and stuart rothenberg, founding member of the political report. washington journal is next. host: good morning. it's sunday, october 9. with just 30 days to go before election day, and just hours before the second presidential debate between hillary clinton and donald trump tonight at washington university in st. louis, we are seeing live coverage from the site of tonight's debate. right now, the days leading up to tonight's debate have been tumultuous for the republican nominee after the release of a video showing mr. trump making lewd, sexual remarks. yesterday, more than a dozen republican lawmakers, including arizona senator john mccain, withdrew their support. still, mr. trump, who

apologized for his remarks friday night, remained defiant yesterday, shooting down calls by some republicans for him to step down. meanwhile, hillary clinton has taken a low profile as she prepares for tonight's debate with the exception of a written statement she released, denouncing mr. trump's remarks. she will get the first question at tonight's town hall-style debate at washington university, which blizz us to today's question for our viewers. what is your top question for the candidates? those supporting donald trump can call 202-748-8001. hillary clinton supporters can call 202-748-8000. those supporting third-party candidates can call 202-748-8002. and undecided voters can call 202-748-8003. you can also reach us on social cspanwj, twitter, &

as well as on facebook at facebook.com/cspan. as we take your calls, asking what you question you would like to see most tonight from the candidates, from the pew research center, they suggested the top issues in the debate for most voters are terrorism and the economy. it has a chart that shows that even among both clinton and trump supporters, keeping the united states safe from terrorism is the top concern among most voters, followed by economic growth of the nation's budget deficit, healthcare policy, and other issues going down to the supreme court nominations and abortion policy . it likes to see the candidates spend less time talking about that and more talking about these other top issues. but one thing that will certainly be on the minds of the folks at tonight's debate are the recent developments in the presidential race and the fallout following the release of a video showing mr. trump

making lewd remarks in a tape, on the set of a television show 11 years ago. in the "new york times" today, says republican leaders began to abandon donald j. trump by the dozens on saturday after the release of a video showing him speaking of women in vulgar, sexual terms, delivering a punishing blow to his campaign and plunging the party into crisis a month before the election. hearing that his candidacy was on the verge of undermining the entire republican ticket next month, a group of senators and house members withdrew support for him and some demanding that he step aside. mr. trump, however, vowed to stay in the race. that is the political state right now as we go into tonight's debate at washington university. we will be having live updates from the university during the course of the show today. you see the live coverage right there. but as we take your calls, we

are asking you, what would you like to ask the candidates if you could? we have terry calling in from longwood, florida. you're undecided. what question would you like to see asked of secretary clinton and mr. trump tonight? caller: well, given the fact that we're $20 trillion in debt and that a lot of this blowback with the shooters, mass shooters, are actually children of the refugees that we've given asylum to, most likely -- most of them are wealthy, come over, and they're the ones who committed the mass murders, like the pulse and san bernardino. why do we have to be the police of the world? why is that? host: can i ask you, since you are undecided, are you satisfied, or who would you like to address that question the most? is it secretary clinton or donald trump, or does that matter? caller: both of them, to our

nation. i just wish this people would stop and think about what's going on. it's becoming a profiteering entity, and it's a turmoil. it's a vortex that just feeds off of each other. are ur soldiers, our men patriotic are the noblest of people in our country, but they're being used. and i think it's mostly for commerce, and i just wish people would take a step back, take a look at it and ask why do we have to be the police of the world? canada doesn't do this. australia doesn't do this. china doesn't do this. they don't seem to have the problems that we do. and igh debt, the blowback all the turmoil that we have that's a cause from us being the policemen of the world. host: ok. a little bit more about washington university, the site of tonight's debate. it was founded in 1853, and about 15,000 students attend

the university there in st. louis. it also has hosted more presidential and vice-presidential debates than any other institution in history. four presidential zpabets a vice-presidential debate, five in total. the first was in 1992. and as we said, tonight will be the fifth. up next, we have bill coming from stone park, illinois,' trump supporter. bill, what question would you ike to see asked of mr. trump? caller: well, i'd like to ask mr. trump, have him ask hillary her thesis in college was salinsky, and right now those tactics are being used against mr. trump. this media is attempting a coup to take over the country for the far left and the progressives. you know, we've got to stand up for mr. trump and support him all the way. these republicans who are going against him, they're not

republicans. they're, you know, progressives and big government people, too. mr. trump stands up for the people. host: well, bill, let me ask you this. is there something that you would like to see asked, a particular issue you want to see addressed tonight that wasn't addressed in the first debate? caller: well, there was no policy addressed. you know, they just -- personal attacks on mr. trump, and he got, you know, -- when he's attacked, he defends himself. it turned into just a melee. we need to address the questions that affect this country, you know, the terrorism, the economy, and who can handle the debt for this country. host: ok. rose is calling in from statin island, new york, a clinton supporter. good morning, rose. caller: good morning. first off, in response to bill about the coup, trump's prior campaign manager up until august, who was fired for being

on the kremlin, ukrainian presidential salary. no one thinks about that. what about all trump's ties, if he could disclose his tax returns, which probably came from marla maples, a jont tax reduction? host: let me ask you this. what question would you like to see asked of either secretary clinton or mr. trump? as you know, tonight is a town hall-style meeting much these questions will come from undecided voters. what would you like to see that might be on these voters' minds, them put to the candidates? caller: does trump still deny climate change? his mara-a-lago is under water. jesus told matthew, give us your wealth to be a follower of me. well, maybe matthew will tell trump something about his billion dollar hub and tax returns not released. he's benefited off of the middle class for years. he's segregated blacks from whites during the 1970's and

1980's. it's time for trump to step down. he supports the kremlin. we know it. manafort was behind him the whole way. how could he not know that he was paid by the kremlin? host: ok. a little bit more about the news emerging yesterday after several republicans withdrew their support from donald trump in the wake of the video release last week. two republicans who did not withdraw their support yet are the leaders in congress, both senate leader mitch mcconnell and house speaker paul ryan. paul ryan did disinvite trump yesterday from an event with the wisconsin republican party that he was to attend yesterday. he ad first vice-presidential candidate mike pence was set to go, but he also backed down, and paul ryan had that event alone. but it also said, even as many, according to the "new york times," even as many congressional republicans,

including some very conservative house members, pulled away from mr. trump on saturday, mr. ryan did not go so far as to withdraw his support for the businessman and former reality tv star. mr. ryan's decision keeps him in the political purgatory of endorsing the republican nominee for president while continually having to say why he finds his remarks and policy positions despicable. up next, we have terry calling n from california. caller: it's los angeles. host: all right, calling in from l.a., very early. good morning to you, terry. what would you like to see the candidates asked tonight? caller: about climate change. the environment, climate change, global warming. i know that she said, hillary, you know, she said she believes in it, but that's about it. you know, she weren't asked questions, and i also would want to know about the minimum

wage. it's been a while since i know hillary said in the primary hat she would raise it to $12. i'm wondering what she feels now if she's changed her mind completely or, you know. host: terry, let me ask you this. how involved do you think the moderators should be tonight? tonight's event will be moderated by martha raddatz of abc news, co-anchor of "abc this week," as well as anderson cooper, an anchor on cnn much how much do you think the moderators should get involved, or do you think they should stand back and let the candidates debate each other? caller: i think they should be involved. yes. going too many facts unchallenged. host: ok. up next, we have wanda calling in from georgia, third-party

supporter. what would you like to see asked of the candidates tonight? caller: my question would be about, how do they feel that donald trump being vulgar is ok? i mean, i'm a mother and i have daughters. i just don't understand how they feel like him saying it's ok to grab women's downstairs is ok. i mean, this is our president. and then the other thing is about the minimum wage. the president can raise the minimum wage all she likes, but what will she do about the government stopping it from being raised? host: ok. next we have antonio calling in from boston, massachusetts, third-party supporter. antonio, what's your top question for the candidates tonight? caller: my top one is to ask hillary clinton, mr. trump should ask, how are you sneaking around the country? she's the biggest liar in the

world. she lied to everybody. in 30 years she been in washington, she never did anything. as soon as she did, money for yourself. it's time now to the american people to wake up. i know what mr. trump did. well, it was a woman thing. a lot of thing that happen. host: antonio, let me ask you this. you're a third-party supporter. would you like to have seen gary johnson also be participating in these debates? caller: no. the third party don't go anywhere. i am italian. you know, don't too many know in italy. italy is a broke party. broken country. you know why? because we have too many parties. you don't know how many party we have in italy.

we don't want to have the same thing over here. two party is enough. host: ok. up next, we have leslie. less slee calling in from massachusetts. you're a trump supporter. what is your top question for tonight's debate? caller: my top question for mr. , ump is, the economy, borders the trade agreements. i believe in mr. trump. i'm glad the women are coming out and saying they recognize his comments of 11 years ago, but feel they were 11 years ago and that he is a changed man. i'm a retired navy vet. i'm a four-generation veteran. my parents and the greatest generation fought for this country. they made this country what it is, and i feel this country is falling apart. host: let me ask you this. is there something that you thought was left unanswered or unasked at the first debate that you want to see addressed

tonight? caller: i do. what was your question, i'm sorry? host: was there something you thought the fist debate left out? caller: oh, yes, i do. the first debate i was disappointed in mr. trump. i wanted him to bring the economy up. i wanted him to bring the strong issues that he's fighting for this country up. and i'm not sure why he didn't. but that's what i was expected, and i was disappointed. i hope this evening that he's going to bring those comments forward. host: ok. speaking of the reaction to the video that was released featuring donald trump's comments, they're for some supporters. they've been mixed in today's "new york times," many women furious, but some are tolerant. it says visiting washington on turday, one trump supporter, grimly studied the front pages of dozens of newspapers in

display outside the newseum, noting how each treated friday's revelation of a tape of donald trump having a vulgar conversation about pursuing women he found attractive. she grappled with what to tell her 10-year-old daughter -- sorry, it doesn't say she's a trump supporter, but she says she grappled as to what to tell her 10-year-old daughter, who was excited to watch the second between hillary clinton and donald trump sunday night. i'm outraged that i have to protect her from the news, even though she's completely interested in politics, she said. i'm sure there are 100,000 men out there that think the same way as him. i just really don't need to have it in my face the next four years. others are less upset by the news. it says not every woman agrees, but a home health aide from brooklyn says she was not offended by the comments and dismissed them as banter. she said she had been a registered democrat, but became an independent so she could

vote for mr. trump. it was 10 years ago, she said of the tape. we all say things 10 years ago and we change our minds about it later. it was just men's talk. females, we do the same thing. up next, we have jay. jay is from lexington, south carolina. you are a clinton supporter. what would you like to see asked tonight? what's your top question, jay? caller: my top question is for both of the candidates, hillary clinton and donald trump. and it's regarding african-americans in this country. we are an exceptional people because we were brought over here against our own free will. and we were denied a lot of rights. y question is, what are both of you going to do about african-americans when it's regarding our judicial system, our educational system, our economic system, our political system? because we have been left out in a lot of things. host: let me ask you this.

