host: good morning. it's thursday, august 8. the top of the republican and democratic tickets are now set for this november's presidential election. the candidates have hit the road and are making their case to voters around the country. a lot has happened this election cycle, and this morning we're asking you if your mind is made up, or are you still deciding? have you changed your mind these past few weeks? call us and share your thoughts. here are the numbers. republicans, 202-748-8001.

democrats, 202-748-8000. independents, 202-748-8002. you can text us at 202-748-8003. send us your first flame and your city, state. and we're on social media, facebook.com/cspan, and x @cspanwj. welcome to "washington journal." glad you're with us. this is a national poll from fivethirtyeight, which has a very close race with harris ahead by 1.9 points at 45.3, and trump at 43.4. luck see very close -- you can see very close, kennedy at 5.3%. this is, again, national average. it is not the electoral clerk and doesn't take into account the swing states. vice president harris was at a rally in wisconsin yesterday

talking about her economic vision. here she is. >> we are joyful warriors. joyful warriors. because we know that while fighting for a brighter future may be hard work, hard work is good work. hard work is good work. and so we will continue to fight for affordable housing, for affordable healthcare, affordable child care and paid leave. we believe in a future where we lower the cost of living for america's families so that they have a chance, not just to get by, but to get ahead. because while our economy is doing well by many measures,

prices for everyday things like groceries are still too high. you know it, and i know it. when i was attorney general, i went after price fixing schemes, and when i am president, it will be a day one priority to fight to bring down prices. i will take on big corporations that engage in illegal price gouging. i will take on corporate landlords that unfairly raise rents on working families. i will take on big pharma and cap the cost of prescription drugs for all americans. and continue to bring manufacturing jobs back to america. and back to communities like eau claire. so all this to say, strengthening our economy and building up the middle class will be a defining goal of my

presidency. host: that was yesterday. we have the full event available on our website, c-span.org. here is cbs news with this headline, harris-walz campaign says it raised $36 million in first 24 hours after running mate revealed. it says that the haul for harris and walz continues the run of eyebrow-raising fund raising that began after she officially announced her run for the white house last month. harris' campaign says it raised $310 million in july, more than double the amount former president trump said he raised last month. contributions includes every included $200 million the vice president raised in the seven days after president biden withdrew from the race and harris launched her white house bid. harris announced tuesday morning that she had selected walz to join her on the democratic

ticket, praising his record as a governor and back ground as a veteran, teacher and coach. and we are taking your calls this morning on the campaign. have you made up your mind? aryou still deciding? are you part of that poll we just mentioned that are still undecided? share your thoughts with us. the phone lines are on the screen, and we'll go first to bonnie in massachusetts, republican. hi, bonnie. caller: hello. thank you for taking my call. good morning. i just want to say that i have decided. i'm a long-time independent, over 30 years. i was raised and grew up as a democrat. and i've been an independent for the last 30 years, and i'm now with the republican party. my mind is made up, and i'm going to be voting for trump and

vance. i'm more of a conservative and pro-life. and therefore, my conscience won't let me vote for anybody who's pro-choice. host: would you say that abortion is your biggest issue for this cycle? caller: yes. that and immigration. host: all right. and carl is in washington, pennsylvania, democrat. hi, carl. caller: yes, hello, good morning. i am 100% in support of kamala harris and tim walz. i want your callers to remember a name, chris lavacitia, trump's current manager of his campaign, but he's also the architect of what is called swift boating. they did it to john kerry in 2004. this was someone who under a

purple heart for his service in vietnam, and they went on attack against his service. this is the same thing that trump did, who is a draft dodger, 100%. he attacked john mccain, john mccain's service as a prisoner of war in hanoi for many years. and we're going to put him back in the white house? never, never, never. thank you. host: and karen in michigan, republican. caller: hi. i will definitely be voting for trump-vance this year. i voted for trump last go-around. i don't even understand what the question would be. i mean, between stolen valor, pro riots, marxist continued as versus j.d. vance, who overcame

difficult circumstances growing up. he served in the military, did not abandon his military service. is he put himself through law school. he has a successful career. he's got a beautiful life and family. donald trump always takes questions. he's always available. harris, i don't know, where is she? she doesn't take questions. she only has prepared remarks. and our media doesn't ask her any difficult questions. i know that j.d. vance did suggest yesterday a few questions that the press may want to consider asking her yesterday. he was talking. here in michigan, he was talking about the three policemen who have been killed, murdered over a one-month period here in our

area. versus harris, who knows, pretending she's pro middle, you know, middle class, now, she's going to serve all the middle class. well, she's abandoned the middle class. families have been suffering with high interest rates, high fuel costs, high grocery costs. there's all kinds of people in the neighborhood facebook sites asking for donations, asking for work, looking for work. there's no comparison. so trump-vance is the only way to go. host: all right, karen. karen did mention the military service. this is a piece that says vets groups call b.s. on g.o.p. attacks on tim walz's military service. it says the unfounded accusations have caused outrage among veterans.

it says that senator j.d. vance's evidence-free accusation that his democratic counter part, minnesota governor tim walz, dodged serving in the iraq war has earned fact checks, but condemnation by veteran groups and former president mike pence's one-time chief of staff says vance claimed walz served in his home state's national guard for 24 years and deployed to italy as part of the u.s. war in afghanistan before retiring in 2005, abandoned his unit and even asserted that walz had "stolen valor." the attacks had been used against walz in both his 2018 and 2022 gubernatorial campaigns, which he won. he says several publications soon corrected it, as noted by cnn, it was two months after walz retired in 2005 to run for congress when his former unit received orders to deploy. nevertheless, right-wing commemorators have insisted on pushing the basis claimed as media matters for america

pointed out. criticism of walz's record didn't go over well with some veteran groups. vote vets promptly fired back at vance, a marine who deployed to iraq once for about six months. that's information on that. canton, michigan, independent, good morning. caller: good morning. my comment is relating to vice president kamala harris specifically when she spoke at a rally yesterday in detroit, and there were some protesters who were trying to raise their concerns about the issue of palestine what's going on in gaza. and though i disagree with heckling during political rallies, i was watching it live on c-span yesterday with my family. however, her response i found to be unpresidential and very heartless, and based upon her dismissal in using the politics of fear saying, well, if you

chant that or raise those concerns, then you're supporting trump or you want trump to be in the white house. i think many of us who have been long-time democratic voters can't have the politics of fear, this lesser of two evils argument in order to support her. so i don't plan on voting for v.p. harris for president and her ticket. either i'm going to vote third party or just sit out this election. host: all right, we have that portion that you were referencing where she was heckled. here it is. >> i'm here because we believe in democracy. everyone's voice matters, but i am speaking now. i am speaking now.

so project 2025, look, if he is elected, donald trump intends to give tax breaks to billionaires and big corporations. he intends to cut social security and medicare. he intends to surrender our fight against the climate crisis. and he intends to end the affordable care act. you know what? if you want donald trump to win, then say that, otherwise i'm speaking. host: you weren't able to hear what the protesters were saying, but they were chanting, "we won't vote for genocide" during her speech, and that's what you heard there. let's talk to clearwater, florida, republican, good morning. caller: thanks for taking my call. harris, i can't see why anybody would vote for her. all she does is smile all the

time. donald trump would never lower social security. i know that for a fact. right now, everything he's good right now, he's doing bad right now, and people are coming over from other countries left and right because of biden and whatever he does. donald trump stopped that stuff when he was there. donald trump had things raised when he was there. donald trump will lower the gas prices right now. everything is terribly high. i don't know why anybody in their right mind would vote for her. she laughs all the time constantly. i mean, this has got to stop. i know people don't like donald trump, but at least he speaks for himself. thank you. host: all right, gary in berlin, new hampshire, democrat. good morning. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. first of all, i'm going to vote for kamala harris and tim walz. i am not voting for trump.

the bottom line here is trump is a criminal. he has committed crimes that he should be held accountable for. namely the riots of january 6, 2021, the mar-a-lago case, the election interference. he knew right well he lost in 2020. that's all there is to it. this is democracy. democracy belongs to the people. also, i don't think trump -- trump does not belong back in the white house. like i said, he is a criminal. and i hope the judge throws the book at him when he gets sentenced in september. host: and this is john in new hampshire, republican, good morning. john, mute your tv. caller: yes, hi. i'm ready. host: go ahead. caller: hi, i'm from new

hampshire. i'd like to speak to that country has always been safer and more secure with the republicans in charge and trump, the policies and country was better off four years ago as to where we are now. don't believe the lies that the democrats tell. it's all built on retaining power. example is that 2025, saying that other people wrote is not trump is not endorsing his policies that he stands on his platform. you go to his website and look at trump's 20 policies, he's promoting, it will save our country. we're better off four years ago than we are today. harris and biden, they had four

years to resolve and bring our country to a more prosperous, safe place, and they have failed in every way. they destroyed our country. people like bernie sanders and obama are behind the scenes controlling our country. it's not the puppets biden and harris. just look at the debates. when they start debating, trump and the conservative policies will win every time because they can't defend the insanity that they promote, woke, d.e.i., and all those other things that are destroying our army, the armed forces, our police, the cities are burning down. they let it happen. so, yes, we'll go with trump. host: and john mentioned project 2025. here's the latest on that from

real clear politics. heritage president to delay book publication after project 2025 firestorm. it says that the president of the conservative heritage foundation will delay publication of his forthcoming book in the wake of a media firestorm, sparked by democratic criticism of the heritage-led initiative, project 2025. notably senator j.d. vance, a friend of robert's and the republican nominee for vice president, wrote the forward of that book entitled "dawn's early light." it says, "there's a time for writing, reading and book tours and a time to put down the books and go fight like hell to take back our country." roberts wrote that in a statement to real clear politics. that's why i've chosen to move my book's publication and promotion to after the election. and jim is a republican in north little rock, arkansas, good morning, jim. caller: yeah, all these liberals

make me puke. i mean, all they want is this criminal, criminal donald trump. they don't mind black criminals burning down their cities, raping their women, do they? no, they just want complete chaos. what this country needs is law and order. look what is happening to england. they want to empty the prisons in england and let the rioters run free, all the illegal immigrants run free, and then imprison the good people of england. if you don't think it can happen here, pull your head out of you know where. host: take a look at senator j.d. vance reacting to some of the attacks that he got from governor tim walz. >> i came from a family where nobody in my family had ever gone to law school. i grew up in a poor family. the fact that tim walz wants to turn it into a bad thing, that i actually worked myself through college, through law school, and

made something of myself, to me that's the american dream. and if tim always wants to insult it, i think that's, frankly, pretty bizarre. now, look, what really bothers me about tim walz, it's not even the positions that he's taken, though certainly he has been a far-left radical. what you know really bothers me about tim walz as a marine who served his country in uniform? when the united states marine corps, when the united states of america asked me to go to iraq to serve my country, i did it. i did what they asked me to do, and i did it honorably and very proud of that service. when tim walz was asked by his country to go to iraq, you know what he does? he dropped out of the army and allowed his unit to go without him, a fact that he's been criticized for aggressively by a lot of the people that he served with. i think it's shameful to prepare your unit to go to iraq, to make a promise that you're going follow through, and then to drop out right before you actually have to go. host: and regarding military service, here is military.com with this article, tim walz, who spent decades as an enlisted soldier, brings years of work on

vets issues to the democratic ticket, says retired army national guard noncommissioned officer who was once a top democrat on the house veterans affairs committee could become the next vice president, presumptive democratic presidential nominee, vice president harris announced tuesday that minnesota governor tim walz will be her running mate. that puts someone with an enlisted background on both presidential tickets after republican nominee, former president donald trump chose marine veteran senator j.d. vance of ohio as his runng mate. d manuel, democrat in brighton, colorado, good morning. caller: good morning. i think it's a disgrace that the republican party would have a nominee like donald trump. he has been sued over 4,000 times and has been convicted of

paying a porn star and a playboy bunny while his wife was pregnant. he has cheated on two of his previous wives. he is an un-christian puke who does not belong in the white house. we need someone that's honorable, not someone that lies consistently to confuse the voters in this country. donald trump is not a credible presidential nominee. and therefore, vote for harris-walz. host: what would you say is your most important issue for this election? caller: honesty or the lack of it. host: all right. and richard in pittsburgh, pennsylvania, independent. caller: hey, how you doing?

