Beaks to Small Business owners in west virginia. At 8 00, q and a retired syndicated columnist thomas soul. Steve joining us on newsmakers on this is congressman adam sunday smith, democrat from washington. He is also the ranking democrat on the House Armed Services committee. Congress and thanks for being , with us. Rep. Smith i appreciate it. Steve joining me is John Donnelly of cq roll call and leo shane of military times. Leo will get the first question. Leo Congress Thanks for doing , this. The big news this week was the Health Care Debacle over in the house. Youve been focused on Defense Budget but with what you saw from that debate, how do you feel about how were going to move ahead with the Defense Budget talks and whether or not theres any chance to avoid a government shutdown. It seems like were at a point where nothing is going to move. Rep. Smith its going to be very difficult. I theorized a couple months ago that the republicans do not have 218 republican votes for anything substantive. As paul ryan acknowledged yesterday, theyve been sort of the opposition party. Theyve been the party of no. Theyre angry and theyre against everything. Getting 218 of them to agree on anything, i dont picture it, whether its health care, tax reform. Look at the budget. The Freedom Caucus is going to be upset that it doesnt balance the budget in two, three years. Other people other republicans , are going to be upset about programs that get cut. Youre going to have republicans who think they should spend more on defense or less on defense. Meanwhile, not the president none of them are talking to any , democrats about how they would work something that democrats could vote for. So were in for a long year. I think health care was but a preview of coming attractions. Leo when you heard the figure 54 billion that the president wants to increase defense spending, whats your reaction . Rep. Smith not a great deal of surprise. There are several interesting facts about that. First when you go back to what candidate trump promised in terms of the size of the military, the end strength of the army and marine corps, the number of ships he wanted to build, the number of planes and other things that he wanted to do, 54 billion isnt even close to what he promised. Now, what he promised and i havent done the exact math but it would be somewhere in the nutritive the 700 billion or Defense Budget which obviously 800 billion with our deficit, the budget hawks in the republican caucus, were not going to get to. Secondly ,of course, is democrats and some republicans actually care about the nondefense discretionary budget. The week the president gave his speech to congress was rare disease week. He even mentioned it. Then adds devastating kilts to cuts to the research thats supposed to find cures. He wants an infrastructure plan but the budget he proposed makes massive cuts. So my reaction was im not surprised. The president has tried to make one plus one equal somewhere in the neighborhood of nine or ten which im aware is impossible. So how are they going to get out from under their impossible promises is anybodys guess. Steve a followup. Leo as you said, you dont see 218 votes in the house for the republicans and theres been no outreach to the democrats. Are we headed towards a shutdown . We only have a few weeks left to work out the issue with the fiscal 2017 budget. Are you planning for a shutdown . Rep. Smith keep in mind the 54 billion that you referenced is for the 2018 budget, not for 2017 budget. 2017, the numbers are already agreed to. But, again, can they deliver Appropriations Bills that republicans and democrats will vote for . Its possible. In 2017, like i said, weve got broad agreement on the numbers in defense and nondefense discretionary. But they still have to get it done. I dont think were headed for a shutdown at the end of april but we could be headed for a year long cr which could be devastating to the Defense Department and the rest of the discretionary budget. But once we start moving up towards the debt ceiling, towards the 2018 budget, the 2018 Appropriations Bills, thats where you get into a large amount of difficulty. Not that 2017 is going to be a walk in the park but by comparison it will be. Steve we turn to John Donnelly for cq roll call. John good morning, congressman. I want to follow up a little bit on that budget stuff and then ask you something about the Defense Budget. So you think a cr is a good possibility, continuing reppo resolution. Give us the odds of that. Just recap for the viewers the house has not moved any of the nondefense spending bills. When is that going to happen . Less than two weeks i think working days before the april 28 date when the current continuing resolution runs out. Can you give us an idea of how you see this playing out and what the odds of the cr are . Rep. Smith first, number one, its not a good possibility. Its a bad possibility. I want to emphasize that. A lot of people dont understand that a continuing resolution is actually a terrible way to run the government and really ham strings our agencies, including the department of defense. They cant