you support hillary clinton. do you think that she has said enough on this issue? caller: i think she needs to elaborate a little bit stronger, because we do have some weak areas regarding african-americans. we still, you know, there's some job instance that is we need some improvement, our judicial system, where african-american, mostly males, have been left out. we've been ostracized. ven our police force, shooting a lot of african-american males in this country. we've been denied our equal rights in this country. so it's a lot of things that we have to address regarding us, because we are exceptional people, and we've been left out of the system a lot. host: ok. marcus calling in from florida. you're a third-party supporter. what would you like to see asked tonight? caller: i would like to ask donald trump why would any thinking person, a

conservative, vote for him being that he is for nationalizing the banks, complete government takeover of all of healthcare? he says, oh, i would double the size of hillary's stimulus. no, more than double. why would any thinking man or conservative vote for him when he's just a lifelong leftist with myriad mental problems? host: let me ask you this. you said you're a third-party supporter. who are you supporting in the race? caller: well, there was a real good one in the libertarian party when they had the convention in orlando, but they chose to go with the pot head that's basically bernie sanders, a younger version of bernie sanders, the one they chose. america makes the worst possible choice they can make every single time, every party, libertarian, democrat, republican. that's all just choose the worst possible human being we can. that's america. host: margaret's calling from

nebraska. you're a third-party supporter. what would you like ask the candidates tonight? caller: i would like to ask mr. trump, what about the law? host: what do you mean by that, margaret? caller: he gained a lot of popularity because of his promise to the american people that he would build a wall, and that mexico would pay for it. is he or is he not going to stand on that promise and make good on it? host: ok, up next, we have a trump supporter from tennessee. what is your top question tonight for the candidates at the debate? caller: i have two, if i may ask them. "60 minutes," the first time, and she said i'm not like tammy wynette, i'm not

going to stand by my man. and number two, i would like to ask, she signed an agreement with president obama that there would be a wall of separation between the state department and the clinton foundation. why did she take that agreement? why did she not honor president obama? thank you very much. host: ok, tonight's debate might be different from the first in a lot of ways. it's a town hall-style meeting. there will be undecided voters in the audience asking questions of both secretary clinton and mr. trump. in bloomberg, it says what questions are audience members likely to ask? different ones than journalists ask. and that's a big part of the appeal and the peril of the town hall format. questions at town hall debates are less pointed and provocative, less likely to cause the candidates to focus on attack and defense strategies, and more likely to allow candidates to talk about what they think and believe,

according to a 2005 paper by john t. morello. up next is ron. ron is calling in from kentucky. you're a trump supporter. caller: how are you? host: i'm great. how are you today, and what would you like to hear from the candidates? caller: i'm hanging in there. what i would like to hear overall regarding trump's recent comments, and i thought they were terrible, but should it really surprise anybody given the culture we're living in? nothing's wrong anymore. all types of permissive behaviors are being forced upon us. you know, don't worry about your children hearing this from donald trump. it's in our so-called music. any form of our entertainment, tv, movies, and i think it's

disgusting. host: let me ask you this. did it affect your support of mr. trump at all? caller: i mean, i have to vote, you know, for him. i'm disgusted with both of them. i would never vote for hillary clinton. but i'm in a position where i think most people are that still will vote for trump because you have to look -- you have to look at things like hillary clinton's statement she wants open borders. we have to look at things like supreme court appointments. we are getting further and further and further away from the things this country was founded on. it's not a perfect nation, but as our founders said in the constitution, to make it a more perfect union. and every four years, the democrats go out, they promise

our african-american brothers, all of these things they don't get. we need education, quality education. we need jobs. if we don't have a strong economy and a strong military, we don't have to worry about and global warming stuff any other issue. host: ok. a reminder that all of tonight's debate will be covered here live on c-span. live coverage beginning at 7:30, previewing the debate between hillary clinton and donald trump. the candidates themselves take the stage at 9:00 p.m. you can see all of the coverage on c-span, on c-span.org, as and the n c-span radio c-span radio app. pat is calling in from texas. you're undecided. pat, what's your top question

for the candidates? caller: yes, good morning. thank you for c-span. i would like to know why hillary is for open borders and globalism, and also, i would like to know why donald trump is dismissing what he said, why he isn't more -- he apologized, but he should do more than apologize. that statement, even if it was 11 years ago, it's pretty bad. host: well, let me ask you this, pat. i mean, town hall-style meetings is more about -- tends to be more about the candidates getting to know them, connecting with the voters. is that what you mean? is that what you would like to see more of from mr. trump and/or secretary clinton? caller: yes, i'd like to see him be contrite about what he said.

and i would like her to own up to that she believes in, hillary, that she believes in lobalism and open borders. to be honest with you, i don't think that i can vote for either one of them. i may have to do a write-in. maybe the debate tonight will change my mind. we'll see. host: ok. marvin is calling in from fayetteville, north carolina, a clinton supporter. what's your top question for the candidates tonight? caller: yes, we have a lot of discussion about the borders and about securing our borders. and i would like to ask both candidates to explain exactly what the current security is at our borders. do they know how our borders are secure? my having been in the military for 11 years and i was stationed out near the borders in arizona. we have a very sophisticated

system right now already in place that actually has satellite surveillance, as well can lloons in the air that urvey a vast amount of acreage and keep our borders secure. and they talk as if -- host: you support hillary clinton, marvin. are you satisfied with what she said about this? caller: yeah. we should be a melting pot in the world. people talk about this being a christian nation, and if this is a christian nation, then we're supposed to want the world to come together and have a tpwhrobal family. we try to take resources from around the world. we go all over the world and get resources and bring them back to america and, you know, what are we supposed to do, leave those people out there with nothing after we take from them? or should we include them in

quality of life? host: ok. we are seeing live shots from washington university in st. louis, the site of tonight's presidential debate between hillary clinton donald trump, and asking you what your top request is. this call is from michigan. you're a trump supporter. stan, what would you like to ask the candidates tonight if you could? caller: i'd like to know what they plan on doing about securing our electrical grids, if there's anything -- i haven't heard either one of them mention the electrical grids, and it does pose quite a security risk for us. host: ok. and coming up next, we will be joined by ginger gibson, a campaign correspondent, and she'll be here to discuss donald trump and hillary clinton's second debate tonight. later on, we will ask charlie cook with the cook political report and stuart rothenberg with rothenberg & gonzalez political report, also here to talk about campaign 2016. but first, this week's c-span

"newsmakers" interviewed the political director of the u.s. chamber of commerce, rob engstrom. he talks about immigration and whether a new congress might enact reforms the chamber has sought. >> current climate, especially since the role of immigrants of immigrants in this country has become such a polarizing issue, how optimistic are you that in the coming year or two there could actually be an agreement about immigration reform? >> i am optimistic that we will have a solution as it relates to immigration reform. at every press conference, i start by, when i get the subcommittee, i ask by saying raise your hand if you think that america's immigration system is working, and not one person has ever raised their hand. so i would argue that there is more agreement than otherwise perhaps would be obvious. and the first is, you know, we need to retain the talent of the smartest people that we bring here. i mean, america is a magnet. you know, imagine if the inverse was true.

i think the number of visas is something that that has bipartisan agreement. i think there's also bipartisan agreement with securing the border. that has to be done fist in order to get certainty and confidence to the american people. and then we have to roll up our sleeves and figure out, how do we deal with the aspect? how do we deal with the healthcare sector in particular as the baby boomers continue to age? and then what do we do with regard to the pathway to citizenship? i would argue there is opportunity in the next congress, in the next two years, to be able to get substantive things done on immigration reform, and my private conversations with members of both political parties on the senate side and also on the house side, there is agreement on some tenets, some legs of that common tool, and we know the big things that get done in this country that last are done on a bipartisan basis. so we are bullish. america's job creators intrinsically are optimistic people, and we believe that the immigration system will be fixed in this country. we believe that momentum will

continue to be gained in this next congress. >> what if president trump is elected? >> we're going to continue to turn up the heat, continue to be focused. there are bipartisan majorities in the senate and house that believe that that ought to be done, and we're going to start with where we agree and then ensure that immigration reform is completed. >> "washington journal" continues. host: there's a live shot from washington university in st. louis, the site of tonight's debate. the topic of today's show, we're now joined by ginger gibson, campaign correspondent with reuters, to talk a little bit more about what to expect tonight and the 2016 campaign so far. good morning, and thank you for joining us. guest: good morning. thanks for having me. host: so tonight's debate will be a town hall format. that will be first than the fist one. what are the biggest differences you expect to see tonight compared to the first one? guest: this debate has more of a wild card element. the crowd can ask questions. now, they are vetted beforehand, but we all know

there's only so much you can do to get people to say and do the things that you want. it also requires that the candidates demonstrate that they can interact with people. simply sitting at the podium or the table and repeating their lines or looking to the camera is just not going to fly in a town hall space. they have to be able to show that they're interacting, that they're engaging, not just with the viewers at home, but also with the participants there in the town hall. host: can we expect the kinds of questions that are asked from these voters to be different than the questions that a journalist moderating a debate might be? guest: i have to say, as someone who goes out and talks to voters in the swing states on a regular basis, i think we're going to see the kind of questions you would mostly expect. people to want hear them talk about the economy. they want to hear them talk about jobs and taxes and national security. people are asking of the candidates the kind of questions that we ask of the candidates. so not a lot of variation there. what happens that's a little bit different in the questions

in a town howl format is they can sometimes have a personal element. a person stands up and says my son is fighting in iraq right now, and i want to you tell me what you're going to do to keep him safe. or they can stand up and say, i lost my job, or my husband lost his job, and i want you to tell me what you're going to do to revive manufacturing. that personal element is something journalists can't bring to it. the candidates, frankly, can't ignore it while they're on the stage. scommoip our viewers can join our conversation. 202-748-8001 for supporters of donald trump. 202-748-8000 for hillary linton supporters. 202-748-8003 if you support a third party. d 202-748-8002 for third-party candidates. 8003 for undecided. and how are the audience, how are they selected? guest: many of them were vetted by the commission and by the journalists who are going to be hosting this forum.

they were brought in by people who are legitimately undecided. i know my editors are often surprised that i can find undecided main between hillary clinton and donald trump, but there are a lot of them out there. i talk to them on an almost daily basis. these are people who either would traditionally vote republican and they just can't bring themselves yet to sign up with donald trump, or have voted democratic in the past and just aren't crazy about hillary clinton. host: all right. we are talking with ginger gibson of reuters about campaign 2016. now, there's a lot that has happened since the first debate. there's a lot that's happened in the last 48 hours. you write in reuters, with his campaign in crisis, u.s. presidential candidate donald trump vowed on saturday to stay in the race, despite calls from more than two dozen prominent republicans for him to drop out, following the release of a recording of him making lewd comments about women.

both trump's wife and his running mate criticized his words, saying that they were insulting and indefensible. how do you think this issue will come up in tonight's debate? guest: this is the biggest wild card we've ever seen in a presidential debate. there is no precedent for a major candidate having to come out the day before the second debate and vow to remain in the race. there's just never been anything like this. i expect that we'll see both candidates want to engage on this issue. donald trump made a very hastily recorded video apology on friday night that came out early saturday morning. he hasn't given any other public comment. he's going to have the largest audience he could ever have acquired to address this head on. his supporters, you know, people in the republican party are saying he needs to make a real act of contrition. he needs to apologize for what he said. and hillary clinton's campaign has said they're waiting until she gets on that debate stage to have her address it, and

that's because they think this is a real problem, and we're going to see clinton attack donald trump on this front. host: and in a tweet, donald trump has been responding on twitter in addition to the video that he released. he said the media and establishment want me out of the race so badly, then in a twitter shout, he adds, i will never drop out of the race, will never let my supporters down, #maga, make america great again. how do you expect him to handle this tonight? i mean, he was criticized in the first debate for his composure or lack thereof. do you think that that might happen again? guest: if i had the ability to guess what donald trump was going to do tonight, i think i would be getting paid a lot more money. it is the big million dollar question. does he get up there and apologize, say i'm sorry, this is something i regret, i'm a changed man? i hope american people realize that that's just not who i am

anymore, that i'm a different person. or does he get up there and talk about bill clinton's marital infidelities? in which case, all bets are off. he has said that's what he's going to do. he was retweeting, last night on twitter, which would also point to that. and that's a very risky political move. we know that when people talk about bill clinton's marital infidelities, they don't blame hillary for it. if he's trying to win women voters, that might not be the way to go. host: joe is calling from dallas. you're with with ginger gibson. caller: good morning. my question is to the young lady, if i could ask the question of mr. trump and mrs. clinton, with the united states so divided and so many poor people and so many rich, what would be their real plan to help everyone in the united states? because i think that right there is what it boils down to.

host: ok. is that an issue that you expect to come up tonight? guest: i do expect to see both candidates asked to address what they're going to do about income inequality. it is something we've seen discussed by democrats and republicans in this race. it is an issue that comes up time and time again. and to your point about being divided, i could ask hillary clinton the question, one of the first questions i would ask them would be what would you do once you want to try to unify this country? we could see presidential election end without either one of them taking a simple majority of the popular vote. it looks like that's the direction that we're moving in. and reuniting our country both economically and more figuratively as we're so divided over this election that's going to be a big issue moving forward. host: maria calling in from fairfax, virginia, a third-party supporter. good morning, maria. caller: good morning.

