Congress support donald trump . Republicans, 202 7488001. Independents, 202 7488002. We will get to those calls and a minute. Twitter orto facebook. Paul ryan addressed reporters yesterday. This is what he had to say. [video clip] to pretend we are unified without actually unifying, we go into the fall at half strength. We need a real unification of our party, after a tough primary, that will take effort. We are committed to putting that effort in. I want to be part of that process so we are at strength. Afford to lose this election to Hillary Clinton, to keep the obama agenda going. We have to go through the effort and process of unifying. You have been vocal on your history of policy. Need to hear from him to endorse him . Werese are conversations going to have. I do not know him. Inet him once in person 2012. We had a good conversation in march. We need to get to know each other. We are enjoying the fact we have a chance to meet with him. The speaker of the house wall also meet with the rest of the House Republican leadership and he will meet with Senate Leadership as well. Ryan respondedl come to anp agreement about what is best for the american people. They have been treated badly for so long it is time for politicians to put them first. Donald trump had this to say on twitter. I look forward to meeting paul ryan on thursday. Together, we will be the democrats at all levels. Fox, donald trump is quoted as saying if we make a deal, that will be great. Will trudge, we forward like i have been doing and winning. Joining us on the phone, robert costa. With when and where these meetings are going to take place and what is expected. Guest these meetings are political and will take place at the Republican National Committee Headquarters, located on 1st street southeast, across from the capital south metro stop. There. Ll be he will be joined by the House Republican leadership. Donald trump will meet with ryan previous. This will take place mostly this morning. Donald trump will have other meetings with his allies today. Host he will meet at 9 00 a. M. Will move on from there to the other meetings. What is each side hoping to get out of this meeting . Each side wants peace, republican peace. The generalus about election strategy. Not going to be serious policy discussion today. Donald trump remains the party had on capitol hill. There is not going to be a coming together. They can at least set the terms to have an amicable general election. Why do you have the speaker of the house not ready to get behind donald trump, but you have Mitch Mcconnell and the senate saying he is the nominee and we will support our nominee . It underscores how conservatives feel. The party are to not necessarily hard core conservatives. They are more willing to support donald trump. Some online mcconnell, he starts his job looking out for the try to keep the party together. He doesnt always make ideological stands. Paul ryan is different. He started his career as someone and hed by jack kemp considers himself a movement conservative. He thinks he needs to protect his principles and values. Politicalim a unique figure. Host does donald trump, in , doesto be the democrats he need the support of the speaker of the house . Its a difficult question. It is not clear that donald trump does. Who has onendidate voters during of this process. He has been able to engage voters who do not often participate. He has brought all of them out, whocially in the states have open primaries. Some conservatives may sit on the sideline. Whether donald trump needs them is an open question. His political brand is the traditional republicanism. , they believeaign ryans support is crucial. Host a story yesterday was about fund raising happening with the Republican National committee. Thus the party, when it comes to fundraising need to be united . It is trying to be. Has always raised small dollar donations at spent his own fortune. We are starting to see the beginning of the donald trump operation. He will be of the home of a billionaire investor in l. A. And he is going to raise money for his campaign. I was able to obtain the end able to obtain the invitation. Part of this fundraiser is he is going to raise money for the party. Me in the coming week, the next five to seven days, donald trump will declare a joint fundraising agreement for his campaign and the party across the country. Robert costa, with the washington post, thank you. Paul ryan expected to address meetings after that takes place this morning with donald trump. He will have his weekly news conference. It look for our live coverage here. Lets get to calls. Mica, sun city, california. Members ofblican congress support donald trump . Caller they should. It is fascinating to watch the scenario. Liberal media serves as the Offenses Team and the serves as the defensive team. Republicans have gotten defeat, but the democrats to. Is a rigged game. It is sad. The untold story in this is how extreme the Democratic Party has become. Real focus of the the media. Eric, white plains, should these republican members get behind donald trump . Caller its a difficult question. Donald trump runs against the establishment. Support him or not, i dont think it will change anything. We like donald trump because he was rejected by both establishments. Africanamerican and i have with more than 5000 members. They can support donald trump. We are behind him. There is a running list of those who have endorsed donald trump from capitol hill. Collins endorsing in february with chris christie. Jeff sessions, tom marino, tom reed, rick scott, these folks doing so in february and march, and into april, kevin cramer, and the former House Speaker, john boehner on april 27, saying they are texting buddies and he would vote for him if he were the nominee, something he said he would not do for ted cruz. You can run through the endorsements that are there as we ask you, should these members of congress support donald trump . The party is suicidal if they do not support donald trump. I have been a republican my life and i am being told i am not a conservative. We have been looking for a guy who will fight. It is like lincoln finally found grants. America has finally found donald trump. Is evaporating. The poor are getting subsidized by the government. The rich are taking advantage of the loopholes created by their buddies in congress and hopefully donald trump will do something for the american people. He says he is in it to help america. Only one who has given indication he will stand up to the federal government and change it. Washington insiders are afraid their bed feathers are going to disappear when donald trump becomes president. Host lend that mississippi, a republican. I support donald trump. He is the one who is going to do it for us. People who do not vote for him have to be out of their minds. Host do republicans need to fall in line . Caller they do. , some of Supreme Court these fake conservatives are is wasting 50 to 60 years of a liberal Supreme Court Hillary Clinton will put in two to three Supreme Court justices. It makes no sense. As far as paul ryan goes and this talk about conservative principles, paul ryan is not a conservative. He is a globalist. He is just like Hillary Clinton. There is one party in washington, democrats and republicans who are globalists. Borders, open unfettered and unchecked free trade. Regime change throughout the middle east. Syria, it with iraq, libya. What they tried to do in syria, libya, and egypt. You are seeing with donald trump and Bernie Sanders is the republican and Democratic Party, conservatives saying we do not want globalism. In washington you have the a, paul ryan, Hillary Clinton, pushing a globalist agenda. Have you agreed with everything donald trump has said along the way . Himou have concerns about being the republican nominee . I dont agree with everything donald trump has said. I think he could be one of the best president s we have ever seen. On important issues, immigration, security, free , securing our borders, talking about donald trump flipflopping and changing his position, he has been talking years. Hina and trade for when meant romney went to las vegas to get his endorsement, he said donald trump is a great businessman, he has been consistent on these court issues. Charles, independent, are you supporting donald trump . Caller i am not. He just said to america that he is going to negotiate on our debt. He is going to take us from a aaa rating down to a be rating possibly. This is a man who will not release his tax returns. To any audience who will listen. We do not know what his policies are. He says whatever comes out of his mouth. He says we are going to ban muslims and we are going to work with all the muslims, neighbor countries are our allies. Donald trump is not the answer to this. He is a loose cannon. Are not goingey to be able to control the loose cannon and the republicans are going to lose the senate, possibly the house, and it is going to be a huge collapse. All of these people out there, protrump, but he is not the answer. Host how did you vote when it was mitt romney versus president obama . That was a hard one. I voted for obama. Lot, but it romney a did not see his candidacy going. A bland, mundane person, but he was moderate and in the middle. History of at the the country, that is where things get done, in the middle. Would you describe Hillary Clinton that way . Caller i think, yes. Wins, and, if she hillary is like bill when he reached across the aisle, i thingshe will do the same with paul ryan and we might get things done. I have to agree with a lot of people. Tothe same system that needs totally be changed, hillary will not change it. You do not throw when donald trump to change the system. Charles, an independent. Mitt romney posting this. For adisqualifying president ial nominee to refuse to release tax returns to voters, especially one who has not been subject to public scrutiny in military or Public Service. Tax returns provide the public with confirmation of the veracity of a candidates representations regarding charities, priorities, wealth, and conflicts of interest. Andpotential for hidden appropriate associations with foreign entities, or other unsavory groups is too great a risk to ignore for someone who is seeking to become commanderinchief. Mr. Trump says he is being audited. So . There is nothing that prevents releasing tax returns that are being audited. Down with the irs commissioner earlier this year and asked this question about whether or not you can release your tax returns when you are being audited. [video clip] we cannot talk about individual cases, but it would he rare for anyone to be audited every year. Audit and it is cleared up, no issues, at least two or three before you are audited again, unless something in your next return popped up. In terms of formal auditing, it would be rare. He says he is not going to release his tax returns. Is there something from the irs prevents him from releasing it . That would nothing generally keep you from sharing that information anyway you wanted to. Weeteddonald trump and this out yesterday. My tax returns are under audit and i will release my tax returns when audit is complete, not after the election. Release those before the election. In usa today, republicans rumpian suicide pact. Has insulted one of the leading voices of evangelicalism, attacking the baptist the head of the policy for the Southern Baptist on a platform of bridge burning, his outreach message is more akin to convert or die. A disaster, not for himself, but for republicans generally. Presidencysing the and the Supreme Court nominating process and losing the senate and the house. Looking at are annihilation. The only way to prevent it is unbindegates to themselves and reject trump. Is going to continue to provide ever more reason to do so between now and then. Wise togates would be recognize it. We are asking all of you this morning. On thursday, may 12th, as paul ryan is getting ready to meet with donald trump. What do you think . Caller good morning. Irs auditor and someone who looks at tax returns. Donald trump is correct. He should not be releasing any returns due to the fact that we go back and forth, because most people with high axcome and the type of t return he submits, it takes a long time on an audit, which we normally do every three years on someone with that type of income. He is correct. We deal with the attorneys. He is correct. This other thing about romney, i dont know what this man is doing. He has no clue. These conservatives are coming out of these things. Through 16p went nominees. He wiped them all out. Hillary clinton has not been able to get rid of one socialist. Donald trump is the nominee for the Republican Party. Give the man has just dues. Oregon, what do you think . Caller they should reject donald trump. If he is the nominee, they should back hillary. Host what is the likelihood of that happening . Caller hillary asks paul ryan to be her running mate. Things are not going good. The word disaster a lot. It is time for a change. Host the New York Times put this list together. Donald trump is left of the party on trade. He aligns more with democrats on some economic issues. His stance on immigration is more hard lined. He is more isolationist on foreign policy. Far from a firebrand on social issues. Fort lauderdale, republican, you are next. About all of this talk compare that to the organizational split in the Democratic Party. The vice chairman of the democrat National Committee resigned. That did not happen with the republicans. Was there big reporting on that . No. By the way, that interview with the irs commissioner is a prime example. Why didnt someone ask the commissioner, are you auditing donald trump and if you are, why andt you just wrap it up let him report his taxes. That kind of question is never asked because the interviewer wants to keep alive this myth about donald trump wanting to suppress his taxes. Host the irs commissioner did did was asked. He said he could not tell us one way or another. Caller in the followup question, is he or is he not being audited . Ost go to www. Cspan. Org you can watch the whole thing there. Victor, independent caller. Good for you. Difference,biggest they want to privatize Social Security and block medicare. They want to pay more for medicare than they are paying now. Drug bill,down the so we are paying the highest drug cost in the world. We have the highest cost health care, 18. 