bj: i am a very strong donald trump supporter. all the guys in my area where hats that's a trump. i have a couple of different thoughts. i worked up until five years ago and i raise my family and we do not go on welfare but we found out we were poor once we got to where we had some money. we didn't get a raise in our social security because our fingers don't go any place. there giving it an 18% increase. nate: i think it is so amazing the donald trump can offer an economic package that can herove america when in fact

has bankrupted for companies. it destroys my hope for the american dream. he has made himself which on bankruptcy laws. that puzzles me. host: evan mcmullen officially launched a presidential bid. at donald trump and hillary clinton. he is a veteran of the cia.

i think he has a really good plan to bring our country back. lowering the tax to 15% will really being a lift to the country and the economy. i like his proposal helping all people giving them a better education to have choice in education. i think he's going to make a wonderful president. he doesn't need this job. he's trying to help our country. i respect a man. thank you very much. ellen: i absolutely am voting

for hillary. you can tell by her countenance that she is serious about what she says. she is trustworthy. i just them with her 100%. paul: at my age of 67 i don't have much time. i don't think i could vote for any democrat. in 1972 the moral decay of this country started. we allowed abortion to come in against the law. shortly thereafter, we took prayer and the pledge of allegiance out of the classrooms.

gays being allowed to get married. also against the biblical law. democrats have been weak and very liberal and promoted this stuff to the point where the younger generation doesn't get it. we need a strong hand in their white donald trump. somebody unaffiliated with politics who's going to try to change this country. on its feet.t back morally we are in decay. anna: my family and i are old democrats. not this time. we are cuban-americans. we are backing donald trump.

we need change in this country. .e is the man no one who is in government is going to make these changes. we could trust hillary. donald trump is going to do it. all my family is voting for him. we going to be knocking on doors for him. i'm going to be talking to all i just wanted to say will be right there in november. host: the first debate is on

monday, september 26. another one on october 9 and the third will be october 19. live coverage here on c-span and c-span radio. you can share those clips online. ruth: i'm going to vote for donald trump. the difference between him and hillary is dishonesty. i think he is one of the most honest presidential candidates we've had a long time. he may be brash and speak his mind but i really think that he is honest and we need somebody in there that is honest. onh everything that has gone with hillary clinton, i don't think she's honest. that's why i'm going to vote for donald trump. host: thanks for all your calls and comments.

it is one month until congress returns. we're keeping an eye on what members are up to during their district work. that includes sports. it is baseball season. it is also the season for football training camp. some tweets from senator bob casey. it was great meeting with the philadelphia eagles. things are looking good for this year. wascotton of arkansas visiting with the red wolves. said thanks for letting me stop by your practice. they were tweeting about the return of the rams to training camp. oft is in the 45th district california. you never know who you'll run into in rhode island.

at mccoy stadium with the great magic johnson. you can follow more if you go on to twitter.com/c-span. lots of talk about donald trump in the last segment. washingtonalk on journal about republicans who are eyeing the libertarian and lopez joins us. republicans for gary johnson. how did you decide that you would be voting libertarian the cycle. and lopez: i never expected that donald trump would win the nomination. point was when bill weld

was nominated as gary johnson's running mate. wanted to see what the libertarian party was going to do. i felt that we have the most republican ticket on the ballot and these are two governors with a great record and more executive experience than hillary clinton and donald trump. that sealed the deal for me and that it was a matter of trying to understand how many republicans were on board and has been overwhelming so far. i started out as a republican and i worked for senator john chafee and hank brown from colorado and i worked on campaigns for national vice chairman of the republican caucus for some time. kevin martin from the republican libertarian caucus who had a conversation with me so we decided to launch this effort.

the support of the organization came together quickly and it has been surprising and a welcome thing. two of us are cochairs of the organization have a steering committee of six or seven people. we have an attorney in philadelphia who worked on the bush effort. we have michael melendez in utah. also we have a delegate at the convention cleveland. we have people who worked with the republican national importantlyt more we have a lot of support in bringing in these people from martha nuñez and so we got a great team pulled together a short amount of time.

we have about 30 people in place and more than that for the for theg to e-mail us national leadership committee. this is a large group that includes elected officials and passed party officials republican activists and even some people would are not have a lot of experience in the political arena but are very enthusiastic about gary johnson the fact that their background that's them so well to give a voice to the majority of american the number will be higher than we have now. we've only been together for about a week and a half. that's where we are and it is growing. host: here are some phone numbers where you can call in for this segment.

