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investigate the security failures leading up to the attempted assassination of former president donald trump. earlier today, the acting secret service director and the deputy fbi director testified at a joint hearing held by the senate judiciary and senate homeland security committees. you can watch that tonight at 9:00 eastern on c-span. it is also available on c-span now or online at c-span.org. >> we are just under 100 days to go until the election day. we welcome back mark lauder who served in the trump campaign in 2016 and 2020. have you ever worked on a campaign where the person that your candidate is running against changes within 3-4 months of the election? >> never this close. just when you think it will

happen in the campaign, sometimes life changes everything at the last minute. host: do you think the trump campaign lawyer's prepared? guest: yeah, they knew of the possibility following the disastrous debate, but they knew he did not really matter who was at the top of the democratic ticket. the results were going to be the same. there was a reason why they were the most unpopular president and vice president in the last seven or so years prior to that debate. people did not like inflation, the open border, the wars going on. swapping names out on the bumper sticker is not going to change the underlying factors. host: democrats say one thing that absolutely changes is the age issue that was so much a burden for joe biden now shifts down -- now shifts to donald trump. is that fair? guest: obviously harris is a younger president, but i do not think anyone questions whether donald trump has the energy or

the fortitude to not only campaign that serve in the white house. it is a nice try, about -- but i do not think anyone is questioning whether donald trump is up to the rigors of the white house. host: what do you make of the polling numbers, getting -- getting closer and closer where it was further and further apart biiden? guest: it does not surprise me. democrats were very demoralized before the switch out, so there was some pent up energy. i think there was pent-up donor money sitting on the sidelines, as many had publicly said they would not continue funding the campaign. we expected this. i think the trump campaign expected this. they also expected there to be a shift in the polls through her honeymoon, but once we really start getting into her policies. her campaign for president in 2020, which did not even make it, and what she has said since then, the underlying factors will be the same. once the sugar high falls off,

we will probably be close to where we were. host: you were there in 2020, worked in the trump/pence campaign. do you have any role in the campaign for 24? guest: no, i am on the outside. i am at a think tank. we are the ones out there putting the white pages together in the research, getting ready for the next time there is in america first president in the white house. host: what you make of the project 2025 and all of the focus and attention that has gotten in recent weeks? guest: i think it is hilarious, to be honest with you. think tanks are an industry in washington, d.c. there are think tanks on the left, think tanks on the right. they get paid by the word, and they are hoping that their thoughts, their policy priorities are adopted by a president or a governor or a candidate for congress. nine times out of 10, they will

say, regardless what side you're on, i like what you did with this, i like where they did over there, we will combine things together and come up with a policy. but no think take speaks for a candidate or campaign. that is what we trust that campaign to do for themselves. host: i should also know you work inside the white house. what do you do? guest: i was press secretary for the first year, than i was a special assistant. host: what is a special assistant to? guest: i was part of the white house can occasions team, spent a lot of time briefing and prepping and talking to sean spicer when he was press secretary, then later -- host: time for you to call in and ask the questions you want to ask. (202) 748-8000 for democrats to call in. republicans, it's (202) 748-8001 . independents, (202) 748-8002. as folks are calling in, i

wonder if you think the trump and now j.d. vance campaign should have been more prepared for the amount of attention j.d. vance's comments in prior interviews from years or months ago are receiving again today? guest: i was with then governor pence when he became the vice presidential nominee in 2016. you asked every vote you ever took, every public comment you made, every interview have ever done is going to be scoured, going to be dumped on you all at once. when kamala harris names her running mate, we are going to do the same thing to them, and we will get two weeks of intense scrutiny. it is part of the vice presidential cycle. ultimately, j.d. vance's addition to the ticket is not as much about what he may have said or voted for, because ultimately, people will go into the polls and cast their vote for president. no one says i am voting for vice president. what i think j.d. vance offers

