♪ host: good morning. it is tuesday, july 16. donald trump has chosen ohio senator j.d. vance as his

running mate. senator vance is 39 years old, won his seat two years ago. it is his first clinical office. is a graduate of ohio state university and yell law school -- yale law school. they're taking your reaction to this pic. here are the numbers. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. send us a text that -- at (202) 748-8003. we are watching our social media feeds. facebook.com/cspan and x at @cspanwj.welcome to the washington journal. we will be with you until 11:00 a.m. eastern time. plenty of time to share your thoughts. we start with a moment on the floor yesterday when senator

vance formally won the nomination. [video] >> madam chair, it is a great honor to move that j.d. vance be nominated by acclamation by this republican national convention as its candidate for the office of vice president of the united states of america. [cheers] >> without objection, the previous question is ordered. the question is on the motion that senator j.d. vance be nominated by acclamation. all those in favor signify by saying aye. although supposed, signify by saying no. the ayes have it in the motion is adopted. [cheers]

[chanting j.d.] delegates and alternates, ladies and gentlemen, i'm proud to announce that senator j.d. vance has the overwhelming support of this convention to be the next vice president of the united states. [cheers] host: that was the moment yesterday where senator vance became the vp nominee for the republican party. here is nbc news about senator vance's physicians. this -- position on several things. he's known for his america for skepticism in u.s. involvement in global affairs and his opposition to bipartisan deals on government funding. he has helped lead a bill in the

wake of the train derailment in east palestine, ohio. vance echoed trump's attacks on the legitimacy of the 2020 election, which the ex-president put front and center in his campaign as he continues to promote false claims it was stolen from him. we are taking your calls for the first hour and a half on the vice presidential pick. we start with thelma. democrat. caller: good morning. i think j.d. vance is an idiot. he is a trump puppet. he believes women should stay with an abusive husband. he has six things in his head. that's all of -- sick things in his head. host: how do you think he has been in your senator? caller: not good. he's done nothing for ohio.

he runs his mouth. that's about it. he is just like trump's little puppet. that's all i can say. host: frank in new york, republican line. caller: j.d. vance is so far to the right he will not let women have an abortion even for incest or rape. when that gets out, when the public finds out what his stances are on women's rights he's going to bring that issue to the fore in the election. that was a big mistake on their part to pick him as a vice president. he's not vice president material. he's only been a senator for a year and a half. i don't think he's passed one piece of legislation that i can think of. host: i just mentioned the rail safety bill.

he did get it across. let me find out more about legislation he was involved with, frank. let's go to robert in michigan, independent line. caller: good morning. how are you doing this morning? it's a beautiful day in this country, is in it? -- is it it? -- isn't it? i don't necessarily know the guy. the first time i heard of him was the day before and he was blaming the shooting incident on biden. biden's rhetoric about trump and this and that. to be honest with you, the shooter was a registered republican. one more thing. he was not an illegal alien either. trump always talks about the illegals crossing the border and killing people. this guy was a homegrown registered republican.

there is nothing more to be said about that. thank you very much and have a good day. host: we will pause on the phone calls. please do hold on. don't hang up. we will talk to aaron mcgroarty from the capital times in wisconsin. welcome to the program. guest: thank you for having me. host: what was the reaction to senator vance's selection yesterday at the convention? guest: absolutely. a a lot of people were super excited. he does not have a speaking event yet but he and former president trump made an appearance late last night. they arrived around 9:00 p.m. to thunderous applause. vance could be seen walking along the crowd, shaking hands, and was standing in the stands with donald trump and his sons. they are really working to paint

a cohesive image of this ticket that they are hoping will translate into a second administration. host: do you think senator vance 's selection will help former president trump when wisconsin? -- win wisconsin? guest: wisconsin is a collocated state politically. i have -- complicated state politically. i have heard officials that someone more moderate what have -- might have performed well here. we will see how he performs. we will see what the market law school poll says in a couple weeks about this choice. host: what would you say are senator vance's strengths and weaknesses? guest: i think his strengths, and part of the reason why he was chosen by former president trump is that they share a lot of the same ideals. as trump calls for unity within the republican party i think

that it will show a lot of unity for voters, for republican voters to have a vice presidential pick and presidential candidate that are aligned on some issues. host: we have been showing former president trump and senator vance did appear together at the convention. are there plans for them to appear again today? what is the schedule for today? either of them speaking? guest: it is hard to say whether or not they will make appearances. there are a lot of things about this particular convention that are different than past conventions. one of them being the security level in response to the incident over the weekend. i don't know if either will be speaking. it is safe to say their

major addresses will not be until later in this week. we can expect former president trump to issue his formal acceptance of the nomination thursday night. host: this is day 2 of the convention. what are you watching for today? guest: yes. the gop did send out a loose set of themes of the week leading up to the convention. today will be focused on safety. it is safe to say there is going to be a lot of discussions of immigration, the southern border. both are key campaign points for the trump campaign. it is safe to say law enforcement will probably also be a notable discussion point today. we will see what the evening program will bring us. it's anticipated that a lot of the focus will be on immigration and border security today. host: nikki haley is scheduled

to speak today. she was added to the schedule on sunday. do you know the back story of what happened? guest: yeah. that has been an interesting relationship along the campaign. she was a really vocal critic of former president trump while she was campaigning during the republican primary herself. she changed her tune earlier this month. she spoke last month and mentioned she was endorsing him as the republican pick for president. that was a change in step from her vocal criticism while she was campaigning. last week, she made an announcement she would be instructing her supporters to vote for trump in the november election. it is interesting specifically in wisconsin. we have such a unique purple

political nature. even after she had publicly announced she was dropping out of the presidential primary, she still garnered 13% of the vote during the republican primary election back in april. i think from former president trump's perspective, having her speak, i think it is a strategic point to show unity in the party and hopefully also use her voice to appeal to some of the more moderate republicans that may former president trump and senator vance might not necessarily attract right off the bat. host: any other notable speakers that will be speaking tonight? guest: from a wisconsin perspective, yesterday we heard from senator ron johnson, a big supporter of former president trump. later this week -- it is hard to say when because the evening

program has not been announced but we do know at some point we will be hearing from republican senate candidate eric h ubty. he received an endorsement from president trump during his campaign rally in green bay early this election season. those two are closely aligned on campaign values. it's anticipated that he will speak in favor of a trump reelection. those two are pretty closely aligned. host: erin, you can read her reporting at captimes.com. thanks so much. host: thanks for having -- guest: thanks for having me. host: i want to show you the posting on x that senator van put out after the shooting on saturday.

frank had called and mentioned it. "today is not just some isolated incident. the central premise of the biden campaign is that president dona trump is an authoritarian fasciswho must be stopped at all costs. that rhetoric led directly to president trump's attempted assassination." shelby, ohio. line for democrats. william. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. what do you think about your senator becoming the vp pick? caller: well, i think he's just donald trump, jr. basically. i would like to make a statement about the alleged attempt to assassinate trump. host: go ahead. caller: i don't think it was an actual attempt to assassinate him. i think it was one of trump's con games. host: ok.

helen in long beach, california. republican. caller: i think it's a catastrophe that trump has chosen vance as his running mate. putting those two together with their families, i'm reminded of the american gothic painting. they just fell out of another time in the midwest somewhere. i come from california. grew up in california. california carries 54 electoral votes. 40% of the population of california does not look like someone from iowa. they are hispanic. i thought marco rubio would have been an excellent choice. his background is a struggle. very similar to many people who are hispanic origin in california, texas, and marco rubio's state of florida. they would have an overwhelming

victory if he had chosen marco rubio. host: helen, california, texas, florida are not swing states. not to put it bluntly. caller: they carry the most electoral votes. as swing states, i'm not quite familiar with that term. who are these swinging -- they swinging towards? another time? another place? something that doesn't really exist today? where is my representation? where is republican representation? that is my complaint. i don't feel like antiabortion and anti-immigrant really reflects a lot of people who are republicans. he's praying on inflammatory issues when he could be dealing directly with issues of foreign policy, domestic policy. how are you going to return manufacturing besides --

host: as a republican have you decided you were going to vote for former president trump? caller: hi between a rock and a hard place. if i don't vote for trump, biden --i don't know who is masterminding biden. this ukraine, he's launching us into another world war iii. they are revving up the sales of armaments all over to israel and so forth. it is not good. the choices are not good. what is the least damaging approach? host: micah in dallas, independent line. caller: thank you for taking me. i want to elaborate on what the ohioan stated. where is the release report from the hospital regarding trump? where was he injured? the l.a. think you saw him --

the only thing you saw was the hollywood blood on his face and get up and signaled to his fellow clan members -- host: let's talk about the vp pick. what are your thoughts on senator vance? caller: let's get to the root of this fallacy about trumping injured. it is a bunch of crap. host: we are not going to entertain conspiracy theories. the investigation is ongoing. we will leave it at that. gary in new hampshire on the line for democrats. caller: thank you for taking my call. i want to wish trump godspeed in his recovery. i would not wish something like this on my worst enemy. but the fact of the matter is, he brought all this dangerous rhetoric onto himself. i don't know what makes him think people in this country are going to put up with this. people don't have to put up with this. we know he lost the election in

2020. he incited a riot that killed four capitol police officers. we do not need to stop losing sight of this stuff. this is stuff that needs to be discussed and that the people of this country need to realize this guy is dangerous. he brought on a lot of dangerous rhetoric to this country. like i said, i do wish trump godspeed in his recovery. i would not wish this on my worst enemy, but the bottom line is he has brought on all the stuff to himself. this shooting was coming. yes, he could -- it could have been prevented if the secret service acted better and had snipers on the roof to prevent the guy. yes. i'm not getting away from that. the bottom line is, he brought all this stuff on himself. host: got it. this is in a posting on x from

senator vance after his nomination to the vice presidency. vice presidential candidacy. "just overwhelmed with gratitude. what an honor to run alongside president trump. he delivered peace and prosperity once and with your help he will do it again. onward to victory." claire in tyson, virginia. republican. caller: hi. i'm really happy to see j.d. vance as the vp pick. i think he will bring a lot of millennials into the republican party. he has some similarities to the santos -- desantis. he's a standup guy. his speech is eloquent. while he did point out the rhetoric on the democratic side, everybody knows the rhetoric on both sides is too strong.

i think it was absolutely true what he said and i support him 100%. host: are you a millennial? caller: yes. host: what is it about senator vance's policies that are appealing to you? caller: most of it. almost all of it. maybe i disagree on a couple of small areas. i think we should be supporting the ukraine war a little bit more -- ukraine more. he's a little more protectionist than i would be. host: let's look at home and secure to secretary all the hundred mayorkas who addressed reporters' questions of the white house and also addressed security for the gop vice presidential nominee. >> a few house republicans suggested this was an inside job. that this administration or secret service wanted donald

trump to get shot. how do you feel? how does the rank-and-file feel when they hear that? >> let me say this. that is preposterous and also dangerous to propagate rumors that are so unequivocally false and provocative. as the president powerfully said to the entire nation, we have to tamp down the rhetoric in this country. the rhetoric itself creates a threat environment that really is quite dynamic and evolving. >> mr. secretary, what concerns you that there were witnesses that identified a gunman on the building? there was local law enforcement assigned to the building. the secret service has the overall response ability. where do you think the breakdown may have occurred? is it because he had to rely on local law enforcement? maybe not having the kind of synergy you might need.

where do you see the breakdown with witnesses angers a gunman and action not happening fast enough? >> there have been statements by many people with respect to what did and did not occur. we are going to let the investigation and review deliver the factual findings. we will act upon those. we rely upon local law enforcement and other assets, resources and capabilities every day. we are incredibly proud to do so. we are incredibly proud of the courageous law enforcement officers upon which we rely. >> at the time you have been here, the former president selected j.d. vance. what can you tell us about the security for the running mate? >> the secret service, when a selection is made will provide the appropriate level of security. host: back to the calls. shirly in ohio, dimock.

-- democrat. caller: thank you for your program. i'm calling in about j.d. vance. i never liked him. i never liked his rhetoric. to me, he adds fuel to the fire with donald trump. i think he made a bad choice. he should have picked nikki haley a long time ago and start talking about her. he did her so bad. i don't have she can even be there around him. as far as all the conspiracy theories, let the investigation continue. the man on the roof, i think local law enforcement did not have enough help. they did not -- they were not prepared for that at all because it is a small place. small people, small-town people. a rural area. they were not prepared for that. thank you. host: sherry in nixon, missouri.

independent line. caller: hello. what clinched it for me and helped me make my decision, especially was was the fella getting up. i have never seen that. for him to say how the vice president went and walked with the teamsters, this has been such a diverse -- diversified -- host: when you say what clinched it for you, and what sense? -- in what sense? caller: for trump and vance.

it is because of the teamsters union fella getting up and talking about how much support he's received already this year from vance. the fact that he went out and that with them and walked with them and supports them. it tells me how diversified the republican party has become and they are very much inclusive in wanting to include everyone. they are willing to listen to people. the number of speakers they have had tonight was just phenomenal. it was something i had not expected to see. it is nice to see somebody doing something to unite the country

and not try to break it down. host: here is a posting on x from marco rubio who was on e shortlist for that position. "j.d. vance is a fantastic choice. americans will soon see this intelligent man who is committed to making amica great again. vote for trump-vance 2024 so we can unite our people and save our country." senator jim risch. " congratulations, j.d. vance. president trump and senator vance are a representation of the republican party. they have my full support." this is from joseph in crystal river, florida. republican. caller: good morning. thank you for letting me on. i was calling because at times i get a little discouraged at the

fact that they are always mentioning the lord jesus but never were singing him on the tv -- worshiping him on live tv. a lot of people believe this. epstein hung himself in trump's name was on the list for the sex trade along with 100 other celebrities, like hollywood and so on. the fact that a lot of people worship this guy more than they worship our creator disturbs me. robert kennedy junior, coming from a lineage of believers like the one who was actually assassinated, which they were trying to mimic with trump to make it look -- who really got assassinated with jfk. he was a god-fearing man. a lot of other presidents prior. people need to wake up in

reality check this wilted stop worshiping this man a really worship the creator. host: jim in philadelphia, democrat. caller: good morning. i'm incredulous at what i'm hearing from a lot of the callers. instead of answering your questions are going off on trumped arrangements syndrome. to your question about vance, he is a complex man. he came from humble beginnings. it's illustrative that the direction the republican party is going, aside from all the rhetoric from politicians all the time, he really has his voters at heart. especially working-class voters. that is why you were seeing the teamsters at this convention. unbelievable. a man who converted to catholicism -- i'm not a

religious person but a man who is married to an extremely intelligent woman, can go toe to toe with vance with her but, smith's. -- accomplish men's. ments. i was hoping you would be donald's or rubio. i'm curious how this will play out. i don't know enough for an opinion on it. host: patio from your registered democrat to a trump supporter? caller: my family were factory workers. on the first person in my family to go to college. i saw what the democratic party has become. a party cal telling -- kowtowing to media and the entertainment industry and leaving behind the working people. leaving behind the

disenfranchised, the minorities, the black scum the hispanics, asians, the gays -- the blacks, the hispanics, asians, the gays. i can see the democratic party has not been the champion of those people who they are supposedly representing. host: had you voted for trump in 2020 or did you go for biden at that time? caller: i voted for trump in 2020. i have not changed my registration. i voted for obama and in 2020 i voted for trump. host: let's hear from senator vance himself on the senate floor. this is back from april talking about -- talking against usa to ukraine. [video] >> opponents of further aiding ukraine, and i count myself among them, say that this is a chamberlin versus churchill kind of moment. he her majesty was calling from

delaware make this observation. with no disrespect to my friend from delaware, we need to come up with a different analogy in this chamber. we need to be able to understand history as not just world war ii replaying itself over and over again. vladimir putin is not at all filler -- adolf hitler. he has significantly capabilities. america is not america the late 1930's or early 1940's. we are substantially -- we possess substantially less manufacturing might in relative terms that we did almost 100 years ago. most importantly, there are many ways in which the analogy falls apart even if you ignore america's capacity, russia's capacity. there are ways we should look at other historical analogies.

