from washington and across the country. coming up sunday morning, we will talk with rachel kreisler and david maslin with the center for american progress about the role of u.s. labor in campaign 2024. and author alan lichtman on the campaign and his book "predicting the next president." "washington journal." join in the conversation at 7:00 eastern on sunday morning on c-span, c-span now, or online at c-span.org.

♪ host: good morning, it is saturday, july 27, 2024. this week vice president kamala harris officially launched her presidential campaign after president joe biden announced that he would end his campaign for reelection. former president trump hit the campaign trail with his new running mate, j.d. vance. we want to know, what is your

top news story of the week? the phone line for democrats is (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independents, (202) 748-8002. if you would like to text us, that number is (202) 748-8003. please be sure to include your name and where you are writing in from. if you like to reach us on social media, facebook.com/c-span, or on x @cspanwj. there is new pulling out this morning. in "the wall street journal" it says that harris erases trump's lead here the presidential race between kamala harris and donald trump is essentially tied according to a "wall street journal" polled shows height and support for her among nonwhite voters and dramatically increased enthusiasm about the campaign among democrats.

49% to 47% and a two-person matchup within the margin of error of plus or -3.1 percentage points. trump held a six point lead over president biden before he exited the race and back terrace. on a ballot that included robert f. kennedy, jr. and other independent and third-party candidates, harris received 45% and trunk gets 44%. kennedy is backed by 4% and 5% remain undecided. biden trailed in the multi-candidate contest by six points in a previous poll. for democrats who may be interested in challenging harris, there is a story in nbc news pointing out that today is the deadline for democrats who want to run against harris for the nomination. it says, candidates have until saturday to declare their candidacies, and until tuesday to gather the needed support

from hundreds of delegates to make the ballot alongside harris at the virtual roll call vote. democrats have given themselves and august 7 deadline to conduct the rollcall to avoid potential legal issues. no major democrat has even hinted on plans to run against harris who has quickly consolidated since president biden withdrew and endorsed her. the timeline is also affecting harris's search for a vice presidential running mate, which may need to be completed in two weeks. here is a portion of vice president harris's first campaign rally as a presidential candidate earlier this week in milwaukee. [video clip] v.p. harris: before i was elected as president, united states general, i was attorney general of the state of california and a courtroom prosecutor before then. in those roles i took on perpetrators of all kinds.

predators who abused women. fraudsters who ripped off consumers. cheaters who broke the rules for their own gain. hear me when i say, i know donald trump's type. [applause] [crowd chanting " kamala"] in this campaign, i promise i will probably put my record against his any day of the week.

[applause] host: as the former president trump -- as for former president trump he was on the campaign trail, including in west palm beach where donald trump, as the washington post reports, honed his attacks on vice president harris, the likely democratic nominee, in a speech at the turning point usa believers summit in west palm beach on friday night. calling her the most incompetent, unpopular, and far left vice president in american history, blaming her for high numbers of migrant apprehensions at the southern border and calling her a bum. here is some of that speech with former president trump speaking in west palm beach, florida. [video clip] mr. trump: five days ago we officially defeated the worst president in the history of the united states, crooked joe biden. i thought a lot about it. we defeated him.

he was badly beaten. everyone was going to him saying, you can't beat him, get out, get out, we want you out. there was nothing nice about what they were doing. they were saying we want you out of the race. you are going to lose. we want to put someone else in. how about that? it is like a prizefighter. he is losing badly, ready to be knocked out. they say, let's stop the fight. let's put someone else in. it doesn't work that way. it's not supposed to work this way. this was a coup by the democrats, nothing else. last night or the other night he made a speech behind the beautiful resolute desk in the oval office. i want to give people credit, or not credit, it was horrible. then you turn onto cnn and msnbc, horrible, and they say one of the finest speeches we've ever seen. churchillian, someone said.

no, winston had on it a little bit. they pretend to do as good. she was a bum three weeks ago. a failed vice president in a failed administration with millions of people crossing and she was the border czar. host: we are looking for your top news story of the week. whether it be about the presidential campaign with harris as the presumptive democratic nominee for president, or president biden's oval office address announcing his reasons for dropping out of e race, as well as trump and fans holding tir first rally since biden exited the race, a the secret service director resigned. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu gave a speech to congress amid protests. ralph on theine for democrats. caller: i am a uaw worker from

upstate new york d my top news story is the claim by president trump and j.d. vance of being for the working class. let's look at the record. on 48 coal sponsors, j.d. vance is not on their. raised the federal minimum wage is 35 cosponsors, j.d. vance is not on there. voting records, j.d. vance is zero afl co. , harris is 89%. i will close with the child tax credit, earned income tax credit, neither former president trump or senator j.d. vance has nothing to say on that. i thank you for your time. host: the story out of new york on new york one's website about exactly this, talking about union leaders slamming trump and vance and boosting harris.

some of the nation's top union leader spoke out in favor of vice president kamala harris's candidacy and painted former president donald trump and his running mate, j.d. vance, as faux champions of the working class. speaking on a press call organized by the democratic national committee, service employees international union president, who leads a union of around 2 million members, says harris understands the struggles working families face in contrast to the harm that donald trump will do to working people if he gets his hands back on the reins of power. james in pittsburgh, pennsylvania on the line for independents. good morning, james. caller: good morning. i am an independent. i have called here about 10 times, i would say. it is nice to see you. my top story was, since i am an independent, -- the torch.

that is my top story because i am independent. host: did you like seeing him in the olympics? caller: snoop dogg? he is all right. i like snoop dogg, he is pretty cool. host: nashville, tennessee on the line for republicans. good morning, roy. caller: good morning. my biggest news story for this week is the fact that president biden dropped out of the race for president. his oval office address, and i disagree with him on virtually everything in terms of policies, but my heart truly goes out to him and his family. it is so sad to see someone in that state. i thing most people have had a loved one who had those cognitive issues as they age. the thing is, i don't know how anyone involved in that administration can expect

anybody to believe that moving forward. i don't want to say they live. that is a strong word. they misled the country. they worked with him every day. they knew something was wrong, i'm sure of it. i don't know how anyone can trust anyone involved in that administration, especially vice president harris. host: president biden's oval office address on wednesday night was what our caller was referencing. and that address, he urged americans to vote to keep our republic. [video clip] pres. biden: i ran for president four years ago because i believe, and still do, that the soul of america is at stake, the very nature of who we are was at stake. that is still the case. america is an idea. an idea stronger than any army, bigger than any ocean, stronger than any dictator or tyrant, the most powerful idea in the history of the world. that idea is that we hold these

truths to be self-evident. we are all created equal. endowed by our creator certain unalienable rights, life, liberty, the pursuit of happiness. we have never lived up to the sacred idea but we have never walked away from it either. i don't want the american people to walk away from it now. in just a few months, the american people will choose the course of america's future. i made my choice. i made my views known. i want to thank our great vice president kamala harris. she is experienced, she is tough, she is capable, she has been an incredible partner to me and leader for our country. now, the choice is up to you, the american people. when you make that choice, remember the words of benjamin franklin hanging on the wall in the oval office alongside the bust of martin king, rosa parks,

and cesar chavez. the convention going on, whether the founders had given america a monarchy republic. the response was a republic, if you can keep it. a republic, if you can keep it. whether we keep our republic is now in your hands. host: next, john in eastern pennsylvania on the line for democrats. caller: good morning. the top story in the news never really happened. i was surprised "washington journal" didn't take the 34 felony counts against trump and analyze one each day with prosecutors that were not politically involved. and explain to people what each one counted for and what you

did, but you never did. that would have been seven weeks of prime time news ratings that you would have never seen in a million years. then, joe biden, he brought two to three words on stage against a guy, each had 45 minutes and the guy lied 23 times. nothing was said about that. they hammered biden into the ground like he was a f loormat. seven weeks of prime time news, you could have done it monday through friday. saturday and sunday could have been open for other news during the week. you would have had a grand old time. that would have been the top news of the week, i mean of the year, the century. host: james in texas on the line for independents. good morning, james. caller: am i on?

host: yes, you are. caller: the reason i called was because nbc hyped the opening ceremonies of the olympics. ok. constantly beating this up about how great it was going to be. it was the most boring thing i ever watched. a bunch of crap going up a dirty like, not a lake, a river. when they finally got to the end they launched a balloon. i was thinking to myself, all of the opening ceremonies that i've seen are all better than what they presented to the public as the best that ever was. let's get this hyped out of everything that someone wants to promote and put something on

that someone can call entertainment. thank you. host: salt lake city, utah on the line for democrats. good morning. caller: i wanted to talk about the meeting between prime minister benjamin netanyahu and kamala harris, specifically even though i am a democrat i am not pleased with kamala harris' statement on gaza. i believe that she could have said more about the civilian suffering in gaza, and i believe she should be calling what we are seeing in gaza by what it should actually be called. a genocide. we know that there is so much human suffering. we know that people in gaza have nowhere to go. there are no safe places in gaza. i believe that we see so much hypocrisy comparing ukraine to gaza. we say that an attack on a

ukrainian hospital is horrific, but we just see attacks on -- we have just become numb to seeing the violence in the middle east. ukraine is completely different. there is so much hypocrisy with this. in order for me to be able to vote for vice president harris, i need to see her speak more firmly about the atrocities that are happening in gaza. host: vice president harris did give some remarks following her meeting on thursday with israeli prime minister angela netanyahu. here's a portion of those remarks. [video clip] v.p. harris: with over 2 million people facing high levels of food insecurity and half a million people facing catastrophic levels of acute food insecurity, what has happened in gaza over the past nine months is devastating.

the images of dead children and desperate, hungry people fleeing to safety, sometimes displaced for the second, third, or fourth time, we cannot look away in the face of these tragedies. we cannot allow ourselves to become numb to the suffering. and i will not be silent. thanks to the leadership of our president, joe biden, there is a deal on the table for cease fire and hostage deal. it is important that we recall what the deal involved. the first phase of the deal would bring about a full cease fire, including a withdrawal of the israeli military from population centers in gaza. the second phase, the israeli military would withdraw from gaza entirely. it would lead to a permanent end to the hostilities. it is time for this war to end

in a way where israel is secure, all the hostages are released, the suffering of palestinians in gaza ends, and the palestinian people can exercise their right to freedom, dignity, and self-determination. there has been hopeful movement in the talks to secure an agreement on this deal. as i just told prime minister netanyahu, it is time to get this deal done. to everyone who has been calling for cease fire, and to everyone who yearns for peace, i see you and i hear you. host: john in tacoma, washington on the line for independents. caller: yes. first, i wonder why the coverage of the national news, including you guys, about the sonya massey

killing that was done by the police officer, that was actually worse than george floyd, has not been shown or covered? it also covers the 20 25 immunity deal that trump was talking about. immunity goes to this guy who killed a woman that was worse than the george floyd murder and you haven't showed that video. then there is also another video out that you guys didn't show, and you just show the beginning of it today, the beginning of trump when he was at the rally. you didn't show when he said he wasn't a christian and he wanted the christians to vote for him just this one time, four more years, and then you won't have to vote anymore. a lot of this thing is seeing fishy that you guys are omitting to cover. not just you guys, media in general. me being independent, i like to look at things from both sides. i find it funny that there are some funny things going around.

the prosecutor versus convict. the a.k.a., a black sorority, versus the kkk talking about don's history. i wonder if you could put those two on for the republicans and how they will affect us. host: there is news this morning that came out yesterday that kamala harris actually called the family of sonya massey. massey was a 36 yield black woman fatally shot by an illinois deputy in her home july 6. harris has also called the mother of devante mitchell, a black man who died after he was pinned down by hotel security guards in milwaukee. there is more of -- there is her photo. that is a story from nbc news. joseph is in new york on our line for republicans. good morning, joseph. caller: how are you doing today?