hey, i just want to make a couple of comments about kamala. when i see her on a podium, it looks like she's interviewing for a comedy show. but what scares me the most about it is i watched the congressional black caucus, and if you don't think that's racist, i mean, they want to change everything. they want to make blacks in charge of all the committees. they want to get rid of the johnson is the speaker and give hakeem in there, and that's more worrisome to me than who's going to be -- host: richard, they're democrats, so obviously they would want a democrat to be the speaker of the house. but if they take the majority, then they could. but right now they can't. caller: i realize that, but i mean, the thing of it is -- host: i don't think it has anything to do with hakeem

jeffries' race. he is a democrat. caller: yeah, jeffries is one thing. but all the committees, if you guys watched it, it was on c-span, they just -- they're racist, and that's all there is -- host: mary in st. paul, minnesota, good morning. caller: hello, i'm really surprisedded, and i've been listening very carefully to the last few speakers. i think of the gentleman who was maybe about three callers back who made the comment at the end that he would not be voting because he did not like the way in which the candidates, how she had responded, how kamala had responded to the people who were heckling her. i don't think that she was doing anything but saying, in so manym talking. if you want the other candidate to win, continue what you're doing, but say it. this is what she did.

i find it interesting that we're hearing these comments, they're really trying not to talk in terms of race. they're also trying not to talk in terms of gender. but it's very interesting that if we have a candidate who smiles a lot, and by the way, biden in previous years, i'm old enough to remember, was known for that smile that he used to have as a younger man. it was very similar to the kind of smile that everybody was impressed by with obama. he had another dazzling smile. when women smile, or when they talk, they're seen somehow as being different from men in that it seems to make them appear to be weak. we have to get used to the fact that if we're going to have a woman possibly, if we're going to have a woman as a candidate, she will have characteristics that will be different from what we have had the last however many years, 250 years almost, in america. we've had men. women have different manners of

responding. but can anyone, anyone say that she did not handle herself well as the prosecutor that she has been? did she not handle well herself when she was commenting about not being afraid of having a debate with the former president? i think that she will show strength as she needs to show it. but she will also be herself. and i think that's something that, unfortunately, for hillary, and i say for hillary, obviously giving away the fact that i was in favor of her, hillary did not know how to handle all the things that were coming at her from the male candidates who would stand over her, who would hunk over her, who would try to bully her, because she always had to be concerned about how do i appear as a female. and i think that we ought to really stop and consider the gentleman who just a minute ago hesitated, he was trying to say black, he was trying to say he wasn't opposed, and i have a

smile in my voice, because it's so obvious that he was opposed to the candidate, what is the name, the congressman, hakeem jeffries, excuse me. he was opposedded to him, and he did you not like the fact that the people in the black caucus are, excuse me, black. and he's thinking that they're going to take over, as people are who are so afraid of all the immigrants. i've often thought, what if the immigrations were taking place from canada? what if they were taking place from canada? one last thing, i want to speak, if they were taking place from canada, my comment means they would be of a different color, and i wonder if we would have as many objections as we have to these people. but please, i want to say one last thing since i'm a minnesotan. this man, who i was really she would not choose him, because there are many of us who would like him to remain here in minnesota. but this man is not artificial.

he is authentic. the people who don't like him are really confused by the fact that there could be a female number one, and also a man who comes across as the kind of guy who would say the same thing to you or to me ads he would say to higher individuals. thank you very much. host: all right. and we're going to show you a portion from vice-presidential nominee governor tim walz speaking in wisconsin yesterday. >> he knows exactly what project 2025 will do in restricting and taking our freedoms. he knows that it rigs the economy for the super rich. if he gets a chance to go back to the white house, it will be far worse than it was four years ago. raising costs for the middle class, repealing the affordable care act, gutting social security and medicare, the very safety net that protects people when they're down. and, of course, banning abortions across this country

with or without congress. this is where we talk to our neighbors. donald trump is not for you or your family. and trump's running mate shares those same dangerous and backward beliefs. you know, just like all of us in regular america, we go to yale, and then we have our careers funded by silicon valley billionaires, is and then you write a book about the place you grew up and you trash that place. come on. that's not who wisconsin is. that's not who minnesota is. we're better than that. we're better than that. host: and we're taking your calls for another half-hour about the election and who you're voting for, if you changed your mind recently, if you made up your mind. armando is calling us from hawaii, independent.caller: a l. can you hear me? host: yes we can.

caller: i live in hawaii and it's very expensive here. prices have gone up through the roof. a gallon of milk is seven dollars here. in the biden harris administration, inflation is gone up 21%. gas has gone up, it is expensive. everything is expensive. i live in a blue state but i'm not voting for them. i look at one thing. kamala harris is like a chameleon. she changes her colors. she says she's been a band fracking, she wants the votes in pennsylvania. so now she changes alarm knocking a band fracking. she wants the votes in pennsylvania. come on. host: when did you make up -- >> flip-flopping on the issues. host: when did you make up your

mind? caller: when biden endorsed kamala harris. she is not qualified. host: so had you been supporting biden and then changed your mind? caller: i'm an independent, i'm on the fence and i could go either way but as soon as he endorsed kamala harris, this country is in trouble. why? because she is not qualified. they both -- she and tim walz believe in sanctuary cities, they believe in open borders. tim walz, you have to look at one thing. leadership. can you imagine either one of these people as president? now think about it this way. how would they do as far as leaders of this country? tim walz has already failed in

minneapolis. he waited three days before he called in the national guard, waited until minneapolis burned to the ground. that is a failure in leadership. i was a service manager, if i did what he did for my company i would have been fired. you can outdo that. you have to make and analyze the situation, make a decision and he failed. both of them failed. sanctuary cities, where the crime is high, the crime has gone up also in minnesota. host: all right armando, we have to move on. bonnie in pennsylvania, republican. caller: thank you for taking my call. i try to be a monthly caller. i, 74 years old, educated blind

and i am still working. i have a brother who graduated from west point, i have two nephews who are currently serving and graduated from west point. one is in germany and one we do not know where he is. all three of them graduated from ranger school. i believe if would close their eyes and listen to the news, they would truly hear pros and cons. it's amazing how a blind person, that's not looking at clothes or their surroundings, i voted for obama his first term, thinking that he would help the minorities, he would clean up the city. he did not do that. i vote for trump for one reason, he's a businessman. this world has changed.

we cannot put the true politician in office because look what's happened. we are at war, i had the opportunity of traveling the middle east. how would you like to live in israel with a bomb shelter in your home, in your school and office building? it's terrible. how jews have to live. and my grandparents came from lebanon and syria and they came in legally. i am all for immigration if you come in legally. we are truly being drained and this election is very important. 2025 is not anything to do with the political parties, it's a think tank report. we the american people need to be more educated to the process. and as far as the pennsylvania governor -- excuse me that was the last one.

governor shapiro. i know why she didn't pick him? he's too strong and he's smart, he will be and 28 running for president. she does not want somebody that's going to run if she wins, against her. host: did you vote for schapiro in your state? caller: absolutely. i'm a republican, i'm a registered republican but i vote for the person. i crossed ticket vote all the time. host: jean in chesapeake, virginia, good morning. caller: good morning, thank you for taking my call. i've written down all my points. i am a u.s. army retired, 24 year veteran. a lot of similarities with tim walz and i hear all of this that's going on on television. i retired as a master sergeant. i had to sign a form saying i

was going to retire in lieu of being considered for e9 because i had a young child. it was time i wanted to let her grow and see her grow instead of being out there doing different missions. which we had raised another child in. so anyway. i understand his decision. a lot of people if you don't know the system you don't know how it goes. i don't like that against that. i hate to say vanc --, the inexperience on the military policies and procedures. as a senior leader, he would not know a lot of the things that go on. and how walz did not abandon his

union desk unit. he did not just drop a retirement. you still have to apply a long time out. typically with the army active service. i did that a year out. you have to put your packet in and wait -- way before deployment. he did some planning. so i would say don't do it against that. he could've retired at 20. it seems like we came in around the same time. he did more than that but please do not bash him for his service because he and you are both veterans. you would support and be on the ticket with someone. we are fighting against that but then you're on a ticket with someone who did not serve at all. and has male sons, and also

daughters who didn't volunteer in the u.s. armed forces. so don't fight your fellow veteran. the other thing i had is immigration. immigration, i hear again, i hate to call names because i don't want to talk at anyone but i'll just generalize. if you come into the u.s., you are not automatically a u.s. citizen unless you were born a u.s. citizen. but let's say i married a man that he's coming from another country and he is from another country, once he comes into the u.s., that plane ticket or whatever, until he files for a green card and files for citizenship here in the u.s. he is an immigrant. if his intent was to come here. i don't care what you say about where my family did it the right way. no.

if they came and set foot on u.s. soil and hadn't applied for u.s. citizenship they were an immigrant. they did go about it eventually and file for a green card. host: let's take a look at senator vance from yesterday talking about his -- defending his record. [video clip] >> i am the father of biracial children. my kids are back home with my aunt today. i was not bothered at all why would president trump said and i didn't think of it as an attack on kamala harris biracial past as all -- at all. i saw it as an attack on her being a chameleon. super tends to be something else when she's in front of another audience and i think serving the basic additional reality but kamala harris pretends to be something different depending on the audience she is speaking to. she's been able to hide this because she's only been speaking in front of a teleprompter, she never gives unscripted remarks and is hidden from the american

media and people. but we know she is a chameleon. a person who promises to defund the police and pretends to be a tough prosecutor. for three and a half years we had an open border. she said she would bring some common sense and lower inflation to our economic policies and yet she is passing the deciding vote to raise interest rates, raise home prices and food prices. donald trump said something very simple, totally inoffensive, but frankly obviously true to me is that kamala harris is a chameleon. she is a fake and the american people have to look at her record if we want to know how she stands on the issues because her word simply cannot be trusted. >> how can she fake her race? >> she says who she is betting on the audience who she is in front of and that's who she is and has always been. host: that was senator vance in front of reporters, defending

mr. trump's comments about vice president kamala harris's biracial heritage and we will hear from bill in louisville, kentucky. >> my name is bill sizemore and i'm 84 years old per my wife is 85. i am not here to talk about one of the democrats or republicans, i have already made my mind up because i'm old enough to know right from wrong. i had eight brothers that served in the military over 100 years and if they could see on television that our country has let people come in our country and burn our american flag, take it down and put up another flag and the people that are running the country cannot stop that it's a shame. my brothers would have turned over in their grave if they knew that.