i want to point to a couple of those right now. the second world war was the most devastating war arguably in the history of the world. close behind it is the first world war. what is the lesson of the first world war if not that there are always people appeasing the bad guys or fighting against the bad guys. if you're not careful you can blunder yourself into a broader regional conflict that kills tens of millions of people. many of them innocents. in 1914, alliance politics and the failure of statesmanship dragged two rival blocks of militaries into a catastrophic conflict. in the past week alone, the council on foreign relations published an essay calling for european troops to sustain ukraine as it struggles to raise troops. some leaders have said they might send troops to support ukraine in a conflict. perhaps the history lesson we should be teaching ourselves is

that chamberlain versus churchill, perhaps we should be asking ourselves how an entire continent, and entire world set of leaders allow the world to blunder itself in the conflict. is there possibly a diplomatic solution to the conflict in ukraine? yes, i believe there is. as multiple people both critics of vladimir putin and supporters of ukraine have pointed out, there was in fact a peace deal on the table approximately 18 months ago. what happened to it? divide administration pushed zelenskyy to set aside the peace agreement and to engage in a disastrous counteroffensive. i counteroffensive that killed thousands, tens of thousands of ukrainians, that depleted an entire decade's worth of military stock and left us in the place we are in now where every single objective observer of the ukraine war acknowledges today that the war is going worse for ukraine than it was 18

months ago. could we have avoided it? yes, mr. president. we should have avoided it. it would have saved a lot of lives in a lot of american weapons. we would've had this country in a much more stable and much better place if we had. host: that was senator vance from april of this year on the senate floor. getting your reaction to his pick as vp. this is congressman brad sherman, a democrat. "constituents have asked what i think of.d. vance. senator vance is an extremist that supports a national abortion ban without exception. he opposes the right to same-sex marriage and once the government to make it hard for a couple getting a divorce. vance opposes aiding our allies in ukraine and its word ts russian aggression. like j.d. vance, i was also a never trump got. critical of trump's policies as president. unfortunately, vance changed."

this is senator sheldon whitehouse who says, "mr. trump is unfit for our nation's highest office. quoting senator vance from 2016." james in st. louis, missouri. independent. caller: i wanted to call in and say thank you for providing neutral coverage that you guys do. a lot of the coverage we see in the media is biased one side of the other. in terms of vance, i don't think vance really wins any voters, at least not voters like me who were in the middle and don't really feel the full allegiance one side of the other. eileen a little bit more towards the left -- i lean a little bit more towards the left and vance makes me less likely to vote for the right.

i wanted to say about my fellow missourian who called in about how the teamster president spoke of the rnc convinced her to go trump. my father was a teamster for 30 years. i grew up in a teamster household. i think it is all just basically a bunch of fraud. he called out josh hawley and j.d. vance for being prounion. j.d. vance has been kind of mixed in his union support over the years. i know missouri senator josh hawley has a long history of being pro right to work and antiunion. he comes out on a couple of picket lines and shakes hands and all of a sudden we are supposed to consider him prounion. that doesn't make sense to me. you look at the track record, their history of action and what they have said and done and go from there. host: anthony in south river, new jersey. democrat. caller: thanks for coming in. i agree with the last caller

about c-span being the best that is out there, because we can just watch the coverage and not have any commentators. that is the way it is great for us here. thank you for that. i want to talk about the election. we are not perfect. we are not really getting any coverage on the bipartisan bill called the save act, which would require when you register to vote to show you are a citizen. this was a bipartisan bill that passed in the house. five democrats voted for it. now it is in the senate. the honorable chuck schumer will not bring it to the floor. that is kind of disheartening. when i went to the c-span site this morning and i put it in the search bar, i put save act. all i got was something that kevin mccarthy wanted to save the sequoia trees in california in 2022.

if you go to google, save act, house of representatives, it has the information. i want to give you my experience when i was at the motor vehicle getting my real id so i could travel. i had to go in and put in six -- four different identification to get my id. the person next to me getting the thing, you know, speaking broken english. in new jersey, people who are undocumented are about to get drivers licenses without, you know, they don't have to have documentation. so, speaking in broken, mid-20's. we have the best schools in new jersey. i don't know why people can't learning wish. host: anthony, we have to get to the point. you are in favor of people showing their citizenship in

order to vote? caller: my spirits at the dmv, the want to vote? they did not ask for anything in new jersey because we allow the undocumented. host: anything on j.d. vance while i've got you? caller: i like what the guy said about the union things. just seeing donald trump. i don't know how he does it. if 70 set up my head, that would be it. host: jason in fishers, indiana. republican line. caller: thank you very much for taking my call. let me answer the question you actually asked. how do i feel about j.d. vance as vice president? i am exceedingly happy and exceedingly honored that the republican party selected him. thinking back to the history of the republican party, they began

as an abolitionist party. i want to make sure i did not say abortionist. i sent abolitionist. antislavery party. that is what got abraham lincoln elected. that is what gave us 20 years of republican rule after the civil war ended. i think we have a party today that is focused on specific political issues, specific policy issues. the president and the vice president are pretty much aligned in those possibilities. the other thing i would like to say, and it goes to how people are commenting about j.d. vance. i listened to the washington journal this morning. the majority of the comments i have heard have been personal comments attacking j.d. vance rather than policy comments

about what he believes in and thought about. one caller called, trump puppet. i'm sorry. i don't know who the president of the unit seats is today. i know who is sitting in the oval office. host: what are the policies of senator vance you are in favor of? caller: most of the policies i'm in favor of is that he is a constitutional conservative. he wants to go back to the united states as it was intended to be under the constitution. we should not be involved in foreign wars. in our case today, that is ukraine. i believe with him, you know, george washington said it. let foreign powers deal with that. we need to focus on what we need to do in the united states on

the make america great policy. host: i want to share this article from the washington post with the headline, j.d. vance pick unnerves gop business elites and thrills the populist. the senator lee's faction sharply bracing -- breaking with policy on trade and other policies. the donors oppose the pick. vance suggested a break with the economic orthodoxy of the last several decades on a range of policy issues, including unions, antitrust, trade and taxes, even making, said if you're at odds with trump already scrambled the party's ideology. the senator embraced a more active role for government intervention in the economy that most republicans. emerging as a leader of minority factions among gop senators, that includes senator josh hawley, marco rubio, vance has

praised president biden's antitrust trade commission, called for a higher minimum wage, and once called raising taxes on corporations. opposition's anathema to conservatives. it is dark compared to the vice president of trump's first term mike pence you branded himself as an hort -- adherent of ronald reagan on every think deficits to taxes, or former house speaker paul ryan known for his free-market orthodoxy. ed is in carlisle, pennsylvania. independent. caller: good morning. i'm opposed to this war in ukraine. i think the world was provoked. i have never heard of j.d. vance saying anything i was particularly sympathetic with. however, recently he has made statements.

you played one about 15 minutes ago about his opposition to continue military aid to ukraine. based on that, although i would never imagine myself voting for donald trump, i have to congratulate trump on selecting this man. i think there should be more people outspoken in opposition to this work in ukraine. thank you. host: let's look at what -- in an interview last night president biden reacted to the trump vp pick. [video] >> before you and i sat down former president trump named his vice president so pick, j.d. vance. what is that tell you? what is that tell you about former president trump's values in terms of who he will surround himself with in the next administration should he win? >> is not unusual for him to

surround himself with people that completely agree with him. if you go back to listen to the things that j.d. vance said about trump. >> and you. >> see what he said about trump. what is with you guys? come on, man. j.d. vance has adopted the same policies. no exception on abortions. the new $5 trillion tax cut trump wants to given the next admits ration. he says there is no climate change happening. he signed on to the trump agenda, which he should if he's running with trump. host: chuck in maryland, democrat. caller: good morning. this country, we will reap what we sow. number two, harris will run

circles around j.d. vance and the actual debate. number three, project 2025 is mein kampf. that is my comment. host: justin from washington bill, ohio. republican -- washingtonville, ohio. caller: thank you for shooting down the conspiracy theories. i want to say washingtonville is not far from east palestine with the train derailment. i wanted to say j.d. vance made himself very available. he showed himself to be a very good communicator. he's willing to work with the other side. the bipartisan with sharad brown. he's in a listed marine, which is priceless in my book and a lot of others. what else? i hear a lot about the money

that's going into -- elon musk came out. a lot of news has been saying the candidates are bought and paid for and whatnot. j.d. vance is very much a self-made man. it is not -- excuse me. it doesn't feel as though, you know, either candidates are in a position to where they are beholden to anyone else. they could easily have just decided to stay out of all of this and not be in politics, but they are americans. they want things to get better. they have stepped out and exposed themselves to a lot that they don't need to to try to make things better for american general. that is about all i had to say. host: matthew, florida, independent. caller: hello.

thank you for having me. j.d. vance, especially for someone like me his relatively young, it's fascinating. i think what makes them unique -- president biden was talking about how his issues aligned with trump's. yeah. that would pretty much make sense. he is the vice president. if you want consistency. tournament ago i heard someone talk about how they would rather have nikki haley. i would say not only is nikki haley's views on war different, she's one of the only people i remember in american history who lost to none of these candidates. if i were a republican i would be happy with j.d. vance, particularly with his record. i don't agree with his issues on abortion, but he's pretty strong. this specially as a young person watching the convention last night, watching trump out there. i don't care if you are left, right, republican, democrat, independent. it is hard at the roofer that man -- root for that man.

host: francisca in brooklyn, new york. democrat. caller: thank you for taking my call. i will never vote for trump. i come from brooklyn, new york. i don't know how j.d. vance, a marine, is going to be the vice president for a man that when the vietnam war -- my husband, my two brother-in-laws went to vietnam. he said they are suckers. please, j.d. vance stop being a hypocrite. how dear you support a man like donald trump -- dare you support a man like donald trump? host: eva in columbia, mississippi. caller: at the very beginning you let someone to say they were for -- there were four policemen

killed on six. the only person murdered was ashli babbitt. host: there were several police officers killed as a result of january 6. that is more correct. caller: vance. i don't know much about him. i know he has worked hard and pulled himself. i know the democrats are going to start picking at him like a dead animal. let me remind you, y'all keep bringing up trump's sexual activities. 20 going to talk about -- when you going to talk about the sexual escapades of biden and harris? she may run circles around vance but nobody will know what she's said when she stopped. if you going to expose republican sexual escapades, let's go after the democrats on the ticket. host: tina in pennsylvania, and depend line. caller: how are you?

my opinion on jd is i don't think there could have been a better pick. host: why is that? caller: he is young. he has energy. he comes from the rust belt, which is the poorest in the nation, know that. when obama and decided to take our jobs away. he has the american story. yeah, i'm not with him on abortion. i'm antiabortion unless there are circumstances but i'm sure he will come around to that. there is something i desperately like to say as an american citizen. i turn on this tv and i flip. there are a couple of faces you hear the supporters of donald trump for this and that and the other. donald trump is this, that, the other.

for 10 years they have gone after that man. 10 years. . he's convicted in new york. i'll give you that. they said yesterday it will be a mistrial because they broke the constitution. this country has so much hatred towards former president donald trump. it is going to be the demise of our country. everybody needs to take a step back. everybody needs to shut their mouths. let's listen to the policy. i will tell you, my money was a lot better when he was president. i just got my electric bill in the mail. i live in a rural part of pennsylvania. when donald trump was in office it never went over $100. is $270. my husband has long covid because joe biden's administration made him get a

covid shot. now he needs a lung transplant. people need to look at policy, get rid of the personality. that meant almost died saturday. they are still hating on him. host: let's look at some texts we have gotten. this is from orlando ford. "i feel like the we a lot of other choices available. specifically with more experience. it strikes me as a very odd choice." sue in oregon, ohio. t ast j.d. vance visited east palestine, ohio in their time of need. j.d. vance is a fine choice." michael in florida. " j.d. vance is a great pick. republicans will not have all three branches of government for 12 years, which will save america from dei democrat policies." amelia from atlanta, democrat.

caller: good morning. i realized it doesn't matter who trump picked for vice president. the problem is that i realize that trump supporters don't even know who this man is. they need to find out who he is. when -- someone called earlier to say something about the republicans are for black people. the thing is that yesterday's republicans are today's democrats. americans don't read. they don't have critical thinking skills. i tell you what. they think we a trump. we don't a trump. hate is not in our vocabulary, at least not a mine. his wife, his first wife, ivanka trump said he kept hitler

speeches at the nightstand. these are facts. he raped her and she retracted that back in 2015 when he was ready to -- host: let's talk about j.d. vance. what are your thoughts on him as a vp pick? caller: he wants to get rid of social security. as far as project 2025, people need to read. that project is going to take away the benefits -- decrease the benefits of veterans, disabled veterans. people read. you don't read. you don't use critical thinking skills. host: let's take a look at what senator j.d. vance said in an interview at cpac back in february of this year. [video] >> my family, we are all from ohio but i have a lot of family from eastern kentucky. the appalachian part of kentucky. the county that my grandparents were born in, the life

expectancy is 67. that is comparable to a lot of third world countries. if you are a leader and you have allowed that to happen to your own country, in your own backyard. if you mitch mcconnell from kentucky and you care more about the fact that russia invaded ukraine then about the fact your own citizens are getting murdered by fentanyl brought in by cartels and that is lowering five expectancy, you need to look in the mirror and except your job has been a failure. you have been a failure at your job. >> what is the diagnosis of that? >> there is no reason why that should be that way. that is what i don't understand. it is harder -- easier to look at the problem 6000 miles away then look in the mirror and admit you been a failure in leading the country in the past generation. the bipartisan consensus in the last 40 years in this country has seen the rise of china, the

structure -- destruction of the american manufacturing base which is why we don't have enough weapons to send ukraine and focus on ourselves. on the father of three little kids. take your kids to a pharmacy today and be told there is not a laugh amoxicillin for -- not enough amoxicillin because we let the chinese commonest make the antibiotics we put in our kids. this is a legacy of failure and it's hard for them to look themselves in the mirror and say we screw this up. of course, the biggest screwup and problem we have right now is the american southern border. if you're not focused on that and not getting fired up about that and not pulling all nighters about that, you're in the wrong job. host: that was senator vance from february. we are taking your calls on him being picked as mr. trump's vice president. alex in delaware, republican. caller: hi would like to say --i would like to say that media

and the democrats talk about vance was against trump a while back. i will tell you one thing right now. the democratic debate was on. harris called biden of racist and among other things. no one wants to say none of that. it is supposed to be fair. why are you letting them say that stuff and not saying that about harris calling him a racist and every thing else? she is vice president, too. that's enough. host: kevin in louisiana. sorry, windsor, connecticut. independently. -- independent line. caller: i saw that clip of vance . hitler declared war on this country. we had germans on long island

sound. i'm sure j.d. vance was happy when he was in iraq. he had allies with him. they was with us for 9/11. they was with us for our wars. he's pulling the same stuff hitler did. invading sovereign countries. this guy needs to go back to the history books and learn what happened. you better believe russia -- along with china. he ain't no pence. host: i was going to say, what do you think of senator vance? caller: his history -- he is bad for security. we got allies, and if trump gets in, we get kicked out of nato. he will drop us out of nato. we will turn our backs on our allies. they are with us in our wars.

host: we will take a pause on our phone calls. if you are on the line, please hold on, because we will speak to a reporter with the "ohio capital journal," nick evans. welcome to the program. guest: how are you? host: tell us about senator vance's background. guest: born and raised in middletown, ohio. raised poor. after high school, went to the marine corps. went to college in ohio, after that, yale, went to private equity, met up with peter thiel. he wrote a book that got really famous. it came along right as donald trump was getting elected. it sort of became this --a lot of people try to find a way into

the white working-class voters that supported donald trump -- host: why did you think that memoir, "hillbilly elegy," was so popular? guest: i think people were casting about for an explanation, and the people who wrote it was a talented communicator who said, here i am, even if i do not agree with trump, i can tell you why people that came from where i come from might see the appeal of him. host: as we know, in 2016, vance was highly critical of former president trump, became an ardent supporter. can you talk about that transition and why that happened? guest: i think that is still an open question. he came around at a very opportune time. there is no way to get around that. on the other hand, since he did come around, he has been,

perhaps, the most ardent defender of trump the entire way through. has this convert -- does that come from a genuine change of heart or does it come from political opportunism, it is hard to say. at the end of the day, he is still there and able to present a message that improves upon what trump offers to voters. i think he does a really good job, whether you like him or not, of translating what trump has said into something that is more palatable to somebody who may be is not a hard-core conservative partisan. host: what do you think senator vance brings to the ticket? guest: his communication skills. you look at it, i do not think anybody looking at ohio thinks that trump is going to have any trouble winning the state,

right? vance does not come from an affinity group, like mike pence did, bringing along evangelical christians. instead, he can sort of take on whatever trump has said, a person who is prone to, perhaps, bombastic statements, and he can sort of, for lack of a better term, translate them, put them into a context that has a sheen of respect ability without underlying the undermining point, which is something, in the past, that really frustrated the former president. host: one of our former callers mentioned vice president harris, that she would be able to run circles around senator vance. presumably, there will be a vice presidential debate in the near future. what do you think of that matchup? guest: it is going to be very interesting.

