with the civil rights act in the 60s lbj said we should do this, it is the right thing for the country, it may cost us politically but we should still do it, democrats paid a price in 2010 for the affordable care act but now you have the publican state by referendum deciding to embrace medicare. it was the right thing to do. you can it and cut it to death, we need to take new steps forward. >> host: we say goodbye to chairman alexander, with his harmonica expertise, what is your next instrument? >> getting better on the harmonica is a lifelong project. i played a lot of music on the campaign trail, beginning to teach myself to play the autoharp. got a lot of free time. >> host: merry christmas, thank you very much. >> congresswoman seth moulton talks about his personal experience with the veterans

administration healthcare system and changes he would like to see in the us healthcare system. this is 15 minutes. >> our next guest joined the marines in 2001, led an infantry platoon, was among the first americans to reach baghdad in 2003, is a disruptor, the only democrat to unseat an incumbent in 2004, democrat of massachusetts, and honor to welcome congressman seth moulton. congratulations. you are a new dad. tell us about emmy. >> emmy is amazing, incredibly well behaved, very active, pretty amazing. people told me different things to expect.

when the baby is due, just get attached to the mother. i am totally attached to any. can't believe how much i miss her, we barely met, only known each other for a few weeks but i can't stand being away from her. it has been an interesting experience being a first-time dad. >> host: taking a sharp turn. [laughter] >> host: you said something to me very sobering, just making conversation waiting to come out, what are the chances the shutdown? you said hi. >> guest: that is what i'm hearing, the two sides are far apart and don't want to compromise, this could change any minute as we know with our erratic commander-in-chief. we don't know at this point. right now it seems the two sides are too far apart. my intention is to spend christmas in massachusetts, not here in washington dc.

>> host: you get your healthcare from the veterans administration. how does that affect your view of it and this is an area have been active on. >> guest: i committed to get my healthcare from the va. until we can fix it i want to experience what everybody else is experiencing. i've got my healthcare from the va before running and it is a mixed experience as people know. >> host: we have quite an arsenal of water here. >> guest: they are labeled. >> host: they are all untouched. special. >> guest: definitely better than cain's water, i am sure. tim kaine is a great friend. my experience has been generally positive. i have a great primary care physician, several great primary care physicians and statistically across the board va healthcare is pretty good but we all heard horror stories, we all know there are some hospitals that are great

and somewhere people are dying on waiting lists. what we try to do in my office in congress is work diligently on improving the va so we passed a bill my first term to make it easier for veterans get access to va healthcare, veterans will get appointments on their iphone, someone just canceled and can select that, not possible right now for the va but we have been working more recently on some bills to make it easier and safer for veterans to talk about using cannabis. there's a reason survey that said one of every four veterans is using cannabis right now but they don't feel safe even talking about it at the va with their provider so we have a package of 3 bills, bipartisan bills, one will make it clear that if you are using cannabis you can talk about it with your doctor and not face repercussions no matter what state you are in.

we have a bill to study this more and understand how veterans are using cannabis and whether it is working or not and the third is to educate va healthcare professionals on cannabis. it is clear this is where things are going. i was supportive of the legalization initiative in massachusetts. we need to realize people are going to use marijuana whether we like it or not, let's make it legal and regulate it to make it safe. >> host: in the last midterm campaign you find yourself in ohio faced with a huge health crisis. >> guest: i worked hard to win back the house and supported the next generation candidates across the country especially veterans and spent some time in ohio and we went out with a sheriff's deputy and the fire department and really saw the effects of the opioid crisis

firsthand. >> take us on that midnight ride. >> guest: it is amazing how many calls we get, don't have to wait long at all to get called out, we went to one call in the fire department, a guy who the did it at the, close to death in this pickup truck. i watched as local heroes, first responders saved his life. they did it very professionally and clear they had a lot of experience with this and we talked, we do this multiple times a day. it is old hat for them. with sheriff's deputy we went to several domestic violence cases, you see the effects of drug use not just on an individual but an entire family and community. this is a real player. one of the reasons i support