56 of gdp. Mcconnell and ryan have an agenda and that is their agenda. When president obama tries to get anything they do, they block it and they call it obstruction. They will do the same thing to donald trump if he does not go along with their agenda. He will not be able to change the world just because he is president. They control the money and the agenda. They have held up the supreme. Ourt justice the first time in at least 50 years he cannot get a hearing because of mcconnell. Then mcconnell got on the floor s economysaying obama has been bad. They voted down the bills that obama sent to them to put people to work. They block everything. We are talking to republicans and independents. Should members of gop congress support donald trump . Ryan built a paul pillar and donald trump tore it down. All in miami, republican, what do you think . If you are a republican, you should support donald trump. When i voted, i voted for john kasich but my candidate did not make it. Now the one thats there, the only one thats there that claims even if he is republican, youre not owing to get any Supreme Court justice who was conservative if you vote for hillary. You might have a chance with donald trump. Pass on the want to republican side, the only chance you will have is with donald trump. I tell all my republican friends and all the all the independents and the Bernie Sanders who want dead supporters want change, the only one who will get changes donald trump. Why the Republican Party is beating around the bush. What are his chances of winning in a general election if he alienates groups of people like hispanics and women with the comments he has made so far . Caller a lot of his comments are taken out of context. You want it illegal people, people who are here illegally, out, that is not antihispanic or antianything. You want the laws obeyed f. He says he will deport every hispanic. He will not be able to do that. You have to read between the lines. Thats ever going to happen. Host you might be interested in this article take a look at this ad. Seat running in arkansas. This is the ad he put together. [video clip] pig. E ate like a i looked into that fat, ugly picture of her. He said the face of a dog. The group job is terrible, they look like to Lightning Bugs coming out of a body. A person who is flat chested is hard to do it. I dont find her attractive. You drop to your knees. Just like you would not have your job if you are not beautiful. What is it like when she is in bed with you . I will support the candidate rick heartless of regardless. It would be a lot better presidency. Host the latest ad running in the senate race for the arkansas seat. Some members of congress, one in particular who is running for the First District in kentucky hopes to replace his boss. He is the district erector for ed whitfield who is retiring and he put this ad together in support of donald trump. [video clip] stop donald trump. My pape, he will help build the wall. Will he repeal obama care . We have to stop my pape. Messageroved this because no one will stop me from standing up for you. Host one of the first ads run for someone hoping to come into congress endorsing donald trump. Thats the First District seat. In kentucky. As for paul ryan, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has this piece what do all of you think . Should republican members of congress support donald trump . An independent, you are on the year. Ok, its alo, problem with those parties. Onlyave the extreme right wants extreme right candidates and donald trump is a moderate. The extreme left only wants extreme left. We are listening to you. A reason for a lot of is he is having record numbers of people turn out. He wants to throughout blonde hair, lou eyed russian mobsters. Also makes the point that he is the one trying to protect hispanics. 530 hispanics in texas alone are killed each year by illegal aliens. 642,000 Something Like felonies committed during the term of rick perry by hispanics, mostly against them. Hispanic, do you want your daughter raped or kidnapped as a sex slave . Host oh k, lets go to a republican. Caller how are you . Host what are you think . Caller my answer is no. Nobody should rally around donald trump. He is an empty suit. What are the issues . What has he brought forward except a whole lot of blowhard obfuscation about what he will do when he is president. First of all, he cannot do it himself unless he has the same power of executive action. There is a congress to be reckoned with. He answers to the voters. I dont understand why anybody would support an empty suit like donald trump. Thank you. Host lets turn to some news on the democratic side. The kentucky primary is coming up next week. They are expected to go for mr. Sanders. We will go to mike in nevada, a republican, good morning. Caller good morning. Host go ahead, you are on the air. I am a 65yearold vietnam veteran. I think we should rally around donald trump. If you think about it, isnt hillary doing the same thing, making promises and they still made the congress . Why do they pick on donald trump . He wrote a very well known book. I think he can make some changes. Thats the bottomline. Host from florida, independent. Caller good morning, thank you for taking my call. Simply that i think if republicans have any shot of capturing the white house, they simply have to. They dont have much choice in the matter. Mr. Trump doesnt need to moderate his position. Thus far, he has not. We can only hope between now and november he will. Inant to say that there has there has not been enough scrutiny on the part of the press on him. You can compare it to mrs. Clinton over the flak she took for the emails, he has gotten a free ride thus far. I would like to see that as well. Dig a little deeper and see with really going on so we get a clearer picture of him. Much another thing is i think our government is not run like a corporation. I think he should take that into account. He needs a consensus once you get in there. Those are my comments. Genevieve in grand junction, colorado, and dependent caller. You are on the air. Caller thank you very much for taking my call. There are so many issues. I will get in as much as i can. 66 years old and just get out of the hospital for the fifth time this month and my. Usband died last week ar the obama thing has some validity. Y insurance has changed i have been trying to get my insulin refill. Led. No one can do it. I got a 700 bill the first of the month and i paid my rent. I paid my bills and absolutely every other penny went to a problem they are having getting me on the right insurance. At 3. 49, for having to pay full price for every single thing like insulin and the antibiotics and the things keeping me alive my husband died last week. I will not go crazy over that. Doi want to ask you you think donald trump can do this better . Independent not because i am down on democrats but bernie says it. I saw him speak 12 years ago. I said there is a man who lives long enough, i would vote for him. Its a horrible thing to say but im in that decision and i will whether he is nominated or not. Im sorry to hear about the loss of your husband. Said heious caller thinks donald trump gotten a free pass by the media. There is this headline in the Washington Examiner sparta, tennessee, republican, should republican members of congress support donald trump wouldon mark caller i like to know when cspan will Start Talking about the Clinton Foundation and Bernie Sanders talking about the war on women. He fantasized about raping women. Thats all i have to say. Host mobile, alabama, an independent caller. Good morning and thank you for taking my call. To echo the thoughts of the gentleman in florida of how mr. Trump could possibly win maybe attacking the senators or moderating some of his views could maybe help peel off some of the independents. Maybe even some democrats depending on what he says. Im a clinton supporter myself. If you look at this with a cold history,ou look at it has shown that candidates like Ronald Reagan with a particular destiny could win. Host we will leave the conversation there. There are some other headlines also in iraq, the u. S. Military says the iraqi violence desperation with three bombings in the capital that killed 93 people and injured 165 which follows other awnings in the capital area in the past other bombings in the capital area. Bob graham from florida who served on the joint inquiry looking into september 11 rights a piece in the washington post. We will take a short break and we will come back, representative darrell issa will be here and cites research in a recent oped that Police Officers in 2014 took more property from american citizens under forfeiture laws then criminals took and burglaries. We will talk about the laws coming up next. Democratic representative from connecticut will join us about the Opioid Crisis and the debates in congress for funds to combat the situation. On American History tv on cspan three, there has never been a full Public Accounting of f the idea mastic intelligence operations. Therefore, this committee has undertaken such an investigation. America, 1970 five Church Committee hearing convened to investigate the intelligence activities of the cia, fbi, irs and the nsa saturday night at 10 00 p. M. Eastern. The commission questions committee staffers. They detail fbi abuses including attempted intimidation of Martin Luther king jr. There is only one thing left for you to do and you know what it is. You have 34 days in which to do it. This exact number has been selected for a specific reason. It has practical significance. It was ready four days before the award. You are done. The associate fbi director admits to some of the excesses while defending a number of other f guy practices. At 8 00 p. M. On lectures in history see hundreds. Us there is a first patterns or shifts in people go out in the world. They are the ones who sound the alarm. University of georgia professor stephen bury. Erry. Sunday evening at 6 30 p. M. , secretary of state john kerry who served in the vietnam war and became a vocal opponent of the war shares his views on vietnam at the lyndon b. Johnson president ial library in austin, texas. Our veterans did not receive either the welcome home nor the benefits nor the treatment that they not only deserved but needed and the fundamental contract between soldier and government simply was not honored. At 8 00, one other person sitting at watch reagan on tv deliver the speech and it was dwight eisenhower. He immediately called his former attorney general and said, what a fine speech Ronald Reagan had just delivered. He then called a former special assistant and said what an excellent speech Ronald Reagan had delivered. Back aeisenhower wrote multi step political plan for Ronald Reagan to follow. Ronald reagan would end up following eisenhowers advice to the letter. Eisenhowers behind the scenes mentoring of Ronald Reagan in the pivotal role of former president played in his political evolution in the 1960s. For the complete schedule, go to www. Cspan. Org. Washington journal continues. Host we are back with congressman darrell issa. Thank you for being here. You wrote about civil forfeiture. Guest it can be highway robbery at times. It allows Law Enforcement eighth on their suspicion that something is being used in a crime. No arrests, no probable cause is in some cases, just five or 10 or 20,000 in cash or maybe somebodys home. In these egregious examples, because there are no safeguards on the federal or state law, police can simply say im going to take your cash and they have done it in various amounts. Is aost egregious christian man have 53,000 he just collected for an orphanage. And if not for the public outcry, it might have been years if they had gotten it that. Gotten it back. ,ts a strange fluke in the law we want assets to be seized and we have allowed for that asset never to be returned. We would not want a gun to be put back to a criminal. Ruling,nce of it judge the presumption of innocence, all the things we assume you and or your car money doesnt or your home doesnt. In the case of the one example was doingson something wrong and had 40 worth of heroin outside his home but they seized the home and evicted the parents. Second, and say, wait a parents take a lot of responsibility for their children and they should but what was necessary to evict someone from a home . It was being used to punish the parents and make them throw their child out of the house and not let them back in. It really is those kind of examples where you say police normally do the right thing but when they do the wrong thing, how do we make sure there is a safeguard that does not cause you to have to spend your life savings to get your money back. Host explain the legislative history. How did these laws get on the books . Guest they were well intended. Imagine being a policeman and youve got to give the getaway car back to the criminal. Lets say you go into a bookie this would be the best 1 you go in and find a pound of some drug and 50,000 in cash in the same bag. You know how the two are connected. You sees both of them. At the end of the trial, if that cash can be used to make victims of course, you will keep it and thats the intention. The idea is that you would sees the cash not out of a banker count but cash or other assets. It has been used sometimes to ofip potential defendants all of their ability to defend in some cases. I think most egregious part of this, with the exception of a few states like california, they never have to bring a charge against you in order to keep your assets. Wait a second, where is my presumption of innocence and where is my personal property . Leave, thoselease are the words if police believe, those are the words. Guest there are Law Enforcement agencies and this is a big asset for their budget. Slush funds,ing money is that they can spend where they feel they need to, they can spend it. If every time a cop gave you a ticket, all the money went to their benevolent society, you would say wait a second. We need to do a couple of things and some states of on this but we need to do this federally by putting safeguards in soap police abuse so Police Abuses quickly stemmed. So the person who feels they have had money wrongfully taken procedures that will not cost him a fortune and we need to give them incentive for these funds to benefit the entity taking it. Host california has acted. Guest it would have stopped that against except california Law Enforcement to continue doing this switched to the federal law in california is not prohibited them from using this back door. On on aion we will work bipartisan basis will be about closing the back door and reforming it federally and if a state chooses to go further, telling state officials they cannot go further using federal stateen they could use a law because we dont want to be circumventing the state. Host why is it that states can circumvent these laws and fall back on these federal laws . Guest its a joint Venture Program that allows them to do a revenue sharing. They use the federal law and then they get 65 of it act. It back. I dont want to disparage Law Enforcement because these laws are being used properly most of the time. Most of the time is not good enough when its your civil rights, when you are a young physician going across the country on a train and the only being a black is man on a train having bought a oneway trickett for your dreams on the west coast and you have 16,000 in cash and they take it away and when you ask how you will live, thats your problem. 