>> we know you would be here for us. glad you are not playing golf. >> mr. trump! >> mr. trump, thank you!

>> mr. trump. >> this makes it all worthwhile. >> we love you! >> we knew you would be here. >> here's my business card.

>> how you doing? >> thanks for your work. [inaudible] >> thanks for all your hard work. >> you have never had floods before, never had floods '-- never had floods? 2016, c-spangn

continues on the road to the white house. >> we need serious leadership. this is as real as it gets, not a reality tv show. we will make america great again. thehead, coverage of residential and vice presidential debates on c-span, the c-span radio app. september 26 is the first presidential debate live from half the university. tuesday, october 4, vice president two candidates debate at longwood university in virginia. 9, theber 29, -- october second presidential debate, leading up to the third and final break between hillary clinton and donald trump taking place on october 19. live coverage of the presidential and vice debates on c-span.

listen live or watch anytime on demand at c-span.org. >> earlier today, the head of a methodist missionary group talked about his personal experience surviving me stumble airport attack in june. -- the istanbul airport attack. mr. hodes: welcome to the national press club. i am the moderate of this morning's newsmaker press conference -- the moderator of this morning's press conference. at the istanbul ataturk airport was thomas kemper, the ceo of the united methodist church, was in a lounge when freemen arriving from a taxi -- when

three men writing from a taxi began shooting in the airport. they blew themselves up. this was another in a series of terror attacks in turkey in the past year. according to the new york times, kurdish and islamic state militants have staged attacks across turkey killing more than 280 people. thomas kemper, our speaker today, says the events that he witnessed and survived has become transformative for him personally. his moments with other survivors of the attack, people of many nationalities and cultures, has brought renewed determination to connect with people of all faiths and nationalities and examine what it means to be human, to be understanding and , to care about strangers who want to feel safe and want to be able to live their own lives. it is this moment of transformation and a 2% of -- and a lasting sense of importance of the dedication he

brings to life he will be , discussing this morning. just a few procedural notes as i turn the floor over to mr. kemper, please remember to turn your cell phone to mute. once mr. kemper has completed his remarks, i will open the floor to questions. priority will go to credentialed media and national press club members, so when you are called to pose a question, please identify yourself by name and organization. mr. kemper? mr. kemper: good morning and thank you for this opportunity to speak to you. i am grateful for the journalists. the experience in istanbul has changed my view of journalists. it started that night with anderson cooper and the way he interviewed, the possibility to not just give some background of what happened and eyewitness reports, but also to be able to express something i felt inwardly, and also as a person of religious faith. it is exciting to be here.

why was i in istanbul? really i was there on a layover. , there is nothing more dramatic to it. visit't even there to some of our partners. i was there because i had a layover on the way to japan, and i had chosen to fly a turkish airline that had brought me. that was the reason i was there. but i am traveling a lot, you can see on the map, global ministries is the mission and development and disaster response arm of united methodist church. we have projects in 125 countries, we have over 350 missionaries. traveling and being at airports is part of my daily life. global ministries understands as humanitarian network, a network of global health, global mission connections around the world. to give you some highlights of our work, very briefly so you understand the context of where

i come from, here this is a picture from the kurdistan region of iraq. the united methodist committee on relief, we work to supply food to give to internally displaced people in iraq from iraq war. this work is being done together with the international blue crescent, the muslim partnership of the international red cross, based in turkey. another example of our work is in bangladesh. here you see the first result for recovery work of the cyclone -- after the cyclone there. these children are now able to go back to school on this path which was constructed. here, our partner is muslim-aid. you have partnerships with other faith organizations, especially in countries where it would be or difficult as a christian organization to be present and be in solidarity, especially after disasters.

one big initiative of united methodist church in the last year was what we called imagine no malaria a campaign to raise , funds. we have raised $69 million for fighting deaths from malaria around the world. what is important for us is that we are not doing this alone. we have partnered with a global fund in geneva to fight malaria. -- to fight aids, tb, and malaria. $28 million of the funds we have anded, we have pledged, much has been given to the global fund. we cannot do this alone. if we are not connected, we cannot build partnerships and it is not working. we were blessed to have the u.n. foundation and the melinda and bill gates foundation to give us a start up for this campaign. so far from our side, we have impacted 4.6 million lives for -- lives through net distribution, training of

midwives, community health workers, especially in africa. and we are now moving this campaign into the next step where we hope to reach one million children with life-saving interventions. as part of a worldwide campaign, the u.n. calls it "every woman, every child," reducing child mortality. this is part of the sustainable development goals that the world community has agreed on. we want to do our part in this effort. we hope to reach one million children with life-saving interventions, remote cures-feeding, promote and prevent childhood diseases. in order to be an organization that helps someone else, we recognize the health challenges and issues here, right here in the united states.

