Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 08112020 20240712

Research discusses the role of Unemployment Insurance. The d. C. Doc reviews court of appeals as it read good morning. With less than three months to go until election day 2020 and with an unprecedented number of americans expected to vote by mail amid the coronavirus pandemic, the u. S. Postal service has emerged as a flashpoint. Questionedrump has the Postal Service possibility to ensure the security of mailin ballots while democrats in congress have raised concerns about leadership changes at usps and called for major funding increases. This morning we are asking you about your level of trust in the Postal Service when it comes to elections. The phone lines are sprayed up regionally. In the eastern or central time zones. 202 7488001 in the mountain or pacific time zones. A special line for current and formal poster former postal workers, 202 7488002. You can also send us a text at 202 7488003. Please include your name and where you are from. Catch up with us on social media. A very good Tuesday Morning to you. You can start calling and now as we show you this headline from abc news over the weekend. The Postal Service emerges as a flashpoint heading into the election cycle. The story notes that the success of the 2020 president ial election could hinge on the most unlikely government agency, the u. S. Postal service and current signs are not promising. The Postal Service already was facing questions over how it would handle the expected spike in mailin ballots due to the coronavirus pandemic, but several changes imposed by the new leader, a former supply chain ceo and major republican donor, have left mail backlogged across the u. S. As rumors of additional cutbacks swirl, fueling worries about the november vote. President trump has spoken about the Postal Service often from the white house. He did so again yesterday during his afternoon news briefing. Pres. Trump we dont want to have a rigged election. Whenave to be very careful you mention russia or you mention china or iran or those that attack our election systems. When you have this mailin very susceptible to something that can be easily countriesy foreign and by republicans and i think that is something you have to think about seriously. Our system is not equipped for it. The post office is not equipped for it. People should vote like they did in world war i and world war ii and your numbers will be in 90 days or less, your numbers will be very good i think, much better on the coronavirus or the china virus but its something you have to look at and say this is just crazy. This just came out. Incorrect ballot application sent out to many people. This is what we are going to get into. Its going to be a disaster. President trump from the white house. Some definitions before we move much further into this segment. Absentee voting is a ballot a voter can request. When we talk about mailin voting, that is a ballot that is automatically sent to all voters without request. This map from the Washington Post shows the latest when it comes to people who can vote by mail in various ways when it comes to an automatic mail out ballot, universal mailin voting, some 46 million americans in those states shaded in darkest blue on this map, mostly in the west, are automatically mailed a ballot. Some 44 million other americans are automatically mailed an application to vote by mail. 89 million voters can vote by mail and can request an absentee ballot without having to state a reason. In the 55 million voters orange states on the map need an excuse beyond covid19 fears to be able to vote absentee. That map from the Washington Post. ,e showed you President Trump democratic leader Chuck Schumer was on morning joe talking about the president concerns about usps and mailin ballots. He gets these bugs in his head that have nothing to do with reality and no one will tell him the truth. He is trying to hurt the post office and destroy it. Now we have a covid crisis and like everywhere else, some postal workers have covid. Instead of beefing up the number of people at the post office, the new postmaster general, who has no experience and is a big contributor to trump i called him because i wanted to talk to him about what he was doing. He would not call me back. Losey said we are not going to pelosi and i said we are not going to negotiate in less we meet with him and the meeting was a disgrace. He is insofar over his head. , to cutack on overtime back on the number of employees during the covid crisis. What about people who need medicine . What about necessities that are sent through the mail because people will not go out and shop in stores . There should have been an increase. Trump and histing henchmen at the head of the post office is to screw up the system so they can claim that the elections were not done properly. If the mail is late it doesnt work. What can we do . We are insisting in this covid heroes bill, that first the Postal Service gets the money it needs so it can hire people. Over three billion years, 10 billion in the first year. That is what experts tell us they need. If they dont rescind this language, we made a strong pitch to rescind the rules that limit over time that dont allow them to hire people, we insist they put it in the bill and that is one of our top priorities. I told them we are not giving in on this, this is so vital. Host Chuck Schumer yesterday on morning joe. He talked about the u. S. Postmaster general, lewis to joy dejoy. He is 63 and from North Carolina , appointed by a trump appointed board of governors and started at that job in june. He is the first postmaster general in nearly two decades who is not a postal employee. He is a major republican donor. He said repeatedly the Postal Service is in a financially untenable position and he claims he need to reign in expenses. They reported 2. 2 billion in losses. Postal leaders want a 10 billion dollar infusion from congress as well as regulatory changes that would end a costly requirement that they fund an advance Retiree Health benefits. Asking for your confidence in usps, do you trust the postal system when it comes to this election cycle . We have a special line for current and former postal employees, 202 7488002. Otherwise, phone lines split up regionally. We start in portland, oregon with carl. Caller good morning. Right away what comes to mind is , are the postal workers even federal employees . I have asked our post man and he said he wasnt. Maybe that should be something that we should be concerned about. Thats all i have. A federal agency, a different retirement plan, we can get more into that. We have had several segments on this program about the makeup of the Postal Service. Do you trust the Postal Service . Do you trust them this election cycle when the Postal Service is set to be used more than it ever has been before when it comes to ballots . Caller as far as my experience, of course. I am from oregon and we have had a mailin ballots for a while since i have been here. Host never had an issue . Caller um. I have had issues but i have overcome them. I have had more issues voting in person. I had a problem using the computer when i voted in california, whatever that machine is down there. For what is the process, those who have never done the universal mailin ballot, can you walk through how you do it, do you need to sign it yourself . Get a regularst questionnaire type of ballot or handwritten form. Read if you easy to are an average reader. A pamphletalso have that describes the ballot details on who would be a candidate and what propositions were. Host thank you for the call from oregon. Colorado another state with universal mailin voting. Keith is in denver, do you trust usps . Caller good morning. Yes i do. I think most of your callers will. I have a very gentle critique. Question is wrongly framed. A trumpamed from administration perspective. Most americans love our postal , andrs, our mail carriers we can look at we dont have to be sherlock holmes. He picked someone with no experience at Postal Service who is a large donor for trump. He fired or reassigned all of the leadership of the u. S. Post office, and the post office loses money because of increased competition from fedex and ups. We know that. We still love our post office. We dont love the administration. I think a more valid question would be do you have the officese in the post ability to handle the election in a pandemic . This is colorado. We have had universal mailin voting like the guy from oregon. Now he is saying not to vote by inl in other states, but republican states its all good. Center,e pew research they do yearly surveys of how americans feel about various agencies of the federal government. Every year at the top of the service,u. S. Postal 91 of respondents to their questionnaire this year said they had a favorable opinion of usps compared to 8 with an unfavorable opinion. That compares to other agencies like the department of justice, 60 favorable, ice at the bottom of the list with 45 unfavorable. I guess you are not surprised by that usps number . Caller right. Thats what i am saying, the question is framed from a trump perspective. We love our post office. We have one of the best post office is in the world. We sometimes have trouble checks, but we always get our bills within two days dont wait . Dont we . We can do elections. We have to fund it during a pandemic, increased demand. If they need 10 billion which democrats have given them to handle a pandemic and increased demand, that is a mark to Reality Market reality. It so backwards. If we consider how questions are framed and asked so they are neutral. Host we do a lot of that when we ask that question these questions. John from North Carolina, you are next. Caller good morning. I have more of a question. Cuts tohink that the the post office are telling of future cuts to other federal programs like the International Affairs budget or programs like that that fight against covid . Host do you think thats what they are . Caller i personally think that it is telling that this is not the first major cut to a federal been doing ahas good job and is only now starting to show itself again as threatened by this administration. Host what about the changes in leadership . Similar tois sort of what has been happening throughout this current presidency. People who are unqualified are getting positions of power and are basically serving as gophers. Newspaper,the hill the postmaster general announcing an overhaul of usps, removing the top two officials in charge of daytoday operations as democrats in washington call for an investigation into changes that slow mail delivery. Showsorganizational chart 23 postal executives were reassigned or displaced and five staffers joined though agencys leadership from other positions. Willorganizational change capture Operational Efficiency by providing clarity and economies of scale that will allow us to reduce our cost base and capture new revenue. Revenue. To complete our mission to serve the American People and through the universal Service Obligation bind our nation together by maintaining and operating our unique, vital infrastructure. That story from the hill newspaper. Bill is in chicago, illinois on the line for former postal workers, current or former. Do you still work in the Postal Service . Caller no. In 89. I worked there for 19. 5 years altogether. Timesas three different because i also left twice when i was a youth. Host what do you think about the Postal Service, your confidence in the Postal Service handling this . They are an excellent agency. They hire the post office is financially independent, but there are so many trying to break it and take it. They want to privatize the post office because its a big ticket item, and we should never let that happen because the service will immediately go away. [indiscernible] i think we all know that. Office to put enough money in the pension fund for people who have not even been born yet because they want to break it and take it. Its ridiculous. We have to save the post office. Host thats bill in chicago with the on the line for current or former postal workers. That line is 202 7488002. Phone lines split up regionally. 202 7488000 in the eastern or central time zones. 