smart to pick warrant. Howot know against biden goes against Voter Suppression and russian interference. This from the media the media to whip updiligently enthusiasm for bunker biden. You can give us a call. We are asking democrats only who should joe biden pick as his running mate. David. Flint, michigan. You are next. Caller good morning. He has so many good choices warren and all of them. I dont really care about the race of the person that gives it. Race is dying out a little bit and we want good leaders. I think susan rice would be my reportingce and for for i hope cuomo runs for president because i think he would make an excellent president. Now, i think President Biden and his wife will be great. I think you will be a great president and his wife will be a great first lady. A greatmichigan we have governor, whitner, and she is doing an excellent job. It seems like Republican People dont really aspect women they act like women are secondclass, but our governor is doing an excellent job in michigan and im happy for the women. Host quick question before you go. You said you want cuomo to run. Is that because you dont think joe biden will win in november or you only think you would serve four years . Caller no, i know biden is going to win and were going to support biden 100 , but then i think well be ready for a different style. We will see. Biden might be good for eight years. I know he might be good for these four. I think we probably would do good to get a younger person in there after the four years. Host pennsylvania. Met. Good morning. A democrat. Caller good morning. Before i say who i want to pick, let me say this, and i cannot believe what im hearing from fellow democrats the person you dont want is susan rice. Foxhese democrats turn on news and the field they they have with this band got it but guys in ben guys benghazi thing . We do not want susan rice. She has as much charisma as my foot. I think it is a nobrainer. I think it is Kamala Harris, and i dont care if she does not have Foreign Policy experience. You saw the Senate Judiciary committee. She was one of the senators that had Brett Kavanaugh crying. This is someone we need, someone tough, a lipid to office, tons of carissa and elected to office, tons of charisma. Supporter ofu a her campaign . Caller yes, i was paid she had her sister run the campaign. You cannot have a relative run a campaign that does not know what she is doing. Host does that give you less confidence of her in the Vice President spot . Caller no. She learned from her mistakes. She is a quick study. Senateatt brings up the Judiciary Committee. Some news on that front. Senate Judiciary Committee Lindsey Graham saying yesterday that he plans to call special Counsel Robert Mueller to defend investigation, perhaps setting the stage for an explosive electionyear testimony on capitol hill. Opinion piece published saturday, mr. Mueller defended his handling of the case, saying he convicted a jury convicted stone. Because the sentence has been commuted, he will not go to prison, but his conviction stands is what Robert Mueller wrote in that piece. Democrats same stones clemency amounted to trump awarding his cronies and that could all come out in an upcoming Senate Judiciary hearing if the chairman of that committee has his way and follow through on that promise to get Robert Mueller back on capitol hill. Scott gladstone, illinois. You are next. I am all in for susan rice. Think she would do a good job as Vice President. I think we need to meet leave the senators exactly where they are at. If this happens, i hope joe biden picks Hillary Clinton as his attorney general. Then the fun could really start. Caller before you was saying he is worried a susan rice brings up every complaint republicans had about the Obama Administration and brings up those past issues. Do you think that is going to be a problem . Caller i tell you what what issue dont they have a problem with . We heard them for the last three and a half years they dont know up from down. Bring the benghazi thing down. I would like to see Hillary Clinton come back in as attorney general and i would like to see some things happen that way. They have demonized her for 35 years, and it is time she has a little smile on her face and gets even with these people. It is just terrible the way we have had to live the last three and a half years before we have now. I am 62 years old. There are a lot of folks my age that are tired of it. We are not kids. We are grownups. And the republicans need to start acting like grownups. Host were you a biden supported throughout the primaries . Caller yes, i was. I just think they need to leave the senators where they are at. We need the senate. If this could be as close as a lot of them think it could be, why would we want to go looking . Or a new senator i am all in for susan rice. I dont think there is anything wrong with that choice. Washingtonmorrows journal, we are going to focus on the senate races in 2020. We be joined for a focus on that. We hope you join us all week long and every day. We are here from 7 00 a. M. Until 10 00 a. M. We appreciate you calling and joining us. Sherry. Eureka, california. Good morning. Caller high. Are you there . Host yes, maam. Democratm a lifelong and i dont think the sex or the age of the person should matter. It is their knowledge and what they can do for the country. I think joe biden, if he wants to win and gets everyone to vote for him, he should Bernie Sanders as his Vice President. There are a lot of us that have supported sanders for eight years and i think we will not for either joe biden or donald trump. Host he has said he would take a woman. Who would you support if he has to if it has to be a woman . Caller Bernie Sanders. I dont think any of the women have any the qualifications. Joe needs someone like burning dont get me started on him, but he needs a lot of help in these ladies will not do it. Harrist going to go into because that could go on forever. Host if it is joe biden and senator harris in november do you vote for that ticket . Caller i havent decided if i am going to because i dont like joe biden and the only reason itnie did not win this time is because like obama said, he would do everything he can to keep bernie out of the white house. Last time it was clinton. Thereave already proved has been a legal stuff going to keep bernie out. Joe if you dont vote for biden, do you vote for donald trump, or do you go the third party route . No. Er i would never vote for trump. I said that about hillary, but i voted for her to keep trump out. Companies to be in federal prison. Host jacksonville. Good morning. Caller four a moment i thought i had wasted my call because that illinois call was dead on point with my thoughts that women need to stay in congress and susan rice is the best person. All of that stuff. It was just ditto from me. My call toto use appeal to Bernie Sanders, Bernie Sanders himself. Be a patriot. Think about the country. Put aside any of those differences that you had. You are going to get some of the stuff done that you want and your people want. Encourage of people to vote for the democrat. Please, bernie. These people out here thinking obama said he would do everything he could to keep Bernie Sanders out of the white house. That is not true. I dont know where they are getting information. Caller do you think host do you think Bernie Sanders is not doing enough . Not becauserently there are Bernie Sanders supporters thinking they might not vote because he is not on the ticket. Bernie needs to step up for the country. Host fran in jacksonville, florida. Bernie sanders coming up in this newy the headline biden vision is much more liberal than his record. A little from that story the story quotes Bernie Sanders. Host if you want to read more and that it is in todays Washington Post. Good morning. I have not decided who would be good as far as Vice President for him is concerned. I mean, who would be a good Vice President , but i do know that i think Elizabeth Warren would be a great attorney general. Shes a smart. She is tough. Anhink she would make excellent attorney general for him. Thank you for taking my call. Host loretta, since we are talking a potential cabinet picks, and the other members of a potential Biden Cabinet you want to bring up . Caller no. I heard someone else say that, and i had originally thought she vp, but i a good think she would make an even better attorney general. Host loretto in north carolina. Eric in california. Good morning. You are next. Caller good morning. Thank you for the opportunity to speak to america. One of the things i think democrats should all due to unite america this is a proposal i has spoken to a lot of people about. I would like the democrat to fromse to move the capital washington, d c, to abraham, lincoln, nebraska. Caller before we move it host before we move the capital lets get to a vp pick. Woman ny african africanamerican woman would be great, but i think it is a great proposal to bring the capital from washington, d. C. , to abraham lincoln, nebraska. It would do with the bible instructed us to do. The capital should be abraham lincoln, a new beginning for america. Host another name that has come up in the that in process, congresswoman karen bass chair of the congressional black caucus, former speaker of the california state assembly. Seriouslystion of how she is being vetted, somewhat seriously. Bass joined the process later than some of the other candidates and she has spoken with items searched bidens search teams and she has been a prominent figure on police reform, introduce legislation of Public Health, student debt, and health care. She leaves the subcommittee on africa, human rights. They do not have a deep relationship, but they appeared together at several events and bass endorsed his candidacy in march. Columnist george will with Washington Post with his recent pitch for a karen bass vice presidency. This is what george will roast her impeccably perfect progressive credentials would suit the fermenting left wing. The daughter of a letter carrier, host george will. His most recent column. David is in texas. You are next. Caller im very concerned about our next election because i really have no faith in the people being elected or the people they want Vice President. I think we should have total transparency. And if you cannot get total transparency, you should not be. Cops camera should be turned on as soon as the uniform is turned on. It should only be turned off when the uniform goes off. If he turns it off, he should be fired. Host on the question to who should be the vp pick. Caller we will not get to a good the paper because our congress is so criminal. We have corrupted judges. And we have a corrupt court system. We have no american no more. Dont you understand . Any electedre official right now that you think is not corrupt . Electedthere is no official that can be trusted and you are taking our homes away. You are planning to do a mass eviction to all of us because of this virus you all caused and nobody will be held accountable . Who will be there when the bullets start flying. Host bill. Caller good morning. I love Kamala Harris personally. She is nononsense. She is intelligent, articulate. Those are three things we dont have in the white house right now. Years ago that was over in amsterdam and i noted a lot of people that were americans that had canadian flags on their clothing and backpacks. I just wonder if it is not the same way or worse now because trump is so much worse than bush. I do want to know what are they building behind the capital behind you through the windows that there . Host that is the restoration of lower and upper senate park. My understanding, under the upper level, there is a parking garage for senators and staff, and they had to redo that part before replacing the fountain that usually goes on top of the upper set at work. Senate park. On theve done the work Lower Senate Park that is closer to us. It has been an ongoing project. We could probably put together a montage since we have been watching it every single day. We are on the north side of the capital. That is the Senate Chambers on that side of the capital that you are seeing. Caller very good. I used to say to live in the state of indiana and i would get spring come and the fall. Tot i hope you can come d. C. And see the spring come down the road. Known. Rry blossoms are they have kept the Cherry Blossom trees and it is beautiful and the upper and lower center park as well senate park. Thank you for the call, bill. Oregon. Good morning. Youre in a. You are next. Caller after watching it all go down i kind of think to myself the only one that is going to be able to help mr. Biden is going to be a very professional woman of color, and the reason that i i was raised by an extremely strong little mother years ago and i have a