pres. biden: i'm the nominee. you made me the nominee. no one else. not the press, not the pundits. you, the voters.

you decided, no one else. and i'm not going anywhere. ♪ host: this is "washington journal." last night president biden reaffirmed his resolve to stay in the race for the white house. but a divide remains. i number of lawmakers and campaign donors have voiced their support or opposition to the president's decision to remain at the top of the ticket. this morning we want to hear your thoughts. does president biden stay -- should president biden stay in the race? here are the lines. if you say yes, (202) 748-8000. no, (202) 748-8001. if you are not sure, (202) 748-8002. if you would like to text as you can do so at (202) 748-8003. be sure to include your name and city.

you can also post a question or comment on facebook. or on x. good morning. it was last night in detroit michigan that president biden made those remarks at the events from the associated press. this article notes, at the same school where four years ago then-candidate biden positioned himself as a bridge to the next generation of democratic leaders the embattled president, who has been under pressure from more than two weeks to step aside, made it clear he was going nowhere. here are some of president biden's remarks from last night. pres. biden: folks, you probably noticed there is a lot of speculation lately. what is joe biden going to do? is he going to stay in the race? is he going to drop out? i am running, and we are going to win. [cheering]

in fact, just today the national poll has me beating trump 50% to 48%. so much of my campaign has fallen apart, they sent. i'm the nominee of the democratic party. the only democrat or republican that has been donald trump, ever. and i'm going to beat him again. i know him. donald trump is a loser. [cheering] host: more from the associated press. the show of force from biden at the rally was part of his team's relentless sprint to convince

lawmakers, donors, and a skeptical electric at the age of 81 he is still capable of being president. a spate of travel to states have not tamped down the angst within the party about biden's candidacy and has brought pop rocks against trump in november. should president biden remain in the race again? this question for independents and democrats only this first hour. if you say yes, (202) 748-8000. no, (202) 748-8001. and if you are not sure, (202) 748-8003. we'll start with susan. good morning, susan. caller: good morning. i think president biden is doing a good job of rehabilitating his

desire and ability to run this country. he is so much better than president trump. we just have to, you know, the voters are the ones that matter. and for the people who are coming out, that are running their own elections throughout the country, you know, the house, they have to run their campaign and they have to win. they should not just rely on president biden. but, you know, i have heard people even on cnn, msnbc, other networks make mistakes with names and i personally, myself, have made mistakes with names of people and forgetting every once in a while what i'm going to get when i am coming you know, walking into my bedroom. what did i go in my bedroom to get? so, he is ok.

the only thing i would like is, i don't think he needs to take a cognitive test, but i do think that it would be good if former president trump took a lie detector test to see if he really did have sex with stormy daniels. we know he lies, but put it out there for the people. he keeps saying these things. so, i am fully behind biden. if kamala harris is the backup, then i'm ok for her too. thanks. host: mary in port washington, maryland. caller: good morning. i say absolutely, no. he should step down. you can put kamala harris in or he can put other people in. there are plenty of people that can take his place. we have the gaza war still going on. hello? host: i am here, mary. caller: we have the gaza war still going on. you have a lost war in ukraine. how many more young people are

they going to kill off there? we need the money here. and then they are going to let netanyahu come here to speak? that is going to wipe out joe biden right there. host: did you vote for president biden in 2020? caller: he was the right person to be donald trump, but he cannot be donald trump now. he is cognitively failing. i don't think he is running the country. he doesn't know what is going on. does he know that people are still dying in gaza? does he know the war should end in ukraine? what do wars accomplish? boeing is going to get money for making the war equipment, yes. right now we are in a crisis and biden is not the one to bring down the crisis. anyone can be trump right now. that is how bad he is. is going to talk himself off of a cliff because he is crazy. he is satan. but biden is not the one right now. people better listen to me. i totally disagree with the

person in florida. she is drinking the kool-aid. but right now, the michigan rally, those are kool-aid drinkers and i am not one of them. host: christine in richmond, virginia. good morning, christine. caller: yes, i'm definitely voting for president biden. he is a good man. i think cognitively he is fine. he was very tired when he had the debate. i think jet lag had a good deal to do it that, plus the cold and whatnot. i have heard speeches since then and the last interviews were excellent. it was a master class in policy. i was really pleased with that. i think he is the man to get the job done. thank you. host: eddie in atlanta calling on the no line. morning, eddie. caller: good morning. but i called on the no line.

i think biden do need to be, to stay in office, because he done a good job. he done a real good job. my answer is, i am a diabetic. i get my insulin free. the health care, our health care when donald trump was in office, it was high. and then biden came in, he -- the stimulus that he gave under joe biden, everybody talking about the economy is so bad, but, no, it is not so bad. my bank account say $10. when trump was in office my bank account was $100. biden came in and he did something for everybody. my social security was raised under joe biden. host: do you have any concerns

about president biden's ability, his cognitive abilities? not just his policy, but his physical health? caller: no. biden been everywhere. every time a disaster happen under biden, biden goes. just like the boston bridge had collapsed. he helped him. he helping every port of america. this other black lady just came on talking about, he don't need this. he can't say it is the whole war -- save the whole world, he just president. everybody got to do our part. not just him by himself. we don't give him a magic wand to make everything right and everything good. we've got to take the bad with the good sometimes, and like i

say, my vote is for him. i call on the no line, because i could not get in on the other line. host: that is eddie in atlanta. it's here from joseph. good morning, joseph. caller: good morning. am i on? host: yes, you are. caller: i'm thinking biden should stay in the race. i support him, but -- sorry. host: heather in bismarck, north dakota on the yes line. good morning. caller: sorry, i meant to call in on the no line. i think that last lady needs to speak english. i don't know what she is watching, but writing is an old man and he needs to take a nap on wednesday we had a discussion about what an exciting time this

is in our country. president biden is old. he is not a bad man, but he is an old man. the thing is that president trump did more for this country in the four years he was here -- host: are you a democrat? caller: no, i am an independent, but now i am switching over to republican because i completely support trump. he has not been sitting on his hands these last four years while biden has been messing up our country. host: we will hear from annie in georgia on the no line. good morning, annie. ann are you there? we will try one more time for and in georgia. we will go on to duke in maine on the yes line. good morning, duke. caller: yes, good morning, c-span. i say to president joe biden, go for broke. i think that we stand our best

chance with him. i don't know who else they would put in their that has had the experience. yes, he is an old man. i mean, and he, you know, flubs up some of his words. i do that myself. host: are you still there? caller: hello? host: let's go to floyd in louisiana on the yes line. good morning, florida. caller: good morning, c-span. i watched c-span every morning. i'm 89 years old and i have never seen this before. i say, yes, stay in the race. one thing i'm concerned about, the ads they sent out. they got the best system in the world to go against trump. on each ad they have running against trump they need to run that bus to start off.

each one of those ads, run that bus with trump getting off saying those words he said on every one of them. thank you and god bless. host: bill in ohio on the no line. morning, bill. caller: good morning, how are you? host: doing well, thanks. caller: listen, i think i got a little mixed up there. i thought it said, should he get out of the race? i'm actually a yes. i think he should stay. i have never seen or heard of any open forum where the incumbent gets out of the race and you pick someone else and they win. we have got to be donald trump. he is a criminal. a loser, a fraud. and this country better wake up, because we will not have a democracy any longer if we elect donald trump again.

we should all just pack up and move to canada or somewhere else, because we will effectively live in russia. host: in today's wall street journal this article, the headline, lawmakers wonder if harris would make a stronger candidate. the article says democratic lawmakers, strategists, county chairs, and donors say they are hearing more support and praise for harris than ever before. even if biden doesn't bow out of the race party leaders are pushing the campaign to evaluate harris moore to counter concerns about his age and ability to effectively make the case for the 70-year-old -- make the case against the 78-year-old trump. the article goes on to say that several voters for hillary clinton -- i'm sorry, the article goes on to say that a washington post/abc news poll released on tuesday found harris beating trump by two points in a

hypothetical contest while biden trailed by one point. those matchups were within the survey's margin of error. the poll found 70% of democrats and democrat-leaning democrat -- independent said they would be satisfied with harris as the nominee. a poll released friday showed harris getting 50% of registered voters to 49% for trump. almost identical to biden. we are talking with democratic and independent collars this morning, asking if president biden should stay in the race. let's hear from donna in pennsylvania, calling on the yes line. good morning, donna. caller: good morning. i want to say, most definitely. biden is a strong candidate. he had a bad night. they put kamala harris in we lose. they are not going to vote for the first black woman president. get it through your head. we lose if they put her in

there. you should keep biden in there. he did a great job last night. the only thing, he messed up on a couple of names. so what? who don't? sometimes i walk up and down the steps and forget what i came down the stairs four. i've got to walk back up. come on, and i'm 70. let's be for real. if she gets in -- and i'm a democrat -- if she gets in, we lose. tim ryan was on cnn last night. he put biden down last night about the thing he had in michigan. he put him down and you could see his face, how nasty it was, how, is going to do it again. you ain't even giving biden a chance because he had one bad night. let's be for real. i think they wanted to put kamala harris in, so we lose. and that is what i believe. obama had trouble getting in there.

but when obama became the first black president what did they do? they created the tea party. then trump got in. so, no. was definitely biden should stay in. that's all i have to say. host: tony in texas, calling on the no line. morning, tony. caller: good morning. i was waiting for the democrats to shoot themselves in the foot. joe had a bad night. that is it. yesterday he had a hard day. he performed beautifully. so, i think he should stay in this. he's doing a good job. he is a good man. he is a good president. thank you very much. host: suzanne in pennsylvania on the yes line. good morning. caller: good morning. i'm voting for joe biden. writing with biden. there is no question about that. the reason is, he is the guy for the times. he is definitely aging, but we

are all aging. i don't know anybody that is going backwards. he is definitely the guy to vote for, and whether he is in decline or whether he springs to life he is definitely the person to take us forward based on his commitment, his experience, and his integrity and his judgment. this is the guy to vote for. you are not just voting for him, you are voting for the democratic way. amen. host: william in new york on the not sure line. good morning, william. caller: yeah. i don't even dare say yes or no. i hope that he will remain and i hope that god will give him the strength to keep his marbles in place, you know? while he is speaking, while he is, you know, he has been a very good president, but i know his age is keeping up with him, you know? it's catching up with him, i mean.

but still, i mean, i would rather have him then trump for certain, you know? and so, what i mean, i hope he will win, but it is kind of scary, you know? because, you know, he fumbled pretty badly, you know, while he was debating with trump. and so that is kind of a scary thing. it shows the personal power of trump. that he causes him to fumble his words so that he couldn't even finish a sentence. that was a terrible thing, but it was a supernatural thing of personal power on trump's part. that is not a good thing for him to be president. you know? anyways, i hope i got my message across, but i'm not even going to vote. i'm too scared to vote. i'm just trusting in god. in doing what i think everybody should be doing, is praying to god almighty, you know?

that is my actual answer. thank you very much for taking my call. host: gail in virginia calling on the yes line. good morning, gail. caller: good morning. yes, definitely i am voting for joe biden. he's got the integrity we need for our country. trump is a buffoon and loser. he is a liar and joe biden has compassion and the integrity that we need for our country. and the other gentleman that just called said he is not going to vote. if he wants joe to win he should get out there and do it. you know? men have died to give us the ability to vote, and we ought to get off of our butts to do it, and vote for joe biden if we want to keep our country. thank you.

host: bill in delaware on the no line. good morning morning, bill. caller: good morning. no. joe biden is a liar. you people don't know him. you ought to come to delaware. better yet, why don't you take into your state? host: bill, are you a democrat? caller: no. host: let's hear from brian in louisiana on the yes line. good morning, brian. caller: good morning. i'm an independent. i think joe biden should stay in the race. i will not be voting for joe biden, but it is the way the democratic party right now is trying to push him out is actually, it is not even legal what they are doing. because he actually won the primary. so unless joe biden decides himself he wants to get out there is really not anything they can do, and it seems like

obama and pelosi are behind the scenes trying to work something out to get rid of him. i just don't think that is right. i don't think he is competent. he has been a terrible president, but they cannot do what they are doing to him. he has the right to be in this race as the presidential nominee for the democratic party. host: brian, you said you were an independent. who did you vote for in 2020? caller: i didn't vote in 2020. host: are you going to vote this year? caller: i don't know yet. if i do vote i'm going to end up voting for trump this time i think, because i think the economy was better under trump. the border was better under trump. so, joe biden just has not done it for me at all. he has been a big disappointment, actually. host: rob in grand junction, colorado on the no line. morning, rob. caller: yes, good morning.