i am asking questions about these people come on independent and they keep forgetting we are all american. how about you unify rather than break apart. one guy was murdered, cop serving shot and nobody is saying anything. my brother was a cop, my family is all police officers, no one is saying to protect the police officers. you have one guy complaining they murdered a black person. i'm sorry, but you have people killed right across the ocean. thousands and thousands are being murdered by artillery from the russians and ukrainians are getting destroyed and nobody is saying anything. why are we there? why aren't the germans and the french? why aren't they there? let our people in america stay strong before we fight another battle somewhere else in a foreign country. we have a border wide open and no one is doing a dang thing

about it. host: please, keep the language clean, joseph. did morning, marie. caller: good morning. i fast and say what i've been wanting to say. everyone talking about the inflation and how they want to vote for trump because of the gas prices and food, but i want to remind everyone that the tactic that's being used of keeping gas and food prices high, that is the oldest tactic that has ever been used in countries all over the world. whenever one country wanted to overthrow another one or wanted to take it over, one of the things that they would do would cause distress for the smaller nations, or whatever. they would cause discomfort and distress for those people. sometimes they would do embargoes where they would cut off food supply or water. after so long, the people distress. they would end up taking it out

on the leader or they would turn on their leaders and overthrow their own leaders because of their distress. that is exactly what is being done. these fortune 500 companies, opec with the gas that they are gouging with us, they are taking it out on joe biden and he has nothing to do with that. i also wanted to say about the gentleman who just spoke about the police, and i'm glad to hear him say that, because hearing everyone can vote for who they want, i understand, but to hear some any black people calling in talking about voting for trump and what they are saying about kamala, if you can see a police officer do that to a woman, what you think they care about you? one thing trump told when he first ran in his campaign, he stood up before the national order of police and said i want you on tv. when you arrest people come you put their hand on your head to

protect their head. you need to rough them up more. some of the police cheered and clapped and some didn't, but right after that we had george floyd. i want to say to my brothers who feel like trump's for them, you think twice because 20 25 is no joke. thank you. host: florence, massachusetts on the line for independents. caller: thank you for all of the gas lighting and race baiting and lying. i really appreciate it. i'm curious how you can tell me that president trump is responsible for everything that was wrong during the time -- but now nothing is bidens's fault. how can we be producing more oil than ever get we had to raise the old will reserve and the northeast gas reserve to nothing? i'm curious how you can go with polls and say everything is turning around with 1100 people, 1200 people, 1200 50 million people, i'm supposed to believe a poll and believe things are turning around?

i'm supposed to believe you when you say that biden is the best ever? then you said, a few hours a day. now what? this is getting ridiculous. tell the truth. now he is out, now he is no good? be serious. host: helen in oklahoma on the line for republicans. caller: thank you. finally. i was just calling to say to some of the people calling in, why haven't they said anything about the 34 counts of president trump, this and that. they have been talking about president trump for nine years. it is the most talked about man in the world. i'm glad they stop talking about him for a minute. i'm going to vote for him, and i can't stand biden or harris. have a good day. host: marty in newport news, virginia on the line for democrats. caller: thank you for having me on. my comment is about the scream

trilogy. hold on. this is political. scream 1 was in 2004 when abc, nbc, cbs everybody, naturally including fox, jumped on him saying scream and yee-haw. the next thing you know they all jumped on him until he jumped out of the race. scream 2 is biden. i have never seen anything like it either. all three networks. everything. everybody jumps on him all at once. this is now twice with the democrats the media has done this. i'd like to see scream 3 trilogy

with not only c-span getting in on it too, and some of the topics i'm proposing -- should i convict be allowed to run for president? is trump too old for president? is fascism right for america? jumping on project 2025. why can't the democrats -- be allowed to advertise on fox news? that's what i got for today. i hope the scream 3 trilogy takes hold. host: kurt and mount union, pennsylvania. caller: good morning, c-span.

i have a simple question. under today's standards that talk about genocide. when we begin to prosecute, along with the allies, the war against germany, germany was being destroyed and all the german people were running around and children were being killed, was that a genocide of the german people? when we bombed japan to try to stop the war with japan, and we occupied japan, was that a genocide of the japanese people? what are the current definitions of genocide? is it when you begin to lose a war that you propagate it? when the other side begins to win against you, is it all of a sudden a genocide now? just a question. host: i believe that kurt is

referencing the ongoing war in gaza. prime minister benjamin netanyahu spoke to congress this week specifically on wednesday and defended israel's prosecution of the war. [video clip] >> prosecutors accuse israel of deliberately targeting civilians. what on gods's green earth is he talking about? dropped millions of flyers, sent millions of text messages, made hundreds of thousands of phone calls to get palestinian civilians out of harm's way, but i the same time hamas does everything in its power to put palestinian civilians in harm's way. they fire rockets from schools, hospitals, mosques. they even shoot their own people when they try to leave the war zone. eight hamas official boasted, listen, he boasted that palestinian women and children

excel at being human shields. his words. excel at being human shields. what monstrous evil. for israel, every civilian death is a tragedy. for hamas, it is a strategy. they actually want palestinian civilians to die so that israel will be smeared in the international media and be pressure to end the war before this won. host: valerie in florida on the line for republicans. good morning. caller: hi. first of all, i would like to say the joint session in congress with netanyahu, his speech was wonderful. another thing i would like to raise is the point that when kamala harris was talking, she introduced her husband, he went into a speech about how they met and so forth. then he proceeded to say he was

a proud jew. i would like to know how she could get up there, support all of that nonsense going on, and have a husband who is supposedly a proud jew? second of all, there are many videos out there, tulsi gabbard and her in the 2016 debate, showing how weak she was as a prosecutor. this is a woman who slept her way to the top. she was involved with willie brown, broke up his marriage, went through two positions that were very high paid just for doing her stuff. she is an empty-headed woman and has nothing to offer anybody. if i had a choice between netanyahu and biden, i would definitely take netanyahu, who is protecting his country, his people, and the sanctity of his borders. i think that's it.

host: elizabeth in randall's town, maryland on the line for democrats. caller: good morning, c-span. i want to talk about kamala harris and biden quitting the race. kamala harris is terrific. she experienced -- she is experienced as a prosecutor in california. she has been vice president for four years. her position on gaza and palestine is great. she is calling for a cease-fire and end to military aid to gaza. she is a woman. she will sweep the country. all the brown, black, and asian and latino people vote for her and the women will vote for her. i think she is terrific. that is all i want to say. host: judy and baltimore, maryland on the line for independents. caller: i am trying to figure

out, this is for foreign leaders, how foreign leaders would allow someone to send representatives from the united states to their country and speak on sexual assault and we have a man running to be the president of the united states who is a sexual assaulter? how is that going to work. as for kamala harris being a b um i have pictures of melania trump on my phone naked with a briefcase. y'all have a nice day. host: elizabeth on the line for democrats. caller: it has been an interesting show this morning. first, netanyahu gave a great speech. i am a gay woman. i am 64. i am ashamed of the gay youth who march with people who hang us from cranes.

it is really sad. i really like josh shapiro and i hope that she picks him. i know that she is married to a nice jewish man. i don't think that she hates jewish people or anything, that is ridiculous. i have always liked kamala. i'm scared to vote for her because of the jewish thing. you know, it is weird that we have a hatfield as vice president if trump wins. vance was related to the hatfield. i find that funny. i hope everything works out. i love america, i love israel, just like i love ireland or england. [laughs] it is ridiculous. i don't like identity politics on both sides, on both sides, it is just different. so, god bless, god bless america, and nice talking to you. have a good day.

[laughs] host: david on the line for republicans. caller: can you play the video of kamala telling the 24-year-olds how stupid they are? host: i don't think we have that particular video. if it is a public speech she has made recently you can probably find it on c-span.org. caller: how stupid they were. i thought that would be good to share with the country. host: kelly in washington on our line for independents. good morning, kelly. caller: good morning. i just saw the buck, bald naked bit the lady said earlier. what i really want to talk about is the misinformation and disinformation out there. there is so much that trump get

shot by a bullet or not? is biden dead? i think people need to calm down on a lot of that stuff. it is kind of getting out of hand. that is about it. thank you. host: kelly referenced questions about whether or not former president trump was actually struck by a bullet. that has been confirmed. this is a story in the associated press nearly two weeks after donald trump's attempted assassination the fbi confirmed on friday that it was indeed a bullet that struck the former president's ear moving to clear out conflicting accounts of what caused the former president's injuries after a gunman opened fire at a pennsylvania rally. what struck orman president trump in the year was a bullet, either whole or fragmented into pieces, fired from the deceased subject's rifle. it marks the most definitive law-enforcement account of trump's injuries and ambiguous

comments -- and followed ambiguous comments from director christopher wray that seemed to cast doubt on if trump had been hit by a bullet. the comment drew fury from trump and his allies and further stoked conspiracy theories that have flourished on both sides of the political aisle amid a dearth of information following the july 13 attack. next, we have mary in nebraska onheine for democrats. goodorng, mary. caller: i want to thank you for the opportunity to express myself on your program. in regard to president biden's declin i have elderly family mbs tt -- president biden seems to be very good one day and then have a bad day. this is repetitious over a period of time. we never know what to expect. prior to that, i would have to

say, unless a person is a health care provider, they should not be assessing somebody. that is illegal, that is practicing medicine, and as far as biden he gave a bad performance at a debate. not long after, he gave a really great performance at a rally. that is kind of not really consistent with aggressive dementia. so he is out of the picture now. he has turned in his badge. he has turned it over to someone else. he went out with dignity. i think that is the best a person can ask for. i don't think we could get that out of donald trump, do you? my other concern is the logan act. doesn't the logan act say, if you are not in an official presidential capacity you're not supposed to be talking to foreign dignitaries?

now he is visiting, trump, with netanyahu. according to the logan act, that is a violation. when does trump play by the book of the law? i don't really know. i haven't heard one nice thing out of his mouth ever. i might have liked or voted for the guy at some point in time if anything coming out of his mouth was other than a lie or browbeating somebody. my dad raised us saying that if you have to pound someone down to win you are a loser to begin with. i think that defines trump. if you have to pound someone down to make yourself look better, are you ever going to be a winner? host: don in california on the line for republicans. caller: good morning. this message is a lot for republicans. i don't watch fox news anymore because they admitted they lied about the 2020 election.

all their anchors admitted they are liars. you turn to trump, who is a convicted felon like al capone. al capone was sent to prison for fraud. business fraud. just like trump. trump was convicted of 34 counts of fraud. he was also convicted by his own peers for sexual abuse of another lady and he has shown that he has no respect for any women whatsoever. he has gone out of his way. look how he is treating kamala harris. good luck to her and her party. c-span, you guys, the media is what has made the division of america, not trump. you guys promote his lying speeches, and you don't fact-check any of his speeches which is surprising. you will fact-check anyone else

but nobody does for trump. they don't do it in real time and they have the ability to do it in real time. the media has to stop promoting a criminal. come on. in the 1930's do you think that c-span would promote al capone to be president? he was known to be a murderous person. i think c-span and all of the networks have to become true model citizens for america. just like biden has been trying and kamala harris. trump has done everything he can to demonize our country. we have had great economic numbers lately. at the border things are happening and getting done. trump could not get over 50 miles of wall built. that is how lame his people were. and he had the republican congress and senate behind him and they still wouldn't do anything.

they are following a loser and i wish that republicans would listen. host: you called on the republican line. are you not a republican? caller: i am. i am just tired of them running us down and looking stupid. i am from lincoln's party. we believe in equality. we always hated taxes, and i will fight for taxes. i was a corporate officer and went through all of this, but i am saying that we believe in america. what happened to america? think about that. host: thank you. let's hear from mel in new york on the line for independents. caller: hearing trump being compared to capone is like trump being compared to hitler. this needs to be examined under objectivity. the olympics, the opening ceremonies used drag queens to

mock jesus and the last supper. would the paris committee do to mohammed what they did to jesus? why is it necessary to insert the pathetic identity politics of gender theology into the olympics? i feel dennis prager, the jewish commentator, is correct when he says that the left poisons everything it touches. sports. media. politics. education. theology. morality. here we see it being inserted into the olympics already. we don't need it. can't we experience sport without the paris olympic committee showing their leftist hand and agenda, which we do not need? it is frustrating to see.

