Transcripts For CSPAN Washington Journal 20160502

Or do you think Hillary Clinton or Bernie Sanders would make a pick that would best serve the interest of the person sneem our phone lines are open. Democrats can call in at 2027488000. Republicans, 2027488001. Independents, 2027488002. You can also catch up with us on cial media, on twitter and facebook. A very good monday morning to you. Our question, who Supreme Court nominee would you trust the most . Were asking that question during a week in which president obamas nominee is getting renewed attention. President obama himself thought to kick off that effort in his weekly radio address this weekend. Heres what he had to say about garland. E, merrick this president obama refusal to treat our nomination the seriousness it deserves is one reason why people are so cynical in washington. Give judge garland a hearing and give judge garland a vote. For all of our political differences, americans understand that what unites us is far greater than what divides us. In the mill middle of a volatile season, we need to fulfill our duties in good faith as public servants. The Supreme Court must remain above partisan politics. Ive done my job. I nominated someone as qualified as merck garland. Now its time for the senate to do their job. Give judge garland a hearing. Give judge garland an up or down vote. Treat him and our democracy with the respect they deserve. Host democrats are calling this the nine, nine, Nine Campaign and amid that push the president s comments, this story from the Washington Times this morning. Antigarland ad set to air in key states noting the Judicial Crisis Network is highlighting what it calls judge garlands iberal record. Heres one of the latest ads from the Judicial Crisis Network. Well show you that in just a second. Since president obama nominated judge garland nearly seven weeks ago, only two Senate Republicans have come out in support of holding a confirmation hearing for Merrick Garland, fewer than 54 republican senators have agreed to hold courtesy meetings with the nominee. Theres a picture of Circuit Court chief Justice Merrick garland in todays Washington Examiner. Were asking our viewers to weigh in. We want to hear your thoughts on who do you trust the most when it comes to the president s Supreme Court pick. Would it be this president or the future president thats running for the office today . Kathy is up first in cleveland, ohio, a democrat. Good morning. Caller yes, i would like to say that i think we should consider judge garland as being the judge for the Supreme Court. President obama should select the judge simply because he is our president and we cannot afford to have someone be our president when we want him to be and not be our president when we dont want him to be. I think he should make the selection. Thank you. Host kathy, before you go, if its not president obama, if the senate doesnt hold a hearing on his nominee, if a republican wins, who would you trust the most of the current slate of republicans . Would it be a President Trump, a president cruz, a president kasich . Caller no, i would choose well, i would think none of the above simply because i listen to all of the speaking engagements that they have televised and it was said upon the republicans that our economy was doing very well in the 1990s. The republicans came into office which was a surprise to me that he said it, but when the republicans got into office, they spent all the money. So then now we have a democrat in office and hes trying to help us out. So why would i choose someone to go back in the office and make a selection for me when they cant even control their own budget . They spent all the money that was previously put in place in the 1990s . So no, i do not trust them to make a judge appointment for me. Host jacob is waiting, baltimore, maryland. Good morning. Who would you trust the most when it comes to this decision . Caller good morning, thank you, cspan. The sitting president should be the person who chooses the nomination and then the senate should advise and content. If they wanted for the people to have a say and the Supreme Court choices, then they would have written that into the constitution. And its not its been like that for a very good reason. Host the Washington Examiner noted that donald trump is going to debut a list of 10 to 12 Supreme Court nominees very soon quoting Donald Trumps appearance on fox newss hannity program. He said im going to name 10 or 12 judges that i would name to put on the Supreme Court and im only going to take the judges out of that pool of judges because i want people to understand that understand that i want the values in terms of the Republican Party and conservatives. Were asking this morning who would you trust the most . Is it a current president . Is it a potential future president thats running right now . Want to hear your thoughts this morning. Republican, carl is in westfield, virginia. Good morning. Caller good morning. You know, when i see president obama talk about the rule of law, i laugh. Im telling you, its a joke. You see what the democratic for using ion done the better government to punish the federal fellow citizens of the United States. This is outrageous. And now hes telling everybody, u know, dont worry about we wont let him go any farther. When they talk about the rule of law, man, its a joke. Its turned into an absolute joke. Im 78 years old and ive been around here a long time. And i look at this kind of stuff and i think my lord. And the way they went after that woman in texas, they sent four different branches of government down there to harass her, for starting that true vote. All she wanted to do was educate people on poll watching to make sure that the elections were not being stolen. Host so who would you trust when it comes to that ninth seat on the Supreme Court . Who do you want to see make that decision . Caller i would rather see kasich make that decision but thats not going to happen. So that would be my opinion. Host oh, carl, as we said, there are several efforts going on this week both pro and against Merrick Garland, the Circuit Court judge that president obama has nominated. We mentioned the Judicial Crisis Network thats running a slate of ads this weekend. Heres one of the latest ads from the Judicial Crisis Network about Merrick Garland. The n. R. A. Opposes him because the Second Amendment is at stake. Small Business Leaders oppose him because he would harm our fragile economy. Liberals agree he would be the deciding vote for partialabortion. Hes no moderate. America me, obamas Supreme Court nominee. Even the New York Times says garland would create the most liberal Supreme Court in 50 years. Merrick garland, a liberal judge from a liberal president. Host on the issue of guns and how a potential justice garland would vote, theres a column in u. S. A. Today from Michael Hammond of gun owners of america. He talks about this issue. He says Merrick Garland has the simple truth about Merrick Garland is firearms have come before him at least four times and he votes against them each time. Host and in 2012, he voted to allow prosecution for fireman firearm offenses that they knew the gun was automatic. Were talking about the vacancy on the Supreme Court and who you would trust the most. Josh this williamsburg, virginia, a republican. Josh, good morning. Josh, you with us . Caller hi, good morning. Yeah, sorry about that. Good morning. I would trust any republican to make a good Supreme Court nomination. As youve suggested, the stakes are incredibly high. Weve had 54 decisions. You mentioned heller. We have had 54 decisions in that, with that issue as well. T i dont think if any if Hillary Clinton appoints someone, i dont think the senate has another option, as long as the senate is under republican control, i dont think they really have a legitimate option other than testing the limits of the of their consent power under the constitution. I really dont. Because the stakes are incredibly high with this Supreme Court nomination. Host when you talk about the stakes being high, the Supreme Court doing its best to perhaps keep the stakes from being too high when it comes to case that theyre going to be hearing among a split court with just eight justices on it, the Washington Post noted that they accepted six cases since scalia died. The number is low compared to the average. None of these cases that the court has accepted for the term that begins in october approach the level of controversy that has marked the drama rulings of recent years. The story noting that the reluctance boils down to a reluctance of a divided eightmember court to take on an issue that it might not be able to provide a clear answer on. The story noting its easy to detect a slowdown but its difficult to identify which cases which they will be taken. There only speculation of which cases has been skipped. If you want to read more about that, its in the Washington Post. Lets go to lydia, upper marlboro, democratic. Good morning. Caller im just beyond angry. Because the republicans always talk about constitution. They talk about the constitution. This has turned the constitution on its head. I am 79 years old. In my lifetime, when the Supreme Court nominee become a political ootball . Republicans, democratic administration, this has never been an issue. And if this points out anything, the importance of this election, it points out the blacks, the hispanic, women, independents, everybody that have any common sense to register and get out to vote to make sure that the democrat president in the white house and the republicans could never again get a chance to appoint a Supreme Court justice. Thank you. Host lydia weve lost lydia. She hung up. We will go to steve in indianapolis, indiana, also a democrat. Steve, good morning. Caller yeah, good morning. I think obama, he nominated somebody that was more of a moderate. Theyre calling him a liberal, but i think even the republican the republicans know hes more of a moderate and thats why theyve indicated that they thought they would lose this election, that they would go ahead and try to give him a vote. But if hillary or somebody gets in, i hope they nominate somebody thats even more liberal because theyve blocked his vote. So they thought to get what they get. And also trump, i think hes disqualified himself by nominating somebody like clarence thomas. I mean, hes a Supreme Court judge that has no writing. He has no he just sits back and votes and lets everybody else do all the work. Why would you nominate somebody like that . Host when you talk about a more liberal justice, what issues would you like to see a justice be more liberal on than what youve heard about Merrick Garlands record . Caller well, i think hes really fair. I like a moderate person. I dont really like somebody thats too far to the left. I like somebody thats like mr. Garland. But, you know, they ought to get what they get. Im just saying that it ought to serve him right for not giving him the courtesy of a vote. So if hillary or somebody gets in they would want somebody more liberal, then they ought to do that. Teach them a lesson, maybe. Host lets head back to our line for republicans. Tom is up next from florida. Chris is waiting. Youre on the washington journal. Caller good morning. I want to say as usual, the ignorance of the democrats that call in here is just its incredible. E democrats, first of all, blocked ford. They gave him a hearing and they sent him down and it took two more nominations before reagan could get him into office. The democrats said bush did not nominate and im not saying to confirm, im saying nominate someone last year. But when its obama, obama nominated it without a problem. Biden himself said that he should not nominate. Schumer said he should not nominate. Reese came out against it. And its all locks step. And the shoe is on the other foot. And of course they should consider the nomination. Theyve got obama nominated a person. They want the walk to walk and talk the talk, people would give them respect. Bit all the democrats that call up are hypocrites oratory ignorance and they believe whatever theyre told even theyre told the entirely opposite story from one time to the next. Host williams on our line for independents. William, good morning. Caller good morning. Yes, thanks for taking my call. Yes, i agree but i feel we should not even nominate because of our corrupted political system led by two individuals who want to become queen and king of u. S. A. Namely Chuck Grassley and Mitch Mcconnell from kentucky. With them and norquist and the round man, bushs big backer, they should all be tried for treason. Host so you want to see a slit court . You think a 44 split court, an eightjustice court would work for the country . Caller our political system is so corrupt it doesnt matter. And as long as they keep letting all these guys like the ones that i said and a bunch of the Democratic Party also, they shouldnt even have a government. We got a givement. Im 81 years old and it is a disgrace for our country. Host seems like youre criticizing both sides on this. How long have you had caller yes, im criticizing both sides. Host did you ever think our government was not corrupt . Was there ever a time when it was functioning correctly . Caller when harry truman, john f. Kennedy. I have never voted a republican in my life, but i sure intend to this time. If it comes down to where they try to take it away from trump, i will definitely vote republican. Because we got an illegal immigrate or illegal alien running, namely ted cruz who shut the government down how many times . Because hes such a smart individual, he outsmarted himself. Ost thats william in miamisburg, ohio. Julie said if the president twooned pick his successor, he should retire the Bush Administration and Edwin Christian writes if the court set aside personal politics as they were sworn to do, it wouldnt matter which party appointed a justice. For about the next 25 minutes, were asking who Supreme Court nominee would you trust the most . Is it a current president . A potential future president thats running in the primaries right now . Give us a call. Phone lines are open. Lines for democrats, lines for republicans, lines for independents. One other story i want to show you some recent comments about this. A house lawmaker suggested tedy tedy was a possible ted cruz was a possible pick. Saying if hes not our nominee, i think he would be a great eplacement for scalia. Cruz insisted during a cbs news interview earlier in march that becoming a Supreme Court justice is not a job hes interested in it and saying he was more focused on nominating a justice through the court. That story in thehill newspaper if you want to check it out. Tony is from texas, a democrat. Caller im looking at the three possible groups that can be picked. President obama, Hillary Clinton and possibly donald trump. Of those three, i trust president obamas pick more than the other two. Host and why is that, tony . Caller because, you know, Hillary Clinton, i really dont trust her. Im a democrat, but i dont trust hillary. And donald trump, i dont know hat he will put in office. It amazes me ike the previous caller said, as long as the constitution is in there, this is as prescribed by the constitution, the president picks the Supreme Court justices put in a nate vote vote. Yes or no. Its as simple as that. When the constitution this their favor, theyre all for it, you know. Host when you talk about trusting the president and not trusting Hillary Clinton and not trusting donald trump, trust about what . About finding somebody who can be a fair arbiter of justice . About finding somebody who leans a certain