Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20150426

Legacy is finally taking shape. The economy is getting better. Nine in 10 americans now have health coverage. [applause] today, thanks to obamacare, you no longer have to worry about losing your insurance if you lose your job. You are welcome, senate democrats. Host it was another night of good natured comedy in the nations capital. Politicians and celebrities all under one roof. Another white house Correspondents Dinner is now history, but the question remains, is this good for the process in washington, or is this relationship to cozy . We want to get your thoughts this morning. Your view of the beltway culture. What do you think . Republicans call 202 7488001. Democrats, 202 7488000. Independents, 202 7458002. What is your view of the beltway culture. If not by phone, you can post a comment on facebook, www. Facebook. Com cspan. Patrick gavin has some strong thoughts. The nerd prom which is what they call this in some places is a mess. He writes that something has to change, nonetheless, here is a little more from president obama last night on his bucket list. [video clip] president obama after presiden midterm elections someone asked me if i had a bucket list. I said, i have something that rhymes with bucket list. [applause] take executive action on immigration . Bucket. [laughter] list regulations . Bucket. It is the right thing to do. Host more of a humor from us tonight. Gavin goes on to write that the president should actually get this event occasionally. He writes that there are plenty of grand dinners in washington, but none of them however have the same panache as the white house Correspondents Associations dinner. The last one to skip it was reagan in 1981, and he bailed because he had been shot. Make it so that the nights biggest draw, the president s attendance is not a sure thing. The first call this morning on the beltway culture, lee roy from charlotte, north carolina. Good morning to you. What would you like to say . Caller it is enjoyable to watch. I believe that the president , he may be can skip it. Sometimes the jokes are a little off key. I think at times the jokes kind of belittle the presidency and members of the congress. I think it should probably be more comedians. If some Public Officials want to attend, they should. If they dont, we should hold it against them. Host thanks a lot. Tom is calling from wisconsin now. Republican. What do you make of this dinner and the idea of journalist, hollywood celebrities, Government Official mingling. Is it to cozy or is it ok . Caller how come you dont have any conservative guests on your show this morning. Host who would you like to see . Caller anybody who is conservative. You have a far left and senator brown coming on after the show. Host i will ask you again, who would you like to see on the show . Caller any conservative. Host can you name one . Caller sean hannity. Rush limbaugh. Host we are making note of it. You having the to say about the dinner last night . Caller it was a joke. That was the worst thing i have seen in my whole life. Host how come . Caller it was flat. No comity. Obama can read a script. When he gave his speech about having pages come to the white house. He is a terrible president , and terrible speaker. Cspan needs more conservatives instead of offering net job liberals. Host we have written it down. Chris is on the line now. Your thoughts on the beltway culture as it exists right now . Caller a lot of this reminds me of the decadence of rome before the fall of the empire. These people are so happy with themselves, while the rest of the country seems to be suffering. You know, this Administration Just seems to be what theodore after another. Yet, these are the people who want to filter and control our news. We started the schedule with the revolution, it might be time for another one. Host that was chris. On our Facebook Page curt writes, the belly of the beast. Check rights, i lived in the district, i miss the beltway culture. Bob rice, the single most lawless region in america. Cecily strong was the featured entertainer who followed the president. She talked a little bit about tom cotton. [video clip] cecily center tom cotton got 40 other senators to sign a letter to iran. I guess the most surprising thing is that a guy named tom cotton is a u. S. Senator and not a rabbit from an old racist disney cartoon. [laughter] and tom cottons defense, he was just trying to repair americas a strange relationship with israel. You know, he doesnt need to worry about that. Our relationship will be better in the next election, as soon as israel makes a generous donation to the clinton foundation. Host we will hear more from Cecily Strong and the president as we go on. We are taking your calls. What you think of the beltway culture . Is it ok to have dinners like this or is it to cozy . Here is a tweet coming and saying i am glad im not in the beltway culture, it seems like it is they are all in the bed together. Debbie is next. Caller good morning. I love this. Host keep going. Caller i think we need this. The country has done like they said, aebola and all these things. I love the they put this on blast. I love a point fox news, and everybody else, not reporting the real stories. A gives us a little comfort to ban, making light of these situations. Coming together, that is what we need right now. Unity is power. Host ok. Words from debbie. Patricia minneapolis republican. What would you like to say . Caller coming together . What is she talking about. We are out in the cold here. I thought it was disgusting. I thought he demeaned the presidency. The joke about netanyahu with the middle east blowing up right under our noses was inappropriate. That black guy that he had screaming in the background saying what he actually thought was so stupid. This guy is a joke. He is an absolute joke. He cant do anything competently. He stands up there as arrogant as anything. It wasnt funny. It was inappropriate. We are in a world of hurt with these leaders here. And that bunch in the audience. Host you think they should have these dinners at all . Should they have a different type of dinner . Some final thoughts from you . Caller they should have some class. Some real humor they should have some respect for the offices. Those journalists out there are a bunch of jokes too. Especially the leftwing journalist. They are ridiculous. Whoever you have coming on there, he is another joke. He doesnt have a clue. Host thank you for calling. Lets hear from charlie, an independent color. Caller. Caller i think the correspondence dinner, it is a necessary venue for people to kick back and get out of the tension that goes on in politics. I just have a suggestive for your callers, everybody who keep calling in and complaining of how terrible this person is in that person, they do not vote themselves in. It is people here in the country who vote them in. When they get there, you complain about them, and keep them in office for 20 years doing the same ring over and over. Check yourself before you check others. I thought it was funny. If they did a Little Research behind the president a good translator, they would know it comes from a comedy show. And he is really funny. They would find out the real reason behind that. Host thanks for calling. Back to twitter. Jan writes, it is too cozy for me, how can they be objective in reporting when they yuck it up together at this gala . If you look at Washington Post this morning, the white house Correspondents Dinner is featured. One miss, they write, it is a niceght of elegance at its finest. The median local greeting a starlet, but pull back the camera, and the clamor quotient jobs sharply. They are in a Hotel Ballroom the size of an airplane hangar and their 2600 guests are there. It is the nerd prom this mocking phrase was applied several years ago, and it quickly caught on. It has never been perfectly apy t. It captures a dynamic. People of little too excited about a rare night of dressup and drink up. Lets hear from cynthia in austin, texas series of aquatic callers. Caller i would like to say that i thought was refreshing. Something a little fun. Host ok. Rick. Bloomington indiana. Caller hello, sir. I thought the whole situation was appalling. Where is america . Where is the strength of america . Where is the moral value and standards of america . Host kenexa back to the dinner itself. Connect that back to the dinner itself. Caller is a leader lacking in leadership. The whole dinner looks like a farce. It does not represent the true america. Host did you watch much of it . Caller yes. There are people out here, we are the common people. Where are they at . Where are they at participating in this dinner . It is all about people who are in power and important, so to speak. Host what does that mean to the process here in washington or the country at large . Caller we are the government. The constitution is we, the people can g p ago this group here it does not represent the true america. Host words of rick. Here is a little more from the president last night as he starts talking about president ial candidates and politics. [video clip] president obama soon the president ial contest will take place and i for one cannot wait to see who the Koch Brothers take. It is exciting. Marco rubio, rand paul, ted cruz, jeb bush, scott walker who will finally get that red rose . [laughter] the winner gets a billiondollar warchest. The runner up gets to be the bachelor on the next season of the bachelor. [applause] seriously, what billion dollars 1 billion from just to guys. Is it just me or is that excessive . It is almost offensive to the candidates. The Koch Brothers think they need to spend 1 billion to get folks to like these people. It has to hurt their feelings a little bit. But, i know i have raised a lot of money too but in all fairness, my middle name is hussein. What is the excuse . Host here is a tweet here that says, every president has done this, they are making fun of each other, it is ok, they do it once a year. If you go to some of the right rightwrite ups. They are opting for a space in iowa. Among gop hopefuls, many of them chose to be there than to accept the invitation to the white house correspondentss dinner. I want to be to judy kurtz for just a few moments here. She writes a column called in the know, and was there last night. She joins us by phone. Guest hello. I am a little horse from all the festivities. Host we certainly understand. Tell us about the mood in the ballroom. What was it like to be there . Guest i think the jokes from the president , from Cecily Strong played better in the room. I was reading tweets as the president sisley strong were speaking Cecily Strong were speaking and she was bombing at home, but seem to get a good reaction at home. Host went through the biggest laugh . What dorew the biggest laugh . Guest as far as the present, i think his opening line, the joke about the bucket list. That really got the crowd going from the getgo. Cecily strong, she took a lot of jobs across the board, particularly at republicans. It is really those edgier lines that got the audience going, talking about race. Some jokes about race and those played well to the group inside the washington hilton. Host we did a lot of watching of the event here on cspan. Watching the arrivals, watching the ballroom. Some washing of the crowd to see who was mingling with each other. What did you see with your eyes . Any interesting pairings in the crowd or any interesting conversations . Getting to the dynamics of the dinner, the variety of people. Guest this is one of the most interesting list. The unusual parrying. One of the most intriguing moments was when i saw donald trump give a huge hug to susan wright. They were embracing. He whispered in her ear, nothing in life is easy. He said he just wanted to tell her that, that she has a hard job. He also said that he didnt know what to expect as far as the jokes this year. Back to 2013, president obama talked about trump. He said he wasnt sure what to expect, but he pointed out that he had one of the best seats in the house. He was ready. Host patrick gavin, you probably saw his piece in politico. He had a lot of harsh things to say, saying that the event has morphed into inan origin, what do you make of that . Guest particularly this year, there has been a lot of criticism of the dinner celebrities, journalists, the white house. We get this backlash every year. I would argue i talked to Michael Kelly from the show, house of cards, and he said why is washington only allowed to have one fun night in the year . Cant we have one night . I dont know. I think a lot of folks, mainly rightfully so in some instances criticized the celebrity component. Im kind of going with Michael Kelly on this, why cant washington have one night of fun . Host do you see anything changing over the years . Guest i have been covering this dinner for several years. Back in 2012, we had tabloid sensations, Kim Kardashian and Lindsay Lohan attending. A list is ers like George Clooney was there. We are not seeing the highcaliber of celebrities. It is changing in that way, but it could also change when the new administration comes in in 2016. It will be a novelty once again succumbed to the white house Correspondents Dinner. Host judy kurtz is a columnist for a column called in the know. Take care of the voice. Back to the calls on the beltway culture. What do you make of the dinner and the gathering of 2000 plus journalists, politicians celebrities, including the president. Brian is here to talk to us about it from syracuse, new york. Brian is in independent. Caller thank you for taking my call. I have mixed feelings about the dinner. I enjoyed the comedy aspect, but like most americans, i think it is a bit pretentious when you see these hollywood insiders and washington insiders. It is just kind of too much to take. It is another example of what is happening in america. It is all done from the top. Most of us are on the outside looking in. Host was the other side . Guest i enjoy the comedy aspect. That is what this dinner is about. It is comedy. This is symbolic of something that i think most americans dont agree with right now, how our country is going. Another thing, some people calling in who look at this president and say he is not president ial, he is not a leader, i think that is cold war for something code word for something else. You look at we were in two wars. I mean, the republicans, 9 11 happened on their watch. This guy cant do anything for them. My 401 k has doubled. Host that was ryan. Charlie is on, a republican caller. Caller good morning. Im glad youre taking my call. In a nutshell, for the common man, i speak with a lot of people in my area. I come from Staten Island originally. I see what is going on, and it is pathetic. This is an extreme example of the ridiculous we are the ones who work in support, and pay the taxes. They are squandering insulative are ways these important issues. I watch fox and many other new stations and i am seeing these people. They are taking important issues and laughing about it. I am appalled by the entire situation. Many many