>> cing up this morning on "whiton journal," your calls and comments lift. dante scala discusses the history and future of the new hampshire primary. and cochair of the n hpshire special committee on voter confidence and chair o the ballot l commission, bradford cook, degussa's efforts to increase confidence in state elections. and a political contributor, james pindell, talks about tonight's primary and what is next for the remaining presidential candidates. "washington journal" is next. uy♪ host: good morning. tuesday, january 23, 2024,

primary day in new hampshire. voters are already casting their ballots. we want to hear from you about the battle for the greatest state in campaign 2024. phone lines are open, split by political party. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. a special line for new hampshire voters this morning, (202) 748-8003. that is also the number you can send us a text. you can catch us on x, @cspanwj. on facebook, facebook.com/cspan. lead story out of the newspaper out of new hampshire, she's not trump, haley makes her final case.

ght. [video clip] amb. haley: 70% of americans have said they do not want a trump-biden rematch. the majority of americans disapprove of both of them. look at what they are doing. when you hear trump speak, what is he talking about? grievances? the past? he is talking about vendettas. today he is in court. biden is talking about investigations. neither one of them is talking about the future. i am doing this because i don't want my kids to live this way. and more than that, you are voting tomorrow in a primary. ta think about a general election. because, let me tell you, look at any one of those polls, head-to-head, trump and biden are in a dead heat. and i'm going to remind you, a vote for joe biden is a vote for

kamala harris. we do not want to ever have a president kamala harris. host: nikki haley in franklin, new hampshire, last night. former president donald trump was in laconia, new hampshire. this was part of his pitch to voters before primary day. [video clip] fmr. pres. trump: shortly after i win the presidency, we win, i will have a horrible war between ukraine and russia settled, we will get it settled. and when i was commander-in-chief, iran was a weak, broke, ready to make a deal -- they were weak, broke, and ready to make a deal. then biden came in and surrendered everything, all of the things i did. i told china, if you buy any oil from iran -- i told us to practically every country, they were not selling oil, and now

de is rich, powerful, and spreading bloodshed all over the middle east. you see what is happening. they have no money with me. now they have $200 billion, and they control iraq. what a stupid move. under my leadership, we will restore peace through strike. we will rebuild the entire military. of course, we get about 85 billion dollars -- can you imagine? 85 billion dollars they get to afghanistan. and afghanistan now, the taliban, afghanistan is just about one of the leading sellers of military equipment. they do not need 70,000 rifles, they need 50,000 rifles, 20,000 rifles we gave them vehicles, many armor-plated costing hundreds of thousands of dollars each. but i'm the only candidate who can make this promise to you, i will prevent world war iii.

host: former president trump last night in new hampshire. it is primary day in new hampshire. taking your phone calls. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. new hampshire voters, especially want to hear from you this morning, (202) 748-8003. polls opened at 6:00 a.m. eastern, set to close generally at 7:00 p.m. eastern tonight. some votes have already been counted in new hampshire, referring to a tiny town, dixville notch. here is a story from npr last night, the six registered voters of tiny dixville notch all cast their ballot for nikki haley at midnight yesterday. the resort town, the first place

in the nation to vote in the 2024 primary. the voters outnumber there, more than 10 to one, by reporters. not to mention, freshly baked chocolate chip cookies. this dates back to 1960, the first in the nation voting. one tweet about this tiny town from scripps news yesterday, saying how important getting those six votes in dixville notch, and one of those residents saved a personal phone call from nikki haley asking for his support. taking your personal phone calls this morning to the "washington journal." we will start in new hampshire, berlin, new hampshire, gary on the line for republicans. have you voted this money? caller: nah, i'm going to do

that. i am going to be upfront. i am going to vote for nikki haley. i hope the people of new hampshire, open your eyes and not vote for donald trump. he is a crook, and insurrectionist. six capitol police officers died because of his election lies. just like black lives matter, don't their lives matter? any election lawyer should know the election laws, you cannot overturn a democracy and take democracy away from the people. come on, people of new hampshire, wake up. it is our democracy, we have to defend it. host: donald trump on the new hampshire primary ballot for the third time in three presidential primaries. he got something like 85% in 2020. did you vote for him? caller: yes, i did, but i am not

going to vote for him anymore. host: what do you think about the polls that show donald trump up anywhere between 11 and 19 points in new hampshire today? caller: i don't know what's wrong with these people. you know, don't they care that he caused a riot that killed six capitol police officers? tell that to the families of the capitol police officers that died because of his election lies. and i cannot believe that these maga republicans refusing to accept the fact that donald trump lost fair and square. anybody that is an elected official, don't care what office you are running for, city, state, county, school board, i don't care, you serve at the will of the people. if it is the will of the people that you no longer serve, so be it. this is a democracy, our democracy.

nobody has the right to take democracy away from us. host: that is a gary in berlin, new hampshire, the special line for new hampshire voters this morning, (202) 748-8003. we will set that aside for those voters in the granite state. headline from usa today, four new polls give trump a huge lead in new hampshire. insider advantage had the biggest trump lead, 27 points ahead of nikki haley. boston globe suffix poll showed donald trump ahead 19 points. washington post monmouth poll, 18 points was the gap. whdh tv emerson poll in new hampshire had donald trump up by 16 points. that is what the polls say headed into today. today, the people get a say in new hampshire, primary day in new hampshire. this is sam in san diego,

independent. thanks for getting up early. caller: yeah, hi, how are you, good morning. i am very alarmed about this upcoming election. i think president biden, his popularity is at an all-time low. and i think he was voted for by constituents that were just kind of tired of trump. you know, trump was a very bombastic personality. but his policies -- i mean, there's good to be said about his policies. what alarms me the most is that over one-third of the country believe the election was stolen. this is unheard of. when you look at the flow of election workers that have left their jobs because of this the legal

cases and all the scrutiny, i would even go with the word scandals, it is creating an environment that is potentially very alarming. because, already, you have tens of millions of dissolution voters. so if this becomes the two candidates to elect, even if trump loses, those voters are not even going to come close to believing it. biden was elected as a moderate, as somebody who would be good for the country. and i think his foreign policies have been kind of against the will of the people. i don't see a lot of support for the $200 billion sent to ukraine. the cease-fire was overwhelmingly demanded at 70%, but nothing has happened. that is going to potentially

lead to international genocide. it is really alarming to me to see the sort of political threats in this election, and i am just hoping for some kind of a miracle were somebody just pops out of the blue as a moderate, a centrist, as a vibrant candidate to address the real problems. you know, the crisis on the border, they homelessness, the crime, the health care system. so i have never been more concerned about an election in my lifetime. host: that is sam out of san diego this morning. as the washington post puts it today, and unusual campaign to write-in the president today in new hampshire. new hampshire voters heading to the polls, but the ballots are now part of the revamped mechanic nominating calendar. biden and the democratic national committee moved south carolina to the front of the pack.

new hampshire decided to hold their first of the nation primary today in defiance of new party rules from the dnc. the content now carries no practical weight. biden opted not to put his name on the ballot. the democrat here in new hampshire say their votes have a new -- an important role to play, offering their first show support to the president and his party before other stakeholder contests. that is what to watch for today, how strong that show of support may be for the current president, that in the democratic primary. the republican primary getting most of the attention, nikki haley and donald trump facing off. kevin in michigan, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call, avid listener. i spent a lot of time listening to the callers, because i think we do not add enough -- for like of a better word, blame

on the constituents, the voters. even those that call in on this show, they say hypocritical things. trump is playing you. guilty of fraud. you hear people calling in talking about bull crap about immigration. why people are the only illegal immigrants in this country. -- white people are the only illegal immigrants in this country. black are the people forced to be here. you have the nerve to say someone fleeing poverty and murder and all that stuff coming over here? if they knew what they were coming into, people who like rapists, like fraudsters, like liars in plain, they won't be wanting to be here. host: what is your expectation of what happens today? caller: of the election? host: that is what we're talking

about, yes. caller: of course, trump is going to win because all of his constituents, the republican voters, like liars. they are hypocrites. they vote for someone who is the up and to be of everything they have ever said they headed all along. all the history of america, constitution, bible, and you have somebody who ain't even read neither one, the leader of your party he is a narcissistic fool, and he is not even going to survive the next four years, let alone the next eight. probably not even the end of this dang gung election. they're all haters, that is all they want america to be. host: do you think is too old to be president? caller: absolutely. joe biden is too old. we have all these great candidates for presidency. i want to see michelle obama to run, honest to god truth,

because she has the credibility to be good. host: there are some younger candidates running, congressman dean phillips, a democrat running to challenge joe biden. have you paid much attention to his campaign? caller: i do. but to be realistic, i think gavin newsom would be incredible, because i want somebody that is going to fight, somebody that will go toe-for-toe with these liars, front verse, hypocrites. i want somebody that is going to call them out. anytime any maga supporter or talking head is spewing these lies in plain view of the people, i want somebody like gavin newsom to be on-site to challenge them. host: got your point. that is kevin out this morning on the democratic line. this would be dean phillips, the democrat challenging joe biden, yesterday in new hampshire.

[video clip] mr. phillips: i'm disappointed in my party. i have been a democrat my whole life, representing it. to have the audacity to tell you that your extraordinary 103-year tradition, first in the nation primary, that you take so seriously, that you execute so beautifully, is meaningless? the audacity of any party that would say that, it is shameful. what else is shameful that it forster attorney general to send a letter back to my party for the seas and desist of the unlawful suppression of voters -- the cease and desist of the unlawful suppression of voters. i do not think americans are being the -- told the truth about what is happening. it is shameful, wrong, and dangerous, and our president is the leader of the democratic party, and he should opine on the subject and white the state of florida democratic party decided that joe biden won

already and refused to put any other names on the ballot. those floridians do not have the chance to vote. in north carolina, they decided to do the same thing. despite what the law says, a presidential candidate noted by the media, he should be on the ballot. in massachusetts, it took intervention from the secretary of state to put my name on the ballot. here you are tomorrow, the president of the united states chose not to be on your ballot, his decision. i am appalled. i was in the house chamber on january 6 when fellow americans try to prevent the counting of ballots. and i'm witnessing now quietly and methodically another party trying to prevent the printing of ballots. the counting versus the printing. think about it, everybody. i am a proud democrat and will tell you the truth.

i intend to say the quiet part out loud because both parties have gone wayward. i would ask for your consideration tomorrow. yes, we are a longshot. darn right, i am. thank goodness we live in a co a platform. and but for all you view in this great state -- all of you in this great state, i never could have tried. host: democratic congressman dean phillips yesterday in new hampshire. robert on the line for democrats, greenwich, connecticut. good morning. caller: yes, good morning. am i on? host: yes, sir. caller: yes, really, the whole trump situation comes down to the one overriding issue of all of his indictments. he knows if he gets reelected, he cannot be convicted. so he is fighting tooth and nail to stay out of prison. that is what it comes down to, pure and simple. everything he says is a lie.

it is pretty much documented that he lies incessantly. and if anybody does any fact checking on some of his ridiculous claims, they will see that it is a bald-faced lie, one after another after another. of course, he is fighting hard now he knows he is going to go to prison, and he is trying to gum up the work in the legal section two delay the trials past the election, and then he can say this is terminated because i'm president now and i have the power to do that. but we have the power to not let that happen. i am not even contemplating voting for this charlatan. he is a snake, conman, pure and simple. probably the best this nation has ever, unfortunately, had to deal with. so please, america, don't even contemplating wasting your

lives, your family lives, by voting for this man. he should be in prison. host: robert in connecticut. this is wes on the republican line out of pittsburgh. caller: good morning. i noticed that the first caller said that six capitol police died on january 6, and that is an outright lie. i have never been heard that figure before. one policeman died a day later from a heart attack. where are they coming up with this information? i just don't get it. you can verify it on the internet that only one died at that point. the reason i am pro-trump is because of where biden has taken this country. inflation is at 8%, the economy is diving, the border has had 10 million people come in during his time, a lot of them not even vetted, the cost of fuel increased like crazy, and that

is house fuel and car fuel, escalating crime, the handling of afghanistan, what an embarrassment with that withdrawal. the current wars now taking place, now begging israel to put in much backed off after they were attacked. even had bill maher, people traditionally on the left, mocking the democratic party now. it is a sham, not the party i grew up with, not the party of jfk, jr., which he seems to embrace. i can quite understand why anybody would be voting for this mess. host: that is wes out of pittsburgh, pennsylvania. the makeup of new hampshire when it comes to voter registration, some close to 900,000 voters registered in new hampshire as of the beginning of this year, just a few weeks ago.

