Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20160228

Hillary clinton getting 73 , including a vast majority of the africanamerican vote in South Carolina. Senator sanders was only a quarter of the vote at 26 . Sunday morning, february 28, and on this weekend before super tuesday, well begin with your reaction to senator clintons victory with an eye on the contest on tuesday that will further define what has been an often unpredictable primary season. You can join in on the conversation, 202 the area code here in washington, d. C. For republicans, 7488001. For democrats, 2027488000. Or independents, 2027488002. You can also join in on social media, twitter, facebook. This is the headline on this sunday morning from the Washington Post, as clintons win in South Carolina, senator sanders is looking to two states. By the way, senator sanders is in colorado today, and Hillary Clinton is in tennessee and in arkansas. And from the state newspaper, how Hillary Clinton won in South Carolina, the strategy aligning herself closely with the president , systematically reaching out to africanamerican voters, and persistently returning to them to ensure their support, encourage them to vote. It paid off on saturday, and now she plans to ride that strategy across the south in the next week on super tuesday. Africanamericans and older voters, clintons strongest supporters showed up yesterday in the South Carolina polls, helping the former secretary of state handle senator Bernie Sanders. The win, though decisive, was hard fault. Details on thestate. Com. Well get to your phone calls, also talk about the republican race. Yesterday, senator cruz and senator rubio releasing their tax returns, putting more pressure on donald trump to do so as well. And later in the program, well turn our attention to Donald Trumps overseas ventures with tim higgins, whos pen looking into the story for bloomberg politics. First, more last night in columbia, South Carolina, with senator clinton. Secretary clinton and this campaign and our victory is for the reverence residing director of a. M. E. Church and looked at all the violence and division in our country and asked me the other night how, how are we ever going to strengthen the bonds of family and community again . Well, were going to start by working together, with more love and kindness in our hearts and more respect for each ther, even when we disagree. Despite what you hear, we dont need to make America Great again, america has never stopped being great. [applause] but we do need to make america whole again. Instead of building walls, we need to be tearing down barriers. We need to show by everything that we do that we really are in this together. Host some of the comments from Hillary Clinton last night, and her one line is getting a lot of attention, featured at politico. Com, playing on the slogan by donald trump make America Great again. Hillary clinton saying america never stopped being great. Details Available Online at politico. Com, and many of you sharing your comments on our facebook page. This is what it looks like at facebook. Com cspan. A tweet who says its starting to look like hillary versus trump, let the games begin. First up is brendan, joining us from houston, texas, on our line for democrats. Good morning, brenda. Caller good morning, and yippee host youre excited . Caller yes, i am. I am so pleased. Just as its like reliving came through lina for the now current president for obama, they came through for hillary this time. Im so pleased also. Im africanamerican. Im so glad that were not being deceived by the Republican Party with the benghazi and the email of tom foolery. Go on, black people. Go on, good white people. Lets put her in this office. Thank you, steve. Host brenda, thank you for the call. Well go next to melissa, joining us from cincinnati, your line your republicans. Good morning to you. Caller yeah, its like, did i hear hillary say shes not a politician . She says im not a politician like my husband . Are you kidding . Shes been a politician for 40 years. Who is she kidding . And of course the black people were going to vote for her, because she panders to them. All you got to do is pander and theyll vote for her. Pander, pander. They should call her pander clinton. Host melissa, who is your candidate . Caller my candidate is cruz. Cruz. Cruz. Hes the only one in the running that believes in the constitution. Our constitution has been trampled by this president. Host melissa, thanks very much for the call. Were covering all the candidates today and tomorrow, including live coverage of donald trump, who is in madison, alabama. You can watch that late this afternoon eastern time at 5 00 here in the east, 4 00 central time. And then tomorrow were tracking all the candidates as well, including senator cruz and senator rubio, Governor John Kasich, Hillary Clinton, senator sanders, and you can watch our coverage here on the cspan networks and online at cspan. Org. We also welcome our listeners from sirius x. M. , the potus channel 124 and, of course, on cspan radio. Bill, florida, independent line. What do you think of the results yesterday . Caller oh, i was kind of astonished that she won by such a wide margin. I dont think the vote has realized what a hawk she actually is and the destruction shes caused as secretary of state. I also believe that hillary is in the pocket of goldman sachs, obviously. She gives a speech for 600,000 and wont reveal the contents of the speech, refuses to talk to one of your best journalists in the country, and why she would ignore the best journalist in the country is beyond me if she wants, you know, objective criticism or critique, you know, the least she should have the decency to speak to one of the best journalists in the country. Host thanks for the call from florida. Another tweet saying no matter what happens come november, bernie has already profoundly influenced this election. Bloomberg politics looking into those exit poll numbers to determine just how Hillary Clinton was able to win what many are calling a landslide with more than 75 of the vote, including winning 84 of the black vote in South Carolina yesterday compared to only 16 for senator sanders, also voters 45 years of age and older backing Hillary Clinton 77 , to 23 . And among those younger than 45, Hillary Clinton leading 53 to 47 . Heres more from yesterdays events in rochester, minnesota, with senator Bernie Sanders. Senator sanders no president , no matter how well intentioned, no matter how hard working he or she may be, no matter how smart, no president can take on the power of wall street, corporate america, corporate media, and these Huge Campaign contributors alone. And that is why that is why im going to ask for your vote on tuesday. But i need more than that from you. I need your help the day after the general election, because i cant do it alone. Bernie bernie senator sanders what the Political Revolution is about is revitalizing american democracy and making sure that every american understands that, yes, football is a spectator sport. Democracy is not a spectator sport. Host yesterday in rochester, minnesota, where Bernie Sanders is keeping an eye on caucus states, and minnesota one of those states that is considered must win for senator sanders. Now to brooklyn, new york. Good to hear from you again, my friend. Caller good morning. Thank you. I want to make a brief statement and then give you my analysis. I believe that something is going on in america, especially in those south and North Carolina states, the same states and stay with me where white races murdered innocent black folk in the church and they forgave him before the guy had a chance to eat his burger. Now me march in lock step behind a candidate who advocated for the prison constitutional complex where hundreds of thousands of black and brown folks were stabbed and put into the criminal Justice System, and goldened police to kill black and brown folks all over america, and theyve been marching lock step behind hillary. Im amazed at the numbers. Im not surprised that the percentage she got with older voters, because it was a reason that even god had to ban the israelites into the wilderness until the old folks died off, because they are an embed to actually doing whats right in america. Host vincent from brooklyn, new york. Next up is anthony joining us from edison, new jersey, independent line. Good morning. Caller good morning. I wanted to say that a lot of these candidates like hillary, they go along, and bernie, they turn around and say, oh, were going to do this and that, but they have no executive experience, never run companies. Theyve never made a payroll. Theyre just government theyre just on the government payroll. They dont understand, america is based on capitalism. Thats the root of a tree. Any of your social programs, you are the fruits that come from the strong base of capitalism. How are you supposed to pay for things if you dont have the money . Government is good at two things, taking money and spending it. They are not good at saving it. When it comes to trump and hillary, hillary is no way going to beat trump. What about all the deals she made . Whats going to happen when she was secretary of state . She took she promised this, and now theyre all going to say, why dont you be in here . Its time for us to cash in, and shes going to make things even worse. What can she do . She cant touch trump as far as deals or business or experience and getting this economy straightened out. We need an engine that reduces money before you can plan on spending it on all these social programs. You got to save the country first. The engine has to be fixed first before you can start dialing up the cart. People just dont understand that. We are a capitalist country. Socialism does not work. Its failed everywhere its been tried. And people just cant get it through their head because everybody wants theirs and they want their hand out. Well, who is going to pay for it . Hillary has no plan. Obama had no plan. Trump has a plan to straighten things out, whether you like it or not, hes the penicillin this country needs, and have a nice day. Host anthony, can you stay on the line for a meant . Anthony . I was going to ask him about his governor, who endorsed donald trump on friday, getting a lot of attention. This is how the hill newspaper is writing about the front page story yesterday in the New York Daily News with the caricature of the k. K. K. And Chris Christie over the trump support with that k. K. K. Cover, a man with a klan, and a peculiarity of new jersey governor, former republican president ial candidate donald trump. Inside the new york times, trump and rubio open new fronts in a war of playground insults. The story about some of the accusations that went back and forth yesterday on the campaign trail. In a Campaign Season without peer and insult and tragic comedy, consider saturdays candidate on candidate exchanges, donald j. Trump has the nations worst spray tan and requires a hair force one. Marco rubio is too dim to have attended mr. Trumps ivy legal ma matter. Mr. Trump calls to mind the lunatic in North Carolina with nuclear ambitions, and mr. Rubio relies on his outside ears to protect against flop sweat host a new round of ads for the democrats, this from Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders with a focus on michigan, which has a primary on march 8. The son of a polish immigrant who blew up in a brooklyn tenement, he went to public schools, then college, where the work of his life began, fighting injustice and inequality, speaking truth to power. He moved to vermont, won election and praise as one of americas best men. In congress, he stood up for working families and for principles, opposing the iraq war, supporting veterans. Now hes taking on wall street and a corrupt political system, funded by millions of contributions. He wants to create clean energy jobs, fighting for living wages, equal pay, and tuitionfree public colleges. People are sick and tired of establishment politics, and they want real change. Bernie sanders, husband, father, grandfather, and honest leader building a movement with you, to give us a future to believe in. Im Bernie Sanders, and i approve this message. This one has no fresh, clean water source, and the water is poisoned. We cant drink the water. We cant bathe in the water. You cant cook with the water. There was a time when we were alone and nobody heard our story. I am here, because for nearly two years flints water was poisoned. Hillary clinton came here to show shes standing with us. Shes the one that brought this to another level of attention, and thats what we needed. And what has been happening in flint, that happened in gross pointe or lookfield hills, i think we all know we would have had a solution yesterday. Hillary clinton really cares about people. Shes awesome. When u somebody like that fighting for you and supporting you and saying ive got your back, you cant ask for much more. And i will fight for you in flint no matter how long it takes. Im Hillary Clinton, and i approve this message. Host some of the ads now on the air in michigan. Another super tuesday primary state. Tim is joining us, gainesville, florida, with reaction to Hillary Clintons win yesterday and the road ahead to tuesday. Good morning, tim, democrats line. Tim, you with us . All right, one more time. Well go to mike, joining us from georgia. Good morning, mike. Caller hey, steve, how are you . Host fine, thank you. Big primary in your state tuesday. Caller yeah, i know it. I just i dont think hillarys been here once, and bills been here once. I think he was here yesterday. Host right. Caller im just sick im just sick to death. I might get this a little bit sketchy here, so get close to your button to cut me off. Im probably going to be as down the middle as i can. Host just keep it clean, mike, and you can say as much as you want. [laughter] caller well, i call in all the time, and i talk to you. I think we have a bromance or going on. Host dont tell anyone else, but go ahead. Caller anyway, i kind of like that first woman that called. I am sick about the way just panders to all the black folks of South Carolina. You know, it was black this, black that, i got to go save the blacks, got to care, you know, the black vote or whatever. You know, and the republicans aint no better. They just go around and talk to all the white folks. Its like we need to have a democratic president for all the black people and a republican president for all the white people. But why cant we get somebody that just my policies is going to help everybody, not just the blacks, not just the whites, but everybody. And that would be so much better. I dont want them to get burned down, where people cry and everything, but its the truth, man. I am sick to death. Our leader on the republican side, i feel like needs to take a shower every time i hear him give a speech. Im just aggravated. I just think that were in trouble no matter which way we vote. Its just im just mad. Host are you going to vote on tuesday . Caller yeah. And i think im going to vote for john kasich. I think that hes got the best handle on it. Hes been there and done that. I remember him back when he was first starting out, and lord, he was terrible. I mean, he was real aggravating, but the man is really smart. He knows what to do about balancing the budget, and he can work with democrats. And im telling everybody, you know, somebody gets on there and just runs the democrats down or just runs republicans down. Were in trouble if that happens, because it takes both of them. I really want somebody that can talk to both of them. Host were going to move on, but thank you very much for the call. We appreciate it. Caller the next 30 days, buddy. Host ok. Well talk to you soon. We did cover john kasich yesterday. Tomorrow hell number plymouth, massachusetts. Massachusetts is one of the 12 states with primaries or caucuses on tuesday. Still delegate selection this week and next week. And then for the republicans only beginning on march 15, the Republican Party moves to winner take all state, and ohio is one of those states, so is florida. And this is the headline from the minneapolis star tribune, with an eye on the caucus tuesday in that state, being called a mustwin state for senator sanders, which is one reason why he was in rochester, minnesota, outside of minneapolis yesterday. All of the republican and Democratic Candidates have traveled through the state except for donald trump. Donald trump will be in gornl good morning tomorrow. Well have live coverage of his comments, scheduled to get underway at 6 00 eastern time. This is a tweet from one of our viewers saying insiders moving to thwart donald trump. Romney will enter the race if rubio fails. And inside the new york times, the headline, frantic efforts to derail donald trump falling flat in the Republican Party. Francis is joining us next from connecticut. Good morning. Caller good morning. First of all id like to say thank you for this program. Everyone in the media is crazy. We cant get any news that isnt biased. What happened to accountability . I switched from being a dome a republican just this year. I wish i had not even bothered, because by the time it gets to connecticut, i have no say about the president anyway. Its already been decided. And the thing is, i was upset about cnn, their reporting being so biased. But now that everybody, all the republicans watch fox news, and fox news is more biased in favor of donald trump, so that whatever rubio says against donald trump is a waste of time, because fox news has a panel that discusses it and dismisses it as being a waste of time. People look at it, and they