way . Caller when im talking about trust for Hillary Clinton, im talking about trust across the board for her. I dont believe much that she says. I really dont. Ive been a lifelong democrat but i just do not trust that woman. And if john kasich ran against Hillary Clinton, he would draw a lot of democratic voters like me to vote republican. And ive been voting republican all my life. But i cant trust hillary and i wont. But between hillary and trump, i would have to vote for hillary. But i dont trust either one of them and trust as far as donald trump goes, i just think hes a big gangster. I really do. I may be wrong but thats my feeling about him. Host lets go to lynn, indiana, where john is waiting, a republican. John works do you trust the most . Caller i think they should wait for the new president before they nominate a Supreme Court justice because i just dont feel that obama has the capacity to suggest because, you know, all the stuff that hes done to this country, i just dont appreciate what hes dean to this country. Host so john, which of the potential new president s would you trust the most on this issue, finding somebody to fill that allimportant ninth vacancy on the Supreme Court . Ninth seat, not vacancy. Caller i would definitely trust donald trump for sure because he seems lick a very smart man and he wants to make this country strong again, bring jobs back to this country, make it economically strong again, and only thing that obamas done is destroyed all of our jobs. Host so john, lets try this hypothetical again. If a democrat is going to win in november, would you prefer the pick come from Hillary Clinton or from a Bernie Sanders . Caller no, i would not. No, i dont trust either one of them. Host you would hope it just wouldnt be filled . Caller i just hope it wouldnt be filled. I just foe a republican is going to win. Theres not going to be a democrat again. Donald trump will definitely be president this year. This coming year. Host all right. Thats john in indiana. Speaking of indiana, indiana, the site for that important primary thats happening this week. Primary that is getting a lot of attention, including the lead story in todays New York Times. Cruzs bid faces crucial moments as indiana votes. The story talking about the latest polling on that indiana primary. A new nbc news wall street journal poll released sunday shows cruz trailing trump by 15 points host were going to talking more about the indiana primary later in todays show. Were going to be joined by craig dunn, a columnist with how he politics indiana and also a local Party Chairman out there in indiana. Hes going to be joining us from indianapolis and the 8 309 15 brock of todays show. Were going to be talking more about that for indiana callers and voters as well. But lets go to darrell in dallas, texas. A line for independents. Darrell, good morning. Who do you trust most in the Supreme Court nomination . Caller well, good morning. One thing that i believe is that democratic republicans. Theyre expressing the desires of a party. A person in the position of no. Ent such as that any time that you have to refer to a party, youre referring to the party desires. I think that those people should be independent and free from any bias opinions. And im sorry if you keep going democratic republicans. Youre going to continuously have party feeds being met. Instead of the needs of the United States of america. Those are my personal feelings. Host so darrell, who right now in your mind, who is best able to address the needs of the United States of america . Accordancemy mind in to all things that i know and eve been growing up with is the president isnt the president of the United States the one we elected by majority put in . Host darrell, is than independent out there that you think could step up and step in and address the needs of the country . Caller at this time no, really havent seen anybody make that appearance because theyre all concentrated on democratic or republican person, ok . No ones actually saying maybe we need to throw another party in there because this has got to e broken up. Even here in dallas, texas, theres a few things thats fallen behind, its starting to pick back up. But weve always had a progressive fight here. Host all right, thats darrell in dallas, texas. Shreveport, louisiana is next. Homer is a democrat. Homer, good morning. Caller how are you doing . And thanks for taking my call. Host good, sir. Go ahead. Caller well, if the supreme fulfilled, whybe dont they go ahead and do it . Its going to be a democrat anyway. And its like were just spinning our wheels, and fight among one another. We need to replace the whole setup up there. They need a clean house, period. And thank you for taking my call. Host homer, on the issue of why dont they just do it and not wait, theres some polling on that. Should the senate vote on a Supreme Court nominee kick or should they wait was the question that has been posed in april, in march and february by the nbc wall street journal survey back in february. 43 said that the fat would vote this year on the president s nominee. Well keep watching those numbers. A lot of polling on that as the discussion happens amid the president ial campaign that were watching. Lets go to rob in louisville, kentucky, an independent. Rob, good morning. Caller good morning. Thanks for taking my call. Well, the one that i would believe that would be the better person would be donald trump. In my opinion, hes the only patriot running and the rest of them are politicians thats looking out for their wallets. And thats all i got to say. Host rob, stick around for a second. I want to bounce this column by george will off you. Its his latest column in the national review. He writes Donald Trumps damage to the Republican Party has arely begun. If clinton is inaug rated next january 20, Merrick Garland probably will already be on the court at that point confirmed in a lame duck session and justices ginsburg, kennedy and briar will be 83, 80 and 78 respectively. George will with a lot of concern about what a donald trump nomination would do, not just in the near term, but in the long term. What do you think about that, rob . Caller well, the way i look at, if george will is expressing that opinion, and i feel like my opinion is just as good as him. Hes getting paid to say a lot of stuff. And im getting paid nothing as far as im concerned. Ill telling the truth. And thats my opinion is on that. Host rob, thanks for calling in with your opinion. Brenda this st. Louis, missouri, a democrat. Brenda, good morning. Caller good morning. I feel that we voted in 2012 for a president. The president that we voted for should be the one to make the nominee. I mean, they keep saying what schumer said back when he was saying that a last years president should not make a nominee, but whats this other guys name . Mcconnell stood up and say that they should make a nominee because the republicans were in office at that time. You cant have it both ways. We voted for a president. Our vote should count. Host if its a republican thats elected in the fall, if it has to be a republican that gets elected caller it would be kasich. Hes the one that seems ike the most rachelle person that they have out there rational person thats out there. Now the rest of us has to pay the price. We voted in 2012. Host all right, thats brenda in st. Louis, missouri. A few comments from our facebook page. Tom commenting about that article that said possibly a republican picking ted cruz for the court as his president ial campaign is unsuccessful. He writes cruz for court . Not another Justice Scalia who ruled by the bible instead of the constitution. And Richard Smith says its a stupid question were asking this morning. Only obama can form fate now. Would you trust obamas Supreme Court nominee . Want to hear your thought this morning. Have about 10 minutes left in this segment on the washington journal. Sam is in Oklahoma City for line for democrats. Good morning. Caller good morning. The reason im calling in is, you know, i listen to you every morning and i keep hearing these republicans call in and theyre blaming obama for the economy. It goes on and on about that sort of stuff, losing jobs. Well, they have amnesia. Do they realize from bush, theyre the ones who put us in this situation. They released 800,000 jobs a month, obama came in turned that around. Now were looking at our employments much better. Were looking at all the i think they keep saying that its obamas fault. Its not his fault. And i just dont understand how they can continue to blame obama for these things. As far as the Supreme Courts concerned, you know, i thought the Supreme Court is supposed to be an independent body that our government has. It dont seem like to me thats what it is. And if i had a choice for president , it would be joe biden. Thank you for taking my call. Host when you say it doesnt mean like its independent, what do you mean by that . Caller well, you know, its the same thing. Just like right now, if the democrats get in theyre going to make it a democrat Supreme Court. If the republicans have it on their favor, because theyre going to get the people thats on there. I dont understand how can you be independent when youre so onesided, you know, about things . Whoevers for the democrat or the democrat Supreme Court, they vote for them and the republicans. Theyre going to vote for republicans. That dont seem i dont know how we do it. But somehow, the Supreme Court needs to change. Host all right. Sam in oklahoma. Danys boston this morning, a republican. Dan, good morning. Caller good morning. Host go ahead, sir. Caller well, i was just comment on the Supreme Court choice which president should choose it. Well, obviously, its a very important situation because the Supreme Court decides many things that affect our country. I just wish there was a better choice of president ial andidates this time. And consequently, probably a better choice of Supreme Court justices. But, you know, i would think that i would hope that the next president makes a good choice no matter who it is. You know what im saying . Its at this point, you look at our country and you hope that the next president will do whats right and then things will get better. But the way it looks now, i mean, if you compare the choices we have for president s who say like our Founding Fathers or these people who started the country or we revered throughout the history like abraham lincoln, its pretty sad. Host dan, youre calling in on our line for republican. Hillary clinton is leading the race for the democratic nomination. If she goes on to win that race, if she were to win the general election, would you trust her pick more than the pick that president obamas put on the table, the Merrick Garland pick . Caller yeah. You know, thats interesting. Ut its because of the age and justice as well. The next president could possibly pick two oar even three. Thats a big deal. Court is hink the going towards liberal leaning anyways. You just had the passage of the gay marriage and, obviously, people consider that a liberal leaning. And, you know, seems like the whole country is going that way too, most likely, theyre going to be deciding like legalizing marijuana. I mean, theres a lot of things hat are going to be decided. You know, Hillary Clinton, im not obviously shes got her problems like everybody else and as i just said before, the choices are not really as great as you would think well, you would hope. But she did some time in the senate. She has some respect in the senate. And i think shes moderate nough that and, you know, thats another thing too that we were talking about is depending on the makeup of the senate. If the senate stays republican, then possibly it would be a more moderate. Obviously, if the senate goes to democrat, then it might be a little more liberal. But i would probably trust clinton in that way too because then thankfully, we do have a free press and that theres some kind of public pressure that the vetting of the Supreme Court justice is usually threat thorough. But the country is going towards a liberal slant. So theres not a whole lot you can do anyway. So hey, hopefully, things will turn out for that and the whole country. Host dan, youre right. The confirmation process going through the senate, the allimportant process and the vetting that happens there, it changes after the 2016 election. If democrats take over the senate, they bullish about a map hat favors them. Democrats more bullish with a donald trump campaign. Hes going to be holding a Campaign Rally in indiana ahead of the indiana primary. Tomorrow, thats going to happen at p. You can watch it here on cspan2. And one other programming note that ted cruz will be holding a Campaign Rally today at 7 30. Thats happening in indianapolis. You can see that on cspan. Speaking of indianapolis, larry is in indianapolis, an independent. Good morning. Who do you trust the most on this Supreme Court nominee pick . Caller you know, im in favor of garland and i respect president obamas selection. And number one number two also, president obama is still president. It is his job, not the newly elected one, but who is sitting in office now. And as far as jobs, president obama brought jobs back. And when you look at the Republican Party, the republicans is why we have such corruption now in the house of senate and the representatives because of the Supreme Court who is favorable for republicans, who openness gave ways where it gave all kinds of mundo nations from millionaires who are controlling our country. So im very in favor of garland and i hope that he has put in office before the president steps down. But that is president obamas constitutional duty. To select a Supreme Court justice. We do need a change. Host all right. A few more 2003s on this topic. Thanks for the comments. Bernie sanders, because we got to get the cash out of politics is what Bernie Sanders writes. B. Whalen says obama for sure. He has already met conservatives halfway. Host brenda is in houston, texas, a democrat. Brenda, what do you think . Caller hi, john, and thanks for taking my call. Host yam, go ahead. Yes, maam, go ahead. Caller oh, im sorry. Thanks for taking my call. Of course its the president s duty. Of course, garland should be given a hearing or whatever it is, the process that they fortunately go through. Its just amazing to me. You know, every day, i watch your channel and im in awe of how the Republican Party and besides the fact that trust a republican. Who towards dont really go together. The Republican Party have set out to destroy this president. And look whos being destroyed. Theyre being destroyed. Because god is against them. And theyre going to lose in this situation with the Supreme Court. Theyre going to lose the presidency. Theyre going to lose to the senate. And theyre going to be once again, fighting and making idiotic statements. Theyre a bunch of mindless people. I dont get them. I dont get them. And i guess i never will. Host all right. Lets go to gordon in ithaca, new york, a democrat. Gordon, good morning. Caller good morning. Thank you. The constitution says that nothing about the size of the Supreme Court or whether it can be changed. The article 3 section i established the judiciary and in 1789, i think it was, the judiciary act, and at various times since, the size has been changed. One time the Supreme Court was seven. And it was 10. The president has nine or eight members now. And the Supreme Court itself has made no ruling on the subject. We have it at 44 now and its been that way, i think 1968 was the last time they changed it to be nine members. Host what is the optimal size in your mind . Caller i