about 31% republican, 30% democrats, 39% unaffiliated, what the granite state folks call their independent voters. they can pick which primary they want to participate in today. nikki haley campthey make up soo 40%, of the electorate in new hampshire. to the independent line, this is john in blackwood, new jersey. caller: good morning. i originally was going to comment on -- but wes in pittsburgh did it for me. i was real awake and that six people died on january 6. each democrat came up with more and more outrageous claims, i

can only imagine as president trump gets closer to the white house, they are going to be ballistic. i have a suggestion for c-span, this comes under trying to bring the country together, maybe you can create a c-span4 for all the people who want to talk past each other and just further divide us and infuriate us. i have a lot of democrats in my family, and friends, and there are some people with conservative values. i am in the middle of it. the democrats, they don't want to come together. i don't know why. a lot have jobs, especially in the cities -- i am a philly guy originally. jobs are real important. but the democrat party is not

the one of jfk. i could deal with that. even partly bill clinton. but today, they are off the wall. and for governors to let democrats vote in the republican primary, i can't imagine going forward. what else are you going to do to try to stop president trump? i can most of my information from c-span. i watched c-span religiously on weekends, book notes on the older various shows. i listen to both sides, the left and the right. if they would just go on to your recordings and look for the last thing that j.d. vance was on and conservatism, his book, he is so

straight, who told people, he says, you want to buy the book, buy it. you don't want to, don't. but he said the lobbyists that come into his door, what they want done, and as he escorts them at the door, if people would listen, this means that our other elected officials are also being influenced to back legislation that is going to benefit their concern. and j.d. vance said let the officials work for the people. he said that over and over. i followed him from reading his book -- host: are you talking about the book, "regime change"? caller: no. host: the original book was "hillbilly elegy," but are you talking about the newer one?

caller: i was more focused on j.d. vance's. a gentleman wrote the book and j.d. vance edited it. that's it, sorry. host: go to our website, c-span.org, for those programs airing on book tv. staying on our independent line, cindy out of st. petersburg, florida. caller: good morning. i am an independent, and i look at things towards the middle. i am not too far to the left or too far to the right. i am looking at either nikki haley or dean phillips. i am going to do everything i can to keep trump off from being president. living here in florida with desantis, trump, and all the maga republicans moving in here,

i have to walk out my door every day and see the slaughter of my native lands because they don't care. we're losing our farmlands. we are losing our wildlife. the seas are rising. i just heard on the news treasure island is going to do things to try to stop the water from rising. they said the water is rising. of course, people who don't live on the beach have to pay for that, as well as the residents who live on the beach. so i am getting sick and tired of walking out my door and having tears in my eyes, seeing the slaughter of my native land. i don't want to see america become florida, because florida is losing its nature. host: got your point.

cindy in st. petersburg, says she is between nikki haley and dean phillips. here's more from nikki haley from franklin, new hampshire, last night. [video clip] amb. haley: and every single thing that donald trump has said or put on tv has been a lie. check with the fact checker. every single thing. he says i want to cut social security and raise the retirement age, i never once said that, not once. if anything, we're going to make it solvent so that no one lives in fear. he says i don't want to have a border wall. i never said that. i said you can't just do a border wall, you have to do all these other things that are going to stop what is happening at the border. he said i love war. quite the contrary. you do not have a husband that is in the military and love war. you are obsessed with preventing war. that is what happens when you do that. [applause] but if he is going to lie about

me, i am going to tell the truth about him. and that is the fact that he needs to answer to why does he want to raise the retirement age to 70, why as president in 2018 did he propose a 25 cent per gallon gas tax increase on all of us? why didn't he do anything to take care of the federal flow on china? and everybody talks about the economy that trump gave us and how good it was, and it was. but at what cost? he put us $8 trillion in debt. in four years. our kids are never going to forgive us for letting that happen. so let's talk about the truth. when you go out on tuesday, you're going to decide, do you want more of the same or do you want something new? host: nikki haley last night in franklin, new hampshire. it is primary day in new

hampshire. taking your phone calls, talking about the granite state primary, talking about election 2024. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. keeping open that line for new hampshire, (202) 748-8003. if you want to send a text, you can also send it to (202) 748-8003. just include your name and where you're from. kevin out of louisiana, republican, good morning. are you with us? caller: yes, sir, i am. host: what are your thoughts on primary day in new hampshire? caller: you know, when nikki haley mentions -- host: i tell you what, let's hold off on the language, helps with the conversation to not cuss on air. this is bruce in texas,

democrats line, good morning. caller: good morning, sir. well, i am coming up on my 65th birthday, and i am in combat veteran and i lived through the 1980's and cannot get a job, if you could even buy one -- i am an ex-combat veteran. i retired in 2019 from an industrial accident, not because of my fault but because of something else. and i know a few people that are what you call clinical psychologists. and the idea -- i asked them, i go, is there such a saying that if you keep doing what you're doing and expecting different results, you're going to keep

getting the same old thing? well, the two of them told me that is the very definition of insanity. host: are we doing the same thing and expecting different results when it comes to all of our campaigns? caller: yes. yes, we're doing the same old thing during the 1980's. i came up, when i was in the military, i came up to the reagan era. i did a lot of things and service that we were ordered to do for the sense of our country. a lot of that i cannot talk about. i worked in the nuclear industry for a lot of years after i got out of the u.s. military, and i also did an extended tour because they have a, what do you call, seven and a half, eight and a half years, they can extend your enlistment. but i had a pretty good career.

then i got hurt in 2019. but the idea that we keep doing the same old thing, and we are expecting different results. host: that is bruce out of texas. speaking of the 1980's, this is theodore johnson, his piece in today's washington post, the 1980's called and wants their presidential matchup back. he says it is natural donation would look to the past for an allegory. the 1980's are fashioned as a time when we remember how to win, how to feel better about herself. it seems less strange that trump and biden would be the nominees for two elections straight. their avatars for the age, the idea that comeback is imminent. it says their supporters will symbol partisans at each other's throats, itching for a fight, one nation under god, divided in two.

theodore johnson in today's washington post. a call out of st. petersburg, independent, back to st. petersburg. caller: good morning. you're looking pretty dapper. i appreciate you do not use thick facial filters. host: ok. caller: i feel it is a theatrical game here. i would like to correct the former caller saying do the same thing over and over is the definition of insanity. if you look it up, that is not what it says. another caller was promoted j.d. vance's book. j.d. vance is not even his real name. i also think that it is pretty tone deaf that so much money is being spent on campaigns when so many people are struggling with their day-to-day expenses. i think the campaigns are doing nothing for the mental health of the country. lastly, i would like to point

out, there is a certain comedy at least to the situation when we are looking at a situation where this man who has basically been convicted of rape and is skipping that hearing today in lieu of going to an attempt to win a competition in tiny dixville. have a good day. host: this is john in turtle creek, pennsylvania, republican. good morning. caller: good morning. thanks for taking my call. first of all, i really wish that people who are republicans and democrats would call on the right line here. i know you guys cannot control it, but it is really getting bad. it makes no sense that a republican, your first call, would call in and make the outrageous statements that he was making and say he was a

republican. but the important story -- host: he said he was going to vote for nikki haley and said he voted for trump in the past. caller: john, you know anybody can say anything they want and do other. that the things people really need to know today is this primary really does not even count. any state that would allow democrats to vote in the republican primary, it makes no sense. so when we go to south carolina and she gets beaten by 30 points in her own home state, then who is going to be talking about nikki haley? the rest of the country isn't new hampshire. we don't have laws like new hampshire. so i think it is going to be a different result when this moves on. but thank you for taking my call. host: do you think she will move on? what is your expectation tonight? caller: i don't think she will. if her advisors are smart, they

will be able to tally how many democrats voted for her, and then she will know she is never going to get them votes and that she really lost bad. she may go out before south carolina. i doubt it. but i think south carolina is going to be the state. host: to washington state, this is karen, also on the line for republicans. caller: oh, hey, good morning. thanks for taking my call. i just want to put it out there that i will be supporting trump. the way this country has been, the direction this country has been is horrible. we have an open border with millions of illegal aliens coming into the country. :bhost: anything else, karen? caller: i buy gas at costco. the last day trump was in office, gas was $2.89 a gallon for premium.

and now -- it has gone down, but that is only because of -- gosh, i lost my train of thought. anyway, my energy has gone up. my groceries, everything, under this feckless administration. it has just been horrible for our nation. and trump put us on the right track four years ago. and i would like to see us continue that way. also, we have the crisis in the middle east, have china circling on taiwan, north korea and south korea. none of this stuff was happening when he was in office. so say what you will about him, but i just want the country back to where it was four years ago. and every administration spends interim us -- a tremendous amount of money. that will not stop. but say what you will, we need to do this country back on track. host: do you pay much attention

to the stock market? caller: i do, and my stocks, my 401(k), horrible, although the stock market hit a record high, 38,000, i believe. host: yesterday, advancing above 38,000 for the first time ever. caller: yeah, exactly. but yeah, my stocks, my 401(k), have diminished tremendously under this administration. so i cannot wait until trump gets back into office and we can get the country back on track. i don't care about his personality, don't care about the tweets, just want the country back on track. i want us to be energy independent, not getting our oil from the middle east or from venezuela. host: that is karen out of washington. kathleen in guilder lent, new york, line for democrats. caller: good morning. ok, i am not understanding why people like trump so much.

when he was in the white house, he betrayed this country over and over again. even when he got out of the white house. when he was in the white house, when they came with briefings, you know, the staff came to brief him about what was going on in the world, you know, he just put his back at them. [mocking voice] oh, i go by my gut. [regular voice] briefings at mar-a-lago on the table, are you kidding me? he went to north korea. that was all about, look at me, i am the first president that has ever done this, look at me. that is all that was about. then he goes to russia and stands in front of -- by putin on stage, talking about, he said he didn't do it, he said he didn't do it, well, i believe him. are you kidding me? when puerto rico had a national disaster, he goes there and

starts throwing paper towels at very disparate people who had been through so much. and he is going to sit around a table with them -- not a table, but he was sitting with them and talked about, well, you know, not many people died here. are you kidding me? are you kidding me? he went to california with that horrible fire, he cannot even say the name of where he was at. are you kidding me? host: that is kathleen out of new york. talking about what is going on around the world and around the country. about 20 minutes left in this segment. two non-new hampshire related stories to keep you aware of, this from the new york times, the pentagon identifying those navy seals who were lost during that nighttime rate on a small ship carrying weapons components found from yemen. special operator first class christopher chambers and second-class nathan gage ingram were lost on january 11, the two

men tried to climb a rope boarding ladder and rough seas. one fell into the ocean and the other jumped in to attempt to rescue, according to officials briefed. both were lost at sea. a vast joint search operation, and they were named yesterday. they were assigned to seal team three based in coronado, california. there are there pictures in the new york times. one story on the home front and out of washington, d.c., the supreme court sided with the biden administration yesterday and cleared the way for u.s. border troll agents to remove -- border patrol agents to remove razor wire at the southern border until the legality is resolved in court. four conservatives noted there -- their dissent with that decision. the case is one of several legal

battles between texas governor greg abbott and the biden administration over the governors border crackdown known as operation lone star. to texas, this is larry out of houston, line for democrats. caller: thanks for taking my call. i am sorry to hear about the navy seals, i say my prayers for their family. i know how that is, losing people. the stuff about new hampshire, new hampshire does not represent the whole of america. how much blacks do they have in america, how much hispanics today have in america? that is not the whole thing. as for dean phillips, biden was put -- host: in new hampshire, demographic numbers, 88.8% white, 4.6% hispanic or latino, just 2% african-american, 3%

