that is a. another edition of washington journal comes your way at 7:00 tomorrow morning. we will see you then. ♪ [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]

host: for july 6 to reassure supporters about his abilities to meet the demands. in both paces the president

expressed the president said he was up to the task of running against former president trump. we start the program today what do you think about this effort by the biden campaign to reset his campaign? and do you think it's working? here's how you can let us know the numbers are on your screen. if you want to let us know if you think this reset effort by the biden campaign is working you can text us. you can post on facebook and you can also post on x. this effort to reset the campaign highlighted in the papers this morning front page of the "new york times" the story by many authors, but many

bakers of 20 want a plan b and they write this. that's the "new york times". when you two to the "washington post" this morning about this effort to reset the biden campaign and his effort, authors of the "washington post" write that:

as part of this effort, it was an interview that took place last night on abc, 22 minutes in length, many topics covered including mr. biden being asked about calls about the party within the democratic party for him to step aside. here's part of that exchange. >> if you can be convinced that you cannot defeat donald trump, will you stand down? >> only the lord almighty, i might do that. >> on a more practical level "washington post" just reported

that senator mark warner is assembling a group of senators together to try to get you to stand down because they don't think you to win. >> mark is a good win. he also tried to get the nomination, too. mark and i have a different perspective. i respect him. >> and if chuck schumer and jeffries and nancy pelosi come down and say we're worried that if you stay in the race we're going to lose the house and senate, how do you respond? >> i've spoken to all of them in detail including jim can clyburn, everyone said i should stay in the race. stay in the race. none of the people -- >> but if they do? >> they're not going to do that. >> are you sure? >> yeah, i'm sure. look, i mean, if the lord almighty says get out of the race, i'll get out of the race. these hypotheticals, george, if

-- i mean. >> but it's not that hypothetical any mor. i granted they have not requested the meeting. >> i've met with a lot of these people. i've talked with them regularly. our conversation, i had more time with jim clyburn, i spent time many hours off and on, with chuck schumer. it's not like -- i had all the governors. >> i agree that the lord almighty is not going to come down. but if you are told reliably from your allies, friends and supporters in the democratic party in the house and the senate that they're concerned you're going to lose the house and the senate, what are you going to do? >> i'm not going to answer that question. it's not going to happen. >> is the effort to reset president biden's campaign working?

the numbers are on your screen. paul in new york republican line. you're up first. go ahead. caller: good morning. i think it's time for mr. biden to step down now and to bow out of this race fully. the media has covered what's going on with this man for far too long. both sides of the fence now see what's happening and it's time for him. if he really cares about this country and loves it as much as he says he does he needs to bow out gracefully and let this go. there is no way now. host: what about this effort to reassure voters? caller: democrats say they're not voting for him. they would not vote for him now. not after that debate performance. and now people from the media are coming out and saying we saw him, he didn't know who his friends were, who this person

was. this is all ego now for joe biden. host: let's hear from erik independent line. caller: good morning. i did see the interview, i played it obyou tube a few minutes ago. i don't think it was as bad as the debate performance but it was pretty bad. there were times he went off on tang ndz and that's what he does. he starts forgetting things he just starts rambling on about other topics. there's a problem there. i don't think the interview helped him that much and i do think there's been a problem for a long time and i think the real question is, is the media and then a lot of the people around him were touting him as running

marathons before 9:00 a.m. that's the real question is why we didn't get the real story and now we're just seeing if at this time. host: bobby is in oklahoma, democrat line. caller: yes, sir. i am tired of cnn trying to push my president out. if we didn't have joe biden we wouldn't have voted for joe biden. had you drug out a dictator in donald trump or would you rather have a good man in joe biden? they want to take your social security away. you'd better wake the hell up. they're going to take your stuff away from you if you vote for mr. orange man. tell the media to shut the hell up about joe biden.

host: do you think he's up for the task? caller: because he don't talk about a shark in a battery and that's what donald trump talks about. i'm from deep red oklahoma and i tell you right now, joe biden has got more intelligence in his little finger than donald trump's got in his head if he lived to be 100 years old. and we are not going to let the media push joe biden out. host: frank in texas, republican line on the reset campaign by president biden. caller: hello, i would just like to say that several just two or three years ago a good christian black man was sitting up burjes owens, trade to

testimony you about joe biden. the democrats just have eviscerated and trade to cover up for joe biden. alicia luna, a hispanic good christian woman tried to tell the democrats about joe biden. they tried to tell them. how come he let that chinese -- host: how does this relate recent effort about reassuring voters? caller: well it's all tied in. everything that he does, he's just like i was fixing to say how come he let the chinese balloon fly all the way across america? i know i'm a christian conservative and i know you want to cut me off bau right now i'm a christian conservative. host: caller you're still on the line and still making your thought. i'm just asking you to reiterate

why you think these are related to the effort. >> caller: i keep trying to tell you. it's like the chinese balloon that he stood up on that debate. what about the afghanistan 13 soldiers that were married? what about the girl who was murdered? because he panneders to the rich chinese. he knows they're funneling drugs down here to the cartels and they bring it across the border. host: ok, frank in texas. in the "wall street journal":

again the "wall street journal"'s opinion pages asking about this recent effort by the biden campaign to reassure voters about his ability to run in november. alfred in georgia, democrat's line. caller: good morning. we appreciate the call. my opinion there on the president, i feel like he's done a good job. i don't think nobody else in the last century done as good as joe

biden has done. this idea of he's in age but the san jose -- knowledge is still there. if donald trump gets a chance to get in there he intends to put us back in the cotton field again. i don't know if it's going to happen or not but that's what he has in his mind. i feel like joe biden has done a good job and he still can do a good job. i feel like the american people, black people especially, they've got to open their eyes and let their heart go with somebody who is going to look out for them. i feel like joe biden is trying to make life for poor people. host: specifically why do you think he could still do a good job? caller: i feel he's done a good job. host: specifically why he could still do a good job?

caller: because i look at his past history. his past history was very, very good. i couldn't feel no better for a man to be up there and carry this country from the way this man got it. he had trouble when he got in there this pandemic all this stuff. so in other words i feel like the man has done a good job.

caller: my view is this is an overreaction to the speech. the man had trouble speaking his whole life and one of the main reasons that i'm supporting joe biden and i think is making headway is that the alternative is donald trump. host: you said that you thought he was making headway, what do you mean by that? caller: for me he doesn't have to make headway because i'm in with him. but the interviews shows he's

ready to face the music. and he never was a great speaker anyway. but the alternative is an abomination. host: ok, democras line, hello. caller: hello. host: go ahead. caller: good morning. i was just calling about president biden which i think he did a very good job. he might not be speaker, we know his age. and donald trump is always lying and stuff. i believe in the right and the wrong. and what they did on the supreme court is very wrong. people better wake up because

we're in trouble. and i know we've got to pray that we get the right one. host: after the debate, you can call and give your thoughts if you think it's working. the numbers are on your screen. this is from the "washington post" about virginia's democratic senator mark warner in an effort to go to the white house to ask joe biden to exit the race. another democrat of illinois joining several house democrats asking mr. biden to step aside

from this effort and here's part of representative quigley's comments from yesterday. >> i would say to folks who say everything is fine, it's not. and everything you care about is on the line and you have to be realistic and you have to be tough. so the way i say this is probably changed since that day just because i've had time to accept it and look at the polls. if i talk to the president i would say something different. i had a hard time processing getting to that point with him, who respects him so much. i would say mr. president, your legacy is set. we owe you the greatest debt of gratitude. the only thing you can do now to cement that at all times and prevent utter cat tis if i is step down. i think day one we're back in a

dog fight. all of a sudden all the things we're talking about with president biden, we've got a lot more we can talk about with trump not just that he lied 28 times during a debate and that he's an absolute monster but he has cognitive issues, something that speaker pelosi spoke of earlier this week. host: .

host: this is sheila jackson lee, democratic representative from texas. then hailey stevens. republican line in california, steve is next, go ahead. caller: i can forgive president biden for falling off a bieszcal, falling on stage, and tripping on stairs. a little bit more concerning is his incoherent mumbling,

forgetting obvious people and places. but the red light for everybody, and i repeat, everybody, should be his absolute refusal to take a cognitive test when asked by . he is well into stage 5 of the seven stages of dementia. we all have had relatives and friends that have gone through this. we all should be aware of what is going on. and the news media is continuing to cover it up. in the mercury news in the bay area, a well-known publication, when it ran an article this morning and i just got my paper

it made no mention of step nop police asking biden if he would take a cognitive test and that is the most important item of host: president biden has done to bring us out of the horrible situation from the pandemic. we are in a position in this country that we never thought we would be in, and his policies and programs, i will not forget that. i believe he can go forward. and personally i don't care if he fumbles and falls his way through it. he will take us to the next level. he's shown it in the past.

i believe he will do it in the future. host: democrat line marvin in virginia. caller: yes, i am 87 years old. i back the president, my mind is good. i back biden 100%. i will tell you who we've got to worry about, the supreme court and these decisions they are making. that's who we have to worry about. biden is fine. and i'm angry with mark warner. host: when you say biden is fine what leads you to believe that? caller: because i think he's done a wonderful job. we've got to back the president. that's what we've got to do. but we've got to watch the supreme court and these decisions they are making. they are going to hurt this

country. host: dominic is also in virginia republican line. good morning. caller: good morning, sir. i am astounded at some of the comments from the biden supporters including the congressman and senators that you've referenced and the fact that stephanopoulos asked him point blank if he has had cognitive tests and biden responded yes every day. this alone tells you the man is not mentally competent today and as former president trump and hopefully future president trump has opined, putin's not worried about him. the little man with the rocket is not worried about him. anybody that observes him and looks at what he's done over the past 50 years changed. he's gotten old, he's gotten see

niel. i am a retired engineer not a doctor so i don't know the stages of dementia but i know it when i see it. host: here's that exchange between george stefan op police and president biden specifically about this idea of him undergoing a cognitive test. >> medical doctors travel with me, every president does. some of the best travel with me everywhere i go. i have an ongoing assessment of what i'm doing and they don't hesitate to tell me. >> have you had a full neurological and cognitive evaluation? >> i get a full neurological test every day. and i've had a full physical, i had -- i mean, i've been to walter reed for my physical. yes, the answer.

