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join the discussion. thursday, a hearing on public accommodations law for the disabled. the house judicial subcommittee on the constitution and civil liberties meets at 9:00 a.m. eastern, and you can see that here on c-span 3. donald trump campaigns in lawrenceville, new jersey thursday. the presumptive republican presidential nominee will be joined by new jersey governor chris christie. live confidential at 7:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. at politico.com this headline, "donald trump's gold-plated convention." sort of where "celebrity apprentice" meets the republican party. the reporting of ha das gold, a media reporter for politico. thanks for being with us. >> thanks for having me. >> safe to say this is not going to be your father's or grandfather's republican convention.

what can we expect when the gavel comes down in july in cleveland? >> i mean, with donald trump as the presumptive nominee i think you can expect trump's side version of the convention, whether that will probably mean unveiling of his vice presidential pick at the convention itself versus beforehand. and quite a few other surprises including the nominee himself perhaps speaking every single night. and you might want to call it an upgrade. otherwise considered a normal and staid convention of just speaker after speaker on stage. >> and that would be a significant change. normally the nominee comes on the final night. sometimes they make an appearance via video screen. but what you're saying is the possibility every night the convention delegates and the public will hear from donald trump. >> yes. i mean, donald trump is the master of the media. and he has quite a bit of experience in how to attract cameras. he's probably weighing right now what will attract the most attention and he's probably thinking to myself i'm the

nominee so, why wouldn't i be on stage every single night? >> in the past these have been relatively newsless conventions. much more of a public relations for the democrats and republicans. so what's happening behind the scenes? what are the negotiations like between the trump organization and the rnc? >> it's -- right now even though it's a few months away they're still kind of in preliminary negotiations on what this will look like. and likely it's going to be a mixture of the rnc trying to make sure that the party else and the people in charge still have some say over it. and then also taking into account what donald trump has to say. they fully recognize that he has a great power over the media and knows how to maximize that. and i'm sure that the rnc knows that that can only help them and reach millions of potential voters who will be tuning in. i expect the ratings for this convention to blow all the other conventions out the water. >> who is working with donald

trum top put this production, this television production together? >> you know donald trump has a famously small campaign team. so it's the same people who are working with him on his campaign and with the rnc, the whole convention team. they're talking to different consultants about how to do it. and you know, with the trump campaign obviously at the end of the day it's up to donald trump. he's the ultimate consultant, if anything. if anything, he's left his delegate operation, some of the more nuts and bolts things to his staff, but when it comes to something like this you can rest assured that donald trump will be involved in every single detail. >> you quote ed goaz who helped run the john mccain convention in 2008. and he talks about the quicken loans arena, the q, which is a relatively tight space, especially when you have the media and the delegates inside that arena. so logistically, what's this all

going to look like? >> logistically you're going to have all of your delegates and then you're also going to have a huge number of media. i have a feeling we'll be in a situation where perhaps the media outnumbers the number of delegates there. you're going to have all of your dignitaries, you're going to have the staffs, you're going to have other candidates, past candidates there and all of their staff and all of their families, and it is a smaller arena. the press file is actually a mile away, and secret service has set up specialized shuttles to bring the press from the press file into the actual convention arena. and there's new credentialing processes in place that the secret service has started, which means that everybody who is going to be in certain areas, including all of the press are going to have to go through specialized background screenings. so it's going to be much different not only in how it looks in terms of donald trump rearranging how the convention

will be presented but also how the press experience the convention. >> your story focusing primarily on how the republican party is going to have a very different convention. you write this celebrity billionaire is revamping everything about the gop's dog and pony show. but my question is does this put any pressure on the democrats and the likely nominee hillary clinton and what the democrats will put together in philadelphia this summer? >> i definitely think the democrats are keeping that in mind, especially because similar to how the debates have drawn in so many more viewers, it's a question of their messages getting out there to more people than the democrats' message. and they're definitely going to keep that in mind. the dnc is keeping it close to heart, exactly what they're thinking, also because there is no nominee yet. once there is a nominee, they'll have a better idea and more conversations with what that will look like. but i definitely think we can expect an attempt to ramp this

up a little bit, and they're going focusing on if it is hillary clinton, if its own historic convention it will be the first convention with the first female nominee. and they'll definitely be focusing on that. and you will almost assuredly expect that all of these celebrities that have come out to help hillary clinton such as katy perry will be there in full force. >> the bottom line, for donald trump and the republicans, tradition is likely to go by the wayside in cleveland this july. >> definitely. i mean, we've seen that with trump this entire campaign. the tradition and the way things are normally done is not how he operates. >> hadas gold is media writer for politico. joining us on the phone here in washington. thank you for your time. >> thank you. this weekend on "c-span cities tour," along with our comcast cable partners we'll explore the history and literary life of hattiesburg, mississippi. on book tv, author susan yorel in her book "don't hurry me down to hades: the civil war in the

words of those who lived it." the book draws on rare letters and diary entries to tell the story of the civil war through the eyes of both the soldiers and their families and how important keeping in touch was for those on the battlefield and their family members back home. >> because so many women were writing to their men at the front saying, i don't know exactly what you're fighting for but you need to come home because we've got about a fifth of the crop that we normally do, we just -- i just buried our youngest in the back, and we're not going to have anything left. you need to come home. >> and we'll examine the vietnam war. in the 1967 experiences of charlie company. with author andrew wiest discussing the battlefields of vietnam and what soldiers had to fight upon their return to the united states. >> vietnam veterans had been used as political footballs. they'd been used as part of a morality play. they'd been used as many things. but hardly anybody had gotten to tell their story, who they were as young men before they went,

the trauma of war they went through both as great victories. it's funny times, it's horrible times. and what happened to them as a generation since they've been home. >> and on american history tv the 1967 slaying of vernon dwyer at the hands of the ku klux klan. told by his wife and his eldestson, vernon dahmer jr. >> for what reason did anybody want to come and kill my dad? it came as a result of the orders from the head of the klan, sam bowers, and he said o go. and they came to kill the whole family. >> and learn about the freedom summer school program. during the summer of 1964, when volunteers from around the country taught african-americans in mississippi methods of non-violent resistance and encouraged voter registration. >> there were meetings held throughout the city in various churches, preparing the residents and informing them of their political rights. and getting ready to register to

vote. >> this weekend watch c-span's cities tour to hattiesburg, mississippi. saturday. on c-span 2's book tv. and saturday afternoon at 2:00 on american history tv. on c-span 3. next, treasury secretary jack lew. with reporters on the domestic and global economies and his upcoming trip to the g-7 summit. the event was hosted by the washington bureau of the christian science monitor. it's 50 minutes.