then issue one's meredith mcghee talks about the loopholes federal lawmakers are using for expenditures. join the discussion. ♪ good morning, tuesday, august 7, 2018. primary day in four states and special election day in ohio 12th district. we are 90 days away from election 2018. we begin washington journal by hearing from you about what is driving you to vote in the midterm elections. the president and his policies, are they motivating you? what do you think about the upcoming results? if you believe the referendum will be read, give us a call at

(202)-748-8000. if you don't think the referendum will be on president trump, call us at (202)-748-8001 . a very good tuesday morning to name willdent trump's not be on the ballot in three months but we are asking if you think the results of those midterm elections should be a referendum on president trump. here is what the pew research center had to say. say their view of the president will influence their vote for congress, positive or negative. 60% majority say it is essentially a vote for donald trump or against. these are among the highest shares saying the president would be a factor in their vote in any midterm in more than three decades. here is what the president had to say about midterms in ohio on

saturday. >> all throughout, like a hundred years, 125 years, whoever has the white house, that party tends to lose the midterms. i don't know why. maybeit is complacency, you fight so hard for the presidency and you win, and you are complacent but that was two years ago. i just said, why? but we have the greatest economy in the history of our country. we have things that have never happened before. [applause] in,, if the democrats get they will raise in taxes, you up crime all over the place, people pouring across the border, so why would that be a blue wave? i think it could be a red wave. i tell you what. [applause] i think it will be a red wave. you got to get out and do it. you got to get out and vote. they want to take away what we have given. host: that was the president on

saturday night in ohio, ahead of the special election taking place in ohio's 12th district. here is the front page of the columbus dispatch. their website, dispatch.com. " we have arrived at the most anticipated day, the special election matchup between troy balderson and debbie o'connor and the gop dominated 12 congressional district. we will be talking more about that race later. the president is talking on twitter. "ohio, vote today for troy balderson for congress. his opponent, controlled by nancy pelosi is weak on crime. troy will be a great congressman, make america great again." is what the president tweeted out a few minutes ago.

we are asking you if the midterm elections should be read as a referendum on president trump. you can start calling in on those lines. at 10 a clock today, there will be a brief pro forma session in the house and senate. when we end our program at 10:00 today, we will go live to the house floor, as usual. for the first hour, the phone lines are yours, asking about the midterm elections. david, north bend, oregon. what do you think? caller: is this steve? host: no, david. steve. you sound like elections,hink probably shouldn't be a referendum but i think they are. the reason being of course,

tend, iflly, people they are upset with the president -- in this case it would be the democratic lever -- i don't know who was on the ballot here but i joined the green party because oregon is quite progressive anyway. i still wish we could somehow break up the duopoly of the republicans and democrats and reflect the true position of the majority of voters, which is, more progressive than the democrats or the republicans. i hate that word, progressive. we need some labels but i am pretty much issue oriented. i think the idea of splitting people up into generalities mrs. boat.ses the

host: what is your top issue? caller: the pentagon came out with that study eight years ago. the number one issue for national security is global warming. both political parties and the media are dragging their feet. host: oregon voters not heading to the polls today as david pointed out that nearby washington, voters head to the polls, primary day in four states. washington, kansas, missouri and michigan. we will spend some time going through those races later. daniel is up next in washington dc. is this a referendum on president trump? caller: i hope it will be a referendum on the trump administration. departmentseads of

and the power he is willing, are fixing us on fossil fuels into 30's and development will take years to go online, 7 million acres of the gulf of mexico open to oil exploration. either we move this country to deal with the horrendous environmental catastrophe we are facing or we're just pushing toward extinction. the oceans are acidic. ocean life is diminished. the whole coast of florida has millions of sea life floating update from algae. this country either gets on the track of mending the environment and stop spending it. americans are 25% of the resource use of the world with 5% of the population. 19 million barrels of oil a day. if we do not stop wasting and

start conserving and moving into the future, we are dooming millions of species around the world to extinction. host: todd is in california. good morning. thank you for waking up early. as this midterm a referendum on president of? -- president trump? caller: i believe it is. i honestly think global warming is a myth. in relation to that, november in california, where i am, on the ballot there is initiative to appeal the increase in gas tax. i will be voting to appeal that. host: todd, explain to me why you think it is a referendum on president trump and what is driving you out? this local issue, to the polls in november? caller: the local issue is the

only thing i'm concerned about. every midterm election is a referendum on any president in office, because historically, no more than 50% of the country normally likes whatever president is in. it is always a referendum. trump is running us into the ground with retaliatory tariffs and trade. host: the last two callers bringing up climate issues. from the washington times, the fires burning a few miles apart in northern california, 428 square miles since igniting. 100 miles north of san francisco, where those fires are taking place. it is likely to surpass the largest california wildfire on record, which burn 440 square miles in december. it is the second-largest buyer in state history --

in statergest buy fire history. the president tweeting about california wildfires yesterday. magnified by the bad environmental laws allowing massive amounts of readily available water unable to be properly utilized. is being diverted into the pacific ocean. clear to stop fire from spreading!" that was the president late on sunday on twitter. clifford is in lake charles, louisiana. is the midterms a referendum on president trump? caller: yes, sir, i agree with you. why? host: why? caller: i believe our country has to be run on faith and morals. a man's christian faith.

those on the democratic side, who do not put in practice their faith and morals. and manner woman in congress has to do this because -- a man and a woman in congress has to do this because that will protect all people in the united states of america. on all issues, if they work according to the christian faith, of faith and morals in a man's life and a woman's. we have to go with that -- that is the bottom line. host: certainly plenty of members of congress, those who are running to win a seat in congress are making the midterms about president trump in their advertising campaigns. here is a story about one. a florida candidate, david richardson, hoping to stand out in the 27th district of florida, democratic primary, he goes all in on the impeachment message. here is that. >> i am david richardson.

there is one word of official washington doesn't want you to hear. impeachment. i am the only candidate in this race who offers an impeachment bill for the legislature. raising health care costs, siding with vladimir putin and the constant lying, if this is not enough to impeach donald trump -- what is? host: florida primaries coming up later this month. not one of the four states holding primaries today. democrats not the only one focusing on the message of president trump and focusing advertising on president trump. another candidate for governor in florida focused on president trump. husband is knows my endorsed by president trump. is also an amazing dad.

he loves playing with the kids. he read stories. >> then mr. trump said, you're fired. i love that part. >> he is teaching madison to talk. >> make america great again. >> he is so much more. >> big-league, so good. >> i just thought you should know. host: we will be playing you some more candidate congressional and gubernatorial ads throughout the first hour of washington journal today, many focusing on president trump. are the midterms a referendum on president trump? jacob says no in buckley, west virginia. why? caller: i say they would have been but i think the republicans have turned out, the democratic party right now is going such far left with guaranteed government income. go is ais where we

country where does that slippery slope lead? does the government control who gets what? do they control the cash in this country? you get this, you get that. if we are going down that road, that is just one of the many -- it is free anything. host: your vote is against democrats more than four or against president trump? host: we lost jake appeared -- we lost jake up. -- jacob. caller: good morning. host: good morning. caller: [indiscernible] the reason why i am voting this of donald- i am tired trump lies. he is a liar, a cheat.

majority of people going around the country -- [indiscernible] christian evangelists, i'm surprised. i am surprised there is not more outrage on this man, a philanderer, a womanizer. he is a liar. i do not believe him. a couple of months ago on air force one, he said he knew nothing about paying that woman $130,000. mr. giuliani is a liar too. when he was mayor, the [indiscernible] believe ai would person -- [indiscernible] he is a liar. host: robert is in massachusetts and he says yes, they are a referendum on president trump. caller: this reminds me of the 1960's. you had richard nixon and gerald ford. when richard nixon got into

trouble, gerald ford gave him a clean party. finisher comment. -- finish your comment. caller: remember strom thurmond and david duke and all these type people, george wallace, we are back in the same boat? would not speak with david duke and then we found out he did. donald trump said he did not meet with him and we found out that he did. we are going backwards. look at the supreme court justice. he was a ku klux klan man and he said "yes, i once was with the clan but now i am not." now we're seeing the same thing today. watergate is repeating itself.

what is the difference? learn about the 1960's. donald trump will run scared. [indiscernible] host: that is robert in massachusetts. president trump's approval ratings according to the latest from 538, that has been tracking them on a daily basis throughout his presidency, 41.5% approving of president trump now compared to 52.7% who disapprove. the caller brought up the 1960's. page, you can38 also compare the president at this point in his presidency to the same point in other presidencies. he brought up richard nixon, the comparison of president trump. the green line here, approval

ratings compared to richard the above 50% at this point in his presidency. sons twoe comparei lyndon johnson. higher approval ratings than harry truman at this point in his presidency. 538, to check out the daily tracking. robert is in indiana on those who say it is not a referendum on president trump. caller: they had tried everything they can to get him out. this country needs to wake up. sign we have right now is a sign of the battle of armageddon. these countries are fighting each other. people in the united states are ting, kill babies, all that stuff. it is here. they have taken everything that god has made. if the democrats getting in

their, we are doomed. host: bob in cookeville, tennessee. caller: i believe it is a referendum on president trump's policies and i believe the republicans are going to pick up seats in congress and senate. host: you think it will be that much of a wave? caller: sure do. the american people are not going to back a socialist. they never have and they never will. that is what the democratic party has turned into, a bunch of socialists. host: that is bob in tennessee. our question this morning in the first hour of washington journal, are the midterms a referendum on president trump? call in on lines if you agree, (202)-748-8000. if you think they want to be, -- they will not be, (202)-748-8001 is the number to call.

a few tweets at http://twitter.com/cspanwj, jim says my purpose is to keep my republican representatives in office. if that is support for trump, so be it. to be ana "they have referendum. we need candidates running on real issues that all people are facing in everyday life." at c-spanwj. we are showing you advertisements that candidates are running. this minnesota republican, who is running in a swing district in minnesota talking about the time he stood up to president trump. ♪ >> my parents taught me to love the outdoors. i can't and can do with my family and minnesota's yellowstone, the boundary waters. so when president trump tried to take away important protections,

i said no way. i am for mining, just not there. it is too special, two important. i approve this message. i will stand up to my party or president trump to protect minnesota. that is a swing district being watched in midterms. another district being watched is the 26th district in florida. in a recent democratic ad, tying then that race, republican to president trump. ♪ >> i wish that you would have been upset when the obama administration -- >> we were doing this. >> separating the families. that is a democrat bill. >> the obama administration, the bush administration, all separated families at the --

