Cspan radio app. Host we have another busy week in washington. We will talk about everything going on in washington with two guests back at the table again for another discussion. We will talk about everything going on in washington with two guests back at the table again for another discussion. One of them is Jonathan Tamari with philadelphia inquirer, National Political reporter there. Thank you for being with us. Guest thanks for having me. Host we also say hello to Jonathan Tamari with axios. The president with Alayna Treene axios. What is the president going to say today on the environment . Why is he doing it now, why is it weird . Guest it is odd because a lot of people within the white house that we spoke to were the ones that were like this is odd this is more of the democrats issue, and something the president elect take it upon ourselves to tout our record on the environment. It is a controversial issue involving the Trump Administration because the president has not been one to help the perils of Climate Change or recognize it as a crisis, where is a lot of people have criticized him for that. We have seen a speech. There are some influences from his daughter a ivanka trump and her husband and Senior Advisor jared kushner. Are of them thought they new york liberals, as some in the white house call them, they are the ones pushing for the speech. The how is congress or rest of washington liable to respond in any speech at this point by the president on the environment . Any speech by the president is divided on partisan lines. That has been true throughout his presidency and is the more so true as we get closer and closer to an election. Democrats have been calling for action on the environment for years, maybe decades at this point. It has been a major focus during their primary or ongoing president ial primary. It is a rising issue among young voters. This is something a lot of voters do care about. It has become the number one issue, unlike in the password environment has been the third or fourth issue on the list. Democrats have a huge lead on the front. It is hard to see given president s last statements what he could say that could change minds, but we will have to see what he says. , do we have treene any details on the venue . Is thishe timeline afternoon and it is expected to be at the white house, i believe. We should not expect Climate Change to come up in this. We asked people in the white house working on the speech whether that would be an issue. Itll be focused on the regulations he has either pulled back from the obama era or the rules regarding natural gas. Host once we find out an exact time we will get information about an airing plan on cspan networks for the speech today. We want to put phone numbers on the bottom of the screen for our guests. We have lines for democrats, publicans, and independent republicans, and independents this morning. Alayna treene and Jonathan Tamari. Let me show you this headline in the wall street journal. A lot going on here with fiscal matters in these next several weeks and couple of months. Can you give us a sketch of what congress is facing right now . Guest they are trying to get the budget bills passed that they need to keep the lights on. That is really the main thrust whichde from oversight we will discuss, we will see oversight hearings continuing, but as far as legislating, the senate is moving judges. The house is passing bills that is part of their agenda, but had no future in the senate. Getting the governmentfunded will be one of the main things folks are focused on before the august recess to try to avoid a crisis from this fall when all the folks will be on the campaign trail. Host Alayna Treene, when we talk about the budget and fiscal matters, what are the priorities right now . To say is difficult as jonathan mentioned, it is a lot of trying to keep the lights on. The border funding, which we saw passed in the house and the senate recently was a huge thing for them and obviously immigration is a top priority in this administration. Otherwise, it is a lot of back and forth. The white house and congress recognized anything they want to do with some sort of purpose in congress is unlikely to pass both the house and the senate. Host one of the big issues was the census and the Citizenship Question on the senses. The president is insisting he will push back a little bit about this. Lets talk about that for a moment, but first hear from the president on friday as he was headed toward new jersey, adding the questions about citizenship. [video clip] mr. Trump we are thinking about doing it. We are doing well in the census. He made a statement. He wrote something out. The judge did not like it. Ford a lot of respect justice roberts. He did not like it. He did say come back. That is what he was saying. We will see what happens. We can also add an addition. We could start the printing and do an addendum after we get a positive decision. We are working on a lot of things, including an executive order. , the Alayna Treene president says there are four or five ways to do this. What are they thinking about right now . Guest last wednesday, when the president had started bleeding that he was angry with the Commerce Department and the Justice Department for saying with thed move ahead printing of the census without the question, it really caught everyone off guard. We saw a lot of scrambling in order to figure out how can we appease president come and find a different way to get this and find a wayt president and find a different way to get this added despite the Supreme Court ruling. They did leave a little bit of an open door saying unless the white house can come to us with real reason. For now it is trying to figure out how they can convince the courts to allow this question