Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 07302020 20240712

On twitter or facebook. Lets start with yesterdays hearing. Chairman of the house judiciary antitrust subcommittee kicking off this hearing in the opening remarks saying that he believes these Companies Need to be reined in. The practices have armful economic effects. They discourage entrepreneurship, destroy jobs, and degraded quality. Simply put, they have too much power. This power staves off new forms of competition, creativity, and innovation. While these firms produce individual products, the dominance is killing Small Businesses, manufacturing, and dynamism that our engines of the american economy. Several firms harvest and abuse peoples data to sell ads from everything to new books and dangerous miracle cures. They cant run away fast enough. There is no escape from the surveillance because there is no alternative. People are stuck with bad options. Open markets are predicated on the idea that if a company harms people, consumers, workers, and Business Partners will choose another option. We are here today because that choice is no longer possible. Host in the Washington Post, the front page article notes that david cicilline, the chair of the subcommittee is expected to issue a report in august outlining the case for updating federal competition rules that would give regulators more power to probe and penalize the industry. The investigation could offer congress one of the first major actions it can take as it looks big tech. The Top Republican on the panel urged a go slow approach to regulating big tech. Be on this going to committee and the next congress. I will put my feet up and become. Senior statesmen ar we have heard a lot of complaints about big tech. Some of them are political in nature, and im sure the complaints i share the complaints of mr. Jordan and others. About allegedly anticompetitive activities. It seems to me that it is not for congress that legislates to toss all of our antitrust laws that have been established. We will make a determination on whether or not the law has been violated. I think the law is good. We dont need to throw it all in the wastebasket. Congressman from wisconsin making the argument of going slow when it comes to regulating big tech. What is your opinion of this . James, you say no. Why do you say no to regulating these companies . Caller i dont think it is the big techs problem. Is what is problem going on in society with the rioting. And the big tech is doing what they do to the best of their ability. That is not what is hurting Small Business. Small business is hurt by the lawlessness going on in the country. And the democrats are doing nothing about it. Host listen to the argument made by democratic congresswoman jayapal. She is questioning Mark Zuckerberg on their Business Practices. Similarou use this facebook camera product to threaten instagrams founder . Would not sure what you mean by threaten. I think it was public that we were building a camera app that was a welldocumented thing. Let me tell you in a chat that you told him that facebook was developing our own photo strategy, so how we engage now will determine how much we are partners versus competitors down line. E or cow the he confided in an investor that he feared you would go into destroy mode if he didnt sell instagram to you. Facebook cloned a popular product, approached the company you identified as a competitive threat and told them that if they didnt want you to buy them up, there would be consequences. Are there other Countries Companies you have used the same tactic with . I want to respectfully disagree with the characterization. It was clear this was a space we were going to compete in one way or another. I dont view those conversations as a threat in any way. Understood using the. Ocuments and the testimony did you warn them that facebook was in the process of cloning features of his company while attempting to buy snapchat. I dont remember those specific conversations, but it is also an area that it was very fair we were going to be building something. Very clear we were going to be building something. People wanted to communicate privately with all of their friends at once. We want to build the best product in all of the spaces that we can around helping people stay connected with the people they care about. Question is that when the dominant platform threatens a potential rival, that should not be a normal business practice. Facebook is a case study in monopoly power because your company harvests and monetizes our data. Then your company uses that data to spy on competitors and copy, acquire, and kill rivals. You have used facebooks power to threaten smaller competitors and ensure that you will always get your way. These tactics reinforce facebook path dominance facebooks dominance. Facebooks model makes it impossible for new companies to flourish separately. That harms our democracy and harms momandpop businesses and consumers. I yield back. Host the wall street Journal Editorial Board argues this morning that the legal test for antitrust is consumer benefit, not size. This is what it argues when it comes to facebook. Facebook is attacked for buying instagram but invested heavily to make the site easy to use. There is no way to know if instagram could have been a competitor had it remained independent. It might have become the yahoo of search, an alsoran. Later on in the hearing, the chair jerry nadler, democrat from new york, also questioned Mark Zuckerberg about comments he made in 2012 regarding the companys efforts to acquire instagram. Facebookly 2012, when contemplated acquiring instagram, a competitive startup, you told the cfo that instagram could be very disruptive to us. In the weeks leading up to the deal, you described instagram as a threat, saying that instagram can immediately hurt us without becoming a huge business. What did you mean when you described instagram as a threat, disruptive . And you say that instagram could meaningfully hurt facebook . Did you mean that consumers might switch from facebook to instagram . The opportunity to address this. At the time, there was a small but growing field did you mean that consumers might mean from facebook to instagram . Thanks, congressman. Yes or no . In the space of mobile photos and camera apps, they were a competitor. Fine. 2012, you told facebooks chief Financial Officer that you were interested in buying instagram. He asked if the purpose was to neutralize a content a potential competitor or acquire services . You said it was a combination of both. What we are really buying his time, even if more competitors spring up, they wont get much traction since we will have their mechanics floyd at scale deployed at scale. What did you mean when you said the purpose of the deal was to neutralize a potential competitor . But ise arent my words, was clear that instagram was a competitor in the space of mobile photo sharing. There were a lot of others at pcicplease and Companies Like pass. It was a subset of the overall space of connecting that we exist in. And by having them join us, they certainly went from being a competitor in the space of being a mobile camera to an app that we could help grow and get more people be able to use and be on our team. Zuckerberg, mergers and acquisitions that buy off potential competitive threats violate the antitrust laws. In your own words, you purchased instagram to neutralize a competitive threat. Politico points out that Mark Zuckerberg went on in the hearing to point out that the federal trade commission are new his thinking about federal trade commissioner new his thinking about instagram in 2012 and approve the purchase. They signed off on the deal. What congressman cicilline told zuckerberg that the failures of ftc in 2012 do not alleviate the antitrust challenges. The shorter version, just because that one corner of the federal apparatus approved a deal eight years ago does not mean that zuckerberg is out of the woods. Deals that are made can be unmade. Your thoughts. James, you say yes to regulating big tech. Why . James, good morning to you. James in daytona beach, florida. In me move on to steve charleston, south carolina. You are on the air. Good morning. Caller i am on the fence. I had to pick yes or no to call, but im on the fence. There are negatives and positives. I know youre really concentrating the discussion around Business Practices of these Big Tech Companies. In only want to zero amazon because there are so many complaints about amazon. A brief word about facebook. Facebook to me is like a big toy for adults and children and people to use. And if you get on facebook, people lay their life out there. Their personal business, they can picture a hang nile hangnail or the ring you just bought. That is your own business. I dont believe in it. I just dont care to do that. I dont care to put everything on facebook. It is like the old redneck joke, hold my beer and watch this. That is what you do and go when you go on facebook. But back to face but back to amazon. They have contributed to the demise of brickandmortar business. In charleston, we lost sears and kmart. On the other hand, i shop on amazon. Almost every case, you can see the product you are buying allows you to contact the seller. And generally, that seller is a Small Business owner. And neededto parts some installation information. I contacted the seller, which was a very Small Business in georgia. I asked him about the information and he gave it to me. I said, how youre are doing with amazon . He said their business has increased tremendously. There is the other side of that story. If you dont want to shop it, dont shop it. I recently bought some restaurant equipment by searching and found a place. Im on the fence about Business Practices and i dont want doing anything illegal or getting into my private information. See a other hand, i dont problem from an economic standpoint. In maryland, you say yes. Caller good morning. My comment is that amazon, ceosook, apple, and those are selfmade billionaires. The government is right now. Rying to break them down we, as a people, made them successful. And he wasnt a billionaire, but he ran for the office. Facebook has more credibility than our president does. Thats my comment. Marie, good morning to you. Caller hello . Host you are on the air. Caller everything looks good sometimes. Washed clothes on the washboard and got better with washing machines. People need to put those down sometimes and get back to god. Get back to your bible. Host a reminder to turn down the television when it is your turn to talk. Listen and talk to the telephone. See theays i dont point of breaking up anything. You can be abused by four companies or 400. It is what we require them to do. We can only demand what they do what they promised to do, which in my view, they have failed. And patty says absolutely. If it wasnt for lobbyists, Big Companies would be regulated as they were growing. Americans would cry and be outraged if they realized the Data Protection laws other countries have made for their citizens. And bob says yes. Big tech has their thumb on the scale against President Trump. At 202 ext us 7488003. Gary from new hampshire. Why do you think they should be regulated . Facebookes, because has a lot of bad actors to use their data. And the facebook platform infiltrates elections. This happened with brexit, and the analytica election in 2016. Facebook does not seem to be falseg to regulate this news. Troubledemocracy is in because of it. They need to be regulated. David brought up amazon earlier and their Business Practices. , theirl street journal argument for not regulating or breaking up these Companies Say this. Byazon has prospered in part becoming a marketplace for Small Business, not by excluding it. Someone. 