before i got into education i did market research. the problem with president biden is the perception. perception that he is old. he shuffles. he makes mistakes when he talks. it is not the hard-core biden voters that will not vote for him. it is those on the fence. those that voted for him, those will stay home. the fact he is ahead by two points on the national poll is irrelevant, because we have the electoral college. the only three states that matter are pennsylvania, wisconsin, and michigan. in the last two elections those were close. the problem, especially when we are talking about senator michael bennet, who said he should run -- because they are concerned people are going to sit home and it will be a landslide in the senate and house for people that don't photo. you have been asking questions who they voted for? i haven't voted for the presidential ballot for the last

two elections. i will not vote this time. my mother sent back in the 1980's when ronald reagan was running. that she took care of an old man, that she wasn't voting for one. but i will vote down ballot. the problem is it is those three states. fact is, i really believe he won't do it. i like his policies. i like what he has done, but being in colorado doesn't make any difference. he is leading colorado by 13 points. the situation is he will not be able to win because people that voted for him in 2020 that are sitting there concerned about his mental acuity not only will not vote for him and stay home but they will not vote down ballot and that will be a very negative thing for the democrats and put the republicans in charge and i know too much about them living in colorado. that is really my concern, is the fact that perceptions of him, not being at a mental level

to be able to handle the job. thank you for your time. host: amy in georgia on the yes line. good morning, amy. caller: good morning. yes, i support joe biden and i'm disappointed in the democratic party because this election reminds me a lot of clinton -- hillary clinton's election. we are not voting based on policy. we are voting based on likability and character. i think joe biden has a way better character than donald trump. donald trump lies constantly. he doesn't stay on point. and right now it feels like it is age discrimination. there are a lot of officials older than joe biden that we are not asking to step down or step away. but it is just him, and that is unfair to him. he should stay in the election and democrats need to have a come to jesus meeting and agree he is the nominee and support him the best way they can.

host: that was amy in colorado. an earlier caller mentioned former president ronald reagan. in the wall street journal, this headline, americans worried about reagan's age too, and said, like president biden, ronald reagan seemed doting in his first debate for the election but he went on to win a second term and left office with notable achievements and broad public support. let's hear from allison in texas on the no line. good morning. caller: hi. good morning. i would like to take all of the emotion night of it and just ask people to please kind of stepped back just for one minute while i am talking. joe biden, picture him as any candidate. take his name off of it. picture him as a silhouette. and look at the last year of polling.

all of the polls, not just one or two. he has been under trump for the past year. he is pulling worse because of the debate and democrats have to be up more points republicans to get the electoral college. i personally don't care if it is joe biden or not. i don't love him or anything like that, but i really care that trump is not winning. so, i care about having the strongest candidate possible, and everybody that is saying democrats stick to him, that's not going to pull him through. i'm so sorry to tell you, he is not. he is so underwater, what he has to do is be this miraculous candidate that makes the biggest comeback in history just to get even to trump. you don't believe me? go back and look at the polls.

the thing is that, that last point, if you have a convention and get, basically, a ton of free press for younger, exciting candidates that do not have the badges that biden is carrying, for gaza and all of that, they are going to get all of this free press, they are going to be in the news. everybody's going to get excited. or a lot more people well. in the problem with biden's, i was even considering sitting it out. not because i want to take biden, but because he is not going to win anyway, and it makes me so angry at the dnc runs the worst candidates every time. so, if you care about trump not winning, please think about what is going to happen. no, we are not making this up.

he cannot make the most miraculous comeback in history. i mean, it is just a fact. thank you. host: this morning we are talking to -- queuing from democratic and independent callers, asking if president biden should stay in the 2024 rays. if you would like to call in the number is (202) 748-8000 if you say yes. if you say no, (202) 748-8001. and if you are not sure, (202) 748-8002. you can also leave us a comment on facebook or on x. on facebook brandon would comment, yesit is too late for biden to be removed from any ballot and campaign money cannot be moved to the next person. that is not harris. you don't want to vote for biden, both for harris. and bro says, if joe biden

stays on the ticket the decrats will end up losing this election and their congressional seats to t republicans. and when this happens the republican agenda project 2025, project 2025, will be enforced. let's hear from denise in new york, calling on the not shoreline. good morning morning, denise. caller: good morning, how are you doing? i wasn't sure whether or not biden won or not because of his age. it definitely is age determination because there are people in the house that are much older than biden, which is true. i believe now they need to get on biden about his deer in headlights presentation. that is what he looks like when he is on the podiums. he looks like a deer in headlight every time. i wasn't sure whether i was going to vote for him, but we need to make sure that, since he said he is not going to coming out the race, we need to put all of our eggs in the basket and

stand behind him, so that way donald trump does not win. that is the key. it is making sure donald trump does not win and we have a lot on steak, which is the democratic democracy. and people are forgetting about that. he is a convicted felon. convicted felons in our country cannot even vote, yet alone he is on the ballot. how is that even possible? how are we not seeing that? that he is a convicted felon and he is going through the highest office that is here is the presidency? but we all need to stand behind president joe biden at this point now. host: you said you were not sure before. what are your concerns about president biden? caller: well, it was his age. it is not even how he is running the country, it is just more of his age. that is why i wasn't sure. what i have been watching him in the news conference and i'm

leaning, since he said he is not coming out, we need to stand behind him, because not voting for anyone puts donald trump in office. host: that was denise in new york. it was yesterday on "today" that representative jim clyburn, congressman from south carolina, democrat, talked about his support for president biden. here is some of that interview. >> should the conversation about the president getting out of this race, should i continue? >> no. the conversation should focus on the record of this administration, on the alternative to his election, and let joe biden continue to make his own decisions. he has earned that right. and i'm going to give him that much respect. if he decides to change his mind later on, then we will respond

to that. we have until the 19th of august to open our convention. so i would hope would spend that time now focusing on the record we will lay out for the american people, remind the american people of what is in store for them if project 2025 were to become the law in any form. that is where our focus ought to be. >> congressman, again, how is this candidacy or candidate that can remain viable? if you literally have a democrat every day calling on him to drop out of the race. down ballot democrats that are going to be answering questions about the president's mental acuity? how is that a campaign that can be successful? rep. clyburn: joe biden is focused on the future of this country. i always say the best predictor of future performance is asked behavior. let's continue to compare the past behavior of joe biden to

the past behavior of his opponent, donald trump. and let that be a guide to our reactions going forward. i think if we do that we will give the american people exactly what they need to make their choice for our children and grandchildren. it is about whether we are going to have a viable democracy. host: let's hear from michael in oregon. the, michael. caller: good morning. . i would just comment that the airlines require pilots to retire at age 65. there are reasons for that. what you are seeing in biden is he is under stress. he doesn't have the acuity to handle the situation. another comment, the founders,

george washington, they would be rolling over in their graves with the knowledge that somebody has been in office since 1972. i'm 58 years old. i was six years old when this man took office. what you are seeing is, he will not let go of power. and that is a problem. so for all of the comments about trump wanting to anoint himself king, that is what you are witnessing. in addition, this man you just had on interviewing, clyburn, i don't know how old he is, but i think it is ironic you have people like nancy pelosi, who is 84 years old, trying to talk an 81-year-old man into hanging up the cleats because of his mental acuity. finally, this man is not going to have to live with the consequences of his decisions for very long. i'm not saying trump. trump is up there as well. and he has got his problems. this is a reflection of how stupid the american electorate is. we get what we deserve here.

so, that is my comment. host: angela in california on the not shoreline. -- not sure line. caller: good money. everyone is on joe biden to give up because of his age. i'm 64. if social security is not going to be here in 2025, and medicare , that means i'm going to have to continue to work past 70 in order to get my max social security. this is elderly abuse. i as an adult to active services -- why isn't adult protective services protecting joe biden? you are telling me you put trump in office? that means new dog -- snoop dogg can run. that means china can walk in by this country from donald trump. you all are playing a dangerous game here, using age against

biden to get him out of office when we have ada, american disability act. i work in private industry. if the democrats did me like they are doing biden, i would be in hr, i would have them in court. you all are playing a dangerous game going after biden and letting a convicted felon get in that office. i hope snoop run. host: we will go to winnifred in new york, new york, calling on the yes line. caller: hi, good morning. i'm going to vote for biden because, number one, he and caskey the primary -- number one, he won the primary. the war in ukraine, the war in the middle east. he has a plan for the board. he has a plan for social security. he has a plan for health care. he has a plan, he spelled it all

out yesterday and he might stumble maybe once but the crowd was with him and said, we support you, we've got your back. going to vote for him. it is too late. it is only three months left until the election and it is three months until the entire nation, to start over with someone new is ludicrous. i think with age comes wisdom. his whole career was politics. i think he knows what he is doing, and i would not give him up for the other party. and i think it is foolish to try to start now in three months to pick a new person. ok. host: that was winnifred in new york. several callers this morning

citing former president trump is the reason why biden should stay in the race. the new york times had an editorial. the editorial board put out an opinion piece earlier this week. this is the headline. donald trump is unfit to lead. mr. trump hasn't shown a character unworthy of the responsibilities o presidency. he has demonstrated an utter lack of respect for the constitution, the rule of law, and the american people. instead of a cogent vior the country's future, mr. trump is animated by a thirst for he used the levers of govt to advance his interests, satisfy his impul and extract retribution t those who he thinks has wronged him. he is, quite s unf to lead. the democrats are rightly engagedtheiown debate over whether president biden is the right person toarry the party's nomination, gen

widespread concern about his age-related fitness. beuse of the legitimatese concerns that mr. trump may present a danger to the country, its strength, security, and national character, that it is a compelling democratic alternate is the only thing that would prevent his return to power. we have about 20 minutes left in this phone section, hearing from democratic and independent collars and asking if president biden should stay in thrace. robin in california is calling on the no line. good morning, robin. caller good morning, how are you? i am a know because i believe biden is not fit mentally and i believe he needs follow the rules and step down. that is why we have a vice president. if he were to have a stroke, lewitt step in is my idea. i have been listening to folks

and i surprised that everybody is in fear about is, because there is a third choice. people can vote for robert f. kennedy, jr. there is another person on the llot in all 50 states and d.c. i'm not sure why everody is up in arms. there are other choices. but biden, to me, feels like a national security risk. he does. he is not competent to be making executive decisions anymore, and that frustrates me as a voter. i don't belie we should have unelected people making decisions we elected a president to do. that is my thought. host: sonya in columbia, maryland calling on the yes line. morning. caller: good morning. i'm going to vote for biden. i think he should stay in. when you think about the alternative, to have trump as

our president, all trump does is get in his lane, -- plain, though to a rally, back to mar-a-lago. biden has been out there. he knows what he is doing. yes, he is -- he stumbles. i am 78. i stumble when i'm talking. i think we should leave biden in and get out there and vote. that is all people have to do. just vote so we can have control of the senate, control of the congress, and then you will get the things you want. if you put trump in there you are going to end up with project 2025, and that is something people need to look at and realize what the alternative is. just get out there and vote for biden. if something should happen, like can pick it up as vice president. but the president does not make all of the decisions by himself. he has an administration. he has a congress. he has a synod. and if we vote and take control

of all of these areas we will be in control and biden will win and we will not have anything to worry about. just get out there and vote. do not sit it out. that is how trump got in in the first place. host: that was sonja in maryland. another maryland caller, sarah. good morning. caller: i don't think biden should have run, but he is the nominee and it does not look like he is going to actually step down. but your previous caller had a good point about robert f kennedy would be another choice -- robert f. kennedy would be another choice. we have somebody that is publicly stating he is going to go after people, use the power of the presidency to go after people. is this how low this country has sunk?

