Text us your thoughts at 2027488003. Wj. On cspan at cspan the discussion about confederate leaders, there was a recent poll on this topic. It asked what should be done with the statues of confederate leaders. Roughly 2 roughly one third of the voters in the poll expenses should be taken down. 44 said the statues should remain standing, down eight point since the survey was taken down two years ago after the riots in charlottesville, virginia. The poll was done with Morning Consult and politico. A history of some of those bases across the u. S. That have come into the conversation and its history such as for georgia. Ing located in it was established as a training down in world war i and was named after a confederate general who was present at the battle of antietam and gettysburg. Mr. Bragg, named after ragg. Established as an artillery Training Ground in world war i, named after a u. S. Army officer who served in the second aminal war and mexicanamerican war before becoming a Confederate Army general. Located indon, georgia as well, founded as a training site for world war i. Is named after john brown gordon, a confederate general who robert e. Lee called one of his most trusted generals, despite having no prior military training. There is more on the history of some of those bases if you look to the Montgomery Advertiser website. Renaming off their these bases or taking down of the statues, give us a call at 2027488000. If you oppose these efforts, 2027488001. The conversations, even extending to capitol hill. S White House correspondent joins us. Guest thank you. Host your thoughts on the nancy pelosi. Guest she is renewing the call on removing a number of the s in the that honor people who either fought for the confederacy or or otherwise confederacy. The the most notable name on the list of people actually honored in the capitol with a statue from the collection of statues where each state gets to send, would probably be jefferson confederateas the president during the war. Send thetate gets to statues. Speaker pelosi basically wants them to be removed by what is called the drink committee on the library, joint committee on the library. It wants to remove the statues anyway. What we have heard from thatlicans, at least, is that is Kevin Mccarthy and mitch mcconnell, i believe have said that do you need the states to make this decision. And they are welcome to send other statues. We have seen the statues in the collection change over the years, but Speaker Pelosi, i believe, would like to see them event is perhaps some of the Southern State legislatures will not be inclined to replace them. Host what would be the process . Guest the joint committee will need to figure out whether or going toare actually do much of anything. Now, this is separate from the other issue that congress is is adebating, which role for congress itself, the question of naming of military bases which you mention in the open. These are both issues that would require a president and the pentagon to consent to. But the manner of the the matter of the statute is interesting because congress itself could make the decision, that they have generally been ready deferential to the states. Host we saw the Senate Armed Services committee take up consideration on that front. Tell us what happened. Guest so the Armed Services committee met behind closed doors in its markup of the annual Defense Authorization this week. What we learned on wednesday was but an amendment had been offered by elizabeth warren, the democratic senator from massachusetts, who everyone knows very well after her president ial campaign. Senator warren offered an amendment that would basically give a threeyear timeline to the pentagon to remove the names of confederates from frankly everything, not just the military bases like fort hunt, fort bragg, fort benning and the like, but also places where there may be ships, there may be militaryn installations but may be named for confederate figures, basically all of that needs to go away. Want to basically have a Jefferson Davis highway running through a military base either. Put that into the Defense Authorization. That will be in the bill as it goes to the floor. Hofe, chairman of the Armed Services committee, said even though it was adopted not going vote, he is along with it. It will not take an affirmative senate. The because it is in the bill coming out in the committee, more than likely, if senators want to not make the military have to remove the names of confederate generals and the like, they will have to have a vote on the which floor to do that, is not necessarily a vote that a lot of senators want to take. Host for those items attached to the defense of the white house on that . Guest so, even before i knew that the amendment had been offered, i happened to be one of the rotating reporters in the White House Press briefing on wednesday afternoon. And the press secretary said the president would not sign any legislation, any legislation that changes the names of military bases that crikey on her confederate generals, arguing that it may have been the last place that people left the United States before going and dying in the war. General David Petraeus had an opinion piece a few days ago. Believeave spoken up, i robert gates is now speaking up, the former defense secretary. Is the white house argument that he will not sign anything even if it is in the Defense Authorization. So we are looking at the possibility, as farfetched as it may have been on wednesday morning, of a standoff that leads to a veto of the Defense Authorization which always includes a pay increase for a host always includes of provisions that the pentagon named over items that are for confederate figures. Host neil covers the white house and also congress, serving as the chief correspondent of the rollcall on those fronts, here to walk us through what is going on in the white house and congress on these issues. Thank you for joining us. You. thank host to your calls on the idea of taking down confederate statues or the renaming of bases. If you supported, 2027488000. 2027488001. It, bob in texas is a supporter of the effort. Thanks for waiting. Go ahead. Caller good morning. I just want to say that i definitely do support it. The question is why we have slaveowners and confederate traders that went to war against the United States in the civil war, because they wanted to be. Wners of slaves they were domestic terrorists at the time. Road in manye countries, they are removing these statues that remind them of horrible histories. That is why there are no statues in germany of ardell fidler of itll fidler, or statues that is why there are no statues itler in germany, or mussolini in italy. Host bob in texas, ok. To california, you oppose this effort. Go ahead. Caller president grant said, let us have peace. This war is long since over. These bases have traditions. Fort bragg means something to someone in the service. It has a tradition. A lot of these statues are in the wrong places, they should be put where they belong. They could go to spotsylvania or in gettysburg. They dont need to be in richmond. There are a lot of wonderful places these statues could be put where they would be in. Roper context just about everyone in the union army was a white supremacist. Are we going to start taking their names down . Leonard i dont know if it was in the civil war, but a lot of great union generals, they were all white supremacist. Are we going to start stripping those names next . Lincoln was accused of being a white supremacist. Even though he was far ahead of timeverage person at the on the subject of the rights of afroamericans to have the same rights as them in earning wages, bread iwith their just think, lets keep things in context. Lets have peace in this country. Host thanks, earl. We go to john in washington, d. C. , a supporter of these efforts. Caller good morning. I am the National Executive director of the United States adjustment and recovery act, in billbill a new proposed. What you are witnessing, the removal of a lot of the as well as atatues few other fixtures, such as andrew jackson. First to be the removed from the white house because that is a reminder of the native american holocaust as well as the black american slavery holocaust that was enforced in this country, as well as all of your confederate ,tatues that represent treason domestic tourism, murdering domestic terrorism, murdering, it. Ery, you name anyone still stuck in the 17th or 18th century is to have a reminder that the civil war is over. What the American Public is recognizing, the end of the civil war and the beginning of civil conversation. Host from robert in michigan, an opposer of these efforts. Good morning. Caller thank you for having me on. I would like to have one suggestion, before you cut somebody off, give him a little bit of a warning. [laughter] be a little bit more polite, maybe. I know you give somebody, what, a minute and a half or two minutes . About 60tried to get calls per show. Go ahead, please. Caller sure. My opinion any work of art shouldnt be destroyed. We are going down a slippery slope. What is next . We will start tearing down confederate churches and other things . If you look back 10 years before when this terrorist started, a lot of terrorists were in the middle east tearing down artwork. It is just wrong. We should have it on display. It is part of our history. As far as flying different flags, one flag could be blowing, like the black lives matter flag, yet the Confederate Flag cannot be flown . Coppe is just a piece of with colors on it. Host doesnt go beyond art and is it more than just pieces of art . Think of thebut artist and think of the person who put in a lot of blood, sweat and tears. I am an artist myself. It takes a lot of blood, sweat and tears to make, especially the statute made out of bronze and staff. These artists are rolling in their graves. Ainter how many i going to say that either. Host ok, thank you for calling. Brian in washington state, on our line, you support these efforts. Go ahead. Caller good morning, washington journal i am mystified by the previous caller. What the heck is a confederate church . Never heard the term before. In regards to the military bases, i have to say that the orange guy in the white house taking a stance that he wants to defend the confederate naming of statues and the admiration of the Confederate Flag, when he stated, on blasting john mccain that he prefers soldiers that dont get captured, there is no bigger, obvious example of a surrendered, captured soldier than the confederacy. Host to the renaming of basis, if it happens, what does that accomplish in your mind . Caller it shows respect for thate like general grant was very respectful to the losers of the confederate war when he made sure that lincoln and the union were respectful to the men that had to go back to their communities and live a respectful life after the loss of the revolutionary war. You have a public grant who said, hey, even against his ands choice to be mean very derogatory to the confederate soldiers and their leaders, grant said, no, we have got to treat them like americans. They are americans, our brothers and relatives. So there is respect. And then there is stupid. Host ok, that is brian in washington state. To the topic of renaming of generals, its for was one of the discussion points that Speaker Pelosi had in the press conference yesterday. [video clip] rep. Pelosi the American People know these names have to go. These names are White Supremacists that said terrible things about our country. This is 100 years after world war ii. Some of these names were given to these bases. You listen to who they are and what they said, and you have the president make a case as to why a base should be named for them. He seems to be the only person left who doesnt get it. Host if you want to see the full press conference, by the way, where she talks about not only taking down of some statues connected to the confederacy and the renaming of bases, go to our website, cspan. Org. Wendy in michigan, hi how are you doing . Caller . What is it with nancy pelosi . She is running our history. All of this will be removed. It is not right. We have no history issue let this go. We are going to have no history of generals, of all the stuff. It will be like it never existed. Host wouldnt they be mentioned in history books or museums or other avenues . Caller well, i never you all of these generals were White Supremacists or anything. When you them as a general. That they fought for their side. Just rip it want to out of history and forget like it never existed. You cant do that to your countrys history. Host that is wendy in michigan. Rose from connecticut, texting this morning saying, those statues and flats are offensive to most people of color. My suggestion would be to set up a museum and put them out of sight of the public. Bill from boston saying, the on army soft to preserve the union army was fighting against states who sought to preserve the system of slavery. Send them husseins statue still holds meaning. Lily in florida says, some of the people in congress and the white house love the confederacy and their statues. Why give praise to evil, the were passed. To text us, you can do so at so,7488003 and if you do please include your name, city and state. The Montgomery Advertiser highlights some of those bases. Po is namedl after a bishopk of the Episcopal Diocese of louisiana who became a confederate general. After colonelamed Edmund Rucker given the honorary title of general. It goes on to say that during the battle of nashville in 1864, he was wounded and captured. He was later the ku klux klan first grand wizard. Again, more of that available if you go to the Montgomery Advertiser to learn more about the base is named after confederacy generals. Is supportive of the efforts, hi. Caller we had this discussion before about the statues put up in the face of people that were suffering in those times and decided, it would be good to take down those studies. What about a place like vicksburg . The you know what is in the National Park in vicksburg . For those who dont, it is all Union Monuments and union dead. There is no confederate there. After the war, that is what the country did. They put those monuments in the south to let them know, hey, we countries. , not two so are we going to dig up those graves so we dont have to remember the civil war . That is all union. Host from san clemente, california, ron on our opals line. Caller thanks opposing line. Caller