you can start calling it now if you have questions. you have worked on campaigns and you know what the polls say. what odds would you give the gary johnson ill weld ticket right now. lopez: going back to what i stated earlier, when the primary process began as someone who's been involved in politics since college in the 90's, i never expected donald trump to win the nomination. that was the last thing on my mind. when we look at the gary johnson ticket we are concerned with approaching this in a number of phases. the first one is making sure they are secured on the 50 state ballots. they are still working on signatures.

we want to coalesce our people to help get the signatures and make sure they are in place. iswill make sure the ticket on the debate stage and people understand their messages. it is hard to predict where it goes from there. once they are on stage and debating clinton and trump, america will see this is the voice of reason and republicans will understand these are the true public candidates were on the ballot. it has been a very unpredictable election cycle. at the moment, gary johnson would not be on the debate stage. he has been hovering at 10% or 12%. after theump

libertarian convention which was small compared to the republicans and the democrats. that hasst few weeks, gone up a little bit but it's moving generally in an upward trend. they are certainly raising the money. they exceeded their goals for raising money. that reflects the growing momentum for them. they will move up in the polls. i'm confident that they will make it to the debate stage. they are putting out letters to the editor getting op-ed pieces out there encouraging the debates to include them. in the end they will be included because many americans realize that it's an important piece of that dialogue. magic number to be included in the debate? >> 15%. there's a lot of online polls,

not scientific surveys, but when you see people being asked, should they be included in the debates? overwhelming majority say they should be. think americans sympathize with that need for dialogue. forink that opens a space johnson and weld to be a welcome presence on that debate stage. even republicans encourage this, because a lot of toublicans are reluctant support trump. they're doing it for party unity, holding their noses and supporting him. they think about the fact that they want the dialogue to move more in a direction that expected, have typical election cycle, that them toe enough for realize, hey, it's important at the very least to support johnson. the dialogue in the right direction. this is a way to do it. if they want to support trump in the end, that's fine. but in the end, we think, as republicans for johnson/weld, support for have johnson/weld to win the presidency. chance toive you a

talk to some of those voters out there. lopez, you're on with ed of republicans for johnson/weld. go ahead. >> i just want to know why. what you're doing is that you're putting hillary in the white house, and you know how bad that can be. why? that's my question, because i do not understand the logic. i don't. and why you're so proud of want to, that you destroy this country. i just don't understand and i'm and i'm gonna listen to your answer. >> yes, ma'am. we'll give him a chance to answer. >> go ahead. >> thanks for the question. the fact is that none of us at johnson/weldor like hillary clinton either. our sense is that donald trump is generally held positions that are very similar to hillary clinton's. our sense is also that given the fact that only 9% of the electorate voted for both and trump, there's a large space there for people to they want ahat

different candidate. in our case, we're looking at ampleys that had republican experience. they not only had great republican experience but they governed two blue states exceptionally well, at a time tough on was very governors. i think now they're a little bit more pliable. so when you look at their record, as republicans, when you look at the things that they in blue states and when you look at where they are now, their voice right now, what they're projecting, you have two likelytes that are more to unify the country and give the republican party the type of boost that it needs to carry on brand.able and a lot of us at republicans for johnson/weld, we're concerned about the republican party. we're very strongly in support of down ballot candidates. make sure those people are elected too. but it's critical for us to make verythat the voice at the

top reflects those republican principles and values that we hold very dear and that are so to us, as people who have been working in the party for so long. changed voteras registration several times, party affiliation. fromhen i think -- i think that point of view, we feel that as people have been involved in wasparty for so long, this our best option and the best route to go. >> penny is supporting a third-party candidate this cycle. you're on with ed lopez. >> yes. i'd like the people viewing about isam to think the idea of, what is the media the democratic party and the republican party afraid of that wouldn't allow the third-party people like stein guy's candidates to at least express their ideas? you know, what are these guys are in charge of the media afraid of? why don't they just let them

express their ideas and let the people decide. >> ed lopez, any thoughts? think that this is -- it's unquestionable that the country a major partygh and philosophical realignment. impossible to predict exactly where the republican party is going. think there's an opportunity right now to refresh that brand outmake sure that it comes as a stronger party. and i think that the dialogue benefits from having those third-party candidates on the stage, if they show viability. measuretion is, what should be used for that viability? i'm not sure that the -- i'm not entirely sure the 15% threshold is necessarily a good measure or not. i'm not an expert in what factors they've used to determine this in the past. but there's certainly a need to broaden the dialogue and move the -- you lot of know, the dialogue is insubstantial anymore. realityved into the