>> separation of illegal alien families is a product of the same legal loopholes that democrats are closed and these laws are the same that have been on the book for over a decade. host: plenty of ads from members of congress, focusing on president trump in the midterm elections. do you think the midterms will be a referendum on president trump? should the results be read that way? if you think yes, (202)-748- 8000, if you think, no, (202)-748- 8001. caller: it is a referendum on president donald trump. the referendum will show that they will hold the house and pick up two senate seat's. of thet and the cnn's andd and the msnbc's

democrats in congress are doing their best to take conservative views off the social pages, trying to hush them up. and democrats inwe the people, who k president donald trump, will make sure he has everything he needs to continue with what he is doing. thank you. host: you think republicans will pick up two senate seat's? do you have a sense of where that will happen? host: we lost richard but we will focus on the race for the senate and the house later in the program. we will focus on the primers happening today, there are several important senate races taking place in the primariesthat are happening today. tomorrow morning, we will wrap up what happened in the elections with nathan gonzales of inside elections, he will be joining us the day after those four primaries and that special election in ohio's 12 district race.

here is one story from the washington times. the special election is a "test for trump." patrice in georgia, do you think midterms are a referendum on president trump? caller: absolutely. when right-wing people call america socialism -- let's deal with the history of america. in the early times, back in the 1800s, we had land and gold lotteries established that took native american land and gave it to white americans, white males. when you talk about socialism, democracy, this country has always had elements of socialism benefiting white males and white people. all the other ethnicities as well, you had roosevelt, with the new deal programs that helped during that crisis.

let me say this -- these people, we are in a crisis moment now in this country. the moral fabric of this country is at stake. people who are not inclusive and who do not understand that we have to work together and not let our enemies, like russia, control america, and this whole attitude that it is some kind of trump race baiting, people need to become educated and look at our nation and how we have developed and how we were on the right trajectory. we have to also realized everybody counts in america. not just some people. thank you. host: you mention russia. a u.s. senator who met with russian lawmakers in moscow said yesterday that he invited them to visit washington and they accepted yesterday. senator rand paul of kentucky said during a trip to russia that american and russian legislators need closer contact -- "our biggest problem right

now is no dialogue." he said they could meet in a neutral third nation. mike is in california, on the line for not. caller: good morning, thank you for taking my call. i think it will be a referendum on the democrats. president trump is doing a fantastic job. if he would have gotten rid of, if he would've approached the old administration first, we would not be going through this trouble we are going to write now. but obviously the democrats are worried because look what they did to alex jones. they shut him down. they might shut you guys down. you never know who is next on the line of censorship. that is proof that president trump is doing fantastic. is mike in california speaking of alex jones and info wars. making the front pages of several newspapers.

the wall street journal. several big tech companies, including apple, removing content from info wars, deepening the debate on how internet platforms should handle divisive or offensive comments. they took off the alex jones show from the directory over the weekend, saying they did not comply with guidelines designed to create a safe environment for users. david knight remained available. north carolina, the line for those who say it is a referendum. caller: we are now living in a country where the leader is trying to be an autocrat. inhave a leader who believes freedom of speech and freedom of the press but only when that speech and press is agreeing with him or repeating his words. we live in a country right now

where the person that is supposed to be our president and guiding us is coming out and saying horrible things and inciting violence against journalists. number one. i have not talked to anyone yet who has seen any increase in scam, from the newest tax the topt to the top 1%, 1% of the people of the united states of america. i talked to over half the people i talked to, cannot afford health insurance. i say that because i had to wait a year and go through blindness, almost destroyed my eyesight before i could afford the operations i needed to get my site back. -- sight back. the trumpers.tand

my father told me a long time ago, that when i make my choices, do not listen to a thing that people say. words are freer than air. a lot of people will say anything to continue on with their agenda. he told me, best advise anyone has ever given me -- watch what people do. what i have seen is a leader, supposedly to, who has tried to isolate us from the world, trying to destroy our economy, totally wiping out our allies, does absolutely nothing when we are attacked by a foreign adversary except welcome them on board this country. host: got your point, kathy. joe morris has been watching with the president does on the campaign trail.

she is a member of the usa today commentary staff, commentary editor. "what democrats can learn from the pugtoday's. nation's transformants art are teachable moments, from revving up his face, he never gives the passion time to die down. the stilts grievances where he can find them, he is blatantly offensively political and it is working. approval rating among republicans close to 90%, endorsement often a potent booster for primary candidates, almost all republicans running for reelection told the trunk line, yet the party is shrinking. the opportunity is there for democrats if they will take it." if you want to read her column today about what democrats can learn from president trump. is, areion this morning

the midterms a referendum on president trump? if they are, (202)-748-8000. if you believe they are not, call, (202)-748-8001. we will return to a midterm conversation in the 9:00 hour, focusing on primaries happening in four states today as well as the special election in ohio's 12 district. dated, you with us? -- david, you with us? caller: no and yes. in the fact that if these people would quit reading the talking points and see what he is actually done. the oil -- the approved line in north dakota. that is increasing our economy, adding 48,000 jobs. number 2 -- lowest black unemployment in history.

number 3 -- lowest mexican unemployment in history. number 4 -- lowest -- one of the highest gdp gains and set to go higher based on the analysts. if we get this straight thing done -- he is already got eu wrapped up -- mexico, canada our next and then we get them. the thing that i appreciate the most as a regular layman, not a republican or democrat is, if we do not take on china now, we never will. our economy is strong. once we get eu and mexico and canada behind us, then, we have already got australia, china will have nowhere to go. host: that is david in arkansas. francis is in alabama on the line for those who say it is a referendum. caller: i believe it will be a referendum on trump.

the disappoints me is civility we had that does not exist in this country anymore. i am a child of the voters rights act and now i am 65. it tells me all of the things we worked for in our nation and cared for, his beginning to disseminate before our eyes. i would like to make a comment. ofn china has taking control our medicines and we allow that, it shows how sad we are. -- democrats,rump get out and vote -- we need to change america and make it what it should be. thank you so much. host: bristol, tennessee. i hope itpefully, will be a referendum on the midterms for sure. i'm hopeful on that because this

man is dividing this country something worse than ever, then i know of in my time and i am 74 years old. another thing, i don't understand why c-span don't have something on the actual news, which is the trial and trump. i've heard here lately that his lie well told a beats the truth anytime. thank you. host: are you talking about the paul manafort trial? it is the front page lead story in the washington post today. rick gates testifies that he from, admitting in federal court yesterday that he committed a host of crimes for his former boss. he isalso made clear

testifying against paul manafort with the hope of receiving a lesser prison sentence, having pleaded guilty in february as part of a deal with robert mueller. inl manafort's trial alexandria, virginia is the first to arise out of the probe and marks a major test of the investigation's credibility. this is the lead story in the washington post today and several other papers. natalie, brandon, florida. caller: thank you for taking my call. i don't think it is a referendum on him. if you are voting for him, we are so happy with make america great again. i live in florida but i have lots of family that live -- host: where does your family live? i think we lost her. larry is involving, missouri. -- baldwin, missouri. caller: it is a referendum. we have to see if the american people approve of the immigration policy, isolationist

foreign policy, policies in general. we will see whether the american people say yes to all the policies or no. issue,n the immigration this out this morning from axi os. what you think on trump in immigration is what you think of trump. they have found that there is almost perfect alignment between president trump's approval ratings on immigration and his popularity. "ironvoters are trump's " their viewsse, are at odds with the majority of those who disapprove of his policies in both cases. daca, the obama era policy that gives protection to undocumented immigrants brought to the uss children is supported by rural

voters. at midterms, more than half of voters disapprove of the immigration policies, support daca, and opposed building a border wall along the southwest border. there is a story in the paper today about the border wall. there was the subject of a new report from the government accountability office. findings from that report, the headline from the wall street journal today, "wall talks likely to swell. the administration could waste billions of dollars on a border wall because it failed to take into account land ownership along the southwest border." agency responsible for constructing the wall did not consider factors such as topography and landownership. the report found that the agency

selected areas, without fully assessing." you can read more on that report in the gao website. alabama, on the line for those who say it is not a referendum. caller: i have a nuanced opinion. host: we can do nuance. caller: i believe the democrats will take the house and the publicans -- the republicans will take the senate. 2016, here is what i want. when they take back the house, they will start impeachment immediately. there will not be success in the senate. --t will cause republicans we do not do like they do. we don't get mad about everything being a five-alarm

fire since he was elected. everything can be a five-alarm fire. if robert mueller comes out with something, we need to see that. i don't think he will. when they start impeachment proceedings, we will rise up again like we did to get him voted in. host: bring me to 2018 and you going to the polls in three months. are you going out because of your support for donald trump or is there a local issue driving you out? caller: i believe -- number 1 -- i'm not happy with doug jones, joined to compare that special election to any other one is crazy. roy moore should have never been our selection. it will be more for local issues. my main issue is economy and immigration. those are the things -- and national security.

i believe he is doing a great job. that kills me, immigration -- i wish as many americans were fired up over when americans get separated from their children and go to jail. you cannot take your child to jail when you get arrested as an american. for some reason, the left seems to think it is a current listing to do when you brave the wall, and you have to take a parent into custody -- how dare you separate them from their child? how many millions of americans are separated from their child because they had to go to jail? you don't hear the left saying -- it is just the illegal immigrant. host: that is kelly and alabama. for those who say it is a referendum. caller: it is not really a referendum on trump -- it is on the american people. i am like this.

dug me a fallout shelter and if he gets reelected, there won't be more america. you people who love to, there won't be nothing left. when they launch on us -- host: are you planning to vote in the primaries today in michigan? caller: yes. this guy, who is running for governor won't get in. back to this question -- who knows what trump and then talked about in secret? they probably gave them the nuclear codes. when they launch on us -- host: got your point. arlington, texas. caller: good morning and thank you for taking my call. i am a democrat and i think democrats need to listen for once, for what james comey says.

he gave us instructions that we need not be voting as though we are voting for socialism. i notice, the calls this morning, people are latching onto socialism and what alexandria had to say and bernie sanders. that is not what democrats are about. the things that are happening now in america are horrendous. like that lady that called in from alabama and the rest of that are so in love with what trump is doing -- he is doing nothing but absolutely destroying this country. we are fighting each other. hard --re having it when you go to the grocery store and talk to people -- it is about daily life. high, grocery

prices are extremely high. kidslady talking about being taken from their parents and babies -- you know -- this is not the america we love to have. we have alienated our allies. pauli think about rand inviting the russians o'rear, inviting them to have dinner, when they are a known enemy, even mitch mcconnell and ryan are saying that is something we reserve for allies, not enemies. yet, these people on the phone are acting like nothing is going on. like trump is doing something so amazing. he is done nothing but create chaos. the democrats do not get out and vote -- we are in trouble. host: you think enough democrats will vote in the senate race in