people i speak to our city here, sitting in saying the same thing. I had a conversation on the phone with people, and it is redundant how pathetic. It is overwhelming. Host let me jump in. A couple of tweeters and facebook posters say, why cant these folks just kick back one night per year and have some fun . What do you think about that . Caller its what im trying to say, i did this is a paralyzing what is going on in general. s they are not just kicking back one night per year. They are carrying on, and an extreme example of what is occurring on the general bases in the country right now. This elitist atmosphere. These people are out of touch. Theyre really not on the ground with us. It was said earlier, we let them in. Nonsense. We are giving these people. We dont have options to vote for anything anyone, pardon me, who is a real viable alternatives to changing the country and bring us back into the limelight that america should be, the strength which we should have. We are still feeding off what america became after world war ii. It is falling away rapidly. It is not being it is very frustrating, as you can hear from me. I dont want to carry on anymore. I think i sort of, it a scattered way, made my point. Host thanks for weighing in. Suki on twitter says if you watch the beginning of this event, it is like an Award Ceremony and giving budding journalist awards, sort of like a Little League award. Back to the post piece about myths, one myth is that this is for a good cause. The Correspondents Association has had a standard response, hey, all the hype is selling tickets and all those tickets are funding scholarships. Charity galas are rarely the most efficient form of fundraising, and this one is no exception. It was founded as a strickland social affair and only since 1991 have proceeds underwritten scholarships for journalism. A review of tax records shows that the dinner grosses over 700,000 and always covers its expenses. That is in the post. Here is some more from Cecily Strong from saturday night live at the dinner last night. [video clip] ciecily the Washington Health of its great. I bet when the president walked in and saw those all caps he thought, finally some decent security. Im kidding. Lets give it up for the secret service. [applause] i dont want to be too hard on those guys. They are the only Law Enforcement agency in the country that will get in trouble if i a black man gets shot. Host back to your call. Gloria from michigan. Democrat. Go ahead please. Caller i would just like to remind republican friends that one of the white house Correspondents Dinner was during ws reign. I dont think that mr. Obama has any capital on tastelessness. Host a of us from. You are on the air. Caller hi. I am doing wonderfully. Im so glad i watch the dinner. First of all thats his dinner his house, and all is welcome. You dont have to come, you dont have to watch. He doesnt go to your house. He doesnt want to be there. He knows whats there. He is the president. All the people, you know who you are, look, he is at home. Why are we at his dinner . I thought it was wonderful. You can be the president and still have a good time like everybody else at the dinner table. Host all right eva, thank you. Just to clarify, the event was not at the white house, it was at the washington hilton where it has been held for the many of the past years. Dave russell says it is totally disgusting, how is it possible . The Government Works for us, and it is time for we the people to remind them about that. Thelia on the line. Caller this is thelia. I have to say looking at what i have been looking at this morning, see how things change list each year callers i havent called in quite some time, i have been grieved as god has been grieved to see what is going on. I cant believe that things have become so changed under the obama mr. Should. Host changed how . Caller i did not vote for him. As an africanamerican, unfortunately my husband did not. He and i did not know each other at the time, but that is a whole other thing. He and i split on voting, as many african, and probably whites did on voting for him. We knew. A lot of us in new york, and across the country, and around the world, new what the obama and was going to be like. The guy who pulled the strings behind him. Tell the trut because that is what cspan has been abouth, you know. The White Supremacists who are behind him. He did what he was told to do. Unfortunately, he ran for president. I had hoped for Something Different in a black president. You all did what you did, and he thinks he got off africanamericans, meaning you set us up to fail. Loadingvoting for him because he was black. I have said this, and i would have to say it again, Martin Luther king said, once he had a dream. He had a dream that he would pray that people would not choose on whether or not we voted for someone on the color of their skin, but based on the content of their character. Had he been alive, he would not have voted for mr. Obama. Host all right. From new york city, harlem. We have about 10 minutes left in this segment. Here is a tweet from kiki, i cannot tell the comedians from the politicians, the White House Press is a joke, whats new . Is the White House Press corps becoming obsolete . Financial pressures have reduce the number of news organizations committed to daily coverage of the white house. Technologies including twitter youtube, and Live Streaming of events means the white house can communicate directly with the people. In fact, through twitter and the white house. Gov website, it already operates Something Like its own newsagency. That is in the pages of politico. John has been a yunnan from texas. Good morning, john. Caller you guys do a great job by the way. We need more Democratic Media like cspan. I think it is instructive for young people to see how people respond to each other in real life, so to speak. We dont get enough of that. While i have not seen the dinner, i have it recorded im pretty sure well be just as funny as barack obama was in the past. We all know, republicans and conservatives condition out can dish it out, but they respond very poorly, with the exception of george bush when he was looking for weapons of mass destruction in his office. It was funny, but insulting to people who died. Stop voting 50 times and throwing away one Million Dollars or 2 billion, and stop buying missiles that we dont need to, and all things that are antisocial in the end. Host thanks for calling, john. Plenty more in the papers of mourning including the tragic news from nepal following the earthquake. Here are some front pages. At least 1500 dead, at the time that letting went to press. We hearing that the number is now well over 2000. A picture showing pulling a man from rubble. We are seeing that photo in a lot of different places this morning. Back to Washington Post they write that secretary kerry has authorized an initial 1 million for humanitarian need. Usaid preparing to send a Disaster Response team and is likely to also send a specialized urban search and rescue team. The israeli army said it would send military airplanes to support. Pakistan india also helping. We notice the story from ap and elsewhere, saying that experts have been gathering in nepal just one week ago to prepare for an earthquake. They thought a major event was coming, and they were there to plan for it. There were 50 social scientist in kathmandu to prepare better for the big one, a repeat of the 1934 tendlemblor. Aging is calling now, back to our topic on beltway culture. Good morning to you. Caller good morning. How are you doing . Host doing well, you . Caller im doing fine. I watch the dinner and they want to say, it is probably the best show i have seen. I found it very entertaining, it made my day. Host what do you make of it being too cozy, this relationship . Caller it is a relationship that has been going on. It is nothing new. They come there, they are unwinding. They will go back tomorrow and continue to do their job. The president , i think he has feelings. He understands that a lot of people have discontent for him. He went and got a bona fide as occas education. I think in most of poorly i think most importantly is the people coming in, you can tell how they feel. They are actually showing their amount of intelligence. It was kind of amusing to me. I think i am more enjoying the callers that im listening to more than i enjoyed the show. Host thanks for calling. One twitter comment, do journalist to criticize the white house Correspondents Dinner and get invited to next years dinner . Here is more from president obama. [video clip] president obama as we know, Hillary Clintons in most got her in trouble. Frankly, i thought it was going to be her private Instagram Account that would get her more in trouble. [laughter] hillary kick things off by going completely unrecognized in nature pa a chipotle. Martin omalley, not to be overdone kick things off by going completely unrecognized at a Martin Omalley campaign event. Bernie sanders might run. I like burning. Bernie. Apparently some people want to see a pot smoking socialist in the white house. We could get a third obama term after all. [laughter] host and turns out all three of those folks are in a piece from Washington Post. There is a shot here for Virginia Governor, greeting audience members. They gathered saturday for their annual state Party Convention and chatted about Hillary Clinton. Her staffers buzzed around signing of volunteers. The promise of the first female president could be exhilarating, but the candidate was missing. In her assets, her longtime booster, Virginia Governor did his duty. The response from 1000 Convention Delegates someone shouted from the back, its on her email. Whats and followed were fresh reminders that although clinton is as dominant of a front runner, the hearts of Party Activists are not hers. More politics there. But get back to our last couple of callers. Maria from new jersey independent. Caller good morning. My comment is that there is nothing being held sacred in washington that was held sacred to our founding fathers. Thomas jefferson advocated revolution too refresh the treaty of liberty. I agree with the callers who say it might be time for this. I want to bring out also that the definition of honor in washington is getting bought. I had called cspan and advocated that you have on the candidate from the american citizens party, robert mcneil. I believe most people in the United States would find that they agree with 99 of what he stands for. The other 2 , we could always negotiate. Please see, have him on. Thank you very much. Host writing that down as well. Lets hear from margarita in florida. Good morning. What would you like to say . Caller i was so happy to hear that lighting up things. Sometimes it is time to loosen up and enjoy the moment. Everybody has been stressing out. This is a time to loosen up. You just have to live one day. You cannot satisfy everyone. Also, the comedian, she was great. She is intelligent. I really like her. Host you can watch the whole dinner or individuals beaches on our website anytime, cspan. Org. If you want to watch on tv, we will reair the made speeches from the president and Cecily Strong this evening at 630 p. M. Right after our newsmakers program. More from the papers this morning. This is on trade, Elizabeth Warren speaking at a rally. Stop making untrue trade claims is the headline. The dispute between obama and the left continued on saturday when war in and senator brown called on the president to immediately declassified the negotiating terms of a trade deal called the Transpacific Partnership. Obama has blasted critics on the left saying they are wrong dont know what they are talking about. Liberal critics of the trade deal have griped that the terms have not been made public, arguing it amounts to a secret deal with influence of huge corporations. Bill is calling now from reading, pennsylvania. Caller good morning. How are you . Host doing well, you . Caller lousy. I had a big Party Last Night and all that stuff. Im very tired. Host youre up early talking to us. Caller i always get up around 5 00. I have to take care of my dock in the morning. Host what would you like to say . Caller i have money, i dont worry about anything. I am all set. I what to say to me about the American People. People who have money, they dont care about the American People. If people stop fighting and killing each other in the streets, and Work Together to get these politicians shaped up and start working for the American People. Dont be dumb, america. Wake up. These people dont carry about you, they worry about money. The president will become wealthy, have a good time, just like me and everybody else. Dont play dumb. Wake up. Stick together and dont vote for all the time the same people. Get them out. Term limits. It will be the best thing for this country. I tell you what, because they can go back to work, just like you and i, earn money ever tire. Wake up. Nixon used to say that American People are dumb. Think you and god bless. Host all right, that was our last call from the segment. We will take a short timeout and coming up next, we will talk to a professor from Brandeis University about the latest situation in yemen, what is happening there. Also, later, the host of the young turks, cenk uygur. We progresses and the 2006 election. First, senator brown from ohio. He will be our newsmakers guest today. He is a Ranking Member on the Banking Committee and talks about whether Hillary Clinton should discuss trade in her campaign for president. Here is a look at that. [video clip] sen. Brown how this agreement may let china and, that is a serious problem. I hope shes befell out on the issue of currency. We do play on a different set of rules that some of our economic competitors. Im hopeful that she speaks out on how this is a shift of Corporate Power from democratically elected governments to multiNational Corporations. I urge everybody to speak out on that not just hillary. I dont put her in a different category. Let me ask you, how big of a deal is trade for you to give her your endorsement . Sen. Brown i will answer evasively and say that im talking to her about trade talking to her staff. She has had a history. I am pretty sure that she voted against fasttrack. Im pretty sure she voted against cafta, im not positive about this. I know she made a commitment to renegotiate nafta. I am hopeful that she is not far from my position. I dont know for sure. I would have to dig deep down on where she is on this issue. You have been talking to her . Sen. Brown i have talked to her staff and to her briefly. We have not had a conversation in great detail on trade. I talked to her in trade and her 2008 race. Her office was right across the hall. As secretary of state clinton did praise the transpacific bill. Does that make it difficult for her as a candidate or is it something she should handle . Sen. Brown i dont the you can blame her for taking the position that her boston. Her boss day. Host newsmakers will air at 10 00 and also at 6 00. It is also Available Online at cspan. Org. Joining us in boston is asher orkaby who is a