wife that is a very strong woman. I admire strong women. Some of the biggest crooks i have ever known our white guys my age and i hope they can keep mr. Biden on track. That is all i have to say this morning. Thank you. Host a few texts from the text message service. Built in connecticut same Kamala Harris performs. Barbara lee is the one representative who has not voted for the war in iraq. It is not her gender or color that recommends her. Encourage. Ntegrity writing it should be Hillary Clinton. People forget Hillary Clinton won the popular vote. She then takes over and completes her 2016 quest. My pick is Stacey Abrams. Lewis in march mount laurel, new jersey. You are next. Caller good morning. I would definitely either vote , or ifisit with foreign , ad to be a male Elizabeth Warren, or if it had to be a male Elizabeth Warren would have to be my choice, actually because i think there is balance between her and biden. Balance the contrast of style that he has with what is going to be better for the people in the future. Host what is his style versus her style . Caller he seems more like a on theve conservative edge, where she has all of these new ideas that i think would benefit the country, and the working class people like myself. Would work the two very well together. Would work very well together. Host were you a war and supporter during the primaries . Caller yes, i was. From thee you warren getgo or did you come to her after . Caller after hearing her story, some of it came from nothing financially and built herself all the way up you know, just totally impressed me. I think she is a brilliant woman. I think she would definitely complement the president. In new jersey this morning. About 15 minutes left in this first segment of washington journal, and we are talking to democrats only asking who should joe biden take as his Vice President pick as his Vice President. He has said august 1 as the date hopes to announce that pick. Untiless than three weeks that pick, we are leaving the phones open to democrats. Carl. Indianapolis, indiana. You are next. Caller yes. His Vice President ial pick should be alexandria ocasiocortez. She is a street fighter, a new yorker, knows how to handle trump. Woman, able to bring in bernies voters, brings in excitement, which all the other picks dont bring, especially with his president ial cycle being a pain much online thing. She brings tremendous excitement. She is a minority and she is a liberal. What is more important, excitement or experience . I believe biden has all of the experience. He has been in the senate four years. He was Vice President. He has all the experience. He knows how everything works and he knows how to be able to get things done. He already has that type of experience. He needs someone who will be able to excite the voters, especially with it being a pandemic, for people to risk their lives to be able to vote for him. Host carl in indiana. Jennifer in texas. You are next. Caller how are you doing . Thank you for taking my call. I kind of have a question. I love Kamala Harris. I would love to see her as a running mate. However, biden scares me because he is not cognitive enough to even form sentences. So what i am saying and what i am thinking is whoever takes the presidency if biden takes it excuse me, whoever his running mate is will ultimately be the one running the country, and that is something we need to be aware of. That is just how it is. Jennifer, that last caller was talking about alexandria ocasiocortez. Caller he is talking about excitement. These are people that are cortez imi guess it is a she. You dont need a Vice President voters and that be there only asset. You need a Vice President who will be able to stand up, handle stuff, not that she couldnt, amala has it over her whoever he is talking about. She is brilliant. I would love to see, especially a black woman. Her drive is just phenomenal. Honestly, the guy talking about the bible i missed what he said about trump following the bible or not following the bible. It is happening what is in the bible. You will not be what to buy, sell, trade, unless you have a marked, and the bible calls the mark of the beast. Host chris. Laurel, maryland. Caller basically i think val demings, Kamala Harris, Elizabeth Warren, all of them are great. Stacey abrams. But i do believe val demings. Host why val demings . Caller i like the way she talks. Very intelligent. I think debates with Vice President pence would be very intense and she would break them down. Host do you think her profile is high enough . Obviously one of the impeachment managers, congresswoman from florida. The zenith of the country know enough about val demings . Caller i think enough did because they have seen the impeachment hearings and they have seen her personality. Like i said, Kamala Harris would be great. If it is Elizabeth Warren, that might give trump and his people so much to talk about, the degrading names, even though it does not matter, but to certain people in the world it is, you know, it is just crazy right now. Is cnns chris putting val demings in his top five, saint she shot to prominence nationally thanks to a unique resume that includes a stint as the chief of police in orlando, however her time in that job has slowed momentum. Fox recently noted, critics say she was part of a broader culture of policing. The Orlando Police department in pretend engaged in 20 more use of force incidents than baton rouge, a city of comparable size and population. She was previously at number four. She dropped to five on that list. Guy in albuquerque. Caller good morning. My wife and i are both really big fans of susan rice as far as the pick for Vice President goes. We are proud of the fact that Michelle Lujan grisham is on one of his lists. But we need people on the international level. That is why im going to go with susan rice as art peck. Host guy, talk a little bit about the governors leadership in the state. Are the parts of what she is doing in the state that you like . Most impressively is the way she has handled the coronavirus here in new mexico, not only dealing with the majority of the population, but there is also the Navajo Nation that she is real concerned with, and from what i understand, is to bringt least federal funding to assist, Navajo Nation. Albuquerque, and as far as i know, for the rest of the state. She has not fully opened the throttle on reopening it has even pulled back and issued a mandate that it is mandatory to be wearing a mask inside any. Uilding i am not sure if she has done that for outside crowds as well. I think she has handled new mexico really well compared to the states that we are surrounded by. Host in anaren blank aaron blakes rankings of the most logical picks, he notes Michelle Lujan grisham might be the least known nationally, but he does andshe is the only latina its reportedly been seriously vetted by the biden campaign. Roger and youre next. Caller everyone is so gung ho about Kamala Harris, but you need to be aware of her process toward a record when she was states attorney in california and how she actually sent a lot of latino and africanamerican men to jail under the three strikes you are out and initiative. That was initiated by president clinton and joe biden in the early19 90s. I dont think she would be a good pick. People need to look at her record. If democrats dont watch out, trump will win again if he just pick someone that is just a woman of color. You also have a lot of credible latina women and native american women. It is not just africanamerican women, because a lot of them, unfortunately, have played the political game and have sold their own people up. Be aware of that. Skin folk are not always kinfolk. Thank you. Washington roger in washington, d. C. Caller virginia. Caller my first pick would be Kamala Harris. She is smart. Ce aink she would give pen run for his money, and to the person that said joe biden was missing a step and couldnt put two sentences together, have they watched President Trump for the past three and a half years . He came down the escalator . This man is a danger to america and our allies. Fathom what these people are hearing when they listen to this president. He is incapable. Host shelley in west virginia. A couple of more calls from democrats only to get your thoughts on who joe biden should get his running mate. Philip out in a light. Good morning. Out in the l. A. Good morning. Caller hello. Words thatto say two nobody is thinking about. Michelle obama. I think she would be fantastic. Host why, philip . Daniel is next out of phoenix, arizona. Caller good morning pat im actually in tucson. That is all good. Thank you for your program. Host appreciate that, daniel. Who do you think . Caller i was calling in a four Stacey Abrams and also against Kamala Harris because of her record for people putting people in jail because of marijuana. Think Stacey Abrams has an impeccable record for fighting for voter rights in georgia. Last that is daniel, our color in this first segment of washington journal today. If you want to come. The ground to next will be joined by Tax Foundations karl smith, and later, dr. Jeremy levin will be here to discuss how the biotech industry is helping in the fight against coronavirus. We will be right back. Thenight on communicators, democratic congressman mike doyle, also chair of the communication and commerce subcommittee, talked about social media and the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on telecommunications. When the people who run these platforms look at the culture they have created when you distance that exists that is chiefly being done by social media, it is crazy how you can identify political affiliation just based on certain actions and phrases you hear every day on the internet. Congressman mike doyle tonight at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on watch our live daily unfiltered coverage of congress. The white house. On issues that matter to you. Our ongoing efforts to focus on division, save lives, meet the needs of our Health Care Workers. Along with briefings on the coronavirus pandemic. And the latest from campaign 2020. Be a part of the conversation every day with our live callin program and if you missed any of our live coverage, watch any time on demand at cspan. Org or listen on the go with the free cspan radio app. Washington journal continues. Host carl smith joins us via zoom, he serves as Vice President of the tech foundation. How can be used to spur economic recovery. Remind folks what you do. Its an organization that educates the public on tax oficy and helps with Members Congress to develop tax policy. Government. My and host Tax Foundation. Org is the website. As we look at recovery, its now been four months since america started shutting down. 2. 5 trillion dollars in response, at what point to restart focusing on longterm recovery as opposed to responding to immediate needs happening in the here and now. Thats hard to say. I originally fell in the prices began around the end of the summer we would need to make a strong tilt towards longerterm growth. Witty threepart approach to this, during the media crisis we need to divide businesses for households so that they could keep their payments, business is people on payroll. Once those it passed. Whats complicated that is there seems to be a second wave in cases. We dont know the response that. That happens, we may need to do more on the liquidity and. Measures, in a lot of if we have new lockdowns in effect then it sibling not possible for most to take people back on the payroll to expand towards the future. We showed viewers that chart on appropriations for coronavirus response, a lot of this from the cares act and some of the other smaller acts passed by congress. You add them up and its close to 2. 6 trillion, the entire federal expenditure back in fiscal 2006 was 2. 