i always saluted the men with uniform on ever since i've been six years old, i'm soon to be 85. all the people in america have to do is look at what is going on in america and they can decide which candidate they want and they can see and straighten it out. without me telling them they should watch a little fox news because i try to find them lies and i can. the don't know what is really going on in in america unless they look at the tv and see it with their eyes. with places burning up. a whole city burning and still hasn't gotten back together yet. i never understand why when they have a riot in america that they can lock those people up for destroying public property.

lock them up. we need law-enforcement for this country that we don't have now. host: you mentioned fox news, former president trump called into fox and friends yesterday morning to share his thoughts on governor walz. [video clip] >> if you look at his record with no security, let everybody in. he is worse than they are great knew how radical left she was but he's a smarter version of her if you want to know the truth. he's probably about the same as bernie sanders, probably more so than bernie sanders. he is more so than bernie sanders. that's not a great guy. but this is -- there's never been a ticket like this. a ticket that would want this country to go communist immediately if not sooner. we want no security, no anything. anything transgender he thinks is great.

and he's not where the country is on anything. this is a shocking pack. host: that was on fox news, here is the new york times that cistron criticizes harris and tim walz and suggested debate will happen. after saying days ago that he would not participate in the september debate on abc. mr. trump said will see debating her, i guess in the near future. 10 minutes ago he posted this on true social saying i will expose, during the bait -- during the debate the same way i exposed everyone else during debates. only i think kamala will be easier. mike in palm harbor florida, independent. caller: high there. i don't think either kamala or

trump have the moral compass i would ideally want. however, voting for policy. i'm holding my nose and i'm going to vote for trump. the border has been a disaster. under the biden harris administration. we have wars going on right now under the biden harris administration. trump got the abraham accords on track. harris picked tim walz and i thought it was a slap in the face to mr. schapiro. -- i, i think i'm voting for policy. the whole country should be voting for policy. host: i have this question for you since you are an independent trade when did you decide you are going to be voting for trump? caller: just in the last probably two weeks. host: and what tipped it for you in the last two weeks? what was the issue? caller: i thought maybe she

would pick mr. schapiro who i thought would have been a much better pick, he is pro-israel and i think we should all be pro-israel. they are only friend in the mideast and i think the biden harris team have let them down. not giving them the weapons they need and -- host: let me ask you, if she had picked governor shapiro, would you be voting for kamala harris now? caller: -- i, i have to give it a second thought only because walz -- i thought it would be stronger than he is. i don't like the fact that he didn't go to iraq. but he made a commitment to the military and did not go to iraq. i have now seen much news on the way he's run his state, letting minneapolis -- burn down,, and

has taken pharma policies. host: we will have a local reporter on in our next our in a few minutes to talk in depth about his record and what he did in minnesota so make sure you stay with us for that. marguerite in east rockaway new york, a democrat. caller: good morning. i am decided. i am voting for kamala harris and forwalz. right now we are not even discussing what's going on with women's rights. i am going to be 60 years old, i remember the women's labor movement, however he -- how hard everyone fought for our rights and they are taking us back to the 1950's unequivocally. without even a thought at how -- and how women could even think about that ticket, about trump

and vance. although trump is an older gentleman, i use that word loosely, -- he could have a heart attack and diet any time and then we have vance as president? we kind of know how he feels about women. i just do not get it. host: steve in ironton, ohio, republican. good morning. caller: good morning. i'm for trump, he says what he's done and does what he says. the economy and border and everything. when trump was president. thank you. host: will in anderson, south rolina, good morning. caller: how are you this mornin host: i'm doing good. ller: great, i appreciate you taking my call. there's no way i would ever vote for donald trump. if you could go back and look, i

actually read the mueller report and then following that, the republican-controlled senate intelligence committee, donald trump is little more than a russian agent if he is not a russian agent and has so many conflicts in business, he drifted every step of the way, open invitation for bribery in the hotel he ran. host: when you say he is a russian agent, what evidence you have of that? caller: you read the mueller report and the senate intelligence committee, they both determined him to be at intelligence risk. the obvious many instances of his behavior, i've seen too many things that indicate to me where his allegiances really live.

in addition to that he's a constant liar. talk about him keeping his word. which one? he will tell you both sides of every issue all the time. whatever is popular he is going to do. a draft dodger. if it weren't for fox news who lost $1 billion case for pushing his lies, he's been lying to us about the election since he lost it and these idiots swallow that . it blows my mind people support him. he is a criminal, a convicted felon and has put our national security at risk. having national security documents available for whoever wanted to collect them at mar-a-lago. it is just sad for me to see our country in such a state because what he has done, this one man has done incredible damage and people are too blind to see it. host: let's talk to greg online

-- on the line for democrats in new jersey. caller: good morning. it's a pleasure to speak to you. the big problem in this country is racism and donald trump comes through every way in that category. he predominantly runs -- host: gregory? did we lose you? caller: i'm still here. the point is he speaks from a racist attitude, the supreme court has proven racism is alive and well. we don't want to admit to what this country really is that was founded on that. nothing is going to change that with white folks. the true animosity in the country has come out on every aspect that they are still the

same. they used to try and hide it, white people, but now they are upfront with it. they talk about white privilege and -- we are not looking at the facts of what's really going on in this country. everybody -- is brainwashed. host: gregory. michelle in birmingham, alabama, republican. caller: good morning. i guess according to the last two callers i'm an idiot racist but i'm not. i want people to think about iran about to get a nuclear weapon. who do you want to have in office when they have a nuclear weapon? that's how i'm voting. i'm voting for trump. caller: doug in laramie, wyoming. independent, good morning. caller: good morning. i'd like to vote for chase

oliver because he's the only presidential candidate likely to reduce the growth and size of the u.s. federal government, the world's largest employer. but chase oliver favors open borders about them which i'm very doubtful. i'd like to vote for robert kennedy because i think he gave the most well reasoned arguments , but given a choice between kamala harris i would vote for trump chiefly because his policies would be better for our economy and our national defense and international relations. but i doubt that he will win. host: why do you think he is not in a win? caller: because he is a white man and harris is a multiracial woman and a great many voters judge candidates by their outward appearance. host: so you see her race as an

advantage in the election? caller: for her, yes i think so. host: all right. kiara in spartanburg, south carolina, a democrat. caller: hello, how are you doing. i want to call the man from arkansas a couple of calls back. what black men are raping white women? in what state? and then that other man from philadelphia talking about the news where trump had it last week with the reporters that the try to put black people and everything. they're claiming to talk about race. those were lies and to me those calls should have been cut off because that's a lie.

the white women have persecuted black men enough. that should have been cut off immediately because a lot of people are going to run with that and that's not being fair. donald trump does not need to be in office. host: linda in new hampshire, independent line. caller: thank you. i am calling because of the gentleman from michigan that called regarding the protesters yesterday at the rally. i just want to speak to him and others that may feel that way. i'm very pro-palestine, i woke up in 2014 to the issue. i went to d.c. a few months ago to protest. i'm not anti-somatic. i have a lot of hope and love for jewish voice for peace if not now, the orthodox jews, dr.

finkelstein and bernie sanders and on and on. we have to stick together. netanyahu is a criminal like trump. just think of some of the things trump has said of what he would do to gaza. netanyahu is trying to jeopardize what biden is doing and elect trump. so again, please support harris and walz. i heard on an rfk junior had mentioned campus palestinians per you can google that. i like jill stein and dr. west, but again i think what kamala harris is saying is that if we don't stick together, it will

elect trump and then we are all in trouble. they are both for a two state solution, so please reconsider and god bless you, god bless the palestinian people, god bless the jewish people. we want a two state solution and peace in that region. >> roy in georgia, democrat. good morning. >> how are you? host: it's a rainy day in washington. >> i just went through it in georgia. it lasted four days and was not fun. i wanted to wait to make one comment and it was in regards to the military, i do take offense. i served 22 years in the navy. been over to places that you

don't want to know about but, you never disparage somebody who served. be it rosie the riveter, a wave, people have served that weren't ever in the line of fire that they serve the country. you don't disparage that. that bothers me more than anything. and that somebody is doing that who has served, the advance did it -- and also i'm not deciding i've made my mind up, i went democrat when trump made fun of mccain for getting captured in the vietnam war. i don't understand. the one question you should ask anybody who brings it up on your talkshow is have you ever served.

no? then you don't have any say so. that's my only thing. god bless america. host: janine in fort mitchellville kentucky. caller: good morning. i have an elected official here in -- and i'm voting for trump, i supported in the last four years that he ran and what i find out to be a political perspective is we have open borders and we are a sovereign country and if we don't have a border we are not a sovereign country. we have the 10th amendment which is states rights. we have sovereign rights as kentucky and i'm a teacher, i don't look at your caller or gender, i look at students who needed to learn and my duty as a teacher to teach them morals and correct behavior in the world.

but one thing but i also want to bring out is i'm so sick and tired of hearing people say black, white, red. justice doesn't see color. she has a scale, we are a country of laws, not of men. what is her sword for? it's to protect these laws that we work under as a country. don't vote for someone because of their color. vote for their policies. we even had duke energy they had this taxcutting job act. getting onto them about their rainy day fund and bring down our energy up from very high to very low. the reason this really would talk true, i very much involved in politics and i see people who

don't know where their country or city. they know their city but they don't know who the representative is in kentucky. mitch mcconnell -- i also support thomas nancy, he's called congressman from no -- from know. the reason he votes no is because he reads the bills. host: janine we are out of time for this segment but more to come because up next we will dig into tim walz record with political animist royce -- analyst royce olson. -- then, we discussed tensions between israel and iran and efforts to stave off a regional war. we will be right back. ♪ >> i shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow.

vice president for dashboard will be sworn in as president >> in this office. >>president richard nixon resigned from office on august 9 1974 and saturday, to mark the 50th anniversary, american history tv will air 24 hours of programs focusing on the 37th president, of the watergate scandal and the key players in the nixon administration. focusing on the judiciary committee's impeachment investigation. then it 3:30 p.m. eastern, the supreme court oral arguments in the case of the united states versus nixon focusing on president nixon's use of executive privilege. at 6:30 p.m. eastern, his farewell to white house staff and 8:00 p.m. eastern, his resignation address to the nation and throughout the day, discussions on richard nixon's legacy, historic footage from the white house and interviews

with nixon administration staffers and those who served and worked in congress at the ti watch our special on the 50th anary for the resignation of presidentixon all day beginning saturday at 8:00 a.m. eastern on american history tv on c-span2. >> book tv, every sunday on c-span2 features leading authors discussing their latest nonfiction book. the 50th anniversary of president richard nixon's resignation from office with real author conversations on the 37th president. garrett graff, offer of the book watergate, a n hisry find the comprehensive history of watergate scandals from the 1972 break in a dnc headquarters to president nixon's resignation two years later. former washington post reporter michael dobbs with his book king

richard focuses on the nixon administration's reaction during the 100 days after the watergate break-in. at 8:00 p.m. eastern, the former advisor to president richard nixon and ronald reagan takes a behind-the-scenes look at their administration. watch book tv every sunday on c-span2 and nd a full schedule on yourrogram guide or watch online anytime it book tv.org. >> washington journal continues. >> joining us now is the political analyst with wcco radio minneapolis, welcome to the program. guest: thanks for having me. host: you been covering governor tim walz for many years as a political analyst, can you tell us what you see as his political strengths and weaknesses as a vp candidate? guest: sure. you are seeing the best of tim walz on the national stage right now.