using marijuana or cannabis for vets is that is an option a lot as opposed to getting stuck with opioids, using cannabis because they don't want to get addicted the way so many people are especially in tough places like the heartland of our country. >> host: the first responders, are they sad? >> guest: they are totally professional and businesslike but it feels we are not making any progress on the crisis. they are out there responding to the problem but not doing anything to stem. we are not addressing the root cause. that is all they are doing, person after person, life after life trying to save but feel like an endless cycle and one of the reasons we have got to

have healthcare in this country that stops these issues before they start. no question the pharmaceutical industry is partly responsible but let's stop having the pharmaceutical industry dictate healthcare policy. >> host: you made yourself a student of the automation economy. how do you see that playing out in red and blue america? >> i took some colleagues up to mit where they have done amazing studies on the future of how automation is changing jobs and many jobs are getting lost not to immigrants like the president says but the robots. that is how the workforce is changing. when you mass out the communities that are more susceptible to automation versus communities that are less accessible, the bio industry in massachusetts not terribly susceptible to animation, not terribly susceptible to automation,

machine plants, auto plants success owns automation. when you map this out it is amazing because it was a syrian refugee who did this mapping at the media lab and i don't think he knows about politics but he chose. for communities that were safer automation and read for communities in danger of automation and looks like the congressional map of the united states of america. that told me two things. one, trump and the republicans have actually been pretty effective at tapping into this feeling of being left behind a lot of americans are left behind by this economy, hurting, struggling, can't get ahead, used to make a decent wage, wages, they are working at mcdonald's. at the same time the blue part of the country, silicon valley, cambridge, massachusetts represented by democrats are already doing okay with automation.

if they figure out how to solve this problem for the red parts we have a lot of districts we can win back. >> and on the short list. >> education. we reformed our education system because of the industrial age, people coming off the farms, everybody go to high school, this is a new world and we have to have an education system. we've not made those reforms to the education system. half the jobs that will exist in 2040 don't exist today. half the jobs in 20 years. that means even if the education system were perfect right now which it is not we still have to reeducate the workforce. we have to have an education system that isn't just about going to high school and college once in your life but is focused on skills training and technical training so that is the number one. there are a lot of other things we can do too but that is one. >> host: you talked about a new

generation of leadership. >> guest: need more water here. >> host: you were among democrats who challenged the automatic ascension of nancy pelosi. now that that is shaken out, what do you think the dynamics will be for house democrats? >> guest: we had top three. the top three in our party haven't changed in 16 years and i don't think that reflects the generational change this election was about and whatever democratic conversation about this, not just get them reappointed. let's have a conversation about that and that is where this is gone. at the end of the day we tried to create space for other people to run and nobody else has run. what you will see happening over the next few hours or a

few days is coming to a deal that will make long-term changes to how the party operates, will enable young people to have more of a voice in our politics and rise into these positions while also coming together as a party so we can be unified in nancy pelosi's administration. >> host: what about the designations? >> guest: they have been better but democracy is about having a debate and sometimes you have a vigorous debate. what democrats as a party are good enough to do and strong enough to do is have the democratic debate like we have learned democratic debate about healthcare. republicans in the last congress were trying to take healthcare away from people. democrats one to have a debate about how to lower cost for healthcare and expand access and if we do that it will be a contentious debate and there

will be some democrats who disagree with other democrats but at the end of the day that is democracy and that is what we should do. >> host: you push the plan for transitioning out of leadership. maybe i missed that story but don't feel that was very specific. >> host: we hope to get something along those lines. >> guest: she was just getting worked up. >> host: she did great yesterday but we want to make sure we have a congress that doesn't understand facebook. we have a lot of challenges we need to address that our next generation challenges and we want to make sure our generation has a role in that debate. >> host: conversation about you and 2020, you talked about a cry for leadership. how do you decide how to answer the cry for leadership the next couple years? >> guest: i did not expect to be in politics. i got out of the marines and like every massachusetts