is something i do not think a lot of people are covering enough. he was once very critical of president trump trade he once had questions about president trump. he was vocal in those questions. so he can go to an undecided voter in pennsylvania, wisconsin, michigan, anywhere in the country, and say, i get it. i was just like you. i had my questions, my critiques, my criticisms. but when i look at the record of donald trump in office or kamala harris and joe biden and i look at their plans for the future, i came across, because i think the america first policies are what makes our country safer. so come on in, the water's fine. host: do think he is doing that? do you think he is acknowledging he even had concerns in the first place? guest: i think you cannot disagree there were concerns or they were very public, on social media and the interviews. it is the journey since then which can really go out there and connect with people who may still be on the fence. or they may love the trump

policies because things were more affordable, things were safer, the world was not at war, and the border was secure. but they may not have liked the tone or the to or whatever. but they can go i can get beyond that, because i do want to get to a safer country, i want to get to a more prosperous country. joe biden and kamala harris don't offer that, they just give us more of the same. host: yeah a lot of the focus in the mainstream media is on the childless women comments from years ago. it was j.d. vance who was on fox news, responding to some of that criticism he has gotten. this is about 90 seconds of that interview. [video clip] >> i have heard from many women, most of whom were conservative, and they would very much like to vote for president trump and you , but, senator, they are disappointed. nuns and priests aside, do you agree there are people who very much love this country and are invested in its future, but they also happen to be childless? >> oh, of course i believe that.

if you look at the full context of what i said, it is clear the democrats are trying to take this out of context and blow it out of proportion, which is what they always do, because they do not have an agenda to run on themselves. if you look at what the american people are most concerned about, it is not an out of context quip i made three years ago, it is about kamala harris, and the southern borders open, it is a fact the democratic party has become supposedly antifamily and some of their policies. you just heard kamala harris, in a surfaced clip recently, talk about how it was a bad idea to have kids because of climate change anxiety. what i'm trying to get out here is it is important for us to be profamily as a country. of course, for a whole host of reasons, it is not going to work out for some people. we should pray for those people and have some of the for them. i still think that means we should be profamily, as a party, and i think our country has become particular hard for

parents, especially under the policies of kamala harris. host: that is the response j.d. vance has on fox news, supposed to what you're saying, talking about his journey to donald trump, a message you think to connect to more people. guest: i think that is part of the process. we already in the oppo dump that they are currently doing on j.d., the trump campaign will do that on kamala's pick here in a week or so ok once you get beyond that, on the campaign trail, that is where you start to make those connections. when you look at what j.d. was actually saying, he was saying what i think he should be saying, that the america first agenda is very profamily. we shouldn't apologize for being profamily. it does not mean that for those who chose not to or can't aren't important as well, but families make our country better. they make our communities better. we should be encouraging families. host: who is the harris picked

republican strategists are licking their lips about to do their opposition dump, and who do you think that harris picked is that republicans are more concerned about? guest: i do not think we are concerned about any of them. the biggest question, if i take off my partisan hat off and put on my campaign, political operative hat on, it would seem to make most sense to pick governor josh shapiro. she has a math problem. the math is not in her favor in battleground states. even with her honeymoon polling bump, she still trailing. i do not see a pathway to 279 without pennsylvania, -- without 270 without pennsylvania. on the other side, she has another problem. josh shapiro is jewish, he is very pro-israel, and that does not align with the radical base of the democrat party and could hurt her in michigan and

minnesota and other areas. right now, you think about the democrat party and its longtime relationship with the jewish vote, you think about the party that praises tolerance, she may actually not be picking the most sensible pick because of anti-semitism that'running rampant in the democratic party now. that is a real problem for her. host: what is the best pathway, what is the map democrats have the best chance of beating donald trump on? guest: right now, it looks like the southern states are gone. the southern states are firmly in donald trump's category. georgia, arizona are outside the margin of error. it would seem she would have to go the traditional blue wall with michigan, wisconsin, and pennsylvania, where she is trailing in all three of those states as well. again, donald trump does not need to win all of them, he just needs to win a couple of them of all of the swing states. when it comes to the way things

