Fischer discuss Veterans Issues. Jennifer maloney talks about fda efforts to limit sales of ecigarettes and other Tobacco Products they say appeal to young people. Host it is the washington journal for november 20. Alexandria conseil cortez told her instagram followers she will likely support Nancy Pelosis efforts to become speaker after Many Democrats sent a letter praising pelosi and saying new leadership was needed pretty ivanka trumps email use under scrutiny. Her attorney noting the content was not classified and a private server was not used. Perhaps that and other issues of politics will come up come thanksgiving when you visit with family and friends. We want to ask when it comes to political discussions, do you plan to talk politics during the holiday period . If you plan to do so, tell us that topics you will talk about or avoid or year strategy with your strategy dealing with those discussions. If you plan to talk politics, call us at 2027488000. If you say that as part of your plants for it if it is not part of your plans, call us at 2027488001. You can post on our facebook. Age at facebook. Com cspan about 1100 people so far this morning and you can tweet us at cspanwj. The Pew Research Center took a look at discussions of politics in early november. It talked about the idea of discussions and the stress of those discussions. When it comes to those discussions about politics, specifically they asked about talking politics with people they disagree with generally, if it is stressful. In october, 53 of those saying those discussions were stressful and frustrating versus 45 saying they were interesting and informative. Republicans, 49 saying the conversations were stressful. 49 saying they were informative and those who describe themselves as democrats or lean democratic, 57 saying those discussions stressful and 42 saying they are interesting and informative. About thelk more findings of this poll as it relates to the thanksgiving season as you sit down with families and friends and if politics is part of the discussion. For those of you who say political discussions will be part of this thanksgiving holiday, 2027488000 for democrats. I am sorry. 2027488000 for those of you who say yes those discussions will happen. F you say no, 2027488001 you can post on our Facebook Pages and our twitter feed. On facebook, a couple of responses already. Yes, my entire family loves our country and our president. Rob banks saying hard to not speak of children walking 3000 miles to escape death in honduras. Another viewer saying politics decisive, notic, important. Family and friends are the most important unit to keep a Good Relationship with. You can reflect those themes if you want to give a call on that. At this idea look of who holds political opinions and the camps they hold up to hold up into, one of the people who follows that is a group known as more in common. They are the coauthor of the report the hidden tribes of america. Here to talk about that is Daniel Yudkin, good morning to you. Guest good morning. Host lets start with your group. What is the goal . Guest the goal of our research has been to try to understand better the forces of polarization that drive americans apart. We find nine out of 10 americans say america is more polarized than it has ever been in their lifetime. We are seeing an opportunity and we are trying to get an opportunity to understand what is driving polarization and how can we adjust it worried host tell is a little bit about who you are supported by. Guest we are backed by nonprofit and profit organizations across the political spectrum. Host one of the themes you stress is americans fit into one of seven tribes. Can you discuss that idea . Guest what we did was we gathered data from about 8000 americans across the political spectrum in all different regions. We asked a variety of questions about their core beliefs, underlying moral views as well as their political opinions about variety and different issues challenging the country today. Responsesized their and did an analysis that allows us to identify groups of people that have similar views. Of these responses, we were able to identify seven different clusters or tribes in the american voting population. These range from progressive activists on the lefthand side and the most ideological liberal side to devoted conservatives with traditional liberals and between, passive liberals, politically disengaged, moderates, and conservatives. Across the spectrum, we see different groupings and they hold different views about the country donald trump and what we need to do to move this country forward. Host you expanded that research after the Midterm Elections and what did you find . Ofst we collected a subset for further followup information from 2000 people based on that sample and what we did was essentially ask them these same people what theyre voting behavior was what their thoughts were about the Midterm Elections and what their most important issues were. What we found, for instance was if we asked people what their political views were a year ago and who they voted for in the Midterm Elections, there is very little change in terms of peoples changes in terms of. Olitical views we did not see very much changing. What we did see is there was quite a bit of higher turnout you generally expect in the Midterm Election to be a reduction in turnout compared to a president ial election. We saw there were similar levels of turnout amongst the traditional liberals and amongst progressive activists and even the passive liberals, which is generally a group more disengaged from the political process. They turned out in just as high numbers at the midterms as they did in the president ial election, which may have been one of the keys to the democratic success when considered in comparison to the rightleaning groups, devoted conservatives with actually saw a decrease in turnout between the president ial election and the midterms. Host Daniel Yudkin of the more in common group. How do you think social media plays into how people establish themselves politically and they establish these tribes . Guest social media seems to be a very big issue, not just from a research standpoint. People even recognize the role social media has in political process in their daily lives. When you ask people what are the most important causes of division, half of americans think social media is playing a social mediathink is playing a more divisive role role. Unified unifying they want to see sort of a resolution or way these issues of polarization can be addressed in that regard. Thanksgivingthe season is up this weekend and we are talking about people having those discussions when it comes to politics. These what do you expect tribes will do if they gather around tables . Guest they may not see eye to eye, but i would encourage them to take a step back. A lot of times what you see with political disagreements may be the result of differences in peoples core beliefs. One thing we would encourage people to do is take a step back what are the values that drive people to hold the views they do and find a sense of understanding and Common Ground that can lead to a productive conversation with the people. Host where can people find results of your research . Guest you can go to the website hiddentribes. Us. It will tell you which of the tribes you belong to. Host Daniel Yudkin of the more in common group, the coauthor of the hidden tribes of america. Thank you for joining us. Host politics, i they will be part of your discussion this ranks giving. If you say yes, 2027488000. If you say no, 2027488001. One of the things that might come up is this recent action by a judge. The Los Angeles Times reporting a federal judge blocked the administrations efforts when it comes to the asylum policy, refusing they blocked the administration that is in the Los Angeles Times. To your discussion topics this thanksgiving, this is from clinton, maryland, gene, good morning. You are saying politics is not a topic . Caller i will not discuss politics, i will discuss patriotism. That is very important to my family. Host how do you make those differences in that discussion . Caller the patriotic act we will be discussing is the singing and or playing of the National Negro anthem. I will talk to my family, the young ones in the old ones about National Anthem and how patriotic it is and i will ask them to join me in my effort primarily because last year i was able to get nba teams to oing and or play the negr National Anthem all over the United States of america and i have begun that begun that initiative and we will discuss how they each can help me. Host specifically when it comes to politics at the table if it comes up, what is the plan for not discussing it . Caller what is the plan for not discussing politics . Host yes. Caller i will say to them, no politics, no turkey. Host that is eugene in clinton, maryland. Will you talk politics this thanksgiving . 2027488000 for those of you who say yes, those discussions will be part of your holiday. 2027488001 if you say no. Robert in arizona, you are next. Caller good morning. Eugenius robert. I will not initiate a discussion on politics, but i will always respond. I can give you about 17 points making everything politics. Militarynerally in the or high corporate structure, they are taught their culture is formed not to talk politics because it doesnt help the established situation of those three entities. Necessarily, we must discuss how this country is actually formed by not giving black people any rights, not giving women any rights, not giving any nonlandowners any rights. The second point would be why this country always needed to be in war is all about colonization and all this stuff about host are those discussions civil or uncivil generally . Caller they can get very uncivil. The reason they can get very uncivil is because people do not understand. They get very grouped by religion and very grooved by the military culture, they get very culture. N corporate that is where we are at right now. Host this is wade in wisconsin. Hello. Caller hi, how are you doing . Host i am well, thank you. How about yourself . Caller i am doing well and i will talk politics. I guess you could say the patriarch of the family now and i will tell you what, i will talk politics because my children need to know that this country is run now by a con artist and a scumbag. I have never seen anybody in my life as bad as this president. Host do you and your children agree politically or disagree politically . Caller i have one child that agrees and one that disagrees. I have pretty much told them how i feel and i am a veteran and i think they both respect me, but they have different viewpoints. Host that is wade telling us his opinion. Dan off of facebook. If you want to post on our Facebook Page, it is facebook. Com cspan. He says he will wear his maga hat at the dinner table and rick bennett says politics are toxic. It makes people hate each other when they normally would not. You can agree or disagree, let us know on the phone lines if you want on your plans for the political discussions. Charles in indiana, good morning. You are on. Aller politics never it has damaged our country to high heaven. That is it. Host as far as your thanksgiving plans, no plans for discussions . Caller correct. Host how do you keep it from coming up . Caller i will do anything. Host ok. Lets go to curtis. Curtis in beltsville, maryland. Caller happy thanksgiving to you and your family, pedro. I will talk politics because i will talk about the email thing with the ivanka trump. They are talking about locke hillary up and look what ivanka is doing. This president talking about all of this stuff is wrong. This familys in asking me about i was born in we do have good republicans and democrats, but we need to make a change change because the world is not loving one another and i need to teach my family it is all right to vote. I am a democrat. I think the way the republicans did hillary now what ivanka is doing. Trying to blame the man who got Osama Bin Laden and look what he is doing with putin. Host the question then, when it comes to those discussions, do your children agree with you or disagree generally . Caller they agree with me because they know i am truthful. Host when it comes to those political discussions, is this something you bring up or they bring up . How does that work . Caller it will be a thing all of us bring up because we are a politics family. I was born in 1961 when kennedys were running around. It will be a good discussion. If you are republican, that is fine. If you vote for trump, we did not care. That is what kind of family we have here. Host that is curtis calling. You are welcome to call as well about your thanksgiving holiday if politics is part of that discussion. 