middle east fellow at Brandeis University, joining us from boston to talk about the situation in yemen. Good morning. Thank you for joining us. Here is one of the headlines we woke up to this morning. Irans convoy turns away from yemen. Can you give us the latest on what is happening in yemen especially beginning with the u. S. And iran. Guest it seems that the u. S. Convoy in the gulf is as obama says, opening shipping lanes, keeping the freedom of navigation. It is sending a message that someone is watching the activities in the gulf to ensure that no more arms are delivered to the houthis. We dont know what exactly it may have been military aid. Nevertheless, the message was clear. More portly, what was going on this morning was the continued Saudi Bombing Campaign as of a few hours ago. This is despite talks of peacekeeping that were hoping to emerge over the past few months. Host remind us of where yemen is, what is important to the people who are there and around there. And some of the recent history that has brought us to this moment of fighting. Guest yemen is located in south arabia, south of saudi arabia. It has to graphical significance. Yemen since along a straight water street, between the east coast of africa and saudi arabia. This is an important straight for canal shipping. There is concern amongst the saudis, who rely on many of these trades for Oil Shipments and other powers. There is concern that hostile power in yemen may block this straight. In terms of yemen in and of itself, there is concern that al qaeda or some other Islamist Group may take control of the country and create breeding ground for international terrorism. This is also a concern for international power. Host speaking of International Powers explain why saudi arabia is so concerned about what is happening. Obviously, they are neighbors. Take us deeper into the politics. Guest it is important to understand and saudi arabia and yemen have a long history of tensions. This begins in 1933, shortly after the kingdom of saudi arabia was founded. Yemen was the first country to declare war against saudi arabia, about one year after saudi arabia was founded. Towards the end of the year there were three disputed territories along the saudi and yemen border and are still disputed territories today. There is a yemeni moment to trying get the territories back to yemen. There is a historic tension. The tension is renewed in the recent crisis, as of 2004, when the n northern tribes, led by the houthis family saudis were concerned because this was right along their border. There was concern that the tribes would spill over in their rebellion to threaten the saudi kingdom. The saudis always have a policy of maintaining a week yemeni government. The hooties represent a possibility for strong government. One of the reasons the saudis have been responding since the 2009 to the hootie government. Host let me put the numbers up on the screen for our guest in boston. Lines for democrats, republicans, independents. Asher orkaby is a professor at Brandeis University, a middle east fellow. I want to show a short piece from the president in an interview with msnbc talking about the show of force. [video clip] president obama very straightforward. Right now their ships are in international waters. We make sure we maintain freedom of navigation. What we have said to them is if their weapons are delivered to factions within yemen, they could threaten navigation. That is a problem. We are not sending them obscure and messages, we are sending very direct messages. My hope is generally we can settle down the situation in yemen. That has always been a fractious country with a lot of problems. It is very poor. Right now, there are a lot of people inside yemen suffering. What we need to do is bring all the parties together and find a political arrangement. That is not solved by having another proxy war fought inside of yemen. Weve indicated to the iranians that they need to be part of the solution, not the problem. How do you keep coordination between th people who may engage with iranians . President obama when it comes to the seas, we other dominant force. We are coordinating closely with all of our allies in the region. Sending a message that rather than another conflict in the region, we need to settle this down. Host we follow that clip with this tweet from michael saying, this has nothing to do with opening shipping lanes, it is signaling iran to not replenish the rebels. What do you think . Guest i think that is accurate. The message is really for the iranians. Of course, there is a concern that the straight may become unstable. The u. S. Ships are there as a precaution, not necessarily aiming its guns or intentions that anyone specifically. Host what does this all mean the u. S. Warship being there, to the larger issue of relations with iran, especially as this nuclear deal is being arranged . Guest i think the additional presence of u. S. Navy there is not just to deter iranians, but in some way deter the saudis as well. A confrontation between saudi arabia and yemen, either between navies or in the air, there is an additional concern that a confrontation between saudi arabia and iran may hamper or completely derail the nuclear agreements. Normally, theres not connection between yemen and the nuclear agreement, but if there is a confrontation, this could lead to a broader mideast conflict. Host before we get to calls, what do you see as irans endgame, if you can call that regarding yemen . Guest i dont believe they have an in game. In syria, they are supporting the houthis. The houthis are one of the most armed people in south arabia. The houthis would have gotten to the stage at which they take control of the government regardless of iranian intervention. I dont believe anyone in tehran , or in iran in general, can place it all to hootie leadership and determine their next move. Host lets go to calls for our guest in boston. Brian you are up from brooklyn, new york. Caller good morning. You do a great job. I just wanted to know exactly who are the houthis and could you give a brief history of what they and who they are . I will take my answer off the air. Guest the houthis are actually just a family. They are an important family. They are a direct to send as mohammed, the profit. There are several of these prominent families in yemen. Prior to the founding of the yemen republic were at the top of the hierarchy. After the founding of the republic, there was a new hierarchy, and is mostly those who have been voted in or claim powers through the republic. The hootie family rises to prominence in the 1990s through a reeducation program. They were threatened by saudis in the north of yemen, and some of the religious movements. There was a bit of a religious education conflict that began in the 90s. It wasnt until 2004 that there were after a number of confrontations, you have the Current Situation today where the movement takes advantage of a transition of power between the former president and his Vice President , to take advantage of the situation and march on yemen. I think even they themselves were surprised by military success. Host guest what do they have to fight with versus Yemeni Forces . Guest there are a number of different factors involved. They are leading the northern tribes. A small offshoot of she islam. It constitutes 25 to 45 of yemen. It is the main group of tribes. Tribal conflicts. They are armed and many of them know how to use their weapons. There are many arming military forces in units and he had given his allegiance and alliance to the who see movement. Host 115 people killed. It comes from a u. N. Report on friday that civilian cashel to set have mounted since the start of the saudi letter senses, more than 500 civilians killed in a monthlong conflict, including 115 kids. Remind me again when the saudis started to get involved. What is the mindset with their military movement . Guest the saudis began Bombing Campaign one month ago with the intention of forestalling a who see advanced southwards. It is not the first team the first time the saudis have confronted the who sees. It is a demonstration the saudi military was not ready by any stretch of the with who sees continue to advance. Host lets go to the phone lines for folks one more time so you could weigh in as well. We will keep them on the bottom of the screen for you. Lines for republicans democrats, and independence. Independents. Host we do have some tweets coming in. The saudi arabia have a problem and yemen . Guest in fact, the immigration problem begins in 1990. The yemenis have this misfortune against Saddam Hussein and voted against a resolution to enact a military confrontation. Sound is take all of the yemenis Foreign Workers out of the saudi oilfields, at least one or possibly 2 million yemeni Foreign Workers out of the country. This created a serious demographic problem for yemen. You have 2 million unemployed workers coming also not returning to yemen, which created a foreign currency issue. Host we have james on the line from alabama, in independent caller. Caller it appears to me saudi arabia and the United States are really in collusion in this situation. President of yemen run out of office because he was allowing the u. S. To use jones drones military strikes. The u. S. Was bombing and droning. Now, saudi arabia and the u. S. Are in collusion to try to put that guy back in office. I want to hear with this guy has to say. Guest the former president come i believe that is who you were referring to, he was ousted after a popular Political Movement against him. His Vice President was put in. [inaudible] host let me take a couple of calls and may be read a couple of articles while we work on the audio from our guest of in boston. Lets hear from jeff. We do not quite have our guest now. Maybe i can take some notes. Caller i was curious. I understand in north yemen and south yemen were two different political entities. I was wondering whether that was based on tribal allegiances or territorial allegiance by colonial powers. I was wondering if it would be more stable if a delicious division were in place. I think it is chaotic and assemble the time of chaos and the middle east. Host what do you see as the u. S. Role if any . Caller not much. It is probably a better bet for us to back the saudis because we have better interests with them and also to contain the influence of iran, that is a basic outline. We do not have the burden of wondering whether we are being inconsistent without support of democratic liberty because it does not exist in yemen. Host thank you for calling. The New York Times writes about all of this recently. They say the fighting needs to end and a political dialogue needs to be restarted. The u. N. Led Diplomatic Initiative had made some progress, but the Security Council never gave it enough support and attention. Now the United States official who led the negotiations, and iraqi diplomat had resigned and returned to new york. Finding a solution may not be easy or even possible. One thing it will require saudi arabia to accept, and indigenous yemeni group as part of the structure. Many resources on al qaeda and the peninsula. The real beneficiary of widening chaos. Lest i bob in massachusetts. Good morning. Caller wondering if youre a guest could answer the question about a deal being broken by the white house and john kerry with iran. Who poses a greater threat to us, isis or iran . Host we do have our guest back to it were you able to hear the last caller . Caller yes. I think the case in yemen are two domestic issues. How the agreement will proceed is a matter of negotiations. In terms of who the greater threat is, the threat of al qaeda to the arabian peninsula. A group has not really emerged in yemen but al qaeda is the only sure victor in yemen as the Bombing Campaign continues. The most seasoned fighting force in saudi arabia, their main target were al qaeda tribes treisman aligned with al qaeda. With the impending defeat on the offensive philly to ms. Al qaeda in this case. Host a caller was speculating a division of north yemen and south yemen and whether that is the way to go. Guest there never was a united yemen. The religious divisions, one is sunni. Historically, there have been two separate yemens. There was a movement at least in december of 2014 to form a federated state, meeting the who sees would take a Northern State and a federated Southern State united yemen under a federation in yemen. This situation has not panned out. Host . Is calling for our guest up in boston. Caller my comment is to extend on the first callers comment. We cannot trust anything the United States government says. Basically, they were bombing the yemenis rebelling against a corrupt president , to declassified documents. In reality, it was the United States bombing them. The saudis are trying to control the mideast, a monarchy established by the west. Saudis are the number one importers of arms in the countries and they are funding isis, destabilizing syria. These are about maintaining their lives and domination over the region. United states say one thing and do another. They are negotiating with iran they are spying on them, they were negotiating previously, the virus was released on them through the Obama Administration. We cannot trust a word our government says and the people of the nice states have to realize that. We are living in a military state. Guest it is a difficult situation the United States and the Obama Administration is in. Theyre trying in some ways to straddle both sides of the saudi arabia and conflict that is emerging. There is a point that you could really a nor ignore the fact there is a saudi led coalition. In a matter who you are, you have to recognize a number of states are coming together on a particular matter and you have to address that, whether it is supporting or mediate the conflict. That is an important coalition emerging. Host let me repeat the phone numbers one more time. Host our guest is from university up in boston. Here is a tweet. Guest that is a good question. The middle east has changed significantly since the beginning of arab spring. I do not think anyone has a doctrine, both not those living in the middle east and not those abroad. It is difficult to see what will be emerging in the coming years. I do not think anybody has a doctrine. That said, there is a perception that obama is reacting instead of being proactive, reacting to the saudi coalition, in this case, or events in yemen, rather than coming up with a clear idea of what the agenda is. I am not sure there can be a clear agenda. Host how do we know which tribe is the least threat to yemen . Guest there is a potential for the who see led alliance to be a factor for american policy in yemen. It is not unheard of that in the past history they have been extremely opportunistic receiving military aid including in the past in the 1960s from saudi arabia and israel as well. It is an Opportunistic Group put a clear isolated and are willing to accept aid from anywhere, and perhaps even the united dates if humanitarian aid were offered in a specific way. Host republican, good morning tim. Caller just