50,000 that a man in nevada had one in gambling winnings was taken away from him and hes told that if you dont say anything or i will take your car. He did Say Something and in this that its pretty obvious it was cash they were taking. They ended up in that unusual case returning the 50,000 taken at gunpoint in a car but paying his legal fees because he stood up and i think they were embarrassed. Each of these shows the need for reform. You cannot have police some preseason cash and telling you to go on. Host will it make it to the floor . Can you get this legislation done . Guest we have a Bipartisan Group working on criminal justice reform. This is part of criminal justice reform. There is no question that like so many other things where you have good programs and you see challenges or things that end of wrong, every so often, you have to say its time to fix these. This is a program moneys to be fixed federally and hopefully the states will follow. Host lets get to our calls. Independent is first. Caller my greatest respect was out to you and your colleagues. I have a personal problem with this whole thing. Business anda new i had a public official wanting to enter my property because i was moving around dirt. They brought a sheriff and tried to get it out of my property. They did not have a search warrant and no respect for the rule of law. What they do under the color of law is appalling. I would like you to comment on how the color of law is being changed by these lovely eurocrats to force these nonsense laws and it works with the forfeiture law. They will take as much money as they can. Its nothing more than robbing under the guise of a public official. Guest thats a very good point. We want to support Law Enforcement. The courts ofme, lawmakers, federal and state have an obligation to find these balances. Inspectors going on peoples property, yes, with rare exception like a fire, we want to make sure they go on with appropriate notice. Civil Asset Forfeiture, the one we are working on but you see it encryption fight with apple and the department of justice where congress is saying yes we want you to succeed but there has to be limits. Fair balance of history and the constitution supports that. The court has weighed in. Law enforcement has tried to do certain things. One thing they tried to do is find pot growing in homes by flying over them and looking for hotspots. The court said that is not trouble cause and you cannot just fly over looking for it and go into peoples homes. Its a balance. We want to give Law Enforcement thet of power as well as courts but the courts and congress seven obligation to balance and we are trying to bring some balance that not to eliminate programs that work but to rein in potential abuses and civil Rights Violations that seem to have occurred often. Host columbus, georgia, independent. Caller good morning. I see it all the time in columbus, georgia. We have a lot of drug dealers here. Host turn down your television. Caller ok, hold on. I spent some time in columbus, georgia. In fort benning and jump school and there is a lot of red clay there. Host go ahead. Police have a hard enough job to do as it is. Sometimes they overreach and go to far like kid that had that dope and is pocket and cash. They did not have any right to take the parents home from them. Because their kid was selling dope. Throw the jail kid in jail. There are all kinds of cases going on right here in small communities. Benning is four times the size of columbus, georgia. Host is it a frequent occurrence all over the country . And as foran be forfeiture, it can be used as a bargaining tool to get somebody to plead out or do something else. There are other areas we are not and the caller was bringing up a point that when you attach homes to civil Asset Forfeiture, its important that due process works differently than it has. Its one thing to say that if you are using your home as your base of operations to do minal act dividends activities, civil forfeiture will allow for that home to ultimately be taken away as part of your criminal activity. No one is expected to change that but there have been problems in that area. The parents of a child found with 40 worth of heroin, that does not make a big criminal enterprise. Seizing the house and even acting the parents was certainly agree ju egregious. If the child was convicted and was shown the parents had complicity, then one could make a case as to the asset. In some cases, we have seen apartments are being rented to somebody and the entire apartment or complex is seized. Without the due process if you are in business directly, you have to have some reasonable process. Wereou imagine if police able to seize every hertz rent a car simple because somebody rented it and had drugs in it . Pointller brings up the that the police have a hard job and we want to make sure they continue to do their job. We want this tool to work when appropriate. We want to make sure that a judge, person who will not have it from it and is defined as if the government protests the 10,000, it cost 10,000 to recover the property and legal fees. There is no provision for the onlic defender to take this or any type of Court Appointed representative. Example, the African American man getting 16,000 taken away, the problem is, he cannot get an attorney. Or his attorney will not be economically viable for this. The other matter i have experiences where i represented in federal court a defendant who has had 60,000 in cash seized from him and because of that, the government says that he had 60,000 of assets, he did not qualify for a public defender. Asked ifre a judge and he does not qualify for a public defender because these assets, the judge said you cannot use those as legal fees and there went my potential big the case. Guest im sorry i am smiling at the paradox you find yourself in. This is one of the complications. Money needs to have the same rights as humans when in fact its human beings money. If there is not a presumption of innocence for the money, therefore the home, there is not a presumption that you are entitled to counsel for withholding. One of our reforms on a , what we wantis to do is if you dont make the charge, you dont get to keep the assets. I think thats important. To claim that its criminal in nature, the only way i would let someone keep that asset is if money is notthat mine and you may not have to charge the person but you should be able to keep a money and the dope that they say is not theirs until someone claims it area you have a good point. It should be reasonably present presumed that money belongs when individual and is not criminal unless there is a fair showing. One of the challenges is you really have a fair showing when you have an arrest. So many examples we see, there is not even an arrest. Its simply give up this and we will let you go. That has to stop. Independent caller, what do you think . I want to ask for a full accountability. Ask where the secretary of state was during benghazi. I will need some help with this because i dont want it gets over. I want to full accountability minute i minute of what was going on in the situation room in the white house, much like we had a full accountability when we took down Osama Bin Laden. This ties that all in. The only thing missing in the situation room, taking down Osama Bin Laden was the popcorn. I want a full accountability of all three streams. Can you put that together for us . Guest there is a select committee. And itsiderable building a great deal of information that will mostly be available to the public. I will push back a little bit and say that sometimes the answer that we all deserve is the answer sufficient for us to know what happened and where the mistakes were. The Ben Ghazi Committee is going further because we want to make sure we have extensive corrective action as to the failures. Initially, benghazi was where we said we could not have known or maybe the ambassador was careless. As the investigation goes on, we realized we have problems in diplomatic security. We have problems in the selection of facilities and the exemptions that were authorized. We have problems in the african command and their ability to get assets and respond. Each of those is not about some scandal. It is about fixing things to make our people safer and make the bad guys less likely to attack our embassies and consulates. I know the caller is getting to the question of Holding People accountable. I will not push back or get i will let the fact come out. When i headed the investigation, what i was able to show was pretty straightforward. Before hand, there was a reckless disregard for the safety of those people. Was a decision to take away assets at a time in which things were deteriorating. There were mistakes very clearly you where they would have believe that they responded quickly and sent forces when, in fact, general lovell and others frozen. D that they were were not mistakes solely of the he secretary of state. Other parts of the administration have to take responsibility and clearly, there were false statements made by ambassador rice and others and theres an accountability there that people are frustrated and they keep saying where are the indictments . This plays into political decisions going on today. The secretary and now president ial candidates favorability and so on. I dont want us to go to far because remember, the biggest thing that future investigations are about its not about a hypothetical indictment. Its about making sure this does not happen again and making sure whoever the next president is inherits better procedures to make people safe around the world. We are war against isis, not at half time based on where we are. Host are you concerned that the closer we get to november and this special Committee Releases its findings that those findings will be political . Guest i dont think so. I can make a case anytime, anywhere that Hillary Clinton is use of herd based on power to raise money for the , her misuse,ation or failure to be honest and forthcoming in ben ghazi in the aftermath. Letting ambassador rice say things that are not so while you for the hymns and families you tell your own daughter the true while you are people to be misled. Those are political and they are out there. Dy has meticulously tried to get to the truth that the state department and others have delayed documents and put us into this lyrical situation where some of this will come out. For your listeners and the voters, i think its a most hard to believe there is almost anything to get out of that that we dont already know. If you have not made up your mind already about secretary clintons failure did you heard job, you will not get new revelations. There is enough out there to stick with secretary clinton or make a decision that she is disqualified. She is one of the most qualified people based on experience3 she is one of. The smartest people i worked with him congress. I will personally not vote for her not just because im a republican but i think she is disqualified waste on her conduct. More information, you have to look at the information that is already out there. Host this is the headline do you plan to vote for donald trump . Guest i have been named a delegate for donald trump. There are seven current chairman that have already endorsed him. I dont think falling in love will be a fair title. Donald trump is not your conventional republican. Left of some people in politics and to the right of others. The one thing about donald trump is what you see is what you get. He has strong beliefs. Ultimately, i think he will have to find out that better trade deals are hard and if he wants to work on better trade deals, we want him to. If securing the border is what he wants to do, we stand with him to secure the border. I will vote for donald trump because im a delegate and i expect them to be the next president. The Mexican Government builds strong walls on their southern borders to keep what the moller and hondurans from coming in. Just to keep what amal ands and lans and hondurans out. That cooperation by the mexican is what we have to consider, their participation in securing our borders. I will Say Something that republicans dont say enough. We need to fix a broken immigration system, one that recognizes guestworker programs that should work and the 1. 