202 7488001 in the mountain or pacific time zone. Keep calling in. We showed you President Trump at the white house at the briefing yesterday. A scary moment at the briefing occurring just after the clip we showed you. The headline on the front page of the Washington Times President Trump whisked away after shots fired. A shooting near the white house prompted secret Service Agents to take the rare action of taking the president out of the press conference moments after the briefing had started. We will show you that moment where the president was whisked away. Fauci pres. Trump excuse me . [indiscernible] standby. You saw some of the reaction there in the press Briefing Room after the president was taken out of the briefing. The secret service releasing a statement about what exactly happened and what caused the president to be taken out of the briefing. Aty said that approximately 5 50 iiia male approached a secret Service Officer standing at his post on the corner of 17th street and pennsylvania Avenue Northwest near the white house. The suspect approached the officer and told the officer he had a weapon. The suspect ran aggressively towards the officer and in a drawing motion withdrew an object and crouched into a fire as stance as if to weapon. The secret Service Officer fired his weapon striking the suspect in the torso. Suspect and officer were transported to local hospitals, that is the statement from u. S. Secret service. There are a lot of cameras around the white house and one of those cameras on the north side of the white house caught the sound of the gunshots that took place yesterday. We will show you about 20 seconds of that clip so you can hear it and see reaction of secret Service Officers in the background. [gunshot] [indiscernible] host that view from the stakeout position as it is called on the north side of the white house catching the shots being fired. President trump was out of the Briefing Room for about 10 minutes. Reporters tweeting about this and going to the networks to figure out what was going on. The president came back into finishes briefing and address to the shooting that took place around the white house complex. These are his remarks after he came in the Briefing Room. Pres. Trump there was a shooting outside of the white house, it seems to be well under control. I would like to thank the secret service for doing their always. Uick and very Effective Work there was an actual shooting. To they has been taken hospital, i dont know the condition of the person. It seems the person was shot by secret service. We will see what happens. Do you have something . Can you tell us about the shooting . Pres. Trump there are no details. It was outside of the white house in this area over here. They will have details in a little while. Somebody was taken to the hospital. It seems the shooting was done by Law Enforcement at the suspect, it was the suspect who was shot and this just took place, a couple people outside. I noticed john roberts who we know very well. He reported that he heard shots. He heard two shots. [indiscernible] we dont know yet. They are going to find out. Do you know if the individual said anything . Pres. Trump we dont know. Where were you taken . Pres. Trump i was taken to the oval office. Just told me when he came up, you saw it like i did, he said, sir, can you come with me. Verypretty unusual but professional people, they are doing a fantastic job. Host the president yesterday during those scary moments at the White House Briefing, that incident around the white house complex. One followup from todays Washington Times about the sufferedthe suspect serious or possibly critical injuries. The Associated Press said authorities are investigating whether the person had a history of mental illness. Back to your phone calls on this question that we began our program with. The question about the u. S. Postal service asking about the level of trust in the Postal Service this election cycle is one of the topics President Trump was talking about at the White House Briefing before that incident we just showed you. The phone lines are split up regionally with a special line for current or former postal workers, 202 7488002 is that special line. Jenna is out of hawaii this morning. Thanks for getting up for us. And thank you for having the question today. It has been a very serious concern for me. Missing out ofn my mail and my sister had sent a birthday present and i went to research if there are any problems with the Postal Service datedfound an article june 25, 2019, and it talks about 1000 pieces of mail stolen by u. S. Postal Service Workers in hawaii were found recently and are being sent back in the next couple of days. Priorityrstclass mail, newspapers, and magazines. The male dates back to 13 to 15 years ago. All of the male was in sealed envelopes and packages. In Storage Units there were 11,000 return receipt postcards used to tell residents there is a separate mail piece coming. They were turned over to officials by the family of a former postal worker. Host all of this making you not trustful of the Postal Service . Caller that and other incidents. First of all i am very concerned with having a signature with my physical address. We have po boxes up here. That was a concern. Who having mail from people are deceased being sent to me. There is a big disconnect. Peopleare that a lot of researcher inime at least seven languages. Also being victimized firsthand, you have seen firsthand how things are handled or not handled. I dont feel there is a good enough investigation and the gentleman that is called from colorado, i know there are a lot of drug deals that go through the mail. That was another concerned, people are really happy with the Postal Service in some regards because Something Else may be going on. Knowing that there are pieces of mail that go missing on a regular basis when it comes to something this serious about an election is a very big concern. Host thank you for the call from hawaii. When it comes to some of your concerns, a columnist at the Washington Times sharing some similar concerns noting in his column today which has the headline why trump is right about mailin ballots. Trump is right at the potential for fraud is a norm is. While absentee ballots are safer the New York Daily News reported systematic failures at the state board of elections and u. S. Postal service resulted in nearly one in 10 of 84 thousand of the nearly 319,000 ballots cast. Many democrats claim the fear over mailin ballots is misplaced. He ends his column by saying mailin ballot and should be limited and thoroughly checked. Voters can practice all the things medical experts tell us to do and still vote in person. It is a civic duty and a privilege and it will help reduce errors and fraud and credibility of those results. Marcia is on the line for former and current postal workers out of williamsburg, virginia. Caller good morning, thank you for the call. I have never called in, but former postal worker, 31 years in california. Let me start by saying every job anyone has probably has a percentage of employees that are slackers or are not qualified, and i think everybody can vouch for the fact that they have had a bad postal experience. Having worked there for 31 years amongst a group in a small town most people that go are unqualified, they are not Human Behavior type of people, they dont work with employees. The employeeshands are tied because they are not given the proper equipment to work with. The routes are completely overburdened. This is i believe intentional because they dont want to hire more people so they overburden and try to get the more of a good worker you are the more they put on you. If you are a poor employee you are probably not going to be given the responsibility. The majority of the people that work there are good, hardworking people. A service for all and most people go the extra mile to try to get to know their it isers and i think obvious, today, in this climate, that over the years there is one side of government that has been trying to privatize and sabotage the government and it has never been as obvious as today. The propaganda being spread by the president is unfounded. He usess words buzzwords to formulate a point and make an assertion based on a few words. He has no idea how the Postal Service is run. To put somebody in a top completelyat is so unaware, unqualified, undoperative, trying to the service, if it is not obvious that this is going on particularly around the election i dont know what is. Over 200re are well million eligible voters in this country, do you think usps could handle on all mailin voting alexion . Election . Of the weeky day the Postal Service delivers a full coverage of something. Mail gets processed by a machine. The mail that you get delivered to your house isnt even hand sorted anymore by employees. It is machine sorted to your particular address. The mail comes ready to deliver in a tray and you basically just deliver it out of the tray and the machine does the work. Think you are underestimating the capabilities of this service. They are a national service, they have been doing fine, everyone has their own horror stories. Surprise to me that this government is trying to undermine the capabilities of by thee service can do remarks that have been made. Host thank you for the call from williamsburg, virginia. A few comments from viewers on social media, from twitter and our text service. Dave on twitter relies on usps for his small business. He lives in Rural America and his Online Business would be impossible without them. Ups and fedex charge more for smaller packaging and less reliability. Miguel from brooklyn says the post office has always been reliable but trump has not. Daniel in springfield, i trust the post office if they are given the funding they need. They are able to handle the christmas load, that is many more pieces of mail than mailin voting. Gregory from sherman oaks, california, if republicans are so determined to oppose mailin voting they should support the American Election weekend, a spread out weekend affair that families and neighbors can attend together as a civic holiday. If we had already achieved it in 2020 it would enable considerable social distancing. A few comments from our viewers, we want to hear from you on social media and the phones as well. Anthony from buie, maryland. Caller good morning. I have listened to many people, thank you for taking my call. I am a regular listener. Let me tell you this. She told me, if i know anybody the ongoing frustration the post office during this election [indiscernible] have the vote on that day otherwise they are going to they are going to cancel the election for fraud. Democratsrea of the host that is anthony from maryland. Connie is next out of chicago, illinois. Caller good morning, thank you for taking my call. Have absolute trust and faith in our postal system. Office forhe post delivery of my medicines and i have never had a problem getting my medicine. Delivered by very capable carriers. There is no problem in that regard. The problem that i have is with donald trump. His consistent and incessant never believeuld or rely on anything he says. Fights and inserts a neo with no professional postal capabilities into our postal system. Like the lady from virginia said, to try to undermine our reliance on the post office. Bold and brash a attempt to engage voter suppression. This is what he is trying to do. I have already filled out an mail, iion for vote by learned that our postal workers here in chicago will make our mailin ballots they will be given top priority, oft there will be no chance any undermining of the mailin ballots here in chicago. That is all i have to say. Glowingly ofke your mail carrier, do you know their name . Do you chat with your postal worker . Caller oh, definitely. The lady that delivers our mail concerned, she makes sure that i get all of my mail and she rings our doorbell. She lets me know if there is any changes. The relationship if i had to go to the local office, the managers and supervisors there are always there to listen to my concerns and address them in a proper manner. Host your letter carrier, does she have concerns about doing her job amid coronavirus . Caller she did mention a couple who tested positive, but they recovered. There was no widespread infections. She did state that. Enjoy the relationship that we had with her. Host thank you for the call from chicago. On postal employees and coronavirus, some numbers from a recent government executive. These numbers from mid july. Some 39,000 federal personnel of mid july, as contracted covid19. The 19,000 civil employees, number specifically of the Postal Service and this is a month ago. Nearly 5004 hundred usps employees have tested positive for covid19 among its worst for workforce of 640,000. After struggling to provide personal protective equipment, the Postal Service as it has redoubled its efforts and all essential products and supplies are available. That story from government executives looking at the status of federal employees and covid19. Linda from staten island. Caller thank you for allowing me to speak this morning. Comment, make a because i trust that the u. S. Postal service will deliver ma l mailin ballots. In my congressional hometown, every postal store i have ever visited over several years was only processing passports from foreigners. Athink its a shame and disgrace that my husband and always under missiles and our Congressional District has been flooded with foreigners and if you were to really ask whose name is on the post office box, it will not necessarily be the person who lives in the apartment. Everything is so discombobulated. I think the system that is already in place i would not necessarily blame the United States Postal Service for doing their job and mailing out the ballots. Thank you very much. Host linda, thank you. Hannah from san marcus, california you are next. Caller good morning. I dont know what the problem is with donald trump, but everyone in the u. S. Knows the Postal Service has been in the red for decades. I understand im not going to criticize whoever is in charge. This in the last week or two because i was concerned about making sure my vote counted. I vote absentee this year for the first time. There is a difference between absentee ballots and mailin ballots. You request an absentee ballot, you provide them with identification in terms there is a procedure that is stringent. Not in these mailin ballots where, for example, my state and the governor is sending out millions of ballots. The election offices or department has called out the names of dead people, and people who have moved between states. 