say, oh, theres no point in voting against donald trump because hes a foregone conclusion. What happened to some kind of accountability in the media . Host frances, thank you, and thank you for watching cspan, the within place where you can watch all the candidates and hear their sandeaches interviews in their entirety, so we appreciate that. Theres a piece about what its like to be on what some are calling trump force one, a photograph of donald trump outside the boeing 747, aboard trumps guilded jet, every seat is first class. And this headline from the new york post, super tuesday will determine whether trump can be stopped. John kasich yesterday on the campaign trail in nashville, tennessee, heres a portion. Senator kasich i beat Hillary Clinton by more than any republican candidate in the race by 11 points. We havent been talking about this much, but i beat her by 18 points in ohio, and i vanity checked the record yet, but i dont think any republican has ever been elected president without winning ohio. Is that right . Does anybody know that to be true . And by the way, i will beat donald trump in ohio, and that will be the beginning of a new day. [applause] i will beat him in ohio, you can count on it, ok . Some of the other candidates, if they cant win their home state, they got to get out. If i dont win my home state, ill get out, but im going to win ohio. I can promise you that this lady moving back there with that flag, and shes going to wave it. Shes going to stand on the side of the highway and wave that flag, ok . Host Governor John Kasich in nashville yesterday, part of our road to the white house coverage. Garth is joining from us connecticut, democrats line. Good morning. Thanks for being with us. Caller thank you, steve. Ils falls village, connecticut. Host im sorry, falls village, good morning. Caller thank you. First i want to say that my husband and i watch the show every morning. And we find it the goto place to hear what our american fellow citizens are saying from coast to coast. Host well, thank you for that. Caller very unique in the media. Im a conflicted democrat as far as the current election. Im in my 50s. I campaigned for bill clinton ack in 1992. And his first act in office was dont ask, dont tell, on the first day of his office. And i howled at work that day, the moment i heard that, i couldnt believe it. Then in 1996, scombill hillary supported doma, and i clearly remember a news clip of her speaking about her support of doma. And then, of course, there was e war and the expansion of incarceration. Michelle al demand her a great piece in the nation this past month about hillarys time back then in the 1990s. Were the s also architecturers and implementers of nafta, which is kind of at the root and core of our troubles right now. Im facing a very popular democrat of a party that im a lifelong member of, and really conflicted about voting for her. So at this point my options are opening, and the landscape is kind of grim. Host any republican you would support, garth . Caller thats kind of a nono for me. I mean, i am a bornbled democrat. My parents were democrats. My grandparents were democrats. So something has to come along, and bernie is just is just shooting too high. I dont know. I appreciate how hes adding to the conversation. Its very important that hes doing that. But ultimately i dont see him being the person. So i guess im waiting to see if there will be a third a third party or independent. Host the name being mentioned has been michael bloomberg. So if he were to run, you certainly know his work, living in falls village, connecticut, not too far from new york city, would you support him . Caller the city for 18 years, so i do like bloomberg. He was the right thing after gule yani. Host thank you for adding your voice. We appreciate it, garth. Caller thank you. Have a great day. Host this one says trump doesnt need fox, cnn is giving him all the free air time he wants. Speaking of strategy for the democrats, the Washington Post looking ahead to super tuesday, what Hillary Clinton needs to do, what Bernie Sanders needs to do. Its available at washingtonpost. Com. Hillary clinton expected to do best across super tuesdays six southern states. The last who strongly supported for clinton accounted for a big share in all of them. Bernie sanders has his best chance in winning five states, all outside the south, including in vermont, minnesota, and massachusetts. Also what to watch for, super tuesday is inside the Washington Post this morning, and you go through the list of states. You can see alabama, alaska, arkansas, georgia, massachusetts, minnesota, oklahoma, tennessee, texas, vermont, and virginia. Our lines are open, and you can join in on the conversation, 202748 is the number to call. 8000 for democrats. 2027488001 for republicans. Karen from New Hampshire, good morning, welcome to the program. Caller hi there, good morning to you. How are you, snir host fine. Independent line, good morning, karen. Caller yes, i just was calling bummed hat i im that we had our primary so long ago and hadnt got to hear what others had to really say, and i say that because i kind of was in favor of trump until i heard ruz, him speaking by himself on cspan. I listened to it early this morning, and changed my whole perspective of him. You know, oneonone, him talking, and what he really feels, in which case i believe that faith is a big thing and it does go in politics, and thats what our country was founded upon. , u know, listening to hillary i just thought that between her and sanders, its just such a farce that they want to give to those who do nothing, and i agree with the man, as much as i hate to say it, that everything being about black people, and im not im not prejudiced, im indian and french. I just think that, you know, hes correct, it ought to just be about everyone and not be themselves being prejudiced, and the fact that she went and had a speaker to introduce her was black, i just thought, you know, things, why am i baffled . I dont know. But then when she was talking about being in whatever establishment was, and she saw a man reading a book, and it was a minister, and he was reading the bible, and she said, oh, he was at my favorite place in the bible, first corinthians 13, and how it was all about love and this and that, and well, you know what, shes not a christian, you know . I just think that people need to realize that people can say they are, but if you dont have faith first, it doesnt matter what you want to do for people. Religious activities dont get you anywhere with the dear lord. Host karen, thanks. Heres a portion of secretary clinton as she talked about first corinthians. Senator clinton you know, on one of my first trips to South Carolina during this campaign, i stopped by a bakery here in columbia. I was saying hello to everybody. I went over to say hello to a man reading a book in the corner. Turned out he was a minister, and the book was a bible. He was studying first corinthians 13, which happens to be one of my favorite passages. Love never fails, it tells us, love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, ndures all things. These are words to live by, not only for ourselves, but also for our country. I know it sometimes seems a little odd to someone running for president , these days, and this time, to say we need more love and kindness in america. But im telling you, from the bottom of my heart, we do. We do. We have so much to look forward to. Theres no doubt in my mind that americas best years can be ahead of us. We have got to believe that. Weve got to work for that. We have to stand with each other. We have to hold each other up, lift each other up, move together into the future. Thank you. God bless you, and god bless america. Host Hillary Clinton in columbia, South Carolina, last night. Our cspan website, were keeping track of the delegate count. Right now Hillary Clinton with a commanding lead of the more than 2,000 needed to secure the nomination on the first ballot, with super delegates included, Hillary Clinton has 544 delegates after her win last night. Senator sanders has 85. On the republican side, donald trump with 82 delegates. Senator rubio and senator cruz both with fewer than 20 each. And time magazine, under the title, the g. O. P. s last best chance to trump trump. Now to North Carolina, good morning, independent line. Caller good morning. Am i on . Host you sure are. Caller ok. Well, im independent. I dont i dont like either party. I mean, i dont like either party that think that im on their side. But this country is going down the same road when moses led the people out of egypt. Were rebels. People only care about having a good time, party this, party that. But im going to tell you what, this country is going down just like the fall of babylon, and i think theres only one guy that truly has the fear of god, and thats ted cruz. And donald trump, hes a good actor. Hes not he just needs to stick with game shows and Building Hotels and whatever. Host thanks for the call. Another viewer saying senator rubio should get out. If all he has left in his arsenal is rid accuse and sarcasm. He was once running an issues campaign, no longerment well hear from senator rubio in just a moment. He was in atlanta yesterday. Kathy from michigan, democrats line. Good morning. Caller good morning, steve. You know, a couple of comments that people called in, the gentleman who talked about socialism not working, it works very well. Its working very well in denmark. Theres a lot of social programs that build the country up and keep it healthy. The woman from connecticut, you know, the news, i dont have tv and havent for nine years. Turn it off. Stream it on the web. Read your newspapers, particularly your local newspapers. Those are a very strong source of information thats real. And as far as Hillary Clinton and that situation in flint and her speaking, i talked my son, whos just located there, living with one of his aunts. I was talking to him on the phone yesterday, theres somebody driving a snowball down the middle of the street. They had a very heavy snowstorm on wednesday. The streets arent plowed. Its like a twotrack road. So she thinks that going there and garnering the black vote is a healthy way to campaign. Shes mistaken. I dont like the fact that she walks around the country in expensive outfits, talks and talks and talks, but theres no action. And then the situation with bringing clinton to heal. Thats probably one of the most caustic and i am up humane comments ive ever heard. Theres a little boy in flint, been exexpelled 56 times from school this year, and its due to lead poisoning. That speaks volumes. Host tomorrow, marc edwards, who is at Virginia Tech and a member of the panel looking at flunts water crisis, hell be joining us tomorrow morning to talk about this situation in flint, michigan. The headline this morning from the front page of the Washington Post, below the fold, senator marco rube yope, his strategy for super tuesday is simple, it is survival. Heres more with senator rubio yesterday in atlanta. Senator rubio donald trump had a school, a thing called Trump University. And what he would do, they would go to people who are looking to make more money. Theyve been calling our office nonstop after the debate, literally, emails, phone calls from people, were talking to a lot of them. Youre going to hear from some of them very soon, people who paid as much as 35,000 because they were told that donald trump, this great real estate genius, was going to give them all the secrets to making money, so they paid a lot of money for these courses. They were told max your credit cards, you can make even more money if you sign up for the gold course or whatever it is, and they did. And at the end of the process, the only thing they got was a little paper, a certificate, and they got to take a picture with a cardboard cutout of donald trump. Thats what they got. That is called a con job, ok . That is what he is doing now to millions of americans. Millions of americans who are hurting. People are struggling. You know it. Youre struggling, some of you are. Youre working as hard as you ever have, and youre running in place. You have trouble moving ahead. You have trouble getting ahead, because the world has been unfair, because the economy has gone upsidedown, and here comes this guy and tells you i am going to help you turn it around because ive been very successful in business. Not really. He inherited millions of dollars. If he took those millions of dollars and put them into the stock market, just like a normal person, just into the stock market, he would have more money today than Warren Buffett. But instead hen vested in hotels that went bankrupt. He bankrupted a casino. How do you bankrupt a casino . [applause] senator rubio the house always wins. Heres whats not funny about that. Any time he bankrupted a business, any time he bankrupted a business, the people who paid the price were the contractors he had hired. Were also hearing from them. Im telling you, they are calling nonstone, Small Businesses that didnt work, and he pulled his money out and did he what he needed to do, and they never got paid. He is not some great businessman. Hes taken four companies into bankruptcy. You ever heard of trump snare its gone. Four casinos bankrupt in atlantic city. He is not some genius. He is a guy that inhaint hundreds of millions of dollars, and had he invested in the stock market he would have been better off. He says to people i am going to take on illegal immigration. Hes the only one running for president thats never hired Illegal Immigrants to work for him. He hired polish workers to help on trump tower. Oh, no, hes going to protect from you immigrants taking your jobs. Well, why is he hiring foreigners to do the jobs at his hotels that americans are trying to get . Hes hiring foreigners to do the job. Host senator rubio yesterday on the campaign trail in georgia, one of the key super tuesday states. He mentioned Warren Buffett. This is the story this morning from inside the new york times, also the Washington Post writing about the letter that Warren Buffett had sent to investors, and adding that those children born today, the babies being born in america are the luckiest crop in history, rejecting the candidates message that the u. S. Is in decline. And another viewer saying gridlock would end overnight if michigan mcconnell and a few others were sent packing. On the republican line, tony is joining us from pennsylvania. Good morning. Caller good morning, sir. Thank you for taking my call. Enjoy cspan. Listening to all the news shows. The ones i agree with, i watch a little bit more of, but you always want to watch the other side. Your program, i find it quite amazing, the ignorance of the American People. One of your callers had it right where judge a person on their actions, not what they say. Im a registered republican. I voted for george bush twice. I think one of the things i wasnt happy about, if youre unhappy with george bush running a 7 trillion debt, i dont understand how you agree with the Obama Administration more than doubling the national debt. Host 20 trillion now. Caller yes, exactly. And that lady that said socialism works, oh, my goodness, that just goes to, my gosh, the education of this nation. Socialism has been tried, has never, never worked. You cant you cant depend on the government to run your life, and saying that, i think the only person qualified based on his record to run this country and to bring it back from where its headed is ted cruz. Host thanks for the call. Youre from the birthplace of john kasich, the governor of ohio. Caller hes done a good job also. Y sister, who lives in ohio, it goes back to some of the programs. He has a lot of programs i believe in helping the poor and needy. But the corruption behind all that, my sister is a psychologist, and she see as lot of young kids being brought in there on social security. That program was never meant to support that kind of stuff. Once again, its programs that werent meant for this money is being spent on stuff like that. Sure, help the drugs that the people are addicted. I agree totally with that, but its not up to the government to do this. Its because nobody is watching all these programs, you know, the corruptness, you know, its just more government, you know, spending money that wasnt allocated to. Host tony, thank you very much for the call. From the Washington Post, 20 years later, clinton Still Believes in the village. Her book that came out, it takes a village, when she served ads first lady, and inside the Washington Post opinion page, the g. O. P. s frankenstein monster, he said donald trump is feeding off forces the party helped to mature and that had hopes to ride into power. Steve has this tweet saying yesterday donald trump said he wants to take down the First Amendment so that he can punish his critics. And new ads for the republican candidates on the air in super tuesday states, what they look like. This nation faced a period of doubt. After a failed presidency, it felt like america was in decline, our economy was stagnant, and the American Dream felt like it was slipping away. And then we elected a president that inspired us, who asked us to remember who we were and who believed, as we do, that americas greatest days always lie ahead. Now the children of the reagan revolution are ready to assume he mantel of leadership. Washington politicians and lobbyists are rushing to crown marco rubio, but National Polls show john kasich is the one who beats Hillary Clinton by 11 points, not marco rubio, and that of all the g. O. P. Candidates, only john kasich has the experience to be president. Only john