would at six went they dominated. Nominated when it first started. Host we read a story earlier about how the court is taking less cases and less highprofile cases as a eightmember court right now, perhaps because it is divided 44. Do you think a sixmember court would impede the functioning of the court or do you think its a good thing about the court taking less cases and making less rulings . Caller maybe leave it at eight. Host you think an even number . Caller yes. I dont see any conflict on it if theyre ruling like their conscience made and its not as political as it is today. They could nominate a judgment i think they should do it right away with mr. Garland. And im just trying to throw a little light on to the fact that the Supreme Court has always not been fine members. Host so gordon on the topic and im glad you bring it up. The federal Election Commission gets a lot of criticism for being an evenmember chairmanship that it dead locks and cant do much because it gets brought to a standstill because the idea splits evenly and they cant make decisions and theres been a whole lot of criticism on that. Do you think we would start hearing more about the Supreme Court or do you think the country one ok with the court only being able to make decisions if it was an 8le court or a split with a larger majority . Caller like their justice, perhaps they wont vote on ideology. It wont always end 44. It might end up 53. And the person that appoints the cases that the Supreme Court is going to review, i know during the Bush Administration, i think hes called the i dont know the name of the person that decides what cases the Supreme Court is going to review but i noticed that in the news a lot too, which host the Supreme Court votes on taking up their cases. Its a lower threshold. Only four members are to vote to accept a case for it to be ccepted. Host were going to have a Supreme Court reporter on the program very soon. We can go through some of this process because its an interesting process talk about, to go through how you submit your cases to court and how they get brought up. Were going to be talking about this, especially in light of all the attention around Supreme Courts. I appreciate you bringing up the topic. And gordon is our last caller in this segment of washington journal. Do i have to end this segment of open phones. Up next, Mara Keisling will join us. She will be here to discuss transgender rights and the controversial bathroom law in North Carolina. And later, craig dunn, the chairman of the Howard County indiana Republican Party will join us to talk about tomorrows republican primary and what it could mean for trump, cruz and the kasich campaigns. Thats all coming up in a few minutes on the washington ournal. Tonight on the communicators, tim winter, amid reports of the tv rating system. The system intended to protect children from violence, sex and profanity on tv has failed. He is joined by a reporter. There is actually no show on broadcast television, no series on broadcast television today. It is rated appropriate for anything older than children. Tv 14 is the oldest rating. Even the most explicit content is rated as appropriate for children to watch. We learn that the tv networks themselves rate the shows and we learned that tv advertise others who pay the bills for the networks rely on the ratings just like parents do and theres conflict of interest. There are the tv networks dont rate anything and the system is incapable. Watch the communicators tonight on cspan2. Washington journal continues. Host Mara Keisling joins us once game seven shes the executive director of the National Center for transgender equality. She joins us to talk about the recent debate over state and local bathroom law transgender rights. You give the definition of transgender and how many transgender people are there in the United States today . Guest a transgender person is somebody whose internal sense of their gender or the way they express that gender is different from what people expect based on what the doctor said when you were born. That is a simple version of it. Theres a more technical definition i could give you. And we dont know exactly how many people are. The federal government have never counted transgender people. We estimated. 3 of the population in the United States is transgender but were now seeing studies showing people under 25 are more likely five times more likely to identify transgender or maybe as high as 1. 5 of the population. Host do we know how much of these bathroom laws that have gained so much attention in the United States . They happen on the oak level as ell. Guest there are another 200 antilbgt laws in general. And of those 50 bathroom laws, 39 of them are enacted because the session has been leaving just 11 of them plus North Carolina, which passed this law. And then were just about to see , i think we have one city so far, oxford, alabama, that passed a local ordinance and were going to see a bunch more in the coming weeks. Theres a real sort of copycat tone to it. Host why is the North Carolina law the one to gain so much attention with all these in the pipeline and the other ones that youve just discussed . Guest North Carolina was the First State Legislature to consider the legislation and then decide it was still a good idea. The reason they did that was because they took about four hours instead of days like in the other state or weeks in some of the states. So in all of the places where they really carefully considered this, they realized it doesnt make any sense. It doesnt do any good. And all its going to do is get people in trouble. In North Carolina, they jammed it through political purposes and theyre paying a significant price for it. Host what do you mean political purpose . Guest it was pretty apparent that the governor and the speaker of the house had some sort of political agenda. I wasnt about bathrooms or transgender people. In this particular law, they also stripped the ability of anybody who faces discrimination based on race, nationalty, religion and sex. Theres essentially no antidiscrimination protections in North Carolina right now. And additionally, they took away the ability of state and local governments to pass minimum wage laws and working living wage laws. So there was there was a real political thing. The governor thought in his reelection campaign. I think hes not thinking that anymore. Host so you dont buy the argument among the supporters that say this is about safety, about giving sexual predators out of bathrooms . Guest no. Host why . Guest theres no evidence for it. You know, john kennedy once said that sometimes, the enemy of truth isnt a lie, its a myth. And that people run these things through these filters that they already have and that were more comfortable in our opinions than in our thinking. And this is one of those clear ases where theres no evidence that trans premium predators. And in North Carolina, theyre calling first and second graders sexual predators. It just doesnt make any sense. Theres no evidence for it. Its counterinterview. And its wrong. Host we invite our viewers to call in with your questions and comments about this topic. Special line in this segment for transgender viewers, 2027488003 this that number. Otherwise, democrats, 2027488000. Republicans, 2027488001. Independents, 2027488002. Speaking of this North Carolina law, you are down in North Carolina law, made a point down there to protest this and were arrest were arrested in the process. Guest yeah. There were thousands of people down last monday, a week ago today. And it was also the third anniversary of the moral Mondays Movement to commemorate and to protest when the state legislature, which is in and North Carolina has become an extremist legislature. They passed redistributing laws nd Voter Suppression laws. And i was down for that and ended up being arrested in the speaker of the houses office. Host and made a point to use womens restroom while you were there. Guest i did. I was in the capital just outside of the Governors Office looking to deliver a bill to the governor and some of our party did get to deliver the bill. But i asked where the womens room was. They told me. I used it. There were people in it. Nobody cares. Because for 15 years or almost 20 years, ive been publicly using the womens room. Never an issue because do my business, mind my own business and i go about my business. Host Mara Keisling, the executive center for for transgender equality. You can call in this morning with questions or comments. A special line for transgender viewers, 2027488003. Well start with k. J. In florida, a republican. K. J. , good morning. Caller good morning. How are you . Host good, k. J. Go ahead. Caller i have two points. First of all, its not discrimination when it comes to transgenders and the reason why its not discrimination is because there is boys and girls bathrooms or mens and womens bathrooms werent create specifically to keep out transgender people. We go back to slavery laws and antimarriage laws. People are marrying whoever they wanted before. But in order to keep slavery strong and in order to keep a system, they created laws that says you cant marry a person of the black race and they made created this to prevent something that was happening prior to that. Theres no discrimination when it comes to bathrooms. The bathrooms werent segregated by sex. The purpose of discriminating against transgender people, ok . Now my second point is, my second point is is the problem with transgender people is if they really basically want to make people act in their mind, basically be players, unpaid players on top of that. Because now, youre doing stuff to yourself and forcing people to play along. Theres a difference. When it comes to traditional discriminations for race, sex, theres nothing that that person is doing. For instance, a female doesnt do anything to be a female. A black person doesnt do anything to be a black person. But a transgender voluntarily does something and then tells society hey, you have to play along of what i do. You know, its like if i were to be disabled. No, i work for walmart, lets say. Then all of a sudden, you know, i say you know what, i think disabled people gets sued. Im going to pretend like im disabled host k. J. , got your point. I want to let Mara Keisling respond to your two points. Guest ok, let me do them in the order that you gave them to me. Number one, youre absolutely correct in one very limited sense and that is nobody thinks that gender bathrooms were created in order to hurt transgender people. In fact, most transgender people are fine with gender bathrooms and always have been. There are a lot of transgender people and a lot of nontransgender people for whom gendered bathrooms are a real problem. We are hearing more and more that this has become an issue. Women who have always identified as women, when the doctor slapped them on the butts and say youre a girl, these are people who everybody would agree went as women. But they pay not look exactly as you would expect a woman in your mind to look. And so people are bothering these people in bathrooms and always have. But nobody is saying that gendered bathrooms were set up to hurt transgender people. In fact, like i said, ive been using the womens room for 20 years and nobody cared until there were some extremist organizations that decided to make this an issue. Now as for the second part of your thing host before you get to that, have you ever had an incident in the bathroom since these incidents . Guest i have not. Host where somebody has come up to you guest no, i havent. In North Carolina, the Governors Office and the late legislative building, later that night, i used it in the wake county jail. You know, my staff was down there too and they were using the bathroom and there were no problems. Nobodys asking anybody to pretend. The second part of your thing, i think you just need to learn a little bit more about transgender people. I would recommend two websites for you. Wins our website, transequality. Org. And the second where there is a lot of information so you can understand that you may not be thinking about this quite right, is google. Com. A lot of great information host bethlehem, pennsylvania. Tony is a democrat. Caller good morning, johnny. I have a comment about large Public Restrooms like a bus terminal. If you stand outside the hallway, you will see most men make up the line in, spent about a minute, and come right back out, but women are different. They like to freshen up a bit. They will brush their hair, do they make up, and fix their close. When you have men going into the ladies room, you will have homeless men going into the ladies room. Men have never seen what a womans room really looks like. Bathingy see three guys out of the sink and doing their laundry, they are going to find it and talking to themselves and throwing things they are going to find it a little difficult to step in there and freshen up o a bit. Host are there any stats to back up what tony is same . Ying . Guest absolutely not. He brings up an important point about how we treat Homeless People in United States, but this has nothing to do with the issue. I spent years going to mens rooms in the last 20 years, ive spent going to womens rooms. There is not nearly that much difference as you would imagine between the two. I do not think there is anything to that. A lot of discussion about perhaps rethinking restrooms in the United States and the labeling of restrooms. Theres a column by rick jarvis who proposes a solution genderneutral restrooms. Genalling single derneutral restrooms near the front of restaurant and hotel ro lobbies. What you make of all that . Guest i do not think we will be getting rid of gendered restrooms in the near future. Genderneutral restrooms are ready really good important thing for a lot of folks. Helpful, notvery just for transgender people, but gender nonconforming people who never fit in perfectly in either bathroom. They are also good for people who have certain disabilities and have to have a caregiver with them. They are really good with people with small children. When ever possible, i think it is a good idea to build genderneutral bathrooms. This will come as a shock to you , but at my home, and we have genderneutral bathrooms. They are single use bathrooms and that is why they are genderneutral. Colleges a seeing at lot of multi use bathrooms. That is bathrooms with more than one toilet that are genderneutral. And they are still stalls. The more privacy we create, the happier everybody is. I think we agree with that. I think we all agree with that. I think genderneutral bathrooms are great and we are seeing more and more of them all the time. Host lets go to danielle in williamsburg, virginia, line for republicans. Good morning. Caller good morning. This has been a pretty touchy topic on social media that ive been noticing within the last month. The point of what the gentleman was saying with the genderneutral bathrooms, i think that would honestly create more issues because you are singling out the Transgender Community. You are singling them out by saying this is a genderneutral bathroom when we already have in a lot of places family restrooms, which in turn as ausly would double trance genderneutral bathrooms, whatever you want to call it. For familieshroom who do not want to take their kids into a womans or mens restroom or a man who has to change a babys diaper because they do not have changing tables in the mens restroom. My husband and i talked briefly on the subject and i asked him, what would you do if we had a daughter and you are out at the Grocery Store and she had to pee . Said, i would take her to