basically i voted for bernie sanders. now i'm voting for hillary, because i feel like donald trump is 100% unqualified. hill have i qualified, although i was not 100% for hillary. but it's embarrassed when i travel overseas. i was a diplomat, and i began to see this after donald trump announced his candidacy. the whole world look at the united states like people are ignorant, we all are racist, and i'm afraid to have a type of world because of donald trump. host: ok. let's let ginger gibson. guest: first, congratulations on casting your first ballot as an american citizen. that's always a big moment for people who become citizens. so enjoy that moment next month when you head into the booth. i think that we do see a lot of

people -- when i talk to voters, i hear a lot of concern about what donald trump is going to do on an international stage. if he says these things that are outlandish about america, in america, that's one thing. but what happens when he's asked a united nations general assembly and he says something that provokes one of our allies? i do hear that concern a lot, and that's a challenge that donald trump is going to have to face tonight at the debate. he's going to have to continue to try to lessen those concerns for undecided voters and convince them he's not going to do anything to embarrass the united states, that he can be even-keeled, he can bite his tongue when he needs to, and that he can proceed as a diplomat. host: he has been pegging himself as the champion of working class voters. but he has to be able to convey that tonight if he's in "the washington post" previewing the debate, points out, town halls "test two things at once, the depth of your substantive knowledge and also your capacity for empathy. they test your head and heart,

said paul begala, who advised bill clinton's first presidential campaign." will trump show his empathy for working-class people, and can he do that? guest: he will. he has won over many blue-collar, particularly white male voters, by satisfying i feel your pain -- by saying i feel your pain. i think donald trump is going to have the biggest challenge to appear human that he's ever had in this election cycle. with all the controversy about this explicit video and his remarks, he's going to want to say i'm a human being, here's where i feel for you. bill clinton was well known for his ability to get on a stage and make the person feel like he was talking directly to them and that he heard their woes and their troubles. that is a political skill that we rarely see ever, and i don't believe either donald trump or hillary clinton has that particular skill. but both of them are going to be trying to emulate it as much as possible. host: ok.

israel is calling in from south burlington, vermont, a trump supporter. you're on with ginger gibson of reuters. caller: good morning. how y'all doing today? host: good. caller: yeah, my comment is that donald trump, i don't want to say this really, but he's kind of like gangster wise, he's streetwise. the way that he talks behind closed doors is the way that he expresses himself behind closed doors. and he talks like it in front of people. you know, he'll bring it up the way it is. he doesn't disguise it like hillary tries to disguise it or anybody else tries to disguise it. he just comes straight out and just lets words come out of his mouth the way they supposed to, you know? besides all that, i mean, what he said about the judge and about the miss universe padgett, i read his book, i see how he was trying to help this girl, you know what i'm saying? the media completely turned that on him.

host: well, let's let ginger gibson respond to that. how do you think those issues will come up, or will they come up tonight? guest: i expect them to come up tonight. i expect, if not a question from the audience or the moderators, hillary clinton is going to force the issue. his remarks have been largely criticized, but defended as well. i know i spoke with people yesterday in writing about the video, that this is just the way he talks behind closed doors, and it's just two guys, he didn't really mean t. his campaign tried to call it locker room talk. now, the response to that is that it borderlines on sexual assault, and that no one should talk that way behind closed doors and that it was inappropriate and that we simply got a look at it. e're going to see that on full display at the debate tonight. we're going to see hillary clinton saying what you said was inappropriate and that you shouldn't have said those things or advocated for those things, and we got a glimpse of that. but i do think that, people start wondering, is anyone --

absolutely not. lots of people see this as just the way that he talks. one woman yesterday said men talk that way, it's just what they do. and there's, especially among his supporters, a lot of belief that it's fine, that it was ok that he said those things. host: all right. anthony is calling from new york, he's a third-party supporter. good morning, anthony. caller: good morning. good morning, c-span. yes, i'm a c-span nut for many, many years. 'm following everything. whatever the republicans talk negative, t is true, and whatever. and whatever they say about hillary, there's a lot that's true. personally i'll never forgive her for the war powers act. you got to be stupid if you voted for that or very ambitious.

out of all of this emerges bernie sanders. bernie has all these people giving more contributions. that's the real call of this nation, and he was doing very well. he got knocked out with this super p.a.c. business. and so what we have is a little seedling called jill stein, who is morales like bernie sanders, but she does not operate, although she tried to jump over the banks thing. but i would love to see her emerge. and if wikileaks really finds hillary guilty of crimes, then she is out. host: hang on, anthony. that's a lot to tackle. what about the issue of third parties? neither dr. stein mr. governor johnson will be at the debate tonight. what have you been hearing about the standards, and do people oppose the decision to keep, particularly governor johnson, who is polling in

double digits, not beat enough, out of the debate? guest: i'm sure you're going to be wishing jill stein was there and maybe even gary johnson. we have polling, reuters does polling, asking voters about the inclusion of third-party candidates in the debates. it's interesting to look at the numbers, because people think yes, they should be included. gary johnson thinks he should be included. do you think there should be a threshold? everyone says yes, there should be a threshold. do you think that threshold should be 15%? absolutely, we think that it's a good number. and then you say, well, gary johnson is not a 15%, and they go, well, well, it doesn't quite add up. there has to be some type of threshold. if you look at a ballot or campaign finance disclosures, hundreds of people actually are registered to vote, and you couldn't fit them all on this page. the 15% threshold absolutely will be re-evaluated. gary johnson may become a one-man campaign for changing that threshold. he talks about it all the time. but it is a difficult thing for

the commission to deal with. gary johnson got a lot of exposure, more exposure than most third-party candidates ever get and wasn't able to turn it into breaking the threshold. i think it's going to cause a lot of questions about whether or not the threshold is too high or if it was exactly right. but despite all that coverage, he still couldn't break through. host: we are talking with ginger gibson, a campaign correspondent at reuters, also previously worked at the international business times, as well as politico. so tell us a little bit about how the candidates are preparing for tonight's debate, how they have prepared. has donald trump prepared, and what do you expect hillary clinton to be doing today? guest: hillary clinton has been holding intensive study meetings essentially. holed up in her home in new york. aides coming in, policy advisors. they're going through the minutia of policy. and frankly, clinton enjoys that. she is sort of -- she sort of calls herself a policy wonk.

spending lots of time, going back about the minutia of economic policy. sounds like a good time for her. that's what she's been doing. donald trump has taken a very nontraditional approach to debate preparation. he has not, especially in the most recent, between the first debate and second, have the sort of intensive study sessions. he doesn't know policy as well. he doesn't speak to the minutia. frankly, if he tried to, it probably wouldn't play to his strengths. that's not what people want to hear from him. so it doesn't make sense for him to really sort of stick his nose in a book and learn all of the minutia of the tax code. instead, he's having more broader study sessions. we know that he has done some practice with new jersey governor chris christie, who's very famous for his town hall and how he interacts with folks at town hall meetings. i spent my life following him around the state of new jersey. so he got christie, so it will be interesting to see. and rudy giuliani, the former mayor of new york, who has become one of the leading spokespeople for this campaign in the public arena.

we talked earlier about the wild card and whether or not trump is going to attack bill clinton. i think we probably, if we were flies on the wall in trump's preparations, there's opinions between governor christie and mayor giuliani over whether he should do that. so it will be interesting in a tug of war which one won out. host: ok. debbie is calling in from maryland. third-party supporter. good morning, debbie. caller: hi. my questions are really all for gary johnson, because i feel like he should have been included in this debate. i know there has to be a threshold, but he has well over a million supporters on a petition to get him in the debate. he has a lot more support than anyone realizes. and the threshold that you were talking about, ginger, was set by the republicans and democrats, not the third-party

people. i feel like i don't have a voice. i am a registered republican, but i can't in good conscience vote for anyone that i don't feel will make a good president. host: ok. let's let ginger respond to that. how might the third-party candidates engage because they're not on this stage tonight? guest: i think that debbie makes an excellent point. there's a lot of supporters out there who feel like they're not going to be represented on that stage. and i think debbie and everyone else has to probably do it the old-fashioned way and just make their opinion known. there's a petition, make phone calls, get that threshold changed. now, gary johnson is not one to sit at home on his couch and not have anything to say during these moments. he will likely be on cable news. he will be interacting. we know yesterday his campaign put out an appeal to republicans in the wake of that donald trump video asking them to come over to their side. so he's going to be trying to break through a lot of noise and get noticed, and i think

we're going to see that from him, and i think his supporters will probably be trying to figure out how they can put pressure to change the threshold if they're unhappy with it. host: so in the fist debate, it seemed as if hillary clinton had tried to beat donald trump with things like the alicia machado revelation during that. do you depop see the same thing tonight, -- or do you expect to see the same thing tonight, or have the last few days made it harder to do that? guest: we know hillary clinton has spent a lot of time trying to figure out how to get inside his head, and she probably could be called a success. she did bait him and get him to change the message and the conversation for the whole week after the debate. this time might be a little different. you don't really need to bait a boy who's got so much controversy and is in so much crisis with his campaign. she could probably sit up there and just read the list of the names of republicans who announced that they were unendorsing him and not voting for him. a dozen members of congress yesterday, which is remarkable.

so i don't know how much bating she's going to need. it might be a simple poking him with the facts. host: up next we have felicia calling in from iowa, a clinton supporter. good morning, felicia. caller: good morning. first i would like to say to ginger, i heard her say that we may have an election where no one wins the popular vote. that's impossible. guest: a simple majority, so no one gets over 50%, which has happened before. caller: yeah, ok. that is possible. i'm a hillary clinton supporter because i believe that she has america's best interests at heart. as a politician or people who are in into politics, you make choices. you make decisions. sometimes they may not always be the right decisions. but in life, when you can acknowledge your mistakes, it

makes you a better person. donald trump seems to think he has never made a mistake in his entire life. he said he doesn't feel like he needs to -- he never asks god for forgiveness because he just assumes if he did something wrong, he'll do it a different way. he doesn't say he'll do it the right way. he says he'll do it a different way, which is what a lot of his supporters think, oh, he hasn't changed his position, he has just changed his words. host: let's let ginger gibson respond to that. guest: interesting in your point there that we know that there are divisions within the trump campaign over whether or not they wanted to engage in a character debate with hillary clinton. part of trump's advisors said don't do it, you know, it's not the message we want to drive. we want to talk about how donald trump is going to help working class people, how he's going to get rid of trade deals. and they said, no, we think hillary clinton is so awful

attack her on her character, others say. to your point, that's not as clear cut an argument as one can have. a lot of people think that in a character debate hillary clinton wins. and so i think that we've probably reached the point of this campaign and this debate tonight where it's going to be unavoidable, and we're going to see both candidates engage in a pretty hefty character debate on the debate stage. and how voters respond to that is going to be one of the biggest questions of the night. scommoip what is the one big difference you think will be in tonight's debate compared to the first one? guest: a lot of us went into the first debate to expect donald trump come out swinging or come out very calm, and we got the fist part, very calm, and then the swinging in the end. i expect him to come out swinging from the beginning tonight. i've been wrong on a lot of things and could be wrong on that hypothesis, but i suspect that given the events of the last seven days, donald trump probably turned to his advisers and said, you know what, i've

tried your way, it didn't work, we're going to do it my way, and my way is swinging. and ay is low energy jeb going after bill clinton. i would be shocked if we don't see donald trump do it his way tonight. host: a call from new york city being a third party supporter. alberto, you're on with ginger begin -- ginger gibson of reuters. caller: it doesn't matter who win, trump or hillary. the reason for that is because doesn't matter what their genda is and policies, because they implement it. it's a very greedy and rich and powerful people. policy is going to be implemented. it's what they say that's going finish with.nd anyway, the thing is that they have the less say, so it's

whatever they say will be done, not what they say or think. host: ok. guest: one of the biggest issues people don't talk about in this election in terms of policy implications is what this means for congress. we're seeing a movement and the polls and ballot. one can say hillary clinton and donald trumper different sides of the same coin, but whether republicans or democrats control congress on january 2 has a pig impact on policy and on how the nation is going to work for the next two years or even four years. hillary clinton donald trump are influencing down ballot. we've got a number of key senate voices, and those are going to be big policy differences. the ability to pass tax reform, to pass changes to the environmental code, to address climate change, to do any of those things are going to depend upon who controls congress, on you more they approach. you might see a climate bill very different under a republican congress than a democratic congress. so there are some big policy implications going forward,

particularly who controls congress. host: next we have lou calling in. good morning, lou. caller: ms. gibson, i was wondering, do you think if tonight i was able to ask secretary clinton a question, which would be, do you believe in free trade as you told your wall street contributors during a speech you gave to them? do you think she'd actually tell me the truth? guest: well, you bring up a point that has gotten lost in all of this coverage of donald trump's explicit video, which is that on friday, a hacker who hacked into john podesta, the chairman of hillary clinton's campaign, released past emails that contained, as you pointed out, transcripts of a speech that hillary clinton gave, a closed door speech, in which she said to wall street crowds that she supports free trade. now, anyone who knows clinton's past in policy would not be surprised about this. we would say she changed her

position or moved her position a little in the primary in order to get in line with bernie sanders. she then got into a general, a general that is unlike anything we've seen before, where the republican was against free trade. normally the republican party is the party that is very for free trade, so she just stuck with that position. i think that we are absolutely going to see that discussed in the debate tonight. it would be campaign malpractice if donald trump's aides didn't tell him to talk about it pretty much repeatedly throughout the entire debate, that at any point in time where he doesn't to want answer a question he should just point out that hillary clinton said she supports free trade. i absolutely think we're going hear that brought up, not just once, but probably multiple times tonight. host: the issue is in today's "washington post," talking about that and her change since the primary, the position on that, pointing out that the question going forward is what clinton would do upon reaching the white house. democrats close to clinton said on saturday that the remarks

are clearly a political problem, but they insisted that they probably are not inaccurate to how she would govern. up next is alicia calling from maryland, a clinton supporter. good morning, alicia. caller: good morning, kimberly and ginger. and america. would also like to know, mrs. clinton said that she would pay for all her freebies that she nts to give away by taxing the super rich, but we know that the super rich have a way of protecting their money. and she plays the ball with the wall street people and talks a different way with them, and she also talks a different way to us, pretending to be on our

side. host: ok, let's let ginger address that. we're almost to the end of our segment. guest: we are atginger address that. moment where at a both sides with bipartisan agreement with a the tax code should be rewritten. it is likely to happen under the next administration. whoever wins the white house will have a great role in shaping the content of the tax code. democratic, hillary clinton, that is likely to mean there is an increase in some of the tax brackets because democrats within control at least one chamber of congress who will have negotiating level. is it the level at which she uses in her white papers? maybe not. does it go up? . yes we will see the --yes. -- yes.