2027488000 for those of you who say yes those discussions will take place if you say no, they will not, 2027488001. On facebook and twitter you can trust post thoughts as well. When it comes to political discussions and civil political discussions that fit into the topic we are discussing, this is arnold schwarzenegger, he recently hosted a discussion taking a look at politicizing and polarization especially when it comes to discussion of politics. Here is that form. [video clip] we have a very divided country right now and a lot of people if you wondering if we can bring this together again. I think it is important to say everyone has to make a step back and stop. It doesnt matter if it is just regular people that hated each other because they belong to different parties. I say, stop that. If it is the media when you turn on and you dont get news, you get talking heads screaming at each other, that doesnt help, so stop that. Thes the politicians and political operatives that are also causing a lot of this damage. I say to them, stop that. It is easier said than done, but i think it is important that we talk about that and i always say to people, what do you do about it . It does not make sense to sit in front of television and say, this is a terrible situation. What do you do about it . Host the arts and life section of the wall street journal has a section, keep thanksgiving drama free. Part of it having to deal with the discussion of politics at thanksgiving. The author saying you are not going to change anyone at thanksgiving dinner. A life coach says it is better not to try and she also often feels angry with Family Members talk about political views she doesnt agree with, but she expresses neither approval or disapproval. This is hard because i think a normal human response is to want to agree and experience harmony, but i have learned to coexist and appreciate my family regardless of our differences and personal beliefs. Rguing wont get her anywhere she focuses on how the Family Member who is making her angry is someone she grew up with, loves, and wants to continue to have in her life. Edward from minnesota is next. You are on. Caller good morning. I hate living in a household isre the 800 pound gorilla in the room and nobody wants to address it. I have been successful in addressing it. When you come to a disagreement, smile and say, it is all right. What we will see what happens of the year in a year. Host you are the one that brings up the discussions, primarily . Caller i tried to keep it lighthearted and it usually works. And if it doesnt, you disagree to disagree. Host what secret do you have to keep it from getting into a fullblown argument . Castr he without saying the first stone. Apparently now the first lady. That is subject to opinion. You have to know when to toss in. Lets a great disagree and move on a great to disagree and move on and see who is a little more right in 12 months. Host did you ever have your opinion swayed or think you swayed someone elses opinion because of these discussions . Caller i cannot say for sure i sway them, but i sure got them to pause and think. We have had a discussion, we disagreed, and i have had that with many others lets see what happens in 12 months. With the way the economy is going, i have won a lot of those first years. Host that is edward in minnesota telling about his political discussions, especially this time of year. May in ohio is next. Caller good morning. I am a firsttime caller for cspan. Been trying a long time. Andy thanksgiving to you cspan. In our family, we have a rule. Host go ahead, you are on. Caller we never talk politics. I am an african american. We havei am an african american. We have independents, republicans, democrats in our family. Unlike some people, they think we all vote the same. Onell have a rule, respect another. We are christian, we have a rule we never talk politics and black friday at thanksgiving dinner and we all respect to that when we call. Thanksd more time giving. We live in a country where we have so much to be thankful for and i think about our country. We are thankful to all the people the shootings, we were not one of the people that came out of the store or club or wherever, that we were not shot and we are thankful our children are healthy and were not part of mass shootings. So much to be thankful and grateful for. If you make a gratitude list and go back and think and pray and if someone starts to bring up politics, we pray for them and immediately, they stop. We are just thankful that has been our tradition and we continue with it and we all dont deny politics exist, but there is so much more to life. We all have our political views, but they do not have us and we put that aside for real love as christians and enjoy one another. Clarify. T to say someone breaks the rule and starts politicking, when you say you are going to pray for them, is this out in the open or silent . Caller we all look at each er or saying and they soon lord, helpsay, them. They all stop. It is lighthearted and fun. Host the idea is will you talk politics thanksgiving. Richard in lakeland, good morning. Tell us what you think. Caller i will absolutely not talk politics. That is one of the dirtiest businesses. There is not a clean politician out there no matter what your view is, there is someone who will have a different opinion. I want to avoid the arguments and have a family meal. Host do the discussions about politics generally lead to argument . Caller not really argument, but there is some heated discussion about a po opposing views. Host when that happens do you remove yourself from the table or stay silent or eat . What kind of strategy do you come up with . Caller i enjoy my meal and let everyone else say what they want to say. Host richard in florida joining us to tell us about those political discussions, if they will take place this thanksgiving. Colin on Facebook Says my family are all political, mostly independents. Dead london says not if anyone. Ants to eat and i am cooking jeff says it is hard not to talk about the similarities between 1973 and 2018. Facebook. Com is our Facebook Page and tweet us cspanwj. We will hear from nancy in ocala, florida. Good morning. Caller hi. Host hi. Caller i tend to think i grew up in a worldly environment, so politics is a natural thing. Disowned amily disowned me because i am a trump supporter. I think in this climate, people tend to flock together. My thanksgiving will be with people who are likeminded. I will only hang out with people who support trump because i would attend to avoid the subject is of the anger from the other side which i cannot fathom. I have been a republican most of my life. I turned democrat to vote in the primary for Hillary Clinton the first time she ran and when i saw that mess going on, that corruption that barack obama had to be the one, i ended up voting for him and went back to the unaffiliated list and went back to republican and then i saw all the corruption going on. Doesnt doying trump things like lying white lies, this and that, but i think he is a phenomenal president and he will go down in the u. S. History as one of the top president s albeit divisive. It all started with the press. Host that is nancy in florida telling us about the plans of discussion she will have at thanksgiving. If you are just joining us for we aret halfhour talking about if you will talk politics politics this thanksgiving holiday. You can put that into the mix. You say yes,if politics part of your discussion. 027488001 if you say no on our social media, Joshua Wilson adds that when it comes to those political discussions, it depends on how much beer is consumed. One of the viewers identifies himself as one topic will be ivanka personal use of email. That is in the news today. Also in the news, nancy pelosi, the wall street are no highlighting the fact that when it comes to support for her speakership, the numbers are not there. This report by Natalie Andrews sang a preliminary vote on the speakership is scheduled for next week. Democrats will endorse their candidate. Elosi is running unopposed the january vote will involve all house members and pelosi will need a majority of those who vote for a candidate. If democrats dont gain any more seats and all members both for a candidate, pelosi can lose as many as 15 democrats and still win the votes needed for a majority assuming all republicans vote against her. Lawmakers can vote present. Shrink the number of mesh votes yes votes needed. Ability in the role she served, but saying change is needed when it comes to the idea of leadership. When it comes to related news, the hill this morning saying one democraticy elected representatives, alexandra costco cortez telling her it isram followers possible she will support pelosi in her run for leadership. Telling her 800,000 instagram followers she will likely back to california democrat calling her the most progressive of the possible candidates for speaker. Those discussions could be part of your thanksgiving holiday. Arthur in tennessee, go ahead. Caller yes, we talk about politics every day. We wonder how long donald trump will stay in office. I predict he resigns before the host first of the year. Specifically at thanksgiving, all of those things are up for discussion . Caller yes. Anna ints go to oklahoma. Go ahead. Caller good morning. How are you . I really enjoyed washington journal and i agree with the person from ohio. Together,amily gets we enjoy each other so much, we never talk politics, we just enjoy each other. We just enjoy the new babies and my family never talks politics. We are all conservative. Anyway, this year our thanksgiving will be joyous getting together and counting our blessings and thanking the lord for every day we have to be. Ogether and enjoy each other that is what i have to say. You have a happy thanksgiving and everyone and joy thanksgiving and dont talk politics because it tears everyone apart worried everyone apart. Host we will hear from mary next. Caller good to talk to you. I have a totally different perspective of one that comes from a family kicked during world war ii from the soviet union and americans dont realize what kind of a privilege it is to be able to discuss politics. Most countries in the world, if you discuss politics and somebody is against you, they will arrest you and kill you. Here, politics are our country. We decide what they are going to be and all we have to do is learn how not to accuse the other of that intentions and discussing how things are in the world according how including how our country is run including what makes america great. Give anything this year to be with the family i could discuss politics with. There will be no thanksgiving for me because i am the last one left in my family. Enjoy your politics, enjoy your country. Just enjoy arguing. It doesnt have to be a bad thing. Conversation is a good thing. Happy thanksgiving. Host before you go. When you are having these discussions about peoples personal intentions, how do you keep a civil intention going into a discussion that perhaps blames other people . Caller tell everybody to go vote. Professional instigators of politics who deliberately tried to create a situation that accuses the other of evil when they disagree with them and we have to acknowledge that is not true. We can look at things from different perspectives. It is the same way as when you have different religious people get together. A catholic and protestant a jew and a muslim could get together and discuss what the religious ant tenets are without saying the other one will go to hell. It is an attitude and a family can develop that. When we were in refugee camps in the 40s talking and discussing things all there was for entertainment and like i said, it was a marvelous privilege. Afraid to have to be say that you like this president or dont like this president because you know you love your family just because they like trump and you hate trump doesnt mean they hate you or you hate them. Host thank you so much. That is mary from washington state. In other business going on in the house of representatives, especially if democrats take power next year in the Washington Examiner this morning, a story saying democrats are proposing rolling k a 200 year ban accommodate one of the first muslim women to congress. The change was proposed by nancy pelosi and jim mcgovern and representative elect of minnesota, relaxing the headwear ban would allow religious while the e born to be worn while the house is in a session and would allow for someone with an illness to wear a head covering. Omar she isof the first one of the first two muslim women to be elected to congress. Maryland is next. Hello . Caller good morning. Sorry, i did not know i was on air. I wanted to say i love the anchor bill scanlan. He is one of my boy scout leaders. Ap governmentn my greater. Am a 10th i think talking about politics in the United States these days is important. It is something i think lots of people try to avoid and i think an open discussion about politics is a great thing. Like mary was saying on the last call, talking about politics in this country is a privilege. It is guaranteed by the constitution. I think talking about politics is i think we should do it more. Host when it comes than to the holidays, is this an open kind of discussion for you and your family and friends . Caller yeah, i think it is. We do talk openly about politics in my family. My father is from italy and my mother is from mexico. I like talking to them about politics. In family, i think it is very important to share your views because that is where we get our political ideologies is from our family and win we begin talking to our family about isitical ideologies, that where we figure out our views in the family. Eppe inhat is guis maryland calling and talking about political discussions. Will you be engaging in such discussion . 2027488000 if you say yes. 2027488001 if you say no. The Senate Majority leader, Mitch Mcconnell has an oped in the Washington Examiner today taking a look at the accomplishments of congress before democrats take control of the house next year saying this is where we are after two years in partnership of the white house. Unemployment hit the lowest level in 50 years. Workershas more log their first year on year growth since the first recession. Too little prosperity was. Reated all of that has changed. This economic boom is reaching the working families and communities that democrats policy policies have left behind. Familyt businesses ohio, indiana, nebraska so flush with jobs local governments themselves are offering multithousand dollar bonuses to workers. If you go to the wall street the Washington Examiner, you can read more from the Senate Majority leader. Joel is next in maryland. Caller good morning, sir, can you hear me . This holiday, we are going to be talking politics. We always talk politics and i try to prevent my older Family Members to come over to the new democrats, the justice democrats. Of theou get the founder justice democrats and cofounder on here because a lot of people want to technology it is a civil war inside the Democratic Party arethe justice democrats refusing to take money from corporations, only small donors. I think it is important people acknowledge that. That is why we dont want nancy pelosi to retain speakership because she is taking so much money. A lot of people say she can fund raise and it is a good thing. Taking millions of dollars from corporations means you are doing the bidding of these corporations. At thanksgiving, i am always the radical on the left that tries to push my family further left. Host give me an example of some of the differences you have between yourself and members of your members of family . Caller the Hillary Clinton way of doing business and i am prolegalized marijuana, use that money to drive the prison pipeline system. Stop american incarceration. Justice democrats got defeated by Larry Larry Hogan and a lot of my Family Members did not know who he was. Seven or 8 million. Ore dollars than he did he only took small donor money. Joel talking about the discussions he will have with his own family. When it comes to discussing politics, you heard from Arnold Swarts and egger earlier. This is president obamas former senior adviser, david axelrod. He made remarks as well. Here are some of his remarks. [video clip] if you are a democrat inclined to compromise or a republican inclined to compromise, you are always looking over your shoulder because he will never face a theral election in 80 of districts. The only threat to your continued tenure is a primary on the most strident voices in the party either party have disproportionate power. Compromise has become a dirty word. That is deadly to a functioning thisracy and that is why is important. To politicians respond to incentives and for them, job number one is to get reelected. I always say there is a reason profile is encouraged with such a slim volume. That is not the norm for people to risk their careers to do something important that involves antagonizing voters who might throw them out. We also ought to accept some responsibility ourselves. Host that whole event Available Online when you go to cspan. Org and just type in those names, you can find that event. Robert