dangerous precipice. i think we are in danger of going somewhere with this country where we have never gone before. he has already gone where no candidate has gone before, not just but 10, 15, 20 times. i have to tell you, it doesn't matter how may times he is criticized, it does not matter how he times he is caught up in lies or statements, it makes no difference whatsoever to donald trump because he has no shame. you can't shame him into changing. all of these people who say he pivot and change, it will not happen. donald trump has been this person throughout his career and life. essentially a con man. doing the same thing he did at "trump university," which was

never a university and not paul ryan or mitt romney or all the kings and horses of the republican party are going to change this one word. prof. vavreck: can i jump in for one second? i want to entertain for a second this idea. i have been thinking about this a lot that none of this matters, that the comments he is making and what you are saying, he is not getting feedback, he is not changing, but i have heard a lot of people say, some people say, i've heard a lot of people say that he is teflon and can say anything and does not pay a price. i want you to pause for a second and think about where he stands in the polls and how much is cratered in the last 10 days. he is not teflon. he looks like he is stuck where he is. maybe there's an october surprise but i don't think it is right to say that he is teflon and none of this is hitting him.

it might be right to say he is not getting any feedback from the fact that he has cratered and is losing georgia and iowa and utah and arizona. he is not changing because of that. i think he is paying a price in terms of public opinion. given that he has a gigantic ego, -- [laughter] do you think you could face public humiliation? you hear many so many rumblings and rumors of exit strategies. one of george w. bush's speech writers has an op-ed in the near -- "new york times" today saying mike pence should ease him out the door. all these fanciful ideas. do you think that he will last the distance? i'm not putting you on the spot. [laughter] prof. vavreck: you are not? all i can say about that is i don't know donald trump, i've never met him. my guess is that you don't yet -- get to be that executive with

that portfolio unless you have some resiliency and so can he take humiliation? i suspect he can. does it mean he will drop out, i don't know. when i hear republicans say that, i think that is wishful thinking more than it is based on any kind of real evidence that he might be indicating that he is looking for a way out. prof. lichtman: if you agree with me that donald trump has no shame, none of this matters. it is not that he doesn't get feedback, it is that the feedback doesn't matter. the feedback never changes him. he has already set things up to have been now. he has already said the election is rigged. if he loses, that will be the narrative. i should have won but for the rigged election and how do you prove a negative? the election was not rigged. he has set himself up, it doesn't matter to him whether he

wins or loses. i'm not even sure he really wants the job. let me tell you why. he loves the spotlight. can't stand not to be in the spotlight. but this is a man who has walked away with bankruptcy six-times. does he really want to be president of united states when you are actually held accountable for your decisions? i'm not sure he does. i think he's planning this exit strategy. not that he will get out, but that he is planning to say if i lose, it was rigged. mr. masters: probably a good time to write out your questions. we will have people on both because weect them want as much q gender-mandering q&a as want as

possible. given that he is cratering -- prof. vavreck: tomorrow he will surge just because i said this. [laughter] mr. masters: all changes rapidly. the one thing that is consistent is he drops a bombshell almost every day if you did a major one today with the second amendment , folks could stop hillary clinton from appointing judges in the assumption is that he meant stop them with a bullet, that is just today. is it possible this trajectory, there is a trajectory and it is a downward one and it could get worse? prof. vavreck: it is possible. the upshot prediction mostly based on poll aggregating. it is moving because the polls are moving. when i made this and sent it to the hammer a week ago, that number was barely at 70. it was a different sports analogy. just in that week, so many polls have come out that have the margins, double-digit margins. it moved a prediction into a range that is really unprecedented.

it is possible that that continues and it is possible this is a plateau and it goes back up. i agree with allan, let me say. saying 47% of the people will not vote for you, none of those moments are game changers. none of those are game changers. debates rarely change the outcome of elections. what they do do is change the polls after the debates in right after you say things. and you don't pay attention to have the country. romney example is a great one because he lost. people who were supporting him after the 47% comment moved into undecided. we were in the field with a long panel. people moved into undecided in the news was romney that this hurt him. 10 days later, i said to his campaign manager stuart stevens, you guys are brilliant.

you orchestrated this whole thing. later, he had an amazing performance at the first debate , held in use, it was said romney had a great night and went back up and was searching and it was a game changer. that's what it was --guess what it was? it was all those people who moved away from him to undecided after 47% that moved back to him after the first debate. there has been no change after all. i think polls can move but the outcome is probably solid. prof. lichtman: a couple of comments. one, i think lynn just proved why you can't predict elections by following the day-to-day events, the ups and downs of the polls. i will remind you, three weeks ago, 538, the gold standard was saying 55% to 45% trump and now is heavily clinton. you can't predict that stuff. i also want to talk about donald trump's comments about the second amendment people.

and why it is dangerous. he tried to explain this away by saying, i was only saying we wanted unified people to vote a certain way. that is not what he said. he was talking about after the election. when hillary clinton was already president and was making supreme court appointments, how could we stop that? that is nothing to do with voting or unifying people to vote. it was clearly, an invitation for the second amendment people, those who love guns to do something about it. why is that so dangerous? not because you or i would take a gun and shoot someone, but what has donald trump stirred up? the worst and most dangerous elements. the neo-nazis, white supremacist, ku klux klan, david duquette said donald trump has made this my time. all of those groups are encouraged by the trump campaign.

there is not strained credulity to think of how some of those people might interpret what donald trump said. that is why it was so despicable and dangerous and ought to be disqualifying for the presidency. we have not seen anything remotely like this in our history. [applause] prof. vavreck: can i jump in real fast? 30 seconds? i do think it's important to keep in mind as you think about these things -- i said this earlier -- but donald trump is not creating these attitudes. they have existed in the united states. people have high levels of racial anxiety and we can trace this back to the beginning of holding. it is worth pausing for a moment to think about what donald trump has demonstrated is that the payoff from priming this kind of explicit racial and ethnic messaging or this hate messaging. he has demonstrated the payoff from doing that.

the wife, non-college-educated men moving toward him. mitt romney and john mccain could have gone to that same explicit messaging and they were running against the first lack -- black man nominated in the major party so they were in an environment where it would have been more of a payoff for going there. both of those candidates are on record and you can talk to them or their advisers saying that they were not willing to do that. they were not going to win that way. mitt romney said i had to get up in the morning and look in the mirror the next day and john mccain said i'm not winning by playing the race card. i think it is worth pausing and saying that donald trump is not a member of this class of professional politicians. he referenced it, too, you said not polite or honest and genuine, but whether it is genuine going act, there is a set of norms that politicians adhere to. mostly you see on the floor of congress but donald trump is not of that. he is a businessman.

it is a different set of norms so a lot of what we see as despicable and different is coming from the fact that he is not of this group and we disparage politicians. couldn'thtman: disagree more, i have to say. prof. vavreck: let me just finish this one sentence. prof. lichtman: i think that is way off. prof. vavreck: i just want to say that people disparage politicians all the time but i think this moment actually makes me sit back and say that professional politicians may be deserve slightly more respect than we are traditionally given them. prof. lichtman: i cannot explain donald trump by saying he is not a professional politician. we have had nonprofessional politicians before run for office. we had wendell wilkie, the republican nominee in 1940, who was exactly like donald trump , a businessman who had never run for office, never held office. he ran an exemplary campaign.

he was up against franklin roosevelt and had no chance to win, but he never appealed to the darker nature's in america. dwight eisenhower was hardly a professional politician, he ran an exemplary campaign. whether you agree or disagree with wendell wilkie, dwight eisenhower or others who came from outside the political class, they did not come remotely close to stirring up the emotions that donald trump is, so i do not donald trump expressible by saying he is outside the political class. he is outside any reasonable class of human being. [applause] [laughter] mr. masters: some questions, there is a big stack. do you think the election is in any way affected by the unprecedented defections of gop leaders away from trump? prof. vavreck: i do think that that would have some impact.