stand right now, he needs just one more day or a couple of electoral college votes to get to that magic number of 270. host: before we get to calls, your thoughts on joe biden yesterday, these reforms he is proposing, supreme court reforms that mitch mcconnell has said is dead on arrival in the senate, is not going to get 60 votes to overcome the filibuster and that the speaker has also said is not coming up in the house? guest: it is ironic that a man who has been in washington, d.c. in elected office for 54 years now believes 18 years is the right term limits. it also before tells me that the so-called self-proclaimed defenders of democracy, who ignored democracy and cast aside their presidential candidate for politics is now turning their sights on another coequal range of women in the united states supreme court and attacking the

integrity, attacking the foundations of that court because they do not like the way it is currently made up. again, it is politics, not about democracy or our constitution. ultimately, i think joe biden did this as part of his deal with progressives, when basically the party wasn't fleeing him, prior to him dropping out. the squad, the radical left, some of them stayed in his corner to encourage them to keep running, that was probably part of the deal he made, that he would call for these reforms, even though there is zero chance you will get it through congress , no matter who controls congress. you're not getting the 2/3 necessary to do constitutional amendments, let alone the three quarters of the states. if they try to do it by law, i would love to sit in the supreme court chambers when chief justice roberts is sitting there asking the government's lawyers so you think i am not qualified to continue serving, let me rule on that. [laughter] host: plenty of callers for you this morning. ruth in texas, line for

republicans. you are on with marc lotter. caller: good morning. i have a question about campaign finance reports. my subtle number got mixup with a democrat, apparently, even though i am a republican, and i get these text suggests all the time wanting me to donate to the harris fund or some other democrat. with paris, as soon as she was announced as the candidates, i started getting these text messages saying if i would donate $5, $10, $15, it would be matched five times, six times the amount. then it would be reported these huge sums her campaign raised immediately. i would like to know who is providing those matching funds, and are they part of that report of how common, everyday people

have donated all this money? is that making sense? guest: yes, ma'am, it is. hopefully you can hit "stop" or some thing like that to remove yourself from those text lists. ultimately what happens, generally speaking, is you have a major donor who will pledge a certain amount of money to the campaign -- both sides do it. so -- i am making this up, but say i pledged $10 million of matching funds, so if you donate this, they will not it up to that care that is how they basically do that. host: do they have to report both a big donor and the? big donor and a little donor when they do that? guest: yes. the big donor is outside of campaign finance laws. most of that is going to super pac's and things like that. host: it is called matching even though the money is going one way to the campaign and the other way to -- guest: basically what happens is

when those campaign contributions come in -- i forget what the limit is, i think it is $3600 -- $3600 goes directed to the campaign, the rest of it goes to the national party, then it goes to the super pac. they basically all take their cut from it. host: this is why people have a lot of frustration with campaign? finance law? guest: yeah, i don't understand it. it is a whole industry here in d.c. caller: good morning. i know you realize we are in what you call the silly season of politics. when september and october comes around, when people wake up out of their slumber, they are going to vote for the person with the personality. and there is going to be a demographic that will change all of the swing states that are going to be voting this time. so i hope you are prepared for a

loss -- host: what is the demographic usace going to wake up and start voting? caller: definitely it is going to be young folks. i'm an old guy who has a million, it seems like, nieces and nephews, and they are going to be voting for kamala harris with no hands down, no matter what, because we already went through the trump years, and we don't want to go backwards. host: marc lotter on young voters. guest: polls show a number of young voters have abandoned the democratic party, and they continue to do so, because so many of them cannot afford to get a shot the american dream. you cannot afford to buy your first house because mortgage rates are astronomically high compared to the last 20 or so years. people cannot afford the cost of gas and groceries. their paychecks are not keeping up. while they are looking to get their first start and get out on their own and make their own path forward, they are finding,

many times, they cannot afford to do it. that is one of the reasons we have seen a double-digit shift from the failed policies of kamala harris, joe biden, and the rest of the radical left, moving over back to the america first policies, because things were more affordable. you could get your first house, you could afford gas and groceries and maybe something else, to get yourself out there, moving forward. ultimately, that's what is ultimately going to come down for this election. so many people are still struggling because of the high price of things, because of the challenge it has become because of joe biden and kamala harris. host: a headline from the associated press -- harris and democrats keep calling trump and vance weird. you think this line of attack is an appeal to those younger voters, millennial voters, voters on tiktok and instagram? guest: it is their latest line of attack. i could probably show you 100