t.v. type elections. there's been a convergence of entertainment and politics. that's fine to a certain degree. we're consumers. ist's what the free market moving the political space toward. but we still need to demand more substance. that's where we should all, as citizens, be demanding outletsm those media and there's ways to do that. we need to call, write letters. ways toto find articulate our position, that we want to see a broader dialogue. think johnson and weld, at this point, having secured the secured thehaving popularity they're securing -- at this point the polling the libertarian party got in votes last time. i think we're looking at a great opportunity to expand that to have, you know -- educate voters on a lot lotssues and give them a more than what they've typically electionspecially this cycle. >> you say you disagree with the 15% threshold for being on that

presidential debate stage. is there a number that you think it should be lowered to, or do think there should be any threshold? >> i think there certainly should be thresholds. i'm not sure exactly what it should be. i think that maybe there should be a certain amount of state ballots, before they qualify to be on the debate stage. like i stated a minute ago, expert in that, so i wouldn't be able to articulate number, any qualifications. but i think as voters we should be demanding to see people on the stage, so that that's a more reasonable threshold or maybe if 15% is there, there could be exceptions made on certain things. i don't know. the fundraising is going, how the polling is going, and on maybe, by state basis you know, and the district in a critical state right now, because it's becoming a swing state on the

trump-clinton paradigm. you look at a district like johnson is doing exceptionally well. he's very competitive. then you look at very demographic groups, for example, the military, where johnson is polls amongning in military members, there's several ways to gauge the interest in candidates. those should all be relevant in that process. >> let's go to garth. good morning. >> good morning. my opinion, these are a bunch of brats, leaving the republican party, because they don't like trump so bad, that thisre willing to throw whole race toward the democrats. they need to get in line and nonsense with things they're creating, trying to get position like they are formidable foe and stop this nonsense.

the only benefit is them walking around and creating leadership notin their own selves and getting anywhere. it's a waste of time. >> ed lopez? >> well, i appreciate the call. i understand the sentiments of have a unified voice of the party. we've certainly tried doing that the course of a very long period of time, dating back to dan quayle. worked forple who dan quayle, rand paul. we have a diverse body of republicans who i think are far removed from anything "spoiled." lote are people who put a of sweat equity and sacrifice to forward.party move we have mccain veterans, bush veterans. they all come from a very in the body of segments republican party. this is not a fringe movement. you can tell that it's a very coalition. and we support johnson and

example, gary johnson, we support him because person,he's a self-made a self-made businessman. when you take into account the we believe gary johnson sets for the country, and his republican history and values, as a republican operative and past elected officials and people who have done so much for the party, it's been hardly a spoiled brat lot of us. a it's been a lot of working on campaigns and putting your reputation on the line for the party. it's a very delicate thing. of integritynd we're bringing to the effort. >> a bit of n.f.c. as we move -- we move on.as we were talking about the 15% threshold to being included in presidential debates. you can find information about the organization, their debates.org.t but this specifically on the 15% threshold, as the rule that is used by the cpd. adopted the 15%

level of support in 2000. its initial adoption. in subsequention cycles reflects a number of considerations. cpd's judgment that the 15% threshold best balanced sufficientlyeing inclusive to invite those candidates considered the leading candidates. more about to read it, it's debates.org. lots of information there. back to the calls. is in buoy, maryland. for hillary clinton. ahead. >> thank you very much for this opportunity. mr. lopez, i have two questions. then i'll make a very brief comment. i'm not going to stay long. first, i don't know if you still believe in the system. if you do, then i'll make my comment. but if you don't, will you remain in the republican party,

will change your party affiliation and remain libertarian? is, while i will hang up and listen, my comment party, theertarian principal tends to detract from a core principle of republican. hence, that is the case. that -- ining addition to that, coming from -- >> a few questions there. take them.d lopez do you belief in the two-party system? youru plan on changing party affiliation? >> i have absolutely no plans to change party affiliation. working in this party longer than donald trump has been a republican and more matter.ntly, for that and so that's not my plan. i support down ballot like thens, just entire republicans for johnson/weld does. i still believe in the republican party. like to see the republican party come out of this stronger. supporting there

two most republican candidates on the ballot. know, i'm not here to define how libertarian the johnson/weld ticket is or isn't. i understand libertarians debate this very thing robustly, about who is libertarian, who isn't, in the political arena. i came from the republican veryty caucus, which has a strong libertarian presence. people that have gone back and forth between the two parties. case, inn't been the my personal political history. and so, you know, i can't really libertarians consider an ideal candidate. i this i they made a very -- i very good made a choice in supporting johnson/weld as nominees. hadas republicans who experience with them, we decided we want to join their effort and we thinkhem and that it actually preserves the integrity of the party. republicans' down ballot if they have a presidency