-- beat the ted cruz ted cruz? caller: i am. ted cruz has done nothing but lick the boot of trump. he has done nothing for the ordinary texan. if you name any of them, they have not done anything for the working people. i see the masses at walmart and different stores, people trying to stretch their budget just to feed their kids. it is a lot of poor people here. dc, peopleshington do not see what is going on out where were we live, actually live and let me tell you, people are having a hard time. some people are not able to pay utility bills. they are thinking about keeping in a guy who is enriching himself, his kids. trump made $83 million

last year. i cannot imagine the people from the southern states mostly, who are calling in, supporting a president who does not align himself with the people in real need, creating chaos wherever he goes, overseas or here. wherever he goes he makes a mess, tooting his horn as though he is something precious. i am praying for america. rick on twitter writes "of course it is a referendum on trump. this nation is at a fork in the road, we had to choose a new direction or an authoritarian leader or if we was or if we pursue the best this country can be>" we have been playing advertising for congressional campaigns this morning. including this one, from the

theally conservative group, quest for growth. this is the closely watched montana senate race. >> donald trump is not your typical politician. matt is not either. they are not in it for the money. he rejected the pay raise for state officials in 2017. he is the only statewide official who turned the money down. he led the fight against obamacare in the montana senate. this year, send a trump republican to the senate. quest for growth is responsible for the content of this message. the: bringing up pro-affordable care act, protect our care is out with a new ad targeting republicans over the nomination for brett kavanaugh to the supreme court. >> this woman has cancer.

she is worried about side effects like hair loss, nausea, bills, even losing her home. now she has even more to worry about because president trump has gone to court to strike down protections for pre-existing conditions including cancer and he is pushing for a new justice who could go with him and overturn protections. she is already fighting for her life. she should not have to fight to keep her health care. tell senator collins to vote no on brett kavanaugh. host: taking your calls the next 15 minutes on this question, are the midterm elections a referendum on president trump? colleen in florida. caller: thank you for taking my call. i am glad you have this topic. i called in because i support president trump's anti-globalism position.

we had the problem that congress 40,voted for globalism, for 50 years and we are being manipulated. i'm going to vote for president trump and i am going to vote a democratic ticket, and i am in a swing district. host: if you are voting a democratic ticket, you are then voting democrats into congress who we expect would be opposing some of those policies put forth by president trump, that you support? think, president trump does not support the republican agenda. president trump actually supports the democratic people's agenda. no, we don't like his personality. but it was going to take a personality like that to stop all of our money -- china is

growing 20% a year and we went through losing our jobs, we lost, we gave china their economy. everybody knows that now. i think we needed president trump and congress has to do its job for change. host: sumpter, south carolina. good morning. caller: good morning, john. i have got to believe this is going to be a referendum on donald trump. i totally agree with kathy from said itrolina's dad who is important to not really worry about what people say, but just to monitor their actions, and that will tell you everything you need to know. donald trump cancel the

exercises with south korea, pulled us out of tpp, broke away from the paris environmental treaty, he has screwed up the iran deal, he supports the breakup of the european union, he has damaged nato, alienated canada, mexico. look at his actions. what more do you need? i don't need robert mueller to tell me that this guy -- he is playing the trump playbook. why i say it is a referendum -- i would tell you, the democrats don't really want to pull out the impeachment word but it is in the back of their mind and they know their only chance is to get out and vote during this period and get this guy out of office. host: what do you think of that ad from that canada in florida

-- from that candidate in florida who made the entire thing about impeachment? caller: i think it is dangerous. --now everyone will hate me i was a serious bill clinton supporter. press they puthe on the republicans for the impeachment of bill clinton reflected, he ended up 62% approval rating, they could backfire on the guy. a little more low-key on the impeachment. get into office and then taken down. -- take him down. cap the from north carolina, i applaud you, she is right on the money -- kathy from north carolina. host: andrew is in white plains, new york. caller: i think there is no way

we can avoid it, trump has associated himself so completely with the populist wing of the republican party -- this midterm election will be a referendum, as well as the direction of the republican party. there was a previous lady from alabama making an issue about kids being taken away from the parents and trying to compare them to people in this country going to jail. people in central and south america coming up here are trying to get away from all conditions of crime and oppression, trying to find a better life for themselves and their family. to make that kind of comparison is so heartless, i cannot help but -- i wasn't going to call this morning. i got so angry about that comment. we are stuck -- we have so many real issues that we have to deal with. immigration is one of them. tomp uses these things

divide people and keep us distracted while his buddies in congress take apart the democratic agenda and replace it with a conservative agenda. --hlighting rick kavanaugh's brett kavanaugh's nomination. it is too depressing to think about. thank you for taking my call. host: are the midterms a referendum on president trump? noted thatpoll compared with previous cycles, more people are saying their be,, in the midterms will that the president is a factor in their vote, whether they are for or against the president. this chart, showing the comparison this time around to previous cycles. , in june of this year 26%, of those who said they were voting in the midterms said it was a vote for.

president trump. 34% said they were voting as a vote against president trump. you can see the comparison to just before the 2014 the terms under president obama, the 2010 midterms under obama and the 2006 midterms under president george w. bush. the comparison, the number of people who say their boat is a vote for or against the president, but the president will factor in their vote for the midterms, in those percentages saying they had other reasons. comparison. is available on the -- it is available on the pew research website. fort worth, texas, good morning. caller: good morning.

i unfortunately believe it will be a referendum on trump. texas is a republican stronghold. vote republican, you are voting for trump. i think elections should be local. i'm concerned with medicare, social security, health care for people in this country. children's health care, hunger programs for schoolchildren. -- when i saw -- two things when i saw the north korean flag next to the american flag, that was a disgrace for america. helsinki, he became vladimir boy andcopffee didn't stand up for his own

--ncies in the united states that is what i hope drives people to vote. get out and vote. you asked the lady from arlington about the senate race -- alex jones and ted cruz must be related because they are in bed together. host: that is joan. maryland, she said a vote for a republican is a vote for president trump. would you agree? caller: i agree. i don't believe it will be a referendum on trump. i think the democrats are desperate. john, i want to thank you for doing a great job. it takes a lot of patience to listen all the whining the democrats do.

texas, talking about how the economy is so bad and gas prices are high. we lived to eight years of hell from the obama administration, financially. every day i look at my retirement accounts and i see how they make money each week. gas prices are lower than three dollars a gallon. gas priceswas in, were almost five dollars a gallon. i drive two hours to work in the morning, and two hours from work in the evening. i pay for gas a lot. i know what the realities are. trump has done an excellent job, john and he will continue to do an excellent job. the democrats are whining and crying because they know they have lost. people like being winners. that is why we will win the senate, keep the house, and

trump is going to win in 2020. host: josephine in cape canaveral, florida. caller: how are you? thank you for letting me speak. your premise is wrong to start with. this is not a referendum on trump. is a referendum on the congress. that is what is important for us to know now. voteave got to be sure, go for people that will back mr. trump's agenda. i listened to all these democrats coming in with talking points, drawing anything they can, stick on the wall, ignore them. they do not know what they're talking about and they only one your vote anyway. -- want your vote anyway. whoever it is, make sure that they will back mr. trump's

agenda. the thing about helsinki is ridiculous. he is not carrying water for them. he went in there with the biggest club in the world, our economy. it is so funny, it is laughable. i will hang up for now. thank you. josephine, our last caller in this first segment of washington journal. up next we will be joined by a former ambassador, richard kauzlarich, he will be here to talk about how vulnerable the u.s. energy grid is to cyber attacks. later on, issue one has come up with a new report about acs,ressional leadership p how they work and where they get their money and how lawmakers use them. we will dig in with that >> this week, book tv is in

prime time. tonight at 8:00 eastern, sean spicer with his memoir and .llender she was with his book book harvey00, the milk, his life and death. a self-help8:00 book -- 10 arguments for deleting your social media and friday the book the capitalist come back.

in primek tv this week time on c-span2. confirmation hearings for brett kavanaugh are expected in september and senators are likely to question brett kavanaugh on roe v. wade, the 1973 restriction -- decision that struck down many restrictions on abortion. tonight, c-span's landmark cases presents an in-depth look at roe v. wade. >> "washington journal" continues. host: we are joined by richard forlarich, codirector energy and science policy at george mason university and a former u.s. ambassador.

ambassador, when we are talking about the grid, what do we mean? guest: that is the very basic question. my connection is when i go home and through the electrical switch. most people think that is the most important part. but you have the production of energy, which may come from coal , gas, nuclear power, you have its transmission, but ultimately it goes to the consumers. the grid is that network and that is what makes it so complicated and vulnerable because there are many points of entry. is not just the physical bread, it is a cyber grid as well. host: who is responsible for protecting the grid and how do you do that on something so vast? guest: that is something we are .oing at george mason your regulators in government at the federal level and the state level. your private companies that on the production and transmission

lines and then you have third parties who produce the technologies the companies and the governments used to regulate the systems. it is a complex public/private relationship that has to be managed if you're going to protect the grid. it used to be people only thought about the physical side. someone said it was guns, guards, and gates. that is not enough. you can protect the production of electricity and the production of natural gas, but if this technology that moves gas and electricity is vulnerable to hackers, you'll opened up a backdoor. host: what is the scenario who keeps -- that keeps you up at night? go back to my service at the department of state. i spent a number of years in eastern europe and the former soviet union. you have to be concerned about threats from abroad. you have to look at two is

capable and who has the intent to disrupt our electrical grid. i will start with the russians. we have seen their behavior in ukraine twice, 2015 and 2017 were a cyber attack was aimed at disrupting the electrical supply. they have gone after estonia, one of our smallest nato partners but most effective in this area, and they went after an oil pipeline that according to some reporting goes through turkey to the mediterranean sea. they have's shown the capability and intent. now we have to worry about iran. shenzhen's -- sanctions have to be applied. they are not a major power. this technology is not just a purview of the u.s. and china and russia. smaller countries, organized crime groups, all of them can be equipped with the capability to disrupt our electrical system. host: what do they want to do

with they get into the system? russia,n the case of they want to disrupt the and potentially the social aspects of that for their own political purposes. , ithe case of the iranians may be something like revenge. us,will put sanctions on you guys were messing around with our nuclear program, we will carry out some attacks. you can have organized criminal elements new for their own reasons to make money would want to disrupt the system. but theons are complex challenge is how do you deal wellall of these things as as the hurricanes and other natural disasters that can equally disrupt the system. host: we are talking about the grid this morning. for about the next 25 minutes we're joined by richard kauzlarich from the senator

thee energy policy -- from center for energy policy at george mason university. now's a good time to call in. ,epublicans, (202) 748-8001 democrats (202) 748-8000, independents, (202) 748-8002. how often are cyber attacks being attempted against the u.s. grid? is this a daily occurrence? sayt: i'm not a cyber geek you would have to have someone who is in the day-to-day business of assessing and reacting to those. they are regular. the media stories we have seen recently indicate there are people out there who are trying, not just the electrical grid, we have seen it in our own electoral process, this goes on regularly.

