p.m. eastern on c-span. c-span's coverage of the 2024 republic national conventn kicks off sunday with a live one hour preview from milwaukee. we will be joined by the executive director of the rnc's committee of arrangements for an inside look at the hall and expected big-name speakers. we will also take your calls starting live sunday at 2:00 p.m. eastern on c-spa c-span now, and online at c-span.org. c-span's campaign 2024 takes you live to milwaukee for our coverage of the republican national convention. tune in live monday as delegates from across the country gather to select the republican nominee for president. watch as they lay out the priorities for the next four years and the party's vision for the future. the republican national

convention live on c-span, c-span now, or online at c-span.org. c-span, your unfiltered view of the convention. >> welcome back. rnal" 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