>> i guess i'm asking a slightly different question. have you had the specific cognitive tests and have you had a neurologist, a specialist, do an examination? >> no one said i had to. >> would you be willing to undergo an independent medical evaluation that included neurological and cognitive test and release the results to the american people? >> i have day i have tests. everything i do. not only am i campaigning but i'm running the world. and that sounds like hyperbole but we are the central nation of the world and every single day before i come out here i'm on the phone with the prime minister of -- i know i shouldn't give you the detail but with netanyahu, with the new prime minister in england, with

nato and i'm taking on putin. every day there's no day i go through there are not those decisions i have to make every single day. >> and you have been doing that and the american people are watching yet they're concerned about your age and your health. that's why i'm asking. to reassure them would you be willing to have a medical evaluation? >> there's a lot of time left in this campaign over 125 days. >> so the answer is you don't want to do that. >> i've already done that. host: again that was a portion of the interview yesterday, in efforts by the biden campaign to reassure some democrats, asking about if the reset campaign is working. the numbers are on your screen. you can text, too.

politico publishing after the interview and some of the reaction they learned from democratic operativeses saying many were shocked about his blatant denial and the dismissal of a widespread concerning. there's the piece if you want to find it on line. sandy in indiana, democrat's

line. caller: hello. how are you today? host: fine, thank you. go ahead. caller: i'm the same age as trump, 78, but he's nuttier than a fruit cake. my thing is that i feel that i don't care who's president. i mean i to care, i want biden to win. but either one of those men can drop dead tomorrow. i know, i'm his age. and we've got to look at the vice president who, are they going to walk in? we know kamala harris, yes. we don't know who trump's vp's going to be.

and he's -- and the only way he could have picked somebody is if he's doing to lick his boots and we don't need that. we've already seen the mess he put us in. biden has got us out of it. we've got the best economy in the world. our stock market is going up. we've got jobs and employment. and trying to fix the immigration problem when the right won't even talk to you about it. that's how i feel host: ok. lupe in california, independent lane. caller: i want to give a cognitive test for everybody, so everybody just be patient and this has to do a lot with your

interer parties. now, do you believe in man or what god does? remember what happened to moses. aaron spoke for moses because moses stuters and he was 950 when he died. so as far as i'm concerned it's good against evil right now. and we don't fight against flesh and blood but against darkness and principality. host: so all that this effort by the president what do you think of that? caller: he's got control and he knows exactly what's going to happen. so i don't fear what's going to happen. i trust in god. so everybody just be patient. this is just the beginning of the ugliness. host: ok, melvin in pennsylvania, republican line. you're next up, hello. caller: thank you and good morning.

i just wanted to say that i watched the interview with mr. stefan op police and president biden absolutely refused to answer the question that was asked. that's called subterfuge. all he did was point to past accomplishments that he thought he could use to diffuse the situation. believe me, he did not answer the question. . host: which question? caller: whenever he was interviewed about documents found in his possession, the same as was found in trump's possession, what did the prosecutor say? he's a friendly old man who

obviously has something wrong with him. and the democrats hated that. believe me, this man refuses to answer the question. pointing to past accomplishments that doesn't do anything. i was alive and quite cognizant whenever trump was president. things were well. things were going good. jobs were good. everything was good. the economy was good. the price of goods was reasonable. not any more. the price of groceries are absolutely out of this world. i believe it's time for a change and that change is trump. thank you. host: blake in georgia, democrat's line. good morning. caller: how are you this morning? i hope you're well sir. host: thank you. caller: i am a lifelong democrat and let me say this for all those who are concerned that

we're not showing enough respect to president biden. i love him on what he's done for the country but the question is not about what he's capable of doing right now. it's about the next four years. and i've seen nothing that gives me confidence that he can lead this country the next four years. so pedro what i'm willing to do since the president put so much emphasis on jeffries and congressman clyburn, having spoken with him and chuck schumer, i think that it's imperative that they go and meet with him. but as a georgia resident i'm reaching out to the senators offices and imploring them to ask the senators to have him hum mri step aside. i will not and cannot vote for

president biden in the coming election. host: the house majority leader set to hold a meeting on sunday with the topic along the lines of at least hearing about president biden as he approaches another electoral campaign. senator mark warner we showed you that story talking to other democratic senators about possibly approaching president biden about concerns. again, that rolls into the larger topic of this reset campaign by the biden team. the interview yesterday, other things planned. if you think it's working. that's what we want to hear from you. call the phones lines. you can also post on our social media cites. dana from new jersey.

host: bob, independent caller. caller: thanks for taking my call. i'll try to get back to the original question of whether it moved the campaign at all. most of the callers have just basically supported one candidate or the other. but i think it's too early to tell but i don't think it's moved much because most of the callers have either supported

president biden or they supported trump. and it doesn't seem like it has moved the campaign one way or another much at all except for maybe some of the independents, people that were going to vote for joe biden seems like they're still going to vote for joe biden and people who say they were going to vote for donald trump are still going to vote for donald trump. and i think it moved it slightly, you know, to maybe donald trump and maybe in some of the swing states. other than that, but i think it's still a little too early to tell whether it's really going to reset it a lot for joe biden, you know, here in the campaign and there's still some months to go. but whether it's working or not i don't know. host: you said some months left in the campaign and you said that it's too early to tell.

what do you think about the risk of perhaps the biden campaign continuing on as it is? caller: i just, i think they're just going to continue on. i don't think they have any other recourse but to do that. i think there would just be too much turmoil in the democratic party if they didn't and i think his advisers are just telling him to do that. and that's what they're going to do, they're just going to dig in. i think it's just too late in the campaign and too close to the democratic convention to try and do anything else at this point. host: nominating convention in mid august for the democratic party. the republicans nominating convention is in two weeks. the caller had mentioned battleground states and how the current news might affect those states as well. that's the subject of the "wall street journal" taking a look at that battleground map, showing that former president trump

leads growing saying minnesota, new hampshire, virginia, are among those being closely watched. we'll hear next from loi in iowa on our republican line. caller: this is a very serious matter. this cuts across party lines. we need a commander in chief that can lead and this whispering and the breathy voice he had the other day this that debate. that's not going to cut it.

rfk is going to be the same way. i think thinking john dan forth. but for the democrats it's going to have to be someone like dick durbin, who takes over. host: why not the current vice president? the caller's going. natalie in pennsylvania. caller: i'm astounded how the media is hounding biden and all concerned about his mumbling and talking. what about trump? he's a monster. lying, not one fact check on all his lies. biden is on a roll. our country is doing very well and i think most importantly the war in ukraine, russia -- putin is all for trump. we know our national security intelligence has a report that

they interfered for trump, they are currently interfering for trump. they don't want biden because they're afraid of biden. biden is sticking up to putin and our economy is going well. why not focus on everything that he has done and his plans for the future. we're on a role. let's stick with biden. host: do you think he's capable of doing that in his current condition? caller: he's most capable. he beat trump four years ago in spite of all the interference in the election and people listen to trump and they don't know he's lying. they just see a marvelous entertainer. i think he's funny, he's such a strong man. he's sucking up to every dictator. he is not for america. he's for himself, he's for his

-- he's doing to model the united states after putin's russia. host: al in texas. independent line. caller: i'm calling on the independent line. i wish we could call it an american line. trump, you republicans that's backing trump, you should be happy we've got biden. but no, you're beating trump up like all the media beating biden up. the reason that pieden is going to win because every poll has been wrong ever since this thing started the last 20 years. ain't no way in the world anybody with any decency about themselves would get inside of the poll booth and pull something for trump. >> we go too much farther, you're calling on the independent line. is that truly the case?

caller: i'm an independent but i'm more of an american. anybody that watched this man way before he came into power the donald trump guy he always had a bad history. name one decent man that hung around this man. everybody that was in his administration is voting against him. people wake up. this man is a crook and a scam artist host: darrell in georgia, democrat's line. caller: hey pedro. we've got to stick with joe biden. i mean, a person like myself that depends on social security, i don't want to lose that. and these women's rights, they're losing -- i mean they're losing by the day. and i don't like that as well. you know, whenever you get a chance, i know you do a real good job, this project 2025 scares the be-jesus out of me. it's going to be a lot going on. they already said what they're

going to do from day one to day 180, they're going to keep it going for the first six months of the year if they get back in there and you get a chance, get that president from project 2025 on so he can explain to the american people what all they plan to do to all of us if they get back in there. it's going to be bad. host: you said that you were confident in president biden. does that confidence extend to running another campaign and to another four years in the white house? caller: we it does. we look at a person like joe biden. people want to criticize people based on things they got going on. he stutders a lot. things like that. and i noticed that around, regular normal everyday people. when you've got any sort of slight disability, folks want to

knock you down. it's like in school, when in school a guy like trump. trump wants to be a like a buly in the classroom, everybody laughing at him, joking at him. but you've got this kid over with a slight disability everybody making fun of him. but he's smart as ever. the kid making all the jokes acting crazy he's dumb as a box of rocks. host: darrell there in georgia talking about this effort by the biden campaign to reset itself after that debate performance. you can call in on the lines to give your thoughts. the numbers are on your screen. the headline from yesterday

former president trump denying that. saying that he distanced himself from the project 2025. if you're interested in that interview go to our website and other interviews.

independent line. tim in wisconsin, good morning. caller: good morning. i just think, projection and delusion. i'm an independent and i voted for democrats and republicans. but pre-pandemic with this economy and everything in this count we was going about as good as it's ever gone and now i hear these people say what a great job joe biden is doing. and food, wood products, bills, border, education, crime. everything is about as bad as it's ever gotten and these people get on here joe biden's doing a great job. i mean, and i wouldn't be surprise if he won he probably will because there's so many people that are delusional like that and just want to deny what

reality is. so i'm probably going to vote for trump but i wouldn't be surprised if biden won because he's got all these people obviously taking some type of really strong medication that's making them completely delusional. host: that's tim in wisconsin. some other reaction from republicans on the feeds. congressman greg murphy medical doctor saying mainstream media would support a dead horse if they thought it could beat trump. that's all they care about. from the house g.o.p. overall, a snapshot from last night's interview. just one word, unfit, is how they characterized it. the overall effort by the biden campaign, this is from david in little neck, new york, republican line.

go ahead. caller: good morning, pedro. how are you, sir? host: i'm fine, thank you. go ahead. caller: i went to see president trump in the bronx a couple weeks ago. an amazing turnout. if i tell you that half the people that wanted to go see him could not get in. that man stood up there in the heat and spoke for an hour-and-a-half to a crowd of local latinos, blacks, new yorkers, has siddic jews. everybody was out there, a tremendous representation of new york. there was no racism, there was no hatred, it was people who knew that they had a future that they wanted to see come to fruition. and mr. trump talked about policy, he told funny stories, he told about his golf course in the bronx that they wanted to

shut down. this guy has touched people on many different levels. joe biden voted against the civil rights act. to all my brothers and sisters out there, did you know that? is this man is sick, he's not healthy. are we stupid? we need smart people running this country, not sick old men. and the democratic party holding on to power and gaslighting us into believing that what we see with our own eyes isn't true. pedro, i could say a lot more things but it is impossible for me to fathom that intelligent people in the media are saying they'll take joe biden in a coma over donald trump. have a great day, sir. host: north carolina, democratic's line. caller: talking about biden. what about trump and all his problems? has he had a cognitive test?

is, has he got everybody strong to tell is something wrong with the american people when they allow them to oversee the people marching on washington and the vice president but you allow this man to get away with murder and get away with all of this thing they knew about, and everybody turned their heads. what's wrong with the american people? they're trying to shield donald trump. we love right, not wrong. it's time for us to stand up and

be american people, not being, turn our heads because somebody paid us off. host: ok, annet, north carolina. cnn posting a story saying president biden was examined by his physician in the days before. despite the press secretary has said wednesday, the president has had no exams since february. that was the white house spokesman on wednesday.

