"white rage." "bloodlines." "violated." the texas book festival, live today and sunday on c-span twos book tv. during tuesday's washington journal, live in baton rouge louisiana as part of the bus 50 capitals tour. starting at 9:30 a.m. eastern. now, democratic national committee chair, tom perez, talks about the future of the democratic party, and the special council indictment of

trump campaign chair paul manafort and to others. the christian science monitor posted this hour-long event. >> ok, folks. here we go. this morning is tom perez, chairman of the democratic national committee. this is his first appearance at one of our events. d&ce been meeting with chairs since larry o'brien. thank you for being here. chairman perez is a native of buffalo. here the bashers degree from brown university.

-- he earned a bachelor's degree from brown university. was deputy assistant attorney general for civil rights and the clinton administration. he led the state of maryland's labor department. in the obama administration he was assistant attorney general for civil rights, and secretary of labor from 2013 until 2017. we are on the record here. .o live blogging or tweeting no filing of any kind while the breakfast is underway, to give ourime to listen to what guest says.

there is no embargo when the session ends probably at 11:00. we will email several pictures of the session to all reporters here when the breakfast ends. as regular attendees know, if -- have a question no live blogging or tweeting. until 11:00. we are sending out pictures to everybody here. as regular attendees know, if you would like to ask a question, send me a subtle nonthreatening signal. i will call on one and all the time available. our guest will make some opening

questions -- opening comments. tom perez: good morning to everybody. it is great to have my colleague and our chief technology officer. one of the reasons i am bullish about the hopes of the democratic party moving forward. when you have people like him on board, our capacity to move forward is limitless. to jump in what we are doing at the dnc, but i cannot help but reflect as someone who spent 13 years of my life at the justice department, including time is a career prosecutor under both president bush and president clinton before i transitioned later on to a noncareer position. the seriousness of what we observed yesterday cannot be overstated. we know the facts at the dnc. the facts are the russians hacked us. he did it with the intent to

help donald trump elected president. what we saw yesterday was a whoty plea from a person was referred to by donald trump as a great guy. mr. papadopoulos. it is clear that the russians were try to traffic in the emails, and present them to the campaign, the trump campaign, so they could help donald trump that elected. you can see with the indictments --metaphor and gates manafort and gates, the rot went to the top of the campaign. it is clear to me that the investigation will continue, and this is not the end of the criminal charges moving forward. to seeroubling to me such appalling silence from so many republican leaders. the silence isn't simply deafening, it is appalling.

we are americans first. this was an assault not just on the dnc but our democracy. i'm happy to answer any questions about that. dnc that needed to up our game. we fell short on many levels. am,g the sports fan that i when you play a football game, or coach a football team or basketball team, and you do not do well, you watch game film, you learn from your mistakes, and you build a better mousetrap, a better game plan. that is what we have done at the dnc. we didn't just look at 2016, we looked over the last eight years that resulted in the loss of over 1000 seats in state legislatures. we went from 60 seats in the senate to 48. we lost a number of trickle seats in state attorneys general and secretaries of state.

we took a broad look at what went wrong, and what we have to do. number one, we have to change our mission statement. we have done that. partyc is not simply the that helps elect the president, we are the party that helps elect democrats up and down the boards toom school the oval office. when you are focused on every democrat, and when you do that by design, we do so by making partye build strong apparatuses, and strong partnerships with our friends and the labor movement, our friends in planned parenthood, with the emerging organizations and the democratic ecosystem. that is how we succeed. that is what we are doing. we weren't organizing everywhere. every zip code. and our new partnership with the