and that has with a reasonable voice on this stage in politics. in pittsburgh, pennsylvania, supports third-party candidates. bill, go ahead. >> good morning. hi. i am very much like ed. loyal and dedicated apublican since i was in republican in the -- since i was a republican in the 60's. theosition is that presidential election is already lost. no matter which of the two candidates gets elected. trump is, first of all, just a complete wild card. let alone as a candidate. point, although i spent my life telling everyone for third parties because they will just elect the other side. this whoever gets elected time around is going -- is not if it's ae helpful,

republican -- the republican maintained inbe order to maintain some sanity in the national politics. question. what are the -- are there a of polls, iser there a particular group of checkthat are used to they15% threshhold, or do simply, i don't know, pick them somendom according to other standard? the pollsrned that they look at will not accurately we're really -- you know, what the people are actually thinking. a -- have they defined which polls are going to and are there any other details about how that system works?

i'd be grateful. lopez, i'll let you start. >> well, i'll say, john, i might have to defer to you, since you have the information with you. my answer is i'm not sure they use and polls when. we just were about to appoint a chairman of a committee with an to handle the efforts to get these guys on the ballot. likewise, we'll be appointing somebody who will be helping us understand this process better when it comes to getting these debate stage. my assumptions, at the major media outlooks, when they look polling companies -- >> i can help there, ed lopez. debates.org website, continuing on that same informational page, under the 2016 criteria, this is for candidates being included in the presidential debates, in to being constitutionally eligible, andidates must appear on sufficient number of state ballots and have a level of 15% of the least national electorate, as determined by five selected national public opinion using the average of

those organizations, most reports atblished the time of the determination. the polls to be relied upon will selected based on the quality of the methodology employed, and the polling. of identify organizations well in advance of the time that the criteria are applied. i don't have the actual polls themselves in front of me. perhaps they haven't been selected yet. but go ahead, ed lopez. >> so i think that raises the question, you know, what media looking at andy what other polls should they be looking at? conductans are going to their internal polls. for example, we saw a great outcome for gary johnson in in that particular district.nal ive is thebject siev sieve criteria? need toomething we

research, to say we want these guys in the debates. james.s go to toms river, new jersey. supports hillary clinton. james, good morning. >> good morning, washington journal! good morning, john, and good morning, ed. i'd just like to bring up the fact -- this is my opinion, naturally -- that when the country,c runs the they always run it better. no doubt in my mind about that. i'm 72. i remember dwight eisenhower, a republican president. and nixon, he was a pretty fair republican, except for watergate. as far as after that, ronald first, i voted him the time. then i realized that he didn't know what he was doing. class.against the middle and the middle class is the one that really gets this country going. party isemocratic definitely for the middle class. and they're not against rich people. to help everybody. that's the way the democratic party is. poorhey definitely help

people more. so i want to thank this man for vote forepublicans to his third party, because that's going to make it easier for get intolinton to office, and the democratic party will definitely run the country better. do. always it's not my opinion. that's a fact, whether you like it or not. are they perfect? not.urse i thought nafta was one of the biggest mistakes clinton ever think the trade deals are awful and i think they should be changed. and i think hillary realized and he's gonna do it -- she's gonna do it, once she gets elected president. >> got your point. ed lopez, is that the kind of thanks you want? >> well, the polls -- what the polls have showed, one of two things. either pulling more votes from hillary clinton actually or voters thatng the are supporting trump and clinton at the moment. so in other words, the reality far, what we've seen is the johnson/weld ticket has clinton more to typical

supporters. i think part of it is that a lot are still trying to find their place, given trump's nomination. i think there's lot of people trying to come to grips with changing in the party. that's fair. at the end of the day, i'm not sure we can fairly make the the johnson/weld will help hillary clinton get elected. i think the polls are showing that either clinton is losing vote to johnson/weld or they're from both equally. >> let's go to donna, painesville, ohio, supporting trump. donna, good morning. >> good morning. >> go ahead. >> oh. know why the third party is coming up -- third win.es never all they do is ruin it for the party that's going for the election. and you're just putting clinton in. it's gonna be a free ride for her. why are you people doing that? you don't like what she's doing. why are you supporting it?