asian, that according to the census department and the 20 23. caller: when you really break down the whole of america, probably white. african-americans represent, what, 13%, i think. host: new hampshire is decidedly white, much more than the rest of the country. caller: yes, so that does not represent everybody. that is why these folks are -- i mean, i am in houston. nobody even know you, nobody knows you. who goes against the incumbent president? what are you doing? it is just crazy. the other thing, biden losing this, biden losing that, trump said biden was going to start world war ii, he calling nikki

haley pull oc -- pelosi. something's really wrong with this man, but people still like this man. one more thing, and i will leave it at that, if president obama did half the things that donald trump done, would america reelect him? or would he even be -- he would be in jail. he would be in jail. and people, whenever there is a military pullout of places, do your history. i was in desert storm. vietnam was a failure when they pulled out. afghanistan, vietnam was a total failure. afghanistan was -- i mean, they shouldn't have ever been there. they should have never been there. host: this is nicky out of new

york, independent. caller: everybody shod have a two-minute time limit, i think. but here's my point, does anybody ever consider death as a factor in life? suppose donald trump got dead before he hit the white house? just suppose joe biden died? police officers, firemen, gang members -- host: is it an argument to vote for a younger candidate? caller: no, it is an argument to realize that there are factors that only the creator, god, goddess, whoever put me here, is going to take me back. and everybody faces this. on the day you were born, you have an expiration date. nobody can tell when it is going to come, but god is the greatest

comic. he is such a comedian. he can throw a monkey wrench into anything. politics and/or religion, especially where they enter trying -- where they intertwine, will destroy you. thank you. have a lovely day. host: this is turtle creek, pennsylvania. michael, republican. good morning. caller: oh, thank you for taking my call. i think you have to realize that my statement would be that i think probably the biggest piece of garbage that ever walked this planet -- i was born in 1943, 80 years old, had to be adolf hitler with 6 million jews slaughtered. we know the history. we have trump making a statement, and i have been kind of a supporter, a lot to like about the man. but when he made a statement yesterday or couple days before where he got along good with

putin, you know, had he still been president, there might -- might not have been an invasion of ukraine. what the russians did in ukraine is an atrocity. putin is a war criminal. that should be the first thing out of his mouth. you have to keep things where they belong. you have to be judgmental, watch what racism means, and stuff. but nikki haley, i like the lady because i think she is legitimate. i don't not think there's anything she says out of her mouth, but they will twisted up anyhow. but i just. i would call, and i think nikki haley, i cannot see biden. i mean, is he getting around? can he see five feet in front of him? not a young man, having a problem. when you turn 80, 78, you have to deal with the number. i just love this nikki haley when you talk about the three candidates. host: do think nikki haley will make it to super tuesday? caller: well, what is to stop

her? this guy commented about her whole state, she might get devastated. desantis, he knows it is a dead end. you have people backing with money, what are the results? do you have a chance? i think she is legitimate. this is the united states of america. we mean something, when those boys put that stuff down in 1776, and franklin, when he says a republic is a masterpiece, if you can hold onto it -- we have a lot of statements made by politicians, we have a great history. i mean, i don't want to -- you are not asking me anything, i just running my mouth. the main thing was when he said 48 hours ago how he is buddy up with putin, he should be arrested and put in jail. host: this is kent out of new york, democrat.

caller: good morning. i would just like to say that rehashing older stuff from republicans and democrats is kind of foolish. i blame the media. it is not what you hear. because what you hear is not that important. it is what you don't hear that is really important. and instead of talking about fighting for trump, they should talk about blacklock and vanguard and were all this money is coming from. there are hundreds of thousands of acres being bought in ukraine by companies and interests from the united states, so they are not going to sacrifice all that. the military industrial complex is making a ton of money on everlasting wars. i would just like to say that biden should get rid of harris

because i do not think she is liked by anybody. the same thing happened with hillary clinton. as qualified as she was, she was not well-liked. the fact of the matter is bernie would have beat her and trump, except that he went to the dnc, and that is its own nebulous organization. you are actually supported by individuals. in this case, it was the clintons keeping them above water. so when it came time to decide, they took it to court, and the court said they are a private organization and can do what they want. so they shutdown bernie and tried to coordinate hillary. host: less than 10 minutes left this morning. one of story out of new hampshire, this going back to the concord monitor, what appears to be the first case of

a problem experts have long feared, some voters in new hampshire have received robo calls that somewhat president biden telling them not to vote, a message that appears to be artificially generated but should be ignored. the message sent sunday sounded as if it was biden's anger vote makes a difference in november, not on tuesday. this issue came up in the white house briefing room yesterday after the press secretary was asked about the robo calls, here is that exchange in the briefing room. [video clip] >> there is a robo call circulating in new hampshire that appears to be audio of president biden's voice talking about a campaign issue. can you talk about the concern that the white house has about the president's likeness being used in this false manner? >> as you stated, i have to stay at the top, it is a robo call for an upcoming election in 2024, but that call was indeed

fake and not recorded by the president. i can confirm that. i want to be really careful since it is a primary election, a campaign. i don't want to speak too much about that. look, more broadly, as we talk about deep fakes, the president has been cleared that there are risks associated with deepfakes. fake images and misinformation can be exacerbated by emerging technologies, and that is why this president has directed the department of commerce, through the ai safety institute, to help develop clear watermarking and content standards. so that is important. but again, to your question on this robo call that was not the president, that was fake and was certainly not recorded by this president. host: that was in the white house briefing room yesterday. time for a couple more calls this hour of the "washington journal."

an independent, good morning. caller: good morning, america. i will be 62 here in little bit, and the democratic party have done a perfect job as far as separating us and isolating us and fighting amongst each other. it is evident they are getting away with criminal acts. i was a military police, i can read a report. all these reports for the last three years on biden and all the crap they have been doing, i mean, come on. it was not the republicans that did the 170-something thanked red flags, it was them shuffling their money around for influence. another thing i would say, i feel and pray for the two brothers lost and for their families. it is horrible. we're are in trouble, people.

everybody and know that is voting for trump has had enough of this. i mean, we were all doing better under trump, no matter what he says or anything. look at biden. look at his policies. what has biden done positive for america other than burn us down? it will take us getting to the voting booth and voting who is the best person, which i believe is trump. host: this is john out of pennsylvania, independent. caller: good morning. i think nikki haley is going to lose badly tonight. trump is going to get more than 50% of the vote. and half of your south carolina leadership, like tim scott and nancy mace, are endorsing trump. that should be a clear message to you to drop out of the race, like governor desantis did. governor desantis made the right choice. he is going back to his state as

governor to finish out his term, what his state wanted, and he has plenty of time to run for president again. and nikki haley should see the warning signs here. she should drop out and stop wasting time. i also wanted to mention that she is not going to get the meyer nor devote. she -- get the minority vote. she tries to identify as a minority woman, but african-americans and hispanics, they are not going to vote for her. host: our last caller in this first segment of the "washington journal." there is more to talk about. after the break, we turn to the past and future of new hampshire's first in the nation primary and have voting works in the granite state and voter confidence in elections around the country. there conversations with the university of new hampshire dante scala and bradford cook,

chair on the special committee of voter confidence. voters will be able to cast their ballots, voting with a new hampshire state representative, talking about the efforts of the biden campaign. here is that interview. [video clip] >> we were really disappointed here in new hampshire with the dnc and their misguided rules around their nominating calendar this year and came together and said we need to stand up for the president. we want to make sure that there is a story coming out of new hampshire's first in the nation primary, more than just the maga circus, that actually says there are a lot of people in new hampshire. overwhelmingly, voters want to see the president reelected to a second term. this is a grassroots coalition of volunteers and activists from across the state, coming together to understand the importance of every single election, including this one

that is coming up. i am thinking about my 11 year old and my eight-year-old and go vote every single election day, so i do not see why we would sit this one out because he did not put his sam on the ballot. what is unique about this effort is that there is not a big staff, not a lot of money. we have raised about $70,000, mostly going into yard signs that people can hold at the polls and remind people that there is an opportunity to write -in the president on election day. it started with a call of about a dozen of us and it has grown to about 250 people. that was on a call last week on zoom, just getting focused on what they get out the vote operation looks like and making sure we have volunteers at the polls in the morning, noon time, and evening on election day. >> and what does it actually

look like? how are you educating voters? for people who are not driving by, how are you getting the information out to them? >> a variety of different ways, but mostly neighbor to neighbor, a grassroots effort. there are not organized canvases, not like we're doing paid mail o digital. it is really voter to voter, having conversations with neighbors, and making sure they know there is an opportunity to write-in the president. democrats and a lot of independents are supportive of the administration and the accomplishments. >> for voters who are going to the polls, what do they need to be aware of to vote for biden? >> it is really simple. pull a democrat ballot, fill in the write-in bubble and right in joe biden.

that is simple. joseph r biden, joe biden, president joe biden, those count. because there's really one question on the ballot and we know there are a lot of volunteers that will be showing up at the polls to help tabulate the results, we are expecting those results in a timely manner on election day. >> as of now there is speculation that belus -- delegates won't be awarded at the conventions why is it important for this campaign to be successful? >> for us in new hampshire, we know the president is head to head with donald trump the president is preferred by seven or eight points. that's really important that democrats and independents who support the president have an

opportunity to weigh in and say this is the first nominating contest with or without delegates. it's really important that there is a story coming out of new hampshire tuesday night. it should be more than just donald trump wins by x number of votes. >> what does success look like for this right in campaign? >> it's a unique effort. it's about getting a win. it's about getting more votes than the next democrat on the ballot. we are looking forward to declaring victory on tuesday night. "washington journal" continues. host: primary day in new hampshire and it's the day to talk with the political science professor and author of the book stormy weather, the new hampshire primary and presidential polgood morning to. guest: good morning, happy primary day. host: for new polls ahead of

primary day, showing donald trump with a large lead in the granite state, historically, how good have the polls been in predicting the results in new hampshire and how often do we get some sort of major upset in the state? guest: one thing to watch with polling in new hampshire is when the polls left the field so to speak, when they stop pulling voters, even 24, 36 hours ahead of time, a lot can change. back in the 2000 eight primary especially on the democratic side, barack obama started the weekend before the primary coming fresh off a win in iowa and had momentum and so forth. he was looking strong and then on primary day, everything changed and hillary clinton wound up with a victory. i think that's one thing to watch. the other thing to watch with polling is turnout.