do any new programs. They have to basically spend the money they spent last year and not account for any changes. It really ties their hands in a way that i think jeopardizes National Security and jeopardizes internal security. Second, i am not an odds maker. Las vegas has not yet called. So i dont know what the odds are. I know what the challenge are. You laid them out very well. There does not seem to be much progress being made. Look theres a story that has , been told in some circles but not as widely understood. The republicans who are in charge of congress are not actually legislators for the most part. I realize its in the job title. But most of the people who got elected to the Republican Congress got elected in the last six years and even more of them than that got elected on slogans. Got elected on their opposition to president obama. Got elected on how upset they were about the Health Care Bill or about the president s budget or his Foreign Policy. They dont have any idea how to write legislation. Certainly President Trump doesnt. Health care showed us that. He had no idea what was in that bill or what impact it had. At the absolute last minute it occurred to him it would look bad if he didnt pass it so he insisted they pass it not , knowing fully what was in it. So they had specific questions which he didnt have answers to. And they refused simply to be bound by his bullying and down it went. So theyre going to have to the learn real fast how to actually legislate. Or were all in a lot of trouble. The odds on that i dont want to give you a specific percentage but based on what ive seen the , odds of the republican majority in congress figuring out what it takes to legislate and get things done in the next two weeks i would say are remote. John one of the issues thats a constant refrain in the Defense Budget debate is talk about what some people are calling the readiness crisis in the u. S. Military. A substantial number for , example, of the military airplanes are not in shape to fly. We are told. Now, you wouldnt want to have 100 of them ready to fly at any one time because that would be inefficient. There is a certain percentage thats already that way. But give us an idea from your perspective of how bad this problem is. Its being depicted in extremely dire terms by defense hawks. What is your sense of it . Rep. Smith its bad. I agree with them on that. Its important to explain exactly what readiness meengs broadly speaking. In the Defense Department and with the help of congress we developed a National Security plan. What that means is we figure out, ok, what do we need to be ready to do militarily, whether worrying about north korea or russia or china or countering the terrorist threat. What how many people do we need . What training do they need . How much equipment do we need . Whats happening right now is we have so many different missions. Weve had a series of crs. And we havent had the budgeting. That they dont have the training that that they need, they dont have the equipment that they need in order to either train or be ready should the mission be called. So we do have a readiness crisis. And this is one of the things that worries me about President Trumps budget proposal. Hes talking about greatly expanding the end strength, the number of people in the army or the marine corps, adding all the ships doing all that. , what i would prefer is that we have a military that is actually ready to do what we ask them to do as opposed to trying to expand the mission, the equipment, and all of that while not having enough money to do the training. As i said in the speech last week, i would rather have an army of 400,000 people that are trained, equipped, and ready to actually perform the missions we ask them to do than an army of 575,000 that isnt. Thats the definition of a hollow force. So yes, theres a readiness crisis. Im worried in the budget discussions thats not where most of the money is going. Steve well turn to leo. Leo just to follow up on that. You said before that the cr would be very bad for the military. So if were already at a readiness crisis, what would a cr for the rest of the year do . Do you see it as something that continuing the pain or are we get to a point where were crippling the military . Rep. Smith it would make it worse. Without question. Crippling is not a precise term. I would say it would further harm the readiness of our military. We still have a very capable force. They are engaged obviously in the fight against isis a in iraq and syria. Theyre still engaged in afghanistan. Theyre engaged in the horn of africa trying to contain al should bob shabab in somalia. In yemen, aqap. Theyre capable of accomplishing many things every day but it is difficult because of the training limitations and where were really at risk is if something happens that would require us to accomplishing many things every day but it is rapidly respond with a significant size of force. Thats where the lack of training puts us in jeopardy. If we were to have to confront north korea or confront iran with some sort of military, size of the military, thats where we start