Transcripts For CSPAN2 Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20140812

Morale is actionable. People come up to me all the time, did that happen here . People care. When i heard some of the test and i heard from the phoenix va, it was gut wrenching. I couldnt sleep. And i believe a lot of people within the system that feel the same way. But there exists a cancer within leadership, a few individuals that perpetuate this idea that we should be silent, that we shouldnt stand up and tell, do the right thing and be honest. Everyone makes mistakes, but when you make a mistake and you try to conceal it, that is really the question we should be asking. Who are these individuals who would alter data and hide the truth and present patient care . Thats a brief portion of our special looking into Veterans Health care issue. You can see the program in its entirety tonight at eight eastern on our companion network cspan. Up next todays edition of washington journal. In this for cyber we ask just about the reaction to Hillary Clinton recent remarks about the Obama Administration Foreign Policy. We also got update on congressional matters and a number of other items in the news. This is about 55 minutes. Host we will get to your thoughts in just a minute butn. First from the atlantic with of assist in the with Hillary Clinton on sunday, the headlined Hillary Clinton, failure led to the rise of isis anorak. Former sec of state and probable candidate for president outline her Foreign Policy doctrine. Heres what she said on thisd ie interview with Jeffrey Goldberg is going to help build a credible fighting force to the people who were the originators of the protests against assad were islam is. They were secular, everything in the middle. The failure to do that left a big vacuum which the jihadists have not filtered thats what the former secretary of state had to say on city. On president obamas approach to getting involved in countries where you are seeing conflict, the former secretary of state said that great nations need organizing principles, and dont do stupid stuff, is not an organizing principle. On the issue has become president obama sat down for an interview with New York Times columnist Thomas Frieden, and here is what he had to say about syria and arming the rebels. Rebels. With respect to see its always been a fantasy this idea that we could provide some light orange or even more sophisticated arms to what was essentially an opposition made up of former doctors, farmers, pharmacists and so forth, if youre going to be up to battle not only a well armed state but also a well armed state backed by russia, backed by iran, a battle hardened hezbollah. That was never in the cards. President obama in his interview with tom friedman of the New York Times responded to criticism of city. Want to get your take on what Hillary Clinton had to say about president obamas approach to Foreign Policy. Phone lines on the screen. Republicans 202 5853881, democrats 202 5853880, and independents all others 202 202 5853882. Clinton obama and corrected his what he writes. Clinton speaks as a treatment kennedy democrat. Hes obviously much, much more multilateral than republicans but theres a certain muscular tone from a certain assumption that they will be hostile ideologies that threaten america. Theres also a grand strategic cast to her my previous has to come up with an overarching strategy, she told goldberg, to contain a tear and defeat antidemocratic those. Harsh action is sometimes necessary. This is a quote, i think israel did wouldve had to do to respond to the rockets, embracing recent israeli policy. Theres no doubt in my mind that hamas initiative this conflict. The ultimate response was to rest on hamas. This town stands intend with the approach president obama articulated in his west point speech in the spring, or in his interview with Thomas Frieden on monday. Obamas carefully not organize a large part of his Foreign Policy around a war against jihadism. The Foreign Policy vision he described, describes is that you would expect from a former law professor, built around reference for certain procedures, cover by scum inclusiveness, rules and norms. Host what do you make of Hillary Clintons criticism of president obamas Foreign Policy. Want to get your take on that. Start putting in a. Can also send us an indo, cspan. Org or join the conversation on facebook. Com cspan, and, of course, you can also tweak at cspanwj is our handle. Here is the wall street journal piece this morning on this. Clinton charting a tricky course airing policies. Jan hooks in a rights in her piece said that it was an impressive broad visionwing a of World Affairs that would make her a strong candidate if she could sustain the point of view through a democratic primary 02 7370001 host larry in boston, a democrat. Larry, what you make of the former sec of state criticism . Caller i think Hillary Clinton is being kind of depletions. I think shes running for president even though she hasnt announced an issue going into the hands of the hawks. President obama was right in hesitating to arm these people because just like in afghanistan, these weapons wind up in the hands of our enemies, of isis. Thats why, you cant say that were going to arm these people, as he said, these people have no experience in battle and they wouldve been overrun. Host larry, this type of criticism that we are hearing from the former secretary of state, a democrat. Is that appealing to you if you decide to run in 2016 . Caller actually im a fan of Elizabeth Warren and i wish she would run. I think Hillary Clinton takes to me positions, and right now she is opposing the president primarily because she wants to distance herself from him and his policies in order to appeal to a wider base. Host so that will give her trouble you think in the democratic primary . Caller im afraid it might be. I think, you know, i think it will open the door for a republican presidency. It could ultimately do that. Host all right. John, independent in new hampshire. What do you think . Caller yes. I kind of pretty much on the side of your previous caller. Just host john, you got to listen to me through your phone. Turn your tv down. Caller i apologize. Basically, hillary stood by barack, or the president , during the initial engagement with syria in reference to what congress is going to basically put on congress table, either vote intervention or not. She did not make any comments back in. I just think its more or less of a political expedient on her part. Thats all i have to say. Host john, as an independent, what type of candidates do you want to see, and what sort of viewpoint do you want and have on Foreign Policy . Caller just a realistic one. Weve been in war for pretty much i mean for well over a decade. I know i am warweary. My son is in the service. Hes been there six years and has done for tours. Its just enough is enough. We are complaining about our budgets and the money, and understand the humanitarian needs, and i support that, but the infighting when it comes to Hillary Clinton making those comments, you know, she couldve voiced her opinion and comments back then windows proposed to congress to take action or not. Host john, is there a republican, potential contender, thats talked about that you think is realistic in your mind, as you say, on Foreign Policy . Caller the closest one i would think, republicans would mayor my opinion believe it or not is rand paul. Host so if it was rand paul, lets say versus what clinton in a general election, you would vote rand paul . Caller yes. Host digital for president obama . Caller i did in 2000 but not 2012. Host next to her but in Crystal River florida, republican caller. Go ahead. Listen to me. Youre on the air. Go ahead. Caller yes. I just wanted to remind the people and jimmy . Host we can. We can. Caller i wanted to remind the people that she was sick as they went for americas got killed in benghazi and she was standing before the committee she holds her hands up in the air and said, what does it matter . So anyway, thank you for taking my call. Host do you think she is a problem because she was the second estate . Caller absolutely. Host bill, what do you think . Caller yes. Im reading hillarys book, hard choices. Im not quite finished with it yet. I think that her interview is consistent with what shes writing in her book. I remember hillary was in favor of the war in iraq and initially, too. And she is ar very interested ad concerned about World Affairs at about the United States being a part of World Affairs, doesnt want to withdraw from World Affairs. But i may barack obama fan also. It isnt as though i think thinu what is right and barack obama is wrong. President obama is doing a great job i think, and i just think hillary has a different perspective on our engagement in the activities of other countries, and so, good for hillary, and if she runs i vote for her. My concern about hillary running is her health. I just hope she can withstand the constant obstructionist republicans, and its going to be very interesting to me if hillary runs whether the Republican Party and the tea party will continue with their obstructionist attitude towards hillary as they have with president obama. Host okay. That was built in mobile, alabama, Democratic Party. From Jeffrey Goldbergs interview with Hillary Clinton indialantic, published on sunday, and he quotes her saying this host philip, kirkwood overcome independent color. Go ahead. Caller yes, good morning to you. Host good morning. Caller the reason im calling is Hillary Clinton has always known that obama has been an inapt president and theres been a cold war hwnd her husband and the administration. Her and her husband and the administration. They know he is in that, he was basically elected on the premise of giving us out of everything and apologizing to the world for supposedly what the United States has done, which actually the United States has been helping a lot of countries all over the world. But we have always been, our 30 and the policy of the United States has always been peace through power. And now that we are weak and the president went the other way on this, now that we are weak, the whole world is taking advantage of the weakness of this president. From putin to the arabs to the middle east, to everybody. They know he is a weak president. He doesnt know what hes doing. If he walked into the room he would probably he does not know what hes doing in this country. House of representatives let me ask you then, in a general election, youre an independent, if Hillary Clinton survives the democratic primary, if she runs, survives the democratic primary, in the general election do you vote for over a republican . Is what she said attractive to you . Caller at this particular time i would have to go with a republican. In fact, i would hope that romney would render everything you said has come true. Everything. I would probably run for a man who put this country back on track, business, industry can get the military backed begin to i would probably have to go that route because hillary we just finished destroying what we have. I