6 trillion. When did this level of spending start to catch up with us, especially if we are talking about potential more liquidity to get us through the year now . The unfortunate thing for us right now is Interest Rates on Government Debt are very low and the crisis sent them down even further. People became an afraid to invest in anything with risk associated with it. That gives us maybe a year or a couple of years of low Interest Rate while the crisis is here, but i would probably think we will see Interest Rates rising again may be in the next two to three years. That will become increasingly important toward sums of longrun plan. Debt and u. S. National u. S. Debt clock that cspan trillionften see at 26 and counting. You can see those numbers continue to rise in real time. How do we promote a post coronavirus recovery . What issue should be looking to should we be looking to . Guest our focus has been on restructuring the economy. There are a lot of things will probably have to change. Unless the complete virus is gone and we have a vaccine or a series of vaccines. There are probably going to be new ways of doing business, still more remote business, Retail Locations will probably be larger, we may have less less office space. All of thats going to require new physical investment. Cost recovery is various methods of expensing of making it easier to do new physical investments, to build new things. They will need to build things to make the economy resilient. Is thatexpect to happen theyre going to be a reworking of supply chains around the world. We think a lot of companies will take a second look at moving some of their operations to the United States or north america because the virus has interrupted the flow of trade around the world and made it so areas that are not under u. S. Jurisdiction or control or a strong ally, we dont know what the responses can be. So measures that would help Companies Move investment back again. Companies tollows deduct the full cost upfront. Its a very neutral plan, a lot of congressman like tax credits which they can target for very specific behavior. We are less a fan of that. People whoo reward have closer relationships with members of congress and encourage the kind of jockeying for special interest play. Anyone who builds something physical in the United States, what we are going to do is instead of having it deduct over time, we will let you deduct that immediately. That will reduce the cost of investment and give you cash flow. We think that the most evenhanded way to speed things up. Thats the plan for turning the corner on changing the structure of the economy. It will be a lot of difficult when it turns to how we are going to deal with this in the long run in general, weve advocated to the extent you want to look for new revenue sources, that we make them as broadbased as possible. Its possible tax increases that are well at of the minor in percentage terms can raise revenue that will make a Significant Impact on the debt. The more you concentrate on any reticular segment of the economy or on a group of taxpayers, the higher those rates will have to be. Thats going to cause a disruption and will be especially difficult. Carl smith and his group Tax Foundation advises congress on tax policy. If you have a question on the topic, now would be the good time to call in. 2027488000 free democrats, 2027488001 for republicans. 2027488002 for independents. We have our text messaging line, 2027488003. Carl smith, you laid out your Recovery Plan here. Tax hurdles that would keep the plan from being implemented . How much are we talking about changing tax policy and legislation to do so . The things we are putting forward are not that legislatively complex. Congress and the tax cuts and jobs act had a provision to allow some forms of this type of expensing for equipment. What we rx suggesting is in the covid environment, whats as important as structures. Buildings, Office Buildings, a new factory that might be built. We are asking for this kind of treatment to be used there. In terms of realty investment. Concerns. Some weve explained are laid out for congress neutral Cost Recovery which allows businesses to index their deductions over time and gives them the same economic treatment as full expensing. A brandnew Office Building can be an enormous onetime expense into fei company attempt to deduct that at once, they would have to carry that forward over time. That could also encourage Companies Like hedge funds or wall street firms to attempt to buy a building and use that as a deduction on what would otherwise be a large tax bill that doesnt really have anything to do with realty. Its a relatively technical , it has basically the same effect as the tax bonus expecting we passed. Host a few callers already. Lets start in south carolina. Steve, republican print. Caller good morning. If you expected the conversation to go in this direction but im in a bring something up thats been dear to me for a long time and others around the country. Im in favor of a consumption tax. We know it does away with the underground economy, under the present system, Business Owners andbuy nice trucks and cars hang a sign on them and depreciate them and use them on the weekends and take them home, they could buy a boat. And use them for recreation. Rich people pay more taxes and buy bigger ticket items so there you to pay more taxes as they consume. And people who make less pay less taxes. It just seems a good common sense idea to me to level the Playing Field for all income levels. Host carl smith. Guest when we think about what we are going to have to do repay some of the cost of the virus and particularly if congress doesnt change the trajectory of entitlements or as many people are talking about expand entitlements come we made the point that consumption taxes are the only viable way to even attempt to some of this stuff. A lot of the times measures of congress especially ones who want to expand title months point to the size entitlements in europe in one of the points weve made his overtime europe is actually been lowering some of the taxes on business and theyve been increasing their already relatively large reliance on consumption taxes. Particular on the value added tax. Its like a sales tax but levied on the business prior to the sale rather than the consumer at pointofsale. Its for essentially the reasons the caller outlined. The larger tax rates get, the more incentive there is to play games with the system to avoid taxes, even especially for businesses to leave the country or go somewhere else altogether to get out from under these. Consumption tax, because they are so broadbased and hit everything, can have that impact. The rates will be a bit lower but i think thats probably where we have to go especially in this environment. Thereher alternative out would just be very large income tax increases for business and especially their trying to concentrate it at the higher ends. They want to do that to spare people of the lower ends, but the more concentrated gets, the more just the higher the rates get. It becomes more and more difficult to shield the economy from the effects of raising this revenue. , theore broadbased it is lighter the overall impact can be and he can keep growth going. Host consumption tax, value added tax. James on twitters is the fair act fair tax makes too much sense. What do we mean by that . Guest usually people mean some sort of National Sales tax. Of theng at least all regular federal income and maybe with a National Sales tax. ,rom an economic standpoint there is sense to an a consumption tax model. There are two issues with the fair tax. Taxou put a very large 20 it would have to be on the consumer bring there is an enormous incentive for the retailer to get under get out from under that. The second thing youd have to note is if youre putting the codee burden federal tax on a consumption tax, that would result in large increases for people at the lower end. Not advocatede that or enforced the go that far. Once we show most people the numbers, they are skeptical of that increase. You need to raise more men or if there are going to be more entitlement spending, the increase beyond this should probably be focusing some kind of consumption tax. Michael, good morning, you are on. Caller good morning. I wanted to know that the cares act come what the effect you think it will have on the economy as a whole and i wanted since one of things that hurt us with the coronavirus ,hich came from another country could china reimburse our country for the financial ,ffects that its had on us and i looked at the cares act legislation in here in pennsylvania, theyve been flagging i think about 100,000 fraudants, citing either or not following rules relating to the cares act. Program andnged the i was confused because the house and the Senate Passed the requirement of the cares act, how can states then go and give federal law those passed by the congress and signed by the midstream . Nd change if ive changed after you applied, of course out people i would have people flagged. Aest the cares act had number of different provisions. The broadest was the rebate check that went out to most households. One thing weve seen, i dont know if this is with the caller is referring to. One thing we have seen our states have decided that the rebate checks that went out to underolds was taxable state encumbered thats caused some difficulty for some taxpayers either to file their taxes and didnt claim the cares in payment may have had their file flagged. Largergram thats much that we are seeing more difficulties is Paycheck Protection Program. That program essentially gives out loans to businesses if they are going to keep people on payroll. We had some administrative difficulties with that. There are so many businesses in so many different situations. When we think about what we are to do next, congress, at least we are hearing is theres probably going to be some sort of rebate in response to the increasing caseloads and the countryion part of the which shut down longer than expected. But theres more intense debate about what to do about the Paycheck Protection Program and whether that should be extended or whether a simpler program should be put into place. On the one hand didnt require or have as many detailed requirements but on the other hand functions more like a pure loan. The Paycheck Protection Program, if you had 90 of people of your payroll maintained through the period, if you fell under certain other guidelines. You would get the loan you took out forgiven. And so the structure of the program focused a lot on the forgiveness and making sure people got that. That made it, kid for everyone. Some people just need a liquidity paid there is some talk of turning it more towards a pure loan that would be available for companies. We wouldnt have to be as significant specific about requirements youd have to go through. Easier might make things in the next round. Those of the two programs i know that have had the most implementation difficulty. Host from companies to individuals, a lot of individuals in an effort to work from home have made a lot of investments to try and allow themselves to have the technology to work from home. Is there any tax relief for those individual investments and workersion, there are who have to get in go in and some are getting hazard pay. Any provision those workers should know about . Being able to deduct the expenses you have for what you done at home, that is covered under the cares and under the includeslegislation that. Or workers that are getting hazard pay. There is talk about Congress Funding hazard pay itself. There isure legislation that specifically addresses hazard pay that hasnt been administered by congress. I havent heard about that in this one. I may have missed it but i dont recall that. Host this is john, and independent. Do away with the federal tax return. Use algorithms to track peoples income. This is crazy when it cost the taxpayers and the federal government to implement the tax returns. The second question is i have a 401 k or a 457. The first when he thousand in new york state is nontaxable. Citizens, ther first 20,000 would not be taxable. Thank you. I think in terms of the first 20,000 deeming the first two take out every year. There are proposals to do Something Like that. What we are generally discouraging is times of targeted to this particular program and originally there was going to be a program that would allow people to put away taxfree extra savings during the recovery in universal savings accounts. That kind of stuff i think we can think about as we are Going Forward maybe how to simplify the retirement system and roll of the 401 k s and traditional iras into a single simplified saving system. Coming up in a very short amount of time, new savings vehicles themselves are probably not the way. Its probably that are to go with broadbased. Even some like the rebate checks. A lot of people had concerns may be people who didnt need them were getting them. The general simplicity of a program like that has a lot of use in a time like this. We seen that with a more targeted programs. Irs, i thinkhe altogether unless we change tax code significantly, thats not realistic. More automatic filing is more realistic for some taxpayers. I think thats something we should consider. Smith, should also note he is an opinion columnist with bloomberg. You can see his columns at bloomberg. Com. One of your more recent columns has to do with what we are talking about when it comes to federal programs amid the pandemic. Dont shame businesses were taking government money. Whats the point . Guest the point there was a lot of businesses, it started out with businesses people thought , she shacko large got a lot of pushback for taking the Paycheck Protection Program. When the government released the names of businesses