ic, whoounder of m ♪ttempts host: indiana will be the focus of presidential politics today as donald trump and hillary clinton attempt to increase their lead. for full results of the indiana primary, go to c-span.org. secretary of state john kerry is worshiping -- working with russian counterparts on a cease-fire in the syrian city of aleppo. that city has been the center of violent attacks. the white house was put in the position of defending a comedian who used to the n word in reference to president obama at

the white house correspondents dinner. some said the use of the word was in poor taste. in the first 45 minutes, your discussion about the use of the word at the event and the appropriateness towards president obama. if you are african-american and want to give us your thoughts, call (202) 748-8000, everyone else can call in on call (202) 748-8001. if you want to post on social media pages, you can do so at @, --@cspanwj. prompted from a conversation between josh earnest and a correspondence. comedian larry wilmore gets up to speak after the president of united states. it was in the last section of his speech that he used the

we will show you in context what happened there. we are not editing this, so just so you're warned about that. here's what happened last saturday. [video clip] >> a black man was thought by his mere color not good enough to lead a football team. and now, to live in your time, mr. president, what a black man can lead the entire free world -- [applause] words alone do me no justice. president, -- you know,

barry, you did it my nigger. host: that was the exchange that took place like saturday -- last saturday. some supporting it. and some criticizing the use of the word. this in the "wall street thenal," saying that it was naacp president saying he objected to his decision to use the word, even though he taught -- he thought he intended to be sincere. host: that was the comments from the naacp. we are getting your thoughts on the use of the word itself,

especially towards the president of the united states. african-americans, call (202) 748-8000, all others, call (202) 748-8001. yesterday, during the usual press briefing that took place thehe white house, washington bureau chief of the american urban radio network gets into a bit of an exchange with josh earnest, the press secretary, about his use of the word. here's a bit of that exchange. [video clip] >> i'm confident that he use the word by design, he was seeking to be provocative. i think any reading of his comments makes clear he was not using the president as the but of a joke. what is true is that it was a tough assignment that any comedian takes on when they sign up for this job. the president's expectation when he walks in that room is that, that comedian and other people are going to get much closer to the line than they were nearly would.

as they try and make a joke. >> i want to be very clear. ok with this is use and how to use the n-word. >> i will just restate what i said before, the president -- with the president said is that he appreciated the wilmore'smr. expression on saturday night. host: more that is available at c-span.org. on twitter adding to the conversation, saying the use of the term was inappropriate in both the setting and the context. this is keith from chicago, illinois. you are up first. what do you think about what happened on saturday night? caller: i enjoyed the program, of course. the president was right on par. it seemed to me that mr. wilmore was playing to his cable audience, and not the room,

which is kind of a sin in comedy. in terms of the use of the word directly -- the kind of pull back the curtain on the vernacular within the community. and quite clearly, it was a term of endearment. in the say it is akin to gay community, use of the word queer is both a slur when used in a certain context, and within a wordmunity, it is also of empowerment. so context matters, and no one should misconstrue that. wilmore could have used better judgment, knowing that the room, the nation, and the world were watching.

people thatlot of unfortunately use that word in a different context in relation to the president. he didn't need to reinforce that, in my opinion. host: james is up next in florida. caller: yes, sir. i agree with the caller. i volunteer at the school, i hear young white boys use that term. some people use the thing for hateful. but that word, we should try not mention. even though it was a joke, i think you should stay -- he should say something else. my brother, some like that. myn young white boys say nigger. let's not be hypocritical about it. if they don't want white folks to say it to another black man, we should not have been saying it. let's be truthful to one another.

,ven though they were joking that was another black man saying to another black man. but i've seen the young white boy say to another white boy. host: that is james in florida. we've gotten some response on the pages of the "washington post." one of their columnists talked about the events of saturday night, larry wilmore is not my end used that word. see it yes, many people as a term of endearment. reclaim the ugliest word in the english language used to value their enslaved ancestors --

host: linda is up next from marx, mississippi. hello. linda, good morning. caller: good morning. was not an intentional use of disrespect, but i was thinking was inappropriate use. it's not a word that you should ,se to represent the president it was disrespectful. i don't think he meant it to be disrespectful, but it was. is it only because he used it to the president that makes it disrespectful? it's general use otherwise, is that what you feel? caller: no, i don't. but it really was inappropriate to use to address the president. is an appropriate use

to use at all. that is when the, this is ralph from baltimore. good morning. caller: good morning. host: you are on, go ahead. agree: i kind of don't with addressing the president using those kind of words. i think in this day and time, we are so distracted by so many issues that cause us to be offended that we are missing the whole point here. to make's basically america great again. my don't think we can continue to be upset and angry and irritated and agitated by so many groups and trivial matters that we forget the big picture here. i don't want to be divided as a country. i want to stand united, in the

united states of america. i don't want to get into these bathroomnders about a or flags or black lives matter, were all these other things that are dividing us that we are missing the whole picture here. that's basically how i feel about it. i am african-american and i support donald trump. i want to make america great again. we can't do that fighting one another, getting mad and upset, finding about this inviting about that. i just don't think it's good. host: this is cornell from tolls look, oklahoma. good morning. caller: good morning, c-span. pan. i'm appalled by the blacks who are calling in trying to justify the usage of that word. larry wilmore should be fired. he should be barred from television. no place in the civilized world, in this country, for that word anymore. i went through school desegregation, i was one of the

very few blacks in an all-white school. i heard the word every day. and for a lot of these african americans to be calling in and trying to justify the usage of that word, they are shameless to me. absolutely shameless. those are my comments, thanks for giving the opportunity. host: it is inappropriate in any context, or only because of the president? you are saying the worst -- the word is inappropriate. caller: the word should be buried. i hear young blacks using the word constantly, and i correct them when they use the word. it's a degrading word, and again, it should never be used whatsoever in any context at all. thank you. newspaper,guardian," rebecca carroll wrote a column about the use of that word by mr. wilmore. to read you a couple of thoughts this morning, she said as much

as i support understand the use of that with obama, -- if only larry wilmore was saying you can keep degrading us. host: again, that is in the pages of "the guardian." larry wilmore and the use of the n-word last week towards the president of the united states, the focus of our discussion in the first 35 minutes this morning. the lines will be on your screen, which are next from teresa in chicago.

teresa, good morning. what do you think? caller: good morning. i want to express that i feel that it was very inappropriate for mr. wilmore to use that. given the venue and the public that he was in the audience that he was speaking to. think that is something that she wanted to say that to the president, that should have been done very privately. i think this country still needs to have a conversation on race, which hasn't really taken place. there has been a lot of disrespect to the president during his presidency. it is continuing to go on. and i don't think that using that word helped that situation at all. as a matter of fact, it showed

afro-americans disrespecting their own. i think that word should be buried and eliminated. i think it's wrong in any context. i think in some of the musical people who are using this in disrespecting women and just using this word like it is a miseducationws in terms of understanding black history. the meaning of that word --ginally in the dictionary so, i feel like someone like him, sing in journalism and so forth should have known better. host: you have heard some people say you have to consider the context and some people say that they have to consider in some cases a term of endearment. what you think about those arguments? caller: endearment has its place, there's a time and place for everything.

the place when you have a nationwide thing that is being broadcast like that -- i know far as usinggo so humor. i don't even feel really at this the n-word should really be used. that is some comedy pornographic or something like that. i don't know. for that not particular occasion. host: we go next to brandon, florida. go ahead, you are on. caller: it is just comedy. i've looked at it, it's just comedy. host: because it was used in a comical sense, it was ok? caller: pretty much. host: lee is up next in jackson,

mississippi. caller: hello. pig is stillk on a a pig. i don't think this word should ever be used in a common situation or any other situation. i believed you should look at the origin of the word, it was originally to degrade a person, to put them in a subhuman category. people lower themselves to other people's designation of who they are. that is never adequate to use this word. you never should use it. i don't know why anyone would use that. president obama's response was inadequate. it was not a lustrous, it did not show any honor on him, he should have condemned it. it should never be used at all. it doesn't make any sense. it was not a term of endearment. was going to ask you about the white house response. you think it should have a stronger response from the white house? caller: i'm in the military, i'm

a vietnam veteran. i got into fights about this. died because they refuse to be called a name. it's not necessary, it adds nothing. we should do things and say things that engender respect and lift us above these types of words. it does nothing to help us at all. ,hether you are black or white you should address the president in an honorable way. host: that is steve from jackson, mississippi, calling in on a line we set aside for african-americans this morning. regarding the use of the n-word during a comedy routine by comedian larry wilmore. that is the topic of our conversation, if you'd like to give us a call and express your views, call (202) 748-8000 for african-americans, all others,

call (202) 748-8001. if you want to see the whole routine for yourself, will it showed you a bit of what happened. you can go to war website at websiterg -- our c-span.org at. good morning. caller: i saw nothing wrong with it. me, it was just to let him know, everybody know -- no matter how far you come, if you are black, you are black. that's all it was, was a comedy skit couple of words. host: you should only take it as that and nothing more? that's what i'm saying. it's nothing more than that. i don't understand why people are getting so upset. i could see if they were using it to down him or something like that, but he didn't. the: some people brought up

historical meaning of the word of the historical context of the word, saying because of that and other things, it shouldn't be used. caller: i was always taught the n-word was applied to an ignorant person. person, soignorant does not apply to me. host: that his grace. a couple of people on twitter, this is jody saying i'm not black it, but i do not -- i do know satire. more like captain, my captain in that movie. forink larry said in love obama. my black students set it to each other all the time, i didn't like it and told him to stop. , elmo ishe phone lines next in baton rouge, louisiana. on our line for african americans. caller: i'm so sick and tired of this whole country upset about a word. i river when they bury the word.

i have a lot of other words the need to go in that casket. words that are negative towards women in all this kind of stuff. all the problems we have in our neighborhood, and we have a national discussion about one word. said, it's just a word, you call them what you want. we have other issues in our neighborhood that we need to deal with instead of going around the country like if we bury the n-word, all of our problems go away. i'm just sick of it. host: on the line for all others, jim is up next. good morning. caller: good morning. i would just like to remind everyone of the outrage that happened during a deposition that paula deen days about her divorce that happened even 20 years ago, which use the word. everyone was so outraged that she lost her business, kmart dropped her, sears dropped her,

she lost her tv shows, everybody went crazy about the fact that in a deposition about something that happened in her divorce prior 20 years ago, that leaked out and everyone was so outraged that she lost millions and millions of dollars. now, in the same situation, what is going to happen to him? that word shouldn't be used in any way because of the fact that it is hurtful comments divisive, and it can be financially disruptive. in that situation, there should be some consequences for the situation. it shouldn't be passed on. host: you don't suspect he will see the same type of consulate is happened to him -- of consequences happen to him? absolutely not. there is a race bias in our country. if you're going to condemn it for one, condemned for everybody. i don't think the guy should get that shedon't think

should've lost her tv shows, i think she's back on again, thank god. i don't think she should have taken all of that outrage when she is in a deposition and asked a question. in the situation, this was intentional. this was a thought-out situation , he probably rehearsed the speech. why someone didn't come around and say this is an appropriate, or whether or not anyone even looked at the speech that he gave -- they should be a serious reprimand, there should be an apology. whether it will happen -- i'm sure it probably won't. host: one of the stories on this topic made reference to the fact that the president himself used the word in a podcast. sitting president obama use the to make a interview point that there's still plenty of room for america to combat racism. it quotes him as saying racism, we are not cured of it, and it's not just a matter of if not being polite to say the word in public.