this is from greg in michigan. caller: thank you for taking my call. there is no issue. biden hasn't done anything or made any announcements that indicate any kind of diminished capacity. for instance, the entire world was faced with high inflation because of the pandemic. and the u.s. rate of inflation is lower than any other industrialized nation in the world. likewise, there is a supply chain issue because of the pandemic and biden was able to resolve that within about four or five weeks. he hasn't made any kind of announcements or any decisions

that ensure diminished xazty. he hasn't talked about airports during the revolutionary war or made comments about sharks or denied knowing anything about this project 2025. the main issue is that people can either vote for biden or they can vote for trump, which elects trump, or they can stay home which elects trump, or they can vote third party which elects trump. so in order to stop a dictatorship it would be ruled by somebody who clearly shows diminished capacity. the only option is to stay the course. and that's it. thanks for your time. host: michelle in alabama, republican line. caller: hey, pedro. good morning, you're my favorite. but i wanted to say as a

republican i hope we do have to go against biden. but as a human being i feel sorry for the man. he has diminished capacity, talks about his uncle getting eaten by can bells. starting the civil rights movement. he's not right. and we can't have somebody leading this country that is not right. host: go ahead and finish your thought. >> by the way the vice president heading to new orleans today. she will attend the 024 essence culture. she will be interviewed. coverage of that has been slated around 6:15 this evening. if you want to see the interview and the vice president's appearance there. c-span.org you can go or follow

along also on our app our mobile app that's free that's c-span now. if you want to follow along. we will hear from kathy is in massachusetts, democrat's line. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i believe the choice is less about biden versus trump. the supreme court just told effectively president trump that he is above the law. in terms of project 2025, trump said he knew nothing about it but then like, which one is is it? in terms of project 2025, they want to do away with the civil rights act, fair housing act, they want to nationalize abortion, and take away from security. to me, i would like, i would be voting democrat. unfortunately at this point i think it's too late to put in another candidate.

host: well, let's start with that. how much confidence do you have in mr. biden personally to lead another four years? caller: i don't think it's about biden. i think he has a team. the president is not one person unlike donald trump thinks host: but he's the one at the center of all this. so as far as your confidence level? caller: he's got a team. and to the other person, another caller who said we can't call on president biden and what he's done and then proceeded to call out what donald trump did in the administration. so we can't have it both ways there, too. i think democracy is on the line and unfortunately i think if we look at kamala harris, i think the administration has a problem with racism and will not appreciate a plaque woman second in line. and they tried to push cam la out there will be an uproar on

that. host: we elected a black president for two terms. caller: i get it. but i'm not the one who put the person in position it's the country. and after a black president we got donald trump as feedback on that. host: joe in north carolina, independent line. caller: there's one way to go ahead, settle all this. if the elevator goes all the way to the top give him an smri, that will do it. three dimensional scan of his head. now you even said when he was first running about his two aneurysms on the left side but nobody really talked that way and keeped on pushing it. my mother died from parkinson's and i know a lot of people who have dementia. look back in history.

i'm not saying biden is a nazi but look at hitler. he was getting shots so he could move around because he had parkinson's, a brain disease. you need to check him. you can tell the way he walks he takes a couple steps and then he goes ahead and bounces around to catch his balance. they have to lead him. they have eyes on him constantly. so he needs to get that mri. host: one more call and this will be from ruth in indiana, independent line. go ahead. caller: the message that i heard on july 4 to our nation, he was in a golf cart, kamala harris, likely for the same for biden. this man is vulgar. even if there's a problem with biden, you know, the last two year's he's done pretty darned good for this country. host: do you think there is a

problem with president biden? caller: i'm not sure that there is. and i think that surely the man is honest enough if he thought he couldn't do it for the good of the country he would give up. people talk about how good it was with trump. it was good when he came in because obama and biden has inherited a terrible recession from bush. so things were in shape when trump took over. but when covid hit the man was incompetent. his record speaks for himself. he's been morally bankrupt all his life. so the. the alternative is, if we don't have anybody else, i will vote for bite, even though i have voted republican most of my life. people have to look into who they are voting for. congress, bunch of crazies that have been put in because people don't look into what their

background is. host: i have to leave it there. thank you to all of you who have participated in the last hour. we will continue talking about not only president biden's current campaign but issues with our next conversation with dave weigle. next, our spotlight on substack segment we will talk with sharon mcmahon, the author of "the preamble" substack teaching the american public about government and politics and related issues. those conversations coming up on "the washington journal." ♪ announcer: c-span now is a free mobile app featuring your unfiltered view of what is happening in washington, live

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announcer: this year, c-span celebrates 45 years of covering congress like no other. since 1979, we have been your primary source for capitol hill providing balanced, unfiltered views of government taking you where the policy is debated and decided with the support of america's cable company. c-span, 45 years and counting powered by cable. announcer: "washington journal" continues. host: dave weigle joining us from semafor, their national political reporter, here to talk about news of the day. a little about semafor for those not familiar. guest: the concept is breaking down the news into hard news and analysis in a way that i think it disrupts some of the things people were getting tired of in newspapers. we try to do something new for our global audience. it has been going well.

we've obviously had a lot to cover in the last week. we have a big focus on america, focus on africa, focus on tech and business. i have been covering politics my whole career. host: in politics, we were talking about the efforts to reset the pipette campaign. guest: how it is going depends on who you're talking to minute to minute. after the debate in wisconsin with bernie sanders and the reaction from democrats was comparable to after the 2016 election. total dread. not fear about what trump would do immediately but worry that the election was locked up if biden is the nominee. could he recover, be replaced? that has been a conversation at the grassroots level and with congressional democrats. three democrats went on the record defending the president after his interview with abc news last night. chris coons, federman, garcia close to biden or the campaign.

the rest isn't home of reflecting with the grassroots is saying. -- in turmult, reflecting with the grassroots are saying. host: what is it about the president possibly changing his mind on if you should run again. guest: before the interview, george stephanopoulos, the theory was that if the energy was bad enough and it was clear to biden that he couldn't keep going what he then. but the only power is joe biden, no precedent for the party to say we can't handle that. his family supports his decision to keep running. multiple levels come you mentioned mark warner, everyone, the house is coming back on monday where they will be asked about this. whether they're looking at their own data, their own races, who can convince him? probably just his family.

the totality of voices in the party, if they go on the record, can probably move in that direction, but there is no precedent. there is no president who had this locked up after the primary and then filed under health reasons that he can't keep running. host: what is the sense after last night that minds were changed or reassured about mr. biden's condition? guest: it could have been worse, only a few democrats went on the record saying that this is terrific, ready to win the election. most of the party -- this is probably frustrating as a reader. it is frustrating as a reporter. democrats with a few identifying characteristics giving reports to reporters they are worried about the election. that is still where they are. there was a faction of democrats not hoping that the interview went poorly, but hoping that the interview's reception was so negative that biden was moved in the direction of getting out of the race. that didn't happen. there was more frustration from those democrats overnight.

it looks like he is going to have a press conference next week. what comes out of that press conference? it really is just between the democrats and members of the media who are inclined to be liberal who want trump to lose losing all of their persuasion powers, all of their publication powers to say, in whatever terms they can, he needs to go. they are less convincing to joe biden and then possible members of his own party indefinitely members of his family. joe biden was told in 2020 that he couldn't win the election, and that came out in the interview. mark warner, you mentioned that warner is meeting with democrats to say what should we ask for? biden resented that. in 2020 he decided never to run for president, but that is reflective of how biden thinks. he won and they didn't, so who is to say he can't do this now?

host: if you want to ask questions, (202) 748-8000 free democrats. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. independents, (202) 748-8002. if you want to text your questions, you can do that at (202) 748-8003. on the website, you have a q&a, replacing biden, how would it work? the first question, can democrats replace biden before the convention? guest: they can. if biden says i don't want the nomination. yes, the delegates would be unbound and could vote for someone else. there are other ideas in the party that we will get to and the questions about how to compete for this nomination in a short time, the convention starts in a month and week, but on papers delegates a we are voting for this ticket and it's done. a vote for the president and vice president, a vote to approve the platform come that can be done before the convention. the primaries are not not

binding, but according to the party's rule is the delegates who decide. if the person who won the primary decides they are not running they get to choose who to pick. host: you asked, could the democrats running different nominee than the current vice president kamala harris? guest: there is a slight question if they can use all of the resources of the by then-harris campaign. they have reserved advertising that say i am joe biden and i approve this message through the rest of the year. generally the fec defaults to the party -- we are talking about the first president who might not accept the nomination. this happens in house and down ballot races sometimes, but people can swap out in the party. it's a complication. it is easier if it is vice president harris because she is on the fec documents and has been part of the campaign. it would transition and it would

proceed in much of the way that the biden-harris and dnc have been proceeding now with the new nominee. more complicated with a different candidate, but those are less about finances and more about how do you skip over somebody who is the first female vice president who joe biden vouched for end said is ready for this job? how do you kick her to the side because someone polls better? host: would republicans sue if the democrats changed out biden? guest: after the debate i was asking numbers of the trump campaign, and they clearly think that their best scenario is a weakened joe biden would lose the election to them. they are less certain about a harris-led ticket. they say that it's too late to change nominees. the heritage foundation put out a memo before the debate saying there would be legal problems if they try to change the nominee. state-by-state, the heritage

foundation cited wisconsin and wisconsin's language is it is harder to replace the candidate on the ballot. if you look at wisconsin state law, it says that the nominee chosen at the convention is the nominee of the party. it gets complicated after the convention. before the convention of democrats have a nominee there might be talk of lawsuits but democrats see this as a head fake by the trump campaign and by heritage, etc. to add publication. they aren't taking that seriously and they have the same election attorney who looked at. the log switching out candidates eight years ago people wanted, like mike lee from utah, who wanted ted cruz to be the nominee and not donald trump at the convention despite trump being the presumptive nominee. they didn't think he was going to get kicked off of a bunch of ballots. they know how this works. host: dave weigle of semafor. james, good morning. caller: have to ask him a question. what do you think about the democrats?

the republicans can stick with the donald trump with all of the baggage use bringing and will not get off him. on the democratic side, joe biden makes one mistake at of all the good he's done for the country and they jump on like black folks do. i am african-american. they don't stick together. white folks stick together. that is the bad part, republicans will stick with trump with all the baggage he got, and democrats are like our people, my people. he done a good job and nobody can say nothing different. trump reads the teleprompter, too. just to keep from getting off course. but when he is not using the teleprompter he is lying.he will tell the same lie over and over and got enough dumb people to believe him. they save you tell the lie long enough people will believe you. he it will cause a lot of problems. host: ok, james.