to have trouble. And a cr would only make that worse, no question. Steve let me share with you some news on this sunday morning from the New York Times describing north koreas hacking as immense to try to the pay for its efforts. Both president obama and President Trump both agreeing that north korea is one of the biggest single threats that we face. In light of whats been happening over the last couple of weeks the testing of these , missiles that potentially could reach japan or south korea. How concerned are you and what should the u. S. s response be . Rep. Smith north korea is definitely a problem. Because they have Nuclear Weapons and an unstable and belligerent regime. That clearly presents a challenge. They have the ongoing conflict with south korea. So north korea is a big challenge. The one thing about north korea is the leadership there is not suicidal. They want to survive. They want their regime to survive. I think the most important thing we can do is make it clear to them that if they attack south korea in any way, if they make any effort to engage militarily, then we have the strength and the force to completely destroy their regime. And we do. Along with our south korean allies and japan as well. So i think thats the main calculation that we have to make is containment. Because collapsing that regime would only lead to further chaos. But right now, we have to make it clear that we have a sufficient deterrent to stop them from doing anything going forward. And thats not a great situation. John congressman would you , support some kind of preempttive military strike against north korea . Rep. Smith thats a very broad question. My answer is no. In general. But it depends on the circumstances. I would not support a preempletive strike against them just because well, actually i cant imagine a context when i would support a preempletive strike. A preemptive strike would be unlikely to take out the regime. It would be unlikely to take out their Nuclear Weapons. Forget about the Nuclear Weapons for the moment, they have an enormous amount of artillery aimed at seoul, south korea where 27 Million People live that they could unleash in the blink of an eye and kill millions of people. So i dont think a preemptive strike against north korea that would set up a war in a part of the world is the right approach. Too many people would die, too much chaos would result. And we dont even know that ultimately it would be successful in taking out the north korean regime. Steve do you think President Trump could ask for a strike and if the that were to happen, your reaction . Rep. Smith youre asking me to predict what President Trump would do. And that i cant even begin to imagine. I dont know. I would hope that he and his military advisers would be smart enough to see the risk in that. But i dont know for sure. I will say i would consider it unlikely that he would choose to the go down that path. But certainly not impossible. And if it happened, as i said i think it would be a closs al catastrophe for us and for the globe. Leo i want to shift from defense spending to defense savings. The president has said not only does he want to plus up military spending, but also cut down on waste, fraud and abuse in the Defense Department. Youve been one of the few advocates on capitol hill for a base closing round in recent years. You talked about that again this week. I wonder if you feel were headed towards that, if you feel theres a realistic plan to get that in the near future. Rep. Smith i think theres a possibility of that. Senator mccain said we need to the. I think theres growing support in the congress for it. And i really feel that if President Trump, who has not yet submitted his 2018 budget in full, if he submitted his full 2018 Defense Budget and in it contained a request for the authorization for a brac, i can i think his support for that would bring across enough republican votes along with democrats i think it could happen. I think were at about 50 50 for the 2018 authorizing bill having that in it. No guarantees to be sure. But again, if the president decided this was something he wanted to push, it would have a decent chance of success. Steve John Donnelly. Shifting to the war fighting against the Islamic State in particular. In march, by one count, 1,000 civilians have died in u. S. Led Coalition Air strikes in iraq and syria. The u. S. Military says they have not loosened the restrictions on rules of engagement that would permit more civilian casualties. And were heading into urban fighting so that may be one explanation and there also may be the possibility that isis is using civilians as human shields. But the president has asked the pentagon to consider loosening the rules of engagement, sort of taking the gloves off more. So its not its within the realm of reason that we could see this kind of awful thing on our tv screens more and more in the next few months. Give us your thoughts on what this might mean in terms of the implications for how our military efforts is received this that region. Rep. Smith im very concerned about it. I think you outlined the issue perfectly. That