thanks. He created the trail of tears for the native americans. This is a slippery slope. You go with ford john brown instead of fort benning. It is crazy stuff. The bottom line is that obviously, things that are i mean, if you want to talk about offensive, lets go back to the greeks and the romans. They still have their statues up of various people that were enemies and friends through the years. That is history. So the bottom line of this story is if you really want to compromise, you have something lee in virginia usgr ant. How about fort benning in mseh sherman. Were one of those forts trying to relate our Major Military bases to the nation, relating to it. Host that was run in california. From texas, this is a leftist attack on society. That usa fought a civil war over slavery. Are we getting ready to fight a second civil war over the wealth of individuals versus government . William is next in pennsylvania, a supporter of these efforts. In november. Today, how are you doing sir . I am lovely. I dont know too much about history, i am only 33 years old. I just served 10 years in prison and my eyes are woke to the way the world is now. A lot of people say this is destroying history. What about the black mans history . Those who did not get their story told. And all these white people that keep putting monuments up that kept them held down . When is the world going to understand that you have to stop putting a oppression on the black man . Because, he made america great. Without helping u them pick all the cotton host but if you remove the statues, how will that be discussed, then if there are no reminders of the past . Caller if you talk to your kids, if you ask them, they dont even talk about slavery and no more. They are removing us from history already. It is our kids that are looking at this. Host ok. Lets go to james in greenwood, indiana on our ow of post. Caller it is a slippery slope, depending on which group you talk to. Right now we are going after confederate and slaveowners. The metoo may go after the womanizers permit the native americans have grievances. The mexicans in nested pelosis state california was stolen from mexico. There is no statute that is not offend somebody. Maybe we will take them all down. I guess the Washington Monument is in jeopardy, that is what i hear. It is a slippery slope. Host that was james in greenwood. He mentioned other statues being expanded into this recent call to be torn down. They are highlighted in the wall street journal this morning saying that was has gone iconography. Erate the Police Memorial statue was defaced with red paint in california. Officials foiled away a statue of a police commissioner. And a mural was painted over in boston. And a Christopher Columbus statue was found beheaded on wednesday. It has since been put in storage and the mayor, martin walsh, says the city will assess both the damage and the statue judge historic meaning statues historic meaning. Next caller from South Carolina, go ahead. Caller in germany, there are no symbols of what happened and the swastikas. It would be appalling to have any symbol that represents hate and oppression. It would be appalling to have any symbol, and that is what has been used all these years for oppression on certain people. Host do you think most people look at statues and the like and think those thoughts . Caller they have done it already. History is wonderful, that we do not have to have symbols of history displayed in our public places. They can be put in museums but not in the publics space. It sends a different message. Symbols send messages. We dont want a message of hate or oppression. Host fred is next on our opposed line. Caller good morning. Besides statues of confederate generals, they have become targets. It bothers me a great deal. Sculptures and statues are works of art and they are being destroyed. Public art is all that we have right now. The museums are closed. Incy pelosi wants to remove, believe, 13 statues from the capitol so that people who visit the capitol will not be able to enjoy them . Host 11 statues, actually. Caller 11. Terrible. Host if you see them as art, the previous caller saw them as a symbol connected to the past history of the United States. Why do you not see it that way . Caller because sculpture is an art. The subject matter really should not matter. Lisa, nobody really knows who that woman was. Was she a good person or bad person . It does not matter. It is the art that is important. Host rob from upper marlboro, maryland on our line for supporters of these efforts. Go ahead. Caller good morning. I support the removal of the statues but there is a nuance to it because what i dont support is i dont support politicians scapegoating confederate statues and flags as the only source of racism in america. But the Confederate Flags and statues are a symbol, as the lady stated, a symbol of oppression. That is why every time there is a racist incident or a racist movement, you always see those flags being brought in along flags. E nazi basically, it is their way of sending a message of what they are really talking about without saying it. Systemic racism, white supremacy, it is all a part of the entire system, including the American Flag along with the Confederate Flag. I dont want the Nancy Pelosis and the politicians of the world to scapegoat it and act like it is only an issue in the south and only an issue who carry the flag, because you can be a person who doesnt use the Confederate Flag as a symbol but you could also be prowhite supremacy. , he opposes saying taking the statue down and changing the names. We are not to judge the past based on current values. It may not be politically correct by todays standards that we cannot diminish their efforts for fighting for what they thought was right at the time. You cannot erase our history and ignore it. One halfhour to go on this topic if you wish to join the conversation. If you support the effort of taking down confederate statues or renaming of military bases, all 2027488000. If you oppose them, call 2027488001. One of the legislators to speak yesterday on this topic was writer jim langford of oklahoma. [video clip] where are you on the question of renaming the confederate basis . I think we should study it. I dont think we should ignore it. I have been pretty outspoken on schools. I dont think they should be named on confederate leaders and generals. Statues and such, i think the committee should make those decisions. A lot of those statues were put there to declare that we are not going to integrate. They put up a monument as some sort of declaration. We should acknowledge that. Need to know that the time of jim crow has passed. As well as military bases, entirely reasonable to study it and make an evaluation. Reporter the president says he does not want it. Does that make it problematic . I think we should talk about it. Listen to leaders and folks at those bases. Of this, some of those names dont have as much significance now as they had 100 years ago. Fort bragg being one of them. A lot of folks dont even know who that was. [indiscernible] host the Washington Post has a photograph on its front page with a statue of Jefferson Davis in which must it was formed on which was torn down. It had stood there since 1907. Governor northam was in the process of getting it removed. If you go to the New York Times, a reporter with the virginia pilot has a picture from port was, virginia, a statue that was beheaded. Those are some of the pictures you are seeing across the u. S. When it comes to the topic of statues. We go to robert in pennsylvania are no opposed line. Go ahead. Caller to start with, i would like to say that the truth should be told. There was no civil war. There was a war between the states because the south wanted to secede from the union and become its own country because they didnt like abraham lincoln. Now, as far as the statues go and the southern flag, they both should stay everywhere that they are unless the black people want Martin Luther king erased from the United States. Host from our charlotte, North Carolina, on our support line. Is a. Caller good morning cspan, good morning, pedro. Host good morning. Caller the problem is that people are forgetting history. They want to remember one part of history and not remember the other part. There are a lot of things that we should not be praising. Americans build their foundation on this. Falls history. You have they built their foundation on this false history. We know what Christopher Columbus did to the native people. We have been doing this all our lives. Raise people who were so violent and so terrible to people on earth . Why are we still celebrating them with statues and calling series columbus . Host what would celebrating them with statues and calling cities columbus . Host what would that accomplish, taking down the statues . Time to doy have this stuff right now. We dont need to be reminded of a person that was treasonous. They were treasonous. They were fighting to maintain slavery. If you want to have history, you have to tell the whole history. Host all right. Joyce in florida on our opposed line, hi. Caller hello. I dont understand why we cant our history to educate everyone as to how far we have come. As a country. I knowthe past everybody heard this, i never did anything to anybody if we could just educate people and develop History History is history. You cant erase it. Host how does leaving a statue teach history if people dont do to view it as a piece of art . How does that accomplish that . Caller it is not just being looked at as a piece of art. These people are upset about it because they say it bothers them because of what it represents to some people, not everyone. But if we could educate everyone on to why the statute is there, who it was and what he did, what canened, then maybe they learn from that and make a better future. We have come a long way. Int lets go to gail massachusetts, supporter of these efforts. Hi. Caller hi. All, wely first of have, as we know, we have a Public Health crisis going on. So many issues going on. The president of our country can you hear me . Host yes. We are talking about the removal of statues and their renaming of aces. What do you think of that . Caller i support the removal of statues from the Public Square. You can put them in a museum. I am against the vandalism. I dont agree with that. I dont think it accomplishes anything. But i think it should be put in museums. It cant erase our history. It can be used for educational purposes. Host what is the value of putting it in a museum versus in a Public Square . Toler people go to museums learn more about history and more about education. In a Public Square, people might just walk by them where they would be purposely going to a museum and they would be exposed to this learn more about our total history and not just part of it. Host that is gail in massachusetts. This is from henry in North Carolina texting this morning, saying i o pose it. But if push comes to shove, remove every public monument in public property. By the way, many monuments i dont like are located in public races but im not sufficiently inconsiderate or selfish to demand their removal. Yes, it is a slippery slope. You can text as if you wish at 2027488003. From nebraska, we hear from jerry in overtime, an opposer of these efforts. Caller if they will take down these statues and renamed their bases, why will they not take down the names of robert byrd, the democratic senator who has bridges and highways named after him. Why will that not be taken down . Thank you. Host chuck in owings mills, maryland, a supporter of the efforts. Go ahead. Caller i support taking them down. , i mean, people that they rose up against our country. They are traitors. I have yet to see a statue of Benedict Arnold or the rosenbergs were anything like that. Overdue. They were put up by the daughters of the confederacy like 30 years after the civil war to romanticize the cause. Host was this an issue before the last couple of weeks or a recent thing for you . Caller if been an issue probably for 15 years or so, since i really have grown up i grew up in the south. Overtime, my eyes have been opened. Just hearing more and more about it is time. It is overdue. It is way overdue. That is all. It is time. Host chuck in owings mills, maryland to give his thoughts. Every morning, we open with, or most mornings, we open with a shot of the u. S. Capitol. On top is the iconic statue of freedom. There it is, you see it on most every morning. If you were to watch cspans documentary call of the capitol slave laboree how was involved in the creation of the statue. After the dome was all the rest in 1855 the supervising engineer wrote his favorite sculpt thomas crawford, and asked him to come up with an ideaor,. He said i dont think this should be of washington. We have had too many washingtons. The sculptor thought they figure of freedom, triumphant in war and peace, would be a suitable figure. Engineer. Hted the he thought it was a great idea, so he authorized the sculptor to come up with a design which the secretary of war, Jefferson Davis, approved but disapproved of one feature, the liberty cap best that she was wearing. Jefferson davis concluded that American Freedom should not be represented by the badge of freed slaves. So the design was sent back to the school to with the request with less the design was sent back and the sculptor substituted the liberty cap with a helmet containing an eagles head and feathers. December 1863 would be the one of the greatest days in the building, the head of John Crawfords statue of freedom was mounted into place on top of the dome of the United States capitol. The most interesting part of my research thus far has been the statue of freedom. Bronze by ann enslaved labor named li philip reed. It is interesting because it is so ironic that the statue of freedom was cast by an enslaved by the timeas free , onas placed on the capitol april 16, 1862. Philip reed had been free for a year when it was raised atop the capitol. Host limit that story and more about the u. S. Capitol if you want to watch, it was part of a documentary series put together by cspan. Go to cspan. Org and find the section on the capitol and you can watch all of that and find it there. Massachusetts, oh poses these efforts. Go ahead. Caller thank you for having me on. Going backee with and getting rid of symbols that have been put up that talk about our past. Im not really sure how we have become so thinskinned. Look, if