dont think she postacute say i would do with a man. Is a because shes a woman . Caller no, no, no. I would love to see a woman president but i dont think hillary is the one aspect that davies had this one on its headline. Lawmakers criticism of his syria policy is ho rseshit. Host it goes on to say house of representativethis wasl of this come before this india that Hillary Clinton with the atlantic and it was before president obama did his interview on friday with Thomas Frieden. So that on a daily beast website. By the way, on his replacement, heres a headline from reuters this morning out of australia. U. S. To consider more support for iraq wants this new government is for. Is a come from the secretary of state john kerry who is in austin with the defense sector. His comments follow his data from president obama that a rocket taking a promising step forward and designating a new Prime Minister. Were prepared to consider additional Political Economic and security options at the rack skim it starts to build a new government. You dont News Conference, together with such a defense chuck hagel and their australian counterparts are forgetting her thoughts on Hillary Clintons criticism of president obamas approach to Foreign Policy. Margaret, what do you think . Caller about Hillary Clinton . What about a friend with the book and said dont publish it and tell i die, and said that she was ruthless . And talk to sean smiths mother, pat smith. Asked her what she thinks. How many chances would you give somebody who already killed one of your children and left them . They had been begging, begging for months and she totally ignored them. Who would even consider that some of our news media pasha im not talking the cspan at other than fox, you listen to nothing but msnbc you wont know whats going on in the world at all. They push, th they elect the pee that weve got now. Thats what theyve given us, and if you want to know who i think him and i dont care, i personally lean to having a mentor to remember how they mocked reagan, the governor of california . A lot of people dont know that ministers went to visit him in the statehouse and the one minister to him prophetically said, the lord said if you do so and so, ill put you in 1600 pennsylvania avenue. The judge on foxs on saturday and sunday night after huckaby answer the time, on at eight, she has been a prosecutor for many years, a judge for many years. She has no fear. She speaks to obama and the pope the way we speak to them if we were speaking honestly. Ive never seen a better candidate for president in my life host the all right. Louisiana, janice can a democrat. What you make of the former secretary of states criticism . Caller well, i wish he hadnt criticize president obama. There seems to be some confusion between isis and isil, and our support [inaudible] sunnis in syria, then we support an iraq, we support the shiites which was also paradoxically iranians. So it seems to me a great deal of confusion there. I would like to know the difference between isis and isil. Never been explained. Host our connection with you is bad, but maybe we can clear up a little bit of this right now. Colleen mccain nelson, White House Correspondent with the wall street journal joining us on the phone to talk about the iraqi president naming a new Prime Minister. So Colleen Mccain nelson, who is this new Prime Minister . Guest he is a nine and he is interestingly a member of the state party as maliki, but he is viewed as less sectarian. He has spent many years in exile in britain so is a little bit more of an international view. The hope is that he will be more conciliatory, but hes also a little bit untested. Its not completely clear how we might proceed as a leader. He certainly has ever difficult task ahead in forming a cabinet i completed the process of forming a new government. So its not completely clear how we will proceed as the leader, but u. S. Officials have said on numerous occasions that among several choices they viewed any of them as better than maliki. So what was the reaction from the current sitting Prime Minister, Nouri Almaliki . Guest its been an extraordinary turn of events in the last couple of days, starting sunday evening commute id maliki going on television and he claimed that he was the nominee for Prime Minister and that he planned to retain power, and the next day the president of iraq, came out and designated Haider Alabadi as the next Prime Minister and after that happened malik he went back on television and get another defiant speech and dissent it happened has no value at all. We will correct this mistake. Hes been very defined. Hes threatened legal action against threatened to use special forces to defend his claim on being Prime Minister. And so at this point its setting up a political showdown with two different people claiming that theyre going to be the next Prime Minister of iraq. Host and why is it that this threat of force from maliki poses a real challenge for the United States . Guest well, certainly thats kind of a wild card is not clear what exactly he might do, is going to be a coup, is he going to use the military to hang onto power . Obviously this comes against the backdrop of Islamic State militants continued to advance in the north. This just kind of add to the chaos and uncertainty in the country. And their sword a lot of people urging maliki to step aside quietly and at this point is showing no signs of doing that. Host so if this new Prime Minister is able to take control, he is a shiite as you said. He has to get the sunnis to come on board. Does that look doable at this point . Guest it certainly appears to be a challenge. Its not a given that hillbilly to accomplish this, but he has 30 days to form a new cabinet and try to unite some of the divisions within the country. And so i think theres a willingness to at least give him a chance, but its not clear that everyone will come on board. And its certainly not clear whats going to happen when you have two people claiming to be Prime Minister at the same time. And so as obama said yesterday, this is a promising step, meaning alabadi is the next Prime Minister, but still a lot of work to do for the cabin is a difficult task. And so this is just the start of whats going to be a tough process. Host lets listen to what president of ahmed is and will come back and talk about more. This is from his vacation in Marthas Vineyard, his reaction to the situation in iraq. Today, iraq took a promising step forward in this critical effort. Last month the iraqi people named a new president. Today president masum named a new primary should designate, Haider Alabadi. Under the iraqi constitution this is an important step towards forming a new government to unite iraqs different communities. Earlier today Vice President biden and i called Haider Alabadi to congratulate him and urging to form a new cabinet as quickly as possible, one that is inclusive of all iraqis and one that represents all iraqis. I pledged our support to him as was to president masum and the speaker as they Work Together to form this government. Meanwhile, i urge all iraqi political leaders to work peacefully through the political process in the days ahead. Host president obama for Marthas Vineyard where he is vacationing. Reacting to the news out of iraq. Joining us on the phone, Colleen Mccain nelson, White House Correspondent for the wall street journal. President obama makes these comments yesterday about the political situation in iraq, and at the same time you have the administration on the military side trying to fight back isis and help out the kurds. The headline in the wall street journal, the pentagon is saying that the iraqi leaders clashed over control, and below that the pentagon is saying there are limits to the airstrikes. What else is this administration considering . Guest welcome a range of options that have not been discussed publicly in detail, but as you said what weve seen in the last four days is that the airstrikes have had a modest impact, but they certainly havent completely slowed the momentum of the Islamic State militants. And so the administration has begun considering what else might be an option. At this point weve learned that the cia has begun arming, providing direct Covert Military aid to the kurds. They provided ammunition and some small arms to kurdish fighters. And the pentagon is considering whether they might provide military aid as well. But at this point its not going what the next steps are. The president certainly has difficult decisions to make whether the United States is going to expand its involvement over continue on in this course or eventually pulled back. There are no easy answers at this point, and what weve seen is the u. S. Involvement has had only a modest impact and it certainly hasnt changed the trajectory of whats happening in iraq. Host Colleen Mccain nelson, White House Correspondent with the wall street journal, thank you . Guest you. Caller thank you. Host Hillary Clinton interview in the atlantic. Had some critical words for his approach to syria, calling it a failure and saying that dont do stupid stuff is not an organizing principle for the United States. Mike in kentucky, independent color, might, what do you make of her critique . Caller hello this morning. Host good morning. Caller good morning. Being that she was secretary of state from 20092013, she knows shes going to run for president anyway. I think shes distancing herself from the administration now shes getting closer to officially putting her name in the race. Shes going to start to criticize everything that hes done up to not. Host so as an independent, would you be able to vote for her . I think, does this sound appealing to you . Caller well, let me ask everybody out there something. Taken that her husband, the scandal he was involved in, the Monica Lewinsky scandal, what if she became in one of those scandals, sexual scandals, how would people look at a woman in office . Host new york, republican caller. Go ahead. Caller i live in westchester county, same county as hillary. Well, shes a phony. She puts her finger up in the air, sees which way the wind blows, and thats which way she goes. Basically shes just a funny post the so who do you him on the republican side, and you want to see run against her if she decides to run in 2016 . Caller i would like a nice conservative who goes by the constitution and will stick up for lets say favor american citizens. Ben carson is very good. I thought romney was good, whether i want him to run or not im not sure. But a nice conservative who will strengthen the United States. Thats basically what i want to hillary, absolutely not. Shes just, shes a joke as far as im concerned. Thank you. Host the hill. Com rights this. Republicans eyeing a president ial run in 2016 have begun to make the link between obama and clinton a point of attack. Of attack. Ted cruz host david in ft. Lauderdale florida, democratic caller. Hi, david. Caller all, i. Thank you for taking my call. I just wanted to make a point that a think Hillary Clinton is an extremely competent leader. She played a very credible role in president obamas