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on "washington journal," heritage action for ♪merica's tim chapman. morning.d on capitol hill yesterday, the house reaching the halfway point in passing its 2019 spending bills. both chambers out today. the senate returns on monday. the headline this morning continues to focus on president trump's meeting with russian leader vladimir putin. -- putin helsinki monday in helsinki. trump's writing, disastrous performance since the meeting has said the west wing to its lowest point since the starlets fill fiasco almost a year ago.

and only 32% of americans approve of the way donald trump handled the summit in will think -- helsinki. 68% of republicans per approved disapproved of his performance. we welcometo you -- you to the washington journal on this 20th day of july. we want to get your reaction and base it on part in the cbs news survey. was the president too tough, just right, or not tough enough. you're the phone lines. (202) 748-8000 for those who feel the president was to tough with the russian president and russia in general. if you feel he was just right, (202) 748-8001. not tough enough, (202) 748-8002 . you can also join in on our twitter and on our facebook page at facebook.com/cspan. --want sure you cover story

share with you the time cover the title is called the summit crisis. the washington post has this headline. e, thesions ris president inviting vladimir putin to washington. the white house has announced that vladimir putin has been invited to the white house this leaders inas washington tried to fully understand what happened when president trump in the russian leader met earlier this week in helsinki. white house press secretary sarah sanders announced the visit in a tweet, saying that national security adviser john bolton extended the invitation and that discussions are already underway. dan coats said he would have advised against trump and meaning -- putin meeting privately in helsinki.

underscoring how little is known about the meeting, dan coated he -- coatseen told acknowledging he has not been told what happened in the room. an uproarsors were in over dan coats interview in aspen, colorado. they say the optics were especially damaging, noting that dan coats appeared to be laughing at the president, playing to the audience of the intellectual elite in a manner that was sure to infuriate president trump. codes has gone rogue, said one senior white house official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to provide a candid .ssessment we also want to show you this from the guardian newspaper, which says all of president trump's backflips on russia in a minute 30. let's watch. [video clip] that russian intelligence meddled in the election in 2016. >> i have said that numerous times before.

but you haven't condemned putin specifically. do you hold him personally responsible? well i would, because he is in charge of the country, like i consider myself to be responsible for things that happen in this country. so certainly as a leader of a country, you would have to hold him responsible, yes. came to me, dan coats, they came to me and said they think it is russia. i have president clinton. he just said it is not russia -- i am here with president putin. he said as it is -- it is not russia. >> in my remarks, i said the word would instead of wouldn't. been i don't see any reason why it wouldn't be russia. >> is russia still targeting the u.s., mr. president? >> make your way out, let's go.

a comment to the president said thank you very much and was laying no to answering questions. they do believe they would certainly target u.s. elections again. a certainly, as the leader of country, you would have to hold him responsible, yes. host: that's from the guardian newspaper, and you can check it out online. below the fold, trump invites putin back for more. towant to get your approach russia. carol has this tweet. i do not think our president went about it the best way. president trump did make a mistake -- in fact, it was a me asko -- fiasco. robert says the more and more caters to putin, the more he looks like a puppet and russian collusion it happen. vivian, trump is inviting putin to come see his parade on november 10, but it will not hold a candle to one of putin's military parades.

how embarrassing for trump. another tweet, the gop, once the better dead than red bunch: no more. and calling out from nancy. --ler: yes to give yourself you have to give your self credit for going after this stuff. congratulations, c-span. you do it every day. i think this whole thing is ridiculous. it is mostly media drawn. everyone of our presidents have met with putin and had conversations with him. heck, even hillary sold our contribution to her foundation. we don't talk about that. trump not wanting to go to war with russia, because that is what it is about.

a lot of money to be made. i do not know why you guys have death wishes. i don't. thank you. host: we will go on to robin travers, city michigan -- traverse city, michigan, saying the president was not tough enough. caller: yeah, i set there and and absolutely cringed at our president looked. he seems to really be able he kind of guy amongst our allies, and then he gets with our and putin andent acts childish. i can't understand him. i cannot understand him. and i want him to do good. don't get me wrong. iappreciate this country, but am trying to figure him out and i can't. host: rob, thank you. a crisis of his own making? a piece by rob bennett in time

magazine and on time.com. president trump wanted a summit with vladimir putin and got more than he bargained for. let's go to our caller and organ. you say the approach was just right. why? looking at trump again, and thank you for c-span. you are the national treasure, and you think relevant things on the air for us to talk about. aside from that, we are talking about trump. trump is a successful businessman. not anot a lawyer or doctor that has gone into politics. are used todoctors being paid, whether they succeed or fail. politicians are used to being elected just by promoting something, a program, whether the program works or not. trump come president out in that news conference, he

had something going on with him that -- something is in the works, you know? saw an interview that secretary of state pompeo had last night, a sit-down on fox news. and he had this same look like a with a canary in his mouth. something is coming up. we have not heard anything about what happened with the working lunch they had together with other members, his team or together with the russian team. we have some treaties that are delete -- and i will really be watching closely with what secretary of state pompeo, when he has this hearing next week, what he talks to congress about. trump is really great at working people, and it is

like a shark tank and he could toss a drop of blood into the tank and send them all into a feeding frenzy when there is absolutely nothing there to feed on. this thing yesterday with the nbc reporter, when they are getting chased out of the room from some remarks about what his aboutt is doing, there is a dozen or two dozen reporters in there. end of it, they always throw out questions. a dozen or two dozen people are yelling out a question. and they're are chasing the people out, but nbc goes up on the air 20, he said no to my question. i am not sure exactly --

also on ours website, but raymond, thank you for the call. this is from the washington post, a photograph of dan coats. he served as u.s. ambassador in germany and now the director of national intelligence. this moment has been getting a lot of attention. securitytchell at the forum with aspen, colorado, and her conversation with the director, with the breaking point that the president had invited vladimir putin to the white house this paul. [video clip] the white house has announced on twitter that vladimir putin is coming to the white house in the fall. >> say that again? [laughter] vladimir putin is coming to -- [inaudible] >> yeah, yeah. >> ok. [laughter] that's going to be special.

[laughter] that was yesterday and it is also available on our website, c-span.org. barney is joining us from florida, saying the president is not tough enough. why. caller: this man is a joke. --ate to see the republicans they rushed over to russia to meet with putin. back andthey come promised to protect the elections. donald trump is sucking up to putin. what is going on? donald trump the businessman? ld trumpet the money laundering. does that make any sense to you cap out is it make any sense to call this man a businessman when fromn't borrow a quarter the bank. he cannot go to a check-cashing paley's -- place and get money

out of the united states. are asking about whether the approach was tough enough or not tough enough. this was the disapproval-approval rating from cbs, i margin of error of four points. those who approvable are all -- approve overall 32%, 29% of s approved and 68% of republicans. you can see how this divided along party lines. you can check out the survey on cbsnews.com. whatloomberg news with kuhn has been telling russian diplomat. he said they made a new offer at that on ukraine at the summit. vladimir putin telling russian diplomats he made a proposal to donald trump at the summit this week to hold a referendum to help solve the conflict in eastern ukraine, but agreed to

not disclose the plan publicly so the u.s. president could consider it, according to two people who attended prudent's closed -- putin's closed-door speech yesterday. the two leaders discussed in their summit in helsinki remain scarce, with much of the description so far russia.rom while putin portrayed the ukraine offer is a sign he is seeking to bring the four-year-old conflict to an end, russia a referendum is liko be hard-sell with ukraine and its backers in europe. vladimir putin's account of the president's reaction is accurate, it would suggest a more flexible approach than the u.s. had shown today on this issue. again, details on bloomberg.com. let's get back to your phone calls. let's go to margaret in fayetteville, arkansas, wasn't

tough enough? caller: he wasn't tough enough. but my main thought about this is you have a -- you have a russian expert in your area that you used to have on every once in a while whose name is marie he is 88 years old and lives in the d.c. area, and i would love for you to have him on one of your programs, for him to give us his ideas about what to do about russia, because there are a lot of news articles how sick russia is, how sick its people are, and it seems to me that russia is a bear, and, wounded those wounded bears can be very dangerous. however, this might be in

opportunity to cut some kind of deal with them off and on over decades. they have wanted to come into nato. they have always been turned down. afterrted the first year stalin's death. in 1954, they wanted to come in. they were not allowed to come into nato, but i would just like to hear more discussion of poor, sick russia who has nukes. it looks like they are a has-been country with nukes, and they will have to do something to develop their tourism or just have to do another way of doing, and i would love to hear what marie fischbach has to say. host: duly noted.

thank you for the call. now we will go to jefferson in arlington, virginia. thanks for waiting. youthank you for the call. now we will go to say the presit tough enough. why? caller: no, he was not tough enough. he made our country look weaker, and i hate to say that on-air. he is at war with the media, evenadministrations, and some people in the current administration. if you are going to represent our country in another country, even if you are at odds with the media, i believe you should still stand in the level of solidarity. we are the united states, not the united states of donald trump. he serves the people and that is what he needs to remember. i do not know of his advisers , but heing him anything needs to listen to them. i am not a trump supporter, but if i was i would be really ashamed. host: thank you for listening. it sounds like you are listening on c-span radio, so we appreciate it. caller: you are doing a great

job. tom from fort to lauderdale, florida. you say the approach was just right? why? caller: because it is the grown-up approach. a five-year-old would scream and yell at somebody they were mad at. trumpmocrats want donald to read the riot act to russia, but they don't have an answer for what would happen after that. we have russian troops and american troops in the same war zone. this is the first time that has happened since the korean war. not supposed to communicate with these people in a threat of a nuclear war? we need russia to help with the north korea situation. we need something to make a path forward that is responsible. so people think putin has something on trump. i would like to meet the man who thinks he can blackmail donald trump. this is so ridiculous.

let's take a grown-up stand on things in set of being a child like the democrat party, who is irresponsible and what they want to do they have no answer for what happens after they make these suggestions to donald trump. host: tom, thank you for the call. in a tweed, they call john kerry a flip flop or -- flip-flopper. invitetrump proceeds to putin to the white house and wonders why there is a blowback. and from the wall street journal, donald trump, meet bill browder. here are some of the details. vladimir putin knows what he wants from donald trump, and one priority is helping silence businessmen and advocate bill browder. someone should tell mr. trump that both he and mr. browder would all targeted by fusion hirethe political gun for

that midwife the steele dossier in 2015. the wall street editorial goes on to say that mr. browder has -- moscow's street enemy list since he passed the magnitsky act in 2012. the law is named for his late lawyer and auditor, who exposed a $230 million fraud kremlin, wasto the arrested on trumped up charges and died from torture and neglect in a moscow to tencent center. all this is another way to say that vladimir putin is trying to con you, sir. mr. trump should know that critics of the kremlin often end up dead, and mr. browder is undoubtedly a target. before he cuddles with the bear again, mr. trump ought to say that publicly mr. putin will not the u.s. against

mr. browder. and if anything happens to mr. browder, if he should fall from a bridge or be shot as he gets out of the car, the world is going to blame vladimir putin. council met with bill browder the a satellite -- via satellite. [video clip] >> is donald trump were sitting here among the audience, what would you tell him? >> i wrote a letter to donald trump last week which i with bill browder the apublished in time o vladimir putin was. vladimir putin does not negotiate, he is a total bluffer. bald-facedp is a liar -- excuse me, vladimir putin is a bald-faced liar. vladimir putin is a killer and anything that ever gets agreed