2 Million People who illegally come here every year, about half of them become citizens each year, that needs to be a better system, one that is based on merit and need of the american people. I think donald trump will be perfect for that kind of clean sheet of paper approach. We have been talking about this for 15 years. Host new orleans, joe, a democrat, good morning. Caller good morning. Good morning representative issa. Guest good morning. Caller it amazes me how the Republican Party and greta, i have two points so please dont cut me off. My first point is it amazes me how the Republican Party can spend effort and money trying to find something or in date Hillary Clinton. You have spent years and money and you come up with nothing but you still want to blame her for things. Leave the lady alone. Is that if youg leave her alone, then maybe you all can spend time and money and president helping the create jobs, shovel ready jobs or any other things that will of allr economy instead of your time and effort being placed on the Republican Party. Host thank you. Guest we have differing views on job creation. We are dealing right now with of therico where most good jobs and puerto rico our government jobs which ultimately , government can employ people but where do they get their money from so they have a huge deficit. They are losing their manufacturing jobs. Those of the jobs that historically create wealth. Puerto rico is no different than the unit states. In cannot create great jobs the long run by simply taxing people in spending government money. You have to find ways to get the private sector to create and trade, which includes access to energy, allowing the private sector to make money so that they are induced to take risks. That is the republican answer and i know that is not always popular but i believe it works and it has a long history. When it comes to her objection in this investigation, there is an irony that is not missed on people my age. Hillary clinton began her career as a lawyer investigating watergate for a democratic majority in the house that relentlessly sent huge amount of money. Nexen resigned in less time from the break in at watergate than we have gone investigating ben ghazi and we still dont have the documents. Case of fast inferiors, people forget that it started off i partisan. Border patrol agents murdered in the desert we tried to get to the facts and we still dont have the documents. The administration is thwarting even though a federal judge has ordered turning over those documents, they will not turn over the government. In 2010 and ind 2016, were trying to get the documents still to find out why they lied about how he died related to the guns used in fast and furious. Why is it they wont turn over the documents . And alaim privilege federal judge appointed by president obama disagreed and they are still appealing. Sometimes, these long investigations, longer than water eight, are because you do not get cooperation in the courts have begun moving very slowly. I share the callers view on one thing. Investigations by congress should be quick, cooperated with, they should move on and turn it over the to the department of justice or end it. Thats a goal that i have is to make those things quick and get us out of the business of long investigations. By the way, we also need to have independence in the department of justice. That way wont be just ignored like it was with lois lerner. Host a republican is next. Caller good morning. You are to say talking about drugs the neighborhood. I want to say Ronald Reagan in went to one of these for thecountries irancontra war. Nancy reagan turned around and put the war on drugs. 10 years later, they start arresting our children. All of this dope is here now. You throw them in jail for it. Then you go to the middle east and get all the dope from over there now. I guess our grandchildren will be selling next area basically, you have destroyed the black family. The only thing we have left is the great almighty to save the children of israel. Thank you very much and have a good day. Guest i hope you have a good day. I dont think she has been a registered republican in all likelihood. Point but ip a think each of those points need to be looked at quickly. When we went into panama to go after noriega, he was involved in the Drug Trafficking and ultimately brought to justice. Panama has been cleaned up and it is a success story. Drugs had effectively taken over these countries. That continues to be a challenge in mexico. She is right about one thing drugs a black immunity and urban america continue to grow. They are available and affordable and are growing in the suburbs. We have a crisis and just yesterday and the day before, congress focused on almost 18 separate bill dealing with opiates, legal prescription opiate that have become a pathway that are highly available and overprescribed. Something in the neighborhood 80 of all opiates used in the world are used by the 5 of us in america. They are a pathway to further addiction. The fact is, we are not winning the war on drugs. The late nancy reagan said just say no. She worked very hard to try to clean it up. When we look at the war on drugs, this has been something every president has had to deal with. I dont believe resident clinton changed course. He signed strong crime bills. Has been trying to force the growth of these drugs. It is ruining the youth of america and its an epidemic but its one where giving up will not change. Host our next guest is congressman joe courtney who proposed emergency funding to deal with this Opioid Crisis. 600 million in emergency funding. That was not allowed to come to the floor by the rules committee. Are you in support of emergency funding . Guest absolutely not, we need to find funding from our 4. 2 trillion with our half trillion dollar deficit. Democrats, their answer is new spending, where you get it from . The republican answer is new spending, where you get it from . Us toerican people want realize that 4. 2 trillion, 25 of our gdp every year, we should be able to live within that. Do we need to find funding . Yes. We need to look hard and be more effective. In the case of the one bill that i was involved in at the rules committee that came out of the judiciary committee, we found offsets in the department of justice. It was bipartisan and it was agreed that we need to work that way. States need to step up. Example,hire, for which has a heroin epidemic, realize they are willing to participate. Thats a important part that not all the money is federal. Were not talking about mayor but the military bases streets of the 50 states and territories. Host independent in virginia. With thehe one problem Asset Forfeiture laws is that states put that case before a criminal case you normally have a criminal case involved with it. They want 2 bites of the apple. They want you to testify against yourself at the forfeiture hearing and use that against you in your criminal case. Host sorry, i thought you are finished. Guest he makes a good point that in fact treating forfeiture when its linked to a criminal case isa separate civil a very tricky form of double jeopardy. Lawyers are clever on both sides. I think thats one of the challenges is we have to make our laws fair. Nobody should have to give up their money or hurt themselves in a criminal case. Its one of the challenges we have in america is that civil remedies like in the case of oj where he was civilly convicted of murder basically, that is fine. That occurred afterwards. He was able to be tried and in this case he was found not guilty and then civilly, he ended up having his assets frozen for what people reasonably believe was killing his wife. We have to be careful. We cannot give it up altogether but there is no question that you should not be able to use civil support a som criminal defense. Host we are running out of time. Diane in naples, florida, democrat. Gosh, i have been calling for 35 years. This man and how he can be in our congress upsets me so much. I voted for 16 president s in my time. Ive never seen congress or my country going through what he has put Hillary Clinton through. Itthen god is he is baloney. Ben ghazi is baloney. You are just disgusting. Host hold on, we invite guest to come to the table and its easy for you out there because no one knows who you are and our guest is sitting here for you to attack. M we cannot have that. They are gracious enough to give us their time so lets be civil and have a constructive conversation. I want to be brief, my investigation of ben ghazi and it almost two years ago. The committee was selected and has been working on it. During my time, what i discovered quickly was that the actual failure to protect our wente, many of the abuses to undersecretary kennedy and i call for his firing. , think he is in fact no longer in 46 years of Public Service, he is well past retirement age. It appeared as if he was consistently at these failures. I never said because he is at the tip of these bad decisions that Hillary Clinton is responsible. I followed where it went decisions before, during but kennedy undersecretary come i mention him because i think he should have been gone quickly. He made mistakes. He is the guy responsible for the construction of embassies and the waivers on security and so on. Plenty of people are looking at the failures of secretary clinton. Because she is a president ial candidate, callers like this are upset. I told you i am not voting for her. I am a republican. When it came to the ben ghazi Oversight Committee, it was always looking for how Chris Stevens tied and how it did not have to happen. Host is enough discussion happening about the cia role in this and david the trails was the head of the cia at that time. Could some feel that your focus is on Hillary Clinton what it should also be on the cia director write . Guest maybe not that i will say that we were thwarted by the committee andence the then chairman and thwarted by the Armed Services chairman. Andd republican buck mckeon republican mike rogers who thwarted the investigation and tried to say theres nothing here and we will take care of it. It was a challenge, a republican on republican challenge. It peopleoing on one thing in the ben ghazi story, you had tremendous firepower and there is real doubt even today if there was a job to protect those people and if they had moved immediately and a been allowed to move immediately as was said in the movie and book, would we have saved lives . I think we definitely would have saved lives. Maybe all of them. D. C. Three, a hightech version of it, had not been taken away before hand, there would have been an exit vehicle at an airport nearby. These are important and it is the reason i believe strongly congress should not only have investigations but we have to prevent the infighting that happened. Those would have been made by the cia and not the state department . Guest a good question. They both have a subordinated to the ambassador, and that is what made this complex. When the ambassador is complex and unable to lead, when the deputy is doing everything he to,but not being listened the hierarchy that goes up to the secretary of state them back down has to be second guessed it you cannot have the state making decisions about people under duress. Those decisions need to be made in advance. I cannot speed to david trias, but i can speak to this. The cia contractors should have been allowed to move, one way or the other, quickly. Decisions should have been made quicker. They were not made on the ground. Military relief decisions including an overflight, things i would have thwarted a second attack, could have saved two cia operatives long after there should have been some relief. Rick, independent. Caller thank you for taking my call. Good morning, representative isis. Guest dont call me isis. Anything but isis. Number one, we have a massive deficit. Afghanistan a in 44 million gas station. Somebody signed off on it. Number two, they took 50 syrian guys who evidently were against the leader of syria and train them for a month and it cost us a half billion dollars . Somebody should go to jail for this. Bringing a point for why oversight is so why watchdogs in and out of the administration need to be listened to. We have had special Inspector Generals for afghanistan, they have not been fully heard and understood. The Oversight Committee has told us about the egregious waste. We built things in afghanistan it never got used. Andome cases, we built them threw them away. We have problems and the caller talked about the syrian training program. Claiming one fraud that money. There are some failures. Not every failure should be counted as pure waste. There needs to be openness and transparency to investigators. Congress has a role because of our independence, just as we talked about. There has to be somebody who is not the staff. I will plug it in closing. The 10,000 people or so who worked for the 74 inspectors government, these are executive Branch People who spent our lives trying to find and fix these problems and work within the system. They need to be empowered. Withhing that bothered me secretary of state clintons time, she never had an Inspector General even nominated in her four years. That should not happen. They get their independence by being confirmed by the senate. The next president , i will want mandate, thatt a they are confirmed and they get more independence and access, because even though i always push for congress to have access, the first line of defense, the people i work with during my tenure at the Oversight Committee, those who brought me their problems that they arty try to fix in the system. I know callers on both sides get animated on these things. But remember that fixing these problems is a matter of making the system one in which the people who are doing it allow so they can quite frankly be appropriately secondguessed and it can be done within the system but i would like to have more transparency. I know this present this president promised more transparency. Bills that go the through congress, i hope president obamas