this sunday, july 17, as we come from you live from cleveland from the skylight financial groups space in downtown cleveland. barbara, go ahead and finish up the conversation for this morning. caller: ok, i am watching you on caller: i'm watching you on tv and cleveland looks great. to the gentleman who called in who is american indian, he was talking about being ignored, which is probably true. although he did not mention he has been under a democratic president for a long time now he mentioned shame on mr. trump and it makes no sense. the person who thinks hillary is not any more dishonest than any other

politician, he did not live in arkansas when the clintons were running arkansas or he would know better. thank you. host: we have to leave it there for now. "washington journal" will be , 7e from cleveland all week a.m. eastern time. we will continue up to the morning and tune into our coverage before the convention proceedings get underway later today as well as tomorrow and prime time throughout the week. we will take your phone calls here on c-span. ,o to our website, c-span.org for all the details. thank you for watching. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

>> here on c-span this warning, "newsmakers" is next, with kelly ward. after that, president obama, vice president joe biden and former president george w. bush attend an interfaith service for the five police officer shot and killed in dallas earlier this month. then remarks by senator tim scott talking about encounters with law enforcement officers on capitol hill. joining us is kelly ward, the democratic her -- democratic director of the national campaign committee. and joining us with the questioning is david wasserman

from the cook political report and sean sullivan who covers political races for the "washington post." let make -- let me begin with donald trump. how close will you be tried -- we be tying donald trump and his message to republican candidates running this fall? me.y: thank you for having that's exactly the right question to ask. for us, elections are about a contrast and elections are about meeting voters where they are and talking with them about how the election is going to impact their life. have seen this entire cycle is voters are viewing the 2016 election through donald trump. it is what they are thinking about. it is what they are talking about. as we pivot to the general election, they are solidifying with a think about him and starting to see the contrast between him and hillary clinton, and which is critical for us,

the convention starts the conversation for how donald trump reflects the party and how he impacts the rest of the candidates on the ballot. so we will be tying donald trump directly to the republicans and having him as their standard error. both -- standard bearer. and the impact that has on their lives will stop host: -- and their lives. do you see republicans trying to distance themselves from donald trump? kelly: they are trying, but they will not be able to do that. mike coffman is a perfect example. he released an ad trying to show how he is different but what he failed to mention is that he failed to say he would report -- would support the nominee and stand behind the nominee who in a few days will be donald trump. the ability to somehow say i'm

supporting the nominee but i don't necessarily agree or i'm different from the nominee, to sounds like a political doublespeak. it sounds like politicians being politicians. voters are viewing the election through the framework of donald trump and what he stands for and they will be comparing with a think about mike coffman against that. when they know when he is of their party and represents their party, he now reflects the standardbearer of what it means to be in the party of mike coffman. general election voters, it is not going to sit well for what they think and how they will ultimately vote. we're going to turn to some of those in just a moment. reporter: a lot of democrats i talk to are excited about drawing that contrast you talk about. we are a little over three

months from the election. are you in the position to win back control of the house? kelly: it is too early to tell. the convention represents the pivot into the general election. regular people starting to pay attention and look at what is happening. have been watching donald trump this entire time and have very strong opinions. they are now going to reflect those opinions or the rest of the ballot and the rest of the election. what the overall environment is going to look like, as you know, the house races are at the mercy of the top of the ticket, so goes that presidential dynamic, so go the down ballot races underneath it. once we see how that starts to solidify, we will know how close we are to the 30 we need for the majority. but i would rather be us than them this cycle. manyter: any idea how

seats you're comfortable to pick up? kelly: i think we will be very excited about our outcomes regardless of being able to. i think we are going to push deep into the map. democrats lost 13 seats in 2014. if democrats gain back 13 seats, would you be happy with that outcome? kelly: we always want to push toward the majority. is ank picking up seats terrific victory and i also think that we have a lot of districts republicans are renting. the district has a democratic time for them to have a representative that reflects their values. so as far as that will take us, our job is to push as close to 30 as we can get. yourter: are there races

