tour the state departmt's diplomatic reception rooms. we will interview and author about benjamin franklin. at 7:00 p.m. eastern we continue with the series "free to choose" coproduced by milton friedman and his wife in 1980. titled "how to cure inflation, exploring the american story." watch american history tv saturdays on c-span2. find the full schedule on your program guide,r watch anytime at c-span.org/history. ♪ >> c-span is yr unfiltered view of government. we are funded by these television companies and more, including comcast. >> you think this is just a community center? no, it is way more than that. >> comcast is partnering with 1000 committee dissenters to great wi-fi enabled lifts so

students from low income families can get the tools they need tbe ready for anything. >> comcast supports c-span as a public service along with these other television providers, giving you a front row seat to democracy. >> politics reporter from semaphore, dave weigle. welcome to the program. good to be here, thank you. host: let's start with the exit of nikki haley. is it a surprise? guest: not a surprise. ■;she did not ever explain how e could win the nomination. the final stretch of the campaign, right before south carolina to now was very -- heavy explaining why she needs to stay in. argument for winning the nomination, that is an argument for building a protest vote.

not a surprise from that perspective. she just kind of ran out of votes about ggistered republican depending on the state, a large share of independents and democrats. host: is reporting that she is not expected to endorse former president trump, and to talk about howe to reach out to her voters. guest: right. those voters arin difrethere ar- voters that make up about a fifth of the party to a quarter of the party depending on the state. vermont is a good example. she was endorsed by governor scott who does not agree with her on many issues but she did well with republicans in that state. she did not do well with

republicans in texas and oklahoma. a lot of her voters, who she referred to as the 40% after new hampshire and south wanted to slow trump down and that is a very fluid drip of people. bernie sdeon a lot of votes from people who did not want hillary clinton to be the nominee. -- the callers you are hearing from did not want a biden-trump rematch. a smaller share of voters who did believe in supporting ukraine defense, in big budget cuts and social security cuts, she had some policies that were held by a smaller and smaller share of the republican party. those voters are on the fence about whether to vote for trump again, but a lot of voters never were going to.

they wanted to stop trump by any means necessary. host: let's talk about former president trump. states that he performed well in, better, worse than expected? guest: he performed well, especially well in states where there were other primaries.sz not every state was having a presidential primary and state primaries. five did last night. in texas, in north carolina come up places like that, trump did very well. democrats had really competitive races in the houston suburbs and the dallas area. he did better-than-expected in where there were other

races states like alaska, the strength he had in places where non-republicans could vote in the primary, i wouldn't say it is surprising as much as it confirms how much of a grip he has on the electorate and how uninterested they were in hearing and electability speech from nikki haley. the supreme court saying that states can't remove him from the ballot unless congress acts and that removed a deus ex machina on the horizon. something that might prevent him fr not that hailey endorsed that. but trump isn't a great position heading into the night. was a knock you leader from something that some republicans worried about. he did better for those reasons.

close primaries, competitive primaries and a bill of good health from the supreme court. host: turning to president biden. there were some uncommitted voters. can you talk about how many states that option was on the ballot, whether it was uncommitted or■ no choice, something like that? guest: it's a good question because not every state has that option. if you are in california and want to protest vote against biden, you couldn't write something in, it wouldn't count. in minnesota, you could not vote for uncommitted. uncommitted did quite well. it definitely got more than 50% of the vote. it went very well in -- it looked like the president got 62% of the vote. the uncommitted vote was 15% --

it definitely did that in minnesota, it did fairly well in north carolina, not well enough to picking up -- to pick up delegates. that vote is complicated. it is mostly branded around people who want to send a message that he needs to change his position and end israel's war on gaza through american intervention, whatever measures he needs to take. that is a lot ofmitted vote. some of it is angst about joe biden, showing up at the primary and saying not these guys. most of it should be interpreted as a protest vote. the fact that it is that large in minnesota, not a state democrats are worried about winning but a state where there is a significant number of the population, that once the war over. you saw the governor, a major biden surrogate, all over the country supporting him, acknowledging■h some support and