legacy is signing legislation that creates more transparency. We appreciate you coming on the show i talking to the viewers and we hope you come back again. We will next talk to a democrat of connecticut about moving to the house to a dress the Opioid Crisis. Several bills including his own proposal that would have provided 600 million in emergency funding. A veteran journalist who covered pork but both and george w. Bush. The campaign 2016 bus continues travels to honor winners of the competition. The bust made a stop in new jersey to recognize a sixtime student cam winner for her second time second prize winner, when a house becomes a home. She was honored in front of Community Members before having a chance on the bus. The bus honored eighth graders evans and obrien for their second prize video, National Immigration videos. Ceremony, they donated 500 of their winnings to a local charity. Following the event, the bus turned to a middle school in new jersey to celebrate zacharys second prize video, the next big problem. ,ver 250 elected officials including a congressman, joined in a ceremony for zachary. A special thanks with concord to comcast. Cspan. Org is a complement to your cspan viewing. Most programs like the house, senate, and congressional hearings stream live on the site. If you are away from your television, you can watch on your desktop, laptop, even your smart phone or tablet. Cspan archives all of its programs online at the cspan Video Library. Episode of an washington journal, booktv, or any program, you can find it online and watch at your convenience to the cspan Video Library contains more than two 200,000ld more than hours of programs and you can find and watch programs going back many years. Watch on your television, cspan publishes its onair schedule. Just click on the link. Cspan. Org is a Public Service of your cable and satellite provider. Check it out on the web at cspan. Org. Washington journal continues. Welcome back. We have joe courtney. The effort seems largely bipartisan. What legislation is being put forth . Guest this week, i think this issue, which really for a lot of thelies and folks in Addiction Treatment area who have been trying to get the countryss attention, has finally made its way to the front of the line. It is about time to review look at the numbers and the center for Disease Control in 2004, the tally for the heroin opioid overdose, about 7000. It is over 28,000 per we know 2015s numbers will not be any better. We have seen it with statebystate numbers and connecticut went up 20 according to the office of chief medical examiners. It hits rural america, urban republican districts and democratic districts, it does not make a difference. A package of bills came forward. They were in many instances concentrated in terms of policy changes, some of which are good here it there are restrictions in terms of what physicians can describe in terms of medication trawl, evenivid methadone. Primary care providers like practitioners are almost completely limited in doing any prescribing. To boostof trying treatment, informing those are all good. There are a number of task forces created. Programs for potential future treatment, there really are no resources that are part of the package, which again, as someone who comes from a state hardhit, from new england, new hampshire, down to long island, the numbers are pretty sickening. There is a disbelief that a problem like this, which dwarfs really any harm done by a natural disaster, certainly anything with that magnitude hit attack,land with that this town would be completely engaged in terms of trying to get resources out there. Law enforcement and First Responders and emts making these calls on an hourly basis in terms of people who have overdosed, who are exhausting a lot of resources and themselves burnout is really an issue, particularly for some of the volunteer First Responders at their the treatment and the system is acute. T is most when youre talking to an emergency physician, brought her you brought someone back to life, a wonder drug who can bring people back, who almost passed away. Them back onf because they cannot get a longterm care treatment, the frustration is off the charts. Proposed 600 million in emergency funding. Determining what legislation is relevant, they ruled against having that as an amendment on the floor. Republican appropriators would like to see, and they say they are working on, funding to address the situation through additional appropriations process. The way you want to do it, there is no offset for that money. That is right. Put this in the context, a hurricane hit new england or, you know, the southeastern part or fires inry colorado or california, we do not do offsets for those kinds of emergencies or Public Health emergencies identified by congress and the administration. That the process takes too long in terms of trying to help folks that are on the front line i was talking about a minute ago. The president put 1. 1 alien in his budget of new money offset in the grand scheme of the budget process. Knows whether that will emerge from that but the white house when they issued the statement of policy a few days ago on the package of bills the house is voting on, they were thaty want about the fact taken as a whole, they will provide little help in terms of addressing the resource problems. Again, you find people who are seriously addicted, it is a disease, and they cannot get access to a treatment bed, it is a ticking time bomb. That is what the addicts themselves are saying. Them we heard from all of on the show. We invite phone calls, tell us your story and what you think about the actions washington is taking. Phone numbers are on your screen. Lets get to thomas in california, independent. Youre up first. Caller thank you for taking my call. I realize there is a problem in prisons and the military and every state in the United States. One of the against reasons people get involved in drugs, they are spending too much money instead oforrect it correcting work for people. 80 of the people in prison would not be there if there was work in the United States. Military people have high suicide. People in the United States have suicide because there is no work or people try to sell it and then they get hooked on it. It is just like alcohol. It was not legal to have alcohol in certain states. You guys are spending too much problemying to help the instead of creating work for the public. Guest i would just remind you the escalation of harm over a 10 sweatime really has just slept through the country. It affects employed as well as unemployed people. It is flat out documented out there. Think we need a strong jobs agenda and that is why we should of had a more robust pressure. A shipyard in my district is hiring because of some of the work we do, but the fact of the matter is it is a complex problem, i will grant you that. What drives people into the situation, whether employed or unemployed, there are a host of reasons. Prior guest talked about the overprescribing of opioids, which everyone in the Law Enforcement and medical community agrees. Shiftpart of the big taking place here. If your family has a loved one struggling with the problem and access toget treatment, there is just no excuse for a country of our to basically turn a blind eye and not listen to the folks who really understand solutions for people. Host bob in connecticut, independent. Ok. Er thank you for taking my call. I have been listening to the, it the comments about the Opioid Crisis. It has been a big problem. We would certainly like to get some solution to the over prescription of the drugs. How do you control the doctors that are overprescribing . Guest i think your point is on that the pathway being created by legally prescribed opioids that really have the same chemistry as heroine, is really what i think has been a in terms of the increase in incidence and death and injury. There is some change happening now. Without Congress Moving forward the one of the task forces, health and Human Services, fda, veterans affairs, it is an all hands on deck examination of protocols for overprescribing opioids. Connecticut is actually going to limit seven day prescriptions of opioids. There is a growing and improving to enter anyhaving prescriptions into a prescription monitoring system. We need to nationalize that. Connecticut is basically now partnered with 17 other states in terms of their electronic tracking system. Rhode island to our east and new york to our west are part of the system but massachusetts to the north is not. There is dr. Shopping going on out there by folks. We heard it loud and clear. Very close to where you live, bob. We need to go upstream, we need theeally look at overreliance on pain medication and come up with other strategies to deal with pain. Pharmaceutical Companies Need to be brought into this conversation because there is clear evidence of incentives because of what the big pharmaceutical manufacturers are giving to prescribers in terms of the really excessive trend of prescribing. A lot of good ideas but right now, there are people as we are sitting here talking who are dealing with family crises in to get access to care. The package we voted on yesterday and will vote on today really do not address the problem at all. Taking your questions and comments this morning about an Opioid Crisis p capitol hill is addressing the issue with a series of hills. Bills. We are talking about the sale is the situation happening in this country. In washington, donald trump has arrived at the Republican National Committee Headquarters just a few blocks from where we is nd it is reported he has arrived at the meeting with donald trump, paul ryan, in about 10 minutes. They will be discussing how they move forward, getting to know each other as the speaker of the house said yesterday. We will keep an eye on what is happening as we continue to talk on thewashington journal house side of the Opioid Crisis. North carolina, a democrat, good morning. Caller good morning. 1980s and 1990s, when it was africanamericans with crack cocaine, you built jails and through us and jails. Now that it has happened to suburban youth and whites, you want to allocate money and now it is a disease all of the sudden and you want Rehabilitation Centers. I do not understand it. That insteademed of doing jails and Rehabilitation Centers for africanamericans, you would not now, allproblem, but of a sudden, this is a disease. I do not buy it. The nuns used to teach me that two wrongs do not make a right. Your point is well taken that the strategy of the war on drugs , i think people are getting , and president s obama along with republicans are talking about reforming the criminal sentencing structure put in place. When we see the growth in in 2004 before i came to congress to 28,000 today, the fact of the matter is, everybody has a stake in this. The leadership in terms of the black caucus and the house of representatives has been very strong in terms of trying to reform the problems in the barriers preventing people from getting treatment. Folks out there dealing with these drugs, there is no criminalization as far as theyre concerned. One of the parts of emergency funding is to boost Law Enforcement with grants and cost programs in terms of Getting Better intelligence. I do not think anyone has sympathy for those profiting from illness or addiction to her the treatment we are talking about is helping addicts and not the dealers. Host two connecticut, ed, a republican. I think the rapid spread of opioid abuse is an unattended consequence of federal funding of prescriptions. If you take a look at massachusetts, which has one of the worst problems in the broadest funding, i would suggest as a solution that we take opioids off. I think removing opioids entirely is an overreaction. Its onedepend way too far. I do not think federal funding necessarily drives it. I think Health Insurance covers the same type of formularies that medicare and medicaid provides. Protocols, where pain became one of the checkboxes boxes, that was a , i think a took lace lot of people who study the problem closely and have expertise in the field say that is what drove a lot of the push to give people 40 oxycontin or vicodin when their getting discharged. We have for stories of wisdom stick wisdom teeth removal. To do withas nothing federal funding. Dentistry is not covered by medicare and barely covered by medicaid. To whole point is we need change the protocols and that is what the medical community, the fda, the folks in the regulatory sphere are looking at. And your own legislature in connecticut, as i said, put a sevenday cap, which i think is probably more and reason in terms of moderating overprescribing in terms of jet just cutting off peoples access. When you have serious surgery, there is an appropriate place for painkillers. The question is whether you are giving people large quantities in medicine cabinets that really have no relationship to a real diagnosis. Host next call, connecticut, a republican. Caller thank you for cspan. , iresentative joe courtney met you four years ago when you first ran for office and did not see but you are in now. Whatt to piggyback on representative was saying. Attorney. A u. S. He lived at the time, our son was caught twice soldiers of the house. Had grandmothers and their ,others in the projects grandson was caught selling drugs, they were evicted. On the other hand, we are speaking now about the opiates and i heard a gentleman mention it and i have the same sentiments, that when it was an issue confined mostly to the intercity inner cities, there was not any noise made about it. Now in the suburbs and vermont and maine and place like that, caucasian children are getting involved and then you have withrs doing black market these prescriptions, where do we stand from here . I cannot understand the double standards. You are talking about a standard put in place before my time in congress. Strong pushefinite in terms of some of the work the governor is doing and in terms of Second Chance society to look at the over sentencing of some individuals