first administration, and as a democrat i think will have to acknowledge that president obama is an unpopular president. And we have an important election coming forward. I think Hillary Clinton can reshape the face of the Democratic Party a little bit and make us look like a stronger party. I think thats going to give us a better chance at winning in 2014, certainly we have very important economic and social policies that need to go forwa forward. And we certainly did not want to go back to the failures of the Bush Administration, probably one of those in the and incompetent administrations in my lifetime. So i support Hillary Clinton. I think what shes doing it good for the Democratic Party. Host so you think runs, beat Hillary Clinton or someone else, needs to look tough on ashs giddy . Democrats are losing that under this president . Caller he is clearly in the polls unpopular on Foreign Policy, an piper in general but thats one of the is what is most unpopular. I think the democrats need to gain a little muscle in that area which i think is a good thing. I support her. Host on your point this is the column for the wall street journal. The hillary metamorphosis. The wall street journal. The hillary metamorphosis. He writes host host lets go to sean, nashville, tennessee, independent color. Good morning to you. Go ahead. Caller i would like to say that, go back to when president was elected at what was the first thing that the republicans said . You know, and then you want to talk about stonewall defense and all this. Giving weapons to the enemy are whatever you want to call them. Iv, look at the republicans and the irancontra scandal. Look at when reagan got elected, when they have the hostages. They gave them weapons. I guess they think shes strong. Regurgitated republicans asking for the same thing. Go for it. Host thanks. Jacksonville Illinois Republican caller. You on the air. Caller i think if hillary runs it will really set the stage for sarah palin to win because its going to great a huge divide. I also think sarah palin will announce shes running before hillary officially announces anything. Because she is very tactical and very smart and people made, you know, these big media places, not cspan, but the big media commercial news places are all pushing for this hillary run and they need to be really careful because its going to set the stage for sarah palin to in. Host do you think that sarah palin has enough experience, the credentials on Foreign Policy issues . Caller i think she is much smarter than a lot of people give her credit for. Im not saying i would vote for her or for hillary, but i think shes much smarter politically, and i think that shes won the hearts of a lot of people, and thats really what people are i guess thats what people vote. You know, they go, i mean, sarah host they go through the light . Caller that you were someone who they think will do what they think needs to be done, and sarah goes out and doesnt. Host patrick, carnegie pennsylvania, what are your thoughts . Caller ive marched arm in arm wit with with hillary whichn to pittsburgh when running against barack obama. And what were simply looking at is a characteristic diversion. Its a pivot point for her and her future possible run for the presidency in 2016. But to change topics were second, when president obama went over to saudi arabia because they were shrieking about americas lack of involvement in syria, no sooner did the president returned then there was an announcement that were providing antiballistic Missile Technology to the syrian rebels. And immediately following that there was a fivemile long convoy coming in from syria into iraq. And if you know anything about the size of the convoy, which could come which was seen from satellite, you know that it had state sponsorship. The outrage of the American People for any intervention whatsoever within the Saudi Arabians were destroying the very infrastructure that the American People and established with trillions of our dollars, there is absolutely no way that isis would have ever existed if it wasnt for Saudi Arabian support. Host im going to live there. The Washington Times is confronting the president on his decisions in iraq. Ons in iraq in the third, fourth paragraph down here they say host host so that is in the Washington Times this morning. By the way, Eugene Robinsons column today about the situation in iraq says that this administration and the country is still paying for bushs mistakes. Eugene robinson piece in the Washington Post this morning. In other news by the way, front page of the star advertiser out of hawaii, a legal battle could loom. Several thousand voters on Hawaii Island will get the rare opportunity friday to settle a close election by u. S. Representative Colleen Hanna chose a in the democratic primary for senate questioned withholding a vote so soon is realistic. Host so thats the latest out of hawaii on that. On the situation in russia, let me give a couple of headlines here this morning. The Washington Post, humanitarian mission is set for ukraine, ukrainian president Petro Poroshenko announced monday. And International Humanitarian mission would be sent to the wartorn east of the country host host thats in the Washington Post this morning on russia. The editorial weighs in and calls mr. Gruden humanitarian pledge a farce. Thats the Washington Post editorial. The money section of usa today says that if russia sneezes, wall street gets a cold. Foreign relations dominating a new market mass on wall street with russia playing a big role. Markets going down after numerous news. You can look along the side here august 11 they goes up and down with news of russia. So that in the money section of usa today and attention within russia and ukraine is impacting wall street. We will keep getting a phone calls here this morning on Hillary Rodham clintons criticism of president obamas approach to Foreign Policy. In countries like syria, iraq, iran and israel. Dan in arizona is republican caller. What do you think . Caller i think hillary has got a lot of gall to criticize your own Foreign Policy failure. Criticized obama, really . After benghazi when you were in charge . Come on. Is ridiculous. These democrats, i voted for obama twice, now im a republican because i see that theyre just a week on Foreign Policy. Theyre unwilling to do anything. Its exactly the last caller said, they put the wet finger in the win and see which way the wind blows and thats the way to go. Its ridiculous. We need a strike another word about christians. They worried about some others and christians a getting beheaded. All of a sudden they want to see people on top of the mountain. How many christians have to die . Are we a christian nation or what . I guess not. Host who do you want to see run as a republican against whoever runs as a democrat . Caller dr. Ben carson hosted to you think he has the credentials on Foreign Policy to win in a general election . Caller i dont think its any credentials at all besides being a neurosurgeon and the changes come at a good man. Thats what we need. We need a good man. A smart, good man. Thats what we need. We dont need the same old thing over and over. The parties have become a joke. Host how old are you, if you dont mind me asking . Caller im 38. Host charles, democratic caller. Good morning. Caller thank you for taking my call. I just think that hillary, shes entitled to her own opinion. She might have gotten a different opinion about something. I will say this, i dont pay too much attention to polls. President obama is not weak on Foreign Policy. Since hes been in office but not been attacked. He killed osama bin laden. I mean, hes doing a whole lot of things. People listen to polls, polls dont vote. People do. I will say this, the one caller said sarah palin was smarter than Hillary Clinton and sarah palin ran for president xi didnt know the Vice President job discretion. How she going to know how to be president . Host are you a diehard democrat . Caller sim. Host what you do . Caller im disabled right now. Host we will go to john in pennsylvania. Independent color. Caller how are you doing . I dont think hillary has any business criticizing obama. She stood by, like the republican fellow said, you become it was partially her Foreign Policy, and she just putting her finger up into the wind sing how its blowing and shes going to criticize obama because the poll numbers are down. She has taken 400,000 for speeches from Goldman Sachs saying she would back the bankers. She worked for walmart on their board but she is to be a republican. Hillary is the worst thing the democrats can, with. Host it has come out that during private meetings she said to the president that he was wrong about syria if that came out, if she were forceful . Well, i dont know that she knows that much. What has she really done over the years . Saying things is easy. If you are in the hot seat at obama or any other president is, it is a tough go. Those military guys want to go to war at every check every ind she is a hawk. That is why she lost to obama in the first place. We dont need hawks. And john, you are an independent . I am. Have you voted for republicans . Not republicans. But independents, green party and democrats. But the democrats are loosing their grip, too. Host all right. John. Hilary clinton has broken from obama six times now and they go through the different ways here starting with the iran nuclear deal. United states spying, irs targeting controversy, the cuban embargo, and the selling of the United States. In an interview with cnn clinton complained that the United States and the Obama Administration wasnt communicating effectively. So the hill paper with six ways Hilary Clinton has breck n with obama. And we are getting your thoughts on the latest talk against the president. Anna, arizona, democratic caller. Caller good morning. I think hillary is the only choice. I dont see anyone with anymore experience than she does and i am a die hard democrat. But even if i were a republican or independent i dont see anyone out there with anymore experience. I want to reference a comment made about what someone a previous caller said about the benghazi situation and the comment that what does it matter now. I dont think she meant that the loss of life in benghazi did not matter. It was just, you know, this happened and we have to find out exactly what did happen. I dont think she was taking it lightly. I dont think she is criticizing president obama personally. I just think she has different opinions. For me, Hilary Clinton is the only choice for president in 2016. Host do you agree with her on Foreign Policy . Some called her stance hawkish. Do you agree with that . Caller if that means war, no. I dont agree that she is hawkish. You know, we have had enough wars. Host okay. Caller we have wasted so much money and what has that resulted in. We are back in iraq and the afghanistan situation and there is people that are being held on that mountain and, you know, i dont think she is for that at all. Host okay. Caller i dont think there is any other choice for president. Caller an december host how