guest: james asked a good question. on paper, let's say that you're blankly describing two candidates to someone. in theory, one has been convicted of a lot of crimes and one is old. they would say, why is the one convicted of crimes not receiving problems in the party? which republicans are reacting to donald trump's problems with anything other than saying that his enemies, the deep state, the politicized justice department is out to get him? their assessment is when donald trump is accused of crimes or convicted of crimes, that this is a ruse out to convince voters of something that's not true. that is not with the court set or the jury said, that is the argument and it is robust. democrats don't have a robust argument about biden's age. this is a lot of the publication that's been coming up recently. two years ago, if you're for to

the democrats in 2020 or on the trail in 20 22, yes he was old and different from the biden in 2008, but he would mangle some words occasionally but was on top of his game. he as, according to every democrat around him, not an older and lost a few more steps in the last six months. it is unique. there have been candidates convicted of crimes before who continue to run. when a candidate is in this position and a close election -- i covered a race in mississippi in 2014 where the incumbent senator was clearly adult and not able to do the job anymore and ended up dying in office, but it was the republican party. they're worried that a candidate looks and sounds so old he cannot win, they are panicking more than republicans because the argument is not, don't pay attention to him flooding his words or misstating what he meant to say, or looking to old on camera, or all of these things go over the litany of

them, they don't have a way to say voters who say he is too old is wrong. 80% of voters, 70% to 80%, increased after the debate, say he is too old to be president. 55% of voters don't like donald trump's criminal convictions and a chunk say that they will get over it because the alternative is a man who they worry is too old. host: the characterization of president biden is that he made one mistake for all the good he's done. guest: i have heard that from including vice president harris. he had one bad night. 90 minutes doesn't overwhelm 3.5 years. it is not one mistake in the view of democrats worried about this and the view of voters telling pollsters this. before the debate most voters were saying that they worried about his age. he is too old to run for another term. that increased in 2020 with people saying that biden and trump were too old or too mentally unaware for serving four years. it is much higher for biden now.

before the debate there was a discussion of things that were probably less fair to joe biden. him walking away from g7 leaders and having to be pulled back by the prime minister of italy. she said that that wasn't a big problem. every video of by then was hyper analyzed for have messing things up. speeches, if he transposed words, they were hyper analyzed. if you talk to voters, things that he didn't even say, just a way that the president looks. if you look at a news article about this that captures a lot of the thinking from democrat to see him at fundraisers or smaller events, this has been a topic of whispers for quite a while. in washington after 2022, the christmas receptions, thinking, he looks a lot older. he wasn't able to stay for the entire reception. he forgot this person's name. things of that nature. it's a litany that has built up over time and the debate exploded that. the premise of the debate in the reason that the biden

campaign pitched an early one, it was their idea, is biden is a student in that showcase with everyone watching, that will solve the problem. the opposite happened. that is why we are here. host: hello. caller: good morning. host: you are on with our guest. go ahead. caller: david weigle, my question is, how do you question the reason why the biden administration allowed so many illegal aliens, about 10 millions of them, to cross our borders? they are using all our people, they offer them a social aid and have a drivers license you can

register. all these people put biden as a god because biden allows them to come in here. you know, in 2020 we lost because they used covid-19 as a scheme. they used the fear to urge you not to go out to vote. the election by mail ballots and early voting. that is why biden is so confident he can get reelected. he is not running the country. he is not going to be able to run the country, but he has a machine behind him. host: mr. weigle? guest: his point about immigration, think about the debate as one bad moment or 90 minutes, this is part of the debate that democrats were annoyed by. the administration last month

changed its policy on asylum-seekers. who is coming into the country? it is generally people coming to the border, claiming asylum because of harm in the country they are flinging f -- fleeing, and getting on a list where they will have to go to an immigration court in one to three years. there is a record of them aside from the people we don't know about. when they are apprehended the government knows those people. they are processed. the biden answer is supposed to be i changed the policy and the numbers are coming down. his answer on how they affect the welfare system is supposed to be, if someone is here and is working for two years as a doordash driver or something, they are paying into our system but they are not getting social security or medicare. he mangled his answer so much that trump was able to say, incorrectly, that those asylum-seekers, illegal immigrants, are getting benefits, draining medicare.

that is not what is happening. what the caller was referring to, again, if you're waiting for your trial as an asylum seeker, we have seen evidence over the years that there are people who don't know the rules. maybe they are on parole, maybe they are undocumented immigrants but are in the process, there are people who vote illegally and are caught in small numbers. what he was referring to is an idea that biden is importing a lot of people who will cast fraudulent balance. we have a legal system. there are a lot of things you can say in a campaign at that when you adjudicate them don't hold up. there are not millions of voters who will risk being deported by casting a ballot or joe biden. especially when they have been moved around the country, the law is watching them, or they are trying to stay out of public attention. why would they go into a voting booth? where would they get that ballot to fill out?

there is a concern how we keep the election system intact and integral mixed with the idea of the migrants. the problem with the biden campaign as they have an answer for migrants but the president isn't able to verbally deliver it. host: georgia, democrats line, for david weigle. caller: good morning. i would like to say to the president, stay the course. don't let the people think that he has been up there longer than anybody else, he knows what's going on, he knows what we need, then we move it out and turn it over to someone -- what is going to happen to us? i'm sorry. i just hope the president stays the course and doesn't listen to all this rhetoric. these people, i don't know if he is republican or not, saying he needs to drop out.

they don't know what to do now. he will guide them. thank you. guest: i referred to polls. it is not that 90% of democrats want biden to drop out of the ticket. among all democratic voters it is more divided. it is asking for something unprecedented, and something that would be humiliating to the president that almost every democrat voted for. the sentiment that you heard i have heard a lot. but usually 100% of the base is ready for the nominee to take the torch at the convention, not 50%. depending on the polls that you've looked at, it is around 50% democrats who want to stay the course. the problem has been, what happens after this? if biden stays the course after a number of democrats going on the record, reporters going into their notebooks to talk about

how unwieldy biden looks at various events they went to, how does he recover from that storyline? another unknown. biden dealt with these questions in 2020. a premise of the trump campaign lawyer that biden was too old in 2020 and he would be feeble. he was doing virtual events and not going out in public. biden defeated that narrative by showing up and doing events in person and not looking as bad as they said he would. hillary clinton got ill with pneumonia during the campaign and they said the same thing. hillary clinton is too feeble and she counteracted that by having good debates. she did not win the election but that was not top of mind for voters because she looked strong on stage against donald trump. what happens if there is a bad debate, if he mangles his words, in this media context where maybe two weeks ago it was fox news and rumble and tiktok accounts that were hyper focusing on biden slipping on a

word or two and it is now the entire press corps doing this? if you are a republican it is edifying because you are saying, look how biden is acting. the republican from texas is saying that he should be drug tested. from texas, a couple of other representatives want the 25th amendment to be invoked and say kamala should take. they are being echoed by a lot of people in the democratic party and the press. it is not that all democrats want biden to leave the ticket but they are in a media environment where people say he should. how do you unwind that? we thought he was unable to do the job and we will wield this back? the media environment people are trying to make it possible for biden to continue our things like if he does continue -- that is a good question, we don't know the answer.

host: the financial times and others have a headline similar to the fact that when it comes to the nominating convention in august, could there be an open convention? off of x, if mr. biden were to sit down and is not vp harris, what happens to the biden warchest? guest: the second question first. if it is harris it is the warchest. the d&c controls the funds of the presumptive nominee so that they can give the funds to the new campaign and it would have to be reconstituted. that is a matter of paperwork and someone walking over to the fec. it could probably done in a short time. there are so many unprecedented events rolling out at the same time that it would be a one-day story. that is achievable. for the open broker convention, that means how conventions were before the age of primaries. 100 years ago, state delegation controls controlled their delegates, powerful governors

controlled their delegations, people showed up at the convention and try to get people lined up. we have this block of delegates for north dakota, for california, the delegation from new york. at any open convention delegates wouldn't be bound to primary votes. when democrats would try to make happen is a content is going into chicago that this is probably our nominee. reporters can talk, ask where their heads are at. campaigns by the media to see where these people will go. that would be the story. it would be a dynamic ongoing story of where the delegates would go. maybe the story would end, -- the ap is very good at counting delegates and they have a big team of people across the country. maybe they hit a point where it is clear that x has the nomination, harris has the nomination, who is the vp nominee? you can go back in the archives

and look at 1928. it would be like that. no one is bound to the primaries. that would be automatic, that everyone comes in bound to those votes beforehand. that is what an open convention would be like. like the person is suggesting, if it is not necessarily harris, it might be what happened in the past. people competing for the nomination giving speeches. these are rules that the party has not used in decades that they would have to dust off. talking to democrats, they are more interested in figuring this out in advance so people come to the convention knowing who they will vote for. the problem is, because this is a noncompetitive primary, there are a few delegates for phillips, 37 uncommitted, a few for jason palmer in one territory, and the rest are biden delegates. they are democratic party regulars.

activists inside the party, civil rights leaders who wanted to be delegates, people who were very happy with the biden-harris administration. they are not people who are going to be very interested in the large part in making the party look bad. they would want to solve this quickly. host: julian in connecticut, republican line. caller: good morning, pedro. good morning, david. i want to make a few comments. i think it is really sad that this man -- i think he is being forced to stay in this race. they don't want him out. number two, i keep hearing these people who say that trump found a great economy in the country was doing great because of obama. if the country was doing so great why did they elect him? that is two. you said the reason why the immigrants are coming here is because of the war. no, they want voters to make

sure that they vote democrat for the rest of their lives. that's three. now, everyone says trump is a liar, he is a liar, he is a liar. if you fact check biden you will realize who the real liar is. even last night in the show with q&a -- with stephanopoulos he'ss prudent. putin has overrun ukraine. i can go on for an hour with that. host: thanks. guest: he refers to biden's truth telling or lack thereof. this is something the democrats worry about. if you're a democrat running for congress or the state senate in california, you have the party's record and a line if something comes up. you will give an answer. what about inflation? it rose in its starting to fall, need to lower interest rates or something.

he does exaggerate things, he always has. famously. in his first presidential campaign, not just the plagiarism incident but exaggerating how well he did in law school and things like that. he misstates some of the policies, the way things happened. what is happening around the world? an incident recently he was in europe after the invasion by russia and added to his speech this man cannot be led to remain in power, putin. that's a change in policy. he has gotten over his, saying things the administration cannot backup. what the president meant to say was this. when it comes to honesty, who won the 2020 election? there are things that have been proven a million times that will -- trump will mislead people about.

the democrats had this in 2020 but most of the public thought trump was dishonest and biden was generally honest. that is more of a problem now where biden will slip and say things that are incorrect. he's referring to something that has become more of a problem because of the way biden will jumble or slide over the facts. host: one thing we heard on this program on other fronts is the term project 2025. former president trump disavowed himself on the project. guest: the heritage foundation for most of its existence before an election if the democrat is in power and a republican has a chance to win they come up with the mandate for leadership. here is our guidebook. if you take the presidency, here the ways to use the executive office, the cabinet agencies, etc., to enact your agenda. here are the roadblocks you will face.

somebody will file a lawsuit or not do this. here's how you do it. it's 800 pages on their website. what they added in the beginning of 2023 led by people from the trump administration who works for trump, who came out and said what we learned is that you need this team and place it medially or you will be stymied by the deep state, by attorneys, the aclu, etc. we need to build a network of people who can fill the jobs. if you want to work for the administration, submit your resume, get to know a. -- us. when there is a transition team in november, the trump campaign will have them automatically. we don't have to take the resume from a pile. here is somebody who is vetted and conservative and pro-maga. they can work for chief of staff, etc. that is project 2025.