plus media photos of kamala harris, joe biden with their social media influencers from tiktok in the white house. i think most of americans would call that weird. this is kind of the silly season, as the previous caller mentioned, and both campaigns will probably do it, but when you throw those pictures up there, i have a feeling most everyday americans are going that is weird. host: syracuse, new york, michael, independent. good morning. caller: good morning. guest: good morning. caller: i wanted to ask you about your former boss, mike pence, and his thoughts on donald trump. lastly, do you remember "braveheart"? guest:the movie, yes? caller: where he was being drawn and quartered and said "freedom."

donald trump does not present freedom. guest: i would disagree. donald trump represents freedom, the freedom of americans to make their own economica choices, to be able to afford the basic costs of living. he is for the freedom provided by a safe community and lead -- and dealing with out-of-control crime, which is going on. and kamala harris being very soft on crime. let's not forget that kamala harris raised money to bail out the rioters, looters, arsonists of the blm rioters of 2020. she did not seek out the most harsh charges of eight gang -- of a gang member convicted of murdering a police officer. and also the conviction of standing up again and not the weakness that provoked the aggression of folks like vladimir putin and russia and iran, through its proxies,

against israel and the middle east. host: do you talk to mike pence much? caller: i have not talked -- guest: i have not talked to him for about a year and a half or so. i know he has very devout thoughts in terms of where he things we should be going as a country, as a party, and he is going to put those out there. that is his right. he has been a longtime leader in the conservative movement. that is what we see right now. we see leaders on both sides -- host: do you think he has a role to play in the months to the election? could he have any role to play in a second trump administration? guest: i do not speak for the former president or his campaign. probably, given their public disagreements on some things, i would not think there would be, but you never know. host: to one of those blue wall states you are talking about, michigan, this is heather, a

republican. good morning. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. you are on with marc lotter. caller: hi. i don't understand. i grew up a democrat. up until the last election, i thought, oh my god, we cannot have hillary, she is going to push the button. and we cannot have trump, he will get us killed with his mouth. i will tell you what, i did not know what fake news was. i do now. my eyes are open. i've become a republican. i have a lot of respect for our government, for the police -- my father was in the navy 31 years as a master chief and then an officer in the police station in the bay county for 13 years after that. i have a lot of respect. what i do not have respect for is i see the abuse going on with the president, and nobody is

addressing this. i don't understand how his wife can't get in trouble, how kamala can't get in trouble. that is abuse, elder abuse. the buddy is seeing it happen. why is nobody doing anything about this? host: stay on that, marc lotter, and your thoughts on not just joe biden's withdrawal but comments made by some republicans that he should leave office if he is not fit to run, they do not think he should stay until the end of the term. guest: there are two sides. america and the world need a strong leader. they need a leader fully in command of his faculties, his decision-making process, and, ultimately, it will falter joe biden to decide whether he should and can continue to do that job, and/or his vice

president and cabinets if they believe he is not up to it. he obviously believes he is up to it. we saw it in austin, texas yesterday. i will leave that decision to him. but it is very important that america's enemies knkow we have a strong -- know we have a strong, fully capable leader in office. on the political side, it is a disaster. assuming joe biden is capable of completing the job, he should do the job, and let's have a campaign separately. why on earth would you want to give your political opponent basically the keys to the kingdom, access to the white house air force one, signing executive orders. that would be a political disaster, which is something completely separate from the needs of having a fully competent president in the white house. unless something happens otherwise, joe biden is that guy for the next six months.

host: to the volunteer state. this is vivian, democrat. caller: good morning. i was calling, so please let me get my point over. look at this man lying. he no what trump did with the insurrection, causing people to get beating, congresspeople running for their lives and he can say straight that trump is fit for our country? how is he fit for the country when he raped a woman? they are talking people without children should not be able to vote. then with the supreme court, getting a rapist on the supreme court? all people need to go. talking about joe biden, the supreme court are taking money, bribes. then you are talking inflation. it is the rich man making stuff higher.