a political communicator, he is very all shocks down to earth. and he really is a populist as well as being popular, he takes populist ideas from the legislature and then he celebrates them once they get past. his real strength is governor here. as far as weaknesses, there are moments where he gets upset, when he is scrutinized and criticized, when something in state government doesn't work like defeating her future or the riots and it's not just the riots happening, there is a response and a delayed response. when somebody is critical of him or theirs tougher questions, he hasn't just face them head on. he is not a the box step -- the buck stops here type of leader and those of the main criticisms i hear from people. host: let's start with the riots

following george floyd's murder in minneapolis. tell us about how he responded and the nature of the criticism? >> when he had shown in the early days of covid a very strong commanding leadership style, that did not come out during the riots. in fact people felt like the response was delayed, that they were slow to get the national guard in play. people would been close to them during that time said one of the things is because of his military background he's very much a chain of command person and he wanted to make sure that the chain of command from the minneapolis police to maybe the state police, to the national guard was all covered before he called out the national guard or that he deployed the national guard. that delay was a day and a half or two days and those are some of the worst days of rioting. those are the moments when i think people have said is he

really a decisive executive? those of the moments that i hear the most about criticism about him. host: once the national guard was deployed what was the situation on the ground in minneapolis? >> once it was deployed by the saturday after george floyd murder, things calm down quickly over two or three days. the lingering time was similar to other cities but that wasn't as a result of the riots. so there was probably two days where the governor's team did not communicate well. they were not available to the media and it was covering the rioting leading to some local news anchors to say where is the governor right now? when you are in a moment like that as a community, i think people were very scared, they were sad and hurt about their community burning and he was on

for two days or a day and a half. i think those of the movies that run through residence heads. and then once the guard was in place, they calm things down, it took a few days but the lingering impact on him was there. i would also note his own team wondered if that was the end of his governorship, if he could win reelection. here we are four years later. host: the republican vp nominee senator vance took issue with governor walz military record and he's accusing the governor of abandoning his national guard unit four they shipped out to iraq. what is the story there? guest: people have shocked me that story for years. it does not get traction. he served over 20 years, he has been the highest ranking member in congress getting to a certain

age but he filed his papers before that deployment was ever announced. i do not see this as something that is a legitimate criticism of him. i think it was more kind of drummed up politically once he started to run for government. host: if you like to join our conversation and discuss governor walz record in minnesota you can do so. our lines are republicans, 202-748-8001. democrats 202-748-8000. independents 202-748-8002. we also have a line for residents of minnesota. so you can call us on 202-748-8003. that is the same number you can use to text us and we are also on facebook and x. would you say that governor -- the governor has rural voter appeal in minnesota and do you think that translates to the

national stage? host: it does -- guest: it does pretty go into a small-town or rural area and he can talk about issues. the last two days i was at the farm show where the governor usually appears. he can talk abut agriculture, now when he represented a more rural district in congress, he was probably more aligned with those voters on issues. but that was before 2020, before the huge urban rural divide that our country faces. i think if he goes into rural areas democrats can pick up one or two points maybe somewhere. he performs better in rural areas during his first gubernatorial race than his second. one of the reasons there was the polarization of the state. and the way in which rural voters looked at what happened in the cities during covid,

during the george floyd riots. >> i want to ask about gun policy because when he was running for congress in 2010 14 years ago he received an a rating from the nra but is now i believe at an f rating. talk about that if you will? >> i think it resembles his journey leftward as he became governor. he was a moderate congressman, a workhorse, he worked on veterans issues, and he was probably easy for him on federal gun things. if you look at the evolution of gun policy, guns is an issue in our politics over the last 14 years, it's obviously becoming more polarizing issue. and i think he's decided to be a democrat in this modern time he

has to shift there. not to mention this push from groups like moms demanding action, post the school shootings. i think he's really kind of decided he wants to push forward with that. so he has advocated for and try to push forward different measures of gun control as governor. so i think some have been successful and some not. >> host: we will take calls now and start with eileen in drexel hill pennsylvania. good morning. >> i have a question for mr. olson about something i saw on twitter it might be true or a rumor. but that in minnesota governor walz signed a bill that changed the definition of pedophilia. and said that it was under the umbrella of sexual orientation.

guest: the bill you referred to, i think one way to frame it was it maybe change the definition of pedophilia, what i believe it did was it made it so folks who have not committed pedophilia but who identified that way couldn't be wrongly charged or discriminated against. it was controversial, it was part of a larger bill and that's one of the polarizing issues here is the progressiveness on some of the transgender issues. that is one of the places where he has let the legislature present him with these bills and then signed them. he's only vetoed one bill in two years as governor and one of those bills is a bill that change that definition. host: just to be clear, if

somebody committed pedophilia would they be prosecuted in minnesota? guest: yes they would still be prosecuted, absolutely. host: robert is calling us from pompano beach florida. independent. caller: good morning. one of my problems with the democrat party, although i like some of their policies is they are tied to the teachers union. particularly vice president harris. they do not want to recognize the opportunity for minority people with school vouchers and school choice. to me that is just a terrible way to promote education and opportunity for lower income people. and the fact governor walz is on this same policy level really is troubling to me. not allowing parents to have the opportunity to give their children the best herd could you comment on that please? guest: sure.

school choice has never really gained a lot of momentum in minnesota. the teachers union is a very powerful lobby here. the governor being a former teacher, his wife being a former teacher. i think it cuts two ways. he is not going to stray away from teachers union policy at all i don't think, especially as vice president. i was singing about this the last few days paid when was the last time a teacher could rise to be vice president at a think that's part of the vision he talked about with education. i've known several students of his over the years, that he was an exceptional teacher connecting with students. i hear what you are saying, but school choice and vouchers has never gained momentum in minnesota so he's never really faced a tough battle on that at any level. he would side with public education advocates on that. you from anthony on x.tion for

as governor of minnesota and a member of congress, walz has displayed the typical fealty to apartheid israel that politicians do. where does he stand on the israel palestine issue? guest: he is a pretty solid supporter of israel and the way he's navigated that issue in the last few months is i think illustrative of the way in which he navigates controversial issues. he would say to supporters of palestine, you deserve to be heard, let's find a way to hear you. let your voices be heard. this is a very tense issue within the democratic party in minnesota pray to represent deville han omar represents the minneapolis part of congress here and she has obviously been pro palestine. mcauliffe was one of the first

palestine -- pro palestine members of congress. i think he's threaded the needle here, but supporters of israel here feel like he is 100% with them as they go forward in this campaign. and i think that's one of the issues that may be helped him with vice president harris because she knew they didn't have a lot of daylight between them and it wasn't front and center issue for him. >>o from time zone, asking this, why did she want a vp who does not have aspirations to be president? that strikes me as all manner of pardon my french weird. >> well, this was tweeted as well and i just said just because politicians say it doesn't make it true. >> what is the -- what do you

know about his ability to work across the aisle with republicans? he's had this trifecta recently in minnesota. he has not had to really work with republicans and do a lot of compromising. guest: he really hasn't paid not the first two years. the first four years he had to work with republicans. he is not seen as someone who really builds relationships with republicans pretty negotiates and cuts deals but he's not the kind of person who sits down in a conversation and has a meal. he was pretty dug in as governor. i hear different anecdotes from congress where he did reach across the aisle on issues. so i'm trying to as i look at this timeline, once he became governor, he really did kind of double down on progressiveness. one of the things there is

lieutenant governor flanagan, they met at an organizing school in minnesota. that is from the further left progressive wing of the democratic party. named after the vice president. there is a sense that she has been his kind of left liberal conscience and that she's pulled them a little left. but again i believe they thought this was the way in which they can continue to build traction. the last thing i will say about that is in 2018 they ran hard on this idea of one minnesota. that they would be one state and he would reach across the aisle. the rubber did not hit the road once the pandemic hit and we were more divided. some of that i put on him, some of that is political environment in general. host: we are having a bit of problems with our phone lines so if you're calling don't give up on us. were working on it and will get

that resolved. we do have a text from angela in maryland who wants to know about e governor's policies on helping families in minnesota like paid leave and child tax credits. guest: the trifecta which the democratic governors in minnesota pushed forward with paid family leave. free school breakfast and lunch and those of the policies that were really celebrated. during his first term he got a lot of pressure from the left. some people on the left were not happy that he did not push harder on those issues in his first term. and it really opened the floodgates in his second term once he had that trifecta. we are waiting for those policies to be implemented. there's been i will call them white red flags with the cloths of some of those policies, way

they will be implemented. but there's no doubt those issues that are nationally popular but people on the left want from the federal government and the implement them here in minnesota. now is waiting to see how they roll out. >> we've got a call from chelsea in clearwater, florida. are you there? you are on. caller: i'm not from clearwater florida. host: is your name chelsea? caller: yes ma'am. host: go ahead. >> what i'm calling about is your guest talking about the new -- i'm sorry. i'll start over again. he was talking about mr. walls

and about his career in the military. in the statement that that he had retired and had turned in his papers for retirement before he left the military. and that was fine. and he didn't go far enough. he had every right to retire since he already served 20 years and evidently he had 24. but he didn't say was to become a sergeant major in the military, you have to do two years of special training. you have to go to a program and

mr. walz had not completed that program and so when he did leave the military he was demoted back to master sergeant. so that was his rank, he's a master sergeant but he goes around saying that he is a commander, a sergeant major. host: let's get a response. do you know any of those details? guest: i do not know of those specific details and what she's talking about. i would just simply say this idea of his military service that he quote unquote bailed out , the timeline does not add up. i think they knew this was going to be an issue once he was a candidate for vice president and they were prepared to play out this timeline.

i know this is an important issue to people in the military. but the idea that he bailed i don't think is accurate and i think that's the way i've heard it phrased from j.d. vance and others. host: on x saying tim walz broad an inclusive element to government. you can see it in the recent campaign stops, he's as genuine as it gets. can you talk about his record on lgbtq issues? guest: he has been a strong advocate for the lgbtq community. he has not wavered on any of those issues. that is something that carried out from congress and so minnesota has a strong lgbtq community, they are prominent, they have strong voices and he has allowed that to go forward. he has navigated us some of the

more advanced transgender issues , members of the legislature that are transgender and he has embraced them and let them kind of lead on policy in that area and has been celebrated by the community for that. host: he was criticized for -- by republicans for allowing or i guess mandating menstrual products in boys bathrooms in public schools. guest: this is an issue a couple years ago, mandating the schools offer menstrual products because of cost in schools. that was the original issue and they made it available in boys and girls bathrooms. i once said to a state senator walk me through this. he looked at me and he said if people are using whatever bathroom and they need a product we have to have it there for them. so this slippery slope issues that i think do really well on

the internet, but i will tell you it is -- it has offended people and bother people in minnesota but it's not part of what people talk about. it's not something people get up in arms about in minnesota. they kinda just shrug their shoulders and say all right. disagreeing with it, it is what it is. >> the governor is a member of the dsl party in minnesota, the democratic farmer labor party. what is that and what should we know about it? >> historically that goes back to the party created with hubert humphrey and others when democrats were having trouble becoming a majority party in minnesota. they came together with the former labour party and they merged into the dfl. the modern democratic party for all intents and purposes here in minnesota, we like to be exceptional here in minnesota and be a little different so they continue to call us.

