a must read "washington post" column a number of core issues on the agenda. with "face the nation" for political junkies and peter is one of the most successive republican strategist so with the house republican leadership as a top legislative strategist of james baker the third with presidents reagan and both presidents bush 41 and 43.

with those policy issues but peter is the first in the best call. with community engagement to moderate the success into a dive into new topical issues said your questions to me we are a completely

non-partisan in organization we are partisan but only of the mission and a and policy but still from time to time the election season our issues are propelled to the fore of the debate this campaign season has ben an exception. [laughter] in you have heard her voice loud and clear with bigotry and stereotyping is part of the debate so i am more intent to make impact we're so happy to have our panelists here to rapper heads around this moment we start with the session on the art of perception and

how difficult it can be two-seat beings hiding in plain sight. the expectations were so out of sync, what did we miss? >> thinks having me thanks for the important work that you do in some sense it is blindingly obvious what we messed trying to figure out on the democratic side during the primary process was the deep seated cents i

think that is the wrong word because i don't take that the voters that i have talked to are a greek as much as they are anxious about their futures and their children's futures and america's place in the world that you might have read and many of them about a world that is changing demographically and socially in ways that they find uncomfortable. so donald trump on the right i don't want to aggravate you at the start. [laughter] and bernie sanders has tapped into different forms of the anxiety with a real

big dollop of icing on top of that anxiety this is where the a intercoms and the frustration with politics as is usual. with that same inability of washington to get done what they think needs to be done. so the part that we don't understand is a combination how far in this cozy and where it is channeled in the future. >> take a stab at that because we have spent time together. >> if we add an equal opportunity.

>> that was a the recipe that was in "the washington post". >> i want to say i read them everyday so that i remember how i should think. [laughter] after all i am ethnic irish second-generation and roman catholic so i have no reason to think the other way but if you look at the situation the question everybody is asking i think from experience, i have spent on presidential campaigns i spent most of my time in new

hampshire you see the way the campaign develops and basically i have a candidate there are reasons for that but in regard to what we missed i think most of us thought the primary was on the level. and i had a sense there was a hostile takeover starting sometime in october. when i say a high style takeover i need what i am saying. where mr. trump has gotten himself as the presumptive nominee means effectively the whole ground game has been changed with regard to the kinds of issues and policies and expectations republicans have to be the nominee.

i don't think we have seen anything like it before i am tired of hearing about 1860. it is like guess what? you can look back on history the phenomenon of the ability constantly that intrigues us telling before then have been on donald trump. >> an attorney period -- in a two week period she is a progressive columnist because the leadership wants to know what is going on. did we miss it? we miss it if you support mr. trump by a brother who is a radiologist in maine

who went to college just a regular guy thinks he is great you say what is it? they say they are frustrated so i promise i will finish i know america is not great. >> so as your perspective with the role of the media that donald trump is the most causally available candidate and has managed to evade the question how have you seen the change in the role of the media in which candidates are elevated? >> that is a tough question

in 60 seconds but i will give the example. with the things that our new to this cycle. donald trump as the kennedy could push everybody else out because of the things he said rollout was going on. the coverage last week on cnn i don't normally watch because i watch box because i need to be indoctrinated. [laughter] they showed him coming in all of the rnc it is like o.j. again. [laughter] so what happened is we were a campaign operative working on a campaign to read everything you can hopefully favorably. to be mentioned on the

sunday show. most of what you have to do is get your message out through grass-roots door-to-door the old-fashioned way because that much media exposure is way too expensive so when you have that phenomenon there hasn't been that the availability of the outlet the one thing about media if you think john mccain was different occasionally it got him into trouble but he was very comfortable with the media but donald trump doesn't have anybody here and telling him if we go back to the editorial board to talk about the transcript of that i highly recommend everybody in the room but

you never let it candidate goalie and blind. soviets to do all the media you want. >> such talk about that littered landscape and how those institutions can come to a reckoning one is the republican party won is the media and with the jewish audience i can say there is stuff to do because to put in the framework of the

prayer so we fail that paradox of donald trump. and to be constantly available in the failed to adequately question him with those bright and shiny objects so whenever he dangled in front of us whether intentional or not we went chasing after that he said mean things about john mccain on march 21st he came to the editorial page of the "washington post" with a very clear strategy not to ask questions or nasty questions the basic

questions of any readers because people really do what substance with their cat videos. [laughter] i watched the occasional one myself. i want to risk really basic questions that you as voters and to peter said they were softballs but he is right it was intentional. but the answers were eliminating the problem is it was march 21st for goodness sake. so there is a lot of things to be said about the role of

the press but the grade that we get is not what my father would have approved of. >> way you talk about what is going on the main focus real americans and tutti is a little more and what is the responsibility and we hope to get the answer right 100 percent of the time.