say that everything was peaceful in the middle east. Imagine that might be. Would there not be more and more and more of these tribes rising up and trying to claim power as they have been generations and generations and generations . My real concern is this is a problem that iran is trying to primarily take over the entire region. I would like to know the viewpoint on that. Guest these tribes have in there for centuries. They are one of the oldest settlements in yemen and one of the strongest political elements in yemen. What were seeing in yemen is a domestic crisis. Rather than iranian intervention, per se. That being said, the who sees i am sure are getting some kind of aid. They have renamed some of the streets and there is evidence of transfer to the who sees. But they are not necessarily synonymous with chaos or any other destabilizing movement or political entity. Host mike is calling from west virginia. A democratic caller. Caller get on here. I was wondering what role the regional players will play in this conflict. And then just a wider frustration with the comments that the iranian deals are separate from the regional conflict spirit i am an optimist in that i think it would a of the way for a better behavior from iran because of what i have to gain from further deescalation in the region. Can you take the first question first . Guest in terms of your first question, the saudis and most of the others in the region are participating in the obama campaign. After, we when the victory is declared at some point the saudi money and reparations and reconstruction in yemen will be very important as the country is mired in a serious humanitarian crisis. In terms of the uranian nuclear negotiations, the reason i say their separate is not because of anything the iranians are doing but because of the fact the Current Crisis could be seen as a domestic crisis rather than a broader sunni shiite conflict. I think it is dangerous to generate to generalize in that way. It is important to look at it rather than as an extension of iranian dominance around the world. Host our guest, asher orkaby of Brandeis University. Our caller is abdul. Thank you for calling. How are you watching us, on the computer today . Caller no. Im watching you on satellite dish. I have been watching you since 35 years ago. I was watching you when i went back here. I wanted to correct your guest on one point. Actually [indiscernible] if they want to stay in saudi arabia, they have to have somebody custodian or whatever. But some of them remain. 25 years ago. The other point, under oath, you know i am a saudi. You know they are very dangerous because you can never trust somebody who lies. Somebody who lies, you can never trust them. So hopefully when they come to the states maybe i can come and prove my point. For them to control yemen is not good for america and is not good for yemen. To control the region, they would create some have it in humanity. Thank you very much for your openness. [indiscernible] no insult to somebody else. Host how are you finding out what is actually happening in your country between the saudis and the mnes . How are you getting your news . Caller that is a good question. I watch al jazeera iwatch bbc. So i get a good conglomerate point of views. I dont get just some point of view. I am not fanatical or illinformed. Host do you have a sense of how folks like you in saudi arabia feel about the government movements in iran . Airstrikes, civilian casualties, the potential for ground action . What is the thought there . Caller to be honest, it is unfortunate that blood for humanity is shed for any reason. Sometimes, unfortunately, it is not the worst alternative. I support my government. In this point of view, i support this and i think they should have done this last year. Then because they met the price for getting them out, even higher. Host one more quick question, what do the saudis think of the United States these days and its role in the middle east . Caller to be honest, you should thank saudi arabia because they arson see her friends for you. Because the American Government you know, does not encourage that. Two very unfortunate policies, you know, because that is bad. For america, for them until now they support them. Some, al qaeda, encouraging al qaeda because the American People to go and go to al qaeda. And they how bad america is see what they do with us with the drones and all of that. Host thank you for calling it abdul from saudi arabia. Anything you would like to respond to . Guest it is always good to hear others. What i would like to respond to to add to the saudi concerns our border unrest, you need a rebellion could also spelled discontent and violent apprise oh in the seven area of saudi arabia. To counter the point, which i think was valid, the results of a Propaganda Movement against the iranians, there was an emerging conflict across the middle east and the saudi propaganda has been pushing iranian intervention in yemen or at least trying to bring it to light. It may be exaggerated but it is a yemeni problem. Host we will hear from brian in michigan, a democratic caller. Caller my brother is serving on the uss roosevelt and i have an following where it is at throughout the dispatches by upi. When i wanted to know and maybe the guest could shed some light on it, when the carrier was originally sent, i read initially it would be joining nine ships in the region. I am wondering are all those ships american ships or are there other countries with our ships and could you may be shed some light on that if there were other nations kind of with our ceiling . Thank you very much. Guest i wish your brother will return safely. There are multiple ships in the area p or whether all of them are together in the coalition that is unclear. But there are most all ships in the gulf region and also ships from other countries as well. Iranians have their ships. The purpose of the American Fleet is to keep the peace between the opposing groups. If shops are fired, it could be a catastrophe for the middle east. Host what will you be looking for in the next couple of days or weeks out of yemen . Guest i hope everyone will recognize the humanitarian crisis in yemen and rather than dropping bombs, will in some way drop aid. There is no water or electricity and i have spoken to several colleagues and there is real concern for the safety and wellbeing in the coming days and weeks. I hope in some way the crisis is alleviated, that children being killed and suffering can really get the aid from the international community. In many ways. Host asher orkaby from Brandeis Universitys joining us from boston. Thanks a lot for your time and insight this morning. We appreciate it. We have 90 minutes less left. Coming up next progressive politics, our guest will be cenk uygur, host of the young turks. And then a former Baltimore Police officer will talk to us about Police Shootings in the u. S. And give us the numbers behind what were seeing in the news. We will be right back. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2015] here are a few of the book festivals we will cover this spring on cspans booktv. We will visit maryland for live coverage of the gaithersburg festival book festival. As well as david axelrod. Book expo, america where the Publishing Industry showcases upcoming books. The first week in june, we are alive, including our threehour live threehour program with Lawrence Wright and your phone calls. That is the spring on cspan2 booktv. In 2003, Judith Miller wrote several stories leading up to weapons of mass destruction. Vice president cheneys chief of staff, she was found in contempt of court and imprisoned in federal jail for 85 days. She talks about her time in jail as well as who new book, a reporters journey. I refused to reveal the identity of a source who i did not want his identity revealed. Our business, protecting sources is the lifeblood of independent journalism. I really felt unless the people i routinely spoke to who had access to classified information , if they could trust me to protect them, my sources would dry up and eventually, i would just be writing with the government wanted you to write. I felt it was a question of principle and that i did not have much choice. Tonight on cspans q a. Washington journal continues. Host we will talk politics and specifically progressives and the election. Thank you for joining us, cenk u ygur. What is a young turk . Guest the largest new show in the world, 32 channels, Largest Network on you, about 120 million views on youtube on facebook. To your actual question of what a young turk is, it is a young progressive looking to overthrow the establishment system. That is what we are looking to do here. Washington is enormously corrupt. We looking to change the system. Host once you overthrow the system, talk about 2016 for us. Guest as things stand today the number one issue is getting money out of politics. We have affect doubly lost our democracy. The study between 1981 and 2002, they studied 1800 policy issues and said that Public Opinion has zero effect on policy. That means we do not live in a democracy anymore on an international level. It has zero effect on policy pundit Public Opinion which means it is not a democracy. It is something else. State level, democracy does exist there p are getting money out of politics is imperative. You are not function in a society where voters count. Once you get beyond that issue then there are other things. Net neutrality, an incredible rich people came to our side. You have got to fix the banks. That system is intensely corrupt and that would be the next thing up on our priority list. Host we will put the phone numbers on the bottom of the screen for our guests as we talk politics here. How would you describe a progressive . Cenk uygurguest someone who believes in change and that we can expand freedom together. Whether it is blacks in america women in america, gays in america, we are banning liberty. Folks have fought against liberty and luckily almost always lost. Host you will see a piece recently where there is a sketch of the former secretary of state and a declared president ial candidate and it said, left of hillary, you the left to hillary you are a phony. Guest telling Goldman Sachs they are misunderstood. On the board for a long time telling multiNational Corporations are so lovely for us. Pro banks, prowar, what part is progressive . I do not think she is remotely progressive. Host who is your favorite alternative . Guest i will not make news. Elizabeth warren. If she gets into the race, she would have an excellent chance of winning. I might even say she is a favorite if she got into the race. Everyone says you cannot beat hillary. She was beaten into thousand eight in the same exact way. You would have to the five to say Hillary Clinton is inevitable. She is basically making the same mistake today she made in 2008. Going into a democratic primary and taking it for granted. Going with all of these positions. If you had, youd probably have helped isis. Host why hasnt senator warren gun into the race . Guest i do not know her personally. I cannot get into her head. Probably decent human beings feel a little she is humble and modest. She probably thinks, no, mi really going to argued to be the president . I just got into the senate. She has got to be more like barack obama. Give me a little more politician on that, more ambition on that. Host lets hear from Hillary Clinton last week talking to workers at a small furniture factory. Hillary clinton American Worker productivity has continued to go up. American workers work longer and harder and more productively and the vast majority of workers around the world. But it has been difficult to turn the increased productivity into increased rate increased wages and increased benefit. In some cases, we will have Small Companies if the margins are too thin. It is hard to do that in some places where they have big companies, they just choose not to care stock buybacks and increase the wages and salaries of people who contributed to productivity. Looking at the range of different kinds of companies because some companies have the cash and make decisions that lead out their workers and some try to keep the doors open and be successful and stay afloat. Guest that sounds great. My real question to her, and i hope reporters asked her, is yes, but what are you going to do about it . She has no policies that would affect any changes along those lines. Are you going to close Corporate Tax loopholes . President obama and republicans say, sure, if we cut Corporate Taxes. There is no need. It widens their advantage. Just get rid of the loopholes. American people would love you. Theyre dying for a populist candidate. It is good talk, but you have got to back it up. Never done anything in her career to go after corporations or effect change in income inequality. Host democratic caller, mary. Caller paul, i am so glad you are hosting today with cenk. I sure do miss that guy. I wish everyone would pay a little more attention to Bernie Sanders. If you listen to him, he says the solutions, the problems. Hillary is just another run of the establishment. Thank you so much for letting me talk to my dear cenk. Host let me add to that. This nbc news headline, basically why arent progresses excited about Bernie Sanders . Guest i think he is right on most issues and i think he is terrific and i wish we lived in a country where he had a better chance at the white house. The reality is it is not that progressives are not excited. It is the Mainstream Media so thoroughly dismisses Bernie Sanders that it is hard for him to break through. The great thing about a president ial race is you get a lot of free media but im not sure he would get this same free press others would. Host lets go to our caller. Are you there, edmund . Roger in pennsylvania, a democratic caller. Are you there . Caller Elizabeth Warren, im a huge supporter but i do not think she could win. I just want to make a statement adolf hitler got elected through a process and after world war ii, they decided they have to put rules and regulations on a democratic process, so they came up with equal time loss. Ronald reagan and equal time loss, that is the quanzhou the country is in right now. I seem to be the only one who really seems to realize that. There has to be a rule and regulation on the freedom of the press to stop people being brainwashed in washington. Democrats are brainwashed and republicans are brainwashed. That is what i want to say. Thank you. Guest theres actually no reason to believe that. Look at how dave beat eric cantor in that race. First time and House Majority leader ever lost in american history. He did it by not saying he would be more conservative or give more advantages and tax cuts to the corporations, but by doing the reverse. He ran a really populist campaign. It is popular by definition. Elizabeth warren is incredibly smart and can run it in a balanced way. To your point about other kinds of balance, were both sides have equal say, i prefer to get money out of politics and get Public Financing of elections. If you have that, we sign their checks