as part of the campaign, we are challenging our churches that we find 10,000 churches in the next four years that sign-up and are ready to engage in some health-related work and ministry in their community, and their neighborhood where the church is situated. it could be a physical activity, healthy diet and nutrition, tobacco and drug-free living, or issues around mental health, education, and mental health promotion. if you only look at this one number here about obesity. it has risen two times in children and four times in adolescents in the united states in the last 30 years. so we have serious health issues also in this country, especially for children and young people. as part of our work, we have missionaries, and i wanted to be very clear, these missionaries may look very different of what

traditional people still think missionaries are. a minority today are from the united states. we have a program in the congo with our united methodist church where we have an aviation ministry. several planes, small cessna planes, which could reach any part of the congo and fly medical supplies, they do evacuation missions, and are an essential part of the ministry of the church. they are maintained by the missionaries of global ministries. back to this fateful day in june in istanbul. as i said, i was on a layover. rest i was just there to at this airport and here you see , the lounge. this is a picture i took when everyone had left already come after the attack in that part. the lounge is a place of safety. you go there and you feel much calmer.

i was stretched out. i had taken off my shoes. and i was sleeping, waiting for my next flight. while i was sleeping, suddenly i heard this blast, very loud, and then shooting. you don't think it is happening. at this moment, i really thought it is a film, it is a dream, nightmare. but then people started running by the bench where i was lying on, like in real panic. i did not think much, i just grabbed my shoes, i didn't put them on, i grabbed my bank, -- my bag, and started running as well. but then people came towards us from the other direction and we almost stumbled over each other and crashed into each other. and you can see this here, what really happened that we did not know at the moment, only later be found out, is that there were three bombs almost at the same time. it was not surprising in the

lounge where the red arrow is pointing, there was a bomb very close to us. when we started running away from it, we ran into the other direction with the other bomb had gone off. it created an incredible panic for all of us. and i was really scared. i think in the minds of , everybody, ok the bomb has gone off, the panic is there, but now they come for you. it is this image since orlando, since paris, which was in the mind of the people. where are these terrorists now? we have no information. we had no idea they were suicide bombers. we thought now, they come for us. this was a rumor where i was hiding -- behind the kitchen in the lounge. i found a little room. there was an asian man. we could not communicate, but we saw the fear in our eyes.

we were hiding in this room here and others -- there was a young man from france and he was there with his girlfriend. he grabbed a chair and banged it against the glass windows trying to get out because we were kind of trapped in that corner of the airport. everybody trying to hide. everybody trying to find a place to survive. i posted from there shortly after and that really started this whole media interest and conversations and the many opportunities to speak. what i said here was, "very scary, i am safe now, but terror coming so close. let me give thanks for my life, my family, and: to fight hate and terror everywhere." and it leads us into deeper solidarity with all who experience terror and violence not just once but every day and every night. that was really very deep inside

me that i felt, for me, at this moment, i was terribly scared, i panicked, i was doing things just out of instinct. i was terrified. but i thought, there are people who experience this every day and every night. i don't know if you had a chance to listen to the audio on the times," if you days ago from aleppo. if you hear this every day and every night, how can we be more solidarity with people who experience this every day, and not just once like in my case? and also as we were hiding and then being guided out of the airport into even more chaos outside, i met people who opened open -- who opened my eyes, how especially muslims are mostly victimized by this terrorist violence. i sent next to a young woman who

had a head scarf on. i would not have spoken to her but she cried so much. , she spoke some english and she told me, "you know, i am from istanbul. i was here only to see off a friend at the airport, but then the bomb went off and i started running into now i'm at the wrong side because they would not let people out without showing a passport. so it took hours and hours to leave the airport." so she was there on the wrong side because she started running and now she had no passport. she did not know what was going to happen in the midst of this chaos. i was with a young man who was sitting next to me and we started talking and i met his whole family and he was from egypt. he had just -- his family had visited him and he had finished his tourism studies in italy. a muslim family from egypt, scared and all of us wanted to , see our families again. all of us wanted to live in wanted to survive.