that this is tolerable to people? we have project 2025, where people are asked, you know, under a trump presidency to do a loyalty pledge and only conservatives could serve in the government, you know? from what i have seen and heard about that. i mean, how bad can it get? you have a former president under trump, many talked about the military and calls everybody in the military losers and suckers if they gave their life for this country. he did the same thing to john mccain. i find it phenomenal that any republican can vote for somebody like that that would literally consider their fallen daughter or son a loser, you know? why would you give your vote to somebody like that? when you really think about it that is what the communist party

in china does. where they go after dissidents or people who do not fall into party lines. this is how far we have sunk, and the republican party, every time i think we cannot sink any lower in this country, the republican party shows me wrong. and i used to be republican. i cannot support this kind of radicalism with them any longer. i mean, this is scary. host: got your point there. met in somerville, massachusetts says he is not sure. caller: good morning. that was a great call. that was so good to listen to. i said i am not sure because i have three different answers based on the context. if we are talking about getting rid of trump, this miserable, terrible human being who makes fun of pows, by the way, and

handicapped people -- and we all know what he thinks about women. if we are talking about that context, trying to get rid of that human poison from our context here, then, sure, vote for biden. i cannot even believe people are so gullible to vote for trump. i can't believe it. this is beyond ideology, as the previous caller alluded to. i don't care if you are conservative, but if you are going to try to take down the government and lower us all sociologically to the bottom of the trash bin like trump has, just as a human being, can we be good people here? host: matt, the question is, should president biden in the race? why are you not sure? caller: my second answer, if the context personally is me, i

would say no. we need to get silent generation and boomers out of power. out of financial power. when i go to work and i see this boomer guy with multiple assets and incomes and two houses giving me crap when my salary doesn't go up from inflation and they give me more work, i have no sympathy. people are totally disconnected. host: what is your third? caller: what was my third? i linked it up. in the greater scheme here it is we need to get old people out of power. they are financially skimming us as nutrition for their retirement. host: dallas matt in massachusetts. evelyn in chicago, illinois says, yes, biden should stay in the race. caller: i used to be a teacher and i think people need to look

at what is going on with the education program and project 2025. the first thing dictators do is get rid of education and get rid of educators. that way they can control people. that is what happened in america. the education has been down. we need to vote for biden to keep our educational system. and also my second thing is democrats do not know how to fight. republicans know how to fight. they bring an ak-47 to the fight. we bring a piece of paper. democrats. in have to fight. they have to stand behind joe biden if you want a democracy. thank you. host: we have your tweeting and texting this money. this text from joseph in fayetteville, north carolina. he says, i am an independent.

joe biden should stay in the race. he should give vice president kamala hris a chance to grow her popularity. stew in oregon, ohio says, biden should leave the race. i'm worried, what would he be like the next four years? he is bad now. and on facebook, miguel garcia says, clearly he should not. the republican party wants him to stay. that should answer this question. we in wisconsin on the no line. good morning, ruby. caller: yes, i said no because everybody is against trump, which is ok. but biden is a racist, and i tell you why. in the 1994 crime bill he put all of these black people in prison, destroyed them, and they are still being destroyed as of today. don't take my word. ask kamala harris. she said in front of millions that biden is a racist. but you know why? he will forgive him, but they

will not forgive trump. they would sit in church tomorrow praising god, talking about trump being the man that went with the woman, the point star, yet one fourth or more of our black pastors are going with the sisters in the church. thank you, mama. host: mahmoud in michigan on the yes line. good morning, my mood. caller: the democrats' strategy, compared the biden team to the trump team. if you look at the past trump team concede they are filled up with people with convictions, they are being investigated. and even those who are not, some of the earlier members of his staff after leaving talked about how dumb he is. so, if we broaden the

conversation to the team that will do two things. create a larger and better contrast. and then i think that might help open up a possible pivot to a second strategy that is, by the convention given enough exposure to the team if biden is still not doing well, then that is a pivot to the next leader. but i think by highlighting the team what democrats can do is show the quality of the team is what matters and then show future leadership. with trump there is no future leadership. nobody knows what the republican party is outside of trump. that contrast will be very favorable to the democrats. host: gerald in ohio. good morning. caller: good morning. you know, everybody wants to talk about trump.

talk about biden. i have listened to the speech he did last night. and he ain't no better than trump is. and on our social security -- and on our social security he is not going away with social security. everybody there got raises since biden has been in, they took half of our raise and gave it to medicare. and that is wrong to do that. host: kevin in new hampshire on the yes line. morning, kevin. caller: good morning. i like joe. his cabinet has been good and stable versus what trump had, where he had, you know, a lot of makes up -- mixups in his cabinet and he did not have anyone in there for very long.

i think joe is a good, professional politician. i think he has some problems, maybe, with his nerves. he seemed to screw up a little bit when he was on his debate or gave a speech. and i think he recovered ok, you know? at least on his speech. i don't know what was going on with him with his debate. i think he had a bad night. i think he is a good man and a professional at what he does, and i think that is a big controversy, to -- or, not controversy, but opposite to what trump is. so, i like joe. and i'm not for make america great again again. i don't think maga is the way we should go. thank you. host: just a few minutes left in this morning's question. in this morning's washington post, a free-for-all, they post

comments and critiques from readers. one of them is from susan barnes in newport, rhode island. she notes the headline there is, don't give biden the johnson treatment. she is a 75-year-old liberal and says, the post writers might be too young to recall the last time democrats hounded a sitting president into stepping out of the race, but they should consider how lyndon johnson's withdrawal gave richard nixon -- gave us richard nixon. richard nixon was a crook who's come in committee was preschool antics compared to whom i take the office next. there are patriotic republican lawmakers who persuaded nixon to resign. not one person will represent the gop in congress next year. elections are always a choice between flawed human beings, each of human -- each of whom could form --

send in north carolina on the not sure line. good morning, cindy. caller: good morning. i am not sure. i'm an independent. but everybody's calling in, and a lot of people are saying in the news and elsewhere about age . i'm 72 and i think it depends on mental acuity. a lot of callers are not mentioning mental acuity. and that is what i am basing. i watched biden. i did not vote for biden. i did not vote for trump. but i like to look at policies. if people would look at policy instead of -- and what has happened the last four years,

and all of the line going on on both sides, it is just ridiculous that we have two men up there, one half is convicted, but look at the cases he has been convicted of. and i think there was some voodoo going on there too, about all of these charges brought against trump. host: cindy, are you going to vote? caller: yes i am. host: do you know who you're going to vote for? caller: no. i don't think it is going to be biden. i don't know about trump yet. i'm just saying, look at the mental acuity. when you have "the view" come on their like whoopi goldberg who says, if he poops his pants i will vote for him. look at the policies these men are bringing forth. host: denita in baltimore

calling on the yes line. morning, denita. -- good morning, denita. caller: i'm going to vote for biden. i think he should stay in the race. i would much rather have a president who cannot find his keys or remember the name of the secretary of agriculture than a president who is going to agree to something with some foreign leader because he thinks he likes him at that moment. also, how are we going to be able to trust anything trump says to us? if he comes out and tells us he said one thing and we find out later he said something else, the ability to lie and the narcissism with donald trump is way more dangerous. there will be somebody there to help biden find his keys. host: and our last caller, and you're in oklahoma city, oklahoma, says, no. good morning, andrew. caller: thanks for taking my

call this morning. i want to remind people, a lot of them don't know this, especially in the republican party, is that inflation is global. trump spent about as much money as biden has. inflation in canada, mexico, france, u.k., germany, sweden, all of these countries had higher inflation then america right after the pandemic. a lot of it is greed. some of it is supply chain. some of it is the oil prices. so it really comes down to it, i am all for biden staying. if he was drooling for them -- from the mouth and on a bedpan he would be a better man than trump. trump's record when he was president, he went golfing over 240 times after telling folks that voted for him he would not have time once president to go golfing. dodged the draft, ran an illegal charity. he is just an absolute shyster

conmen. and really kind of a fake christian. if you are trying to cut food programs for kids and giving tax cuts to billionaires you are not jesus, ok? i would vote any democrat -- and, you know, if you look at 2016 and 2020 there was one person that was +15 that was bernie sanders. there is a lot of people that could be trump, but like i said, if joe biden is on a bedpan and drooling i am voting for him. host: that does it for our first hour. up next, we going to dive deeper into president biden's reelection bid in the future of the democratic party with joey garrison. later, marc caputo is going to discuss his sub stack newsletter

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where do things stand right now? where does president biden stand after the debate and then the press conference thursday? joey: as we are sitting here saturday morning, i mean, president biden has been clear and he was clear again last night in a rally in detroit that he is running for president and nothing is going to change his mind. i mean, you know, we've had 24 now congressional democrats defectors, detractors who have said they want biden to withdraw from the race. biden has made it clear to everyone that he is moving forward. outside of some really talk to democrats, and i'm talking pelosi, clyburn, obama coming to biden and getting in his ear and saying hey, you need to get out, i don't see what's going to push him aside at this point. the campaign seems very intent on moving ahead. host: there were a lot of eyes on thursday's press conference.

a lot of people were calling it a make it or break it moment for him. did that change anything in terms of support or opposition? joey: i think if he had just gone out there and done terribly, i think you would have may be some more of a groundswell, more democrats coming out. but he did just well enough. again, the bar was pretty low coming off i thought that's what i thought was a pretty lackluster interview with george stephanopoulos the week before and the debate -- really bad debate he had. but he did a lot to quell some of the -- a lot of the fears democrats had. there were three or so congress members who issued statements calling for him to drop out of the race. i think those were kind replanted just waiting for the nato summit to get out. friday, we had more democrats, you know, come out asking that he move aside during the nomination. but i think he did, the campaign came away very pleased with how

the press conference went. they thought he showed command talking about various foreign policy issues and showed that he was fit for office in that way. of course, fielded questions for an hour from 10 different reporters. the campaign, the white house thought he met the bar. eased the concerns of some democrats but he certainly did not end all speculation about what might come next for his candidacy. host: his campaign has, as you just said, did react to his thursday press conference positively. otherwise, how has the campaign been reacting to these calls for him to step aside? joey: well, i think what we saw last night in detroit, and i think this was a pretty important rally for biden to have. there was a real boisterous crowd, lively crowd. he came out to chant of "don't you quit!"

