the math still doesn't add up for the vermont independent senator. she has got super delegates almost to the number that she needs of 23 guest: -- who will be the democrat nominee? guest: we don't know what scandals will the fall hillary clinton. you have the e-mail situation. so that is still up in the air. the big story in the campaign is bernie sanders. he has proved you can raise a lot of money with small denominations. that is a big breakthrough. it challenges the myth that you have to go to multimillionaire funding parties and super pac's. he made a great contribution.

the national polls are showing high polls inry terms of character, personality, consistency, clean politics. you never know. i think he is very important. he doesn't quit before california. i think he can help the democrats recover congress. i think that is his role. i don't think his role is to shout her raw for hillary -- for hillary but he can go around the country getting congressional democratic congress. host: what will he ask for at the convention? caller: he will get a primetime spot but he will ask for a $15 an hour minimum wage, universal health insurance, breaking up the big banks. he is not going to get anything.

once the vanquished goes to the convention, they are really vanquished and they just get in line, shut up, and praise the nominee. but i don't think he is going to do that. he can go all over the country supporting democratic candidates for election and he is likely to lend his credibility to hillary's in credibility. ant: so should he launch independent bid? guest: it is too late. makes sure you have to climb mountains to get on the presidential debates. so he is fighting from within the democratic party. host: are you saying that from your experience? guest: i am the recordholder of documenting the two-party , restricting the choices for the american voter. own all thehey

voters and everybody said shut up and get online but the greatest changes in our country were launched by third parties. the liberty party against slavery, labor farmer parties, we should remember that. new ideas and fresh directions for justice were always launched by small parties. what separates bernie sanders and hillary clinton? she says they are not that different. guest: the thing about hillary is you have her record. -- as a relative rest militarist. the new york times is endorsing hillary and still having a page hillary the hawk. she scares obama. she scares some of the generals. war is the first choice and look at the libya attack, which was a violences, chaos and

spilling into africa. that was her war. she countered the secretary of defense who was opposed to it. you can topple a dictator. what next? she wasn't ready. host: how do you know she scares president obama. has criticized him for being soft in syria. she wanted more troops over there. and she is a corporatist. she's for wall street. if you tabulate wall street people, she is there first choice. donald trump is too temperamental, too egotistical. they want something that is predictable. i want to show you what she had to say in athens, ohio. that she madeents

about coal companies, she has been holding events to talk miners,nor -- steelworkers. honor our got to obligations to minors past and present and stand with the steelworkers. ths, ionths, -- for mon have been speaking out against coal companies like patriot and shirky that have tried to their responsibilities to workers and retirees. minors, power plant workers, and railroad employees deserve the benefits that they have earned. your reaction to hearing her speak that way? guest: i think she was right in the coal industry is coming to an end, it has to.

it is dirty, harmful, we work to treatment, tens of thousands of miners have left widows and orphans due to dirty, unsafe businesses for the environment, for the waterways. we have got to replace it with solar energy, wind power, solar thermal, efficiency, we know how to do it. more homes are putting solar panels up. it is a job intensive industry. they move into renewable energy work, which they can be proud of and don't have to die from. host: what has senator bernie sanders done to the democratic party in his campaign and to the progressive movement. guest: he has basically shown that you can have a very

progressive agenda and actually win the nomination, had it not been for closed primaries. he would have won if the independent voters could have voted a few days ago in pennsylvania, connecticut, delaware. these are states he would have won if the independent voters could have voted. he won rhode island because it wasn't them -- because it was an open primary. somebody who calls himself a democratic socialist coming up that fast, he started at 3%. what does he do next? what he has to do is lead a civic movement. rally got to have a big on the mall and he is going to take his agenda and say we want to press all the candidates from national to local to turn this country in the right direction of fair play and sustainable productivity.