-- henot going to end up is not going to follow through. , if hesult of this actually knew who he was dealing with and was sincere about making america great again, he should be isolating vladimir .utin, not engaging him this idea of handing the over as some kind of quid pro quo, he should know that if i ever got handed over to the russians, he would be handing me over to my death. you mr.at note, thank browder. that is an ominous note to leave on. thank you so much for your time. >> thank you for this opportunity. i wish you a good rest of the conference, thank you. >> absolutely, thank you. host: bill browder addressing the atlantic council yesterday, and he did soviet satellite. he also joined us on c-span radio, and you can listen to that program on the free c-span

radio app. time magazine. again, this week, the view from the top of prudent's enemies list. check it out on time.com. tyrone joining us from north carolina, saying the president was not tough enough. cannot be tough on anybody. he is weak and scared of putin. let me say this. when you put people in front of god, they are not going to make it. this country has been blessed, and we have been cap state -- kept safe. the republican party loves that man to death, he can lie, lie, lie, and they will stay with him. that man lost two casinos. he lost his university because he is not a businessman, he is a croak. listen to me good. go listen to chris on hardball. he says if this was obama, it would be an impeachment.

tellsery lie donald trump and people still want to believe it. they fact check him on everything he said. he is going to be the fall of america. that is why he is the president, because america is going down because of the way they treat people. host: front page of the washington times, trump advice -- invite putin to washington after fallout from helsinki. and from vanity fair, trump gas lighting his own staff on russia. reports show the u.s. has long known that -- that trump has long known that the russians targeted u.s. elections, but continues to live. is he using the same technique with white house aides? next up, anderson, south carolina. the president was just right. explain? caller: i think president trump did a great job there.

he represents the american people in a great way any time he meets with ever country leaders -- other country leaders. he does not sit there and make fun of our country. does not put down the american citizens and apologize, he takes all of this back to washington and will deal with it as he sees fit. host: jennifer, thanks for the call. cbs news, the president's approach to russia -- to friendly, too hostile, or just write? 46% saying it is to friendly -- friendly, 41% about right. isdon't think trump

tough enough. the reason i say that is because he and putin have something going, and then they go on about what obama did -- obama did a whole lot. obama did not tell anybody trumpe he knows that would go on fox news to say he was interfering with hillary clinton for trump to lose. do you think trump could be a spy for russia, because he has some kind of set up? inviting putin to the white , i don't understand it. i watched c-span yesterday and you had putin and them on one of those stations where he was talking to his ambassador. but why won't trump tell our ambassador [inaudible] something is going on with this president. down asto put our foot americans and trump supporters need to wake up and not support

this man because you like him because he was on the apprentice. this man is taking us in the wrong direction. i think you and i hope that we watch that this man could be a undercover for russia because he and putin have something going on. are c-span, not cnn, but we appreciate you watching. announced his u.s. citizenship over taxes. the u.s. owes him nothing. richard saying steve, wise man changes his mind many times, a fool mother -- a fool, never. in the new york times this morning, trump is being manipulated by putin. what should we do? lawmakers must give the american people informed of the current danger, writes a republican congressman from texas. the president's failure to

defend the united ace intelligence community's unanimous conclusions of russian meddling in the 2016 election counteremn russian influence campaigns and his standing idle on the world stage lies a russian dictator just concern all americans. the leader of the actively -- the leader of the free world actively participated in a russian disinformation campaign that legitimized russian denial and weakened the united aides to our friends and foes abroad. that's will heard, from the 23rd district of texas. the president also addressing this issue once again during a cabinet meeting earlier this week. [video clip] very well,oing probably as well as anybody has ever done with russia. ever has been no president as tough as i have been on russia. all you have to do is look at the numbers, look at what we have done, look at sanctions, look at ambassadors. it looked, unfortunately, and

what happened in syria recently. knowsk president clinton that better than anybody, and a lot better than the media. he understands it and is not happy about it, and he should not be happy about it. there has never been a president as tough on russia as i have been. president earlier this week, and a look at this white house -- the white house on the friday morning. he will be leaving this afternoon to head to bedminster, new jersey and his golf resort for the weekend. judy in baltimore, maryland. you're saying the president was not tough enough? caller: hello? tough.he was too he was so tough on them that he pulled back the tape and , whoned to president putin overstepped donald trump. he did not even address him as the president or president trump .

he said donald. have a great day. to our caller now from brookshire, texas. good morning. you were saying the approach was just right. why? good morning, you are on the air. we will go to ellis in rockville, maryland. good morning. caller: good morning, steve. all, i have two comments. the first one is regarding bill browder that you have had on your program numerous times. ill browder is a fraud and a thief and a murderer. -- was producing a film in favor of browder. he was supported by browder and worked with browder, and as he examined the details, he discovered that browder had lied to him and on the record numerous times.

he changed his -- he had to follow the, the information. if c-span is at all, is at all concerned about integrity, about its own integrity -- and you, steve scully -- conserve -- concerned with your integrity, you will play on c-span this film that andre never shop produced on bill browder's crimes. minuteikely he sped up ski to be killed. host: why would he do that? caller: because he is a thief. he stole the money. host: please tell me the source, because i'm not aware of this documentary. please tell me where you saw it or where we can find it. caller: i am looking right now website, and the film has been posted, linked on there several times. nerksov. andrei

i believe it is called the magnitsky act: behind the scenes. stay on the line, we will get the information from you even further and follow-up. can you stay on the line, alan? are you still with us? caller: hello? host: we will have our producer talk to you. go to joe from florida. you were saying the approach was just right? just right. it was people want to delegitimize trump as president. i have never heard anybody tell a president how to approach someone. the reason why donald trump was elected is because he has a unique approach and is different. good orsaying that is bad, he is not a skilled politician like barack obama, but barack obama still told putin if he needs more time to

work with them on a hot mic. yes, russia did attempt to hack our elections and they do need to be held accountable. is -- ion't think trump think he needs to be a little more briefed on how to approach that situation by experts -- not people who lost. i want to close with this right here. i just saw news in a report where san francisco is going to allow people who are not in a schoolvote board election. think about that. we have a whole population saying that donald trump is a fraud and even a? that is ridiculous. attempted to hack our elections, yet that same to allow ais willing whole group of people who are not even citizens to vote, and

they are state and local elections. host: joe, thank you for the call. another viewer, let this sink in. president trump thought it was a good idea to let russian intelligence interrogate americans. the white house saying yesterday in a tweet that will not happen. maryland iser from now shooting the messenger. the headlines from the washington post, putin is invited to the u.s. over a growing furor after the meeting in helsinki. running that chorus is democratic minority leader chuck the floor earlier this week. [video clip] >> the events this week raised serious questions about the president's ability to responsibly and safely conduct this nation's foreign-policy, about his ability and willingness to defend the united states and her citizens. about his very ability to govern in so many areas.

confronted with these grave questions, i believe the senate must act to show our countries and to punish lujan for interference and to ensure these things never happen again. and make sure the president is doing what is necessary to stand up for american interests. host: democratic senate leader chuck schumer on the floor this week, and we are getting your response to the approach to russia, and basing it in part in on -- on a cbs news poll question --was the president's , just right,tough or not tough enough? on press conference from sarah huckabee sanders, who said the president agreed to working level dialogues between the two security council that. president trump asked ambassador john bolton to invite president putin to washington in the fall and those discussions are already underway. you arensylvania, joe,

next. the president was just right. good morning. toler: yeah, people have look at it this way. president trump is trying to bring peace to both nations. being a heart knows is not going to settle anything. is notg a hard nose going to settle anything. to kill people with kindness make things happen. and everyone is really getting tired appearing about russia, russia, russia. foreign or domestic, meddling in wrong, butns, it was people in the united states do that as well. people like george soros and the koch brothers. don't you think that is meddling in our election when they are pouring millions and millions of dollars into certain candidates and campaign? that is preposterous. a free nation, we need to act like a free nation. i have to say. i think it is totally blown out

of proportion and has wasted our does not putand meat and potatoes on the american family table. host: from politico, trump-putin , available online at politico.com. here is part of the story -- president trump has been heavily criticized throughout his presidency, and before that, his campaign, for what has been perceived as a relatively soft van -- stance towards russia. trump has regularly spoken warmly of putin, a former kgb been, even as russia has accused of attempted assassinations on british soil and continues to occupy the ukrainian territory of crimea, fuel ongoing violence in the ukraine, and aid the regime syrian dictator bashar al-assad. even in its there is a statement rebuking his interrogation offer, the administration offered syrian dictator bashar al-assad. that the much criticized

proposal had been made with sincerity. our next caller, thank you. was the president to tough or not tough enough? caller: definitely not tough enough. from the summit that i noted that was very concerning. when putin was speaking, several times he said we must combine our military. theyid that our economies, are better if our people would be combined together and we would work together and that will -- he will send business people over here to help our entrepreneurs and our contractors. they will come over here and help us because we have a problem. they will come over here and help us do all that. was that herisome said we will join our cyber

security. we and trump had talked about that. and going further, when trump spoke, he also said that open -- weications between will have open communications between our security agencies. and if you look at that on that at you can find about 15 minutes .20 seconds in if you do not want to watch the whole thing. so these things are very concerning to me and there is another thing. the thing about putin calling donald trump donnie, but also twice president trump referred to putin, instead of president referred to him as president.

host: laney from connecticut, thanks for the call. to the caller from maryland, we were able to find this magazine from 2015. a millionaire trying to stop the documentary living to tell the true story of russia's missing $230 million. it is more uncertainty magnitsky -- on sergei magnitsky. u.s. sanctions targeting human rights violations in russia and the truth about how the tax lawyer was caught up in a $230 million dispute winds up dead. so the story goes in "the magnitsky act" a film that has been pulled price european theaters and broadcasters to have bent to legal pressure from the man it seeks to expose as a fraud. you can reported health from foreign policy magazine and google the story -- you can read more in the foreign policy

magazine and google the story as well. our next caller, good morning. usedr: good morning, i to live in the area so i am pretty is to politics, and i think the president is getting hammered by media. if he really wants to send a message to putin and to germany, not west germany, it was west germany when i served over there , take all the troops out of germany and put them in poland. let putin know we are not playing around. there you go. host: thanks for the call. walter joining us from baltimore, maryland. caller: good morning, c-span, and good morning to your audience. this appeasement by the president of the united states -- i am not angry, i know he was a coward when he got off the elevator and attacked the mexican. s. i know he was a coward when he at bus hele on th

would grab women by the you know what. putin coming to sign the surrender papers for america? that is all trump represents. he is not a genius, he is a fool, and no sir, he was not tough enough. he was an abuser -- appeaser. when barack obama was accused of going on an apology tour, this was a surrender tour. he attacked our friends and bowed down -- remember, when barack bowed to the saudi princes and kings, that he was giving away america? this is what giving away america looks like, sir. i am totally disgusted with our president because he is a coward and a fraud. wake up, america. white and black, we cannot let this go down. host: thank you. from rick, this tweet. trump has passed putin's loyalty test. who else would it reduce the

idea of joining security forces with criminals that just attacked our way of life? and this from stella, putin never called trump donnie. why do dems lie so much? photographs from the meeting that took place between our president and the russian leader. and yesterday, let in your putin speaking to diplomats through a translator. here is what he had to say. [video clip] >> when i talk about these forces in the united states, you line with ourn political philosophy. we have always been taught that people who work for the state in the interest of our nation should first and foremost think about the fundamental principles , the fundamental values of their country. but no, there are forces in the united states that only care about their own private interests.