that had taken the program a few weeks list,ou look for the Kanye West Company took money. When the more humorous example is the im rand was the ayn rand. My point was number one, shaming these businesses for taking these adds another hurtful on top of consideration. They already have a lot of requirements come do i qualify this, sverre apply for this, when you put the possibility there will be public pushback, thats good discourage more people. What we want to do right now is have as many businesses as our unnecessary. Especially talking about the loan side of the provision. Use the loan. These focused on various in loose ways, industries and suggesting those shouldve gotten funding. One of the congress when designing the program had a number of mcdonalds franchises in the program allowed multiple franchises to claim as separate businesses so if you on five mcdonalds. That made it easier for franchises and there some suggestion maybe this wasnt overly generous position proposition. I think that kind of stuff also limits availability of the program. To the extent we are making it easier for people to apply, thats good. What we should do. Is look for examples of businesses who couldnt get the loans or couldnt get the forgiveness because they didnt understand how to apply for it. Spending time trying to highlight cases where you think people shouldnt have applied only sort of reduces the effectiveness of the program. And will have the unintended consequences of some businesses being nervous about not only to the qualify technically we do the qualifying terms of how newspapers will look at them and how people judge them. Thats what we dont want in the midst of a crisis. Especially to, take as much of the loan portion as they need, their lease payments. Layoff is few people as they can so that we start to rebuild come we dont have the crisis causing lots of disruption in employment or people having lost their business. That couldve been avoided. There were and fund mental economic reasons Going Forward. Beingwant as much of that is voided as we possibly can. The way to do that is to make it as simple as possible. Ruths chrisnk doesnt meet alone, they can make it, but if one of the things they do to make it is not have some of their parttime staffers or reduce their suppliers, that hurts people down the chain. That we can analyze all of and figure out how thats going. Making things as broadbased as possible. Take the loan come we will try to pay back when its all done. We dont want artificial disruption to come in because of this. Coming up on the east coast, time for more calls. First on the west coast, this is lucille out of l. A. Suggesti would like to during this pandemic that maybe the government would ok a write off for those living on Credit Card Debt. Maybe some of the interest could be applied. So Many Companies have closed. And they closed down. People are desperate, their living of the Credit Card Debt. A lot of Credit Card Companies turned into banks once we had that recession in 2008. I think its time to look towards those that are really struggling. There are some people paying their medical expenses by credit card. I certainly understand that. That is part of the motivation we have come we had originally , probably weut will do some like that again is to help people who have unique circumstances. Whats difficult is we try to focus our efforts on one knowcular group, we dont the consequences that will come from all of that. Something like allowing people to deduct their credit card interest. If you think about that, its only going to affect people who have heavily Credit Card Debt and also have significant Tax Liability. Probably the people struggling the most are people who lost their job and dont have any Tax Liability. And so it sort of check to get them by would be more effective yourn general, circumstance where it occurs to you but in general trying to identify here is one thing and its the only thing we should go for. Is not a good idea. It should be as broad as possible. Across taxpayers. And so people who dont have Tax Liability now, how do we help them, people who consider going to their credit cards are going to their tax. They have a lot of tax saving come plenty to use a retirement or other things. How do we do something for them . Catchesadbased rebate people in all those categories. Theant alleviate all of debt everyone has. But making it broadbased gives us some ability to help everybody through a little bit. I think thats probably the best way to go. This is mark out of michigan. Caller thank you. Im looking at restructuring. , which saidtrump hillary run for president. We had trump take the milliondollar taxpayer right off. Hillary, she was in a raise taxes on the rich but theres so many tax writeoffs that it would mean anything. How do we restructure our tax money down on the deficit rather than letting the politicians bar ourselves to death . The concept is, i want to it prorated tax, a fiveyear tax cycle. For everyone whos working. Well have a chance to not pay federal taxes for one year. Which was mean they would be saving, they would be receiving 1 5 of what every they were expecting to pay in the city, state and down. They would get 1 5 of it back, they can spend or save or keep it if they want to. Art are to be taxed more. On a 7, 10 or 15 year cycle. For years nonconsecutive. They will only be charged 70 of their income. The rest of the three or whatever years left overcome 100 of their income would be taxed, but 70 goes down on the debt and or natural disasters. Taxdo we fit that into our scheme . Thanks for bringing up the plan. Carl, a chance to respond to that plan in the last minute and a half we have left. Aest having some sort of relief thats broadbased like that is good. I tried to follow the plan as he did it. It sounds like Something Like especially if up there were big changes from the fiveyear year cycle to the 10 year cycle, encouragement to adjust yourself to the cycle. Thats what makes things difficult is to make them as simple as possible while trying to achieve your objectives. The plan there is more likely for people to game at. It is Tax Foundation. Org. Always appreciate you coming on. Next on the washington journal. Back to your phone calls, we spent the first hour talking to democrats only. Time for republicans only. This question for just republicans, what should President Trumps reelection message be . Asking you to call in with your thoughts. Republicans in the eastern or central time zones, 2027488000. Republicans in the mountain or pacific time zone, 2027488001. Start calling in now and we will be right back. Tonight on the communicators. Democratic congress in mike doyle also chair of the communications and Technology Subcommittee talks about disinformation on social media and the effect of the coronavirus pandemic until it munications. Our coat people around these platforms, look at the country they created and how things have changed. And if you dont see the divisions in our country right now, that is chiefly being done by social media. Its just crazy how you can identify political affiliations based on certain actions in every day on the internet. Congressman mike doyle tonight at 8 00 eastern on the communicators on cspan2. Watch our live daily unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house. Our countries are linked by trade and travel. On issues that matter to you. Ongoing efforts to focus on the mission. To save lives and meet the needs of our state Health Care Workers. Supreme Court Oral Arguments and decisions. Latest for campaign 2020. Your calls and comments welcome. The a part of the conversation every day with the program. If you missed any live coverage, watch anytime on demand at cspan. Org or listen on the go. The president s. From public affairs. Available now in paperback and ebook. Presents biographies of every president , organized by their ranking by noted historians from best to worst. And brings you the lives of our nations leaders and their leadership style. Learn more about each president and historian featured. And order your copy today. Wherever books and ebooks are sold. Washington journal continues. Callstime for some phone from just republican viewers only. Asking you what should President Trumps reelection message be. Ask him become present Trump Campaign manager. Whats your elevator pitch to voters. Day were several stories in the paper bring up some concerns within republican ranks about the direction of President Trumps reelection campaign, this from usa today. Gop appears fractured over trump and get as convention looms. Some are pushing back is the headline and thats the story from the opinion pages of usa today. Chairman of the pro trump Great America pack, his column, how the Trump Campaign can get back on track. He says the Trump Campaign can reverse bidens fortunate momentum of late by capturing the make America Great again motive. Us,ays so much divided americans want their country back, capitalism will build them back up and is democrats and media leads want to label americans racist into vitas, President Trump and demonstrate its unity that guides us. How can he do it . You must capture the original maga themes, from law and order to middleclass tax cuts and conservative jurisprudence. Present trump also needs to theond to covid19 and protests with creativity and apathy and tenacity. Some of just the recent polling from just july, real clear politics wrap up, the average of all polls had joe biden up nine points over present trump in 20 as of late. From late polling last week had joe biden up 10 points, and other poll from last week, joe biden up nine points and the closest of recent polls a hill poll from early this month just before july 4 had joe biden up four points then you can see the chart and polling averages moving on this screen from october through july, President Trump the red line on that screen. The blue line on that screen joe biden. Republicans only, what should present trumps reelection be. Chairperson,mpaign campaign strategist. Debbie from pennsylvania, what should it be . Good morning. I dont believe the polls. If we did, hillary wouldve one. I went to the Grocery Store yesterday, the shelves were empty and as i drove i saw trump signs everywhere. His message is simple, he shows a video of the destruction, the looting, the burning and murders in these peaceful protests and the choice is simply between trump, law and order, or socialist democrats and excuse me, its between trump, law and order, and socialist democrats with looting, murder, pillaging and anarchy. Its really that simple and i think these polls are inaccurate. Elon musk, a genius, just sent out a tweet. Everything your kid should know. Number seven was every time communism has been tried, its failed. I really think peoples eyes are wide open. Who were you going to call if you dont call the police . Ghostbusters was a fantasy people. Thats it. You want anarchy, you want chaos or do you want law and order. Host greg in tennessee. Its your turn for the campaign, whats the message. Thats a tough act to follow. Continue on. Immigration, should probably go back to like before 1965 pretty much shut it all down before we changed the country and because the media, theres gonna have to be some laws put in place that people consume when they spread rumors and theys and murders the way hes cutting back on faucher the because him and bill gates arent elected, they shouldnt be able to tell us what to do with coronavirus. Nonetheless on ted talks, bill gates talks about the population with vaccines. Host greg in tennessee. Mention coming back on faucher. Heres the sent trumps advisors announcing fighting details about statements early in the coronavirus outbreak. Fauci asto treat dr. If you were a warring political rival. These grown vocal in his concern about the surgeon cases. Surge in cases. Hes been accompanied by more measured public criticism of officials including the president and it came days after the white house called for School Reopening guidelines released by the centers of Disease Control and prevention overly restrictive. A pattern of the administration trying to sideline recommendations that could slow reopening of the economy. Joseph, tallahassee, youre next. How are you doing today. Sayreason why calling is to to voice my opinion on what should be the reelection to message. Realize he is a businessman. Most people most people dont have dont know much about people they put into office. Its difficult to make a real decision on what should the reelection message be, i dont know what the problems would be in the next four years. Its hard to say how any president will be able to handle it. But what is important is we stand by the president no matter who he is to get the job accomplished. Had thisry has always relations, some of been good and bad. Financial things are