the question today is i think the biggest x factor is how high will the turnout be today, how many independents, what we call undeclared voters will turn out? the bigger the turnout, the more volatility there could be. i suspect the bigger the turnout, the better the day nikki haley will have. host: there are big changes that can happen within 72 hours of the primary. what is it you look for and are you sensing that here in 2024? guest: last minute, sometimes a moment occurs that can capture the attention of new hampshire voters. usually come is not an advertisement necessarily, but it can be what we would call earned media or something that is captured on the news and spreads like wildfire. thinking back to 2008 when hillary clinton was doing an

event and was talking to some voters and teared up and that became, it was the equivalent of a viral moment now back in 2008. i remember running around and talking to the media i think the day before the primary and hearing about that but not realizing what the impact would be until the following day. this time around, what's striking to me is it's a tale of two electorates in new hampshire. on the conservative side, people whoi.d. as conservatives are likely mainstream republicans. i've been struck by the stability of those voters, a lot of them have made up their mind and with ron desantis leaving the race, the great majority of those voters will go toward donald trump. what's been variable has been on the moderate side. we've seens moderates and

independent bouncing around for the last month or so, going between former new jersey governor chris christie and nikki haley, then christie dropped out, nikki haley inherited some of those voters. that's where the volatility has been and that's what i'm wondering about today. how high that percentage of moderates will be for nikki haley and secondly, what would be the mix? the higher the turnout, the more moderates and independents are showing up, i believe. it's not only what percentage of the votes you get but how many of your voters turn out. i've been struck by the split in the electorate. host: there is a caller in our previous segment who was frustrated about the ability of voters were not registered with the party to participate in a party primary in his home state of pennsylvania. the rule is different there. why is that allowed in new

hampshire? as we enter this primary, how often will we see that and how many states have that same rule? guest: yeah, we have a semi-open primary in which there is this pool of what are called by the state undeclared voters. i am one of them. later on today, when i go to the polls, i can go into my polling place and they will ask me if i want a republican or democratic ballot. i can choose one and essentially become a member of the party for just five minutes, the time it takes me to vote. on my way out, hand in my ballot and sign a piece of paper and go back to my undeclared status. we are kind of the free agents and sometimes we can have the effect of crashing a party. you look back to gary hart 1984 or john mccain in 2000, it was those independents who provided

a margin of victory for both of those insurgent candidates. that's in keeping with our idea of participatory democracy in new hampshire. it's really the lack of strong political party machine. we kind of have this those that anybody can play in politics in new hampshire and that includes voters. going ahead to super tuesday, there are a number of states that provide this more open process as opposed to a closed process. i should stress that we've never seen a candidate who can win the nomination and it seems simple and logical but without that support of the party base. independents help to some extent but sooner or later, hopefully sooner, you've got to win over a good portion of your own parties voters. host: our guest is with us until

8:45 a.m. eastern. it's a good time to call if you have bastions about the first in the nation primary, hout works and the history, questions about its future. these are subject we can talk about on the phone lines. it's split by political (202) 748-8000 for democrats, (202) 748-8001 republicans,s independent (202) 748-8002 and four new hampshire voters, (202) 748-8003. tell us how you watch the primary returns tonight, will restart to see the results first and how should we be reading these results as they come in? guest: we will start to see some scattered results in the 7:00 hour. some polls closed in and finally all polls close at 8:00.

what i keep an eye on is looking at -- we will not see county results right away. if you want to follow the results in real time, you have to drill down to the municipal level. its cities and towns in new hampshire. you can kind of see by looking at a scattering of towns, you get a sense -- i look at past voting patterns like i didn't article for the center for politics in the university of virginia for larry sabado. i look at two metrics -- back in the 2016 republican primary, how well did donald trump do of course in various places in new hampshire but also how well did former ohio politician john kasich do? kasich became this proxy back in 2016 for a more moderate type of voter going in his direction.

i'm looking for kasich towns and trump towns, looking forward into 2024. host: john kasich 116% in that primary back in 2016. eight years later, if nikki haley will pull off an upset, where do you expect we will see it first? guest: i think we will see it in the suburban communities between manchester and new hampshire's southern border with massachusetts. lots of suburban voters along the interstate 93 corridor in eastern hillsboro county and western rocking him county. -- rocking him county. -- rocking him - rockingham. nikki haley should be a good choice for those voters when she talks about a new generation of conservative leadership.

one might think that would resonate among those sorts of voters. i keep a special eye on the town of bedford. that for is just to the west of manchester. it will likely have the third most votes cast in hillsboro which is the largest county in new hampshire. when i moved to bedford 25 years ago, it was regarded as one of the most republican towns in the state area during the trump you're a, in a general election, joe biden carried that town in 2020 because of the polarization we are seeing in the electorate by how much education a voter has. tonight, i'm wondering how bedford and londonderry as well, surrounding the greater manchester area, how do they vote? if nikki haley can carry towns like bedford decisively, she may have them up better-than-expected night.

if donald trump carries bedford then he's probably and route to a victory, a convincing victory along the lines of the polling we've been seeing in the last couple of days. host: we are taking your phone calls and there's plenty for you. surely is a first out of new castle pennsylvania, republican. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i just had fox news on and nikki was on there. they were interviewing her. that woman is so full of vengeance and meanness. she called them liars and went on to tell them how they do badly by her. i couldn't believe -- i'm watching her and she is so full of venom -- host: who are they? are you talking about the

journalist at fox news? caller: yes, the three of them. they just repeat what they are told area to call them liars to their face -- i thought that was terrible. i'm thinking to myself that if biden doesn't have us in a war before he leaves office, she certainly would if she went in. we better start praying. we better start praying that she doesn't make it. host: we got your point. it brings up the question of the role of the media with attention by national media in new hampshire. has it been different this time around in terms of how the media has tried to cover this primary? what have you seen in the weeks and months leading up to today? guest:, this last week or two is had to be a frustrating experience for nikki haley and her campaign.

i think the iowa results tended to solidify the conventional wisdom that donald trump was all but inevitable. i think the national political media was reading the polls prior to iowa. i think they were hoping for a more competitive race in a more interesting story to tell. instead, nikki haley finished a disappointing third place. i think the story between iowa and new hampshire it had a lack of excitement this past week which is unusual for a new hampshire primary in the run up. it reminded me a bit of the 2012 republican primary when mitt romney coasted to a fairly easy victory. we were stuck wondering who would finish second and third? week has felt similar to me in the sense that we are

asking questions about the margin beingx or y rather than who will win. imagine a certain frustration for a candidate who's trying to challenge because when you are faced with that sort of narrative in the media, conservative or mainstream, you're bound to be a bit frustrated. host: mike in manhattan, kansas, independent, you are on. caller: good morning. my question to the democrats out there -- they claim to be the champion of democracy, yet they are canceling primaries and declaring biden the winter in florida, one of our largest populist states. they canceled the new hampshire primary and wouldn't let biden on the ballot and are suing in court to keep trump off the ballot.

how in the world can you claim to be a champion of democracy -- and not calling it rigging an you are certainly narrowing the focus to nothing. biden doesn't debate anybody just like trump. host: on what's happening on the democratic side of the new hampshire primary? guest: one brief correction, joe biden could have put his name on the new hampshire democratic primary ballot if he chose to. he ultimately chose not to do so. that is in large part because of the controversy when the new hampshire democratic primary should be. on the one side, the democratic national committee and president biden himself said south carolina should go first, new hampshire should go after and on

the others, we have the state of new hampshire which runs the primary today. they operate them and they say we have a state law and new hampshire goes before any other primary. joe biden had a choice when confronted with this. should he put his name on the ballot? he decided not to. i understand why he decided not to. it was consistent with his position that new hampshire should not go first. it would have seemed hypocritical if he decided then to put his name on the ballot. new hampshire democratic leaders find themselves, they are stuck. one hand, they are confronting joe biden about changing the first in the nation primary. on the other hand, they want to show they are loyal democrats. they've been behind this write- in effort. that's one of the things i'm most curious about today is how

all that goes. we are expecting a low turnout on the democratic side, fewer than 100 thousand people and hasn't been any attempt to have a right in for a sitting president in new hampshire since 1968 when there was a similar effort for lyndon johnson against minnesota senator jean mccarthy whose name was on the ballot. that year, mccarthy became the messenger for the anti-vietnam war faction of the democratic party. that didn't turn out so well for lyndon johnson. he wound up winning the primary but it was by such a small margin that the national political media said this shows how the democratic party is tearing itself apart over the vietnam war. lbj leaves the race and says he's not going to run for reelection. i think today, especially if

there is not much of a story on the republican side, the national political media will take a long, hard look at how well joe biden does, what percentage of the vote does he get on the democratic side, how many people will take the effort to write in joe biden's name. the standard for write-in write-in a for new hampshire is pretty forgiving. if they happen to spell his last name with two i's the official will look at the intent of the voter as best they can. something unusual that voters don't usually have to do and they write-in the name of the bottom of the ballot. i'm curious how that plays out. host: was it lyndon johnson that set the bar the joe biden has to be today? guest: i would put the bar somewhere around 60% for joe biden. in other words, my rule of thumb -- it's rough -- if joe biden

does 70% or better tonight, that's a very good evening. 60-70% of the vote, not terrific but not terrible. i think the closer biden gets to what lyndon johnson wound up with, the closer he gets to 50%, if he gets a fair majority or even a plurality, let's say he gets 48%, i think that will set off an alarm bell in the national political media. they have been looking carefully at polling of democrats about joe biden, looking at democratic doubts about joe biden and whether he's ready for another campaign or that he's ready for another four years. what if donald trump gets a higher percentage of republican primary votes tonight that -- then joe biden gets of the

democratic primary vote. you can bet the republican starting with trump himself will be crowing about that. host: punk coast, florida, bill on the line for democrats. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. caller: good morning, professor. guest: good morning. host: what's your question or comment? caller: i was just curious about the way the press sometimes reports someone who doesn't win as the winner such as clinton in 1992 as the comeback kid and mcgovern in 1972, one less than a majority. he didn't get 50% so he got deemphasized. guest: that's a good question.

primaries were designed to take power out of the hands of political party bosses who decided who were good and bad candidates and put it in the hands of the voters. perhaps one of the unintended consequences of all that was that national political media in some ways took over the role of the party bosses. they became the ones who would assess candidates and how good they would be running for president. if you think back to john if kennedy in 1960 who ran in some primaries, the party bosses said let's see how kennedy does in primaries and nowadays, the national political media -- and as you say, it goes back a long way, muskie versus mcgovern were clinton versus paul tsongas. sometimes, a second-place can be

assessed as a first place win if you do better than expectations. for instance -- that's all the national media and observers like me to some extent. what is the margin here? we are all handicapping the contest. today, the polling for donald trump versus nikki haley in new hampshire has been so strong over the past week that if nikki haley finished within single digits, say five or 6%, if at 80 1 p.m. tonight when the polls close, if the cable news anchors go on and say hold everything, new hampshire is too close to call according to our exit polls, i think regardless of whether nikki haley ultimately won or lost new hampshire, i think that would be nikki

haley's bill clinton circa 1992 comeback kid moment. i bet she would be out in front of the media very quickly, claiming victory even if ultimately she did not win the primary. again, playing the expectation game went just like bill clinton in 1992, when you face utter disaster as clinton did in the run up to new hampshire, that second-place looks good. host: speaking of it at 1 p.m. eastern tonight, you can watch the results and candidate speeches here on c-span. it's a program we been airing throughout this early primary season in iowa and new hampshire as well, 8:00 p.m. eastern tonight here on c-span, c-span.org and the free c-span now video app. ames iowa is next, line for democrats. caller: good morning.