involved in nonviolent crimes. Many times just around drug possession. Whatever mistakes were made in the past, we should not basically say we will just ignore what i think is really and at the democrat going through the country right now. It hits urban areas as well as suburban and rural areas. Inhink everybody has a stake terms of policies that will get more help for people out there. The president has made of hising reform one exit priorities and i support it entirely. I used to be a public defender years ago and was on the receiving end of some of those policies you described. I certainly thought it was an incredible overreaction put into place by congresses and legislators. At some point we have to look. Orward and fix the problem not ignoring the past or defending it, but simply we have got to move forward and fix the problems out there today. Tim, indiana, a democrat. Welcome to the conversation. Caller i have a question. Has Congress Done a cost to what it costs for , oro put somebody in jail would it be to treat somebody for six months or however long it takes to treat them . To me, what we are doing is throwing people in jail that may mothers and fathers leaving their kids, we are tearing apart families. The war on drugs the way we are fighting it and putting more drugs and Law Enforcement and medical treatment, to me, it makes no sense. I think you are correct in what has been interesting terms of Law Enforcement community in massachusetts, now a national figure, because of his appearance on 60 minutes, set up this program where when people come in, the police have responded who are drug addicts, basically, they are looking to place them in a treatment that as opposed to putting them in lockup. My meetings with Law Enforcement and eastern connecticut have said exactly the same thing. Police chiefs are saying we cannot arrest our way out of the problem. Focusing on dealers and people profiting from this, it is totally appropriate in terms of Law Enforcement. The fact of the matter is, you know, picking up someone who is either at deaths door or an emergency room, we have been caught with illegal drugs, i think the priority should be about getting them into treatment. Using sometimes the criminal Justice System as a tool an incentive to get people to go into treatment and stay there, but the fact of the matter is, incarceration is far more than a detox bed or even a longterm treatment that. Host in connecticut, a lot of calls from your home. A republican, youre on the air with congressman. Go ahead. Caller thank you for taking my call. I am trying not to be cynical. Over the same thing i hear and over from you guys, that we will spend more money and more money. I do not think that is the answer. This stuff has to be organic from the communities themselves. Know how some federal bureaucrat in washington will help my little town in connecticut. It has to start at the local level. I think the governmentss will probably make it worse. As the treatment, why dont we look at something more holistic . Massage therapy, meditation, acupuncture . These things are not covered on most insurances. Available toat people so there are alternative ways, instead of taking a pill for your pain, you can maybe take something, a in pain management. A class in pain management. Guest you are really onto something. There is an interesting and strong examination of, giving out pills and then going on to the next patient. Federally funded Community Health center in connecticut totally revamping the way they deal with patients who have pain. Have reduced the number of opioids they have prescribed in the last couple of years to a much more moderate level. They do not just strand the patients in agony. , put the same types of strategies you are talking about. Clear themake it package were talking about is totally connected to organic, locally administered treatment. The house in connecticut, a longterm program for people who have drug addictions, it is a fourmonth waiting list to get access there. The federal government will not treatmentd take over programs. They will give some more resources so they can expand capacity in a program that has been around for 20 years and does great work for individuals. The boost in terms of Law Enforcement is to make sure local Police Departments like yours actually have the medication, which costs money, that they need to go out there and save lives as well as give them more training in terms of how to deal with this. A federal takeover of the Police Department or local Health Care Programs in your area or mine. It is really just because they need more help. If you talk to them face to face and the families who cannot get a resource issue at a basic level. For us to deny it, we are funding the Defense Department billionaid funding, 18 dollars in this yearss budget, but we are saying we will turn a blind eye to a problem that is causing 28,000 americans to lose their lives . I think there is a disconnect there. Andre has been waiting, independent caller. Caller i have an waiting for quite some time and i would like comment here you are on the education and workforce. Is the most important aspect to assess this problem and control it. To control the problem, yes, the lady says from the community, that is important. But the individual suffering or what youidemic call a disease or addiction, because of the type of drug they are taking, the effect on the than is far more drastic all of these other drugs out here on the market. Host lets get a response. Guest the chemistry of opioids and its connection to heroin, it is very strongly documented. And aates a craving control over people that makes them do totally antisocial things, it hurts their family members as well as themselves. I think there is an immediate, thatt need for treatment is not happening out for far too many individuals and families. Stream. To move up the longterm solution to the problem which the prior caller correctly pointed out. We need to focus in terms of young people. The department of health and Human Services have substance , the office funds a lot of grassroots, local, jug free programs in high schools and middle schools right now which, again, they are understanding they have got to Start Talking about the fact that, what is in your parent medicine cabinet can be really dangerous. Just because it is legal and has a doctors prescription on the bottle, does not mean it is safe for you to take that. We need to as i said go upstream and look at this from a prevention angle, and that is part of what the emergency funding is aimed at here it at. Host the republican. Caller i would like to make a statement. A lot of drug starts when kids are in high school. You have a lot of dealers dealing drugs to these kids and they show them how much money they are making and they wave the money in front of them. A young teenager, they see cash and they have got been doing for them. Drug dealershe are. It is all the gangs like the crips and the bloods. Together and take them out. Host an independent. Caller you must be familiar with pharmaceuticals. I have been researching this because it is something im concerned about. Theyre being sued by the state of kentucky right now and they are host you are still there . Caller they are responsible for a lot of the addiction we have. Stand, the and her aggressive Sales Program they have, painkillers that mostly cause this, from your state host i want to add on twitter, that point as well. If the listeners were listening from the beginning, they would remember i did say the pharmaceutical companies for part of the blame here medical prescribers to overprescribed opioids and bydue pharmaceutical lawsuit the attorney general of kentucky actually succeeded in unearthing the fact that the incentives were there. Earlier,w i mentioned that is exactly what theyre aiming at in terms of trying to get rid of what i think are totally nonmedical incentives that are causing the problem. They have some facilities in connecticut, they have facilities all over the country, and it is not something i have any sympathy for in terms of any pharmaceutical company. We have got to get our medical better in line. These cravings are destroying individuals and families. In washington, a democrat on the air. Caller i think it is a combination of things. Jug companies are pushing the opioids. There is also, the american depression for lack of a better , the media, everything was so bad, so terrible. I have done it before and i will do it again. My addiction was alcohol. You are drawing a connection then. Lloyd rs and harold and heroine collide with the economic downturn . Depression and Mental Health issues are one of the ways people find their path to additions of other sorts as well. Having said that, looking at hass numbers, the recovery been somewhat under way since then. It is hitting people who are employed as well is unemployed. In all ages. Is reallyle ages jumping off the page in terms of the spike upward. All the colors have made great points about the fact this is a multifaceted problem. There is not a silver bloat silver bullet. I agree, there is no sympathy for people profiting from this. I have forthwith Police Chiefs in the district who have created Regional Task forces. They actually have a morning briefing now like the military does your it is great because they have picked up a lot more folks on the street. They are the first to say you cannot arrest your way out of the problem. You have got to give People Better options to break the cycle of addiction because then you have a more permanent solution to crime. Three more calls if we can. I appreciate you being on the show, but im an old man older than you are. I am tired to see how concerned people are when our government grow drugs, in afghanistan come we walk by fields of it and we pay those people to like us. We did this in vietnam with heroine. We let it come across our borders. Drugsstopped all of the coming across the borders, america would be in turmoil. Everybody knows that. It is just the drug of the day, the thing of the day. We have done this some and he time spirit im an old man and i am tired of seeing this. All the time im an old man and i am tired of seeing this. Magnitude of death happening across the country right now, there has never been an epidemic that has reached the magnitude happening now. I set i sat on southern command, which has all of latin america and the navy. There are deployments of navy vessels working with our allies in central and have and latin america. The u. S. Coming into are not from afghanistan to their coming from latin america. They know that. Up those efforts is totally part of the multifaceted solution in terms of what were doing here. To try and say this is the same old, historically, statistically, that is not the case. Florida, democrat, good morning to you. Ofler i have got a couple comments. Host what is your point . Caller manual labor, you wear your body out. You have people now in the baby who have done manual labor their whole life. Two fusionshave had in my back. Host we will take your point that painkillers are needed for some people. Guest the general the gentleman earlier who said we should cut off funding is off base. The question is trying to come up with a balance here in terms of what is the right allowance of these very dangerous medications . Opioid has the same chemistry as heroine, it just does. Teethescribing of wisdom that kind of stuff is not appropriate. Most reasonable people would agree. An individual like yourself, and ironworker, you Better Believe it is hard physical labor and it creates a chronic pain situation. There are other ways you can treat pain than just with pills. I have lower back pain and i start every day with stretching. That is the kind of holistic approach that i think will really benefit everybody. Int one last call mississippi, republican. I have been trying to push in my state that we open up more beds and treatment facilities. Most places, you will have 30,000, 40,000, 50,000 dollars for someone to go in and get treatment. The average person cannot do that. There are a lot of ideas out there. In connecticut, we have an overcapacity issue with nursing homes. You can create longterm care facilities for these types of treatment beds. There are solutions in terms of trying to expand capacity now. At the end of the day come a lot of the things we are voting on are good but there is at some point a resource issue. Host what are you voting on today . Guest they broke it out into different areas. A lot of it is authorizing language and different policy changes. Taken as a whole, they are benign. Do a lot they will not to change things in a dramatic way. Host the house and the senate have to come together and so maybe we will see some defenses. Thank you very much for being here to talk about it. Coming up, we will turn our attention to the relationship between the bush family and donald trump. We will talk with a veteran journalist, tom defrank. That conversation is happening a few blocks from here as a few blocks from here the Republican National committee, donald trump is behind closed doors with the speaker of the house, paul ryan, and the rnc chairman reince can see theyou media has arranged themselves outside the doors there. Mr. Trump will also meet separately with the rest of the House Republican leadership and then he has a meeting with the Senate Leadership at the National Republican senate Committee Headquarters around 11 45 eastern this morning. The speaker of the house will hold his weekly news conference, so expect him to talk about his meeting with mr. Trump there. We will be right back. Booktv has 48 hours of nonfiction books and authors every weekend. Saturday on afterwards, don watkins. Don what we are concerned with is not how much money you have but how did you get it. Did you get it through something that was fair or a process that was unfair. When you try to equalize people who on your money honestly, that is something we are challenging and saying, it is not a fair way to treat people. He says the American Dream is not threatened by income inequality but by limiting success. 