i wish we could get back to the basics of the olympics. of being a unifying event for the world to enjoy competition, and watching our own countrymen perform and excel and cheering them on without this political agenda that has been inserted into it. host: mel is referencing the event that happened during the opening ceremony. it is reported about in the washington times that the olympics are accused of mocking christianity with a drag queen parity of the last supper. the 2024 paris olympics kicked off on friday with a procession of athletes, the lighting of the olympic torch, and an apparent replication of the last supper performed by drag queens. organizers were accused of ridiculing christianity by featuring more than a dozen drag entertainers posing for a scene reminiscent of jesus and his

disciples with their last passover meal before the crucifixion on the cross. indianapolis, indiana on the line for democrats. good morning, jeff. caller: my name is jeff and i am from indianapolis. first of all, the caller from california, we need more republicans like him. the current gop is no longer the party of lincoln. it is the party of david duke and the proud boys. it is pretty much occult. the caller -- pretty much a cult. the caller from california question harris' past relationships. you want to compare her relationships to donald trump's multiple marriages, cheating on his wife -- host: what is your top new story of the week? caller: harris and how republicans don't want to debate her as a dei, which is another codeword for the n-word. if dei clarence thomas, tim

scott, i guess they are all der. republicans, just good old negros or whatever. also project 2025. if trump doesn't know project 2025, look at agenda 47. kamala has them scared. that is why they went into the bottom gutter to lash at her. donald trump is afraid of women. of strong women. donald trump is an and s -- an incel's idea of a tough guy. he is a coward and a draft dodger. i can say that because i have a bronze star. republicans, seek therapy. host: former president donald

trump was speaking in north carolina specifically taking aim at his new opponent, vice president harris. [video clip] mr. trump: kamala wants to pass laws to outlaw redmeat to stop climate change. you know what that means? that means no more cows. this is serious. this means no more cows. i guess eventually she will mean no more people. if you want socialist health care, nation-wrecking inflation, the death of american energy, and a lying radical left liberal san francisco extremist as your commander-in-chief, then kamala harris is your candidate. she is the one for you. just like she destroyed san francisco she will destroy our entire country. let me tell you, it is in pretty bad shape right now anyway. host: once again, we are hearing your top new story of the week.

let's get back to tom in new jersey on our line for republicans. good morning, tom. caller: i will be very simple. i want everyone to gooe -- i have been connti a lot of dots. if you notice a lot of drones attacking ameran ships, drones in russia, ukraine, i ntveryone to know where the drones came from. they came from the democrats. obam, biden,anded our top drone in iran. why wld he do that, you say to yourself? would he give them billions of dollars in cash after that? you have to say to yoursf, there is a lady who sat in the white house with obama. basically, wn went to the bathroom she went to the bathroomithim. valerie jrett is from iran.

people better connect the dots. host where are you reading this information about valerie jarrett being from iran and that obama intentionally landed the drone? caller: i told you. look up wikipedia, valerie jarrett. she is from iran. america better wake up. host: maine on the line for independents, good morning, robert. caller: i am calling. i got a kick out of everyone who seems to know donald trump like he is their neighbor. anyway, i am very surprised at what the democrats have gotten away with. of all of the lying and russia collusion, and hillary clinton with her server doing all these unlawful things, and all these charges against trump just to tie him up in the courts so he

cannot run against biden. after the assassination attempt, they didn't kill him, that is when joe biden decided to step down. this is all obama behind the curtains pulling strings. now, he will be pulling the strings with kamala. i think it's a shame that we have a 2-tier system. the democrats seem to get away with everything and the republicans seem to get charged with everything. i hope everyone has a great day. host: indianapolis on the line for democrats. good morning, ernest. thank you for taking my call. i want to say, listening to all of the colors this morning, it is a good reminder. my dad would always tell his sons, pay attention around you, keep your mouth closed and you will learn more. it's amazing that you hear republicans call in and defend

our last president, mr. trump. defend his entire lifestyle and can't see any wrong he's done. i just want to say that i think there is good and bad in everybody. if you would pay attention, i hate to use the term white, white people, because we are all people, but if it hadn't been for some white people we wouldn't be in the position we are now with slavery. we were helped by them as well. i just want to bring attention to decades white full republicans -- white folk republicans have made it difficult for black folk to be successful in any form. if you had any felony on your record you cannot secure a decent job anyplace.now we

have a man running for president with 34 felonies. he has assaulted women. made the statement -- i hate to say it -- but it is ok to put your hands between a woman's legs and walk away because it has been done for many years. so has slavery. that has been going on for a long time as well. i just want to thank the black sisters in this country because the white folk decided to destroy the black man in hopes that the white women would destroy our race. harris, you've got my vote. got bless you. host: susan in massachusetts on the line for republicans. good morning. caller: that guy from indiana, did he mention race? i heard jobs from willie brown when she dated him in san francisco. is that the right way to do it?

you know what i mean? it's awful. she's a fraud and dumb as a rock, but they want trump the play nice so they can call him names and he has to take it. he is a fighter and he will fight for this country. host: little rock, arkansas on the line for independents. good morning, willie. caller: my name is willie from little rock, arkansas. i am 81 years old. i have never seen so many -- host: it is a little hard to hear you. can you speak more clearly? caller: i said i have never seen so many people in the world to back the worst president i've ever seen in my lifetime. i've never seen -- he don't do

no wrong. they just bow down. like we are living in the 1700s instead of the 2000's. i don't see where their mind is. i guess they want us to go back to a time where you could say anything you wanted to say to anybody, do anything you wanted to do to them and get away with it. the world has changed. they won't take what they took back in the 50's, 60's, or 40's. we don't want to live in the past. we want to live in the future. host: paula in pensacola, florida on the line for democrats. caller: good morning. i completely am --

host: are you still there, follow? caller: sorry. i completely agree with the guy from arkansas. i am so glad the way it has worked out where joe biden can concentrate on the foreign issues, which he seems to be so good at, and kamala with her background can prosecute trump in the debate, if they have one. i hear he wants to back out of it now. he found out it was kamala that would be there. i think it will work out great. i think trump is going to get stomped. i will be so glad that i can wake up in the morning and not worry about what kind of racial

motivations, hate motivation, that trump has put out in the world. just like january 6. it seems like everything he does -- all the people who died of covid, i had a lot of friends who died with covid, and he was so afraid that people were going to judge him by the -- the way he was handling everything that his -- caught so many deaths. to me that is their duty. host: bill on the line for republicans. caller: good morning. i would like to start by saying,

let's not forget when joe biden got into office, ok, he left all that military equipment and afghanistan, left americans over there to die, instead of bringing the equipment back to america because a year later we needed stuff for ukraine. he could have sent that stuff over there. he has not done anything with the border. over 10 million illegals coming in undocumented. crime has gone up 58% since he has been in office. you are paying two to three times more not just for gas, for everything. insurance rates have doubled and tripled. food has doubled and tripled. it is very hard for the average person to live. this is all on the democrats. every time the democrats get into office it is tax and spen, tax and spend. that is what they do. this country better wake up. host: martin on the line for

independents. caller: how are y'all doing? host: good. can you turn down the volume on your tv, martin? caller: yes, good morning. how are y'all doing? i just want to say how this country has gone along and -- w e don't have no kings that rule the country for hundreds and hundreds of years, you know. 1776 we are created equal. i don't see how we all was equal then. people owned slaves those days. i think the declaration of independence needs to be rewritten and the country needs to revamp itself for a better

outlook for the world. the world looks up to this country a whole lot. like, to me, i'm not from here. i'm from germany. i've been here 34 years. i got here when i was 10. when i was 10 -- president. that was the first i knew about where it is going now, it does not matter. host: ok. that is all the time we have for top news story of the week. coming up we will hear from politics and public policy professor jennifer lawless of the university of virginia discussing the dynamics of gender and sexism in the 2024 campaign and vice president kamala harris' path forward as the new democratic presidential

frontrunner. and then later martin di caro will discuss his podcast "history as it happens" and the historically significant moments that we have lived through in ththe past couple of weeks in politics. that is coming up. be right back. >> next week on the c-span networks, the houses out for summer recess. they will vote on bipartisan safety legislati and judicial nominations. and ronald rowe jr. and paula ba -- paul abbate will testify at the security hearing about the security failures leading up to the assassination attempt of former president donald trump. watch on the c-span networks and then also head over to c-span.org for scheduling

information and then watch live and on-demand on any time. >> this book notes+ program is a repeat of november 4, 2000 feast he -- 2000 feast -- 2015 author of the book "assassinations, threats and the american presidency" where he examines the attempt on the lives of presidents and presidential candidates throughout history. >>'s book "assassinations, threats and the an presidency" onnotes -- booknotes +. the c-span bookshelf podcast feed makes it easy to listen to the podcast that teacher nonfiction books in the same

place. each week we are making it convenient for people to listen to episodes with critically acclaimed authors discussing hit -- discussing history, and culture. afterwards, look-- boonotes+. you can find the podcast feed on the free c-span now mobile video app or wherever you get your for -- your podcasts and on c-span.org/podcasts. >> washington journal continues. host: we are joined by jennifer lawless who is a politics and public policy professor at the university of virginia. and the co-author of the book " women on the run: gender, media and can political -- and political campaigns in a polarized era." it has been such a unique couple

of weeks and we will just start with the fact that vice president kamala harris seems to have secure the delegates to win the nomination and brought in records amounts of gas. what does this say about the state of women in politics and america? guest: the first thing is it says just like 2016. there is a level of enthusiasm that was just generally not seen the rest of the time. kamala harris has not only secure the delegates that has broken every record, she has raised more money in 24 hours in any previous candidate. and she has got more volunteers and gotten donations from more people than any previous candidate. so certainly some of this has to do with the fact that democrats were quite depressed with the

fact that joe biden was at the top of the ticket and the other half has to do with kamala harris herself. host: there was an op-ed by hillary clinton with the headline how kamala harris can win and make history. i wonder what you see as different this time versus when former president clinton ran and that.t want to read a portion of "i know a thing or two about how hard it can be for strong women candidates to gh through the sexism and double standards of american politics. i have been called a which, a nasty wom much worse. even burned in effigy. as a candidate i sometimes shied away about -- from talking about making history. i was not sure that voters are --erready for that. i and i was not running to break a baie because i washe most qualified to do the job.

while it pains me that i could not break that highest, hardest last seated -- glass ceiling i am proud that my two presidential campaigns made it seem normal to have a woman at the top of the ticket." what do you think is different? guest: despite all of the sseea-- misogyny that hillary clinton faced she won the popular vote. that is not to say that she did not navigate a successful campaign environment or regularly confront bias and discrimination but at the end of the day there was a lot to suggest that that determines the outcome. and it is likely that we will see the same thing. there does not seem to be much evidence that people will not vote for a woman. that has been the case at the congressional level for decades. when women run for office they are just as likely to win as men. at the presidential level we have not had any opportunities. back that -- that said, the

micronic enthusiasm is as high as it has been. it became a trickle for joe biden. it is hard to imagine democratic or swing voters casting votes against kamala harris simply because she is a woman. that is to say there is not sexism but it is not determinative of election outcomes. the normalization of a woman in presidential politics, first clinton and then harris as vice president and now harris at the top of the ticket means that the novelty has really lost a lot of its power. host: not determinative of the outcome, but you have found that there are unique challenges as well as opportunities that women running for office space. what are some of them? guest: the biggest barrier is getting in. women and men who are similarly situated who work in the same professions or have the and just the same income are not equally likely to consider themselves

qualified or be recruited to run for office. right off the bat women top tears of accomplishment face a disadvantage. and the idea of running is less likely to occur to them. in terms of media coverage, donors and voters there does not seem to be that much of a difference. there are a few things that remain obstacles. the first is that when male and female candidates confront each other in person for example on a debate stage there still are gender dynamics that make it more difficult for women. men have to avoid bullying a woman, voters do not like the way that looks but female candidates need to demonstrate that they are strong enough to be bullied and that is a difficult needle to thread. there are a group of voters who do hold sexist attitudes. about 20% of voters do not think that politics is an appropriate

realm for women. they think that they have unfairly pushed ahead in the business profession. they do not think that women are emotionally suited to hold office. the overwhelming majority of the voters are republicans which means that in this particular case it will not matter much because they are not casting the ballot for a democrat anyway and would not have voted for joe biden or kamala harris. there are a handful of voters will and independent voters who will need to be convinced that she is a strong leader and has a high level of integrity and empathy but they are a small sliver. host: how do these issues intersect with race and ethnicity. vice president harris is a black woman of south asian descent. guest: we are not 100% sure because on this dimension we are breaking new ground. we know that barack obama had to deal with race when he ran for president in 2008 and 2012.