we go back into everybodys history living on this planet, everybodys been repressed going back in history. Maybe except for some monarchies, whether it is a family line. No one has been oppressed going way back. We are all in the same boat. To me, brothers and sisters matter. White lies matter, black lives matter why are we singling things out . White lives matter, black lives matter why are we singling things out . We are all in the same ship here. Brothers and sisters matter. What happen that is is what haps now and in the future. If we start erasing our past and that we did not have this bad history of how we treated people and how we have evolved from that place, who are we . Dan. That is the goto sag harbor, new york, catherine on our support line. Caller good morning. I used to wish that other statues could be added and that the confederate statues could be broughtf the bases and down to the ground. And statues of the other blacks, the slaves, other people involved could be added and the whole story could be told. But that never seemed to happen. A few years ago, i suddenly came to the realization that all of , they allues of men believe in their right to rape their slaves. So these are all statues of men who believed in the right to rape. Why do we have statues of men who believed they had that right out in public . Why do we protect our abusers . Host that is catherine in new york. We go to alan in little rock, arkansas on our opposed line. Caller good morning. Hearing that call from new york is just absolutely insane. Is me say, my opposition toward ignorance, it is toward anarchy. That is what is really underlying all of this issue. When you hear the discussions at length, it is about destroying the country, the system. You keep hearing that again and again. The whole system is corrupt. It is an attack against our country. Jefferson, get quotes from jefferson that are as bad as anything you can imagine. It goes on and on. I wanted to make a couple of quick points two points. One is, imagine a military leader with the character that lee had, number one in his class point, the only military leader i know of in history that was offered command of both battle. The fight, the the union wanted him to lead their army. The south wanted him to lead their army. There is no other account similar. You can compare it to israel and iran today where they would want one person to lead both sides. People need to understand why that is true. The greatness that they were trying to achieve in the goodness of our country and the freedom of our country. Host and the second one . Caller i keep asking what would have happened in our country had we lost the revolutionary war and england had maintained the slaves here. Then who is to blame . Stop blaming the United States of america. We stopped the issue of slavery. We outlawed the atlantic slave trade when our country began. We fought numerous efforts to resolve this issue. It resolved into the civil war, and we need to understand the conflict that the integrity of both sides, and honor that. Host ok. Texts. O to some this is christina in california i am wondering when does this end . A wrigley to rename every city or town in america based on whether it was named after someone deemed racist . The viewer does not identify themselves, but they write my eligible views are progressive, but despite those views, i am opposed to the removal of statues. We already debuted history in schools. How do we provide contextual information and points of reference of mistakes and positives of our past . Rene in newport news saying i support both the statue removal and the renaming of aces. History is written by the winners. Last time i checked, the south were not only and traitors. Ey were we should not have mementos of those who were on the wrong side of the civil war for the same itlern there is no hiddeh plaza in her lane. If we cannotays, get past for its or statues, how will we get past slavery, sharecropping, jim crow, segregated schools, riots and mr. Ford . Lets go to our next caller. Caller my opinion is take down the statues like they want to. Against the next best i guess the next step is to look at all the political leaders, state, federal and local and see where their ancestors stood on the side of that. If their ancestors fought for the confederate, i guess their job has to be, they have to resign. See how crazy this will keep going . Spiraling down out of control . Host you say you support these efforts. Are you actually open most to these efforts . Caller i am saying that if we are going to do it, lets do it all the way. Host lets go to South Carolina on the opposed line. John in myrtle beach, hi. Caller i have been sitting here listening to these conversations and i say, if you take them down, take them all down. Take Martin Luther king. Take the statue of freedom, all statues. That way we start with a clean slate. Host which accomplishes what . Caller everybody is equal. Host from antonio in pasadena, maryland, supporter of these efforts. Caller good morning. I am a supporter because it is a constant reminder of the people who were traitors in america. Relish people that still the past from 155 years ago, who did not participate and really have no real insight on what transpired, but they want to claim the Confederate Flag, they to pose inos they want front of the statues, everything has a place. In richmond, virginia, there is a Confederate Museum there. So the history is preserved. Statuesove the major from all around the country. Bases,as the something Regional Associated with the area would be more appropriate. Host than you think if they stayed in the Public Square people will see them as reminders or will people just see them as patches . Caller they see them as statues . Caller they are constant reminders. Dont get me wrong, the union was not necessarily fighting for to helpioning the cause black people, that is watered down. They were not helping black people for the sick of helping them, they were helping them for financial reasons. Down. Ay take all of them not just the confederates but union and confederates. Put them in a museum or original place where these people came from. Everyone has money. I am sure someone will sponsor it or champion the cause at some point and put them in a private museum. Host ok. Maryland. Tonio in speaking of money, the New York Times reports the Trump Administration no plans to bill containing the image of harriet tubman. Was delaying the changing despite the Obama Administration have been initiated a timeline that would have it unveiled in 2020. Briefing, the treasury secretary said the redesigning of the currency required developing complicated counterfeiting technology and a new printing process which takes years, hoping it is done in the near future. He says the currency timelines were set by career officials and an extensive interagency process. Jeff is next. From kentucky on our opposed line. Caller yes. To me it is a waste of money to take all of the monuments down. It is a slap in the face. Host did you know about the name and the connection to the confederate past when you were there . He hung up. Lets go to sean in washington, d. C. On oh support line. Hi. Caller i just wanted to say that i definitely support taking with a but in twist. First of all, i think it is a form of psychological terror and it is a constant reminder of hate and a form of terrorism. Host how do you come to that conclusion . Caller because most of the , the men who are being idolized, like the woman said before, were rapists, slave owners and terrorists. They enslaved human beings. That is how i came to that conclusion. That is true history. But what i would like to also say is that what were seeing weeks,the past couple of the desecration, i say, leave them up the leave them up desecrated. Because it would spark a real conversation. That could be part of our history. Host but you are saying if you leave them up intact, it is terror but if you deface them, it changes that . Caller it changes it in that it does not change what happened, but it sparks the conversation and gets it toty the forefront. That way you can take care of both sides. So you got your statue. You have the conversation of who the person was. Then you also have a desecrated statue and you have to answer the question, why did that happen . Why did the people come . What was in their souls . What made them do that . All of that is healthy to me. Host ok. Anthony in new york on our opposed line. Caller good morning. Oppose this. I it is like a mob rules mentality right now. The defacing, you cant let people just deface. As history goes on, what are we going to do, wipe out all the history . Host they are symbols to the past. Caller who is next, jesus christ . I know that is where we are going. Up the people on the left, and a lot of them are people of color. Now you wind up people on the right . What is next . Where do we stop . Host some people suggest giving it context would be a way to go. What do you think about . Caller the last 30 years, there has been an overwhelming push to the people of color a lot of chances over people there has been a big push. Everything is geared toward the. It is going downhill. This country is probably the best system in the world. It is a card rolling downhill. They want to keep pushing. There is a lot of people on the left who want the whole system to crash. Host we go to new jersey, on also borderline. Er i am so we go to new jersey on our support our line. Caller and drop it new jersey. I remember the first time i took jersey. W up in new i remember the first time i took a trip down south and there were statues to these race traitors. It is not like i have a personal ax to grind. But the idea of statues to traders, i wonder to trader traitors, i wonder how the people back then whose family died on the union side felt about statues to generals killed their loved ones. I think that is where white people have to get their heads together. We dont have statues to Benedict Arnold. You know what, if you went to germany and you saw statues of hitler because somebody thought he did a lot of good things, he put people to work and got them out of a depression in the 1930s, people would say, are you crazy . Host we will go to one more caller, susan in california on our opposed line. It. Er yes, i oppose what are we start burning books . Why dont we take down Martin Luther kings statues . By the way, i have been to germany and i have been to dachau and some of the concentration camps. I have been to poland. People go there for tours. Teachers teach history. They teach students and they give them history. And the jewish people run it. They do that because they want people to remember. It is history. Washington, d. C. , is our history. Host susan and california finishes office hour. Thank you to all who called in and participated this morning. To talkswitch gears about the recent surge in covid19 cases and all the things associated with that with dr. Robert allender. Later on, we will talk to the Asa Hutchinson, republican governor of arkansas. American history tv on cspan3, exploring the people and events that tell the american story every weekend. Saturday, on the civil war, the 1863 richmond bread riots where hundreds of poor and workingclass women protested inflation and the scarcity of food. And then profiling the auto and dairy and restaurant industries. At 8 00 p. M. Eastern on the presidency, the nixon administrations native american reforms, a new era of selfgovernment. Cspanhis weekend on three. The president s, from public affairs, available now in paperback and ebook. Every president organized by their ranking from best to worst and features perspectives into the lives of our nations chief executives and their leadership styles. President about each and historian featured. Order your copy today wherever books and ebooks are sold. Washington journal continues. Host our first guest of the morning, dr. Robert bollinger. He is a professor of infectious disease. Good morning. Guest good morning. Host what is the best way to think about these reports we are seeing about upticks in cases across the u. S. . Guest i suppose anyone that has been listening to dr. Fauci and across therts country should not be surprised. What people have been saying is if you dont maintain social distancing and masks and handwashing recommendations, we should expect this uptick as people begin to socialize and have more contact with each other. This is a highly infectious disease. We should not be surprised. A directyou make correlation with the reopening of states and the loosening of stayathome policies, or are there other factors . Where even in some places there has been loosening, there have been recommendations that people physically distance. I prefer that term over socially distancing. There are certainly people out there that are not following that. If you look at some other societies around the world, south korea and europe, people were actually following those recommendations more than any of us are. Death toll itent comes to covid19 cases, put influenzantext with and other viruses that have killed people. Guest at the current rate, we are seeing 25,000 to 30,000 deaths per month, which is approximately the number of influenza deaths we see every year, so that puts that into perspective. Host would you say that because of that rate, is there still the level of alarm if that is what it is being compared to . Certainly those of us in public disease continue to be alarmed. We will have to see how the public response. If you talk to people in other parts of the world, italy, spain, and new york and new there isd baltimore, incredible impact this has had. Host if you are a medical professional, such as our doctor, 202 7488002. The rate of people getting covid19, what are your concerns. We will continue to see spikes. We have an opportunity to flatten the subsequent spikes if we follow the recommendations of Public Health officials and continue to physically distance. Wear masks in public and handwashing. Im concerned about the masking issue because i think there is a lot of confusion about why we should be Wearing Masks. There may be some luminary information that suggests masks can protect ourselves, but the primary reason is to protect others. I think if people really understood that, recognizing that many of us dont know we have this infection. Mask. Ld wear a i think if we can understand that and begin to practice that more consistently, we could have an impact on mitigating some of this