i actually think that if we were seeing what we are seeing in the last two weeks back in october of 2015, i think that a little bit of the shine could come off donald trump earlier if there had been more coordination from republican elites when you ago. mr. masters: given what we now know, do you think that sanders would have had a better chance against trump than clinton? prof. lichtman: i can't answer that. i don't do that thing. prof. vavreck: i do not think so. mr. masters: is there anything that republicans could have done foil trump's rise? prof. vavreck: as i was saying, the coordination, the lack of correlation. the ad buys they were making when you ago, they were buying time for attack advertising but they were attacking each other

and guess when they started attacking donald trump? -- donald trump. it was march. prof. lichtman: i do not think there was anything they could do to stop donald trump because the donald trump supporters were not listening to those people. last august, when trump, i was everyone was dismissing donald trump, i was on the air saying you cannot dismiss donald trump because he is saying what a substantial segment of the republican base wants to hear but that the other politicians are afraid to say and that is why donald trump had so much appeal and there's nothing that jeb bush could have done about that. mr. masters: what does the republic -- why does the republican party continue to support donald trump and do you think there is a limit? prof. vavreck: this is an interesting question. they take a pledge and say they

will support him and he becomes the nominee and what you do? i think plenty of people have held back and a lot of people have explicitly said they will not vote for him. again, if this had been happening earlier, things might have shaped up a little differently. i don't know how much differently. at the end of the day, there has to still be a party and contrary to what you might think, there is no master puppeteer of their -- up there telling people in the party what to do. donald trump loses and we are right back to tea party and evangelicaly and and nonevangelical, right back where we were of a broken, dysfunctional republican party. if he wins, i'm not sure what happens. i think they have to be worried about the house and senate. they cannot be dysfunctional. prof. lichtman: two words, supreme court.

if there weren't many as maybe as three supreme court nominees , you would see much more massive defections, probably even paul ryan and mitch mcconnell. but where is the action today? because washington is in such gridlock, the action is in the supreme court as we have seen time and again. that is the only reason that they are still clinging to donald trump. mr. masters: could the rise of donald trump be attributed to the fact that his republican opponents had no marked accomplishments other than their obstructionism? prof. vavreck: i do not think so. you have ted cruz in mind may be when you asked that question, but that set of people, for senators and governors, those are formidable candidates with a lot of political experience. prof. lichtman: it was the best group the republicans could put up shadow candidate out there

. it was not some shadow candidate out there ready to rise into the party. this is what you see is what you get. in terms of favoring the trump are clinton candidate, do you feel that the entry of three other candidates shifts the balance? prof. vavreck: i think it is too early to tell. i don't feel like i have a good read on way that will go just yet. if there and it even more than two people in the first debate, that could be interesting. that looksman: unlikely. you have to get 15%. i will give you the lichtman role, the world is where you take where the candidates are polling, third-party candidates and you slice it in half. 6% or 7%, is holding you might expect a percent of 4%. why? the wasted pull syndrome. it is easier to tell a pollster you will vote for gary johnson. if you go to the polling place and say i love you, gary

johnson, but you cannot win, so i will vote for some of the ross -- someone else, it is like ross perot in 1992, at one point was out pulling both clinton and bush. at 40%. he finished at 19%. the only third-party candidate ever to be in the debates. mr. masters: what is your personal hope for the outcome of the elections? prof. vavreck: what! mr. masters: we know who allan is voting for. prof. lichtman: all in for trump. [laughter] prof. vavreck: oh, man! personally, as a political scientist writing a book about the election, my personal hope is that it continues to be really interesting. [laughter] that's not what you want to know. i will tell you what i told my mother last week.

my mother who is 87 years old and has watched her first set of political conventions and is not interested in politics but has been watching and this is how interesting this election is and she said to me, i don't know, what do you think? and, this is amusing to me. i had the privilege and honor of hosting hillary clinton at ucla in when she came and spoke on 2014 the lecture on leadership. that was a career highlight for me and i said to my mom, wouldn't it be great if i got to tell people that i got to interview the first woman to be president of the united states. that is what i will say. i would like to say that. prof. lichtman: with that answer, you should go into politics. [laughter] mr. masters: if one candidate is the dangerously and mentally

unfit that case, stated by gop national security sinus, does that overturn all the keys? [laughter] prof. lichtman: no! of course not. i explained them how to from affects the keys. this has never happened before that in opposition candidate has affected any of the keys. in this astute, brilliant audience, you all expect to me -- explained to me that trump has negated the effects of what otherwise would have been a divisive and bitter democratic contest. perhaps something only donald trump could have done. mr. masters: what can be done or can anything be done to improve expectations, cooperation and compromise in congress? prof. vavreck: i think that, i

don't want this to sound hokey but it does kind of start with the candidate to get nominated in primaries for open seats in congress. i really think that whatever the systemic problem is with the people in the chamber now, the problem is staying there. to change the culture, we have to change the people. you need to, if you have good people who you think should be running for congress in your neighborhoods and districts, -- i know this sounds hokey -- but you have to talk them into running for congress. prof. lichtman: are you going to run question mark prof. vavreck: --prof. lichtman: are you going to run? prof. vavreck: no, i'm not going to run. [laughter] i will talk you into running. prof. lichtman: oh, come on. prof. vavreck: i think we really do have to change the set of people because as long as the republican party has the tea party-non-tea party divide, it is going to be very hard to have

brokers like ted kennedy and john mccain working across the aisle, even people like dan quayle who had bipartisan bills, i just think that is an era we have lost. prof. lichtman: think where our politics have come to when you are rooting for dan quayle. [laughter] mr. masters: allan, we will put you on the spot. did you expect or predict donald trump to win the gop nomination? prof. lichtman: my system does not predict nominations. [laughter] prof. vavreck: who is running for congress now? [laughter] prof. lichtman: in august, i was on the record when every other pundit was saying he was going to fade, i thought, was the most -- donald trump was the most likely candidate to win the republican nomination and everybody thought i was nuts. mr. masters: somewhat similar to the one i ask, how can you evaluate the campaign for one

candidate who keeps breaking the boundaries of what is acceptable and/or normal? prof. vavreck: great question. i mentioned this in my remarks and forgot to come back to her win the slide that said equilibrium, this election is meant to be close, i told you that the in equilibrium part was important and that is essentially what this question is asking. i take all of those numbers since the new deal and i look at what they mean and i can make a dotiction for where the red , the 2016 election, is going to be based on the growth rate in the six months of this election year. but, that is assuming the equilibrium we are typically in in every presidential election when which is typically two highly qualified candidates , equally financed fighting really hard because they want to win. that is the equilibrium we are

making a prediction them. if someone comes along and does money, sayse any has no tv ads and unusual things to get into the news come all the other things you have said, people always ask me, when obama ran, isn't this time different? he was the first black man. isn't this different? maybe people would say this about the selection because of hillary clinton being a woman but it is so different because of donald trump that they are not saying that. i always say no. part of what i do ask political scientist is generalize, take data and be able to tell an overarching story and so i have this urge to generalize to something we can use to make predictions. i always want to say, no, this time is not going to be different if we are in equilibrium, but i think we may not be in 2016. i am willing to say that this time might be different. mr. masters: is there any

positive impact of the trump candidacy? prof. vavreck: if you are a democrat. mr. masters: by the way i think , hillary clinton has to be incredibly lucky. [laughter] prof. vavreck: i'm sure she does not feel that way. what you have both said, she is running the worst campaign because she is using donald trump's words against him rather than addressing the underlying reasons for the anger for why people support him and supported bernie sanders. prof. vavreck: i don't know about that. some days i wake up and i said, if you're hillary clinton run ight now, you are saying i'm the luckiest person in the world and some days i wake up and think , this guy is a loose cannon and i don't know what he will do how about unpredictability? i don't know whether she is lucky or unlucky. i have this project in the field

called spotcheck, where i test these advertisements in real and -- in real time and i have got people rating and it is on the web. you can google my name to find it. what actually works best is -- linda ad has worked best, it is not one of hers, it was a republican super pac called our principles pack and they had women just, average women reading from ipads and iphones quotes donald trump had said about women and it is offensive statements and that ad hurts donald trump more than anything else i've tested. i think that is why you are seeing her do it. it is effective. mr. masters: i see. what do second amendment people do in the face of a rigged election? [laughter] donald trump said today work recently went through reporter push him with what does he mean by rate, they got to the point where trump said that people are voting multiple times, like 10 times.