7 million small and medium businesses sell through amazon. Had or than0,000 100,000 in sales in 2019. Amazon eclipsed ebay because entrepreneurs thought it serve them better. Amazon was a lifeline for businesses forced to shut down their storefronts in the pandemic or cow pandemic. Here is lucy mcbath and her exchange with amazon Ceo Jeff Bezos on the treatment of smaller sellers. Third Party Sellers in aggregate are doing extremely well on amazon. It was zeros ago, and today is 60 of sales. Thank you very much. Mr. Beezus, thank you so much. Mr. Bezos, thank you so much. That is not at all what we found in our investigation. According to e marketer, a committee,d to this amazon is nearly seven times the market share of the closest ecommerce competitor. Amazon continues to be the only show in town, no matter how angry sellers get. They have nowhere else to go. Are you saying these people arent being truthful when they say amazon is the only game in town . With great respect, i do disagree with that. I believe there are a lot of options and some of them are not even listed on the chart. I did not see some that i know of, for example. There are more and more every day. My time is short. If amazon did not have monopoly power, would they choose to stay in a relationship characterized by bullying, fear, and panic . With all respect, congresswoman, i do not accept the premise of your question. That is not how we operate the business. We work very hard to provide fantastic help to sellers and that is why they have been successful. Host from yesterdays big tech hearing on capitol hill, we covered it on cspan. You can go to watch the key moments on cspan. Org. Click on the video player and you will quickly go through what was a fivehour hearing yesterday. Maryland, you say no to regulating these companies. Why . Caller i am for capitalism. We have done too much regulating. What they can do, they can find these companies with jeff zuck him at there is video of the Central Intelligence agency receiving a metal. Hes connected to langley. There was another top official at the cia that said americans make it easy for them to obtain information on them. Stop using facebook. Find them. Hit them in their wallet. But im not for regulation. We have no privacy. Face reality. From that wall street journal editorial, they argue American Giants operate in a Global Economy with emerging competitors, especially from china. Breaking up u. S. Tech companies would be a gift. Alibaba, baidu, tencent, and others want to elbow into the data club in europe. Abouthould think twice his mental and u. S. Firms that invest heavily in Artificial Intelligence and can compete worldwide. Your thoughts on whether or not more regulation is needed of these Big Tech Companies . Yesterday, President Trump sent out a tweet on this issue saying that if congress doesnt bring fairness to big tech, which they shouldve done years ago, i will do it myself with executive orders. Washington has been all talk and no action for years. The people of our country are sick and tired of it. President s on the tweet, trump moves to hold social Media Companies liable if they alter or editorialize users speech. From the article, they say the Commerce Department made it clear that social Media Companies can be held viable if they do that. The petition requested that the ftc clarify the cure ration measures. Curation measures. They say president trouble continue to fight against censorship of americans online. Republicans, jim jordan of ohio, questioned a group of ceos about what he sees as political bias against conservatives. Is google going to tailor features to help joe biden in the 2020 election . Work byproach our supporting both campaigns. Political ads are an important part of free speech. We engage with campaigns according to law and work on a nonpartisan basis. Can you assure you want to tell your you wont tailor your features to help joe biden . We support the work the campaigns do. I understand that. We all do all kinds of that outreach and communication. Can you today assure americans that you will not tailor your features to help one candidate over another . My concern is you helping joe biden over President Trump. Any work todo politically tilt one way or the other. But you did it in 2016. 2016 any mail in email and 2016 that was widely circulated and went public. Multiculturalur marketing talks about the silent donation google made to the clinton campaign. And you applauded her work. Im just curious if you did it in 16, despite the fact that you did it in 16, President Trump won. Inant you to not do that 2020. I appreciate your concern. We did not find any evidence of such activity. And i took the opportunity to reinforce to the company that even the appearance could be improper, so we have clearly communicated to our employees that any personal political activity is their right but it needs to happen on their own time and resources. Everyone can campaign for who they want. What they cant do is configure your features to help one candidate over another. Host from yesterdays hearing on capitol hill with those tech ceos from facebook, apple, amazon, and google. Should they be regulated by the federal government . F you say yes, 202 7488000 if you disagree, 202 7488001. The subcommittee has been investigating these four companies and last year. They are expecting to give guidance to federal regulators and congress to act on reining in these companies. Judy, you say yes and alabama. Good morning. Caller good morning. Host go ahead. Caller i am tired of my stuff getting took off facebook and amazon. If i try to put anything for President Trump. Host it gets taken off . Why do you think that is . Caller they silence it because they are trying to keep us from having the election and winning. Host do you get a reason why when your posts are taken down . Caller it doesnt meet their codes. They say it doesnt it goes against their act. They put everything on about biden, no matter what. Host duty in alabama says regulate the tech judy and alabama says regulate the tech companies. Caller hi. Host good morning, go ahead. Sorry, i am calling into just to get my vote to say yes. Host why . Oh, because they have personal stuff on people that how doy, you know they get it in the first place . If theres such thing anymore as privacy. Massachusetts. N a text from harry in mt. Lebanon, pennsylvania. The subcommittee had the rare opportunity to pick the brains of the big four and it passed using the hearing for whack a mole. Regulating big tech wont work. It will just move to happier shores or disappear into the cloud altogether. This issue of facebook and buying up competitors, the wall street journal notes that facebook is currently preparing to launch the instagram reels service to take on tiktok. The video sharing app that is popular among young people. Facebook is offering tiktok influencers cash to switch over to reels. Rob, this is from grandpa that texted us to say that historically, government down sizes companies when they dominate market. Remember at t, railroad, oil industry . The government needs to cash in on big tech by shaking the tree. The fed government is not being run right now by public servants. It is being run by people enriching themselves over public good. Until that changes, regulating these companies will be a disaster. Tax them better, allow libel lawsuits, put in protection for consumers. In eagle river, arkansas, go ahead. Caller hello. Host alaska. I get that wrong every time. Caller yes. Yes. Concerned about what if the toeral government steps in regulate. Because there are major problems with these companies that involve our family, community, state, nation. But what if we have a another president like mr. Trump being resonating . Somehow we need to be able to regulate them without the possible influence of a bad president , a bad administration. Mason, jupiter, florida. You say yes. Caller thanks for taking my call. I am in favor for some sort of regulation, mainly with the First Amendment. I am not in favor of over regulating private industry but just some sort of legislation that would secure peoples freedom of speech. Host ok, so then what should be done . Do you know . Do you have any ideas . Caller yeah, i think that it is more of an antitrust case. As far as specific legislation, i cannot comment on that directly. But definitely some sort of legislation that secures the First Amendment rights since it is a platform versus a publisher. Host all right. Keep calling in with your thoughts on the idea of regulating big tech. Is it needed . If you are unsure, pick a line and call in and tell us why you are unsure. If you see both sides of the argument, you can call in, as well. As many of you know, the lake congressman john lewis will be remembered today in the immemorial service in atlanta at the Ebenezer Baptist church. Starts at 11 00 a. M. Eastern time, and we will have coverage on that on cspan3, cspan. Org, or you can listen on the go with a free cspan radio app. Honoring mr. Lewis will be three president s, former president s george bush and bill clinton will be on the program, and former president barack obama is expected to deliver a eulogy. That is today at 11 00 a. M. Eastern time on cspan3. HasNew York Times published the late congressmand words this morning. Apparently he wrote this piece, together, you can redeem the soul of our nation, shortly before his death. He writes this, though i may not be here with you, i urge you to answer the highest calling of your heart and stand up for what you truly believe. In my life, i have done all i can to didnt to demonstrate that the way of peace, the way of love, nonviolence is the more excellent way. Now it is your turn to let freedom ring. Writing the story of the 21st century, let them say it was your generation who laid down the heavy burdens of hate at last and that peace finally triumphed over violence, aggression, and war. The say to you, walk with wind, brothers and sisters, and let the spirit of peace and power and everlasting love be your guide. Larry in richmond, virginia, you say no to regulating these Big Tech Companies. Good morning. Aller yes, maam my biggest problem is the way these hearings are conducted where the congressman will go four and a half minutes with a uptribe against and come with a, do you agree, yes or no come asking the guest, and then the guest, before they can even answer, they say, no, i just want yes or no. Well, we learn absolutely nothing listening to that other than what the congressman had and their prepared statement question. Anit is hard to know or form opinion of exactly what is needed and what is really going on based on these hearings. Host larry, that was an argument made when a. G. Barr, the attorney general, testified the other day, too, that they have five minutes and most the time they