think will be the bellwethers? i want to ask about your home state of nevada. that's key presidential battleground. two of those are democratic targets. the republican who stated in clinton is not doing as well as as a lot of people would expect given the demographics of the state. what is going on in your home state and talk about those races kelly:. -- talk about those races. kelly: i think those are races we should look at because they are a microcosm of everything happening in this election. one of the things that is so intriguing that we will be watching is the latino vote and what happens with hispanic voters in the face of donald trump's hateful and awful

rhetoric for the hispanic community. i think that's an underlying factor of what you will see as well as a minority plurality district. you also have the other dynamic effecting house races, the suburban district and how suburban districts think about donald trump. what we are seeing all over the country is that it is the , the highertricts educated that are really put off by his rhetoric. we have both dynamics in nevada tothere's so much potential pick up those seats. as far as hillary clinton in nevada, presidential polling ebbs and flows and we have seen those ebbs and flows start when donald trump won the nomination after donald kurt -- after ted , after hisd out horrible remarks about the judge, his numbers tanks -- his number tanked.

they went even further down after orlando. pivot in the polling and after the conventions, you will see that once the general election dynamic settles in and we start to see what voters really think about donald trump and the contrast with hillary clinton. we feel very good about that contrast. reporter: even hillary clinton says she has a trust issue. how do you regain trust in three or four months when she has had such a long and public history? exactly what it is. hillary clinton has a long and public history as a public servant and with a great story. we are very proud of her as our nominee. would do it she differently and has answered every question that could be asked of her. we have to trust the highest

judicial officials in the land that have looked at this when they came up with their judgment to not take any action against her for that. i trust her and i think what you will see from her campaign and as it relates to the general election is that story about her service and what she has done for this country and the world for 30 years. we feel very proud of that and the story we can tell with her as our nominee contrasted against donald trump and what he represents in his last 30 years of lining his own pockets and saying hate all things. candidacies, the campaigns reflect what they are governing and this is what we get from donald trump. that contrast is going to be the story and i think we come out on youof stop reporter:

mentioned a range of controversial things donald trump has said. are there specific ideas or positions he holds that you think are more destructive than others? are there things you are going to be singling out? kelly: i think we mentioned all his remarks against the hispanic community. you see the same thing with the gay community, with women, with muslims, which is another population in nevada to pay attention to. there's a large muslim population in the vegas valley. , it makes -- the comments he makes are just so offputting, and only to people themselves but the golden rule in the things we teach our children. what we see in the polling as you see particular groups of are not on his side and really don't like him.

and you are seeing how that translates a crossed -- across general election voters, the swing voters, particularly women, married women of all ages, so, yes is the short answer. but that is why. he sets a town and a tenor that people feel like i can't get on board with that. trump wonbut donald the nomination by insulting so many of these congressional republicans and 24% of the 247 republicans in the house have not endorsed him. the membership of that group is in the swing district you are targeting. what is it given that he does not have a legislative record or record in public office that allows you to tie house republicans to his candidacy? itly: they are doing themselves. that's why conventions are so

interesting. they are about to walk into the convention and fall in line with donald trump. you have the leader of the house republicans, kevin mccarthy, the majority leader is speaking. they will stand on stage as their party and fall in line behind him. week, when we saw paul ryan in his cnn town hall, he said i'm putting my party over what is right for the country. ,epublican voters asked him donald trump is so terrible, how can you be behind him? stand behind him even a he's not that great for our country. putting party over country is not what we need and that is what they are doing and they are telling us they are doing it. i think the convention is the pivot point. that's the conversation we will

have. conversely, we spent a lot of time talking about how donald trump is unpopular, but hillary clinton can be a drag, what's a piece of constructive criticism you might have for the clinton campaign on the best way to lift all democratic votes? kelly: i think the clinton campaign is doing exactly what they should need doing, telling the full part of her story back in the beginning of her service she had for this country and the visit she will have moving forward and how we can be proud of that stop they recently released with the kids and what that means for how we have two sets examples of leaders, i feel so much better and i think the majority of americans will feel better knowing hillary clinton is setting that standard and that vision and providing that

