Eastern on cspan2. Washington journal continues. Host this is the headline from the washington post, is the president stepping up his divisive rhetoric as the president slams baltimore and representative Elijah Cummings. The sweet yesterday morning, representative Elijah Cummings has been a brutal bully, when actually has Baltimore District is far ,angerous and more dangerous considering the worse in the usa, so sad that he has been able to do so little for the people in baltimore. Statistically, Baltimore Ravens lasted almost every major category jury he has done nothing but milk baltimore. He is calling it a disaster, rat infested, that is from the president yesterday. Look at a series of tweets in recent weeks, when the president is taking aim at socalled squad, and here is carole king, the host of michigan matters in detroit your thanks for being with us. Guest steve, it is so great to talk with you. In with want to check reporters from those four representative districts, members of congress of the , of course one of them in your district, representative atlaib. How is that playing out in your area . Guest the squad is getting a but of press nationally, much as younot as might think, and ironically, tlaib has been helped by republicans. In 2012, then republican thernor rick snyder and republican legislator redistricted the area, and she was pitted against another popular democrat, whom she narrowly defeated, and in 2018, when john conyers left after 53 detroit,is area of there were so many africanamerican candidates running against her, she squeaks through, and then she won that. Tlaib, certainly she is smart, she is not allergic to work, but her politics and policies are not in line with michigan, which is certainly much more moderate. Detroit mayor mike duggan, who has been an open early supporter of jill biden, and wayne county and Macomb County executives, warren evans and mark capital. Much mores is moderate, if you will, and butly her policies another thing you can always take as a sign of someones might. Is money. Upey is the mothers milk politics, as we know your fundraising is interesting. Republicanwo other freshmen women, Haley Stevens and swanson feared haley has raised over 1. 3 million since january. She is a moderate and is the top raising from minor in the country who is not from california or new york. Is lagging behind about 120,000. The progressive views she has are not quite in line with a lot of the democrats here, so it will be an interesting 2020. Host in trying to get a sense of the politics of the state, i know we talked to you in mid, 2016 i remember vividly that you said michigan could go either way, you thought donald trump could when the state, and of course did when, between 10,000 to 11,000 votes. With michigan being so pivotal in 2020, how the national election, the president ial election will play out as President Trump seeks seeks to unseat michiganders in this column. Progressive candidate will hurt their chances in michigan, because the fact that there is a more moderate line here. But mother President Trump 2016, clinton did not come here, and that was very telling. Waslast place he visited grand rapids, michigan, before he won the whole election. Rashida certainly, she will have an interesting time in 2020 as well. The same thing at this point, they are running other candidates against her, raising a hand on the democratic side. There are a bunch of africanamerican candidates as well. As for donald trump, he will keep talking about the squad, because it is playing to his base, those residents in Macomb County, where, again, ronald macomb, playing to his base your we expect to see a lot of canadas between now and 2020, that is for certain. Host that you had a chance to talk to representative tl aib . As she talked about being a target, making them a phase of the Democratic Party, especially if you watch fox news and others. Guest no doubt about it. I know she is doing talk shows, but no doubt about it, they are playing the face of thisthe squad as the Democratic Party. There is a reason the Democratic Party picked michigan to have the debates. It is a huge state, it is a swing state, and the fact that it went for donald trump and 20 6 a. M. Tells you all the you need to know. Host regards to the bait, carol cain, what are you looking forward to hearing . Guest things that matter here, certainly a conversation about manufacturing and education, but i know everyone will be waiting to see what happens between and joe biden and what happens with bernie and everyone else, and it is just going to be an interesting dynamic, and certainly the old chinese proverb is going to be playing out in the motor city this week. Host people can follow your work at cbs is right. Detroit. Cain, we love checking in with you. Guest thank you so much, steve. Host talking about the squad, the four freshman representative , the president taking aim at them. Representative pelosi going after some of the tweets by President Trump, it is as friday, House Speaker pelosi was asked about her meeting with one of those members, alexandria ocasiocortez. Democrats from the new york city area[video clip] speaker i do not think there was any hatchet. Well she called you down right let me just say this, because i have some level actual joy inand seeing diversity in our caucus. We are the democratic already. Ever since i came here, we have been engaged in differences of opinion in our caucus, and that is a good thing. We are not a lockstep, rubberstamp representation of anything except representatives of our district and what that means. So in our caucus, we have our differences. Respect that, instead of making a big issue of it, respect that. Those are our differences in how we express ourselves as representatives of our district and our responsibility. I have never seen actually, like yesterday we had 219 votes for the bill. Is anyone