spoke instead of acting asking a question. Some argue perhaps they should let attorneys ask questions rather than lawmakers aired what do you think . Caller i think that would be a good idea. Because when they do not give them time to answer, we do not learn as viewers of what they are really saying or what they want to say. Host ok. Tommy in virginia, you say yes to regulating. Caller and i also think we should add the utilities and some other Industries Like cable. I live in a very rural area, and i cannot to make a long story short, i use satellite internet, and you are not allowed to use satellite internet unless you live in an area like this. So it gives the Cable Companies pretty much they can control their pricing. Companies i am sorry, i am a little nervous host dont be nervous. We are listening. Caller a lot of the public utility companies, they do not have any competition so they can charge what they want. And the last thing i had to say is, when the government allows the tv access to go to digital and go away from analog, that was the worst thing that could have done. Because at one time you could access local channels like abc, cbs, i think one of the Public Access channels, just plug your tv in. Now you have to have a cable connection or some type of antenna you cannot watch tv. I cannot watch anything if i did not have cable. Anyway, thank you for taking my call, and have a good day. Host richard, san diego. You say no. Caller good morning, greta. Hey, i do not really think they need any regulations or need to shut the companies down and all that. I think everybody uses those companies and that is just a way of life now. Why weo not understand securitypt out of the or my personal business, have to opt out. Why couldnt they make it to where have to opt in . Because i think a lot of people were not opt in because her personal information would be all over the internet, now that i have anything i really care about that is on the internet. But you have to opt out. Why cant we opt in . All right,y in richard. New castle, pennsylvania, shirley. Caller good morning. Yes, i think it needs to be regulated. Because of amazon and these other Big Tech Companies, we dont have any brickandmortar stores anymore to shop. It is a shame. It is a shame what goes on. Had to go into the store and see what we are buying and make up our mind, do we like penneys, sears, kmart . No, we do not have that anymore. We are out of luck. I think it needs to be regulated. Like the man just said about the television, comcast and those different companies, there you are, they tell you it is going to be this amount of money every month, and they keep adding and adding and adding. You do not want to pay it, we will take your channels. Meanwhile, theyre charging more money. I think there needs to be more regulation and people should have more choice in doing what they want to do. Thank you. Host wall street journal argues this morning, when it comes to amazon and people arguing that they are unbeatable in the retail space, they write this, the company has only about a 1 share of the overall Global Retail business and less than 4 the United States. Walmart is bigger and its Online Business is growing fast. In cloud computing, amazon faces competition from microsoft, google, alibaba, and more. Itunes must contend with spotify and others. Jermaine, you say yes, as well. Am in favor for some regulation for these tech companies. One important thing for me is using these platforms to allow the spread of misinformation, fake news, hateful news and information. I think something has to be done about that. Also with data usage, how these Companies Use our data, our personal information. On facebook you are and lets say you google a microwave and you go back to facebook, all of the sudden you see that microwave advertisements for microwaves all on your screen, and it is because they are using your data. Host do you think they should have to pay for your data . Caller i think so. Host how do you determine what it is worth . Caller ha, i have no idea, but that is a great question. I also think that they should regulate or somehow have some sort of method of childrens, k the platforms, because there is so much things the kids should not be seeing on these platforms, and there should be a way to limit their access to certain things on these platforms. Host all right. Republicans yesterday focused on this issue of political bias and censoring by companies. Here is republican greg steube questioning the google ceo on taking down videos on the front points of view when it comes to Covid Treatment by youtube. [video clip] yesterday i was sent a Youtube Video about doctors discussing hydrochloric when and discussing the not dangers of children returning to school, and when i clicked on the link, it was taken down, and then i was sent to a different link on youtube and it was taken down. I just checked again to make sure come and it says this video has been removed for violating Youtubes Community Guidelines. How can doctors giving their opinion on a drug they think is effective for the treatment of covid19 and doctors who think it is appropriate for children to return back to school violate Youtubes Community Guidelines . And all these videos of violence are posted on youtube. Congressman, we believe in freedom of expression, and there is a lot on youtube and effective ways to deal with covid. We allow robust debate. But during a pandemic, we look to local Health Authorities for example, in the u. S. , it would be cdc. For guidelines around medical misinformation which could cause harm in the real world. Aspectsple, if there is of a video and if it explicitly states something could be a proven killer and that does not meet cdc guidelines, we would it is Free Expression of speech and you have these doctors who are giving their opinion as doctors, and i do not understand why youtube and therefore google thinks it is appropriate to silence physicians and their opinion of what could help and cure people with covid19. Host from yesterdays big tech hearing on capitol hill. If you missed it and want to see key moments, go to our website, cspan. Org, and hit the video player. You will see a bunch of gold stars, and that will let you quickly go through the five hours of testimony yesterday. Just of in san antonio, you Want Congress to regulate these Big Tech Companies. Is that right . Caller yes, maam. Good morning, greta. What i wanted to say more than anything is, yes, yesterday when the big four were there and getting asked these questions by both republicans and democrats, whatig concern i have is, is it, when the republicans i mean, when the congresspeople ask them questions, they say to give me a yes or no answer, and what does the big four do, just like mr. Barr did when he had his, they go on and on and do not answer directly. Very good atery, manipulating these peoples times. I think the exchange they should have these hearings go on and nobody says anything. Everybody is yelling back and forth. I said yes, i reclaim my time, i reclaim my time. But every time they ask them another question, they would they sayexpand yes or no, and they would expand and just try to hopefully get rid of their five minutes real quick so they can go onto somebody else. Thank you very much. Host george in playa del ray, california. That morning. Why do you want these companies regulated . Everything needs to be really regulated due to the fact that we have too many people here. We have going on 300 plus million people, and we just recently started using the web, most of us. And everything really needs to , simply because we just for people, just because it needs to be. Everything needs to be regulated. Too many people for us not to do so. Host ok. Sam sends this text from wildwood, georgia. They do need more regulations because it sounds like a freeforall. I was amazed at how much grabbing was being done on their part. Joe in berkeley, south carolina. Amazon is not the only game in town. Any Small Business can develop his or her own website to promote products. I purchased from other sites than amazon. Walmart exploits cheap foreign labor. Why no calls to break them up . Does the family openly give money to a Political Party or donate via pac . Which one . Bob in dayton, ohio, big tech control can and will impact our elections, our health, our prosperity, and in many cases the personal or political bias determines what is fake news and what is not. Kristin in florida, you say no. Tell us why. Caller thank you so much for taking the call. I say no because i am running for the United States presidency, currently a democrat. The reason why i am saying no is because i have written an agenda powers2020. Com to leverage the profits apple brings in 260 billion, net folks 20 billion plus, amazon 265 billion, and another one that is not even included. But i went through top five, and there are other companies that go beyond, as powerful. Look at these Massive Companies differently than we have ever looked at them before, different from taxes and tariffs, we need to leverage these gross profits that are in the billions in order to moneyly pool our shortterm come over 12 months, to rectify homelessness, to rectify addiction, all the other thin ig am as therapist, a female. A female candidate. Lets leverage their success for our benefit, because they are succeeding in the billions. There are times when i feel like they control our lives and that they do control our privacy. Years ago, regulated but as a president ial candidate that is trying to succeed as a woman, i need to think with very, very large numbers and once we have never went before in history. I say we leverage the profits, leverage the revenues, and eradicate homelessness, get the people educated, get the people not even renting but owning homes based off of these profits. Have them be a celebratory way of looking, rather than slamming companies, look at how we can use them to benefit our people. With only half of our country being able to use the internet period, we have to be able to spread the wealth through the United States but make it temporary. Host ok, kristin. We will come back for more of your calls in a minute yesterday on capitol hill, it was reported that congressman Louie Gohmert, republican of texas, tested positive for coronavirus after he was in a hearing the day before with the House Judiciary Committee with the attorney general william barr. Our producer on capitol hill sent out a text and a picture of the congressman walking the halls of congress and not wearing a mask. Speakere news came out, pelosi went to the floor and announced new procedures on capitol hill. [video clip] the chair will take this occasion to make the announcement concerning the wearing of masks in the hall of the house during the coronavirus pandemic. Under clause two of rule one, the chair is required to preserve order and the coram in the chamber. This includes the responsibility to ensure the protection of member and staff safety and health during proceedings. This responsibility is of paramount importance, particularly in the midst of a pandemic. To that end, the chair announces of aduring the presidency covered period, pursuant to House Resolution 965, members and staff will be required to wear masks at all times in the hall of the house, except that