these are the kind of people who are pitiful, petty, despicable people. in sovietre described books. but on the contrary, i think these people are quite smart sometimes. example, when they want to feed these stories to people, they use these stories not the appraiser criticized him one. the reason i mention this is because i want to take this into account in our practical work when we deal with americans. these are just facts that we face today. russia is open to developing contacts with the united states as long as they are based on equality. russian president vladimir

putin yesterday in moscow, and reporting from andrew kramer in moscow from the new york times, based on the headline. putin gleaming forces for undermining the meeting, pointing out that vladimir putin , famous forces in the u.s. were trying to undermine what he called a successful meeting this week with president trump. es.com.tails at nytim and on wednesday, the president sitting down with jeff glower. [video clip] thatry strong on the fact we cannot have meddling. we are also living in a grown-up world. statement -- president obama supposedly made a strong statement, nobody heard it. what they did here was the he made to putin's very close friend, and that was not acceptable. it did not get very much play, relatively speaking, but it was not acceptable. i let him know we cannot have this, we are not going to have

it, and that is the way we are going to be. wife but he denies it. if you believe u.s. intelligence agencies, is putin lying to you? i cannot say if he is lying, but i think dan coats is excellent. i think regina is excellent. i think we have excellent people in the agencies and when they tell me something, it means a lot. >> coates says the threat is ongoing. do you agree with that? >> he is an expert. he has been doing a great job and i have to amend his faith in dan coats. if he says that, i would accept that. i will tell you, though, it better not be. it better not be. host: anger of the cbs evening news jeff glor with president trump. a headline from politico, trump's russia's been falling flat with gop, including a

number of senators. back to your phone calls, the president's approach to russia -- too tough, just right, or not tough enough? larry is joining us from glen oak, maryland. good morning. caller: good morning. i think from all that is going on, it is pretty stunning that the president of the united states would go to russia and not have the courage to confront putin on what happened. furthermore, continuously inermining the investigation legislaturent, the completely brought up and paid for. they are completely ignoring the checks and balances. i have everyone understands now the context in which our struggle continues. look at the uproar following the

cap tabulation -- continuation -- cap adulation -- all i have to say, everyone needs to be fully aware that what [inaudible] is most crucial to getting to the bottom of all of this. thanks for the call. from the washington examiner, this headline. republicans overwhelmingly backstrom's performance at the trump -- backed trump's performance at the trump-putin summit. only a percent of democrats feel the same way. we mentioned earlier, time magazine, it's cover story called the summit crisis, and the matchup of how they morph president trump and president vladimir putin, and the two become one for the cover story of time magazine. fairmount,ol from

west virginia. welcome to the conversation, good morning. caller: good morning. i am an independent caller and i did not vote for trump, but i can understand trump's position when he wants to be with russia, we have to deal with syria, iran, north korea, china, and he is right in the middle of all of that. so we have to find a way to work with them, even though i do not agree with the one-on-one .eetings i would like to find out more about that, but i do believe the best hes doing can to get syria under control. the front page story of the financial times as we listen to randy joining us from st. petersburg, or do. good morning, randy. -- florida.

good morning, randy. caller: hello. this might be a little bit backstabbing, but trump space and his supporters have forgotten all about the fact that he did not disclose his tax returns during the election, as most candidates have. and i think that some unraveling of this whole mess could be found in that. i think a lot of trump's financing over the last several years came from russia to .aintain his business after his several bankruptcies, he was unable to get that type of financing in the united states, probably could not get a payday loan at m scott, and if it was known that hundreds of millions of dollars in finance was coming from russia that the ation might be able to grab

different perspective on this, and had it been known during the election, we probably would not be here now. one of the other republican candidates probably would have run and, you know, if they had chose the right candidate they still might have won the election. i'm a registered democrat, kind of hanging on by my fingernails, but i think that some of this information should come to light and help to unravel this whole mystery. they give for taking my call. of tweets, this is from kevin again. when it comes to putin and the 2016 election, meddling is the wrong verb. attack is the correct verb. from rick, notice that trump has no problem calling american opposition a liar, but will not call vladimir putin a liar. can this be real?

incredulous, the headline from the bbc with this photograph that took place yesterday at the aspen security forum with andrea mitchell and the director of national intelligence dan coats, invitepresident the russia leader to the u.s.. on the senate floor, a defender of the president, rand paul, had this to say. [video clip] >> trumped arrangement syndrome has officially come to the senate. the hatred for the president is so intense that partisans would rather risk war then give diplomacy a chance. does anyone remember that ronald reagan sat down with gorbachev and we lessened the nuclear tensions? we still need to have those openings. no one is saying or excusing russia's meddling in our elections. absolutely, we should protect the integrity of our elections. but simply bringing the hatred of the president to the senate arer in order to say, we

done with diplomacy, we are going to add more sanctions and more sanctions, you know what? i would rather that we still have open channels of discussions with the russians. kennedy, at the height of the cold war, had a direct line to khrushchev and it might have prevented the end of the world. should we be so crazy about partisanship that we now say we do not want to talk to the russians? we will not have relations with the russians. ,e should stand firm and say stay the hell out of our elections, but we should not stick our head in the ground and say we will not talk to them. host: from the senate floor, rand paul of kentucky. the headline from the washington post, putin invited to the u.s. amid growing fervor over the summit. the white house announcing thursday that vladimir putin been invited to washington this leaders inas

washington tried to fully understand what happened when president trump met with the russian leader earlier this week in helsinki. white house press secretary sarah sanders announcing the planned visit in the tweets, saying the national security adviser john bolton extending the invitation and that discussions are already underway. dan coats, director of national intelligence, said he would have advised against the president and putin meeting privately in helsinki, because no notes were taken and only two interpreters were present, and he has not been consulted. knowledgealso make that he has not been told what happened in the room. asked whether putin had secretly recorded the two hour meeting, the risk is always there. meanwhile, inside the white house, trump's advisors in an uproar over dan coats interview in aspen, colorado with nbc's andrea mitchell. they said the austin were -- especially damaging,

noting that dan coats seems to be laughing at the president, playing to his audience of intellectual elite in a manner that was sure to in. the president -- in. te the president. a caller from san rafael, california. thank you for joining the conversation. caller: just a quick comment on rand paul talking about the syndrome, whatever it is, trump -- how do you say that? host: trump derangement syndrome. caller: right. when trump came down that escalator in the first couple months, i felt so upset because i felt like i had been battered. haveked online and they do a syndrome called battered citizenry syndrome. i think we are all suffering from that. the man is so abusive. anyway, back to helsinki.

money, it just went bizarre. he acted in a very strange way, and i do not want to incite any of his supporters, but if you say anything about trump, apparently his supporters immediately have to come to his defense. they do not listen to what you are saying. and that is not really a fair way to discuss anything. i would like it if his supporters would be a little protecting himut and listen to what we are trying to say to each other. the wall front page of street journal, trump asking putin to another summit. that moment yesterday at the aspen institute with the those withstitute national intelligence director dan coats. [video clip] >> we have some breaking news. president donald trump has

invited vladimir putin to the white house in the fall. >> say that again? >> vladimir putin -- [laughter] >> oh, ok. [laughter] that's going to be special. larry joining us from gallatin, tennessee. good morning and welcome to the program. caller: good morning. i think trump's approach to is unusual. unusual is a kind thing to say about it. on his whole campaign, before he was on his campaign, he thought he wanted to be friends with ,ussia, friends with putin

friends with the annoying -- his army invaded countries. his army shot down -- putin's army shot down commercial .irlines, commercial airlines security ofonal this united states of america they a report saying that interfered with our elections, yet he is not backing down one iota from this. we are going to be friends, friends, friends, friends. that is a nice way of saying we are going to be comrades. host: larry, thank you for the

call. michael burstyn, former speechwriter to george w. bush, writing in the washington post "setting aside the issue of whether the president is wittingly advancing the interest of a hostile power, a qualification that is only imaginable in the trump era, what is happening to the direction of american foreign-policy? i am on record weighing collections of impulses and deceptions, assertion, detraction, and compromises that compromises president trump's foreign-policy record are hard together gather in a consistent doctrine, but the doctrines -- we do know the doctrines trump has set out to destroy. of two toe outcome finding decisions -- 1952, when the republican candidate robert taft expressed a lack of enthusiasm for the nato alliance . this alarmed nato's supreme commander, dwight eisenhower. most rank-and-file republicans in the early 1950's probably shared a isolationist believe

that the world could and should take care of itself, but eisenhower, who had seen the disorders of europe spill out into the world wars, found that attitude dangerous. " word.a, you get the last what do you think? i honestly, we all should step back and look at it. i was a supporter of trump. , we only to look at as americans how he attacks our press. that is a fundamental value in our constitution. freedom of the press, freedom of speech. wanting mr. trump to be the best that he can be as a president.

i want him to do right. but right now he is making us when heewhat weak caters to vladimir putin and disrespects our allies, our nato allies. people need to come together and realize that his actions are speaking louder in these past couple of days and his words are hurting and affecting our democracy at the same time. host: let me leave it there. the cover story in time magazine, the summit crisis great you can check out the cbs news poll and your assessment of the president's approach to russia. we thank you for your comments and calls and tweets. coming up is tim chapman who is with heritage action for america to talk about the 2018 midterm elections in the supreme court battle over brett kavanaugh.

later, liz kennedy from the center for american progress on election security amid continued concerns about russian meddling. you're watching "washington journal." it is friday morning. we are back in a moment. ♪ >> join us this weekend for alaska weekend, with featured programming on c-span, book tv, and american history tv. beauty, history, and culture and public policy issues facing the state. , a reporter ong the effect of climate change in , thea and sunday morning executive director of the national congress of american indians discussed of native of discusses native american and

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tim chapman, the executive director of heritage action for america. a lot to talk about, the midterm elections, brett kavanaugh, let's begin talking about the organization. is a: heritage action sister organization of the heritage foundation. they heritage foundation started in 1973. it has been a conservative leaning think tank for decades. we started a sister organization in 2010 because we started to notice people on capitol hill were not voting on the merits of a piece of legislation. they needed political incentives. we needed a political organization to advance the policies of the heritage foundation. we are a 501(c) four so we can get involved at the grassroots level and in elections if we want to. host: let's talk about the midterm elections. we have learned you have targeted just over a dozen house races. walk us through some of them and

why. picture, this is the first time heritage action has ever been involved in elections. we have always been involved in politics. we have pushed policy at the grassroots level but we have never gotten involved in backing specific candidates. this year we will back specific candidates because we think ultimately you need more carots to pass legislation on the hill. you need to have members of congress see your they're pushing them across the finish line. when you do that, you can go back to the same member of congress and say we will ask you to take tough notes in 2019. were are a lot of policies think need to be passed. idea is to build coalitions on capitol hill that can advance your legislation. we will be in over a dozen districts. the way we are thinking about this is looking for members of congress who say -- we make the

argument that they are conservative and in trouble. there are a lot of conservatives that do not have a tough race and we will not be in those districts. number three, can they help us if we are able to hold the house this year, can they help us in future years advance legislation? there are races like dave brat in virginia. he was famous for knocking up eric cantor. he was a tea party candidate and shocked the world by doing that. conservative member of congress for a long time and a reliable guide to partner with. he is under a lot of attack and his opponent is raising a lot of money. he will have a tough race so we think we need to be there. there are other people like the representative in ohio, a reliable conservative, has always voted for the policies we care about. the same dynamic is occurring there. perry in --

pennsylvania 17. that is a district where the special election happened where rick saccone lost to conor lamb and the democrats one that district in a special election. people considered it a bellwether for the midterm elections. we want to be would go back and help a guy who is solid. ourre going to build all of interactions in these districts around the tax law. heritagesee the foundation is doing a fantastic study that will be released on the 23rd that will show, district by district, the impacts of the tax law. you'll be able to click on pennsylvania 17 and see that in that district the average return was over $1700 for a family in that district, 70 3% of filers in that district received a tax cut. you will be able to extrapolate that over 10 years.