and one thing they are looking at is executive order. Ist Jonathan Tamari, what the posture right now of the congress on this particular point in the push by the president on the campaign trail as well . Guest as you would expect, starkly divided along party lines. Democrats say this is an attempt undocumented both immigrants and some people who might just recoil. Some people are citizens for recoil from answering this question and an attempt to diminish the account of people in blue areas of this country. The democrats had declared victory after the Supreme Court. People on both sides thought that was the last word. The president has other thoughts on this. It will be another one of those very sharp, cultural issues that divides the country and it is clearly related to immigration which is one of the hottest and most divisive topics in washington and on the campaign trail. Host a busy week developing and the busy rest of july developing. Well go to the calls for our guests. Harry you are up for us from ocala, florida. Independent caller. High, harry. Hi, harry. Harry, are you there . One more time, harry, are you the . Lets try shelley. Shelley in massachusetts. Caller hi. Host what would you like to ask or tell our guests . Caller i am calling about the immigration. My question is about the census. Yes, hi. Host you are on the air. Please turn the sound down on your set. I was calling about the immigration, the census. Host go ahead. Caller ok. I believe that citizenship should be allowed on the question. They dont care about us americans, it seems like. All they care about are the illegals. The legal host anything else you want to add . Fair toyes, it is not us. Egals cominge ill over and getting their votes. . Hat about our votes thet that is one of issues. Legally i do not think they have set up that explicitly, but that is one of the issues the president has raised on his own, that undocumented immigrants should not get benefits or be counted, but the counter argument is the census calls for counting everyone in the country regardless of citizenship status. That is where the dividing line has been at this point. Host Alayna Treene, take us inside the white house. We read something that suggested the president pushed back in the opposite direction because of criticism, slack he was taken thatthose around him after court ruling. Explain what is going on inside the white house right now. Guest one interesting thing we have not discussed is at the department of justice there is actually a turnover now of some of the lawyers that have been assigned to this case. Think what some forces have said some people do not feel comfortable with the way the president and this white house is handling this issue, pushing back on the court, trying to find a way around the Supreme Court decision to get this question added to the senses. There is a lot of controversy behind closed doors that have not been public yet. Host karl is in west virginia. Republican caller. Caller one thing you wont hear in the Mainstream Media is the Citizenship Question on the census is all about democrats gaining more power. If they count all of these illegal immigrants, like in california, they will gain seats in congress. Sanctuaryabout the cities. They know if they can get more of these illegals in certain more federalan get money, and they can gain seats in congress, and it is all about power. You will not read anything like that in the Mainstream Media. Host thank you for calling. Aboutan tamari, all power, that caller says. Guest that is the point of view of people who want this question added to the senses. People on the other side would say this census has been on for a long time without a Citizenship Question. They are trying to find a way to route resources and the census has traditionally been an a political process. There is a lot of concern that this on the democratic side that this is a way to target places that tend to be represented by democrats. There is also a fear that would this would discourage people that are legal citizens from answering this question they might find intrusive. Just getting people to answer random questions can be difficult and the more you had to that the harder add to that the harder it becomes. They are trying to get an accurate number regardless of politics here. Host Alayna Treene, we want to hear more from you, but lets hear from Ken Cuccinelli he was on fox yesterday and asked about whether this question of citizenship will remain on the 2020 census. [video clip] do think so. I i the president has expressed determination. The Supreme Court did not say this cannot be asked. They did not appreciate the theess by which it came first time. The president is determined to fix that. What you think about people that say the founding father said it is people, not citizens you have to count, and you worry a all you are a lawyer for long time constitutionally, how do you feel about that . Mr. Cogen ali i dont have a problem with that at all. If you look at what we have asked over the years, including the Citizenship Question many times during our history we ask a lot of information as well. In addition to getting the raw number of souls in the country, we find a lot of other information that is useful for governance. Host Alayna Treene, back to you anything else you want to read about the citizenship issue . Guest one thing i wanted to add in the caller brought up is the politicization of this, and how it is plain for the democrats, but jonathan brought up a good point this is supposed to be an apolitical thing and it is about directing resources to the communities given the count of the number of people there. Everythings is where under this administration becomes very political. It is great to point out that is not normal for the senses. Host