republicans because we think they could be the most open to working with democrats and break some of the law jim that we see in congress now. effort inelp the generating some goodwill in washington. speculate that there is more before election day? >> i don't know. the schedule seems to be working for them and they seem to be happy with it. it seems to making people talk about the minimum wage increase and it makes for great visuals. it has the potential to expand membership. i am sure we will see more. >> with congress returning, here is a message to congress.

water makes 75% of our body. take it away and humanity would perish within a week. substancemost vital to a human body. 50% is of humans, unsuitable for usage because of pollution. in the united states, we take water for granted. water, and flush toilets reinforce this. step outside to a local waterway and the diminishing condition tells a different story. water pollution kills marine life and disrupts a fragile food chain. animals are not the only ones who suffer. provide, you must

federal funding to agencies across the country. of generations must stop here. for the competition. >> now, a look at some of the congressional races leading up to the election. ism washington journal, this 1.5 hours. we are 58 days before the midterm elections. joining us this morning, jessica taylor from "the hill." nathan gonzales, deputy editor of "the rock bird political report." -- thesident said tony president sat down yesterday and was asked about immigration and the delay on immigration.

here's a portion of that interview. [video clip] news is we have bipartisan support for that. house republicans refuse to do it and i said to them that if on something so common sense that you have got labor, business, evangelicals, folks across the board all ofing it, i will use the legal authority i have to act. laying the groundwork for that, jeh johnson from homeland security has presented me with inliminary, you know, ideas terms of how we can take executive action. i have determined that i want to make sure we get it right. >> it looks like election-year politics. >> i want to make sure that not only are the t's crossed and i's

dotted, but i am being honest now, about the politics of it. this trouble with unaccompanied children that we saw a couple of weeks ago, from central america the surge of kids showing up at the border? it got a lot of attention. a lot of americans started thinking that we have got this immigration crisis on our hands. the fact of the matter is that a number of people apprehended crossing the borders, the number has plummeted over the course of the decade. it is far lower than it was 10 years ago. in terms of these unaccompanied children, we have systematically worked with the problem so that in june it dropped, in july dropped and is now below where it was last year. but that's not the impression on the minds of people. what i want to do is when i take executive action, i want to make sure it's sustainable. host: those were comments from the president on "meet the

press" with chuck todd. this is from "the new york times." this decision is a reversal of what the president said in the rose garden earlier this year, that he would make a decision by the end of the summer." what is important to remember is that the fight for the senate and the most important house races in the republican in leaning districts. these are districts of voters already primed to have significant problems with what the president is doing overall, but also have significant concerns. in a midterm election where they can vote against the president, if he can't -- if he does something they don't like it, the only option is to vote against democratic candidates. i think the timing is part of that. this past week we began

what would be more than 100 c-span networks. in each of them immigration came up. in north carolina with tom hillis, with kay hagan as well. it has been a bipartisan failure. for years they have talked about sealing the border, not allowing amnesty. i don't know about senator hagan. amnesty is a colossal mistake. we are not filling the border. we have failed to fill the border dating back to the reagan era. we need to get serious about that. a strong nation needs a strong border. we have to fill the border. the result of inaction from kay hagan in 2008 was that she was going to work to solve it but all we got was a bill that went nowhere. >> your reply?

>> i think the house speaker is complaining that he has no plan. this bill is a commonsense immigration reform bill. there will be 40,000 border security agents, 700 miles of and -- of fence. making sure that these people leave the country when they are supposed to. this bill is not amnesty. as i said, it is bipartisan in nature. it is time for the house and congress to take up this legislation. >> that was the first debate between kay hagan and tom tillis . another debate scheduled for october, we will be carrying that one as well. jessica? exactly one of the democrats that did not want to see the president using this executive power to go ahead. she even said in this debate that she doesn't want to see this happen but what republicans are already pouncing on after

the announcement yesterday is that this is election-year politics, pointing out that he will do this eventually. i don't know that this mitigates this as much as the my -- the white house would have hoped. will becutive overreach a key theme for republicans. that debate clip kay hagan says she wants to pass the bill and that republicans are stymieing this. from the redthat state democrats that are part of the bill. let's take a look at the big picture. in north carolina it is currently listed as leaning democrat. you have two complete tossup democratic seats. tom harkin in iowa. mary landrieu in louisiana. on the republican side you pointed out that pat roberts is the most vulnerable senator right now in this cycle. explain. we saw vulnerabilities

with pat roberts after the primary facing an independent candidate, but this past week there was a lot of back-and-forth with democrats trying to drop out. looks like he will not be campaigning but his name will be on the ballot. i think that senator roberts is very vulnerable. part of the challenge is he has to get his campaign up and running the higher-level. strategists are working with him to do that. the math is a bit tricky for independents, but it is the race to watch particularly because senator mcconnell is showing that he has a small but significant lead in kentucky and roberts will be the one to watch. host: that was my next question. you have the mitch mcconnell but leaning republican, that is stronger than tilting. explain. mitch mcconnell has the

benefit of running for reelection in kentucky. if you were in a more competitive or partisan state, he would be in trouble. his negatives are high. longtime incumbent, you don't want these things coming into 2014. so far he has been able to alisoncantly couple rhymes with obama. she has been good on the attack, but i think she has to increase her own positives and i am not sure she is there yet. a very interesting situation. one that republicans -- this was not part of their calculus. this was the home state of jerry moran, making sure that robert has the good campaign that they are sending in. that roberts is taking this seriously and turning around.