labor is still a big part of the party. farmers less so but if you go back to floyd olson and hubert humphrey and the progressive era of the 30's and 40's and 50's, that's how that party came together. host: the covid-19 pandemic in minnesota, how does that go, how would you assess his handling of that pandemic in minnesota? guest: i would say for the first phase of the pandemic he gets an a, he handled it well. he was out front, he was communicating well. minnesota was slower to open than other states. we always had statewide mandates rather than county by county. that impacted small businesses significantly. and so, that's where i think people started to feel like he wasn't hearing what was needed, neighboring states like

wisconsin were more open and they seem to be doing fine. the governor points to the fact he believes -- that he saved lives, but really it did impact small business quite a bit. and they became very frustrated. >> finally, what was the reaction to the pick of tim walz in minnesota? is he widely popular as the governor there? >> his approval ratings are very high. they are in the 50's. i think, the reaction is we like to celebrate ourselves in minnesota. and so i think overall people are energized by it. his detractors and critics are shaking their heads and what i've heard from people in the middle is really? is this really happening? and i heard that and said yeah. i think the open campaigning for

the job helped minnesotans prepare for this. i think if he hadn't had the runway of celebration and raising his hands for the job, people would've been more shocked. host: a lot of callers that wanted to talk to you but we are having just a bit of a technical glitch with that so i apologize. political analyst for w cto radio in minneapolis, thank you for joining us. guest: thank you. host: coming up next we will be joined from the foundation for defense of democracy to talk about the latest in the tensions between israel and iran, efforts to prevent a regional war. later we will have the wall street journal's jess raven to discuss the future of detainees at guantanamo bay after plea deals from 39/11 plotters were revoked. -- from three 911 plotters were

revoked. stay with us. >> american history tv features historic convention speeches, watching notable remarks by presidential nominees and other political figures from the past several decades. this saturday, a former vice president richard nixon continues his law & order campaign >> the wave of crime is not going to be the in america. we established freedom in america so americans can take the lead in reestablishing fear in the -- reestablishing from fear in the world. >> watch on c-span 2 watch live coverage of the democratic national committee engine august 19 through august 22. you can watch the republican

convention any time our website. >> expense coverage of this political party conventions this summer. we had to the democratic convention live monday, august 19 as the party puts forth the presidential nominee. her democratic leaders talk about the administration's track record and the vision for the next four years as they fight to retain the white house. the democratic national committee and, live monday, august 19 on c-span, c-span now, or online at c-span.org. visit our website for the latest updates and watchful coverage of the republican national convention. you can cap -- catch up on the conventions anytime.

>> i shall resigned the presidency effective at noon tomorrow. the vice president will be sworn in as president at that hour in this office. >> president richard nixon design -- resigned from office on -- in 1974. and marking the 50th anniversary, c-span will air 24 hours of program focusing on the president, the watergate scandal and the key players in the nixon administration. programs include discussions on the impeachment investigation at 12:45 p.m. eastern and then at 3:30 p.m. eastern, the supreme court oral arguments in the case of united states versus nixon, focusing on president nixon's use of executive privilege. and then his farewell address to staff and then the resignation

address to the nation and throughout the day see discussions on richard connection -- richard nixon's -- on presiixon. watch all day saturday at 8:00 p.m. eastern on american history tv on c-span two. >> look at tv every sunday on c-span two features leadg authors discussing their latest nonfiction books. will mark the 50th anniversary of richard nixon's resignation from office and discussions on the president. the author of the book wateate, a new history provides a comprehensive history of the watergate scandal from the 1970 two break-in at headquarters to president

nixon's resignation two years later. then the former washington post reporter michael dobbs with his book that focuses on the nixon administration's actions after the break-in. and then a former advisor to richard nixon and ronald reagan takes a look behind the scenes as the administrations. find a full schedule on your program guide for watch onle any time at book tv.org. >> "washington journal" continues. host: joining us now to talk about iran is senior fellow at the foundation for defense of democracies, behnam ben taleblu. guest: thanks for having me. host: we are having a bit of

problem with our phone lines but we do have a backup system up and ready. i wanted to show the phone lines with you so that you have them. it is republicans will call us on 202-737-0002, democrats will call on2027370001, and independents, it is 202735 -- get us up to speed on what is happening right now. guest: sometimes it can be based on the last 45 years but the current cycle of escalation comes from tensions. the islamic public of iran has been fighting a proxy war

against the jewish state but really since october 7 that has moved from the shadows and into the conventional battle space. israel is fighting a multi-front war, 427 conflicts and that is backed by a government of the islamic republic of iran. the reported to be israel is where recently accused of killing a political chief of hamas. that is one of the terror groups that hamas supports. he was the orchestrator of the october sixth attack. he was there for the swearing in

of the new a running leader. there were conflicting reports about how he was killed. host: how are they able to do it. a lot of the main stream reporters are talking about a planted a bomb that was put into the statehouse where he was staying and at some point between 1:00 a.m. and 2:00 a.m. after the inauguration ceremony, the bomb was remotely detonated. if that story is it true it would be embarrassment for them to have not properly secured them to have one of the heads of the terror proxy groups have that happen on their own the soil and reminds us of the

larger trend of these assassinations. three missile engineers and a history of sabotage and cyber attacks. that is what is being reported. the regime is trying to push back and saying it was a projectile fire from outside the building that was very targeted and happened to hit the room. host: what difference does that make as to how it was done? is this really just a big embarrassment for them that israel was able to do this? guest: it would be a protest embarrassment if the stories end up being true from axios. that is why the resume is trying to push back and say it was a rogue person firing it from outside. you had some intelligence say it

has dual blaming and that was cascading across tons of newspapers. the word is that they are seeking to revenge the killing of him and atone for that. host: tell us what iranian capabilities look like at this point and what a retaliation against israel, what form that could take. guest: despite the resume having -- the regime having proxy forces, since april 13 that is when the regime fired an historic and first-time ever direct military from its own territory against israel involving medium-range ballistic missiles, cruise missiles and one-way attack drones.

these are weapons of war designed to kill. they wanted to be seen as responding due to the israelis going after what talked about being a building in downtown damascus helping several of the islamic revolution core. they lost the fear of this kind of overt and direct military conflict and that is why every time there is now a cycle of it tensions between iran and israel, there is a chance of a cold wall -- war could come out and the regime is likely to be employing some combination of land attack cruise missiles, suicide drones and medium-range ballistic missiles to strike israel. when you look at the reporting, they are looking at multidirectional proxy fire rather than have the regime fire everything at once from iranian territory against israel, they talked about a 360 degree attack

on israel potentially from the north, south, east, west at the same time. host: howard is the were johnny -- iranian regime word about escalation. april of last year they launched attacks and most didn't hit. has that calculus changed now? guest: if you look at the april 13 and april 14 operation is purely for military, the fact that you look at that the missiles failed before they got there. i think the islamic republic won that round with the israelis because the partner, the united states rushed in and came in to take the win and was not seen as overtly responding and not being able to claim the israeli

military response against the regime. because, it feels like it one that round -- won that round. i think it will push the regime to be more. when you look at what's going on in washington that the whole world is seeing is kind of the change between joe biden and kamala harris and question about power in the region and other geographic commitments. the regime they hope to achieve a death by 1000 cuts and divide the americans and the israelis. that may help explain why the uptick in rocket attacks against u.s. forces in iraq and syria. host: we will start to take your calls. we have a backup system set up right now with new phone lines. that is republicans,202-737002,

democrats202-737-0003. i want to ask you about the economy and how long can they sustain the support of all the proxies they have. guest: relatively it has improved over the last years even though there are issues like inflation and devaluation of the currency on the exchange rate market every time there's a crisis relative to the u.s. dollar. the resume has been able to sell a lot more oil over the past two and a half years with the biden

administration where international and u.s. oil sanctions are not being enforced. in my view, it is a moral and political and strategic failure for the u.s. cannot be enforcing these sanctions and that is where you are and you keep getting the record highs. they may not be doing that which allows the regime to generate enough revenue, not for the people because they are protesting. they take a sharply different view on october 7 and after the accident with the helicopter crash of the former president and they have a sharply different view because the

population understands that the resume will always guns and even under economic duress, this regime continues to funnel limited resources and revenues to developing its missile program, nuclear program and to keep its proxy. host: let's talk to callers. we will talk to tom in pennsylvania, democrats. caller: thanks for having me on. if it was white people doing this kind of stuff instead of muslims, it would be funded yesterday. the reason we are allowing this because there are a certain group that are allowed to be

racist in this country and others can't. my suggestion is for the americans to get tough with iran and it could end this in a weekend because iran is a bunch of hours, just like democrats are cowards. we could go out and take out their oil fields and that would be the end of iran. host: let's get a response. guest: i think the caller is talking about a potential u.s. military option. as the americans have public debates about how to handle this, is a problem we have to handle all we have public debates and the iranians are listing and watching and adjusting programs accordingly. more americans have removed the military option rhetorically or even politically, you can see

the more advanced running nuclear programs. with of the democratic ticking and the potential period of transition and turbulence he and in our democracy, i am quite worried about the period between now and the election and then the election and january 20 matter who comes in because that could be an opportunity for the regime to go ahead because they believe the military option would be significantly devalued. host: just to be clear, are you recommending that the rhetoric on the american side be mentioned military option as a possibility? what are you saying would be the best approach? guest: the resume has to be leave -- believe that the military option is credible. after the u.s. responded to the loss of three american service persons at the hands of pro-iran

malicious -- militias, the u.s. responded in a big way against multiple targets, estate houses and militia leaders in iraq and syria. a brought 20 weeks of a deterrence. when you zoom out, the response ratio between the u.s. and the pro-iran malicious in the region since october 7, the presence is 172 times and 11 times we have respond militarily against them. they are too afraid to even genetically respond against these targets in syria and iraq than we may not entertain politically and militarily what we have been saying is perhaps four or five administrations have all said iran can't have a nuclear weapon.

in the minds of the regime they will not use the military option against easier targets and you may not use it against a harder target met with the president's may say. that tool would be devalued in the eyes of the adversary. when you add on that the regime has missiles and drones that we 10 or 15 years ago didn't have becomes emboldened. that it is why we's -- why we need to signal the will to use it. host: richard is in delaware on the line for democrats. caller: thanks for taking my call. i would like to know how we get out of this mess. how did we finally sold in a way that peace resumes in the middle east and the vocabulary that i hear being used is boom and bust

cycles and response ratios and that sort of thing. i just wondered. i know your organization is there for the defense of democracy and that is a great, but how do you see the region? host: go ahead behnam ben taleblu. guest: everyone wants peace and stability and it depends on what cost and under whose authority and control. the islamic republic if you look at the messaging and narratives coming out of the anti-american regime, they will frame the region will -- regent request and comes sharply with efforts on the ground that we should try to do. when you go back to the beginning of the segment and we

talked about this being a multi-front war that the regime has been able to orchestrate since october 7 and until the resume hat -- the regime has to pay a price, and as long as the public continues to be able to carry out the ideology to the national security of that country, we will be going to those boom and bust cycles. some of it like me with say you have to have a complementary elementary with maximum support the iranian people who have been protesting against the regime. they need to have maximum pressure against the regime, tough economic sanctions, enforcement over time and a credible military threat as a complementary tool. if you don't marry those tools, unfortunately we will have the

boom and bust cycles. host: next is mark in oklahoma, independent line. caller: it is always good to talk. we have talked three or four times. you seem like a very intelligent guy to me and seem like you know the game. what is interesting, the energy you portray to society is like a chess game, mullins get sacrificed, if we are going to stop this, if you have ever played chess, let's tell the real story and tell it blue. if a king is on a king, it is a stalemates. there is no checkmate. so to stop this nonsense of putting young people sacrificing