that's not the measure of whether racism still exists or not, it's not a matter of over discrimination, societies don't, overnight, completely erase everything that happened 200 to 300 years prior. as a store that was released last year, you can find it on the cnn page. in jamestown,gil north carolina. it morning. -- good morning. caller: good morning. the n-wordis use of was totally despiteful, degrading, it was self-serving and gratuitous. i think he did it only to boost his own ratings. he could have said my brother, sir, this is the president of the united states. we need to stop using this degrading word, he needs to be jettisoned to the dustbins of history. i agree with all the other callers, particularly black callers about that who don't want to see this word used anymore. the context was larry wilmore,

his act was failing, his jokes were failing, and i, for one, not to watch his show. i will refuse to watch a show because of that. i'm only one, but i hope that others will do the same. host: what do you think about the president's reaction, not only where he gave him a hug, but the white house reaction as well? caller: i think president obama is such a gentleman that i think it took in the back, but that wilmore owes the president an apology. here was president obama, being being gentleman, was just -- just didn't want to react initially to that particular degrading comments. is gil from north carolina talking about those comments that were made by larry wilmore. you can see the whole thing on our website if you want.

it was a former cnn talk host piers morgan who took to twitter , talking about this event, saying get rid of the n-word, america. larry will more: president obama it made the whole world cringe. it now forever. that's just one of the tweets that came out yesterday. shawn king, associate with black lives matter said this. we watched larry willmore at the correspondents dinner, it was one of the most hilarious, courageous, and comfortable, confrontational 30 minutes ever. loved it. alexandria, virginia, jack is up next. good morning. i agree the word should never be used. that can't help but think life has better priorities. but a time when every major city in the united states, young black men are killing each other , it seems to me if the effort put forward to deal away with the n-word should be put forward to get away with the killings. a word can hurt, but word can't

kill. that's my comment. host: chicago, illinois is where judy is. the morning. thanks for calling in. caller: my name is judy and my father in chicago had his own newspaper, the new crusader here in chicago. when i was seven years old, he had a white guy in his office and said these nasty words to my father. my father -- i could read. he put me to the collegiate dictionary, and the used to be more than part of the word saying that word. it had two definitions. he told me that that man was one. and to understand that, they have changed our definitions -- this was 60 years ago. they don't tell you everything. intochanged a lot of ways the dictionaries. er, he said a,

and i think that is what the president understood. if you look at what the republicans did at the president's inaugural thingy, you and all of these republicans figuring out how to screw our president. and that's what this young man was trying to say. , when head done it said that word. he could have used a better word, but you need to know all the definitions and the things they have done to our president, treating him like he was just a boy. that's what it wanted to say. host: judy in chicago, illinois. as we're talking about this, a big day today in indiana and other events taking place when it comes place -- when it takes to the campaign.

sanders will be in louisville, kentucky, speaking to folks there and talking about his efforts to secure the nomination. , his ideawhat he said of a contested convention. you can get more those thoughts tonight at 7:30. and also indiana being the focus today with its primary. those candidates beaches will take place later tonight. you can see them live. i would advise going to our website in a little bit, just for more clear information about the exact times, but expect a full analysis of what's going on, the results from indiana, what it means for the candidates involved. go to our website at c-span.org for more information. from georgia, this is john, next, talking about larry wilmore's use of the word. caller: good morning. it's not what was said, it's what you answer to. if you answer to that word, if you responded to it, that means

it hurts you and it believes you are that. it is just a word, we are black. host: we have life, we have to live it. do you think the president treated it as a word in it didn't go any further than that? caller: it did. it was slaying the way he used it, it's people use it today. they might use it another way, who knows. host: you saw the president got up and embraced larry wilmore. what about the use in other contexts? would you agree with young people using the term, you would be ok with that? caller: that's the way they use it, that's the way they communicate. 10 years from now, they may use in a different way. if i get angry, and i respond to

it, then that's who i am. if i don't respond, they are just words. you just have to keep continuing to say it, [indiscernible] it's just how you respond. host: dolores from tennessee calling in on the line for african americans. caller: thank you, too quick comments on that word. they are up there talking about this word, black people say that every day. if they don't want to hear it, the need to stop saying it to each other. , at thee the lady said end of the word is in a, when i was growing up, my grandmother told me that word was used for anybody who was doing wrong. i live in tennessee, killing is

up, we need to talk about black on black crime, killing each other. from peopletaking houses. we don't see them saying anything about that. we you talk about that black on black crime. as far as the use of the word, were you surprised that this became a story? caller: they want to put that out there, just because he said it at the president's dinner. if it wasn't said at the dinner, they wouldn't be talking about that. that's what's wrong with the media and other black people. they talk about the wrong things. the needs talk about blacks killing each other. host: rob in new york. , but i i'm caucasian watch larry wilmore. but he's very talented and a good comedian. usually has good perspective on the social matters. his comment may have been a malapropism, but he prefaced it

by saying it's an inside joke. i don't think we should make too much of it. on the other hand, i think congress is dissing the president much worse, in a much worse manner by refusing to consider his supreme court nomination. host: those events that took place last saturday, you can see in total on our website, c-span.org. if you want to hear the whole question, the word in if you like to call in, call (202) 748-8000 four afghan americans, -- for african americans, and call (202) 748-8001 for all others. joining us on the phone is tony cook, a reporter for the "indianapolis star." good morning. thanks for joining us.

and the all important delegate count, what does it mean for indiana terms of delegates, both for republicans and democrats? guest: it's especially important on the republican side, where lastis sort of ted cruz's best chance to stop donald trump and lock up the nomination and prevents a contested convention. trump -- is not possible for him to reach the number he needs today. but looking ahead to the states that are going to be voting, between now and the convention, indiana really is, for ted cruz, one of his last best chances to try and halt donald trump, especially with the momentum the trunk has coming off of the win in new york and five other mid-atlantic in northeastern states. how many republican delegates are involved, and how are they apportioned?

guest: there are 57 delegates at stake in indiana today. most of those are winner take all. whoever wins statewide will win 30 of those delegates. the other 27 delegates are divvied out to the winner of each of indiana's nine congressional districts. district hasional three delegates up for grabs. one of thesible that other candidates who doesn't win could get 3, 6, 9 delegates. but most of the delegates will be awarded to the winner. which is why it's pretty high stakes here in indiana. host: as far as polling is concerned, our public inside, who is ahead? guest: most of the polls are showing donald trump as a lead.

one shows ted cruz in the lead, but i think there is more than half a dozen others that show trump in the lead. thes leaving here, but polling has been erratic. it's hard to know how much stock to put in those. we saw indiana's governor endorsed ted cruz, we saw him choose carly fiorina. any of those showing any momentum for ted cruz? guest: it's hard to say, it's been wild, that's for sure. this week, he is starting to deal with john kasich, where he agreed not to campaign here, and ted cruz agreed not to campaign in these two western states. that shook things up little bit, at least, ted cruz was hoping it would, turning it into the first two-man race of the primary season. and then he announced that carly

fiorina would be his running mate, which is pretty unprecedented. candidates don't typically do that until after they locked up the nomination. and then more recently, he announced -- governor pence here in indiana endorsed ted cruz. effortsn almost daily from ted cruz to shake up this race and try to gain an ad share on trump. i think today is the poll that is going to tell us whether those efforts are working or not. host: before we let you go, on the democratic side, hillary clinton has a lead they are in indiana. what did that mean for democrats, and have we seen a lot of effort from both hillary clinton and bernie sanders in the state? from: you seem more effort bernie sanders, although both candidates have been there several times. for sanders, it's an opportunity for him to try and slow

hillary's -- what seems at this point to be a pretty sure bet for her getting the nomination. but indiana has a lot of factory , a lot of those workers are finding bernie's message appealing. here that it has been in some of the other states. for sanders, this is really an opportunity to try and make sure that his message stays out there , that he plays a role in shaping the message of the nominating process moves forward. tony cook with the indianapolis star, talking about the primary that takes place in indiana today. thank you for your time. guest: thank you. host: back to your calls. from last saturday, the use of the n-word by comedian larry wilmore. dorothy from kansas. i have a comment.

my husband was a teacher in wichita, kansas. it was an all-black school. and one day, all of the kids were looking out the window, and there was a bunch of teenagers out there, and a little boy ,ooking out there said no, mr. 's outs a bunch of n there, and i think they're going to riot. he said they call the black ones that word. the bad ones. in the good ones were called blacks in the bad ones were called the n-word. have you ever been called a nkey? -- ho host: what do you think about the comedians use of the word? caller: i think it's up to the president as to whether or not he gets upset. maybe the guy didn't get -- didn't mean anything by it. host: when you got called that, did you last? -- did you laugh?

caller: i left. -- i laughed. how would you react? host: i don't think i would be called that, personally. caller: my thing is that the president understood his use of that word. to --at word was used hello? he understood the usage of that word by this comedian, it was something that was said where -- in that context. but the word -- it's a politically correct word that use that people are against. the word that bothers me when i grew up was the word colored person. or: void. because of the water fountain and white water fountains. the white bathrooms. those are the words that upsets me, why no still being called

that word by some older black people that don't understand but that's more offensive to me then the use of that word nigger. host: let's hear from steve in rockville, maryland. caller: good morning. i was very disgusted by it, i didn't think he was very funny at all through the whole program. and i realize that the word originated as a way for white folks to inflict a lot of pain and discussed when they referred to black folks, it was like a dagger in the heart. black folks did something pretty smart by embracing it. and using it almost as a badge of honor. to each other. they took that power away. over the course of time, i think white folks came around, and

they don't use it. i think a lot of black folks are mixed on whether they want to continue to use it. i think it really diminished everything that obama did it was great that night, it took everything away. in that second or two that happened, diminished everything that happened prior to that. i think it was very unfortunate. host: how did you think about the president's response? i didn't actually hear the response of the white house. -- i think obama michelle was really upset, but i know if anyone knows that for sure. i think obama was a gentleman like a person said originally. what was he going to do, scold him right there? he was looking out for him in that respect by trying not to disrespect him. meant -- iry wilmore

think when obama says i'm going to be 100 and he did his bit, he said i've got to do that too. i don't give a scripted, thought it was off the top of his head. in hindsight, bush -- i bet he wished he didn't say that. host: let's hear from fred in huntsville, alabama. on the line for african-americans. hello. caller: good morning, c-span. i hate to use my 30 day card on this, with every thing going on in the campaigns, but i grew up in alabama in the 50's and 60's. i heard it used a lot as a child. i made a conscious decision as a child let a balance of my back and let it mean more about the person who used it than about me. i want to talk to whites, blacks, hispanics, everybody. all black people are not -- i'm black, i'm an individual. every time a black person does something silly or stupid, that's not me. don't paint the broad brush over me. there are a lot of black people i despise.

his a lot of black people i can't stand. every time you see a black person or black person does something, don't paint a broad brush over everybody. he doesn't represent me. we just happened to be of african descent. that's all. stop putting every black person in the same bucket just because a black person goes out and shoot somebody or says something stupid. thank you, have a nice day. host: harry is next in edgewater, maryland. that iti just think seems like the black culture glorifies this word in records and comedy all the time. it seems like it's almost like they are little embarrassed that it was used and an appropriate time as far as the president. if you're going to glorify it one minute, you can't condone it the next. host: one more call on this topic. david in los angeles, california. good morning. caller: i'm like the brother

before. my time one to use dealing with something as silly as this. it's pretty much been said. host: why do you think it is silly? liker: it is silly because what you effectively done with this one -- they been talking around all this morning. redefinedfectively what this word means. i'm out here in a, california -- in los angeles, california. i can walk up and down the street and see asians from korea, from japanese descendents , hispanics from all different types of hispanic descent. turn around and see who is talking to you, using this term, my nigger, my nigger , my nigger.