members may remove their masks temporarily when recognized. The chair expects all members and staff to adhere to this requirement as a sign of respect for the health, safety, and wellbeing of others present in the chamber and surrounding areas. The chair would further inform members and staff that they will not be permitted to enter the hall of the house without wearing a mask. Masks will be available at the entry points for any member who forgets to bring one. The chair would also like to remind members that the speaker has the authority to direct to remove a member from the floor as a matter of decorum. To reiterate, the chair views the failure to wear a mask as a serious breach of decorum. As always, the chair appreciates the cooperation of the members and staff in preserving order and decorum in the chamber, displaying respect and safety for one another by wearing a mask. Host the speaker on the floor yesterday announcing a new protocol for mass going on capitol hill. After it was reported that texas congressman Louie Gohmert tested positive for coronavirus, the attorney general who was in the river him at that hearing the day before also got a test, and he is negative, according to usa today. You sayacuse, new york, yes to regulating these text companies. Did you watch the hearing . Caller yeah, i did not watch all of it but enough of it. It is frightening, the power that they wield, and they wield it pretty openly and in defiance of some really tough questions. They just kind of blow off, like, that is what we do. One answer in particular you played a few minutes ago, the indian guy i forget his name he asked, where are your parents . We arere your parents your parents or that is what we are going to do. No, we are adults, ok. Do notn easy way you even have to regulate this as much as you do and force it. It is illegal to say that youre going to provide a service and then pull the Service Without good reason. They should not be shielded for being sued. That is the number one thing. And it should be progressive. After you have done it a number of times, you pay a larger price each time. It has to hurt. And when you are making hundreds of billions of dollars a year, it is going to be tough to come up with something to hurt them. But money will do it here and i am pretty sure. That is what should happen. They should start allowing lawsuits, and there should be auditors, a special court, so you do not languish, waiting for years. They need to feel the pain soon after the infraction. Host greats argument in new york. Joanna says no, indiana. Caller good morning. The reason i say no is in the rampantction, there was falsehoods about hillary and the things that had been going on around and about her business. The thing is, they seen it. They knew it. They did nothing about it. Allowed it to go on. I love people that seen them. Themhad to fact check themselves to see if it was true or not. I was one of them. I always confronted those who opposed them. They would get mad and actually deown me, and that is fine by me. I do not like running around with somebody going to be putting out falsehoods. They are regulating themselves now, and that is what everybody is so mad about. They are not allowed to go and put those falsehoods out there and make people wonder and question what is true and what is not. We already got that in the white house. We do not need it in the dad facebook,of instagram, twitter, or anything. To me, i see them as a publishing of a newspaper. They have a right to do what they want, say what they want, but we also have a right to check it out and make sure it is right or wrong. Matter of fact, we have an obligation as an americans to make sure what they are saying is right or wrong. Host ok, joanna. Heard your points. Ed in new york since a text saying few things scare me more than the prospect of government agents having a role in regulating freespeech. Larry in florida, social media subscribers and users have signed away the rights so they can receive free service. It is a choice. More regulation will change the business model, ultimately costing consumers. Regulation is little more than political control changing each couple of years. While the apple ceo tim cook did not get as many questions as the he waseos yesterday, questioned about the business of privacy practices about his company. Here is democrat Hank Johnsons exchange with tim cook. [video clip] requires all App Developers to use apples Payment Processing system if those Developers Want to sell their groups of services to apple users through apples app store. Correct . That is correct because and by processing payments by apps that you allow into the app store, you collect their Customer Data and use that data to inform apple as to whether apple should, whether or not it would be profitable for apple to launch a competing app. Isnt that correct . 84 of the apps are charged nothing. Pay 15aining 16 either or 30, depending on specifics. If it is the second year of subscription, as an example, it only pays 15 . Fromat is to stop apple increasing its commission to 50 . Sir, we have never increased commissions in the store since the first day it operated in 2008. What has stopped it from doing so . I disagree strongly with that. There is a competition for developers, just like there is a competition for customers. So the competition for theirpers, they write apps for android or windows or xbox or playstation, so we have fierce competition at the developer side and the customer side, which is essentially so competitive i would describe it as a street fight for market share in the smartphone business. Host from yesterdays hearing. In recent june article from the wall street journal, how app makers break their apps to avoid paying apple. Apples App Store Rules and commissions, for some developers, it will not let you buy Digital Media from their apps. From the article, you cannot sign up for netflix in the app. We know it is a hassle that is the message will get. But what the app does not tell you is that the fix is simple, go to the web browser on your phone or computer and sign up at netflix. Com. Netflix is not the only hugely popular app leaving iphone users in the dark about paying for stuff. You cannot sign up for spotify amazon prime in their respective mobile apps. Amazons kindle app does not let you buy ebooks. Audible has a complicated Credit System to download audible books on ios. These apps are broken on purpose because of apples lucrative rules. Companies are church for every purpose purchase and Subscription Companies are charged for every purchase and subscription to any developer who wants to make money on the iphone and ipad audience must pay a hefty surcharge for that privilege. Mack in germantown, maryland you say no to regulating. No because, i said you had to think about where we came from. You look at the early days of the technology, you know, how it was literally a jungle of people just doing whatever they wanted to do. These companies have brought order, brought order to their platform. Take for example apple. Ok, when you look at the that was asked of mr. Tim cook about the Way Developers were being treated, if you think about it, apple has made this whole thing with developing apps, they have made it so simple and so easy. Computerho did programming and had to go to school and struggled learning it, now certainly it is so easy to do. Use thexpect people to platform for free, without paying for it . Apple ecosystem is a marketplace, just like amazon is a marketplace. You develop your app. You use host oh, we lost the caller. Apologies. Jay in new hampshire, you say yes to regulating. Caller yeah, hi. My beef generally is this kind of weird feeling that our rights of free speech is being replaced by this because i rights and not quasiended. By this rights and not being offended there is something wrong with that. I think it is a problem. We need a lot more freespeech. In some cases hate speech is freespeech. It is just kind of galling that facebook, youtube can take down licensed physicians who have different opinions on wearing like or other therapeutics hydroxychloroquine that may be efficacious in some cases. I am just really bothered by it. And i do not know what the remedy is. Said, probably removing qualified immunity, from liability. I dont know, i just think the answer is more freespeech, not less. And that is all i got. Thank you very much. Host thanks to all of you for calling in and joining the conversation we are going took continuee are going to with congressman jamie raskin, democrat of maryland, member of the Judiciary Committee paired we can talk about the big tech testimony yesterday but also the testimony by attorney general william barr earlier this week. Later on, republican, maryland governor, larry hogan, talking about his book Still Standing and the republicans future role in the party. Today at 8 30 a. M. Eastern on secretary of state mike pompeo before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee to review the state departments fiscal year 2021 budget request. Friday at 9 00 a. M. Eastern on id director dr. Anthony fauci, dr. Redfield, an assistant secretary for health at hhs before the house select subcommittee on a National Comprehensive plan on the coronavirus pandemic. Watch live hearing Coverage Today on cspan3. And friday on cspan2. Live streaming and ondemand at cspan. Org. Or listen on the go with the cspan radio app. Cspan has unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court, and Public Policy events. You can watch all of cspans Public Affairs programming on television, online, or listen on our free radio app, and be part of the National Conversation through cspans daily Washington Journal Program or through our social media feeds. Sees ben, created by america cspan, created as a Public Service and brought to you today by your television provider. Washington journal continues. Host congressman jamie raskin, democrat of maryland, member of the Judiciary Committee, here with us, and he is also serving on the subcommittee on coronavirus crisis. Lets begin with yesterdays tech hearing. We learned this morning that the antitrust subcommittee will put a report out in august about what to do next. What do you think that report will say . Guest well, greta, thank you for having me. Look, this was the first hearing that we have had about the profound antitrust issues that have emerged in the new tech age. In the 19th century, america with and today we have cyber barons, and these are the lords and titans of big tech who have every bit as much power as John D Rockefeller and the vanderbilts and the people who control the new industrial economy of the new postindustrial hightech company is being controlled by huge conglomerates that are fantastically wealthy and powerful, and they have done some remarkable things. Good this is to bring begrudge the achievements of individuals who were there yesterday. But we have to look at what this does to Small Business competition, new entrants to the market, manipulation of prices, and all of the oldfashioned anticompetitive practices that have been updated for the hightech world. In addition, we have all kinds of spillover effects in terms of the privacy of americans, the free speech of americans, civil rights questions, and democracy itself, which was threatened