22 articlesat least over the last couple of years talking about how failures in terms of ballots being counted, absentee ballots as well as mailin ballots. The 2016 2018 election there were 60 million ballots that did not get counted. There is reason to be concerned about this. Isnt because everybody the reason to be concerned is that when you decide three months before a National Election that you are going to put this kind of incredible burden on a postal system that we love that may not be up in180 million ballots coming with postmarked that have to be done in the case of many states by the voting date, when you have ballots being turned in a week after the election that somehow got lost even though poll watchers were calling in to make sure there were no lost ballots at the post office, this burden on onemous of our most trusted institutions, our electoral process. With is no reason why proper masks and social distancing, and perhaps longer Opening Times or more polling places, that a lot of that burden could not be relieved t the talking about financial state of the Postal Service. This is from the Pew Research Center showing a chart of usps losses over the past several decades. The u. S. Postal service has not recorded a net profit since 2006. The Postal Service has seen a cumulative loss since 2006 83. 1 billion dollars. The Postal Service owes 11 billion to the treasury and more than 59 billion in required but unpaid contributions to employee pensions and Retiree Health funds. With a Research Center lot of different charts studying the Postal Service quite a bit. Pewresearch. Org. Mary ellen from sarasota, florida. Caller good morning. I do trust the Postal Service, but i do think that congress has destroyed the Postal Service. They have never permitted them to revamp and modernize. All of these Online Businesses have been raping the Postal Service since we have been in the midst of this covid crisis. They dont charge enough for the services they provide. That is congresss fault. The Postal Service has been used to make amazon and all of these ther companies rich, while Postal Service drops further in debt. I vote in person but i live in florida. For many years we have had a well regulated, safe, absentee ballot vote by mail system. It really does work. States are what the planning to do. They want to mail out blindly millions of applications for people to mail in votes, or blindly mail out ballots to addresses is where people may thatdied, have moved, and is ripe for fraud. It is not the Postal Services fault. They are already overwhelmed with all of these online packages during this crisis. And lest someone makes an application to vote by mail and by theetted in advance supervisor of elections there will be massive fraud. Host mary ellen in florida. We showed you Chuck Schumer s remarks. Other democrats weighing in when it comes to the president s comments about usps and the election in 2020. This is senator ed markey of massachusetts. Are raising the alarm that ballots and our democracy are at risk with the changes at the Postal Service. The postmaster general must answer immediately. Andannot allow donald trump his loyalists to hijack the usps for political gain. From amy klobuchar, saying changes at the u. S. Postal service have led to pileups and delays of mail. The American People relying on the Postal Service not only to cast ballots but for medications and paychecks. Postals must support the service in its next relief back end. Saying,from joe biden we cant let donald trump destroy the u. S. Postal service. Taking your calls for another 15 minutes on this Tuesday Morning, asking about your level of trust in the Postal Service this election cycle. Phonees in line split up regionally. Eastern and central 202 7488000. 202 7488001 if you are in the mountain then pacific time zones. For former and current postal workers 202 7488002. Today is another primary day in several states and we will have a wrapup of the tuesday primary saying they can help define democrats and republicans ideological extremes in the house with progression of freshman congressman kyl on ill hunt omar a q supporter who has shown videos espousing bigoted ideas in a close run offer an open seat in the deep red 14th district of georgia. Connecticut, vermont, and wisconsin. A number of races in the lower tier of the house battlegrounds, that story from stephanie. A little more from that story, specifically on the minnesota race. Omarnda omar ill hunt she faces a wellfunded primary challenger, an attorney who has more than 2 million cash on hand. Cash on hand was 1. 1 million. In the deep blue district of the minnesota Fifth District that includes minneapolis. The primary effectively decides the general election. Those are races to watch today and we will talk about them tomorrow on the washington journal. This is doris out of indianapolis. Good morning. Are you a current or former postal employee . Doris, are you with us . Dont think we have doris. We will go to tom in fort lauderdale, florida. Good morning. Caller good morning. Earst really believe my on this program today. Does anybody listen to you when you talk about all the problems of underfunding and mismanagement in the Postal Service . And the former employees are saying we cant quite do our job right but its not our fault . Its not your fault. The question is worded wrong. Think theread do you Postal Service is capable of handling a major election in the United States and have it look legitimate to the people who voted . Host hard to get all that on the screen. Caller everybody trusts the postal system. You are asking the wrong damn question. Ask the right question. A mailin ballot is not a secret ballot. This election should be ballotned by a secret that has the appearance of being a proper ballot, i cannot believe how ridiculous the whole idea this is a threat to our democracy. You mean to tell me that we have so many signature experts that are so good about validating canatures that we have faith in the election . Do you remember hanging chads . The signature verification process will make hanging chads look like they are so accurate you cant believe it. This is so responsible. If you would give me a second. If you give me one second. I wonder what you would say to the oregon caller and colorado color from earlier who say they n andmale in mail i have done it for several election cycles and have no problem with it. Caller my answer to that and to the lady in florida she said we used it in florida and it was ok. Someone had to resign because of the problems with mailin ballots in the governors election. , it probablypeople does not matter what happens with their election. This is a serious threat to our democracy that is irresponsible for people to think that a male in election will be accepted by the American People. That is tom out of fort lauderdale, florida. This is the president s executive director of the Lawyers Committee for civil rights under law. She has been a guest on various topics over the years. On the opinionn page of usa today. Attack on post office is election sabotage, a toxic mix of column about her the history of voting by mail, saying Civil War Battlefields where the first test of americas vote by mail system, 150,000 Union Soldiers voted by mail and helped propel Abraham Lincoln to a victory. Relied onabroad have vote by mail to participate in our democracy. In recent decades states began to see the advantages of but by mail and more americans have used it including highranking Trump Administration officials and President Trump himself. Ae Postal Service has been thread connecting American Communities since our fragile early days and we rely on it through wars, natural disasters, and pandemics. The election could be the Postal Services most critical moment. That politics will not stop it from a swift completion of its employment from edgewood, maryland on the line for current or former postal employees. Go ahead. Caller good morning. Service for the postal for about 10 years in various jobs. I carried mail, i processed mail, and i also went out and did i also worked in Statistical Programming where we track to the mail as far as delivery date and Different Things like that. This postal system cant be trusted i wholeheartedly disagree. Our carrier we get to know the people on our route and we saw mail piling up and we would go to check to make sure they were ok. They were doing a lot more than just delivering mail. They are probably the people that most people see every day. It is important and as a veteran coming back from korea and not being able to find a job the Postal Service was the most veteran Friendly Organization and that got my start. I appreciate the time i spent there and i hope people will support the Postal Service and stop denigrating it. Host call from edgewood, maryland. Back to indianapolis, this is doris on that same line for current or former postal employees. Caller former employee, thank you for taking my call. From 1973 until 2004. I did not get a chance to meet the people that were receiving know but i got a chance to everyone that worked there. I dont see a reason why they would not trust to the post office. With ietely agree believe her name was marsha from virginia. I believe with most of the positive calls this morning. Toce i dont have very much say it seems like everyone has already said what i wanted to say. I have a question for you. Yes maam. Why does steve get twice or three times the calls you get and pedro gets . I can tell you why. Calls and answers the lets us say what we need to say and goes on to the next caller. Youve you guys, but could stop talking to us so much and let some of us call . [laughter] host yes maam, thank you. I do know how many calls we get at the end of every show, we keep track of that and the hosts often talk about how many calls each one of us has gotten at the end of every show. Thank you for that. A few more comments from our social media and from our tech service. This is out of clayton, new mexico, i was a usps letter carrier and i do not trust the Postal Service as a means to vote. It is too easy to chuck my ballot into the trash, put on your mask and go vote at your traditional polling place. This is from washington, my mailbox is at the usps in my town and i depend on it to get my mail and received packages there as well. Trusting the u. S. Postal service completely and the post office is the most Important Department of our government, more important than the military. Ronnie from georgia, good morning, you are next. Caller thank you for taking my call. I have to agree with the article you read earlier about how the Postal Service went through wars and delivered soldiers there mail through world war ii, korea, or vietnam. Today it is still going on. That have a flawed process 45 at the veterans that most of those who work in the postal system, i am a retired veteran. Coming to me mail overseas from family and the system worked. The only people who dont want to see the system work are people that are in the 45 corner and will say it will not work. System, i supported 100 , it does what it needs to do. There are some glitches but they can be ironed out and do what they need to do to help this country go forward. Toh 45 in their he is going take a dictatorship from where we are now. Host thank you for the call, just a couple minutes left in this first segment of the washington journal. Short program today. We are planning at least two and the program at 9 30 as opposed to 10 00 a. M. The reason is we are expecting to send you over to live coverage of the d. C. Circuit court of, the full court today expected to read here re hear whether a district judge should dismiss perjury charges against former Trump National security adviser Michael Flynn. That is expected to happen at 9 30 this