after that, we get a preview of the upcoming nato summit in ,russels with heather conley who served as the assistant theetary of state for george w. bush administration. ♪ host: good morning. back to work week for congress. and trump announces his choice for the u.s. supreme court, we have that live at 9:00 p.m. tomorrow.me we begin with bit term politics. 121 days before you go to the polls. issue that will motivate you to go to the polls or to mail in your ballot? is our starting

point. join in on the conversation at (202) 748-8000, democrats. (202) 748-8001, republicans. (202) 748-8002, independent callers. or send us a tweet or join in on facebook. for being with us. we want to begin with breaking news from thailand and the orting of the washington post -- a story we have been following for the last two weeks. rescue operation is now underway for the 12 boys and their soccer coach trapped inside the cave. here are some of the details. the link theins process of extracting boys from a flooded cave in thailand, racing against the appended rate to free them.

the boys and their coach will dive out of the cave, one at a time. accompanied by a team of divers. the first rescue is expected to be completed by sunday night. although it could be two days or three days before the entire team is free. today is "d-day." the first few chambers the boys will pass through, they were theded days ago but chambers are dry. oxygen levels have stabilized. again, this is breaking at this with the thailand reporting from the washington post. we want to turn to the midterm elections. what is the top issue that will motivate you to go to the polls?

immigration is the top issue. is chosen asssue the top issue ahead of the midterm elections. 15% of registered voters said monday that immigration is the biggest concern. about the economic performance and health care. democrats, the economic worries are the top concern over immigration as voters stay firmly divided over the handling of the southern border. of the poll said they disapproved of the way the president is handling his job performance with immigration. 81% of the republicans support democrats4% of oppose. more details on the hill.com. let's go to sylvia on the independent line. good morning. caller: can you hear me?

can you hear me? host: we can. caller: i just listened to the social security hearing you had on and my comment on social security -- i have been on it for a while. and my health is not improving, it is getting worse. and i would gladly donate my social security to other people who want to live another 50,000 years. i'm not being facetious but i am not afraid of dying. living is not much fun right now. i don't have anybody around to help me with anything. host: how old are you, if i may ask?

but my health is getting worse. i am struggling to make ends meet because everything is going up and up. my car is ready to fall apart it is hard to find rides to get to the doctor. host: will that affect how you vote in the midterm elections? caller: i wish they would have what sweden has. doctor assisted suicide without cancer. i wish we had something like that was set up like that here. i'm ready to go today. i pray every night i won't wake up because of my mental state. it has been going downhill. you. good luck to

hang in there. we wish you the best. from washington. the number one issue in the election? puter: i will be voting to a stay on trump and his fascist ways that he is promoting. i think he is the most dangerous president we have ever seen. i can't believe this country is actually voted for a tv game show host. the american people will stand up and put the president in his place and hopefully by 2020 we will be rid of him. or robert mueller will put them in jail. thank you for c-span. host: we go to ryan in illinois. the number one issue? what is it? caller: it is donald trump. the hot issue is immigration.

is in the white house is because both of our parties are failing. miserably. wiping out all of the mainstream candidates. immigration is a hot issue because wages are falling. it is harder and harder for average p to make a living. asre is such a thing overpopulation. we cannot deal with the high rate of immigration forever. it has to be dialed down. that is my comment. host: let's go to tyrone. good morning. caller: i was thinking about money and politics. devil inbeen the big this situation. these people give a whole bunch of money and the politicians cater to them.

these individuals instead of catering to the people who need help. and they're not paying attention to that. you $10e up to give million, i expect you to cater to my needs. what would make me happy with be outspend,democrat -- 10-1. they cater to the population. and we may not have all of the populations that they have because they are so busy taking care of the big pharmaceuticals and all the rest of these people. you forget the little people. you have people out here living peopleyork and you have killing themselves. and it has a lot to do with finances. these people are not making it. to theyou keep catering

big money, everything else will fall by the wayside. host: send us a tweet, by the way. or join us in the conversation on race book. we welcome our radio audience -- this is carried live every .orning and on c-span radio. and on the web. number two on the list is the economy, in general. the first person on the list focused on economy and health care. gail joins us from new york. good morning. thank you for taking my

call. the number one issue is democracy and voting. we can hardly wait to vote. i think voting is so important. because lots of us didn't vote, we are in the situation we are in. i think congress is not doing its job in protecting us from the man at the top. -- after meeting with north korean leaders, he said everything was fine. but everything is not fine. untrue things that are i think he puts us in a dangerous position. democratsting for the

. we have to have a check. number one thing for me, democracy and voting. who did you vote for in 2016? caller: hillary clinton. host: there is a piece from -- "is hillary clinton secretly planning to vote in 2020." discusses -- here is how she sees the playing field and why it can't be ignored. there is no front-runner. --diminishes the chance of key blue states. including kamala harris.

and please forget about bernie sanders. and joe biden. never viable candidates. would you think of that? i love hillary clinton. i think she was so capable. i don't like the way that's phrased. that she is secretly doing something because it plays into the mess of "don't trust her." that she isn't straightforward or upfront. i like what she is saying but how it is framed? i don't like that framework. appreciate you stay on the line to share your thoughts. republican line, joseph in kentucky. good morning. caller: i think the number one

americans is corruption in politics. and you need to replace them with the word "invaders." people need to get that straight right away. are allowing these people to come in. you don't see the women and children, that is propaganda. it is fighting aged men. that is the big issue, the invasion we are under. we covered this live on thursday evening. in president on the trail montana talking about other issues that he says will drive the election. voting no on the cake law?

named for -- guns down by illegal immigrants. you deserve a senator who doesn't just talk like he is from montana. you deserve a senator who actually votes like he is from montana. he even voted no on enhanced abetting for refugees from terror stricken countries. what is going on with that? democrats want open borders which means lots of crime. we want tough borders and no crime. and we protect ice. host: him that was the president

on the campaign trail. from tennessee on the republican line. good morning. my number one thing about this election is the changing of the federal judicial system. it isn't just trump spake for the supreme court. also the court of appeals and all of that. -- unhinged before he even nominates them, how does they feel when he replaces ginsburg? he will probably replace clarence thomas. the left iseve unhinged before he even nominates someone. it shows you that the american people -- the democratic party is dead.

push the socialist and marxist agenda, look at many seat they have lost. in newe go to mark jersey. good morning. thank you for c-span. there are important issues always and this is a big election but my number one concern is social security and medicare and medicaid. make no mistake. they want to cut these programs to turn them into private for-profit programs. tax have now created this bill, bill, tax scam where rich people get all of the brakes and there'll be over a $1 trillion deficit and they blame it on our earned benefits which we paid for. the real truth is that they are increasing military spending like crazy.

those are the only things they have added. everything else was cut. republicans, you are voting to hurt yourself. unless you are very wealthy. there is really no way you can e-voting in your own best interest by voting for the right-wing people we have in congress now. thank you, have a great day. is,: again, our question what is the number one issue in the midterm election? i will share with you some ads now. ago, ideas that we talked about were thought to be fringe ideas, radical ideas. extremist ideas. but they are now mainstream. >> i don't know why there are not uprisings.

all over the country. ? if you see anyone, you get out and you create a crowd. you tell them they are not welcome anymore, anywhere. >> in something about your dad's immigration services. trump is crashing the economy. bring on the recession. >> i have sought an awful lot blowing up the white house. ♪ that was from the republican national committee. the number one issue, what is it? let's go to marry. on the republican line. caller: for me, it is immigration. i feel like if we don't have

secure borders, it is a risk to our country. number one contributor to the suppression of wages in our country. and i think it is really critical. not just in economics but also in the safety of the united states citizens. and so that is for me, the number one issue. because the economy is really doing well. i look at my 401(k), i am pretty happy, i have to tell you. and my children are all experiencing increases in pay and bonuses. my daughter and her husband just bought a big new home. and things look up again in this country. so for me, immigration. good morning.

caller: and wanted to comment comment of the collar a couple of calls ago from new jersey. my main concern is the november election. think the republicans do social agenda of cutting security and medicare and medicaid. and privatizing them. that they voted of oneves a's tax-cut point $5 trillion which adds to the debt and that amount but now saying that weg, have to reduce the debt and the only way we can reduce the debt is to reduce the entitlement program. we have to cut social security

at medicare and medicaid. let's go to janice. good morning. good morning. it is going to be immigration but there is also a big problem with a lot of people in the area i am in with working visas. they are not citizens. they have working visas. and there is an awful lot of them. everybody complains about the people from central america and mexico and at the border. and they need to do reform and make some changes. and just try to find ways to stop this. and i saw something on the other day, a republican -- i am a

democrat. he said something about the and they should start the process there if they want to get into the united states. and not at the border. there is a lot of people are coming this country who don't come in that way. they come in other ways. they get in and get working visas. and a lot of them are college graduates or american citizens, they are underemployed. that will be another issue. wages are low. salaries are low. people may be working two jobs. host: thank you for the call. the new york times headline is that red state democrats face the agonizing supreme court choice. reading as follows. democratic senators running for

reelection in trump country face the agonizing choice over trump supreme court nominee, vote to theirm the pic and risk to moralizing democratic voters ahead of the elections or sacrifice their own seats with a in 2019. a majority remainstates, trump popular. most notably, heidi heitkamp, .oe donnelly and joe manchin a decision by one or all of them to bolster the standing with republican leaning voters in their states by backing the president's nominees would undermine democratic leaders as unity.y to sustain party but if they hold together on a no vote, they could send own thes and they could narrow path of democrats to a senate majority for years to come by

seating those states to republicans. that is from the new york times. gary from maryland. go ahead. actually, north dakota. there is no specific issue. my objective is to vote out all democrats. gentle, we need the proper attitude. we need the conversation my dad had with a truck driver, they talked about the pros and cons about a caterpillar and then my dad asked him about a truck with a detroit diesel engine. and the driver said, well, in order to drive a truck with a easel engine, the first thing you do is slam the cab door on

your thumb is to be good and mad and then you start the engine. so go to the voting booth -- i will slam the car door on my thumb so i am mad. and then i will grow and vote out democrats. that is my comment. of theorth dakota is one key senate races in this country. with the incumbent democratic voting for reelection. will you vote against her? correct. i will vote for representative kramer. this story from the washington post. the supreme court pick was the ,hoice for 25% of republicans voting for trump to get the supreme court pick ended paid off. we will have live coverage making the live

announcement and then we will open the phone lines to get your reaction to the president pick. the confirmation hearing is agile before the senate judiciary committee be getting late august or in early some number depending on what the schedule is once the nomination moves through the senate meetings. he or she will conduct them in july or august. we will have all of that for you on c-span. more now of the ads from a pro-choice group say this will be the big issue. >> trump's article to court to overturn covering people with pre-existing conditions. conditions like cancer, asthma. aw, trump plans to install supreme court justice who would take us back to a time when insurance companies could deny coverage. it is up to you to do that. tol any employee or nominee

vote against. ken joins us from out west in sacramento. good morning. caller: good morning. how are you? host: you are up early today. yes.r: getting my pool drained. i am an independent and i tend to vote republican and democrat. andnding on the individual how they are representing me as an individual. am really frustrated with how a lot of elected officials are conducting themselves in an thanscent manner, rather mature adults. i think that is important when we are representing our country abroad or representing constituents on very important

issues. something that is both sides need to look at. focusing on the way they present themselves and how they come across to constituents. host: good luck with draining the pool. [laughter] we go to linda from ohio. what is the motivating issue for you? caller: i am really concerned about democrats going towards socialism. both parties make me nervous. everyone is calling in on the democrat line talking about socialism, that is where they get the information from. i hope democrats realize that there's nothing free.