good, sometimes its bad. What we need to realize is the actual president is trying to do what he feels is best and sometimes its not that easy. If i was sitting in the white house i dont know how long i would want to be there. And i think hes doing the best he can. I dont know much about the everybody i think should keep their ears open and their eyes open and ask themselves the question whats the best thing i can do as a citizen no matter who is the president. Host this is the column in todays Washington Times from the commentary section by michael mckenna. A columnist of Washington Times. This column with the headline President Trump can win and heres how. This is what mike mckenna writes , giving the seemingly dissident affair that is the trump reelection. Hope of thee is president winning reelection. Before,mentioned President Trumps team needs to alter its strategy a bit and get serious about message discipline and start treating the campaign as an opportunity to persuade rather than as a science fair project focused on who has the coolest database. Emphasize the work done on the economy, regulation, on judges, on preservation of liberties while avoiding attaining entangling us another pointless war. On immigration, dealing with china. The recent ration of a Response Twitter account to make the case the last 42 months have been on balance very good in all sorts of ways and given 48 more of those months the world would also be good and all sorts of ways. Singh is the candidate of a good economy and good order. His column today in Washington Times. Nashville, tennessee, you are next. Caller good morning cspan. I love america, love cspan. I love the fact that the freedom to speed my speak my mind my biggest concern is hes gotta go after china. Ive been watching the jobs go to china since the 1970s when nixon and every other president after that has opened up china. They want that population in order to make more profits but at the same time when youre looking at wages go down, jobs go south. Globalist,hey are they dont want anything good for america. They want the good for the Global Economy so they can enrich themselves. Ill give you an example of socialism versus capitalism versus democrats versus republicans. , moved here 30 years ago theres two skyscrapers per this 20 downtown and more being built. This town is booming. No state income tax that we have a conservative state, weve a democratic city like memphis and nashville. Nashville just raised our property taxes 34 . Millionhave 20 unemployment in this country. If we dont get the job done. You dont have a job. To because itable would be empty. That live through the beatnik and hippie movement. Nothing changes except the names in the places. Donald trump is the only man of ever seeing out of all the president s ive lived through that has put it right in their faces saying America First if you dont take care of your home, you dont have a home. People, 500, once you get a felony you cant work in america. You do that, i know a lot of people who moved to canada, a lot of people got in trouble, got no education. We are asking republicans only in this segment of the washington journal to call in asking which are present trumps reelection message asking what the pitch is. What you think the pitch is. If youve been negatively if you been negatively affected. As simple as can be. If youre sick of politicians then you should love trump. Hes not a professional. To stay onoomed politics in washington to stay there forever. If he gets four more years when hes through, the professionals are still sitting in the wings ready to give you what you are used to. Host do you like the tweets . I think we lost david. Al is in virginia. I was born in syria and the reason my family came over here is because in syria the government controls everything and there was rarely any opportunity to expand the business. We came here because a Smaller Government and we heard from a lot of immigrants who started from nothing and now the democrats, the message should be that if democrats win, they will have a bigger government who wants can wants to control everything but they have good intention. Communism starts with good intentions of helping everyone out. But at the end its a disaster because this government gets bigger, the corruption gets bigger and it leads to less opportunity for all the people. Steve in hanover, maryland. Caller thank you for taking my call. My message is jobs trump welfare. Pull themselves out of poverty through welfare. Its work that pulls people out of poverty. Democratic policies have ruined our cities with a cycle of welfare. We need to change this and President Trump is taking us in the right direction, work brings value to people and a sense of ownership. One of the thing for the inner cities, i would like to see vocational schools in the inner cities, this would give people the wherewithal to build from that pride of ownership that pride of ownership this will create. If you build something youre not in a break it. Its a shame whats become of our cities. Ive been in the military and of work with good africanamerican people, theres a problem with the cities right now, 25 single parenthood, 75 , you have children raised on welfare, when they turn 13 they have no money,o jobs, they turned to drugs Police Brutality is a symptom of the problem, its not the problem. The problem is the welfare state and the poverty that our policies by the liberals. If you have work you will take care of yourself and family. President trump up and tweeting this morning. Before 8 00present the president. Singh republik and voter ship registration is way up. And the president as well tweeting about never in history have police been treated so badly as they are a democrat run cities. And these cities are a mess. Police must take a stronger stance to radical left politicians that ares them so badly and so disrespectfully. Thats the president today. The president expected to hold events in the white house today featuring those who have been positively impacted by police, thats expected later this afternoon from the white house. Republicans only asking what should President Trumps reelection message b. Bellevue, colorado. Caller good morning, how are you . Host im doing well. Caller i have a message for President Trumps campaign election. I really think its can help. Every color on the jersey and every number on the team. Host what does that message mean . Caller it means we are inclusive. We will take everybody. Whether you are black, white, red, red, green, blue, purple, we will take you and we will put you on our jersey and then, because we have such diversity in the republican party, i believe we should open our arms to every individual that god has created. Lgb means whether you are cube, questioning, dont know, heterosexual, you know exactly who you are in your own skin, you are ready to go up on top of the mountain top and say im ready to take one for my team. Host this is dan out of youngstown ohio. What should the president s bury election message be . Caller we know the bidens took 1. 5 billion from the chinese. We know that took hundreds of millions from the ukrainians. Givencountries involved money to the bidens. The Foreign Countries will own the democrats, the voters will have no say so if the democrats get elected. There for sanctuary cities. Your for illegal immigration vote democrat. The republicans strong. Face of money given by the chinese. In the democrats dont care. Want the voters in the United States took control the government or do you want other foreign governments to control our government. Louisville, kentucky. What do you think the message should be . Caller the gentleman from ohio said it very well. I used to have a professor the give us trick questions and the trick question he did that so we could learn to give trick answers. Ohio said very well, do you want the leader to country thatto a does not consider us friends. Give hundreds of ,illions of dollars to china and immigration policy that anybody can walk into the United States, any responsibility. These are some of the things if you want that, vote for biden. If you dont want that, vote for trump. Commentse are a few from spoke folks from folks on facebook and twitter. Peace prosperity and freedom should be the message. The report saying it trumps peace, prosperity and opportunity. One more from facebook. Hes done so much for blacks and. Ispanics caller i think a couple of things. I think trump should be standing up for free speech of antiglobalists like myself that one 5g stopped, they want people to have a choice in whether they get these rna vaccines that will change our dna and i think he needs to go after fosse and toes forgiving 3. 1 million the wuhan weapons lab in china and i think he needs to go after george soros for funding black lives matter which are bringing anarchy to this country, i think those would be to good places to start. Host good morning. Caller good morning. How much do i love cspan . How thankful my forgiving this opportunity. To stop this globalist agenda. Hes got america on track to keep america a sovereign country. Thank you so much. I love cspan, keep up the great work. Host last caller in this segment. Another hour this morning. Dr. Jeremyjoined by levin who will be here to will discuss how the biotech industry is helping the fight against coronavirus. Stick around, we will be right back. Tonight on the communicators, democratic congressman mike doyle, also chair of the Committee Case and in Technology Subcommittee, talks about disinformation on social media and the effect of the coronavirus pandemic on telik medications. Onand pandemic telecommunications. The culture of this country, and if you dont see the division that exists in our country right now, that is chiefly being done by social media. T is just crazy congressman mike doyle tonight at 8 00 eastern on the communicators on cspan2. Watch our live daily unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house. Our countries are linked by trade and travel. On issues that matter to you. Part of our ongoing effort to focus on a mission, to save lives, meet the needs of our states and Health Care Workers. Along with briefings on the coronavirus pandemic, supreme Court Oral Arguments and decisions. And the latest from campaign 2020. Your calls and comments are welcome. Be a part of the conversation with our live callin program, washington journal, and if you missed any of our live coverage, watch any time on demand at cspan. Org or listen on the go with the free cspan radio app. President s, from public affairs, available now in paperback and ebook. Biographies of every president , organized by their ranking, by noted historians from best to worst, and features perspectives into the lives of our nations chief executives in leadership styles and leadership styles. Visit our website, cspan. Org thethe prep cspan. Org thepresident s. Months,g the summer reach out to your elected officials with cspans congressional directory. It contains all the Contact Information you need to stay in touch with members of congress, federal state agencies and governors. Ater your copy today online cspanstore. Org. Washington journal continues. Host a discussion now on the biotech industry and what role it is playing in the fight against coronavirus. Dr. Jeremy levin is chairman of the biotechnology innovation avinization, ceo as well of d therapeutics. What encompasses the biotech industry . How Many Companies are we talking about . What is the difference between biotech and big pharma . Guest that is it great question that is a great question. The biotech industry was formulated in the United States. It was an industry that was unpacking the biology of cells, understanding how the biology of these cells could be used to made new medicine to make new medicines. Pharma in the past was essentially trying out medicines on animals to see if they worked and then put them into a human being through a Clinical Trial process. Once we understood how the genes worked, how to manipulate those genes, a whole new ability to transform what we knew about cells into medicine came into being. This is a real revolution. It started in the 1970s, walked through the 1980s and now today. There are approximately a couple thousand companies, about 700 of whom are members of bio. Many others are private. There are smaller industries in and these in asia small companies, although tiny represent no more than anyone of the Big Companies in terms of numbers of employees, generating about 70 of all medicine. What is the difference . It is simple. In the biotech industry, there is an absolute focus on innovation, new ideas, new ways of delivering medicine. Those two coupled together often are supported by investors. Those investors buy stocks in the company. Pharmaceutical companies have a very different structure. They take these