kasich. D. C. Lobbyists wrong . Now theres a first. New day for america is responsible for the content of this advertising. Host the Washington Post reporting that about 11 million spent by outside Interest Groups in advertising over the month of january, of course, with iowa and New Hampshire primaries leading the way. A few more phone calls as we look at the results yesterday in South Carolina and whats next for super tuesday. Perry is joining us from illinois, democrats line. Good morning. Caller good morning. Good morning, cspan. Host good morning. Caller i would just like to talk about trump with his speech. Any time somebody is going give you a lot of things and say good things, it remind me what hitler did to the people when he was promised them all those things, and in fact he was making war plans, jews, and he start slaughter them. They were smart, genius people, and he took them down that road, and a Million People died. Like what hin are you is saying, this country is great, but the thing is, theres so many people here enjoying the good life and other folks are not. Its not just black and white, its both. Host thanks very much for the call. This is the headline inside the Washington Post, senator rubio releasing five years of tax returns as he tries to put pressure on donald trump to do the same. Our guest on cspans newsmakers talked about that, it airs at 10 00 eastern time. Theres this tweet, saying the u. S. Is drowning in socialism. The difference is we have socialism for the rich. Our last call, appropriately enough, is from one of the super tuesday states in georgia. James on the republican line. Good morning. Caller good morning. Im africanamerican, and im definitely voting for trump, and the surprise is there are a lot of africanamericans that are going to be voting for donald trump. This whole comparison im starting to hear in the media and cnn, quit the hitler comparisons, ok . Quit it. If people actually understood history beyond the third grade, the hitler comparisons and donald trump, theres no comparison. So i know its liberal media talking points to try to make it seem like hes racist. What is he saying thats racist . As an africanamerican, i have not heard one thing donald trump has said thats racist. Hes talking about immigration, he wants a tougher immigration law, so thats racist . I mean, you know, Hillary Clinton and the panda bear, bill clinton, you know, they just go and pander to black people and say and its just, as an africanamerican, it was absolutely sickening to see and hear, you know, its like, if i quote a bible verse or say, you know, africanamericans are so dumb, theyre just going to vote for me or something, its just, you know, lets not forget, in 2008, Hillary Clinton, bill clinton told ted kennedy this guy will get us a cup of coffee a couple of years ago, and how she had a dog whistle, she was saying on the campaign trail about hard working americans, obama want support is weakening. You know, if youre africanamerican and youre fooled by Hillary Clinton and bill clinton, then, you know, i dont know what to say. Host thanks very much for the call from athens, georgia. Well have live coverage of the results on super tuesday, getting underway at 7 00 eastern time, 4 00 for those of you on the west coast. Of course, our program carried on cspan radio. Coming up next, were going to turn our attention to donald trump and his overseas business venture. Joining us here at the table is tim higgins of Bloomberg News. He covers politics. Later, molly otoole to talk about the white house plan to close gitmo, Guantanamo Bay. She rights for Foreign Policy magazine. But first, something you might find fascinating if you love politics. Only the second televised debate ever, and it took place back in 1960 in West Virginia, a debate between thensenator john f. Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey of minnesota. Its part of cspan3 American History tv called road to the white house rewind, and we were able to find this archival coverage, the film of the debate that took place, as we said, only the second televised debate, a key victory in 1960 for senator kennedy. Heres a portion. Why does senator kennedy this is a question directed at both of you why do senator ken zpee senator humphrey blame all of West Virginia on the Eisenhower Administration when we have a Democratic Congress of which both are members and which has done nothing yet toward helping it . Whos going to answer that one first . Y been getting all the hot ones, but ill take this one. [laughter] go ahead, john, if you wish. Well, i was just going to say, i remember that taking the lead before 1953 to spear defense contracts into an area, which my state of massachusetts had a good many. This administration committed themselves to maintaining it by executive order, and it was never done. He led the fight against our effort. I was the floor manager on the first area redevelopment bill, which was intended, and both of us have mentioned this, to assist areas like West Virginia, which had high unemployment. The president vetoed that bill. Im going to let senator humphrey give a couple of other examples. One other example is the Coal Research bill, which was members of the West Virginia delegation. And by the way, the Coal Research bhill a modest appropriation to it, and hes the entire economy. The president vetoed that. I might add, however, we have 19 such Research Programs in foreign countries, which the taxpayers of america pay for, but not one going to West Virginia. Further morning the administration has taken a very dim view of such programs as the food stamp plan, which we passed, and would have been a help right near West Virginia. Now the im auth of the food stamp plan. We attached it to the food Disposal Program arrest year, and it would have provided for a balanced diet for the needy people in this state that has over 400 million of moneys not paid in by taxpayers, but collected by tariffs on food imports into this country that are available. Those dollars are available to purchase bowel tree, meat, milk, butter, cheese, soybean, whatever is necessary for a balanced diet, including fruits and vegetables. The administration has vetoed 147 times acts of congress, and we have not had the 2 3 to override the vetoes. Im fully familiar with the area redevelopment bill, having been with senator kennedy a cosponsor of it, and by the way, we passed it again in the senate, and i am hoping that tonight the house of representatives will have passed it for the second time so that the president will have it on his desk once more. Floip may of 1960, a fascinating debate. If you love politics and history, you want to check it out on cspan3s American History tv at 10 00 eastern time, also at 7 00 p. M. Eastern time and 11 00 p. M. Eastern time. By the way, senator kennedy winning West Virginia with 60 of the vote, securing his nomination back in 1960. The full debate, which runs an hour, only the second televised debate ever. Its all part of cspan3s American History tv. Check it out online at cspan. Org. We want to welcome tim higgins. He covers politics for Bloomberg News. Hes been looking at the Business Ventures of donald trump. Good morning. Thank you for being with us. Guest good morning. Host you write the following, saying donald trump says his organization is in talks on more than 100 deals, 85 of them outside the United States, and that if elected he will fwroy internal relations the savvy he has demonstrated as a global deal maker. But an examination of his operations abroad reveals that while hes made many millions selling his name, he has chosen a number of inexperienced, even questionable partners, sometimes infuriating buyers and associated and moved late into saturated markets, often producing less income than advertised. Guest well, hes made many millions of dollars, no doubt about it. Theres his name on buildings all around the world. But we looked into some of these deals in toronto, istanbul, panama, elsewhere, and found a pattern sometimes that he would make money, and then his partners would be perhaps unhappy down the road. Host what was the most surprising thing that you learned . Guest well, the most surprising thing was just, when you look around at how many people were unhappy. I mean, in panama, his partners were trying to get out of the business with him. In toronto, you look at istanbul, and we are told his partners want to get out of business there with him. There seems to be a pattern that emerged. He would get paid, and then down the road his people would be unhappy. Host i want to share with you just one of the moments from the cnn debate that took place on thursday. He talked about his experiences in negotiating deals overseas. Mr. Trump im a negotiator. Ive done very well over the years through negotiation. Its very important that we do that. In all fairness, marco is not a negotiator. I watched him melt down, and i tell you, it was one of the saddest things ive ever seen. Hes not going down he thinks this is a real estate deal. Mr. Trump these people may even be tougher than Chris Christie. Senator rubio this is not a real estate deal. When youre dealing with terrorists mr. Trump youre not a negotiator. With your thinking, you will never you will never i repeat, you will never bring senator rubio i bring this is not a real estate deal. Mr. Trump he will never be able to do t. I think i may be able to do it, although i will say this, probably the toughest deal of any kind is that particular deal. Host as you hear donald trump, that has really been one of the key hall marks of his candidacy. Hes an outsider. Hes a businessman. He knows how to make a deal. He wrote the bestselling book the art of the deal. Guest his opponents are now hitting him on his business experience. There are some questions that have arisen. He has made money. Hes been very successful at trading the trump brand. Host lets go to a couple of overseas locations that you write about. In t of all, trump towers azerbaijan. Guest the economy there is struggling. He was paid about 2. 5 million for a deal, and put his name on it, and there was a lot of talk about how it was going to be the greatest thing, the best thing ever. But now its on hold, and he says it could come back. These deals sometimes are always they can be on hold because of various reasons, and then they blossom into being occurring. But at this point in time, only such. Host a thing from your article, which by the way, is Available Online at bloomberg politics. What you just mentioned, using his name, lending his name. How much of it is the trump brand, the name, versus his business expertise and his negotiating skills . Guest yeah, you look at his ability to create a brand from the apprentice tv show, and really, he started pushing to go globally and sell that name. In court records, he even talked about his ability to do the deals where he sees it almost like a car factory, where hes going to crank the deals out. He puts his name on the building, perhaps he gets a percentage of the buildings profit or sales or management fee, something so that effect. One deal in particular we looked at in panama, the terms of that deal, we found in the bond perspective there, because he took out public debt, but he was it projected that he was going to make 75 million. He got more than 1 million just signing the deal to put his name on the building. Host you write the following, in canada and turkey, his Business Partners want to cut him loose n. Scotland and ireland, he claims to be making millions, but so far is losing. Guest thats an interesting detail there in the u. K. Because the u. K. Laws there, they have to file their income statements with local regulators. So hes a private businessman, and really, this campaign has been kind of one of the first windows into his business and how it operates. But you can look at the u. K. Golf courses and see that hes claimed losses there. Yet because of his president ial campaign and ethics requirements, hes posted his personal financial details last summer. When you compare the two, questions arose, because he was claiming large profit large income from those facilities. So we asked him, why 20 million in income from these places that are losing lots of money . Whats going on . Accounting is complicated, theres lots of ways to do things. And he says, well, thats projected future income. Host what does that mean . Guest these properties are going to do well in the future. Host lets talk about his taxes. It came up in the debate. Well hear from him in just a moment. But is this one of the reasons why hes reluctant to release them . Guest he has a history his history of being a billionaire and the idea of how much his worth theres always been discussions about how he calculates that. Host lets hear from donald trump on cnn, the debate, which is reairing later today, was asked about his tax returns. Mr. Trump i was the first one to file a Financial Disclosure form, almost 100 pages. You dont learn anything about somebodys wealth with a tax return. You learn it from statements. I filed which shows im worth over 10 billion. I built a Great Company with very little debt. People were shocked. People in the back, the reporters, they were shocked when they went down. And i filed it on time. I did not ask for five 45day extensions, which i would have been entitled to. As far as thats concerned, i filed it, and thats where you find out what kind of a company you dont learn anything a tax return. I will say this, mitt romney looked like a fool which he delayed and delayed and delayed, and harry reid baited him so beautiful. And mitt romney didnt file his return until september 21 of 2012, about a month and a half before the election. And it cost him big. As far as my return, i want to file it, except for many years ive been ought audited every year, 12 years or Something Like that. Every year they audit me, audit me. I have friends that are very wealthy people, they never gets audited. I get audited every year. I will absolutely give my returns, im being audited for two or three years, so i cant do it until the audit is finished, obviously, and i think people would understand that. Host donald trump on cnn last thursday. Well hear from the i. R. S. Commissioner in just a couple of minutes. But your reaction to what he had to say in that debate . Guest yeah, its fun. Its a fun conversation when you like get into the numbers. I think a lot of people to want see what his tax want to see what his tax returns look like. Lots of questions about how his empire has operated. Host does Donald Trumps bankse deal true global by showing stocks . Guest in most cases he is not putting any money down. At least according to people we talked to. He is really just selling his name. Putting the brand on the building. One of his developers was happy to do is deal with him. The developer had to go through bankruptcy reorganization. He said he would not have been able to do the deal is likely without Donald Trumps name on the building. That helped that developer turn around and sell those units to small investors, folks who wanted to buy into the building and the trunk lifestyle the trump lifestyle. Host why does it take candidates so long to dig into Donald Trumps past . Think he was not a serious candidate . Guest i think there has been lots of stories about Donald Trumps past not just the cycle going back years and years. Some of the stories have been told before but i think what is unique about our story is the putting it all together and the scope you often find some common themes among some of these deals and that is that he gets paid and some folks are unhappy afterwards. Host we are talking with tim higgins of Bloomberg News writing about Donald Trumps overseas ventures and how he is tried to cancel a number of contracts. Situation in toronto example, his partner is unhappy with him and is trying to get out of the deal and he is fighting to stay in the deal and now there is suggestion that perhaps the partner would like to sell or would like to get out of having donald trump involved, holding down the value because he is a manager and they would like to potentially get a different manager. Host chris is joining us from new york, democrats line with tim higgins a Bloomberg News. Caller good morning. Lets say if donald trump is making all of these deals, the only one coming out ahead is him. What is wrong with that . Wherever he goes to make deals with other countries he is going to look out ahead. If these guys do not like it but sign for the deal, i do not see anything wrong with that. Rubio and ted cruz, they are in the senate the two of them. They can tell you they can do so much to improve the country they believe in the constitution. They should be able to do something now. They cant do anything now. They are responsible for what is going on. Congress and senate. They can get pretty much what they want to do. I dont see them trying for the regular person. If i take care of somebody, if i give this guy 50 to do something for me he knows when asking for a favor hes going to have to do it. These guys that are behind rubio and ted, millions of dollars, hes going to have to do them some favors done the road. Host thank you for adding your voice to the conversation. Guest he brings up a good point. A side of the story is that donald trump would argue his track record shows when he is negotiating for himself he can do a really good job and get the best deal for him and he wants to take that savvy to negotiating deals for the u. S. Your caller points out here is a guy who knows how to negotiate for himself. He got paid, now the u. S. Might perhaps get paid. I put it to mr. Trump negotiating so hard what happens if you