if he does that, he will be relatively independent. he won't be seen as a toady following clinton if she wins. he has a lot of agonizing decisions to make but he has a and very of support high in the polls. host: are you giving him advice? guest: i just wrote a column that says bernie sanders has gone a long way without other people's advice. he hasn't returned a call in 17 years. it is on the screen. we will show that column there and the new book that is coming out why ralph nader. we will talk about that, breaking through power. website, youtheir can find more details about the book and the events. let's go to baltimore -- go to

new york. caller: it is a pleasure having a direct chat with mr. nader who has been my role model for life. his political activism -- my question for you is, don't you think that there is no document as closely held to our heart as the constitution happens to be, that it is not sacrosanct. in other words, we have to have a constitutional convention, perhaps once every hundred years. trying to have an all-out process where the populace -- the constituents, 300 million would participate and then do a referendum, trying to have the documents revised to reflect the realities of the day rather than

allowing it to be exploited by the establishment where the majority will be left on the fringes. host: the constitution is out of date in some respects. for example, the words corporation and company don't even appear in the constitution. the words political parties don't even appear in the constitution. why allow it to rule us? good question. fundamental documents need renewal and expansion. the problem is, do you want to risk a convention in which you may lose some of the bill of rights and it may be retrograde. the is why we are having largest assembly of accomplished advocacy groups covering more areas of concern and reforming our country at constitution hall. why are we having this? why do we have so many

accomplished civil leaders. because the election process is almost removed from the civil community. everyn groups that work day, neighborhood, community, nation, they are never asked to participate. they are excluded. they put out reports that affect the candidates. they are ignored. 1300 people were arrested corruptionprotesting of money, hardly got any attention. this is very dangerous for society to basically have a commercialized election that is removed from the civil community. why we want people to come to constitution hall. these are groups that are pushing safe food. doesn't matter conservative or republican. they are pressing for safe pharmaceuticals.

it doesn't matter what political ideology consumers have here. less pesticides? fairness in the judicial process? this business of left-right always like this, is a product of divide and rule powerbrokers. host: this is the breaking through power event. guest: it is the greatest immersion. it is not for people with short attention spans or people with justice fatigue because it is eight hours a day, the greatest civics experience in anybody's life. if you want students to come, families to come, you will see how these groups actually overcame powerful interests in the democratic process and made life better for people. removed byhe is

virtue of his knowledge and advocacy over 400 pharmaceuticals in the last 40 years that were either ineffective for their purposes or downright dangerous. he did it on a tiny budget. think lot easier to that's it's a lot easier than we think to make change at the basic change in a country comes through civic activities and it spills over into better politics. if we don't have better politics, it is because not enough people are cynically active. >> have you invited senator sanders to speak? guest: we can't invite people speaking -- people running for elected office. i hope c-span will cover it. host: ralph in michigan, you are next. theer: i want to call about system -- the money and corruption in the political system.

more like ag we are plutocracy dominated by the corporations and by the wealthy. especially with the citizens united decision that just opens the floodgates for money from the corporations to dominate state, local, and federal positions. --ust don't see how money is it is going to be a huge flood of money into this election and it is going to control the congressional elections, even state elections. the most popular politician of according to the polls, bernie sanders, is on your side. he is saying we have got to get rid of big money, super pac's, billionaires trying to buy hasticians, and he demonstrated with millions of people giving him $27 average

contributions. he doesn't go to park avenue or beverly hills for these fundraisers. this is a person running for a major presidential nomination. .hat ought to give you heart in our constitution hall gathering, we will have mark green talking about electoral reform. the american people agree on a lot more than they disagree. civil liberties, they are against corporate welfare or crony capitalism, criminal justice reform, they don't like to be abused by corporate crime as consumers or workers. so what we need to do is demonstrate that this is got to have a powerful role during the election process. if you look at the sunday news shows, it is all politicians. some get on three or four shows