the money starts looking real when you look at these 10 year figures, most are between $25,000 and $40,000. we are able say this is mattered for the district and your pocketbook. conor lamb being elected will be another vote for nancy pelosi. nancy pelosi has made it clear she intends to try to repeal the tax law. that is what she would like to do. i think will we want to say is we want to make this permanent. guy like not reelect a keith, you are threatening the permanency of that return. has been enough forget of trying to bring down government spending. one of the complaints of the tax bill is it is going to increase the debt and deficit in the country. are you prepared for that argument from democrats who say what this tax bill will do is jack up the nation's debt

higher? guest: absolutely. we are concerned about the deficit. heritage has long argued that we need to cut federal spending. we believe you need to cut federal spending while reducing tax liability. host: republicans are not doing that. guest: no, they are not. we are the biggest critics of them. we voted against a bba that sent spending levels higher. we fox republican leadership on that. we have voted against multiple spending bills. the spending levels are insane. but the taxpayer should not be on the hook for the lack of washington's fiscal responsibility. we need to fix that at this level and keep pushing. when i'm talking about engaging in the midterm elections, the point is to try to put coalition together in 2019 and 2020 for legislative reforms.

one of those will be significant reforms will be entitlements. we need to tackle the entitlement issue. things like welfare reform, spending, these are things we need to be able to tackle. it is not just the appropriations bills. discretionary spending is a big part of this, but entitlement spending is the bulk of it. we cannot put those coalitions together unless we are able to convince members we will get there back. -- we will get their back. anytime you attack entitlements, you will get attacked. host: the website is heritage for america.org. tim chapman serves as the director of that organization. are open andes where dividing the calls between democrats, republicans, and independents. i want to get your actions do it -- your reaction to an interview with senator lisa murkowski. it is alaska weekend on c-span.

we hope you tune in as our c-span bus makes its way across all 50 states. as part of that, our conversation with lisa murkowski. we asked her about the brett kavanaugh nomination. we will have that for you in just a moment. let me ask you in general about brett kavanaugh. will he be confirmed by the senate? guest: i expect he will be. i think he is a fantastic judge. has we have seen so far been a good reaction on the republican side for sure. senators like lisa murkowski and susan collins have expressed concerns but nothing that looks like a hurdle that cannot be overcome. what you're seeing on the left side is interesting. if you look at west virginia, a thatcame out two days ago

showed joe manchin had a healthy lead in that state, but the lead doubles if he supports brett kavanaugh. the lead shrinks to one if he opposes brett kavanaugh. it goes from a 10 point lead to a 20 point lead if he supports him and if he opposes him he is only up by one in that race. that is a significant and shocking swing in that particular race. see similarwill things in states like missouri and indiana and montana that lean republican. by and large, a lot of their voters want this president to be able to get his judge on the court. i think it is going to be tough for chuck schumer to hold these folks. is if you have anonymity on the republican side, i expected jailbreak from those red state democrats to vote for them. i think the political liability

for a vote against brett kavanaugh is too much. the angerunderstand that continues over merrick garland? guest: they feel like they got gypped. this is politics. we all understand it. if chuck schumer were the majority leader, do you think he would confirm one of the presidents judges? i think you would find a way not to confirm a judge right now. fartherld be a bridge than what mitch mcconnell did with merrick garland. merrick garland was an interesting circumstance. we had a supreme court justice prematurely died in an election year. we were very close to that presidential election year. given those circumstances, i think the argument was easier for mitch mcconnell to make. this is just sheer political power. control whato

happens on the court, you need the senate and you need the white house. the republican party won both the senate and the white house in the 2016 election. if the shoe were on the other foot i have no doubt that chuck schumer would not be confirming judges. host: if in 2020 there is a vacancy on the high court and the democrats have the senate, the same thing will happen? guest: i think if they held the senate in 2020 and trump was replacing justice ginsburg, their position would be not to confirm the judge. the question is can they withstand that politically? that would be an open question and a conversation that would be had across the country. politics are so polarized right now around the supreme court that all the pressure would be on chuck schumer not to move on a nomination. host: let me go back to senator lisa murkowski, our conversation with her as part of c-span's alaska weekend. we talk to her about the brett kavanaugh nomination.

[video clip] been looking at judge kavanagh and his record: stickley just like every judge i have had a opportunity to weigh in on. timeperhaps taking more than someone like me to. some on the right would say you need to be deciding right now that you're going to be supporting him. those on the left would say you need to decide right now that he is not acceptable. i do not operate that way. i will take my time. i will be thoughtful. , who ised with my son finishing up law school, that i feel like i'm back in law school because i am reading the opinions. i want to gauge for myself. -- i'm nots not going to be able to ask him a question on what would you do in x case?

i would not ask that question and he would not answer that question. what i'm trying to do is discern if judge kavanagh has the qualities that we are all looking for in a judge. the judicial temperament, the character, the intelligence, the , the desire to truly follow the law rather than to try to move things in a predetermined political outcome. republican lisa murkowski, part of our alaska weekend. we asked her about the news of this week and this summer with the brett kavanaugh nomination. tim chapman, as you listen to what this key senator says, and she is one of the senators that could determine his confirmation, what are you hearing? guest: i'm impressed with that answer. that is the right way a senators

should approach this. i do not think it is possible to be asking for an outcomes guarantee from judges. we want judges to be impartial and approached the law with humility and an open mind. i think that is an impressive answer. i read the tea leaves from that is that she is open to this. that is confirmed by what i am hearing with our folks on the hill. i think she will get to guess on this but she is being thoughtful. she should be. this is supposed to be the world's most deliberative body. they should take their time and work through all the opinions they have. collar from cottonwood, idaho, republican line. caller: good morning and thank you to c-span. i would like to say i appreciate everything c-span does. however, i do think when you read all the different newspapers and opinions, the

majority is definitely against what our president is trying to do. if i could slip in one comment about the last segment, i think everyone has forgotten what we were counseled by one of our presidents in regard to our enemies or what we conceive as thatnemies such as russia we need to speak softly and carry a big stick, not speak roughly or rudely to our enemies. i think that is exactly what president trump is trying to do. he is totally misunderstood in his handling of vladimir putin. i think we need to step back and allow him -- we do not know all of the facts and it is hard to judge what he is actually doing when we do not know all of the facts or his reasoning behind what he is doing.

i applaud our efforts to balance our budget and be conservative in that way. look what happens to the conservatives when they try to do that. look what happened to president bush when he tried to reform social security. backnk we need to all step and try to be reasonable and try to understand each other rather and even animosity civil unrest our country that is going on right now. host: thank you for the call. just to get your earlier point, this program is a reflection of what is being written about. we both the wall street journal, the new york times, the weekly standard. your call is part of that dialogue and conversation. what we are trying to do is present to you what many nor -- what news organizations are saying. did you want to respond? guest: i think that is a

fantastic observation. it is hard given the kind of 24/7 news media coverage and the hysteria that follows it to see what is actually going on. i take your point. i think that with regard to the current topic where everyone is covering the helsinki summit, we should pay very close attention to what was actually agreed upon. there is a lot of noise, as you point out, but aside from the noise, there is what was agreed upon. none of the sanctions were lifted on russia. this administration has still been tough on russia. you have people like john bolton who have been a huge russia critic. we have installed diplomats, we have closed embassies. there are things that are happening and then there is the veneer of what is being covered in terms of the conversation and the demeanor of the president.

i think the things that are happening are important. i will back up and look at what came out of nato. i do not like the way the trump administration or the president is talking about our nato allies, but what he is doing makes a lot of sense. getting our nato allies to up spending is a huge contribution to the stability of the world order, and a major threat to russia. theave to try to separate height -- the hype. it is indeed important how the president talks, but let us look at what is actually happening. host: we welcome our c-span radio audience. is tim chapman, executive director of heritage action for america. jerry from mississippi, independent line, good morning. caller: good morning c-span.

good morning, mr. chapman. i have a question about entitlement reforms. i'm a conservative leaning , but these house races -- ife talking about entitlement reform is a big thing they may be in a losing situation. people -- there are ways to [indiscernible] i do not believe a non-us citizen should be getting any entitlements at all. guest: thank you for that question. i think you're right.

i think it is a tough sell politically. i do not think that is true across the board of entitlement reform. look at welfare reform. what we did in the 1990's on welfare reform where a conservative congress and a democratic president signed a sweeping welfare reform legislation into law, that was a -- that was hugely popular politically. what that bill did, and i think we need to do this again, we have lost a lot of the gains we have made, what that bill did was put a huge emphasis on putting people back to work. there were work requirements in the bill. the idea behind this was to give people the dignity of work. there is something that saps the individual when they're receiving federal handouts and there is no work involved in that. we want to do that kind of work again. we want to do those kind of entitlement reforms again.

there are hugely popular when you talk about work requirements for welfare. that is in the present issue. i think -- that is an 80% issue. i think there are ways you can enter into the conversation that make sense and can be locally popular and are not completely sweeping that begin to get us on the right track on these issues. host: the next call is ron from south dakota. independent line with tim chapman. good morning. says they areroup conservatives. i'm not sure what that means today. in the past, we have a federal deficit and we had a federal debt. much of the federal debt is republican debt. host: how do you respond? guest: i agree with you. one of the things that happened with our group is we began to receive -- our membership numbers started skyrocketing from 2000 to 2010.

it was a very interesting dynamic because during those years you had tom delay and dennis hast are running the house. you had karl rove and george bush in the white house. we had massive fights with them in the 2000's. i remember in 2003 going up against tom delay and karl rove and we are against them on the prescription drug bill because we thought the creation of a new entitlement would be unsustainable fiscally. those kind of fights were things that were happening throughout the 2000's. we were on the outside of the republican party during those fights. we were opposed to the party in the direction the party was going. conservatives should be fiscally responsible. the party has lost that mantra over the years and frankly even right now. as we discussed at the top of the hour, it has been hard going to get the party to embrace

that. the president himself, we need to work closer with the administration to convince the administration to take these steps on entitlement reforms. we are working on that. host: our guest has spent time on capitol hill working for republican senators, don nickles of oklahoma and jim demint of south carolina. mike is joining us from florida, democrats line. good morning. great: i am calling republicans always say how they are conservatives. they want to cut entitlements. social security and medicare are not entitlements, they are earned benefit programs. if they want to start cutting government spending, they ought to start with the trump administration. it seems like everyone there is using public money for their own personal use. i do not yet know. the military. there is so much money.