i just wanted to point out, speaking about the write-in candidacy for joe biden, let's look at it like this -- it's not a dnc sponsored situation there. it's a grassroots effort from democrats who say let's put joe's name on here. if we understand that if it's not a politically fact committee or organized happening, we really should look at it as something to consider is up or down. speaking on ms. haley in mr. trump, i will say this -- we looked at iowa and said mr. trump got 98%. we only had 100,000 people out there in from all 99 counties. i understand it was cold but look at the facts, the states

are exactly how they are. it's a very volatile situation right now with the selection. if everything reported -- was reported with fairness and clarity, we might have a chance to get to those who don't really understand what's going on. host: that's marvin in iowa. on the iowa results in the all-important eight days between hyo and new hampshire, every four years --guest: it's a fair point the caller makes in terms of how representative are party caucuses? certain people are not able to get out in the evenings, certain people work in the evening. they can't vote during the rest of the day if they choose to. new hampshire is much different than that. the polls are open now and they are open until seven or 8:00 p.m. at night so there is plenty of opportunity for voters to

take the chance to participate. i do think we will get a more representative sense of the electorate from new hampshire than we got from iowa. it will be interesting to see if new hampshire confirms what iowa caucus-goers said in terms of the split between moderate republicans and conservative republicans. in terms of the democrats, it's a fair point -- there is so many strange factors on the new hampshire democratic primary this time as the caller mentioned. it's not an officially sanctioned democratic event. there's been a lot of controversy in new hampshire about joe biden's motion in the new hampshire primary. how all of this impacts your ordinary democrat was turning out to vote because she is a

loyal democrat and that's what loyal democrats do, they participate in party events. this kind of sort it is a party event but in other ways not. i'm really curious how this impacts the ordinary voter in terms of turnout levels, in terms of her support for the incumbent president, all very interesting. host: two southeast new hampshire, exeter, new hampshire, the line for democrats, good morning. caller: how is it going? host: doing well. what your question or comment? caller: the way i've looked at it and i haven't heard anyone talk about it but the major reason for it being taken away from new hampshire is just campaign-finance. i feel like they think they will make more money off another state that new hampshire. i was just wondering if you had

any insight on that, thanks. guest: i don't know that it's so much a campaign-finance thing as it is -- this has been brewing on the democratic side in terms of the national party elites for some time. the question has been -- is new hampshire a representative electorate of the democratic party? by certain criteria in terms of racial diversity and so forth, the answer is no, new hampshire is not representative in that fashion. the question has always been -- what are their political traditions and other factors regarding new hampshire and the fact that it's a small state and the fact that it's basically an open playing field to these other criteria. doesn't make up for the lack of diversity? clearly this time around with president biden in an

unprecedented way putting his thumb on the scale when it came to who should vote first, that was the chief criteria and he mentioned in terms of the democratic party is the party of racial diversity and therefore, we should put voters of color in a more prominent position on the calendar. what's interesting to me is south carolina in particular, one can make the argument that south carolina democrats have been the kingmakers or queen makers as the case might be for some time. joe biden is a great example of that. joe biden finished in 2020 out of the money in new hampshire. he did poorly in iowa and new hampshire. yet south carolina democrats, when they weighed in, they made it stick. they rejected the verdict of new hampshire, chose biden over sanders and it was their verdict, not the first in the

nation verdict of the south carolina verdict that really set the tone for the rest of the primaries. in terms of campaign-finance, that is something i think has affected the new hampshire primary and the whole primary process. regardless of who goes first, the whole process has become much more nationalized. candidates feel compelled to become national names with the national i.d. so much earlier than the use tonight think that's about raising money. if you want to build a small donor base that stretches from california to new york, you've got to build name id. back in the day, jimmy carter for example could compete in new hampshire for months under the radar and let new hampshire introduce him to the country. nowadays, candidates think we've got to start much earlier.

we cannot wait for new hampshire to introduces us to the country. we had to do it ourselves. host: four our visual learners out there these are the results of the new hampshire primary back in 2020. it was bernie sanders at 25.6% and pete to judge at 24.3% and andy klobuchar at 19.7% and elizabeth warren at 9.2% and then joe biden at 8.4% back just four years ago. this is debbie in lehigh acres, florida, independent. hi, this is debbie. i'm 65 years old. i have never voted in my whole life. i am shocked by the united states democrats, republicans and independents. you guys made

a mess of it for us who don't want to get into your thing. we don't want to join your church or your cult or whatever. we want to live. we want civil rights. please, do the right thing for us. host: what is the right thing for you in florida when it comes to the general election, if it is joe biden and donald trump again? caller: i am a woman. i'm 65. i lived in this era of abortion. yes, i had to get an abortion, but that -- but i was raped. i never had another one. i have a lovely daughter, i have a lovely granddaughter and grandchildren. i think abortion should be a civil right. this is a civil right fight

here. it's nothing else but civil rights. i don't know why you guys don't get it. we deserve, people of color who have made this country, we made this country. host: that's debbie in florida. on the role of the abortion issue this time around? guest: we saw in 2022, i saw firsthand how important the overturn of roe v. wade was to voters in new hampshire. especially democratic voters. on the republican side, issues like abortion, republicans would rather not talk about those issues up here. they find themselves, unlike iowa republicans, new hampshire republicans find themselves rather ambivalent about abortion. they find themselves in that middle with many other

americans. maybe there should be some restrictions but it shouldn't be banned, should there be a federal law, we don't think government should be in our business but on the democratic side, there is no ambivalence. there is near unanimity about the importance of abortion rights and we saw that play out in the 2022 midterms when republicans were on the defensive about the overturn of roe while democrats were definitely on the offense in terms of protecting abortion rights. looking forward to 2024, i fully expect that once again come in the general election, it will be a very prominent issue, galvanizing a lot of voters including young voters like the ones i teach at the university of new hampshire. that will be very prominent. i think also a good question regarding democrats looking ahead to the south carolina

primary, one of the most important relationships in the democratic party is between president biden and african-american voters. i'm very curious to see looking down the road what will -- what will be the enthusiasm for black voters for the president. they saved his presidential campaign four years ago. i'm curious to see how it will play out this time. host: less than 10 minutes left with dante scala. we promised at the top of the segment to talk about the past and present primaries in new hampshire but the future as well. what does the future look like for the first in the nation primary in new hampshire in the wake of what could be a runaway republican primary and a write-in campaign for a sitting president? guest: looking to the future, it's a it of a split decision.

tional republican party seems perfectly fine with new hampshire playing its traditional role in having the first in the nation primary right after i was first in the nation caucus. on the republican side, i don't anticipate any big changes. it looks like business as usual going forward to 2028. it's on the democratic side that things are rather complicated. i think that new hampshire democrats, democratic leadership here were blindsided by president biden's decision to put south carolina first. now the question going forward is, once president biden passes from the scene one way or another from 2028, can new hampshire democrats persuade fellow elites from around the country to reverse that decision to put new hampshire back in its

place at the top of the calendar? it seems to me like a bit of an uphill battle. what new hampshire democratic leaders learned in the run-up to 2024 is that they don't seem to have a lot of allies among democrats elsewhere in the country for keeping new hampshire first. the question is, can they find some new allies? iowa is by the boards at this point. can they find new allies to restore new hampshire to its place? the other thing to keep in mind is if it remains status quo in new hampshire is holding an outlaw primary in 2028, what will presidential candidates do? what will cavil -- what will california governor gavin newsom do? will he participate in the new hampshire primary even though it's not a democratic sanctioned event or would he ignore it? host: to north carolina, this

arnold, and independent. caller: good morning. it's my understanding that if nikki haley were to use j alive during his primary in advance, i'm still not sure she would be nominated. i heard she has big nibbles. host: i apologize for that. we will move onto the line for democrats, good morning. caller: good morning. i am 67 right now. i'm seeing what's going on everywhere like in new hampshire right now. republicans have to wake up. democrats are doing the job in fighting for everything. the only problem over there is trump. he doesn't do anything for nobody.

he does things for himself area people don't understand. joe biden will always be the number one to help people. trump kills people. that's not right for america. i hope everybody wakes up and sees that. they need to decide which one is better for everyone. host: trying to get a couple of more calls in here before the end of our segment. less than five minutes, this is george in st. louis, independent caller: caller:, good morning. thanks, this is a great platform, you write run a great show and thank you, c-span. a few quick observations. i was so encouraged to see senator betterment talking about his past problems that he's overcome and he is articulate and he's got some really good ideas. i give kudos the second thing is

dean phillips. i think he is one of the most refreshing people we've seen come on the scene. i think he is a guy that gives his opinion and is not worried whether it's democratic or republican. i wish there was a way that man had a legitimate run for the presidency. number three, the republicans, they don't have a clue of what they are doing. they don't now how to frame anything. they want to put their head in the sand and the biggest issue, you can say it will be the energy or it will be finances or the border. it comes down to one thing -- the democrats are pushing it -- it's abortion. the republicans don't -- they can't win. they've lost three elections, two elections in a row, three elections in a row and they don't want to address that

issue. until they address that issue, they have no shot of doing anything. why they are trying to impeach biden when he is the only person they can be. governor newsom comes in and is out of hollywood. they got no shot against him in they've got no shot against michelle or whoever they put up. that's all i had to say, thank you so much. host: a lot there, what do you want to pick up on? guest: new hampshire republicans it had a difficult time during the trump bureau. at the state level, governor chris sununu, son of the former governor johnson new, has been successful and they've had success in the state legislature as well but for federal office, running for congress as a republican has been really difficult in new hampshire during the trump your. we sought in 2022 and joe biden carried the state in 2020.

we definitely -- we are a purple state but during the trump era, that purple takes on a bluish tinge to it. i suspect if it is biden versus trump, going forward that new hampshire will once again be that democratic leaning swing state. we will make the first kind of swing states but during the trump era, we are not really a bellwether anymore. we are definitely a state with a bit of a democratic lean to it. host: this is david, republican, good morning, you are next. are you with us? caller: yeah, i'm wondering why people are confronting nikki haley about being backed by democrats and she gets this look on her face and she does not deny it and she's been asked several times about it

what's to stop the democrats from voting for nikki haley? it would be lopsided, then. what's to stop the democrats for voting for nikki haley? that's my question, thank you very much. guest: yeah, it all depends -- in new hampshire, it depends on how that democrat's register. they democrat in new hampshire is indeed registered as a partisan democrat on the voter rolls, she cannot cross over and take a republican ballot. however, if she is registered as a " undeclared voter", she has free agency to choose either party's primary that might be the way that a democrat today, someone who personally identifies as a democrat can participate in the republican primary perhaps thinking i want to cast a vote against donald trump and i will even vote for a

republican like nikki haley. it depends today on the party registration. host: dante scala is a professor at the university of new hampshire, a great twitter handle at graniteprof if you can find him there and thatunh .edfu. always appreciate your time on the "washington journal." guest: you're very welcome. host: coming up next this morning, we will talk with brad cook, co-chair of the new hampshire special committee on voter confidence about the group's recommendations on improving the electoral process. later, a viewers guide how to watch the returns tonight. we will be joined by the boston globe political reporter. we will be right back. ♪

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"washington journal" continues. host: on this granite state primary day, we welcome bradford cook to the "washington journal ." he served as cochair on voter confidence. the committee was formed bless you with a mission to identify root causes of voter confidence decline and find ways to reverse the trend. before we talk about the causes, how deep is the decline in 2024? guest: i think in 2024, is not particularly deeper than it was. the secretary of state scanlon, soon after he took office when her former secretary of state phil gardner reap tired -- retired, name the committee because he was concerned more nationally than in new hampshire that there was a lot of talk about the decline in confidence in elections by voters and he wanted to have a broadly based

committee look into the causes, but also look into the reality and report to the people of new hampshire on why they should have confidence in elections, which in fact we did. host: what are the causes? guest: the primary cause i think was the constant barrage of misinformation from former president trump, to be blunt. if you tell a lie enough times, people might believe it's a people kept hearing about busloads of voters coming into new hampshire from massachusetts which wasn't true. they kept hearing about truckloads of ballots being taken from one place to another in other states which turned out not to be true. and they were told these things were going on and if you don't look into it and you don't really understand it, you might think it was true. there are incidents in every election. there's never been a perfect election and there are incidents in an election when somebody

votes in the wrong precinct or somebody votes twice, people do things they shouldn't do. at least in new hampshire, those are very few and far between. host: is this the kind of thing where people like their own congressperson but they don't like congress and people have trust in their own election process at the local level but have more concern about the rest of the country? maybe they don't trust what's going on out there. guest: i think that's a very good point. when you hear reports about what's going on in phoenix and you are in new hampshire or massachusetts, you don't really know what's going on in phoenix so you believe whatever the most recent report is. you think that's a tough place or you think about some of the big cities in the country that notoriously were run by political bosses 100 years ago and you learned about it in

school but you don't know but it's still true. the farther weight you are from it, the more suspicious you are of it. host: what's the process for voting in new hampshire? what do you think is a process that gives people the most confidence? guest: we have several elements of our elections in new hampshire that are the basis for confidence. the first one is every voter has a paper ballot. there is a trail, there is a piece of paper that can be recounted, it can be looked at. it's not just up to some mechanical device. it's not up to some counting device in the back of some kind of machine. when i was a kid, the voting machines we had when my mother used to take me in when she voted, just register like a car odometer in the back the number and you had the feeling that somebody might be able to go in there and set the odometer back or forward. we don't have that, we have a paper ballot for everybody by law.