what the trump campaign has been doing for a while has been distancing themselves in policy thing might be unpopular. in extreme ways. c-span usually covers the platform committee. it will not this year because the rnc will not let the media cover the campaign. it was a streamlined platform. it doesn't want things that might be unpopular. i'm paraphrasing but not the streamlined part. project 125 goes into detail about ways people in the federal government could rollback health care access, ban abortion medication. i will focus on that one. trump's position from the debate was when asked if he would want his fda to ban abortion medication through the mail he said no. he doesn't want to do that. in project 2025 guidelines for what hhs could do, he could

appoint somebody in a key role who says we used to have approval of this pill. we will not anymore. this is something mike pence wanted to do and criticized trump for not favoring it. that is one thing they are distancing themselves from. here is a guidebook that says we are for this and not for this. they are asking a lot of people. the trump outfit was not distancing themselves from the idea of training yourself to be a maga government employee. there are ads on youtube from the trump super pac informing people of what project 2025 is and how to sign up. it is very convenient. that's important to emphasize. every campaign there will be somebody who will try to support this idea from this crazy group or far right idea from this group. is always attempts to distance themselves. this is a bit of extreme thing.

we have nothing to do with this heritage foundation project when it's clear that a lot of these people would be in the administration. that's very important. the leaders of the project 2025 operation, from staffing to what executive order that trump would do, they worked in the trump administration. there basis as having worked for trump. they want the next administration to get out the ground and be on the ball. there was an effort to ban dei diversity training in the government. biden gets rid of it and medially. tremaine in mexico. -- remain in mexico. trump didn't say they wouldn't do that stuff. they just don't what to be associated with the least popular elements of it. host: we will hear from shirley in ohio on the democrats line. caller: good morning. thank you, david. you are really explaining things

this morning. i really appreciate it. you don't sound biased. you don't sound political. you sound what my dad called common sense man. i appreciate it. the things i need to ask. do you remember any of trump's missteps when he did not even recognize his wife was standing beside him at mar-a-lago, or when he announced her name he called her melanie? these people are out to just embarrass joe biden. i'm behind him 100%. he could be laying there with an iv in his arm and i would still vote for this man. i would take honesty, integrity, character over anything else that donald trump has to offer. he shut the gentleman at the g7 and nobody brings that up. everybody in lockstep behind him. when he was in the white house they kept quiet about everything he was doing until they could write a book.

my question to you is do you believe that the way things are that there would ever be a woman put in the white house? i don't care what color she is. do you ever believe that there is a woman that will be put in the white house? i will hang up and listen for your answer. host: thank you. guest: yes to her question. yes, there has been bad luck to put it mildly for fema presidential candidates in the last few cycles. if you ask any republican had things gone different and nikki haley had been the republican nominee which should be on the path to win, she would have. kamala harris is ahead in the polls. everyone agrees gretchen whitmer is in the mix. white has it taken america so long is a good question but

there are fema candidates in a good position to -- female candidates in a good position to win the presidency. this was the focus of the biden campaign and 2020. -- in 2020. they were told biden was too old, etc. they would highlight moments were trump was walking slowly down a podium or he messed up somebody's name. biden likes to talk about him talking about bleach as a treatment for covid. the thing both parties traded blows on was your candidate is incompetent, incoherent. democrats did that the trump last time. it is hard to explain this. you are in the media. people think there's a meeting where you on this stuff. no. there is a small group of news, a narrative of news that gets momentum and that is what is

happening now. the only questions democrats are fielding or about biden's confidence. they have -- competence. they have tried to talk about when trump is less competent. in 90 minutes in that setting trump was misleading about a bunch of things and was hyper focused on a couple of odd things but it looked like he knew it was talking about and he did not make obvious miscues or double back or look tired as biden did sometimes. same thing happened in 2020. had biden given that performance on the debate stage where they were sniping and trump mostly interrupting and biden giving it back to him, it would have been different. i see the frustration. why is the media focus on performance? beyond the idea is the president is a powerful person that people around the world look to. imagine how they will interact

with them. this is a concern for a voter who is maybe not that ideological. doesn't need to know about what will happen to abortion medication. they imagine if we are in trouble, if china moves on taiwan, if there's a crisis at 3:00 a.m., can this person handle it? that's an ideological thing a lot of candidates have run on. if the chief executive looks like they're not competent, that's a problem. it makes sense to say this person is not in the best health but they will appoint the right cabinet, the right team. that is mostly what happens with the president. most of the electing a president's he was appointed down the line. there are crisis moments that mean a lot to people and that's a problem for biden. host: guy in florida on the independent line. caller: i agree with 90% of everything david has gone through. i do believe at this point both

candidates should have to take a cognitive test and make it public on both sides currently. second, there are a lot of four-star generals that are anti-set -- under 75 years of age. i think 75 should be the cutoff for anybody in the presidency and in our supreme court. we don't want people dying in office. basically we have lots of choices on both sides, republicans and democrats. we just have to get off the square where we are now i'm afraid and get two candidates the populace of this country can basically say are reasonable and go forward with them. that's about my two cents. guest: the idea of a retirement age is very popular. there's a referendum in north dakota this year for a maximum

age limit for federal candidates. this would be adjudicated. it passed. most people like the idea. i don't want to be too general but most people know somebody who is in their 80's and on the ball. there are judges who don't retire anderson on the bench into their 90's -- and are on the bench into their 90's. if you're a ceo, you can't keep serving. when rex tillerson was joining from exxon, that was one of his issues. he was about to hit retirement age. he could not continue being ceo of a major company. in other industries that are almost more competitive and there's not an electoral basis for it confirmed by the senate, his comment for there to be an understanding there's a point at which you get old enough that you are not 100% everyone somebody 100% in the job. where and the law is that put

for these federal jobs, judges, numbers of congress, etc.? it's not. the energy has been erected towards term limits. there are term limits for the president. the idea of an age limit, i have heard more about it this cycle because of the trump-biden contest. that one vote in north dakota. i talked to people. i would not be surprised if that happens in more places as a reaction to the national angst about having to make a choice between a 70-year-old and 81-year-old candidate -- 78-year-old. talking to voters around the country it's been very frustrating for people to have to deal with this choice. host: this is wrong in --ron in pennsylvania on the democrats line. caller: the majority of people think republicans are better with the economy than the democrats are. this is not true. they cut social programs. if you look at the last three

republican presidents, they ended their term with an economy worse than the one the inherited. donald trump is the biggest lying fascist crook in american history. he is still winning, because they are to meet people that should have rode the short bus to school in this country. the problem with biden is not just the debate. it's how he walks. guest: the point he makes about republicans in the economy, i have heard that from democrats every election cycle. that is a theme of barack obama's reelection and sometimes of joe biden's reelection. it could have been truer this cycle. taxes have been cut. the income tax rates have been cut. they weren't an issue in this campaign cycle. it's often seen as who makes it so you don't have to worry about

it. that you're paying taxes, that you're employed. generally republicans have done better on taxes. what is new for people -- i'm 42. if you were born after 1975, do you remember what inflation is like? we had elections in 1976 and 1980 that were happening under inflation that was so prevalent people were watching prices for every think about month after month. it has been curtailed under joe biden. house prices have gone up. also new for people -- the economy is a complicated question. who's is better at handling the economy? people are not as worried about taxes or things republicans usually promise them but they have been worried things cost more than they used to. even with a good messenger the democrats had trouble breaking through. they could say every country in the world had this post-covid inflation crisis. didn't matter.

everyone has a problem. it became much harder because of joe biden's ability to express himself on that point. that's a fair question. the answer is really because the economy means something different every election cycle. sometimes it means the debt and deficit. the debt is higher than it's ever been. i was listening in 2015 when there were more questions about the national debt that there are now. the way people see the economy changes. is usually inflation in house prices. even though people have jobs, that is how they see it. that has been the problem for democrats. what did they promise on the economy instead? that has not been articulated because the candidate has not or take a leader very well. host: you can find our guest's work at semafor.com. dave weigel, thanks for your time. host: in half an hour we will have a conversation with

educator sharon mcmahon, author of "the preamble" substack. she will teach the american public about government and politics. first, open forum. if you want to let us know your thoughts, (202) 748-8000 for democrats. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. (202) 748-8002 for independents. we will take those calls when washington journal continues. ♪ >> book tv every sunday on c-span2 features authors discussing the latest nonfiction books. at 8:00 p.m. eastern, adam higginbotham talks about the january 28, 1986 space shuttle

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by cable. ♪ >> washington journal continues. host: this is open forum. you can talk about politics by calling the numbers. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. milton in baltimore on the democrats line. go ahead. caller: good morning. i wanted to try to catch the last guest but the next guest is someone i would to hear from, because i have a criminal justice major. i texted my professor after the supreme court ruling on immunity. what he said was that any of his students who want to make an argument the president has absolute immunity he would

suffer on letting them expound n on that kind of rhetoric for a little while before he goes to the dean and have them removed from his class. i want to know what you think about these textbooks. do they reread the text books on criminal justice in american government? i will be listening for her. i'm sorry, i didn't hear you. host: thank you for the call. david in georgia on the republican line. caller: hello? i would like to say whether i voted for trump or biden, it is the economy. i support trump. young people cannot afford a house. the price of cars went up. like reagan said, it is the economy, stupid.

host: bob in wisconsin on the democrats line. caller: hello sir. i love it. host: we are c-span just to clarify. caller: c-span, i'm sorry. ok. the debate. cnn did not stop trump from l ying. that made biden look surprised. instead he should had a smile and just not went on to the next subject but say let me clarify where trump lied. in my last point real quick, harris should say i want to be vice president and i'm with the governor of california to be president. if he wants me, he wants me. if you don't want me, he doesn't want me, because i want the

democrats to win. biden should just sit out. these people are yelling too much. whatever happens, i will vote for joe biden. these people are yelling too much. hollering too much. just retire. enjoy your last days, mr.b. -- mr. biden. host: why do you think the vice president could become president? caller: i believe that. there are too many people yelling and hollering. he's got so much big business. russia. israel. it is so much against him. he just needs to retire and say i get it. host: speaking of wisconsin, the story in the milwaukee journal sentinel. the liberal control supreme court friday restore the use of absentee ballot drop boxes in

the swing state ahead of the upcoming election. a reversal of a past decision from the court that could impact voter participation. the decision was a win for democrats you argued allowing voters to file ballots in the boxes made voting more accessible. the process was highly criticized in 2020 by former president trump and republicans who claimed without evidence the boxes and absentee voting were rife with fraud. marshall is up next in nashville, republican line. caller: good morning. how are you doing, pedro? last month i got disconnected. i hope not because i have always treated c-span and viewers with respect. i did say i believe the 2020 election was a silent coup. that is not what i'm calling today. i think that's why i was disconnected if i was. it may have been a mistake.