ohio that factory in is making tanks for the military that they do not want, just to provide jobs. i think they ought to start with the government and work their way down. host: thank you. guest: i hear you. we supported the rescissions package that the administration just put out. a very meager cut, but it was $15 billion in federal spending to be cut. we were not able to get that through the senate. we got a through the house. we were not able to get it through the senate. we need to start with baby steps. if you want to take on entitlements, you need to build up goodwill. do your point about social security, i agree. that should be there for you. the ripoff right now is people who are paying into social security who are younger are never going to see a dime of that. that is a travesty and an injustice that is happening. we have to find a way to shore

up the program which might mean reforming it. it does not mean cutting the benefit, it means reforming it. host: we will go to new york. you're next. independent line. caller: good morning. that is nitro. like in tnt. i have had anger problems before . i do not want to have an anger problem now. host: we are glad to hear that. i wish no hatred or violence on anybody. i'm 68 years old. this is not the america i grew up in. i grew up watching george reeves, the original superman in 1955 standing there in his kate talking about truth, justice, and the american way. i believe in that. 21, 2010, wheny

the supreme court decided that corporations have a heart and the soul. they cannot have children. nobody's ever going to jail. they go for two or three years for murdering people -- let me not get ahead of myself. what i am trying to say is this is not america when the leader of this country -- i'm not going to use the words he uses. people and hebs is the biggest -- he should grab himself because he is the biggest. he said that nobody is ever stood up against the russians. i grew up during john f. kennedy, the cuban missile crisis. john f. kennedy stood strong and russia backed down. itro, thank you for the call. let me take this point and ask

you this question. will trump be a benefit in the midterm elections or will he hurt some republicans in these key house races? guest: it depends on the districts. the districts that are conservative districts, he is hugely popular. if he engages in those districts, he will be a huge benefit for those candidates. there are districts that are more swing districts, the suburban vote is the vote to get and there are independence in those districts. he will not be effective there. i think you will see the administration engaging, you will see this white house political operation engaging strategically and where he is most effective. they understand the strengths and weaknesses and it depends on where he goes. host: tim chapman, executive director of heritage for america. thank you for joining us again. please be with us again. more information on the website. liz kennedy is joining us in just a moment great she is with

the center for american progress to talk about allegations of russian meddling. will it be safe for americans to vote? questions with her coming up in just a moment. and later charlie cook, the editor and publisher of the book clinical report with a midterm election -- of the cook political report with the midterm election preview. we are back in a moment. ♪ >> this weekend on american -- ony tv on c-span three the civil war, william marvel, author of the book lincoln's mercenaries explains the economic factors that drove poor northerners to volunteer and at 8:00, san diego state university professor on the vietnam war from the u.s. military escalation in 1965 to the fall

of saigon 10 years later. sunday 11:00, military historian patrick o'donnell and his book the unknowns, the untold story of america's unknown soldier and world were ones most decorated -- and world war i's most decorated heroes who brought him home. of on real america as part our alaska weekend, four films about alaska. the 1936 film alaska silver millions, the 1949 film eskimo hunters, the 1967 film alaska centennial, and the 1944 film alaska highway. watch american history tv this weekend on c-span three. this saturday at 10:00 eastern, c-span radio will feature a view from the states as part of alaska weekend. house andthe alaska senate debate on whether to use, for the first time, the alaska permanent fund to close the state budget deficit.

the fund provides an annual dividend to every state resident from oil revenue. hear from alaska's governor and alaska residents. listen to the program saturday at 10:00 eastern on our website at c-span.org or with the seas -- or with the free c-span radio app. q&a, the night on daughter of american diplomat george cannon discusses her memoir, daughter of the cold war. >> i met vladimir putin in 1991 in st. petersburg. he was deputy mayor. i was running my business consulting firm. i do client who wanted something to do with the port of st. petersburg and i had a meeting with the real bear -- with the real mayor. he was called away and so they substituted the deputy mayor, vladimir putin. i was annoyed because i was not meeting with the mayor. had been kgb, i was

negative about it all. he came in and he was equally negative. he did not want to meet with an american woman who claimed to run a business. i think he was suspicious of women. he had no gallantry. he was the coldest -- he had the coldest eyes i have ever seen. blueoop cold eyes -- big cold eyes. i kept thinking i wonder what would happen if you was interrogating me. >> sunday night at 8:00 eastern on c-span's "q&a." >> "washington journal" continues. host: liz kennedy is the director of democracy and government reform for the center for american progress. thanks for being with us. we are approaching the november midterm elections. still people concerned about whether the integrity of the voting is in place.

do you feel the white house and congress are doing enough? guest: i do not feel that currently there is the appropriate government response to lead us through to the kinds of steps we need to secure all of our elections. it is wonderful news that congress last year had in fact appropriated $380 million to support state and local elected officials in their work to increase cyber security measures , transition away from machines, those machines that do not yet use paper ballots. unfortunately there are still 14 states are not all voting on paper. five states do not allow voters to vote on paper at all. when you still have the president of the united states questioning and undermining the findings of his intelligence community as to the extent of fact that the the

kremlin was behind this attack on the infrastructure. we have not seen a legislative response from congress that would mandate or even have greater incentives to put in place the kind of election security protections we need to guarantee free, fair, accessible, and secure elections. host: i want to put on the screen -- this is from pew research that takes a look at what they say is a password system of voting methods in the u.s. some offer optical scanning. the area in gray is electronic. the area in orange is mixed optical scanning and direct recording. is in place out west, including the state of oregon. it is a variety of systems based on the states and counties. typically, voting has been a

state issue. should it a national issue? should the federal government take this over and have one uniform standard? guest: those are not opposed issues. states and local officials run their own elections. all voting is local. it all happens in communities. in terms of administrating our elections, state and local officials will always be responsible for getting that done where the rubber meets the road and we thank them for the tremendous job so many have done in administrating our nations elections. we also have national standards around voting for 100 years. since we determined to is eligible. the 19th amendment or the 26th amendment where we determined the national standard for a age 18 ord 18 -- at when we passed the voting rights act or in the national voter

registration act where we said there has to be a national standard for allowing people to register to vote through dmvs, , there one mail-in form were patchwork provisions encumbering americans right to vote more than others. this is another instance where we do not expect local governments to repulse a physical attack on their land. we would not say good luck with that, south carolina, we hope they do not make too much of an incursion off your beaches. saying agents are attempting to infiltrate, went into not just the digital water gate the hacking of the democratic party apparatus, but state voter databases, we know there were over 20 states whose databases were attacked and

probed through election vendors also receiving the same kind of spear phishing attacks we saw against the democratic party apparatus. requires -- when we know there are foreign states leading those attacks, that requires a larger degree of federal support for states and federal standards. all election security experts agree we need to move to a place where every american is able to vote on a paper ballot. there needs to be mandatory postelection audits that are effective to confirm that all ballots have been counted as cast. out with a report, a lecture and security in all 50 states, looking at the best practices across seven criteria and where states were in be minimum cyber security standards. it is terrific there is already a federal elections assistance

commission that does help with some of these questions, that does help -- there is now, election infrastructure has been dedicated as critical infrastructure. of an alltill a lack of government response from the top. a lack of urgency in terms of passing the bipartisan legislation which is in the senate, which would help move states toward some of these minimum baseline standards. some states have been taking actions in front of the 2018 elections, which is wonderful. we need to start looking at 2020 and what we need to plan in terms of a secure election. host: based on what you just said and where we are now and where we are moving in 2020, congressman pete sessions is the chair of the house rules committee. this is what he said about the issue. [video clip] funded provided $380

million for the election assistance commission which was a final payment that was made in 2002 of $3.65 billion. 2002, just back in before that, there was an election that many people thought the outcome was wrong. , we would putreed $3.65 billion available for states to buy what they would choose for brand-new voting theines to ensure assistance was given from the ,ederal government to states for the security of the voting public. year, 2018 funds this only weeks before the election, 39% of those dollars are still available.

has not even been asked for this year. 19 states have yet to even ask for any application to be able to go in and update or change their system. the comments of congressman pete sessions. your response. guest: my understanding is all states have requested their funding. that was reported july 16 by the election commission. it was absolutely the right response in 2002 when congress provided over $3.5 billion to the states after the debacle of the florida count and its ramifications in the bush versus gore race. their congress work up to the fact that there were election administration issues happening in the state and that states needed to be able to upgrade

their voting systems to ensure free, fair, and secure elections. moved awaye, states from paper since that was the hanging chad and to these new electronic machines. technology that is 15 years old now and some of these states machines are still the machines they bought with these initial funds. any business in america that does not invest in their technology 15 years ago and leave it at that and think you have come up to the state-of-the-art in where things need to be -- we understand these machines, who, again, many of which are over a decade old, they need to be upgraded. for example, georgia has requested $10 million that was provided through the formula for the $380 million disbursement. georgia has no machines that have paper ballots.

the estimate is that in order to move all the way to machines for every voter that allows for paper ballots, which are the only type of ballots that could then be audited and a confident manner afterwards and the paper is much less likely to be hacked and the more secure provision, georgia whinnying between $35 million and $100 million to update the machines. we saw virginia upgrade all of the machines away from a paperless system to paper ballots before the 2017 election. that is the kind of urgency we need to see. in order to do that, states are telling us, bipartisan states are telling us they need the funding to move away from paperless ballots to voting on paper. that is the bare minimum all americans need to be able to expect. we need long-term investments. -- ais not something where

further quote was, in two weeks, maybe we can find out this decision. american businesses are not going to be going the between one decision and the other. strategiclong-term plan to get all americans voting on paper. that will require a long-term investment. that starts now. it is not that long before the next presidential election. host: and kiss her audience is interested, the hanging chads were on display -- in case our audience is interested, the hanging chads were on display at the museum of american history. our guest is liz kennedy. we are talking about the midterm election and voter security. let me go through three tweets. a possible bigger issue is voting -- is voter suppression. reaction? guest: that is absolutely true. a separate threat to this country is internally, the types of measures that are burdening people's access to the vote and

unfortunately many of these provisions that are unnecessary in terms of protecting the integrity of our elections are keeping too many americans away from the polls. citizenseing eligible prevented from voting because they do not have one particular form of voter id. allow a hunting license but not a student id, even if it is government issued. there are threats internally to our equal access to our voting power. the is another thing where president's misstatements continuing around the idea that there are any significant number of illegal votes is a red herring where as opposed to paying attention to that he ought to be leading a national security response to strengthening access and the security of our elections. host: second tweet. citizenship,oof of

period. guest: all americans swear to their eligibility when registering to vote. proof of citizenship keeps eligible americans away from the ballot. where that was tried in kansas, 35,000 american citizens were prevented from casting their votes and having their voices heard because of these unnecessarily proof of citizenship requirements. a federal judge striking them down. the best efforts by so many people who have been leading the voter suppression efforts to prove there is a justification based on any kind of insecure or illegal voting is falling completely flat. the secretary of state of kansas was censured by the judge for playing fast and loose with evidence. , thexpert he put forward judge indicated he was not to be believed. host: finally from our friend kiki, who has this tweet.

why is our voter registration expire. unless i do, it should not. guest: wonderful point. the center for american progress and i are out with the data-driven research that shows how streamlining voter registration through policies like automatic voter registration when the state already knows all of the information it needs to confirm and it individual voter eligibility, they can just add someone to the voter registration list while still maintaining the ability to opt out. same day voter registration is forxcellent safety valve contingency planning around an issue where if russian agents or arer foreign threats mucking about in voter registration databases and may someday succeed in manipulating that information such that when eligible registered voters go to a polling place they do not find

themselves on the roles -- if states allow, and many states do -- we see huge spikes in people being able to participate in toing when they are able confirm their eligibility and register to vote on the same day, that is an excellent safety valve for these issues with election hacking. host: liz kennedy who serves at the director for democracy at the center for american promise. this is greg from huntsville, alabama, republican line. caller: i have three questions. i want to say it is ironic that with our thumbs out and hitch a ride to the space station. it is like a seventh grade bunch of meddling in an election. outcome.t affect the instead of spending our time to stop what they have done, we seem to sit around and talk about everything but. i have a couple questions.

ballots, in your opinion, is that the only way we should go? would be what would you consider a hardship? how long should the polls stay open for someone to be able to vote and not be a hardship? do we need them open 24 hours? what is that? let's get there and quit complaining about it. the divisiveness drives me up the wall. guest: i do think we need to move to paper ballots. there are other cyber security and election security practices that experts recommend, all of which we identify in our election security in 50 states reports. there are other important things like minimum cyber security around voter registration, looking at tabulation.