host: what are some media stories that stick out to you and what has been the reaction with those tasked with -- pence vice president talked with great detail about the cyber threat. secretary of energy. talked about the energy system. the administration and those in government are constantly aware of this and working on these activities. what i am encouraged by is that our nato allies are working with us to deal with this problem. estonia is probably the best equipped country in the world because they have in hit throughout their economy by russian attacks. being able to draw an international experience and bring in nato together is important in dealing with this. host: one of the hurdles you see right now.

you talked about the interconnection between private industry and the government. what sort of barriers does that create? guest: a major barrier is to only focus on one part of the problem. if i were to criticize the administration, it is this idea that if we just allow: nuclear plants that have been closed down to operate this will increase the reliability. once the electrons are generated, they don't was system that is perfectly capable -- they go into a system that is perfectly capable of being disrupted by computer hackers. focusing on one part of this is not a good idea. thisdly, is getting public/private partnership together, including universities. universities have a major role to play.

there are cyber programs all over the country that can offer a lot in this area. finally, the international cooperation is critical because we are not alone. the private entities involved, the businesses, how much are they willing to share with the federal government and how much of a trying to keep as their own intellectual property? guest: that is part of the problem. the federal government does not own the technology, it is the companies that do. we can go to dominion resources in virginia and talk about this problem. support fromr id third company who may not be anxious for details to come out. i understand that. is the idea of collaboration and communication that has to be emphasized in the public/private part of this. host: let's chat with a few callers. eddie from massachusetts is first. caller: when i was in new york

mario comeau would not allow a nuclear plant to open up. and said to congress keep the rates for transmission low, so now we are in a critical situation. we are vulnerable. you mentioned iran. we sent word we sent a virus in. andped up their centrifuges they even have banking. they know how to do it. thank you. a goodthe northeast is example, especially on gas pipelines. an issue has prevented the building of a gas pipeline that would bring natural gas to the parts of the northeast and last winter they had import russian fuel to stay warm. move that enhances u.s. energy security.

it is electricity, it is natural irannd a good point about because they understand how to get in different parts of our system that may only indirectly touch on energy but still be points of vulnerability. host: how reliant are we on our -- on other countries for our energy usage? guest: the good news is not really. we have made extraordinary progress in the last two decades that we are now the largest energy producer in the world, along with our canadian and mexican neighbors. a lot of imported oil and gas to keep our economy going. it is less of a vulnerability and more of an instrument we can , as theelp our allies president talked about with the eu, exporting u.s. natural gas

to europe. avery, an independent, next. caller: a great subject. it is one of my major concerns and fears about the country we about the world conducting this hegemony and the things we do around the world and we rely on this power we that is easily destroyed when you take down the electrical system. does go months without power in this country would put us in the stone age. are using hundred-year-old power lines, grids, nuclear plants that should have been decommissioned 30 years ago and , they would, russia be foolish to take us on militarily.

when something as simple as a hack to our system would cripple us. in 2018 it is shameful that we do not protect our main vulnerability because we spend all of our money in needless wars rather than rebuilding our infrastructure. host: i think we have your point. guest: the infrastructure point is critical. in the energy area whether you're talking about electricity of thesepelines, all are areas where we need to modernize our basic system if we are going to be meeting the needs of the 21st century. electricity is the greatest energy demand sector in our economy. if we cannot provide that energy cheaply, reliably and in a diversified way we will have problems. critical to that is modernizing the infrastructure, including pipelines and electrical grids. host: where the oldest parts of

that structure? guest: i'm not sure you could isolate them. the whole country has issues. ,he commonwealth of virginia because of the production of nonconventional gas, now there is a gas pipeline we are talking about building. that raises the nimby issues. if you look at the older urban areas of the united states you will see real problems in the electrical grid and the production side. host: about 15 minutes left with richard kauzlarich, former u.s. ambassador and codirector of the center for energy, science, and policy at george mason university. tell viewers some of the work you do there. guest: we have tried to look at becausen a holistic way we recognize that a lot of technology is coming out of the engineering and science area that enable the production of

energy and the distribution of energy in different ways. i am part of the public policy school. we look at all of that and say where the policy implications. how to regulators address the problems created by this new technology that maybe they do not have to deal with a couple decades ago? our objective is having across university program to hold faculty and students together and address those who are concerned about virginia energy issues. the problems we've been talking about this morning our national. lindsay is up next in powder springs, tennessee, a republican, good morning. tennessee.neer, can you hear me? host: go ahead.

caller: this is a pet p volkmann -- this is a pet peeve of mine. i hear about people attacking our power grid with the internet. , what is wrong with having a person with a phone or a radio at a and telling them what needs to be done without being hooked to the internet? it seems like a made-up problem to me. europe put your finger on exactly what happened when the russians when after the you could -- you have put your finger on exactly what happened when the russians when after the ukrainian system. the reason they did not succeed is because the system relied on manual switches and they had guys going around and flipping switches. the problem for us is our companies have applied i.t.

technology to all of this. it might be hard and most of these cases to find a switch to flip. that is why our vulnerability is so great. in election security, we talk about having a backup paper ballot to electronic voting machines. is there a backup manual switch welt on the various ways make in move energy around this country? guest: now you're getting out of my comfort zone. i think there are a number of ways you can do backups. one thing we can do, especially with our canadian neighbors, and we have seen that in the past when we had that massive electrical failure in the northeast united states, we relied on canada for electricity. having cooperative arrangements with our neighbors is going to be important within the united states. regional cooperation between states becomes crucial.

these are not just seen is the responsibility of a single state but a region. i am sure the tech guys are see how we avoid the problem of a single node collapse. host: pedro is in virginia, a republican. go ahead. area and'm in the d.c. i would like to see both my kids go to george mason university, for what it is worth. how do we know who is launching these attacks and why can we not have oversight over the people that tell us who are launching these attacks. who attackedr sure the country next to russia -- i cannot remember the name.

the mediaook at coverage of these 12 russian people accused of being directly involved in the attacks on the and youctoral system read the judicial proceedings to goay now, we are able not only to specific locations physically, but buildings, computers, and individuals using them. if we can do that it is possible to trace this actor whom is responsible for it. our national security has reasons why you do not want to make that a matter of public knowledge. my judgment is we have that capability so we can identify who is doing it. the question is what you do about it? one group that has come up

-- who are they? one group ofs russian intelligence officers who are allegedly responsible for the attacks on the democratic system. these groups constitute and reconstitute themselves all the time. host: philip is in michigan, line for democrats. good morning. caller: i was wondering if you had any idea who it was that attacked in san francisco or los it was a topic on washington journal within the --t year and i was wondering just south of me gas is always $.25 cheaper. they have their own grid. if power goes out they have generators ready to go for the last 100 years. could you get people to put the "washington journal" logo

underneath the desk and cover-up that ugly pink. host: philip with a couple different comments. guest: i will let you take the last one. the point about distribution systems and production in the grid is becoming more and more critical as renewables take over. in virginia when it was just a minion resources they were the source of power for the commonwealth. now you have these companies and individuals who are able to generate their own electricity. how do you integrate those people into the grid? that is an additional vulnerability to cyber attacks, the more people you have involved in production and distribution, the more opportunities there are for cyber attacks. i do not know about the casey mentioned in california. -- the case he mentioned in california. i did want to ask you

incident dhs cyber response act of 2018. and how farat do along is it? guest: i've not follow the progress of that particular legislation. part of the government response is not just the executive ranch. it has to be the legislative and making sure our laws and regulations are 21st century laws and regulations dealing with the real problems we are confronting. the idea of more congressional interest, more public interest is critical. host: who seems more hawkish? the administration or congress in terms of moving more money to this problem and getting more eyeballs on this issue? each part of government has its own particular interest in this. the dod national security part

of the government has one set of interest. rick perry and the department of energy wants to promote: nuclear power. they are looking at that part. members of congress, depending on members of their constituency , are going to have different interests. that is the great part about of america. you bring all of that together. the more eyeballs the better. host: in nebraska, a republican. i thought "washington journal" had had this on before. i know they had said that florida and texas were independent grids and would not be affected if other regionals went out because they had their own grid. are there other states that are now doing that and shouldn't we make the state responsible for its own grid? an interesting

case because they are one of the largest producers of renewable energy. california is another example of the diversified electrical system that has taken a different approach, even going forward in terms of renewables. i think it would be a mistake to look at this is a state-by-state problem. this is a nationwide problem. ?ost: can states be independent is that even possible these days? guest: texas may be able to because they produce natural gas and wind power, but why would you want to? back to your question about backup systems, you want to have cooperation with other states or of their own grids in case something does happen to your own. brooklyn, line for democrats. caller: since most of the principle of hydropower is gravity flow and we have so many , we have theldings

capacity for water storage at , why don't wes look at the possibility of having water towers in high-rise buildings in urban areas to power? another possibility for spreading the burden. guest: i will take that back to our engineering school. i have heard about this in virginia where water is pumped up the side of a mountain during the day and allowed to generate hours.in off-peak the technology is there to do this. the question is cost. i want my lights to go on when i come in the front door. i do not want to pay an arm and

a leg for the electrical bill at the end of the month. some of these technological improvements are just not commercially viable. of bringing the grid up to date, has anyone put a dollar figure on what it would take just for the infrastructure side of that? guest: i've not seen a figure i would rely on. -- if youmassive think of this is a countrywide challenge for pipe lines, electrical grid, it is in the trillions. host: if someone gave you those trillions, where would you start? tryingi would start by to understand better what our grid is and where the points of vulnerability are and where there is an immediate need for modernizing, but really emphasizing the fact that in today's world power is not just an individual states concern. it is the countries concerned and we to look at it that way.

host: time for a few more phone calls this morning. we are about the grid and great security. john is in hawaii on the line for republicans. good morning. thanks for calling in. like to knowld what the electrical companies are doing to protect us from a solar burst. that could happen and it will someday. it will knock us back into the stone ages. can you explain the threat of that and what that is and what it would do? as i understand it, and this is an area that gets beyond my expertise, but electromagnetic burst whether caused by a foe -- we have seen discussion of this as an aspect of military power between the , or its and ourselves

could be something solar. part of the problem in building an electrical system that is resilient as you cannot make it resilient against every threat. this may be one of those that it would be hard to build a specific protection for or from. it gets back to the nature of the grid system. you have to have enough resilience and back up in the system that if there is a hurricane or an event like the caller just described, we can work around it. it is possible to imagine any number of things from a hurricane to a solar burst that would cause this problem. kauzlarich works on these issues at the center for energy science and policy at george mason university. thanks a much for your time. guest: thank you.