morning. We plan to send you there when that happens. We do hope you stay with us for the next hour and a half before we do that. Time for a few more calls on this question. This is mary out of cave creek, arizona. You are next. Caller my name is mary and i am calling to say that i absolutely have trusted the post office in every sense. This season i am afraid that my mailin ballot will be considered a legitimate. I have been given advice by the post office to have my ballot witnessed, have a witness sign that i am the person i claim to be and consequently i have been given some ease of for conscience by the post office itself. Thank you. Host who did you talk to to get that advice . That is mary out of arizona. More of your few phone calls this morning as we talked about your trust in the Postal Service this election cycle. This is mike out of harrisburg, pennsylvania. Caller hello. I trust the post office, i dont trust trump. He put somebody in charge of the epa that does not believe in the epa, he put someone in charge of Public Education that does not believe in Public Education. Now he puts this guy in charge of the post office where everything he has done in the middle of an epidemic is to slow down the Postal Service service. People dont want to go out and oh, i am 71. I like to have the ability to vote by mail if i can. Had to look into fraud in the United States was disbanded because they could not find any fraud in the voting system. Nobody seems to remember that. We need the post office. We need the epa. We need Public Education and i trust them completely. Thank you. Host mike in harrisburg, pennsylvania. Dave, you neighbors, are next. Guest good morning. Mi on . Am i on . Venture taking my call. I was a carrier for a while in the post office. I also served in the air force. I trust him wholeheartedly. Them wholeheartedly. The post office is a free service. Unlike any other service on the planet, we have to go to every address. That is 100 coverage. That is the reason why amazon sendhe other Services Packages to the post office is because they wont go to those places. We didlready said if mailin ballots, the republicans would never win the white house again. There is your motivation for why you would put a guy as the head arehe post office who against that particular service. That service that is there primarily to serve the American People. Without political bias. For thiss up voting by socalled putting it out into the atmosphere. I am also a poll worker. Those ballots will come into my polling place. We will open them up at after at the end of election day. We will make sure those people are in the book for being registered. Then we will check those signatures against the book. We will make sure they have not already voted. Then we will scan the ballot into the machine which will count it. Trail, andus a paper then we scan it into the machine for the count tally. Is it gives does people a chance we talk about americans this is what we talk about around the kitchen table. Voting now can be talked about around the kitchen table. We will have the ballot. People we arese about to vote for. That will make every election a more informed election. We can spend time researching these candidates, marking our little bubble at our leisure, and put it in one of the most secure systems on this planet, the postal system. Host one more call. Brian, Washington State. Go ahead. Caller good morning, washington journal. Thanks for taking my call. I have been voting by mail for over a decade here with numerous elections, including a race for state governor between dino rossi. Very close race. It received a recount but they found no fraud, no hanging chad, no problems. Everyone was satisfied with the results of the outcome. I would like to make a point my relatives in idaho just had a mailin voting due to the virus for the first time in the state of idaho. One of the reddest states in america. Idahoans thate the fraud and bogus votes in the state of idaho claims, the numbers there i think were 0, 00. 0. No complaints. I just think this whole postal deal, which i love i live verbally. Rurally. Newspapersigcity delivered to my mailbox if i want to subscribe to them. I love my Postal Service. These people are part of the community. This shutting down and slowing the mail here is a weak attempt by the Republican Party to privatize government agencies, just like they are trying to break our Social Security and medicare agencies. Proof of that is 2017. Meeting with our senators. The senators telling us that 10,000 americans died in 2017 due to a lack of personnel in the agencies because those people were removed as soon as the Trump Administration went into the white house. They started getting rid of people that did not vote r instead of d. We started collapsing our infrastructure right at the getgo. The following year in 2018, i did not hear back from the Social Security office. We lost another 10,000 americans due to financial cutbacks. Unlike the personnel cutbacks the year before. We have got to call these people out for this riffraff false claims and use the state of idaho as an example. The virus,learn from what we have been having been forced to do. With regards to the virus, a little note. A tool for your toolbox for the virus. Paper receipts if you have to tracer contacts. Trace your contacts. Cashier identification numbers, the time you are at the place doing business, whether they are positive for you get positive. You can use paper receipts to trace contacts. Of thisr last caller segment of the washington journal. Up next, we are joined by Christopher Oleary, senior economist at the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research to discuss state and federal Unemployment Insurance. Later, jeff moore. Jeff mordock previews the rehearing of Michael Flynn in court today. Bench watch book tv this summer. Saturday evenings, watched several hours of your favorite authors. Morrison,turing toni whose books include songs of solomon. Watch the saturday, august 22. We feature programs with robert caro. Binge watch book tv all summer on cspan2. The perjury case against President Trumps former National Security advisor Michael Flynn will be reheard by the full u. S. Court of appeals for the d. C. Circuit judge. A panel of 10 judges will decide if a district or judge must dismiss the charges against Michael Flynn as recommended by the Justice Department. Hear the case at 9 30 a. M. Eastern on cspan and at cspan. Org, four listen live at the free cspan radio app. Cspan has covered every minute of every Political Convention since 1984. We are not stopping now. This months Political Conventions will be like none other. With the coronavirus pandemic still looming, plans for gatherings are being altered. The democrats will meet to nominate joe biden as their president ial candidate on monday. President trump will accept his partys nomination the next week. Watching cspan at 9 00 p. M. Eastern for live coverage of the Democratic Convention starting on monday, and the republican monday starting next monday, august 24. Live streaming and ondemand at cspan. Org, or listen with the free cspan radio app. Cspan, your unfiltered view of politics. Washington journal continues. Host Christopher Oleary joins us now via zoo for zoom. Senior economist at the nonprofit Upjohn Institute for Employment Research in kalamazoo, michigan. Christopher oleary, lets work away backwards. Can you explain what President Trumps executive action when it came to unappointed insurance he signed this weekend, what it did in how it compares to what was offered under the cares act . Guest good morning, john. Thank you for having me on. Pleasure to be on washington journal. Certainly i can address the executive order. I read it. Theink i understand objective. Up and talke back about this whole idea of supplementing unemployment. It is interesting. There have been eight recessions since the eisenhower administration. Every one the federal government has extended the duration of regular state on employment insurance benefits. There was a modest additional compensation added during the Great Recession in 2009. 25 added. Check. D to every benefit it went largely unnoticed. Recognized the existing unappointed insurance system is inadequate in many ways. In particular in terms of income replacement. , think the executive order lets hope it was an effort to bridge the impasse. 600 lumpsumhe made a lot of sense in many ways. Reasons andlot of very little negative affect found in research from it. A lot of positive effects in terms of social distancing and income security. The executive order, i dont know it has standing. I think the house in the ways and means committee, representative neal has the purse strings. Athink they will be involved some point before this thing gets resolved. The president proposed something modeled on the disaster unappointed insurance program, an emergency program. Bill, the cares act inc. Something inc. Unemployment insurance. Disaster Unemployment Insurance requires emergency decorations. The current arrangement is similar. Waspresident s proposal 300, which was the last bargaining position out of the senate on this. Bes said 400 would sufficient. He is counting on in the executive orders to pony up the extra 100 per check. Benefits, laste week there were 17 million checks passed out. 100. That is 1. 7 billion per week. The states are already facing difficulties paying the regular benefits. 19 states have applied for loans from the treasury. 11 have received advances from the treasury. Level of preparation going into this, the state reserves are being depleted. Remember, john, the worst ever week of Unemployment Insurance was aboutthe history one million a week. Day, after st. Patricks that week there were 6 Million People claiming benefits. That is a staggering difference. That persisted for a couple of weeks. Finally dropped to about 3 million. Now it is running about 1. 5 million, greater than the historic high ever. The system is paying out benefits. It is doing its function to a large extent. I read it carefully, the president s proposal. I was disappointed to see the president s supplement would not provide any benefits to people with weekly payments under 100. I asked myself why. The unappointed Insurance Programs serve many people. I have done a lot of work on the relationship between Unemployment Insurance and public assistance, food stamps. People who get a little bit of unappointed insurance really helps them avoid sliding into poverty. Who are lowwage workers or parttime workers and may qualify for a lowlevel benefit, and may qualify for a lowlevel benefit. Benefits can be as low as five dollars a week in some states. Many states it is 50 per week. Why would we exclude them . The supplement is giving people security. It is promoting social distancing and helping tamp down the virus. Me, to end o september on december 6. I hope i addressed some of that. Host we want to talk to some of those people you are referring to and invite those folks to call in. A special line if you are unemployed, 202 7488000. We want to work you into this conversation. Business owners, 202 7488001 is the number. All others, 202 7488002. Andep dive into federal state Unemployment Insurance this morning with Christopher Oleary of the Upjohn Institute for Employment Research. Can you briefly explain who you are and how long you have been around . Guest sure, thank you. This year is our 75th anniversary. Upjohn institute was established in 1945 right after the war. It was established based on an endowment. The founder of the upjohn drug up a month before he died. Dr. Upjohn grew up on a farm. Ofthat time it was a period transition from a farm economy to an industrial economy. , amployment insurances program for an industrial economy where people are separated from the land and the means of subsistence. He set up a farm outside of kalamazoo where people could set up a garden, maybe build a cottage, grow crops. They had some assets that were put into the endowment. Some people did use it as that. Some people got grants. Then the institute operated as a grantmaking foundation. It was finally created as an institute for research in 1945 to study on and ways of dealing with unemployment. That is about the Upjohn Institute. Host Christopher Oleary, senior economist. You have spent a lot of time studying unemployment. When it comes to today and what is happening now with the pandemic, how Many Americans are currently receiving some form of Unemployment Insurance, whether from the state or federal government . Guest last week, the report comes out every thursday morning told us that 31 Million People were continuing claimants on on appointment. 