50 states we call it every zip code counts. because we have to make sure we're competing everywhere. we have to organize, organize, organize. not simply mobilize in the three months up to an election. we need to organize 12 months a year. we've taken the term off year out of the lexicon of the democratic party. because we win in 2018 by organizing in 2017. and we win by making sure we have a technology infrastructure that's second to none. with the addition of raffi, we're well poised to do just that. we win by making sure we're investing in other forms of infrastructure. our millennial engagement infrastructure, our voter protection and empowerment infrastructure. i met with the lawyers counsel yesterday. we're building a 50-state voter protection operation that understands that voter suppression is a staple in the republican playbook. it's been that staple for a while. and we have to understand that. by building that infrastructure that's a 50-state infrastructure. and we also have to make sure that we're connecting with people. that we communicate and live our

values day in and day out. we've been doing that in special elections across the country this year. in oklahoma there were three special elections in state legislatures that -- where donald trump had done overwhelmingly well in the 2016 cycle. we won all three elections. new hampshire by way of example. there was a state senate seat that has been republican since 1984. we won that election. florida most recently, another special election for a state senate seat that republicans won by double-digit margins last year and we won that seat. what was the key to success in these areas? what was the key to success in iowa where we won the special election there as well? the key to success was the same. organizing, boots on the ground. making sure we have good candidates delivering a good message and we were able to win. and win in trump country. because, again, the new democratic party is competing everywhere. we're leaving no zip code behind. and that is what we're doing. we're invested right now very heavily in virginia and in new

jersey. because virginia and new jersey are the two biggest prizes of 2017. 2017 to me is shaping up a lot like 2005. in 2005 you had a very unpopular republican president, as we have now. engulfed in a culture of corruption. as we see right now. governing with a very unpopular republican majority in both houses. and imagine what would have happened if social security had been privatized right before the great recession. that would have been absolutely calamitous for the american people. in 2005, that was the last year that the democratic party, the democratic candidate, won the race in both new jersey and in virginia. and we are investing in new jersey, we're investing in virginia. and by way of example, 0% of our investments in virginia are on television.

100% of our investment is in building, organizing capacity. we've doubled the number of organizers on the ground shortly after the primary ended. we've located them in areas where we're not only helping ralph northam and justin fairfax and mark caring, we're helping candidates for the house of delegates because we need to take 17 seats in virginia to turn over the house of delegates. ordinarily there's only about 40 or 50 democrats running for those house seats in at least the last 10 years or so. this year there's 88 candidates running in the house of delegates. we are strategically situated so that we can help them as well. that's the new d.n.c. working from the school board to the senate and in the case of virginia, helping to make sure that we're helping people at the house of delegates level. because we can do work there, we can make real progress and we communicate our values. one of the big values in virginia is people care about

health care. whether you live down in roanoke or whether you live in northern virginia. people care about health care. they understand that ralph northam is fighting to make sure that people have access to health care. while ed gillaspie and donald trump are fighting to take away people's health care. those are the issues that people resonate with. this job is fundamentally at the d.n.c., it's an infrastructure building job, and it's a messaging job. in virginia and new jersey, with the candidates at the top, up and down the ticket, and in these special elections that i mentioned, we're playing hard in washington state, 45. because if we take over that senate seat we flip the senate and the old d.n.c. probably wouldn't have been active in that race. the new d.n.c. is all in. the effort in nevada to recall three democratic senators who were elected last year, actually two are democrats, one is independent, who caucuses with the democrats. they won last year fair and square. what are the republicans trying to do? they're trying to recall them.

even though they've done nothing wrong. where we've made a six-figure investment in a race as well. because the new d.n.c. is active everywhere. and when we elect democrats up and down the ticket, that is how we prevail and when we are invested in this infrastructure and leading with our values, that is how we succeed. look forward to your questions and thank you for your time. >> thank you. my one is just this. do you expect the two indictments and the one guilty plea yesterday to have any major effect on your ability to regain control of congress? or is it -- are local issues going to predominate and the investigations not so much? tom: i think yesterday was a somber day for america. because we now have pretty clear evidence that there was an undeniable attack on our