get the best deal and after the fact our partners are unhappy and he says, politics there is room to make everybody happy. He definitely would be watching up for the u. S. And feels like any deal is better than what we currently have. Host this is from robert, part of yours best he points out that trump is clothing which had been sold in macys making his neckties in mexico and china. That also came up in the debate. Guest it is interesting. Global businessman on real estate deals but he also has these merchandise items that have a Global Supply chain. Perhapsre global than the typical candidate in the way that he is a businessman and he would say that Global Executive experience is a benefit. Host george munro saying Trump University as a democratic ad goldmine 5000 people ripped off. 35,000 each for a large cut out of donald trump. Guest definitely is going to be a talking point. He listened to the Trump Organization and how they have defended Trump University. You get to one of your first callers questions. If somebody signed up for this, they signed up by her beware. Buyer beware. Some of the condo owners are small investors, would end up suing. In torontos case the judge said investor beware because you were promised by nontrump people another developer that you are going to get x returns and you did not. Host one more tweet saying trump is the ponzi politician. Casinos, Trump University, all failures with his name. James is joining us from Gulf Shores Alabama online for republicans with tim higgins of Bloomberg News. Caller good morning. That i donto say know what people dont get. We are just fed up. General forians in all the United States. We are sick of the congress and the senate. Donald trump is not perfect but none of us are perfect. Cast the first stone. What you got to understand is we are fed up with the regular politicians telling us this, telling us that, making us believe that we are going to do better by electing another politician. We want somebody different that will stand up for us and not just say theyre going to stand up and falling the same line. Im 72 years old. Ive opened stores, closed stores. But im still in business after 50 years. I am not the richest man in the world like donald trump but i know what the American Dream is. People are seeking that. We are sick and tired of people coming into our country illegally. We are sick and tired of being pushed around. We are sick and tired of being sick and tired and thats why the people of america are voting donald trump and he is going to run the table no matter what people like or do not like. Perfect, you cast the first stone. Host thanks for the call. Guest i think you are hearing you see the support growing from the disenfranchised feeling out there in the country that the folks in this town in d. C. Dont get. What the businessman from illinois i believe is talking about. Host donald trump says his organization is in talks with more than 100 deals. 85 of them outside the United States and that if elected president he will bring to International Relations the savvy he has demonstrated as a global dealmaker. But an examination of his operations abroad revealing that while he has made millions selling his name he has chosen a number of inexperienced, even questionable partners, sometimes infuriating buyers and associates and moved late into saturated markets producing less income than advertised. You can read the full essay online at bloomberg politics. Com. Wayne is joining us from myrtle beach, South Carolina. Independent line. Caller first time independent voter. I will be voting for trump. Nice program. Nice to see the First Amendment in action. Dams have been in government asked the two democrats of been in government for 30 years and all the do is complain about it. That is the same old. Cruz, if cruz was not a politician youd be usedcar salesman. Rubio is a kid. A great speaker but a kid. Anything the four of them have done. I will take even a dog park. Trump, we have a change. We need to change. Same old same old is over with. We are fed up with it. Trump is the revolution. Host thanks for the call. Guest that is what mr. Trump would argue and he would argue he would bring negotiating skills you do not see from the rear government officials. From career government officials. He has been able to negotiate for himself. Host donald will be in madison, alabama live coverage getting underway at 5 00 eastern time on the cspan networks. Tomorrow we keep track of the four leading republicans and two democrats in this race. You can watch across the cspan networks. Super tuesday gets underway at 7 00 eastern time am a 4 00 for those of you on the west coast. Milton is joining us on the line for democrats. What i want to say is that people like your guest do not get it. They are not getting it that donald trump is the bridge over troubled water. Exactlying to deliver everything he said hes going to give and that is what we are working for because we believe he can do some things positively that most politicians cant do. Thats my comment. Host thank you. Guest nice to hear from him. As to hear what supporters are saying. I do think it gets to how he has been able to craft his business brand into the political spirit. One of the things i talk to him about, and some ways running for president has affected his business in a negative way. Places like this gamble we are told his partners play select istanbul places alike istanbul. He also says he needs to say what he to say to run for president. In other places his brandish stronger. An interesting his brand is stronger. You look at places like china, cadillac is trying to grow. It has been using its affiliation with the president s of the past to sell its luxury prowess. In some ways running for president , being one of the front runners of the president of the United States, would project an element of power that is luxury in parts of the world. It will be interesting to see what happens with his brand Going Forward and how he is able to sell it. Host his name is not too far down the street on pennsylvania avenue. A few blocks from the white house. The old office the old building. The Old Post Office building. What is his direct involvement in the project and how much money as he put up . Guest a project he has put his money into. One of the unique situations. He has put his money into golf courses in the u. K. A lot of deals we have been talking about have been franchised or licensing deals. He does still have properties in the u. S. Moved way into the franchising element in the last two years. Host are you able to estimate how much he is worth . Guest estimations have been done. Having ad without clean line of sight into his business. I did not do that for this. It was more of an examination of exactly how his International Operations run. What is the value of being a trump Brand Internationally . One of the things he says one of his he could help one of his partners do he talked about how he could go into a country and if the project was having problems getting approvals he would step in and use his name to help those talks and smooth things around. I think the quote he told me was about how they had best about how the government loved him and he thinks the star wattage allows him to advocate his positions for developers. Host i want to go back to the numbers because you talk about the golf courses. Trump international in ireland. He claims he earned about 20 point 3 million 30. 3 million the numbers are not actually correct. He has lost money. Guest income statements filed in the u. K. As part of the regulation there which show losses. I asked him about that and he was defensive of those facilities because he says he is renovating them and improving them and of course they were losing money. But the question i really have is where you claiming income on the other hand and he says, this is forwardlooking income. He believes he can unlock a lot of money out of those facilities with housing developments. Host how much access did you have . Where was the interview and how long did you spend with him . Guest i had time with him by telephone on a couple of occasions during his we can South Carolina. Host jim is joining us from lafayette, indiana. Tim higgins a Bloomberg News. Good morning. Caller my question is for trump and really all the candidates, what is the relevance of having returns . Ide their tax i dont think it matters how much money a candidate makes whether they are republican or democrat. To me it almost looks with a and thosee media opposed to the candidate so they can demonize them based on how much money they make. I dont see a reason for any candidate to have to provide their tax returns to the American Public if they are running for president. Host we will get a response. Guest one of the crucial things we look at. We want to know not necessarily how much money they have where and how they made their money and what they do with the money. The tax rate they pay. You look at the issues they try to avoid or pay fully and it says something about their onetegy and how they view of the basic elements of being a citizen in the country, paying taxes. Host duncan is next. Independent line, good morning. Caller thank you for taking my call. I have a comment here about mr. Trump. Howkind of surprised about senator rubio and there have that haves i guess. Allen by the wayside attempted to speak about mr. Trump and how he is really truly not caring not carrying himself as a statesman. As someone who should be representing the greatest country, Strongest Military in the world. With who of character i think we as americans should be wanting to represent us. Host thanks for the call. Guest i think thats the debate. Donald trump would say he is the brand his brand would be well represented the u. S. Host mary. Youngstown, ohio. A democrats line. Thank you for joining us. Caller i cant believe i got through the line. Trump. Y am against im 78 years old. Had tosomebody like him launder a lot of money. Thats why he got so much money today. I am 78 and i cant even pay a lawyer to go bankruptcy because i have a lot of medical bills and plus i do have a hospitalization. I think if he gets in their. If he gets kasich and their, we will be in bad shape because ohio here, people dont know but jeb bush said one thing about kasich. He did a lot of things that for us in ohio. The federal government he got out of the deficit the cause he took away from the poor and middle class people. I hope he does not get in there or we will be in bad shape. Host mary, thank you. Argue mr. Trump would those were not his personal bankruptcies. It does illustrate how he goes about business and how he uses the loss at hand. He says he is best usual he uses the laws at hand. Host how is he able to use the law . Bankruptcy has the connotation of being broke but in business that is not quite the case. Guest a lot of cases you take on a lot of debt. The panama deal for example. His company did not go bankrupt. The company that did to gone a lot of debt, was delayed in opening the facility, opened it eventually when the market was flooded with a lot of other units and the economy was in trouble and ran into a lot of trouble and had to reorganize debts. Not totally unusual thing for a development of that scale, talking about the largest, tallest building in Central America. Host this is the headline from Bloomberg News. A look inside Donald Trumps global deals exposes trouble in many spots. Reporting of tim higgins and i want to share with you. Spans Newsmakers Program the irs commissioner who is asked about Donald Trumps claim that the reason he is not releasing his tax returns is because of his repeated audits. [video clip] donald trump is saying he has been audited almost every year by the irs. I know you cannot talk about somebodys personal taxes, but would somebody be audited every year . He says it is going back almost every year of the Obama Administration. We cannot talk about individual cases but it would be rare for anybody to be audited every year. Usually when there is an audit it is cleared up if there are no other issues, a number of years, two or three at least before you hear from us again, something in her next return pops up. As a matter of formal auditing it would be rare. He also says he is not going to release his tax returns while he is being audited. Is there something from the irs that forbids him from releasing his tax returns . With my caveat that i cannot talk about individual cases, the taxpayer controls his returns. There is nothing in audit process generally that would keep you from sharing that information anyway you want to. What do you make of his claim that he needs the audit to be cleared up . We stress that we are a Tax Administration so we have no stake in any of the primaries going on and whatever comments are being made or being made by candidates. From our standpoint, if you are being audited and you want to do something else, share that information with returns, you can do that. He said he thinks he may be audited because he is a strong christian. Is that a reason why the irs audits someone . That is something that would never cause you to be audited. Are, who care who you you voted for, what party you belong to come up with you go to church or dont go to church. If you hear from us in response to an inquiry, it is about something in your tax return. If somebody else had that same issue in their return, they would hear from us as well with regard to limited resources of course. But it would never be a case that you would be audited because of any religious persuasion you might have. Host the irs commissioner. As you hear that next donation, your reaction . Guest i think the tax issue is another good example of how this Campaign Cycle is so much different than any other one. 2012, governor romney had this issue where there were complaints that he was not releasing his taxes in an early enough pace. Here, mr. Trump takes heat on it during the debate but is able to change the media narrative yet again with the announcement of his endorsement. Just not as hot an issue as any of the other issues. This program is carried live on the Bbc Parliament channel so it is midafternoon. I can rejoining us thank you for joining us aaron. Caller thank you very much. Host you have a big boat coming up in june, whether or not to stay in the european union. Caller it is a pretty hefty debate at the moment. You have all sorts of splits going on within the conservative party. Oninters currently going on the labor side of things as well. Its going to turn out to be a very interesting debate. Host june 23 . Caller it is. All sorts of talk about the timing of it. On,he same day it will be the second day of gloucester bury. About 155,000 people currently attend. Stuff. Ts of the referendum itself is in debate. A massive day when it comes up. Host what do you think is going to happen . It is quite funny because some of the poll say will come out. Some say we will come in, stay in. You cant really tell a this point which makes it exciting to talk about. People are waiting the economic and political benefits. The migration crisis is turning a few heads about whether to be in or out. I wouldf those think it would be bigger than scotland referendum. Host i know you wanted to call in about donald trump. An interesting election and we are following that here. Go ahead with your question or comment. Nower donald trump right sorry, tim, how are you doing this afternoon . Guest how are you. Caller donald trump seems to be campaigning like google does not exist. Through all the stuff ive been looking at, i know he is campaigning on the National Viewpoint of winning republicans. If he gets the nomination, and lets say he does become president of the United States, some of the stuff he said in regards to mexicans, muslims, all sorts of people, even disabled people. As someone with asp burgers syndrome, i take offense i take offense to. A negotiation before we even get to that point. Some of the stuff he says, i highly doubt he will be able to walk some of that back once all the dust is cleared. And when he gets the nomination and if he gets to be president of the United States. Host thank you for adding your voice on the vote taking place in june. We appreciate you joining us this morning. Guest i think you are seeing signs of the rhetoric. A former president taking issue with the wall donald trump wants to build between the two countries. You think of another campaign with a former president of a country would be engaging with a president ial candidate, it is hard to imagine such a situation. Mr. Trump used it as almost a bullet point in a debate thing he would hold a wall 10 feet higher now. Host from another viewer saying donald trump is admired in the Business World the same way ted cruz is admired in the senate. Trip is joining us, wayland, massachusetts. Good morning. Caller good morning. The people do both for trump do vote for trump, what the rnc decides not to vote for trump and what kind of chaos with that bring if they do not honor with the people want . Guest i think you are talking about a brokered convention. That would be quite the story. I think mr. Trump was tweeting earlier about the commitment he had made to be loyal to the party. There has always been this underlying narrative if he felt like he was not being treated well he would go as an independent. He took the pledge to be a loyal republican but i think that threat has been out there. Host alicia is joining us from des moines, iowa. Caller good morning. I am listening to all of these people who say they are voting for trump because hes going to make America Great again. Im not really sure where that comes from. For anyone who really thinks trump has plans to make America Great again, take a look at the documentary you have been trumped. What trump did been that documentary was, he took people possibly and. Think about took people cost land. He tried to take property in you talk about it, i think it was poland where he built that golf course. 