they had a debate yesterday where he did very well and maybe gorman didn't seem ready for prime time, maybe republicans are feeling better there, but i feel that for the first time this week you saw them hitting 50% in the poll. it is still within the margin of error, and i think he is doing what he needs to do. , her biggests problem in the state is president obama. her ads try to distance herself from him, particularly on energy issues, but the campaign is very smart. they are political operators. there was also a governors debate in kansas. sam brownback as late as yesterday had the democratic candidates two or three points ahead in a solid republican state.

is the republican governor impacting what is happening? guest: i think some of those polls are based on online polls. i think it comes under a couple of things. there has been a long-standing war and the kansas republican party for years. he kindgot into office of fueled the fire a bit by challenging some of the more rotter -- moderate republicans to get the people that he wanted and there was that basis for that. tax planed an economic that has not played out as quickly as he had hoped. that just sets a foundation for part of roberts problems. part of it is what he is doing, part of it is a residency issues that he should have cleared up months ago. >> speaking of, mary landrieu?

her republican opponents are making the case on registration reform. saying that she lives near the sea, claim her parents home. was harder to show as out-of-state. she comes from a longtime political family. harder for them to do. host: there is a piece here from an advertisement we are still talking about 50 years later. lyndon johnson and his campaign released the daisy ad. it aired only once, but generated a new era in negative advertising. can i get your thoughts on that? guest: it is a good lesson.

now we go through the cycles, it is part of the political game. it started 50 years ago. an ad that aired over the weekend. guest: this was an incident where mark begich was running sullivan. mention the campaign. they actually murdered a couple and their granddaughter.

you had a police detective standing outside pointing to this, insinuating that this was somehow the fault of dan indicating that infamous willie horton ad. there was an immediate outcry from the victim's family, saying that they didn't want this out there. sullivan released a response that named the alleged murderers names. they pulled down the response. seen as awe had pretty well oiled campaign therefore mark begich, this was a significant misstep that they have continued to have to explain. why was this an issue? when you went back to the facts of this, this was a clerical error that was done even before sullivan took office. them rating this as a pants on fire ad. host: meaning ally.

-- meaning ally. -- meaning a lie. guest: yes. this was very much out there in the news. the victim's attorney took it out there before begich took it down much later. attempting to correct the ad. they pointed out in that letter that to be clear it was your ad that was the one they were unhappy with. they had put the community on edge, and away. into the race that we had not seen before. jessica taylor, her work is available online. here is how sullivan responded to it. [video clip] >> millions of dollars are flooding into alaska pet --

alaska, paid for by special interests. pretty soon you will want to do this to your television. i've proposed a plan to stop the mudslinging from outsiders to keep the selection focus on the issues. unfortunately, mark begich said no. i am dan sullivan and i approved this message. he should tell his friends to stay out of alaska. it points out the fact that in these closely watched races where just a few thousand votes can make the difference, one misstep or another could determine the direction of the campaign. guest: republicans are trying to demonize mark begich as being too close to the president. but if you can choose a different opponent, if you don't like outside spending or intervention, there is another opponent that you can create and

maybe try to create some momentum. from one of our viewers on the twitter page -- i think that kentucky is going to be one of the most contentious. earlier we mentioned that there is no love lost between mitch mcconnell and allison lonergan grimes. there have been accusations back and forth. the campaign bus purchased by her father with controversy over the mitch mcconnell campaign manager. the ron paul campaign, he had to step down amidst questions. every race, we get closer and closer. what we have seen from the pushback is that this is going to be a closely fought battle. it will be highly negative, not just in kentucky, but in

louisiana and north carolina. stake.s how much is at congress returns this week. they will have as few as seven legislative days before another break to campaign for the midterm elections. the president will be sitting down with congressional leaders on tuesday. what is it going to get done? nothing major. it will be the bare necessities to keep it going. another government shutdown will be unlikely. a enough republicans learned lessons from the last one. but that is something to watch. the more times that they can get voters to the focus on republican obstructionism, i

think that is better for democrats. they want to get in, do what is necessary, get out and get back on the campaign trail. we are dividing the phone lines between political parties. you can also make comments online. connie, north bergen, new jersey. good morning. good morning. thank you for taking my call. i have a few comments. and discuss it. i believe that the issue will out.