>> ed lopez? at the 9%hen we look that i talked about earlier, people -- 9%of the of the voting electorate has actually voted for clinton and 73mp, we're looking at million people that haven't had a voice in who they actually presidency andhe vice presidency. space forill ample people to look at a different option. the said earlier as well, negatives for clinton and trump there's -- this election is very different, very different election. i think people are looking at opportunity to look at something different. downagain, we support the ballot ticket candidates as republicans. and we just feel that the theton -- sorry -- johnson/weld ticket is going to do better than the clinton-trump presidencies would in helping those people get elected and do

which somebody mentioned that earlier, how badly the polls are looking for republicans in the house and senate. we know for a fact that this has a great deal to do with who we've nominated in the g.o.p. for president. for us that's a concern too. we want to make sure we are supporting a ticket up at the top that will help those people get elected. we've seen a lot of people, state legislators, a couple of congressmen, say we're going to go ahead and support johnson/weld. i think they understand that's to more viable way for them go, if they want a proper way to run the country, do something support freeto markets and civil liberties. that's what we believe as republicans. what trump or clinton represent. >> on the idea of the being openl debates to more candidates, c-span democrat writes in on twitter, d.n.c.e same as the the debate commission is out of times.th the stein and johnson should be included in the debates. you can participate in the everysation that happens

day here on the washington on journal onwashington facebook.com/c-span. pennsylvania. bob, go ahead. >> good morning. how are you, sir? >> excellent. ahead. >> you know, i want to refresh ed's memory here. really realize what gave birth and rise to donald trump? names.give you two you need to go back in history a little bit here, boy. boehner and mcconnell. we gave them the house and senate. and guess what? the democrats still win. aren't you fighting to clean up the rhinos in your own party? i just don't understand your logic and your theory. you are foolish. you truly are. if you didn't like the eight of obama, guess what? we're gonna have four more years pants suit.a what's wrong with you? >> ed lopez, i'll let you idea of going after rhinos in your own party. >> two things. i understand how angry voters

are. a lot of us are angry as well. i think that the issue is that to move past the anger and find solutions. and that's where i think that tone of johnson/weld is very different from the tone that trump will project. as far as the candidates in the g.o.p. that we have difficulties well, i feel that in our organization, republicans for we've assembled such a diversion group of people, that have come from all kinds of backgrounds, a lot of the libertarian folks folkslot of the tea party within the party. i think that's a healthy dialogue to have within the party certainly but now we're the gem election and we -- general election and we need to move forward. i think that's where the johnson/weld ticket gives us a better option. that traditional libertarians have been supportive of folks like yourself, throwing your support to gary johnson and bill weld? >> i think libertarians are

to -- in my perspective, my sense is that they are -- this is a new experience for them and it's a new experience for us, because we've never seen viable ticket for the libertarian party. we're on a learning curve. sense that i get from the libertarian folks i've we have that they feel a lot of things in common. ultimately, i think that the one that we all agree on is americans have moved to a place where they want fiscal conservatives and social tolerance. that's what the johnson/weld offers. hasuld say that trump maybe had positions that might set the mold on the social side but he's and he'sedictable changed positions so many times. it's really tough to make that him.for >> didi wants us to go back to the libertarian party theidential ticket and ballot access issue. are the johnson/weld ticket not in, and where do you

think is going to be the toughest climb for ballot access? we know, for example, in my neck of the woods -- i know new hampshire still needed and connect connecticut. the list is being updated constantly. i know the libertarian party has a page where they've been updating. dozen statesut a where they still needed some work. but as far as some of these intes, for example, connecticut, my understanding is they actually have more signatures than they need now. those signatures are not valid, so i think they're making progress. but as to a specific number of states, i wouldn't be able to give you that answer right now. it's changing and it's very know,le that by now, you it's monday. we're starting off a new week, in athings have improved lot of states. connecticut had seen this improvement. track.re on the right sop, you know, it really depends on the state. we may have states that have and haveealed the deal enough signatures. i don't have a concrete answer on that at the moment. that information will be posted

our website, republicansforjohnson/weld.com. >> this is the updated map that to.referred green on this map is the states ticket islibertarian on the ballot. blue on this map are the states is under waycess to get on the ballot, for those listening on the radio. blue,states in washington, minnesota, iowa, alabama, kentucky, virginia, pennsylvania, new york, new jersey, connecticut, rhode island, massachusetts, and new hampshire. findou can go to lp.org to that map. wyoming,to steve in michigan. support third-party candidates. >> hi. this is david. and a suggestion and then i'll take my comment to yourair and listen response. it's about the criteria for inclusion