spike. Host is testing better today and giving us more accurate numbers . Guest testing is much better today. Early on, we were testing around 10,000 to 20,000 People Per Day in the u. S. 250,000 perell over day and increasing. That is much better and gives us much more information and allows us to track the epidemic more accurately. What is your impression when you have watched over the last few weeks of protests across the u. S. Taking place with the proximity of the people involved . Have a largee you gathering of people close together, particularly if they are not Wearing Masks, i am concerned. Been tooest, i have busy this week to watch a lot of the television, but what i did see suggests people were close together, but i saw a lot of people Wearing Masks. I saw a lot more mask wearing in some of the shots of the protests than i did on the beaches of florida and the lakes of arkansas. Some other gatherings over the last month or so. We will have to wait and see. We will know in a couple weeks if there is a spike due to the protests. It takes a couple of weeks for the data to come in. An uptick not related to the protests, but related to things that happened two weeks ago. For peopleweek or so to develop symptoms. The people we are diagnosing today were probably infected a week or two weeks ago. Host the first call for you comes from mark in fort lauderdale, florida. Mark, you are on with our guest, dr. Bollinger of Johns Hopkins university. Caller great. Im the first caller on this segment. I just tuned in and was afraid i was going to be near the end. Im a coronavirus survivor. It is a subject that is near to my heart. I go all over town. Im not going to let having had it stop me from doing anything. Im very careful. I wear a mask everywhere. That wear masks go into the stores they are required to get weeks ago required too. Weeks ago people stopped wearing the things. Is, to turn itng into a political angle, the republicans and the president , they want to forget about the covid19 coronavirus and just go on with life like it does not exist. Host tell us about your experience contracting the disease. What was it like for you . It. Er i had i lived with it. I got over it. That is not what i want to talk about. If it is allowed to continue, pretend it does not exist, it is just like the flu and it comes around and is here, that is so backwards. You have hundreds of thousands of people every three months dying from this. Host thank you. Go ahead. Im glad you were covered and glad you are feeling better. I want to congratulate you for wearing the mask. You are doing it for the right reasons. You are doing it to protect others. I think there are a lot of people that dont understand that. I would like to believe the majority of us care about other people. That is the reason we should wear a mask. We dont want to spread the virus from ourselves to other people. There is a lot of misunderstanding. People feel like they are wearing a mask to protect themselves. There may be some benefit, but the primary benefit is to other people. I think people care about others. If they understood that, perhaps we and Public Health need to do a better job explaining that. There is certainly going to be some people that do not care about others and do not wear a mask because they dont care about themselves or other people. The majority just do not understand why we should be wearing a mask. We need to do a better job of communication. Host we will hear from kenneth in texas. Caller good morning. Im a 62yearold africanamerican male. I have preexisting conditions. I have sickle cell anemia. I have had a blood clot, heart attack, and now i am on disability. I wear my mask and gloves, and o am i really at risk of getting covid because of preexisting conditions . Guest thank you for that question. Your risk of getting infection is similar to anybodys risk. The problem for someone like yourself with underlying conditions is you are at risk for getting much sicker if you get infected. I hope you understand that distinction. You want to do everything you can to protect yourself and people like yourself who are at higher risk of getting very ill. You should do a lot to protect yourself by sheltering in place and when you go out, where a mask yourself, but be careful going into any closed environment where others around you are not Wearing Masks. The reason we wear masks is to protect others. Churchgo into a store or or closed building and there are other people in that environment close to you not Wearing Masks, they are putting you at risk. Wearing one of the n95 masks that i have to wear around patients, the regular masks are hopeful to some degree but not as protective as n95 masks. The primary thing i recommend for people like yourself, before you go into it in environment, look around and see if people are distancing themselves. That, i thinkee you should be careful about going into that kind of environment. From jacksonville, florida. Caller thank you for having me. I wanted to comment on the Global Health security act that passed on march 4. Representative Gerald Connolly made the statement that diseases do not respect borders. Do you have a comment or question for our guest . Vital do you think the Global Health security act will be in preventing the future spread of coronavirus . Thank you for that question. I have been busy this week at the hospital. I have not been tracking details like i normally would. This is a topic that is important to me. I have been working in Global Health for 40 years. Think anybody who has looked historically as well as at the Current Situation who understands how these viruses transmit knows that we have to have ways of protecting ourselves and protecting our neighbors because these viruses dont respect borders. This virus spread around the world. It is amazing. It spread around the world in a matter of weeks. Health weren public particularly surprised that there was a respiratory virus that could spread quickly. Some of us were surprised at just how quickly this thing spread. It spread into many countries. Do tok anything we can Work Together to fight off these pandemics and address them is important. We heard the president of the United States threatened to pull funding from the World Health Organization. Whatat were to take place, is the impact . Guest im very concerned about the effort of not collaborating with the World Health Organization. We are increasing our own Health Security risk. Indiana,m new castle, we go to tommy. Caller i was wondering what the implications of the fact that this is a slippery virus that weates easily and whether will be seeing this on a yearly basis. Thank you. This virus is mutating, but it is not mutating as quickly or as drastically as other viruses. We are very early into this process. If it continues to mutate, that has implications in our use of plasma and other immune therapies. We are tracking that pretty carefully as we move forward. Virus does not mutates enough to require a different vaccine every year like we see with influenza. With influenza, we have new vaccines every year to track the strains circulating in the world. Even if that does not happen, if the mutations are such that we can use the same vaccine, we may find ourselves requiring boosters every year. We are not sure how long immunity will last. We are waiting to see what the vaccine trials tell us. Just beginning. We will learn more about that over six to 12 months. Host is that the timeframe you would tell people, it is six to 12 months before we see . Omething definite we will see results in six to 12 months, but we may not get a vaccine. We do not have a guarantee that any of the current vaccines we are evaluating, and there are over 100 in the pipeline. Humanare eight to 10 in clinical trials. We are moving quickly. There is no guarantee we are going to get a grand slam with this. We have to do the studies. It will take us six to 12 months to analyze the data from the larger vaccine trials, which are slated to start in july. Whether thisknow vaccine is protective. Vaccinated are protected from the infection itself and therefore will not get sick and spread it to others. It could be that the vaccine protects people from getting sick but not from getting infected. They may still be able to transmit to other people. We dont know how effective these vaccines will be until we test them. The manufacturing and distribution is going to take months. We are talking about billions of people needing to be vaccinated, hundreds of millions of people in the United States. This is a huge logistical challenge. We are moving really fast. Are able to do this in the next 12 to 18 months, this will be a world record. Tookrevious world record four years. This is certainly an accelerated process. Do you foresee a vaccine that is done in one shot . What do you foresee . Guest among the 100 plus vaccine candidates being developed and in trial, there is a combination. Some of them require or recommend to shots. Some are one shot. It depends on the vaccine. We dont know what will be successful. Host washington, d. C. , otis. For that lastyou comment. People are acting like a vaccine is a given. Rapid,ot until we have accurate, and widespread testing, that is the most important thing we can do. Masks, iof the face think it is giving people a false sense of security. Masksudies show that face redirect the air that is coming out of your mouth. You need a respirator. You need goggles as well to guard your eyes. People need to be educated on that to fully protect yourself. It is not just a face mask. Guest thank you. You are absolutely correct. If your goal is to protect itrself, the best way to do is with a respirator and face mask. Primarily that is because we have had limited resources we have been focused on people at highest risk, such as First Responders and people working in the hospital who are exposed to patients every day. There is confusion about why we wear masks in public. Mouthy who has put their close to a mirror has seen the water vapor that condenses every time we breathe. If you have the virus in your system, and you dont have symptoms, and you do not know go are infected, you could around every time you breathe as that water vapor comes out of your respiratory tract, it around you. He air with the mask, you are tracking that water vapor in the mask so that the cloud around you is less intense and less likely to infect other people around you. Whenever you are out in public, you are reducing your vapor cloud, and that is protecting other people around you. Those physical barrier masks might reduce your risk to some degree, but if someone else is not wearing a mask around you, the virus can still get around that physical barrier mask and in fact you. That is an important point. Host we have a couple of people texting questions. That the statistics actual percentage of those tests are positive . With higher testing rates, we get higher positive result. Of positiventage results decreases, wouldnt that give a better understanding . Guest the distinction is important. Testing of any disease, you will find more cases. That is true. What she is talking about is the percentage of those tests that are positive. Down,t percentage goes that means that the transmission rates may be declining as well. We track that. A lot of states are using that percentage as one of the indicators to track the trajectory of the pandemic. Michelle in illinois asks, do those that minimize the virus as only killing the elderly, can you explain who the other 46 are . Topic this is a personal for me. I have been taking care of patients this week. ,e have 36 years old 50yearolds, not the majority of our patients, but people younger without a lot of underlying conditions who are getting sick. Some of them are dying. The risk is higher if you are older with underlying conditions. We are seeing really serious disease in some young people. Also related not just to the what someselves, but people may have heard about recently, what we call inflammatory syndrome. Some young people, when they get infected with this virus, we have seen other viruses in young stimulatere it can the immune system so much that the immune system can damage the body itself. That has caused some Serious Problems in some children. Some people may have heard about reports out of new york. Not a virus that cares what age you are when it infect you. We are seeing serious illness in younger people as well. I dont think that is fully appreciated. Host the use seems promising, would you agree . Much aboutnt know that. Im not an expert in that field. I will have to defer to others who are. From california, salinas, mike. Caller there were something remarkable for a time when we had dr. Fauci speaking to us, and as a country, we all heard the same thing at the same time. Unfortunately, that stopped. I dont think there is any doubt that the medical profession knows more now than they did three months ago. Unfortunately it is as if it is every person for themselves. Is where we can get the best information as to what is happening today . I dont mean the number of cases, but just to understand the disease. Our services really transmitting the disease as we feared originally . I really miss that. I think it is unfortunate that we dont have that anymore. I would like your opinion. Known dr. Fauci for 30 years. I have known dr. Birx for a long time as well. I dont know too many people on the planet that know more about Infectious Diseases then both doctors. I think all of us should be listening to experts like that and what they say about this pandemic. Are places to get the cdcion, and i think website has valuable and Accurate Information about environmental cleaning and things like that, so i think there are places you can get information. The more transparent and open we can beat with our data and information, the better all of us can make decisions about what we need to do with this pandemic, whether you are in the public or Public Health ver. Host kentucky, go ahead. Caller there is a large institution, homosexual gang louisville, kentucky. My question is, does that produce some sort of virus that covid19 . The virus, virus came covid originally from china in a market. This is the seventh coronavirus we have had in human history. We have had for others that cause the common cold. This is the third serious pneumonia virus. All three of those originated outside of the United States in people who had contact with animals. In china, it was the markets. Of the origination of this ands probably began in bats spread to other animals. People came into contact with these animals. Zoonosis, which means virus has come from animals to humans. It has nothing to do with the issues that you just raised. Bollinger will be with us for the next half hour. 202 7488000 for the eastern and central time zones. 