10 times? prof. lichtman: he said 15 times today. prof. vavreck: yes, so if you are not voting 15 times, you are not living up to the city -- civic expectations. prof. lichtman: i was the expert witness and all of those voters -- not all, but texas, north carolina, virginia, and we looked into the question of whether people were voting multiple times or impersonating someone and your chances, even in southern california of being hit by lightning, are vastly higher than the chances of anyone impersonating someone or voting multiple times. you know i doesn't happen? three years in prison. who will risk that when your chances of being caught are 25% because that is about the percentage of people who recognize people who come to the polls.

it is a complete red herring issue and four courts have weighed in on this. including the most conservative appeals court in the country, the fifth circuit down in louisiana, and they have all come to the same conclusion that these voter id laws are not justified by claims of fraud. donald trump is making this up out of holed cloth, imagine that. mr. masters: is polarization such that polls will become much less elastic and volatile from here on out? prof. vavreck: i do not think so. if you had asked me this question in 2008 and 2012, i might have said maybe. yes. party identification is such an anchor. in 2008 and 2012, we have these long panels of data with a lot of people and we asked them in december before the election, what is your party id and who

will you vote for? over 90% on both sides tell us they will vote for the person from their party and then we go back to them, they end up doing it. the swing of the election, people moving around, is maybe 13%, maybe more than that. i might have thought the stability was the story, this year makes me think, we have seen a lot of volatility in the polls recently in the last two weeks and makes me think that when you have an exceptional candidate like this, when you get party elites announcing the -- denouncing the candidate and endorsing the opposition, you can shake people off that party identification in a way that honestly is a little surprising to me. prof. lichtman: -- mr. masters: when i watched the rallies, you talk about uneducated white men and trump said he loves the poorly educated. prof. vavreck: noncollege educated. mr. masters: right. i don't see them at these

rallies. i see middle-class, republicans. prof. vavreck: i have been to a donald trump rally and, it is hard to say. i can't say that the crowd felt much different to me, i went to a ted cruz event and it donald trump the event. it was not that noticeably different. in might have been a little older. will democrats get back the senate? will hillary clinton be a one term president? [laughter] prof. lichtman: i have not followed the senate races. prof. vavreck: this election is sweeping and then we can expect there to be coattails on the democratic candidate win. she will bring in members of congress and the senate of her

party. this is a well-established pattern, one of these things that is generalizable. you bring people into congress when you win the election and then there is this reverse to the mean equilibrium and in the off year your party loses seats. , we call that surge in decline. -- and the crime. we are likely to see a democratic surge of hillary clinton wins. the question is how much can the surge be? i suspect pretty big. mr. masters: allan, here's one for you. is donald trump truly a president? is there anyone like him and u.s. history? prof. lichtman: all of u.s. history? [laughter] i can think of one figure, and he was not a major party candidate. he was an independent candidate. he did really well for an independent candidate. he got 13% of the vote. pop quiz? anyone know who i am thinking of?

1968. george wallace. george wallace was very close to what donald trump is doing. , and sidingaigned -- inciting a lot of ethnic and racial issues but he campaigned as a complete outsider. one of his favorite targets was pointy-headed professors who try to tell everyone what to do but we can't even park a bicycle straight. [laughter] mr. masters: how will the relationship between china and the u.s. be if clinton wins? i would think the question would be if trump wins? wouldn't it? prof. lichtman: i am the expert on that. i will defer. prof. vavreck: that is a little outside of both -- we would not want to say anything. prof. lichtman: and you and you would dare to say something about that would probably be wrong. try to predict what china will do, good luck. mr. masters: do you think kerry -- gary johnson can get in the

debates? prof. vavreck: i think it is tough. the presidential debates are different than the primary debates. televisionsted by networks, sometimes nbc, fox, but the presidential debates are organized by the commission on presidential debates which is bipartisan and has democrats and republicans on it and so it has been in existence for a long time and all these rules about how you get in. highly negotiated set of atmospherics by representatives from both campaigns, so 15% is the number you have to be polling and there are other criteria and off the top of my head i don't know what they are but i think it is a tough road. prof. lichtman: i agree. willigger question is donald trump today? he has set up the possibility of not debating. not only is the election rigged but the debates are also. it is somehow by the democratic national committee. prof. vavreck: and nfl. prof. lichtman: it has that the

to do with it but it is the commission and he has already said he will not debate under these conditions and has not said what the conditions are. i doubt if gary johnson will get into the debates. i'm not certain there will be debates. prof. vavreck: if i remember correctly, if he does not want to show up, that is fine but she gets the stage for however long, 90 minutes. rule. so i think that is the prof. lichtman: i do not know. prof. vavreck: i'm not sure about that. mr. masters: she would be remiss if she did not take it manage of the situation. prof. lichtman: she will. mr. masters: why has trump not been accused of treason for encouraging russia to hack democratic computers? and why has trump not been arrested for inciting the assassination of clinton? are showingan: you that went to me?

[laughter] check out my article in "the new york daily news." you can google it. i did not say he committed treason, but i did say he was advocating a violation of federal law because he did not simply say if you have the russians, if you have hillary clinton's e-mails, release them, he said, go find those e-mails. the only way you can find those , assuming you can, i do not know if they exist, is to hack into her private e-mail server. which is a violation of medications act, a violation of federal law punishable by five years in prison. he was breaking the law and i am not a lawyer enough to say, but certainly, he was advocating a foreign power to break a federal law. first candidate i know of to ever advocate a foreign power meddling in the election. ever since george washington as ked the meddling french

ambassador to get out of the country back in the 1790's, we have stood staunchly against foreign meddling until this year. extraordinary. as far as what he said, i've given my commentary on what he said about the second amendment. ian, if you had say that -- said that, you'd be in some interrogation room with lights sixour eyes and some six to degrees of his agents in your face. mr. masters: what about hacking the elections? prof. lichtman: i think that is a scary prospect. people have hacked the defense department. i have to tell you, these voting machines are nowhere near as secure, probably not as secure as the dnc. who knows question mark -- who knows? the possibility of the russians hacking, while small, it is not zero. that is a frightening thought. federal officials are well aware of that and i'm not a computer expert, i don't know what precautions they're taking, they are treating this as a homeland

security issue. in treating the security of our elections as a chief security issue, privilege protections have to be taken. putin will do whatever he wants to do and does not care what anyone thinks or says. does that sound familiar? [laughter] prof. vavreck: i may be the pollyanna of this group and i'm not willing to believe that the united states secret service changes its protocol on for a three principal because that person is a nominee. i'm not willing to believe that. mr. masters: it was sufficiently ambiguous. prof. lichtman: maybe it was, maybe it wasn't. i guarantee of a private citizen had said that, they would have been in some jeopardy. remember, the federal government does not like the bureaucracy to

interfere with presidential candidate campaign. candidates have a lot of latitude that is not given to ordinary citizens. mr. masters: here is a question for you, lynn, and i am puzzled by this. a lot of my women friends hate hillary clinton with a passion. how do you explain the extreme hatred of hillary clinton, does that matter for the election? hatred fromt the the republicans, but address the others, as well. prof. vavreck: this is one of my favorite questions. how do you explain the animus people feel for hillary clinton? someone asked me this plastic. i just want to say, really? you were around in the 1990's. she is not an unbruised candidate. whether or not you love her hate her, democrat or republican, you have to admit that

she had a history that is, there is a pattern to that is just somewhat troubling and i think that is why she is a little bit of a lightning rod but not always. the other important point is that she had very high approval ratings when she was secretary of state. a lot of what you see now with the high unfavorables is brought out by the campaign. then he that was going to happen, everyone knows that when you get in a political contest, the partisanship kicks in. prof. lichtman: do you think misogyny is kicking in? prof. vavreck: i think there is a gender difference pressure. when you watch this ad called quotes with the women reading the statement, i wrote about this in "the times" and you can read the piece can see all the data, there are very different reactions to this ad by gender. women really hate donald trump a

lot after they see this but they don't necessarily like hillary clinton anymore. it is not her ad. men are not as moved to hate him because of all these horrible things he is saying about women. i think that is a lot of it. i think they dislike of hillary is not driven as much by gender but i'm not sure of that. mr. masters: we are close to running out of time, but do you think donald trump has fundamentally or permanently changed the way politics and the media interact? and i would add to that, the only beneficiaries of our broken political system are the media, the $5 billion that this election will cost and muscle go to the mainstream media. prof. vavreck: local television and that is not a bad thing. mr. masters: but their affiliates usually. prof. vavreck: but local stations will make a lot of money and that is not a bad thing. if you like your local news, ok