the bathroom with me. To the point the gentleman was making earlier, i think that is really gas station bathrooms at 12 00 in the morning. That is not your Grocery Store bathroom. That is not your small bathroom. Those are actually kept pretty clean. To be honest, the womens restrooms are quite disgusting in comparison to the mens restrooms. They get it and they get up women are i out. Women are in there for a while. I think by making the transgender bathroom an issue you are just creating more problems for them. For thousands of years, there have been transgender is. There have been gays. Is never been an issue until now. I think it is a distraction from the Political Party running to disturb conservative voters because the liberals do not care about it. They are all for it. The only people who live issues are the republican voters. And agree withe everything you just said except for one thing. I think what has been very concerning to transgender people over the past couple of months is that nobody has cared about this before. We always used the restroom that created the least amount of ruckus for everybody. People have not been coming home from work and saying, oh goodness, there is transgender people filling up the bathroom doing bad things. This issue was entirely made up by somebody or another who probably was trying to raise money or trying to prove their relevance after they lost the Marriage Equality fight. An agenda problem that has transgender people baffled. We did not do anything to anybody and now we are being bullied. Host on the North Carolina law, what was the underlying charlotte ordinance that this law superseded . Guest charlotte just passed an antidiscrimination ordinance that was like the ordinances in 200 plus cities and i think 17 states. Those. No broader than some of these are 30 years old. The governor and his folks in the Legislature Just decided to use that to take away the ability for localities to raise minimum wage, to do lgbt antidiscrimination laws, but there was nothing in that lot that was anything different that we have here in d. C. Or pre a, oria,ois pe illinois. Host what is that ordinance say about the use of public locker rooms and showers or, for example, public pool showers . There is a part in a lot antidiscrimination laws, including the charlotte law, around public accommodations. That is places of business that are open to the public. They do not have to be businesses. Sometimes they are government offices and in some states, schools are public accommodations. They are things open to the public. Those would have, under that law, it wouldve been illegal to this terminate in a public accommodation based on Sexual Orientation against gay or bisexual people or by gender identity. Includedd have discrimination and locker rooms, discrimination and things like that. It was this tiny part of it. That is what is happening in charlotte anyway. That is what is happening in all the cities in North Carolina anyway. It is just a question of whether or not it would be illegal to discriminate. Discrimination happens with or without the law sometimes, but this gives people discourse when they are getting discriminated. Host we have a line for transgender viewers. The other hand, the lines for the democrats and republicans and independents as usual. Donnas on the line. Caller it is me again. Im looking at this guy here trying host let me just stop you right there. On the terms that people use, guy versus girl. On your website, you actually was the pronouns that people should use. Explain why. Guest it is really to make it easier for people to be polite to people, make it easier for people to be polite. I think all of us want to live in a society where we are polite to other people and we respect people. I know that when i come on television, because it is a transgender topic, they are people that will score political points by calling me sir or maam and i could brush that off. That is just petty namecalling. My name is mara. I think everybody who is watching knows what they are doing. Host do you want to go ahead with your question . Don hung up. Stand in maryland, good morning. Caller good morning. I just want to say that this bathroom topic is pretty immature. I did not think this was an issue before this socalled solution was created. I do not know a transgender or gender nonconforming, i hope i said that correct. I remember when my grandmother used to tell me about the days when as an africanamerican that she cannot use certain facilities or access certain stores like a tech company that used to be in baltimore maryland. The sounds quite familiar if you ask me from that perspective. With all due respect, i do not know what you look like, but you should not have someone call you man. Oir or in my opinion, they should apologize and move forward. Guest thank you so much. I agree with what you said. This is not the first time a group of people has been used used to scarebeen people by saying that we need to protect our women and children from the. M. We saw earlier this year when donald trump said that mexican immigrants are rapists. We saw in the black civil rights movement, the gay civil rights movement, and lots of ways of immigration in our country. When people try to exclude people, they say they are coming for our women and children whether there is evidence or not. In this case, theres absolutely not evidence. I do not think there is evidence in any of the other cases either. I do not like to compare the struggles of different kinds of people. I think that is really never exactly accurate. We have seen this before. Host you mentioned donald trump. The viewer said this is a nonissue, yet it has become an issue in the presence of where tedo the point cruz put out an ad recently about the North Carolina bathroom laws. Let me show it to our viewers. [video clip] people go, they use the bathroom that they feel is appropriate. Host can you talk about how you think the president ial candidates have handled this issue . It is absolutely ridiculous that the president ial candidates are talking about this issue. Donald trump is right. This is something that happens a million times every day. Tedink it is obvious that cruz is desperate. If ted cruz is talking about transgender people and it happened, he understands his campaign is in trouble. It does not making me cents. Any sense. Shame on ted cruz for bring this up. I appreciate how donald trump it is not like he came down on our side of it. He basically said, why is this an issue . He is right. It should not be an issue in the presence of race. Idential race. Host Bernie Sanders saying, in many states, it is legal to fire someone for being gay or to deny them rights for being transgender. That has to change. Guest i think transgender rights should be a Campaign Issue that is important to transgender people. Is just this issue agenda thing by a couple of extremist organizations who are trying to make hay. Host lets go to the line for transgender people. Stephanie is waiting. Caller i would like to go ahead and say that i was in tampa in the greater city area. I probably know about a Different Girls that are living within a 10 mile radius around me. Us thane a lot more of people realize our living amongst them. We like to say we are everywhere. We use the bathrooms of people do not even realize they were in the bathroom with another transgender person. It has just been blown out of proportion. People do not realize they have argued in there. Its not like were leading sticker saying thanks for sharing the bathroom with us. It is really terrible what they are trying to make this into, but thank you. Mara on that recommendation . Guest when arizona was looking at passing these laws, i did make up little cars that says a transgender person has used the bathroom and nothing bad has happened f. My friend and i put them in the Phoenix Airport when we were flying through. Host how did that go over . Guest we thought it was great and people on facebook thought it was great and nobody in phoenix care because they were busy travelers kind to get to where they were going. That is what i think is stephanies point. The reason i use the bathroom at the airport is because i have to use the bathroom at the airport. The reason i use the bathroom and the Governors Office in North Carolina is because i had to use the bathroom. As long as trans people are doing their business and going about their business like everybody else, i think we should all leave each other alone. Host lets go to daniel in baltimore, maryland. You are on with Mara Keisling. Caller thank you very much for taking my call. I think we make it bigger than it really is. One of the points i wanted to make is that ive been to several concerts. I like going to concerts. You know the restrooms on both sides get pretty busy, especially the ladies. Women go into the mens restrooms not thinking twice about it and men do not care. No one is jumping up, looking at anyone. They are doing what mara said, using the restroom and leaving, to. To call anyone a predator is bad,ly tha. If there is an assault on the bathroom, it does not matter if they are gay or hetero they are ssaulters. To say one person is bad, i disagree. People need to chill. Host a question from twitter. s gender nonconforming and new category . Is gender nonconforming and new category . Please its plain the difference. Explain the difference. Guest when our mothers are carrying us, they are always asked what is it even before they are asked whats its name going to be. We are taught right away that their mommies and daddies and boys and girls. For most people, that makes total sense. I think most people do not complain about that. They feel like that suits them. The truth is a very big chunk of society does not fit perfectly into the masculine man and feminine woman categories. Most of us are sort of on a spectrum in between. Gender nonconforming people, it sounds like an aggressive term like your purs purposefully not conforming, but for many people, basically cannot conform to the stereotypes we have built as a society. Gender nonconforming is a category of people in that sense. It just means that some people do not fit into our stereotypes. For some people, it is a category and their other terms that people use like gender binary or gender queer. Everything changes all the time these days. Host if someone is trying to navigate this and be polite, what is the proper way to refer to a gender nonconforming person . Guest the only real Important Role you need to know is the golden rule treat other people like you would like to be treated. Get to know people. Introduce yourself to somebody. If somebody says, my pronouns are the pronouns i prefer you to use our she and her, then use that. If they tell you they are not comfortable with she or her or him, they prefer maybe they. We use they pronoun all the time. John asked me to pick up his friend, but they do not tell me what they looked like. We do gender neutral all the time and for some people that is preferred. It is actually a little tricky the first couple times, but then you get it. Host lets go to gary in wisconsin, a republican. Good morning. Caller good morning. Tv. just turned on your we can hear you. Caller if its not an issue, why do you not just use your natural born gender restroom . My second question is what is your litmus test to determine your gender . Is it physical or emotional . In either case, you still are what you were when you are born regardless of any surgery or any emotional change of mind. Why the big upset on your side and insistence that you use what you want to use . Guest there has never been a big upset or insistence until the last couple of months. Everybody i think has always tried to use the restroom that caused them the least amount of ruckus. I simply cannot use the mens room. If i use the mens room, there would be all sorts of upr oar. I know folks who look like john who had beards and a suit and tie who these laws would make using the womens restroom. When we are in the bathrooms with people, we do not know what is on these peoples birth certificates. We do not know what is in peoples anatomy. Ive been using restrooms for 56 years now and ive never seen that part of peoples anatomy in the restroom. There are privacy stalls and sliders between urinals. A agenda problem. Transgender people of always try to do the best they could. All of these gender nonconforming people who do not fit perfectly into either stereotype have been doing the best they can for so long. We are in a position now where we look at the two bathrooms and instead of seeing men and women, we see get beat up or get arrested. And that is not ok. We need to learn to leave each other alone and respect each other at least in that way. In the bathroom, mind our own business. That is really what i do. I just mind my own business. So to use a public restroom in North Carolina, must i use my birth certificate . Guest no. It is a dumb law. Host how is it enforced . Guest it is unenforceable. If they enforced a, they would be in violation of dozens of federal laws. What is happening is that individuals are taking upon themselves. These folks are going to start getting arrested themselves, but there are people standing in front of restaurants and taking who gets to go in. These are not Law Enforcement officers. These are just people who feel like they have a political point to make. It cannot be enforced. But people are going to be harassed, theyre going to be arrested, and that is when theyre going to have to show their person to get. Birth certificate. When we were going down last monday to the state capitol, we sent a letter to every state legislator in North Carolina telling them to bring their birth certificates because laws of the United States should be enforced uniformly. None of us want cops out from the bathrooms. If there are cops in front of the bathroom, they better be asking for everyones birth certificate not just transgender peoples birth certificate. Almost nobody carries them with them. Host same as a democrat. Good morning. Caller it seems to me that the only people having any real problem with this issue is men and they are the ones least affected by it. Mara made one good point that if she went into a mens bathroom, there would be a big ruckus, but it would not be against having a woman in the bathroom. Just a mens problem i think. Is in louisville, kentucky. Go ahead. Caller first of all, i would like to say that earlier when you talked about predators in the areas and worrying about children being molested or women in these Public Restrooms, i do not think everybody believes that the Transgender Community is going to be the ones who are perpetrating these crimes. What i think peoples fear is that at the door is going to be open that people can come in there under the guise of being a transgender person, the ones who are truly the predators. Having said that, the point i really would like to make is that we keep talking about this as if it is just restrooms. Of course the North Carolina says, as you pointed out earlier, it is an changing areas as well. Just to illustrate my point in my concern, my daughter was on a swim team here in louisville, kentucky. To facilities that they used practice and was indeed a public facility, meaning they would practice during al hours of operation. The public would use part of the pool and they would use the other part of the pool. Age six tos range in 18 and they would go to the public shower areas to get the glory and often chlorine off of. What kind of affect what it have on a sixyearold child to see a grown mans body parts in a shower . You might say that this is not going to happen, but yes it will happen