[laughter] i watched a decent amount of the democratic unmarried debates, and i came away pretty impressed with harris. the book on her was sort of like -- it was not a core, central message of why me, and that kind of harm to her, but in terms of a debater, she was very talented. on the other hand, i think j.d. vance, one of the things i noticed from the first campaign event i went to with him, he does not get knocked off the spot. he is happy to take questions from all comers, and he usually is very comfortable taking that question and answering it. i think that will be a very interesting matchup. host: regarding his policies, is there any sunlight between him and former president trump on any of the issues, as far as abortion, immigration, support

for wars overseas? guest: i think he has been, perhaps, more strident on his opposition to ongoing funding to ukraine. i did nothing donald trump is really a fan of that, but vance has pinned that flag more forcefully. trump is trying to moderate, somewhat, when it comes to abortion. during the senate campaign, vance said he would vote for a 15 week abortion ban. whether or not that comes into play as the vice president, giving that tie-breaking vote in the senate, who knows. but i think, in general, if he wants to be successful and establish as little daylight as possible, yeah, in the big step out there, he is probably going to be right in line or maybe a way of encouraging him to go a

little further here or a little further there. host: finally, what has been the reaction so far in ohio, in your state? guest: if you are a republican, your ecstatic. -- you are ecstatic. you are absolutely thrilled. basically every republican official has issued glowing statements in support of this. it is notable, perhaps, that the governors going to get to pick a replacement for vance in the coming months, if trump ticket were to win. on the other hand, if you are a democrat, you are pretty concerned. i think a lot of folks look at j.d. vance and say, you know, he is a sort of dangerous political figure. the things he believes will lead to bad outcomes for the country. so it is a mixed bag in ohio. host: "ohio capital journal" reporter nick evans.

you can find his reporting at ohiocapitaljournal.com. thanks for joining us. guest: happy to do it. host: back to your phone calls. kim in ohio, republican. caller: hi. i think vance is a very good voice. he made it to east palestine, ohio, before president biden did. into the liberals and the woman from new york talking about trump calling the military losers and suckers, they need to watch and see him say that katie did not say that. he said it would be stupider if he said something like that he donated money to the veterans and the arlington cemetery. as far as them saying he would be a dictator, for the first day, he says, only.

open a pipeline and close the border. who is against that? what is wrong with that? vice president harris, compared to vance, vance blows her away. she cannot answer the definition of a woman. where was she when east palestine had the railroad off-track? host: all right. we are taking your calls on the pickup senator vance eyes mr. trump's -- as mr. trump's vp. our phone lines are democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. also in ohio, this time in cincinnati, on the independent line, eddie. hello. caller: hello, how are you this morning? host: good. caller: i'm just calling to give

my opinion on politicians. it has something to do with the race, too. a politician, you ask them a question, they will give you a story instead of answering the question. in whoever is asking them the question does not come back and say, after they give the story, answer the question. they never do that. in these choices you are asking all these questions about the politicians running for this and running for that and all of this, when i -- personally, i think trump picked vance to be his puppet. so whatever trump can't explain, he can't explain stuff the weight vance can. and the lady who just got off the phone who said trump did not say the people at fort worth was

losers and suckers, i think the whole world heard him say that, because he was a puppet himself and had bone spurs in his foot or somewhere, so he would not have to go. then he has been convicted of all these crimes. and we elect him to be the leader of this country? i think it's a poor choice, and this country is going to hell without a basket. host: -- caller: good morning. i think we should get a younger vice in office for a change. j.d. vance, i believe he is from appalachia.

-- host: sebastian, florida, independent line. caller: i am an independent registered as a republican in florida, because you cannot vote in the primaries unless you are in one of the parties. i do not know that much about vance. i did vote for trump the last time. i voted for obama prior to that. and i'm going to vote for trump again. i really hope people do their research. i think the media has been very misleading. i just hope they do their research and their eyes are opened, and i am willing to give vance a chance until i know more about him. host: all right, donna. let's talk to lenny in new

york, republican. caller: i think he is a great pick. he is a young man. he has service prior. he speaks well. he will probably crush kamala in a debate when they do that. she does not really speak as well as him, and he has a great mind. i think he will show that, when that debate comes. she better have her a-game ready to deal with him. he might be the future of america. who knows? host: maria, ohio, line for democrats, greg. caller: this is the greatest gift democrat have received. i am from ohio. j.d. vance called donald trump hitler-like. this is confirmed. he also said he is a never trumper. this is confirmed. he also brings nothing to the

table -- diversity, experience. nothing. who is he going to attract? and in a rally in 2022, he was on stage with donald trump, and donald trump said to j.d. vance, you kiss my you-know-what. he just stood there and took it. this is what you want as vice president. this is confirmed. research it. look it up. i'm not taking this up. so, guess what? that was the greatest pick ever. he brings nothing to the table except a trump supervisor. host: let's hear a little bit more from j.d. vance. he was a guest on our program called "q&a" back in 2016, when his best selling book, "hillbilly elegy," came out. [video clip] >> j.d. vance, did you have any idea, when you wrote this book,

it would be a huge best seller, "hillbilly elegy"? >> now, i did not get i did not specter to have the response it had. >> why do you think it had it? >> a couple things. first, the weird nature of the election this year because a lot of people to ask who are these white were being class of voters for trump? second, i said light on a part of the country that they do not know a whole lot about. hopefully i showed them about what folks in this region are like, the good and the bad. >> where were you born? >> i was born in southern ohio, steel town, called middletown, because -- and we always said it was called middletown because it was between cincinnati and dayton. but i grew up in kentucky, because my grandparents, who raised me, were appalachian dais

for -- diaspora. >> can you paint a picture of jackson, kentucky? >> jackson is pretty small, got about 6000 people in it. pretty impoverished. the opioid epidemic has really hit jackson hard pure that is a big part of what is going on in these areas. not a whole lot of people working. obviously, the loss of coal jobs to the area hard. in some ways, it is a pretty tough area to row up in. middletown is, in some ways, supposed the -- to be the economic savior. in a lot of ways, it was. my grandparents, from eastern kentucky, it provided them a good wage. but a lot of the problems they thought they were escaping in jackson just presented themselves in middletown, too. so you see a lot of the problems, the family breakdown, the heroin epidemic, to the joblessness, now characteristic for this area of the country.

i would not say it is quite as destitute, because there's still a lot going on in southwestern ohio, so oaks are still able to find a decent jobs, the poverty rate is not as high, the unemployment rate is not as high, but for folks like us, it is pretty similar. a lot of the social ills that exist in southern ohio do not look for and from jackson. >> your book is "hillbilly elegy." are there hills there in those places? >> there are. they are bigger in jackson. [laughter] middletown is technically just outside the appalachian mountains in what is called the appellation plateau, so if you ever been to cincinnati, which is the closest big-city to middletown, very hilly, almost mountainous, but not anything like the true hills of kentucky and tennessee. >> what year did you leave that area permanently? >> you mean middletown? >> that whole area. >> i left in 2003, and i left,

like a lot of kids, even one on my block, running the military. i enlisted in the marines. this was right after we invaded in iraq. so it left, went to the marine corps, spent a lot of time in north carolina, did a tour in iraq, but that was the engine that brought me out of where i grew up. besides going back to visit family, i have not really lived there for more than a few months at a time. host: that was from 2016. we are taking your calls for another 10 minutes or so on the pick of j.d. vance as a vp nominee. otis, new providence, new jersey, independent line. caller: good morning. i have a couple points i would make. they talk about the unemployment rate is down, is up and everything.

in 2020, the unemployment rate was 4.1%. we gained 250,000 jobs. so where are they getting these facts from? are they allowed to just get on tv and just lie? because they are lying. host: so what do you think of j.d. vance as the vp pick? caller: i think -- i don't know. i was undecided, and now i am really undecided. i don't know, because they are not taking into account -- people lost their lives on january 6, you know? who has been held accountable for that? i think that is very unfair.

and they need to take the money out of politics, you know. i have so much to say, but -- host: and james, republican. caller: good morning. i think vance, i would not have picked him. but everybody is calling in and still using the rhetoric about hitler and all this. this country needs to change. we already know that four years we have had under biden has estimated, and everybody is talking about restoring 250,000 jobs -- that was after covid. these are jobs that people lost during an epidemic. they are claiming them as a new jobs. that is not it -- host: james, you said you would

not have picked senator vance. who would you have picked? caller: i would have probably went with tim scott. host: why is that? caller: because he seems to be enthusiastic. i like his message. i've heard him. him or even donald -- host: byron donalds. caller: byron donalds. i saw him taking questions and answering, and he is very pro-american. he is more like what i would think trump would pick. host: and is there something about senator vance you do not like? caller: i am 67, so i think he is a little young. i do not know much about him. what i know or hear about him --

i do not judge people on what i hear. this country has gotten to where -- and the guy before me said they are lying, they are lying. both sides are lying. it is time for the country to change. we are hurting. regular people are hurting. my wife was an illegal alien -- or immigrant. i've been married to her for 15 years. there are some things trump says i do not like. but one thing the man says is he stands for america first, and i think vance will do that. but i still think tim scott or byron donalds would have been better. host: mary a democrat in pennsylvania. good morning. caller: hi. what i think about j.d. vance --

off you skate, redirect, -- obfuscate, redirect, spin. that is all he is. you ask him a question, he does not answer, he comes up with a lot of stuff. he is a good one to spin what trump says. host: all right. joseph in chesapeake, virginia, independent line. caller: good morning. host: morning. caller: i do not have a problem with trumpeting vance. he is not seasoned, he is a junior senator. i still have to go with biden. i mean, biden has been in d.c. almost 60 years, most of the time in the minority. he has seen all the underhanded tricks and things that has been done not in the best interest of the american people in

accordance with the preamble, you know what i mean. he does not need to be roaring and whatnot, he is our leader. he can be soft spoken. it is all about legislation and how it hopes the people, according to the constitution, you know? vance, he is a writer, a junior senator. they are reinvigorating the republican party. i do not have a problem with that. but the stage we are at now, coming out of the pandemic, wars against our nato partners and whatnot, we need a seasoned statesman at this point. host: on the republican line in tennessee, judy. good morning. caller: good morning. i am quite the opposite. i think it is a wonderful ticket. they are both not politicians. i love that vance is a big

communicator. the america first agenda is extremely important. i love it that he has experience with being a marine, actually being in battle in the iraq war. he has lived a life of real crisis, he is self-made. again, it is the america agenda. i believe he is definitely going to win the debate with harris. i believe we need to be resource independent. i just saw so many wonderful future edits. i thought tim scott was great, byron donalds was great, governor naomi. i am very excited. host: all right, judy. this is a text we got fm scott in massausts. similar to dan quayle, george h.w. bush's vp pick, he is young and inexperienced, but there something to be said about

on-the-job training. time will tell. anne in washington, d.c., line for democrats. caller: when i think of j.d. vance, i think he is the perfect pick by trump to implement the 2025 project. that means he is not good -- neither is trump good, for the people of the united states. both of them will 100% try to make that 2025 project instrument to kill all the good things the democrats have done, so let's keep our eyes on selecting someone who will not implement a 2025 project. host: ralph in north, line for independentss. caller: yes, my question to vance would be what would he do for social security? for the people who have already put money into it. with a drop our pay, lower our pay?

what will they do with nato? because we cannot survive without a team. what would he do for the american people, the jobs. the jobs i've been outside that should be inside our own house. both democrat and republican's need to come together and really, truly, think about america. in donald trump should -- and donald trump should resign due to the fact of january 6. then, as a soldier -- i was a proud soldier, and if i did some of those things, i would be up under the jail house. is he above the law? ec really above the law? why is he even allowed to run for presidency? that is my question. host: here's an article from the

new york times about how j.d. vance won over donald trump. it says it started with a meeting at mar-a-lago more than three years ago. later, tucker carlson, elon musk, and other key allies made direct appeals on his behalf. you can read that at the new york times. rocco is calling from georgia, republican. caller: to answer some of the questions the previous caller had, j.d. vance has actually been fed trump meals on wheels. when you go through something like that, it changes you. i am telling you, j.d. vance has a story to tell. so many things that happened these past few years that people forget about modern-day things. it was a time, about a year or two ago, where you had a baby formula shortage and gas was over $5 a gallon. you are newborn mothers --

mothers of newborns to get in a car and drive hours and hours to find baby formula. we still have a prescription shortage in this country. those things did not happen under donald trump. there are problems in this country that have been done intentionally -- host: you had said j.d. vance has a story to tell. did you read his memoir, "hillbilly elegy"? caller: i did not come up i watched the movie. and i live in the foothills of the appalachian mountains, and i know what that lifestyle is like. i work at a food bank, and that food bank has gotten so much busier over the past few years. it is done intentionally. i cannot stress that more. rocco did mention the movie that is made on the memoir "hillbilly

elegy." denise, good morning. caller: good morning. we need a young pick and he is youngblood. we need whoever is the best to represent our country. thank you and god bless america. host: sal in chicago. good morning. caller: i have never done this before. vance, ex marine, good character. from a family of marines. the country is heading in the wrong direction. we need some new blood for the future. i have watched this for the past years and it is all bought and paid for so it is about time we have some people who stand up to the system and take us in a new direction that will be safe for every american in this country and around the world.

host: sheila, republican. caller: instead of talking about j.d. vance, we ought to be talking about bob menendez, the trader, the treacherous so-and-so. i want to know why c-span has not spoken one word -- host: we can talk about his trial during open forum but we will stick with the vp pick. caller: when will you do that? we have not done it yet. thank you very much. host: andrea, democrat. go right ahead. caller: i just wonder, do we ever have people run for president who are 65 years of

age and not older? host: you would like to see an upper limit on the age? caller: yes. would that take four or five years to get that passed? host: i guess so. that would require a constitutional amendment. that would be kind of difficult. caller: trump is just arrogant and ignorant. and biden, i don't think he can make it another four years. if he wins, he will not be alive for four years. he is just that old. host: have you decided how you will vote in november? caller: yes, biden.

the thing is, i don't like anybody really. host: tony in south carolina, independent line. caller: thank you for letting me call in. this will be my first time. the only problem i have with j.d. vance, he is a venture capitalist, he is why the working class does not have any money. they set up their own wall street and brought all of our jobs overseas and they are supposed to fix it. host: what do you think of him being from a working-class background? caller: i think he has forgotten his background when he got some money to become corrupt. he is unethical just like the rest of the politicians either republican or democrat. that's what i think. host: as an independent, what have you decided for november? caller: i have not right now at this point. i am undecided.

host: ok. call us back after a month and let you know when you decide. caller: thank you for having me. host: joe, north carolina, -- i'm sorry. new jersey, republican. caller: yes. host: hay, joe. caller: how are you? host: good. go ahead. what do you think of senator vance? caller: he is a good pick in the sense that he has military experience. he has risen from a very poor environment. i know you just had a speaker on . i think he is a good pick. he is young. he has had military experience. he has risen from poverty. i don't think he has forgotten or will forget where he came from. he certainly would be the

youngest president ever if he had to step into that role. he is a solid citizen. he is kind of like lincoln in the sense that lincoln was born in a cabin. they have both risen from poverty. what is exasperating is the old saying about if you tell a lie often enough, it becomes the truth. some of your speakers have talked about 2025. i would ask people to look at both sides and watch all news channels. trump was just interviewed and said he knew nothing about the 2025 project that is driven by the far-right. the republicans are the party of emancipation. we need to close the borders and

we need to become energy independent. biden literally took oil from our strategic oil reserves and sold it to the chinese. thank you. host: millard in philadelphia, democrat. caller: good morning. i would like to express my opinion this morning. i heard trump blaming biden for the economy. barack obama left a good economy and he ran it down. all you have to do is look at the ratings of the president. biden was number 14 on the 14 list of events -- the best presidents we have had. trump left this country in a miss. -- a mess. he told people to take shots in

their arms with bleach and all of this crazy stuff. and he lies. how are you going to express to your children when they start growing up that this is what america has become, a bunch of liars and thieves. trump has been bankrupt nine times and he is a convicted felon who is telling you that the law does not count. he is putting people in the court that will send you back to africa. always trying to divide the country up between blacks and whites. that is what is going on now. they did not say anything when you're in the army. they don't say nothing when you die for this country. all of this stuff. look at society and stop dancing around. biden and obama left this country in solid condition and he comes along and tears it down. now you all are talking about he built the country. he did not.