, you know, but do i think he has changed the relationship? i think so but on the way you think. some of my reporter by these were telling me that this thing about how the media has made donald trump and it pushes their buttons because they desperately want to cover these candidates. that is their job. what does he do? he calls them. sitting around and your producer for the morning show on cnn and donald trump calls you up and you are talking about the thing and he says he has something to say about that. how about putting me on? he makes himself so accessible, and one of my friends said we were doing a forum like this in the political science department months ago and he said, i will prove it to you. i will get on my phone and we will call donald trump and he will not answer but i guarantee before the panel is over, he will call back. he made himself so accessible and hillary clinton has not talked to reporters for months. that is attention for them.

should they not covered trump even though he makes himself accessible because clinton will not talk to them? it makes you think a little differently about how much coverage he got. is that a rule change going forward? i think what future candidates learn is that if you want to own the new cycle, make yourself available. mr. masters: rights, he has taken free media to extraordinary heights. i watch it because i'm expecting a train wreck and most people do. [laughter] prof. vavreck: nobody watches for the last hand turn. prof. lichtman: why do people watch nascar, right? themasters: we are past witching hour. sorry about that. i would like to mention here that the final debate live on theill be live on october

19th, whether or not donald trump is on stage. [laughter] i thank both of you for joining us tonight. [applause] ♪ [indiscernible chattering] >> a look at our live coverage plans for this afternoon on c-span. coming up in under 20 minutes, we will take you live to ocean city, maryland, where democratic senator ben cardin will discuss cyber security and promoting an

innovative economy. it takes a set the maryland association of county summer conference. we will have that live at 1:00 eastern time on c-span. later on that 2:45 eastern time, homeland security secretary jeh johnson has been dispatched to louisiana in the wake of historic flooding in the state and is expected to talk to the media and other officials today. around 2:45 eastern time, we will have that live when it is underway. a number of house and senate members in louisiana and ineffective districts and elsewhere in the state have been posting updates as part of the recovery efforts and part of their participation in the and information updates. congressman garret graves of louisiana among them. here is a look at his facebook page. he met with emergency officials at the livingston parish operation center and posted this

video on his facebook page. [video clip] congressman: i will talk about the latest here as wanda continues to go down and it is beginning to change. we are so happy to have to come out. we know you have been working hard and trying to help with the nature and it means a lot to the people in the parish. i appreciate you for doing that. congressman: you bet. everybody and for their speedy recovery. >> thank you. again, homeland security secretary jeh johnson in louisiana today and he plans to meet with the media about 2:45 eastern time. we will make it to you live from baton rouge, louisiana, on c-span. in the headline today from "the

hill," reporting on the justice department saying they will and the use of private prisons. the justice department plans to phase out the use of private prisons after they were determined to be less safe and less affected than government facilities. "the washington post" reports that sally yates in a memo thursday instructed officials not to renew contracts with havete risen operators and substantially reduced the scope of contracts and the end is to reduce the use of publicly -- a privately operated prisons and it was found lasting that privately operated prisons had more problems with assaults and contraband. this response from g.k. butterfield, the chair of the house, the congressional black caucus on twitter -- a big move justice, department of justice should not be for sale. that is from democratic congressman g.k. butterfield.

"the washington post" has reported the shakeup in the donald trump campaign, and we spoke to one of the reporters who wrote the story. >> this is the headline that "washington post.com -- washington post.com, trump shaking up the campaign and demoting the top advisor. sta joins us on the phone today. essentially, what is behind the changes? trump has spent recent weeks growing more and more frustrated about the attempts by paul manafort campaign chairman. as he looked ahead and moved forward with the campaign, he decided to move away and elevate

to associates, steve bennett and kelly on conway, to let trump, in essence, be trump, worked reformed, aggressive and if necessary. >> yet, paul manafort remains the chair the trump campaign, why? is a sense that paul manafort has been fine in terms of stabilizing some aspects of the campaign and building relationships with washington republicans and his relationship with trump has been solid, same generation, the same age, more moderate republicans from the mid-atlantic northwest region of the country and book came from families and construction. also chiefrt was strategist over the past couple of months when trump dropped in the polls, and trump really felt, according to people close to him, that he needed a job, and he needed to return to the populace core of the campaign.

he needed to be the trump he was in the primaries. he has never been really comfortable with the scripted trump from teleprompters and all that. steve van in, a populist and businessmen and mediate salons and what kelly and conway, a new york based pollster, it is a campaign that from his more comfortable with. host: i want to follow-up on both of those individuals but let me go back to paul manafort and the stories about his link with former ukraine president and his political party and the allegation of $12 million in undisclosed cash payments, which we should point out that paul manafort and the trump campaign but with these stories find the latest move by donald trump? guest: they were not according to my sources within the campaign and near it. well manner for cash ma -- manafort has grown unhappy with this would need around his

activities in the ukraine and the possible payments he may have received, that was a cloud over him that was not the cloud that necessitated trump and made him move. trump has been more unhappy with the way manafort is a symbol for trump being thus trump and if this came to a head over the at and, one day trump was fundraiser in the hamptons in new york and he met with some donors and said you are being tamed too much, too much effort to make a different than you are, and while chatter ortutmanafort -- about manafro and his dealings in russia were part of the opposition at some time, it seems it was to push him out from his top spot. it should be noted that he is remaining the campaign chairman strategist that in a sense, he is layered. host: steven is a former banker,

navy officer and what is his background? does he have experience and why did donald trump appointment? guest: trump has a report that goes back with years. he runs a news, hard-edged conservative news site, something antiestablishment and only efficient against not the democratic party but against the republicans. site fromed the [indiscernible] operator, he is the head of many businesses, he has been a banker, different kinds of private projects, investment's, a hollywood radical, enjoys having a lot of friends, talking about issues and being combative when with opponents more

liberal, and he has been at the center of this move in the republican party toward populist nationalism. that has been epitomized in congress and championed by alabama senator jeff sessions. in the media world, that strain of conservative orthodox conservative views has been championed by bannon. is a pollster, what will her portfolio include? guest: it has included expanding appeal to women, especially swing states like north carolina, pennsylvania and ohio, where he is struggling in kee polls, and thio ma trump see more likable to women of both parties, who see in trump someone who they maybe do not want to have the nuclear codes or more tempted to the democratic side on that temperamental question when it comes to donald trump.

she is someone who was worked in pulling for a long time, it used to work for a well-known pollster and republican party, and heris focused company on women's issues for both corporate and political clients, and she has developed an expertise in that area. host: finally come with regards to people you talk to and republican party circles, not necessarily involved in the trump campaign, do they think these changes will make a difference? guest: there is a mixed reception to these changes. there is a belief among nearly all my sources that the decision was driven by trump himself and he wants the campaign on his terms and his instincts. the idea that bannon and conway will change trump, no one believes that, but it will be a different type of campaign. manefort has tried to get him to read more from prepared text and be more focused on unity.