hillary clinton had to deal with sex when she ran for president. kamala harris will be the first candidate that has to navigate both gender and race on the campaign trail. because she has already run for statewide office and was elected vice president she has more familiar to the average voter who might be apprehensive or not really understand how these identities intersect. she has a leg up in that front. it is a little bit unknown and we were already seeing quite a few analyses suggesting that she needs to make sure that she does not appear as an angry black woman. there are stereotypes that she is going to have to run away from or debunked. she has a ton of political experience and has had no trouble pushing away from the stereotypes. host: vice president harris has had significant success since the announcement of her campaign in fundraising, particularly

among women. i wonder if you think that vice president harris has an opportunity to peel away particularly some of these suburban women voters that have gone for trump in the past. guest: yes. what kamala harris has to do if she wants to win, first is to make sure that the democratic base is just as energized as they were for joe biden in 2020. she needs an electorate that looks more like 2020 and 2016. to make that happen we are seeing attempts to mobilize young voters and attempts to highlight the issue of abortion and the dodd's decision to make sure that democratic women are voting in disproportionate numbers and seeing her make an explicit appeal to the black male voters that the trump campaign has been trying to chip away at. the base is only part of it. you have to win over independent voters. her advantage will be without

suburban women, especially regarding the issue of reproductive freedoms. in the 2022 midterms and all of the special election since roe v. wade was overturned that enthusiasm for democratic candidates among female voters and support for ballot initiatives that protect reproductive lot -- reproductive rights were through the roof. that is how she can mobilize and win the votes of these suburban woman who might have thought about voting republican because of issues like crime and immigration. host: we are looking at recent polling finding that most democratic women voters say that they trust vice president harris to speak about abortion policy including an orb overwhelming majority of older democratic women. 49% saying they trust her a lot. 33% saying that she trust her so. and not too much just 13%.

and the numbers are relatively similar for black and white women and a little bit less for hispanic women. what do those sorts of numbers tell you? guest: that actually suggests that she has a path to the presidency. this issue is an important issue to democrats but they have to mobilize around it. we saw in the midterms and special elections that when the issue was at the top of the agenda, female voters turned out at higher rates and for the democratic candidate at impressive rates. that is not what we were sitting with joe biden because he has not seen as credible as she is when she -- when it comes to reproductive rights and because there was a lot of other baggage associated with his candidacy. a lot of the ways having kamala harris at the top of the ticket is the best messenger for this issue.

she has been out and about talking about it and she does not have a lot of the baggage that joe biden has that was basically weighing him down and suggesting to voters that it was not worth turning out. host: how do you expect the trump campaign to pivot in response to harris as the new nominee? guest: they are struggling and they have not figured out what the masses b. they want to saddle her with all of the failures of the biden administration but they do not want to give her credit for the successes. they want to suggest that abortion is not a really important issue in donald trump wants to leave it to the states. they will want to point out that she knew when she was covering up joe biden's inability to be bigger on the cam train -- the campaign trail but they have not settled on any one message. at the same time they have a vice presidential candidate j.d. vance who has said many things over the course of his political career and before that play into harris' strengths, arguing that

she is not qualified to lead the country because she is childless. because she does not understand what it is like to be a parent. not only is that not true, she is a stepparent, that is insensitive to a overwhelming a geordie of democrats and republicans along. they are having a hard time identifying a message but also figuring out how they will deal with j.d. vance's previous messages. host: we will be taking questions and comments for dr. lawler shortly. the number for democrats is 202-748-8000. republicans, 202-748-8001. independents, 202-748-8002. and, jennifer you referenced some previous comments by j.d. vance of criticizing vice president harris and this is something that you researched in the past. i want to play what he said back in 2021 that has resurfaced in a

fox news interview he questioned vice president harris' leadership because she does not have biological children. [video clip] >> run the other democrats or the or print oligarchs by a bot -- by a bunch of childless cat ladies that are miserable in their own choices in life so they want to make the rest of the country miserable. it is a basic fact. kamala harris, pete buttigieg and aoc, these are controlled by people without children. how does it make sense that we have turned the country over to people who do not have a direct stake in it. i wanted to ask that question and propose that maybe if we want a healthy ruling class we should invest more and focus more and support more people who actually have kids. those of the people who ultimately have a more direct stake in the future of this country. [end video clip] host: i should say that since this has not more attention in recent weeks j.d. vance has said

that these comments were obviously sarcastic and he was speaking on the megyn kelly show, and said "the 2021 comments were obviously sarcastic and criticized the democrats for being antifamily." you have done research on how male candidates criticize female candidates and i wonder what this says to you about that. guest: first of all his statements are ridiculous. and they do not represent what most democrats think or what most rut -- republicans think. although he did say that the cat lady comment was sarcastic he doubled down on the substance. it seems that based on research, i'm sorry, one second. it seems like there will be a backlash to that. when male candidates engage in sexist behavior or commentary

they often gain a little bit with their supporters. so card-carrying sexist might call this appealing that j.d. vance said something like this. the research shows that the backlash of fact tends to be greater than the additional buck up. the way that that plays out is that there will be some republicans thrilled that j.d. vance made those statements and some republicans who believe that and think that it is terrific that he went out on a limb and set it. but the number of democrats who are appalled and will now support harris in terms of this backlash are going to be greater than the support that j.d. vance gets in the first place. that is why so many male candidates do not attack women on explicitly gendered and sexist lines. they know that they might do better among some of their voters but it will be not worth it more broadly. host: let us go to questions. the text.

sct in massachusetts, independent asks "why is breaking the glass ceiling to ve woman president need in the united states? other countries have had women leaders for decades." guest: that is true. the united states still ranks in the low 70's when it comes to the percentage of women in national legislature. the overwhelming majority of our governors and state legislatures are also men. two thirds of big-city mayors are men. we still have a system where men are far more likely to run for office and then even though women win at the same rates but because they have a smaller portion of the candidate pool, men are more likely to serve. when we look at the highest part of the glass ceiling and whether it has been cracked we notice that there not have been many opportunities to crack it. hillary clinton was the only candidate at the top of the ticket who had that shot. some of this has to do with the

fact that we just have not had that many women run for president and then garner the nomination and that is beginning to change. in the last several cycles competitive women have sought the presidential nomination on both sides of the aisle. in some ways, it is a matter of time. host: portland, oregon. on the line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call. i am so excited. i am dreaming about our first woman president. you know i got excited with hillary, so it is a little scary to just give up my thoughts. this is what i am thinking. kamala harris is so bright, she is just wicked smart. she is funny, laughs and is positive and is attractive. to look at. and when i contract that -- contrast that with donald trump.

we all know he is a racist, a rapist and the way he looks to me, and i am not trying to be mean. he always looks like he has the worst case of hemorrhoids -- host: let us hear a little bit more about dynamic or the juxtaposition because one of the things that we saw pretty and after harris got biden's endorsement was democratic messaging about former president trump being the oldest nominee ever. guest: so the main message that the republicans had against joe biden has turned on them, that joe biden was too old to be president. donald trump is 20 years older than kamala harris and is now viewed by democrats as too old to be president. similarly, kamala harris was a prosecutor and donald trump is a

convicted felon. that is not an argument that the democrats could have made compellingly with joe biden at the top of the ticket. kamala harris is fun. the cultural imperial -- appeal that she has demonstrated is really striking. i have not seen somebody resonate with the american public in a fun and authentic way that way since barack obama in 2008. that is not donald trump. he has his own version of charisma that appeals to his base but it is not the same. at the end of the day those are all strengths for harris. what we have to remember is that the election is decided by a very small sliver of american voters. republicans are going to vote for donald trump. democrats are going to vote for kamala harris. it seems like because they are enthusiastic about her as they are for trump that the two bases will be roughly equal. it comes down to the independent

voters many of whom voted for trump in 2016 and then biden in 2020. for those people for whom the decision is obvious, the decision has already made and they are baked in. it is the swing voters who need to be convinced that trump or harris is the best person and that is who the campaign will be framed around. the cultural appeal or donald trump's charisma are important to motivate their own supporters, but it is really about who can sway that little sliver in the middle in about seven states. host: watertown, tennessee. on the line for independents. good morning. caller: thank you. the first premise that you have is that the people have perfect information, but we do not. the major news is a narrative, and for instance with kamala harris. 24 hours changed her from the

least popular vice president to a wonderful person who never had problems with competency in speaking. the news and for instance, c-span will spread out the washington post and the new york times but the biggest news is the news that major media sources do not cover. we would have heard of kamala harris b if the sacramento bee hadn't told her truth. guest: the mainstream media

remains the primary source of news. what has made the landscape more complicated is that the mainstream -- it is not that the mainstream media is not telling the story is that their unreliable sources and social media site and an instantaneous transmission -- transmission of misinformation among people and that then becomes the news. in terms of kamala harris's appointment to the commission by willie brown. that is an argument that a lot of republicans will make. they have already indicated that because of that he is a dei candidate and whatever it means to them and it is ridiculous and not true. it is not true that she was appointed to a commission. she then became attorney general and was elected statewide in california. she was elected in statewide in california to the united states senate and then nationwide to the vice presidency. and the current polling dictates

that democrats think that she is an excellent match for donald trump and independents are enthusiastic. it means going back 30 years and grasping at straws regarding an initial appointment to a commission to make people disqualify kamala harris. that is a bet that she is happy to take. host: this has come up a couple of times about her relationship with willie brown. "time" did a fact-check with the claim that she had an affair. and it says it is missing important contracts. brown was separated during the relationship that a secret. brown was a former mayor of san francisco serving as the speaker of the california state assembly in the 1990's when he and harris were in a relationship. brown had separated from his wife and 1982. yes we dated it was more than 20 years ago he wrote in 2020 under

the article title "sure i dated kamala harris. so what? " he supported her first race just as she -- just as he has supported a long list of other california politicians including former house speaker nancy pelosi, former senator dianne feinstein and abner gavin newsom. harris was state general from 2011 through 2017 and served in the senate from 2017 until 2021. she has been married to doug emhoff since 2014. let us go back to your calls. guest: one other thing. it also appalling to me that we are talking about this in no way that we are as a country given the person against whom she is running. donald trump was convicted of sexual assault. he was convicted and admitted that he -- and he was paid --

and he was found guilty of making payments to a poor installer while married to his third wife. he has five children from three spouses. none of these things are disqualifying nor should it be. but the bar is so different for kamala harris that the level of hypocrisy is something that we need to call out because for every republican who condemns her or independent who questions are, it is important for them to look at the alternative and that person's background and personal life and relationships in which donald trump is engaged. if it is fair game for harris to raise these allegations then i think it is fair game to raise them for donald trump as well. host: jay in florida on the line for republicans. good morning. caller: that was a good twist. first off they were not talking about the fact that she had an affair. that wasn't the issue. the issue is that he was the one who got her elected.