i think you could see president biden really uplifted by this packed gymnasium in a high school in detroit. you also started to see a new message coming from biden, a new speech where he went after the press. he said hate, i might slip up with some names, i might call charlie bob. what he actually did was call zelenskyy, the president of ukraine, putin, but he downplayed it there. he said while i am making these, the press is given trump a pass -- giving trump a pass. he's trying to turn the attention from the inner fight within his party over his nomination to trump and his policy agenda. and he has to do that in order to have any chance of winning this fall. he cannot let this be a referendum on his age and his mental fitness. he has to shift this campaign to a referendum on trump and his policies. and of course, what the campaign is doing right now is leaning in heavily on this project 2025,

the blueprint, legislative blueprint created by the heritage foundation, which of course lies with trump. that's the message coming from the biden campaign. they are trying to move on past this debate over whether he should be the next nominee, stop really acknowledging it much publicly and going right at trump. host: ahead of last night's rally, president biden's rally last night in michigan, the associated press tweeted this. michigan governor gretchen whitmer will not attend biden's michigan appearance on fri gary peters, a steadfast biden supporter and representative vying for mi's open senate will also be absent. united autoworkers president sean fain is traveling, he also did not attend. your reaction? joey: that's obviously not a great sign for biden and it

shows there is worry throughout the democratic party, in liberal constituencies like the uaw about his shot to win the election. there been reporting of sean fain, the head of uaw, who biden went to the picket line a year ago during uaw's big strike against the three major u.s. automakers, there's reporting that fain is worried biden does not have any shot to win the election and is terrified about, you know, the prospects of another trump presidency. when it comes to whitmer, of course, she's been on this kind of speculate of short list of democrats that could be waiting in the wing if biden does not continue to seek the nomination of reelection. she wasn't there. of course, it's interesting she wasn't there, because she's publicly been outspoken that she does support president biden. she was among a group of 10 governors and person who met

with biden about a week or two ago right after the fallout from the debate. . began. and peters, the senator come of course, is the senator charged with trying to retain the democratic majority in the senate. and so, if he wasn't there as reported, i'm not sure, that obviously is very notable itself. i mean, democrats throughout the country right now, especially in these swing districts, congressional districts in some swing states, you know, they are looking at a president that has got incredibly low approval ratings. they are worried, you know, that the house could, you know, just to be a disaster in terms of republicans growing a majority. they are worried about the senate, democrats losing control of the senate. and all those, you know, what they are concerned about is

biden bringing down the democratic ticket across the country. and you know, biden has got a long ways to go before he solves that angst that's within the party right now. host: we are talking with joey garrison, usa today white house correspondent about president biden's reelection bid and future of the democratic party. if you have a question or comment, you can start calling in now. the lines, the democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. as we mentioned, all eyes on president biden on thursday during that news conference. but between now and november, everything he does is going to be heavily scrutinized. what is the campaign doing to ensure that he is putting his best foot forward and reassuring people that he has what it takes for the next four years? joey: well, as has came out and some reporting, they are going to try to limit any late-night

campaign events. the one last night in detroit, that kind of got off starting around 7:00 p.m. really, the white house has really for the last year or two has made sure any of his public events is between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. biden was asked about that and pushed back at this idea that he cannot handle it. he said he just needs to pace himself more. there's going to be structural things with the campaign that they are going to try to do to make sure the best biden is going forward and not the biden that we saw in the debate. but you are right, we saw it on thursday, which i think, again, democrats in the campaign were pleased with generally how that press conference went. but for a lot of folks, you know, the most memorable things that came out of it was biden calling vice president kamala harris vice president trump. and then before that,

introducing ukrainian president zelenskyy as president putin before world leaders. you know, while we are all questioning, or much of the political world is questioning whether biden can do this, remain as president till he's 86 effectively, it just draws more scrutiny for any kind of slip-up, any kind of gaffe, flub that he could have in the coming weeks. biden, even before this disastrous debate he had, he was, you know, a self-described gaffe machine. there's going to be slip-ups. the campaign was asked about this ms. speaks that biden -- misspeaks the other night, and they said look, biden has made gaffes for 40, 50 years and probably will continue but look at trump's agenda. they are going to try to pivot to, yeah, ok, let's look at

trump was trying to enter the white house again. host: first caller for the segment in buoy, maryland calling on the democrats lined. hi. caller: yes. good morning. mr. garrison, now, you're a reporter and you don't know why governor whitmer was not at the rally? that's because she had something else on her calendar. i read that the other day. why don't you know that? you are a reporter. so far as president biden gaffes, we all make gaffes. i could have easily called you joshua, but your name is joey. that's no problem. president biden has an administration, a capable administration that helps him run this government. there is no shadow government, none of this crazy stuff that the republicans are talking about. this one caller, matt from massachusetts, he was not sure about president biden running again.

he had three points. he couldn't even remember his last point and he's a young man. we all have gaffes. i could care less about the gaffes. you don't care about trump calling his so-called doctor in the white house johnson. his last name is jackson. and trump talking about electrical boats and sharks and all that craziness. come on, people. get a grip. joey: i mean, i think that's exactly the point the biden campaign is trying to make. click, we all make gaffes. these are insignificant ones. biden in a speech last night in detroit said trump is a guy who instead of saying nancy pelosi in regards to january 6 talked about nikki haley. so, you know, i think that you, with biden last night, was talking about the press being too hard and hammering him and, you know, being easy on trump

and letting him off the hook. i think he was speaking to folks like you who are frustrated with the coverage the best they are seeing. thanks for the call. host: rick in birmingham, alabama on the independent line. caller: how are you doing? mr. garrison, i agree with what you are saying. but the problem, for me as an independent, i mean, i'm definitely not for trump. but the problem for me is are the people that's behind joe biden, if they really want to get behind this guy, they have to get behind him totally, no matter what. when you look at trump supporters, he even set himself, he can go out on fifth avenue and kill somebody, they will still support him. they are going to support him all the way. i just want to ask you, why is it that the democrats don't do the same thing? what's the problem? joey: i think.

great question. i think there's various key constituencies within the democratic base, young voters, black voters, hispanic voters where biden is underperforming. if you look at polling, there is any number of ways you could sort of unpack what's going on right now. but i don't have the most recent numbers ahead of me. but of people, of the 2020 voters, trump, a much larger percentage of those who voted for trump say they plan to do so again in 2024 compared to biden, where fewer of those are on board this time. so, there's more people who are concerned, you know, just uneasy, unexcited, on enthused about it biden second term among the democratic base. you know, i think for, you know, pointing out that, you know, one of the concerns when all this is discussed about whether biden has the mental fitness and

sharpness, acuity for another term is i think for a lot of independent voters, who ultimately are going to help decide this election, they look at biden, they don't really like either of these guys. they call them the double haters. but in their mind, they say, well, i might not be a fan of trump. i am worried what he might do in a second presidency. i don't like his style. but then again, i am really worried that biden could really be in command in the white house. so, it turns this into kind of an equalizer affect, his age and those concerns about it and having it continuing on with his second term. host: janice in tennessee on the democrat line. good morning. caller: i just want to say, everybody is complaining about biden's age and his stuttering problem. let's put it this way, trump repeats every freaking lie he's

ever said in his life and he keeps on saying get. i just want to say about this, they complain about biden's age, but look at the people in congress. you have got mitch mcconnell cannot say a word anymore. you've got some of them are like 89 years old. what are they complaining about? you know, [indiscernible] because he's got parkinson's so that. it's just, you know. why just pick on him? joey: you are right. i mean, d.c. and the capital has become a much older place. it always has been, over the years. by the way, janice, i'm from tennessee as well, so it's good to hear from somebody from my home state. in some regard, among democrats, anyways, you recently had pelosi, hoyer, others

approaching their elder age who kind of stepped down from leadership positions. biden is trying to continue at 81, about to be 82 in november. throughout the republican party as well, you have mcconnell, who, you know, plans to step down from leadership soon. but, you know, yeah, it's an old, it's definitely a group where you have a lot of folks in the 80's here in, at the capitol. host: randy in florida on the republican line. good morning, randy. caller: good morning. i just want to say, this is not a popularity contest. this is not the miss america contest or anything like that. this is about policies. you have to look at what the policies of the trump administration versus the biden administration has been over the years. we have seen both of them perform and we know where we were when trump was in office and we know where we are now currently.

thank you for listening to me. joey: yeah, the biden campaign is trying to make it about policies by really hammering, and i think you are going to start to hear a lot about this, but the project 2025 is something they've ramped up a lot since the debate, you know, focusing how there are policies in there to, you know, eliminate the fbi and department of education and québec climate change or -- cut back climate change research, policies that the administration and the campaign calls extreme. they think that's a winning argument for them if they put that out there. caller: during the 2024 campaign, president biden had -- host: during the 2024 campaign, president biden had said that he was going to serve as a bridge for younger generations and he was asked about that during the press conference thursday. here are those remarks.

we will talk about it after. >> and 2020, you referred it to yourself as being a bridge candidate for a younger, fresher generation of democratic leaders. and i wanted to know, what changed? pres. biden: what changed was the gravity of the situation i inherited. in terms of the economy, our foreign policy, and domestic division. and i think, i won't put words in anybody's mouth. most presidential historians give me credit for having accomplished more than most any president since johnson and maybe before that to get major pieces of legislation passed. what i realized was my long time in the senate had equipped me to have the wisdom on how to deal with the congress to get things done. we got more legislation -- more

major legislation passed that no one thought would happen and i want to finish it, to get it finished. tomorrow, if we had a circumstance or whatever, there was a lineup and i didn't happen to inherit what i did and we just moved things along, anyway. it's going to change. host: president biden has also said that it's not about his legacy, him running for reelection, but it's about finishing the job. has he outlined exactly what it is that he wants to accomplish? joey: he did last night in his speech for the first time start talking about a first 100 days, and includes things like restoring roe v. wade legislatively, pass the john lewis voting rights act, strength and enhance -- strengthen and enhance medicare, social security. a lot of these will not pass congress under its current construction and singly face a threat of -- seemingly face a threat of filibuster from

republican so it's probably not a very practical first 100 days that he talked about in his ruddy last night but it is an aspirational. he's trying to rally of democrats to get behind a vision there. he was asked about whether, you know, what happened, this whole idea of being a bridge candidate. during the campaign, he never actually said what he meant by that. he could say i will be a bridge candidate by being president for eight years and then pass the baton. he tried to push back at this idea of him wanting to serve another term isn't just about his ego or political ambitions. said it's not about my legacy, i just got here and the stakes are so high. people can, democrats can sort of push back on that if they want. and you know, question whether that's really the case or whether this is just about a person who, again, has been a

politics for 50 years, so it's kind of hard to hang get up, whether you are an athlete or in politics. that's kind of the argument that biden is pushing forward, there's just two more he wants to get done let me get the -- there's just too much more he wants to get them, let me just get the job done. host: glenn on the democrat line. caller: i would like to say this. first of all, i think that president biden is fit to be president. he's been president for 4.5 years. he's done a very, very good job. because i know some things that have happened under his presidency have really helped me in my life. i don't understand the point that we keep hammering on this. why do you keep ringing this up everyday about president biden? we don't see you bringing up that the against president trump. i'm sick and tired of this and i'm being very real. black people are really sticking with this president. all i've noticed, everybody that's come out of this democratic party are white

lawmakers, everybody that i'm think. i want to say this, sir, you down plane 2025 that the democrats are putting 2025. it should. because first of all, be very afraid. i'm a black person, african-american. i'm very afraid of project 2025. we need to talk about it more. i don't see you on c-span bringing this up everyday. why you're not breaking up project under 25 everyday -- why y'all not breaking up project 2025 everyday? 34 counts felony, donald trump, alleged rapist. y'all not bringing any of that up. let's get real. we are only trying to talk rep president biden. president biden has done a lot. host: we are -- we actually have quite a bit discussed project on a 25 as was president trump lawsuits. do you have any response for her? joey: it again speaks to what president biden was talking but yesterday in his rally. as a way to energize base around him, he said the press is giving

trump a free pass, they are not talking about project 2025, let me talk about it. we of course are, as you noted, reporting about it extensively, both your program, my publication, others. but it's a way for him to rally democrats. and she is also right, black democrats in congress very loyal right now to the president. there is, you know, the black congressional caucus has remained steadfast in its support. that's very key. that's the most important demographic historically for democrats. and you know, that is a major, as biden continues to try to fight back in the effort to force him out, but that's a major advantage he has right now in holding his ground. host: david in new york on the independent line. hi, david. caller: good morning, everybody.

i am actually a true independent. i am in brooklyn. this project 2025 from where we are at, the independents, it seems kind of like what they talked about with the pee tapes and with all the other things, the russia hoaxes, and all that other stuff. i'm not sure that's the way the democrats are going to pull voters. my question is to joey. one president trump, who profited financially from business, got in, the first week they talked about the 25th amendment, and yet we have someone who is very much in a cognitive decline. we've seen over and over again. no one brings up the 25th the minute -- amendment. i am just wondering why? joey: i think you have heard some house republicans start floating that idea following the debate. i just don't think it's a very practical thing to exercise here. i think it's more thrown out or introduced as a kind of political point to try to go

after, you know, the president. the same case with trump. i don't think that was ever going to be executed. that's kind of what we see, what's discourse around using the 25th amendment. host: we are talking with joey garrison, usa today white house correspondent. we have him for about another 15 minutes. if you have a question or comment, feel free to call in or text us. you can also leave us a message on twitter or on x. let's hear from harmon in port arthur, texas on the democrats line. hi, harmon. caller: i am for biden and i think biden is 81 years old. i'm 89 myself and i still got a good mind. to me, age don't matter. biden have a good cabinet and that's what i like about them. have a good cabinet. when trump was in there, every

time i look, he's getting rid of somebody. biden has a good cabinet. i think he needs to come done more on trump. january 6, nobody is talking about that. people died in that. january 6, nobody discusses that. the democrats need to come down on trump. if biden lose, his own party going to be cost that he. thank you. joey: i think you are going to start hearing a lot more about january 6 from the biden campaign when it comes to television ads. and again, it is framing trump as a true threat to the united states. and right now, again, that's what biden was talking about yesterday. we are not talking about it enough. it's going to be the campaign's responsibility here and kind of their goal to make sure it is discussed more. so thanks for the call.