, so i is a media guy think you will see someone who is more naturally inclined to let trump do as he wishes when it comes to media appearances and that kind of thing. i think it will be an emphasis more than we have seen on trump as an agent of change as trump who is shown as a washington outsider. those are the things that bannon is thinking and expect them to have that as his strategy in this closing chapter. host: we have been reading that isind-the-scenes, manefort frustrated in his dealings with donald trump. is that accurate? guest: i think it is accurate withmany people who are donald trump have grown weary or exasperated with his stubborn .efusals to adapt or change in politics, usually had candidates changing or the favorite word is pitted when it comes to the general election to become more moderate or toned in

substance. who trump, ec the candidate is reluctant to do that and he is where he is because he trusted his gut and this kind of a mirror of his own self, his "id," rather than becoming a packaged with the coproduct. sense that those who are close to trump, he thinks at this point in his life, at this stage, after all he is been through this year, kumar does not keep doing what he is doing rather than trying to become somewhat conventional. host: some changes inside the trump campaign and the reporting ofrobert csota of "-- costa "the washington post," and his work available online. thank you for your time. >> coming up in a few minutes, senator ben cardin of maryland, attending the maryland association of counties summer conference in ocean city, maryland, and he will be leading

a cyber security town hall scheduled in a few minutes, 1:00 p.m. eastern time, live coverage on c-span. while we wait for that to start, a portion of today's "washington journal," a discussion on how progressive issues play out in the 2016 campaign. ine a clock eastern on c-span. "washington journal" continues. host: at our table this morning, the president of the most action, heather mcghee. thank you for being here. explain what demos is. public'smos is a organization that was funded in 2000. the name is the greek word for the people, the root word of democracy. our mission is to work for america where we all have an equal say in our democracy and an equal chance in our economy. sisterction is our organization that allows us to fight about candidates' position on issues. host: how are each funded? os is about a $10

million organization that is mainly funded through foundations, as well as small and large individual donors. demos action is funded through a similar sort of mix. host: any big-name wealthy donors our viewers would recognize questioner -- recognize? guest: the kellogg foundation, ford foundation, open society foundation. none of our major donors, individual people, are sort of big known. majority of our funding comes from those foundations. host: what are you promoting? what issues are important to this progressive demos grip? guest: it is an exciting moment right now and our country. demos was founded to address issues of inequality in our democracy and economy. we mean the fact that it is hard

for a regular working family to be heard, and the issues that keep them up at night are not the issues that are front and center across the country, and the fact that it is really hard for a regular working family to get ahead financially. we think those things are interrelated. we think the public policy plays a role in making sure there is a fair shot for everyone and that there is an equal voice for everyone. we are really trying to drive a when,ory at this moment frankly, a lot of people on the left and right are saying, i'm not sure about the solutions and stories. we are a new generation. demos is sort of a younger public policy generation and we're looking for new solutions. when we use the word progressive, i think today that means things like get free public college for all, which is an old idea. things like expanding social security to make sure that it is

making up for the fact that, unlike my grandparents, my generation is not going to have a defined benefit pension on the job. in manylutions that are ways responding to the economic america, people in saying we need to rebuild the ladders of opportunity, and saying we probably will not be up to do that until we clean up washington and address the issue of money and politics. and we have to make sure everybody can vote, no matter their class, age, that ground, their work schedules. how: demos action fund, much money have you raised, and how are you spending that? are you supporting hillary clinton? guest: we have not endorsed any candidate here it we do not think it is necessary. we do not have a lot of ground troops. i do not know that they need our endorsement. but it is clear that the

research ideas we promote, the public policy solutions we have been reloading, particularly in this election cycle, money and politics, we want to see solutions from candidates. for example, small dollar matched public financing that has been hillary clinton. this idea for returning to debt-free public college. we would love to see republicans picking up that idea because it is a very common sense idea. wentone in congress through college at a time when it was debt-free and people could work 10 hours a week at a summer job. the public pay for it. reaction to get your on donald trump reaching out to black voters and telling than the democratic party has not been good for them. mr. trump: we reject the bigotry of hillary clinton that talks down to communities of color,

and sees them only as votes. that is all they care about. not as individual human beings worthy of a better future. they have taken advantage. [applause] aboutes not care at all the hurting people of this country, or the suffering she meaninged them, and she , she and her party officials. there has been tremendous suffering because of what they have brought. the african-american community has been taken for granted for decades by the democratic party, and look how they are doing. it is time to break with the pharaohs of the past -- the failures of the past. i want to offer americans a new and better future. it is time for rule by the people, not rule of the special interests which we have right now. host: heather mcghee?

donald trump is a fantastic marketer. and everything he just said, your head has to nod. it is true that officials have taken advantage and an american families are struggling because of decisions -- and african-american families are struggling because of decisions made in washington. absolutely right. want any idease -- there was not any ideas about what would make a difference. we do a lot of research into the issues that really affect what we call the new american -- working-class folks, people of color, immigrants and their descendents. is thethe major issues

racial landscape. issue of whove gets to be and stay middle-class. very discriminatory policy of who can get mortgages, on what neighborhoods the government will ensure, racial segregation and discrimination in housing, up until the 1980's and 1990's, the bipartisan is where donald trump is right. to curb favor with curbstreet and big banks the roles were brokers and lenders can target families who otherwise would qualify for good, affordable loans. they were steered multiple times over as compared to white families into the subprime loans that ended up being an exploded

toaster in your home. during the recession, all families were suffering, but particularly african-american and latino families lost about half of their wealth. half of their wealth. it goes with the rules that made it easier to get loans, but more expensive and dangerous to get those kinds of loans just at the time when african-american families were finally being able to own their piece of the american dream. it was a bipartisan decision. now, whichn is right party is more focused on making up for that kind of loss? clearly, the democratic party right now. i would love to see republicans leading on saying they want to have a homeownership target, 50% for african-american families right now. --ican-american families

because they don't have that little leg up, lots of families can say my grandparents can give me a $10,000 investment. when your grandparents were living in the segregated south, they don't have that $10,000. it is time for the country to get serious about that. host: let's go to tennessee. greta. yes as a person who is a libertarian, i am very impressed with your progressive viewpoints and theories. the question i have is if mr. obama is as progressive as he claims to be, then why isn't there a black woman on the supreme court?

[captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2015] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] >> good afternoon. welcome to the town hall form with senator cardin. my name is robin clark and i research director, and also

their liaison to the national cities and counties. i would like to ask all audience members to please turn off your cell phones, or turn them to vibrate. tot is a courtesy not only our speaker, but also to those sitting around you. it is now my honor to introduce you to matt chase, the executive director of the national association of counties, which is the lead county organization on capitol hill. [applause] matt: good afternoon. come on, we have to get ready for sarah cardin. my name is matt chase and i am executive director for the national association of counties and it is a real honor to be here to moderate this townhall with u.s. senator ben cardin who is an exceptional leader. i am looking for to introducing him in a second.

i would like to thank the commissioner for his great leadership and my colleague michael sanderson who does a great job as it executive director for the maryland association of counties. the senator will be talking about a wide range of issues that the u.s. sentiment -- u.s. senate and congress are doing and u.s. county officials are dealing with these same issues. i often get asked, what does the national association work on? z.ay domestic policy a to zika.can say asphalt to we invest $500 billion a year in our communities. we have 3.6 one million employees across the country and we own and operate 46% of the roads, 40% of the bridges and owned 1000 hospitals. you do it all every day and you oversee it. the senator in his leadership

role deals with many of the same issues. we are looking forward to hearing him today. i introduce him, i just want to say, if you listen to the national media, it sounds like there is not much going on in washington. i can promise you there is a great deal going on. our list between now and the end of this congress is incredibly lengthy. you have the appropriations process that really impacts county government. you have some issues that the senate and the house that is still with the opioid crisis and we want to implement that. they finish the transportation bill, which was the first time in years that we have a long-term deal. the senator was instrumental in restoring over $3 billion for local government infrastructure improvements. the previous bill had shifted that money to the state and were able to reallocate some of that money back down towards the local levels. communities --

we are trying to overturn it because it is a huge burden on the county jails. the senator has plenty to talk about. he is a third generation maryland or and is dedicated his life to public service. leader ontional health care and the environment, and has a very prestigious role on the senate floor relations committee that has more and more ties into cyber security and our nation's security. he works on the apartment and the list goes on. it is an honor to introduce your senator, senator cardin. [applause] sen. cardin: matt chase, thank you for your national leadership on behalf of our counties. i come here first to say we are in this business together.