he lied. he lies consistently. i'm sorry but i get excited sometimes when i hear people going on with the same lie. biden has brought this country back. i heard a guy say something about he had to go buy -- he shut down a lot of. stuff in this country host: that's it for this segment but a lot more on this washington journal. we will be with you through 11:00 a.m. throughout the republican national convention. up next, more coverage of the republican national convention from milwaukee. after the break, we will be joined by congresswoman victoria spartz of indiana. we will get her reaction to ohio senator j.d. vance as donald trump's running mate and her expectations for the rest of the week. we will be right back. >> discover the heartbeat of

democracy with c-span's voices 2024 as we engage voters nationwide asking what issue is most important to you in the selection and why. >> my name is maurice and i am from indiana. the issue most important to me is gun violence. i don't believe that any american citizen should lose their life over gun violence. i'm really focused on preventing individuals from committing those primes -- committing those crimes and bringing love and unity back to our community. >> my name is leo, i'm chairman of the republican party of this county in nevada. one of the most import issues is inflation. taking care of your kids and your family at home is probably the top issue.

absolutely cost-of-living, immigration and the last one would be public safety. those are the three things that we should address. >> c-span's voices 2024. be part of the conversation. >> the house will be in order. >> this year c-span's civil rights 45 years of covering congress like no other. since 1979 we have been your primary source for capitol hill providing balanced unfiltered coverage of government, taking you to where the policy is debated and decided all with the support of america's cable company. c-span, 45 years and counting, powered by cable. announcer: "washington journal" continues. host: joining us now from milwaukee is victoria spartz, a republican representative

indiana. welcome to the program. guest: thank you. good morning. host: your reaction to ohio senator j.d. vance as former president trump's running mate. guest: he is very bright. i think president trump had a lot of choices. he will bring a lot of social economic policy that is very important for the american people and he has a really strong resume. it was a good choice. host: also, your reaction to the assassination attempt on saturday on former president trump. guest: listen, it is a very serious situation and we really need to look at what has happened and how it is the will of god that he is alive and not heard -- hurt.

it was unbelievable to see that someone could try to harm him and we did not have proper security this time. it is something we should do on a bipartisan basis. i hope there will be an investigation to look into this issue because it is very serious. it could have turned out very different. a lot of people are praying for him and his family because it is a very dangerous job. president trump does a lot to provide for the country. a lot of crazy people are out there. definitely a huge security failure. host: are you concerned about your security as a member of congress? guest: it is part of your responsibility but it is a dangerous job especially in current times.

members of congress have their own security most of the time. we have specific situations with members of leadership. i think this is something that maybe we need to have discussions about reality. we need to cool down the whole situation with politics. i know it is very difficult in the election year when we are trying to energize the base. hopefully we will have a serious discussion about issues, policies, debate and deliberations. a lot of rhetoric and grandstanding and accusations, that is where people get stuck at and stressed out. for us to be able to change the tone of the conversation, even in years like that, i hope we will be able to do it. host: on that note former president trump has said he is rewriting his convention speech to focus more on unity.

what is it specifically that you want him to say? guest: i want to talk about the future of our country and the future of our children and how we will govern. the country has not been governed very well for a long time. a lot of issues have accumulated. we need to get the country back on track. we need to talk about how we can bring prosperity to a lot of americans that have not been seeing that for some time. we have a much bigger gap now between the middle class and wealthy people and much less opportunity for people to achieve and pursue happiness. that is unacceptable. our education system is broken. we have huge loads of debt and inflation. we have big challenges on the border and national security issues all over the world. this instability is very bad. we need to talk about what we can do because i think the

policies of president trump and some people, he has a very interesting style. some people might not love his style but a lot of people of his policy. the economy was growing and small businesses were able to thrive. when you talk about this issue. we need to talk about because i truly believe our best days are ahead of us but we have to do the labor and we need to do more talking about that. host: if you would like to join our conversation with congresswoman victoria spartz, a republican of indiana, you can do so. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independent, (202) 748-8002. we will get to your phone calls shortly. congresswoman you mentioned wars overseas. you are the first and only member of congress to have been born and raised in ukraine.

i want to ask you about your vote on aid to ukraine. i understand you voted against aid to ukraine. guest: i did vote and we have to put pressure on president biden and other republicans to help ukraine to deter further aggression from russia. we actually tried to do something before the war started because we knew about that. we tried to put pressure for the aid. we asked president biden to help strategy and to have proper oversight. as you know very well, it was not taken down by weapons but by financial economic policies, energy policies and that is why you have to have a very multifaceted multidimensional strategy when you deal with countries like russia.

we did nothing with russian oil. russia is able to make a lot of money to finance this bloodshed. they are very strategic with military aid. we are not looking at russian fx on financial markets -- effects on financial markets. it costs a lot of money to the american people and also a lot of wife to the -- a lot of l ife to the ukrainian people. we have a serious situation in the middle east. host: congresswoman, sticking with ukraine, do you believe that that strategy and oversight that you feel we are missing is there now and would you be in favor of halting all aid to ukraine unless you see that? guest: i want to have a supportive strategy but the fund

was non-determining over the -- of where the aid goes. the administration needs to tell us which countries and which companies are getting that aid. it is safe for the american people to know. i hope someone will step up and work with us to tell us because the american people need to know what is happening. but we will not be doing the fund when we do not know where the money is going. we need to learn from our $2 trillion mistake that happened in afghanistan and the embarrassing withdrawal. where did we achieve? we have not been very good with our foreign policies and strategies and we cannot continue that way. i am willing to support aid. i would like to secure the border because it is a national security issue.

unfortunately our speaker decided not to do it and ultimately i said, it is what it is and i will not be supporting that. my vote will not be deciding what is the right thing to do but ultimately i will be honest with you, the american people of tired on the ground of a lot of really irresponsible policies in washington, d.c. host: vance said this in 2022, "i have to be honest with you, i don't care what happens to ukraine one way or another." do you share his sentiment? guest: it's important. actually i worked with senator vance and he was very thoughtful when he was talking about issues. a lot of different opinions and we are hearing them from

american representative's. it is good to have an honest conversation with europeans. they need to step up and it is a huge problem. it is a bigger problem for them than it is for us and they cannot do nothing and come back and americans need to bail them out again. they need to start thinking about their national security. people have much stronger views on some issues but some of the views including president trump pushing on germany, pushing on the europeans to step up in nato and we could have a much worked situation in ukraine with russia right now but definitely not being handled very well for the last two years. we are still where we are and we need to continue to have this very serious conversation, how will we stop further escalations and the advancement of russia in

countries of china and around the world. host: we will take some calls. william wants to talk to you in atlanta, democrat. caller: hi. i always hear you touting the trump economy but you are really touting the obama-biden economy, the economy you inherited. biden inherited trump's economy. that's why we had inflation. he let in all of the money from offshore accounts, over $3 trillion of untaxed dollars that did not go into the economy like the checks did that the democrats gave the republicans. all of the republicans think that trump gave them the check appeared it was the democrats. it was obama's economy. not trump's economy. host: we got the point. let the congresswoman respond.

guest: unfortunately president obama was very brilliant in advancing his economy and centralizing power. he did it with the affordable care act and other things. we did not hear a lot of things of concern where we have more the economy controlled and subsidized by the government. we need to understand that people are in government do a lot of presentation and in reality, it does not go the way of the people. that's why we have this problem and that's why we have the wealthy getting wealthier. a lot of corporations and special groups in washington have a pretty healthy balance sheet but that's not what is happening with real americans on the ground. inflation is an aggressive test and it hurts low-income americans the most. the gap between revenue and

expenditure is growing and growing. president trump is working to reverse some of this and put the economy back on track with a much better energy policy and a realistic policy, our adversaries can make a lot of money on that. he did a lot of things he tried to do. unfortunately a lot of democrats spend most of their time trying to take him down instead of actually helping him. the rest of the issues he was able to put on the table that should've been there by biden including immigration reforms that no other president ever offered for them to do but the true grandstanding and the democrats and speaker pelosi did not want to work with him and they said impeachment from day one and tried to get rid of him. he was still able to accomplish a lot to help smaller businesses . now we go back again where we right now have wealthy people

getting wealthy because a lot of money is going in washington, d.c. to them. they have trains of dollars in healthcare. -- trillions of dollars in healthcare and healthcare prices are going up. honestly people do not realize, if we get the government to take over health care, none of us will like it. we have to have this on his conversation. trump is the only one who has the backbone to fight for the people. host: karen is in virginia, republican. caller: good morning. i'm calling because in full disclosure i am a republican but this is the first time i will turn away from the party and i will tell you what. the one thing that disturbs me more than anything is that the idea that a woman in congress, an elected official, that you would support your candidate who was convicted of sexual assault.

when i see that, i think it is completely disrespectful and disingenuous as women in positions of power that you know the impact of sexual assault and human trafficking. i know that maybe you did not have a choice to support your candidate but there is a time in america as women that we need to stand behind the things that are important. my question to you is how do you stand here and say that you are still going to be a republican, support this candidate knowing his background is true? i think that is a huge missing opportunity for yourself as well as nikki haley. i think that we locked in the woman vote and the female vote and you decide to do that behind a candidate that you know was 100% convicted and that is the reason why i am not a republican and i will never be. host: got it. go ahead congresswoman. guest: as a woman, i look at who

n have the best future for my children and who will fight for my people. who is willing to go against very corrupt established and a lot of people do not realize there is so much happening in politics and a lot of drama in our judicial system. we recognize -- weaponize the department of justice. it is unfortunate. we want to think about the future of our children and it is good for us on all of the sides to have more women in politics. a lot of them do not have that experience. i worry about the future of my children. i worry that our children and grandchildren are going to be paying a very high price for reckless spending and a lot of people becoming very wealthy. only 30% of our children even

eligible to be in the military. i worry about national security and what is happening on the border. i am looking beyond personalities. i don't agree with my husband most of the time. who can govern and have the backbone. i don't agree with the policies but debate is good, it is healthy. i believe that my own party is not doing what i believe it should be doing and i push my party. president trump is a strong ally because he really cares about the future of children. i have had times with him personally. he is a very tough person but also a very kind human being. a lot of people are much more

caring than people, cross. he cares about a lot of issues. he truly is very -- very generally cares what people feel on the ground. that is very impressive for me to see how much a lot of politicians you meet and they have little talking points and they never really have a genuine conversation and they want to get rid of you. he genuinely wants to know what's happening. he genuinely cares what's happening and how americans feel on the ground and want to make sure that we have a bright future. i understand, we all have feelings but i hope that beyond feelings, they look at policy and what is best for the country and i think he is the right person for this very challenging

time for our country. host: we have a text forou from duke in wyoming, "has she re project 2025? what did she think about the defeated former president's plan to implement all or most of project 2025?" guest: i have heard about it. there are a lot of policy ideas. i know that the heritage foundation has some ideas. a lot of groups have ideas. . we have a lot of conservative think tanks. president trump has his own ideas too. even conservative think tanks, even some bipartisan reforms we did with democrats through criminal justice reforms that no other president was willing to do because there was no money

for republicans to raise in the criminal justice system. nobody wanted to work on it. this is a system that can really destroy people's lives and we do not have a fair system to protect our lives and if you are poor, you really can get in trouble. he is willing to work on a lot of issues. he does not get credit for that. we do need to have a policy discussion. and deliberation and debate. i hope we have more debate on the issues. that is what the democratic society is about. we don't have the same opinions but we need to find the best opinions and common ground to deliver for the people on a per righty of policy including economic policy because if we don't do something very we'll have a fiscal calamity and a lot of americans are going to get hurt and it's going to be the most people on the fixed income and low income people are

going to get hurt the most and we need to have -- be honest and strong and have an adult conversation and not the circuses which is happening all the time and hopefully beyond this election, hard to do in an election year, but after the election we'll be able to do it. host: earl in seneca falls, new york. republican. caller: yes, hi. i was wondering why you can support a president and especially a vice president who wants to basically give ukraine back to the soviet/russian-style government. because of this america first. nobody explains what america first is all about. my parents, my dad was born in

october, 1914. my mom in april, 1917. they went through this america first. it doesn't work. so how can you support when they give ukraine back to what i call czar vladimir putin? thank you. host: congresswoman? guest: i'll tell you one thing that if america is not strong, there is no hope around the world for anyone. so we do need to make sure that we first address our domestic issue and strengthen our country because a lot of things happen and we're not moving in the right direction. but we also need to have a strong foreign policy and deterrencey. but let's just look at the

record. what's happening -- ukraine, actually the war in ukraine has been for 10 years and when putin entered crimea and eastern ukraine, president obama gave blankets, did nothing about that. then when president trump came onboard, he was the first one who gave lethal weapons. he was the first one, he put sanctions on nord stream, tough sanctions on russia, leased american energy, put pressure on germans not to be dependent on russian gas and tried to put pressure on nato to start to step up, to build their military capabilities to deter russia further and he told putin, not under my watch. and putin didn't move. so he's the only -- only under his leadership, putin didn't move further. so we need to have strong leaders and discussions and there is a lot of different rhetoric and a lot of different

discussions happening on foreign policy, but the record of democrats, of president obama and president biden have been pretty bad. putin now advancing further in ukraine and a lot of people are dying and president biden wanted to do nothing before the war started this time and also did very, very slow work at the beginning of the war. that allowed putin to advance even further and escalate the whole situation. the same happened in the middle east. it's a very serious situation. the same is happening with china. advancing around the globe. so unfortunately right now president biden is giving ukraine to russia and a lot of people are dying. so we need to have strong foreign policy but we need to also have leaders that are willing to be in some ways tough and unpredictable and that's probably the beauty of a lot of foreign policy, you know, views

because no one ever knows what he's going to do and a lot of aggressors like putin are nervous about people like him, actually. in his interview he said he preferred president biden to president trump which i understand why. because he was able to achieve, unfortunately, a lot for himself, but a lot of people are dying and it's really a very, very, very sad situation right now. we do need to have strong leaders. host: congresswoman, former president trump has said he could end the war in ukraine in one day. first, do you believe that? and would a possible settlement include ukraine giving up land? would you support ukraine giving up land to russia that they've already taken? guest: it's very ambitious but one day or no, i think he'll work very hard to figure out something. the situation is very difficult. ultimately the ukrainian people are paying a very high price for their freedoms and that's going to be a discussion that people

need to have. but i don't think russia has -- should have been advanced where they did advance and i think it's going to be very, very tough conversations. a lot of -- i mean, really the lives of millions destroyed right now. the devastation was happening right now and really it's not just he's fight military against military. he's trying to destroy lives of civilians. what's happening in the cities and destroying hospitals and children are getting killed. the lives of so many people have implications for such a long time. so i think it will be very, very tough for ukrainian people to where they are to really try to reconcile them. i think the ukrainian people, it's going to be unfortunately now very, very long-term conflict and not an easy solution. but at least in the meantime we have to really stop russia and

figure out how we can have better policies to really have better security frameworks, things like that. because we have right now all or nothing framework. if you remember nato, we have the whole power of nato coming and if one child in romania gets killed but you can have millions of , you know, killed and lives destroyed and dictators and people with agendas, tyrannical agendas and really genocide of people can happen and it's really -- and nothing's getting done. and it's just very, very serious. host: ray is in napa, california. democrat, hi, rey. caller: hi. are you trying to tell me, congresswoman, that the republican party put more sanctions on russia than the democratic party? guest: well, if you think about

nord stream 2, that's what was happening in nord stream 2. and actually president trump started stopping nord stream 2 from being -- that's where, you know, the bloodshed is financed for gas and oil. right now what happened, we're creating not really serious sanctions because they have so many loophole, they're not even enforceable. that's why russia is able to finance the war. right now what's happening and have a lot of money and then we destroying our own oil. i went to alaska a year ago, our pipeline is at half capacity. what does it do? when the price of oil is high and there is less production, russia's able to avoid sanctions and make a lot of money to finance this. it's all about money. if russia wouldn't have the money to finance the war, that wouldn't this war happening. so we did a lot.