there is a lot of frustration and what israel is doing. it is significant. it is going to be a huge presence at this point. i think about five delegates, six at most would show up to the nvention uncommitted out of several thousand. it is not a huge beachhead of delegates but look at the larger political situation for biden. most democrats want a cease fire whether it is temporary or a complete secession of activity -- cessation of activity. it is in the president's interest for that conflict and. who does he listen to? the other drama this week, the vice president taking a sharper stance on that. y1if there is a cease fire is nt permanent, that is too weak and israel continues pocketing the war, what happens to biden based

on what has been happening the last few weeks? more people voting uncommitted, as democrats and progressives, we want our policy to change and we want to israel. host: they can also stay home and just not vote at all. i wonder how turnout was last night and what could that bode for november? guest: i'm almost laughing because california always answers this question by taking a longer account. we don't fully know yet. it was not as good as it was in 2020. it is trending better than 2012 when barack obama had no serious opposition to his reelection. the coalition has changed. more democrats now who arecollee republicans 10 years ago, they are showing up more in primaries that has been the case. you are seeing higher republican turnout overall in large part a function of nikki haley continuing to be an active

candidate. there is more competition on the republican side. lower democrat turnout. neither have been very impressive. are all sort of twisted again by how many people are going to vote for joe biden. i met many on the road in south carolina and new hampshire, people who were going to vote for joe biden 2024. some reluctantly, some enthusiastically. they are not being counted as a democratic voter right now. that is over as of 10:00 today. host: you mentioned california. what aboutçc the congressional races? there were senate and house races going on. how did they turn out? guest: adam schiff and steve

garvey getting into the runoff race, everyone runs in the same primary, that was a disappointment for progressives. -- adam schiff ran as a progressive trump opponent but he voted for the iraq war, he is not for a cease fire in israel and gaza. ■÷another indication of where democratic votes are on this issue is that adam schiff who has the least pro cease fire position in that primary, he prevailed, he is going to be in a race with steve garvey and he is favored to win that. down the ballot, what democrats are focused on is getting strong candidates and not getting locked out of swing seats, places where joe biden won in 2020, gavin newsom won in 2022 republicans have the house seats. billy when we are still waiting

on is the central valley, a runoff with the mccartt, figure that out.re still try it is likely we will be in a race with another democrat. that was the big priority. the big priority was can we -- how little can we worry about these races? we get a senate race, a cynical opinion that i'm sharing but from the democrat perspective, can we get a senate race between a democrat and a republican who is not going to win? can we get democrats onhe ballot in the general election against every republican in a swing seat? they are most of the way there and they will find out in the later ballot count if they host: any other congressional districts you are watching closely? guest: for congressional districts, not that many. this month is when we start to see the shape of the general

election, who is winning these primaries. one thing i thought was good for republicans last night was in north carolina, they redrew the map to make it impossible for democrats to win three or four states -- three or four seats. candidates have blown the race in the first district, blown it twice, they got a different candidate this time. more than congressional races, just up and down the ballot, maga candidates are doing well. defy all trump or his allies were doing poorly. the lawyer who defended ken paxton, the attorney general in his impeachment trial, looked like he knocked off voted to imh paxton and congressional races you're seeing, the same thing. maga candidates do much better than seone whohaley aligned.

but people who had said, you might need to move on, it is still the biggest criteria on winning the republican primary, no matter where you are, from parts of new england, is how supportive are you of donald trump? democrats -- did you see the 2020 election was stolen? we are already starting to see some of thesest supportive pro-p candidates are doing better. incumbents criticized trump for doing poorly. looking at dan crenshaw in loada lower margin. steve womack in arkansas, getting attacked from the right. any race against someone who waited to endorse trump, endorse ron desantis, a mentor to deceive what happens because one trend of this year is just as donald trump reclaimed the relic

are in a far stronger position. district courts, it is everything. they are in a much better position. the trump republican party that would be comingmuch more unifies policies, his agenda, his personality than it was in 2020. host: >> see spans washington journal, a live forum involving you to discuss the latest issues in government, politics and public policy. fromashiton dc and across the country. coming up thursday morning we will discuss tomorrow's state of the union address, government funding deadlines and conflicts ine with the nebraska republican congressman, texas democratic congers meant, california democratic congers