because the job is to find the mood in the energy of the voters and to be responsive but to distinguish between the candidate a so i feel compelled to write about them. it is that people are interested but so if you do what i do that it has some potential impact there are supporters who have horrible things to say but as a general matter the trump

boaters and others are not bad people who have anxiety with david instinct with the very powerful cover story include the well-known writer. i take it is $400 on the spur of the building and 40 percent are in that phase into the history of financial insecurity. with something like that it is like your abuse system is low. your greedy, your instinct

to play meson others, immigrants bleeds than on others. so when a candidate comes along blue can take a vintage of the reduced and he insisted on you get what you get. >> with your like to address this or failed to lead a flourish or put it down? >> again the dynamics have changed. i don't mean to sound like a prude but the country has a full-length picture called whiskey take go foxtrot you know, what that means the

bar has been lower but what bar with decorum in politics? maybe that is the politics of it -- the public side because it used to be underground but if you look at the landscape of the republicans who ran for the nomination for the party this year you have good candidates if they would be the best leader is worked out through the process but it was also hijacked but it didn't matter who had the best answers to real policy questions even on the night

is when mr. trump did pretty well he scored 0k and that taps back that people inside the beltway don't understand people are outside understand them better but the bottom-line what they don't understand right now the system as it is set up of is designed to do nothing it is equally divided but it is closely aligned so certain pieces they slowed some things down but today

in our political system nobody is a legislator in a more of a half to do is educate and i am working hard for this issue to keep peace in the middle east but nobody holds accountable anymore to the pieces of legislation. . .

kenny damper it down? should they is a different issue. should a political party embrace a candidate in the end, not just to wins the popular vote but if you want the support of the party should there be a certain set of standards that you hold yourself to? i think that is a reasonable question. i want to say one thing. this is really important. i have a big problem with the current president for a lot of reasons. there's one thing i've never had a problem with president obama. i have never once been ashamed or cringed at the way he has conducted himself as a human being, as a a father, and as a husband, ever. [applause].

i'm probably going to get kicked out of the party for that but -- [laughter] >> you always have a home with us peter. [laughter] can we look at the impact. i'm not going to ask any of us how something is going to come out in the end because we'll look at what is going to happen in the next few months. so how did the dynamics in the presidential primaries impact state and local candidates? we are really puzzled by this uncharted water of rank and file republicans struggling with what to do with their nominee. what are you looking at? >> we have one potential pickup in the united states senate and that is harry reid's seat in nevada.

>> but we have some friends from nevada here. how do i say it? nevada. i'm trying trying to keep my main accent out of it if you look at the other states briefly and you come up the line you look at the situation in which incompetent republican senators who are what they would call endangered the other party would look at them as a key target for a pickup. the key, it runs at different in different states. so you have new hampshire, you have ohio, rob portman is the incumbent. you have pencil vania, you have now missouri on the list, yet potentially a situation in north

carolina that is getting dicier, richard burr has always had a tough time. and then you have florida. you have some other states for potentials, don't think i missed anything. here are the things that we usually look at in a campaign. look at how president obama did in each of the states. look at where he performed in the different districts and then look at how the republican candidate in the past has either outperformed or performed behind the democratic president. so if you looked at ohio alone where rob is running against ted strickland, the former governor who has a great name id, and if hillary clinton were to win the state of ohio by seven points, let's say better than six, our ohio votes here? >> the rest are home registering

to vote. [laughter] >> sorry about the buckeyes. if you look at that state alone, the question is when we look at demographics is, if hillary clinton were to outperform donald trump in the state of ohio by eight points, what happens, what happens to rob portman in that case? so what is going to happen to her candidate, what what would happen in the old binoculars would be that portman cannot make up the votes that he needed to make up. unless of of course he localize the races, so what he's saying is that we want you to go back and localize these races which our incompetence are doing anyway, it does not come down to an issue of who the best senator is. i would submit to that the fact that the younger loss to james in new hampshire, in in the year that he lost the tendency, they were probably tired of george w.