202 7488001 for the mountain and pacific time zones. We have talked about the World Health Organization. Ae issue came up regarding symptom medication. Clarifyingp official that scientists have not determined how people with a symptom medication is spread asymptomatic cases spread the virus. Learning something new about this virus every single day. Looking at some of the outbreaks that have occurred around the world in some nursing facilities and other high transmission events, it appears that there are a number of people, and the estimates are anywhere from 10 to 40 of people who are asymptomatic but are spreading the virus before they spread the virus. Distinction the World Health Organization was mptomatic andn asyp presymptomatic. Who gete some people infected and spread the virus and never get symptoms and some andle who spread the virus do not get sick for some time. There is transmission to this virus to others when people do not know they have symptoms. That is why all of us should be Wearing Masks in case we are one of those people. We could have the virus and not know it and spread it to others. And beld wear a mask careful because we do not want to spread the virus to other people. Our relatives and neighbors and beends, we could asymptomatic and spreading the virus. From sioux city, iowa, here is lois. Caller good morning. Some yearsorrectly ago, eventually it just became less dangerous as time went on. Coronavirus has the possibility of eventually changing or mutating in that regard. Guest we talked earlier about the fact that the virus is mutating, but it is mutating relatively slowly. It certainly could happen, but it is unlikely that it will happen in time. We will see too many people get sick and die because i think it could take too long for that kind of mutation to occur if it were going to occur at all. I am not counting on that happening. Host what is the best way to think about the rate of Coronavirus Spread in warmer months . I have a lot of colleagues and friends in india who are seeing a huge increase in the rates in india. They are into the monsoon season now. I dont see much indication it is slowing down. We are seeing outbreaks in brazil. I dont think we can count on that. It is possible there may be some mitigating effect, but it may have more to do with us being outside and further apart from each other instead of cooped up in buildings that is responsible for reduced transmission. What im seeing in india and brazil is not giving me a lot of confidence that there is a huge impact on the spread of this virus from temperature. Host from buffalo, new york, ronald. Caller the u. S. Has a hugely disproportionate infection rate. I know about contact tracing. Im wondering about what efforts are being done about demographic tracing, knowing the precise socioeconomic grounds of people getting this disease and where they were when it occurred and that could create pockets of where these things occur and how and what communities. We have heard about the black community and the disproportionate level of infections. Why do you think that is . Ronald, i think what we are seeing is a Health Disparity we have had for a long time reflected in the current epidemic. There are communities around the world and around the country that have always been disproportionately affected by Infectious Diseases and comorbidity and malnutrition issues and socioeconomic barriers. Any time you have communities disproportionately affected by these things, you should expect to see them at greater risk for diseases like covid19. We see it in our own community. It has everything to do with the our africanamerican nx communities are at greater risk for infection, but they are people that are essential to our economy that have been forced to work despite the fact that this epidemic is spreading. Conditions put them at much greater risk. Thosee always had disparities as a society, and we have to address them. It has become clear that we have a lot of work to do to address those disparities. Host new york, dale. I just wanted to say thank you for your excellent comments today on cspan. My question today has to do with resource allocation. Ande tests are expensive, some of the protective equipment is expensive as well. We have to be judicious. As far as testing goes, how often, who and when . Guest thanks. Tests isof the declining. We have a lot more tests and different tests than we did months ago. That has helped. There are newer tests being developed that are going to make it easier and cheaper to do more testing. Im in favor of testing anybody that needs a test whether they are symptomatically not. Early in the pandemic, we did not have enough tests, so we limited them to the people that are sick. Now that we have more testing available, we should have much more widespread testing. I think anybody that needs a test should be able to get a test. We are not there yet, but were making progress. The protocol you follow when it comes to testing and when you interact with patients . The patients i interact with are typically diagnosed in the emergency room or outside. Once they need to be hospitalized, we see them. In the community and Emergency Rooms and other settings where the testing is being done routinely, they are using the pcr test, which is taking a swab of peoples nasal secretions or the back of their throat and sending that test for an assay. We are getting pretty efficient about how we do that. I think the people that are doing the testing, the Health Workers hopefully are protecting themselves with n95 masks and shields. I think we are seeing a lot of benefit from scaling up that kind of access. Host how often are you required to take tests . If i were to have a breach, if i were exposed or unexpectedly, i would consider being tested. Host what is your Comfort Level engaging in normal activities . Guest when i go out in public and see people not Wearing Masks around me, i see my risk as higher than when i am in the hospital. Through the hospital, everybody is wearing a mask. Everybody is trying to social distance. Well aware of what the consequences are of not doing that. See am out in public, i lot of people not doing that. Statistically my risk might even be higher. I dont need to be personal, but from your perspective, i would like to see what your personal practices are . Guest because i work in the hospital, i want to reduce my risk i dont want to infect my patients. I have been careful. I have done curbside and Home Delivery and avoided as much as i can and have only gone out when absolutely essential. York, karen. N, new caller good morning. I appreciate this opportunity. My question is about the care and maintenance of n95 masks for those with underlying conditions and for the older population that may not have the time to wait forever for vaccination and testing. Masks are back on the market to buy if one budgets. We can buy some of these and also goggles. I dont hear anything. Is there any reason why the Health People are not talking about the fact of risk versus safety and maybe the older people can get out of their houses and those with high Blood Pressure can if they are careful and do everything they are supposed to do . Great point. S a n95ink the availability of masks is increasing, and people at high risk, if they have them available, i can tell you one of our sons is an emt in chicago, and they dont have n95 masks available for every run they go on. I would urge the public to recognize the need to put our First Responders in a position where they have supplies they need first. Or people who are vulnerable have to go out, i think that is a reasonable thing. Im more concerned about the people they come in contact with. Wear an n95 mask and be careful when they go out, that is great, but they should be looking around at what others are doing and make sure the other people they come into contact with our protecting them by wearing a mask and keeping social distancing. Host iris from michigan. Caller i would like to know if it can be sexually transmitted if guard is so would work. I think older people get healthier as they get older because we have built up our immune system. I would like to know if it is transmitted by air and if long nails could transmit it and furniture, mattresses on cruise ships. All of the cleaning products, doesnt it wear you out as far ds your immunization towar things . Where did dr. Get his platelets from . Host it is a long list, we will of the doctor take that on. Guest thank you for your questions. It is a long list. I will remind people that this virus is a respiratory virus. It is transmitted through the air and through touch into our respiratory tracts. Virus gets into her mouth s throughand throat breathing it in or touching her face after touching something with the virus on it. Infected. W we get as far as we know, it is not a sexually transmitted disease. From michael, grand rapids, michigan. Caller thank you. At work im on the disinfection and sanitation crew. I am 57 years old. With hospital grade this effectives, we are doing common areas. Im doing all of the walls and stalls and toilets at work. Mi wasting my time and the sacrifice im making with these chemicals and potential exposure . Is this helping my fellow coworkers . Guest thank you. Thank you for your service. You are on the front lines. Absolutely, you are doing a service for all of us. Your crewto all of that are working hard to keep the environment safe. Host rod from michigan. Good morning. Caller i would like to recognize you for your intellectual capacity. You are a man who is a valid asset to our community, including the entire world as far as im concerned. My suggestion to you and take it for what it is worth, is that we listen to all kinds of politicians on all stations all at once. Why is it that the doctors cannot collaborate and coordinate a nationwide pandemic informational one hour special on all of the stations in the u. S. To allow people to recognize the problems they are created and how it can be solved . I go to my doctor, and i dont question him. Im not going to question you because i recognize your quality. I recognize the quality of dr. Birx and fauci. For me to listen to people talking about not Wearing Masks, we all know that. You are the expert. I will listen to you until whatever freezes over. I would make that recommendation. Once that happens, that video can be used worldwide to recognize the people throughout the world. This is not just a simple virus. Were talking something that has had impact from a to z. If it is not resolved, this is going to be extremely difficult for our society to exist. I want to protect my grandchildren. 79 yearsars old old. I taught kids to respect doctors. With that being said, i would like to hear your comments. Thank you. Thank you. Thank you to all the teachers out there who are so important to all of our lives. It is notd, i think just an opportunity for us as a society to respect doctors, but we should be respecting teachers and others in the community and doing everything we can to protect them and protect ourselves from this virus. Experts who have arent willing, able, and capable to explain things to the public. This week, the wall street journal had a story about two medical journeys releasing studies on hydroxychloroquine. What do you think about that happening and the debate over hydroxychloroquine itself . Guest i think that was unfortunate, and i do not know all the details about that episode. There was some question about the validity of the data that was used. Some of the challenges weve had with publications is things are happening so fast we are trying to get information out there as quickly as possible to guide how we care for patients that we are not able to scrutinize some of the data as carefully as we would ordinarily. I think i have always been a little concerned about hydroxychloroquine. We have had precious data to suggest that it was going to work. There have been other studies out there that have confirmed that hydroxychloroquine is not having a big impact at all in treating and preventing the disease. There was a study from the university of minnesota that demonstrated that Health Care Workers who were exposed were not protected from infection. Im not paying much attention to the hydroxychloroquine data anymore. Im looking forward to new and better opportunities to treat this infection. Caller good morning. Weboss tells me the n95 that still have to go over the refunds. Im curious about this. The n95 has a valve in it. He says when you wear that, you are only protecting yourself. You are blowing your germs all the way out . Is that true . Thet im not familiar with mask you are talking about, but my n95 mask does both, it protects myself and others. As far as disinfection, is there a process, or should you throw it out after so many times . Guest as long as it is not contaminated, i wear a shield in situations where i am caring for Covid Patients that i know have the disease. I dont have unexpected exposure, i reuse the mask. Oregon, kathy. Caller i have a question for the doctor. I would like to ask about pregnant moms and how that goes when the baby is born. We had an issue in the northwest where a baby was born, the mom was tested and had the coronavirus, and the baby was for 10way from the mom days, and the father is not allowed to see the baby either. Im curious what the Science Behind taking the baby away from the mom and not allowing nursing and bonding that you have with your child. I dont understand the Science Behind it. I will hang up and listen for your answer. Guest thank you. We are seeing increasing numbers of pregnant women have this infection. Aey are also, because this is respiratory virus, once those babies are born, the babies themselves are at risk of being infected by the mothers. Fortunately, we know that the babies when they are infected are at low risk for serious disease. They are getting infected, and we are beginning to see some unfortunate cases of some of these babies getting quite sick when they do get infected. E dont know enough yet we are learning something new every day about this. The more we learn, the more we will be able to provide guidelines that help protect the mothers and babies and fathers. We need to find ways