it's not using historical context of the 50's and 60's and beyond. done witheffectively these people are tripping off of, which is actually redefined you can'ty in which erase something from history, but you can redefine it. and that's what effectively has been done. the president wasn't offended. no one of good sense is offended by this. but for people who are into this psychological view of what they call political correct language and nonsense like that -- it's like, on, get over it. it's been mentioned. we are in the hood, right? we live in the black community, this word is used every damn day, excuse my language. we will change topics,

back to politics, talking about today's primary in indiana and the results that might happen for each of the candidates involved, and where we go from here as far as campaign 2016. josh kraushaar, of the "national journal," joins us for that. also we hear from jake horvitz rowitz. he's the founder of mic, a website aimed at millennials. we talk with him about how he chooses stories and what it means for coverage of politics. all that and more coming up on "washington journal." ♪

>> in iraq and afghanistan, helped both countries with their constitutions, being a facilitator of agreement on key issues among iraqis or afghans. your influence is considerable, heads of state or government, they are very anxious to meet with you. "q&a," theight on former u.s. ambassador discusses his memoir, the envoy, from kabul to the white house, my journey through turbulent world. >> we saw that extremists exploited, the we have been corrected towards the end of the time i was there, by the surge,

by reaching out to the sunnis and building of iraqi forces, by establishing a unity government, to bring about security. left inately, when we the vacuum was filled by rival regional powers during a rocket part, violence escalated and we have ice is now. -- isis now. at 8 p.m.,ight "q&a." "washington journal," continues. host: our first guess is josh , talking about campaign 2016 and the focus in indiana. if you look at the front page of the indianapolis star, saying indiana decides today. how did indiana become so important in this process? guest: whoever wins indiana -- and a donald trump wins as the polls suggest he will cut it

with him on a glide path to getting the nominations necessary. it's a winner take all state. there's a huge shift that takes can win theou majority of congressional district in the state which allocated delegates in the winner take all fashion as well. guest: if you look at the, toional polls when it comes trump, and 42% he is registering. what about the message is registering, and what is so appealing for the republicans? guest: it's a big manufacturing ine for republican voters indiana. donald trump has captured that message, he talked about the jobs that carrier has outsourced, is a major part of his message in indiana. that has resonated with his base. you also have to look at ted cruz's problems resonating beyond the hard-core social

conservative part of the republican population. he hasn't been able to win over the mitch daniels republican voters, the more moderates. john kasich is getting 15% of the vote in the state. it's been harder and harder for ted cruz to get a majority when it's really only the most conservative republicans supporting him. cruz get the endorsement of mike pence and he can't see numbers rise because of that. about his endorsement was as halfhearted and endorsement as we have seen in some time. he did campaign with senator cruz yesterday on the campaign trail. when you issue an endorsement the friday before the primary and you are praising donald trump as much as you are praising ted cruz, it shows that there is limited ability to get momentum at this late stage. host: you saw the vice president will announcement that he made, i suppose to reach out to women voters. the no traction from that. guest: minimal traction. ted cruz is doing every play in the playbook to try and get some late momentum in this state. as we saw with the polling

numbers over the weekend, donald trump only expanded his lead. in large part because of this deal with the whole race began last week when ted cruz and john kasich campaigns announced a deal where john kasich would ce de indiana. this backfired in a big way. host: we will talk about other aspects of campaign 2016 with our guest. if you want to call and ask questions, democrats, call (202) 748-8000, republicans, call (202) 748-8001, and independents, call (202) 748-8002. indiana voters, (202) 748-8003. on the democratic side, how many democrat delegates? guest: the big question for me is the working-class white voters throughout the holden credit primary process. -- the whole democratic primary process.

hillary clinton did well, she can continue to build a broader coalition than she has had in a lot of earlier states, that will be a sign of momentum for her campaign. aboutpolling showing her 50% compared to bernie sanders at 43%. how much effort it hillary clinton put into the state? guest: not much. she just put in one appearance a few days ago. she was focused on criticizing donald trump, whereas bernie sanders has really barnstormed the state and tried to have getting a win in the state the demographically should be in his wheelhouse. host: this is about her confidence in her ability to win the state overall. she is lowering expectations. if she is the nominee and a donald trump is the republican nominee, indiana could become a big battleground state. she was test driving a general election message if she's going to expand the map in a race that matches her. in indianahose

seeing this much attention for the first time in a long time as far as attention paid to their state at this point in the process? guest: for a presidential election, usually indiana is when nominations have been decided. clinton and obama squared off in whichn a pivotal primary played well in the 2008 nomination with republicans. we haven't seen a race like this in quite some time. host: we won't see results until tonight, assuming it goes as far as the results are concerned. then it's on to california. preview what to expect moving towards that? guest: california could be interconnected. it ted cruz one indiana -- if , theruz won indiana momentum is going to shift. if donald trump wins, he can essentially put the race away by simply not losing california by a big margin. even if he loses by five points,

hypothetically, the masses there for donald trump to win, regardless. indiana is crucial because it sets of the momentum for future contests and it sets up donald trump with the math necessary to get to 1237. in california he has a double-digit lead, in indiana, he expanded his lead. the picture is looking good for donald trump to all but clinched his nomination tonight. host: again, the number is democrats, call (202) 748-8000, republicans, call (202) 748-8001 , independents, call (202) voters, (202)ana 748-8003. tim is on the independent line. go ahead. i'm an independent voter, i used to be a democrat. bernie sanders is my first choice, and donald trump is my second. i will explain. i feel like a lot of other people feel.

donald trump is for america. , onthoughts on immigration isding our jobs overseas, the core of what this country needs to bring itself back. i know people have said that he is benefited just like the other big corporations have, and i agree with that. benefited,ne that is in he had to do it because he had to compete with other people. to be successful. but he has made a change, and now he is for the american people. and that's why they hate him so bad. and the republicans got exactly what they deserved, because they have been pushing these kinds of , mostes, the free trade every bad policy has been pushed by the republicans. they have been against obama, so trump is really what they need. if you look at republicans now

in the way they are voting in the way they are going for trump, this is the reason. the domain is prejudiced at all. if you look at his background, he is not prejudiced at all. the man is for america. he wants to make america great again. i think he is very truthful. because he comes out and speaks. a lot of people say you can't do -- do for 12 million people, whatever. if you want to go to the moon and aim for the stars. if you fall short, he is going to make a big dent, but these other guys, they come up with half thought out plans. host: you put a lot out there for our guest. reflects thealler optimism and pro-trump circles, that he can reorient the map and win over likely voters. this is a bernie sanders supporters who said he could possibly vote for donald trump in a general election. immigration and trader issues

that trump thinks he can play to his advantage in a general election better than hillary clinton. problem is, for the trunk campaign, his misogynistic comments and comments about women, and his imprint ability are big negatives that could also overwhelm those advantages. host: the comments that you talk about, the general discussion about his character, he talked a little bit about that. talk about what he thinks as far as looking at his character, and specific, taking a look at this contest. trump has a long trail of unpopular comments towards women, hispanics, others. he could be a turn on machine for democrats. the advantages he brings to the table when he talks about immigration a different way than most of public and candidates, traded a different way than a lot of republican and democratic candidates, that could play to his advantage. but there are so may negatives that are baked into the cake that it's hard to see how the pros outweigh the cons. ted cruz talked

about the idea of character. [video clip] ted cruz: we don't want a president who is rationed hotheaded, who is liable to explode at the latest twitter storm. [applause] when you are talking about someone who is to be commander-in-chief, who is to have their finger on the nuclear of goodyou want someone and stable and steady judgment. [applause] and the third thing you want is, you want character. character is the most important aspect of any president or vice president. [applause] you want someone who has struggled, someone who has no loss. you want someone who is honest, tells the truth and doesn't lie all the time. you want someone who stands by

their principles. you want someone who has principles. [applause] who doesn't have one position in the morning and one position at noon, and one position at night. host: what is your take away from that? that message from ted cruz about character, sobriety, it has been and ity republicans hasn't worked and has not made a dent in republicans mind. in a normal election environment, these would be sharp critiques against donald is a teflonrump candidate and this line of attack has not changed the mind of republican voters. host: steve from missouri. hello. caller: thank you. voting for are not nobody.

they are voting against somebody. donald trump is for himself. it is about him. one thing is at least he will ruin it for the republicans care all i have got to say to the republican voters out there is make sure you have plenty of kleenex's and handkerchiefs because of election day, you will need them. host: what do you mean he will ruin it? he will ruin it for the republican party. they will lose the house and the senate and the supreme court and the presidency. like theeally democrats that much, but the problem is the republicans are the most corrupt and the most crooked of the bunch and they have been asking for this for a long time, 30 years, ronald reagan. donald trump is going to ruin the republican party. thank you, donald. i pay she at it. host: what about that idea?

guest: a lot of republicans think that could be the case. could certainly cost republicans to the senate. that could easily be gone. the house where they have the largest house majority since 1928, it could be in jeopardy if trump is so toxic to a lot of getslican voters it democrat voters who might not normally show up. on what theate upside is and what the downside is. it is clear trump has a lower downside than other republican candidates out there. for the congressional committee, are they preparing for how that might affect the election? the senatorial committee, the congressional committee, have both in for a while compared -- preparing for the prospect of trump workers -- trump or ted cruz the human to a

lot of blue state republicans, how to make sure the senate is up for reelection and have some a separate from donald trump. here is bill, independent line. caller: hey josh, i am over here in pennsylvania and there is not a chance the democrats will take the senate seat away because no one knows the lady who is running against them to begin with. i want to ask josh, what is the scenario? last friday was the first time we heard the fbi talking about any kind of criminal thing people.hillary and what is the scenario if the fbi comes act and in dates? , do theyy is indicted

bring in biden or john kerry or one of the other establishment? there are a lot of birdie people who positively will not vote for hillary and i go back to an interview i saw a couple of weeks ago is jim that -- jim webb. he would not vote for hillary because he could never see her being commander-in-chief. to say a far-fetched lot of millennials will not vote for that lady and stay-at-home. that is what will happen here. if hillary clinton is indicted in that unlikely possibility, it is late for candidates to change companies but it would add a wrinkle to the campaign.