next, a watchdog group has come a with a new report on congressional leadership packs. how they get their money. we will dig into that report with meredith mcgehee. iner on, it is primary day four states and special election day in one key ohio district. races withew the political reporters on the ground in those states. we'll be right back. >> c-span, where history unfolds daily. as a79 c-span was created public service by america's cable television companies and

today we continue to bring you unfiltered coverage of congress, the white house, the supreme public policy of ends in washington, d.c., and around the country. c-span is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. week, book tv is in prime time. tonight at 8:00, sean spicer with his memoir. book the case against impeaching trump. milk,day, the book harvey and his lives and death and a book on tesla. 8:00, the self-help book 10 arguments for deleting your social media accounts right now, and on friday the book the capitalist come back. the trump boom and the left's

plot to stop it. watch book tv on c-span two. >> washington journal continues. mcgehee isith director of the watchdog group issue one which produced a report called all-expenses-paid. becamedership pacs tickets. pacsin what leadership are and how long they have been around? are a leadership pacs slush fund all members of congress have an most people do not know they exist. even washington reporters can be shocked to find that in addition to the authorized campaign committee members of congress have, or candidates have, they have this other little account

on the side call the leadership pac and they use that money to ,ay for a range of activities everything except their authorized campaign activities like yard signs and bumper stickers. that has to come out their authorized committee for their election. they have this other account on the side, leadership pac. host: when did they start and why did they start? in latehey started 1970's. former representative henry waxman, who was in progress for many years, he and some other democrats went to the federal election commission and said we want to raise money to give to other candidates who we want to support, but we do not wanted it to go indoor authorized campaign committee. can we do that? the fcc said ok. from that idea, we now have a

system in which almost every member of congress, house, and senate, has a leadership pac. they're supposedly use is they want to support other candidates so they can rise in the ranks in congress. even if you think of that, they basically want to buy their way to the top with that money. host: bring us back to the history of doing that. who is best known for using a leadership pac? what would viewers were member. guest: they would probably remember the name tom delay. there was a race probably 20 more,ago, a little bit for the leadership in the republican conference. bob walker was a republican running to join in and rise up in the leadership. tom delay was there. pacdelay had a leadership and used it liberally to help other members of congress, and

his congress and their campaigns. that made them beholden to him. robert walker gave a thousand dollars total. he lost. everyone in the house looked at that and said maybe i should get a leadership pac because i potentially want to move up in the leadership. they discovered not only could the use it to give to other members of congress to help them rise and leadership, they could use it for just about anything because there are no rules about what it could be spent on other than it could not be for their yard signs or bumper stickers or paying their campaign staff. any other use, the federal election commission or allow them to do. 2008, they did not even exist in law. they existed in reality but the law did not recognize them until then. host: are there now restrictions on who they can raise money from

or how much they can raise? guest: on the campaign committees they do still have the limits on how much these leadership pacs can accept that you have limits on how much an individual can give and one pacher -- and what another can give. there are no limits on what the leadership pac can give out and spend. there are reporting requirements. you can see all the money that .s coming in those get reported to the federal election commission, and you can see where the money goes. host: if i have a leadership pac, is there a limit on how much you can give me? guest: there are limits. the amount of money i can give your pac is the same amount i

can give your campaign committee or another pac. if you have an authorized campaign committee, let's say you're running for congress and you have your campaign committee, let's say i am the i give you $5,000 for your primary and $5,000 for your general. i can give you another $5,000 for your leadership pac. oftead of having a limit $10,000, i have now given you $20,000. i can do that over many years. leadership political action committees is our topic. meredith mcgehee is with issue one, the executive director there. taking your calls and questions. them, have not heard of maybe can learn a little bit more about them in the segment. the report issue one put out this year looks into these

issues. why do this report now? guest: a lot of the money that comes into the leadership pacs nobody takes a look at. nor do they look at what leadership pac money is being spent on. we kept hearing on capitol hill these stories -- members of congress would say have you looked at leadership pacs? i'm hearing story about how people are spending the money and i am shocked. the impetus to look at what was going on actually came from current members. they were hearing stories of other members and they started saying it and we said let's go look. they worked with the campaign legal center and the staff went through thousands and thousands of expenditures by these leadership pacs. we went back a number of years and looked at what they spent. what we discovered was things like more than half $1 million on golf.

disneyland trips. trips to las vegas. $500 pairs of shoes paid for out of your leadership pac. host: let's name names. who seems to be using these leadership pacs the most for these kind of abuses? guest: the reality is everyone has little bit of this. the fiction that has little bit of reality is they are spending this money so they can raise more money into fundraising. that is how they put the nice little coat of paint on to make it look nice. if most people heard of someone like senator rand paul buying a $500 pair of shoes, they would probably think that gets much closer to the personal use. if you use your authorized campaign committee to buy yourself shoes or a make coat or pay for your trip to disneyland, that would be illegal.

people have gone to jail for the personal used of their authorized campaign funds. if you are just smart enough to use your leadership pac funds, and there are no rules. the personal use rules on your campaign committee funds are not applied to the leadership pacs. you do see things like expenditures on shoes and trips over and over again to broadway shows. you see trips to las vegas for fundraisers. the reason they do this is they get on a cycle. you can go and say i'm doing a fund-raising trip and then go to disneyland and las vegas and broadway and have a great life. at the expense, of your contributors. d.c. restaurants are a key place pac havese leadership been used. just to run through some of the

numbers, some $253,000 spent at place in- at a steak d.c.. bisto ed and $54,000 at bis. $114,000 at fiola. .lenty of more examples if viewers want to take a look isthis report, issueone.org where they can find it? guest: absolutely. i should be clear that the rules allow this. they are not breaking the law. they can use their leadership pac funds for these personal uses and they can intermingle. if you talk to members of congress that have these say this isacs they not personal use, i'm just use -- i'm just doing fund-raising

activities. what you love to be able to say i'm going to disneyland and i'm doing fund-raising? or i'm going to the super bowl or las vegas, and other people going to pay for it, and you get to have a great time and bring all the other people who want to donate to your campaign. you have a luxury lifestyle at the expense of contributors and those same contributors usually have interests before congress. it is a cesspool of money and a political slush fund. -- theeral electorate federal election commission said extend the rules and if the fcc does not act, congress should act. host: if you have questions about leadership pacs, we're talking about this morning. ,epublicans, (202) 748-8001 democrats, (202) 748-8000, independents, (202) 748-8002. caller: i think all of this

corruption goes back to the supreme court ruling of 1976 or 1977 in which the supreme court full of sleek geek waited the graft -- in which the supreme court full or shall he equated -- sincehly equated then everything is gone downhill leading to massive wealth inequality and the social problems have exponentially increased. that opens the door to a 2010 supreme court ruling of citizens united opening the door to super 2014 opening the door to dark money in political campaigns. the supreme court cannot see the forest for the trees. they know the tree at the some atomic level but they do not realize they are in a forest. thet: i want to appreciate

caller's knowledge of the supreme court cases. he is exactly on point of naming these cases that have led us to where we are in jurisprudence and some of the concerning issues about the role of money and speech and how those are seen in the court jurisprudence. i would note in this case that there is nothing in buckley b valeo or citizens united or any of these cases that would stop the federal election commission or congress from enacting laws to ensure these leadership pac funds cannot be used for these personal uses or the funds themselves should not exist. correcte caller is there has been a long line of court cases that has created jurisprudence that has a lot of folks in america questioning how we have ended up your with super

pac's and dark money, it is important to note that in this case, there is nothing in the jurisprudence that should stop the federal election commission or congress from acting immediately. host: new jersey is next. bill is a republican, good morning. caller: my question involves tax altogether. what does your guest think about the idea of abolishing all tax and having a public funding of congressional elections? guest: i would note that the courts have generally upheld the ability of citizens to have political action committees under the theory people can pool their money and therefore augment their voices. if congress did pass a law that outlawed political action in the roberts court

in particular, i am dubious it would pass the constitutional muster this court. there been efforts made in the past to deal with pacs back in when a senator from oklahoma was in office. , i amhis particular court doubtful. there are many people that support public financing of elections. the rise offter dark money, this money that is being spent in elections that nobody knows what the sources are of that money, and the super pac's similarly where you are seeing a very small number of very wealthy individuals or interest playing outside role in our campaign, a lot of discussion is going on right now at the state level and the local level and here in washington

about how we can change the privately financed system. there are a number of efforts going on. in my home state in new mexico, albuquerque is going to be voting on a system to create more public financing. inre is a system in seattle which they have a seattle public financing system. there are a lot of places around the country, particularly in localities and states where the move toward public financing is happening. i would say we do not see that same amount of energy around the public financing issue right at the moment here in washington. ,very time we have an election even when you talk to members of congress, the amount of time they spend dialing for dollars is disturbing for them and for the public. it is as much, sometimes, as 40% of their time spent dialing for dollars. if you talk to members of congress, they often say this is why it -- this is not why ran

for office. i do not have time to pick up the expertise i should have. i do not have time to meet with other members. notcurrent system is serving the public well and not serving members of congress, most of whom have come here to represent their constituencies. host: if you want to join in the conversation, republicans (202) 748-8001, democrats (202) 748-8000, independents (202) 748-8002. john is a republican from albany, new york. i believe money does play a role in the financial spectrum. we had trump come in with $7 billion and he stole it. he was not popular. he had the cash. no. he was popular. what we will have after this is a new spectrum of characters.

i do not know if we will get the cream of the crop. morenk it is going to look famous. run, i believeto oprah would be a wonderful person to put herself forward for that. it,od is telling you to do i do not do anything god tells me to do but i still get by. guest: i think it is important on the leadership pac front to note this is a republican, democrat, and independent issue. this is not a partisan issue where one party is doing it. almost every member of congress has a leadership pac. this is not one that usually breaks down in terms of partisan divide. we know that in terms of money in politics there is one thing for sure that it's going to happen with money.