the trump administration, to deter. mr. roessler: did you have a follow -- host: did you have a follow-up, ray? caller: she's not answering my question. my question is, are you trying to tell me that the republican party has put more sanctions on russia before the start of the war, since obama? there's no way that trump put more sanctions on russia than the obama administration and you know it and you're going to -- you didn't answer the question. you went on some rant about an oil pipeline. because conservatives just won't answer the question. but do i have one more question. can you name one thing the conservative republican party has ever passed and authored to help the american workers of the united states? like the family leave act, raising the minimum wage, social security, disability, anything like that? can you please name one thing in the last 80 years the republican party has ever done to help the worker bees of america? host: go ahead, congresswoman. guest: listen, let me tell you something what's happened and a lot of people don't understand when we pass big legislation

that has a lot of spending. a majority of this money, and maybe people not involved with politics and they don't realize, majority of this money don't go to we the people. in this spending, actually in inflation, a highly gracive tax for workers and a lot of people with middle income and low income and what was happening right now that is driven by three things. very failed energy policy that's driving inflation, spending, you know, the debt we're now accumulating will be paid by our great-grandchildren. and that will cost the nation for the economy during their times, but it's already affecting us and all of the funds going insolvent. international monetary fund that never says anything bad about us, they just issued a statement recently, an alarming statement, what's happening with our fiscal situation, and also failed

policies in china where we incentivize with china, we incentivize manufacturing people to lose jobs to move to china. so what we're doing right now, we're creating regulations, we're creating spending for the jobs overseas in countries like china that workers don't have wakes and -- wages and we have temporary subsidies that accumulate more and more debt. that's not how we empower. this is a real election campaign to tell people -- because in real we'll be paying high price with inflation. then how are we going to pay for that? are we going to be raising taxes on the middle class? let's not lie about we have this billionaires are going to be paying all of this. even if we take every cent for them it's not enough, first of all. billionaires do not pay taxes, actually under the obama administration it was very clever, they did a loophole where your taxes, your capital

gains taxes were based on ordinary income so a lot of billionaires were making huge capital gains and they were never even paying any taxes because they don't have to make ordinary income like all of us. so that was very clever loophole that was created for billionaires. and everyone talks about it. but no one is actually -- no one is going to be able to pay for that. so i think a lot of this policies, a good presentation for campaigns. but it's not really empowering the people. and republicans are trying to work very hard to bring jobs back to america because we cannot be dependent on countries like china. this is a national security issue and empowering more people to pursue happiness and have a better future for their children and i think this policy needs to happen and a lot of them happen under executive orders because, unfortunately, democrats didn't want to work last time with trump but i think they need to happen through the laws and i think that's something we have

to win this november. but i agree with you. we need to show what we can deliver and i truly think we will. and we need to have ready and start working now to have this policies on the table to show the people how we can govern. because it's fair criticism. sometimes we do preparations but not -- presentations but not always have the bills and legislation. i think if the american people trust us, i think we'll have a chance to show and i truly believe we will. host: all right. representative victoria spartz, republican of indiana's fifth district. thanks so much for joining us today. guest: thank you. thank you for having me. host: up next, more of "washington journal's" coverage of this year's republican national convention live from milwaukee and we'll be joined by hugo lowell of the guardian to talk about yesterday's surprise dismissal of the classified documents case against former president trump and what could be next. but you can keep dialing in and share your thoughts on anything going on with politics, with the

convention, with the v.p. pick. the attempted assassination attempt. lots to talk about. the numbers are democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. and independents, (202) 748-8002. and while you're dialing in, we'll bring you a bit from wisconsin. we talked with two women with the concerned women of america as they stop at the r.n.c. in milwaukee as part of their coast-to-coast bus tour. we'll be right back. >> we're here, concerned women for america. we're here to meet everyone here at the r.n.c. we're so excited, we're actually kicking off our bus tour. it's right behind me. this thing is going coast-to-coast this summer and we're just having events all across the country to pray over this election. >> what is the concerned women for america? >> concerned women for america is one of the largest women public policy organizations down in washington, d.c., that's where our head quarters are. we started it based out of the

feminist movement, ms. beverly lahay started it because she saw how the government was targeted women, saying all women were to adopt this feminist ideology. they said no, we are biblical women, we're going to embrace our biblical feminismity. here we are today. we have a hong kong if you know what a woman is. it's crazy we have to say that in 2024 but here we are and we're going to continue to stand on commonsense. >> what are you hoping to accomplish here at the republican con stphrepbgs. >> first off, again, we're just getting back to common sense, embracing biblical values, embracing just these commonsense ideas and as we're talking to all these people, it's been so encouraging, hearing their perspectives. not everybody agrees on the same issues. maybe you have different opinions. but overall we stand on the common ground and a common truth that, number one, men shouldn't be in women's bathrooms, you can't change your sex. we support israel. because god commands us to. among a slough of other issues. i think ultimately it's just getting back to the root of what

our country was founded upon and that's judeo-christian principles and values. >> tell us more about this bus. people are signing it. that's what about? >> we just want to help keep the interaction going as much as we can. we talked to so many people and they're so excited. we're harnessing the power of prayer. that's something that's so often overlooked but with you know that this is ultimately a spiritual battle. and that that takes spiritual principles and we want to ground ourselves in that and ultimately seek the lordship of christ. so we want to ground ourselves in prayer and seek him first in everything that we do and that's something that the people here attending this conference are so excited about. so they want to be a part of this tour however they can so right here we're just asking them to sign on to the bus. i say we're about to kick off and go across the country so sign it while you can. >> where's the tour stkpwh-g. >> after here we're going to go to michigan and then ohio, pennsylvania and then we're going all the way around the country and ending up in bozeman, montana, on august 20. >> one last thing, i want to say

this because we're the younger part of this organization but i think the beautiful thing is that you've got girls all the way from 15, 16, 17 to 80's and 90's. that's something that's very hard to find but we've been able to unite together and unite with the gen-zers and the older generation and find that common ground. objective truth applies to everyone and that's what we're going to stand upon. >> explore the republican and democratic conventions firsthand at c-span.org/campaign. or scan the code on the right. watch c-span's uninterrupted, live gavel to gavel coverage from start to finish during the republican and democratic national conventions. get the convention schedules featuring speaker lineups, watch video clips of every individual speaker, check out social media highlights and exclusive behind the scenes content. also while on our website, be sure to view past convention acceptance speeches and other memorable moments. catch spao* live -- c-span's live could be invention coverage

of the democratic and republican national conventions online at c-span.org/campaign or scan the code on the right, also on c-span now, our free mobile video app. c-span, your unfiltered view of the national conventions. announcer: "washington journal" continues. host: welcome back. we are back to open forum. we'll be taking your calls, what you see on your screen there is the ohio delegation's breakfast in milwaukee and it's customary for the vice presidential nominees to attend their home state's breakfast. the following morning. so we're not quite sure if senator vance is going to be attending. we'll be monitoring it, we'll bring you video of that if that happens. we're definitely taking a look at that. and while you're dialing in this morning on our lines by party, democrats, (202) 748-8000, republicans, (202) 748-8001, and

independents, (202) 748-8002, we're going to speak briefly to senior political correspondent for "the guardian," hugo lowell, who is joining us from milwaukee. hugo, welcome to the program. guest: hi, great to be here. host: on this topic of the documents case being dismissed. can you explain on what basis judge cannon dismissed that case? guest: look, judge cannon effectively said in her ruling that she found the appointment of jack smith, the special counsel, to be unconstitutional because he hadn't been named to his post as a result of a senate confirmation or he hadn't been appointed by the president. and kind of this all goes back to the formation of the special counsel and how the special counsel came to oversee the two trump investigations. and judge cannon's rationale was basically, look, there's no

statute that currently authorizes merrick garland, the attorney general, to create and appoint a special counsel. the independent counsel statute that existed up until 1999 lapsed and she said, you know, if congress wanted to have continued special counsels, they could have enacted a new law but they didn't. and kind of on that basis, on this kind of technical basis, she said there was no way to cure the prejudice that would come against trump as a result of the special counsel continuing the prosecution and she dismissed the case. host: does this apply to all special counsels? because hunter biden was prosecuted by a special counsel. so how does that work here? guest: it's a little bit complicated because judge cannon explicitly said in her ruling that the decision only applied to this case, her case, the documents prosecution. and there had been some briefing

and there has been some discussion about the other special counsels and i think the one major difference between jack smith and the other special counsels is jack smith came from outside of the government. i think people have looked at the appointments of davidwise, robert hur and the point with them is they were both u.s. attorneys, they were senate-confirmed and as a result i think if you apply judge cannon's ruling across these special counsels you'll probably find that roberts hur and david weiss, because they were senate-confirmed, were serving appropriately. dejong cannon raised the instance of robert muller and suggested that she believes that robert muller as well was serving inen an lawful capacity. host: what was the reaction of special counsel jack smith and what are his options? guest: the special counsel's office told me last night that they had authorization from the solicitor general's office to appeal this decision and it's my

expectation that they will proceed with an appeal. that will go to the court of appeals for the 11th circuit. this is going to be really interesting to see how jack smith moves next. there are some legal experts who think if jack smith moved to have judge cannon recused in the event that the 11th circuit overturned her decision, that would be an effort obviously to try and get the case assigned to a different judge. it's not exactly clear on what basis they would ask for that. i think the special counsel's office is very cognizant of the fact that if they do push forward recusal, they have one shot to do it. what prosecutors don't want to do is to go through pretrial proceedings where they judge failed to recuse because judges are human too and they may have -- they may be more predisposed to rule against them. and to go to the other circuit and say, we want judge cannon off this case simply because she's ruled against us and she's shown animosity in court

hearings. it's not clear that that's a sufficient basis under the local rules of the 11th circuit to -- for it to be a big win and for the special counsel to be able to have judge cannon off the case and they know that if they ask for it and fail, then they're in a tricky spot because the case just goes right back, even if her decision is overturned and it's going to be more lengthy and frustrating pretrial proceedings. host: to cannon, you mean, not -- guest: yes. host: what do we know about the timing of the appeal? how long would this take before there was a decision? guest: it's really up to the 11th circuit. the process of how this would play out is the special counsel would file a notice of appeal. the 11th circuit would then draw a three-judge panel and the three-judge panel would set a briefing schedule, both sides would submit briefs and they would probably be oral argument at the 11th circuit in atlanta.

that appeal has not been filed yet so we don't know the timeline and it's not even clear how fast the 11th circuit is going to move at this point. we're four months away from an election and i don't know if there's an appetite at the 11th circuit for this to be resolved, particularly expeditiously, because there's no hope for this case to go to trial before the election. and of course if trump wins the election in november, then there is almost certainty that trump would appoint an attorney general who would move to drop the charges and the case would go away anyway. host: and finally, were you surprised of the timing of the decision being released on day one of the republican national convention? guest: it's difficult to say, right, because this issue about the unlawful appointment on the special counsel has been fully briefed and we had a hearing in federal district court in fort

pierce a couple of weeks ago in fact i think it was almost exactly two weeks since the hearing. and i think it was more to do with justice thomas' line in the immunity decision and in the separate case, the washington case, concerning trump's efforts to overturn the 2020 election where justice thomas had this line questioning the validity and the appointment of the special counsel. i think that is more instructive as to how cannon moved and why and when she moved than anything else. i think a lot of lawyers on both sides expected cannon to resolve this issue fairly quickly and judge cannon was looking for a way, i think, to dismiss this case. she's been very skeptical about the case from the outset. both during the underlying criminal investigation when she presided over separate litigation in the special master phase of the investigation, and also in pretrial proceedings. host: all right.

hugo lowell, senior political correspondent at "the guardian." his work is at theguardian.com. thanks for joining us. we go back to your calls in open forum. lonnie is in rapid city, south dakota. line for democrats. thanks for waiting, lonnie. caller: no problem. i'm a disabled vet and i was watching yesterday or the day that president trump got shot. it's really sad that they didn't get that guy a lot earlier, you know. i appreciate c-span and thank you. host: all right. and art is in chicago, independent. caller: hey, how are you? host: i'm doing great. caller: my statement has to do with the abortion. it is not about abortion. it's about women's rights. and this is a path to makeking

women second-class citizens. it's a thing that should never have happened. just because women are the majority in this country and this is a way to put them back down into being -- they'll probably lose a vote eventually and that's a crime. this is unfair. and i cannot believe we are even talking about it. thank you. host: george, oak harbor, washington. democrat. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i'm just wondering, i don't get a lot of information about judge cannon, her background. it makes her a constitutional scholar all of a sudden. that's all. host: george, we'll look some information up about judge cannon's background. for you. and -- caller: thanks. host: john in georgia.

republican. caller: yes. in reference to the dismissal of the document case against former president trump. democrats have no one to blame except for merrick garland. he appointed jack smith knowing that there was a chance that the case may be dismissed because this has been an ongoing conflict in terms of special counsel for decades. so the question is, why did he appoint jack smith as the special counsel knowing that there may be a chance? thank you. host: and as promised, here is some information about judge cannon. from "u.s.a. today" in florida, who is judge eileen cannon? what's next in donald trump's classified documents case? this gives you a little bit of information on this -- it says -- the justice department didn't meetly respond. it's down here. here it is. who is judge eileen cannon?

so here's her background. born in columbia in 1981. she came to the -- colombia in 1981. she came to the u.s. as a child. she was a federal prosecutor, member of the federalist society, which she joined in 2005 while in law school. she had been a lawyer for just 12 years, the minimum 10 years set by the american bar association before her assent to the judiciary. florida republican u.s. senators rubio and scott recommended cannon's appointment and the u.s. senate confirmed her in a 56-21 vote in november of 2020. nominated to the federal birch by trump. trump's case wasn't her first high profile case. in april, 2022, she sentenced a palm beach county man to 18 months in prison for making death threats against house speaker nancy pelosi. and u.s. representative alexandria oak kort. so -- ocasio-cortez.

so a little bit about that, about her background for your information. dayton, ohio, democrat. good morning. caller: hello. thank you for taking my call. the first thing i wanted to talk about is j.d. vance. i live in dayton which is about 30 minutes away from middletown where he was born and all these people are talking about how poor he was. middletown is a town where -- my children are about the same age as j.d. vance. middletown is a town where there were ku klux klan there. you didn't ride in middletown after a certain time of night. so when you're giving him sympathy, he doesn't deserve any sympathy. ok? that's the first thing. and the second thing, i watched trump's ceremony yesterday and i was listening to byron donaldson and he was talking about the

fact that joe biden's children went to private school. well, joe biden has said that he rode the train every night home to get to his children after his wife died. donald trump lives in a hotel. he has never cut grass, the only time he sees grass is when he's out there playing golf. ok? he doesn't know what a grocery store looks like. he doesn't know the price of a gallon of gas. so i don't know why anybody's comparing themselves with donald trump. your parents didn't give you a million dollars for you to lose and then when you lose it all, then you come back and get another million dollars. we don't have that. so i don't know why america, 300 million americans are putting themselves in the place of donald trump. host: all right, tkaoe.

and -- dee. and that's all for this segment but more on "washington journal's" coverage, live coverage of the republican national convention from milwaukee after the break. we're joined by axios political reporter, stef kight, to talk about j.d. vance and what to expect for day two of the republican national convention. we'll be right back. >> explore the republican and democratic conventions firsthand at c-span.org/campaign or scan the code on the right. watch c-span's uninterrupted, live gavel to gavel coverage from start to finish during the republican and democratic national conventions. get the convention schedules featuring speaker lineups, watch video clips of every individual speaker, check out social media highlights and exclusive behind the scenes content. also be sure to view past convention acceptance speeches and other memorable m. catch c-span's live convention

coverage of thelican and democratic national conventions online at c-span.org/campaign. or scan the code on the right. also on c-span now, our free mobile video app. c-span, your unfiltered view of the national conventions. >> c-span has been delivering unfiltered congress allege coverage for 45 years -- congressional coverage for 45 years. here's are a highlight from a key moment. >> it's hard to speak after 25 years. i've been retired from baseball for 25 years. and none of the numbers that were on the back of my card have changed in that time. they're all the same numbers that i retired with. and so it's been a long waiting process. thank god it happened while i was still on my feet. sometimes it happens posthumously and i really deeply

appreciate the veterans' ker are committee around -- committee and as henry said, those are some of your peers that voted you in, particularly i talked with yogi bera who was on the committee and i talked with peewee rees who was on the k*efplt i talked to bill white, one of my teammates from philadelphia, after the vote was taken today. so it's deeply appreciated. >> c-span, powered about i cable. -- powered by cable. announcer: "washington journal" continues. host: we are back now with our live coverage of the republican national cop invention here on -- convention here on day two and joining us is stef kight, a politics reporter at axios. welcome to the program. guest: thanks for having me. host: let's start with senator vance being chosen as mr. trump's v.p. pick. what you have found out about the process of his selection and how the trump campaign decided on him?