that is what the issue was. you twisted a pretty good to make it about donald trump. you have done your job. i have a question for you. do you think it is ok for somebody to go into a store and steal $999 or $950 of goods and walkout and there are no charges? do you think that is correct. because that is kamala harris. that is what she did in california. if you say that she did not you are lying because it is all over the place. you say they do not lie but we have caught her already. the media in six or seven different lies. she was never the border czar. you want to mince words. biden's own words i am putting kamala in charge of the border. that did not say i am putting her in charge of dining out why these people are coming here. they put her in charge of the border. and yet you try to twist that

into something different. i do not care how many children donald trump ads or how me different wives. was he convicted in a court of law in a criminal court of law for sexual assault and rape? was he or was he not. i think there is a different between a civil and criminal court and you are trying to make it sound like a criminal court. guest: i am not sure i can make anything sound like anything and if the end of the day that voters believe that kamala harris was in charge of the border and immigration issues were not adequately resolved the the biden administration and donald trump could do a better job and that issues matters than they should vote for donald trump. if they think that joe biden's border policies resulted in a decline in the number of the legal and undocumented workers crossing the border and that we are on the right track and they believe that comella paris -- kamala harris played a part in that policy they should vote for kamala harris. i do not think of scaring her background or suggesting that

there is something untoward in terms of how she became an elected leader is fair game. immigration policy is. host: do you want to follow up on the idea of the question of why she achieved her different roles because in your research you have done work on how women's political backgrounds and experience is judged compared to that of men. guest: yes. so when you interview and survey men and men who exist in the profession who tends to lead the political career, lawyers, business leaders and educators and frankly donald trump and kamala harris fall into this pool. when uss them and interview them and ask them if they are interested in running for office and whether you think there are qualified there are big differences. women and men who look exactly the same on paper do not self assess the same way. a man will say he qualified to

run for office and a women will not even when they both have the same experience. they might have public speaking experience and fundraising experience or organizing large groups of people or they might both have public policy expertise. a woman feels like she needs to have all of those credentials and check off all those boxes before she is qualified. a man does not. when we ask potential candidates what makes him qualified women tend to mention all of these credentials. men mention things like passion and vision. at the end of the day we wind up with a situation where the women who emerge as candidates tend to be more objectively qualified than a lot of the men. and they tend to hold themselves to a higher bar largely because they perceive that voters will high -- will hold them to a higher bar. women say things like they have to be twice as good to get half as far and overqualified because voters will judge them more harshly. we do not really know because

overall the women who do emerge as candidates are often more qualified than the men against whom they compete. and so they win elections at equal rates. maybe they do have to have more credentials and qualifications to win at the higher rates, it is unclear. but in a lot of ways, it is a damning situation in that whether it is true or not or whether voters are judging women and men differently or not, the women who emerge believe that is the case. and it becomes more difficult for them to navigate an electoral landscape because they feel like they have to be perfect. i think the comparisons between donald trump and kamala harris even on their own background is a perfect example. she has been elected statewide multiple times and served as vice president of the united states. there is no question that she is qualified. in 2016 hillary clinton qualified. donald trump has been president

so certainly he checks off the most important qualifications box. in 2016 he had not. j.d. vance is ready to take over the presidency if something happens to donald trump. he has 39 and has been in power for 16 months. it is hard to imagine a female candidate not only having the audacity to emerge as a vice president with so little political experience but the american people taking her seriously. host: tony and clinton, maryland --in clinton, maryland on the line for democrats. caller: these calls are always a reminder of just how distinct we still are as a country in racism, misogyny and white male entitlement. the point that jennifer just made about j.d. vance for example being nominated vice president is a good example. and the caller just a couple callers back mentioned six or

seven lies by kamala harris. donald trump has been lying in the thousands since he came on the scene. but he is a white man so he gets a pass. he is taking the ignorant, danger he intolerant and a despicable human being but none of that matters. kamala harris however, we are talking about a possible fear 20 years ago. jump -- trump cheated in the elections that he actually won. the original point i was going to make though is i saw shannon on ev last night talking about the white women for kabbalah -- kamala call and there was a lot of buyers remorse of voting for donald trump. there is no reason as a white woman to be voting for that man. snap out of it. that is all i have to here. host: any thoughts on that comment? guest: i generally agree and

what i would note in addition is that we often find ourselves, and i think a lot of pundits find themselves having these conversations where they are trying to differentiate whether the sexual assault allegations happened in civil or criminal case and we have gone down this rabbit hole of 34 can felony convictions and how many might get thrown out because of the immunity decision and it is kind of unbelievable. if we stop and think what any other presidential candidate, male, female, black or white we be willing to have these kinds of conversations and not have these statements or convictions or behavior be disqualifying and for whatever region donald trump has managed to inoculate himself against what had been basic american politics for centuries. and i think that is what sort of just throws everything out into the open. it is why there is so much

uncertainty and why there was uncertainty in 26 dean and why there was uncertainty in 2020 and why there is so much now. he seems to use a lay book that most candidates -- playbook that most candidates would seem damaging and he rarely takes a hit. host: ricardo on the line for republicans. good morning. caller: you want to say that she is qualified. if she slept with willie brown and she never passed the bar exam. how is she still qualified? she never passed the bar exam, how is she still qualified? march 24, 2021 she was supported -- appointed border czar, you can look that up and they have videos of it. you are living up to your name, you are representing lawlessness. two days ago before joe biden gave his farewell speech so to speak he had two nuclear bombers one from china and russia visit

us in alaska airspace. now, they think that kamala harris is the easy target, easier than joe biden. they know that harris administration would isolate israel. she is showing iran that they can do what they want for the next 90 days. we will be in so much danger. we need that iron dome. she does not have a clue. host: did you have any thoughts on ricardo's points. guest: kamala harris was an acting prosecutor, she passed the bar exam. host: karen is in california on the line for independents. good morning. caller: i have problems with kamala harris making policy and california when she was attorney general. and when i hear her saying to

netanyahu that is needs to be done, i agree with her on that. i felt that way a month into the response that israel had said the october 7 incident. but what does that mean when she says this needs to be done? living in california under her policies. the vagrancy laws that she imposed, they were drastic. my daughter was eight years old, this lactic and was never -- dyslexic and was never diagnosed by the k-12 students and she was bullied. my daughter wanted -- she could not stand going to school and she was sick all the time. and nobody was diagnosing her. kamala harris put through a law that -- a vagrancy law that if kids were absent for more than

10 days parents would have to pay $100 a day. that was a turning point for me. i ended up moving about -- moving out of the area i was in to an area where i was off the radar and homeschooled my daughter. my daughter is now at university on the dean's roll but i can tell you it was a nightmare. there was no compassion. as she likes to talk about in her speeches. i do not like donald trump, but i do not like what i see the democrats pushing as of this is our answer to everything. because if you start looking at policies, it is kind of scary and what does she mean when she says to netanyahu this needs to be done. will there be some drastic policy like she did with the vagrancy laws in california without maybe looking like this -- looking at the schools rms instead of turning on the families. i would been charged $100 a day

if i had stayed in the same school district. host: i want to give jennifer a chance to respond to your points because you are talking about harris' individual record. i wonder how you think that harris distinguishes her own record from that of president biden. guest: there are a couple of things. i should note that i will be unfamiliar with the specifics of the laws in california. i cannot comment specifically on that. we do know that when kamala harris was in the senate she was a reliable democrat. but some of the things that she stood out for in particular were her role on the judiciary committee and the kinds of questioning that she did for people like brett kavanaugh for supreme court justice as regarding reproductive rights and the role of precedent and race and gender roles in general in society. she is much more outspoken

regarding those kinds of issues. when it comes to immigration it is a little tricky. it is not a strength. there is no question and we are already seeing in terms of discussions regarding on who her potential vice president mike pence. one of the upsides to a candidate is senator mike kelly and that he does seem more credible about formulating policy around immigration. she in a lot of ways has distinguished herself from separate and apart from the biden administration on issues like reproductive freedom and she has taken a hit when it comes to issues like immigration. no candidate is perfect. on either side of the aisle. 100% a partisan say i am excited that this is the person running and there is always an issue or three issues where voters have to sort of hold their noses and say i will vote anyway.

the key is that the overall platform that the candidate runs on is more appealing than the platform on the others. regarding the middle east and israel and gaza, one thing that i will say is that people are incredibly frustrated that we are still in this situation. we are watching a complete humanitarian crisis. we are watching calls for a cease-fire that do not seem to be heated --heeded. it is awful and a huge mannion -- humanitarian crisis. it is not joe biden or kamala harris' to resolve. they can have as many meetings and make as many calls. they can try to structure as many agreements as they can. and they can provide incentives to both sides to participate and develop and adhere to a cease-fire. at the end of the day this comes down to what gaza, hamas, and israel want to do.

to blame kamala harris or to suggest that she will do something drastic simply because he said we need to end this thing is not an accurate perception of what is likely going to happen. host: gail in jacksonville, north carolina on the line for democrats. good morning. caller: ok, i would like everyone to read kamala harris' biography. i read it and i was so touched. when she was in california and i cannot remember if she was attorney general but i believe that schools were having kids missing so much school that there was a truancy problem going on and she found out that the reason the kids were missing school was because i did not have clean clothes so she put washers and dryers in schools. ok, that was touching to know that she cared that much. and another thing is i am so glad that we now have a heavy

hitter that can go against trump and put him in his place because i love biden, but he was not hitting trump like he should have on the issues. he was so quiet about trump and i am so glad that we have somebody who will go out and prosecute him and show him what a criminal that he is. as for -- as far the border build i am so tired of the republicans talking about the border. ok. when biden became president he tried to pass laws for the border and the republicans refused it. he tried to pass another bill and the republicans refused it. they need to be quiet about the border. we are talking about character. trump has five kids by three women. he has a racist and all of that. and kamala harris has been a prosecutor, attorney general, vice president and people are saying that she is dumb as rocks.

you know, i am thankful that we have her in their and i will vote for her because she has integrity and character. and i think and truly believe that the women of this country will come up and vote in november because women have a right. government should not be telling a woman what to do with her body. where are the men in all of this? they want to blame the women for having abortions but they do not talk about the men. host: i'm in a stop you there so we can get one more call before we have to let jennifer go from scott in texas on the line for independents. go ahead. caller: good morning. if that last lady does not put the fear in you i do not know what will. you said you were trying -- you were not trying to spread misinformation but anytime you deny kamala harris' background like when she released criminals when she was the d.a. that were murderers and went out and committed more crimes. you belittle the process.

you sit there and point at the hypocrisy. i can look at both sides and say hypocrisy is rampant on both sides of the aisle. democrats and republicans. do you forget when they were badgering donald trump four years over a fictitious dossier but nobody talks about that. so, if you are going to point the finger of hypocrisy please have the courage and the spine to do it both directions because we are smart people. we are not stupid and the mainstream media is corrupt. thank you and have a great day. host: i will let you give the final comments before we let you go. guest: mainstream media is not corrupt. i think overall what we have seen up until now in this election cycle and what we will see moving forward is a battle between democrats and republicans over what the future of the country should look like.

unfortunately, given the technological environment and information environment and the hate filled vitriol that has come to characterize political discourse, it is difficult to isolate accurate information. there have been so many callers who have stated as fact things that are not true. they believe it. i do not question that. based on the news sources they read they do not -- they do not have any reason to believe it is not true. it is not. i implore people to vote for the candidate that will move the country in the right direction in november but scrutinize the information they are getting. the only thing worse than an electorate that does not turn out is a highly uninformed electorate that does. host: she is a politics and public policy professor at the university of northern virginia and the co-author of the book " women on the run: gender, media and political campaigns in a polarized era." coming up we will hear from

arctic arrow of -- martin di caro of "the washington times" to discuss "history as it happens," and the historic moments that we live through in the last couple weeks. but first we will hear more of your calls an open forum. those numbers are on your screen and you can start calling them now. we will be right back. ♪ >> booktv every sunday on c-span2 features leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction books. revisit the 2019 interview with kamala harris was senator at the time who is now the vice president and presumptive democratic nominee for president in the book "the truths we hold." she reflects on her ringing and

the influence on her government style and then cap -- kenneth mckenzie about -- with his book in "the melting point" which talks about war and the 24th century and military operations. and then peter goodman discusses the book "how the world ran out of everything," looking at the global supply chain, how it works and what happens when it doesn't. he is interviewed by nada sanders. watch booktv every sunday on c-span2 and find a full sedule on your program guide or watch any time at the.org. -- booktv.org. >> sunday night on q and they, tammy bruce author of "fear itself" argues that progressive democrats have weaponized fear

to increase control over systems and that the mainstream mediums -- media help stoke fear over its biased coverage of topics. >> the fear and the guilt which has been instilled in so many people is used to simply excuse the growth of government and the nature of control over our lives. that it is our duty which is obscene to give up to government and of course that is a hoax and a scam. i hope to and i believe i accomplished this expose that. >> tammy bruce with her book fear itself sunday night at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span q&a. you can listen to that and all of our podcasts on our free c-span now. >> the house will be in order. >> c-span celebrates 45 years of

covering congress like no other. since 1979 we have been your primary source for capitol hill providing balanced and unfiltered coverage of government, taking you to where the policies are debated and decided with the support of american cable companies. c-span, 45 years and counting, powered by cable. >> washington journal continues. host: welcome back, we are in open forum ready to take your calls on whatever is on your mind in the political news. one of the big stories is the presidential race which is heating up now that former president donald trump has his running mate in j.d. vance -- j.d. vance and vice president kamala harris has launched our campaign. there is a story in "usa today" about what that will look like and the times of add. "i am not going to be nice:

donald trump launches an all-out tact. former president donald trump is not calling for national unity unleashing a volley of attacks wednesday against his new opponent vice president kamala harris. if you do not mind, i'm not going to be nice is that ok? trump told supporters in charlotte north carolina in his first campaign rally since president joe biden withdrew from the race. in addition to sustained attacks on harris his retooled speech featured residual criticism -- chrism abided and extended defense of his abortion position and more talk of his year -- is near last -- he is near assassination less than two weeks ago. maga inc released this ad attacking vice president harris. >> kamala covered up joe's obvious mental decline. >> tireless and vibrant and i have no doubt about the strength of the work. >> but she know that joe cannot do the job so's she did it.