for 25 democratic party years. now, both parties scare me. the parties would get together. battlehe supreme court starts monday. not cot p.m. tomorrow evening -- susan per riccio wrote the following, "the senate supreme court battle starts monday."

host: that is from the washington examiner. joined now from sherman oaks, california. good morning. i was very glad you read that new york times article about the choice the democratic senators have to make about the supreme court nominee. what jumped out at me when i read it yesterday was that it talks about the decisions and the political and locations and how, if they vote this, then they have to worry about that. consideredver once

-- only about the political implications. telling.t was host: janice from tennessee. i would like to make some quick points. the murder rate in the country , the supremeee court. -- [indiscernible] they are talking about cutting medicaid, medicare. people need to wake up and vote. this before inen my life.

wake up and get out there and vote. host: thank you. from the c-span video library, this is a screenshot from raymond cap flinch when he served as the nominee for the -- the headline is "in course capital, champion for stability considered for high court." he was known for his rulings and words. kerry severino follows washington journal. ralph joins us from the democrat line. worker from a upstate new york and i have a suggestion from c-span. i wish you could add a student

line to the democrat-republican bits. they could add value to the callers. -- we don't need another neil gorsuch on the court. we don't need to pull back workers and trump's executive rightso roll back worker , civil service workers -- those are my top concerns. host: thank you. let's go to daniel from tennessee. good morning. caller: hello. it is texas. the bus to comment -- company in houston, texas. , thes a private company

city of easton took it over. quick -- they quit worrying about the workers. they started to send the paper university, teaching socialism. aboutidn't give a hoot what is happening to us. a lot of union people love for trump is doing. so -- college professors and -- workho don't work for donald trump. the front page and inside the new york times. this is a has line. "mike pompeo returning from the overnight trip to pyongyang.

called the nuclear talks "gangster like." saying that talks were regrettable."

host: here is more with the secretary of state yesterday. many hours of productive conversation. these are complicated issues. -- we make progress on the issues. we do feel there is more work to be done. we don't have a meeting set up for july 12 -- one day or two where there will be discussions between the folks responsible for the repatriation. and this will begin to develop through the days that follow. so we will start the process by which we will deliver on the commitments made at the singapore summit. we also confirmed that the nuclear testing facility -- we

talked about what that looks like for the structure of that facility. and then we laid out a path for negotiations at the working andl to get together continue discussions. ? did you bring up the satellite issue images showing that it is expanding and what did they say? >> your characterization is interesting. we talked about what the north howans continue to do and we can get our arms around an agreement they rose agree to. complete denuclearization of north korea. they are still equally committed. i have a chance to speak to trump this morning. productiveart --

negotiations. host: that was the secretary of state after he left the two day visit a north korea. the weekly standard has this piece with the title "trump the chump." >> kim jong-un was rushing home to begin the acceleration and expansion and concealment of his country's nuclear production. that was at the weekly standard.com. good morning from wisconsin. good morning.

my biggest thing is immigration. it is funny that trump said he was a deal maker but if you look at the immigration bill, republicans own congress so how can it be a big thing? it should have been solved. be going into the is wondering about immigration because republicans own congress and they should have taken care of this issue. host: with regards to what was mentioned moments ago about i guess north- korea doesn't understand what denuclearization means? it means to get rid of your nukes. ignoranceeet -- the and naivete is shocking. paul ryan and mitch mcconnell have said they plan on cutting

medicare and medicaid. check it out yourself. storm,ally, from park the number one issue is stopping trump from trashing america's core democratic principles. a tweet. this headline -- "democrat set off the elections and lost the supreme court for generations." next up from the bronx in new york on the democrat line. good morning. caller: good morning. i would like to make two comments. ask howt, i'd like to the republican party feels when 70 years ofys bills. common isagainst --

him and now we have a president of the united states who runs to putin. and luja he lies every day. there be a man who lies every day? this is why he is being played by north korea. they will not scale down the nuclear material. party forroying the time to come. not finish his term. he is criminal and a crook. and he is just playing games.

the last thing a want to say is like mitt romney said -- this man is an imposter. nothing more than an imposter. he lies. he is chased prostitutes all the years of his life. francisco -- a $.12 gas tax. looming over the midterm elections. a reference to the weekly standard and the headline earlier saying "trump the chump." @cspanwj. tweet at caller: my biggest issue is validating the vote.

stop russiahing to from influencing the vote. and i am not sure how we will get an accurate read. i do not believe this was adequately policed. .o find out what was happening i think if we don't validate the vote and we stand a good chance at not getting a good read. this whole thing with the senators in russia and trump going to russia? what are they talking about? probably, can you win the election with us? can you verify you could do this for us? in the last news cycle they said that we didn't medal -- we meddle" in the

elections, we won trumps the vote. vote.on the that is what they are saying. they now laugh at us. they put out a takes aim with the senators, humiliating them yesterday on russian news. or it doesn't matter to them kim jong-un if they humiliate trump or if they flatter him. because either way, the chaos they so is what they are after. john fea will be joining us. he will be with us in 15 minutes -- this washington post is from today's washington post.

>> thing he knew about the allegations that took place. in wrestlers who wrestled the 1980's say he had to have known about it. host: those details are at the washington post. from the democrats line, the number one issue? caller: yes.

the number one issue for me in the midterm election is the social security, medicare, medicaid. and the minimum wage. i think they should leave the social security and medicare and medicaid alone. i am from -- i am for medicare for all. wagehould rage the minimum thehey should raise them in wage to $15 an hour. he said he would not deal with social security and i think he should stick to that. thank you for taking my call. host: another tweet. "good grief steve." did have an issue early in the program but we have it fixed now. if you ares a delay wondering why we didn't read that at the beginning. good morning. hey, a lot of people

talk about immigration as the big thing they want or social security or this and that but it is being driven by trump and his agenda. it doesn't seem that he has any ability or knowledge to know about the government at all. where does he get this? believef he says, to anything he actually says, it is insane. he acts so inappropriately to everyone at any level. even his wife. the other day she were his -- she wore that jacket going up care,mp, it said "i don't do you?" the last time they talked about 51acket was because it was thousand dollars. what are they up to? trump needs to go and get impeached.

you know he probably owes $10 billion which is why he doesn't .ay anything about putin this is from richard, and gop, time has come to choose, country or party. and "a congressional check on the liar in chief." your tweets. macron --kel and departing tuesday for the nato summit and then off to london for the overnight visit and then to scotland and to helsinki next week. that is the meeting with vladimir putin. .ood morning

independent line. caller: i have a couple of comments. my main concern is immigration. i don't think that people would think the democrats are talking about releasing all these immigrants coming into the country. so if you think about it, how could a woman with two kids who can't speak any english -- you let her go? how does she support herself and those two kids? democrats are saying that they are not going to give her help. but there is no way she could survive without help. that i am aent is trump supporter but nothing that the russians did influence my vote. i don't know how everyone is saying that the russians

influence everybody's vote. but those of us who voted for trump were not influenced by the russians. host: from the national review -- justice kennedy retires. the illegal results are immense. another tweet -- the fake jordan scandal is next on the list. it'll go away in six weeks. where is stormy daniels now? and there will be no retraction. another.is from "every day there were lies and deceit at the cost of american people." the memorial services and funerals continue indianapolis, maryland -- continue in

annapolis, maryland. another funeral service was yesterday for wendi winters, 65 years old. friends remember the life of the slain journalist as she tried to confront the killer. story from the washington post. let's go to ann, good morning. my main issue with the election coming up is the number of people who will not be voting. i'm sure everyone who listens to c-span will be voting but a large number of americans who are eligible to vote are not registered and they do not vote at all. tied to thethis is corruption of our electoral system with gerrymandering and big money and justice kennedy, he approved of.

totally people are disengaged. now, people like are totally involved. but i knock on doors for candidates and i make phone calls. you would be surprised even among registered voters how many people don't vote. so my main concern is that yes, cyber security for the election and current politicians. but both parties have been involved in gerrymandering. certainly, clintons used big money to their advantage to the detriment of the democratic party. that is it. host: thank you from the call. karen, with a follow-up. againststories republicans innuendo but anything with republicans -- anything with democrats is a

fact? since we have no journalists in this country anymore, i have a really good question. one third or one half of the people to our country like it was happening in honduras and el salvador, they have lost one third-one half of the population. what would that do to america if we suddenly lost half of our population? it has to be devastating to these countries. if we had real journalists in this country, maybe somebody would go down there and ask? some of these countries what is going on? why these people are being driven away? it has to be devastating to them. you. thank moving on. we want to show you some of the ads on the air.

bill nelson seeking reelection in florida. dreamers, for doers, builders, adventurers. in florida, we don't just reach for the stars, we travel to them. i know. i flew on the space shuttle. when i look back at our planet, i didn't see political divisions. i saw how we are all in this together. bound by timeless values we share. our country.ve our state. fight for every family here in florida. and every child who dreams one day to touch the stars. florida has one of the key senate races in the elections. matthew from new jersey on the independent line, good morning. caller: good morning and thank

you very much for the program. the number one issue, i believe, safety for ourselves and friends and family. i have many friends in california and they are not happy because the democrats in california have been releasing criminals on early release. of them arefew violent. and the facts are now showing. surprise. the crime rate in california has gone up dramatically. a five-timed convicted felon who murdered kate steinle, which the fake news didn't talk about. think god trump supports our police and law enforcement. and is a commonsense issue hands down is important.