medicines and now they sell them through Insurance Companies and others to patients. They are huge, they are very substantial. Often, the way they are financed, essentially by the payments that Insurance Companies pay them. Very different, imperative. One giving a return to investors through innovation and ensuring that what they develop is critical for patients, the other who has to deal with a very complex Health System that we have for receiving its revenue and enabling it to further take these innovations and get them to patients. Host of all these Biotech Companies, what percentage of them would you say have turned the majority of their focus to coronavirus topics . Guest this is a great question. To answer that, you have to understand how what existed on january 1, 2020. Less than a handful of programs. Today, there are over 600 unique aboutms ongoing, of which 180to 170 are new vaccines, are new ways of attacking the virus, trying to kill it. Then there are a whole slew, about 200, close to 270 plus, where companies are trying existing medicines. What has gone on during this period of time is literally hundreds of companies have pivoted, a very unique pivot, wartime. Host how does that pivot compare the medical challenges of the past . Or aides . Rs or aids . Guest perhaps an even more close response or analogy might to 2007, when we were trying to crack open cer, and cancer was really much of the thinking had been online. At that time there were approximately four or five companies who were not in the mainstream, that were working on what was called immunooncology, getting a white cell to attack cancer, mobilizing the bodys defenses to attack cancer. As a consequence of that, we have a situation, where you have an enormous number of patients few on thejust a sideline. What happened was in approximately 2009, a company was bought, a biotech company, and they had half a dozen Clinical Trials. It took 10 years from that time, and what we saw in that moment was that we had a massive massive, enormous number of trials. Biotechhe entire industry by january of this year was focused on this. Hundreds of companies. A decade. Peopleuch more rapid, responded, but only a handful of companies responded and by the time they responded, much of the wave had washed over us. Aids equally took a decade. One of the leading companies at the time, gilead is one of the leading companies today, but nothing of the scale you see here. Billions of dollars have gone in, over six to seven months versus the same over many decades with cancer and the same early on in aids. Host dr. Jeremy levin joining us from his home to talk about the biotech industry, the role that they are playing, when it comes to the fight against coronavirus. Phone lines are split up regionally if you want to give us a call. 202 7488000 is the number if you live in the eastern or central time zones. 202 7488001, if you are in the mountain or pacific time zones. A special line for medical professionals as well, 202 7488002. Vidmentioned your work with a therapeutics. What is bio, for viewers who are not familiar . Guest bio is an organization that is 25 years old. It represents all of the innovative companies, the vaster majority of them the vast majority of them. It tries to persuade the congress and fda and others who are important in getting innovative medicines to understand exactly what will be critical for america. We take a strategic view. We believe that we as an organization see biotechnology as a Strategic Asset for america, and as a consequence, our job is to translate the need of all of the Industrial Companies into policies that could be enacted through government, and on the local level we also work with the Regional Governors to explain to them just what we are trying to accomplish, what the industry can do for them in terms of employment, what can do for them in terms of innovation, and the general economy. A very important and pivotal this industry, in our nation, not just for medicine by the way, but also for the environment and for agriculture, all of which has critical components of biotechnology, which allow you to improve the environment, ag products. That is what we do. We are a dedicated organization whoby a marvelous leader, joined us recently as the new ceo, and is really focusing on patients and innovation. We talked about how much the biotech industry has changed its focus to coronavirus. Whoever develops a vaccine first is going to literally have the entire world at their market, to sell that vaccine. To be arole in trying voice for the industry, how much is the industry cooperating with each other . How much competition is there, to be the first to develop this and is that holding back any speed of innovation . Guest great question. Think number one, competition is really good and innovation. You learn from other people, you compete from other people. What you want to be is not just the first developing a new car. That is not the issue. The issue is, can you find a atter way of developing vaccine . Can you find a better vaccine . Insee this repeatedly medicine. Healthyion is extremely and very important. What you do think about, however is there are certain noncompetitive things that everyone should know. An example of that is what we learned from the sars and h1n1 episodes. Studied thed really genes of these viruses, that was shared very quickly with all the companies, and said now, find us a better vaccine. What happened there was by sharing that type of information, you are immediately enabling companies to put their say howins on an idea, do i take that jean and get a better back take that gene and get a better vaccine . It is very difficult to find a vaccine and the medicine, so the better brains you have focused on it, the better it is. One other thing, what we have seen amongst the companies is a high degree of cooperation, of the type i described, things that will enable the brain in each separate company to be brought to fruition. As much as the data has been shared, you have to take your hats off to the Large Companies, astrazeneca, j j, in addition to the Biotech Companies who are sharing quite freely the critical, what i would call noncompetitive information. Host which is what . Guest gene sequences, the understanding of the medical outcome of these disorders, how you would measure the effect of your medicine on a patient. Those are things Everyone Needs to know. Host you mentioned some of the brains of these companies. You highlight some of them, in a new book you edited, biotechnology in the time of covid19. Who are some of the brains you talk about in that book . Guest that book, there are 47 different authors who came together over a period of approximately four weeks. Iasked all the top thinkers could who were able to and it was remarkable who did step forward. All the top thinkers to stand up and talk about what they were doing, how they were doing, but less about their product and more how they pivoted. Aave leaders like really wellknown leader in the area. Andy plumb, a number of others. People fromgilead, e, what they wanted to do was show how they were thinking, what made them turn. Not necessarily their specific product, but what they saw coming out of this. I could mention a number of others. , each one ofple them had a different approach. Each one of them set the stage for what you see in front of you, these 600 different approaches to handling this disorder. Twitter, what have the Biotech Companies done so far regarding covid . Question is 100 correct. What they have done is often times shut down other programs. They have asked the question, what kind of medicine can we develop, and they have advanced these. These companies have run experiments and have done what are called phase one trials. They are in the midst of getting into phase two. Phase one is when you test initial safety. Phase two, you ask if you have a drug or a vaccine that might work. A slew of these companies are moving into the phase two process. If you ask what they have done, you wont yet see it. It is like the little ducks feet, paddling under the water. The press is watching us. Many of these results will start to show, do they or dont they in the case of a vaccine, raise the right kind of immune response to defend against the virus . In the case of antivirals, are they killing off the virus in an effective way that will result in a treatment . I am confident that given the time that we are going through now, this is moving at a speed we have never seen before. This is literally moving at a speed we have never seen before. To give you a metric, it can take up to 10 years to find the right kind of vaccine, be it for anything. Se, herpes, we are six months in, and we know that we have six or seven that are already in phase one, being tested. That is really lightning fast. Host when you think we will have a vaccine by . Guest there are several questions several answers to your question. Number one, when we will have a vaccine that we know is safe . When we when will we have a vaccine that is produced in a way that is sufficient for the populace to have and be vaccinated . I anticipate that within the next six month period, we will definitely know if we have a vaccine that works. It would be most surprising if we didnt. The question in parallel, how do we develop the manufacturing capacity to deliver literally hundreds of millions of doses . That is nontrivial. There are very skilled be atives, who used to gsk who is now leading a task force, specifically looking at how to produce the vaccine and how you coordinate production. It should be noted that they were involved previously with an industry that started thinking very quickly about h1n1 and sars. That hisexpectation leadership will deliver on the manufacturing. Lets not forget we have merk,ies like j j, gsk, astrazeneca, all who have said they will bring the power of their manufacturing into this. Host dr. Jeremy levin is our guest in this last segment of washington journal of washington journal. The chair of the biotechnology innovation organization. Here to take your phone calls. Phone calls phone numbers split up regionally. Tom is up first in harrisburg, pennsylvania. Good morning. Caller good morning. Im glad to hear you guys are being careful. I wish you were this careful when you pushed the opioids on everybody, but that is another story. We already have a pill. The whole nation of india takes this. It works, period. People medical experts, use it as a political football because our president takes it and says it is no good is ridiculous. It works, that is a fact. I dont understand what the political argument is. Host dr. Jeremy levin, we will let you weigh in on that. Guest a great question. Appallingll, the appalling behavior of those small handfuls of Large Companies that pushed and dealt with the Opioid Crisis can never be forgiven. You should know that i personally led an attack on this with bio. We have a fullblown attack. This wasnt yesterday, it was started three years ago. Bio is intimately involved in generating new products through the industry for this and i couldnt agree more with you. This is a major issue. We should have stalled we should have solved it and im delighted to see those few companies, they are not representative of the industry. They represent a tiny fraction. I want to be very clear. Involved and has and i foster legislation personally in my small town have seen the devastation caused by those opioids. With regard to hydroxychloroquine, i would urge you to be a little careful. It is not a question of politics, of any one politician. It is a question of medical fact. I have used hydroxychloroquine, i know what it does. I am a physician, i have worked in africa and i have used it elsewhere. The evidence that speaks to it extremely covid is limited. Testes not pass the acid at this time, of being an effective medicine. Certainly compared to what we see in other medicines that are coming up. It is looked at as an interesting some things certainly something we should look at, but not something we in america should be disturbing at this stage distributing at this stage. I would urge you to look at medical facts. Lets forget the politics. This is all about facts, and those facts are not speaking to the fact that it is helpful. Host if you want to talk a little bit about your medical background and some of the issues you have worked on . Guest you bet. I am a fully trained doctor. I came to america and decided that what i wanted to do was devote myself to new medicines. So what i have, i dealt with medicines and i dealt with medical situations in africa, asia and even in america. My interestsere, are now devoted entirely to solving Rare Disorders of the brain, can we find medicines to fix those disorders. 