to do that and protect those folks and the babies in particular and support the bonding and breastfeeding and other advantages that brings. It is a balance. It is a tough balance. Calculus that is informed by new information every day. Host there are questions coming in on testing. From nebraska, why is the covid19 test taken in the nasal passage . From new york, which coronavirus test is the most accurate and why . Guest the question about why do we swap the nasal passage is because that is where the virus for most people first sets up shop. When you breathe in, it typically comes into the nose first. Sometimes it comes in through the mouth and throat. For a lot of us we are breathing constantly through our nose. The virus has a protein on the surface of this virus. It is very sticky to the cells that line our nasal passage in our throat. That is where the virus first sets up shop. Tests,as the kinds of there are two types of tests right now. Theres the test that determines whether the virus or pieces of the virus are present in secretions in your nose and throat. There is the other type of tests , the Antibody Tests. That does not measure the virus itself. It measures our own immune response to the virus. Those tests are used for very different purposes. Nasal test to tell us whether or not someone has virus in their secretions and whether or not they might be infectious to others. The Antibody Test does not tell us that. Question from a viewer in new york, how long do a symptomatically carriers do stayomatic carriers infectious . Guest a lot of people just like other viral infections, are contagious for a couple of days before they develop symptoms. If they are young people, they may have very mild symptoms and not even know that they have it. You might just have a runny nose or sore throat, and they are highly infectious. Not just in the two days prior to the onset of those symptoms. There are going to be people who have such mild symptoms that they dont even know they have it and can spread for many days or weeks. Lets hear from maryland in new york. Caller thank you for taking my call. Im 77. Im very healthy. I rarely get a cold. I take the flu shot and vitamins everyday. I wonder if a person like me should be tested because of my age . Guest im glad that you are doing well. Im glad you are getting your flu shot every year. I would continue to do that this year. People should not forget to get their flu shot. I dont see a reason for you to get tested unless you are concerned about having been exposed or if you develop symptoms. Ou can talk to your physician about it if you have concerns. It sounds like you are doing all the right things in protecting yourself and keeping yourself safe. I think your risk is low. Host one more call on this from carol in North Carolina. Caller im looking at the cdc report that estimates the burden of illness during the 2018 and 2019 season included an estimated 35. 5 Million People getting sick with influenza. 490,000 hospitalizations. 34,000 deaths from influenza. I just dont see a big difference. We are not in flu season. We dont have flu. I dont see how this is still going on. From what im seeing, some of my friends are being told to put covid down as the first thing on the death certificate, not stroke or heart attack or anything else. Isnt this just ramping up the number of deaths . Guest thank you for your question. Earlier, this pandemic is much more serious than typical flu, which is also serious as you pointed out. 35,000re in the range of deaths per year in the u. S. From regular influenza. We are seeing 25,000 deaths per month in the United States from coronavirus. It does not appear to be slowing down very much. , 25,000rate continues new people in the u. S. Are going to die every month for the next jobmonths unless we do our to protect ourselves and protect each other and follow the physical distancing and handwashing recommendations because we care about ourselves and matt would be my final comment. That would be my final comment. Host dr. Robert bollinger, thank you for your time today. Guest thank you. A conversation, with Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson about the reopening of that state and the debate over the removal of confederate symbols. That conversation coming up on washington journal. Binge watch book tv this summer. Settleaturday evening, in and watch your favorite nonfiction authors, starting on saturday with doris kearns goodwin, well known for her work on american residents especially team of rivals. Book tv all summer on cspan two. Fremont brought the Pacific Coast into the United States. At the beginning, the United States did not have a Pacific Coast. There is territory in oregon that was disputed with britain and california belonged to mexico. Fremont encouraged the settlement of oregon and took part in the conquest of california just before the gold rush, and did play a real role in changing the map of the United States. Our host on his book imperfect union how john sunday night at 8 00 eastern on cspans queue and day q a. With the federal government network, use the congressional directory for contact information. Order your copy online today at cspan store. Org. Washington journal continues. Host joining us now is governor Asa Hutchinson, republican of arkansas from little rock, arkansas. Guest good to be with you. Host update our viewers about a recent rise in covid cases in your state. Guest when you look at arkansas early on as the other states in the northeast spiked and had so many cases, we were very flat. Growth in ourttle covid19 cases, and then in the last two weeks we have had a significant spike, particularly in northwest arkansas, northwest part of the state which is one of our more high density growth areas of the state. That is what we are watching carefully. We still have fewer than 200 deaths as a result of this virus here in arkansas. We have fewer than 200 hospitalized, so we still have capacity. We still are optimistic about it, but it is a concern whenever you see that significant spike in northwest arkansas, so we are watching it very carefully. Obviously, having to manage our way through as is everybody else. 448 new cases, six new deaths. What do you attribute those rises to . Guest we are digging in, and we are doing more testing dramatically across the state. Our goal was to do 2 of the population, 60,000, in one month. We beat that significantly, and this goal month our goal was so,000, 4 of the population we are dramatically increasing our testing. That gives the identity of more cases, but it is the more of that when you have it is more than that when you have increased hospitalizations because people are truly sick with this virus and need hospitalization. It is something as to where they are coming from, they are community cases. Some of them are essential Industries Like food processing. We have a very large latino population in northwest arkansas , and that is a significant challenge for us, so we are enhancing our spanishspeaking communication to that population , making sure they are aware of the actions they should take. Host there is a report that as of monday, your state will be moving into phase two of reopening. Can you attribute the recent rise to activities may be done in phase one . Guest that is an important question and we watch that, so just like everyone else we do contact tracing. We try to identify where someone might have contracted the virus, and we have only had a few cases been inicate they have a restaurant or barbershop. We have not seen any data to support a correlation between lifting the restrictions and the increase in cases. We obviously will continue to watch that, but did not see a correlation so we moved significantly into phase two with our opening. We went ahead state wide to phase two, which means they increased the capacity in our restaurants from one third to two thirds and other venues are able to go to two thirds capacity with appropriate distancing. You still have the requirements for six feet between the tables, masks worn by the staff, so with those restrictions in place along with the fact that we have not seen any correlation, we went ahead and opened up those businesses to give them a chance to survive build the economy back. Host as you go into phase two but have these numbers coming in, what is the Comfort Level you have proceeding, and what do you base that on . Guest i think it was the right decision and what i base on is the fact that we were already mostly into phase two. That thesehe fact companies cannot survive without having a greater capacity, and there is no correlation between the lifting of restrictions and the new cases we have seen, so we continue to watch that everyday, but right now i think where we need to be in terms of our restrictions that still exist, we are still pushing and this is really where we have to go in our country and in arkansas, we have to manage our way through this risk. We have to be able to wear a mask, socially distance, and protect our self while we do our business and educate and go to school and enjoy the outdoors, but we have to manage that risk, so that is what we are pushing through that education process so the consumer, patron, and businesses can make good decisions. Host our guest is with us and you can ask questions. Eastern and central time zones, 202 7488000. Mountain and pacific, 202 7488001. Arkansas a resident can call 202 7488002. Washington, d. C. Debate over whether more money should come to dust from the federal government to states like from the federal government to states like yours. Guest there are Things Congress can do to help us recover economically. Arkansas, we have a balanced budget. Whenever we looked at this virus, we knew we would have a budget shortfall and we tightened our belts so we managed our way through that we are not asking through that. We are not asking congress for any more funding. Been a helpt has with some of the economic programs we have in the state, so they need to be cautious about the next round of funding. I know that we have not been hit as hard in arkansas as new york and new orleans and other states and there is a greater need, and i am sympathetic to that and we need to address that because we have to lift the entire United States economy together. Wen though we can manage it, have to lift all our states together if we are able to come out of this strongly. They need to be careful about it. They need to do Little Things like extension of the timeframe for the increased funding on our medicaid reimbursement at the level they have been doing because of this virus. I think they probably need to look at some targeted industries that really need some help as well, but beyond that, i dont think we need the help in our state budget. Host even to the amount of increased Unemployment Benefits one could get who are out of a job because of coronavirus . Guest they have boosted those unemployment payments with the extra 600 a week and that has been very help full as people spend that money in the stimulus checks, so that has been the most impactful. We are not going to argue if they extend that, but we want people to go back to work rather than being dependent on that extra level of compensation, so our focus is getting people back to work, and at some point that can be a disincentive to going back to work. There is a balance you have to be careful of. I like where we are in terms of arkansas. Other states have much higher unemployment than we do. Arkansas, the National Average over 14 . Butill see where it goes, we want people to go back to work, and i think we are in a pretty good position from arkansass standpoint for the funding we have now. Host before we let you take calls, you have seen across the United States protests because of the death of george floyd. What are you seeing in arkansas and what is the best approach Going Forward addressing these issues . Guest we have seen protests in arkansas, and it is quite a phenomena. What happened here and across the nation and traveled across the globe in Many International cities, so first of all, we all because ofheartache what we saw with george floyd and his terrible death, his racial killing in minneapolis. People rightfully expressed their outrage here. We had peaceful protests. There was some destruction of property that we brought in Law Enforcement and stopped that quickly, but the vast geordie of protests were very peaceful majority of protests were very peaceful. I met with the protesters and with their usefulness youthfulness, they have such a desire for change. We have set up a task force to look at the future of Law Enforcement, and brought on some of these young activists that are committed to seeing change and better standards and accountability, but we also have that balance with seasoned Law Enforcement personnel, because we are not interested in defunding the police or any agenda like that. We know the Important Role of public safety, but what these protests have brought forth is the need for more accountability, the need for more training, and better communication between Law Enforcement and the community to make sure that we have we dont have any racial prejudice being manifested in Law Enforcement. Those are good objectives we are trying to pursue. Host one of the arguments is to turn a portion of Police Budgets and employ more social workers. That is something you wouldnt endorse . Guest those are fair levels of discussion, for instance the idea of Community Policing that police comes from the neighborhood, are in the neighborhood, they know people and they know each other, that is always a beneficial practice. We have to look at what are the barriers to accomplishing that . How can we support that to a greater extent . That obviously improves communication. In terms of the funding issue, in many states including arkansas, we are not paying our Law Enforcement officers enough, so you have to look at how we are recruiting them, what is the quality of talent, how can we enhance their professionalism . If you put more requirements on and put them more at risk, you need to compensate them for that, so that has to be part of the mix. The budget is fair discussions as to whether it is getting allocated in the right way. Are we putting too much swat team where it should go to Community Policing . Those are fair discussions i expected take place. Host first call is from arkansas, janet. Thank you for waiting. Go ahead. Caller good morning, mr. Hutchinson. Jobally, i am proud of the you are doing however i have two