theyre heading into urban fighting in mosul, particularly soon in raqa and that gives rise to more civilians being placed at risk. Its a significant problem. The battle here is a hearts and minds battle. When isis was on the rise and they rolled into mosul, the reason for their success was primarily because of the contempt that sunnis had for the bagdad government. And their belief that they were not being properly represented. So they werent willing to fight for iraq. Now, since isis took over mosul and other parts of iraq and syria, they have proved to be such barbarians that the population has turned on them. Now, thats part of the reason for our success moving forward. If that shifts back around and they see the coalition as being willing to kill civilians, then we run the risk of losing more sunnis back over to extremist groups. And whether its isis or al qaeda or a new one, that is a distinct risk. Thats why president obama tried to be as careful as he could in targeting the drone strikes against leaders of these terrorist groups and not kill civilians. And i am worried that President Trump has asked for those restrictions to be loosened. Because ive heard some of my republican colleagues and certainly some conservative think tanks who believe thats one of our great limitations that we havent been willing to , drop enough bombs in enough places and i disagree with that. I think weve got to be careful and make sure we keep the population on our side. Steve congressman along those , lines your former house colleague now the director nick malvani called this a hard power budget but also includes nearly 30 cut in state Department Funding and significant potential cuts in foreign aid. What impact would that have on americas military and on our Foreign Policy . Rep. Smith well, he was correct. It is a hard power budget and its a budget that shows complete and total contempt for soft power. I think thats very unfortunate. Ive been on the Armed Services committee for 20 years and ive worked closely with military leaders and men and women who serve in our military. They all know how important diplomacy and development are to our Foreign Policy tools. They dont want to have to go fight everywhere. If we use diplomacy and development as a way to keep things calm and under control, that reduces it. General mattis has the best quote. If you cut the state department, if you cut development, youd better give me five more divisions because thats what were going to need to the protect ourselves. We need a balance here. Yes, we need to have a Strong Military to confront the challenges we face and to offer a deterrent, but we also need strong diplomacy and Strong Development to build the relationships in the world that we need to stop problems before they arise. Steve leo shane of military times. Leo youve made it clear your concerns with the president. But youve been a supporter of the defense secretary mattis. The narrative has been that he will be in there and able to talk to the president about things like rules of engagement and the importance of the money for the state department. Are you seeing those results so far . Do you feel like he has the president s ear . Rep. Smith youre a little off in what the narrative was. Thank goodnessas that general mattis is there because maybe he can offer some sort of a counter balance to steve bannon at the time michael flynn. I was never personally so cocky as to say oh, secretary mattis will be able to take care of all of this. As i have pointed out directly in talking to him was its great that he is there but hes across the river. Steve bannon is across the hall. And not that creates an imbalance. I was always worried about the degree to which secretary mattis was going to be able to have the influence and the positive influence that i think he could happen the Trump Administration. And now weve seen stories in the last week the republicans are dissatisfied with the secretary, whats he doing trying to appoint these people who arent trump loyalists at the department of defense. So im worried thats not going well. I am happy that general mcmaster took over as National Security advisor for general flynn. I think hes got a more sensible approach to these issues and hopefully between the two of them they can start to have some influence in a more positive direction. Steve congressman you mentioned , Steve Bannons name a number of times in the past 25 minutes. Whats your biggest concern about him . Rep. Smith oh, gosh. Ive been given too long answers already. My biggest concern about him on the National Security side is he wants a clash of civilizations. He basically publicly states that islam is not a religion. It is an ideology of oppression. And basically the world aint big enough for the both of us. And i think thats incredibly dangerous. I represent a lot of muslims. They do not support groups like deash and these violent creamist extremist groups like al qaeda. We need muslim allies if we can confront this terrorist threats. And i dont think i know steve bannon does not agree with that. So hes pushing us towards greater conflict on the National Security