old are you . Caller i am 78. Host the fbi launched a civil rights investigation into the Fatal Shooting of an unarmed killing of a black teenager. It is pushing the question of racial tension to the forefront of national discussion. So the fbi getting involved in the shooting. And in the nation section of the Washington Post, the company that supplies that ebola test drug has run out. The company that manufactures have drug said it sent the last of the medication to a west african country last week. It provided the drug at nocost. It goes on to say that it underscores the fact that the drugs are in such short supply that the overwhelming number of ebola victims have no hope of receiving them. The whitehouse and the new york city times yesterday picked an engineering from google to fix many of the federal websites. The decision to hire Mickey Dickerson away from google is intended is a blunt acknowledgment that even mr. Obamas government with a leadership to embrace technology has yet to adopt a silicone valley mindset with Computer Systems and internet friendly portals. Mia, republican caller, what are your thoughts on the Hilary Clintons critique to president obamas Foreign Policy . Caller speaking as a black conservative i would have to say that hillary is the last person we should consider. People need to stop looking at the individual and recognizing the activity of the entire party. Obamacare is nothing more than modified Hillary Health care. That is number one. This is the same health care that everyone slammed when bill was in office. Her position as secretary of state was nothing more than a consolidation prize and lets face it, democrats are famous, and i am speaking as a black conservative, for playing the low information voter when they are getting ready to run again and that is what i fear is taking place now. So i would say strongly that, you know, oddly enough of the three men, hillary, obama and clinton, hillary probably has the most energy. Host todd, what do you think . Caller lets not be stupid. We had in this position because of what george bush did. I dont care if you are black, pink, or green conservative i dont care what color you are. We are in a bad situation because of what republicans did and with the help of some democrats no doubt about it. We have to figure out how to get out of this. You want to blame president obama that was handed a sichation that was almost impossible. Host tom, i hear what you are saying. But do you think that Hilary Clinton can continue to fix what you see as the mistakes of the Bush Administration if she were to run in 2016 . Caller i doubt it. I doubt anybody can fix it. We are in a situation that i think is going to have a bad affect on america and the rest of the world. I dont if anybody can fix it. Host how old are you . Caller i am 75. Host what did you do for a living . Caller i dont want to tell you. Host okay. Mack, democratic caller. Caller im a little confused. It seems that the arming of these rebels and knowing where they are coming from are two separate issues but i dont think understand how last year the Obama Administration can send their secretary of state to the General Assembly of the United Nations and promote a resolution for basically making sure the five major farm suppliers in the world arms dont give up weapons without deep consideration or at all. And at the same time, we leave ourselves with an only option of arming a group of people in syria that we dont know. How can they reconcile these two . I am a democrat. But it just doesnt make sense. As far as Hilary Clinton goes, she was in the early days after the chemical attack last year, she was a little bit reserved and did hold herself back and i did have the sense she would be critical. But this is why a lot of people feel there are no choices between the candidates. The democrat and republican candidate all advocate for war. Whether it is hillarys husband or it is the republicans. It just seems like there is no peace party. Host mack, you are there . We lost mack. Sorry about that. Join us tonight for author interviews from our books sunday at 8 00. We took notes from q and a programs. Here is a preview of tonights guest alfredo quinoneshinojosa. How did you come to the country illegally and become legal . It is quite interesting. This country is built on people coming and immigrating some legally and some illegally. I came in with no documentation and no ability to get a job or an education so when i first came in the United States in the late 80s and crossed the border between mexico and the United States and ended up coming into the San Juan Valley to work as a migrant worker. There was no challenge to find a job. There were not thousands of people trying to get jobs pulling wheat with the hands that are doing brain surgery. As you can imagine pulling the weeds from the land that is doing all of the products and corn and all of those thing and my hands were bloody. Continuously being hurt. So not a lot of people were lining up. I came in, asked for a job and immediately got a job. And Ronald Reagan had the Immigration Reform that gave working authorization for people that had been in the United States for a certain amount of year and then a special legislation for people that came and worked as migrant farm workers and that legislation allowed you too a working authorization and pay taxes and eventually you could not go back to your country but it allowed you to work legally, pay taxes and eventually apply for a green card which is what i did. So the country was welcoming people like me that worked in the field. It was a different time. I felt like i was given an opportunity. An opportunity to live the american dream. Join us later today when we show you the interview with dr. Alfredo quinoneshinojosa. It is one of the author interviews from our latest book sunday at 8 00. You can see the program at 7 p. M. Eastern on cspan2. Here are highlights for the weekend a history tour looking at the civil war, saturday we visit a Technology Fair on capital hill, and pat buchanan interviews and books on Hilary Clinton, obama, and edward snowden. The weekly standards daniel hap halbert and on sunday we tour casper, wyoming and look at the negro leagues and the depiction of slavery in movies. And on sunday, an interview with herbert hoover. Let us know what you think about the programs you are watching. Call us or email us. Join the conversation like us on facebook and follow us on twitter. A look at what is ahead in congress and elsewhere now with a congressional report. We took a look at items in the news. This segment is just under 50 minutes. And we are back with bob cusack, editor and chief of the hill newspaper. Thanks for being here. Good morning. Host lets start with your website. The front story you have is hillary shows her hawkish side. We were talking about this with the viewers. What do you make of her move . Guest she has been distanancing herself from obama but has been more subtle about it until now. You get the sense she is gearing up for a run. It is really a question of when she is announcing she is going to run. There is a couple people like her former press secretary said maybe not. I think they are head fakes. There is a little friction going on between obama and clinton and that is a big change. We have not seen friction since they ran against each other. Even at the state department the media focused on their relationship and it went well. Now it is a different story. The whitehouse knows, however, that the president s Approval Ratings are low. This is politics. And president obama knows that on the campaign trail with senators in red states he cannot appear with them. Not with his numbers in the 40s. So there is politics but we will see more of this as she gets asked about president obama, his record, is he a great president she will be asked those questions. This is going to be a theme going forward. Host president obama dealing with iraq again. Yesterday coming out from his vacation to give a statement on iraq and the call for a new Prime Minister there. Politically what kind of position is the president in . Guest he is in a tough position in a number of domestic and Foreign Policy areas. This is a huge one. There is no easy solution to this and the president as far as what he can do he has some powers under the war powers act that he can continue airstrikes against isis but only for a certain amount of time. And many on the left, and some on the right the war politics have changed over the last ten years say wait a minute we will need congressional approval to continue this. That is going to be a debate when they get back in town next month. This solution, certainly the president was saying this, this isnt going to happen in days or week. This isnt going to be solved. This is going to be a tough, tough one and he has a lot. Host he has the Legal Authority but what point does it run out . Guest how much power does the president have is a big issue throughout the president. Republicans saying he is using too much. In libya, when the United States got involved that went on for more than six months. That was beyond the war power acts. It is bit gray. But if this goes on for months there is going to be a call for congress to approve this. The president wanted to go to congress to get approval for strikes in syria and congress, both the left and right, said no way and it didnt happen. Host do you think he could get approval for continued strikes in iraq if more help is necessary . Guest i think it is going to be difficult. I dont think it is impossible. If comes to the question of if going after isis makes the United States safer then he can get the vote. They have to make that case if they go to congress. Would it be a tough haul and vote . Absolutely. Host what about to the American People . Guest i think it is a tough sell but i think the visuals are important. If we see the visuals of the people trapped on the mountain in iraq and they are being rescued that can change the whole dynamic. But you need the visuals and make the case that our involvement there makes you safer here. And certainly isis has made clear threats against the United States in recent weeks so the whitehouse will use those and make the case we need to get involved here. Host you have editoral board incoursing the choice and saying he had to make it and had no choice. Does that put the republicans in the corner or is that easier to make the yes vote for authority . Guest the republicans can say he should have been involved earlier. There is doubt of whether airstrikes will get this done. Whether it is alqaeda or isis alqaeda has been around for a decade and isis isnt going anywhere anytime soon so this is going to be a continuous threat and from the republican standpoint they will make that case. This president is at fault because he didnt get involved earlier and that is going to be the lineup until the election. Host congress is back for how many days and what on the agenda . Guest there is debate on how long. After september until labor day but there is rumors it could be cut shorter because the campaign trail awaits. We have democratic seats