host: in maryland. good morning. caller: good morning. beautiful. let me make a brief call-in and then i will end. the previous speaker spoke about january 6. and if we have any reasoning people in this country who are interested in the development of the country, we wouldn't even be considering donald trump for anything, not even for a [indiscernible] and let alone for the president of the united states? where is our minds? where are our minds, rather? english happens to be my fourth language that was imposed on the colonial africa that i came from. ok.

i have five children here and five grandchildren and many more are coming. i think i have enough working knowledge of english to say let's make is donald trump retarded? he's talking about let's make america great again? when was america great? was it the time we actually came here to slaughter the native americans. -- americans? or the ku klux klan? or racism? or the hanging of people on the trees, lynching of people? when was the united states great? host: let's get a response from the guest. joey: oh, yeah, well, i think you speak to a lot of folks who when you hear that language of let's make america great again, for a lot of people in this country, it wasn't so great, of course, when there were not

civil rights for many groups of americans. i think when people hear that message, depending who you are, depending what your background is, you hear a lot of different things with trump's core message, of course, going now all the way back to 2016 and today to 2024. host: last night at the rally in michigan, president biden did reaffirmed that he is going to remain in the race. the dnc convention starts in chicago in 37 days. if something happens between now and then, is it plausible to replace him as the top of the ticket? joey: well, i mean, time is running out here. as you pointed out, 37 days here. and the first thing that's required for there to be a different nominee who is nominated at the convention would for biden to willingly essentially say i am not going to seek the nomination anymore and releases delegates, that of

course, have been pledged to him through the various primaries that we saw this year. so that's the first step. he does not seem willing to do that. but the one other hurdle that you have, if let's say he does, let's say there's a groundswell of more democrats saying, hey, you got to get out. and he comes to a different mind and says, yes, i will. well, there is various hurdles state-by-state in terms of when, you know, those states have to approve the ballots for the november election. we've seen a legal battle in ohio just with putting biden's name on the ballot. you can bet republicans are not going to make it easy for democrats to all of sudden switch nominees. i think you would see lawsuits in various states trying to keep him off. democrats nominated, the voters nominated joe biden, you cannot all of a sudden put kamala harris, or whoever, at the top of the ticket. so it would be very messy. and then, of course, you get to

the process of actually nominating a replacement for biden. would you do that? i have seen some people kind of introduce this idea of a blitz primary, where you have a certain number of candidates and then let the delegates, sort of rank choice, who they are. or do you do a different mechanism? i think kamala harris would be the favorite but that's not a guaranty. it would really, you know, open things up to who knows what direction. of course. , it would make that dnc convention that we are attending in chicago very interesting. host: the dnc convention will be in chicago next month. c-span will be covering it. the rnc convention in milwaukee kicks off on monday. we will be covering that as well. you can find more information on c-span's webpage, c-span.org/rnc2024. there's scheduling information and key speeches from this year's convention will be on

there and you can also look at previous gatherings. jim in idaho calling on the republican line. hi, jim. caller: yes, my problem with biden is he don't know the definition of murder. we got all these babies being killed. we got the spread of aids and hiv, a lot of people has died. when a shooter goes out and shoot somebody, yes, that's murder. but then he wants to blame everybody and he wants to take everybody's gun away and says we don't -- you don't need a gun, we got the national guard. president trump, he activated the national guard during black lives matter, a lot of businesses was being destroyed.

host: we will get a response from joey, jim. joey: um, yeah, it sounds like probably a republican voter who does not appreciate some of biden's democratic views on abortion and others there. president biden has always himself kind of personally struggled with abortion as a catholic. of course, he is supportive of abortion rights and right now says, you know, he wants to restore the protections of the roe v. wade for 50 years. granted, of course, it was overturned in the supreme court in 2022. i know that the caller does not agree with the deposition that biden has but the democrats and biden campaign believes, you know, it can really capitalize in certain states on abortion being on the ballot after some states have, have, have banned

abortion or at least restricted it following the supreme court's ruling. but all that, i mean, this abortion issue has really sort of got lost in recent weeks following the crisis biden finds himself in. that's one of the things biden needs to redirect and use a lot of surrogates to really hammer down and decide that abortion is on the ballot. we did see after the supreme court overturned roe v. wade, we saw a real, you know, this issue galvanize women voters and democratic voters. two years later, is still going to have that same effect? we will see. host: kathy in ohio on the democrat line. good morning. caller: good morning. i want to say that trumpet meeting with victor aurburn yesterday -- victor orban

yesterday says everything about what he would be you like if he were elected. they ended their meeting with a great big hug and a thumbs up. what's that all about? orban has been going around, met with putin, xi, the guy from china, jean ping, and you know just xi jinping, and you know, it's very scary. joey: and that of course came around the same time at the nato summit that biden was hosting in washington. the biden campaign and president biden is going on the attack against trump, saying this is a guy who is interested, wants to be friends with the dictators, points out the orban meeting. biden is saying during his vital address closing out nato the other day that the future of nato is really at stake, pointing to trump's pastor marks test passed remarks -- past remarks.

casting doubt on whether the u.s. should continue to play a part in the alliance that's been around for 75 years. meetings biden, former president trump has had with orban in mar-a-lago very interesting and noteworthy. host: another tennessee caller for you, angela: on the independent line. hi, angela. caller: hi. i just want to say that i am for biden. i don't see how anybody can vote for a criminal, treasonous person like tramp. and when it comes to the abortion, some women are getting denied health care that want their babies, but they are dying because their baby died. and they cannot even get health care. that's terrible. ok, thank you for taking michael. that's my call -- my call. joey: the biden campaign have pointed out some of these individual stories like the

caller just described to try to put a face to what the supreme court's decision wasn't how that's played out. i think you are going to start hearing a lot more of those kind of cases. i think that will be a big theme at the dnc convention. wouldn't shock me if they have somebody take the stage and talk to people, or talk to the crowd, a live audience, how this decision has affected them personally. host: mark in the st. paul, minnesota on the republican line. hi, mark. caller: hi. it seems to me that biden's mental decline was common knowledge amongst the white house press corps. chuck todd, for example, a couple of days ago said on a podcasted that two years ago he was speaking to a high-level cabinet secretary and the secretary said to him, "he can't be running like this, can he?" and of course, the wall street journal had its long article about biden slipping.

i want to know, how many stories did usa today do about biden's mental decline or lack of mental acuity? joey: i think we had several stories on his age and the issues that concerns people had about them. i think really, you know, in the last six months, reporting has talked about this, really starting at the beginning of the year, i think there has been a change in biden in terms of how he presents itself, in terms of maybe lapses that have been going on behind the scenes. and you know, so i think that is why, potentially why we saw in that debate just a kind of biden at his worst state right there. and yeah, i mean, it's been, the moment he took office, president biden, you know, he was already the oldest president in united states history. so it's been a question hanging over his whole presidency. the white house did a lot of

things for three and a half years to kind of minimize the opportunities for his age to really show. most notably, he's, yes, he did conduct a solo press conference the other day, but i think it was only his 14th or 15th. he is had way fewer -- he's had a way fewer total press conferences than his past immediate predecessors. he has very rarely sat down for television interviews and even fewer times has he set down, unfortunately, with print reporters like myself. so, those are some of the ways that i think they were intentionally trying to limit opportunities for biden to show any mental decline that might be out there. host: one last call. events in florida on the -- you that on -- yvette in florida on the democrats line. caller: wow, i cannot believe i

got through. its my first time. i've been a longtime listener, first time caller. i will be voting for joe biden or whoever it is they decide to put up. i think it will be joe. i think it's kind of late in the game for [indiscernible] we have a gaffe-prone candidate, biden. and we have a candidate, trump, who has displayed mental disorders quite blatantly and over and over. a narcissist, sociopaths, you name it. this guy has got to go. and why his party is totally behind him and biden's party is trying to sink him is beyond me. i don't understand what's going on there. joey: thanks for the call. i think barring something major happening, you are going to get

your wish where biden is going to be the democratic nominee. as we wrap up at the show here, he has showed no signs that he's interested or considering stepping aside. i think when he saw that crowd in michigan last night, i think he says, hey, look, i've got all these supporters. why would i drop out here? the biden campaign is pointing to head-to-head polls. there was one by npr that had biden up two points over trump. of course, i would argue that those national polls are kind of hiding and giving a misleading picture when you break it down and look at the bow to ground states like pennsylvania, michigan, wisconsin, where biden is largely behind. i think outside of there being a major development where you have, again, like the likes of pelosi, or clyburn, or obama the former president,, going to biden and sitting him down and

giving a full-court press and assange you got to drop out -- and saying you got to drop out. outside of something like that happening, i don't see how it's not biden as the democratic nominee at 81 years old going up against trump in november. host: joey garrison, white house correspondent for usa today. you can find his work at usatoday.com and on x. thank you so much for being with us. coming up, marc caputo is going to discuss his political newsletter, "magaville" about the republican party, donald trump and his make america great again movement. but first, more of your calls during open forum. you can start calling in now. those lines. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. we will be right back.

♪ >> in 2022 at an ncaa women's championship, collegiate swimmer riley gains tied for fifth place in the 200 meter freestyle final transgender athlete leah thomas. since then, she's become an outspoken critic of transgender women competing in women's sports. riley gaines talks about her swimming career, her stance on transgender athletes and the backlash she received after going public with her views, topics in her new book, swimming against the current. >> when i asked the dreaded question, why are you adamant giving this trophy to the man in the women's 200 free? what's the thought process here. i appreciated his honesty. and understand, he said this

with a somber voice. his face changed. it visibly looked sad. i could tell he did not even believe what he was about to say. but he looked at me, and he said, riley, i'm so sorry, but we have been advised that one photos are being taken, it's crucial that the trophy is in lia's hands. >> riley gaines with her book "swimming against the current" on the c-span's q&a. listen on the free c-span now app. ♪ >> c-span's campaign 2024 takes you live to milwaukee for our coverage of the republican national convention. delegates from across the country gather to selected the republican nominee for president. watch as they lay out their priorities and parties vision for the future. the republican national convention, live monday on

c-span, c-span now, or online at c-span.org. c-span, your unfiltered view of the convention. ♪ c-span now is a free mobile app featuring your unfiltered view of what's happening in washington, live and on-demand. keep up with the day's biggest events with live streams of the floor proceedings and hearings from the u.s. congress, white house events, the courts, campaigns and more from the world of politics all at your fingertips. stay current with the latest episodes of "washington journal" and find scheduling information for c-span's tv networks and c-span radio, plus a variety of 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, c-span.org/c-spannow. c-span now, your front row seat

to washington anytime, anywhere. >> "washington journal" continues. host: welcome back. we are an open forum for the next 25 minutes or so. we are going to get to your calls and comments in just a few mitebut first a couple program notes. this afternoon, kamala harris will be in pennsylvaniaor campaign event. it will be her sixth visit to the key state of pennsylvania this year. and at 5:00.m former presidt nald trump will be holding a rally in butler, pesyania as well. the campaign stop comes two days before the start of the republican national convention wisconsin, where his expected to formally accept the 2024 rubcan presidential nomination. you can wchoth vice president kamala harris and formerredent tmp's events on c-span and c-span now, the free mobile app, as well as