if you do not have it, you will lose. if you have the most, that does not mean you will win. the lack of money is difficult to overcome. one of the big roles money plays in our elections and the congressional elections have to be looked at differently than the presidential races, is that it is very important to have that for name recognition. if you look at someone like president trump, he came in with name recognition that most politicians would greatly envy and spent a lot of money to try to create. a lot of politicians spend a lot of their campaign money trying to get that media. there is no magic bullet in terms of what that balance should be. the hope is that we have a system in which we have more system -- more people have a feeling that their voice

matters. when you have one half of 1% of give $200 or more to federal candidates. when people feel like my member of congress or my elected official does not listen to me, probably they have legitimacy in feeling that way. they are not the one half of the 1% that is funding the races. host: you pointed out that one of the ideas behind the leadership pac was for a member of congress to give money to another member or to raise money for their campaigns. that purpose, you note, has been happening less and less. of moneyt 45 percent from leadership pac goes to that same purpose and the rest is spent on these other things. points, and are two

i think it is an important point you raised with the 45%. the first question is should they be spending money on these personal uses that are essentially financing a luxury , going to las vegas or new york on someone else's dime and then saying they are doing fund-raising activities of that legitimizes it. that is the question we are raising at the heart of this report. there is another question here which is why they have leadership pacs at all. the thought that the way you become the leader of our nation is that you have to buy the affection of your fellow colleagues kind of raises serious concerns. most of these members do not want to give them up because they are slush funds. host: you pointed out rand paul. your report notes 7% of rand paul spending has gone toward contribution to other

candidates. in the 2018 cycle, it has already spent $11,000 at restaurants in italy and malta, $5,000 on limousine service in rams and $2000 at a hotel in athens. i read one report were a member of rand paul's staff says they paythe leadership pac to for things that otherwise the senator would put on a federal credit card and taxpayers would be responsible for. do you believe that? guest: i find that an interesting explanation. what is happening here is that senator paul, along with many other members of congress, used c money toship pa underwrite their political travel. to charget want taxpayers because they do not want to be accused of a taxpayer-funded junket or they do not have committee money because it is not an official

trip. in many of these cases, not only do they use this money for personal use, they use it to further their political interests. you can sometimes the members of congress using their leadership funds to travel to places like iowa or new hampshire. i wonder why they would be paying from their leadership pac to go there? that is because they are anticipating a run for higher office. my view is that members of congress should comport themselves like most business people. if you're doing the public's business, the public should be paying for it. if you're not doing the public business, then you should be paying for it yourself. , and whatthis world this study shows is that special interests -- these are people that have matters before congress -- are putting money into these political slush fund accounts and his leadership --

andn as leadership pacs, that money is available for them to use however they wish. host: you found one of the biggest beneficiaries has been the green bar -- the greenbrier sporting club in west virginia. what is that and why? guest: it is a good place to do a fundraiser. it is a nice place to go. what i would say for most americans is it would be great -- i think you and i would love if someone would finance a trip to the green briar. it is a lovely place. rather than having to dig into their own pockets, they contact -- they can tap into their leadership funds and enjoyable place and have someone else pay for it. host: frank, topeka kansas, line for democrats.

money beould the pac to help people that need it? guest: there are no meaningful rules about what you can spend the leadership pac money on other than not on their authorized campaign committee activities. any other use is permissible. they could take that other than not on their authorized campaign committee money and handed out in the streets isause the only restriction that if you're going to run campaign activities to reelect yourself, you have to use your authorized campaign committee. any other use, you want to buy it got -- you want to buy a -- thathat would be would not be prohibited for leadership pac funds. host: i see going through your

report, i'm trying to find a line for charity donations. were there any? guest: there are some. again, this is a great use. that is not the problem. the problem is i have a lot of charities and you do that you would love to support. if i support those, i'd take into my own money and i support those journeys. what this sets up is you can have someone else pay for those contributions, you get the political credit, and therefore you can be generous with your charitable giving. it is all underwritten and the funds are also applied by other people. do have a ballpark of a was spent on charitable donations? guest: i do not remember the statistic. i am certain the members of congress do that and it is a smart thing to do if you're a politician. if you are seen as giving to charity, is going to make you look like a good politician and that would be a good thing to

do. that is not the problem. giving to the charity is not the giving to the charity is not the problem. the problem is the source of the leadership pac funds are all of these businesses and all of these other interests and these individuals who have interests before congress. funds androviding the they use their money to make you look good. money spent on golf related expenditures. or hundred $69,000 spent at walt disney world -- $469,000 spent at walt disney world. i just have to mention that usa today had an article yesterday about the congressman travel andoney to saying they are working.

it has something to do with an ethics thing. i wanted to bring that up. host: we have that story on air yesterday, thanks for bringing it up. they had members that had already announced they are retiring. usa today had money they had since spent. go through that article little bit for us. guest: the question arose in that article of when members announce they are leaving and they are still in office, sometimes for several months before they are no longer a member of congress. what the usa today story found in the report that looked at those details is some of them continued to take taxpayer-funded trips to exotic locations. my comment, and i would say this here.-- i would say this

they are still members of congress so they will be voting on issues. they are representing their constituents and that is a worthwhile activity. at the same time, once you have announced you are not running again, there should be greater disclosure rules for those of announced they are not running again, that they should be obligated to make clear how that travel is related to any upcoming issues that are applied , and i think it is important for the public to have a clear idea what the purpose of those trips are. it is a potential abuse. i would not say all the trips you hear about by lame-duck members of congress are abuses. they are voting. it is something that requires greater scrutiny. host: last call from new york. good morning. democrat. caller: money in politics, in

theory, is not necessarily a bad if you are running at the local level, it may not matter as much, but when you are running on the national level, you want to be able to take your message to larger people. that does mean advertising and it can mean travel instances. era,lso, the modern politicians can use twitter, they can use -- finisher comment because you are going in and out. caller: i am sorry. i think that might be better, but basically, congress needs to speak to make sure money is not misused. politics asoney and may a necessary evil, but they

definitely need to weigh in. host: got your point. guest: congress absolutely needs to weigh in. the issue here is not to take all money out of politics. the question is, what should the role of money be? how do we ensure that constituents have a voice and feel like they have a voice? the biggest issue for members of congress as they have approval ratings hovering in the single-digit or very low teens. there an interest among congress to make any changes to these leadership pac;s? saying as i started out guest: that members of congress were saying do you know what is going on with these leadership pacs, so that actually came from conversations with current members of congress.

host: thanks as always. guest: thank you for having me. up next, primary day and four states, and election day and a key ohio district. we will be right back. ♪ [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org] inthis week, book tv primetime. at 8:00 eastern, sean spicer with his memoir. alanllender show -- dershowitz with his book. discussing a book and then richard monson on his book. thursday at 8:00 p.m., the latest self-help book "10

arguments for deleting your social media accounts right now. " watch book tv this week in primetime on c-span2. senate confirmation hearings for bread cabin not to be is a premium court justice are expected in september. senators are likely to question wade.ugh on roe v tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern, landmark cases present an in-depth look at the roe v. wade. we will also hear from "los angeles times" reporter david savage. >> c-span where history unfolds daily. in 1970 nine, c-span was created

as a public service by america's cable television companies. we continue to bring you coverage of congress, the white ande, the supreme court, public policy event in washington dc and around the country. c-span is brought to you by your cable or satellite provider. tonight at 8:00 p.m. eastern come on 1968, america in turmoil. we look at the presidential campaign. we will discuss the characters and events dominating 1968 politics. we will discuss the characters and events dominating 1968 politics, robert f kennedy's assassination, della buys clashes between police and protesters during the democratic national convention, and richard nixon's decisive victory. tonight at 8:00 p.m.

eastern on american history tv on c-span3. washington journal continues. the: in this last hour of "washington journal", we are primaries in four states around the country. and a special election taking place in ohio's 12 congressional district. as we focus on those races, we want to hear from you about the primaries and your thoughts heading into the midterm elections. we are 90 days away from the midterm elections. three months from today. adding to the polls on that tuesday in november. (202)for republicans 748-8001, democrats (202) 748-8000, independents (202) 748-8002.

you can start calling in the now as we show you some of the front pages that americans are waking up to in the states that are holding elections today. dispatch.e columbus red or blue? it is up to you. democrat.nnor, the showed you the speech, the rally that president trump held her there ahead of the special election. here is the front page from the wichita eagle, this morning, see who is backing the kansas , the keys candidates race taking place and kansas. there is a key senate race taking place in missouri. and the front page of the detroit news, much of the state's primary voters battle. that is the focus on the

governor's race there. and the 13th district race to replace congressman john conyers, featured on the front page of the detroit news. thoughts this morning, want to talk about primary day, especially if you're in some of those states where voters are headed to the polls. for republicans, (202) 748-8000 per democrats, (202) 748-8002 for independents. going to take you on the ground joins us from the columbus dispatch. the last time that c-span checked in on the ground for ohio was saturday for the rally that president trump held in the special election. give us a flavor what is been happening in the 12th district. >> thanks for having me on. guest: president trump comes in and turns the race on its head.

republicanates for have been out campaigning 72stantly for the last hours. putting their time and energy in different parts of the district. focusing on the more affluent areas, where balderson has put more energy in the more rural parts. who are danny o'connor and troy balderson for viewers who are not following the race? guest: they are both relatively new and inexperienced. the state senator served two terms in the house. name id withof people who follow politics here in ohio, but first time running for something like congress and the danny o'connor is relatively

inexperienced compared to balderson. sinced one public office 2016. he is more moderate, i think he has appealed to a broader spectrum of democrats here in the 12th district that is very suburban and people who might not be content with the current administration and the current direction things are going to where is balderson is made it clear that he supports president trump. pence vice president mike and the president trump comes to the district in the last week, so we know where he stands. host: why is this race a tossup right now? thatwas a district president trump did very well in in 2016 election. we will work on getting owen back in just a

second. michelle is waiting to talk about primary day. go ahead. caller: yes, john. good morning. i want to tell you that here in a candidate bye the name of brian kemp who we know is a klansman running against ac -- stacy abrams. he has been touting what he is going to do to blacks and latinos in the district. what you failed to mention is that 30% of trump voters, but you forget that demographic s matter. black people are coming out. 30,000 t-shirts

that said of vote for the republican party is a vote for the klan. we have the grand wizard in the white house. we are going to be out there in full force. we have a picture of trump on the back of the t-shirt. home?you make these at caller: yes. we have a print shop. tohusband and i own businesses and we hate and despise republicans more than anything else. we are going to make sure the democrats win so i want to give a shout out to hillary in michigan, gwen and alabama. host: can i ask you why you hate republicans? ecause they hates democrats for eight years. on their assy sit and they tarnished president

obama's name. host: apologizing for the language, we will go to christian and mechanicsburg, pennsylvania. the midterms are coming up in the next 90 days, and i am saying it could be a republican wave or could be a democratic way. it depends on what the president does in the next 90 days. if the mueller investigation continues the way it is going, i believe there could be a massive democratic wave in some swing states. it comes down to what the president will do and how these representatives can convince the voters to vote for them. about 90 days away from the midterm elections, although, there is a key special election taking place in ohio that is the 12th district. e, it is up to you as the headline on the top of the

columbus dispatch. htery again owen doug who is a political reporter for the columbus dispatch. there is a lot of energy on the democratic side, i think this group has had a long time and danny o'connor has positioned himself. he has supported progresses and the moderates and the moderates in this district, some people supported john kasich, he is popular as ohio's governor, but he is critical of president trump, and some moderate republicans that have been turned off by the current administration and are looking for change. host: we have seen big-time spending and special elections this year, or at least, this cycle. do we have a sense of what it is going to be in ohio's 12 district? guest: a lot of money and that