off Facebook Says there arent any liberals in the family so there is never any problem. Notell says politics should consume our lives. Enjoy the holiday, enjoy your family, and joy tradition. Helen says with family, friends, social media, there is no discussion. Democrats dominate conversation with immediate attacks in words and violence. Those are some of the thoughts of facebook folks watching this morning. When it comes to actions going on within the Trump Administration, a lawsuit filed against the acting attorney general Matthew Whitaker in the pages of the New York Times saying three senators filed this lawsuit, richard blumenthal, mazie hirono, and sheldon whitehouse. They all sit on the judiciary committee. They argue an official who has not been Senate Confirmed could not run the Justice Department even temporarily. It also says on the house side where democrats will assume in january, Jerrold Nadler of new mr. Has pledged to make whitaker his first hearing witness and subpoena him if necessary. There will be consequences for firing mr. Mueller. Mr. Nadler and other democratic n have put the Justice Department on notice they will request access to communications. Bruce in fort myers, florida, you are next. Hello. Caller good morning. Workedlder man now who 50 years. I worked regular employment for 50 years and had the honor of a state being Committee Member in new jersey when i was 20 years old. I consider that an honor. Sent by my peers to represent them. That being said, we dont discuss politics i am half italian and half polish and we have very nice meetings when we get together for holidays. I live in fort myers on the rest of my family lives in orlando and we are all old and enjoy getting together. We come and the era from, paterson, new jersey originally and i explain my ancestry. We get together and there is a lot of food and it is important we have good gettogethers. I am very independent. I have never been affiliated with a party and i think they are divisive. Instead of bringing people together, they tend to separate. If we sit down to eat and talk about old times and that is what we do. A try to avoid the vitriolic ir around now in politics. Thank you very much. Host that is bruce in florida. This is anthony in new york. Caller yes, sir. How are you doing . Host fine, thanks. Caller i am having a bad thanksgiving because i have 171 lawsuits. Can you hear me, sir . Host when it comes to discussions about politics, how do you plan to handle that . Caller i have been trying to take it easy because i have been talking to cuomo and donald trump at the white house. He has been calling me because of these 171 lawsuits. Host lets go to pat in tennessee. You are up. Yes, we talk about everything when we get together. We have a lot of comedians in our family, so we do a lot of laughing. We want to start our thanksgiving this year with praying for the people and thinking about the people in california. A lot of them i hope they have a thankful day. With what has happened to them, we want to pray and think about them because in all our blessings, there is someone always someone not having the traditional great thanksgiving moments. Though,like to say, when you are talking about the , hastion in unemployment ofpan gotten a calculation how many of those employers that president obama had in the white house asking them to bring back how that has affected anything or what happened to that . Showing hown was president obama was meeting with all those employers he had gathered in the white house and asking them to bring back jobs. I hope you have a happy thanksgiving and i love cspan. Host thank you very much. Terry in chicago, illinois. Hi. Caller good morning. I am so pleased to speak with you this morning. I am ready for thanksgiving. How are you doing . Host fine, go ahead. Caller we will discuss politics, but i always try to seeerate so much we happening is because the American Public is not paying attention. There is so much money in politics because they have to raise so much money to get you to watch a commercial because you wont look up your sample ballot and see who is running and research of them. You cannot be bothered to go to a debate read you wont even look at the debates posted. Your localbuy newspaper and now we have corporate newspapers who have to turn a profit. It is sort of ridiculous. Host when all those topics, up, how are they managed and how do you manage them . Caller i am always introducing people to cspan. I am always showing people how to get their sample ballot and encouraging people to become more involved in not Pay Attention to the noise on the tv and radio on the regular stations. We can do this differently and it is our fault these things are like this. If i ask you who your representative is and who your senator is an your governor is, you better know. It is amazing people still dont. Host that is terry in chicago. The previous caller mentioned the california wildfires. The Los Angeles Times, their headline on their website saying the number of missing in the camp fire dropping to 700. The death toll now at 79. That is the current count. Tyler from brooklyn, new york. Caller this is tyler from new york. Atried to bring up politics the table one time in thanksgiving and there was a mood setting change differential familyme upon me and the wanted me to stop talking and it was very sad. Host why did they want you to stop talking . Because people did not want to engage on these topics . Caller i guess so. That must have been it. Host when you get together normally, how much political talk takes place at these gatherings . Caller me and my dad in the car at theway there, but not table. Er at the table besides not at these gatherings, not once i could bring up politics. I really wanted to because i am interested in political discussion. Host how much difference is there between you, your political views and other members of the family you visit with . Caller i am sorry . Host how much difference is there with you in your political views with the Family Members you are going to visit with . Caller i am independent and they are very liberal, left wing family. Also, a few republicans that rarely come to the gathering. It is kind of sad. Kind of random to say that. To thecans never come family dinner. Host ok. That is tyler in brooklyn. The business section of the New York Times takes a look at the Midterm Elections and takes a look at policy decisions they are making connections with. Jim tankersley and then councilman saying house inublicans suffered losses popular tax break reduction which the law capped at 10,000 per income. Democrats swept four republican districts in orange county, california, defeating a pair of republican incumbents and winning seats. It also adds a present of Barbara Comstock lost a seat in Northern Virginia where more than half of taxpayers claimed l. T. Reduction by nearly 14 points. Kay from virginia and alexandria. Hello. Caller good morning, pedro. How are you this morning . Happy thanksgiving to cspan. I will be brief like i always say. We will be talking about politics. I am a democrat myself. Donna edwards, the former congresswoman of maryland wrote an oped over the weekend and said democrats, dont blow it. We have momentum on our side. Nancy pelosi, lets give her a chance. She won some seats for them. Lets keep the momentum going. I have two teenagers i discussed politics with at home. During the Midterm Elections, we were watching the news together two things i will be talking to them during thanksgiving dinner. I will be talking to them about truthfulness and the core of. Sometimes the quorum truthfulness and decorum. Say one the president thing and then the next moment, a tape of the president saying i did not say that. I think this is what we will discuss at the thanksgiving dinner table and i hope all americans teach your kids how to era. The truth in this host do your kids share your political views . Caller yes, they do. Sometimes my son disagrees with me a little bit on a few issues like we were talking about Bernie Sanders and beto orourke about bernie the president and running for president and beto orourke possibly his Vice President or biden and beto orourke. These are the things we talk about and it is an exciting time for us during thanksgiving. Be happyis year will around the table discussing all these things. Host lets go next to denise in new york. Hello. Caller good morning. I just wanted to say when i was a child, i was brought up not to talk about politics or religion, there were things you did not talk about. I am 51. Now thanksgiving it seems everybody wants to people want to demonize each other and to the previous collar, all politicians lie somewhat. People lie occasionally. The problem is people are not communicating and compromising. If you cannot compromise with commonmily and find ground on the issues and say, where are you able to move to an, try to find Common Ground if you cannot do it with your family, how do you expect us to do it as a society . Thank you for your time. The Washington Post expands on a story that takes a look at a ivanka trumps email practices. This quote her lawyer saying the ivanka trump turned over government related emails so they could be stored with other white house records. The lawyer stressing her email use was different from that of Hillary Clintons, who had a private email server. At one point, an archive of 1000 thousands of clintons emails were deleted. Trump did not prevent a private create a private server in her house. No emails were ever deleted. Also, a ivanka trump and her husband set up the personal emails with the domain ijk family. Com. Jared kushner could join the white house according to people familiar with the arrangement, the couples emails are prescreened for Security Problems such as viruses. Jeff in wisconsin, go ahead. I used to talk politics at thanksgiving and do not do it anymore. Too many hurt feelings. The republican side of the family just repeats talking points and you have to explain so much about the history of democracy and things that have been done to systematically change things over the years and you have to give them so much indepth until their eyes glaze over and they dont want to hear it, so there is no use trying to educate them and then you in youaling in 6 insinuate they are ignorant and you stop doing it anymore. Hopefully the last issue of republicans trying to cut Social Security and medicare has started to wake them up, but it is no use to do it on my own. Theyhave to do it when hear officials and things out in the news that they listen to and finally say, that will affect me. It seems like they dont want to hear it unless it affects them personally. So i just stopped talking. Host one more call from pennsylvania, this is john. Caller good morning, pedro. Happy thanksgiving to you. Host good morning. We are political discussers. There will be 25 or more people. It is great. You should discuss things amongst your family. The woman a little bit ago talked about her family. She sounded like my mother. My mother will be 93 years old. Family, i get emotional talking about this, were killed by germans on the front end of world war ii. The other half were killed on the back end of world war ii by the russians in poland. If we sit there and put things under the rug, it is not good. As a family, we should have discussions whether you like one side or not. Host that is john in pennsylvania, last call on this topic. We will change topics and for the next hour, talk about issues concerning veterans and what they are concerned most about with a Panel Discussion with dan caldwell and will fischer. Later in the program, the fda is making moves to reduce the rise in vaping among teenagers in the United States. Jennifer maloney will be here to talk about what the fda is doing is how the vaping industry responding. All those discussions coming up on washington journal. Announcer coming up thanksgiving weekend on the cspan networks. On cspan thursday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern, selena kagan followed by john roberts friday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern, Chris Christie and former new jersey governor Chris Christie and others discuss the Opioid Epidemic saturday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern auto journalists talk about their favorite photographs taken on the campaign trail and sunday at 6 30 eastern, gun laws and selfdefense. Stanleygeneral mcchrystal talks about 13 great leaders friday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern on afterwards, derek hunter. Saturday, at 8 00 p. M. Eastern, Lynsey Addario talks about photos shes taken in the middle east. And sunday at 9 00, posing Antonio Vargas i was a jose Antonio Vargas. Celebrating the first thanksgiving friday at 6 30 p. M. On the presidency reflections on barbara bush. History on lectures in how the pilgrims became part of americas founding story and sunday at 9 00 a. M. , talkitutional scholars about how the u. S. Constitution defines impeachable offenses for the president. Thanksgiving weekend on the cspan networks. Washington journal continues. Host discussion about issues that are important to veterans. Two people joining us for discussion in washington dc and dany will fisher , joining us from phoenix. Thanks for joining us. Caldwell, a little bit about your organization. The your viewers about position you take when it comes to Veterans Issues. Mr. Caldwell concerns veterans for america is an Advocacy Organization with a mission of advocating for the freedom and prosperity we fought for while in uniform areas we are focused on fixing the a session of the va the va and raining and National Debt which is posing a threat to National Security and prosperity. Staffe fulltime educating on for mentioned issues. Headquartered out of arlington, virginia where we have her policy, lobbying, and communications staff. Weve been focused on reforming and streamlining the va so i can better serve veterans. Host who backs you . Youre associated with the Koch Brothers . Mr. Caldwell we are part of the koch the network. We are fortunate to have a lot of people and best in us. Mr. Fisher we are the nations largest progression progressive veterans advocacy group. Membersto engage our and communicate the issues of the day whether they be political or legislative through the lens of how they affect veterans and military families. We are involved in campaigns involved through the department of veterans of pairs veterans affairs. Issues workingt to lift up the fact that theres really not an issue being debated on a National Level or local level anywhere in this country that does not affect veterans and military families. We try to lift up the voices of our members of how they are affected i these issues and how we can advance an agenda that benefits everybody. We receive over 100,000 individual contributions the last cycle. Hundred thousand members in all 50 states 600,000 members in all 50 states. We are able to drive the programs we do. Productth of you veterans affairs. What