online at c-span.org. vice president harris' event at 3:30 3:30 today and former president trump' at 5:00s p.m. we will be covering the rnc all of this week starting on monday. you can find information on that event happening in milwaukee on the c-span website, c-span.org/rnc 2020 is where you can find all the information, including schedules. you can watch key speeches as they happen and look back at previous rnc gatherings. our team is already on the ground in milwaukee. yesterday, they had a behind the scenes looked at how the convention has come together. and with the rnc chief operations officer and production daniel fisher, here is part of that interview. >> we are here in milwaukee,

specifically at the fiserve forum, day to day of the milwaukee bucks but right now it's the stage for the republican national convention. >> what's it like to turn a sports arena into a place where a major political event takes place? >> it's a very time intensive six-week process. we got here on june 3, i should say. and so, we have started off similar tanning normal production with removal of things that we need to set the scene for our purpose. and then, after that, we kind of take a departure from a normal event. we've accommodated rooms for thousands of media personnel, thousands of delegates, and of course setting the scene to nominate our delegate on the stage. >> can we talk about the stage design? what went into it? >> we put our heads together. we kind of looked at a blueprint from the past four to 10

conventions and we wanted to bring everything into 2024. we have not had a proper convention in eight years since cleveland in 2016. we kind of took inspiration from pestilence. we worked with -- past ones. we worked with our predecessors, do's and don'ts, things like that. and we also worked within the space of fiserv forum. ultimately, we wanted a gra stage and ultimatelyn want to know direction, you might not see it now but you will soon, over 12,000 led panels. it really brings a lot of three-dimensional and helps with the augmented reality. we are really trying to move this into 2024. >> how would you want people to look at everything you've done stage-wise and what do you want them to take away from watching the rnc? >> i think our commitment was to really get as many people in here is possible and to bring

milwaukee to the world, the world to milwaukee, vice versa. we have tried to respect as much as possible kind of the bones of this space. and so, we will have i think over 15,000 individuals here and that is on par with an nba game, although it does not look like it but we will be on par with seating for that. again, going back to the pole and the unilateral positions, hopefully you will feel like you are here if you are at home. host: and we are in open forum. let's hear from cindy in kentucky calling on the democrats line. hi, cindy. caller: good morning. i love c-span. i love the "washington journal." thank you for taking my call. although we do need to be focused on trap and biden -- trump and biden, we also should be focused on what ron desantis

is doing to florida. he is turning it into a dictatorship. he just recently signed a don't say climate change bill. he is taking the words climate change out of school textbooks. umm, he just defunded arts culture in florida. that will affect the museums, music, art, anything artsy. people are scrambling now to figure out what they are going to do for the arts industry in florida. um, i was gentrified. i was 66 year florida native gentrified by what the republicans are doing to florida. to my native land. um, so, we need to get behind biden.

democrats, look at what, i call him dictator santis now, look at what he's doing to florida. host: got your point. let's hear from al in georgia on the independent line. good morning. caller: yes, i've been listening to c-span for a while now and i've noticed older black people support joe biden 100% but joe biden does not support black people. we are being used for our vote. we demand reparations in the form of a check to correct past injustices of our country. these persons should receive at least $1 million. as far as donald trump is concerned, he does not support reparations either, that's the reason why i'm an independent. my vote goes to the couch. thank you. host: bernadette in new york on the republican line. good morning, bernadette. caller: good morning.

i agree with the gentleman that just spoke completely. but i'd just like to say, if the democrats actually understood what maga stands for, which is make america great again, they could understand that the republicans are looking out for all americans. make america great again. they just stick to maga not realizing what it means. secondly, i just want to say kamala harris was given the job to secure the border, she did absolutely nothing, walked away from it. i just think that's what she would do if she gets in as vice president again or president. i am going to go with maga, i am going to go with making america great again for all americans. thank you so much for taking my call. host: in aurora, colorado on the independent line. good morning, ray. caller: good morning. how are you this morning? host: doing well. caller: so, i am affiliated with the libertarian party. with all this convention talk, i

want to go back to our party convention back in d.c. during the memorial day weekend. the day before memorial day, after several rounds of voting, our party nominated chase oliver to be a presidential candidate. however, there is a split that's happened between and national and some of the state parties, including in my home state. my state party's board passed resolutions to not recognize chase oliver as the nominee and to instead put rfk junior under the libertarian ticket. things are not looking well. and at the very least, i hope that this issue gets resolved. and at a minimum, does not lead to a significant reduction in our delegation at future conventions.

so, hopefully, things will, the dust will settle sooner rather than later. host: that was rate in colorado. let's hear from renee in pennsylvania on the democratic line. good morning. caller: yes, hi. i am 64 now. en i was 17 in high school in delaware, biden, who was a senator then, came to speak. he was never a great orator. he would stutter a little, mess up words a little sometimes. he hasn't slowed down because of his age. i do see the slowing down and that's due to his age. i just feel like maybe he should have some test done, there should be a test and try to put this to rest, you know, once and

for all. and and from there, he decides to keep going or not. kamala harris is a woman, they seem like they do not want a woman president. and she is a woman of colored. click also because she is -- but also because she is both. i think it is disgraceful. i think biden should go get testing or something medical from the doctor, cognitive tests or something, and try to put all of this to rest and the democratic party can move on. biden is in very good shape physically, i feel. and another thing, trump never attended any ceremonies.

he was golfing a lot when he was president. he had a lot of other people do things he should have done. i don't think he would be good for america. he does not respect the constitution and a lot of laws of america. he thought it was ok for people to go and trespassed the capital. and that is fine, and they are great for doing it and all of that. no. if everybody went around breaking laws, what kind of america would we have? host: earlier, the caller mentioned candidate r.f.k., jr. this headline, r.f.k., jr., sent a text to a woman who accused him of sexual assault. in a story published last week in "vanity fair," the woman

describes inappropriate behavior and sexual advances from kennedy when she worked as his family's weekend nanny in the 1990's including an incident when he allegedly groped her in a pantry. at the time, she was 23 and he was 45 and married with five children. "i have no memory of incident but i apologize sincerely for anything i ever did that made you feel uncomfortable or anything i did or said that offended you or hurt your feelings," he wrote in a text message sent two days after her accusations became public. "i never intended you any harm." he added, if you feel comfortable, i would like to tell you this by phone and preferably face-to-face. i recognize this might not be possible. i have no agenda for sending this text other than making the

most sincere and earnest amendment. kennedy declined to comment on the allegations or elaborate on his messages to her. the text message speaks for itself, he said. let's hear from the independent caller, alicia. go ahead. caller: mental acuity on both sides is a wash, so get off the subject. could someone who knows what they are talking about answer the following? did the supreme court specifically give immunity to trump, or did they give it to the office of the president? if it is the office, what is stopping biden? thank you. host: odi in texas on the

republican line, good morning. caller: yes. i would like to point out something. i know donald trump is egotistic and he has done bad things, and everybody is guilty of it, but at least he can process and think. he can be alert and make decisions. the one statement joe biden said in his debat he said he knew how to tell the truth. well, he aually told the biggest lie on nationalv because what he diover in ukraine and all of this, you are all dirty. all i have got to say iwe need to pray we get a leader who will actually lead this nation to where we need to be because we are in a mess. thank you very much.

host: mary elizabeth in new york on the democrats line. good morning, mary elizabeth. caller: good morning. the choice is clear, in my opinion. we have an american who will abide by foreign oaths to uphold and defend the constitution against all enemies foreign and domestic, versus a kgb putin agents determined to satisfy putin's revenge for the breakup of the former soviet union and change the usa into an oligarchy and destroy our society that is focused to perfect a more perfect union. . . a leader delegates wisely i want the benefit of joe biden's analysis and wisdom to guide the usa through the divisive politics that we suffer. the largest american minority is the disabled. president biden is on call 20

47. -- 24/7. the choice is clear. we want to survive as a democracy. thank. host: gus in ohio on the independent line. go ahead. caller: are you there? host: i am. caller: i read the 2025 doctor. i have never read anything so scary in my life. number one, they are going to gut everything. the constitution they are going to throw in a wastepaper basket. they are going to fire all of the federal aid workers and put interim workers that will bend the knee to trump. justice is gone. public schools are gone. everything is gone. they are going to gut everything

to where they control the whole government. if you are talking about voter rights, they will suspend that, too. it is so scary that if you protest against trump, he has the right to send the army or the military out and he is allowed to shoot the protesters. and this is by the supreme court where they give him the power to do all of this. i am going to tell you something. if you people vote for trump, you are crazy because you might as well forget about the united states, it is gone. thank you. host: james in ohio on the republican line. good morning, james. james, are you there? caller: i voted mainly for republicans. i tell you what. it has always been the lesser of two evils.

that is all i have to say. thank you for the last caller. he explained some things i did not understand. they want to keep [indiscernible] from us. he did a good job getting 3 million illegal aliens over here for his vote. taking money right out of our medicare and social security. it is going downhill. every time they borrow money, that is where it comes from, out of our money we paid in there. thank you. that is all i have. thank you. host: dennis on the democrats line, good morning. caller: yeah. here in iowa, and i saw in missouri, republican-controlled states that bring in the democrats for republican farmers

selling their land to china. i am a democrat. i do not own any farmland. president biden don't own any farmland. why is it the democrats bought? because they are selling -- republicans are selling their land to china. it is a bunch of bunk. last august when biden was president, we had black independents at the iowa state fair. when trump was president, it was canceled. trump does not make things great. i could go on and on. that is my comment. host: jorge in albuquerque on the independent line. good morning, jorge. caller: good morning. you have very pretty hair. i have some solutions. the first would be to restore

one rep per 33,000 citizens. i think we need to move the capital. i think that will solve a lot of issues with housing for representatives. we can get enough space for each to have its own statehouse or embassy. i propose an israeli-palestinian canal. use the canal debris to create an independent state of palestine. i think biden and trump are the worst two cases of affluenza ever. that is all, thanks. host: john in cleveland, ohio, on the republican line, good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i have heard a lot of people

talk about projects 25. -- project 25. i want you to know, president trump, that is not his agenda. president trump on his rallies said he does not like project 25. he does not know much about it. he said there are a couple of things that might be opaque, but he does not like project -- might be ok, 20 does not like project 25. project 25 was put together by the heritage foundation, which is a think tank. that is not donald trump's agenda. if you want to know what donald trump's agenda is, sit and listen to his rallies. he will tell you throughout the rally what his agenda is. furthermore, i hear a lot of things about how joe biden is doing such a great job. well, listen, when it comes to

the border, trump had the border under control. joe biden opened the border and allowed tens of millions of people to come into this country which could hardly be sustained. joe biden had an attack on fossil fuels and threatened all of these oil companies that he would start shutting them down. that what caused inflation to start. joe biden has done a lot of terrible things. people should look at that very closely. donald trump will make america great again. donald trump will win the presidency and you people will see what a good job you will do. that is all i have got to say. discard project 25. host: helen in hanover, pennsylvania, on the democrats line. good morning, ellen.

caller: hello, hello? host: go ahead. caller: the situation, a lot of people are not aware of it. abraham lincoln is the best republican we had. donald trump is taking advantage of the civil war the union won. the confederates cannot get over it. republicans cannot get over the fact they lost the war. the visit to their advantage. trump uses it -- they use it to their advantage. trump uses it to make money. you will see it is only about money. it stems from the civil war. nothing will be resolved until we can settle the civil war. i went down to the south 20 or 30 years ago and they were mad because i was a northerner. they have to get over the civil war issue to resolve the

problem. that is all i have to say. goodbye. host: the last call, alejandro in san antonio on the independent line. hello. caller: hello, young lady. how are you? let me tell you something. i guess i am undecided. it is going to make a great. -- it's great -- it is going to make it great. i was praying to god nikki haley would stay in the race. we have got to wake up! host: who you think you will vote for? caller: it will be my first time. i became a citizen two years ago. you know, so, i do not like trump or biden.

i do not know. i guess i would vote for mr. biden. host: that was alejandro in texas. that is it for the open forum section of today's show. next, we are going to talk with national political reporter marc caputo and discuss his newsletter "magaville." we will be right back. ♪ >> ♪ >> american history tv, exploring the people and events that tell the american story. michael dukakis, along with current and former governors, take a retrospective look at his career. this week, vice president george h.w. bush accepted his party's