we go to wilkesbarre, pennsylvania, democratic line and crystal, you are on with Alayna Treene and Jonathan Tamari. Go ahead, crystal. Caller good morning. I want to go back to the political environment when it comes to Foreign Affairs. People call i hear in and say President Trump is the strongest leader, he is the best. Lets look at it. He said mexico would pay for a wall. He it did not happen. He got up there, and he embarrassed us in front of putin of the world and of the world when he took his side against the americans. He took the side of the saudi arabians when he sent people here to bomb the twin towers. He has backed down from everything. How is he so strong . Afterhe said lets go him, then he became his best friend. There is nothing he has done in Foreign Affairs that makes him look strong. He looks very weak. I believe the u. N. Ambassador haley to europe who said he has been ambassador to europe who said he is very inept. As far as the census, lets look at gerrymandering. What are the republicans doing with gerrymandering . I will hang up and listen to you. , the firsthan tamari part of her comment is a good launching point to talk about what congress is up to this week. They have a big bill on the floor, the Defense Authorization act, which might take a few days to finish, but wall street journal points out the rancor following up from the border debate from last week is likely to continue on the house version of the bill. Legislation has become more partisan and will require more democratic votes than usual. We are reading about issues involving saudi arabia, iran, and others. Can you give us a preview . Jonathan tamari anything that guest anything that deals with military and Foreign Affairs is one of the few areas you have seen along with trey some members of republicans hesitant to go along with trump, but not enough numbers to reverse what he wants to do. Lately there has been a lot of focus on the u. S. Relationship with countries in the middle qatar,ke saudi arabia, and some pushback from democrats, certainly, and a small number of republicans. That is an ongoing issue. I dont know if they will try to insert any language into the Defense Authorization. Armshave attempted to stop sales to some of those countries already. They have enough to pass the senate, but not enough to override a veto. Those attempts have failed before. Foreign affairs and defense is one issue that is worth watching because it is one of the few places where you see republicans breakaway. Host Alayna Treene, as we watch the white house and watch axios, you have been touching on what iran has been doing, and you have been reporting escalation and plans to breach the enrichment cap. In newthe headline york times, within hours they will breach requirements set in this record. Tell us what the white house is thinking right now. Guest right now i think the white house is Standing Firm in their belief of maximum pressure. They are not planning to give any sort of sanctions relief to iran, and mind you, yes, they were the ones that pulled out of the 2013 nuclear deal. It started on the u. S. Side. All eyes are on europe, essentially, because this is iran is doing. Toward anot dashing nuclear weapon, but right now they are upping the political ante and trying to get europe to come to their defense and ease sanctions really relief, and all the while the u. S. Standing firm in their belief of maximum pressure. Host marcelo from the radio, texas from laredo, texas. Caller thank you. For us to be able to communicate with people we elect and are supposed to be representing us i understand the outrage from previous callers when they get frustrated about the Citizenship Question and the immigration the problem we have with immigration. ,e could look back in history for example, the time of oliver north. We created some of this instability with the nations oppressionsing for that we created. Here, registerm and do the paperwork, we get some money if we make it part of our country to manage education and retirement from the world bank. That is part of the frustration we dont have all the information. People. Very eloquent define the word axios, and you get some idea. Some of these facts dont come to light. We as a people that we are supposed to be this is a country where the people are supposed to be the ones in power , and the president is supposed to be a representative. Slowly but surely we are turning around. Areasition of the media that are giving us information we do not have enough information to make those decisions. We dont have the truth. It is even a violation of our religious right because he is teaching us to hate brothers and sisters that are coming to us for eight, and we do not understand where making money off of these people recreated the situation. Can you say why you did not address some of these issues . Host strong points there for marcelo. Alayna treene, why dont you start . Guest sure. I totally hear the caller on this. What is going on in the country is a mess and i think democrats and republicans will agree with that. There are confusing aspects. I can understand how people who on not really entrenched what is going on on a daily basis are confused by it. Right now, the big issue is what is happening in Detention Centers and more broadly trying to figure out whether there will be some sort of comprehensive Immigration Reform done by this white house. It is looking increasingly unlikely intellect that will happen before the 2020 president ial election and a lot of people are hunting off to see hunting the more off to see what more the democratic candidate are saying on this. We have seen border crossings rise to record numbers of the past few months. I agree with the caller that is much information than is to be out there should be delivere