anyways. two things i think the american citizens need to be concerned with. that is that i believe right now the actions of president biden and his administration are dictatorial. i want to briefly state two things that i believe it is dictatorial on. number one, we have an administration and the president who tried to take money from american citizens and give it to other american citizens so they could pay off bills. mainly student loans. the supreme court said that was unconstitutional. you couldn't do that. this administration, this president circumvented the supreme court, went around the law and still -- this is the problem. they will say we know you are

struggling. we know inflation is showing it's not transitional. we know some of you have depleted your savings but we will take money from you and were going to give it to these people to pay their bills. host: ok. marshall in tennessee giving his thoughts on student loans. bonnie in virginia on the independent line. caller: thank you. i will not talk about student loans. i will talk about i took a friend to ca neuropsychologist -- see a neuropsychologist. we talked about the debate. this neuropsychologist said if you looked at president biden, his eyes flared a lot at certain

points and then right afterwards that is when he stumbled. this nero therapist thinks that biden may have epileptiform seizures. i think that's interesting. i agree with i guess a lot of people in the united states that president biden needs to take a neurology test and a mental test, and so does mr. trump. they both do. maybe i should. whatever. what i wanted to say is i won't vote for either one of them because of the u.s. military machine supporting the genocide in -- of the israelis towards palestine and gaza.

talking about moral and ethical foundations. if this walks like a duck, sounds like a duck, looks like a duck, it is a duck and this is genocide. host: the new york times analyzed the job numbers that came out yesterday, saying employers delivered another solid month of hiring in june. the labor department reported 206,000 jobs added, the 42nd consecutive month of job growth. the unapplied rate ticked up from 4%, surpassing 4% for the first time of november of 2021. the gain in jobs was lighter than most had forecasted. the totals for the previous months were revised downward and the uptick was unexpected. that has led many to shift from having full faith to some concern for the job market. alan in florida, democrats line. caller: hello there. can you hear me?

host: go-ahead. caller: i think the best solution is to have barack obama run as the vice president with president biden so that if there is a problem we have somebody there that everybody will know, bring his wife in, bring hillary in, bring their kids in. everybody get together. kamala can be the vice president again if the president is out. obama cannot run for the first position but he can run for the second position and be elevated to the president if a decision is made or they remove biden. it will make everybody very

happy about the election. we don't have to introduce new young people that i going to 90% have problems with everybody else. host: ken wisconsin, republican line. this is roger. caller: good morning, pedro. thank you for taking my call. i would like to talk to the democrat callers. if you have not been convinced when you saw the debate the other night, why don't you google the juneteenth celebration at the white house and look at joe biden standing there as everybody else is dancing and singing. he stands there like a statue. he's completely frozen. if it wasn't for george floyd's brother putting his arm around joe biden, that kind of got them out of a trance. joe biden definitely is either

stage 4 or stage 5 dementia. he is unfit to be the president for the next four years. i will be voting for donald trump. thank you. host: anna in new york, democrats line. thank you for calling. go ahead. caller: i would like to respond to the caller before who alluded to the student debt for young people as a democratic thing. americans need to understand it is congress who passed the money. it is congress that passes it. number two. the government programs are funded to help everybody who needs to go to school. it is not just democrats or republicans, whatever. the only president, if they would like to google something, google this.

the only president in the history of the world who passed the biggest social welfare program in the history of the world was donald trump. that money went primarily because it was under the first covid whatever response. it went to very, very -- billionaires, big companies, airlines who had the authority, who had the legal people, who had the accountants to get the funding. he passed the biggest program ever which contribute to the highest national debt we ever had. republicans need to step back and learn a little bit about how government runs. that is the problem in this country. we don't have two point of view more. mr. reagan took away the fairness act so we can understand that people need to find out real truth by looking at things, by understanding things. i was a social studies teacher

so it upsets me we all have misconceptions because we don't have press anymore that allows for different points of view. host: part of the president's agenda yesterday, not only the interview with george stephanopoulos but a rally in madison, wisconsin. the theme of the rally was acknowledging the pressure he's under and possibly stepping out of the race, assuring the audience he's in it. here's a portion from yesterday. [video] >> you voted me to be your nominee, no one else. you, the vote. the voters did that. despite that some folks don't seem to care who you voted for, guess what? they are trying to push me out of the race. let me say this as clearly as i can. i'm staying in the race. [cheers] i will beat donald trump again in 2020.

by the way, we will do it again in 2024. i learned long ago when you get knocked down to get back up. -- you get back up. ; cheers -- [cheers] i'm not letting one 90 minute debate wipe out three and have years of work. i have led through the depth of a pandemic to the strongest economy in the world. i and you are not finished yet. you probably also noticed discussion about my age. i know i look 40. [laughter] i keep seeing stories about being too old. let me say something. i was too old -- i wasn't too old to create over 15 million new jobs. to make sure 21 million americans are insured under the

affordable care act. to beat big pharma. the first want to do that and lower the cost of insulin to $35 a month. was i too old to relief student debt for newly 5 million americans and grow the economy? too old to foot the first black woman on the supreme court of the united states of america? to sign a respect for marriage act? was i too old to sign them a significant gun safety lawn 30 years? to past the biggest infrastructure bill? my critics say sure, he did all that. that was in the past. what about now? how about the 200,000 jobs we announced yesterday? [cheers] host: here is mike in missouri

on the republican line. caller: good morning, pedro. i want to touch on two subjects. number one, joe biden gave $10 billion to her on. that is -- iran. that is treason and they are building nuclear weapons to kill everyone in the united states. the other point i want to make is jill biden admitted her father was raping -- host: i don't think she admitted that at all. sander in hawaii on the independent line. caller: i'm calling in regards to what is in front of me right now. c-span. i want to say i am for joe biden. i am asian. we respect our elders.

we look up to our elders. i was brought up as an episcopalian and buddhist. joe biden is doing extremely well. he does not have an agenda for himself, nor his family. we stumble with our children. i certainly have. i worked for the university of california as a counselor a lifetime ago. i also was called in when vietnam felt and worked at camp pendleton. i have a bit of a background but that is not a here nor there. we are voting for the president of the united states. i'm very proud to be an american. i'm going to be 86 years old this month. joe biden has done a wonderful job. one stumbles once or twice. he -- his mind is clear. his priorities are definitely

for the americans and for all the people of the united states. he has no agenda. i'm appalled at americans. i was born here in the united states. hawaii being the 50th state. i listened to the speech. i'm appalled that our americans -- if you look at one thing i will say about trump, it's about his university, which he completely took all the money. the second, january 6. he had the bible upside down. host: jack in georgia on the democrats line. caller: how are you doing? i want to tell the republicans what we see with donald trump is he's got his foot in the pot with the russian mafia. that is how we see him. he tried direct and is going to wreck the federal reserve. he's basically into

destabilizing the country. that is what we are afraid of. the president has an entire cabinet. joe biden put janet yellen in for treasury. she's a well-known professor of economics. trump put mnuchin in there and he took a picture of himself and his trophy wife with dollar bills at the mint. who is going to run the country when trump is in? it will be all these crazy people he puts in. joe biden, with dementia, it is better for the country than a guy who's going to try to dismantle it. that is how we see it. host: that is jack in georgia with the focus on the vice president in recent days concerning the possibility that she could become the nominee. under certain situations . it was the house republican conference chair that got an ad on that topic. [video] >> i have been privileged and

proud to serve as vice president of united states with joe's president -- with joe brightness president of the nine states. we have a fighter. i'll leave you with skills, determination and compassion. >> divide administration did task vice president harris with migrant crossings. >> the border -- >> she's very politically astute. >> vice president harris is uniquely qualified. >> we look at her -- >> to see what can be. based on what we have just been able to see. it is limited to what we have seen. i imagine what can be and unburdened by what has been, you know? that's it. [laughter]

>> four more years. four more years. host: ivan in florida on the republican line. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. caller: i called yesterday and i was disconnected. i find it ironic that other man said the same thing happened to him. i have been listening to democrats ever since the debate talk about what a liar trump is. biden lied about the border patrol. biden lied about -- the military under him. the gold families are totally appalled at that lie. biden lied about his cognitive abilities. he let about his son's laptop. he lied about china. everyone is talking about trump

being in bed with russia, but is biden who gave them the pipeline. russian disinformation. it has been proven and debunked. these people are still holding onto it. as far as i'm concerned, trump has been one of the best presidents of my lifetime. at the end of the day i heard a woman talk about how other presidents were disabled in the white house. they all had a brain. being in a wheelchair or an amputee has nothing to do with your cognitive abilities. you have to be able to handle an entire -- we're talking worldwide here. would you allow him to be alone watching your child? why would you allow him to be in charge of an entire nation of people? i'm so absolutely unbelievably disgusted with the stuff coming from the democrat party. no matter what these people do

-- another thing. host: let's hear from brent in michigan on the democrats line. caller: hello. yes pedro. on the world stage it is sad to see we are down. we only have a choice between these two men. i would like to address the immunity ruling handed down by the trump loving stooges on the supreme court, which is i consider the death knell of american democracy. the so-called originalists on the high court have decreed what the writers of the constitution, the founders -- monarchy. they decided what the founders really wanted was not a democracy unique in the history

of the world but actually a return to monarchy and the divine right of kings for the leader who is untouchable by the laws of man. in a word of serve. absolute presidential immunity for official acts is what they have proclaimed. the supreme leader will consider all his majesty's asked to be official. absolute power corrupts absolutely. barbarism will be standard operating procedure along with pardons to the highest bidders. it's no longer maintain -- necessary to maintain the appearance of a justice department. host: that is a last call for the open forum. at this time usually on a saturday we take a look at a substack, a spotlight on substacks. joining us next is sharon mcmahon, author of "the preamble ," teaching the public about government and politics.

people talk about that when washington journal continues. -- we will talk about that when washington journal continues. ♪ ♪ >> robert small is the walter annenberg admin joyce chair emeritus and american studies and journalism at the university of notre dame. he has often written about the american presidency. his newest book is "mr. churchill and the white house: the untold story of a prime minister and two presidents." the professor says both roosevelt and eisenhower eventually adjusted to the unconventional habits and hours other white houseguest who not only proposed his visits but almost always by accident or design stayed longer than initially intended. >> robert small with the book "mr. church in the white house" on book notes plus, available on

the c-span now free mobile app or wherever you get your podcasts. >> c-span now is a free mobile app featuring your unfiltered view of what is happening in washington. keep up with the day's biggest event with live streams of floor proceedings and hearing from the u.s. congress, white house events, the courts, campaigns, and more from the world of politics, all at your fingertips. you can stay current with the latest episodes of washington journal and find scheduling information for the tv networks and c-span radio, plus compelling podcasts. c-span now is available at the apple store and google play. scan the qr code to download it for free today or visit our website at c-span.org/c-spannow. c-span now, your front row seat to washington anytime, anywhere.