the caller is right that if you look at hillary clinton's numbers in pennsylvania, it is not good to the problem for republicans is trump and ted cruz have historically unfavorable ratings for a presidential candidate. is going to be a race to the bottom. the current senator and katie, the challenger. .uest: who received millions this is a race the democratic party is heavily invest it in and they will expand whatever it up thereget her name and they think in a blue state in pennsylvania, that will be in to win. host: republican line, this is richard. to billi was listening kristol earlier and he was asked a question, if trump goes ahead and get the nomination, would he vote for him, and he said absolutely, i will not vote for

youp, and they said, would vote for hillary clinton, he said no, i cannot vote for hillary clinton. donald trump is the sole reason the establishment hated ted cruz so much that they let trump slip in there with one third of the popular vote, and now he is in control and the establishments, the bill crystals, mitch mcconnell's, they would just assume give it to hillary clinton, which means they would maintain their power and hillary clinton will win, it is absolutely just like the rich kid who does not like the way the game is played so they will take their ball and go home. that is exactly what has happened to the party. thanks. guest: the results of this republican nominating process has backed up with the caller is saying. is a little under 40% of

the republican vote. you have around half of the party that does not like trump and does not want him to be the nominee. it is democracy and the fact he is building momentum in the final stretch of the process. to be over andd just settle it may not have a heated and contested convention. you thewill give headline. gop leaders surrender to trump. why is this happening? lobbyists and strategists see ted cruz as a weak nominee as well as donald trump and they wanted to be over. the heated convention is worse than just settling in getting behind a nominee like donald trump and dealing with the chips as they may. he wins in assume california. you talked about a pathway. at a time we get to convention time, will be see the magic number hit and will it still be an issue as we talk about it today? indiana, it isns

very likely trump could be stopped. it is quite likely he will have the necessary delegates to clinch the nomination before we get to cleveland. that is why indiana is so crucial. it is a momentum maker and adjust sets him up perfectly to exceed the lead. host: is tony, hello. thank you. i have three quick points. could you tell me what trump means when he says make america great again? is that back to slavery, child labor, and another thought, poor fort -- poor whites, -- republican, and then immigration, if you do not want why notimmigration,

punish corporations more and then they will leave? i do not have an issue with immigration. punish the people that hire them a take advantage of that. thank you. these are all issues in the campaign. the african-american vote is interesting. anyway trump wins the general election against hillary clinton, it would be better than your average republican does with african-american voters and certainly president obama ram a 2 ran up a score in 2008 thousand 12. if there is any unlikely path, i do not think it is likely but trump would pick off maybe 20% of the african-american vote and it would open up opportunities. host: let's talk about bernie sanders for a that there there is a line that says, leaning over superdelegates is mr. sanders'only real shot. guest: as implausible as it sounds.

superdelegates have been hillary's from the beginning. establish officials who do not view sanders very favorably. not winningt he is races and primaries and he is losing badly in the number of pledged delegates as well, suggests it is almost impossible for him to convince he is more plausible and deserves to be the nominee. -- host: he talked about an idea of going to a convention parent all of these things happen even though the numbers tell another story. wants his platform, his ideology to be represented in philadelphia. he wants to hold onto to his leverages of long as possible. the question to me is how harshly does he attack hillary clinton now that it seems exceedingly implausible have to get the nomination. he is trying to keep enough chips on his ride so when it comes to a platform discussion, he has some leverage to get the

party to move a little more toward his worldview. what does hillary clinton do with that? adopt some of senator sanders policies or incorporate that in her own? this is the fascinating question. does hillary clinton moved to the left and pander to some supporters, or does she look at those likely to nominate donald trump and say, this is a great opportunity to move to the middle and perhaps run up the score in a general election looking at states like indiana, georgia, arizona, to really expand the map and get a mandate for her broader message in the general election. shown signs of doing both in the last few weeks but i think she is more likely to go the latter path. through a few rhetorical bones in bernie sanders direction but realize she has the opportunity to run against a weak republican

nominee and run up the score in a general election. host: no chance of more progressives pulling her to that left? supporters still pushing her though she might adopt a more moderate path? the vice presidential election will be a key indicator of how hillary clinton is thinking. if she goes to elizabeth warren or sherrod brown, that she feels she needs to throw a bone to liberals. i think it is more likely she will go to a more moderate direction like jim kane, someone who is a little more brought in the party. democrats -- voters--iana tom is in ohio. independent line.

caller: good morning. i thought you hung up on me. next-door to indiana here. there, i am just like your first caller. it is look -- the democratic party is just as crooked as the republican party. , the ideat to say that we have got a government over the last 30 years, ok, corporations, you can move to mexico and china and of course let millions of illegal people come into the country to lower your wages, there is outrage in the country, outrage. i made $11 an hour 30 years ago.

my health care was paid for. a lot of people out here cannot even get a job making $11 an hour. they want to throw us a little salt and say, here is your little bit, $10 an hour. thank you. guest: this is trump's potential, the coalition of disaffected, people in both parties, sanders's supporters and the trump roller arabi -- trump plurality could give the candidate who is elitist and hillary clinton a run for her money. the challenge is only the work classen both parties, only forms a narrow number. there are a lot of other constituencies likely to give clinton an advantage in the general election. if hillary clinton offends bernie sanders supporters going

forward and they have positive use for donald trump like that color, they have potential to peel off. what happens to eight years of the obama policy? what does hillary clinton do with that? is a challenge getting the energy she needs from supporters but also understanding what many democrats feel. obama's job approval numbers with democrats is solid. if you look underneath topline numbers, people who are young and graduated college and are having trouble getting jobs, they are not happy with the direction of the country. african-americans are dealing with race relations. they are not necessarily feeling positive about the rest of the country. not exactly sold on the direction of the country. democrats say they like obama and support him. there is a lot of disaffection that bernie sanders movement is showing. it is a big question with how united the democratic party will be in a general election. florida, democratic line,

tommy, you are next. >> people are calling in and talking about hillary clinton is a liar and all of that. i want someone to tell me one , andhat hillary told sanders ate nothing but one of them good old boys and he is , he is not al republican or a democrat. he is just trying to tell things and i just hate to see people, he cannot get elected, so he just trying to tell stuff. well, the caller talked about hillary clinton's trustworthiness not being particularly solid and that is definitely the case.

do not trust her and she will have to overcome those obstacles. twitteris is roy off of asking you -- today in the washington post, president obama had an op-ed looking at that topic. trade is a campaign issue. how do the candidates handle it? guest: it is fascinating hillary clinton came out against it, one of the few times she broke with , she has been trying to connect herself with the president on almost every key occasion. that is one time she distanced herself. trump used it to his advantage were a lot of working-class view trade agreements very negatively and there is an undercurrent of

on thection with trade democratic side and bernie sanders has capitalized on that as well. thank you very much for letting me speak for once on your network. you guys are great. i stopped watching a lot of networks. i am almost ready to get rid of cable tv. i have been at from supporters since june 16 when i sat in my chair and watched him on tv announce he was running and i cried. i called his campaign office five times and said you cannot just build a wall about letting other people in there. very short story, i do not want to take up all your time, in this country, my father was in world war ii and i grew up with kids with their fathers in world war ii and i held a draft card in vietnam in my hand. i was never called and i would ive went in and a second or

am worse off in my life than i have ever been ever, and i have watched over the years, never paid more attention to what is going on now. trump is an honest man. i can read him by watching him. he is a successful man, he is a builder. needs to be ran like a business. what we have had here in the past over the past 40 years, not counting reagan if i'm in that territory, we need a guy who knows what he is doing. this guy is a strong leader. thise -- if people in country do not wake up and see where we are headed and what is going on, but we are worse off than we have ever been before. we need a man like trump. take a be a woman but trump is a man and a leader and he reuven it. that is what i want to say and i want to thank you again, c-span, for being a fair and honest in network. thank you and god bless you. guest: the combination of disaffected voters along with the view that donald trump is a successful businessman who has a different profile than most

traditional pub -- republican candidates, it is a potent combination. one thing i have reported on is a lot of trump voters voted for mitt romney in 2012 in the primary and one of the reasons they supported prime -- romney was because he was a businessman and a success story. trump was winning the majority of moderate voters in the final stage of the race and a lot of them share views like the caller that they had not been able to catch a break and they look at his success story as a developer in a very positive way. those rallies, the violence that has occurred, what is your take on what those events mean as far as long-term campaign? they play to his advantage in a republican primary. this past weekend, there was a lot of violence on the democrat side. i think it goes both ways. frankly, he has been able to tent down at the rallies themselves on some of the unrest

being taken. host: let's hear from donald trump talking about these rallies last night. mr. trump: the truth is, at the trump rallies, it is the safest place you could be. we look out for each other and we look out for everybody. had one in california recently, 31,000 people. it was unbelievable. and then you read -- you do not read about that. you read about, they had some problems outside. people were burning the american flag. i do not want them burning the american flag. >> boo! outside, notople inside. many of them are bad people. we have gone for days, you do not see it. majority, theent good americans not speaking up are with trump. we are in a polarized country right now.

what trump's and comments reflect shows how do distant we are from each other. in indiana, a viewer is watching. how are you doing? i am leaning the republican side and we are talking on the don ticket. i do not think republican voters care because they did nothing for them when they took back the house and the senate. i would rather have seen the democrats take everything over there are a lot of trump voters in indiana. host: are you a chump supporter? caller: now i am, yes. i'm going for trump this time. i cannot see voting for hillary. the fbi is holding on to see how the polls look before they cuff her and bring out someone else.

what ultimately convinced you to support him? what is it about him? you have to have strong borders. that is the main thing. if you do not and you have people coming over here not knowing who they are, 70% of them are probably on welfare, you have got vietnam vets in the street who cannot get anything, you swim over here with seaweed on your back, you get housing. it has got to stop. any impact from the endorsements trump received? you know that, of course. you need a strong man. of ourhe john wayne time, even if he is kind of a buffoon, i still love him. guest: thank you. trump has a committed base. we have seen this, polls have shown, it is very little in --

very little of new information you could give to trump supporters to change their mind. the second they start to get endorsements from washington to make alliances like ted cruz did, they loose support. trump has been rocksolid with his base, 35% or 40% of his party. a tweet talking about the funding he got from bobby knight and those things. i guess that matters to indiana and's. guest: i do not know if celebrity endorsements added a lot of momentum. trump was already doing well in the first place. i think bobby knight's enthusiasm contrast a lot with mike pence's war -- a endorsement of ted cruz earlier in the week. host: republican line, good morning. my question and comment

is it is fascinating donald trump is primarily a centrist democrat at least on another of social issues, etc. primaryce, i think this policy -- asut much as in past primaries in my experience. and i would be curious to see what your guest thinks, is if trump gets the nomination, and apparently he will, that the democrats have one. policy wise, he seems pretty hope desperate close, he and hillary to what is your opinion? guest: trump is not that much different than jim webb, a populist democrat. democrats have shed a lot of their working-class, socially conservative supporters and voted for republican presidential candidates but they have not been trueblue republicans and do not share the

wall street wing of the republican party's views. these are now the chump voters and they did not have a home in the democratic party not that long ago, they viewed the toeralism as an anathema where they stand but they do not like the economic conservatism of the republican party. trump has found an untapped constituency that has been ignored in recent years and that is what makes his support so notable. what does this tell us about a direct matchup between trumpet hillary clinton. guest: she would have the potential to win in a big way to her there are not enough working-class white voters to bring the republicans to a majority and they will need to win other groups to build upon that. clinton is very not likable but has a base she could rely on that is just as big if not than working-class whites. the best case scenario is trump could make inroads in the midwest where there are a lot of classwide voters and maybe change the map a little bit in

his favor, but i think the downside is substantial for a trump nomination and there is a really democrats could have a historic sweep with a clinton and trump hatch up as well. from new york, an independent line. thank you for holding on. you are next. good morning. a couple ofve comments and i'd appreciate it if you would just let me get them in. the gentleman she does before what it he was not sure was hillary clinton actually lied about and why people call her a liar. the first reason was the fact that when there was the benghazi terror attacks, she told everyone it was because of a video, which has been proven to be false. when thea mother bodies came home, she said we will find whoever made the terrible video. this has been proven to be false. hillary clinton is not to be trusted. she says whatever she needs to say out of convenience. when we talk of any election, the other thing seems to be that we talk about it in a vacuum.

