West virginia, new york, and california. As always, we will take your calls come and you can join the conversation on facebook and twitter as well. Washington journal is next. Host good morning. It is saturday, october 12. Welcome to washington journal as Congress Continues its recess over this long holiday weekend, we continue to track house and Senate Members at town hall meetings. The number of town halls is up this year, due to the increase in freshman lawmakers. Lawmakers of course are spending lots of time on local issues as well. Thesion is when question is, when lawmakers return to washington next week, can they balance impeachment legislating . Can they do both at the same time . Participateyou will tak in this program, we will take your calls over whether lawmakers can balance impeachment and legislating. Republicans can call 202 7488001. Democrats, 202 7488000. Independence, 202 7488002 is your number. Several other ways to take part in the conversation, you can send us a text, 202 7488003. Just send us your name, where you live, and leave us a brief comment, if you can. cspanwj is our twitter handle, and you can also post a comment at facebook. Com cspan. So lots of different ways to take part in this conversation over these three hours about congress and impeachment and legislating as they come back for the fall part of the session. We have many, many clips from town halls around the country to show you, but first, a quick look at how town halls are faring this year. The townhall project, the organization that tracks town halls around the country, takes a look at the january through august period or midseptember period over the last three years. In november 2016, 681 townhomes between january and midseptember. Last year, that number dropped considerably to 995, and this 2111 town halls in 2019, so that number is way up, and they are saying in 2019, the townhall is making a big project. Here is what is happening out there on the topic of impeachment article of different town halls. [video clip] read the transcript, then come to your conclusion. Me, when someone says, i need you to do me a favor, then that favor is to investigate a political opponent, and you met that person to your personal attorney and the domestic attorney general were not talking about a foreign secretary that to me is a crime. And again, we may disagree, and that is totally fine, but that is why i invite our constituents. Read it yourself. What we are trying to do is put this narrative for this is, look, if in fact this is the right thing to do, then vote on it on the house floor and trigger the normal process, which the impeachment inquiry rules, lawyers are present to protect his Constitutional Rights as well, so put it on the floor, and lets have that vote. No to far, she has said do it on the floor. Rather than Speaker Pelosi and a of folks, being led by that small group, but that on. Host a small flavor there. Issues ase whatever well as we ask you whether congress can balance impeachment with legislating. One of the New York Times headlines focuses on the state of new york and asks just that question, raises the question. New york democrats balance impeachment issue with local concerns. This piece takes a look at various members and town halls and what folks are feeling out there. Marlon byrd on twitter writes that congress cant. Workess cannot into goma the same time, so, no, they cannot balance legislating and impeachment. Gary, what is going on out there . Caller i think we ought to use satellite computers to analyze, subsidize, design our infrastructure, because or else we end up with more projects like the big dig up in boston that went from 55 billion to over 200 billion. Host so, gary come on the project piece that you are talking about, we understand the issue that you are talking about. Can congress do both at the same time . Can they take up legislation and this impeachment process . Caller i dont see why not, do not that way they have their finger in the pie. That is why we could use satellite van computers to problems, and even the subsidizing of the projects. This was save us a lot of money, and we also should take advantage of the bonanza natural gas, if we convert all of our trucks to natural gas, we not only meet but exceed the paris climate records, and we send 130 billion a year to saudi arabia. Host all right, gary, thanks for calling. Roy from florida come outside orlando, democrat line. Roy. Morning, caller yeah, i think they can legislate, as they have been legislating. There are already a lot of bills on the table that republicans wont touch. Another thank him about the impeachment inquiry, when someone commits a crime like this, it is a slamdunk or the. I do not know slamdunk for impeachment. I do not know anyone who has read that transcript could say otherwise, except for the republicans, who believe the moon is made of cheese, if trump tells them. What about other issues that are on your mind that you want your lawmakers to take care of this fall . I want them to start i want them, first of all, to get Decent Health care. That is something we need in this country, because every other country, you can get health care. Poor people do not have any rights to go into a hospital and get stuck with these large bills. I would like to see something done about that, or a cap on that. All sorts ofs things, but our dignity of this country is being ruined by one man. Ionstitution im a mean, i used to be a republican. I switched because of donald trump. Donald trump is a menace and a danger to this country, and we are losing our dignity and our soul if we do not put him down the road. The republicans have completely lost it, i think. We have lots of calls coming in as early on saturday. Marco. Caller hi. I want to address somethings not talked about in the on the democratic side, regarding the way they are violating their requirements to use these procedures while at the same time they keep running this mantra of doing it to save our constitution. The reality, it seems to me, they are the ones running ramp shot over the constitution. I would say it is almost criminal in the way they are doing