we have the same mission. and that is to use all the tools at our disposal to help the people of our communities. and we want to work together as a federal official with our county officials, state officials, local officials. i start by saying thank you because it is not an easy time to serve in public life. and you all are helping our communities and you are willing to step forward. so thank you. i also bring you greetings on behalf of your federal congressional delegation. have --at because we do der.o have team maryland she has been an incredible advocate for maryland in our country and she has a great legacy she will be leaving to maryland in our nation. she will be sorely missed in the next congress. the realities that we need to move forward.

i will become the senior center in january. in that capacity -- i will become the senior senator in january. in that capacity, it is my intent to continue the strong leadership and use every tool we have in order to deal with the challenges we have from the chesapeake bay to employment opportunities to health care problems, diction problems, to dealing with transit issues, all those issues, we will work together as team maryland. one of the reasons i enjoy being toe is it gives me a chance get a long list of deeds we have out there. i just finished a meeting with the mayor of ocean city. he gave me a list he wants me to present, not just to worcester county, but to berland. there is a long -- but to maryland. there is a long list of issues we want to deal with. wegress is in recess and

will be in session for three weeks before we take another recess for the elections. then we will be returning shortly after the november elections. i want to talk a little bit about what i hope congress will do a september and what we will do before the end of the year. and we will invite your questions. when congress is in recess, a give me a chance to get around maryland and to visit. i always enjoy a town hall forum because it is your agenda, what you want to hear. we did this two years ago at the conference and we had a really enjoyable exchange of ideas and questions and information. -- ilease be understand look for to your questions, but i am a united states senator, and i can talk a while. some of thestart by

visits i have had during the past week. of then silver springs tragic side of the explosion that took place in the community. what a tragedy. withe had conversations the victims of that particular episode. how can the federal government help? with federal agencies on the ground. we have teams on the ground, national safety transportation board and agencies on the ground and we want to make sure they are working with it local county officials, and they are. to thank the federal workers there from all over the country that are helping the people of montgomery county. we also have other issues we are going to need to deal with. issues of dealing with immigration papers that may require federal congressional help. that is the type of cooperation of trying to get these people

back to housing and to meet their needs. a loss of seven lives. we followed that closely. i was in ellicott city, and i must tell you, the devastation that was caused by that heavy rainfall. it was the flooding conditions, but it wasn't because the river elevation increased, it was because of the heavy volume of water coming down main street and the devastation caused. -- and the devastation it caused. we meet your federal team was on the ground before the declarations were made. they were there looking at where they could help in dealing with the challenges of trying to relocate. this is main street america, small businesses. this is the mainstream of our economy. we need to be there to help. and to help the governments do

with the infrastructure challenges. we had fema there. we had our team on the ground working with the county. working with maryland to do everything we can as team maryland to the people of ellicott city. ands just in hagerstown solve very meeting with county officials in dealing with rural health care needs. and there are challenges in rural health care needs. what can we do to deal with the workforce issues? i have had several roundtable discussions in regards to the crisis of heroin and opioid addiction in america. this is a crisis in every community in america. no community is exempt. and the numbers continue to grow at alarming rates. what can we do to deal with this crisis? the roundtable discussion i had

i thought was helpful and gave us additional information that we need. at the national level, we passed a comprehensive act and passed it in this congress. and that provides different ways to get the stakeholders engaged in dealing with this crisis. from our schools and educating young people about the risk factors to the medical community using different methods to deal with pain. four out of five carolyn addicks -- four out of five heroine addicts started with research and -- started with prescription drugs. we have to see how we can work with law enforcement. and we desperately need more facilities in our community 24/7. county, youchester have such a facility thanks to the generous help of individuals, but we should be able to have facilities like that available in all our

committees and we are working to provide that funding. i had a chance to meet on economic development issues. we are working on the development act. -- we are working on that bill. a part of which is the chesapeake bay and dealing with how we deal with wastewater and runoff water. every meeting i had with the roundtable, more resources are needed to deal with a local issues with clean water. we are working on that. port issues.ajor i had a chance to talk to the bury so thatia is more than an import port instead of an export port. fact thattioned the

we were able to pass an authorization act that is very important. we are taking advantage of it and we did preserve the taft program. thank you for alluding to that. cochran,ith senator local control over money so you can do what you need to do in your county without having to always go through the state. because you know best what can be done to enhance your quality of life in your own communities. and the taft funds give you the chance to do exactly that. we expended that program and that has now has had a your authorization. there are some of the things we have been able to get done. i was meeting with some of the educators, the every child succeed act, and we have found the right balance on how to deal with accountability on pre-k-12. so we have made progress in this

congress, but we return after labor day with a very heavy agenda that we need to get done. and we need to get it done. tost and foremost, we need pay up the budget. the good news is that we have a level that has been agreed to on a two-year budget, so we should be in too much -- so we shouldn't be in too much of a level of appropriation. it is not helpful to you to work under a continuing resolution when you are trying to deal with programs that go beyond just one or two months. you need to know that the federal partnership will be here. fiscal year begins october 1 and we need to get a budget done in september that gives you predictability that your federal partner will be there to help you. so, we want to get a budget done. but we also need to pass an emergency appropriation act. on zika.o do that

zika desperately needs additional resources in order to develop a vaccine that will keep us safe because we are being told by experts that the virus that we are experiencing in america today, zika, is not a one-time only shot. it is going to be here. and we need to keep people safe. the results of the zika virus can be catastrophic. here,w that it is already and we know that people have already been impacted by the virus. we need to provide the resources to fund the work being done at nih to keep america safe. they are very optimistic that they will be able to develop a vaccine, but we want to make sure it is done in a timely way to save lives in our country. that is one thing we need to get done.

the other thing on an emergency appropriation that needs to be done is the funding of the drug addiction issues, the care act. we passed the bill, but we did not put any money into it. when we look at how we are going to deal with drug addiction in our community, one of the things that becomes clear is to need an integrated, collaborative mental health addiction health care model. that is when you go to an emergency room at 2:00 in the and they takeod care of keeping you alive, if they don't have the ability at 2:00 in the morning to do the follow-up as to how you're going to get your life back to where it needs to, if the treatment you need, the program in place, that person will be returning to the hospital unfortunately shortly thereafter on another od , causing the system a lot of money and causing that person's his life or her life.

that is what we have to break and requires additional resources that will save us money in the health care system. but we have to put in that investment and we are hoping to get that done in an emergency bill in september. we have a lot of work to be done in the three weeks when we return in september. and i know that our whole team is going to be focused on trying to get that done. i am not 90's. we are in the -- i am not naive. we are in the middle of an election. everything i talked about should not be a partisan decision. onhad a strong partisan addiction and zika. there is strong support to make sure we have robust funding for infrastructure and america. let's get together in september.

let us put aside the election for three weeks and get a budget done, and deal with these emergency issues that are out there. may be aat even pass water resources development act. passed and in the environmental public works by a near unanimous vote. there is no reason we cannot get that bill done in the september session. there are things we can get done to give you better predictability and where we are going as a nation. i just want to open this up for questions. i like the format of answering your questions. but i want to thank the people of maryland. it is a real privilege to represent them in the united states senate. this is a great state. every time i get to travel around here, i realize and appreciate the beauty of all regions of maryland. at the county level, you are the closest to the people. you know the problems in your community better than any other.