host: the washington post is one quarter of republicans in 2016 are looking at the supreme court pick as one of the reasons why they voted in the midterm elections. show you now we deals with california politics. house leaders from california, what happens in the home state is key to the future. one or the other will be key speaker. another ad by the rick scott campaign. nelson chose the party line? he voted with hillary clinton 89%. obama, 98%. democrat presidents have nominated more than 700 judges and he never opposed a single one. not one. now, he opposes this president's

choice has been made? you cannot get more than that. in florida, a key battleground state. what is the number one issue? more calls. marcia, good morning. caller: forgive me, what is your name? i am -- host: i am steve. steve, good morning. my issue is to make voting fair. we see gerrymandering over here but weey in politics need to satisfy a voting will. is called the bill of rights for voting equality. and i would love for you to look at it. yourw you can't comment

partisan here. if you vote. but i would love for you to look at it. it has it solves the issue of gerrymandering and in particular, if you are a republican in a democratic state , it allows you to have everybody voices heard. to do something about the control that congress has over the bill. we have over 2000 bills which haven't been addressed. them fromt to stop doing this majority-minority thing where new bills can't come up. no, the bills need to be addressed on a timeline. they need to have the power. that is stuff for us. so fixed voting. host: thank you for the call. rino comingkerry seve

up. fordvertisement coming out tomorrow and the u.s. senate, as the president considers his choice to replace justice kennedy. trump has proven he wants the best of the best on the supreme court. he appointed neil gorsuch, committed to the constitution. now there's another opening, a chance to appoint another great judge. they did before, extremists will lie and attack the nominee, but don't be fooled. the list includes the best of the best, and with your help, america will get another start on the supreme court. the midterm elections, u.s. supreme court, house and senate back this week. our conversation will continue. is with us, a book

called "believe me." -- newsmakers guest this week is kerry severino of the judicial crisis network. supporting the president's upcoming pic for the supreme court. assuming that monday evening, president trump doesn't come out not on thee who was list of 25. assuming there isn't some sort of a reality television program surprise coming at us monday night, what are you prepared to do, and what is your group prepared to do in terms of advertising, spending. are you ready to back whichever nominee it is, assuming it is not some kind of out of left field choice? >> unconfident he will choose

someone from the list. the president has repeatedly gone back and enforce that. to fully support these nominees, an amazing group of people. when justice gorsuch was confirmed, we were prepared with are in the same position now, where whoever he chooses -- it is an embarrassment of riches. whoever it is, we are ready to defend his or her record. seeing those previewed already, and there's going to be character assassinations, distortions of their record, outright lies and deception. i'm happy to know that i am where i am, to stand up for that person. states focus on swing where there are democrats, or is it more on alaska, maine? how do you focus your efforts?

focus would be the swing states. we had three democrat votes last time, i would love to expand that margin. especially given the choice in front of some of these senators, they will be accountable to the voters in their state. this was a key issue driving voters to the polls. people who supported everything about his immigration policy, trade, but the supreme court, more than 1/5 of voters said this was their number one reason. .eople love justice gorsuch i think that is a particularly difficult issue. to say this is where i will put my marker down on the resist i think we will have to see a lot of democrats who feel they have to vote for someone who will be an excellent nominee. severino guest, carrie

, the president announcing his decision tomorrow evening. newsmakers is also available on our free radio at, online at any time. fea, the book is called "believe me," and i want to begin where your book ends. you say that for many of these leaders and followers, they have traded their christian witness for a mix of -- and a few federal judges. writing this book, my primary audience is evangelicals. i am an american historian and an evangelical christian myself. i'm really thinking about the implications of the trump administration for the church, and what does american evangelicals, what does it mean for them to latch themselves to a political party, and how it

will affect their witness in the world as christians. the primary audience of the book, and anyone who reads the book will realize that i am -- i don't think it is a good that american evangelicals have been seeking power politics. what is the outset, your view of donald trump as a candidate in 2016 or as a president? an evangelical christian, i see myself as the 19%, 20% of white evangelicals who didn't support donald trump in the election, and i continue to think he is not only that for our country, but also bad for the church. host: what about for the supreme court? neil gorsuch is on the court. is that good? guest: that is up for debate. this is something evangelicals will have to deal with and ask themselves.

delivering trump is for a certain conservative type of american evangelical, those associated with the christian right. they have been operating with a political playbook for 30 or 40 years that simply says, elect the right candidate. they appoint the right supreme court justice, and you win the culture war. you reclaim, renew, restore america to its supposedly christian values. in that sense, if that is your political playbook, it is obviously a big victory for evangelicals. trade-offn is, is the worth it? solving questions like abortion and religious liberty by aligning yourself with someone like donald trump, who doesn't necessarily exemplify many evangelical, political -- evangelical, biblical values.

is the trade-off worth it? i don't hear many evangelical leaders asking that question. instead, they are pursuing political gain and political power to justify -- to get their agenda accomplished. host: let me share some excerpts from the book. evangelicals may have carried donald trump to the presidency in 2016, that we should probably see his success among these voters as part of a last-ditch attempt to win the culture wars." guest: the average american trump voter was 57 years old. i think the average white evangelical voter might have even been older. we don't have statistics on that, but i will say this. the average white evangelical trump voter was schooled in the 70's and 80's during the rise of the moral majority. jerry falwell senior, to vote a

certain way and follow the playbook i just mentioned in response to the previous question. in some ways, as i look at younger evangelicals, i teach at a school with a large number of evangelical students. in theirnes, even ones 30's, are thinking about their engagement with politics in a different way. they are very pro-life on abortion, but see it in a broader way, to deal with immigration, the death penalty, the environment and so forth. historically, when you see the last gasp of a movement, it tends to be quite strong. i live 30 miles north of gettysburg. on july 3, when the confederacy through everything, charged the union and almost drove them from their line and eventually were pushed back.

in some ways, i think that is a good analogy. the last push of the christian right. host: you write that the fear of a hillary clinton victory line that evangelicals. how so? think kate is too strong of a word for hillary clinton. she brings the baggage from her husband's residency. she has all the wrong social positions for the people who follow this playbook. i've heard other people say this, if there's any democratic candidate that could have lost to donald trump among evangelicals, or maybe generally, it would have been hillary clinton. i think the binary choice that many evangelicals saw led them to see hillary clinton as kind of a -- there's no way we could have hillary.

people would tell me this all the time, who was i supposed to vote for? ways, whatever you think of her, she was a problematic candidate. she had the email problem, the email server problems. but you could make a compelling argument that some of her social proposals or policies could be considered pro-life in some way, but that's not how evangelicals see the pro-life issue. blind, especially to hillary's failure to address questions of abortion in the ways they wanted her to, and especially religious liberty. there was a sort of "hillary made it worse," and thrust evangelicals and to trump's pants. host: you point out a -- hands.rump's why was may 18

significant? 2016. guest: that's the date on which he released the list of federal supreme court justices that he would appoint. slightly after the death of antonin scalia a, i believe in february of 2018. this now totally changes the complexity of the gop primary, as ase -- and the election whole, because now, it is going to be about control of the supreme court in a more immediate sense. so, when trump releases that list of judges, which was constructed by the federalist heritage foundation, that sends a clear message to those christian evangelicals who are following the political playbook, yes, he will deliver the supreme court. yes, these are pro-life justices.

he's operating off the same list now with the denomination we will hear about tomorrow night. host: the book is titled "believe me," the evangelical road to donald trump. you write about barack obama. perfect foil for the evangelical purveyors of politics and fear. he was an exotic figure to many white, conservative christians and represented nearly everything that made white evangelicals afraid. there is a long history traced trace in the book of evangelical fear in the american past. you can trace it to the 17th and 18th century. i think the eight years under the obama administration was just the latest manifestation of that fear. barack obama, i think race had something to do with it. barack obama was obviously the first african-american president, that for many evangelicals, he had the wrong

social policies. abortion, gay marriage is a huge issue. if you think about when obama comes into office in 2008, he is defending the defense of marriage act. eric holder, his attorney general, is enforcing it. then his famous interview with robin roberts on abc, and which he says he believes it is ok, believes same-sex marriage is ok, then -- versus hodges towards the end of his administration. to the lgbt community, this has been a long battle since the 1960's to get same-sex marriage to be the law of the land. that eightlicals see years as happening very fast, causing fear and a threat to their sense of christian identity of america. tweet, we would ask who you voted for. did you vote in 2016?

guest: i did vote, and i did not vote for donald trump, let's put it that way. or hillary clinton. host: you wrote about the access hollywood video. it came to light on october 7. you know what the president said. i'll just say part of it. these are his words. i'm automatically attracted to beautiful women. i just start kissing them, like a magnet. they let you do it when you're a star. somee goes on to use expletives. how did they react? --t: any evangelical guest: any evangelical is going to react in a negative way. host: some didn't say anything. them didn'tfew of say anything, but they said something like that is horrendous, i don't endorse it, whether it really happened or if it was locker room talk, but then they quickly move on.

i don't endorse that, but here's why we still need to support trump. back to this playbook. as it developed in the 70's and 80's under the moral majority, it was very connected to the presidential candidate who had ore kind of character respected american institutions. i think the political playbook is put to the test in a way it hasn't been before. will it survive when the presidential candidate does not have the kind of character that evangelicals embrace? survive.r is, it did even something as horrendous as the access hollywood situation, or the stormy daniels affair, it is not going to sway evangelicals -- many of them -- the big delivers on moral issues, abortion and religious liberty. we have one phone line set aside for evangelicals. that number is (202) 748-8003.

