neera: good morning, everyone. my name is neera tanden and it is my great honor to welcome you to the center for american progress. we are really excited to have special guest today. 61st mayor of new orleans. mitch landrieu. during his 30-year career in public service, mayor landrieu has made it his mission to expand opportunity for people a new orleans and across louisiana. as mayor he s worked tirelessly to make his city safer, to revitalize distressed neighborhoods and to attract new business and investment. his many initiatives are a big reason why new orleans is one of america s fastest growing cities. of course, last month mayor landrieu garnered national attention for a powerful speech he delivered that explained why he fought to remove four confederate monuments from public spaces in his city. many have praised mayor landrieu for the incredible eloquence and passion he displayed that day. and for good reason. but i have to say, i was particularly impressed by mayor l
this past week, secretary of defense james madison and joseph dunford testified on the 2018 budget request for the pentagon. u.s.were also asked about strategy in afghanistan. well, good morning. the senate armed services committee meets to receive testimony on the department of defense s full-year 20 budget request. we welcome secretary matus, general dunford, thank you for your leadership of our minimum and in uniform. before we begin, we all want to acknowledge the service and sacrifice of sergeant eric howe, sergeant william baze, and corporal dylan aldrich. these three soldiers were killed this weekend in afghanistan. but thoughts and prayers of this committee are with their loved ones. the sacrifice of these heroes is a painful reminder that america is still a nation at war. that is true afghanistan or after 15 years of war. we face a stalemate and urgently need a change in strategy and an increase in resources if we are to change this situation around. we also remain
i wanted to start out on the accountability legislation, a big moment in the house touted by republicans in two press conferences yesterday. why did you vote for this bill despite previous concerns? are you satisfied with the legislation? what more needs to be done? rep. walz: i am. thank you all for being here. this is an important piece of legislation. i know my republican colleagues have pushed on this. no one is denying employees at the v.a. need to be accountable. no one is saying that with a when something happens from a wait time scandal or malfeasance things should not be done. to me, the point was how to we make sure we are able to attract and retain good employees, honoring people s constitutional rights to due process, and then making sure we have the tools to follow through on that accountability? i was opposed to the house version because it did not do the things. it did not necessarily protect those folks. the irony is no one we brought in front of congress wa
it out at c-span.org. want to welcome back former house speaker, newt gingrich. the book is called understanding trump. i know you ve been working on this for a while. gerry: i really started in late november. because it was obvious you had a president who nobody understood and who s totally outside the normal political process. and so trying to figure out how to explain him is not called predicting trump, because i don t think anybody can predict him. but trying to figure out how to set up an understanding of what his patterns are, what drives him, what his experiences have been, i thought would be helpful. host: let s go inside the book. it is astonishing to me how the elite media and much of the political establishment refused to try to understand donald trump. they have so rabidly opposed him, so ideologically committed to left-wing values, and so terrified of the future that they haven t stopped and considered how extraordinary s success has been. you go on to say,
responsibility to help our throughontinue to move racial discord. argitay hadmariska h a task force aimed at ending sexual violence. you hear words, dehumanizing, lives derailed, the way lives go off track these are being derailed. children. even make sense. we have then letting perpetrators go by not testing saying we don t care about this issue. announcer: and the proposed arms sale to saudi arabia. wewe will discuss whether should be actively involved. should the united states the refuelingnvolved with planes, picking targets, having advisers on the ground. ?hould we be at war in yemen announcer: you can watch these and more on our home page or by searching the video library. coming up, q&a. then, washington journal. announcer: this week on q&a, part one of our two-part interview with pulitzer prize-winning biographer david garrow. david garrow is a professor of law and history at the university of pittsburgh. he joins us to talk about his book, rising star: the