we have elections run by local officials. when you go to vote and you see your next-door neighbor, i'm going to vote right after this program, and i know i will go into my pulling pelé's -- into my polling place and i will literally see my next-door neighbor and she will ask me for my id. because that's our law then we see our friends and neighbors we talk to them outside and their holding signs but they're also doing the counting at night and they have to go home and go to bed next-door and that is a supervised situation, the individual polling places are supervised by the clerks and moderators who are elected. they are supervised by the secretary of state and they are all monitored by the attorney general's office. we have a very controlled process that's very broad-based. you know who's doing it, you know who to ask and if you have a question about it, you can do a recount of a real paper ballot. host: if you want to talk about

voter confidence in election, now is a good time to call in. we have the cochair of the special committee on voter confidence. the phone lines are the same, the numbers are on your screen. setting aside the special number for new hampshire residents, (202) 748-8003 as we have done all morning long. you wear a number of hats out there and you're also the chair of the ballot commission in new hampshire, what is that? guest: the ballot commission is a commission created by our legislature. it's made up of five members and five alternates. one republican and one democrat from each category, the speaker of the house selects one republican and one democrat and one alternate for each one. the president of the senate is the same way and the governor selects one of each that can be from either party. we meet as a group to do several things assigned to us by the

legislature. one is to rule on people who can be on the ballot if they are not qualified, somebody challenges them. we get a challenge to the secretary of state inclusion or exclusion of them from the ballot. we get appeals from recount so if an election is close in its recounted the losing candidate still thanks it's questionable, we get to try to discern what the voters meant and figure out really one - peoplew ask if we pick winners or losers buto we don'tn. . we try to figure out what the voters did and we select mechanical voting devices that are used in the state, commonly known as voting machines for the cities and towns that choose to use them. host: what are your thoughts on using the 14th amendment to remove donald trump from ballots and states around the country?

guest: in new hampshire, our secretary of state with the advice of the attorney general says that was not a rightful determination by them. my personal feeling is he may in fact have incited insurrection, but there is no supreme court decision or major court decision that gives any guidance on that. 40 secretary of state or voting commission to make that decision instead of the people is a mistake. i am sympathetic with the fact that it may in fact be applicable but i'm not sympathetic that a secretary of state or a ballot law commission should make that decision. host: you think the supreme court should make this decision soon? guest: they should give us some guidance on what it means. there is a question about whether that provision is applicable to the president. it probably is but it has never been determined.

it's never been determined who makes the decision about it. i think they should weigh in. they will have the colorado and maine cases brought before them and they are taking them. they will rule on it. i would be surprised if they said, based on assertions of something that happened but no convictions, that they exclude somebody from the ballot but it's possible. i long ago stopped predicting results of elections or supreme court decisions. host: let me bring in some callers to chat with you. this is tennessee, republican, you are on with brad cook. caller: good morning and thanks for taking my call. i would like to explain a couple of reasons why my confidence has dropped in elections. number one, a number of states illegally passing changing

election law like pennsylvania for example. number two, elections no longer last a day it seems like. in 2020, it seemed like it lasts days. number three, a number of states trying to ban id laws which provide a pathway for illegal people to vote or people from out of town voting in different states. number three, banning attempting to ban candidates from balance -- ballots without being charged for the crime they are being committed up. host: let me bring that up with

brad cook. i think there were four there actually. guest: i thought he said number three twice, but that's ok. well, the states changing the laws after elections to try and correct what they believe are mistakes or errors in their law is not illegal, for sure. in new hampshire, we have an id law. in new hampshire we have same-day voting and very limited absentee voting, so we don't have optional mail-in voting for anyone who feels like it. we have not got voting on sunday in advance of tuesday because it is more convenient. certainly, the id law we have is very strictly applied. i cannot speak for other states,

cannot speak to the caller's concern about other states, but i know in new hampshire we don't have the issues. we don't exclude people from the ballot unless they are truly not qualified and there is an appeal process for them if somebody tries to exclude them from the ballot. while those may be valid concerns that a voter has -- and i am sure he is sincere in what he says -- she wouldn't run into those problems in new hampshire. host: let me take you back to the granite state, dover, new hampshire. this is sylvia, independent. caller: good morning. one of the things that hasn't been mentioned and i want to make sure hasn't been changed, if you are an independent and you go into vote, you can pick a ballot, republican or democrat, and secretly vote your desired person. and then on the way out the door, you can stop and return to

your independent status, so that means you don't stay on the roles as a republican or democrat and go back to being independent. host: mr. cook? guest: we don't have independents in new hampshire technically, they are undeclared. we call them independent. that has not changed. there is a misnomer out there, mis-impression that democrats can vote in the republican party or republicans can vote in the democratic party. they cannot. we are no different from any other state in that regard. an undeclared voter can go to the polls, take a ballot. that makes them a member of the party before they cast the ballot. they cast the ballot. if they so choose, they can sign a postcard or something on the way out and be restored you

undeclared, just like they could in the past. host: sylvia, thanks for the call. one of our viewers and callers often hear, calling in once every 30 days. this is roy from little elm, texas. democrat. caller: good morning. the computer virus in 2005, able to hack into the iranian nuclear program. multiple computers shut it down. that was 2005. with all due respect, i feel like a lot of the officials who deal with so-called voter confidence gas lighted the voters into thinking that it is infallible, if the machines have an internet connection for tabulation are beyond reproach. i feel it is irresponsible. what they have going on with the paper ballots in new hampshire is a really good thing. that should be across-the-board. i think it should be a holiday,

like vivek ramaswamy was talking about. as a democrat, disappointed in the gas lighting, racial undertones. minorities, if you require voter ids. everybody can get an id. it is not racist to assert that you need an id when you go to the polls. i feel there is a lot of gas lighting going on around this issue. host: you bring up a couple of things. brad cook, let me get you to jump in. machines connected to the internet, paper ballots, the idea of how paper ballots are counted. are they fit into machines and counted or counted by hand? and then voter id, as well. guest: first, the ballot law commission in new hampshire has set a series of requirements for ballot-counting devices. we set them before we started to

do a review of replacement desires -- devices because the ones we use a hector today are quite old. one of the criteria is that each one takes a paper ballot, the second one is they cannot be connected to the internet and cannot be networked. they are internally unique, each device, so they cannot be hacked, they cannot be networked. if they are networked, they cannot be used in new hampshire. there are devices that are manufactured, the interaction, the networking can be disabled. we have looked at some of those. the paper ballot, as i stated in the outset, that is our first rule. every polling place in new hampshire doesn't have to use a mechanical device. we have 100 smaller communities in the state or more that just hand count, do not have

mechanical devices helping them. all of our cities use machines. most of our big towns use machines. that's an individual choice from the eunice ability. -- municipality. they can opt out of the machines. estate doesn't tell them what to our id laws are quite specific on what kind of id you need to have. if the caller is suggesting that somebody could forge an id and try to use it in an election, i suppose that's always possible. host: less than 10 minutes left with brad cook this morning, chair of the ballot law commission in new hampshire, cochair of the special committee on voter confidence. a good person to talk to if you have voting questions in new hampshire. phone lines. this is jay, a republican from kentucky. caller: thank you for taking my call. with all due respect to the

gentleman on your show from new hampshire, the primary in kentucky is not until may. my question is very simple. why should i care? 48 states are not going to have a say. as a matter of fact, this whole thing could be over tomorrow. as a matter of fact, in november, kentucky would never vote for joe biden, so why should i care about this process going forward? thanks for taking my call. host: brad cook. guest: the caller points out a couple of unique things about 2024 and also about the process. certainly, if it is over after today, it will be very unfortunate in my view because only a very tiny number of people in iowa, the people of new hampshire will have gotten to speak. the beauty of the process has always been that you have places where candidates can meet the

voters one on one, be evaluated, get the advice of those places. but nobody has ever said it should be determinative. i don't think anybody would say that new hampshire should pick the president. it is a national office, it's a national process. i think it would be very sad if it ended today. all i can tell you today is that if donald trump gets more votes than nikki haley, it will be an accurate count. if nikki haley gets more votes than donald trump, it will be an accurate count because of the way we count ballots. the point about why you should care, you should care because it is your country, and your vote counts. if you are a democrat in kentucky, you might be swimming against the tide, but that doesn't mean that you shouldn't try or do it. i am not an expert on kentucky, but my recollection is they have a democratic governor because he is popular even though it is an overwhelmingly republican state.

so your vote counts, you are participating in democracy is important. host: i realize i'm asking a granite stater this question, but is it fair that iowa and new hampshire get so much say in who eventually becomes the nominee? guest: we think it is wonderful. is it fair? beauty is in the eye of the beholder. i cannot speak to iowa because frankly i don't understand the caucus system, why anyone pays attention to it. because they are picking delegates to go to a county convention to go to a state convention to pick candidates to go to the convention. we see the candidates up close. if anybody wants to meet the candidates, they can meet them. mr. trump is sort of an exception because he flies in, holds rallies, and then leaves. people like nikki haley or, governor desantis, others were

walking around. i'm a little more involved but i have met most of them over the years. we used to have a joke in our office. one of my law partners was one of george h.w. bush's campaign managers, we would meet him on the elevator. we would say we cannot decide if we are going to vote for george bush, we have only met him six times. it is different here because we get to see the candidates, you get to kick the tires, you get to look them in the eye. i think people in the country should value that somebody is doing that. i don't think you could do that in california because it is so big. don't think you could do that in new york. i get the point about the sequence. if it is a foregone conclusion by march and you don't vote until may, you don't get the same say, but that is the system and that is how it works. host: pennsylvania. john in johnstown democrat. good morning. caller: this is john in

johnstown. and i on? host: yes or. -- yes, sir. caller: somebody made the comment about pennsylvania, paper ballots and fraud. first of all, that law was changed by the republican legislature, which pennsylvania had at that time in 2020. so let's get that straight. my concern is not so much the border, the people coming across the southern border. my concern is the hate groups that came out of the woodwork when trump was in office. in pennsylvania, we have 28 hate groups here. that is my main concern as far as the voting goes, who i will vote for. believe me. that is one thing i want to straighten out on pennsylvania. that was done by the pennsylvania legislature, and it was a republican legislature that put paper ballots on.

that is how i vote by the way. that is my comment for the day. host: brad cook, male-in ballots in new hampshire, what is the process? guest: we have a very strict absentee ballot statute that says there are several bases on which you can vote absentee and they are illness, being out-of-state, religious holiday, or fear of a big storm. absent those, you are not allowed to u iwe don't have mais for anyone who feels like it like some states do. i was watching tv this morning and saw the secretary of state of massachusetts saying anyone can vote the following three ways, register the following four ways. i don't think the controls they have are the same as the controls that we have. we have a very controlled process, we have limitations on absentee ballots.

during the pandemic, we had a ruling from our attorney general that fear of covid was a medical excuse, so we had a lot more absentee ballots. but that is no longer the case. host: outside the covid years, and generally how many people vote in person versus absentee in the primary? guest: i don't have the number but i would say probably 95% or more in person. host: time for one or two more calls. i want to ask you, mr. cook, in the time we have, about how closely monitored that very small dixville notch election is and why they get to do that, what you think about all the hoopla around that election at midnight on election day? guest: well, i think it's a great tradition. for many years, i represented

the hotel, enjoyed watching it. i think you'll find that they are not always right on their predictions on who will eventually win the election but it is a nice tradition. small enough community where they can open up the polls and close them the same minute. i enjoy it. host: one more call. richard, savannah, georgia. ask for waiting. republican. go ahead. --thanks for waiting. caller: good morning, from the great state of georgia. i have a question as far as voting goes. we sit and watch the elections. if we had a one-day vote, if we had voter id, if we had handmade ballot boxes, i see france does their elections in one day, have the results that night.