front. And then im also worried about the fact that at breitbart and elsewhere theyve shown support for far right governments in Eastern Europe and western europe and he seems to have a Certain Affinity for authoritarian governments like in russia. I could go on. But i dont want to give a long answer. I think he is a poisonous influence in the white house that could cause all kinds of calamities for our country. He is also one of the ones that seems to think that our existing alliances arent worth much. And ive been worried about that as well. Steve poisonous is a pretty strong word. Rep. Smith yeah, it is. Steve John Donnelly . John President Trump i think its fair, accurate, and nonpartisan to say, has an uneasy relationship with the truth. I want to ask you what you think that what implications that has for National Security. We talked about north korea. Say the president has to try to rally americans for military action in north korea that may be necessary and he has to rally allies and north korea has to gauge where hes going. What impact what are the implications of his of questions about his credibility on National Security . I think our allies are very, very concerned about it. Look, i think we saw it in health care. People focus on a lot of the tweets about him claiming that president obama had him wiretapped and a whole bunch of other things that he said that are obviously not true. More worrisome to me is the prophecy. Even after the Health Care Bill went down he said he called it the best possible result. In his mind, the best possible result is now obamacare will completely fail and then well be able to the replace it with this beautiful plan which he went back to talking about. Which doesnt exist. Ok. He doesnt have it. If it existed we would have seen it sometime last week. I worry when his lack of ability to recognize the truth crosses over into policy problems. Like it did in health care. It certainly could do that in National Security as well. Its either what he wants to believe or its fake news. Thats what he says. And that is no way well, no way to run anything. Certainly no way to run the most powerful country on the face of the earth. Steve to go back to something you said earlier. When you talk to your republican colleagues in the house who had met with the president , was it your sense that he did not fully understand or have an idea of what was in this legislation . Or could talk in detail about it . Rep. Smith that would be the understatement of the morning. Yes. That was my sense. Steve what did they tell you . Rep. Smith pretty much that. Look, you know, weve seen the reports and what those meetings were like. He didnt talk to them about the specifics of it. He said vote for it. So, yes. Im concerned about that. Im also concerned about not only does the president have an unhealthy relationship with the truth, he has an unhealthy desire to constantly blow his own horn about how great he is. About one thing or another. Thats fine. I mean, people can debate that and decide for themselves. But you want to talk about actual policy things, you dont want to get into a speech about all the great things hes accomplished and everything hes done. Its like, ok, now can we focus on what were actually trying to accomplish here . And we learned again in the health care debate, no. At least from that one we couldnt. I hope hell learn. Theres been a lot of commentary this week that most president s struggle in their first 100 days. Then they learn. Ive seen very little evidence that President Trump is of the opinion that he has anything to learn. So if he feels that way it bodes poorly that he is going to change his behavior in a more positive direction. Steve we have a few minutes left. Well turn back to leo. Leo congressman, i want to ask one nontrump question here. Weve seen a scandal in the marine corps lately with the sharing of nude photos of some marines by marines and of other marines. That story was broken by the workforce in recent weeks. This is an issue we have seen in the ranks of quite a few years now. Several of your colleagues have called this indicative of a cultural problem in the military. That there is misogyny and sexism that is unchecked. It is a matter of a few bad actors sparing this or indicative of something much greater for the services . Rep. Smith i agree that it is indicative of a problem in the culture. When you look at how widespread this was. I think this is something that all branches of the service need to confront. Oneoff or aits a group of people. This was pretty comprehensive, not the first time we have seen Something Like this. You can get back to what happened at Lackland Air Force base. Numerous other examples. I think the military really needs to confront this cultural problem. A cultural problem of abuse. Certainly sexism as part of it. But we have had several instances of hazing going to far, leading to deaths in the military. I think there is a cultural problem of abuse in the military that needs to be confronted. This is an just a few bad actors. It is a broader problem than that. Ive had this conversation with marine corps commandant. I