in tough races and the question is will the senate flip to the republican . So they may not want to give the republican challengers back home an edge. They have to have a government funding bill in order to avoid a Government Shutdown the house is looking to move job bills, energy bills, possibly a Health Care Bill and Kevin Mccarthy reminded people about the president s promise that if you like our Health Care Plan you can keep. There is a bill on that and a bipartisan bill in the senate on that. It isnt clear if the house will act on it. Tea Party Lawmakers a lot of them dont want to fix the law they want to eradicate it so it remains to see what the new majority can get the votes on. Mccarthy isnt committing to a vote but they might. Host majority leader previews the house agenda sent out a memo to the republican colleagues saying this is what we will be doing. Socalled obamacare is on the agenda but are there must pass items they need to get to as well . Guest the government funding is being a mustdo. And one of the things to watch is the reauthorization of the Export Import Bank. This is a Government Agency that is dealing with export foreign loans that help United States companies. The Tea Party Factions are opposed to this bill. Paul ryan came out against it without significant reforms it should not be reauthorized and the house of the Financial Committee has been a critic of it. The whitehouse has been talking about how important the Export Import Bank is the to economy. I think you will see the whitehouse send a list of the mustprovisions in this Government Spending bill. This is a reauthorization bill and unless you send the the reauthorization of the import export i will not sign anything. He hasnt done it yet but we have seen steps. That is where the democrats think they have the upper hand. That is the drama of can they pass the Government Spending bill and will that Bank Provision be in there. Host we will talk about the senates agenda but lets get to calls. Arnold in North Carolina democratic caller. Caller i was impressed with the last segment you did about Hilary Clinton. She is a politician trying to run for a president. She is getting lined up. You see all of them who think they are going to get into the race make all kinds of moves. Like rand paul when he got caught with king in kansas and jumped up from the table and ran, you know . There was a lady who called and said she was a black conservative which i think is an oxx oxymoran i am a 63yearold black man and i became physically active when i was able to vote and that was in 1968. I voted in every election since then whether it was national or local elections. It is imprinted behind my eye lid before i ever vote republican. Host lets talk about 2014. Republicans outreach to hispanic. How are the districts drawn up . Guest the outreach from the republican side has been lacking and republicans say they. There are republicans that represent large populations of hispan hispanics and i asked what is key to courting the vote and they said you have to go into the communities and talk to them. Some republicans havent done that. In 2014, as far as the hispanic vote and Immigration Reform isnt a top polling issue. 2014 republicans feel like the Senate Passed the immigration bill and the house hasnt acted on it. It House Republican leaders thought they could lose the house if they dont pass it and they havent. It is different in 2016. Host the Senate Passed an Immigration Reform bill and the house did not. But before they left on this southern border issue emergency funding, where does that stand . Guest right now nowhere. The house couldnt get the votes for the initial version of the bill. Then they scrambled and got the votes to pass it right before they adjourned. Senate democrats tried to push their own version which was scaled back as well and that was blocked on a procedureal vote. They are nowhere right now. The Lawmakers Said lets see what happens in august and come back in september and that is risky for both parties. The House Republicans saying we passed our bill and the president vowed to veto and wont sign the bill. That is going to be a big issue when they come back in september. But as far as getting a bill it will be tough to get a bill signed into law. Host here is a headline in the Washington Times today. The Koch Brothers are funding outreach to the hispanic voters. Conservative activist are offering english classes, Health Checks and educational courses. Guest they are tagged by democrats for the money they with putting into races but the republicans know the demographics are changing and changing rapidly. Unless the republicans can get 4045 percent of the hispanic votes in future elections the democrats are going to keep winning the whitehouse. They know even after 2014 there is going to be a big debate. Lets say the republicans take the senate back some are saying dont get cocky the party has to change. Host we talked about this with tim phillips the president of the americans proprosparity for outreach and if you missed you can watch it on our website. Mark, go ahead. Caller i wanted to comment on something the president said yesterday at the conference. He is making statements, if you listen, he is saying our military cannot do and fill in the blank. He says things about what the military cant do and he is the commander in chief and i find that disturbing. I know a lot of your liberal audience things this guy is an asshole republican but if you take an analogy like a boxing trainer and if he went out and told the press sports world his fighter cant win this upcoming fight because of blah, blah, blah, fill in the blank. We have a fighting force, he is the commander and chief and is making statements to the world on what we cant do. And as far as the gentlemen that called in 62yearold africanamerican always voted democratic ticket. I would like to ask how that worked out in detroit for the population there . Host i will point you to the hill. Com that secretary of state john kerry says there are no plans for more u. S. Troops in iraq. Secretary of state in australia with the defense secretary holding a News Conference in australia. Take marks comments. Guest yeah, and that is what some republicans have said. When you say we are only using airstrikes and the debate is can airstrikes get this done and weaken isis . We have a war weary public who doesnt want u. S. Troops. This president was elected because of his opposition to the war in iraq. Hilary clinton voted for the war. It was a big debate with john mccain. As far as the narrative it is getting messy for the whitehouse. But the war on terrorism is messy and there are no easy solutions. But that is something we have seen repeatedly stressed. It was had signal from democrats with john kerry or president obama to their fellow democrats to say we will not go further into it and democrats were concerned about airstrikes in iraq and right before they left they didnt get a lot of attention but there was legislation into the house that passed overwhelminging that sought to restrict the money the instruction could use in iraq and that is going to be a bone of contention of what money are you using. Host u. S. Airstrikes wont weaken isis headline. There is a limit to this approach and experts are saying dont underestimate isis. Did isis catch the administration by surprise . Guest it seems that way. I think they caught the Intelligence Community a little bit by surprised as well. They were deemed too radical for alqaeda and now we are seeing alqaeda recruits are leaving their affiliates to join isis. Isis is interested in governing and we have not seen that in a while. Isis is gaining a stronger foothold but overall, yes, i dont think three months ago, american policy makers ranging from the cia to obama saw this. Host corpus christi, texas caller you are up. Guest i believe american journalism is the most protected in the world. And i think i would defend it at any time. But american journalism has become silly. You are sitting there like you are silly. Does Hilary Clinton have a thing against obama . Who cares. The election is 18 months away. In this day and age we can get somebody who has never been heard of qualified to run for president s. It takes four months. I could run for president in four months. Host we will take your point. It is a few months away. Guest it is but it is no doubt they are gearing up and there is going to be candidates who say i am running for ez president and you see mitt romney on the campaign trail and you see Elizabeth Warren who says she is not running against Hilary Clinton. She is we talked to a congressman who indicated she is going to kentucky to help grimes there running against Mitch Mcconnell. She is going to be on the campaign trail. Post labor day is when the season heats up. The other interesting thing is Elizabeth Warren, viewed my many as liberal in the senate, but she went into kentucky, red state to help and went into West Virginia to help natalie against her republican opponent. That was interesting and surprising that those candidates said yes and Elizabeth Warren invited her in. She is a magnet of the left and great at fundraising and the fact she was going to those red states could indicate she is looking to change her reputation. She is a liberal but wants to strike deals and has been willing to work with republicans on some legislation. Caller jason, republican caller in nevada. Caller they are basically the same. Tay speak down to the jewish lobby and none make a consent without the jewish lobby. Host why do you make that claim . What evidence do you have of that . Caller i was there for the iraq war. I was a contractor. They didnt have rocks or anything else to throw at us. But we went on the advice of Richard Pearl and paul wolfwitz. Host so that is your link making that claim. Raymond in Georgia Democratic caller. Caller my question is simple. Why did the war in iraq right now when we saw the bush family. They destroyed this country. 99 of all the time the bush family since his father went to war in iraq. Now the second question is we blame obama for everything that happened. They dont let the president do his job. They only care about money. Host robinson says we are still paying for bushs mistake echoing what that caller said. Guest sure. Bush made the call to go to call to go to war with iraq and a lot of democrats voted on it. Democrats in the senate were more in favor of it including Hilary Clinton. And George W Bush said my legacy cant be defined now but it can be decades down the road and the legacy of iraq isnt looking good. Host bob in maryland independent caller. Caller we sit back and blame everything on bush and blame nothing on clinton. The war in iraq is bushs fault. But we dont blame the Housing Market destruction on the clintons. The Community Reinvestment act who put that in place . That destroyed the whole economy and Housing Market. But the media never says anything about this. We only talk about bush. And what bush did. For Hilary Clinton to sit back and claim she had no responsibility for any of the Foreign Policy put in place today is ridiculous. Does anybody remember her sitting in the Housing Committee when the four guys in benghazi died and she said what difference does it make . The media allows this to be put out there and only attacks the republicans. The Housing Market was destroyed by the clintons. If you want to do that vote her back in and see what else we can destroy. Guest the housing and financial explosion happened in 2008. Bush was president but there was a Democratic Congress and there was questions about the oversight at the time. If it happens on your watch you get the blame or credit. There was a housing boom. We have seen tech booms. And eventually they fail. This was an enormous and i think one thing you will see from president obama is that he has repeatedly said i inherited the 2008 mess. They had missteps. 