17 million were regular state beneficiaries, state programs. There were about 13 million on the special pandemic unemployment assistance, which is available for selfemployed, gig, and contract workers who dont qualify for regular state benefits. There are several categories. You might not meet the eligibility requirements if you are at home taking care of kids who are in school. You could qualify under pandemic on employment assistance. Unemployment assistance. There are about 13 Million People receiving that. 31 Million People is a staggering number. A fifth of the workforce. Host do we have a total of how much has been spent on Unemployment Insurance additionally because of the coronavirus pandemic . Has anybody totaled that of yet . Recessionng into this there were about 76 billion in reserves. That was enough under recent 1. 6rios to pay about billion a year. 18 months, 19 months of benefits. Given the rate of payout is about three times the worst ever, that reserve level is evaporating in about seven months. Almost every state will have to borrow. Right now there is zero interest being charged on loans to states, at least through december 31. I think any new legislation needs to address an extension of the interestfree period. Injected 100 hundreds of billions of dollars into the economy. A major reason why we have not slipped into a worst recession at this point. Host we would like to chat with a few callers. Plenty for you this morning. Christopher oleary with us until 9 00 a. M. Vegas on the line for those unemployed. Good morning. Caller good morning. Host you are on with Christopher Oleary. Caller i am unemployed right now. Now i dont know if this is a good idea but should they give mandatory stimulus checks to people who are billionaires and they should give nothing to people who are unemployed . Guest thank you for your question. What you are talking about is the payroll Protection Plan and the comparison between the payroll Protection Plan and the Unemployment Insurance. The payroll Protection Plan, i have heard numbers about that. 99,000 perabout person to maintain jobs under the payroll Protection Plan. Anybody with income over it will pay all employer expenses. The money can pay for rent, utilities, the cost of Health Insurance. If you think about the Unemployment Insurance i think the payroll Protection Plan was a way to insulate people from slipping into the unemployment programs. Everybody had to rely on the programss, more people would realize the need to improve the programs. If you think about the Unemployment Insurance program, even with the 600, given the average weekly benefit is about rehundred 75, you are talking 375, you are talking about 1000 a month income replacement on average, which is someone making 52,000 a year. Which is a workingclass person in America Today who has real expenses and real bills to pay and concerned about going out into the virus and wants to avoid transmission. Ingeniousenius to give people adequate security. I think if everybody was looking at the Unemployment Insurance system as their means of support during this crisis, instead of maybe Something Like the payroll Protection Plan which has been suggested some very wealthy people have benefited from, i think we would all have more interest in maintaining an adequate replacement throughout employment insurance. Thank you. Host alexander on the line for unemployed americans. Daytona beach, florida. Good morning. Caller i have one question. Do you have information about the state of florida or who i can contact . I was locked out three weeks ago and i have not received anything. I called every number i can. Emailed. D i they say i am locked out. When i talked to the agency handling system, they said you have to wait until they contact you. Yeah. Thank you, alexander. Excellent question. We have been studying systems for 70 years here at the Upjohn Institute. We looked at with the condition of the under flame insurance system was before the crisis. The Unemployment Insurance system was before the crisis. It varies between about 11 or 12 of all unemployed floridians getting unappointed insurance to about 52 of new jersey residents who are unemployment getting benefits unemployed getting benefits. There are other states clustered at the low end. Several states in the southeast have very low recipients he rates. Recipientcy that meant those states were particularly less prepared to handle an influx of claims. It is not surprising the system is slow. I think you should not give up. If you have numbers you can careeronestop. Org and they will help you. Please keep calling. Dont give up. If you bought something on the internet and you had a problem returning it, you know it is hard to get through those people. Sometimes you have to sit and wait for hours. You have money on the line coming back to you. From the date you first are separated going back at least 12 weeks, you should be able to be retroactively paid. Having difficulty getting through the system, keep trying. Act,ilys first pandemic first stimulus bill had 1 billion for state administration. That was the first thing put on the front line. We are going to need the Unemployment Insurance system. We want to fund the administration, but it is hard to do it overnight. I think florida is trying to supplement temporary staff, improve computer systems. You just need to keep trying because that lump sum will help you get through this crisis. Numbers get a lot of and try to sort through them for the viewers. You talked about the more than 30 million americans who have received Unemployment Insurance throughout this process. Can you square that with the monthly unemployment report that 16. 3 unemployed persons in this country. How does that work . Guest they are based on different data. The undiplomatic insurance is claims data the Unemployment Insurance is claims data. I think close to 50 Million People have applied for benefits. I think 40 Million People have received benefits at some point since midmarch to now. There are still 31 million unclaimed. On claims. , they useoyment rate a monthly survey. They interview people during the week with the 12th of the month and the week. Are you available or actively seeking work . They will classify u. S. Unemployed you as unemployed. You have to answer affirmative to all of those. There is some slippage just in the timing of the thing. At this point i think a more reliable measure of the stress and the economy is the unemployment numbers. If you try to get numbers, john, at the local or in many states, small states, the numbers are based on the Unemployment Insurance claims. The unemployment numbers. They combined census data and Unemployment Insurance claims data. They have about 40 applications to go through. Butnt tell you exactly why there are different methods of gathering data. I think there is no question it is a serious crisis right now. Host we have the line for business owners. Tony is on that line from missouri. Good morning. Caller good morning. Host turn down your television so we can hear you well. Caller yes. I am a handyman service. I work on referral. My business has not been affected so much by this pandemic. I see a lot of businesses that have been affected. I see how it is working. How all of this beneficial money is working against those businesses. The employers are laying off the employees so they can collect the large check every week instead of the smaller check the business pays them. They are working on parttime so they can collect a parttime paycheck and a fulltime unemployment check. On occasion i have to have people help me. I dont keep fulltime employees but it is difficult to get people to work now with this free money. Opinionrious as to your on that. Host thanks for the call. Christopher oleary . Guest thats a very important point, tony. I want to thank you. You are one of the essential workers out there continuing to serve the public during this crisis. Toam sure when you go in provide your service at a business or a home you are trying to practice social distancing. Know, it is a challenge for all of us. But not every business operates one on one like you do. Some businesses, even Small Businesses have several workers in a very close space. Workly, by using the sharing program, an employer could reduce hours for everyone in the workplace by 50 . Everybody continues to get paid half their wages, but there is enough space in the workplace for them to avoid social contact. They get half of their own employment benefit. Instead of getting 400 unemployment benefits, they would get 200. Plus, during the period up to july 31, the 600 extra. Owner, instead of laying half his workers off completely and operating, he keeps everybody on. They get their benefits and maybe Health Insurance and other things, and they would also equally get supplemented. In this period where we are not interacting we have to be at home. We are insecure often at home. Frankly, i would not be surprised if your business benefited from people having a few dollars to repair a few things about the house. Is always more than one way to look at things. I wish you well in this crisis. Host vancouver, washington. This is albert on the line for those that are unemployed. Good morning. Caller good morning john and christopher. I had a question regarding what employers pay. I am unemployed in washington. There is a huge debacle in the state. Anybody politically astute nose it was knows it was hacked by to 1igeria group up billion. They shut down unemployment for hundreds of thousands of washingtonians immediately upon investigation, which has been a travesty. You could go on facebook. There is a support group. Upwards of close to 20,000 participants. Whatcurious about an employers pay into unappointed insurance. I am 58 going on 59. Is it based on the number of employees . Are they multinational . Small business . What the right is . Does it vary from state to state . Anytime you offer a system that will pay someone 600, you will get some outliers, right . They will be when you include a lot of different people, the parameters changed dramatically. That is a big assumption just go back to work your job. There is a huge divide as to what the pay rate is when you do work state to state. It is no wonder people would say i will collect the 600 because i work hard and i get paid very little. At 59, i have worked since 16. I have a tremendous work ethic. I have done right by the entire system and i lost faith incredibly in america during this pandemic. The variety of systems that have failed the constituency. The guys in d. C. , pick a side of the aisle, i dont care. When they are bickering americans are suffering right now. We are getting this pittance from the state. Those guys in washington continue to say i will take a threeday weekend, for perhaps taking a full week off again. It is astounding and saddening. Host Christopher Oleary, go ahead. Guest you put a lot of things on the table. Number one, thank you for calling in from vancouver. Thank you for being s up so early in the morning. Vancouver, washington. I have been there and worked in Washington State. Ive had several Research Projects stating back to the 1980s. Washington state has one of the best Unemployment Insurance systems in the nation. Scam claims, ok, in 1980 when we ran some employment bonus experiments, and there is a difference between the bonus would you give people cash after they get to work off of unemployment and what some people are calling the extra 600, which is not a bonus, its a supplement. To file your days claim for benefits in Washington State you had to walk into the office and sign a register. Frequently they would give you the payment and cash, in dollars at the teller window. You could get your payment right there. He would bring in a form and state i searched for work. You would sign it. I would contacting the employers. There was a lot of control. Washington is a big state. There is a lot of rural areas where it is difficult for people to get in. That led to more automated mechanisms for applications and benefit processing. We are in a Cashless Society now. The first step was to give people cards where the cash was loaded. That could be cumbersome. If youre getting 600, you dont want it on a card. You wanted in your account through direct deposit. With the automated application system and direct deposit, there is fraud possibility. There is pressure on the on claimant system to pay benefits on the unemployment system to pay benefits. Setfornia in the 1970s the standard for payments. There is a difference between assessing eligibility and knowing for sure before you pay the benefit. The court said even of the state has not figured out your eligibility, they cant wait forever to figure out your eligibility. They have to pay on a presumptive basis and then expect he will reimburse if there was fraud. If they are in nigeria or russia or where they are. They could be in United States. They use these automatic claims. There is a lot of effort to prevent that. That could be one of the reasons why states are bulking at some of the more complicated baulking at some of the more complicated efforts. You start