i felt an incredible connectedness with all of these people. as we moved out, we had to go through baggage claim, and really through the area where the area where the bombing had happened. we moved out and we passed the conveyor belts were people had left their luggage. they were not able to claim it. it is probably difficult to see it, but this is a flight from brussels. i could not believe it, there was these non-claimed suitcases and baggage from brussels, where the last attack happened. we had two of our directors from the board of global ministries from africa, they had made the connection that day in brussels and were stuck for a week. there was this connection to people who had gone through an experience like this.

right there when i saw the flight from brussels in the unclaimed baggage. outside, we were all put onto buses. it was extremely well-organized. that was extremely chaotic, but if you think what had just happened, with so many people injured, so many deaths, the chaos in the airport, the turkish authorities worked really hard to allow us to get to hotels. this was the bus i was traveling with and the two ladies in front see there,h you can we were together with their family and we started talking together about our shared experience. and you won't believe it, they were from holland and live as refugees in holland, were on their way to mogadishu in somalia. and the son was sitting next to me, who spoke good english, saying, what the heck? he could not believe it how this could happen to a somali in

istanbul. he said these terrorists are , attacking us everywhere. sittingfrom a somali there with me on the bus and we were traveling together to the hotel. and then, as i had said, this post led to a first interview on that night with anderson cooper on his "360" show one cnn. i was so interesting that tried to say that we needed to come together as people of faith and non-faith, if we really want to make a difference and overcome violence and terror and hate in this world. i got so many invitations to speak and to share this experience. and they opened up to share the -- share this from a perspective call to and from a share responsibility as leaders of faith. that night and the next 24

, hours, there were interviews with cnn al jazeera, bbc. for me, it was an opportunity to cope with the situation because i can talk about it, i could digest it. it opened a window to say, for say, we as people of faith have to stand together. we really have to share in our humanity and our shared humanity to work for difference. i got back to the lounge two days later, and when we look into what i have learned and what we want to do is an organization in the future, i came back to the lounge two days later because my flight to japan was gone, the meeting had ended, and i was going home. there was still traces of the

attack, the shattered glass, they had done an incredible job starting to repair and do everything, but you can still see the traces. i went back to the lounge and what was surprising to me, i did not feel secure. although everything looked like normal and people were working on their laptops, having breakfast, talking to each other , reading the newspaper, but i wanted to say to them, don't you here two happened nights ago? i feared for my life and that night i connected to so many people who were there. now, it is like if nothing had happened. i felt more lonely at that moment in the apparent security of that moment because i was not , able to connect at that moment. that led me to this thought i want to share with you. there are really two parts to safety, i feel.

one is a path through connection, and the other is a path through separation. and, i lived for many years in brazil. i was myself a missionary there. everybody could imagine that something like this could happen in brazil. violence is a daily experience for people there. this is a picture from brazil. gated communities, higher walls. i was there in the 1970's and it already started in the 1980's. every time i go back to brazil, the walls are higher, the security systems are more sophisticated, but it does not stop the violence. the separation is not able to transform the society into a safer place. brazil is an example of this. during our time of the crisis, -- of the ebola crisis, there

was an incident a few of you have read about. the liberian government in monrovia sealed off a whole slum area. a violent clash broke out which created even more cases because people fought each other. it only changed when the approach of the government changed from separation to illf course separating the and the disease, but in a way to keep them connected to society and in a way they can treat the complications. -- safetyperience through separation in this case can lead to more and not less violence. so, this experience in istanbul. we are walking out of the airport, this was right after the attack as we are waiting for the buses, thousands and thousands of people, this

feeling of being connected with so many different cultures and faiths and no faiths at all. which ito this quote found by brene brown, where she says, "motor ability is the birthplace of connection in the path to the feeling of worthiness, if it doesn't feel vulnerable, the sharing is probably not constructive." vulnerability is the birthplace of connection. could this be, for us, a path to safety? could this be a path to overcome hatred and violence if we are ready to share our vulnerability? if we are ready to share a vulnerability in order to connect across different faiths, across different cultures and countries?

during the ebola crisis, one very interesting experience was a joint task force of religious leaders. the chair was the bishop of united methodist church in sarah who wasin sierra leone , also vice president of our board. we were very intensely connected with this whole effort. religious leaders in sierra leone at that time came together because there was a need for technical responses. you didn't say suits -- you suits as a medical professional to be able to treat people. you needed to build hospitals from the ground with military help in order to treat patients. but it was equally important to work for behavioral change. for changing the burial rights.

