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tv   Road to the White House 2020 Beto O Rourke Kickoff Rally in El Paso Texas  CSPAN  March 30, 2019 12:30pm-12:43pm EDT

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facility. they asked me privately, can you help us? the rest of the world is looking at us. theannot only change culture here, we can begin to change the way women live and what they and her -- what they endure around the world and men who are victims of sexual assault as well. i have taken too much of your time. i apologize for being so passionate about this, but i don't apologize for taking your time. [laughter] mr. biden: i will not apologize for my views. guys, we can do this. the time to let up, not one little bit. thank you for what you are doing, i love you for what you do. [cheers and applause]
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>> this weekend on american history tv, world war ii navajo code talkers and a look back at the 1970 93-mile island nuclear power accident -- 1979 three-mile island nuclear power accident. navajo code talkers who served used that more, and in world war ii, -- not a whole code talkers -- >> not also talkers were compelled to use their leg, and they compelled and schemed it in such a way that it played a role in a unique way of confusing the enemy. >> sunday at 8:30 eastern on
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american history tv and c-span's washington journal, the anniversary of the three mile island nuclear power accident near harrisburg, pennsylvania, consider the most severe nuclear accident in the united states. joining us to look at the event is historian samuel walker and the acting director of the nuclear safety project for concerned scientists. and watch the 1979 cbs report "fallout from three-mile island." ♪ >> evacuation. please stay indoors with your windows closed. >> for almost a week last month, people of middletown, pennsylvania lived in fear of an enemy they could not the, here, or feel. -- see, hear, or feel. >> watch american history tv this weekend, only on c-span3. >> c-span is live now in el paso, texas, where former texas
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congressman beto o'rourke is getting ready to kick off his official campaign president. this is one of three rallies the presidential candidate is hosting today. the other ones will be in houston and austin. mr. o'rourke announced his 2020 presidential bid two weeks ago while campaigning for 11 days outside of texas. but today is his official launch for the white house. you o'rourke has been in the political spotlight since he -- that o'rourke has been in the political spotlight ever since he ran against ted cruz for u.s. senate. [inaudible]
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[inaudible] donald!o [inaudible] [laughter] ♪ [laughter]
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[inaudible] >> while we wait for former texas congressman beto o'rourke to kick off his official campaign for president, here is a quick preview of the week ahead in congress. >> daniel newhouse the reports on congress for national journal. he joins us for a look at the week ahead. let's start with senate rule changes. we could see significant change in the u.s. than it. -- u.s. senate. what is mitch mcconnell attempting to do? >> he wants to limit the amount of time it would take to debate judges and nominations, executive branch nominees, judges or subcabinet positions.
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this would not apply to the supreme court or to the cabinet, but mcconnell wants to limit debate from 30 hours to just two hours, which would speed up how many judges or how many nominees president trump can get through the senate. >> the senate has already approved about three dozen of the senate's appellate court -- the presidents appellate court nominees. why does mcconnell think this change is necessary? >> two things are going on. one, mitch mcconnell thinks there have just not in enough nominees approved. democrats ofd obstruction and not allowing president trump to have as many nominees by this time in his presidency as president obama did. on the other side of that coin, believe --vatives some believe this is an attempt to go nuclear, to set up a vote on the entire nuclear option. mitch mcconnell needs 60 votes to approve this rule change,
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which he may not get because he would need a significant amount of democrats to vote with him. happen, theyoesn't have already threatened that they are going to change the rules of the senate entirely to mean that they would only need 50 votes to pass, to get nominees through. in that case, he would need 50 votes to get that done, and that might not happen. a much betterhas chance of that than a 60 vote threshold. >> how are senate democrats responding to all this? senate minority leader chuck schumer thinks this is attack on minority rights. he has accused mitch mcconnell of essentially hypocrisy, saying that when mcconnell was in the minority, he cared so much about minority rights and now that he is in the majority, he wants to throttle the minority's ability
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to have any say in the legislation or nominees in the senate, so i don't expect that this is going to be handled amicably, and certainly if it gets to the point of invoking a nuclear option, this is going to be a really huge deal in the senate. arever in the house, they set to take up the reauthorization of the violence against women act. this law do, and why does it need to be reauthorized? >> this is a law that essentially tries to eliminate domestic violence by setting up a certain grant program and other funding for programs that handle domestic violence issues. it needs to be reauthorized because it expired in february. oftentimes, this becomes part of a year-end spending deal package , and the republicans and democrats get together and vote it,he bill to reauthorize
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but it actually expired at the end of last year over some disagreements about how to this bill, but other issues as well. so now it is back. the problem is that for republicans, anyway, democrats added certain gun-control measures to the bill and republicans and the national rifle association are very opposed to that. >> let me bring up your tweet. you say the nra will issue a key vote against the violence against women act over red flag that provisions that democrats thed at the request of house gop, who want political cover to vote against the bill. why do they need that cover? >> this is a politically dicey issue every year when this comes up. it is called the violence against women act, and if you are voting against that, the political ads right themselves. so last time this came up,
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democrats had inserted certain provisions that would extend the toi-domestic violence issues undocumented immigrants, to transgender women and other categories of people that republicans disagreed with. it became a heated political issue and eventually republicans did back down to some degree, many of them still voted against it. democrats are now trying to do this with gun control. it allows them to highlight that issue. so they have added in red flag provisions, which would make it possible for authorities to confiscate guns from people who have been convicted of stalking or domestic violence. the nra says, this is only misdemeanor stalking or misdemeanor domestic violence, and we think this opens up a precedent that we don't like. republicanss some who are essentially forced here to make a politically dicey vote
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either against the violence against women act or for gun control in a little bit more of a comfortable position, because the nra can chin up their supporters to call into congress and urge them to vote for this and that, and they are going to be grading members on how they vote on this bill. and members could potentially go back to their district and say yes, i voted against the violence against women act, but it is not because of the violence against women portion, but because of guns. >> daniel neuhauser, we will keep following your 'sporting at national journal website and on your twitter. thank you so much for your time. >> thank you. >> ♪ oh say can you see by the don's early light. once so proudly


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