i am not a trump fan, but i could never vote for clinton because i find her dishonest. big picture,at the we have to understand the democratic party, including hillary clinton, are responsible for obamacare and the arabian nuclear deal, and not only is it not popular, but the iranians have yet to sign it. there congress actually chose to make a ratification that they will continue to develop nuclear weapons. growth.had very little personal take-home payment has been down. these are all things the democratic party has to own. we talk about hillary clinton and don't trump, i am no trump fan but it is an obvious choice when you compare the two, especially knowing hillary clinton had her hands in benghazi in libya, the iran nuclear deal, all the foreign-policy blunders including the russian reset, an absolute night air. host: thank you. guest: one thing we underestimate with hillary

clinton is the depth of antipathy toward her and president obama, whose numbers are better than hillary clinton. when you look at the people who really dislike both the president and hillary clinton, is -- the0%, so, this problem is that trump also breeds a lot of antipathy from the other side. this election is likely to be a race to the bottom but clinton, there are a lot of people who do not like trump and a lot of moderate republicans who really dislike trump, but they will still vote for him over hillary clinton cousin the depth of resentment toward the democratic party and hillary clinton is so great. host: is there any sense it will finally come out between now and election day? guest: i have no independent sourcing on that but i do know the justice department does not want to affect the results of an election. you would think if they are going to have a resolution to this, it would happen sooner rather than closer to the convention and the general

election. less likely the longer we see this drawn out. host: politically, does it matter? guest: it does. if there is an event, an indictment, terrorist attack, something that could happen and change the trajectory of an election, we are in a time when there is such volatility in the electorate that even big events that could happen between now and november could change the trajectory of the race. york, democrats line, joe's next. hello. caller: good morning. the hillary clinton camp needs bernie sanders. forget castro, forget brown. she has to take bernie sanders as her running mate. the polls as they stand right now may show hillary with the lead, but once you have both the nominees, you are going to see a turn. trump is essentially, if you crazyer in the 1970's,

eddie, appliance salesman, this is trump. people who have any confidence in donnie trump, and i understand why he would have people, i am going to be disappointed. it is very important who folks take as their running mates once they are nominees of their parties. pay attention to trump takes as a running mate. he just wants to win a popularity contest. he does not want the job. when heaid so right said i'm concerned about his lack of curiosity about the position he is ticking. that is the problem. he just wants a popularity contest win. camp needs sanders and without sanders, trump wins the election. the landscape of the country is changing and this is the last chance.

guest: crazy eddie, the shtick worked selling electronics in new york but eventually it faded as times change. that is the problem for donald trump. he is been on tv for a year, we know to expect. in a general election, will people tire of the controversy , therovocative miss provocations that he has caused? it is a big risk for trump. host: there has not been an inkling of who the candidate will likely be. guest: the question is who would want to be on a trumped ticket? a lot of people you could talk about would be great matchup's, great compromise to donald trump. i hear a lot of resistance to wanting to -- if he loses badly in a general election, that would potentially remain at least on that running mate for a long time. it would signal a sense of desperation almost if you had to

put sanders on your ticket or even elizabeth warren, it shows you are worried about losing some of those sanders supporters to donald trump and that is not a place hillary clinton wants to be. host: next in south carolina. yes, good morning, thank you. i wanted josh to comment on why he thinks governor kasich has not been more possible -- popular. i think he would make a great president and would reach across the aisle and build more consensus than anybody has done in a long time. , maybe i am out of step with the rest of the world, so i would like to hear his comment. guest: it is a great question. his moderation does turn off some of the more conservative elements of the republican party. he was considered the most moderate republican running from the outset and a lot of conservatives from the get-go said they could not support someone that moderate.

i picked the bigger problem currently is he does not have any money he has been living off of the land ever since he jumped into the race. he is not able to advertise in a lot of these states. been his should have base. he should have done well in pennsylvania and connecticut but he did not have the money to advertise. the super pac did not have a whole lot of money either. we know john kasich because we follow this stuff but a lot of voters hear about him on tv and don't much about him. when donald trump is on the tv all the time and has the degree of resources he does, and john kasich is trying to get free media attention to compete against donald trump, it is not a formula for success. more call from pennsylvania, hans is up next. caller: what american voters of both parties do not seem to outcomes of the elections have been predetermined. the reason for this is there was a princeton university study available on youtube that demonstrates the electronic

voting machines can easily be reprogrammed for the purpose of flipping the votes. stalin had made a comment one time that it does not matter who votes, but it matters who counts the votes. this is what has been going on in american elections. the final, in analysis, when it comes down to trump and clinton, the machines will be hijacked and clinton will be winning regardless of what the popular vote is. people need to go to youtube and electronic- look up voting machine fraud. a lot of information on this, a resource people have to look at and realize their votes really do not count anymore. guest: that sounds like a conspiracy theory more than anything. i do not know if that really deserves much of a response. host: california, when do we finally say ok, we have got our people? whoever wins indiana on the republican side, -- if ted

cruz somehow comes from behind and diffuse donald trump and all of the sudden, he has the momentum and he would be the guy who has the big upset. heading into states that are much more favorable to him and donald trump. if he loses, it looks like his campaign would be all but over and has a clear path if he does win indiana. , thank youkraushaar for your time. do not forget our coverage of the indiana primary tonight. c-span.orgebsite at for more information. coming up, another perspective on the news. , thell meet j carl let's founder of a news website aimed at millennial's and young people. what runs thebout site and what he is covering these days. that when we continue. ♪

campaign 2016ur bus made nature to pennsylvania at the primary, stocking at slippery rock university, washington and jefferson college, and harrisburg area community college. covering the campaign train -- campaign trail. our bus ended the week in pennsylvania where it visited a middle school to honor seventh -- 7/9 graders. a special things to our cable help.rs, comcast, further

you can win all of the documentaries -- look at all the documentaries at student cam.org. >> washington journal continues. host: joining us is jake horowitz, founder of a website called mic. hello. hello. great to be here. thank you for having me. host: how would you describe this website to other people? mic is a leading news and digital media company for millennial's by millennial's. i started a website in 2011 five years ago with my lifelong friend chris. to build a trusted news brand that 18-35 euros, the college-educated young people in america, come to on a daily basis to get their news. wouldn't someone of that age go to another site? what makes your site different from theirs?

back in 2011, i was a journalist in beirut and we were seeing the arab spring and millions of young people around the world in places like egypt, tunisia, cairo, iran, rising up against the government. the u.s. occupy wall street and we knew millennial's have a distinct worldview that is different from previous generations and that 18-35-year-olds consume news in new ways. long gone are the days when young people by a physical new york times. as news consumption was changing and the voice and the perspective and the minds that of a generation -- mindset of a stories thate told reflected the way the generation sees the world. how would you describe

your editorial stance? center right, left? we do not take a perspective when it comes to political leanings. what has been unique is we try to better represent the generation. this generation is competent. on social issues, you see near universal agreement, being very liberal, that much is probably clear to all of the viewers, same-sex marriage, race, seminal social justice movements we are seeing. we have had a huge audience around identity politics issues. when it comes to foreign policy or when it comes to economics, the generation is much more divided and 50% of the generation actually identifies as independent and does not identify with either party. politicaltake a leaving and we tried to report fairly on stories. what is unique is you will find many different perspectives from a lot of different points of view. host: looking at the website right now, you have a story

about the day's's republican primary in indiana and what to expect. interesting donald trump is in a captain america costume. what is the philosophy? gain interest as far as someone to click on the information and read it? i think we have fun. one thing we have done is try to incorporate multimedia, video, visuals, try to use the language of our generation. remember this is a generation that grew up on social media and is getting their news from facebook and twitter and instagram and periscope, from all of these new platforms. and away wayties the traditional 500 word op-ed may not be the best way to reach this generation. has reportersdesk who cover the conservative side and they have been out on the trail with donald trump and ted cruz. we have folks who have been on the trail with bernie sanders, who has done well with young

people. the way we will tell stories is not conventional with telling stories the way traditional media told stories. host: here is how we have divided the lines today. by age. -- host: you can also post on facebook and twitter as well. how do you determine what your viewers want to read? what goes into story selection and what you think would be interesting for people when they come to your website? we do not sit around a room and try to strategize about how to reach millennial's. 's success keys to mic has been hiring a diverse staff of young reporters who have a

near to the ground about conversations happening in our circles. i am talking to editors and i am always asking them to share the stories they would be talking about with their friends over dinner. a lot of our supporters have an ear to the ground in our communities off-line and online. they therefore have been ahead of all of the seminal social justice and internet movements we have seen. themve been ahead of because our supporters are in those circles on facebook and twitter. bernie sanders has done well with 18-35-year-old voters. 3-6 months before most of the mainstream media was reporting on bernie sanders, we would hear chatter from young people telling us they were really support -- excited about his platform and we reported on the movement that was call asking months before. have a team ofto journalists who are

authentically listening and hearing and telling the stories of a generation. are: are the people who covering the campaigns, are they getting interviews one-on-one with them? are you getting that acceptance? we are. i sat down with president obama ended a big one-on-one about the iran deal where we took questions from young people around the world. the president answered a question from a young person in israel and iran in addition to my own russian. actually watched those questions on an ipad. a unique moment. we sat down with all kinds of world leaders to i sat down with david cameron. we are in regular communication with all of the campaigns about taking the initiative, a one-on-one sitdown or new format that help them reach young , to work with them throughout the election cycle. host: more with jake horowitz

coming up. -- host: let's watch a little bit. [video clip] statistic>> that really sticks with me. only 6% acknowledged that rape is an issue on their campus? how do you react that -- to that? biden: they are afraid it will hurt their competitive advantage. people to tellt me what they're doing. it is their responsibility. they have an obligation. host: of all of the topics you

could discuss with the vice president, can't this rate, -- rape, why do you think it was important? guest: it was emblematic of mic's voice. sexual assault is a huge issue college5 euros, current students and recent grads. the statistic that one in four women get sexually assaulted on college campuses is unacceptable. issuesght about the big that michael wants to take a stand on. sexual assault has always been one of them. it is an issue where our reporters have and irritable ground and are hearing these conversations on college campuses from young women that we need more media attention and why are people not taking a stand on the issue? doknew we wanted to something big on it. it was a great moment for us when we sat down with the vice president because he has been quite active on this with his campaign called it's on us.

andlso showcase both video text reporting. we had a whole series of content that went up for instagram, facebook, all of our social platforms, and what was really exciting was on a big issue like cap the sexual assault, which you might think, you cannot get millennial's to care about that, we actually found quite the opposite and got tremendous feedback from our audience and big viewership on the whole package. mic.com where you can find the website our guest founded and talks about. we want to have your questions. first call from our guest is from joe from kansas, you are on, go ahead. as a millennial, i have a couple of questions quick to hear your opinion as we see a lot of conflict going back and forth, especially with

and iream media outlets, think it is unfair to categorize our generation as one block with the unified perspective. i think that drives a lot of conflict. i am curious to see how you view your website as fitting in, compartmentalizing millennials from mainstream discourse and what effect do you think that could have on the conflict going forward? i will take my answer off of the air. guest: a great question. the problem say is, you are describing is one of the very reasons we started mic. there was a prevailing stereotype about the millennial generation that we are the light and fluffy generation, that we bottom of thet barrel internet stuff and we are all about entertainment and that we cannot pay attention to serious stuff. that was very reason we started mic because we knew that was not true.