because that is the direction we are moving in. If it is not a true transgender say it who is it to is not a Child Predator that wants to prey on children to take an opportunity because of these laws to prey upon children . It is not transgenders that are the predators. It is the one to a really Child Predators taking the opportunity to do this. Guest there is no reason to think Child Predators would not currently do that. Theres nothing in any of the laws that we are talking about that would allow anybody to be a peeping tom, a rapist, a child molester. None of that would become legal. It is not legal anywhere now. It would not be legal under any law ive seen. Just saying you cannot discriminate against trans people does not mean anybody cannot do anything bad in the locker room, but it does not happen and it has not happened. Can i tell you what will never happen . No, because everything happens eventually and that would happen with or without these laws. The other thing i would point out really quickly is that over the last few weeks, 300 now more than 300 antisexual assault organizations have issued a joint letter saying these laws are nonsense. It is really important. The topics you are talking about here are so important. Sexual assault is a serious problem in the United States. Child molestation is a serious problem. They need to be discussed seriously. We cannot just say the problem is transgendered people or the problem will because because of transgender people. It is a really serious problem. If we start making up antitrans solutions to that problem, all we are going to do is make life bad for transgender people and not helped the real significant problems. Ive no idea how many antisexual assault organizations there are in the world, but there has to be more than that. This is a unified letter saying that all of cities and states, knock it off. This is not helping with the real problems. Host on the line for transgender people is renee in new york. Eisling. On with mara k caller ivan watching this and i have been living as a woman fulltime since 2004. Just by pointing out that we are there and you do not even realize it, so for example, i serve on juries. In one instance, i asked the attorneys to step outside in the hallway because they were asking me a question about my spouse. In order to answer it the way they wanted, i would have been lying. When i got out in the hallway, i told them i was not exactly what i appeared to be and i was a transgender person. All they wanted to know was whether or not i thought that i could render a decision, a fair decision. I said, of course. I ended up on the jury. We are in the grocery lines with you. Going to the bathrooms. Im just living my life and i do not care about any of this other stuff. I think the law is nothing more than a red herring type situation, politicized by people looking for political gain out of it in terms of their base. That is what i wanted to say. Thank you again for being on the show. Host thanks for the call. Anything to add . Guest i think she is just trying to live her life. Host rich is in tennessee, an independent. Good morning. Caller good morning, john. Good morning, guest. Lets get our to the public changing room areas. The restroom situation should not be a problem because if you have someone going into a male restroom, they are going to be using the stall. If you have someone going into the female restroom, theyre going to be using the stall. Whether there is any reassignment surgery, no one should be seeing anything coul,. In the case of a public changing room, lets take a high school. Those familiar with High School Locker rooms and sports and so forth, if the law says that someone is to use the facility which they identify with regardless of their anatomy, and i think the guest would acknowledge that there are people who identify as a gender that does not match their biology who do not want to go through reassignment surgery, and they will retain the physical anatomy that is on birthersatilit certificate. According to what ive heard this morning, it would be called discrimination if you did not allow someone with male body parts who identifies as a female to go into the shower facility and shower alongside the other females. That 99 of think the American Population are really considering tha that. I do not think that is what they want to have their adolescent daughters alongside someone else who is identifying as someones adolescent daughter but otherwise looks exactly like a male. Been i think you have not in high school for a long time. Schools, health clubs, everywhere are now being built and retrofitted not because of transgender people at all to have a lot more privacy than they used to have. Nobody likes being in big joint showers with 15 other people as it was when i was in high school. Nobody ever is in a situation where they are naked in front of other people unwillingly anymore. , butes occasionally happen there are accommodations that trans people make. There are accommodations that facilities make sometimes for trans people and sometimes for other people. Haveand more schools private changing rooms, private shower and. By the way, most schools now or more and more schools now do not have kids chanting for things like gym class and do not have people showering. There are a lot of reasons for that. More and more schools cannot afford to have physical education. This is not as big of a problem as it sounds. I challenge you to find an instance where there has been a brouhaha over it actually happening. It is always over this hypothetical young girl. Even your language when youre talking about a high school or a middle school, youre talking about a young girl and a grown man and that does not happen. This should be a more serious topic. Or not a topic at all. Host when you say there are accommodations that trans people make, what do you mean . Guest i know trans people who have not gone to the gym, who have stopped working out when they transitioned. Re are a lot of people there are a couple of stores that people know about that have wideopen changing rooms. Nobody likes that. There is nobody who likes that, i think. So people for lots of different reasons, including trans people, say im not going to shop there because i cannot get the privacy i feel like i need. Trans people are looking for opportunities to be naked in front of other people. We do not hear about trans people being naked in front of other people. What is weird about that is that it is not weird. Most people are trying not to be naked in front of strangers. It is not a thing in america that we do a lot of. We all avoided at all costs. All of us avoid being naked in front of other people. I transitioned 20 years ago. I am somebody who works out at the gym all the time. I do use a locker room. Nobody has seen me naked publicly in 20 years. Its just not a thing. Not a thing. Host if you want to learn more about the National Center for transgender equality, you can go to their website at trans equality. Org. Thanks for joining us on our program. Up next, we are going to be joined by craig dunn. He will join us to talk about tomorrows gop primary in the user state Hoosier State and what that can mean for the trump, cruz, and kasich campaigns. We will be right back. Madam secretary, we probably votes tof our delegate the next president of the United States. Announcer washington journal continues. Craig dunn joins us now from indianapolis, indiana. He is the chairman of the Howard County Republican Party in the Hoosier State. He is also a columnist and joins us now to talk about the primary in the state. When was the last time that indiana actually had a primary on the republican side that made a difference . Reagan and ronald gerald ford. Host how are you or how are republicans preparing in indiana this time around . Are there a lot of mechanics this time that have moved into operation that have not happened in past primaries . Guest frankly, we have had to learn the whole process over again. Peoplere not a lot of around at that time that are still real active in politics. There are a few, but that is the real great thing about the union in indiana right being in indiana right now. We are loving it from the political junkies to the average person. And there is a president ial candidate standing there. Is a most its an experience that most have not had and they are enjoying it. Host this is an open primary. Explain that. Guest the person declares the ballot they want to receive at the polling place. You can be a democrat and if you decide you want to vote for donald trump, for example, you say i want a republican ballot. Now you get a republican ballot. Its as open as it can possibly be. We do see some of that from primary to primary. Host can voters go in and register to vote tomorrow and do that or has registration ended . Guest no, registration is we have had it up until recently here, but tomorrow will be a little too late. Host expectations for turnout tomorrow in the first meaningful primary on the gop side in over 40 years . Guest if i can use the early voting and the absentee balloting as any kind of guidance point, i say we will have a record primary voting. I talked to our secretary of state 10 days ago and she told me we were running well ahead of our record pace in the past. I would expect that to be the case. I voted last monday. Voting was brisk at the absentee voting center. Host we are talking with craig dunn this morning about the indiana primary tomorrow, that closely watched primary c. Craig dunn is the chairman of the Howard County Republican Party there. We have onlines for democrats, republicans, and independents as usual. Theres also the special one for indiana voters at 202 7488003. We want to hear your stories in the segment of washington journal. Want to get your thought about this ted cruzjohn kasich alliance. Some calling it a shortlived alliance in the Hoosier State and other states coming up. Guest i think it will go down in history as a nonevent. If it will too late. Its a little too late. Its estimated that 30 of our voters have voted early. Because of that, the impact of a potential alliances probably for not. Do not know if i can say necessarily that we are different breed than other states, but i do know the average hoosier does not take kindly to somebody telling them how to vote. That is one of those situations where you say it is interesting. I do not think it will matter at all to the people going in to vote. I think most will vote the way they originally intended to. That a lions is nothing more than just a gesture that was going to pretty obvious by the fact that campaigns have limited resources relative to money and manpower. More important than anything is just time. I think that is what this is all about. John kasich is spending his money and time and resources in states that could be more productive to them. It probably could have been done without announcing a formal alliance, but i do not think it will impact the final results. Host donald trump brushing off this alliance between ted cruz and john kasich as a desperate move by campaigns that are close to dropping out of the race. News sunday yesterday, ted cruz was asked about this sort of last stand in indiana storyline. Heres the exchange. [video clip] i agree that indiana is incredibly important. Regardless of what happens in indiana, donald trump is not getting to 1237. We are heading to a contested convention. I will have a ton of delegates. Donald trump has a ton of delegates. Its going to be a battle to see who can earn a majority of the delegates elected by the people at the convention. The reason donald is so frantic to say the race is over and trying to get his media acolytes to say the race is over is because donald knows he cannot earn a majority of the delegates that were elected by the people. If you cannot win a majority, it means you cannot unite the party. And you cant win. Host if donald trump does win tomorrow, what are your thoughts . Is it over for the Ted Cruz Campaign . Guest there are a lot of working part in the process that still have not unfolded. I do not think it automatically trump as te donald the winner, but there is this drip effect of every vote in every state that goes for trump. It makes it more difficult with the less votes he needs to pick up in the remaining primary states in order to win. Certainly indiana is a very important state. I would say that it is either trumps win or his waterloo. Host the latest polls published in the wall street journal today has donald trump at 49 and ted cruz at 34 and john kasich at 13 . Craig dunn, you are a guy who noted on your blog that you had a john kasich sign in your yard. Talk about the path ahead for john kasich. Guest john kasich strategy from the very beginning when he started with a 17 candidate field and we went through that mockery of televised debates that degenerated into sophomoric namecalling and bullying, john kasich most of that time was down on the end in the debates. He would find himself being outnumbered many times in terms of the amount of time he received at the debate. He decided early on in the that acquiring delegates during the primary process was not the target for him and you do to wage a 1237 campaign of hoping for a contested convention and hoping that it goes to a second ballot, which will give him a greater chance. I think that is consistent. Isfact, the indiana strategy such that i think part of why he felt comfortable about leaving indiana and going on to oregon in new mexico was that i would feel comfortable that a majority of the delegates in indiana, if things would go to the second ballot, would probably back john kasich. I think that is what his strategy is. I am disappointed that he was not here going doortodoor and attending on lincoln day events in those type of things, but i understand the 1237 strategy. Every candidate has to run their own race. I think that is his strategy. Ultimately, if it is a contested convention, i think it will be successful for him. Host we have a special line for indiana voters in the segment at 202 7488003 as we talked to craig dunn. Rick is in marion, indiana. Good morning. You are on with craig dunn. Caller howre you doing . I want to ask what do you think about Donald Trumps for bringing manufacturing jobs back to indiana because we have lost a lot of jobs in my county. From my understanding, we lost over 10,000 manufacturing jobs in our county. Guest i certainly admire anybody whose goal is to increase manufacturing jobs in the state of indiana or in the United States for that matter. Of course, the rub is how you go about doing it. If you talk about unilateral abrogation of previously negotiated trade agreements, i think you are potentially opening a can of worms there and could cause some serious problems. Largely is the law of unintended consequences. To assume automatically that our tode partners will allow us act solely in our economic selfinterest without any sort of corresponding response on their part is maybe a little naive. I think we need to focus perhaps more on retraining our workforce and looking for areas that are particular unique to the United States manufacturing process to bring those jobs back. At to mention the fact that total restructuring of our tax code, perfectly relative to Corporate Tax rates that reward corporations frankly for keeping their process offshore, if we can repatriate those that to the United States, i think youll see unprecedented job creation. Host we are talking with craig dunn, in indiana columnist. Howiepolitics. Com. We are focusing on the republican side because craig dunn is a gop party chair in Howard County. Anthony, good morning. Caller howre