bush because his favorability is a senator was off the charts. so trump underperforming on any of those tickets will put in my mind the senate in play, i'm not saying anything they would not say to you if you were sitting over at the national republican committee. >> saw everything that peter said, plus here's how it will play out in the next few months. your republican senate bid candidate. their first question is, senators sell and sell or candidate so-and-so, what so-and-so, what do you think about what donald trump said yesterday,/this morning about it. you are going to have to figure out what to do. the next day you are going to get up and do the same thing all over again. so the advice to not nationalize the race and to run it as a local race and to run as your

man or woman is a very good advice. it is going to be very difficult for these candidates to take. number one, number two perhaps not a coincidence that a number of these at battleground senate states had the republican is going to be running against a female challenger on the democratic side. and that just takes the gender gap that is going to be confronting trump and magnifies it to i think at least half if not a detriment to the republican candidate. i think people like me should learn to get out of the prediction business, i think it it is going to be a very difficult fall for republicans in the senate. >> talk about the role of gender also. again, a woman nominee and really one of the first -- that show that we are going to be in

that repetitive stress pattern with donald trump started last summer which is megan kelly issue, and characterizations of women. >> so it's going to be just fascinating to watch how donald trump, to use his phrase, plays the woman card against secretary clinton. he has been so canny on the way he has gone after and picked off, one by one his republican opponents and he nailed them with absolutely perfect nicknames that resonated and therefore did damage. i am not sure i am seeing that same brilliant strategically when it comes to secretary clinton. i think the nickname that he has given her has some resonance

potential, it's not a value judgment, it simply looking at the polls and her polls on trustworthiness. so when he says crooked hillary and says he is going to go after her a mac, i get that isaiah political strategy. the other two things that he has gone after her on as an enabler of her husband's peccadilloes, and a someone he would not be on the stage if it were not be for the fact that she what is a woman, just seemed to me absolutely all but guaranteeing to take the 70% negative rating he has with women and drive that even higher. i just do not see the women who are potential for grabs for him say the bourbon women, republicans suburban women, i just don't think they're gonna look at that say he really has a point, she has done nothing

except be a woman her whole career. not convincing. so as with anything trump related, i guess guess i'm prepared to be proven wrong. one final thing is, i cannot wait for those debates. i think that -- there such different characters it's like i cannot even come up with the animals in the cage analogy. i think she has every prospect of really getting under his skin in some way in the debates. and having him say something that is going to be splashed all over the news. of course, maybe he has a prospect of getting under her skin but she has done more debates. so sign me up.

[laughter] >> the floor is yours. >> oh, the good old days. >> i want to say something a little different because i think people form judgment and you try to have an open heart and open mind, and i think everybody is trying to figure out how somebody that seems to say things that are so outrageous can end up where they end up. but that's because it has been turned on its head. what i want want to say is the reason that anybody thinks, anybody thinks that donald trump could be hillary clinton in a general election, i've been thinking about this, what is it, what happened? you know what it is? the the clintons have lost their mojo. they are not groovy anymore.

there was like 20 some years ago. when you looked at mrs. clinton, i high regard, i'll, i'll be run out of the party for sameness two, i do, i have high regard and respect for mrs. clinton. but when i looked at the stage and i looked at hillary clinton and the president, i mean they look like somebody's grandparents. >> on mike bernie sanders. [laughter] >> but wait a second. bernie bernie sanders is playing that larry david card. there was a show about bernie sanders called curb your enthusiasm. [laughter] here is what happened with the clintons. i do not think they understand that it is that the groove, when they ruined not fleetwood mac song, they think it still groovy time. my kids kids and your kids are looking at them like who are they again? they missed it.