democracy. what we also see is that yesterday was the beginning. when you look at the history of watergate, it took way too long for all too many republicans to recognize that they need to put country over party. you look at the deafening silence from leader mcconnell and speaker ryan and that is unfortunate. i spent the majority of my career at the department of justice. i have great respect for the institution. and i have respect for director mueller and the work he is doing. so my number one goal is to make sure this never happens again. because this was an assault on our democracy. you read the revelations today about the volume of propaganda that was put in on facebook. you couple that with the clear evidence that the trump campaign

and the russians were colluding to affect the results of the election. and if the tables were turned and that had been president hillary clinton aided and abetted by the russians, you'd have articles of impeachment filed probably before the inauguration by the republicans. so i'm concerned about our democracy. i hope that republicans and democrats alike, and there have been a few republicans who have courageously spoken about it, but i hope more do so. because this is serious business. >> we're going to go to chuck from the st. louis post. reporter: thank you for doing. this senator mccaskill was on the "meet the press" on sunday and was asked about the democratic party and leadership in the party and she said, quote, i'm one of the few senators that's left that's not afraid to call myself a moderate. and then she was asked, well, why is the democratic land so toxic in missouri? she talked about president trump being able to connect on social

issues in ways that democrats haven't done in many years. chris matthews made sort of the same point today, hawking his book "bobby kennedy" and inferred that bobby kennedy wouldn't be welcome in today's democratic party of the because of the stress on social issues over economic issues. can you address that point? is that a fair criticism? tom: i'm reading chris' book right now. it's on my bed stand. i think bobby kennedy and all of these remarkable democrats would be very welcome. because bobby kennedy's book is about moral leadership. moral leadership means that there are no such things as alternative facts. moral leadership means you're the president of the entire united states. you're supposed to be out there trying to help everyone. and so the moral leadership of bobby kennedy, i think, is absolutely the heart and soul what have the democratic party is. i'm a huge fan of claire

mccaskill's and we're going to -- we already are working hard to make sure she gets re-elected. because -- what she has been doing is something that the democratic party needs to do more of. she has been all over the state, in every zip code. we didn't pay enough attention to certain parts of all too many states. and we have to do that. and again, by way of example, in virginia, we have a presence everywhere. we are out there talking to people because, frankly, the message that health care is a right for all and not a privilege for a few, it resonates in roanoke and it resonates up in fairfax. it resonates in rural missouri and it resonates in st. louis and kansas city. people want to make sure that they have retirement security. they want to make sure they have a good job that pays a decent wage. they want to make sure that the democratic party and their leaders have their back. and that's why claire mccaskill continues to get elected and that's what we have to do as a democratic party. demonstrating through our actions that we have people's

backs. reporter: along those same lines, there are even other democrats that worry that the party will become the mirror image of the republicans, just as extreme and intolerant of internal dissent. where do you stand on welcoming democratic candidates who might not be for abortion rights? like in that mayoral race in omaha. it seemed like you were using a litmus test. tom: when i think of a litmus test right now, i think of the republican party. jeff flake voted with donald trump 91% of the time and that apparently wasn't enough. the democratic party, i mean, the best example i can think of to illustrate what i see as an emerging unity in the party is what happened in virginia. when tom perriello got in the race, frankly the media with hindsight wrote the exact wrong

story. they wrote the story of the bernie sanders-hillary clinton redo. and if you look at the arc of all the stories leading up to that primary election, because senator sanders and senator warren had endorsed tom, and tim kaine and mark warner and others had endorsed ralph northam, that was, again, another example of how the democratic party forms a circular firing squad. we know what happened. you have two really qualified candidates who agree on just about everything. their emphasis might be different. they ran a spirited, high road campaign. when tom didn't make it over the top he immediately pivoted and endorsed ralph wholeheartedly. i've campaigned with tom perriello and ralph northam. and they came out of their campaign united as opposed to the republican primary where they came out of that campaign divided. unity doesn't mean unanimity. it doesn't mean we agree on every issue as a party.