theoundly, obviously, with russians sweeping and systematic assault on the 20 16th election. So all the things we asked about, it was a very substantive and productive exchange. We learned a lot in the investigation. I think the report will come up with some very specific recommendations about what needs to be done to protect Small Businesses, protect the privacy americans andh of protect american democracy against hostile state and nonstate actors theyre using the internet to try to manipulate american policy. Host what do think those recommendations should be . Guest you know, it is a little bit too early to say because were sort of processing and digesting all of this. Tried, one thing that i to hear yesterday was the confusion of roles that different entities are playing. So amazon is both a marketplace which iscts, remarkable what they have done, but then they are also a competitor against the different products that are coming on. So they have got all of the data and all of the information from the much smaller businesses that are trying to advertise there, and they have access to lots of of the market that other competitors do not have because they control this marketplace that is one example of the kind of thing that has become a real problem in the antitrust terms, and we need to update antitrust law and regulations to deal with those problems. Democrat,ou are a 202 7488000. Republicans, 202 7488001. Independents, 202 7488002. The wall street Journal Editorial Board argues congress should go slow, arguing this, the American Giants also operate in a Global Economy with emergency competitors emerging competitors, especially from china. Breaking up those committees would be a get to foreign ones. And talking about china drive for Economic Dominance globally, they should think twice about investing heavily in Artificial Intelligence and those that can compete worldwide. Guest first of all, i do not want to prejudge where any of this is going. Look at the history, the antimonopoly, antitrust legislation, it has moved in different directions. Sometimes the solution is to break up big Companies Like at t. They have just gotten too big and are dominating everything. Sometimes it is to regulate particular kinds of offensive practices that are undermining freedom in the marketplace and the entry of new competitors. So we will be very careful and subtle in terms of how we look at all these problems, but we cannot turn a blind eye to the really pervasive complaints were getting from Small Businesses across the country about the fact that they essentially feel like they work for the big tech titans at this point. Everything goes through these gatekeepers come so there has always been a struggle between real Market Freedom and those who amass amazing concentrated economic power and try to use that power to squeeze everybody else. Host lets get to phone calls. Peter in new york, a republican. You are up first. Caller thank you, greta. I just want to thank cspan for carrying these hearings. It is very informative for the public, and i really appreciate it. Congressman raskin, i do not have a question for you, but i have a comment. I watched the hearings with attorney general barr, and i was truly appalled the way the democrats on that committee behaved and berated that man. You guys went on a diatribe of insulting him and then refused to allow him to answer questions. I think it is a disgrace, and i hope the American People were watching and see exactly the childish behavior. I understand why you guys are doing it, because you have to discredit him because you know the Durham Report is going to be coming out and you need to kill the messenger. So that is my comment, sir, and i think you should be ashamed of yourself because i watched you and what you did was very unfair. Like i said, hope the American People see what you guys did. Thank you. Guest all right. Well, your comment reminds me of harry truman when they would tell him to give them hell and he would say, no, i give them the truth and i think it is hell. We are getting the truth of bill barrs assault on the rule of law an assault on the constitution. Lets start with the police riot that he unleashed in Lafayette Square against thousands of people, including a lot of my constituents. There are six rights in the First Amendment of the constitution, and he violated every single one of them. The right to peaceably as able, right to position petition government for grievances, freedom of press, freedom of speech, the right to exercise uninvited for the president to conduct a much grotesque photo opportunity in the history of the United States, taking someone elses bible, turning it upside down, and waving it over his head, and no establishment of religion as the president proceeded in his own incompetent way to try to unify church and state behind his reckless and irresponsible leadership. There were people who were injured. Used, pepperas spray, billy clubs, horseback police, all on totally lawful, peaceful protesters. This caused a protest from the archbishop, the catholic archbishop of washington, the episcopal bishop of washington, and the National President of the Episcopal Church against the president s unleashing of violence against nonviolent civil rights protesters. Compare that to what they did to the right wing protesters in michigan who shut down the michigan legislature, armed protesters who showed up to protest against Public Health orders. They did nothing. There was no federal police attempt to come down on these White Supremacists and extreme right groups that gathered there to block the state legislature, to level Death Threats against governor whitmer. Not at all you have got attorney general barr appointed a lawyer to file legal papers supporting their litigation against Public Health orders in the michigan. Luckily the court saw this as frivolous and ridiculous and rejected those injunctions. But with the department of justice, which has been mobilized to fight that, underlined Public Health orders by governors and their states. How does that advance states rights . To support state rights when they agree with the governors. And when they dont, they trample it up your just like they support free speech rights of right wing protesters who are armed and disrupting legislatures but not civil rights protesters are our peaceably and lawfully assembling in Lafayette Square in the heart of washington, d. C. The linen it comes to of questioning about the attorney general and the cases against roger stone and Michael Flynn, daniel goldman, a familiar name to our viewers, had a role in the investigation, in the hearings related to the mueller report, he tweeted out ineffective opening line of questioning by the chair, jerry nadler. When asked by a conservative what questions he would have asked, he told these. I wonder if you know the answers. The attorney general has the attorney general intervened in any sentencing other than roger stone . Has doj moved to this miss any case postconviction other than Michael Flynn . Have prosecutors withdrawn from any case and protest other than those . Guest yes. Hello to mr. Goldman, if youre watching. Those questions were all asked at different points. They were not contained in the opening of it, but that line of questioning is very effective, as you would expect from an effective litigator like mr. Goldman. What he string to show is that attorney general barr is not operating the like like the lawyer for the American People or even the United States, he is acting like the lawyer for donald trump ear and he is trying to help Donald Trumps friends, Michael Flynn and roger stone, convicted and selfconfessed lawyers, people who have convicted and selfconfessed liars, and they decided the attorney general is going to spend his time trying to figure out how to get them off. Roger stone said they were trying to get him to sing like a canary. Prosecutors wanted him to talk about the president , but he was going to protect the president. And he got rewarded by the department of justice in a completely extraordinary way. Nobody else gets i kind of treatment. On the others of it, Michael Cohen, who decided to tell the truth about donald trump and therefore has been demonized and castigated by the white house and by the trump family, the actually put him back into prison. They put him behind bars because he would not say that he would not publish a book. They wanted him to say that he would not write a book about trump and about everything. He wanted to talk about Donald Trumps free use of racist and antisemitic language. He refused to say that he would suppress that, therefore they sent him back to jail. The federal judge for that case was so angry that he ordered that Michael Cohen be released immediately for this and had never seen anything like this in the history of his career on the bench, that the government was actually trying to manipulate the freedom of speech of a prisoner. This is where it has come to with the attorney general of the United States who defended that action by the bureau of prisons and other parts of the government, essentially censoring Michael Cohen. Host charleston, south carolina, democratic caller. Caller i am a democrat, but i want to say that there are some issues that go beyond being a democrat or republican. Once upon a time, a long time ago, there were a group of people who felt like they were bodyed by the governing unfairly by the governing body, so they started a revolution, and that became known as the american revolution. Yet, for some reason, listening to the hearings and listening to how the federal troops be sent in to stop peaceful protesters, how come nobody is talking about the fact that there were white infiltrated who those marches and started the problem so that the federal agents could get sent in . Guest it is a brilliant question because we know that other white boys, groups, the proud boys, have been infiltrating the protests. Attorney general barr, and a propaganda way, was talking about antifa, but we cannot find in any filing of any department prosecutorial papers, any indictments, any prosecutions of anybody identified by the as part of antifa. But they want to use that. Look, i hold no grief for antifa. If they are out there doing violence, than i denounce and repudiate its peer they should not be doing it. But what we know is the white supremacist are saying lets use this opportunity of the mass protests against police brutality, against what took place with george floyd, to infiltrate and start violence. I have seen a lot of footage of nonviolent protesters trying to stop undercover people from committing violence and even turning them over to the police. So i agree with that. Another example is covid19. A lot of people thought, well, yes, trump proceeds based on social division and hatred and turning people against each other, but in the face of a pandemic, at the very least at that point the republicans will get behind a real unified approach, so we will have a National Strategy for testing, for contact tracing, for everybody to take masks seriously and social distancing and so on. And they did not do it they called it a democrat hoax. He has been waging war against dr. Fauci two days ago, both trump and his son were tweeting out absolute nonsense and misinformation about how