23,000 patients across the United States, families across the United States, kids are born this way, they cant walk, they dont sleep well, they have behavioral problems, they cant communicate, and a buddy wants to find a medicine for them. Called tether,y the largest Generic Company and we dealt with millions of patients. Now i have come back to america and i am devoting myself to these types of disorders, where nobody else wanted to go. This is a very pivotal year. Host what is happening with the research and the efforts on those types of disorders, amid so Many Companies in your industry turning their attention to coronavirus, to solving covid . Are those issues being left behind . Guest this is such an important comment of yours. To give everybody watching this a metric, there are approximately 7000 rare diseases. Ronald reagan was tremendously foresight full in creating foresightful in creating the food and drug act. That allowed companies to start looking at how you could address these disorders. Of 700, 300 have treatments. These treatments are tremendously difficult to develop and in particular, we had covid come in, a lot of investments going to Companies Like this swing away from companies that are focusing on rare diseases. If you want to know how many individuals there are, 13 million americans 30 million americans suffer from them. It is nontrivial. The consequences of that is that clearly, covid has an impact. There has been less interest but in certain cases like ourselves, we will not be deviated from it. My team wants to make sure these patients are heard are served. We announced an agreement with the company in europe. That agreement will allow us to ensure that not just the individuals in america but the individuals in europe will get the benefit of American Innovation to treat the disorder. We areyou to know that facing a situation with covid where a lot of resources have moved. Out that as it said in january, about 50 of investment was going into solving cancer. Now we have a shift into covid and i am hoping that other disorders like congestive heart failure, diabetes, others that affect many tens of millions of people in a way that would be helpful. To your point, there has been an notct on the rare diseases, from Companies Like mine. My company will retain its focus while i help drive innovation at the bio level on covid. Host dr. Jeremy levin with us, about a halfhour more, to take your calls and questions as we talk about the biotech industry and the coronavirus. Our next caller is out of philly. Caller good morning. I am curious about the relationship between hospitals and the Biotech Companies, as it relates to genes. Is there a relationship . As a comment, i am concerned as an africanamerican that new biotech discoveries come into being, how much our population is considered. The tests are done population American Population more than specifically the American Population specifically the africanAmerican Population, so vaccines or cures may not have the same effect. What is the relationship between the Biotech Companies and the hospitals, especially as it relates to covid . Guest thank you for your question. The critical nature of the relationship, specifically to that which you described, is when a Company Needs to test its whenine, it is ideal testing it is in a controlled medical setting. Gogoes to a hospital, to to a hospital, it has to present hospital,tors at the a plan on how it will test its medicine on patients in those hospitals, and what is called an irv, a review body that will look at the safety and the kinds of things that will be tested and then we will answer questions inside the hospital. They will have to have trained physicians monitor how the drug or vaccine might be administered. At that stage, the physician has to pay the hospital to ensure that these trials are run rigorously and to ensure that the hospital and the patients dont incur and the patients dont incur a cost. It is vigorous, ethical, the whole attempt is to find how a doctor can test for medicines. Ideally, for example in great britain, astrazeneca is working with what is called the National Health institute. They are a review body of physicians where astrazeneca and a few other companies can pass through a highly ethical standard of whether their drugs or sit whether their drugs are safe or not and hospital doctors will decide which of their patients they will test. I hope that explains it to you. It is a really important relationship. Host wild and wonderful on twitter asks, do you regard dr. Anthony fauci as reliable, trustworthy and an expert in the field . Guest over the last several ades, very few people there are very few people i have greater regard for. Dr. Anthony fauci is a completely honest and ethical man, and a terrific scientist. That is zero doubt, zero, this is one of the standout minds of our generation. I think we owe him a debt of gratitude, a debt of gratitude for his ability to stand up and say what he says. He is a physician, a scientist. He looks at facts, nothing more. Host donna is in michigan. You are on with dr. Jeremy levin. Caller good morning to america and cspan. I love it and watch it, every day. Do you think, publicly funded companies should get federal funding to do research and if they do these things, we should have a type of medical system that would cover and take care of everybody, like obamacare, did they provide money to organizations, biotech organizations to do research, and do you think having a Health System that helps everybody, the whole country, should we go toward that . Where if yourd what do you do to a president that does not believe science and does not believe scientists like found she . Lit dr. M going to jeremy levin jump im going to let dr. Jeremy levin jump in. Guest it is an honor to speak to you and i hear the passion in your voice. I am a doctor. I was came to america, delighted to become an immigrant. Bring, devote myself to my patients in this country. That is what i love and i now have the great privilege of doing that for a period of upwards now close to 30 years. In reality is, my first year washington, d. C. , i saw a man die outside of my home. That is just unacceptable, in this country. We are the greatest nation in the world. That we have tens of millions of people who do not have adequate medical coverage is not acceptable. It is foolish, actually. You weaken the nation by doing that. You drain our resources by doing that. Health is one of the pillars of a democratic nation. There is no doubt in my mind of that. In addition to the armed forces, in addition to a fiscal system that helps support us, health and education are the three pillars that defend us and democracy. I believe that there are countries which have really had the broad type medical systems that dont work. That is medical system far too complicated, intricate and in fact has left a large number of people behind. We need to address that. There is no doubt in my mind. Host to follow up on the callers question, how much money is the biotech industry getting from the u. S. Government and other governments around the world and in general, when a Company Takes money from a government, what is promised . What do they say they will give to those governments in exchange for that money . Guest i dont know exactly what they have said to all of those companies but i do know that where the taxpayers have had to provide money to the federal government and the federal government dispenses that in different ways, that eventually happens is what the federal government provides research, like the nih. The nih generates research. Once it generates an idea, that is passed on to the industry. When that occurs, industry has to raise from investors, hundreds of millions of dollars, sometimes billions of dollars to doually drive that product, all the testing and turn that medicine into a product. You have to be careful about what money is funded where. There are very few governments that simply donate money to an entity. Where they do, it might be for manufacturing, it might be for other areas. Thever, make no mistake, vaster majority the vast majority of new medicine comes from the Capital Markets in the United States. This is important, because it allows one to have competitive selections. It allows you to move forward in a way that would not be possible if you had, for example, the russian government, a totalitarian government that does not really care about its people, saying here is money to my friend in that company and you will now produce it for us, the government. That doesnt work. That is wrong, and should never be allowed to work. In the event that there is substantial participation by the government in all cycles of developing a medicine, and i mean the hundreds of billions of dollars that get invested after you have done the basic research, then of course we have to think about how we can actually address that redress that in terms of contracts with the government, pricing with the government. It is a mistake to think that the government pays for the development of medicine. It does not. It is the investor that does. Host from cleveland, ohio, this is jane. Caller good morning. Thanks for taking my call. Have caught may not what you said exactly right but i thought i heard you say that in january of 2020, they were only a handful of researchers there were only a handful of researchers doing research on pandemics but since covid, there have been legions of them. Is, i have been wondering lori garrett speaks volumes of reporting on research on and that was in 2000, 2002 and for years before that, i was reading about research that had been done in Public Health. It surprised me that you said that there was only a handful of people doing that research, and i am wondering why . I will take my answer on tv. Thank you. Guest jane, that is a great question. It is my pleasure to try and answer. This is not a satisfactory situation. I said what was the fact, a handful out of hundreds of companies, and in fact there were all sorts of Research Programs in covid and other things which actually were shut down before that. Theas nothing to do with research. Host only a handful of companies were focusing on coronavirus in january. Guest yes, that is correct. If you go back several decades, weve known Something Like this was coming. We have known it. We were no stranger to it. We have known a pandemic was coming. We knew that Public Health plans could be put in place. We knew what those plans might look like. We knew what research might have to happen. There was never a connection between what the government knew and what industry and the government might do. It is a very unsatisfactory circumstance. If there is one thing we learn from this, it is that we can never allow it to happen again. You simply cant, because covid19 will be followed by something else. It will be followed by something else. Whether it be a variant of covid19, or another type of coronavirus, or whether it be another type of virus entirely. We have learned this, you are right, two decades, we knew about this. There were plans. Those plans were basically put aside. Peoples research were put aside. In the Research Labs they were not prioritized, and at the consequence, we have seen the result. We are not alone, in covid. Antibioticrience on resistance, would we ever have imagined that today, that in some of us who grew up knowing antibiotics, knowing it could make a difference in peoples lives, would we ever imagine a day that bacteria would be immune to intake immune to antibiotics, and we have nothing to replace it . We pretty closely came to that. Did not reward private industry to go and develop it. Our government didnt find a way of incentivizing it. We need to learn from both of these to address any future crisis of this kind in any kind of sensible fashion. Host 20 minutes left this morning on the washington journal, with dr. Jeremy levin, chair of the biotechnology innovation organization, also biotechnology and the time of covid. We will hear from ron in california. Caller good morning, and dr. Levin, thank you so much for being here and helping the laypeople. A couple questions. One is regarding the difference between bacteria and virus, because diseases like alzheimers and parkinsons, are those viral or are those based on bacteria . I will go on to what i am really concerned about and that is the mutation of coronavirus, which we happened to be wanting a show that they already had and some lab and said coronavirus 28, already up past the 19 number. Which one is verlander and which tne which one is viraulen and which one isnt . Chinese andaffect asian people versus black people versus hispanic versus white . Should we be using a different vaccine for each of those people . Guest a really a real pleasure. Youar as the ladyperson, and i are the same. I was born on a farm and i farm now. I have to explain to a lot of my friends who are in the high areatinarea falootin what a heffer is. To answer