unity doesn't mean that you have to be a rubber stamp for the party. and we have areas where people may not agree. but at the same time what unites us far exceeds what our differences are. and that is why i think the democratic party is well poised moving ahead to win both next week in the races i've described, and to win moving forward. because -- reporter: just a quick follow-up. is it smart for democrats to focus on impeachment? tom: again, we're focused on making sure that robert mueller can do the job he needs to do to figure out if there was an attack on our democracy. we know from -- we know that we were hacked by the russians at d.n.c. we now know from yesterday that the trump campaign and the russians were in regular contact. they weren't getting together to trade vodka recipes.

they were getting together to affect the outcome of the race in 2016. and so our focus is on this attack on our democracy and making sure we hold accountable who was involved and then equally importantly making sure we never let it happen again. >> richard pollock from the daily caller. reporter: thank you for joining us. you've now had a week to investigate the d.n.c.'s relationship with fusion g.p.s. and i would like to know, first of all, if you would confirm how much money the d.n.c. paid the law firm to pay fusion g.p.s. second, who authorized it within the d.n.c.? and third, who were the people within the d.n.c. who actually got the information and interacted with fusion g.p.s.? tom: as you know, i wasn't working at the d.n.c. at the

time of this contract. when you do opposition research on another candidate in a presidential cycle, i would assert especially in the context of what we know now, that opposition research is not simply something that ought to be done. it would be malpractice not to do it. especially when you have a presidential candidate who blew convention out of the window. he didn't disclose his tax returns. first time that's happened in decades. didn't -- he has a very shady relationship with russian authorities. so absolutely. the research that was done, opposition research, initiated, as i understand it, by a conservative organization, and then when their work was done, it was given to -- then it was

continued by the democrats. what we know from the research is that donald trump or the trump campaign and the russians were talking to each other. and their conversations, again, as we know from yesterday, were about serious things. interfering with our democracy. it was done by the law firm that was hired by the campaign. i don't know how much of the opposition research was the fusion opposition research. i have not disaggregated that amount. but what i do know is the issue at hand is whether the trump administration, trump campaign, and the russians were conspiring to affect this election. and certainly mr. papadopoulos'

guilty plea yesterday and the indictments that came down yesterday is serious stuff as it relates to collusion. >> a quick follow-up. i can understand that this happened under the previous administration. >> a quick follow-up. now that you know, that the dnc spent money on fusion tps, have you investigated with employees, attorneys, former attorneys? have you done an investigation about the role the dnc played with fusion gps? unaware untilas about 48 hours before it was released. my number one concern is what happened in the election. did the russians and the trump administration collude to affect the election. that to me is the issue at hand. go to john from the

star-ledger. [indiscernible] confident. i am i have campaigned with bill murphy and what i hope will be lieutenant governor oliver. inre we make some history new jersey. i have campaigned for people up and down the ticket. i was in senate district nine campaigning for a remarkable senate candidate who is running a spirited campaign. aboutw dnc, again, is electing democrats up and on the ticket. the reason i believe the murphy oliver ticket will win and the ticket will win along with mark caring is because we have great candidates

who are talking about the issues that people care about the most. bill murphy is talking day in and day out about having your back. he has a remarkable presence and vision for new jersey. chris christie has led them into a ditch. the most unpopular governor i think in the united states. i may have that slightly off. he may be second or third. but what he has done -- chris christie has been all about chris christie. similarly in virginia, i feel optimistic we does the voters of virginia want to see progress. they want to see someone who will be fighting for them and ralph northam has had a lifetime of service to others as opposed to ed gillespie. phasein the dog whistle of the virginia campaign and he is talking about immigrants.