you make that key concern . Mr. Caldwell privatizing the v. A. Would result in worse care for veterans and more expense to taxpayers. Host is it your conviction the Trump Administration sense of the do that . Mr. Caldwell we do not support privatization we support giving veterans ability to choose where they use their benefits whether it is in the da for the private sector. If somebody chose to serve the country they should have the ability to choose their doctor just like nearly every other government run we think veterans should have more choice. To have a strong and functioning v. A. So they have that choice to continue to utilize the v. A. If thats what they think is best for them. I think there are some systemic issues within the system. Over the past couple of years there have been improvements heading in the right direction. There still some widespread issues that hopefully will be addressed by recently passed legislation like the v. A. Mission act passed on a bipartisan basis. Signed into law by President Trump earlier this summer. We also have the v. A. Accountability act which makes discipline bad performers. We think those bills will hopefully improve the system. Its still some more to do to get into a better place. Overall i think theres been Good Progress made in the past couple of years. Host would you say that assessment of the current of the the current v. A. . Mr. Fischer i would not. 40,000 vacant positions. We have donald trump calling for a 5 budget cut across the wevement, who i think seen in recent weeks you have all of these vacancies calling for budget cuts and yet how many student veterans are not getting their g. I. Bill payments . We are not seeing the level of investment in infrastructure that is required to ensure every veteran in this country is able to receive access to the quality whenare he or she the mission act was passed there was no dedicated funding set aside so now we will see if there is not a fix for this we will see the v. A. Because those caps will be reached sending more and more veterans to the private sector, which donald trump has said he wants to do, thats going to result in draining resources from across v. A. V. A. The v. A. Has added over 45,000 staff in the number of vacancies within the Health Care System has been consistent with the past few years because almost every year the v. A. Creates 5000 to 10,000 new positions so of course youre going to have vacancies. In regard to the funding, the v. A. Funding has nearly tripled since start of the war on terror. Under the Trump Administration they broke another budget record. An unbelievably large amount of investment in the system. It has outpaced patient growth. Current not using the resources they have as efficiently as possible and are not set up to serve the current generation of veterans we have. To serveystem set up the world war ii population. Most of their facilities are over 50 years old. Its not just the age of the facility, it is where they are located, and places where there is a certain veterans population at the time. I dont want to minimize, there are still problems in the system. But the amount of investment that can put in the system has been overwhelming. Host both of our gentlemen will join us for the course of the hour area if you want to get their thoughts on issues concerning veterans and asking questions, two separate lines. If you are a veteran, it is 202 7488000. All others, 202 7488001. Made comments about the veterans choice act at a function last week. I want to air a portion of that statement. Heres the president. [video clip] 2. 2 million veterans have been able to receive the care they need outside the v. A. System since i took office so theres no more waiting on lines. Six weeks inaiting some cases to see a doctor. See a privated doctor right outside hopefully right next to their house or where they live. And we pay for it and they are thankful. It has been incredible. We are upping that program quite a bit. We will be doing certain steps we always had planned. That we are doing it step by step and we had great support in congress. Host the president s assessment, what do you think . Mr. Fischer he goes this is a program we intend to increase. By the time the state of the union rolls around he wants to of veteranst 55 healthcare appointments outside the v. A. System. When that occurs that is taking veterans out of the Health Care System that is unique set of meet the needs of veterans and putting them into a private Health Care System that is not integrated and not set up for any other purpose than to generate profit. President trump has made it clear hes made it clear is he going to come on and say hes going to privatize the v. A. , he is not, but incrementally he taking steps that will lead to the v. A. Being drained of resources to the point that it will for all intents and purposes be privatized. Host if they get faster access to a doctor should that matter . Mr. Fischer the thing is when summit he goes to the private sector they have wait times there as well but in the private sector the differences dont have to report those wait times they do when they go to the v. A. In when they go to the private sector, studies are showing they are not going to get the same level of care that they do if they are in the v. A. Health care system. Host can outside dr. Meet the needs of veterans . Mr. Caldwell considering nearly 60 of the care the v. A. Provides is not related to military service, not related to isService Connected care it a to say outside doctors can care for many of the common conditions whether it is Something Like the flu, broken arm, just as well as the v. A. There are certain ailments that in certain cases the v. A. Is , but thereare for are services in the private sector that can care for these ailments as well. Far more veterans receive care for amputations Weather Service related or related to condition later in life like diabetes in the private sector than in the the a. Couple thousand amputees receive care within the the a within the v. A. If youre judging privatization by the amount of care that is sent in the private sector then president obama is the bigger under of the th the the v. A. The amount of care thats going to the community has increased. It is the path the the a has. Een going down they had to rely more on private sector care. I dont want to put a target out there and say we have to provide what i want to see is veterans of either choose the v. A. Or some private sector and determine the amount of care that is divided. Host we saw some of the issues the ability to get rid of bad actors. Where are we as far as this Administration Costs ability to move people out of the system . Bipartisan bill signed into law by President Trump in 2017, i think that has in thest improvements personnel system. Its allowed them to get bad actors out more rapidly. In phoenix arizona you have the weightless scandal began in 2017. Three of the key issues were placed on administrative leave after was found they were involved in secret weightless wait lists. The system also convoluted and bureaucratic thats how long it took to terminate them. That timeline is greatly reduced. They are off the payroll in 21 days. Theyre still an appeals process but it removes a lot of loopholes that bad employees were exploiting and i think that is been a Success Story for the Trump Administration and something that can be scaled across the federal government. Say incher i would regard to the accountability act that the implementation has gone far from its intent. If someone is not doing their job they should not work at the department of veterans affairs. So byaw has been wielded supervisors as a way to get whistleblowers to stay quiet. To keep people from voicing issues they are having at the workplace. Removed fewer than 1 were supervisors. This is a law that is being wielded to go after lowerlevel employees, of whom a great number are disabled veterans. Host we will start with david, in cincinnati, ohio. Go ahead. Caller good morning to you and your guests. As im listening to your program , and i started watching the prior segment and i just want to say this, as a veteran, i enlisted at 17 years old in 1969. My parents sign for me to join. Heres the things you guys are talking about. Do you guys know what 100 Service Connected pension payments are . Do you know how much that is a month . Host tell us the importance of that figure before we let our guests answer. Go ahead. Caller what im saying is you guys are talking about stuff the average of veterans is not even care about what you are talking about. If you cant get to the hospital all the stuff youre talking about is nothing. Mr. Fischer i would respectfully disagree. There are 9 million veterans enrolled in the v. A. Health care system. Mr. Caldwell i know that when youre 100 Service Connected you should be prioritized at the between 2600 to 3000 a month and independence. That is ultimately money provided those veterans with the understanding they are having difficulty adjusting back into civilian life or obtaining employment. The v. A. Should be prioritizing our Service Connected veterans, the people that should be first in line for getting care within the Health Care System. Host lets hear from robert in las vegas, go ahead. Caller i appreciate you all and wish you a happy thanksgiving. Im a korean veteran. Was 17 november 1954. I told them i want to serve my people but i wont kill and they said if you get shot at maybe you change your mind. I said i cant. Endingibuted in the navy up on the number one destroyer in the pacific ocean. I met people all over the world and help in so many ways as an individual. A person who is angry about the system or angry about people, polkadot makes no difference to me. All these people to get the anger, they are hurting themselves from within. Supporter and you want to stand with us and have your voices lifted i encourage her listeners to visit vets and we will lift up your voices on the issues of the day. Host another caller from baltimore, maryland. Caller is this representative elect caldwell, navy seal . Mr. Caldwell i was a United States marine and im not a member of congress at this point. Caller all right. Ell semper fi thank you for taking your service to the next level. Ive been to the v. A. A few times. Im covered by my wife Health Insurance and she happens to work for a hospital. I want to say the level of service you get at the v. A. , there are great people that work there but it is nothing compared to private health care. All of the level of efficiency you get by privatizing the the a you get a level of service an increase in service will be so much better. With a small amount of regulators to oversee whats really make itn so much more efficient than what the v. A. Is going through. Host give me a specific difference between the level of care you received from a private doctor versus the v. A. Caller a couple of times i had to wait four hours when i had a traumatic injury to my head. I was bleeding out of and needed stitches. Had to wait four hours. Never had to wait more than 30 minutes at any sort of private health care service. I went to a doctor for regular check up to see what was the normal physical the doctor was googling the information in front of me to figure out what was wrong with me. Thatught that was absurd the doctor would do Something Like that. Mr. Fischer i dont want to not validate michaels experience or opinions. Veteran Services Organizations tellafter poll of veterans a different story. Veterans overwhelmingly do not want to see our Health Care System prioritized our Health Care System privatized. The reality is the v. A. Is the largest integrated Health Care System in this country. Its designed to meet the needs of veterans and provides Wraparound Services so and someone says why do we have people going for an old bash for an audiology for an audiology appointment, they can look at one Service Record and say it says here you served in acts. I know youre here for an audiology appointment, we would love to run blood tests. Lets go down the hall and have a conversation about food insecurity, which is a major in issue. And when you send people to the private sector you are taking people out of an environment in which you have medical professionals who are unique we educated and trained to meet the needs of veterans. Mr. Caldwell i think michaels story emphasizes a point that not all veterans have the same Health Care Needs or the same experiences. Some veterans have other options either through work or the tricare system or military retirees. And our vision for the system veterans would be able to tailor their health care to what is best for them and we think and choice system that is what they would be able to do. The v a fashion the v. A. Might be the best choice for them. There are other hospitals that are not. With more information and more , posting more data about the quality of the health care over the past couple of years, veterans should be able under a choice system to make those decisions based on their needs and whats best for them and their families. Host if youre just joining us the talk about issues concerning veterans here in washington dc. Will fischer is the Government Relations director of vote vets. Georgia. Uluth, go ahead. Caller i was listening to you guys and i will cut my insured what theretty much last arms talking about, that was the problem i was going to the level of care. I understand you saying you dont want to privatize, im not even into privatizing or nonprivatizing. There needs to be a level of care. , there arey said some facilities that are topnotch and some are not and he said thats why transparency. No one is going to put themselves down. So when you have reports and stuff like that of course this v. A. Is going to make themselves look good or try to say we are just as good as any other. Wayhing is, is there some some people can come in and just asked for care and see themselves what they experience . 