it is so important that we work together as a team. we like to have these policies developed from the local communities up. that was very clear last night and the healthy water roundtable that we had, and we need to do that more. i am very interested in the chesapeake bay. i spent a lot of time to make sure everyone is engaged. we are making progress. we riesling got some good news from the oyster restoration issue and working very closely to make sure we have a robust federal investments in maryland and in our nation. it is an honor to represent you in the united states senate. i always look for the first break person who is ready to get up and ask a question. what is on your mind? >> i will be that brave person. my name is melinda and i'm from the great city of mount rainier,

maryland. all right. start over. thank you. ok. it is working. i will be that brave person. am the is melinda and i mayor of the great city of not rainier. -- great city of not rainier, maryland. i wanted to get my question in today. i want to ask the question with regard to that very subject. what is being done, and i know that there is an act on the books that has to deal with, and i wrote it down so i could get it right, ending racial profiling. where is that in where does that stand? cardin: thank you for the question. in maryland, we have seen

horrible episodes and loss of life in our prayers go out to the families who have been impacted. we want to have the right type of policing in our community. we also admire the men and women who are first responders and law enforcement. the overwhelming majority that do their work every day in a professional manner to keep us safe. thetragedies that have been fallen are law enforcement have been outrageous. one in which we had to pay a great deal of collective community attention to make sure that does not happen in america. but we have seen too many episodes where we have seen the consequences of just unprofessional policing. it has turned community against law enforcement. surely, after the freddie gray tragedy, i visited the town and i met with a lot of leaders who i know. theywere telling me that

thought it was difficult to work with the police because they did not think the system was fair. even though someone broke the law in their community, they did not know if they wanted that person in a criminal justice is to because it would not be treated fairly. there was this mistrust between our police department and the community. that cannot continue. blakestephanie rawlings in the delegation requested an investigation in baltimore. that was just recently completed. some significant, historical problems we have had in policing and baltimore. the good news is that the leadership of the baltimore city police department understands that report and accepts it, and is now working to implement what needs to be done. the good news is that communities want to establish the right relationship between the communities and police, and

they are working with us. and we will have a consent order in baltimore that will implement the findings. , allll require all of us elected officials from the baltimore city to the state of maryland to the federal, to provide a wherewithal and tools so that baltimore and all communities could have adequate policing. the one thing we need to do is what you brought up first, and that is, racial profiling must end in america. it is counterproductive, it is costly, and it can be deadly [applause] so before the trayvon martin tragedy, i introduced a bill to end racial profiling. racial profiling is when you do policing, not based upon individual information about a crime committed. that is not racial profiling. the when you target a community because of its race or ethnicity and they get special treatment.

period for too long of a of time, when you were a minority in certain communities, you would be stopped. it was wrong. if you talk to minority communities and they have how many people who have been subject to arbitrary stops in their vehicles, you know that we have a problem. we have to end that problem. my legislation would end that effectively at the national, state and auxiliary level because we need to get it done. i've also introduced the baltimore act that deals with some of the other issues that we need to deal with. some of the sentencing is moving forward. too many nonviolent criminals are discriminatory and we are looking at how we could have more sensible guidelines. democrats and republicans are working together on

usntry programs, not one of have gone through life without a second chance and we have to be open to allowing -- too many of our citizens are being denied the opportunity to return to our community in a way they can be productive. do,e are things we can restore voting rights, we have done that in maryland. there are things we're working on that we think it can make a follow-up to what happened. >> thank you. i want to address marijuana use. i'm not a proponent of marijuana. i don't smoke, i never have.

my concern is, i get a contact high if i smell marijuana 150 feet away. i've heard no concerns about individuals like me, and there are many of us, who get contact high. happens when, what i get stopped by a police officer and i have not smoked marijuana, and i'm high. how do i justify and what are you all doing about helping individuals like me to overcome it? the legalized use of marijuana is now being debated and acted on on a state level, including maryland and some states have gone further than maryland has gone on the legal use of marijuana.

federalism is about our states initiating policies, we see how it works, and we see if we need a national law to deal with these issues. it's premature to determine whether there will be a national law on this or not. at this moment we will wait to see how colorado and other states are responding. but the point you raised is a point.lid secondary smoke can be deadly. have acted counties by county ordinances. we have state and federal laws to protect to the non-smoking public. we're always interested if there are greater protections that are needed to protect the majority of people today who don't smoke and find it as a health risk to be near a smoking environment. places, rarely are you

allowed to smoke today. workplace areas, most employers have provided safety for their employees. if we need to do more, we will listen and try to protect those from the smoking environment. >> katie nash from frederick county. my question has to do with homelessness. in frederick county we have a lot of great assets. we have a county executive that gets it, robin that gets it. my question has to do with hud funding. hud made a shift a couple years ago into putting folks into immediate housing. my question has to do with, what can we do in maryland to accelerate those practices that hud has said they want to move forward with, and how can we get more of those resources in maryland? senator cardin: thank you. i know there's been incredible

efforts made by officials in regards to affordable housing, dealing with not only those who are homeless, but those who are desperate for affordable housing . we made special efforts on behalf of target populations, like veterans groups. we have particular programs to deal with homeless veterans that are separately funded. we also have separate programs for people who have been victimized to make sure they are protected, to deal with domestic abuse. we have separate programs that can provide housing in regards to people who are desperate because of the domestic threats that exist. there are special programs that are out there. a general points. if you look at the public support for affordable housing, it's been a diminishing pie over a long period of time.

the largest tools we have the low incomeds housing tax credit that provides affordable housing, and we have bipartisan support to strengthen that law, and we did that in this congress and i hope we will continue to strengthen the federal tools that are available so we can have a stockpile of affordable housing in this nation, because market rates don't work for a lot of people. we are looking for ways to provide that. the problem of people who are homeless is not as simple as having an affordable house. there are multiple issues usually involved, and we have to be able to provide those comprehensive services so people don't have to live on the street. in the wealthiest nation in the world, we should not have homeless people on the street. far too many, there are alternatives that could have been available that we have not used all the tools we have to accomplish that.

a partnership, not only with the federal government and counties and states, it also involves the private sector and we need to find ways to make it more effective so we don't have homeless people in our community. thank you for what you are doing locally. >> cecil county council. -- iw you are an advocate was in a meeting -- you convened a meeting of the environment and public works committee in june 2014, of which army corps of engineers was present. you heard a lot of briefings on the possibility of dredging all that sediment behind that dam that is essentially polluting the chesapeake bay and defeating all the efforts they epa is trying to impose on surrounding states to clean up that bay. has been issued to find solutions. at what point are you involved

currently and what are you isnning to do once that rfi made public and the state comes back to say, how can you help us with federal funding to clean up this major source of pollution in chesapeake bay? senator cardin: the health of the chesapeake bay is one of my top priorities. role in the environment of public works committee, that has jurisdiction over the bay, so i've had a great deal of opportunities to try to strengthen the partnership. we have special attention to the chesapeake bay and the farm bill. programs thatant help our community organization and doing their part to clean up the chesapeake bay. on oyster the leader restoration and we've seen significant improvements on the oyster population on the bay. delicious andare

they are providing a crash -- cash crop, but it's important for the quality of the water in the chesapeake bay. extra money put into the oyster restoration program. this week we know that money is being released. we are very happy about that, that we will have that in maryland. you raise a very important issue . the susquehanna river is the largest source of fresh water that comes into the chesapeake bay watershed. it starts up in new york and comes through. we have 3 dams located on the susquehanna. one gets the most attention. it is one of the largest power sources in the east coast of the united states. it's a major source of power in our community.

it is now going through licensor. part of the issue is how do you handle the environmental impact. there's major concern because you are correct, the sentiment on the upside of the dam is at maximum capacity. during storms, you get a surge of sediment that goes over the dam and makes its way into the chesapeake bay. sediment is a significant polluter of the bay. it's a significant issue. what the studies are showing is what is the best way to manage that. there's different views. we want the best science to judge what we should do. is it better to do what some say itdynamic equilibrium, or is better to drag and remove and allow it to refill naturally rather than using the surge that causes the sediment to move forward? we want this to be based on

this fromnd we want the local community up. the chesapeake bay program has been accessible because all stakeholders are at the table. we want to make sure that continues. we need the farmers, including the farmers of the eastern shore who feel they are being impacted by what is being done in the susquehanna. we need everyone together as we come off with a solution. corps, this is national permitting. there's a lot of connections to the federal delegation. it's on our radar screen. we assure you of that. >> thank you for being here today. if you couldng touch a bit on what congress is doing national level for cyber security. senator cardin: let senator

mikulski know that was not intentional, leave that out. maryland is the cyber security center of the universe. the work done at fort meade and ,yber command located there work done at the center of excellence, at the university of maryland, as a private companies located here in ciber, and you can go to almost anyone of our communities in maryland, they are growing in the cyber field. it's one of the areas in which there are increased resources being made available to deal with the threat of cyber. every day we are being attacked. every day we are being attacked by criminals who are stealing. i don't think there is a person in this room who hasn't experienced a problem with identity theft, somebody in their family own a credit card. they are stealing money, they are stealing intellectual property, they are stealing every day.