putting dark commercials in place. exactly the trump playbook. virginians do not want donald trump in virginia. that is why i feel good about virginia and optimistic. gyn good morning. are aware ofu steve bannon trying to recruit candidates to run from the right against city republic -- sitting republican senators. of the your opinion contested primaries being talked about like nobody, wyoming, possibly mississippi? do you see that as a possible or a way for the democrats to win the senate? mr. perez: we are fighting for the house and the senate. catherinen nevada,

cortez masto won because she was a great candidate and we were -- and we ran a great campaign. , inmotto was -- heck, no 2016. the motto in 2017 is -- hell, no because we want to beat dean heller. remarkable candidate and i was with her recently when we were in las vegas, the weekend before last. similarly in arizona. i think we have a real shot there. and obviously we have races elsewhere. tennessee, alabama. and we have opportunities in all of these races. you mentioned missouri. yes, we are defending more races

in the senate this year but what every single one of those races have in common is we have really good candidates defending those seats. they got elected because they were really good. i was in indiana last week, joe donnelly is a regular joe. people know who he is. the attack by the koch brothers on the airwaves trying to paint joe donnelly as someone hoosiers know he is not. he is fighting for working people. just like claire mccaskill, fighting and every zip code. if steve bannon wants to continue to facilitate circular firing squad the republican side, i am not going to stand in the way of that. i am focused on making sure that we are helping to elect democrats up and down the ticket by investing in our infrastructure, and i.t. making sure we are communicating the message that the democratic party has your back. >> you mentioned tennessee.

do you have a candidate in mississippi? perez: in mississippi there is a candidate and the governor is considering whether to get in. i don't know if you will or not. i think we can compete everywhere. we have won a number of special elections in mississippi. , itou look at mississippi is a good example of what democrats can do if we implement our game plan of organ is isaac -- of organizing. if you look at statewide elections. the most recent election, if my memory serves me, the biggest vote-getter in the statewide , theion was jim hood attorney. innow jim because i did work the civil rights division in mississippi. jim is a very popular leader because he is a great leader.

hillary clinton got something vote andor 45% of the mississippi and there was no ground operation at all. imagine what you can do if you are out there talking to people. i think democrats can win in mississippi, tennessee. we can win about anywhere if we are investing in the infrastructure and recruiting the candidates like the quality candidates that we have now. >> janet hook from the wall street journal. to take you back to the virginia governor's race. why do you think this is so close? polls are all over the place. this is like running -- this is not like running in montana. why is it closer then new jersey? bitd you talk a little about what is at stake for the party as a whole in winning this? that if weats feel

don't, it is a gut punch to the morale of the party to not win a state like virginia. has arez: virginia history of close races at the statewide level. mark warner, 2014. he won by a small margin. where you are always going to have a, statewide elections. this is no different. optimism is that democrats are investing all over the stage. in roanoke virginia, for instance, there is a remarkable candidate for the house of delegates. you may recall his fiancée. she was a television journalist murdered on the air by a disgruntled former employee. a tragic incident. chris has stepped up. he is running a spectacular campaign and it is an example of

the new dnc. there are 88 people running in house of delegates races. we are not going to win 88 seats but we are competing everywhere. something we have not done before. i think that is something that is really important. we need to field candidates everywhere. we need school board candidates. today's school board member can lead to tomorrow's mayor. 2004, thatnator in became president of the united states. i think those are really important. virgin yet is one race we are focused on but not the only one. we plan to win everywhere and we are investing to win. the key to virginia is we have built a really good field infrastructure. his team has been helping folks with tech issues. we are helping our partners in the echo system.

that is the new dnc. -- we are helping our partners in the ecosystem. that is the new dnc. we don't put all of our hopes in any one state at any one time. we are going to keep fighting. we have about 20 minutes to go. we will ask rick kline, jennifer epstein, todd gillman. rick? abc news. in virginia, the importance that you see from where you sit -- is there something about this race for your donor class or for figuring out what new tools work? speak specifically about what you're trying to do in virginia beyond what the old dnc would do? in newz: the races

