Progressives being somewhere on the fringe has been dissipated and done away with. Certainly after this election cycle, i think the concept of being a progressive is now the mainstream and that is a good thing. I felt that, going into the selection and i feel it more so, now. It was not only about bernie and how well he did but a kind of organic organization all over the country and in coming to the Democratic Caucus and progressive caucus, some Outstanding Young new members of our caucus that are bringing leadership from that progressive point of view and the values are mainstream, the values about empowerment, civil rights, about how the government needs to invest in people. I think we are part and parcel of the whole and that is good. Host we had our previous guests talk about plans as far as the Affordable Care act is concerned. What is the plan, specifically toward that, from progressives . How can you make some impact . Guest from a perception point of view, the ultimate power republicans have in washington d. C. And over our government the administration, the senate and the house. With this power comes a huge obligation to be transparent. More importantly, the sloganeering about we are going to repeal, 61 times in the house of representatives, they took that vote and passed it and now i think as senator schumer said, you have been chasing the bus and now you caught it, now what . I believe the American People and you see this at town halls and . You what are you going to do with it . Because i really believe that the American People and youre seeing this across the country, when they talk about repeal, the demand is now how are you going to replace that so that we guarantee that people that never had insurance continue to have it that the affordability continues to go down and more and more people can access healthcare. They have an answer to give us, a plan to present. We feel that like anything the Affordable Care act can be improved and it should be. But its always been a question of do we undo it entirely which i dont support, we dont support, or try to fix it. Now there was a situation that they did the mantra of repeal. Repeal. This was a political slogan. Now they have to present something. Were going to defend the gains made in the Affordable Care act and more importantly take that same message to the public in general. I think the republicans have been host our special guest is with us. Call in to ask him questions. Well start this morning with glen. Glens in lancaster california. Youre on. Go ahead, please. Coyingaller you have somebody that was ordered deported who voted in elections twice which is voter fraud and you need to really go into that, check that out when they go to vote, check whos registered to vote at their residence to make sure that theres not people voting illegally. Latino and representative of that community and it gets both of us. The question about fidelity to the country when we take that oath. I think that part of what is going on now is this whole issue of immigration and what we do about it has been boiling now for about 15 years in this country. The broken immigration system thats not going to get fixed by simple slogans or political rhetoric. Its a complex issue. That complexity demands that we do something that is going to last that is just and fair, and provides the pathway for citizenship for millions in this country. We havent done that. Until we do that and tackle this issue, not with we have to build a wall or send 5,000 more Border Patrol agents to the border. That is not going to solve the problem. All those issues are not going to take care of it. You know, President Trump began this downward dialogue of what to do about immigration and to put fuel on the fire, he said it antiimmigrant rhetoric antimexican in particular rhetoric, and it said and thats what he said. I worry now i worry now that after the ninth circuit knocked down the muslim ban, that were going to see that rhetoric transformed into more actions here on a domestic level to try to make up for the fact that trump doesnt look like a strong man with regards to the muslim ban and those two refugees and immigration is tied together. Let me point out one thing that i think is important to understand. That in this country, we have blended families, we have families that are being divided. We have families that are being broken up and anguished with anxiety in many communities and its palatable. And then theres the rhetoric that refuses to face the fact that you have to do something about the humans beings and their families that are in this country and need access to make their the did you say legal. Status legal. I dont think we have that situation in this country and trump has done nothing but fuel what i think is could be the most decisive issue domestically in a generation and that would not be good for our country or the society where we live host lets hear from Robert Fitzgerald in georgia. Go ahead. Caller it is more of an us and them. Its not about the immigrants or muslims and all this. Its more about power. Its becoming the whole point of the republicans and democratic parties is switching because its more its more of a minority. Were no longer a minority. Were a majority right now. Its trying to control us. Keep us all divided. We cant the worst is thank you very much. Guest the point i got from the caller or at least what i would like to comment on is, you know, the face of our nation is