in one day. where are the citizen groups? leadingy johnson is the tax reformists and he has brilliant insights. he can't get on the air because some small news network -- but he cannot get on the air. he has had best-selling books, he is very accomplished. johnson.id cay he has taken on donald trump. you don't see that on the sunday shows. this is unfortunate because the public airwaves belong to the people. host: you can hear the citizens voice right here on washington journal. carmine in new york. republican. mr. nader, how does a

corporation like general motors knowingly produce a car with the addition -- ignition switch defect and as a result, people are killed and more are injured, and no one goes to jail. addiction --s the ignition switch defect. the answer is internal coverup. they covered up from reporting it to the proper offices inside gm. they covered it up and didn't report it to the auto safety. requirement legal -- you are right. they took their money from a fund that was made up of taxpayer money. there was no prosecution by the district attorney.

part of the trump appeal is that people believe they have been on, sabotaged,p disrespected, and they are lashing out and they see somebody lashing out verbally like donald trump, who apart from his many inaccurate statements and bigotry, they say he is the one. we have to have corporate crime enforcement. there is a corporate crime wave. you can read it in the wall street journal. people feel it everywhere around the country. prosecute is kept low by the corporate lobbyists on capitol hill. to go after money dangerous pharmaceuticals that andkilling people, air water pollution enforcing the drinking water act like a flint

disaster, so it all comes down to citizens mobilizing. if 1% of the citizenry mobilizes in each congressional district, two and a half million people, and have public opinion behind them and set up full-time offices, they could change congress in a matter of months or a year and a half or two years. that is what lincoln said. with public sentiment, you can do anything. "makingur mottos is change is easier than we think. let's not give up on ourselves. " airbag recall is set to double. host: this is an amazing coverup. look at the volume of car owners

that are terrified. taking a wonderful safety feature and turning it into a potential explosive hazard. it is a lot of anxiety. this is a japanese company operating in the u.s., europe, and everywhere. the question is, is it going to be criminal prosecution? not enough to even recall. the question is, how did the too company allow a supplier get millions of defective airbags past them. they are defective because they wanted to use a propellant. where was the quality control people at ford and general motors? story. a fascinating montana, bob is waiting

there, independent. caller: mr. nader, i want to say what a big fan i am of you. i am a bernie sanders supporter. i will probably be on the internet giving him $27 today. my bernie sanders water bottle with honor to work today. buggingg that has been me for years, i know a lot of democrats and friends of mine gore you caused -- cost the election in 2000. i like to argue with people that if you look who gore chose as a running mate, mr. lieberman, who was one of the biggest hawks after 9/11, do you think it really would have changed after 9/11 if gore and lieberman would have been in office?

do you think we still would have went to war? guest: nobody knows but we do know that in 1998, both gore and ainton got through congress resolution to topple saddam hussein. george bush used that when he was beating the drums for that criminal war of aggression that has taken over a million of iraqi lives. trillion. the $3 nobody can say. there was belligerent's. the 2000 election, george w. bush had a smaller military budget then gore was proposing. he was talking against nation building so it is very hard to predict. if people don't get involved in foreign and military

paul,, barney frank, ron tried to do in the house of isresentatives, the economy going to be subordinated to the military-industrial complex. severe deprivation, crumbling infrastructure while we spend trillions abroad making things worse. host: hector is up in san diego. democrat. caller: good morning. your particular call. i-- thank you for taking my call. it is a real honor speaking with you. pretty much, i hope and i --ieve that the democrats there is a chance that hillary will pick bernie sanders as her running mate.