jersey and virginia are important as this is a 13 year election cycle race. virginiagovernor in will preside over redistricting. we have lived with the consequences for the last 10 years of bob mcdonnell winning in 2009. the hyper gerrymandering in virginia is not reflective of what virginia really is. that, for me, is one of the major reasons why the new dnc and what we are doing and investing in are so critically important. -- rafe to to rob a talk about our tech investment. we can learn a lot about these races in virginia and new jersey. that is what we are doing. some of the things we are

trying in virginia is understanding different ways we can engage with voters and volunteers. for example, we are seeing if we can leverage your email contactless to have a one-on-one conversation to get people out on election day. we have been looking at to try to recruit you if you visit our facebook page. we are trying to figure out the tools and harness the technology ecosystem. there are hundreds of engineers that want to work on this problem. to harness them and focus them on enabling the candidates on the ground. >> can a trudeau from the national journal. hannah: i'm wondering what the new dnc has been doing to reach women in therget first year of its administration. meetingz: we just had a

of our dnc in las vegas. one of the things that we did at , and weral session chose las vegas in no small measure because nevada is a perfect example of how to do it right. in 2014, they lost a number of elections. nevertto in 2015 was -- again. a remarkable cadre of women was recruited in nevada. not just catherine cortez masto. but members of congress. one of whom is now a candidate for a senate seat against dean heller. and what we have been able to do is activate our women's leadership forum, work with our partners in the ecosystem. emerge, for instance, is an organization that does -- that has done remarkable work

recruiting women candidates. african-american women are our most loyal constituency. we need to make sure we are engaging aggressively with that constituency. they have always been there for the democratic party and we need to make sure we are there with them. with our investments that i have outlined, if you look at virginia and remarkable candidates for the house of delegates, women that we are actively supporting with our

organizing and digital investments. we think they can win. nevada is a statewide efforts it was very successful. we've got to do it with our partners are in a that's a big part of the new d&c, fortifying our relationships with our colleagues in the ecosystem. >> this can be one question. about the alabama senate race. meeting and you seem to the passionate about

your personal relationship with him and being driven by the civil rights mission there. there has already been a fair amount of debate of how much the d&c another groups should play there and how public they should be. what is your thinking at this point about that? some will be a read off what happens next week. where do you see the d&c? the second question is about some of the dynamics of what happened, the meeting in las about thend the rumor at-large members and this anger coming from i think fairly ,nvolved african-american women

this whisper campaign. are you concerned that for all of the efforts through the unity commission and trying to bring people together that there is an undercurrent of frustration and resentment, some of it coming from the primaries last year and other things. it all feels very much there in the party and causing tension? tom: let me take your questions in order. i have known doug jones for a while. i worked in the clinton justice department when he was the u.s. attorney. i have great respect for him. he is the underdog in that race. he is fighting hard.

-- we have a difficult strategy. assistanceproviding to doug jones. i think the voters of alabama will have to make that judgment. i spent a lot of time down there in the course of my career. underdog can pull it off. the issue of unity is something we have to continue to strive for. i am not oblivious to the fact that i walked into a d&c where we had work to do on the unity front. think her genia is a great example of how we have come together.

another example is the effort to oppose the repeal of the affordable care act. we had not one vote to spare and democrats0% united as and the effort to ensure that people struggling with opioid abuse can continue to get access to treatment. our unity is our biggest strength. i think it's donald trump's worst nightmare. that's why they try to sow seeds of discontent. every single day, i am working aisle,ople across the who across the spectrum to make sure we understand that what we have in common is what our differences are. understandingl that this is the most dangerous president in american history. of while we may have a

disagreement on issue x or issue why, this threat to our democracy is where we need to train our focus. every day, we are working to build that unity and i see it in new jersey and i see it in virginia. nevada on the recall campaign. we have seen it in places like oklahoma where we have already one. i have two related questions. texas, is tried who has these low approval ratings, is he a big enough albatross to win the senate seat from ted cruz or any other statewide office?