think we need to have a hearing in the house to discuss this issue. The House Armed Services committee and figure out the plan for how we will begin the process of changing that culture. Steve another Investigation Underway with regard to russia. From your vantage point, as you look at the information and follow the process, where do you think it is going to lead . Rep. Smith one of the biggest things about it for me is for people to understand is how comprehensive the russian effort to destabilize liberal democracies. They are on a mission to make the world safe for authoritarian dictatorships. They are attending to undermine liberal democracies wherever they can. They are using ciber as a primary tool. This is happening in dozens of countries. Congressman schiff wrote a very good article outlining exactly what russia is doing. I think this is a threat to one of the most core values of america and that is Representative Democracy and freedom, something that we ought to stand for. As far as what happened here in the u. S. , that is part of the larger whole. Were there people from the Trump Campaign involved in this . I really dont know. I think that is what they are going to investigate. What i hope they find what i hope we figure out is a way to confront the russian threat. Understand it and confront it, it is a grave threat to liberal democracy and the values of freedom. Republicans and immigrants have both espoused for many years. Steve we will turn to John Donnelly from cq roll call. John we have asked you to be in an oddsmakers a few times as money. Rep. Smith why dont you ask me about the final four . I can go there. John gonzagas doing very well. But continuing on the russian team, what are the chances that there can be some sort of independent commission created . We have seen some questions raised over the past week as to whether the house intelligence whether the House Intelligence Committee in particular is capable of an independent do you foresee this at all as a possibility . Rep. Smith i have been disappointed in chairman nunez. His trip up to the white house without reefing the committee. I dont understand the reporting on this. What he said was conversations by trump and his associates may have been picked up incidentally as a result of surveillance of other people. He didnt say that they were picked up, and what is he doing up there at the white house trying to defend the president , instead of informing his committee. I thought that was clear evidence that he is not qualified to lead a truly effective and independent investigation. And what are the odds of a special prosecutor being appointed . The republicans control the levers of power, and they made it clear they are going to do everything they can to not find answers to this. They will try to focus on the leaks, as they say. Power,t that a foreign russia, interfered in our election and may have done so with the conclusion with the collusion of campaign officials, a in norm of scandal and enormous threat to our democracy. I havent seen any republicans, none in the house that have shown a willingness to answer the question. I am very skeptical that they will get the answers in this. Congressman adam smith, the ranking democrat on the House Armed Services committee. Thank you for being with us on newsmakers. Rep. Smith thank you. Host and thank you for your insightful questions, we appreciate it. Enjoy the rest of your day. Cspan, where history unfolds daily. As a79 cspan was created Public Service by americas cabletelevision companies. And is brought to you today by your cable or satellite provider. Road,s voices from the we recently visited 17 historically black colleges and universities, asking students what issue would you Like Congress or the administration to address in the first 100 days . I am a student at North Carolina university. I would love for him to grasp the understanding. We all are represented under him. I would like to work on building and maintaining relationships with other countries that we developed over the years. Thank you. Im a senior here. See for the like to first 100 days of the Trump Administration is taking care of education. To obamacare i would like to see that. I am a senior pr major and Graphic Design minor. Of trumpst 100 days presidency i would like for him and congress to address the issues with federal funding and services. Im a junior here. The First One Hundred days, i believe trump should improve his immigration policy. The muslim ban i dont agree with the muslim ban. Not all muslims are terrorists. I do believe illegal immigration it is an issue. But building the wall isnt going to help. I am a communications major. President s and candidates make a lot of promises running for president. But i would like him to lower the rate of unemployment. Voices from the road on cspan. Next treasury secretary Steve Mnuchin sits down with mike trumpto talk about the administrations trade agenda and potential changes to the tax code. Includepics infrastructure investment, cyber financialand the sector. This is just under an hour. You were born and raised in new york. Time as aur first