asking many questions about that . Caucus, in unified doing what we needed to do for the american people, although it was a compromise. Certainly wanted more, but it was a compromise. When we win the white house and we when the United States senate and we continue to win the house of representatives, and we will have more leverage in the conversation, but i would never even say that it was a hatchet, but i do think that we have to we got out today, we had a good meeting. The congresswoman is a very gracious member of congress, so we had a very positive conversation about our districts and how we represent them, our country, and how we need to meet the needs some of the diversity of america and the challenges we face in terms of issues and immigration and people are respected. Host that is from House Speaker nancy pelosi, so what do you think of the squad . Our phone lines are open. This is a tweet from one viewer who says representative tlaib represents detroit, calling it the toilet, complete democratic control, calling it a crime, poverty, roachand le, while she spends most of her time worrying about the wellbeing of illegals. Good morning and welcome to the program. Caller good morning. Thank you for having me on. I have two comments. One is that every time we get into a discussion, it is all about race. I am a black man from mississippi. It is not about race. When you talk about voter a view, why cant we have voter id, we have voter id to get to the library. Why is that a racist topic . Trump is right. I am voting for truck. Im voting for him in 2020. There is nothing racist about that. He is right. Blacks want to talk about what is going on in detroit, this and this, but tell me, why are we killing our own babies. Is that racist . I want people to step back and look. This lady, omar, if she wants to go back to somalia host thanks for the call could we go to matt in ohio on the democrats line. Good morning, matt. Caller good morning. Fullmment is i watched the mueller testimony, very close to seven hours, and the thing is, this president has obstructed this institution of democracy, because what you have done is he a steamcally created for his buddies, and he has ripped us off, you know. He does everything, you know, just for himself, because the thing is, he is probably doing so many business deals in russia and other countries that we dont even know about. It will release his taxes. He lies all the time, you know, and he plays on our worst instincts, you have. I think this has been one of the es,t corrupt presidenci and, uh, it has been one of the most corrupt in ministrations i have ever seen, you know. Host we will go to frank next in selma, alabama, independent line here your view on what they are calling the squad. Caller that is right. Good morning, america. And i just want to say, as a selma alabama native, i have watched the Democratic Party for years, i have loved them. However, they have no backbone, they have no guts, and i have been a practicing independence since the 1970s, since the ford administration. I supported John Anderson, when John Anderson ran as an independent candidate. I was also on the committee for ross perot, when we went into our National Convention in gettysburg. We are tired of the Democratic Party not standing up and sticking up for what we truly stand for, the democracy of so much and thank you for taking my call. Host thank you. We will go to morgan in reading, pennsylvania, democrats line. Good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you for cspan. Everyone knows that the attack on the four congresswoman was racist and bigoted. Wh he is still a racist oremonger. The United States senate will not stand up for what is right. That is all i have to say. Exposed trump has exposed the republicans for the immoral garbage they are in the Christian Church for the immoral garbage they are, not standing up for this man. Thank you very much. Host we will go to a next in lancaster, pennsylvania. Good morning. Caller good morning. I just want to say, first of all, i did not vote for President Trump, but whether he reads the bible or not, god put authority,rs of whether it is President Trump or his squad, to carry out his plan, and until they finish the plan, they will still be in power and will not be deposed. Thank you. Host thank you. Karen from winterhaven, florida, good morning. Caller good morning. I just think that mr. Trump, you know, in his racist way, he is trying to go after these women, but it is because of their support of the Green New Deal. They know the Green New Deal would bring jobs to their area in solar and then went power, so if he can bring that down on a racist level, then he can discredit the Green New Deal. Thank you. Host thank you. From arkansas, richard, good morning. You are next. Caller good morning, steve. It has been a while since i called. Host like to hear from you. Caller i like to consider omar, i mean, she did take the oath of office to uphold the constitution of the United States, in which there is freedom of religion, which she enjoys in this country. However, she is also a Firm Believer of the koran. And the koran, there is no other religion. It is not tolerated, period. You are an infidel if you do not believe in the koran. Therefore she did one of two things. She is either denouncing the teachings of the koran, or she flat out lied when she took the oath of office. You cannot have it both ways. Is out there,p just remember, you, cortez, you, steve, we are all infidels, and i will not change, because the koran has not changed. Host richard, thank you for the call. Massachusetts representative Ayanna Pressley in a recent News Conference responded to the criticism by President Trump. [video clip] rep. Pressley despite the occupant of the white houses attempts to marginalize us and to silence us, please know that we are more than four people. We ran on admitted