doing a wage replacement formula and so forth, there is a lot of automated checks in the computer programs to look at what is going on and what is coming in. Triggersd set up those and prevent checks from going out. Caution onstand the the part of the state agency in olympia to watch the payment. If they identify a serious problem and shut it down. Ithink as part of the reform, think we will learn a lot of lessons. I think the administrative processes have to be one of these things. Should i address the other questions that albert raised . Host we have a lot of calls and only about 20 minutes. Guest maybe we will get back to those. Host harry from winterville, georgia on the line for those unemployed. Good morning. Caller good morning . Host you are on with Christopher Oleary. Caller i have been out of work since march 13. They sent in email out saying we could not in for unemployment. I am a bus driver. Supposed to go back to work on august 3. Now they are saying we will not go back to work on august 3 but they will let us put in for they have us set up for september 8. And we will file a partial unemployment. I asked, what date would you start . They said it would start august 3 for unemployment. Pay ofleica subsidence 700 on the 15th and 30th of the month. Witht paid two times, taxes and every thing. You are living on less than a thousand dollars a month. Us, their buside drivers were allowed to call in they were mandated to pay unemployment. They got the 600 per week. In the state of georgia, they want to open the schools up but they still have all the other things shut down. Banks are shut down for long lines. Poor people like myself, at least i have a phone. They cannot sit on the line waiting for phone calls, especially when they have a minute phone. They have the Unemployment Office closed, but they are rushing to get the schools opened up. Being opened up for people who need it . Host thank you for telling us about your situation. Christopher oleary . Guest harriet, those are all great questions. Thank you for your service as a bus driver. Harriet sheif mentioned another county. Sense it is ahe municipal operation. The transports are municipal operations. I can understand the reluctance of any employer to have Unemployment Insurance benefit payouts. Normally it affects the tax rate. That is part of the question that albert was raising. Employers reluctance to let people have access to benefits. Any mystical agency that puts people on unemployment is getting a 50 reimbursement of the benefit charges. If the tax rate would be affected, it would only go up partly what would normally go look. Go up. It is a way to get people security. I think she sees a bus driver in a neighboring county and says that county administrator was more true in using the features of the cares act to help workers. Harriet, like also, your administrator figured out when you returned to work you will be getting unemployment, at least part unemployment. Extension of the supplement is continued, you should get that fully regardless of if you get a fractional unemployment benefit. Maybe those county administered his got together and figured out to use the Unemployment Insurance system. We go back to the scale of this problem, go back to the achieving social distancing. Harriet is a frontline worker. People to help these continue to provide services when they can in a safe way and recognize it. Helping them through the Unemployment Insurance system, maybe with a Workshare Program and the supplement is a good way. Andeed to look at wages, also employers have complained they cant get people to come and do some of these jobs. Let me remind our listeners that july, the last time. He minimum wage was increased it has not changed. There are 30 some states that have higher minimums than that. There is very little evidence of employment effects. When we hear senator romney talking about a supplement to encourage people to go back to doing essential jobs, thats a very important thing. What about the minimum wage . That will raise all boats. Host back to the line for business owners. Paul of lady lake, florida. Caller good morning. Thank you for the time you have spent educate us here. I am a business owner. I certainly benefit from sharing control with the government and filling out these humongous paperwork forms and bank forms to get big dollars into my business account, which i then dole out to others. True eachto me, is it 1 trillion approved, if divided equally into the 100 million family units would be 10,000 per family unit . Fundedtrillion already and annal additional 1 trillion trump approved is 4 trillion. Wanted 3umer trillion for new heroes payment. Four. Plus one is equal to three plus three is equal to six. Cutting out administrators and researchers means every person listening to my voice would wake up tomorrow with 40,000 or 60,000 new dollars in their bank account. Such money would circulate and stimulate all. Money is spent more than once. Each recipient, whether business unemployed,loyee or chooses to spend the money based on freedom, individual choice, and personal responsibility. Would that not be an effective way, a more effective way to begin to stir the economic pot . Host thank you for that question. What kind of business do you own . Caller software analysis. Where do the 40,000 per family unit go . To pay administrators . To researchers . Mr. Oleary, and dont take this personally. This is the all the mr. Olearys and paid administrators and congressmen and senators. Do you benefit financially by this route goldberg contraction . Dberg contraption . Guest often in simplicity you are obscuring some of the facts. You have a little understanding of the keynesian multiplier, which you are actually right. When people get money in their pockets. That is why we applaud the mechanism of the Unemployment Insurance benefit. The people who get those thears, as compared to thesstheboard rebate, people who are working people who get the dollars are certainly going to spend it. I think you are right. Haslevel of spending definitely kept the economy afloat. If we listen to dr. Fauci, we know even the first wave has not passed over the country yet. There could be a second wave. I think that is why we are at the junction where we are saying now is the time to use that resource. Saidfed chairman powell there is still a role for fiscal policy. You are an educated man. You are a keynesian and you know about the multiplier effect. Chairman powell has said now was not the time to stop. I think that is the first topic that john invited me to talk about. Is it right to continue this . I think yes. Your business will benefit. I think your business has probably been busy during this period and thank you. Host 10 minutes left with Christopher Oleary of the Upjohn Institute, senior economist there at the nonprofit, nonpartisan Upjohn Institute. Ductwork. Ne, upjohn upjohn. Org. Ray out of phoenix, arizona. You are next. Caller thank you for having me. Host go ahead. Caller i work for a major airline. There are only four left so i dont want to give it away. I am actually really worried. I am rooting for the cares act, whatever you want to call it. And peoplei have, are criticizing helping the airlines, it has helped people stay afloat. D keeps me off unemployment. It keeps me off unemployment. Am warylaid off, i about how to make ends meet. I will probably lose everything i own and so forth. I was wondering. How do you feel about helping get the airlines . Is it fair they help us even though we are essential workers . Host Christopher Oleary on the airlines . Guest i think the airlines are essential. Ever since 9 11 there has been a winnowing of the airlines. Its an essential industry for the United States. The question i have is the income replacement. If there could be some kind of arrangement where there are payments to maintain benefits but allowing airline employees to receive unemployment and making the unappointed benefit adequate. I know some airline employees are wellpaid, and some are highly paid. There are social standards for the income replacement. If you are in the airline industry, is there any sense that should i be getting 100 of my salary . While other people are getting a fraction . Chevy all be in the same boat . Should we all be in the same boat . Maybe if we built the boat stronger, everybody would be better off and get through the crisis. Thank you for your service. Its a very essential industry and part of the key economic recovery. Thank you. Host when we look at the heroes act, is there anything specifically in their for the airlines in there for the airlines . Guest i dont know all the details of the heroes act. It is an enormous bill. I would not be surprised if there was something for the airlines. I dont know the details on that. Host linda out of falling waters, west virginia. Caller how are you this morning . Host you are on with Christopher Oleary. That i my comment is have worked all my life. At the factory i worked at. They just put us all out because they did not want nothing to do with this. There were maybe 10 of us that got hurt. Anyway, i have all these restrictions because they took my i have all these restrictions. I finally got a job. I worked there six years. I was making eight dollars an hour. Then they shut us down. My employer could not afford to open back up. She did not have the money. Week on employment unemployment. At least i have a husband that is an essential worker and i get Social Security, which is only a little over 1000. I feel bad for these other ladies that are working there that was not getting on employment. Was not getting Social Security. I feel bad for people who cant pay their bills. There are a lot of people down here living intense because in tents because they dont have the money to keep their house. It is really sad. Host thank you for your call. Guest i want to thank you for your call. And your resilience given the challenges you face. I am happy to hear you are receiving some unemployment. I hope this supplement comes through and will help you in this crisis. He requirements for eligibility unemployment of of unemployment have to deal with able and active work. Meaninge requirement, you are healthy and sound, has been somewhat suspended because of the covid crisis. Forced intoever be accepting a position where you are at risk of getting the illness if you are in frail condition. For her story and recognize she is one of those cases that under the executive order would have been excluded by the 100 minimum limit. 6, whichires december is a particularly surprising day for expiration of an extension. I think the extension needs to be through at least the end of the year, and then a reconsideration. I think the 600 was a genius level. It is clean and simple and states have been successful in implementing it. Even if there can be a compromise on the 400, that will be a doubling of the benefit for most people and make a difference. If the congress or senate coast home before this has been resolved for recess, i think they will have difficulties in their districts. I am not a politician but that is just my take on this. Host time for one or two phone calls. Georgia, this is rachel. Good morning. Caller hello. Host go ahead, rachel. Caller i am from miami, florida. I enter saidm the emphasis on paying federal Unemployment Insurance. Knowing how much an investment i is for foreign aid, wondered whether has not been a greater infosys on foreign aid right now emphasis on foreign aid right now when 95 of consumers are outside United States and helping build markets would result in direct host we do talk about foreign aid quite a bit on this program. We are talking about the federal and state unInsurance Programs right now so we will try to keep it to that discussion. Maybe you can try to call in another time. Sean in new york city is next. Caller good morning. How do we intend to pay for these things when you look at the National Debt clock . Our personal debt and federal debt is in the trillions of dollars. When you look at Credit Card Debt and the trillion dollars, total personal debt is in the trillions of dollars, the u. S. National total debt is in the trillions of dollars. How do we think we will fix this . Currente u. S. National debt. Usdebtclock. Org. Guest sounds like a familiar topic for you. You might know more than me. When the last administration left, it was around 12 trillion. Now it is more than doubled. We go back to the idea of the keynesian economics. Also we know the federal borrowing rate is less than 1 . 