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>> "washington journal" continues. host: welcome back. we are in our spotlight on substack segment. we welcome back marc caputo, the author of "magaville," the newsletter. welcome back. tell us about "magaville." guest: they decided to give the readers more insight into what the trump campaign and trump are thinking and doing in more of a straight news fashion than is typical for the publication. about every week, i try to tell readers, here is what trump is planning, here is what he is doing, here is what they are thinking, what they are feeling. i cannot even remember now, my memory is bad, the last one is about how the campaign is almost on cruise control heading into the convention.

there has been this weird reversal of fortune and identities to a degree between trump and biden, and what the campaign was thinking about that. prior to that, we had a few things on the veepstakes and who would be picked. my first piece that kicked us off in february was the implosion of the ron desantis super pac in the primary eliminating trump's real competition that he feared all along in the florida governor. host: who is your target audience, who are your readers? guest: our readers tend to be upper education, higher information. they tend to be anti-trump or do not like trump. but they tend to be more in the center politically, or right of center. host: obviously, there is a lot

of reporting out there on the conservatives and former president trump. what makes "magaville" different? why should people subscribe to it or read it? guest: i am sometimes uncomfortable bragging about what i do. i do not want to denigrate other reporters or media. the trump campaign is headquartered -- i live in miami -- it is headquartered up the road 90 miles away in palm beach. it is run by a lot of florida top operatives. there are a number of high level operatives. james blair, national political director. it is a huge florida contingent. these are people i have known for a while and whose rhythms i understand. so, i am able to sort of

translate what they are thinking and doing with the candidate that some other media, not all other media, do not necessarily capture. host: we are talking with marc caputo, the author of "magaville," the substack newsletter, and also a national political reporter. if you have a question or comment for marc, you can start calling in now on the line for democrats, republicans, and independents. we are talking about his work and political news of the date. you already mentioned it, one of the pieces you did recently was on the status of former president trump's campaign they head into the rnc. what will you be watching for? guest: we will be watching for picks for vice president.

the media will always tell you it is an important test. it is true and not true because people do not really vote for a vice president. we will see what happens when there is an older or elderly president with a running mate and how important that is on the democratic side and who trump picks will give us insight into not only how he views the future of his legacy, which is something he wrestles about with the candidates for his vice presidency. when his running mates are briefed on talking to him, they are told do not talk about the legacy and future. trump fears he is being eased into the nursing home. that is the sense that is conveyed to them. nevertheless, trump needs to look. at the future. he needs to look at a real governing partner. someone who cannot only handle

the job of being vice president and president but also somebody who can carry his torch and message at least while he is in office. one of the things that has also been sort of trump's he does not want to pick a running mate who the secondly get into the naval observatory starts running for president again in four years and becomes a stiff caller in his own white house. that was a concern of biden's people in picking kamala harris. their small vestiges of that distrust that you are still seeing percolate in the white house currently in their circumstance. i know this because when i worked for politico in 2020, i was one of two reporters full-time to cover biden. i switched from covering biden back then when he is a candidate over to trump who was going to be the higher drama candidate, and now they have sort of switched those roles.

host: former president trump is expected to make his v.p. announcement at the rnc convention. remind us who is on the short list. any indication who he might be leaning toward at the moment? guest: the shortest list looks like j.d. vance, the ohio governor, the north dakota governor, and marco rubio, the florida senator. there is tim scott, byron donalds, kristi noem was on the list, the south dakota governor, and a number of others. even ben carson. you never really know who he is going to select and even if he selects someone on the list. the list is 10 or 12 long. our best indication it is -- is it is narrowed down to those three. it looks as if j.d. vance is the

favorite to be his pick. and then, it appears bergen second and rubio third. host: one of your maria's -- most recent pieces was on j.d. vance. explain. guest: vance has it so in the bag, what can sandbag him? trump does not like facial hair. trump has not mentioned this to vance himself. when he was asked about it afterwards on fox, he said j.d. vance like a young abraham lincoln with the beard, he loves it. trump is very interested in looks and ability. on camera and on those two counts, vance scores highly. so does bergen and rubio for trump. in the end, it does look like vance has the support of the online right, tucker carlson and the like, he also has the

backing of the president's son and namesake, don, jr. even roger stone, the lungs on-and-off advisor for donald trump -- longest on-and-off advisor for donald trump, florida man, last night came out in favor of j.d. vance. not explicitly but he made clear he was good with j.d. vance. who knows? that's his only been in office for two years. he underperforms trump on the ohio ballots. he does not have a lot of political experience governing. that could be a concern of trump's. we are not sure. the one of the most it brings is marco rubio. he was florida house speaker. he is a senator for three terms now. he ran for president in a very tough election.

the problem is the constitution basically for bids -- for bids a president and vice president candidate being from the same state. the solution would be for someone to move. trump will not move. he would want marco rubio to move. rubio has indicated he would move. this is an issue interim's mind -- in trump's mind from what we understand. bergen is not very well-known, not very well vetted. he is older and wealthy pretty does have a business background that might be attractive to trump. host: let's hear from our callers. let's go first to joseph in new jersey. good morning. caller: hello! host: go ahead. guest: i'm going to turn my air conditioner off. i am in florida. i don't thing i can quite hear. caller: can you hear me now?

guest: yes, sir. caller: i am trying to work through this new phone i got. i got old. you and me both, a lot of people. i am sorry, what? guest: i said you and me both. go ahead. caller: yeah. i am sitting here at 78 years old. six months older than president trump. i listened to the people talking on the tv when they called in. some of them are very stupid. i do not understand where they came from. but i am a united states marine. i am going to stand up for this country. we are going to bring america back. i don't give a dam what they call it. make america great again again, whatever they call it, we are going to bring the country back.

that is all i need to say. guest: thank you. host: let's hear from michael in your home state of florida in gainesville calling on the independent line. hi, michael. caller: hi. mr. caputo, i wonder if you have heard of or might be interested in looking into governor newsom when he found out governor desantis had contacted and bullied all of the textbook publishers. he requested the correspondences between the state of florida and the textbook publishers. i think this ties in with the fact republicans are not crazy, they are as educated -- mis-educated. all of the textbooks need to be looked at because we do not describe evolution correctly. we need to focus on trickle-down. republicans see the world

differently. they see it as survival of the fittest and they think it is natural law and fact. trickle down, if you are basing it on natural law or survival of the fittest, that is not science . it is about cooperation. that is the science behind it. if you look in the textbooks, if i say the word evolution, you do that comedy skit where you ask micah people what -- maga people what evolution is, they say it is competition. they are mis-educated. every textbook needs to be looked at and corrected. same thing with moving statues. a false sense of history. reading false textbooks give you a biased look at what science, history, science are. slavery was not beneficial, clearly, to the slaves, yet our books in florida actually say that.

we have removed thousands of textbooks -- host: let's get a response from our guest, michael. guest: i don't quite know what to respond to. one of the first politicians, political leaders, to really zero in on critical race theory and related matters and debate if it is really critical race theory. esg, there is environmental and social governance and another related term that concerns how kids are taught. the state embarked on a very long, controversial review about that. i'll -- i don't know the degree to which i can wade into the current state of their review, but it certainly has put florida at the forefront of a "book banning" movement.

my wife is a public school teacher and fortunately hasn't really experienced, yet at the same time there is concern among school teachers that the state is encroaching on their ability to teach. i don't quite understand what i should respond to there, but i can say that the state is carefully reviewing books. there is a rather heavy debate, or was earlier this year, on the campaign trail so i guess late last year, about how race and issues like slavery were taught. there is language in the school curriculum now which suggests that some slaves obtained a tangible benefit from being a slave. that remains, but the state has clarified that no, no, we are not saying it's good. it's never quite good to say we are not teaching slavery is good. the current state of florida education is in flux and rather controversial. host: columbus, ohio, the democrats line. hi, jill.

caller: thank you for letting me call. i'm calling because i'm concerned about one policy and national security, especially with putin's full invasion in ukraine. i worry about biden at the top of the ticket. obviously, he can't message. i'm extremely worried about trump being at the top of the ticket, because his foreign policy will be dictated by putin . he is not going to worry about america. he is going to do whatever putin wants to do. i think we should replace with someone who can message. let the american people know why it is important to support ukraine. what are your thoughts on replacing biden? and i think we should replace trump as well. guest: covering biden in 2020 to the campaign trail prior to covid cutting everything down, i got to know enough of him.

his campaign staff and his advisors. on that night of the debate the likelihood of joe biden quitting was very slim. my opinion about how slim that was changed as the sort of intense pressure and ready, fire, aim circular firing club from democrats rounded up and they began shooting themselves and damaging themselves for two weeks, which is remarkable. biden has made it clear he is not quitting or stepping down. my original feeling, while not as powerful or strong -- as strongly felt that joe biden is definitely staying is nevertheless still with me. it is hard to see joe biden stepping down unless he has a major medical episode. i would imagine the biden would tell you, look at the speech at nato, the reaction joe biden got at nato. he is well-liked by our allies. one official was on cnn speaking

favorably about biden and his foreign policy. that is what the biden tell you. what the trump tell you is, look, if you think he is doing putin's policies, putin did not invade ukraine under president trump. he invaded it under obama. putin invaded ukraine under biden, not trump. trump when he was in the miami area on tuesday has mentioned more often that his sanctions on iran brushes oil exports, therefore its production, and limited their ability to fund groups like hamas and hezbollah. hamas used some of that money to invade israel. trump's position is world leaders fear me and respect me and they don't respect biden. i will let him make up his mind about that. host: how has former president

trump responded to these calls for president biden to step down as the presumptive nominee? what is their campaign's opinion? guest: one of the things that i wrote about, they are of the same opinion that i was that they didn't think biden was going to leave. outside of the psychology of biden, there is important reasons for thinking so. number one, joe biden had won the delegates necessary to become the nominee. those are pledged delegates at a convention. it is not an iron-clad pledge and there is an ability for some delegates to bolt and not vote for biden and not make him the nominee, which would be a remarkable thing. a sitting president running for reelection who won various primaries. some people say they were rigged, unfair, and there is some truth, but nevertheless the idea that he would be unceremoniously or ceremoniously

rejected at his own convention is mind-boggling. but here we are. a, joe biden has the delegates, as the child and biden campaigns have pointed out. b, under finance law it is joe biden's campaign that has all of the money. as of last count just the campaign itself, not the affiliated accounts, they had about $92 million. $92 million raised in personal contributions from people. not corporate contributions, not taxed about will -- not tax deductible. money from people's pocketbooks into the campaign. that's why they call it hard money. it's hard to raise. $92 million is a lot of money. if you are a candidate for federal office, candidate on a ticket, when it comes close to election and you want to run ads you get a cheaper rate if you are paying for the ad out of

your campaign account. a, you have the delegates. b, that is his money. if he is replaced that hard money disappears and soft money has less purchasing power and is tougher to use. the trump campaign is like, look, this guy is not stepping down. after that trump was caught on video at the golf course celebrating biden's misfortune saying they will get rid of joe, they will replace him with kamala. now trump is saying, who knows. he has a tendency to say that joe biden is not running the country anyway, maybe it is kamala, we are not sure. after the debate he had a brief rally in virginia, then a fundraiser. the debate was on june 27, he had a fundraiser in south florida the following monday. then he went to new jersey to play golf for a week because the

democrats were so busy shooting at each other, biting each other on fire, and burning, that trump for once was rather disciplined coming grading on a curve for trump, that he didn't want to step on those headlines. trump was perfectly happy to let democrats question the mental stability, the strength of joe biden so that he doesn't have to. as long as that continues you will probably see proportionately less and less of trump. host: maria in texas on the independent line. hi, maria. caller: hi. my concern is the two candidates. i hate trump. i voted for biden, but i liked him less because of his foreign policy. let's talk about putin. i like him. i like him.