they did that with covid, they raised prices on stuff. they are people who made money off the disease that killed millions of people. host: you bring in a lot of issues pale let's let you jump in. guest: it is important to remember that inflation was 1.4% the day joe biden took office. even president obama's former economic guy wanred the bi den-harris administration to not do the american rescue plan, it will cause inflation. and what they did, dated -- they did it anyway, and it caused record high inflation. prices have gone up 20% on average once joe biden took office. when you get to the others, groceries, utilities, it is dramatically up even more than

that. that was not the case when we had donald trump in office. we had rising paychecks and next to no inflation, 1.4%. they were warned not to do it, and they did it anyway, and now we have inflation. -- guest: i want to talk about project 2025. i read part of it, and i believe they did some part of project 2025 during the reagan administration. when i read it, i no problem with it about people are using it as a fear monger among the democratic voters, saying they want to take this and that, you know. i believe project 2025 is ok, in my opinion -- host: what do you like about it? caller: i like they want to

straighten up america's defense, saying the defense system, because since under the clinton administration, our military has become weak. he downsized the military through all the branches, and that really caught up with us during 9/11 -- host: we want to take those points and let marc lotter jump in. guest: and the thing to remember about project on is it is not the official policy of president trump or his campaign. he has been very clear about that. as we were talking about earlier, these kinds of written reports are what think tanks do. i work for another think tank, that is not part of roger 2025, during our day job, and is --

it's part of our name to think tanks. they think about stuff and write it down, proposed solutions. there what i think ultimately, a candidate for president or congress or governor or estate alone maker will look at your research, proposals, it maybe cherry pick a thing year or two in this area. you put it together and try to come up with a policy that works. think tanks are an industry and washington, d.c. you have former administrations from both sides of the aisle that go from there government work to the think tanks and write about ideas and just hope one day that candidates will get on board with it. the heritage has been doing it since the days of reagan. host: why did you join your think tank and have you ever had

a situation where a proposal that you have has been picked up and made public policy? guest: absolutely. the american first think tank was born out of president trump. we have senior administration officials in the halls of government in the white house, agencies during the time of the trump administration and a few of them were in before that. they bring that level of expertise and knowledge and to not only say what you should do but how you could get it done if you're candidate gets on board with that idea and adopts it. we've had a lot of success, especially at the state level because a lot of ours can be translated into the state whether combating china or purchase of ever cultural land, school choice, regulation reform. a lot of that is happening at the state level and we work in

the halls of congress as well, especially for the new majority to shape and influence proposals in the house and senate. sometimes we are fully successful and sometimes we get some of what we want. host: what is your policy area of expertise? guest: i am communications but we have 20 policy centers covering every angle of the government from health-care to immigration and the border, deregulation, the economy, foreign relations, the military. we run the gamut of all of it. host: this is ronald on the line for republicans. caller: good mornin

what occurred in 2020 i'm quite sure were the democrats cheating and robbing trump of an election so that he is criticized when he mentioneds this as being -- as being a big lie but actually the media never will even explore the possibility that biden having been elected was a big lie because it was not valid election and -- host: let me stop you there. guest: one of the things that concerns me about this is that we've had six presidential elections this century. and four of those, of those six

elections, the losing side, the side that came out on the other end, has questioned the result. so while too many times we spend our time here in washington or on, you know, on television, saying, oh this person is wrong, this person's claims are wrong this person's claims are wrong. but we never do anything about it. so one of the things we do at the america first policy institute, we have a center for election integtism our mission and motto is very simple. make it easy to vote and hard to cheat that should be something that brings both sides together. but democrats have objected to the loss in 2000, 2004, 2016, they demonized the president both then george w. bush and donald trump, calling him illegitimate. they fabricated claims of voter fraud in 2004 in ohio. both sides would rather just sit there and talk about it rather than come together and go what can we do to strengthen the integrity of our elections