otherwise, numbers are divided into democrats, republicans, and independents. i tend to think that evangelicals is a misnomer. the religious right are really fundamentalist, and i belong to evangelical reformed church in america, a mainstream church, and my particular parish is progressive. we have straight and gay from around the world. it is very different from the funda --i guess what you would call the christian right. they aren't really evangelicals, very intolerant. here's something i've noticed on c-span over the last few weeks that this gentleman might be interested in, that a number of colors, when they talk about the immigration issue, they go, i'm a christian, but -- then they go trash immigrants and

hispanics, especially. "but" to say, there's no in christianity, you follow the teachings of jesus or you don't. guest: to address your first issue, evangelical is, just translated from the greek, the good news of the gospel. the evangelical lutheran church traces its history to the protestant reformation, martin luther. they have attached the word, .c.a., your, e.l denomination, in such a way that the evangelicals who support donald trump are different. they come out of the fundamentalist movement of the 20th century, and many are people who projected some of the harsher sides of fundamentalism and wanted to engage the culture a little bit more. of libertyll, senior

university -- come out of a conservative type of evangelicalism. some might call it fundamentalist, but it is a different kind from the mainline lutheran church you are a part of. is fundamentalism affair word? perhaps, but it is often just used by people who don't like somebody else, so we need to be careful with that as well. host: this tweak is from jodey. the fear of a woman president scared them to their souls, so they voted for what is a heathen in any other context. and another tweet, the 2016 election was, anyone but hillary or anyone but bush. certainly, gender and the long history of patriarchy within american evangelicalism

probably played some role in the reason so many evangelicals voted against hillary. equation, if the think. i think there's also large numbers of women, conservative women who voted for donald trump as well. that is certainly a piece of the puzzle when it comes to hillary. the long-standing baggage of her association with bill clinton and the lewinsky affair, going on the today show, saying this is a right-wing her antiabortion views -- her pro-choice views, pardon, which is tied into .ender fea, his guest is john book, believe me. ago, hisned a moment

college is in mechanicsville, pennsylvania. we are joined from randallstown, maryland. good morning. caller: this guy, first of all, let me say. you can't be a bigot and call yourself a christian. thank you. absolutely, no argument here. i think this is one of the of the wayritiques evangelicals have lined up behind trump. they are relatively silent after charlottesville last august, kind of turned their back to some of the more racist, even the softness the comments that trump makes. when you are pursuing political power like that, and trying to stay in the good graces, if you , it is going to limit the way that you can speak

tophetically to the culture, the government. we've seen this in evangelicalism for a long time. even billy graham got close to nixon, one of the last people to confront him during watergate. biographer,great grant lacher, who suggested that else-- that when everyone thought nixon was guilty, billy graham was supporting him. -- today's evangelicals guest: you wrote in the book that he later regretted that. guest: as he reflected back on his life, he said it was one of my biggest mistakes, cozying up to political power. book, donalde trump was a winner, and he managed to convince american evangelicals he could score a cultural victory on their behalf. he would shelter them from mexican strangers threatening

white, evangelical america, from muslims preparing to kill them from their families, -- political correctness by the liberal media. he would deliver the supreme court. believedey've always they've been the guardians of american culture, and in some ways, they have been, but things have changed, especially since world war 2, especially since the 1960's. many are left fearful about the way the country is changing religiously in, some ways. when people are afraid, they turned to a strong man to protect them from the things threatening their way of life, how they understand their community and their nation. in some ways, he was the best strongman available, much more of a strong man -- at least

evangelicals thought so, the 81% who voted for him, then some of the other gop candidates in the race, who were much more traditional christian right candidates like ted cruz, marco rubio, ben carson. but they believed it was trump who would protect them, maybe because of his bombastic personality, ability to "blow it up," to drain the swamp. thus far, he has protected them from their fears by keeping out, doing his best to keep out mexican immigrants, the travel ban -- if you want to call it a muslim travel ban. he's delivered everything that conservative evangelicals who voted for him wanted. host: a word that keeps coming up is nostalgia. evangelicals view the past through the lens of nostalgia.

in this sense, nostalgia is closely related to fear. in times of great social and cultural change, the nostalgic person will turn to a real or imagined past as an island of safety amid the raging storm of progress. tradedi'm a historian by -- by training. they are different ways of approaching the past. nostalgia tends to be a self-interested way. you want to go into a safe world where things were good, when you felt it was good. very individualistic. what it doesn't take into consideration is there may have been a time when you thought life was good, but it wasn't good for other people. especially african, people of -- christian

evangelicals have looked back to a sort of golden age they've created. .hat world is no longer here you could make a legitimate historical argument that it never existed in the first place . cold11, i wrote a book "was america founded as a christian nation?" i challenge that idea. what golden age do you want to go back to? the phrase, make america great again, is a nostalgic phrase. whenus as a historian, were we good? when was america great? a historian, if you identify it, i might be able to tell you what life was like for everybody. we ask donald trump that question in 2016 and he didn't answer it. greg joins us from midlothian, virginia. republican line. to my: when i talk

evangelical friends, particularly about the way donald trump tweets and attacks , and uses name-calling and all this kind of stuff, they simply overlook it, because like you guys have been talking about, they feel like they are fighting to get their country back. guest: absolutely. that's what i'm trying to say. their understanding of the country has been lost. notice how many times you hear christian right politicians and pastors talk about renewing, restoring, reclaiming. it is about looking into the past, going back to the nostalgia we were talking about. as a result, you said other morality, stability, ethics, whatever it might be, to the side to accomplish those things.

anti-trumptrump and twitter feeds i looked at, it gets back to this question of stability -- of civility we've been debating. thanelicals can do better diving into the culture war in this way, and that is what i'm trying to encourage them to do with this book. host: we welcome our radio audience and those listening on bbc radio. in 2014, a survey from pew indicated that about a quarter of people in this country consider themselves to be evangelical. does that sound about right? yes, and i can't remember if that was white evangelicals or people of color. obviously, african-american evangelicals and hispanic evangelicals don't support donald trump.

80%, 81%alk about this number, we talk about white evangelicals who voted. even be higher, though i'm guessing it is probably lower. aboutthe president talked these issues at the value voters summit. >> we love our families, our neighbors, our country. everyone here today is brought together by the same shared and timeless values. we cherish the sacred dignity of every human life. [applause] we believe in strong families and safe communities. we honor the dignity of work. we defend our constitution. liberty.t religious

[applause] we treasure our freedom, we are proud of our history, we support the rule of law and the incredible men and women of law enforcement. heroes ande our salud every american who wears we respect our great american flag. [applause] >> thank you, thank you.

and we stand united behind the customs, beliefs, and traditions that define who we are as a nation and as ap. george washington said that religion and morality are indispensable to america's happiness. really, prosperity, and totally to its success. it is our faith and our values that inspires us to give with charity, to act with courage, and to sacrifice for what we know is right. the american founders invoked our creator four times in the declaration of independence. four times. host: john fea, he's going

through the checklist. stuff there's some good there, but also some problematic things. this is him sort of feeding the christian right the red meat that they want. talking about abortion, , appealing torty the idea that somehow, the founding documents created a christian nation. his reference to the declaration of independence at the end is correct. it alludes to god four times, but it is a very vague god, not very specific, the god of jefferson and the declaration of independence. certainly nothing about jesus christ or these sorts of things. but he talks about how religion is important to the founding fathers, as something contributing to the greater good of the republic. i would make the argument it doesn't matter what kind of religion it was.

contributed to the kind of republic that these founding statesmen were trying to create, the founding fathers had use for it. if there was a religion that spoke prophetically and call the government out for its sins, i don't think the founding fathers would have had any use for that kind of religion. you say that the separation of church and state represents the enemy. market,here's a whole group of political activists, writers who handled in the study , promoting -- you don't know who these people are, david barton and others. they don't hang around washington, d.c. circles. here for religion tors, show you how america was founded as a christian nation, dubious historical claims. one of the first things they tell you is that the words separation of church and state

do not exist in the constitution, anywhere, and they would be right in concluding that. but then, it is hard to uphold that position and then not go all the way and say, well, if church and state aren't separate , if there should be an establishment of religion in that any how is different from saying that one religion should be privileged over any other? and i think that is what is going on. most of the hard-core christian right leaders believe america was founded as a christian nation, and that christianity should be privileged, whether it read the 10 commandments in front of a city hall, the manger , theirn a courtyard views on marriage. the list goes on and on. host: the president's presbytery and, does not attend church regularly. does that bother you?

guest: i've never held a president to some kind of higher calling to be a spiritual leader in some ways. barack obama rarely went to church. all kinds of issues when a president shows up to a congregation. it kind of disrupts the life of the congregation that particular day. that's not the big thing about trump that bothers me. i take donald trump for who he is. i think he is bad for the country. i think he disrespects american institutions and so forth. what i wrote this book for is for the evangelical christians, who i consider my tribe, my people, who have latched on to him in this way and made him a kind of savior, when christians really only have one savior, god

and jesus christ. line,on the republic webster, massachusetts. caller: thank you for giving me the privilege to be here today. regarding the president, i think we are all human, we are all sinners. i think all christians can find forgiveness for him if he is willing to admit his faults. have anr -- if he did affair with a port star, i would ask him personally, what are you have such au beautiful wife. anyhow, regardless. we've talked about history. how would you define modern day evangelicalism? what to evangelicals actually stand for? guest: sure, i think evangelicalism, there's a lot of debate among historians and theologians about what an evangelical is. i would say, drawing from a

english historian named david bevington who studied english evangelicalism in britain, they believe four things. the centrality of the cross. they believe jesus died on the cross for one's sins. they believe in conversion, that you must accept jesus as your savior and have an encounter with him in which he forgives you of your sins. jimmy carter in the 1970's was the first president to call himself a born-again christian. the importance of the bible, being the inspired word of god and authoritative book to live your life by, the teachings of jesus, the new testament and old testament. finally, a sense of activism. taking your faith and sharing it with others and engaging in social causes, engaging in the

needs of the world. i think if you can sign off on those four things, and some of them are true of all kinds of christian religions. but when you put those four things together in a package, you have an american evangelical. i tend to define it in a theological way. be a racistrtainly and still be an evangelical, or you could be a conservative or a democrat, it doesn't really matter. today, the word has taken on such a lyrical connotation, -- such political connotations, especially in the age of trump, it has become the gop. the republican party. if you are an evangelical and aren't a member of the republican party, people don't know what to make it. when ronald reagan defeated jimmy carter in 1980, you write that jerry falwell and his moral crusaders cheered.

ironically, they had just defeated the first born again christian in the white house, thrown their support behind a formerly pro-choice california governor, ronald reagan, and from then forward, viewed the gop as their path forward. evangelicals rallied around jimmy carter in 1976. he started doing things that evangelicals felt uncomfortable with. the carter presidency didn't seem to be taking americans anywhere with the recession. some of the foreign-policy problems. but the real issue was a supreme in which the united states government, green versus connolly, later became known as the bob jones case, and which federal government stopped funding christian academies, private colleges that discriminated on admissions based on race.