look what she got done, a border invasion, runaway inflation, the american dream dead. they created the mess and they know that kamala owns this record. host: vice president harris released her first presidential add this week as well. [video clip] >> in this election he faced -- we each face a question. what kind of country do we want to live in? there are some people who think we should be the country of chaos, of fear, and hate. we choose something different. >> kamala. >> we choose freedom. ♪ >> freedom, freedom, i cannot move. freedom cut me loose. freedom, freedom, where are you. >> the freedom not just to get

by but to get ahead, to be safe from gun violence and to make decisions about your own body. we choose ace freedom where no child lives in poverty and where we can all afford health care and where no one is above the law. we believe in the promise of america, and we are ready to fight for it. because when we fight, too. these join us go to kamala harris.com to help get to work. ♪ [end video clip] host: and now we are in open forum ready to take your calls starting with tommy in kentucky on the line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. i was calling in -- host: could you turn down the volume of your tv? could you turn down the volume of your tv and then please you.

caller: yes. sorry about that. host: that is ok. caller: i was just calling in and i was wondering how anybody can vote for a man that was a draft dodger and paid off a foreign star -- porn star. he has done every lie that he has mentioned -- you could mention. i just wonder how they think he has done anything. i have not seen nothing. he tried to get the mexican leader to lie about tilting the wall and he was going to pay for it. he told trump that he was not going to pay for it. he has told every kind of lie in the world. how anyone can vote for the man is when all he has four his the rich people. he talks about porn with his

vice payment -- president and he as a porn player. maga did not make america great. the veterans day. and he is against the veterans. i just do not understand what they are holding onto unless they think they will get another billion dollars if he gets elected. i pray to god that he does not. i appreciate your time and have a good day. host: mary in mississippi on the line for republicans. good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to answer the first call -- the last caller's question. the reason we vote for donald trump is because we can see through the scams that the democrats are pulling for the last nine years, there has been nothing but lies and propaganda

against donald trump. we are aware enough to see through the liberal owned media. except for fox news. second of all i would like to point out to democrats, and i hope that you would have enough integrity to just try to put your hate for one man aside and realize that your party, the democrats have prevented all of you democrats in the last two elections from selecting who you want to run. are you people so blinded by hate that you do not even realize that the democrats are preventing you from voting. dear god, people, wake up and look and see what is happening. pay more attention to what is

going on. you cannot watch politics every now and then and even have a clue what is going on because the democrats are just pure evil. they are people and they are pulling the wool over your eyes. and you guys think you are so smart and that republicans are so stupid. i have news for you, you have been suckered. and you are going to pay for it. that host: what year -- let's hear from craig in new jersey. caller: i just want to say thank you to president biden for the job he has done. it is pretty obvious that this is nothing more than good versus evil. if you don't believe it is, i

implore you to look up the story of sonya massey. thank you. host: caroline is in tennessee on the line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. donald trump is a convicted felon. he is sending out the wrong message to america and young people are listening to this. why would anybody want someone like that to run the country, a convicted felon? there are consequences behind his actions. i feel like the country is going downhill. if he gets in there, it will be a bigger mess than it is now. host: frank is in georgia on the line for republicans. good morning. caller: good morning. i have a lot to say.

i will not take up too much time. the democratic party is the biggest threat to america. everybody thinks things are instantaneous. things happen over time. 100 years or so. if you look back to 1978 when jimmy carter was president, what did he do? he federalized the department of education. we went from number one in the world in education to number 25 under jimmy carter. now we have a dumbed down population. go back to the turn-of-the-century when millions of europeans came into this country. the american communist party was started by a first-generation american. dear is your democratic-socialist beginnings right there. as we go through the timeline, fdr saved the country, we had a great depression but there came

the dependence on government. as we progressed, then we will look at women and their role in zoning. they elected jfk. he is such a good-looking man. what did he do? he kicked the missiles out of cuba but he did not go through with the bay of pigs invasion. now we have cuba, russian ships and submarines in cuba right now. these are the woman who put this man in office. then he goes back and when he ran for president, jfk, it was all about vietnam. . he was a flip-flop or. in november 1963 he did not flip-flop. lyndon b. johnson came into office and he sent troops to vietnam. ok. host: i want to make sure we give other folks a chance to talk. did you have a final point you wanted to make? caller: wow. there is so much. people need to look at their history.

understand where the democratic-socialist communist party came from. i love this country. this is the greatest country in the world and you people are destroying it, the democratic party. host: diane is in syracuse, new york on the line for independents. good morning. caller: good morning. i use the term independent but now after watching your show, ever since the covid started and everything was shutdown, i lost my business, could not afford many channels so i watch c-span. i do not consider myself republican or democrat but the people who call up who say they are independent and they have strong views toward democrats and they use foul language, i

will say i am an non-independent. anyway, as a 67-year-old, years back i stopped voting and following politics because of the chaos that has surrounded everything. during covid since i could not work and i did not have much money, i followed c-span. i will not pay or watch any of the regular news shows, not even the bbc or tbs. i want to make a point and this is nothing toward you young lady, you are much younger than i am. i am appalled and i do not understand the reason why you have to broadcast in entirety the people who were chanting death to israel and they took

down the american flag and they put up the palestinian flag and they took a separate american flag and burned it. you could have done bits and pieces. you could have just said this is what's happening but did you need to actually view the entirety of it? i am appalled at whoever on washington journal decided that we needed to pump up and give them more notoriety and have that shown to the world. i don't understand why. it did not need to be that way. you did not need to put more flames and give them more power. i was wondering if you could tell me why your institution did that. host: c-span tries to give people an unfiltered view of government and that can look a lot of different ways. next we have david in detroit on

the line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. i just wanted to add to the conversation. i would like for c-span to, maybe the producers to give some consideration. rather than dividing the line down the political stripes, because we do feed heavily into identity politics. how about giving some thought, producers, c-span, washington journal, give some thought to education. people who have high school education. people who have associates education level. people who have a bachelors

degree. that would be an interesting study to hear and to see how that would pan out. instead of calling in on whether you are democrat or republican or independent. let's give some thought to doing it by way of education because clearly, and i have been listening to c-span regularly since 2001. there is this thing where people call in with the most vapid and inane comments. i don't mean to say it this way. but when donald trump himself and donald trump said this. he said i love the poorly educated. what does that mean?

let's look at it through those who have a high school education, those who have some bachelors work up under their belts. the majority of people, excuse me for saving this -- saying this. and i do not apologize. but we have some very ignorant people who call in on this show. you can tell what part of the country therefrom and what political stripe they have. host: frank is in pennsylvania on the line for republicans. good morning. can you hear us? caller: yes i can. host: it's your turn. go ahead please. caller: good morning.

i would like to just say i am getting so tired of all the talk of policy and strife between the parties and it is really starting to boil down to just the fact of everything that has been done while the democrats were in especially with the border. i can get by with the gas prices, the food prices. but one thing has really been upsetting me for the last few weeks and months. ever since these young women have been murdered, raped, left for dead and especially the little 12-year-old girl that was raped for two hours under a bridge and then left in the river. i have three granddaughters. and i am sure that kamala harris and joe biden would have some sort of responsibility to call these people's parents and feel

horrible about it. i hope and pray that when joe biden and his family, kamala harris and her family, i hope when they sleep at night that they have a thought in their head or a dream. while this little girl was being raped, they would be holding her hand and saying honey, it's gonna be ok. what we are doing will be just fine and you only have another hour to go. and after two hours of this they would say, it's gonna be fine. what we've done is ok. then at the end of the two hours they say it's going to be ok because these two gentlemen from venezuela are going to strangle you to death now. this is what this country needs to understand. it is beyond gas. it is beyond the price of eggs.

it is beyond everything else. it is time that we really look at what we are doing to this country. that's my prayer and that's my hope that these families do every night when they go to sleep at night. remember when you look at your own children and you tell them, it's gonna be ok. host: jimmy is in maine on the line for independents. good morning. caller: good morning. it amazes me. i voted for trump the first time and biden the second time. everybody knew that the man was in his decline. it was unbelievable. it amazed me how the media covered it up and everyone went along with it. the thing that bothers me the most is the caller before about being educated and stuff like that. we listen to the people and the

professors. what happened to the democratic party. you have george clooney, telling the american people this is how it's going to be. george clooney and his daddy was a newscaster. abigail disney, you can tell where her white privilege came from. we are graduating kids who cannot even read at the fourth grade or fifth grade level. they have people in this country sucking the livelihood out of our inner cities. this so-called democracy that they want the democrats to follow mine with, we are like pigeons. i would never vote democrat again after what they just pulled here. biden, they say he fell on the sword but they stabbed him in the back. everybody knows it. now i'm out and all of a sudden the princess has arrived.

they left san francisco in a nightmare. i was born and raised in southern california. that place, you can still $950 and they do nothing. more vehicles leave california than any state at all because they have ruined that state. i don't like the politics of either side of this. i'm telling you what's good for america is what i'm voting for this time and that is donald trump. host: mary is in ohio on the line for democrats. good morning. caller: good morning. i just had a question for j.d. vance but i know he will not respond. i am one of his constituents. i was highly offended by his comment about cat ladies. i am a grandmother and i have dogs. they are my life. would i be good enough to get to vote under his books? because i do have a daughter who is no longer in my household.

i am no longer raising her. do i have the right to have an opinion? that's pretty much what i wanted to route their -- what i want to throw out there. i don't feel that these old white men feel that i have a saying anything -- a say in anything. thank you for your time. host: jin is in indiana on the line for republicans. good morning. caller: good morning. you have a nice voice too by the way. i would like to cite some facts and figures. please bear with me. remember the old adage. are we better off to were four years ago? when you go in the grocery store, it is like playing the lottery. i went in one day and corn was

$.25 an ear. and the next day it is $.69. the bottom line is this. the reason why trump did not continue the wall is because biden stopped it. the texas governor alone tried to stop it and the government went after it and get a court order to stop it. remember the old adage. a country without borders is numeral -- no longer a country. biden has an open-door policy. yes, we do need immigrants. yes, we should take the best of the best. he just opens the door and says come right in. and that is in right. just remember one thing. are we really better than we were four years ago? you don't have to be a nuclear scientist or intelligent person to figure that one out.

host: we are just about out of time. coming up, we will hear from martin from the washington times to discuss his podcast, "history as it happens." thank you to everyone who called in for open forum and we will be right back. >> next week the house is out for summer recess. the senate will vote on bipartisan children's online safety legislation and judicial nominations. on tuesday the acting director of the secret service and the dety director of the fbi will testify before senate judiciary and senate homeland and government affairs committee joint hearing examining the security failures leading up to the assassination attempt on

former president trump. watch on the c-span networks or on c-span now, the free video app. also go to c-span.org for scheduling information or to watch on-demand anytime. c-span, your unfiltered view of government. >> this book notes plus podcast is a repeat of a q&a program from 2015. the featured guest is the author of the book "assassinations, threats and the american presidency," where he examines attempts on the lives of presidents and presidential candidates throughout history. >> "assassinations,ts a the american presidency," o this episode of book notes p available on the free mobile app or wherever you get your podcasts.