changing. Unfortunately right now thats seen as a fear and i think that goes counter to the values of this nation. The full integration into this america of ours occurs generationally as we go forward. Its occurred for everyone. For me. For my parents who are immigrants. And so to say that we cant confront this reality of a diverse Pluralistic Society that and try to go back to a time that doesnt exist, try to put this new reality into a path that doesnt exist. Thats where the friction and the tension is. I dont think you see it just on the tim grecian front. Issues of voter suppression. Issues of trump saying that theres been 3 million fraudulent illegals that voted. Its a lie. Its been debunked as a false figure and a false theory. But that leads to discussion about suppressing the vote. Civil rights with sessions as attorney general, the future of civil rights, liberties, and priorities values that americans and people are going to resist changing. What is going on in america right now is that as we define ourselves as to who were going to be as a country, theres a lot of people and you saw it right after the inauguration with the womens march and it keeps going on and on in this country. A lot of americans in this country that see our country needs to move forward and become the full country that it can be and to try to go back into a time where gains that were made for generations and to lose those gains because of the phenomenon of trump in the white house, i dont think people are going to tolerate that. And youre going to see a huge push back across this country and youre going to see that push back amongst democrats. Its not just the loyal opposition but a very effective opposition. We might be in the minority but i think the pulse of Public Opinion and the American People are very squarely on our side. And i think if anything is learned at the summits i went to for the progressive caucus and the full Democratic Caucus is that were more unified and we understand now the responsibility the American People need to see our party fight for them and fight for all of us. And regardless of what issue were confronting at the time i really felt energized by those two meetings because i really feel the resolve is there among our members to say we represent that its truly the american we need to fight for it. We need to be strong about it. I think that is something i have not seen in the 14 years ive been here. Host justin, akron, ohio. Republican line. K good caller good morning. Are you guys enforcing the laws as they stand right now . Guest that law is being enforced. Caller the answer is no. Host caller, let him answer. Caller you know the answer. Guest were asking for a new law because the system is broken. Otherwise the effectiveness of enforcement wouldnt be a question, the effectiveness of people reaching status in this country wouldnt be a point of debate. That system is broken and we continue to enforce and talk about enforcing outdated and many times unjust immigration standards that dont apply and are not current to the reality that were in right now. So when i say yes, yes. But the caveat is that the system is broken. Some people dont want to fix it. Others feel we have a responsibility to fix this broken system. Host representative, 680 last week rounded up in raids according to the Washington Post by the department of homeland security. 75 of those were deemed criminal aliens and they said that includes anyone who would enter the United States illegally or overstayed their visa. Guest i think trump basically did away with what obama had which was prosecutorial discretion. The mom with two citizen children and a husband that was caught and she admitted it with a falsified Social Security number in order to work. Shes not at the same status of criminality to the cartel the drug runners, the abuser and the person that uses violence. Its no twins dense to me that as soon as the ninth circuit struck this neighborhood sweep began in parts of the country. Every time trump gets in a jam and now the flynn situation is before them and very sad chapter by the way in this country. Theres always a pivot to go back to the immigration, the till legals, the voting out of step. We need to we have to have a deportation regiment on and on and on. Every time he goes back to what he started this campaign on and to marginalize a group of people for no reason other than political advantage and to try to divert attention from the real mess that is going on. I disagree entirely. I think that you pulled a thread out of this and for the sake of National Security and the sake of our standing in this world, you have to go as deep as you need to go. And who knew about it, when did they know about it in the white house, why wasnt this brought to the attention of the president and if it was brought to the attention of the president , why didnt he do something about it . I think if you unravel this, there is more to it. And this kind of, you know, strong man admiration for putin and the fact that his original Campaign Manager had to leave the campaign under suspicion about putin connection, flynn has to leave, putin connection. We dont know what the investment levels were trump were in terms of his money and his private equity in russia and vice versa. So yes, for the sake of transparency and the well being of this administration its got to be investigated. Host lets hear from herb in mississippi. Caller yes. Its black history month. Im a black male and