we knew that our generation is checking the news on our phones more than any other generation in history, we are more educated than any other generation in history and we are more diverse. we wanted to start the website change theeally prevailing notion about millennial's and try to overcome some of the stereotypes. the only other thing i would say is as you rightly point out, this is the most diverse generation. to represent millennial's, we are not just trying to talk to millennial's in new york or california or washington, d.c. we have four card to build a who come fromters many different backgrounds and who can really help reflect the conversations that are happening , ourose communities identities section, our section covering social justice, feminism, lgbt writes, race, and the intersection of identity politics issues, it is consistently our largest section and it speaks to the very point

you are describing, which is that this is a diverse generation that sees the world through diverse lenses. from washington, d.c., lawrence, who identifies as over 50. hello. caller: good morning. my question is, since you seem outlet, why of news aren't you really educating the , understanding it is not the two candidates that is the problem in america. it is our senate and our house of representatives that have created this atmosphere of not wanting to support the person that america put in office. set up theirhave own agendas, the republicans. and from day one, they have decided they would not compromise or even look towards anything that the president or the democrats have had. i know you have heard this.

this president will be a one term president by the leader of the senate. from that day forward, there was nothing that was done to escalate or resolve issues for america. why aren't the young people understanding that? not trump or hillary, it is the people, perhaps they did not vote for. for a regional selection of representatives, i think that is our problem in america, not trump or hillary. it is our senate and house of representatives. do you agree? guest: it is a great comment and thank you for calling in. i think what you .2 is an important problem, which is what we have seen is the generation of young people are very engaged in politics. attention to the news and they are engaged in political issues much more so in this election than ever.

but you do have a problem of trying to get the generation to just in and vote, not presidential elections, but also in state elections, for members of congress or even in low elections. it is more difficult and it is a vicious cycle because this generation is incredibly washington's's power to fix our issues, even though we are super optimistic has a generation. we are turning to other methods to do so. startups go to silicon valley and attack problems not through traditional means of politics. the big reason why is they have lost faith. i agree with you it is not

itting any less polarized has gotten increasingly more polarized in washington. it is a problem we are focused on. i think young people know it but more people should know it, as you rightly port -- point out. we recently had john from harvard university, they put out a study looking at politics. he talked about participation in the elections amongst millennial spirit i want you to add your own take to it as well. >> young people need to feel there is a tangible difference between one candidate and another candidate. in this campaign, i think we will see that and there is an opportunity to encourage more people to participate but only if the candidates take a part and empower more people. just because young people may not participate as voters as

much as members of other generations, i do want to know that they care deeply about their country, they care deeply about their community, they volunteer in significant numbers. young people are participating every day to make their country and community better. think and hope that campaigns also kind of begin to encourage more participation among young people. take to those thoughts. ofst: i think there is a lot truth to that. this generation cares deeply about politics and the system. one of the fascinating things about the election is for all the talk and the entertainment, donald trump versus hillary and bernie, it really has been sort of a circus, we are talking about real issues in the election. one of the things bernie sanders has been able to do is get millions of people across

america to talk about income inequality in a way that was not happening several years ago. on the right, you are seeing massive conversations around immigration that donald trump says he was the first to really raise the issue but there is some truth to that, the election has been an election where issues have become front and center. not young people vote, what is important to recognize is the extent to which the conversations happening on social media are happening with such atrocity, in a way we have never seen, where people all across facebook and instagram are paying attention and tuning in and they are talking about issues, like i said, like income inequality or race or lgbt writes in a very significant way. think young people have been engaged. the fascinating phenomenon when it comes to bernie sanders is he has attracted so much attention online and off-line, getting 28,000 people in his rally and

yet that has not necessarily translate into votes. it will be interesting to see in the general election whether young people come out to vote or whether they just continue to bubble up and really surface the important issues that really matter to the generation online. will seeyou think you as much participation as we saw eight years ago with the election of barack obama? think we will see significant participation. it may be for another reason. back several years ago, because president obama really appealed to the generation in a unique way. in this particular case, donald trump has not told very well with millennials up until now. , they may not want him to be president. we will see how his positioning changes in the general and whether he really goes after some of bernie sanders' coalition, which he says he is trying to do. i have been all over the country

in new hampshire and iowa and everywhere else. it would be interesting to hear from some 20 four-year-old voters who said they just went to a bernie centers rally and then they're going to a trump rally and then they will make up their mind. fascinating to me because it was not ernie versus hillary. they were trying to make up their mind and it will be really interesting to see what effect will trump has on 18 to 35-year-olds in the generals. it is one thing to help report on and reflect and talk about the trend. host: the founder of the mic news website, jake horowitz, talking to you about the issues his website covers, particularly young people, millennial's, as they are known. daniel, good morning. is at the comment time of the occupy movement, it was really frustrating for us

that we got to see the militarized of the police and that was a concern of mine. the main thing for me is the people have been sent to jail, very few on wall street have for what they have done. suffering from that. what i first started working, i had a hard time getting a job that paid over $15 an hour. time, for my parents, i probably would've had a hard time surviving. thank you for the comment and i think you raise a lot of the important issues that this generation is really talking about. it is any. just last week i had the opportunity to meet with the future forum, a group in

goingss of young members across the country and talking to millennial voters about what they want to see and what issues are a priority to them and the number one issue that came up was student debt. dealing with crippling student past graduation. we see that all the time. our reporting on student debt, on the minimum wage, on getting a job after college and what the experience is like, they are some of the most important and popular articles that we will write. what has been exciting is i think a lot of the campaigns and the candidates are thinking about and actively talking about the issues in a way that you --ht not have in in previous seen in previous generations. issues were a lot of folks are taking a nation -- a stance on it. that is exciting to watch. the next stage is what happens

next. that was always the question with revolutions and a movements like occupy. canned the endgame and the policy actually change? for that to happen,for that to'o require concerted effort from people our age continuing to make noise on social. when i talk to members of congress they say they listen. they are trying to hear what the priorities are for people our age. i continue to make your voice heard on the issues and mic is going to continue to report on them. host: somebody asked about the funding. where does the money come from? we have taken -- we've done two fundraising rounds. we have taken 30 million dollars in capital to get our business going at this point. we started back in 2011.

we have been fortunate enough to attract a very diverse group of investors who really support the mission of what mic is trying to build. in terms of our business strategy, what's been exciting is we are working with brands want to reach this demographic and reach millennials in engaging ways. long gone are the days of the disruptive banner ad that just annoys you. we have gone with a predominantly native advertising strategy where we have a team inside of mic. the brand and content studio works directly with brands and helps them tell their story through video content and written content. really exciting because we are kind of at the

intersection of millennials mobile and video which is now all you are hearing in the market in terms of what brands want to do and who they want to talk to. young people who have money to spend and are going to be buying cars and homes for years to come. host: as far as the stories, how are they packaged? are they shorter? how does it work as far as you packaging a story to the people you're trying to reach directly? guest: it's a mix of things. things that is not understood about this generation is that young people will read longform journalism if you give them a reason to. good storytelling has been proven time and time again at mic to be good storytelling.

we have a show called the movement posted by one of our editors who goes all over the country and lifts up the voices of people in their community trying to overcome issues around race and stigmatization. really trying to lift up marginalized communities. that is longform video. six minute to 10 minute plus video. we have done longform written reporting. we have embarked on deeper reporting projects where we have hard with the marshall project and done criminal justice reporting. we have a great reporter named jack smith who has done excellent reporting in that area. we have also done news reporting. when big moments happen in the news -- millennials are checking their phones all the time so we make sure we are giving them quick information. you will find a variety of reporting on mic. what distinguishes it is the

liberties we take in order to incorporate multimedia and tell stories through tweets and vines and videos that speak to the way this generation is consuming content online. host: angelo from new orleans. caller: good morning. mr. horwitz, i say bravo. i am 69 years old but i consider myself a hippie. i relate to your movement completely. occupy, anonymous. the thing that does concern me was last night on fox so-called they were vilifying what happened in seattle over the weekend. of course anytime there is a demonstration there are going to be a few radicals that come in. all i saw was a police car windshield being kicked.

ofidn't see the report someone throwing a molotov cocktail. it's a shame. policies00% with the and the things that you all are doing. god bless you and keep up the good work. thank you for that. i appreciate that. i'm glad to consider you a reader and a fan. mediahink the way the reports on a lot of these seminal moment over the past few years whether it is ferguson or -- one of the things s, as a poster showing rioting and looting, -- riotinged to showing

and looting, we gave the counter perspective. we sent reporters to baltimore. days before all the media was there looking at the riots, there were peaceful protests trying to lift up communities. we are trying to tell a different perspective and not bleedsst in the when it le it leads mantra. we just got back from mississippi. the camera may not be on these places right now. they might not be breaking news. host: we will hear from bob in washington, d.c. caller: good morning, c-span. your competition -- i was wondering about your competition.

in particular i was thinking of daily stormer. daildo you think of ystormer.com? guest: i'm actually not as familiar. in terms of more broadly how we see the competition, it's a really exciting time in digital media. we are seeing massive transformations and a lot of it is a result of the way that facebook and social media now let you reach big audiences in a way that you really couldn't five years ago. the space is super hot. brands are working with digital media companies. a lot of people are doing really exciting work whether it is buzz feed or vox or vice. indon't feel like we are competition with these folks. we feel like there is room for lots of different players.

the way people are consuming media online is only just getting started in terms of the revolution we are being. if driverless cars become a thing, people will be consuming media even more so than they are today. i think the space is huge and the future will be really exciting. just like the new york times and the wall street journal and lots there's lotsrint, of opportunities for people to develop their own voice in the digital media lands in -- landscape. how many hits are you getting a month and how many of those are new people coming to the site? guest: we get about 35 million readers a month. that does not include video. the fastestam is growing. we are producing longform and short form video. last month we hit 100 million video views for the month.

audience is really growing. we are getting increasingly new viewership. we are also getting return viewership. the number of readers coming increasing which is really a good sign for our brand. the other really exciting number for us is about 10 million of our viewers every month come internationally which is super exciting. i think this generation is the truly global generation. everybody has a mobile phone. it has really connected the dots between a millennial in the u.s. and one in cuba and the middle east. i just got back from cuba where i reported on president obama's trip. i talked to an lgbt rights activist in cuba who said he was looking at the same-sex marriage movement in the u.s. and it really informed and inspired

what he was trying to build in cuba. there's an opportunity to build a truly global news brand. we are very excited by our increasingly international presence. host: our guest is jake horowitz. what is change.org? what did you do there? guest: it is one of the leading digital online petition websites. they have had a tremendous amount of success over the last five years mobilizing and really taking a stand for causes. there has been a lot of examples where a petition will start from somebody online to and it will start to go viral. more people will sign a petition. overturn been able to policy as a result. the bank of america debit card fee to some of the lgbt rights laws. change.org is really starting to massive populations of

young people and people of all ages online and show there is a stereotype of a generation of slacktvism. what we have seen with sites like change.org is that it is possible to make change digitally. it -- iting thing that really learned how content goes viral and gets distributed with this demographic. mic takes a different us -- perspective. we are reporters. we are a media company. our reporters try to report on the story. we hope people get more engaged and mobilize and they can do what they will once there are more informed about a particular topic. here is joseph from

delaware. you are on. go ahead. caller: thank you. today is my 50th birthday day. for real. born at st. francis hospital in wilmington, delaware. i have a question for this young person. the millennials to me seem very short tempered and kind of rude. and they are always on their devices and they believe whatever they read. i made a rumor -- what are you doing. i just got done watching hillary get arrested. i was making a joke and it spread like wildfire. they said, for what? i'm going, what is wrong with these people? they will believe whatever. you are gullible. they will believe whatever you want to believe. and the real world in the face at 30. and they go, i didn't know it was like this. is this the real world? i have credit card debt? i went to college for a degree i can't possibly use?