it is extremely important, to touch the dead and to wash them and prepare them for burial was something that was done for generations with the blessing of the imams and the pastors. so to tell them not to do it -- to tell them to do it without the blessing of the religious leaders would not have been possible. leaders doing this together, preaching this together, was essential for combating ebola at that time. and, of course, you can see this in the picture. any time you meet an african in africa, you touch, you great, you hug. and you develop the whole culture of bowing and greeting people in a new way. the religious leader led to this momentum is really reduced the infection rate during these

months and time of ebola. another example i wanted to give is where we really found a good cooperation with a london-based muslim disaster relief and aid organization, muslim aid. , is is from sri lanka where think the example and the model of two-faith organizations from different faiths working together in a country that has gone through a long time of civil war between the north and se, and this outcome of which is bengalis -- and the bengalis, is an example which helps people to connect, and create an alignment in safety and reconciliation in a country like this. classic, as a german, allow me to mention an example that came to me since istanbul in a very

strong way. i would never have imagined in my lifetime that we would have a united germany. that is something until 1989, i would not have believed. everyone was working to keep a separate system. keeping was working on a separate. one cornerstone of unification, are chancellor who also won the nobel prize -- the east politic, famous slogan, change through approximation. he made gestures asking for forgiveness when he kneeled. he worked so there would be family exchange and travel, and wall became easier to cross.

this created an atmosphere which was an important stone of this building of trust that later broke down the wall and the iron curtain. he called it change through approximation. thisught it really was idea that we can create safety through connection, even in the larger political context. the church also struggles. the one hand,n naive, and also not very honest, if i didn't say that the united methodist church struggles with the question of separation and connection. the church in general struggles with the question of separation and connection. in many ways, on theological issues -- normally when i get on a plane, i grab some not using psy haven't had time to read.

this is the methodist recorder, the oldest methodist newspaper, and they call themselves the world's leading methodist newspaper. it is published in london since, . don't know, many many years they called it -- they had this title, "the need for vigilance." i thought, isn't that interesting? it is in response to the killing killing -- to the killing. and the statement is from the british methodist church , saying, we remind all of our churches of basic security measures, and of the need to be vigilant. however, our churches will continue to offer a warm welcome to all. and then the british government had just started two weeks ago a program for eight weeks where places of worship can apply for government grants to make places

of worship more secure. you can get an application from the u.k. guidance places of worship security funding scheme. i thought this was, in a way, ironic. securityruggle between being vigilant, and also our , desire to keep the church open and offer a warm welcome for all. another thing that happened early this week is in east congo, one of our district superintendents, kind of one of the local leaders of the united methodist church in that area, and his name is ezekiel martin. ezekiel lost his two sisters by an attack by an islamist uganda-based militia in east congo. this is ongoing for several months. over 500 people have been killed. east congo is probably one of the most violent regions in the world. thousands and thousands of women

have been raped as an instrument of war. thousands of people have been killed. just recently over 500 in this , region. and we had given a grant to the superintendent in this region to rebuild some of the churches and some of the work which is being done in the aftermath of these attacks. last week, he loses his two sisters in another attack from this islamic group. what do i tell him? you connect? his impulse is probably to separate. it is a challenge to make a connection in a situation where it is a matter of death and life, where you have experienced a terrorist attack. and still we believe, and i believe strongly, that we need to work towards connection. i still believe that, in the end, if you want to overcome hatred and violence, we have to open ourselves up to risk, being

vigilant, being cautious, but at the same time, taking the risk to connect, and taking the risk to build bridges and create the shared humanity with people who are different from us. the founder, one of the founders of the methodist movement, is and there are, many followers who we thank around the world today. other english-speaking christians and others believe in an advent as well. it starts like this, "come the long expected jesus born to set my people free, from our fears and our sins, release us. let us find our rest in thee. it is an expression and it is 300 years old. it is an expression of 300 years, we as methodist and

others leaving. believing in this hope that christ relieves us from our fears so we are open to take risks and open to build bridges, and that we create this community of people of faith and non-faith. to create a world where connection is key, not separation. from our fears and since, release us -- and sins, r ealease us. >> news earlier today that donald trump's campaign chairman, paul manafort, has submitted his resignation. reporterpolitical learn more about what was going on with the campaign. atat "washington post.com -- washington post.com, donald trump's shakeup shows a