10, peopleout of with money, higherups, they use their private insurance. Host that is john in duluth, georgia. The a,dwell within the employees have access to benefit program called the federal Employee Health plan. They are able to access care in the private sector if they choose to. In many ways we want to give veterans that same choice. In regards to another point john was hitting on in terms of the v. A. Potential he fudging numbers unfortunately the v. A. Does have a history of that. You have the weightless scandal where people were manipulating wait times to get bonuses. There needs to be oversight from congress, from other government enters the use government entities, that there reporting accurately. You do need to double and triple because sadly those problems still exist within the system. Mr. Fischer if people are saying the fudging of numbers is continuing to exist that is something that is being done by supervisors. My question is why with the passage of the accountability come from the ranks of supervisors . Instead theyre going after lowlevel employees primarily made up of a great number of disabled veterans. Is studyay the reality after study, whether it is done by the Rand Corporation or a ,oll by a poll of veterans veterans enjoy going to the v. A. , appreciate the quality of care and do not want to see our Health Care System privatized. Host a couple of interested veterans for both of you. The president s criticism of william immigration, the one that oversaw the raid on Osama Bin Laden. The president criticized him. What do you think about these criticisms leveled at both of these men . President trump press attacks are another chapter in a story of donald trump level in attacks against military families. Try to give veterans to the streets were working trying to disparage the service of senator mccain, attacking gold star. Amilies there should be nothing surprising about this. Is it vile, yes. Surprising, no. Mr. Caldwell i dont think the totalents remarks were or necessary. I was the president would spend more time articulating his vision for how he will improve the health and wellbeing of our veterans. I think he has a great veterans agenda. Polling shows it is popular with veterans. He should focus on talking about and what hes done in terms of legislation is passed instead of getting into these arguments about stuff that happened years ago. Host do you think ultimately it hurts his standing with veterans or do you think its something that gets bypassed . Mr. Caldwell ultimately its a distraction from the important discussion. Ucti what the future of our Defense Department is going to be. The forger of our fish the future of our foreign policy. The future of our foreign policy. Host as this longlasting or something that goes away as far as admiral mcgrady and is concerned . Mr. Fischer i have every reason to believe the president will say something, find a new target. Something dan said, when he talks about the conversation were having and how it is part of the conversation about the future of the v. A. , i think this is a larger conversation about what the future of government looks like. I think there is an ideological conversation going on right now. When you are talking about the v. A. Health care system, at the end of the day, the v. A. Is popular among people who use it and the v. A. Is single provider, government run Health Care System. It should be recognized that those who are the opponents of legislation might medicare for all, they know that step one in preventing universal health care from being realized is to dismantle a single provider Health Care System that many people are pretty happy with. Theo the idea president by passing that event of the world war i ceremony in france, your reaction to that. Mr. Fischer not surprising. Donald trump had a trip set up easily to attend a ceremony recognizing sacrifices of world war ii veterans. Due to a little rain he decided to sit in a hotel room. Mr. Caldwell i think theres a symbolic importance of attending these events. I think its important to try to attend these events. Theres been a lot of good events. The Wounded Warrior ride. Theyve done a lot to acknowledge oteri families and veterans. Ist is more important ultimately what policies being enacted. Host lets go to washington dc, iran with our guest. You are on with our guest. Backlogthere is 80,000 of claims and another list of 400,000 a backlog of claims of people waiting two years, eight 1966 and theytnam never mention that over 80,000 people volunteered for vietnam from europe overhauls from most every year for vietnam. Lawyers claim they will be your representative and when the time for your case goes to appeal they say they cant represent you but if you win the appeal they get 1 5 of the back pay. Showed a clipjust about 10 minutes ago where the president said under his administration the betterment the veterans go to any hospital they need to go. If thats the case why dont they send a letter out notifying you that i can go to George Washington university . The same way i go to the v. A. . As soon as you go to the hospital, two weeks later you got a bill because its based on your income and your income is less than 50,000 a year. Host you put a lot out there. Mr. Caldwell in regards to the appeals backlog, that is huge issue. For years this been issues with the amount of time its taken the process claims. We reached almost one million veterans back laws in the system. Around 2013 that has been reduced. You saw the appeals backlog increase. Often 10, 20,ng 30 years to get their appeals adjudicated. Another bipartisan bill passed. It still needs to be implemented. Hopefully well start to see the appeals backlog decrease. Mr. Fischer these conversations about backlog, there was a problem that was recognized in 2013 and from that point those numbers started to go down. What will never out of what will never help those numbers, tens of thousands of vacancies in the Veterans Benefits administration those people processing those claims getting those numbers down and right now there are positions sitting unfilled by the Trump Administration to get those claims processed. Host dennis in west palm beach, florida, your next up. Caller today we are talking about Veterans Issues and i want to remind everybody that. Eservists are veterans also it is not veterans of foreign wars, its veterans. What i dont understand is lets. Ay during the vietnam era parris island, camp geiger, cant legend, i used to want all the physical stuff and they wanted to keep me over from what day so they are like the marine corps olympics or something. You canthey said stay for the day because if you iay one more day you will get guess it is the g. I. Bill or whatever. To be a reservist in the vietnam era you get called up at any time but if you serve your 180 days your one weekend a month for six years and two weeks of summer for six years you get literally zero, youre still a veteran and im just wondering what you gentlemen think about that. Somenk mainly it should be kind of a specific benefit maybe get the home and short loan as an example. Host mr. Fischer, you can address the specific one. In the era i think and which dan and i come from we saw huge numbers of veterans and National Guard personnel activated and deployed overseas. Talking specifically about Veterans Issues, those active and deployed they in turn are eligible. If a veteran when i enlisted in the marine corps, if an individual enlisted in a six by two contract agreed to be a reservist for six years. They were eligible for the g. I. Bill they had to list for six years. There are Resources Available to reservist. Reservists are National Guard veterans. Theyve served in combat and serve very honorably. Mr. Caldwell my wife was an army reservist. Important to note and recognize our national , thesmen and reservists days of one weekend a year are over. Many of these individuals are training longer can we make sure they have access to benefit especially when they are spending large amounts of time on active duty. We need a Strong Reserve force reached on National Guard. If you look at the wildfires in california a lot of National Guardsmens of owning those. Theres been a consistent National Guard presence. This is an important component of our Armed Services enemies reservist and National Guardsmen reserve best deserve respect. Host as the use of guards on the border of good use of resources . Mr. Caldwell if you look at the purpose of any military it is to protect the territory and integrity of the nations borders. Restricted ins performing certain Law Enforcement functions. The National Guard and activeduty military there are some differences. There are times when the National Guard to be called upon to support for enforcement. They should be restricted from engaging Law Enforcement activities except in extreme circumstances. Thats not something i want our military to be doing. Imagine there are circumstances where you would need activeduty military. President clinton deployed that activeduty military to the border at points. I cannot look at this current deployment as being an efficient use of our military or effective and im glad to hear the Trump Administration is ending that the claimant. Mr. Fischer theyre ending the deployment now that the Midterm Elections are over. President trump deployment of these individuals to the southern border was purely a political stunt and designed to blow upon the embers of nativism, racism and a xenophobia leading up to the Midterm Elections. In the meantime we are going to have thousands of activeduty military personnel not with their family on thanksgiving. Some of whom may have just come off deployment instead sitting on the border not with their family. Host there is discussion about the president possibly going to iraq or afghanistan during the thanksgiving holidays. His first visit to those locales. What about the fact that he has not visited yet . Mr. Fischer donald trump has been avoiding combat zones since the mid19. I think it is a good thing. A good thing when president obama and president bush went into combat zones. George bush having thanksgiving with people on deployment was a very good thing and it means a lot for the young men and women on those appointments. The story that came out in the Washington Post about this when it was why hasnt he done this and the excuse of because he does not agree with why the individuals are deployed to these combat zones, well and our zones. On in those if its for any other reason, address that. But go and spend time with these young women and men and see with their it what they are experiencing. Mr. Caldwell i agree with will on his last point. I think the president should examine whether or not we need to continue some of these missions especially in afghanistan. I think weve accomplished our objectives we set out to achieve after 9 11. Is not really coherent strategy going forward. We need to wind down that conflict and i would like to see President Trump trust his instincts he originally had. I have mixed feelings. I go back and forth whether or not it would be good for the president to visit one of these combat zones. It is a good gesture. At the same time ive been one of those troops. Especially when you are lowerlevel enlisted Service Member it can be a giant dog and on show. Distraction from some key missions. At the end of the day become a logistical nightmare. Before we go on, without your military service mr. Caldwell. Mr. Caldwell four years in the marine corps. My first two years at the barracks downtown at camp david is part of the marine element and i went to the First Marine Division and deploy to iraq with them came back, that out when backtoschool. Mr. Fischer i initially enlisted in the marine corps as a reservist in 2001 and had the timing of graduating boot camp august 17, 2000 one. I ended going on active duty and toloying within the company iraq. In washington dc finished my degree and have been doing work of this nature ever since. Ive got something to say here about the v. A. , the way its ran and everything. President trump is doing a fantastic job because i live closest to a v. A. From 100 miles away. I got turned away. When i was really sick i have a boy caught in my leg they turned me away three times. I had to drive over 200 miles just to get help which is amazing. V. A. Over here that i live closer by which is 10 miles away now. They close at 5 00. You dont get help in this town. Now and any hospital that is my thing. Host lets hear from albert in kentucky. Caller yes. I live here in preston berg and i want to thank the v. A. For the wonderful job the Medical Center is doing here. About a year ago i spent 21 years on active duty and went back to work for the Government Units of their special after 37 years i decided to come home. My feet are in bad shape. Havent heard anything. I dont know whats going on with that. Host that is elbert talking about his experiences. Ou talked about Current Issues what are some of the longterm things the president should be focused on . Mr. Fischer i think looking at what the new military looks like and adapting the v. A. Toward how do we to connea have a v. A. That is reflective of the number of women serving in the military now and adapt to meet the needs of those veterans . How can we meet the needs to tackle issues like veterans being supported web server honorably in our Armed Services . Happily worked to ensure not only that the the a is not that the v. A. Is not privatized but has investment made to meet the needs of worldclass health care to veterans who earned it. Mr. Caldwell i think we have our disagreements with the congressman. The demographics of the veterans population will drive the future of the v. A. And what it looks like. Between now and 2030 you will have 4 million to 5 million fewer veterans. World war ii and korean era veterans passing away. Even with our longterm engagement and iraq and other conflict zones we have not had a massive growth in unit eight military so you have not had new veterans so the population of the future is going to be more disperse. They will have more diverse Health Care Needs and the v. A. Needs to adapt to that and thats why we think its important to have that flexibility and the benefits. Why realigning infrastructure is important so that they are able the population of today and also the veteran population of the future. Host to those numbers that you speak about are you comfortable with that kind of level in the total number of troops we have serving the United States . Mr. Caldwell thats only something you need to reevaluate. We think you should have a military built around a realistic view of the world. Natural defense is critical to the safety of the United States. Military force should be a last resort. Think you should build a military base around the foreign piracy ideology. Foreign policy ideology. This is another area where i think President Trump deserves some credit. Theyve undertaken the first pentagon audit. They failed the audit but the fact that they took that step and can address some of the issues is important. Host a story on the front page of the Washington Times about taking a look at the budget seeing a projected drop in 700 billion. Mr. Fischer its hard to project a number of veterans especially when you have somebody like john bolton serving as National Security advisor and the potential of their being a huge number in the increase in veterans certainly exists. The dance point i think when you do talk about some of the waste and spending that goes on in the Defense Industry that is an issue and something we work on in terms of the size of our military we need to always ensure the size of the military reflects the purpose of the military. Military. Whats going on in the world cannot get that. There are mountains offset by one another. Is that and that every be changed . Mr. Fischer to his point there actually was the visa of legislation going around last year to make it to allow people who have a serviceconnected disability though they may not have been retired from the military be able to have access to those facilities