it, because they have to know this is not a coincidence. This is a form of manipulative, verbal jiujitsu, and they are doing it by oppressing those elected by the people, and they are taking him from us, so they donot do the best job he can. Ask you, whatt me is the Biggest Issue, not impeachment, but hawaii right now . What do you want lawmakers to work on . Caller the Biggest Issue as they were spying on this campaign, which is why carter page was being tagged with the fisa warrant, ok . And then when they could not get , then theyoffice went to states to, phase two of the plan, which was a more. Ggressive attack in and on numerous parts, john clapper, and, oh, by the way, Nancy Pelosis son also worked for a gas company in ukraine. Host mark, let me ask you, then congress handle both of those things at the same time . Can they handle impeachment and lawmaking . Caller i have been watching democrats for the last two years, and i do not think they have accomplished a single thing. They run around attacking with verbal assaults, and i cannot compare it to anything other than schoolyard violence. Mark, thank you calling. Steve in los angeles, steve, can congress balance impeachment and legislating . Caller absolutely. Congress is professional. They know exactly what they are doing. It is written and the constitution, how to balance everything. Guy who called, talk about trademarks for ivanka or whatever her name is here it all these kids, maralago, they raised the membership rate, do you know about that . 100,000 since he became president. They are making so much money off of our backs, our taxpaying backs. Approaching 500 million for all of his golf trips. I mean, obama did not do that it has entire he did not take hardly any of these types of trips. Improving infrastructure is what i am interested in, which i want to do, the democrats, which nothing has been touched. Are focused on is one thing, which is talking horrible i mean, president s do not talk about this usually. If you saw his rally last night, it was full of, like, you know, really bad words, lets just say this. You do not see a respected person, let alone the person that runs the free world talking like this. Health care, immigration, all this stuff. My taxes i have never had to pay so much, and i asked alex padilla i was at an event, and i asked alex padilla, why are my taxes so expensive this year . And he said trump. I mean, my taxes that before trump was in office, i paid, like, 6,000 a year. All of a sudden, i am paying 16,000. My health care, because there are no subsidies, i am now paying, as a single person, 860. I am not even ever sick or anything. It is just paying about a month. Now it is going up to 940, and that is all because of trump. Before trump, i was being 400 30, because we had subsidies from obama. So trump is horrible. Has been horrible. He is a crook, he is a con man. Host all right, steve. Im going to let you go and get some other viewpoints income including bc venice off of twitter. Process shouldt not be affected. Trump is nottes interested in signing anything at all from which he does not personally profit. Until he is out of office, the government will not function. And a text message here that says meaningful legislation will be nonexistent during the partisan impeachment inquiry. That is from larry from richmond, virginia. Steve, that last caller, innging up interests to him los angeles. Some other nonimpeachment issues voters are bringing up to lawmakers. I am a Small Business owner here in carroll county, and i want to know what your concerns are, and what you are going to do about these tariffs. A letter fromd one of my suppliers, and my product that comes from china is going to be 103 , in addition to the 25 . Yes, and right now, negotiations are ongoing with the china tariffs, and so i continue pressing the president on this. I would like to see the chinese trade deal done sooner rather than later. It is one of the trade agreement that will not come through congress 30 it is being negotiated by the u. S. Trade rep and the president and the team. So yes, i understand it needs to come to a close. We will continue working with the president on that, trying to provide whatever support we can ask congress, enable him to get this done in a timely manner. [inaudible] for folks who did not hear the question, we seem to have nixed the power outage this time, but what is going on . I am so frustrated by what is going on. A terrible job, and i admit, it is a tough situation for them, where you off, orples power you are worried that you have fires, like what we had happen in paradise, not far from here. We should not be in this position to begin with. I would contrast with pg e has done with some of the irrigation districts. One of the reasons our area has been more insulated from pg e problems is because our irrigation districts do not have the same problems, so i think we can be able to learn a little bit about that. Host california congressman josh harder at his town hall, which you can find at cspan. Org. Ernst,s preceded by joni the senator from iowa, republican. And many of these town halls we have been covering this month. Others we are taking pieces from youtube and other places. We will continue during these three hours, a look at town halls and let you know what lawmakers are hearing from their constituents. We have a caller from bowie, maryland, democratic caller. Tell, can congress handle both of these at the same time . Impeachment and legislating. Caller most definitely, and they have been walking and chewing gum at the same time. As you know, i sent information in to cspan, indicating that the house of representatives had sent over 500 bills to the senate, whereas the grim reaper, Mitch Mcconnell i call him has let those bills just sit there, and they are sitting there for no good reason at all other than just too deep dive them. Now, as far as the impeachment inquiry is concerned, all the republicans are doing is complaining about process. About why talking there is an impeachment inquiry . Our is because constitution, our democracy, our republic is under assault by that man in the white