86yearold woman, her family had lived on that farm for four generations. Her mother was born on that farm. Donald trump did not like the if peoplerm looked from his golf course looked up their windows he thought that is such a trashy place. He offered the woman money come up more money than what he thought the property was worth but to her, her familys history and sherm in was not selling it. The also the issue with casino in atlantic city. Guest Eminent Domain is one of those issues, it is surprising how deep the memory is in some places in the rural u. S. Were some people can remove or where the family farm was cut up. How it disrupted their livelihood. One of those issues that plays very strongly in certain parts of the country. Trump did have support in iowa. Host tim higgins a Bloomberg News and his work Available Online. A look at trumps global deals. Thank you for joining us. Host we turn our attention to whats on a monday. Molly otoole will be joining us from Foreign Policy magazine. Later, the zika virus. An expert on the virus and how the u. S. And the world is responding to this deadly illness. You are listening to washington journal. We are back in a moment. A whole Different Campaign now. We have basically moved beyond the early primary caucus states and now we are in super tuesday. 12 states, voters in each of these states will have a defining impact on who the democrats and republicans nominate. A different phase of the campaign because we have moved some retail campaigning, that oneonone and now we are campaigning and 12 states where the candidates are going from airport to airport to appeal to as many voters as possible and make lastminute pitches. Advertising is key, organization is key, but it has moved to a different level of the campaign where the candidates hope voters know who they are. What the candidates have to do is convince voters including those undecided that that is the person they should vote for. Since this network began, one of the hallmarks has been the ability for people to call in, ask questions, provide opinions. A lot of polls but there is Nothing Better than talking to voters especially if you talk to voters in the state were primaries or caucuses were held on that day. Why are you supporting candidate x . How solid is your support . You really get a sense of the pulse of america where you do not get anywhere else. Other networks have their pundits and analysts and we will have the ability for people to question leading reporters on super tuesday but really the best pundits are listeners who are tuning in on cspan radio are watching on cspan television. Every election cycle we are reminded how important it is for citizens to be informed. To me cspan is a home for political junkies and a way to track the government as it happens. A gateway for us to stay informed. A lot of cspan fans on the hill. My colleagues will say, i saw you on cspan. So much more that cspan does to make sure people outside the beltway know what is going on inside it. Washington journal continues. Host whats next for Guantanamo Bay . Molly otoole has been looking into it for Foreign Policy magazine. Guest thanks for having me. Host we will hear from the president in a moment. What are the parameters of what he wants to do and reaction here in washington . Guest the plan looks similar to what the Obama Administration has been outlining for the entirety of both his administrations. It involves transferring of detainees to a thirdparty country from a security standpoint with assurances. Continuing military commissions that are trying some of the detainees. Periodic review boards to add to the number that can be transferred and for the number that would remain they would move to a secure facility in the United States. That is the rough outline the plan. Host that would include 35 detainees that could potentially moved other countries and currently 10 detainees under military commission process. Guest right now there are 91 or left at the facility. 35 have already been approved to be transferred. Simply a matter of finding a house country which sometimes can be difficult working out details of what that arrangement would look like. I believe there are 10 that are still going through the commissions process. It is sort of an unanswered question as to if they were able to close guantanamo, move remaining prisoners to the United States, what would happen for those in the middle of justice proceedings already at guantanamo . That question has yet to be answered but the administration points to a model that terrorists have not tried in the United States through the federal system. They say they have had more , tryingwith that terrorists within the federal system of the United States, then they have with military commissions at Guantanamo Bay. The 9 11 plotters have been in pretrial proceedings for years. Official site it will be another five likely before they could actually stand trial. They point to success in the federal Justice System as a way to move forward with those who would remain and be moved to the United States. Host senator obama campaigned on closing Guantanamo Bay. Questioning why he did not do in the first year when he had a majority in the house and senate and why he is doing it in the last year his presidency. Guest he issued an executive order on his first day in office that said guantanamo would be closed within a year. He directed officials to start going to the docket and what they came up with was a was going to be much more difficult than they thought. For a number of reasons. Some of the detainees being held , there is not sufficient evidence to try them particularly in a federal system or military system. That evidence was taken from people who were under duress or enhanced interrogation. Some allegations of torture. It would be much more difficult to try than they thought. He wanted to work with congress to do this and even at the time when there was a democratic , eventy in the senate then democrats as well as republicans expressed opposition to his plan to close guantanamo. They were concerned on a number about bringing detainees to the United States whether or not the detainees had been charged with any crimes. A matter of the appellation being more difficult than they thought the process and also congress growing up opposition very on. This was sort of his last attempt to check that box of working with congress to close it to me that goal he held as a candidate. Host if you are listening on the potus channel, 120 serious xm, our conversation with molly otoole. She writes for Foreign Policy magazine. A graduate of Cornell University and a masters at nyu. Phone lines are open. Here is the president on thursday. [video clip] president obama these are detainees who are subject to military commissions. It includes those who cannot be transferred to other countries and we have determined must be detained because they pose a significant threat to the United States. We are not identifying a specific facility today in this plan. We are outlining what options look like. As congress has imposed restrictions that currently prevent the transfer of detainees to the United States we recognize this is going to be a challenge and we are going to make the case to congress that we can do this in a responsible and secure way. Taking into account the great record of our maximumsecurity prisons. Host the president outlining details on his plans to close it gitmo. Guest one of the controversial parts of the plan is that it does not name the facilities. Image in the plan they considered 13 sites that are on their list. We know in the past the facilities that have been considered are in the handful that have been recently visited by the Defense Department to conduct surveys and potentially be listed as sites. Some of these are in South Carolina. Military facilities. There are also state and federal facilities in colorado that have been considered and a number of state and federal facilities in other states as well. The one in colorado that a lot of people point to is the super max facility in florence which already holds a number of terrorists. There have been no cases of from that escapes facility. One of the most secure facilities in the world. Guest this is what senator Mitch Mcconnell host this is what senator Mitch Mcconnell said in response to the president s announcement. [video clip] mcconnell it makes even less sense today. We are a nation at war. The administrations efforts to contain isil thus far have not succeeded. The next president may very well want to pursue operations that target, capture, detained, and interrogate terrorists because that is how terrorist networks are defeated. Why did we take that option away from the next commanderinchief now . , the two options on the table are not keeping guantanamo open or closing it, but keeping guantanamo terrorists at guantanamo are moving them to some guantanamo north based in a u. S. Community. Host let me take senator mcconnells. 1 step further. Have they been charged with a crime . How long can they stay there . Is that theygument are being held as enemy combatants. This is law of war detention and under that argument until hostilities cease ostensibly you would be able to hold detainees. Whats interesting about this, this is a war on terror. It is unlikely that it will be ceasing anytime soon. You can make the argument that as enemy combatants they could be held indefinitely. So long as hostilities continue. The Obama Administration has said what we do have the authority to hold them we believe that we should be working toward bringing them under charges or bringing them to trial and if thats not possible continuing to review their cases to see if they continue to pose a threat. Periodic review boards that are ongoing have cleared a number around 18 of a number of detainees to that pile because they no longer pose a threat. At the time when a lot of these people are taken in its important to remember its not as if it was a crime scene where people were backing evidence. Going in and taking detailed notes. A lot of them in the early stages of the war in afghanistan. People were being taken off the battlefield by the hundreds and at its peak it was near 800 people. We are now looking at 90 people out of a height of around 683 and 2003 in 2003. Underds were transferred the Bush Administration under much less scrutiny. Host at a cost of how many millions of dollars . Guest the annual operating cost for guantanamo at the moment is around 445 million and that number would go up for detainee as that population becomes smaller. Increasingly more expensive to hold them. A lot of logistical challenges withholding them in cuba so the administration is arguing that while there would be more costs than they anticipated modifying or constructing a new facility in the United States they believe it would save up to 180 million per year once you get the facility up and running especially when you consider guantanamo was intended to be a temporary facility. There are muchneeded repairs that need to occur somewhere in the order of 245 million in order to keep guantanamo running as of now. Host that seems like an awful lot of money to run a prison. Guest it certainly does which is not to say it is inexpensive to hold a terror suspect in a facility in the United States. These are incredibly costly detentions. But it is less to hold them in a federal facility in the United States than it is in cuba. Host with the huffing post previously. The Huffington Post previously. Molly otoole is joining us. Caller i have been studying it. The whole thing is follow the money. Halliburton built that. They charged the United States 200 and 5 million to build it and they charged United States 2. 1 million a person to stay in guantanamo. I figure halliburton has given a lot of money to the democrats and Republican Party so if you , look andnd out see how much money is being given to the senate and house of representatives. Host thanks for the call. Guest you can also port to, beyond the donations that could eventually be going to either party, people who may have interests in keeping the facility open. There is a connection between contractors such as halliburton and federal or even state detention facilities in the United States. What is also important to point at four republicans and democrats, a lot of pressure from constituents who oppose this. Theirpressure in , the public is broadly opposed to bringing detainees to the United States. Some of that has to do with some of the misinformation we hear when you potentially hear that a hardened terrorist, the worst of the worst, the phrase that many opponents would like to use, when you hear that they are coming to your backyard, that rationally makes people very anxious. When you look at the great many people who have not been charged , capability of the United States to hold them. Many of them would potentially be held by the military in the United States. That tends to counter a little bit of the anxiety the American Public might feel about detainees being moved. Constituent feelings are also important. Host spelling out plans to. Lose Guantanamo Bay you though to whitehouse. Gov and they have detailed explanation as to what the president s plan is. Shelley from lineville, pennsylvania. Caller good morning. I think the American People need to listen to what donald trump said about gitmo. We have used it for years and years. We need to fill it up. Host with whom . Caller with all the terrorists. Cant take any more terrorists. Host thank you for the call. Guest donald trump has a certain position on this. Many republican candidates have said something similar. Senator rubio had said he also wants to add to the population at guantanamo. Noted president obama has not added any detainees to the population at guantanamo since he took office. Its not as if the u. S. Has not been taking in terror suspects that is something of a misunderstanding. The have seen through the Islamic State fight, sort of a renewed chapter in the war on terrorism, the administration has continued to take in detainees. Group that once an 18 he was taken in the field, they would interrogate to get what information they could. Detainees had been moved to the u. S. And held and federal facilities. It is not as if the administration has stopped taking in terrorists because they are not adding to the population at guantanamo. That is an important thing to note. I believe it is in the dozens, which the Obama Administration has taken terror suspect into custody. Host the white house on its website saying there were nearly 800 detainees initially, now down to 91. The president laying out plans to close gitmo. A tweet saying solitary and super max is no picnic. Lets go to bob in canton, georgia. Caller good morning. This is another aspect of the administration. Some of these people we have had for years. Sold to us and they were in the wrong place at the wrong time. Now we are in a situation where we have held them for a good part of their lives. Would we not someone in that touation, no trial, to want go and fight against us after this has been done to them . Excuse me. They did not get upset when w was transferring the release of them to the tune of hundreds. Shouldll saying obama cede his duties to the next president is yet another example of the republicans not recognizing and disrespecting his presidency. As far as the halliburton things goes, im going to clean up for molly as a lady and earthy lincoln quote along the lines of there are too many pigs to suckle. Host bob sharing his comments. Another viewer echoing what bob said. How can they hold people without charging them with anything other than who they are . Would they do this to europeans . Guest here is an important point that what some of the people at the time when they were taken them majority is, the u. S. Was paying bounties for other governments or groups to help them bring in suspected terrorists. In cases we have seen, people are in the wrong place at the wrong time. They ended up being innocent after some time they could not be charged. They may have been caught up in the dragnet with this real financial incentive to bring people to u. S. Authorities that were eventually taken to guantanamo. Another important point that was raised in people have made the argument. Haveif a number of people been in the wrong place at the wrong time and cannot be charged with terrorist activity, holding guantanamo, way at some of them for more than a decade without ever charging them with a crime, without them getting access to a trial, could be contributing to extremism. Could be fostering extremism if you are held for over a decade without charge, that may make you think there is some sort of conspiracy by the u. S. Government against you. That is one of the arguments that people will also make is that this could be contributing to turning people into extremists rather than the other way around. Another important point in the last i will make, president obama said he does not want to hand this off to the next president. Its important to remember president obama inherited this population, inherited guantanamo. From the Bush Administration. He has gotten it down to 90 but at this point it is unrealistic isthink the next president not going to be forced to deal with this issue in some way. A facility that was expected to y will have gone into three different