bones to pick. Number one is your comment where you excused the teenagers for bad behavior because they are teenagers, or any young people. It is the responsibility of an young people, not to excuse the hate. I am tired of hearing people saying, we are taking care of you. No, you are not taking care of me. I have been confined to my home three months. I have been past my mailbox three times and nobody is taking responsibility for keeping me here. I kept me here. I have had a hard time of pleading items i needed because you are limited to one at the grocery store, so ive if i ask my neighbors daughter, i i need onet until and my neighbor needs one. Host you are breaking up a little bit so we will let the governor address those. Guest thank you, janet, and on your first point about teenagers being responsible, if you are speaking of them doing damage during a protest, absolutely they should be responsible and act appropriately by dutch appropriately. Appropriately. By and large at the last one, they were. If you are talking about the coronavirus, we want people to socially distance and wear a mask when they cannot socially distance, and be six feet apart to avoid the spread of the virus read it is a greater challenge a virus. It is a greater challenge with they young people but need to think about parents or grandparents they need to associate with. In terms of your life, i think you have made some good decisions about being careful and getting out during this time, but as you know, and you are absolutely right, we didnt put a shelterinplace order in arkansas. We didnt make anyone stay home. That is a freedom of choice you make. We encourage people to stay home if they are vulnerable or elderly or have a risk, but everyone makes their own decisions upon the neighbors that help each other. Host linda is in edgemont, arkansas. Caller i would like to congratulate Asa Hutchinson. And we had clinton way over two terms with mike huckabee. We have Sarah Huckabee sanders who is supportive of Asa Hutchinson. We have a balanced budget. Our police risk their lives every day. We have lost so many police. It is so sad. Black andn, he was was attacked by seven black people. That was on video. It is awful they are not showing that side. Host what would you like to ask him . Guest i think that people who destroy like the st. Johns church, they need to pay for it. People who are offended by our wonderful president holding up a bible, oh, thats awful. That is the only thing i have for Asa Hutchinson. He supports president trump. I support Asa Hutchinson. Host thanks. Guest lets just talk about the property aspect of that no one that. That no one no one who believes in the rule inlaw can take pleasure people smashing windows. Lawid bring out more enforcement resources to support our local police, and realized weekly that the protesters, 90 quickly that the protesters, 99 of them wanted to protest peacefully. We had a journalist who was beat up so we want to protect the right of Free Expression but also protect the property. I think we accomplished that valance and that is what the caller balance and that is what the caller is expressing. Host mike in mina, arkansas. Caller i am 15 years a resident of mina, arkansas, came from california where i was a mayor of a city. Ishere, nowhere in 50 states there a better governor than Asa Hutchinson. I just want to put that out there. Other governors should follow his lead. I really feel that this man should be in washington. Unfortunately, i think he was there before, but he needs to stay home and look after us, and he has done one heck of a job. Host do you have a question for him . Caller no, just a statement to make because i am proud of this guy. Guest thank you, thank you for all the viewing audience. Mina, arkansas is one of the most dutiful parts of our beautiful parts of our state. A great community, and that is why people from california come and enjoy our state. Host you served in congress. What do you think about the call by Speaker Pelosi to remove of the Confederate Army . Guest this will be a discussion locally across our state and the nation. It is important to have. We have to think about what we want to reflect our history, what is important to us, and also reflect what is going to represent our future as well. In arkansas, we had a combined Martin Luther king day and robert e lee day. Under my leadership, we separated those to give dr. Martin luther king jr. His own day of celebration. Those things are important to the Minority Community and really to everyone, particularly when someone like dr. King has given his whole life for the cause of freedom and equal rights. Then we have a debate about the flag and how it is constructed and the fact that one star represents the confederacy, that arkansas was once a part of, that has been something i have supported changing. There will be debates about monuments as well. , weannot rewrite history have to learn from history, but the proper place for monuments in our life is a fair debate. We will have that discussion in arkansas as well as across the country. Host under your administration, you saw a couple of statutes changed in the capital. What led to that . Individualsd two that represent arkansas in our nations capital. Every state has that the generalists every state has that. The General Assembly changed our them to be aone of civil rights icon, one of the members of the little rock nine will be arkansass representative in the United States capital, along with johnny cash. Those are the conversations we had a debate on, and we decided we wanted that civil rights hero to represent arkansas in the image we present across the country in our nations capital. I like that change, and i know that we will continue that ascussion because we just had daughters of the confederacy moved one of the statues that was on the centerpiece of the over toa county square another location. So those changes will continue to be made as we have discussion. Laudia is in minneapolis. Caller i have two questions. The the covid cases are going up and i went on line. The New York Times shows statistics and says the reasons they are going up is because they are checking more, doing prisons and meatpacking, but the media is not representing this. I didnt see any increase in deaths in all of these states, so why is arkansas going up and why are they not being more clear because the liberal media is attacking this and calling it the second wave. With respect to people who have have gone to lockdown and those who have not, and they have fared almost exactly the same question almost exactly the same. Can you share your perspective . Guest when this is over, we will learn and measure the right and wrong judgments. This is unprecedented, what we are going through. In terms of the reason for the increase in cases, much of that is simply because we are testing more, dramatically testing more, but the hospitalization, it is something that somebody who goes into the hospital is really sick, so hospitalizations have gone up and that is reflect and reflecting the fact that the virus is making people ill. It just reminds us how serious this is. We have one of the lowest death rates in the country. Granted take that for and i cannot tell you all of the reasons for that, but those are the best measuring statistics, hospitalization and death, because the number of cases shows you are detecting what is in your state, and that is what we want to do, because then we can trace it down and diminish the spread of that virus. That is our strategy, and the hospitalization issue is primary that we want to make sure we have adequate resources to treat the patients, and we do right now. Host richard in elkins, arkansas. Gov. R good morning, i have a comment and a couple of questions. Arkansas and is, go into fayetteville all the ore and you go to lowes something, hardly anyone is wearing a mask anywhere that i can see. I am going to be tested tomorrow because im going in to see if i need a stent in washington regional in fayetteville and i am scared as heck. I dont know if that hospital is safe, but here is my question. I havent gotten a stimulus check or anything. I cant even get my federal back and i sent that in, in march. You cant call anyone in the government. No one answers the phone. I know you are just governor of arkansas, but man, it is really rough. My second question as far as the protests go, i know you are just a governor here, but you got connections. Where is the 20 bill that started this whole thing . Was thatven exist or poor guy set up . Host thanks, caller. Guest in terms of the wearing of the masks, i hope you are setting a good example. It sounds like you are. Most of the businesses are Wearing Masks and putting the right Safety Measures in place. The public needs to be cognizant of that and the importance of it. In washington regional hospital, they are doing a great job. I am sure they have some Covid Patients, but they are also doing elective surgery which we have moved back to so i want you to have confidence. On the stimulus check, i encourage you to call the congressman. Host at one time you served as the head of the Drug Enforcement agency. Are you surprised by the number of states to allow recreational marijuana, and have you changed your position . Guest no, i havent changed my position on it, but in arkansas we have Medicinal Marijuana in our state has been approved. We dont have recreational use. Multiple states have moved to that and as long as there is an inconsistent policy, federal and messages,inconsistent that will probably continue to expand. It is problematic so i understand the need to have that as medicine, but whenever it goes to recreational use, from my standpoint, i dont think its a good idea. But those are choices the federal government has given the states at this point, but it is not ideal. Host Asa Hutchinson joining us, republican of arkansas, thank you so much for your time. Guest good to be with you. Host the governor referenced Speaker Pelosi and others calling for the removal of can utter it that choose confederate statues. Also, the renaming of military bases with connections to the confederacy. If you support these moves, 202 7488000. If you oppose it, 202 7488001. You can text us if you want and post on social media site. It was yesterday that Speaker Pelosi talked about her efforts throughout the years to remove statues of confederates from the capital. Had thei was speaker, i ability to do what i could do, move robert e lee to the crypt. I could not actually take them out. That required something else. Thats why i wrote a letter a couple of days ago, june 10, can you imagine Jefferson Davis, alexander alexanderson stephens, treason that they are across the state, put them here. That is why i wrote to chairman blunt of the rules committee and the chair of our House Committee , the equivalent committee, and talked about Alexander Stephens because these are his words. The words of stevens are as 1851 today as they were in the aims of the confederacy, in his cornerstone speech, stephens asserted that the prevailing ideas relied upon by our founders, included the assumption of the equality of man. He goes on to say, this is wrong. And then he goes on from there. You can see my letter and what he says and why he has to come out of the capital. Yesterday,was from and she spoke about the renaming of military bases as well. Go to cspan. Org for that conference, but for your thoughts on this movement, you can call the lines and post on social media. Don in washington state, go ahead. Caller thanks for taking my call. I only oppose it, first off, because you learn from your past , each and every one of us, and if we dont have things to look change and grow and make ourselves better . I dont think we should deface this stuff. I dont think we should take it down. I dont think we should burn books that teach us right or wrong. That is why we are america and not other countries. Host while i have got you on the line, what do you think about the activities in seattle, washington concerning the autonomous zone . Caller i think our governor has to pull his head out of the toilet. I think the mayor is nuts. The police chief is right, we cannot go without police but we cannot go with Police Violence on any color. Host fox news follows up on a story saying the leadership in seattle appeared to be in despite slowmoving disaster and protesters calling on the mayor and police chief to resign, the mayor raised eyebrows when she erred to a 1990 women kansas, a supporter, goahead. Caller i lived in arkansas for high school, and let me tell you, this matters. I have a brother that is a confederate supporter and he is five years older, and so confederate, and he is in the military. I said, why would you support . He went to vietnam and was in his helicopter with a helmet with the Confederate Flag, and they are proud of it read i said, proud of it. I said, did you ever think about how the black soldier beside you thinks of it . He said it is history. We are so split. Everybody watch the documentary on grant on the history channel. There is somebody who needs a statue. Kentucky, brad, hello. Caller i want to make a few points and i will be really quick. Congress right now is discussing this issue of something that the name of something that has literally zero tangible effect on reality how something is named. In times of aggression and no knock warrants an industrial complex, they are dealing with names of things that are rude and disrespectful to all of us as can the two ends. As constituents. Second point, if you go with the idea that these monument and the civil war was about the underfootn and cruel of keeping africanamericans under, you would find a sense in the statues and the names, i suppose, but it is possibly a failing of our history classes. That wasnt what the civil war was necessarily about. I dont want to say it didnt have anything to do with it, but it wasnt what it is about. It was about a country decision the country had not decided for 70 years, about secession. Host eric in west palm beach, florida, a supporter of these efforts. Caller we wouldnt tolerate statues of hitler and they wouldnt in germany. Kids will read about it and class,bout it in history and we need to take a lesson from how the germans and south african have reckoned tiled. Reconciled their stained history. To say that taking these things down is erasing it from our history, no, it is making a correction. These things will be talked about and will remain in the books. We are not burning