there two generations off. they have not figured out how to recapture it. i think what mrs. clinton has thought is that it was not about the mojo that they had before, it was about the fact that her resume and her experience, and her accomplishment with united states senator first lady and secretary would be more than enough to hold her own and to get her to the general. by the way, the old clinton mojo should have left anybody in the dust. there should not have been room. that's what i would say back to in the liberal, there should there should not of been river bernie sanders. on our site, hey [applause]. we have our own problems. [laughter] >> so this is an amazing audience. i want to thank you all for incredibly thoughtful questions that are coming in to this. i am

going to aggregate quite a number that have come in in relation to peter's observation about the hostile takeover. they were wonderful questions and one of them focused on how we can restore, this is not merrick characterization, a sense of a greater respect for tolerance in the republican party and another set of questions was around, you talk about hostile takeover but this does not build on the previous and to the sis of government in science and other things we have talked about on the stage. >> i think the second part of the question is fair, that would take me now or to answer. i think the first part of the question is, here's the plan. a group, a sliver, just like the left used to be in the democratic party which is white cannot nominate until bill

clinton, centerleft candidate, far left and the would be center-right. the right has taken over enough of our party to be able to stop its, to demand and command different things. i am happy to become part of the party that is not in the minority in a way that gives them the majority so that they have to listen to us. the reason the party is got to the way it is on our side is that we are in the majority in congress, in order to have a majority you have to have that sliver of people based on the demographics in this country that are going to have views that are further to the right. i do not even want to call them extreme because frankly, my word for them is exotic. >> i'm going to get a lot of questions about that on the set. >> so i am happy to move back. what happens happens to parties one of three things. trump loses in the right says we

do not nominate a right enough candidate. trump loses and to mrs. clinton and it is close and a bunch of the same candidates come back again that are center-right. trump wins,. [laughter] [applause]. >> it was your third. >> a, two, four, trump wins and he does one of two things. he either does assemble a group of people because this is what ruth and i were talking about which is why are there some reasonable people that have been in republican governance community if you will, you cannot just walk into washington and figured out. there is no experience to

govern. this is not a business, there are people who work in governments, by the way every candidate runs down anybody who works in government were pretty sick of that because while they're out enjoying the fruits of all the things that this country is for and taking care of running this big government, whether it is on the regulatory side or up on the hill, or where else, they are taking advantage of it and they say everyone here in washington stinks. nobody backs them up and nobody defends them and that should be done. but the chances and they say he pulls a break-in and he gets gets three or four people who go out and build this wonderful team and it's as simple as possible, would would you listen to any of them? i doubt it. the problem right now is what he showed us, he is missing one fundamental piece to governing, i think this is it but maybe it is not the only one.

i really don't think he has a sense of history. i think you have to have a sense of history and you have to be curious and you have to listen to govern. [applause]. >> thank you. by the way everyone i am not going to asked peter who he is voting for in the election. but thank you for all of those. >> it's a secret ballot yet still is not? >> yes. i think to quote donald trump, none of, none of your business. >> i would rather quote you. i want to ask you ruth if you would feel comfortable, we have paid attention and we have noticed a journalist recently, a jewish journalist who profiled millennia trump in a way that trump thought was less than

favorable. and she has been targeted by terrible anti- somatic harassment online, very ugly, shocking. you identify as a jew in your columns once in a while, tell us about what hpens to you online? >> so it turns out you actually do not. i do actually write about my judaism what i think gets relevant what i'm writing about. so my mom and i took a trip to berlin, because my dad passed away and he would never let her go there and now he's gone so we went to berlin. and at the time, ben carson was making all these abrupt pulses of holocaust analogies and so i told them about the places i thought he should go to in berlin to really understand what nazi and holocaust analogies were part of. so when it is relevant i bring up being jewish. it turns out you don't have to bring up being

jewish to be attacked for being a jew. it actually would be wrong to suggest that it's something new and its ugly new phase of our society because in our experience which is now probably into its fourth decade in washington, people there has always been a small group of people who can only see through the lens of your religion or ethnicity, or gender. one of the things i really love is the people who e-mail me and they address me as ruthie, which first of all really pisses off my mother. second of all, it is always followed by something by something that is condescending, demeaning, nasty, and political nasty. there's i spent a group of people who many years ago will like they stick cut out the thing and write jew bench on the thing and mail it to usf okay