for the key teens go at it. if they want to have a fight, let them have a fight. if a hierarchy official gets killed, now we will through the game into war. why does that happen? host: host: it is a good point. i want to ask you about how important was he to iran and was it just a point of, he was just some leader who got assassinated in iran and it is embarrassing or was he actually important to their strategic goals. guest: let me start with one an analogy and we can back into the importance. the islamic republic almost lost hamas and we will get back to that. the caller mentioned the game of chess. i would like to put forward a slightly different tabletop game which is backgammon. the whole endgame is reached --

strategic retreat and the number of cases you make is entirely based on luck and role of the dice. strategy and chest matters a lot but context matters and what you can do with what you have, if you keep rolling a bad hand, the situation can change. it keeps moving based on context. it will be hard to bring your skill to bear. sometimes when folks refer to the crises in the game of chess, i like to push back because sometimes we can't control the event and that is light it reminds me of backgammon rather than chess. the islamic republic when it interjected itself into the palestinian issue, particularly in the late 1980's and early 1990's trying to get to the madrid conference and not being able to, they invested in groups

to be a spoiler. the islamic jihad was inspired and hamas was slowly able to be co-opted as a threat to the peace process by the islamic republic. over time, financial support to these groups escalated significantly. when you fast-forward to the arab spring, the hamas headquarters used to be in syria . iran and hamas almost had a falling out because iran was sacrificing everything to keep the regime in power in syria and hamas had moved from damascus to doha. he was someone who could save that relationship, who helped bridge the troubled waters. they got the regime to double

down and give it financial and economic support to the terror groups. he occupies a very special place in the history and the relationship between the patrons and proxies, the islamic republic of iran and the acts of resistance been willing to take a personal story he was having and the trajectory, it is a multi-decade history between iran and hamas. when you layer that on top of the embarrassing way for the regime in which she was killed on their own territory, it gets into that situation that will spoke about which is why the regime continues continues despite having meetings with the saudi's and russians and jordanians, still appears intent on flexing its military muscles. host: this is not necessarily rated -- related to iran, but

the new york times is reporting taylor swift's canceled -- concerts in bnr cancer old after teorts threats and we -- concerts indiana art canceled after terrorist threats were made -- concerts in vienna were canceled because of terrorist threats. guest: it is drastically trying to have its desire for lone wolf radicalization particularly in the western areas and in europe. they are trying to go for another mass casualty terrorist attack. there could be another potential

war getting smaller and not bigger and us not having a decent way to manage this and a way to push back on the terrorist threat and allow the blowback that people believe would be coming and it is manifesting itself in these threats. host: and is in -- ed is on next. caller: thank you for being on. what is a bummer is do we have to hear every caller say good morning and to hear him talk about how pretty she looks good would you ask them to say go ahead instead of saying good morning. host: ok go ahead. caller: you called in -- that is why i called in.

host: lewis in alabama, democrat. caller: good morning. host: go ahead. caller: i called in several months ago and pretty much said what the gentleman said a little while ago. we have got to me -- be tough with iran. we have to be upfront. what we could do is load up six b-1 bombers with blockbusters and incinerator bombs. we take out iran's oil fields.

you can get where they are billing the bombs on the ground. we have 2000 pound bombs that would cave it in. host: what would happen if that were the case as the caller outlined? guest: the caller mentioned -- guest: saying the agency knew where this was happening. i will draw the viewers from a story in axios in june and july of this year that did not get much press. they are stopping something similar to wood, reporting to the office of the direct your of national intelligence changed the language slightly but it matters about their competence and the threat assessments about iran's pursuits and the impact of a lot of iran's nuclear advances.

axios story earlier this summer essentially said that there was computer modeling going on in iran, but the story was leading one to believe that this happened in the direction of weaponization and a critical skill was to create those fears, and when you go back into 2021, you realize the regime produced uranium metal, particularly at the 20% level, which could be a stand-in for weapons at 90%, so the effect is our lack of policy on iran has allowed the regime to incrementally master a series of technologies that i fear, whether it is the intelligence community or the u.s. policymakers or others may not have access to the same picked sure and may omit the aggregate effect of these things, and

given that our debate is about how to manage the iran issue, it immediately leads to recommendations of all-out war, recommendations of all-out appeasement's. they take advantage of this political dichotomy. one thing that they talked about was the sense of perfect intelligence. the iran debate is a fragmented debate, but we cannot even agree on the facts, let alone what to do with them. host: alan, hawaii, independent. caller: hello. good to speak with you. ben, i spoke to you briefly in may with the death of the iranian president. i have a few items if you let me. first, maybe you can bring it up if you have time and if you are familiar, michael doran's

concept of what he calls the alignment, and i will move on because i would like to talk about that, too. i was also going to bring up the concept if the u.s. continues under, unfortunately, in a full out arms embargo, and this is a big problem. recently, information was brought up from public sources about their hardened underground facilities. my other question is about the iranian assassination on july 12 and i was curious if you knew anything about that. guest: who was arrested? caller: on july 12, there was a man arrested by the fbi --

guest: the recent story where the regime allegedly paid him 5000, but he supposedly killed a u.s. official, right? caller: exactly. my question to you last time, i know you did not know much about him, and we probably will not know for a long time, but if you could tie these items together, that would be great and i will let you proceed. guest: sure. let me run through as much as i and quickly and tie them together, although i think they fall into different buckets. the last one you mentioned, which is a non-proxy, if you will, is a pakistani individual. it was reported two days ago based on the doj indictment of a pakistani individual where the regime allegedly went after a u.s. official in the

assassination attempt. fortunately, that person was unsuccessful, but even though there was the indictment issue and thankfully no u.s. official was assassinated, i get to the larger picture which was for the past 10, 15 years, the regime, currently in north america in the united states of america, has been moving from transactional terminal syndicates, and what it shows is a whole page of sloppy moves. ultimately, this regime is poking and prodding and looking for a soft underbelly. if you remember in 2011, they try to work with a mexican drug cartels and if you look at attempts to kill or capture the iranian dissidents or factors or members of the diaspora or u.s. citizens now, this involves from

kidnapping to take them to venezuela to working with european mafias, to working with canadian biker gangs. when you add on this story of the pakistani individual, this is how it gets a hand in it, and it is not just about proxy versus but tapping into criminal networks in countries where crime syndicates can achieve some of the goals it would like to get to the adversary, so even though some say it was sloppy tradecraft in the u.s. was able to thwart it, my pushback is, no, this shows a high degree of intentionality, and they will keep trying which means we have to be super vigilant and have an actual policy towards not just warding this but stopping it -- thwarting this got also stopping it.

if they do have a military threat against those facilities, the gbu 57 is something the u.s. has, and david albright talked about their new facility at the richmond site, and iranians are saying that that may be a future enrichment facility but there is a centrifuge construction facility, but that may be an enrichment facility, and given that is 100 meters below the surface of the earth, that would make some of the qualms we have perhaps not the easiest target, but a really tough target to hit, so it is not just about the israelis developing capability on their own, it is about what threat we can have, as well. if the israelis were looking for

things to put on their shopping list, something that would go above, in my view, some of those would be the kc 46 fuel or to signal that they have an option that they have authority over time against the islamic publics. and about a decade ago in washington, there was a realignment story. and the u.s. had to realign with the other side of the persian gulf with iran, willing to be skeptical, saudi arabia, what have you, but i do think the obama administration was successful took a bit away from the region altogether, and that solved crises in the region, and what we had to do was get them to come together to manage the crisis so that the u.s. could push away.

right now we are seeing out the dividends of the policy but the cost of the policy because it has been a little less than a decade since the policy has been at the helm and has been implemented, and the region is much less safe, and our allies have to hedge toward adversaries because of the political cost and shocks introduced to them from the alleged realignment. host: all right, behnam ben taleblu, thank you for joining us. next, "washington journal's" jess bravin discusses on time obey after plea deals were revoked -- discusses guantanamo bay after plea deals were revoked. ♪ >> the house will be in order. >> this year, c-span celebrates 45 years of covering congress like whether.

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"washington journal," joined by jess bravin, supreme court correspondent for the wall street journal and wrote a book on guantanamo bay. nice to see you again. tell us about the plea deal. what was in it and how long was it in the works? guest: what the deal was was a much life terms for three of the initially six, then five, descendants and the 9/11 conspiracy case in exchange for pleading guilty. they were guilty, they plead guilty, and they go to prison for life, probably staying where they are now, guantanamo bay. host: what was the thought about doing it that way, to avoid a lengthy trial? guest: these defendants have been in u.s. custody for 20 years, and they have been at guantanamo bay since 2006. trial proceedings against them

began in 2008, so this procedure has gone on, you can say, it is somewhat lengthy right now, and what was the purpose of the plea deal? the problem was the government's case was compromised. there is little doubt that they are guilty. i was at the quorum in 2008 when five attempted to plead guilty but were not allowed to for procedural reasons, so there is not a lot of doubt like a case of mistaken identity going on. the issue comes down to government misconduct. that is the obstacle. that is essentially what a lot of people know was the torture that may be a legal term but the brutal treatment of these detainees before they were charged and brought to guantanamo bay. that is a sticking point because the cia did not want defendants to introduce evidence of the way they were treated when they were in cia custody before they were transferred to guantanamo bay. that is the issue that has held

up the case for so long. host: does that mean they could walk as a result of a trial? guest: well, in the very unlikely event that they were acquitted, i suppose, but, no, that is not really a possibility. the only question hanging over it for years and years is whether the death penalty can be applied or not and the prosecution concluded, and legal experts concluded years ago that the case was tainted and the likely result will be the death penalty removed from the table at some point in the proceedings, whether a plea bargain or if they are convicted or sentenced to death on appeal, that was the likely outcome all along. this is not the first time there was a plea deal in the works. there was one several years ago, similar terms, guilty life term, death penalty comes off the table and almost the same thing happened, the defense secretary james mattis at the time learned

about it and removed the convening authority, the military term for the head of the trial, removed the authority for what he said were different reasons, but it was widely seen as an effort discuss a plea deal, just like this -- effort to scuff a plea deal, just like this. host: we have our back up phone numbers are running right now, and i would like to share those numbers if you would like to join the conversation with jess bravin. republicans are 202737002. democrats are 202-737-001. independents, 202, 638, 0025 -- 200-638-0025. you mentioned that three had a plea deal, what happens with the other two? guest: one was severed from the

case last year because he is mentally incompetent for reasons related to his treatments. he has been separated from the case, so what happens to him is unclear. he is not mentally competent to stand trial, according to a military judge. host: how long ensley competent. ac brain-damaged? do we know details? guest: we know some details but he is in a high-security lockup. i have not talked to him, so we have to rely on third parties. he is a kind of posttraumatic stress disorder situation, someone who cannot participate meaningfully in his defense, and that is a requirement, so he has been severed from the case. there was another person in his same situation who was severed

from the case more than 12 years ago for a similar reason, that the convening authority at the time determined he had been tortured and it was impossible to try him and he is off the case, as well. there are six rows for defendants at one tomo be even though there were only five when the case began because the sixth was severed from the case. now there is a fifth one who is out of the case, the one who did not agree to the plea bargain because he was holding out for certain stipulations on what he was entitled to when he was in prison. he wanted treatment for torture victims and guarantees that he would have a certain double of conditions when he was confined for life. the government refused to make commitments in that area, so he held out. the other three gave up. they wanted some of our