about the borders, they come to the borders for the recount. they come to the borders to pick them up. the spanish people should get together. the one thing that i blame or is the humans. they come to this country like before. and then we have senators against it. i saw the father on television myself. i will say that he should go back to canada. where are you from?

i am from spain, european, i have nothing to do with this. guest: one thing that she pointed out that i think you will have a lot of voters feeling is this frustration with negative advertisement. seeing as much. cory booker in new jersey, should win pretty easily. the cell of an advertisement from earlier, lots of people may want to shoot their televisions by the time the election season is over. as nathan said there is no way to get away from these executive ads that get more and more prevalent. another thing that she mentioned is that mcconnell, she was afraid he was going to work against the president if he does become majority leader. it is true,, has laid out some of the things he'd could do in the republican house and senate, pushing a path to legislation that the republicans will not be happy with.

this week we had an interview with paul ryan and one of the things was that if we win both houses of congress, get ready to veto. we are only going to see more gridlock if republicans take full control. that will set up an interactive dynamic for 2016 the democrats. hillary clinton likely running on dysfunction. i don't know that the president doesn't want this, pointing to dysfunction in congress as he continues to do, i think it will be even more dysfunctional if we have more gridlock in congress. host: iowa is one of those states that is a tossup. speaking of, hillary clinton will be there today. i want to share with our viewers and with you one of the latest ads from the koch brothers organization.

it is on the congressman's attendance record. [video clip] missed 79% of the veterans affairs committee meetings. veterans risked their lives for our country. he didn't have the respect to show up and support them. joan harris is a true iowan who keeps her small-town roots. to care for troops. that is what you would expect. >> freedom partners action fund is responsible for the content of this advertising. example ofer negative advertisements and outside funding? guest: i think that this is a specific issue that we will see from now until election day. there are republicans believe that this is an effective way to tie him to service and why he should not have a promotion.

the next caller comes from pennsylvania. frank, independent line. do you explain to me how someone would spend $50 million, $100 million to get a job that only pays $178,000 per year? guest: they are not actually spending their own money. some will come you are right. we have seen the numbers grow astronomically. a lot of times the investment has not worked out. sometimes the return on the is -- return on the investment is not what you hope it would be. clearly they see their influence rising. it certainly brings up the stock for some of this. the prestige.

a genuine call to service. a lot of these people are independently wealthy. they are not resting on that 170 $8,000 per year, certainly. we are entering an age where you cannot just have anyone run. donors that are willing to back your campaign. to some people it takes out that citizen politician element. host: charles, good morning. -- caller: morning good morning. i am the veteran of two wars and a proud democrat. i can't understand why at this time we would ask anyone to vote for the republican party. i can only remember the big depression climbing out of this one. been horrifying.

we are just now coming out of it. we will be back in the same place that we were in 2007, 2008, 2009. i hope you can convey this message to the people and let them think about that. host: thank you. is the message that democrats across the country are trying to make. why go back to having more publicans and power and this is what happened? the president has been in office for six years now and enough people are dissatisfied, the president's job approval rating is in the low 40% nationally, but in the states and districts that are the most competitive, he is in the high 30's. there is an uneasiness, and unwillingness by some voters to keep blaming republicans and democrats are having to answer for more than they did. a lot of attention on new

hampshire, where two former senators are on the ballot. as to whether scott brown will win the nomination? guest: that would be a major shocker if he was not the nominee. there were some comments about it being a big surprise. i am not exactly sure what he has in store, but that is a race that we have had to read on jeanne shaheen being favored for, but there is evidence that this has closed some and it may be becoming more competitive than it was a few months ago. host: what is the track record senators, one current and one former, running against each other? i mean, it has happened in the past, but someone who has moved from massachusetts to new hampshire and tries to run as a favorite son? --host: guest: this is not

scott brown moving to hampshire , a lot of people do go back and forth between the states. of as made some kind little gaffes along the way. maybe a couple of times he has messed up and almost said massachusetts or something. that will continue to of course be a line of attack against him. as nathan said, there is an indication that this is certainly becoming a more and i thinkrisk that one thing that is is the numbers of jeanne shaheen have not moved much. the president has seen his approval ratings drop.

if he is a drag on places like new hampshire, iowa, states that he carried twice, imagine how bad that will be for democrats in places like louisiana, arkansas. alaska. responding to the earlier point about the job and how much it pays -- stanley, myrtle beach, california. hello. my name is stanley and i am from orlando, florida. i have worked for the citrus for 12 years. the people that hire the mexicans to pick citrus in florida. i think all of you people are theseception having about mexicans. these mexicans are making $700, $800 or we.