has turned into inundated ads, mailers, calls, and tv. millions of dollars from both sides. outspent democrats here because of outside money, thinkul ryan super pac, i north of $3 million, the republican national convention got heavily involved last month, opening field offices, bringing and operatives, and the democrats have been spending -- american bridge, a liberal super pac, has been involved. danny o'connor has done well himself. contributions from smalltime governors. host: we will are going to be showing our viewers a couple of the ads from these races. we will show our viewers of some of those adds a little later in

the segment, but we appreciate the help from all in tery from thedaugh columbus dispatch. want to hear from you this morning. ,epublicans (202) 748-8001 democrat (202) 748-8000, independents (202) 748-8002. we want to know what is on your mind on this key primary day, 90 days out from the midterms and also what you are expecting from the special election race. what it means tonight if democrats win, if republicans when the election. give us a call. patricia, and democrats from ohio. caller: yes. a matrix, i've created and this particular matrix allows the revenue to come back to the local and state governments which is a big problem. their economy,

has really gone down because of inflation rates are unbearable. people cannot afford health care or afford to live anymore. i thought all of the millions and billions of dollars that we be into war that may never fought may be coming back to the states and the local economies. but i do not hear about any legislators talking about revenue coming back to states and local governments and funding going into a war that will never be fought and hopefully will not be fought. i supports peace, i support the kegislators that will thin far enough to get more money back into the national economies. host: patricia in chicago. jimmy in athens, georgia, and independent. caller: good morning. i would like to talk about the sanctions against iran.

i do not think enough politicians are discussing that. there are several reasons i am opposed to the sanctions. use we do not have sanctions against saudi arabia, who people keep claiming is our ally. has a new leader who was appointed by his dad. leaders a relatively new who was elected by the people. -- saudi arabia has al qaeda. al qaeda has certainly killed the more americans. dot: how much of a factor you think that foreign policy is going to be in the midterm elections -- do you think that is writing people out to vote? caller: it ought to be but i do not think it is. host: jimmy in athens, georgia this morning. the story in today's "usa

today," the united states government to moving to impose sanctions on iran. talk nuclear agreement tehran, president trump saying he remains open to reaching a more comprehensive deal that addresses the full range of the regime in including its ballistic missile program and its support of terrorism. that was president trump's written statement yesterday after the sanctions against iran. another caller, what do you think is going to happen this year? caller: it is hard to predict what is going to happen. voted never republican in my life, i have always been a democrat or a supportut even though i democrat policies in some ways,

i cannot support the candidates more because the culture of censorship against anyone who disagrees has gotten out of hand the way that black leader is retreated recently, kanye west, etc. etc. censorship is my number one concerns about is where i stand. host: colin in california. trumps where president stance on the issue of the ohio 12 special election. he tweeted out this morning's endorsement of the republican candidate in that race. ohio vote today for troy balderson. congressman a great , the president tweeted today. the opponent that president trump is referring to is democrat danny o'connor in the 12th district. here is his closing ad from this past weekend in the special election. [video clip] the same old politics in

washington are just not working. democrats and republicans are at each other's throats every day leaving the issues that matter most to your families behind. we need new leadership in both parties. let's cut taxes for working people. of's protect every dime the social security and medical benefits that seniors deserve. i am danny o'connor, and i approve this message. host: hears republican troy balderson most recent ad from ohio. [video clip] my parents raised me to work hard and always tell the truth. i am troy balderson. that is why i am running for congress and why would never do anything to cut social security or medicare. my own mom and dad depend on both. for me, it is about getting the job's done.

so you can save for retirement or your children's college. balderson, i approve this message and ask for your vote on august 7. host: we are getting your thoughts this morning on our last hour of the "washington journal." your thoughts on what is going to happen in the midterms this year. ghaisar's, maryland, a republican. caller: good morning. i just wanted to remind everybody what happened in 2016. we started out, although, there is going to be a blue wave. the democrats are going to win the house and the senate and the democrats are going to pick up 50 seats. now it looks like they're going to lose it seats in the senate ended there is a chance they will not pick up the house. thear as the races today, narrative is always the republicans, if they win, they were supposed to win.

if the democrats win, lookout republicans, your -- here come the democrats. host: what do you think this will mean for this district, the fact that it is a tossup? caller: i do not read anything into that because i believe it will not happen. you are asking me, what if it does happen? the narrative is always been, oh, the republican should take republicans have been in control so long, maybe they will lose one or two seats. it is not a concern. my concern is what happens in november that we keep control of the house, the senate, those are the big concerns. will be tiedands more and he has everyone working against him. and the republicans, too. republicans do lose, it

is probably because they are not on board. host: that is chris in maryland. north carolina. caller: thank you for having me on. i wanted to talk about the importance of these midterm elections. it is our last chance that democracy if the democrats do not take the house, we are not going to have any rights. i live in a district now that is competitive. i'm going to be voting for dan our upcoming congressional race going against a very right-wing, the seats lost.ittinger is a marine and a solar energy executive and has a real chance at winning. we are heavily gerrymandered in north carolina, but it is great to be in district were my boat can count. i have heard about some of

the republican caller's saying, trump has all of these things going against him. he has majorities in both houses of congress and the vast majority of congressional republicans will not do anything about his actions in office because they are dancing their agenda. by the way, it is a koch brothers agenda. everything will congressional republican is purchased by the koch brothers. if we deny democrats at least taking the house of representatives, actually, the senate is preferred -- of the democrats do not take the house of representatives, we will not have any rights. in our first hour, we played an ad of a democrat to is running in a primary in florida. that primaries later this month. his ad was that he will talk impeachment. he will vote for impeachment, push for impeachment of the president if he is elected.

do think that is a winning message in november for democrats? caller: it depends what district. danny o'connor in that district, that is not a winning formula. but my vote right now for democrat is not going to be because i want trump to be impeached. the facts will present themselves to where he has -- the crimes are in plain sight. --is very obvious that he just look, manafort. he hired him as his campaign manager and then he said, oh, i did not have all the facts before me and the fbi should have told me. me as a layperson just reading what i read, i knew manafort was a crook from the beginning. how come the president of the united states is acting as if he's playing, i should have been told?

he knew the facts and he has hired people all around him that gates,en -- manafort, flynn -- all of these people up'tore saying 'locke her include the attorney general of the united states. two weeks ago, he was an convention with a high school conservative white kids that were chanting 'lock her up'and he is doing that as the attorney general of the united states. host: we mentioned the ad of david richardson talking about his support of impeachment of president trump. here is that. [video clip] >> i am david richardson. there is one word that washington does not want you to hear. it is [beep] it is impeachment. i am the only candidate to offer an impeachment bill. it is separating families at the

and the constant lying is not enough to impeach donald trump, what is? i am david richardson and i approve this message. host: that is one of the many ads airing the less than 100 days in the midterm election. focusing one ads president trump, and many of them talking about their close ties to president trump. are is one of those ads, republican running for governor in florida. [video clip] >> everyone knows my husband is endorsed by president trump and he is also an amazing dad. ron loves playing with the kids. he read stories. >> then mr. trump said, you are fired. >> he is teaching madison to talk. >> make america great again. is allle say that ron

trump, but he is so much more. i just thought you should know. >> ron desantis for governor. host: here is a recent report from the left wing media project, members of the avoident's party often mentioning his name during election years, but this year is an exception. mentions of president trump and broadcast television ad since he was referenced positively and 14.8% in election ads. president obama was in less than 1% of ads in the same time e. bushpresident george w. and 2002, was mentioned positively and a smaller share

of federal ads, 13.9%. on thisyour calls primary day and four states. troy, a republican in missouri. caller: good morning. ting that there is a foregone conclusion that josh the nominee for the senate seat. she is goingill, to get pretty nominated so to speak. -- pre nominated, so to speak. the two candidates are attacking going another and the president to never comes up, however, on the state level on a lower level

in northeast missouri, this is a area.ural, rural we have a race today that i will vote on. i will have to ask for a --ublican ballot, and quatro and four individuals are running for the senate. but she hasale, never run for public office. her three opponents or at least two of them, are attacking curve for not supporting president ofmp during the campaign 2016. she supported ted cruz. she is really being attacked left and right on the radio, and i do not think that is fair. i'm going to vote for her or not today, i have not decided, but a few million

people on the republican side that wants the president got the nomination probably voted for him when they supported other people prior to his nomination -- that is just an opinion of mine. not watch a lot of commercial television in this market or anywhere else -- there has been tv ads and they are all attack ads and i guess they are effective because candidates keep buying them over and over. the tend to sway me in opposite direction but from a ground zero level in missouri, i thought you might like the input. host: i appreciate that. have you gone out and voted or are you doing it later today? caller: well, a lot of rain here and try to find a dry spel l. it is not too far down the road. [laughter] host: thanks for the call.

andill stay in missouri kansas as well, primary day in both of those states. we are joined on the phone by a reporter from the kansas city star. let's start at the top in the sunflower states. take us through the governor's race in kansas. what do viewers need to know? guest: we had some significant yesterday that connects a little bit with what your caller was just talking about. into the trump weeded candidate's race for governor and endorsed an immigration hardliner who had this banded congressional commission for voter fraud, he

supported him for governor. that he is endorsing a candidate over a sitting governor was very significant. became governor this past year when the longtime left for the trump administration as an ambassador. we have several candidates on both sides, it is very rare to have this many in the primary. but you can think about the gop race as a race between kobach is really and kobach into the ideological values. tried to fan himself as more consensus builder who will cooperate with the legislature. are: if kansas democrats cheering for one or the other, who do they want to win?

guest: democrats certainly see kobach the candidate that gives them the better opening. people have very strong opinions so his supporters love him with a great intensity detractors dislike him with the same level of intensity. there are many republicans, moderate republicans in the kansas city suburbs who do not like kobach, and democrats are hoping that if kobach is the nominee, and will help sway the voters to vote for the democrat in the fall. host: who is the democrat likely to be? guest: he is most likely going to be state senator laura kelly. -- kellyis significant

is the only female in the race and has the backing of former swati who is a farmer from ellsworth, kansas trying to make appeals to rural rs, the former mayor of wichita is the first african-american governor of kansas if he wins, but based on all of the data points we had, i have to kelly as the front runner. host: we will jump across the border to missouri and the senate race there. how endangered his claire mccaskill? mccaskill is going to be in a tough reelection cycle. she has some primary challengers, but they have not raised significant money or have

name recognition, so she will get through to the fall. people do expect it to be a single-digit race when we get to the fall. it is another race that the president trump has gotten heavily involved in. fundraisers, one in st. louis and one in kansas mccaskill'slf of likely opponent. holly still has to win the primary today. he is the presumptive nominee with the backing of so many vicenal republicans and president pence helped recruit him into the race, but he does have several candidates who he needs to get by today. what we are going to be watching for in that race is what presented hawley wins the republican race and what that tells us about his general election matchup. , before we get you

to the day of reporting, run us through the top one or two house races we should be watching between kansas and missouri? guest: we get you to the day of reporting, run us through there are two house racs in kansas, both are considered tossup races. the kansas third congressional district, currently by yoder --d there is a six way primary. both the national party and the kansas party have high hopes for democrats chances. there is also the kansas second thatessional district includes college towns where the and thety of kansas is, republican that currently represent it is retiring at the end of the term, so there is a very strong democratic candidate in that race but there is also a seven way primary.