those conservatives saw this as big government telling them how to run their faith-based institutions. jimmy carter took the side of the supreme court and wanted to desegregate these places. so, race was very much a factor in this. it is part of the reason evangelicals turned away from carter and toward reagan, despite his pro-choice roots and the fact that he was a hollywood movie star himself. he came and delivered, made the famous statement. can't endorse you, but you can endorse me, or maybe vice versa. right boughttian it. host: from eau claire, wisconsin, john on the democrats line. are you with us? from tulsa, oklahoma.

republican line. discussion. good very puzzling in that you say that trump is bad for the country, and as a christian, trump does the things that are good for the country relative to the choice. elections are about choice. hillary,the choice of so if trump is bad, hillary must have been good. andthe obama administration hillary was a continuation, supposedly, of the obama administration. weaponize the irs against christians. now we are finding they weaponize the department of justice, the cia, the fbi, the deep state, and so you are coming on and saying the

christians made a bad choice, by your statement, trump is bad for the country. host: will get a response. guest: i don't see any election as a binary choice. there are candidates on the ballot. there are usually more than two, and you have to vote your conscience. that might not be voting for someone in one of the two political parties. i understand that could be helping the other party win, if you don't vote for the party, you vote against a candidate you like or don't like, but that's not how i see the election. i think evangelicals or anybody has to vote according to their conscience. in terms of the choice of hillary versus -- i said at the beginning of the program, i thought they were both bad choices. both morally problematic candidates. hillary clinton did have some issues. i think she failed miserably at

appealing to evangelicals. there was no way hillary clinton was going to carry the majority, or even close to the majority of them in 2016. that the election was so close, a popular vote she won by 3 million votes. --the past, she has made pro-choice, abortion needing to be reduced. she never addressed the religious liberty issues. i think some of these issues, especially for christian colleges and other institutions are legitimate issues. there are some legitimate concerns about these kinds of things. hillary clinton did not seem to appeal to some of those concerns. host: the book is titled, believe me, and our guest is john fea. michael joins us from st.

petersburg, florida, on our line for democrats. caller: good morning. the reason i'm calling is, i think the gentleman is right. donald trump is not good for this country. i think that when good men are quiet and don't say anything, evil prevails. it has struck this nation. and it is in trouble. it had better remember the history, what happened in germany with fiddler. the same thing is going on here. if you remember the comment from mr. trump when he came back from korea, i want my people to sit up straight like they do in north korea. i'm an american, and i don't sit up straight for anybody. wille freedoms, and i fight for them until the day i die. guest: the beginning of the comment i agree with, that indeed, america is in trouble. trump is not good for the country. he seems to only be appealing to his particular base and not

thinking of the issues of the greater good. almost like anyone who didn't vote for him doesn't seem to exist, no attempt at compromise. there's been a lot of comparisons between trump and a lot of historical figures. one of the things we historians like to say is that the past is a foreign country where they do things very differently, but you have to be careful when you make historical analogies, whether it be to hitler's, nixon, andrew jackson. i obviously have heard the hitler's comparison. i just think you need to be careful when you make those analogies, so i won't comment further on that. tweaks,couple of hillary clinton was unacceptable to evangelicals because there preferred means of consuming news had labeled her as a satanic demon for 20 years.

this, i would bet dollars to dimes that hillary clinton is more religious than donald trump. guest: christians are not supposed to hate. evangelicals will tell you in church that they are not supposed to hate. but if there is anyone that they hate, and in that sense, they fail in their faith, it is hillary clinton. she just brought so much baggage . , 25% of the got 20% evangelical vote. i don't know what hillary cap, but it was much less. hillary was somebody who evangelicals would never, ever support in large numbers. is the202) 748-8003 number if you are a self-described evangelical. brad is on the line from lily, kentucky. caller: and like to thank the

guest for writing the book. -- as a political party, not ,ecessarily trump or hillary either one good or bad, but the fact that they've cozied up to a --isive thing so closely we've cast our pearls before swine by doing so. i'm 25 and a christian, and i take it vantage of -- hurts the cause of christ more. we got some feedback, but got the essence of your point. guest: i agree entirely. there's an old baptist saying, when you mix horse manure and ice cream, the horse manure stays the same, but the ice cream is ruined.

the's the way i think about way the christian evangelical church is cozying up to power. again, that is the playbook. it is always about winning the culture wars through power. what is fascinating is there are all kinds of thoughtful evangelicals providing alternative ways for which evangelicals may be able to engage in public life, but the christian right ignores these things. many other attempts at thinking about evangelicals are rooted in what a type of pluralism might look like. how can we live together with our deepest differences? the christian right seems to be -- using another metaphor, a dog chasing a bus. they've been chasing, trying to win back the culture, gain control, gain control. they haven't thought very deeply what they would do if they gain control. what does the christian right

want? women put in prison for abortion? putting into prison abortion doctors? require a law that says you'll be fined if you don't say merry christmas? absurd things, but it is unclear what the christian right wants once they do, or if they do, when the culture wars. host: from the book, while there have been small victories, the christian right is not any closer to winning back the culture war than 30 years ago. on the other hand, when it comes to indoctrinating american evangelicals into the most effective way of restoring a christian nation and winning the culture wars, the christian right playbook has been extremely successful. guest: i think jerry falwell senior, president of liberty university, and his son is now in the news, i think he may be one of the most underrated

political figures of the post-world war ii world. whether you agree with him or not, he has managed to reach almost two generations of american evangelicals, teaching them how to engage in politics and public life to win the culture wars. in that sense, it has been successful in terms of mobilizing people. but most of their agendas, overturning roe v. wade, restoring america to a christian nation, they have not been successful. we'll see what happens when trump makes his appointment and the first abortion case comes before what i assume will be a conservative supreme court. maybe they'll overturn roe v. wade, but that, i don't think, is going to end abortion. that just turns it to the states, and a large number of states will continue to make it legal. maybe some will make it illegal. is that really winning?

made, is theoint i trade-off, to have donald trump in office. a man who does not represent any of the values evangelicals hold dear, to win the supreme court back to the point about pottage? evangelicals have to ask if the trade-off is worth it in the long run. host: jeffrey in auburn, new york. caller: i want to say, first of all, there's two shows on television i watch religiously. .ashington journal and jeopardy i think there's an anti-intellectualism in the united states, and it sort of grows out of this christian fundamentalism. my dad was a catholic, and he never attended church except for weddings and funerals. my mom was a devout presbyterian. myself, after experimenting with catholicism and various denominations of comparative

protestantism, i'm agnostic. agnostic of most religious fundamentalism. i studied comparative religion and philosophies, and i think christians, i've read a study that says only 10% to 12% of professing christians have read the bible cover to cover. compared and studied, and i think i'm going to sit on the fence and not choose any denomination. and like my government to stay out of religion and respect the separation of church and state. commandmentsthe 10 on every courthouse steps and start using a knife or in i eyement -- an eye for an judgment like some of these fundamentalists believe, we will be like trump.

thou shall not commit adultery, false witness? where's the forgiveness in that? i forgive trump, but i don't respect him because he continues and doesn't repent the sins of adultery and lying, deception and cheating and stealing. host: thanks for the call, thank you for including us with jeopardy. will get a response. it is interesting, the point he makes about government staying out of religious life. there are many founding fathers, especially thomas jefferson and james madison, who thought this was a very good idea. there's an argument that could be made that when the founding fathers separated church and ante and did not have established religion, there's an argument to be made that religion actually blossomed when that happened, because now it became part of a kind of consumer culture.

you had to appeal to people, had to have a compelling message to make people come to your church and join your denomination. the decades following the constitution into the early 19th , america could be described as a very evangelical nation. in second great awakening, which religion was at an all-time high. people were becoming christians, rededicating their lives to religion and god, precisely because there was no established , and all of these denominations had to compete with each other. , andd wonders for religion in the early 19th century, you could've almost call this an evangelical nation. host: from missouri, independent line, john. caller: thank you.

i'm wondering where you came up with the idea that the founding fathers would not have had use for religious people wanting to call out the government. guest: sure. what i actually said was that the founding fathers believed religion was very important. the clip we showed earlier was president trump quoting george washington, talking about the essential nature of theology. we have to remember, they were not pastors or theologians, they were statesmen. believe religious people were useful to the republic and the sense that they understood how to sacrifice their own interest for the greater good of the republic. a republic requires virtue, they believe, but willingness to, at times, sacrifice your interest for the greater good. they believe religious people could contribute to that. a religion that

was, say, the government is bad, the government is wrong, that would not necessarily have built up the republic, strengthened the republic. the founding fathers, many of whom were not christian, and so religion as a utilitarian purpose, probably wouldn't have felt the religion was good for the building up of the republic they were trying to create. host: explain why a tour of the south shaped your thinking for this book? in june, 20 17, last summer, i took a one-week civil rights tour. reconciliation is one of our huge commitments at messiah. they send people on this tour. there, i talked to veterans of the civil rights movement and began to see an alternative way

of thinking of politics and faith. a much more prophetic voice, .efined by hope, by humility and i learned a lot. i think many white evangelicals have to confront their past and , and darkep racism sides of their past, confront it directly. there's much they can learn about that from the civil rights movement. gun is on the phone, republican line, from michigan. caller: an eye on? host: go ahead, don. caller: of the two people running, i didn't care for either of them. or in the primaries. but when hillary called me a that ible, which means was worthy of her scorn.

how anybody could let that go, i don't know. like i said, she was a flawed candidate. i don't think it was necessarily a good thing she did that, and it hurt her candidacy. is a classicperson trump voter who couldn't tolerate the way hillary it bepected, whether rural people, people of faith, people in coal mining country. line,also on the republic from virginia, rick. sense: i seem to get the from your guest that he thinks there's some sort of central control over all the churches in , that there's one that speaks for everybody, and that is absolutely not true. i've never attended a church that even spoke of politics within the church.