to thinkseline is about paper ballots and mandatory postelection audits. i agree with you about looking at -- in my view i think we need to look at this as a sputnik moment where we have seen that these russian agents were able to get in and around some of the election protections. not necessarily in a way we have absolutely no proof that any kind of votes were changed or lost or anything like that, but why should we wait for that tragedy instead of understanding that we need to get smart. we need exactly the sputnik moment. we need to have the same kind of american ingenuity and government response to do a much better job and use our american attitude to get there. to your last question about weer access, i believe should have a standard of early wo weeksor essentially t

that allows people to vote on the weekends. some people support and election day holiday. there are many workers are devoted vote on thanksgiving, which is already a holiday. there are still some that might not be able to take advantage of that. over allow early voting time, including the weekends, it cuts down on lines and increases the convenience for americans to have their voices heard. i would also note that in our increasing voter participation, we look at the programs for a vote at home. there are votes in washington and oregon. every registered voter's sent a ballot. in colorado that happens as well. colorado also incorporates both centers, where people can cast a ballot in person and get assistance if they need to. that is an opportunity to make voting more convenient. i think we need to remember the importance of our vote and the power of our vote. every american

citizen, all equal regardless of economic power, every american citizen can have their voice heard to determine the direction of the country and the makeup of their government. we saw a hundred 43 million eligible -- we saw 143 million eligible americans not voting in the 2014 midterm elections. we need everyone voting this year. joanne joins us from california on the democrats lined for liz kennedy. caller: good morning. , c-span,ing and thanks for taking my call. i've a question. if i vote, regardless of which system i use, my daughter asked me, how do i know that my vote went in for that candidate. i will hang up and listen to response on the other end? guest: thank you for calling in with that question. it is important that americans

understand that our local and state election officials are -- lots excellent job of people have tough jobs, running our election is a another tough job. we should not shake our fundamental confidence in the integrity of our elections which is that we have free, fair, and accessible elections in which every american can have their voice heard and trust their votes are counted as cast. we are absolutely in a position where we need to trust but verify. that is why we recommend there be mandatory postelection audits -- the best kind of audits are risk automating audits which i will not bore you with the statistics, which have to do with counting a number of ballots depending on the margin of error -- the margin of victory for the candidates to confirm that the candidate that

was initially indicated had one. go back and you tabulate the ballots by hand to confirm that outcome was correct. to get your point, we do recommend every state move toward mandatory postelection audit. at the same time, while we are taking every step to address this threat, we have to not lose confidence in our ability to elect our leaders and in the importance of making sure everyone you know, you and your best friends make it to the polls this year. host: let's go to connecticut. josh is next, republican line. good morning. caller: you have a real slick talker this morning. you just said trust but verify. why wouldn't that apply to voter id? people do not believe you because you will not give us

anything on the voter id, but you want a story about russia. i voted for trump. russia had zero to do with that. host: we will get a response. guest: thank you for your call. when i grew up in new york and i would go to vote, i am verified when i say who i am because they have a signature. every american voter who is showing up in person is already identifying themselves. long before the effort in the last 10 years to require strict photo ids, which again the problem is that so many americans, some studies show that 25% in some communities do not have eligible drivers licenses. the elderly, who are no longer driving you not have eligible drivers licenses. host: but they can get another form of idea. what you saw in wisconsin before the 2016 elections, the

state was saying they were going to provide free id but then there were voters who went to the drivers license bureaus and were turned away for the free state id or they were told they needed to go get their birth certificate to come back to get the id. it is a hurdle and an obstacle to casting a ballot. i think the most important response is there is a real , who inrom the russians 2016, as we know from the most recent indictments last friday, 12 russian agents indicted for not just attacking candidates in the political digital watergate we saw, but for attacking voting vendors, for attacking voter registration systems. that is a real threat and that is the real threat we need to counter. every study about every kind of insecurity as a result of illegal persons voting has looked for that evidence and found none. you are more likely to get struck by lightning than to

encounter an actual case of voter impersonation. we all believe in safe, secure, free, and accessible elections and we to address the real threats that exist. host: chat in south carolina on our line for independence. caller: thank you for taking my call. california is registering illegals and we know that. in the state of south carolina you have to have a drivers license to buy sudafed. how is that restrictive? is that making it hard for people, causing a part -- causing a burden on people who have sinus problems? i was in florida in 2000. it was not the hanging chads, it was the butterfly ballot. that is another thing that is a problem. you have people making different ballots for different counties. if you look at the mathematical

statistics on the people who voted for pat buchanan, it spiked hugely. me, ifllot issue -- to you have a social security id? there thatates out are blue states that register as many illegals as they can, and that should be a federal violation. one last thing -- how do we know the russians hacked the dnc server if they never turned the server over? i am amazed at people believing everything the fbi says without any actual proof. i have seen none. host: we will get a response to your questions. thank you. guest: thank you, chad. that is correct that the butterfly ballot was another major site of problems in terms

of questioning afterwards whether the election technology in use allowed people to vote for their actual preferred candidate. that ballot design -- that is why these questions of administration are so critical. buying sudafed is not a constitutional right, but casting your vote as an eligible american is. we do not see a problem of ineligible people really voting in federal or state elections. you are right, there are some jurisdictions where for just their very local elections have upowed all residents to end voting, rather than restricting that two american citizens. host: in san francisco. guest: that is absolutely not the case that those local elections have anything to do with who is allowed to vote in a state or federal election.

we saw voter fraud -- it is illegal. it is punished by five years in prison in some instances. we already have exactly the kind of legal protections, because we all agree we should have fair and free, accessible and secure elections. i think we cannot move away from this without recognizing that folks like the director of national intelligence dan coats are out there saying, warning signs are blinking red. we know the russians have attacked us. expecttoday saying we the russians will continue their attack in 2018, in 2020. there is a lot that states are doing before 2018, but we need a full national response to the security issues before 2020, or else we are really not taking this national security threat as

seriously as we need to do, to protect our american freedom of governing ourselves. host: liz kennedy, thank you very much for stopping by. guest: my pleasure. host: i want to share some news breaking throughout the course of the morning from nbc news, at least 13 are dead in branson, missouri after a duck boat capsized with some stormy weather. this tweet just a short while -- myom president trump deepest sympathies to the families and friends of those involved in the terrible boat accident that took place in missouri. such a tragedy, such a great loss. may god be with you all. a boating accident resulted in at least 13 dead and several more missing. we will take a short break and when we come back, charlie cook from the pole -- the cook political report.

midterm elections, what to expect. "washington journal" continues, back and a moment. ♪ >> join us this weekend for alaska weekend, with featured programming on c-span, tv, and american history tv. we will explore alaska's natural beauty, history, culture, and public policy issues. saturday on "washington journal," the effect of climate change on alaska. sunday, jacquelinepata discusses native american issues. for pigeon, general counsel cable company gci talks about how they make broad cap -- broad-based internet available.

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watch fourat 4:30, documentaries on alaska, alaska's silver millions, eskimo alaska,in northwestern alaska's centennial, and alaska highway. watch alaska weekend saturday and sunday, july 21 and 22nd on the c-span networks, at c-span.org, or listen with the free c-span radio app. c-span, where history unfolds daily. in 1979, c-span was created as a public service by america's cable television companies and today, we continue to bring you unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme court, and public policy events in washington, d.c. and around the country.

c-span is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we want to welcome back a longtime friend, charlie cook of the cook political report. you have been on this network for more than 30 years. guest: i think i was on c-span the first year that it was on the air. it is always fun and it was an important part of my career. that is why i religiously come back when you ask. the: i want to get to 30,000 foot level and then we will drill down to some of these races. it is mid july, the election is november, and a lot can happen. what does it feel like? guest: it looks like in the house, democrats need a net gain of 23 seats. it looks like it will be in the 20 to 35 seat range, some more likely than not that the house flips but it might not.

usually, the dynamics in midterm elections start setting by midsummer. we have never had it reverse course from this point on, but at the same time, the senate looks a lot more likely than not to stay in republican hands. republicans need to be worried about governor's and state legislative seats. three quarters of our governorships and 4/5 of our state legislative seats will be up in november. given all the power that has gone out to the states, that is a big deal. everybody always says, the upcoming election is the most important since moby dick was a guppy. this one is important with the house on the line. this is a really big one. host: republicans have neil gorsuch on the supreme court, a brick kavanaugh number -- brett kavanaugh nomination, and a strong economy.

democrats running against donald trump, what is their message? guest: i would not want to make this election up or down on president trump. i would not try to introduce a lot of messaging. what was the slogan that democrats just unveiled, we the people. they ought to keep this a referendum up or down. to the extent they get specific on anything, they run the risk of giving republicans ammunition to use against them. i would keep this as a referendum and if i were a republican, i would try to focus on what concrete things have happened on capitol hill and try to localize and individualize it , and try to keep it away from being a referendum up or down of president trump. host: one of the states republicans have targeted is florida. rick scott is seeking the senate seat held by bill nelson. here is a relatively new ad from

the scott campaign taking aim at senator nelson and the democrats. >> how much does bill nelson toe the party line? he voted with hillary clinton 89%, with obama 98%. democratic presidents have on -- nominated more than 100 judges -- 700 judges. you cannot get more partyline than that. lastnelson, 31st, florida -- party first, florida last. guest: i think it is one of the best 2, 3, or four senate races of this year, one of the most competitive. rick scott, the governor meets all the tests of what is a top level challenger. statewide name recognition at the beginning of the race, statewide organization at the beginning of the race, all the

money he could possibly need, and four, he has one tough -- won tough statewide elections before. it is about as purple a state as you can get. host: let's get to nevada, one of the states the democrats hope to pick up. dean heller has an ad on the air. >> i and jacky rosen and i approved this message. >> they call him senator spineless, first promising to vote against obamacare -- >> heller from nevada is a no. >> i cannot support a piece of legislation that takes insurance from tens of millions of americans. >> but then, dean heller got pressure from his party leaders. >> threats from president trump, loud and clear. >> you are not there but you will be.

>> he broke his promise and voted for a repeal. >> a deciding vote. >> that is a complete 180. >> he decided not to cross trump. >> the plan would allow insurance companies to charge people over 50 up to five times more than young people and what and -- what end sections for pre-existing conditions. host: the democratic ad and nevada, size at that race. guest: republicans only have nine seats up and only five are in serious jeopardy. dean heller is the only incumbent in real jeopardy. it will be very close. one thing about, heller does not have a strong personality. there are not a lot of people who loathe him and there are not a lot of people who would walk on hot coals for him.