of the passion that the democratic party should have so can you speak to the possibility and what the chances ifld be if she does do that they win the election by a landslide? guest: i don't think hillary will do that. adon't know any nominee of major party that will pick someone who is higher in the polls than she is and is trusted more than she is. most nominees just don't do that. my guess is bernie would not even want it. i do think he wants to go all over the world like joe biden and go on assignments like that. role in he sees his the senate leaving a mess movement. -- mass movement. host: john, you're on the air. caller: thank you c-span for this opportunity. mr. nader, i have called in

again and am humbled at this opportunity to speak with you. mr. nader, have you heard of someone named fuego going around city to city and educating the citizens at the most local of levels to take back and craft legislation at their local level interest the moneyed in their city and state? on the question of hillary and mynie, i did change registration for the primary just so i could vote for bernie.however , if hillary is the democratic nominee for the general

election, i will hold my nose and vote for her in spite of the fact that hillary clinton has a ability to crafted say whatever she needs to say to whichever audience she is speaking. she is a very well practiced and cunning linguist that can say whatever it takes. you: what john said there, look at it as simple as that of indiana, seven in 10 democrats who voted said they would be excited or at least optimistic about either a clinton or sanders presidency. trump they are afraid of so they tend to huddle together after a wild, but that is not where the action is. the powers that be are still in place in washington and wall street. they have their hopes into both

-- hooks into both parties. the action will be the extent to which they mobilize back home. fracking in new york was a citizen movement. they beat the corporations. all over the country, you see that. it has to get more visibility. it is a super bowl of civic on may 20 3:20 4, 25 and 26.-- 23, 24, iit is people learning how change occurs outside the political process. when i came to town, you could not find many politicians favoring consumer protection, much less our safety. they wereew months, passing the auto safety law unanimously.

that is because they heard the rumble from the people. the facts got out. the press did a great job. we had congressional hearings. if we combine public opinion behind a sufficient amount of full-time civic advocacy, it is a different country. the politicians will follow. they will take orders. the point, but the preamble of the constitution is we the people, not we the corporation, not we the congress. we the people. that is what constitutional hall is all about. rg.akingthroughpower.o host: that is based on a new book by mr. nader. brian is a republican from massachusetts. good morning. go-ahead, brian. caller: you said it right. thank you for the opportunity to address mr. nader.

i am wondering whether mr. nader can comment on the recent passing of daniel berrigan and whether mr. nader ever met him or what he would think of the campaign. mr. berrigan was always life and with th addressing these needs. thank you very much. host: let's move on to janet in indiana. guest: is a great american, daniel berrigan. host: janet, who did you vote for yesterday? caller: i voted for bernie sanders, and i will never vote for hillary clinton, by want to but i want to take a moment to thank ralph nader. i watched him on "washington and i wanted to thank

him for starting me on my journey. guest: thank you. that is what "washington journal" is all about. host: rob in new york, a republican. caller: elected first say mr. nader that -- i would like to , yout say mr. nader have had a real impact on my life. we met in 1992. i was enthralled with you and still am. you might recall it is rob arnold. donald trump has said some things that have been very frustrated to hear coming out of the mouth of a presidential candidate and front runner of the republican line, by don't see anything he has said as bigoted. i think it is easy to automatically brand someone that way.you referred to donald trump as bigoted , and i would like you to give

an example of why you see him as such. guest: sure. he has repeated himself again and again. remember when you said that after 9/11 a lot of arabs on one side of the hudson river were shouting in the streets? that is completely false. he went after hispanics for example. repeated statements about them. is attacks on certain refugee families. there are three syrian refugee families who have been vetted. they are trying to flee terror and rebuild their lives in south carolina, and he attacked them as if they are terrorists. this is anti-semitism against arabs. it is not just anti-semitism ews when they were excluded because people thought they were communist. he is a serial bigot.

he comes back and says the hispanics love me. the women will love me. muslims will love me. i do business with them, but he wants to block the entry of all muslims here, and he said he would seriously consider closing down some mosques. he reverses himself and says the people that he degrades will all of him. host: let me ask you in a general election matchup with hillary clinton versus donald trump, what will you do? guest: personally? i don't flag my vote, but i always vote my conscience. we have good third parties. obviously, i am favorably disposed to joel stein of the green party. if people vote their conscience collectively, they will change politics. if they vote for the least wars, they will never have any leverage. if you signal you will vote for the least, why should they give

you any time, the potential nominees? people have to populate their vote. strategic or tactical vote or least worst or they can do a vote of conscience. i prefer the latter. white vote for somebody you don't believe in just because the other person is worse? host: in maryland who is a democrat, you're on the air. caller: can you hear me? host: we can. caller: mr. nader, i have quality for a number of years and i respect where you're coming from. however, i want to know what you think about congress. the candidates can only do so much. someone like bernie sanders is 74 years of age and has no constituency. if he got the nomination as president, who does he turn to? the democrats? republicans will not follow him. where does he go? we have to go with what we have.