hydroxychloroquine is a cure for covid19, how you do not need to have masks, and even one of the doctors on their was ranting and raving about demon sperm and alien dna being put into modern medicine. That is why they were taken down i twitter, and republicans were embarrassing themselves by saying, how do you censor the president and donald trump, jr. , by taking down the tweet. Thank god they took that sweet down. It is Public Health disinformation. This is why america leads the world in the covid19 right now, number one in death counts, number one in the case counts, and we still have no National Strategy because we do not have the social cohesion and the Political Leadership just to follow a sciencebased publichealth regime on how to get out of this nightmare. In france, italy, and other european countries, they have gotten out of it. They know what was needed. If there is a little outbreak, they move right in and quarantine the people, test everybody. Here we have this Massive Community spread because it is a breakdown of any Political Leadership and the spread of this pseudoscientific propaganda and masterful magical thinking by the president and his party, and they enable him. I am with the caller. Host harry is next in pittsburgh, independent. Go ahead. Question or comment . Caller yeah, i watched that bar hearing. They would ask a question and he would go to answer and they would start screaming they want their time back at actually embarrassed them. Americans, this party is embarrassing, especially this guy on here now. First of all, we have been watching these riots for months. Burning down buildings, looting, killing people, killing black people, killing cops, and these guys can say it is all phony. You know what . You are an embarrassment to this country, and your whole Democrat Party is an embarrassment to democrats. I did not care one way or the other before, but you are a piece of host lets move on and get congressman raskins reaction on how that caller use the protesting. Guest i view the black lives matter protests and the millions of wonderful young people who the come out to denounce eight minute and 46 second torture and murder of george floyd is one of the great moments in american history. We have got an opportunity with reconstruction after the civil war, which lasted for 12 years, like the Civil Rights Movement which took place in the 1960s and gave the civil rights f 19 624 and Voting Rights act of 1965, because of the blood sacrifice of my late beloved colleague john lewis. We have got the opportunity now to have a third reconstruction in america and to break, finally, from the practice of official Police Racism and violence against africanamerican citizens, so that millions of people will not have to have that talk with their sons about what it means to be a young black person or their daughters about what it means to be a young black woman in public where there are still Police Forces were certain officers feel like they can abuse the rights of nonwhite people. John lewis said that the fact that there were massive protests whites,tiracial basis, africanamericans, latinos, asian americans, everybody came together to say that is not american. Theady, as we can see from hot air from the last call, there is an attempt to unleash again this right wing propaganda and anger against this peaceful, nonviolent Civil Rights Movement. The full point of what theyre trying to do is to show the view that this is a violent attack on buildings for the government or so on. I am glad that there is some kind of agreement that has been reached in org inland in oregon about deescalating and taking the federal troops out, where they have had a terribly provocative presence there. I do not know where the violence is coming from, whether it is boogaloo, proud boys, ku klux klan, antifa, or whatever. Whoever it is should cut it out because theyre just trying to discredit this massive nonviolent peaceful Civil Rights Movement that america needs. Host a moment to note that the late congressmans words are published today in the New York Times opinion pages. Together you can redeem the soul of our nation. He writes, when historians pick up their pens to write the story of the 21st century, let them say it was your generation who laid down the heavy burdens of hate at last and that for peace finally triumphed over violence, aggression, and war. I say to you, what with the wind, brothers and sisters, and let the spirit of peace and power of everlasting love be your guide. Guest does are beautiful words at one thing i loved about john lewis was he always spoke to young people. , thenk he always saw that zenith of his care, being a young person down south, dismantling racial apartheid in america, and he was arrested more than 40 times. He was bloodied by sheriffs and Police Batons and tear gas, like todays young protesters have been bloodied in these attacks by trumps troops all over america. That he spoke to young people. And what he was saying in that last quote was, this is your opportunity to get beyond all of the racism and antisemitism and the authoritarianism. Lets view trump as a court jester who became king for a little while, but that was the last gasp of that kind of right wing authoritarianism and the america. And we have the opportunity coming up in the election, if we can defend the election and defend the vote, we have the opportunity to move out of that kind of policy. Host the funeral for the late congressman will be held today in atlanta, and we will have coverage of that on cspan3. There is a shot of the church this morning. Coverage begins at 11 00 a. M. On or you, on cspan. Org, can listen to the free cspan radio app. We are expecting to hear a eulogy from the former president barack obama, former president s bill clinton and others attending, as well. Mark in omaha, nebraska, republican. Caller yes, thank you for taking my call. Three questions for the congressman. To hearearings meant the person that you guys are asking questions of . All i heard from the democratic side were speeches and ranting and raving. There was no hearing, no questions asked, and when they were asked you did not allow him to answer. And i am telling you, if you are saying that did not happen, you are living in lala land. Just watch the tape of it. The other thing is, are you saying antifa is not the people that are going after the courthouse in portland . That is outrageous, too. The third thing is, and i really want you to answer this one, your wife working in the treasury department, why would she unmask Michael Flynn . Why would your wife unmask Michael Flynn . Answer that one. Thank you. Guest all right. So i am going to take a minute to respond to all of this. First of all, the house of representatives is a large body of about 435 people, so we have a hearing and each of us has five minutes to question people. Officials, of course, have been defying our subpoenas and refusing to come overwhelmingly, and trump ordered noncompliance with us. We have been trying to get attorney general barr for three and a half years, ever since he took office, for a couple years we have been trying to get him to come in, and he would continually postpone it. So we had a lot of questions. Any smart when his, and william barr is certainly smart witness, he knows that the best way to avoid answering questions is to filibuster and go on and on and on. From the handful of trump witnesses who come in, that is what they all do. So we have to interrupt him and say to get back on point. The republicans did it in their endless, multimillion dollar hearings against hillary clinton. You can watch and see the exact same thing. I am sorry it disappointed you, but your team did the exact same thing. Antifa, if there had been antifa prosecutions in oregon or arrests, i am unaware of it, and if they are out there, i will gladly denounce it. I would hope you would gladly denounce any of the neonazi theps, the proud boys, boogaloo boys, or any of those other groups that are infiltrating and staging these makent acts in order to the whole scene deteriorate and to make it look like this is a Violent Movement when it is a nonviolent one. I am very happy to denounce antifa. Are you very happy to denounce extreme rightwingers who on their websites right now are calling on people to infiltrate and create that kind of vigilante provocation at the marches . Finally, you bring up my wife. She does not meet need me to defend her peer she was governor of the Federal Reserve board, deputy secretary of the u. S. Treasury department under president obama. She was approved overwhelmingly by democrats and republicans, i think unanimously or near unanimously. When she went in, she had a spectacular and unblemished record of Public Service. She was the banking commissioner for the state of maryland. Of awardsn all kinds for being a champion of the consumer interest. The new thing that has been named unmasking, although i have a different definition for me, that is what Louie Gohmert did to himself, what jim jordan did to himself, they take their masks off and put other Peoples Health at risk. But i think that the unmasking that youre talking about now is an official who has high security clearance, who reads a report and there are anonymous names in there and ask that person is. That is what they are now calling unmasking die think they are saying 80 or 90 or 100 people unmasked Michael Flynn, a convicted criminal who betrayed our country repeatedly in his dealings with russia. You know what is interesting, that your team never seems to bounty Vladimir Putin put on the head of american soldiers, men and women our intelligence industries told the president that russia put a bounty on the heads of americans and the president yesterday said he didnt raise it with Vladimir Putin, the conversation among other things, and he said that the whole thing was staged anyways, it is fake news. That doesnt seem to disturb you. You are interested in the fake news of government officials reading a report and asking someone who is betraying the country is. That is all you are talking about. I think the rightwingers are putting everybodys help at risk in congress and can stop unmasking themselves and put their masks back on as we asked them to you yesterday because they are spreading the disease and you should stop spreading propaganda about honorable public servants. Host congressman, we are out of time, we thank you for the conversation this morning. It is in allmaryland day. Up next, governor larry hogan joins us to talk about his book and we will also talk about the response to the coronavirus pandemic. We will be right back. This week on q a, fox news anchor Chris Wallace on his book countdown 9045 on the creation bomb in what led president truman to use it on japan 75 years ago. , he hadonized over this terrible headaches throughout his career whenever he was under what he considered heavy stress. When i was in the president ial library, i had his diaries during this whole period, 116 days that i talk about, he talked about the choice of using the bomb in apocalyptic terms. The cap saying this is the most terrible weapon ever discovered and he compared it to the fire prophecies in the bible. Fox news anchor Chris Wallace sunday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on the spans q a. Washington journal continues. Us as governor larry hogan, republican of maryland. Hes also the chair of the National Governors association. Governor, let me begin with the news on the coronavirus. One 50,000 debts, cases are on the rise in your state and across the country. Is it time for a National Strategy rather than governors coming up with her own strategies . 