nonetheless. Caldwell . Mr. Caldwell i know theyve expanded commissary benefits. You can shop online now if you are a veteran. Exact detailshe on what threshold you need to meet for serviceconnected but there has been an expansion of commissary benefits over the past few years to more veterans including people that did not technically retire after 20 years. Host kenny off of twitter asks about the dental care as part of integrated care. Where does that stand . Mr. Caldwell delta dental care is for the most disabled veterans i believe you have the 100 to qualify for dental care. Most veterans who are enrolled do not qualify. I personally think you need to examine the benefits through the priority group. If there are ways you can expand it in a fiscally responsible way to better incentivize veterans those benefits because dental care does contribute to Overall Health i think it should be explored. I dont think you should just expand it in a way that applies now itveterans but right only applies to the most highly disabled veterans. Mr. Fischer dan stated that one pretty clearly. Von ine go next to georgia. Caller how are you . Host you are on with our guest. Fine. Am a serviceconnected veteran. Complied with all the federal regulations. Hadrepresentative they i contacted him by email, his cell phone, his washington, d. C. Number. The man talk to me once and lied. Weeks you017, in two. Ill get an answer im yet to receive that so ive been very frustrated. Counselhe department of veterans in d. C. The lady brought my claim and said this is ridiculous. My thing is the v. A. Has are nottatives that doing what they are supposed to do and they are incompetent. ,f you cant respond to someone we did not find anything or we did so now i have my congressman involved i have a federal judge from atlanta involved. My thing is, why do we have to go to this longterm weight . That man does not need to be on his job. Host mr. Caldwell, what is the effectiveness of advocates for describing the situation like the last color did . What is there effectiveness at the v. A. . Mr. Caldwell i think its important that you have patient. Dvocates i have disagreements with the veteran Services Organization at a National Level but i will be the first to say if you are applying benefits on the help navigating the the a system to go into your local American Legion veteran service officer, the of Abuse Service officer, they do a lot of great work despite policy disagreements we may have. The caller talked about utilizing your member of congress for help. I used to work for a member of congress. One of my responsibilities was helping work through constituent issues. They are nonpartisan so even if you did not support a member of congress for particular election they will card check it at the door to see if you are a member of their clinical party. It can get you more information of any of the viewers are having issues with their benefits call your local Senators Office or your local member of congress office. Muchischer dan pretty took the words out of my mouth. Os our wonderful advocates. The best advocate can be themselves. Getting in contact with your member of congress. When you call your Congressional Office and airy grievance somebody is writing that down and they will run it up the chain. Host this is hollis, illinois, go ahead. Caller ive been going to the v. A. Since 1970 and they do good service. Situations and compare your problems. Its a social experience for veterans. I have a question about trying to get your benefits upgraded. Try to getif you upgraded they could also downgraded. Percentn with hundred since 2001. m a combat veteran ive been told they can downgrade your disability. Is that a fact . , when your first off were talking about the interaction of veteran has his fellow veterans we use the Word Community care talk to describe the care one receives outside , itv. A. But the reality is is nothing short of true Community Care when someone is inside a v. A. Facility is there there with their fellow veterans and a medical staff that is uniquely designed and educated to meet their needs. In terms of the downgrading of your benefits, each individual situation is unique. Get in contact with a withsentative or someone one of the area veterans Services Organizations where you live. Mr. Caldwell on the benefits side, what will said. If you have any questions about that contact the veteran Services Organization. If you do get a reassessment, can be downgraded but its on a casebycase basis. I think its interesting as we progressed with a greater diversity of colors you see different experiences with the v. A. And private sector care. I think that reinforces the point each individual veteran has unique needs and they should be able to tailor their Health Care Benefits to what is best for them and their families. The last few colors have had their experiences. The last few callers have had good experiences. With dan caldwell is concern veterans for america. Also, will fischer joining us and comingu host up we will talk to Jennifer Maloney about teenage vaping. That conversation is coming up next. Who was Martin Van Buren . Good question. We need to ask that question. He was the eighth president of the United States. He has often forgotten his presidency was only for years long. Sunday, ted witmer on his biography of president Martin Van Buren. He spent a lot of time with aaron number. There were even rumors persisted r aaron bur there are rumors that Martin Van Buren may have been the illegitimate son of eric burr. Wrote incy adams once his diary that Martin Van Buren looks a lot like aaron burr and he ask a lot like aaron burr. He was trying to get some owners and northerners to get into political alliances together. Sunday night at 8 00 eastern on cspans q a. Cspan, where history unfolds daily. In 1979, cspan was created as a Public Service by americas Cable Television company. And today, we continue to bring you unfiltered coverage of house, thehe white Supreme Court, and Public Policy events in washington, d. C. And around the country. Cspan is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. Washington journal. Continues. Host joining us is Jennifer Maloney peerages with the washington journal. We are talking about what they want to do with teen vaping. Good morning. Jennifer good morning. Can you give us an idea of how widespread the vaping industry is in particularly with the . Eens jennifer sales have soared and theres been a big uptake in teen vaping a federal survey shows that teenagers, including High School Learners highschoolers have increased since last year. We has seen huge growth in s and middle school as well in kids using ecigarette aired it is a 2. 7 billion retail sales industry at the moment. It represents about 75 of sales. Is thehat do you think cause for the rise amongst the team population . Juul is blamed in large part for its social Media Marketing. They have made changes over the to try to address those changes. They came out with a front that was cool design. It looks like a thin usb drive. The social Media Marketing was very effective. It generated interest among young people who posted their own content which has been difficult to tamp down. Juul has asked social media to are are posting,ds but it is difficult to control. Host seven in 10 teens exposed to those add you speak about, the majority are the retail ads and the internet picking up space. How does advertising look in the future under the fda . Tonifer that still remains be seen. We may see more from the fda. The question of social Media Marketing but as of now, the fda has said anyone the markets to kids, the products will be removed from the market. Ot of ecigarette managers manufacturers have tried to tackle this problem of teen use. Some are voluntarily taking steps such as removing certain somects from stores or in cases no mother using social media influencers. Voluntarily took a number of steps to no longer use younger people and their images. They dont use models anymore. They only use former adult cigarette smokers who have switched. Host in the days of cigarettes, marlborough and the like, youd see some type of disclaimer put on packages. You see the same amongst ecigarettes . Jennifer ecigarette billboards and newspaper ads say nicotine is an addictive chemical, and they know it is intended for adults and generally intended for adult cigarette smokers to switch. Host our guest is with us until 9 30. About want to ask her questions. If you live in the eastern and central time zone 202 7488000 come mountain pacific time zones 202 7488001. Walk us through how many cigarette works. Andr and ecigarette ecigarette works an ecigarette works. Jennifer the liquid has a watersoluble nicotine solution it is a solution that delivers a powerful punch of nicotine. Flavors. Include that has been the target of the fda in the past month or so, targeting flavors appealing to kids. Now we are seeing a sharp restriction on sales of flavors that are outside of what you could normally find in a cigarette. Now when you go into a store, you will find mint or menthol and tobacco flavored, but it will be much harder to find the ando, cucumber flavors other flavors that some manufacturers have put out. Host it is the flavors that make it a novelty of sorts i would think. Sure, there are arguments that the flavors can be quite appealing to adult cigarette smokers who want to switch to something less harmful. That is the balance the fda is trying to strike. They want to help adult cigarette smokers who want to switch and they encourage them to switch to less harmful products, but at the same time they want to stop kids from using ecigarettes. They dont want kids to become nicotine addicts. Can be very addictive and lead to lifelong addiction potentially. Host what are the differences in the amount of nicotine one would get through a regular cigarette versus ecigarettes . Jennifer the different models very. Pod contains as much dignity as a pack of cigarettes. The contours of our discussion would Jennifer Maloney looking at the vaping industry and how it has impacted teenagers. If you want to ask questions, 202 7488000 four eastern and central time zones, 202 7488001 for mountain and pacific time zones. How do we get how did we get to this industry . What were the driving forces . Jennifer cigarette sales have been declining over the past decade or more. Fewer people are smoking cigarettes. That is a good thing. At the same time, the e cigarette manufacturers and Tobacco Companies have been experimenting with new technologies to deliver nicotine in a way that is less harmful. You have seen over the past many years different products come onto the market. Many were initially not that successful because they did not give people the nicotine hit they were looking for. Some smokers would switch to the new product and try it and not be satisfied and go back to cigarettes. What we have seen in more recent years im a better technology. Came up with things that worked. It delivers a powerful nicotine hit and is satisfying to people who crave and need nicotine. That really set the stage for the development of new technology. Then we had a really powerful social Media Marketing moment, and this is ignited and in the latter part of last year and continued into this year. Host it is the availability that dr. Scott gottlieb has addressed during our recent form on capitol hill. Will hill from him. Atone thing we are looking specifically is to change how the products are being sold online. We have two problems. One is with appeal. They are too appealing to kids. And they are to assessable to kids. The online poll is why they are assessable. Under the regulation that governs this, we can promulgate regulations to affect of a are marketed, including online sales and potentially close them down. Optionsare some of the you are looking at to restrict online sales . We would have to go through rulemaking, but we can promulgate regulations to affect sales. Traditional Tobacco Products cannot be sold online. At the time the original regulations were written governing tobacco when it was first it up, there were not any cigarettes being cell there sold online. Being sold online. Is the success ratio that is possible if the fda does go this route, and how will the industry respond . The success really is an open question. The fda will be monitoring use of ecigarettes into next year. They will do the uptime surveys to see what impact realtime surveys to see what impact the policy announcement is having. They reserve the right to have sharper restrictions if they dont see a reversal of trends of ecigarette use. The ecigarette manufacturers toughmbraced the fdas stance. They has said our products are not intended for teens and children. They are intended for adult cigarette smokers. They are generally on board, although they have noted that they do have a legitimate market of adult cigarette smokers that want to switch over. The biggestto see impact from these measures. Roughly halfre represented by flavors that are now sharply restricted in the marketplace. Those would be things like cucumber, mango. Those are now going to be virtually gone from retail store shelves for the most part in the coming months. Butne, they can be sold, only through online retailers that have strong age their occasion verification systems. Host our first call comes from miles from new jersey. Go ahead. Caller good morning to you. Jennifer good morning. Want to know, will they targeting the poor neighborhoods are middleclass neighborhoods to get the sales up . It seems like every time stuff like this comes out they always attack the poor people first. Is that a possibility . Jennifer re talking about Tobacco Companies or the fda . Are you talking about Tobacco Companies or the fda . Caller i am talking about the Tobacco Companies. Companiesthe tobacco have a long history of targeting poor neighborhoods particularly for mental cigarettes. We have not talked about this, but at the same time the fda announced sharper restrictions, they also announced they will be seeking a nationwide ban on Menthol Cigarettes. That issue of menthol cigarette use has a long history of the Tobacco Industry targeting minorities and lowincome neighborhoods, and it is going to be quite a fight. It will take years to see a resolution. We will be watching that issue. Would have an outside impact on africanamerican. Mokers in this country about 80 of africanamerican smokers prefer menthol. The fda is proposing to take menthols off the market entirely. Host andy in maryland, go ahead. I am wondering if congress is going to address this and the people will have a chance to express their boys through congress. That is a possibility. The tobacco manufacturers as well as juul have all come out in favor of a federal minimum that is aage to my 21 years oly age, 21 years old, to buy Tobacco Products. It is 18 nationwide. Some states have raised that. That would raise take an act of congress. Dr. Gottlieb has said he would support that if lawmakers decided to do that. Congress could also potentially weigh in on things like ecigarette marketing on billboards and social media. Those things arent allowed for cigarettes and other Tobacco Products, but there is no rule or law on the books for marketing of ecigarettes. They have a loophole that have you arentting that allowed to market cigarettes on social media were kids can see them or on billboards. Right now im it is legal for a big ecigarette billboard to be up in times square. Host this is from a viewer from facebook. This is rebecca saint james in is not the worst thing a team can get into. Has cars that are the danger for cigarette smoking. Some publicere is understanding of the relative risks of Tobacco Products. Cigarettes are the most deadly thing you can smoke. They cause cancer and kill for 80,000 people every year in 480,000 people every year in the u. S. Nicotine does not cause cancer but is highly addictive. This is the balance that they are trying to strike. They are trying to get at all cigarette smokers off of cigarettes but at the same time dont want young people to become addicted to nicotine. Lets hear from baltimore. Caller i wanted to hear why the flavored cigarette are considered new, when stuff is much more dangerous and has always had these types of flavors. In 2009 when the fda took Regulatory Authority over tobacco, flavors in all Tobacco Products were banned except for menthol. Before them you had a wide proliferation of flavors in a cigarettes and other Tobacco Products. 