and they work for us. That way, and even playing field. Lets have a real battle of ideas and not of who is getting bribed more than the other side. Host trade into all of this. Senator warren and the president has had a good back and forth lately. A recent interview with msnbc talking about some of the criticism his trade plan is getting. President obama i love elizabeth and we are allies on most issues but she is wrong about this. Let me be more clear about trade generally and why this is so important. I am not somebody who believes in trade just for trades sake. I come from a state, illinois devastated by manufacturing and many small towns. We had a stretch of a couple of decades where in part, because of globalization, you had manufacturing moving in search of low wages. No Environmental Standards or labor standards or trade deals have not always work for us. What i have also always believed is that it is important for us to be able to export our goods to ensure our businesses it is good for workers, american businesses, and Small Business. When i came to office, i said, what kind of trade deal ought we see, to make it work for america . We know we would have strong enforceable labor standards strong Environmental Standards we would make sure they have access to our markets like they have access to ours. We decided to start trying to craft a new kind of trade deal. 95 of customers for u. S. Business will be outside of the United States. If we want to comedic compete, we have got to be there. Host with that comes this headline, stop making untrue trade claims. They write that senator warren told the president on saturday making untrue claims about his opponents and himself. It was called in the president to medially declassify a pending trade deal on the Transpacific Partnership hit what you make of the back and forth, a supposedly youd question mark suppose if youd suppose it su pposed fued . Guest i am a Elizabeth Warrens side, based on the facts. It is a fact that the Transpacific Partnership is being negotiated in secret. President obama claims other side otherwise, it is almost a baldfaced lie. I say almost out of respect. If it is not a secret, why doesnt he just show it to us . He cannot because it is secret. Conservatives should hate every part of this deal. It gives away National Sovereignty so National Corporations can take us to a world court to get rid of environmental regulations. They can perhaps the toxins in the rivers and ranking waters in arkansas, oklahoma, texas, and you cannot do a thing about it in your state. Menu will give Fast Track Authority to president obama, and yet the republicans want to do it because they do not believe in their ideology. They believe in crony capitalism. It is a giant giveaway to corporations where they are top donors. They do not work for us. They work for the donors. In that same study, special interests had a direct correlation to public policy. When will we wake up that we do not own this country anymore and they do . We have got to take it back. Host the democratic caller. Go ahead. Caller good morning cenk. It is a pleasure to speak with you and i have been following the young turks for many years. I would like to ask you how you feel about the future influence of Television Advertising. Dvrs are very common. People are watching the programming to the internet bypassing Television Advertising. If Television Advertising ceases to become a major influence how does that affect how Campaign Financing will go forward and the money will influence the politics . Guest that is a great question. It has some positive and possibly negative ramifications. Let me explain. People are always wondering why the Mainstream Media, major cable news outlets do not give you the heart of the story which is, if you are in politics, what are these based on . Reality is, they are based on what the donors and lobbyists want. A study over 20 years shows that to be absolute fact. Why do they never say on television . An enormous part of televisionss revenue stream is money in politics. They spent the money on television advertisements. Television will not tell you the truth because they are not invested in that. They are invested in the exact opposite direction. Lets talk about the mainstream guys who run on advertising. The downside of the internet getting so strong and some interviewers going there is eventually they will figure out they have got to put advertisements in Digital Space and when they do, we have to make sure we are there when they get corrupted. Money is a powerful weapon and cool. When that pours into the digital side as it is beginning to now, we have to be careful not to be swayed in the same Way Television has. Host an independent caller named james. Mine to you. Caller what three changes would be the most important to end the corruption he described earlier . Guest great question but i honestly do not think statutory is the way to go here. I think you need an amendment. If you pass any statutes, the Supreme Court can just come in and say no, money does not corrupt politics. You must get in amendment to go above the Supreme Court it we have an entire organization dedicated to this. I started wolfpack to chase down and hunt down other packs and end them. The whole point is you can go around congress and you do not need this corrupt congress. You go to the state and ask for a convention to get an amendment. That way congress is irrelevant and you get an amendment and get all money out of politics could we can and will fix the system. You have got to be bold and strong and go in that direction. I believe in a big change. Host our guest is cenk uygur host and founder of the young turks and founder of the wolfpack. How did you get involved in all of this . Guest i used to be a lawyer and hated it. A show on cable access in virginia. After the first show, which i think most people found ill, i walked off the set thinking, i love this and i want to do this the rest of my life. Then i went into radio and tv and 13 years ago, we started the young turks on sirius satellite radio. 10 years ago, we started an online video. We are the longest running daily stream on the web. No one has had a stream running live every day as long as we have. Once i got to online video and we saw an explosion in growth, first on youtube like i said earlier, no one faced look and hulu and roku and all these outlooks we knew we had found a better way. All my life, i had to do with Program Directors and radio in tv who did not know a thing about connecting and audios an audience. It turns out, we are at over 2. 5 billion views. Apparently, we had a bit of a winning formula and did no what were talking about the be honest with your audience. If youre honest with your audience and you serve them, politicians, powerful people they recognize it. Host what is the goal progressives should have in 2016 . Guest they have got to be a forceful as possible starting immediately. The hope resumption Hillary Clinton will walk in the primaries is a terrible idea. The whole point of a primary us to have a real battle of ideas within the party. After the primary, it is too late. Then they will scream, what do you want to do . You want a republican in office . Theyre right about that. If you give me a choice between Hillary Clinton and a maniac like ted cruz, of course i will choose Hillary Clinton. There is a real difference between them. Having said that, getting progressives in the primaries is the point of the primaries. Start now. Push for real trade deals, not trade deals that give away our sovereignty and do not strip us of our rights, said environmental and labor laws, let alone getting money out of politics. Host tim from new england. Are you there . Caller im calling from england. I have been following with interest cenks debate with sam harris on internet recently. Im three hours up the road from paris. My question is, what should progressives attitudes be toward the relationship between the state and religion and have we got that balance right when it comes to religious expression . Where should the balance be struck . Guest this is an interesting story to had a debate on sam harris on our show that lasted three hours with no commercial breaks. In the old days of television they would have said you are mental. Do not do that and nobody will watch. Over 850,000 people have watched online. It is a testament to come if you do things right, you trust the audience, that they are smart they will actually come. To the heart of what you are asking, i am an agnostic. Sam and i actually agree on at least 90 of the issues. I think church should be nowhere near state. I always ask people who think they should be, which church . Lutheran, methodist, catholic protestant . Which should rule us all . In order to protect religion and the state, it is to be completely and utterly separate. There it needs to be completely and utterly separate. We have radical christians in this country who believe in things like armageddon and that jesus will return, Michele Bachmann talked about it last week. She was briefly leading among the republicans last time around in 2012 as their candidate. There is a significant portion of the country and people watching right now who believe it would be fantastic if we had armageddon where almost everybody in the world died and their beloved jesus came back the prince of peace. They do not recognize the irony and the lunacy of that statement. They would like to make it happen. We have got to make sure we stop that. Host kevin calling from iowa, a democratic caller. Welcome, kevin. Caller thank you. I love the young turks. I heard you mention ted cruz, a republican. The reason i love the young turks is because you put the conservative news channel kind of to their point that you basically put them what i want to say, exaggerations and stuff. Back to ted cruz, who do you think will be the front runner in the republicans and since 2014, the democrats then go out in book and vote, do you think the front runner of the democrats, do you think they will get a round or candidate and hopefully get their candidate back in the white house, or do you think a republican will get in the white house. Guest theyre making a mistake that is understandable and 95 of the time in congress, the person with more money wins. This is the heart of the problem i have been talking about all show. In the case of the president ial race, it is an interesting exception to the role, because you have so much free media covering the president ial race that the money jeb bush will race will be more than the others and it will not be as big a factor or as decisive. Jeb bush excise exactly zero republicans in the country. After mitt romney, they are exhausted with picking the same old establishment republican. I think it jeb bush is far more sane than the other guys, but if you ask me right now, it is tough to call. Last time around, it was much easier. But this time, i think rand paul is the most likely to win. I know that is somewhat bold and i know he has got huge downsides in terms of politics, let alone policy, but if you ask me, i think he has got a better chance we are on the democratic side, for say, somebody run, everybody run. Run against Hillary Clinton. Of course you can beat her. Barack obama beat her with the same strategy. Tell people you will do something about income inequality and the banks, and they will vote for you. Hillary clinton they know for a fact will not do any of that. They have not represented a change for decades, the clinton family. Host photo dude writes this is all about congress on twitter. Reality is you cannot accomplish any agenda. Campaigns are flat promises to what you make of that point . Guest it would be lovely if the president of the United States tried. It is an excuse they make for barack obama all the time. Im not unaware of Congress Passes blocking him. Of course. Anybody can see that, but i think it makes an enormous difference if you put bold effort. President obama recognizes that marijuana has positive health effects, is less dangerous than alcohol. He used marijuana when he was younger and it did not ruin his life because it did not get him arrested like it did for millions americans. So what will you do about it . Nothing, cannot do anything. Of course you can. You might consider that a small issue. Millions of people have been unjustly imprisoned throughout the country, but that is an example of how republicans twist my arm and i cannot try to increase taxes on the rich a little more. They think obama raised taxes on the rich. He only increase taxes by about 6 when you talk about overall. But 94 of bushs tax cuts got made permanent under obama. They were not permanent under bush. They are now permanent because of president obama. That is what we talk about when we say he is not a real progressive. Host you said earlier, somebody run against hitler clinton. Governor omalley of maryland talked about a flanking maneuver that is causing headaches for clinton on the left. They write that they are he is using the closely watched and long anticipated 2016 watch to raise his own profile ahead of his own likely entry. He sees on specific policy issues, including samesex marriage and International Trade deal. This is to raise questions. The attacks were somewhat more thinly veiled than others. Difficult topics, not part of her plan for a gradual rollout of the campaign. What you think of Martin Omalley and that kind of strategy . Guest god bless. It is definitely the right strategy. Im not sure Martin Omalley is the progressive candidate we are looking for, but i like that he is making the effort. I like the issues he is bringing up. I won as many choices as possible. I do not know why Brian Schweitzer stepped away. He has got to step back in. He is an interesting governor out of montana or that brings up a lot of issues. Jim webb is an interesting person. He is a little more right on some of the issues but he is earnest and honest and in some ways populist. Obviously worn, sanders, grayson, come all. Lets have a real debate in this country. Host chuck, ohio, a democrat. Caller good morning. How are you guys doing this morning . I want to ask you about the power the right has and the lack of backbone. Msnbc is weak politically. Fosses got their 24hour machine out there. Where is the key goldman of our time . Ewan at scholz are the only two guys out there that have any kind of strength a voice in that population. Your thoughts on that . Thanks. Guest it is not an accident strong voices get weeded out of the National Conversation on television. If you have got a strong voice saying get money out of politics, that could cost tv stations billions of dollars. So it happens gradually over a period of time. In my case, i had a very direct conversation. But the reality, you shouldnt worry about it at all. Tv is dying. Right now, the average age of the cnn audience is 63 years old. The average age of a fox news viewer is 68 years old. The average viewer of a bill oreilly viewer is 72 years old. They guy is doing his show out of a Senior Citizen center. For the young turks online, i closer other, 120 Million Viewers a month. 