we will see the tax code go up regardless. host: ginger gibson, reuters campaign correspondent, thank you. guest: thanks for having me. host: next, we have cook and rothenberg speaking about campaign 2016. at, we go to steve givens washington university in st. louis. good morning. thank you for joining us. good morning, glad to be here. host: we have a little bit of a delay, so i will try not to speak over you, but if i do, i apologize for that. is washington university ready for tonight's debate? guest: we are. this is a combination of about six months of planning, and a lot of hard work, especially the last week or so, so we have been kind of ready for the media for

about a week or so in regards to facilities that we have set up for we think somewhere between 2500, 3000 members of the media , and the last 2, 3 days, the production team for presidential debates arrived, and we have been focusing on getting the debate set. i was there late last night, and i think we are ready to go. host: all right, you are also associate vice chancellor and chief of staff at washington university. how many office members will be there tonight? we talked about members of the media. how many will be in the audience? guest: we think right about 1000. that is the last number i heard. that number sometimes changes as they finalize sightlines and but righte that, that does not include 40 members who will be a part of

the townhall format, a separate, smaller audience right in front of the candidates. host: this is the fifth debate happening at washington university. what is it about the university that makes it a go to place of sorts for a presidential debate? guest: i guess i don't know for sure. with a long tradition here, as you know, beginning back in 1992 , when we hosted, for the first time, and when we did that, we e,d that with one weeks' notic so something was happening, and another site was not working out. they approached us, and we stepped up to the plate and hit a home run in 1992 with george bush senior, bill clinton, and ross perot. we kept coming back to them every cycle, and they have been willing to give it to us. i think st. louis and the midwest is probably a good location geographically for lots of reasons -- for travel, for political demographics -- but i think what we hear from the commission is that they like our

facility, they like our people, they like the attitude that we bring to this because, you know, we do not do this for a living. we are not invention planters, -- we're not convention planners , but we are able to get together and pull off something very special. host: the estimated cost for a debate is about $5 million. can you break out what the biggest part of that cost is? i would say it is technology and security. we really have seen both of over time. rise in 1992, technology for the media was literally a couple of trailers of pay phones so that the media could write their stories and wha run out and call their stories in to their editors. we have moved to the internet, the world wide web, ethernet, and then finally today, you know, where we have very robust

cell systems, cellular systems wi-fi systemsust for the media, who are going to cover the events, and then the tables, the drapes, everything we need to do to convert what is know,hletic complex, you into something very different, which is a television studio with lots and lots of room for the campaign staff, for the media to work. a building made for something totally different, transforming it into this, and then in a few days, transforming it back so our collegiate athletes and our students can continue to use the facility. it is a big turnover. it is quick. and then cured he has changed over years in the post-9/11 years, it has just gotten increasingly more intricate. host: is there any lesson from first debate that you are

atng to prepare tonight washington university? great we think they did a job, but the short answer is no we knew what we needed to do to all this off. we did not see anything happen there that made us force a we did allny way, so the planning that we needed to do, and then once the commission got on the ground here these tweakingdays have been little things and making things work, but i think we are all set. host: we appreciate you taking the time to join us today. steve givens, associate vice chancellor and chief of staff at washington university, thank you so much. guest: it was good talking to you. host: joining us here in carly cook,ow, editor and publisher of the cook political report, and stuart rothenberg, founding editor of

rothenberg and gonzales political report. they are here to talk about campaign 2016. gentlemen, thank you for joining us tonight. both of the reports have hillary if the in the lead election were held today, she would win. tell us what are the reasons behind this. what we usually do is go through past election data in each state, and what you would expect from a generic republican , and then you look at the polling data from this race, specific to each race, and there will be some aberrations. i was usually democratic, but it has been solidly cordoned this year.

ohio has been a little bit more there are variations, but we have been doing this since 1984. stewart has been doing at the same time. his business is a couple of years older than ours is. it has worked well for us. the report has hillary clinton at 272 electoral votes, donald trump with 197, but 69 electoral votes still up for grabs. it still seems pretty close. guest: not really. if you were just going to go ahead and push everything one way or the other, hillary ,linton would have about 273 and donald trump would have about 265, and that is giving trump every close states, including north carolina, where he is behind. it is giving him i will come in nevada, florida, and ohio, and that still gets him just to 265.

2.5 is like the next margin up that clinton has. host: stuart rothenberg has hillary clinton at 279, donald trump at 191 with 68 up for grabs. very similar, but a little closer fairl for hillary clinto. is it her race to lose? guest: i should point out that although i offer my two cents or sometimes $.10 to my colleague, nathan gonzales really does the ratings. but yes, i am there where nathan is and where charlie is, but we should offer the caveat that these ratings were done before the last 48 hours where the environment has mentally shifted. i agree with charlie completely. close,look and say it is

hillary clinton is just over 270, so anything can happen, and she could lose a state that she looks to be winning end, but the reality is when you look at the competitive states and how they performed over the past two election cycles, and now you at the states, more than a dozen republican officeholders have withdrawn their endorsements, this race has blown open, and we will be over the next week or so, depending on what happens in the debate, obviously. it i guess if charlie and were to push the undecideds, i think we would push democratic right now. guest: i think the odds of hillary clinton going well over 300 electoral votes is much your to in her losing think the odds are better of her hitting 3.5, 350 than of her 350 than under -- 325, of her coming in under 270.

guest: i had never thought the race was a tossup, even though in the middlethat of september. i never thought it was a tossup. the fundamentals, you have to look at the fundamentals in this race. host: all right, we are talking to charlie cook, the editor and publisher of the cook report, as well as stuart rothenberg, the founding editor of the rothenberg and gonzales political report, about the election ahead of tonight's debate at washington university. just a reminder that you can see the debate and all of the coverage of tonight's debate on c-span beginning at 7:30 on c-span as well as c-span.org and c-span radio. you were saying that the race -- guest: we are phrasing it -- previous to this, it would

seem that the race had fallen into predictable patterns. talk t a little bit about what those are and how they have changed. guest: if you look at this race from the first of may onwards, it has most onwards been at a point where clinton was ahead somewhere between three points then whenights, and everything -- one donald trump would go off script and mess up and clinton was doing well, the togin would grow up from 5 6, 7, or eight. conversely, when donald trump stuck closely to the script, clinton makes mistakes that you have the whole follow from the trump pullsepisode, out ahead at even, but i do not really by that. -- buy that. is thehink three to five default. but i think now after the first

debate and after the billy bush tapes, no, i think three, to four, five, will be more like the floor rather than the main. guest: i disagree, of course. i look at it a little different way to what protectable patterns means. when you look at the demographic groups supporting each candidate, the protectable patterns have been holding. the single biggest producer of who is going to vote for the republican over the democrat, donald trump or hillary clinton, the parties of the individual voters. democrats vote democrat, republican vote republican. that automatically gives you an insight into how the election is going to break down. we did not have that indicator in the republican primaries, did we, because it was all republican. so you take away that indicator, and it is much harder to predict what will happen. but you have how white voters will behave versus

african-americans or latinos. you have older voters, men, women here you look at it that way, and until you start seeing dramatic shifts, you have to look at the predictable patterns that produce printable results. host: ok, we are talking to charlie cook and stuart rothenberg about the election. you can call into the conversation. (202) 748-8000 for clinton supporters. donald trump supporters can call (202) 748-8001. third-party supporters, (202) 748-8002. and undecided, (202) 748-8003. past, we have seen revelations about donald trump coming up from his comments from universe,former miss insisting that those exonerated by dna evidence are guilty, those have not moved the needle.

what do you think about this weekend will move the needle this time? guest: first of all, the needle has been moved because we see a number of republican officeholders who had endorsed to have now unand/or spirit of were not the people who supported trump. that may be true, but they had endorsed him.ow un these were not be people who supported trump. that may be true, but they had endorsed him. you get the pure, unadulterated essence of donald trump in these tapes, his language, who he is as a person, how he sees himself, how he sees others, and i think that struck home with many people. let me clarify this. on the republican side, i do not think this will cost trump a lot of the vote he already has, and republicansue said,

are going to mostly stay in line if, for no other reason, that so many of them hate hillary clinton. this election is not about donald trump to them. it is about hillary clinton, so they are locked in. poisons it does is it the well of those undecided voters, of those pure independents in the middle, and these are folks that may not like hillary clinton much at all, but at this point, they are sort of more leaning come up more likely to go ahead and vote for clinton because it has become so poisoned. trump's expect to see actual vote share drop much because his people, as you said, have been with people through thick and thin, and as he said, he could shoot somebody in fifth, and they would still support him. when you look at, even before fox last incident, the

news poll that came out before the tapes did, hillary clinton she was viewed unfavorably at 54%. trump was -15, and that is a lot politics ofhan the the major national polls. -9.5, and he is -20.6. so he was in deep trouble before these tapes came out, and this just absolutely poisons the well of undecideds. host: ok, we have an undecided voter calling in from victoria, texas. owen, you are on with charlie cook and stuart rothenberg. caller: yes, gentlemen, thank you, c-span. what i want to know about is open borders.

this country is already in dire shape. there is no jobs to support people. the power grid is failing. our road structures are failing, and the more people that you pop into this country, the more demand for water, electricity, puts, food -- you can only so many people in a phone booth, and if you overpopulate this country, and then we have a natural disaster like we had in florida, people had better wake up. host: ok, let them address that. how big of an issue, how is that resonating in the the election? guest: ok, that does not sound like an undecided voter, ok? [laughter] a lie they ought to have detector test when people call in and say whether they are trump, undecided, or clinton. here are concerns .immigration

is one, jobs are one, the economy is another. there are a whole bunch of issues out there. you are looking at some really pressured voters. when you look at republicans and conservatives and liberals and democrats come if you look at swing voters, they tend to think that hillary clinton is smart, knowledgeable, experienced, confident, and they do not like her, and they do not trust her. they look at donald trump, they like the fact that he is not a politician, he says whatever is on his mind. they may not agree with him on a couple of issues, but they question whether he has the temperament, the personality, and even the fundamental knowledge about governing that you need to have. so these voters are very cross pressured, and i think the that is piling up is more likely to take them to the negative side for trump is getting more overwhelming. is a: it sounds like owen trump voter or will be a trump voter even if he has not decided tiered i think

immigration will be a big issue. the country has a history of immigration and welcoming people, and people like owen pointed out the stress on services, and it depends on how you see the issue. host: let's talk about polls for a minute. what polls do you like? what should voters look to it determining whether a poll is trustworthy or not? well, we talk about the folly time, and it can be a controversial subject. believe, as most kind of experience old hands do, that there are certain polls that are more accurate than others. a safe income always the best thing to look at a whole range of surveys from a whole time period. there will be some outside the margin of error. the safest thing to do is to put eight, 10, 15 polls to see the

general direction of the election, how is moving, and the general concourse. there are some polls getting a lot of attention these days that seem to be outliers consistently. times"-usc polls have been outliers. some of those i am more skeptical about. guest: the dangerous for people to do one of two things -- either to cherry pick where they look for the poll that tells them what they would most like to see happen, and that is the most accurate poll in their minds, and anything differently is a flawed poll. excesser thing is to over whatever the most recent poll is no matter who took it, no matter whether they have any track record, and no matter whether it is consistent with all the other data. what i would suggest, and i will

do it here for the overhead camera, look at the averages. this one is real clear, -- realclear politics.com, which is a conservative-leaning website, and they do all the averages of the national polls and averages of the key battleground states. if you touch the little button right here, you can change to the other set and then widen it back out to the other group of battleground states. and that keeps you, but looking at the averages, it keeps you from cherry picking. it keeps you from obsessing over the most recent poll, and that is really the best way to do it. say, the veryl best pollsters in the business, their work is not as reliable as it was 20, 30 years ago, and most people think that is because of cell phones.