candidate who has lost his way in the election. also, has donald trump hit bottom? all of this from the chief political correspondent for the western imposed. he is joining us on the phone. >> here we are and what we would consider the dog days of august and here we are with the trump campaign. >> let's talk about what donald trump did yesterday, another pivot where he used the word regret. this morning, news that paul manafort was stepping down. >> why is he leaving? >> earlier in the week, mr. trump elevated kelly and conway, a poster -- a pollster, to become the campaign manager, a

position that had been open since corey lewandowski left the campaign. in as chiefught executive of the campaign stephen bannon of breitbart news. and a this signal pollution in paul manafort's role in the campaign. i think the other contributing , there has just been intense scrutiny about the work that man afford had done over the years in ukraine on behalf of pro-russian forces. was, as eric trump said, a distraction. it did not seem to be slowing down. in fact, if anything, it was intensifying the. i think it was the combination of factors that brought this to an end and resulted in paul

manafort leaving the campaign. reporting, howr did this all unfold in the last 12-24 hours? >> we still trying to piece that together. , based onas though what we know, that man afford to role was reduced with bannon and now elevated. there was the new york times story on sunday about the in ukraine and then we had another very strong story of whatout more aspects paul manafort had done. i think it all just came to a head in the last 24 hours. i spoke to somebody today who had been in contact with man afford earlier in the week. at that point, it sounded as if paul manafort believed he would

stay in the campaign. it sounds as though there was some action over the last 36 hours that brought this to a finality. >> paul manafort, of course, has been a long time public in operative dating back to the foreign administration. you wrote about this on your book on the 2012 campaign how the candidates need to essentially build on their base and then expand the electorate. when paul manafort was brought on board, that seem to be one of the goals that paul manafort had. onit safe to say that based the developments today, the trump campaign is taking a different approach. >> that certainly is the speculation. i think it remains to be seen exactly what they are going to do. that,dications are because we know some of the history of stephen bannon, that he is a fighter and he wants to

stir things up, and he is antiestablishment. man afford is very much an establishment kind of republican. in a sense, the ability of those two views or people to coexist is questionable. kelly and conway is somebody who figureped republicans out how to be more appealing to female voters. this has always been a deficit for many republican candidates and a particular weakness of donald trump. we have to see how this begins to play out. certainly, paul manafort's were aimed at tempering donald trump style. donald trump made it clear that that was -- that he was not happy with that idea. when he did last night was a departure from what we have seen in the past. he has been totally resistant to expressing any regret about past

statements or actions, even sometimes when he admitted that they hadn't helped him or if they had heard him. -- lastuage last light night, which was in a speech that he read on a teleprompter suggested that at least he was prepared to say that. but, i talked to somebody today who said this was last night and this has to happen over a period of days and weeks for people will be certain that this reflects a true change in the style of his campaign. it is very possible that this will continue to be a campaign aimed primarily at negative attacks on hillary clinton. >> let me go back to your essay earlier this week. honest, notot it is october, but you write the following -- "the unraveling of donald trump's candidacy continues at pace. tryingwere deliberately to avoid winning the election, he could hardly do a better job." written last

weekend and i think all of the objective evidence played it in that direction. if you talk to people within the trump operation now, they would say that this has been one of their better weeks. take that with a grain of salt. a significant shakeup of their staff, and that is going to lead to some turmoil inside the operation, which is never good for a campaign. but their argument on this is gave a good speech on monday, on foreign policy. he gave a good speech on tuesday on law and order. he gave a speech thursday in which he expects to regret who thinks he had think -- he expressed regret for things in the past. today, he went to louisiana to see the impact on the flood victims, which hillary clinton has not done and president obama, who has been on vacation, has not done. they would suggest that they are on track in a way that suggests

greater stability on the part of the whole operation. 's chief political correspondent for the "washington post". >> we're just over one month from the first of three presidential debates. let's get a look at the schedule. it all starts off monday, september 26 at hofstra university. the second debate, sunday, october 9 at what many university in st. louis. wednesday, october 19 at the university of nevada las vegas. all at 9:00 eastern time. of course, always video on demand at c-span.org. just a little more than a couple of weeks left in the congressional summer break as the august days continue here.

the members are returning after labor day. we continue to follow members of the house and senate in their districts and states to see what they are up to. many holding town hall meetings with business leaders, touring organizations, schools. couple of tweaks here, one from route will release of california. he represents the 36th congressional district. that is that eisenhower medical center in rancho mirage. love, a republican from utah was meeting with hispanic business persons and tweeted this today -- that is the fourth district of utah.