politician the first job i talk was in dallas, texas. i am here because of an amazing woman named emily who started a group trying to get service that runs, not military veterans, to run for office on the theory that we understand what it means to serve the country so that is why iran in the first place. i will continue doing what i can to serve this country in the best way possible. that is what got me in the leadership fight, the best thing for the party and the country, what guides me in my healthcare work, my work at the va and it will guide me and what i decide to do next. >> host: 30 democrats running in 2020. >> guest: more than that. >> host: how will that work? >> guest: it will be great because we will have a debate we deserve to have. a lot of people in 2016 felt with all due respect to secretary clinton she shouldn't have been coordinated.

the fact that bernie introduced things like college loans into the debate that were not part of the party's discussion until he showed up on the debate stage was a very healthy thing for the party and the country and we will see that times 10 in this election and it will be great for our democracy. >> host: what is it like to go on seth myers? >> guest: is nerve-racking. i had to follow a committee in. you are supposed to be funny on the show, going on after a comedian was really fun. >> host: what is it like behind-the-scenes? >> guest: they have a lot of food. >> host: they didn't have the superfood toast we have here. >> guest: they have food and drinks. >> host: that we can't top at

this moment but thank you for making this conversation about access to healthcare possible. we think the event team for their miracles overnight. the axial's healthcare team for their expert coverage the we appreciate so much. thank you for coming and seth moulton, thanks for a great conversation. see you on axial's.com. >> coming up on booktv, tonight at 8:00 eastern, highlights from michelle obama's tour across the country promoting her best-selling autobiography becoming where she reflects on her life and time in the white house. >> the notion that there is a little girl from the south side of chicago who at the time was named michelle obama married to barack hussein obama was going to dive deep into the midwest in iowa going door-to-door in people's homes and they were opening up their homes, welcoming me around their

kitchen tables and was connected us was our story. >> host: sunday at 9:00 eastern, citizens united president david bossi and former trump campaign manager corey lewandowski discussed the book trump's enemies, how the deep state is undermining the presidency. they are interviewed by cheryl atkinson. >> i don't want to be a conspiracy theorist but we refer to many of these people as the november 9th club. they became a fan of donald trump the day after he got elected. they didn't support him during his campaign and likely didn't vote for him on election day but they found an opportunity to join an administration which was young and inexperienced to further their own agenda. >> part of becoming president, he wasn't a lot to republican leaders in washington and took advice from folks that i don't know that he would do the same thing today.

during the transition in the first month or two of his administration the learning curve was incredibly steep just like it is for every single president of the united states. there is no degree on being president. it is a learning curve. >> host: watch booktv on c-span2. tonight at 8:00 eastern conversations with three retiring members of congress, democratic senator claire mccaskill and republican representative mark sanford and dana robot are discussed losing reelection bid then reflect on their time in congress. >> a positive thing in government. i make the joke imagine if they are wheeling you in and the nurse says i have really good news for you, the surgeon has never done this before. that, back it up. in government now that is

exactly what people once. they want people running for office that have never been around government because they've become so cynical that anyone who has chosen this for a career is not for them. >> what i would say, this was part of the blessing of having a second chance after blowing myself up in 2009, i have seen and experienced firsthand people grace which is god's grace. that is an incredibly humbling journey to walk particularly in a public venue. >> the bolshevik billionaires, i probably stepped on their toes a number of times over the years who decided i have to go. i was out spent 10:1 that i know of. might be more than that when you look at it, by people worth billions of dollars who don't even live in california.

>> what conversations with retiring members of congress tonight on c-span and sees on.org and listen to the free c-span radio apps. >> c-span, where history unfolds daily. in 1979 c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies and today we continue to bring you unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court and public policy events in washington dc and around the country. c-span is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. white house press secretary sarah sanders talks about her approach to press briefings in the impact of her job on her personal life. she spoke at politico's women will conference on tuesday. this is 25 minutes.