, this ist of members going to be a party vote as much or more than anything else. host: look at tennessee, because it is an interesting race where you have a republican nominee, an open seat with bob corker a former democratic governor who is ahead in the polls. this is a seat republicans thought they would keep. guest: tennessee is a state where if you just said, what does a generic republican or democrat do? they are giving the former two-term governor, he is probably be the only living democrat in the state that could win. on the republican side, marsha blackburn will be the republican nominee and she has got a very strong personality. a polarizing person. she might have a tougher time than joe or jane generic republican. that is what makes this race so

close and one of the premier races. host: nancy pelosi is running in her congressional district but she is on the ballot in a lot of key races. aca help or hindrance? want this tot sound disrespectful in any way to nancy pelosi, but if she announced today that she was resigning from congress, there would probably be people jumping out of windows at the national republican congressional committee because they do not really have hillary clinton to beat up anymore, they do not have president obama anymore. nancy pelosi is one of their arrows in their quiver against democrats. it will work in some places. it worked in the georgia six special election last year. she is not nearly as big a demon for republicans to be done as clinton and president obama

more. -- were. i can see democrats getting to 218 seats in this election. it is a little harder to see, where does nancy pelosi get 218 votes for speaker if democrats win a majority. it is not animosity towards her personally, but there is a generational time for a change thing. the biggest argument for pelosi surviving this is there isn't a single, or even two really strong contenders that you could point to and say, that person could be pelosi. if she survives, it will be the absence of any unified op. cit. -- opposition. host: let's look at a national ad from the rnc and then we will look at arkansas. the rnc, as the republican party does take aim at the

former house speaker, now democratic leader in the house of representatives. nancy pelosi, right now, i guess we could call her the incoming speaker of the house of representatives. cancel --ld like to raise taxes? >> the second part is accurate. >> the economy has been losing jobs for months. >> yes, we will raise taxes. >> officials call it a regulations tsunami. >> anti-immigration marches to abolish ice. >> a growing sense the u.s. military has significantly changed and not for the better. >> similar mismanagement within the veterans benefits administration. theig personnel cuts by

u.s. army, the latest in a series of downsizing those. -- moves. >> what i represent and senator sanders and senator warren, that is the nature. pathetic, just like giving you a bowl of doggie doo, put a cherry on top and call it a chocolate sundae. host: is the ad effective? guest: in some districts it will be. this is a district largely in therban america and unlike senate races, they will be -- this is a suburban district and in some places it will be effective. host: the latest in-house ratings in terms of those that democratic tossups, only two.

republican tossups, 25. in arkansas, this is an ad also focusing on nancy pelosi. >> congressman hill opened his campaign by attacking me, knowing full well that i said i will not vote for nancy pelosi. we are better than that. i am the only candidate in this race who has worked with both parties to protect health care, strengthen education, and empower entrepreneurs. i will do the same in congress because my priority is our families and our future, not the politics of the past. i am part tucker and i approved this message. host: charlie cook? guest: that is a pretty good deflection add. we are seeing quite a few democrats, not incumbents, that are saying if i win i will not vote for nancy pelosi. host: look at this headline from politico that has pictures of those individuals. guest: again, i don't think it

is personal towards her but a lot of it is generational and some of it is political survival. this year, there were 435 seats. we basically know who was going to win in 335 them. there are 100 we are watching and of them, about 60 are competitive. when you have a midterm election with a president with low approval ratings, they don't knock off many seats from the other side. that explains why there are so few democratic seats in jeopardy, is when you have the wind going one way it is hard to go against the strength. largely, the competitive races are mostly not going to be in the deep south, but arkansas which is basically little rock is one of the few. that is one of the few deep south republican districts that are in danger.

it is basically right in and immediately around little rock, so it is not a small town, rural district. ,epublicans have to even worry even in the deep south because hillary clinton and barack obama kept the republican party together in the south. the absence of that allows democrats to kind of run more under their own flag a little bit. host: we are talking with charlie cook from the cook political report. a bellwether of what to expect in midterm politics, that is our focus from illinois, bob is on the phone on the republican line. caller: good morning. love c-span. i got a question about the maxine waters race. there are differing accounts online. some say she does not live in her district and some say she does.

if she does not live in her district, can she run? guest: i have no earthly idea whether maxine waters lives in her congressional district or not. for the u.s. house of representatives, there is no legal requirement anywhere to live in your district. ,ou need to live in your state but there is no legal requirement. things thatry few we are sure of in life -- death and taxes are two. democrats do not lose districts that are as overwhelming as hers, and she has no race. living in a district that is not a legal requirement. it can be a political hit. we have seen members and competitive districts lose because they had an apartment that they rarely went to back in the state or the district.

that was political, not legal, and not in a district as overwhelmingly democratic as this one. host: from norwich, new york, carol on the democrats line. caller: i have two questions. one is about the race between claudia tenney and anthony brindisi. i wonder how he would handicap it. and in the other thing you would like to say about that district. my second question is about a relatively new book by alan abramowitz called "the great realignment," about race, party, and transformation of the party system with the rise of trump. i wondered what he thought of that book. host: thank you. guest: alan abramowitz is a friend of mine and a terrific political scientist at emory university. i have his book on my bed stand.

it is waiting to be read as soon as i finished john mccain's book, which i am mostly through. , ourh david wasserman house editor, was here, because he is our granular effort. york,rk 22, upstate new this is the republican incumbent claudia tenney in a district that in presidential elections votes six points more republican than the rest of the country. level playing field, democrats might have a chance of winning this one but it would be pretty uphill. haveyear when republicans some headwinds, democrats have some tailwinds as appears now, this is one that is in play. we have this race rated as a tossup, which means it is one of the top -- it would be one of

the 30 best chances democrats have of knocking off a republican. this is a top-tier democratic challenge. host: let me turn to another 2021, one ofork the youngest republican female candidates to be elected to the house of representatives. guest: that is why you can't go just hard and fast by the numbers. in this case, it is a slightly less republican district than in the 22nd. in the 22nd, the one the caller asked about, democrats have a top-tier, really good challenger . democrats do not have a good challenger particularly against her and we haven't rated as solid. -- have it rated as solid.

she is not going to lose, let's put it that way. host: in pennsylvania, the first congressional district, brian fitzpatrick and you have it leaning republican but it has been giving -- getting some attention. this is a race to watch on whether the republicans keep or lose the house of representatives. why? guest: it is a suburban district. win a majority, it will be through suburban districts like bucks county, montgomery, box, delaware, chester county. host: the ring around the city. ofst: these are the kind districts democrats have to win to get a majority. this is one of the very most vulnerable, in that concentric

tear. r. tie new jersey, pennsylvania, virginia would be the three states early on election night where you will see results coming in where you will get a sense if democrats are likely to get 23 or more, and this is a race i would look at. host: virginia is certainly one of those. guest: bobber construct -- bobber con stock -- barbara comstock is more vulnerable. she is not toast, but has a really challenging situation. host: brad in international falls, minnesota, thank you for waiting. caller: good morning to both of you. we are talking about this midterm election and whatnot. the senate pretty well will have between 59 and 61 republicans, pretty solid. on the house side --

guest: let me interrupt. right now there are 51. caller: like you say, there is only nine republicans up on the ballot. basically the remaining of the 33 are democrats. they are going to lose more -- about half. on the house side, there were be about 235, 240 republicans. here is the real -- the point being on all of this is, the reason why the democratic party is in the position they are is that they do not have anybody running. the only way that somebody will take over the party and have a chance is they have got to kick out the media. host: how do you view his assessment? guest: i have all the respect in the world for you and your opinion.

i will tell you that i have not met a single republican official or strategist or consultant that shares your degree of optimism for republicans this year. a hugely successful -- yes, there are only nine republican seats up. three of them are in grave danger. at least one or two republicans are behind. 4, 5, 6 races to worry about, five in states that trump one by 14 points or more. if i had to bet on the single most -- i don't that on politics -- if i had to bet on the single most likely scenario it would be zero and a change. outo in 51-49 and we come 51-49. if i am wrong, it is likely

republicans gain one seat or have a net loss of one seat. you have a fabulous year for republicans if they picked up three seats. crazy.et's go wild and nowhere near the 58, 59 seats. i have not met a single republican official who thought that was in the round of possibility. host: california on the democrats line, steve, good morning. caller: good morning from the golden state. charlie, i have been watching you for years on c-span. , for whatever reason, that you lost a lot of weight. guest: having a cardiologist scare the hell out of you will do that. it is for the good, i appreciate it. caller: i am a native of san francisco.

i have the utmost respect and honor for nancy pelosi, but it is time for her to pass the torch on. she is so polarizing. she was a great fundraiser. i know she is from baltimore. i just know a little bit about her through the years, but she is too polarizing. democratsg my labor -- and you are talking to a teamster retiree that organized labor parades, getting the labor message out -- and i have a lot of my friends, at least 50% of my teamster buddies who stood on picket lines for 27 weeks during my career with lucky's supermarkets, 27% of them voted for trump. they just could not vote for hillary. i loved hillary. she was the most experienced

candidate the democrats have had for years to take the office. i voted for her but i said bernie sanders -- sent bernie sanders money as i wanted him to wake up the youth, and he did. all i am asking for is the democrats to come back home. this midterm is so important. one last point, to my fellow democrats, if we don't have a majority in the house, we don't set the agenda. the chairman of each committee set the agenda to get topics on. everything you watch on c-span is controlled by the republicans. if we do not have enough democrats to chair the committee's, the party is over. host: a lot on the table. your response? guest: i think democrats nancy pelosi an enormous debt of gratitude. nancy pelosi an enormous

debt of gratitude. i do not think anyone has raised as much money as she has. having said that, i think there are a fair number of -- a decent number of sitting democrat members and other candidates that like her a lot and respect her a lot and are in or miss the grateful for everything she has said and done for the party, but who think it is time to move on. that is a sort of growing sentiment out there, and i say that with no malice towards her whatsoever. this is now getting to be a pretty loud noise out there. the only thing that is pushing back is there is not one or two alternatives that look really strong, that we say that person could be her -- beat her one-on-one.

there have been a lot of rising stars in the democratic party that have left the house. there is not one or two. they have some people that are real rising stars. , maybe its their time is a few years away from their time. i will make a prediction. congressman joe kennedy, this guy will be a star. he is going to be a president, vice president, or leader in congress one of these days. he is still fairly young and has a very young family, so i don't know that he is ready personally to move up. 'he ground swell for democrats change, it is getting pretty loud. i do not say that as a criticism of her, more just provide we are -- just the vibe we are picking

up. host: our guest is charlie cook and our next caller is steve from marina del rey, california, republican. caller: i agree with the guest that we will know very quickly if the democrats will take control of the house, the cause the competitive races that you have. in new jersey, for example, the weber race, the vance race, it looks like the jurors -- new jersey can go the same way as massachusetts where you may have one or two republicans from new jersey. mcarthur and smith will probably survive. guest: you know a lot about congressional races from the other coast. republicans have done really well in new jersey in recent years, for a state that has a natural democratic tilt.

it is going to be tested. it is going to be really tested in this election. new jersey, pennsylvania, virginia, we will get a really nightdea then of what the is like. in your state of california, there are like seven competitive races. we will have a good idea the direction of the evening is going, but until the votes are counted in california, what the numbers will be we do not know. republicans are hoping that this gas tax initiative, repeal a fairly new gas tax, they are hoping that will bring out republican voters in california. maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. they desperately need help. tariffshe president's taking a toll on pivotal pennsylvania." there are similar headlines.

guest: we have the next several weeks to look at the polling data because small town, rural america, the farm economy, that has been bedrock trump country. the tariffs, this issue is testing the. showve not seen data to agublicans dropping in these areas yet. i would not be surprised to see it happen some. so many people are not voting their economic self-interest anymore. they are voting culture and geography, and there is a lot in small-town, rural america, farm ,conomy, where president trump a lot of them believe he is speaking to them.

what we are specifically walking -- watching are the soybean districts. if there is following in the farm economy against republicans, it will happen in soybean districts first. i am watching the data real closely. i have not seen it yet. host: from lancaster, california, tom, republican line. caller: i got a book for you. movementof the flower ." host: who is the author? caller: who is the author? the new york bestseller david graham. host: ok, thank you. toler: here is my comment the people of america. people in the rural districts watch what is going on with the political press.

we just had the fbi take secondhand information from, i the gpsow who it was, that looked at hillary servers. there might have been some other stuff on their. -- on there. what about the people who got immunity? host: thank you. guest: i think it was the wikileaks that published the things off of hillary clinton's , ands that were hacked in the u.s. intelligence community clearly believes that it was people affiliated with russian andlligence who hacked in who got the material to wikileaks. i am not saying that made the difference in the election.