4 30,day afternoon at iraq and Afghanistan War veteran and former ceo of thats for freedom. He talks about a republican address and talks about his vision for americans today. This book is not about me or roosevelt or litigating where he is on the political spectrum. It is a call to action. It is meant to inspire, motivate, and remind everyone what makes america special. Some of us carried a rifle and many in the generation still do. You do not have to carry a rifle in to be in the arena. It is our job to instill the principles that perpetuate what is an experiment in human freedom. What should be a series on which the future rest is instead filled with educated tightrope ctumes, disappearing acts, and clowns. By the timetigued the mud is slung and the skeletons have come out of the closet and election day is over, that were often exhausted by legislators before they had a chance to start their jobs. Go to booktv. Org for the complete schedule. Washington journal continues. Host joining us now, tom defrank. You covered the bush family for many years. How many, when did it again, and talk about your history there. Guest good morning. It began the day before thanksgiving in 1974. I was traveling with president , and henry kissinger, the secretary of state, peeled off to go to beijing to advance president 40s trip to china in 1975. He knew he would have a tough Election Campaign and he said, no foreign travel, pack it all in in 75. Kissinger went off to china and my boss at newsweek said i do not want to send a foreignpolicy expert from washington to spend the money. Eastre already in the far so i send you. Representatives the day before thanksgiving, george h. W. That was long ago before we had official relations with the pnc. Beijing was still known as peking. A little reception at his residence for the kissinger party and that is where i met him. I have been dealing with him for 42 years. President , ihe was at theited to some event white house and president bush introduced me to his son, george w. Bush, a businessman and baseball owner at the white house. That is how long i go back with the bushes. Host you wrote this piece for the national journal, why george w. Bush will not go to the gop convention. You write that the entire bush family has a strong dislike for donald trump. Describe that. Thet this reminds me of relationship between the bush family and ross perot. He does not like them and they do not like him. Ideological,l, temperamental, whatever you want to call it. Relationshipe between donald trump and the bushes, it is much the same way. Ofy do not have a history good relations. In this context, the bush family feels very strongly about a few things. The senior bush and barbara bush, all of them feel trump belittled their son and brother, teb bush, calling him jeb ligh and energy impaired, low energy jeb. Understandably the bushs are understandably not. Feel donald trump is probably a little too far out of the republican mainstream. It is just a lot of things. Good positive history between all of them. I know in president george w. Ushs case, he is still angry in 2008, trump said he thought ifwould be a wonderful thing House Speaker nancy pelosi and the democrats decided to impeach george w. Bush. Thingsre the sorts of president s do not forget. Thrilled that trump in the same interview said bush 43 was probably the worst president in the history of the United States. You cannot expect him to feel strongly about that. Another aspect beyond the cultural business is they feel ,ike trump is singled out president george w. Bush, for the iraq war. There is a lot in the background. 43, he was not going to go to the convention. He did not go to the convention in 2012, the last time around. He was not going to go to the convention but what was interesting about this is he clearly will not endorse donald trump and neither will his father. They have re put out a statement saying we will not have any comment on the campaign. That is a way to say to reporters and others, do not ask me what i think. Many thought for jeb bushs campaign, would be the bush name. His brother, george w. Bush, stayed away. He did go to South Carolina where the president , the former president remains popular. I want to show viewers what he had to say then. Listen to what the president had to say then. Facing challenges and prevailing. Enduringsacrificing an and emerging a better and bigger person. Set of coreing a principles, beliefs that are true on the campaign trail and will still be true in office. Rhetoric. S not empty it is not bluster. It is not theatrics. Real strength, strength of purpose, comes from integrity and character. In my experience, the strongest person usually is not the loudest one in the room. [applause] , what is therank story behind those comments . He never mentioned donald trump by name. Guest he did not have to be read out is happy to be reminded of that because he was basically saying donald trump is a blowhard, a bully, a bluster. Not have the judicial temperament to be president of the United States. There is strength and then there is strength. Willlike a great intellect not necessarily mean you are a good president , you can be very smart and not be politically being strong, i think what president bush 43 was saying there, you can be strong that was basically, do not blame me if you vote for donald trump. I think that was telling. Rift talking about the within the Republican Party, establishment, traditional republicans not getting behind donald trump, the presumptive nominee, and mainly the bush dislike fora strong donald trump. Guest it is more than just emotion and those things. It is not just personal. The bushes would say to you they think donald trump would drive the party off the cliff. They will not say that. Both president s put out a statement saying, we are not talking about this, that tells you they will not say what they think because they are loyal republicans, and certainly the bushes the bushs do not want Hillary Clinton to be president. Host are they contributed to that if they do not come out and endorse the presumptive nominee, and is it unprecedented for a former president of the same party to not . Guest i do not think it is unprecedented. My history is shaky. I think when howard taft was he and for president , Theodore Roosevelt were not exactly close to put it mildly. Critics will allege and charge backing donald trump, the bushes might be creating a self fulfilling legacy. I do not know about that. If donald trump were the nominee, and he is not elected president , i do not think it will be because the bush family does not think much of him. A lot of people do not think a lot of him and there are a lot of people who admire him very much. We will just have to see. Talking about this a few blocks away this morning, the protesters are there as well, because donald trump is behind closed doors and paul ryan is trying to bridge their differences and unite the party, that is the goal in order to defeat Hillary Clinton. What are your questions and comments onwhat are your questid ments are not question questions and comments on that . Are you a supporter of the bush family . Caller i kind of knew george and all of them when he was governor here. You guys created trump when you took the fairness act out of the fcc. He is another guy from for corporate welfare. With human rights, do selection due selection, he loses. Let the israelis build their own wall. Thats about it. Host millions of republicans have voted for donald trump that do like what they he is saying. Why arent republicans in washington getting behind him when he has the support of republican primary voters and independents . I think a lot of Washington Republicans will reluctantly get behind him. It will take shape its the old cliche, but its true nothing succeeds like success. He has defied all the odds and addictions predictions. I inc. The republican establishment is basically going to have to come around. I think you are going to the most republican officials either endorse trump, even if they have to hold their nose to do it, or they will just stay silent. I think most republicans have two choices since they are not going to bolt and form a third party, which would be political suicide. They have two choices. They sit on the sidelines and dont vote and dont campaign with or for trump or they endorsed him endorse him. Host senator mike lee saying recently he is not ready to endorse trump. He scares me to death, is the quote that is there. He says he has serious concerns about donald trump. Mike lee, up for reelection this time around. James in South Carolina, republican. James, what did you make of the primary fight in your state and how donald trump spoke about jeb bush there . Caller good morning. I have not been to hear what donald trump had to say. I dont even think donald trump is a conservative in any way. I think kindly of the bush family. Bothreally been unfair, the way george bush was treated by the democrats while he was president , all the things that have been said by the sitting president. What strikes me is the class that george bush shows. He has not said a word publicly about anything. And donald trump, the only thing i agree with him is we have to secure the border, but, the rest of it, im scared for my country of where the Republican Party goes from here, because i know the democrats dont have the answer. Host because both bushes, president s, are refusing to endorse here, how do you plan to vote in the general election . Caller its tough. Over Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders . Donald trump, thats a tough one. I dont know. We will see what happens. I hate to not have a vote, but it may boil down to it. Host i want you to pick up on what he said, tom defrank, when he said the class that george w. Bush had shown, not saying anything privately or publicly. What is he saying, do you know, privately, to his friends and others . Or 3 r 41 . 43 o3 host both. He does not like the idea of somebody running against the establishment. He is a cardcarrying member of the political establishment. His father, probably the same thing. The bushes and the trumps are not close. Thats the safest way i can say that. I might have thought at some point that the bushes would have reluctantly endorsed him, but they are clearly not going to, and i think their attitude is, its the old schoolhouse thing. If you dont have anything nice to say, dont say it. As opposed to reporters who, if you dont like dont have anything nice to say, lets hear it. The bushes attitude is dont say it. I think they are trying to be principled about it, but they are not going to be hypocrites. They be hitting back at donald trump the way he was hitting back at jeb bush . Guest i would be surprised about that. Thats not their style. Host a democrat. Good morning to you. You are on the air. Question or comment, please . Ler i think that jeb bush im a democrat. I still believe that jeb bush did bring some class to the fight. He did not go there with donald trump. At the republicans that are endorsing him are really being hypocrites, because they called him a con man, a liar, cancer. They called him everything in the book. Then, all of a sudden, they turn around and say, oh, im going to endorse him, i think that hes great. I think thats very hypocritical. Also, i believe that trump is a liar. He said he was going to do the was not going to do the mudslinging. Voters thathe very wanted him to be their president. Host let me show our viewers, on that point, here is a headline from his interview yesterday with fox, muslim ban suggestion. What do you make of what he she had to say . It would be a contradiction for the republicans to now turn around and say, ok, mr. Trump, we will fall in line. Guest politicians being hypocrites, how many times have we seen this . Lbj ran on thed same ticket even though they could not stand each other. Jfk needed a nailed down texan. Politicians are realists. That does not surprise me. I think there is another aspect here. Trump is very popular in a lot of states and congressional districts where incumbent republicans have difficult reelection races. I still think there is a slightly better than even chance that the democrats pick up retrieve the senate this time. Its not certain, of course. In lots of different states and congressional districts, you have incumbent republicans in districts where trump is very popular, so they are going to be walking a tightrope, trying to make sure that they dont offend those voters who they need to get out and vote for them. Not shocking. Its kind of the cost of doing business among politicians, that you are going to endorse the winner if you think its going to help you and, if you dont think its going to help you get reelected, you probably will not endorse the winner. Host 24 of the senate seats are held by republicans. Democrats would need to gain four or five to take control. Guest depending on who is elected president , thats right. Host we will go to kevin. You are on the air. Caller how is everybody doing this morning . Host doing fine. Your question or comment. Caller i do support the bushes in their position against donald trump. I think donald trump has a very unique and nasty skill at attacking people instead of attacking the issues, and i think that is something a lot of the politicians and runners are not prepared for. They were not prepared for his unique skill of attacking people. And he doesnt even get to the issues sometimes while he is attacking people. He willrump, i guess make a good candidate in some cases, but he is going to have a hard, very high hurdle to clear, because all the people that he attacked, criticized, and made arsenal remarks personal remarks about, he is going to have to deal with them in the house, senate, and everywhere else, if he does get elected. If he doesnt get elected, he can disappear, not have to deal with anybody, and go back to building his golf courses in peace. Host he will have to get along with washington if he wins. Guest thats right. President obama had to go along with washington, and that has not worked out particularly