it is not really. that is sort of a minor problem. it is really caller id. the telemarketers have burned it out so that a lot of people simply will not pick up the phone. reliable, is not as which means you have to be more careful, and it means cherry picking is even more of a problem. so look at the averages, and then you will have gist. people not toto long after the 2012 election, a congresswoman said, "i was stunned, i had no idea mitt romney was going to lose. all the way to election day, i thought he was going to win." you wantught, "lady, to get out more, and you want to look at more than one network." in.an, really, take it all do not just listen to people you agree with. host: it is rumored that mitt romney himself also thought he was going to win. fromxt, our caller

marietta, georgia, a trump supporter. the morning. you are on with charlie cook and stuart rothenberg. caller: first of all, i am an independent, secondly, i am an african american woman, 59 years old, and i have a degree. what gets me mad is when i hear people i was to put black people in one genre. we are all going to follow lockstep with the democratic party. no. the reason i'm voting for donald trump is because i want something different. you cannot want something different if you keep voting the same way. being about, he made a statement 15 years ago -- i find it really hypocritical, especially with women when bill clinton had a woman have oral sex with him in the white house. host: ok, let's have charlie

cook and stuart rothenberg break that down a bit. guest: her opinion is as valuable as anybody else's, absolutely, but it is a bit of an outlier. if you look at the last three months' worth of nbc-"wall 80% ofjournal" datea, african americans are for clinton, 5% for trump, so she hang on a second, yeah, 80% for clinton, 5% for trump. out of 2000 interviews, only 17 african-americans were for donald trump. is the african american community monolithic? pointou know what, an 80- -- actually, clinton got 86%. 5%, it wasn' an

80-point margin. with the rhetoric going on in they maylican party, be turning the latino community into the neck's african-american -- in other words among one with the republicans having a really big problem to having a really, really, really big problem. guest: let me make two points. first of all, and we always say what charlie and i do for living is to try to explain what is happening in politics -- not what you should do, who you should vote for, what your opinion should be. i really do not care. -- are the best person to your viewer is the best person to judge how he or she should vote and what issues. when we talk about it as handicappers, as analysts explaining what is going on, what has happened, and what we think will happen. this is important here. the second point, when i talk about printable patterns by looking at demographic groups, i do not assume that all whites,

african americans, or all women vote for one party or one candidate. what we do is we take the baseline, how they voted in 2012, 2008, 2000, and see are the groups moving around? it does not mean it is an individual voter moving around. we want to see how the groups are behaving so that we understand the party coalitions and the candidates' coalitions. latinoalk about the population. it is a fast-moving group pdc conservatives in states like florida. you see more liberals in new england and other states. guest: you see hispanics and latinos coming from different countries and cultures. generationally, there is the difference between older and younger cubans. you have all these subtleties in the groups.

but you can step back and say what percentage of latinos did romney get in 2012? 27%. you compare to how george bush get? guest: 40% in the exit polls. was 44atisticians say percent. but whether 40% or 44%, compared to 27%. guest: yes. so we look how is trump doing with the individuals in that voter group? the latinos are a growing part of the american electorate. increasingly important in several states and throughout the country. that is why we look at latinos. that is why we look at different elements of the latino electorate. 17%t: and trump is getting of the latino vote, 10 points under then what mitt romney did. 88% of all of mitt romney's votes came from whites.

90% of john mccain's votes came from whites. 88% of george w. bush's votes came from whites. that recipe does not work anymore in a country where the share of the white vote has gone 1992 to 72% in 2012, 70%will probably be around in this next election. some people say around 60%. like the republican national committee autopsy report from 2013. they got to change. they are going to go like dinosaurs if they do not change. guest: they only need to change if they want to win an election. walter isright, calling from baltimore. third-party supporter. good morning. caller: good morning. as an independent more than third-party, when johnson open

his mouth, it was like a clean version of trump. the man is an idiot. so that his or my vote is going to clinton. to your guests, in dallas me ulge meis one fact -- ind with this one fact. the voter suppression of the nation, most people who just the idea of not being allowed to have their vote counted, i beg that to your mix as you comment on the idiocy and filth of that. i told you on c-span at year ago that donald trump is a filthy jerk -- host: let's let them unpack that. did have some very rigorous, onerous, depending on idr perspective, of voter and other restrictions put on

since 2012. more restricted early voting, that sort of thing, in some states. it looks like it can make a difference in some states. north carolina is near the top of the list. however, the federal courts have started throwing out some -- not these, which will ease them up a little. if you look back, you look at the number of voter fraud cases prosecuted during the george w. bush's eight years in office, they were miniscule. there is very little voter fraud problem in this country. sh prime minister asian aggressively sought it out and did not find much. but there are a lot of -- but the bush administration

aggressively sought it out and did not find much. some legislations are sincere, but some are trying to get partisan gangs to make it more difficult for strongly democratic voting groups to go. but the courts are starting to interfere, intervene. guest: i think i will throw a hand grenade on this one. a hugeoting -- i am not fan of early voting. i like the idea of the entire country going to vote on one day. i think there should be processes, options for people who cannot get to vote. we should make it easier for that. but people have already voted before donald trump's tape. they can consider it, they cannot consider it, that is their choice. but i like the idea of the whole country taking a deep breath and going and voting on whatever day it is. guest: i wrote a column about this eight or nine years ago.

there is a certain norman walk well -- norman rockwell thing about going up to a school and voting. old high school friend who moved to oregon write me a letter, who said picture this. you are sitting with your spouse at the kitchen table, and you have all of the voter guides are systematically going through the whole ballot. and some of these states have lots of ballot initiatives and things. and you are really able to make a more studied decision. old-fashioned. i like the norman rockwell thing. but the whole world is changing. we have to sort of go along with it. but it does reduce the volatility in the races, so latebreaking events matter less when a third of voters are voting early. as you said, you wrote as

a twice-weekly columnist -- guest: i switched a long time ago to national journal from rollcall. host: thank you for that. your resumes are both long. , columnist aterg the "washington post" as well. from we have tim greenwood, colorado, clinton supporter. caller: thank you for taking my call. i am kind of a political junkie. the first two sides i open in the biging is 538 for picture, then c-span for the individual view. my question is based on demographics and future demographics. i am over 50. i look at my generation. every time i hear callers who will call in and defend trump's

positions on race or even his billy bush tapes, these are people who come from the " father knows best" generation. people like kimberly and her generation, they do not buy into this. i am wondering if you can speak to what is going to happen over the next 20 years as my generation gets scraped off their earth, and it is her generation and kids voting. how will that impact the vote? guest: let me add that can really -- kimberly is scrupulously nonpartisan and independent. goodhe caller makes a point. when you look at younger generations, again, they are very different from those of us 1950'sw up, born in the and 1960's, or 1940's or even 1970's. looking again at the nbc-"wall street journal numbers, among

24, that -- 18 to 34, that trump is behind. republicans are loaded up 65 and older. and trump performs a little better than the typical or as republicanhe typical among the younger group. but under 50, he has some support, but it is not a lot. hillary clinton also have an issue getting millennials? guest: she is having some trouble. they view her as a traditional politician, using politician language. they seem to want more dramatic change. there is no question about that. but walter is right about how you have to look at the age cohorts and groups. but you have to member as they

age, sometimes their views change. theyu have to remember, as age, sometimes their views change. when i was in my 40's, older democratics entered as new dealists and kept that through. voters are more republican, because they entered at a different point in time. many people who enter as a 65-year-old republicans, they started out more liberal. generations change. the basic point is younger voters generally tend to be more progressive and liberal. that is a long-term problem for republicans. they will have to change voting patterns for some groups. isst: if you think about who the dominant political person for a generation. for people who grew up immediately and during the great

depression, it was franklin roosevelt. for the group 65 and older now, it is ronald reagan. and the voting patterns reflect that. nowadays, it is not so much ronald reagan. you have millennial voters who were not even alive when ronald reagan was president. host: ok, we have a call from tulsa, a donald trump supporter. supporters, we trump really do not want the united states to go the way of venezuela. to the issues. discussion of trump wins -- i know a lot of people elected doubletalk the issue, like the caller who called in as an independent, talking about illegal immigration and the concern of , who docked it and

call him a trump supporter. that is a tactic people continue to use. do not talk about the issues -- global warming, for example, is a disaster. big government takeover of energy industry and run the costs. no discussion on the issues. that is why the media is keeping people ignorant in order for them to vote democrat -- host: let's let charlie and stuart unpack that. thet: when you look at data, you actually use numbers -- i hear this from liberals and conservatives. they all complain that our person would win on the issues, it is the other extraneous things changing. i would tell coleman it is his to and donald trump's job convince people he is right on the issues.

and talk to people in a way in which they will hear him. and use that information to decide how to cast their votes. to blame that on the media, that we want to keep people ignorant, there is a wealth of information out there. not just different tv channels, ,nternet websites, books magazines -- there is enough information for people to decide for themselves. so i guess i do not have a lot of sympathy in this regard. i do not think it is the media's fault. i think hillary clinton just thes would say same as you, why can we not get back to the issues? but it is an extraneous thing. guest: i would add a depends on the issue. this is the fox news poll taken just before the first presidential debate.

-- sorry, after the first presidential debate but before the bush thing. , whorms of race relations would you trust more to do a better job? 35.ton, 58, trump foreign policy, clinton, 56, trump, 39. immigration, lynton, 51. trump 45. nominating the next supreme court justice -- clinton, 58, trump 44. now terrorism and national security. trump 48., handling the economy. trump 50., managing tax dollars, clinton, 44, trump 49. this terrorist groups like isis. clinton, 41, trump, 52. whichends -- it depends

issue you are looking at. this is the fox news poll. it is not likely it is slanted against a conservative candidate or donald trump. toterms of the ability handle a crisis situation, clinton, 54% have confidence in her. she is plus nine. in the same fox poll. trump, 45% would have trust or confidence in trump's judgment in a crisis. 45% would not. -- 45%. 55 would not. he is at -10. it depends on which angle you are looking at. guest: let me add it is not simply what is your position on issues and the other person's position. a lot of people vote in who they have confidence in in terms of leadership and the ability to communicate with the country. -- judgment.es

it is not about issues. it is about understanding problems and making the right decision, whatever issues come up. about style and substance, there are still 30 days left in the election. if donald trump wins, how might that change the way campaigns are run from here on in? adst: when you watch the tv of automobiles racing around mountain sides and stuff, saying this is done on a closed track by a professional driver, i would tell would be candidates is do not try this at home. donald trump was born and raised in the media capital of the world. while he has never run for office before, he is clearly a lifelong student of the media and has learned -- and i do not say this in a pejorative way -- manipulate the media to his benefit.