2009 was going to be the recovery summer that the economy has been Getting Better and recently the last few months really Getting Better but it isnt consistent under obamas watch and one of the talks from congress especially Speaker Boehner saying when is obama going to take responsibility for the economy that is nowhere anyone wants it. Host heading into november, weeks away, is the economy the number one issue for voters . Guest i think it is the economy and the jobs. Health care and obamacare the debate over that the republicans will talk about that a lot. You have not heard the whitehouse talk a lot about it. There is a contention from the democrats that as long as the Affordable Care act isnt in the headlines it get more poplar. We have seen some premiums going up and some have been larger than others. But overall i think it is the economy, jobs and whether you have a job or a relative without a job, you look at the big picture. 2008 we had a wave election with obama and 2006 as well. 2010 republicans came back and won the house. 2012 wasnt a wave election but a good election for democrats. You have seen the electorate moving up and down. This is problem where the republicans pick up seats in the senate and house but it remains to be seen if they can get the six they need to win back the senate. Host going back to the congress needing to pass a continuing resolution to keep the government running. You said they could attach other provisions to that. A fight over the Export Import Bank. Here is a tweet. How much does the average voter know about the workings of the bank to make it a consideration in their votes if republicans want to play that card. And another tweet says if there is another Government Shutdown who gets the blame in time for november . Guest i think very few people are going to the polls thinking about Export Import Bank in november. If there is a dispute and there is knonow i think that is sometg they will act on and it will likely pass. If it causes a Government Shutdown, and i dont think it will because republicans know they will get the blame. They followed the strategy of trying to kill obamacare and didnt have the votes to do it. Overall republicans know that and know they are looking at a good election. Whether it is a wave or a tsunami we dont know yet. But it is going to be a good one. Democrats are defending more seats than republicans and obamas numbers are low. It isnt a question of whether the house is going to flip. It isnt going to. That is the big picture. But the Government Shutdown could change the whole situation and democrats know that and they will say if you want to shutdown the government go ahead. Host james from tennessee you are on the air. Caller i have three comments. I a hundred percent vietnam veteran. I was there in 66 and 67 when it was real bad. We went into a place called rays and we got into a war house and a lot of us got hurt and killed going down there to do the job. In the war house there were bags and bags of rice and on the bags had dallas, texas on it. It shocked us all. Host james can you tie it to a question. Caller the question is they are dropping water and food up to the people that need it bad. I live on this side of the mountain. If i had to go up on top of the mountain to get water and food i will do it. No matter what. And that is what our enemy will do. Put them in more harmony than what they have been in. Host moving on to john from illinois. Democratic caller. Good morning. Caller good morning. I just wanted to make a couple comments. I agree that i would love to see Elizabeth Warren run for president. But i wanted to respond to a couple comments one person made about Hilary Clinton when they said what does she know and what experience does she have. Besides being a senator for a while as secretary of state other than governor is number one position historically. Host john, i am leaving it there because your connection is lousy. But we got your point with her experience. Guest that is something we stressed in 2008. She said she had 35 years of experience and voters were not looking for experience. They were tired of Bush Administration and its experience. Iraq and Hurricane Katrina were a problem. This time i think she will stress the experience factor less because she has been a secretary of state and senator but overall she needs to come up with as secretary of state here are my three biggest achievements and that is going to be challenging because we had a couple callers mention the benghazi attacks and the house is putting together a Benghazi Special committee on that and question of whether Hilary Clinton testifies. Overall i think the question isnt to make the case she has experience as i dont think that is doubted. But what is her track record and what did she do at the state department. She has long winding answers on that and needs to have two or three major plush accomplishments at the state department and she is going to be asked how she would be different than obama. And historically speaking it is hard to win three president ial elections in a row. And a lot of democrats want her to not play it safe. They felt like she played it safe in 2008. You dont play it safe and win the whitehouse. Maybe you get the nomination but you have to let it fly. Host the benghazi investigation what is the timeline for that . Guest we heard they are 90 plus staffed up. So now it is a question of do they do investigations . Do they do behind the scenes investigation or do they have hearing in the fall . I would bet they dont have hearings. The certainly many on the right favor this investigation. They feel like there hasnt been an independent investigation. Democrats say there have been tons. It remains to see what the plans are. And the relationship between goudy and cumminings is good. It is better than the Reform Committee with darrell issa who has been doing work on the benghazi issues. Host lets talk about primaries this season. And hawaii last saturday. This was the headline does the senator have edge with remaining vot voters . Guest he was put into office by the governor of hawaii who is a longterm house member. He just lost his primary, democratic primary host for governor. Guest yes, for governor. And one of the dying wishes of the senator was that he would replace him with someone he listed but he said he is not doing that and this has been a split. Most of the senators are supporting him. But now we have a storm situation that was preventing people from voting so had voting is continuing and our story is unless they win a number of votes shats will survive and it will stay in the democratic hands. Host take a look at the star advertiser in hawaii. The decision to hold a one day vote on friday with this one area that could not vote doesnt sit well with the campaign. So you could see a legal challenge. Guest any time you get a close race coming down to unusual circumstances there is always going to be some type of legal challenge. But politically if you lose the race, and unless it is super close the voters get tired of legal challenges. We saw that when al franken narrowly won. This is going to be a story line for a few weeks. Host what about upcoming primaries what are you watching for . Guest the senate has good good races. The favorite in alaska is Sean Sullivan and she is supported by the establishment but there are a couple of other candidates including joe miller who ran and won the republican primary a few years back against lisa when i had a writein campaign and was able to defeat joe miller. So overall all of the primary for the most part are over but the alaska one is outstanding. And then we get into the real stretch of who is going to win the senate. It is d versus r and it is going to be a wild ride. Host robert, st. Louis, missouri, independent caller. Caller i have a couple new ideas. I dont think a lot of the American People dont realize a lot of the congressional leaders are wealthy and i think 50 of them are multimillion. The lieutenant needs to stand up. And i agree with bob cusacks comments about Hilary Clinton. She needs specifics. She has spent a lot of time representing her husband and companies on business deals around the world. I have ideas about candidates like clara from st. Louis and bernie sanders. They are patriots and can reach across the aisle and racial divides and are patriots. Joe biden is another one that i think gets a bad deal. Mccaskill, biden, and sanders would make wonderful president s. Elizabeth warren, i like her. I think she is not going to get along with republicans very well and i frankly dont think she has the experience yet. But she is a reasonable Vice President candidate. Guest there is going to be a challenge to Hilary Clinton. How much of a challenge remains to be seen. Bernie sanders, chairman of the Veterans Affairs committee, said unless someone steps up from the left i am going to run. Some on the left dont want health ca Hilary Clinton moving to the middle they want her moving to the left. Iraq is back in the headlines and this reminds everyone of her vote for the iraq war. And Elizabeth Warren is another issue. People are upset about Hilary Clinton given paid speeches to big banking institutions. So she needs to put some distance from her and obama and her and call street. That is the concern from some democrats. And they want her to earn the nomination. I think joe biden is going to be ready to run. But if you look at the polls and they are daunting for anyone seeking to beat Hilary Clinton. She is up 50 points. There is a long way to go. There were gaps in the book tour and the dead broke comment. But nothing has really hurt her in the polls in the democratic nomination. Will she get an easy ride is a question and that would help because she would not have to spend a ton of money. On the republican side there is dozens running and spending money against each other. One of the things the obama people say is that winning the primary made him a better candidate against Hilary Clinton and he was stronger to go against john mccain. Host going back to 2014, this headline in minnesota. Five things to know. The main event to determine which republican stands in the way of democratic governor mark daytons desire for a second term. And four major candidates to catch the electorates attention. And it was difficult to see anyone separating from the pact. And