why can't america do that? we sit here for 30 days and what people keep voting until a certain party wins. i'd just like the fairness, one-day voting. host: brad cook, final minute. guest: i think the caller points out the differences between different state systems. georgia has picked it system, new hampshire has picked its system. this is a state-by-state federal system kind of activity. there are federal rules on what has to be done. i would probably quarrel with the fact that if you go to over 30 days it is less accurate than if you vote all on one day. but i think the beauty of voting on one day is everyone is voting under the same set of circumstances. if you voted 30 days ago in new hampshire, which you couldn't, unless you got an absentee ballot, you may have voted for a candidate who by today may have dropped out of the race. having everyone voting on the same day puts everyone on equal

footing. host: brad cook is the cochair of the special committee on voter confidence. if folks want to read your report, where can they go? guest: the secretary of state website. just google new hampshire secretary of state, look at elections, and the report is there. host: appreciate your time this morning, sir. happy primary day to you. guest: thank you. nice to be here. host: about 45 minutes left in our program. in that time, will be joined by the boston globe's political reporter james pindell on how to watch the returns tonight and the final hours of new hampshire's primary. we will be right back. ♪

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wherever you get your podcasts and on our website, c-span.org /podcasts. >> in the weeks that lie ahead, the famous and influential men and women will occupy those seats will have a lot to say about friedman's view of the society in which we live today and his solutions for the heroes of our time. >> saturdays at 7:00 eastern, american history tv will air the 10-part series "free to choose" featuring milton friedman. he coproduced the series with his wife and first aired on public televisionn 1980. the friedmans also wrote a best-selling companion book of the same name. programs take us two locations important in the u.s. and the world economy. the friedman's advocate free-market principles and limited government involvement. other topics include welfare, education, equality, consumer

and worker protection, and inflation. watch "free to choose" saturdays at 7:00 eastern on american history tv on c-span2. >> washington journal continues. host: it is primary day in new hampshire, and something of a washington journal tradition, we are joined once again by james pindell, awesome glow political reporter contributor with nbc and msnbc. happy primary day. guest: happy primary day to folks who celebrate like me. host: a recent story of yours called this the incredible shrinking primary in new hampshire. what did you mean by that? guest: this primary is historic, has shocked and upset the apple cart of american politics. if you look at the 2024 primary calendar, you kinda need to circle january 23, because the stakes could not be higher. if you look at the first four or

early primary states, iowa, new hampshire, nevada, south carolina, this is the one state where you could say donald trump could be vulnerable and maybe his coronation to the republican nomination may not go as smoothly as he thought. he was consistently pulling around 42, 40 5% for much of the year. the democratic side, we don't talk about this enough, but this is really the first test for joe biden as president to see if democrats are enthusiastic to vote for him, if they have concerns about him. certainly we have seen in polling nationwide as well as here in new hampshire, concern about his age, may concerned about his policies, particularly among those on the left. this is the first sort of ballot test for him. he is not on the ballot, there is a write and effort here. the stakes are high. at the same time, everything about this primary seems smaller.

that is why i called it the incredibly shrinking new hampshire primary. the field of candidates is smaller. a number of events candidates are doing is smaller. the crowd sizes are smaller. i would say there are fewer debates but there are no debates, less enthusiasm on the ground here. i took a picture last night of a pretty high-end restaurant that would normally be full on primary eve with reporters and political types. it was empty. this has not been the same hampshire primary that i've been use to. this is my seventh presidential primary season. there are structural reasons for that, specific reasons for the campaign, but that is the reason i wrote the column. host: you wrote that to pull off a victory, nikki haley today in the republican primary would need a mccain-like performance. what does that mean? guest: the only historical parallel to what we have seen in 2024 on the republican side

anyway with a dominant front runner was george w. bush in 2000. at the time, texas governor, son of a president. he had just won the iowa caucuses pretty handily, was winning in every early primary state, dominant front runner nationwide. then along came john mccain in new hampshire. polls here also showed him down to george w. bush, but john mccain pulled off a stunning 18-point win. one of those amazing new hampshire primary lore stories. he did it basically, if you look at two or three different metrics. one, deep support of these independent voters that we've been talking about all morning. he had a humongous cap over george bush on that. nikki haley meanwhile has a much smaller lead among independent voters. second, we don't talk about this enough. john mccain, independent voters

in new hampshire. but he actually also won conservatives in that election. nikki haley, this is where she is getting smoked by 50 points among conservatives. that will be a problem for her going forward. lastly, the third metric which is harder to define, but john mccain did 114 town halls and 69 days. nikki haley has been doing a lot of retail stops. what i mean is she will pop into a bar or restaurant and will only hold one rally and will not even take questions. new hampshire love the idea of going for the underdog who is really fighting for the vote. you see that not just for president but all up and down the ballot in this swing state in elections. state or anything else. there's been a general impression that she has not been fighting for it enough. her closing rally last night was in salem, new hampshire, a deeply republican vote-rich town

on the border of massachusetts. it lasted 34 minutes. this is not exactly the tradition of an underdog going to fight for every last vote. she is not doing mccain tradition that he did, not getting it in the numbers, and that is why it looks like she is set up for a bad night. but new hampshire surprises us again and again. in 2008, it is embarrassing if you go to the c-span archives. it looks like barack obama with a double-digit lead was going to win the primary. we all remember that night when hillary clinton was the one to pull that off. host: the c-span archives are never embarrassing. lengthy in there for everyone. if you want to join with james pindell, he is with us until the end of our program, 10:00 eastern. voting already underway in the granite state. voting will and in most places around 7:00 or 8:00 p.m. depending on the districts in new hampshire.

democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. all morning long, that line for granite state residents, (202) 748-8003. you were mentioning nikki haley, her stops, campaign events. she has been joined sununu at ae events. how has that endorsement worked out for her, what was the expectation when the endorsement came? guest: number one we should mention this was a strategic endorsement by chris sununu. it is not that he was in love with nikki haley from the very beginning. they disagree on a lot of things quite frankly. but he was very exquisite about this. by the way, we should point this out. i don't think i've ever seen this in american politics. he is trying to elevate himself to be the single most important endorsement in this presidential process of all states. jim clyburn in south carolina,

we know an extreme important endorsement to joe biden and his path to the nomination. chris sununu is trying to be jim clyburn on steroids. he flirted with running for the u.s. senate years ago, became a national name, then he flirted with running for president even, became even more of a national voice, keynote for the republican national convention last year. he is trying to elevate his voice and power and clout in the party. he is not even running for reelection. he said, look, he wanted to find and bolster the candidate he thought had the best chance to defeat donald trump. nikki haley was on the rise in late november, early december. he endorsed her after that december debate where she also had a good performance. he was trying to bolster the anti-trump candidate. when his impact to the endorsement may mean politically on the ground is very questionable.

we at the boston globe did a poll and ask the question in the fall. only about 30% of republican voters said they would even factor that in. by the way, his endorsement record in republican primaries, even in new hampshire, is really checkered. i think his impact was to signal to national donors that she has something going on here. she raised a record $24 million in the last three months of the year. that has enabled her to outspend all of the opponents in iowa and new hampshire. already has a 4 million-dollar dollars added by in south carolina. i'm not sure she would have had that much money had chris sununu not given such an enthusiastic endorsement and an argument that she had something building here. host: we will start with lisa in new hampshire. lisa in new hampshire.

independent. go ahead. caller: i just wanted to say, civilization would be great right now. that is what my kids say. that is why i'm going to vote today. we just need to get rid of the -- causing all of this confusion and chaos. host: who will you be voting for? are you willing to say? caller: probably nikki haley. she has good principles, good team around her. people that don't have lives that are not in entertainment, not really funny at all. it is actually causing a lot of chaos between families, communities. she wants to go back to being peaceful again. host: lisa, an independent. one of those undeclared, i'm assuming.

the role of the undeclared voters today, and turnout expectations on that front, james pindell? guest: such a great point from lisa. a point that nikki haley have been making in her argument, time for a new generation. 70% of america doesn't want joe biden and donald trump in every match this year. this may be the contest that decides if it will happen automatically or not. to your point about undeclared or independent builders, as much as i talk about how this is a smaller primary, you have to square that with the estimate from the secretary of state and those in the campaign, they believe this could be a record turnout today during the primary fueled by independent voters. if that is the case, nikki haley may do better than the polls suggest. host: when we were in iowa for our coverage there, the weather was a factor in the turnout.

any weather concerns today? what are you watching? i know that we all become minor weather reporters when it comes to primary day. guest: i was out in iowa, have been here all week. today was the first time i didn't have to wear my winter jacket to an interview. the weather will not be a factor at all today. this is a typical late january day in new hampshire. host: clarence and st. joseph's, missouri is next. you are on with james pindell. caller: i just wanted to say, nikki haley is not really all that trustworthy. when she was governor, she sold farmland to china. china has a right on the land in the united states because they were allowed to buy land in their country. host: james pindell, a sentiment that translates to what you are

seeing in new hampshire? guest: yes, to a degree. this is part of donald trump's political argument. america's relationship with china has evolved, definitely in evolved since she was governor. she has taken a hard line. there is so much we disagree in pile tex but one thing that is bipartisan is an argument of america in a competitive relationship with china. one reason why you see this argument from ron desantis he was a candidate against her. she has a tougher line on china now in recent years. i could see this moving forward, if this does move forward, a big talking point as the race goes to south carolina. host: what were your thoughts when ron desantis stepped out of the race over the weekend? headline from the washington times. "never back down" which was the headline of the campaign.

desantis backed down. guest: it is a stunning downfall. $150 million. he was winning the new hampshire primary a year ago in april from the university of new hampshire. when we talk about how nikki haley is getting crushed among conservatives, had this rain gone differently, ron desantis actually had an argument that he could at least go to two to or closer with -- teo to toe or closer with donald trump. everyone else who didn't like donald trump. there was an argument therefore ron desantis. clearly, his campaign wasn't able to pull it off. i will give him credit for at least understanding the race correctly, in theory. like we talked about before, in 2000 eight, hillary clinton was a dominant front runner in all the primary states, nationwide.

barack obama decided to go all in on iowa. it burst her inevitability in the first contest and now the issue where the base wanted to fight her, the war in iraq. ron desantis said i'm going to go to iowa. he will do with the iowa way, does all 99 counties, appeal to evangelical christians, a caucus that makes up two thirds of the electorate. this time smaller, 55%. he would be the leader of the culture wars, which is what republicans were talking about in the national conversation. but when the first criminal charge came out against donald trump, you could see that he became the culture war, and that is when the trajectory of this race changed. ron desantis was unable to come back in any meaningful way. host: tommy in greenfield, independent -- indiana. republican. caller: just a couple of quick

comments and then a question for your guest. i think right now with this country needs is someone like donald trump, not only for the united states but also for the world standing because if donald trump was in office, ping pong in china, putin in russia, north korea, they wouldn't be pulling the shenanigans they are pulling now. there would not have been a d rone circumvent the united states from china, because these guys know what donald trump would do if they pulled all of this stuff they are pulling now. host: so what is your question, tommy? caller: the question i have for your guest is, never in my

lifetime have i ever seen a political party be able to manipulate and abuse the system to have a political opponent removed from the balance -- ballots to try and defeat their political opponent. the question i have is why does the mainstream media have such a love affair with the democratic party, that they are so willing to just acquiesce to whatever they want and are so willing to put out the information that they put out? host: tommy in indiana. i think referring to the effort to remove donald trump from the ballot using the 14th amendment. caller: i grew up down the road from you in -- guest: i grew up down the road from you in greenfield, so i'm familiar.

number one, we never had a president like donald trump, never had a president with criminal charges. we never had a president who could be remotely accused by a prosecutor of being involved in an insurrection. a court in colorado found that he was involved in insurrection. that is how they made the first step to remove. the supreme court will take a look at this. you talked about this in the previous segment. i think it's a good thing for america that the supreme court will fast-track this. what no one wants is for donald trump to win the election and then the supreme court weighs in and says he is not actually a legit candidate for president. that would be an awful situation. host: donald in jeanette, pennsylvania. regret. -- democrat. caller: good morning. my comment is more concerning residents and new hampshire and really nothing to do with 2024.