guest: look, j.d. vance has been a favorite for a while now. he's someone that there's always been chemistry with between him and former president trump and so he's been a top contender for a while but in these last days, especially after the assassination attempt on former president trump on saturday, there was kind of a last-minute push to get j.d. to be the v.p. pick in the end. people like tucker carlson, people who are close to trump and who have his ear really did kind kind of lean in and push to make sure that j.d. was ultimately the person chosen. we know that governor dougberg ham and senator marco rubio were only really told that they weren't going to be the v.p. pick yesterday so that was kind of a last-minute tying up the loose ends until we all found out that the decision had been officially made and that trump would be moving forward with vance. and of course don jr. has been critical in this process. don jr. was long in the j.d.

vance camp and has been pushing his father to go with vance from the very beginning really and so he's another critical voice in kind of making this decision happen. host: there's reporting about elon musk making a last-minute call on behalf of j.d. vance what do you know about that? guest: yeah. elon musk as well is another one of those trump allies who has become incredibly influential in recent months. elon especially giving lots of money to the trump campaign and pushing hard as well at the end here, wanting j.d. vance to be the choice here and one thing that's interesting is that vance has not been popular with some of the more traditional republican donor class but he has some of these more out-there, new-money, new republican donors and influencers who are behind him, including people like elon musk who was incredibly influential, did make the calls, did work over the weekend to try to make sure that trump chose vance in

the end. host: you said that he wasn't as popular with the donor class. why is that? guest: vance is certainly the populist candidate here. he's certainly a new kind of republican party, it's very clear we're no longer the same -- looking at the same republican party we saw in 2012, in the past that the party has been trumpified and has embraced this more populist politics and something that vance emulates and is kind of expected to be the future of the party. and that tone is going to be the future of the party. but many of the republican donors have -- are still embracing the old conservative style of the republican party. they're not quite as certain about this more populist standing that's more embracing of regulations on big banks, for example, or are more isolationist in their view of foreign policy, how they approach foreign policy. and there are some concerns from some of the mainstream

republican donors in that way which would be a downside to the vance choice. but it's very clear by trump's choosing of j.d. that he does see j.d.'s brand of conservatism, j.d.'s brand of republicanism as the future of the party. and this is kind of a coronation of the next leader of the g.o.p. after trump. host: if you would like to join us and ask a question of our guest, stef kight, who is a political reporter from axios, you can do so. our lines are democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. and independents, (202) 748-8002. stef, any reaction from the biden campaign about this pick? guest: i mean, they did not waste any time really going after j.d. president biden even kind of poked fun at the fact that j.d. vance once was a critic of, a

vocal critic of former president trump. and so they've certainly gone lard at vance, they are of course going to be raising his stance on abortion. he is a very anti-abortion, pro-life kind of republican who has spoken frequently in the past about his support for putting restrictions on access to abortion and so that's going to be one of the attacks that they take. of course since saturday, after the shooting at the trump rally, the biden campaign and democrats had kind of taken a step back, had decided to slow down even the campaign rhetoric, their attacks on trump for the time being. but this decision has kind of reinvigorated some of those attacks. they now see j.d. vance as someone that they can go after at this critical moment in the campaign, at this critical moment in the election cycle. and so we're certainly hearing from the biden team attacking vance both for some of his populism -- populist stances, for his previous attacks on the

former president, and of course on his abortion beliefs there as well. host: here is a posting on x by president biden in rex to the pick. he says, -- in reactn to the pick. he says -- host: what do you make of senator vance's popularity with the working class and is that even necessary on the trump ticket? guest: i mean, that's certainly a key reason for why trump decided to pick j.d. vance. they want to win over the working voters, especially in key states like ohio and pennsylvania, wisconsin, these areas that are battleground states, they are key battleground states. some of them are states that biden is going to have to win in november if he wants to have any chance at re-election.

and so it certainly is a calculated choice there and vance is seen as someone who is popular with the working class voters, especially in ohio. and i would note that this -- some people feel that vance, the choice of vance will actually help republicans down ballot as well. yesterday i interviewed senator steve daines and he told us that he was very pleased with the choice of vance, that he feels like vance in particular will help their candidates down ballot in ohio, in montana, in these places that have these working class populations that republicans are trying to win over. groups of people who maybe in the past tended to vote democratic but now republicans see as opportunities for them. host: and there are reports that former president trump has said that he is rewriting his convention speech to focus more on unity, you have heard anything more about what might be in that speech? guest: we don't have the exact details. we have heard and of course

trump gave an interview saying that since the attack on saturday, he does plan to change what he was going to say. he kind of indicated that he was planning to go pretty hard at biden. but that he felt the need to kind of change the tone of his speech. and unity has kind of been the theme so far over the past day or so. when i was walking around the convention center talking to delegates, it was something that i heard repeatedly from delegates across the country. that they felt like this was a moment for the republican party to be really unified. i spoke to one delegate who was from new york and who told me that she feels like for the first time since she's been in politics, which she said had been a long time, the republican party is more unified than the democratic party. she pointed out that in the past she felt like the g.o.p. was the party that was usually divided internally and democrats she said to their credit tend to stick together. but this delegate said she felt like this was a change this year and you can kind of feel it in the room.

people are very excited, they feel like they are behind the candidate that they all want. and they really do feel unified as we head toward november. host: all right. we'll start taking your calls for stef kight who is joining us here for the next 20 minutes or so. jean is in new york, republican, you're first, gene. caller: hi. i just wanted to respond back to the previous caller explaining or saying that j.d. vance isn't in some way what he's being portrayed, he's not a poor guy, he came from -- i really didn't get the connection on what the caller made mention of some place or group. but i don't know a lot about him, but i've seen his book talked about on c-span, i went through that and i've been listening to it for a umcould of

days, what -- for a couple of days what people are saying about him and what he says and i'm a republican. we don't go into identity politics like the other side does often. not everybody does it on the other side. but we don't start out with this is my terrible story and that's why you should pay attention to me and you should vote the way i vote. but he said very clearly why he wrote the book. you can read the book, you can talk about the book, you can see what he says about where he comes from. he's repeated it many times. i never heard him claim to be any poor person. he talks about some hard times he went through, he talks about his experiences in the military and he's well qualified obviously, he was elected so i don't think it's a good argument that the democrats are -- maybe why they're not doing that well is they like to talk about how poor, how disadvantaged, how

beat-up they are rather than say, this is what we want to do, this is how we'll do it. host: all right. what do you think, stef? guest: i would say that nevada vance's -- j.d. vance's story has impacted a lot of people. it's remarkalbe to look back and recognize that he really came on the political scene through his book which kind of explained to many people what drove trump's first election in 2016. he has had a fascinating career ever since. it's a very short-lived career to be honest. he's only been in the senate for just a couple of years. he's a senate freshman and now the v.p. candidate for former president trump who is up in the polls and has a very high possibility of winning in november. and to the caller's point, vance will be difficult to target, the biden administration will probably have trouble targeting

him on some of these issues, especially when they're trying to win over working class communities who look at vance and see themselves in vance and that's part of the political strategy that was at play here in why he was a contender for so long as the v.p. pick and one of the reasons why trump ended up going with him despite vance's past of criticizing trump shortly after his book published. and so to the caller's point, his story is powerful to a lot of people and that is certainly -- that has certainly helped him rise in the ranks in this political scene. host: let's go to the line for democrats in pennsylvania. david. you're next. caller: yeah, hi. my name's david. i'm from pennsylvania. i just want to say, i'm a registered democrat who is going to vote for donald trump. because biden is destroying our country by an open border, by all the prices in the grocery store that we can't even afford.

we got people in line with families getting free food because they can't afford to get food. enough is enough what biden did to this country. that's it. host: and he did mention the border. that's going to be one of the major themes for today. guest: it is. yes, today there's going to be a lot of talk about the border. and to the caller's point, it's an issue that republicans feel like is going to persuade voters, potentially independent vote, because of what we've seen at the southern border over the past few years. the border immigration issue has been one of biden's weakest issues, essentially from the start of his administration. when numbers started rising in february of 2021. and former president trump and republican campaigns have really hit this issue over and over and over again. and i've reported that in fact if you look at the senate races in montana and ohio and some of

the ad purchases there, most of the ads being purchased by some of these campaign infrastructure, these campaign groups are focused on the border. it's something that republicans feel like even far away from the actual border with mexico, they feel like this is an issue that's impacting people, including people in pennsylvania like the voter was -- like the caller was explaining just now. we'll have to see whether that really is something that people are voting on. if so, it would be very unique, it would be a first -- kind of the fist time that we've seen immigration rise so high in the list of priorities for voters much. host: jeff in maryland. independent. hi, jeff. caller: thank you very much. i just want to if i can just remind the c-span family that we need to be -- we need to recognize the fact that when president joe biden wanted to get together with mike johnson to come up with a bill for the

border, trump pulled it. he gave speaker johnson instructions not to go forward. and i don't see your guest mentioning anything like that. and we need to also remind the c-span family that trump is a convicted felon of 34 felonies and that he is scheduled to be sentenced on september 18. we also need to remind him that there was tax fraud done in manhattan, that he was fined by a judge of $175 million and a recent sexual harassment case, trump again was found guilty and fined $83 million. and the judge said that trump was the definition of a rapist. and that's for people to know.

this man has -- he's facing 54 felonies. 54 and you're telling me that he deserves to be president of the united states? and i wish, this last thing, i wish the media would remind the american people of the charges trump is facing and what he has been found guilty of. i notice on any of the challenges they do not mention what trump is guilty of and that's a travesty. host: all right. any comments, stef? guest: i mean, you know, to the caller's point, it is true that former president trump has been convicted of felonies. it was not that long ago that this breaking news, he became the first former president to be convicted of felonies. it's a huge moment and i find it remarkable as well the fact that that has not been a point of conversation much at the convention so far and has been

overshadowed by other events, including president biden's debate performance which has taken up a lot of our attention over the past few weeks. the assassination attempt on saturday, which was also horrific and historic moment for the country. and now the convention and there has not been much movement in the polls following the felony convictions and that was something that the biden campaign thought would make a bigger impact on the trump campaign and we haven't really seen the polls change that much because of that. i'm sure there are plenty of reasons but one being some voters already kind of, you know, had that as part of their calculation with trump. it's something that they expect already, but it is absolutely true that he is a convicted felon. it is historic and a part of this campaign. but of course this week that's not going to be the focus from republicans who are much more focused on being unified and beating joe biden. host: bob in raleigh, north carolina. democrat.

good morning. caller: good morning. stef, i remember when j.d. vance was saying a lot of negative things about donald trump. but it seems like both parties have the same problem because during the primary, kamala harris said she believed the sexual charges that were brought against president biden. so both parties have that same peculiar vice presidential criticism and then select a nominee that criticized them heavily during primary. thank you. guest: that is certainly politics. we do see it time and again where, especially when there's a primary, we see candidates go at each other and launch attacks trying to come out on top during the primary. only to make good after the fact, especially when you want a position like vice president, it kind of lends self toward asking

forgiveness, working together to win the general election. but it's certainly not the first time we've seen kind of people have to make up after histories of antagonism in the political space. host: michael in flint, michigan. independent line, hi, michael. caller: hi, how are you? host: good. caller: ok. now, i am from michigan. and why when donald trump doesn't get his way he always wants to throw a lawsuit. now, how can we call ourselves united states if no state is united with the country? everybody has their own laws. so i don't know how we can call ourselves unified if we're not unified by the states. and by the laws. host: nancy in ohio. republican line. good morning. caller: good morning. i was curious what the speaker's thoughts are regarding sean

o'neill's speech last night. he was brown away -- blown away. i thought it was a remarkable speech. never thought i'd hear such a speech about labor coming from labor at a republican convention. do you see a vibe shift in the future where labor will be courting both political parties rather than sinking all of their money in one basket so to speak? thank you and i'll listen off the air. guest: thank you. i was there in the room listening and i agree. i thought that the speech was remarkable and it was something i talked a lot about with my fellow reporters, that it was you unique moment to hear unions talked about at a republican convention. it was something that we haven't really seen in that way before. and he said himself that they're not beholden to either party, which certainly indicates that they are going to be looking at every candidate. and weighing things carefully and that they have been heavily

influential. so it was certainly a huge moment and one we're watching very closely. host: who are the key speakers that you're going to be watching for tonight? guest: i am looking forward to hearing from some of the senate candidates who will be speaking tonight. of course we're all waiting to see nikki haley as well who more of a last-minute add to the week's agenda. of course given the history between nikki haley and former president trump, i think it will be very interesting to hear what she has to say and again, points to this idea that republicans are trying to put out there this week that they really are unified, despite the past fights, despite the primaries, the messy primary season that they do feel like they are now all on the same page. and they really are trying to build this contrast with democrats who have been reeling over the past few weeks and even now are trying to figure out what to do with president biden, given his debate performance, the number of law makers who have come out calling for him to

step aside. and so i think we're going to continue to see that this week and hearing from nikki haley i think will be a fascinating moment this week. host: deborah in maryland. line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. i just wanted to make three quick points. one is i have a very similar background to j.d. vance. my mother was literally a coal miner's daughter across the border in pennsylvania. i made it to an ivy league law school. and what really burns me about him is he doesn't want to give the same opportunities to the next generation, he wants to pull the ladder up after him. the other thing i wanted to comment on, mimi, is that your name? that victoria spartz didn't answer at all when that gentleman challenged her to name one thing that the republican party has done for the working class. she couldn't come up with one example. and you didn't make her answer. every advance in the 20th century in union right, civil

rights, social security, medicare, medicaid, unemployment insurance, osha, worker protections, that's all, all democratic initiatives. she couldn't come up with a single example and you did not say a word. host: deborah, you know i can't force a guest to answer a question. but let's try to get stef to take up your comments. guest: look, i mean, this is a big question. can the republican party really convince working class voters who have long voted for the democratic party that they really have become the party for the working class. it's something we have seen over the past several years, past couple of decades, the transformation of both parties, with republicans in particular trying to pitch themselves as no longer the party of the wealthy businessman, but also -- but for the working class american citizen, that they are there to cut taxes, among other economic policies that they feel will better help average american

families afford things, they've been very focused on inflation in particular and criticizing the biden administration for not preventing the inflation numbers we've seen over the past few years, which they say hurt working class families. and so they certainly have been able to go on the attack, criticizing democrats, criticizing biden for how they have handled economic policies in particular. in ways that have hurt working class families. but there is a question. what are republicans going to do if they do take back the senate, take back the white house, potentially the house as well, what are their policies actually going to look like and will they actually be helpful to working class voters? or are there going to be issues in a trump administration as well when it comes to inflationary policies, etc.? host: john in arizona. independent line. good morning. caller: good morning. i just want to say that i read the book back in 2016, i think it was, 2015, 2016.