6 for longterm debt. You can pay it back in 30 years at. 6 . Sounds like a good idea to transfer that spending from the future to now. Lets remember this is not a zerosum game. When we take something, that does not mean when we get something we are not just dividing up a static situation. We can stimulate the economy through the spending programs. The idea is the economy will more employment grows, people have income and there is a bigger pie for more people to share and everybody gets a bigger piece. The idea is in the long run it will all work out. That is the bottom line. Host joseph out of massachusetts on the line for those unemployed. You are on with Christopher Oleary. Caller yes, hello. Good morning. My name is joseph. I am from newburgh, new york. I am a single father. I just got over the coronavirus. I have not returned back to work yet. I dont know what to do. They just stopped unemployment. I really dont know what to do. I have been putting in for it. What should i do now . I am listening to you on the radio or the tv. You said keep applying. What should i do . Guest joseph, when you say it stopped, does that mean you ran out of your entitlement . There are other tiers of on benefits. Tears of unemployment tiers of unemployment benefits. If youre getting out of a usa benefit, you will get extra supplements later. My recommendation to you is to keep at it. The careful with that coronavirus. This is not a normal flu. We have for it from the medical experts. Ticket can have multiple effects that we dont know. That is why we have to be careful about this. My advice is if you have got Unemployment Insurance claims and are eligible for the unemployment benefit, continue to receive it. That is my advice to everyone on the benefit. Keep receiving those checks, even if they are 95 or whatever you are getting. Because when this additional compensation is approved, you will get all that back compensation in a lump sum. Host thank you for clarifying that, and thank you for clarifying the calls. Christopher oleary is the senior economist at the upjohn find them onu can their website. Thank you for your time. Guest thank you. My pleasure. Host up next and in our last 30 minutes of our program this morning, we will be joined by the mordock to preview hearing of the Michael Flynn case in federal court today. Stick around. We will be back. Binge wash book tv this summer. Saturday evenings at 8 00 eastern, settle in and watch several hours of your favorite authors. We are featuring programs with the late awardwinning author Toni Morrison whose books include song of solomon, and beloved. As we feature programs with awardwinning biographer robert jarrow. Binge watch book tv, all summer, on cspan two. Perjury case against President Trumps former National Security advisor, Michael Flynn, will be reheard by the full u. S. Court of appeals. Judges to decide whether a Federal District court judge must dismiss charges as recommended by the Justice Department. Here the case live today at 9 30 eastern on cspan and at cspan. Org. Or listen live with the free cspan radio app. Has covered every minute of every Political Convention since 1984. And we are not stopping now. This months Political Convention will be like none other with the pronto virus pandemic still looming, plans for vote gatherings are being and President Trump will accept his partys after the next week Democratic Convention online. The Democratic Convention starts monday, and the republican Convention Starting next monday august when he fourth. Live and ondemand on cspan. Org or listen with our radio app. Cspan, your unfiltered view of politics. The president , available in andrback, hardcover ebooks, presenting biographies of every president , inspired by conversations with noted historians about the leadership skills that make for successful president s. In his president ial election year, as americans decide who should lead, this collection offers perspectives into the lives and events that forged each president s leadership style. And to learn more, visit our website. Available in paperback, hardcover, and ebook. Wherever books are sold. During the summer months, reach out to your elected officials with cspans collective directory, which has all the Contact Information you need to stay in touch with members of congress, federal agencies, and state governors. Washington journal continues. With jeff mordock is back us, hes a Justice Department reporter at the washington and has recovered that has covered the perjury case against Michael Flynn since its earliest days. In about 30 minutes that case will be at the u. S. Court of ofeals before a full panel Appellate Court judges. Explain why. Guest the reason this is going judges full court on the court right now is because the case has just gotten to be an incredible legal drama. In about 30 minutes from now you will have the full court decide they will hear arguments on whether or not they should dismiss the case against Michael Flynn. And how we got here was that the Justice Department back in may surprised everyone by announcing that they had planned to dismiss the charges against Michael Flynn, which had been pending for three years. That surprised everyone. The judge in the case bristled at that suggestion, equating a friend of the court to look in to whether the course should be dismissed, arguing against the dismissal. Michaelre out whether flynn should be facing charges for perjury for pleading guilty twice and then deciding he wanted to recant his guilty plea and plead innocent. Fight prompted slings threejudgeo go to panel agreed the case should be dismissed saying the judge does not have the authority to denied the Justice Departments request. Judge sullivan appealed to the entire court and now the entire court is set to hear more arguments on whether or not he does have the authority. A couple of interesting things. One of the republican judges on the case has recused himself because he worked in the Trump White House and helped prepare responses to the Russian Investigation and the Flynn Investigation is an outgrowth of that probe. A 73 democrat appointed judges to republican judges which makes it an uphill climb. The other thing thats interesting is that in the order for today, the judges on the court said they want to talk about judicial prejudice and bias. They ask that the attorneys be prepared to discuss that. Thats an interesting angle that they will focus on beyond whether there is an authority to buck the Justice Department and dismiss the case. Viewers plan to take there live at 9 30 eastern this morning. But until that, talking about the flynn case with you, our viewers, our phone lines are open if you want to ask questions of jeff mordock who has covered this case from the beginning. The phone lines are split up by Political Party as usual. For democrats 202 7488000. For republicans 202 7488001. For independents 202 7488002. Callsl try to get to your before the hearing starts. In, whatare calling are the names of the judges that viewers might recognize that will be sitting on this panel and hearing this case . Is maryhe biggest name garland, president obamas inee for the Supreme Court Merrick Garland, president obamas nominee for Supreme Court. Mitch mcconnell held up even having a hearing for him and ultimately trump got elected and appointed neil gorsuch to feel to fill that seat. Thats a big name. Hes a democrat appointee and that left, im not saying politics influences how judges think, but we have seen in cases where conservative judges tend to go one way and liberal judges tend to go another. , one of two trumpet coin tease trump appointees on the court will be on the panel today. The first time the court heard this case and they ruled that judge sullivan did not have the Authority Area the authority. In the opinion she took some criticism saying that he had overstepped his authority. And he should not have the ability to deny what the Justice Department those are two people to watch to see what kind of questions they ask. Another thing were watching is whether or not the judges say anything about initial charges against Michael Flynn. We have not heard much about that from the court the first time around. It will be interesting to see if any of the new judges that are going to review this, if they are gonna focus on the charges. Host that first ruling by the smaller appellate panel, was that a 30 ruling . One, twoo to republican appointed justices ruled in favor of dismissing and the one democratic appointed judge offered to dissent, expressing concern that judge sullivan was not given the opportunity to fairly review what the Justice Department recommended. Host and all three of those judges will be on this larger panel. We can expect that they go into with the 21 in favor of this case. Guest thats correct but it is a 73 democratic appointed judge to republican appointed judges. So those numbers may skew as the pool grows bigger. Something you can watch for as he watched live on cspan. We go there in about 20 minutes, we are letting you talk about it and ask her questions about the flynn case until then. For democrats 202 7488000. For republicans 202 7488001. For independents 202 7488002. We will start on that line for independents, mike, cincinnati, good morning. Caller good morning. How are you doing. Thank you for being on the show. I have a question, im curious as to you mentioned if you would and i would like you for to elaborate, that the 73, seven democrats, three republicans, to me if everybody is equal under the law and justice is to be served, why would that even matter . Right. You are the judges are required to look at the law. They are required to view. What we have seen and not just in flynn, if you look at the judicial system we do see judges that have been appointed by republicans tend to lean right, judges pointed appointed by democrats tend to lean left. A good example is the injunctions we have seen to stop some President Trumps immigration agenda. The people opposing that tend to while that in districts where there are more liberal appointee appointed judges because they know they will get a favorable ruling in those jurisdictions and republicans do the same thing, with the challenges to obamacare, they looked for try to find a more republican based judiciary to get some favorable rulings against the Affordable Care act. From one of our viewers on inial media, they write about judge sullivan, saying the judge needs to be impeached. You focus on judge sullivan in an article for the Washington Times, how the judge in the Michael Flynn case did an aboutface on prosecutorial misconduct. Can you get into that . Guest sure. One of the things i mentioned in witharticle that i wrote alex, we teamed up on that story. Its an interesting story because sidney powell, who is representing Michael Flynn, has praised judge sullivan in her book. Book called license to live, all about prosecutorial misconduct and she praised judge sullivan for his ability to hold prosecutors responsible for misconduct. A great example of that, and it decays a lot of similarities to the Michael Flynn case, is the ted stevens case. The senator from alaska who was accused of corruption, later found out that the prosecutors and taintedured some of the evidence against him. That case was before judge sullivan, who was extremely harsh on the prosecutors, extremely harsh on the Justice Department. In the flynn case we are starting to see, very similar, allegations not so much a prosecutorial misconduct but possibly investigative misconduct by the fbi. Its interesting we are not seeing the same skepticism of the allegations surrounding the fbi and some of the things that have come forward and Court Filings this summer. Because sidneyg powell, who has been very critical judge sullivan in this case, has always does she admired him she admired him to his willingness not tolerate any prosecutorial or investigative misconduct. Virginia,hantilly, jerry, a democrat. Caller good morning. I wanted to say that i think judicial bias is a problem, and any judge biased towards the impartial rule of law should be disqualified from ruling. Judge whodid have one was involved recuse himself. As for the other judges, we have not seen any evidence that they cannot be fair or impartial. It will be interesting to see what they come back with. To focus on the questions that they ask. A tweet from aubrey this morning, who asks what legal basis does the department of justice justify withdrawing the charges against general flynn when he has already been convicted by his own pleading guilty. And further asking the acceptance of flynns plea was contingent upon his cooperation with the mueller investigation, what is the status of that cooperation . Guest thats an excellent question. Let me back up a bit. The Justice Departments rationale for dismissing the charges is that they have argued that the fbi never had a reason to interview flynn. They had no evidence. The investigation into flynn wasnt out was an outgrowth of crossfire hurricane, probing into allegations of collusion between the Trump Campaign and russia which morphed into Robert Muellers Russian Investigation. During the initial stages of the investigation into flynn, there is an internal memo that came planning to fbi was close the case against flynn, saying they could find no