you gentlemen . Host go ahead. Caller i will vote republican just to continue this parties viability in the future. Is imy question still undecided. Which candidate on the republican side is able to perhaps have a victory over the democrats . Secondly, does Donald Trumps favorability exceed both john kasich and ted cruz . Host craig dunn . Guest we have two issues there. , which isctability largely at the republican convention, if i get an opportunity to vote on a second ballot, i will make my decision based on electability in november. If you believe the polls as they are today, and i am very mindful of the fact that pulls can change and candidate strategy can move forward, but essentially today in a headtohead contest with Hillary Clinton, donald trump is trailing hilly clinton by eight percentage points. Ted cruz is behind the lakeland by proximately three percentage points. John kasich is leading by eight percentage points. It is very difficult to average that, but i can tell you in 16 Consecutive National polls, john kasich has shown that he would be ahead of Hillary Clinton in each one of those polls. As far as your second point is ask that question again if you would please. Host it was about electability and talking about favorability. Guest on the favorability issue, i do not think there would be any doubt right now in the Republican Party that donald trump, out of the people who ,ave voted in the primaries that his favorability would be higher than the other candidates. What we have to look at is the net favorability because he is off the charts on the negative. So is Hillary Clinton from that standpoint. We are looking at a person that is popular in a segment of the Republican Party, but yet, the net unfavorables are just off of the chart. For instance, seven out of 10 women are telling us as they leave the polls that they will not vote for donald trump. I think hispanics are running north of 70 that will not vote for donald trump. You get to the point in time where mathematics start piling up against you. It is going to be very difficult to cobble together a coalition that can win in the fall when your net negatives are so high. Host let us go to ohio where mary is waiting peri. Caller i have two points. The first one is it donald trump is such a great negotiator, why didnt he go to indiana or tried to save the carrier jobs . Why did he not try to make one of his great deals . My second point is why is the Mainstream Media afraid to talk about his association with epstein and orangey island . Dunn on the carrier plant, remind our viewers what that was. Guest that as a manufacturing plant engaged in the heating and manufacturingss, heating and cooling products. They announced that they would ship a sizable number of jobs to mexico to be manufactured. I do not know if it was Donald Trumps place to come in and try to negotiate from moving there, but i do know that in indiana, both republicans and democrats exercise a lot of pressure and were able to get carrier to reduce the number of jobs. Originally it was close to 2000 jobs that would be outsourced to mexico. Now it is going to be little north of a thousand jobs. Governor pence played a very strong role in that in keeping and i sure thousand jobs here in indiana. As far as the other question is concerned, i would not have an opinion on that. Host you bring up governor pence, indiana governor mike pence. Cruziday, he endorsed ted in his appearance on w ibc radio in indianapolis. [video clip] choose the man who are shown courage and his convictions. It is not a popular thing and washington, d. C. To take on the leadership of your own party. I know that. I did it when i was there. I opposed runaway spending whether it was Republican Administration and congress or a democratic administration. Let me be very clear. I respect the right and the views of every hoosier in making their the termination in the upcoming primary election. I urge every hoosier to make up their own mind. For me, to lead is to choose. Choosinghis time of when people all across america are looking to indiana to make a decision, i just wanted to make my decision known. Let me be very clear on this. Whoever wins the republican nomination for president of the United States, im going to work my heart out to get elected this fall. Pencesaig dunn on mike endorsement of ted cruz your thoughts . Guest it struck me as somewhat of a tepid endorsement frankly. He preceded the comments that with being very complementary to donald trump for bringing in millions of new voters into the republican primary process before he got around to endorsing ted cruz. March, it the long probably will not have tremendous bearing on this. I think a lot of peoples minds were made up. Frankly i was surprised that he did the endorsement. He has a pretty tough race coming up this fall. There is no particular reason to irritate either side going into the fall. He expressed himself what he was going to support. He was encouraging people to vote either way. He just wanted to let people know how he was going to vote. That is about as mild and endorsement as you can give. Host in terms of moving people to the ballot box, do you think coach Bobby Knights endorsement of donald trump was perhaps a better get in the state . Guest bobby knight is at one point in time was fairly reviewed in the state of indiana. It has been about 20 years since he has had any real impact on the state. At that point in time, we have gotten tired of his holy and behavior bullying behavior with the press and the fans. I guess i would say its absolutely no surprise to me that he would support comes from. They that he would support donald trump. They are two peas in a pod when it comes to boorish behavior. I do not think his endorsement will have any impact in the state of indiana. Host lets go to our line for democrats. Melvin is on the line in fort lauderdale, florida. Caller when you are talking about industry and all the jobs lost in indiana, how come that no one brings up the fact that donald trump from the new York Clothing district since all his clothing lines overseas . He is talking about how hes going to bring back in industry from china and mexico and whatever. He actually sent his clothing line over there for them to actually perform the tasks of making the product. I really do not understand why forget that when they talk about trump and the rhetoric. Host craig dunn . Guest sometimes good politicians make good magicians. Of every magician is to get you looking at one hand while the other hand is making things disappear or ap or. Appear. That is largely the case with donald trump. He has made statements that i do not believe can be supported with fact. Rationalnal and a and positions that i do not think it ever be borne out in the United States c. And yet, unless the press will hold his feet to the fire and ask for specific details, such as this gentleman is suggesting, i think you may get away with it. It is very important to ask questions such as, how are you going to afford a 50 foot wall across the United States border . We do not have the money to pay for that. Are you really going to deport 11 Million Immigrants here in the United States, round them up doortodoor . I do not think we are going to do that in the United States. Are we going to abrogate our treaties with our trading partners . I do not think that is going to happen. If you want to see the discomfort and anger of the voters like we saw was some of the unfulfilled promises that the tea party made back in 2010 and a lot of the candidates who pandered to the tea party in 2010, i think youll see even greater anger when they realized that the president is somewhat limited in what he can do and he still has that pesky congress to deal with. I think point like this are very valid. There are inconsistencies in Donald Trumps record. Ther its gone on her show gun ownership or right to life, he is waffled quite a few times to that. Media holdnational his feet to the fire, i will hold fox news to that. Theyre pretty much given him a past to his inconsistencies. When they ask him a question, he is totally vilify them to be point where they are coward bed by it. Host lets go to frank in new jersey. Caller good morning. How are you today . I have a question on cruz. Five no problem with the press theing trumps feet to fire, but as for ted cruz abolishing the Internal Revenue service, how can he possibly abolish the irs . You have corporations like ibm and at t and such that file Corporate Tax returns. You have partnerships and trust and the like. You have employers who pay payroll taxes, File Hundreds of millions of you have brokerage forms that one and 90 nines 1099 stocks and bonds. My question is, why hasnt the press put cruzs feet to the fire on a statement that he is going to abolish the Internal Revenue service . Host who are you supporting a republican primary . Caller i dont know yeah. Host craig dunn, go ahead. Guest this is another one of those issues that campaign that candidates make on the campaign trail that the reality may be greater than the campaign. That 30 years from now, we will have the irs no matter who is elected president. You are going to be around. They are going to be around. I dont think we have to have revenue. There will be those who always try to avoid that revenue collection. Just for that reason alone, you will need the irs. The size might be arguable. Here we go with a simple filing status that would require a flat rate tax that you could file on the proverbial certainly, and enforcement in fancifulhose areas is to think that cant be done. Host mary, good morning. Youre on with craig dunn. Caller i was going to ask, if Bernie Sanders happens to be the nominee for the democrat, how many points ahead or behind other republican candidate . You that it was during president clintons time that china was brought into the wbo. It took a lot of jobs from United States to china. Isont think Hillary Clinton going to be any different. I think Bernie Sanders is the only one who is really willing to fight for old and young, and the common man. , you know, that is not being brought out. Host craig dunn. Same i would say on that polling headtohead, Bernie Sanders would be all three public and candidates beat all three rick public and all three republican candidates. When a sharp contrast is made between capitalistic approaches to running our economy and socialistic methods of running our economy, i think you would see a clear diversions and the american public. When those clear diversions in the american public. Everyone knows nothing is free. You would see which candidate which that Bernie Sanders went up against. Bill is in lansing, michigan. Bill, good morning. I would like the gentleman to tell me, the Republican Party has spent 70 million running negative as against donald trump. What do you expect his negatives to be . He is in your party. What kind of crazy people are you anyway . Run by ahe country is bunch of communists. The only difference between our , theyment and russias have a one headed monster, and we have a two headed monster. The Republican Party has not spent a single dime against any candidate or for any candidate. Our party does not do that. We have a bottomup, grassroots Republican Party, both on the state level and on a national level, and our parties are neutral from that standpoint and havent spent a single dime. Now the gentleman saying there have been republicans, particularly some of the wealthy ones that have funded special pa cks. He has a valid point. They have. That is not the Republican Party. The Republican Party just does not do that. That is a huge mess myth. There is no Republican Party establishment that is planning the outcome of this president ial race. If we had, if we had that kind of a powerful organization, do you really think we would allow to start off with 17 candidates and turned into the circus that it has . I dont think so. There is no doubt that there are people that have used their Financial Resources against donald trump. By the same token, or are people who user Financial Resources to remove donald trump. I dont see any problems with it. But i promise him, the Republican Party itself, nowhere has used its Financial Resources or against any candidate. Host first donald trump ready for the republican primary to be over with him as a nominee. He started targeting Hillary Clinton in comments he has made. He was on fox news yesterday as well. Here is an exchange with Chris Wallace about some of the comments felt up made about Hillary Clinton. [video clip] to say it was a senator, secretary of state four years. To say if she was a man she would not run. Isnt that dismissive . Said worseanders than that. That she is not qualified to run. That she is not capable. Bernie sanders, what he said was a lot worse than what i said. I am going to use that. Bernie sanders said she should not be allowed to run. That she is not capable. And what he said is incredible. It is a sound bite. As soon as he said it, they broke in and said, i can just imagine donald trump watch these remarks that Bernie Sanders is making about clinton. She is a strong person. She should be able to take it. The only card she has is a womans card. She has done a lousy job. Even women dont like her. It is a womans card and she plays it. I will let you know in six months if she plays it well. I dont think she will play it well at all. It is true, if she werent a woman, she would not be in this race. Thoughtsig dunn, your on donald trump saying clinton is find the woman lost the womans card. Doing a verynot good job of keeping her from playing the womans card. Some of the things he is saying is unprofessional. You couldnt expect Hillary Clinton not to take advantage. You play the hand youre dealt. Qualifications, i would say she has a resume of jobs she has done. That does not necessarily say she has done those jobs well. Fact, if she would happen to be elected president , it would be the classic, quintessential of the peter principle of rising to your level of incompetence. She is there. Have the job titles along the way, but her levels of accomplishment, each of those steps have been fraught with continuous, liberal spending, guncontrol advocacy, every liberal policy you can possibly. Ush, she has done that secretary of state was one disaster after another. I think donald trump is right for not respect, but, it is probably a good strategy to focus on women. They represent over 50 of our voting base. He has created a fertile environment to try to take those voters away from the Republican Party. Host back to the phones. Tom is in virginia. Caller good morning. I want to make a comment on Illegal Immigrants. Somehow, likeas , [indiscernible] i am against donald trump. I dont know why he is so against john kasich, because he is one of the best candidates. In differentence areas. He would be the one who can take us to win in november. I am a woman. But i dont vote for hillary. I agree with the gas. I agree with the guest. Host all right. Issue ofn, on the illegal immigration and how it is playing in the primary, particularly in indiana . St i dont really think it is a safe issue for both cruz and trump to express their opinions on. Their view is not too terribly different donald trump is putting a lot of his efforts into the construction of a wall to wall people out. Walls dont really do that. That is without consideration of the financial implications of it. But ted cruz has made no secret of the fact that he believes we need before we look at any pathway to legal residency in the United States, we need to tie Illegal Immigrants to United States and step up border enforcement and reverse the obama policy, that has made an open door to