and i thought he was, j.d. vance was rather an interesting person. but what really made me -- though was more interesting is, one, he built his own house out of the wood from his land. when tucker carlson was asking him, what do you do when something goes out in the house? he says, i grab a book. i says, what? he says, i grab three books. when i had to set up the water, i got three books and i read and i did it myself. instead of going out and hiring somebody to come in and do it. the other thing is that in his community, the taxes were starting to raise. he went into the community, ended up -- i forgot the name of the position in which he was, basically was a finance position, and actually helped

the community. i mean, the guy's only 39 years old. host: so you're pretty impressed with him, john? caller: he's very impressive. host: all right. and, stef, you had written a piece about notable exceptions of lawmakers who will not be attending the r.n.c. tell us about that. guest: yeah. there are a handful of trump holdouts who are not attending this week. people like senator susan collins, mitt romney, lisa murkowski. senators who have historically been more moderate and not huge fans of the former president will not be attending this week. susan collins did not attend the last convention either. i spoke to her in the halls of the senate the other day and she said that she felt like it wasn't really worth her time to go to the national convention, she makes more of a focus going

to her state convention. but one on the list who is not going to be here who is more interesting is rand paul, the senator from kentucky who in 2016 2020 endorsed trump. he gave a glowing speech in 2020 during that convention. he will not be attending the convention this week. he won't be speaking, won't be around. we've really seen some fracturing between rand paul and those no-trump campaign trump world over a few issues. rand paul is of course a conservative, he wants to see less spending. in a recent meeting with trump and top officials, rand paul stood up and kind of accused trump of not being serious about cutting spending, not being serious about trying to solve the national debt issue. and rand paul has also had an aid who has been close with rfk

jr., there has been a relationship there as well. someone who is a little bit more surprising. most of the republican to make the steering clear of milwaukee this week tend to be the more moderate voices who don't buy into more of the far-right trump rand of conservativism. rand paul is someone who is a very staunch conservative but still had sort of a falling out with trump over policy. host: politics reporter for axios, reporting is at axios.com. thanks as always for being on the program. guest: thank you. host: up next, more of washington journal's coverage of this year's republican national convention live from milwaukee and more of your phone calls. you can start calling in now. democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independent, (202) 748-8002. while you're calling and we will

bring you a bit from wisconsin. he spent spoke with jack kelly about his coverage of the rnc as well as wisconsin media row, a partnership between more than two dozen local media outlets that was formed to cover the rnc. take a look. >> we are on wisconsin media row inside the republican national convention. wisconsin media row was born out of the 2020 democratic convention which did not take place here in milwaukee quite the way many folks expected in two. my boss got really interested in bringing a state specific area to the national convention like this. from the dnc, the pandemic hit and everything changed, the world was turned upside down. republican announced they were going to do the convention here in milwaukee.

behind the scenes for several months, they were partners in setting this up for us and we made a decision back in the spring and course right now some 25 news organizations all over the state of wisconsin. we wanted this to be for whoever wanted to be tonight. it was very affordable for news organizations and open to pretty much any organization that wanted to be involved. we did a lot of outreach and coordination in the months leading up to the convention. eventually we settled on the 25 news organizations that are here right now. this is the first time there has been a national political convention from either party that has a dedicated media area for the state that is hosting the convention. a little piece of history here at the republican national convention. i think it is really important. local news organizations and

reporters have relationships with their communities. they can be that trusted voice that sometimes the national and familiar figures can't always lend. it is interesting to see what people do and how they can connect what is happening here in milwaukee which is garnering this international tension and connected back to communities all across the state whether it is in green bay, madison, small communities. i think it will be really exciting to see what people will do over the next few days. we have a partnership with a group that will be doing quite a bit of fact checking both at the republican national convention and next month at the democratic national convention. all sorts of newsletter offerings, many news organizations do and also some videos to try to keep people informed and engaged in a different way that is kind of a new project for us.

i don't know if i can speak for the whole state, but we definitely have been appreciative of their willingness to work with us to make this happen and so far things are going smoothly. we've been very appreciative of making this day happen. announcer: washington journal continues. host: we are in our open forum for about 25 minutes. this is an extended washington journal during the rnc, going until 11:00 a.m. eastern time with you, so plenty of time for you to share thoughts. a couple things for the schedule today, the democratic national coittee meets to discuss the party platforfotheir august convention. we will have live coverage about meetingtaing at noon eastern. and the rnc coverage continues today from milwaukee at:00 p.m. eastern with a preview d your calls before the next

session begins at 6:00 p.m. that will last until 11:00 this evening when we will then open the phone lines again for your action. that is all starting livon c-span. you can also watch on our free mobile video app and online at c-span.org. by the way on c-span.org,e've got a page dedicated just to the rnc, so you can go ahead and click on that. you can find any of the speeches or events that you've missed from yesterday and even some historical items as well that you can take a look at. and we will go to dennis who is on the line for mississippi, democrat, good morning. go ahead. caller: i have two questions.

[indiscernible] that's all i have to say. host: jp in miami, republican, go ahead. caller: i just wanted to congratulate c-span. i always tell people you want to get the truth, then because there is no agenda on either

side and i've always said as the republican it is pretty much of the major media, only fox news for the republican side and then cnn, nbc, abc, cbs are all very left-wing, hollywood. most celebrities are left-wing and if you a conservative, they shun you. so it kind of feels unfair. i think trump is kind of round more celebrities on his side for the fighters as well as elon musk, obviously that is a big one. but most major celebrities usually go democrat. i love c-span because you just give the events and then you let us decide as scholars and viewers of actual live events. so i appreciate you guys, i just wanted you to know as a republican it feels like we don't have many voices out there in the major media, so thank you so much. host:host: roseville, california, independent line. caller: i think they look like

marissa,. maris tomei. i see the >> -- next election, donald trump, jr. against gavin newsom. and i can just see the trump family, going to leave the white house. they are always going to be there. i think it would be awesome for those two to run together even if it is in this election. i think gavin newsom needs to be in there. he is the ex of kimberly guilfoyle. i think it would be awesome if biden stepped aside, i hate to say that, but it is not too late. anyway, thank you for taking my call. host: new york, democrat, good morning. caller: good morning, how are you? i am echoing what everyone else is saying. sincerely.

i thank goodness for c-span with all of the noise that has been going around forever. i am a 73-year-old guy. i live in new york and i just wanted to share with your audience something that people may not know about donald trump. and i am not a donald trump person, i am very perplexed on whatever choices are this year for an election. but way back when, probably 20 years ago, every friday a local radio station used to have a one hour show where they would bring people in and have them talk. they would have local political figures, and they would really

be very candid in what they would say. and one of those people that used to come on probably about once a month with somebody named donald trump. and he was very critical about what was going on really in the world, but a lot of what was going on in new york because he is a true new yorker. people would ask him all the time, why don't you run? so my point here is that we are all talking about what we think, how he thinks in all those types of things. but what he really represents to me more than anything else is the breakage of the logjam of the ineffectiveness of government in the country. that is really what he represents. there isn't anybody else to represent that.

the political stuff that goes on is always going to go on, but when you talk about sincerity, i think he is more sincere than the rest because he tells it like it is. i never thought i would feel this way, i was brought up a democrat, never cross a picket line, all those things. but i think that is what he is representing. host: let's take a look at the point yesterday at the rnc where donald trump became the official republican nominee for president. it was his son eric trump who is married to rnc co-chair larry trump announcing the florida delegation support. >> madam secretary and everybody in this great city. [applause] >> on behalf of our entire

family and on behalf of the 125 delegates in the unbelievable state of florida, we hereby nominate every single one of them for the greatest president that has ever lived and that is donald j. trump. hereby declaring him the republican nominee for president of the united states of america. [applause] >> pursuant to the announcement of the delegation and this convention, florida, 125 votes, president trump.

host: that was last night. we will continue our coverage tonight so you can see all that happening and this is allison, west virginia, republican. caller: president trump plead not guilty on all them charges. host: is that all you wanted to say? allison? caller: no, he pleaded not guilty on all them charges. host: denson, houston, texas, independent. caller: i just want to comment on a couple things. number one, he's not a murderer, a rapist for a child molester. number two, why are we so sensitive in this country?

nobody wants to hear the truth. i come from a sicilian family who had to go to work when i was 13 years old. nobody owes you anything. quit being a victim and go to work. host: alright vincent, let's talk to mike in queens, new york, democrat. caller: hello? host: go right ahead. caller: i'm just calling and because trump, they all believe that this man don't lie. he's just like jim jones, he's got these people all brainwashed. all he is waiting for right now is a race war between the north, south and the people of america because he is a crook, he is a liar and a thief.

host: janet is in wade, north carolina, republican. good morning. caller: good morning. i just wanted to say i've seen kennedy get assassinated, i've seen his brother, i've seen wallace and i've seen regan. and i felt that when he got hit and the news -- if people can't see that, what i'm going to say is this new generation, when i grew up and went to school we studied politics and how america function. he studied our government and we had voting just like the democrats, republicans have it works. the young people today are getting this battle rhetoric from cnn, the media.

i feel sorry for any of our past presidents that go anywhere because if someone don't like what they did in the past, same thing could happen to them. it makes no difference what your ticket is, what party. i have voted for the other side before, democrat and my first late husband was in the navy. we voted democrat, but that particular one in the 70's would not sign a bill for the military to get paid. and when reagan came in, i mean, people were getting out of the military because no military person should have to -- for their family. but when reagan got in, they went back. his pick, right in the middle of the heartland. he knows the states that we need to get our economy with

homegrown manufacturing. if he can reach out to those states, and i mean, if things keep going down the other path, we used to depend on ourselves and be proud of it. host: since you mentioned the shooting in your comments, the latest on that. this is cnn, the headline is a gun store and a lot of searches tracking the gunman's movements leading up to his attack. it says in the 48 hours before he opened fire on former president donald trump, the 20-year-old made a series of stops in and around his suburban pittsburgh hometown. friday he went to a shooting range where he was a member and practiced firing.

law enforcement officials told cnn the next morning he went to a home depot where he bought a five foot ladder and a gun store where he purchased 50 rounds of ammunition. then he drove his hyundai sonata about one hour north, he parked the car outside the rally within improvised explosive device hidden in the trunk that was wired to a transmitter he carried. then investigators believe he used his newly bought ladder to scale a nearby building an open fire on the former president. investigators continue to search for a motive behind the attempted assassination and are trying to piece together the timeline. so that is the latest on that. roslyn is up next in illinois, independent. caller: thank you so much, and they want to thank c-span

because at least people can hear what the thoughts of people are and whether or not they make sense. so thank you for that because now we are living in an age where we don't have newspapers anymore. people don't talk to each other. they don't want to hear what your thoughts are. you can't even reason with people. it reminds me of nazi germany. i have worked with people years ago said we people to know what was going on. we can see what is going on. a lie is a lie. it breaks my heart that the media has to be involved. remember, in order for the media to keep their jobs, they have to keep the story going. that doesn't mean it is true. please, people. use your brains. talk it out.

thank you. host: and a bit of news for you, a bipartisan resolutiononing former fire department chief cory -- who was killed while shielding his falyuring the attempted assassination of former president trump olo, pennsylvania w iroduced in the house yesterday by florida representative --, a democrat and matt gaetz, a republican. daddy in louisiana, democrat, good morning. caller: this is my first call. i believe that donald trump is a phony. he cannot win the election this november, and i wish that president joe biden was coming to my area.

i know trump came to new orleans . louisiana ate the same. -- ain't the same. new orleans ain't the same because of hurricane katrina back 2005, aided new orleans is my hometown. you think biden could wind louisiana 2024? we need to wake up and vote for the right person who cares about this country. that's all i've got to say. host: and on the republican line, carmine, good morning. caller: i found out about this,

my sister called me and told me trump had been shot. i didn't have the tv on, and i literally froze and thought to myself how did we get here? when you think a little longer, you realize all this anger, all this hatred, and here we are. and then what surprised me was i was watching the view yesterday to see what their take would be and trying to ratchet down this anger, this hatred that is tearing the country apart. i was very curious but they were going to say. and the show started off very positive. they were talking about we've got to do something, this is not america, violence is wrong. and then if you watched it, see how they were saying one good

thing to ratchet down the tone and one bad thing against donald trump. and that's the way it went. and then i thought to myself, it proves the hypocrisy of the hollywood elites and donald trump is a very lucky man that he is alive. host: shane in tampa, florida, independent line. >> good morning, how are you? i did have a few points. first off when it comes to trump young shot at in pennsylvania, it is just like january 6. the reason they didn't have all that security is because they felt comfortable. there, pennsylvania 95.7% just like when all the people invaded the capital. if those were other people, they would have the national guard and the 80 out there.

and another thing when it comes to the poor, when j.d. vance is going to say he grew up poor, white poor is different from black poor in america and i will hope that c-span will correct that because if you grew up poor in america and you are white, you've still got the opportunity because of your skin color. let's get that for real. in the last thing is abortion. do you really think -- and i don't know why you all don't correct these people that call, do you really think that if black people were using abortion as much as they say they would, do you really think the republican party would be stopping abortions when most of the black people that they don't even want to care to be around would be eliminated through abortion? some people need to go to abortion clinics and see how many people are in line for abortion because i have been there and i have seen them. little white girls from 12 to 28

is all in the line. it is not to protect black people, it is to try to kill white supremacy. thank you. host:is from carol in on, massachusetts. tucker carlson at theeeing convention. carson was perfe of his foxpro brain because of what he would say. his rhetoric pales compared to who prevail daily on cnn, msnbc, etc. freedom of speech seems to be limited to a select group. this is why former president trump is forging ahead. another update for you from the new york times, local law enforcement agencies were inside the warehouse building whose roof the gunman used to fire on the rally. here is part of the article that says secret service faces growing scrutiny over its failure to stop the

assassination attempt of former president donald trump including questions about how it handled warnings from crowd members of the suspicious person outside the rally. a spokesman for the agency acknowledged that local police had radioed agents about the possible suspicious person on saturday before mr. trump came on stage. look at law enforcement agencies were in five the warehouse building whose roof the gunman to fire on the rally according to the director of the secret service. and jill, iowa, democrat, good morning. >> thanks to c-span for covering the opinions of real people and fact checking. although i think you can do a lot more. first, i just want to say as a democrat i have no wish for donald trump to beat made more of a martyr than he already is.

number two, the shooter from what i can tell, doesn't seem to be a true political person. all of this talk about i was a teacher i know how bullying can affect people, and i would say this is maybe someone who just didn't experience having enough, and perhaps bullies, what goes around comes around. yes, there was a failure by the secret service that needs to be fixed. j.d. vance, you could not have a more anti-woman candidate. he does not even believe women who are victims of domestic violence are entitled to divorce. he wants a national abortion ban. i don't think he has any business and my health care, and i would really like about what exactly is the republican plan for health care that mr. trump says is going to be ready in two weeks?

nothing has been put on paper. and by the way, i want a president who actually can read and comprehend a presidential briefing every single day. i want a president who has empathy, and i see someone in trump who really thinks life is a reality show and has trouble distinguishing between the two. life is not a reality show. it's not about ratings. it is about people's lives. and j.d. vance is just there to grease the wheels of project 2025. he was instrumental in that plan to get rid of -- you talk it at the deep state in our government, the deep state is experts in their fields who are basically a political, and i am sorry, but this country is not a christian country. this country, there are two reasons people came to this country. one was to exploit the national

resources and two was to escape a state establishment of religion. host: we got it. just want to show real quick a picture of the trump plane. you can see the workers adding the name vance to that. when they were done with that name underneath. anne is calling us from oregon, republican. caller: hello, good morning. the last male caller, he was really pushing racism but that is not why am calling. it is regarding biden versus trump. we already have a dictator in the white house with biden. he wants everyone to drive ev's. so i'm sure congress had a lot of people with stock in it because they are pushing it so

hard. last time i checked we were allowed to buy what we want. as far use a patriot just like all those people in the rnc yesterday. they are not mean to democrats, there was no writhing after trump was shot. he is for america. biden is the globalist. they need to get informed. thank you. host: and up next, more washington journal coverage of this year's republican national convention live from milwaukee. after the break we will be joined by former trump campaign advisor steve cortez to talk about donald trump's vp pick and what he says are the new voters the former president is bringing into his coalition this cycle. stay with us. ♪ announcer: saturday, american history tv features historic convention speeches. watch notable remarks by presidential nominees and other

political figures from the past several decades. this saturday arkansas governor bill clinton accepts the 1992 democratic presidential nomination while looking to the future. >> my fellow americans, i will end the night where it all began for me. i still believe in a place called hop >> watch historic convention speeches on american history tv, on c-span 2, and wanto live campaign 20 24 coverage of the democratic nationalonntion august 19 through the 22nd. and you can watch the republican national convention anytime on our website. washington journal continue. host: we are back now with live coverage of the republican national convention and joining us from milwaukee is steve cortez, the founder of the

league of american voters. welcome to the program. guest: thanks for having me, good morning. host: can you talk a little bit about your professional and personal background and your past work for the trump campaign? guest: some folks might know me from a previous tv line which was covering the natural issues for cnbc because i was a wall street trader for 25 years. my main first career was outside of politics but that didn't get into the role of television and then this orange guy came down the escalator in 2015 and convinced me that he was the right nominee to be president of the united states and i started saying so on television. but again, for it as a business commentator, not political. but once i started to make statements about president trump, they quickly reached out to me and said we could use you as a spokesman so i ended up during the campaign in 2016. of course one of the greatest upsets in american political history.