both of those u.s. house races are to play in the fall. wry covering it all for the "kansas city star." thank you for your time. guest: thanks for having me. closein kansas, the polls at 7:00 p.m. tonight. in missouri, the polls close at 7:00 p.m. tonight. and washington, the polls closing at 8:00 p.m. there is also a special election 12thg place in ohio's district which will decide who will be in the seat in congress and it is very closely watched and a very expensive race. democrats and republicans both spending heavily on that race as we head into the november elections three months away. getting your thoughts this morning on all of that. catherine has been waiting in

alabama. a democrat. caller: good morning. i would like to say that i agree with the lady in georgia. this is nothing but the white supremacy on the rise. women and minorities in alabama are organizing on the ground. we are almost back to soap bubble county and we know what happened here in the 1950's and 1960's. they have tried to disenfranchise as many people as they can and we find it worth buying. rise, donaldhe trump has given these people a platform in the public space, they carry guns, and they are scaring people to death. we are wanting to protect the children and the future generations of this country from all of this hate rising again. we have been pushed back into the corners and this man is brought them right out and given them free reign to run their mouse everywhere they go. we do not like it. we are a civilized society and

he is breaking the democracy. host: how are you organizing? caller: we are organizing on the grounds. the democratic headquarters opened, it was packed with people. it went down the hall and spilled out the front door. a man running for governor in ins state, he believes fairness for all people. what people need to realize is communism is not governing, governing realizes that you are governing all the people in your state. in alabama, we have more minorities and more poor women than just about any state in this country. the republican party has shamed us and all three branches. the governor ran on family values and then had to get impeached. the speaker of the house got put in jail for his own ethics

violations, and roy moore notted twice, would follow his elected office. state holding its primary today in vancouver, john, go ahead. was going to mention mustoddly enough, there have been 30 different candidates running in both democrats and republicans. the other thing i wanted to say was as far as iran goes, this idea that it is all about the price of oil, they want to get iran's oil out of the market as far as pulling out of the iran deal. that is really what it is all about. host: before we leave washington, one note from 5:38 there, political discussion

about today's primaries. primaries in washington are important to watch for two reasons, to see who was on the november ballot, but a dry run for the state's election in a top twowith primary meaning that all candidates, democrats, republicans, and independence run on the same ballot was only the top two finishers advancing to the general election. historically, the combined total vote share of all the democratic candidates versus all of the republican candidates is ma tched. in california, and independence. good morning. are you with us? caller: hello. host: go ahead. second, wed on a will go to launder. -- host: from california, a republican, wanda.

caller: hello. talking about a poll from old dominion university. " the unitedting, states included lawfully and unlawfully aliens, they concluded that they were voting and they further concluded that and of them voted in 2008 2.2% voted in 2010. legal and illegal aliens." host: do you think there are a large number of illegal immigrants voting in our election every cycle? caller: i am just quoting the poll. host: do you think -- what do you think? caller: this polls suggest that hundreds of thousands may have voted in federal elections and

many more are registered to vote. it is agued that realistic possibility that american elections were altered by the legal -- by the illegal votes of noncitizens. host: what is the study and do you believe it? caller: it is old dominion university poll. host: charles in new york, a republican. caller: yeah, i work in the steel mill. i would like for the democrats to explain to me why the economy is booming right now and they are so against it. i do not understand it. here inn a steel mill new york and we cannot get help. but the eight years when obama was in, we did not have hardly a business moving at all. we had trouble staying afloat. i do not understand why these democrats want to end that.

i do not get it. i used to be a democrat. i jumped off that bandwagon. host: john in austin, texas. a republican. good morning. caller: hello. about -- i'veing been listening to your program for a number of years, and i am amazed by the people that call in have no knowledge of the history of the republican and democratic party. i would like to clarify one thing. , it wascratic party first started in the early

and one of the starters with the president of the hero, annie jackson -- andy jackson. son was a slave owner. hero of the seven ones that owned the slaves in the south. host: bring us up to 2018, what do you think will happen this time around, what sort of history will be made this cycle? -- lincoln was

the party of the south and the party of the slaveholders. presidency brought that to an end to a civil war. and the party of the democrats did not revive itself until woodrow wilson came in as president. president,an elitist and he thought the country should only be run by people who are smarter than the average individual. point, appreciate the walk-through history. we are going to stay focused on 2018 because we only have about 13 minutes left in our program. talked aboutt michigan, primary day in that, a and to do government and politics editor at the detroit news.

let's start at the top with the ,ace to replace richard snyder why is the race so competitive? guest: it is competitive because although rick snyder has had a the flint four years, water crisis has put a dent in his reputation, and after eight years of a governor and one party, there is a certain fatigue that sets in with voters. it is going to be a wide open race for governor on the democratic side, gretchen witmer, the former senate minority leader is considered a head in the polls and her two main rivals for the democratic arbortion are in ann businessman who pours at least $10 million of his own money a formerrace and

who hashealth director gotten the endorsement of bernie sanders, who came into town and campaigned here on sunday. that has made the democratic race really lively. on the republican side, there is four candidates. there is lieutenant governor brian kelly and the attorney general. the attorney has the endorsement of president donald trump at a lot of elected officials. he assumes to be in a position of according to the polls of cruising to victory on the republican side. rick snyder, as he made his preference known on who should come after him in the governor's mansion? guest: he has. he would like his lieutenant governor, brian calley to succeed him. he has spent money on political rian has helped b

him with the economic comeback of michigan. it has not necessarily resonated with republican primary voters. the grassroots tends to be more derservative than sny himself is especially on social issues. trump has a little more influence in the republican party then snyder's endorsement. host: let's talk about a senate battleground. --cumbent's reelection what are her chances of holding on to her seat? guest: she has a very good shot of holding on to her seat. of money.assed a ton what is unclear is who her

be.nent wil l right now there are two republicans battling it out, ssman from buinse grosse pointe in the metro detroit area, and john james, an african-american businessman from farmington hills. james has gotten some late support. he got endorsed by president trump, he has got the right to life endorsement, he seems to have momentum in the race. and a ton of money was spent of up own wealth to get ads early and establish early name id and had a slight edge in the polls before this, but it appears that james has momentum. of the twone candidates emerge from the primary, michigan is not the rated as a top 10 states to

watch for possible flips of democratic seats. thatntional wisdom is either candidates will have enough money or mojo to go toe to toe with the incumbent in november. that onceys possible the battles of the primary clear out, they will give her a run for her money, but right now, she appears to have a fairly head-to-headead in some pollsters have done. host: what will be the top side,grounds on the looking to remember at a place where republicans or democrats will be going head to head? guest: there are three open

seats in michigan, but two of them are cited towards democrats. the real wide open race to watch is in the 11th district where republican the is retiring. there are five to six candidates in both the republican and democratic primaries and the two people who come out of there are going to have a real barnburner of a race going into november. there has been a lot of money spent already in the congressional races. onleast $4 million raised one on the democratic side. seeare probably going to one or the other candidate emerge on the republican side, and on the democrat side, the

are the chief of staff obama's auto bailout task the former house minority leader who has gotten a lot of support from labor unions. covers it allburr for the detroit news. appreciate your time, we will let you get to your day. guest: i appreciate it. host: here is where we are, there is about six minutes left before the house is expected to , butin for a brief session we will end our program and take you there live when they do come in. getting your thoughts on the midterm election on this primary day in quadra states. -- in four states. and that special election in ohio. thank you for waiting,

democrats. caller: good morning, how are you? host: doing well. caller: i would just like to say, the elections are very important and it is important that they be honest, that they toverifiable which is hard do when use electronic voting machines that do not print any paper trail receipts. it is impossible to hold a recount of anything. there are some documentaries that you can watch. he bestwill google t documentaries on voting fraud and rigged elections, it will take you to the website imdb.com which is a website for all of the movies that are made. is 11 of them listed here, one that was made -- i live

close to nashville, tennessee. there was one made by a man in nashville. it is called "uncounted: the new math of american elections." it is from 2008. very eye-opening. i've not seen the others listed, honest, open need elections. host: got your points. ob, a professor at new york university school of law has a column in today's "new york imes." he is focusing on campaign finance system in his story. one other opinion piece for you to check out today, chuck gras republicanowa chairman of the judiciary

committee, he talks about a moment of honesty from chuck schumer. he says, he admits his mind is made up on judge kavanagh's the president's pick. that means the document that democrats are making are in bad taste. that is in "the wall street journal." brenda, go ahead. caller: republican. about theng to talk man in north carolina, the democrat that said we are losing our rights under trump. i do notnted to say, see that all. the only ones losing their are republicans, those out there working for trial. that need to remember trump was elected. he is working for the people. for all of the people. we have more now than we had

before. president, is respected him as my president, but there was a lot of things that i did not like. remember, other than the tea party, i never saw anybody, especially myself, ever disrespected obama. i liked the guy as a person but i do not agree with what he was doing at the politics. like of people did not trump as a person, but they need to respect him as the president. for theone a lot country even though he has been fought against since the day before he got to the presidency. i think everyone needs to start being open-minded. and the lady in alabama about white supremacy? that is a scare tactic to scare people. the only people i see fighting

in the street are antifa. host: the house is about to come in a second, what about your thoughts on the governor's race in your state? caller: i live in georgia so we have already done that. i hope everybody votes republican is what i hope. i hope we can keep going with what is going now. we have a lot of good stuff going on. host: that is brenda in georgia. we will get elena in illinois. caller: good morning. emanuel, president trump offered emanuel the national guard to protect the city of chicago to reduce the crime and violence shootings. he refused him. host: we have to end it there because the house is getting ready to come in for a brief session today. that is happening now in the

house and that is also happening in the senate as well if you want to check out c-span2 for the session happening over there. we will be back here tomorrow morning at 7:00 a.m. eastern, 4:00 a.m. pacific. hope you have a great day. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2017] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]