derogatory information or evidence of wrongdoing. , who haspeter strzok been in the news for his and has beeneets very outspoken against president open,he pushed to keep it saying after consulting with people in the federal court, where the intime the andy mccabe sent jim comey at that time were based, indicating fbi leadership wanted to keep it open. What the Justice Department is saying is that no point was there any reason to interview flynn because you were already gonna close the case because you had no evidence he had committed any wrongdoing and even if he had made material statements,hich is an interesting debate its interesting how people view his statements to the fbi, they were not material to the overall Russian Investigation. It was not part of the probe into russian collusion to metal in the 2016 election. It was not tethered to the overall Russian Investigation Russian Investigation. Therefore the Justice Department a saying that the fbi set perjury trap for Michael Flynn. Thats what the Justice Department is using to justify dropping the charges. You have a second question and i apologize i dont remember it. Host i can pull it up. The acceptance of flynns plea was contingent upon his cooperation with the mueller investigation, what is the status . Guest the probe is wrapped up, he has cooperated with them. Its very interesting because he is someone who cooperated. He was the first to cooperate with the oler the molar probe the mueller probe. He could have walked out of this with clean guilty pleading guilty and serving zero jail time. He could have skated and hes the one who decided to recant his plea and push for what he considers a complete and total exoneration. Its interesting you made that decision. I think a lot of people wouldve walked away saying i got no jail time and i will put this behind me and move forward. He is the one who decided to dig in his heels and right for the complete exoneration which was an interesting decision. Im not sure a lot of people would have made that. His teamhael flynn and want to pardon from the president . Guest they are trying to get an exoneration through the courts. Decides thaturt they are going to dismiss the case, they dont need the pardon from the president. Its not clear that he will ever serve jail time, so not like he could apply for commutation like rogers dont got. It will either be pardon or nothing else. But technically he was never convicted, so theres no reason to give him a pardon. Host from washington, pennsylvania, pete, on the republican line. Good morning. Caller i dont know all the im details of this case, not a lawyer, im just a simple. An, Senior Citizen i want to ask you question. You know what bolshevik means in russian . There seems to be a struggle between the bolsheviks, the majority and minority. And the results of that came about in that country. We seem to be going down that path. What do you think. Think . Guest im not sure what youre asking. Can you specify specifically what path you think were going down . Caller think we lost the but we have andrea, in virginia beach, democrat, good morning. Caller its andrea but thats ok. I have a question for you. You mentioned that you found it sullivanhat justice did not approach the alleged investigative misconduct of the fbi the same way he did it these case. My question is, not that i agree but my question is, my understanding is that Law Enforcement is allowed to lie to suspects when you investigate them, but its illegal for the suspect to light a law true, whyt, if thats is it alleged investigative misconduct and why zipping held at a higher standard than Michael Flynn lying to the fbi twice . The Justice Departments argument, thats an excellent question the argument for that is that the interview should not of taken place. He should not have been in the liedion where he allegedly to the fbi. Theres a lot of reporters out there supporters out there who made the argument that flynn did not remember and if you read the transcript of the call with the Russian Ambassador, the basis for the fbi investigation, he talks about removing sanctions. But its one of many topics. I talk to people who can look at it as either way, it was one of a lot of topics he talked about and could easily see him forgetting that he does best it, or they could look at it as he did lie, because its a topic discussed. He theres a lot of issues that theres a lot of people who dont believe he intentionally lied or misled the fbi. Tot from the courthouse capitol hill, what have we learned last week from sally yates testimony. Guest her testimony shed a lot of light on the probe. One of the things that she pointed out was as the number two official at the Justice Department she should have been aware of the fbi going to interview Michael Flynn, and they did not. , thealled jim comey director, to tell him that they were looking into Michael Flynn and they wanted to interview Michael Flynn. And when she called him, he said the fbi agents are already on their way to interview Michael Flynn and she said she was flabbergasted by that. One of the things that she said last week is that she really put the blame on jim comey, saying he went rogue and was running his own investigation without telling anyone at the Justice Department and the top Justice Department officials were supposed to oversee an investigation and were completely in the dark with no idea with the fbi was doing. President trump has been very critical of that, questioning how some buddy that high up at the Justice Department like sally yates could not know what the fbi was doing or what was going on, and he really assailed her credibility. But other republicans, like Lindsey Graham has come out and said that he believes miss yates and that she was not kept in the loop and that jim me was going out on his own. It curious because so far we have had two hearing on the probe. Sally yates and rod rosenstein. And both professed that they did not know what was going on. Its interesting that we have that many highlevel officials of the justice apartment who dont seem to know anything, which raises a lot of about what was going on at the Justice Department and how bad is the communication. We are a few minutes before that hearing, we plan to take you there live here on cspan. Until then, continuing with jeff mordock. Thering this today for washington journal, taking some calls. This is david, in rutland, vermont. Independent, good morning. Caller im concerned in general about the legal system as per and the fact that the i reallynows combined can muck up the whole ecosystem and never make anything right. What is your opinion about that . Guest i agree. We see that not just in the flynn case, but also cases that will never get the amount of attention. Basis for lying and making false statements, how in that type of charges. Its interesting because its a charge thats rarely used and it seemed like that was the hammer used on everybody to try to get them to cooperate, false statement charges. It seems like since then we have seen an explosion in false statement charges and other cases as well. And its a tough standard to meet, you may miss remember something, you may not remember something. That is what flynns defense has been. He didnt remember making the conversations with the Russian Ambassador about the sanctions. It raises a lot of questions about making this an area that could be right for prosecutorial misconduct because you could go either way depending on somebody mr. Members or how they remember and you have a zealous prosecutor looking to make a name for themselves and could ruin somebodys life. Pennsylvania, nicholas, democrat, good morning. Caller i wanted to comment on some of the other issues diderning general flynn, he not reveal the information that he had received money as a ,oreign agent from turkey 500,000. And this all leads back to the because he put in the president of turkey, the lynch men or whatever you call him. Putin purchased all his ground in russia in the midst of getting the person that donald cabinet,ointed to his and when the sanctions were put in they were not allowed to go over there today for the soil. Meanwhile you have general flynn in the background making these lifted soet sanctions we can send an mobil oil to go dig up the soil in russia. He lied. Host weve got your point. Guest if you look at the transcript about what flynn was talking about, he was asking the ambassador not to escalate the escalate thet to backandforth between russia and the United States about the sanctions that the Obama Administration had posed for meddling had imposed for meddling in the election. Flynn never did negotiate anything. Its why the logan act was branded about camo as one of the laws they tried to capture flynn on, in violating the logan act which is an obscure law but it says if you look at the transcript there was not a lot of negotiating. It was not that they struck a him askings more of the ambassador not to escalate it because the Trump Administration wanted to improve relations with russia. Host we are expecting to head over to the d. C. Circuit court of appeals in just a minute or two. Jeff mordock, we talked about what you are going to be looking for a little, i wonder which judge you are most interested in watching and what line of questioning you might be expecting . Guest im interested in watching Merrick Garland because of his reputational the bench, that he asks good questions. Authored thed majority opinion about judicial authority. In ism really interested what they ask in terms of judicial bias. And one of the things that i think will be interesting is if they send this back to the court for further hearings, whether further hearings are required, whether they think judge sullivan should be removed in a different judge should be appointed, which is a possibility, a half measure that maybe they send this back but sullivan is not the judge. I think thats going to be an interesting decision if thats the way the court decides. Host is judge sullivan expected to make an appearance . Guest he is not. There will be attorneys arguing on his behalf to die dont excite flynn will be there either, he will have his personal attorney in the Justice Department arguing on his bath. To thatfore we had feed, we will go back to the phones. This is rich, in wisconsin, independent. Go ahead. Caller two questions, prosecutorial misconduct, how is sullivan guy standing, hes made himself party to a case he is supposed to be a neutral arbiter over, he has hired counsel and fired filed motions so he needs to be removed and put into a neutral court. And where the original 30 twos . Guest im sorry i didnt catch last part. Host im not sure what he said but we lost the call. Guest the question about how judge sullivan has standing. Thats a great question and something a lot of legal scholars have debated, whether or not the judge should have standing in this case. The Appellate Court does not seem to have an issue with him. Pushed for one who the hearing. But a lot of legal scholars have debated whether or not george standinghas the legal which is something that may come up, whether thats also line of questions. Host this is pat, out of de soto, texas, on the line for democrats. Caller good morning. Your question is a good question, but i dont think most people understand whats going on. What the president has done is his people to slow the Postal Service down, host were talking about the Michael Flynn case right now, we talked about the Postal Service in our first segment of the washington journal. Jeff, that case is getting ready to get underway, we want to send our viewers there in just a topic but a tweet on this that i thought you might help set up the discussion here, saying in part that flynns prosecution started as an adversarial case but agent barr took over, the postconviction action was not adversarial why the judge did an adversarial panel to arguing the case. Can you explain what that means . Guest sure. Usually in these cases you have an adversary, some but he was going to argue against what the recommendation is. In this case its usually Defense Attorneys. But in this case the Defense Attorneys wanted were siding with the Justice Department. So theres nobody arguing or giving the case a review as to it was already stated, but whether the decision to drop the case or abandon prosecution was appropriate. Is findge sullivan did this retire new york federal judge and appointed him to argue against the Justice Department and decide whether or not flynn should face additional charges for dirt perjury for pleading guilty twice and then declaring himself innocent. Host i dont want to cut you off too much but i do want to make sure our viewers get to see this in its entirety. We are getting ready to get underway and we are going to send our viewers there now. Im sure we will speak to you again down the road. Thank you for your time. Guest thank you. I appreciate it. Host