administrations. What happens in 2016 will determine the fate of guantanamo. That important to remember this is three administrations that have been dealing with what supposed to be a temporary fix. Host he need congressional approval, correct . ,uest as of now, law states the main obstacle to closing guantanamo and it is been passed on most every year since what since obama has been in office. Detainees cannot be transferred to the u. S. Under almost any circumstance. There is another aspect of that which is that funds cannot be and to construct or modify buy some reasons even to plan to construct or modify facilities in the u. S. To hold detainees. That is existing law to now and that is why the Obama Administration is making this last effort to try and get sogress to change that law that the remaining detainees, the ones that cannot be transferred that are not going to cleared going to be cleared to transferred at this time, those that cannot be charged, would be moved to the u. S. Host between from admin who says gitmo is a disgrace to the United States. They wont bring them here because they would have to charge them with something. Lets go to george. Tell us your comments. Of guest is molly otoole Foreign Policy. Caller good morning. The retired Sergeant Major from the United States army and marine corps and i think i know a little bit about holding prisoners. My commander was general george c patton. I think he is turning over in his grave since this administration has been in office. This administration has not got the sense in their head to know what they are doing. Day one, he took office. Guantanamo has got to stay open. These people declared war on us. Even though they dont wear uniform, they are our enemy. They declared war on us. When they bombed the trade centers. All muslims, unless the good muslims cannot and start speaking up against these terrorists, when we catch them on the battlefield, they go to guantanamo. I dont care if they stay there until they die but that is where they stay. They dont come to the united oftes until we destroy all the combatants. When we destroy all of them and the war is declared won over the muslim people that are terrorists, then we take care of the ones that are in prison on trial or whatever it is that has to be done with them. Host thank you for your call and your service as well. Guest there are people who make the argument that the war on terror, the war on terrorism is somewhat unsustainable. It is not a traditional war in which war is declared. We have not declared war since world war ii. Logically ring you to that it is not necessarily declared over so it is unsustainable and potentially unsustainable to simply hold detainees without charging them until they die. People will also make the argument that if what you want is justice for people who could have potentially committed terrorism and these are still suspects, a great many of them, that actually using the federal Justice System has been more effective. If some of these detainees have been tried in the federal Justice System, that they would be sitting on death row now. Another argument that people make that perhaps the federal system is just more efficient to a large extent because the military commission is trying to deal with detainees. There is no framework for them to operate in because the war on terror does not fit the model that the military Justice System or a lot of legal parameters for war had conceived of. That is another important thing. Host has Hillary Clinton been consistent on this issue . Guest there is a mixed record. As a senator, after she had declared her candidacy for president the first time in 2007 , she cosponsored a bill with senator Dianne Feinstein that explicitly called for obama, requiring requiring president and to close guantanamo transfer as many as possible to other countries and bring those that remain to the u. S. A month later she voted along with a vast majority of the senate, for a consent of Congress Consent of the senate. An amendment to another bill that stated detainees should not be brought to the United States. Only three senators that did not vote with the bill. One of them notably was senator sanders. She was a very staunch advocate for closing the prison. She said she supports this plan which presumably means she supports bringing detainees to the United States. Although she has been somewhat careful to avoid that specific and controversial part of the plan. She was asked about this in South Carolina. It is significant because South Carolina was one of the states they had studied to potentially hold detainees. She was asked if she supported ringing detainees and she said lets wait to see the president s plan. It is a mixed record on this although it should be noted very staunch advocate for closing the prison as secretary of state. On her way out she issued a memo calling for the administration to be more aggressive in this regard. Host from whitehaven, pennsylvania on the republican line. Ernie is on the line. Caller good morning. My question is, you are talking about the cost of the taxpayers. What will be the cost when you transfer these people to our soil and housing them here and giving them the rights of an american citizen . Host would they have rights . Guest they would not have the rights of an american citizen but it is already under the Bush Administration determined that they have habeas corpus so they do have rights through the Justice System. They have rights to the court system in some way, right to challenge their detention. There is a bit of a mixed debate as to whether they would get increased access to the courts if they were brought to u. S. Tol on some levels due immigration law. Many legal officials have said this is a relatively simple matter in which you could clear up the kind of access legal access detainees would have if they were moved to the United States. They would not get significantly increased access to the courts. Opponents will point out why necessarily should the u. S. Be advocating a policy in which only americans are entitled to one system of justice and anyone else is not. That is one of the criticisms that opponents on the left will make of the Obama Administrations plan because they argue that his policy was to and indefinite detention, Holding People without charge until they die essentially and that by doing detainees to the United States but continuing to hold them as enemy combatants under the laws of war then he would simply be moving guantanamo. It would be guantanamo north because youre not ending the practice of indefinite intention the tension. Host this is a tweet from a viewer saying, secretary gates of gitmo, closure general David Petraeus are there others . Guest many said that they and they do this kicked the can down the road to the Obama Administration. That is important to know, the top pentagon officials have said that keeping guantanamo open poses a National Security risk because it is up own symbol, a terrorist propaganda and it would be better for them from the National Security standpoint for its of the close. David from minnesota. Good morning. Independent line. Aller excuse me i was wondering. I dont hear on the news at all how many years have you got left on the contract with cuba . I think he was a 99 year lease. We going to give up our lease by getting out of there . One more thing, they have already caught north korean ships going through the panama canal on their way to cuba with missiles or not missiles but weapons. What is that going to turn into and you will take over that face when we leave . Will it be the North Koreans or what . Guest one of the things president obama noted and other Administration Officials have as well is that for many u. S. Allies, this, particularly in latin america and south america, that guantanamo is an issue brought up constantly with them and they want to see close. Cuba is one of those people in the cuban government will argue that this land there is this contract but that this land was taken from them and is being unlawfully held by the United States. The Obama Administration, even with the sign of relations with cuba, has been explicit that even if guantanamo, the Detention Center, were to be closed, guantanamo is the naval station, would not be closed or given back to the cubans. Secretary of state john kerry recently said that he is not aware of any discussions whatsoever that guantanamo would be handed back to the cubans, although it is interesting to note about that that he is not part of these negotiations with cuba. It is unlikely that this hasnt come up for them and it is an important issue. The Obama Administration has been explicit. That naval station would not be given back even if guantanamo closes. Host we are talking about the president s plan to close Guantanamo Bay and are guest is molly otoole. Our next guest is from tennessee. Caller good morning. Molly, i just wanted to say that i think that president obama is correct about closing it. It would save the taxpayers money. President bush was also wanting this, but the republicans, they say that they want to save money and lesson government spending, and here is an opportunity to do so. I believe they will not do it because anything that president obama wants to do is blocked by the senate and Mitch Mcconnell. He is an obstructionist. Thank you for listening. Host thank you. Guest senator john mccain, actually one of the republicans they are not many but there are a few senator john mccain and Lindsey Graham support closing the prison and they have been working with the Obama Administration for years to get a plan such as this. They have been calling for this plan. Senator john mccain says he believes he can convince members of his party with the fiscal argument. While people can disagree whether guantanamo is a National Security threat keep it open or on more on u. S. Values, and that president t obama himself makes, mccain says he believes he can sway his members with that fiscal argument. It should be noted he is critical of the plan. Me it iser, he told expected to be a chinese menu because it did not give specifics in terms of the location, the cost so how could he sell his members on this question mark the Obama Administration is in between a rock and a hard place. If they named places, there would be immense outcry. We already saw four plans, especially from lawmakers where these Obama Administration would have recommended the detainees to go. Theres only a certain amount of planning the Obama Administration can do because current u. S. Law bars them from doing so, so they are required from lawmakers, required by law, to present this plan with specific facilities named and with specific costs. At the same time, other u. S. Law bars them from a certain degree of planning in order to generate those sites and those costs, so it is a difficult position for the ministrations to be in. The way they frame the plan is that this is the start of the conversation they hope to have a congress. This is not the end. Also this conversation is the cuban leaders. The president will be in cuba next month. What kind of reaction has this receipt from the people of cuba and the government . Guest in terms of the plan . Host in terms of gitmo in general. Guest it is a very, very important issue to the cubans, symbolically and realistically, that they sort of secret foreign occupying a forest on keeping soil, granted this has been for our 100 years now, but it is an important issue. They want to see it close. They see it as an affront to their sovereignty and it is an important issue in that relationship. The Obama Administration has been very explicit that guantanamo is not on the table. They do want to close the detention facility, which is what the cuban government wants, also, but they want it more in the context of close this detention facility and give us back is land and the Obama Administration is focused on closing the Detention Center but not been able station at Guantanamo Bay. It is also strategic area. Host we can see how critical it is. Guest right. I do think that this is more of the conversation that they want to let on and im sure well come up in obamas meeting when he heads to keep in a few weeks. From nevada. Rning republican line with molly otoole of Foreign Policy. Caller good morning. I had a couple of questions. One guy asked one of my questions about what happens to the facility if they do empty at. You already the answer that, but haveher question was military tribunals been allowed to proceed and how many have been done . And my other question host we will followup with the tribunals. Guest off the top of my head i cannot tell you how many have been done but they have been allowed to proceed. The Obama Administration is not prevented them from proceeding but they are difficult proceedings, so likely said, perhaps the best example, the worst of the worst of the worst among this population are the 9 11 plotters that were responsible for that horrific attack in 2000 one or that we believe are responsible. They have been a pretrial proceedings and not even to the test ist of the proceedings. They have been a pretrial proceedings for years. Officials there in the military and is part of the ministrations say that it is probably going to be another five years before they would even get into the trial pays of these proceedings, so they happen continuing. The Obama Administration is often preventing the military conditions for proceeding. They have done a lot of work in trying to make them less of the law exam and trying to make it more efficient in their working with congress to do that, but they are difficult proceedings. Especially because these are not cases of the military Justice System has dealt with before. It is important to remember that 9 11 attacks began an entirely new era that people do not concede when it came to war and what one looks like. There are no frontlines when youre talking about counterterrorism. Host penny, your followup . Caller where can you find a listing of the breakdown of costs for the facility and the prisoner costs . Is there truth in that . Host thank you. Guest great question and start to cut you off. You can look at the plan and it has been publicly released to read as we noted, it does not specifically named because a live these. There has been a lot of reporting and a lot of the facilities they considered over the years, so you can look at any number of news sites, ours included, shameless plug, that points to facilities that have been considered before. A layout or map, but as for the 13 facilities that they are said to be considering this time around, they are not specifically named in the plan. It can give you a rough sense. The more detailed cost are classified, according to the ministrations, and the members of congress have them but not to the public. It is important to note that there is little public transparency when it comes to guantanamo. Its one of the most heated in modern u. S. Es history, but the public is not have a lot of access to who is being held there, under what circumstances, how the trials are proceeding, what the potential details of this plan could look like. The details we have now with this plan are the best we have got, but i think it is an important and open question as to whether there should be more public transparency. The ministrations would come back and say that a lot of the information is classified from intelligence and National Security perspectives, but that is an ongoing debate as well. Host jim, good morning. You are next. Caller good morning. I was considering a tag and release program, possible for these people that are being detained by our nation to be allowed to release them into our they canion to see if reconstruct their lives. Is that a possibility . Guest if i understand your question correctly, the possibility of detainees once moved to the United States and being released into the broader u. S. Public is slim to none. That is not a scenario that the Obama Administration is conceiving. You are talking about them being transported to their party countries, released is not the best term but more transfer. Circumstances, the u. S. Has worked out security assurances with other countries that yes, while they try to rebuild their lives or reintegrate them into society, they are not sort of just running around, and that is an important thing to notes. There is a call to reintegrate them in the society there is a gold to reintegrate them in counteract the brainwashing that may have been done, but it is not a scenario that once they are transferred that that is sort of it and theyre not kept a close eye on. Host tom from vermont, independent line. Good morning. Caller i see something in the future and it looks kind of like for the muslims toainees, the terrorist attain these. Look like we will have sanctuary cities for them in the United States. Host is that a fair comparison . Guest no. Like we just said, the Obama Administration, even in discussing moving detainees to the United States, there is no discussion or conception of detainees being simply released into u. S. Society. That is not something that would they under the plan that are discussing. That is not really an element that has ever been discussed in either administration, what the democratic or republican. I think that concern is somewhat misplaced. Some of the concern that people have about detainees being moved to the u. S. , there have been arguments that potentially that facility that they are moved to could be a terrorist target in and of itself. People have expressed concern that detainees could potentially escape. That is pretty unrealistic. If they were being moved to a military facility or federal detention