role model that we need for our kids much more than donald trump. i have a four-year-old and one of the books i read to her is hillary clinton's story. she asks for it at night. it's a great story to tell. of hillaryory clinton is what this country needs and that will help us down ballot. we have not tended to see the kind of massive waves that we you would need to take control of the house. what is it about this year that is different, that makes you think you can pick up dozens of seats in a presidential cycle? that's a good question. it's an open presidential seat, so there is a shift happening. that creates a momentum and interest among voters. electorate, higher turnout

helps democrats, so that gives us a list. is goingased turnout to give us a lift even further than we get a presidential year and in the house battlefield, there's a natural shift happening in this country where the ships are becoming more democratic. there's more millennials, more minority voters coming into the electorate. that's an electorate that favors democrats. you have migration patterns where voters are moving from districts that are democratic and it is making districts more, craddick overtime. shift that'stural going to enable democrats to pick up more seats every cycle. acceleratingis those trends because those same

, the higherennials educated voters, that's the same voters directing the shift for us. it's accelerating and pushing us into new district. what it's doing this cycle is bringing new districts onto the map we have never had before. they are competitive because of donald trump and that is driving up our numbers. money andlet's talk surrogates. how much money will you need to be competitive and how much of you raised so far? will the president be campaigning for house members? to youres is the answer second question. the president will be campaigning. he has helped us this cycle and last cycle and that's moving in our favor. we never have enough money as democrats. we always get outspent and i think this cycle we will get

outspent more than we have in previous cycle because republicans have more money. we are at parity with our counterpart and we outraised ,hem by $40 million last cycle which we needed in the midterm. we held the losses to where we lost them even in a tough environment. i expect them to have more money than we do and we will have the resources we need. we don't need to outspend them in a presidential year in the same way we need to out spend them in the midterm because the dynamics and electorate are already in our favor. reporter: do you have an estimate of how much you think you would raise? kelly: last cycle, we raised about $190 million and i think we will raise that again. how much money was

raised in the democratic sit in on the gun issue and what these say to critics who say it was simply a stunt to raise money? it was absolutely not a stunt. i think paul ryan used that word to redirect the attention from the real issue, which was him not putting a vote up which was all anyone was asking for. the thing to understand about the wrasse roots is this is their power. there are normal people and regular people all over this country who care about the future of our country. a don't have a lot of money or time or the ability to give hundreds of thousands of dollars were come to washington dc or do a march or volunteer on campaigns, but they can show their advocacy online and there's so much power to that and that is what you saw with the sit in. you saw a bunch of people who are so proud and excited that

finally somebody was standing up for this issue on guns no one has been able to address. finally, you saw the democrats stand up by sitting down and you felt the energy around the country of people supporting grassrootst and activists support those efforts in a number of ways. they share information on social media and give low dollar contributions. it's all one package for the grassroots and an important part for power as americans. proud of that activism and proud of the d triple c to be a vehicle to generate interest and excitement and be part of what's happening in washington ec to make change -- washington d c to change. reporter: i want to get inside

the mind of medical operatives commandeering a campaign to win the house back. this is your third cycle you have been asked back. give an example of what it is like to recruit a candidate who may be hasn't run for anything before to serve in a congress that is really unpopular and gridlocked. kelly: recruitment is a huge part of what we do. the contrast in elections start with the candidates who are running and we spent a lot of time talking to candidates recruiting to run. it's what we do. we want people who reflect the district and we want people who are in touch with the district to have a story to tell and are passionate about a particular issue and we help them understand the nuts and bolts of translating their story into a campaign and being a member of congress. that is always a back and forth.