a veteran. Freedom is not free. Yeah, we had to fight for this freedom and i think the Illegal Immigrants and also the muslims should take an example from how black people have made this country great. And that is to go back home and demand that their the president and their country does what they should do by them. This is the example. I would like to ask him, youre going to fight for someone and you got something to give to someone. No one has given black people reparations for the suffering and enduring they have done here in america. You got something to give something, you give it to these black People Living in these scums of places in america and if you would answer a question for me. What would you do to help these people other than to allow them in this country . You give them bombs and weapons and what not and you help destroy their country. So i think you should do exactly what trump is doing. Advise them to go home and make their country great like america is great. Guest well, thank you for your service. I think that if we look at the history of this nation that the contributions to our country and more specifically the military specifically you can talk about any race, any nationality, any religion have all been part and parcel of defending this country. One of the saddest situations i had in iraq was to receive a body of a young soldier who had been killed when the body was being transported, we drove by where i assumed he was going to go to interment and we over to the border and crossed over to mexico and that young man was buried in mexico. He was a legal resident in the military but he was not a citizen. There was one point in iraq there was 30,000 people in uniform fighting in iraq that were not citizens of the United States of america. I make that point because the contribution is always there and if we look at the full spectrum of what were dealing with, with immigration, different people being here and a land created by and made by immigrants americans were the only ones here, native americans. The others came voluntarily or involuntarily. And i dont want to forget that. I think thats so porsche. As far as sending people back to fight, im not a great advocate of violence or war. People come into this country seeking violence or persecution if people come to this country to work and work is available, it should be a process for them as well. But at the end of the day, we have to remember how this nation was created and not forget that part of our history as a nation. Host Jackson South carolina, kelly joining us. Caller how you doing today. Thank you for taking my call. My question for your guest to start with is why is this always the fall back position for the democrats to make the claim that our immigration system is broke when in reality its not broke. Its the laws are being enforced and the second question i want to follow up on is this raid that donald trump just said that youre on the news that that was all set up by barack obama when he left office and all donald trump is doing is following through on something that was already set up. Im wondering why its just the pub cans ill stop there and hear what hes got to say. In answer to the second part of the question i dont believe thats factual that they were working on a month and a half old order a half old order from obama and suddenly under the Trump Administration they decided to act on that order. I dont believe thats factual. The other part is its difficult to answer because really looking at the situation as many people sometimes dont want to look at it, that its a simple issue of enforcement. I was one of those people that was very critical of the 2 million plus deportations and detentions that obama did during his administration. That it was again enforcing a law that was akayic and at the time that that administration was tough on enforcement and that we could make comprehensive reform. That never happened. 700 miles worth of fence, billions of dollars in surveillance equipment. 22,000 Border Patrol agents. 2 million deportations and, yeah thats tough enforcement. And the fact of the matter is that we can continue to harp on the same point without accepting the reality of what we need to do which is to fix the whole system because its broken. Apple valley, california. Jim is next. Line for democrats. Jim, go ahead. Caller hi. I would like to first say ive spent 32 years working for the government, 20 years active military duty and another 11 working as a Government Employee in security and intelligence. I got to tell this congressman from arizona, stick with your guns sir. Youre right. The republicans decided to make barack obama a oneterm president from the get go and they didnt work with him on Immigration Reform or anything else. That empowered Police Departments not throughout the country but in selected areas to enforce their immigration bans and their you know, their policies that are more from briebart when you listen to callers calling in and not with compassion, not with any degree of Legal Expertise and ill give you an example. My own brother said to me i know a family of Illegal Immigrants from mexico and theyre bragging about voting twice. Okay. For hillary clinton. My response to him is, well, you claim that youre, you know, nor law and order and all this and enforcement of the constitution and all that and i said to him if youre such an upstanding citizen and you know these people are running around claiming that they