hillary clinton is not me maybe the best candidate, but she is the best we have. thank you for your service. guest: remember, until we get rid of the electoral college, which i think is on the way out, there is a move for an interstate compact. maryland started it in new york and california are on board that they will give the electoral votes to anyone who wins the national popular vote. they are already up to 165 and need to reach 270. as long as we have electoral college, there are 40 states that are either red or blue for democrat or republican, so you can vote your conscience in those states. you think the republicans are going to campaign in massachusetts? you think democrats will campaign in texas? if you're in one of those 40 states, you can have your cake and eat it too. you can vote for your conscious and the least worst are going to win because unfortunately we don't have competitive elections. we don't have a competitive

democracy in all the states. bernie sanders has been pushing for that, by the way. he campaigns everywhere. it is not just campaign in blue states. host: jacksonville, florida, cynthia, independent. you are on the air with ralph nader. caller: good morning. thank you for taking my call. mr. nader, i am a big admirer of years. i wanted to get your opinion on something that i have been trying to do, which is to start a petition which would begin a movement called take the pledge and mode out every incumbent. everyone, local, state, national. this would in effect get money out of politics because if every incumbent new they were going to get voted out at the next election, there would be no reason to try to run for reelection. un aroundbe an end ryu

term limits. guest: that is a rejectionist point of view obviously. if you have an agenda attached to it, it will be rejection for a purpose of whatever changes you want in the country. some peopleing, will say there are good people in politics. why do you have such a broadbrush? they are good but they are letting bad things happening. they tend to be passive. they let bush and cheney boulevard iraq. iraq.blow apart they let wall street people take over a set of challenging them an imposing standards against the bailouts. at least you are active, but always have a reason for uniform rejection. host: bill is next in maryland. a democrat. hi, joe. caller: thank you for c-span. the baderned that

actors willing to go to war when not necessarily so deprived me of the luxury of focusing on a lot of the good things that ralph nader wants. like driving the conversation in what i believe is the right direction and a good direction, priority isst alread keeping people who are ready to whose answer to our problems are expensive bloody answers out of the picture. guest: well, that is what made 25th -- may 25 is all about. high-level veterans and become scholars and advocates, and peace groups will come together. phil donahue is coming to show his documentary about a soldier in iraq who came back as a

paraplegic. the point is all empires devour themselves. that is the lesson of history. we have to be very strong in terms of civic organization. that is what that day is all about. it is to mobilize people, to wage peace, and to stop the war mongers. you know what is interesting about the warmongers? they want our country to go to war, but they don't want to go to war. a lot of them were draftdodgers during the vietnam war, and they liked the vietnam war and their buddies going over there. we have to be very strong about telling our members of congress and the white house that the first option is waging peace, preventing conflict. you look at our adversaries abroad, almost all of them were created by u.s. policy. 's group was provoked or funded to find the soviet union and then turned against

us. saddam hussein was a u.s. ally. we propped him up and encouraged him to invade iran. a huge slaughter in that war. and then of course, we turned against him. amazing boomerang foreign policy because it is dictatorial ly controlled. we have to overcome it with democratic resurgence. that is what the constitutional hall effort is. breakingee the various through power and how to do it. that is day one. breaking through congress is day four, may 26. breaking through war is day three, may 25. breaking through the press. there are a lot of voices out there that don't get on the evening news. host: final question for you here. what do you make of the debate that happens between hillary clinton and bernie sanders during this primary nominating