cnn, at the request of donald trump, but as a from advocate, as an american first conservative, is not a natural place for somebody like me to work. and president trump asked me to work at cnn as his spokesman and add get on that network, which i did, then worked for his reelection in 2020 and other races as well including j.d. vance who is now the vice presidential nominee. i worked very hard to run all of 2022 in his senate run in ohio, and i now lead the league of american workers, a nonprofit advocacy group. we are a populist right, pro-worker organization getting involved in a lot of fishing work particularly with immigration and trade. this of the two main topics and terms for issue focus and also involved in campaigns and have endorsed president trump for reelection. he wanted 22nd term. it is typical for this country and i am thrilled about his pick. host: intelligent funds for the

league of american voters. guest: generous donors throughout the country, patriots who see that there is an organization that dies in many ways with a labor union used to do or at least was intended to do, which was to advocate on behalf of american workers. most of the labor unions, particularly the public sector unions have really been co-opted by the political left and in my view and the view of our generous donors, no longer truly advocate for workers. two of the biggest issues that we are promoting aren't restriction on immigration, both legal and of course eliminating illegal immigration, the flooding of the american workforce with millions of unlawful laborers into the job market. totally unjust and it is bad for prosperity of middle-class. in many ways invited a predatory trade system particularly as it

relates to china that has abused american workers and american industries. protectionism against predatory trade, reciprocity when it comes to trade with the nations of the world, particularly china. those are the two major issues but are as american workers, those are the two biggest issues we are advocating for. we are a populist, nationalist, right-wing organization advocating on behalf of workers. host: steve cortez is going to be with us until the end of the program at 11:00 a.m. eastern, so if you've got a question or comment you can do so now. start calling in. allies are democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. steve, your thoughts and the trump shooting on saturday. guest: just a horrific act, course, but an inspirational

reaction from donald trump. i think the first thing we are discussing and thinking about that terrible situation, the first thing all of us need to remember is the tragedy of cory campbell tori dying, a patriotic man, a wonderful father and husband, a volunteer fireman, somebody who gave his life, trying to do nothing but celebrate his political affiliation and going to something that he thought was going to be tested and patriotic. the first thing all is the true knowledge of the serious of that situation now. it very nearly was a second cap. at the same time to can be both tragic and also inspirational. president trump's reaction in the immediate aftermath i think represents the toughness, the grit, the character, the spirit that has made him who he is. and why i believe he's going to win this election and going to serve a second term.

he found it necessary and important to rouse the crowd, to encourage patriots to continue to fight. it was a tragedy, it was inspiring and it is incredible that president trump is here in milwaukee even with a bandaged ear that he thought was fitting and important to show up, to show america that he is healthy and well. he is somebody who defied a bullet and his opponent, quite frankly has problems even handling a teleprompter so it is a stark contrast. it already was even before these horrible events, but those events have really accentuated that stark contrast between who president trump is and who joe biden is. host: you wrote a piece for the daily caller where it says polls reveal the emerging trump coalition. what coalition is that that you are referring to and what is the

data you are using? guest: my organization is doing extensive polling in the battleground states and we use a very reputable firm, rigorous scientific polling. we use opinion research and we get a representative sample. we just pulled wisconsin and we got the exact same number in terms of our survey sample of 2020 voters for joe biden and 20 voted for donald trump. and what is clearly emerging to us is that there is a new coalition forming. a new trump america first coalition that has two new key ingredients. the first is hispanics in the second is hispanics in the second as young people. regarding hispanics, something i've worked very hard on for a long time both in 2016 and 2020, it was a key part of my responsibility to the trump campaign outreach to hispanic voters. and we found great success in both those elections but the polls indicate to us that we are going to have even better success going over it. for example in arizona which we surveyed just a few weeks ago,

we found that among hispanics, donald trump is winning the hispanic vote in arizona which of course is a very latino state right there on the border. that really diffuses and disintegrates the media myth that hispanics are somehow soft on the border, that they preferred the open border situation. clearly they do not, particularly those who deal with most acutely like the citizens of arizona, many of whom are hispanic. in done people, that is not as surprising to me, but the young people coming around the donald trump is a welcome surprise to me. but what we're finding both input groups as well as polling that is that young people are disproportionately by the inflation created by joe biden. inflation harms every american, but it is worse for people who are aspirational, where trying to establish themselves in life. for people who don't own a lot of assets because assets that are inflating are benefiting some americans but those who overwhelmingly tend to be older

americans who owned a lot of stock and real estate. but for young americans this inflation is even more punishing and that is one of the key reasons they are coming around the donald trump. it is a group that has been taken for granted like the by the democratic party, has traditionally voted very democratically found that same poll in arizona, trump is actually leading among 18 to 34-year-old by 4%. people leaving the state overall by 10%. we found double-digit leads actually in all of what i would call the sunbelt swing states, meaning nevada, arizona, george and north carolina. we have double-digit leads and all of them. as not to sarah polley, that is largely confirmed by other public polling. the new york times, we had him leading and what i would call the northern battleground states here in wisconsin where i am right now, wisconsin, michigan and pennsylvania, but much narrower. in many ways, i think if current

trends hold, which i believe they will, this election really shapes up to be in some ways but i would call a big head election meeting that the conference of the midwest of wisconsin, michigan and pennsylvania will likely determine who the winner is. but i'm confident that in those states and around the country this emerging trump coalition is going to broad enough and strong enough particularly now that includes young people and hispanics that it is going to lift the 45th president of victory to become the 47th president. host: focusing for a moment on hispanic voters, exit polls from the 2020 election showed nationwide that those voters went 65% to mr. biden, 32% for mr. trump. are you saying that the ship you are seeing in the swing states would be enough to swing the election toward biden:? just based on those hispanic voters? guest: the quick answer is yes. and just a quick word on 2020.

i agree with you that is exactly were exit polls are. i think exit polling is quite imprecise. the best gauge of the validated voter survey and if you use that, the president did better. when i said the president, i mean president trump. donald trump got 38% of the hispanic vote nationwide. it is an important point because the president gets crushed in california, a state he has no chance of winning. what really matters of course are these swing states. and looking at the swing states, the swing states are arizona and nevada. we have been winning the hispanic vote narrowly, but still winning in both of them. another state most might not think of as being that hispanic but it is, georgia. it is largely because the job market has been incredibly robust in bridger for a very long time. the jobs we show up in, there's a lot of hispanics almost a

stealth hispanic state, and we also found in our georgia survey , we have been narrowly winning the hispanic vote. i don't think he is going to win the hispanic vote by 10% that even coming close to a tie or narrowly winning the hispanic vote given how large the hispanic population is and how much he continues to expand battleground states, that is enough to be determinative. and i believe it will be. and a lot of these hispanics don't necessarily consider themselves hispanic. excuse me, conservative. it wouldn't identify as maggot, but they also are generally traditionally minded. very pro small business, by far the most entrepreneurial community, the most under venereal demographic in america by a longshot plea, and those folks if they have traditional values and belief in small business, they own a small business of their own, they believe that they have been politically orphaned by the democratic party that has become incredibly radical.

the 2020 democrats are simply not your parents or grandparents democrats, and that reality is really compelling a lot of hispanics to at least consider moving over to the republican party and the america first movement. host: calls now starting with martin in germantown, wisconsin. democrat. collar: good morning. steve, thank you for your opinions. i do find it interesting that c-span ask you about your funding where i don't see that happening to democratic or liberal organizations. c-span seems pretty quiet about that. the other thing that i would like to say is it is great to see you on prime time because i couldn't call in on the republican line so i had to call in on the democratic line area go trump. host: you know you can't do that. dave in auburn, new york, republican. go ahead. guest: this is kind of refreshing.

i'm starting to see some rational thinking here with this gentleman. here is what my take is on the vice presidential pick. i had hoped for biden because he was a financial guy, a scientist read that j.d.vance has some of that, so i am pleased with that pic. also, trump when he becomes president, and he is, he will take -- the likes of which we have never seen before, maybe reagan, his team. that will make the difference, and also, the down ballot. people when they vote for trump, they bowed down ballot for republicans because that is how we are going to get all of this legislation through. just to the nuts and bolts of this, the reality of this, it is not just your personal hurt

feelings. i would ask people also that do this to register and become involved in the local government, to see what my city council does. i got on the zoning board. i'm seeing this now and it is a problem of way too much government, way too many regulations. that is all i can think of. host: your thoughts on matt, stephen, and the down ballot races as well? yes: thank you for calling and for getting involved. you are so right. my focus is national races but most of the work of a governor is done locally at your school board, your zoning commission, so thank you so much for being involved. you mentioned a lot. i would like to talk about the vice presidential angle. i have a new article by the way if anybody would like to see other about my thoughts on j.d. vance, somebody that i know very well, somebody that i admire

deeply, top five reasons why j.d. vance i think with the perfect pick. i could give you all five now, for the sake of time if you just go with two, the first one is his back story. if folks know him, it is not for the politics, it is his best-selling novel that was made into an academy award nominee netflix movie by the same name. and he came from an incredibly troubled background, from a family that was afflicted with drug addiction and poverty and really just a very dysfunctional childhood. he was able to rise from that from his hillbilly background to earn his way all the way to the u.s. marine corps and then law school. and ultimately did some significant success in the financial sphere, see you are right, he does also have financial experience. but rather than living a life of accolades and lucrative rewards and luxury, he chose instead to pivot and to enter public service because he wants to help people who come from

circumstances that he knew himself as a child and as a young man. so he intrinsically understands the challenges that are facing working-class america with cultural decay and with economic decline, particularly in middle america, those states that i mentioned are going to determine who the next president is. the second issue, his youth and vigor. he's only 39 years old, he's accomplished an incredible amount for somebody who is not even yet 40, and i think in an election where the cognitive impairment of joe biden has become a very proper issue, as it should be, a very understandable after the litmus test for whether or not he can be president of the united states, in that environment i think it is a particular sharp contrast in favor of the trump-vance ticket that we now know that the vice president, the second in command of the united states is a man of incredible youth and vitality, so i think that is also another factor of why he was just a perfect pick for donald trump

and i think he will serve as an able understudy to trump for the next four years in the white house and then i hope continue to carry the america first banner for many years after trump completes his second term. host: independent line, gary is in minnesota. in morning. collar: yes, you guys do a real good job on this tv here. asked steve what he thinks about the unions and stuff. our family has been working for the steel company for many, many years and stuff and all the stockholders, they say they are from japan but they are stockholders over there. all the stockholders are trying to keep -- what have i got to say here -- keep the money so that they have all the money in japan which is still going to run u.s. steel over here and everybody thinks this is such a good deal. i think it is fully a bad deal. and one more thing about essay about trump.

everybody blames trump for assaulting women and stuff. why did they come up and get this settled before he even started running? i think it is all fake. all these women are just trying to make a bunch of money and stuff and blaming trump and you've got to figure another thing, all the people that got all the money in the world, they are the ones keeping this world going and people don't believe this. i am conservative and i vote for the man, i don't vote for the party. the best man wins, that is it. host: go ahead, steve. collar: -- guest: thank you for calling, you are to the fired up patriot, and we need that. i think it is outrageous that that iconic american company was bought by foreigners. and i don't care where they come from, british or japanese or the chinese. that company should not be owned by foreigners because it is a strategic industry for the united states. we absolutely need for national

security reasons, for economic prosperity to be able to control and produce our own steel. and by the way, j.d. vance was by far the most, the strongest voice in politics in opposing that deal. so he was out front, front and center saying that that absolutely should not have gone through. i hope and believe that in a trump vance administration, that kind of deal will not go through for the next four years. and look, here is the reality when it comes to workers. you asked about the unions. but my group is trying to do is to step into that breach because i think most unions, especially the public sector unions, the ones reppo something government employees, they no longer look out for the working class of america. instead they have become effective the extensions of the democrat party that advocate for our left politics, they are fine with globalism and open borders. think about the millions of illegal migrants who have poured into this country at the invitation of joe biden. he has invited them into this

country. most of those folks are coming here to work, and they are competing in the labor market against american citizens and depressing wages for american citizen laborers. that is totally wrong, and yet the unions silent about that issue. at least, union leadership. union membership has a very different view. the teamsters president addressed the rnc last night in milwaukee. some of those folks are proud of the delegates that didn't agree with everything he had to say, but i think it is positive that he addressed them. i would love to see private sector union to back to a place where they really truly advocate for workers. but again, i believe trump and j.d. vance represent a change. the republican party used to be a pump -- party of big business, multinational corporations and the republican party itself used

to be quite globalist. the party that supported free trade that was never free, with managed trade against the interest of american workers. donald trump transformed the republican party into america first populist workers party. we are a movement for workers. the selection of j.d. vance only accelerates that trend and it is an important marker i believe in the transformation of the republican party. so the republican party is today, in very many ways, with democratic party youth to decades ago. it has long given up. they are now hand-in-hand with the text, big pharma, big media. host: immigration policy, i want to ask you about president biden's policy that was announced long ago about american citizens and giving them a chance to apply for legal status here in the united states, keeping families together. i you in favor of that, you

think that was a good policy? >> prime not in favor at all. i understand that these are difficult situations, but the reality is these people as adults knowingly broke the laws of the united states. they trespassed into our country, they broke and entered into the american homeland and there has to be a consequence for that. the fact that america says even though you still have to do our country we are going to a plot -- allow you to apply for legal status shows great generosity of spirit. but that doesn't mean that joe biden can way they want and say they are instantly fixed. that was never the process in the united states for good reason. it is not something that he can legally do unilaterally. i believe that his exact order was shot down. host: they don't become american citizens, they are able to apply for citizenship while staying in the country infinite having to go back to their home countries

and stay there and apply there. guest: not citizens instantly, but they are instantly on the road. they are instantly legal, have status, have a green card meant and become american citizens time. host: which they do anyways by being married to american citizens. guest: but not if they are here first illegally, that's the point. not if you come to the united states first illegally. if you first broke into the united states and then you marry an american citizen, that does not make you an american citizen, for good reason. we don't want to report that behavior. we reward that behavior in any area of life and you get more bad behavior. if we reward trespassing into the u.s. by saying here is the workaround, here is the loophole how you can become an american citizen, that is not ok. and one reason it is not ok is people like my own father who was a legal immigrant to the united states, the tens of millions of people who have done it the right way, who have waited in line through a lengthy

and extensive and expensive process to become a legal citizen of the united states, it is totally unjust to them, first of all, to presuppose that other people can do it on their own volition and by their own rules and they can just decide to hop the line, to cheat the system. it is patently unfair and unjust and it is just not policy for our country. host: one more call, maryland, independent. caller: good morning. steve, when vance wrote his book and it was well received as you just said, and when he declared his candidacy for the united states senate, he established himself when he first announced his candidacy by saying he did not care who won the russia-ukraine war. this is an outrageous thing for any candidate to say.

if anyone had said they didn't care if the germans or japanese won world war ii they would have been excommunicated. how do you react to someone who would say something so outrageous? what does he want to do, let the murderers in russia just rape and murder ukrainians? what kind? of nonsenseis that host: go ahead, steve. guest: listen, i appreciate the question. i am unaware of him saying he didn't care. i doubt he said that and i'm not aware of that. host: here's what he actually said before you go on. this was an interview with fanon in 2022. he said that gotta be honest with you, i don't really care what happens to ukraine one way or another. go ahead. guest: gotcha.

what now vice presidential nominee vance was talking about there which i think is exactly correct and that the united states has no vital national interest in ukraine or in the black sea region as a whole, we just do not. and america should not be intervening in overseas wars, it is something we did for many decades before president trump and unfortunately, we should not be intervening in conflicts around the world where there is not a compelling u.s. national interest. the ukrainians and the russians have been rivals, friends and enemies for centuries. it is a if there is a real -- you mentioned the comparison to world war ii. i don't believe that is accurate because russia is having a very hard time even taking a piece of ukraine. if we were to grant you that he does have hitler'sian ames and the ability to march into europe, even if we said that is

accurate, that should be forced in foremost western europe's responsibility. they should be handling this situation if it is indeed a dire threat to all of the european continent, it is their issue to handle. it should not be the job of the united states. trump represents an america first foreign of realism and restraint and saying america will only commit funds, forces, and military aid where we have a compelling american national interest and we are done with endless interventions and nonstop war fighting because it only benefits the washington war machine, the defense firms, the think tanks, but not regular americans. it is an issue really important to republican voters and wins over a lot of independent voters as well. i submit to you we do not have a compelling national interest in ukraine.

as far as an american strategic import, it is not. host: all right, steve cortez, founder of the of american workers. you can find more about them at amworkers.com. that is that for today's washington journal. we are back tomorrow morning. have a great day and thanks for watching. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2024] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] ♪ ♪ ♪ >>