house, and, yes, the democrats are doing what they are supposed to do. Ability the article i to make sure that we the people are protected from all enemies, foreign and domestic. Is man in the white house the enemy for the people here in the United States. Did you notice at that rally last night, this man said that he was going to do everything he democrats,feat the socialism, and send a man to the moon. Host that was brewing, maryland buowie, maryland, calling. We have luke calling from pennsylvania, independent caller. Can congress do both, impeachment and legislating . Cannot so far, they handle both. They may have tried, but they have not succeeded your daughter not consider it legislating until the bill is actually signed into law then it is legislating. What i would like to see done, passed, is the usmca. Why they cannot agree to do that, i do not know. That would benefit mexico, the United States, and canada. And i guess that is all i have to say, but i do not have much hope for anything changing into laughter the election. Host thanks for calling on until after the election. Host thanks for calling. Terri is on the line, republican line. I am a vietnam veteran. I have worked for the federal service. President s come and go, but the senate is doing what it is supposed to do. The house may or might not do what they are supposed to do, but this whole circus, there is so much news that came out, President Trump calls fake news, i will not call it fake news, they just think they are doing their job, but they do not have facts. All of this should not come out until it is factual and it is done. Host ok, we are moving on to joliet, illinois now. Margaret, democratic line, go ahead, please. Caller are you talking to me . Host yeah, are you margaret . Caller yes. I just want to know why people cant look at this. Take democrats out, take republicans out, take the color out him and look at right and wrong. Look at it from right and wrong. To dot have anything with whether you are democratic, republican, or independent. Would you want your kids to act like donald trump . That is all i am asking. Is, look at it for what it and would you allow your kid to act like donald trump acts . It does not matter your color, it does not matter what party you are from, you need to look at right and wrong. If you have one for doing wrong and the other foot doing right, that is not ok, and we need to look at what happened. We need to know what happened. If trump done nothing, ok, we can live with it, but if he did wrong, he needs to go. Host ok, thanks for calling from illinois. Lots more time for your calls. We will get another taste of what is happening in a town hall with virginia congresswoman elaine luria. She is a democrat who held a town on meeting of the earlier part of the topic of gun control came up. Here is how it played out. [video clip] can youassurances give us that the universal background checks that you are supporting will not result in the confiscation in california and connecticut. The bill does not include any of those provisions. It is purely universal background checks, so that every cell of a weapon every sale of a weapon undergoes the same procedure. Whether it is between husband and wife, spouses, a deceased spouse, as well as grandchildren, so there are takes that have then into account, to not make an overly burdensome, if your spouse is deceased, and you inherit a firearm, there is not a background check in that is its. I was at the Hampton Convention center for Martin Luther king day, and downstairs is a very large gong show that happens at the hampton coliseum, and i will tell you, it is very easy to walk in there and walk out with a gun, and background checks are not required for private sellers. Host representative elaine luria there. Wilson. Creen is patrick good morning, patrick, thanks for joining us. Guest you are welcome. Good morning. Host we just heard from representative luria, a democrat represented byen republican spirit she is for impeachment, we know. About itrned are we playing out with her constituents . Anything,l, like there is a mix of opinion and congresswoman lurias district, and to be specific, elaine luria and Abigail Stamper has said they want an investigation, but they have not directly said i think the president needs to be impeached, at this point, they are trying to walk a line there. Both of these women are in districts that traditionally in modern times have been spanberger more so than elaine luria in virginia beach. They are trying to block a middle ground, they are trying to be moderate, they are trying to focus on Kitchen Table issues, health care, Prescription Drug pricing, and they eventually reach a point where they have no choice but to address the impeachment issue. Is that inting thing both of these districts, i do have ank we would hav democratic member of congress right now but for donald trump being elected to the white house. If Hillary Clinton was president right now, i think there would be a republican in both of those seats, so theres enough support for democratic policy and antitruck sentiment in these areas to elect a democratic member of congress, but, you for someone like elaine luria, they are tried to be very careful to listen to all constituents, trying to walk a middle ground on impeachment. Host as we enter another Election Year for 2020, how is the competition shaping up for each of them, based on what they are saying on impeachment but also in other issues . Look ahead to their next campaign. Are two seatshese that definitely would have been targeted anyway, especially spanberger in virginias seventh district. The republicans would be trying to win these seats back. With impeachment on the table, that gives republicans some more ammo to say, wait a minute, these members of Congress Said they were going to represent everyone, they were not going to be partisan, and they were going to work across the aisle, but now, look on the they are investigating the president , which costs taxpayers money. It definitely gives them an issue. Outside of protest Abigail Spanbergers office recently with a little more than 50 people, and Vice President mike