and companies are being violated and some of them don't even know it. or they know it and they don't want to tell us about it. we have cyber criminals. soldiers outcyber there. these are agents of other countries that are trying to compromise america, trying to compromise our system, to embr arrass america, to take advantage of us and our open society, and they are actively engaged. there's been open reports about what russia is doing, about what china is doing. and there are other countries that are trying to compromise america and in some respects trying to understand our national defense so they can compromise our national defense. this is pretty serious stuff. whoe's also cyberterrorists are trying to cause terrorism through cyber in america, to

bring down our financial grid, to bring down our energy grid, our transportation grid. cyber security is one of our top right parties. i have introduced an amendment to make the cyber command a full military command, comparable to our regional command structures within dod. we think it needs that type of attention. we will continue to provide the resources so america, which already is the best in developing technology to deal onh cyber threats, worked many of these facilities are great, but we've got to be better at it. we've got to get more confidence between the private and public sector on sharing information. there is some concern about that. we also need to recognize that

anmaryland, we have incredible economic opportunity for business growth, for cyber. maryland can lead the country and providing a mission critically important for america's future. >> good afternoon. prince george's county. mention senator mikulski concerning the cyberspace. she's been integral to the state of maryland, in particular prince george's county. what will life be like after senator mikulski? senator cardin: senator mikulski has been our united states senator for 30 years. she served before that in the house of representatives. we had jen gardner here who probably knows senator mikulski as well as anyone know senator mikulski. she's been an inspiration. i can tell you that her legacy is represented in the women united states senators currently in the senate. all will tell you they learn so much from senator mikulski, how

they could be better united states senators. we can show you what has been done in health care in america. senator mikulski has been personally responsible. we can show you what has been done, our program that senator mikulski is taking strong leadership on. life without senator mikulski -- we are going to lose a person with a proven record on leadership and getting results. i have my own views as to who should fill that seed, but this is a nonpartisan event so i won't tell you who i think it should be. -- i would only recognize my colleagues anyway, who have been walking in at the right time. [laughter] we are going to move on. has already met

with me on what we call handoff issues as to what we need to do to make sure wallace gets the support it needs to continue its critical functions in this community. we've already talked about what we will do at nih, on the funding issues. we've already met to talk about areas from the manufacturing to transportation. we are going to carry on. it will be my responsibility to make sure that team maryland uses all of its members of the congressional delegation, its 8 members of congress working with governor hogan, working with the state team, working with the county officials, working with the municipal officials, that we carry on in the tradition of senator mikulski and team

maryland. >> with the ever rising number despiteose deaths, billions of dollars spent by law enforcement and maximum effort with the treatment modalities we currently have, can you please talk about what congress is doing to foster basic research and understanding why certain people are more susceptible to addiction, the interrelationship between mental health problems and addiction, and better ways of treating chronic pain that don't involve the risk of opioids? thank you. anator cardin: we saw in four-year period, the number of od deaths in maryland rose by about 4 times. we saw in the first three months of this year equaling all of last year.

we haven't hit the worst numbers yet. we're still seeing a larger number of cases of people who are od and on drugs. here's the cycle we have seen. you can't understand the cycle before you can stop it. we've seen 200,000 marylanders who today are using prescription drugs for nonmedical reasons. the number of pills that are on the street that were acquired through prescription and are not being used for medical is in the millions. flood of prescription drugs being used illegally in our community. heroint of five addiction started with some sort of prescription drugs. he became too expensive. her when it's cheaper and easier to get.

here's the problem. we now have synthetic drugs being produced that is far more potent and dangerous mixed in with the heroine so that individuals who thought they could handle heroine are finding out -- they end up in the emergency rooms because they are using the synthetic drug, usually coming in from asia. what we need to do is work on all these levels, work with the medical community so we have alternatives for how they handle primarly pain. dispensed. being alternative ways of handling pain other than using opioids. better training for health care professionals so they understand the risk factors. part of it is education for children.

some of this is better law enforcement. we heard an example of a doctor ao comes here and becomes drug dealer. we've got to take those people of the street. we have drugs coming in from asia. we have a drug network that comes in through the south. got to put away those people who are causing the problem. post people who have been victimized, we've got to get them the help that they need so they constrain themselves out. i'm not a health care professional. i don't have all of the background. i'm being told by health care professionals that it takes years to get someone back totally on the right track. you can't do this by telling the person you've got to follow this course and assume that person can do it on his or her own. can't be done. they are going to need counseling and help for a long period of time to get them where

they need to be an we've got to provide them the resources to do that. it will be less expensive for us to do that. it will cost us less money if we provide that help. i've introduced the collaborative care model for mental health and addiction, which says let's provide reimbursement for health care triage for mental health and drug addiction in our hospital emergency rooms and our primary care offices, so they can provide the ongoing care that we need. i can't tell you how many law enforcement officers or hospital people i've met who say, a person comes in at 2:00 in the morning, what do we do with them? this nothing open. -- there's nothing open. we have to send him home. this is a crisis. it's in every community in maryland and the nation.

this is not an issue and low income or ethnic communities only. this is in everyone of our communities and we have to do a better job of countering this crisis. thank you. [applause] am being told -- if i might, i've been around for the last day talking to many of you. you give me great encouragement. up with greatming ways to handle problems. i just met with a person here at ocean city who's the main sponsor for this 24/7 program to deal with drug addiction. differences making a for the people in worcester county. i've met with some of the county officials today and what they are doing for their high school

students going on to community college, they are making a difference. you all are making a difference every day in the lives of people of your community by the work you are doing. as dr. king said, each one of us is here for a reason. each one of us can make a difference. collectively, we can bring about real change. we are fortunate to represent people in maryland who really get it. you give me great optimism about our future. thank you for giving me this opportunity. [applause] >> on behalf of the maryland association of counties and the 24 counties across the state, and want to thank you for your incredible remarks. i can tell you he's an exceptionally brilliant, to cover theer diversity of issues he covered today is incredible. i want to make a couple of comments to wrap up here.

on cyber security we had a meeting this morning with the house committee on cyber and elections. now the cyber attacks are interfering with our nation's elections. the opera eight, heroine issue, the national association of counties will have our second task force meeting on city-county collaboration around this crisis and the anne arundel county executive serves on that task force, to put it into perspective, we now have more deaths through drug overdose in highway fatalities. the betweenugs, hair when an opioids, are over 18,000. opioids, are over 18,000. buffalo, new york had 17 deaths in one day through the sentinel -- being laced in the heroin. on zika, the florida association of counties will be here this

afternoon to talk about that. on the opioids, what we are finding, our counties are declaring a public health emergency. law enforcement is the one telling us at the national level, we can't arrest her way out of it and we have to look at a comprehensive solution to public health. i want to thank carson van hollen for attending, and our good friends at c-span for broadcasting today's presentation. thank you for all of your participation. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016]

senator cardin: a lot of this is changing the training in the medical community. they have a responsibility here. i know you are a lot of pressure once somebody has pain. but they don't have total clean hands here. [inaudible] it's not an easy issue. >> you look good, my friend. good to see you.

>> always good to see you. i just wanted to stop and say hello. >> peter, thank you. >> i know every county applied for federal dollars and that is what is driving so much of the initiative where trying to do and be at the forefront of anne arundel county. anything you can do to help all of our counties to try to get

funding down to try to support this, because we are looking for anything we can do. we are doing our overdose sos program, where we are putting upport people into the hospitals and making the connections with people as they come in, before they walk out, to try to connect them with treatment. we are showing incredible success in doing that. we are looking forward to making that a pilot program veven further in the county -- that spreads even further in the county.

[inaudible]