corker, flake, what kind of credit the republicans get in your mind should they get for resisting trump politics? questions ine your order. we are running a spirited campaign in texas. he is going to places in texas the democrats should have been going to, but hadn't when they were running statewide. he is in rural pockets of the where democrats of not been seen. he understands it if he is going to win, he's got to be competitive.

there are too many parts of the state where we are not competitive. he is running that campaign. i think he is running it in exactly the spirit and fashion. if you look at the people donating to his campaign, it is significantly more. competitive inbe many places where we haven't historically been competitive. likeve good candidates doug jones and jacky rosen in nevada. we have to build that infrastructure that i mentioned. have the long-term organizing presence, if you're not building relationships with me all joe biden taught

politics is personal. do that, we have to build those personal relationships in communities. that means being there. good schools, good jobs, those issues are about making sure kids have a better life than they do. there is constantly that moving forward. >> my second question, the trump albatross question. tom: if you look at his popularity in virginia and texas and many corners of the country, it's tanking, especially with independent voters because he talked about draining the swamp. look at the puerto rico contract that is now under review and investigation by the fbi. i flew coach when i was the

labor secretary. those seats are comfortable. you don't need to be flying in a government plane taxpayer expects -- expense. that's not raining the swamp at the same time you tell meals on wheels recipients that we don't have enough money to fund your program. do you give credit to them for resisting trump? tom: mr. perez: i have respect for jeff flake. i think he is a person of integrity, including jeff corker. at the same time, the issue i have with them is not whether they are people of integrity, they absolutely are. i am confident it is not easy for them doing what they are doing. it is a heck of a lot harder for that person struggling with opioid addiction not having health care.

the reality is jeff flake was with donald trump 91% of the time, including the bill to repeal the affordable care act. john mccain showed courage in that vote. jeff flake went with the rest of the crowd. while i appreciate the predicament we are in, it is a real illustration, the notion you can support the president 91% of the time and it is not enough. it gets back to the question from before. school, 91% is usually an a grade. it's an f for republicans. >> on the uranium 1 issue, is that going to have legs and to what extent is the dnc preparing for that? what do you make of the president and others calling the party the democrat party instead

of the democratic party? do you care, and does it matter? mr. perez: on uranium 1, that is distracting donald once again. yesterday, sarah huckabee sanders says it had nothing to do with anything in the campaign. maybe she didn't get -- i looked at the papadopoulos materials. how can you look someone in the eye with a straight face on the podium where she stood and say papadopoulos, his guilty plea has nothing to do with the campaign? that is beyond the laugh test. i am confident that some folks who want to be part of the distracting donald movement will continue to try and go down that

rabbit hole. him that was the steve bannon rabbit hole. if you want to distract from the task at hand, you do that. that is his currency, is distract, especially when the heat gets white-hot. the heat is very white-hot right now. we are the democratic party. the democratic party is about fighting for everyone. it is about making sure everyone has a fair shake, not just a few at the top. that's what we are fighting for as democrats. >> washington examiner. the democratic party has been fighting for opportunity, fighting for the notion that we all succeed only when we all succeed.

>> do you care about the word choice? mr. perez: we are the democratic party. i am focused on getting people good jobs. i am focused on making sure they have access to a sound retirement. those are the things they want those are the things they want us to focus on. that is what the democratic party has been focused on. i use the term democratic party because we embodied democratic principles of inclusion and opportunity for everyone. >> another thing that came out of vegas was how much of the dnc is struggling to raise money at a time when individual candidates are doing fairly well. why is it so difficult for the dnc to get donors? mr. perez: i am happy to share this information with you or anyone else -- if you look at the fundraising going back to

2003 and 2005 in these off your cycles, we have been where we have been in just about every cycle. to put it differently, the republican national committee routinely out raises the democratic national committee. in 2006 we were outspent 2 to 1 by the rnc. when i see those pieces now, when you look at it in the historical context of where we've been, they have more wealthy donors than we do. the first three months of the year, we were just getting started. i walked into a dnc that had obvious room for improvement. even though we got a late start, we have already been able to basically match the past year cycles.

among other thingsl we have been able to significantly step up small dollar fundraising. the first quarter, we raised a little over $500 million in increments of $21. 70% of money we raised has been small dollars fundraising. we will continue our efforts there while we pursue others. >> one of your party chairs said small donors are over the party. mr. perez: i don't agree with that assessment. what we know is when you have strong partnerships, you win elections. when you allow the in for -- infrastructure of the party to fray, you don't do so hot. we have not done so hot in elections up and down the ticket. the reason i ran or this is when you fortify your values, that is how you succeed.