facility, like the super max in colorado, theres no case that can be pointed to enrich and we have terrorists there at those facilities but there is no case pointed to where they escaped. It is also hard to say, but it is somewhat unrealistic that those facilities, in and of themselves, would become a terrorist target history could make the argument why hasnt cuba been targeted in that same way cold the detainees . That would be somewhat of a shortsighted land if there was isis kind of al qaedahig heist in colorado. People are anxious about terrorism at the moment, particularly with the rise of isis, terrorist attacks in paris, december san bernardino, but that anxiety, to some extent in this debate, contributes to a lot of misinformation that both sides are using to their damage to forward their point. Host molly otoole covers a lot of issues on Foreign Policy and foreignign policy, and policy. Com. We appreciate it. M is theolicy. Colm website. When we return, we will turn our attention to the zika virus. What is it, how is it spreading and how countries deal with it . Mcgregorskinner will be here to talk about it. We are back in the moment. How can we best get people to Pay Attention to wasteful spending . We tend to find things that are interesting, a little different and easy to understand because the government is so large and w has toization like ch cut through a lot of the noise and other things going on. Congress is talking about the wonderful things they are doing and we have to try to make it more personal and get people involved so they understand the impact on them and their families and their children and grandchildren. Tonight on q a, president of citizens against government waste talks about Organization Efforts to bring attention to wasteful spending. They also publish a book that compiles the organizations list of unauthorized government programs. We worked with Bipartisan Coalition members of congress and then we call it the port buster coalition and they came up with us for a definition that was called porkbarrel spending. It eventually became the term earmarked and we went through the appropriation bill and started the pig book. 3 billionas about and it went on the way up to 29 billion in 2006 and every year we can find your marks in appropriations bill, we release a congressional pay book sometime around april or may. Tonight at 8 00 eastern on cspans q a. Washington journal continues. Host we want to welcome dr. Gavin macgregorskinner, an expert on Infectious Disease and affiliated with harvard. He is also the Global Project manager for the elizabeth r. Griffin foundation. Thank you. Guest good morning. Host what is zika . Guest zika virus is a virus transmitted by mosquitoes. This has been really interesting. There are a number of diseases transmitted by diseases. We know about malaria, yellow fever, and we even have the west nile virus. We remember when that went right across the states had that topic a few years ago. There are a number of diseases that are transmitted like the zika virus. We had known about zika virus transmission since 1947 but it has not been such a big deal. Host why . Guest in brazil, in the last 12 months, we shared about we are hearing about an increase in was a virus and it that was found since 1937, first in uganda and it had been in pacific,sia, the south but it has never been found in the western hemisphere. North america, south america until last year, when it was reported by the brazilian government that they had an increase or found the zika virus thisients and they found explosive increase in cases across the country. We have seen zika virus spread , maybe related to a large gathering of it like the software event, that may have been brought it in, but it there very quickly and have been reported cases and patience in 46 countries in less than 12 months. So much talk about the vaccine, but you say that is not what is necessary. Guest no. Important about the zika virus is that the senate for Disease Control started alerting the center for Disease Control in atlanta started alerting the world in may 2015. The World Health Organization on the first of february, and now this is concern for national concern. Whenever we have these really large and important events like virus, thee zika first thing we went to his of vaccine. This is about Human Behavior like ebola. Host what can be done for those going to brazil, caribbean or other parts of the world . Guest we have been going to these countries for years with malaria, transmitted might mosquitoes, and there has been yellow fever, transmitted by mosquitoes, and for years, the u. S. State department, centers, World Health Organization, administrations in many countries have said you need to use insect repellent, to Wear Clothing that covers up and does not leave their skin. Particularly mosquito bites at. Ight, sleep under a bed net you need to be aware that there are ways to control mosquito populations, so now we are dealing with a new emerged Infectious Disease, the zika virus, in the western hemisphere and it is spread by mosquitoes. We go back to those same principles of how do we stop dean bitten by mosquitoes . Host this is the map from the cbc, mexico, central and south america, the olympics are in south america. What impact would have on the athletes in addition era . In rio . Guest the u. S. Government has already put out a travel Health Notice like they did every country in the world. The travel Health Noticed that has come up from the government to the cdc tells you to make sure you are uptodate with axioms. Get them for yellow fever and ensure that your protected from mosquitoes, ensure that you take malaria prophylaxis and ensure that you you have medicine for travelers diarrhea, so within that Health Noticed, we now are putting the zika virus there and saying, take precautions and use insect repellent like deet and quite regularly throughout the day. Try not to get the by mosquitoes, but also, there is another part of what to be done. Comprehensive mosquito or management programs. Host this is a map of the u. S. Where the zika virus has shown up in different parts of the country. How has it moved in the u. S. And why does it live [indiscernible] guest there are a couple definitions people have to understand. I think people are not sure what it means. The local transmission, and local transmission are the mosquito borne infections like malaria, or the zika virus and it means that the mosquito, the fee will mosquito comes along at a female mosquito infects someone with the disease so they had that in their blood. It takes time for it to go through the body of the mosquito and then they go and bite someone else and they transmit the virus to the saliva of the mosquito. That is local transmission. We have not had local transmission in the u. S. What we have had is people that travel down to south america, Central America and the caribbean countries and the u. S. Estimates about 40 Million People do that a year. Ofre has been a small number people, about 147 cases of known zika virus that the cdc mentioned on friday, that is when they were bitten by a mosquito in those countries and they come back and it was found that they either have developed symptoms and they are being diagnosed. Host our phone lines are open and were dividing them regionally. 202 7488000 for those in the east or central time zones. Ut west, 202 7488001 if you have the zika virus, what are the symptoms . How long does it last . Guest that is a great question because the majority of people will never get symptoms. We said to all the viewers this morning, who is watching this show right now andhave zika virus . The majority would never know they had the virus. There are some people, and have been estimates about 20 , so about one in five, and they will develop symptoms with a fever, but how many others have either . How many other diseases have fever . A lot. Maybe joint pain, rash, muscle pain, conjunctivitis with redness around the eyes, and they can last anywhere from seven days to 10 days. We are now looking at the Public Health messages that have come out and we are saying, if you travel down to these countries where there is no zika virus, then you need to protect yourself from mosquito bites for about 30 days. We also found something really interesting. We found zika virus and seamen in semen. It is thought that the man has traveled with zika virus and has come back and to having sex, has passed on the virus to someone who never left the country. We are now seeing sexual transmission and that is adding another challenge to what we are dealing with. Host our guest is dr. Gavin macgregorskinner, an expert on Infectious Diseases and affiliated with penn state and harvard medical. Sonja is joining us from kentucky. Good morning. Caller good morning. I am troubled by this. I have a doctor of childbearing age, and right now, it is still cold down here in kentucky and other places, but we have our share of mosquitoes. Know why weto cannot put travel restrictions i know the volume, i understand that the people , but we must keep this from getting into our mosquito population. Host thank you. Question. Lly good again, what we need to be talking about and the media and the press, and the experts have done a lot of talking have not done a lot of talking about this, but we need a conference of Management System that brings in experts in the matter and how to do bRisk Assessments, surveillance, and how do doctors and nurses work with insect control experts. How do we use maps . Is really important. You raised an interesting point. One of the concerns that i have as a Public Health expert is that on the maps that the u. S. Government put out, we have covered the whole country of red andead brazil dad is a large country and we know the risk is not the same throughout the whole country, so we have to use the tools we have to identify where those local populations of mosquitoes exist, where there is risk, where there are patients reported or being tested and reporting symptoms, and then actually put them on a map and do Risk Assessment and say, it is not the whole country but certain areas. There are good mosquito programs going in the u. S. We have dealt with this before, youre good at this and we can protect our community and we need to show the community there is little risk because of what we do every day. Host here is that map your referring to. It is available on cdc. Org. There is a tweet that says, are these people the quarantined . Guest no, and i will tell you why. It is because this disease, in the majority of people, you will not see symptoms. Symptoms,l see a few the rash, headache, conjunctivitis, redeye, fever and it is mild. We dont even know how we have not had evidence in previous outbreaks from this disease that this causes death. This is a very mild disease, but it is important. You raised an important point. Anyone who has traveled back to south america, Central America, the caribbean or the other 46 countries where we know there is local transmission, when you come back, we need to know what you are to advise you appropriately, state in airconditioned rooms, apply insect repellent, do not get written by mosquitoes, but also thats a local Health Authorities can go to the areas and do a Risk Assessment and by looking atam the mosquitoes and anyone else in the neighborhood. Mosquitoes do not fly far. Host our guest has studied in andralia and in london Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Pat joins us from new jersey. Good morning. Caller good morning. Two questions. You say this is a mild disease, so i assume this means people will recover from it and go about their lives, but the danger i hear about in the u. S. Isto pregnant women and that resulting in birth the facts. Will we have to do screening of blood or stuff like we had to do with the aids virus to prevent this from spreading to the population to people who have never come in contact with this . Guest great question and we are seeing the blood banks organizations, not just in the u. S. Or canada, england, and other countries say that we are going to have to screen the blood for the zika virus. Also, the centers for Disease Control says very much the same. If you have gone to a country with malaria, malaria is a parasite transmitted by diseases transmitted by mosquitoes, the advisory is you do not go to donate blood. After 12 months of coming back. That same information is being put out there right now. If you traveled down to any of these countries, then you do not go to donate blood, but it is important because a lot of people do not have the symptoms and they will not know if the virus is in their blood. It is important we set up those screening approaches and procedures and methodologies that we have here it we use the technology now. This is really challenging have 40 Million People from the u. S. That travel to these countries every year. What is the best way to deliver the information . That is what we have to look at right now. Host our conversation is with dr. Gavin macgregorskinner. What is the elizabeth r. Griffin foundation . Guest it is based in tennessee, it was established in 1999. Someone died from a rare disease called b virus from working with monkeys in the Research Facility and she was misdiagnosed and there was a lot of challenges because b virus is rare. Work we work with where diseases like zika virus every day to ensure that we keep the public safe but also the hospital staff and laboratory stop safe. We work with highly Infectious Diseases. Dot this is on benson, how you convince anyone at childbearing age to attend the olympics with zika virus down there . Guest there is a travel advisory and do the work that i do with the elizabeth r. Griffin foundation, we get questions from u. S. Companies, from the tourism industry, the hotel industry, and they are saying, having gone, we have hang on, we have u. S. Women between childbearing ages, should we send them to the u. S. . No, we should not. We do not want the economic effect to be staggering like some people say could happen unlikely saw happen with the a outbreak in ebola west africa. It is important we used the science and knowledge we have now to take all the precautions we have to avoid eating bitten by mosquitoes. Theork with experts in comprehensive Mosquito Management program to decrease the number of mosquitoes and we can do that effectively. We has shown that with malaria, yellow fever, so it is a whole Community Approach of experts coming together and coming out with the comprehensive plan to protect the health of the population, but also to give good advice to people like females at reproductive age. Host some athletes, including hope solo, saying they might not attend because of the zika virus. That is from the Washington Post. Guest we are six months out and there is a lot we can do in six months out. We have the technology to do , targetedpraying spraying, to the mosquito populations. You spray that residual spraying and if you see mosquitoes in your house, they do not fly very far. When they have had blood, they and they stay locally. We attacked them and target them locally. Then we set up a Risk Assessment and Surveillance System to make sure the population has decreased. I just saw the other day where we are talking about in the olympic village, their screens on the windows and doors . Good question because if there are not, put them on there now. Are the athletes going to have airconditioned rooms . Airot, lets get conditioning out there. What advice are giving athletes and visitors about insect repellent . Host so you are not worried. If you are traveling to south america, you would continue with their plans . Guest yes, i would. Host paul is joining us from england. We welcome those watching across the pond. Good afternoon. Caller good afternoon. How are you going . Host good. Thank you for joining the conversation. Caller thank you. Thank you for having me. Look, lets talk about the zika virus. One thing i would like to say before he asked the question. Can we please reinforce the people that piracy is cannot be treated [indiscernible] because it is dangerous to start taking antiviral medicine because a lot of people do you do that with things like the flu, etc. That with the olympics, we know that viruses, do genetic mutation, become people to people infections and rates can happen because the mutation has taken place. I know that london got a financial boost because of the olympics. Surely, it does not make sense when the zika virus is happening for the olympics to go ahead. I really think that if it is a financial decision to go ahead, a reallyink that is bad decision. I think we have this situation with the olympics and maybe it should be put on hold, canceled may be or maybe next year it can this year, that way, it prevents people from coming from all over the planet, whose genetics might be slightly different because each human being is slightly different depending on where we come from, and given the necessary gene to the virus to then become a persontoperson transmittable viral disease. Host thank you. We will get a response. Guest good point, but i live in the 21st century, this is 2016. We know the olympics are going to be held from august 6 to august 20 1, 2016 in rizzo. 