your question about the virus and bacteria, the world we live in is full of different creatures. We have trillions and trillions of bacteria around us, reaching way down into the earth. These bacteria are many times larger than a virus. A virus is kind of just a package with a few genes. It gets into your body, grabs hold of a cell and it forces the cell to work for it, to replicate it. It is kind of like a parasite. It gets in and makes it work. Bacteria is a living creature. It gets into you and starts feeding off of you and generates oils. They are very different creatures and we know a lot more about bacteria than we know about viruses. I think that answers your first question a little bit. I hope it does. There is much more to be talked about. Let me move to your question about virus mutation. One of the great mysteries of our world is that viruses have adapted themselves to their environment. They move, they change their genes to be more successful. It is pretty amazing. Some are not successful, they die off and a new strain develops. They mutate. It could be through the sun hitting them. Something mutates and changes the genes, so a different entity appears. It is not entirely different but some portion of all of its genes have been changed. That you haves is a situation where you essentially have to tackle a new entity. Right now, we know that a new strain of covid19 has developed. It appears to be more infectious, not more fatal, more infectious. People aret of watching this. Around the world, labs are collaborating to show how they are mutating. What is that relevant with a vaccine . It may be that just like flu, we will have to invest in a new vaccine every year to tackle it. It will be a modification of what you had before. If we can understand how to covid19 wille mutate, but a question of if, it will mutate. Once we have a vaccine, begin to think about, ok, next year might look like this, just like the flu. It is a very important question to ask, and it has to do with the fact that indeed there will be different varieties. With regard to different nations, i am hoping that i dont have evidence, but i am hoping that it doesnt matter what the nation is, the vaccine we develop will affect everyone and be effective and our ability to deal with this in the future will be the same. We will be able to handle with more predictability in the future, knowing that we have a vaccine. That is to come, but i am confident it will. Host out of ohio, this is wendy. You are on with dr. Jeremy levin. Caller good morning and thank you for cspan. My question is, is it like one lab where the cdc is doing the for likely covid19, popup testing sites . Because recently, they had local testing in my area and several people went, they filled out the paperwork, but they had to leave before they were tested because they could not wait that long. Later, they received letters that they tested positive and they were never tested. How just curious as to could people receive letters that they tested positive if they never received the test . It is in several areas in my county. A couple questions there. The cdc is noto, a centralized lab. With regard to the local condition, i think your mayor needs to get on that and figure out what went on. You cant have people Going Forward and then not being tested but being told that they tested positive. That is not acceptable. Youever town you are in, should be taking action on that, asking the hard questions of those in authority. In my little town here, in new milford, connecticut, we have a great mayor. He has put everyone together. We all know what everyone is doing. We have a very defined set of plans for the town. And frankly, it has not been easy. Youve got people denying that they were tested, other people who want to be tested. That all towns across america like mine, a small town, we will get this right but i am sorry to hear that you have experienced this and i would ask those questions. Host we get a lot of numbers thrown at us when it comes to coronavirus, in the newspaper and the television. Jim has a question about that. What is more important . The rate of change in the number of cases or the rate of change in the number of deaths . Guest it is no question that it is the rate of change in the number of cases because the rate of change of deaths will follow, and you will see that. What you are seeing now in some instances, not all is that there is a lessening of the deaths, because doctors are getting trained up. The problem with those who got the positive tests, and the rate of testing and the rate of positivity tells you you are going to have a Public Health crisis, not necessarily deaths, but these people are going to suffer. They will end up in the hospital, and pretty fast and that Hospital System will become overwhelmed unless it plans and understands what is going to happen. I am terribly distressed by the death rate. Numbernconscionable, the of people dying from this. It is unnecessary and completely unacceptable. However, at the end of the day, we are beginning to bend that curve. An example would be those on ventilators, you get a diminished death rate. That is very good. , youive them remdisivir have more people leaving the hospital after. That rate is a problem because it is like a wave washing over you. Host less than 10 minutes left with dr. Jeremy levin. I wanted to ask about the book biotechnology in the time of covid19. Some of the people you highlight and the people and the work they talk about in those essays. Guest i think one of the most poignant of them all is cedric francois. Cedric wascovid, and one of the first people ever in the entire biotech industry who said we need to solve this problem. Here you have a ceo who basically said, i am basically who basically said, i am going to charge into this, and he works with me to help galvanize an entire industry and then boom, you see what happens to him. That is a story that is terribly poignant. Another one is from jack kendall jeff candler, he used to run the Second Largest Company in america, pfizer. He decided to devote his life to a Smaller Company and he wrote a charming wonderful letter to his grandson, about what it felt like to be here today. This is a picture, a snapshot of what happened today that years from now, somebody will read and they will want to know what it was like. Who isave others, visiting his family in paris and sits down and suddenly hears about it and reads about it and jumps on the case immediately and his company, moderna, has one of the leading vaccines we see today. There is another person who asked the question, what will we look like in the future, given what we have seen today . What will the biotech industry look like in the future . Somethingm show you very clear. Each one of them stepped forward and changed the direction of their company, to go and attack this. Fears, hopes and aspirations, rather than a particular medicine. Host the book came together in just a matter of weeks. Biotechnology in the time of covid19. Levin, an editor on that book, we have a couple more minutes. Our next caller from san antonio, texas. Caller good morning, i would like to ask the good doctor, not about covid but what i think is a rare disease, and what is the current status of treatment for that . I think it is a neat i think it is an immuno deficient disease. Guest it is an autoimmune disease, a vicious disease. Is there is a Great Organization that tracks it, it is a family organization. I recommend everyone go to their website and take a look at this. You are correct, there are about a dozen Different Companies running Clinical Trials in different types of portions of scleroderma. It can affect everything from being a mild disorder that affects your skin, but it can also have a devastating effect in other organs. Depending upon these Different Companies, i dont want to give false information, but the website for that organization will tell you, there are about a dozen Different Companies working on new cures in that area. An autoimmune disorder really system hasimmune turned around and is attacking your system. That is a difficult one to tackle, because youve got to adjudicate between making sure that your system remains robust to fight against infections and cancer, while at the same time youve got to tune it back so it is not attacking your own body. Host in california, this is sarah in rockland. Good morning. Caller good morning. I still see ok now he is not talking. Dr. Levin, just listening to some of your comments about beingshe about fauci an excellent doctor and the politics involved with covid19 and the confusion with the different news media, what the experts are telling us. You made a comment about you were upset about how many deaths there are. The politics in my area, in plosser county in placer county, to reiterate what another caller said, every person that goes into the hospital, whether it is a preexisting condition or not, and i have talked to nurses and people in health care, and they are recording them all as covid deaths. I understand that this is serious, but at the same time, i feel that some of the experts, they givedfield, information but not enough information, like wear a mask, but they dont tell you if the andon behind you has covid is not wearing a mask, that can be more harmful to you because it traps covid in the mask. Masks were not asked to be used in the beginning of covid, because as we all know, we did not have the surprise supplies here. The emphasis on Wearing Masks was not given to us in the beginning, because it was political. Host im going to let dr. Levin jump in because we have a minute or two left. Guest if you compare sovereign nations, we did not do well. Korea and new zealand. We had a centralized source of scientific knowledge. They had trained up. They knew what was coming. H1n1 taught them. Sars did. There government new exec you what to do. I am not interested in politics. I want to devote myself to saving lives and ensuring everyone lives a rich life. This is a Public Health issue and a centralized national issue. Viruses dont know borders. What we need is Clear Scientific and medical evidence and clear statements, and the mission for those who have those, to speak freely and openly. No politics, no bending it, irrelevant. What we need to do is think about the american people, and the same way that the koreans thought about the Korean People and the same way that the new zealanders thought about them as a nation, not as fragmented portions of the nation. They dealt with it. By golly they dealt with it. Ourselves should ask a hard question in the future, could we do better . Host dr. Jeremy levin, chair of the biotechnology innovation organization, online it is bio. Org. Is also the editor of biotechnology in the time of covid19, a new book that came together and just a matter of weeks. We appreciate you coming on. Guest i much appreciate you listening in. Host that is going to do it for our program. We will be back here tomorrow morning at 7 00 eastern, 4 00 pacific. In the meantime, have a great monday. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2020] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] watch our live, daily unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house our countries are linked by trade and travel on issues that matter to you our ongoing effort to focus on a mission to save lives, meet the needs of our states, our Health Care Workers along with briefings on the coronavirus pandemic, supreme Court Oral Arguments and decisions. Thanks are coming out to say hello. And the latest from campaign 2020. Your calls and comments welcome. Be a part of the conversation everyday with our live callin program, washington journal, and if you missed any live coverage, watch ondemand at www. Cspan. Org or listen on the go with the free cspan radio app. Here is a look at our live coverage today. On cspan, the discussion on Foreign Policy challenges for the u. S. Dealing with russia and china hosted by the Carnegie Endowment for international peace. Thats at 10 30 a. M. Eastern eastern, the House Appropriations committee continues work on 2121 spending bills focusing on energy, water development, labor, hhs and education spending. On cspan to come an interview with new mexico governor Michelle Lujan grisham on her states response to the pandemic and other issues hosted by the Washington Post. That starts at 1 00 p. M. At 2 00 p. M. , house hearing on oversight and immigration and what measures are being done to protect federal employees and immigrants at iced detention facilities. Libertarian party held its convention in orlando, florida and we will hear the acceptance speech by president ial nominee jo jorgensen who highlighted some of the specifics of the libertarian platform, including eliminating the Education Department and withdrawing all u. S. Troops stationed abroad