40 million unique viewers a month. And 78 of them are under the age of 35. We have the young. As someone in the alley industry told me, we decided the young turks is important because of our because our young kids never watch broadcast news and never will. They watch online news. Dont worry, the calvary is here. We have strong progressive voices and they are growing online. Host as you talk about young voices, marco rubios feature why he might have a chance with young voters. Lets talk about young voters than. Then. What is the message for them to get them out to vote . Guest i am always amused when republicans think they are going to energize young voters like, hey, guys, lets do more Corporate Tax cuts. They stop the rally, your children, whatever, we have to go help the rich did [laughter] i know that it works with a certain percentage of the population because of the brainwashing the worn again republicans, so it is not like no young voter ever vote republican, but how do you get young voters energized . They are trying to get students because a lot of students dont have in state ids. That is not an accident. The republicans dont want them to vote because most young voters go democrat because those voters are not a part of the establishment. They dont have them out have the money, the power, the privilege to protect host lets go to john. Columbus, ohio. A democratic caller. Thank you for calling, john. Caller yes, i would like to get the guests opinion on the problem with gerrymandered districts out here. In ohio, it happens. Elegant have managed to get control of things and democrats can get their foot in the door. The house of representatives or the state legislature. But it is hard to figure out of course, maybe the democrats but it loses everyones confidence in the system. What is your opinion . What is the answer to this . Guest you are exactly right to point that out. Gerrymandering is an outrage. You are also right that it is outrageous if it benefits republicans, it is outrageous if it benefits democrats. The representatives of the politicians in this case. Ok, i would like to carve out this particular contain district because i know high have a better chance of winning that. The reality is unfortunately the problem is i start impact start apac. If you could solve the gerrymandering issue today, i would fight like hell for it. But one to get an amendment to get money out of politics then you open up the whole world. People think that we oh, the money and the power always rules the country. That is actually not true. From fdr in 1978, we got social security, medicaid, all anonymously possible popular areas. Progressives were superstrong in this country because at that point, voters mattered. In a system like that that actually existed in this country, we could end gerrymandering of districts. But you have to get the money out. Otherwise you cant win on any of these issues because they drown you on money. Host south dakota. Independent collar. Caller yes, back to tpp. I am trying to form an opinion on it. What has bewildered me here somewhat i dont know if i pronounce her name right your name right. Say it again . Caller in turkish, the c is pronounced like a t. Dont sweat it. Caller ok. Anyway, what im getting at here is that you are talking about the secret negotiations and it is all secret. Yet, if a secret i was wondering how you got information that you are saying that the corporations would have to be sued in a world court. In other words, that is supposedly a part of the negotiation there, but you are saying negotiation secrets. So im wondering where you got your information. Guest that is a great and logical question. We got it through leaks. This is what they dont want. And this is amazing. This part, you dont have to rely on leaks or anything along that line. What we know is that corporations are allowed to see the negotiations, but for a long time, our representatives when a lot were not allowed to receive to see the negotiations. Even the congressman and the senators, they cannot bring staffers with them, they cant take note. They just look at it and try to memorize it and then leave the room. That is on the after the absolutely demanded that right. Whereas corporate heads can go in and sit there all day long. Who do you think runs the country . Isnt that amazing that our representatives can barely look at a document, we cant, but corporations can look at all they like. That is because at this point you have to get used to that factual that we can change that fact. To your point, all we know about it is through people who did see the documents telling us and the press. Host just under 10 minutes left with our guest. How did progressives, in general, feel about what is happening in the world right now . Guest so, i agree with Barack Obamas stance before the 2008 election. I am not against all wars, i am just against dumb wars. So afghanistan in the beginning made sense. But if we are going to stay there for decades and decades it doesnt make sense. Iraq never made any sense. They never attacked us on 9 11. Look at all the things that flew out, including isis. I dont know why other reporters dont think dick cheney and donald trump child Donald Rumsfeld are saying you open up a pandoras box. You create an anarchy. You started a sunnishia civil war. And out of that, rose these monsters. So we have got to be careful. Yes, from time to time, force is required. But that time should be rare, not all the time. We have the biggest camera ever built, the greatest military the world has ever seen. And because of that, all we see is nails. Syria . You bomb it. Iraq . You bomb it. Iraq pakistan, afghanistan. We have been accident may killing civilians, perhaps thousands of them, when they were in pakistan. This is how we turn the world against us. It is not like we dont have answers. What are the correct answers . The greatest thing we have ever done set of the united nations, do the marshall plans, rescue our former enemies. We took two countries that were at war with us enter them into our greatest allies. The two biggest economic powers of ted is that it powers outside of the United States for decades and decades. After defeating them, we then helped them. You do it out of practicality because it works. Host what do you think about drones . Theres a headline that says theres huge support in washington, despite everything we are hearing heard guest we are hearing. Guest drones are a tool. It depends, what do you characterize as terrorism . Unfortunately these days, every enemy of ours is called a terrorist. Who is your target and how are you targeting them . There are personality strikes and signature strikes. Personality structure when we know we are bombing. Signatures drugs are we literally do not know who we are bombing. We are doing it based on cell phone information, based on their workers there was a lot of guns in the area. Based on that, we would bomb the hell out of texas. I dont agree with drone strikes where we dont know who we are killing. I dont think that is too much to ask for that we not do that can of drone strike. Host jason, florida, a democrat. Hello, there. Caller good morning. I want to know if some one has talked about the state of puerto rico because this is a very top hot topic in the island. Even recently, arroyo did a documentary about that. I want to know if your guest has an opinion about puerto rico and what he should think that they should talk about in the 2016 election. Host what do you think should happen there . Caller in the 2012 election, there was a question in the election. They said yes or no, and 53 of the residents in the island voted for yes. But congress has done nothing about it. Guest puerto rico. Look, that is a tough issue. I have a lot of opinions, as you can tell, about a lot of issues. But i have to study that one a little bit more. I was in favor of puerto rico deciding their own fate. If the next step is for congress to take action, then i would be in favor of taking that action. Host a tweet here, ask him if the press covers up for the president. The role of the press. Guest so, this is really interesting. It is not like the press is interesting on president obama. There are all these attacks come as you point out. But what is interesting is that fox news attacked the president on things that he did an excellent do. Like the irs scandal is not a scandal. The targeted liberals just as much as the targeted conservatives. That is what they are supposed to do, autodesk. So that is not a real scandal. What of the go after the real scandals . The fact that the Financial Companies were the largest donors to president obama in 2008, then he was incredibly soft and continued the bailouts. Why arent they complaining about president obama helping the banks . They are not complaining about that because the republicans also do that. So they ignore the real problems with president obama, which exit could do real damage to his presidency, because they agree with president obama on all those issues. Then the press follows along and says, the republicans are screaming about irs and benghazi, so i guess i have to cover those things. Host sarasota, florida. A democrat. Good morning to you. Caller hi, good morning. I was just watching your program and i saw a program talking about the silos in this country. I think there is a solution for the salary problem. After a here you work in a place, you will be entitled to [indiscernible] that means if you dont make a lot of money well, your salary is going to stay there. But if you work in a place and you get 1 million at the end of the year, you can share some of that with the employees. Because i saw a lot of places when they got the big names say you are the hearts of these companies. The heart of the company died little by little when their ceo take all the money and left when something happened, like have been 10 years ago. Host i got the point. Lets ask our guest. Guest in some ways, what you ask for has happened in some instances with stock options. And some people have gotten quite wealthy if they have worked at the right company. But i think you brought up an interesting point that is related, which is Small Business versus big business. They dont have the same interests. Big business has enough money to legally bribed the politicians and crushed their competition. I dont think there is a constituent in this country that would benefit more from getting money out of politics than Small Business because capitalism works against them. So there is great entrepreneurs throughout the country, and the all caps health we had a clean honest system where you had a free market system. By the way, the young turks is a Small Business. I know how it is to compete against large businesses. In terms of helping their employees, there is a lot of different ways to structure that. But i think the german system is really interesting because labor is half their board. So the company has to think about their workers as an important constituency. In america, labor is not considered at all on the board. So the board who makes the decisions focuses the benefits on the executives rather than the workers. Host lets hear from joe in massachusetts. Hey, joe. Caller good morning. You made a statement that Hillary Clinton has never done anything for working here working people. Back in the early 1990s, insurance rates were going up 10 , a level percent. In 1994, just by starting the dialogue, the insurance rates went down 2 . Sure, she didnt get the legislation passed, but it gave the workers a break. We went in to talk to the employer and they said, oh, yeah, we will give you a raise. Guest this is why i love the dialogue. And this is what we do online. You have to keep me honest in you are right. Yes, Health Insurance rates dipped a little bit, then they went back up tremendously. But that is not Hillary Clintons fault. She really did try. You have to give her credit for that. Of course, she has done different progressive things in her life heard is a progressive enough . No, not remotely. Visit centerleft . I would argue is it centerleft . I would argue no, she is a little centerright. She has done more things that in my opinion, protect the establishment and protect the status quo. The status quo has been awesome for the clintons. Host what do you make of the shootings in this country, all the news about the police and folks in various cities . It seems like there is a headline every day. Guest i think that there is a problem with the culture of policing in america. So, it is several fold. First of all, they are taught dont take any risks with your life. If you have any question at all shoot first, ask questions later. And that is systemic. It is throughout the country. Im sorry, but cops are supposed to take a risk for the left. That is why they are heroes. It is like saying a fireman saying, what, are you crazy . Im not going to run into that burning building. I know, but you are a fireman. So fireman do not say that because that is their jobs. So taking a risk with your life is the job. I cant have you shooting a 12yearold in cleveland within two seconds of arriving. I cant have you shooting people within four seconds of arriving at i cant have you putting people in a choke hold and when they say you cant breathe they cant read, you dont treat them as human beings. You need to actually serve the community. Lets be honest, and the current culture of policing in america serving the Community Seems like a joke to them. The idea is, no, i am here to straighten them out. Right . When you have an antagonistic attitude like that, then you are suppressed the community doesnt trust you. Look, it is not an easy job. No, we get it, man. You are going to go into Domestic Abuse situations that are volatile. But that is a tough job. We needed to take that responsibility seriously. Right now, i dont think they are. Host to vermont now, tony is calling in on the independent line. Hello, tony. Caller good morning. Cenk, it is great to have you back. I think the greatest event that has affected america has been citizens united, which is giving corporations a greater voice. We have a lot of problems in this country immigration, health care, infrastructure. The one solution would be if that happens, we will move. This has become the United States of corporate america. Thank you. Guest you are absolutely right about that. When we have a convention to get this amendment to get money out of politics, we will accept all ideas. If you ask me, my favorite version of that amendment involves Public Financing of all elections across the country. Think about the insane system we have set up. Where we allow incredibly rich people, often National Corporations, which are just a moral robots, no actual person in america believes that corporates corporations are a human being. So, if those guys are writing giant checks to people, does anyone really believe they are working for us . They are working for the people who write the giant checks for them. If we write the checks, that is what Public Financing is. People say that would cost a lot of money. Are you kidding me . It is the tiny a tiny faction of what they give away in