>> what role should we play in crafting a message for democrats up and down the ballot? i think you also alluded to in message. what you think that message should be? mr. perez: we are involved in the message development issue. we do that in concert with a number of folks in the democratic ecosystem. i am a democrat because my parents taught me the democratic party always had people's backs. we had people's backs in the 1930's when we were fighting for wage fairness. we had their backs in the 1960's when we fought for medicare and medicaid.

we had people's backs when lbj courageously said liberty and justice for all means for all. we have had people in the obama era where we fought and passed the affordable care act. through our actions we have to show we have people's backs. phil murray is winning in new jersey because he is telling people, i will have your back. look at his campaign literature. we have to prove it through our actions. undeniably there are some who were asking that question, whether we had their back. they voted for donald trump because they wanted change. i think they want to change that would improve their lives. they are not getting it. the reason why we are able to win elections in oklahoma and elsewhere -- in oklahoma, the issue is education. three districts that donald trump won by double-digit margins voted for democrats.

they saw republicans engaged in radical social engineering that was making it very difficult to get access to quality education. they saw democrats fighting to have their backs. >> i apologize we have run out of time. thank you for doing this. my apologies for running out of time. hope you come back, sir. >> thank you for your time. >> [chatter]

>> this weekend on american history t on c-span3, we are live at 9:30 a.m. eastern at the

national world war i museum in kansas city for a symposium marking the centennial of the u.s. entry in the war in 1917. a look at religion and the american revolution. >> washington wrote at the end of the war to a group of german calvinists, the religious liberty was the motive which induced me. i fought for principal and i fought for religious liberty. >> the road to the wall, and academy award nominated film about the soviet union and the berlin wall. >> rns can only be attained by the forcible overthrow of all social conditions.

sunday, on american artifacts , see the exhibit for chief justice john marshall at the national constitution center in philadelphia. >> we have the nomination from john adams of john marshall. this is when he is a sending it to the senate. this is one of the great moments in his career and for our nation. >> american history tv, all weekend, every weekend only on c-span3. >> cities tour takes you to sioux falls, south dakota. with the help of our cable partners, we will highlight the history of sioux falls. a look at the history of native american citizenship with an author.

>> the tribe has once known as sovereignty. they have that from their pre-constitutional status. they are self-governing sovereigns within their territory. the author of outlaw dakota. example, if you were away from any settlement in ranch country, they would hang you. that happened quite frequently. that is what you call frontier justice. >> on sunday, we will tour for dakota -- fort dakota. dakota,s called fort one of many fort established throughout the region. it was established to provide a

sense of safety and security for the settlers here. >> we will take a driving tour of sioux falls with this historian. >> we are on one of the main thoroughfares of sioux falls, south dakota. it is named for one of the first settlers of the dakota territory. >> watch c-span's cities tour of sioux falls today at 6:00 on book tv. the c-span cities tour, working with our partners as we explore america. is election day with governors races in new jersey and virginia. watch coverage on the c-span networks.

in virginia, it is at gillespie and democrat ralph northam. watch live on c-span and www.c-span.org. listen live on the free c-span radio app. nominatedsident jerome powell to be the reserve chair. it happened at the rose garden. he has a member of the federal reserve board of governors. >> thank you very much. please. i am pleased to welcome members of the cabinet, members of congress, and distinguished guests to the white house rose garden this afternoon. i want to