the c-span podcast feed makes it easy for you to listen to all of c-span's podcasts that feature nonfiction books in one place to discover new authors and ideas. we make it convenient for you to listen to multiple episodes with critically acclaimed authors discussing history, biographies, current events and cultures from our signature programs, but notes plus and q&a. listen to c-span today. find a bookshelf podcast feed and all of our podcasts on the free c-span now mobile video app or wherever you get your podcasts and on our website, c-span.org/podcasts. >> the house will be in order. >> this year c-span celebrates 45 years of covering congress like no other. since 1979 we have been your source for capitol hill

providing balanced coverage of government, taking you to where the policies are debated and decided with the support of america's cable company. c-span, 45 years and counting, powered by cable. >> "washington journal" continues. we are joined by martin di caro of the washington times who is host of the podcast "as it happens." guest: it is great to be back. your typical slow summer. we have anything to talk about? host: it has been an eventful few weeks. i want to talk about the podcasts. tell us about the podcast and how you approach moments like these. guest: you are an experienced podcaster yourself. breaking news is difficult. when you put it out there, you

cannot go back to amend it. i got sucked into the breaking news vortex. my aim is to give people perspective about what is going on in the news. a historical perspective. i don't do boring lectures. i don't do that much talking on the podcasts. i leave that to the experts. i try to bridge the gap between history and political scientists and the public who is interested in learning about the history of our current times. i think it helps to take a step back from social media, take a state back -- step back from the intensity and understand how we got to this point while also avoiding fallacious comparisons because often we try to find a usable path to help us understand what is going on today but often comparisons fall short. i talk about origins quite a bit but i try not to trip over bad

analogies because all analogies, no matter how superficially convincing, they have problems. host: would you talk to on your show? guest: mostly historians. i try to get people who are relatable. my job is to bridge the gap between academic historians and the public because, let's be honest, i enjoyed reading big fat history books and historians want people to read their books but these books are not often bestsellers. if they are able to reach the public in a 40 minute conversation to talk about their work and make it relevant to people who understand what is going on today, then that is also helpful. i want people to still read their books. i spoke to michael at georgetown university, a historian of social and political movements and we talked about the history of open conventions. we will not have open conventions month in chicago.

he was 20 years old at the 1968 convention in chicago. he showed up to protest the nomination of hubert humphrey because he was against the vietnam war. he was able to add some personal perspective as well. and explain why our conventions have become these infomercials, stage, crafted theatrical events when they really used to be rough and tumble open affairs that sometimes lead to chaos and disunity within parties. if people are wondering why we cannot have an open convention, the parties do not want to leave their conventions in chaos looking like they are not united around a candidate is what happened in 1968. host: especially since they are now live broadcasts. guest: it is funny you mention live broadcasting. the first convention to be live broadcast anywhere was in 1984 at madison square garden, the democratic national convention.

it took about 16 days to settle on a nominee. there were 103 ballots. william mcadoo and alfred smith who was from new york so he had the home-court advantage but the party was split so democrats needed two thirds, the eventual nominee needed two thirds. it was simply impossible over the course of the a few weeks. people can listen to this over the radio, the party ripping itself apart. 58 different people in the democratic party received at least one vote for the nomination. they eventually settled on an unknown businessman attorney who was routed by calvin coolidge. it did not work out well. this is relevant to what is going on right now. it is something that michael brought up with me. for democrats who are

disappointed that there were not competitive primaries against joe biden earlier in the year. some of the problems with his age could have been revealed then and they might have been able to set up a less urgent -- no one wants to have to switch horses just a couple of months before the election. one reason why it is difficult to challenge within your own party, he is the incumbent. very rarely, we have never had a female president. he or she is the incumbent. you hurt yourself if you want to run again in four years. a more recent example is 1980 when ted kennedy, the primaries chose the delegates to nominate jimmy carter to run for a second term. he lost against ronald reagan. ted kennedy challenged jimmy carter. he came out not looking very good with his long speech at the dnc. the party was not totally

unified around carter. kennedy was a liberal lion. he did not believe carter was a true liberal. it did not work out very well. you can kind of see why parties emerge from the convention around a single person. that is why we will not see a free-for-all next month in chicago. the party has coalesced around kamala harris. what are you going to do? i mentioned before, no one wants to switch horses this late in the game. may be a would have been better had there been competitive primaries earlier this year but we understand why that was not the case. there was no ground for anybody else in the democratic party. host: you cover the reluctance of political parties to release power. i want to play a bit of president biden's oval office address to the nation on wednesday about his decision to drop out of the presidential race. [video clip] pres. biden: in recent weeks it

has become clear to me that i need to unite my party. i believe with my record as president, my leadership in the world, my vision for america's future could be realized with a second term but nothing can come in the way of our democracy and that includes personal ambition. i have decided the best way forward is to pass the torch to the next generation. it is the best way to unite our nation. there is a time and place for long years of experience in public life. there is also a time and place for new fresh voices, younger voices. that time and place is now. host: your most recent episode focused on george washington's legacy is what you call the aficionado of exits. can you compare what we can learn from washington versus how

this whole situation played out with president biden? guest: i don't think it's a very good comparison. joe biden did not do what george washington did. george washington did voluntarily leave. he wanted to get out of the presidency. as joseph ellis said, he coined the term aficionado. nobody wanted to be president less than george washington. he was exhausted physically and emotionally and he left. president biden's speech would have been great 15 months ago. i will try to keep this answer brief. i have a tendency to meander. just a few points about what happened. he was pressured out. it was his choice. ultimately he could have fought to the very end. there is a mechanism to force him out. he did win the primaries and he did have the delegates. he did leave in the end but he was pressured out by his own party. he was not going to mention that. he sounds like he is

unappreciated despite his significant legislative achievement, his approval ratings are underwater. he is a very unpopular incumbent president. incumbents are rather unpopular these days. some of it was also self-referential. i don't want to call itself pitying. when george washington wrote his farewell address with alexander hamilton, there was a very self pitying part in there. washington was kind of like woe is me, i did not want this job. alexander hamilton convinced him to take that part out before the address was published to the nation. the most important and often overlooked point about what biden said and this speech and some of the calls i listened to what you did your open line segment, i was quite astonished at the level of anger and vitriol with people accusing each other of being evil and stupid. biden said we had a choice

between unity and division, hope and hate, going forward and backward. . a political journalist who is very interesting, he writes the sub stack notes from the middle ground. he pointed out there is a time and place for everything. that sounded like a campaign page. if there are republicans or independents listening to this who are may be thinking about not voting for donald trump, when you hear the president say without mentioning trump's name in the speech, you hear the president say, i have to give damon credit for saying this, if you vote for this other guy, you are voting for going backwards, you are voting for hate, division, voting for destroying our democracy. will that convince you to see at the democrats way? i think there needs to be a different message. whatever you think of donald trump, i think on the campaign trail, something like that is

appropriate but in a unifying moment, people want to be told that if they vote for donald trump they are voting to destroy democracy. we will be taking your calls in just a moment. democrats at (202) 748-8000. republicans at (202) 748-8001. and independents at (202) 748-8002. i want to ask you about two recent episodes you dedicated to political violence after the assassination attempt on former president trump. there was news this week that the gunman researched the assassination of john f. kennedy, suggesting he was interested in public figures. we still don't know his motive, but what does history tell us about how much political violence is motivated by political animosity versus maybe just being an expression of disillusionment, or a desire for notoriety?

guest: it is both, right? this was political violence, even though the shooter's politics are a mystery. it is not clear he had any ideology or was on some type of crusade, but it did seem like we were careening toward a moment like this, didn't it? there has been political violence in our country. steve scalise was almost shot to death. debbie giffords was almost shot to death. someone was arrested outside the house of brett kavanaugh. a candidate for governor in new york was attacked by somebody wielding a knife. there is too much of this happening, right? as far as non-political political violence and loan assassins, we look back at somebody like timothy mcveigh. he certainly had a political ax to grind and he targeted a federal installation. this young man may have not had any obvious politics, but why is he targeting the president? the president is the

personification of power. in this case donald trump, arguably one of the most -- not arguably, he is one of the most recognizable figures on earth, and he is the most consequential logician of the 21st century, whether you love him or hate him. therefore, you go after someone like that, right? doesn't make sense to go after a lesser figure in the mind of somebody who wants to create a place for himself in history. these are not rational thoughts, but there is a reason you go after the president or a former president. john hankey shot ronald reagan to impress jodie foster. the actress. that doesn't seem to make any sense. the man who shot garfield may have been insane. he had delusions of grandeur. mckinley was shot when he just ran -- won the election. there was a political motive behind that one, but sometimes

what happens in a climate -- and we see this often with what you call mob violence, right? january 6. have a history of urban rioting in our country. the sins of sheer frustration with how things are going in the country. like, you hit a tipping point, right? but back at the rodney king riots. not necessarily political. that was more social justice. those riots were not the result of one incident. african-americans in los angeles saying, we have been getting it from the police, injustice, for years. now we have it caught on camera and you still cannot convict the police officers. you get that explosion of anger, just the sheer atmosphere of what you believe to be -- and often is -- injustice in the country. it is another way of saying, this is comp decatur. the american revolution was an act of political violence. it was not terrorism. in the civil war the union put

down a revolt. we do not want vigilante violence, and that is what we just saw. the assassination attempt of former president trump. host: let's get to your calls. we will start with allen in rhinelander, wisconsin. caller: high there. i thinking george would disagree with you that the revolutionaries were not terrorists. guest: king george would have been wrong, but coy had. [laughter] caller: well, you know, that is the propaganda. i think that is the point of my call. people are tired of all of the propaganda from both parties. in my humble opinion. guest: i think you are right. i think also what people are tired of is, presidential campaigns never end. he spend the next four years trying to destroy your opponent. elections and campaigns have always been nasty affairs. the election of 1800, man, was

the mood in the country volatile. but today when the campaigning inns, it is like it does not -- ends, it is like it does not end . caller: i think the two-party system has captured our nation's politics. we are talking about maybe 2% of the citizens actually support either of these parties. i would humbly request that everybody out there vote for anybody but a d or r at this point. both third party. vote independent. we need to break the power grip these parties have on this country. guest: our elections not having a parliamentary system, it is hard to have multiple parties. but allen makes a good point. a pair of academics released a book called "the hollow parties our parties have been hollowed out, and that has created a situation where we have an

excessive emphasis on the personalities of the people running for president. so, the parties are hollowed out . they are not civic organizations people feel attached to like they used to. host: brenda is in fort lee, new jersey on our line for democrats. caller: good morning, america. i'm calling in regards to when president biden running, i was really hoping to give him my vote. he had a lot of good ideas. and he stepped down, and he is going to let kamala harris get the nomination. and i really strongly feel i cannot vote for her. she is just not my thinking of how she is going to change to make america better. and i just follow her and listen to everything she has to say, and she is not for me.

she's not getting my vote. i do listen to trump, and i really am going with him. i think he will do better for america. changing things for us. you have to think of all of the good things he did when he was president. and for her, no thank you. guest: both camino, as i said before, had president biden dropped out of the race 15 months ago -- and brenda, thank you for the call. maybe we would have a different conversation for democrats like you today. there would have been a different nominee or candidate. it is an impossible thing to know for sure. to my earlier point about donald trump kingdom most consequential politician of the 21st century, -- donald trump being the most consequential politician of the 21st century. he sent the other party into a state of disarray where joe biden insisted in very un-george

washington like, he suggested he was the only person that could defeat donald trump. we know people wanted choices in both parties. not to be flip about this, there has to be a democrat under the age of 70 somewhere in the country who is also capable of running the party, running the government. i often say lowercase r public and virtue, anyone who is so vain to think they can do the job, that is not a republican virtue. if we are going to retrieve anything out of the late 18th century, that is one virtue to come back -- to bring back. host: good morning, roy. caller: i have two things i would like to address. first of all, the threat to our democracy. in 2019, during the democratic debate, julian castro and cory booker laughed at biden, because

remember what he said just two minutes ago. so we knew biden had a problem long -- a long time ago. so, we also had harris running. during the whole campaign she never gained over 2%. more than 2%. so, to me, they knew biden had this problem. they would not let marian williamson run. i think it was dean phillips. kennedy tried to run as a democrat. and they shut them down. americans did not have a chance to select another candidate other than biden. and they knew this. so they falsify this information about biden's health and pushed it to the extreme. and so now they say biden is selected, but the democrats never had a chance to vote. and they did this intentionally. the second thing, it wasn't

about biden beating trump. what they wanted was biden to beat sanders. that is why they came together and all of those guys dropped out during the democratic process. because they did not want bernie sanders in office. it was not about trump, it was about defeating bernie sanders, and they felt like biden would be the best candidate to do that. host: let's let martin respond to those two points. first, the idea that democrats have known since 2019 that biden maybe wasn't the best candidate for the party, but was, you know, other candidates were blocked out. and the second point, that biden was just nominated to beat sanders. guest: well, i think the caller -- roy, thank you, by the way -- does have a good point, in that the primaries this time around were not competitive affairs. one reason for that, it is hard to challenge an incumbent.