is our exciting for us members are so engaged and we have a very diverse pocket and across section of america and our caucus and we have a member who can speak to that question. we have members who can speak to members we can speak to all over the country traveling near and fall. members are so passionate about the work they do that they can tell that story and there are a million stories even freshmen and sophomores who just got here who are very passionate about an issue about the work they did in their district, brought it to congress and have terrific stories to tell about the changes they are making. it might not be national news, but it matters to people.

when you tell that story to potential candidates, they see what they can do in the minority in that package brings together -- is there an example of a candidate who's army have been able to twist? kelly: i think that speaks to the terrific candidates we recruit. looking to the final stage of this race, few get to a point where down ballot republicans decide en masse to separate themselves from donald trump to the point where they are running ad after ad saying i'm running a check and a balance against president clinton, how would you deal with that from a messaging standpoint? the first thing to look at for republicans in the swing district as they have a math problem. the electorate already works against them. that is what makes it competitive and a presidential year. part of the reason they are

trying to squirm their way around donald trump as they have a lot of republican voters that will vote in this election and trump toeject donald overtly, they run the risk of alienated their base that they need and in a presidential year, they really need their base to turn out and come in strong for them in order to make up the numbers for the increased democratic turnout. reject theirvertly republican base which is why you'll see them stand beside him him.all behind if they reject him, they have a problem. into how you square that circle with independent voters and that is where we are seeing donald trump 's numbers really work against him. his numbers among independents are terrible everywhere in our swing districts. when you are starting the conversation with independent voters in a way they already

have a lot of questions and concerns about the top of the ticket republican nominee, weekend translate that to the rest of the ballot and republican house member in a logical way for voters. that will be the conversation we have. reporter: when this campaign began, there was a lot of talk about marco rubio or john kasich -- be honest. when donald trump secured the nomination in may, what was your american,kelly: as an i felt very concerned and questioning how this could happen in our country. as a political operative, i immediately saw the opportunity. we feel very responsible for talking to voters about how bad donald trump would be for this country. those two things square together

. as an american and as a mom, donald trump is a huge problem. we have a responsibility to bring that responsibility to voters. and the rest of the ticket that got him there. to standan opportunity up against him and chose not to. he is now their standardbearer. as our chairman said, you take it, you diet and a have a responsibility to prevent that from happening in a failed in that effort and now they need to be held accountable. purpose to make sure donald trump does not become president and we have to make sure house republicans are or twoe to be untruthful squirmy in their ability to separate from that and it goes to their ability about message. the agenda of house republicans for years has been not different from what donald trump is saying. you have heard president obama

say this -- there's a real genesis of donald trump's behavior, rhetoric and actions from what we fear now to the house republican caucus. -- andgenda and it inability to do anything, have a long habit of putting their party over country. donald trump allows us to tell that story. race you is there one should look at as a bellwether that you think will tell us a lot about where the rest of the country is going to move toward and how this election is going to turn out? toward las biased vegas because it's my hometown, but i would go back to nevada three. it has all the elements and dynamics that will affect the house races and the interesting part about that district is that it is open. the open seats are whole piece

of our battlefield we did not in moderateabout districts because moderate republicans were done here and left to run for office in that district or said i can't do it anymore and decided to retire. not one incumbent versus another. we have a terrific candidate in jackie rosen and the republicans just elected a very right wing, not the moderate they wanted and that's a terrific story to tell. the district has a large latino and minority population and has those suburban dynamics that affect us and where you see donald trump really underperforming. presidentiala battlefield, so i would draw your attention to nevada three. host: kelly ward is the director of the democratic campaign

committee. thank you for joining us. we continue the conversation with sean sullivan and david wasserman. let me begin with you. what will it take ford democrats to regain house? reporter: it would take a hillary clinton landslide, on the magnitude of 10 points. there are two races i will be watching because the electoral college votes are divided in nebraska and maine. upocrats are aiming to pick the second district in maine where the the republican has played it cool a on his support for donald trump. democrats are hoping to defend nebraska where they have a and he hasmocrat been endorsed by the local chamber of commerce running