but we have never seen a politician able to do this. maybe there are other people in the future he will again out how to do it. i say the average, typical person running for office, i would not try to replicate this. your odds of pulling it off are a lot less. guest: we are also at a particular time and place. the electorate has a particular mood, which may continue indefinitely or may change, where voters are looking for a more traditional campaign. the joke around political circles is if donald trump wins, every specialist and ground game field operation will be put out of business, because he did not have a field operation in the primaries and nomination fight and is only now trying to put something together. host: melvyn's calling from fort lauderdale, florida, clinton supporter. good morning. caller: good morning. i have not heard donald trump

explained not one thing about any policy he has put out yet. he tells you he talks about the polls he is up in. he will never give you an in-depth way of how he is going to enforce any of the things he is talking about. one thing you need to do is have someone explain the differences in the borders. there are only two or three countries where the borders are completely closed the at most are controlled. -- where the borders are completely closed. most are controlled. when the lady indicated hillary clinton is against trade, no. she's four. and now donald trump talking that he is a genius -- i have whereheard of a genius -- was that genius from 1998 with the bankruptcies in 2009? no genius does the same thing

and fails three times in the same area. unpack.at is a lot to let's let charlie cook and stu rothenberg take a crack. guest: melvin has a favorite in the race. of reasons, i think he made that clear. that is a legitimate point of view, just as, to some extent, coleman's was to they like one candidate but not the other. guest: you do have to segment the trump vote into two groups. one group just really likes and admires donald trump. a second group that despises hillary clinton. and they are willing to look past trump's problems and any shortcomings he may have, just as hillary clinton has shortcomings. they are willing to look past that because the pivot point is hillary clinton. they will be there, no matter what. i do not think donald trump's away in any way,

but his ability to tap into the voters between the 45 yard line, that are undecided and generally do not like hillary clinton, his ability restricted in terms of reaching those people. host: let's shift to the senate races. the senate is possibly up for grabs this election year. how is the presidential race in general affecting the senate race in some of the close polls where? guest: i think the dominant forces in this race are unrelated to the presidential. whenever i tell people that they want to look at the senate races nationally, i suggest they do two things. "is this ak presidential election or midterm election?" presidential elections, the turnout is a and broad. elections, the

turnout is about 40% lower and it tends to be more white and older and republican. and you have to look what happened six years earlier. in 2010, president obama's votes were in the toilet. the affordable care act was radioactive. democrats had an awful year. republicans were able to pick up six seats. have 24ult, republicans seats up in 2016. democrats only have 10. seven republican seats are up in states where obama carried. there are no democratic seats open in states mitt romney carries. so republicans just have more exposure here. it has nothing to do with donald trump and hillary clinton. no matter what is going on, they would have problems. i think the senate will be a photo finish. a-50, give or take, as seat - seat. guest: up until a couple days

ago, i thought the impact was minimal, because -- and i still , which itl disproven may be disproven in the next senate that republican candidates, mostly senate incumbents, have been able to run as their own candidate, focus on their opponent. and not have their races be a referendum on donald trump. part of this is donald trump is presidentialtical candidate. i think voters have been making this distinction. donald trump but there's kelly ayotte. there is donald trump, but there is pat toomey. the danger for republicans is donald trump does so poorly that, as we approach the election, it looks like he will lose and lose badly. there will be a greater risk of republican voters saying "i will not even bother to vote, i will stay home." an efforts are making

to avoid that logic and energize the republican voters and people yooteupport toomey and a and richard burr and the like. we will see how that -- toomey a nd ayotte and richard burr and the like. we will see how that goes. look like a 10 point or 12 point race, which huge in the current political environment, that would be problem -- that would be a problem for the republicans. guest: for republicans, the danger is turnout drops. what i think they will do is and foreir argument on the swing voters who do not particularly like hillary clinton but will probably end up voting for her is make the case do not give hillary clinton a blank check. because you have a lot of voters who will reluctantly vote for clinton, but they do not really like or trust her.

i think this argument, do not give clinton a blank check, could help pat toomey in pennsylvania or richard burr or kelly ayotte a new hampshire. that could be pivotal. host: taking a look at the koch report on the senate -- on the cook report on senate races. it has seven races that are tossups. , thet rothenberg rothenberg and gonzales report has three tossups. they are new hampshire, nevada, and pennsylvania. but the new hampshire race in particular has been one republicans have been watching. let's look at a political ad from democrat governor maggie hassan, who is challenging republican kelly ayotte in that race, trying to tie kelly ayotte to donald trump. [video clip] >> would you tell a child to

aspire to be like donald trump? widepoint to him as a role model? >> absolutely. >> she gained a massive amount of weight. and there was no problem. >> donald trump call you "miss piggy." how did that make you feel? >> so sad. >> here is a woman, and she cannot make it 15 feet to her car. you can see there, he suffers from a chronic condition that impairs movement of his arms. >> i do not know what i said, i do not remember. i look right in the sad, ugly face of hers. blood coming out of her wherever. >> would you point to donald trump as a role model? >> absolutely, i would do that. senator ayotte, immediately after the debate, said she misspoke, and donald

trump was not a role model. yesterday she went even further, not vote for him after the revelation of the tape with billy bush. how impactful do you think that ad will be? a race somewhere between that even and kelly ayotte up by three or four points. it was close. of an had a little bit advantage. my guess is it pulls it back to dead even. year, ajust a horrible year republicans are having to perform all kinds of gymnastics. they're getting cool between the trump supporters and swing voters. -- they are getting pooled -- pulled between the trump supporters and swing voters. guest: the presidential race has been from being competitive to opening up for five points. the republican senate and house

,andidates have moved around thinking donald trump is stronger than they thought he would be. so they were willing to say they would vote for him. but then he says something bad, and the vote changes. this is a problem. the ad you shows are what democrats around the country are trying to do. nationalize the race. saying that the election is a referendum on donald trump. kelly ayotte would love to have her comment back right now. she would love to have that back, because it was a mistake. calling inve richard from massachusetts, an undecided voter. you are on with charlie cook and stuart rothenberg. i am 72.irst of all, i have never voted in my life. know whattes, they they will be asked.

they call each other names and then shake hands. my number one thing is this but ament is nothing camouflaged dictatorship. if they doe nothing not want you to say it. i do not know how may times i called my congresspeople to andn, kennedy, now warren, they just laugh at me. i have three letters sitting at my table, all from warren. it is the same old stuff. they do not listen to year. that is why i do not vote. they never listen to you. host: let's let them respond. guest: i have been on c-span as long as there has been a c-span. have both been here. i have never said anything ugly to a caller. but if you think this country is a dictatorship and your 73 and

have never voted, i have absolutely no before you whatsoever. you watched c-span, you write your member of congress and you do not vote? good grief. host: next, alan is calling from washington, d.c., third-party voter. appreciate your work. i am in st. louis now. i have been in philadelphia and cleveland and hofstra and longwood. a good feel on the ground and looking at polls. i can tell you that i really think a very large percentage of bernie sanders supporters are going to vote for the green party. yet i am not seeing any ink that reflects this in the polls. to me, it is mystifying. i was hoping you could comment on that. and if i could get a plug for student loans.org.

guest: you know, jill stein getting, what, 3%, more or less, which is roughly 10 times the third of 1% she got in 2012. i think there are a lot of people who do not like hillary clinton, do not like donald trump, they are tempted to vote for a gary johnson or jill stein. at the same time, they know the election is important, they know the outcome is important, and that is a throw away vote. it is basically saying i do not want to have to choose between hillary clinton and donald trump, so i will throw my vote to someone who has no possible chance of winning. most people do not do that. some do. host: but is it a throwaway? say a vote fors gary johnson is essentially a vote for donald trump. gary johnson and jill stein, neither will be elected president.

in a sense, you are choosing not to choose between the two people who could possibly win. is that throwing it away? it is a statement. they are making a statement they do not like the major party candidates. that is fine. but it really does not make them in the choice between trump and clinton, which will decide the next president. saw an adile ago, we from new hampshire, democratic governor maggie hassan. let's look at an ad from republican senator kelly ayotte. [video clip] trump and hillary clinton are far from perfect. i am not perfect either. but when partisan politicians shut down the government, i led the fight to free open it. i worked to find solutions to new hampshire's opioid epidemic. i have been called a problem

solver and ranked as one of the most bipartisan senators. i am kelly ayotte. i approve this message, because whether i'm working with republicans, democrats, or independence, i am standing up for new hampshire. host: does that message of bipartisanship carry anymore? -- shein new hampshire is trying to separate herself from trump, yet not get in bed clinton. that was a good ad. both the as we watched were good. guest: right in the beginning with donald trump as a nominee, she had to carve out her own personal profile. to do that, you talk about how bipartisan you are, how independent you are. you know areas where you disagree with your own party or your own party nominee. new hampshire has a good chunk of independent voters. i do not think she is trying to get hard-core democrats, but i

do not think that is the purpose of the act. democratsndence, soft host: gary is calling from san francisco, 12 supported. can one. -- 12 supported. good morning. caller: good morning. i have one comment for mr. rothenberg. he mentioned all the information is out there and you can get it. with a completely of solve the media of giving voters correct information so they can make the right choices? we pay for our televisions and we watch spectacle replace policies. to mr. cook, air answer to the gentleman in his 70's was terribly disrespectful and i think is a symptom of how we have been pushed into an

ideological absolutism, rather than listen to people just to say he is wrong. it speaks for itself. host: we will let you both respond. guest: i would say somebody that complains literally about government that does not vote, no, i don't have respect for them. media, a longat time ago, media meant abc, cbs, news -- news, that was media. today, it encompasses everything msnbc, frees to republic.com, conservative websites to the far left, social media, so if anybody says they are not getting anything out of my guess, the media, is they ought to get the computer and sign up for cable because it is coming in like a fire hose. the question is, are you getting

a reasonable sample of all of it or are you getting it from one place? guest: i think there are legitimate questions in the media. the role of the moderator during debates. one school of thought is that the moderator should correct error and point out misstatements. other one said, it is up to the other side. kind of like lawyers and a trial in defense and prosecution. it is up to them to make their cases and judges are supposed to make should that the rules are fair for them to make the cases, so there are issues there. i have plenty of problems with the media these days and how they report on polling. there are certain shows everybody watches. they spend the rest of their day and that is the truth and ignoring everything else. would behe media putting six people in a box and -- squawk about the candidates is not enlightening, but charlie is right, if you want to learn about the candidates, not a good

to the campaign websites, the party website and you do learning. i do not think that is the problem to require a voter to pay attention and make effort in this. i think the information is there. that i wasll say talking to the dean of one of the best journalism schools in america and i was complaining of they about the role traditional old-fashioned .ournalism this year i think it is the worst i have ever seen, and we are at the friends and and even taking some of the most respected newspapers in the country giving trump a pass for a long time while the -- i networks and c-span exempt c-span because you have always run speeches and rallies and things, but other networks handing over the airwaves to and you have seen

some of the most respected newspapers in the country reaching over and editorializing in their news columns, front page news columns, breaking every standard ever taught in journalism. i think that this has been the most horrible year, but it is like watching a basketball game that has been badly rep. reed:, or the make a bunch of bad calls and they try to make make up calls in the end. when you say, once you play it i'm not defending journalism because i think this year has been produced horrible for journalism. anybody who says if permission is not out there, they are not looking. host: you said information is coming in like a fire hose, what about polling? when i look at real clear politics on any given day, i realize that is the polling the came out the day before. every day there seems to be too much. is there too much polling? guest: there is a lot of bad

polling out there. could thist afternoon get a domain name for some research and make up some numbers out of the clear blue sky, make a nice-looking website and pump it out there and it would be complete made up stuff, and some people would publish it , run with it, embrace it, and there are no entry barriers for people to claim their polling, and some as high-quality and some of it is garbage. kind of have to know something and he a research to find out which ones are worth watching and which ones ought to be worth ignoring. guest: remember, there are polls that are not public polls. there are real professionals to our getting paid to get the numbers right rather than some institute established by some college or university seeking to boost name recognition,

therefore, get more applications. be average ore to know the difference in the polls and evaluate them differently. guest: anti-privately with the people that they talk about and we have both known lots of pollsters who have been in the business for 30 odd years and we have known them the whole time. you seeing? and they are doing maybe some national polling and doing it in 5, 10, 15, 25 states with each individual week and will privately say, well, i am starting to get nervous about x, y, z. that is how we are able to do our job, is to be able to talk to these folks off the record and find out and get the benefit of what they are seeing. that will usually give us their actual numbers that sort of

impressions and there are people who have dealt with for 20 years and they will not mislead you. guest: let me say one other thing. the ones that i look at all the abc, cnn polls, nbc, and fox -- guest: and pew. guest: i were stated more surveys now that i look at gallup and quinnipiac. you have emerson college, which is only land lines, and they manipulate the data because they don't use cell phones. you have the l.a. times stuff, which is a paddle survey -- guest: experimental. guest: you have to use some judgment i think. that is the only problem i have with averaging everything. you have to average everything or can you pull out two polls at the polls that are constant

outliers and then average them out? guest: pollster.com is somewhat more inclusive than real clear politics, but i wish they would be a little bit more discriminating in which polls they cover, absolutely. ose is calling from ohio, trump supporter. good morning. caller: our country is in a sad situation. all these politicians through decades two decades have not been 100% honest with the american people. you have got hillary on one hand that lies to the american people . all she cares about is the boat. vote.the all the time she has been in office, we need change and that is why i am supporting donald trump. yes, he has done some scandals, too, but that was before he became a politician.

you have got to look at both sides. do we want change? rapdo we want the same old c from year-to-year? host: let's let them address your question. guest: i talk to someone when you're ago or so it was starting to pick it up and i was expressing some chagrin that republicans were not -- you are having republicans with stellar qualifications that were not doing so well, but i was expressing some chagrin. the person i was talking to said -- talking about trump and carson -- how can they do any worse than what we have had? thinking, we are talking about the president of the united states, so we could get blown up, that would be worse our where we are in the cap

economy. it is not as good or as in good shape as i would have liked in 2015 or today, and there are a lot of things i would take the differently than president obama and i think our economy could be in better shape. having said that, then or now would i have traded places of our economy with the united kingdom? germany? france? china? no. question? no. brazil? no. our country and economy is less worse than any other major country, so could things get worse? yes, they could get worse, and that is as someone who is not been a big fan of president obama. guest: i would say that rose's view that the majority of the country needs a change, if you look at the country headed in the right direction, about two thirds of americans, between 30% generally say the right direction.