the senate shakeout. Like mcfadden was trying to start at the top and acted spring as if he was running against franken and landed the partys endorsement by arguing he was the only guy who could raise enough to give franken a tough run. Guest that race is interesting because going back to whether this is a republican ripple election or is it a wave or tsunami. If al franken loses it is a tsunami. That is one of the races the republicans are talking up but it isnt a top tier candidate. Franken has been raising a lot of money from small donors and his friends. If that race is close in october then it is going to be a big night for the gop. Even if mcfadden wasnt win and it is close. Republicans are looking at other races in red states like louisiana, alaska, arizona, and purple state in North Carolina. Those are their main targets. Host going to keith next. Keith you are on the air. Okay. One last call for keith . Moving on to lester in las vegas democratic caller. Caller i cannot understand what the American People want from the president. He has delivered. We dont want to be in the war. He is doing everything he can to keep us from getting into war. And we sit there and give him rhetoric when he is doing what we want. Host okay. Isnt he correct . American public swings away from the war and now president obamas Foreign Policy approval numbers are low. Guest that is what the president has been saying for months. He promised and did end two wars. We are back in iraq in a messy situation now. One of the things that has been troubling the democrats. He thought the gop fever would break and he would get stuff done. Gun control wasnt done. Immigration reform didnt get done. The leaders dont get along on capital hill and whether that is pelosi and boehner and harry reid and Mitch Mcconnell. And the relationship between Mitch Mcconnell and the president is nonexistent. If you are not signing high profile bills and Foreign Policy is troubling that is nthe president s fault they are happening but you have to respond. And that is why i think his numbers are down. And the other thing is the nsa scandals and that hurts the numbers on his left. Republicans never liked obama much and his numbers are always going to be down with republicans. But they took a hit on the left as well. Host miami, florida, robert, independent caller. Guest i am glad you mentioned the senate and president s power. Any president in the next future i dont understand how we are going to be productive in a situation where the two branches continue to go at each other and the house continues to go at each other and we are successful in terms of addressing the problems in america. You know, with everything going on, what do you see is going too to be the outlook in the next 1015 years . Guest as far as jerry mandering i think it will require a candidate to take the lead because they help both parties. So they like it and dont have to worry about their seat not in the general election at least. Maybe in the primary and that is on the left and right. At the hill, we write about relationships whether it is between leaders or rank and file members and that is important because if the leaders if there is a lack of trust in relationships that is why deals are not getting done. I think as far as breaking the log jam that has infected washington and capital hill and changing that is going to require changing of leaders. There is a lot of speculation about the future of harry reid, boehner and pelosi and in 56 years we could have a slew of new leaders. But if you dont have trust you cannot get big things done. Host gerald is the last call. Hi, there. Caller good morning. How are you on this Beautiful Day . Host just fine. What is your question or comment . Caller bob cusack represents the press and that is what is wrong with america. Let me give you an example, benghazi, have you written anything about ambassador stevens being denied security on two occasions before being killed . The leader of africon testified on january of this year about that. And that individual who called in earlier and blamed the clintons for the housing crash he forgot to mention the hud report in 2004 or 2005 moved 5 million poor people off rental assi assistance into housing ownership. And our economy is working the way the reagannomics want it to. All of the money is going to the top and we are paying companies to go offshore. Guest if you go to the hill. Com and google benghazi you will find a lot of articles we have written. Take a look at the nonpartisan publication and everything on the hill is free. Taini take a look. Host what is happening with the hill. Com now . Guest it is growing. We have become a welltrusted news source. We take heat from the democrats and republicans and that is fine. We are a nonpartisan source of news and we will get complaints. We are the political refrereferd we want to get bigger and become better. If you are not improving why are you doing it. Host bob cusack, the editor and chief of the hill. Com. Go there to read their reporting on washington and capital hill. Thank you very much for your time. Join us tonight for more booktv prime at 8 00, sydney powell and licensed to lie at 9 35 we talk about u. S. Marshals and then uncertainty justice. Here is a look at what is on cspan3s american history. The focus is on jewish history. Surviving the holocaust in poland. The story of a transatlantic ship and her passengers seeking to escape from persecution. And then looking at jews if the modern era. And a look at the veteran issues and we will show you highlight from the coverage of the issues. Here is a brief look at some of the footage. I think the va has the potential to be one of the fi finest institutions in the world. The pharmacy cant be matched. It is one of the best in the world. There are many things that are efficient within the system. But what we should ask ourselves is when someone came up with the idea of seeing a veteran in 14 days that was a good idea. We should question if we made a mistake and overloaded the system how come peoples name disappeared off the list . How come hundreds of thousands of veterans electronically no longer existed . That should be the question. Retaliation exist because of culture. This culture of retaliation is the cancer to the veteran administration. Most physicians and nurses and people working in the hospital are disgusted. Moral is low. People coming up to me all of the time saying did that happen here . People care. Physicians care. When i heard some of the testimony i heard from the phoenix va it was gutwrenching. I could not sleep. I believe there is a lot of people within the va system that feel the same way. But there exist a cancer within leadership of a few individuals that stir this idea we should be silent and shouldnt stand up and do the right thing. Everyone makes mistakes. But when you make a mistake and conceal that is the question we should be asking. That is a brief portion of the special looking at Veterans Health care issues. You can see at at 8 eastern on our campanion network cspan. Here are highlights for the weekend. A history tour looking at the civil war. Then a Technology Fair on capital hill. Sunday on q and a, political commentator and author and former president ial candidate pat buchanan. Books on Hilary Clinton, obama and edward snowden. On afterwards daniel halbert. We tour the sights of casper, wyoming and the negro leagues of monarch and the depiction of slavery in movies and on sunday in real america an interview with herbert hoover. Let us know what you think about the programs you are watching. Call us or email us. Join the conversation. Like us on facebook and follow us on twitter. What is the future of aids research and advocating . We looked into this today with the deputy of the institute. Host we are back with carl smit who is the Deputy Director of the aids insenstatitinstitut. Why are we still fighting this disease . Guest people are living longer than every before because of the drugs out there that keep people alive. But we still it is an Infectious Disease and we have to get people tested, into care and on treatment. Host look at the president s 2015 request. 30. 4 billion, 22. 2 billion and that is a 2. 3 increase over 2014 levels. Guest i guess that is for the nih or overall hiv. Because 35 Million People are living with hiv around the world and we need a cure. We need a vaccine. We need to get treatment for people both here in the United States and throughout the world. It is amazing what we can do with medications these days. People can live longer and that is great. But also when you are on medications your viral load is suppressed so if you are on treatment you are less apt to transmit that to others. That is the goal and why we need the funding to make sure people are in care, stay on treatment and we hope to eradicate the virus. Host when did the fight begin against this disease and how much money has been spent and why isnt it eliminated yet . Guest we need to find a cure. I cannot say i am the most knowledgeable. I am not a scientist but i hear that the virus is really difficult. It mutates and it is hard to find in the body. You think you suppress it and it bounces back up. So to find a vaccine or cure we do have the medications that can keep people alive. Host look at the federal funding for hiv aids between 20092015. 25 billion in 2009 and you can see how it has grown. Explain what how does money needs to be spent. Guest it goes for research. Around 1 10 goes for research which benefits people here in the United States and throughout the whole world where there is 35 million People Living. It goes for prevention. It goes for housing. It goes for care and treatment. We focus on the Ryan White Hiv Aids Program and around 2. 3 billion goes for that and that provides medication for people around 500,000 people are in the Ryan White Program. Mostly lowincome. They need the medication and doctors and to go get their lab and blood work every 36 months and need the other services they provide. These people are primarily very poor. They need assistance. You have to take your drugs every single day for the rest of your life. So you need things like case management, adherence services, transportation, Substance Abuse and Mental Health support. There is a lot of things that are needed to keep people in care and on treatment. Host remind our viewers who was ryan white. Guest he was a gentlemen who contracted the virus living with his family in the 1980s. Host how old was he . Guest he was a very young teenager and contracted the virus through a blood transfusion. He wanted to go to school. She was only given a couple months to live and he and his family fought to go to school. There was so much stigma and discrimination against people with hiv actually there is today still. He fought in the courts, he and his mother, to gain access to be a teenager. The ryan white unfortunately he died. He attracted the worlds attention. Host we showed the viewers a picture with elton john. Guest he was at his side when he died. And Elizabeth Taylor and Michael Jackson and everyone came to his side and the program was named after him. Host enacted in 1990 with a push from his mother authorized four times. It is for individuals living with hiv aids who dont have health insurance, public or private, or insufficient Health Care Coverage and the president s 2015 budget request is for 24 billion. What is the debate about the reauthorization . Guest the debate is just to maintain the program we need to have it funded and maintain that fund ping. So many people, you know funding forget what we have been through with hiv and that 1. 