21, 2016 inst brazil. There may have the next games after that in december. We have six months. With the technology, science, and there are lots of things we do not understand about zika virus, that when we look at large events, whether it be the world cap, the olympics, crowds, rugby, any large of people, Public Health puts up travel Health Notices. There is a travel Health Notice for brazil right now. They have hepatitis b, b, thai typhoid, measles, make sure you have vaccinations. We would not cancel the olympics for any of those diseases because you make the recommendations. We also know there is malaria down there. We have always known. Been in these countries for many years and that is not the reason to cancel the olympics. Healthrus, the public community, colleagues, it has caught us by surprise and has spread at a staggering rate to 4600. What i am trying to say now is that we have the technology, expertise, and we just have to mobilize the people we need to answer the questions we have and the challenges we have carried we have techniques developed for years on how to decrease the mosquito population. I come from a country that has high levels of skin cancer. Code to any school in australia and theyo you will try you to put on a hat, clothing that covers up your skin and every two hours, put on sunscreen. We will have to educate the population on how to protect themselves from a skewed of bites. It is something similar to that. Reaction. Me get your he is in charge of the allergy and Infectious Diseases at mih and we a hearing this past week in which they talk about how to treat this in the u. S. And research that could be applied elsewhere in the world. [video clip] one of the most important things we do is to develop vaccines out we had done for other emerging threats. The candidates you see on the slide, the two marked with red are the two that are most advanced and ready to go into early trials. We are partnering with our industrial colleagues, and right now, let me give you an example of why it is important to have been decades of research and other diseases that gives us a head start. Years ago, we developed a vaccine for west nile virus. We went into phase one and it was shown to be safe and induce an immune response may would predict would be protected. We did not have industrial partners, so we did not make it to advanced development, but we use that platform to develop now is take a vaccine a zika vaccine that is written to go into premedical studies. We took what is called a dna piece of genes and we stuck the west nile james to extract a protein of west nile. What we did this time is take that same platform, take out the west nile gene and stick in the zika virus gene, so we predicting this will be ready to go to phase one trial by the summer of this year and hopefully by the end of 2016. We will have enough information to decide if we can go further to an advanced trial. I will be happy to discuss that during the question period. Finally, we are doing screening of drugs known activity against drugsort of virus and new that have potential activity. This is an important issue and we are partnering with many industrial and Biotech Partners to do this. The that was a portion of testimony of dr. Andrew, a frequent guest on this network, he is with nih. Your reactions to what he said about Treatment Options . Guest what he said about axing development is personally exciting when he said about Vaccine Development is exciting, but it takes time. It takes a long time. What we do in Public Health, in emergencies like this, we use all but towards in the toolbox, so we just mentioned the slip slop campaign that australia did for many years for skin cancer. That is a reality of living in a country like australia. Now we have 46 countries with transmission of zika virus. We have to educate the public. We have to educate the public of how to avoid the skin virus. Of the zika virus. Imagine you booked your vacation, went to the hotel and you check in, and the first thing you should theodore while you are here in the hotel, we have been managing the mosquito population with a program, but they will to you, cover your skin, apply deet or here is a list of insect repellents to use, a careful be careful and put sunscreen and insect repellent on. The insectly apply upon throughout the day. We can do that and it is education we have to get the hundreds of thousands of millions of people. We do not have that campaign in place at the moment. Host lets go to sean from rhode island. Thank you for waiting period go ahead. Thank you for waiting. Go ahead. Caller you should notify the caller for how long to wait because you could pass out. [laughter] inappen to have a degree Public Health which i have not used in a while, but i think the position is lacking in important information. For one, he does not mention an outcome of the disease which has been mild and a notice by lots of people, so you have to think from a Public Health and political standpoint, the phenomenon that has apparently caused so many women in brazil [indiscernible] there are reports of sexual transmission which he has committed completely in the discussion. The third, he did not seem to. Ocus on the vaccine the Public Health community should have the brainpower, which they seemingly do not, to have everything implied that there is a strategy. You have to have notification probably of the outbreaks to crank up the system and get going with the vaccine, which apparently has been used with certain kinds of diseases. If youlic health think of what it would be on safety, you decide the core of it, so that we dont put the responsibility on drivers being intelligent and sensible people, which they are not, so you need to create an intelligent and and intelligent and thoughtful strategy for this phenomena that occur periodically. I do not think that his and you have got to remember that college, i was one in they take their clothes off. They take their sweat pants off before an event, so the concept of protective layers and so forth does not really apply so well because people will not act that way. Host what is your background again . Caller a clinical psychologist. Host thank you. Guest good questions. We will get to that right now. Again, when they talked about a vaccine, if that axing goes through all the Clinical Trials in the test to ensure it is effective and safe, we have to be sure the vaccines are safe, then we have to have the production facilities to produce millions the vaccines. Then we have to have a system in place, a Public Health system in out with nurses, physicians and Community Health workers to deliver the vaccine. Is 200ulation of brazil Million People. Look at the time it would take and now we have zika virus in 46 countries, to go through the science, research, all that goes through the approval process, and that we have to produce and deliver the vaccine. While we are waiting, and there is nothing wrong with developing the vaccine, but while we wait, there are a lot of things we can do. Rieda joining us from california. Caller good morning. After listening to this last gentleman on the report, i am really concerned. Our immigrants being screened for the zika virus . Guest no, they are not and theyre not been screened because what we are doing at the moment, and the u. S. Government is doing this, you have handed out travel Health Notices, and they are advising women of childbearing age not to travel to these countries. Look at the sheer number, and estimates have shown that we e 14 Million People that 40 Million People that travel to these countries every year from the u. S. We found this with ebola, trying to screen and test everyone and we dont have the authority to do this today. When the centers for Disease Control and announced early in february that these travel advisories would be put in place, there are now five laboratories in the country, for Public Health labs and one at the center for Disease Control in georgia to test the zika virus. They have been producing more of the tests, what they need to send to labs, and that takes time. They are working on getting 100,000 tests ready. I would only allow us to do 100,000 tests, so we do not have them in place right now because this zika virus. Us by surprise to diagnose everyone we would want to diagnose. There is a lot of Research Going on. Some at the moment is where they are developing the hair test to use at the network, clinic or hospital and have the result quickly. That is not commercially available host yet. I want to welcome our listeners 124, thes xm channel potus channel, which carries washington journal every sunday morning from 7 00 to 10 00 eastern time. Our guest is dr. Gavin macgregorskinner and were talking about the zika virus. Our next caller is from new jersey. Tom, good morning. Caller i went to complement dr. Skinner. I would like to have a dr. Skinner and every airport, blood bank, every position that could offer controlle. The problem is brazil. It is not a function of somehow something came out, the zika virus has been identified and it is the frequency of the case. It is the frequency and concentration in brazil that does speak the great deal to the ismpic situation, whether it stopped or started. I am not so certain we are getting accurate data from the brazilian government or the commercial establishments in brazil or american establishments as to how the zika virus is occurring in this brazilian population, it is two thirds the population of the United States. Andt that is a good point a great question. Again, we do not have the resources at the moment to test all 200 Million People in brazil. But we do know is that Public Health partnerships, communications, it is all about trust and the people. It is about the people that i i amwith, the people that talking to know that theyre credible, and collecting data and information has been a real challenge. Physical virus moves so quickly across these countries that the Health Information Management Systems in hospitals and clinics want were not prepared for new disease, so we are saying that they are putting zika virus cases [indiscernible] because as Health Information ,anagement systems not in place but the symptoms of zika virus are so similar to others that the confusion is there all the time because you are looking for fever, rash, muscle pain and redness in the eye, so it is important that we look at this. It is also important we use maps. Identify maps to where there is local transmission, where patients report symptoms, where there was a Mosquito Management system in place so we can look at this through a lens of risk and we are doing that at the moment. Host you are also worked with the World Health Organization on this. Guest yes. I am participating with their risk group. A large group, a bunch of smart people trying to answer some of the questions were getting today. From lets go to shawna ohio. Caller good morning. How much is really known about the link between zika virus and why have we heard of cases of microcephaly in africa and other countries up until now . I just heard a group of argentine doctors believe that microcephaly might be a result of [indiscernible] used to control skeeters . Used to control mosquitoes . Guest what started this zika Virus Outbreak so extraordinary and what made it to extort married and so challenging . Sincee known about it 1947. All previous countries have reported zika virus but we have never seen microcephaly, when babies are born with abnormally small sized heads and they have canl sized brains and it lead to cognitive and do a logical problems, but not always. Ist is really interesting that we started looking at the information from brazil and there is no standardized definition. There is no standardized test definition that everyone is using, so there is actually three different methods that doctors and nurses are using to measure the circumference of their head. What we need to do is demobilize to mobilize the mobile Data Community in the way we have never done before. Get universities involved. Do not just send a handful of experts of people to do an investigation. Engage thousands. Lets look at the data. Many countriesom to help governments look at this Public Health data, look at Hospital Data and try to do interpretation and analysis. We have the ability to do that and it is not being done right now. At the moment, we have increased cases of zika virus, hearing increased reports of microcephaly or babies with small sized heads and wonder was a inset gone back to look at that, a lot of them have been misdiagnosed. Microcephaly or babies but with small sized heads outside of brazil or in any of the 45 countries with local transmission. Host simple question, but the word zika, where does it come from . Guest a forest in uganda. The governing body has projected that for us. Host lets go to eileen from california. Lets assume you get the disease and after a couple of weeks, you recover. Risk of birth defects the rest of your life . And assuming that you got better, are you a immune thereafter . Guest again, we know that from other diseases and we had experience and Science Behind the other diseases, and including zika, you may have symptoms for three days to seven days in the zika virus and the majority will never know they have been infected by this virus. For those who do show symptoms, after about seven days to 10 days, they have gone away. We found that the virus is no longer in their blood for those who recovered. What makes this challenging is had asked me a few weeks ago, i would have told you about two case studies we had where a man had been infected in the country where there was zika and came back to an area with no zika and we found that the zika virus was transmitted to the semen sexually and that was one of two cases that we had. We are now looking at 14 cases in the u. S. Alone where that could happen. The blood. S not in the person does not have symptoms, but it has hidden in the testicles, the semen. We also know this about ebola. Another study at the moment is if the virus is in breastmilk . That is the question on going right now. Host lets go to jeff in virginia. Caller good morning. My question was similar to the last callers about if you are infected and then you transmitted it to your spouse and wanted to have a child in the future is there a timeline of when that would be safe again to try to conceive . Guest there is. Again, even the number of pregnant women that we know about in the u. S. That have been exposed to the zika virus, some of them have gone on to have healthy babies and we can use ultrasound to diagnose whether or how the babys developing or the size of the head. We do know that they these that are born with a large head with microcephaly go on to lead normal lives. Babies that have severe microcephaly, they may need a program to support them for a long time in development. We now know and the advice has come out with this new information on sexual transmission, either do not have sex or where a condom. If your spouse is already pregnant, make sure throughout the pregnancy that you always were of condom w you alwayse a condom. Ays wear it is just getting that information out there to people. If you travel to these countries and you are coming back, just wear a condom. The time period we are looking at about three months. We assume we believe that it that you can make babies again. Host they are saying, what changed the zika virus from that of the previous generation and how it moved to brazil and how it could change and be purposeful and could change have been purposeful . Guest there was an outbreak in a country called French Polynesia and another island back in about 2013. We are now retrospectively looking at the data from French Polynesia and seeing that yes, some of the patients infected syndrome,virus had a another thing with your logical problem that we have seen with the zika virus eightyearold logical problem that we have seen with the zika virus, and some with aqua caesarea with microcephaly, so previous outbreaks seen in africa, asia, and others, we have never seen anything like this which makes this extraordinary. Host quick question from stand in texas. Stan in texas. Caller we have had the mosquito for thousands of years, thousands. And we have not yet figured out how to kill them. Host your response. Guest we have not worked out how to kill them. There are probably about 3500 different species of mosquitoes. We are concerned at the moment of about 80 species that carry yellow fever, zika virus, and the species that carries malaria and west nile virus. We do have a comprehensive and integrated Mosquito Management problem that we have used in the u. S. To reduce the number of mosquitoes and transmission diseases. We are good at doing that and we are good at doing that for malaria. Ive been them out, no, but preventing transmission, yes. Host could there be a link between the zika virus and [indiscernible] guest no. Host dr. Gavin macgregorskinner, the Global Project manager for the elizabeth r. Griffin foundation in washington, d. C. , thank you. Guest you are welcome. Host we will continue the conversation tomorrow by talking super tuesday tomorrow. Also, the situation in flint, michigan. Mark edwards will be our guest and a member of the flint wander coordinating committee. We will also talk with the congressional reporter about the senate and its debate about the Supreme Court vacancy. Mehta to talk about your money. Were focusing on 350 billion u. S. Nuclear arsenal. That is tomorrow morning. News anchors is next. Our Campaign Coverage continues today, tomorrow and super tuesday. I hope you enjoyed the rest of your weekend. Have a great weekend. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] n a house hearing on terror threats around the world. After that the senators discuss the process for nominating a Supreme Court justice. This week where sitting down with the rs commissioner john toss in it. Commissioner John Koskinen i. Donald trump is saying that he by then audited, sevier rs. I know you cannot talk about some of its personal taxes, but would somebody be audited every year. He says it is going