the desire for change is strong got there. it is fueled and continues to feel the term campaign. host: how do you compare that with president obama being at a high approval rating? guest: his ratings are up in comparison to the other two candidates. there is aeat, but good point in the follow-up question to the change -- what kind of change? who is bringing the change? so that the republicans have dominated a different candidate who is more traditional and had more therience and talked more way politicians talk, that is using language that demonstrates a maturity and caution and seriousness, -- guest: i think they could change -- guest: that could have taken advantage of the change. ab bush could the man as candidate for change, marco

rubio, serbia had a candidate like that, this whole thing that it expresses, a republican would be much better shape. guest: change is a big thing and donald trump is for change. a lot of it is different change. what kind of change? of president obama has job approval ratings right now of 52% and 55%. just because someone says they or for change doesn't mean necessarily say what specific changes they would like. at that point, things get a lot of disagreement. host: we have myra from new york, a clinton supporter. good morning. caller: good morning to all of the of. i was just wondering, is guys talk a lot so much, talked forever, but i am a clinton supporter and i am always wondering why people see trump

as a change. as a businessman, he taps himself as a businessman and successful one. don't people investigate what he did to atlantic city? the fact that he used chinese steel seven american steel? another thing i would say, how do you get about -- go about getting honest information? guest: i would respond that people have a tendency to see what they want to see. the pick and choose the sum the information out there and they take information that is more comfortable and avoid cognitive dissonance, when they hold one view of evidence as contrary. that is really the answer to the question. there is a lot of information out there and it is how you evaluate it and how you

evaluated in terms of your on view. i think that is part of the problem we have. that is the human condition. part of having opinions. viewers would just urge , besides watching c-span, we get diversity points of view, identifier separate sources so that you can listen to some things you agree with, but also spend a few hours a week watching or listening to a network, a channel of people that you probably disagree with , and my beinglf honest? generally speaking, on both ends of the spectrum, you have very bright people who are cherry picking arguments to reinforce youpoint of view, and if are not getting an alternative point of view, and you are not get that on anyone cable network

, you are justpan reinforcing preconceived notions and falling into an ideological rut. we have ideological silos in this country, where people are getting -- or conservative people get more and more conservative and liberal people more liberal because of the lack of a balanced media diet. host: let's talk about tonight's debate. the last debate was one of the highest watched in some time, probably up until tonight's debate. conceit super bowl numbers. what you expect tonight from the candidates and how much might that move the needle? a pretty good idea what hillary clinton will show up. sure ofolutely not which donald trump will show up. that if athink measured, disciplined, practiced

, focus donald trump had shown up in the first debate, i think you would be a lot better off today. but i do not think he has the focus to stay on task for 90 minutes and not go off the rails negativeorce all the preconceived notions people have. referendum ona hillary clinton up or down, she would lose. donald trump is not allowing this to become a referendum on hillary clinton. guest: i try not to have too many preconceived notions because then you get into evaluating the debate and how it performs and how they perform versus how you expected, and i take it as, how they are and let's evaluate that. i think the big question, as charlie points out, is donald trump going to be super angry and aggressive? try to engage and take the fight against the media and begins to a clinton?

or will the start by being apologetic, sincere? or try to be sincere. that statement the other night was not much of an effort to show sincerity, i thought. guest: it looks like a hostage video. guest: [laughter] is he going to do that? i do not know. it depends on which trump shows up. i agree that clinton does these all the time, during the campaign, and she will be poised and suitably empathetic with the questionnaires. is can't from panama city, florida. david is undecided. i would like to say to all those rockstar chasers, including monica lewinsky, bill areton and donald trump

owed an apology for denying their true intentions and character. that is it. host: a response to that question mark guest: i'm not sure -- response that? guest: i'm not sure i understand. host: robert is calling from illinois, donald trump supported. good morning. caller: good morning. i voted for hillary in 2008. this time around, i am voting for trump. i hope all of the independent voters in the swing states that the votes for mr. trump, but my question to both of your guests this morning is i do jump around and watch different medias and i have never seen the media cash mr. trump has to run against hillary, republicans, the media. the media is here and they notice how rabid the media has become. like [indiscernible] -- host: go ahead.

with: i do not disagree the caller. for the last three weeks of four weeks, i have seen an overview -- an overly aggressive and decidedly anti-trump town, and we have crept into the news pages of some of the best newspapers in america, for example. whereis is after a time other cable networks a sickly handed their airwaves over to trump. i mean, networks that had amersham complete speeches before. c-span, you have always done this, but having trump exclusively and then reluctantly other candidates, and then in the early debates and the debates during the republican feet not holding trump's to the fire because they do not want to alienate him because

whenever he came on the air, even on the phone, their ratings so they did not aggressively go after him for the longest time. now, they're taking a lead pipe and beating the hell out of the guy and i'm afraid they are lowering journalistic standards that in the weight long after donald trump, when we are all gone, that the nature of that claims a certain rules may have gone to the wayside in 2016 because they chose not to be as aggressive as they should have been at the front end of the race. guest: i agree completely with robert. the community of journalist is much more outspoken. i think what has happened is, i agree with charlie, many journalists are offended by donald trump, angered by donald trump. it is one thing if it is mitt romney versus barack obama and most journalists show that over

the year, not a surprise, most tend to be more democratic and liberal, but they have been able to be detached. i'm not talking about talking heads, their point of you folks that expect george will to take a point of view, but i am talking about journalists. i think they are offended by donald trump's lack of knowledge , showing a desire to study, to learn, they believe that. you may disagree, but that is their view, and i think they have been more outspoken. it worries me a little bit -- but also look at newspapers. republican newspapers have never endorsed a democrat and now endorsing hillary clinton or endorsing a libertarian, so i think robert is correct on this.

i share charley's nervousness on whether this is a fundamental shift or you do not see this kind of visceral hostility with john mccain or mitt romney or even the bush -- it is a mocking of george w. bush been at the like this. from providence, rhode island, clinton supporter. good morning, thomas. caller: good morning. i just wanted to ask the question about why don't the media or the television or the cable or whatever, why don't they just let donald trump say what he wanted to say without people interrupting him or trying to make him to say? let him show his true colors. you do not need all these other people telling him what to say, how to say it. let him be himself and let everyone see for him -- for themselves what we are dealing with. host: one to address that? guest: i don't know. i think they have given donald trump some pretty long periods

,f time, 30 minutes a shot uninterrupted, standing in front of a group and saying what they wanted to say. i have a lot of criticism of coverage this year, but not letting donald trump say what he wants to say, that is not something i have seen. guest: i think they have given him that freedom to say that and this will cover entire speeches. i even hesitate to say that, but there is a small cable network funded by conservatives, even more conservative than fox, ,alled one american news, oan and that donald trump wants to speak, i turned them on because i know there will be covering him and they just put the camera on him. on, let's putarly him on there, he is so ridiculous and people will see right through it. i remember watching many months ago, and they would be interviewing trump and it would

ask the questions and they would get the response and they would go, ok. now, when you look when they interview a trump person, he pushes back and is one of the most aggressive questioners and one of the better questioners. i think they tried that, hey, it is ridiculous, let him talk, and then they concluded he won the nomination doing that, now they had to have a different role to challenge. host: supporter from springfield, virginia, good morning, carry. caller: going to joel stein, of the green party, the strongest candidate i think. met many times. i admire your work. about the talks people, the planet and peace, giving 41 million students student debt, every dollar like

the g.i. bill that create seven dollars -- dollars for the economy and dr. stein talks about green jobs, rail jobs, 50 million new american jobs. host: do you have a question at the end of that? caller: i do. we have seen dr. stein pulling as high as 7%, but often times in the polls, dr. joel stein, that includes dr. joel stein of the green party, and we see maybe 9% and sometimes even more where there is nothing there. what is going on with that one final point -- tonight, the debate. democracy now and dr. joel stein is in that debate. thank you. guest: i have not seen -- i am looking right now -- i have not seen a single pole. right now, i am looking at all the national polls. i am looking for one that shows

stein, here is 4%. here is a bloomberg. i'm looking at 1, 2, occasionally for -- weight, a five in early september. there was an economist with five. no, no. i do not see a six or seven going back to may. wait, there was a six. host: [laughter] guest: nbc wall street journal in mid-june had a six, but no. it is ones, twos and threes. host: those all have margins that very. guest: she is averaging right now 2.3. guest: remember, she received about .3 of 1% when she ran for years ago. of a baseline. she is doing much better and she is getting 1% or 3%.

significant improvement, but let's not for trade this as a credible candidate to win. she may be credible candidate in terms of experience, language, knowledge of issues, that is fine, but as [indiscernible] she's way out of margin. ask the is calling and top supporter. good morning. caller: two of my greatest guests. i am so happy i got in, i am tickled. charlie, there is not a democrat in congress or senate that does not know that hillary clinton is 30. there is not a republican in the senate of congress that doesn't know hillary clinton is dirty. the difference between the two for the democrats, she is their dirty candidate. the trouble with republicans is they don't have enough brains, sense, background or guts to islize that their candidate

him and they should back in. the key is to win. the difference with the difference with republicans are -- and i am a conservative, i used to be a democrat news ago -- the difference is trump has brought up subjects that the american population out here, republicans, democrats, many, have been waiting for somebody to talk about. host: we're almost out of time. i want to give them a chance to respond to you. i think that it is absolutely true that trump is tapping into anger, alienation, that a lot of people feel strongly help. actually, it was interesting. when hillary clinton maker now famous deplorable statement, it was half of trump supporters are from this. this was a basket full of i do not think

that is an appropriate thing for y at all, but the second have got left outcome and that was the other half, people who are struggling economically, lost faith in the system, and basically the second half of that statement i think was a recognition, and she said, and we have to understand these people. i think that was absolutely dead on. unfortunately, overshadowed by all the deplorables, but i think they need to listen. this is around the world, and whether it is what is going on europe, columbia, the philippines, that there is a populist insurrection going on out there and elites in the establishment need to listen and need to kind of figure out what to do and read this is coming from and understand and address it. host: 30 seconds left. we enjoy hearing from you as much as you enjoy us.

trump's issues, yes, they are resonating, but the downside is the crudeness, vulgarity, the kind of lack of discipline, and that is what is holding donald trump back. host: charlie cook, stuart rothenberg, two top political analysts, thank you so much. in just a moment, we will be going back to your calls asking this question spirit what would you like to see and what are your top questions for the candidates for tonight's debate? trump supporters can call (202)-748-8001. clinton supporters, (202)-748-8000. third-party supporters, (202)-748-8002. and undecided voters can call (202)-748-8003. before we get to those calls, we'll go back to washington university in st. louis, where we are now joined by noaa, the editor in chief of student life

there. you can see that she is in front of our c-span bus, which is there in st. louis at the site of the debate. good morning. >> good morning. thank you for having me. host: how do plan on covering tonight's debate? exciting.eally we are incredibly lucky to be able to have this kind of opportunity. we have our entire team armed and ready the assignments all around campus all day today, waiting to see what happens. photographers, reporters, even name it. people shooting video. we can only prepare so much for the craziness, especially given the fact that none of us have covered this event before, but we are ready and we have a paper coming up tomorrow with all the happenings from the weekend. host: how big is your staff and how many reporters will do have at the event? 20% senior staff,

said the senior editors of all the sections, and then somewhere around 40% to 50% more reporters and writers and photographers today. host: on campus, what have you been hearing from students? what are they excited about put the debate and what sort of things other looking to hear tonight? i think a lot of the excitement has been over the past couple of days as media showed up. i think we knew what was coming but we did not know entirely what to expect. i did not expect what we're having come all of this media, really exciting to be at this center, or the world will be looking tonight. host: how much access have you the able to have to campaign? had he been able to talk to folks leading up to this? >> we have been unable to talk to people inside their campaigns

yet. we are working to talk to the people inside of jill stein's, but we do have to people going inside the athletic complex for of debate, so we have a lot access to different journalist here, which is really exciting. host: we mentioned earlier that the overall cost and holding a debate like this is about $5 million. when have students said there about that have to price tag? costis the reaction to the of putting this kind of debate together? students --ome there are some who have expressed concern about the price tag and there are others who see the benefits. ♪ i think you have to weigh the cost and benefits to hosting the event, so we are on the national stage, but it does cost that much money. host: it sounds a commence are underway, thank you for joining us at c-span and have fun covering the debate tonight. >> thank you for having me.