everybody votes their own conscience. the church i went to is mostly democrats. people registered as democrats. virginia,in west where probably 90% of the people in the 70's were democrat. my family was republican, it was never an issue. of, giving a sense that there a central control and we are following whatever this one certain person on tv says or completelyt is absurd and really demeans us and makes us seem like we are a bunch of blind followers. host: what would you say to rick? it allows me to say you are absolutely right, thank you. first of all, depending on what church you are part of, i'm assuming he is a protestant,

which means there's no kind of hope of protestantism, evangelical is an. certainly there is in the catholic church. i wrote about evangelicals. they can be found in any -- in many protestant denominations. be founday they could in many respects in the catholic church is well. is no unifiedre evangelical position on anything. in this election, though, we have come close to seeing a significant consensus of white evangelicals backing one political candidate. so i think that is worth at least noting. but you are absolutely right. there's some people who refuse to vote for trump, some who voted for hillary. and angela callista and is a

very diverse group of people who i think our unified around certain theological convictions i talked about earlier in the show. i appreciate you giving me the opportunity to clarify that. at the conclusion of the book, you write, it is time to take a long, hard look at what we have become. that is something that could apply to the nation as a whole, certainly to the evangelical church. you hear a lot of trump evangelical trump supporters, saying, we've secured the supreme court. that's going to be his greatest legacy, 20 or 30 years, maybe for a generation, the court will remain conservative, assuming he does appoint a conservative justice monday and gets a chance to appoint another one. no one's asking, what does the witness church and the witness of evangelicals, what is

the gospel, what does the mission of the church in the world look like in a generation or two because of our relationship with this president to what degree does the evangelical church lose clarity to be able to speak to the culture in the way that they are going to want to in the future because they are always going to be associated with this president those are my concerns about what does this look like ?oving forward what does it look like for denominations, for churches, for the evangelical witness of the world? host: the title of the book is "believe me." departingent is tuesday for the nato summit and off to london to meet with the british prime minister. early next week, he will meet with the russian prime minister.

up next, heather will be with us to preview the nato summit. a reminder, we continue our c-span cities tour and today we traveled to lubbock, texas. you can watch american history tv at 2:00 p.m. eastern time. among the locations, the home of rock 'n roll legend buddy holly. >> the buddy holly center was honor the lifeto and musical legacy of buddy holly who was born here and raised here, and went off into the big world and made his name in the music industry.

it is a place that pays homage to someone that is no longer , but yet it is a dynamic place where people can come and learn and take away from that history and build on their own. will, i thinkors experienced a light in seeing things from his boyhood. they will see many of his musical instruments, his guitars , his first gibson all the way to his last sender -- fender. they will see items of clothing that he wore onstage, his iconic black rimmed glasses that he wore, that he is well known for. his will also hilear music that we play throughout the gallery. they get a complete, all-encompassing experience.

host: take the tour with us as we travel to lubbock, texas this weekend on c-span twos book tv and c-span3's american history tv and online anytime at c-span.org/citiestour. heather conley served as the secretary of state during the bush administration from 2001-2005. now works for the center for strategic and international study. the president is in brussels this week, the nato summit. what is his message? guest: i think his message is going to be defense spending, more and more european defense spending. i think the president has focused like a laser beam on the analysts havepean not spent their course to spending 2% of their growth the mystic product on defense

spending. the united states spends over 3.5%, and he would like to see european nato allies do much more. host: how much more? guest: they made a commitment well before donald trump announced his presidency -- candidates he for president. in 2013, our nato allies bymitted to reaching 2% 2024. this was after russia illegally annexed crimea. it jolted the alliance into doing much more. it's important to note that europe hasn't been spending enough on its defense, this has been a message that american presidents have delivered to europe for decades. now, they fully appreciate that they must and are doing more. host: one of those presidents your former boss. stronger nato

alliance also requires a strong european defense capability. at the summit, i will encourage our european partners to defense for eu operations. it will also be stronger and more capable when we deploy together. guest: that was president bush in 2008. what is different today? is his tone different? guest: one of a few things that happened, and then i will talk about president trump's strong message. 2014, the russian events in ukraine changed them mindset. power could cross the territory of another country and annext, that was a -- and it,. t.

europe had to do more. the following year, president trump selection, where as a candidate he was questioning the very foundation of nato. nato was obsolete. these three major jolts have really even europe and impetus to spend more. now, the president in some ways, i fear, the righteousness of his message, europe must spend more, is now starting to be actively working against what he is trying to do with the imposition of tariffs against our nato allies on steel and aluminum for national security reasons. right now, a threat of perhaps removing u.s. forces from europe if they don't spend.now we start getting into the territory of we are getting away from the focus of increased defense spending, you committed to it you must do it, and now we are getting into other areas where allies are pushing back against the president and not focusing

on what they should be doing. in 2014,e recently here's what president obama set about nato and their contributions, their financial contributions. >> one of the things i've also said in the past and will repeat again, and i think secretary-general rasmussen agrees with me, if we have collected defense, it means everybody has to chip in. i've had some concerns about a diminished level of defense spending among some of our partners and nato, not all, but many. that is understandable when you have an economic crisis and many countries are going through fiscal consolidation. the situation in ukraine reminds free.t our freedom isn't we have to be willing to pay for the assets, the personnel, the

training that is required to make sure that we have a force and an effective the current force. one of the things that i think medium and long-term we will have to examine is whether everybody is chipping in. host: that was from 2014. let me share with you what president trump wrote in a letter in april to german chancellor angela merkel. as we discussed during your visit in april, there is a growing frustration and united states that some allies have not stepped up as promised. the united states continues to devote more resources to the defense of europe when the continents economy, including germany are doing well. this is no longer sustainable for us. growing frustration is not confined to our executive ranch. the united states congress is concerned as well. guest: very true.

congress has been deeply concerned for the last 15-20 years, since the end of the cold war, that europe was not spending more. that is very true. on the other hand, since events in ukraine, congress on a bipartisan basis has been spendingg u.s. defense to help support pushing back and deterring against potential russian aggression. on the one hand, absolutely, we are concerned about this. put on the other hand, we understand the overarching imperative which is to deter russian aggression in europe, and to support the alliance in its efforts to do that. host: who is not stepping up to the plate? guest: there is a long list. there are 29 members of nato let me talk about who is. . now, we are on course for this year to have

eight nato members meet the 2% target. the united states, united kingdom, grace and estonia, poland, latvia and lithuania going to cross that threshold. those at the very bottom of that spectrum based on last year's figures, countries like slovenia, belgium, luxembourg, very tiny, and you have others spain, others that are certainly falling very low. again, what the allies committed to doing is four years ago, was to build towards that 2% by 2014, and hopefully get there faster. fort now, 14 are on track 2024.

that is not good enough. we need all 29 to get there by 2024. host: wears germany in terms of its financial contributions? 1.24%.germany is around over the last it, then have increased their defense spending by 6%. germany right now, their current trajectory is that they will reach 1.5% 2024. they need to do more. the german government recognizes they need to do more. , thee just cause -- pause german forces -- u.s. forces in germany do a lot more. our headquarters in student tgart. -- stud we have a pretty robust new no force in afghanistan working

with u.s. forces. you cannot just say this is for german defense, far from it. om and our afric africa counterterrorism missions. it does so much more than just for germany. host: our guest is heather connolly, she served as assistant secretary of state for european affairs during the bush administration. let's get to your phone calls. first up from new york. veteran and the united states military. i think that nato is quite useless because every time we go to a theater, where the biggest number of soldiers in the console, whereas germany and all

of europe nl of nato seem to want to back off and send in 200, 300, 400, where we have thousands. ronald reagan forgave the debt of world war ii. when he did that, everybody started taking advantage of the united states. they want us to give up our freedoms, they want to intermix their religion and our government, and drag religion into government, and i am sick of it. i think nato needs to be disbanded and thrown out of this country because they don't do what they are paid to do. thank you. thet: thank you for question. i think it's very important to go back to why in the world did we found and create the nato after how much9, we have expended in blood and treasure during the second world war?

why we created this alliance and why it has expanded over the last 69 years is because it was built for and by u.s. leadership. we wanted to create and stabilize europe, which was critical. we had just fought two world wars on the european continent. we wanted to stabilize europe, but then we wanted to make sure that we countered any future threats to europe. securityabout european as a forward posture to america's national security. you are right. america is by far the largest contributor to nato, but because we are the greatest military power in the world. any alliance that we are part of, we are the biggest kid in that alliance. i will tell you, when nato has done, even after the end of the cold war, the only time that nato had declared an article five obligation, and that just

members one of the nato are attacked, that the other members will rally in support of that member. the only time in nato's history has been after 9/11. an article five was declared and the nato forces went into afghanistan. the u.s. was the most significant contribution of forces to afghanistan. all nato countries made contributions which helped reduce u.s. force presidents -- presence. forcesthousand nato died. my view is that the country with the most allies wins. when we have support from nations, whether it is support economically or helping us with sanctions or helping focus on a threat together, america is successful.we need those alliances , but you are right. those allies need to shoulder the burden in a more productive

way then they have. i think president trump is right by raising this, absolutely. that we want to make sure we get them in the right direction because it supports america's national security interests. host: available online at the news.com.s -- defense this is in 2010. you will see the change as i get it appear. here. u.s. contributions have declined significantly, still leaving the list in 2017. let's go to sydney and alexandria, louisiana. and other lady is not going to answer my question, but she keeps referring to the problem in the ukraine. i would love for you to show the stating that we spent $5

billion to democratize the ukraine. she tells who is going to be the next president, which it happened, she also said if you don't like what we are doing, you can go blank yourself. last person you had on i asked these questions to do not answer the questions. please answer the question. you are right to say that former secretary torry a new and was in ukraine working very hard at the moment to try and help opposition -- ukrainian opposition try to smooth the way for potentially a new election when demonstrators

were working against the government. supported states had the rule of law and anticorruption efforts and civil society in the ukraine. why do we do these things? there is similar to help the u.s. looks at their institutions, it becomes a more stable country. a more stable country can purchase u.s. goods. it can provide security, ukrainian soldiers certainly support nato operations as partners. we want a stable ukraine. you are right. secretary comments that were on a phone call and were released, we are very unfortunate. it is for a country to decide

what governance it once its policy approach, what alliances it wishes to be. we want to preserve every country's right to do that. we offer technical assistance and humanitarian support to help them beat stable, productive countries is that is in america's national security interest it is absolutely that country's decision. u.s. with the european union has tried to help ukraine. ukraine has to help itself, but it's very hard to help itself when 7% of its territory is occupied.exed or we want to give ukraine the space to be able to be stable. instability just creates a cost of more military. toll, it'sthe human important to note over 10,000 people have died in the ukraine conflict. and over 1.5 billion people have been internally displaced.