guarantees but the a them up. when the plea deal came together , essentially, it was because the defendants, they gave up, they dropped all their demands other than not being executed, and the government said, ok, that is as much as we are going to get. there's nothing more we can get from them, so they said, let's make the deal with the three. and that is what the defense secretary decided was acceptable. host: defense secretary austin revoked the plea deal not long after it was made. why? guest: well, there is the official story and then there is what contacts suggest may have also played a role. the official story is that the defense secretary did not know the deals were coming, and when he learned about them, he determined the gravity of the case was so important that he should take over authority about

negotiations and that he believed given the 9/11 terrorists and the incredible gravity of the crime, there should be a death penalty trial for the case. that was the official story. host: there was also pushback from the families of the 9/11 victims. guest: well, there are thousands of families affected by the case. they are like americans, overall, not knowing what to do. many believe there are not resolutions acceptable other than the death penalty. and if any crime deserves the death penalty, it is hard to think of one other than this that would be more all fight. many of the victims do not believe in the death penalty. they live in new york and new jersey, states that have abolished the death penalty and they don't believe in it, regardless of the gravity of the crime. there states not allow it. and then there are people who

are not philosophically opposed, but like the prosecution, they concluded this was the best way to resolve the case and move forward. the plea agreement did include what you might call a mini trial with an opportunity for the victim's families to question defendants, the defendants promised to answer truthfully whenever they were asked by the victim's families as presented by the prosecution. that offense dropped any right to object to evidence that the government might introduce, including evidence that otherwise they would say came from torture like statements provided by interrogators. the defendants would be able to testify about their treatment and explain what they did and why they did it, but there would be a proceeding that took place. host: right now, what is going to happen? is there going to be a trial? i assume the death penalty is on the table still. guest: what is happening now as

we do not know. this experiment that when tom obey -- at one time obey has been full of -- at guantanamo bay has been full of surprises but there are twists and turns because all of us learned that it is difficult to set up a legal system from scratch when you already have one and to create a new one designed to limit constitutional rights can be tricky, and all kinds of new questions arise as it goes forward. and they have not answered the way regular systems have so what happens next? secretary austin said he was revoking the plea agreement, but the defense says he does not have the legal right to do this, and there are certain reasons why they have an argument. so they raised that argument before the military judge and there may be others, and the

judge said yesterday that he would consider what the rules are for the situation, so that offense claims it is too late and that this was a sealed agreement and it has been modified and the government cannot back out after this deal at this point. the defense secretary takes a different position, and that will be indicated before the military judge. yesterday at the hearing, military prosecutor said nothing. they had no instructions on how to make their argument, so defendants made certain motions, military prosecutors said they were waiting for instruction. host: let's talk to callers. we start with jack, massachusetts, independent. jack, are you there?

we don't have jack. let's try bary, democrat, florida. caller: yes, ma'am -- they were involved in premeditated plan to kill people on our own soil, and i don't see where they should have many rights. having said that, maybe we should stay out of their problems over there. any person killed will be dealt

with strongly and let it go at that. i don't think they have many rights because of the nature of the beast. host: let's get a response. guest: they don't have many rights, they are living in prison, where they have been for decades, and that guantanamo bay naval base, they don't get out, and they are not being coddled. the question is whether they will be put to death and what the procedures are for united states court to do that. the problem comes down to alleged torture. that is why in some ways this is a through the looking glass case because there isn't a lot of doubt that these guys are guilty. there was a time they were very proud of it, and they still are. they are fanatics, terrorists. the problem is the united states' conduct is also on trial because torture is not allowed under federal or international law and the defendants say they

were tortured and there is a law called unclean hands, and another called shock for conscience, and if the government does not have clean hands, it can be sanctioned, so torturing defendants is generally approved of in the american system. typically, when government is conduct in a case, it will be punished in some way. sometimes that leads to dismissing charges. that will not happen here, the aces too serious. the only -- this case is too serious. the only way to sanction the court is to say you lost all authority to put them to death. but that ultimate penalty is off the table because the government has no longer occupies the moral high ground it is supposed to occupy in the case, so that is the legal theory. and then there was a practical one. the cia, which was responsible for their treatment, does not

want that evidence coming into work. we have a good idea of what happened, waterboarding, mock executions, things like that. whether they deserved it or not because of their offenses is beside the point because those actions are not things the cia admitted in open court, even though we know it because there was independent journalism reporting on it. we all know what happened, but the cia does not want it officially acknowledged or introduced in the court, and has been asserting classified rights and all kinds of things to withhold evidence. that poses a problem because if you are put on trial, you are entitled to relevant evidence, and of the government refuses to turn it over, that can be a problem. so that is practical problem prosecutors have. how can they proceed when evidence that they typically

would have a right to is not being provided by the government? that's another problem. host: somewlated to that is from duane in florida, plea deals for 9/11 descendants means no trial. that meanso evidence and discovery that would expe saudi arabia and cia complicity or involvement in the 9/11 attacks. guest: i don't know anything about cia complicity in the 9/11 attacks. that sounds plausible to me, but the question of whether there was a trial and discovery, there would be a trial of sorts involving the sentencing, and the victims' families would be able to ask questions like that, did the cia hire you to attack the pentagon? seems like an unlikely event, but they could ask about that and they could ask about whatever supplies or support

they had from foreign countries. there would be an opportunity for those questions to be asked. but the ca would not be the unit that provides the answers. host: cheyenne, montana, republican. caller: the 3000 people that died deserve justice, and that justice needs to be implemented. these people are still alive, living a life in prison. prisoners do not have rights. you go to prison, you don't have rights, they tell you what to eat, drink, everything like that. these people murdered 3000 americans. these democrats need to get out of our way and let american justice be done. thank you. guest: this is an issue -- this case has been handled by the professional military prosecutors and department of justice prosecutors, not handled

by politicians. politicians get involved when there is a result that is bad for them, like a plea agreement that suggests someone might be lenient towards terrorists and that is where we have a political interference or intervention. in what was a quasijudicial process going on on, obey -- going on at guantanamo bay. the previous authority included a plea bargain was the only way to resolve the case. the current convening authority, career army major general made that conclusion, some who had been working on the case or 20 years. i would not dismiss what they are doing out of hand or endorse it either. i have not seen the documents and don't know all the factors there, but i don't think you could say this was a political

decision by the lawyers and parties involved in the case. these are people who know the facts very well in the united states and around the world, a life sentence without parole is not considered a lenient punishment. host: john from georgia says can 9/11 victims or their general public here from life on detainees and can channels be open for them to express their views, explain themselves, etc.? guest: yes and no. if they testify in court, which would have been, could happen in a trial, if irregular trial goes forward, and is supposed to happen if some version of it ultimately ends up being adopted , yeah, they would testify, and the hearings, in theory, are available to the public. there is going to be one today. if you do not live in guantanamo

bay, cuba, and if you are in the washington or baltimore area, you can go to fort need and see a closed circuit transmission of that proceeding. the defendants will not be testifying. it will be lawyers talking, but you can see the defendants sitting there. i'm going there after this show. i'm going to go and watch it from fort meade, maryland. host: and al qaeda's ideology is out in the public for people to read and learn about if they are interested in knowing what is motivating the terrorists. guest: right. i think the general radical ideology of al qaeda, and they have been successful promoting it and radicalizing people online. that's not a secret. what personally debated these individuals, we would like to check from them, what were they thinking, why did they feel this

was the kind of terrorist acting needed to commit? host: let's talk to david, nevada, democrat. caller: i have called a few times. i'm a democrat. it is hard to call myself a democrat anymore because it feels like the democrats have moved so far to the left that i don't get guys where we are compared to where we started. but the whole 9/11, the professional investigations, do we have a title of whose investigating both investigators? it seems like we get very few details of these investigations, but why was it the cia [indiscernible] and especially about holding seven that collapsed. that was an odd thing that happened that they said on bbc

network that it had collapsed. i'm curious, is there the possibility that some facts have been obfuscated? are there any federal agents involved in 9/11, like the january 6 cover-up? host: let's get a response. guest: yeah, there is a common fallacy called begging the question, which assumes facts that are not proven to them make a statement. those are all things that are not proven and not related to what is going on now at guantanamo bay. what is going on now has to do with people who have been in custody for many years who are almost certainly guilty of the charges filed against them who typically would have been convicted and sentenced long ago, but because of the unique

nature of the military commissions set up to try them and the problems involved with their cruel and inhumane treatment by the cia after they were captured, there are problems in moving ahead with the prosecution. that is what is going on there. i was in new york city on september 11, i was at ground zero on september 12, but all the speculation about it being someone other than the men who are in custody at guantanamo bay who are behind it i think is unproven. we know that these guys -- they are not in guantanamo bay by accident. host: joe, connecticut, republican. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. on calling to express my complete disgust and revels in at the american judicial system.

these guys are as guilty as sin. they premeditated a murder. we execute people for killing one person. in the bombing of federal building in oklahoma, it just took two or three years to have him executed. these people are 10 times other mass murderers -- i cannot think of his name right now -- and yet they are still here. 20 years to figure out what to do with them. we would be doing them a favor. these guys think that when they die in the service of islam,

they are sent to allah, heaven, where they have seven or 10 versions to calculate with, so do them a favor -- host: what do you think? guest: i will not get into their current religious beliefs. right now, they do not want to be executed. that is with the negotiations are and what they have been about. host: and diane -- sorry to cut you off, but she would like to know with -- with the three prisoners remain in guantanamo bay or be brought to an american prison? guest: they would almost certainly stay in guantanamo bay because law does not allow bringing them to mainland for any reasons. this case was already moving extremely slowly and had any flaws. 12 years ago and 14 years ago. at that point, the attorney general said let's treat these guys the way we treated timothy

mcveigh, to prosecute them in federal court. federal court moves relatively quickly and has established rules, and has proven quite capable of convicting people suspected of terrorism when the evidence is there. so they propose to do that. they were indicted in new york and could be now prosecuted in a federal court. had that happened in 2010, had that case gone forward then, we don't know. probably they would have been convicted and sentenced long, long ago. but when holder announced the plan, there was, just as with the plea deal, massive political blowback, mainly republicans, but also democrats saying we do not want to have the trial in new york city, keep them at guantanamo bay, and the obama administration caved in and canceled plans to prosecute them in federal court. so having treated these guys

like timothy mcveigh, probably we would have averted. but there is a big the station, timothy mcveigh, killed 160 people, blew up a federal building, and 3000 victims is far greater, but how do you even quantify how horrible these things are just a mark one difference -- things are? one difference is timothy mcveigh was not tortured by the cia to make him talk. and that means the issue that hangs over this case was not present in that case. everybody knows timothy mcveigh, the prosecution was overseen by the current u.s. attorney general merrick garland. host: and we are speaking with jess bravin, thank you for joining us. coming, open forum. please start calling in now. take notes of the new phone numbers just for today, republicans, 202-737-0002. democrats, 202-737-0001.