when you have 137 million people vote and the election basically comes down to 78,000 people, there are probably 50 things that made a difference in that election. the emails were -- i think it was a factor that made a different in states like pennsylvania, wisconsin, that president tron -- president trump won by 7/10 of one point. i think for someone to point to hillary's emails and not concede ,hat that damaged her greatly and very possibly cost her the election, i think ignoring that necessarily done impartially. story, it was very costly for her in this election. i would not act like she has

gotten out scot-free on this. what can you do to someone short --killing them that is worst worse than costing them the presidency? host: the races to watch according to charlie cook, there are five key ones. in florida, indiana, missouri, north dakota, and west virginia. among the republican tossup states, the open seat with jeff flake, dean heller, and in tennessee and other open seat. bonnie in bellevue, washington, democrats lying. -- line. caller: this is washington state , sometimes and ignored state when it comes to the election. a pretty divided state. mountains,st of the we have a very hotly contested race because we do not have a

good democratic candidate yet with dave reichert retiring. republicans, they are very gerrymandered districts running across the mountains. guest: we have that race rated as a tossup. i was referring earlier to presidential voting. we have something available on our website, cook political.com, call the partisan voting index where we look at the last two elections for the districts and how does it compare to the rest of the country. this is one of a few districts that are absolutely even, where it has no tilt, democrat or republican. this is one of the hottest races in the country. because it is on the west coast, it will be really late or the next day, at least for those of

us on the east coast to know who comes out ahead. i would not sell yourself short if you are a republican, because this is going to be a pretty good race. i remember meeting dale rossi when he ran 10, 12 years back. host: let's go to upstate new york in buffalo, joe, democrats line. caller: good morning. a question and an opinion. up here, i think it is the 27th district you have chris collins. i have that heard a word about the ethics investigation about his insider trading. i am also wondering about how partys the democratic backing nate mcmurray? i have not seen any commercials and if i was living in south carolina, i would be seeing commercials now for november.

your thoughts? ,uest: this is a district talking about the partisan voting index, that votes 11 points more republican than the rest of the country. i do not even know if there are democrats in congress that represent districts that tilt this far republican. we have this race rated as solid republican and if a district is solid republican this kind of year, it is really solid. i would not expect to see a lot of ads. democrats, for both parties, you funnel your money where you think it will make the most difference. i doubt if you see any party, national party money at all on either side going into this because there are over 100 races that are more competitive than this one. all those 100 will not be that well-funded. i would not hold your breath to

see national party funded ads. host: in minnesota, you have one and eight as top races for democrats, and a senate candidate appointed running statewide. what impact will that have on these races? have: first of all, people -- a lot of people have this idea of minnesota, that was hubert humphrey's state and walter mondale's state, very democratic. keep in mind, hillary clinton carried minnesota by two points or three. it was pretty close. when you saw donald trump carry wisconsin, minnesota was not far behind. this is not nearly as democratic state as a lot of people see. we have got in minnesota the first district, we have that is a tossup race.

it is a district that has a republican tilt presidentially, but it is one of the better chances that democrats have in the country. we have three tossups, the first, second, and third districts, as well as the eighth. now that i think about it, when i was talking about new jersey, pennsylvania, virgin you -- virginia, minnesota is not as early in the evening but when you are looking for pockets of really close races, i do not think i fully appreciated that minnesota has a concentration of really tight house races that is probably as great as any other state. host: tom from chicago, our line for republicans. caller: i would like to ask mr. cook, back in 1994 you predicted the democrats would lose 25, 30 seats. robert novak was the only one

that predicted the republicans would take over for the house for the first time in 40 years. in a volatile year like this, i think everything is up for grabs. your thoughts? guest: i think in a funny sort of way, you are kind of making a point i should have made. when you see these kind of wave years like republicans had in 1994, when we went through and counted up races, where do republicans have a chance of winning, you have a really hard -- you could get them to 25 and you might be able to get democrats needed 40 seats to get a majority in that election. they hit 52. when you have a wave, there is a cascading effect. it is like the dominoes are a start going one way. that's all start going one way.

on election night in 1994, that case getting -- cascading really took effect. we knew republicans would have a heck of a year. we did not know how good it would be. that is kind of the dynamic that may well be here, because these things, as i said at the beginning of the show, we have never seen midterm election dynamics reverse course after midsummer. bighese things tend to go -- when you have a wave and there is every reason to believe there is a wave out there, they tend to go bigger than expected, more than the seat count. that mistake that we made understating the magnitude of a wave in 1994, when the next ways 2010, 2014, we tried awfully hard not to make

that same mistake. host: you predicted the republicans getting back the house in 2010 and the democrats winning in 2006. from miami, larry is next on the republican line. caller: just one comment i wanted to make and i will go to something else. should barack obama be indicted by the israeli government for his interference in the israeli election? to me, if there is russian interference in our election, that is nothing to the hatred that i see on the left. 24/7snbc, cnn, it is nothing of hatred for trump. host: how does that sentiment play out? guest: the first part of the question, i know absolutely nothing about israeli elections or any involvement of any

americans in israeli politics. i cannot address that whatsoever . we are in a period of hyper partisanship. i think our country is as badly decided today as it has been at any point since reconstruction. years underight president obama, we saw an intensity of hatred among not all, but a lot of conservatives and republicans that effectively helped lead to the creation of the tea party movement and other things. it was pretty darn intense. now, with president trump, we are seeing exactly the same thing flipped around and we are seeing it on the left. to liberal shows today, you will see something that looks a lot like what you saw on conservative networks and

shows back during the eight years of obama. i think it is kind of unfortunate all the way around that we have people now living in ideological silos on the left and right where it is building up in intensity, this hyper partisanship. it is effectively making it very hard for governing. our governing process is built on the idea of compromise and building a consensus, and it is next to impossible to build that kind of consensus to govern on so many issues now, regardless of whether it is republicans or democrats in the majority or in the white house. you are seeing a lot of the trail aimed at president -- vitr trumpmed at president like you were saying aimed at

president obama. host: as we did you a snapshot of what is happening in key congressional districts that will determine control of the next congress, here is an ad by a democratic candidate. >> people in central ohio want to invest in their own communities and see a return on investment. i will work with congressional republicans, president trump, and congressional democrats. folks will sit down and be serious about committing to rebuild this country. we have a chance to send a message, not about partisanship but about pragmatism. that is what is at stake. host: that goes to your point of compromise. guest: absolutely. tiberi a seat where pat resigned from congress who was very much an effective member and a consensus builder.

c-span watchers will hear a lot about ohio 12 between now and the august special election. this one, i am not sure why it is not getting as much attention as the pennsylvania 18 special won,ion that conor lamb but republicans are watching very nervously. close one, andry i think democrats are not trying to overly raise expectations. this will be a big-time special that in the dog days of august, a lot of political junkies will be paying a lot of attention to ohio 12. it is basically the suburbs, northern suburbs and part of columbus, ohio. host: only one network will give you the debates to these key house and senate governor races as we partner with local tv partners across the country.

we hope you tune into c-span networks as we give you a snapshot into the races from now through election day. market -- margaret from dover, new hampshire. caller: i am looking at the new hampshire congressional race. i am thinking there are too many people running. we do not have the primary until september, but it is kind of like when trump ran. there were too many republicans running and they hung on too long. i look at this race and i see lincoln sold dotty and bernie son and a bunch of other people. i saw you in washington at the mayflower about 40 years ago. the one thing i remember -- host: 40 years ago?

guest: probably 30 and change. caller: i remember you said there are only two kinds of campaigns, those based on hope and fear. do you still believe that? host: a good memory. guest: this is something -- i have been involved in politics since 1972. if you take the emotions of love and hate, and this is really sad to say, but hate is a far more powerful motivation in politics than love. if i were running, if i had a choice of having voters love me or hate my opponent, i would rather have them hate my opponent. it is true. the thing is, in midterm elections, one third fewer people vote then in a presidential year.

if you are in a party that just won the presidential election and you are in congress, hopefully you vote, but people tend to be satisfied and complacent. it is the other party that lost that election that is out of part -- power. anger, fear, hate, that is what drove republicans in 2010 and 2014 in the obama midterm elections. it drove democrats in 2006 and it is driving democrats in this one. that is why it is one side voters are more motivated than the other. it is hate, fear, anxiety, all of that. in september, i will be coming to the politics and eggs breakfast in new hampshire. maybe i will see you there. host: let me go back to tom stier with an eye on 2020.

2018,ms of an impact in will he have an influence on midterm elections? he calls for the reelection of president trump. guest: i have met tom stier a couple times. smart guy, very successful in private equity. , ih all due respect to him think he is doing democrats an enormous amount of damage, that every time the word "impeachment" is mentioned, it 15,000, 5000, 10,000, it motivates trump supporters. it motivates conservatives and republicans. democrats are already pretty motivated and where that ramps up are in places where democrats do not need votes. the thing is, if i were a democratic consultant i would tell candidates in competitive races, do not use the word

get anywhere or near it if you are in a competitive district. say -- stayi would away from the word "single-payer." these are two things that define democrats in a pejorative way with swing voters, and motivate conservative republicans, tea party, a great deal. i think tom stier -- i am sure he believes totally in what he is doing and saying -- but i think it is enormously counterproductive for anyone that wants democrats to win a majority. host: to western pennsylvania, patricia on the democrats line. turn the volume down on your set. i think we lost her. guest: i thought sharon was outside philadelphia. you would know.

host: it is between pittsburgh and erie. ,hat is mike kelly's district in a race that leans republican but facing a democratic challenger. guest: i have a son and daughter-in-law that live outside of pittsburgh. host: mike kelly seat? guest: i think they are in the kelley district. john in sanl go to antonio, texas, good morning. caller: good morning, charlie. i was going over the vote totals -- or or gustier ortez ghazi a ortez race -- under 40 was really high. crowley did have one poll that came out three weeks that had him up by 36 points.

in the dana balter race in the 24th district, i think the same thing happened. her opponent was up by about 12 points. as the left becomes more ascended in the democrat party, are these polling's becoming less relevant? it costs a lot of money and only s usedod polars -- poller cell phone to a certain extent. guest: good question. next time you go to rudy's barbecue, think about me. it is the official barbecue sauce of the cup household. in that primary in new york that joe crowley lost, i think there are things that are important and things that are less

important. we need to remember that that district was like 25% white. american,ged, irish white, irish-american white guy who has been in congress for 20 years representing a district that is a atypicaly, this is situation. turnout, the last number i saw was 12%. when you have turnouts that low, any kind of polling is problematic. i understand that he had a poll that had him on an initial ballot at 30 points ahead. there were warning signs. that was atypical.

you are right that the good pollsters have substantial numbers of self interviews. that is the difference between the good and the bad. listeners, a lot of them are skeptical about polling. keep in mind that looking at the national polling, it was pretty close. national polls mazer the national popular vote and the national average was three points and clinton one. -- clinton won. was polling in wisconsin, michigan, and pennsylvania that was far off and a lot of those did not have any or many cell phone interviews done. that is where there was a misfire. the national polling was pretty good and it was closer than

2012. it was closer than it turned out. we will beie cook, talking to often as we move into the elections. your last day here in washington before heading up to maine. of the cookublisher report and people can follow you on the web. i am charlie cook dc on twitter. i am 64 and i'm not a technology guy. thank you and thank you for the viewers. youruys are great in commitment to politics and public affairs is amazing and it is a great thing. host: thanks for being with us. right now, an event began just a moment ago things sponsored by the middle east policy council, take a look at the u.s. withdrawal on that iran nuclear deal. live coverage here.