the southern border. On the subject of a wall, and who is going to pay for the wall. The whole issue of are we really going to deport 11 Million People from United States . Control, we cant drugs. We couldnt control illegal imports of alcohol and we will not be able to control 11 Million People, round them up, and ship them out. I know that is a concern of people who are living here in the United States without proper documentation. I think there is a copper path for us i think there is a proper path for us to advocate and hopefully after this election is over, we will arrive at some conclusion. It is serving a divisive issue. This has been Donald Trumps entire strategy from the very beginning. The Illegal Immigrants offer a group of people that he can anyck and beat on without real, strong ramifications at the polls in the republican primary. He can vilify them and make them the ones that are taking the jobs away from us and take on the chinese and the mexican,. Ight on down the line and they dont have those Voting Rights in our primary, so it is a safe issue for him. It becomes a little more problematic in the fall and i think that is what we are going to be dealing with. One of my great concerns is chairman ryans, did an extensive look at what our party needed to do to expand itself, to appeal to the majority of the voters in the United States, and donald trump has taken every single point of that and has done everything he could to destroy that ability to do it. , notis my major concern only just the electability in november, but the longterm, by ability of the Republican Party. It host a reminder to our viewers, if you want to hear from the candidates themselves, we are covering a couple of Campaign Rallies ahead of indianas primary tomorrow at tonight, at 7 00 tonight, donald trump will be in south bend, indiana. Ted cruz will be holding a Campaign Rally in indianapolis. We will be airing that live at 7 30 here on cspan. We had a few more minutes with craig dunn as we talk about indiana politics looking ahead to tomorrows gop primary. Pecial line for indiana we will head to joan from rockville, maryland. Good morning. Guest i dont think your has been fair to ted cruzs flat tax. 10 non endorsed payroll taxes. Felt that this will encourage the economy to a great point like it did with reagan. Cruz is the only viable conservative since ronald reagan. He is not going to be a big spender. We need him because this debt is going to destroy america. We are all going to wind up paying a 90 all wind up paying 90 of our income to pay for the debt. Thank you. Host craig dunn. Guest i agree wholeheartedly with your caller. My point was even if we do have a flat tax, i dont think it is very viable that we will completely be able to eliminate the Internal Revenue service. You still have to have a collection efforts, but her comments relative to the debt and spending and the unfairness and multiple layers of the United States tax code are valid. We do need a dramatic restructuring of our tax code. Host curtis is waiting in new hampshire, and republican. Good morning. Youre on with craig dunn. Caller good morning. I would like to speak on an issue that i think is important and i think it is obvious, but i dont think i dont see anyone speaking on it. It seems like the Neoconservative Movement is to back hillary. Wrecked the Republican Party and destabilize the middle east, now they are going to switch back to democrat, which is their natural home. Thank you. Host any thoughts . See the neocon moving to Hillary Clinton. In fact, i think the Republican Party will be like many large families. You have different beliefs inside a large family. Fussing, andpping, fighting. When it comes down to some other family in the neighborhood taking on one of your siblings, you are going to band together and go to war together. I think that is what we are going to see in the fall. Whoever emerges from the Republican Party as our candidate, i believe we will support them and we will put great effort in. I know there is a lot of talk theirs group Publican Party and one poorly, it doesntstates, benefit of settlor betake our marbles and go home and dont dissipate in the process. I will support whoever our candidate is in the fall and do what i can do to pick the best candidate to win in november and to influence our candidates as much as possible to expand their Publican Party to make sure that all americans are included that all republicans are included and americans are included. Writes in cks just curious, what is a hoosier . Guest the etymology of that word goes back into the early 1800s and it seems that the common consensus is as people would be migrating to indiana heading west, in the middle of the night, as wagons would approach each other, you would approach a house along the road, someone would call out, who is is there who was . It kind of got slurred to hoosier. It is a term of in german. Endearment. Erm of hoosieraig dunn, is a with the with how it takes politics howey politics. If you want to visit his website, it is at howeypolitics. Com. And he for being here. For a last 40 minutes, we are going to discuss with her democratic colors only whether the next president continue president obamas policies or go when a new direction . This is democrats only. We have been discussing republican politics in our last segment. We have done questions with just republicans only. Just democrats this time only. 2027488000 if the candidate should continue with policies. If they if using basic on a different direction, call www. Cspan. Org. Call 2027488001. You can start calling in now. Are doing this stems from an article in the if hillary post, clinton is running for obamas or term she faces these challenges. Is the author of the piece. He is a professor at grand Valley State University in michigan and author of the air apparent presidency. Challenge, the next would have to relate to her predecessors. Clinton would promise a great deal of continuity in the general election and in the campaign, but if she reaches the white house, she would alternate between three approaches continuity, expansion, and correction. The author goes into each one of those things. When it comes to continuity, clinton will promise, preserve, and protect with her needle pen. When it comes to expansion, all president s want to have their own achievements, however, clinton is likely to finish obamas goals like copper fence and like comprehensive immigration. Helped millions not you covered , republicanlation opposition to all these is likely very strong forcing president clinton to make many compromises and choose her battles accordingly. When it comes to the issue of heirction, sometimes an has to take a new direction. Elected, clinton will have to correct something in obamas legacy because either it is not functioning or unpopular. The Affordable Care act contains the deeply unpopular cadillac tax scheduled to go into effect in 2020. Future president clinton would force would face enormous pressure to repeal the tax. How which make it up . Article, it is by donald zinman. We are asking just her democratic callers in this class segment of the washington journal, what you think the next president should do . Should they continue obamas policies, or go in a new direction . Harry is up first from lafayette, indiana. How do you feel . I feel they should taser policies. Marijuana should be legalized. It would break of 99 of your drug gains right there in d. C. Host what other issues are important to you . Where do you think president obama has gone in the wrong direction . Uhler . That is the one i am concerned about the most. In this town right here, it is getting worse. It is more gangs, shootings, and robberies and things like that. School man in a high robbed a village pantry. They asked him what he was going to do with the money, and he said, by marijuana. It the number one selling illegal drug. Host that is terry in indiana. Fill believes that the next president should continue president obamas policies. Why do you think so . , you hungjust wanted up on me. Host no i didnt, fill. You wanted to tell us what . Caller i wanted to tell the voters out there whats going on in this nation right now is i think hillary will follow cedence. Pre she thinks a lot like obama. What is going on in the whole jobs leavingthe the country and stuff are talking about the National Debt is so bad. The reason it is so bad is jobs leaving, so there are no taxes coming in from there. Forwages have been stagnant how many years jacs . There is no jobs bill that is ever come out of Republican Congress or senate. Whats goingalize , and that nation republicans have destroyed hillary because they know she would get elected. Host when you say clinton think a lot like obama, would do you mean . Because, you know, because shes a democrat, obama is a democrat. Obama would have been so far if there wasnt so much discrimination against mcconnell and the whole Republican Party. , the thingt, hillary she is saying is true. Come on. Because ofr just what the Republican Party has done to her. And that is all planned. They planned that from day one because she knew in the next election, i mean, the republicans do in the next election that she would get elected and they went after her manyon as, you know, how years ago . As soon as obama come into office, they have been after her. The stuff they go after her about is nothing but rhetoric. Question for just him only in our last 35 minutes today, the next president should continue president obamas policies 2027488000. Or the new president should go into a new direction from president obamas policies 2027488001 if you feel that way. On that line, the next person who thinks the president should go into a new direction is tay von. Caller we have to go in a different direction. In terms of obamas operating style as a president , we cannot negotiate with a corrupt Campaign Politics that we have. We have lobbyists in the heirs of politicians, buying them off, and Hillary Clinton is a prime example number one. We cannot negotiate with republicans and democrats. I support about Bernie Sanders, instead of closing the inaugurated, is the same way obama did who turned his back and started negotiating, Bernie Sanders is for the American People and tell American People, hey, get involved. Big moneyed to get out of politics, number one, so republicans and democrats can have the debates we want to have. Whether you support conservative liberal policies, right now, nothing is getting , bigbecause big pharma wall street, those are the people creating legislation and the politicians are listening to it. I support Bernie Sanders because he does not take any of that money. I can see why some people would want donald trump as president because he is self financed. But again, you dont get a briber to come in and take care of the bride. That is donald trump, he buys politicians himself. I dont think he is a person to do it. Voting rights is an issue also. It should be an opt out instead of an opt in. Americano reinvigorate democracy so we can have the debates you want to have. Republicans and democrats are a part of that revolving door of wall street and washington. Host when you talk about opting in or opting out to vote when you turn 18, you should automatically be registered. How old are you . Caller im 24 years old. Im so happy to hit the other millennials like myself are engaged. I cannot stand it when older folks look at our generation as the selfie generation and that we are out of touch. We are more informed and engaged than one might think. Host one of the ways you youged what is one way you stay engaged . Caller i do plan to vote. I just like to have conversations about this whenever i can. I dont shy away from political conversations. I dont change the subject to kim kardashian. Im ready to talk about what folkses are going to help outside of myself. Even myself, i am not afraid to have these conversations. I think people in my generation are apt to read these conversations on social media and facetoface. Host pat smith writes on would like to see the democratic candidate not follow obamas action, but 2008ad, live up to obamas campaign promises. Tony is in kansas city on the line that thinks the next president should continue president obamas policies. He is a progressive. Is that the supporters of sanders and trump are not job back . Bring the [indiscernible] socialist as a when they tagged him as a socialist, he will lose by a landslide. Hillary clinton is in the middle. Host did you hear that last caller with concerns about all the money in politics, and his concern that president obama played into the system as soon as he got into office . Do you think that is a place where the next president needs to change what president obama has done on money in politics . Cant tie your house behind yourself. You cant do that. Republicans are in a bunch of money. When they are ready to take care of that, the republicans and and bets will sit down united. That is where it starts. Host can you unilaterally disarm if you are president . [indiscernible] time, the senate and the congress it will be a landslide. Look at his moralities. He is 100 white. [indiscernible] those people are people who believe they have the power. Elected, he has to have some hispanic, black and muslim votes. Michigan and he will lose new york. Host all right. ,hat is tony kansas city missouri. Some stats on president obamas current Approval Rating as we are talking about the president who should follow president obama. Currently, the most recent has 51 approving the president s job he is doing in office. To break that out it is only 13 to approve of the job he is doing on the republican side. On average, over the course of the entire presidency, his approval has been 47 . His high point came in at 67 just after taking office. Low point happened 12 different times. E was at 40 his highest threeday average, weekly average are shown as well by the tracking poll, the weekly job approvals, you can check it out. We are talking to just them a crack about who about him what you think the next president should do . Should they continue president obamas policies, or go in a different direction . Martinez, california. Ellen, why do you feel that way . Caller good morning. I am very fond of president obama and i like most of his programs. Me the two that really upset , citizens united, that no candidate talks about. That scares me about hillary. I am a set about that. And the new direction i think they should go is enforcing immigration law. I think that obama has misused policy,utive order with which is a policy, which is a privilege. And start enforcing immigration law. There is and what easy way to do that besides building a wall, and that is clean up Social Security that the Social Security numbers cant be forced , stolen, or used for dead people. Last year in one of your programs, someone was on, i do not recall whom. Tweeted,f your guests the irs has 37,000 euros if i will Social Security numbers from two corporations. And the irs, would not allow the government, i believe Social Security, to go in and find out what is going on with this. That needs to be cleaned up. That is all i have to say. Host ellen, if you want to research it, you can go to our website at www. Cspan. Org. All of our segments are available to rewatch. Tom is in virginia. Says the next president should go in a new direction. Good morning. Caller good morning. About the last few decades, the federal government has tried to get people to retire early by offering them and incentive an incentives. It is a big failure mainly because it is not a lot of money as far as the benefit is concerned. What happens is you have these