what about trade school and things like that? to these people that really want to go to college and think -- i'm just going to kick open the door, walk in, and get a $90,000 a year job and everybody's going to love me. like the goldstar participation generation is finally going to wake up to the cold hard reality. mom and dad aren't going to pay it. they're going to retire and leave you behind you are on your own. just like i did. 18 years old, high school, went to the navy, made my own life. and i'm happy i did it. host: we will let our guest respond. happy birthday. go ahead. guest: happy birthday to you and thanks for the call. i think this is a generation that grew up with tremendous opportunity. lie and large it's a generation that was told that they can choose their career as opposed to having to settle on one career path that's just going to

be the path that makes the most of money because of these societal forces that are baby boomers had relative comfort and success. goy were told that they can to college, pick their own major, and choose what they are passionate about as opposed to being forced into one career. there is definitely a difference there and that is something you .2. the other thing that you .2 is point to is social media. it can be used to spread bad things. there was a wonderful story written about -- this was in wired about isis's social media strategy. isis is a media company. they're using facebook and twitter in the same way that people here use them to spread information. there are always two sides of

these platforms. the interesting thing for mic has been that we have actually seen this is a much more nuanced generation than some of the stereotypes that are out there. some of them which you have just described. really diverse generation. you can find people who probably are what you are describing but you can find lots of folks who are not and are super engaged and want to go out and change the world. that has been exciting for mic to see that. keeping an ear to the ground and talking to this generation who spends every day thinking about what they care about, they are very complicated and diverse and there's a lot of hope for the future. host: in the 18 to 29 category, ng from washington, d.c. good morning. i'm not sure if you have heard

about the current situation in vietnam. my friends and i tried to petition to ask the white house to bring more attention to this issue. facebook andusing we are definitely trying to fund raise. what other methods can you suggest that we can get this topic so that the mainstream media can cover this topic more? as of right now it doesn't look like any mainstream media has picked up this topic yet. i'm actually not as familiar with the exact issue you are describing so maybe that is telling. think the exciting thing is that storytelling now is not just possible for a media company like mic but also for individuals like you to be able to make a lot of noise and awareness. you have used facebook and tried

to get people to care. there are so many platforms you could be experimenting with. one of the exciting things right now is facebook live. it lets you go anywhere in the world and broadcast live from your phone directly to your followers on facebook. can speak direct to camera, take questions from your audience. it's like a broadcast. you can really go out in the field and show people what things are like. in a't know if you are position to go to vietnam. one of the things you can go. -- you can do is go. you don't need an expensive camera crew. there's tons of other platforms whether it is writing an op-ed or a written post or going to a place like mic and trying to raise awareness. awareness for trying to bring attention to causes that were once faraway places.

one of the most exciting things in the industry right now is the our video. -- vr video. think it is super exciting because for the first time ever you are going to be able to bring your audience with you to cover big international humanitarian crises which are very hard to get people in the u.s. to care about. is going to be experimenting a lot in the space of going to refugee camps or really harsh places where there is big tragedy happening but it's hard to get people to care and being able to walk viewers through the a 360ence just by filling video. i'm not sure if that is in the cards for you but there are ways to do it really cheaply now. samsung has a virtual reality phone. you can go and show people what is happening and have them walk with you.

there's a lot of options is the good news. is the mobile device the main platform for your site? what do you think the future holds as far as we treat technology? mobile is increasingly where our readers are getting the news which means that as a media company today you need to not onlying the site for desktop but also for mobile. as we thought about how to lay that out on the page's -- think back to the old magazine layout where you had a beautiful spread in the atlantic or time magazine. we knew we wanted to have a beautiful reading experience that communicated the gravity and importance of the topic but we also knew there are certain limitations to your phone. people are able to just click

directly from facebook to watch something and go back to facebook. we are designing for mobile. there has been a development within facebook to push something called instant articles which is -- when you pick -- click on an article you get brought to a screen where your article lives within facebook as opposed to going to mic.com. you stay within facebook. it's a faster experience on your thereand i think it means are really exciting opportunities to tell stories when you are designing for mobile because you have to be thinking nimbly. how would a 26-year-old be consuming media? that's what we want to be doing. it has been really fun to try to think about, how do we maximize the potential and impact of our stories by designing for that platform? host: and guest is the founder

of mic.com. jake horowitz. thank you for your time this morning. thank you. it has been great to be here. great questions. host: in our remaining time until 10:00, open phones. for democrats, (202) 748-8000. republicans, (202) 748-8001. independent line, (202) 748-8003 . twitteralso post on our or facebook page. we will take open phones right after this short break as washington journal continues. ♪ >> madam secretary.

we humbly give 72 of our delegate votes to the next president of the united states. >> washington journal continues. host: it is primary day in indiana. don't forget that we will have coverage of the results that take place later on this evening. for more information, go to c-span.org.

also bernie sanders with an event tonight in kentucky at 7:30 this evening. tune in to our website for more on that. open phones until the remainder of our time. (202) 748-8000 for democrats. (202) 748-8001 for republicans. .202) 748-8002 for independents taking a look at syria. the pentagon planning on stepping up airstrikes there. the mostinisters from active countries in the us-led coalition will meet. criticism foraces the speed of its campaign against the extremist group. the u.s. announced the deployment of special operations forces to syria and agreed to

send another 250 military personnel. first on open phones, wendy in north carolina. democrat line. good morning. caller: hi. i've been watching the news media this morning. we play over and over again -- replay over and over again donald trump criticizing hillary clinton for screaming at the mic. as whole time he is yelling loud as he can and not one media person has pointed out the obvious hypocrisy of this. i'm just astonished that nobody has noticed that so i thought i would help. host: joseph in florida on the republican line. caller: yes. i am in a community outside of tampa. trumpyears back donald

was supposed to build a tower here. there was a lot of hoopla. everyone had shipped in ahead of time. just after the ground was broken. people spent up to 100 $25,000 to secure a condominium -- $125,000 to secure a condominium. the thing went bust. he is calling hillary clinton a criminal. nobody in the press is hyping up the fact that he is scheming people in a ponzi scheme with trump university. he scammed people with the trump tower here in tampa. john kasich i think is the only one that makes sense and nobody is giving him a beans dollars worth of free tv that donald trump has gotten. host: why do you like kasich

overall? caller: he has proven that he can get results reaching across the aisle. he has balanced budgets in washington. he has changed ohio around. if he had gotten the billions of dollars of worth of free publicity all day long that trump gets, people would know who he is and understand that he's the best candidate. people arew why going for that -- donald trump lies out of his mouth. making -- megyn kelly asked him a legitimate question and he said, she attacked me first. he attacked her. if somebody in the world asks him tough questions he says, putin is being nasty to me just because he pulled a tough

question. i don't understand why he gets all this free publicity and gets basically pushed by the media to be the best guy. nobody else gets any kind of publicity like that. i played every one of his speeches. every time he shows up they have all these tweets. those other guys don't get a fair shake. randall is next in washington, d.c. on the democrats line hello. yes.r: i would like to speak get somebody -- i will be 56. sometimes we argue and talk about things. i think the difference between young people to a degree is the thing that my friends and i argue about. like total difference in what the objectives are. thatd of worries me

ometimes you have just the vibe. young people are not interested in hillary -- i guarantee there's not that much total difference between her and bernie sanders for the outcomes in the lives of young people. i think we lost him. apologies for that. out of the washington post this benghazithe house panel receiving new criticism from the pentagon, saying stephen hedger charged in a letter sent to the committee thursday that republican investigators are employing a variety of unproductive tax includingactics threats to subpoena pentagon employees.

hedger wrote, the department is working to accommodate your multiple and changing requests. we are not able to move quickly enough to accommodate these new requests. you can see the whole story in today's washington post. matt inve on to not -- anderson, indiana. heavy already voted today? guest: i will be voting later. i'm out of town working. trump is just way too bombastic. he runs his mouth before thinking about it. i don't trust hillary. if she can't even protect five or six guys in benghazi, how can she protect 350 million plus

american citizens? that was one of her main job is to protect the people that served under her. forhey called reinforcements and that call was not answered, there is no excuse for that. there is absolutely no excuse. as far as the pentagon with what you just read, maybe the pentagon should light a fire under their feet and start producing documents and people instead of trying to just beat around the bush and hide this. the american people have a right to know why those men died. those families have a right to know. that theyxcusable would beat around the bush. there are trying to hide what really happened for the american people. that's like this latest revelation about the 9/11 commission. i find it hard to believe that there's enough information that would damage national security

that those pages should be released. i just don't believe that. to me it's a cover-up. it seems like a cover-up because -- 28 pages. honestly. even if it does involve the saudi government. those 3000 plus people who died -- their families deserve to know exactly what happened. host: ok. let's hear from bob in illinois on the republican line. good morning. good morning. regarding liberals that question what donald trump means what he says make america great again, it has nothing to do with slavery. it is all about creating jobs, putting america back to work. people's incomes rising. immigration is fine as long as it is legal. america great again has nothing to do with slavery. host: kevin is on from

bloomington, indiana. line.ats heavy already participated in the primary today? good morning, sir. i tried but i was turned away at the polls. i voted in the same township for 40 years and i had an expired driver's license so i have been disenfranchised. i have congestive heart failure and a bad spine and bad hips and i am not going to be able to walk in again and try to vote. i'm kind of upset right now. we just had governor pence and mitch daniels, a real snake in the grass to think for this. they have been smuggling guns out of benghazi since before the ottoman turks. go back and read your history. we lost four people. 40 millionunion lost people in world war ii. i don't know how many germans or how many americans. it just seems with donald trump

and stuff running around, people are just chewing on lead bars. my father was a prisoner of war in world war ii. he spent time in a concentration camp in nazi germany and i'm sure he is just spinning in his grave right now. thank you very much and god bless c-span for letting some of the light shine on the truth. host: before you go, who would you have supported? he's gone. elene, on the independent line. go ahead. caller: i'm tired of all the media blitzing of donald trump. there's an article in salon.com. in man does not speak complete sentences. he doesn't answer questions that are given to him. he turns it around on the reporters or whatever he is fighting on at the moment. the thing about benghazi. we have wasted a lot of time on that.

commission was not even -- wasn't even faced with such fervor as these people. marines have not guarded our embassies for many years. it was the fault of the people that were locked in the safe room that was not safe evidently. it was not mrs. clinton's fault. hould we blame george, dick, and condie for 9/11? in usa today this morning, saying since the invasion in -sadar has been an unpredictable force to reckon with. cleric stands to totate widespread changes

iran's government. hundreds of his followers stormed the green zone and broke into parliament. the unrest occurs at a fragile moment when the prime minister is struggling to mount an effective counteroffensive against the islamic state forces. you are next on the republican line. go ahead. caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call. i like to ask if there is any way that y'all could have the program coordinator on their who sets up your topics every morning. yesterday morning my breakfast was totally ruined by your guest, a man dressed like a woman. and then this morning you have a topic about a comment using the n-word.