capitalism. The Oil Subsidies alone are up to 40 billion a year for the most profitable countries in the world. If we did Public Financing at a fraction of that cost, on Oil Subsidies alone, it would be well worth the cost. I just want to be clear about this. Our liberator liberal friends, we would all get to do proposals for how to clean up the corruption on this one issue of getting money out of politics. Host that being said, the b is very much out there. A billion dollars. We have seen the headlines about Hillary Clinton perhaps having a goal. What does it billion dollars into this process . Guest it means that they are in a race to simply flat out bribe our politicians. In this town, we are so immersed in how the system currently works that we are having trouble stepping outside and taking a look at it. If you said to anybody, you know what, in zimbabwe, and russia, some rich oligarchs are going to give 1 billion to one party. We would say, look at the corruption. Look at how corrupt the russians are. They give a billion dollars to their politicians and all he does is work for that oligarch. It is obvious in any other context. It is also obvious in this context. There are not giving 1 billion for the health. Also, any of the these candidates. It is that the system, by definition, corrupts you. When you take 1 billion from someone, trust me, that makes a difference. You work for them, you dont work for us. Host this tweet do you have an actual political agenda . So far, all have heard is a rage against the machine. [laughter] guest we are enormously specific. There are a lot of groups out there who talk and 10 rallys. Our intention is to get a specific amendment to clean up the politics. So, if you ask me, oh, clearly Hillary Clinton versus barack obama. That makes differences on the edges. What makes joint differences is an amendment that fixes the system, gets money out of politics. The only generation of americans that has not amended the constitution is ours. Lets get our democracy back. Host cenk uygur is host of the the young turks. Thank you for joining us to talk about progressives and Everything Else in politics. Guest thank you so much. Host we will take a short timeout and switchgear here. We will talk next a little bit more about Police Shootings in the u. S. By the numbers. Numbers which are sometimes hard to get, but our next guest, peter moskos is an assistant professor and has some insight for us on what is happening out there in the country. Be right back. At the International Consumer Electronics Show in vegas there this year, we spoke to the university of california of san francisco, dr. Bluhm, about the future of medicine. You have to bring together these two very different organizations and cultures to really get to that space. We are not going to build huge databases, that is what they are going to do. But they dont know anything about clinical process or about during Clinical Trials and discovering what really works. So we are working on these novel partnerships, and trying to really attack this. Monday night at 8 00 eastern on cspan two. Washington journal continues. Host joining us from new york city is peter moskos, an associate professor. Also a former Police Officer in the city of baltimore, maryland. Good morning. Guest good morning. Host we asked you to, to talk with us more about the Police Shootings around the u. S. And i wanted to begin with some to just six that you have been with some statistics that you have been able to gather. According to copinthehood. Com police kill about three people a day in the united dates. The odds that a black man will be shot and killed by police, one in 60,000. The odds that a white man will be shot and killed by police, one in 200,000. The odds that any given black man was reticulated Police Officer in a given year, one in one million. The odds that any given white man will shoot and kill a Police Officer in a given year, one in 4 million. What is your perspective on those numbers tackle numbers tackle numbers . Guest they are very rare. I did the data. The analyze data comes from a source. I am not 100 certain who the are, but first glance, they seem to have done a pretty good job in the past two years of analyzing almost every death at the hands of police based on media reports of these happenings. Host so, part of the reason we wanted to bring you on, part of the premise here is that some of this data is really hard to get. Hard to come by. Is that true . If so, why . Guest the problem of to now is that we simply dont keep the data. There is no National Clearinghouse for information on Police Involved homicides. Part of the fbi does compile this data. The problem is, it is voluntary for Police Departments to report the numbers to the numbers. And we dont know what is missing. We dont know if the missing data is random. These things are hugely important statistically. It is a shame that as a country we dont know these figures. So, again, i dont know who is behind these numbers that i have looked at, but what they have done is say, ok, we are not going to wait for the acr to get their act together, we are going to comb all the news reports and take in account of every time someone is killed or dies in Police Custody. Host why is it important to have a firm grasp on the breath of this relic country . Guest because if we want to reduce deaths at the hands of lease, the first step is knowing how many police there are. If we are concerned about racial bias in these police deaths, have to know what the Racial Disparity is. We have some idea. I dont want to say that that is gold. I dont want to say more than what i can, but now at least we have some numbers that we can look at based on the past two years. Host starting to get into the numbers about Police Shootings here in the u. S. With our guest peter moskos, an associate professor. He is joining us from new york city. We will get the four numbers on the bottom of the screen. We have a typical letter for republicans and democrats and independents, but a fourth line for Law Enforcement this morning. David mckenzie 202 7480003 for Law Enforcement. What kind of reaction have you received to the collection of these numbers so far . Guest so far, very little. I would love for other people to look at these numbers. I would love them to see whether my analysis is right. Honestly, it is new data. They started collecting it thoroughly about two years ago. I am still waiting to hear from them. Host there is some of the numbers we wanted to point out. A chart that we find at copi nthehood. Com. It involves the annual rate for hundred thousand of Police Involved shootings. If you look at the top of the chart, these would be the states where there are the most Police Related shootings. You will see oklahoma, new mexico, arizona, nevada, arkansas, they top the list. Put the bottom of the list, the annual rate of Police Involved shootings, new york, michigan, new jersey virginia, massachusetts. We will ask our guest to try and explain, get some perspective on what is happening of their in the country and why some states differ from others . Guest and if i can to me, the shocking part about these differences again, i cant stress enough the caveats around us data. I dont to this with all 100 confidence. But a difference between a state like oklahoma and new mexico which are high, and space at the bottom, we are not talking 10 or 20 . We are talking six times as many people per capita are killed by police in the state particularly out west. These are huge differences. And that was a shock to me. If we want to reduce Police Involved killings and if we want to reduce Police Involved killings of africanamericans in particular, this would seem to indicate that we should focus on the Police Departments that are doing the most shootings. There might be some best practices here in new york. Also, the state breakdown is still somewhat crude. The are huge differences within the state. I have started to look at a few places arbitrarily. A place like bakersfield or riverside, california are much higher than, say, los angeles, cal when you. But new york city, in particular, is incredibly low. While it doesnt pick way from the tragedy of individual incidents, even in new york the has been many, perhaps there are some best practices we can learn from. Rather than criticizing every department we can say, if one department is take so much better than the other, if cops in new york city are so less triggerhappy, why is this . Host lets see what questions or comments our viewers have for peter moskos, associate professor. Clark is calling from across come oh scots in. Is calling from wisconsin. Good morning. Caller good morning. We have a problem in unarmed africanamericans being shot by police. These latest incidents, all of the people who were unarmed, you know, and these officers that are doing the shootings are all white officers. There are no blacks coming agents, or hispanic officers. Could you elaborate on that . Host thanks, clark. Guest yeah, there are black officers shooting people. There are asians shooting asian officers shooting people. Part of the reason, looking at these numbers and aggregate again, i am not talking about individual incidents. We dont know simply who was unarmed. Though i want to stress the important thing for the Police Officer is not whether a person is armed or not, it is whether a person is a threat. But i think some of it is a false perception out there that it is only white cops shooting africanamericans. That is simply not the case. For what it is worth, there are lots of what people being shot by police too. They dont tend to get the response. They dont tend to make the national news. So one of my points or there is is that the best way to reduce Police Involved shootings is not to focus on race, but to focus on Police Involved shootings. I think the numbers can come down. And that would benefit everyone. Host who are your strength is numbers with . Besides programs like this, you said there was not much reaction. Guest for now, i am putting them up the flight will and seeing up the flagpole and seeing who will salute. I certainly have to double check the figures. I certainly would like to know more about the organization that is compiling them. But again, these numbers give us such a greater insight than we have had before. Host what do you know about cop in the hood . Guest what do you mean . Host the organization. Guest that started with my book , about policing in baltimore. The data comes from a website, killedbypolice. Net. I suspect they are from the west coast, and i suspect they have done a good job a gathering this data. It is crowdsourcing data to some extent. They would miss killings that dont make the news, but we dont know how many they are missing. And they dont know. But i think most Police Involved killings to make at least the local Police Local News covering. I think it also includes some that dont deserve to be on the list. People who commit suicide when police are on the scene, i dont think that should probably count as a Police Involved killing. So it is not perfect data, but i think we are talking about a certain percentage. That we can work with. Host lets go to body from maryland. A republican caller. Good morning. Caller good morning. First of all, the ferguson truly. The parents knew two hours before the verdict. The stepfather did other car and told them to burn ferguson. Now they are suing. The coverage the news gave over three hours last night let them people destroy the town, let them take the police let them throw stuff at you. This is our problem. They do not nothing. They just let them destroy. When a white person is killed, you dont see white go out and destroy the town. It is these lawyers and the news that is banning all this. And they are probably going to cover this guys funeral. No, he shouldnt have died, but he wasnt. Brown wasnt. And they treat them like they are as or as the snow. Host perspective there from baltimore. We pointed out earlier professor, that you are a former Baltimore Police officer correct . Guest yes, i was there briefly from 1999 to 2001. Host what do you make of what you see in the news . Scenes of chaos as crowds of baltimore protest deaths. They are blocking folks coming out of baseball games. What do you make of what is going on in your former city . Guest i am happy it wasnt worst. That is the first thing. Last night, i was tearing up seeing what was happening to a city that i love. Baltimore is a wonderful city. There are a couple things to keep in mind. First of all the vast majority of protesters were peaceful. That is important to say. It is also important to say that the death of freddie gray, i dont really care whether he has been arrested. If you go into Police Custody a live, you cant come out dead. A prisoner is your responsibility. Even the best case and therefore police here is not good. So there is an investigation. There is going to be, i assume, some responsibility. Baltimore police dont know what happened for sure, but something tragic happened. And, you know, i dont know where and i dont know how much, but something wrong happened. The police here are at fault. Not all of them collectively by any means. What happened last night, there was some violence. I am happy there was as little violence as there was. The city did not burn down. The city was left in chaos. Damage was done. What you saw from police was a very professional response. They were restraint when they had to be. They use force when they had to be. You cannot let a city go into chaos, and they didnt. But again, it is still early and i wasnt there. But overall, when i woke up this morning, i was pleased things happened as well as they did. People have a right to be angry about the death of mr. Gray. I am angry, a lot of cops are angry. Protesting is one thing violence is another. But especially in cases like this, especially in cases like ferguson. In that case, as the department of justice showed, officer Darren Wilson was justified in the shooting of Michael Brown. A lot of people, especially on the left, still havent accepted that fact. But at some point, to argue otherwise is sort of an extreme view like Climate Change deniers or creationists. But these are individual incidents, and we do have to talk about those because people have died. That is a separate issue from the greater issues of racism in society. From the history of racism in society. And racism in Police Departments. We cant really reform things based on individual incidents. We can learn from them, and we should, but often they are two separate incidents. Look, i miss baltimore. I hope everything goes well. Look, people have a right to protest and police have a responsibility to make sure that everything doesnt go to hell. So far, it hasnt been perfect but it is a lot better than a worstcase scenario. Host moving on to thyself michigan. Good morning. Caller good morning, how are you . Host doing well. Caller i am calling it because i dont think the police are the ones committing the crime. I believe it is the kkk out of white uniforms and blue uniforms. They need to be examined to know if they have a racist movement before