still having a spirit of racism against black people here. they do nothing to try to bring unity in this country. i think a lot of the responsibility for the dissension in the country and -- in addition to mr. trump -- at all at the foot of the churches, the southern baptist and other white churches. thank you. guest: well, i cannot speak for all churches, mary. but i can tell you from my church as a southern baptist and pastor that has not been the case in the church that i was pastoring nor the churches i have been involved in. in fact last night in the prayer meeting it was very reflective of who we are. i agree we have to come together as americans and stop the separation based upon these political identities and the

segmentations that is taken place. we are americans and we need to come together as americans and believers. i agree that the church needs to model that and i think it is doing a much better job than pass. host: ton perkins family representing council. thank you for joining us. guest: thank you, mimi. have a great day. >> we are going to talk this opportunity to speak to the mayor of milwaukee a democrat, cavalier johnson. mayor johnson, welcome it the program. thanks for joining us. guest: thanks, mimi. host: i want to give you an opportunity first to react to the shooting on saturday. guest: absolutely. all of us watched with absolute horror when that unfortunate assassination attempt happened this past saturday threatening mr. trump, threatening rally

goers. we know one dead and another in critical condition. i said from the outset known in generates should have to suffer that sort of violence. it doesn't matter if you are a child going to an elementary school, a churchgoer or candidate for president of the united states. all of us really need to work to come together in order to make sure we recognize we are all part of one american family like we were back in our nation's founding and we will be in a can be years when we celebrate our 250th anniversary. host: you were part of the security briefing yesterday with the secret service and other law enforcement agencies. can you tell us about your confidence level in security at the rnc this year? guest: sure, absolutely. i'm very confident in our security for the rnc. this event is an national special security event.

it is the highest designation that you can have for an event of this magnitude and caliber in the united states provided by the federal government. so, the secret service working with conjunction with electrical law enforcement, milwaukee police department, milwaukee fire department and other law enforcement agencies, federal like the f.b.i. and others across our state and country have been working at this for about 1 months, have very firm plans in place and i feel very confident in the plans. host: can you tell us how your city's law enforcement works with the federal secret service? guest: absolutely. our police department has worked in conjunction with federal law enforcement over the course of the last 18 months deriving plans for every aspect of opinion safety. i believe there were at last two dozen subcommittees relating to every aspect of public safety related to the convention here.

we have worked diligently the last several months, well over a year, in preparation for the rnc. we are excited it is here and opportunity to brings milwaukee to elevate our city and a lot of that is public safety and good execution and i believe the police department and partners at the federal and state level are ready to work to make sure that happens. host: you are a democratic mayor of milwaukee. you played a major role in getting the rnc to come to your city. did you face criticism for that? guest: yeah, absolutely. certainly there are some people on on my side of the aisle that were not necessarily keen on hosting the republican party's national convention. but this is not a political decision, it is a business decision. i think this presents an opportunity for milwaukee to be at the center of the universe,

the center of the political universe with all eyes across the country and around the world focused on milwaukee. i want to show the country and the world we are capable of hosting large scale events, even of this magnitude, because i would like other large scale events to come here. we want the dnc to come. we didn't get a chance to do that in 2020 due to covid but i want other business sports, entertainment, businesses to locket here and create job opportunities for people who live and work in milwaukee. i would like this to be the beginning of a virtual economic cycle in milwaukee. what happens in milwaukee the entire state of wisconsin does well. host: what does the convention mean to your city in terms of the economics? how big of a boost is this going to be? guest: we in the mayor's office

are not in charge of what the economic perron jessicas are -- projections are but it is estimated $150 million to $200 million on the local economy which is really good for our tourism, hospitality industry and especially the people who live in milwaukee and work in those industries. like i said, i want this to be the beginning, not the end of creating more opportunities and bringing more large scale want like those into the city of mac to continue to support toes folks who work in that industry. host: the hill.com has milwaukee mayor highlights gun violence prevention in wake of trump shooting. can you tell us more about what you are doing on that front given wisconsin laws as well as what is allowable outside of the hard perimeter of the