well, at least from a legislative standpoint. Iis is what i think and have thought this for previous elections the debates in the fall are going to be critical. You can be sure there will be three in september. You can be sure that Hillary Clinton will be hammering donald trump constantly on, what are your specifics . You haveg to say, not told us what you are going to do about medicare or Social Security. Trump has been able to skate by ands of his opponents dem that he be more specific on policy. As the caller said and as we both discussed here, he has gone to platitudes and changed the subject and said weve got to make America Great again and all these sorts of things. I think the debates will not only be a real challenge for donald trump, he will have the largest audience in the history of president ial debates watching. That, i think, is going to be decisive. Host next, brenda on our line for democrats. Caller hello there. I just wanted to say about the bush presidency, he is the reason we are in the mess we are in today. He started that whole iraq war. Thats why isis has taken over our world. He is, bottom line, to blame. I do agree with trump on those issues. But other than that, this man, trump, is a despicable man. Its just a matter of time. He is never going to become the president. Everybody knows that. We are going to put up with this for seven months. Hillary will definitely be our president. And the republicans are so theyus of the clintons, just cannot take this. They cannot stomach that hillary is a brilliant woman and will be a brilliant president. Host ok. I want to pick up on what you said about the iraq war, because that is something donald trump used. Many people were upset with the way the iraq war was handled. I want to show one part from this primary where donald trump, at one of the debates donald trump and jeb bush get in a back and forth about the iraq war. [video clip] mr. Trump obviously, the more in iraq the war in iraq is a big, fat mistake. You can take it anyway you want any way you want. Before hisb five days t people told him what to say, and he ultimately said, it was a mistake. Trillion,2 thousands of lives. We dont even have it. Iran is taking over. George bush made a mistake. We can make mistakes, but that one was a beauty. We should have never been in iraq. We have destabilized the middle east. You do whatever you want. You call it whatever you want. They live. They said there were weapons of math and of mass destruction, and there were none. When a member on the stages brother gets attacked, i have to get a response. Here is the deal. Im sick and tired of barack obama blaming my brother for all of the problems he has had. And, frankly, i could care less about the insults donald trump gives to me. Its bloodsport for him. He enjoys it. Im sick and tired of him going after my family. My dad is the greatest man alive, in my mind. Donald trump was building a reality tv show, my brother was building a Security Apparatus to keep us safe, and im proud of what he did. He has had the gall mr. Trump the World Trade Center came down during your brothers reign. Mr. Bush hes had the gall to go after my mother. I won the lottery when i was born. My mom is the strongest woman i know. This is not about my family or his family. This is about the South Carolina families that need someone who can be a strong commanderinchief. [end video clip] what do youfrank, think was happening behind the scenes . What led up to that moment . Guest i think that the bushes have been very angry again angry about all the shots that trump has taken against them. It is political and ideological and cultural as well. Bushes are offended by trumps style, but trumps style is a large part of his success. I would just say to the lady caller, the democratic lady defied trump has expectations from the start, especially from people like me. Wayrters said there is no this guy is going to be the nominee, much less president. It cant happen. It did happen, in terms of being the nominee. This is my 13th national election. Ive seen a lot of them. 20 of all of the president s of the United States. When i say things like that, i finally feel a little old. So, ive seen a lot of stuff, and ive never seen a Campaign Like this. Or less, had, more it wrong about trump. So i would not just say he is not going to be president , he has no chance to be president. Thats the conventional wisdom. But if we have learned anything this year, it is that conventional wisdom has proved, at least on the republican side, remarkably wrong. Host donald trump says he has a mandate to keep acting and talking the way he has all along, because 11 Million People have voted for him. The New York Times argues that he cannot afford to change his stripes too much. , in a telephone interview, compared his hit broadway shows and championship baseball teams. Caller good morning. Mr. Defrank, i have a question. Can you explain to everybody why means tow identity everybody. Knower thing, i want to why mr. John kerry was in a College Giving a speech. You, the he said, class he was speaking to, are not going to vote for trump. Host im sorry. We are not following. Let me move on. A kansas city republican. Caller one is the hypocrisy of the bush family, and that they have befriended the clintons in that they have befriended the clintons since even before they got out of the office. It seems odd that they would be so friendly with that particular opposition, but yet cannot step down long enough to make a comment about trump. The second point is that the Republican Party is still a fairly new party in the sense that they have always been the party on the defensive against the progressive push that has become more forceful and deliberate in its agenda. And number three, in general, politics have degraded to the point where it is no longer a vote for the lesser of two evils, but a pick your poison when it comes to these politicians. Host ok. Guest on the last point there, one of the things that i find and this is my personal comment. Whoever the next president is, he or she will have the highest negative ratings in the history of Public Opinion polling. Usually, politicians with numbers like this, in the 50 and 60 disapproval and negative ratings cannot get elected, but one of them is going to get elected. That is a challenge. Host what about befriending the clintons . Guest i think thats a little overdone. The old guys former president s club is the most exclusive mens club in america. Its true that bush 41 and bill clinton and bush 43 have done some Public Interest things together, but they are not political allies. I think that is a little overstated. I saw the bushes in houston in february, bush 41 and barbara bush. They were very gracious. Irbara bush, at one point dont think this is violating any confidences she said, we like bill clinton. He is a likable guy. But that does not mean we support his politics. The bushes are gracious people. So, the notion that they are giving the clintons a pass, i would respectfully disagree with that. Host in d. C. , a democrat. Your question or comment . Caller i would like to start off by saying the bushes have no credibility. Gop theyr, the deserve him, they got him. George bush, the kid, was the worst president weve had in the history of the country. The only one that would be worse was donald trump. Host we would hear from a democrat in maryland. Good morning to you. Caller good morning. How you doing . Thank you for cspan. I believe that the republicans they deserve exactly what they are getting, simply because they should have they should have stood up. Even though their politics are different than obama, they should not have cheapened the office. They allowed the tea party to say whatever, do whatever. I blame them. They never stood up. You lie. They never challenged the extreme part of their party. They never stood up and were adults to obama. Host we hear your point. Tom defrank, do you want to take that . Guest i dont know exactly what to say about that. I dont have a rational comment on that one. Host we will see what republicans have the say about coming together and how donald trump will strategize Going Forward as he is the presumptive rep. Kline Presumptive Republican nominee. The media is still gathered outside of the National Committee headquarters here in washington. After this, he will be meeting with the rest of the House Republican leadership and Senate Republican leadership. We will hear from the speaker about how this mornings meeting eastern on30 a. M. Cspan, cspan. Org. We have a little less than 10 minutes left. The house will gavel in. Lets get in more calls. Gary in west virginia, a republican. Hi, gary. Caller ive got a few comments. The super pac group that can change the way we vote and put in their own people should not even exist. No business should be conducted in Congress Unless at least 95 of them are present and in their seats. Midwest 100,000 acres purchased by people who are controlled by china for a particular crop they want. Its wrong that they have that type of properties. They could build a missile silo right inside our country and we would not even know it was there. Host mary in florida, a democrat. Caller yes, im a democrat from florida. Im very uncomfortable with the bushclinton friendship. Clinton plays golf with george w. To this day. He hangs out with the family. Barbara calls him her other son. This is a little too cozy for me for people who are supposed to be on different sides of politics. Heres my comment. Sold outjeb bush florida to the highest corporate bidders when he privatized everything he could in the government, and george w. Sold out our country to the highest corporate bidders. They have a lot in common with trump. Im for bernie, 100 . Host tom defrank . Guest i think thats a little overstated, especially on the coziness between the bushes and the clintons. All i can say is, yes, theyre former president s together, so there is a bond there. I can remember gerald ford telling me 20 years ago that when bill clinton went to see the pope in denver in 1994, ford called him and said, come up to vail, and we will play a little golf. Had an came, and they grand time, but that did not change fords view of clintons politics. They were friendly. I would not say they are friends. I think the bushes and clintons are friendly, but it doesnt make them friends and it certainly doesnt make them political bedfellows. Good morning. Thank you for cspan. I have a short comment. I know your time is short. The bush legacy goes way back. It seems like the memories of the American Public is very short. The bush legacy goes back to things like silverado savings and loans, which i watched go on, and it goes back even further than that, skull and bones, things of that nature. What education level to these people have to want to support donald trump . Does no one read the paper . Does no one study history . Does no one paid attention anymore in this country . Thank you for your time. Guest its a thoughtful question. Public opinion polls show that a large segment of Donald Trumps popularity is from older white guys who never went to college. I dont mean to denigrate people who didnt go to college. That is one of his core constituent groups. Going back y, this reminds me. I think we all have the tendency to try to figure out who was a good president , who was a great president , who was a terrible president within a year of them leaving office. One thing i do agree with president bush 43 on is, he once said, before he left office, its going to take 50 years to figure out whether or not i was a good or bad president , and we will all be dead by then, so im not going to worry about it. It takes time. We are too close even to bush 43, figuring out his legacy, much less president obama. Host one of those defining moments for george w. Bushs presidency was, of course, september 11, 2001. The george w. Bush library has recently released 60 new images of president bush on the day of the attacks. So, if you are interested in that, you can go to the website. There it is on your screen. You can see these images that were released by the library. George h. W. Bush you were with their family back in february. How is his health . Guest it is difficult. I should have brought a picture. Nothing wrong with his mind, thats for certain. Is sharp he is sharp mentally and intellectually, as he has ever been, but Everybody Knows the family has said many times he has parkinsons, which affects his legs. He really cannot walk without assistance. He is in a wheelchair most of the time. He has a little bit of trouble speaking in long, drawnout sentences, but he is hanging in there. I think he will be 92 in another month or so. And he was cheerful. He was gracious. He was incredibly generous in spirit. But his health is not what he would like it to be. I remember, as i said, meeting him on the day before thanksgiving in 1974. He was at the top of his game physically. This is a very active president , active person his entire life, and i know it is frustrating for him, but he is stoic. An in his stoicism, he is inspiring person. Host i want to try to get in larry in georgia, a democrat. The house is gaveling in. Can you make it really quick . Caller good morning. I just wanted to say that i agree with donald trump and a lot of things that he has done. And he has exposed a lot of stuff with the Republican Party, about the tea party, and how they shut down the government at one time. And the stuff that is coming back on them is the same thing they put on the president. Now, i agree with donald and i am going to support him all the way up until the end. For hanging upze on you abruptly. As i said, the house is about to come in. I want to thank tom defrank for being here, contribute and editor with national journal. Thank you for the conversation. We will bring you now to the house. They will be opening up the doors soon and gaveling in for this morning class legislative session. Asked this mornings this mornings legislative session. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org]
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