more things going wrong in this country than to be worried about .3% of the population. and one comic that didn't know how to speak on national tv. i think we are getting lost in a lot of these political -- i call them nothings. things that really means nothing in america except .3%. is a good program. y'all talk about aren't news. they are mental issues. would kind of take a different turn and help the american people little more. host: we talk about a wide variety of topics. politics and other topics. as you demonstrated. what do you think needs to be more discussion of? caller: at breakfast time i'd

rather not have to tell my there's a man -- a man dressed like a woman. you know? and then i get the question why? host: you made that point. what do you think we should discuss then? address mental illness. not the acceptance of people being mentally ill in that way. int: let's hear from alley east syracuse, new york. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. i have a few statements. number one, donald trump is completely and totally unqualified to be the president of the greatest country. we have our faults and we have to correct them. like winston churchill once said, america will always do the right thing after they have tried everything else. number two, hillary is the most

qualified, but hillary is bought and paid for regardless. and it is just sad to see. as far as benghazi -- first of all, it was the republican congress that denied the funds for the security. and second of all, why was he there? unfortunately, why did he go there knowing the warnings were there that it was very dangerous? the whole thing is just blown out of proportion. i which people would look at the states. the poverty levels. the problems. and who is running them? republicans. it's time. -- 40 years of the supreme court ruled by republicans. as far as larry williams --

wilford the gentleman of the correspondents dinner. he nailed it. the hypocrisy. you don't have to say the n-word to show disrespect. actions. and republicans have done nothing from day one but disrespect this fine intelligent classy man. host: can i ask you a question? you said donald trump was unqualified and hillary clinton is bought. who are you going to vote for? caller: i'm voting for bernie sanders. host: what sets him apart from everyone at what makes him qualified? caller: i have followed him over the years because i watch c-span, i watch the hearings. i'm retired. he is authentic. ok? he has said the same thing.

sometimes i get myself crazy when i hear him say the same ring, but he does the same things. his actions. he is for the american people first. and all the american people want is to feel like we really are cared for. ok? and he does genuinely care. that's why he's got my vote. host: enqueue for the call. we will go to howard in alabama on the independent line. caller: good morning. yes. what i wanted to speak on is all this money -- president nominations all running bought and paid for. ted cruz gets to be president for four years, he's got to run for reelection. where's he going to get the money? from the people he represents, the establishment.

the only one that's not is trump. all the money that comes in through the establishment all goes to the media. the media is going to wind up with all that money. that's why every time you turn on the news channel you got somebody trashing trump for dollars. ok? just ony who was talking about hillary clinton, it seems to me like if i remember back yonder, hillary clinton had something to do with waco. the overseer of that and those people all died. she had something to do with ruby ridge and those people died. she has something to do with benghazi and those people died. it seems to me like she's the black widow of washington. i don't know. host: there's a picture in the new york times this morning of in carnival cruise ship

havana, cuba. it is the first cruise ship to dock their and more than 40 years. -- it is the first cruise ship in more than 40 years. several companies have applied for licenses to carry american past is to cuba. so far only carnival and a french company have received a license. the treasury department has but has general license yet to get permission from the cuban authorities. ont's get to al the republican line. caller: good morning. i just want to make a comment on this whole election process that has been going on. trump is far from perfect.

everyone has lost it. what he may or may not have said or may or may not have done or what hillary or anybody else has done. we have lived for so many years with the status quo from politicians. every year regardless of who comes out it seems like we end up in the same situation as we are now. lack of jobs. i would challenge anybody to go to any store and try to find one single item that is not made in china. asking, why are we knowoting for trump? for sure that if anybody like hillary comes out back into the politician status quo way of doing business, we are going to continue with the same thing.

it just doesn't change. trump although not perfect is giving us a glimmer of hope that him not being a politician things will change in our future. maybe we will be able to go to the store and buy something that says, made in the usa. and some of the things that he says are not that absurd. he talks about securing the border and building a wall. i don't see -- i don't think that's irresponsible. trump is doing and saying what people have in their minds that they hope that someday some out asian will come president and do what he says he's going to do. --s just funny to me that especially on msn and the other newscasters, they come out and say, they don't get it. why are people still voting for trump? that if the think

house stays in republican hands and the senate that they would be willing to work with this president? president trump. caller: absolutely. -- you havet out seen what has happened with obama. i dislike a lot of the democratic policies that he has initiated. but it is not all his fault. regardless of status quo, politicians republican or democrat, they played the game and they have not allowed obama to do anything that makes the democratic policy look good. a republicann as president and the republicans controlled house and senate, they will work together. you want towhatever say that they are not stupid. oklahoma city, democrats

line. joey, hello. caller: how are you doing today? host: well, thank you. caller: i think you do an excellent job. host: thank you. caller: i think everybody needs to take a deep breath and think about -- we have all these media stories. ted cruz and kasich trying to join forces against trump. the story about this person and this person said this. everybody needs to stop and think. your kids, your grandkids. future generations all hinge on this planet being clean enough and viable enough and safe enough for people to live on it. did a studyations with 2000 of the world's best climate scientists.

they all came to the same conclusion. our earth is slowly dying. the temperature is rising. acidifying.re issue above all others. when i look at that issue and the incredible importance, i look at the candidates. everyone on the right including trump is denying that science is real. denying that climate change is real. somebody in office that thinks climate change is not real. that disqualifies trump. look at hillary. and her clinton foundation are absolutely full of money from the fracking companies and the oil companies. she is talking tough on climate, but she will slow walk it just like obama. he stopped keystone and then

turned around and "a. sandersto have bernie if you want to save your planet. you have to vote for bernie. there is no question about it. proponent ofeen a clean energy his whole career. , he like everything else puts the people first every time. host: we will move to brandon. milwaukee, wi. republican line. caller: to comment on your last caller, we had a reminder yesterday from the cdc that the threat from zika is real. it's a threat to two thirds of america. people are being impacted by it right now. areave these threats that -- that he has related that are killing us right now. for any people that talk about climate change that is going to

happen in the future -- what point is that if you can't have kids or if your kids are being infected with the zika virus? igarding your last guest, found it kind of ironic that his homepage didn't mention any -- anything regarding detroit. clear example of a complete failure of democrat leadership with what's going on there. host: the financial times talks about puerto rico missing a debt payment and what it could mean as far as the future. it says that it has $70 billion of debt obligations and a severely underfunded $46 billion pension system. it has endured almost a decade of economic decline. the missed payments will be the most significant default in the crisis. there are 60 days before the island faces $2 billion in

payments including on most of its senior debt. could affect the municipal bond market. republicans have faced an intense lobbying\including that have characterized the legislation as a bailout. by the way, the governor of puerto rico -- ronald in philadelphia. independent line. good morning. caller: in the first place about benghazi, you had a security king that wanted to walk around like he was martin luther king in america. number two, why is he more important than the 7000 soldiers that got killed for weapons of

mass destruction? idea fromwe get this and why are we not investigating who gave us the information and how did we get stuck in that to get 7000 soldiers plus killed? donald trump says he used to be the buyer of politicians and now he wants to be the seller. ted cruz is with the cuban mob. he's getting his money there. you all have a great day. when are the republicans going to get rid of y'all because you are the only ones that have good sense? have a good day. host: this is walter. go ahead. caller: good morning. this benghazi thing always has bothered me. i find it very hard to believe that hillary clinton who was the secretary of defense at the time had to go all the way up the chain before anybody made a

response? had four people under attack and they had to call hillary at home and hillary had to wave off any possible attempt to save these people? i can't accept that. there had to be somebody in the chain of command who should have been able to respond. quickly without waking up hillary clinton. the secretary of defense. -- they havetuff been throwing mud on the wall at 15, 20 for the past years. nothing has stuck. the wall is dirty. they claim that she is less of a candidate because none of the stuff stuck. walter in new orleans. hillary clinton featured on the banner page of the indianapolis star today. the indiana primary is today.

coverage of that on c-span you can see tonight. , others, primary results information from tonight's contest, or to c-span.org. also bernie sanders will be addressing supporters in louisville, kentucky today. can watch that at 7:30 this evening. for more coverage of road to the white house, go to c-span.org. karen, hello. caller: i just wanted to say i got my oregon ballot in the mail and i will be taking it down and dropping it off. i'm going to mark donald trump. trump is going to protect our free speech. the reason why i'm voting for trump is because i remember obama when he spent the first year on obamacare. then he said he was going to

pick it and -- jobs. how many houses foreclosed in that time? as far as free speech, pelosi saying the tea party were terrorists. the irs going after christians and the tea party. as far as benghazi, they went after the guys who made the video. that was all wrong. it's a scary time to be an american when you have government going after the u.s. citizens. host: karen? correct me if i'm wrong. in oregon, it is all mail in ballots. caller: yes. they told everybody. everybody is registered to vote unless you opt out. the problem is if you were independent you were not able to vote in this election in the primary because you have to sign up with a party because it's a closed -- it's a closed ballot.

i hope everybody goes out and votes for free speech. donald trump has given us our free speech back. isn't it exciting? i'm finally going to get somebody in there. i tried getting ross perot and it all got botched at the last minute. if you want to continue campaign favors for the establishment republicans, that's what they've are fighting for. they are fighting for their money so they can keep getting in there. go trump. i love you. host: phil on the independent line. caller: i need a fourth line called political atheist line. you are going to love this call. what's your political affiliation? the policy of c-span hosts not to reveal that information. caller: very well. i am watching this as a

perspective. pure spectator. donald trump is a brilliant businessman like a fox. only a businessman. sold outobably already to hillary. he's going to lose the election. hillary clinton might not get elected because of benghazi and a lot of other things. i think there might be some kind -- i'm going to talk from the conspiracy point of view. there might be some black flag event that's going to stop the elections. guess who's going to be president? joe biden. host: you think so? caller: eat on that, man. donald trump is a complete fraud and the american people can't see it. this country is toast, man. this is going to be it. it's all over. , new york,lyn

gloria, good morning. caller: good morning. i think bernie should consider getting out of the race sooner. i'm a strong supporter of hillary clinton and barack obama. i would like to say that if he is so concerned about spending money, why is he wasting all this money that he could give to the homeless or some cause? he made a comment that poor people don't vote. that's what he insinuated. that all the people who voted in the south were rich people. which i doubt. i would also like to give a shout out to trump for exposing the republican party for what they represent. i was raised on 64. i was raised in virginia. white waterd and fountain. i said, i wanted the colored one because i thought it tasted better. i bet the white kid thought the

white water fountain tasted better. thank you for taking my call. host: talk about what leads you to pick the candidates that you are selecting. what i want to ask you is -- go ahead. caller: because -- there's a promise. andpresidents promise you they try to deliver the best they can. i don't want nobody to show me anything that is false. there's not going to be free college for everybody but you can cut the rates. my grandson just graduated. it was a struggle. i'm on social security. i'm by myself. i worked for 30 years and i had an accident. thank you for social security. i am more strongly democratically oriented. i have grandchildren. i have to look out for them. demographicst the -- i only see white faces behind trump. i hate to make this whole thing a race thing, but it is.

that's why i gave you the story about the water fountain. host: that is gloria in brooklyn, new york. wet is also the last call have for this program. forget about our coverage tonight of the indiana primary and bernie sanders. programdition of this comes tomorrow morning at 7:00. thank you for your time today. we will see you tomorrow. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] clinton is in a close race in today's indiana primary, on a two-day swing through kentucky, and ohio.

and she will give a speech on jobs in the account of a and we will have live coverage at 2:30 p.m. eastern you're on c-span. the democratic nomination, senator bernie sanders, is campaigning in kentucky. live coverage of his louisville begins at 7:30 p.m. eastern and here is more on today's indiana primary. joining us on the phone is tony cook, a reporter for the "indianapolis star." good morning. thanks for joining us. and the all important delegate count, what does it mean for indiana terms of delegates, both for republicans and democrats? guest: it's especially important on the republican side, where this is sort of ted cruz's last best chance to stop donald trump and lock up the nomination and prevents a contested convention. trump -- is not possible for him to reach the number he needs today. but looking ahead to the states that are going to be voting,