host: that is live coverage from st. louis. the presidential debate happening at washington university there tonight. you can watch all the coverage on c-span beginning at 7:30. we will be covering the lead up and the debate. you can follow it on c-span, c-span.org, and on c-span radio through the c-span radio app. -- john fromnois, illinois, clinton supporter. what would you like to be asked -- what would you like them to be asked tonight? caller: i would tell people in the debate by listening. maybe they can do one of these. my question for mr. trump is he is saying that he is no longer the man he was when he made those comments. and that he would not do that kind of thing today.

he was already a think over 60 years old at that point. my question would be, well, what is it that changed in your life? what event or events is it that make you a different person now that would not do that when you were 60? most of us do not see much difference between him now and then. that would be the first question. the question for hillary clinton is what is the difference between what she did with her and if richard nixon, when told to turn over the tapes, which knowing you existed, like knowing you hillary's e-mails so to speak existed because it was a different server, what if richard nixon had said, the court wants me to turn these over, i am going to go through these of my own attorneys and i will turn them over after i go through them and a race everything and i promise i will turn over everything that is

work-related, which is similar to what hillary did and knowing you did existed and the court said, we need these e-mails and she said, i will tell you what, me and my lawyers went through them and we turned over everything work-related. host: those are a couple of questions for the candidates tonight. in "the post" today, they talk about the elephant stampede, many members of the gop trying to escape donald trump and they worry about a lot in the presidential race, as well as other races. the post says gop strategists now worried that trump could suffer a bigger loss on november 8 than they previously feared, oneing spillover and thought for a republican candidates. that means the control of the senate is an even greater jeopardy. some doomsayers have begun to speculate that even their house

majority may be in danger. that is the situation according to some gop strategist ahead of tonight's debate. stephen is calling from connecticut, undecided voter. what would you like to hear and see the candidates ask tonight? obviously, there is an october surprise, which is really quite a shock for the trump campaign manager's they were insisting the whole campaign toward suburban women and itn this bombshell is really quite something. i think that is the open it, but for me personally, i would like taxes,them take on carried interest, tax loopholes, and carried interest, carried

interest, and childcare. they have not talked about childcare since seven today with president and 10. that was a long time ago. i would like to see childcare and how can we restructure our taxes? host: again, looking at this pew research report about what folders would like to see the candidates spend the most time on during the debate. economic growth and economic issues ranked pretty hyper those who support donald trump and hillary clinton. health care policy frank's high, as well. on that list, we will see tonight whether the questions that reflect voters questions that, and from ohio, term supporter. good morning, kim. caller: good morning. host: what would you like to see the candidates asked tonight? caller: first, how they control the cost of health care.

not that they get free health care or that insurance companies make more money, but the health care system itself is making ungodly amounts of money off the interest companies, but also what happens to live another years ago, donald trump was probably talking about while he was single. there's nobody out there who can say that once they got married, their life did not change. he is been married to this woman for 11 years. his life had to have changed or he would not still be married to her 11 years later. host: we have frame and calling from waco, texas, hillary clinton supporter. but would you like the voters at tonight's debate task the candidates tonight? caller: yes, ma'am. good morning. and i will sayt the only reason albert for donald trump.

-- corporate world has this country by the throat, and until pullse a candidate that the rules on the corporate world and on that. frank, maybe things will change. that is what i voted for bernie sanders, but now clinton, and clinton, the only reason i vote for her is because you don't even know the war and i think donald trump will take us there host:. all right, zoe from nevada, third party supporter, what are you hoping they asked secretary clinton and mr. trump? asker: i would like to hillary clinton, or in two years she had the house, senate and presidency? it takes 10 days to pass a bill.

she did nothing. she could up past any bill she wanted. talk, likees is donald trump says, and no action. they need to talk about just the two years. she conducted anything she wanted, and she did nothing. host: just to be fair, she was not president. there was a democratic president and the democratic congress, but what about people who point out that both republicans and advocat's in congress have been obstructing the movement of some legislation? shouldn't they both bear some of the brunt of that? caller: immigration -- she talks about immigration. host: ok. you are on. caller: yes, she talks about immigration. president obama promised her he was going to pass immigration in and he hasear

promised to redo it. host: calling from philadelphia, term supporter. good morning, jacqueline. caller: excuse me. i am sitting here and enjoying the cartoon for my own benefit. bill clinton, arnold schwarzenegger and i don't know the other guy, throwing stones at trump, and i said to myself, yes, that goes for me to. cast the first stone. i named the cartoon that because who are we? host: you are saying the event of the last couple of days have not changed your support at all? caller: no, it hasn't. he did apologize and make apologize again. i am a sinner. we are all sinners. i have listened to his apology if it is there.

i think it is a good thing that this happened, even for donald trump. it was a good thing. a clintony is supporter from green bay, wisconsin. good morning. caller: good morning. my comment is on the remark that rudy giuliani said that the clinton e-mails who is first in the next an era, well, i was looking for a republican congress when at that time, and there is nowhere near the comparison when all of these guys went to jail, so i cannot see where he lost his memory there. host: what would you like to see the candidates asked tonight at the debate? caller: ask? to ask mr.ld like trump why his son is leading the

ing the kkk?eet that upsets me. host: next, ronald from virginia. caller: good morning. trump, like to ask mr. has he no shame? how can he even show up? he is still the same person. now i would like to ask, why doesn't he remind people that the guy that was supposed to become a house speaker, that this e-mail nonsense was contrived to make killer clinton with dad? -- to make hillary clinton look bad? [indiscernible] host: just some of the points that have been brought up by some of our collars about the

tape released, showing donald trump making lewd comments. he was 59 years old when he was recorded on the set of a soap opera making those comments. he was married to his current wife melania, who at the time their son whenth the comments are made. is john, john from connecticut, good morning, term supporter. caller: hi, i would like to ask you a clinton the question. do you think we are better off today than we were four years ago? to highlightike three areas. our health care system as compared to europe? no. our transportation as compared to europe? absolutely not. our infrastructure compared to europe? no way. what do you say? what do you think of giving all our money to europe? which we are doing.

i would like to see if you have a good answer for finally taking care of america. thank you. host: norma is a third-party supporter from hastings, england. good morning. are you going to be watching the debate from across the pond? i would like to ask hillary clinton two questions. how much has she taken from goldman sachs because she has taken large amounts of money, and the second question, it goldman sachs paid their staff $140,000 or $240,000, including several thousand, and could she explained to me just how after the crisis, many of the people last monday, goldman sachs had

that money and how did they get it? host: are you -- can you vote in this election? caller: no, but i do follow american politics. host: why do you follow it so closely and since you are in england, how do you see the similarities to the politics there in the recent brexit votes? caller: it is not what you are told by the media but what you are not. in the crisis with clinton and the woman in his life and all of that. they help the parents together and she was a sensible girl and she was not going to get married straight away but wait a while. [indiscernible] the reason she did not get married is her father-in-law was in jail at that time.

none of the media talked about that. press wouldw, the [indiscernible] times, we do not believe what we say because [indiscernible] [indiscernible] host: more on clinton's remarks that were revealed in an herrent e-mail hack from campaign staffers that show some messages and some speeches that -- ande to coleman sachs goldman sachs. republicans have called the that it reveals something more about hillary clinton and says "hillary clinton's secret wall street speeches prove what we have known all along, that clinton is a self-serving washington insider who has continued to

deceive the american people for 30 years." jason miller says in an e-mail to reporters that outlined several potentially unflattering quotes or subjects from to wall streetss banking giants goldman sachs and other finance groups. that is in today's "washington post" about the fallout from the revelation of those e-mails. karen is calling from roanoke, texas, term supporter. good morning. dear, andllo, my thank you for taking my call. one for each of the candidates, and it is the moral issues versus the national dangers we face in our country, and for donald trump, i would ask him, how would you rise above the establishment and the

accusations of your past and establishment republicans, who have probably skeletons in their own closet, and get back to the important issues that face our nation? askwith hillary, i would with all the firestorm toward trumps path, how do you either reconcile or justify your own family's paths and show you are more qualified to be president of the united states? host: clinton supporter audrey calling from tampa, florida. what would you like to hear the candidates or what question would you happen the candidates if you could ask? caller: i am changing my monitoredo trump for

the moderator, but what i would ask him is where are the tax returns? besidesthe real reason the fraud when you give us about being audited, show me the tax return, i would like to see what is in it, and from my future president, i would ask, what we do to incorporate a single care option into the obama health care logistics -- option? host: is health care at top issue that you and in high decided this year? caller: absolutely it is. five boysonal, i have and i cannot going to a doctor and get them taken care of. it is life-threatening because you know -- you never know it is sitting there in that thyroid.

the single-payer option is huge and it would help a lot of poor people like myself and the i likecan get it done, to ask her to get the single-payer operation incorporated into the obamacare option. host: rhonda from north trumpna, from -- supported perry what is your question for the candidates tonight? caller: i have got an issue rap music and their lyrics and the way they bring up women and in late-night tv shows. it you look at it, i do not support what trump said, but i also do not support whether you run radio spy rock music and -- do not-- by support what i hear on the radio

with rap music and donald trump is a big issue. a question?ask you do think enough attention is paid to what candidates say in debates like tonight as opposed to other coverage of various westmark -- coverage of the race? caller: i think candidates like hillary cover-up a lot of her issues and issues on trump happened 15 years ago. thing.s a private a lot of people do not follow up on what they say. it is like late-night shows. you cannot hold people to what they say. host: just a reminder. that is tonight's presidential debate that will be covered on c-span. live coverage beginning at 7:30. you can catch it on c-span and www.c-span.org and on c-span

radio. up next, we have another caller from great britain, barbara calling from essex, england. you support trump. can you vote? will win by and he a landslide. i am shocked to learn that donald trump is the only men in america or in the world that says derogatory things about women. i am shocked. what was printed from wikileaks and in one of them, this is for clinton, she said she does not feel connected to the middle class, and i want to know why. host: do you see similarities in the message that donald trump is conveying in his campaign asked of those who supported the brexit vote and they do support

it? , i supported them way,ng out, but -- either i was in the states the couple weeks ago and i have already put in my boat for him. god bless him and i think please do not give up on him. host: dr. mitchell from hollywood, florida, clinton supporter. the morning. caller: good morning. my point is if hillary wins, how will she influence social conservatives and they may be [indiscernible] the reason i am saying this is it tells me that they tried and they lost, and while they were losing for the eight to havehey continued

the social conservative mentality instead of looking at plan b. and now you see obama has high numbers and they get lasted the strategy. to his went in to go registration and affected that, and everything they have done, we are losing. with hillary has a win at her back, if she wins, how can she pulled the votes so we can get infrastructure and things of that nature? i feel like donald will have a heart attack just alerting everybody. when you get things way on you, i believe this man probably needs counseling at this time so he can put his head back and get his life back together and it is possible. host: we are talking to callers about their top questions. live coverage from washington university, the side of

tonight's debate in st. louis and where c-span will have full coverage. charles calling from fort colorado -- fort collins, colorado, third-party supporter. good morning. what would you like to see the voters asked the candidates at tonight's debate? caller: for one thing, i would love to ask donald trump about his policies. this is a man who has said he wants to consider to abolish or .evamp nato if anybody really knows what nato is, that is disastrous policy. this is a man who says if iranian boats were heckling us, that we are going to bomb them out of the water. do we want to get into another war in the middle east? who has said that he wants typically arise japan -- once to nuclear rise to --

e japan and this man has no grasp on national policy. this is a man who says that he wants to negotiate on our national debt, which lowers our ratings down. iowa, wisconsin, clinton supporter. tim, a few seconds, what would you like to see the candidates ask tonight? caller: i would like to see them ask donald trump of his daughter a bongo was one month pregnant and found that she had the zika virus, would he still deny her an abortion? is all for today's washington journal. do not forget, you can catch all the coverage of tonight's debate on c-span, beginning at 7:30. if you catch it on c-span and online at www.c-span.org and through the c-span radio app. that is all for us for today.

we will be back at 7:00 a.m. tomorrow morning. have a good sunday. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] >> here on c-span, "newsmakers" is next with a focus on campaign 2016. our guest is rob engstrom, senior vice president and political director for the u.s. chamber commerce, followed by house speaker paul ryan and other elected officials from wisconsin and republican fundraiser yesterday. ahead of tonight's presidential debate, we will take a look at past debates from 2004 and 2008. >>

robhis week on newsmakers, engstrom. they giveo see you, for joining us. we would love to talk about the role the chamber played the cycle. you have been part of an effort to build a firewall around congressional republicans in the unprecedented political year. this and elaborate a little on the trumpet effect. do you see your candidates attempting to separate themselves from this? b:np