host: this is from the new york times when the president travels to london after his meeting with the nato allies, this will be in the air. it is a balloon of donald trump called the crybaby wearing a diaper. the mayor of london, who has been a critic of the president giving permission for this balloon to fly overhead. guest: of course, it's not going to be the most welcome symbol when the president visits london, but that is democracy. the ability to protest is happening in the united states on all sides of the issue. people protest, this is going to be the largest demonstrations we have seen in a while in london. were very large when then-president bush had a state visit to the u.k. during his tenure. this is to be expected. democracies and people have the

right to peacefully protest their views. time it magazine reporting on the meeting that took place over the last couple of days with secretary of state mike pompeo. north korea says the talks with the secretary were regrettable. when they share with you what time is reporting. between thealks u.s. and north korea appeared to hit a snag on saturday as pyongyang said a visit by secretary of state at had been regrettable and accused washington of making the gangster like demands to pressure the country into abandoning its nuclear weapons. the story goes on to say that the statement came just hours after pompeo wrapped up two days of talks with senior north korean officials without meeting with kim jong-un but with commitments of a new round of discussions on denuclearization. the foreign ministry saying the u.s. trade the spirits of last month's summit. guest: what is so interesting

in someis sequence, ways in the run-up to president trump's meeting with president putin in helsinki on july 16. when weically happens have a very challenging relationship with another country, we work sometimes very quietly. sometimes we don't even know about it. we work together on the most difficult issues. we count it out from lower levels and work to the very top. when you get to the point where the two leaders meet, you have already agreed on at least the approach to how you're going to tackle these issues. you have the technical analysis and the expert, that there is a path forward. sometimes it doesn't work out as planned. you have the leaders agree and put their seal of approval, this is the way forward. particularly on very difficult

issues, you work from the bottom up in the leader seals the deal. with the trump administration has done in a new way is split the process around. most importantly, is for the two leaders to meet without all of that preparation. after the meeting, the preparation starts. and thehave just seen, secretary pompeo has just experienced is that is a really challenging way, because now you're backing into a process. both leaders can come out of that meeting and say i said this or i said that, and if there is not detailed clarity, it's like nothing happened. you have to fight all these issues both leaders use the other as saying he said that or he said that. this is why it's so important to prepare for summits, particularly on such technical and difficult issues as denuclearization, verification, transparency. i know this isn't exciting, it's boring detailed work, but if you don't could

that detailed work in place, it falls apart. we are starting to see the ramifications of not having a well-prepared am it today. was the north koreans, in your opinion a mistake? mistake, butever a from the u.s. perspective, you have to be extremely clear on what your intentions are and have a process that is trans parent. everyone can see progress. if there is not progress, here's a list of things that are going to happen. you don't do that after the fact. this is why, i know it's really boring expert staff, the preparation is absolutely key forthese really important,

these summit. host: lets go to ned in huntsville, alabama. caller: good morning. we try tobed that help ukraine democratize. victoria to help with that effort. would you say that we interfered in other people's business? causinghis interference the main cause for the instability in ukraine and the crimea business? great question. it's really helpful to focus on ukraine and why in the world have we spent this much money of u.s. taxpayers money on ukraine? it's part of the process that we --lly began at the end of

when the berlin wall fell, which we are celebrating that 30 years next year. why did we try to help poland and hungary and the czech republic and these new countries that had left the warsaw pact and sought to become part of the european union, sought to be come -- become part of nato? we wanted a europe that was at peace to prevent the united states having to go back to europe repeatedly to help stabilize that continent. what we did was help ukrainians help themselves. said, there are absolute limits to what we can do, but we show them how it works in our system. they will have to interpret how it works best in their system, but why it is so important to have nongovernmental organizations, how it's important to have strong institutions and to fight against corruption. there were some successes in the ukraine, a lot of failures in the ukraine.

put moreean union money into this project than we have in trying to do it. it was all in part to stabilize it. why was that important? governance, this was an opportunity for corruption, oligarchs and russian interference to help change that balance within ukraine. now, 7% of the rain is occupied or annexed. this is what happens when we don't have stable, strong democratic countries that could be resilient and resistant to this type of aggression. do we interfere? we help support government and inntries to help people their own way become more stable democracies. that is good for the u.s.. , be a american products security contributor and help the u.s. where we need forces.

ukraine has certainly supported the u.s. in many ways because of that report. -- support. host: our guest served in the george w. bush administration. david is next. caller: good morning. it seems that most of the criticism about the way that the korean negotiations are happening is that not enough time with that before hand like has always been done in the past. caller: these things are all carefully laid out to the expectations are carefully managed any notes that the what is going to happen when you get there. the problem here is there is no time. they were already testing missiles with enough range to hit the u.s. they had not finished testing the types of things that could tarp well.

they had brought one down as far that show that a warhead would survive reentry. they had still a lot of testing to do, but what this has done is stop the testing. guest: you are absolutely right. cye strategic patience poli was absolutely a failure. we did not focus early enough to really put the maximum pressure campaign on the north koreans to try to get them or meaningful to the table. this has been a 20 year odd diplomatic odyssey that did not work. as i said, i appreciate that let's shake it up and try something completely different. that is certainly what president trump has done. the challenge here is, but you have to go back to those steps of ok, what is the system?

what do we agree to? how are you going to have denuclearization? you are absolutely right that the missile test may have stopped, but perhaps it is because north korea may have got to such a threshold where it feels very confident in its testing and doesn't need to do that anymore. if reports are accurate that they are now looking at submarine capabilities, that is a new area to be concerned about. you are right, we're out of time. and i think we took 20 years and didn't focus as clearly as we should have on this crisis. at the end of the day, you need a process. i think secretary pompeo experienced the fact that there is not a process. yet this is going to be a big challenge, for sure. let's go to don in new mexico. caller: i want to give you a

compliment. you are certainly more knowledgeable than donald trump is capable of being. with that said, i have a test in. at this very moment that we are encouraging military spending in europe, we have watched the rise in turkey and poland and other countries in europe of the right wing. do we have any assurance that that military spending won't be used against other countries in their area? guest: thank you for your question. i think you raise a very important point. we have to go back to why did we create nato? reading theworth preamble of the washington treaty. the nato treaty was i been washington in april of 1999 and the samples as that the whole point of this exercise is to

protect freedom, rule of law and democracy. my question is, what happens when those allies start shifting away from democratic institutions? certainly, we see in a very reductiont toward a of freedom and and institutions. reports today that there is yet ofther significant purse thousands of civil servants, teachers, strong concerns about hungry and it teacher democratic direction. poland has been reducing the independent of its judiciary and constitutional tribunal. these are all worrying signs. we can ask our allies increased defense bending, but what are we defending? i believe the united states defense freedom and democracy. that is why these 29 countries are bound together.

not because they spend 2%, because they have a higher ideal, and that is the preservation of democracy, and we are stronger together than we are separately. it's an important question to ask, and sometimes we get so caught up in one particular issue, we sort of lose the whole point. we also need to make sure that includes all of our allies that we are focused on strengthening ourselves as democracies. that can be as powerful as spending 2% of gross domestic product on defense spending. host: the schedule is two days in brussels for the nato summit and on to london, scotland where the president will spend a weekend at his resort lane golf, -- playing golf, and onto finland to meet with the russian president. guest: this is a massive week for europeans geordie,

andsatlantic security, really how we think of future u.s. policy toward russia. -- i will gosummit back to secretary pompeo, unfortunately, mr. bolton went to moscow we can have to go to work at the summit agenda. secretary pompeo is going to be meeting with his counterpart after this on it. -- summit. what is on the agenda, we are told is ukraine. syria, the russians militarily have supported the assad regime since september 2015 and continue to support the regime that has used chemical weapons and has caused enormous humanitarian harm in catastrophe.

we are told also to talk about the election interference in the united states. host: who is going to bring that up? guest: mr. bolton tells us that president trump well. it is important to note that not like the korean summit, this is not the first time he has met with vladimir putin. themd two meetings on margins last year. meeting. be the fourth we are told the beginning will be a one-on-one meeting with interpreters. that means there are no other secretary pompeo are mr. bolton won't be a part of it. that is always a little dangerous because you have you have ofe room, people to say no, mr. putin said

that.no, mr. trump said that what you can't walk out of the meeting and have two different understandings. their stabilization there to say no this is what was said and promised. i think we are concerned about how president trouble raise the question of interference because he already has raised it and he tells us that the russian government tells me they don't meddle, and that is the end of the story. that of course is not the end of the story. i'm not entirely sure how much we will get out of that. what i'm concerned about is ukraine. the president in some earlier rt ofical rallies shoro shared the sentiment of crimea, for some unexplained reason, the president would signal support for russia's illegal annexation of crimea. this would append what we understand international law to be and it would give license to

the kremlin to say, well, it's ok i guess other countries would be available for us and our national security needs to annex them. it would increase the potential for conflict greatly. host: our last call is from tennessee. i just wanted to,. callers had some discuss the instability we caused in ukraine that prompted the reaction from the russian government to seize their naval from a hostile takeover. very, i'm actually offended that this is constantly ignored by my media that educates the public. there is a one-sided narrative

that is going on. spending,nato defense we have some serious issues on the domestic front, as far as poverty, health care, homeless rates. focus is to continue moxa my thing -- maximizing for weapons manufacturers for what i see is a nonexistent threat. actually see permanent u.s. troops deployed in poland as not in the interest of myself and the american people because if a conflict breaks out, and you ask the typical american, are you willing to lose new york, l.a., chicago for a nuclear attack to protect latvia or lithuania? i guarantee you most americans would say no, i don't see that for ourpro-than con national security. i really wish we had an honest

conversation and we did everything we could to pursue they taught with russia because this is a very dangerous game. host: thank you and money remind the audience that one of the mission it -- mission statements theato, with regarding military, if the nomadic efforts fair, nato has the power to undertake crisis management operations. alone or with under countries. guest: i would argue with your premise that the united states caused the instability in ukraine. it was not the united states that illegally annexed crimea. it was not the united states that provided military support and military officers into eastern ukraine to destabilize

that in 2014. it was not the united states that invaded the republic of georgia in 2008. this instability was caused by russia. i think what you are suggesting tothat by providing support ukrainian organizations, nongovernmental organizations, teaching them about free and fair elections and political party development, that we helped caused this. i would suggest that we offered our values and how our system works to the ukrainians, whether they choose to take that are not is their choice, but we did not cause the instability. there is legitimate, and it's an important question to debate. does nato expansion stabilize europe, or does it make it more unstable? because russia has reacted so strongly about nato's potential expansion to ukraine into which is in some ways

why we have the things we have today. i argue that it actually has provided greater stability. invasion of russian ukraine, if poland and the three baltic states knowing their history, if they would not have had the competent -- confidence of nato and nato saying we have worry, we will protect you. i think we would have already seen a broader regional conflict. i think it provides enormous stability. your final point about why are we spending money on them when home,e real challenges at did you know that poland sends soldiers to iraq when we ask them to? it's not a one-way street. our allies do very -- and i tell you what, the iraq mission for the polish people was one incredibly unpopular thing, that

they sent hundreds of thousands of forces to work shoiu -- shoulder to shoulder with the united states. these are important questions and need to be debated. that is why we need to talk about it at understand why the united states is doing this. host: we will conclude on that note. deputy assistant secretary of state. thank you for being with us. with you a tweet from president trump as a situation continues to unfold in thailand. he wrote, the u.s. is working very closely with the government of thailand to help get all of the children out of the case and to safety. very brave and talented people. reports now that for children have safely left the cave. a story the world has been watching over the last 15 days in thailand.