process over who is a progressive and who is not? is hillary clinton a progressive? guest: by no means. one of the definitions of progressive is curbing corporate power, cracking down on corporate crime. when she was in the senate, she represented new york state and wall street. she did not hold the banner of justice up. she did not ask for hearings. she did not ask for stronger corporal criminal laws. she is far from a progressive as any democrat could be. the other thing that is important to know is if bernie sanders had more debates, are think things may have changed but the democratic national committee was favoring hillary. they wanted to limit debate and put them at inopportune times against big sports events. in five months, he got very little coverage. there was an analysis of abc coverage of to the middle of december. they gave two minutes to bernie

sanders and 80 minutes to donald trump. the media will have to be a little introspective as to why they did not have a higher estimate of their own abilities and why they did not stop the shouting and slithering of the republican primary. it is a very serious reason for the media to look back and say what did we do? who did we not scrutinize? why did we give most attention to the nominees who were exiting false statements -- exu ing false statements and bigotry. they were making money off of these debates. they were setting up database. since when is a commercial corporation decide who is going to be debating? who is on tier one or two year tier two? they should be reporting.

that is why i think we should get the civil society very much involved in campaigns. host: final call for you from texas, independent. are you there? caller: yes i am. host: it is your turn. caller: i am calling from houston, texas. host: you are only a. -- are on the air. caller: we have voter fraud here in texas. it is not done by the little person. i have only seen one case of it as being an election clerk. now we have great big huge fraud based on the election of george w. bush. 800,000 votes thrown out of harris county. we have election fraud. it is always at the top. it is not at the bottom. why do i have to show up with ids? why do i have to show up and stand in huge long lines? guest: that is a good point.

, western countries, the u.s. has -- among u.s. countries, the u.s. has more constricting laws for voting. what we have to do is ask ourselves why are we making it so hard for people to vote and for candidates to get on the ballot to give them more voices and choices? that is what groups like senate for constitutional rights and the brennan center are working on. watch the software problems now. the software is owned by private companies. as researchers at johns hopkins have pointed out, it is easy in a close election to rig the software and flip it. we really have to look at this. internet has paper ballots. -- canada has paper ballots.

they don't have machines. at night in this giant country, they know who won or lost because they had a paper trail. that i have machines which engage in shenanigans. ler made a very important point. there is a strong argument for universal voting like australia. if you give the people t the right to vote no, or write in a candidate, i think our civil issues are resolved. vote, have ale stake in the system, the better the process will be. host: we want to thank you mr. nader for talking to our viewers this morning. if you want to learn what mr. nader is up to, you can go to

breakingthroughpower.org. the washington journal. coming up, discussing health and those lobbying congress. the national council for behavioral health is pushing for changes to health legislation that would make it similar to the senate for passing. and citizens united discussing the campaign and the influence of money on politics. be sure to watch the washington journal, thursday morning, at 7:00 a.m. join the discussion. >> coming up, ohio governor john kasich in his presidential

hisaign =--ends residential camp david and -- presidential campaign. and president obama visit flint, michigan. ♪ areadam secretary, we giving 72 of our delegate votes to the next president of the united states. ♪ [applause]

>> today john kasich, the last republican challenging donald trump for the nomination, dropped out of the race shortly before his -- race. shortly before his announcement, donald trump said he would consider john kasich as his running mate. this is about 15 minutes. [applause] ohio is about 15 minutes. [applause] gov. kasich: thank you all for coming.

the first thing i have to do is to thank my great wife karen-- [applause] she has endured my political career and also of course, accentuated it. there is no one like karen. she's charismatic. she walks into a room and people fall in love with her. when she appeared on anderson cooper, john weaver commented , and beth hansen commented, if only we had run karen, we would have been a lot more successful. [laughter] i happen to agree with that. -- they are, unbelievable. they have been so supportive. [applause]