1 Million People are living with hiv and they need the care. We have a long way to go to get people tested and in care and on drugs to keep them healthy and alive. Our number one goal is making sure the funding continues for that. And Health Care Reform is out there and things change because of that. People can get access to medication and coverage for doctor visits by expanded medicaid but only in the states that expand medicaid so that is critical. We need the states to expand medicare because most of them are care and qualify for medicaid. Host under the Affordable Care act . Guest yes. Others could buy it through the market place but it cost money. And the Ryan White Foundation helps with premiums, out of pocket cost, but it doesnt cover everything and that is what the Ryan White Program does is provide the completion services. Host when does it expire . Guest the authorization lapsed but luckily the way washington works is you can continue to Fund Programs through appropriations and that has to be done on a yearly bases. We need it change the program. When the program started it was an emergency situation responding to the crisis of hiv in large urban areas and cities because people were dying. The program has changed over the years. We have to take a look at it with congress and the administration and say how should we change the program . How is Health Care Working . What are the needs of the People Living with hiv. Host who is for it and who is against it . Guest i dont know if anyone is against it. It is a very bipartisan program. Senator kennedy and hatch earlier on in the house. He is no longer there but former representative coburn and waxman. It has been bipartisan and we have had great support. I think we just we are loosing champions. We lost senator kennedy and senator coburn and waxman. We need to remind members of congress there are so many new members of congress and staff and they may not be familiar with the Ryan White Program. Host we are talking about the funding and advocy for aids. Derrick, independent caller, you are up first. Caller i am not a scientist and i dont know what is going on with this. But my first question is is there a potential for a cure . Host derrick, lets take that. Guest i am not a scientist either but what i hear from nih is there is a potential for a cure. It is long ways off. And scientist are working on a vaccine. It is going to take a decade. But in the mean time we have the ability to treatment and get people on treatment which in effect lowers the virus for people and you cannot spread it to other people. So i think that is the goal right now. Yes, it would be great if we some day, and we will have a cure some day. Host chris, buffalo new york, democratic caller living with hiv aids. Go ahead. Caller yes, i would like to first of all thank the person for doing his job because i am an aids patient and i need him to do his job for me to survive. I want to say that. The second thing is the question and i want to know why i see commercials on tv where it says it cost 20 cents to take care of an aids patient in africa but yet in the state of new york the state has to pay up to 2500 a month to my medications and it seems like our government is putting its resources to other areas and that would be it. Host chris, before you go, how many different medications do you take and what is your outofpocket cost . Caller when i got out of the hospital i was taking eight meds a day. Right now i am healthy enough where i am only taking one pill a day. That pill once a day for a month cost 2500. In new york i am on medicaid and i am a medicaid medicare surscriber. I worked 35 years of my life and never collected unemployment ever. I am lucky that in the state of new york under our medicaid plan it is not costing me anything out of pocket. Guest thank you, chris, for the question. I am not sure about the 2500 a month for a drug for someone who is on medicaid and medicare. I would guess that could be the wholesale price but they are paying a lot less. The drugs are cheap in africa, you are right. And you know, it is through a number of reasons but practically they the companies through pep far, which is a u. S. Government program, they really just give away the drugs for cost. And provide them atcost. So that is why it very different. And the cost of living is a lot less in africa. So it isnt a good comparison. But you are right. We do give a lot of foreign aid. But it is a lot more expensive. Host we are talk about hiv funding and the ryan white act care act specifically which lapsed and expired and carl from the aids institute is looking for the reauthorization of it. Joining us from florida is j jennie white the mother of ryan white. You have been back up here to lobby for this reauthorization. Talk about your efforts. Caller well we got to see a lot of people. Good morning, greta. I got to meet hhs secretary and i got to meet representative barbara lee, fred upton, tom harkin, henry waxman i met a senator reed riding a tram. And met the house labor appropation Committee Person and it was a lot of neat appropriation representation and meeting the people and talking about the needs of People Living with aids now and for people to support the act. Host what sort of response did you get . Caller a lot. I was shocked this time. I think everybody that we met with was definitely aware of the issues surrounding ryan white care act. But like waxman and some of the people leaving and that is the concern now is maybe the new people coming up may not be as informed about ryan white and havent been through the journey of the aids epidemic like so many of the others have. Host you came to washington in 1991 to lobby for this the first time. How has it changed . Caller that was really hard. It was just a few weeks after ryan passed away that senator kennedy called and asked to come to washington, d. C. And i said no, i am an emotional wreck and i am afraid i will hurt the cause more so than help. But senator hatch convinced me to come. And for the first time i felt like i had a story to tell of a mom watching her son live and die from aids. To see that journey and where we had no meds at all to where then we started seeing hope and promise on drugs and people started taking the meds lots of meds. And now seeing people taking 23 meds a day it has been a journey but a rewarding journey to see People Living with aids today. Host when you came to capital hill and your son was first diagnosed and you lived through that, the negative stigma was so much worse today. How have you seen it change . Do you think the ryan white care act needs to change along with that . Caller well, i think we have. I think every reauthorization we have seen the increase and more awareness and changing of the problems as more and more people become infected and certain racial groups become more effected and the Gay Community going to womens issues and now we have a big concern about the Hispanic Community growing in numbers. So i think it always has to kind of be adjusted but i think it is important that we dont lose track and just treat it like one person is infected because it is so many people and especially with our education of our young people. They are not getting the information. Aids still has some stigma to it. I dont think it is as bad as when ryan was diagnosed when everybody thought kissing and sweat spread aids and mosquitos and fleas might. But people think if i get it i will have the meds to treat me but we need to try to eliminate the disease. I dont think we have done a great job in america as trying to eliminate the disease. Host will you continue the fight . Caller oh, yes. I made so many promises to so many people that are no longer here. Not just my son. But all of the people from am r amfar that helped right the act said please do this for us. I will be there to the end. I hope i live to see the day of the end of aids. Host thank you for your time. And back to your phone calls on hiv aids funding and advocacy. Sue in oklahoma, independent caller. Go ahead, sue. Caller thank you and hello. I am curious about a parody. Your guest said 1. 1 Million People are living with aids and aids is a tragic disease. Ryan whites death was particularly tragic. All diseases that kill are terrible. But i think president obama removed about 300 million from National Health to switch to africa. I would like to know how many people are living with alzheimers, heart disease, cancer is there parody in the funding across the board . Guest that is a good question. I am not familiar with the administration decreasing funding for the nih. I think they proposed an increase and i know the senate has definitely put forth on increase in finding. There is a lot of other diseases, you are right, in the country and around the world. And they all need to be funded and we need to find cures for lots. Hiv is an Infectious Disease so we have to address it. That is something that is different. Look what happened to africa. It destabilized the continent and thanks to the u. S. Leadership and the medication it changed the countries there. Other diseases should have funding as well, yes. But we all one of the benefits about research with hiv is there is so many benefits in other diseases as well. For example, hepatitis and many of the same drugs, they learn a lot working on hiv for other diseases as well. There is other benefits. I would remind the viewers there is 35 million People Living with an Infectious Disease in this world and we have to address it. Research for hiv and other diseases is critical. Host michael from twitter wants to know how large are the donations to private research and who are some of them . Guest this has been a priviatepublic fight. A lot of volunteerism created private the aids clinic around the country. Elton johns aids foundation. Mack aids does a lot of domestic and global. And of course the largest is the bill and Melinda Gates and they contribute billions every year. Host in this country . Guest mostly around the world. Host raymond, democratic caller. Caller good morning. I want to say i have been involved with this issue since 95. And it has been people have been helpful to me. Unfortunately when i got infected the situation was really bad were people held this against you and a couple people i worked for shoved me out the door. Now they have made such advances they are down to one pill. I am monitored every quarter and my health is really, really good. I will tell you ryan white and elton john and everybody else including president obama has been awesome on this subject. I am surprised the lady didnt give him any credit. They have been awesome. The only