12 it was probably time for a National Strategy back in february or march. Ive been somewhat critical of the fact that, and i talk about this in my book, early in the pandemic i thought it was important for the federal government to come up with more of a National Strategy on testing, on contact tracing, on a more coordinated attack on stopping this virus. Thats all behind us now. Governors have been on the front lines taking the actions that i think are necessary. Obviously we are continuing to do so and doing everything we can to stop the virus. We do have the support and the assistance of the federal government that this is going to take all of us at the federal, state, and local level and in the private sector and all of the cooperation of our citizens that we jointly represent to try to get this thing back under control. Host you are the chair of the National Governors association. How do governors Work Together through this association . Caller it has been one of those things that i have been most proud of. Theres the governors across america, unlike some of our friends and colleagues in washington, really there is very little partisanship although we dont always agree on every single issue. There has been tremendous cooperation and collaboration. We really have been in this together. Im proud of the governors on both sides of the aisle who had stepped up and taken some individual actions that may differ from one another, but the working relationship through the National Governors association has been incredible. Something i dont think has ever happened like this before. Active in the association for almost six years since i became governor, on the executive committee, and we have 46 conference called videoconferences with all of the nations governors, many of which were with the president and Vice President , but for monomeric task force, just governors talking amongst ourselves. That hasnt happened in the past 30 years. There really are great discussions about how you are dealing with this in your state, sharing best practices, giving advice. Theres also a lot of Regional Governors coming together, lines tocross party try to work in the regional way. The less formal, just picking up the phone or texting fellow governors across the country has been invaluable. Exampley have set an , common sense leadership. We dont wear red uniforms or blue uniforms. It doesnt recognize state borders. We are all in this together and i think that the National Governors association, which im has beend to chair, more relevant and more effective than it has ever been. How give us examples of you had to compete against each other. Guest thats one of the frustrations that i talk about in my book. I have been arguing that we should have had a different Strategy Early on, and when it came to really critical things and muchneeded supplies of ppe. Basic things like ventilators and swabs and tubes and transport medians, things that you would think would not be so difficult to acquire, and things that we could easily have had a federal strategy on, but instead, we have 50 states or 55 states and territories all competing with each other and with the federal government and with other countries around the world for desperately needed very constrained market and it was just mass chaos. Things have improved. The federal government has topped up, we urged them utilize the defense production act and thankfully, they did and they have reduced ventilators here in america, did a great job on that. We now have a plentiful supply of ventilators. They also used the defense production act on swabs. But now we are running once capacity, someab private labs are taking 10 days or two weeks to get test results, rendering them basically worthless when it comes to trying to track the virus and to our contact tracing. With made progress, but we are behind and note get our hands around the virus as we had through the summer here and into the fall. Host let the recent headlines. The washington times, democrats reject from offer for shortterm relief deal. Then you have the wall street journal, relief deal is nowhere close as bipartisan negotiations falter you have the Washington Post editorial, Congress Heads toward economic cliff. And the wall street journal just reporting right now breaking news, the economy contracted at a record 32. 9 rate last quarter and weekly jobless claims rose through 1. 4 3 million. If congress does not renew these enhanced benefits, one of the impact on maryland citizens what is the impact on maryland citizens . Guest if congress cannot find some sort of bipartisan compromise to get this done, its going to be quite disastrous for the country. Cuomo, who is my vice chairman of the National Governors association, and i put out a statement again yesterday, and this is nearly unanimous between republican and democratic governors, weve been pushing for more relief. The governors are on the front lines, trying to provide more services to more people that are desperately in need. Billion from the federal government to provide some of those services. Weve also laid off 1. 6 million state and local government workers, frontline workers Like Health Care workers and teachers and firefighters and Police Officers and people working to to thoseenefits people, people that are trying to help her struggling Small Businesses. Theres a potential of losing 3 million to 4 million of them. Its not helpful to the economic recovery. Its very frustrating to us. I was just talking, we got a commitment from the white house months ago, the president said he was going to support this. Appears to behis anywhere in the discussion in washington and the governor continues to push and a fairly way to and bipartisan try to get both houses and the administration to put aside whatever petty partisan differences there are. And i dont care about the specifics, this site once these things included and this side wants these things included, they cannot leave without getting something done. They just got back from a july for recess, they are about to leave on an august recess. All we hear is partisan bickering and divisiveness and gridlock. And it absolutely cannot happen because the people of america need them to get something done for a change. Host we will go to calls. James, virginia, republican. Caller good morning, governor hogan. How are you doing . Guest good morning, good morning. Caller three quick questions. One, the United States is the highest in death tolls, that cant be true because china did not report accurately. Second thing, about a month ago i listened to bbc, and they did a study for the past five years of the actual deaths in the country, and they went back and look at the current rate of all debts, and the numbers were way, way off compared to what they are reporting with actual deaths. Integrated,s in or we cant find those numbers actually. And i dont want to sound like a conspiracy theorist, but i drive a truck and i pick up trash in the sanitation work field, i dont know anybody in my field that has gotten sick. And we are right in it, you cant get no closer than where we are. Lets have the governor respond. Guest well, so we really have had 150,000 deaths in america. Feel thatot of people china has not been forthcoming and perhaps is not sharing truthful information, that certainly has been the case in the past, i cant speak to exactly who is reporting factual information and who isnt. I know the United States is, and we actually do have one or 50,000 deaths, and that is more people than the total that died in the vietnam war and the korean war together. Just it over a couple of months. We have had more than 3000 people die in the state of maryland, more than 82,000 people who have gotten sick. Weve had more than 12,000 people hospitalized. Israel, it is not a conspiracy. The good news is we are doing much better than most of the other states around the country, and our Positivity Rate is down below the recommended 5 . 20sometes are in the percent with Positivity Rate. We continue to be open. Our Unemployment Rate is 8 instead of that, about 30 better than the rest of the country. Sometimes, maybe in the hysteria, some people are saying the sky is falling and everybody is sick, and other people are saying it is completely fake and made up. The truth is this is a very serious virus. People say it is just the flu. We did have 40 people buy from the flu, but we had more than 3000 die in our state from this virus. Theres going to be many, many more. We are taking it very seriously and watching these numbers every single day, taking all the steps we can to keep people safe and to make sure that we get everybody back to normal as quickly as we can, but the way we do that is by taking all the steps necessary to reopen our economy safely and do all the things that the public doctors are devising us to do. Host freddie is next in indianapolis, democratic caller. Caller good morning, governor. View, iemocrat point of would like to say i think you have been doing a great job as a republican governor. So has my governor here in indiana. Ien though most governors know in the south are doing terrible. I dont want to sound like a type of conspiracy, but i believe there are those in the government who are enjoying seeing what is going on, including our president. I dont think he has any concerns or regrets for the people who are dying and especially those people of color. And i sort of feel like the whites were dying from this virus, he just sees them as collateral damage. Well, there has probably been no republican that has been willing to speak up more than me when i disagree with the president , and i have said that i thought that his messaging was all wrong and that he hadnt taken the virus seriously enough from the beginning of this crisis. I havent agreed with all the moves, but i dont think thats true, i wouldnt say that he doesnt care about the people inng or that he looks at it black and white terms. I think the president is concerned about the deaths and he maybe hasnt taken all the steps he needs to take, and he certainly hasnt been communicating to the American Public the way i think he should. But i wouldnt go so far as to say he doesnt care about people dying in america. Texas,ndependent in david, your turn with the governor. Caller my question has to do with the malaria drug and the zinc. My county, from day one, my daughter is a nurse and i know a lot of verses, people on the line areas they used it from day one, ok . Himiend of mine, they gave two days to knock it out. Look at our county, we have 1. 