2009, the law that was passed by Congress Said you can only have menthol and no other flavors. Snuff was not covered by the 20d by Congress Said you can only have menthol and no other flavors. Snuff was not covered by the law and that is why you saw an explosion of all kinds of flavors in ecigarettes. Now the fda is cracking down on flavors even more. They are restricting sales of flavored ecigarettes. It want to ban menthol in cigarettes and menthol in cigars , and they are talking about introducing a band on all flavored cigars. I wantse another point to address, which is the relative risk of smokeless tobacco and snuff compared to cigarettes and ecigarettes. There is a lot of misunderstanding and it has been promulgated by antitobacco campaigns that have not clarified which Tobacco Products are more harmful than others. Cigarettes are the most powerful Tobacco Products you can use. They are significantly more deadly. Host here is adam in kentucky. Caller thank you. Am with a couple of my roommates on a College Campus and the effects of smokeless tobacco affects us a lot. You see the ad for juul, and does that affect efficiency . Jennifer i have not heard that one yet. We need to see a lot more studies on the effects of ecigarette. Studies have long rage on the effects on Human Health Like we do for things like cigarettes. We will have to stay tuned for that, unfortunately. We do not know the longterm Health Effects of ecigarettes. Host here is a viewer from twitter saying she likes menthol and why the attack. What is the appeal of the menthol . Jennifer the fda says that Menthol Cigarettes are likely more addictive than regular cigarettes and are harder to quit. They also say they encourage young people to start a gateway. The mental effect clears the throat and mitigates throat irritation you would feel as a new smoker starting with a cigarette for the first time. You would probably feel throat irritation and you would cost and it would feel uncomfortable. But the menthol and the cooling oothesion they say s that effect. Toward smokers skew minorities and young are people. That is why the fda wants to ban Menthol Cigarettes. Host philip from michigan. You are on with our guest. Caller i was wondering what you felt is the lesser of two evils. For pot here in michigan and now we have made it legal. If you are to put the flavorings ul on the leaves of marijuana, do you feel that would less of a danger to your health than smoking tobacco . Is the supplier for juul. Do you know what their annual gross income is . Thanks for talking to me. Pax and juul work originally part of the same company and they split. Makes paraphernalia that you can smoke with. The tobacco. They are private companies and i do not have numbers on their growth. To the point about flavors and marijuana use, the concern about flavors has more to do about making them appealing to young people. Not expressed concern about the Health Effects of the flavors, they are just concerned the make them appealing to young people in the want to stop children and teens from using ecigarettes. We have seen a proliferation of vaping of marijuana as more and more states legalize marijuana, either for medicinal or recreational, we see all kinds of products. We see vaping pens like pax makes for marijuana. We will see more of that until we get regulations on the book that streamline what the regulations are for marijuana products. Until then, we will see all kinds of products come on the market. Eventually, we will probably see rules get put in place that say, ok, this is a lie and this is it. Host , choose the juul Company Worth . Jennifer over the summer they were valued at 16 billion. That is the latest figure. Host howard is next. Go ahead, you are on the air. Caller yes, i am watching talkingand they are about the vaping. The point is, in truth, people yes, this is howard. Host howard, you are on. Caller i have been smoking since i have been 16. I picked it up strongly when i was in the service. I did some checking, and you are talking about lung cancer, most people dont know tobacco affectsand vaping almost every organ from the lungs to the pancreas. Host thanks, howard. , smoking you are right can cause a whole host of diseases. At lung cancer is just one of them. And ases heart diseases problems. Of terrible dr. Gottlieb has worked in hospitals and he said that he has seen firsthand the effects of cigarettes and the diseases caused by tobacco. He says it is an awful way to die. Host bonnie from maryland is joining our guest, Jennifer Maloney from the wall street journal. Hello. Caller how are you . I am not crazy about the fda getting involved in this. They need to focus on banning yes and additives in food as it affects children. Sorry, caller. I apologize for that. Ms. Maloney . Jennifer that is an interesting point. One thing that the commissioner, Scott Gottlieb, has gotten notice for is that he has come down strongly on tobacco and ecigarettes. He has been quite proregulation in that sense, which is a bit of an outlier for a member of the Trump Administration who is not going home on regulation. He has not been as forceful in favor of regulation of other parts of his portfolio in terms of from a singles. Pharmaceuticals. Host we are told that aidy 85 of the users range from 12 to 15. Jennifer the young users are using ecigarettes. That is something the fda is trying hard to stop. We have seen middle schoolers use has increased 50 from last year. That is alarming a lot of Public Health officials and a school officials, elected officials, everyone talking in the past few months about how to stop this. Host someone that young, can they go directly into a shop and purchase them without being stopped by the shop owner . Jennifer no, generally speaking, what happens is they get the older friends to go into the shop and buy it. Kids are getting the older , tonds, say an 18 year old go into a Convenience Store generally is where they are buying them and get them for them. Host tom from tennessee is next. Caller ms. Maloney, i was wondering how the fda went about getting the data that seems to , witht of up in the air middle schoolers. I am wondering if they actually have the real data to support their case . Jennifer that is a good question. Every year in the spring, the cdc does a survey on behalf of the fda. They provide the service to the fda. They go out and survey young people and adults. We have the same survey data going back years and years to compare to. The preliminary data over the summer from the spring survey. They have not published it yet, but they were crunching raw numbers and were alarmed by what they found. That is why they developed the policy because they said they could not wait. They finally released the data last week. It showed that there was an uptick of high school ecigarette users of 78 since last year. They are not going to wait for the annual survey in order to monitor the effects of the new crackdown. They will do quicker, more realtime surveys to see if it is having the fact or if they have to change course. Host would you say this is going to become one of the main issues for Scott Gottlieb . Jennifer yeah, i would say he is very passionate about it. He is in an interesting position because last year he announced a multipronged tobacco policy he toted to take it nonnicotine levels in cigarettes. If it did it, it would make sigrid unappealing to anyone. He was considering taking my ball out of cigarettes. At the same time, he wanted to encourage ecigarette manufacturers to bring product to market faster. He talked about reducing cigarette related deaths and trying to get al cigarette smokers onto less harmful to get adult cigarette smokers onto less harmful products. Cut through the red tape and give them a longer grace. , and right after grace period, and right after, there was a big surge of juul among young people. Right or wrong, a lot of people easy onim for being too you cigarette manufacturers and blamed him for causing this explosion of ecigarettes easy on ecigarette manufacturers and blamed him for causing this exposing of ecigarettes. He is said they did not take the problem seriously. Finally, he said he had no choice but to impose severe restrictions on the sale of ecigarettes in retail source and Online Stores and online. He has had an interesting trajectory where he first came out trying to be easy on the ecigarette manufacturers, and then the situation forced his hand to come down hard on them. Host lets go to minnesota where paul is. Caller what i wanted to say is that as far as the debate, i dont know much about that, but i do know that i have been smoking menthol for 45 years and i am still my lungs are still clear. I have had no problem with it. I noticed that people who smoke regular cigarettes and up having more lung problems or throat , and this vaping, ive seen people who have actually smoked pot through them and i dont know how that works. I know i tried the ecigarette to quit and end up ended up smoking that one day that was equal to a pack. Host jennifer thank you. You raise host thank you. Jennifer you raise an interesting point. There is a Public Perception that menthol has an additional property or that they are soothing or cooling area did decades ago, you had doctors who were recommending them for patients who had coughs. There is this longstanding perception that they may somehow be better for you, and they are not. You are right that there is vaping of marijuana. The cannabis oil is in a cartridge inside the vaping pen, and it is consumed in much the same way as the nicotine that is in the liquid in a vaping pen for an ecigarette. It is an interesting point you raise about the amount you vaped in one day. That is what some people are finding is the dangerous aspect of Something Like juul or something similar that you may be consuming more nicotine than you did when you were smoking cigarettes. They can be quite potent. There is a lot of nicotine in one pod. You may consume more than you thought. That is one concern. Juul has released lower nicotine versions, and they are going to be releasing a new piece of technology which is a device that is connected through bluetooth through your phone and you could potentially control through your phone how much nicotine you are getting. Host of your on twitter said they knew someone who had one of the devices explode in their pants. Is this a common occurrence . What is the level of concern . Jennifer there were a number of instances where the lithium batteries in ecigarette devices could explode. The fda took a look at it and asked for Public Comment from ecigarette companies about what kinds of guidelines should be put in place to prevent these explosions. We have not seen this as a devices buthe juul have been a problem in other devices. It is definitely something we should be careful about. Host here is ron from rockville, maryland. Caller i was wondering, since the Major Health Risk to vaping is the nicotine levels that one pod is a pack, why not just regulate the elimination of , sotine from the vapes people can enjoy them with the flavors and get the placebo effect or oral fixation effect of a vape rather than having a health risk with adding nicotine . Host thanks, ron. Jennifer that is an interesting point. That it might be advantageous to have nicotine in ecigarettes is if i am an adult cigarette smoker addicted to nicotine and want to switch, i need to get my nicotine from some other method that will not cause cancer or at least pose a less risk. I might want to switch onto a product like an ecigarette that gives me the nicotine i am addicted to. There may behand, people who then want to taper off of that nicotine, and that is why we are seeing ecigarettes being released with varying levels of teen so that , whereld of nicotine you could start with a higher, and then go down to zero. There are Different Reasons why people are addicted, and it is not just the nicotine, but there is an oral fixation and have it. It may be helpful if you could bring the nikole level over time down to zero. Host Jennifer Maloney reports on these issues for the wall street journal. Thank you so much. Jennifer thank you. Acosta has his White House Press pass back, and with that comes a host of new rules for reporters covering the white house. We will go over the rules and what it means for future press offices at the white house and talk about access. 202 7488000 four democrats, 202 7488001 for republicans. For independence. We will be right back. Coming of thanksgiving weekend on the cspan networks, thursday at 8 00 p. M. Eastern, Supreme Court Justice Elena kagan followed by chief justice john roberts. Mayor chrisersey christie discuss the opioid at emmett epidemic. Sunday at 6 30 p. M. Eastern, gun. Aws and selfdefense on book tv on cspan2. 