independents, 202-6 to 8-0205 -- 202-6 to 8-0205. >> we are welcoming into a national crusade to make america great again. taxes will go up, and anyone who says they will not is not telling the truth. >> we are in the midst of a springtime of hope for america ends. >> with beliefs in the american dream. >> read my lips. i still believe in a place called hope. here is the question for the

american people, who do you trust in this election? >> the real choice is whether we will build a bridge to the future or the past. i have confidence in the wisdom of our people and future of our country. >> i want you to know me for who i truly am. >> they had their chance. they have not led. we will. i'm john kerry, and i'm reporting for duty. >> four years of moments i could not see and could not forget. >> it is time to change america. >> i was on my own man anymore. i was my country's. >> i don't believe rolling back regulations on wall street will help the small business woman expand with the laid out construction worker keep his home. we have been there. we have tried that. we are not going back, we are moving forward. >> under my administration, our friends will see more loyalty

and mr. putin will see less flexibility. >> he would like to make america great again. well, he could start by actually making things in america again. >> we will make america safe again. and we will make america great again. >> here and now i give you my word, if you interest me with the presidency, i will draw on the best of us, not the worst. >> this towering american spirit has prevailed over every challenge and lifted us to the summit of human endeavor. >> c-span, your unfiltered view of the conventions, powered by cable. >> "washington journal" continues. host: welcome back to "washington journal." we are in open forum until 10:00

a.m. eastern. former president trump announced this morning that he will be holding a general news conference. you can see the truth social post, at 2:00 p.m. at mar-a-lago and palm beach. we will cover the news conference on c-span. be sure to mark your schedule for that, 2:00 p.m. eastern here on c-span with live coverage. also today, the aarp executive vice president and chief public alessi officer deborah whitman will deliver the keynote remarks on the organization's priorities , hosted by boston college's tenter for retirement research. you can watch that event live starting at 12:15 p.m. eastern on c-span, also on c-span now and online at c-span.org. we are taking your calls, anything public policy or

politics related. we will start with helen, new york, democrat. caller: good morning. host: morning. caller: i'm calling because i'm a resident of new york state. my problem with what is going on in the whole media environment is i never understood for the last six years the make america great again. i have never had a republican explain it to me so i could understand exact whether policy is. if that information could come to us through washington journal? because when you go and try to search it, donald trump just keeps saying he's going to make america great again. i don't understand what he is talking about. it makes no sense to me. when was america not great? host: max, georgia, independent.

caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. in this day and age, we argue about politics here and there, and about this policy, that policy. i think one of the things we find ourselves with the state we are in now, we turn our backs to god. i would like everybody to be on the same page. our salvation is not in a politician or government but jesus christ. let's cool down the rhetoric and just look to the bible and get back to worshiping the lord. i think that would go a long way in healing our nation. thank you. host: let's talk to robin, republican, california. caller: i'm a republican, also a

mother. i have three sons who are sheriffs, when is a homicide detective. when we get together, they tell me how their jobs have changed so much. the prisons are being shut down. they can hardly catch anybody or do anything in california anymore because we have a governor who has made leniency laws. you can actually walk out of walmart with a cart of $900 and they cannot do anything. when i listen to your guantanamo bay and the prisoners of 9/11, i'm so ashamed of this country that they are still in jail, and we are still paying for their food and their care, and 3000 people died because of them? this is like republicans are

voting republican. we would like the police to have power again. we would like criminals in jail longer. anyhow. host: let's look at what vice president harris said about the supreme court reforms and the immunity decisions. [video clip] >> and compounded with everything else we knew was on the line, think about the fact that last month, the united states supreme court basically told the former president, who has been convicted of fraud, that going forward he would be immune, no matter what he does in the white house. think about what that means and the changed circumstances when you think about what that court decision means. donald trump has openly bowed, if reelected, he will be a dictator on day one. that he would weaponize the

department of justice against his political enemy, that he would wound up peaceful protesters and throw them out of our country, and even "terminate united states constitution." so let us be clear, let as be clear, someone who suggests we should terminate the constitution of the united states should never again have a chance to stand behind the seal of the united states of the united states -- of the president of the united states. [end video clip] host: that was from yesterday. if you would like to see that event or other campaign events, you can find that at c-span.org. mike, ohio, democrat. caller: good morning. how are you today? host: doing great. caller: our country is so divided.

i'm 70 years old, when i was growing, this was a better country. people did not hate each other because they were democrats or republicans. they worked together and got stuck done. i don't recognize our nation today. it scares me. donald trump has brought nothing but chaos, chaos or chaos. thank you, have a nice day. host: scott, california, independent. caller: hello. i really love the show. if i could quickly say thank you so much. you were on two weeks ago, i looked at the clock, it was 28 minutes until 7:00 on the west coast, and it was 28 straight minutes of phone calls, no interruptions. the only thing you said, my friend, was so and so is the

next caller from wherever. they made their point -- it was unbelievable. i would suggest a lot of people watch and take notes, and some of the commentators with dual to study that. the reason i'm calling today, ma'am, the theme of my call is what is going to be the day after the selection? that is what i would like folks to think about. we've had these candidates on the scene for a while, and even though harris is the newest presidential candidate, i just cannot see, no matter who wins, this country coming together and being like it should be. the hatred that i hear, expressed from some of these folks on both sides, i'm a true independent.

i care what everybody has to say. when bob marley would start a conversation, he would say it is so good to be here as one entity, brothers and sisters, so the day after the election, does anybody really think that this country will come together for either one of these candidates? what i would suggest is perhaps, and it is not like i'm a tremendous family man. he has got a lot of inadequacies like we all do, but i would suggest we take a look at what mr. kennedy has to say. i don't agree with a lot of what he said, but i don't agree with a lot of what all humans have to say. host: are you going to be voting for rc junior? caller: i believe i am because i don't know how i can get back to either one of these parties. i think it would be the greatest

thing ever in my lifetime for the american voters to deliver a message. we get messages back to us all the time. we need to deliver a message to these people that it is time for the country to truly come together. we are all american, a lot less hate. i also would like to impress upon people that all they do is lie, all these parties do is lie. they treat us like we have the intelligence of a piece of wood, and i'm not very intelligent myself area trust me on that. but having said all of that, i would just say, please, people, we have a chance this time around to deliver a message to these folks in washington, d.c. it is time for our country to get back together. thank you. host: host:--

host: lee, new york, republican. caller: i'm concerned about the 9/11 prisoners who all of a sudden have tremendous urgency. a while ago, president biden said we have to close down guantanamo bay because it is too expensive. we will move these prisoners. if we close down guantanamo bay, yes, because it was too expensive, if we close down guantanamo bay and the harris administration continues with biden saying we are going to close it down, that would be very dangerous of this country, thank you. host: robert, ohio, independent. caller: good morning. thank you.

[indiscernible] host: dan, florida, republican. caller: hello? host: i, dan. caller: just wanted to bring up the fact that tim walz signed a bill that removed human rights. he believes that pedophilia is a sexual orientation and it is ok as long as you don't [indiscernible] does anyone else have a problem with that considering he also would -- that he was a teacher for a long time, doesn't that creep anyone out? does anyone thinks that is weird as far as the whole transgender and all that stuff? no one has a problem? everyone is fine with that. i don't know who else is not,

but i'm definitely not. steve, wisconsin, good morning. caller: i wonder if c-span could ask this question, on a scale of one to 10, with one being mild, 10 being severe, how would listeners and viewers rate the january 6 riot and how would they rate the summer of 2020 riots? i would like you to ask them what they would rate those things on the length of time of the riot, on the dollars with the damage, and the number of deaths and the number of injuries. host: all right, appreciate the suggestion. anthony, new york, democrat. caller: thank you. i appreciate you taking my call. you had a last caller a while back discussing 9/11 and it

would be wonderful c-span would present to have a day where we discussed abnormalities or the things that occurred on 9/11 that have led to this day. united states has been on a vested war footing ever since that time. so much stuff that does not make sense. kerry do, a french glider pilot tried to hold a banner off of the torch of the statue of liberty on august 22, 2001, and he got caught on the torch. and six jets were instantaneously sent into the air and circled the statute and could have easily taken them out of the sky. it was 22 days later on 9/11 that no jets were scrambled and here we had an office was dick cheney, which were defense

contractors -- host: you said that no jets were scrambled on 9/11? that is not true. caller: there was a 1.5 hour delay, the comptroller on duty picked up on the fact that it had been turned off as a taxi to the runway, and he reported to norad, if you go to the article in the new york times on may 4, you will see that they destroyed the tapes, and they recorded divide controllers -- host: anthony, were you in new york city? i know you're calling from new york but i'm not quite sure where you are. caller: i'm in long island. i'm involved with the controller who hit the first tower, and he gave norad several responses, and the controller had been changed. host: the controller at --

caller: at the track on center -- at the tricon center. the transponder was set out for the wheels went into the fuchsia lodge. he called norad. norad normally responds no matter what. host: i do not know -- the controller worked for the faa or as an air traffic controller, at the airport? caller: yes, at macarthur airport. host: at the airport, ok. so he has a direct line to norad? caller: absolutely. are you kidding? they are the first line of defense, he was former air force. when he retired, he went to work with air traffic controllers. host: let's talk to audrey, west virginia, independent. caller: good morning. i would like to ask a couple of questions. first, every time i ask anyone what specifically has trump lied

about, no one can give me an answer. i looked it up online, and i cannot find anything listed specifically that he has lied about. in addition, the immunity for the president, do they not realize that without immunity, that president biden and kamala could be sued for the destruction they had caused was the illegal aliens and was the troops that were killed under him? i don't understand why they do not want to complain about that since it can affect them to? host: jim, illinois, democrat. caller: yes, thank you. i have done a lot of research. this is really down to the heritage foundation. this is voting straight democrat.

what bothers me about the heritage foundation is the executive immunity. there is a good documentary called "retribution." they say how everybody was going in and out with social security protocol, which that was an issue. and then one solution was to stop immigration, to build a 2000 mote and fill it up with alligators and snakes. that was his solution. and then i also found out about inflation. drilling for more oil is not the issue. the issue is water.

[indiscernible] that is why we are having all this problem. their home insurance is going up 40%. he is trying to stop this, but i don't know how else to explain it. host: that is going to be the last comment for today's program. have a great day. we will be back with you tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern. ♪ >> here is here is today's live

coverage. we will hear from the aarp chief of public policy about retirement, disability, and the organization's priorities. it is a discussion hosted by boston college. at 2:00 p.m. former president trump will speak to reporters at his mar-a-lago residence in florida. then vice president kamala harris and her running mate tim walz will hold a campaign rally in michigan. you can watch live on c-span, the c-span now app, or online at c-span.org. >> i shall resign the presidency effective at noon tomorrow. vice president for will be sworn in as president at that hour in this office. >> presintichard nixon resigned from office on august 9, 1974. saturday, to mark the 50th anniversary, american history tv

will air 24 hours of programming focusing on the 37th president, the watergate scandal, and key players in the nixon administration. programs include discussions on the judiciary impeachment investigation at 12:40 five eastern. at 3:45 p.m. eastern, the supreme court oral arguments in the case of united states versus nixon focusing on president nixon's use of executive privilege. at 6:30 p.m. eastern, nixon's farewell to white house staff. at 8:00 p.m. eastern, president nixon's resignation address to the nation. throughout the day discussions on richard nixon's legacy, newsreel footage from the white house, an interview with staffers and those who served and worked in congress at the time. watch our specl on the 50th anniversary of the resignation of richard nixon all day beginning saturday at 8:00 a.m.

eastern on american history tv on c-span2. >> next up for c-span's coverage of this year's already convention, we go to chicago for the democratic national convention. watch live beginning monday, august 19 as the party puts forth their presidential nominee. here democratic leaders talk about the track record and vision for the next four years as they fight to retain the white house. the democratic national convention, live monday, august 19 on c-span, c-span now, or c-span.org. don't miss a moment. visit our website for the latest schedule update and watch our full coverage of the 2024 republican national convention. you can catch up on past conventions anytime online at c-span.org/campaign or by scanning the code. >> weekends on c-span2 are an

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