employees that stay on because it increases their retirement, and i wonder if somebody like trump, who is a business person, that in their and would say, we got to make this worth peoples wild. Because there is a lot of ways in the federal government. It seems to me that there has got to be a better way of doing it compared to offering people incentives to retire that are based on a 1990s formula. Host are you supporting donald trump . Caller i am on the fence. I voted in the primary for kasich. I am someone said the other day, you know, if someone held a gun to your head today, who would you vote for . Looking at the candidates right now, i may take the gun option right now. Primary. Ts a horrible i think it is awful across the board. Whould support bob gates knows government who can get in there and do something. Virginia has an open primary. You can take a democratic ballot as a republican or take a republican ballot as a democrat. You voted for this primary . Iffy init has been real virginia because they wanted you to sign a loyalty oath that in the primary if you voted for a republican, you were somehow bound to vote for whoever the republican nominee is in the general. The problem with that is there are people there are 17 running in the republican cruz,y including literally scare the hell out of me. Hopet think there is any that we are going to be able to solve problems if you get people that extreme in there. We got to get somebody willing to roll up their sleeves and get to work and make it work. I am not seeing that. I had hoped for kasich, then i heard he cut the deal with cruz that made zero cents. Cruz would not be in new mexico, which are be a perfect primary for him. Kasich would be in indiana. Never made that decision should be fired. Whoever made that decision should be fired. It just seems like a take mess. I am not on the hillary bandwagon. Bernie is great, but when you say the word socialist, peoples chairs turned to the right. It is a poor selection in a country this many people. Host we are talking to just them are cracked only in this last segment today on the washington journal. To the next president continue president obamas policies, or go in a new direction tha . Christine is in florida on the line for people who think the next president should continue. What policies, christina . Caller pretty much the health care program, obamacare. I think hillary will tweak it and make it better. It still has a lot of issues, but i think she will fix it. Will getat hillary most of obamas policies through and make them better. I think she will stabilize the middle east and keep us safe. Will get along in congress. To get he will be able all of these policies through, and also give us more than what control,obs, more gun womens rights, everybodys writes. She will convince them. Host why do you think Hillary Clinton would be able to get gun control through it president obama tried that effort and has run into such a tough time trying to move anything on that issue . I dont understand how all of these democrats and republicans dont understand obama has been fighting a losing battle since the day he was elected. They already knew they were going to do to him the already new what they were going to do to him. Host do you think it will be different for Hillary Clinton . Caller no. She gets along with everyone and i reached you will be able to get through. That is why they dont want her to win. They are fighting her so bad. I and she will get through. She gets along with everybody. She is very intelligent and has a lot of experience. And i think she will get it through. Policies, have these all the shooting, all the bad guns getting into the wrong hands, that has to stop. Too many innocent people are getting killed. It is really, really important with americans. I think she will do it. I think she is going to be our next president. But because she is a woman, but because she is intelligent, experienced, and will be able to get it done. Florida. Istine and bill is a democrat and kansas city, missouri. Bill, what do you think the next president should do . Caller go in a new direction. The less caller touched on it a little bit. Hillary is a very convincing person. She is part of a family that is very convincing. There was a big mistake made by obama. He did not spend enough time in his first two years developing new congress because we got beat real bad and nothing has been done. Hillary has touched on this a little bit that she wants to send more time, because we dont have anybody, governors, governors and state offices. You have to develop this before you can do anything else. Host you mean campaigning with some of these folks on the state and local level to make sure they are elected to do more campaigning . Caller well, i dont know. The details is really somebody elses deal. Whatever it takes. Them,ose campaigning with and in a lot of cases, it wouldnt. Would be kind showing up would be kind of a negative. Obama certainly could have done more of that. The fox and former president clinton. They seemed to let the first two years just drift, they were so happy they got elected, that the kind of let it go a little bit. Is, dont let it go. Republicans won seats they never should have won. If there was more effort put in from the top like that there is a lot of things to do. As soon as a new president gets expectations and the demands, and everything comes at them and they are expected to do a lot of things. Is that one should be, that to me very important. About the newlk occupant of the west wing, news out of the east wing of the white house yesterday of the , president soffice oldest daughter, melia obama, has opted to attend Harvard University beginning in the fall of 2017. The white house announced the choice that she made to take a gap. She will become the latest in the long line of president ial children to attend the Ivy League University noting that daughter ofis the two academic overachievers who both attended law school at harvard. Harvard only except 5. 2 of applicants making it the second most Selective College in the country after stanford. It is also one of the most expensive costing more than 60,000 a year for tuition for room, board, and other fees. We are asking our viewers, what you think the next president should do . Democrats only. Should the next president continue president obamas policies, or go in a different direction . Is in the soto, texas. What you think . Caller i think they should continue president obamas strategy. There are two people, bill and tayvon. They said president obama should have done more. You know what, get more people out to vote in your state. I have four grandchildren who are 20 years and they go to college. Their parents are still able to keep them on health care. We talk about small children with health needs. That is great for the parents. Dear pain Reform Campaign reform, they forgot that president obama tried to do that and joe wilson said to him, you lied. Immigration reform, i am 67 years old and i remember when said to us when we were little, we are going to send you back to africa. These kids need education. Also, peoples rights. Raise the limit on that. People can make it off at 7. 50 seminars . 50 an hour. Hillary clinton has been in politics longer left to know that she could do some lyndon whaton tactics and that is you have to do with some of these congressmen and senators, not just the white ones, but the black ones, too. The Democratic Party has laid down and done nothing to help president obama. Harddent obama tried very to campaign for some of those people and that is where we lost it. You get out and you vote local government and everybody have a great day. Host before you go, do you thank democrats do you think democrats and the next congress will the more inclined to support whoever comes after president obama . Is,er i dont care who it if they are republican, if they are for people. Party, they have laid back. Rode on president obamas back. On the second term, they said, i dont want him to come because of gun control. Bernie sanders have been in their 25 years. I told my grandchildren, you have to get out in work because my mom had three jobs that barely equaled one job. If people want change, go to your poll and it starts in your county, city, and local and state government. Ted cruz, the poor man, you know what, donald trump has ripped him up, but he has done nothing in texas but eat green eggs and ham and shut down the government. People have to remember, they lost a lot of money. Host rose in michigan. You think the president should go in a new direction, why . Caller the president we get in office should go in another policies,doing bills, doing bills with iran knowing they are our arch enemy and sucking money out of the military. I hope obama gets this because the military was built, since my father and all of my relatives, worked in the army. My father was a sergeant. He was in the army. He fought in world war i and world war ii. Like he said, that army, that military is supposed to protect and defend this country. There likeing out ducks. I dont care for Bernie Sanders. I dont care for this free stuff. It there is nothing in this world that is free. We worked our whole lives. We were for everything we get. Nobody gives us anything. Host ok. Caller hes got a career that caused hes got a career that goes all the way back to who knows when. Hes talking about people in panama and uruguay, but when it comes to the American People i voted for reagan. I voted for reagan. Now i am crossing over the line and voting for a republican. And i am voting for donald trump because i believe he represents this country. A strong military. That is what we need. We need people that can get the job done. Robert is next, a democrat thehe line who think president should continue president obamas policies. Which ones in particular, robert . Caller she should continue president obamas a la takes because he started something, even though the Republican Party fought tooth and nail from day one, and he is still getting a lot of things accomplished. Eel like the Marijuana Law if they were to stop discriminating against young people getting jobs when it comes down you know they smoke marijuana. If they stop discriminating them , it would be a lot less crime on the street. Hillary clinton will be president , but she will finish the job that president obama started. It will take more it took more than eight years to get in trouble. It will take more than than eight years to get out of trouble. Host all right, chris is in los angeles, california, a democrat on the line for those who think the president to go in a new direction. Caller thank you. Good morning. I think everyone should read, especially middleclass republicans. It is called all the president s bankers. This one lays it out. I am one of those democrats that even if Bernie Sanders doesnt get the nomination, i will not vote for hillary. I dont know who that woman was, she was always a not a democrat if she will vote for trump. I will both the green party. It is absolutely insane the banking community. They go through our political system. I cant even describe it. Bernie is the only hope we even have at this point, and he has never said anything is free ever. He is not promising anything. Elected, ice i get will need everybody behind me. It has to be a group effort. We have to gang up on these guys. Hes right. It has to be some bloodless revolution. We have to start from scratch. If its Bernie Sanders, do you think you will have the support from congress to enact those efforts . Or are you saying if there are enough people behind him, congress will have to follow him . Yes, we have to get all those guys out of there. Extremely steep hill to climb. But you cant do it incrementally. Im sorry. It is like tapering off smoking, you have to go cold turkey, you know . And i am not in bad shape, but i got daughters. I dont know even i dont even of how kids get started nowadays. Im just speechless after reading this book. Bankers,residents and goes back 100 years and shows a secret alliance is between the bankers and politicians. Its crazy host thomas on twitter says the next president should follow his own agenda. Finance criminal Justice Reform and trillion dollar Infrastructure Program which is what thomas lewis is pushing for. Time for a few more calls and wanted to show you one more story making headlines today this from the Washington Times. Puerto rican government will not make 370 million in bond payments after a failure to restructure or find a political solution to the u. S. Territories spiraling debt crisis noting that i went spent the weekend trying to negotiate a settlement that would have avoided the default, but came up short. The Development Comes as congress has been unable to pass a debt restructuring bill for puerto rico. Back to the calls. Democrats only here for the last five minutes or so on todays program. Ryan is up next in houston, texas. Brian, what you think the next president should do . Caller good morning. Thank you for having me on the show this morning. Host go ahead, brian, what do you think . Caller whoever we put in that seat, its not going to have that much of an impact on change as long as congress has the power of the purse. Obama is a most optimistic that i have ever met, the things he set forth and in place arent any good. For properly structured. However, from the inception of his presidency, not only did congress continuously block and law, if they opened up and started those infrastructure deals and all those things, we could have had americans working all this time. To make certain he was as great as he is. Are in thiswe predicament as far as the money. Now, the jobs they are going to make themselves, once he is out, they will allow us to make the money we are supposed to be making. They will allow these things to flourish again. Just to make sure that this black president didnt shine. That is the problem we are facing unfortunately. Host are you saying it is a racial thing as opposed to the president s policies and division for what direction the country should go . Caller his policies are excellent. His optimism for all people he is not trying to help blacks more than he is trying to help whites. He is trying to help america. You understand . As far as the policies, they are great. Host all right. Mike is waiting in cleveland, georgia. Once you get mike in as well. What you think the next president should do . Caller uh. We got to, uh. Miscommunication it seems like in the states. I am partially for burning, but our schools, roads, military, biggest socialist organization in the world. Obama, he folded to the banks. When it came time to deal with them, he folded and went right along with them. When it comes time to stand up against killing without this extra judicial killing mess, he caved in. , i dont know what were going to do. If we dont make a paradigm shift here, i just, i cant honestly see how we go forward. Host all right, mike is our last caller on todays program, but we will be right back here tomorrow morning at 7 00 a. M. Eastern. In the meantime, have a great monday. [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] today and republican frontrunner donald trump also in the Hoosier State campaigning in south bend, indiana. Cspan2 will have live coverage starting at 7 00 p. M. A poll has in leading senator cruz. A real politics poll has that lead at four points. This editorial in the indianapolis star. A president trunk would President Trump would be joining us on the phone is matthew tully, Political Columnist for the indianapolis star. Thank you for being with us. How does the newspaper really feel about these republican candidates