8 30 p. M. , we talk about great leaders. On afterwards, derek hunter, saturday, poulter prizewinning war photographer talks about photos she has taken in the middle east. And sunday at 9 00 p. M. On afterwards, poulter prizewinning journalist jose vargas on cspan3. At 5 30 p. M. Eastern, on american artifacts, celebrating the first english thanksgiving at berkeley virginia near jamestown in a 1619. Friday at 6 30 p. M. On the presidency, reflections on former first lady barbara rush. Saturday at 8 p. M. Eastern, i much in history, how the pilgrims became art of americas founding story. Sunday at 9 00 a. M. , constitutional scholars talk about how the u. S. Constitution defines impeachable offenses or the president. Thanksgiving weekend on the cspan networks. Washington journal. Continues. Host the white house has set rules on prescott says in light of the backandforth between white house and cnn over jim costas best pass. Press pass. Some rules go as such, according to the new rules, a journalist called upon to ask the question will ask a single question and then yield the floor to other journalists. After the discussion, the president or white house officials, a followup may be remitted. If it has been allowed, they will then yield the floor. There is a definition for yielding the floor, when applicable, physically surrender a microphone to white house staff to the next questioner. Failure to abide by any of the rules may result in a suspension or revocation of the past. That is pass. That is some of the things going on about the press passes. Want to ask you how you think. If you want input, 202 7488000 for democrats, 202 and8001 for republicans, it for independents, 202 7488002. A story this morning said according to the daily beast, any member of the press who violates the rules may face suspension or revocation. Later monday that the white house fully restored jim costas pass and the lawsuit against the Trump Administration was no longer necessary. In a Statement Released by the White House Press secretary Sarah Sanders, the rules were made with a degree of regret and a more elaborate and competence of set of rules might need to be devised. That is from the daily beast and that is the white houses take when it comes to press conferences and the like. The numbers are on the screen if weigh in on the conversation. The longer statement from Sarah Sanders from the white house highlights what i just read but adds also saying that the White House Press conferences will be reliant on a set of professional norms that we believe the overwhelming majority of journalists share that preference. Given the position taken by cnn, feel obligated to change practices with rules. This prompted reaction. We will get to that from the White House Correspondent association. A wall street journal columnist like this and called this the jim costa hour and said that mr. Acosta could do something that he raised with the president is turn off the cameras that show the reporters. This echoes an idea floated by bill clinton and george w. Bush in an article for the columbia review. Sm mike mccurry and Ari Fleischer suggested no longer having the daily briefing. This would not do anything to stop the hot dogging but it would kill the incentive for showboating at the daily briefings. To the comes Correspondents Association handling the press for coverage of the white house, they released a statement in light of what has been going on. It reads, the White House Correspondent association has no procedures for future press conferences but as long as there has been white house conferences, white house reporters have asked followup questions. We fully expect this tradition will continue. To your thinking on the new rules and coverage of the white house. Darrell and philadelphia, pennsylvania is up first on the democrats line. Caller i believe that democrats are picking the wrong battle and they are trying to descend defend the First Amendment. The focus of democrats should be elsewhere, such as Public Education and health and infrastructure. Too often, democrats picked the wrong battles. Host what about this battle in light of the new rules the way down by the white house . Caller the First Amendment will survive the new rules. No matter the president s new the people have the freedom to speak in america. When people have access to good Public Education, that is the question, not whether the First Amendment will survive. Host lets go to brad and california, republican line. Caller how are you . Host thank you. The office of the president needs to start acting civil and the press is setting a precedent that needs to be corrected. Host do you think the president needs to be the new rules laid down by the white house . Didnt these roles change the ability for a questionnaire to ask the question. Host mississippi is next, independent line. Go ahead. Here is the problem. The Current Administration forgets they are a Public Service and as a result of that, we have the right to ask them questions that we want to have answers to. Our reporters are the only ones who can do that for us. They are there to ask these questions. Public employees cannot tell you what questions they can ask. If they have a problem, they can go back to the private sector. They will answer the questions at the public needs to ask. Mr. Costa was not out of line. He was trying to press the point and get an answer to a question that has been being ignored which has been happening with this administration and past administrations. If reporters dont press the point, we will get the truth. Host for writing magazine has a story looking at the new rules. It quotes the legal director for the freedom of the press. While white house officials have been decline to answer a followup question, these rules suggests a reporter could jeopardize his or her hard task by attempting to ask a followup question without permitted being permitted. The way they are written leaves wide open the possibility the white house will use them as an excuse to avoid answering questions they dont like or as it did with mr. Acosta, punish reporters. Stephen, you are next. Good morning. Caller i agree with the last, you were reading. I think the rules they are setting up our set up that he can just avoid answering the tough questions. As far as the host it has been said that this does not stop a reporter from asking, just repeated russians. What do you think . Repeated questions what do you think . Caller he can just avoid any followup clarification. Host from michigan, brian, you are next up. Go ahead. Caller good morning, pedro. Others you like many before you in your world you are part of the world, you dont have the proper training to begin with. You dont understand the theory of journalism because it you dont have degrees in journalism. You have degrees, but not in journalism. Host to the call of the white house and the changes, what do you have to say to that . Caller it has nothing to do with freedom of speech. What the judge will line is you may be taking food off of his table. Do with nothing to freedom of speech. The unprofessionalism displayed is because you guys dont have the proper training. Host lets go to bj and hampton, virginia he has hung up. This is mary in martinsville, ohio. I like the new rules, and i hope the press will learn to show more respect to the president. Host what specifically do you like about the new rules . Think it willi keep one person from hogging the floor and give opportunity to more reporters. Host that is mary in virginia giving her opinion. In a related story, information about the future of white house which ifdentsdinner, you watch us regularly, it is said that changes are coming to the practice and saying that the association announced that for the first time in 15 years, no comedian will crack jokes at the blacktie dinner. Ofistorian and biographer Alexander Hamilton and John Rockefeller will speak on the First Amendment. This years performer outraged people with her comments. Was said that this is a total embarrassment for our great country in all it stands for, the president said. The event, ahead of it was seem to lower the temperature as we celebrate the important of a free and ependent veronica in california, it independent independent line. Caller i wanted to support the gentleman who spoke in mississippi. The reminder that these are politicians and they are a Public Servant to us. You brought up a point about thought i and i was going to say the new rules are just a form of limitation of freedom of speech. But then, here it is that the is also creating limitations on the freedom of michelle wolf. I watched that over and over, dinner. Michelle wolf at the she brought up great points and was hilarious. Host what do you think about the placement of the rules . Caller at the dinner . Host know at the press conferences. Caller i thought the news article made all the good points. Host what do you think about the rules been put in place . Caller i am sorry, what was your question . Host what do you think about the rules being put in place . Caller the new rules . They are very limiting, just like the article said. It is a way to prevent continued questions, bringing out you need continued questions to clarify issues and where they stand. Limitation ona our freedom of speech. The other gentleman made the point about they do the speaking for the people. We need the press. They speak for us and have the questions for us. Host if you want to see athelle wolfs performance this years dinner, you can go to our website. You can see her and comedians in the past. Ohio. S ruth from good morning, you are next up. Caller the lady before said a lot of the things i would like to say. I think we have to question how much freedom of speech in this country is being taken away. It is slowly and gradually moving. I dont think the press should ever be revoked for freedom of speech. I dont care where or when it is. Thatis one of the things has definitely defined us as a nation. Tohink it is wrong for them start to put more rules on that are only going to benefit mr. Trump President Trump, unfortunately, i have to call him. The problem is all of these things are leading up to something. I hope we look to see what they are leading up to. There are so many restrictions about this and restrictions about that and restrictions about other things. He calls himself a nationalist. I want to tell you, if anyone wants to read something that is ,ery important for you to read this is the way you take over a country. Host lets go to maryland. Caller thank you for cspan. It seems to me like the did corum and the pressure is being violated consistently by Sarah Sanders and mr. Trump when he has informal news conferences that he generally has for the last formal one. He is turning the temperature of by calling the press fake news. That is not what the constitution says. It has freedom of press is the First Amendment. Three theke mr. Trump naturalization test study guide that you can pick up and understand the constitution and have a copy of the constitution. At gentleman he insulted the democratic convention, paul a copy of the constitution out. The temperature of the press ull a copy of p the constitution out. He picked jim costa because he knew it would cause that. He gets so much free publicity when we play them on news programs. The press has given legitimacy who isranged person uncontrollably insulting people and doing more damage than any press member have done has done. Host lets go to maggie in virginia. Go ahead. I just have to comment. It is the offense of the president , doesnt it applied to him, like the previous commentor said . He can say whatever is on his mind and go after individual people and is he respecting the presidency . Wayne is next on the republican line. Hello. Caller i think rules are fine. Maybe i am wrong. I think everything needs rules. I get tired of watching people 15ke p on they questions for one thing. , you think strict that is ok and not have the ability for followup question . Question lets go to ben. Ost caller i think the press is a propaganda arm of the Democratic Party. When they come in, especially jim costa, they try to overtake , and halfconference of the people dont get to ask a question. It is very disruptive. They need the rules. If they dont abide by the rules , but them in the Senate Office building and just have it over. Here with no cameras all they do is get up and try to find ways to attack the president of the United States. Host the crown says the United States is meddling in the election at the next head of interpol saying public opposition by a group of u. S. Senators to a russian candidate to head the International Police organization a month to election meddling. The General Assembly is due to elect a new head. On monday, for your senators issued a statement urging the president to oppose the candidate see of the person who will hopefully become the head. The senators accused russia of of using interpol to settle andes and issued warrants red notices or their arrest. The senator said the election of him would allow moscow to step up such abuse. Host to san antonio, texas. Caller i would like to say freedom of the press is a pillar of democracy. Donald trump is all about power. Power unchecked is a bad thing. The press is the only check on ultimate power. The idea that this guy could tell you what you can ask him and what he could do and there is no check on him, then that is very dangerous. Power unchecked is a dangerous thing. Host from washington state, republican line. Hello. Caller good morning. Our president is doing a great job for our country and its people. Previous a greatident is doing job for the people of america. God bless him. Host as far as the numerals are concerned, what do you think about the white house imposing those . Caller they should be in there. Jim acosta doesnt speak to me and it was obvious he was taking control of the entire platform for the press briefing. They should have rules governing that. Alabama,nifer from independent line. Doing i think what he is we are on the verge of authoritarian or he admires putin and i think the press needs to take him to task. They dont need to come at him with kid gloves. He is a 72yearold man. If he cant handle the job, he needs to step down. The press needs to do their job. It is a shame they didnt do this in 2016 when he was running. I just think the press needs to do their job and come at him. If he cant handle the questions, he needs to step down. Jennifer and alabama. The Washington Times says there are lawmakers asking congress to update post 9 11 law that is a measure to direct the president to remove u. S. Forces from involvement in the war in yemen. It had 87 cosponsors, but four of them were republicans. A california democrat that sponsored the resolution said i think we are going to get commitment of leadership to allow us to have a vote in january. Jim mattis has told congress they dont want a revision of the authorization for use of military force, that originally targeted afghanistan responsible for the september 11 attack. In georgia, hello. Go ahead. I want to tell that and when i was in high school, they gave two breaks. In the morning. And when i was in the military, they would give us breaks. And when i was in high school they would give us two breaks. Host i think you are calling concerning the last segment. That will be the last call. This is what you can see next, we will take you to the Brookings Institution in washington dc. A discussion on the outcome of the Midterm Elections, how it will affect the u. S. Defense budget and National Security priorities. We will take you to that event, which starts or is scheduled to start soon. Michael good morning. Welcome. Thank you for joining us to talk about the u. S. Defense budget in the aftermath of big changes, including the Midterm Elections,