we are going to take a short break and when they come back, we are going to open your phone lines -- our phone lines. tell us what is on your mind. you are watching and listening to c-span's washington journal on this sunday morning. back in a moment. >> monday night on the communicators, a stanford professor discusses his book about virtual reality technology and its potential for the future. well, the is done front of your brain can be saying this is not real, but the back of your brain is terrified. whenever we brink whether it's children on a field trip or the

ceo of the fortune 10 company, that is the first thing we do. we want to establish that the are feels real. if you are unwilling to take a step on the plank, once i've sold you on this idea that you are so real that you are not even willing to step on a fake plank, then we can have a real conversation. can be our change attitudes about racism and climate change and hard topics that you have to experience to really understand. >> watch the communicators monday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span two. q&a, a freelance journalist on his washington post magazine article on the sons of the late reverend and their church in newfoundland, pennsylvania. >> what is going on at sanctuary church up in pennsylvania is a co-mingling of a lot of

region, tots in the a degree we haven't seen before. it is still a small church, my guess would be maybe 200 people in the congregation total up in 1000,lvania and 500 maybe but these days you can follow a church on youtube. it's that commingling of passion in america and what does this say about us as a culture? is there any precursor of what we may see down the road? when you get the genie out of the bottle of mixing guns and religion in almost any society, it's usually been problematic. >> tonight at 8:00 on c-span's q&a.

washington journal continues. minutes,our remaining we want to open the phone lines and tell us what you're thinking this sunday morning. here are some of the headlines from the washington examiner and the previous of the announcement that will come tomorrow as the president announces his pick for the u.s. supreme court. the senate's long hot supreme court battle will begin tomorrow. -- as the gop and democratic senators try to steal a handful of votes in the middle of that outcome. since 2000 five, also print project is his been confirmed in less than three months. republicans are hoping to stick to that schedule. to get there, the nominee is

expected to quickly start making the rounds to senate offices for individual interviews. that will be followed later this summer by a confirmation hearing that will include written questionnaires from each of the 21 lawmakers on the senate committee. the most important part will be the cajoling of a handful of senators on each side that could either rescue or sink the nominee. that is from the washington examiner. in this headline we showed just a moment ago from the sunday maryland. annapolis, let's go to margie joining us in philadelphia. caller: good morning. i wanted to talk about what part did paul manafort play? he was working with crimea and the russians when putin took

over crimea and found all of his paperwork that was scattered all over the place what manafort was being paid. can you please talk about that a little bit? it. is host: paul manafort remains in isolation in a virginia jail. his lawyer is asking for the trial to be moved from alexandria, virginia two roanoke, virginia. the health industry is spending big on the obamacare debate. i'm sure.d nurses -- and he isng us joining us from new york city. caller: i do agree with hillary when she called the top of voters deplorables.

with the names that trump calls people, deplorable is hardly even a bad term. as far as the evangelicals go, we are all hypocrites, but their hypocrisy is beyond belief. when trump wants to talk about i wishof maxine waters, the man on earlier had taken a poll of the iqs of the evangelicals he spoke with. stoking the fires across the region of southern california. we get to arizona and mike. yes.r: i have a question. host: first of all, we are getting feedback because you have the volume on and she has left. you can either way and on news

of the day, we will go on to tina. caller: good morning and thanks for listening. i just want to make a really quick point with the parents being separated. i think that needs to be looked in as well as parents in the united states being separated. situation exact same when my child was lawfully taken away from me, not because i was . bad parent i have the documentation to show that. it's happening in the united states every day. not only that we should look at deportation that is going on and parents that are being separated, but it is happening right here in the united states every day. uponneeds to really looked as well because it's tearing our

families apart. i don't see where this is being talked about at all because it's happening right on our phone -- soil. host: it texas all over. serious concern across the state of texas. also headlines from the anchorage daily news. north korea and the u.s. still at odds over the latest talks following a meeting that took place friday and saturday in pyongyang with secretary of state mike pompeo. the c-span bus was in alaska and we will be featuring alaska later on this month on the network. next month, the bus traveling to hawaii. next up is robert from huntsville, alabama. caller: i just want to copper meant you on the interview with

john fay. host: it's fai. -- fia. caller: i was just wondering when that would air again. host: it's already online, it will likely air again today on networks. you can want to anytime, any time a program airs on this network, it immediately shows up on c-span.org. caller: once again, c-span hits it out of the ballpark. thanks for what you do for us. let's go to bethlehem, pennsylvania. caller: i just wanted to respond to the lady that was just on. there are other ways that countries spend the money besides militarizing their whole area. a story inhere was

our local press about two juniors in high school that were going to receive free education totally free on the german government. it's phenomenal. are we doing that for people from other countries? way to that goes a long show how they're trying to have a real democracy. to share with you again really a dramatic story happening in thailand. now, six of those boys have been rescued. this is a story courtesy of washington post. coach eachd their diving out of the cave one at a time, accompanied by a member of a team of the international anti-divers. the first rescue operation began shortly after 8:00 local time.

it is an 11 hour time difference.is now thailand.ng in the water levels in the cave are at the lowest level they have been during the mission. all of the flooding in the area, those areas are now dry. oxygen levels have been stabilized. again, now six of the soccer players have been rescued. their almost there. . bob is joining us now from london, england. caller: good morning. what i wanted to say is that pu tin's meeting president trump knowing that our liberal democracy is a problem. a contest, instead of being a talk. that is the issue we have right now with our form of democracy. it comes from the weekend -- weakness in the selection process, the selection of the

to theby local parties most popular and who makes us laugh and who is the best person, even if the person is boring, or he or she does not make us laugh. that is what he is going back to his own people saying this is what liberal democracy will give you. it gives you canadians, it gives you reality show people, so we can't trust liberal democracy. host: thank you for the call. everything is coming up. you can read the sao weekly standard.com. next, is a color from atlanta, georgia. caller: i just want to ask why c-spanworld is there not 4, 5 and six all the way up to

20. we have a lot of opinions in this country. thanks for being there. tot: three networks is a lot program, but we are glad that you enjoy what we do and you can watch all of our programming on our website at c-span.org. we also have c-span radio and the free c-span radio app. a lot of choices out there for you as technology makes it easier. thank you for being a loyal viewer. red state democrats facing an agonizing supreme court choice. facing an agonizing choice over president trump coming supreme and riskinee demoralizing democratic voters ahead of the midterm elections. in any chance at a democratic majority in 2019, the actions of a handful of summit -- senate democrats struggling to hold her

seats in red states were mr. trump remains popular love brought up -- repercussions for the party. a decision by one or all of them to try to bolster their standings with republican leaders in their state by backing the president nominee would undermine democratic leaders as they try to sustain party unity. if they hold together on a no vote, the senators could not s butend their old seat also narrow the path of democrats to a senate majority for years to come. lamont joining us from chattanooga. caller: you talk about north korea, the united states over , north korea is not a problem to the united states. they can't hurt us. we had one ship over there that a lot of people didn't figure

they could destroy the whole country with just one ship. people don't know that. military people know that one ship over there that can destroy that whole country. north korea, china and everything. host: thank you for the call. last word comes from roger. caller: i would like to know why there is not a story about how donald trump refuses to pay american taxes, but yet china just put out a new carrier that donald trump pays taxes to. why can't we have a story to find out whether he is paying communist taxis or united states es.i i think it's a hypocritical statement of donald trump to say

obama, release or birth certificate, but when it comes to him releasing something that could prove whether or not he is paying american taxes were communist taxes, we can get no answer. i would love to see a story on that, c-span. host: thanks for the call. the earlier color wondering about our conversation will air in the overnight schedule at about 3:30 eastern tomorrow morning on this network. you can also watch it online anytime at two standout work. our monday brian cabell tomorrow morning on c-span's washington a woman from politi co. we will end tomorrow evening of the u.s. presidents nominee for u.s. supreme court. john will be here to talk about nuclear weapons. newsmakers is next. we will have live coverage of

tomorrow.ent's speech opening of our phone lines after the speech to get your reaction to the announcement. we have you enjoy the rest of your weekend. have a great weekend. ♪ on q&a, a tonight freelance journalist on his article, locked and loaded for the lord. what is going on at sanctuary church in pennsylvania is a co-mingling of a lot of

undercurrents of religion, politics, and guns, to a degree we have not seen before. it is still a small church. there is no question about that. it has a worldwide following. would be 200 people in the congregation total in pennsylvania, 500-2000 worldwide. you can follow a church on youtube. the sermons are webcast every week. it is that commingling of , and what america does this say about us as a culture? there any precursor of what we might see down the road? when you let the genie out of the bottle of mixing guns and religion in almost any society, it has been problematic. announcer: tonight at 8:00 p.m.

eastern on c-span's q&a. announcer: president donald trump will announce his nominee for the supreme court, filling the vacancy left by justice anthony kennedy. watch the announcement live monday night at 9:00 p.m. eastern on c-span and c-span.org , or listen on the free c-span radio app. , a discussionday on the role of inspectors general on how they can improve their relationship with agencies, congress, and the public. by thent is held bipartisan policy center, 10:00 a.m. eastern on c-span two. frommonday, remarks tom--and bill frist gone global health and diplomacy. they will look at the impact of president trumps emergency plan for relief. that event is also held by the bipartisan policy center at 10:0ro