that's who i am, thank you very much. but the mechanisms of modern communication have made that so much easier because now you actually don't need a postage stamp to call me or julie or anybody else a jew bench. you can just tweeted, you can email me or leave a message on my voicemail, tell very easy. and it happens, usually i think that the best way to deal with that, whether it's kind of low-level anti-semitism. it's just like a little virus in society. and may not be the right thing to say at adl. usually i have ignored it. the summer, i think it was the summer i was on face the nation and some guy just started tweeting about all of the jews on the panel. i was with brownstein who has a jewish name who -- i decided to

respond to it because i thought the times really demanded it. i was afraid afraid it was a little self referential and self-indulgent. but it made me feel better and it got a really good response, just to stand up to it as julia did and say, you know it in this day and age when people are, when candidates are saying there should be religious and candidates who says there should be religious tests of who should enter the country, this is the moment that i thought for her and me to stand up and say, you know, this is not -- [applause].

>> and julia has enlisted the help of adl's regional office where she lives to help her file a complaint or so she is in good hands, we think. i cannot remember a campaign in my 23 years when adl has had to develop curricula for kids and parents, and teachers to help children get through this election. i'm talking about children who are hearing some very uncivilized behavior that they have been taught is not okay. as well as muslim kids in schools whose parents are wondering if they will have to register. i cannot remember needing to do this. i wondered if each of you, we are 5o1c3, our moral voices important, what advice would you have for us going through the next couple of months, what role we play?

>> it's really important to point out, every single time when something is said or there is this quote, unquote code or set of words that are out there to hold people accountable. it just is. i think as we develop the curricula, we talk about how muslims are feeling under extraordinary pressure right now as they did right after 9/11. i think that's the last time especially those of us who lived in a city that was attacked, whether you are in new york, washington d.c. or wherever that we saw people genuinely in fear because they are associated with what had happened. it brought you back to how it must have felt during world war ii if you are german or japanese living in this country. we have agreed that those of the the source of things that we do not

stand for. i think we have to stand up and hold our leaders accountable to that. i think again, i will give you an example on the republican side. when david duke ran for the nomination for the united states senate, anybody from louisiana here? hi guys. , senator bennett johnson was the comment at the time and when david duke, the former grand wizard of the kkk, i guess whether he was the grand wizard or whatever he was when he got the nomination there was republican senators led by howard baker and bob dole that went to louisiana and campaign for bennett johnson. against the nominee of our party. they made it clear, upfront that they were doing that. now, have times changed in terms of that?

do people care too much about power or to they care too much about their place to avoid that? it may may have been easier, maybe it was more direct and johnson was no colleague and they frankly liked him. but in this case, what i have a hard time squaring with a what i think adl adl needs to continue to do and what i support and i am a member of adl, i run the right wing roman catholic section, you guys know. [laughter] we are looking for members by the way. [laughter] but that is what i expect from adl. i expect adl to step out every time. i think a social conscious is important. i also expect expect our churches to do the same thing. as a roman catholic i expect my church to do it every single day. every single time. >> thank you. ruth, you give advice to paul ride, do you have any rest?

>> so i think peter is exactly right. i think speaking out is the best, it's interesting it's an interesting question for columnist. once you say that it's outrageous that donald trump has said this about muslims or ben carson said this about muslim, you keep saying and saying it. i actually think, especially for for an advocacy organization, not a political advocacy organization but an idea advocacy organization the answer has to be s. you have to keep reinforcing that argument. because most americans are decent people and need to hear that argument and because the people who have children and others who are injured by them are need to hear it. the children and others who need to be influenced by that argument needs to hear. i want to say one more thing it's probably not in adls wheelhouse but peter touched on

it before which is another thing related to children that has concern in this campaign is that we have this really ugly racial and religious discourse. we also have this really degraded course in sexual discourse. i think they may be interconnected. the permission structure for one allows the permission structure for another but the notion that you have to worry about sitting with my kids were old and in this but if you had a nine or 10-year-old and you're sitting watching the presidential debate, mention this for the presidential candidate made reference to his size, that is not a healthy moment. for public discourse in our country. i think it's also not adl's job -- i want to thank both of you