i would like to acknowledge for history's sake the other franklin, and that would be franklin pierce, who hailed from new hampshire, to this day is our only president from the granite state. host: thanks for that. i forgot franklin pierce was from new hampshire. . james pindell, any thoughts on franklin pierce? guest: one of our least popular presidents in american history. you go down the list of historians in terms of his role in perpetuating slavery before the civil war. people would say he didn't have much of a choice. wasn't a great husband, father either. but his legacy does hold on. there is a university named after him, his house was taken over after a while and made into a museum. there is a two volume series on franklin pierce done by a noted historian, very good actually.

franklin pierce's legacy and story lives on. what is interesting, around that time of franklin pierce, there was an argument to be had that new hampshire held the first national convention largely to help elevate franklin pierce. it is a fascinating, weird period in america in the 1850's, but his legacy does still hold on. one fun fact, we have to does take its role -- there was no primary in the 1850's -- but it takes its role very seriously. and part of that, unlike other early primary states, by the way, no one has run for president in the modern era from new hampshire except for one person. bob smith in 2000. never made it to the primary ballot. because he ran, he was kicked out of office. new hampshire -- chris sununu may have flirted with the idea of running for president. people think it is serious, it's

a neutral playing ground. there is no favorites on here. nobody actually harbors national ambitions like that. host: not to pile on franklin pierce, but according to the presidential historian survey -- last time it was done in 2021. just want to point out where franklin pierce ranked in that survey of historians, presidential scholars. we ask them to rank all 44 men serving in the office of the presidency. if you go down those rankings, you have to go all the way to third from last to find franklin pierce, came in at 42nd and the most recent survey. by the way, those presidential historians and scholars, the 41st ranked president, donald j. trump, is where they put the former president. all available at c-span.org if

you want to check out that survey. the latest one in 2021. this is tony in houston, texas. independent. good morning. caller: good morning, i am calling on the independent line although i will be voting republican for donald trump. i'm a 67-year-old african-american black man, dissented of black slaves. i was deeply offended by the insensitivity of nikki haley when she said, what do you want me to say about slavery? it was indicative of the fact that she has no concept of what american culture is. who do you think built the capital, the white house that she is attempting to occupy? black slaves. they built it with every brick, mortar, the blood, sweat, and sinew of their bodies. she would never go to a jewi

sh audience and say what you want me to say about the holocaust? never would go to an lgbt organization and say what do you want me to say about homosexuality? but for black people, descendant of slaves and the people that built the country, what do you want me to say? it is government telling citizens how to live their lives and all of that. if it was up to her, i would still be a slave. probably i would not still be alive, hung a long time ago. but nikki haley, the of indian immigrants, first-generation, knows nothing about the culture. i voted for jimmy carter at 19 years old, voted for democratic candidates ever since. i stopped voting for democrats in 2016. i will vote republican for the rest of my life. thank you. host: james pindell. guest: the question up north was

a defining moment for the nikki haley campaign. i mean that for a couple reasons. it put her on the defensive ever since. she now basically takes no questions at all at her townhall meetings, she is playing it very carefully. she limits her media exposure and the questions there because she doesn't want to mess up again. it is not just the defensive. it could have been a great moment for her. a calling card for nikki haley right now is that she is the electable republican left. a wall street journal poll showing that she can beat president biden by double digits. it wouldn't even be close. meanwhile, the contest with trump and biden, trump is winning in the last few polls. a much closer contest. remember the nikki haley narrative. she was the governor that took down the confederate flag in south carolina. appealing to her electability argument is hoping that she will talk about at a national

republican convention for the general election, should you ever be the nominee -- should she ever be the nominee. it was a big moment for her campaign. host: fairfield, connecticut. carol, independent. good morning. carol, are you with us? we will go to billy in amherst, ohio. republican. good morning. caller: hello. thank you for taking my call. so surprised i got on. i wanted to say, listening to nikki haley with her own words, not from reading, she admitted that she quit her job as the u.s. ambassador after almost two years to move herself up, not down. i don't believe in critters. if i take a job and i believe i will do it, i will perform my four years. it didn't make sense to me that

she left her job to make more money. she admitted, she didn't have a lot of money, but now she is worth $8 million because she moved up. i found that very disappointing. i am a republican. i do vote republican because of the values i have. and i will be voting for trump in the next election. host: james pindell. guest: what is so fascinating this morning, also reflecting what is happening on the ground. we are talking about nikki haley, nikki haley, nikki haley. we had three questions in a row about her. if you turn on a tv in new hampshire, it is either a pro-nikki haley add or an anti-nikki haley add. . it is such a weird thing because politics lately has been donald trump, donald trump. america knows a lot about donald trump and joe biden. she is a new person that we are

still learning about, caller is talking about. it is an interesting twist. if she gets blown out in the new hampshire primary, maybe the republican nomination is over and we are again talking about donald trump, donald trump, donald trump. at least right now we are asking about nikki haley, and that's interesting. host: 10 minutes left in our program. before that, we wanted to get your thoughts, four years from now, the new hampshire primary down the road in the wake of what is happening on the democratic side this time around, in what could be a blowout today if the polls are correct. what are your expectations for the future of the new hampshire primary? guest: it is very unsettled, no question about it. we have ever seen a new hampshire primary like this. what i mean by that, particularly on the democratic side, joe biden made a very cynical play by removing new

hampshire, a state that he finished fifth in a few years ago, to reward state that elevated him to the presidency. there are a lot of concerns about new hampshire's role, now over 100 years long in the process. yes, new hampshire is disproportionately really white. yes, it is really proportionately really rural when america is becoming more urban. yes, it is definitely more educated than the average state. and it is wealthier. in the top five always for the top-five wealthy state in the country. and it is older. but in a time of political polarization, when congress has to struggle to do anything at all, i have heard it heartbreakingly this week how families have been torn apart by families -- by politics. they are not talking to each other. this romantic notion that you even saw last night, in dixville

notch, of democracy, transparency. people have all of these conspiracy theories, but in dixville notch, they open up the wooden box to make sure there are no more ballots. they count them one by one. if democracy is really being tested in the 2024 election, this is what democracy is at its purest, where there are townhall meetings, where people can size up, have a joke that is funny. other state may be able to pull that off. a bunch of big state simply cannot. they are media-driven contests. but the idea and the romance of the new hampshire primary and what it can deliver for america, is something that i don't think we should leave lightly. i am biased, have been here pretty much my entire career covering this primary, but for all the criticisms and concerns, moving forward, there will be a

lot lost for the sake of democracy if new hampshire is somehow put further aside in this primary. i don't know where we go from here to be honest with you. host: down to the tar heel state. grace in north carolina. democrat. good morning. go ahead, you are on with james pindell. caller: i wanted to just say something about the gentleman that spoke about haley being anti-black my guess is what he was trying to say. i just wonder, if haley doesn't know anything about the country's culture, what does donald trump know? he only sees what is in front of him. i really think that these people that are so gung ho for him have been brainwashed.

you know, when you have children, you have to keep repeating things to a child so they will november. -- remember it. that is what he has done. every rally, he repeats the same thing. i feel so bad. i am a democrat but i have voted republican in my time. i am 87 years old. host: who is the last republican you voted for? caller: i voted for nixon of all people. [laughter] anyway, i just montana country to come back. -- want our country to come back. since the trump came into office, came down the escalator to announce his run, our country has been in pure hell. i wanted to come back. i guess as you get older you don't like change.

i don't like change. thank you very much for taking my call. young man, you are doing a good job. host: before you go, what did you like about nixon? caller: i really don't know why i voted for him. i think i was young and stupid. anyway, i thought he was going to be a good president. i think he had the stuff to do it with, but somewhere along the line, his brain crossed. host: that is grace, democrat in north carolina. james pindell, jump in. guest: she reflects where a lot of americans were in 2020, where they were just exhausted by a donald trump presidency. that is not a partisan statement. republicans were exhausted by being attacked constantly. now joe biden is in the office. can he somehow in reelection

bring back that sense of -- you were exhausted by those four years. part, she mentioned. that will be the bigger challenge when he is in the white house, the one with the record. i don't know how this will exactly play out in 2024. it could go several different ways. we are looking at third parties, can they bring something back in terms of normalcy. i don't know. host: five minutes left. james pindell, where are you watching result tonight, how do you watch results? if there is an upset by nikki haley, how early do you expect we will know, where should we look? guest: great questions. the polls close either at 7:00 or 8:00. 90% of the polls in the state close at 7:00. it closes in the largest city where we are at now in manchester at 7:00. they are really quick at turning around results.

among the first result you'll get is in manchester, which is kind of a swing city, in terms of politics here in new hampshire. i think we will have a pretty good idea within 45 minutes whether or not nikki haley has something going on. of course, all the major organizations called the iowa caucuses within 31 minutes. i'm not sure it will be that fast, but it will be pretty quick. it is going to be -- what will be tougher, about half of the state lives in two counties in the boston suburbs. one of the counties is here in manchester, one is closer to the ocean. those counties are generally open later until about 8:00. so we will get a richer picture later in the evening, but this will be pretty fast. we will pretty much know the winter, i think, by 11:00, if not much earlier. host: will you be watching from

the boston globe, where will you be tonight? guest: i'll be on tv a lot tonight, on msnbc. we have a bunch of reporters with the globe. largest paper by circulation in the state. i don't member how many reporters we have but i'll be watching like most people on tv, watching the results come in from the associated press, secretary of state. host: one or two more calls. marlon has been weeding in lancaster, pennsylvania. republican. things were waiting. -- thanks for waiting. caller: the concept of a fair wage. compared to the local economies and st not sure where you are going with that but i believe you were talking economy, inflation. james pindell, those issues and the primary?

guest: such a great point. in the economy is still an important issue, in our polling anyway, but immigration has really emerged as the single biggest sort of issue in this republican primary. we are far away from the southern border. new hampshire does border canada. we have had some issues there. but immigration is an example of how this primary, which is usually a local process, town meetings, neighbors figuring things out, there is no one issue ethanol that dominates new hampshire here. although pretty tax adverse here. one example how this primary has become nationalized. a national conversation could be dominated more so by immigration then it is by the economy. you see that reflected even in the speeches of the candidates who eventually got around to

talking about inflation or the economy, which has turned around in the last couple of years, maybe that is why it is being deemphasized. but immigration is the number one issue. host: one more call from south carolina. don is a democrat. good morning. caller: there are so many things that i could talk about right now, but right now, i feel like the whole problem we are having now, the white people are scared because they are thinking that the democrats are having too many liberals, we have too many mixed race people in this group over here on the democratic side, so they call us too liberal. but the main reason i called, the reason why these republicans are jumping ship, democrats are jumping ship from the party is because of the same reason, when

the republican turned into a party when abraham lincoln. you know what i'm saying. the democrats turn the democrat when abraham lincoln freed the slaves. they left the republican party. host: that is done in california. last minute or so, james pindell, and a graphics in the election, racial politics? final thoughts here. guest: no question race has been a defining factor throughout american history and american politics. it has defined parties. one reason why we are in a political realignment. the number one thing to decide if you are republican or democrat has been education. increasingly, the picture on race is getting more complicated also. donald trump is increasing his party among hispanics and black americans. not enough to make a humongous difference, but in the margins,

he has been. host: james pindell, political reporter with the boston globe, political trick contributor -- contributor with nbc, msnbc. always appreciate your time. guest: i look forward to it every four years. host: tonight, our coverage of the new hampshire primary results begins at 8:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span, c-span.org, and the free c-span now video app. you can see results, candidate speeches tonight. hope you join us. we will be back here tomorrow morning on "washington journal." have a great tuesday. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2024] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

>> today government officials testify on export control enforcement before a senate homeland security and governmental affairs subcommittee. you can watch the hearing live at 2:45 p.m. eastern on c-span, c-span now, our free mobile video app, or online at cspan.org. >> tonight, watch c-span's campaign 2024 live coverage of the new hampshire presidential primary unfiltered and uninterrupted. we'll bring you primary results as they come in, candidate speeches, and we'll take your calls and get your reaction on social media. watch live coverage of the new hampshire primary, tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span, c-span now, our free mobile app,