books. We are removing statues of people who represent things that we have grown out of. Host in georgia, a supporter of this effort. Caller hello. Host you are on. Caller i think they should be removed, and it is true, we do have our history books, which is good, but i think they should all be removed. Host why is that . Caller we wouldnt put hitler up, and this is exactly what it is. Ouras against our country, own people in our country. Of,s not just because because the black people are complaining. I think it is totally wrong. Host finish your thought. Caller that is about all i have to say. ,ost from boones mill virginia, another susan. Caller too many susans. I dont think we should destroy the physical part that we have erected in this country because the soldiers that died, they were United States soldiers at the time. They werent a foreign land, a foreign country. If we could put our mindset back ,hen, it was a war in this war people back then, there mindset is not like the people of today, there mindset. Their mindset. There is anger and hatred and back then there was sorrow and grieving for the soldiers who died. These were military men. Grant and lee went to school and knew each other. It wasnt like today. If we could separate our emotional feelings and just look at the country, i think that some of these statues need to stay up. Host the governor in the commonwealth was at the forefront of bringing down the statue of robert e lee before it was torn down, but what do you think of his efforts . Caller he is a people pleaser. A lot of people want votes and a lot of this has to do with that it really that. It really saddens me because people are like sheep. They just follow the leader and whatever, whichever way they go. I am trying to say that these war, in theiril heart, they fought for what they thought was right. Host that is susan from boones hill, virginia. Governor Ralph Northam talked about his efforts on Confederate Monuments. I have said i believe Confederate Monuments are divisive and glorify a racist and painful time in our history. That is why we are working to remove bill lee monument in richmond remove the league monument in richmond. Agreedhmond city council to remove the other monuments on monument avenue. We came together to create a process to do that safely. We need to let that happen, because these statues are very large and very heavy. In portsmouth, a demonstrator was seriously injured when he was hit by a statue being pulled down. I know these statues are causing a lot of pain, but pulling them down is not worth risking someones life, so let the local governments take responsibility for taking these statues down safely. Lets do this the right way and keep all virginians safe. Host linda from florida on our line for supporting this effort, good morning. Caller i just wanted to say i theset the removing of and i will give white people who are opposing an analogy. Imagine a friend of your family who has been hanging or raped or murdered, and the law says you have to wake up every day and keep their picture in your home. You have to pass by it every day , or you have to wake up and see that murderers picture every day in your home, what we have got to do is remove that. They put the murderer or rapist in jail and they got rid of him, so you removed him out of the present. You dont want to destroy them, you dont have to destroy them, but you probably do not want to see the person who murdered and destroyed your family. No one should be forced to look rapedlook at people who and hanged their family members. In california, also a supporter of this effort. Definitely, i am supportive of them taking down. He statues and renaming host why do you support the effort . Caller the main problem the government is getting for it and the army is behind it, but the main word comes from trump and he has a final say. A couple of years ago i heard him say out of his mouth, i am a white nationalists, and that is the same thing as saying you are kkk. Host i dont know that he has said that directly, but why do you support this effort. Caller because it is wrong and it supports racism, and not only that, it supports everything for immigration, getting rid of that. The whole constitution is being messed up. Host we will go to mary in missouri on our line for those who oppose this effort. Caller i was in American History teacher for 36 years. First of all, the only two people who were not given the opportunity to reinstate their citizenship with the United States after the civil war were lee and davis. It means that all these people, americanto become citizens which means they changed their minds. Robert teddy byrd was the senator from West Virginia for many years, he was the grand wizard of the kkk, but he is now shown to be a great symbol of somebody who can change their mind. Also i want to know, if those people who have been who are supporting this, five months ago, did you know anything about this . Most of you supporters had no idea that these particular ports were named after former confederate generals, so you are just following the bandwagon because you have to. You dont know the history. Host that is mary in missouri. Today for, u. S. Afforded statements reported statements by the president saying i am a nationalist. For his part, the House Minority leader Kevin Mccarthy holding a press conference in washington, d. C. , talked about this idea of changing those statues in the u. S. Capitol. [video clip] when it comes to u. S. Statues, states have the power to select who comes forward. We changed a california statute and we added Ronald Reagan statue and we added Ronald Reagan. The statues were voted upon by by legislature and brought mississippi and other states. When you look at the law governing the replacement of statues, i would encourage those legislatures to be able to change from the path of what they brought forth. In North Carolina, there has been a movement to change sometime, one is billy graham. States have the power to do that. Host on our line for supporters, ocala, florida. Caller good morning, pedro. I support the removal of the confederate emblems. Theuld like to remind listeners a lot of them are not on government property. They are on private property and they were put up in the 1920s and 1930s. I would also like to say, none of those statues were in america in 1859 and 1869 1860. They put them up because they lost the civil war, and these white, students that are tearing these statues down and im proud of people who stick up for their country and do not bow down to the succession as. As we say in the marine corps, reveille. Wake up. Host from georgette, on the oppose line. Line. Rgia, on the oppose ler i believe about this and i have some black grandbabies so i do not consider myself prejudiced but if they are going to take down the statues of white men and women, they should take down the ones of black people too, because it is just not right. We have got black statues of men here in georgia, and they need to come down too. Down, others is coming then they all should come down. Georgia,t statues in specifically whom . Caller it is a piano player over in albany, georgia, you know. Host why take down the statue of a piano player versus someone who served in the confederacy . Caller because this whole thing is about black and why, it is racism. If you are going to do one thing for one side, then you need to do it for both. That is linda in georgia. The president announced on june 19th he will go back to holding rallies. Oklahoma, the location of that rally. Some of the concerns being expressed because of the day and location. Known ash is emancipation day which commemorates the day in 1865 in announced that slaveowners had to comply with emancipation proclamation proclamation. This month, tulsa marked a grim date the 99th anniversary of the tolson race massacre in which a might white mob ravaged a thriving africanamerican business community. Caller my name is russell and i am in South Carolina. The Economic Council of the naacp and im also a veteran. On the way to my high school, i pass the Confederate Monument that is right in South Carolina, when i went to high school. But there is a Tuskegee Airmen field in walking distance from the high school and there was never any reference to the field. That is the problem we have with america. They want to remind us of the confederacy and to remember when the church was shot up in charleston, the young man had the Confederate Flag in germany, s marched in germany, they cannot use the symbol so they use our Confederate Flag. Behavior. C host do you think most people view these statues in that light, or are they just statues without any other context . Caller the people that i see community, many of the people that carry those symbols, they are just regular southern people, but they andeved in the confederacy almost like a white supremacist ideology. The ideology behind it, they dont have to listen to you because you are not intelligent, you do not count. It plays into that. We are seeing with intolerance. Host the idea of taking down statues, how does it resolve the underlying issues to mark caller maybe they will stop the Voter Suppression efforts, all of those efforts. A lot of people of color in the south, but our Voting Rights are being crushed. They find different ways to gentrified the communities. It is almost an ideology. Across the dixiecrats. Host russell, appreciate the comments. Charles, millville, new jersey, oppose line. Caller i really think the statues should come down, but i dont think these demonstrators should be tearing them down just for the simple fact that it is not their place to do that. I think all of these statues that are being taken down, why cant they archive these statues in one place and people who want to look at them can . It is a part of history. Takes themgovernment down, you are ok with that process . Caller yeah, but i still think the statues should not be destroyed. I think they should be put someplace, archived someplace. Lewis on ournsas, support line. Caller i support taking them down. There needs to be a place we can put them so we can remember our history, and that costs a lot of money so that needs to be that is a big waste of money if we dont do something with them. I support legalizing marijuana more than any because there are people suffering in arkansas. There we are poor and doctors are not helping us. I really think people need to Pay Attention to this time in the world. The whole battle is about history much must remain which is about why god made us. Truth comes from god and lies comes from the father of lies, who is satan. I want to tell people this idea that taking on statues, this already happened. Destroyed as, they lot of Catholic Schools and churches and they were just throwing stuff away. It was the catholics that they attacked. Christopher columbus was andissioned by ferdinand isabella, Catholic King and queen of spain, who was to bring the mission of christs teachings to the new world. Arizona,nda in peoria, on the line for supporters. Caller i support removing the statues. For one thing, many of those statues were erected during the jim crow era. Host go ahead. Caller can you hear me now . Host you are on. You have been on. Caller those confederate soldiers, they actually were traitors to the country. We fought because they did not want to give up their slaves. That is the whole reason why we had this war, and it is a painful reminder to the africanamericans in this country to have those statues erected as a reminder of a painful time in history, so they should come down. If they want to move them to a museum or Something Like that as a remembrance of what happened, that is fine, but we should take them down. Host that is brenda in peoria, arizona. The president is expected to accept his partys nomination for another term as president of the United States in jacksonville, florida, while some of the rnc will take waste in Rnc Convention will take place in charlotte, North Carolina. The platform was reflected in a decision by the executive panel. On wednesday, they adopted the 2016 Party Platform and it means the gop will maintain positions in the fouryearold policy theprint including opposition to gay marriage and the nod to gay conversion therapy, and declined to stake out new positions on topics such as police reform, gender identity, or third trimester abortions. Party officials and Senior Trump Campaign aides had previously discussed ways to pare down the 58 page document into a single note card or abbreviated list of principles, but the effort wrote down after several conservative groups in the white house. To can go online if you go the Convention Website for 2016, there is still a link that has the platform. You can read what i have read and what the platform adopted in 2016. Janet in virginia on our oppose line. Opposedyes, sir, i am to taking down the statues. If people would just calm down, biographies of these southern generals, you will get an idea of where their position was prior to the secession from the union. Host what example would you give . Caller a lot of the emotionalism is due to what they thought was just slavery. It was more for the rights of ple, the execs of excessive taxation that was coming up. They were no more carrying of the blacks of north than they are in the south. Host what is an example of these books . Caller read robert elys biography, and you will see biography and you will see his mindset on why they left the union to begin with. Host that is janet from virginia, last call for this segment and this program. Washington journal today, the center for strategic and International Studies and the college of munications at Texas Christian University host a discussion about societal coverage on cspan. Today,live coverage on cspan2. At the beginning of the story, the United States do not have a Pacific Coast. There was california, which belong to mexico. Fremont encouraged the american settlement of oregon and took part in the american conquest of california, just in time for the gold rush. He did play a real role in changing the map of the United States. Npr host on his book. Night at 8 00 eastern on cspans q a. With the recent protests unfolding across the country, watch our live unfiltered coverage of the governments response with briefings from the white house, congress, governors and mayors from across the nation updating the situation. Plus, efforts addressing the ongoing coronavirus pandemic and campaign 2020. 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