people have a right to believe they were deceived about biden's more recent disintegration. i don't think he was disintegrating like this in 2019. voters did choose him over bernie sanders. there is also this idea that bernie sanders was robbed in 2016. no, more primary voters voted for hillary clinton. the pandemic intruded on the primary four years ago and it created a situation where in all of that chaos of february, march, april 2020 democrats coalesced around someone they were familiar with. and i do think it is true, what roy said, about most centrist democrats are probably not with bernie sanders on a lot of things. however, in a sense bernie sanders won the battle of ideas. joe biden has governed more to the left. a lot of the things his administration has done have been more to the left. what you might call a social

democratic welfare policy, or a social democratic -- well, social welfare policy. some of the anti-policy measures and things like that. i think bernie sanders has left a mark on politics even though he did not win the nomination. host: properties in virginia on our independent line. caller: good morning. i have a quick question. i would like to know, does anyone think that this country would be better with the elimination of the two-party system? guest: i really don't have any idea, robert. how would we eliminate the two-party system? i will answer the question this way. the founding fathers did not foresee or want parties. there is a reason they formed. different people have different ideas about how to take -- what direction to take the country, right? i have a book with me here "the radicalism of the american revolution go i often read from books on my podcast. this was published about 30

years ago. i referred earlier to the republican virtue of knowing when to quit. there is lot from the 18th century i'm sure people are happy we no longer have. an agrarian, slaveholding society. i am not waxing nostalgic over the stream idea of building a classic republic upon elitist virtue. that is with the founding fathers wanted. by the early 19th century many of the founding fathers had come to share something of alexander hamilton's conclusion that this american world was not made for me. what did he mean by that? he meant a new generation of americans is no longer interested in the revolutionary stream of ling a classic republic of elitist virtue out of the inherited materials of the old world. rather, it would be the republic would discover its greatness by creating a prosperous, free society belonging to obscure people, common people, with their workaday concerns and pursuits of happiness.

being free of selfish motives, that only our betters should govern because they don't need to hold office, they are doing this as a sacrifice. that went out the window within a generation or two. democracy started to intrude, and as sean walesa put it, we had the rise of democracy. one virtue from that bygone era i think we could reflect on is george washington's example, that there are things in life other than holding onto power for as long as possible. i mentioned his excessive emphasis on -- this excessive emphasis on the personalities of people running because our parties have been hollowed out. george washington set the example. he could have been president as long as he wanted. he did not want to be a quasi-monarch. host: let's go to gym in missouri on our line for democrats. caller: good morning.

martin mentioned violence. he neglected to bring up january 6. guest: i did, but go ahead. caller: senator tom cotton, after the shooting, talked about, we decide things at the ballot box. i guess he forgets about the threats against state officials to change elections. and i would further go to say that the talk of unity, there is no middle ground between the true and whatever fox news sprews out there. -- spews out there. i will leave it at that. guest: some of these cable networks or emotional support networks. he mentioned the fake collectors, the slates of fake collectors. -- electors.

i think the theme that is going to endure beyond this intense election season is the supreme court's ruling in trump versus the united states that granted some vague level of immunity from criminal prosecution to the office of the presidency. this is turning the constitution on its head. this was naked partisanship on the part of the supreme court. coming up this week on my podcast i will be speaking to the great historian sean walentz , about comparisons to the dred scott ruling dealing with slavery. and the republican party's anti-slavery platform. because jim mentioned the electors, trump's attorney argued that the slate of electors scheme was an official act, and once the dust settles

-- there is still a lot of dust in the air. and understandably so. we had the debate, the attempted assassination, the republican convention, and then a president dropping out. when that settles we do need to focus on trump versus the united states. it is going to have lasting impact and will affect the person in that office, or will affect our constitutional order regardless of if it is a democrat or republican in the oval office. host: jill is in mississippi. good morning. caller: hello? guest: hi, joe. caller: how are you doing? host: your phone is difficult to hear. can you go ahead? caller: i'm republican. i believe that is going to be the answer to our problems in this nation. we have too much going on that is making working class work harder.

open borders. i don't understand that. when trump was in there before he had the border going. biden shut that down with the stroke of a pen. i think we will create a communist country here if trump don't get back in. we are all, all included, we are in serious trouble. guest: we are not going to become a communist country. i do agree with your point about the working class. as you know, the debate about what caused the rise of trump is an endless debate, right? after he won the election pretty much all of the major newspapers on the coast sent their reporters into middle america to speak to trump voters at diners. why did you vote for this guy? as if journalists did not know what was going on in their own country. harvard put out a study on the

racial gap in income that showed african-americans making gains -- which is good -- but that poor whites, their economic opportunity over the last two generations has shrunk. the litany of institutional failures -- i think we are familiar with this mantra by now -- the forever wars, the subprime mortgage crisis, the opioid epidemic, all of the institutional failures in our country. the chaotic and incompetent response to the pandemic. there are reasons to be angry about what is going on in the world right now and what is going on in our country. setting aside trump and by then, i think going back probably more than 10 years, 20 years now, there has been a general sense in our country, despite all of the wealth and possibility -- and prosperity, that things are not going in the right direction. that, to a large degree, explains trump's appeal.

he personified those disagreements. he projects them onto people like immigrants. we need immigrants in our country. we need it for demographic reasons, cultural reasons. you do need to figure out a way to accept people, not the chaotic stuff that has been going on at the border now. host: steve is in chatsworth, illinois on our line for independence. caller: good morning. i believe jim. one thing i have to say about the democratic party now is they forgot all about title ix for women. now that men can play in sports as long as their testosterone level is low enough. number two is, an old man like me should not be able to tell a

23-year-old woman what to do with their body. number three is, we have russian submarines south of the florida currently. and we just had chinese and russian bombers. in alaska. i don't think vice president harris has the courage to take on putin, the ayatollah of orion -- of iran, and president xi of china, along with north korea. host: i want to give martin a chance to respond to these points you have raised. some of these issues that martin was just talking about -- sorry, that steve was talking about --

you cannot really pull from history to model or even draw lessons. steve mentioned the issue of sports and gender, and, you know, abortion rights, which have come up in the past, not necessarily in the way they are now. guest: it is hard to tell where steve's politics were. which i suspect is healthy. i know about russia and cuba. russia has a historic relationship to cuba. i would not worry too much that there is russian submarines there. united states has bases all over the world with missiles pointing at our enemies. host: what about the joint exercise with russia and china? guest: you know, i think steve's point was, can kamala harris handle this? i don't know. let's see. we are going to find out how capable she is in the coming weeks and months. maybe she has grown over the past four years.

an earlier caller pointed out how poorly she did in the 2020 election cycle. she is hopefully going to sit for interviews, hold news conferences, believe there will be debates with donald trump, and we will see how capable she is as a campaigner. it is hard to know how someone is going to govern once they are in that seat. i will say this. if you look at the ship of state , in that area the president does have an enormous amount of power. a lot of presidents come in thinking they are going to do things differently. the united states is still the most powerful, hegemonic power in the world. we are in nuclear power. we have something like 1000 bases and deployments all over the world. presidents who want to have a more restrained foreign policy, if you think of that ship of state as an airplane and you get in and put your hands on the controls of the plane and you think you were going to take it in a different direction, all of these structural forces start

sending you in the same direction as your predecessor. it is another way of saying, i don't think the united states is going to stop being a hegemonic power anytime soon. although i would like to see a more restrained foreign policy. kamala harris has indicated she is willing to create some space between her and president biden on the israeli-gaza war because of the high number of civilian casualties. gaza has been destroyed. host: dan is in tennessee on our line for democrats. good morning, dan. caller: thanks for taking my call, kimberly. i do agree with your earlier point on the border. we need controlled immigration. guest: the current set up does no one well, but go ahead, sir. caller: yes sir. but then again i don't see anyone going up to the neighbor's roof and seeing the mexican roofers, i don't see them telling them to get off the roof. i don't see people going to the

back of them that -- back at the restaurants telling them they don't want them. guest: that is an excellent point. caller: two points. you remarked earlier that trump remade the republican party in its own image. woah, sir. i think sensible republicans are going to take issue with that. host: i believe that martin said trump remade the republican party in his own image. guest: trump's image. he is right. there are traditional republicans who are fed up with donald trump. they are called the never-trumpers, right? caller: i think vice president pence and asa hutchinson are going to disagree with you. just think of the different outcome we would have had if you all would have chosen the most truth-telling and moral person on that bass stage last spring with h a hutchinson -- asa

hutchinson. earlier you were talking about all of the shooters in that assassin -- and the assassins with guns. you don't want to talk about the easy access to guns. right now i want you to look in the camera and say, you support extended clips, ghost guns, bump stocks, and universal background checks? guest: i'm not really a policy proposer. i don't really do my podcast to say what should be done, but since you asked me directly, no, i don't support that. i think these ar 15-style rifles should not be accessible to people. this young man got his rifle from his father. i think there is actually more consensus on that issue, despite all of our division in this country, then appears in congress. which, there has been some gun control -- it is often called gun safety legislation -- during the biden administration.

to your earlier point about migrants, people complain about immigration but they don't tell the construction crews to get lost, they still go to restaurants, grocery stores. i mean, who picks our produce? i don't want to say that immigrants are doing unskilled, manual labor jobs. immigrants do a lot of different things in our country. it is the case that agribusiness relies on immigrant later. -- labor. if you like cheap vegetables, there is a reason those prices are able to stay down. it is because labor is cheap. nafta helped cause the illegal immigration problem, because it opened the mexican agricultural market to u.s. agribusiness, so subsistence farmers in mexico, their farms blew away. he eventually came to the united states to local -- to look for work and made much badger -- much better wages.

something that is often overlooked. we were talking before about the rise of trump, and what i often call the misplaced optimism that followed the collapse of the soviet union and the excessively optimistic 1990's. there were reasons to be optimistic, but i think that unbridled globalization, market economics and it is the end of history, i think we look back at that now and say, that was a little disillusional. host: that is all the time we have today. monday caro of the washington times is the host of the podcast "history as it happens." guest: thank you for being such a wonderful host. i hope to work with you again soon. host: tonight we are going to have former president and 2024 republicanresidential candidate donaldru and he is speaking to voters at a campaign rally in st. cloud, minnesota

you can watch that li ent at 8:00 p.m. eastern on c-span, c-span now, or online at c-span.org. of course, you can tune back in tomorrow at 7:00 a.m. eastern for another edition of "washington journal." thanks to all of our callers today, and everyone have a good day. ♪

nk you so much. you had to react quickly and efficiently while experiencing -- [cheering] >> yesterday president biden shared his decision with the country and in true joe biden fashion, as he has done

throughout his career, he has put country first. it is not lost on anyone in this room that under hayes and vice president harris's leadership we have made incredible progress together. america has the strongest economy, we have extended affordable health care, past the first gun safety legislation in 30 years. all of these accomplishments are on the line this election. our rights, freedom, democracy is at stake and that is why the president endorsed vice president harris candidacy. because he knows she is the most qualified candidate to beat donald trump, to serve as our next president of the united states and to continue delivering progress for the american people.