convention? guest: as it relates to the city of milwaukee we are doing a number of things as it relates to public safety generally. since i became mayor over the last several years elected to a term in 2022 and re-elected with over 80% this past april. we are focused on two key areas as it relates to public safety. those are accountability and prevention. over the last number of years i have been mayor we have seen crime continue to drop in milwaukee. so crime is dropping and safety is increasing because of our policies. including in those policies are violence prevention efforts. it is police but violence prevention as it relates to guns and in the outer as some call the soft perimeter at the rnc in the city we pass an ordinance to

outlaw specific items from being brought into the hard perimeter lake cans or bottles filled with liquids or other items of the sort. unfortunately, because state law has supremacy over local ordinances we are not in a position to ban guns in that outer perimeter. so as much as i would like to see something like that given the you magnitude of the event of tens of thousands of people here it is an open carry state so we could not take that action. host: last month former president trump allegedly said that milwaukee is a quote horrible city. what are you doing -- there are some billboards also going up about that including that quote where we are having our convention is a horrible city. what have you seen around town about that and bad feels your

reaction when you heard that? guest: well, my reaction was that he obviously was wrong. he is here now somewhere so i suspect that he is looking out of this hotel room and seeing a magnificent developing growing city. by the way, i was at a number of events yesterday as the convention was getting kicked off and there were over 10,000 delegates down on the wake front at -- lakefront having a great time talking about how wonderful they are feeling in milwaukee, some of home came and told me and others that they have taken the opportunity to walk up and down, visit the packers, go to the beach and were stricken about milwaukee and will bring their families back and spend more money and time.

so, the quote is up to someone's interpret take. if it is horrible, with sort of city has miles of beach front? what city that is horrible has fine dining that you can check on top chefs? what type of city is hosting a republican national convention? if that is horrible? i beg to differ. host: back to the political messages, there's some showing up on city buses including pro biden-maris ones that says get real, jack i'm bringing roe back vote biden-harris. does your office play any role in approving those ads? guest: no. and it is different depending on the jurisdiction but here in milwaukee the city is not in

charge of the bus system. those are buses that are run by county government which is out of my purview. in the city of milwaukee we control the roads the buses drive on so we help with dedicated bus lanes and the like but they are in a different jurisdiction. we run the street car system, i think a lot of delegates will have the opportunity to use while spending time at the convention. we have a bike share network and we have an expansive e-scooter program as well. so there's a lot of transit and month options in the city as we build out a protected bike way that is going very well. one of the legacy things i'm seeking to accomplish in office but the buss are not my purview. host: one support question about president biden take at the top

of the democratic ticket. do you have a stance on that? would you like to see him continue to be the nominee or step down? guest: i have a strong stance on that and that is 100% joe biden should certainly stay at the top of the ticket. i believe joe biden will go to the convention and the democratic will come together. i'm a delegate next month. i'm proudly going to cast my vote for joe biden to remain our nominee and see it through to the end and see him win the election by winning milwaukee and wisconsin and continue serving as president of the united states. i think president joe biden is the person to lead our nation in these times and look forward to supporting his election. why mayor car hear johnson, mayor of milwaukee, good luck with the convention. >> c-span will be on the ground in mac today for full coverage

of the first day of the republican national convention. live picture here from the fiserv forum where the convention will take place this week. we will be live starting at 12:45 with a preview of everything to expect. shortly before 2:00 p.m. the first session of the convention starts. we expect the roll call to select the republican probably nominee. at 7:30 will include speeches from prominent people in the party and 11:00 p.m. we will get your reaction to what you saw and hard on the first day. that is all live on c-span, c-span now and c-span.org. in the lead-up to the convention kickoff c-span's rnc chevy of operations daniel fisher talked about his role in organizing the event.