and thank everyone for these incredible questions. >> i just want to say one less thing. >> what i want in the leader and i've been fortunate to be around some folks that i really admired on both sides of the aisle. i've saw the strength, i i don't think it's week to be kind. i don't think it's week to be humble. i don't think it's week to be somebody who looks at other people ideas and says, maybe they have a point of view. so, that's aspirational for any of us. i think those are the things we should expect out of our political leaders. somebody asked how i would vote, that will be my stander. who is that aspirational individual because i still think this job is the most important single job in the united states of america. except for the pope in rome, --

i'm just getting. [laughter] >> i don't think we get a vote on the. >> while you don't, i do. >> it is the single most important job and we really, really should guard that and hold that precious and dear. >> thank you. >> [applause]. >> so one of ruth's colleagues recently ate a shredded column and i didn't realize that when i said ruth's column are food for thought. lisa follow ruth, she is food for the soul except when she writes columns about her daughter and then it's more like chicken soup for the soul, but those are good too. i want to tell one quick story. about a year and a half ago when israel was fighting hamas and

the reaction of the streets of europe was to take to the streets around the synagogue and screamed hamas, hamas, jews to the gas. it was shocking. in the conference room of a big, important lobbying firm, the president slammed his fist on the table and say this should not be, this can't be. every legislator in this town should be making this a top priority on their agendas and when they travel. find the adl, and they found me and peter said, we want to represent you and we will do it for free. and peter, you have been a blessing on on the mission of this organization, thank you so much [applause].

>> the house will start working on the 2017 defense programs built. the 602,000,000,000 dollar measure sets policy for the department of defense. debate begins tomorrow at noon eastern on c-span. oregon and kentucky hold presidential primaries tomorrow, presidential candidate bernie sanders campaigns and carson california at 11:00 p.m. eastern. we we have live coverage here in c-span2. >> innocent a front-page of the washington post, quote a band of republicans actively plotting to draft an independent presidential candidate who would keep donald trump in the white house, one of those republicans is the editor of the weekly standard and bill is joining us on the phone in washington. thank you for being with the. >> i see. how are you. >> how is your ever coming along? >> well there is a lot of

support out there for the proposition. that we should have a choice other than hillary clinton or donald trump. getting a really serious candidates are run is obviously tough, is the reason the independent candidates are running, it's it's not so easy to do, you have two parties and of monopoly situation, but there are serious people engaged in real discussions, and will know more in a few weeks when it's not too late to get on the ballot, it's just a question of finding the right candidate. >> right candidate. >> yet there are deadlines, the deadlines for taxes has already passed although there may be a way to get on the ballot. what are you facing entrance to the calendar? >> texas or north carolina you probably had to sue to get on the deadline and that would probably succeed, pretty much everywhere else you can get on, some are a little harder than others, but i think anything could happen if you have a bunch of ballots in july and august, i think really early june was a real deadline for the mitt romney's, i, i think somebody

who would have national credibility who might think it's on a voters can, a lot of independents and some democrats, i think a lot of them what think that's better than hillary clinton or donald trump. >> we keep hearing mid- romney, how likely likely are possible is that he would run as a independent? >> i think he does not want either trump or hillary to be president. i've been critical of mitt romney in the past at the times, but i surely would unequivocally support him, think think would be a good president he's a man of good character. i think he might do it out of patriotism, he doesn't need to do, he probably would be a losing race, he would get attacked by everyone, but i think he think he really does think the country deserves better. so i think he's looking at it. i think the senator from alaska who has written so eloquently and powerfully, he has a huge grassroots response about the

need for a better choice he's out there, he's reluctant for many reasons. maybe he'll be persuaded to do it. the retired center for oklahoma, a wonderful man was real independent, he will be a very interesting interesting candidate. i think all of these people i can say without confidence, the only thing that's moving his patriotism. it's more trouble so to speak for their own short-term gain in the case of romney and others were very comfortably retired but all of them just think how awful it would be to go for it for the next six months with a choice being and clinton. >> the chairman of the party calling this a suicide mission and all but assuring that if there were conservative third-party candidate on the ballot, that would guarantee hillary clinton's election. >> i don't argue with that, i