they even get hired. So, i believe that this is hate crime. They are using the Police Department to cover up crime. To murder blacks. Yes, some whites get killed too but a lot of blacks get killed. The bible says, thy shalt not kill, but they have. We believe in standing up for one another. Very seldom do you see any blacks going into school and murdering a the teachers, the whole classroom. Or a priest raping the little boys. I just feel like if we come together as one unit, we can do things to move things along better than we do. Host lets hear from our guest. Guest i can only speak about my experience in the Baltimore City Police Department. The men and women i worked with, many of whom are africanamerican, it is not a clan holdout. I mean, you could take my word on it or not. I dont think thats the problem. Certainly not in baltimore. Look, most Police Officers, they are people trying to do their job. They are trying to support their families. That doesnt takeaway from abuses that have happened. But in terms of understanding leads, i think it is important to remember that it is not a giant conspiracy of individual officers here. They are just tried to go home in one piece. They dont want to shoot anybody. They dont want to be in a situation where they feel they might have to shoot somebody. Police officers are human beings, and i say this not just to defend police but so that people can understand police better. You have to understand the working class culture of these people trying to do a tough job. Last night in baltimore was a tough job for a lot out there. And they did it well i think. Host staying in baltimore just for a moment, there is a tweet here. Can your guests give any background on the apparent longstanding history of cops giving people a Baltimore Roughriders . Rough ride . Guest yeah, we dont know what happened in the van, but something happened because someone died. I wasnt a wagon driver, though either. Most of the time, the people who drive the wagons are people with a with 30 years on. Not always but sometimes it is a cushy gig before you retire. Cops want their pension. That is what they want. It is a job. It is a special job. So, i dont know what to say. I dont know but no. When i put somebody in the wake up, i had full confidence that they would arrive in the same condition they went in. Clearly, that did not happen here. That is not the normal behavior. Look at it this way. If you are a wagon driver in baltimore and the cop has a situation on the street, why would you come as the driver, risk your life and pension for someone elses grudge . I dont know. But it is hard to talk about the great incident in particular, the details of it, because i dont know. Host lets hear from rate in westerville, ohio. An independent. Youre on with peter moskos. Good morning to you, ray. Caller good morning. How are you gentlemen teco gentleman . Host doing well. What would you like to ask our guest . Caller i was channel surfing and it is immediately apparent to me that there is flaws in your guestss statistical model. Number one, he is relying on media reports. I would indicate that passed big media often referred to as misbehavior in the Trayvon Martin incident, the Michael Brown incident, and countless others that reveal a media bias that apologizes for and enables the rampaging, black criminality that is rampant from the atlantic to the pacific and from canada to mexico in this nation. Guest you know, i am part of that region. I dont see that rampage, but go on. Caller how about fbi uniform crime reports that even though they are not perfect, guest the crime reports are better, by the way. Where they lack is on the Police Involved side. The crime reports are pretty good. Host want to finish up . Caller yes, there is an agenda here that your guest represents one path about. And big media reporting on police misbehavior the two incidents that i mentioned and martin and around are just tips of the iceberg to that. Also, too, he is relying on the data, not metro data. Those are the two big flaws in his that is the go model. Host all right, lets hear from our associate professor guest on his models and where the information is coming from. And a little bit more about the challenge of gathering all this info. Go ahead, sir. Guest again, i take the data and will try to clean up. It takes time and work. It is out there. Go to the website. Please, do what you have to do. It would be great to have metro analysis. Absolutely. I have not had time to do it yet. The state get it was a lot easier to get. But i am still hung up on your guest talking about rampaging black criminality. What we see now, based on these data, is that police are involved in about 1100 deaths a year. So, about three per day. That is a little more than twice was reported to the uniform crime to report. Crime report. We also know from these data that blacks are three times as likely to die at the hands of police. Where it gets a little tricky is what the nominator do you use . Africanamericans make up about 13 of the population. But the rate of Violent Crime is much higher in the africanamerican community. I dont use the term rampaging mind you, but the rate of homicide is six times as high. The rate of those who kill Police Officers is also this production is also disproportionate on racial terms. While blacks to die disproportionately at the hands of police, at least these data dont show that it is out of rate of blacks black vomit. There are armed threats out there. There is no good way to phrase it. I dont want to say, what is the correct ratio break down . But based on levels of violence we have, the Police Levels of killings seem to be in sync. Host melvin is calling from Fort Lauderdale down in south florida. He is with Law Enforcement and a democrat. Good morning. Caller good morning. In addition, in 1980, when baltimore actually had the Discrimination Suit and the blacks won out part of it, they went in and did the promotion there for a couple years. But what i also want to ask a professor on one of the on one incident, he said the fbi found that wilson was justified. They found that there wasnt anything for a hate crime there. And i having problems watching a lot of these Police Officers putting this weight down on the individuals heads and shoulders. That is a tactic that has just come about, and it is something new with it are putting all this weight, and not only one but two or three guys up around the shoulders and head area. I believe this is going to be one of the problems, which results in his death. Guest can i ask you those are good points why do think it has changed . What are the solutions . Caller i dont know. It is a practice that someone has come up with. I meant to talk with the chief and ask if there is something they are using their, but i dont know where it comes from. They start doing these on tv and you see Police Officers doing these procedures themselves, which is just based on tv or movies. I dont know and i dont believe it is part of the training, but it is being used every day. You can see it being used on the street every day. Guest as you know, it is not part of the training. I am interested that you mentioned it, because i thought the same thing. I have been off the streets for a long time, and i dont like to base a raw deal on a few things i have seen on tv, but that struck me as well. Host anything else, melvin . Caller i have been off longer than you. I retired in 1994, but it is still a situation. Guest i do wonder if the greater purposes on less lethal technology, things like tasers, has removed police of it from the necessary handson part of the job. I am just speculating here, but sometimes police to have to go in there and fight. I wonder if the idea and a lot of cops love this, it does reduce injuries, less lethal tactics. But i do wonder whether policing has changed. These are issues are not just when someone dies, but these are issues that we, as a society and as Police Departments, need to constantly address and reassess. That is why it is important to look at the apartments that do a better job and learn from them. Host back to some of the source material we will put on the screen. Explain a little bit more, professor, about what we see on this website. And when you call it up for it looks like a grid. It has dates on it, call hims, locations, names, ages. Tell us a little bit more. Guest keep in mind, i cap see what you see right now. But i have looked at it. You have a spreadsheet. One of my pet peeves as a professor and sociologists people put one variable and one column. It is messy data, just to get the states pulled out of one is a hassle. But that is more for the statisticians out there. But what you have, and what they claim, is that they are not passing judgment. They are just documenting. And they provide links, where available. I certainly havent looked at all 2200 over the past two years, but the ones i have spot checked seem to be valid. They go to original news reports. When they have data, they can pull from that regarding the jurisdiction, regarding the race, they do. Anybody out there. Waiting for, i guess, people like me, but hopefully other people to look at it. Host don is calling from virginia. A democratic caller. Good morning. Caller good morning. I am just amazed at some of the things i am hearing. I am wondering, when is the country going to be honest enough to realize that it is racial profiling . And that there is a lot of racism that does exist in this country. I am a vietnam veteran. I understand about the shoot to kill aspect. And this thing about rampant blacks running around, killing. That is a whole another dynamic and whole lot of disparity that goes with that. But i want to know, whatever happened to shooting to shoot to subdue . You dont have to have had shots, you know . Whatever happened to shooting a person in the legs or arms . If you are a marksman, you dont have to kill all the time to subdue someone. That is a joke. Host thank you. Guest i dont think anything ever happens to it. I dont think it was ever that way. As far as i know, cops are trained to shoot to incapacitate. Cops ares are trained to get to shoot to get rid of a threat. They are aimed to shoot at center mass. But there is a fundamental difference. You are not shooting to kill. The difference is, when you should, you reanalyze. At the threat to there anymore you stop shooting. If the person has a gun and a drop the gun, you stop shooting. That is the standard. It is not, as i said before, whether the person is armed or not. It is whether or not they are an imminent threat. You can have cases that are justified and are still morally and tactically bad. Those are the ones i think we can focus on. I should also say that, of horse, the vast majority of Police Involved shootings are justified. That doesnt take away from the ones that arent, but cops cant shoot in the leg. Heres the problem. When you are involved and i have not been you cant, first of all, the odds are, you are going to miss. It is too hard in an active situation. And a situation that you have never been in before. Most Police Officers are involved in zero shootings. Some are involved in one. Very few are involved in more. You just of the dont have the ability and the training to shoot someone in the leg. Also, someone has a gun and they are shot in the leg, they can still shoot. You have to get rid of that lethal threat. So cops are trained to shoot center mass. Host time for a couple more calls, i think. Sean from ohio is on the life or democrat. Also in Law Enforcement. Caller the first thing i want to say is i dont believe the violent in these protests is agreeable at all. I think that is the silliest thing i have heard. Period. It is not a good thing. Guest i didnt say that, did i . Caller also, what i believe is that the lower income people across the country, the matter what race they are, are the highest appellate is by the Police Shootings. That is what is not being covered by the media. The media is just showing blacks being killed by the police which is going to cause uprisings within the black community. And that is what they are angry about. What needs to happen is they need to basically watch out for what the Bigger Picture is and what i believe is this is just the beginning for people to impose martial law. And that is the Bigger Picture and what i believe we need to be more worried about than what is currently going on in this situation. Guest i am glad you brought up the class dynamic because too often in america, we use race to quickly i think. There are class issues. We dont like talking about class. The problem the crime problem in america is not a race problem, it is a class problem. Rich people commit crimes in different ways. But the violent problem we are talking about on lower class people of all races, but given the history of racism and the presentday situation in america, race too easily becomes a proxy for poverty. Blacks are much poorer than whites in america. Not all blacks, but collectively. Huge problems of race, class income, all caps together. And we are too quick to just talk about race. I think we did to talk more about class. Baltimore is a city a majority, minority city. It has an africanamerican mayor. I dont know off the top of my head what percentage of the Police Department is africanamerican but a quarter or a third i would guess. So this is not just race. We are talking about people in america who dont have hope, who grew up in neighborhoods where the have statistically more than a 10 chance of getting murdered in their lifetime. These are the problems we need to address, and not just when there is a questionable Police Involved shooting. I wish there were some way to talk about it in this country to talk about class, to talk about crime, policing. Except when things get a little violent in baltimore. We need to bring up these conversations at other times as well. If we are constantly focusing on the most violent and on the race of the Police Officer and the race of the suspect, we are missing the big picture. Yes, there are racists in america. If we wait to get rid of all the racism in america before we improve society, we are going to be waiting a long time. Host our guest of the new york city has been peter moskos, a former Baltimore City Police Officer and a current associate professor. Thanks a lot for your time this morning. Guest thanks for having me on. A good talk. Host we appreciate you coming in with your comments and questions this morning. We will be back tomorrow at 7 00 eastern. Here is a look at the guests tomorrow. Read wilson of the Washington Post will join us to talk about the politics of this transpacific trade deal that we have been hearing about. Also, Daniel Ellsberg will join us again. The role of government whistleblowers. What the president the ministration is doing right now about whistleblowers. We will talk about edward snowden, the view of the u. S. Military against isis, and other issues. We will also talk with elena schor. That is tomorrows washington journal. We hope to see you then. Enjoy the rest of your weekend in the meantime. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org]