>> the house will be in order. >> this year c-span celebrates 45 years of covering congress like no other. since 1979, we have been your primary source for capitol hill, providing balanced, unfiltered coverage of government. taking you to where the policies are debated and decided all of the support of america's cable companies. c-span. 45 years and counting. powered by cable. >> washington journal continues. host: at this time we focus on a substack newsletter. joining us is sharon mcmahon, author of "the preamble" substack to talk about matters of american politics and government. thank you for your time. guest: it is my pleasure. host: you have been in existence for about a month. what prompted you to start this substack? guest: i've had a very large social media following where i

talk about government and politics. -out of popular podcast. for me this is the result of many years of people asking me to write things that were longer in length that they could share with other people. i started it because people really have been bugging me for about four years to do it. host: you call it "the preamble ." guest: the introduction to the constitution. we the people, right? it is talking about the beginning. how we got where we are, but the history and context is beyond what is happening in the world, behind what is happening to the americans. issues that are important to americans. it is taking people back to how things began and helping them understand why we are where we are. host: you were a teacher, lot teacher. how can uss how americans generally are when they are

coming to the knowledge of politics over a lower government overall? -- guest: americans are perhaps realizing the education they received in high school was nonsufficient. this is no shade to teachers. i have been a teacher for a long time. this is just the system we have created were many americans received one semester of education in the 10th grade or 11th grade about government. the united states government is complicated, intentionally so. the system is designed to be complicated on purpose. i think many people are realizing now they did not receive the type of education they hoped they could have. they are hungry to learn more now. host: when you talk and engage with them besides the newsletter, how do you advise them to learn about how government works or politics works? guest: great question.

one thing i tell people is to read widely from a variety of sources. if all you're doing is watching a certain cable channel, one ideology or another, you are not getting the full picture of the world. for me it's about making sure people understand issues from a variety of different perspectives. my goal is to help people have the education they need to be able to make educated decisions for themselves and their families rather than telling them what to think. i would much rather as a teacher help people learn how to think about something. from that place of being able to engage in educated critical thought we will be much better off as a nation. host: when you post things on your site you take it from a political point of view? guest: sometimes there are things i definitely have stated political opinion on. we should have democracy. i'm not going to pretend

authoritarianism is fine. there are some things that are absolutely unequivocal when it comes to upholding important matters of the united states government. one of the other things i make sure to do is present here is what people are saying. here is one way to think about it and here's another way to think about it. what are the facts so you can decide for yourself how you feel about it. host: sharon mcmahon joining us for this. if you went to ask questions, it is (202) 748-8000 free democrats. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. independents, (202) 748-8002. if you want to text us, (202) 748-8003. if you go to your website, front and center is a recording about the recent supreme court immunity decision. what is your interest in that

and what prompted you to post that? guest: i have been teaching about this up in court and constitutional law for much of my career. one thing i frequently do on my social media platforms in my newsletter is breakdown supreme court decisions in an understandable way. understanding the people who are reading this are intelligent and don't need to be spoken down to, yet legal language is very often intentionally complex. if you're not using it on a daily basis it can be easy to not be able to understand what is happening. i talk about the supreme court quite a lot. of course, this is a busy time of year at the court with all other big decisions being left until the end of the term. the supreme court has always been a topic of interest of mine. it has become something i have been known for, being able to explain in simple and straightforward ways. host: 6-3 decision. how did you think about with the

various justices said about it? guest: the trump immunity case? it's an interesting way to frame the decision. i can tell there was a lot of animosity between the different justices. one of the things that is going to pose a huge challenge is determining what our official acts and unofficial acts. it is clear the court has no -- is not done with the case or presidential immunity. they remanded many of the issues in the case back to the lower courts for them to make the determination about what is official and unofficial. inevitably those decisions are going to be appealed back up to the supreme court and they know that. this is going to be a lengthy process. actually honing in a weight something official versus unofficial. where are the dividing lines. this is not the end of the presidential immunity discussion by a longshot. host: i want to play what president biden said right after the decision and the takeaway he

had of it. we will get your thoughts on it. [video] >> the presidency is the most powerful office in the world. it not only test your judgment, perhaps more importantly it's enough a second test your character. you not only face moments where you need courage to exercise the full power of the presidency. you face moments where you need wisdom to respect the limits of power of the office of the presidency. this nation was founded on the principle that there are no kings in america. each of us is equal before the law. no one is above the law. not even the president of united states. the supreme court decision on presidential immunity, that fundamentally changed. for all practical purposes today's decision means that virtually no limits on what a

president can do. host: that is the president's take away from it. how much do you agree with that? guest: i think there are some things that are absolutely right on. no one is above the law. presidents are not kings. we are all equal before the law. our founding principle is that we are not a nation of men. we are a nation of laws. that is absolutely correct. i agree with that. this decision however does not give presidents license to break the law. i think that is one of the things that maybe is being overlooked in the conversation. just because it makes it difficult to prosecute them for official acts doesn't mean it is carte blanche for them to just go do whatever they want. i fully agree that it does make it more difficult to be able to prosecute presidents, particularly the aspects of decisions where they limited how evidence can be used against presidents. the aspect of the decision where

official conversations, official acts where the president might be having a conversation with the attorney general. evidence gleaned from that conversation can then not be used in a prosecution for an unofficial act. that does hamstring any justice department or any government agency that might want to bring to light charges against a president for unofficial acts. that aspect of the case i do think is a bit unprecedented in american constitutional law that you cannot use evidence from this to prosecute a crime for why. that is a very, very interesting conclusion. i have spoken with constitutional law professors who agree with this analysis. it is a bit perplexing. where in the constitution are we getting this supposition from, that you cannot use evidence from a to prosecute b?

that is one concerning aspect of this decision. host: sharon mcmahon joining us, author of" substack -- author of the preamble substack. caller: thank you so much for taking my call. thank you for being on. i wanted to ask you -- you probably have heard suddenly it pops up so much more in the media and in conversations about project 2025. i have been delving into that for months. back in december is when i first started. what i want to ask you about specifically if you can address regarding the way government works, one of the things the former president has done was installed acting secretaries and other officials at the department of justice. christopher miller was the

acting secretary of defense i believe on january 6. he is involved and authored the portion of project 2025 regarding the defense department. what i would like you to address is connecting the dots how that changes the weight the government works -- way the government works, the normal process? they talk about using acting rather than senate confirmed officials and how that will impact the way our government works. host: guest: what a good question and i like the way you are thinking and diving into this topic. i have an interest in project 2025 and i have interviewed the authors and director. i have written five articles on "the preamble." but i do think it is interesting to note the use of acting

members of the cabinet to avoid senate confirmation and avoid having to have their backgrounds dug into or to have them undergo public questioning before they assume their roles. an acting member of cabinet is not entirely unusual. president biden has an acting person that they are unable to get confirmation for. it is not an -- it is not completely unprecedented to use acting members of cabinets. at the number of acting members that president trump had was far greater than any president beforehand. one of the things that is interesting is this ability to install somebody in the executive branch as an acting member of whatever department and then to completely avoid the official process that somebody is supposed to go through to get approved. but, knowing now that any

communication that the president has with members of his cabinet who are part of the executive branch that any communication with them is considered official because the supreme court said that kind of communication with members of the executive branch is official, knowing that adds another layer of complexity. knowing that no one will be allowed to take any information gleaned from those conversations and the resulting effects and be able to do anything with them. this sort of temporary, they are working here for a little while does pose additional levels of complexity in making sure that those people are held accountable for their jobs. it becomes very difficult to remove that person from their job via impeachment or other means if they are not actually confirmed the other legal process. i agree that this is something that i am keeping my eye on and

it is an interesting component of project 2025. and project 2025 is of interest to me and should be of interest to all americans. host: texas, republican line, this is donna. hello? one more time. ok, matt in south carolina. independent line. go ahead. caller: just as a young voter, i have a question about how are we going to deal with sleepy joe and whatchamacallit here. and i am curious about how this will play out over time. host: ok. obviously in the last couple of days the topic has been president biden and if he should be the nominee going forward. go ahead. guest: do you mean what is going to play out with the election?

host: he is gone. i apologize. guest: let us assume about the election playing out from here. there has been a significant amount of concern about the president's performance. significant. i do not know if you had the chance to watch the interview but george stephanopoulos pressed him and spent nearly the entire interview asking him what about this, what if democrats came to you and said you have to step aside. he was a surrogate for what many americans are thinking. how is this going to play out? i do not have a crystal ball to tell you how it will play out. what i know is what they said. this is absolutely his race to stay in and he thinks he is the only nominee that can be trump, the incumbency aspect of winning reelection cannot be

understated. if you are a presidential incumbent it is difficult to overstate how important that is for reelection. so, those are things that president biden is thinking of. some members of his party and most members of the opposing party think that he should step aside. there is a lot of chatter about if the president steps aside who is going to replace him? i think the most logical explanation would be kamala harris. i think if he is going to step aside and he says he is not. if he is going to it is most likely that he would step aside while still in office before his term ends so that kamala harris could assume the presidency and she could have the incumbency aspect that is so important to winning reelection. incumbents win reelection an overwhelming majority of time in the united states. host: mary from maryland.

independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. i was calling. i heard her say earlier that how important it is to critically think about everything that -- especially for this election. and i am so afraid when i watch the trump followers, i find that they are just -- i do not know. they are on trump's side without thinking that trump is against -- that he is going to think about social security, attacking medicare and they are working against their own interests. they remind me of how hitler had

a following of the germans. this is more like heil trump without giving serious thought about him becoming an authoritarian president. he has said it himself. and it is very troubling to me how they can fall behind him. one more thing. is it possible to impeach thomas and alito in the supreme court? they seem to be so corrupt. host: ok. guest: the answer to the second question is yes. supreme court justices can be impeached. that is possible. the impeachment process what happened in congress just like for a president. so yes, supreme court justices can be impeached.

some members of the democratic party have been talking about filing articles of impeachment in relationship to a variety of things like accepting trips from people who had business before the court and things of that nature. i think you know that people -- what people are referring to. when it comes to the first part of your question, why do people vote against your own interests? i will tell you how -- that is not how they see it. they do not believe they are voting against their own interests and they would say the same thing about you. this is no offense to you. this is the perspective. it is easy to view the world through the lens that you currently have. and it is sometimes difficult to remember that other people do not believe they are voting against their own interest but in their own interest. and they more highly prioritize other things. so when you talk about the president that he might want to cut this program or that program

that would benefit them. that might be true. but they more highly prioritize something else in their own interest. so, i am not criticizing you in any way. i am just saying we have to think about all americans tend to vote in ways that they believe will benefit themselves the most. and, sometimes, in the case of 1930's germany voting in your own interest is sometimes voting against the interest of the country at large. that has happened. that happened in the south during the period of enslavement. voting for yourself was voting against other people's rights. it is important to remember that that is not how voters on the opposite side view their voting. they more highly prioritize something other than you and believe that they are voting in their own interest. host: she alluded to hitler.

and i am sure you have heard them when it comes to former president trump. what goes through your mind when you hear those comparisons? guest: i think it is always dangerous to compare things to hitler, i am generally opposed to the idea that we should make direct comparisons to him unless it is truly warranted. so what is happening in the united states with certain movements in the 1930's like with charles lindbergh and you know ford for example where people really were espousing nazi ideology, those are fair comparisons. i am not saying that there is no authoritarianism at work in the united states. i know that there is. but i do think comparing everything to hitler can mitigate against the seriousness of the holocaust so i am always hesitant to make those kinds of direct comparisons.