voted and you know it for a fact, why didnt you do your civic duty and report them . Wheres the evidence of the 3 million illegal voters that are being claimed by the breitbarteres . Host okay tim guest i think the point is well taken about the obama administration, the imperial use of the republicans when the grid lock and the lack of action on any any major legislative initiative whether it was immigration, whether it was infrastructure building, whether it was issues with public education, the healthcare act. No action. Just constant opposition but undermining any effort to get that done. So when these executive orders, it was at the end with no other options available. So i supported him doing that. I dont think we can talk about what were going to do in the future unless we have a real understanding of where we are right now. Right now, we have basically an administration that is unhinged. Basically we have all the power concentrated in the Republican Party in terms of legislation or any action. And a sincere lack of transparency. Not everybody is on the same page. And for democrats who are in the minority trying desperately to get our voice heard and our agenda looked at. So our opposition is not nearly to stymie this president all though he deserves every piece of resistance that hes getting. But to give voice to the American People, i really believe as i said at the beginning of this discussion that we have the pulse and the interest and the support of the American People as democrats here in washington and we should use that sometimes as followers and sometimes as leaders. But nevertheless, i think thats the role we need at this critical time in history. Despite the power republicans think they have at the end of the day, well see very shortly that the influence of the American Public is going to be tremendous and many of the worst instincts of this administration have to be stopped and i believe will be stopped host lets hear from salinas, california guest i know in arizona right now there is 10,000 job openings for ub1 visas and these are not just tech openings. What are you doing about that . And why is that still around . Number two question, the lady who took the Social Security number, what about the persons Social Security number that she took and why do we have to revamp our laws . Why dont we just follow our laws. Thank you guest yeah. I think the whole visa project the work visa provisions have to be revisited and i dont think it should only be for high skills. I think that a whole myriad of work available in this country that goes unfilled needs to be looked at but in terms of the example used about the mom in arizona, she admitted to that and she was doing for eight years reporting every year to ice and immigration and returning home. That was the process then. She went to report. She was arrested. Deported that same night. Theres a marked difference between the efforts to show some compassion and try to keep americas Families Together and the action taken against this mom and i believe countless other families divided during this initial raid. Representative, theres a tweet from a viewer saying democrats are trying so hard not to be on the same page. Do you think that ideals the progressive caucus has are being related to the democrats . Guest yeah. You know like i told you, i felt there was a level of unity. As democrats, we represent the American People and we have differences among ourselves but whats unifying us is whats at stake. Whats at stake right now is the future of this democracy and were here because of this democracy and i think there is among democrats a strong unity about defending that democracy. And in that were on the same page. Host representative raul thank you for your time. Host for the next half hour, back to our original question we started off with this morning concerning the National Security advisor miking flynn resigning over contacts with russia. Well take your calls on that topic when washington journal continues. I had a piece of information that bob woodward wanted. I didnt articulate that to myself and when i look back and ask myself why i did this bad and stupid thing, i think thats what it comes down to. Sunday night on q a, Georgetown University professor Barbara Fineman todd talks about working as a researcher and ghost writer. In her book, pretend im not here, how i worked with three newspaper icons, one powerful first lady, and still managed to dig myself out of the washington swamp. I resisted. You know, i just spoke in general terms about what it was like to be in the white house and then i told him this story about being in the room during this unusual exercise. I told them you cant use it. There were only these two women in the room who were doing this. These two guests. And then there was one or two staffers and mrs. Clinton, if you use it, everybody will know that i was the source. Washington journal continues. Host for the next half hour, your thoughts on the resignation of National Security advisor Michael Flynn and implications you think it might have for National Security. The resignation coming late yesterday and already retired general Keith Kellogg will be taking his place temporarily in the Trump Administration. His representative finishing off saying why, Michael Flynn resigning yesterday from his position as National Security advisor because of conversations with the Russian Ambassador to the United States. This after sanctions placed by the obama