5 million people, 75 deaths. Peopletion is why dont count the counties that have hardly any deaths . Ate really having a problem. You go south of us to Dallas County that leads more to the left, they refuse to prescribe it and theyve got like 600 deaths, 650 deaths. Are allestion is, why these people so against it when you dont have anything else out there, and it seems to work wherever it sat . Wherever its at . Every friend of mine who sick with it got it prescribed and they are well. If i get sick with it, some people i know are in their 60s, i just understand why people refuse to give it to people and just let them die. Host governor . Guest so i cant speak to exactly what they are doing in your county or the effectiveness of zinc, but i can so you that all across america we are doing much better, the hospitals at figure out, they got a much better strategy now, using a bunch of therapeutic drugs that have saved lives. We are a rise in cases across the country to the highest point we are seeing a big lies in the number of people being hospitalized, but were not seeing that same increase in deaths or in icus. People are getting sick enough to go to the hospital but they are finding ways to keep them from dying, they are using a host of things that they didnt know were effective back in the spring. We dont have a cure, we dont have a vaccine, but they are finding ways to keep people alive. Will to you an interesting thing that weve been focused on lately, because people are not talking about this. At the very beginning it was mostly older people. We had these outbreaks in our state and then every state in nursing homes, most of the hospitalizations, most of the people on ventilators and most of the deaths were people in their 70s and 80s. Thats no longer true. 56 of our cases are now under more andur hospitals, more of the increase in our hospitalizations are people under 40. Our biggest cases right now are in their 20s and 30s. These are healthier, stronger butle who are not dying, they are getting the virus, some of them pretty badly, and seriously enough to be hospitalized. And they are finding some treatments, some drugs that are severity andn the theyre sharing those things across the country. Thats a positive thing. We havent stopped the virus but we are finding some ways to treat it better, and to keep people alive. Host governor, what was behind your announcement yesterday to expand statewide mass orders . One of thee were first state in the country to take action on masks and it has worked fairly effectively. The federal government has now been messaging very strongly on this as well, even the president was wearing a mask and saying it is patriotic to wear a mask which is a major departure from his earlier messaging. It is that most of the people in his administration, the professionals and the health care folks at the cdc and dr. Fauci and dr. Brooks have been saying for a long time, but here in our state, we were starting to see. Weve done a massive amount of new testing. Cases are starting to rise. Thats not as big of a concern to us, our productivity is still remaining fairly level in flat. That alle concerned the states are blowing up across the country, that 21 of them have been declared hotspots. The federal government the day before yesterday said 21 states need to start shutting down parts of their economy, and putting in place 10 person gathering limits and 30 states now have masking orders. Dramatically,ed the virus doesnt recognize orders. Borders. Our Public Health officials, all of our expert epidemiologist, they said this one step, we can keep our businesses open, he people working, keep people out of the unemployment line if we just take this one step of having people wear masks. It is the simplest thing. I know some people are concerned about it or frustrated about it, but most people supported it, most people are following it in our state. And its a lot better than shutting down all the businesses and making people go back to his home order. Host louisiana, chris, republican. Caller yes, ive been trying to call you since your last guest, and i just wanted to mention all the democratic voters out there to see what is going on with the writing and the killings and the looting. I want to let you know there are people out there that you care. Bout you, host do you have a question or comment for the governor . Caller i kept trying to call in your last segment. Host our time is short, going to move on to jackie in connecticut, democratic caller. Caller hi. I wanted to know if you think that the u. S. Is doing enough as far as fighting the pandemic globally, especially in terms of aid to countries already ravaged by poverty and other Health Crises . Guest no, im not sure that the u. S. Is focused on helping other countries. Im not sure the u. S. Is doing enough to fight the virus right here in america. Thats really where our focus needs to be. The chairman of the National Governors association said that earlier, we are pushing for more help to the states across america that are desperately in our, and netware think focus, not to say we should ignore folks in need in other gotes, but right now weve the worst case of the virus spreading rapidly across this nation and its going to kill tens of thousands more people if we dont ramp up our efforts at home. Right nowou mentioned in the republican proposal, there is no aid or state and local government. What would be the impact of that on the state of maryland if there is no additional aid from washington . What would you have to do . Guest its fairly disastrous. Analytics talk with all of the nations governors, they predict an average downturn in revenue of 30 . Our state is in much better shape economically than most in america, we only have 8 unemployment. We were down to three. It is the worst we had in a long time. Many states are at 23 or 25 or 30 or 40 , better than the rest of the country on average. But it is still a terrible economic situation, the worst in the socalled great recession. We got hundreds of thousands of people unemployed. Some states are going to take 30 reduction in budget which is devastating. We are probably going to be looking at up to 15 reductions in agencies across State Government which means furloughs and layoffs and some essential services and departments which will be drastically curtailed or eliminated. Go ahead, finish your thought. I know that mcconnell said at one point to let the states go bankrupt. And i just dont think that is a smart move. Again, the states are the ones that are trying to be on the front lines taking care of all these folks that need help in putting more people on the unemployment line and having no one there to help the rest of them seems to me a rather disastrous outcome. Not good for the country, not good for the states, and politically, it seems to be a disastrous move as well. Host when we come out of this pandemic, which you consider raising taxes . Guest after we come out of this pandemic, which i dont know when we are coming out of this pandemic, were just going to happen to europe where we are as a country, as a state. We are in uncharted territory, this is the worst Global Pandemic that weve dealt with in my lifetime and also the worst economic crisis we ever dealt with. We are taking it one day at a time, have no idea what the u2 looks like. Greensboro, north carolina, republican. Caller why is it better for the United States federal government to go into debt to pay for these services than the states to borrow to cover the services . Welcome of the federal government is the only one that prints money, for one thing. The states are out here picking up the slack for the things that the federal government didnt step up to do. Theres only so much money to go around, but the states are doing quite a bit and spending into our budgets and expending all the money in a Rainy Day Fund and whatever money we have available. State and local governments are going to step up with some of these programs the response ability of the federal government. Host pennsylvania, democratic caller. I wanted to ask a question. Bad ands virus being so all these democratic mayors and governors allowing all this stuff to go one, all these perpetrators, and they are all together day after day, night after night, spreading this virus everywhere, and when the president , god bless them, once to bring help in, they refuse. You know, i dont see what is going to happen in this country between this virus going everywhere and all this stuff that is going on in these states, the burning the buildings down, putting people out of business. Host governor, what is your take on the protests across the country and coronavirus . Guest well, i could hear the we havein her voice, triple things going on in the country which makes it so unprecedented. We got the virus that we got the virus that were dealing with, trying to save lives. We got the worst economic crisis, and then we got, in some cases, very peaceful protests were people are expressing their frustrations over the tragic murder of george floyd and we in some violent breaking out certain cities where there is destruction and burning and looting. All of this is happening at the same time, which is unprecedented in america. I talk about all of the things in my book, talking about riots and the Global Pandemic right after i became governor in 2015. I had only been governor for 89 days. The worst violence in 47 years broke out in our largest in baltimore. In this he was overwhelmed. Burnede buildings were and destroyed, 127 police and firefighters were injured. The city was completely overwhelmed and unable to handle the situation. And i immediately declared as governor a state of emergency. In 1000 additional Police Officers from around the state and the region from others aids, and 4000 members of the national guard. And we allow peaceful protests to continue for a solid week unless people expressed and let people expressed their frustrations, but we stopped all the violence and the burning and looting almost immediately. And i think responding to separating out the peaceful protesting from violence and destruction is something that we need to figure out a way to do. We did it very effectively in 2015, many of the mayors and governors have not done it that way. I dont think the federal government should have to come into the cities, and i dont think they should come into bank aggressively to further inflame the situation. I also think that the mayors and governors have not done their continuing, and im not talking about these will protests, but some of these violent destructions have been going on for more than two months. And allowing that to continue his completely unacceptable. We just cant have lawlessness in major cities across america. Host the governors book out today. Governor, how did you have time to write a book . Guest i finished most of it last year. I turned it on february 1, i was supposed to come out in june and the question the pause button. 28y were on hold until july and i added a little bit at the end of the coronavirus. Long before all this happened. Host governor, why write a book now . I wrote earlier than all of this, but i had been meaning to do it for a long time and i finally got the opportunity. Unfortunately came out in the middle of all this, but this was the only time the publisher would bring it out. I think people will enjoy it. Host it is about what . Guest it is about surviving cancer, riots, the Global Pandemic, and the divisive politics divide america. Host we appreciate your time this morning. Thank you for talking to our viewers, come back again, please. Guest thank you. Host the houses gaveling in early this morning for morning hours. We will take you now to the floor