ukraine was -- was officially, officially the russian empire at ukraine. i know they divided them up. but let's take mexico. i'm from mexico. if mexico -- ok, -- host: what is your question for marc? caller: my question, i was trying to make a point, but you are rushing me. ok, i am going to go to the original point. ukraine is russia's, in russia's backyard. they don't like anyone coming

the. i understand that because i am from mexico. i think it's funny. you think it's funny. you are laughing. ok. host: we will go on to david in connecticut calling on the republican line. hi, david. caller: hello, thank you to c-span for taking my call. both. i am a little nervous. i have notes coming through on tv, so i want to say that i'm happy about the fact that marco rubio, senator rubio, dr. ben carson are both on the shortlist for vp. either could do. i would like to bounce the idea that i would have liked to see governor desantis in that spot. i wonder what mr. caputo thinks about that. guest: that's not happening. the likelihood of ron desantis after challenging being

named a trump running mate, he has broken that relationship, desantis has. caller: i will get my response off the air. guest: to expand on what he was asking, trump needs to feel as if he can trust his running mate. some residuals that trump has in the back of his mind about marco rubio. he ran a scorched earth campaign against trump. insulted his genitalia by his hand size, you can look it up. also vance was also incredibly critical of donald trump in 2016. vance wrote the book "hillbilly elegy" and made some critical comments. trump needs to feel he can trust someone, like the person has his back. dissent this became governor. he won the republican primary in

20 almost solely on the strength, almost, on president trump's endorsement at the time. he decided to go independent and run against him, and that is kind of unforgivable for trump. they made up or made a political alliance since. nikki haley, a lot of people hoped haley would be on the shortlist. she's not. i think trump at one point said that she's not welcome at the convention. i don't think she's going, but we have a few days left. host: mount gilead, ohio on the democrats line. good morning, tom. caller: good morning, how are you? guest: good. caller: i was just going to say that there are two senators from ohio that if it wasn't for gerrymandering they wouldn't be senators. one of them is j.d. vance. host: we will go to charles and

georgia on the republican line. good morning. caller: i am on the republican line but i am -- abraham lincoln, teddy roosevelt, and ronald reagan republican. comment on biden and foreign policy. i think he has been weak in three areas. when it came to the taliban in afghanistan instead of listening to the advice that -- of his intelligence people that the taliban would collapse quickly and let's do this more slowly and get all of our allies outcome he went with the faster

out. when it came to putin in ukraine, putin i think is laughing at him because he doesn't want to use american weapons to touch anything in moscow. the third area is when it comes to what's going on in gaza he won't -- yeah. he withheld 2000 pound bombs from netanyahu. other than that he hasn't done anything. all netanyahu has done is show him up. my question about this campaign and what trump's campaign is going to do if biden is not the nominee. everything that they've focused their campaign on, every single thing they've done, and they are good, savvy operators, but their whole focus has been on joe biden. what are they going to do if

biden is not the nominee? i think they are going to have trouble. guest: they might have trouble. every campaign wargames for the candidate they are facing until they see real, tangible signs of is going to go. don't get me wrong, there were signs he might be forced out. who knows. the general belief in trump's orbit, and i share this belief, is if joe biden doesn't become the nominee somehow, which is unlikely, that he will be replaced by kamala harris. the trump view, i don't know what the answer is, but the trump view is that kamala harris will be week as well. she is not a good campaigner. we saw that in 2020. that kamala harris can be easily defined as a continuer of joe biden's policies which they believe are unpopular when it comes to the toll of inflation,

yes, deflation is -- yes, inflation is decreasing, and how immigration has been handled by the administration. pointing out that kamala harris is supposed to head up bidens immigration policies and didn't. they are at least projecting a lack of worry that harris will be the nominee. someone else, that is a great question. they believe that they will have time, the trump campaign, to figure out how to handle another non-biden democratic nominee, because this would have to be decided at the convention and during the convention it would be a real mess that would come as the past weeks have shown, consume the democratic party, consume the media, and create such noise that would be further damaging to the democratic ticket. that is the trump view. host: the caller mentioned susie

while. explain who that is and why she is notable. it is important to the campaign? guest: certainly. one of the interesting things about tom's campaign is that there has been no drama. if you haven't heard all of these leaks, haven't seen the backstabbing, the weird criminology that you have seen with the past two trump campaigns. a big reason is the team he has around him. one reason he doesn't have a campaign manager is there are enough people in his orbit that would love to stab someone in the back or blame them for something and exert their power. therefore there are co-campaign managers. two of them. susie wiles and chris lost evita , a republican operative that is from richmond. rounding out the upper echelon

campaign management of the trump campaign is his chief pollster and one of political advisors. the structure was put together. susie gained a great amount as a turnaround artist in 2010. that is when rick scott who had run a hospital company with a medicare fine of $1.8 billion or something like that, my memory is hazy on the exact amount, ran for governor, beat the establishment, and became governor. susie was the campaign manager. after that he was hired on to trump's campaign in 2016 and in

2016 he was not expected to win in florida. photo was a crucial swing state. she took over operations, and they turned out operations on the ground and her reputation of a turnaround artist. two years later ron desantis hired her to turn around his flailing campaign in the general election. he won by the narrowest margins. then he had a falling out with her. no one knows why, but it is clear from a number of people who were insiders that desantis resented the fact that she was getting credit for turning around his rather-bad campaign at the time. he used a flimsy pretext to fire her and tried to crush her professionally. after a period of time, 2019, in 2020 trump realized that he needed her back. he once again won florida. he won florida but lost the

election. after that he had problems with january 6, to put it lightly. he was in the doghouse come he didn't know what to do, he wanted to run for president again. he turned to susie wiles and said i would like to run for president again. i would like to continue my political operations. will you run the whole thing? she said i would have to have my own team. here we are with the trump campaign, for the first time, leading consistently in all the polls, not being consumed with chaos and controversy. that is happening to the other guy. susie is getting a lot of credit. lacivita is as well. host: it is always good to know who is behind these campaigns. ben in your home state of florida on the independent line. caller: good morning. listen, i want to discuss what both of these candidates mean to me. i don't like either one of them.

i think i'm with the majority of people. they are both flawed in their own ways. however, i feel very weak in the fact that i listen to people and nobody is talking about the reality of us today. my business, i use a lot of gas. i am paying a lot more than i did. food. every time we go to the market, it seems like 20%, 30% more than the past. i know that you say inflation is coming down. guest: the rate of inflation, yes. caller: the fact of the matter is, for 3.5 years i have been paying so much more. we have family in places like new york. we are not going there because we feel going and visiting people is a danger for us to go up there. there is an expense that we cannot afford.

my life today is different than it was four years ago. i may not like trump, he steps on his own foot and he puts it in his mouth more than anything, but his policies made my life easier. i like biden. he is a lifelong politician. i don't hold that against him, but the simple fact of the matter is, everyone looking at joe today, what is joe going to be like two years from now? then we are stuck with a candidate i would not have voted for. i am caught between two people -- there is an old expression. you play the cards you are dealt. we only have these two guys to play with. i -- i'm going to vote for the one i have a better personal

history with. that is trump. host: any response to the caller? guest: what the caller is getting at, those twin issues of inflation and biden's age are the two main reasons that the holes are where they are. as he says, super majority of voters, something like 75%, didn't want to see a rematch. but trump has an ever so slight lead. in the end it is the economy and biden's age that are the determining factors. to be clear, there is a very robust debate about whether it is fair to tag biden with the total inflation and that a lot of trump's policies limiting

immigration, ironically, having more buy america first could spike inflation, but nevertheless trump is winning that argument. host: will in wisconsin on the democrats line. caller: marc, if i could catch your take on maga land in itself. guest: i would rather get your take on wisconsin. i am fascinated. caller: wisconsin, in the end, i think will go democratic. i think the big blue wall will hang on a thin margin. we had a major redistricting here in wisconsin. the supreme court went liberal. they changed and got a fairer map. in the green bay area, they have

three republicans shoved into one district. which is the republicans getting their comeuppance for some of the things that they did in the districts that they were able to draw. there is that aspect. guest: what is your question? i am sorry that i interrupted you. caller: it is about maga land. every controversy that comes up about trump, something he has done or is accused of, the hush money or the excess hollywood tape, the maga land stamps is feet and cries and says it is all conspiracy. if it turns out that it is true, there is overwhelming evidence, magaland will say that it doesn't matter, big deal. they want their cake and eat it too. what is your take on magaland in that respect? guest: i will compare it to the

democrats. democrats, with some justification, have accused the trump interest or passion of the party of being very cold-like. it benefited trump for the reasons you say. the base republican attachment to donald trump has been as strong as new rope. he is weary is now in part because of those various criminal cases against him. when people saw their guy, when base republicans, maga republicans, saw their guy under attack they rallied to him. it is a stark contrast with the democrats. i understand that there is a different type of trouble that joe biden had experienced. rather than rally around the chief point, we have seen the opposite.

i have a belief, and this is more of a belief nana data point, that while the debate performance of joe biden was terrible and it fit into a pre-existing belief/fear that biden was too old or not capable enough to be able to execute the duties of his office for another four years, the 14-days of democrats undermining their defective nominee has -- defacto nominee has been remarkable to watch and i can't see it as anything less than damaging. host: marc, we are heading into the start of the convention season and the general election is just about three months away. what will you be watching for between now and then? guest: on the republican side, does donald trump -- he is starting to rake in a lot more money. they have had a relatively lean

footprint of the campaign where they haven't focused so much on grounding activities. they haven't had as much field office openings and on the ground staff as biden has. they have said we will be able to outsource this -- outsource is my word -- under certain new federal campaign finance rulings. they will be able to do just fine. does trump start to pump more money into his grounding? is the map actually expanding? we basically have six to seven swing states where there are marginal leads of trump and all of them. wisconsin, pennsylvania -- one of the reasons i asked about wisconsin -- michigan, arizona -- arden me, nevada, north carolina, georgia. with marginal leads and all of them, does he actually wind up being able to expand the map into other states that

republicans haven't experimented with? one of them is new mexico. maybe virginia, maybe minnesota. the minnesota congressman is leaving his seat to go work for trump. that is a sign of a certain amount of confidence. i'm not saying that trump will win those states. even virginia and maybe new jersey. who knows what. maybe all of the polls are wrong or we are misreading with the top line is saying and not paying enough attention to the markings of error. right now where it stands, july 13, 2024, is donald trump has an argument to make that he could get as many as 300 electoral college votes, even 320. 320 is high but that is with the campaign is seeing. on the democratic side, does joe biden survive? i still think the answer will be yes. what is his campaign going to do to keep delegates from bolting?

politico said they are starting to call them up and say, are you with the president? when it comes to the convention, chicago, not only do you have the embattled president having to make sure that his delegates stay with him, there was a schism on the left over support of israel and its invasion of gaza and the war with hamas, which has been really troublesome for the president and has played a role in some young voters who are very progressive and very critical of israel bolting from him. will we see demonstrations from chicago that look like 1968? i don't think so. my dad was a chicago tribune reporter that covered the 1968 democratic riots at the convention then. i guess i will be the second generation to check that out. it is nevertheless something to watch. there is so much more drama on the democrat side. host: marc caputo, you can find

his reporting online at the bulwark.com. marc, thank you for being with us today. guest: an hour went quickly. i hope that i didn't talk too much. host: you did great. we can't wait to have you back. that does it for today's program. we will be back tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. eastern, 4:00 pacific for another edition of "washington journal." until then, enjoy the rest of your day. ♪ >> c-span's "washington journal" a life form with you to discuss

washington, politics, public policy from washington dc across the country. monday morning a veteran political reporter from the marquette university fellow will preview the republican national convention in milwaukee end of the role that wisconsin will play as a battleground state in campaign 2020 four. also the marquette university political science professor talking about the state of the republican party. and former president donald trump's role in it ahead of the republican national convention. "washington journal" join the conversation live 7:00 eastern on monday morning. >> today, former president donald trump is holdg rally in buffalo, pennsylvia the campan stop comes two days fo the start of the nvtion in milwaukee, where he isxpected to officially ce the 2020