it is more useful to talk about authoritarianism and fascism at large and just say joe biden or donald trump is hitler, because it downplays the seriousness of the holocaust. host: joining us, sharon mcmahon. "the preamble" is her substack and you can find it at thepreamble.com. lewis from north carolina. democrat line. caller: i am not getting off topic but last year over 65,000 women got raped in america and god forbid some of them conceived. and you know the way the law is now about roe v. wade is no longer. do you think that that particular topic outside of democracy with republicans like -- who turn their politics over and switch to democrats to keep

the republican magas out of the white house. because once they get in he is not coming out. he has immunity now. biden could do the same. i would like to hear your thoughts. guest: thank you for being here and listening. abortion is a very big topic this election cycle. you are going to see president biden run hard on abortion. you are going to see nearly every democratic candidate bring up abortion because most americans do support some right to abortion under some sort -- some circumstances. the overwhelming majority believes that there is a circumstance under which abortion is warranted. some states have, as you note, have imposed very restrictive laws when it comes to abortion. so, do i think that abortion will be on the ballot so to speak around the country?

yes. you have seen arkansas this week go through a citizen initiative process to put abortion directly on the ballot so that citizens can vote themselves. in nearly place where -- nearly every place where abortion has gone on the ballot like with an amendment and voters have been able to vote on it, in nearly every instance voters have chosen to enshrine the right to an abortion in their state. the other part of your question is will people like liz cheney switch their party allegiance because of all of the things that are happening in the new trump led republican party? i do not know about liz cheney. she is quite conservative. when she was in the house of representatives she voted with trump's viewpoints 90% of the time.

so a lot of times i think democrats or independent leaning americans feel like she is a moderate and she is not. it is quite conservative but she is anti-trump while being very conservative. liz cheney might be an outlier but you do see people like adam kinzinger who was a republican member of the house of representatives even just very recently, out endorsing biden. i do not know if that will lead to him saying i am a democrat now. i do not know if he is going that far. but i do think there is going to be a movement among some anti-trump republicans to get biden reelected, really for the sole reason of keeping trump out of the white house. if those people had a more conservative candidate to choose phone -- choose from like mitt romney or john mccain they would be throwing their support behind him. they viewed trump as the bigger

threat over biden. i am not sure that liz cheney will say i am voting biden or say that. but you see some other at least former members of congress like adam kinzinger endorsing biden. host: this is a viewer from hawaii. apologies if i did not get that correct. caller: i-a-ah. hello. thank you for taking the call. i am reading dr. fauci's book and i am looking forward to your book in september. my question has to do with websites that yours that are going through the bill of rights and the constitution. what i would love to start seeing is sites like yours to take the concerns of the day

like social security and see how it can be applied you know, the worries of the common american nowadays, take something like social security and discuss how that might be constitutionally guaranteed. i know the answer to that is no. but i would love to see more discussions on websites like yours as to how it might end up constitutionally guaranteed. if you know what i am saying. take the worries of the day and see if it can be discussed. i think studying the constitution and bill of rights is worthy in itself, but if you can start discussing that then we will get more people into studying government and the constitution and everything.

we can bellyache on who is the supreme court justices all we want but that will not affect our pocketbook and our future. host: thank you. guest: aloha, and you are up very early in the morning. thank you for being here. in terms of how can these entitlements or rights that americans have that they want to have moving forward. you are using social security as an example, but it is important. overwhelmingly you are absolutely correct. social security is important to americans. in terms of this is my plan for the future, i have been paying into it and i wanted to be there and i become ready to retire. social security is very important. and how could that be guaranteed under our constitution? of course there is one way which is to interpret the constitution

in such a matter that it demonstrates that these entitlement programs are constitutionally guaranteed. i think that poses somewhat of a challenge but there is another way it can be guaranteed which is to amend the constitution. the constitution has been amended 27 times and in no way did the framers of the constitution believe that it was final, perfect or immutable. they put two ways to change it into the document. they had compromises amongst each other like listen if you guys will sign this we will fix it later. there were states that were refusing to reset -- to sign the baby constitution because it had no bill of rights. they made promises amongst themselves like sign it now and we will fix it later and get on board. it is difficult to imagine government officials saying like we will sign now and fix later. that is ridiculous by today's

standards about the bill of rights was not added for years after the constitution was ratified. the constitution can be amended again. i would argue that it should be. whether it should include an amendment to social security is a conversation that americans should be having. in what way should we be amending the constitution. this is an important conversation and i'm glad you brought that up because in what way should the constitution be amended is a conversation we should be discussing. i don't think it is should we amend it? but should we -- but which ways. the framers could not have anticipated everything that the united states had going on which is why they put two different ways to amend it. i would argue it is time to amend again. host: one of your early profiles focused on abraham lincoln titled with malice towards none. lincoln did not feel hope, he

chose it. guest: some of the great leaders like abraham lincoln did not wake up in the morning and think to themselves gosh, today is going to be a great day. i have nothing but hope for the future. in fact, abraham lincoln had every right to wake up and feel malice. first of all people were actively trying to kill him. they tried to kill him multiple times before they were successful. he had dealt with very significant depression. what people would prefer to today in a clinical sense as major depression. i am talking abraham lincoln became emaciated and was not eating and sleeping and was wandering in the woods with a gun talking to himself until a couple, an elderly couple in his village documented said you gotta get better. stay with us for a couple of weeks. and he did. it did not fix his depression

but allowed him to get back on track. of course, he has many other tragedies that both fall him. the one person in his life that he could depend on his sister dies during childbirth. the baby that she had died. his son dies while he is president. he has all of these cards stacked against him. the country is in shambles because of the civil war. it is in shambles. he did not wake up in the morning and think wow, things are going great for me. what he did do was wake up in the morning and choose to have hope that america remained and was and still is the last great hope on earth. hope was something that abraham lincoln chose. it was not something that he felt. when he was inaugurated the second time, knowing that all of these things has happened.

his son is dead, his wife is severely mentally ill, the country is in shambles. half the country would rather risk their own life they had to go with his plans to emancipate the enslaved, truly. that was the belief of half the country. i would rather risk death and i would rather risk is in a leg then go along with your plans. when he spoke before the assembled crowd, by the way john wilkes booth was in that crowd, at his second inauguration what did he say? "with malice towards none," not screw all of these people who are trying to secede or your job -- or you jokers trying to kill me. he had malice towards none. with charity towards all, let us continue the work we are in. he talked about caring for the

widows and orphans with malice towards none. that was a posture that abraham lincoln did not feel. it was a posture that he chose. i think that is important for all americans to remember. this is a choice. hope is a choice. where we go up to us. our fate is not predetermined. where we go from here will be a direct result of the choices that we make on a daily basis. i think abraham lincoln had troubles like every human does he chose malice towards none and not malice towards the opposing side for people who disagree with me. host: brad in minnesota. republican line. caller: good morning. you know, you were talking earlier about a couple of different issues that i want to talk about. one was about the george stephanopoulos meeting with joe

biden. and, a question was asked did you ever watch the debate afterwards. and all of a sudden he replies i do not think so. i mean just think about that just in itself, i do not think so. it is crazy talk. but then you hear these people talking about trying to save him, it was a cold and jetlagged, it was not the nine days of sitting at camp david. so, it is what people are hearing. and then i am hearing on the conversation here with you about people calling in about this immunity case. the federal court never said that he had complete immunity. they said he had limited immunity. and the problem is is that people are being intentionally

misled further the cause of their party. and the mainstream media is loaded with joe biden. and now we have all of the people trying to carry water for joe biden including c-span. so, the world is coming to a train wreck. and so good luck, i say. good luck. host: that is brad in minnesota. guest: i am from minnesota as well so i could do the whole response and my accent for you. you are right. president biden george asked him did you watch it and he said i do not think so. that is absolutely what he said. the idea that he had a poor debate performance based on a variety of factors, cold, he was tired and etc. you are not wrong that many people are very concerned about

that debate performance. i agree with you that i do not know that the interview last night did a lot to assuage people's concern. i do not know that a lot of people who tuned in left the interview feeling better. i think you are correct in that. it did not really do much to inspire confidence amongst people who were concerned. i will tell you that there are many democratic voters feel like i would rather have biden who, let us say he has alzheimer's and i am not saying that he does. let us assume. i would rather have biden and the team he has assembled and trump. that is absolutely how many if not most democrats feel. i think it is important to remember that just as republicans who support trump believe that they are voting in their own self interest, democrats who support biden

believe they are not just only voting in their own self interest but what is best for the country, that the team that biden has assembled in terms of his cabinet and the people he puts in leadership that they would rather have those people banned the people that trump has assembled. i think one thing that we miss from the conversation and not directed at you but to americans at large, is the idea that people are never convinced to abandon their position with criticism. if i tell you brad, you are an idiot for thinking x,y, and z are you going to be like you are right i will now change my opinion? that is not human nature. this is true of democrats and republicans. human nature is such that criticizing and making fun of and yelling at people is not an effective way to change minds. so, if you have the position of

my site is genuinely better for america, the best way to go about convincing other people that your side is better is not to the first tell them what idiots they are, and again i am not targeting you that i am talking generally. telling them that they are idiots will make them believe it more. there is a lot of psychological research that the more you attack somebody's viewpoint the more deeply entrenched it becomes. so, the way to change somebody's mind is not to be like this whole movement or whatever it is, the pro-biden movement or the maga movement is ridiculous and anybody who believes it is stupid, they will only make them think that thing more. if you want to have the ability to influence somebody you have to maintain a relationship. you are much more likely to be influenced by somebody with whom you have a relationship and you have to be able to listen to

understand where they are coming from. people generally do not listen until they feel listens to. -- listened to. and the way you know is that if you can repeat back to them exactly what it is that they think in language that they would agree with. if you say so you think joe biden is a better president for the following reasons and they would say yes, that is right. then you know you have listens to understand and they are more likely to listen to you afterwards. host: a viewer had mentioned your book and we did not have a chance to talk about it. and what it is out. guest: "the small and the mighty: 12 unsung americans to change the course of history from the founding to the civil rights" is out september 24, it was the stories i love to tell of the teacher, people in my community tell me that i love to hear. the hidden histories of people who made an incredible difference in this country but

who are not on the statues or the bronze plaques. they are not in giant tat -- chapters of the textbooks. when you read their stories you will find them, they do not just inspire hope but they help us create a guide map of where america needs to go next. that the best americans are not always famous or the one with billions of dollars. great americans have lived and continue to live, and we can all be one of them with this guide map that is in the book. thank you for asking. it is out in september. host: how can people find your substack? guest: thepreamble.com. host: she is the author of "the preamble" and thank you for your time. guest: thank you for having me. host: that is it for the program, later this evening the vice president travels to new orleans for an event. you can see that 6:15 generally

on our website at c-span.org and c-span now. that is a. another edition of washington journal comes your way at 7:00 tomorrow morning. we will see you then. ♪ [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]

meeting in kansas city.