to advocate for and represent those ignored, left out, and left behind. Our squad is big. Includes any person committed to building a more equitable and just world, and that is the work that we want to get back to. And given the size of this squad in this great nation, we cannot, we will not be silenced. Host that from representative Ayanna Pressley. Joining us on the phone is damien fisher, covering all of this for the new york daily news. As we look at the squat in particular, representative alexandria ocasiocortez. Thank you for being with us on cspan. We appreciate it. Guest thanks for having me. Host give us a sense of the political strength or lack thereof at aoc has every freshman member in her district and what potentially she will face next year. Guest well, i think she has got great, you know, she has got a lot of strength from the support in the district. District, hispanic and although the hispanic vote is not uniform, i think that the president s statementsmong demo. Do know, she has bee in a townhe meeting and made much about his statements being racist, and i think that that is just sort of galvanized for supporting the district. You also have to take into account that were talking about an extremely strong democratic enrollment in both the bronx and where her district is split, and we are talking about in queens alone, it is around 700,000 democrats to less than 100,000 republican voters. Bronx, there are about 555,000 democrats to 40,000 republicans, so it is overwhelmingly democrat. She has very little to worry about as far as reelections. There are not a bunch of republican challengers that have appeared. Host let me ask you about the meeting that took place on officeand the speakers tweeting out a photo of representative alexandria ocasiocortez, and a speaker, as we heard, saying there is no hatchet to bury. Thatignificant was meeting, and how is it playing out in the new york city area . Isst it shows that she still a democrat, she is still in the fold, you know, i think more than the republicans, she would have to worry about her popularity among democrats. Rumored toe has been or at least her group has been rumored to want to launch primary challengers on Hakeem Jeffries in the bronx. Been some talk about lodging primaries against other democrats, congressional democrats. Needs, who isgory the head of the queens it goesic party, said both ways, in other words, you try to primary me, i will primary you. So that is really what she has to worry about more than a challenge from the republicans. Host were talking with janon fisher, the politics editor for new york daily news. Tweet fromhow you a one of our viewers who writes the following, it is a threemember squad now. Aoc is the virtual speaker of the house after fridays summit with nancy pelosi. Have you ever seen a freshman representative have this much influence this early . Guest know, i have not. I think that, to me, it showed foldshe is still in the with nancy pelosi. I took it more to be that nancy pelosi has sort of brought her to heel a little bit and less so that she is the head of the Democratic Party. Talking points a for republicans more than it is in actuality. Nancy pelosi said you have four votes. Thats it. For votes. I think that is a way of position, her power, but she has got a bullet public, and she is using it, but the power of uh, twitter can be overstated, and i am not sure that you know, it anythingwith actionable, that there is real power behind that. Host there were early reports about the delay in setting up in dealing with constituents that matters. Has that been resolved . Been sete offices have up coming yes, but there are still some issues with constituent services. Unlike other representatives, covering alexandria ocasiocortez is very difficult. She does not talk to the local press. She does not reach out. Ut where hernd o appearances are in the district is a mystery. She is accessible only on social media, but if you try to find out where her meetings are, her public appearances are, i know that she has had some death threats, and some of her staffers have had threats, however, as unelected representative, she has to find that balance between safety, security, and also being a public figure, and i do not think they have found that balance yet. They are extremely difficult to deal with. They try to limit the press that does go to some of her townhall meetings and public appearances. Photographers have bee banned not banned, but not allowed into her public events. It is not unusual for us to not get any response to requests for comment or just basic information about things that she is doing in the district. Host have you had a chance to sit down and talk with her and discuss her first few months in office . Guest so far, she has refused to meet with the daily news. We have sent several overtures, reached out several times to her press people, but she, uh, i do not know what she is afraid of, but she does not want to have anything to do with us so far. Politicson fisher, the editor from new york daily news, joining us from queens on alexandria ocasiocortez. Thank you. Guest thank you. Four your opinion on the freshman representatives, three of the four born in the u. S. Representative omar born in somalia, immigrating to the u. S. John on the democrats line, your reaction to all of this. Caller well, i do not like the squad. I have never voted republican in my life. Am strongly for gun control, i am strongly for abortion rights, climate control, everything the democrats stand for, but these women are cancer. I am in labor. I vote for labor. These women that want to open borders or anyone that one to open borders, these people that are coming in are going to take your jobs. Believe it. They are going to take your jobs. They are not going to take whitecollar jobs, they are going to take bluecollar jobs, and these women support open and the